This stranger, this… mysterious new arrival, left so much to the imagination it was nearly maddening.  He spoke quietly; in a shy, timid sort of way to the extent I hadn’t heard his words when he spoke to Karnai.   He moved with a sort of grace I’d never seen before; not snobby, not aloof, but a sort of definitive stride that inspired awe in the heart.  He was obviously quite powerful; at least to the extent that he could knock a fully powered Yush over a kilometre along the ground, while a transformed saiyan could not even touch him.  I didn’t have a very good view of the visitor at the beginning of the battle, but I could tell from his unusual ki signature, his odd-looking green tunic and yellow bandana, and the sword swaying at his side, that this was not someone we’d wished back.

            At least that’s what I initially thought, but I hadn’t sensed either Cris’ or any other high power level come anywhere near Earth.  I hadn’t even sensed this new character’s power until he appeared from seemingly nowhere and struck Yush head on.  It begged the question: How did he hide his power level to the extent that none of us, including even Yush, picked it up before he’d arrived?  If he had flown, he would’ve given off an at least noticeable power reading, and he had come from the air, so unless he’d booked a flight with Capsule Corp. airlines, he must’ve had some other mode of transportation.

            I didn’t really think about all that when I first saw him though, all I wondered was whether he was on our side or not.  When he handed Phoenix’s limp body to Phoenix, the situation was slightly cleared up, but I still found myself asking a thousand questions scurrying around inside my head, all burning their way into my mind, waiting to be answered.  Who was he?  Where did he come from?  How did he come undetected?  How strong was he?  Was he simply against Yush, or with all of us?  I tried to quiet my mind to the point where I could think, with little success.  The man had set off an explosion of enquiries in my head, and it drove me insane that I couldn’t find the answers.

            So with no other course of action to really take, I just watched.  I observed with a careful eye as this red-haired man floated down to the ground, still focused on Yush, and then slowly began walking toward the Caprian enemy.  His steps were tentative, deliberate, and controlled.  It looked like he was prepared to break stride at any moment and assume an attack posture, and if you thought about, that’s probably what he was doing.  After a few steps, a small, barely noticeable white mist began to steam off of him.  He didn’t seem to notice, but I felt a rather large increase in his power as the vapour began to intensify, until soon it was impossible to see through.  Soon his feet began to give off so much power than before his foot hit the ground, the dust below it would be forced out of the way; like a blast of air had been shot at the point where his feet were touching the ground.  If I were Yush, I probably would’ve been scared out of my armor, but the teal-skinned fighter seemed barely hazed at all, like he knew exactly what he would be facing.

            Then, when the two warriors were about a hundred metres apart from each other, the red-haired fighter on our side came to a halt, and faced Yush with his whole body, looking on with an unblinking eye.  As the two stared-off at one another, the tension began to mount, growing and growing until it was nearly tangible.  Not a word was said between the two, not the slightest hint of communication on either’s part, but the fight began at once.

            Both of them zanzokened out of view at exactly the same time.  There probably was a bit of a difference, but their speeds were far beyond my ability to comprehend, and I didn’t pick it up.  As I saw it, both of them disappeared, and then almost instantly after, there was a huge impact.  I assume the two collided into each other, probably just exchanging a single blow each, but there could have been multiple attacks beyond my vision range.  All I saw was a huge flash of brilliant yellow light about ten metres into the air, where the two super-powerful ki’s had collided.  There was a pause of about half a second, and then another huge impact of ki on ki, producing a similar sphere of expelled yellow energy, just above and to the right of the first.  Then there was another of the bright flashes, and then quickly two more after that a little farther away, all within the span of a second.  Almost before I could comprehend what was happening/what had happened, the two had reappeared at almost the exact same places they’d been before zanzokening away.

            Both were breathing more noticeably, but neither seemed injured in the slightest, which most likely meant from the early confrontation that both of them were about equal.  I took this as a good sign, as I was still having trouble gauging the full extent of the mysterious warriors power, but I could tell Yush was already at his max.  Just as soon as the two had returned to their starting positions, Karnai came flying up to behind our boulder with Phoenix in his arms.

            I just glanced quickly at the Namek as he set the now tail-less Phoenix on the ground and called for Arsenia to aid the injured combatant.  My concentration was mainly fixed on the early goings of this battle between Yush and his foe, which I still didn’t know the name of.

