6/14/22 Update - Chapter 17 has now been written in full.
Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
"Now this is an interesting side effect, Mira."
The two watched on their screen as Frieza hopped down not to fight the Z-Fighters, but instead facing Pan.
"He says he heard about her in a recording from Nappa, but how has history not proceeded any differently?"
"Supreme Kai of Time, there's no way Frieza wouldn't have altered history by now if he knew of Pan all this time..."
"Had Pan failed to stop your father on Earth, then yes, Trunks. Frieza would have acted on it had that been the case. But history was restored."
"So you're saying that Frieza has just now remembered hearing that recording from back then?"
Towa saw Mira's puzzlement and decided to elaborate to help him understand.
"I believe it is by the same principle that the patroller's allies and foes remember her the moment she appears before them. History is restored each time we are stopped, yes, but in the furthest depths of their subconscious, the memory of the alterations remain, just waiting to be reactivated."
"So then Frieza had a subconscious memory of the altered recording and all it took to reawaken it was the patroller joining this fight."
"Even I had not anticipated an effect like this, Mira, but now we shall see just what will be wrought from this."
"So then..." began Trunks with much less distress in his voice and more collected. "History's fine. Frieza didn't change a thing while Pan was last on Earth."
But even as Pan heard snippets on her comms, the fact that Frieza had taken a step towards her and seemed more interested in her than he did his enemies still left her feeling like...
"This whole mission's..."
Now he had his hand out, as if to offer a handshake.
"It is my pleasure."
She had no idea how her face looked, dealing with both being in his proximity for this long uninterrupted and a possible alteration to history being caused prior. And now she saw Frieza's grin begin to stretch and curve.
"Oh, you look nervous, dearie. Is it your being in the presence of Frieza, the emperor of the universe?"
The other four nearby these two had neither made a move nor made a sound. Not even Vegeta, who appeared to be in disbelief with wide open eyes.
"How is this even possible?!"
Pan peered away from Frieza just enough to notice Vegeta staring off at her.
"Why is he looking at me?"
"Pan, you need to get your ki under control," went Trunks on comms.
She looked down at her feet, now observing a shift in the air around her.
"You're telling me my ki's...?"
"It's going ballistic. My father can sense it."
She then observed both Krillin and Gohan starting to realize why Vegeta 's attention was turned to her.
"Do you feel that?" Gohan whispered. "She was stronger than she was on Earth, but this..."
"She fought Ginyu and that other guy not that long ago," he whispered back. "Unless she visited Guru after she left, how did she...?"
"Ah, it just occurred to me..." began Frieza, his left hand over the side of his scouter. "I'm curious as to what your power level could be."
"Pan, supress your ki."
"I'm trying, Trunks."
With a click of his scouter...
"Let's find out."
Beeps could be heard, indicating Pan's power level was beginning to be measured.
Pan tried thinking of anything calming to help her relax and lower her ki, but Frieza's face kept bleeding into whatever she was trying to picture.
Frieza, seeing that Pan's power level was advancing to the 20,000's...
"It is reaching Zarbon's level..."
...leaned forward in intrigue.
"...but how is it compared to his transformation?"
Even if Pan couldn't read the scouter's numbers, the font alien to her and backwards, she could tell the climb was actually starting to accelerate.
"If he finds out just how powerful you are compared to his first form..."
"I told you I'm trying!"
"His scouter will burst! History will change!"
"I. AM. TRYING!"
Now the tyrant's eyes widened ever slightly.
"Now this one comes from good stock. It's nearing the mid tier of the Ginyu Force themselves..."
Pan actually felt a bead of sweat from how hard she was trying to suppress her ki.
"I can NOT let history change now! Not because of this!"
"Hale said you used a happy memory before. Try that."
She heeded this, but couldn't think of any loved ones or friends she grew up with without thinking of Frieza's hand in their death in that battle.
"With anyone I think of, my brain keeps jumping to when he killed..."
"Think of...!"
Pan heard an audible sigh on Trunks' end.
"Think of Colm. He wasn't there at the battle. You only ever saw him when he was alive."
Closing her eyes for just a moment...
Pan imagined opening them up and seeing herself floating in the air with Colm next to her in a flying stance.
"I'm... I'm flying."
His laughter that followed was of sheer joy, as was his open mouthed smile.
"I'm actually flying."
