Dragon Ball X

Guardians of Tranquility

Hiya there, my dear readers. Well, Christmas has come and gone, I'm afraid. The brilliant year of 2011 has passed, but it should not be forgotten. Many things were accomplished, and many things were lost.

But enough of my crap, let's get to why we're here; the next chapter in Dragon Ball X. Just in case you've forgotten what with all the New Years and stuff (and the fact that I haven't updated for over a month), last time Rhuna went a little too far in her fight with Coster and almost killed him…again. Ferris had to intervene.

Oh yeah, if you like Naruto, be sure to read my fic, "Purpose", a one-shot about Gaara and moving past his hatred for everything. Not to mention my other Naruto fic, Nindō: Shinobi Heart.

Now, on with the chapter!

000

"Urgh…Ferris…"

Rhuna slowly opened her eyes, exposing her black pupils. For a split second they were cloudy, but then she blinked and the irises were as sharp as ever.

The first thing that occurred to her was that she was lying down, face-up. Above her, a patterned wicker roof hung a few metres above her head. The ceiling of the Barracks. As she focussed, the Saiyan could hear a dull roar a short distance away. The crowd, she realised.

The last thing Rhuna could remember was Ferris' calm blue eyes staring into her own, and his powerful arms holding her from striking further at Baldwin Coster. Despite the entire series of events, Rhuna felt warm inside as she recalled that gaze. Ferris' eyes always seemed to stare straight through her and into her soul.

At least, that's what it felt like.

Rhuna sat up, propping her upper body on her arms. She'd been lowered onto the floor, with a punching bag placed under her head in the place of a pillow.

"Urgh…I can't believe I actually fainted…" she muttered angrily. It had all been too much at the time; the first time that her Saiyan fury had broken since finding her home on this planet. The rage, the thrill, the passion of the attack – it had been too overwhelming after such a long time.

"I've gotten soft!" she thought furiously. Beserking wasn't uncommon amongst Saiyans. All of them were conditioned for it; not only the stress on the body (although against an opponent like Coster, physical damage was negligent), but for the immense mental strain it caused. Every sense was overridden by the bloodthirsty instinct to tear and destroy the enemy.

But in this case, it had been too much. After so many years, her mental block on the psychological damage had simply worn away, it seemed. Rhuna snarled, livid at herself for allowing such a lapse.

She blinked, as the sound of the roaring crowd broke into her thoughts. Dimly, she became aware that if her match was over, then Kenta and Ferris would be beginning their bout soon. Or…maybe it was already over.

"How long have I been unconscious?" Rhuna murmured to no one, and looked down at her hands. They still had flecks of blood on the knuckles from where she'd mashed Coster's jaw. It had almost literally exploded with the stuff, but at the time it had only served to drive her on more.

A small shiver ran up her spine, but it wasn't because of the blood. Someone was here; she could sense them.

It wasn't a ki she recognised. This one was new, rough and course like an untamed animal. And it was close. And it wasn't "within a few miles" close. It was "don't turn around, they're right behind you" close.

Rhuna didn't move – she knew that her own ki levels were higher than this stranger's. Slowly and casually, she twisted her head to look behind her. And there he was; Primal was leaning against the wall five metres away, watching her closely.

It was the closest she'd ever been, and she took the time to eagerly take in the enemy's appearance. He was lacking the yellow battle armour he'd first come clad in, revealing a naked torso underneath. The skin was bluey-grey and mottled, stretching over his considerable chest muscles. Primal's lower half was covered by some sort of toughened skin; it looked like a sheet of rough scales, the colour of a rotted oyster's fleshy innards.

As for his head, it was bald and pale. Now that she was close, Rhuna could see three slits on either side of his face. He had gills, although from their wrinkled and thin appearance, Primal hadn't used them in quite a while. Pitch black eyes stared from lidless sockets.

"You're awake."

His voice was surprisingly soft, a light tone, yet at the same time raspy. Rhuna eyed him warily, and nodded.

