The Shinjin was tall and wiry, with a shock of white hair fixed in a braided knot on the back of her head. Gold and white makeup adorned her eyelids and lips, and the contrast against her pale blue skin made them appear to almost pop from her body. A bow held together the gold, black, and red brocade of her clothing rather than the knotted sashes Dende more commonly associated with the Kai.
But she couldn't be a Kai. Dende didn't recognize her at all.
The Shinjin tossed a flower bud- an alien ship in miniature- up and down in her hands like a ball as she tilted her head to consider the three of them. She barely spared a glance for Clio and Melpomene, but her eyes lingered on Dende with pointed interest. He felt the same under her eyes as he did in Clio's: like he was a specimen on an examination table, or an animal brought out for entertainment.
Around them was a garden. Translucent vines and gnarled, black branches grew around the room's interior like walls and columns supporting the thick canopy of leaves and flowers over their heads. Stone lanterns and hanging globes of light illuminated the room as cheerfully as the Earth's sun, and reflected off the massive crystals dotting the area. Tiny, six-winged butterflies floated on a soft breeze, and Dende thought he saw some kind of bird darting through the brush. A pale green waterfall spread prismatic rainbows in its mist.
Clio absorbed himself into putting his tiny magnifying glass against everything in this room with curious gusto. He'd done the same in the strange tunnels of luminescent roots leading to this chamber, where droves and droves of strange green quadrupedal creatures marched in organized lines to deposit or take away soil, water, and stone in their oblong bodies with an organized agenda Dende hadn't been able to parse. It wasn't until Clio excitedly babbled his observations to Melpomene after scribbling in his journal that Dende understood the engine of this ship was alive, and whatever the creatures were doing somehow facilitated its maintenance. The low, subtle grinding and stretching sounds only he could hear were proof of its work.
"Welcome," said the Shinjin as they drew nearer. "Glad you could finally make it. You're just in time. My associates have just landed, too."
"Wonderful!" said Clio, breaking his enthralled study of the crystal rocks just long enough to make eye contact with her before resuming his poking and prodding. "Just wonderful! Oh, I can't wait to use these!"
He patted Melpomene on the shoulder.
"They might even be able to send signals to your artificial brain. I could have even more control! Won't that be great?!"
Melpomene remained as silent as ever, but Dende closed his eyes out of respect for his true thoughts.
The Shinjin watched the three of them, expectant. When she realized neither of them planned on saying anything, she tilted her head at Dende.
"What?" she asked. "I know the big one can't speak for himself outside of his own head, but I know you can talk. What about you? Not even a hello? I always took you for a courteous sort, Dende. And you were so... chatty when you were asking for help."
"How do you know my name? I, I don't know you," said Dende. "I don't believe we've met."
The Kai stopped tossing the bud in the air as if in shock, and then puffed out her cheeks. Her head looked like a blueberry about to burst.
"You... don't know me?"
No. Dende shook his head.
"Those stuffed shirts above you never mentioned me? Not even once?"
Dende held her eye contact and wracked his memory for anyone resembling her, or any mention of someone fitting her description. He came up with nothing, and shook his head again.
"My apologies," said Dende.
The Shinjin's face flushed fuchsia, her shoulders hunched, and her fist clenched around the bud in her hand. Finally, she threw it into the air in anger, and stomped her feet before slamming her fists in a manic rhythm against a low wicker table behind her.
The bud hovered in the air, and then gently floated down to rest in a small black clay pot resting on the ground by the foot of the table even as the Shinjin continued to cause a massive ruckus. It, and the line of pots sporting larger buds behind it, shuddered with each impact their caretaker made with the table. The pool at the bottom of the waterfall rippled and splashed with a wake created purely from her energy. Dende wondered how she didn't shatter the table.
"Oh! Those lazy brutes! They can't even think to grant me notoriety in exile! Ugh! Incompetent! Incompetent! I'll show them!"
Suddenly, she smoothed back her hair, cleared her throat, and turned around like she'd forgotten she had an audience.
"Excuse me," she said, magically calm. "Where are my manners? Would you like some refreshments? Perhaps just a cup of water for you, Dende? Nameks are a central part of my plan for the revitalized universe, after all. I plan to treat you well."
"Excuse me?" said Dende.
"Yes," said the Shinjin. "This universe is rather asinine in how chaotic it is, don't you think? There are so many parts of it that are totally unnecessary, and even more parts of it that are totally underutilized, and yet nobody does anything about it. It's like, well, it's like..."
She tapped a black and gold-lacquered finger to her chin in thought, and then brightened. "Oh, you're a Namek. You'll like this. It's like an unpruned plant!"
As it to punctuate her point, she turned to the table she'd disrupted a moment before. On it were a series of more small pots, as well as smaller fragments of crystals like the ones spread throughout the garden. She pulled a small, purple-white flower from a nearby branch, and gently placed a crystal at its center. The flower closed around it like an oyster around a pearl, and the Kai set it down into one of the pots.
"Overgrown," she said. "It could be beautiful with some maintenance, maybe some deadheading, maybe a graft, maybe some compost to help it grow, but the other Kai are so lazy that they wouldn't dare help me." Her face darkened. "Instead, they tried to turn me into compost. Me! But they couldn't even do that right, damn them, and now I'm stuck on this plane for the rest of my natural life! Do you know how long I've been here?! I know it's rude to ask a lady her age, so you won't ask and I won't tell you, but honestly! I'm so over it!"
She swiped half of her empty pots from the table in an act of fury, and then turned and smashed one of the large crystalline rocks to shards with her fist, which made Dende grimace from the sound. Then, she turned and smiled.
"They've no appreciation for the beauty and resilience of wildflowers, I can tell you that!" Her grimace melted into a smile as she turned to Dende. "But surely you understand, don't you?"
Dende held his tongue. The Shinjin only smiled wider.
"Do you know how Kai are created, Dende?"
Yes. They were fruit. All Shinjin were born from fruit grown on a special tree at the core of the universe, and inherited the Kai title upon maturity, where they inherited a universal domain vacated by a recently deceased Kai. They were literally the fruit of a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, like in the Earth story.
Dende chose not to share any of that. Still, his silence satisfied the Shinjin, and she produced another pot. Instead of housing a single bud like the others, it held a thin, delicate sprout. Its wood was nothing like the gnarled branches in the surrounding garden. Instead, it was smooth and held a soft sheen like it was made from copper, and its emerald green leaves were almost too perfect to behold. It hummed with a quiet power that swelled in Dende's chest the way his Elder Guru's did when he was a young child on Namek; it hummed with the power of life.
It was a core tree- the kind of tree the entire pantheon of Shinjin gods sprang from. Dende's eyes widened in disbelief as he looked from it to the face of its tender.
"This is my most important work," she said, lovingly eyeing the sprout like a mother might a child. "You see? I'm not going to stop at the grooming of the world, but of the entire cosmos."
Her fond smile grew manic.
"I'm going to supplant the entire structure of the heavens, and make it anew!"
She tossed her head back, and held the sprout aloft. Her plouf of white hair spread out with the motion like a peacock fanning its tail.
"I don't care how long it takes me! I'm going to regrow all of existence, and weed out all the bad apples who came before!" she cried.
Clio threw himself towards the plant. The Shinjin took a step backwards before he could reach it, so he fell in a heap at her feet.
"Ooh! Let me see!" he whined, and sprang up to try and snatch it away.
The Shinjin held out her hand. Clio found himself trapped in a shimmering pink bubble of energy. He prodded at it with newfound curiosity, and momentarily forgot all about the sprout, or Dende, or the entire planet he'd thrown into chaos. He was like an infant playing with a mobile hanging above his crib.
"Why are you taking the people of Earth?" asked Dende.
"Hm?" the Shinjin turned away from Clio to face Dende. "Oh! That. You see, Earth is a lovely planet. Truly. But I don't feel the people are making the most of it now that they think they can bend the whole environment to their whims. I think they'd be best suited for somewhere more inhospitable, because their ingenuity and sense of community would balance out the barbarism of the planet itself. It'll be good for both the people and the planet, after the initial generational shock of the change and the sudden struggle to learn about their surroundings."