            As soon as I had returned my attention to the pair, the fight had restarted.  Yush covered himself in a ki colour very similar to his skin-tone, and then quickly shot at the red-haired fighter along the ground.  When the two met, Yush began to send a wild flurry of punches and kicks at the tunic-clad fighter.  He at a pace far too quick for me to grasp; all I saw was a blur of arms, legs and the defending fighter’s quickly dodging body.  I could tell by the lack of any gigantic collision sounds that nary a blow of Yush’s found their mark, which was almost comforting.  The Caprian continued his vain assault for several seconds, constantly pushing the other fighter farther back, until Yush decided to mix it up and sent a small ki blast at the spiky-haired combatant.

            The expression on the shielding man’s face made it obvious he hadn’t been expecting the blast, but he narrowly avoided it none the less, letting it pass over his shoulder and colliding with a small farmer’s field a few kilometres away.  The explosion the small ball of energy created was astounding.  It shook the ground nearly as bad as the earthquake of the Western Capitol of 928.  Luckily I was still hanging in the air, but several of the rocks around me began to shake and fall to the ground, while a huge sphere of surplus energy formed around the blast-point.  There was so much excess energy in-fact, that it turned the sky a light shade of teal.

            Both of the battling warriors seemed content to wait until the explosion settled down, neither of them insinuating any attack.  When the detonation finally died down, the fight was restarted in earnest.  This time it was the red-haired warrior who was the aggressor, flying low across the ground in a way very similar to Yush’s onslaught.  He sent a flood of fists, feet and forehead at Yush, while moving forward and pushing the teal warrior back farther and farther.  He seemed to move with even more quickness and agility then Yush, although there was no real way to tell.  This assault was as fruit-less as Yush’s however, as none of the amazingly fast fighter’s blows hit their marks.  Obviously hoping to match Yush’s assault move for move, he too fired a small ki blast at the other fighter when he found his physical attacks weren’t cutting it.  Yush seemed more prepared than the other warrior had been, and easily hopped out of the path of the ball of ki.

            This blast hit nothing but the ground, this time throwing out a gigantic red sphere of extra energy.  The effect on the landform was nearly the same as Yush’s blast, but rather than just giving up at that, the sworded combatant followed up with a swift roundhouse kick, which connected hard with Yush’s right oblique.  Since the blow landed on a wad of muscle and armor, there was little damage done, but the blow had landed none the less. The calm confidence that had been pasted onto his face was slightly tarnished, like he hadn’t even thought anything like that could be fast enough to hit him. 

            Rather than giving Yush a chance to retaliate, the red-haired fighter hopped back, landing back on his feet about fifty feet from his opponent.  Yush grunted in exertion and then quickly fell into a traditional, karate-style fighting stance.  It was right as this occurred that Karnai floated up from the ground and took my shoulder in his hand, startling me slightly.

            “Woa, you scared the life out of me.”  I said, exaggerating.

            “Sorry.”  He apologized lack-lustrely.  “How’s it going?”

            I assumed he meant the ongoing battle between Yush and the other man, so I replied,  “Good, I guess.  This guy---“

            “Crono.”  He threw in, cutting me off.

            I was glad I had a name to apply to the fighter, but less glad about getting cut off.  I gave the Namek a motherly glare I’d mastered warding off Yukia’s advances, and then continued “Crono, is doing quite well I guess.  He’s at least holding his own, and may even have a bit of an advantage.”

            “Good.”  He answered back, “It seems like he’s on our side, but I don’t know where he came from.”

            “Neither do I.  Any theories at least?”

            “Just one.”  He left me hanging for a few seconds, as he seemed to study the field where Crono and Yush were facing off.  He turned back to me, and proceeded “He said he was Cris, but that’s impossible.  He also said he was Triono, which is also quite impossible.  Then I think he said he was both, which just boggles my mind.”  I didn’t really follow, but I didn’t want to halt Karnai’s train of thought, so I didn’t interrupt.  “Then I saw the earrings.”

I hadn’t noticed any earrings, but I had yet to see a real clear look of his face, so there was a possibility that he was partly hiding them behind his hair.  “What earrings?”  I asked anyways, making sure my presumption was somewhat correct.

            “The fusion earrings.”  Karnai replied, and he looked straight into my eyes.

            As soon as he uttered those words, a wealth of ideas poured into my mind like a tidal wave.  They were far too numerous to list, but soon one clear vision had risen up in my mind.  It was the picture of Cris attaching a fusion earring to his ear, and then disappearing into a cloud of dust, to be replaced by this new character.

            As soon as I’d envisioned that mental image, I knew it was the most likely scenario.  Perhaps neither Cris nor his friend Triono had been strong enough to take Yush on single-handedly, and King Kai had decided to shove them into one warrior, who would stand a fighting chance against the Caprians.  I couldn’t determine at that specific moment if Kai’s choice was a stroke of genius, or a vain attempt at salvation, but I did know the decision would probably give us at least a miniscule opportunity for victory.

