Roger woke the next morning feeling more refreshed than he had since Vegeta left him in charge of the entire Saiyan race. It appeared, at least for the last few days, that things were running fairly smoothly. Yambia was not up yet; her gentle snores caused Roger to chuckle inwardly. Roger decided to let her sleep for a while longer, her duties as "Queen of all the Saiyans" were pretty taxing. Honestly Roger didn't know how in the world Bulma did everything, and keep up her research at the medical center. Of course, Bulma had always been a high-energy person that threw herself into her work while Yambia just wasn't used to those sorts of duties. Sure, Yambia loved to train, and was the hardest working person Roger ever seen while doing so, but she hated the sort of daily duties she was now being asked to perform.
"If it hadn't been for me, the poor woman would probably have starved to death." Roger smiled inwardly.
Still, Yambia has been doing the job well, and without complaint, and that made Roger very proud. Before he could stop himself, he bent over and brushed his lips across hers.
Yambia's eyes came open.
"Morning my love." Roger said.
Yambia smiled and stretched. "Morning lover. What time is it?"
"Eight O'clock." Roger smiled knowing what would come next.
"EIGHT O'CLOCK! Oh no! I am late!" Yambia back flipped off the bed and flew toward the bathroom.
"Wait!" Roger yelled.
"What?" Yambia turned around a bit irritated.
"As your King, I command you to come back her and give your king a proper greeting!" Roger demanded in the most imperious tone he could muster. Roger crossed his arms Vegeta style for added emphasis.
Yambia stopped and looked at Roger for a second, then smirked. "Yes milord." She responded.
Yambia flew back and melted into Roger's arms. "What about that personal assistant of yours? Doesn't she usually come barging in her around now?"
"If she does, she will see the royal couple having a royal and well deserved good time with one another." Roger smiled as he took his queen back to the bed.
"I think you like being king a little too much." Yambia smiled.
"Well, it does have certain advantages now that you mention it." Roger kissed his wife passionately.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
After almost three hours of flying, Piccolo carrying Goku, Buu with Mr. Satan sleeping on his back, and Uub came a cross a wide valley that was a complete contrast to the surrounding area. The valley had been completely paved over in some sort of metal. There was no flowers or wild life of any sort to be seen within the valley, only metal structures dotted here and there.
The troop landed at the mouth of the valley while Piccolo tried to get his bearings. Buu landed and Mr. Satan slid off his back onto his head.
"Clang!"
"Hey! Watch it Buu! You want to cause me brain damage or something!" Hercule complained.
"Everyone says you are very hard headed." Buu said and smiled. "He put his gloved hand to his mouth and actually giggled.
Everyone looked around. Buu had never told a joke before. Hercule seemed a bit taken aback.
Suddenly everyone but Piccolo started laughing, even Hercule Satan.
"I don't feel a single ki in there at all." Piccolo said interrupting the laughter.
"No, it seems completely dead. If there is an evil witch or something in there, it doesn't have any ki." Uub confirmed.
"Sanandro sounded pretty certain about it." Goku said.
"Yeah, we need to be careful." Piccolo answered.
"Let's go slowly then, this place reminds me of some sort of military fortress, could be booby trapped." Uub said. "I don't like the feel of the place at all."
"It feels like an awful lot of people have died here." Goku said shivering involuntarily.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Satan asked.
"He means that certain places that have had catastrophes like mass murder, or a battle where a whole bunch of people have died violent deaths in the same place has, shall we say, a bad vibration about it." Piccolo said remembering the time he flew over the area of the concentration camp that once operated at Auschwitz in Germany. "This place is like that. It's like stored negative energy."
"Like the Dragonballs?" Uub offered.
"Yeah, sort of like that." Goku answered.
"There is no one here now, is there?" Mr. Satan asked from around Buu's back.
"There doesn't seem to be." Uub answered "But we can't tell for sure. Just because we can't feel anyone's ki doesn't mean they aren't here. They could be suppressing it, or it may be a life form that doesn't use ki."
"So what are we going to do?" Mr. Satan asked.
