It’s called “Fighter’s Reflex.”  Some refer to it as “Fighter’s Reaction” or “Warrior’s Impulse”, but whatever the name, it was the main staple of a good fighter.  It was basically the ability to do what is needed, as an impulse, while in battle.  An example would be if someone came up to you and threw a punch at your face.  Most people would naturally bring their hands up, close their eyes and lean backwards quickly in a vain attempt to protect themselves.  The Fighter’s Reflex made a person stave off their natural human instincts and react in a way that would actually protect themselves, such as moving sideways to avoid a straight fist.  Most people would never grow this reflex, but through years of training, and many punches to the head, one could grow the Fighter’s Reflex.

            Every one of us had, at one time or another, developed this reflex, some of us more easily than others.  I knew that Karnai had the reflex naturally, being a Namek, and Gideon had seemingly been born with the instinct, probably passed on from Tien.  I didn’t even know of the reflex until after I arrived on Earth, and then found I too, had the natural ability.

            So I was surprised as hell when I realized after our battle with the weaker Caprians that this group of warriors didn’t possess the reflex.  The Kalandrilian I fought, for example, would fight erratically, seemingly not knowing what to do while his fighting.  I noticed that with Karnai’s and Kennard’s battles as well, the Caprians had no concept of the Fighter’s Reflex.  It seemed like their bodies were too powerful, and that it had over-ridden their mental conditioning and training, the stuff that would control the Fighter’s Reflex.  That was the main problem with their training; they just didn’t have the mental defences to protect the training they’d first received since joining the Caprian army.

            All that changed with Triel.  I could tell from his swagger as he walked out, he had that certain spring in his step that only someone with the Fighter’s Reflex could attain.  He almost pranced out into the middle of the grassland in front of the huge crater and just stood there.  He grounded himself in the field, a cool, confident face plastered onto his skull, without a worry in his purple little head.  This seemingly new development of the reflex is all that prevented me from flying out there and wiping the positive looked right off his ugly mug.

            Instead of doing anything rash, we all convened a few hundred metres away from Triel’s position to discuss the situation.  We huddled together in a small circle, and Karnai began, “Should we all just rush him?  Even with Yush and that big guy ---“

            “Blanka.”  Kennard interrupted.

            “Even with Yush and Blanka,” he continued, “we outnumber them pretty badly.  I say we just jump him, and then after that take our chances.”

            Gideon retorted “If we start a free for all right now, the person we wished back won’t have time to make it here and help us out.”

            “That’s true.”  Karnai admitted.

            “Well,” Yukia piped in “I guess that means one of us has to face off in a duel against this guy.”

            “Yeah.”  Arsenia almost whispered.

            “So,” Kennard said, “any volunteers?”

            I thought it over, but I knew this guy was out of my league.  I gauged his power to be somewhere near Gideon’s, and less than Karnai’s.  I could tell that both of them were hiding their true power though, and that Triel had no such technique to mask his full power.  Of course everyone’s eyes gradually drifted to Karnai, while the Namek just stared empty-headedly at the ground.  I could see Arsenia open his mouth to ask Karnai if he was willing, but Gideon interrupted.  “I’ll go.”  He announced silently.

            We all turned to look at him, and he looked each of us in the eye.  There was something in his black, hollow eyes that just lifted everyone’s spirits, it always had.  That was part of what made Gideon such a good leader; he brought your hopes up without doing a single thing, just gazing into your eyes.  “I can take him.”  He announced.

            He rose up to his full, imposing height and looked past all of us, straight into the heart of Triel.  Suddenly his eyes turned a harsher, more deadly shade of black (if that’s possible), and I knew Triel was in for it.  Our circle broke apart and Gideon confidently strode out, right at the Caprian.  As he grew nearer, the two stared each other down, neither willing to give into the other’s penetrating glare.  The tension in the air built with every step Gideon took, until you just wanted to scream out at them to start the damn fight already.

            Once Gideon was just a few paces away from Triel, he stopped and faced the Caprian warrior.  His fists clenched, his neck craned forward slightly, and a small white mist began to slowly float up from his body.  His ki began to rise dramatically, until soon it had far surpassed that of anyone else’s on the battlefield.  As he powered up his muscles grew slightly, his back rippling in exertion, his neck vein bulging out of its regular place, even the muscles in the back of his legs expanded slightly, until soon his usually loose gi was tightly wrapped around his body.  The ki steam continued to rise, but soon his power level began to grow more leisurely, and then eventually stopped all together.  His muscles reduced in size ever so slightly, but he still looked like a tightly wound ball flesh.

