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.

72. Chapter 72: Combined Powers

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

The Long Road

Chapter 72: Combined Powers

Brass:

I am me. I am not lost. I am power. I will not let death hold me back. I will transcend death, and this place…

Sitting atop a destroyed mountain of spikes, Brass was left holding his chin in contemplation.

It had to be here somewhere. He knew about it from his own world, Gohan had told him about it. Hell wasn't as inescapable as you thought it was. There was an exit. In this labyrinth of despair and death there was a way out, to escape through King Yemma's very office. Son Goku had found it the first time he'd died. That was his destiny to find it. Once liberated from this nightmarish hellscape, even if dead, Brass had every intention of achieving the power he always dreamed of. This would be how he broke his chains and transcended the limitations of the world around him. Faith, justice, and all the other hollow virtues of lesser beings could be overcome, even the will of the Gods, through strength. Even here, in this place, existed the potential for such things. Outside of this Hell lay a world as vast as the universe. The very afterlife itself lay beyond here, where power could be acquired unrestricted, and a new law could be formed.

As soon as I emerge from this Hell, I will kill King Yemma and cast his ruined body off the side of his little palace and let it plunge into this nightmare.

"This isn't the right way."

Oh, that ever-present irritation was back. The one that made him feel far guiltier and more regretful for his actions. The worst part was that he'd taken credit for helping stop Taro on the world above… but in reality, it'd been this voice in his head. That was what had guided him to give his power to that filthy demon, and to the very man from this world, who was like the man inside him from another. He could still remember Gohan and Goten's twinned attack scorching through him at his last moments. It was hard not to give Gohan a cold gaze sometimes… but the truth was strength. If he'd not been strong enough, this fate was his own fault.

But from here he was going to climb through the ashes of his failure. From here he was going to walk atop the mound of bodies he would make. He would gain strength through the tragic falls of others, and then he would finally be free. Junia and Gohan being with him, even now, was comforting. They would get to share in all of this. Share might've been a strong series of words, but they would all be free of this eternal nightmare.

Unlike Taro, he didn't believe in rebuilding all of reality to fit his image, all he wanted to be was free. Free from this Hell, free from the rules of others, and free from his past. There was such a thing as running away, and there was such a thing as overcoming it. To be strong was to overcome. This was his first step on that journey.

"So," Gohan's voice emerged behind his thoughts. "What exact is the plan here? Find the secret exit, and then what exactly? We'll still be dead."

"But not restricted," Junia pointed out. "Outside of this realm, power can be obtained. And once we've broken free from this realm, we'll be the strongest beings in the afterlife. I suspect that Brass will want to kill the fat ogre king that sent us down here as a starter."

A devilish smile crossed Brass's face as he nodded in turn, sharpening his gaze back towards them. This was the beginning of the journey, not the end. Junia understood, and he always expected her too. That was one of the reasons he fell in love with her in the first place. Gohan however, seemed leery. The same Gohan who was condemned to this nightmare. It wasn't impossible to figure out he was here from his own array of "crimes". It was a stark contrast to his own half-brother, from his own world. Hell, they'd all tortured and destroyed several Ogres so far on their little journey, and he'd yet to see any protests. But now that they mention killing King Yemma, now he gets cold feet?

"Maybe he wants to not end up here again. You know they're going to wish him back."

And I'll be waiting for him, leaving the afterlife's gates unbarred.

"Are you getting cold feet, brother?" Brass asked openly, taking a step to face towards his sibling. "If you are, that's fine. But I would have guessed you didn't want to be stuck here. Even if you get wished back, they'll just throw you back in this cage, you know that. But we can break the cage. That's why we're going to do this."

The other Saiyan remained quiet and didn't respond for a few moments before he looked off into the distance.

"Yea, I get that," he commented. "I've not exactly turned my back on it yet. Once we find the exit, we'll do what we have to."

Giving Junia a knowing look, she managed to give him back a half smile before crossing her arms. Maybe this Gohan would have fit better in their world, then his own. Even the Gohan in his head, who was going to be stuck down here with him if nothing happened, would rather that apparently, than freeing themselves. The system around them was based around punishing for what? Being strong? The strong ruled over the weak, this was just the nature of the world.

Still, the reluctance on his half-brother's part was still there, and it was almost endearing. Except when things came down to pulling the trigger, he needed to know Gohan was onboard. Still, that was an issue fore before they ascended out of this nightmare, once they found the hidden passage. So far none of the ogres had given it up, but they would. The real question was, in the ever-changing landscape of Hell… what was unchanging.

He'd not been here long enough to know personally, yet. Personally, he didn't want to stay here long enough to find out. But he definitely knew someone who did.

"Gohan," Brass remarked openly. "The fire storms that roll through here. They destroy everything repeatedly. New spikes appear, new canyons form, new cliffs rise, right?"

"The fighting contributes to that as well," Gohan remarked off hand. "But yea, that's pretty correct. Why?"

"Where in this place doesn't change?" Brass asked.

"It's all stagnant. We're the ones who don't change," Gohan answered bitterly. "The rocks may move, but they're really stagnant too-"

He was looking at the question in a philosophical way. That was pretty typical of his older brother in every world it seemed.

"That's not what he means," Junia clarified. "Where down here isn't destroyed by the environment? What is unchanging?"

"The fountain of blood, and the orchard a few ogres maintain," Gohan recalled as his eyes traced up towards the yellow sea of clouds above them. "It appears and disappears in the vastness of this place. I've only seen it a few times."

That was where it was going to be. If there was anywhere that a secret exit was, it was going to be in a place that wasn't impacted by this nightmare. It had to be. Either way, at least this was a fun adventure so far.

"You know Gohan, you're a lot harder than any of the brothers I've ever known. The look in your eyes when you grabbed that Ogre by the neck? You were like an animal going in for the kill. That's the kind of Saiyan almost everyone else sees. But for you? It's very fitting," Brass chuckled. "You're still a nerd. Instead of giving directions, you decide to give a speech on the nature of stagnation, I love it. I'm lucky that when you killed me, you didn't start giving me a philosophy course."

There wasn't a response as Gohan's head turned to the distance. The strange detachment he seemed to show was something he was almost afraid of developing if he stayed here too long. It was something he saw hints of when they were first fighting even. Was his comrade in arms lost in his own little world?

"If I had, maybe we wouldn't be doing this."

There was an odd pause which followed. Even Junia seemed to leer at him over the remark. The stillness was born of the fact that he was here with them. If he had some great moral opposition to what they were doing, why was he even here?

"What are his options?"

The familiar voice of the man not looking at him emerged once more in his mind as Brass felt his nostrils flare with annoyance.

"So, what are you trying to say? Are you looking to get out? Are you looking to fight us over it? Without our little brother around, and with Junia here, do you really think you can stand toe to toe with me?" Brass reminded before he felt his voice raising to a shout. "I'm the stronger one. I have the power here! My rules are the fucking law, do you understand me, Brother?"

Turning towards him, Brass stared into the eyes of the man who was his half-brother. There was a coldness behind them, mixed with a fiery passion he couldn't see for himself. Despite the fact his brother was in the inferior position, he couldn't help but feel something cool emerge in his deceased stomach. It was a stare that was daring him to try something.

"Yea, I get you," Gohan commented before gesturing after him. "Let's just get this fucking mess over with."

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Gohan:

It was back to this. Taking orders and doing crimes for his own benefit. It was impossible not to see them for what they were this time. When he'd been alive and slaughtering people, or putting his own men to death, he knew it was wrong but there were always excuses that made it easier. Right now, he was following around his half-sibling from another world, and Vegeta's daughter from that world. They were intending on murdering King Yemma and taking over their lives. And it was something he wanted.

There was that want to be free from all of this. Not just when he was wished back, which he was sure was going to happen, but because when he died again, he would be able to live free in a new life. His death wouldn't be stalked by his mistakes. He wouldn't be left on dry, grey patches of lifeless dirt, and chased by hurricanes of fire as large as the endless horizon and yellow skies. He wouldn't be stuck with monsters and killers, and he might have a chance to see the people he cared about later on, after they passed on.

