Chapter VI: Jumping Off Positions

Fridge was embarrassed by Majuub's presence on his world. It did not take long for rumors of Majuub's miracles to spread across the planet. His ability to turn anything into food and water made him a hit among the population. Fridge was starting to get paranoid that this magical being was going to take his empire away from him with gifts.

"You cannot just turn garbage into food!" Fridge said dripping with sweat, worried beyond his imagination, "Think of the cult of personality you are creating! What will happen when Vegeta finally meets the Saiyan and you leave the planet?"

Majuub, who like his mentor forgone a formal education in order to concentrate on his abilities, looked puzzled as he was using his finger to turn rocks into food from the top of Fridge's balcony, much to the population's delight. "Cult of what? What's that?"

Fridge still could not understand this magical being, "Well, uh, you see that each planet has a delicate economic system, an invisible hand if you will. Anything that throws this delicate and precious system off balance can cause everyone to be unable to provide for themselves."

Majuub looked like he finally got it, "Oh, an 'economy,' you mean the hover cars that take less fuel!"

Fridge's face turned blue in frustration, and he approached Majuub threateningly with sweat trying to get the concept through his head, "Do you see… Sir! If everyone has everything they want, they do not need me anymore!"

Uub closed his eyes and smiled, "Oh, why didn't you say so! It's the same way on Earth!" After Fridge's jaw dropped he fell over with his feet in the air.

"Trunks!" Goten said impressed while on the lookout, "your gains are amazing! Whatever is waiting for us out there you'll be prepared!"

Trunks looked back at Goten unimpressed, as both of them were integral to fusion, and as always the fusion being only as good as the weaker half. "You're inability to ascend to the next level could cost us the fight, if we're having one. Despite the fact that everyone here, even Roshi has doubled their power, the brunt of the weight is going to fall on us, and Gohan."

"Yeah, who knows what Vegeta is doing." Goten said with distrust.

"You shouldn't judge too quickly," Dende quipped walking over to them, "Vegeta and the Arcosian are back at the Capsule Corporation headquarters. I was able to sense Vegeta's progress at the south pole, his power is unequaled on this planet."

"Really?" Trunks glowed being happy about his father's progress, yet frustrated with Gotenks' potential limitations.

"Yes, it won't take that long for you to go see him." Dende suggested, gripping on his cane loosely. "Until Gohan feels finished with his training, you two are our strongest cards."

Goten was concerned about the obvious. "When will Gohan be done?"

Mr. Popo seemed to appear out of thin air, catching the three by surprise, "Only Gohan will know when he is ready to come out, that's if he is still alive. Unlike the older Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Gohan will not age despite the fact he feels like he is spending years there honing his skills."

"Why did Gohan have to be so selfish!" Trunks punched the ground, "We all could have had our chances training there."

"I only let Gohan enter the chamber because he has the possibility of surviving," Mr. Popo said while being his usual calm self, "unlike yourself."

Trunks' face turned blue, "What, you mean even after all of my training and gains?"

"You're not strong enough," Mr. Popo smiled.

Suddenly a violent blue aura surrounded Trunks, "That's not true! When this Saiyan doesn't come and Gohan finally decides to come out, I'll prove I'm even stronger than he is!" Trunks took off, presumably towards capsule corp. Goten laughed nervously while Dende started to count the Z Fighters.

"With Master Roshi, Chatzou, Yamcha, 18, Krillin, Tien, and you Goten, we are not forgetting one warrior, not one at all…" Suddenly a huge Saiyan power level was sensed. The terror they all felt was undeniable.

"The power!" Krillin trembled to a power he did not feel in such a long time, "It's so evil, it's so terrible! It's so—"

"What are all of you doing here without me!" Pan yelled with bio-electricty and yellow hair, one of the bolts hit the lookout near Krilllin and blew up a part of the floor causing the humans to scatter. "Everyone is training for an incoming threat and no one tells me about it? I had to find out through Bulla that Majuub went off to some rock somewhere?"

