He sat up and the contact was broken.

�Dammit.� Solis�s voice echoed softly.

Slowly, the glow dissipated and he could see the figure of Solis crouched on the stone floor. It was then that he noticed all of the shadows surrounding them, shadows that didn�t exist on Balite except in one location; they were in the ravine.

Solis sat across from him, not looking very happy. She had attempted to lift the block while he had slept, she had even transported both of them to a location that was as far away from the drakes as she could get. And even though she had used the utmost care, he had awakened before she could do more than gently loosen the barrier and then his touch had shattered her concentration. Hopefully, with a little prompting, the healing block would fall completely away.

That piece of knowledge didn�t help Solis. On the one hand, it would be suicidal to push him here while on Balite, her home. He would lose control and she would have to stop him. But that was exactly what her new-found instincts cried out for.

Push him.

You want to see his power don�t you?

You want to test it against your own.

She tried to silence the voice, but it was a half-hearted attempt. What it whispered to her was true. She did, indeed want to fight this saiya-jin.

His dark eyes blinked at her. She could see the confusion in his face. He was trying to decide if she had hurt him, for he knew that she couldn�t--wouldn�t--this was Solis after all, the female who�d saved his life, who�d given him a new life and a name and friends. She was his friend. But then, why did his head hurt?

She said, �Do you know who you are?�

�I . . .� He winced as pain bombarded him. �My name is Miracle . . .�

Solis watched his pain as if from a great distance. Something that she did not recognize goaded her, spoke through her. And she didn�t want to stop it. �No. That�s a lie.�

�Solis . . .� His face closed in pain. The muscles in his neck stood out from the stress of keeping the rage inside.

�I asked you that question once before. Do you remember what you told me?�

� . . . no . . .�

�You said --�

� . . . s-stop . . .�

�--akuma.�

His eyes went wide and his breath was coming harder, as if someone had just delivered an energy blast to his gut. �. . . Solis . . .� She�s my friend.

But then, why is she hurting me?

I don�t understand.

�. . . solis . . .�

He was shivering now, shivering with his power as it screamed out to be unleashed. His fist clenched tighter.

�Who are you?�

� . . . miracle . . .�

�Who are you?�

You�re hurting me. � . . . your miracle . . .�

�Who are you?�

Solis! Don�t do this. � . . . nuhh . . .�

�That�s no answer. Who are you?�

I can�t . . . can�t stay here with you if you make me remember! Don�t you understand that, Solis? Solis . . .

�WHO ARE YOU?!�

� . . . make it stop . . . Solis . . .�

She moved so quickly that he almost couldn�t see her. And then something struck him across the face. He blinked, his jaw throbbing. He turned his face back toward her. Why?

His mouth moved to form the word, but he could feel his power gathering in silent, instinctual response to her assault. It took his breath away, it was that strong, that swift, that unstoppable. Don�t. I want to stay . . .

And then he felt his conscious thoughts melting into the boiling rage.

Solis felt his energy increase dramatically. Her instincts took over and she leapt back. As soon as had she gotten out of range, the rocks around them began to crack. Golden wave after golden wave of compressed ki boiled off of him. The ravine shuddered at the raw power. She watched his face. His teeth were clenched together, his hair was churning in the wake of his energy. It shifted from black to blue to lavender, and then he threw back his head and released the power within him in a single, shattering, war-cry. She could feel the surge of energy rush up to meet his wordless request. He was bathed in golden light, and then he was golden as well, his hair as pale as her own.

She felt the power crest and felt him settle himself into it. Any moment now, he would look at her and the battle would begin. She had no desire to be trapped in a ravine when that happened. Silently, she leapt away, onto the plains. She knew that he would follow her ki, and as she soared up, his head turned toward her and silently tracked her movements.

Two sensations swamped her simultaneously. She felt the intense freedom of shedding the weight of his madness and she was grounded by the heavy pounding of the blood in her veins. She stood, feet braced apart, shoulders square over her hips, and hands fisted before her, waiting for her opponent to emerge from the ravine.

Some deep instinct within Solis responded to the eminent arrival of her challenger. Of its own accord, her power increased and she felt herself tapping into the nearly infinite power of Balite. Beneath her feet, the earth began to shake, shuddering under the weight of the demands that she was making of it. New fissures snaked along the curving surface of the planet, reaching out like bony fingers from the shadowed ravine. The popping and grating sound of falling rock, the insistent rumbling protest of the world, the strange whine of power as it gathered around her in wave after cresting wave of golden light--all of these combined to create a symphony unlike any Balite had ever experienced. It was a symphony of power, destruction, victory, and death, for all of these things would occur before the finale.