He'd be able to save himself. All it was going to take was one more crime. Even if that crime was giving him serious doubts. Brass seemed to know that there was a secret passage. But if they were going to use it, couldn't someone else? And the Ogre's they'd been… speaking with… so far, hadn't been as forthcoming as they'd wanted them to be. It was uncomfortable to step back into shoes he didn't think he had anymore. Torturing the creatures had been harder than he expected. Well, at least for him.

"You know, Gohan, you and I are a lot alike. Isn't that right Junia?" Brass remarked, though Junia just seemed to stonewall the question. "Where do you think it all went wrong, Gohan? Landing on the Earth?"

The small chatter was driving him crazy. Junia had been courteous to not try and make this fucking small talk happen. She was a lot like him he expected, wanting to just get this fucking thing over with. And instead for him, he had this Goten-wannabe trying to keep connecting with him. It was obvious that he cared and honestly Gohan could tell that was the case even if he kept masking it.

But what the heck was he going to really say back to him? Hey, we just fought to the death and you didn't take the opportunity I gave you to surrender? Oh, hey thanks for the power! Yep, that's right, I'm a cursed version of your brother, who was apparently a nicer fucking guy than I am.

"Where'd it all go wrong? Well, a few days ago probably, I ran into two washed out corpses that were looking for a way to cheat judgement, and I was fucking stupid enough to go along with them," Gohan sardonically steered his words back into knives, thrusting them back at Brass. "When do you think it all went wrong, Brass? When you didn't take my offer of mercy, so I killed you? That definitely seems to be one of those whoops moments."

There was a wince in return before Brass almost snarled at him. Dust kicked up in the air before his body launched into the air. A field appeared around Junia a moment later as her aura flickered to life and she gave him a smirk, nodding in turn before she took off after him. In a flare of power, a purple aura wrapped itself around his body, reminding himself of the taint of his own aura before he propelled himself after the pair of time and dimension travelling Saiyans.

It was so strange to think he could conquer his fears this way. He was going to launch an attack against the very creatures which just used him to try and save the universe itself. It wasn't fair that they threw him back into this miserable pit. Flying over this wasteland made him all the more resentful, but there was something niggling at the back of his mind. This place was where all the universe's most negative, vile souls went when they were far beyond redemption. He knew thousands of the denizens of this place, many of which he killed himself. He didn't have anything close to sympathy to almost any of them, even his own people. As far as he was concerned, they deserved to be down here.

The worm of discomfort in his mind was given form as it squirmed through his thoughts. If all of them belonged down here, for all their ruthless ventures and crimes, maybe this was his fate as well. Maybe it was well earned, despite all his best intentions. It was something he easily could banish back to the corners of his mind, his entitlement and outrage still running hot as he'd been thrown back down here without so much as a reprieve of any sort on his sentence. Worse yet, he was truly trapped in the afterlife and down here without his own actions now. It was grating. It was infuriating. How could they leave him just locked up down here with this trash?

Even Brass deserved to be down here, but not him. The girl, Junia, he was a bit on the fence on considering he saw her fighting against Taro before, but even she probably earned her place down here to boot. Now he was flying towards a point in the far distance which he could sense, but he couldn't see. He was traversing an endless hell which seemed to travel for an eternity, all so he could break out of this prison and overthrow the very system that would keep him entrenched down here for an eternity. That thought kept coming back to him. Did he really want to do that? Did he really want to do that, despite that big red skinned bastard being a cocksucker and leaving him down here for all an eternity?

Yea, I could go along with killing him.

Of course, he could. He resented the red tyrant. But there were consequences to him acquiring that vengeance. The same as there were consequences to everything. That was something he'd learned, the hard way, throughout his life. Inside of this realm there were animals that deserved to be in a cage. The very creatures which had empowered him to defy Taro, were the very creatures that if ever let loose, would wreak havoc across an entire plain of existence. Did he care? That was the better question. How much did he care about others, versus himself?

The ground beneath him travelled faster and faster seemingly as Gohan's thought felt lost among the yellow clouds which swept by him overhead. This place was a nightmare and he couldn't stand it a moment longer. They'd find this secret exit and do whatever they could to get out of here. If that meant leaving that door open for others and killing King Yemma… so be it. He was never coming back here. Not for any reason. He'd earned his time to be free. Leaving him down here with all these monsters was a far greater crime than any of the one's committed.

Is it?

The voice in his mind was quashed with a furious wall being erected by his mind. It didn't matter if it was true or not. This place… an eternity of this. No matter how much he changed, or whatever he did… and eternity down here. It was too much for him, especially after all he'd sacrificed just to keep his home and family safe.

When their feet impacted the dead, grey soil it sent waves of soft particles flying around them. The lifeless dust scattered through the hollow wind around them as the oldest of the three of them started to walk forward, looking over the fountain of blood at the peaks nearby.

Several Ogres seemed panicked as they turned towards them, as if they could smell their intent.

"Inmates aren't supposed to be around here," one red Ogre with spiked hair announced.

The response was abrupt. Gohan didn't even get a chance to give a snide comment before a blast emerged. A bolt tore through the ogre's chest, leaving him to collapse to the ground in a heap of ruin and gore. The other Ogres, dozens of them, all immediately stepped back in fear.

"There is going to be a golden ladder, to the first Ogre who tells us where the exit is," Gohan's voice emerged a moment later, ignoring the atrocity that one of his cohorts had just made.

The trio of them were best to make an example of the first ones to step up. He remembered that from the good ol' days… An image of a righteous pedestrian appeared in front of his eyes before he'd vaporized him himself. This kind of work wasn't what he was used to anymore. But he needed to play the part.

"Wh-what exit?" Another Ogre spoke up before Junia walked into view, pointing her hand at him as energy began gathering in her palm.

"Last chance," she warned. "I am not spending another moment in this dusty nightmare."

"Well I've got some bad news, but the stay down here is permanent-"

The Ogre never finished his remark before he was blasted in two. The stunned look on the blue Ogre's face was something Gohan had become unaccustomed to after so many years of peace on Earth. In the life he held prior to this, it was a daily stare he hadn't been bothered by. The air filled with red instead of dust for only a few brief seconds before the energy bolt exploded. Bones, sinew, and fat scattered into ever smaller and smaller fragments before a haze of red mist drifted with the smoke, ash, and dust from where one of Hell's gatekeepers once stood.

"What's your name?" Gohan asked as he walked over to the next Ogre, his eyes still bulging from the display of violence which had just been demonstrated.

No one killed Ogres, not typically. It usually meant that you would get hunted down by warriors from the Kai's worlds, the ever-training cowards from above the clouds. There were stories of warriors being tossed into the vortex to the lower levels of Hell for stepping out of line like this. The only problem was, those fighters weren't exactly the king of the mountain anymore. He alone outclassed all of them, and Gohan was in little mood for niceties.

"As you can see, my associates and I are in a bit of a hurry, and patience is running thin," Gohan then added as the Ogre failed to respond. "So, what's your name, friend?"

"F-friend!? Are you crazy?!" the red skinned Ogre shouted. "You guys have no idea what's going to happen once the Kais get wind of this-!"

Grabbing the Ogre's shoulder, Gohan popped it out of its socket while his fingers dug into tough flesh. A horrid scream escaped the creature's lips while the half Saiyan looked around with an air of disinterest, trying to get his message across.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name? What was it?"

Heavy breathing was what was coming from the other creature as a shaky hand reached out, trying to pull his hand off to no avail. The other Ogres were trembling off to the side, their eyes bulging with fear. None of them had the courage, or the lack of sense, to intervene. The Ogre in front of him fell to one knee, looking up with a squinting eye as he tried to catch himself.

"Mez," The Ogre managed.

"Don't tell them Mez!" another shouted before Gohan pointed at the offender without taking his eyes off the red Ogre.

"We know it's down here. We know you know. And I am strong enough to toss every heavenly warrior on this side of the dirt into the next Level of Hell if they have a problem. And my friends here are the same. You are going to tell us. Right now, we're just killing. I really hate torturing."

