Chapter Seven:

Babidi rarely slept, and when he did, he had never dreamed. But ever since he had come back through the Golden Moon and lived again, ever since he had become so powerful, he had begun to dream, very vividly. After the fiasco at Arda and Osiris's ship, he felt weary, and knew that the warriors he was up against would need at least a little time to talk and plan before they began their pursuit of him.

So as soon as they appeared in his ship, Babidi used a simple incantation to send the monster Shine to sleep for a while and then he slowly made his way to his own chambers for a precious nap. Only an hour or so, nothing more.

But when he slept, he dreamt. And now what he was dreaming of was so strange… it was almost as if he were watching a memory, but one that was not his, or only seemed to be through a false feeling of déjà vu. When he woke up, he would only remember it in fragments. But now, he was deep in its grip.

He felt a prisoner in his own body, almost. He was seeing through his own eyes, but as is sometimes common in dreams, he had no control. He was a member of the audience, not a player.

He was walking down a stone hall, and he could see from the low vantage point that he was walking rather than floating. The walls were damp and slick with moss, and there were puddles of stagnant water on the floor. The lights above flickered sporadically. Some were already out. The whole place had the air of somewhere long abandoned to the elements of time.

He wasn't sure how long this walking went on, but it was not long before he began to feel something up ahead, in the darkness. It wasn't a ki…not precisely as he knew it anyway. But it was something alive. And it felt absolutely loathsome. Even he, a wizard who made a career out of seeking out the very lowest creatures and making them his slaves, did not want to come any closer to it than he had to. It felt like something from beyond the world. But he was being carried along in his own body, a dream-prisoner helpless to do anything but watch.

He was granted unexpected reprieve, however. As they began to draw close, the thing that felt so bad slunk away, and quickly. There was no way of knowing why, and nobody to ask. It was simply gone, leaving an empty room.

Empty? No, not quite. There was something in there, something so close to dead that he hadn't felt it before, its life force masked by the thing he had felt on approach. It was somewhere ahead, in the darkness. And he was fairly sure that it was this they were heading for.

He was right. No sooner had he thought it than there was a door in front of him, looming out of the darkness. It was of some hard, gray wood, unadorned as far as he could see. From behind it came a sound… the softest moan.

Babidi saw his own hand rise, but it seemed wrong. Less like his and more like a human hand. As if it were changing. And that was very unsettling. But the hand waved once over the latch, which opened, and then was gone from sight. So he didn't worry about it. The door swung open of its own volition.

In the middle of the dimly lit brick room was a man. Or what was left of a man. Its face had been decimated, and it appeared that the eyes, tongue, and most of the intestines had been ripped out. How it was still alive, even as little as it was, was a mystery. With sick horror (an emotion so unnatural to him that he almost didn't know what it was), he realized that whatever he had felt before had been eating this man.

When he entered the room, however, the thing on the floor somehow found the strength to move a little. And it even tried to speak, though what came out was nothing but garble, with no tongue to shape the words.

"Eyyye ed ajessy…orded…on…"

The mental message, however, lit up in his brain clearly, despite the man's state.

My Red Majesty. Mordred is gone.

Babidi heard a chuckle from his own mouth, and the great wizard of evil felt his blood turn to ice. The voice was not his, not even close. This voice was terrible. Just hearing it was like going momentarily mad. It was the voice of something that was not a flesh and blood mortal and probably never had been. To hear such a noise coming from his own head was beyond terrible.

"Fear not, my servant. Mordred's quest is doomed, and has been from the moment he was birthed into the world. It is his ka. You, however, are not finished with your long labor in my service yet."

That not-quite Babidi's hand reached into view again. It gently reached under the man's chin (what was left of it, anyway) and lifted. The whole of what was left of the body floated into the air and shifted, and the man wailed inarticulately at the ceiling in pain, though how he could make a sound when his throat was gone was a mystery.

