This chapter is brought to you by Alpha Shenron
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Family Reunion
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The last time Gohan had died he was resurrected so quickly that he only had enough time to see Yemma stamp his record before he was returned back to the realm of the living. But now for once he was able to see part of Otherworld beyond Earth's check-in-station. Granted it was Hell but that was still better than nothing.
As he descended from the giant crack in the sky, Gohan looked around. He could see the giant Blood Fountain that his father had told him about several miles to his left. Spires of iron spikes formed a large mountain range that stretched out across the landscape as far as the eye could see. The soil appeared to be a dark red and while at first he thought it was because of a high iron content; Gohan soon realized with his keen eyesight that it was stained with dried blood. Surprisingly the sky was a pleasant pink color with the yellow clouds of Snake Way high above. Gohan was so busy looking at the scenery that he failed to see the two very familiar people directly underneath him.
Gohan slowed his descent and softly touched down on the red ground. Wind whistled by him and carried with it a whisper of screams and moans. Gohan shivered, everything about this place was meant to break a man down, no wonder it was the ultimate punishment for some. To his left Gohan suddenly heard a soft exhalation and the crunch of grating rocks as something heavy went down. Turning to look at the noise, Gohan was shocked to see two people he thought he would never see again. His uncle Raditz and the saiyan warrior Nappa. As he turned he saw Raditz lift his head and look at him.
"Welcome to Hell nephew." These were the first words out of Raditz's mouth and Gohan realized with a pang that these were the first words that this family member had ever said to him in a calm voice, everything else had been screamed or yelled at him.
"You are probably wondering why you are here, am I right?" Raditz asked.
Gohan watched the two saiyans warily before speaking, "Not really, everyone else was pretty clear on the reason."
Raditz scoffed, "They only know what we wanted them to know, the truth is that someone very important wants to see you." Crossing his muscular and tan arms he added, "News of your little trip has spread nephew and some people want it to succeed. Myself among them."
Now it was Gohan's turn to scoff, "And I'm supposed to believe that now of all times you decide to care about your family. It is thanks to you that my sleep is still plagued by nightmares centuries after you died."
Gohan was glad to see that Raditz at least had the good grace to avert his eyes, in shame or embarrassment Gohan couldn't tell.
"When Father found out about that he was... quick to re-educate me on family etiquette. I won't apologize for what I've done, what's done is done and I'm glad that at least in some way what I did helped kill Frieza."
At this point Nappa decided to stand up. As the giant slowly got to his feet, rubbing the sore spot on his stomach, he looked over at Gohan.
"Hey kid good ta see ya."
Gohan and Raditz both just stared at him, silent. Anger started to flood Gohan's mind, being fueled by two different perceptions, but before Gohan could speak Raditz turned and smacked him across the back of the head. "Nappa last time you saw him you tried to kill him, how can you possibly think that it is good to see him?"
"Ow!" Nappa rubbed the back of his head. "So? That doesn't mean I'm not glad to see him I liked the kid."
"You almost smeared the bottom of your boot with his brains."
"Oh yeah... oops." Nappa turned away from his comrade and to Gohan.
"Sooo how ya been little man?" He asked, stretching out his shoulders as he did so.
Gohan gritted his teeth, "I've been fine thank you very much," he spat, "its not like you didn't kill several of my friends."
Nappa's eyebrows shot up and he turned down to Raditz who was shaking his head.
"Yo, I don't think he likes me."
"Why King Vegeta ever made you the General of our army I will never know. Of course he doesn't like you, he probably won't like anyone he meets down here."
"Both of you shut up. Now you said something about people wanting my mission to succeed. What do you mean?" Gohan interrupted. The two warriors looked at each other then back at Gohan.
"Kodai wants to talk to you." Nappa said.
Gohan frowned, "You keep saying that like it should matter, but as far as I know it means nothing. Would one of you just tell me who Kodai is?"
Raditz lifted up into the air and as he did so his tail lashed out and slapped the back of Nappa's head. Annoyed Nappa immediately followed.
"Well nephew, if you want to find out who Kodai is then follow us. Who knows you just might learn something."
And with that Raditz and Nappa took off, the backlash from their takeoff carving out a large trench in the bloody sand. Gohan stood back, mildly impressed even as his cloak whipped back from the winds. If their speed was anything to judge by, then the two warriors had gotten exponentially stronger than they had been in life. Gohan smirked, he was going to enjoy this.