"Yes."

"I watched them bring you in here. Your fight was very interesting, if I may say so." He chuckled eerily, and Rhuna's skin crawled. "It's amazing to see a Saiyan in action again. And here I was thinking they were all extinct."

"Yes, well…some of us evaded Frieza," murmured Rhuna, as Primal continued to examine her. His tiny black eyes were extremely shiny.

"I guessed as much."

Rhuna watched the mercenary – for that's what he obviously was, if he really did work for Frieza – carefully as she climbed to her feet. He didn't seem outright hostile at the moment, and she was confident that if he did attack, she could easily defeat him. May as well probe for some answers, she thought.

"Where is Coster?" she asked, and Primal gave a wicked grin. His teeth were like razors.

"Oh, he's over in the infirmary. They've got every expert they have working on him. Meanwhile, you've been disqualified from the tournament for such…foul play."

Rhuna scowled at him, but Primal only leered wider. "Your friends interest me…that tall one in particular. The way he held you, it was like you and him have something rather special. He was ever so gentle when he laid you down, you know. So touching."

"Shut it," snarled Rhuna before she could stop herself. Primal cackled to himself. He was enjoying this little conversation.

"He's about to fight the younger one now. They're set to begin in minutes, you know. We shouldn't linger…we'll miss the show."

Rhuna felt a flicker of alarm; this was going to be her only chance to get any sort of info out of Primal. She couldn't let the chat end. "Who are you?" she asked fiercely. "What are you doing here?"

Primal merely shook his head. "To remove the yolk from the egg," he said cryptically.

"An exterminator?"

"Of course."

Rhuna gritted her teeth. So far they'd been almost certain of Primal's motives, but now they were confirmed. She felt a strong desire to simply kill him right here and now, but she couldn't. If Primal had companions, if he was part of a team; thousands of people could die before they could be stopped. She had to find out if he was acting alone…

"Tell me," she began, and paused. Unlike her questions so far, she couldn't outright question his companionship. He would likely lie or somehow otherwise refuse to answer. "Why haven't you began your assault yet? Surely you have a deadline…or people to satisfy…"

Primal just chuckled again. "My objective is simple…destroy all life on Planet Haven. However, I do not have a time-limit. So why not have a little fun while I'm here?"

Rhuna hesitated. By his words, he seemed to be alone on the planet, but she still wasn't certain.

Primal tiled his head and stared into her eyes with his demonic black ones. "But…this tournament. It's so…boring. The competitors are so weak…I'm thinking about just cutting it short and beginning Judgement Day right now…"

Rhuna breathed in sharply.

"…and why not begin by wiping the rest of the Saiyans from existence!"

Like a whip, his right arm lashed out, fingers held straight as arrows. The nails on the ends were filed to points.

"So die!"

Rhuna leant rapidly to one side, ducking past the attack, and let out an invisible wave of ki from beneath her feet, flying back a few metres.

"We're fighting here?" she thought desperately, glancing around in the Barracks. It was too dangerous; just above them were the stands, where thousands of people sat, unaware.

Primal followed her without hesitation, razor sharp fingers slashing at the air. Rhuna was driven back under a hail of strikes, but it was no impossible feat to block or intercept them; Primal was still well below her level of skill, and although he was fast, his speed was easily outmatched by Rhuna's.

In one deft movement, she grabbed onto Primal's wrist and tugged hard, pulling his entire body forward. At the same time, she sidestepped and hooked her foot around his ankle. Primal began to trip, but caught himself on his hands and flipped back the right way up with a well-executed recovery.

"You're a skilled one, Saiyan," the mercenary spat. "I underestimated you."

"No," said Rhuna, and despite the situation grinned confidently. "I underestimated you. You almost hit me on that last one."

Primal growled fiercely and lunged forward again, only for Rhuna to bat his arm out of the way and lunge past him, before pirouetting and delivering a crushing kick to his back.