            Triel wasn’t shaken at all by this new development, like he’d known it was coming and had already accepted it as part of his fate.  The purple warrior just stared at the black-skinned one, eyes fixated on nothing but his opponent.  Gideon matched the Caprian’s level of concentration, until both were so engrossed into each other I thought they might’ve been dating.

            Any thought of a friendly relationship forming between the two was quickly decimated though.  Triel attempted to spring on Gideon while the human’s guard was down, but Gideon would have nothing of it.  Triel’s leading jab was easily blocked by Gideon, as was the alien’s next five punches, all of which occurred in less than a second.  Once the quick flurry was over, the two separated for a few seconds, and then were at it again, this time both of them throwing the blows in rapid succession.  Their legs and hands moved far too quickly to track individual movements, but the blurring motion they made was sufficient enough to see if the match was tilting one way or another.  The site of their engagement produced a bright white light created by the clashing of their powerful ki’s.  Each time one of their blows connected with the skin of the other, a “Bang” sound was emitted, so loud my brain rattled and my tail almost slipped from its place around my waist.

            As the battle continued the ground underneath their feet was gradually worn away by their ki’s and feet.  Soon there was a small crater formed beneath their feet, their forms burrowing lower and lower into the ground with every second.  Neither seemed to notice though, they just continued to trade fists and kicks at an almost alarming speed.  Suddenly Gideon broke the redundant pattern of attack, defend, and attack again.  He zanzokened up and away from one of the oncoming fists of Triel, appearing above and behind all of us.  As we turned to see him he just floated there in the air, staring at Triel and taunting the Caprian with his fixation.

            The grounded fighter caught sight of Gideon after a few seconds, and quickly shot after him, a trail of bright white ki flaring up behind him.  Before he could get halfway to Gideon though, the human zanzokened right in front of Triel and caught the Caprian by surprise.  Gideon easily managed to punch the amazed Triel right in the stomach.  The Caprian’s armor cracked, and he was hurled backwards from the blow.  He clasped his stomach as he was recoiling, but instead of keeping track of his opponent, he concentrated on his injury, like he was stunned he could be hit.  Gideon saw this and charged up a dynamite kick, then let Triel’s jaw and his ki charged foot become well acquainted.  The Caprian’s neck was snapped back as Gideon followed through, flying far past Triel, almost fifty metres.  Triel just lay in the air horizontally, clutching his face; his entire body almost inviting an attack.  Gideon didn’t disappoint, flying high above Triel and then coming down on the armor-less stomach of Triel with both knees.

            While both warriors were sent to the ground, Gideon’s body was firmly in place on top of Triel’s and when they connected with the ground, only one of them felt the brunt of the collision.  A cloud of dust and dirt went up from ground zero, and the earth rumbled slightly, forcing me to catch my balance.

            When the grime floated away, Triel lay twitching in a small crater, just a few feet away from Yukia and the rest of us.  Gideon was no longer atop the fallen warrior, but he was standing at the edge of the small crack Triel’s body had created, looking down at the beaten and trampled Caprian.

            No one made a sound or movement of any size, not Gideon, not any of the other Caprians, not even Triel.  After several seconds of stillness, I began to wonder if perhaps Gideon had already won the match.  If that was the case, Triel must’ve been far weaker than I’d previously thought.  The silence continued for almost a minute, and then finally there was a stirring.

            Triel’s previously unmoving form began to rise up, all be it very, very slowly.  Gideon just let him get up, obviously very confident in his ability to once again defeat Triel.  Even as the purple-skinned warrior stood up to face Gideon, the human just stared intently at his rival; arms limp at his side, shoulders unmoving.

            Triel wiped a trickle of blood from his jaw, and then suddenly shot upwards from his small crevice in the earth, straight towards Gideon, fist out-stretched.  The dark form of Gideon easily dodged the wild swipe though, shooting straight into the air, ki flaring all around him.

            Triel’s face became over-run with his anger at not being able to even touch Gideon.  He screamed out some unearthly roar and then fired a small ki blast from his hand at the airborne combatant.   Right before the green blast struck, Gideon enclosed himself in a white bath of ki, and then blasted away.   He circled around in the air for a few seconds, and then flew off to a small ledge of rock about a kilometre away.  He appeared as only a small black dot against the golden white light of the sun.

