Chapter 5: Perfect V

But he was pretty sure it wasn’t his hearing, because he kept hearing it. But every time he went to look, there was nothing. He wondered if one of the Z Fighters was playing a practical joke on him, but with that insane killer loose on the planet he doubted any of them had the free time to go up to the top of Kami Tower to annoy him.

His constant trips to the edge had finally caught the attention of Dende, who was busy trying to find Agony for Son Goku. He hadn’t had much luck, with Agony somehow always managing to evade him by the time her prescene was known. It was very frustrating, considering that longer her location remained unknown, the more people who could die.

"Are you all right, Mr. Popo?" Dende asked. He grimaced. Although he was nearly an adult by Namekian standards, he still had a very boyish voice. Trunks, god rest his soul, used to tease him about it when he was a kid. Now Trunks would never tease anyone ever again…or at least for a while.

"Yes Kami. It’s just that I keep hearing strange noises and I can’t seem to locate their source!" Mr. Popo replied, leaning over the tower edge and looking at the wall that sloped downward at an angle to form the bowl shape that floated in the air above Karin Tower.

"Noises? What kind of noises?" Dende asked, walking out of the small shrine he was in and heading towards Mr. Popo and he stood and turned around to look at the young Namek who was the God of Earth.

"It’s nothing Kami. Probably just some birds who keep flying-ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Mr. Popo suddenly screamed as a sword burst through his chest.

"MR. POPO!" Dende screamed, as Mr. Popo was lifted off the ground, screaming all the way as Agony, who had shoved the sword right through his back, lifted him above her head and hurled him over the edge of the tower. The sword slid out of him as Mr. Popo fell, screaming, like some kind of bleeding meteor.

His eyes wide with shock and his heart pounding like a hammer, Dende could only make small noises of fear in his throat as Agony looked at him with her horrible eyes and licked the blood right off the blade.

"He had a lousy summer, so he’s making it up by having a great fall." Agony chuckled, as Mr. Popo’s soul entered her heart as his body splattered like a raw egg on the Earth so far far below. She looked at the little Namek who looked like he would die of fear.

"How…how…" Dende stammered as the woman, oh god the evil radiating from her was beyond comprehension. Although Namekians weren’t reknowned for their sense of smell, they had been blessed with certain sensitivities as their species had evolved. One of them was an exceptional ability to smell the scent blood gave off. This helped them track down wounded comrades and prey before their bodies had evolved to only have to drink water. But the ability remained, if anything it grew stronger, because Namekians could smell anything that had had blood spilled on it, even if the blood had been there fifty years ago. The scent never truly left.

Agony stank of blood, reeked of it. The smell of death coming off her her was so strong Dende had to start breathing only through his mouth. He swore if he smelt the stench of death Agony gave off any more, he would either choke or go mad.

"I found this tower, and I climbed it, and there was this white cat and fat guy on top of it. God, the guy was so fat it splattered all over me when I tore him apart. The cat said that Kami would avenge this, so I asked who this Kami was and the cat said he was the god of all and that he was up here. I think he thought that if he told me I would spare him. No dice. I speared him on this sword the fat guy had and ate him instead. Tasty, but too much fur." Agony said, spitting. Dende started backing away. The sword Agony had, the sword she’d used to kill Mr. Popo, oh god it was Yajirobie’s sword.

"I always wanted to kill a god…" Agony purred, as she advanced on the terrified Namek. "So I headed up here. Now why don’t you tell me where this god is, I’m getting hungry again and you look so tasty…" Agony said, her terrible eyes filled with delight as she stared at Dende.

Dende realized two things. If he ran, she would just chase him until she caught him. He had to fight. Because he was Kami, and if he died, so would the Dragonballs, and possibly the hope of reviving all the people Agony had killed.

"I am Kami." Dende said in a far braver voice then he was feeling, as he stopped backing away and stood fast.

Agony stared at him, blood dripping from her lips. She’s cut her tongue licking the sword, and she couldn’t heal it because she’d made the cut. But this little green man who claimed to be god was sure to defend himself. Not only would his blows be heavenly to her, it would deal with her cut tongue.

Then the whole idea of the little green man being god struck her fully, and she began to laugh, horrible laughter filled with malice.

"YOU’RE GOD? YOU?"

Dende nodded, preparing to attack. But Agony was lost in her terrible laughter. It sent chills down Dende’s spine.

"You, little green man, are god? You? Shouldn’t you be getting ready to steal Christmas or something? Who created this universe, DR. SEUSS?" Agony howled. Dende’s fear, which he was doing his best job to keep from overwhelming him, increased. This woman was truly mad.

Then Agony stopped laughing and stared at Dende, that horrible lust back in her eyes.

"Well, I may not like green eggs and ham, but I do want to know how the heart of a god will taste."

Agony started forward.

Dende threw his hands out and threw several ki balls at Agony. They exploded on her body, tearing and burning away the flesh where they struck, but they didn’t even stagger her, they didn’t even slow her down, as she walked towards Dende, a slow walk that was somehow evil in itself.

Dende began backing away again, throwing more ki balls. They struck Agony, but the wounds just healed. Energy lanced from Dende’s eyes and enveloped Agony in the smoke of an explosion, and Dende followed it up with about a thousand energy bolts, which threw a great plume of smoke into the air above Kami Tower.

Dende stood, panting and exhausted. He wasn’t a warrior and the combat attacks had worn him out quickly.

Then Agony emerged from the smoke. Dende gasped in fear as he saw the wounds he had inflicted rapidly vanish. In a second there wasn’t even any tears in Agony’s costume. Dende began backing away again. He only got a few more steps before he reached the edge of Kami Tower.

Dende’s heart filled with icy fear. There was nowhere left to run. Then he cried out as Agony reached forward and grabbed him, lifting him up and staring into his eyes with her horrible eyes. Dende twisted away, refusing to look into her eyes, which radiated damnation and all consuming evil.

"You disappoint me. If the God of this world is so weak, then this world is doomed. No, it’s doomed whether you’re weak or strong. For I am beyond both." Agony chuckled. She snapped up her other hand as her fingers formed into barbed knives again.

"I have never tasted a god’s flesh…until now." Agony said, reaching forward to rip the most delicious-looking chunk off.

"MAKKANKOSAPPO!"

Agony turned her head just in time to receive the screw-shaped beam of energy right in the face. Then she was flying as the blast threw her into one of the larger shrines and detonated with a tremendous explosion, throwing rocks shards everywhere and shaking Kami’s Tower.

Dende fell to the ground, the front of his outfit torn. He looked up in amazement. He saw a white cloak floating in the wind and a green head topped with an ever-present turban.

"PICCOLO!"

Ubuu was sitting and trying to read a book when Son Goku burnt into the room.

"UBUU! COME ON! WE HAVE TO GET TO KAMI TOWER RIGHT NOW! AGONY’S GOING AFTER DENDE!"

"Dende?" Ubuu said, leaping to his feet. He had never seen his teacher in a panic before, but Goku was definitely in one.

"We have to go! Now! Pray we’re not too late!" Goku said. Behind him Goten appeared with Yamcha.