"You would have betrayed me, Walter. You would have taken his guns, wouldn't you? And climbed to the top of the Tower. You would have laughed at me as I raved in my prison." The thing in Babidi smirked as it said this, knowing the answer already but wanting to make this thing whine and beg, to debase it and take every last shred of will to disobey.

The man (Walter, evidently) was whimpering now, and a stream of gibberish flooded through his mouth and his brain. To Babidi, none of this talk made any sense, and he only wanted to wake up. He was not a wizard, not a creature of evil, now he was simply someone having a terrible dream and wanting to wake from it. But this was so real. He could smell the blood.

"But even one so old and evil as I can find the capacity for forgiveness, my servant. You were ever the most clever, my right hand. And there is a chance for redemption. Aye, redemption, and perhaps atonement, if you stay true. Would you serve me again?"

An almost grateful moan of assent from the bloody thing.

"Good, that's very good. Now I want you to promise me, Walter. Or Flagg. Or any of your names, what ever you want to call yourself. I want to hear you promise your life for me. Can you speak it, cully? My life for you."

"Aay ife or ooo" the sounds would have been comic if not for the utter desperation in the voice.

my life for you my life for you my life for you

Babidi was struggling toward wakefulness, and he knew now in this horrible dream that there was something totally alien driving his body; in that moment he understood everything, from the moment he had absorbed what he had thought was simply a powerful demon, like millions of others over time. In that moment he saw the Crimson King, and he flew in utter panic toward reality. He was deep in the dungeons of sleep, and it was a long battle.

The Crimson King smiled with Babidi's mouth, a mouth that was slowly changing, looking less like the wizards, more…human. The figure that had once been Babidi was now almost four feet tall and still growing. Changing.

"It is well." The King laughed softly.

Then, with no forewarning, Babidi was grabbed, he felt it though he was but a prisoner in his own mind, bodiless. He felt a spell, power he had grown in himself over countless years, ripped from his mind. It was the worst pain, the most horrible thing he had ever felt. Like being raped and torn in half at once. Conscious thought ceased in his mind, it only screamed in inarticulate agony.

The Crimson King flung the spell at Walter. The spell, which is really no more than a particular cross between telepathy and possession, lanced into Walter's brain and began to spread, slowly. The man on the floor howled, grisly remains of his body thrashing. But even as the magic worked, the wounds began to heal, new flesh grew in, and time seemed to reverse itself. His midsection molded back together like magic; eyes and tongue that had been eaten by a spider creature named Mordred re-formed themselves out of this air, the flesh of many wounds healing, the blood disappearing.

In less than half a minute, before him stood a man, six feet in height, clothed in black. The robes hung to his feet, and the hood shadowed his eyes. His face was pale, thin, and one lock of lank dark hair fell over his forehead. His eyes were very dark.

On his forehead was a symbol Babidi's dazed mind recognized. He should, it was his own. The twisted M rune that had marked his slaves for centuries. But it wasn't that…his gaze shifted, and now it was a bloody, staring eye…now the M again…

Walter O' Dim, also known in many worlds as Flagg, Marten, Maerlyn, and countless other names, kneeled before the Crimson King.

"Yes, I see it all now… my life for you. My life for you."

And Babidi, finally driven to the very edge, crashed through the barrier of sleep.

Into the waking world.

The wizard sat up in bed, staring into the darkness. The dream, whatever it had been about, had been a bad one. If he had known these were going to be the price, he almost would have stayed in hell. He could recall no details of it, only the horrible pain, a shadow of the terror he had felt.

He waved a hand, and his crystal ball winked into existence. He looked into it and realized that almost seven hours had passed, not only the one he had meant to sleep. With a curse, he was up and gone from the room, to wake his monster and begin preparing for the visitors he knew would come.

Goku and co. were far from ready to take to Babidi's heels, however. At the moment, there were even more pressing matters to deal with.

The five warriors stood with Kaio-sama amidst the wreckage of Enma's office. In the corner, now covered with a sheet that the Kaio had produced seemingly from nowhere, was Enma himself, at least what there was left of him. There was no question among them as to who could have done this.