            Triel was almost shaking in fury, and I thought for sure he was going to fly over there and just start trying to kick Gideon’s ass.  Instead he tried a very unconventional manuever.  I believe the attack he used is called a Kaiko, or something of the like.  I’d never even tried using it, but I knew what its use is.  It’s basically just an incredibly fast moving ball of ki, travelling so near the speed of light even the most highly touted eye cannot see it.  Triel shot it from his palm, and I assumed it was aimed towards Gideon, but instead it struck the small block of rock Gideon was standing on.

            I saw that Gideon managed to hop up slightly to avoid the explosion caused by the invisible energy blast, but I sensed he had no idea what was going on, like he was a confused child.  I knew Triel could sense this as well, and I considered jumping in and holding off the Caprian until Gideon got his wits about him again, but as it turns out, I didn’t even have a chance to.

            Triel suddenly blurred out of view, and when he solidified again, he was directly behind Gideon.  I could tell by their gaping mouths that everyone else was as surprised as I was.  To cover an entire kilometre in less than a millisecond was near impossible without a power level near 150 thousand.  For Triel to do it, and even more astounding, to appear behind his opponent, was quite a sight to behold.

            Unfortunately for Gideon, Triel didn’t bask in his own greatness.  He caught the surprised human’s shoulder with his left hand and drove his right fist straight into Gideon’s spine.  Immediately after, he brought his right leg up and roundhouse kicked Gideon in the head.  The black-skinned human crashed into a few nearby trees and bushes, the only plant life in the vicinity of the fight.  Triel followed after him like a hunter that had just seen the weakness in its prey.  All the thinking parts of my brain screamed for me to fly over there and help out, but my feet felt like they weighed a billion tons.

            I wouldn’t have ended up doing much anyways though.  Right as Triel was nearing Gideon’s position, a flash of white light shot out from the light batch of bushes.  It impaled itself right into Triel’s stomach, and I realized it was actually Gideon himself.  His knee was thrust into Triel’s stomach, forcing the Caprian to bend in half at the waist.  Gideon didn’t relent either, as soon as he followed through with his knee, he started punching Triel repeatedly in the face and head.  After only a few seconds Triel’s remaining armor was in shambles, his head was swollen, bruised and bloody and he looked like someone that’d seen far too many battles in his time.  His body was so worn down by each of Gideon’s blows the Fighter’s Reflex had disappeared, replaced by fatigue, pain, and an overcome facial expression.  Triel tried desperately, and unsuccessfully, to dodge each blow, and one after the other, they made contact.

            Once Gideon felt he had sufficiently pummelled the fight out of the Caprian, he double axe-handed him straight towards Blanka and Yush, who stood silently at the lip of the crater near their spaceship.  Triel rocketed towards the pair, and landed just feet away from the expressionless form of Blanka.

            Triel was lying facedown in the dirt at Blanka’s feet.  His body was unmoving, but he was alive, his ki was strong enough for me to know that.   Gideon slowly floated over towards the rest of us, a calm look on his face, a bloody gash across the side of his head.  Once he touched down beside Kennard, all eyes turned to Blanka, Yush and the fallen Triel.

            For quite a while there wasn’t a whole lot to watch; Triel struggled to his smouldering hands and knees, Yush looking at nothing in particular, Blanka staring at the struggling Caprian with a disapproving, almost disappointed look on his face.  In the pause in the action, another ki signature came to the forefront, and I recognized it as Nikita’s.  She was just a small ways behind us, and as she began to wake up, Yukia flew over and helped her to her feet.  She seemed well enough, but was still a little shaken from the beating she’d taken from Triel.

            Both she and Yukia slowly joined us in front of the Blanka/Triel scene.  The two seemed to have created a sort of invisible link between each other.  Triel had a dejected, nearly ashamed face plastered on, while Blanka seemed to treat his fallen comrade like a lowly insect of sorts, just waiting to be squashed.  Their facial embrace lasted for several seconds, and then one of their faces was destroyed.

            I don’t know if someone else saw it coming, but I know I sure as hell didn’t.  The two were staring at each other for what seemed like forever, and then there was a sudden flash of bright light from Blanka’s hand, and then when the smoke cleared, Triel was gone; a fiery crater where his body had been.

            Not in all my wildest dreams had I even considered the execution of a fellow warrior.  With one single explosion of ki, Blanka had warped my entire idea of what “Fair fighting was.”  Of course Prince Vegeta had, on more than one occasion, done the same thing, but there was something about that specific death sentence that had more meaning and hatred in it than any other I’d ever heard of.  The bond the two had just seconds before Blanka axed his ally showed just how ruthless and cold-blooded the Caprians had been trained to be.  It sent shivers down my spine.