Primal's razor teeth clenched tightly, lips drawn back as far as they would go as he fell to one knee, shaking. "W-what…agh…how did you…"

He dropped his head, a large mound of spit and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Rhuna, her leg still extended from the kick, took three steps back, and dropped her defensive stance.

"I'm not the one to fight you," she said sharply. Primal flickered his gaze to her and she jerked her head in the direction of the arena. "Save it for the ring. You'll need every bit of your energy to stand a ghost of a chance. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

She turned and left without another word, leaving Primal quivering on the floor. He leered after her, still unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"She picked me apart…" he thought. "This planet might be tougher than I thought…"

000

"Come on you worthless sods, give us a real fight!"

"What the hell was the point of paying for this?"

The crowd was not happy.

Not. Happy.

Kenta dismissed them, trying as hard as he could to drive their angry yells from his mind. He would need absolute perfect concentration to fight his old trainer, Ferris. And besides, how was it his fault that the three other matches in the finals had lasted a combined time of perhaps three minutes? What with Blitzo and Makurin quitting, Primal defeating Leonardo without a hitch, and then Rhuna's subsequent beatdown on Baldwin Coster, it was no surprise that the audience was a little angry, but they seemed to be directing their anger directly at him and Ferris as they stood at opposite ends of the arena, waiting for the match to start.

"I'd better give them something worth watching or they might start throwing rotten tomatoes at me," he thought exasperatedly. "I hate tomatoes…"

Both he and Ferris had decided after they'd been selected as opponents that they wouldn't restrict themselves by staying on the ground. The safety of the crowd was important, of course, but apart from that they were going all out. No holding back…well, apart from not blowing the audience to hell and back, that was.

No giant energy beams, then.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll please relax and enjoy the show! I'm sure that this next fight will be one worth waiting for!"

The announcer was trying as hard as he could to prevent any sort of tomato-apocalypse as well. Kenta glanced at him; the man was dabbing at his neck with a handkerchief, attempting to stop the endless nervous sweat.

"So, without further ado…BEGIN!"

A loud bell dinged to signal the start of the match, and opposite Kenta, Ferris raised both of his hands, palms open and fingers splayed wide. The match had already been delayed by his refusal to start until he'd personally taken Rhuna to the barracks. Splashed of Coster's blood from his shattered face still stained the floor of the arena.

He called across to his old student, his voice solid and unwavering as always. "Remember…no pulled strikes." Kenta nodded, and Ferris looked at his hands. "Also, I wish for this to remain a challenge. So, I will not use the Kaio-Ken in this fight."

This time, Kenta breathed a hidden sigh of relief. The amplifying effects of Ferris' Kaio-Ken was his greatest weapon. Still, he would be no easy opponent. Not at all. Despite all his training, even under the Eternal Warriors, Kenta had never risen above his teacher in terms of strength and ability.

"Get on with it already!"

"Why are you just standing there?"

The crowd booed loudly, and Ferris's eyes flashed. "Kenta Hale, our battle has begun!"

He bent his legs and fired into the air, moving so fast he was like a blur of colour to even Kenta's lightning fast reflexes. To the watching crowd, he'd be completely invisible. They wouldn't be able to keep up.

Kenta dived into the fray, flying as straight as an arrow into the air, and an identical angle to Ferris. They met in midair, and Kenta put all of his muscle and momentum into a punch directed at Ferris. The other man reacted almost instantaneously, flying just that little bit higher to avoid Kenta's blow, before bringing his leg up and then down again.

Kenta raised his arms and crossed them above his head, catching the kick before it could reach his skull. Nevertheless, the kinetic energy transferred into his body hit him like a train, and he was blown back down to the ground, fifty metres below. Throwing his ki beneath him, he caught his body before it hit the floor of the ring.

Dropping to the tiles that made up the ring, he instinctively ducked, doing the splits to get as low to the ground as possible. Just as well he did, before a second later Ferris fazed into being right next to him, leg already moving into a second kick. It swung above him, cutting the air like a knife. If Kenta hadn't ducked, it would have knocked the wind right out of him.

