Chapter 7: Gossamer Threads

Mike Steele

Dead…

Gohan.

Slowly, Goku crawled over to the prone body of his oldest son. Mercifully, Gohan had landed on his back so the terrible wound Agony had inflicted on him was concealed.

Goku was perhaps lucky in a horrible way. The fact that Agony had tore out Gohan’s spine had caused his muscles to go completely limp before rigor mortis set in, thus keeping Gohan’s face from being locked in an eternal scream. But Goku didn’t get off completely. Gohan’s eyes were still open, and even though they were glazed with death, they were still full of horror and a plea for his father to help him. It had been a plea Goku couldn’t answer because his own mind and body couldn’t accept that even after everything they had done, Agony was alive, kicking, and more vicious then ever.

As Goku cradled Gohan’s head in his lap, he remembered all the times they had had together. He remembered holding him when he was born, marveling that he had created this life and that he was now responsible for it. He remembered having to get Gohan out of various messes he had somehow gotten himself into when he was a child. He remembered his feeling of pride after seeing how well he fought against Vegeta and Freiza. He remembered the years of training with him preparing for the andriods and later for Cell. He remembered how his son had grown up and had accomplished both his parents’s dreams. For Chi-Chi, he had become a great scholar and scientist, and for him…even though he had slowed it down, he never lost his love of fighting. No one with a saiya-jin’s blood ever did.

"Gohan…" Goku sobbed, and then the crying overtook him. And as all the sorrow and grief that Goku had felt as Agony caused tragedy after tragedy finally overwhelmed him, tears began to fall on Gohan’s blood-stained gi.

He hadn’t seen anything yet.

The waves of power that were coming off Agony and Vegeta’s battle were so strong that even he couldn’t stand before them. Every time he felt that invisible push, he was knocked back, along with everyone else, a few feet.

And it was quite clear that Agony seemed to be overmatched. She’d finally gone and shoved Vegeta to a place where no one had ever dared to put him. Vegeta utterly mad with rage was bad enough, but Agony had kept pushing even then, and she’d shoved Vegeta out of that circle and into a whole new one.

Rage can be a great factor in revenge, but it is a hard to control emotion, and also an irrational one. In war, an ultra powerful weapon may lose some of its usefulness if it’s hard to aim and doesn’t always hit.

But Vegeta had gone beyond rage. He had gone straight into the realm of true murderous hatred, which can always be characterized by one thing: a strange and utter calm, behind which lurked a violence that, once unleashed, would have to be seen to be believed.

When Agony had first tried to impale the now SSJ4 Vegeta, he had just floated there. Then he had grabbed the blade in mid-move, reached down and grabbed Agony’s leg, and had literally, while her bones broke and her muscles tore and shredded, tied Agony into a knot.

And Goten knew he was going to see something special.

Agony, although the new way of hurting her had been fun (to her anyway), was not pleased that Vegeta was still alive and had just made a fool of her. Charging up, she held up her hands.

Flesh became metal as her hands formed into a pair of razor sharp circular buzzsaws, which turned on via an unknown yet horrifying power.

"Feel the buzz!" Agony chortled, leaping at Vegeta, who still floated in the air calmly as Agony lunged at him with the deadly appendages.

As they were about to enter his chest, Vegeta calmly reached down and grabbed the blade-arms below the saws. His face twisted in pure abhorrence.

"YOU FIRST!"

And then even Goten felt a little sick as Vegeta shoved Agony’s own buzzsaws into her face. The weapons sawed in, spraying sliced flesh, blood, and bone chips. Agony reeled backwards, then yanked the saws from her face, as they reformed into hands as her face healed.

"Ok, you wanna play rough?"

Agony reached down and then pointed to a mountain in the distance, and suddenly the gigantic chunk of rock was ripped from the ground and hurled straight at Vegeta as Agony blurred away, smiling. The sheer speed utterly horrified Goten. The force it would have taken to move something so big so fast, and even worse that it had been done mentally.

Vegeta didn’t move. The gigantic rock slammed into him and then cracked in half on impact. It didn’t even mess up his hair.

Then Vegeta pointed at the two chunks of rock, and they stopped in mid-fall and vanished.

And re-appeared, one on either side of Agony, who was floating a short distance away.

Vegeta snapped his fingers as Agony realized what he was trying to do.

She only had time to scream as the two huge rock pieces slammed back together with her in between them.

SPLAT!

Vegeta wasn’t saitisfied. He brought the rock chunks apart again and then slammed them together again. And again, and again, and again, re-squashing Agony’s body as the flattened mess tried to get away to heal.

Finally he kept the rocks together and blasted it, and Goten threw up his arms as he was pelted with shrapnal.

The smoke billowed and cleared to reveal Agony in the last stages of healing.

She was still smiling.

"Ok, fine! You really want to be humilated? I’ll fight you on your own-ARGH!" Agony screamed as Vegeta darted forward and punched Agony in the face. She went through one of the few remaining buildings and then Vegeta was on her, pummeling her mercilessly with millions of blows done in seconds. The damage added up fast, but it was healed just as fast.

But Agony did not seem to be having fun.

Goten understood. You could do anything to Agony while she thought the fight was a game. Her mind was just too twisted in that state to let anything offend her. But when it turned serious, as it was now, and she was shown up, it appears she had a pride that could be wounded just like any normal fighter. It was a rare flaw in a woman that seemed to have an uncrackable shell of evil and madness.

But it was also a flaw you didn’t want to harp on, because the consequences could be lethal.

Agony threw up her hand and suddenly the air was full of Kienziens.

Goten’s eyes widened.

"That’s Poppa’s attack!" he heard Marron say, but he could only stare, agog, as Agony hurled them all at Vegeta in a blazing nightmare puzzle pattern. Goten saw her plot: throw so many of the sharp dics in crazy ways that Vegeta might fly right into one while trying to avoid them.

Or fly into Agony while trying to avoid them.

And his amazement only furthered as Vegeta dodged every single one before flying into Agony and smashing her with a kick. Agony carved a line across the burnt, cratorous landscape that Satan City now was.

Agony was up and healed in a second, but Vegeta was immediately in her face again, pummeling her.

Agony looked furious, but then her fury turned into a grin, and she pointed at Vegeta.

"What?" Vegeta said.

And then he suddenly felt a horrible burning in his gut. The pain was so bad he doubled over, clutching his midriff as he gasped in pain. Agony flew forward as her hands turned into blades again.

"It’s too bad I won’t be able to blow your guts out from within, but…" Agony said as she drew back her hands to cut Vegeta’s head off, his immense pain keeping him from defending himself.

Then Vegeta looked up, a wicked smirk on his face. The pain had been great at first, but his new powers had allowed him to disspell Agony’s distracting trick without too much effort. The look on her face that she had fallen for a ruse like Goten’s, AGAIN, was priceless, but it wasn’t there for long because her face was promptly smashed to pulp, along with the rest of her body.

Grabbing the mess Agony’s body was, Vegeta suddenly zapped forward at speed beyond imagining, as he felt Agony’s body writhe in his hands, a twisting shifting mass that gave off a horrible heat as it tried to heal. Vegeta did a quick U-Turn and zapped close to the ground, dragging Agony with him and hoping she would be too concentrated on healing to try and turn her body into something that could be quite painful if it got ahold of Vegeta.

"You know, if we hit the ground going at this speed, you could grind off over 100 pounds of flesh. By the way, I think you could lose some weight!"

And then Vegeta let Agony go and zapped up and away as she hit the ground and burned across it. Blood sprayed in a long straight path as the ground turned her into hamburger.

Vegeta flew up, thrust out his hands, and completed the assult with a blistering barrange of ki blasts that make the Renzokoken Shine Shine Missile look like nothing. As explosions ravaged the landscape, Goten leapt backwards, picking up Marron at the same time, as the blasts came within feet of the group. The wind buffeted him as he landed about a mile away.

"You think he got her?" Yamcha asked, looking at the massive cloud of smoke and dust as it blew away.

On the ground, a piece of blackened material stirred, and then suddenly flew into the air. More pieces followed it, until they had all joined together in the air, forming a bizzare skeleton in which over 2/3 of the parts were missing. Due to the smoke, Vegeta couldn’t see this clearly as he floated above it, waiting.

