Chapter Eleven:
The second Goku dived through the gold clouds, the temperature of the air dropped what felt like thirty degrees, and the light in the air dimmed down to almost black. He could tell just by the sudden jerk in Vegeta's ki that he had felt it too. But the change in environment wasn't that new, because hell was always like that. Something else was different.
This hell was darker, and colder. There were pools of magma all around, and they seemed to be rippling and bubbling as if there were live things in there. There were no mountains, no boulders, or any features like in the hell Goku and Vegeta had both seen. All that was there was a vast expanse of flat grey and black rock, spotted with the strange pools here and there.
And the place felt utterly empty.
That made Goku feel very nervous. No section f hell was ever completely empty. He should have been able to at least sense something...
But he could. Just one. One ki off to the left and in front, about a mile away from how it looked. Right next to the huge pillar of silver and black light that was apparently the gateway back to earth.
Goku didn't stop to consider all this for more than a second, or even to gauge and feel the ki he was sensing. He was just in far too much of a hurry to do that. He only thought of getting back to earth and helping his friends, and whatever was happening in hell would have to wait.
Even when Vegeta paused behind him, he didn't wait. He kept flying. At his top speed, it took less than three seconds, before the pillar was almost next to him.
And then his body froze.
Vegeta sat in the air, frozen in surprise. Was Kakarott blind? Insane?
The second Vegeta had felt the ki, if you could even call something like that ki, close to the gateway, he had realized what it was. And that was why he was floating there, eyes wide, staring off in the direction Goku had flown.
Whatever Goku had just gone so stupidly toward was the closest something could come to being purely evil.
Vegeta had learned in his many years on earth and in space that nothing could really be completely evil. Once you took away everything that was good, such as independent thought, and life itself, you had nothing left. So 'pure evil' was really a state that was not possible to achieve.
But this was damn close.
Suddenly he snapped to his senses. Kakarott had gone right at that thing!!
He cursed under his breath in saiya-go and flew off after Goku in the same direction, knowing that for once he was going to have to save Goku.
What the hell is going on?!
Goku couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Could hardly see. But he wasn't in any pain, it was as if he had simply stopped.
I've taken you out of time for a second, a very cold voice said from below him. It's rather easy once you know how to do it.
Goku looked down, more with his mind than his eyes, and what little he could see and fell of the thing below him froze his blood.
It looked like a shadow with eyes. Red eyes that glowed.
It was in the shape of a humanoid, but taller and broader. It seemed to be clothed in grey and black rags like a robe.
You don't see me now as you will later, Son Goku. Outside is another world, a whole different way. This is how I am on the other side. But you'll get to see me later. I just had to have a look at you for a second. Size up my competition.
Goku felt cold inside, just from hearing the things voice. There was no rational basis for his fear, but the thing seemed to blast it into his very being. He had never felt less like the hero of the universe in his life.
But he was somehow able to force himself back.
I know you now. And I won't forget you. Whenever you come out, I'll know you.
Yes, the thing laughed. And I'll know you. But time is short, even when you're not in it. If I don't let you go now, your friend may pass you up.
Goku felt the freeze leave as suddenly as it had come, and his forward momentum carried him through, a very surprised Vegeta somehow already behind him.
And then the world had become all a silver light.
The wind of ki was beginning to fie down. The huge dome was retracting back into Osiris, and now that they could move forward, Goten, Trunks, Arda, and Uubu didn't need to speak or even look at each other to know what had to be done.
Four auras burst to life, and they flew off to help Gohan.
The aforementioned demi-saiyajin was still floating where he had been, though now he was able to stay in one place without actively trying to fly forward. The blue dome of ki had finally retracted into one glowing figure, a bright electric blue aura surrounding him, bolts of ki lightning flying off and digging trenches in the earth.
"I haven't had to power up this high to defeat someone before." Osiris said coldly. "Ever. You should feel honored, saiyajin. You are the first to witness the power of a true immortal."
Gohan didn't say a thing. Even if he had actually had something suitable to say, his throat had completely closed up. This was it. He was going to die, leaving Videl alone and Pan without a father.
Osiris held out one hand, grinning. It's palm crackled with energy, pointing right toward Gohan. The demi-saiyajin closed his eyes and waited. No amount of dodging or blocking would matter, not against such a huge amount of power. So he waited bravely for the end. He wasn't going to beg for his life, or even try and make a vain attempt to retreat. If he had to die, he was going to die with honor.
