The Long Road

by Drakthul

AU: Abducted at the age of three and a half, taken through thirteen years of bloodshed and strife, Gohan finds his way back to Earth... to finish a backlogged contract. On Earth, he will either overcome what he is, or be destroyed by it. Rated M.

45. Chapter 45: Oblivion

Disclaimer, in case it wasn't obvious. I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or really any other property. Thank you.

Big disclaimer for this Chapter: This is the longest single piece I've written. Please note, it may take you multiple times to get through it. I do apologize, but I felt it needed to be released as one piece, as I did with Chapter 16, and as I did with Chapter 30. I apologize in advance if its a little much for some of you to get through in one sitting.

The Long Road

Chapter 45: Oblivion

Pan:

Everything was moving so fast, even though she'd not moved a muscle. Even laying there, she could feel the air blasting around her. She didn't understand why, at least she couldn't fully understand why. It was impossible to say what it was, but she could feel it in the air itself. There were two forces coming out of the two men in the room. Son Gohan, the one the little monster called her father, was letting off waves of it. It wasn't just the glowing golden light around him, but something behind all that. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. From the tiny creature, she could only sense the same kind of force, but it was horrible. It made her stomach twist just feeling it. Part of her thought she was just imagining it, if not all of her, but she couldn't help but have her attention drawn to it.

The invisible shockwaves which had been used to strike her down felt just like these forces, only more intense. Her body ached, but she just wanted to ignore it. Right now, all she wanted was to go home. Only there was no home to go back to. Her mom was gone too. All she had left was Mister Gohan, and she knew he was going to save her. Just looking at him, all she could do was feel her heart swell with sorrow and hope. It was overpowering, she felt so drained from memories of her mother, but now all she could do was fixate on Gohan. All of this was going to be over as soon as he stopped Garlic.

"I was your first, wasn't I Gohan?" Garlic asked, his back facing towards Pan. "I was the first one you cast into an oblivion of which there was no escape. It must have made it easier once you started slaughtering people in your new life? Please tell me it did. I like to imagine that I had a hand to play in your killings and genocides."

The golden fighter across from the tiny demon didn't flinch, or shy away at all. Instead it was like watching a mountain in the middle of a storm. It was unbending, indomitable. It immediately made Pan's heart jump when she didn't seem him denying the words slaughter, or killings however. It wasn't because she understood the full scope of it, but she understood what had just happened to her mother. She understood what taking away people's lives were, and she had quietly wanted the demon to be lying about it, lying about everything. He'd stolen her away from her home, and left everything in her life in ruins.

And now, the only one she wanted to save her, the only one left in the whole world who cared about her, seemed to be... part of what Garlic had told her he'd been.

"You mattered so little to me, I didn't even know who you were. I don't remember even fighting you," Gohan responded, before smirking. "But anyone who loses to what? A three year old? Four year old? Isn't much of a problem."

The little gremlin made a snarling noise almost at the response before stepping forward.

"I was a problem for your vaunted father, now wasn't I?"

The strange sensations in the air seemed to begin to electrify. The glow from around Gohan seemed to intensify. Without even realizing it, Pan could feel the aggression building, and almost tried to somehow make herself less visible. They were about to fight, and even though she wanted Gohan to fight and win, she didn't want to be there when it happened. Even at a young age, she knew the dangers of being this close to these kinds of things.

A small choking noise escaped her as she was reminded again of how... quickly the monsters had beaten her mother.

Please Mister Gohan, stop him.

"I am not my father. I know for a fact that you didn't fight my father, by the way. No power spikes? No signs of a struggle? You tricked him into falling for some kind of trap. The same thing for Dende. You're too pathetic to fight your own battles. After all, you couldn't beat a child."

Now the force waves which had blasted her down before began to warp through the air, coming from Garlic himself. Suddenly, the gusts of force lifted his cape into the air and a long growl seemed to emerge.

"Oh?" the little monster chuckled between growls. "I don't think you understand who you're dealing with."

"I don't think you understand, Garlic. This isn't going to be a fight. You're nothing to me," the golden warrior said. "You're just a washed up, low count nothing, who stole a little girl to get me to confront you on your terms. You're a coward on top of everything else. You're such a coward you can't even fight me with your own skills and talents, you had to have them given to you."

Two whipping wisps of wind began to circle around Garlic's body, stirring up the dust in the air, revealing themselves as the tiny creature's bald head, even from behind, began to develop huge veins across it. Then long growl turned almost into a roar.

"Oh I can't wait to fight you on my terms, Son Gohan!" he snapped. "In fact... I can't wait to look into the same oblivion I and countless others have, having fought you. To know that I am the only one who will survive it! To know that I am the only one who will overcome it! That I will move on to destroy and dominate this universe on a scale even you couldn't match!"

The clothing on the demon tore away, and deep green-blue skin replaced the pale skin from before. Muscles exploded violently from his arms and shoulders as he screamed in agony, the ground warping and breaking beneath him. Suddenly, his entire frame doubled, and then seemingly blasted outward. The sensations in the air went wild as a deep black-red light swept into the air, before bursting around him. The entire castle seemed to rumble, its pillars and walls waning from whatever had happened. Despite the red tinted light coming from the beast, all Pan's mind could rush to think about how was dark it was. The black and red light reflected what she felt in the air. It was like being drawn towards a darkened corner, as if there was no escape. Her heart raced as she started to tremble, feeling it crawling all around her.

"That's much better, wouldn't you say?" Garlic chuckled, his voice resonating through the air along with his power.

"Is that all?" the man Garlic claimed to be her father responded.

Taking several steps forward, the now giant monster seemed to not care about the confidence of the Saiyan in front of him.

"I'll be sure to remember that confidence when I'm beating you to dea-"

The words didn't finish, and the world went from darkness to light in seemingly a blink of an eye. Golden energy rolled off of the ground around Gohan, seemingly throwing back the dark energy that had been circling the room. It made the room quake and rumble even worse then Garlic's change had. It was enough for parts of the room to catch fire. The stone floor fissured beneath him, sending shattered chips in all different directions. A few of the fragments clipped her, making her scream as she shielded her face for a moment, unable to see what happened next.

All she knew, was there was a thundering boom that followed.

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Gohan:

The walls cracked with the impact of Gohan's fist connecting with Garlic's abdomen. The giant gaped for air as sweat beads poured down his dark blue skin. With another vicious motion, Gohan crashed his leg into the beast's ribs. A howl of agony escaped the blue giant, before his body shifted violently to the left, rolling along the ground with immense momentum, before crashing into a pillar. The entire column cracked along its base, before it webbed up the entire structure. Bits of the stone broke away, before the entire standing structure collapsed down and onto Garlic jr's body.

He'd not even turned up the heat yet, and this guy couldn't even block two simple attacks? It was pathetic, and it showed how sloppy he was. Every time someone came to be some galactic conqueror, they were always arrogant, and sloppy. Even Turles, someone who Gohan actually respected, wasn't a perfect warrior. Broly was even worse when it came to actual technique or strategy. Now this guy? This was a warrior who wouldn't have matched up with a third class soldier were it not for him stealing energy from a demon world, and earning more power through using the Dragon Balls. What did he bring to the table? Immortality? That was garbage, given that Gohan would believe that when he saw it. Even then, it was just a trinket given to him by the Dragon again. None of what was threatening about Garlic was actually Garlic.

With an intense gaze towards the rubble, Gohan just kept himself locked on. The familiar hum of his Super Saiyan aura pulsed around him while he calculated every possible response. The dark energies beneath the fallen pillar told him that Garlic hadn't escaped, but was just fuming under the rubble.

"For all that talk, you're just going to sit under a pile of rocks? Did two hits scare you that much, demon?" Gohan asked, his voice filling the void around the room. The silence beyond his aura was annoying.

Then, something happened beyond all reasoning to Gohan. The rubble sucked inward, and the energy just disappeared. It entirely vanished without a trace, before he felt something sucking him backward. Turning around, feeling the air and energy shifting around him, Gohan caught a massive fist in one clean motion. Towering above him from behind, Garlic was breathing angrily, the fist lodged into the palm of his hand.

Snarling angrily, the demon's muscles tensed with energy. If it weren't for the disruption around him, truthfully Gohan would have had no idea the attack was coming. Staring into the red eyes of the monster in front of him, Gohan tried to calculate just what had happened. There was no way that was just speed.

"You're not any stronger than me," Garlic growled. "But you catch-"

Not even letting him finish, Gohan snapped his leg to the side, catching Garlic in the side of the knee, before kicking upward, slamming the demon's mouth shut violently. Blood spattered out of his mouth before flipping around, releasing Garlic's arm as he did, and crashing the tip of his boot against the side of the giant's head. The sound of a vicious impact clapped throughout the room before the blue beast slammed face first into the ground. The entire floor began to crack apart, almost giving way. This structure couldn't handle much more abuse, and Gohan knew it.

Immediately, he looked over towards Pan, who was huddling behind Garlic's throne, and he internally cursed himself. He needed to move the location of the fight, and he needed to make sure Pan got to safety.

"I don't need to be any stronger to stop attacks from a talentless fool like yourself, Garlic," Gohan pointed out. "You insult me by even pretending to be a threat to me. This is all just some sham."

And it was. The entirety of this all was just orchestrated. Nothing about it was natural, neither his enemy, nor the conflict. He had no right to revenge against him, because he was a weak fool.

Of all the beings in the universe I've wronged, this pool of scum has the least right to try to claim anything from me.

Slowly, the blue form started to pull itself up, dragging up the ground with him. His arms trembled for a moment as he brought himself up, before beginning to rise to one knee.

"A sham?" Garlic breathed. "Like your life on this planet, Son Gohan? Like pretending you could ever exist here like one of them?"

How much of his life had the demon seen? It didn't matter. Everything it said was just poison.

"How much will you spend to win this battle, I wonder?" Garlic chuckled, wiping his chin of a trickle of blood as he pulled himself back to his full height, staring back down towards him with a kind of delight in his eyes. It was hard for Gohan to grasp how he'd been taking so much enjoyment out of being humiliated. So far he couldn't lay a hand on him, and all Garlic had done was eat the floor. It was obvious he was no match for him, but he was there, grinning now, as if he'd obtained some kind of victory.

Dodging his head to one side, Gohan felt the swift motion of Garlic's head shoot past his head. In a blur of several motions his body twisted and turned in each direction, sliding past two kicks and another punch. Each blow that swung helplessly past him just made him glare with even more contempt towards Garlic as he chuckled, unleashing his flurry of attacks, trying to land a punch on him anywhere. He telegraphed every blow with obvious motions and pitiful strikes. His body was too bulky, further slowing him down.

"I've wanted nothing more then to see this again, this phenomenal power of yours, Gohan!" Garlic laughed. "I've been denied its touch for so. Very. Long!"

The cackle that echoed through the castle surrounded them as the attacked continued. So he was getting off on him beating his head in? Was that what was really going on here? Sneering with disgust, kicking one of Garlic's fists aside as it came towards him, Gohan drifted into him, jabbing into his abdomen, before striking again and again like lightning. Each blow dented the giant's body inward as huge swaths of muscle tensed inward. Each blow lead to another grunt as Garlic seemed to freeze in the air from the blows. Striking again and again, the meat began to make wet sounds as it was pulverized against the rib cage, before he rocketed upward with an uppercut, sending Garlic straight into the air.

Appearing above him, Gohan pulled his two arms together, before sending them cracking down on the demon. With a massive whoosh, followed by a boom, the giant was sent flipping helplessly through the air towards another part of the castle. A pain filled cry followed him, before it turned briefly, into a chuckle. It was then that Gohan saw something which made his eyes widen. Darkness appeared in a bubble in the air. Light didn't pass through it, and instead distorted around its edges. Air and seemingly everything sucked in towards it, and as Garlic fell, he plunged directly into it. Immediately, his energy disappeared into the very oblivion which he fell.

What the Hell is that?

Suddenly, something sucked him higher into the air. By the time he looked up, Gohan only saw blue. Something hard collided with his face, following all the momentum of the giant. It was Garlic's elbow, and he felt his aura blunt the attack, but his face still shifted down from the sheer force of the hit. Unable to stop himself, not expecting to be struck so abruptly from nowhere, Gohan tumbled out of the sky, before landing on his feet dozens of metres below.

"Shit," Gohan breathed.

Appearing a blur next to him, the cackling demon followed up his previous assault, only to find Gohan gracefully backhanding already where he sensed his motion. It was a simple response, and the immediate impact cracking the blue demon's nose made Garlic stumble back.

"Do you really think I'm going to lose to some gimmick?"

Not willing to give Garlic a chance to regroup, Gohan twisted around in two steps, before spinning around with full momentum, and throwing his leg out, catching Garlic in his badly abused midsection. This time a bruise exploded in the middle of his abdominal muscles. A gagging noise vomited out of the foul creature's mouth, before he shot back at the speed of a bullet, breaking through the wall of his own throne room.

Gohan wasn't even laboured so far, his breathing steady and easy.

Walking through the hole he'd made not a second later, the monster seemed utterly unfazed by the abuse his body had just suffered. The bruises across his chest and abdomen seemed to have utterly disappeared, his features were scuffed, but unbruised and unscathed otherwise across his face. It was enough to make Gohan's eyes narrow, giving him an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. All of those blows couldn't just be ignored. Piccolo's words regarding Garlic's immortality were fresh in his mind, and it was definitely concerning. Worse, he could tell Garlic picked up on it.

"Surprised?" Garlic remarked. "So you're noticing just how effective those attacks of yours are, hm?"

Slowly relaxing his stance, Gohan stretched his arms briefly, before beginning to walk forward.

"And you're noticing you can't even hit me?" Gohan reminded. "I'm just getting warmed up too."

"Immortal" or not, if he was so useless he couldn't land a real blow, then that would buy Gohan enough time for-

Energy was being gathered and focused into Garlic's left hand, and he manifested a hellish red ball of energy, black lightning rippling around it. Turning two red eyes down towards the energy, Garlic stared into it with a grin before looking up at Gohan. The wave itself was not going to exactly kill him, even if he took it head on, so it just left Gohan to calculate what he was doing. The second Garlic spoke, was the second Gohan pulled it all together.

"You see, there is one other thing however, Son Gohan," Garlic grinned. "I only have to fight you. You have to fight me..."

Pointing his hand out towards his throne, the red energy swirled violently before beginning to expand rapidly.

"And defend her!"

Time slowed for Gohan as the wave was unleashed. Blitzing forward with all of his speed, Gohan appeared in front of Pan, grabbing her before he felt the scorching wave of energy make contact.

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Gohan: Nine Years Earlier

There was barely any light, save for vid-screens and monitors flashing with vital information statistics. The sterile lights flickered against the two figures in the centre of the room from all sides. One hovered in a personal transport, while the other stood at his side, cool black eyes looking on. This was his place, at Cooler's side, the most powerful being in the universe. The great monitor in front of them showed the first planet to warrant the attention of Lord Cooler, and his newly appointed Chief Operations Officer and Captain, Gohan. Certainly, Gohan had overseen dozens of operations, and thousands were done so by Cooler, but this particular world was a special job.

Planet Jell was a special case. This world was heavily defended by advanced technology, as well as powerful warriors. Even if they weren't getting their own hands dirty, coordinating over one hundred soldiers with power levels higher then 3,000 on the planet below was a difficult task. Especially given the planet's capital city, which was the centre of the most vicious resistance so far, was still being fought over in the most brutal battle so far.

"I still don't see why we can't make landfall and annihilate these insolent wretches," the teenage Saiyan commented, crossing his arms with irritation and just staring at the planet dully as more combat footage streamed by them on several subscreens.

Red eyes shifted their gaze to him coolly, immediately making Gohan swallow, knowing full well who his master was. Perhaps in the last few months he'd become too independent, and Gohan himself thought that the moment his master set eyes on him. Looking down immediately, the Saiyan felt his heartbeat slow in anticipation of reprisal. It was an odd perversion of what was his normal life. When on his own ship, or another star base, everyone else were the ones worried about what he thought. But when in the presence of the leader of the Planet Trade Corporation, it was Gohan who realized his own reluctant fears.

"Because as I told you before, Gohan, much of this planet and its facilities must remain in tact. Were you or I to use much of our power on this world, it could endanger its main prize. Weaker soldiers are preferable, no matter the price that must be paid in their blood," Cooler pointed out, before staring forward. "It is not your place to question my decisions, Gohan."

Bowing his head slightly, Gohan submitted himself in seconds.

"Of course Lord Cooler, I apologize for forgetting my place. It will not happen again," he quickly said, before looking up towards the screen as well.

"Good."

The tone was enough to make the Saiyan's hair raise on the back of his neck. Cooler was most certainly the last one he wanted to make angry. Dying was the last thing he ever wanted to do, and forestalling it was his best option. On top of that, the happier Cooler was, the more perks he received. Looking back up at the screen, he then narrowed his eyes on one piece of film which was particularly offensive.

"Section 23B, capital city, what is your status?"

"Heavy fighting, Captain, we aren't able to break through, they're well entrenched and we are-"

"Failing me," Cooler cut in. "You were told to not damage the key facilities on the planet, and you are fighting near them. Why is it you are ignoring my orders?"

"B-but my Lord, they're defending them with-"

Rolling his eyes, Gohan almost scowled.

"You vicious idiot, why is it you're aggressively stupid, and not aggressively mindful of your enemy? You're fighting them in a city, there is only one place in the city that doesn't have to be damaged. You can draw them out from their entrenchment by killing the civilians in the city. If you fail to begin this tactic shortly, Lord Cooler himself will come to personally overtake your command. And you wouldn't want that, now would you Lieutenant?"

The other side went silent for a moment, before confirmation arrived.

"No, Captain. We will engage in your plan."

With that, the line went dead.

Why fight a superior enemy on his terms, if you can use his emotional attachments against him? It was one of the first things Turles taught him.

Turning his head and smirking, Cooler seemed to have lightened considerably.

"I told you before, we aren't going onto the surface of this world."

"Yes, but that insolent Lieutenant doesn't know that," Gohan responded. "He'll either find success shortly, or die miserably. Personally, I hope for a combination of the two."

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Garlic jr.:

Red.