But he saw the figure break from the clouds as black energy flowed over it.

As Agony floated up into the air, the last of her wounds healing up, she knew this was far too close for her liking. She and Vegeta were too equally matched in power, although where he had found the power within him to match hers she didn’t know. But she needed more.

And she knew just where to get it.

Vegeta watched as Agony threw up her hands and his eyes widened slightly as a massive ball of black energy formed above her.

"Hey Vegeta! Hope you don’t mind if I do some redecorating!"

And then she thrust her hand forward, and the ball, acting as some kind of focusser, expanded and let loose with a massive black energy bolt. Vegeta raised his arms to block.

But the bolt flew right by him.

Vegeta’s eyes widened in alarm. She hadn’t been aiming at him! He spun as the blast flew off into the distance.

In the city of Tokyo, only a few people got a look at the terrible light heading towards them before they were all suddenly on fire from within. But the attack seemingly swallowed all their screams.

And then there was an explosion that shook the world, and Vegeta was hurled backwards as the landscape beyond Satan City exploded. So were Goten and his friends, sending tossing through the winds like rag dolls. Goten grabbed Marron and used his body as a shield to keep her from getting hit with shrapnal. The landing was painful, but they all lived.

Vegeta had managed to keep himself in the air. He looked at the place where Agony had fired and his mouth dropped.

All of Japan that had been north of Satan City was no longer there. All there was was a massive crator that the sea was already rushing to fill in. Everyone who had lived there, man, woman, child, native, visitor, everyone, was dead.

And all their souls, millions apon millions of them, now belonged to Agony.

Vegeta turned and looked at her. Her face was in utter exctasy as she claimed them all. All their pain and agony would fuel her well, and give her the much-needed boost she had needed.

His teeth ground as fury once again exploded in Vegeta’s heart. Those people hadn’t been involved in the battle at all, and she had killed them anyway for the hell of it!

The concept that she might have done it to make herself even stronger was lost on him as he flew at her, punching at her face.

She blurred away at the last second. Vegeta gaped. How…?

Then a foot slammed into the back of his head. Dazed, Vegeta was knocked forward. He spun around, trying to get his bearings.

A fist smashed into his face, and he felt his nose twist painfully as Agony began slapping him repeatly

"Why, why, does this Vegeta guy, think he can actually win I really would like to know why…" Agony crooned in a rip-off of "American Pie". The slaps didn’t hurt much and that allowed Vegeta to get his bearings. He ducked under her last blow, and as she spun around from the momentum, he cocked back his fist and when she had turned around again, pistoned it with every ounce of strength he had right between her eyes.

It was like hitting a brick wall.

Vegeta gasped as the shockwave of pain ran all the way up to his shoulder as Agony smiled.

"You see, Midget Troll Man, as I have said, you can have all the rage in the world, and you can have even more. But rage simply won’t work. You just don’t seem to get that rage invaribly is always about causing pain to something, whether in survival or any other way. And I am pain. And I am also death, as it is about time you found out!"

Vegeta realized what Agony was going to do and he tried to fly away.

He almost made it.

The barbed blade slammed through his shoulder, and he screamed as blood poured from the wound and began to soak his now-furred chest and right arm. He tried to pull himself off the blade, but that only resulted in more pain as the razor-sharp thorn extensions ripped up his shoulder as he tried to pull the blade off.

Slowly, he felt himself being drawn forward, as Agony once again utalized the power she had stolen from Piccolo to bring the blade she had turned her arm into to bring Vegeta to her.

Vegeta’s mind began to fade as darkness began to creep onto the edges of his vision, and he realized it was Agony again, trying to dull him down enough to deliver a fatal blow. He fought it, but after absorbing the souls of most of the population of Japan, Agony was simply too strong.

"This time, it definitely ends, Vegeta. You fought hard, but it was futile. And you dare call yourself the strongest being in the universe. A tad arrogant, perhaps?" Agony chuckled. Vegeta looked into her burning eyes, and then he gathered what little strength he had left and spat in her face.

Agony just smirked.

"Is that all you can do, Vegeta? Hurl saliva at me? Maybe you should beg for mercy, I might let you try and have a more noble death."

"I will burn in your hell, any hell, for all eternity and beyond, before I ever beg you for mercy!" Vegeta rasped.

Agony just smirked again, her twisted lobsided grin, and suddenly Vegeta could hear screaming in his ears as she brought her other hand up. He knew he was hearing the hell that existed within Agony.

Agony wasn’t going to give Vegeta the luxary of knives. She was going to dig his heart out of his chest with her bare hand.

"Hear that, Vegeta? That’s your family, and soon, you’ll all be together again."

Agony reached forward, and Vegeta felt her fingers press onto his chest and braced himself. No matter what happened, he wouldn’t scream.

Then he suddenly did scream as Agony’s blade arm was yanked right out of his shoulder, and violently. The pain was so great that his vision doubled and tripled in front of him. His concentration shattered like glass, and he fell earthward yet again.

In the corner is his rapidly fading vision, he could see Goten, or at least his back. He’d hit Agony so hard the blade had been pulled out, but it wouldn’t help them. If he couldn’t defeat Agony at the level of SSJ4…then no one could.

His shoulder pouring blood, the wound not mortal but feeling like it, Vegeta again fell to earth, not knowing whether to thank Goten for saving him or curse him for not letting him die then.

As Agony’s jaw, knocked off by Goten’s furious kick, replaced itself, she turned baleful eyes on the young hybrid, who floated before her, her ablaze in the gold colour of SSJ.

"Damn it. First your brother, now you! You must really like that midget troll man if you decided you want to die before him, just like your brother!" Agony said, annoyance in her voice. It was a small victory, but Goten needed a much bigger one.

"Gohan died trying to kill you, which may be the noblest way to die, no matter the circumstances. I don’t know how, but I will find a way to kill you. For my brother, my father, and for the future of the woman I love!"

Goten flew at Agony, fists cocked.

Agony floated there lazily.

Then Ubuu slammed into her back as hard as he could, and Agony was pitched forward with a gasp into Goten’s vengeful fists. Yamcha came from the side and the three began to pummel her.

It only lasted a few seconds before Agony lashed back, hurling a myraid of black energy bolts. Goten and Ubuu dodged away. Yamcha wasn’t so lucky. He yelled as one of the bolts grazed his shoulder. He threw out his uninjured arm and fired several ki blasts that struck Agony and sent her flying. Ubuu zapped behind her, smashed her with an axehandle, and blasted her with his own barrage of blasts. Her body was buffeted back to Goten, who nailed a vicious axe kick that sent Agony flying backwards again.

"Kamehameha!" Yamcha yelled, throwing the blue bolt with his good arm.

"KAMEHAMEHA!" Ubuu yelled, throwing his own.

"KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!" Goten screamed, and threw the largest of the three blasts.

The windstorm kicked up by the massive explosion sent all three flying backwards. They righted themselves and threw out their hands, blasting the site where Agony had been, not even waiting for the smoke to clear. The smoke cloud expanded instead, until it had completely engulfed the three and they had to stop as it seared their lungs.

In the air, the three fighters waited.

On the ground, Dende and Marron watched, eyes wide, hoping for a miracle.

Then a low chuckling floated to the ears, and their hopes shattered even as their hearts filled with ice.

The smoke cleared as Agony finished up her healing, chuckling and looking at the three with amused eyes.

She’s invincible. There’s no way to stop her. No matter what we do, we can’t destroy her. Her body just won’t die…because she is death itself. Goten thought in a moment of despair.

Then he thought of Marron, crying herself to sleep in his arms over her parent’s murder, and Gohan, struck down from behind with a coward’s blow.

The despair was struck down. Nothing was invincible, and Agony would die. For all the crimes she had commited.

"ARGH!" Goten screamed, and zapped forward with Yamcha and Ubuu to renew an attack they all knew was ultimately futile.

"How are they going to stop her? They’ve hit her with everything and she just keeps regenerating as if nothing has happened! She’s unstoppable!" Marron said, her eyes wide. Dende stood beside her, his eyes calm. He had finally come to accept that the earth seemed to be doomed, and there was no point in panicking over it.