But then Osiris' face suddenly wavered, the smile vanishing. Gohan's eyes opened, surprised that they weren't staring at Enma-sama. The vampire above him was glancing back, at the pillar of silver and black light. He looked troubled.
"Is that..." Osiris began, but then cut off. He seemed to see or sense something that was making him nervous.
Then Gohan felt it too. Like two gold stars in a sheet of black velvet, burning through whatever was blocking them from sensing ki. He recognized the two powerful kis at once, and the look of anger vanished in a smile.
Goku and Vegeta were finally back.
The first thin Goku noticed when he opened his eyes was how abnormally dark it was. He had been able to see through the crystal ball, of course, but it still struck his brain right away. There were still black clouds covering the entire sky, blotting out the sun.
The next thing he noticed was the monstrous ki coming from about a mile away. He didn't need anyone to tell him that it was Osiris. And he could sense Gohan next to him, but faintly. Gohan's ki was like a match next to a burning building.
Goku and Vegeta stood for a second, assessing the situation. Arda was with the rest of the fighters, and they were all on their way. Osiris was, for some reason, not killing Gohan. But they had no idea how long that would last.
Goku's hair instantly lengthened in a momentary flash, and his ki spiked up. Vegeta's did the same, able to transform in a blink once they were already powered up.
"Let's go." Goku said. Vegeta nodded, and they took off in a shower of golden light.
Gohan had a huge smile on his face, in complete contrast to the angry and slightly worried look of Osiris.
"Where did two such powers come from?" the vampire muttered to himself. "I should have noticed something of that magnitude on this planet before now. What the hell is going on?"
He silently sent out the probe of his mind, trying to pick up any information he could from their thoughts. Almost always he was able to find names and places from people's brains with no trouble, because so few mortals knew the trick of shielding their minds from an intruder.
The first he encountered, to his disappointment and anxiety, did know the trick, and was completely shielded. The only thing Osiris was able to get from this man was a name, and that was because the man gave it freely, pushing it out with his mind like an offering on a silver platter. Son Goku.
The vampire's brow wrinkled, causing the marble face to look almost human for a second. Goku. He didn't remember the name at all, much less attach any importance to it, but the feel of the man's mind struck a chord in him, and he couldn't understand why.
No matter.
He felt the other, and this one wasn't guarding himself at all. In fact, he seemed to wear his thoughts around him like a cloak, and once listening, Osiris found it hard to shut them out. Vegeta seemed to project his thoughts at people, very strange for someone of his personality. But then, though he was familiar with creatures capable of telepathy, Vegeta had never in his life encountered anyone but Arda who could just delve into the mind at will, and that had been only recently. Hardly enough time to learn that it would be wise to mask himself.
But listening to him was pointless. Osiris soon realized that the only thing Vegeta was certain about was their destination: Osiris. Which the vampire already knew. Vegeta's mind was swirling, and the vampire was having trouble getting anything useful to him, even if there was something there. Vegeta didn't know how strong gou was for sure, and didn't even know the limits of his own power as any definite.
"How positively useless." Osiris muttered to himself, then turned back to his present opponent.
Gohan had been through quite a lot in just the past few hours. He had seen his little brother almost killed twice, and also seen more power thrown around than in the entire time the battle against Frieza had been waged. He had seen all of the earth's fighters present fall easily to a monster who had no real grudge or reason for what he did, just that he didn't want them in his way when the golden moon appeared.
When he sensed his father and Vegeta coming, Gohan felt a surge of adrenaline, and a spark of hope. All three of them together could win, he was sure of it, and a second was all the two warriors would need to cover the distance between themselves and the battlefield.
He felt new energy run into him, and he almost laughed right in the face of the furnace of power in front of him.
If he had waited for just two more seconds to make his first really stupid move of the day, Goku and Vegeta would have been able to intervene. But he had been through a lot, and his reason was a little crooked. And who could blame him, really?
He didn't wait. He thought to himself in an instant:
If I can get a good hit in on Osiris, he'll be off guard when dad and Vegeta get here. Then we can hit him with everything we've got, and it'll be over!
Just as the vampire was turning back to face him, Gohan left the ground.