The world was red as black lightning rippled along the ground as red power swirled around its target. Power induced wind swirled around as waves of force rolled out from the heart of the energy wave's target. The orb of destruction now at the core of where his throne had once been expanded in several great pulses, leaving Garlic to smile darkly as black bolts scorched past his body as he looked on. All around him the walls of his throne, and the entire wing of the castle came crashing down to the Earth. The floor, the entire section of the castle began to fall away. Dust escaped violently into the air as thousands of fragmented stones tore away from the structure. In all the destruction's wake, even as the rocks, stones, and cement crashed and crumbled all around them, the red blast which was at the core of its destruction pulsed violently again, before sweeping up dust and debris and letting it orbit it violently for several seconds.

Finally, the swirling motion of the blast slowly faded, leaving nothing but burning ash in the air. The black smoke billowed from its core as Garlic floated where he once stood, chuckling to himself.

With his same demonic smile, delighted eyes started towards the burning cloud.

Yes, that's right Gohan, go defend your brat kid, no matter the cost. It will cost you all of your precious strength to keep her safe. How much pain did you have to endure to keep her safe in that attack? Well?

Red eyes scanned the burning patch of air in front of him, no longer tinted with red energy. Slowly, the smoke began to disperse into the air, leaving behind only a solitary figure. Jeans were the first thing he noticed, and Garlic almost salivated to see the remnants of his opponent, torn and ravaged by his cunning attack. But increasingly as the smoke disappeared, the demon was left with a sinking feeling.

Not. One. Scratch.

Without even realizing it, his eyes widened when he looked at it. Standing there holding on to a terrified little girl, who was also completely unharmed, was the target of all of his hate. He'd unleashed a Death Impact wave with a significant total of power, and all he could sense and see were an unharmed Saiyan. It just didn't make any sense. Their power levels were very close, and yet he couldn't land a blow, or even harm him with powerful energy waves. Which of course meant something very significant. Gohan was holding back a significant portion of his power, and tapping into it quietly when able.

So, it meant he wasn't going to win, at least quickly, by bludgeoning his way past Gohan's defences. He needed to make Gohan invest himself in another portion of the battle. Attacking the girl, or at least making threats towards her were going to be his best options. Still, it was every bit as terrifying and amazing as he remembered it. Floating there wasn't just some Saiyan, or some warrior, it was a terrifying beast which consumed and destroyed anything that came in its path. The good, the evil, everything fell to him like blades of grass before a blade.

When Abaddon had showed him the segments of Gohan's life beyond this world, it was a thrill. Watching the son of Goku's life becoming twisted into a horrific parody of everything his father's was, and yet still containing his explosive and violent power, brought the demon an immense amount of enjoyment and amusement. Whether it was commanding squads, armies, campaigns, or viciously ripping apart the guilty and the innocent, everything Gohan did was destructive. Billions of organisms undeserving to be near him were just washed away. If anything, his revenge mixed with envy. The Saiyan had done so much with his existence to spread misery and despair, and he was still stuck on this miserable Earth. In his own strange way, Garlic wished he could have stepped into Gohan's life for himself. If anything he stole his opportunity from him.

And he stole it from him with the same power he was using to stop him from exercising his vengeance.

"Well," Garlic started, trying to conceal his frustration but failing. "Aren't you the hero? Saving the girl and ignoring the blast. You must think yourself unstoppable, mustn't you? Well, we'll see how powerful you feel once I get my hands on that brat kid of yours."

It was then that Garlic saw the visible tick he was looking for. When Gohan's eyes flashed with concern, he confirmed the soft underbelly of his enemy. The plan had been correct, attacking the girl first. Now the next step would be to keep Gohan constantly in the position to protect her. She was his shield, as he could already tell Gohan would avoid using his full power around her, lest she be harmed. With a devilish smile, and matching intent, Garlic poised himself to charge his enemy again, this time with a plan in mind.

"So, you're big plan to fight me is to attack a kid?" Gohan shot back.

There was no follow up, only affirmation as Garlic charged towards him, his huge body breaking through the sound barrier in a flash as he struck out towards Gohan, aiming at his right side, the side holding onto the girl. In a blur of motion his arm struck into think air as the Saiyan dodged his attack, but it only made him grin. There was most certainly caution in the air, he could smell it. Striking out with a series of punches, Garlic's fists found no target, but he had seen his folly from before. Each strike was more precise, less sloppy, and gave a smaller window of opportunity to exploit his defences. Immortality in the flesh, while helpful, didn't mean he needed to take needless strikes.

Finally, a blow came close to its target, feeling Gohan's hand shove his aside, leading to Garlic following through on the right swing by lifting his leg and carrying the momentum through, slamming his leg and foot into his rival's side. It was enough to make the Saiyan twist in the sky, before Garlic followed through with another twirl, this time lashing out of with backhand. As soon as Gohan caught it, Garlic turned his head and grinned again, almost cheekily. He should have struck for the girl earlier.

Between the two of them, the only thing breaking the silence was the girl's screams of terror.

"Well, she certainly sounds like she's having the time of her life," he chuckled. "If you make a wrong move, it may well be the end of her life," Garlic pointed out, his tone not bothering to conceal his delight or amusement.

Watching Gohan struggle brought him a great deal of satisfaction, and-

All his thoughts ceased as soon as his enemy jabbed his gut with a vicious short kick, causing Garlic to growl furiously.

"Attacking me won't help, I'm immort-"

It was then, holding his caught fist, that Gohan's arm glowed with raw energy, and he shoved his wrist and fingers back. Every bone in Garlic's right arm snapped, as his wrist crushed as well in a single motion. A howl of agony couldn't help but escape as Garlic pulled his arm back in a single desperate motion, clutching it with his free hand as if it'd stop the pain. Any moment he expected another attack, but instead Garlic looked about, his eyes seeing nothing. Slowly, energy began to fade, and it was then that his senses were directed up.

He's trying to get the girl to a safe place, isn't he?

"Oh Gohan, you're so heroic," Garlic chuckled aloud as he saw the glowing golden bolt flying through the air, launching itself into the clouds with a thundering boom being left behind him.

Bones began snapping themselves back into place a moment later while the would-be tyrant grinned.

Reality bent and warped around him, before shattering like glass. Air sucked inward along with debris for a beat of one's heart, before Garlic dived into the Dead Zone itself, purposefully. From within, his body almost seemed to become one with the inky darkness beyond. From within, he could almost reach out into the real world, bending and pushing against the fabric of space and time, until it broke.

As pieces of real time cracked and then shattered, bits of existence falling almost like a broken mirror, Garlic warped back into reality, exactly where he intended. Hovering in the sky, his red eyes could see the golden aura of Son Gohan come to an abrupt halt only a small fraction of space away from him. Two eyes stared up at him, filled with frustration and anger as he stared back at him.

"Running away? What a shame. To think, the great son of Goku, and notorious conqueror, fleeing from a pitiful being such as myself. Or is it all for the girl? My, she does look frightened, doesn't she."

Staring into the eyes of the terrified child, Garlic felt his own enjoyment rise considerably. When he looked up to the girl's father, he could clearly see the resentment he'd longed for, for so long. Even if Gohan was confident in his ability to kill him, for the moment, he clearly wasn't confident in his ability to keep the girl safe. Which meant this was going to be much more enjoyable then he imagined. Of course, there was only so much time to reminiscence over it all.

"Mister Gohan, he's-"

"Oh there is no need to insult your father with such childish language, is there? He's not Mister Gohan, as I explained before, he's-"

The scorn filled glance he received from the girl's father was every bit as delicious as he imagined.

"Talk to me, not her," Gohan snapped. "Actually, don't talk at all."

Pointing his hand out, Gohan gathered energy into his free hand. Garlic had only enough time to see it before he used his speed, moving to the side as a dead bolt of purple energy shot where he'd once been.

"Well, wasn't that close? You're losing you're ed-"

Before he could finish, another bolt discharged, this time jetting straight towards him. With both of his hands, unable to dodge this time, Garlic challenged the wave. As soon as the energy connected with his hands, the pain was intense. Blue skin burned, and turned black as the air around his hands seemed to even catch fire. Using his ki, the demon reflected the energy back in towards itself as best he could, before it exploded violently within his palms. Flesh warped from the intensity of the attack.

The air and wind around him were... overwhelming. His arms felt as if they were twitching uncontrollably, but Garlic already knew that his hands and forearms were gone. Two shocked red eyes looked towards where they'd once been, and now only bloody, burnt stumps remained. His mouth slowly gaped, trying to take in the sensory data that told him that his arms were gone. But it was only a single energy bolt? How could have this happened?

Inside each stump, he could feel the magic of the dragon working. His muscles swelled for a moment before flesh started to reconstitute itself. Bone slowly began to grow from the blooded stump as his limps slowly inched back into place. The process was strange. It didn't feel like his arms were regrowing. Fingers, freshly forged, twitched, but they twitched just as his phantom nerves had before. What had once been shock on Garlic's face, now turned back to amusement as he looked back up towards Gohan and his daughter.

The girl looked even more terrified than before. The trembling wreck in Gohan's arms was silently crying and clinging on to his shirt. But it was Gohan that drew most of his interest. The Saiyan warrior looked on with a passive look, but it was impossible not to detect the worry that radiated off of him.

"Surprised, Gohan? You shouldn't be," Garlic chuckled.

Channeling his power to his centre, Garlic slowly began to growl as he struggled to gather his energies to his command. The world around them swirled with dark energy as it manifested itself around him. Red highlights of an aura trailed off his skin as the black wind around him expanded outward, forming into an orb surrounded by lightning. The grow grew into a roar as the immortal brought up everything he could, channelling all of the energy he'd grown from the Makyo Star's energy inside himself. This was certainly not his final technique, but it was going to be enough to show the upstart in front of him his power.

He'd suck the very energy out of Gohan by bombarding him, and forcing him to protect the little girl in his arms. His twisted smile returned as soon as the draw was finished.

"Let's play a game, Gohan. The game is called life. Whoever dies first, loses," he snickered as red power swirled around his chest and abdomen.

What came from this red orb, was destruction. Pulsating several moments, letting its vile energies leak into the air, the demon let the attack simmer for a moment.

"Why haven't you run yet, Gohan? Fled with the girl? Don't tell me you're too afraid to move! It'd be such a shame! I knew you were renown for cowardice, but that usually means running away!" Garlic cackled.

"Why move, when you aren't a threat?"

Immediately the cackle stopped, and Garlic sneered again outwardly. So, he thought himself so far his superior that he was even nonthreatening? Still? Even after their exchanges so far? Well, it was going to be a hard lesson for him to learn then! With the dark energies blasting directly around him, Garlic put his hands behind the red pulsating orb he'd forged, guiding its wrath. Instead of launching towards Gohan, instead it radiated a directed pulse, like a bleeding dark heart of energy. The red waves rolled forward, and it was enough to even catch Gohan by surprise, given his widened eyes and immediate shift in stance.

Shielding the girl, the first of thousands of waves rolled past him. Blackened and red fire almost seemed to emerge in the air around him as it made contact with his energies and aura. The Super Saiyan glow just radiated off of him, but the golden energy didn't stay in place, instead flowing back like grass in high winds. The noise his attack generated made almost a siren like sound in the air as it continued. Every pulse it made, the orb grew weaker, but every bit of energy it spent, Garlic simply funnelled back into it.

"What's wrong, Gohan? Can't take the heat?!" he laughed.

Clouds shifted and blasted away above, and the waters below the wreckage of his castle and palace, seemed to twist and warp under the pure power of his newly acquired strength.

"Well?! Am I still not a threat!? Do you still think you're better than I am!? Where is all that power, Gohan!? I can't feel you feeding me. I arrange all of this for you to fight me like you did all those years ago, and you're still holding back! Well I guess you and that brat girl of yours are going to have to just suffer then!"

Beyond the ray of energy waves, he could sense Gohan consolidating himself, even while he was under attack. It wouldn't be enough without him raising his power level of course, and so far there were no signs of that. Even if he was masking his energy for the majority of this battle, Gohan had been letting it out in small pieces behind every blow. There would be no way he could conceal his power to escape this. The arrogant fool thought he could challenge his attack directly? It was embarrassing. It was embarrassing because he wouldn't take him seriously.

The girl screamed behind the force of the attack, the only thing preventing her from being utterly destroyed was her father's body and aura.

"How inhumane, allowing the girl to be this terrified! Come now, Gohan! She'll need to get used to this, if I let her live she'll be killing unruly plebeians for me. She reminds me so much of you.Screaming and crying for your father to come and rescue you. And just like your father, you'll fail. But she has nowhere near the power you have Gohan. She'll not be able to stop me. And here you are, not even trying."

"Would you shut. UP!"

Immediately there was a change in his own wave, golden energy warping around Gohan's body pushing back against it. This was what he'd wanted to see. There was a spike in the energy across from him, if only for a few precious seconds, before the feedback through his own wave was washed back. Concentrating, Garlic amplified the power coming from his attack with the intent on suppressing Gohan even more.

"Why should I?! I've waited for decades for this, and you do nothing but hide from me!" Garlic snarled. "Are you really going to just sit there under my attack until what? Piccolo and Vegeta arrive? They'll be indisposed for some time! Are you afraid to unleash so much power with that brat child so close? It'd be wonderful if by just pushing your power up, you managed to hurt the poor thing."

I knew it.

Pushing Gohan to unleash his power was now more imperative then ever. Attacking the girl had been tactically intelligent before, but keeping her under threat, and making it hard for Gohan to defend himself had been the plan. But knowing that if Gohan were to unleash his power, and cease protecting the girl as a result, meant she'd be harmed or killed.

"Fight me, Gohan! I demand it! Show me the power you used to defeat me before!"

It was then, that the aura flared up once more. It was enough to force back the pulses again for several seconds, but this time there was something else behind it. Staring back down into the Super Saiyan's eyes, he could see something akin to determination, and the hatred he'd wanted to see for so long.

"I don't care what you demand! But if you think I'm going to let you kill my daughter, then you can have it!"

Energy rippled off of him once, but it was brief. Just brief enough for Gohan to form something on his free hand. Slashing his hand down in a chop, a crescent of purple energy wave escaped. The waves of his Dark Pulse attack distorted and disappeared in its path. It was purple death, cutting through the world itself. The red, corrupted heart of his attack was cut cleanly through as well, the orb separating into two right before him. It took less then a fraction of a second for it to hit him, drawing down the middle of his face and body.

A panic rushed through him as the orb further separated, becoming unstable right in front of him. When he went to say anything, nothing happened.

It can't be-

All thought ceased a moment later, as the last things Garlic felt were his vision dividing and slipping away, as the two halves of his perfectly cut body slowly divided and pushed away from one another, and the once-orb of volatile energy, exploded.

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Pan:

There was only a brief second of light before Pan felt herself shifted away from it, leaving behind only her imagination to wonder what had become of the monster which had been screaming and cackling. The beast was crying out for Mister Gohan to act, to strike at him, to risk her, and he didn't do it. But there were words which now rang in her mind, overshadowing most of the fear she'd conjured in her mind of the vicious beast which had been attacking them. It was one simple thing that was said before the flash.

"my daughter"

It confirmed what the monster had said. It was both a relief, and terrifying. She'd never understood fully why Mister Gohan, her dad, had been trying to go there. She still didn't know why her parents hated each other, or at the very least didn't understand it, but slowly things all started to make more sense in the moments that followed.

As she felt them descending from above, she felt just tired, feeling exhausted from all the chaos that had happened, and all the danger. Her throat was sore from all of her screams, so much that she didn't want to even say a word, but she couldn't help but stare at her saviour, wanting to urge words to come forward. For the first time, everything felt real in all of this. The sky had opened up around them, revealing nothing but clear skies. The ruins in the distance seemed like an alien world she'd visited a lifetime ago, despite having just come from there. The ocean surrounded the coastline near the fortress, and even as they slowly descended from above, everything felt... different.

"Is he gone?" she whispered, looking past Gohan's head for a moment while he held her.

Looking back down towards her, he gave a small nod. The motion was tight and very controlled, yet somehow stiff.

"Yea, he's done."

The descent stopped a second later, the ocean breeze still streaming past them He'd not let her down yet, protectively holding on to her. It was comforting for the young girl as well, feeling somehow as if an umbrella of protection had found itself hanging over her, shielding her from all the bad in the world. Only there was one thing it couldn't conceal any longer, the illusion had broken.

"Is it true? Are you...?" she asked finally, ignoring the soreness of her throat, which almost stung as the air passed through her throat.

For a moment, he looked back at her with confusion, before he fully understood what she meant. What she'd really asked, was if he was her father. Immediately he looked uncomfortable, not wanting to say a word. Something painful beat in her own chest when she saw just how much he seemed to seize up. She already knew it now, and she could see that he knew that she knew. Even for a child, Pan could understand it. She couldn't understand why he'd never told her, or why her mom had never told her. It hurt, and it was confusing, and it didn't make sense.

What hurt even more, was that he wouldn't say anything, he wasn't saying a word. But in his eyes she saw hesitation, regret, and fear. She'd never seen him afraid, at least not until this all happened. The only other time she saw him in fear, was when she was at risk.

"It's complicated," Gohan finally answered her, telling her nothing. "Trust me kid. You really, really don't want to know."

But that wasn't true.

Weakness was all she felt in response, and her will to push on began to evaporate. She almost felt like she could pass out, but her heart was still racing.

The only word she managed to say, was enough to make her own eyes water.

"Dad?" she responded, reaching her hand up for his face. Laying in his arms, she almost felt all the walls he always had around him fall away.

Even in the mind of a child, she could remember the first time they'd met, her grabbing his tail at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Or the first time he took her flying into the air. She could remember when he sat down with her and read her books with her. When her fingers made contact with soft, golden glowing skin, she just saw him stare back at her, his eyes saddening further.

"Y-"

Before her answer could be fully realized, she looked past him as he froze in place. The patch of Earth they were on, an island with the waves brushing up against it violently, was invaded by something that Pan couldn't believe. A huge, hulking, dark blue figure smashed into the ground in the distance feet first. The ground cracked upward around him, and everything changed. Horror filled her as she saw the monster her father slew, simply return from seemingly death. Her mouth fell in terror, and a second later she felt her feet touch the ground as she was placed down.

"Pan," Gohan's voice cut through it all, and she looked back at him.

"He's- he's- he's- but you said- but in the air- with the..."