And that was true, he hated torture… Just how far was he falling because he was stuck down here? He was over all of this. This was beneath him. But how far beneath him was it? What had all these new-found morals gotten him? The familiar ethical struggle returned to him. This was wrong, and he was going to still go through with it.

"T-torture," Mez choked. "Wh-what do you think you can do to me?"

"Killing your friends in front of you is usually the first step," Brass remarked from behind, before turning his gaze to the other Ogres. "Usually by something painful, like blasting their limbs off and choking them to death."

The Ogre was openly sweating now. The panic in his features was strikingly familiar. The same eyes of terror had been written across countless victims of his prior life. A life he wanted so desperately back, but even that wouldn't be an escape from this nightmare. The yellow clouds above were all it took to remind him, as well as the lifeless gray dirt, that this would be his prison for an eternity unless he acted now. He forced him to keep his eyes on his as if by force of will alone. The terrified creature couldn't move almost beyond the tremble that was clearly moving through his body.

"It's… It's between the two mountains that way," the red skinned Ogre finally remarked, turning his eyes away before he pointed.

Relief washed over Gohan as he felt himself just relax. Tension loosed from his shoulders before he looked up at the yellow sky above thankfully. Not only had his new lease on an afterlife begun, but he could stop this sad, but necessary interaction.

An explosion of energy announced itself behind him with a familiar crack echoing through the air. Staring ahead instead of at the clouds, Gohan felt the hair on the back of his neck go up. There was something about killing people, even when they gave you what they wanted, that bothered him in a way that always bothered him, even when he was guilty of the offense. The air, normally stale, seemed to taste of the burning smoke of a dying city as his mind flashed back to the numerous crimes, he participated in.

The red Ogre in front of him jetted back before screaming and fleeing as several others launched after him, the mix of blue and red went running for cover. Behind him, he sensed Brass and Junia powering up to reengage their fleeing adversaries. Was this who he wanted to be? He would free himself to become a prisoner all over again, wouldn't he? The interrogation, the killings, it was a return to a life he left behind… and that he struggled to find his footing on again.

In a blur of motion, Gohan's body dematerialized before he appeared in front of the duo as they reached out their hands and began gathering energy to finish the Ogres off.

"That's enough, they told us the location," Gohan demanded, staring at the pair with renewed resolve.

"Loose ends," Junia remarked. "Loose ends lead to failed operations. We shouldn'tleave any of these things alive before we move on to the primary target. What if they get word ahead of us? Don't be a fool an idiot, you of all people should know how this works."

Brass didn't bother reasoning with him, firing the bolt from his hand. The combined energies of two beings, one of which was seemingly one of his doubles, launched towards him. Reaching out his own hand, Gohan's skin felt the familiar sensation run underneath his skin of approaching energy. The disruption in the energies around him caused the aura which surrounded his body, not made manifest to the naked eye, to swirl with the approaching energy. When it contacted his palm, energy crackled from the purple bolt as the air around them whipped up into a storm, sending gray particles into the air as they were torn free from the ground. Everything told him this power should have been greater than his own, even in this untransformed state. The energy flowing through his body responded to the bolt naturally, keeping his breathing regular as he felt his own features flinch into a small amount of discomfort before the bolt started to resonate as Gohan pushed his own power back.

I don't understand. This energy wavel should feel… different.

Focusing his energy, Gohan tapped into the orb, before it simply cancelled out. The bolt disappeared into fragments of purple light which died around his fingers before washing away in the gray sand which glided around them. As soon as it did, all the force keeping the debris in the air seemed to halt in its dance around the trio, before it came cascading down to the familiar, dead earth beneath them. He resisted every instinct to look at his hand, instead keeping his eyes on his sibling and his cohort. It was almost like staring at the jaded, and angry Goten he knew, or at least who he knew before he'd been back for the last time. Because right now he could sense just how much his half sibling wanted to kill him on the spot.

"How did you manage to stop that without transforming?" Brass demanded, his eyes dangerous as he seethed. "You weren't strong enough to deal with that when we were alive-"

Gohan almost turned out Brass before he looked towards Junia's wary eyes. The fact she didn't say a word was telling. She had thoughts on the situation, and he suspected she knew better than either of them what had lead to their brief encounter being uneventful. Something had changed since he'd died again, or even before. Or at least since he'd been sent back to this miserable nightmare. Looking at his own hand finally as he turned it towards himself. The pathways in his own body felt wider, more open somehow. He felt strong, and he didn't understand fully why.

"I was still dead up there," Gohan commented finally. "Meaning my power shouldn't have changed… But let's not look a gift-horse in the mouth. You want to fight me, Brass? I can fight you again if you have a problem with how I do business. I gave them the chance to survive, you don't get to just kill them because you choose to after they gave us what we wanted. I don't care if they're loose ends, because loose ends won't matter after we do what we came to do."

I can free myself…

And remain a prisoner forever…

The words whispered in his mind, and for a second, he could have sworn he felt his heart beat as if it were alive. Was this who he was going to end up being? It wouldn't stop fucking bothering him! It wouldn't leave him alone!

The conflict in his blood and mind, and the conflict which seemed to let his heart phantom beat in his chest, came to an immediate halt as Brass seemed ready to lay into him again… but that all stopped in one stark noise.

Clapping emerged above them as Gohan felt himself freeze as a familiar, an all too familiar power emerged. Looking up towards the source of the noise, Gohan felt a lump form in his throat as his pupils shrunk in his eyes while they focused with laser precision on the monster now floating above them.

"Taro," Junia finally spoke up first, her own voice hoarse as she found it first.

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Taro:

This was the prison the Gods thought they could keep him chambered within. A prison of yellow clouds and gray sand. A place where the air turned to fire, and the only water to be found was composed of blood. A den of monsters left to torment one another. But they could never understand that he was the king of the monsters. This was a dystopian nightmare, but it was teaching him so much more of himself than he could have imagined. In his deaths down here, amongst the flames, he could see himself in a utopia of his imagination. The perfect world which had been denied to him opened his eyes to the possibilities of a world without Gods… only himself. The vacuum he felt in existence itself seemed filled in the minutes between his dead and undead states within this prison designed to contain him.

A prison with an exit. He had come across his loving siblings and dear cousin hours ago, sensing their power. In his diminished state, reduced of his knowledge and power… Taro was still more than a match for the three before him. The existence of so many of his 'lost pieces' within him had opened the pathways within him during their stay. Power flowed through him and his body, as if it and his spirit contained a muscle memory remembering the power he once tasted. A fraction of the power he once wielded, made him the most powerful being in all the afterlife. Beyond these three, towards the two mountains in the distance and the canyon between them seemingly ascending to the heavens above, was his gateway towards the Utopia he dreamed of. Above there, he could reacquire all that he lost. He could sense them all now still within the afterlife. King Yemma would die by his hand first, and then he would feast upon the banquet which awaited him. Only he would take things a step further this time and feast upon Kakarot, Vegeta, and anyone else who he needed something from. Once he reacquired his true self, and more, he would find the God of Destruction and his attendant, before he ascended past time and space to Toki-Toki City to stand at the gates of fate itself to rewrite the universe and time in the image of the world he always wished for.

Then he could stand atop Utopia… and he could be whole for the first time…

The smile that stretched across his lips right now reflected the joy he could sense brimming inside of him at the sight of the three hounds that had sniffed out the exit. There stood Junia… Brass… And Gohan. Two arch traitors, and a being he regarded with so much contempt, that when he rewrote existence, he would rewrite his own memories to forever forget him. The universes, all of time, would strike that obnoxious creature from the record, even his own. They would be an obstacle to him before long. The longest he could use them for was the initial destruction of King Yemma… and perhaps as a valid distraction for the Kais and other would be interventions as he reclaimed what was his. Even now he salivated as he could taste the souls which had escaped his grip. They were very much his… they were apart of him, regardless of the truth of it.

I can't remember a thousand lifetimes that were once mine. They reside just beyond the reach of my mind, a hollow vacuum with the phantom memories of pieces that were once mine… I relish their return…

When his body slid from the sky, almost slithering through the air before his feet planted on the dead ground beneath him, he wished his lungs could breath in the stale air around him, in order to taste it and relish it for the sake of his own experiences, before finally casting it aside after these last few weeks. The fools of this realm had proved themselves ample… practice for his diminished power. The ocean of power which had once been at his fingertips was now a lake. A puddle on the face of this universe, seemingly.