He closed the distance.
And then, he saw the hateful smile spreading across the vampire's lips, and realized, too late to stop his momentum, what he had just done.
He tried to pull back, and tried to block at the same time. He was sure that Osiris would land one last punch to the face, and shatter his facial bones beyond even senzu repair.
The vampire's fist looped sown, however, beneath Gohan's crossed arms, it's pearly white color sheathed in electric blue ki, and slid through Gohan's stomach and out the back like a hot knife through butter.
Gohan's whole world began to tunnel and grow grey instantly. Everything seemed to be moving very slowly, and his vision was already only a tunnel.
He felt wet blood squirt out in a wave from the front and back, and saw two figures come out of the mist of his vision, just behind the vampire, who's face had lost it's grin and gone back to it's blank scowl.
Gohan....!
He heard his father's voice as if through several blankets. Now he could only see a pinpoint, the two glowing golden angels that were his father and the saiyajin prince.
He drifted, and felt his body released to the ground.
When he hit, the world filled with pain one last time, then his vision went black.
In the midst of the lightning and thunder, and the pouring rain that still hadn't let up over this part of the ocean, a single skycar flew in between the long forks of electricity, weaving in and out on it's way home. The person in it was one of the few humans on earth who was crazy enough and had the guts to fly a plane in a storm of this magnitude.
Marron jerked the wheel to the side, barely avoiding another streak of lightning. It would probably have been quicker to fly by her own power, but her aura wasn't quite strong enough to instantly evaporate this much water, so she thought it would be healthier to stay dry.
Of course, if the car was hit by lightning, she would have to fly anyway.
She wasn't a warrior, really. She only sparred with her father occasionally, and then it was really just half-assed sparring, not like the stuff Goku and Vegeta did, where they needed a senzu bean every five minutes. Yet she wasn't weak, either. Krillin, the most powerful human on planet earth, was her father, and her mother was a cyborg. She could fly fairly well, and throw a passable kamehameha or a kienzen if she was pressed, but she still wasn't a warrior.
Thus she had stayed clean out of the battles.
There were a few others still waiting for something conclusive to happen. Tenshinhan and Choutzu were still in their cabin in the woods, waiting to see if their help would be needed. They didn't really have much to do with the other Z fighters any more, though they remained on friendly terms, and thus they didn't get involved unless asked or if a situation like Buu cropped up, where it was plain that everyone would die anyway.
Yamucha was around, most likely somewhere with Puar in the desert, waiting for the same reasons as Tien. Why should he get involved where he wasn't needed? The human Z warriors were very powerful, but if something like this cropped up, they let the ridiculously powerful saiyajin take care of it.
Uranai Baba was still around, probably in a fort somewhere. She was another who just didn't get involved.
Yajirobi was still at Korin's tower, and since he knew what was happening, he was probably waiting for a few things to come out of hell before he jumped in to do his part.
But Marron didn't know this, she only knew that something very bad was going on. And she was determined to at least get to capsule corp., if not home to Kame island. She had to find out somehow who or what was wrong.
Swerving away from another fork of electricity that threatened to destroy her transportation, she pondered what was going on. She had sensed her father and Gohan fighting something at the Kame house earlier, and that meant her mother must have been fighting as well. But she didn't know if either were alright now. Her mother's ki wasn't able to be sensed, since it was mechanically created, and her fathers was impossible to distinguish. That huge, hostile ki had completely eclipsed everything around it, except for Gohan, who was still just a speck. And now Goku and Vegeta.
Then she suddenly snapped sharply, jerking the car even though there was no lightning.
Oh, poor Gohan, the thought ran through her. Poor, poor Gohan.
Goku stopped dead.
He looked at Osiris, so many emotions running through him at once that he felt like he would explode. Anger, sorrow, resentment...
His son was impaled on the vampire's arm, blood falling to the ground in a grotesque shower to mix with the now almost gone rain. Osiris had been smiling, but now his face had returned to it's normal mask, a simple scowl of nothing.
"Gohan!" Goku's voice choked out of him, sounding like it came from somewhere else.
Osiris shook his arm downward, as if flinging off some filth that clung to it, and Gohan's body slid off, falling to the earth.
