Vegeta cursed under his breath while looking to the people before him, floating in a group that formed a spread out semi-circle around him.
"You really plan on taking me on?" He asked, scoffing at the levels of power on display before him.
"That really depends on you, doesn't it?" One of the figures asked, a short one who donned a turban.
Vegeta looked, then scoffed impassively.
These ones were just getting in the way of his training, he thought, eyes narrowed.
"I take it that you aren't interested in the power that we provide?" A low, regal voice spoke down to him, Vegeta looking to find Dabura there, arms crossed.
He regarded the caped figure and the one who wore a bandana, sensing that their powers were substantially stronger than the rest of the lot.
Of the two, however, the caped one sported a greater power, nearly equal that of Cell.
"You've come here to offer me power? You really think I'd trust any of you to give me power?" Vegeta smirked. "If it's all the same to you, I'll give you all a demonstration of how mistaken you all are."
Though the cronies visibly braced themselves, the ones sporting a bandana and cape only smirked in turn as Vegeta clenched his fists, a curdling sensation starting at the base of his back, intensifying at a skyrocketing pace, before it erupted to spread through his entire body, Vegeta snarling as he was engulfed in a golden glow, power skyrocketing immensely, before he released a breath, clenching a fist before looking to them.
"All of you will be decent warm-ups for when I take my rightful mantle as the apex of Saiyan potential."
The wariness of the bandana wearing man's underlings was blatant, yet he was the first to volunteer, floating forward while regarding the prince.
"You've definitely got some strength — but can you put it to good use?"
"A dead man walking shouldn't worry about others."
Energy formed around Bojack, and their powers made the air crackle with energy, a spark arc of lightning flashing around them. They held one another's gazes for but a moment, Vegeta clenching his gloved fists, Bojack uncrossing his arms.
They burst towards one another at once, the explosive force of their collision sending shockwaves that picked up a swift wind.
The sound of combat within the gravity chamber was tense, the upgrades that Bulma had given to it being utilized by her new boyfriend.
With a full month passing by, Gohan found himself speeding alongside the various bots Bulma had made to help him train, despite being under the effects of 2,000 times the Earth's gravity, Gohan finding himself smirking as he noted the feeling of power coursing through him.
It was only with the announcement that it was time for the new tournament being done that he left, walking alongside Bulma as they left with Trunks, as well as the older variant, who'd come back in time in order to visit for a short while.
Soon enough, all of them were on their way to the tournament in question, Gohan having little idea what laid in store for him.
In the tournament proper, there was little true competition, even as Gohan found himself against a cluster of people in a battle royale.
Where the problems began to crop up was when, during the semifinals, an alien with an utterly immense power began to go about attacking him with lethal force, with the ensuing fight involving them tearing through the arena they had occupied, only for his opponent to gain backup in the form of three aliens of a similar species.
For the life of him, he had no context outside of the fact that they'd brutalized Trunks and Krillin, who laid unconscious on the ground, and made a grandiose announcement of how their leader, Bojack, wanted to take over the planet.
With it only taking place about ten minutes after the match started, with Gohan sensing each of their powers were immense in magnitude — nearly the same level as Cell had been when he'd first attained his Semi-Perfect form —he braced himself for the worst.
One among them carried a strange container with a needle sticking out the end of it, a bearded man.
"You're a Saiyan too, aren't you? The child of Goku." The leader, Bojack, asked, arms crossed.
"Killing that prince after stealing his energy gave us a substantial amount for our quota." The bearded man said. "That purple haired one was just the same."
Gohan had been silent ever since they'd revealed themselves to him, but his sharp eyes narrowed.
"You hurt my friends, and then you hurt my son." He began to step forward, fury welling up inside him, but there being a tranquility, a sense of purpose, to it that he had not felt in a long time.
He sped forward, and in the blink of an eye, he was before the group of four.
"You brought this on yourself."
His power was released as a wall of force, and the abrupt, but short ranged, shockwave sent all of them yelling as they hurtled through the air.
Gohan lifted a hand and fired a ball of energy, it exploding on impact with his first target, the turban wearing alien that had originally attacked him, him dying with a scream of pain, Gohan then looking to find Bojack flying back into view, the other two aliens, one a woman and the other the alien holding the container of energy, gazing down at Gohan with shock and fear upon righting themselves.
