Chapter 37

Pan lay on the cot in her room, staring at the ceiling. Except for the two times she'd left to get food, she hadn't been out of her room since her conversation with Akira.

Ugh, I can't believe I kissed Grandpa...but he's not really Grandpa, is he? I mean, how much of a person is made up by their soul? She'd been wrestling with that question for the last two days and was so closer to an answer than when she'd started.

What if Grandpa died a normal death and donated his organs? Would it be a big deal if Akira had his heart or liver? a little voice inside her head asked.

Maybe not... Pan partially conceded. But we aren't dealing with organs, we're dealing with a soul! There's a huge difference.

Why? the voice asked. What is a soul anyway?

Pan wasn't sure she knew the answer. She seemed to remember her dad saying it had something to do with ki, but, as usual when Gohan was talking about philosophy, she hadn't been paying much attention to what he was saying. Okay, I'll admit it, I don't really know what a soul is or what it does. I think Dad said it's where our ki comes from, but that's about all I know.

"Damn it, this is stupid," she said out loud. "I'm arguing with myself and losing!" She sat up and rubbed her temples, "Oh, Grandpa, I wish you were here. Things always seemed simpler when you were around."

A thought hit her as she said those words. If her grandpa could be brought back, where would that leave Akira? She definitely wanted to see her grandpa again, but she wasn't sure that she would want it if it meant Akira would cease to exist. Still how could Akira stop existing if he was basically just her grandpa? She started to mull over the situation again, but was interrupted by a loud beeping noise coming from the front of the ship. Pan rushed out of her room and down the narrow hallway to the cockpit. There was an incoming transmission from Earth waiting for her. After pressing a few buttons, her father and mother's faces appeared on the view-screen.

"Hi hon, how are you doing?" Videl asked immediately.

"Um...pretty good," this definitely wasn't the time to tell them what was going on. "How are you guys doing?"

"Well, your dad, Vegeta, Goten, and Trunks have all be training nonstop since you left, but I think we're all doing alright. Did everything go well getting Akira back?"

"Yeah," Gohan chimed, "I thought you two were going to be back by now."

"Well, there was a bit of a...situation... on Namek. We had to let Muri use one of the wishes so we're stuck flying home."

"What sort of situation?" her mother asked, her voice betraying her worries, "Are you two alright?"

"Oh yeah, we're, uh, fine. It wasn't anything I couldn't handle; we just needed one of the wishes to repair some damages. Anyway, we should be back in another couple of weeks, plenty of time before Ammit gets there."

The conversation carried on for another twenty minutes; mostly they spoke of little family matters, or funny things that had happened during their long separation. Then her parents told her they had to go and said their good-byes, leaving Pan alone with her thoughts again.

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Goten was taking the day off. He'd been training harder than ever before in his life and he felt like he needed to take a break before he went off the deep end like Vegeta. So instead of going to Capsule Corp in the morning, he flew to a deserted area quite a ways from town and just relaxed.

After spending much of the day catching fish in a stream and lounging by a waterfall, he decided to talk a little stroll before heading back home.

As he walked he noticed two small wisps of smoke in the distance. Thinking that it might be some fellow nature lovers, and also that whoever it was might have food that they'd be willing to share, Goten changed course and headed for them.

When he was less than a mile away he began to notice something strange, there were no longer any birds chirping from the trees. Also, it seemed to have gotten darker and colder since he'd started his walk. He thought of turning around for a moment, but then his curiosity got the better of him and he pressed on.

Without warning, the trees suddenly stopped and he walked out into a large area of barren ground. It took less than a second to determine what was making the smoke and the reason the trees had been cleared away. In the center of the cleared area was a large spaceship it's twin exhaust ports venting small clouds of smoke.

Goten quickly ducked behind a fallen tree, looking for any sentries that might have seen him. There didn't seem to be any; nor, for that matter, did it appear that anyone was in the area. Goten cursed himself for not bringing his cell phone with him.

"Well, at least it doesn't look like I've been seen yet," he said quietly.

"Oh, I don't know if I would go so far as to say that," a deep voice whispered in his ear.

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Akira floated in the gravity room, trying to meditate and failing miserably.

I shouldn't have told her, he thought for the millionth time. I knew it was going to freak her out. I could have just kept it to myself and tried to just be her friend...or avoided her for the rest of my life. He considered the idea for a moment and then shook his head, No, not that I can change it now anyway, but I did the right thing. She deserved to know. Whether things between us are permanently screwed up or not, I couldn't have kept that from her.

Akira continued hovering for several more minutes thinking about how nice it would be to have a simpler life. Finally he gave in to the inevitable. He gently lowered himself to the ground, got to his feet, and then walked over to the gravity machine.

"Maybe a little training will help my concentration," he said to himself as he inspected the control panel. The dial in front of him gave him the option of going as high as 500G. Akira twisted it and waited while the extra gravity kick in. It was pretty heavy. Under normal circumstances it would probably have suited him just fine, but at the moment he was looking for something more extreme. After a few minutes of investigation he found an area to type in a gravity setting. He typed in '600'.

The moment he pressed 'enter' a window popped up on the screen: 'WARNING! HUMAN AND SAIYAN SAFTY LEVELS EXCEEDED! ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?'

Akira selected 'yes.'

His finger was barely off the button when the crushing weight came down upon him. He struggled for a moment and then began to power up. Slowly the weight lightened until it was barely more than a nuisance. He frowned and tried '700.' This time he was forced to transform, but it still didn't seem to be enough. He typed in '1000.'

The weight of his own body slammed him into the floor. He struggled to push himself up, but couldn't seem to do it. He powered up more. After several painful minutes he managed to get himself into a sitting position. He smiled; this was what he'd been looking for.

Akira began doing pushups and sit-ups, trying to get used to the crushing weight. In less than ten minutes he was drenched in sweat. He powered up as high as he could without dropping his barrier and took to the air, battling with imaginary enemies. When he grew tired of that he landed and pressed the button that called out the training drones. Moments later, the little robots were chasing him around the room, ricocheting several ki blasts back and forth, attempting to hit him.

He trained with the drones for almost a half-hour before one finally hit him, but the one slip up cost him a huge amount of power and his energy quickly began to slip away. After the first hit he had redoubled his effort, but it still took less than five minutes for another blast to hit him. It took even less time for the next; and still less for the one after that.

Akira slumped against the wall after being hit for the fifth time; he was struggling to hold his transformation and could barely breathe. A simple voice command would call off the drones, but his pride would not let him say it. He tried to climb to his feet as he watched the droids tossing a ki blasts back and forth, building up its speed. As he fought to get his feet under him a droid suddenly appeared in front of him. He could only watch in horror as the red blast flew at his face and then everything went black.

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A/N: For those of you that have seen Dragonball GT, if Vegeta or Goku do any gravity training close to or at 1,000 times Earths gravity let me know. I was trying to pick something that would be pretty darn close to impossible even for someone who's stronger than a SSJ2. I figured since Vegeta and Trunks (who I think was only 7 or 8 years old at the time) were training in 500 x earth's gravity as regular SSJ, then 1,000G should be possible for someone who is much stronger than they were.