            It was now up to Crono, a hybrant of the two greatest warriors from another dimension, to save us from the Caprian ambush.  I didn’t want to take a gander at our chances, for fear I’d find we didn’t have any, so instead I told Karnai my theory on what happened.  “Looks like Cris and Triono fused together.”  I said in a low, faint voice.

            “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.”  He hung his head slightly as he said the words, perhaps realizing that the fusion was permanent, and the boy we’d all come to love and care for was gone now, replaced by this super-powerful fighter whose one purpose was to protect us from destruction.  I didn’t even realize this at the time; it didn’t come to me until much later.  At that specific point, my mind was numb, like I hadn’t slept for several days.

            Rather than continue our conversation, I turned my attention back to the ongoing battle, as Karnai did the same.  Crono and Yush were still facing off slightly, but Crono had now drawn out his sword, holding it at his waist with the blade sticking out towards the Caprian fighter.  Yush didn’t seem at all worried in the slightest; in fact he even said, “I’m not worried about your little sword, boy.  No piece of metal can pierce my skin.”  It was the first time Yush had spoken, and his voice somehow hit some deep chord within me.  His tone was very, very familiar, but I couldn’t put a finger on whose it resembled.  Something inside me told me it was a voice to fear and contempt, something I should stay away from at all costs.  It sounded like good advice to me, so I made sure to try and take it.

            Crono didn’t reply in words, he simply brought his sword up to his torso, extended both his arms and held it horizontally in front of his chest; the handle in his right hand and the blade resting in his left.  Yush paid the strange posture with little interest, seeming to regard it as a foolish strike pose.  He began to power up a small charge of ki in his right hand, when suddenly, Crono sprung.

            I don’t know how he performed the attack he did; in fact, I’m not even sure what attack he used at all.  The time in between the start and end of the strike was less than a millisecond.  He’d seemingly zanzokened out of view, and then reappeared behind Yush all at seemingly the same time.  Somehow though, I knew he’d attacked within that barely existent time frame.  My thought was confirmed when Crono calmly turned to face Yush’s back and sheathed his sword, and when Yush’s armor fell to pieces at his side.

            Nine rather long cuts had been sewn within the white and blue armor Yush sported, all leading in a perfect enneagon at Yush’s heart.  Nine separate pieces of useless armor fell to the ground, followed quickly by a small river of Yush’s blue and red blood.  Yush’s body quickly followed his armor, hitting the ground like a ton of bricks under 100 times gravity.  His skin was sliced open in nine places on the front of his torso, legs and arms.  The teal skin that had previously been under the armor was ripped with muscle and sinew, both of which pulsated in agony.  How Crono had struck each of those spots in less than a frame of a second was beyond my ability to grasp, though I had a feeling King Kai had taught him that nifty little move.

            Crono watched in mock pleasure as Yush shrivelled on the ground, clasping as many of his wounds as he could, grunting in quite clear pain and shock.  If I were the fused warrior, I would’ve pounced on Yush right there and ended the battle, but the thought never even seemed to enter Crono’s mind, like he was incapable of striking an already downed opponent.  I made a mental note to break that moral of his should we survive that day; it could end up being the downfall of us in a later battle.

            For the scene that was developing though, it served to only build the already substantial apprehension between the two.  As Yush slowly staggered to his feet, cupping his shoulder injury with his left hand, Crono stared blankly right through the Caprian, like he was to be disregarded as an insect.  Needless to say, the captain of the assault team didn’t liken to Crono’s glare.  “What the hell are you staring at?”  He grunted through clenched teeth.

            “Not much.”  Crono articulated quietly as he shook his head.

            “Fuck you.”  Yush replied, swallowing down his obvious pain and dropping into his fighting stance.  Crono bent his knees slightly, and placed a hand loosely on his sword hilt.  Yush eyed the piece of weaponry for several seconds then taunted, “So you need a sword to beat me?  Can’t do it with your own two hands?”

            Crono squinted slightly as he regarded the quip from Yush.  Every fibre in my being wanted me to scream out “Don’t listen to him!!” but my throat held no power to voice my opinion, and I watched in apprehension as Crono gripped his sword by the handle and then ripped the entire weapon from his belt.

            He held it vertically in the air, glaring at Yush, and tantalizing the Caprian with every movement he made.  “Nikita!”  He suddenly yelled out.  To say I jumped five feet in the air would be an understatement; it was more like forty or fifty.  My heart felt like it was ready to blow from out of my chest, and my head began to throb from the sudden rush of blood.

            It took me a while, but I managed to reply, “A…ah, yes?”  I asked tentatively, my voice and hands trembling heavily from being spoken to in the middle of this tremendous battle.