"Zangya, Bujin!" Bojack yelled, tone an unspoken order.
Zangya's shocked expression receded, and the pair both nodded gravely.
"Yes!" She said, before thrusting her palms forward, Bujin doing the same with his free hand, nigh imperceptible strings shooting out that encased themselves around Gohan, his eyes widening, before he saw Bujin flying towards him, the container poised to stab into him.
"Hmph."
Waiting for the right moment, he felt how strong the threads were, his energy bursting outwards, rupturing the threads as the alien froze in place on realizing the threads had no effect, Gohan's cold gaze spearing through him.
One instant, he was below him, but in the space of the next instant, he'd blurred out of view, speed too great for even light to reflect off of his body, hand outstretched, only for an energy to form around his adversary that engulfed him, teleporting him away just before Gohan's hand could grab at the handle of the container to snatch it away.
This surprise did not last long enough to keep him from looking to Bojack, who regarded this with a cold glare, scowling, only for his eyes to widen, a magical force forming around him that Gohan braced himself against, a powerful updraft of force kicking up as Bojack's power intensified greatly, a mark forming on his forehead, before a green energy erupted violently around him, the building beginning to collapse around them from the potency of the transformation.
This caused Gohan to whip around, seeing some of the debris falling towards Krillin and Trunks, his eyes widening as he made a move to rush towards them, only for the transformed Bojack to come up behind him, wrapping his arms tightly around Gohan in a bear hug.
With Krillin defeated, all of Trunks' energy drained, and both of them unconscious, Gohan knew that falling debris would be enough to grievously injure them, and in desperation, he opened his mouth to release a beam of ki, head turning so the beam moved at an arc to destroy a number of this, the debris being destroyed, but Gohan not stopping with this, shifting his elbow to ram it harshly into Bojack's gut, the blow powerful, but it not enough to make him let go, consecutive elbow attacks proving fruitless, before the boy grit his teeth, his muscles tensing, before his energy skyrocketed and burst around him in an explosion of golden light, Bojack being blown back with a roar of pain, but Gohan, landing on his feet, turned, the Super Saiyan's cold teal eyes narrowed as he shot forward.
With a punch that tore through the being's abdomen, Bojack's body was bisected from the force of the attack, before exploding into dust.
Looking to the girl who remained, Zangya stared, wide eyed and horrified at the display of power he exerted.
He stepped closer to her, and she tried to move and run away, yet fear had paralyzed her legs, making her stumble back, falling on her butt as the Saiyan walked up to her, glaring down at her fearful expression, before Zangya, gulping visibly, lowered her head, bracing herself for death.
"Do you know where the other one went?" Gohan asked.
It took her a moment to comprehend that he'd asked her something, and she looked up to him.
"W-What?"
"Do you know where the other one went?" He asked her again, Zangya nodding stiffly after another moment. "Take me to him."
"You—You're not going to kill me?"
"My biggest priority is getting Trunks' power back to him. That's all I can do at the moment."
He reached a hand out to her, helping her back to her feet, and Zangya watched as he looked to the unconscious pair of people on the ground, him flying down and going about pumping a large amount of ki into them to let their bodies heal, the boy picking both of them up carefully before flying up, looking to Zangya.
"Come with me, so I can get them to safety. Then we can go."
She numbly nodded, not needing to be told twice as she processed the quick turnaround of circumstances.
She and Gohan flew through the air, back to the tournament audience stands, where he quickly found Bulma, #18 and Chi-Chi standing in the stands amid the crowd of panicking people.
"A new situation's come up," Gohan said, him explaining as best he could, "so I have to go now. Can you make sure these two are given the help they need?"
When Bulma answered yes, he only turned, looking to Zangya to guide him, and in moments, the two flew through the air towards their destination, Gohan reverting to his base form.
"What were you all trying to do with Trunks and Vegeta's energy?" Gohan asked her, Zangya looking back.
"Some people revived us to help them release some kind of monster." Zangya answered. "They said that if we got enough power, we'd be able to live."
"And you all decided to try taking over the planet?" He asked, Zangya looking down, but reluctantly nodding.
