Crossover Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Angel ❯ Chapter 30 ( Chapter 30 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Dark Angel
Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of the Star Wars Characters. I do not own Dragon Ball Z or any of the Dragon Ball Z characters. They are owned by those who own them. I do, however, own the story all of this is in. That is all.
Author's Note: I am going to say this right now that I suck at writing fighting stuff. Plus I had wanted to write two deaths in this story but it got cut short due to lack of ideas how to do the second one, so I opted that for yet anotherchapter. Ah, well. At least it didn't take me a year and a half to churn out this chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter Thirty
Tien landed as quietly as he couple upon the mud rooftop of some forsaken house, his head turned upwards towards the sky and all three eyes trained someone else at some point in the distance. Looking as though he had lost something, he stood as tense as ever, keeping his body at a defensive stance all the while ready to go on the offensive. Blood had dried on his arms quite quickly from scraps and cuts that went into his arms, face, and hands; it did look like he had been in a scuffle and a bad one too, to any that had bothered to stick around the site. He didn't blame anyone for leaving, since what they were dealing with wasn't exactly common on this world or anywhere else in this realm.
Yamcha landed not far behind him, his head and eyes turned in the same direction as the other had his head and eyes upon. He didn't fair as well either, possibly even more so then his friend; there were cuts and dried blood on his arms and didn't seem to care. He, however, didn't seem as frantic as Tien was, although he was just as on edge as his friend was. Instead of standing in a way that would keep him ready to fight again, he held a more relax stance most likely to throw off any other fighter and show that he just didn't care. Perhaps he didn't or he was just ready to finish off whatever hellish creature was out there.
Their chest were moving up and down, breath scorching their throats, and eyes stinging from the rising heat that came from the sand below. If it hadn't been so hot, even without a second sun in the sky, they could have felt more energetic then they were; with Tatooine's twin suns baring down, it was as though they were being roasted alive. How anyone could live on a planet infested with nothing but desert and criminals all over escaped them completely. It went the same with anyone that was still watching them, how they could live in a world with people flying without a ship around them.
They had spent the last hour, if that short of a time frame, trying to keep up with Ginyu as best as they could without allowing more energy to flow through them. They had, after all, to save any reserves for anything else that came their way. That was harder to do, since they had to tap into their energy resources just to keep up with them. Both were at a point where they would have had a very hard time keeping up with him alone, but together it was less of a daunting task and more of a do-able accomplishment. They just had to bide their time, and energy, long enough to wear him down to a point where they could do a decent counter attack without worrying what would happen to themselves.
“Where is he?” Yamcha asked quietly, not bothering to use his energy to sense another person's presence, not when Tien could easily do it with his own third eye. Tien didn't answer as quickly as he should have, his head moving down from the sky as he turned slightly to the right. There was a frown creasing his lips, an odd look upon his face that Yamcha had seen quite a few times when one was concentrating on something. “What is it? What's wrong?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” Tien muttered, looking at a Yamcha for a brief moment before he spun around in the direction he had been facing before. His left arm moved forwards quickly, his hand balling into a fist as it connected into a opposing stomach. Ginyu's face said more then what words alone could not say : he had not expected to be punched in the stomach as hard as he had been nor did he expect anyone to really know when he would come up behind them. The gasping face stayed like it was for several seconds before it turned into a grimace, as Tien took two steps back and lowered his arm to his side. “That's for underestimating us.”
Ginyu regained control of himself and straighted up as best as he could without showing that he had, in fact, been hurt in any way. Yamcha silently wondered if they were the ones who were doing the underestimating, seeing as they were the only two that had never dealt with Frieza, Cold, or Ginyu before, outside the Jedi. From what little Goku had seemingly remembered about fighting them, Frieza and Ginyu at least, he didn't know if small, underhanded attacks would work. With the way he had talked, it sounded like he hadn't started off small to begin with. That was Goku for them.
“We'll see who's doing the underestimating here,” Ginyu said with a smirk. Tien only glanced behind him for a spilt second, Yamcha nodding at the unspoken words they had shared. They didn't have to say a word to each other, their actions would give the other the idea of what was going on and what would happen next, if that was possible at all. Whatever would happen, it would happen fast.
They weren't going to let Ginyu trap them in any of his tricks, both launching off the mud rooftop before Ginyu had even gotten his hands into position. They had heard enough from Goku and Vegeta on what to expect from him and what he could do in another's body; their best plan of action was to keep their distance and their speed up as fast as they could in order to stay as they were. Long range energy attacks would have to act as their smoke screen until either or both of them could get close enough to safely attack at that close range. If Ginyu didn't see through their plan first, that is.
“What if it isn't true?” Yamcha asked as soon as he and tien were at least twenty feet away from the rooftop and Ginyu, who had launched himself off the rooftop only seconds after the pair had.