"Generational shock?" said Dende.
"Yes," she said. "The first few generations will have to suffer before the whole race gets its bearings."
Clio wilted within his bubble. "But what about my experiments?"
"I'm not going to get rid of all of them," the Shinjin said, waving her hand. "There will be plenty for you to work with as you need."
She tossed her hair, and smiled bemusedly as Clio leapt to his feet and danced in a circle within his bubble. Then, she turned back to Dende.
"But, as I was saying, what's one generation in the sea of time?"
The Shinjin tilted her head towards Clio.
"He was very convincing in his pitch of the merits of Earthlings, even before he knew I'd been considering them for a while. His was just the testimony I needed to make my decision. You should be proud to call yourself Guardian to such a people."
Dende whirled on Clio, and bristled. Clio barely noticed. He was too busy giggling in glee and poking his odd pink prison.
"You caused all of this trouble with a sales pitch using the lives of everyone on the planet?!"
"Heavens, no," said the Shinjin, covering her mouth. "He sold me on the planet, too. It'll make an excellent garden for my tree- and my other plants, too, of course. And it's so remote that those useless Kai up above probably won't even notice it for a few millennia. It's perfect!"
Dende seethed and glared daggers at Clio. The bubble of energy around him may have been for his protection just as much as his isolation.
"But do you know what really made me change my mind?" asked the Shinjin, coquettishly tilting her chin towards Dende.
Even though Dende didn't grace her with an answer, she continued on as if he had. She reached out and squeezed his cheek.
"You! A perfect Namek caretaker, and with a gaggle of warriors at your beck and call to boot!"
She laughed giddily even as Dende wrenched his face out of her hand.
Once upon a time, Dende had proclaimed that he hated Saiyans. He hated them with his whole heart and soul, because he thought Vegeta and his senseless slaughter of the Nameks were representative of the whole race. This was before Dende learned that Gohan and Goku were Saiyans, too, and blind hatred was an easy answer to a more complicated problem. Hatred couldn't be trusted.
Oh, but he hated Clio, and he hated this Shinjin who thought so little of uprooting a whole world. The scabbed stump where his arm should be threatened to crack open and spew more purple blood from the force and speed of his pulse.
"Before I was born, my entire planet turned to a wasteland of sand," he spat. "Every one of our race died except Elder Guru, because we were thrust into a world we had no preparation for. Shock. Generational shock? You speak of a functional genocide."
The Shinjin frowned, but otherwise remained unmoved by his fury. Instead, she suddenly straightened up with a smile, and pointed at a spot in the garden like she was trying to distract an angry child.
"Oh, look! Fifteen Stars and Gyoza are finally here!" she said. "With guests!"
Dende didn't bother turning to look. He already knew what he'd find.
Sevoya was the last person he expected to heed his plea, and it brought him no joy that she'd risked so much to answer. He had no idea how she was going to help him, or how he was going to help her. And then there was Polymnia, who could barely walk to keep up his charade. Dende could hear his uneven gait from across the garden, and the tensing of his muscles as he flinched with almost every movement.
The Shinjin's two henchmen flanked them. Judging by their gait, one was a mass of solid muscle, and the other was virtually nothing but scraps held together by psychic energy.
Dende was humbled by their presence, but he was also deeply unworthy. He'd failed them in every way, both as a Guardian and an ally, and it was all he could do to keep from throwing himself at the Shinjin to try to beat her senseless in frustration. But that was a fool's solution.
Still, he refused to stand there and say nothing.
"Selfish. Your aim is selfish. How can you possibly believe your version of the universe will be any better than this one?" asked Dende.
The Shinjin scoffed. "Because I actually make an effort, and am willing to keep making an effort. I work, unlike the rest of the Kai."
"You're not a Kai," said Dende, lifting his chin.
He hit a nerve. The Shinjin bristled like she might start tearing apart her surroundings in a frustrated tantrum. But then, she gave a sly smile and floated closer. She set the plant down on a crystal shelf, and leaned in closer to Dende.
"Do you know why the North Kai interfered in the past few great tragedies here? You know why he bothered paying attention? Hm? Do you?"
She circled Dende like a shark.
"It's not because he cared, not really. He just didn't want to process all of those souls who might find themselves in the beyond. You get it?"
She threw her arms out wide.
"They're paperwork. That's all they are to him: paperwork. You think I'm so callous for doing what is necessary? I'm the one thinking about the reincarnation of those souls, not just their deaths. I'm the one thinking of giving them a better life down the line!"
She settled in front of him, and leaned down to look him directly in the eyes.
"But you're different," she said. "You're like me. You wanted change. That's why all of this has happened. You willed it!"
It was Dende's turn to squirm. But he wouldn't let her see it.
"No," said Dende. "I merely gave the Earth the opportunity to make a choice. I have not dictated their future, and I refuse to relinquish this planet to someone who would do such a thing."
"But why not?" asked the Shinjin, like she'd been expecting this. "I will give you everything you ever wanted. I will let you watch over the Earth, and the tree, and we can make it reflect its true potential," she said. "Earth will be a garden. A perfect garden. No more wars, no more conflicts. After this one change, I'll keep it safe from any others that try to pop up."
Dende opened his mouth to interject. The Shinjin stopped him with a single finger.
"And," she said, waving her finger, "Son Gohan will live there with you."
Dende exhaled like he'd been struck in the back. Was this what everything had come to? Had the Shinjin made her move because she thought she could sway him with this? Was the Earth really in danger all because he had been tempted?
The Shinjin pointed towards Polymnia like the needle of a compass swinging north. Dende's stare didn't follow; his eyes never left hers.
"All of your friends, in fact," she continued. "You'll get to walk the Earth as its caretaker, instead of shutting yourself away on the top of a tower. I'll never question your actions, so long as you produce results."
She spread her arms wide.
"I'm going to give you the whole world, Dende. You just have to reach out and take it!"
Her promise was impossible. He could never walk the Earth as an equal to its inhabitants if he was its caretaker. There was no charm or mystery in a life on Earth if he was the one dictating its destiny. To exist on a planet with total control was an existence of certainty, loneliness, and detachment. He'd lived that.
Dende scoffed. The Shinjin faltered.
He had made so many, many mistakes as Guardian, but even at his most selfish, this was the one he would never fall for. Had he been Clio, or perhaps Erato, he might have fallen for this. But he wasn't.
"Surely you know that is not even the real Gohan," he said, turning his body to stand more solidly between her and Polymnia, like he could defend him from her machinations with this one act.
The Shinjin sneered.
Sevoya stiffened, and her heart rate increased as Dende called their bluff like that of a rabbit caught in the jaws of a cat. But he knew that this Shinjin saw the truth of his identity from the beginning, and there was no point in hiding it anymore.
"Wait," said Fifteen Stars. Dende could hear the cores of energy held within the glass globes of his body buzzing around and colliding against their sides like bewildered bees caught in a jar. "He's not?"
"No, darling," said the Shinjin. "They tricked you."
Polymnia dropped his transformation and fell to his knees. He was like a deflating balloon fighting to stay in the air. Sevoya struggled to catch him. Meanwhile, Gyoza threw his four arms up and cursed a stream of foreign insults at his partner so rapidly that his translator proved useless. Instead, his communication became a complex string of garbled clicking, and an almost comical display of his gesturing hands.
"Peace, Gyoza. There's no reason to abuse Fifteen Stars with that kind of language and behavior."
Gyoza froze, and turned to the Shinjin with a reverent bow even as his four eyes shot daggers at Fifteen Stars.
"Besides, the real one is almost here, so neither of you will be punished. You've still succeeded and done exactly as I asked," said the Shinjin.
She was right. Dende could sense him drawing nearer and nearer with every passing moment.
The Shinjin leaned closer to Dende.
"But, sweet Namek, I need an answer, not deflections."
A threat. An unspoken threat. Her displeasure with his answer would do nothing more than prompt the Shinjin to make an example of whomever she wanted in order to manipulate Dende - and she'd settled on Gohan.