While Pan couldn't take in the memory fully with the ensuing battle that was to come, she opened her eyes to find that her ki was now stabilized.
"My, my..."
The numbers on Frieza's scouters had stopped.
"The last time I saw a power level like that..."
She internally gulped, hoping her power level had gone down far enough to allay Frieza's suspicions that hers was near his first form's.
"...was from the likes of Captain Ginyu."
He lightly clapped several times, the slow speed leaving Pan unable to ascertain whether it was genuine praise or the tyrant being condescending.
"Just below the captain's maximum, but outside of my own... clan, your power is amongst the highest in the universe."
Now for the first time, Vegeta actually stepped forward, a cocky smirk in place of his fear of Frieza.
"Oh 'Lord' Frieza, spare me. I already mopped the floor with your beloved Captain and all his men."
The brief look of surprise on Frieza's face from Vegeta's tone and words couldn't undo his seemingly continuous grin.
"My, you have such a vivid imagination, Prince Vegeta. It's clear you did not accomplish this alone. Those two Earthlings aided you perhaps..."
As much as Pan had a mental sigh of relief from Frieza looking away from her, this was short-term, as his attention was right back to her.
"...and perhaps you, my dear. With a power like yours, I can see why the Ginyu Force could not defeat those three otherwise."
Krillin and Gohan caught Vegeta crossing his arms, quietly brooding to himself.
"Undermining my skills," Vegeta quietly muttered to himself.
"Shut up," whispered Krillin followed by a light shush. "All this is time he's not murdering us."
"Quiet," followed Gohan.
Frieza, still facing Pan's direction, had his eyes turned away.
"You think I've forgotten about you costing me my wish?"
Pan saw Frieza's grin dissipate into a scowl, his anger now clearly visible as he peered at them.
"What you've done to me is unforgivable! You won't leave this planet alive! You maggots will be tortured to death, inch by inch!"
But after putting the back of his closed hand against his mouth and clearing his throat, his expression recomposed to that of his prior grin.
"But don't fret. It isn't your time yet. That can wait."
Turning to Pan once more, his hand out to her...
"I have a proposition for you."
The three had heard Frieza compliment Pan's power, but couldn't believe he was about to make her an offer or perhaps even a deal of some kind.
"I know she would never work for someone like him, but just what would he propose to her?" pondered Gohan.
"Is he about to ask her to take Captain Ginyu's place?" Krillin wondered. "Or to leave us to him in return for letting her go?"
Vegeta, however, voiced his inquiry directly with a mocking tone.
"Is the mighty Lord Frieza really about to chase tail?"
Pan had heard Zarbon insist she had been driven to protect Vegeta out of love, but now her anger at the Vegeta of the past speaking of her like that was overshadowed by a mental gag of sheer repulsion at what he had suggested.
"Of all the things he's said...! That is the most godd..."
"Pay no mind to the boorish tyke."
After Frieza's words, Vegeta glowered, the slightest snarl escaping his teeth.
"Now as I was saying, my proposal:"
His posture altered just slightly from being entirely casual to ready to strike at a moment's notice.
"Perhaps I shall have you be the first to face me."
"Getting caught by the Ginyu Force was one thing, but this..."
Pan was struck by Frieza wanting to fight her before the others.
"We can't have him face you, not yet!" Trunks instructed. "My father is supposed to push him, and if you do instead...!"
"I know, Sherlock!"
"What, is she your warm-up?" scoffed Vegeta.
"You should be thankful for whatever time she may buy you," Frieza replied. "And I see it more as the appetizer before the main course."
Pan noticed the slightest movement of one of Frieza's three-toed feet.
"You must have been quite quick on your feet to keep pace with the likes of Captain Ginyu, as well as..."
All four of Frieza's enemies immediately recalled the same speedy combatant.
"'The fastest in the universe'. I humored Burter by letting him rattle on about that. After all, the Ginyu Force served me well and his little moniker certainly had its uses."
The light chuckle that followed might as well have echoed from his lips as he closed his eyes.
"Ginyu told me you three couldn't even see Burter move."
The three Z-Fighters kept their eyes on the tyrant the entire time, as well as locked onto his ki, which was immense even as he had yet to release any of it...
"Where did he...?!"
Vegeta lost sight of Frieza.
Pan turned left and right.
"Right behind you..."