"Damn him." Goku had gone from his normally cheerful self to ragingly angry in a flash when they came across this. "Why would he do something like this?"

"Because he likes it." Arda said immediately. "Death is what he deals in, in case you forgot. Did you really think he wasn't still a threat to you?"

Goku stared mutely. He could think of nothing to say, because despite the uneasy feelings, that was exactly what he had thought. When old enemies grudgingly called a truce, they usually didn't back out. Both Vegeta and Piccolo had started as his enemies, and were now two of his most solid allies. He had been stupid, he saw, expecting the same thing to happen in this case, but there was nothing to be done about it now. Osiris was gone. The question was, where?

"I don't think you need to worry too much about him now." Arda said, feeling the thoughts on the top of Goku's mind. "I think he's off to wander again. He was always fond of the wastes."

Vegeta spoke just before Goku could. "We can't take that chance." The prince growled. "What if he hasn't headed back to the wastes? What if he's headed for earth?"

The vampire looked confused. "Why would he want to go to earth? There's nothing there for him."

Goku didn't even open his mouth; Vegeta had taken the helm. "You of all people should see that. You said yourself he deals in death. What if he simply decides to kill all of our families for sheer amusement? What if he goes to some other planet, full of innocent people?"

Arda's mouth hung slightly open. Vegeta was right, of course. He should have seen at once. If only Osiris hadn't woken up!

Goku was smiling, absurdly under the conditions. He couldn't believe he was hearing Vegeta speak about innocent people he had never met as if they mattered. This was something new. He spoke.

"We can't let that happen. I wouldn't let Frieza or Buu or anyone else hurt people who had done nothing wrong, and I'm not going to start now. Until we find him and make certain somehow that he won't hurt anybody, he's as big a threat as this Crimson King."

Kaio-sama spoke up. "Goku, I approve the sentiments, but you're spreading your forces too thin. It's going to take all of you to make it through Babidi's ship. He's made some changes since the old one, I can tell you. And if the King gets full hold over him, you'll need every bit of help you can get."

Goku only shook his head. "We'll manage, somehow. We have to."

The god sighed. "I guess you will. You always have. It's your ka."

"Ka?" Goku looked confused.

"It's an old word." Arda broke in. "I haven't heard anyone use it in literally centuries. It means destiny."

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but yes, that's the gist of it." Kaio-sama smiled weakly. "Your ka, Goku, seems to be to save us all time and time again."

"I guess it is. So, if Osiris isn't still here, where did he go?"

The Kaio thought. "Well, if he's not in the afterlife anymore, which he can't be because we would have sensed him, then he can only have gone down to hell or through the door."

"What door?" Mia piped in, mostly because she felt the need to say something.

"Yeah, what door?" Goku asked. "I've died lots of times, and I never saw any door."

"It's a ways down the path, past where the souls normally go to check in. Just a door, standing there. But only people with physical bodies can use it."

"A door to where?" Goku asked.

The Kaio shrugged. "Anywhere you want."

A collective sigh seemed to pass through them.

"But only a person of great mental power and will, or someone with a powerful glammer or spell can get it to open, and only at certain times of the year. Once it's open, however, it can take you nearly anywhere you want to go."

"Well stop wasting time then!" Vegeta shouted, making them all jump. "Who is going to go after Osiris, and who is going to fight Babidi?"

"Vegeta's actually right, we have to hurry." Kaio-sama said. "If we get to the door quickly, we may be able to get it to open on the same place without knowing where it was. We could find him."

Goku thought quickly. He, himself, had to go after Babidi, that much was obvious. They would need him to fight Shine, and he was the strongest. On the other hand, he didn't fully trust anyone other than himself to be able to kill Osiris, if it came to that. They probably wouldn't be strong enough, not even Vegeta. Maybe two of them, but could he spare them?

He had to decide, and he made a quick guess, following where his heart told him. He hoped it would be alright.