Dende closed his eyes, and let his guilt wash over him and drain to the tips of his toes. There was no room for it, now. There was no need for it. He merely had to accept that his actions had consequences, and even though the wrong party was about to deal with the repercussions of them, it was still the right choice.
He only hoped Gohan, and the rest of Earth, could forgive him for whatever happened next.
"I refuse," said Dende, and the shocked look on the Shinjin's face almost made the danger of his refusal worth the bluntness. "I had thought to use tact before, but clearly, I was wrong. I have no intention of allowing myself or anyone on Earth to fall under your control without a fight. Even if I were to die, it would be preferable than having a hand in your schemes."
The Shinjin's eyebrow twitched, then her lip, and then her cheek. Dende refused to look away, even as she reared back and spun around to face the waterfall. A thin gust of wind rattled the branches of the trees. With it, a disturbing power pulsed through the room with the same quiet, unsettling fury as a green sky before a tornado.
"Fifteen Stars," the Shinjin said, her voice suspiciously composed and chipper, "Stand at the ready for my command, won't you?"
Fifteen Stars' globular head tilted to the side. His entire body tilted with it. "Huh?"
"Just like that," she said, turning to the waterfall gushing through the garden and freezing the mist into a stationary screen with a wave of her hand.
A moment later, the starry horizon outside the ship appeared as clearly as if they were looking through glass to the outside. The distant sun's glare glinted off the surface, but not so brightly that it forced Dende to close his eyes and look away.
Two specs appeared in view of the ship, like flecks of ash flitting out from dying embers. They grew closer and closer until Dende could make out their human silhouettes. His heart sank, but he dared not show it in front of the Shinjin glancing over her shoulder to gauge his expression.
The whites of her eyes had turned a dangerous, irritated red, and the veins in her temple bulged in fury. They twitched with each passing second Dende refused her a reaction.
"Son Gohan!" she said, turning back to the waterfall. Her voice boomed in the garden, and Dende had to assume it did the same outside the ship. "You approach the dwelling of the new God of this universe. Swear to serve me, or prepare to die. The choice is yours."
Though Dende could not see Gohan and Thalia's expressions through their helmets, he could clearly read the aggravated bewilderment in their bodies.
"'Scuse me?" said Thalia. "What kind of-?"
The Shinjin levitated a piece of crystal from the ground with a wave of her finger, and sent it hurtling through the waterfall screen. It appeared outside the craft and struck Thalia in the stomach like a bullet. She doubled over to cover herself. Gohan whirled around in concern to try and offer some kind of assistance, which made the Shinjin even angrier.
"Answer me before I run out of patience, you backwater cretin," she snapped. "Don't ignore me! Will you become my servant, or not?"
"Are you the one responsible for kidnapping Dende and the people of Earth?" Gohan asked, turning back towards the ship.
The veins in her forehead grew even larger and more taught, like sausages ready to split over an open flame. Dende thought she might explode from the inside.
"How dare you answer my question with a question! How dare you disrespect me!" she roared. "Impudent wretch! You've sealed your own fate!"
She waved her hand, and the water suspended in the air joined the pond below it with a hissing splash.
"Gyoza!" she commanded, with a voice like ice.
Gyoza resumed his earlier bow.
"Keep these peons from causing any trouble or touching my plants!"
She pointed to Clio, who squawked as the bubble encasing him suddenly disappeared and dropped him to the ground.
"Make good on your promise, and start your work on the two Fifteen Stars and Gyoza just brought me! And Fifteen Stars," she said, twisting her face into a dark smile, "with me. I want to watch you kill him!"
OOOOOOO
Thalia straightened with a groan. A glowing, white-orange crack at her abdomen marked where she'd repaired the hole in her suit by melting and reforming it with her energy. It quickly cooled into ashen black.
"So we've pissed off a god, huh?" she asked Gohan, grinning through her visor. "Somebody you know?"
"No," he said, his eyes still fixated on the strange ship hovering in front of them.
His shoulders tensed, and his tail swished behind him like he was a cat ready to spring into a desperate fit of frustration.
"Hey, hey," she said. "Keep your wits about you. Remember: there's people on that ship that we weren't able to bring back down. Can't afford to blow 'em up."
As they'd pierced the atmosphere, they'd travelled in the wake of more of those budlike ships, and watched them gently anchor themselves to the scalloped balconies hanging off the sides of the massive cobalt ship. If Thalia had to guess, there was one for every major city in the world. Still, she took heart in each empty plot she saw on the ship's body- each was a city defended, and a victory for the people of Earth.
"They're coming," said Gohan.
Thalia looked up from the ship's curved body to the gently glowing foliage at its top. Two figures floated above the prow like two marionettes hanging over the bedazzled black curtains of a universal stage. It wasn't until Gohan and Thalia drew closer that they made out their humanoid figures in more detail. One had blue skin - a Shinjin- and the other was a strange creature made of glowing orbs held together by sinew.
"This is your last warning," called Thalia. "Release the people of Earth at once, or-!"
Thalia blinked, and found herself face-to-face with the Shinjin. Her eyes, mottled red and puffy beneath her gold makeup, were riddled with bright veins. More bulged in her tensed forehead and neck. Thalia thought she might explode from the inside out.
She moved to hit Thalia in the stomach, where shrapnel pierced her suit moments before. Thalia caught the blow, and the Shinjin's face contorted even more before she wrenched her hand free and sent a volley towards Thalia's face.
Thalia evaded with a quick sidestep, and then used her momentum to kick the Shinjin in the side. However, the Shinjin held up a hand at the last moment, and an invisible force knocked the wind from Thalia's lungs as it threw her deeper into space.
"Impudent little-!" began the Shinjin, but she shrieked as a blast of saffron energy burst against the small of her back.
Gohan and his fists followed shortly after, and the two of them emerged from the blast's aftermath at a standstill: Gohan, frozen with his arm outstretched and a hair's breadth away from landing a blow; and the Shinjin, with one finger extended in front of his fist as if that was all it took to hold him back. Her strained expression said otherwise.
She moved her hand, and the two of them disengaged like the tips of two swords ricocheting off one another in a duel.
Then, the Shinjin smiled. It was crooked and ugly, like a rusted, jagged knife.
"You would do well to pay attention to your real opponent, Son Gohan," said the Shinjin. "Fifteen Stars!"
Fifteen Stars, the strange creature made of orbs, appeared as if from the Shinjin's shadow, and coiled around Gohan like a snake.
OOOOOOO
Clio leered at Polymnia and Sevoya with a buck-toothed smile as he cracked his knuckles and adjusted the broken goggles atop his head.
"You heard the lady," he said. "Melpomene, you get the invalid and the girl. I'll take care of the green one and that shiny little tree."
Melpomene turned his head to look to the two of them. Sevoya tightened her grip on both Polymnia and her blaster. He groaned and tried to support himself, but with little success.
"Just leave me," he said.
"Fine. Maybe I will," she said, digging her nails into the back of his arm to make him stand up.
Melpomene advanced towards them with slow, labored steps across the garden, and Sevoya dragged Polymnia backwards while she tried to identify a direction to flee. Gyoza passed by the three of them to plant himself in front of Clio, and glared down at him with all four of his eyes.
"Not so fast, you [garble]. My orders were to keep you away from the lady's plants."
Clio pressed his lips together as he side-eyed Gyoza.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "She did say that, didn't she? Hmmm."
Then, Clio kicked Gyoza in the shins, and bounded up the waterfall on all fours before tapping a pattern of buttons on his forearm. Gyoza doubled over in surprise, and let out a stream of clicking curses.
"Get him, Melpomene!" called Clio.
Melpomene came to a dead stop, turned, and then threw all of himself on Gyoza, who caught him with two of his four arms, and then grappled with him to keep his balance. Soon, though, he regained his balance and slowly began to win out over Melpomene's strength.
Sevoya took the opportunity to turn around and half-drag Polymnia to the garden's perimeter.
Meanwhile, Clio gently put his paws around the potted plant, and smiled gleefully. His smile may have grown wider, had Dende not darted through the air and snatched it away. Clio squawked in outrage as Dende hurried towards Sevoya, and then traded her the plant for Polymnia.