"Perhaps we won’t be the ones to defeat Agony. Perhaps greater powers will be needed, powers even we can’t conceive of. Some things are just not meant to be…maybe this is one of them." Dende said in a moment of cynical philosophy. Agony was just toying with the three remaining fighters. It was clear in her body language and in her voice tone. Vegeta had been wounded again, perhaps killed, perhaps still dying. Goku had vanished after his son had been killed, and the way he had fallen off the building suggested that he would no longer have the state of mind needed to fight or do anything. Agony’s bloodshed, slaughter, and sheer joy in it may have finally overwhelmed Goku’s mind. To defeat an enemy, you must ultimately know them, and Dende didn’t think anyone could know Agony without going mad first.

Because that was what she was. A seemingly invincible, unstoppable, consuming madness.

"Dende?" Marron whispered, and the young Namek who had lost seemingly everything in the space of a few hours turned to the young woman. She would have made a beautiful bride, he couldn’t help thinking, but there would no marriage. Only a funeral.

And then eternal torture.

"If Goten falls…I want you to kill me too. By your hand will be far quicker and more merciful…then anything she would do."

Dende stared for a moment. Then he nodded.

If Goten fell, Dende would grant her a merciful death.

And then he would do the same for himself.

Videl’s horror had been tremendous when news broke of the destruction of Satan City. Then the news of the seeming destruction of nearly all of Japan had caused it to grow more, and she had made the decision that she had been toying with. She had called Pan to her, and together they had flown off, heading towards Satan City, or what was left of it. Some might have called them fools or suicidal, but Videl would much rather be with her husband then at her house, watching as society fell apart around them.

Plus, there might be something they could do to help.

Videl looked over to her little daughter. When she had entered and won the Tenkaichi Budokai at the age of four, Videl knew her little daughter would be a great warrior. But she was only eleven years old, and while incredibly strong, she was nowhere near the levels of many of her relatives, and if they hadn’t been able to put a dent in Agony…

Videl’s mothering instincts warred within her. She didn’t want her little daughter to fight and get hurt or killed…

But she knew that if Agony won, death would eventually come to all of them anyway.

In the end, it was better to face it face to face, rather then have it stab you in the back as you tried a hopeless attempt to flee.

Beneath them, panic reigned, as people tried to get away from the fate that had been inflicted apon their fellows. Some screamed the end was near. Others screamed that Cell was back. Some were screaming were Videl’s father to save them. Despite the gravity of the situation, Videl smirked. She loved her father, but there would be nothing he could do here, not even with his friend Buu. Plus she had no idea where they had gone on their vacation and she didn’t have time to track them down.

"Mother, are you sure you’re ok with this?" Pan said as she looked over to her mother. It was usually her father that encouraged fighting, not her mother, and thus when Videl had told them they were heading to join her father in battle, Pan had been taken aback. The fact that her mother looked so zoned out didn’t make her feel any better.

Videl silently nodded.

Then her jaw dropped, and Pan turned to see what was left of Satan City.

"Oh my…"

The city named after her grandfather was gone, with the exception of a few buildings that somehow were still standing, but looked to be on their last legs. All the rest was blackened, destroyed ground, in which great pillars of rock extended from the constant powerful shockwaves that ripped into the ground and shook it like an earthquake.

"Pan, fly low!" Videl said, pointing at the sky, and in the distance Pan could see several figures attacking a lone figure that was female.

Agony. The one who had killed Bra, and everyone else.

Agony was concentrating on the three fighters attacking her, and thus didn’t notice the woman and girl fly down into the ruins of the city. Videl quickly located Dende. It wasn’t too hard, he was standing out in the open.

"Videl!" he said in amazement. Marron turned her eyes away from the battle and looked in her own amazement as Videl and Pan landed next to Dende.

"Videl! Pan! What the hell are you doing here? It’s dangerous! It’s beyond dangerous!" Marron said. Videl looked at the young woman, who looked like she had walked through hell and then turned around and walked through it again.

"I figured that in the choice of waiting until Agony decided to come after me, or going after her, the latter would serve me my fate quicker, whatever it may be. Where’s Gohan? Is he hurt?" Videl said as she glanced up. Pan was watching the battle with rapt attention. It appeared Agony was fighting with Ubuu, Goten, and Yamcha. Her eyes narrowed inquistively.

The potential answer hit her, and she turned around and looked at Dende just as her mother did. Dende had slowly lowered his head.

The meaning hit Videl right between the eyes, and all her good intentions were swallowed by overwhelming grief.

"No…not Gohan…" she squeeked, her voice on the point of a sob.

"I’m…sorry…" Dende began.

That was all Videl needed to hear, as she collasped to her knees and began to weep uncontrollably. Pan, even as her own tears started to come as the realization that her father was dead too hit her, ran to her mother’s side.

Videl tried to form words, but they were drowned out in cries of pure grief. She had come here to help her husband. Now her husband was dead, and nothing else mattered.

"Daddy…" Pan whispered to herself, even as she and her mother held each other. Dende turned away, the pain stabbing at his heart again. Marron went over to the two crying women, trying to provide comfort that would not be coming for a long time.

Agony suddenly felt the waves of new pain coming from the ground, and she glanced down. It was grief, a grief she hasn’t tasted before.

Ubuu flying forward and planting both his feet in her face rudely interrupted her experience. She reeled back, spat out broken teeth even as they fixed themselves, and raised her fingers up and pointed at Ubuu. Ubuu blinked and then dodged aside as Agony fired the Makkankosappo at his head. It flew off into the distance and blasted water skyward in the new ocean body where Japan had once been.

Ubuu stopped and prepared to attack again as Goten and Yamcha drew themselves on other sides of Agony and prepared to do the same.

Agony glanced around herself.

"Ok, fun’s over. I grow tired of this."

And then from her body black energy erupted at a speed that none of the fighters had seen before. All three of them yelled as the black energy enveloped them and solidified around them, pinning their arms to the side.

Agony looked at the three fighters she now had ensnared in her energy "arms".

"Nighty-night"

Then she slammed the three together all at once, and then hurled them to the ground. Goten got a look of broken concrete rapidly rushing up to meet him and then he was knocked silly along with Ubuu and Yamcha. It had happened so fast they hadn’t even had a chance to scream.

The blood in the wound had clotted, but it didn’t stop the pain. It was still so great that every time Vegeta tried to stand, his eyes crossed and his vision swam.

He had to get up. He had to keep fighting, even if it was hopeless.

His hands sticky with his own blood and his tail slicked with it, Vegeta tried to get up again. Again, the pain was too great, and he fell to one knee.

And then a hand was offered. Surprised, Vegeta looked up. His eyes widened slightly, and then he reached out and took it.

"Kakarotto." He grimaced, looking at Goku as he too stood in SSJ4 form. "It appears I finally beat you in a transformation…not that it matters. How did you achieve it?"

Goku looked at Vegeta as his new tail swished around softly.

"I don’t know Vegeta…Gohan was dead…the grief was so strong...and suddenly I had become this…just as it appears you have…in the grief for your family."

Vegeta looked at his lifelong rival, and thought the form, with the fur and the hair and strange red circles around Kakarott’s eyes finally made him look like a saiya-jin warrior.

"Kakarott…I can sense…that our powers are about equal…but Agony’s is beyond both. She destroyed Japan...or most of it…and all the lives she took gave her a boost. Even with the both of us…I don’t know…"

"We can, Vegeta. And I know just how to do it."

Vegeta looked at Goku, and saw the answer to his question in the third-class warrior’s eyes. He wasn’t surprised. It just might work.

"Kakarott…she took my family…and she took your son…let’s show her what happens when you fuck with the saiya-jin race."

Agony landed by the limp bodies of Goten, Ubuu, and Yamcha. They weren’t dead, but she was going to fix that.

"NO!"

Agony looked up just as the ki blast hit her in the chest. It left a large hole, but it was quickly healed. Agony smirked at Marron, who stood with her hands out. She’d never thrown a ki blast before, but the knowledge that Goten would be dead soon had motivated her to try.

It had worked. But in the end it had only accomplish one thing.

It had gotten Agony’s attention.

"Well, if it isn’t the little girl! And the green man!"

Marron stood fast. She was tired of running. Smiling, Agony began to walk over.