The three saw her turn around, then fall onto her back the moment she looked down at Frieza, a purple glow over him and eyes red, standing there. Only then did they catch him and his ki.
"I've never seen anyone as fast as Burter was," thought Krillin. "...well, maybe that tall cyborg elf was faster, but Frieza's speed..."
"We've gotten stronger since the Ginyu Force beat all three of us," Gohan contemplated. "Maybe we could track Burter's movements now, but this is on a whole other level."
Frieza put out his arms in a "ta-da" fashion.
"Did you see that?"
As he took a single step forward, he saw Pan scurry on her back towards the others.
"Oh? What's wrong? Something the matter?"
Vegeta tried to appear confident, but found himself trying to keep still after this initial display of Frieza's speed.
"If you think... I will be bested... that easily..."
He forced himself to take a step forward with fists clenched.
"You've made a big mistake!"
"You think that is how terrible I can be?"
Frieza's casual stance dropped to a slight hunch.
"Let me show you."
He then unleashed what to those around him was a massive gust of ki around him. Vegeta tried to appear strong, but the half-Saiyan and especially the Earthling struggled to do the same.
"Pan, do you read me?"
Trunks and the Supreme Kai of Time saw Pan all but crawling on her back from Frieza's first form, yet heard nothing back from her.
"Pan, do you copy?!"
"Talk to us, Pan!"
The radio silence continued, making it especially uneasy for them seeing this all play out.
"This is only Frieza's first form. I could see him move, but she couldn't? Even after all her training? Has Towa's formula enhanced his speed that much?"
"Oh... crap..." went Goku's son.
"I never imagined... he'd be possibly be..."
Krillin's thought out loud was cut short when he and Gohan could hear Pan breathing and what they thought was shivering.
"If she was ever scared of an enemy before, it never showed," Gohan contemplated. "So if she's this openly terrified of him and his power..."
Vegeta stepped forward, standing in Pan's path so she couldn't back up any further.
"Oh, would you GET UP already, you mewling...?!"
He was tempted to pull her up onto her feet by her cape's collar, but ceased this thought upon hearing Frieza lightly giggle.
"Well Vegeta, it looks like my appetizer was spoiled before I could even sample it. I suppose I shouldn't let my filet get cold."
The Saiyan Prince realized with Pan now no longer of interest to Frieza, the tyrant had his sights set back on him and the others. Gohan couldn't make words and Krillin, still sensing Frieza's power...
"There's... no way..." the Earthling stuttered. "How... how can WE... beat that?"
"Oh, there's always a way," Frieza playfully taunted. "Like three ants can defeat a dinosaur."
At first, Vegeta thought of the two smaller Earthlings being bested by Recoome...
"They weren't even a match for one of Ginyu's subordinates..."
...until his own experience at his hands returned to him.
"And neither was I..."
His mind shifted ahead to the battles that followed, not only against Ginyu when the captain possessed Goku's body, but against the mysterious blue-skinned opponent whom...
"None of us alone could defeat him..."
But then he saw that once they stopped attacking him one at a time with their own individual schemes at play, putting their heads together and coordinating as a unit...
"None of us... ALONE..."
"But we can."
Frieza heard Vegeta give a simple retort.
"With all of us working together, I know we can beat you!"
The tyrant leaned forward.
"I must have misheard you, Vegeta. Perhaps you could elaborate?"
Gohan and Krillin, even without Vegeta turning to look them in their faces, could tell he was rallying them.
"You don't know how much their power has grown. Hell, you two don't even realize it."
Even when they fought on Earth, even when they were clearly outmatched against Vegeta by so many levels as a scouter would read it, they survived his own onslaught even after Goku was unable to continue fighting.
"The power you had hidden away."
Krillin, who was taken out of commission by one hit from Recoome, threw a Destructo-Disk to critically damage Mira that same day.
"Especially the young one."
First, he recalled a glimpse of the son of Goku pushing Recoome back. Then he saw the young one actually being able to battle the likes of Jeice.
And while not reading much into her help in any of these battles, he noticed her surprising power, as well as how much she had just before Frieza tried reading it.
"Her power grew again. She might be too cowardly to fight now, but if she has that much power..."
"And I..."
"A Saiyan..."
"...am just that much closer to fulfilling the legend that you fear so much..."
Frieza's face kept completely still, but clearly reacted to what Vegeta was referring to.
"...by becoming the one and only Super Saiyan!"