But it was a lake which he could drown any being alive in.

"Beloved sister," Taro's words rang hollow, before he cast a snake like stare at Brass, who seemed to recoil nervously at his gaze. "My ever-loyal brother. What happened to us… we had been once so great…"

"You lost your mind," Junia's voice cut in immediately, defiance replacing her fear as she prepared herself subconsciously for battle. "And you fucking used us. You were going to discard us at some point, and you were totally out of control. We'd been great until you decided to turn yourself into a fucking rabid dog because mom didn't love you."

Real anger rose in him as he gave his treacherous sister a cold stare for her cutting words.

"Time and space trembled with our arrival in universes. Timelines lived and died at our approach. And all you can say is that I was so wounded because a blue haired witch didn't love me? I got over that when I strangled the life out of her."

Now it was her turn to look poised to kill him. The remark cut as deeply as he'd wanted it to. This was where they'd arrived at as a family… petty squabbling. The only reason it'd not come to violence yet was because his loving family knew his power superseded their own. Gohan was already very much trying to plot how to get him out of the picture he was sure.

"What do you want, Taro?" Brass managed finally composing himself and hardening his gaze.

Little brother… always so adventurous. To think father was going to have you inherit everything if he died. How… pedestrian. All you'd break out for is your own hedonism and self indulgence. I would leave this place to turn the universe into a palace of wonder…

"It so happens I want the same thing as you, brother," Taro commented, before gesturing his eyes and brows towards the exit to the Hell they all mutually found themselves in. "Perhaps we can find a humble means of setting our differences aside…"

The response wasn't as diplomatic as he'd hoped. Raising his hand and opening his palm, he absorbed the impact of Junia's fist in the palm of his hand, before his fingers closed over her knuckles, locking the limb in place. The attack had been swift, but really quite hopeless. The look of pure hatred in her eyes spoke volumes of how much their relationship had changed since their confrontation on the Earth only a few weeks prior.

Truth be told, he wanted to choke the life out of her slowly. She had the same disgusting look Vegeta had about him when they'd had their fateful battle. The arrogant Saiyan Prince had thought himself his equal, if only because he had defeated him in a weakened condition. The moment he returned to his full stature and returned to the world of the living, he would pull Vegeta apart piece by piece. For the moment, he had his surrogate here to take his place. A smile slipped past his mask when he locked his eyes to Junia's, letting their hatred bleed between the two of them.

"I see you haven't forgiven me yet… Don't worry sister, I've not forgiven you either."

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed her arm back, her entire body following within a second before he opened his other palm as several burning red orbs launched after the sister he once sought to have for himself. In a pace of speed which was far faster than Junia, Brass interjected himself in the dispute the two of them had been having. Moving his head to one side, Brass's fist sailed past his head as Taro's smile didn't fade.

Brass's eyes were written with confusion, obviously because he was still a merged… fused being, and he was not.

"How?" Brass breathed angrily. "I was stronger than you before."

Without taking a second to respond, Taro shifted his form at lightning speed and slammed his knee into his stomach.

"Memory, my body has tasted power far beyond its own and has taken in the memory," Taro informed him as his brother's body lurched forward involuntarily, his frame staggered to its core. "I won't sink back down to the lower level you find yourself at, Brass."

Flexing his right hand, before dancing his fingers amongst themselves, Taro formed a fist before disappearing in a blur of speed, crashing his right hand into Brass's ribs, sending the other Saiyan flying up and back into the air. Pointing his hand up, another orb of red energy formed as he smirked. It was time to discard his siblings, it would seem.

Junia's power hasn't faded yet.

Stopping himself Taro turned his eyes towards where he'd fired his attack, curious to see if Junia had dodged the attack. If she had, he hadn't given her enough credit. Instead of seeing what he'd expected, a familiar glow of red energy was returning to him, like a guided missile returning to its launcher. Sadly, the consequences of that allegory were likely to be just as disastrous. Surprise was written on his features before he leaped to the side in a blur of motion, the bolt missing him only in the final second. Behind him it collided with a mountain of spiked balls, causing the entirety of the mound to disappear into a wave of red light and atoms.

Standing back at his full height, he looked towards where the bolt had gone, before turning back to look towards his prey…

Another series of blasts detonated across the barrens around them as other deflected bolts of energy found their home far away from his intended target. Laying on her side, Junia was starting to get up, flexing her stiff arm as she did. Her form was remotely obscured by a familiar, black haired opponent. He'd deflected his attacks without transforming. Immediately something uncomfortable twisted in his stomach as Taro felt himself swallow. As dead as he was, his body had a drop of sweat roll down his forehead as he analysed the victim across from him.

He should not have been able to deflect that attack… not in that form. I know his limitations of his base form.

Above them, the familiar glow of gold flashed into life as Brass roared with the rise of his power.

This has taken an unexpected turn, I fear. This is my one chance to set things back on track. No holding back.

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Gohan:

Behind him he could hear Junia starting to pull herself up, hearing the almost feral snarl from her. He suspected it was directed towards him, just as much as it was towards Taro. It wasn't hard to understand why, given that she and Vegeta carried a very similar demeanour. The strange sensation inside himself he'd felt since the moment he deflected Brass's continued to flow through him. When he'd contacted Taro's attacks, he had been almost panicked he was going to kill himself in an attempt to save Junia, which would have fucked things up royally. Saving the other warrior was a chance to keep an asset in play, because right now he knew he was about to be stuck in a fight where he was the underdog.

Only after he batted the bolts aside, a sense of confidence filled his chest as he stood his ground firmly. The pathways inside his body felt somehow opened, liberated. The flow of ki throughout his body swirled around him with a grace it'd never had before, as if somehow something had been unleashed which he couldn't understand. Even as Brass transformed above them, leaving the hellscape around them to vibrate as the twinned warrior's souls let their power flow from their body. It was an immense amount of power, even if Gohan had felt somewhat desensitized to the total after his initial confrontation with Taro. The pair of them both seemed underwhelmed as they continued to stare at one another…

It was as if they were the only two beings standing there. The contempt he sensed from the monster across from him was so vibrant he could almost feel Taro's mind reaching into his own, trying to rip at him. The residual power Taro clearly obtained from his previous selves was mirrored with himself, wasn't it? Thousands, tens of thousands of souls had poured their ki through him as a conduit. It'd changed how his own body and soul processed the power in his body. Perhaps it was a memory of power his body stored, a shadow of what had been…

It's almost as if its calling me…

"Taro!" Brass shouted from above. "How about you sink with this!"

A familiar purple glow emerged above as the Calamity Blaster formed in Brass's hands. It was ironic that Brass would have been the strongest being in this nightmare if it weren't for Taro… and strangely, himself. It was something he still didn't understand. In all this he couldn't turn his focus away from the other Saiyan, his cousin from another timeline.

This thing would never go away, would it? Even if he killed him here, all Taro would do was return, and he knew where the exit was. His eyes turned their focus away from Taro for a second, instead staring at the canyon behind him. They were opening X'ar's Cube. The cube which had destroyed supposedly half of the North Galaxy some indeterminant time ago. It was all mythology, but the meaning still held true. They were opening something they didn't fully understand the consequences to. Cell, Turles, and a bunch of relatively weak monsters spilling out into the afterlife as a whole seemed like a bad thing… but this monster? It wouldn't just be the end of the order as it was known now. It'd be the end of everything potentially.

Anger brewed up in his stomach as Gohan felt his breathing intensify.

I'm going to stay fucking stuck down here.

All because some asshole wanted to destroy the universe, and he couldn't exactly let him out. The maddened visage of his adversary remained smiling at him before he turned his attention upward as Brass's energy reached critical mass. It discharged a second later as the orb of destructive power was launched. Taro's eyes flashed before his body exploded with a golden aura. The entire area surrounding them immediately tore to pieces as the power from within was unleashed in what seemed like a heartbeat. The bloody fountain shattered and began oozing an ever-growing lake of blood as mountains collapsed all around them. If this was Taro's full potential, he'd have been surprised, but the Super Saiyan's form was vastly stronger than Brass.