Words babbled out as she tried to comprehend what was happening around her, only to see the transformation her father had gone through. The sadness she saw, the fear, it all disappeared and was replaced by a cold, hard, determined look. There was a different person in front of her all together, and she felt his hands land on her shoulders a second later.

"I want you to stay here, on this island. Hide over by the rocks over there," he ordered. "Run for them as soon as I go to stop this thing. Do not come out of hiding, do you understand?"

It was hard to keep track of, hard to listen to, as in the distance she just saw the giant standing there, as if waiting for them to finish.

"I don't want you to go," Pan finally breathed, turning her eyes back towards him.

"Go," he ordered again, turning and standing his full height, and beginning to walk, ignoring her very presence.

Part of her wanted to scream, or cry, or demand that he come back, and not walk towards that monster. But she knew he had to. The look he held said it. No matter what she did, she could do nothing. The only thing that ran through her mind, as her body physically ran to the rocks Gohan implied to, was that Gohan had killed that thing before.

Things that died, were supposed to stay dead.

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Gohan:

There was no way he just survived that. Every step Gohan took away from Pan, he let his mind drift back towards the monster in front of him. In a way it was a relief, rather then trying to explain anything to Pan about how he was her father. Even that was designed to wound him, through her. Nothing was sacred to this beast, but then again, nothing had been sacred to him for a long time as well. The difference of course, was that everything he did was for survival, or perhaps an advancement in career, where as Garlic did all of this for what? Revenge? Obsession? Or pure viciousness? At least he could have had the courtesy to die a few minutes ago.

"Surprised to see me?" Garlic asked as he came closer.

Gohan knew full well he'd died up there. His power vanished, his body split in two down the middle, and then blew up. It made his blood run cold to see him like this, alive, and in one piece. There was even an element of fear in it all. What if he really was immortal? If he was truly immortal, that meant he couldn't die. Just smashing him should be enough at the very least to begin drawing back down his power.

No more playing around.

Pan was a safe distance away, or at least as safe as she was going to get. He knew full well that Garlic would never allow the battle to stray far from her, if only because she kept him in the fight. It'd be exactly what he'd do if he was in the familiar role of the antagonist. But at least now he was going to be able to give Garlic what he wanted.

He wanted his full power? He could have it.

The smirk on Garlic's face only grew as he came closer.

"I asked you a question, Gohan. At the very least you could respond to it. I asked if you were surprised to-"

As soon as the gap finished closing between the two of them, however, the Saiyan almost hunched over as he balled his fists. Golden energy washed over his frame as he felt his muscles tighten. Electricity rippled along his frame as the ground around him cracked, sending fissures along the small island. Dust exploded up from inside the the fissures and golden fire burst up from them as electricity ran along it. Turning his eyes to look up at Garlic while he pushed his power further and further up, all he did was look for the reaction.

There was a grin there at first.

"Well, I can at least see you're finally showing me the real you," Garlic said, his smile becoming almost a perverse reflection of what someone feeling real joy would express. "It's been so long."

But Gohan continued to ramp up his power. The air around his skin began to catch fire around him. The waves stopped crashing against the edge of the small island as the waves were blown away. The once clear skies above began to swirl with clouds, helplessly caught in the wake of his energy. This was the power he'd fought Broly with, this was beyond that even because of how close to death he'd edged. It was something he never thought he'd need to tap into again.

This sick piece of garbage wanted to see his full power? He wanted to fuck with his life? He thought he was immortal and could just do whatever he wanted? Well everything Gohan knew told him that anyone who crossed him with that kind of attitude, always burned down in the face of this. It was impossible to restrain his rage as his power came out. A howl of fury began to escape him as the water further pushed away from the edges of the island, and the world began to shake. Just how immortal Garlic was, as far as Gohan was concerned, was revealed to him when he saw the sick smile turn into one of genuine concern.

Immortals shouldn't be afraid of anything.

"It's more then I conjured in my dreams," Garlic managed to whisper, Gohan's Saiyan ears hearing it through the emergence of his power.

Finally, his energy peaked. His golden aura exploded outward one final time, becoming a great, golden beacon. The flames around his skin and aura blasted away, evaporating into the air, and the electricity rolling over the ground, only rolled around the ground near him. Standing upright, Gohan just continued to stare into the red eyes of his enemy, pure hatred showing through. Water came rushing towards the sides of the island as well, smashing up against the edges, sending huge waves high into the air, showering down on them with salt water from above.

"Let's see if I can turn those into nightmares," he responded bluntly.

With those words, the world began to slow down. Each drop of water seemed to freeze in the air. Running forward, individual droplets being displaced in the air, Gohan arrived under Garlic's huge frame. He braced himself, and his right up, which he charged with his Super Saiyan energies, before striking upward. As soon as his fist connected with the giant's chin, in real time, the huge body shot upward into the sky, straight up and with incredible velocity.

Staring up at him from below, Gohan quietly counted down from five, before the world slowed again. Flying upward, he moved easily past the huge body, before calculating where he'd be without much effort, and then diving his legs down and forward. As soon as the world came back into motion, Garlic's ribs were smashed by the two feet. The sound of ribs breaking were overshadowed by the immense clap that boomed through the air. This time the demon cried out in agony as his body was sent sailing through the air.

"You think you can just fuck with my life!" Gohan shouted furiously, his golden aura burning around him as he took off after the monster.

Twisting in the air, and a violent red-black aura emerging from his body, Garlic snarled, swinging at him just as he closed distance. Without any effort, Gohan blurred out of view, appearing to the side of the fist, his own features intensifying with anger.

"You're a joke!" he shouted, driving his knuckles into Garlic's face.

With a surprised yelp, Garlic's frame almost imploded in on itself before rocketing off towards the sea. With the last few seconds of his angered and pained screams, the bulky form collided with the ocean. The energy his body was containing, and the power Gohan used to send him into the sea itself, sent a massive tower of water in the air in his wake. Hovering in the air, all Gohan could do was breath angrily as he stared down at the depths of the sea below.

Come on you piece of shit. You wanted this, you got it.

There was no going back now. He was going to fight until he couldn't move as far as he was concerned. Immortality was bullshit. He'd killed countless numbers of people who thought themselves immortal. He'd killed countless people who were Mortal, who were more deserving of his respect than this coward. From lowly warriors trying to defend their home worlds, to powerful beasts like Lord Slug, his guardian Turles, or the Legendary Super Saiyan.

Red light began to emerge from below the waves, leaving Gohan just to sneer in disgust. This was what was supposed to be his end? This little imp was delusional, and he was going to be ground underneath his boot.

When the waves broke below, a huge bolt of blackened red energy surging towards him, Gohan just opened his palm, catching it without effort. Black lightning rolled off the ball, running along his arm as the huge orb was balanced against his hand, balancing the energy without any true effort.

From behind, Gohan felt a disturbance in the air around them. Another example of his teleportation. Turning his head, Gohan saw the grinning moron floating there with an irrelevant energy wave.

"Have fun, Gohan!" he cackled, before letting loose the attack.

The ball in his hand began to react to the energy, leaving Gohan to look down at it, concentrating his energy, even as the other wave hit. The golden aura around his body mixed with his natural purple ki as he raised his defences. Chaotic and dark energy violently whipped around him as the energy exploded in his hand, and as the other assault hit him from behind. The energy hitting him was immense, but it wasn't anything compared to what he'd faced when holding the line against Broly. It didn't even threaten to buckle his shield, all it did was force him to sustain it, and forcing him to feed it with energy to deal with the absorption.

As the air cleared around him, Gohan could heart Garlic cackling.

"Whose the joke now, Gohan!?" Garlic shouted viciously in the midst of his evil laughter.

Slowly however, the laughter died as he got a good look at him. When Gohan made eye contact with the blue beast again, there was no smart remarks, or an exchange of smirks. All he could do was focus on his task, which was killing the abomination which had plagued him for months.

"I never imagined you or your power would have grown this much," Garlic admitted. "If I'd seen everything you'd accomplish the moment I met you, I'd have considered killing you on the spot, despite your potential. But knowing that you'd slaughtered so many innocent lives, and seeing you now. It was all worth it. All that time trapped in the darkness. It's let me see you ruin everything that your father wanted for you. It's let me see how cowardly you truly are, and of course... it's allowed me to see this. Because I'm going to finally have my reven-!"

That was enough of letting the idiot run his mouth. Every word only made him angrier. So he was amused by the fact he became a mercenary in space? He'd mentioned something akin to it earlier, but it only fuelled the anger of the Saiyan even more. He considered letting him live some kind of accomplishment, somehow attaching himself to all the misery Gohan had wrought across the galaxy? This pathetic lump of refuse thought he could attach himself to his crimes, for having not killed him as a child? Hell, if he wanted to take all the credit for it he could.

But it just made it all the more deranged.

Arching his leg up into Garlic's stomach in mid air, the giant spat up saliva instead of finishing his last words, his eyes hollowing out. Snarling a moment later, he disappeared with speed, but Gohan could follow every movement. Moving his left arm up and his fist high, his knuckles crashed into the face of the demon. A strangled cry escaped the beast as he fell back in the air, holding his face. Turning around with one vicious movement, Gohan imbedded his fist into the abdomen of the giant.

In a flurry of bone snapping assaults, he laid into Garlic with a furious impulse. Snarling himself as he drove his fists into him, Gohan bombarded the body. The giant's chest and abdomen were slathered in blood from fresh impacts. Before with his bloody hands, Gohan reached up, grabbing the monster by the neck, which caused a surprised noise. Flipping over his head, and with a confused cry coming from Garlic, Gohan tossed him through the air at incredible speed.

Putting his hands at his sides a moment later, gathering energy, Gohan focused as a familiar blue glow came over him. Anger seeped into his ki as the energy flared in his hands. Clenching his teeth and looking down the sky towards his target shrinking in the distance, Gohan almost spat he was so angry.

"Go to Hell, Garlic! Ka me ha me HA!"

Throwing his hands forward, the coalesced energy was marshaled forward. It was almost impossible to hold his position in the air as the energy warped outward, the force wanting to shove him back. In front of him, what had once been a clear sky, turned into a wave of blinding blue light. The waves of the ocean below parted, hundreds of metres below. Walls of water formed beneath the pressure and force of the massive Kamehameha wave, which thrummed with its raw power.

Looking through his own energy, Gohan peered into the light, only to see Garlic's head turn down to look towards his doom.

"It can't... It can't-!"

As soon as the wave made contact, flesh burned. The entire frame of the monster almost seemed to disappear in the wave, being washed away as if it were filth being washed away by the tide of the ocean. Every second the wave persisted, more of the giant seemed to separate from his body and disappear in the blinding light. Energy rushed out of Gohan's palms as his aura flickered behind him, not letting up in its intensity, despite him spending such a great deal of his energy.

When the light finally started to fade as Gohan let his hands rest in place where they'd been, floating in the air in the distance was a significantly reduced, piece of burnt meat. All that remained was the upper half of Garlic's torso, some organs and flesh-bits hung below it, and it still had half its head and right arm. Slowly lowering his arms, the Saiyan breathed out with relief, until he realized the parts in the air were still floating on their own, not falling.

"You've got to me fucking kidding me, he's not even got the top half of his head."

The angry words muttered from his lips as he started to see flesh pull itself back into place. Bone started to not so much grow, but extend out of previous locations. It wasn't like Piccolo's regeneration, where new living flesh was birthed from a wound, but rather it was because it was just being pulled back into existence. Garlic's abdomen, his lower body, left arm, and the upper half of his head all just slowly came back into existence, and Gohan just watched as it did.

He really is immortal.

The thought was the full realization for Gohan as he felt his heart started to race as Garlic's face properly started to animate. While the demon was stretching, all Gohan's mind tried to run to was how to win. How did you stop someone who was immortal. He'd hoped it'd all been complete bullshit, but he'd cut him in two so far, and then just blasted away three quarters of his body, including his brain. Worse, his power hadn't changed at all yet either. It wasn't that Garlic had reserves, if he had any, he'd have likely used them by now. Something was keeping his power up.

Which meant Gohan knew, immediately, he had to conserve his power. Spending such a great deal on the Kamehameha, or challenging energy blasts, would only shorten his ability to dissect his enemy. Even if it felt great to obliterate him, he needed to invest in strategies that would actually lead to victory.

"Well," Garlic said, raising his mouth to seemingly relocate his jaw properly in place. "You've only proven to me what I've known all along. That fighting the strongest being in the universe on their terms, was something I've never been prepared to do."

With several pops, the jaw finished locking back in place before Garlic began to grin again.

"I can't possibly hope to overwhelm you with my power. It's stunning to believe that even Vegeta is arrogant enough to believe he's your equal. Truly Son Gohan, you have a gift. So, in order to win, I just have to play by my rules."

Dark energy began to peel off his skin as Garlic just continued to stare back at him.

"And what rules are those?"

"You already know," Garlic chuckled, before a black orb appeared behind him, sucking him into the small vortex.

I already know?

As Garlic's power vanished, it appeared in the distance, exactly where he'd left Pan.

!

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Garlic jr.:

Fighting him head on will only yield me more pain.

Immortality didn't mean a denial of pain, even if he'd been dulled from it by his multiple bouts with violence. The Kamehameha wave had been almost unbearable for the dozens of seconds he found himself trapped within its clutches. Skin burned away and bone evaporated moments later. Truthfully he was lucky that all it did was obliterate his lower body and left arm. He was even more lucky that it'd blown off the top half of his head, given as soon as that happened the pain aspect of it seemed to disappear. Truthfully, his entire body had never been annihilated before, but the fact that his head grew back when he hadn't anticipated it, was a good sign.

There was never any doubt to him, that he was immortal, of course. The Eternal Dragon had provided him with this, just as he'd provided him with his new strength. The only thing the Dragon hadn't given him was his unending need for dominance over the world around him, and of course his genius intellect.

When he landed on the half destroyed island, his huge feet crushing into the soil, he looked over immediately towards the frightened girl huddling up next to a large rock at the edge of the island. Walking over briskly, he only made an annoyed noise as he reached out, roughly grabbing her arm and ripping her from the side of the rock, tearing off the left sleeve of her shirt. There was a frightened scream, but really he didn't care.

"Stop!"

"Be quiet, or I may get annoyed and kill you. My, wouldn't that anger that father of yours?" he almost hissed, before looking to his side.

Really, this needed to go back to a familiar setting. Fighting Gohan in the open, over the ocean, hadn't been as productive as he'd imagined. He'd moved away from his original plans, and that had lead to the tactical debacle he'd just left behind. Now it was time for a much more direct plan. The girl immediately in his possession would mean Gohan would simply have to take his abuse while he had the girl in his clutches.

Opening another void into the Deadzone itself, Garlic looked into the distance to see a golden bolt coming towards him.

With a sinister glance, he pointed his hand down into one of the fissures in the island, forming his energy directly into the layer, attempting to hide it. He was going to leave a gift for the Saiyan, set to go off when he arrived.

Foolish Gohan. Come right into it.

With that, he plunged himself into it, the trembling child in the grip of his newly formed left hand.

Reality sucked away to darkness, before he shattered through the walls of reality, landing firmly back in the heart of the palace complex. So much of it was shattered and ruined, but it didn't matter at all, this was his castle, and-

There were two distinct energy signatures, immense, and he couldn't track his Monarchs-

Pain was far too familiar a sensation right now, and it was only enhanced when a gloved hand crashed into the side of his face. Gravity didn't seem to matter any long as his feet lifted off the ground, the golden aura of his attacker illuminating his own features for a moment before his body shifted violently in the opposite direction of his attacker. With a surprised cry, Garlic found himself tumbling helplessly through the air, smashing through old stone bricks, before sailing past and slamming through another, newer, smaller wall of bricks. Each one scraped against his skin. The girl he held screamed helplessly, and it made him snarl before the two of them crashed into the ground, skidding along the tiles and tearing them up.

Several breaths later, he found himself slowly rising, snarling as he did, looking up with a pair of deadly eyes to yet another Super Saiyan.

The short and familiar form of the last Prince of the Saiyans hung in the air, looking down at him with his arms crossed, his green-blue eyes staring at him with a mixture of disgust and disdain. It was enough to make Garlic smirk, given Vegeta was significantly weaker than Gohan. Of course it was short lived as Piccolo appeared next, blurring into view next to Vegeta, his black eyes peering down at him as well. It was enough to make his grin turn into a sneer.

"Vegeta," Garlic growled. "When I get my hands on Spice for failing me in this-"

"You'll have ample opportunity to punish your underlings, once you get to Hell," the Saiyan Prince remarked, his confident smile growing.

They're all dead? It's impossible to find good help.

In the distance, he heard a massive explosion in the distance. Well, it'd seemed that Gohan had set foot on the island looking for his darling little girl. Even from the side of the ruins where they stood, the crimson glow from the blast showed through in the distance.

"Do you think killing my lieutenants will make a difference, either of you?" Garlic snapped. "I cannot die. I am going to kill everyone here, and-"

There was a moan on the pile of the rubble next to him, and it was only then that Garlic realized he'd released his grip on the girl. That was bad, not just because he'd let her go, but because if she was mortally wounded by the fall, his plans would need to be radically readjusted. In the distance, despite his trap, he could still detect a vibrant Son Gohan.

With the force of his ki, he shoved the scattered stones off of the girl, revealing a trembling wreck. Frantic tears rolled down her cheeks as her right arm held her left arm, which was limply hanging at her side, clearly broken. Before Vegeta or Piccolo could intervene, he grabbed the girl, causing an agonized yelp to escape from her as she started to sob.

"Quiet!" Garlic shouted again, his red eyes scanning between the two adversaries which were waiting to assault him.

"Hiding behind a child, Garlic? You're really that pathetic?" Piccolo asked, his voice insulting enough when it wasn't being patronizing.

All of them were so self righteous. None of them understood the core fact, which was of course that you had to do anything you could to win. Who cared if some brat kid was the mechanism you used? It was all about what was effective, and this certainly was.

"Well, I recognize the girl. I must say it is an interesting that you think that she'll protect you. You see, Garlic, I am fully aware that there are Dragon Balls on this planet, and so are you. So allow me to make this short," Vegeta said, pointing his hand out and beginning to gather energy.

What? What does he think he's doing.

"Anyone you put in the way, can always come back."