            “Hold onto this for me, will you?”  Crono wondered, as he bent his arm and then hurled his sword at me.  It came quickly at me, but not fast enough for me to miss.  I easily caught it and slowly lowered the light piece of strongly wrought metal to my side.  My voice was caught in my throat again, but mentally I said “Gotcha.”

            “Better?”  Crono asked in a deep, thorough voice, sweeping his hands outward to show he was now totally unarmed.

            “Much so.”  Yush replied, nodding slightly, a small grin on his face.

            “Good.”  Crono said smugly, a smile forming in the corners of his mouth as well.  Suddenly he zanzokened out of sight, and resurfaced right behind Yush.  The red-haired fighter leaped forward with a fist, but Yush was not to be out-matched so easily.  He shifted to the right, causing Crono’s fist to whiff to his left.  The teal-skinned fighter brought the leg that was nearer to Crono up from the ground and swung it at the tunic-clothed warrior.

            Crono zanzokened away again, appearing directly in front of Yush, and swinging another fist at the Caprian’s skull.  This time it was Yush’s turn to zanzoken behind his opponent, who easily located the Caprian and ducked to avoid the vicious sidekick aimed at his temple.

            Rather than play the zanzoken game again, Crono sprinted from the ground, using the floor like a sprinter does his starting blocks, and shot across the ground, leaving a trail of dust behind him.  When he was a fair distance away, he whipped around to face Yush, who had blasted after Crono in an attempt to catch the fused fighter.  Yush leaped at the hybrant’s position and lead in with a ki-covered fist.  Crono jumped out of the way of the attack at the last second, shooting off to the right, towards the now far-distant city.

            Yush twisted to face Crono, just in time to see the new Z warrior spring off of the ground back towards the Caprian warrior.  Yush didn’t have time to escape the small kick Crono sent his way, so he was forced to block it with his forearm.  As soon as he did so, Crono fired a series of rapid punches towards Yush.  His arms moved too quickly for me to see, but Yush managed to keep up, and wasn’t struck by a single blow.  After maybe four seconds of attempting to reach Yush with fists, Crono zanzokened away, up and far above Yush, at least half a kilometre into the sky.

            Yush craned his neck up to see Crono, quickly catching him in his line of sight.  He instantly powered up with ki and shot after the hovering hybrant.  Crono was not easily taken though, and zanzokened again, right in front of Yush.  The Caprian hadn’t seen it coming at all, and managed no defence as Crono brought his leg up and struck Yush straight in the jaw with his foot. 

The teal fighter was hurled backwards by the kick, sent skidding across the sky on his back.  Crono flew after him at full speed, and when the red-haired man had caught up, he fired a ki blast at Yush from above.  The blast struck nothing but ground though, as the armor-less Caprian zanzokened out of the path of the surely fatal blast just in time.  It blew open a small crater in the ground just a few hundred yards from my position, and sent a shower of red-coloured pieces of shrapnel flying into the air.

            While the small light show called an explosion occurred on the ground, the two combatants continued to duke it out in the air.  Yush had caught Crono off guard after zanzokening behind him, and was striking viciously with all kinds of physical attacks when I looked back into the sky.  While Crono was the defender, he didn’t seem overpowered in the slightest, and after a few seconds, it was he who was attacking Yush with his fists and feet.

            Yush was suddenly hurled away from Crono by a sidekick from the hybrant warrior.  The Caprian was disoriented for a split second; long enough for Crono to zanzoken behind him and deliver a punch into Yush’s hard, scaly back.  Yush didn’t let the punch faze him though, and swung a wild kick at Crono, who easily stopped it with his right arm.  As soon as the kick had been blocked, Yush seemingly bounced around in the opposite direction, doing a quick 180-degree turn, and bringing his palm into Crono’s neck with a huge amount of momentum.

            Crono couldn’t hope to recover before Yush snap-kicked him in the stomach, and then punched the hybrant with a hook to the face.  The red-haired man began to slowly fall to the earth, a small trickle of blood floating gently behind him.  Yush let him descend, taking the opportunity to catch his breathe and swathe his sores.  Crono wasn’t out of the action long though, gathering himself in mid air, focusing a large piece of ki into his hands and then firing a two-handed ki beam through his legs, directly at Yush.

            The blast was powerful, but moved too slowly, as Yush easily flew out of its path, and Crono was unable to alter the beam’s trajectory enough to set it after Yush again.  Instead Crono halted the beam, turned to face Yush and then rocketed after him at full speed, his red aura flaming all around him.  Yush didn’t seem all that eager to restart the battle, so instead of facing the hybrant, he too immersed himself in ki energy and flew off into the sky.