"We've been given no real choice." Piccolo clenched his fist. "It's like we are cattle being herded to the slaughter! But we have no choice but to go on and find the door. We will fly along at low level and slowly keeping our eyes and ears open. Be prepared for anything. Buu, you are responsible for Mr. Satan, keep him safe."
"Buu do!" Buu came to attention and saluted Piccolo. Piccolo looked at him curiously.
"It's okay, Buu has watched too much television." Mr. Satan said sheepishly.
"Okay then. Let's go." Piccolo grabbed Goku under the arms and flew off into the valley; the others lifted off the ground and followed.
There was no wind in the valley, not a sound; even the odor of the flowers that seemed to cover the planet was gone. The only sensory input they got was the gray of the steel all around them, the sky, and the sound of their own ki working to keep them off the ground.
"This is creepy!" Mr. Satan whispered.
"Uh-huh!" Buu responded quietly.
Piccolo was straining all his senses. Of all the Z-Warriors other than Goku, Piccolo was the very best at sensing ki, even small amounts. If tasked to do so, Piccolo could sense the ki of an insect from miles away, but Piccolo felt absolutely nothing. Piccolo was beginning to doubt Sanandro's claim of a witch being in the valley.
Suddenly Piccolo stopped.
"Buu, is magic like ki?" Piccolo asked.
"No, magic is not the same kind of energy." Buu said.
"Would you know another magical being? Could you sense them?" Piccolo asked.
"Don't know, Buu never try." Buu shrugged.
"Try it!" Goku exclaimed.
"Okay!" Buu said and he started to look around. His antennae started glowing a greenish color as he started pointing it in various directions.
"Go big guy!" Mr. Satan encouraged.
Finally Buu's head turned then turned slowly back. His hand shot out. "There!"
Everyone was looking in the direction that Buu was pointing, but didn't see a thing.
"Where Buu?" Piccolo asked.
"Mean lady right there! She's looking at us!" Buu said. Still no one could see what Buu was pointing out.
"Buu show you!" Buu charged up a ki attack and let it fly. Suddenly, there was a large fluttering sound as an old hag, the very quintessential stereotype of a witch spun out of the way wearing a cape the exact same color as the metal around them. She had so effectively camouflaged herself that they never realized that they were practically on top of her.
Piccolo put Goku on his feet and stood in a defensive posture in front of him.
The witch had the feel of extreme age about her; she looked like a walking corpse. Her skin was wrinkled and bagged, with a greenish tinge. She was short, not much more than five foot tall, with a huge hook nose which ended in a large wart. She was thin, almost skeletal in appearance and was dressed head to foot in black, except for the gray of her cloak. She landed on a building and glared down at them.
"So! You can see through my disguise! Who are you and what do you want here!" Delvia croaked shrilly.
Piccolo winced. Her voice was almost more than his sensitive ears could handle. Not even Chi-Chi on her worst day caused him this much pain.
"We are just travelers. We want to use the door that we were told was in this valley." Piccolo said simply after recovering.
"Well green man, the door is forbidden. You won't be needing the door anyway." Delvia smiled through broken rotten teeth. "You have a lot of energy that I can convert to my own power."
"I don't like the sound of that!" Mr. Satan said stepping behind Buu.
"Our power is not yours to convert witch. Just point us to the door and we'll be on our way." Piccolo said in a low warning voice.
"Hehehe... We'll see!" The hag cackled. She raised her hand and waved it at the far wall of the valley.
"Look out!" Piccolo yelled as dozens of razor sharp metal javelins launch themselves towards them.
Piccolo grabbed Goku and blurred out of sight; everyone else was flying out of the way except for Buu, who just stood his ground. Just as the spears reached him, he expanded his body so that all of the projectiles pierced through his body. He looked like a huge pink pincushion.
Buu turned and smiled at the hag. The witch just stared at him with her mouth hanging open.