"Vegeta," Piccolo warned. "There is another plan we can go through-"

"You're right, there are other ways we can go through with this. All of them just indulge this coward. The girl will be back within the year. You can't reward this fool for hiding behind a child. He'll kill her the second she's not useful anyway. I've seen this tactic before."

With a grin, Garlic could tell from his words, that he'd done more then seen it.

"You mean you've used it before," Garlic chuckled.

"My subjects, Nappa and Raditz, were less honourable than myself," Vegeta retorted, before more energy gathered in his hand.

Given how much power he'd gathered, there was a very good chance Vegeta was in fact, going to fire the attack. It wasn't impossible to imagine the Saiyan attempting to kill him and the girl at once, and it was enough to make Garlic swallowed hard, staring back towards the Saiyan.

And any moment, Gohan is going to be here as well.

Slowly shifting his eyes to the girl he held in his clutches, Garlic then looked back towards Vegeta and Piccolo, and could see the hesitation in the Saiyan's eyes, before he started to grin himself. In his free hand, Garlic let red energy slowly swirled into his palm. Once Vegeta had been a killer, just as ruthless and perhaps even as perverse as himself. Now here he was, a man trying to redeem the honour of his family, and trying to stop him from taking over the universe. Just as Gohan had done, and Piccolo, Vegeta had moderated his violent tendencies to comply with a new life. It was a life none of them were ever meant for, they only orbited Son Goku.

"You won't fire," the demon announced as the girl limply struggled in his hand. "I can already see it Vegeta. I can see how weak you are. Is it that weakness that allowed me to simply destroy your home? Is it the same weakness that allowed me to nearly kill those wretched children of yours? What was it that Frieza's kind call you Saiyans? Monkeys?... You certainly are proving what a trained monkey you've become."

This was it. If Vegeta didn't fire, well then he would simply fire himself. If he did fire?... If he did... he'd created a divide which would never be mended. As soon as Gohan felt Vegeta's attack, and felt the girl's life force simply slip from this world, he would know just how responsible Vegeta was.

"Think of what you once were Vegeta. You once flew through the furthest reaches of space, just like Son Gohan. You moved past worlds which eclipsed this one by a million years. You've seen the stars for what they are, and touched the fabric of the universe. You've destroyed some of the mightiest beings who ever roamed the galaxy... and now here you are. The trained monkey, who can't even protect the miserable and pathetic batch of creatures you call a family," Garlic chuckled. "And you're too cowardly to even strike me down, all because you're worried about this poor little thing in my hands."

"P-please," Pan managed through the pain, her one arm hanging limply and her eyes peering pleadingly up towards the Saiyan and Namekian.

"Vegeta, don't listen to him," Piccolo cut in. "He's trying to get you to-"

Fury was written across Vegeta's face as he stared down at Garlic, his eyes filled with hatred. All the demon could do was smirk as he saw true reasoning beginning to escape the Saiyan. As the blue energy in the hand of the Saiyan intensified, he could only see Vegeta's lip curling further and further with disgust. It was as welcome a sight as Garlic could have wanted.

"How dare you insult I, Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans!? You think you can mock me!? You think you can mock my family, and then hide behind a simple girl!?"

"Vegeta!" Piccolo warned one last time.

"Come now Vegeta... where is all of that pride of yours now?" Garlic coaxed, tightening his hand on the girl's arm, causing her to scream out again. "I thought you'd do anything to win, anything to reclaim your pride. Now look at you. I can see the same look in your eyes that I see in the rest of these sheep. You were once a wolf, you were hungry. Now you've simply lost that. And you can die a sheep."

The red ball of power in his own arm pulsed larger as he continued to grin darkly, the red-black energy darkening around him. The air picked up as force winds swirled around him, tainted with blackened energies.

"I guess I should be the one to strike first. Let's see if-"

"I'm tired of you running your mouth!" Vegeta finally spat, his golden aura flaring. "Big Bang Attack!"

"No!" the Namekian cried helplessly, his stern voice just a noise, forever lost in the void.

The glowing white-blue orb launched like it was a cannon blast. The world slowed around him and Garlic made no effort to dodge. He dissipated the energy in his hand even as the almost burning glow of the attack washed over him. Without hesitation, he spread his arms out in the air, welcoming it as if he was welcoming the sunrise on a summer's morning. The world went quiet for him as he slowly closed his eyes, taking in the warmth of the attack designed to be the lance that would destroy him. It was oddly almost peaceful, waiting for the pain that would be inflicted on him. The most soothing balm on it all, would be knowing that Gohan's pain would be ever more. The only noise which mattered to him now, was the terrified and desperate screams of the girl in his hand.

Just as the ball reached him, the world seemed to slow and Garlic opened his eyes, looking directly into it, seeing fate turning its wheel. This was the moment he'd been waiting for. Inside that orb of destruction, lay the future for his desires. Inside of it, lay the destruction of the Earth, and the death of all his enemies. But most of all, inside of it lay the fate of Son Gohan as well. Slowly, his face let a real, true smile form on his lips as it prepared to impact him.

When the blast came, the explosion felt deflected. The force wave made his body recoil, sending him staggering back as he looked into the heart of the blast. Instinctively, he raised his right arm to shield himself, shying away, before the world turned to light around him.

What just happened?

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Vegeta:

As soon as the blast left his fingers, Vegeta felt the world turn. It felt as if he'd been floating in the air as the entire Earth rotated, leaving him only to view the world as it passed him by. The moment he felt that blast leave his fingertips, he realized exactly what the people he cared about would think. The son who looked up to him would see his father fire an attack at a girl. His daughter, someone he'd very nearly lost himself only weeks earlier, would have screamed in the monster's grip the same as this child. His wife would see him not for the man he'd become, but instead would see him for the man he was.

And worst of all, he could see his past staring back at him, from the back of his own Big Bang Attack, which now drifted towards his enemy. The poison of his words had seeped into the fabric of his demeanour, and bread... this. Everything about the monster was poison. Just listening to him speak, and speak of things he had no right to know, and no right to say a word on, was enough to make Vegeta's nerves stand on end. Every word urging him forward, urging him to violence, did its job of eroding away his restraint. The jabs at his family, and the jabs at his pride, were enough for him to force his hand, and in doing so, taint the very things his anger drew him to protect.

It was too late to turn back the hands of time, and as the ball sped through the air before him, Vegeta could only watch as Garlic's arms opened to embrace it, and the girl screamed in a horrified terror, seeing her own doom brightly coming towards her. Without even realizing it, Vegeta's own mouth fell agape as he looked down after it, the full weight of everything coming bearing down on his shoulders, behind him, numbly in the background, he could hear the muffled cry of the Namekian shouting simply "No", trying to halt things but being far too late.

It was enough to make his own stomach turn while looking at Garlic. How he embraced the death that was coming towards him was unnerving, feeding into the fear Vegeta had. The fear that he could be wrong, and that atomizing Garlic jr. would somehow see no gain. The demon didn't fear death, because it could never apply to him. In those surreal seconds, the Saiyan Prince could sense something come through the air. It was more than a physical body, it was almost pure energy. In the fabric behind the physical world, inside where he could sense energies moving and growing, Vegeta felt as if everything around him was displaced. Piccolo's energy, his own, and Garlic's, seemed to shift and be pushed aside by one larger object.

For all his power, for all his new found strength and his training, Vegeta felt suddenly incredibly small. It was as if a whale was moving through the ocean, and he was a mere fish in the sea. It was as if a gas giant passed by him, and he was merely a rock, tumbling through space, helpless in its gravity.

In the final seconds before his blast could hit Garlic jr., he saw the blur of pure speed intercept the Big Bang Attack. It was all he saw, before the light from his attack detonating, blinded him and seemingly the whole of the world. Instincts kicked in moments later as he raised his two torn gloves to cover his face, and was the deluge of energy rolled past him, rolling the fabric of reality seemingly along with it. The rumble of the ruins echoed all around them, as the cliffs which the castle sat on cried out in pain as well. It was as if the world was screaming in pain, with a noise as loud as the energy blast was bright.

When the light began to fade, and the sound of old stones falling into their final ruin faded along with it, Vegeta's eyes came open to a new world. Remnants of the castle lay in heaps, rather than in towering walls all around them. In the heart of the blast was a crater, five metres deep and ten times that in diameter. Floating at the distant edge of the crater, still holding the living, but now complete petrified girl, was the intended target. There was barely a scratch on him, and he looked as bewildered the Saiyan Prince did.

Near the centre of the crater, as the dust plum slowly began to disappear, it whipped violently at its centre. The storm of dust in the middle was highlighted by a golden glow, and by the sensation of a great power. Vegeta had no been there when Broly was felled by Gohan, he'd failed to see the encounter which saw cities shattered and the world's fate decided. In the core of this wound in the shattered castle's floor, a violently twisting stream of golden power bled into the air along with the last of the dust. Inside that golden energy, he could sense something gargantuan. The same sensation of being overwhelmed reached his senses as he breathed in. It wasn't the same titan that Broly had been, but it was seemingly in a league of its own.

Unbelievable. I'd thought Gohan's strength would be impressive, but this? This is insane. Even without training he's maintained this much power? It's worse than Kakarot. All that power. Why? Of all the beings in this universe, why some broken wreck like him?

When Gohan came into view however, the only thing that stood out was his physical state. Where Vegeta expected to see a Paragon, perhaps a Super Saiyan in the stature of Broly standing there, instead he found a heavily breathing, bleeding wreck. With his arms fanned out, trying to deflect the blast away from where Garlic had been, Gohan just trembled violently. The shreds of his red-t-shirt and jeans barely clung to him, his body appeared burned, and blood oozed from open wounds along his chest and left arm. Super Saiyan eyes were wracked with pain, and each breath was shaky and controlled.

What? But with his power, he could have deflected the blast-

"Gohan must have put everything he could into his speed," Piccolo observed in shock next to him. Turning his head, Vegeta just stared at the Namekian before casting his eyes back towards Gohan. "He gave up on his own defences for enough speed to get there in time, to save the girl."

Words which were spoken weeks ago slowly came to the fore of Vegeta's mind. He was the only one to see what kind of 'family' Gohan had collected around himself.

"Done playing house?"

"Never started."

When Vegeta had met Gohan at the home, he'd not seen a man who understood what it was to be a father, or who seemed to care in anywhere near as much as he should have. But standing there, ravaged by his attack, Gohan threw himself into jeopardy with reckless abandon. It was something Vegeta would have done for his own daughter without a second thought. In the years he'd seen Gohan, he'd seen someone he'd thought of as pure scum, slowly mold itself into a grim parody of Kakarot, and of their race. He was a Saiyan without honour, and with a reluctance to do what was right. Now? Now he was an imperfect copy of what the Saiyans perhaps once were. Broken on the outside, violent and domineering, but with shreds of his humanity peering through, perhaps peering through with the same intentions as Kakarot had.

Of all the crimes Garlic had committed, perhaps one of the greatest ones he'd enacted, was ensuring Kakarot had not been here for this moment, to see the kind of man his son had become. The last of the full blooded Saiyans stared down at the young man with regret, but also with pride. Kakarot would have been proud, and so he would be proud for him in his stead.

"Vegeta," Gohan managed to breath. "You. Bastard. That..."

Rapidly, the immense power Vegeta had felt only moments earlier, began to fade, as Gohan's aura grew weaker and weaker.

Beyond the Saiyan, the dark creature who was at the centre this conflict finally began to gain his bearings, realizing what'd just happened.

"Oh, well, isn't this just perfect?" the blue demon chuckled. "What a kind gift for you to deliver to me Vegeta. You really shouldn't have."

Turning his head to Piccolo, Vegeta locked eyes with him, already coming up with a plan. They would need to make their opportunity.

"We need to get the girl away from him, and we need Gohan in the battle again. You have the last bean here. I'll distract the imp. After that we will get the girl away from him. If you and Gohan can keep him distracted, I will test just how immortal he really is."

Looking back at him seriously, Piccolo nodded quickly, knowing there wasn't any more time for debate. This was the best plan they could hope for on such short notice. Any changes would have to come on the fly.

Below, a crimson wave of light flashed as Gohan's voice cried out in pain. Looking below, a solid wall of red energy blasted into the declining power, blasting him back into the crater's wall as Garlic's cackle emerged above the noise of his red energy.

"Don't tell me you can't keep a hold of yourself, Gohan!" Garlic laughed. "Please, do share more of that wonderful power of yours! Oh what's that? You can't because you're too busy bleeding? That's. Too. Bad!"

Without a moment's further hesitation, Vegeta's aura flared up around him as he turned all his attention on the giant, and the girl he held in his clutches, who was once again struggling. Diving down at full speed, Vegeta blurred past the red energy, fazing up the side of the crackling red beam and its black lightning. It would be impossible to tear the girl from him without further risking her or harming her, but it would hardly be impossible to gather Garlic's attention. He seemed to almost cackle in slow motion, barely picking up on his energy. It was only at the last possible moment, that Vegeta noticed Garlic's detection of him.

Striking out with his leg, the giant release his beam, raising his arm and blocking in a thunderous collision.

The two remained frozen in place as the giant scowled.

"You've played the role I need of you, Vegeta," he sneered. "You can die now."

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Gohan:

As soon as he'd arrived at the island, he was gone, all sources of Garlic's energy vanished into a blackened void, and only when he felt the spark of darkened power through the world as the Dead Zone disappeared, did he sense that which lurked under the island. When the blast went off, he'd found himself in the midst of the chaos of red and black energies, as the surface of the Earth was torn open, molten rock emerged from the Earth, being thrown into the air in a hot wash of heat and fire. The sky rained fire down on where the island had once been, and Gohan was surrounded by what he could have only described as Hell.

Sealing the hole hadn't been the difficult part. The difficulty was how much time it'd taken. The blast had caught him off guard, grazing his body enough for him to have felt real pain for the first time since he'd engaged Garlic. It was pathetic, given that it was only through subversion that he could strike, never through actions of his own. As the gash in the Earth was mended shut by water however, Gohan found himself sensing the energies kilometres away in the ruins once more. Vegeta, Piccolo, Garlic, and Pan... they were all there, and he already could sense their energies growing, edging towards confrontation. But it was Vegeta's power which was cresting the highest, preparing to unleash a substantial attack.

Immediately he took off, flying back in the direction of where the battle had started. The water below him passed by in a blur as he accelerated, picking up more and more speed. He was only seconds away when the words rang out. His heart beat once as the world slowed. The last breath he took sounded like a hurricane.

"Big Bang Attack!"

All his senses honed in on the moment as light passed through the ruins, and he felt every bit of power flowing into the orb of destruction hurtling its way towards Pan, and Garlic. The last terrified screams of the little girl, filled in agony and helplessness, hurried through as well. Plans rushed through his mind without him even thinking about it, already jumping to what could be done, but nothing stuck inside as he came almost to a blank. Instinct was the only thing which spoke to him, the instinct of a parent who feared for their child. Pulling in all his power, everything, he boosted his speed, grabbing the edges of space and time around him with his power, before propelling himself forward. A massive wave of golden energy washed behind him, sending the ocean back in a wave against itself a hundred feet high, thrown away by the sheer force behind the push. Never had the world moved so fast, sight was useless, and the only thing he could used to guide himself was the power to sense and feel the energies of other living things. It felt like he was spinning helplessly in the darkness, only able to steer himself through this blurred world, a world of warped light and colour.

When it all came to a halt, it was in a blur of a second as he looked over, and only saw pure light, and only felt Vegeta's power. His power felt as if it was left behind, as he fell into the light. When it touched his skin, the world of blurred colour and light turned into a world of violence. The ground shattered and tore away in a mixture of friction and flame. His skin tore open and burned all along the impact. The force of the explosion rolled through his body, pulverizing meat and bone. It was too painful to even cry out as the bang rolled past him. As soon as his feet touched the ground, his aura finally emerged, throwing back as much of the power as it could, bursting to the surface.

For a brief moment, it was as if he'd never been harmed at all, his ki burned as brightly as it ever had. As the shock began to ware off, his power began to bleed away from him. Muscles couldn't contain what they once had, energy simply shorted through him and where there had once been pure energy, there was now only pain. Had he not thrown out his power when he had only seconds ago, the blast would have finished its follow-through, and he'd have been blasted to bits of scorched meat. Now his body simply felt like he'd been blown into chunks of burnt flesh.

It was when he finally had the will to pull his head up, his body trembling in disjointed pain from the exert, that he managed to glare at the one responsible for it. It was a bitter moment when he realized Vegeta had been fully willing to sacrifice his daughter. The Saiyan Prince lost it when his own was in danger, but it was fine to risk his one? It was enough to make him want to kill Vegeta, if he knew he still could.

"Vegeta," he breathed. "You. Bastard. That..."

The words struggled to leave as the muscles in his chest winced from his motion, still feeling the effect of the blast-wave which had rocked through his entire body.

"Oh, well, isn't this just perfect?" slithered into the world on the tongue of a monster far less truth worthy" than a snake. "What a kind gift you've delivered to me, Vegeta. You really shouldn't have."

Taking a slow step to one side, Gohan shakily took another, turning around as his aura slowly started to die around him. Despite it, he looked immediately to Pan, making eye contact with her. In her eyes, he could see true terror, and he could see the physical dilemma she now faced, with her broken arm. The way it hung limply reminded him of his own injuries in the past, in a much harder life than Pan ever had.

"Pan, listen to me. I'm going to get you out of all of this, you just need to try and stay calm."

"But!... But!..."

The rest of it was washed away by a scream as Garlic pointed his hand towards him. He thought to dodge, only to find an unexpectedly sluggish response from his muscles. The wave of crimson energy collided with him, sending him rolling back into the side of the crater as the energy warped against his flesh, trying to push him further into the wall and burning against his flesh. His aura pushed out again, forcing back the edges of the beam as he started to concentrate again, trying to pull what resources he could towards repulsing the wave.

You're going to let this thing do this to you, Gohan? Fight! Fight back, damn it!

"Don't tell me you can't keep a hold of yourself, Gohan!" Garlic laughed. "Please, do share more of that wonderful power of yours! Oh what's that? You can't because you're too busy bleeding? That's. Too. Bad!"