Vegeta stood proud in the moment after his proclamation, even as Frieza shook his head, then looked back, still appearing to smile.
"'The one and only Super Saiyan'? That would imply such a thing exists to begin with."
Like a gunslinger on the lookout for a quickdraw, Vegeta eyed Frieza's hands beginning to close into fists and began to do the same.
"It's not that I don't enjoy our little talks, but I'm starting to get annoyed with you."
Even with his tone of voice hardly changing, Frieza's facade of amusement turned to irritation and, once the tyrant flew forward at blinding speed, into anger.
"So now you die!"
His left swung, the tyrant intending to strike down Vegeta where he stood, but he found it gripped by the Saiyan Prince's right hand, as well as himself seemingly stopped in place in spite of his momentum.
"At best, this brat of a prince was a match for Cui, but now he's..."
As if both counted on their opposing hands to strike at any moment, Frieza's right and Vegeta's left caught one another, attempting to get past, but locked in this clash. Both tried pushing forward, vying to knock their opponent backward, but it appeared to be a standstill.
"He's locked onto my father now," Trunks announced to Pan.
She made her way to her feet quickly and began to sweep dirt off her cape.
"Good. They bought it."
Back in the library, Trunks and Chronoa both fell over upon hearing this.
"I heard something. You two okay?"
The two rose back up and while Pan couldn't see it, they wore looks of being completely stupefied.
"That was an act the whole time?!"
"You really had us going there, you know!"
"We didn't even hear you so much as plan it out!"
"I didn't need to plan it out in my head," Pan replied back.
Gohan and Krillin caught on to Pan's ploy just from how much more relaxed she was now compared to earlier.
"I just did it. Like I don't need to plan walking up each step of a set of stairs. I took the stakes you gave me and I acted on the spot."
"I mean you cooked up such a ploy without needing so much as a mental draft before you..."
"It's what she does," Chronoa interrupted. "Against Raditz. Against the Ginyu Force. We both know that you, Pan, come up with these strategies on your own when you have to."
The ground shifted nearby: Vegeta and Frieza's struggle was resulting in a crater forming from the force they were generating.
"It's just that we worried about you just now when we didn't hear back."
Pan listened in closely to the Supreme Kai of Time's words as she kept her eye on the two figures slowly sinking from her sight.
"Just try to keep us in the loop next time, if you can."
Peering down into the crater as she heard Chronoa...
"Yeah, that... that's a fair point. Next time..."
She noticed Frieza turned his head, no longer eying his own opponent.
"Is Frieza supposed to be looking away from your father like that, Trunks?"
"At his power, Frieza's scouter should be overloaded just from looking at him. Towa's going to try keeping his scouter in the picture to cause any number of alterations."
Vegeta cockily grinned at what he perceived to be weakness from Frieza.
"Can't even look me in the eyes, oh mighty galactic emperor?"
A faint purple hue overtook the tyrant's body, and after his eyes flashed with red light...
"Eh?"
Vegeta found Frieza to be turning in place and himself being swung around by his hands at a high speed. Before he could try getting free, Frieza released him, knocking him into the uppermost corner of the crater, embedding him into rock. From there, Frieza flew into him head-first, knocking him straight through it back to the ground the others stood upon.
"This shouldn't be happening. Frieza and my father didn't exactly fight dead-even, but Frieza shouldn't be doing this. Not yet."
Vegeta recovered just enough before touching down to land, but crouched down, a hand over his chest and his new armor.
"We've barely even started and already he's put a crack in it..."
As he did this, Frieza was already pursuing him, going for a punch with his right hand as Vegeta looked up...
...his view blocked by a yellow cape flapping in his face.
"H-hey!"
Pan caught Frieza's fist with her right hand, her left readying ki for a quick blast. Even with his initial shock, Frieza focused on the glow and turned enough to swing his tail into the blast's path, deflecting it. His left then retaliated with his own blast back at Pan, who let go of Frieza and shoved Vegeta back before avoiding it.
As the two eyed each other, it appeared as though Frieza suddenly disappeared in a blink, leaving everyone trying to lock onto his position.
"Maybe they can't sense him..."
Vegeta readied his right hand for a gut punch of epic proportions...
"...but I know exactly where he's..."
He span, but found his strike fell short as Frieza, the tyrant's right palm out like a spearpoint, was held back by Pan's hand gripping his arm. She then ran in a small circle, Frieza in tow.
