A/N: I've got about one or two more updates after this already completed so if we see any changes from Bulma, it's likely to begin after that.
I would like to say a very sincere thank you for staying with the story all these months, even when I didn't update for long stretches of time, J..
I've juggled the idea around for a while now on if to go past the Buu saga. I don't intend to go into GT territory though. If we do go past Buu as the prime villain it's probably going to be one of the movie enemies I wasn't able to incorporate into the story's timeline in one way or another.
As for a real Super Saiyan... there's only going to be one character in the entirety of DI to transform to that level. The way I'm writing it, the ability to become a Super Saiyan is in the genes of most saiyans, but in a certain percentage. For example, Goku had about 80% or so of the needed, pure SSJ genes in his bloodline, while Vegeta had a little lower, and when they fused the total number didn't rise but actually fell as the non-SSJ capable genes were increased against them.
Any child the now-Vegetto had would be further diluted with non-SSJ capable genes, making it all the harder to transform even with the needed power and rage. Having those two factors would, provided it lasted long enough, allow the saiyan blood to compensate for the lack of potential given enough time in a battle situation.
But if it didn't reach the right height in time then they'd never be able to fully transform. Same goes for Vegetto himself and any other pure-blooded Saiyan, if they don't bring out the needed requirements long enough they won't become one.
It's somewhat convulted but I'm trying to keep the legend of the Super Saiyan(IE 1 per 1000 years) alive here. It really became a joke once all the saiyans in canon could do it.
Here's the second or so to last update before we're up to speed.
North Galaxy, deep space
A series of dark red, jagged asteroids rocketed through space on a set destination, leaving behind a tail of yellow-white energy in their wake. Within them at various angles small glints reflected the light of a nearby sun- windows. One such asteroids outer shell had chipped and frayed in the journey, revealing a dark metallic gleam beneath.
Within these hardened star ships were the gathered forces soon to plague the earth, and with the time already spent traveling, the remaining three years to arrive hardly drew any attention. In the back-most asteroid, which happened to be the second-largest, the leader paced back and forth before his servants.
Or at the least the shadow of his soul did so. His physical form lay trapped in-between dimensions, where it had been ever since Olibu defeated him thousands of years prior. "In the coming time, my troops, we shall march upon the land of the sealed beast. Once awakened, no god in this universe will stand against it, and should it ever turn, than our sacred heart that yet flares it's burning blood across the heavens shall become it's new prison!" his voice was a dull roar, echoing all of its own as though spoken through a very long tunnel.
"We land in three years time at the housing junction for my revenge! For the destruction of any who would stand against us! For the domination of all creation!" the mostly different alien races roared just as loudly in approval, save for two. The taller saiyan simply shook his head, disregarding the many weaklings as liabilities in the coming times, while the alien at his side grimaced before turning to him.
"You shouldn't be up so soon." he stated. The saiyan grunted. "I'm alive. I'll heal. The greater wounds have been resolved in the chamber." turning away he marched back out of the area and toward the medical ward. His orders had been simple, to over see the wizards progress and ensure no betrayals were yet planned.
"Hm." Zarbon sighed as their master began speaking again of similar things. 'Three more long years.'
Kaishin, several hours later
The aftermath of the Tenbatsu Tournament saw those still conscious and able rounding up the defeated and, depending on their status of good or evil, returning them to the prison dome on the planet. That was the one thing that was hard to argue about just yet, that Cell had cleaned up the universe. A large majority of it's evil was holed up in one single location now, and most were too weak to be a threat for any of the Z-Fighters.
The exhausted Kaio and Grand Kai faced Piccolo, Frieza and Kuriza- the two saiyans were slumbering in the dome where the good were holed up. "In the wake of the usurpers attack against the divine hierarchy, we are left one Kaio short of full watch over the quadrants of the universe." Grand Kai began in a tone of distaste and weariness. "Let us pause a moment in remembrance of he whom held the position of North Kaio for so long." he closed his eyes and slid his sunglasses off.
Frieza snorted softly to himself, positioned some distance away from the Kai's. Piccolo didn't feel much, beyond gratitude for his efforts and the usual sadness at the loss of life Guru had always felt. Through King Kai two supreme threats had been dealt with, though it was startling with how similar the situations had been resolved; both his Demon King alternative and now Cell lay sealed within weapons.