"Wh-why?" she cried, fumbling with the sprout.
"We cannot let him have that!" said Dende, pushing her towards the tunnels leading out of the ship's central garden.
Gyoza threw Melpomene from his person with a gargantuan grunt, and then redirected his ire to Dende.
"The lady said not to [garble] touch her [garble] [click] plants!" he roared, sending out a beam from his hand to sear the side of Dende's body.
Sevoya shrieked as Dende collapsed to the ground with Polymnia, but as he went down, he pressed the palm of his hand to the center of Polymnia's chest and enveloped him in a glowing light.
Polymnia gasped as his eyes flew open, and an instant later, a pink smoke enveloped the three of them.
"Sevoya!" cried Dende from within the cloud. "Run!"
She did. In fact, two of her, both holding identical plants, did. Her double darted left, and she held her course straight, because she couldn't think of anything more clever to do.
Gyoza looked between the two of them, and suddenly began to snort like he'd caught something up his nose. His garbled clicking started up again as he turned burnt brown in the face, and then shot a bolt of energy from all four of his hands: one at Dende, one at Polymnia, one at Sevoya, and one at Clio.
Dende deflected the one meant for him, and Polymnia, who was suddenly spry and refreshed by some unknown miracle, dodged, but Clio and Sevoya were not so lucky. Clio's struck him in the shoulder, and he fell from the top of the waterfall into the shallow pool below. Sevoya fell to the ground in pain from her seared leg, and dropped the pot. The sprout and its soil lurched out of it and onto the green-white grass.
Polymnia and the fake plant didn't stop in their advance towards the thickest vegetation in the room, so any satisfaction Gyoza might have taken from hitting half of his targets faded away as he gave chase. His huge body rummaged through the branches and grasses, spreading glowing spores and disengaged leaves scattering in the air as he disturbed each plant, and Polymnia hurried through the brush like a thrasher evading a cat.
"Hey! The lady didn't want you touching her plants, either, right?" Polymnia asked, in Sevoya's voice.
Gyoza flushed, and began his cursing anew as he fumbled for Polymnia and the plant.
Behind them, Sevoya hurriedly scooped the real sprout back into its pot. She winced at the burning pain in her right leg, and struggled to her feet only to find Clio bounding on all fours towards her.
Dende flew between them, threw part of his cloak over Sevoya's head, and, as far as she could tell from beneath the fabric, emanated some kind of light. When Dende removed his cloak, Clio had curled himself into a wailing ball of fur as he clutched his face.
Dende grabbed Sevoya's arm and led her towards the tunnels once again, but a massive hand latched around her shoulder, and jerked her in the other direction. Melpomene.
He picked up Sevoya, wrenched away the plant, and tossed her over his shoulder. Then, he gingerly handed the sprout to Dende.
"What are you doing?!" shrieked Clio from his place on the ground. His eyes, which were barely cracked slits on his face, were even redder than before, and tears flowed freely from them as he struggled to keep them open. His buck teeth gnashed against his lower lip as he struggled to his feet.
After a moment's bewilderment, Dende took to the air and dashed away into the trees so quickly that Sevoya wasn't sure he had even been standing there at all.
Melpomene's stony, placid face ignored both Clio's complaints and Sevoya's anguish as she kicked and screamed against him. He turned around and strode towards Gyoza, who had forced Polymnia to drop his illusion by hoisting his body over his head.
Melpomene lifted his arm and rammed a dispassionate fist between Gyoza's four eyes. Gyoza's face collapsed into itself like squished dough before springing back into shape as he stumbled and dropped Polymnia.
Melpomene snatched Polymnia from the ground and put him on his shoulder opposite Sevoya.
"I have acquired both the girl and the invalid," announced Melpomene. "Have you acquired the green one and the shiny little tree?"
Sevoya couldn't tell if the glassy sheen on Melpomene's eyes was a twinkle of victory or dull compliance, but its effect on Clio was undeniable. The hare's face contorted, and his breathing came out in shallow snorts and feral growls. He reached for his wristband and began the furious input of a command Sevoya couldn't begin to guess, but then yelped as a rock the size of his torso landed next to his head with a mighty crash, cascade of dirt, and wave of shimmering spores.
Sevoya turned her head in search of the source of the boulder, and shrieked as she spotted a bruised Gyoza pulling another just like it from the ground to hurl at Melpomene and, by extension, her.
OOOOOOO
Gohan pulled at the rubbery body of Fifteen Stars wrapped around his neck. It stretched like gum before splitting into new sinews and wrapping around his hands. He stared in shock at the orb situated where the creature's head should be, and started when he realized that, instead of reflecting his black helmet, the image on the orb's curved surface was his own face staring back at him.
Gohan sent a white-hot current of energy to his arms, and then ripped Fifteen Stars' body apart with the edge of his hands like a hot knife melting through plastic. He slipped out of their grip through the hole he made, and then enveloped Fifteen Stars' body with a beam. It exploded on contact in a spectacular bloom of smoke.
An instant later, Fifteen Stars' body flew towards him from within the blast, spinning like a stone in a sling. Gohan stopped the first of its hurling orbs from colliding with him, and the second, but the other thirteen buried in Fifteen Stars' sinew wrapped around Gohan and slammed against his back like meteors into a planetary surface. He coughed into his helmet. Spit speckled the interior like stars on a miniature, visceral galaxy. Beyond it, he caught his naked reflection in the orb he'd halted with his hand. It was as if Fifteen Stars' orb could see past his helmet entirely, and the mirror's image on the curved surface followed suit to reflect what lay beneath.
Gohan struggled against his captor's sinews. They tightened more with each movement he made.
"You cannot overcome me," said a voice in Gohan's head. It sounded like his own voice running through a digital filter.
"Who are you?" Gohan asked, watching as the brows on his reflection smoothed just as his own furrowed deeper behind his helmet.
"I'm you," his reflection said.
The glassy surface of the orb seemed to melt away from his reflection, like the orb was a rounded block of ice melting away to reveal a perfect copy of his own head. Gohan stared, transfixed.
Suddenly, a ray of light whizzed by Gohan's head and struck Fifteen Stars. The creature's grip weakened, and Gohan pulled himself away.
A child in a suit almost identical to Gohan's cut through the inky darkness towards him. Trunks.
OOOOOOO
Any cry of surprise Calliope might have made from Trunks' sudden disappearance was blessedly extinguished by her muteness, and Goten's quiet smile persuaded her to keep it a secret from the busily unaware Bulma for a few moments longer.
"He's going because he knows I won't," said Goten. "And I won't go because I know he wants me to keep his mom safe. You get it?"
OOOOOOO
"Trunks, what are you doing here?!" Gohan shouted. "I told you to escort the ship back to Mount Paozu!"
"No! I'm not going to wait around!" said Trunks. "I'm going to protect you! I cracked that thing's head earlier, so now I'm going to bust it open!"
"Trunks!" shouted Gohan, but it was too late.
Trunks stopped short of Fifteen Stars, put his fists together, and then brought them both down against the creature's largest orb. A sickening crack rang out on contact, and Fifteen Stars' body slackened. The interstellar atmosphere held the body aloft, though it resembled a pile of grey spaghetti with huge marble meatballs.
Meanwhile, the Shinjin disengaged Thalia with a graceful kick, and rocketed towards Trunks. He flinched at her twisted face and bulging red eyes. She looked like a demon painted on the walls of the Ox King's ruined palace.
Her long nails - gold and red talons - reached out to clutch Trunks by the shoulders before he could get away.
"Oh," she said, her voice a ringing hiss. "You. The Saiyan Prince's son. You like power, don't you? You like control."
"Let go of me!" shouted Trunks. "Let go of me, you freaky hag!"
Gohan darted forward, and sent his knee in the center of the Shinjin's back - but it stopped in the air just above its mark. At some point, she had moved one hand behind her back to stop him with a finger like she had done the moment they had met. Her other hand held Trunks by the throat.
Trunks blasted a beam at her face from both of his hands, and Gohan had to cover his eyes from the overspray. When it faded and the smoke cleared, the Shinjin's horrible face and lurid eyes loomed over him as if he'd done nothing.