When the deflected the incoming attack with almost no effort, Brass was left floating in a state of complete shock.

"Now, now, little brother. That was very arrogant. You have a tendency to get yourself into these kinds of messes. It's a shame, really."

The strange, uneasy calm that emerged before the Calamity Blaster exploded in the yellow clouds a world away was unnerving. Purple light sucked all the colour out of everything around them, leaving the barren wastes and the light around it only tainted by a purple tint and nothing else. He'd beaten him before without his sword, and Gohan was still measuring if he could beat him again. But even if he could, what was the point? Again, this was Hell, they would just come back, again and again. Death didn't solve any problems in this nightmare.

"You're stronger than him, aren't you?" Junia asked from behind him. "If you are, do something."

The words were sincere, and it was enough to make him turn his head and look at her. Junia, from what he'd gathered, wasn't the kind to ask for help. Really though, they all new the kind of abomination this creature was. Personal honour or glory didn't have much to do with anything. This was it? He was going to be fighting monsters like Taro and the other denizens here for an eternity? And if he ever left, they'd just return and overwhelm the afterlife. Maybe it would be better if he just let it happen now. In the quiet moment he had to himself, his mind traced to the things he was trying to ignore.

Pan, his parents, and the obnoxious people they surrounded themselves with.

The shockwave rumbled over him as Taro disappeared, and appeared in front of the stunned Brass, slamming his elbow into the other Saiyan's cheek. It took less than a second of exchange for the younger Saiyan to be totally overwhelmed, before his body plunged back down towards the ground, his body splashing into the expanding lake of blood.

"Just like it's always been, I am the one in charge here, Brass."

Taro paused before following up, giving him a wary glance. It was the untold truth that they probably both understood. The moment he transformed, Gohan would have made his decision. It was a decision to trap himself in this place, wasn't it? There was a part of him that knew what it meant.

Surrender.

The grew soil around him kicked up as Gohan's power slowly started to rise. He didn't make a noise as his purple aura emerged around him, sweeping past Junia as the other Saiyan was blasted back by the expansion of energy.

Purple flickered to gold as power emerged around Gohan from the depths within. Ki charged through his fingertips before a wave rolled out from where he stood, ripping through the gray soil around him as it cooked where it lay. Dust rose from the ground itself as it was vaporized into the air, the massive rising of annihilated particles only brushed aside by the swirling aura in the heart of the disturbance. Arcs of gold and blue power shot through the charged matter around him while his eyes shifted from black, to a green-blue.

From his perch above, Gohan saw Taro's face turn back into a familiar sneer.

"You," he spat. "I hate you. The asinine remarks. The cold demeanour. The disrespect you have shown me…"

Anger was clearly rising before Taro shot straight to the ground, forgetting Brass or Junia were even there.

Here they were, shadows of themselves, both literally and figuratively, from where they'd been on the Earth only weeks earlier. They were fragments of what they'd both been, but greater than what they'd been before their hosting of so many spirits. Even now, Gohan had theorized that his own increase in power must have come from the fact that his spirit had undergone such an enormous power gain while he wasn't in Hell. It happened while he was on the Earth, in a body that was on loan from King Yemma and Fortune Teller Babba.

"Say something!" Taro finally barked. "Look at you standing there like some mute! After all you've done, even now defying my dreams, you just stare back at me dumbly!"

Gohan's hair arched further up as electricity trailed across his body while his power came fully to the fore. A wave rose up, blasting back at Taro, his cape trailing behind him as he raised his hands to hold himself in place, his own power rising. It was the same paradigm they fell into before. In this moment he felt alive. The same fears that plagued him in his waking moments surfaced in his death. Staring at the monster whose aura flickered violently across from him left the other half Saiyan sensing the doom which Garlic had brought him. All his power could only be used to buy time, couldn't it? The moment he failed once, it was all over. His nostrils flared instinctively as he simulated taking a breath of the stale air around him.

Which means I'm going to be trapped here forever, aren't I?

"I'm not going to waste more time with you," Gohan's voice echoed out over his aura's thrum.

The intensity of the hatred from the man he'd undermined, leading to his death was a very familiar sight. Garlic, Turles, and Broly had all given him that same look at least once before. The air between them went still as their auras pushed air against one another before Taro's anger spiked high enough to overwhelm his better sense.

"Waste your time?"his voice trembled. "I am going to be the only being in the universe once I'm done, and you think I'm a waste of your time? I don't think you remember who killed who! I am slaughter compared to you! I've killed everyone you care about! I've killed you a thousand times!"

The anger behind his words made the air vibrate, almost catching fire with each syllable. However, the rambling barks left Gohan only time to assume his fighting stance, just keeping his eyes on Taro. Tactics and strategies emerged in his mind as he stared down the most powerful being he'd ever faced before he'd been vaporized. A vein almost exploded on the other Saiyan's forehead when Gohan gave a half smirk, before resuming his prior stance and took a step back.

Who cares? There is no need to placate him.

"I can only hear the empty words of a no count right now. I don't see a reason to be serious here…"

Turning his back, Gohan began walking towards the exit calmly, his senses sweeping the area around him before he heard something which he could only say sounded… feral.

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Junia:

What a total fucking mess.

Junia felt sweat roll down the side of her face while she looked at Brass, before she turned back to the two supernovas of energy. Pale shadows of what they were in their battle before didn't seem to matter. She wanted to almost scream at being in the backseat of another battle. She had struggled and fought tooth and nail for every shred of energy she possessed, and these two vermin appear to have taken short cuts. It was more than appear at that even. They both had been fundamentally altered by the massive amounts of ki they'd stolen or been given. It wreaked of their mutual weaknesses, but now she was stuck here to just stare down the cataclysm before her.

Briefly, her eyes imagined herself standing across from Vegeta, instead of the two who occupied her vision. At the very least the Saiyan Prince was always a worthy adversary, even if she hated him. The resentment still burned inside of her, but the reality of what was there was even worse. Her "Half brother" was in the process of fighting Son Gohan, and she had little doubt that he was looking to make an escape from this Hell, the same as themselves. It made sense that he'd thought of the same thing, given he had at the very least the same amount of knowledge regarding Goku's escape from this realm as Brass did. He'd been following them, lurking, waiting for them to scout ahead for his own advantage. He was just arrogant enough to think he could exert his control over them once again. This was the one way out, and someone was going to need to get past it.

Brass's feet landed next to her as his eyes peeled ahead.

"What the Hell happened to these two?" Brass breathed.

Even at the distance that they were, bolts of raw energy trailed over the ground, shredding the dead sands around them, leaving mutilated, blackened glass in their wake. Looking back towards Brass, Junia felt herself swallow. There were decisions to be made now. If they killed Taro, if, they did, he was going to get out of here anyway. That could be a tremendous problem. If he could still obtain the powers and memories of others throughout the afterlife, which she was certain he couldn't in Hell, but was certain he could outside of it… that could be very bad. Freedom for themselves could be in a high risk. In fact, she was certain they would be on his menu to absorb.

No one's safe in paradise.

The exit which Son Gohan now turned towards, walking away from Taro without seemingly a care about his adversary, was the beacon to freedom from this nightmare. But unlocking it would open a box which only doom could come from. This reality was the last one she'd be in, without intervention from Bulma herself, or the Dragon Balls. And being as dead as she was, that meant this was her prison, either in Heaven, or in Hell.

"They've retained a fragment of the energy, or the capacity, of the ki that flowed through them before," Junia theorized. "Thousands of lives with untold power expanding the pathways to the soul. They burn brighter than they ever could have on their own. That wasn't the union of one, two, or three beings. It was a union of something more, permanently altering them. You can almost sense it coming off them."

"Shit," Brass swore, his features hardening. "Well what the fuck are we going to do now?"

She didn't have time to answer before something akin to a feral animal in pain shrieked out from the two figures they were left to watch as if they were mere witnesses. Taro was the centre of the noise, his pride taking yet another assault from Son Gohan. That was their races greatest strength and weakness. They were almost prideful by nature, that was something she'd learned from Turles and Vegeta long before she ever ventured into the ocean of time. A horizontal tornado of energy and gray sand kicked up into the air, blasting towards the target of his shriek.