"You know, it’s really annoying how two of the weakest of this little group that have been bothering me, and yet giving me new powers left and right have somehow managed to escape me! Well, I’m going to deal with that, right now!"

Videl, still slumped behind Marron and Dende, looked up to see Agony approaching. Strangely, she wasn’t afraid. Death would only reunite her with the man she loved.

Then she realized Pan was no longer in her arms.

Then she realized that Pan was walking towards Agony. The fear that should have been came on full-force.

"Pan, no!" she tried to scream, but it just came out in a whisper. She got up to chase after her daughter, only to twist her ankle in her blind panic. She fell and tried to scream again, but she couldn’t. Her wailings over Gohan had damaged her vocal cords too much.

"Pan…" she raggedly whispered, and began to drag herself towards her daughter, even as the little girl pushed by Marron. Marron was too surprised to grab her, and by the time she realized what was going on, it was too late.

Agony’s eyes arched in amusement.

"Well, what have we here?" she said as Pan approached her. This was rich. Kids usually ran screaming from her. This one was giving herself up. It was awfully cynical for a child, and she loved it.

"You killed my daddy."

Something about the voice made Agony uncomfortable. It sounded…wrong.

"You betcha, sugerplum! He tasted good too!" Agony said, quickly shoving the unpleasent feelings aside. She was probably feeling a little off from going too long without a kill. This little girl would saitisfy those cravings nicely.

"You’re a bad lady. You take what people love and destroy it." Pan said. Again, that tone was there. Agony ignored it.

"Oh really kid? Well, if you haven’t noticed it yet, you can’t do a damn thing about it. That’s the problem with all you people who talk about "goodness" and "love" and all that bullshit and how you have to protect it. You’re just protecting a corpse! The ideals died long ago when people realized one thing. The people who follow "good" have to follow its rules to the hilt. That’s why the world is so fucked up, little girl. People are discovering that what they want, what they crave, comes from telling the rules to go fuck themselves and doing anything you have to. And good people have to try and stop these people, but they have to do it within the rules! Who cares if he’s murdered fifty people? He has to have a fair trial! Who cares if he swears he will always kill when he gets the chance? They have to try and rehabilitate him! It’s fucking ridiculous! It’s like trying to fight a tank with a peashooter, and yet they don’t get that they can just throw that shit down and pick up a rocket launcher if they wanted to! But they can’t! That wouldn’t be "good" now, would it?"

Pan looked emotionlessly at Agony as she drew close, her fingers turning into knives.

Videl’s eyes went as wide as possible as she reached out a hand.

Dende turned away. He couldn’t save Pan and he didn’t want to see the fate she would have.

Marron was frozen on the spot.

"So if people are going to follow those rules, then they only deserve to die when I come along. If they want to keep running into a wall face-first, then I’m just going to let them until they fracture their skull. Humanity, in any world, in any time, have been doomed ever since their sense of self-importence in everything got so much bigger then their brain. I’m surprised they didn’t grown another organ just to hold it. Humanity is a waste of tissue, little girl."

She stopped in front of the child. She still wasn’t afraid, and that annoyed her, But her death would make up for it.

"You’re wrong."

Agony looked at Pan.

"You call humanity a waste. At least they live life for life, whatever their reasons. You live life for death. You think you have everything. You have nothing. You are the waste." Pan said as she raised her hands above her head.

"I loved my daddy."

Then she threw her hands down at Agony.

"MASENKO!"

Marron watched as Pan threw the futile attack. She watched as Agony, looking amused, brought up a hand to block it.

Then the miracle happened.

The attack struck Agony.

But she didn’t smile. She didn’t laugh. She didn’t show any sign of joy.

She yelled and staggered back, holding her hand, which was blistered and burned. She looked at it, breathing hard, almost in amazement, as Pan slowly lowered her hands to her sides.

"It…hurt her." Marron said in amazement. Agony fed on her pain and took pleasure in it, but Pan’s Masenko, taught to her by her father, hadn’t given her any pleasure.

It had actually hurt her. All the blows all her friends, relatives, and family had inflicted on Agony had just given her strength and pleasure. Pan’s attack had done neither. But how…?

Marron would have known if she could read Agony’s mind, as she looked down on her burnt hand. She couldn’t believe it. It was simply impossible. The little girl had somehow struck her with no rage, no anger, no fury, or anything like that in her heart.

She had been filled with love and the hope she could let her father rest in peace if she did what she had did, and it had come through in the attack.

All the blows Erik had inflicted on her had been with rage and murderous hatred. In a simular way, every single blow she had endured since coming to this world and slowly ascending to godhood had been the same, and that was what made them futile, for as she had said, all rage had to do with inflicting pain, and pain was nothing to her.

But the little girl had struck with love. Agony didn’t know how, couldn’t concieve how a blow could be struck with love, thought it was impossible that such a blow could be struck. But the girl, through her age, her lack of viewing the bad things in the world, and the honest, uncorrupted desires in her heart, had struck her with love.

Love, as some said, was sweet pain.

And it was the only pain Agony couldn’t drag down and devour, because there was so much passion and hope and goodness in it that it made her sick.

As her hand healed (oh yes, she could still do that, but she took no pleasure in it, a first for her), Agony looked up as her lips twisted her mouth into a snarl and her eyes blazed with fury at Pan.

"You MOTHERFUCKING LITTLE CUNT!" she screamed, and threw up her hands as black energy exploded into being on them.

Pan stood, still not afraid, and it made Agony utterly furious. Well, for daring to defy her, and hurting her (how could a little girl hurt a god?), she was going to strip Pan of her skin and everything else, as slowly as possible.

"STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Agony turned around just as the hardest fist she had ever felt slammed into her, carrying her away from the girl, away from the kill again, and hurling her into the air in a bleeding twisting sommersault. She slammed on the brakes. One of the fighters she had taken down must have gotten their third wind. Agony snarled. This time, she would make sure it was their last wind.

Then her eyes widened. It wasn’t any of the fighters she had seen before. And yet he was so…familiar.

"You have commited unspeakable atrocities." The figure said, pointing at Agony. "You have taken countless lives in ways that are abominations in themselves! You have taken the lives of people I love!"

"Oh really, and who are you, vest boy?" Agony smirked.

"I am not Goku. I am not Vegeta. I am the rage of the innocent, the tears of the orphans, the desire for revenge apon your evil black heart!"

"Oh really? That’s a long name." Agony chuckled, but the feeling of unease increased.

Then she remembered the purple-haired pretty boy and his friend, their little dance, and the fighter that had emerged from it.

"Who am I? You may call me…Gogeta!" SSJ4 Gogeta said. "And you may also call me…your destroyer!"

He had to get free. He had to help. He could smell the fresh air, and he knew he was close.

Goten was slowly sitting up as Gogeta darted forward and smashed Agony in the face. She went into the ground, the stone and earth cracking and being thrown into the air as it was displaced.

It didn’t take long for Agony to pop back out, and Goten saw that she was actually angry. No, she was furious. The game was over, Agony was now playing all her cards.

And after all her victories, it might appear that she finally had a bad hand.

Agony’s head darted around, looking for Gogeta.

Then he came down behind her, slamming her back into the ground. She hit and the ground actually rippled outward in a crator shape, the force being so strong the earth had been held in place and kept from cracking.

"You’re not worth my time." Gogeta snarled, and then dove into the crator. Goten heard rapid-fire snapping and tearing noises and then limbs began to fly out of the crator, spraying blood. He shook his head as his vision blurred. Agony had really smacked him hard.

"Mommy, are you ok?" Pan asked as her mother finally reached her and grabbed her in a grip of desperate relief.

"Oh thank Dende you’re all right." She said.

"I had nothing to do with it. It was your daughter all the way, and she did something that none of us was able to do. She actually hurt Agony. Pan, what…how…?" Dende said, even as explosions erupted behind him as Gogeta and Agony erupted from the crator. Gogeta took advantage of the fact that Agony had to regenerate limbs to fight properly and beat the living crap out of her, ripping parts of her off as fast as she could heal them.

"I don’t know Dende…all I could think was that I loved Daddy and that I wanted him to be at peace wherever he was…and that would mean Agony had to be defeated." Pan said, as Agony whipped out her remaining arm and rock shrapnal flew from the ground, pelting Gogeta and putting him on the defensive long enough for Agony to completely fix herself and start whipping black energy spears and long burning whips of dark fire at him. Gogeta countered with ki blasts and arrogant dodging.