"Gohan’s making sure Videl and Pan are ok. Erik’s gone to get Vegeta…"

"WE CAN’T WAIT! We have to fly! NOW!" Goku said. Goten looked at his father. His father only acted like this when they were out of food, his mom hadn’t had time to go shopping, and he was hungry. But he could understand. If Agony killed Dende, the Dragonaballs would be gone. Or even worse, her twisted ability to steal the souls and thus the powers of the people she had killed might somehow give her the ability to control the Dragonballs herself…

…or make whole new ones to do anything she wished…

Goten ground his teeth. It wouldn’t happen that way. Not while he was still alive.

Goku was still running around in a panic, screaming about how he needed to know where the door was. He kept it up until Ubuu grabbed his arm.

"Sensei! Why don’t you just use Instantaneous Movement?"

Goku stopped dead. Ubuu was right, in his panic that Dende was the only one with powers Agony could go after had made him forget that.

"You’re right! Gohan, get everyone and follow as quickly as possible! I’ll teleport ahead! I hope we’re not too late!"

As Erik entered, Vegeta on his heels, Goku brought up two fingers to his head as he tried to find a ki on Kami Tower.

"Wait!" Erik yelled.

Too late. Goku’s image blurred out as he vanished, teleporting to Kami Tower.

"Take us with you." Erik finished. His voice was a snarl in his frustration that he hadn’t gotten back to Goku in time.

"Let’s go. This time, she’s not escaping me." Vegeta said. His voice was so angry it nearly blistered the paint. He picked up Erik and flew right through the roof of the Capsole Corp headquarters, as he went SSJ in an emerging vengeful rage.

Goku blurred into existence on Kami Tower. The first thing that caught his eye was an ever-familiar white cloak.

"Piccolo!" Goku called up to the Namekian warrior. "You made it back!"

"Yes." Piccolo said in his familiar raspy voice. "It appears I got home just in time."

Goku then noticed that Dende was hiding behind Piccolo, and they both were staring at a wrecked temple whose wreckage was starting to shake. Goku flew up to Piccolo’s side.

"Is that her?" Goku asked Dende.

"Yes…oh god Goku, she killed Mr. Popo, Karin, and Yajarobie. You must stop her! Her bloodlust is beyond anything I have ever seen!" Dende said. Goku looked at the young Namek. Ruling Earth had matured him greatly, but his encounter with Agony had terrfied him so bad that he was regressing back into a child-like state.

"Don’t worry Dende. I can handle a lunatic woman." Piccolo said, his eyes not moving from the wreckage. But they did move when Goku grabbed his shoulder.

"Piccolo, whatever you do, don’t underestimate her. She feeds off her own pain for strength! Every time you strike a blow, she just gets stronger from it! She feeds off other’s pain as well! She’s virtually unstoppable!"

Piccolo glanced at the saiya-jin that had once been his worst enemy and was amazed at what he saw. After all the times he had fought and fought beside Son Goku, he had never seen him look so…haunted.

"Piccolo, she’s killed Trunks. And Krillian too. She’s a demon."

"So am I, Son. So am I." Piccolo replied, turning his eyes back onto the wreckage as Agony pulled herself from it.

At first glance Piccolo thought Son Goku had some bad information. This woman didn’t even have any ki. She was atheletic looking but frail, and most of all, she had a huge chunk of stone right through her stomach. Her blood was soaking the broken stone around her.

"She looks like she’s on the verge of death. I’ll finish her myself, for the honour of our fallen warriors." Piccolo said as he pulled his hat off and then cast off his cloak. He was about to fly at Agony when Goku grabbed him by the shoulder again.

"Look."

Agony yanked the chunk of rock from her, pulling out most of her guts with it.

And then Piccolo’s eyes widened as the guts were suddenly pulled back into the huge hole in Agony’s stomach. They widened even more as the hole sealed itself. Almost instantaneously, Agony was again unhurt.

"She can regenerate." Piccolo said. His voice was unemotional, but inside his heart there was a tiny twinge of fear. He remembered the abilities of Perfect Cell and Majinn Buu to recover from normally mortal injuries by simply grow their parts back. If this woman had them too, she was going to be tough to kill.

"It’s worse then that Piccolo. Pain gives her power, and thus causes the regeneration. Thus…"

"…every wound I inflict on her will heal her and makes her stronger." Piccolo replied. A bitter taste was forming in his mouth.

Agony looked at Yajarobie’s sword, which was still in her hand. However, the blade had broken off.

"Stupid piece of crap." She muttered as she tossed the hilt aside and looked up at Goku and Piccolo. "Hey, it’s a big green man! And another guy! Two for the price of one, again!" Agony said. Even Piccolo felt chilled. Even Freiza hadn’t had such evil in his voice.

"Piccolo…" Goku began.

And then suddenly Agony was right in their faces. Goku’s eyes widened. How?

And then Piccolo screamed as a rusty sword blade that had once been Agony’s hand and forearm came slashing down, severing his arm at the shoulder. Blood sprayed, on Goku and Agony, and she laughed, the laugh of a madman, as she turned to Goku. As Piccolo fell to the tower, the pain briefly overcoming him. Agony slashed at Goku, trying to take his head off like she did with Trunks. Goku ducked under the blade, but Agony just let the momentum spin her around as she twisted her leg at an impossible angle, the back of her boot forming into another barbed blade which she swung to gut Goku like a fish.

He barely made it, as he twisted his stomach inward the blade sliced through his gi and opened a long but superficial cut across his muscular stomach. Blood flew out as Goku tumbled away from Agony, landing on his butt. He looked up to see that Dende had gotten clear, had flown away and was watching from a distance, and then he sat up to see that his lap was full of blood.

Piccolo’s teeth were clenched hard as he got up, holding his bleeding stump, as Agony landed before him. She picked up his severed arm, and in an action that made even Piccolo feel sick, raised it to her mouth and took a bite out of it. The only thing that gave Piccolo any saitisfaction was that she immediately spat it out.

"PLEEHHHH! You taste terrible!" Agony spat. "Well, you’ll be the lucky one, green man! If you taste that bad I won’t eat your heart, but I certainly want to see what it looks like!"

Piccolo stood to his full height and roared in pain as his new arm popped out, coated in birthing liquids. He looked at Agony and smiled at the shock on her face. His fangs glittered.

"She gets stronger from pain. Well, I’LL JUST WORK AROUND IT!" Piccolo roared, and leapt at Agony, punching her in the jaw so hard he tore it right off. Pistoning his fingers, Piccolo tore through Agony’s chest, punched through her rib cage, wrapped her fingers around her beating heart, and with a scream, tore it right out.

Agony screamed and bent over, clutching her chest, and then looked up, laughing. Stunned, Piccolo looked at the organ he now held in his hand.

The heart was as black as night.

And it was still beating.

Then the heart snapped from his hand and flew back into Agony’s chest, the hole sealing behind it, even as new flesh erupted from Agony’s skull and formed a new jaw. Agony laughed and leapt at Piccolo, who threw his hand up and let loose with a huge blast that burnt half her flesh off and sent her flying across the tower.

With a dull clack, Goku landed beside Piccolo. Piccolo glanced at the saiya-jin and saw the blood oozing from his stomach.

"Don’t worry, it’s just a scratch." Goku said. "Kami, she’s even worse then I thought. I didn’t actually think there could be a creature that thrives on pain and death like her, but seeing it now…I know. And I know she has to die."

Piccolo looked at Goku’s face, a stone mask of deadly seriousness. The face he always wore when he was going into battle. If Goku said that Agony had to die, then the crimes she must have commited were beyond Piccolo’s comprehension. Goku gave every foe he fought chance after chance, no matter what they had done. If Goku was showing no mercy…

Piccolo looked at Agony as she got to her feet, a wide grin on her face as the last of her flesh healed. She licked her lips as if surveying a platter of appetizers.