The low growl of the planet was interrupted; it paused, as if the planet was holding its breath. Solis felt the sudden rise in energy from within the ground and focused her pale eyes just in time to see golden beams of energy escape from the earth. They spun, rotating around some hidden focus. And then the planet roared. Earth and rock exploded from the depths of the ravine. Where the deep fissure had once been, there was now an expanse of nothing supported by a dusty crater. Her opponent--her friend--hovered just above its surface.

�You want to know who I am?� His voice was a low growl laced with enough ki to destroy any mere mortal who was within hearing range.

Solis watched him through narrowed eyes. As the dust settled, his transformed state was slowly revealed to her. His muscles had gained in mass and his pupils had completely disappeared within the whites of his predatory eyes. She made no reply; none was needed. She had unleashed this monster, and there would be no stopping him now that he was finally free.

He seemed not to notice his opponent�s lack of response. �I am Burori, son and destroyer of Paragus.� His lips twisted into a cruel smile. �I invite you to meet your own destruction.� His arms rose from his sides, palms up, beckoning.

Solis smiled back. �I am my own destruction.�

With a thought, the earth crumbled away beneath her feet and she was speeding toward the massive structure that was her opponent. Her right hand fisted and swung forward as she drew within range. She knew that he watched her, that he sensed her power through the wild haze of his own. And yet, he did not move.

Her fist smashed the hard muscles of his abdomen. The force of the bow sent both gladiators tumbling toward the side of the crater. The colors of Balite blurred as Solis�s gaze remained completely trained upon the other saiya-jin. She recorded his eyes� widening in surprise at the strength of the blow. And then his face closed into a dark, ominous scowl.

With a sinewy twist of his body, Burori reversed their positions; she would be the one to take the full force of the impact with the side of the crater. She had no time to move out of the way. She sensed the shift in his ki as he prepared to return her blow. Her arms crossed over her face quickly, and his fist smashed into them.

The rock wall behind her was getting much closer.

Just a little further . . .

The blow sent her soaring faster into the obstacle. Ten meters left . . . five . . . two . . . one.

Now!

She bent her legs and absorbed the weight of the impact and pushed off in one smooth motion. She glared at Burori, her gaze giving away none of her intent. His scowl deepened when he realized that she wasn�t slowed down by his attack. Although his eyes were empty, his entire concentration was focused upon her as she attacked. He prepared for her onslaught and saw her silent smirk one moment before she disappeared, moving so fast that he temporarily lost sight of her.

His eyes went wide and a startled sound escaped his mouth when her leg smashed into his back. He turned and her fist connected solidly with his jaw.

He growled as he disengaged to better examine the obstacle in his path.

Even if his mind hadn�t succumbed to the madness, he never would have recognized her. Beneath heavy brows, golden eyes stared back at him. Her hair was long and stiff, falling over her brows and down her back. Her frame was supplemented by muscles that had doubled in mass. Golden fur hugged her neck and then thinned to evenly coat what was revealed beneath her top of her torso, arms, and hands. Her tail was golden as well and wrapped around her waist. She grinned at him, showing off sharp, pointed teeth.

She said, �It would be a shame if you gave up now, even if it is the smart thing to do.�

Her boast made him laugh. The sound echoed off of the curving wall of the crater, causing more fissures to crease the planet�s surface. His face grew serious. His blank eyes bored into her. �Who said anything about giving up?�

He presented his profile to her and lifted his arm. Solis stared into his empty palm and waited.

The attack was furious. Burori�s body easily absorbed the stresses caused by launching energy blast after energy blast in quick, continuous succession. Before him, his opponent�s body was obscured by the smoke and dust of the exploding energy. Slowly, the cloud expanded with each attack until it nearly blocked out the entire horizon before him.

He fisted his hand and sent a silent snarl at the offensive scene before him. �Ch�. Have I crushed it already?�

Bits of rock rained down on the battlefield while Burori waited for his question to be answered, one way or another, by the slowly clearing debris. Time was ticked off by the slow pounding of his blood in his veins. One minute . . . two . . .

And then the rocks still tumbling from the sky began to slow in their descent. They slowed . . . then stopped . . . and then reversed their direction. Within the cloud of dust, an energy level skyrocketed. Dust began to spin around the hidden source and a cyclone was created by the debris generated from Burori�s attack.

�No. You�ll have to do better than that, Burori.� Through brief, sketchy windows in the storm, he caught glimpses of intense, golden eyes staring out at him.