"Are these yours?" Buu said as he formed his body into a large ball with the ends of the javelins sticking out on all sides in every direction. Buu launched himself straight at the witch. The witch dodged to her left just as Buu would have hit her, Buu sailed on to take down a metal building with a loud crash. Buu emerged from the wreckage and launched himself at her again.
"So! You are all stronger than I thought." Delvia croaked. "Well, let's see how you handle this!" Delvia waved her arms and a black field of energy formed around her. Buu struck the wall and was stopped. Buu increased his power and struggled to breach the energy field. For several long seconds the two combatants struggled for dominance.
"Goku, do you feel anything from all that energy?" Piccolo said.
"No, not really. Neither one seems to be using ki at all, it must all be magic." Goku said amazed at was happening in front of him.
"Why isn't Buu using his ki?" Uub asked.
"That's what I was wondering." Piccolo said.
"Maybe he knows something that we don't." Hercule observed.
"Like what?" Goku asked.
"I don't know." Mr. Satan admitted.
The fight was starting to shake the ground around them. Cracks were appearing in the metal under their feet. Goku grabbed a metal column for support.
"Man! Whatever energy they are using, it's increasing!" Piccolo said trying to keep his footing.
"What if we hit her with an energy wave?" Goku said.
"I don't know. We don't know enough about what is going on." Piccolo said. "We could make things worse."
Buu reformed himself to his normal state and his antennae was pumping out large amount of his pink magical energy straight at the witches negative energy wall, sweat pouring off his head.
Delvia was grimacing with the effort of maintaining her shield. Her eyes had gone glowing amber, and her pupils had disappeared.
"Curse you creature! You will not win!" Delvia screamed.
"Buu will win!" Buu yelled as he increased his power.
Delvia grimaced and increase her own power. The planet increased it's quaking.
Buu smiled. "That is all the power you have, isn't it?"
Delvia smiled back. "Not quite." Delvia looked at Piccolo and the rest. "You're a magical creature, so I can't convert your power, but your friends are a different story."
Delvia's eyes went from Amber, to black.
Uuunggh! Piccolo groaned as he fell on his face, along with Uub.
"Piccolo! What's going on!" Goku dropped to one knee beside his friend, concern on his face. Mr. Satan had taken a similar position next to Uub.
"E-energy d-d-drained. That w-witch is d-d-doing something." Piccolo barely managed to stammer out.
"Apparently she didn't think Mr. Satan or I had enough energy to worry about." Goku said bitterly.
Buu was having difficulty. Her power increased several times after she leeched away Piccolo and Uub's power.
"Hehehee! Not so easy now is it!" The old crone cackled.
"You! You hurt Buu's friends!" Steam began to geyser out of the pores in Buu's body. "You make Buu angry!"
"Uh-oh! I've seen this before. This is what happened just before that other Buu appeared!" Hercule Satan was hopping from one foot to the other.
Goku looked at Buu, he was definitely angry.
Buu gathered as much magical energy as he could to push as hard as he could. Buu screamed as the power intensified by an incredible amount. The black energy field crumpled, then disintegrated as Buu's power pushed through toward Delvia.
"Damned you! Damned you!" Delvia screamed as her body changed into a cookie.
Piccolo slowly picked himself off the ground shaking his head to clear the cobwebs out.
"You okay Piccolo? Uub?" Goku asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Piccolo said.
"Sure, just a bit weak in the knees." Uub said. "My power is returning though."
"Anybody want a cookie?" Buu held out Delvia.
"Absolutely not!" Everyone said in unison.
"Don't eat that Buu!" Mr. Satan ordered as he cocked an eyebrow and smiled. "You don't know where that's been!"
"Okay!" Buu agreed tossing the crone cookie over his shoulder. "Buu is hungry though!"
"He's right. We haven't eaten in quite some time." Goku said as he pulled out the last capsule from his pocket as his own stomach began to growl. Luckily, Goku had packed enough food in each capsule to keep six Saiyans from going hungry because Buu ate as much, or more, than Goku. Piccolo noticed, however, that Goku's appetite was way off normal. He barely ate much at all compared to his regular meals.