18, whose appearance did not age close to that of Krillin backed up her husband, though fearfully, "Well, uh, all of us it thought it would be best if you weren't brought into the middle of this so—"

"SO WHAT!" Pan yelled as her golden Super Saiyan 2 aura rushed through her, "I'm stronger than all of you idiots put together, if someone was needed to defend the planet that person would be me! Senzu beans are a waste on the bald one!"

Tien, Chatzou, and Krillin all felt insulted at the same time. All three of them lunged at Pan, each getting dispatched by a hit a piece. Yamcha and 18 then both fired ki blasts at the same time at Pan, only causing an explosion and smoke. Pan punched 18 in the stomach, then elbowed her down forcefully as her body crashed from the air into the ground of the look out. One glare at Yamcha caused him to faint. Dende and Mr. Popo were smiling at this training opportunity, Goten got angry, "That's enough, let's see if you can handle Super Saiyan 3!"

Goten's hair grew down to his back and his eye brows disappeared, he screamed angrily powering up. Pan took the opportunity to power up too, just before both of them started fight furiously with golden auras around them. From the view of space, it looked like there were massive thunderstorms appearing seconds apart all over the world as the two warriors clashed, causing disturbances in the sky.

Now, both of them were almost in space, somewhere safe for them to show the limits of their destructive power, Goten yelled, "Ka-me-ha-me-ha!"

Pan returned the exchange, "Masenko-ho!" The beam struggle was furious, and Goten started dripping with sweat.

"What in the world is that?" Freon said surprised while Vegeta and Bulla were sitting calmly outside in a garden drinking tea. "I didn't know there were more Saiyans with that type of power on this planet!"

"Oh, that's just Pan, Gohan's daughter." Bulla turned away from tablet's keyboard to inform him. "For some reason the guys don't ever want us to get involved. She always takes it this hard."

"None of those jokers matter anyway," Vegeta dismissed to Freon, "Only Gohan and I will have an impact on the battle if the Saiyan does decide to come here."

Before Goten was about to lose his equal footing to Pan, both of them stopped. Pan clearly won, much to Goten's disgust. Both of them descended back to the lookout with all of the Z Fighters amazed. "How?" Goten asked in disgust of himself, "How do you get so powerful without even training?"

"I train when I have time to spare." Pan informed Goten as if this was an obvious fact.

"If you don't mind me asking," Krillin responded, "But with who?"

"Giru! Giru! Giru! Giru!" Giru floated suddenly out from behind Pan.

"The tiny robot?" Goten said incredulously.

"Observe." Pan said, then looked over to Giru lovingly, "Giru, you know, you're the best friend I've ever had. You were there for me during my first heart break and when I graduated from school. You are the one who gave me the encouragement I needed before I aced my first job interview."

Giru looked back like a soulless robot, "…Giru"

"You kept all of my secrets from my bachelorette party and you help me get information from my competitors' accounts," Giru now started to sweat, somehow, slowly creeping away, "we've done everything together, everything. There's no one in the world I love more than you!" Before Giru could take off Pan slapped the robot furiously with her right hand. Krillin had to duck to prevent Giru from colliding with him, before Pan caught Giru, who came all the way around the planet in seconds with her other hand. Everyone fell down, in a combination of fear and disgust.

Tien, still sweating, brought up a more realistic reason why Pan became so strong to the group, "Guys, you're all forgetting that she married Majuub, who may very well be the world's strongest."

"Yeah, Majuub gets all of his power defending himself when Pan chastises him!" Roshi blurted out red faced while covering his mouth.

"How did you know?" Pan responded seriously as everyone fell over.

The Saiyan recruits in the Tuffle lair were now being equipped as now the battle was to begin in a day. Roman was commanding the division of recruits, and was informing them of their mission. Using holographic projectors, the Saiyans got to see maps of their expected advances throughout the universe. "The general plan of attack for Citadel was developed by Field Marshal Zerstorer and General Cori. They have decided on a three prong attack. The Protection Squadron will secure Frieza Planet 150 to destabilize the Planet Trade Organization while Army Group A will secure what we know as 'The Lookout,' where Earth's wind currents originate in order to spread the Fruitgas that will start the genetic alterations of the Earthlings. However, it's you lowly recruits that have maybe the most integral task in my opinion. It is up to us to get Earth's Special Forces, the Z Fighters far away from the lookout and create the diversion. It will be you recruits who will be involved with the heaviest combat. Our ability to distract them long enough or maybe defeat them will be where Citadel's success is hinged upon."