The gesture was ignored as Gohan continued to stride towards the gaps in the mountain. The dust and energy broke against his aura, leaving him untouched.

Breathing in and out angrily, Taro was left standing there, watching in an outrage as he was ignored. What was shocking was just that. He was being ignored. Junia could only sense the immensity of the two powers in front of her, gauging them against one another was difficult, but it was hard to determine the exact difference between the two forces. The fact Gohan brushed off Taro's attack so effortlessly though… or at the very least was ignoring his power, told her that the difference was enough that Taro was being made a fool of.

Or, Son Gohan himself was being supremely arrogant.

Another arc of energy cast past them before Junia raised her hands to cover herself from the debris and fire kicked up from the bolt.

When Taro launched himself at Gohan, her eyes widened when the other Saiyan turned around, catching his fist in the air before swinging around, snapping the back of his fist and knuckles into her half-brother's chin and cheek. Spit shot drifted through the air as he slid backwards. A wolf's snarl almost escaped Taro before he lunged to strike back at Gohan, only for the entirety of the encounter to freeze seemingly. A wave of ki rippled through the energies around them as Gohan's closed fist slammed into Taro's abdomen, just below his sternum. A lone bead of sweat rolled down Taro's face as his breathing could be heard even at a distance. Well, his attempt at breathing, none of them really breathed anymore.

This confirmed her suspicions on the field of difference in power. It was absolutely remarkable, and also immediately began moving the gears in her mind.

"Junia," Brass said from the side again, trying to gain her attention.

That one is dangerous himself. I saw how he fights. He's not like any of the Gohan's I've seen. He fights like Turles. This world was obviously flawed from the moment we got here, but this makes it only worse. And the fact that he's down here in Hell says enough. Even on the outside he's going to be a problem.

"Junia, what's then plan? Do we make a break for the demon door while they fight? We're still easily strong enough to overwhelm that giant Ogre and his guards-"

"We wouldn't make it to them," she responded harshly, her eyes narrowing on the fight. "A stray attack, or a deliberate one from either of them could kill us and strand us down here for hours or days."

"And why would Gohan attack?" Brass scoffed. "He was on our side."

The nightmare from their own time staggered back, wheezing for a moment before he started to chuckle seemingly, clearly having realized he was dead finally. It was something she was struggle to cope with, all of the urges and natural responses to things were almost just imagined in the mind. It was likely that Taro almost took pleasure in the idea that he now had the same features which allowed Gohan to fight him so long, and through such grievous injuries on the Earth.

"To think, I was worried you were stronger than me," Taro shouted furiously. "Do you not remember? Do you not remember how you staggered through the Hell I delivered to you? Pain is nothing, injury is nothing!"

A glance was cast at her former partner, could he really be this ignorant? Everyone here was using one another, and she sincerely doubted their deal was meant to be long term, despite how 'open' everyone had been with one another. Worse, if Gohan was trying to keep Taro from making an escape, it'd attract other attention. Any number of hellish abominations from billions of years of history which had remained ignorant of this particular exit point would descend upon them to view the battle eventually, and if the exit became apparent, just how exactly was Son Gohan going to respond? Was he going to treat them all like he was treating Taro?

A full speed break for the stairs. Or help one of them in the fight. But Taro and Gohan both know about the exit now. This won't lead anywhere good.

"On our side?" Junia said with cold contempt. "And what makes you think he's going to keep up his word with us? Any bargain with a being like him is short term. You can sense it, beyond the other information gleaned from this miserable realm. Did you even bother to discover anything about him while you were down here? The arch traitor may as well be his name."

Even though she had seen Son Gohan sacrifice himself, she knew full well a few minutes of someone's life wasn't always enough to tell you of their behaviour. On Earth, Gohan had sacrificed himself clearly to say people who were important to him. They didn't really fit that definition, this wasn't there Gohan… in almost any respect.

The other Saiyan stared back at her like he did when they were children. It was a strange throwback to a world they'd run away from. They'd lost so much of themselves in the worlds they'd travelled to. Killing friends and family, or other beings of unknown description, across every timeline they stumbled across.

There was a half snort from Brass finally before he looked back at the battle.

"Because he offered me a second chance when he didn't have to," Brass said honestly. "The same one Vegeta offered you, only I didn't take mine."

His aura flared a moment as he began gathering energy and she began to realize they weren't going to make a break for it. Or at least he wasn't. The decision had been made, it would seem.

Sentimentality is a dangerous trait. It'll do nothing but drag you down.

Her own aura flickered before she turned her attention back to the battle at hand, hearing Taro roaring. Each blow he was striking out with was blocked, one after the other in rapid succession and the strain of the attacks were beginning to show. He didn't have the patience necessary to overwhelm Gohan, even with the enhanced durability of being dead. There was a greed in how he was fighting, imaging where he wanted to be, rather than where he was now.

One of these two freaks is going to be turned loose. I know which one.

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Taro:

Every blow was blocked. Every single attack was being brushed aside as if he was nothing more than an annoyance. Worse, Gohan was predicting his movements, clearly having memorized his main methods of attack from their previous battle. With a furious kick, Taro's leg was caught on Gohan's forearm as the two froze in place. The hopes of just waiting for a slipup was pointless. Despite the gravity of his own power, he was substantially behind Gohan's. They were connected now, he and this other half breed. Their mutual hatred connected them, as well as the nature of their current strength. To have housed so many within them left them changed. Their eyes had met with the Super Saiyan intensity he expected. His own teeth were clenched together in his frustration and hatred.

Not only am I a shadow of my former strength, I am a shadow of my own fighting abilities. All of those Trunks… all of myself… all those pieces contain the knowledge and techniques I would use to overcome this monster.

The Tri-Beam, Multi-Form, Burning Attack, Galic Gun, and myriad other abilities had been stripped of him along with his power. The idolized vision of himself was shattered, and now, despite still retaining the marks the other Trunks had left in his soul, he could not depend on the shadow of his strength along. Something inside of him felt real hatred swell within his chest as he felt his resentment towards Gohan and himself grow.

"You know you can't hold me forever. Nor will you be able to hold me once the other predators of this realm begin to circle this delicious, hidden spot. Kill me if you can, I will only return, won't I?" Taro spat… But he enjoyed throwing the words at Gohan.

The words were enough to get a real response from the other Saiyan who'd so callously ignored him and downplayed his threat at every turn. To be thought of as so inferior, and to have his inferiority displayed so brazenly in these last moments of battle, left a sour taste in his mouth. It was as if he was eating hot sand. He could almost feel it grinding in-between his teeth and gums as he did all he could not to snarl.

Throwing his leg back finally, Gohan resumed his stance with his arms at his side, though the intensity of the hatred in his eyes was rising.

"And I'll be waiting for you," Gohan remarked in turn, features unflinching and unwavering in the form of almost cold stone. "If that means I can't die down here again, then so be it. But I'm never letting you out of here, even if that means I'm trapped down here too."

There was something about that remark that made Taro almost envy Gohan. To care so much about saving the people he loved, as he clearly understood Taro's plan without it being dictated to him so openly, was truly the signs of a good man. Hidden within the twisted effigy of Son Gohan, was the soul of the same Gohan of his world, even if hopelessly warped. It was quite a quant thought, to stand here as an eternal guardian to the last gate of Hell. Even Gohan must have realized that the odds of him never making a mistake were impossible. Even now Taro could sense dozens of powers coming here… no, hundreds… perhaps even thousands.

Chaff that would undoubtably discover the entrance for themselves, or that he would reveal it as such. Once away from this realm, they too could be apart of his menu. Consuming Cell would be something he'd find ironic… but the others. All of their thoughts, their power, and abilities would be at his fingertips. It would allow him to wade through the afterlife reassembling himself. Even now he could see his victory as his own nerves calmed. Lowering his own guard, he smiled at Gohan, who clearly would be able to sense what he did.

"Shall you tell them, or shall I?"