"Impudent little creature," she hissed. "You're not strong enough to threaten me!"
Her grip tightened. Trunks struggled. Through his headset, Gohan could hear him choking. He grabbed the hand that blocked him before, and then drove his elbow between her shoulders. The Shinjin released Trunks, and then plummeted away from the force.
Gohan turned to Trunks, who bent over in a coughing fit as he held his hands over his throat.
"Did your suit tear?" asked Thalia, who sported another newly-sealed hole in her own. "They're strong, but they're not that strong," she said. "She's got a knife hidden on her heels, and who knows where else. This is a war of attrition. Either we get her off guard, or she rips our suit up enough that we can't stay out here."
Trunks moved his hands. The suit was still whole - but creases marked where the Shinjin's fingers had been a moment before.
"No," he said. "I'm okay."
"Then go and help Dende," said Gohan. "If you're not going to leave, you can-!"
The Shinjin's voice cut through the inky void. Her body appeared as a streaking blur of color milliseconds afterwards.
"Fifteen Stars!" she commanded, shrill with anger.
"If you cannot use Son Gohan, use the boy!"
"But-!"
"Use him!" she screeched.
Fifteen Stars uncoiled from their floating pile, and wrapped themself around Trunks much like they had wrapped around Gohan moments before. But because Trunks' body was so much smaller than Gohan's, the creature appeared to envelop him whole, except for his head.
"Trunks!" shouted Thalia, reaching out for him.
Gohan threw himself in front of her to block the Shinjin's heel from completing a strike from below.
"You insolent nuisances!" the Shinjin cried, breaking away from him and righting herself.
Then, she suddenly disappeared into the stars behind her. One moment, she was there, and the next, she was not. She reappeared an instant later between Gohan and Thalia, and kicked the latter in the jaw.
For the duration of time Gohan did not lay eyes on her, he had not sensed her, either.
"She's teleporting," said Thalia, rubbing her jaw.
The Shinjin appeared again, this time with another kick to the crack in Thalia's armor. Thalia doubled over on contact.
"She's targeting you," said Gohan. "Shut up and defend yours-!"
Gohan earned himself a punch in the arm. He'd turned at just the right moment so it failed to hit his chest. A tiny tear appeared where the Shinjin struck, and Gohan covered it with his hand.
"Oh, that stupid-!" Thalia roared.
She threw up a barrier around them both like Terpsichore might have if he were there. Gohan realized that her suit had torn again.
"We're at a disadvantage, here," she said, hovering a hand over her newest tear and sealing it shut with a pulse of glowing energy. "I can't breathe in space. And you can't, either, right?"
"No," said Gohan, sealing his own. "But we-!"
Outside the bubble, Trunks screamed. It was a horrible sound - the kind that dug its fingers into your heart and never let go. Gohan whirled around just in time to see Fifteen Stars' twisted, sinuous body had completely enveloped Trunks. The two of them appeared like an alien cocoon dotted with glistening crystal orbs, and slowly began to pulse with a golden light. A swell of hostile, foreign energy swept through Gohan with its appearance.
Or rather, not foreign. He knew this power - he knew the way it rattled his teeth and set his hair on end. This was the power his father used to defeat Frieza. This was the power he was taught to use in order to defeat Cell.
"Drop the barrier!" Gohan commanded Thalia.
He dashed towards Fifteen Stars and Trunks the instant she did. But to his surprise, Fifteen Stars unravelled from the unarmed Trunks before he could clear the distance. The child floated away from the creature, listless and limp in the vacuum of space. Gohan dove for him before firmly steadying him in his arms.
"Trunks!" called Gohan. "Trunks!"
Power flooded from him in waves, though his body did nothing with it besides let it radiate from him like heat from a malicious engine. Trunks let out a quiet moan, but nothing more elucidating than that.
"What did you do to him?!" Gohan cried, whirling to face Fifteen Stars.
Fifteen Stars had already moved on. His orbs fixed themselves to points in space around Thalia, and his sinews stretched and followed. When they were not building a cage around her, they hurled themselves at her like weights and whips. When they pulled away from her on the backswing, the orbs fired beams of light at Thalia within the confines of the boundary set by its body. She twisted and contorted herself out of their way as long as she was able, but a strand of flesh caught her in the back and sent her careening into the rest of its body.
Gohan fired a beam at one of Fifteen Stars' orbs to weaken him, but it did little more than ricochet off the surface.
"I..." muttered Trunks. "I… I…"
"What?" asked Gohan. "Trunks?! Trunks!"
OOOOOOO
Within Fifteen Stars' rubbery grip, Trunks had been surprised to find himself staring at none other than himself. It was like his own reflection came alive within the confines of Fifteen Stars' orbs and began a staring contest with him. When it finished, it tilted its head, faded into smoke, and everything went dark.
The next thing he knew, he was looking up at his father.
They were standing in a smoking junkyard. The Capsule Corporation logo decorated the occasional broken and shattered machine poking out from the uneven rubble piled over the ground. The wind kicked up particles of dust along with the brown-white-black tails of smoke winding through the air, and mixed them together into a muddy smog that made Trunks' eyes sting. He screwed them shut before sitting up and shielding his face from the onslaught.
"Father," he said, when the wind subsided, "Where are we? What happened?"
His father turned to him, half-bored, half-surprised.
"So you lived," he said. "Perhaps you aren't completely worthless."
He tossed his head. His black hair streamed with the wind as it picked up again, and he looked into the distance. Trunks blinked away the oncoming cloud of debris and followed his gaze. His heart stopped at what he found.
It was West City - or what was left of it. The incredible skyscrapers and winding monorails, once glistening and pristine in gleaming metal and impeachable white, were nothing but smoldering ruins. Their proud silhouettes had broken and collapsed as if from some horrible calamity. The city was like the scattered, shattered skeleton of carrion ripped apart and left to rot in the wasteland of the apocalypse.
"What happened?!" cried Trunks.
"You failed," his father said, like he was commenting on the weather. "The creatures came back. So I cleaned up your mess," he said. "It was amusing, in its way."
"B-but the city! It's destroyed! All those peopl-!"
"Oh, shut up," said Vegeta, sneering as he surveyed the wreckage. "Like they even matter. I'd been thinking about the best way to rid myself of those tiresome people of earth, and this made my decision that much easier. I suppose I should thank you for that."
He chuckled, dark and self-satisfied. Trunks stared up at him in horror, and then rushed to his side.
"But what about-?"
Vegeta fixed him with a mean stare and a quirked eyebrow.
"What about what, brat? Spit it out."
"Wh-what about mom?!" Trunks cried "Where's mom?! Is she okay?!"
"Oh, the woman." He put a hand on his chin in thought.
Then, suddenly, he grinned. It spread out of him like a secret he had been waiting to spill.
"Ah, wait, I remember! Yes! She was piloting the first craft that came back down! Yes! I blew her out of the sky without even knowing the stupid bitch was aboard! Talk about an idiotic way to go! You should have heard her transmission!"
Then, he reared back his head and laughed.
"Wh-?" tried Trunks. "What are you talking about?! That's not true! That can't be true!" he shouted, clenching his fist and shaking his head. "You're lying! You're lying! You'd never-!"
"Look around you," said Vegeta, holding out a gloved hand with conversational ease. "Have you not figured out where you are yet, brat?" He sneered. "To think I fathered such a stupid one…"
Trunks looked to the rubble around him with sinking dread settling in his stomach. What he assumed was junkyard scraps he now recognized as his mother's inventions alongside pieces of the company complex. Something soft and spongy gave under his feet as he stumbled back in shock. He looked down.
It was the green-black casing of the alien ship.
"She was trying to land on the Capsule Corporation grounds, and I shot her down before she could get there," said Vegeta, like he was discussing the weather, or the best way to throw a punch. "When I realized what I'd done, I thought, why stop there?"
Then, he snickered.
"These stupid earthlings. They thought I'd be satisfied living here for the rest of my life? Ha! The one with the long hair, Bulma's old paramore, even thought I'd been tamed, or some such drivel! Ha! The look on his face was priceless! He came out of the hospital thinking he could do something, so I got to see his expression when he realized it was me!"