"Goku is getting weaker." Piccolo thought to himself. "We have to get him back into our dimension soon."
Piccolo and Uub exchanged glances; Uub was thinking the same thing.
After everyone had finished off the mountain of food, and Piccolo had his fill of water, Piccolo started scouting around for the door. He flew up to get a better view. He spotted it at the far end of the valley, and flew back to the others.
"It's not far." Piccolo explained as he took Goku under the arms again and flew off.
Five minutes later they stood in front of the door. It was huge there was writing along the top in a language that Piccolo didn't understand. He tried to draw on Kami's knowledge of languages, but apparently this wasn't a language Kami knew.
"It probably says something like, 'Enter at your own risk'." Mr. Satan guessed.
"Probably." Piccolo agreed. "Do you have the crystal?"
"Oh yeah! It's right here in the pack! This one is the one that Sanandro gave us." Hercule gave the crystal to Piccolo, who fit it in the indentation. The door disappeared to reveal blackness beyond the threshold.
"Well, that's certainly nasty looking." Uub said.
"Okay, Uub, you first, then Mr. Satan, then Buu, Goku and I will go in together." Piccolo said.
"You're probably getting pretty annoyed at having to carry me around." Goku smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah, but I figure I owe it to you seeing as you've saved my life about a dozen times or more." Piccolo smiled. "Besides, if the situation was reversed, you'd be doing the same. I still remember the time you gave me the senzu bean, even when I was trying to kill you. I can't let you down now, can I? It's a matter of honor."
"Just honor?" Goku smiled at Piccolo.
Piccolo smiled back, a very rare occurrence from Piccolo, "Okay, honor and friendship."
"Thanks Piccolo, I won't forget this." Goku said.
"I won't let you." Piccolo smirked. "Okay, everyone go on through"
Piccolo was the last one through the portal, which naturally disappeared behind him. He was almost immediately sorry he had to come in here. The entire surface of the planet was war ravaged. Large craters pocked marked the land everywhere. The air was thick, and clouded with black smoke, and the smell of death was heavy in the air. Abandoned and rusting war vehicles were everywhere, and in some cases, their skeletal occupants stared out at them with sightless eyes.
And somewhere in the distance, there was a ki so strong, it boggled even Piccolo's mind.
"D-do you feel that Goku?" Piccolo asked, but one look at Goku told him the answer.
"W-what the hell is that?" Goku stammered.
"I don't know. But if that is where we have to go, we are in deep trouble." Uub said.
"Darn it!" Goku exclaimed. "I can't fight like this!"
"We have to find away out of here without confronting whatever that is." Piccolo said.
"I'm afraid that's not possible." A distinctly feminine voice suddenly rang in everyone's head. Just as suddenly, they all found themselves in a new location. In a blink of an eye, Piccolo and the rest had been transported hundreds of miles to what appeared to be an ancient citadel of some sort. Piccolo, Goku, and Uub assumed defensive postures. Mr. Satan got behind Buu.
"Look! Over there!" Piccolo pointed to the other side of the citadel was a small fountain. Above the fountain was a round flat stone with six indentations surrounding a large indentation. The six indentations were roughly the size and shape of the three crystals they now carried.
"Fascinating isn't it? The great dimensional puzzle. I've been waiting for a very long time for someone to bring me the six crystals."
Everyone spun around trying to locate a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Who or what ever it was, its ki aura was so strong that they couldn't figure out what direction it was coming from.
"Over here mortals." The voice shifted to their right.
Everyone looked just in time to see a tall woman phase into view. She was over six-foot tall with rose colored skin, and lime green hair that flowed to the middle of her back. She stood tall and proud, her body was lithe and spoke of a panther like agility. She was beautiful. There was a large blue crystal in her forehead. She was dressed in some sort of battle armor.
"Ahh.. So you've come at last have you?" Her voice hit them in a strange mixture of girlishness, and malevolence.
"I suppose we have." Piccolo managed to say. Even he was taken by the woman's beauty.
"I suppose introductions are in order before I destroy you. I have gone by many names, but the name I like the best is Carnage." Carnage said.