In a rush of ki, Gohan's aura exploded out from his body and he took off after the two. The air parted before him leaving bright contrail lines behind him. Within a second he had covered the miles that separated him from Raditz and Nappa and in the next he passed them. The wake from his passage sent them bowling over head over heels, Raditz cursing while Nappa sputtered.
"How can I follow when you're so slow?" Gohan shouted out behind him. Ordinarily his voice never would have reached the two but he amplified his vocal cords with ki so they could hear him. Gohan's smugness soon turned to surprise as in a brilliant flash of golden light Raditz transformed into a Super Saiyan and grabbed Nappa. Before the bulky saiyan could protest, Raditz rapidly accelerated to Gohan then past him, latching onto him in the process.
"You would have made an excellent saiyan nephew, just watch that mouth of yours. It can get you killed." And with that Raditz accelerated even further and they went into the depths of Hell, and Gohan went further than any other living mortal had ever gone.
xXx
Bardock took a deep breath as he walked through the stone corridor. The smooth walls and floors of the corridor betrayed its construction. If Bardock reached out and touched the walls he could still feel a small flicker of ki, evidence to the power of the blast that melted the stone. He could detect the rapidly approaching energy levels of his son and Nappa, and Gohan with them. That was a good thing as Kodai was starting to get impatient and that was never a good thing. When things didn't go as planned Kodai could get violent.
A loud boom echoed through the air and dust fell from the ceiling landing in Bardock's hair. Frowning, Bardock shook it out. Broly was likely the cause of the disturbance, the man beating his father Paragas up in the makeshift dungeon. When everyone heard of Broly's death there was much rejoicing, the first Legendary Super Saiyan in over a thousand years and everyone dreamed of fighting him. Bardock could remember how disappointed everyone was to learn that Broly suffered extreme mental damage and was insane. He could also remember how jealous everyone was when Broly attacked Bardock and only Bardock.
Broly had screamed out his son's name and launched himself at Bardock, knocking over every saiyan between the two of them. Broly then proceeded to utterly beat the shit out of Bardock and every other saiyan who tried to to help Bardock. Even his Super Saiyan abilities were no match for the saiyan of legend. It had taken Kodai's intervention to stop Broly, the ancient saiyan defeating the berserker with one blow. Granted he was a Super Saiyan when he did it but it was still a very impressive feat. Kodai had bent down and pried open one of Broly's eyes and was alarmed to see that they were completely bloodshot. He held up a hand to the side of Broly's head and his hand pulsed with ki. Two more pulses and Kodai cursed.
"His brain is damaged. That explains his insanity." Kodai stood up and surveyed the bloody saiyans. "Where is his family? They might be the only ones who can calm him down." One raised his hand, the former advisor to King Vegeta, Zorn.
"His father is Paragas, his mother is someone named Annya. Never really knew her."
Kodai grunted, "Anyone know where we can find either one of them?"
One of Bardock's old crew members Shugesh spoke, his jowls bouncing as he did, "I saw Paragas a couple of days ago by the mountains, he said something about hunting down some of Frieza's old men."
Kodai stood up and looked over towards the mountain range then in a blur of motion appeared with a bloodstained Paragas. The first class saiyan looked around confused before noticing everyone around him. Everyone was still rattled over the revelation that Broly had brain damage to notice how Paragas trembled when he saw his son on the ground. Everyone that is but Bardock. Kodai had had his back turned to the man though, and was kneeling next to Broly. Placing a hand on Broly's chest to stabilize him, Kodai extended the index finger of his right hand and placed it just under Broly's nostrils. Firing a small amount of ki out of a finger into a man's nostrils works very well when trying to wake them up.
Broly woke up immediately, crinkling his nose as the ki burned inside. The man sneezed quite violently, the action causing tremors through his body as it tried to force his upper body off the ground. Kodai quickly formed a ball of ki and held it in front of Broly's eyes, hoping to relax him. It worked; everyone could easily see the tension leave Broly's body as he focused on the warm ball of light. Still Kodai kept a firm hold on his shoulder, even as he spoke softly.
"Easy there whelp, everything is going to be alright. Focus on your father."
In his trance like state Broly obeyed, the instance he laid eyes on his father though all the rage that had been built up exploded. Broly's surging aura knocked back everyone except for Kodai and carved a hole into the ground. Everyone stared in shock at the thrashing saiyan as he bucked, kicked, flailed, and snapped at Kodai in his attempt to get free. Finally locking his gaze onto Paragas, Broly screamed, "I'll kill you!"