"Yes, Colonel!" All the Saiyans responded in unison.

After the subsequent phases of the operation were reviewed, the soldiers returned to their barracks. Nion, now in full combat armor and jumpsuit, tracked down Roman. "Are you busy Colonel?"

Roman turned his back and responded, "It's normal to feel nervous before battle, especially on the front lines."

"No, not that. I was wondering something. Now that I've achieved the ascended level of power, I was wondering how the Tuffles made it here, to Earth. How come our Masters didn't stay on Planet Frieza?"

Roman turned all the way around, and looked down the hallways where Nion was standing, "That's a good question. The Tuffle experiments could never be brought to their fruition on Planet Frieza, it took look enough to gain the prestige for Stuka to get Frieza' permission to create an outpost here on Earth. However, where we left off, Stuka and myself unbeknownst to us, were on our way to Frieza and Nach was busy trying to convince King Vegeta's men that everything that just happened was his doing, alone."

Zorn now knew he was in a situation that he could not just kill Nach. Knowing the whereabouts of the girl who knew most effectively how to engineer the machines that propped up Planet Vegeta's export economy made Nach more valuable alive than dead. "Come with me you low class dog, and plead your case to King Vegeta." It did not take long for King Vegeta to ignore the circumstantial evidence involved with the breakout and simply imprison Nach. He had to juggle the fact that there was a power at the level of the so called Super Saiyan he created somewhere on his planet with the fact that the only person who had the ability to instruct his slaves to make the Saiyans' most profitable technologies was on her way to Frieza. King Vegeta was prepared to make Lord Frieza a generous offer to get her back in chains, or risk complete Saiyan subjugation to the tyrant.

Roman and Stuka landed on Planet Frieza. Zerstorer was dispatched to see what the unauthorized landing was, he opened the pod and saw his sister in the arms of a Saiyan. He did not care about seeing her in the Saiyan's arms, he simply started crying as he put his arms around his emaciated sister. Roman was kind of surprised to see a male surviving Tuffle, and at how strong he was. Roman looked at Zerstorer and his black armor, purple jumpsuit, and scouter, and asked, "Sir, where are we?"

Zerstorer responded, "We are on Planet Frieza, Saiyan."

Stuka was surprised, her eyes watered as she looked up at her brother. She was still wearing her tatters from the prison camp, "You work for Frieza?"

"Yes, but not for much longer," Zerstorer turned his back, "I'll confess about allowing both of you in restricted airspace. Both of you will defect to Frieza, and I will take my execution honorably."

"No," Stuka responded defiantly, "Take me to Frieza! My knowledge of engineering the scouters, medical machines, and other equipment his empire uses is invaluable. If Roman and I die, so what? We were going to die anyway."

"No!" Zerstorer pleaded while holding back tears, "I can't bear the thought of you dying again! Let me do something right for once in my life after what I did to mommy—"

"I was dead until minutes ago," Stuka let out a rare smile from her bony face, "trust me Zero."

Against his better judgment, Zerstorer took the three of them to Zarbon, who was appalled to see Zerstorer with another Tuffle and a soldier from a mystery race, "Lieutenant Zerstorer, I hope you have an explanation."

"My sister, Stuka, seeks an audience with Lord Frieza," he said while bowing, Stuka continued to stand defiantly while Roman was simply too inept to bow, "She's the last remaining Tuffle capable of engineering scouter and medical machine production, she has chosen to defect to the Planet Trade Organization, and wants to speak to Frieza personally. Off the record General, I know this will result in my death, I understand that."

