Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
"Pan, are you alright?"
She looked up at Trunks, smudges of oil across his forehead and one of his cheeks. As much as seeing him should've been a comfort as this meant her exit from Namek would soon be underway, Pan's mind couldn't help but wander back to the agonizing minutes that passed without him on comms.
Even without her asking him "Where were you?" directly, Trunks could read it on her face.
"I'm sorry I went quiet. I had to tinker with Goku's ship so he'd arrive on time."
"And after?" she responded.
"I couldn't afford for Goku to see, let alone sense me before our first meeting. Once the coast was clear, I tried getting to you. By the time I arrived, you were gone… and I lost contact with the Supreme Kai of Time."
Pan looked down, the scowl that initially emerged now turning to sympathy.
"You lost her, too..."
"She managed to get me back... and she can return us both."
He put his gloved hand out.
"But we need to get going now."
As the two took their first steps outside of the cave, a flash of light beamed over them.
Prior to being sent back to Namek, Pan had seen Chronoa at her limits. Now Chronoa, her pink skin a much paler hue and lying in bed, could barely keep her eyes open, let alone lift her arms or legs.
Pan couldn't help but think of how much worse things could have gone had she failed.
"What happens if Chronoa doesn't make it? What becomes of the city… the Time Patrol… of time itself? Towa would strike... and time would be..."
She caught both Trunks and Beetro looking over at her as she contemplated this, the medical Saiyan breaking the silence.
"I can assure you her condition is stable."
"How long will she need? A couple days? A week?"
"As a Kai, the rules are a little different for her biologically to say the very least," answered Beetro. "As such, the time frame for her recovery isn't clear."
"So what now?" Pan inquired to Beetro.
"I will be remaining here to ensure her recovery goes well."
"And I'll be here as well," said Trunks to Pan's shock.
"Both of you?!"
"I'll be taking over for the Supreme Kai of Time until she's made a full recovery," Trunks added.
"Ki! Ki!"
They could all hear Tokitoki chirping from outside.
"Excuse me," bowed Trunks before leaving the room to perform his new duties.
"Is there anything else I can do to help, Beetro?"
"The thought and offer is appreciated Pan, but all we can do now is wait and see."
Pan, realizing that alongside Trunks, she would not be able to speak with Beetro for some time, decided to make the most of it before leaving.
"Can I ask you a few questions?"
"You may."
"You said senzu beans were in short supply now."
"It takes considerable time to grow even one Senzu bean on Earth. Here, they grow even slower. That is why we rely on our medical technology to heal and only use senzu beans sparingly."
"...and to think Yajirobe had an entire bag full of them at a moment's notice."
The next question would be especially weighty and Pan tried to put it as delicately as she could.
"Are pure blooded Saiyans stronger than Saiyan hybrids?"
Beetro carefully considered what he knew as he answered.
"Even with our extensive database and all our knowledge, we still have much to learn regarding Saiyan hybrids. From where I stand, the results of combining Saiyan DNA with others simply cannot be predicted. Same with their potential."
It wasn't the answer Pan had hoped for.
"And that's probably just the case for half-Saiyans..."
Still, she didn't want to appear ungrateful towards Beetro for his efforts, so Pan, turning away for a moment to get her facial muscles into a more neutral state, put her hands together and light bowed her head towards him.
"Thank you for your time, Beetro."
Just as she put her hand to the door knob, Pan heard a light groan from Chronoa, whom, while trying in vain to articulate with her hand, was clearly trying to gesture to Pan.
"Wai..." was all that escaped the Supreme Kai of Time's lips as Pan immediately made her way to her, crouching onto one knee and putting her hand atop of the Supreme Kai of Time's.
Now seeing Chronoa much closer and hearing only faint noise from her, Pan couldn't help but imagine what would happen if Towa struck history again during all this.
"If Chronoa's still like this... still recovering... it will all come down to me again..."