Unfortunately, he found himself in an awkward position, legs so wide apart from the immediate drop that he couldn't slide them back up again, not with Ferris right there. Instead, he fell behind onto his back, allowing him to bring his legs together again. Then, he planted his palms flat on the ground and lifted his body up in a reverse hold so that he was almost upside down, before bending at the knees and delivering a donkey kick directly to Ferris' chin.

Only, the warrior – incredibly – kicked off on his right leg, throwing his body to the side and evading the attack by less than centimetre.

Kenta's eyes widened at Ferris' reflexes. His manoeuvre had been completely unpredictable, and yet Ferris had still managed to avoid it almost instantly.

"How does he move so fast?" he thought furiously. "It's almost ridiculous!"

From their viewpoint, Zeang and the others watched intensely, the only people in the entire stadium able to completely follow what was going on. Everyone else was just gaping at the blurs, minds sufficiently blown.

"This is really something, isn't it?" muttered Mataro. "Even you and I didn't go at it this much, Blitzo."

Blitzo shrugged, arms folded. "We were both holding back, and also we couldn't fly."

"Yes," agreed Zeang, eyes gleaming. "But in addition, Kenta and Ferris have much more motivation to defeat the other. There is no relationship quite like that between a student and a teacher; especially ones like Ferris and Kenta when they've known each other for so many years, and have grown together in strength."

The three Saiyans just grunted. Rhuna had joined them barely a minute before, having returned from the Barracks. She watched Ferris intently.

Below in the arena, Kenta and Ferris had both regained their feet, rushing forward and exchanging rapid blows. The wind around them was howling fiercely from the pressure of their blows. Zeang pointed at them.

"Look, see there. Their speed is phenomenal."

"But who's winning?" asked Arnika, totally absorbed by the action. As he was her brother, she was rooting for Kenta to win, but knew that Ferris had the advantage.

"It's hard to tell," replied Mataro, squinting. Amidst the blur of arms and legs, it was certainly difficult to make out who was sustaining and deflecting damage, and who was dealing it out.

As Arnika glanced at him, she caught sight of Geani's face. The swordsmaster's eyebrows were clenched fiercely, ageless eyes staring down at the match.

"What's up with him?" she thought, but her question was answered not a second later.

"Ferris has the upper hand," Geani murmured quietly, and for a split second looked rather disappointed. Kenta had been his student as well, during the period in hiding from Denkuma. Ferris had been dead, and yet he was still winning. "Look at them…

"Kenta is being forced to block at least half of Ferris' strikes. Some of them are getting through and hitting him. On the other end, Ferris is managing to actually dodge most Kenta's punches. He has the greater speed and reflexes, superior to Kenta's by a considerable amount. Unless Kenta employs new tactics, he won't win a direct exchange."

"You're right," said Zeang. It was only now that Geani had explained it that he noticed the pattern. The Eternal Warrior's experience was far greater than his.

"You go, Kenta!" screamed Arnika.

"Beat the snot out of him, Ferris!" yelled Rhuna in retaliation. She was rather more heartless than Arnika was.

Kenta felt his body begin to sweat as it heated up. Being the one fighting, he had recognised his disadvantage far quicker than Geani and Zeang had. Ferris was just too good. He couldn't win in a scuffle like this. He thought quickly; he would have to withdraw and buy himself a few seconds to mount a new assault, but it wouldn't be easy to even do that. Ferris had trained him; he knew the boy like the back of his hand, and could read him like a book.

"I haven't even landed a single hit on him! I have to do something he's not expecting."

Knowing full well it wouldn't help much at all, he skipped backwards a few metres, keeping up the lightning fast struggle the entire time. Ferris followed easily, as light on his feet as ever. The same calm blue eyes that had calmed Rhuna earlier were now serving to unnerve him.

And then Kenta did it; he leapt from his left foot. And just as he had planned, Ferris faltered.