Zarbon, who was now not upset at the fact the Zerstorer knew what he was in for, nodded, and took the threesome in to see Frieza. Frieza sat in his hoverchair and glowered angrily while Dodoria was chuckling because Zarbon losing face was the only way for him to look good to Frieza. Frieza spoke in a gentle and non-assuming tone, the exact opposite of the way he behaved, something anyone who met him sensed immediately, "Greetings. I've heard many positive things about you Lieutenant Zerstorer. You have participated in the conquests of millions of now-subjects, and helped destroy many worlds for me without ever asking a question I was told. Well done, but why are you seeking my audience now with these… drifters."

Zerstorer bowed, "Lord Frieza. The woman you see is my sister, we both grew up on Planet Vegeta together. She was imprisoned and worked in the electronics factory. She is the only one on the planet capable of engineering scouters, medical machines, and many other things we import from Planet Vegeta that the empire depends on."

Lord Frieza looked angry, Dodoria took a shot, "I know that's impossible, because King Vegeta has told our ambassadors himself that these are Saiyan-made technologies. We kill the girl and we will still get a steady trickle of equipment."

"That's not true," Stuka spoke out fearlessly against Dodoria, "Myself and the remnants of my race work in the camps. No Saiyans are any longer capable of constructing scouters ever since the Tuffles lost the war. I am the only living Tuffle capable of teaching people how to construct these things to any acceptable degree. Once I die, all the knowledge of engineering these machines will go with me." Dodoria smirked, while Frieza appeared to become even more angry, "Wait and see. Give it six months, the amount of units you receive will decline heavily. Most orders you receive will be reverse-engineered poorly."

"Very well then," Frieza said in a harsh tone then smiled, "We will give it six months. If the Saiyans prove to hold up their end of the bargain, and they will, well, you know what will happen." Stuka smiled definatly back at Frieza while Zertstorer just look shocked at the whole situation. Somehow, a weakling like his sister was able to stand up to Frieza and Dodoria, and more unexpectedly, he was still alive. In the meantime, Roman was drafted into the ranks of the Planet Trade Organization, becoming one of many of Frieza's Saiyan killers. Stuka nursed herself back to health living in Zerstorer's dormitory. Without the fear of continuing clandestine research like she did on Planet Vegeta, she commenced her genetic research unimpeded on Planet Frieza.

Back in the present, Roman was finishing his story to Nion, "It did not take long for Saiyan ambassadors to start acting desperately and for defective units to flow to the Planet Trade Organization. It did not take even six months before Frieza sent an army to conquer Planet Vegeta for good. The Saiyans lost their autonomy, with King Vegeta only remaining as a puppet for Frieza to keep the Saiyans under control. Most Saiyan men and women, even those who were not tasked with fighting such as my brothers, scientists Nach and Bardock, were drafted into the ranks of Frieza's army. Hey, it was a job we fiercely enjoyed. We were meant to fight, but it was not a relationship meant to last. The Saiyan family structure, already unstable from a lack of long term relationships, eroded further as thousands of infants, like you, were sent off to space to die and conquer worlds for Frieza. Most of them died. By the time whispers of a Saiyan insurgence popped up, Frieza killed virtually the entire known Saiyan race in one simple attack. Unbelievable as it may be, he was simply that powerful."

"Whatever happened to the Tuffles and Frieza?" Nion questioned, "How did Master Zerstorer and Stuka make their way to Earth?"

"Well, Stuka was always good for a ruse in the pinch. Frieza's decision to eliminate the Saiyan race was almost common knowledge from everyone who was not a Saiyan, since my documents were forged, like Zerstorer's, my true race was unknown and I was probably the first Saiyan to learn of our fate."

Roman was serving food in the cafeteria to many of Frieza's men. Of course, high ranking officers had much better provisions than the grunts. As one of Frieza's generals came by, Roman made sure to have the trays of the fine cuisine ready. Kui came over, speaking with his usual vitriol. "I can't wait to see the look on those monkeys' faces when Frieza decides to end the Saiyan problem once and for all," he hissed, "I just hope he allows my army and I to do the job ourselves. I don't know why those weaklings' heads got so big…" Roman stood there stunned while Kui did not not understand the delay, "Don't just stand there, give me more pizza pockets!"

