A/N: You guys might find some grammatical mistakes in this chapter. I am giving you all a heads up but those who know me know that none of my stories are planned. I wrote this and the next chapter in a hurry. I don't know why but I did and so you might find a few errors but nothing much.

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Hermione came out of her training room, feeling tired after a three hour practice with her duelling techniques. Sweat covered her face and neck as her top was wet, too. Her breathing was a bit heavy but in control. After all these days, she had increased her stamina and style of duelling remarkably. If to be honest, she thought she could easily put up a challenge and win in a duel against professor Flitwick, who was the best duellist in all of Hogwarts.

As going towards the room she was using while she lived here on the Lookout, Hermione heard powerful cries and shouts of Gohan. It had almost been a week after they had returned back from the Kai Planet and Gohan, since that very same day, had started training hard. For a moment, she was amazed as she saw his speed and ferocity but then again, this guy had destroyed almost twenty dementors in front of her and she already had a glimpse of his power. Thanks to all that Hermione didn't seemed that surprised now but she was still surprised every time she saw him train. Seeing the way he moved, his muscles tightened and relaxed, she felt a bit odd felling inside herself, a feeling she had come to like now.

After taking a bath, she had come to her room where the breakfast awaited her. Mr Popo clearly took a great care of this place but she still didn't feel good that someone like Popo was putting up effort for her and Gohan. She held the short man in high respect for two reasons- one that he was the Guardian's assistant and two; he was a bloody great teacher. She had even talked to him once regarding this matter but Mr Popo had denied her requests with a gentle smile. she requested him several times but all she could ever get in reply from him was that it was his job to take care of them all and he was more than happy for that. So, even though she hated it, she accepted all of this with a faint smile she gave to the Guardian assistant.

The food was delicious, as always. The varieties were also mouth watering and Hermione knew, with all that duelling practices and her own martial arts training which Mr Popo taught her, her physique had increased a great deal. She had even developed packs and a little muscle. She had never imagined herself with all those muscular looks but now she kind of liked it. Even Gohan had complimented her on that and she flushed at his comment, much to her own surprise.

Eating silently in the large room, she heard someone enter. Turning towards the door saw her looking at Gohan. He had showered as his hair was still a bit wet. His muscles looked more toned and tighter with his veins visible over his skin.

Gohan smiled at her and Hermione smiled back as the half Saiyan joined her on the table. They both ate in silence. There was hardly anything to talk about. She had been told about everything from Gohan's timeline from Gohan and she had told him about her life from her own timeline. Neither of them wanted to discuss about the current situation. Though Hermione missed her parents like hell, she knew everything will be fine at the end. She knew they would succeed but didn't know how long it would take them to. For a moment, she even cursed the damn time turner which had brought them all back. Gohan had told her it was a different time turner and would bring the travellers back in their original timeline only after their mission was completed. Also, if any of the travellers died in the different timeline, the remaining ones will also not be able to return back.

She knew Harry would be wished back like the rest of the people using the dragon balls. Kami had already begun working on making the new balls but being old and re-creating the balls once again was certainly going to take time- a lot of time. Gohan had also told her that they could go to Namek any time and use their dragon balls but it would be a waste to wish for the lives of the Earthlings before dealing with the problems. But they agreed to keep it as their backup plan.

Finishing up the breakfast, both teenagers came out of the palace to enjoy the sun and the breezy morning. It was a pleasant weather but they hated that it was going to be ruined. They had planned to go down and have a look, hoping to find some leads over Merope's plans and works. No one knew what her real motives were, not even Kami. No one blamed him either because if someone like her could hide herself from the Old Kai's eyes, then Merope could easily hide herself from Kami's as well.

"Are you ready?" Gohan asked with concern. It was only the second time for Hermione to go down, her first time being the trip to Hogwarts where the carpet of their friends and professors had impacted deep inside her.

"I am," she said in a husky voice.

"But you don't sound like one," Gohan said.

"I am still afraid, Gohan. But I think I need to go down there. Like I said- I need to embrace the reality. I can't keep running away from it no matter how weak I am against it," she said with a bit determination.