"I told Dende to run and head to the Capsole Corp. He’ll be safe there, for now. Everyone who’s left is on their way. I was planning to get Dende and run, but I can’t do that now, not after seeing her. If we let her get away again…there’s no telling what she could do." Goku said solemnly.

Despite the grave situation, Piccolo smiled.

"Just like old times, eh Son?" Piccolo said, as he remembered a battle fought so long ago, as he and Goku, enemies at the time, had teamed for the first time to fight a common foe in Garlic Junior. Now they were together again, fighting a foe that was so much worse.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Agony yelled, flying at Son Goku and Piccolo. The two exchanged one last glance at each other and then locked eyes with Agony as they both yelled, Piccolo powering up to his maximum and Goku exploding into the SSJ2 state.

Then Agony was slashing at them with arms that were now swords and the battle was on.

"I can sense a huge amount of ki! Goku must be fighting with Agony! No, it’s not just him, its Piccolo!" Gohan yelled to the people behind him, his heart leaping. His old teacher was back, and that meant one more fighter for their side.

"Kakarott and the Namek? ARGH! They’d better leave some scraps or I’ll kill THEM INSTEAD OF AGONY!" Vegeta screamed as his SSJ state advanced into SSJ2. Erik, riding on his back, looked at Vegeta as yelled as worried thoughts invaded his mind.

"HA!!!!!!!" Piccolo yelled as he pistoned both his hands forward. His sharp nails sliced through Agony’s flesh as his fingers penetrated her skin and muscle. Piccolo seized his hands around the bone structure he could feel and pulled as hard as he could, ripping Agony’s whole rib cage out with a wet tearing noise. Blood sprayed him from the massive wound, but Agony just laughed at him. Piccolo wiped the smile off her face by caving it in with a punch, sending her flying backward into Son Goku’s eager fists. Screaming revenge for his friends, Goku pummeled Agony mercilessly, snapping half the bones in her body before he grabbed her and drove her down across his knee, breaking her back so violently he practically tore her in half. Blood sprayed all over him too, but he didn’t let up, digging his fingers into Agony’s mangled body and throwing her up into the air. Blood rained down as he threw his hands to his side.

"KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Goku screamed, and threw up her hands to throw the massive blue blast. It enveloped Agony and Goku could see her flesh burn right down to her skeleton before it vanished as the blast exploded. Smoke plumed everywhere.

Far up in the air, Agony’s motionless skeleton suddenly exploded with life as new flesh came to replace the old. Agony’s rapidly reforming body twisted into a backwards sommersault before Agony stopped herself, floating in the air as her face reformed, grinning her twisted grin.

"Is that your best?" she mocked.

Then she screamed as she threw out her arms, summoning her power.

Then her hair suddenly came to violent life, as each strand suddenly formed into a quivering barbed black tentacle. Agony pointed at the fighters and her now living-hair suddenly extended and lanced downward at the two fighters, thousands apon thousands of heat-seeking deadly needles.

Piccolo and Goku threw up their hands and began blasting the strands, but there were too many. As the two fighters scrambed, leapt, flipped, and did anything to get out of the way, the strands began driving themselves into the ground, seeking out their warm flesh to penetrate and destroy.

Goku and Piccolo did this dance all over Kami Tower as more and more of the tentacles came, forming a deadly web all over the place. Piccolo tried to keep track of them, but in the end it was futile. As he leapt backwards to avoid some, he leapt right into a pattern of other strands. He screamed, the strands burned like acid. He stumbled forward and screamed again as several tentacles finally found him, lancing through his right forearm, left leg, and torso. They slashed through him and pinned him to the ground. Inside him, they burned like the fires of hell. He screamed again as Agony laughed, sucking down the pain.

"PICCOLO!" Goku said, stopping to burn away the strands that held Piccolo captive. But then he was the captive as several strands found him the instant he stopped moving, burrowing through his shoulder and back. His screams joined Piccolo, the two mixing with Agony’s laughter in a lunatic’s symphony.

Then Piccolo, even as the pain grew worse, reached out with charged hands and grabbed several other strands of Agony’s deadly hair as they came to feed on him, and even as they began to burn his hands, he sent a massive jolt of electricity into them, which traveled all the way back to Agony before she could cut the hairs from her head.

Agony’s scream was cut off as her whole face lit on fire. The fire spread to the strands as her deadly hair and burned them off at the scalp. The tentacles twitched and then went dead, and Piccolo and Goku tore them from their bodies as they turned to ash in their hands.

Piccolo clutched his arm, which was bleeding the worst. Goku held his shoulder as blood poured down his back which was laced with cuts and streaks of burned flesh. At least none of the strands had gone through his spine.

Piccolo brought his hand away coated with his own blood. His rage exploded even as Agony’s face reformed and her hair grew back. He brought up both his hands, the fingers curled into fists except for the fore and middle fingers, which glowed with destructive power.

"TWIN MAKKANKOSAPPO!"

Then Piccolo threw double screw-shaped beams at Agony. Agony looked at them and then suddenly dove right at Piccolo.

The beams struck her and bored right through her, but Agony kept coming, laughing, as the twin beams burned larger and larger holes in her, not stopping, heading straight for Piccolo.

Piccolo’s eyes widened and he willed his beams to explode.

They did, going right off inside of Agony. Piccolo watched as she was blown to pieces before she vanished in smoke. Her severed burnt arm tumbled out of the smoke towards him.

Piccolo smiled. He’d done it. He reached out, planning to take the arm as a trophy.

But just before it fell into his waiting hand, a tendril of black energy suddenly zapped out of the smoke and grabbed the arm, yanking it back into the darkness. Piccolo’s confidence suddenly turned into shock.

"NO! IT’S NOT…"

Piccolo never got to finish his sentence as Agony was suddenly flying out of the smoke, her hands forming into swords even as her body parts were fitting back together.

Piccolo tried to dodge.

Too late.

As both his legs were cut off at the kneecaps, Piccolo fell to the ground, his life’s blood pouring out. As he tried to get to the feet he no longer had, a shadow fell over him, and Piccolo looked up to see Agony, smiling at him as she raised her sword arm, her insane eyes twinkling.

"You lose, green man."

Then Goku dove out of the smoke, kicking Agony with all his might. Agony was sent tumbling and then skidding across Kami Tower before she crashed into another temple. Goku threw a ball of ki and it collapsed on her.

Goku looked with distaste at the trail Agony had left. She’d skidded so quickly across the tower the friction had grinded most of the flesh off her back.

"ARGH!" Piccolo screamed, as new legs popped out from his bleeding stumps. He quickly got to his new feet, and the two looked each other over.

"You ok?" Goku asked.

"I’m just getting warmed up." Piccolo said, grinning his fanged grin. There was a loud noise as Agony pulled herself from the wreckage of the temple.

"I’m getting tired of buildings falling on me." She muttered, and then Piccolo and Goku were on her again, ravaging her body with blows. Goku broke her jaw with an uppercut and then Piccolo nailed her with a twisting hook kick. She flew into the main building where Dende lived, and then it was demolished as Goku and Piccolo assaulted it and her with ki. When they stopped their blasting war, there wasn’t even any wreckage, just a massive crator. The barrage had been so intense they had vaporized all the wreckage.

