Chapter Twelve:
Something very strange was happening at the gateway to hell. No matter what side a creature came out on, they always headed toward the west. Directly away from Goku, Vegeta, and Osiris.
The answer was quite simple, actually. Many of the beings in hell were very powerful when compared to normal humans, and almost all of them were insane. Some of them had done dumb things in their lifetimes, and death times.
But none of them were so stupid as to come anywhere near the three enormous powers they were sensing.
To be perfectly frank, almost every one and every thing that came out of that gateway was scared shitless by the huge power they felt. And they weren't the only ones.
The mental connection severed with a faint yanking sensation, and also a very brief but quite painful moment of the sensation of being ripped in half. But this was only momentary, and within a second the four warriors had opened their eyes, and were seeing the world again.
"Perfect." Arda said shortly. "You all pulled through admirably, not an easy thing the very first time you do a mind meld."
Goten looked questioningly at him. "You said it would be easy, and it was."
"True, true." Arda answered. "But you all did exceptionally well. Much better than I expected. We got a very strong signal through. None of you have any psychic relatives, do you?"
All three of them shook their heads slowly.
Arda shrugged. "Just wondered. But we have a few more important things to worry about right now, I think."
All of them could see and sense the things coming out of hell.
"We'll need to split up." Arda said. "Otherwise those things are going to get a chance to spread out, and we'll have to hunt for them. Just remember, if you see something that you don't recognize right away, or even if you think you recognize it but you aren't sure, blast it. Don't touch it with your bare skin."
Before they could ask for any kind of clarification, a white aura had blazed around Arda and he had taken off in the general direction of the gate.
For a few seconds none of them said anything.
"Are you guys sure you want to split up?" Trunks asked, just a bit uneasy.
"No, I most certainly do not want to split up." Uubu said shortly. "But we have to. With all the things coming out of that gate, we're never going to get them all if we stay together."
"Yeah, I guess so." Goten said with a sigh.
"Well…." Trunks began, bug then simply trailed off. "If that's what you guys think needs to be done. But I don't like this at all. 'Don't touch them.' What do you suppose that's all about?"
"Don't know." Uubu said. "And it doesn't really matter. I think it would be much better to be safe than to be sorry."
With that, he took off into the air, and Goten and Trunks followed him. They began to spread out from each other, but they were all going in the same general direction.
Toward hell.
Goku's energy was still rising. His aura had progressed to become a physical wall rather than a veil of energy around him.
It was building up toward the point of no return. Time for the outrush, the end of the power up, and the wall of super saiyajin level three.
Except it wasn't going to happen that way this time. This time he was going to throw the danger out the proverbial window, and he was going to do what had to be done.
Osiris was getting steadily more and more uneasy. If he knew anything about the way energy was supposed to fell in mortals, Goku should be coming to the end of his right now. He should be almost done, from the way the energy was beginning to fold in on itself in his mind, ready for the predictable rush that would most likely blow even him back a few feet.
But Goku's ki wasn't stopping. In fact, it was doing something to itself that he had never felt before, not even in ancient vampires or the beings that were even worse.
Usually, ki was actually visible in the mind, but more in a sense of just knowing it was there, feeling what it would look like. A ki signature was like a sphere of some pliable material filed with electricity, or heat, or some other form of energy. When the being powered up, the sphere would become more and more rigid as more energy was pumped into the same space. It seemed to vibrate slightly. Then, when the extent of their powers had been tapped, the sphere would begin to sort of crumble, and then it would expand in a huge rush. That was when they had finished gathering their energy and were ready to manifest it in a huge aura.
But Goku's energy was still crumbling in on itself. It was still getting stronger, but that wasn't what was so scary.
It felt like pure destruction. There was no better way to explain it. The energy that was still steadily gathering in Goku's sphere was a danger to Goku himself and anything else that happened to be in the vicinity.
For one of the few times in his very long life, Osiris was a bit frightened.