            I could feel the surprise from all the other Z Warriors as well, it had shocked us all; at least, almost all of us.  Gideon was completely unmoved by the display of pure brutality.  He just stared right at Blanka, if not right through him.  Blanka continued to stare at the spot of Triel’s execution, his face rigidly set in the form it had been before he killed his assistant.

             Slowly, the hulking warrior turned to face our silent leader, and soon became fixated on Gideon’s face.  They’re eyes locked for several seconds, as I breathed deeply, waiting to see what would happen.  Once they’d finished staring each other down, Gideon heaved his shoulders up, and then rapidly brought them down again.  With that he took a hesitant step forward, as did Blanka.  Before Gideon got far though, Nikita hopped forward and gripped his shoulder tightly.  “Are you sure you want to do this?”  She asked in a stern, motherly voice I never thought I’d hear from Nikita.

            I didn’t know if she was questioning him or just worried, but she did have a point.  As strong as Gideon was, Karnai was probably a bit more powerful, and that strength would be needed against a brute like Blanka.  He turned his head to face her and replied simply “Yes.”   She nodded and unhurriedly dropped her hand.  He turned back to face Blanka and continued the trip to his foe.

            They met at about the halfway point between Yush and our group, giving each other a few metres of space so as not to begin anything prematurely.  They did exchange some words before beginning the battle, but they spoke so quietly I didn’t pick up on it.  I know Karnai heard it, what with his Namek senses and everything, but the rest of us were left out in the cold.  Whatever it was they said, neither of them seemed to upset or angered, probably just something about keeping the nearby city out of the battle or something.

            The fight began in earnest soon after.  Gideon seemed almost irritable, a rare performance for the human warrior.  He started the fight quickly with a darting punch at Blanka’s head.  He almost landed the blow too, but at the very last second, the Caprian zanzokened out of harms way.  He reappeared directly above Gideon, but remained there for less than a blink of an eye.  Before you could say “I”, he’d zanzokened again, this time so he resurfaced a few metres behind the bare back of Gideon.  He did it so quickly that I barely saw it, and Gideon didn’t even know it’d happened until after he realized his fist hadn’t connected.

            Gideon whipped around to face Blanka once again.  There was a hint of surprise (and maybe, just maybe, a tinting of fear as well), in his face.  He dropped into his fighting stance, his breaths coming in slowly and deeply, his shoulders hauling up and down with the effort.  Blanka just stood facing our delegate, a nearly blank look on his face, the smallest allusion of a smile forming at the sides of his lips.  I knew Gideon, knew that even the smallest suggestion of a smile in battle would just enrage him, but this time, it did nothing.  Gideon almost seemed tired, like he’d already given the fight his all, and was running on empty.  It was a scary thought, that our most recognizable leader was drained, but there was something else in Gideon’s face that just said, “I don’t want to be here.”  I’d never seen it before, and it didn’t seem to suit him at all.  I gazed deeper into his face, hoping to find the strong, confident visage I’d known since I’d first arrived on Earth.  Hard as I tried though, it just wasn’t there.  All I saw now was the scared, overpowered, and worried face that Blanka had given Gideon.  I had no idea what was wrong, what had happened or was happening to Gideon to give him this defeated look, but I knew what would happen if it remained.

            I didn’t like it one bit, but I kept the personal contemplation to myself, no need to upset the others, although I’m sure some of them noticed as well.  There was a short pause in the action as Gideon collected himself and Blanka prepared for the next attack.  Gideon approached this strike more calmly than the previous one, faking with his right fist before diving forward with his left.  Blanka didn’t bite however, and easily evaded the blow, bending backwards at a 90 degree angle at his hips, as Gideon’s fist cruised over the Caprian’s torso.  Gideon recovered before leaving himself open to attack though, and bent his arm as it hung overtop Blanka.  He then brought his elbow straight down towards the stomach of the bulky warrior.  Once again, I thought for sure Gideon had made contact, but once again Blanka simply zanzokened away at the last possible second.