"You think we got her that time?" Piccolo asked Son Goku.

Agony’s crazy laughter erupted from the crator, as she floated out and raised her hands above her head, sending a barrage of black energy spears at the two warriors.

"NO!" Goku yelled as he and Piccolo dove out of the way.

"Two stupid dunces, with too many balls, how long till they realize they’re just hitting brick walls? One, two, three, four…" Agony chanted in a mockery of a jump rope rhyme as she counted the spears she was throwing at the two.

Then Piccolo’s fist smashed into her face as he threw out his arm and extended it across the tower, hitting Agony at long distance. His arm snapped back into its normal length.

"Hit her at long distance, most of her attacks seem to require her to be close!" Piccolo yelled to Goku.

"Oh, you think I can only hit at close range, green man? Well, think AGAIN!" Agony yelled as she reared back her arm and threw it out. Picoclo screams as his clothes suddenly erupted in flames, and he hurridly began to smack his gi to try and put it out.

Snarling, Goku landed and charged at Agony, but Agony pointed at him and suddenly the ground before her erupted as razor sharp spikes speared out of it, spreading along the ground at Goku at insane speed. Goku yelped and tried to get out of the way.

He almost made it, but as he flew, a spike at the very threashold caught him, lancing right through his ankle. He screamed as the bone shattered and he fell to the ground. He gritted his teeth and in a move that hurt almost as much as the penetration, reached over and yanked the spike out, blood staining his hands.

"Son!" Piccolo yelled, the fires on his gi extinguished. He knew injuries, and the way the spike had skewered Goku’s leg meant he was going to be crippled on the ground at the very least. Snarling in fury, he threw out both his arms and extended them towards Agony, who stood there, flying and laughing, god he couldn’t stand it any more he had to stop her god damn laughing…

His hands seized around her throat, and he clenched, trying to crush her windpipe.

Then Agony reached up and grabbed his arms.

Then Piccolo gasped in shock as his arms started to retract. But he wasn’t retracting them, it was AGONY!

Piccolo tried to pull his hands away, but they struck to Agony like glue as his arms pulled him right towards the demon woman, her powers over pain having somehow allowed her to seize control of Piccolo’s arms and reverse his power to extend them, using them to bring him to her.

As his arms reached their normal length again he suddenly found himself right in front of her, right next to her, with him looking into his eyes with those cursed pupils that radiated hell.

"Thanks for the pleasure."

And then Piccolo screamed louder then he had ever screamed as barbed blades of bone suddenly lanced straight from Agony’s body and impaled themselves right through him, her skeleton twisting itself into a lethal weapon. He opened his mouth and blood poured from it as he stared in horror into Agony’s smiling face.

"PICCOLO, NO!" Goku screamed.

And then the blades suddenly lurched away in different directions like knives in a shredder and tore Piccolo to pieces.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Goku screamed as Piccolo’s body came apart in a huge spraying gout of blood. As his torso, which only had his head and the stump of his left arm still attached, began to fall, Agony, even as the bone blades retracted back into her body, reached out and grabbed it.

As she pulled Piccolo’s body up, Goku could see that Piccolo was still alive, his face twisted into an agony of torture.

Agony licked her lips.

"Sorry, green man, but your return trip to Whoville is canceled." Agony chuckled.

And then Piccolo let out one last scream as his body erupted in flames. The flames consumed him, and Agony tossed Piccolo’s burning remains aside like garbage.

"Looks like you’ll have Christmas this year, buddy! Oh wait, no you won’t!" Agony mocked.

Goku didn’t hear her, wouldn’t understand her if he did and wouldn’t care even if he could do both. His mind was afire with rage that Agony had killed, could kill, which such abandon, with such enjoyment, with such madness, and laugh about it!

"AGONY!!!!!!!!!! NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS ENDS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Goku screamed, as golden lighting erupted on him. Gold smoke came from nowhere, swallowing him, as Agony watched in amusement.

The smoke cleared, to reveal Goku in full SSJ3 form, royally and yet brutally beautiful, as he looked apon Agony with blazing eyes of pure hatred and fury. He threw his hands to the side again, gathering more energy then he ever had in his life.

"CHOU KAMEHAMEHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Gohan and co were two miles from Kami’s Tower when they ran into Dende. After a quick exchange of information, they moved on fast as they could.

They had just glimpsed the tower in the distance when suddenly the sky lit up with a brilliant flash and a roar loud enough to swallow the world shook the Z Fighters and Erik. It took them a while to get their bearings after the sensual overload, and when they did they all gaped at the gigantic mushroom cloud of smoke and dust that had extended into the air from Kami’s Tower. The group hurried on, hoping, praying, that Goku or Piccolo had done the blast.

They gaped again when they arrived. Kami’s Tower was gone. All that was left was a gigantic crator that had consumed the whole structure, making it really look like a bowl. The Z Fighters landed, hoping for the best and expecting the worst.

"Toussan!" Gohan said, as he saw the prone body of his father lying, motionless. His heart in his throat, he ran to his side.

"Toussan?"

Slowly, Goku’s eyes fluttered open.

"Where’s Agony?" he mumbled.

"She’s gone dad. You’re the only one here. You did it."

"Oh Gohan…she killed Piccolo…"

"Piccolo-sama TOO?" Gohan cried, his heart filling with new sorrow. He lowered his head and swore he would hate Agony until his dying day, even if she was dead and Piccolo was brought back to life.

"It’s ok. I got her. I avenged them all…" Goku coughed.

"NO! KAKAROTT, I WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL HER!" Vegeta screamed, coming out of nowhere to reach out and grab Goku. He began punching him repeatedly, screaming that Agony was supposed to be his, until Gohan, Goten, and Ubuu pulled him off, having to use all their strength to hold the furious saiya-jin.

"SHE WAS MINE! SHE WAS MINE! SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MINE!" Vegeta screamed, struggling like mad as the three fighters yelled and tried to keep him from killing Goku. Yamcha came over and gave Goku a Senzu, and Goku sighed and got to his feet, glad to be rid of his wounds.

"SHE WAS MINE! KARRAROT, I WAS TO FIGHT HER!" Vegeta screamed again. Goku opened his mouth to issue a reply.

Then six words from Dende silenced them all.

"You may yet get your chance."

All heads turned towards the young Namek, who stood at the edge, looking down at the clouds below them. Vegeta had stopped struggled, and the fighters let him go.

"What?" Goten said.

"I can still smell her…the blood on her hands…the blood she’s spilled…if she was gone…the stench would be too…but it’s still there. She’s alive…and she’s somewhere down there." Dende said, pointing down towards the earth, his voice quaking with shock. After all Goku had done, it still wasn’t enough.

A second later Vegeta flew past Dende and off the edge of Kami Tower, vanishing down into the clouds, not knowing how Dende could possibly smell blood from such a distance, and not caring.

"He’s right. If she were gone…I would know. I know her better then anyone…and she’s not." Erik said, coming over to Goku’s side. Dende hadn’t noticed the newcomer when he’d run into the Z Fighters while fleeing from Agony, but he saw him now.

Then his eyes widened in shock.

"Who is this?" he asked Goku.

"This is Erik…he’s a friend." Goku said, and gave Dende a brief synopsis of who Erik was and what he had told them. Dende didn’t take his eyes off Erik the whole time. Erik found the young Namek’s stare unnerving, and he was not a man who was unnerved easily.