"Vegeta, Arda, you two go after Osiris. Uubu, Mia, you two and I go after Babidi."

The saiyajin prince nodded and turned in the direction of the path past snake way, and the door. Arda turned to follow him without a word, but Goku stopped him with a hand on the shoulder.

"If you have to… can you fight him and really try to kill him? You won't hold back…?"

The vampire looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Of course, I'll do my best to kill him if we have to. Hell, I've tried enough times before. But I have to warn you, it hasn't worked yet."

Goku may have replied, but he didn't stop to listen. Shaking the hand off, he caught up with Vegeta, and the two took to the skies, leaving the others behind.

Tien and Choutzu landed on the front lawn of the Capsule Corp. only a few minutes after leaving the mountains. Such minor questions as to what they would actually say once they got everyone together had to be left for later. They felt it now; things were getting more urgent. Since they had taken off, the edgy feeling they had been feeling before now grew into a pounding call, a pulse in their minds. Something was going to happen, they didn't doubt it now.

And the fact that neither Goku nor Vegeta was on the planet added to their paranoia. There was no reason for either saiyajin to be gone, but they were just the same.

They were saved the trouble of knocking on the front door, however. There were shouts and occasional tremors from behind the house, shouts that they easily recognized. Trunks was one. The other was Gohan's daughter, Pan. And, wonder of wonders, it actually sounded like they were sparring. Pan, probably the most saiyajin-like of all the offspring despite her more human genetics, was always trying to spar with someone, but Trunks training was a rarity.

Tien walked briskly around the side of the building, Choutzu floating next to him. They came upon a scene that would have been pleasant in other circumstances. Trunks and Pan (now a girl of about seventeen, much older than the last time we saw her) were sparring lightly, keeping flying to a minimum. They were laughing and having fun. Beside them, sitting in the grass a safe distance to the right, was Gohan, reading a book and occasionally glancing up to offer some word of advice or warn them off before they ran into him.

As they came into view, Gohan looked up, and his face brightened with a smile of real pleasure. "Hey, Tienshinhan! Wow, long time no see!"

Despite his worries, Tien smiled back and waved as he walked forward. But that was as far as the pleasantries got before the man stepped out of thin air.

Vegeta and Arda flew down the path that preceded snake way, the opposite direction souls normally traveled. They were moving at what for them was a slow pace, slow enough to actually see the features of what they were passing over. So far it had been only yellow clouds and the path that looked like beaten dirt cutting through them. But up ahead, there was something small. They couldn't yet see what it was.

Neither spoke. There was no love lost between the vampire and the saiyajin prince. In fact, Vegeta's first act upon meeting Arda had been to knock him through a few miles of dense forest near Goku's home. That had given them no hatred toward each other, however. For now the only thing on their minds was Osiris, and finding the door. Both of them were focused on the indistinct speck in the distance.

Vegeta broke the silence. "Where do you think he would go? Besides earth?" his gaze never wavered from the dot at the end of the path, which they could now see was a door. They sped up. "We need somewhere to start, in case we can't get this door to show us somehow." He paused. "By the way, I hope you have some idea on how to use this door. The Kai didn't exactly leave us an instruction manual."

"I don't know." Arda said calmly, not unfriendly. "When we get to it, we'll see what there is to see."

As he spoke, they came upon the door. They descended and came to rest in front of it.

It was dark gray, and very heavy and thick. A door, attached to nothing in the middle of nowhere. It stuck up out of the clouds as if it had every right to be there and wasn't at all odd. One single word was written on the front of it. The letters shifted and changed in front of their eyes, swimming, but the message was easily read somehow all the same.

UNFOUND

They stood and looked at it for a while. Then both looked away, up at each other, at the same moment. Those strange letter/runes hurt the eyes to see for very long.

"So what do we do now?" Vegeta asked. The sarcasm that always tinged his voice was not evident.

"Well…" Arda said, "I'm not sure. We don't want to rush into this, because that could really lead to disaster."

"Yes, but we can't take too long, or we might not be able to catch him."