            Gideon’s elbow passed harmlessly through the air, an embarrassing “Whoosh” sound emanating from the missed blow.  Even as Blanka reappeared off to Gideon’s right, almost right in front of our group, he remained in his off-balance position where Blanka had just been.  For a while it seemed as though Gideon would remain in that pose, like he had thought “He’s too damn fast. I’ll just give up.”  Of course this was Gideon, and he was not to be taken so lightly.  In less than a blink of an eye, he had lashed out his right hand, and a stream of yellow ki was pouring out of it, heading straight towards Blanka.  The beam was so thick and bright it was nearly blinding.  I was forced to squint, which prevented me from seeing Blanka once again zanzoken away.  I knew Gideon’s blast hadn’t hit though when his ki beam struck a huge slab of rock about a hundred metres behind me.  The resulting explosion was huge; there was a yellow sphere of excess ki energy slowly expanding from the base of the blast, there was a huge bang sound that rocked the ground, and I was nearly thrown off my feet by the clash of ki energy and lifeless soil.  My tail was thrown from its position around my waist, and I had trouble keeping my balance, but the explosion soon resided into a dwindling cloud of dust, and when I was able to open my eyes fully again, they came to rest upon the scene of Gideon and Blanka facing off in the center of the large field.

            I knew Gideon had thrown a lot into the huge blast, and after it had turned out useless, I’m sure he almost felt like giving up.  His ki reserves were still plentiful, but he for some reason he seemed tired, like that one large discharge had drained the strength out of him.  Blanka seemed as serene as ever, like he hadn’t even begun the fight.  It was almost scary really, how calm and tranquil he appeared, an eerie sight to say the least.

            Gideon was obviously becoming concerned and restless about his in-ability to lay a hand on Blanka.  He was sweating heavily, so much so his pants were damp with perspiration and his skin was glistening under the sunlight.  His entire body was tense beyond belief.  If I’d have dropped a pin on the ground he probably would’ve whipped around and killed me with a ki blast, he was so jittery.  I decided to open a telepathic link between the two of us, something we’d developed right near the end of our training under Kami.  “Gideon.”  I began.  “Gideon, what’s wrong?”

His reply was quick and almost hostile “Nothing damnit.”

I was almost taken aback by the aggressive response, and was almost afraid to ask, “Gideon you look worn down out there, what the hell is happening?”

His answer was quieter and less antagonistic this time, but it still held a slight edge of hatred in it “He just caught me on an off day, that’s it.  Don’t worry, he’ll find he’s met his match.”  He said the words, but he didn’t say them with the “Gideon” authority we’d all come to associate with our black-skinned leader.   It almost didn’t surprise me when he attacked with another un-coordinated, easily evadable manuever.   As soon as I saw him prepare his legs for the dynamite kick, I knew it wouldn’t work.  He couldn’t touch Blanka with simple attacks; he had to outsmart the Caprian into attacking him and then striking when he least expected it.  Of course me knowing that wasn’t such a great help to Gideon, and I didn’t want to risk interrupting him in the middle of his battle.

            Once more Blanka zanzokened out of the way of Gideon’s dynamite kick, re-emerging far above the human fighter.  Once Gideon touched the ground, he turned around at full speed to face the huge Caprian, and screamed out “Renzoku!”  He then raised his hands from their sides, and rapidly began firing huge, cylindrical ki blasts out of his palms.  At least fifty of the shots came out of Gideon’s hands in the first five seconds, and absolutely none of them hit their target.

            Blanka easily zanzokened out of the way of the first wave of the yellow tubes of ki, rapidly disappearing and then reappearing a short distance away.  Gideon’s aim was far off, like he had no idea where Blanka would be appearing next.  I was far less powerful than Gideon, both physically and mentally, but even I could tell where Blanka was zanzokening to each time.  Gideon seemed to be flinging the ki attacks with no real care if they hit their mark, almost like he was doing a chore rather than fighting for his life, and the life of everyone else.

            For two straight minutes Gideon continued to fire shot after shot madly at Blanka.  The sky was turned yellow as blast after blast soared into the atmosphere, past Blanka. I don’t believe a single blast ever touched him, he expertly eluded them all, sometimes using Bukujutsu to fly out of harms way, but usually zanzokening at an astounding rate.  It wasn’t until Gideon had expended nearly all of his power that the game of mouse and cat ended.  When the human finally stopped shooting his ki attacks, his breathing was so laboured I could hear it from almost two hundred metres away.  Blanka had been hovering overhead when Gideon had stopped firing, but he knew as well as I did that Gideon was now running on basically no energy; an opportunity too tempting to pass up.

            He zanzokened directly in front of Gideon so quickly I didn’t even have time to yell out a warning.  Gideon tried vainly to raise his arms in defence, but the punch came far too fast.  It landed right on Gideon’s jaw, and was so powerful it whipped his head back, forcing the rest of his body to follow.  He was sent flying at startling speeds straight into a small mountain about five kilometres away from his previous position.  He shattered the huge stone right down the middle with his body.  It collapsed onto him in a million sharp, jagged pieces of rock.