"And that’s it. What’s wrong, Dende? Why are you staring at him?" Goku asked.

When Dende spoke, his voice quivered.

"You know that Namekians can smell blood, Goku. No matter how old it is." Dende said.

"Yeah, Piccolo told me about that once. Why?"

Dende shuddered and pointed to Erik.

"Because if my senses are right…his hands are stained with as much blood as Agony’s."

"Why didn’t you tell us this?" Gohan asked. There was no accusation in his voice, but Erik, leaning on a wall and looking away from the Z Fighters, felt like he was on trial anyway. Indeed, despite the fact that it did not manifest itself in their voices or questions, Erik could see it in their eyes, a thought they might not have believed but still couldn’t shake.

"Because I didn’t think it would matter. I told you my past link with Agony. I figured that what I did while I was looking for her was none of your concern." Erik said.

"You were a vigilante?" Yamcha asked, amazed at the torrid fact Erik had told, about all the years he had also killed people, for the one lone reason he gave: they were all bad.

"Yeah. I still am. I probably will be for all my remaining years."

Then Goku spoke up. He had been silent the whole time, trying to come to grips yet again, this time with his battle with Agony. He remembered how her body had mutated, how her bones had sprung from within her to impale Piccolo and tear him apart. There had been no preparation to do it. She’s done it instantly.

The answer was perhaps the most horrible thing Son Goku had ever realized in his nearly sixty years of life. Agony had been toying with them, only killing Piccolo when she had felt like it.

He remembered how Agony kept refering to Dende and Piccolo like they were the Grinch from Dr. Seuss’s story, and how while throwing those spears of black energy, she had been singing a nursery rhyme.

To him and Piccolo, it had been one of, if not the most, serious battles of their lives.

To Agony, it was a game.

But that was not the worst of all. The worst of all was this.

What would Agony do when it wasn’t a game to her anymore?

"I don’t understand it, Erik." He said as these thoughts were shoved aside. "You talk about Agony’s horrible killings. Yet you have commited just as many as her. In the end it’s still murder…" Goku said.

Erik sighed, took a chair, and sat down.

"Goku, you are truly one of the most special man I have ever met. You possess something that I thought was impossible. You still look through the world with the eyes and innocence of a child, yet you have the heart and mind of an adult. I thought nothing like that could exist...if I knew, I might not have embarked on the path I did."

"Then why did you?" Yamcha said. He had an accusing tone, and after learning that Erik was as much as a serial genocidist as Agony was, he was not happy he had thrown his lot in with them.

Erik looked at Yamcha. But he didn’t look angry.

He looked sad.

"Let me tell you another story, my friends. How I came to be a cyborg…and how I took the name Vengeance."

The one lone person missing from the meeting was Vegeta.

He hadn’t found Agony again. He’d torn up the forest for the surrounding ten miles, and in the end he had even razed it to the ground, but he hadn’t found her. She had slipped away again to God-Knows-Where.

But that wasn’t what had him in the state of numb shock. Instead, it was the phone he still had in his hand. In his mind, the words repeated over and over, the call he had taken as he was on the way to where Kakarott and the others were putting Erik through their own kind of trial.

Vegeta had hung up on the doctor. The phone rang again, and again, but Vegeta didn’t answer it.

A maniac had killed his son and daughter, and she had killed his mate as well. All that was left was a shell, that would crumble day by day until there was nothing left.

Vegeta had sworn in his youth nothing would tie him down, that he would be free forever.

Now he had nothing left to tie him down. Again, he was free.

And it was the most horrible feeling he’d ever had, a complete sense of despair, of lonelyness, of nothing at all. He was empty inside.

The phone rang again. Vegeta put it down and slowly got up, heading for the door. Not the door that lead to the meeting, but the door that would take him outside.

Even if he somehow killed Agony, the emptyness would still be there.

And he would never be able to live the rest of his life with it gnawing on his heart.

It was better this way. With it, at least there would be no more pain.

Slowly, the prince of the saiya-jins, the second greatest warrior in the universe, and once the cockiest, most arrogant, most proud fighter who ever lived, slowly walked towards the place he had chosen to end it all, his grief and despair so strong he had forgotten that Dende was alive and thus so were the Dragon Balls.

"I told you the government made me a cyborg. What happened was that when Agony tossed me over a cliff, and I, by whatever miracle, survived, she had accidentaly thrown me onto a government compound. I know, the coincidence is amazing, but it happened. Soldiers found me and brought me in, and put me under the care of a scientist named Dr. Vagane."

Erik paused, apparently fighting bad memories.

"Vagane was the most sadistic, most twisted person I ever knew. He loved to hurt people, just like Agony. But he was also brilliant, and he was in charge of creating an ultimate weapon for the good old USA, something that could accomplish any task. When he learned of my family’s death, he decided it would be me. He erased any record of the Ravenskys ever existing, and then he went to work on my destroyed body. The parts that were wrecked beyond repair were replaced with the most advanced technology they had. I heard rumours that it was some strange, experimental amalgam of Earth’s finest work and technology they had taken from a downed alien ship locked away in Area 51. Who knows? But it was at least 200 years ahead of anything else any other country had. Slowly, my humanity was stripped from me, as they put on these limbs, wired microminiature supercomputers into my brain, established a whole path of circuitry within me, all the while using all sorts of steriod and chemical treatments to turn my body into a living weapon."

Erik pasued as a tear trickled down his cheek.

"It was horrible…the pain…and to escape, I began to retreat into my mind, my being. Slowly I came to understand myself as well as anyone can. And when I was done…I began looking into the beings of others, the hearts, the minds, the souls, of other people, learning how to see what was in there, what would always be in there…whether they are ultimately good or evil. The Pure…and the Corrupt."

Erik paused again. The Z Fighters listened, spellbound.

"Vagane was the most Corrupt soul there was. He wanted me to be a mindless drone, who would do what he was told without question or hesitation. Since he’d had to start on me when my personality was already beginning to form, he had to try and undo that. But I refused. I’d lost my family and my humanity. All I had left was myself. I would not part with it, no matter what. Vagane tried everything. Mind tricks, chemical treatments, physical torture. He couldn’t break me. He grew more and more frustrated as I took his treatments and began to use them to refine my technique of seeing into other hearts, seeing their true selves, seeing something they could never hide, no matter how many masks or smokescreens they used. And slowly, his delight in hurting me turned into hatred that I wouldn’t break like everyone else who had defied him. So he tried to go around my defenses and break me from the inside."

"The inside?" asked Ubuu.

"He had access to my mind via the machinery he had put in there. So he implanted a chip that would allow him to control my body via remote. Though it, he was planning to break me by controlling me and showing me that I could not resist him. He was so confident of success…of me becoming his soldier which he would use to take over the world. Yes, while Vagane had the higher ups he was working for, I knew he had no intention of giving me for them. He’d spent eight years on me, he’d taken everything my normal growth would have given to me and warped it, twisted it, and when he was done, he planned, in his crazy mind, to use me to rule everyone and make everyone his personal toys, just like I had been."

Yamcha spoke again, but this time there was no accusing tone in his voice.

"What happened?"

"Vagane made a mistake. I was training by fighting a soldier. I disarmed him and rendered him helpless with one arm tied behind my back and my eyes blindfolded. Afterward, Vagane ordered me to kill the man. I refused to. So he used his remote and took control of me, and no matter how hard I fought, I couldn’t resist the force he was using. I took that soldier’s life while he begged for mercy and I screamed for him to stop. And Vagane just responded to my pleas with laughter."