He threw back his head and laughed while Trunks stood watching, too numb to move and too shocked to think. His tongue was too dry and heavy for him to speak. Only his fists clenched and unclenched, like his body was making a decision about what to do without his mind. His breathing grew heavy, and the world around him seemed to fade away as he focused on Vegeta, and nothing else. He wasn't certain if he was going to vomit or faint.
"Ahahaha! That rube! That absolute simpleton! He thought the Prince of Saiyans had come to settle down with his whore, and he just thought to let it happen!"
Vegeta laughed more and more raucously before settling into a fit of snickers. He leered over one shoulder towards Trunks with a predator's grin.
"I suppose that only leaves you," he said.
"I…" said Trunks, without a thought for what he was saying, "I… I…!"
Vegeta quirked his eyebrows at Trunks' trembling fists.
"I..!"
"Oh?" he asked, sneering. "Are you going to fight me? Like a real Saiyan?"
The entire world, which Trunks at first thought suddenly encased itself in white, dampened into an electric, violent red. He didn't know who he was or what he might do - he could only see the face of Vegeta, exiled prince of all Saiyans and heartless soldier, and froth with the distinct desire to taste his blood.
Trunks screamed, and reached for Vegeta's throat.
OOOOOOO
Gohan stopped Trunks' hands and held them fast just before they closed around his neck. Tunks snarled at him with the wild ferocity of a rabid animal.
"Trunks!" he called, struggling to keep the boy from breaking out of his grip, or bashing their helmets together. "Trunks! Snap out of it! Trunks! It's me - it's Gohan!"
Trunks screeched and sent out a sudden surge of energy from his core into Gohan with enough force that it caught him by surprise. His grip around Trunks only loosened for an instant, but the boy pulled one of his hands free. Then, he swung his body so his feet connected with Gohan's head.
Gohan's helmet took the brunt of it. He was certain he heard a distinct crack.
Trunks followed up with a chop to the hand still wrapped around his other wrist. Gohan did not release him, so Trunks thrashed wildly, sending blast after blast in Gohan's direction.
"Trunks! Snap out of it!"
His aim was unpredictable, and his barrage relentless. It was a kind of frustrated destructiveness Gohan remembered seeing Vegeta embody a long, long time ago, but without his father's high-strung predictability. Trunks was like a wild animal.
Gohan dodged the ones he could, and weathered the ones he could not. When Trunks's unchecked temper crescendoed in a fit of frustrated desperation, he gave another bloodcurdling scream and fired a massive beam from both of his arms towards Gohan's face. Gohan tilted his head away just in time, and the beam cut into the distance before finally making contact with the glossy surface of the Shinjin's ship.
"No!" exclaimed Gohan, grappling with Trunks' free hand before the boy fired another blast.
OOOOOOO
A sudden force knocked the ship, and the garden within it, off balance. Gyoza toppled to the side, dropping the rock he'd brought from the grounds. Sevoya came free of Melpomene's grip when he collapsed from the force, and she dragged herself and her wounded leg away from him as fast as she could. Polymnia, who came free from Melpomene's grasp at the same time as she did, grabbed her arm and dragged her away.
At the same time, Dende burst from the brush and collided with Clio, who shrieked, and then bolted back to cover. Sevoya, who saw double of everything, couldn't tell exactly what happened, but when Dende was suddenly standing over her, she saw Clio's wristband clutched in his hand. He thrust it at Polymnia, and then pressed his single palm into her chest. Suddenly, his energy enveloped her in the same gentle light he'd gifted Polymnia earlier. Her pain dissolved like a tablet in water, as did the wound in her leg to reveal fresh, unblemished skin.
"Leave me and get out of here," said Dende, breaking from them to disappear into the brush once more.
OOOOOOO
Gohan gasped as Trunks, spent from expending so much energy in such a short amount of time, fell unconscious. The golden glow enveloping his body slowly faded to nothing, and his frantic grunts and screams fell silent. His limp body gently floated from where Gohan held him at the wrists like a piece of fishing line from the rod.
"T-Trunks!" he said, pulling him into his arms. "Trunks!"
"Now, now," said the Shinjin, suddenly floating just over his shoulder.
Gohan whirled around, still cradling Trunks.
Next to the Shinjin, Thalia floated in a bubble of pink energy. Her helmet was utterly shattered, and her suit displayed a maze of tears. She smiled dizzily, apologetically, miserably from within the confines, sustained by a mysterious atmosphere supported within the boundaries of her prison.
"Sorry," she said. "I couldn't take them both…"
The Shinjin looked no less frightening than she had upon her introduction. In fact, she looked more manic. Her eyes had become a deeper red, and an ugly bruise began to swell around both of her them - mementos from Thalia, no doubt. Her silken robes sported tatters and tears.
She started monologuing. But Gohan wasn't listening.
Instead, he watched her, and he seethed. Everything he'd done to try and keep the Earth safe, and she had appeared in the single twenty four hours he took for himself. In fact, if he understood correctly, she had been waiting for this.
He could hear Dende in his mind.
"Gohan," he said. "I am sorry. This is my fault."
The Shinjin threw her hair from her eyes and shrieked.
"Don't interrupt me!" she said, as if she could hear Dende, too. She probably could. "Gyoza! What are you doing?! Take care of that impudent insect right now!"
Gohan felt the cords in his neck tighten and flex as a new burst of energy erupted from him. He held Trunks close and moved so swiftly behind the Shinjin that he was certain even she could not keep up with him. He planted the heel of his foot where her neck and shoulder connected, and she plummeted downwards with a shocked cry.
Fifteen Stars hurled themselves towards Gohan next, and with more fury than before. Something about their energy reminded him of Trunks' just before he'd fallen unconscious. The creature was faster. Angrier. Stronger.
But not strong enough.
Gohan slipped out of their many-armed grip and deflected their orbs with a series of kicks. He kept his torso, and Trunks, guarded and closed off, but it left him at a disadvantage. Still, he knew the moment he let the boy go, the Shinjin and Fifteen Stars would go for him.
That is, they would if Gohan didn't rip them apart first.
He tossed Trunks above his head, and let the void's gentle, unceasing carry him away. Then, he smashed both of his fists into Fifteen Stars' closest orb to send the whole creature spinning. Immediately, Gohan turned his attention to the Shinjin, who had regained her bearings to pursue Trunks, and threw a punch. He got her in the shoulder and sent her stumbling through the stars. An instant later, two of Fifteen Stars' orbs collided with one another accompanied by a blast of light and an ugly crack as Gohan threw pieces of the creature's body at one another. He alternated between the two of them, slowly bringing them closer to one another in space to reduce the time it took for him to land each consecutive blow. They were like toys he could rip apart; like flowers he could rip the petals from one by one by one.
He was winning. It felt good. The Shinjin looked up at him with a dull, defeated, black-eyed stare.
"Gohan!" shouted Thalia, still trapped in her pink bubble. "Do it now! Finish this now!"
Gohan suddenly realized he was, without a doubt, standing at the exact same impasse he'd stood at with Cell nearly eight years ago. Instead of his father screaming at him to bring everything to an end, it was Thalia.
The Shinjin's lip twitched. Gohan thought he saw her sneer. He wondered how much she knew. He suddenly felt naked and stupid, like an angry beast brought into an arena for slaughter to entertain some higher power he couldn't hope to understand.
But Thalia was right. This was it. There was no use negotiating, begging, or beating them to a pulp beyond recognition anymore. His principles didn't matter. His beliefs didn't matter. He either did this, killed these creatures, or he let them writhe in his cruel, vindictive game.
He was ashamed of himself, and surprised by how easy it was to slip into such a nasty frame of mind. He had done enough damage. He had spent enough time battering them beyond defeat. They deserved an escape from him through death.
Perhaps this is what he hated the most - that every mistake he made in a fight, or every moment of moral hesitation that stayed his hand from gifting his victim the finishing blow was simply a smokescreen for the fact that a dead opponent wasn't as fun as a suffering one.
Or was it the other way around? Would he let something suffer because he couldn't bring himself to be its killer? Only now was he old enough to realize that it didn't matter.