Kuriza was effectively bored. He had seen exceptionally powerful forces in combat here today and his mind was more focused on that then the death of a faceless entity having no connection to himself. 'Someday I'll gain that kind of power. Its...' he paused to clench a fist and focused tightly on it, and a small blur of ki shaped around it like an aura. '...unfocused.' he thought. 'Unshaped. Unlike my fathers. Will I grow into it, or am I already as I ever will be?' he wondered.
Once the moment had passed the Grand Kai opened his eyes, displaying a change from the emotion previously conveyed. He spoke and his voice was brisk, almost flat. "The position of North Kaio will no longer be held. The one known as King Kai has left an irreplaceable mark behind in his duties to see the overlord defeated, sacrificing the ultimate position of his very existence. Let it not be said that such an event shall come to pass again." sliding the sunglasses back over his eyes, he turned away and walked toward where Kaioshins body still lay against a break in the ground, propping his head upward.
Piccolo moved sharply, dashing across the space in rapid succession. He reappeared between the two of them, laying a hand to the Grand Kais shoulder and promptly beginning a whispered conversation. The others eyes had narrowed at first before growing wide with disbelief.
An accusatory snarl escaped him and Piccolo gestured around them, increasing his own tone and emotion. At last the Grand Kai shook his head and motioned toward the soil beneath them. Piccolo took a step back in outrage. Finally the namekian shrugged and said one last line before turning away.
The others watched the exchange with mingled curiosity. When Piccolo returned to the changelings, he was more reserved and looked as he should from the days events- exhausted, the shadows beneath his eyes more lined. "It will be a day or two before the Kaioshin awakens..." he paused to consider his words after returning to them. 'The Kaioshin's mental stability is far too strained. If he awakens now, there are too many variables to counteract- I fear he may react similarly to Cell...' he blinked when a small ki-blast hit him in the stomach, the result of Kuriza attempting to get him to keep going.
The namekian scowled. "In the meantime we should each rest and recover to the best of our abilities." he stated tiredly. The changeling adult grunted and turned to rise upward when Piccolo spoke again. "And, Frieza..." "...?" "Hide. You are as much a subject to loath as Cell had been. Conceal your strength and run back to the future- and out of Kaioshins retribution seeking hands." he warned. Before either could object he had vanished with superior speed again.
The Majin mark burned on Friezas forehead as his temper rose in outrage. "Hide? Flee?" he demanded of the empty space where Piccolo had been. His katchin hands clenched before his eyes focused on Kuriza, and for a moment his fury burned even brighter. Kuriza did not flinch despite the power leveled at him and the fire in his fathers eyes, though he did take a steadying step backward to keep from being knocked around.
And like that, Frieza pushed through the anger. He buried it back down before it could trouble him. Several veins stood at attention along his skin before he forced his eyes shut and manually downgraded his body to it's third form, and then it's second, and finally reverting all the way back into it's first. The black-silver gleam of katchin reflected the cool pale skin attached to it and looked only slightly out of size, mostly toward the feet.
The anger was further sealed, and the Majin charm on his flesh faded around the inside and edges. Smiling sardonically, Frieza looked down toward his son and gestured for them to get going. "I have already been on the receiving end of the so called gods wrath. I have grown twice as powerful since- I have no fear of his retribution." he stated. Kuriza nodded his head, studying the change. He had never before seen his father in such a regressed state- not within his memory, at any rate. The third form was the farthest back Frieza had even shown him before.
As the two ascended to the air and began jetting over the landscape swiftly enough for a low level sonic boom, Kuriza tentatively asked "Will I transform like that someday?" Frieza did not answer him right away. "You would need extensive training. And your power is still growing into adulthood." he avoided. Kuriza performed a well practiced scowl. "And if I tried sooner? With this power I have now?" he asked. Frieza remained silent.
Kaishin, Approximately nineteen years in the future
Old Kaioshin snorted derisively above his crystal ball. "That's just peachy." he stated. His descendant looked over to him with an arched brow, sweat dripping from his forehead and hands. Beneath him on the grass lay Son Gohan, a dark colored blade resting just beside the skin without quite touching it. A faint gray tone of light ran from his hands down over the demi-saiyans form- and from the pained grimace and furrowed eyebrows, it was not a pleasant experience even in rest.