Just as he prepared to push back, marshaling his strength to do so, just as there was a great rise in the tide of energy he could tap into, the beam stopped, and Gohan almost fell forward, looking up, seeing with bitter irony that it was Vegeta liberating him from the demon's assault. The Prince of course, had caused this, and at the same time was now in the process of 'fixing' it. Revenge could come later, all that mattered right now was Pan.

Taking a step forward, Gohan almost collapsed.

Did that one attack really fuck me up this much?

Looking up, he only saw the exchange of two fists, as Garlic was sent hurtling back by Vegeta, still holding his daughter.

"Gohan," Piccolo's voice cut in.

Turning his head, breathing in, the Saiyan looked up the Namekian to his side. In his hand he saw something he'd seen before. The small, pale green bean sat there. Inside the bean was a salvation to any of the aches and pains he felt, it was a restoration of the entirety of his power. All his wounds would heal, wounds procured in recent events at any rate, and he would be able to rise to any challenge. But in Piccolo's hand was something else he could see.

Reaching out and grasping the bean, Gohan pulled it towards himself, almost tempted to eat it in that moment. Vegeta's energy blast hitting him without any kind of real protection had wrecked him. Throwing everything into his speed to intercept the attack before it hit Pan was all that had mattered, but how did he save Pan now if he was this badly wounded?

But if I can do it, then there is someone else who needs this more then I do.

Staring at the tiny bean with his Super Saiyan eyes, all Gohan could see were Videl and Pan. If Pan got hurt? She would need this to survive. If she didn't... this bean could restore Videl's eyes and injuries in seconds.

Looking back up to Piccolo, the sounds of battle raging behind him as Vegeta clashed with Garlic, he needed to ask the Namekian the cold truth.

"How many more of these do you think Korin has?"

"At least one he could give to us," Piccolo responded. "He usually holds out at least one, beyond the ones he needs to actually grow more. So eat the bean and get your strength back."

One more. Maybe one more.

Slipping the bean into his pocket, turning his head and feeling every muscle in his body wax and wane in pain as he started to bring his power back up, almost leaking energy as he did. He grit his teeth and held his composure, not just for himself, but for the little girl he needed to get to.

"I need your help, Piccolo," Gohan said, turning his eyes towards him. "I need to get Pan out of that monsters hands. Can you help me do it?"

Looking past him, Piccolo stared at the battle with serious eyes before turning his attention back towards him, as if reading what he was thinking.

"Only if we time things right."

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Garlic jr.:

In theory fighting while holding the girl hostage of course had a series of benefits, first among those benefits, making his opponents fight him without their full potential. But there were drawbacks, such as not being able to use his right arm for anything before trying to hold the brat hostage. Against Gohan it was much more effective than against Vegeta. The Saiyan closed to short range, trying to take the girl away, or striking at his other parts, namely his legs, arm, or left torso. Already in their short, violent exchanges, it'd created a game the two were playing.

Vegeta closed, lashed out, tried to get him to fumble the girl, and then he withdrew, firing several energy waves, and it was repeated over and over again.

"'m... gonna be sick," the wretched child murmured.

All the fast motion was too much for her to be in a stable condition, she passed in and out of consciousness, and even now Garlic shook her violently in his hand to get her to shut up. The result was her looking off to the side, before gagging several times, and vomiting up some of the foul contents of her stomach. The strangely coloured, half digested food and bile, splattered into the floor and the demon rolled his eyes.

Across from his, the Prince landed, looking at him with cool blue-green eyes. They were almost evenly matched so far, with Vegeta showing a slight edge in power, but he wasn't the one holding the advantage, as he wasn't immortal. Every time Garlic landed an energy wave, it depreciated Vegeta. With every blow the Saiyan Prince landed on him? It just meant pain, and pain, no matter how severe, was fleeting.

But what was more fascinating, was that he was able to tell immediately as they started fighting, that Vegeta had changed his strategy. The girl's life seemed to matter to him now, which was an unexpected change. Though he was appreciative of Vegeta's efforts of course, in heavily wounding his true target, Son Gohan. The mere thought of the Saiyan sent his adrenaline into a high, knowing full well his target would be vulnerable to him now, all thanks to Vegeta. Victory would come on his terms, and it would be wonderful.

"I'm surprised, Vegeta," Garlic started. "When you first came to strike me down, you seemed to not care about this disgusting little creature's life. But now? Now you've deliberately avoided harming her. You're even trying to keep me from harming her... aren't you?"

With the last words, his claws dug into Pan's back, where he was holding her. It wasn't enough to break the skin, not yet. Immediately the girl jerked, quivering in pain and gasping for relief from the agony he was slowly starting. Red eyes scanned Vegeta for a reaction, looking for any signs of weakness. It would tell him just how much he could use his leverage. The Saiyan didn't flinch, and it made the demon growl quietly to himself.

"I told you before, Garlic. Hiding behind that girl won't save you. You're pathetic to even think it-"

Vegeta's words didn't finish, as a wave of force rolled past him, sending his golden hair blasting to one side. From the corner of his eye, the Saiyan looked to turn his head at the last moment before a foot slammed into his cheek bone. Coming into view was none other then Gohan himself. The blow came thundering down almost like lightning from the sky. A single, surprised cry escaped Vegeta before momentum and power from the hit carried through him, sending him flying into the sky towards the ocean.

Oh yes, there it is. Vegeta you've received the boy's ire, and now you're just as much a target as I am.

"Vegeta!" Gohan shouted out after him, almost ignoring he, Garlic jr.

The demon stepped forward, pointing his left hand out as red energy swirled in his palm.

"Oh, by the way, Gohan? Let's not forget that I am still here."

To be ignored was unacceptable, especially to be ignored by Gohan. Every moment the Saiyan breathed, he should never forget his presence, until his last breath. The world was centred on him now. It was perfectly acceptable to fight Vegeta, it wasn't acceptable to forget him.

Pulsing waves of red light prepared to unleash themselves on the weakened Super Saiyan as Garlic grinned, only to have his eyes drawn to Piccolo, who was still behind. The Namekian was up to something.

Beams of red energy throbbed through the air a moment later as the bombarding waves of light emerged from his hand. Wave after wave rolled on, preparing to land on Gohan, to remind him at the very least he was there, and that he was untouchable so long as he had his daughter. As soon as the red waves hit, the former exile raised his arms, blocking the incoming degenerating beam.

"As comfortable as you remember it?" he laughed. "I'm sure Vegeta will appreciate me returning the favour of softening you up!"

As if by invoking his name, summoning him, the last of the Saiyan royals born to the long dead planet known as Vegeta, exploded back into view. Fresh water dripped off his tattered uniform. Diving into the red waves of energy, his vicious left hook smashed Gohan out of the wave, staggering the other Saiyan several feet, before following through with a vicious right handed strike. The blow slammed into Gohan's face, sending blood from the left side of his head, near where one of his worse burns had been.

These monkeys are so foolish. Look at them, destroying themselves instead of putting aside their differences. The last two Saiyan planet killers, unable to work together, even to save this world, or their own families. I'll be sure to have this moment recorded in print for my future subjects to read. The fall of the last of the Saiyans.

Without any sign of hesitation, Gohan responded in kind. Striking his left leg up even as he staggered, he slammed his knee into Vegeta's gut, stopping his momentum as the Saiyan royal gasped in pain, before swinging back in from the other side with a hard elbow. When it connected, a boom rolled out through the open air around them, echoing past the half destroyed walls all around them, causing some to crumble from the remnants of the force. When Vegeta hit the ground, he skidded along it, before rolling in front of him.

Looking down, Garlic grinned as he put his foot out, stopping the Saiyan's roll abruptly.

"Well, the two of you are quite the Super Saiyan team, aren't you?"

"Mister Gohan!" Pan finally cried out, flailing again, trying to break loose from his grip. "Stop fighting the other man! Please! Stop the-"

Flexing his claws again, he stopped the girl in her tracks as another scream echoed out across the landscape, though this time he saw Son Gohan staring directly at him. Without a moment to think on it, Garlic kicked Vegeta in the back, sending the Saiyan flying forward through the air. It was only when Gohan caught him, that he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Were the two of you fighting as some kind of act?" he asked, slowly beginning to put scheme together as he felt his muscles tense. Immediately he began looking for energy around him, and his eyes scanned for some kind of deception.

Looking towards the girl, Garlic then immediately looked back towards Gohan, trying to see how this would distract him in such a way to jeopardize his hostage. The Saiyan dropped Vegeta on the ground as he came to land himself a moment later.

"I doubt very much you were hit by Vegeta's obnoxiously named attack on purpose, so when did the act begin?" he growled. "And what do you have to gain from-"

His eyes looked to where Piccolo had once been, widening as they did. The Namekian was gone, and his energy had moved. In fact, had he been paying attention to everyone, and not just Gohan and Vegeta, he'd have noticed this. Turning his back on Gohan and Vegeta right now would be akin to suicide. They would snatch the girl away from him in a heartbeat, and then-

As if on cue, Garlic felt Piccolo's energies appear, and they'd grown dramatically. Trying to narrow down the search.

"Act? The act started the second we figured out how to beat you," Gohan responded.

"You have to know, I cannot die, Gohan. Do you really think you can come up with a-"

"Special Beam Cannon!"

The energy revealed itself, from behind. Gold and purple light shot over his shoulder as the emerging ki attack discoloured the world around them. Before he even had the opportunity to move, the beam found its mark. Drilling into his right shoulder, the demon felt the blast burrow into his flesh, carving it out with nothing more than its immense heat and ki energy. Burnt blood and flesh spat into the out of the gaping wound, before the beam emerged through the other side of his shoulder. His arm began to spasm, before the entire limb separated from his body, detaching and drifting to his side, a trail of gore left in its wake. It was almost unreal, watching the purple and golden beam shot past him, flying over Gohan and Vegeta's heads as well, travelling into the distance.

Instinctively, his left limb raised as his head slowly turned to look towards the mangled and burned stump on the end of his shoulder.

It traced down a second later to his falling arm, and the girl still held in its clutches.

If I can reach out and-

Before his thought could even be finished, before his left arm to reach out to save his prize, it froze in place as Vegeta blurred into his view, staring directly at him, demanding his attention. His left arm wouldn't move as long as the monkey held his hand against it. The two struggled and Garlic snarled at him viciously.

Looking down, he then saw a blue energy wave forming in Vegeta's left hand.

Before the girl hit the ground, she blurred out of view, along with his arm. For a trace second, he saw Gohan's image flash before his eyes.

NO!

When he turned his head back, Vegeta had already thrust his hand into his chest.

"Stay dead this time!" the Saiyan shouted.

The blue bolt of energy sizzled into his chest, burning away his flesh in the most vicious manner, sucking his organs inward as Garlic desperately tried to hold himself together. Intestines, his lungs, heart, and other organs were pulled out of place as the ball tore through his bones and body, sending him shifting back. Everything inside his body grew to almost by white hot, he could smell his own organs burning as he failed to even cry out in his agony.

All he could do was silently scream out at Vegeta, his mouth agape as blood and fire moved up his throat. Everything inside of him expanded a second later, and he felt the blast go off.

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Gohan:

A bloody explosion rocked the entire ruins, but emerged only a few dozen metres from him. Turning his head to look, all there was was a flash of blue-white light, mixed in with crimson energy and gore. It wouldn't be enough to kill him, not after what he'd seen. In minutes at most, Garlic would be back, exactly as he was, which meant there wasn't much time. Turning back towards the trembling wreck in his arms, relief as he'd never felt washed over him. Even as his muscles screamed out just from holding her, even as they were eager to melt inside his body from every exertion since the attack, he felt a greater relief then he'd yet known.

It was like a great burden was lifted off his shoulders, chest, and heart. It was unimaginable that he was holding his daughter, even if she had a broken arm, largely unscathed. A bit of the vomit from early was still on her lip, but he didn't care.

"M-Mi-Mister Gohan?" she breathed. It was the first time she'd said anything since being freed from the monster's grasp. Her eyes slowly opened, looking around the seemingly calm world around them as she turned her eyes up to him.

Without saying a word, he pulled her closer, embracing her in a hug, careful of her arm. Even if it was fleeting, he had this moment of peace, this moment to not let her or anything go. This was a fraction of what it'd felt like for his mother and father, when they saw him again. His heart raced, his breathing was shallow, and his stomach twisted. If this was the last time he ever saw his daughter, if she was safe after all this, he would be happy to know he hugged her like she was family just once. Breathing in raggedly, Gohan desperately fought against emotion as his relief mixed with a thousand other sensations and feelings. Resting his head against hers a second later, all he could do was breath out.

You're alright. Thank the God, the Gods, or whatever, you're alright.

Pulling back a moment later, staring into her eyes, he could almost see his reflection staring back at him, he could see how his own eyes appeared too moist, and his smile was... unlike him.

It was his father's smile, almost.

"Pan," he finally started.

I need to get her away from this. Whatever happens here, she has to be alright.

"Pan, I want you to listen to me, okay?" he asked, trying to bring himself back to the reality of it all, to the gravity of it all.

Nodding with fragility, Pan just stared back at him.

"Okay," she murmured weakly.

She was worn. Everything had been stripped away from her in under a day. Her mother was gone, her home was gone, she'd been tormented by a tiny monster, who turned into a giant monster and tried to used her against him. She'd been lied to, threatened, and told things no child should know. But the worst of all, as far as Gohan was concerned, she'd been told who her father was. Even if he'd not said it to her, he didn't need to anymore.

Just a little longer, kid. Hold on a little longer and everything will be fine.

"You're mom is in the hospital right now," he told her, speaking as quietly as she was, if only because he somehow thought it'd comfort her. As soon as he said it, life seemed to breath back into the little girl. She moved to get a better look at him, as if to confirm it was true or not, but winced immediately in pain, her arm limply hanging at her side.

"Calm down," Gohan said quietly, raising his finger warningly. "She's really hurt, but she's alive. Now..."

Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew the Senzu Bean Piccolo had given him minutes earlier. Looking down at it again, he was tempted once more to simply take it for himself. It would be much easier to just end all his own pain right now, but pain was fleeting. This was what he grew up in, this was what he'd survived countless times, and this was what he'd have to survive again.

"This is what is going to make your mom better," he said, staring at it before looking up at Pan. "I want you to hold onto it for me, alright? And when you get to the hospital, give your mom this to eat, and she'll be fine. Do you understand, Pan?"

There was another nod, this one slightly more alert.

"You'll be coming... too...?"

He already knew what the look in her eyes said, he'd sensed it moments earlier.

A roar of pure fury exploded from where Garlic had died moments earlier.

"Piccolo," Gohan called, turning his head to the Namek as he stood up.

"I need you to take care of the girl for me. Vegeta and I will take care of Garlic jr.," Gohan said to the Namek, looking up at him seriously.

"She's my daughter, Piccolo. I need this favour from you."

"I'm not leaving here until Garlic is dealt with," Piccolo responded, slowly walking over to the two of them. Another thundering boom came in the distance as Vegeta and Garlic locked horns for the second time.

"Just take care of her," he urged.

"Pan, I've got to go and stop the monster," he said, kneeling down again, placing his hands carefully on her shoulders. "You do what the green guy says, alright?"

"Don't go," Pan's voice responded, her eyes looking at him pleadingly. "I don't want you to go. I'm sorry for everything, just..."

Her hand reached out, grabbing his as she desperately held on to him.

"I'll be alright, kid," Gohan promised, slowly pulling his hand away as another cry emerged in the near distance. "I've got a plan."

It was a lie, truthfully. The closest thing to a plan he had was-

"You need to get him to open the Dead Zone, it's where he was trapped last time, and likely where he has your father trapped," Piccolo's mental voice cut in. "If you can do that, we can save your father. If we get Goku here, we can deal with Garlic jr. Goku is the key, Gohan."

Turning away from Pan, he heard a small whimper from behind, followed by a sob. It was eerily familiar to him. It reminded him of when he'd left Videl's home, days earlier. But there was a difference this time.

I'm coming back.

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Vegeta:

Drifting through the air, Vegeta almost felt weightless as his face contorted with discomfort. The last blow had hit him in the centre of his mass, paralysing him for almost two seconds. As soon as he turned up, he felt his legs grasped by both of the monster's hands.

Only moments ago, all he'd been was a half burnt, half melted, slab of meat. It was exactly like Cell had been. Turning his eyes into the air above him, Vegeta scowled as he felt Garlic's energy emerge above and next to him. A knee collided with his side, making him arc up in pain, before two huge blue arms appeared out of seemingly nowhere above Garlic's head as he grinned, before driving them down into his midsection. Vegeta almost felt like his insides were pulverized out of both sides of him. Helplessly, he felt himself decline in his stature in the air, rapidly plunging towards the ruins below. Tumbling helplessly, Vegeta's world spun, seeing flashes of the blue monster giving chase.

Powering two bolts of energy in his hands, Vegeta tried to lock on, wanting to fire at the exact moment, trying to regain control of his flight. Before he could, a massive elbow shattered his concentration, and the last of his armour. A gagged cry gurgled from his mouth as his entire body went rigid, this time fully losing control of the last of his flight, Vegeta felt utterly helpless, before his body crashed into the Earth.

Stones shattered and the soil beneath gave way, his body burrowing into it helplessly. Shock-waves from his impact passed through the stone and soil, sending cracks and fissures in all directions for miles as the already crumbling complex of castles and palaces further collapsed into the Earth. Huge towers in disrepair rumbled above him, sending dust clouds hundreds of metres into the air as they slowly descended into the ground themselves. Above him, the demon just grinned, pointing his hand down at him. Sneering back, Vegeta spat blood back onto the ground.

Every body blow, headshot, or bone break, the monster just shrugged off. But he already knew that would happen, all he was doing now was slogging through the mud. He needed time. To gather enough energy to atomize Garlic jr., he needed several minutes to gather energy. The last being like this he killed on his own, one of Cell's offspring, he'd been given ample opportunity to form the one attack he knew that could finish the job.

The red glow from Garlic's hand however, told him he wasn't going to be easily given the opportunity.

I'll kill you myself, and soon, you miserable fool.

"My, Vegeta, you certainly seem to be getting worn down. Don't tell me... you thought all those attacks would do something, didn't you? None of you get it, do you? I am immortal!"

Cackling wildly, Garlic thrust his arm down towards him, despite the huge distance between them. A black bolt of energy, rippling with vile red lightning, shot towards him. Putting up his arms, Vegeta prepared his defences, almost growling as he did.