"I know better now though." She added. "I won't try it. It wasn't even my idea in the first place, it was Bojack's."
"You were just his lackey?"
"For lack of a better term. If I join you, would that be enough for me to live?"
Gohan gauged her for a few moments, and, despite himself, nodded.
He surmised that she was the sort that was most keen on fighting for whoever was the strongest person around, which, assuming Bojack's power was his normal state, would have made him the strongest person around if not for the hurdles Gohan had gone through, alongside his father, to say nothing of Cell, who himself had reached Bojack's power and beyond it in a short amount of time.
They soon arrived at a pod like structure, where a door opened to let them inside, the pair landing on the ground before it, sharing a look.
"They should be inside." Zangya said, walking forward, Gohan following warily behind her, sensing no malice in her energy, but keeping up his guard anyhow.
They jumped inside, falling down a long vertical tunnel before landing on the first floor, a small room that looked rather drab in nature, a figure appearing that had armor on him.
Said armored man discussed how they needed to defeat him in order to progress and prevent the resurrection of a being named Majin Buu, and as Gohan heard it, Zangya sized the figure up before looking to Gohan.
"What's the call boss? You want me to pull my weight?" She smirked confidently, and sensing that this figure, Pui Pui, had a much weaker power level than Zangya, but malevolence on par with Bojack and Cell, Gohan narrowed his eyes, before he moved, appearing right before the person and ramming his fist ruthlessly into his abdomen, Pui Pui doubling over in shock, mind unable to process the pain of the attack he'd just delivered to him, before a faint release of ki was shot into his body, blowing him up with a scream of pain.
"If you can help me, that's fine. But I can't afford to play around." Gohan said, looking back to Zangya, who blinked in shock, but gave no rebuttal.
"I understand. I'll uh — keep that in mind."
The door to the next floor opened, and they set down.
More people were sent to fight them, but though they had strange powers at work, they were each soundly defeated by their combined power, to the point that, when they faced a tall demon with pink skin, black hair and a moustache, when Gohan would make to attack on sight, he instead transformed on sensing the demon's immense power, Dabura not alone, but being accompanied by the person that had been teleported away, still holding the container on hand.
"I'll give you one chance to surrender and give me back Trunks and everyone else's energy." Gohan said, eyes narrowed.
"My boy, you needn't worry about that any longer." The demon answered. "You should serve under Lord Babidi, and help us raise Majin Buu."
Though Dabura spoke to him, Gohan already sensed the attempts of another power to go about controlling him, and he narrowed his eyes, looking to the person beside the demon king.
"Give it here." He spoke in a forceful tone, and the man flinched under his glare, but Dabura floated down, a dark magical force acting to activate around him, engulfing him in a dark energy as he smirked.
"I'll just have to break your will, so you will know where you belong." He said, before flying towards Gohan, who only scowled in turn at the intensity of Dabura's skyrocketing power, him bursting forward to attack him in turn.
"Zangya, get that thing!" He roared, firing a ball of energy at the person holding the container, Zangya watching her comrade give a frightened scream of terror just before the attack destroyed him, with her smirking before nodding, rushing forward as the container fell to the ground, Gohan fighting Dabura.
In spite of his immense powers, the demon's own magically enhanced strength was enough to match Gohan's abilities, the power at work being enough to go about needing his Super Saiyan 2 form to do it, but it still not being enough.
As Gohan went about evading a number of dark red and black energy balls that Dabura launched after him, however, Zangya, seeing the even tide of the battle, shot forward while Dabura's back was turned, her promptly stabbing the end of the container into his back and draining the king of all his powers, Dabura's eyes going wide, but him unable to stop it as it happened, how, in moments, his powers were virtually gone.
At this, he fell limp, falling from the sky, and Gohan, grunting from the splitting headache he had finally easing, finally launched a ball of energy at the falling demon that killed him instantly.
Gohan looked up to Zangya, who regarded the container before looking back to him.
"... here." She offered to him, Gohan flying over and taking it. "You might need this."
Seeing a meter on it, Gohan frowned.
"Was it full of just Dabura's energy?" He asked.
"Yes. It seems like they already sacrificed it to the person inside there." Zangya nodded to the opening door. "Should we finish it?"
Gohan wore a thoughtful look, then nodded, them flying forward.