            Crono traced Yush’s course exactly, and was soon following the Caprian movement for movement.  The two of them shot across the sky at speeds I hadn’t even seen in my wildest dreams.  Yush soon began making sharper and sharper turns, cuts and boosts of speed, but Crono didn’t lose even a metre of ground to the Caprian, he was with him every step of the way, which made me wonder how quick his reflexes and reaction rate must’ve been.

            The pair played the game of cat and mouse for a little while, maybe fifty seconds, going all the way from the borders of the city to far beyond the expanse of my vision into the opposite field.  Then, when the duo was directly in front of the others and me, Crono made his move.  His ki power exploded as his red, flaming aura intensified dramatically and his speed increased radically.  Before I even knew it had happened though, he was flying downwards into Yush and had knocked the Caprian face-first into the ground right in front of the boulder we still hid behind.

            His body collided violently with the already wrecked section of ground, sending another wave of dirt and grass into the air as another tiny crater was formed on the skin of the Earth.  As soon as Yush had connected with the floor, Crono swooped down to the ground and plopped himself next to the crater, arms crossed, waiting patiently for the Caprian to pull himself out of his hole.

             The seconds, and then eventually the minutes, began to pass.  Yush had risen up from the ground, but had yet to step out of the crevice.  He just stared at Crono, an evil scowl on his face and his muscles tightened and impulsive, like he had developed some sort of nervous twitch.  He whispered something to Crono, far too quietly for me to hear.  Whatever it was he said, Crono’s arms fell to their sides, his head tilted to the side slightly, and his hands turned to fists.

            Suddenly his shoulders began heaving, and the look on Yush’s face changed, to one of twisted joy and ecstasy, a very disgusting look considering he was now missing a tooth.  Crono slowly brought his clenched hands in front of him, and screamed out “You’re wrong!  I will defeat you, you don’t even stand a chance!”

            I was surprised by the sudden outburst, but even more surprised by Yush’s reaction.  He just tilted his head back and laughed.  It was a hideous, wicked laugh, which sent shivers down my spine and filled me with a sudden lust for blood, his blood.  Crono must’ve felt the same, because he didn’t waste any more words, just spoke with his actions.

            He snap-kicked directly forward, and since Yush was still standing in the depression on the ground, the kick planted itself straight into the Caprian’s tilted jaw.  The kick was delivered with such force it sent Yush flying out of the crater and into a hill a few metres away.  Even as Yush collided with the rise, resulting in a huge “SMACK” sound, he continued to laugh.  This simply angered Crono more, resulting in him flinging his arm up and firing a ki blast at Yush’s amused face.  The Caprian didn’t even make an attempt to dodge or block the attack, simply let it make contact.  The resulting explosion was rather small, but it had enough punch to utterly decimate the hillside into nothing but a smouldering patch of grass, and leave Yush’s body lying flat on his back, his entire body giving off a grey-white smoke.

            Crono’s face was twisted in anger and terror, like someone had just told him the boogieman was going to come and get him.  He dropped his hand to his side, and slowly began walking towards Yush, his previously confident steps now hesitant and uncertain.  Whatever Yush had said, it’d upset Crono enough to shake him into fear. 

             Yush’s floored body made no movement as Crono came nearer, just a few twitches here and there.  It wasn’t until Crono was towering over the Caprian that any action was taken at all.  Yush pushed with all his strength, crooking his neck upwards and gazing at Crono.  The fused warrior just looked down in disgust at Yush, a faint hint of pity weaved into his set jaw and rigid eyebrows.  Both of them continued to stare at each other for a number of seconds, and it was during that time that I really noticed the subtleties of Crono.  The first thing I picked up was how handsome he was.  I thought it strange at first that I hadn’t noticed earlier, but I reasoned there’d been more important things on hand.  His arms, though covered in muscle, were fairly skinny, at least compared to the other Z warriors.  His skin was nearly transparent, so clear you could almost see right through it.  His hair was in spikes so thick it seemed impossible to manage, like a saiyans hair.  That must’ve been Triono’s legacy.  His face was grim and bleak, but it didn’t affect his good looks in the least; in fact it may have even magnified them.  I wasn’t usually one to preach vanity, but his face just held some kind of hold over me, and I suddenly found myself unable to tear my eyes away from him.

            Before I could announce any sort of opposition to his actions though, he’d torn himself away from my vision.  Suddenly, Crono had leaped high into the air, at least fifty feet, and then, at the apex of his jump, turned to face Yush.  His ki blew up around him, and then in one quick motion, he was flying full speed, right towards Yush.  As he began his rapid descent, he screamed.  In the single, fleeting second it took him to go from the air to the ground, I thought we’d won.  Then, Yush ravaged that notion.