Gohan looked intently at her as Hermione kept looking down towards the Earth as they both stood on the edge of the Lookout. For a moment, Hermione reminded him of Videl but when he thought it more closely, he realised that he had not seen Videl this strong ever. It was true she was a strong fighter but her determination wasn't as strong as Hermione's.

"As you wish. And you know we can come back anytime you want, right?" he asked.

Hermione merely nodded, still looking down, towards the clouds floating below the Lookout. Gohan took her hand which she clasped on his waist tightly. She used her other hand to do the same as they both rose up in the air and started descending down. Gohan was flying slowly, careful enough to not drop Hermione as flying with someone clinging to him was something he found rather difficult. He could not forget the day when he had to take Bulma, Trunks and Yajirobe away from the androids when Dr Gero and his other android 19 had attacked. He had almost dropped Bulma and Trunks twice.

As they descended, the white and light clouds were left above them and were soon replaced by black clouds with lightning coming out from them from time to time. Hermione gripped Gohan tighter to protect herself from those millions of volts of electricity. Gohan, realising this, let his ki envelop them both and the lightning issue was over. It was nothing compared to Gohan's powerful ki. He nodded her head and smiled when Hermione muttered a 'thanks' as they keep on descending down.

"The clouds are getting darker," Hermione said.

"Not only darker, but weirder. I am sensing some weird kis in them. They are a lot denser than the rainy clouds, too. This was not here the last time I had come down," Gohan said with concern.

They touched the ground and Gohan let her away from her so he could examine the surrounding. He noticed there was a different kind of a decaying smell in the air- different from the rotting smell of human and animal flesh. His eyes only widened when he saw the plants and trees, along with the small grasses below him and Hermione were decaying, too. He saw Hermione who was also looking shocked at this.

What was happening?

It appeared as if the whole planet was dying, decaying under some sort of an illness which had enveloped the whole sphere. Gohan let kis ki senses heighten up and felt the same ki everywhere. It only meant one thing- whatever was happening down here was happening to the entire planet. if this continued, then even the Dragon Balls would prove worthless as they will have nowhere to spread themselves on the planet. Kami could no longer sense anything from the planet. he had told Gohan that for the Guardian's eyes, the planet had been hidden, just like the magical world was in Gohan's timeline.

Holding each other's hands, the two vanished away and appeared right in front of the castle of Hogwarts. The sight which said that even the ruins of the castle were decaying only added to their shock.

"The magical world always said Hogwarts was a living soul. Maybe that's why?" Hermione spoke.

The Forbidden Forest and the small woods surrounding Hogsmead had gone decayed a long time ago.

Gohan looked at Hermione who looked back at him, her eyes twinkling with determination. Understanding her, he took her hand and they vanished again, appearing at the entrance gate of Hogwarts which was the only thing standing on the ground. But even the great metal gate had corroded away to most of its sections and parts. Entering through the corroded gate, they both had to close their noses and mouths as a stinking, sickening smell of decay and rot attacked them. Hermione took out her wand from her free hand and applied several air freshening charms around them but it all went in vain so she conjured masks for them both and only then did they felt relieved.

As they entered further through the ruins, they saw the now decaying bodies of everyone. No one was recognizable which was probably a good thing as they never thought they could bear to see one familiar face in this condition. They did, however, recognised Dumbledore's now decaying corpse only because of his robes. The old and thin bastard deserved crueler end than this but Hermione knew thinking like this was not a right thing to do.

"We should probably do what we came to do here in the first place," Gohan said. Hermione nodded and they walked the stairs to go to the upper floors.

Thankfully the seventh floor was destroyed far lesser than the lower floors, probably because hardy anyone came up here but the debris were still there. Gohan and Hermione felt the stuff they had brought with them before Gohan walked three times in front of a wall.

A rumbling sound was produced as the wall turned to a door, much to the teens' happiness. The castle wasn't completely dead. They looked at each other and smiled again and then walked through the door. Hermione recognised what the room represented. It was the same room they had come in during their fifth year when Neville had first found it. a small fire was lit in the black fireplace which had a mirrored wall and a few wooden dummies faced like death eaters.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" Gohan said and took out two stone chips from his pocket.