            Something inside of me just snapped, and I couldn’t contain the sudden urge I had to fly over to him.  I surrounded myself in white ki energy, and at my highest possible speed, flew over to him.  I reached him within a few seconds, and quickly tracked down his ki signature to near the edge of the crumbled pile of rocks that had buried him.  I dashed to the source of the signature, and promptly saw Gideon’s form on hands and knees at the border of the rocks.  As I approached him I opened my mouth to see if he was all right, but before I could say a word, his hand shot up from the ground, palm exposed in a signal to “Shut-up.”

            I closed my trap, and watched in pain as Gideon spat up at least half a litre of blood before shakily getting to his feet.  Soon Yukia and Karnai were beside me, all of us staring intently at Gideon.  He didn’t return any of our looks though, he just bore down on Blanka, who was still standing a good distance away, ogling our leader across the distance.

            I looked back and forth between the two opponents, felt the tension building with each passing second, and then realized exactly what would happen.

            Gideon stood no chance against Blanka.  It was simple as that.  Blanka was simply far too fast for our endeavouring hero.  There was nothing Gideon could do to match the power and speed of Blanka, we just hadn’t had enough time to prepare for him.  I knew Karnai was more powerful, but not by enough.  He too would not be strong enough to match the Caprian warrior.  As soon as all this hit me, I knew almost instantly what would have to be done.

            Even as Gideon exploded into a massive ball of ki and shot himself straight to Blanka, I was beginning to draw the type of energy I knew I’d need.  By the time Gideon reached Blanka and was hopelessly trying to strike the Caprian with fists, I had almost completed gathering the power I required.

            I watched in terror, dread and hate as Blanka began to assert his obvious full power against Gideon.  He struck him in the stomach hard first, then hitting him in the jaw to send him high into the air.  As he zanzokened to drop kick Gideon in the chest, I finished collecting the light energy in the palm of my hand.

            I began forming it into a small ball of ki in my palm as Gideon was sent sailing from the double-legged kick from Blanka.  Once Blanka had zanzokened behind Gideon’s fast-moving body and planted an elbow deep into his spine, I completed the sphere, and turned directed my eyes towards it.

            As soon as I gazed at it, the hairs on my arms and legs began to frizzle.  Soon after my heart began pounding much faster than normal.  A sort of tingling grew in my stomach, and suddenly I lost all control of my tail, as it began to thrash around violently, just waiting to be used.  Every single muscle in my body told me to throw the bright ball of light energy which would perfectly simulate the full moon, but my brain had several other ideas.

            The last time I had transformed, I’d killed one of the few people I’d considered a real friend.  I’d cost him his life, and it was all because of my own stupidity.  I’d been trying to control my Oozaru form for the entire time since Cris’ death, but I couldn’t learn how to control it without actually transforming, which I was far too scared to do.  I had no idea how to contain the destructive urges that pulsated through my veins when I was transformed; didn’t even have the slightest idea of how to direct them towards my opponent, as opposed to my ally.  There was nothing inside of me to prevent me from killing Gideon or any of the others if I transformed.  If I did it, I could be just as dangerous as Blanka, or even more so.  I couldn’t do that again; I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I ended up killing one of my other friends, much less if it was possibly the one that could save our universe from destruction.

            Then, in the corner of my eye, I saw Gideon.  Blanka’s elbow had obviously done some damage, and his body fell limp to the ground so slowly you couldn’t count the seconds on your hands.  I watched in dreaded wonder as his body made a small thud on the ground.  Everyone rushed to him, but my concentration wandered, back to the source of his pain, of his defeat.  Blanka floated above the fallen warrior, a huge smile on his face.

            The saiyan inside of me exploded.  I knew right then what my mission was, and with all my might and a scream to match, I hurled the ball of light from my palm into the sky.  My task was to succeed where Gideon had failed, to destroy Blanka from existence, to hold on until our saviour from the heavens would arrive.  The terror I held within myself from my murder of Cris was evaporated into nothingness.  It was true there was no guarantee I would not kill my own partners, but I had no real choice, I could only have confidence in my own body and mind.  I silently cursed myself for not having faith in my saiyan body before and then I was whole again.  I watched with anticipation as the small moon I’d thrown reached its fullest height.  My tail grew calm in anticipation of its long-awaited utilization.