Her mind wandered to the two senzu beans she needed just to keep going and how even after the second one, it still seemed like nothing had changed.
"I trained for the Ginyu Force... and I wasn't ready. I almost failed. I powered up twice and I almost failed."
Chronoa, seeing Pan's face swimming in thought, slowly wrapped her fingers around Pan's hand as she tried to speak again.
"P... Pan…"
She then saw Pan look her in the eyes with determination.
"I promise you, Supreme Kai of Time: I will be better than I was here."
Pan saw Chronoa's eyes open much wider and felt the grip on her hand tighten.
"Don... don't be..."
A cough interrupted her as she turned away.
"Beet..."
Chronoa's request for Beetro was followed by rougher coughs, after which she let go of Pan to cover her mouth. Beetro came between the two with a glass of water at the ready as Pan backed away to give him space.
"Supreme Kai of Time. You mustn't expend so much. You need to rest."
Pan finally opened the door to leave, but still, Chronoa gestured to her.
"Wai... mustn't..."
Thinking her presence would only make the Supreme Kai of Time expel more and hurt her recovery, Pan lightly closed the door. With a breath, Pan looked over to her way out of the Time Nest.
"Chronoa knows what's at stake. She needs me to step it up."
As she walked towards the doorway, she caught Tokitoki from the corner of her, standing on his perch and appearing down.
"Toh..."
His chirp sounded like a dejected sigh.
"He knows Chronoa's in poor shape."
Trunks, standing by the mystical bird, knew Tokitoki could understand Chronoa, so he tried thinking of something to tell him to lift his spirits.
"She'll be alright."
Even then, Tokitoki's demeanor didn't change.
"Ki..."
Another downcast chirp followed.
"Not comforting for him now, even if he can sense it to be true," Trunks ruminated. "He knows Chronoa better than anyone and if he's worried..."
He heard the sound of the gate and looked over to Pan putting one arm through it, but having not yet exited. She turned to him and both found each other having simultaneously paused in place, the same realization that the two would be apart for some time hitting them at once.
"Trunks will be needed in the nest now," Pan thought to herself. "I mean it's not going to be six months apart like before... at least I hope it doesn't come to that."
Neither knew what to say or even thought to wave or anything. Pan proceeded, leaving the Time Nest as Trunks turned back to Tokitoki, who took note of this.
"Toh... ki?"
"You're right," Trunks responded. "Pan does have a lot on her plate right now."
"I'm needed here... so it's up to her, Hale, and Taino now. I'll be here waiting for her."
A sigh followed his contemplation.
"If I had just gotten to that desert faster..."
The next day
"So..." began Taino, standing at the academy grounds. "Get all the rest you need?"
Pan, not wanting to divulge how she felt the day before, looked at her still-veiny arms.
"To tell you the truth, I'm still a bit sore from all the Kaio-Ken yesterday."
"I've been tasked with teaching you all there is to know about Captain Ginyu, but we'll focus on performing techniques for the time being."
Starting off with...
"There's some technical name for it Ginyu has, but we've come to call it Dynamite Punch."
The name reminded Pan of one of her grandfather Hercule's show moves, the dynamite kick, only she imagined the damage inflicted would live up to the name.
Sure enough, after Taino landed an elbow on the face of a training dummy, the barrage of punches that followed left it in pieces afterward.
"Seems simple enough..."
The dummy reassembled soon after Pan's thought.
"Next... Strong Jersey."
Taino glowed, a purple sphere of energy around her until she flew at the dummy with a charging elbow. Its head split from the impact, the top of its head sent flying before returning and reattaching.
"That's something on Recoome's level."
"Milky Cannon."
Taino generated and fired a fairly sizable purple wave. The dummy's chest caved in significantly.
"What an odd name..."
"Visionary Attack."
With just a finger gestured, Taino fired small, but destructive orbs, demonstrated by the dummy standing with only one appendage still attached.