Another pause.

"Vagane’s laughter was just like Agony’s, full of joy and fulfillment in his destruction. And I snapped."

The Z Fighters listened.

"I got so angry I literally saw red. My rage was so great I completely overloaded the chip Vagane had implanted at me, frying it. Suddenly I was free and in control of myself again, and I was going to make sure Vagane lived to regret his actions. So I single handedly tore down the entire facility. Every skill, every weapon that Vagane put in me, I used it on his facility and his dream and sent it crashing into hell where it belonged. But while I was doing it, I saw something. Soldiers came to stop me, and I killed them. But so many of them were Pure. I didn’t want to kill them, I didn’t want to destroy them, because when it came down to it they had good hearts. But Vagane was screaming on the PA system for them to kill me, and I had to put my own survival before theirs. I did it, but I mourn that I had to. I always will."

Another pause.

"After that was done…I found the place where Vagane has buried my family in shallow graves. I dug them up and buried them properly. And then I made a vow to them, one I will always keep."

Erik stood up, and looked out a window, in which he could see the city the Capsole Corperation bordered on.

"There are bad people in this world, Goku. There always will be. In this world…maybe there are less. Maybe that’s why you can’t understand me and my motivation. But in my world…there were bad people…a lot of bad people. Far too many. They came from all walks and all paths, from all socities and cultures, from all skin colours and sexes, from all ages. They walk the earth planning to do bad things. And they do. They murder. They rape. They steal. They backstab. They undermine. They hate. But most of all, they hurt. They hurt the good people who don’t hold such evil desires. They do it directly like Agony, or they do it indirectly like Vagane when he sent those Pure soldiers after me knowing they wouldn’t stand a chance. They don’t care if, or who, or why they hurt, as long as they saitisfy whatever greedy desires lurk within their hearts. Whether it’s taking over a company and letting go half the employees to save money, or tracking down your wife to kill her because she left you and you feel she had no right to do so, or whether you beat up a kid and took what belongs to him just because you could. They are the Corrupt, Goku. They are the rotten apples, the bad seeds, the ones who will drag humanity into oblivion and damnation without even realizing it."

Erik turned to look at Goku.

"And the greatest injustice of all, Goku, is that in the end there is so little the Pure can do. Oh, the law system tries. They try to protect witnesses from those who wish to kill them so that evil people can go free to do more wicked deeds. They try to lock away dangerous people so they can’t hurt. They try so hard, and my heart goes out to them. But they can’t win. Their techniques are too weak, too soft. You don’t hit brick walls with a pillow, you use a jackhammer."

Erik began taking slow steps towards Goku.

"The Corrupt killed my family. They took my humanity. They tried to take everything from me. And in the end, there was nothing I could do for myself. It had happened and no one had stood up to help me because they couldn’t. They didn’t have the power. They didn’t have the skill. They didn’t have the leverage. They didn’t have the guts. THEY TRIED TO DESTROY ME, AND THERE WAS NOTHING ANYONE COULD DO!"

Erik slicked back his hair, his voice rising with each sentence.

"I swore that as long as I lived, I would not let this happen. I would not let the Corrupt take the Pure and ruin them. And there is ultimately only one way to stop them. Kill them. A dead murderer can never murder again, a dead rapist can never rape again, a dead Corrupt person can’t hurt anyone. I dedicated my life to make sure that I would find these people and take them down, and offer my hand to those who had been downtrodden and hurt like me. That’s why I became a vigilante Goku. That’s why I have the blood of thousands on my hands. There is a war going on Goku, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, and the good people are losing. They have no champion, no defense against the overwhelming force of those who seek to only do evil with their lives. I swore on my family’s graves that I would be that force. I failed my family. I couldn’t help them! But everyone I could help, I would try, in the hopes of maybe buying some hope for humanity. Maybe it’s futile. Maybe my world is doomed no matter what I do, but I will die before I ever give up."

From Erik’s metal fingers, razor sharp blades suddenly sprang, and he held them over his face as he lowered his head.

"That is why I kill people, Goku. They are bad. I know they are bad. I can see it in them, see that they will never change. And I hear the way the Pure cry for help, help that they can never have from the others who try to help them. For every success they have, they will have a hundred failures, a hundred victims, a hundred people who can only sit and cry that their justice has been robbed from them."

Erik’s last words were only a whisper.

"I am their justice. I am their champion. I am their…VENGEANCE."

Erik looked up, right into Goku’s eyes.

"I am Erik Damien Ravensky. Look into me Goku. You, who somehow possess the innocence of a child, would know best of all. Look into me, and tell me this: do you see a murderer in these eyes? Do you see an evil person?"

The silence was long, as Goku did as Erik asked, and looking into his heart…saw something he saw in all those he called friend, even Vegeta.

The shining light of those who truly serve good, in whatever way they did.

"No."

"I may have an answer."

Goten looked up from his conversation with Marron, Goku looked up from food he couldn’t taste, and Erik looked up from his studies of Agony’s path.

"What is it, Gohan?"

Gohan had been gone for some time, claiming he had something to see in the lab after he had received a phone call. He returned in a lab coat and some kind of device.

"While doing some research, some of my fellow scientists stumbled apon an interesting discovery. It was deemed useless, but they recorded it anyway. I asked them to make some more, and they’d finally come through. Take a look at this."

"What is it?" Goten asked as they came to Gohan’s side.

"It’s a gas dispenser, a fancy version of a sprayer, basically. But it’s the gas, or more precisely, what it does, that gave me an idea. Erik, would you mind being a test subject? The gas is harmless."

"Ok, but if the gas is harmless, I don’t see how it’s going to help us with Agony." Erik said, as Goku and Goten stood aside.

"It might just. Now, Erik, which hand are you?"

"I’m apidexterous, but I prefer my right hand."

"Do you usually punch with your right hand?"

"Unless the situation requires my left, yes."

"Ok, I want you to think about hitting me, think about it as hard as you can, and then I want you to hit me in the gut. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt, so don’t ask."

Erik shrugged, then a look came over his face like he was focussing, and then he yelled and punched Gohan in the gut. Gohan made a small noise in reaction and pushed his glasses up.

"Good. Now do the same thing, but while you’re thinking it, I’m going to spray you. Inhale the gas, ok?"

"Gotcha." Erik said. Gohan commenced spraying as the focussed look came back on Erik’s face. Once the gas had dispelled, Erik looked focussed for a few more seconds and then yelled and punched Gohan in the gut again.

With his left hand.

"What the fuck?" Erik said in surprise. "How did you do that?"

"That’s the gas’s quirk. If you inhale the gas while thinking of an action, whether consciously or unconsciously, when you try to do it you will do the exact opposite. Erik was thinking of hitting, and since he primarily uses his right hand, he used his left hand. Go ahead Erik. Try as hard as you can to hit me with your right hand."

Erik tried. He couldn’t. Every punch he threw automatically came with his left hand. Gohan tested it on his father and younger brother, and the same thing happened. It even happened for Marron.

"Ok, now Erik, I want you to think about hurting me, like it’s your only reason for living, the lone reason you have life to hurt me. Let it consume your mind."

Erik did so. The look on his face freaked Marron out, it looked so natural.

"Now do it!"

Erik swung his fist at Gohan.