In front of him, suddenly there was another figure who blurred into view.

Standing there with his arms already pointed up, Gohan took up the task of fighting Garlic without receiving his consent. Interfering at this point, made Vegeta want to fire on Gohan himself, though they'd just worked together to trick the giant into giving up the girl not more then a few minutes ago. It was understandable.

"Calamity Blaster!"

The purple bolt launched upward, streaking through the air. It connected with the red and black bolt, annihilating it in seconds when the two energy blasts met. The blast in the air left almost a fiery trail, before the Calamity Blaster flew through the remnants of Garlic's own attack.

"W-what?! It-" the demon's words were cut short.

As soon as the bolt hit the giant's body, the entirety of his left torso and head exploded in a grizzly blast. Falling out of the air helplessly, the corpse slapped into the ground dozens of metres away, but was already starting to move again.

"Plan?" Gohan asked, turning his head to Vegeta. "Got one? Piccolo's one sucks, and we need to deal with this now."

It was the truth, none of them had unlimited reserves to simply kill Garlic over, and over, and over again. But in his experience, there was one other solution to solve all of this. It was to put Garlic's immortality to the ultimate test.

"If you can fight that blow hard over there for four minutes, I can have enough time to destroy him, permanently."

Turning his head, Gohan looked back at him seriously, his eyes questioning but nodding all the same.

"And we're going to talk once this is all done, Vegeta," Gohan added, before turning his back to him, bracing himself. "I shouldn't be this injured, and the girl shouldn't have been in that much danger. It won't be forgotten."

Golden energy rolled out of Gohan's form a second later, lightning dancing across his muscles in rapid order, before he started to walk towards the immortal's form. Even as he walked, Garlic began to rise, his head and left side already pulled back into place.

It was best to ignore the animosity Gohan was demonstrating, with good cause Vegeta would admit. Now it was time to concentrate on his final victory.

Rising slowly into the air, Vegeta's body eased itself, relaxing his sore muscles. Inside his mind, he opened every portal he could to the reserves of strength he carried within, aligning them for this one attack. Throwing his arms out, a golden aura exploded around him. As it did, he cried out to the heavens themselves seemingly. A sphere of invisible power exploded around him as well. The ground beneath him slowly cratered as the bubble expanded. Ruins were shoved aside or crushed from it. The mass of the ocean pulled back, away from the shore, kilometres away, forced back by the ever expanding array of energy.

His struggling cries echoed through the emptiness of the world around him, the only other sound which mattered being the thrumming noise of his Super Saiyan aura. Lightning trails arced out of his body, skimming along the surface of the Earth. Dust whipped up into the air and flowed over the surface as if it was sandstorm as everything which could be blasted away by the force, was. Chips of rubble and debris scattered for metres and metres around him in all directions. Pieces of crumbled build lifted into the air, before shattering under their own way, and being blown away in the wind.

Throwing his hands forward, Vegeta's hands trembled as he tried to hold himself into position, his body's energy flaring wildly, trying to escape his form any way it could. Anchoring himself as best he could, he let the ki flow through him, barely forming at the end of his finger tips. Sparks of what was to come came in and out of existence as he concentrated, trying to bring all of his energy to bear.

In front of him, he watched the confrontation unravel as the gathering continued.

Blurs appeared in the air in front of him as the two powers clashed. Each clash was followed by a boom flowing through the air, blinks of the battle as it was fought appeared in the sky, but each of them were the same. Garlic attacking and being parried, or Garlic being struck. Both figures moved with speed and power, but Garlic didn't move with technique, not in the way Gohan did.

"How?! You're weaker then you've ever been, and I still can't touch you!" the demon roared as the two appeared in the air once more, this time with the blue skinned best grabbing Gohan's hands, pulling him into a test of strength in the air.

The black and red aura brimmed around the demon, as the golden aura flowed around Gohan. Lightning of black and blue swirled around them as they pushed against one another.

"Because I'm a better warrior than you," Gohan spat back, pushing into Garlic.

The huge monster groaned, his entire body pushing back as he tried to hold on. But then there was a turn, a change in the tide. Even as the demon gasped, so did Gohan, his muscles exerting too much in their state of disrepair. With his trained eyes, Vegeta could see exactly when everything changed. Pushing back against him, Garlic snarled, shoving Gohan and his arms back. Slowly, Vegeta watched as Gohan's body folded under the weight of Garlic's mass and energy.

A struggling noise echoed over the open air, this time, Gohan's.

Pulling in the Saiyan roughly, Garlic drove his huge knee into Gohan's gut, this time causing the other figure to fall in towards him, before a massive headbutt was delivered. Letting go of his arms a second later, Garlic let Gohan stagger back, before delivering a massive right hook into him.

As soon as Gohan's body hit the ground, he skid, before slamming into a half destroyed wall, his body sending veins all along it as he cracked into the surface.

Just a few more moments.

Pulling himself out of the wall, Gohan stumbled for a moment, before his aura reignited around him.

"Well, you're that much better than me, huh? How quickly it all falls apart as that precious energy of yours declin..."

Garlic seemed to freeze, looking up into the sky above them, noting the passage of the clouds, before he breathed in sharply.

"No! Not again, wait a moment... No..."

Before he could continue, the younger Saiyan had already rocketed back into the air. When the first punch landed, a boom carried out through the air, making Garlic's entire form list to one side. Grabbing Gohan's arm, the giant slammed his elbow into his face a moment later.

"Idiot! Do you not see what's happening over there?! When that fool Vegeta fires, he'll kill the both of us!"

Those were words Vegeta had longed to heard. He could hear the true fear in Garlic's voice. His own belief in immortality had disappeared when he understood what he was to face. Grinning to himself, Vegeta almost snickered as he looked on from a distance.

"How can we both die, if you're immortal?" Gohan shot back, before forming a powerful thrumming bolt of energy in his left hand.

"Catastrophe Gun!"

Blasts shot from his left hand in rapid succession, each one of those hitting Garlic in the chest, as the blasts broke into hundreds before impacting the 'immortal' before him. A surprised and agonized cry escaped the monster as Gohan broke free from his grip.

"Vegeta, do it now!"

With a dark chuckle, Vegeta aimed his shot perfectly, feeling it out in the air. The stunned giant was helpless in the sky, scorching bolts of purple energy having left their mark on him.

"Let's see how immortal you really are!" Vegeta shouted.

"Final Flash!"

All his ki swirled through him, funnelling through his arms and into his palms. Every bit of power he could bring to bear burned in his hands before it was all launched. All the light in the world seemed to be drained away, only to be replaced by the light emanating from the Final Flash itself. The sky turned black and the seas seemed to stop moving. The air rushed in contrast, thrown into chaos by the sudden changes in the sky caused by the massive release of power. The gigantic wave blasted past Gohan, missing him by inches, still causing the air around him to catch fire, and the sheer force blasting away the other Saiyan. The beam of destruction however, hit its intended target head on. Turning at the last moment to look on in terror, Garlic's last moments were as pitiful as any of his others.

As soon as the immortal was hit, his entire form distorted in the light. Looking past the world of the physical, looking inside the essence of his beam, Vegeta's eyes peered into the last chaotic moments of the monster caught in the wave. Every fibre of his being was rend from reality, burned away and blasted away into nothing.

The horrified screams of the demon echoed through the sky, mixing with the roaring thunder of the energy wave itself. Garbled words that meant nothing mixed with the cries for the five seconds they existed, before the entirety of the demon was simply washed away, blasted into an oblivion from which there would be no return.

Unable to hold his form any longer, Vegeta's hair slowly turned black as he began to descend from the air. It was hard to even stay floating.

"It's over," Vegeta breathed.

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Gohan:

It was gone, entirely gone.

The Final Flash had thrown him back into the ground, barely missing him. The sheer power alone burned him along his ribs on the left side, and along his left leg, but it was terrifying to behold. Even at his fullest power, there was no chance he could have weathered such an attack. Vegeta had focused all of his energy into a single point of attack, and it was breathtaking and incredible. Once he'd been cast away, all Gohan could do was watch as the beam carried off into the sky, and into the stars beyond. There was nothing of Garlic to be carried along with it into the stars. Every moment he'd watched inside the beam, every moment he'd felt inside the beam, he felt Garlic's essence, the very thing which made him up, being annihilated.

Laying his head back on the ground where he was, knowing only a few feet away, the ground had been torn up from the mere presence of the beam above it only moments earlier. The sky seemed clearer then before, and the air somehow tasted more fresh. It was pure peace, and all Gohan wanted to do was close his eyes. But he could already sense Piccolo's power nearby, the Namekian landing next to them, placing Pan down at his side.

Immediately the sound of tiny footsteps were heard, and they were getting closer. Popping into view above him a moment later, Pan looked down at him, her face written with concern. He gave a weak, half smile back, looking at her.

"Hey," he managed. "You alright kid?"

"You're hurt," she immediately observed. "Are you going to be okay?"

The concern in her voice almost made him laugh, before he nodded.

"Trust me, I've had worse."

"... Dad?..."

The word ruined everything. He stiffened, starting to sit up the second she said it, he groaned as he did, sitting forward half hunched over, before looking at her.

"Pan, you really, really don't want me to be your dad," he promised. "I'm not your dad. I'm not anybody. I'm just around."

"But, but-"

Raising his hand, wincing as he did, in part from his muscles and in part from her, he just shook his head.

"No buts, kid. We're going to get you home, okay?... This is all over final... finall..."

Gohan's words were lost as his eyes traced upward.

No. No that's impossible.

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Garlic jr.:

Oblivion.

That was what he'd been faced with. There was no afterlife, no great transit into the unknown, instead it was the same bleak darkness he'd faced when he existed in the Dead Zone. An empty eternity surrounded him, and this time there would be no escape. There was no wind, no matter, no anything, not even his own body. He simply existed as a thought.

All my dreams, all of them... they're all shattered, ruined... and now I'm left here with this.

An unending existence of bleak nothing. If he had a heart, it would have started to race with true fear. He couldn't die, but this was worse, wasn't it? All that flashed through his mind now was the last precious moments of life in the material world, being stripped away from him by Vegeta. He wanted to howl, strike or lash out... he wanted anything.

Anything but this!

Suddenly, there was pain. It was unimaginable. It felt as if his legs and feet were being boiled in magma. Only there were no legs or feet to boil into magma. The entire sensation ran up his whole body. But he didn't have a-

Fat, muscle, and flesh came to life all around him as his nerves came into place. Veins spider-webbed through his body as blood freshly started to pump through these newly restored channels. His heart beat viciously and his lungs filled with air. As soon as they could, Garlic screamed out, the agony of his return to existence being almost too overwhelming, reliving the last moments. Light came into his vision, at first simple light, and then the world returned to what it'd been. Breathing out with almost exhaustion, Garlic looked down at his bare arms as blue skin slowly began to extend over the whole of his form. His clawed-nails sprouted from the end of his fingers a second later, and he felt his teeth grow back into place.

Looking into his palms, the titan couldn't help but smile, his eyes lighting up with amazement.

Even after being totally destroyed, I live. I am immortal, I am unconquerable!

Turning his head, he stared down towards the four figures looking back up towards him, each of them unable to conceal their horror. Vegeta's hair was black, and he was easily a spent force, the terror in his eyes was unmistakable. The Saiyan Prince was now utterly helpless, even more so than his bastard son. The Namekian was almost as terrified. Piccolo certainly still had the majority of his energy, but they'd have to see about that. The final pair staring at him, invoked his fullest attention.

There he was, with his precious child. Son Gohan himself was staring up at him in disbelief, and it was an amazing sensation to feel. All this time, he'd demanded the Saiyan's attention, and he'd demanded his fear. He wanted the Saiyan to be as terrified of him as he could be, but each time they'd clashed, all he received was a stone wall of force. Now? Now Son Gohan finally could see what he truly was, now even Garlic himself could see who he truly was. He was the Immortal King, and the ultimate vengeance against Gohan himself. He would strip everything away from him, and no matter how much he struggled, he would be eroded, diluted, and destroyed.

"Now you see, don't you Gohan? Now you see the instrument of your demise. When you look at me, you see the death you've feared for so long. Even when completely destroyed... I simple am. The Dragon has created this universes new master. No force in the universe will ever be able to stop me, because I am the final end to it all. When the stars turn black, and the last scraps of existence end, I will continue on."

Golden energy wrapped around Gohan a moment later as he scowled back at him.

There it is. The monster I saw all those years ago is still there, as defiant and unbending as he ever was.

Licking his teeth a second later, Garlic started to grin once again, staring down at them all before finally letting loose a howling cackle. This was going to be superb, the greatest example of his mercy on them all. They would all understand the suffering he endured, and they would all receive exactly what they deserved, but most of all, he would see Son Gohan punished for what he'd done to him. He deserved to be punished for believing he could stop defeated. He deserved to be thrown into a wretched oblivion, along with Vegeta, for what they thought they'd condemned him to. The Namekian, Kami and Piccolo, deserved his own fate in a living nightmare as well.

"I'm still not giving up," Gohan countered. "No one is unbeatable, especially not someone as pathetic as you, Garlic."

Pathetic?... They call me pathetic. I arrange for Son Goku to be taken out of the picture, and I'm pathetic. I manipulate them all into doing my bidding, and I'm pathetic. I collect the Seven Dragon Balls to obtain enough power to challenge these pitiful Saiyans, and I'm pathetic. I control the fabric of time and space through the Dead Zone... and I'm pathetic?

Rage built up in his newly formed veins as he sneered down at Gohan with disgust. Everyone would know what it was to suffer, and they would all see who was truly pathetic.

"You'll pay for your resistance," Garlic announced, his features contorted with anger. "You'll pay for what all of you have done, to me and my father! I will have my revenge!"

Slowly, he started to growl as red energy brimmed at the edge of his skin. The world around him began to bend, as space and time were manipulated. In a swirl of blackened energy, the sky itself seemed to rot for a moment, before shards cracked through the very sky. His growl slowly turned into a full scream as he drew in from himself the power needed to not only open a gateway to the Dead Zone, but to open its terrible maw. He would see all of his enemies shown just how pathetic he was.

As if it were glass hit by a rock, the entirety of the sky seemed to shatter, stripping away the blue haze of the Earth's atmosphere, and replacing it with a sole, dark portal. The orb of darkness in the heart of it all began to suck everything in towards it, even light.

Grinning down at the fools below, Garlic just smiled broadly as he started to chuckle.

"The Dead Zone will swallow you up and keep you for all eternity, there's no escape."

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Gohan:

He was alive.

Alive, as if he'd not been annihilated from the material world itself. It confirmed the only real fear Gohan had ever had when facing Garlic, he was truly immortal. It was clear even Garlic had thought there were limits to his eternal life, but even those were now shattered. The being floating in the air, now opening a gaping black hole into another world, was the stuff of nightmares. Even if his strength failed him, he could never be truly defeated because he would always rise from death's grip to return. He watched him die, again and again...

Moving quickly, Gohan snatched Pan as quickly as he could, just as he felt a great shift in the balance of the world. Everything seemed to almost be sucking him in towards Garlic, towards the beating black heart of the Dead Zone. It wasn't even that however, it was as if everything was displaced. The edge of the horizon on the 'hole', the sphere of darkness in the air, seem to almost make everything around it fall in towards it. It was as if physics were slowly breaking down, and the only thing unaffected by it, was Garlic himself. His maddened cackle swept out over the landscape as darkened energies rolled over his entire body, feeding into the maw, making it grow ever larger.

Even the laughter seemed delayed however, as it barely escaped the pull of this horrible void, opened in the air around the Earth.

Blasting into the air, Gohan held firmly on to Pan, keeping her pulled away. There was just desperate breathing from the girl as she looked around in a panic as everything in the world seemed to drain away, all draining towards one point. The rocks on the ground, then the ground itself, and rubble of the shattered palaces and castles, all pulled towards the void, flying helplessly towards it. The clouds slowly began to be drawn towards it, and looking off to the ocean, Gohan's eyes widened themselves, as the sea itself began to be drawn into the air in long, spiralling twisters, being sucked towards the new centre of the planet's gravity.

All around them, beyond Garlic's delayed cackle, all that could be heard was the sound of an intense wind. The atoms and energy in the air, as it was drawn in towards the centre of the Dead Zone,

"What is he doing?!" Piccolo shouted above the noise, turning towards them as they flew back, trying to pull away, but even that seemed almost hopeless. "He's put so much power into the Dead Zone, he'll destroy the whole planet!"

Looking beyond, towards the darkness, Gohan couldn't peer into the depths of the darkness. It was more then just the planet he'd destroy. Everything about the Dead Zone reminded him of a Black Hole, and he'd seen one before. He watched as an entire system, with bases and space stations in it, were lost because of a miscalculation on its orbit. The star itself was sucked inward, before helplessly being annihilated itself. It should have taken years, but fate would have it, that it only took days. As the hole fed, it glowed brightly in the galactic sky, a ring of gas burning around it, all of it superheated by proximity and velocity. A star with a black heart was formed.

But now, as the Earth's atmosphere was drawn into this Dead Zone, Gohan could see the true diameter of the monster Garlic had opened, and was feeding. All noise disappeared beyond the howling of matter all around them, even Garlic's laughter. All around the hole, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide accelerated to insane speeds before being pulled into the other dimension. Being pulled so closely to one incredibly powerful point, pulled the matter together, lighting the edges of the hole itself, before it was surrounded by almost a golden fire. The light from the sun itself dimmed, as the brightness of the collision of gases nearly taking place around the core of this hole, took ownership of the sky. But still it grew.

Garlic's blackened energies fed into it more and more as it grew in size, more and more. More of the Earth's surface seemed to be sucked towards it. The seas themselves began to rise beyond just tendrils being drawn in, now it was as if the ocean itself was being lifted into the air. Swirling masses of clouds in the air began to wrapped together, pulling towards the Dead Zone.

Looking to his left, Gohan saw Piccolo and Vegeta firing several energy waves, only sense their energies, unable to hear them. The bolts fired towards Garlic, but were drawn in all the same, sucking past him and flying into the Dead Zone itself, simply disappointing into the darkness along with everything else. The bright burning corona around the hole twisted and turned as reality bent and warped around it, the brightness of the light almost blinded him, but still within its core, two things were visible. The unending darkness at the core of the Dead Zone, sucking in all light, and at the core of it, floating in front of everything, Garlic jr. himself.