"Gohan..." Goku's words went quiet. He still didn't know what to feel, what to think. This was wrong, completely. Gohan, unlike so many of the other warriors, had never been killed. He had never felt what it was like to have the life slip slowly away, as if going toward an eternal sleep, and then waking up surrounded by souls on the snake way.
Gohan wasn't meant to be dead yet.
"You monster..." Goku whispered, more to himself than anyone else. "Why?"
A very cold laugh penetrated his defenses, and he suddenly knew how to feel all at once.
"You know, that's exactly what your son asked." Osiris laughed. "Just a few minutes ago, before I killed him."
Goku's ki began to rise, and even if he had wanted to, he wouldn't have been able to stop it.
"You..." Goku looked at Osiris, and his eyes seemed to glow. The vampire's smirk faltered, and now he looked grave again. And maybe even a hint frightened.
"You... I am going to murder you..." Goku said, his voice rumbling out of him in rips and tears. "I am going to rip you into pieces, you vermin."
"Are you, now?" Osiris said sarcastically, smirking again. But his bravado was gone. He seemed to be playing a part now, only repeating lines that had been first said by someone else.
Goku didn't even answer.
Super saiyajin three wasn't like any of the other forms. It's power was strange and radical, much more than seemed possible for any one living being to have. Super saiyajin two was simply a more powerful version of super saiyajin, just literally taking it to the next level. But level three was different. It tapped into something below all that, and pulled out power that you never knew was there.
But there were complications.
Goku had found this out while fighting Buu. Kid Buu, to be precise, although he had found out how draining it was much earlier. The complication that really hurt level three was what he called the Wall.
The Wall was the point where your ki reservoir said, 'okay, shut down before we overload'. It was a safety measure employed by your own body, to prevent too much tapping into the excess ki. He had told Vegeta to give him sixty seconds to power up and he would beat Buu, but something had gone wrong.
He had powered up. But once he got to the Wall, he stopped. It was like running into a huge rubber band. You pushed, and pushed, and pushed, until eventually you were snapped back. He had snapped back, and his ki had been depleted. Not just depleted, but mostly gone, as if it had just flown out.
The wall was the problem. You could keep pushing it back, and make yourself have more room before you ran into it, but the amount of training that it required was ridiculous. It simply wasn't worth it. So there had to be a new strategy.
He had trained his mind, and his body, to ignore the wall. To climb over it, and into the vast power beyond.
And just a few weeks ago, he had succeeded.
Goku stared at Osiris, the rage burning him inside. He was still letting his ki rise while the two combatants stared each other down, and Vegeta was looking at him very strangely. When his ki began to draw toward the wall, he willed not to stop, not to heed the warning, not to care about the danger. If there was ever a time to use that dangerous power, it was now. He had to kill this monster if he ever wanted his son back.
"Stand back Vegeta." Goku said quietly, still letting his ki rise as he floated in midair, not yet letting the aura burst out in full power. He was nearing the wall, and it was time for the jump.
Vegeta, still wondering what the hell had come over Goku, backed up, and even when he was fifty yards back, he just slowed down. He didn't know what was happening, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. Whatever he was sensing in Goku, he was beginning to be afraid.
"Now!" Goku yelled, and the muscles of his legs clenched, pulling them into a crouch position. His arms crossed in front of him, obscuring for one moment those eyes that were beginning to burn with an inner power.
And the aura burst around him, beginning to grow.
"Everything's falling apart." Uubu said, staring off ahead. To the lest, the blue dome had vanished, replaced by a rapidly growing point of gold. To the right, things had literally begun to swarm out of the pillar of silver and black that was a gateway to hell.
"No, we knew this would happen." Trunks said. "The gateway, remember? It's still under control."
"Besides," Arda said with what sounded like a mix between hope and anxiety. "The thing I feared hasn't come out yet. I'm not foolish enough to hope it won't, but..."
But everyone knew that he was foolish enough. The tone of his voice was enough to tell then that he was hoping.
"We can handle it. We're all stronger than the enemies that our dads fought, right?" Goten said hopefully.
"There are much worse things in there than Cell or Frieza." Arda said blandly. "We're still going to need every bit of help we can get. Now tell me, are there any more warriors on earth, or anyone who's experienced with magic or curses, incantations?"
"Yes, quite a few people haven't yet turned up." Uubu said. "But how are we going to find them?"