And as one, every single saiyan turned their heads and looked at Paragas. The saiyan's eye was darting back and forth among those assembled nervously. Kodai glared at him, "What did you do?"
"No-no-nothing Sir he's always been like that Sir." Paragas stammered out.
This piqued Bardock's interest; in his experience whenever a saiyan started throwing "sirs" out that meant they were either guilty of something, or they were kissing major ass and wanted something. In this case Bardock had a feeling that it was the former. Stepping behind Paragas he placed a hand on his head. Immediately his mind was besieged with sounds and images. Digging through Paragas' memories, he searched for any indication of what caused Broly to act this way. Finally he arrived at the point where Broly first truly became insane and what he saw shook the mass murderer to his core.
"What the hell are you doing?" Paragas had started turning around as soon as Bardock had touched his head but by then it was too late.
"I was reading your mind. Something you have experience with I see." Paragas' face paled, since Bardock was a Super Saiyan and he wasn't Kodai was sure to take his word over his own. However Paragas was something that Bardock wasn't, a talented manipulator. Bardock looked at Kodai who was eyeing them both with interest, and a little distrust at Paragas.
"He used a special torque that allowed him to control Broly's power. In order to do so it fed Broly's own energy into his brain which caused the brain damage."
Paragas scoffed, "It seems that stupidity runs in your family Bardock if you think something as stupid as you being able to read minds is going to convince anybody."
Bardock simply tapped the side of his head near his temple and smirked.
"You also seem to forget that I'm psychic. I've learned a lot of things by watching my son's future, like how to read minds."
Paragas thought that his advantage was cemented with such a ridiculous claim as being psychic, but as all the saiyans started murmuring among themselves and Kodai fixed a glare on Paragas, he started having second thoughts. Broly's thrashing around still trying to get to him wasn't helping him at all either. Right when he was about to denounce Bardock's claim a saiyan stepped forth. Unfortunately for Paragas it was Toma, Bardock's best friend and longtime comrade. Toma's death at the hands of Dodoria hurt Bardock enough that he had taken the bloodsoaked bandana off of Toma's arm and put it on. Bardock also then went on a massive killing spree of Frieza's soldiers culminating on a frontal assault on the tyrant himself. Now that they were dead however Toma had his original headband back and Bardock no longer had the bandana wrapped around his head. The funny thing is that when you die your spiritual form is how you envision yourself, however if you get resurrected it is your physical form that gets resurrected in its original unblemished state.
"I've never liked Paragas and if Bardock says he caused his son's insanity then I see no reason to doubt him." Toma said, causing Paragas to sneer.
"Oh yes what a surprise, the second in command of Bardock's old crew is supporting him. Too bad your support is in favor of a liar."
Paragas' damage control didn't work at all and he realized this as more saiyans stepped forth. Zorn, Nappa, Seripa, Gerkin, and Hatonek each voiced their support of Bardock. After they voiced their opinions Kodai stood up, dragging the struggling Broly up with him.
"Paragas, I know for a fact that Bardock is psychic so stop trying to get out of this. You've committed one of the most terrible crimes a saiyan could ever commit. You took the free will of your own son, your own flesh and blood, and in the process stripped him of his sanity. If you were alive I would kill you right now, but seeing as we aren't I'm left with few options." Kodai said.
"Why not lock the two of them up in a room and let Broly work his issues out with some nice physical therapy? 'Sides if he kills Paragas we can just wait for him at the Well of Souls and bring him back." Gerkin said, his offer meeting much approval with the assembled saiyans.
Kodai nodded, "Yes that does seem to be a good idea. Seize him."
Two saiyans stepped forth and grabbed Paragas by the arms. Kodai kept his grip on Broly and walked down into the tunnels that the saiyans had carved out millenia ago, followed by the struggling Paragas and his guards.
Bardock was knocked out of memory lane when the door in front of him opened up without warning. He had been unaware that he had been where he needed to be for several minutes. Kodai stepped out, his tail stretched out lazily behind him and said, "Yes Bardock?"
"I just wanted to let you know that my grandson is in Hell and my son and Nappa are bringing him in." Bardock answered.
Kodai smiled and then laughed, "I think you're a little late Bardock, look behind you."
"Huh?" Bardock turned around and nearly slapped himself in the face at what he saw.
"Hello Father, getting soft in your old age I see." Raditz said. Gohan, Nappa, and Raditz were all behind him and Raditz was still a Super Saiyan. Bardock cursed himself mentally, his son's power level alone should have alerted him to their arrival but he had been so caught up in his memories that he never noticed.