"How do we stop it?" Gohan's mind reached out to Piccolo's again, knowing voice would be useless lost in the vortex of noise now emerging along the surface of the Earth for as far as he could understand.

"I don't know. Before, we cast Garlic into the Dead Zone itself, and it sealed the trap, but this time he can move in and out of it at all."

The entire energy of the Earth seemed to shift, and reality itself seemed to begin to lose control. It was as if the entire Earth and its orbit, as well as its rotation, began to shift and change. It was beginning to modify the entirety of the Earth. Everything would be drawn into the Event Horizon, piece by piece, and destroyed, before being cast into another universe.

"Think of something fast," Gohan urged, his own eyes scanning over the blinding light and eternal darkness, before seeing something beyond, and he knew Piccolo must as seen it as well.

Its being held up, opened, and expanded by Garlic's power.

What was the Dead Zone? Where did it come from? That was the bolder question to ask. To answer it, would lead to something at least.

"The Dead Zone is an artificial void, created by Garlic's father, Garlic sr. It exists everywhere, and it exists nowhere, but it really must exist because of the power that originally made it. This must be what Garlic taps into to keep it open, and to increase its opening. It's not a place, where nothing exists. It has no size, but it is infinite. But its form, its structure, must be made by Garlic."

Killing Garlic jr. wouldn't solve anything, he would simply return, his power would never leave. Throwing him into the Dead Zone wouldn't do anything either. But there was a chance he could attack the Dead Zone itself, the very walls, the very structure of the nightmare could be assaulted. It was nothing but nothingness given form and mass. Even now, he tried to understand where it really was in the darkness, and how much it the event horizon was it. Where was the only structure the Dead Zone ever knew?

Turning his head down to look at pan, who clung to him with both arms, even her broken arm, he paused in the vacuum, feeling himself being drawn towards Garlic despite his best efforts. His golden aura burned around him, but even it felt more and more compelled. There was no time anymore, the decision had to be made, and he made it. As he looked across the blackened heart of the swirling mass, he could almost see the face of a demon in its very core, looking past the physical.

"Pan, can you hear me?"

There was no response as she just tightened her eyes, overwhelmed by the noise, the momentum, and the changes in the world around her. The Earth was dying, and in a few more minutes would be mortally wounded.

If I can throw Garlic into the Dead Zone when it collapses, he'll be alive, and trapped in his own nothingness again.

"Pan, I need you to listen to me. I'm going to put you on to my back. No matter how hard it seems to hold on, I need you to hold on. You can't let go no matter how much it hurts, okay? Just hold on to me. Don't slip, hold on even if you can't feel your hands anymore."

I won't go quietly, Garlic.

The wind seemed endless, his entire body felt raw from the friction all around him. Finally, he felt something familiar in all of it.

"What's this!? How can he just stand there?!"

Garlic's words rang through his mind, as he saw the Dead Zone in his mind's eye, the Dead Zone he'd seen decades earlier. His father clung to life, as did Piccolo and Krillin. Standing in the heart of it all, as he floated there now, was the monster who wanted to take everything away. Everyone would die around him, his daughter, his friends, his mother, sister, and brother. Inside the blackened Hell.

He could see what the Dead Zone really was, he could sense it the same way he did when he was a child.

"GOHAN!"

His father's voice rang in his mind, and his heart jumped in his chest.

Father, I'm not going to let you down.

Even as he was pulled towards the nightmare of swirling gas and demonic energy, the end of this universe and the beginning of another, Gohan began to use the momentum of the vacuum to pull himself into position, orbiting around it. As he was drawn closer to the swirl, the air grew hotter and hotter. It was almost impossible to breath, and with each pass, he moved faster and faster. The noise grew more and more wild and rampant, and Gohan anchored his energy to his hands, further increasing his approach.

Dark purple energies rolled off his form, mixing with his golden aura. Everything he had was drawn further and further up into himself. The desperation of defeat, feeding his energies. The fear of death, drawing up into him. Rage at everything Garlic had done to him, surfaced past it all as he felt himself breath in one final gulp of burning air.

This is my home.

Slowly, he pulled his hands back, letting the energy burn up his arms, almost overwhelming his form. His muscles twitched and expanded, veins pumping out of them as purple and blue electricity rolled over his hands and arms.

Throwing both hands forward, Gohan prepared for the final release of energy. This was it, it was all riding on this. It was all riding on one attack, in the right place, at the right time. Swirling around the darkness faster and faster, Gohan felt as if time was slowing for him as the velocity of the turns increased. In seconds he would be drawn into the near plasma hot gases. When he saw Garlic, for but a split second, frozen in his cackling, soundless laughter, Gohan sneered, before crying out with his anger and hatred.

One sound broke through the unbearable wind all around them. The world stopped spinning, and there was a new source of light.

"CATACLYSMIC KAME-HA-ME-HA!"

A dark purple wave cut through reality, more massive then anything Gohan had ever handled before. The entire motion of the mass spiralling into the gigantic storm surrounding the singularity stopped, freezing in space itself. The corona seemed to almost break, sending flaming hot gasses in a billion directions, and the wave pierced through the darkness into its core. The wind stopped, and the physics which governed the world seemed to crash back into the Earth. Billions of tons of water slammed into the surface of the Earth, billions of tons of Earth fell helplessly from above, scattering across thousands of miles. The rotation of the Earth returned to Normal, and the planet's orbit stabilized, making everything feel violent and furious in the seconds which followed.

At the heart of the blackened monster he'd created, Garlic only had time to look into the wave as it descended upon him, seeing the power he'd wanted Gohan to give him. It was everything he had, he poured all of his soul into it, and Garlic could reap what he sowed. As soon as it impacted the demon, the unbearable howl of the storm the demon had created was replaced by the immense pulsating noise of the Cataclysm Cannon merged with the Kamehameha wave. A cry of agony, or screams, would have been lost in the wave in seconds.

Without any resistance, the wave continued to curve forward, spilling over the event horizon, and wildly spiralling down into the core of the beast, leaving a spiralling purple corona around the Dead Zone itself. Piercing into the heart of darkness, Gohan could feel the edges of reality burning away, as well as the edges of the very fabric of the Dead Zone. As the pillars which held up the dimension eroded, something terrible began to form on the other side of the Dead Zone itself. All of the matter it'd consumed in its very being, began to exist in a small, and smaller state, packing together more and more tightly as his beam cut into the darkness, burning away the only things which kept the emptiness in existence.

Looking on as the swirling purple and black mass began to become less and less stable, Gohan's eyes widened when he realized exactly what he'd done. There was so little energy left in his reserves however, he had no ability to raise his defences. In a blur of motion, he felt someone appear in front of him, feeling a shield expand around him.

Suddenly, the storm of chaotic energy and a dead reality, turned from an eternally dark realm, to pure light. The last thing Gohan could remember seeing, was the air itself catching fire, and the seas coming ablaze, before the shock-wave hit the shield. It buckled, and suddenly everything went dark.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Gohan:

It was a familiar smell. It was the smell of a thousand burning cities, and a world left in ruin. It was the small of devastation, and destroyed forests. It was the smell of death and mayhem, and it was all around him. Struggling, Gohan slowly managed to pull himself up, blinking several times painfully. Fresh blood and burns covered his left side, and half his face, feeling blood roll down his cheek as he started to sit up. The ground was black ash, and the air smelled of burning carbon. Beyond the cliffs where the castle once stood, the ocean peacefully rolled over onto the shore again.

Part of him almost wanted to collapse back down, and let unconsciousness take him. But he was absolutely alone. As far as he could see, the only thing in sight was flattened, destroyed ground. Near where the castle once stood, the barest of remnants of one ever having existed, remained. He was in a haze thought, looking for anything at all. Fires randomly still lit up the landscape, the very dirt and rock seemingly being on fire themselves. The sky had yet to return to its natural blue, instead being an orange hue.

Pan.

Looking around immediately, he saw no sign of her at all. There was no body, no form laying on the wasteland, she was just gone. Immediately his heart started to race as he began to stumble forward over the almost alien landscape, looking around as he staggered, trying his best to not collapse. It was finally here, the point where his body no matter how much he urged it, seemingly couldn't go on.

"... Pan!" he shouted through a rasped voice, before choking and coughing on the smokey and still smoulder air. "PAN!"

Where is she? Where? C'mon Pan, just get up.

Suddenly, there was movement to his left, as dirt slid off the moving form of a single body. Immediately Gohan found it in himself to start to run towards it, nearly slipping and falling as his lungs laboured for air. When the figure emerged, coughing several times, Gohan froze when he realized who it was.

"Piccolo?"

"What's left of him," the Namekian responded gruffly, before staggering to his feet himself. "You did it. Garlic was thrown into the Dead Zone and then it collapsed around him. I don't think we'll be seeing him again."

"Where is Pan?" Gohan immediately asked, honestly almost not caring about the demon's fate. Where was the girl?

Looking around for a moment, Piccolo blinked. "When I raised the shield around the two of you, she was still on your back. After the wave hit though, I lost track of everything."

Fuck... Fuck!

Frantically, Gohan began to look around, trying to sense her as well. But there was nothing still. In the blast, she probably lost her grip on him, and... and fell. They were so high in the air, she could have been anywhere and-

The fall.

Taking several steps again, Gohan almost ignored the Namekian.

"PAN! Pan answer me!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the emptiness around them.

After all that, she couldn't just be gone. Not after everything he'd just been through. He was only met by silence. It was enough to make him go completely silent, only hearing the sound of his own heart breathing, and it slammed rapidly against the side of his ribs.

Distraught.

Looking around frantically again, he began walking towards the emptiness around them, moving away from Piccolo as he searched with only his eyes. In the distance, there was one figure emerging as dust swept up around him. Walking tall, despite holding his bloodied and useless right arm, Vegeta moved against the wind which picked up all around them. There wasn't a word spoken, as the elder Saiyan just stared at him.

But as the wind picked up, something orange lay in the dust almost a kilometre away, only appearing as enough of the light debris was blown away by the hot wind. It was enough to make Gohan freeze when he realized what it was.

... Dad.

It seemed unbelievable. Running at full pace again, this time tripping and falling face first into the ground, Gohan managed to pull himself up in under a second before continuing to run, bounding over the terrain as quickly as his legs and bare feet would take him. Each step he took, he frantically tried to move faster, wanting to draw on reserves on energy which were no longer there. The bright flame that was his power, was down to a dim pile of embers, having spent everything for his chance at stopping the demon.

When he finally stopped next to the orange clad figure, Gohan ploughed into the dry dirt knees first, before reaching down and pulling the figure onto his back. Familiar black hair turned along with the head, revealing a face Gohan could barely recognize. It was almost skeletal in its nature. For months, his father had been in the Dead Zone. How he survived, he couldn't have known, but the toll on him was obvious. There was no consciousness, but he could feel his breathing and breathed himself out with relief.

"Dad," he managed through laboured breaths, before looking up from where he was, his eyes still not seeing a hint of Pan in the distance.

"He won't last long," Piccolo remarked, walking into view. "He's been malnourished for too long. Without a Senzu Bean, he won't survive."

The bean.

The bean he gave to Pan. Immediately, Gohan felt his heart sink and his throat constrict. Turning his head to look at Piccolo, he felt himself shrink in front of the Namekian. Turning his head away a second later, a fire nearby illuminating the left side of his own face, Gohan just breathed evenly.

"I gave the last bean to Pan," he said finally.

"Then we need to get him to Korin, now," Piccolo said. "But I don't have enough power to fly, it's all gone. And I know you don't either."

"I will take him," Vegeta cut in. "I can have him to the tower shortly."

Walking over to him, Vegeta reached down, pulling the frail, near dead body of Goku over his shoulder. His father's rival and friend just stared back down at him as he slowly started to hover, clearly exerting a great deal of effort to do so.

"You did well, Gohan," Vegeta remarked as he started to glow with the last remnants of his energy. "Your father will be very proud, I am sure."

Before another word could be said, the Saiyan Prince blasted off into the sky, certainly more slowly then usual. As he disappeared, Gohan just stared after him, silently relieved if only for a second that his father was in Vegeta's hands. As strange as it sounded, given even the events of what had just occurred, he knew Vegeta wouldn't let his father expire.

I'll see you soon dad.

Slowly finding his feet, he turned his head to Piccolo, looking back at him again.

"We need to find Pan," he said seriously. "I promised her I'd take care of her. I'm not going to leave her behind."

"Gohan, we may find her, but that doesn't mean-"

"Not right now."

"It was a long fall, and she's not been trained-"

Angrily, Gohan shoved past the Namek, before half snarling as he started to walk into the emptiness around them.

"Get looking."

It was like being lost. Even as his feet pressed into the bare ground, walking over the area of devastation, all his eyes could do were follow over the area as he walked. It was almost like another sea next to the ocean. It spanned further than anything he could immediately see. The planet itself was scarred now, and there was no way for him to know right now the full consequences. From problems involving its rotation, the orbit, the mass damage to the ocean and environment, there was just no way to know. How many people were killed even on the other side of the planet? He could still sense Goten and Trunks, which made him believe that at the very least, his family was alright.

But then he sensed it. Turning his head to the highest peak along the cliff, where the castles of Garlic and his family once stood, he sensed something incredibly weak, but all too familiar. Moving his hand up to comb through his black hair, he realized exactly what it was. It was Pan. With what little energy he'd regenerated, he pounced forward at inhuman speeds, bounding over rubble until he reached a flat surface. All of the ruins had been stripped off the top of it, leaving only the foundations. But below, there was something further.

Finding a torn open hole, he could see dimly lit fire coming from within. Smoke billowed out, and without a moment of regard for himself, Gohan descended into it. Wooden beams burned, part of a structure which held up the entirety of the underground compartment of the castle. Fractured beams collapsed in from the ceiling in front of him, the sound of the wood burning following him as he moved through the smokey ruin, before finally finding himself in an open area. It looked as if this place was prepared to be the next segment cut into the castle, but was never completed. It could have been hundreds of years earlier when construction was started. But the architecture didn't interest him at all. Laying in the middle of the room, was the only thing he concerned himself with.

Taking several steps forward, Gohan saw Pan laying on her side, coughing several times, her eyes closed and her hand resting on her broken arm. Kneeling down next to her carefully, Gohan placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Pan?"

"Dad?" she murmured, opening her eyes slowly to look at him.

For a moment, he almost rebuffed her again, staring back at her. He could still feel her holding onto his back as they drifted into the darkness and light together, and he swallowed hard as he pulled some of her hair out of her face, before trying to smile for her. The relief made that part easy, but the tears in his eyes came in as well. He wanted to pull them back, but couldn't this time.

He'd found her. This was his daughter, she was the only good thing he'd left to the world in his entire life, and she was alive. Inside he'd thought she was really dead by now, dead and gone like he'd left countless other people's children, but here she was, alive.

"Yea," he finally said. "Yea, I'm here."

There was a long pause before he saw the conflict in her eyes. Elation mixed with... Fear?

How did she get all the way down here?

As the flames burned, Gohan felt something behind them.

"You have to go," she managed to say to him, just as he turned his head. "Please, he's-"

Coming into focus, Gohan felt something he couldn't believe still existed. Slowly from the stairs he came from, in the midst of this burning ruin, came a massive form. The huge figure with pointed ears and red eyes stepped past the entrance way, a single figure unconscious in his right arm. A moment later, he dropped Piccolo's body on the floor before continuing to walk towards him.

"Garlic junior," Gohan managed to breath, staring at the giant in disbelief.

It couldn't be possible. It just... It was impossible! After everything, after even collapsing a dimension in and around him, here he was... just as powerful, just as alive. It was a nightmare, and it was unending. Each footstep the giant made, almost made Gohan jump out of his skin. Even with all of his power at his fingertips, he wasn't able to stop him. Slowly, the realization came on him that he couldn't fight to save himself from this relentless thing. Turning his head back towards Pan, he just stared at her, and her terrified eyes looked back at him.

They were the same eyes he'd looked at his own father with, the day Raditz took him, weren't they? The same eyes that told him to fight, even if there was no chance of winning. This creature would steal everything from her, if he didn't murder her himself. All of her charm, all of her love for the world, and personality. It would all be drained away and all that would be left would be violence and hate.

Even if it cost him all he had left, he was going to save his daughter from this monster, even if he couldn't save himself.

Slowly standing at full height, Gohan locked his eyes with Garlic, seeing the demon in an unnatural calm.

"Come to see the Flames of Hell, Garlic?" Gohan asked coolly. "Is that why we're down here, in this burning nightmare?"

A slow smile crossed the demons face as he stared back at him, trying to restrain the full fury of his rage, and Gohan could see it. The tension behind the mask of impassiveness was overwhelming. It was everything in him not to simply run over and rip him in two.

"Gohan," Garlic murmured, his voice almost intoxicated. "I should have killed you myself before, you know? Back before all of this happened... I should have popped that little head of yours off, and drank your blood. I should have danced in it in front of my throne."

Slowly, Gohan stepped forward, bracing himself as best he could. A dull purple aura flickered over his form, the stray pieces of energy and ki he could scrape together to form any kind of an offence.

"I thought you were proud of all those accomplishments I made in space, why the change of heart?" Gohan enquired, keeping himself ready for the second this 'peaceful' dialogue broke apart.

A small smirk escaped the demon as he stopped in his stride, standing tall across from Gohan, perhaps five metres away.

"I suppose you still want to protect your little girl, don't you? For everything you've cost me, she's nothing compared to what you've stolen from me," Garlic said, cracking his neck from one side to the other, before cracking his knuckles together, preparing to launch his assault.

"I haven't stolen you're life yet," Gohan deadpanned in response, his form holding as he waited for the first move.

I need to buy time. If Vegeta can get father to the tower, he'll get over here and-

A wave of crimson and black energy washed over him as Garlic launched himself towards him. The fires across the passageway and room nearly blew out from the sheer power of the motion on the air around them. The world slowed as much as it could for Gohan as he focused his ki. He could see Garlic's motion coming towards him head on, but his own form could barely begin to move as he lunged forward at the last moment himself, looking to counter attack before a blow could even land. Helplessly, he watched as Garlic's arm came up with grace and easy, knocking his own arm aside.

