" What greater grief than the loss of one's native land."
Euripedes (485 BC-406BC) , Medea, 431 BC
" So what are you?" asked Pan after she regained her composure.
Migori thought for a moment before answering. " I suppose there is no harm in telling you. Worst case scenario I could simply erase your memories of me later."
Pan frowned and clenched her fists while powering up.
" Like to see you try. I'm not as helpless as I seem," she snarled.
" You certainly do have an impressive power level. I'm amazed you got as far as you did getting by on just the physical, considering your abilities," he replied calmly.
His words only confused her and she began to get irritated.
" What are you talking about? Just the physical…my abilities, you're not making any sense," she said with a frown.
" I apologize, you're right. To make things easier I suppose I should start at the beginning. Pan, to be able to explain this the best way you will need to trust me," he said as he stood up and walked towards her.
Pan nodded and watched him sit across from her closely. He reached out, took her hands in his and closed his eyes. She felt a strange sensation begin to go through her body and her vision began to blur severely.
Suddenly her sight cleared and she realized she was looking at a foreign solar system. It looked to be a binary system, she observed, as she looked closer.
" No, look again. There are three," said Migori's voice.
He had been right. The system had three stars with two planets orbiting one of them. She thought that it happened to resemble their sun the closest of the three.
" Your scientists have named this star Alpha Centauri A. The second planet out that you see orbiting it was our home world, Tulanti."
Pan's field of vision began to move forward and zoomed in on the planet. It had an emerald green hue to it and a thick atmosphere circled over the globe. She couldn't help but think that it was very lovely from the view she had. A puzzled look came over her face.
" Your oceans were yellow?" she asked.
" Our planets were extremely similar. The life that evolved here depended on oxygen, sunlight and water as well. The colors of the oceans were the result of certain elements that resided in them that yours lacked. The elders once said that it took them some time to get used to blue bodies of water …" Migori's voice trailed off followed by a strange emotion directed at her.
Pan wondered what on earth he had just done. Slowly she realized that it was the sound you make in your head when you laugh or to yourself when you laugh silently.
" Migori did you just laugh?" she asked him.
" Earthlings are not the only ones with a sense of humor in the universe. I don't make outrageous noise like your kind because I lack a voice box," he answered.
She began to wonder what he really looked like. After she had discovered he wasn't human it was apparent that the old man visage was an outdated disguise of sorts.
It quickly was also revealed that he had been speaking to her telepathically the entire time but his human form had thrown her off. Certainly he had been doing this act for a long time because the mouth and expressions matched his every word. Aliens were nothing new to Pan, on the Grand Tour she had come across a variety of beings. That said she realized he could look like just about anything and grumbled quietly.
" I will show you my true form later Pan, after I am done telling you the story of my people," his voice told her, after sensing her thoughts.
The sight of the planet gave way to a gorgeous valley where temples and buildings sprouted up yet looking to be like part of the terrain. There, Pan saw thousands of strange looking beings walking around, sitting, meditating or tending the earth. She felt such love and harmony vibrating in her body.
" We were what your men of science would call a Class One civilization. My people had learned to harness the energy of our own planet. At this time we had begun to open our doors to intergalactic trade with others after a long self imposed isolation. The Elders had long feared that outside influence of other cultures could easily disrupt the harmony that our species had adapted and worked for, for hundreds of thousands of years. You see Pan, once a species becomes highly intelligent and begins to try to take charge of it's own destiny it can go but two ways in reacting to it's environment. The first is fighting and trying to control it, like Earthlings do. You constantly build machines, buildings and roads to form your planet to your liking. Your technology is based on taming nature and overcoming it. When my people came to their crossroads they took another route. They chose to embrace and work with nature, therefore making a connection with the planet," said Migori.
" How did you do that?" asked Pan.
" We are mental and spiritual creatures foremost. With our psychic abilities we were able to find positive and negative vibrations that resided in nature and space. Over time with our collective minds we were able to achieve a harmonious state with our planet and almost all natural forces. After we established that bond, it was apparent that we could significantly affect our surroundings and vice versa," he answered her.
" But somehow it wasn't enough," she said sadly.