The man moved to block an attack, but it came from the wrong direction, and Kenta's booted foot slammed into his cheek. Ferris's short cry lasted but a second as he overbalanced backwards, and was forced to put a foot behind him to stop him from falling. Meanwhile, Kenta lightly backflipped to the side, performing several flips in a row to quickly widen the gap between the two fighters.

"What?" exclaimed Arnika, eyes wide. "What just happened?"

"Brilliant thinking, Kenta," murmured Geani, and even the Saiyans looked impressed.

"What did he do?" asked Arnika again, and Zeang explained.

"He tricked Ferris into blocked from his right. You see, Kenta's right-handed, and so uses his right foot to jump with. Every fighter has tells, and when Kenta jumps he always uses the same movement. So when he went to jump, Ferris predicted it based on his stance and went to block; only this time, Kenta jumped from his left, going other way. Ferris didn't see it coming and was wide open."

"And now Kenta's got the space he needs to manoeuvre," added Blitzo, impressed. "Not bad, Kenta, old buddy."

"And I've a feeling that he's going to step it up a notch," said Mataro in anticipation. "This'll be good."

Kenta skidded to a halt, ending his frantic backpedal, and instantly dropped into a defensive stance in case Ferris had already recovered. To his relief, the other Havien had also adopted a similar pose, and they watched each other warily.

"Smart move, Kenta," complimented Ferris. "You outwitted me."

Kenta grinned. It wasn't often that he got the better of his teacher.

And then, to Kenta's surprise, Ferris extended a hand, fingers splayed. "Now, let's get serious!"

His palm glowed brightly, and suddenly a bright yellow orb of searing ki fired from his palm towards Kenta, who raised his own hands just in time. Layering his fingers with a protective coating f invisible ki, he caught the ball before it could hit him. The latent energy inside threatened to overwhelm his for a second, but he managed to redirect it, sending the ki ball skyward, where it evaporated into deep space.

Before Ferris could make another move, Kenta extended his own arms and expelled some ki balls of his own, firing off three, one after another. Ferris deflected them all almost lazily. Scowling, Kenta charged his energy and forced it all through his hands, in the form of yet another ball, almost four times the size of the previous ones.

"Now that's more like it!" cried Ferris, bracing himself. The ki sphere zoomed into his hands, and he took a step back and twisted to lessen the force. With a loud grunt, he rocketed into the air, taking the ball with him.

"What the-?"

"Take this!" bellowed Ferris, and threw Kenta's own attack straight back at him. Kenta gasped and fired off yet another ball; they collided halfway between the two fighters and detonated on impact, flashing brightly as the energy expended.

Kenta didn't waste a second, flying into the air and reaching Ferris in seconds, lashing out with a punch. It hit Ferris in the stomach, but he used the opportunity to grab Kenta's wrist.

"Don't leave yourself open like that," he grunted, and began to spin around, still holding onto Kenta. The Havien spun with him, helpless, before Ferris twisted and let go, throwing Kenta hard towards the grass at the side of the arena.

"Kenta, watch out!" screamed Arnika. If a fighter touched the grass, they were automatically disqualified.

But she needn't have feared; Kenta released a wave of ki at the ground rushing up to meet him, throwing himself off course and rolling onto the arena, safe from elimination for the time being.

A second later, a barrage of ki blasts struck all around him.

Ferris hadn't relented for a second, sending at least twenty small darts of energy at his student, who vanished under a cloud of smoke and rubble. Several second passed as the smoke rippled, gradually clearing. There was no movement from within the cloud.

A slow silence settled over the stadium as the crowd – most of which were almost dying of sheer awe – waited for the dust to settle.

"Is it…?" whispered Arnika. Had Kenta lost?

"Burning Current!"

Ferris gaped as a roaring energy beam erupted from the dust directly below him, a deep red wave. He barely had time to blink before it reached him.