            I’d seen a lot of amazing things that day, the most noticeable of which was the amazing speed and strength both Yush and Crono possessed, but how Yush zanzokened out of harms way before Crono reached him simply mystified my mind.  I knew it happened almost instantly though, as the only sound that greeted my ears was of Crono’s knee being driven into the dirt that had previously lay underneath Yush’s body.  I don’t think Crono knew it had happened until it was too late.  Suddenly Yush had appeared to the hybrant’s left, and had delivered a savage sidekick to his temple.  Crono was hurled to the side by the kick, and slid along the rough ground for a second or two before coming to a halt on his stomach, his face burrowed into the soil and grass.

            He didn’t even make a move after the kick had been distributed, and any sort of humanity would’ve told Yush that he’d probably killed the fused fighter with the blow, that he was most likely nothing but a limp body now.  But the Caprian was not satisfied, he had to do more than just kill Crono, he had to humiliate him.  Yush shot high into the air, much like Crono had done, and also similar to Crono, rocketed towards his opponent at suicidal speeds.

            This time though, the attack found its mark, the back of Crono’s spine.  Crono’s neck and legs shot up in some sort of reflexive pain, and the hybrant screamed out in agony as Yush drove his bony knee deeper and deeper into Crono’s spinal cord.  Crono’s ki signature began to fade, dwindling lower and lower with each passing moment.  It wasn’t until Yush repented from his senseless torture and rose from the ground did the hybrant’s power intensity begin to level off.

            Any normal, honourable fighter would’ve been content to wait until Crono could rise to continue the fight, but Yush was not a normal fighter.  He’d been embarrassed by this mysterious fighter, outmatched in both strength and speed (all be it very slightly), and something told me Yush did not like to be beaten at what he did best.  So instead of waiting to continue and possibly finish the fight, the Caprian captain sustained the beating he was delivering.  He bent down to Crono’s unmoving head, grabbed his fiery red hair in his left hand, and pulled the half-saiyan, half-human up from the ground by it.

            He then pulled Crono higher and higher, till his arm was fully extended; Crono’s feet didn’t even touch the ground anymore, he was being hung.  Yush turned around on his feet, whipping Crono around as well, until he was facing our group, which was now hovering slightly above the rocks.  “You see this?”  He yelled, spitting out small bits of blood, and pointing to Crono’s ripped and torn body with his free hand.  We all turned our attention to Crono, saw the painful expression he had on his face, his cut and ruined tunic and pants, his now torn and tattered hair.  “This is what happens to people who challenge Captain Yush, and the whole freaking Caprian army!”  He screamed out, in an almost childish, confrontational tone.  He then extended his arm outwards slightly more, letting Crono’s feet just barely brush the ground, and then placed his unused hand behind Crono’s back.  “They die.”  He said, much more calmly.

            My world was turned upside down with those two words.  It was the way he said them, like the choice had already been made, like Crono had already been killed, and it was too late for any of us to do anything.  As the Caprian began charging his ki, I stared at Yush, silently screaming for this bastard to stop, to spare the life of this man that had just so recently captivated me.  Even as I did so, I knew it was not to be.  There was something in Yush’s face, something that hated me, something that I’d seen in my past, something I hadn’t wanted to see ever again, something he’d stolen.

            It was his eyes.  They were not his own, they didn’t belong to him, they belonged to another man I’d hated with my entire being.  Those eyes should not have been in Yush’s face, they should’ve remained in my father’s head, which lay dead and at the bottom of the ocean, where it belonged.  Now this fucking bastard thought he could come in here and pick up where my dad had left off.  I couldn’t let him continue my father’s reign, couldn’t let him hurt the people I cared about, or the place I called home.  I felt the hatred boiling inside me, growing with each second the eyes remained in Yush’s skull.    

Then suddenly, I didn’t see Yush anymore, I saw my father, with his own eyes once again.  And with my father came the memories, the ones I’d locked up deep inside my heart.  The fear, the pain, the agonizing sting of his body coming into my own, and then the terrifying loneliness; the kind that cut me off from the outside world for so long, that disconnected me from the life I was entitled too.  His eyes, they still carried the same message “I’m going to hurt you, and there’s not a thing you could do about it.”  Whenever I heard that thought echo through my head, I became paralysed in fear, like it held some invisible lock over my body.  I couldn’t let my dad win, I couldn’t let him get the best of me, I had to set him straight once again, I had to break the fortress of solitude he threw me in every night he had his way with me.  I had to kill him.