Carnage raised a hand and gave a small gesture with her finger. The bag that Hercule was carrying suddenly rose into the air and headed straight for Carnage.
Carnage took the bag and looked inside. Her extremely confident and arrogant look faltered for just a second. She took a step forward, and even though it was one step, and she was 20 feet away, she was suddenly directly in front of Goku.
"So, you are the chosen one? My, how pathetic, you would think that the Ultimate Kai would have chosen his champion more wisely." Carnage said. "Now where is the other three crystals?"
"Other three crystals?" Goku looked at her quizzically.
"Yes idiot! The legend says that the chosen one would bring all six crystals. There are only six in that bag, and I don't sense any others. What did you do with the other three?" Carnage was directly in Goku's face.
"We didn't see any other crystals." Piccolo said in a low voice. "We don't have them."
"That's not possible! Do you know how long I've waited to escape this place! You have to have the damned crystals!" Carnage's was practically shrieking. Her right fist balled up as she drove it straight into Goku's gut. "You will tell me where those crystals are or I'm going to kill everyone of you!"
Goku had folded up like a house of cards. "I-I sense you! Y-You w-would kill us a-anyway!" Goku managed to stammer out.
"True, but it would have been a quick and painless death. I know ways of keeping you alive for a very long time in as much agony as possible." Carnage smiled as she approached Goku again.
"SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!" Piccolo yelled as he released his most powerful attack. It struck Carnage full in the chest.
With absolutely no effect at all.
Goku was trying to regain his feet with little success. The blow had completely winded him, and he was fighting wave after wave of nausea. He was in danger of throwing up his last meal.
"Goku!" Uub shouted as he launched himself at Carnage, throwing several hundred punches and kicks in a short space of time. Carnage dodged or blocked each and every one. Uub couldn't touch her. Finally, Carnage smiled and backhanded Uub over the outer wall of the citadel and out of sight.
"Uub!" Goku yelled. Uub ki had plummeted very low, if he didn't get help soon, he would die.
"From one blow!" Goku thought as he finally regained his feet and tried to back away from Carnage.
"Trying to leave already? My but what a rude guest." Carnage phased out and phased back in right in Goku's phase again. "I need those crystals. Tell me where they are NOW!"
"I don't know where they are! We only seen the three crystals!" Goku spat back at her.
"How can that be?" Carnage thought to herself. "If he's the chosen one, then he must have the other three crystals, if he is not, he could not have gotten his hands on the three crystals that he has. This doesn't make sense!"
"Do you even know what the crystals are for?" Carnage smiled.
"Well, no, not really." Goku admitted.
"Stupid man! See the fountain, topped by the rounded dais? If the crystals are fitted into it in just the right order, the forbidden dimensions will be rejoined with the rest of the mortal plane. I will be free to rule the universe once more!" Carnage said.
"You will be stopped." Goku said weakly recovering some of the little strength he had left.
"What?!?" Carnage looked almost stunned.
"I said, you will be stopped. Do you know how many people have tried to "rule the universe" just in my lifetime? All have failed! Someone will stop you, someone always does."
"You think you will stop me?" Carnage snickered.
"I will do my best!" Goku slid into a defensive posture.
"Fine! Prepare for pain!" Carnage threw a haymaker that would have taken Goku's head off, but a large pink arm insinuated itself between Carnage's fist, and Goku's face.
A green fist made contact with Carnage's jaw from the other side.
"Looks like your friends want to play as well." Carnage smiled. "Very well, I live to please."
Carnage's body began to glow softly as an energy bolt struck Piccolo in his chest sending him flying across the citadel striking a large stone building, which collapsed down on Piccolo's body.
"That's one!" Carnage announced before turning and punching Buu hard in the face. Buu's face suddenly collapsed and absorbed the force of the blow and began to draw Carnage's fist into Buu's body. Carnage was sucked in up to her elbow before she realized what was happening.
"What manner of creature are you?" Carnage seemed a bit shaken.
"Me Buu!" Buu's voice came out of his body.