But instead of his arm stretching out into the smooth crisp punch Erik had planned, his arm curved and directed the blow right into Erik’s own stomach.

"OOOOOFFFFFFFFFF!" Erik wheezed. "Ouch!"

"You see. Whatever your mind is focussed on, the gas screws up the signals your brain sends to carry out your desire in a way that makes you do the exact opposite. Now Agony mind’s is always obessed with killing people, right? So if I can get close and spray this on her as she tries to kill me…"

"….She’ll hit herself instead, and since her body can’t heal from wounds she inflicts on herself…she might kill herself! It just might work!" Erik said. He was very impressed. It might just be your time after all, Agony!

"But we don’t know if it will work, or if she’ll wound herself fatally…" Marron began.

Then she found Erik’s finger on her lips, silencing her.

"Marron, I have tried everything I can think of to kill Agony. Nothing has worked. I have real hope that this could work. Don’t jinx it, please."

"Great. Now the only thing we have to figure out is where she’ll turn up next. Even since Kami Tower, there’s been no sign of her. There are several villages she could have gone through, and with her crazy pattern of zig-zags, odds are she would have crossed into one or them. But there’s no sign." Goku said in a rare moment of intelligence.

"Maybe you hurt her so badly that she had to recover Dad." Goten said.

"I doubt it, Goten. I saw her talent first hand, as have you. It’s…miraculous, in a horrible sort of way." Goku replied.

"Well, she will show up soon. Laying low is not her style. We just have to get everyone together and wait, and then go after her, once and for all. So let’s get everyone. Where’s Vegeta?" Erik asked.

"Vegeta? I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since Kami Tower." Gohan replied.

"I’m sure he’s around. I’ll go look for him. I need to speak to him anyway." Erik said, walking out the door.

As Erik searched the rooms in the Capsole Corp building, a celluar phone lying on a table began to ring. Erik hesitated, then picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Vegeta Briefs?" a male voice came.

"Uh, no…"

"Well this is his phone. Where is Vegeta Briefs?"

"I don’t know. I found the phone sitting on a table."

"Hmmmm. Are you a friend?"

"Uhhhhhhhh…you might say that."

"I see. Good. He’s going to need every friend he has."

"Why so, mister?"

"Didn’t he tell you?" the doctor said, and gave Erik the same information he had given Vegeta. Being on the phone, he didn’t see Erik’s face fill with shock as he told him Bulma’s condition.

"She’ll never wake up?" Erik said.

"Well, she could, but the odds are very unlikely the way her mind has been damaged. Winning the lottery would be more likely."

"I see. Thank you. I’ll speak with Vegeta." Erik said, hanging up the phone. The pieces came together rather quickly. Vegeta’s refusal to shed a tear for his dead children for whatever reason he had, the fact that Agony might be unkillable, and this news…what could it added up to in Vegeta’s head?

There was only one real answer, the same answer that would come to Erik if he had been in the exact same situation.

"Oh my god."

Silently, Vegeta looked down on the crashing waves that churned on the cliffs below. He’d been standing there for nearly two hours, getting his mind in order, and then reciting to himself the ceremony that was custom for dead saiya-jin royalty. It was ironic, Vegeta always thought he would be reciting this solemn ceremony to other people, never to himself.

Slowly, he finished and took a deep breath as he stepped to the very edge of the cliff. He threw out his hand and slowly a red ki blade formed on it. It would be quick, probably far better then the fate Agony would inflict on him, and it would end his overwhelming pain.

"Goodbye, woman. I love you. I may not have redeemed myself enough to get into heaven and see our children again…but I can only hope so." Vegeta said. Slowly, he raised the blade, aiming it right for his heart.

He thrust down.

And then a hand seized his wrist, stopping the blade inches from its goal. Vegeta’s eyes snapped open in shock.

"Don’t do it, Vegeta! It’s not worth it!" Erik said, straining to hold Vegeta’s arm. Every single motor in his cyborg limb was screaming to try and counter Vegeta’s saiya-jin strength.

Vegeta looked at the man from another world, realizing he was getting in the way of getting rid of his pain.

A second later Erik slammed into a tree twenty feet away. He willed himself to go limp, but Vegeta had thrown him so hard it still hurt like hell.

"Who do you think you are, baka? I’m trying to die in peace here!" Vegeta said, marching over and picking Erik up with one hand, holding the dark warrior off the ground.

"Vegeta, it’s not worth it. This is not the answer!"

"What is the answer then, you stupid baka? Everything I cared about is gone! My children are dead! My mate…my wife…is gone, shattered, dying slowly in a way that no one deserves! And this world is threatened by something that even I can’t stop! It’s better this way…no more pain…"

Vegeta was more shocked then by anything else, as Erik reached out and belted Vegeta across the face.

"LISTEN TO YOURSELF! You’re giving up! You, the Prince of the saiya-jins, the Saiya-jin Elite, is giving in to despair! What happened to the real Vegeta, the one who lazily crossed his arms and arrogantly smirked with one side of his mouth? The one who thought, no, who knew, he was better then everyone else, stronger, tougher, more powerful? You’re not Vegeta! You’re just a coward!"

Vegeta turned eyes that were suddenly bright green onto Erik.

"What did you call me?" he said, his voice trembling with rage.

"You heard me! A coward! You’ve given in to your own pain and despair. After all you’ve been through, you’re surrendering to mere emotions! I know emotions are powerful, but they are also controllable, as long as you think they are! You’ve given in to them. You’re thinking that Bulma will never come back to you. Well Vegeta, the chances aren’t good, I will say that, but as long as there is a chance, you don’t give up! You have!"

Erik didn’t get to go on as Vegeta suddenly screamed and hurled Erik across the grass. Erik bounced and flipped to his feet, then his eyes widened and he dodged out of the way as Vegeta hurled a ki blast at him.

"Look at yourself! See that it’s true! You’re just a shell of your former self, Vegeta! Are you going to continue refusing to realize it? What are you gonna do so you can keep running away from that realization? Are you going to fry me? Are you going to fry everyone else who says the same thing, until you finally have the time to take your own life? Well, go ahead! But let me say just one thing, Vegeta! If you go back to that cliff, if you take that dagger and stab yourself, you will only succeed in doing one thing: proving you’re the biggest blowhard, the biggest weakling, and the biggest nothing in the world! Or you can come back to Capsole Corp, you can hear of our plan to kill Agony, and you can avenge all you have lost! You can prove your claims of being an elite, of being the best. What ever happened to your saiya-jin pride, Vegeta? Don’t let despair destroy it, let it destroy the despair!"

As Erik stood, panting, Vegeta kept steady eyes on him, one arm out, the ki blade still glowing.

Then Vegeta lowered his arm as the ki blade vanished, as he turned around to look at the cliffside, where moments ago, he planned to take his own life. Slowly, Erik walked towards him, trying to reach out with a comforting hand, but Vegeta slapped it away.

"Don’t touch me." He snapped, but the rage was beginning to be replaced with sorrow, a sorrow so deep and consuming Erik’s heart went out to the saiya-jin.

"I understand how you feel, Vegeta, far too well. I lost my family to Agony as well. I lost my humanity and nearly lost myself to something that was as evil as her. I haven’t had a single moment of happiness or peace for twenty years."

Vegeta looked at Erik.

"Twenty years?"

Slowly, Erik re-told the story of his life.