"Well, yes, yes sir general." Roman stumbled, serving Kui more food he just baked fresh. He looked at most of the men in the mess hall seeing them laugh, even though he knew and participated in the atrocities of the Saiyan race, a part of him felt terrible. There were few left that Roman felt comfortable in confiding in, one obvious person was his wife Stuka. When she gained her health, and around sixty pounds, she grew much less meek than she was on Planet Vegeta. Roman figured this was the way she always was intrinsically, he would frequently compare the dying and gentle Tuffle he knew in the camps versus the beautiful and confident Tuffle she was now. Since she elevated herself to a position with a modicum of power, she did not care whose toes she stepped on as long it was not that of Frieza or a high-ranking officer. Roman went to tell Stuka later that evening of what he found out, hoping for sympathy. He did not get much of that, in fact to his surprise she already knew.

"The Saiyan race has outlived their use to Lord Frieza," she boasted to an angry Roman, "How many more planets can Frieza actually conquer? Unless he implements better systems to administer his empire, his conquests will cost more than what the conquered lands provide."

Roman cared little for the political, economic, and bureaucratic aspects of running an empire, "My people are going to die Kiki," he was almost screaming, "there are plenty of good Saiyans out there. You know that yourself. We didn't become mass murderers until we were forced to take orders from Frieza. Even your brother has to kill his tens of thousands simply to follow orders. We don't deserve the same fate as the Tuffles, you know that."

Stuka smiled coldly, looking unconcerned, "I have been planning for this day to come for a long time," she responded to a galvanized Roman, "but there's a clear difference between the Saiyans and the Tuffles. There are thousands of Saiyan youths scattered across the universe on assignment. The Saiyan race will hardly become extinct. Finding them will be relatively easy. However, I've figured out a way to revive the Tuffle race. The Saiyans and Tuffles will have a second chance to learn how to live in peace."

"Wait, what!?" His jaw dropped, "That's crazy."

"Listen to me," she started to explain, "King Vegeta is the problem with the Saiyan race. He's the one who caused the Saiyans to share the same fate as the Tuffles, culminating with their enslavement from Lord Frieza. He continues to send Saiyan men, women, and children to their deaths just so he can keep his life and his throne, if he cared for anyone else's life but his own he wouldn't have got everyone in this perdicament."

Roman knew King Vegeta was a problem, but the Tuffles were hardly angels themselves. "The Tuffle King was a monster," he screamed, "You know that first hand."

"Exactly. The wicked Tuffles have been long exterminated, by Saiyans of course. Now Frieza will be exterminating the last of the wicked Saiyans. If it were up to me, I wouldn't do it, but we don't have the power to stop Frieza, not close to it, not yet."

"Not yet? What are you getting at?" Roman questioned.

"My prestige with the Planet Trade has grown exponentially faster than that of my brother. The technologies and genetic enhancements I have developed for the empire have become its lifeblood. So, in return, Frieza has given me approval to set up a colony on a backwater planet for further genetic experiments. A dream of mine of course."

"The dream to recreate the Tuffle race I assume," Roman deduced.

"We're setting up a satellite on this so called Earth, this is where we'll live undetected to their population. Their race, so called humans, are the tabula rasa."

"What in the world is that?"

"A blank slate, a perfect experimental group most conducive to be the progenitors of the new Tuffle race. Their genetics can be modified easily if my hypotheses are correct. Once I master modifying human DNA to be that of a Tuffle, I can work on applying the principles to the rest of the specices in the universe."

Roman raised his eyebrow, something like this sounded awfully wicked, "What about the Saiyans, where do we come in?"

"There are thousands of perfectly good Saiyans out there."

"The babies are brainwashed from the space pods and their programming; all they know is how to kill." Roman pointed out.

"Nothing simple psychology can't solve," Stuka said confidently, "You see, the Tuffles and the Saiyans will have a second chance in living in unity. Through the mastery of genetics, we'll become stronger than Frieza in maybe forty years."

"Well, if you're able to find a way for my brothers and I to survive," Roman still said incredulously, "I don't care if we're over there making sundaes."

Zerstorer walked into the dormitory looking stronger than ever. Roman was in disbelief. Zerstorer boasted, "Kiki, turn on your scouter."