"You weren’t mad at her?" Dende asked. Gogeta zapped behind Agony as ki swords appeared on his arms and he proceeded to carve Agony up like shis-ke-bob. He tried to burn the pieces to ash, but before he could blink they had zapped back together. Agony had turned her healing ability up to its ultimate level, and thanks to all her new power, that now made it instant. She threw herself at Gogeta and they played a game where each tried to blur away from the other’s hits. Gogeta won as Agony tried to fly backward and Gogeta instantly caught up to her, smashing her face in with a spinning air thrust kick.

"She’s not worth getting mad over. So I didn’t bother." Pan said, looking up as the fighter her grandfather and his rival had become kept kicking Agony all over the ruins of Satan City. Agony was really angry now, even SSJ4 Vegeta hadn’t shown her up this badly. She zapped backwards as she threw out her arms and let loose with a gigantic spray of arcing blasts, Kienziens, Finish Busters, and Makkankosappos.

"Oh, I’m impressed! NOT!" Gogeta taunted as he flew in between all the black evil energy attacks and let loose with a furious stream of his own blasts, each one meeting one of Agony’s blasts and stopping it. A massive explosion erupted between the two fighters and grew bigger and bigger. The cracking thunder from the battle shook the ground. Goten had managed to get to his feet, and Marron was suddenly again at his side. He held her tight, knowing they were in the final stretch and the race would soon be decided.

"You weren’t angry at all." Dende said, in more of a realization then the re-asking of a question.

"Yeah. It’s ok Mommy, Daddy will be all right. Grandfather and Uncle Vegeta will beat that bad lady and then we’ll just wish him back." Pan said to her mother, who was still holding her in a vise-like grip.

Dende didn’t have time to ponder the possible truth in Gohan’s ressurection. His mind was racing at his observations and learnings. As quickly as he could, he sent out a mental message.

Agony was looking at the smoke cloud when Gogeta appeared behind her and slammed into her from behind, sending her back into the ground in a spray of rock. She was quickly on her feet and on the defensive as Gogeta launched a furious assault on her. Agony snarled and bones began to stab from her body where Gogeta was hitting her, but Gogeta was simply too quick and kept aiming for where the bones weren’t.

Agony slammed on the brakes as she saw Gogeta wind up for a big punch. When he was in mid-swing, she had bones explode from every part of her body, turning her into some kind of nightmare pincushion. No matter where Gogeta hit, he was going to find something sharp.

Too bad for her that Gogeta turned the punch into a spin and spun around as he brought his hands to his side as he charged a massive blue-gold ki blast. He completed his spin and thrust his hands out into Agony’s face.

"FINAL KAMEHAMEHA!"

The explosion was on par with an atomic bomb, with all the destructive power focussed on one small spot. Previous attacks had shook the ground, but this one sent it into the equivilant of an epiletic seizure. All the fighters were tossed off the ground and then rattled around like they were in a blender. The remaining buildings crumpled, unable to hold themselves up any longer.

"Whoa." Goten said, as he finally was able to regain his feet. He helped Marron up as he looked at the massive cloud of black smoke rising from the blast zone. The attack had been amazing, a combination of his father’s Kamehameha and Vegeta’s Final Flash, both done at SSJ4 level. In a small part in his mind, he wondered what it was like to wield such power.

Then he saw Agony emerge from the mushroom cloud as she flew up into the sky, and that question was replaced with a far more demanding one.

Was it enough?

As Gogeta flew up in front of her, Agony spat blood from her healing gums. This was too much. That last attack had burned her right down to a few cells, far closer then anyone, even Erik, had ever gotten to her death.

She needed more power, and she needed it now.

Her eyes darted around.

There. She could smell a massive amount of life in the west.

"Ready to die, bitch?" Gogeta asked. He knew he had been close last time, and he would make sure that next time he would win.

Then he saw black energy exploded on Agony’s hands as she turned away from him.

The realization hit him like a bullet.

"NO!"

Too late.

As the blast left Agony’s hands it expanded and grew in size and fury. By the time it had burned across the sea it was thousands of miles wide.

A Chinese fisherman looked up from his boat and saw a living wall of black power heading towards him before it struck him, burning away his body and stealing his soul.

Then the power exploded across China, the gigantic killing blast burning a horrendous path straight down the continent, blasting away the crust and everything else like it was nothing. The ghastly blast, as if it was living creature with insatiable bloodthirst, tore through the country of China and left it in utter ruins.

Half of Mongolia went with it, and then the blast ended and detonated in India, blowing the country to hell and gone and taking Nepal, Bangladash, Pakistan, and most of Afghanistan and Iran with it.

In seconds, 750 million people were dead.

And all their souls belonged to Agony.

Agony felt like she was having a seizure, the sheer pleasure was so great. Forget the souls she had stolen from Japan, this was the greatest high, the greatest rush, the greatest thrill she had ever felt.

Gogeta looked at Agony in numb horror. This was…there were no words to describe it.

"Whoo! What a rush!" Agony whooped. "I want some more of that!"

"NO!" Gogeta said, rushing forward and grabbing Agony, not caring if she tried to impale something through him. Only caring that she had to stop her from causing anything like that to happen again, to keep from hearing hundreds of millions of voices all crying out in a catatomy of pain and horror as their lives were ripped from them and their souls were cast into hell reigned over by an insane lunatic that was pure evil.

"Why do you do this? They all did nothing to you. Why do you do this madness!?!?!?" Gogeta screamed, as Goku’s side of the fusion temporarily took full control and made Gogeta ask the question Goku had been asking himself ever since Bra had died. He couldn’t stand it any more, this utterly senseless and pointless slaughter. This went beyond revenge, beyond insanity, and even beyond evil, and if he didn’t ask Agony face to face he felt the question would tear him apart from the inside.

Agony looked at the fighter with amusement.

Then she slapped him away, and Gogeta felt his jaw wrench painfully. He reeled back, stars exploding in his eyes at the sheer strength of it. The fact that Agony had done all that with just a slap didn’t occur to him. He didn’t have time to think about her new power. All he could think about was how she had gotten more power, and her utter madness and utter joy in taking it.

And then Agony began to laugh, a horrible laugh, full of pleasure, evil, and worst of all, self-righteousness.

"Why? Why?" Agony chuckled, and then raised her hands as black energy crackled on them.

"BECAUSE I LOVE IT!"

And then Agony hurled another black blast into the distance. Gogeta thought for a second and then threw himself in front of it. If he had to sacrifice himself…

But the blast suddenly curved away from him and zapped right by him, and Gogeta could only turn around and scream in helpless horror.

"NO!"

Far away, the island of Austraila got a glimpse of a black terror descending from the sky before all its people died in a massive explosion of black fire which almost seemed to shriek in joy as more hundreds of millions were consumed.

Gogeta turned around as Agony, with a smile in her eyes and on her mouth, raised another hand crackling with black energy.

"STOP IT!"

"Stop it? No way. This is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life!" Agony laughed, and then hurled another genocide blast.

Russia’s center was suddenly consumed in an explosion far worse then any kind of bomb could emit. Black energy tendrils flew from the ground zero and came raining down on Europe and what was left of Asia, blowing everything on the combined massive chunk of land to atoms. Half of England was blown away by one tendril and then a massive tidal wave finished the job, sweeping every other living thing on the ruined island to an airless death.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! OH YEAH!" Agony laughed to the heavens.

That did it. Gogeta flew at Agony. He had to stop her, stop her killing, stop her madness and evil from consuming everything that lived.

Agony looked almost in annoyance and let Gogeta hit her as he drove his fist into her chest.

It didn’t even scratch her. She had absorbed far too many souls for that. Even the strongest blow of the fused form of the strongest fighters in existence was little more then an insect bite to her.

Gogeta gasped and then Agony’s hand was around his throat in a grip of steel.

"I’ve grown tired of this."

Agony’s fingers snapped into knives, and Gogeta gasped as she carved a bloody X across his chest.

"I’ve marked my territory. I’ll be back for what lies beneath it. You might want to take one last look at the earth, because soon it will just be a lifeless hunk of rock!"