" I do not know. All I know is that the decision went through to open the ports. Many cultures came to trade and exchange with us and in the beginning it seemed to be a wonderful move. But the decline began just the same. Eventually the people became enchanted with foreign material things and ideas. This led to greed, anger and a lot of arguing. The environment began to suffer as it reacted to the dissention and the weather turned violent. My relatives knew there was no way by this point to repair the psychic bond. They got a hold of a ship and set a course for your planet. Earth was very much like Tulanti and was only 4.4 light years away."
Pan looked in horror as she was shown the dark rumbling skies and the ground erupting as frightened Tulantians tried to take cover. It looked like the planet had gone into a huge seizure and was crying out. She could feel the fear, sadness and pain emanating from the living creatures of the planet. As soon as the emotions began to overwhelm her they were stopped.
" I tell you this because I hope that you might learn from them. If lessons can be learned then their deaths can serve as a warning," said Migori softly.
" They all died?" she asked, her voice uneven.
" Soon after my family escaped the planet exploded and was no more. They watched the light twinkle in the sky signaling the death of their old home."
She shook her head in disbelief. How could a species become so wise and lose it all like that? Didn't they realize what a wonder they had created for themselves?
" Are you sure it was them who finished off their own planet? There are many hostile creatures in the universe! Maybe the Saiyans decided to destroy you…" she offered.
" My planet had no contact with a people you call the Saiyans. As I told you before I don't know what one is. My Elders had said that when the planet exploded they felt a part of themselves die inside as well. I can't imagine what that must have felt like but I know it probably was very traumatic. Having been born here on Earth, I made my connection here," he replied.
The scene changed to a view of Earth from space. Pan noticed the continents looked a bit different and was puzzled by this.
" You were born on Earth? And your people never encountered Saiyans? Why does it look weird?" she asked about her planet.
" That was the way it looked when my ancestors arrived 12,000 yrs ago," Migori answered.
Pan's mouth dropped. She wanted to say this was all a big joke but she knew deep down that none of this was a lie. Still, she had no idea how any of this had anything to do with her.
" They came to Earth and lived quiet lives. My family could begin to see the emergence of mankind and made sure not to interfere with their destiny. They had a great deal of compassion for the Earthlings who had to struggle so hard to survive because they knew at one time their species went through the same thing. One thing they couldn't understand was why you died so quickly," he said.
Pan shrugged at this comment.
" Lack of hygiene, bad nutrition…tons of reasons. We have longer life spans today though," she said.
" Longer yes, but not by much. I have to remind myself that your species is still very young and hasn't had the time to evolve like mine has. As time went on my family grew sad because they knew eventually the memory of our old world would die with us. Only fifteen had escaped to Earth and that was not a sufficient number to keep a species going. My great grandfather was a great scientist on Tulanti and it was he who began to flirt with the idea of crossing their blood with human. In his lab he fertilized human embryos with altered genetic DNA of our species. The half-breeds grew up exhibit the abilities of our race and this pleased them greatly. But it only delayed the inevitable. Eventually through the ages our blood grew thin in our human descendants. These humans could no longer use their alien abilities because their bodies were too weak to harness the power. The altered genetic DNA was designed to keep our alien genes in the humans even if they were too weak but the key genes remained " turned off", if you will. I'm the last full blooded Tulanti on this planet as far as I know," stated Mogiri.
The visions of his great grandfather and the human half-breeds faded from her view and her sight returned to normal. Pan looked up to see Mogiri still holding her hands with his eyes closed but in his true form. She wasn't as scared as she might have been because she had seen what his race looked like earlier through the visions.
His skin was a dark purple and his body was slender and tall. Even though he was sitting she could tell he probably hit about 6'5. Two arms, two legs, he had no mouth and no ears on either side of his head. Pan looked down at his hands and admired them. The fingers were long, elegant and looked incredibly gentle. She noticed his skull grew larger at the top and turned back a bit towards the back of his neck. It didn't look like he had any body hair to speak of from what she could tell. What fascinated her were the horizontal bands of yellow that began at the middle of his forehead and continued to the back of his skull. She leaned forward and glanced at the back of his head mentally counting there to be six of them.