Hermione also took out two small stone chips from her pocket and they both headed to the opposite ends of the room, each one of them standing on the opposite corner of the room. Gripping the engraved stone chips in her hand, Hermione looked at Gohan.

"On the count of three- one, two... three!" Gohan said and with that they put the stone chip on the floor, in the corner of the room at the same time.

Same thing they did once again to the remaining two opposite corners of the room and now, each corner of the room had a rune stone. Gohan looked at Hermione who already had her wand out in her hand and the spell on her lips. He smiled.

"Sinest-an-taro!" she said and waved her wand in a really complex jig for almost ten seconds before she spoke the spell in reverse and suddenly each rune stones emitted a light which moved like a scanner's light, scanning every section of the room from its place and after a minute, the stones went back to normal.

"Do you think it's done?" Gohan asked.

"I think so. Let's check," Hermione said and they went to their respective corners and saw the stones.

The engraved runes on those stone chips were glowing a faint blue. Their work here was done and they put the stone chips back in their pockets and came out of the room.

"We also need to tell Kami what has happened down here," Gohan said as he held Hermione's hand and they vanished away in thin air.

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A shadowy figure watched the two teens vanishing away and smiled an evil smile. Merope's plans were working fluently and she knew she was going to succeed. But one thing worried her- she could not sense Gohan's future anymore. Whenever she tried to go in his future, she would end up in the Timeline where Gohan was a high school student. This had intrigued her as never before had she been denied to know someone's future. Hermione's was well known to her. The Granger girl was going to die, just like her parents had. But Merope also sensed altercations in Hermione's timeline. But its influence was so small that it could be overtaken without force.

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Appearing on the Lookout, Gohan and Hermione found Kami and Mr Popo waiting for them both. Gohan and Hermione handed the stones to Popo the first thing after arriving at the Lookout and the short man looked intently at those stone chips with engraved runes. The runes were glowing a faint blue which confirmed that soon enough a new room was going to be introduced inside the palace on the Lookout.

As Popo walked away towards the palace, Kami turned to look at the teens. It would not take even a child to realise that these teens knew something.

"Kami, Earth is dying," Gohan said straight and simple. He knew rounding up his words wouldn't help him.

"I need you to be more precise, Gohan. My vision towards the planet has been blocked. I can't sense anything at all. For me, it feels like there's no Earth at all," Kami said.

Gohan took a deep breath before he began.

"When we reached down there, we saw the remaining life forms, that is, the flora of the planet dying. It appeared as if they were decaying straight away. The corpses have also decayed. Fortunately, we got to Hogwarts in time but like you said, the castle, which had gone up to become a living soul due to the magical presence of witches and wizards have also began to decay. The Room of Requirement however was in a safe condition for us to have our work done," Gohan said.

Kami's face became grave. He gently put both his hands on Gohan and Hermione's head and took in their sights of the now dead Earth. His breath hitched as if he had an attack. Gohan and Hermione caught him before he could fell. They saw Popo came out running towards them. The assistant's face expressed extreme worry and care for the Guardian and friend.

"We have to take him inside," Popo said quickly and Gohan and Hermione nodded before Gohan picked Kami up and they ran towards the palace.

"What is happening to him?" Hermione asked.

"He is likely to accept that he failed as a Guardian to this planet," Popo said in a worried voice. "When that happens, the Guardian dies. We will have to convince him that it wasn't his fault,"

"It WASN'T his fault!" Gohan cried. For the half Saiyan, all Gohan could think was if Kami dies, things will take an ugly turn and nothing will be left. The Lookout, in the absence of a Guardian for more than a week, will disallow anyone to stay on it except for Mr Popo. And that would not be the only thing to worry for.

They put Kami in his room which was built especially for the Guardian as Popo went out to find the cure to Kami's pain. Gohan and Hermione remained beside Kami who kept whimpering and crying due to the pain and the defeat he felt was his responsibility- a task which he had failed to achieve.