And then Agony hurled Gogeta to the earth. He hit the ground like a meteor and did not move.

Agony could see the fighter’s friends, like ants, scurrying to his side. She smiled. One last kick and then she would end it once and for all.

"Father! Oh no! Oh NO!" Goten said in sheer panic. He wasn’t dead, but he certainly looked it.

Gogeta’s eyes fluttered open, as he looked at all his remaining friends who stood around them.

"Grandfather?" he heard Pan ask.

Then Gogeta could hear no more as his mind finally shut down and he passed out.

Goten gaped and then looked up at Agony. He had been wrong. She had had a bad hand, but she also had a dozen cards up her sleeves.

And even as the fact that they were all doomed hit him, Agony fired her largest blast yet off into the horizon.

The peaceful, mostly happy inhabitants of South America were all suddenly screaming as one as an unholy flame swept across their country and consumed it. As the country was blasted to hell, the killing, destroying energy swept up onto the United Sates and exploded, devouring every single life in all 50 States. Almost as an afterthought, a few tendrils lanced down and blasted Canada to oblivion as well.

As the earth was ravaged by Agony, gods and guardians of life and death watched in horror around a large desk.

The red-skinned man wearing a business suit looked out the door. Such an insane genocide would have surely resulted in a gigantic stampede of souls. He’d seen it before when Majinn Buu had blown up the earth.

But there was nothing. The line of souls arriving from earth had abruptly ended. They would not be coming to heaven or hell.

Agony had taken them all.

"Tell him, Kaiou-sama."

The insect-like creature that had trained Son Goku turned to the highest god of all the realms. His face had gone pure white.

"Tell Son Goku. I know he can do it. If he doesn’t…then we are all dead. All of us…and everything else."

There was no civalization left across the earth. Everything had been utterly destroyed by Agony, and the earth had gone into a frenzy over the damage that had been done to it, as hurricanes, floods, forest fires, and earthquakes erupted across it from her attacks. As the survivors, and there were very few, began to pull themselves from the wreckage, they looked up into the sky and wondered what had happened and why they had deserved this.

Agony landed, absorbing the last few million souls into herself as she did. The group looked at her in horror.

"No more games, no more fighters coming from nowhere, no nothing. The chips are all down and last bets have been taken. I’ve won." Agony smiled, looking in delight at the terrified men and women before her. "Now, who should I kill first?"

Then her eyes fell on Pan, and she remembered.

"YOU!"

Agony started for Pan.

And then Yamcha was up and leaping for her. But she casually waved her fist and Yamcha was suddenly smacked aside like he had been hit with a giant hammer.

Ubuu went for Agony, his heart full of rage and the will that he would not let Agony kill anyone else, and especially not this sweet little girl.

Agony smacked him aside. His will and rage were nothing compared to her power, an evil power that Goten could feel coming off of her like waves of purest deepest cold.

He leapt for her, going SSJ in mid-leap. Hoping beyond hope.

Then his hope was shattered along with his consciousness as Agony whacked him aside with no effort.

Even though the three fighters before them had failed, Dende and Marron each tried to stop Agony.

They were promptly thrown next to their friends.

Videl tried to use herself as a shield, but Agony just picked the crippled woman up and tossed her up against an exposed rock face.

"Since you mothered the bitch, you can watch her die." She snickered, and then turned to Pan, who had not run away.

And she still wasn’t afraid. Agony ground her back teeth. No one lived without fear of her, especially not a little girl.

Pan’s expression didn’t change as Agony reached down and grabbed her, as her fingers transformed into the most cruelly barbed blades Agony had ever created. This would be truly sweet.

"You’re a bad lady." Pan said in an emotional monitone.

"I may be bad, but oh, I feel so good." Agony crooned, and drew back her hand.

From all their positions, Videl, Goten, and all the others eyes widened in horror.

In a place that could be called heaven, a group of higher beings sat or stood in numb shock.

And on the ground, Gogeta stirred and looked up just as Agony brought the blades forward, and while his mind screamed defiance of the act, his body was too rattled to do anything.

Pan closed her eyes.

And then the hook burst from Agony’s chest, splattering Pan with her blood before the little girl was torn out of Agony’s hands as she was yanked backwards. Pan landed in her rear, her eyes open and wide at the sudden rescue.

Agony was utterly furious as she was yanked backwards. She hit the ground and leapt to her while yanking the hook and the wire attached to it from her chest.

Then she saw the thrower, and the rage faded as her face lit up in the brightest and cruelest smile Goten and everyone else had ever seen.

"Erik." She purred happily.

Goten looked in amazement as the dark warrior from another world withdrew the hook he had used to yank Agony away from Pan. Incredible. How did he survive the fall and being buried?

But Erik had, although he was not the worse for wear. His outfit was torn and ripped, charred in several places in which Goten could see nasty burns. Blood ran in a steady stream from the corner of his mouth and a cut on his forehead.

But he was alive. And he had Agony’s attention.

"I had a feeling you were here. No matter where I go, you’re always nipping at my heels. It was you who fell into that building, wasn’t it? But of course you have enough moxie to come here and make me lose my lunch." Agony said with a tad of irritation.

"Forget that appetizer. Why don’t you try a main course, Patricia?" Erik snarled at Agony, his reinforced talons ripping from his fingers.

Agony smiled. Goten shook in horror. Erik had spoken of how much he loathed Agony, but Agony wasn’t looking at him in loathing. It was more of a look of…lust.

"Patricia Delhart died a long long time ago, little boy. You know that. Now there is only I, Agony, the Herald of Destruction, Xaxargas’s crown jewel, and the new god of existence. And all thanks to you! In trying to kill me, you have granted me godhood!"

For a second, Goten saw the mask of rage, loathing, and bloodlust Erik wore fall briefly as a look of indescriable grief shattered it. But it was quickly gone.

"Come on now, Agony. What’s the fun of being able to burn me out of existence by snapping your fingers when you always said you wanted to rip my heart out with your bare hands? Why don’t you shelve the god powers for a minute and fight me the way it used to be, so I can rip your heart out and stuff it down your throat!" Erik snarled.

"Oh Erik. So handsome, so persistant, and so horrifically violent. I always liked that in men. Why didn’t we ever end up together?" Agony said mockingly.

"Because I loathe you with every part of my heart and soul."

"Oh yeah, I always forget. Well, little boy, get ready to dance, because the band is finally playing the final number."

"Yeah, yours!" Erik yelled, and leapt at Agony.

Goten watched in amazement as the two fell into battle. Goten could sense no massive power coming from Agony now, but he knew it was still there, that she was simply repressing it. The evil was still there though, the daggers of pure cold that stabbed at your being.

In a way, it was like a dance, a dance of blades and fire, of fists and feet, as the two tore into each other. It was a dance of utter hatred, but also a kind of sheer savage joy, something the two did so well and so loved to do.

But the mask of hatred never faltered for Erik. But Agony’s face went through a gamut of emotions, and one was predominant.

Love.

It only figured that Agony would have a twisted thing for the man who had dedicated his life to killing her.

They danced.

They fought.

Blood spilled and bones broke. They healed, or they didn’t.

Agony laughed.

Erik screamed in fury.

And the man named Vengeance and the woman named Agony danced, two people on opposite ends of the spectrum, and yet each a side of the same coin.

Gogeta jerked his head up as the last of the cobwebs cleared. He’d been trying to get to his feet and keep fighting, and now he finally could.

"I’m listening." Gogeta said, both mentally and actually, as he touched the twin cuts that formed a bloody X on his chest. Agony "marking what was to be hers" or some bullshit. It would go away when the fusion wore off.

God, it seemed like a million years since the two of them had fused, but it had only been something like ten minutes. They still had twenty or so minutes left, and they had to make them count.

"Maybe not, but I’m going to keep fighting until I drop, or she does." Gogeta said as he spat blood and coiled his tail around his waist as he prepared again for battle.

"So what should I do? Give up? I don’t think so." Gogeta shot back.

Listen to me. You cannot defeat Agony with rage or violence! Pan learned this trying to avenge her father! Kaiou-sama said, and told Goku what Dende had told him, how the Kami of Earth had observed how Agony had been hurt through Pan’s love for her father.