�Hn. So be it.� Before he�d stopped speaking, he�d launched himself at the swirling storm. He pressed through the spinning dust and rock, his fist swinging in a great arc toward where his opponent waited, where he�d seen the intense gaze. He caught nothing but air.

He glanced up just in time to see the golden figure begin to glow as she powered up for her first attack. She held her hands about a foot apart, palms facing each other. Twin spots of light pulsed from the center of her palms.

Teeth gritted, Burori attacked before she could. He charged her in a reckless abandon of power. Solis waited, unconcerned with his approach, and continued drawing her ki into her palms. His voice rose in volume as he ascended, closing fast. The dust swirled about them, cocconing the two of them in a finite, brown-gold universe. There was no up, no down. And there was only one way out of it.

Solis�s eyes drifted shut.

She could feel Burori�s ki. Close. Very close.

His madness fed her rage and she felt the desire to kill. It was a blinding sensation that rushed more energy through her body than she would have thought possible. The energy seared her, stinging her mind and muscles. Her bones hummed with it.

It ends now.

No. Too soon.

Can�t stop it.

�Sorry, so sorry.�

He was close enough to hear her whisper before it was snatched away by the circling storm. And then heaven and hell and life itself exploded between her hands and everything went black.

She opened her eyes and screamed as the energy conducted itself through her finite being. She watched as the golden blast completely enveloped the man she�d saved from death only a short time earlier.

From a distant part of her brain, she heard the echoes of a radio transmission she�d heard so long ago. The lord giveth, and he taketh away . . .

She heard his cry of rage and surprise and pain as he plummeted toward the planet�s surface. The air around her resonated when his body smashed into the rock below.

I�ve got to stop; I�ll kill him.

The energy blast drove him further and further into the rocky earth. She felt his diminishing power like it was her own, but the power flowing through her only increased. It refused to be halted. With a cry of determination and pain, she focused on moving her hands. Muscled bulged. Sweat pooled and slid over her body. Her eyes went wide. Her teeth ground against each other. Slowly, her hands inched toward each other. If she could only close the distance between her palms . . .

�Aaagh!� Her hands made contact with each other.

She thought, Please be alive, in the brief instant before her attack was turned back onto herself, and an explosion rent the sky. The shock waves pounded the small planet, shaking loose rock and rubble. The world groaned in both warning and protest. And then white light filled the sky and consumed everything.

�I see something!�

�Yeah, it�s called WHITE.�

�I�m serious, ya�ll. Look there.�

Everyone followed the direction of Peppermint�s claw and scrutinized the landscape before them. A slight shuddering motion betrayed the existence of something that had managed to survive the battle. The drakes rushed forward, heedless of any danger to themselves.

�Solis!� Peppermint came to a skidding halt next to the saiya-jin. She was on her knees, shivering as if she were being devoured by the chill of deep space. Her eyes were wide, her face pulled back into a horrifying mask. She made no sounds. She made no effort to show that she�d heard Peppermint at all. If she knew that anyone was near her, she ignored them completely.

�I�ve found the male!�

Peppermint looked up at Audovauld who was crouching over something strewn with dust and rocks.

�Is he alive?�

The old drake nodded in reply to Peppermint�s inquiry. �Yes, he�s hurt and unconscious, but he�s alive.�

�. . . get him . . . out . . . of here.�

Everyone turned and stared at Solis. She had not changed her position. She still shivered, holding herself together with her arms wrapped around her body.

�Solis?�

� . . . my . . . father�s . . . craft . . .�

Her voice was that of a stranger�s. Her mouth moved reflexively while her sanity crumbled around her. The shrewd, black eyes of the drakes examined her for a heartbeat.

�I understand, Solis,� Audovauld said and moved forward to lift up the prone man.

The part of Solis that she�d managed to keep separate from the chaos that had her body stretched on a rack of pain listened and observed while the drakes dug Burori out of the rock. She listened as they carried his body off to where her father�s craft--the only one available on Balite--was stored. She sat, afraid to move; her entire being shuddered as if the tiniest disruption would be enough to shatter her into millions of pieces. She couldn�t measure time through the swirling chaos in her mind. But she silently felt the change in Balite�s atmosphere as the single-man pod sped into space. She felt Burori�s energy within it; it was faint, but he would live.

She closed her eyes and felt the swirling blackness encroach. Drained of all her energy and not able to care any longer about the consequences, she fell head-first into it.

She was unconscious before she hit the ground.