Stuka quickly detected her brother's power level, "7,500."

"7,500?" Roman then ran his scouter and his jaw dropped, "No way! No amount of fighting can make you that powerful!"

"Roman, clandestine research on genetic enhancement has already begun. My brother and I of course are the first subjects. You can see for yourself the potential of this technology. Think about how powerful you can become, we will rule the universe… Peacefully. Frieza has permitted both of us to establish our outpost. All you have to do is become a fugitive, it wouldn't be the first time."

Roman, still confused, tried to justify the situation to himself pragmatically, "I know whatever the Tuffles have hatched up is wrong, but how could I turn my back on Stuka, when she is offering me a chance to save my brothers? We can't stop Frieza now, not yet."

Roman figured his wife was the lesser of the two evils compared to the merciless murderer Frieza. As a result, he told Bardock and Nach about his plan. He tried to convince them to become fugitives with him and go to Earth. Over the years of fighting for Frieza, they no longer took an interest in science but became ruthless killers. Despite being intelligent enough to develop the powerball with Tuffle captives back on Planet Vegeta, Bardock grew angry and belligerent. Killing maybe over 100,000 people and frequently losing his senses as an Oozaru affected his mind, changing how he thought and felt. He no longer found humor in things and he lost his playful nature almost completely. Nach, always a typical ruthless and pragmatic Saiyan simply found a new master to serve, without being bored to death in the laboratories he had relative operational freedom under Frieza's command, albeit with Saiyan officers. He enjoyed fighting a lot more than watching Tuffles trying to teach him cybernetics while keeping it a secret that way he would not stick out to the high class Saiyans. Bardock, at this point characteristically, lost his cool, and yelled, "You're insane Roman. Don't let the small head tell the big head what to do. You let your Tuffle boo brainwash you. We carry virtually all the weight for Lord Frieza, King Vegeta has ensured the Saiyan race as indispensable!"

Nach laughed, "I'm glad to see that Stuka's still getting down with her mad science experiments! No one will ever become as powerful as Frieza, other than maybe King Vegeta who may be the legendary Super Saiyan."

Roman, was angred at being disbelieved by his brainwashed brothers, "If you have sny sense left in you, come with me if you want to live!" he yelled before taking off. It did not take long for Bardock to put the pieces together and find out that Roman was right. However, he asked Nach first to help him against Frieza. Instead of taking up the cause, Nach used this opportunity to squirm his way back to Roman. "So you've come back, do you believe me now?" Roman crossed his arms.

"Whether I believe you or not," Nach hissed, "I've connected the dots. Planet Vegeta has struck its eleventh hour. I'll go with you, just to keep an eye on those Tuffles." The explanation was good enough for Roman, who with Zerstorer and Stuka, left for Earth minutes before Planet Vegeta's destruction by Frieza, who stunned his allies and his own men by taking upon the entire task himself without exerting effort. Proving himself to be many times more powerful than previously believed.

When the foursome made their way to Earth, Nach did not understand why Zerstorer did not simply conquer that rock. Surveying the Earth from space, the computer made all the significant power readings on the planet. Nach could not believe how weak they were, "Zerstorer," Nach still spoke to him as a relative equal, "The weaklings on this planet are less than a tenth as strong as I. Why don't we simply conquer it, rather than float here in space?"

"I somewhat agree with you," Zerstorer smiled, "but letting the Earthlings remain as a control group is more valuable than simply taking over that arid rock. If they even became fractionally more powerful than they currently are, it still wouldn't take long to gain control over the planet since they're so weak."

Stuka had a more intelligent opinion, "There's little reason to take control of the Earth only to sell it back to Frieza or make it a client state. I'd rather not bring attention to what we're doing here."