Once inside, they could only hear the incoherent babbling of the person inside, a small impish wizard that yelled cantankerously at a large, spherical shell.
"So close, so CLOSE—!"
"That's him?" Gohan asked, Zangya nodding. "And the monster, is it inside that ball?"
Babidi wheeled around at their voices, seeing them there, and, in his moment of desperation, he unleashed a full assault of his magic at them, trying to possess the both of them, and though Zangya's balance grew unstable, Gohan, sensing what it was, gripped the container, aimed it, then sped forward, running the lizard creature through with his own tool, before going about draining the power out of him and into the container.
The lizard's eyes grew wide, as all his magical powers were drained out of him, Gohan looking to Babidi for but a moment before pulling the tool out of his wound, the lizard falling limply to the ground, before Gohan raised his foot over the lizard's head, Babidi trying in vain to plead for mercy, before his foot rocketed down to crush Babidi's head underfoot, a splatter of blood and fluids coming across the floor, Gohan stepping away before promptly blowing the corpse up to nothing.
"Alright." He looked to Zangya, who held her head with a groan. "I'm going to head back. I have to fix all this."
Zangya nodded mutely, the two flying off, unaware of the demon woman who'd watched their raid on Babidi's ship carry itself out.
Towa floated inside the space where Dabura had been defeated, regarding the battlefield with a shocked expression, looking at the smoldering ashes of her older brother.
"... it's fine. I can just… bring Dabura back to life." She turned, struggling to keep a composed expression as she went.
As they flew off, Zangya suddenly faltered and fell out of the sky, Gohan looking back to her and flying to catch her, eyes widening when he realized her form was dissipating.
"What happened?" He asked in shock.
"It seems like the spell that let me come back to life in the first place is wearing off." She muttered, before looking up to him. "You can revive me though, can't you?"
"I can only do what I can." Gohan answered, surprised still.
"Well… it's better than nothing." Zangya closed her eyes, disappearing faster. "Take care of yourself, regardless."
The woman disappeared in his arms, and Gohan frowned, but didn't give a rebuttal, instead turning to fly off to the distance.
Gohan lamented the fact that he couldn't revive everyone who'd died up to that point, as the dragon balls had become inert from Cell's assault just months prior.
As he found himself standing over Trunks and Krillin however, lying asleep on a hospital bed, he sighed to himself.
"It's hard to think that this is how it happened. Tournaments aren't usually this lethal, are they?" Gohan asked, looking up to Bulma as she sat at the foot of the bed on the opposite side of Trunks, cradling his present counterpart in her arms.
"There WAS that time Master Roshi blew up the Moon. But no, they usually aren't. It can't be helped that this sort of thing happened." She answered, stroking some of Present Trunks' bangs out of his face. "What about you though? Do you plan on doing anything with that?" Bulma nodded to the container he'd brought with him, and the youth nodded in turn.
"I'm going to try harnessing these powers for myself. I'm not sure if it's going to be useful or not, but it's better than having it in the wrong hands."
"Are you sure about this? You don't want to mess with things you don't fully understand." Bulma warned, to which Gohan nodded, giving a sheepish smile.
"It being dangerous is part of why I want to understand it. I want to do everything in my power so that nothing can threaten you or anyone I love." Gohan looked to the resting form of Future Trunks, his smile dropping. "There's still a loose end or two there. I'm not really sure if I'm strong enough though."
Bulma reached over to him, firmly grasping his shoulder, and Gohan met her gaze, seeing her eying him.
"Gohan? You can take your time with this stuff." She assured him. "You're already training at two thousand times Earth's gravity, and juggling studies and taking care of Trunks on top of that. You can give yourself room to breathe in all of this."
He hadn't realized the tension in his body, the weighing exhaustion of today's events on his mind, before she said this, her assurance making all of it dissipate, him taking a deep breath.
"You're right. I just don't want to mess things up again. Cell was a close call, and if not for all the training I did with your machines, this would have gone bad really quickly. I don't really do this because I like it, I just do it because… I'm honestly just scared of that day coming, when everything goes wrong, and I can't save anyone. I never want that day to come, so I push myself as hard as I can."
"That's fine. I admire that about you. Just remember to not go too far too fast, okay?"