“What Goku and Vegeta had said about this guy?” Tien asked, turning himself around and launching several energy blasts behind him. Yamcha nodded, hardly even giving his head a turn over his shoulder. “As much as I don't like Vegeta, he knows more about them then we do and Goku knows half as much as Vegeta does. Goku had a first-hand experience with him and that I trust. Besides, I'd go with what they say versus what we wouldn't have know if they weren't here.”
Yamcha had to agree with that, no matter how outrageous everything seemed to be going. He shouldn't have been surprised, considering what his own world was like and the things he had found out since he had met Goku oh so many years ago. Had this been anyone else, anyone else other then Goku, he would have dismissed this as nothing sort of some fairytale. I don't know how I managed to get caught up in all of this, but we've got to put the past behind us today, He thought to himself.
“Tien, I have an idea,” He said suddenly as he moved out of the way as what looked like a beam of energy shot past him from behind. Tien glanced over at him, his hands moving together to form a familiar triangle shape. Yamcha stopped where he was, turning around to face the on-coming Ginyu; he didn't know exactly what he was going to do, yet anything was better then just wearing themselves down while hoping to do the same to their opponent.
“Yamcha, no,” Tien said, stopping not far away from where the other had stopped. “Once I start this, I can't stop unless I only do it a few times or die from doing too many. Let me handle Ginyu and you go help Krillin.”
“But...” Yamcha started to protest, not even getting the rest of the words out or they had been lost in the stream of triangular energy that burst through Tien's hands. He stopped cold where he was, having felt the heat from the attack and watched in half amazement, half horror as the energy swirled and hit Ginyu with a force that could possibly rival a small attack from Vegeta.
He turned his head away long enough to not see what would happen to Ginyu, having barely seen the look of surprise that had been on his face. There was a deathly silence, too quiet for someone that was in league with Frieza. He knew what Tien could do and hopefully that was the only time that he had to do it; even if it wasn't, there was only a few more times that it could be done before it really took effect on the user. Still, if Tien had to face Ginyu alone after his attacks had done their job....
“Just go,” Tien said breathlessly, keeping his hands in the same position they had been in during the first wave. “He's not down yet, just enough. He's not like Cell, he will stay down after the second one.”
Yamcha nodded, silently cursing his friend for this and muttered a few good lucks to him before he flew off in the direction where Krillin was. If he could get there in time, at least one person would be saved from a worst fate then death.
¤ ==== ¤
Not far from where Tien and Yamcha had been fighting Ginyu, but still a good few miles away, the same intention of keeping oneself alive to see a better day held itself at a pace considered too slow even for a human. It wasn't as though the two fighters didn't have the strength, wits, or stubbornness to keep going; they had all that and more it would seem to those that had never witnessed the fights that had taken place years before. It was because of the peace that had been there, and the years spent from fighting, that had boiled down the spirit for the fight. No longer was there a real need to keep in tune with any threats to their own planets, no longer a need to practice their fighting ways when there was no call for them, no longer a way of life that would be obsolete if they failed. They just didn't need.
Even so, Krillin still felt the desire to keep the bare minimum of practice under his sleeve in case there was another unforeseen attack on Earth. He did, unfortunately, have to rely on his more powerful friends to keep the planet alive even if that meant he didn't keep his own standards as high as Goku, Vegeta, or Gohan. Perhaps it was because he was weaker then they were, since they all could reach Super Saiyan status or higher. Or perhaps it was because of other reasons, whatever it was at least he still had the state of mind to keep his body in shape for whatever reasons he had.
Cold, however, had little need to keep his body as strong as it could be. His strength was, in fact, stronger then Frieza's and had been at the same level for a number of years now; had he known there were stronger forces out there that were stronger then his son, and had more time to get his body ready for this type of battle, then he would have taken that chance. He hadn't known that the Super Saiyan myth was actually real until he saw it with his own two eyes and would have gotten himself more physical had he not been killed shortly afterwards seeing what one of those Saiyans could do. That had been the worst of it, having a power that was supposedly weaker actually beat him. That was an embarrassment to him and the remaining fragments of his own family.
These two forces battled each other for what seemed like days compared to the time that was actually spent fighting each other. They weren't as graceful as their counterparts fighting elsewhere in the township, far from it actually, yet it was enough for them until their muscles wore themselves out. They fought with fists, punches, and small energy blasts, keeping it simple but to the point for the most part. It didn't rival the level in which Frieza and Vegeta were fighting, but it was something to at least gaze up at and be bewildered at what was going on.