"Shut it boy I can still clobber you anytime of the year."
Nappa peaked over Raditz's charged mane of hair and cleared his throat, "Um, aren't we here for something important?" he asked.
Kodai nodded, "Yes you are right Nappa. Now, boy if you would please come with me I need to talk to you."
Gohan crossed his arms, "My name is Gohan. And talk to me about what?"
A perplexed look crossed Kodai's face, "Gohan? Eh, who am I to question your mother's choice of names. I need to talk to you about the saiyan's you are going to go fight in your spaceship. I have some information on them that you'll need."
"Fine, make it quick though we plan on leaving soon." Gohan said.
"Thats fine with me, now follow me." Kodai walked through the open door and into the room with Gohan on his tail. Once inside Gohan noticed that the room was very spartan, only a couple of stone stools and a table. Gray was the dominant color with some supporting blood reds. As Kodai sat down on the far side of the table Gohan examined him. Kodai was a very short saiyan, a couple of inches shorter than Vegeta actually. His hair was black of course like all pure blooded saiyans and one large piece arching down over his face down to his nose, the rest curved upwards in a large fan-like shape. Scars littered his exposed flesh and there was a large one stretched out across the bridge of his nose. Kodai wore what looked like a fur skin from some large mammal and it was wrapped around his waist like a kilt. All in all Kodai looked to be a very brutish warrior from an era long past.
"Okay so you said you had some information for me?" Gohan asked as he sat down on the stone stool and bent forward, resting his arms on his knees.
"Yes, but first I'm going to have to educate you on where they come from. A thousand years ago on the saiyan homeworld I knew them. I grew up with one of them, a man by the name of Cicuta. He was always a bit of a sadist but I'll tell you about that later. I knew them for about one hundred and thirty two years before the planet blew up. . Well on the planet our culture had a system of laws. Kin was everything and under no circumstances were we to intentionally harm our kin outside of training. Because of this those that have achieved the form of what you call 'Super Saiyan' were not allowed outside when the full moon was out. Well one time that rule wasn't followed and what happened was the destruction of the planet." Kodai said.
Normally Gohan would've been excited to learn more about a culture and this small very concise telling of the ancient saiyan homeworld was very interesting. Unfortunately it didn't explain anything that Gohan needed.
"While this is fascinating and all it doesn't help me at all," the living saiyan said, "so if you would be so kind as to get to the point I would greatly appreciate it."
Kodai shook his head and sighed, "Straight to the point I see, well alright then."
"One day I was outside when the moon was out, I had already achieved the 'Super Saiyan' state years ago so what happened next I'm sure you can figure out. I transformed into a great gold Oozaru and was unable to control it. My power went out of control and I destroyed the planet. Fortunately many years prior to that some aliens had landed on our planet for some reason or another and died, the gravity crushing them. We knew what the ships were for, but at the time we had no interest in leaving, until I transformed. All those who were fit and able got onto the ships and somehow managed to get them to work. One group left a couple of minutes before the planet exploded, on that ship was a man named Vegeta. Moments before my death I managed to gain control and ascended, some of those leaving on the last ship saw it happen. On that ship was a man named Cicuta, he is one of the men that you need to worry about when you land on planet Quindflear. He has accessed the fourth form in the time since. The other person you are going to have to look out for is named Manchineel. He was a child when I last saw him, but the thing about him is his uniqueness. He is a Legendary Super Saiyan."
To say Gohan was surprised would be an understatement. He was sitting in front of the very first Super Saiyan Four, and the person to blow up the original saiyan homeworld. Now the man only had one question.
"So are those two the only two I have to watch out for when we leave?" Gohan asked Kodai.
"Probably not, but those two are likely to be the strongest ones. From what I've heard out of those who have died on that planet Cicuta has the most powerful saiyans under his thumb. Cicuta is the strongest saiyan on that planet no doubt. If I were you I would not fight him nor Manchineel."
"Okay thanks, but I probably won't have to fight anyone anyway, I can just teleport in and grab Vegeta then get out. Easiest way to avoid trouble."
Kodai perked up and laughed. "Oh that sounds great, so really this whole trip was for nothing then?"
Gohan leaned back on his stool and shrugged, "Yeah pretty much, still now we know not to go in and try and start a fight."
"Well thats good to know. Say, is this Vegeta fellow royalty or something?"