"I remember having a spiritual connection to the Earth," Roman reminisced in the present day, "It didn't take long to determine there was a Saiyan already there, my nephew Kakarot. Since he was so weak, he was easy to keep a secret from the Tuffles. This didn't last forever, as by the time he defeated Prince Vegeta, he was far stronger than all of us. It was not like we took power readings of the planet daily; it happened so fast. After that happened, we stepped up the mission to find more Saiyans. Seeing that if a Saiyan like Kakarot had that much more battle potential than expected, there was no reason why we couldn't raise an army of thousands of warriors like him. Seeing Kakarot casually become ten times more powerful than I or Nach overnight was the impetus in expanding the Neo-Saiyan Army from a Protection Squadron to a full-fledged offensive force."

"What will happen to the universe, after Citadel's objectives are met?" Nion wondered aloud, "I know Planet Nion will be safe, but how do we ensure peace with billions of different cultures?"

"After each planet has their DNA altered, the desire to seek knowledge and to love peace becomes an inherent characteristic. We know that ourselves that much of our Saiyan urges are now controlled. Each planet in the universe will have a large tank of Fruitgas deployed in the upper atmosphere where the wind currents originate. All lifeforms over ground will breath in the gas, changing their genetic code. Now all new cells created by high level organisms, like humans or even Arcosians for example, will be Tuffle-modified. The Tuffle race will be reborn, resulting in many diverse yet common Tuffle cultures. The universe will no longer result to violence to settle disputes, because we'll be one nation of Tuffles. Both of us are going to be a huge part of that."

Inside the room of spirit and time, Gohan was inside a giant nightmare, consistently fighting avatars of his inner demons. Gohan grew very thin, and pale, but somehow substantially increased his strength out of sheer will and anger at not reaching his potential. He was agonizing with himself while fighting an avatar of Beerus, "With Goku and Vegeta dead, there's no way for you to save the planet from destruction! Watch as all of your friends die before you! You're no Super Saiyan God! You have no capability of obtaining that power!"

Despite the fact that Gohan exceeded Beerus' power long ago, in the world of a nightmare logic goes by the wayside and fear takes over. While Gohan was in the false world, if he would be defeated he would die. Gohan remembered almost dying against an avatar of Majin Buu, only surviving when he dreamed up an avatar of the Supreme Kai to heal him and bring him back to battle. Sadly, an avatar of Cell caught wind to Gohan's strategy, killing the Supreme Kai he dreamed of. Gohan was not able to completely heal from his wounds at this point. He was purely surviving on willpower.

Gohan sensed that the God of Destruction Beerus had an edge over his newly discovered Super Saiyan 5 form. Due to the massive drain of energy and inability to regenerate his strength, Gohan abandoned Super Saiyan 5 in favor of attempting to draw a majority of that power out of the existing Super Saiyan 2 form he mastered. He was fighting as a Super Saiyan 2 against Beerus, and even though he may get close to Beerus power by using his trump card, he may only have it for around ten seconds. Ten seconds seems to take an eternity in a fight at this point, but his body was so weak and wounded he could simply die even if he managed to win.

Despite the disadvantage in power, Gohan continued to hang in there with Beerus. When Beerus was able to land blows on Gohan, he inflicted more damage than Gohan was able to reciprocate. Gohan thought to himself that his best chance was to somehow get Beerus' energy level to the point of parity, then finish him off with the Kamehameha. "If you're so much powerful than me, how come you can't hit me with one of your attacks?" Gohan challenged while creating a large amount of distance between himself and the god of destruction.

"I could hit you with my attacks in my sleep!" Beerus responded confidently, he started to shoot thousands of ki-blasts from his index fingers, causing great destruction to the Earth.

Gohan knew the planet would be in trouble if he did not take to the sky. "Even these insignificant attacks can destroy the planet," Gohan thought, "without Beerus scaling back his attacks' destructive power, I need to have Beerus waste his strength by launching his attacks into space." Gohan used a weak Masenko to launch himself into the air, the smoke was able to only blind Beerus shortly. Beerus continued his assault into the sky, while Gohan used Afterimage to evade it. Gohan spoke up to Beerus who was growing more frustrated, "I can do this all day Beerus!" He bluffed. Dodging attacks at this speed were getting Gohan tired in a hurry. Beerus stepped up his attack, launching ki-blasts now from his hands instead. Gohan's exhaustion was kicking in, he could not keep this up for long, but his plan was working. "You can't even hit a mere Super Saiyan 2, never mind a Super Saiyan God! You're truly pathetic to think you could hang in there with my father if he achieved the legendary Super Saiyan God form!"