Cold held the upper hand in this battle, with his sheer size, tail, and horns added into the fray. He smiled as an outstretched hand plowed into the pit of Krillin's stomach, causing him to double over in pain and cough up some blood. It wasn't the first injury the small human had in this fight, his arms already beginning their slow healing process over wounds that had been made during the course of the battle. There was a small hole in his clothing, on his just just an inch or so away from his heart. It didn't hit any vital areas, none that required him to quit fighting and seek shelter until the all clear was giving. No, he had a lot more fight in him then he let on, even with the lost blood and his vision becoming blurry.
Cold didn't come unscathed either. Bruises on his face was a sign that he had been punched numerous times there and his left side held a scorch mark where a few stray blasts of energy had gone off course. Had this been someone that didn't have a fighting sense about them, at the level they were going at, then they would have been maimed or killed with the types of fighting skills they both possessed. Both held enough passion to keep their cause alive to stay focused as best as they could.
However much fighting sense he had been taught on his home world during his younger years, Cold still held back his power even though he had been taught to use more power when faced with an opponent that wouldn't back down. Krillin was one such opponent, acting like he was hurt when the Icejin moved in to finish his attack, he was met head-on with a head butt. That gave Krillin a dizzy spell and a headache, but it made Cold stagger back slightly and feign a look that showed he had expected the attack when he honestly didn't. Truth be told, both were beginning to wind down, their strength beginning to fade. It was the beginning of the end of the fight and they knew it.
What they didn't know was that one of them would have a downfall to his death, one that would start the end of all the fighting and signal to their companions that their triumph was at hand. Cold desperately wanted his stake at winning, shaking off the head-butt and moving fast towards the very injured Krillin. The human didn't have enough time, or extra strength, to stop what Cold was doing, having just enough sense to lift his arms up in a defensive stance before he realized that he wasn't going for another frontal attack. Instead, Cold wrapped his tail around Krillin's waist without a struggle, pulling him close to him as soon as he could get his bearings in the air.
"What's the matter?" Cold snickered, his tail tightly squeezing Krillin around the middle. He looked up at the towering Icejin, his arms moving to the tail to try and get it off of him. At least, that was the feigning attempt to do so, enough to distract Cold from what he was about to do. "Can't keep up with me anymore, can you?"
Krillin remained silent at Cold's taunting, knowing full well that he was at a boiling point in the fight and couldn't loose his head now. He closed his eyes for a split second, enough to mentally calm himself to steady his hand. His left hand moved away from Cold's tail long enough to create a small disc in his hand, taking only a few seconds to let the energy flow through his arm and into his open palm. A short pause was all that was needed to open his eyes and thrust the disc downward, into the flesh of the tail and down towards the ground. It was a panic decision, a last resort to free himself instead of using the last resources of his much-needed energy struggling to get out of the grasp of the tail.
The disc had sliced into Cold's tail enough to expose muscle and some bone, Cold screeching in pain as his tail loosens enough for Krillin push it off of him without much energy being used to do so. There was a snicker from him as he flew away from the Icejin, the disc of energy long since plowed into the desert sand below. It would leave a mark on Tatooine's surface for a while at least, until more sand piled over it and made it look like nothing had happened. That was the way of the sand and the way of life for the desert planet.
"I don't have to keep up with you to beat you," Krillin said calmly, turning around to face Cold. "I just have to outsmart you."
Cold brought his tail close enough to his face, inspecting the damaged done by one disc. The gash was big enough to let tissue be exposed to the environment around them and to let sand from below to enter and infect the wound, but was small enough that it didn't let a massive amount of blood to ooze out. It was painful, red marks from the disc having burnt the edges of the wound and making it sensitive to the tough. He gritted his teeth together, narrowing his eyes and glared in the direction of Krillin. There were few that had actually harmed him in a way that caused him a great deal of pain and this was one of those times. There would be no survivors.
"Not if you are dead, you won't," He growled, his tail moving behind him as he flew towards Krillin even faster then before. He wasn't going to let a mere human take him down, not one that had almost all of his energy used up from fighting him.
This time, however, Krillin was ready for the attack and had expected Cold to be more then angry at having his tail cut like that. He took in a deep breath, raising his hand up and away from him enough to form another disc that swirled with intensity and energy. This was his one of his chances, if not the last one, to get rid of Cold altogether so that two universes could rest a bit easier. Even if he died trying to, his attempt wouldn't be in vein. It would be enough to wear him down to a point where Yamcha, Tien, or another could take him out in one swipe, finishing up what their friend had started. If he died, he hoped that the Dragon Balls could stretch beyond universes and revive him. If not, then at least he died defending them.