Pain exploded in the side of his face as Taro's body plunged into the gray ash and soil behind him. Dozens of metres of soil piled up around his body, leaving a new hill as his resting place as he travelled. The ground scraped along his back, tearing at his cape, shredding it and utterly destroying it several seconds late.

Snarling as he climbed to his feet, Taro rubbed his jaw from where the blow had landed, it'd been fast enough that he'd barely been able to follow the attack when it came. This was his avenue to victory. He would stride through the pain and indignity of this to achieve his dream. Even if he wasn't the only being in existence… he could change that, couldn't he? He could still make his dreams a reality. The world could still be his to mold. Smiling broadly as he stared up at the power he sensed looming just above his immediate view, Taro wiped the last bit of blood from his lip.

"I see this is a sensitive issue for you. I told you before, Gohan… we don't need to fight-"

This time the blow landed from above. He felt his shoulders and back flex inward before his body hunched forward as Gohan's axe handle smash hit him from above. His knees buckled as well. Curved walls emerged around him as the ground beneath him formed into an inverted dome. The pressure from the energy released alone would have shattered almost every adversary he'd ever faced prior to his encounter on this Earth. His entire body continued to tremble as it reverberated with pain. The resonance of the blow and the energy that it carried with it had made his bones themselves almost feel as though they were going to come apart.

In his own estimation, Gohan was at least a quarter or third stronger than he was, just like he had been on the Earth. There was clearly no padding his attacks either, they weren't testing one another for weaknesses, or for new techniques.

… If only I had my sword…

Focusing his energy, Taro lunged upward, striking out at his attacker with a vicious uppercut. Gohan's hand caught his fist, absorbing the force as his arm slid back, the two arms trembling as they came into a test of strength.

He was unable to block Gohan's punch in return. It landed in the same part of his abdomen as before, causing himself to gag unthinkingly from the impact. It felt like the fist had passed through his body itself. Before he could recover his other hand went limp as Gohan's hand let go, before a blow cracked into the side of his skull, before the other shot up, connecting a short uppercut with extreme control and force. Blood and spit shot into the air as Taro felt the enclosure that was his skull almost crack from the impact of the blow. With a whoosh in the air, Gohan's body then twirled into a spinning roundhouse kick, catching him in his exposed throat. Muscles in his neck constricted as they were pulverised, along with his esophagus. Blood pooled in his neck before his body shot into the side of the huge crater his body had formed only seconds earlier, cracking into the side.

"I don't think you're going to be telling them anything, for now," Gohan remarked, pointing his hands up, energy beginning to gather.

A familiar glow of purple washed over him as Taro swallowed hard, wincing as he did. He had a broken rib, his neck was injured, and he was fairly certain the vision in his right eye was blurred.

But not gone.

Spitting blood out as he dragged himself to his feet, Taro saw the power gathering at close range.

"CATACLYSM CANNON!"

There was a flash of purple in front of him, and Taro throw his open hands forward, focusing all the energy he could marshal to his cause.

My dream will not be delayed, nor denied.

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Gohan:

The apocalypse unfolded before his eyes in front of him as a dozen kilometres of the gray ground in front of his wave vaporized, before the horizon of Hell beyond, the endless realm of misery and destruction, turned purple in a flash of light. His eyes remained locked in place, staring forward as he sensed his own energy beginning to fade in the distance.

Two figures landed at the edge of the crater behind him.

"Well, you didn't seem to need any help," Brass observed, looking almost shocked.

Turning his head slightly, Gohan cast a look towards the two Saiyans behind him.

"Watching my back?" Gohan asked bluntly.

"It was either do that or leave, we thought it best to make sure that our friend didn't follow us first," Junia remarked. "Though that problem isn't going to go away in the long term, I'm guessing."

The ground in front of him was still steaming from the energy. Brittle, black glass was paved like a highway in front of him, lining the entirety of the corridor his attack had burrowed into the side of the crater. Molten 'earth' lay under it, allowing the toxic fumes to rise. It was his ears that picked it up before his eyes or other senses did. The crack of the glass in the familiar rhythm of slow footsteps. The burning ground left enough cover for him to see the silhouette of the figure in question. When Taro came back into view, he saw his black hair and human-blue eyes shine through almost immediately as the other Saiyan barely remained standing.

Falling to his knees, the sizzling sound of his flesh burning on the surface of the paved terrain echoed past the near silence that fell over the area. He couldn't even see his features.

Better to leave him like this than kill him for the moment. Killing him just means he'll return at full strength.

Still, it was going to be best to put him out for a while before resuming their… discussion… over the use of the exit. And if he put him out, he could at least try to bullshit the others, for now, about the existence of the exit and buy himself some time to figure out what to do. He knew something would have come up with this whole fucking escape, there always had to be something. He'd say life kept on throwing him bullshit, but he was dead, so how would that work?

Stopping in front of his opponent, Gohan took an assessment of the exhausted, beaten form in front of him. Armour was damaged, his head was hanging, and there were the typical burns covering any exposed skin across his body. He'd just managed to survive the attack, and it probably worked out best this way. Closing his right hand into a fist, Gohan measured up Taro for the knockout blow before he almost heard something whisper from his adversary.

"Too late."

Too late?

Crack.

The whip like noise echoed over the hellscape. It was very obvious who it was just from their power signature alone. Once it would have been immense compared to himself, before he'd discovered the point of his origin. Standing at the top of a nearby cliff was none other than Frieza. The alien proceeded to take a bow upon his eyes finding their way to him. This as a problem, and he was going to need to solve it now.

"We meet again, Monkey," Frieza chuckled. "Tell me, did you enjoy receiving my power to defeat this pitiful being? And are you enjoying extracting a revenge for an eternity? Or were you merely introducing him to the hierarchy of our honourable community?" Frieza question echoed out before he narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Or is this something of a private affair?"

Disappearing in a blur of motion, Gohan landed in front of Frieza a second later, opening his palm in front of him. The white skinned creature, once his master, stepped back in shock, his eyes widening as the purple glow of the gathering energy in his hand coalesced. A significant power, though many times weaker than his own, appeared almost immediately next to him. Energy which had remained submerged rose to the surface before he sensed a wave of kinnect energy and ki come barrelling towards him. All of that energy and velocity was focusing into one point at the tip of a foot before it came crashing down into his cheek.

He'd not been paying enough attention. That was what he determined before his body shredded through the bottom of the cliff and made its impact into the ground below. Blue-green eyes stared at the yellow ceiling above his existence. Cell had just kicked him in the head with all of his power, and it'd hurt, but that was about all. The tactical mastermind of his previous battle with the other members of Hell had decided to enter into his affairs.

And it looked like hundreds of others had clued in as well. Their power levels were now emerging all around him. Ironically, almost all of them had been responsible for feeding him the power he'd needed to fight Taro before. They were responsible for increasing his power in his current state as well. It was an arrangement that neither of them expected to carry on longer than it had. Now he wasn't quite concerned about being outmaneuvered, just simply because that attack would have left lasting damage on him before, and right now he felt some pain, yes, but it was far from impactful.

"Protecting Frieza, that's out of character," Gohan remarked.

"I'm going to need him to escape this place, you understand," Cell's voice echoed out, before a devious smile crossed his features.

I've not sensed him at all though. There is no way he was trailing us too. And he decides to intervene now? They must know I've been watching the exit…

Atop a mound of spiked balls, just at the edge of his vision, Gohan could see a Cell Junior dancing atop the tallest ball, making faces at him whilst apparently laughing. Narrowing his eyes on it, he sent a wave of ki through the air as he did. The entire top of the mountain exploded in a conflagration of explosive force.

Snitch.

Turning his attention back to Cell, Gohan focused only a portion of his immense energy. This was hardly going to be more difficult than last time. All of the 'bad' guys of this part of Hell were not enough to stop him before. Now? They couldn't even compete.

Bojack landed near Cell, though there was obviously no sign of Dabura. They were even down a man. Were they serious?

"Why didn't you try to slip out while Taro and I were fighting?"