"You tricked me... all of us... so I would occupy Frieza for you."
The Saiyan smirked as Frieza was sent off his feet and flipping forward.
"I almost admire that."
But this was cut short as he saw Frieza's tail had wrapped itself around Pan's right arm. Without ever touching the ground, Frieza continued his flip, then had himself standing while floating just above the grass below his feet. Pan, meanwhile, tried to straighten out her legs quickly and had her left hand out to catch herself as she quickly shouted...
"Kamehameha!"
With a well-timed push off the ground with kiai, Pan was just above Frieza's waist as a fast-firing Kamehameha from her feet sent her head-first into his chest like a torpedo. The tyrant immediately released her upon contact, grinding backward on his feet, but never once leaned backward. Upon coming to a stop, he put his hand over where she had struck.
"I actually felt that. That sweet sensation..."
He then swept at it with the back of his fingers, revealing the damage done to the armor was hardly visible.
"...of minor inconvenience."
Krillin witnessed the first direct hit to Frieza just now, but couldn't believe just how little seemed accomplished by it.
"She propelled herself right at him with a Kamehameha. It knocked him back... and all that power was just an inconvenience for him?"
But Pan, after all her training under Commander Hale, wasn't discouraged for a reason the other Z-Fighters didn't know.
"I didn't put that much into it. Got enough ki for the long haul."
Frieza, as if sensing her confidence, gave a grin before starting to float off the ground and float forward in her direction. Pan returned this with a slow jog, but this then turned to a faster sprint as Frieza sped up.
"Remember, Pan, your power..." Trunks cautioned.
"I'm keeping it to the minimum I need."
Frieza's scouter had been reading her power this entire time and found it still maxed out towards the level of Captain Ginyu.
"Ginyu tagged me before in a spar... but his power level had to be much greater than this to do so..."
Seeing Pan preemptively ready to strike him at a moment's notice...
"I will find what you're hiding from me, Saiyan girl."
But as Pan eyed Frieza going for a two-handed slam...
"I really hope this all isn't making a mess of things alread..."
A sudden breeze...
...and Pan had to skid to a stop as Vegeta stood in her path, catching both of Frieza's hands and forcing him onto the ground on his feet.
"He's mine!" the Saiyan prince shouted.
As Pan backed away, Vegeta surged with just as much, if not greater power than earlier.
"I'll show Lord Frieza the power I used to slay his beloved Ginyu Force!"
"That's it, Father!" shouted Trunks on Pan's feed. "Even if the formula tried getting Frieza to look away now, at the level my father's at now..."
**SCATTER**
His scouter shattered going from the maximum Pan had shown to skyrocketing up to Vegeta's power level.
"Okay, good," began Trunks, reassured. "Now they should..."
But as the pieces of Frieza's scouter slowly descended down, Frieza's eyes glowed. But not just as a result of Towa's formula...
"...both jump back..."
Trunks' words to Pan were in slow motion as she the last shard of the scouter's screen was about to touch down. Vegeta was about to break away from Frieza, but then saw Frieza fly up to his face, just shy of headbutting him, staring him in the eyes.
"Agh, I walked right into...!"
As Frieza's eye beams finally released...
"Fath...!"
Trunks stopped upon Pan punching Frieza on the cheek. As the tyrant turned his head from the hit, the beam just missed Vegeta, only leaving a burn mark on the upper part of his right cheek, as it then created an explosion in the distance upon impact.
Pan and Vegeta hopped backward towards the other three, who were still processing what they had just seen. Gohan contemplated what all this meant for their chances.
"We've all gotten stronger. All of us. Frieza's incredibly strong, but Vegeta's right: we might be able to beat him if we work together."
Dende, however, was still unnerved.
"You really nailed him with that one!" Krillin exclaimed before noticing Dende's current state. "What is it?"
The young Namekian pointed over at Frieza, who wasn't lying on the ground, but instead floating, almost appearing to be standing on his toes from that distance.
"I know just how strong Ginyu was..."
Rotating himself upward, a bruise between his cheek and mouth, and a drip of his blood was visible.
"...and that was much greater than his very best. Hiding your power from me, you..."
He scrubbed the blood off with the back of his hand.
"You little trickster, you."
"Little?" Krillin responded before turning over to Pan. "But you're taller than him."
"And Vegeta..."