"So much power from just one finger..."
"Galaxy Dynamite."
As Taino's hands glowed purple, spheres forming...
"You might want to step back, Pan."
Pan did so, then saw blast after blast not only strike the dummy, but cause the ground they stood on to shake violently. Once Taino stopped, wiping over her eyes with her gauntlet, the dummy was reduced to so many pieces it looked more akin to a broken puzzle than an actual figure.
"I'm not sure even that bot can come back from that."
Slowly, the pieces of the dummy flew or even crawled back over to the center, almost looking like a gray puddle as they gathered.
"A tough little dohickey, huh?" asked Taino, seeing Pan's surprise as the process continued. "They're perfect for demonstrating techniques."
A pile formed and began to take the shape of the torso, its limbs and head forming out of it.
"To fight a self-repairing machine..." went Pan openly. "It wouldn't stop..."
"Well, it can come back from these kind of attacks. The higher up ones, not so much. And them fighting was off the table after Towa's..."
Taino paused after catching herself mentioning Towa and could tell from Pan's expression she was already aware of the fateful event of Towa's prototype dummy attacking patrollers. She cleared her throat, then continued.
"That's why the projections in the Training Chamber are the only ones allowed to attack. Because we can pull the plug on them."
Pan saw the dummy had reconstructed itself entirely, then saw Taino stepping aside.
"Here. Now you try. Whichever technique you want to start with."
Days passed as Pan worked at getting the techniques to work for her. She tried generating Milky Cannon, but found the projectile unleashed was much smaller and burst apart right before it was fired.
"Your posture's not right."
Taino tried nudging Pan's arms and legs into place.
Along with that, Pan generated a sphere around her, but as she went moving for an elbow, it seemed to go unstable.
"Gotta get that ki under control or you'll lose that extra bit of damage."
Then Pan fired off one orb from her finger successfully only for more to fire rapidly, causing her arm to jolt upward and her to fall over.
"Keep it at a controlled firing rate, and steady your arm."
Lastly, Pan created orbs in her hand, then fired two beams right at the dummy. Taino saw them strike the dummy and waited to see more, but instead saw Pan crouched over.
"I put way too much into them," went Pan. "Need to use much less if I want to fire off more."
Taino could see Pan was starting to see what she needed to work on without having it explained to her.
"You're catching on," she replied back. "In no time, you'll..."
Taino paused and Pan turned to see that someone was watching over their session.
"Commander Hale," went Taino before standing up straight and bowing her head to him. "What brings you here?"
"I see you've been going over Ginyu's techniques... but have you engaged in sparring as of yet? It's important she knows how best to deal with them in action."
"We haven't as of yet, but we'll certainly do so..."
Taino saw Pan clearly exhausted.
"...next time."
After hearing this, Pan allowed herself to lie on her back on the ground with an exhale.
"Phew. I dodged a bullet there."
"And what of Ginyu's most dangerous technique?" continued Hale.
"Well, we've certainly been firing off some..."
Taino paused, then realized...
"Oh, THAT technique."
"Be sure that you go over it in your next lesson. It's importance is absolutely paramount."
With Taino wrapping up, Pan slowly lifted her upper body upward, left wondering...
"After all these attacks... what could be his most dangerous one?"
During this session, Pan found Taino even more serious than usual.
"This move we're about to go over is the most dangerous tool in Ginyu's arsenal. It's entirely unique to him and his person, so I can't perform it. Instead..."
Two circles were drawn onto the ground, a fairly short distance between them. Taino stepped into one and Pan the other.
"This part is absolutely critical: when I face forward and shout "Change now!", you need to be out of the way."
Pan stood at the ready, waiting for the first word.
"Change...!"
Pan began to move her feet...
"NOW!"
As she moved to the side, she saw a fast-moving line stretch from Taino's circle to her own.
*BEEP!*
Pan looked back at the circle to see that it turned red.
"Not fast enough..."