He shook it off, and went in for the kill.
The Shinjin threw her hands over her face, but Gohan had never been aiming for it. His fist connected directly into her chest, and it gave way under his force. Something cracked with sickening volume as she crumpled. Her hair, which had gradually fallen into a wilder and more ragged mane with each blow from Gohan's onslaught, fell limp over her eyes and shoulders.
If she were mortal, he would have burst her heart. But she wasn't, so she simply spewed purple blood from her mouth, and then raked his mask with her gilded nails in a surprise strike. He propelled himself away from her before they could deepen their bite.
She only grazed him, but Gohan saw the sparks from the impact and glared at her through the resulting scratches on his visor. Then, he realized too late that this was a distraction. The cold void of space reached through a deep gash in the right arm of his suit. When the Shinjin raised her arms, she had not been guarding her face. She had sliced through his suit.
He looked from the gash to her, and discovered that, over the steady trickle of viscera coming from her mouth and despite the fading light in her eyes, she was laughing.
He reached out with glowing fingers to seal over the gash. The Shinjin's right hand darted out to grab his wrist and hold him fast. He moved his arm to shake her off, but she clung tightly even as her entire body flailed like a limp ragdoll.
He grabbed her arms, swung her around his body to build momentum, and then released her so she went flying into Fifteen Stars. Fifteen Stars' elastic body stretched and opened to swallow her, but Gohan realized too late that it was large enough to envelop him, too.
"Gohan!" Thalia screamed from within her strange pink bubble.
The creature's sinews stretched around Gohan's limbs, and their orbs began to glow as they surrounded him. Whenever Gohan struggled and tried to ward Fifteen Stars away with a new burst of energy, it was as if the creature's strength mirrored his. He realized that he was feeding them, somehow.
Fifteen Stars' largest orb, which Gohan could clearly see a crack spreading over the side like Trunks had said, began to reflect his face again, just like it had before. He watched his own reflection appear before him, regarding him, this time bathed in harsh golden light rather than crowned by black hair, and with furious, hungry eyes.
OOOOOOO
Through the waterfall, Sevoya saw Fifteen Stars swallow Gohan like a net ensnaring prey. It frightened the last bit of common sense she had in her body out of her like a mouse running scared from a cat. She wrenched herself away from Polymnia and ran to the crystal column in front of the waterfall - the ship's control.
Clio dove around her legs in a fit of crazed laughter, shouting, "Where is it?! Where is it?!" and tearing at her skin and clothing. He pushed her into the dirt and clawed at her with half-blind paws until Polymnia suddenly pulled the two of them apart. He held Clio in the air with an iron grip around his neck, but held Sevoya's hand with a loose grip.
"My responsibility was to take care of the invalid and the girl," said Melpomene. His voice was monotone, but Sevoya could see him celebrating behind his eyes.
When Gyoza trampled across the garden towards her, cursing and clicking, Melpomene slammed Clio into him like a makeshift weapon. They fell in a heap on the ground.
Sevoya slipped her hand out of Melpomene's and ran towards the control crystal once more. She had seen Bulma working with them just before she had volunteered herself and Polymnia as bait, and she knew how to tell the ship to go forward at top speed.
She slammed both of her palms against the center of the crystal, and willed it to go forward with all of her being.
OOOOOOO
Fifteen Stars was inside Gohan's head, watching. Watching his entire life go by like a film from a projector Fifteen Stars so rudely began without asking. Gohan watched, too, entranced.
When Gohan was one year old, he broke his mother's finger. She had been tickling him, and he decided he wanted her to stop, so he reached out his hand and squeezed around her index finger until she yelped and pulled away. When he saw the pained, puzzled shock on her face, he learned the meaning of regret, though he couldn't put it into words at the time. But he remembered. Saiyans remember everything from the moment they are born. Gohan would not know this was unusual for humans until someone explained it to him later in his life.
Piccolo would explain this to him, too, in so many words: Gohan was a crybaby, and a coward. He was afraid of his power, and therefore afraid to fight. Piccolo intended to beat it out of him - by literal means.
It didn't work. But Piccolo's tutelage was like a light in the mouth of a cave, if the cave was his own power: it gave Gohan the courage to venture deeper, so long as he could turn and see the entrance. With something to keep the darkness at bay, Gohan was free to enter to a point, and leave freely. He knew something was sleeping deep inside, and if he went too far, he might wake it up. And then, if it woke up, then what? What came after that? He didn't know. That was the worst part.
But people whispered about it. About the power, about the fury, about the destruction. Sometimes, when he wasn't aware of it, that monster would wake up and take his place. It happened with Raditz, and with Frieza, with Vegeta, and eventually with Cell. Each time it woke up, it got stronger. Each time it woke up, someone was there to feed it.
His father thought this was a good thing. He tried to shine a light into the cave that was so bright, the monster could never go back to sleep. Gohan had let him - let him come in the cave, let him convince him to feed the thing, let it grow stronger - and then failed to hold it back when it awoke at android Sixteen's death. Ultimately, his father died that day, and it was Gohan's fault.
He used to think it was his fault because he had not been decisive in killing Cell quickly, or hesitating when he was first put in front of him. But that had not been the only option.
Why hadn't he left the cave, and the monster, behind long before that happened? Why didn't he seal it up forever? Why had he let himself journey inside?
Because the monster wasn't real. The only thing inside the cave had been him, and he thought he belonged there so that nobody else would find him and hurt him, or get hurt. He was a coward, and a crybaby. He recognized himself in Broly because they were the same: an enormous power stoked and tempered by an even more enormous fear.
But for Broly, he had felt compassion. He felt the same kind of frustration about Broly's temper as he did with himself, but it didn't inspire the same underlying loathing, the same perfectionist criticisms, or the same type of fear. Instead, it inspired within him a desire to help. He had not let Vegeta take Broly's life, nor the frozen mountains, nor Broly's own frenzied strength.
Thalia had put it best in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and it was one of the many reasons he still told himself he hated her: "You needed to help him because you couldn't help yourself unless it was a byproduct of helping someone else."
They were the same. They both lived in a cave, and they were too scared to come out by themselves. Trapped. They were trapped.
Piccolo's tears after he'd sacrificed himself to save Gohan. Krillin's face as he fell into the water from Frieza's onslaught. Sixteen's smile before he was crushed underfoot. His father's words to him just before he died.
He watched his life go by like a dream - all the moments he regretted, where he failed, where he wasn't strong enough or wise enough or in control enough, and the moments he had done his best to forget, but could not. Because Saiyans never forgot anything.
"Do you hate me?" asked Gohan's reflection.
"No," he said, surprising himself. "I hate the cave. I hate that I allow these things to limit me!"
He let his power rush through him like a river cutting through an old dam. It exploded from his hair, from his eyes, and from his body in sheets of gold light that leaked out of the front of his visor and washed his reflection off Fifteen Stars' orb. With a surge of new energy, he formed a tight barrier between himself and Fifteen Stars' sinews, and then slowly expanded it until Fifteen Stars' body tore to pieces and sent their orbs floating on separate paths through space.
The Shinjin screamed. Gohan had not even realized she was watching. He turned. She held her arm above her head with a pinprick of deadly light aimed towards something in the distance - Trunks, who was barely a speck floating high above her head.
Gohan started towards her, but knew he'd never make it in time. But to his surprise, the Shinjin's massive ship suddenly rocketed forward at incredible speed. She changed the target of her beam in surprise, and a series of explosions and shrapnel burst from the ship's front as she pierced it. But it didn't stop.
Gohan was stunned. He hadn't been ready for it. He hadn't seen it coming at all, and had left himself totally unguarded. If the impact didn't kill him, his helmet would shatter, and the lack of atmosphere would have done it - but Thalia appeared in an instant, bubble and all, and pushed them both up and out of the ship's trajectory towards Trunks, and then collapsed as the strange barrier around her popped like a bubble. The ship passed beneath their feet before coming to a stop almost as abruptly as it started.
Gohan looked down at Thalia. Her suit sported a spider web of patches she'd created while she was trapped, and he remembered with a start that he needed to seal the tear in his arm only to find he'd already done it in his effort to destroy Fifteen Stars.