They frowned.

Vegeta walked around the side of the door. When he did, a curious thing happened. When he got exactl beside it, the door disappeared. He moved back a step, and it reappeared.

He pointed this out to Arda, who seemed to think it unimportant.

"We could just open it." Arda said after a time. "I mean, what have we got to lose, right? Just open it and think of Osiris as hard as we can."

Vegeta nodded slowly. That sounded horribly risky, given how little they knew about this doorway, but it was also the only answer that made even a bit of sense. If they had to try something, that might be the best way.

"You do it." The prince said finally. "You know him best, so you'll provide the clearest memories of him."

Arda nodded, and without a pause, grasped the knob.

The jolt through his body was like a thousand volts of electricity, but the jolt to his mind was beyond the ability of anyone to describe. He felt it grab his brain, like a living hand, a psychic worm in his mind. It burned and probed and dug ever deeper, sinking fishhooks of agony through his brain.

This is the test…the thought passed through his mind somehow separate from the pain and invasion. This is why you have to be powerful to use it…fight past the pain.

Arda!!!

Kaio-sama's voice, like a shout in his ear.

Arda! Get Vegeta to help you! The panic was evident in his voice. He had expected to have time to speak with them telepathically, warn them. You have to think of Osiris! If you don't you'll be sucked through, into the darkness between the worlds. There are monsters in there that would eat you for lunch, so think, damn you!!!

"Help me!!" he choked the words out, and a spray of blood came with them. Vegeta, who had seen all this happen in the space of perhaps two seconds, grabbed Arda's arm. Perhaps he meant to yank it away from the harmless looking wood, but once he touched the vampire, he was locked in.

With the pain split between the two of them, it was easier to concentrate. Think of Osiris!! He screamed mentally at Vegeta, and then proceeded to do just that, pushing against the power that had invaded his brain with every ounce of will he had.

The prince proved by far up to the task. His will had been iron since he was a child, and his physical strength was even greater.

The knob slowly turned under Arda's hand, and then the door blew open as if by a hurricane. They were thrown back twenty feet, landing in a heap.

Through the doorway that had opened on nothing only moments before they could now see what was either a cave of a very dark underground tunnel. Water dripped on the floor, and a chill air blew through on their faces.

Go through! Kaio-sama's voice told them. And be prepared for anything! If he's in a different world on another level of the Tower, your powers may change slightly. But go before it closes!!

They spared not a second. The two warriors leapt up despite the dizziness and lingering pain they both felt, and dived through the door. It slammed shut behind them with a bang.

The man who seemed to step out of nowhere at all to the edge of the back yard (which was really a back field) was about six feet tall, hooded and robed in deep black. His face was waxy and pale, plastered with the sort of smile that makes people grin back very nervously. His eyes were shadowed by the hood, and there was an overall air of darkness about him.

On one lapel of his cloak were several buttons. One was a pig in a police officer's hat, dribbling blood. The message underneath read, "How's your pork?". Another was a happy face bearing the old axiom, Have a nice day. A third supported the Ku Klux Klan. There were others, but no one read them. On the opposite lapel was a red embroidered eye.

But these hardly registered their attention, because on the man's forehead was a red, bleeding eye. The blood didn't drip down his face, however; it simply sat there, a wound that never clotted.

This filled Tien with horror and loathing so deep that he couldn't keep it from showing on his face. He reached up involuntarily and touched the skin just below his own, comparatively normal third eye.

The man in black didn't seem to notice this. In fact, he chuckled as he walked up, the wide, untrustworthy smile still hanging from his face.

"Hile, gunslingers of this world!" he said.

Gohan stepped forward, his book forgotten on the grass. "Gunslingers? Excuse me, sir, but we've never used guns before in our lives. And this is private property. May I ask who you are and what your business is?"

The man laughed again, and slipped a hand under his robe. Tien came within an ace of attacking, but his normal senses betrayed him. There was no more than the ordinary amount of ki coming from this man, and no human weapon (no gun, the word was in his mind) could hurt any of them. He paused for a fraction of a second, and that was the undoing of them all.