"So what? Are you suggesting I love Agony and then I can beat her? No fucking way, I could never do that!"

"Then what do I do?" Gogeta said, desperation creeping into his voice.

"No, not even that…"

"But what if they don’t listen to me…what if they refuse…and can I even form such a power? The man who could is only half of me." Gogeta said.

Gogeta ground his teeth and began to concentrate, and then he slowly raised his hands.

All the watchers of Erik and Agony’s battle suddenly snapped their heads upwards to the voice in their heads. Briefly, Gogeta wondered why Agony and Erik hadn’t heard it, and then he remembered they came from another Earth entirely.

And in a way, that was good.

Around the world, all the remaining humans who had survived, whether in pain or in sorrow, in anger or is despair, looked up. The voice was calm, soothing, but confident and powerful.

Gogeta began to concentrate more, and he called out to the group of people who stood in the ruins of Satan City below him.

Goten and Marron took each other’s hands and raised their arms.

Videl held pan and the two raised their arms.

Dende raised his arms, along with Yamcha and Ubuu.

Far away, Chi-Chi raised her arms and prayed for the safety of the man she loved and her lone remaining son, knowing she could mourn later.

And all around the world, people began to raise their hands, any suspicion or doubt they might have had shoved away by their united and uncontrollable desire to destroy the being who had brought this hell to their lives.

And the ball began to form above Gogeta’s head, and blue energy floated from the sky and added to it, making it grow larger and larger. Soon it was the size of a truck, but Gogeta knew it wasn’t enough.

And on the ground, Agony and Vengeance continued their war, oblivious to the drama.

"It’s working! People are giving Gogeta their power and hope!" Kaiou-sama said.

"It’s not enough! We need more power, more emotion! With most of humanity dead, that ball will never destroy Agony!" Emma Daiou said.

"Kaiou-sama, we must call apon others, those who know Goku and would aid him. We need their power, for all their sakes!" Kaioushin said in desperation.

"I figured we would, and I’ve already started." Kaiou-sama said, as his attenae twitched and his heart tettered on the very last thread of hope he had left.

Far away on New Namek, the Namek species rose as one as a voice came to them, telling them that the man who destroyed Freiza and saved them all from Metal Koola was in trouble and needed their help in a special way.

And as one, the Namek species raised their hands.

On another planet, a species known as the Yardrat were startled out of a peaceful day as a voice came to them, telling them the man they had known as Son Goku needed their help.

And to aid a man who they had called a friend, the Yardrat species raised their hands.

On another planet, a species called the Shamo listened as they were told that the man who had avenged their planet by defeating the Legendary Super Saiya-jin Brolly and given them a new one via the Dragon Balls needed their help.

And they all raised their hands.

And across the universe, planets that lived in peace after the death of Freiza were told that the man who given them that peace now needed their help.

And across the universe, all manners of races and kinds raised their hands and gave all they could to Gogeta.

Gogeta struggled to hold the ball as it grew larger and larger, larger then even the one he had used to defeat Majinn Buu.

"Ugh!" Erik yelled as Agony smacked him backward into a rock face. Before he could move she was in his face, pummeling him mercilessly with a speed he had never seen.

"Hey, what happened to fighting fair?" Erik yelled, even as he knew the answer.

"I got tired of it." Agony said, and then smashed her fist into Erik’s face in a blow like none other. Erik crumpled at Agony’s feet, stars dancing in his vision

Slowly, Agony picked up the body of her worst foe and held him up, smiling.

"The battle is finally over, Erik. You have lost. I’ve prepared a special place for you inside me, where you will experience all the worse of everything. I’ve waited so long to do this, lover."

Then Erik spat in Agony’s face.

"I will never love you, no matter what you do to me!"

And then Erik glanced upward, and saw the ball.

It only took him a second to figure things out, and his eyes slid back to Agony, who had been busy wiping his spit away and hadn’t noticed his upward glance.

"If I am to die…then it will be a penance I will gladly pay a million times over!" Erik snarled.

Agony smiled.

"Before you die, there is one last thing I want to do."

Erik’s eyes widened. She’d done this once before, when she’d had him at her mercy and failed to take advantage of it, and he never wanted to experience it again, for fear of going mad. He tried to struggle away, but it was like his neck was made of iron.

And then Agony leaned forward and pressed her lips to the man who hated her and who she also hated, but also loved. No one had given her more pain then him.

Erik tried to get away, tried to get away from the ice-cold lips, but he couldn’t. His mind spun, whirled, and creaked on its axis, trying to stay together, even as the ball grew larger from the power being given to it.

"Mmmmm." Agony purred, and Erik’s mind suddenly cleared long enough for him to act.

He opened his mouth and grabbed her upper lip in his teeth, and he bit down. Hard.

Agony yelled and pulled back, and as blood flowed down her chin, Erik spat the chunk of lip back in her face, just like he had the last time Agony had kissed him.

Agony just smiled as her lip healed.

"That was nice. Now, little boy, time to join your family…" Agony began, and then her voice trailed off as something hit her. Erik had said dying would be a penance he would gladly pay, but she knew him, knew he had a survival instinct, and that he wouldn’t be so willing to die unless…

…unless…

…he had a plan.

And then Agony finally noticed the blue light that she hadn’t noticed before, and she glanced up.

"Shit! She’s seen us! I have to throw it!" Gogeta cursed as Agony saw the massive ball of energy glowing above Satan City.

"Well, what have we...UGH!" Agony said as Erik tackled her from behind. He tried to hold her down, but it was futile. Agony tossed him off like a rag doll and then stood up.

"Gathering power from other planets. I don’t think so!" Agony said. Gogeta’s eyes widened in horror. How the hell did she hear us?

And then Agony’s voice rang in Gogeta’s mind.

Gogeta’s brow furrowed in confusion. Need to look?

And then the air seemed to split beside Agony, and a massive hole suddenly formed. Down on the ground, Erik got to his feet, and looked at the hole.

Beyond it was the dead of space, and a lone green planet.

"Oh KAMI! Agony just ripped a hole in the fabric of time and space! It’s impossible! No one can command enough power to do that!" Kaioushin said in horror.

"She did WHAT?" Kaiou-sama said, snapping out of his asking for power to look at the long-haired god.

"She literally warped the laws of matter and physics! Look!"

Kaiou-sama looked, and saw what Erik had seen.

"She opened a hole in the very fabric of being and it comes out across the universe. If anything goes through that hole they’ll end up in space above that planet…OH MY GOD!" Kaioushin said as the realization hit him.

The planet they were seeing was New Namek.

Laughing, Agony hurled a massive blast through the hole.

And on New Namek, the Namek species looked up and screamed.

And then their planet was gone, blown to ashes, the species wiped out in a second.

Gogeta felt the lurch as the power he was being given was suddenly cut.

"What? How? Why?" Gogeta said in sick horror, as the meaning of Agony’s previous words came to him. Not only had she heard his conversation with Kaiou-sama, she had somehow plucked the location of New Namek from his mind and used that info to destroy it.

"NO!" Gogeta yelled, but there was nothing he could do.

The species known as the Yardrat saw the awful killing light the Nameks had seen. Some had time to curse cruel fate or make peace with their god. Then, they all died.

And as the Yardrat power source was being cut as their souls were stolen by Agony, Agony laughed and, as the process became easier and easier from her ever growing power, tore open more holes in the air, revealing more planets. She fired blasts through the holes, and suddenly those blasts were above the planets, blowing them all to hell in seconds as Agony completely circumnavigated the problems with distance and speed by defying the laws of reality.

"Stop it!" Erik screamed, as he leapt at her again, but Agony spun and kicked him aside.

"Stop it! No way! There’s so many species to wipe out, and so little time!" Agony laughed. With a wave of her hand, several news holes open, and seconds later, tens of billions of species were dead as their planets were destroyed by Agony’s unconceivable power.

Goku felt all the power had been gathering get cut off before he could gather it all, as all the species who had banded together to help him were destroyed by Agony for doing so. His heart and mind burned with new rage, and he prepared to throw the Genki Dama.

"I DON’T CARE! SHE HAS TO BE STOPPED, NOW!" Gogeta screamed.