He nodded.
"I'll keep that in mind. I have an idea though, if you let me borrow the Dragon Radar."
Bulma tilted her head, then nodded.
In the span of the next hour, Gohan gathered the inert dragon balls and brought them together on Dende's Lookout.
"Would it be possible to place the dragon balls inside the Time Chamber?" He asked Dende.
"To speed up the process for when they return to their full power?" Dende asked him, to which he nodded.
"It could make trying to fix the damage from a catastrophe a lot faster. Keeping them locked inside could make it easier to hide, if someone tried to use them against us." Gohan added.
Dende nodded his agreement.
"With recent events, I can understand the necessity of that. You can certainly try."
Gathering them in his arms, Gohan walked to the Chamber and set the balls down inside, huffing with relief at his deed being done, before he walked back out to Dende.
"Could you also heal Trunks and Dende for me? They were hurt pretty badly during the fight." He told him, to which Dende nodded.
Meanwhile, as this happened, Towa was dealing with another issue entirely.
"What do you MEAN you sent him to Heaven?!" She exclaimed you at King Yemma, uncaring of the fact that she was holding the entire line of souls behind her.
"I figured it was only fitting. Hell would be a Heaven for him, so I sent him to Heaven to be in Hell."
Could she even get to Heaven to revive him? She internally wondered, looking up before floating, her dashing out of the judgement hall and upwards.
On arriving there, she found Dabura quickly.
He had always been upright in his pride as a king of the Demon Realm, ever prepared to enter battle with the enemy, willing to employ any tactics necessary for his conquests.
For many, he was a great example of what a ruler of their Realm was meant to be, thought to be a worthy successor to their their grandfather's legacy.
And he was merrily playing ring around the rosie with some children who'd been sent there as well, flower chain around his and the children's head.
Dabura was beside himself in joy, but she knew upon seeing him that she was too late, that all traces of her older brother had truly died upon entering this cursed land.
And so, with no reserve, Towa screamed in terror and fled as far from there as possible, fearing it would contaminate her as well.
Returning to the Demon Realm a long while after, however, she kept her expression calm as she went back to her kingdom, the castle's servants all receiving her warmly, but her being straight-faced.
"Lady Towa, welcome back!" One of them said, a maid, whose smile dropped when Towa walked past her. "Was... the venture with King Dabura successful?"
Towa stopped, frowning deeply.
"It… wasn't." She said with difficulty. "I'm sorry, but I need some time to myself."
"Oh. Well, if you need anything, just say the word." The maid answered.
She walked forward, going to her bed chambers and locking the door behind her.
She processed the last day of her life, how she had gone from being assured that Dabura's centuries-long plan to render the Ether Realm to nothing would come to fruition, how the Galaxy Soldiers had been so easily dispatched in spite of their powers, and how, even with her Dark Magic potently amplifying her brother's power, the child who'd killed them was still able to keep up with him.
Sitting on her bed, she held her head wearily.
"This isn't going to work." She looked forward. "I can't keep waiting for someone else to destroy it all for us. I have to take matters into my own hands if it's going to be successful."
She laid down, using the technology she had on hand to go about sending a telegram to the leaders of the army corps.
"Gather recruits for me. I need people who are competent in combat, be it physical or in magic." The telegram ordered.
She had to dispose of any people standing in her way, first and foremost, and she knew exactly who she needed to kill first.
In Capsule Corp., Gohan sat across from Bulma after she'd called him in to talk to him after Trunks had fallen asleep.
It had been a week or so after the entire debacle with Bojack, yet, while Gohan wanted to go about reviving those who'd died in the tournament and try reviving Zangya (he imagined he'd have to go to New Namek to revive Vegeta), he'd also commissioned Bulma to go about creating a small ship similar to the one his father had taken to Namek, to serve the same functions for him inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, something he'd theorized would allow him to enhance the effects by ten times the limit of the gravity chamber.
He'd kept the container of energy and magic safe, and decided that he'd use the extra wish to go about gaining total knowledge of how to use the energies trapped inside before he injected it into himself.
In light of all of that, however, he'd kept up with his daily life, training consistently while keeping up with his studies and having his semi-nightly fun with Bulma, while watching their child and helping to tend to him.