"Did Kenta create this?" he thought desperately, and despite his imminent danger felt a twinge of pride for his pupil.

Plenty of time for that later though. Right now he had to defend himself real damn quick. There was no time to counter with a beam of his own; all he could do was try and protect himself. The warrior crossed his arms into an X-shape and held them across his chest. This was going to hurt.

BOOM!

With a colossal sound, Ferris was hit by the beam, disappearing from sight completely as smoke covered the sky. Below, Kenta was standing with his arms to the sky, panting heavily. The attack had taken a lot out of him.

"Did you see that?" gaped Blitzo, astounded. "That was immense!"

Rhuna and Arnika were both leaning over the edge of the railing, swapping between glaring angrily at each other and watching for the obscured sky to clear.

"I can't sense Ferris…" muttered Geani. "It's too erratic down there, it's impossible to tell if that was a winning attack."

And as they watched with baited breath, a blue streaked from within to the ground.

"It's Ferris!" cried Mataro.

Kenta replied in kind, shooting up from the ground, fist extended. They met halfway between the ground and the sky, fists collided with tremendous energy. A shockwave rang through the stadium, blowing everyone back, and Kenta and Ferris bounced off each other, spinning to the ring. They each landed near the edge of opposite sides.

"Look at Ferris!" gasped Zeang. The fighter looked exhausted, clothes singed and hair ruffled wildly. He was hunched over slightly, panting wearily, and blood dripped slowly from the corner of his mouth. Kenta's beam had hit him directly on, and though it hadn't defeated him, he had taken massive damage from the attack.

Of course, Kenta wasn't faring much better. He'd taken a lot of damage from the fighting earlier, and his Burning Current attack had sapped a lot of his energy.

It would be a close match.

They flashed back and forth, slamming into each other again and again, rebounding to the edge of the ring each time. The fifth time they did this, they didn't bounce off, but stayed in the exact centre of the arena, exchanging blows once again.

Kenta ducked to the side to avoid a blow from Ferris, and lashed out in return. Ferris swept his arm around and pushed Kenta's arm to the side, and then somersaulted to the side over Kenta's follow-up kick. Rolling to break his fall, he caught himself on his hands and swung his own legs around, and in his weary state, Kenta felt his legs get swept out from under him.

In that moment, his concentration wand defences were both broken. Ferris slammed the base of his palm into Kenta's chest, and the Havien was blown away, sliding to a halt on the very edge of the ring.

"Kenta…" whispered Arnika tensely, and Zeang drew in breath.

Kenta climibed to his feet was quickly as he could, and spun back to face where Ferris had been…

…only to find himself face to face with his opponent.

Kenta froze; Ferris' arms were extended, held together. His wrists touched, but his hands opened up apart, his palms held flat, fingers curled slightly. The palms were pointing directly at his stomach, only a few inches away.

"Oh," he said.

Ferris' blue eyes were determined, refusing to be bested. He opened his mouth and charged up, a dull roar tearing from his throat.

"KIAI!"

A wave of energy surged through Ferris' body, down his arms, and into his palms, before an invisible pulse of ki impacted with Kenta's entire body. It was like the strongest gust of wind he'd ever felt; the Havien was powerless against the pulse, and was blown backwards, out over the edge of the ring.

Kenta felt the wall of the arena impact into his back, the wooden barrier crushing against his body like a twig. He slumped, tangled up in the shattered wood, and let out his held breath. He had touched the outside of the ring. It was over.

Ferris had won.

000

Oh my god, I am exhausted. This was more taxing to write than I thought, but that might have been because I did it all at once…

Well, how'd you like it. Sorry about the wait between chapters, I've been updating really slow for Dragon Ball X. I'll try and pick up the pace, I promise ;)

Bit of a surprise for Primal at the beginning there; he definitely wasn't expecting Rhuna to be that strong. And man, that fight between Kenta and Ferris took a lot out of me, lol. Oh well, it was worth it to me in the end. What do you think? Tell me in a review ;)

Toodles!