He realized that he had inadvertently closed his eyes, and was actually seeing the ki sphere in his mind, just behind his vision, as if he could see it but not quite see it, like some vague object in a dream.
There were now not only folds and crumbled parts of the sphere, it seemed to be cracking and tearing.
There were beams of white hot ki shining out, filling his mind.
"I have a feeling that this might turn out badly." The vampire said to himself.
Then the sphere, along with Goku's entire reservoir of ki, blew wide open.
Goten scanned the ground below him, and then also the sky to his left and right. Trunks on one side and Uubu on the other were almost out of sight, nothing more than black dots on either side, far off on the horizon. Every once in a while, a faint flare of ki would tell him that one of them had found some creature and killed it.
He had already seen several strange looking creatures that looked like a cat without legs and long tails. Their mouths opened and revealed teeth as sharp and long/thin as needles, and glazed black eyes were set deep into the side of their heads. He didn't know that they were Morgoth's 'gluttons', but he did know that they would probably be dangerous to anything that found them. A quick blast disposed of them easily enough, but he shuddered to think of those triple rows of teeth sinking a couple inches into his arm.
"So when's something exciting gonna happen?" he said blandly to himself.
Then a hard blow slammed into the back of his neck and he went crashing to the earth.
Trunks was in much the same situation. He had been slowly fling for a good fifteen minutes, but he hadn't seen anything besides the gluttons. He figured that it would only be a matter of time before something bigger or stronger came his way, but he was still disappointed. The way Arda had talked, running off so fast while still going on a mile a minute, he had thought that there would be danger around every turn.
He did understand one thing now, however. One look at the teeth on those gluttons, and he realized why Arda had warned him not to touch anything. They looked wicked sharp.
"This is still boring." He sighed to himself.
He glanced back at the ground, and suddenly a flash of movement caught his eyes.
A figure that he had never seen but was still very familiar from pictures and stories of family and friends stepped into view, with a self satisfied smile and absolutely no look of fear or even any other emotion.
"You." Trunks said softly to himself, but before he could even move a ki blast moving faster than he could see slammed into him and he was smashed to the ground.
Uubu was looking below him with something of a mix between horror and revulsion.
The thing he was looking at was completely clothed in dirty, ragged maroon robes, every part of it concealed except for it's scaly, bony hands. A veil of darkness seemed to surround it, and when it glided by (there was no way to mistake the slow sliding motion as walking), the grass, trees, and plants within about five feet of it withered and died, some of them even bursting into brief flame or embers and then flickering out.
"Kami…" he muttered, not sure what to do or how to do it. He had a momentary thought, but none the less horrifying for it's briefness, that his arm would wither and die if he touched it, like the plants.
"Easily avoidable." He said to himself. He held his hand out, palm downward, and fired a medium sized blast at the thing.
The ball of yellow ki struck the thing, and there was a sizzle as it disappeared and was absorbed into it.
"The hell!?" Uubu screamed, manners that he used even when he was alone momentarily forgotten. Goku had told him about monsters that could absorb ki, but he had never said anything about beings that were impervious and indifferent to it.
The hood of the robe was tilting up at him. Whatever that thing was, his blast had alerted it to his presence.
It left the ground and began to float smoothly up, it's ragged cloak hanging down and obscuring anything it might have had in the way of feet.
Then he heard a sudden cry.
"Kaio-ken!"
A red blur shot past him somewhere below, and crashed into the thing in the robe. He saw Arda smash a metal pole that was clasped at the end with two gold bands into the things face.
There was a shrieking wail, and then Uubu saw one of the strangest sights he would even see in his life. The thing seemed to change into smoke. It's hands dissolved into vapor, and steam poured out from under it's robe and from the hood.
Then a bundle of shapeless robes hit the ground.
When Uubu had caught his breath (gone more from fright that he wasn't even aware until now the thing had instilled in him), he was finally able to speak clearly and get his racing thoughts in order.