Ignoring the Earthling's comment entirely, he turned to the Saiyan prince.
"I see you weren't bluffing... entirely. Perhaps as you are now, you could've killed Ginyu yourself."
"Oh, I didn't kill him," Vegeta retorted. "I left your precious captain to a fate worse than death."
Beckoning him with his fists at his sides...
"Now go on then, Frieza. Transform. Let us see your true form."
"His t... t-t-true form?"
After Krillin muttered this, he saw that Pan, who had faked being afraid of Frieza's base form, showed no trace of fear regarding the prospect of another.
"Why... how is she so calm?"
Facing Vegeta in a mock servile fashion, an arm across his chest, Frieza bowed while never breaking eye contact.
"As you wish, Prince Vegeta. Allow me to show you."
The air around him began to shift, small pebbles starting to float upward.
"Just so you all know, when I eradicated the Saiyans and their planet, all in one fell swoop, all I required was this form."
Gohan stumbled from the revelation regarding the people Vegeta and Goku, his own father, stemmed from.
"He killed... ALL of the Saiyans?"
"In fact, their king, Vegeta's father, fell at my hand with total ease."
Now Gohan was getting more nervous, pondering to himself...
"If Vegeta is this strong... just how powerful could his father had been?"
But Vegeta, even with the realization revealed to him regarding his father's death all those decades ago, took note of the young half-Saiyan's unnerved state and knew what Frieza was trying to do.
"Don't let him fool you! I was already stronger than my father at that time."
Krillin's similar fears were beginning to become tempered once Vegeta clarified this, but then he couldn't help but wonder about his own power now.
"Huh. Could I have beaten the Saiyan King?"
"Shut it, Earthling."
But everyone focused back to Frieza and, in what would have been too fast a speed for ordinary humans eyes to see, caught massive cracks spread across his armor in record time before it practically exploded. The form fitting yet flexible armor, which they had seen absorb tons of hits with only minimal chipping, taking especially powerful blows to cause serious breakage, was broken without Frieza even moving an inch.
"He shattered his own armor..." Krillin observed. "Just like that."
Even with how well she had fared against his first form, Pan's calm morphed into focus, mentally preparing for what was to come.
"Two more come after, but we have to survive this next one first."
But Vegeta smirked at Frieza's supposed display of power.
"'Oh no. Frieza took off his coat. What a great and mighty transformation.'"
Pan, knowing what to come, shook her head at him.
"For your childrens' sake, you'd better take him seriously after this."
Yet Frieza's grin widened even after Vegeta belittled him.
"I do enjoy when he's in a good mood... and now I will deflate it."
Hunched over, fists clenched...
"HAAAAAAAAHHH...!"
His upper body grew, leaving his limbs appearing short by comparison. All five of his adversaries could sense the immense increase in his size. The three shortest, especially Dende, were the most visibly shaken while Vegeta tried keeping his own shock as low-key as he could to mixed success. As for Pan...
"Is attacking someone while they try transforming a viable strategy?" she openly inquired on her comms.
"Pan, you're not suggesting you..." Trunks began to reply.
"Of course I won't attack him as he is now, but is it actually something that'd work?"
Frieza's arms and lower body matched it soon afterward, and his, by comparison, tiny head looked like it was poking out of a massive suit of armor.
"A lot of people seem to think that would keep them from transforming, but the way I've seen it, it's not stopping anything. Think of it like a progress bar: attacking them during a transformation wouldn't bring it down to zero, but would simply pause it momentarily. One would get in free hits, yes, but they'd just be using up their own ki while only delaying the inevitable. Funny as it may seem, just waiting for them to transform will keep your reserves fuller and even allow for some rest until the transformation's finished."
"But if one were that much stronger than the one transforming in the first place..."
"Well that's a different story entirely. With how you fared against his first form now, had you gone times twenty from the start..."
"Hey, you better not be getting any ideas, Pan!" Chronoa interrupted.
"I told you two, I won't go all out on him right now. I was just wondering, that's all."
"You know what that level of Kaio-Ken will do to you, even after all your training. Overusing it on any one of Frieza's form will leave you exposed to the next. Especially his final form."
His neck flew backward, then as it bulked up, revealed his two horns atop his crown starting to curve.
"Pan," Trunks entered once more. "...it's almost time to move. Get ready."