Old Kaioshin turned to him and gestured at the crystal ball sharply. "Warned the boy to keep Cell alive, and what does he do? Allow that Namekian to cut him up into bloody pieces and, in a display of arrogance and insult, seal him away in a spear only after the fatal blows have been dealt! Even should they release him, Cell will be long dead within. His soul will be trapped with a rotting body for perhaps centuries while things settle down with your original counterpart!" he bemoaned.
The Supreme Kai exhaled and simply shook his head. "That move will cost them. Cell must be alive to help confront Buu. And I certainly am not satisfied with the result of Frieza and Babidi's encounter, providing fuel for the inferno." he stated.
Old Kaioshin nodded. "If either of us had been thinking proper, we could have warned them of the invasion approaching. The few enemies discovered so far." he complained. Kaioshin shrugged. "Would it matter? The surprise shouldn't change things." he disagreed as the gray light took on a darker shade and Gohan visibly shuddered. One finger branched outward and a strand of light washed across the blade- drawing an ape-like howl from it, just as it had the previous time and before that as well.
"Hmph." Old Kaioshin grunted, returning his gaze to the crystal ball and allowing his descendant to focus on the ritual again. This level of healing went beyond the usual heal-all area he worked in, where injuries new and old were routed out and restored. It sank beneath to the true psyche, down into the depths of the body where it housed and connected with the spirit.
And Gohans connections were very, very badly scarred. The Kaioshin's younger counterpart of the past hadn't been gentle when separating Gohan's psyche and warped soul into it's different attributes. Ultimately, that was the problem with his kind; they could tear something apart very easily, but putting it back together again was where things went sour.
But Kaioshin was not undertaking this task without hope. A month prior his ancestor had brought forth whatever latent talent dwelled in side of the dead god, and then pushed it beyond to a degree. Both his ki and his healing had evolved several notches and it was this that was responsible for the current growth- or retrogression, if you will, of Son Gohan. The sword bearing his saiyan power had grown darker red as that power was slowly infused again into it's natural host. What would be left after all was said and done could be an entirely different being, however.
"Oh, dear.." Old Kaioshin murmured as he leaned down closer to stare into the events unfolding in the past. "Oh, you fool." he swore. The Supreme Kai glanced up at him. "What?" he asked. "Never you mind. Just hurry that ritual up; there's another you'll need to work on soon enough." Old Kaioshin stated.
Kaishin, Approximately nineteen years in the past
Kaioshin bolted upright from his prone position on the the Grand Kais bed, within the small palace built to house him while serving beneath Cell. His power rushed out on instinct from the nightmare and destroyed the room as well as most of the upper floor attached to it. Eyes wild in rage and fear, he did not recognize anyone as he shot off into the sky, an energy barrier around his body that burned anything it came into contact with to dust.
Grand Kai was the nearest being at the time and rushed from his small throne room to his superiors presence, looking around at the damage. Kaioshin locked onto him from above and shouted, releasing a wide range of destruction downward, not understanding how awake he was now nor seeing the kaio as a friend rather than foe.
It was caught and nullified by a Final Kamehameha wave before it could crash down upon Grand Kai and finish obliterating his mansion. Vegetto, stirred from slumber and warned by Piccolo of the probable break-down in the Supreme Kais psyche after all of the events so far, had kept a reluctant guard nearby should it prove true- which was indeed occurring.
"Stop!" Grand Kais' voice shouted in a panic as the fused saiyan shot skyward and caught Kaioshin by the shoulders. He recognized the insanity staring back at him, having seen it so often displayed on worlds decimated through Vegetas efforts. As such there wasn't much he could do to bring him back under control without a demonstration of effort.
He couldn't deliver the knock-out blow before his brain was under attack from a psychic strike.
Releasing the Supreme Kai and shaking his head violently to dislodge the ringing and pain, he was struck by the same area-wide destroying hailstorm of ki. Thick smoke rose up into the air with a sizzling scent of burning skin and a pained grunt before, after several seconds, one hand snapped out from it to wrap around Kaioshins throat and squeeze down tight enough to bruise it.