"What was that?" he asked the now smiling Arda, who was looking at him with a bit of concern behind his smile.
"That, my friend, was a Dementor. They suck ki like water." Arda said. "It didn't touch you, did it?"
Uubu shook his head. "A Dementor? Those things live in hell?"
Arda nodded. "On some of the lower levels. You have to hit them with something made of a certain type of metal, and it has to have been blessed and had certain spells cast on it. Anything else won't even harm them."
"Is that why you told us not to touch any creatures we didn't recognize? Because it could have been one of those things?"
"Yes, and before you ask, I didn't try to explain because we didn't really have any time, and it's safer this way. There are other things that live in hell that it's safer to just blast. And there are quite a few things I don't know about."
"How do you know all this?" Uubu asked.
"There's no time for that just now." Arda said. "I believe Trunks and Goten are in a bit of a bind, and you'll need to go bail them out."
Uubu's eyes widened a bit. "Why me? You won't even come with me?"
"Someone has to keep after those Dementors." Arda said dryly. "Besides, I'm sure that you can handle it by yourself. You won't need my help." He smirked, and then Uubu's second very strange sight of the day came. The metal pole that Arda was carrying, about six feet long, slightly higher than it's owner, suddenly shrank down to the size of a needle in the vampire's hand.
Arda stuck the needle into the lapel of his coat like a pin. "They're that way." he pointed off behind Uubu. "They'll be fine if you get to them s…."
He paused.
"Do you feel that?" the vampire asked, suddenly more quiet and hesitant than he had been. "That huge energy?"
And just like that, Uubu did. He was utterly overwhelmed, and if it hadn't been for the strange way ki signals were working, he never would have missed it in the first place, not even from Other World. It was Goku, and it was indeed huge.
"My Kami…" he muttered.
Then they saw the energy come, and the golden light filled the sky.
Goku was finally unleashing his power.
Uubu and Arda looked into the sky as it filled with golden light. Any trace of black vanished momentarily as the power filled and eclipsed the blackened sky.
There was something wrong. Neither of the two warriors, one old and one young, both standing in silent awe, could put their finger on it, but it was there. Or, maybe something wasn't there.
There was no wind.
Osiris had been struggling, even with all his power, to stay in one place. But the wind and force had suddenly stopped, and been replaced by a golden light that flooded everything. He stood in it, looking straight ahead, and wondering silently what the hell was going on.
He didn't have to wonder for long, however. Because the light filled everything, but it soon began to dim and go back to it's source, just the way any burst of ki would do. But the sudden absence of any wind or force puzzled and slightly worried him. That wasn't what he had expected at all, and he wasn't able to understand it.
He did have one small bit of comfort in the face of this sudden opponent. Vegeta's mind was still completely open, and he could tell that the saiyajin prince was as surprised at this kind of power so suddenly from Goku as he was. That meant Goku wasn't experienced using quite this much power. A small advantage, but he would need every one he got.
And he now knew Goku's name. He heard it for the first time in the very back of Vegeta's mind, as an association, rather than an actual thought. But he also heard the name Kakarott from the same source. While this confused him a bit, he didn't have time to mull over it. Goku was now visible.
The gold light was almost gone. Well, compared to the blinding brightness it had been. He could see the saiyajin's face becoming clear in the light, like a person slowly being lifted out of water. The long mane of hair was shimmering with the Goku's powerful ki even brighter than it had been.
And his eyes had gone a deep, smoldering gold. They burned like the last embers of a dying fire, a fire that might burst to high flames again if it was just stirred a little.
Those two live coals stared out of the last of the golden glow right into Osiris, with an intensity that the vampire had never seen before, and didn't think he would ever see again.
They looked like death.
He floated in the black.
Gohan wasn't sure where he was, or even if he was. But he didn't feel pain anymore, and that was something to be thankful for. He had been out for a long time, but he had been vaguely aware of some pretty intense pain from underneath the blanket of unconsciousness. But now that was gone, apparently along with everything else.