Gohan watched intently as the Guardian tossed on his bed. For a moment, he saw Harry in Kami's place. It was the same way Harry had tossed around on his bed that night as he died due to the pain. He, for a moment, saw 16's shattered head in place of Kami. That it was his fault 16 had died by the hands of Cell angered him even now. Over the time, many had expected from him but he had hardly delivered to them, far less in the right time. He had lost his father, then Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Choutzou, Krillin and many more to the hands of evils. And he was there, seeing all of this through his own eyes, helpless enough to not help them.

He was afraid.

Gohan felt the same sensation he had got after 16 had died. He felt the same sensation when he had watched Krillin being blasted inside out by Frieza. He felt the same sensation when Nappa had killed Piccolo, and Raditz his father.

Popo ran inside the room with a round vial in his hand which had a bluish liquid inside it when he stopped cold.

The entire air inside the room had got dense enough to choke anyone. The crackling of the power could be seen as frequent electric flashes. It appeared as if the entire Lookout had been supercharged.

Hermione could not believe what he saw in the eyes of the boy who stood beside her. Gohan's veins had bulged out enough to burst up as they contracted and relaxed as the blood inside them flowed at high pressures.

And then the floor began to shake.

Hermione quickly hold the bed to prevent her fall as Popo did the same by grabbing the door where he was standing.

"I..."

She turned to look at Gohan and gasped.

"I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HER FOR THIS!"

And with a valiant cry, Gohan blasted out of the room, leaving a high end turbulence behind him which shook everything on the Lookout to its core.

Hermione and Popo got themselves up as they looked out in the direction towards which Gohan had flown away, leaving behind him a shaking Lookout and a whole shaking planet.

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Whis was disturbed off his silent meal when his cane appeared in front of him. The yellow ring which surrounded the black sphere on his cane was glowing. Narrowing his eyes, Whis caught a hold of his cane and tapped it once on the floor and the figure of a planet appeared in front of him. His eyes widened for a bit as it was the same planet he had gone to when he had felt an entity's ki coming from it. What surprised him the most was the fact that even being a god, he couldn't find the entity. He muttered a curse for his laziness. Had he been a bit more attentive when he was free, instead of trying new experiments with his food, he would've known who this new threat was. He was assured that the Supreme Kai or the Old Kai would know about this threat but Whis didn't want to make an appearance without Lord Beerus.

His eyes widened as a shadowy figure appeared before him in the projected images of Earth. And it looked like it was waiting for someone with high patience and a feral grin on the face. From everything Whis could see through his cane, he guessed this person was a female and a minute later he was proved right.

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Gohan didn't know where he was going. He was flying blind with rage and power. Seeing Kami had broken the dam inside him and he had blasted out of the Lookout like anything. But now, after flying for half a minute did he realized he didn't know where he was going but he felt not to stop and continue. And what surprised him more was his own ki. He was pulsating with power he had never felt before. He could see the front few locks of his black hair flashing yellow and while they did that, they grew in length.

Gohan knew what was happening to him bit he was afraid, scared that something like before will happen to him. But then again, who was here to get hurt from him. So he let his boundary of power break for the final time as a yellow light, brighter than the sun, enveloped him as he kept flying.

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The ground developed a crater as a yellow light landed on it. The shadowy figure smiled again, her hood covering her face. Her powers didn't deceive her yet again. She mentally complimented herself as the yellow light started to fade in front of her and she smiled when she saw Gohan's final form looking at her with a lethal sight.

Gohan was now a Super Saiyan 3.

"Don't you want to know how you got here, Gohan?" she asked, her hood covering her face.

For a moment, Gohan stirred but kept up his angry face as he looked at her and answered, "Does it matter now? I don't care how powerful or how dangerous you are. I will kill you."

"Oh, will you? I was thinking we could've had fun for a little while before we could, you know, kill each other? But it looks like I have to now impress you since you've managed to impress me a bit with that little transformation of yours," Merope said and removed her hood.

He felt as if the ground itself has shifted off from below his feet as he looked at the smiling face in front of him. He quavered with emotions and logical thinking, recognising the debate both of them were currently having inside his head as Gohan tried to keep himself balanced.

"So, do you like me, Gohan?" she asked.

"Videl?" was all Gohan could say before he blacked out.