"Put your hands on my arms." Arda said. "And concentrate. We'll send a mind message. Anyone with any kind of ki or magic should be able to pick it up like that." he snapped his fingers.
The three teens looked a bit skeptical, either not understanding the point or not believing it would be of much use, but they did what he had asked.
All at once, their minds connected.
Uubu was vaguely aware that he was smiling broadly. The feelings he was having... he had never experienced anything like it. He could hear sounds from miles away. He could hear peoples very thoughts, running in an undercurrent just below the sound, from somewhere deeper. And loudest of all, he could hear the thoughts of the three others around him.
Good Kami! Goten's mind seemed to shout into his own, and the other two's. Can you hear this all the time!?
Fortunately not, Arda's reply came. It would drive me absolutely mad. It requires effort to listen to thoughts normally. But I just pulled all your minds together with mine, so we're amplified four times what I normally would be, maybe even more.
Does that mean Osiris can hear us better? Trunks asked, a bit worried.
Yes, unfortunately. But, here Uubu could have sworn he sensed a mental sort of grin, I doubt very much he's worrying about us when he has Son Goku and Vegeta to take care of.
All three of the boys smirked.
Our minds are pulled together, so we can shout together instinctively. Just go with it, and everyone who matters will hear us.
They all gathered their mental energy, something they wouldn't have even understood alone, but that they could all use like second nature when pulled together. Then they began to call.
In a small cabin somewhere in the mountains, Tenshinhan was sitting at a wooden table, his fists clenched, all three eyes glued to a spot of nothing about a foot in front of him as he sat and sensed the battles.
THE GATEWAY IS OPEN!!
His eyes snapped into focus.
"Choutzu?" he said softly, even though he knew his friend's telepathic voice like the back of his own hand, and knew that whatever had just gone through his head was definitely not it.
THE GATEWAY HAS OPENED. EARTH IS IN DANGER. EVERYONE, YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER BEFORE.
Tien stood up stiffly. "What the hell..."
In the other room, Choutzu was floating next to the kitchen counter, pouring something into a glass. Being much more psychic than anyone else on the planet, the combined telepathic voices were enough to be not only audible, but so intense that it was almost painful. When the distress signal went through his head, the glass and pitcher that he was pouring from both shattered like glass bombs.
HELP, EVERYONE!! THE GATEWAY INTO HELL IS OPEN!!
"Tien!" he shouted, rushing into the room, where his friend was already standing, looking slightly perplexed. "Tien, the others need our help!"
In a fort in the middle of the woods, in some unknown part of the world, and old witch was fussing with a crystal ball, which was emitting only static and the occasional splash of sparks.
"Dratted crystal ball." Baba said in a frustrated tone. "Some kind of interference."
THE GATEWAY IS OPEN!! EVERYONE'S HELP IS NEEDED!!
Her eyes suddenly went the size of saucepans.
"It's open already!?" she yelled. "But it's not time, there should be at least another hour!"
THE BEINGS IN HELL HAVE ALREADY BEGUN TO COME OUT!!
Baba jumped onto her crystal ball, muttering curses and making the clouds and sparks disappear with a wave of her hand.
"I hope they can survive." she muttered as the ball flew away through a nearby window and out of the castle.
In another cabin, this one in a much warmer climate wood than Tenshinhan and Choutzu's, Juunana-gou was laying on his couch, on his back, staring at the ceiling and gauging the fights by basis of the amount of ki he could sense.
Then, quite suddenly, the transistor radio he sometimes listened to on boring days crackled into an enormous bray of static, making him cover his ears even though it was sitting on a shelf in the other room. He jumped up and ran into the room, staring at it as is sat there smoking on the shelf.
There were voices in the static. Goten, Trunks, and Uubu, and one that he had never heard before. All speaking in perfect symmetry.
"THE DOORWAY INTO HELL HAS OPENED. EVERYONE'S HELP WILL BE NEEDED!!!"
Juunana-gou quickly grabbed his khaki jacket and ran out the door, not bothering to question the Z warrior's voices coming from his radio. He had figured out long ago that it was better to just listen.
As he slammed the door to his little house and took off into the air, the radio gave one last bray of static and exploded into fragments.
Elsewhere, others were hearing the call as well. Everyone who heard it could hardly help but answer it. The four warriors had done their job well.