"Where am I?"
He didn't even expect to be able to hear himself or to speak, so the sound of his own voice in the vast nothing was quite startling. But being answered was almost enough to give him a heart attack.
"Nowhere. At least, nowhere that I can figure out."
He recognized the voice right away, but he was so surprised at it that he took a second to answer. Mostly because he couldn't think of a thing to say.
"Juuhachi-gou?" he asked, almost whispering. "Is that you?"
"Aren't you a bright one." Krillin's wife replied in her usual dry voice. "I guess Osiris got you too?"
"Uhh… yeah." He said, slightly puzzled. He was now awake and alert enough to feel hard ground under his feet, either rock or hard packed dirt, and cold air around him. He was aware of his own body, and that he didn't feel any pain or fatigue that he should have after a fight.
"Where are we?" Gohan asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine." She replied. "We're dead, obviously, but I don't think this is heaven, and you wouldn't be sent to hell."
Gohan mulled over this for a second before attempting to answer.
"Maybe with the whole mess about the gateway to hell, Enma-sama had to put the dead somewhere else for a while."
Suddenly the demi-saiyajin's eyes were momentarily blinded by what was actually a very dim flare of light, nut looked very bright after the solid blackness.
About four feet away, Juuhachi-gou was revealed in the dim glow of a small ki ball that rested in her palm. Gohan noted with a note of sympathy that, despite her icy facade, she actually looked rather shaken, and her hand was quivering slightly.
Looking around in the dim light of the ki ball, Gohan could see their surroundings ever so slightly. He had been right; the ground was gray rock, flat and featureless as far as the limited illumination would let him see. Juuhachi-gou's face and clothes were dirty with dust from Kami-knew where, and he imagined that he looked the same way.
"Maybe." The cyborg female said. "Maybe that's what happened."
Gohan nodded, looking around still. He saw right away the problem with his theory. For as far as he could see, they were alone in the vast plain of rock. Millions of beings died every minute in the universe, and if this was really a temporary repository for the dead, it was huge. So huge that millions of people could each be far enough apart that they couldn't see or sense each other.
"Something very weird is going on here." Gohan said, to himself and Juuhachi-gou at the same time.
She may have been about to reply, but whatever words she had been about to speak stopped in her throat as she glanced upward. Gohan saw her eyes widen slightly, and he followed her eyes to the sky.
There was a point of light there, and it was growing.
"I'll give you one chance, and one chance only." Goku said, his voice as cold as ice. "Leave right now, and never come back. If you do, I'll be merciful enough to let you live."
Normally, honor and pride didn't really mean a lot to Osiris. He had a huge ego, but what others thought of him wasn't important. In any other situation, he would have taken this opportunity and left, biding his time until he was the stronger fighter, because time was something he had an abundance of, and mortals all got old and weak so fast. He wasn't at all used to having to fight something or someone as strong or stronger than himself.
But the super saiyajin's words burned in him somewhere that hadn't been reached in a very long time. Because they didn't hold the same emotions that were normal for this kind of order. Most beings would have been practically dripping pride and contempt as they said these things. They would have been thinking that they were completely secure in their position, secure that they would win.
Goku's voice held plenty of contempt, but not in quite the same way. And he didn't sound so sure of himself. He didn't sound self righteous or full of pride. He just sounded, in one word, pissed. He sounded like giving Osiris a door out was something he had to do, but didn't want to.
That made him mad.
That made him absolutely furious.
He turned cold eyes on the saiyajin's face, glancing briefly at Vegeta, who looked completely out of place, someone who didn't want to be where he couldn't really help.
"I don't think so. You may just be the only equal challenge I've had in the past thousand years of my life." He smirked in a way that was supposed to be contemptuous, but really just looked like hidden fear. "I will admit that your power is probably equal to mine, but if you think I would back off from a piece of saiyajin trash like you, I believe it will be my pleasant duty to disappoint you."