"That will be enough." the saiyans dual voices ordered, wind spiraling around the form and blowing away the smoke. Blood dripped from his face, right shoulder, and much of his back where the attack had landed but nothing so serious as to stop him. With a rush of ki as he ascended upward into each stage of Kaioken still under his control to that point- which was regrettably limited-, further blowing his power above Kaioshins, he brought the last god of the universe face to face.
Kaioshin reacted on instinct with another paralyzing psychic attack and found his world instead inverted and rushing past- he hit the soil below a moment later to carve out a long stretch of dirt, and Vegetto lowered his outstretched arm from the throw. Grand Kai howled in outrage at the disrespect being shown but was cut off by a sharp cough from the gathered mound at the Supreme Kais backside.
Shaking his head as violently as Vegetto had prior, he slowly brought a hand up and a yellowy-white light washed over his tattered clothing and bleeding skin. What wounds were created vanished and, after a moment, he slowly pushed upward to his feet. The anger still burned in his eyes, but a sign of understanding came with it. He scowled upward at the fused saiyan and managed a teleportation toward him, keeping a steady ten feet between.
Vegetto kept his guard up and one hand locked into position to retaliate should the Kaioshin attack again, but the motion was waved aside as Kaioshin gestured and spoke. "I will not thank you for reminding me of reality from dream, but the preventive measure you used at the least kept another of the Kaios dwindling race from dying. Do not presume lay a hand upon me again." he threatened.
Vegettos hair bristled and rose along the back of his neck in agitation. He beat the instinct to attack back down and grunted. 'He's changed. More than I knew or expected.' he thought. "So I have." Kaioshin stated flatly in response to the thought. Vegetto recoiled in surprise, then anger. "Stay out of my mind!" he demanded. In an instant rage sparked in Kaioshins eyes and he backhanded the saiyan with both physical and psychic energy around his hand.
Blood rushed from a torn lip as his head was snapped to one side. Disbelief etched itself onto his face. 'Did he...?' "Did you just slap me?" he asked in the same incredulous tone. "Know your place!" Kaioshin ordered, anger lacing his voice. 'Tch.' the power the fused saiyan had just allowed to fade exploded back to the surface and blanketed the area.
A dark aura burned the air around Vegetto as his hair was tinted deeper red and his pupils seemed to fade out. "Know.. my place? You ungrateful, self-righteous son of a *****! Where were you while my son died? Where were you when Coola and his father were active in space? Where were you while threats like Cell were even allowed to be born in the first place!" he demanded, matching each sentence with a kiai that tore at Kaioshins form and sent him tumbling head over feet away.
"I've had enough of you lording your status over the rest of us! Why don't you contribute to the fight like the rest of us mortals once in a while?" Vegetto demanded, anger clouding his own judgment.
Kaioshin snarled and vanished. 'Where-' his thoughts were cut off as the Supreme Kai reappeared at his back, this time with the same kind of katchin weapon as he had summoned to fight Piccolo.
With a crash the full-blooded saiyan caught the deadly weapon in one hand and slammed his other hand into Kaioshins waist. Despite the speed it passed right though empty air as Kaioshin warped and attacked from another angle. Each time the saiyan turned toward the Supreme Kai he would vanish again.
Their match continued in such a way for several moments before Kaioshin appeared and remained in place. He locked eyes with the full-blooded saiyan and slammed his mental attack forward in rapid bursts, breaking off for a split second and than driving forward again to disorient and confuse Vegetto.
"Aarh!" tearing his eyes to the side, Vegetto's power level faltered for an instant. It wasn't long. It wasn't much more than a single second. But that second of a lowered guard was all it took for the katchin blade to briefly have a higher power level through Kaioshin, and then the blade burst out of his chest at a sharp angle with pieces of the heart left behind on it.
Piccolos eyes snapped open at the ki roaring to life not far off. He had been dozing atop the dome-barracks of the evil, trying to get some rest while being nearby should they grow troublesome, but the familiar ki and the level in which it shot upward awoke him fully. 'What...?' he searched to see who was nearby the saiyan and grimaced sharply. 'Kaioshin.' a few moments later and he was rushing over the landscape as swiftly as he could in his exhausted state.