Taino stepped out of the circle momentarily to show Pan that her arm was just at the edge of her own circle.
"That is the speed at which Captain Ginyu's body change travels."
Pan had seen and heard of many strange techniques, but the name alone of this sounded almost unbelievable to her.
"Body... change?"
"Now it's not likely Ginyu would target you with his body change... but if he were to land it... if you were to come between him and his target... you would both swap bodies."
Pan didn't need to follow up this thought in regards to what it would mean in mid-mission as Taino continued.
"The change to history would be beyond catastrophic... especially if he were to use it once more on someone else."
Now Pan imagined a terrible scenario in which Ginyu in her body switched with all the other Z-Fighters on Namek, misplacing them all.
"As long as the body he's in has the ability to speak words, Ginyu could go back and forth between several if he so chooses."
A battle against Ginyu with others in the vicinity was starting to make battling him sound like an impossible endeavor.
"How could anyone stop someone like that... like Ginyu?"
Taino then realized she needed to clarify a few things.
"That said, Ginyu's power doesn't carry over to the bodies he switches with. And considering how powerful he is already, he won't use the body change unless he believes his opponent to be stronger than himself. That and the body change being a straight shot are the only legs up you'll have on the technique... but you still can't afford to be anywhere near it."
"Roger that," Pan nodded.
"Now then..."
Taino hopped backward, then took on Ginyu's stance.
"Let's see if you've absorbed my lessons so far."
The spar that followed had Taino, knowing Pan was in the process of improving her strength, keeping her power below that of Ginyu's and closer to the Ginyu Force members Pan had previously battled with. Several more occurred over the next few days with Taino slowly increasing her power to gradually acclimate Pan to Ginyu's level...
...but even then, Pan always felt like she wasn't measuring up physically.
"I know the techniques by heart..."
After clashing with their elbows, Pan and Taino rapidly punched at each other, but within seconds, Pan's hands were hurting just from meeting Taino's and she felt breezes from Taino jabbing near her head, her arms having snuck past.
"...but Taino's still outpacing and overpowering me."
With a quick shout of Kaio-Ken, Pan punched at Taino faster and harder, but Taino stepped it up as well with the same result as before.
"She won't let me go Times Three or Four... but even if I did..."
Taino finally landed a hit to Pan's side, knocking her upward, then flew above her as Pan tried recovering. Knowing Taino was waiting for her, Pan began building up energy, covering herself in a sphere. Taino swerved as Pan, the energy now focused around her elbow, managed to glance her cheek. For a moment, Pan saw an indent from the hit, but then saw Taino, as she took the hit, had already prepared her own elbow.
Pan was struck down, putting a hand to her cheek as she exited her Kaio-Ken.
"Recoome nearly took my head off. Burter took Kaio-Ken to keep up with, let alone outpace. Jeice has absolutely lethal ki techniques I'll have to deal with again."
She imagined all three figures standing side by side, then merging together.
"And now... I have to prepare for someone with all of that and more."
Taino, at first landing and awaiting Pan's approach, instead saw her lightly put her fist to the ground.
"Is everything okay, Pan?" Taino inquired with genuine concern, no longer looking to combat her.
"It's always the same damned thing..." Pan groused in her head.
"You know how I did against the Ginyu Force..."
She had been informed, especially in regards to the Supreme Kai of Time's state, but Taino could tell Pan found it to be one of her lowest moments.
"The fact that you survived... and it wasn't just because of training with me..."
"Surviving may not be enough next time. I can't afford to just survive."
"But you did more than that. It's because of you that everyone survived until Goku arrived."
While Taino's words were meant to lift Pan's spirits...
"Goku took the Ginyu Force apart with such ease, and there I was at their mercy... twice."
Pan transitioned to sitting with her legs crisscrossed.
"I just want to know how he did it. Was it all just from recovering from Vegeta?"