"I doubt it." Goku said without a trace of a smile.
And in a quick movement that was just within Osiris' visual speed, Goku flashed forward and buried his fist up to two inches past the wrist in the vampire's stomach.
Arda and Uubu tore their gazes away as the golden light in the sky faded.
"We don't have time to stand and look at your sensei's light show." Arda said, as if scolding himself along with Uubu. "Get going. That way." He pointed off in the direction that he had indicated before.
"Right." Uubu said, and took off at top speed.
Arda stood and stared at the spot in the air where Goku and Osiris were getting ready to fight.
Then he shook his head abruptly and flew off.
Trunks' eyes opened very slightly. His vision was blurred, and he had the worst headache of his life. But that didn't stop his brain from working; he knew that he was in trouble.
"This was the first one I saw." A deep voice with a slight, implacable accent said from above him. "He was quite easy."
The fingers that had been laced through his belt suddenly released their grip, and Trunks wasn't able to catch himself in time to save his nose from slamming into the dirt. He rolled groggily over and sat up, his head now pounding so bad it was actually making him woozy.
Cell stared at him with cool contempt from his standing position. Trunks could sense several kis nearby, but he couldn't identify any of them. He craned his neck to the left, making his head pound even more, and was able to positively identify some of the others around him from the descriptions his father and friends gave every time the stories were told.
Clustered together on one side of a large stone were four people, two big, one normal sized, and one small, that he recognized as the Ginyu force. Slightly further to the right were a fat pink creature and a green skinned elf, definitely Zarbon and Dodoria.
Trunks didn't pay any attention to these six, because they presented no threat. He could sense their kis, and knew that they hadn't really improved from the days when they had fought his father and Goku.
But the two directly behind him were a different story.
Frieza he recognized right away, simply because the ice-jin looked like no other race in the entire universe. But the power level was many times greater than it should have been.
Next to him stood a figure who, except for purple skin and bone armor, looked exactly like his brother. He, too, had a power level far greater than it should have been. Coola wore an expression of smoldering anger, while Frieza wore a smirk that said he was laughing at some inside joke no one else quite understood.
"My, my," Frieza said in a husky yet almost feminine voice. "The son of Vegeta and the son of Goku. How perfectly wonderful and ironic."
At the phrase 'son of Goku', Trunks turned his head in the other direction, and saw a still unconscious Goten on the ground beside him. He spun his head and looked back at Frieza.
"Listen, you stupid bastard," but before he could say another word he was cut off in shock as the ice-jin extended two fingers and pointed them at him.
Trunks was about to block, expecting a blast, but instead a gold ring shot from Frieza's fingers, and then another and another.
Before he realized what was happening, his arms had been immobilized, pinned to the ground by the rings of ki. Another had encompassed both of his ankles. He was completely trapped.
A quick series of popping sound told him that Goten was getting the same treatment from one of the others.
"I would have just told Cell to kill you." Frieza said in a bored tone. "But I want to make sure that the monkey offspring are killed off myself. It's so strangely fitting that both Goku and Vegeta's parents were killed by me, and now their children will be as well. Fitting, don't you think?" he winked at Trunks like they shared a secret.
"Fuck off, lizard boy. Just let me up and I'll show you 'monkey'." Trunks growled, pulling on the ki rings to no avail.
Coola's frown vanished and he smirked slightly. "We have no interest in fighting you two. Just your fathers. A contest with weakling monkeys like yourselves doesn't interest us in the least. But killing you will be an amusing bait for your sires. But if you wish to try to break free, please, be my guest."
Trunks pulled harder than ever on the bands, his hair flashing gold as he struggled to free himself. But the bonds held fast.
Frieza snorted in contempt. "I expected as much."
He and Coola, as if on cue, each raised an arm, one finger extended from a fist.
The ends began t crackle with energy.
Trunks closed his eyes and waited for the end.