He wasn't scared of what his fate was, since he had seen so many battles before this one. There was no difference between what he had done before and what was going on now, as Cold came within a foot of reaching him. Krillin blinked his eyes, surprised at Cold's sudden stop in front of him; he had fully expected him to come crashing into his body. If this had been his intention, to make Krillin think that he was going to plow right into his body head-on, he was good at making the small human think otherwise. In fact, that had been his intention, to do a full-body take-out but had been stopped short of doing so.
Krillin's surprise and confusion soon gave way to a devious smile, as he took in the full force of what was going on. Cold's face twisted itself into a expression of pain and utter anger, his hands balling into fists as he turns his upper torso around to see someone hovering behind him, a firm grip on his tail. Yamcha floated right where he was, one hand holding the end of his tail tightly and the other by the wound where the disc had hit. The top of his fingertips had dug into the wound, pulling some of the tissue and skin back far enough to give him a decent grip on his tail and to send shooting pain into Cold himself.
"Sorry," Yamcha said, smirking, "couldn't resist."
Cold let out a snarl, his upper lip curling up. "How dare..."
Cold's words failed at his lips, had been ignore altogether, or had just moved into a snarl as Yamcha suddenly let go of his tail. All that was given in response to the low growl was a wave and a flurry of movement as Yamcha flew downwards and out of range of an oncoming attack. At first, Cold assumed the human had disappeared entirely from his view and had fled the battle, leaving his friend behind and back in the midst of a one-on-one battle. In reality, he had been smart and gotten out of the way, all the while Cold stayed where he until a familiar sound reached his ears. One of energy being formed into a disc and that same disc spinning around and around again.
For the most part, energy didn't have a sound to it and was quiet, dangerous, and often on target -- all at the same time. Not many could put a sound to it, not unless they could hear the faint pulse to the energy, one that mimicked the sound of a beating heart about to die. But to Cold's ears, it sounded as though a hundred bees were swarming and moving towards him. Time seemed to have slowed down, or at least stopped to a point where he couldn't react in time. He turned his upper body around, his eyes wide and mouth still twisted in that same snarl -- his face did not have the opportunity to react to what was going on before it hit him.
The disc had hit just above Krillin's actual target of the lower chest and had gone at an forty-five degree angle instead of going straight across. The disc slowed down as it tore through muscle, bone, flesh, and blood vessels -- all the while Krillin turning his head away at the sight. He had seen blood and guts before, yet did not want to look into the lifeless eyes of the Icejin, eyes that looked as though they had suddenly come to terms with a second death. He knew Cold was dead and would stay that way for good this time; there would be no coming back after this, not if he could do anything about it.
Yamcha flew up to where Krillin floated in the air, watching as the disc of energy finished slicing through the body of a dead Cold and flew at the same angle it had gone it. It took a full minute for the disc to fizzle out, Krillin finally moving his head back to where Cold use to be, both friends watching the body pieces fall down to the ground. He didn't know what was going to happen to them, but if they could take them back, somehow, to their own home then they could make sure that this would never happen again. At least, not in their lifetime. He was just glad that one battle had been taken care of and several more were on their way to being completed.
"Where's Tien?" Krillin asked as he turned towards Yamcha.
Yamcha frowned, continually staring at Cold's body as it hits the sound below them. "He's still fighting Ginyu, last time I saw him." He took note of Krillin's expression, as soon as he managed to take his gaze off of the ground below. "What? He told me to go after you, to make sure you're alright."
"Sure," Krillin muttered, not looking happy at the fact that Tien was facing Ginyu alone. He could have easily taken Cold down without Yamcha's help and it would have been a tad bit harder had he not shown up at the best time. "Doesn't he know what Ginyu can do with a simple technique and another person's body?"
"He knows," Yamcha said, "But I seriously doubt he'd let Ginyu get close."
Krillin stared at Yamcha for several minutes, then looks down at the spot where Cold had gorged him with one of his horns. The intensity of the pain of it had long-since subsided down to a small ache and the blood flow had stemmed to just being dried. In reality, had this been ten years before he would have most likely been that person laying in two halves on the desert floor instead of Cold. He was tired of fighting, his body looking as though it had gone to hell and back several times, and the dizziness he had felt earlier had almost gone away. But, there was another friend in need, despite all of the injuries he had taken from this one battle alone. He had enough strength, however, to do something at least.
"Come on," Krillin said quietly. "We have to help Tien out."
He had half expected Yamcha to chicken out, to mutter some kind of excuse as to why he could go back and face Ginyu again. That was what Krillin would have done: say something about forgetting something and leaving as fast as he could. However, as the two looked at each other, there was something different about them. Something that took the fate of two universes to make them realize. It didn't matter how strong they were, just as long as they could make a difference. They smiled, both glancing down at Cold's body one last time before Yamcha nodded and took the lead, flying quickly towards where Tien had been fighting.
One battle fought and one, four more to go.
To Be Continued