But it was not toward that encounter, no. He had something he needed to do, but without the strength to teleport any more for at least several days, he had come up with something to stall until it could be put into motion.
He felt for Trunks ki and found it rapidly rising and falling. A dreadful feeling rose in the pit of his stomach- 'Trunks has lost his father before. And it awoke his transformation.' with a grimace he forced another kaioken out of his body today, straining his strength and speed to the breaking point, and shot forward with the hope that he could contain the demi-saiyan in time.
Trunks was sleeping deeply. He was fatigued from the ordeal of these recent events and this days battles in particular. His dreams were not happy ones, however. Oh, they had started off well enough, with him, his mother and father eating around a table outside Capsule Corp., but that didn't last long before things changed.
Vegetto clutched at his heart and grimaced, eyes widening. A beam of ki had cut through him, thrown from Demon King Piccolos children, who now floated around the trio. In moments his mother was burned to ash from a similar attack, as Trunks stared in utter horror.
A short distance before him both Demon King Piccolo and Cell walked forward. Cell gestured for the other to go first, and Piccolo smiled darkly at him with an inclination of the head, jumping forward to drive one hand through Vegettos skull in a spray of blood and bone- the fingers jutted outward from between the eyes with the mar of pink matter.
The other hand sliced cleanly through the neck, and Piccolo brought the head upward to stare at it distastefully. "Dead at last." he spoke softly, then looked back to Trunks. The demi-saiyan couldn't move. Literally. His arms were held back by Piccolos children, and Cell himself shredded the muscle and bone with several well placed Death Beams.
The pain lanced through him and he screamed. He tried to power up. He tried to access Kaioken. Cell amped up to match him, and then take it even further, eyes alighting and fading as the aura of pSSJ flared to life around him. "No! NO! You can't do that!" Trunks shouted, desperately trying to transform himself.
Cell took a step forward, and then another, raising a single finger. He brought it forward and placed it to Trunks face at a slight angle, and a blade of energy formed from it to melt the skin off his bone. He yelled. The blade cut off section by bloody section before it paused and he reached over to grab Vegettos head from Piccolo.
Lofting it just before Trunks, Cell smiled down at him. "You knew better than to challenge the god of the universe. I am Kaioshin, I am Supreme Kai. And you... you are no longer alive." the blade cut through Vegettos skull and then sunk into Trunks own-
His body was on it's feet before he knew it, the room literally melting around him as his aura sparked and ignited flames. His hair hung straighter into the air, a dark red tinge inter mixing with the black-purple. His eyes flickered back and forth between invisibility and a shade of ice- as deep down within his core, the rage required to bring forth the final transformation into a Super Saiyan was created; yet without the power, the needed blood of one within him tainted and too diluted with common saiyan and human blood to trigger.
But he had been genetically altered after birth to bring out the fullness of his strength. He had received so many Zenkai' as a child to a teenager, been so close to dying as a mere toddler all but every day of his life; with the right push that transformation could be forcefully attained.
And right now Son Trunks was thirty percent of the way there. When Trunks opened his eyes he saw not the destruction around him. What he felt was the way his fathers power level was amped up so highly and then faltering; and he saw before his eyes the death of his father in the future.
His hair angled closer to being upright, and for a moment his eyes were deeper ice than before. It was at that moment that Piccolo crashed through to his room and forced through the power and aura around the demi-saiyan. The noise didn't register. Nothing did, save the moment when his fathers power level vanished.
And he vanished from the room right after it's last location, knocking the namekian aside like an ant in his rush. "Damn it!" Piccolo snarled from half-way through a wall, skin melting in places and down to the bone where it had touched Trunks aura.
The shock-waves left behind in the wake of Trunks movements distorted the air behind him enough to tear a hole in Kaishins atmosphere. It was almost so fast as to replicate teleportation, for one instant he was half-way around the world and the next he was hanging in the air around him with half the landmass torn free and following the gravitational pull he had briefly attained.
He looked down at Vegettos fallen body, held by Grand Kai. Then his gaze slowly directed itself upward. It locked onto a shocked Kaioshin and the bloody sword in hand. Rage. Thoughts would not come. He had sunken into a state of mind without thought, one of pure instincts. The first instinct had been one to find his father, and if possible protect him. Now his instinct screamed at him to kill.