She never took her eyes off Frieza even amidst the conversation, seeing him crouched down and keeping himself upward with one arm, his second form's transformation having now concluded. As he rose upward, even Vegeta couldn't help but jump back ever slightly.
"In... inconceivable."
"What's that, dear prince? You believed I wouldn't be that different?"
Krillin shuttered as if living a nightmare while Gohan looked like he was nearing his own death.
"Here's a funny story for you all: my father once had an especially bulky computing scouter, one near the size of a room, that could actually calculate my power level. In my prior state, it maxed out at five hundred and thirty thousand."
Pan recalled overhearing Captain Ginyu believing Goku's power level at that time being no higher than eighty thousand, but upon her grandfather going Kaio-Ken, he panicked at the prospect of his power doubling.
"Ginyu was in total awe with a hundred and sixteen thousand... and Frieza's power level was only about three times higher than that."
"The only problem was one day, when I tried it with this form, the computing scouter shorted out entirely. But before it did, you want to know what it gave a reading of?"
Gohan put enough of his fear aside to try figuring out the difference himself.
"He was at 530,000 just now. From what I'm sensing, he's..."
He gulped.
"...has it actually doubled?"
Frieza, a glow in his right hand as he raised it...
"...over a million!"
The paralyzing astoundment at this announcement quickly turned to laser focus on what Frieza was about to do. The four fighters, practically on instinct, prepared to move as an explosive gust released around the now massively tall tyrant. Had they remained where they were, the damage done to them would've been catastrophic, but having moved right as it released left them being pushed back more than anything else thanks to their speed.
"But what about...?"
Pan caught Dende being rocketed away as Krillin flew after him. She then tried finding Vegeta and her father, whom so far seemed untouched.
"Look out!" Gohan cried.
Pan caught that a flurry of pebbles were coming her way in an event reminiscent of when Guldo launched rocks with his telekinesis after he had stopped time. Only this time...
"Gah!"
Before she could move, one pebble shot right past her right arm, scratching her shoulder and leaving a visible cut through her jacket and shirt.
"That could've torn right through me!"
She didn't feel she could take out her Power Pole in time and had to avoid them as quickly as she could without letting any more of them touch her. Gohan, while dodging them initially, looked to be too slow for the next batch headed right for him.
"Get down, dumbass!"
Vegeta shoved the young Saiyan downward, then punched at the proceeding wave of pebbles, though nowhere near as nonchalantly as he did against Guldo's barrage.
"He's not taking it lightly. Not anymore..."
Gohan, just stopping himself from landing in the water, saw one last pebble zooming right between Pan's eyes...
"NO!"
He watched all the way, but didn't see anything splatter behind her hair or her orange bandanna. Instead, he only saw dust go past the sides of her head. Once she turned back to him, her father quickly pieced together that she had struck it with an invisible eye beam before it could make contact.
"You're okay!" Gohan shouted almost gleefully to her before looking above him at... "Krillin! Dende!"
"Yep. Here we are."
Krillin, holding onto the young Namekian, wasn't any worse for wear, save for some red on the side of his forehead.
"Krillin, you're bleeding."
"Ah, it's nothing. Just got hit by a rock while we got away."
"I'd say that was most impressive, but frankly, I expected you all to be good at running away."
Frieza, now standing atop what remained of the landscape they stood on, only water beneath them, had his arms arched to his sides.
"It wasn't much of a display of my power. Not even close to a sample size."
Vegeta, who had believed Frieza had to be bluffing at several points, couldn't even bring himself to try disagreeing.
"What happened to your demeanor, Vegeta? Even as a brat, and even when your planet, your people, and your father were lost to you, your façade never gave way. Certainly not like this."
"D-damn you..." was all the Saiyan Prince could mutter at him.
"What shall we have him do now?"
"As a small test of our control in his second form, let us try something small, but substantial."
"Focus up, Pan," reentered Trunks. "He should go right for Krillin."
"He doesn't die right now..."
As she began to ask this, she couldn't help but look over at him in dread, possibly being faced with having to stand back and watch someone die for the sake of history once again.
"...does he?"
"No, no. Krillin survives this, but while saving Dende... he was stabbed. Just below the chest."
Pan began floating upward to the initial puzzlement of Gohan and Vegeta, and trying to get behind Krillin without appearing for it to be intentional.
"I think I can keep up with his movements, at least for now, but I'm on standby until it's clear."