He examined the now-smoking spaceship in front of him, and realized that he could only think of one piece of unoccupied land large and flat enough to hold the entire craft.
OOOOOOO
Gyoza remained on his knees as the ship finally settled. All color had drained from his face.
"M-my lady," he said, staring into the distance at a point only his four eyes could see. "My lady!"
He threw himself into the ground, weeping salty dumpling tears.
Sevoya blinked stupidly as she realized she was enveloped from head to toe in a massive yellow inflatable that absorbed the shock when she was thrown from the crystal console to the branches of one of the garden's massive trees. She couldn't understand where it came from or what it was until it disappeared in a sudden plume of smoke and she found herself in Polymnia's lap. His hair was mussed, and his eyes were alight with adrenaline.
"Next time, warn me!" he said, all but exploding in a fit of nerves. "Did you know we could have both been pancakes? Did you?"
Sevoya looked around. Melpomene held an unconscious Clio in his hands, both of them alive through whatever strange powers the cyborg had at his disposal, and Gyoza wept on the ground. When Dende emerged from the brush, wide-eyed with trembling hands clenched around a tiny sapling, she chanced a question.
"...Did it work?"
As if in answer, Gohan came through the trees carrying a comatose Thalia and Trunks. Their suits looked like they were seconds from coming apart at the seams. Five white streaks spread across Gohan's visor like something had tried to claw his face off.
"Gohan," she said, stupefied. "I thought you were dead!"
He turned to her and pulled off his helmet. When she saw his gold-white hair and green eyes, she felt herself grow cold. Polymnia kept her from falling from the tree. He gently deposited her from the branches to the ground, and helped her steady her feet.
"Not yet," said Gohan, half-smiling, half-grimacing.
Sevoya could feel his energy pouring off him in sheets from even before this moment, but somehow she had put it from her mind until she'd seen his face, his hair, his eyes. She knew he was the horrific golden god from before. But he was also Gohan.
Sevoya pulled herself from Polymnia's grasp, and reached out a trembling hand towards Gohan.
"You," she said.
Gohan nodded, not completely understanding, and then jumping back in horror when he realized he was still transformed.
"Stop," said Sevoya, with a confidence she didn't feel. "Don't move. Don't change. Just stop."
Gohan obeyed. She took another cautious set of steps, held her breath, and then squeezed Gohan's nose shut with her fingers.
His eyes flew open and his eyebrows raised almost as far as his hairline.
"Um," he said, his voice nasally and compressed from her fingers' influence.
Sevoya felt her fear melt away. She grinned and pulled her hand away. His energy still made her nauseous, but it wasn't going to wash her away like sand from a shell. He was still Gohan, and he was not going to kill her or anyone else with indiscriminate fury.
"Got your nose," she said, lamely.
Gohan covered his face like he actually believed her. She laughed at him until she spotted Dende over his shoulder wearing an expression that could depress even the sun.
"Dende," said Gohan, following Sevoya's eyes and stepping towards him. "I'm so glad you-!"
Dende put down the sprout he held in his hands, and suddenly he was prostrated against the floor in a deep bow.
"This is my fault," said Dende. "All of this. Please. There is nothing I can say or do to earn your forgiveness. But please. Please. Accept my apology."
"Dende," repeated Gohan, kneeling on the ground to pull him from his position.
Bright tears flowed from Dende's eyes.
"Oh, Gohan, I-!"
"Dende," said Gohan, "It's over now. I'm just glad you are safe. You understand? That's what matters the most to me. You're safe. We can go home now. The rest of it can wait. It doesn't matter."
Dende scrunched his eyes closed, and then collapsed into sobs against his friend. Gohan threw his arms around him and pulled him close.
Sevoya watched the two of them. In the gentle light of the otherworldly garden, Dende looked less frightening to her than when she first saw his face. She thought of him less as a demon and more like a regular person - just green, and with antennae. But still.
She cleared her throat. When Dende and Gohan turned to her, she tapped her foot and crossed her arms.
Dende hung his head.
"Sevoya, I must also apologize to-"
"You do," she said. "But that's not what I'm worried about right now. What are we going to do about Gyoza and-"
She pointed only to realize that Gyoza was nowhere to be found. Melpomene stood where she'd last seen him, with a drooling, snoring Clio clutched in his outstretched fist, but Gyoza had disappeared without a trace.
"He dissolved," said Polymnia. "I was waiting when you three would look up from your moment and notice. He just dissolved into nothing."
The four of them looked at one another.
"Well, that proves it," said Dende. "He was an enchanted servant, I suppose. If he is gone, the Shinjin is dead."
Polymnia slung an arm around Sevoya.
"I can't believe I am saying this, considering that you just ran her over with her own ship, but well done!" he said. "But can we just go home now?! I'm tired, and in every parameter except the physical, I feel like shit!"
OOOOOOO
Vegeta didn't understand why Gohan chose to bring the ship down in the wasteland until he saw the size of the craft. Its glossy blue body made the sallow brown of the wasteland even duller by comparison. He was certain that Chi Chi could see the damn thing from Mount Paozu if she happened to look.
He wasn't the only one awaiting its arrival. In addition to Urania's team of Circle members and their throng of first responders, Piccolo and a dark-haired stranger stood upon a plateau, wrapped in the dusty wind. It was the man Vegeta had almost killed in the northern mountains - and had almost killed Gohan over. He was tense as a coiled spring, and with his eyes locked on Vegeta with the same intensity as an animal deciding whether to bolt or fight. The two of them regarded one another from a distance, and Vegeta realized that the Saiyan - Broly, as he would eventually learn - was just as frightened of him as Vegeta was of Broly.
Vegeta landed on the plateau and held Broly's eye contact. His uneven power swelled with a dangerous tide. Piccolo glanced from him to Vegeta as a warning as the tension stirred the air.
Broly was a threat. A freak. A danger to everyone he knew. But he also had a desire for acceptance, and to be greater than himself. Vegeta realized this was his first, and probably last, chance to be worthy of Kakkarot in a way that mattered. Begrudgingly, he realized he may owe Urania a thank-you.
He gave Broly a curt nod of acknowledgement, and then flew towards the ship on the horizon.
The dangerous, fearful tension flowed from Broly like water down a drain. Piccolo clapped him on the shoulder, and then followed Vegeta to the enormous blue ship.
When Gohan emerged with Trunks and the boy laid eyes on his father in the wasteland, his shoulders seized with a fear and fury even greater than Broly's. It cut Vegeta to the core, and inspired a shame so deep and so visceral he almost couldn't understand it. But then Gohan put his hand on Trunks' shoulder, said something, and Trunk's fear dissolved into a relief so palpable that it drove him to tears. He ran to his father and threw his arms around him in a wet, snotty hug.
"You and I will need to have a long talk, and an even longer one with him," said Gohan.
Vegeta patted his son's head, completely flabbergasted and relieved in a way he didn't know was possible, and nodded mutely.
"It's funny," said Gohan. "I feel like I know you so well, and yet we've never been able to talk to one another like we should have." He grew quiet. "You brought the first aid here and took down a ship, didn't you?"
"Yes," said Vegeta, soberingly tight-lipped now that he was faced with his weeping son.
"Thank you," said Gohan. "I've never been able to say that to you in a way I thought you might accept. But thank you, Vegeta."
Vegeta nodded, awash in emotions he could barely identify.
Gohan turned back towards the ship. Broly had gone to speak with Thalia and Sevoya, but Dende stood to the side with a face like stone as Piccolo glowered at him.
"But for now," Gohan said, "If you'll excuse me, I have something else to take care of first."
OOOOOOO
Author's Note: So, yes, I lied. This is not the last chapter. There will be one last part with the final falling action and resolution. But I thought it was best to go ahead and get this out here based on the way everything is structured. Thank you so much for reading. You have no idea how much I appreciate your support throughout this story. I deeply appreciate all of the time and attention you have given me and my work! But I can't gush now - I have to make the rest more than just detailed notes. If it's not up by the evening of 9/7/20 you have an open invitation to pester me.