Kaioshin stared at the battered, bloody form of Son Trunks with disbelief at the ki rolling out in waves from the demi-saiyan. For a moment he thought, 'This is what will be needed to stop Buu.' For a moment he recalled the duty and reason for why he had brought Goku and Vegeta to fuse in the first place.
The next moment he was in the upper reaches of the atmosphere around Kaishin with half his skin reduced to smoke and ash and bones jutting out of his back and shoulders where the rib-cage had been imploded with no where to go. Internal organs were shredded to bloody flakes.
When his body began falling back toward Kaishin, his mouth was torn wide open, the lips and cheeks around them actually ripping open from the strain he put into the silent scream of absolute agony. The pain he had suffered in the Demon Realm was terrible, burning his soul as it had, but this level of physical pain went beyond mind-numbing and bounced right back to full attention.
He could hardly concentrated long enough for a sickly yellow-white light to rinse outward from his spinal cord along his waist and upward to his chest. He hit the surface of the ocean of Kaishin while only partially healed and ripped the newly bonding flesh open wide again. This time he had lungs to scream with.
Demon Realm
When Trunks arm was half-way through its punch his form vanished from the surface of Kaishin. All it had taken was but a single touch and enough concentration, but Piccolo had successfully been able to warp him into that separate dimension without being right there beside him, where Trunks rage could be unleashed without consequence.
The sudden disappearance of his enemy was confusing. But he had plenty of other distractions. What was left of Dabra's people did not feel the power flowing from Trunks, only saw he looked confused and out of his senses. And without the Demon King around to speak for them, that meant this creature was their next meal.
Trunks felt them swarming toward him and, rather than fighting just one enemy, he now had dozens to target with his instinctual rage. They never stood a chance. And once he had slaughtered all there was to kill, he turned his wrath onto the very dimension itself.
Narrator: Things are beginning to move forward again! With Vegetto dead, what will happen to his fusion state? What will Kaioshin do once he recovers? And what with be the result of Son Trunks extreme rage? Read onward for the next preview!
=Future=
He had done it. At last, just enough energy had been gathered to revive Buu. For decades he had been forced to travel outside of his intended zone, but it was worth it. And all he had left to do now was to tap into that namekians life force and bend his will to Babidis own for the fight; child's play, for all the darkness swimming within it. Before Babidi could celebrate any further the door to his chambers opened and Broly walked inside.
"One hour to landing. Two hours to locating Buu's shell." he stated. Babidi eyed the saiyan. "Fine, fine! Just be prepared to use 100% of your power! I've watched this namekian and his children fighting. He's the damnable reason it took me nearly twenty years longer than originally envisioned to get here!" the wizard swore.
Broly shrugged. His strength had grown in that time frame. He was probably twice as powerful now as he had been twenty years prior, and his fighting techniques were unmatchable. 'Which means I'm the first subject for Buus appetite.' he thought distastefully, keeping his face otherwise blank.
Old Kaioshins entire body froze up with shock. A horrifying realization came to him as he looked through his crystal ball. "Where has Babidi been for all these years? What if he awakens Buu in the past... and now?" he uttered slowly. Kaioshins head swiveled up to look at him with wide eyes. "What are you seeing?" he demanded. Old Kaioshin turned to him. "Alien ships have landed at Earth."
=Past=
"So this is what happens when a Saiyan really gets in a snit." Frieza stated sarcastically. "How fascinating. Why, it's no wonder the universe as a whole was such a lovely place all these millennium! And your," he paused to make sure the emphasis got across firmly, "Kaioshin wants ANOTHER one of these on the lose?" Piccolo gestured sharply for him to shut up as the third member of the group voiced an opinion.
"We don't have time for this! He needs to settle down before he causes even further damage to the stability of the universe! Between the dimensional fractures and the splintering of the timeline, we can't afford further cosmic destruction of this scale!" Grand Kai snapped at both of them. Ahead of them a section of the Demon Realm winked out of existence, obliterated. Trunks directed another attack at the sky around him in an effort to break free without the current Demon Kings permission.