"Good thinking."
Frieza, not even taking on any pre-flight stance, remained standing as he eyed his prey in the sky above him.
"Here's a little party game: which of you will be the first one I send to Hell?"
They all knew he was about to make a move on any one of them and tried anticipating wherever it would be that he'd go. They had seen his speed in his first form already and had to count on him potentially being just as quick, if not even more so now.
"He's stronger for sure..." Gohan began to ponder. "...but could he actually be faster than he was before?"
"I choose..."
Purple overtook him once more.
"You!"
Pan saw him flying head-first in Krillin and Dende's direction, immediately telling from his angle of attack that the Namekian was his intended target. The placement of his horns would, in fact, impale Krillin, but it was all wrong.
"Frieza's going for the head!"
Pan didn't wait for an order and zoomed towards the two as quickly as she could.
"Shouting Kaio-Ken might take too long! I can't chance it!"
Before reaching Krillin, she watched as, without any hesitation, he tossed Dende downward out of harm's way even as Frieza's horns neared him.
"You won't die like this, Krillin!"
Grabbing hold of him by his waist, Pan flew upward to keep Frieza from impaling him through the face, but even if she had wanted Krillin to avoid it entirely, it came in too fast, now headed for...
"His chest! His heart! Gotta move now or...!"
This was all almost indiscernible to Vegeta, whom had kept pace with Frieza's first form just earlier.
"That speed...!"
Both him and Gohan heard what sounded like the impact of a blade, but what was clearly that of one of Frieza's horns while seeing Dende falling past the son of Goku.
"KRILLIN!"
Pan, looking over Krillin, saw that Frieza's right horn was between his chest and stomach.
"It struck right where it needed to..."
But this was followed by a massive shock to her system as Krillin seemed to move closer to Frieza's forehead...
...and something stabbed straight through her right shoulder. Pan spat out in the midst of this new pain.
"SHIT!"
"Ah, look what we have here. An Earthling and Saiyan kebab... served raw."
She no longer felt herself floating and was instead being lifted by Frieza's horn. As far as she could tell, she couldn't move her right arm at all.
"Now hang on, you two. It's about to get bumpy."
Shifting his head up and down, Pan and Krillin were sent upward, beginning to be released from the horn, but then fell back down, being struck through once again. With each successive motion, the horn almost seemed to begin digging into the sides of their initial wounds.
"GET OUT OF THERE, PAN!" Trunks all but screamed.
Pan tried to use her left hand to try pushing off Krillin's shoulder pad, but hesitated.
"I'll shove Krillin even more into it if I do that."
"Your body weight's already doing that!" shouted the Supreme Kai of Time. "Get yourself free before the base impales him!"
As she was facing Frieza right now, she couldn't reach his shoulders and his left horn could only be accessible with her right arm.
"This is really going to suck..."
During the next descent, Pan positioned her left hand to fire off a gust to rotate herself, which led to her going ninety degrees clockwise while the horn dug further into her gaping wound's sides.
"You doing okay back there?" Frieza taunted.
Krillin's grunts were beginning to quiet down, and Pan feared just what all this had done to him so far thanks to her inclusion.
"Hang in there, Krillin."
This time when Frieza lifted his head upward, Pan grabbed hold of his left horn with her left hand and pulled herself upward as much as she could.
"Oh? Trying to get off the ride?"
The moment her shoulder was free of the horn and falling down meant no further contact with it, Pan let out a cry as she was now dangling, just trying to keep herself upward.
"Gotta float now..."
"Well fine then. As you wish."
Frieza tilted his head backward, then forward as if shaking something off of him. Pan, forced off Frieza's left horn and seeing Krillin launched off his right, tried to catch him, but through a combination of the difficulty of trying to do so with one arm combined with the pain in her right shoulder striking...
"KRILLIN!" Gohan shouted once more, flying in his direction...
...when he saw that Krillin had collided with Pan, knocking the two downward in separate directions.
Pan, trying as hard as she could to use her ki through her grievous wound and who knows how much blood loss, caught Gohan stopping for just a moment.
"Krillin needs you, not me."
But the son of Goku saw blood leaving Pan as well as Krillin and from the angle he floated from, couldn't tell where Pan had been stabbed.
Time seemed to slow as she saw him still afloat, as if trying to decide where to go.
"Now he's picking between the two of us... and if he doesn't save Krillin..."