Beerus stepped up his assault further and yelled, "You fool! I can destroy your planet and kill you right now!"

"Go ahead, and live the rest of your millions of years being unable to defeat a mere Super Saiyan 2!" Gohan continued to play into Beerus' pride.

"I'll kill you, then with a blink of an eye destroy this whole solar system!" Beerus yelled, now launching Supernova sized ki-blasts at Gohan. Gohan could finally see Beerus sweating, he was at the point of finally needing to catch his breath. The ki-blasts exploded somewhere distant in the galaxy, likely destroying planets and moons simply due to their proximity. Beerus finally stopped falling for the trick, "Come fight me like a man!"

Gohan appeared below Beerus with the Afterimage and launched what seemed like thousands of punches into Beerus' stomach. While blood flew out of Beerus' mouth Gohan finally revealed his Super Saiyan 5 form, instead of giving Beerus a guided tour on the form he quickly went to his trump card, charging his attack as quickly as possible. "Ka-me-ha-me-ha!" The Kamehameha wave was a direct hit on Beerus, launching him into space. Gohan knew the attack alone would not finish off Beerus, so he guided the wave and his opponent through the sun first. Once Beerus came through the other side of the sun he was significantly weakened but was starting to regain his composure after the element of surprise wore off. Gohan yelled, "HA!" Shooting one more huge burst of energy into the attack. Like a fuse that has run out, the extra wave of energy finally made its way to Beerus and caused a blinding explosion. Gohan reverted to his base form and collapsed on the ground, panting, he succeeded in destroying the god of destruction Beerus, but he did not have the power to continue fighting. Something that greatly disappointed him.

Videl ran up to him and picked him up over her shoulder and cried. "Gohan, Gohan, I'm going to get you something to eat. We're going to get you better. You did a really good job out there."

Piccolo gave Videl a stern look, knowing he had to speak for Gohan, "Gohan is angry that he has yet obtained the power to protect the planet. After he eats, let him have a long time to meditate, and mentally prepare himself in case there is another threat on its way here."

Whis chuckled and took to the sky, before disappearing altogether. Suddenly, after Gohan imagined eating, he made the whole world around him disappear. He was standing mid-air of an endless pitch black void, he could not see anything. At this point though, Gohan embraced the darkness. It was a perfect opportunity to meditate, and try to eliminate his fear. "I'm not scared of here anymore," Gohan thought to himself, "but I have to get much more powerful than this to step into my father's boots. I know I have much more power inside myself, but I'm struggling how to find it. The Super Saiyan 5 form can be mastered perhaps, but I think it will be a lot easier to perfect my Super Saiyan 2 form to get most of the power without the consequences of stamina drain. I need to heal to get stronger but I don't have the time to!" The agony Gohan was facing inside the hyperbolic time chamber seemed to be taking years; he still did not consider himself ready to come out of the chamber. He was almost forgetting at this point that he was preparing himself for a mere Saiyan that may or may not exist.

Meanwhile, Nach and the Protection Squadron flew from the ground of the Earth to the upper atmosphere where the Tuffle space station was floating. The squadron boarded a hundred Saiyan pods, after performing self-tests the pods launched into the extant of space on their way to Frieza Planet 150. Lieutenant Omato, a relatively old yet muscular Saiyan with receding black hair, contacted Nach on his private line on his scouter, "Colonel, the soldiers are prepared to carry out their mission. They have been briefed on the Tuffle plan of attack and the objectives of the Protection Squadron."

"Good," Nach responded, "the first step to Saiyan universal conquest is to eliminate the Planet Trade Organization. Certainly someone on Earth will handle those Tuffles for me, then I will return there and become ten times as powerful as they realize."

Lieutenant Omato smiled, "Nach, I've reminded all of our men that we're the pride of the Saiyan race. Hand-picked to carry out the solution to this Universe's ills. Saiyans will be the only remaining lifeform left!"