Out came the hand again, quick as lightning. But now it held a horror beyond imagining in it's grip.

It looked like nothing more than a glass ball, black as jet, the size of a fist. But the feeling hit right away. It was like Arda had felt from the door, had they known, but different in a very vital way. There was no pain, but their bodies froze, limbs quivering like water, brains unable to think, unable to do anything but stare at the ball in this man's hand. It was alive, that was the thing, alive and full of horrible power. It was like the eye of a monster that had grown in the deepest shadowy corner of hell. And it was half awake.

Trunks fell to his knees, a groan escaping his lips. Pan whimpered slightly. They were the only sounds. What had been a situation totally in their control was now one of grave danger.

None of them could move, none of them could think. It was all that glass ball, full of such terrifying power.

The man chuckled again. The ball rolled over his fingers and around his hand, back and forth like a magic trick. There was a sound now. Chimes. They made the eyes water, and the head hurt.

"Well, I could answer your first question first, can't I? Yes. I call you gunslingers because you, with the exception of this young, lazy man, are warriors. Gunslingers where I come from, if ya ken."

They heard him, somehow the man in black's words penetrated through the chimes and the horrible aura of the ball.

"Second question. My name is Walter o Dim, or Walter Houji. This in my hand is Black Thirteen, a very powerful ally to have. For it's put me in a powerful position over you, cullies, ha!" his strange speech broke into a laugh. "A thousand worlds I've traveled and never seen the likes of you, yet here are the Tower's best hopes, in my clutches."

He looked to Gohan, and Gohan knew instantly that this Walter knew him, who he was, everything about him.

"Do you know that right now your father is headed into a trap? He is at palaver with a lord of worlds now, but things are going just as my master planned." The smile on Walter's face grew even wider. "Then tower is going to fall, despite all their efforts to stop it. And my master and I will rule Todash darkness forever."

Walter o Dim was sly. He told them not a quarter of what was in his mind, but he babbled like an overconfident fool who brags before the battle is won. It would put them off their guard in certain respects. The one with three eyes, he and the young girl, they were both sharp. He didn't want to tell them anything they could actually use.

He actually sort of hoped that Goku would triumph over the Crimson King. If that happened, it might be he who climbed the tower, he united the bloodline of Eld at last, he who opened the room at the top.

Was it not too late, even now, to rule all?

He whirled and backed away, but his attention and the ball's magic remained on all of them.

"If your father falls, ye child of vermin, you would be next in line to fulfill the prophecy. You should thank the gods, really, that we didn't find out about it sooner, or you would have died before you were even squirt in your mother's loins!"

He turned back to them. "But now we know. And your father will fall to the great demon Shine, and my master the King. And you will all scream in insanity into the Todash chimes forever."

He might have gone on like that for quite some time before disposing of them all, except for Choutzu. He hadn't give the funny little creature much thought, and now he regretted it. Choutzu had been building up and bracing himself, more immune to the chimes and the feeling of terror and paralysis than the others. Now he hit Walter with all the psychic force he could muster like a mental hammer.

The man in black flinched, and almost fell. He cried out, one hand flying to his head.

And his attention fell, control wavered.

Gohan, in a state of high anger, and desperation after hearing what this man had to say, broke control and charged, slapping the ball from Walter's hand.

At least, that was what he intended to do. But when his hand touched the ball, it seemed to liquefy. Blackness, flecked with moving orange embers, flowed out and engulfed him with a speed that was horrifying to see. He had time to scream once, try to pull back. But before he could do much more than flinch, he was covered.

The blackness didn't retreat back to the ball. In seemed to fold in on itself, and the chimes grew suddenly so loud that all the others had to cover their ears. Pan joined Trunks, her feet failing her and she fell to her knees.

The blackness suddenly shrunk, seeming to eat itself, and there was a huge BANG that shook the yard.

Gohan was gone.