Carnage released another energy bolt that caused Buu to explode and freed her arm.
Carnage smirked. "Well now that all your friends are taken care of, where were we?"
Behind Carnage, small pieces of pink clay were moving to rejoin.
"You've got exactly three seconds to come up with the other three crystals, or I'm going to start breaking off body parts until you do. And I know just the body part I'm going to start with!" Carnage threatened.
Goku gulped. "Honestly I haven't seen any crystals other than the one we came in here with!"
"One!" Carnage counted.
"Really! Couldn't we talk this over!" Goku was protecting his most treasured body part with his hands.
"Two!" Carnage continued.
"Well, if I can't talk my way out of this, then I might as well go out fighting." Goku thought as he struggled to gather what little bit of energy he had and put it into one final attack. With as much speed as he could muster, Goku rushed forward and threw a roundhouse kick to Carnage's face.
She didn't so much as blink an eye.
"What am I gonna do!" Hercule Satan was as scared as he'd ever been in his entire life. "She swatted Uub away like it was nothing! She blew up Buu! Piccolo is buried under tons of stone! And to make matters worse, the strongest guy in the universe doesn't have his strength! What am I gonna do! I've seen them use those energy blasts before, hundreds of times. Can I do that? Let's see, Goku cups his hands like this, and he says 'Ka Me Ra....'. No, not Ra, what is it? Ha? Yeah that's it! 'Ka Me Haaaaa'. Hercule felt a strange energy build up in his cupped hands. "Is it working? Okay, keep focused! 'Me... Haaaaaaa!"
To the startled Mr. Satan's surprise, an energy ball left his hands and streaked straight for Carnage's back.
"Three....!"
Wham! Hercule's Kamehameha wave struck Carnage in the lower back.
"Mr. Piccolo! Buu called as he pulled a huge boulder off of the crushed Namek's body. Piccolo's ki was almost gone. Buu put his hands on the Namek's chest and in a few seconds, healed Piccolo completely.
Goku spun looked and seen the startled Mr. Satan looking at his slightly smoking hands. "Wow! Mr. Satan! I wouldn't have thought you had it in you!"
Carnage was unfazed, other than a slightly annoyed look on her face. She released a bit of her ki and sent Mr. Satan flying toward the place where Uub had landed.
"Disgusting creatures!" Carnage said with a sneer.
"Okay, back to your body parts. Times up!" Carnage smiled as she started to power up a bit.
Piccolo, Uub, and Buu all three attacked Carnage, each one trying to get a good shot in. Even with all three of them, she was dodging and blocking without effort.
"Aren't you people dead yet?" Carnage casually said.
"You just can't keep good people down I guess." Uub said.
At first Goku was surprised. "Oh wow! I forgot that Buu had the power to heal people!"
Goku fell down on one knee. "Not that it's going to make any difference. Buu can't cure what is draining my energy. If that maniac doesn't kill me, my severed bond with Chi-Chi most certainly will."
After a full minute of fighting, Uub finally managed to land a punch on Carnage's cheek. Less than a second later, Uub was embedded forty feet into the planet's surface, unconscious. Less than a second later, Piccolo was languishing in his own crater.
Buu fought on bravely, but it soon became apparent that he was just no match for Carnage.
"Buu's energy is weakening." Goku thought.
Just then, Buu went flying through several buildings and some walls where his body landed in a field, a blackened smoldering hulk. He made no attempt to get up.
"Damned it! She's not even breathing hard!" Goku thought as Carnage appeared in front of him again.
"I've decided that you really don't know anything about the other three crystals, even though that seems inconceivable to me." Carnage said. "Since I already have the three crystals you did have, then your continued existence is pointless to me. I have, therefore, decided to show you some mercy and kill you quickly."
Carnage picked Goku up by the front of his gi with one hand and cocked her arm back with her palm open, fingers together pointed straight at Goku's heart.
"Damned it! There's nothing I can do! My friends! I'm sorry... I let you down." Goku's anger began to rise as Carnage's hand started to move forward.