And then suddenly, Agony was in front of Gogeta, smiling.

"Go ahead. Throw it at me, monkey boy. You can watch it fail. Those species that tried to help paid the price for defying me, and now they’ll keep paying it...for eternity."Agony said as she pointed to her heart, and suddenly Gogeta could hear billions of beings screaming in torture.

"You…monster!"

"Yeah, I am, and I wouldn’t dare be anything else. Because in the end, I’m the one who’s going to…"

Agony voice suddenly trailed off, and she looked down at herself as confusion crossed both her’s and Gogeta’s face.

"What the…?"

And then suddenly it, as a massive blue stream of power exploded from Agony’s chest. She screamed in sheer rage and fury as she suddenly fell, clawing at her chest.

"STOP IT! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" she screamed as she fell to earth. Gogeta saw the power coming at him. He tried to move.

Then the power struck the Genki Dama, and Gogeta looked up in amazement as it began to grow again.

Far away, the group of gods and guardians watched in amazement at this new happening.

Agony hit the ground, still screaming and clawing, and leapt to her feet.

"STOP THAT! I AM YOUR GOD AND YOU WILL STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!" she screamed as she tried to block the blue glowing aura that kept coming out of her chest.

Right from where her heart was.

But the power kept coming, and the Genki Dama grew larger and larger, even as Agony tried to stop the influx of goodness.

Down on the ground, the group watched in silence, everyone holding everyone else.

And as Agony screamed, Erik got to his feet and smiled at Agony, a laughing, cruel smile.

"The souls you have taken are rebelling against you Agony. No matter what fate you give them, they’ve got enough hope that giving all their power will destroy you!"

And it was true. The hundreds apon hundreds of millions Agony had killed, even as their bodies and minds were subjected to pain beyond imagining, kept giving their power to Gogeta.

And the ball grew.

And finally the power stopped, but Agony looked angrier then ever.

"You’ve failed, Agony. You couldn’t reign them in. Just like you won’t reign in existence!" Erik snarled, and leapt at her to attack again.

Agony smacked Erik to the ground easily, and picked him up, even as her fingers turned into knives.

"This is your fault, but you won’t stop me! I don’t care what they give him, I am a god, and if anything else, I am pure evil!" Agony yelled, and drove her fingers forward.

And then she screamed as her knife fingers were shattered as Erik intercepted them with his taloned hand. As the blades that had been fingers fell, Erik brought his clawed hand up to Agony’s face.

"Speak no evil. Hear no evil. SEE no evil." Erik hissed, and then drove his taloned hand right into Agony’s soul shredding eyes. She screamed as they popped like ballons and hurled Erik away as blood poured from her sockets.

And above her, Gogeta felt a sudden flash.

It was done.

Everyone who was watching held their breath as they felt it too.

Gogeta drew in a long slow breath as all of Agony’s crimes and atrocities washed over him.

"AGONY!!!!!!!!"

Agony looked up at Gogeta with her newly healed eyes.

"EAT THIS AND DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then Gogeta hurled the massive ball of blue power at Agony.

The fighters down on the ground dove for cover as the gigantic ball of energy and hope flew at the demonic malevolence. She looked shocked, and then smiled.

"Oh please." She said, and threw up her hand and almost non-chalentedly threw a blast again it.

It hit the Genki Dama and dissipated. Agony’s eyes widened, and she sent a stream of blasts at the ball, all of which vanished as soon as they struck.

"No! This isn’t possible!" Agony said as the ball loomed and drew close. Erik looked up from where he lay as the massive wall of blue ki energy came down on him as well.

"DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" Gogeta screamed.

And then the fusion ended, and Vegeta and Goku were suddenly floating side by side.

Just in time to hear Agony’s shriek as the ball came down on her.

Everyone waited.

And then Agony blurred into existence in front of Goku and Vegeta.

Everyone’s hearts went to absolute zero.

"Nice try! But all you succeeded in doing was dropping the ball on Erik’s head! I decided I didn’t want to hang around to watch, so I flew around it."

Goku looked at Agony with dead eyes. They’d done eveything and lost. When she couldn’t have beaten it back, she had just flown around the Genki Dama, which had begun to dig into the ground, trying to destroy something that was no longer there.

"Game is over, my friends. In the end, no matter what, it’s always just a game to me. And I cheat to win." Agony smirked, as she prepared to kill the saiya-jins once and for all.

"AGONY!"

Agony whirled as she heard the voice from the ground. She looked down as the Genki Dama suddenly rose from the crator that it had been digging into the ground.

Erik stood, holding the massive ball above his head. Somehow he had known that he could, and he had done so. As Goku looked at him, he remembered a question Erik had asked him.

Goku had said no. And he had been right. Only a person with a pure heart could hold a Genki Dama.

"No more games. No more cheating. No more, Agony. Your purgatory is over. GO TO HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!" Erik yelled, and threw the Genki Dama back upward at Agony.

And as Erik hurled the ball upward, Agony’s face lit up with a look she had never worn before.

Fear.

She turned to flee, and suddenly she found herself looking right at Vegeta, who cocked back a fist.

"THIS IS FOR MY FAMILY!"

And then Vegeta smashed Agony with everything he had left, sending her flying down into the Genki Dama.

The ball rose upward as Agony flew into it, smashing through its surface like a wrecking ball. Blue lightning began to dance on the ball as its prey entered it.

And suddenly Agony’s screams could be heard from the Genki Dama. As they echoed across the landscape, the ball suddenly flew upward, carrying Agony with it off towards the heavens.

Inside the ball, at the heart of the Genki Dama, Agony, surrounded by burning energy, looked at her hand as the power reached down beyond her cells, beyond her atoms, down to the utter core of her evil being. And then it began to pour goodness and love into it, the two sides acting like matter and anti-matter, cancelling each other out.

And as she watched in silence and utter horror, her hand began to dissolve. She tried to heal and found she couldn’t, for the only pain that surrounded her was the sweet pain of love.

Agony stared.

And then she threw back her head and began to laugh.

"AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then the Genki Dama exploded in a gigantic flash of brillance, lighting up the sky like fire and burning away the tremendous evil within it with the power of good as species and people of all kinds banded together and blew the creature known as Agony out of existence.

And as the light faded, Goku and Vegeta flew down to Erik’s side as all the survivors of an evil beyond imagining came to them. They all looked at Erik and Dende.

Dende sniffed.

"I can’t smell her any more…but Erik, you would know her best. Is she…?"

Erik turned what looked to be the oldest and most weary eyes in the world on the group.

"She’s gone. I had a link…and she’s gone. She’s finally gone…she’s dead."

There was silence for a while, and then Yamcha threw up his hand.

"We did it!!!"

And as friends celebrated and lovers kissed, no one noticed Erik as he walked off, trying to struggle with the happenings of the last week. Happenings he was responsible for.

"Kaiou-sama says all the souls Agony took are showing up! They’re free from her!" Goku whooped. Yamcha, Ubuu, Pan and Videl cheered, Goten and Marron kissed again, Dende looked relieved, and Vegeta leaned back against the wall, the cocky smirk on his face. Agony was dead, and they could be revived. New Namek and the Namkeian Dragonballs might have been gone, but that could be thought of later.

"We did it Kakkarotto. Hard to believe you could hang with me all this time, but we did it." He said, as his body slid out of the SSJ4 state. Goku watched and followed suit.

"We did it Vegeta…us and Erik…hey, where is he?"

The group looked around, and then Pan made a noise and pointed to where Erik was kneeling, about fifty feet away. Goku walked to his side.

"Hey Erik, we won, what’s wrong?"

Erik couldn’t tell Goku, would never be able to bring the words from his throat.

Agony’s death scream hadn’t been of fear, or of pain, or of any of the horror she had inflicted apon this world.

It had been a scream of complete and utter exctasy.

Slowly, Erik lowered his head, and Goku understood. He knelt by Erik and held him by his shoulder.

"Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t know."

"It’s like she said, Goku. It’s all a game. I rolled the dice…and this was my loss. All these deaths are on my head…but I’ll make it right…if I have to search for eternity to find a way…I’ll make it right."

And as the group gathered around Erik, Erik let a hand fall to the ground.

And red bubbled between his fingers, emissions from an earth soaked with the blood of innocents.