"Yes, he was next in line before Frieza blew planet Vegeta up."
Kodai smiled, "So Vegeta did have kids after all. At least that worked out for him."
"Yeah, and he's also reached the fourth level."
Kodai looked at Gohan in shock, his mouth hanging open. Closing it he muttered, "It seems that everyone is able to get to that damn form without blowing up their planets."
Gohan laughed and without any of the rooms former tension, the two started talking and getting to know each other.
xXx
"How could you lose him! He's just one man with two broken arms!" Cicuta screamed at an unfortunate subordinate. Sand billowed around them in the harsh greater desert of Quindflear. They were on the banks of the only river in the desert, it was located only a couple of miles from the cave system that Cicuta used for powerful prisoners. During the wet season the river's distance from bank to bank could stretch out to the size of a small lake, but the river had been known to dry up completely during the dry season.
Right now it was the dry season and today was one of the rare times the river was dry. Patches of mud here and there littered the river bottom and the bones of animals long gone could be seen, bleached white by the sun. In the middle of the river bed lay a large crater filled with water. The ashes drifting through the air gave flavor to the air and everyone present could easily recognize the charred scent of one of the recon units.
The young man flinched at Cicuta's harsh tone. He had just been promoted to Sergeant and it was only his second assignment, and considering the way Cicuta was acting, it might just be his last. It took all of his willpower to keep his tail wrapped firmly around his waist and to prevent it from literally sliding between his legs and shaking. He took a deep breath to steady himself and opened his mouth to speak.
"I don't know Sir, we tracked his scent and sent a squad ahead after him. By the time everyone else was ready to leave we heard the explosion and the weaklings were dead."
Being put on a reconnaissance squad was considered an insult among the saiyans of Quindflear. Only weaklings were placed on them and recruits didn't last long. Normally used for scouting out the outlying villages and routing out dissenters, they were always the first targets. The amount of surviving squad members was always a good indication of how strong or how many people a target had. Cannon fodder had its uses, unfortunately just not against a Super Saiyan.
Trembling with rage Cicuta paced around, each step sending a fountain of sand spraying, he struggled to contain his anger. He wanted to just unleash his anger, no, he needed to release it. The last time he had gotten this mad he ended up breaking through the second Super Saiyan barrier. Everything had gone wrong; with another Super Saiyan Four on his side Cicuta could've bred an army of super warriors and taken to the stars. Looking around at the people near him, Cicuta's tail bristled. He could feel the bloodlust surging through his veins. Each muscle was contracting, if he had the skeletal structure of a human the contractions would've snapped the bones like tried tinder. Luckily for everyone some idiot decided to volunteer himself by questioning Cicuta.
"Excuse me Sir, why do we need this prisoner? If he was such a problem wouldn't it have been easier to just kill him?"
Cicuta's tail snapped through the air like a whip, the crack of it silencing everything but the wind. Cicuta stared down the impetuous whelp, a young man, barely in his sixties. Regabuta was his name if Cicuta could remember correctly. It didn't matter anymore of course, striding towards the boy Cicuta's blood sang. Everything was moving in slow motion to the ancient saiyan, he saw the boy's eyes slowly start to widen in fear as realization dawned in them. He saw the roots of his hair slowly turn gold, the color spreading slowly millimeter by millimeter. An aura appeared as Regabuta's muscles flexed almost imperceptibly to the eye. Cicuta's right hand reached out and almost gently grabbed onto the soldier's throat. He stopped being gentle. Clenching his hand like a vice, Cicuta's gaze literally bore into Regabuta's. Twin beams of ki shot out of Cicuta's eyes and into his. Regabuta only had time to scream once before his brain was completely vaporized. Regabuta's corpse dropped to the ground, steam pouring out of the holes where his eyes used to be.
Feeling much better, Cicuta looked around at his men and said, "Continue searching, I'm going to go find some wench to fuck," and flew up into the air sending sand flying everywhere.
The Sergeant released a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and looked down at the body. Marveling at Cicuta's power and control he noticed that there wasn't even an exit wound, it had all been contained within his skull. With no remorse for the man who had just been killed, he bent down and grabbed his right leg. Spinning around he threw him out towards the river, into the crater. Smirking a little at the size of the splash his throw had caused, he turned and barked out his orders to his remaining men. Little did everyone know that as Regabuta's body drifted down to the bottom of the crater, it conveniently covered up the tunnel leading down into the earth.
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Note: The credit for the name Annya should be given to Demonic Host as it is essentially her character.