"No, it wasn't just that," Taino began to explain. "Goku was stronger afterward for sure, but it was his training before he arrived that really got him to that level."
"Training? But once he recovered, he spent a week getting to Namek."
"The Capsule Corp ship had gravity controls at his request. The entire week he was on the way there, he trained in one hundred times Earth gravity."
"A hundred times?"
After all these sparring sessions ended the same way and nothing she had tried thus far made any difference, Pan's eyes lit up: she now knew how her grandfather did it.
"So that's what I need to do..."
Now inside a gravity chamber, one not dissimilar to the one she stood in by Bulla's home, Pan slowly turned a knob, seeing the number on the screen increase from two digits to three at one hundred.
"Three hundred would be suicide... but a hundred... if that's what it takes..."
And with the push of a button...
Pan remained on her feet and didn't crouch over, but felt she was slouching from the intense force pushing down on her back.
"Posture's not great... but I'm still standing."
She took steps, seeing she wasn't struggling completely to move, but wasn't sure about moving up to leaping or flying.
"All well and good, but I know Grandpa didn't just jog around his ship."
Pan stepped forward, jabbing in front of her. Another with the opposite leg and arm. A turn with a greater thrust forward resulted in her falling onto her side. Gritting her teeth, she tried lifting herself up with just one hand.
"Shouldn't need two..."
A push to the ground soon led to her back up again, but swinging her arms to keep from losing her balance. Once she had it, Pan raised one leg and kicked into the air. Her foot touched down, the weight of the gravity causing her to kneel. Slowly making her way back up, Pan span on one leg before launching herself like a torpedo, landing on her back towards the console itself.
"Come on...!"
She elbowed the ground, trying to lift herself from the floor without using her hands. Nothing so far.
"Get up!"
Another dual elbow, only the back of her head and neck lifting up.
"Up. Up!"
The third attempt had her rising up, but also stumbling towards the controls, catching herself with them. As much as part of her wanted to continue, Pan saw the switch right in front of her.
"It's possible. I can do more..."
Putting her hand over it...
"This is just the first sample."
And one push later, the gravity she had endured dissipated. Even then, she used the console to keep herself up for the time being.
"I'll work myself up to minutes... then in time, a week."
She heard the door open and saw that Commander Hale had entered.
"I see you are stepping up your gravity training considerably, Miss Pan. Though I must say what you're doing... even for one of my species, it doesn't come easily. Acclimating to such gravity..."
"Whatever I need to do to be ready for the next mission," Pan answered, feeling sweat slowly slink down just from a minute under it.
"Could've used this much earlier..."
"How goes your current training with Taino? It has been a week."
"It's been a week already?" went Pan, realizing how much time had passed since she started again.
"Indeed it has. It's been all the more noticeable without..."
Chirps akin to a ringtone could be heard on his scouter.
"Excuse me..."
He stepped aside, pressing on the side to engage in communications.
"What's the situation?"
Pan tried not to eavesdrop, but her ears couldn't help but catch...
"The prisoner's condition has stabilized."
Hale responded that he was on his way, then as he looked back at her, Pan couldn't hide the look on her face from what she heard. Finally, she openly inquired about it.
"The Time Patrol has a prisoner?"
Hale sighed, then answered "Only as of recently."
"Like days ago?"
Pan thought back to each mission she had been in, quickly crossing off the ones where the only alteration was Towa's formula and proceeding to those with clear additions. First to Mira and Towa in person, who departed after their appearances, then to Dodoria, who had been added to join Zarbon's battle with Vegeta, but was recovered by the Time Patrol as a dead body by her hand...
...but for the third...
"There's no way..."
Pan had to know for sure.
"Who?"
As hesitant as he was to go along with her request...
"Very well."
Hale projected a hologram from a device on his gauntlet, showcasing a 3D image of a pod of sorts with a figure frozen in place...
...one with tanned skin and hair all too similar to Goku's.
"T... Turles survived?"