Looking straight into it, a huge right fist came straight into his face, slamming into his wounded cheek, making blood push through the fabric of his burn, before sending him flipping back through the air. For a brief moment he felt like he had no control at all, but almost through pure willpower alone, the Saiyan took control, landing on his feet and leaping back towards Garlic with all his remaining might. Raising his arm to strike, Gohan cried out, focusing his power into one hand.

Blurring from his side, Gohan couldn't even track the larger target, realizing only too late Garlic had appeared to the right of where he'd once been. Before he could even turn, another blow came crashing down on the left side of his head again, this time crashing into his eyesocket. Bone fracture and immediately he felt himself blinded in his left eye. The recent scar, and the old scar, split open, sending blood oozing over his face and splattering against Garlic's fist. Without a hope to resist, Gohan's frame shifted violently in the air before launching towards the wall. As soon as his shoulder hit the solid granite, his entire body felt itself crack, before he crumbled down next to it.

Landing on his left foot and right knee, he could only wince as he tried to pull himself up. The first attempt failed, muscles didn't respond and bone protested at the action. Almost falling, Gohan slumped against the wall, before finally sliding up it. Without even realizing it, his right shoulder had split open, leaving a trail of blood trailing up the side of the cracked wall.

"I collapsed a whole dimension on you," Gohan breathed, turning his face back towards Garlic, trying to even bring his aura back to the surface. The energy was just drained. There was hardly a speck of power to feed into his own body at this point.

"That's where you're wrong, actually," Garlic remarked. "You actually killed me long before that beam of yours destroyed the Dead Zone."

The last remarks seemed overtly hostile, his face contorting further and further into rage.

"If you don't come at me, I'm going to crush the girl's skull, by the way."

There was no hint of the threat being off. Immediately, Gohan took several steps forward, before breaking into a full run. Swinging his right, the fist slipped straight past the smirking demon's face, before the giant simply shoved him in response, making him stagger forward. The smoke in the room filled his lungs, making him choke for a moment, before throwing another punch, which Garlic simply pushed aside. Casting his leg out, Gohan caught Garlic's ribs, and the giant didn't even move.

Humiliated.

That was what the giant wanted to happen to him. He wanted him humiliated. Angrily, Gohan cried out, finding a brief spike in power, throwing his hand towards the giant. Catching his fist in the air, Garlic tightened his hand around the Saiyan's fist a second later, before pulling Gohan in violently. Putting the arm in a lock, he began to push it in the opposite direction.

"Is this the arm that Turles blew off that pretty little frame of yours, Gohan?" he asked, his red eyes shining. "I'm so jealous, I won't be the first one to deny you it."

Muscles tore and bones snapped a second later, as the limb was broken a second later. Hanging limply from where the lock started, Gohan couldn't hold back a strangled cry, before Garlic released him. Reaching up his left arm, Gohan instinctively grabbed at where the pain centred. Before he could even do that, he felt the massive right fist of the demon's slam into his chest. Several ribs nearly buckled under the force as he hick-upped blood.

All control over his legs ceased, causing Gohan to fall to his knees. Before he could fall further, Garlic grabbed his shoulder, holding him in place. Barely looking up, feeling blood dripping from the bottom of his lip and chin, Gohan just stared up at the mountain of a monster in front of him.

"Do you even know what you've done?" Garlic sneered.

Before an answer could be even given, Gohan felt a huge fist collide with his blindspot, sending him face first into the carved rock ground. Laying there, he almost felt his body beginning to urge him to shut down. The only eye he could see out of lay in the ground itself, seeing only a blurry world around him. His arm was unresponsive, but he heard the giant taking steps around him.

"Get up," Garlic ordered harshly. "Get up, or I'll kill the girl right now! After all you've done, I should kill her anyway! Just to see the look on your face!"

Finally, his legs kicked in. His left arm slowly traced over the ground as he started to push himself up. Dragging limply on the ground, his right arm, utterly unresponsive, slid against stone. Before he could even properly get half way to rising to his feet, he felt the giant grab him by his right arm. Crying out, he spun several times under immense force, before being whipping into a wall, slamming against the granite again. This time both his shoulder blades hung forward. His feet slid back as he nearly fell back to the ground. Only his back being propped against the wall kept him standing.

I've got to fight. Please. I know I've asked so much, but please just give me power.

Every time he'd asked his body to go beyond the limit, it did. It did throughout over a decade in space, it did when he fought Turles, and it did when he fought Broly. But he'd already asked so much from it. It'd given him all the power he needed to destroy the Dead Zone itself, and save Pan. Bits of power found their way to the surface, but nothing like what he needed. There was just nothing left to give.

And for the first time in his life, Gohan knew that he couldn't just call on a seemingly endless reserve of ki. Barely able to pull his head up, with his one good eye, Gohan saw the giant rushing towards him almost like a bull. Pulling his right fist back, Garlic prepared to unleash a furious uppercut, and there was nothing which could be done on the other end. The blow shot upward, crashing into his chest. This time, ribs did buckle, one shattered on his left side, and another two fractured. It wasn't the first time he'd had it happen, and immediately Gohan lurched forward. Not letting him even start, Garlic drove his knee into his other side, before slamming his fist into his face again, fracturing his cheek and crashing his skull into the granite, further cracking the wall. Blood spluttered out of his mouth again, and his damage eye socket spat blood out with the force of the impact.

Another volley of blows came, strong rights and lefts took turns hammering his abdomen, bruising his muscles first, before slamming into organs, pulverizing everything they could. When he lurched forward again, another right hook sent his head back into the wall. The world became nothing but a haze, a haze of blood, but there was no pain, at least not pain Gohan could recognize anymore.

"You're not allowed to die yet, Gohan," Garlic snarled. "Not until you've repaid me for what you did. You destroyed the Dead Zone, do you have any idea how important that was? Do you have any idea how hard it will be to conquer the universe, without instant transportation? Do you even know what you've done!? All my plans! They're all ruined! All because of YOU!"

Grabbing him by the throat, Gohan forced his head back and to the left, forcing his one good eye to look at him as blood dripped from his mouth.

Slowly, the world began to spin for Gohan as he felt the loss of blood, both internally and externally.

No. Not yet. It's not over yet.

Barely, Gohan managed to smile, focusing what little point he could into his left hand, forming his hand almost into a blade as he looked at the giant.

"All because of me?" Gohan gurgled. "You can't blame yourself... for anything... can you?"

Grinning, Garlic slowly raised his hand, his eyes still filled with furious intent as he raised his hand up.

"I'm going to torture you for what you've done to me, Gohan," he whispered, before leaning in towards him. "And then I am going to shape that little monster of a daughter of yours, into my protege. She'll belong to me. It's the least you can do to pay me back for all my destroyed work."

Stabbing his hand into Garlic's abdomen, Gohan felt the energy tear into the flesh of the giant. Two eyes widened on Garlic's face as he gasped, blood coming up into his mouth. The two of them froze in place as the demon coughed again, feeling Gohan as he grabbed at different organs inside the body, trying to find the demon's heart to rip it out.

The shocked expression on the demon's face slowly changed as he snarled down at him, smashing Gohan's head with his elbow, before slamming his fist down on Gohan's left shoulder.

"What don't you understand?! I can't die!"

As if that gives you an excuse to live.

With what little energy he had left, Gohan released all of it as a ball inside the abdomen and chest of the demon. Immediately the smell of burnt meat filled the air as Garlic stumbled back, a burning circle appearing near the top of his abdomen.

"No! Not again!" he snarled.

When it detonated, a shower of gore exploded across the room. A wall of red blood splattered against him, making him wreak immediately of Garlic's insides. Thankfully, he'd shifted enough that most of it splashed against his left arm and the left side of his chest, but it still made him grimace. The two legs stood there for a moment, before falling down.

That won't last long.

Stumbling past the body, Gohan immediately collapsed, struggling to breath, struggling to think, struggling to live. It was only then, that he saw the only thing which could brighten his eyes, ran to his side.

"Dad, dad please you have to get up," Pan urged. "Please dad, if you don't get up-"

The Senzu Bean.

Trying to speak, Gohan felt only blood come up. He trembled as he tried to do anything, but all he could do was breath through his nose. Staring at the girl, who moved her tiny hands over, trying to pull him up, he shook his head.

"No time. Senzu Bean, the bean I gave you, where-"

Only a metre away from them, the legs of the demon started to twitch, and started to move to stand on their own.

Where she put the bean, he didn't know, and she frantically looked over her own person for it. If she could even get it to him in time, he didn't know either. But there was time for one thing. There was no time to risk, and there was no time for gambles. This wasn't about his life, it was about hers.

"Run."

Her eyes flared with fright, and immediately shook her head.

"I can-"

"You need to run, right now. Run! Get out of here!... RUN!"

She looked over, seeing the huge pair of legs stand up on their own as well, and slowly watching as the midsection of the body began to sprout from it.

"Please, Pan. Please run."

She looked back down at him, tears swelling in her eyes. When one rolled down her cheek, he felt himself smile sadly back at her, his own eye burning, blood coming from the damaged socket on the other eye as well.

"I love you, dad," she whispered, before taking off in a run, holding her broken arm as she ran, making a small noise of pain as she did, a whimpering sob following her footsteps.

"You're the only thing I don't regret from my past, Pan. You have so much life in you. Forget about me, forget about all this. You can be more than I ever was. You can be more than your mother is. You can live a life with so much, not just for yourself, but with other people."

Slowly turning around, Garlic's head started to reemerge from his regenerated body. His lip came into existence with a curled lip as he snarled down at him.

"Forgive your mom. She was a much better person before I met her. Maybe one day she'll be a better person again, but she's going to need you."

Walking over and grabbing him, Garlic pulled Gohan into the air, and all Gohan could do was look after the exist where his daughter ran, smiling to himself, knowing Garlic wouldn't be able to track her energy well enough to catch her.

"I love you kid. That's the only thing you should remember about your father. He loved you more than anything else in the world."

"You know, I think I realized something, Gohan," Garlic breathed, his voice turning smooth instead of furious.

"All those years you spent in space surviving, all those struggles, all the other battles you fought. All the injuries you sustained. You survived all of them, because you knew that I was the one who had to kill you, didn't you?" Garlic almost whispered. "You knew you couldn't deny me my revenge. You had to give it to me, because you knew I was the only one worthy of it. You knew that I was the one to kill you. You could just sense it, couldn't you?"

Leaning down, the huge blue monster drew his tongue over the side of his cheek, slickly licking the blood off part of his face. The grimace that followed Gohan's features was immediate. There was no pain anymore though, it was almost as if he was gliding. It was somehow peaceful. The burning room around him seemed to slowly almost... disappear. Quietly, he imagined the walls of this place, almost turning into his room. For a moment he was almost the little boy who dared to dream of dinosaurs and being a scientist.

It all shifted and changed when Garlic turned him up to look at him, looking him in the eyes. Raising a single finger, the demon charged it with energy.

"I want you, when you get to Hell, to remember that it was I who sent you there, just like you always wanted. I want you to remember that you could have been my disciple, but you turned your back on me."

Slowly, he pushed the finger against his right collar bone, burning through the skin, and slipping under the bone. Immediately Gohan's breathing hitched as the smell of his own flesh burning passed through his nose. He made a garbled response, before spitting blood into Garlic's eye. The demon shifted his head away immediately, snarling before pulling his finger out. Turning back towards him a second later, still holding him in the air, Garlic grinned one last time.

"Goodbye, Gohan."

I did my best. I did everything I could. I failed... everyone.

Raising his hand in the air, Garlic formed a fist as he started to cackle, his tone filled with elation. When it came crashing down, Gohan felt his body break. The impact came at the centre of his mass, the wave of red and black energy that followed rolled through him, as his muscles failed and his bones broke. His already damaged organs, split, and his heart froze in place. Blood spat out of his mouth one time without control, and he was dropped.

When his body hit the ground, he felt his head turn to one side gently. There was no beating in his chest. There was no air in his lungs. Slowly the world faded further, and further away.

The last thing he saw, was a man clad in orange, appear at the base of the entrance, his golden hair reaching into the air.

Dad.

And the world slipped away, falling into nothingness. The world left him, as much as he left the world.

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Author's Notes:

Geeze, where to start? Firstly, I didn't ever intend for this chapter to be this long, but this was something I really, really wanted to do as one piece, even if its too long. This is something I felt that needed to be done, because its not just about Gohan and Garlic, it's about Gohan and Pan, Gohan and Garlic, and even Vegeta. It's about the past and the present. It's about Gohan in many ways, paying for what he's done in his life, but also trying to do his best to redeem himself. It's different than with Turles or Broly. Garlic isn't his father, and Garlic isn't some beast born from a man who twisted Gohan.

Garlic is the first creature Gohan ever harmed, he's the first one whose life he ruined. Even if Garlic is a monster himself, he's the beginning of where Gohan's life turned to violence.

A lot of the action scenes, I really wanted to describe. I wanted to describe how the fighters perceived the world around them, I wanted to describe how things interacted with the environment. And I of course, wanted to describe just what was happening beyond the world of the physical. I really tried to distance my writing from repeating the same 'things' over and over, but there will be a bit of repetition, given the size of the chapter.

The music that inspired me to write this, really falls into several camps. When Gohan faced off against Garlic, I listened Where by Ultraspank, but that's almost his theme song in this story. Touched by VAST was used a lot as well.

For general writing, I listened to the Interstellar soundtrack, it really put me in the right perspective to write the big, massive things that were happening. I also listened to some of the Bruce Falconer soundtrack for Dragon Ball Z however, namely for some scenes involving Vegeta and some involving Garlic. (*their respective music)

At one point I wrote Garlic to You're Going Down by Sick Puppies as well.

My favourite part to write, was the Dead Zone and its destruction.

I felt that Pan was a bit flat as well, but given the situation, its really hard to bring much more out of her than pure fear. Which is understandable, given she's a child watching as things she can't really explain, happen all around her.

Expect tons of stuff from Pan over this of course. Because nothing says Trauma like what the last scene did to her. Her hero, the father she never knew, getting brutally beaten and murdered basically in front of her? Yea.

Also, for power level people, Garlic never surpasses Gohan, he never gets close to it. He strikes Gohan down, only after Gohan has exhausted all of his power. Near the end there, as I wrote, Gohan just doesn't have anything left to give.

This Chapter was originally going to be the action climax of the entire story. If you haven't left a review yet, or just don't normally review, I would most definitely like to ask you for your thoughts. This is something I put a massive amount of work into. Normally I hate asking, but this time I most certainly don't, not after the amount of time I've put into this, lol

So uhm... Please Review and Favourite!

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Reviewers:

If you see your review name as blank, and its a guest reviewer, this is because I consider any questions or concerns you raise, addressed in prior review areas.

Pyromania101: He's not even dead yet my friend. But don't worry, the next chapter is going to be excellent. I've not got a name for it yet, but I think I'll want it to be something akin to "The Return of the King" or "The Return of Kakarot"

LazyBlueGuy: You're welcome.

Random Reader: One chapter left to go.

Guest1: Thanks.

Tomorrow4eva: Yep, Vegeta's got a piece of the puzzle so far. We'll see if he can come up with the rest of it.

Perfect Carnage: I'm not really sure if Garlic were turned into Candy, he'd repair himself. And I dunno if Buu would inherit his immortality, if only because if you atomize Buu completely, you'd probably seperate Garlic from his form, meaning he'd lose that property. To answer the next point.

There is another OC villain coming. In fact, they are coming next Saga. One Canon, and one OC. Everyone will be really surprised to see what's going down.

MaxPain32: Pan didn't save the day. Lol

DarkKnightShiva: I hope that you enjoyed this violence filled psychoticfest of a chapter.

Marocrache: I am from Canada, eh? I'm also a dual citizen with New Zealand. G'day mate.

Asweetlilpixie: Hopefully this chapter changed your opinion, but who knows? :(

DBZfanthefirst: Thanks.

AlphaShenron: Actually, the Catalyst may be getting an update soon. I've been plotting out Chapter 45 for it. No immediate promises however.

VuvuzelaHero: I shared a bit of the Spotlight with Vegeta again this Chapter. The Final Flash was incredibly fun to write.

Guest2: I actually kinda think this was a bit of a veiled threat, at least it seemed that way to be. So uhm... yea. Have a good one I guess?

Guest3: This is Dragon Ball, there are tons of Sues. Do I think Gohan is one? Probably by another genres standards. Though I would like to be clear, I try to do my best to divorce myself from the characters I write. Whether that be Raditz in The Catalyst, or Gohan in The Long Road. I'm really, really, not a lot like any of the main characters I write. To be perfectly honestly, of all the Dragon Ball characters, I probably have the most in common with Yamcha (Ouch :( )

Guest4: It's probably not perfect this time, but I really put a lot of effort into trying to fix the "Than Then" problem.

Brelic: This chapter explained how long it took Gohan to push himself, lol. But I will say that I definitely have been enjoying writing Teh Vegeta the last few chapters.

The Red Hunter: A few predictions came true there, Red, but the outcome I suspect is different than the one you expected.

Chem-Death: Gohan even has issues fighting in this. He doesn't enjoy it really, he only does it now because he has to. He most definitely has that in common with Canon Gohan. That aspect of Gohan plays a big role in the story as well, might I add?

Dead Survivor: Thanks a lot, I hope the rough patch in your life starts getting a bit better. Though on a fun note, Vegeta does play a pretty big role next Saga as well. So do Piccolo, and Goku.

Jericho: Though I appreciate the sentiment, I would like to point out no one should be overtly attacking anyone, especially other reviewers. I will say however, that I would like to convey this one message to people, about my portrayal of Videl.

Videl has been traumatized, and is suffering from PTSD, and several other trauma related disorders

Next: Just because something bad happens to you, doesn't make you a better person than anyone else. Videl's story is far from being told, and I really think people have been very judgemental over her, but I would like to just point out the fact that bad things happen to all different kind of people. It doesn't mean anyone deserves to be treated badly, it just means that these things happen, and also means that some people react differently to trauma than others. This will be the last time I comment on this to reviewers in an open setting.

Guest4: I was psyched to write it. :)

A-Man: I think this chapter answered a lot of your review for me. :)

Triggerhappy: Answered by PM.

Ardee: answered by PM.