Overall, he'd been juggling the various things he'd been doing as best he could, and so, on seeing the expression Bulma wore, found himself on edge.
"You wanted to talk to me Bulma?" He asked her, and Bulma gave a small smile.
"Gohan, I wanted to tell you… I'm pregnant again." She informed, his eyes widening. "I took a test today, and it came back positive."
"Oh. Well, isn't that great?" He half smiled.
She looked down sadly.
"The last time it happened, it was… scary." She admitted. "I didn't know what to think, or what to say. I didn't even know if it was your child or Vegeta's, but I managed to do a DNA test when you visited. At the time though, I kind of wished that it wasn't yours."
"Really? Why?" Gohan asked, surprised.
"Because… you're too young to have children. Most people twice your age wouldn't want that." She explained. "That's why I didn't really get on you for not being there before. Now though, it's different. Since you're here with me, it'll be more difficult to keep it a secret."
"... why should it be a secret in the first place?" Gohan asked.
The question had gnawed at him for quite some time, how it was always treated like a terrible secret to be kept, and though he imagined there were consequences that would be faced by his mother and others, the more he thought of it, the less sense it made to him.
He had survived encounters with various members of an alien army working in the black market of entire planets, had escaped death because his friends and father had always managed to help him, and his father had died from him being careless, with the planet itself being subject to great peril in the first place because he'd always been too weak or scared to step up.
Wanting, more than anything, to better himself to not commit the same mistakes he'd had in the past, the idea of perpetuating the lie about the nature of their relationship seemed like it was just more trouble than it was really worth.
For Bulma's part, she was visibly surprised at his question, but paused.
"That's... just the way it is. It's not exactly a good thing for people as young as you to have children, and… it's even worse for the adults that have children with people your age." Bulma answered. "I could go to prison if the wrong people ever found out the truth, to say nothing of how the company could be affected."
Gohan's eyes widened.
"I didn't know. I'm… sorry, Bulma."
"It's my fault for letting it come to this. I'm still planning to have the baby, but I want you to know that we can't broadcast it. Not for now, at least. When you get older, I think it should be fine to really be open about it. Until then, I want to keep it secret that this is what we're doing."
Gohan nodded in understanding.
"I wish things could be different. I wish I didn't have to hide this."
"It's okay. We just have to bear with it for now. Let's keep working as hard as we have, okay? We just have to be a bit more careful."
Gohan nodded, and he went about walking with her up to her room for the night, thinking on the last few nights he'd spent having sex with Bulma, how his ceaseless libido had led to her being unable to fully satisfy him, but his errant attempts leading to this.
He smiled faintly despite this, saying good night to Bulma, who regarded him briefly, then looked inside.
"You'll be in there for a year, right? Will you be alright, without having fun?"
"I'll… be okay." Gohan said. "I'd rather not cause any more trouble, if I can."
Bulma chuckled.
"The deed's already done. We can do it again, just for today. By the time you come out, it'll be a step closer to where we can be open about it."
"... Bulma? What exactly ARE we?" Gohan asked. "Are you my girlfriend? Or… something else?"
She paused, then looked down.
"Do you know what you want us to be?" She turned to him, tone casual.
He thought it over briefly, then answered.
"Until you think it's safe, I don't want to be anything more than a father for our kids. But when I'm old enough, I want you to be my girlfriend."
"Oh." Bulma hid her disappointment. "That's good."
"... no." He sighed. "That's what I want to think I want. The truth is, I want you to be my girlfriend. Or… whatever word best describes what we are. But we shouldn't, so… I won't. At least, not directly."
"What do you mean?" She asked slowly.
"I'll tell you later." Gohan said. "For now, it's best if we get some rest. It'll be tomorrow for you, but it'll be a year for me. I'll see you then." He told her, before walking away to go to his room, Bulma watching after him, then smiling to herself.
"Until then, Gohan." She said, before turning in for the night.
A/N: One step closer.
I decided to basically discontinue the stories for Oedipus and Pleasures Across Time, despite how popular some of them were, primarily because I disliked the direction both of them took.
With that in mind, I eventually just decided to recycle the original ideas and plotlines I had for those two and meld them into here so they don't all go to waste.
Until then, I'll just work on these chapters one step at a time