" They are a sign of age," said Mogiri opening his eyes as she leaned back startled.
" Kind of like wrinkles, the older you are the more you get?" asked Pan still a bit embarrassed.
" Something like that yes. But never more than six, that shows the end is near," he answered, pulling his hands away.
" You're dying?"
Mogiri stood and tugged at the side of his robes. * laughter * he sent to her.
" I've been waiting to die for the last century sa-bu. It's been an interesting life. Ulmea was kind," he replied.
" Just how old are you? And what does sa-bu mean?" she asked him suspiciously.
" A dusty old 2,000 yrs and to answer your other question it means " little one" in my native language. Now the question you should be asking is 'What does this all have to do with you?'"
Pan scratched the back of her head absently.
" I figured you were getting there and I didn't want to interrupt," she said.
" There is hope for you yet," said Mogiri eyeing her with his two golden eyes.
" After you stumbled into my little garden…I HEARD that, yes its a little garden! Now silence that mind of yours. As I was saying, after you arrived and I had begun to treat you I felt your spirit to be familiar. Your body also resonated a weak ki that was kin to mine although it was marred by human and saiyan energies. Normally a human descendant wouldn't have alerted me since its genes have been dormant for generations. But Pan, yours are active," he said seeming to be puzzled by this.
She was just as clueless still trying to be able to take all of this in. All of a sudden she desperately missed everyone back home and wanted to be around familiar faces.
" Tell me about the Saiyans, Pan," said Mogiri sitting back down silently.
" I only know a little bit about them. My father, Gohan is half saiyan and my grandfather Goku came here when he was a child sent by the home world to purge the Earth," she said quietly.
" They sent a child to purge an entire planet? What kind of race is this?" asked Mogiri in astonishment.
" In some ways the worst kind. They were a race of warriors and incredibly powerful. Saiyans lived for fighting so they built their empire up out of purging and selling planets to the highest bidder. They look somewhat human except they have tails and spiky hair and their bodies are much more muscular. Fortunately my grandfather hit his head when he came to Earth and forgot who he was and his mission. A man named Gohan raised Goku. He grew up to be a strong fighter and became a protector of our planet against invaders," she said.
" Ulmea, the irony," he commented.
" Oh there's tons of that. I haven't even mentioned Vegeta," she said with a giggle.
" You don't have to now, you've painted a decent enough picture for me. If what you say is true then it's the Saiyan blood that turned the genes on when you were formed. They could tell that you would be strong enough to exercise the mental abilities and stress. But…" he stopped looking at her concerned.
Pan tilted her head and asked " But?"
" Spiritual and mental stimulation become necessary by the end of puberty for my race. Usually they were started as children so it wasn't an issue. If they aren't trained, and there were a few cases, they would become depressed, feel empty and feel an undying need to fill the void. This was because they had no connection with their environment and spirit. Granted, you're a hybrid but you must've felt the worst…"
" It was very hard," Pan said interrupting him. " I left home looking for something and had no idea what it was. But I was miserable anyway so I had to try."
Pan looked up to feel Mogiri stroking the top of her head softly. She noticed that she felt completely comfortable with this being and felt the warmth he projected.
" Poor sa-bu. I'm sure it was. But be happy because the answers you were searching for have finally come to you. Ulmea has led us to one another and there are reasons for all that she does. I have an offer for you," he said looking down at her.
She craned her neck back to look back up at him and grinned.
" Which is…?" she asked.
" Grant this old soul a final favor and let him teach you. To be honest I'm quite curious to see what you are capable of considering your heritage. You are an interesting mix Son Pan. Clearly the fates were in rare form and decided the universe needed a little shaking up," he replied.
Pan smirked at his comment and got up. She walked around a bit with a small limp and took everything in once more. The young woman stopped and looked back at Mogiri with a smile.
" You're on. Just remember that you offered so don't starting crying when you regret it!" she said to him.
" I don't think that will be a problem since I don't have tear ducts. Now sit down and get off that leg," he commanded.
Pan sat down and took a deep breath. This would certainly be a unique experience…
A/N: What do you think so far? Way out there? Ha, we're so not done. Next chapter we see if Trunks thinks that Pan is a few cards short of a full deck or not…