"I was nine when Agony destroyed me. I was seventeen when I escaped Vagane and became Vengeance. I was twenty-four when the Change occurred. I’m twenty-nine now. Twenty years might not seem like a long time to you Vegeta, since your lifespan is over twice that of a normal human, but to me, it’s been an eternity. Twenty years of pain, of torture, and then of an orgy of bloodletting, of battle, of faces that all blur into one another. There have been many times when I have stood at my own cliffsides, pondering if the void is better. But I always step away, because I always have hope. Hope is frail, it’s so very frail, so very fragile, but while its bridge beneath you may seem no stronger then the gossomer of a spider’s web, as long as you believe in it, it will still be there underneath you when all your other bridges have collasped. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, Vegeta. Always. If there wasn’t…then there would be no point in living. But it’s there, and you have to stand on it. Build a bridge, Vegeta. Believe it will hold you, and look for that light."

Vegeta looked at Erik, then walked on to the cliff face. Erik’s heart leapt in fear, but then he realized Vegeta was just pondering. He decided it was best if he told him now.

"Vegeta?"

"What is it now, you baka?" Vegeta said.

"I’ve seen how much pain you’ve gone through, all the loss, all the agony within you. It radiates off of you like light off mirrors. Yet I haven’t seen you shed a single tear. Tell me Vegeta, why are you refusing to cry?"

"Crying is for the weak!" Vegeta snapped, turning away.

"I figured it would be something like that. Vegeta, you’re wrong."

Vegeta turned, his eyes alight with stunned amazement yet again. This human who came from another world either really had guts, was really stupid, or was as insane as Agony.

"Men think crying is a sign of weakness. They’re wrong. Emotions are not something to be ashamed of. If you lock your grief, your sorrow away like you have Vegeta, instead trying to reply on anger and rage to get you through, the sadness will just devour you from the inside. Vegeta, don’t let that happen."

"I don’t think the world would be that comforted if they saw their greatest warrior break down and weep like a baby that’s pissed itself." Vegeta retorted.

"Maybe. But there are a few that would see it for what it is, Vegeta. A sign of true strength, of true bravery, of truly being a man."

Vegeta cocked his head and looked in confusion at Erik.

"Vegeta, I’ve cried. I’ve cried many times over the years. No one has ever looked apon me as being weak for doing it. Let it out, Vegeta. Stop repressing it and let it out. Crying is not the sign of the weak. It is the sign of the truly strong. If you really wish to call yourself a warrior, then you will shed tears. It’s what makes me, and in a sense, you, human."

Erik waited for Vegeta to retort that he wasn’t a weak human, he was an elite saiya-jin. But Vegeta said nothing. Instead, he and Erik stared at each other for a long time, never looking away from each other’s gaze.

Finally, Vegeta turned away.

"I have to think." He said, and before Erik could do anything else he rose and flew off, vanishing over the horizon. Erik sighed. He’d done all he could to help.

"Vegeta…good luck."

"This is driving me NUTS!" Goten cursed. All the fighters were gathered around the same computer bank that Erik had been at what seemed to be an eternity ago as he learned about the Z Fighters and their world. Gohan had scanned the map of Agony’s path into the computer and now they were all looking at it, trying to figure out where Agony could go next so they could head there. There, they would make a stand, maybe their last.

But even with the image up on the screen and the computer working on it, it could find no pattern. Agony had simply started walking down the map in a crazy zig-zag, and then, after walking that way for several hundred miles, had turned around and started walking back up at a different angle. The computer had tried to find a shape that was formed from all the blinking dots that indicated where Agony had struck, but it couldn’t find anything. The search for any other pattern turned up negative. Gohan had even brought his wife and daughter in to see if they could see anything, but they couldn’t help either.

Erik stood off in the corner. He’d been there ever since he entered, glancing at the computer screen every now and then, deep in thought. He wouldn’t tell them what he’d done, but in his heart, Goku could somehow sense it was something…with good intentions. At least.

"God damn it, I don’t see any pattern here at all! It’s just totally random! I have no idea where she could turn up!" Yamcha cursed. Dende floated up, but looking at the zig-zag pattern face to face didn’t make it make any more sense.

"Maybe we’re looking at this wrong. Maybe it’s not a shape." Dende called down to his friends. Goku floated up to his side. Ubuu quickly joined them.

"Well, Agony comes from another world, right? Maybe this forms some kind of letter in some alien alphabet or something…" Dende began.

Erik’s head suddenly snapped up as he heard Dende speak. He quickly hurried over to Gohan as he sat entering new commands and possible new patterns for the computer to try and identify as Dende spoke to Goku and Ubuu in a discussion of what the pattern could be.

"Gohan, scan up higher."

"What?" Gohan said, looking at Erik.

"This map is a close up of her path. Scan it higher as if you were looking down on the land and flew higher. Dende mentioning the alphabet has give me an idea."

Gohan understood and did so. A new image appeared as lines reformed themselves to compensate for the higher image, becoming less twisted.

"Higher."

This lines straightened out more.

"Higher."

And more.

"Higher."

And then it appeared.

"My god…"

The map was now so high up that the exact details of the paths from each one of Agony’s paths, which formed the crazy zig-zag pattern, were gone. Instead, the line now just stretched from one point to another, forming a nearly completed letter.

A V.

"Oh god…she’s walking in a V pattern. She knew that we would probably look at her path from up close and thus wouldn’t notice…" Gohan said.

"But why a V?" Goku asked, confused.

"V for Vengeance. She’s doing it to mock me, to rub it in my face if I came here after her, if I figured her pattern out out while trying to find her It’s her way of saying that I will be hers, eventually." Erik snarled, his hand claws popping out instinctively.

"And according to the computer, it’s a perfect V. It’s like someone drew a V very carefully on a piece of paper. How could she possibly know geography well enough that she could take such a twisted path and yet still be able to walk in a way that would form a V at such heights…"

"WHO CARES?" Erik thundered. He looked at the pattern, eyes locked on the thing that made him uneasy. While Agony was walking in a V, it wasn’t completed. Her last location, Kami Tower, only formed the second line of the letter about 2/3 of the way.

"Gohan, you say that is a perfect V?"

"Yes, it’s shaped perfectly, the lines are…"

"Ok, so assuming that Agony wants to complete that perfect V…where will she end up when gets to the very end of the drawing of the letter, and it’s still a perfect V. The letter begins where Bra died. Where does it end?"

Gohan, with the push of a few buttons, pinpointed the exact location and scanned in.

SATAN CITY.

"Oh…my…god…"

"Satan City? You gave a city to a bunch of devil worshippers?" Erik said in amazement.

"No, it was named after Mr. Satan after he took the credit for defeating Cell. It’s one of the largest cities in Japan, and Agony’s heading right for it!" Gohan yelled.

Erik’s heart turned to ice as he realized what Agony could do in a city of such size.

"Scramble! We’ve got to get there, ASAP! Go go go go GO! Gohan, get the gas! Videl, take Pan and get someplace safe! Dende, come with us but keep your distance!" Erik suddenly went into a flurry of commands. Although they were a tad miffed, the Z Fighters listened to him. He did know Agony the best.

"Where’s Vegeta?" Goku asked Erik as the fighters began to scramble to head to Satan City.

"I don’t know and we don’t have time to look for him! Let’s get going, we don’t know how much time we have left, if we have any at all! And someone get on the phone to anyone who will listen to you in Satan City! We have to warn those poor people, AGONY IS COMING!"