I erupted.  I just exploded out of the seclusion I’d allowed him to put me in, and then I set myself to work.  My scream could only be matched by a dying planet, and my speed could not be equalled by anyone.  I shot from behind that boulder with such ferocity I literally shattered it right down the middle with my ki.  Before Yush could dodge my attack, or much more importantly, kill Crono, I was upon him.  I had so much momentum with me when I delivered my first punch, it literally broke my hand, my bone just wasn’t strong enough for all that power driving itself into Yush’s rock-hard body.  Fortunately for me, Yush hadn’t been expecting it at all, and was driven off his feet by the punch, which also meant he dropped Crono into a heap on the floor.  My anger continued to flow through me quicker than my blood, and I wasn’t satisfied to simply hit Yush to the ground, I had to hurt him, for even trying to take my father’s place.  I hopped up into the air slightly, and then charged as much power as I could into my feet, and then drove them right into Yush’s stomach.  I felt with a hideous sort of pleasure as one of his ribs broke, and the air rushed out of him.  Then I shoved Crono a few metres out of the way using my mind, and shot into the air again.  While Yush lay on the ground in pain, I hovered in the air and began reaping the very last of my ki energy into my palms.  My mind was still boiling in anger, in pure hatred, but my body was fast running out of adrenaline to power my need for revenge.  I knew this would be my last chance to injure or kill Yush, so I made sure it counted.  I gathered all the power I possibly could, and even then some, and then when I felt I’d gone beyond my max, I clasped both hands together and shoved the energy out of my hands, and into Yush.

            The white beam of ki energy I fired was at least ten feet wide, and twice as high, and it moved fairly slowly, but Yush was in no position to dodge it.  Before he had recovered from my first two strikes, the beam was on him.  It collided with his body with a huge impact, rocking the surrounding ground with enough strength to crumble some of the surrounding grounds.  The beam itself only lasted a second or two, then my ki reserves ran completely out, but in that small time frame, another, gigantic crater was formed; at least twenty metres in diameter.  I later found out I was lucky I didn’t strike Crono in my rage, but at that point in time, all I could see was my father, hidden within the body of Yush.

            The explosion sent up so much dust and dirt it took nearly a minute for it all to clear.  I waited anxiously, taking in deep breathes to replace the oxygen I’d expended in the attack.  The wait seemed to take forever, but when finally the powder and grains of land settled, there, in the new crater, stood Yush.  He was looking directly up at me, and he looked very pissed off.

            I floated there in the air, terrified beyond the life of me, just trying to conceive how Yush had survived my assault.  His chest and back were cut, but other than that, he didn’t seem any the worse for wear.  I just couldn’t understand how he could come out of the explosion in nearly the same shape he entered it.  I finally came to the realization Yush was just far too powerful to be severely injured by any of my attacks.  He was on a pedestal I just hadn’t reached yet, one no one else was even close to reaching, besides Crono.  It kind of put everything in perspective, how powerful the two of them were, beyond anything I could ever hope to achieve.

            While I floated there in genuine terror, Yush just slowly began to float upwards, right towards me.  I wanted to just fly away, to get out of that monster’s way before he could hurt me again, before he could become my father incarnate.  My body had no way to carry out my will though, so I hung there in the air, completely defenceless, unable to even scream out a cry of help, or of pain.

            I tracked Yush intently as he slowly climbed the air, eventually coming to eye level with me, just a few feet in front of me, and as my heart beat ceaselessly, I began to know the true meaning of fear.  The Caprian commander looked me straight into the eye, then slowly floated closer and closer, just like my father.  Then, when we were just inches apart, he bent his neck forward; I closed my eyes in dread and whispered in my ear.  “No good little girl would do something like that.”  I clenched my jaw shut, and tried to hide the tears that were forming in the sides of my eyes.  “That’s why you deserve this.”  The tears poured their own way out, as the words I’d heard so many times in my early youth were spoken once again, rendering me completely useless, just like my dad had said.  I was alone again, completely and utterly alone, with no one to help me, no one to save me from this abomination of humanity that I called a father.  The punch came quickly from Yush, directing itself right in my stomach with all the ferocity of a lion’s jaw.  The organs inside my torso were shook around, as a huge well of blood shot its way up my insides, burning my throat as it ejected itself out of my mouth and onto Yush.  I was sent backwards by the hammer like blow, as I doubled over in pain.  Yush just continued to stare at me, angry, always angry.

            I looked up at him, pleading with my eyes and my bloody mouth for pity, for salvation; but all I found were my father’s eyes, and I already knew the answer those eyes returned whenever mercy was requested.  Yush brought his fist up to beside his head, tilted his elbow so he would have perfect trajectory to strike me in the skull and finish my life.  I wanted to close my eyes, if only to not see the final punch coming.  But my eyelids wouldn’t shut, like I had no control over them.  More tears streamed down over my cheeks, like a river of pain.

            Before Yush could deliver his fatal swing, there was a flash of blue, green and white in front of my eyes, and then Yush’s face was sent flying, far, far away.  All I remember seeing is him soaring so far into the distance I couldn’t pick up his teal skin in the now mid-morning sun.  Slowly, I turned my tunnel of vision back to the point Yush had previously occupied.  There, like some sort of vigil soldier, floated Crono.

            His face looked worried, careful, and upset; it took me a few seconds to realize he was concerned about me.  “Are you ok?”  He asked in a quiet voice.  He placed his hand on my shoulder lightly; a harsh contrast to the violent, hard-hitting man who’d just knocked Yush clear across the landscape with a dynamite kick.

            “No, he hit me pretty hard there.”  I answered back weakly.  I tried to straighten up out of my hunched position, but that just hurt much more.  “I can’t really move.”

            “Here,” he said, “this may help.”  He brought his hands up to my shoulders, closed his eyes, wiped his face of any expression, and then slowly began pushing ki energy into my body from his.  I was about to protest he would probably need that energy more than I, but almost instantly the pain dulled, and I was soon standing straight in the air, my pain virtually non-existent, and my insides feeling a hell of a lot better.

            As Crono opened his eyes and looked into my own, I asked, “How’d you do that?”

            “To tell you the honest truth, I’m not all that sure.”  He paused for a second, and then gave me a weak smile “Seems like I’m doing a lot of ‘firsts’ today.”  I just nodded, unsure of what to say.  Crono then continued, “Thanks for saving me out there, I owe you one.”

            “Uh, no prob.”  I managed to gasp out.

            He nodded, and then turned away from me to face where Yush had been kicked and said, “You should probably get with the back with the rest, it could get dangerous around here.”

            Rather than just agree, I asked a question “Do you think you’ll be able to take him?”

            “I think so, unless he has some new move in his bag of tricks, I think I’ll beat him.”

            That was reassuring, but I just wished he had Kaioken, so he could just overpower Yush and finish the fight before he got hurt.  “Too bad you didn’t keep the Kaioken attack in your arsenal after the fusion, that’d be really helpful right about now.”  I added, almost as an afterthought before heading back to Karnai and the others.

            “I did.”  He replied, surprising the hell out of me.

            “What?”  I asked, exasperated.  If he had Kaioken, that changed the entire mechanics of the fight, it meant he could surpass Yush at basically any time he wanted.  “Then why aren’t you using it?”  I asked, accidentally throwing in my motherly tone.

            “I have been, the entire time.”

            That’d make sense, considering Kaioken gave the user a red aura, and could multiply the person’s power level fairly dramatically, which Crono seemed to have done a few times in the fight.  “What multiple have you been using?”

            “Ten for the most part, although I did up it to 11 once or twice.”

            “Well why don’t you just increase it to 15 or 20 and waste Yush?”

            He turned his head to face me again, and answered, “You have to understand, I’m basically a newborn here.  I just came into existence a few hours ago.  I don’t know the limits of my own body, and I don’t really want to blow myself up in my first fight.”  That made sense, and I silently cursed myself for my stupidity.  I didn’t have much time to feel unintelligent though, Yush suddenly came flying at Crono and I like a blazing ball of teal fire.  “Go now, and tell the others to watch out, as well.”  He warned.

            “Ok, thanks again.”  I whispered to him as I quickly began flying down towards Karnai, Yukia and Arsenia behind the remains of the boulder they hid behind.  Half way down though, my curiosity got the best of me, and I turned to see what was happening between Yush and Crono.

            Yush had covered the ground between the two of them in record time, and both of them were now staring off in mid-air, Yush wiping blood from his face and Crono falling into his battle stance.  Suddenly Yush yelled out, “You haven’t even seen the full extent of my power yet.  You don’t stand a chance!”  Crono just regarded him carefully, like he was trying to figure out if Yush was lying or not.  The Caprian slowly raised his hands, bent his neck forward, and soon every muscle in his body was bulging to their full extent.  His ki power began to rise, ever so slightly, and then as he screamed out, “Here I come!”  His muscles, one by one, exploded.  They expanded to almost twice their original size, starting off at his shoulders, then the ones in his arms and back, and finally even the ones on his face.  His previously attractive face was now horribly disfigured, like he’d had plastic surgery gone wrong.  His ki was significantly stronger than before, and I slowly understood that he had transformed, changed his body to a more powerful version.

            Apparently Yush didn’t just look like Zarbon, he also had some of the same powers as the old Freeza minion.