"Do I look that stupid?" Cell chuckled. "Besides, in your current state you would have killed me before I even had a chance to move towards the escape. We all have realized that for days as my Juniors have been following you. They listened to your every word. Your little alliance and your escape plans were very fascinating. I think I will kill King Yemma first when I escape here. That smug red fool certain had a lot to say to me the last time we met. I wonder what he'll say when I torture him for every moment I've been trapped in this wretched wasteland?"

Something's wrong. They're up to something. They're always up to something.

"And to think, I'll be walking about the Earth once again… and soon. Isn't that great Gohan?" Garlic's voice emerged.

Closing his eyes patiently Gohan almost felt his head explode from frustration. The deranged fucking midget had to be here too. What else were they planning to do? Hit him with pillows? They would have sensed his power. Were they just going to pretend if they tried really hard they could put the genie back in the bottle? They'd turned him into the force he was now by lending him their power. Now, even without that, his strength had multiplied far beyond anything they could approach.

And of course, Garlic was emerging behind him.

"Is this all you idiots could band together?" Gohan scoffed. "All of you together couldn't beat them," he pointed at Junia and Brass. "Let alone me."

"Oh, look how sure he is of himself," Frieza chuckled. "Does he really think that we'd be here if there wasn't a plan?"

He could sense the others come to his flank as more of Hell's warriors, creatures which had been his allies, began to emerge from this pit of an existence. Bojack and his gang, other Cell Juniors, and the beginnings of a sight on Saiyans and Frieza force members. He felt himself sneer when he saw a familiar face in Slug emerge as well. There was no sign of Dabura, but he could sense Babidi's wretched stench around here somewhere as well.

The only problem was, there were more. Turles's gang, a group of unfamiliar faces, were beginning to emerge, as well as several sets of things that were clearly loyal to Garlic Junior, he remembered at least a few of them. What a lovely reunion they must have had before they decided to get maimed and killed down here. The only problem was, the numbers were growing. These were the beings who'd leant him his power, save for Turles and Dabura. Thousands of creautres he'd never even met. In the distance huge monsters emerged, their huge forms writhing with strength and agony from their existence down here.

"You see, we all realized a very interesting idea, that together, we were strong enough to defeat your little friend Taro. What do you think? Do you think we're now strong enough to defeat you?" Frieza continued, his smile becoming ever larger. "So, you can either get out of the way, or you can be crushed, before we escape this miserable nightmare once and for all!"

There was the sound of footsteps behind him as Taro and Junia assumed defensive stances.

"Well, I never thought I'd be fighting on the edge of Hell to stop a bunch of monsters from escape. Even after all those worlds I've seen, this is new."

Junia's voice interceded Brass's commented.

"We strike now. Don't let them get any more organized or settled."

Power flared as her aura expanded, waves of force rolled off her before she lunged forward, blasting past them in a direct line towards "Lord" Frieza.

Here we go.

A second later, there was a flash of light surrounding him as Gohan raised his arms. Hundreds of ki blasts combined in a single wave from various sources of inadequacy. As soon as he broke his arms open from his guard, he cast the waves aside, standing as if he were a cliff ignoring the waves of the ocean.

His body blurred into attack as the denizens of Hell became to explode or shred to pieces with every attack. The sound of horror and the images of blood and bone burst around him as he tore through the crowd like a whirlwind of carnage.

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Taro:

A tremble followed his every motion still as Taro's body tried to hold itself together. The cooling glass beneath him had calmed from a sizzle to a light hiss. To be brought so low again was underwhelming to say the least. A new challenger had entered the fray, and it was very substantial. Hidden amongst the trash of this Hell he could sense a new power revealing itself. It'd been concealed,deliberately keeping its power lowered. Which also meant that the melee between his most despised rival and his dear siblings against these denizens of Hell was going to be more in his favour than he originally believed. It was unique among the powers there.

Which one are you?

And the one he spied was someone he'd never have guessed. A being he'd encountered perhaps what? Twice?And a miserable failure of a weakling as well. That was the part which fascinated him the most. This universe had regurgitated a being like that into a fortress of iron and spite. There was no way it'd acquired its power before its death as well. Which of course only meant that it'd somehow acquired it down here. So, the question became how? No training could acquire power down here. Feeding power into one person? But where were the other sources?

Fusion perhaps?

A smile slowly crept across Taro's face as he looked on. A struggling leg finally started to step into the glass as he tried to rise from his knees, but it was almost no use. The damage his 'body', this interpretation of it, had sustained was too much for him to re enter the battle. Now of all times would be his moment to strike. The two powers would come into one another's orbit, and shortly, which would give him the keen edge. Better yet… it could give him the edge to escape this place.

But there is always escape after Son Gohan is killed. I wish to watch it with my own two eyes. If I could feel it with my own two hands around his cursed neck it would be preferable.

Junia and Brass likely had no clue what dwelled in the hoard around them. Bodies began exploding as Gohan shred through the hoard of lesser beings, many of which were likely his old compatriots even. That was amusing enough in and of itself. The blood and broken bodies provided him with more than just idle amusement as he tried to will himself back to his feet. It provided him with something close to satisfaction. Violence was something he was far from averse to. Even if the being he despised most in the world right now was doing it, it was certainly wonderful to watch. Each body which was punched through, kicked in half, or exploded, was another moment to relish an art-craft. Personally, he thought Son Gohan almost too kind in how quickly he was letting their suffering end.

Something I will not do when I am killing you, Son Gohan.

The sound of someone approaching him from his blind spot behind him left Taro someone bewildered. Who could it be? They hardly had a power rating. Was it one of the lesser pieces of meat? He doubted it, even they would have realized they shouldn't approach him. Was it even an enemy? Down here the likelihood was probably.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" an annoying voice emerged. "Your power is remarkable."

With the tremble still plaguing him, Taro turned his head to narrow his eyes on Babidi.

Well, you might be more useful than I imagined.

The yellow midget's eyes widened when he looked past him, to beyond the crater he now stood in. Taro's own eyes widened as he felt what he knew was inevitable happen. The two great powers, one hiding itself, one pronouncing itself, had finally met. A shockwave emerged behind them, his head turned just in time to look up from his crater to see the blast wave roll above them from where he knelt. The thundering boom which followed rung through his ears as he was left with a whining noise seconds later. He closed his eyes in pain as he felt his body struggle to move even.

"Wh-what was that?" Babidi proclaimed, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"That was the sound of your friends overstepping their bounds."

Powers began to emerge all around them from a distance, all being drawn here to the exit to this realm.

What a wonderfully chaotic little mess. And I must use this moment to take my revenge…

His body was shreeded, but he reached out with a trembling hand, grasping Babidi by the arm. The tiny sorcerer looked back at him in shock.

"The Mark. Give it to me."

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Junia:

With a sweep of her hand, a hundred beings were vaporized from in front of her. Scum mostly, pitiful little rats who were looking to escape just like them, though she suspected that some of the stronger beings, Bojack's henchmen it looked like, had been caught up in the blast. Her head moved to one side as she instinctively dodged, a huge green arm sailing past her. The creature's eyes were shocked as she kicked him through his midsection, bisecting the huge warrior. To her right, she could see Bojack eyeing the carnage as she gave a half smile.

When the green goliath charged at her a few moments later, unable to contain his disdain, Junia's response was simple. There were clear signs of talent in the other warrior's stance and motion, but the gulf of power between the two of them was simply too much. With her arm raised, she blocked an incoming strike, his knuckles pressing into the side of her forearm. There was no sense of surprise or disbelief on her adversary's behalf, only rage. He didn't have time to change his expression however, as Junia really didn't have time to play with her food, and she knew his ki could be overwhelmed if she simply pushed. And pushed, the Saiyan Warrior did.

Shoving her free hand into the other fighter's chest, she infused her ki into the centre of his form, before expanding it dramatically. In a flash, the red-haired beast disappeared in a wave of purple light as his form expanded into light itself. The blast at the centre of it all where she stood swept out in a great deluge of light and force. Hundreds of the damned and cursed were caught up in the light as their screams echoed out for only a brief glimpse of time. The light slowly faded around her as the destruction of hundreds of metres starting from where she stood became apparent as the world seemed to settle.

These thugs honestly thought this was their moment? That this was their chance to escape? It was pitiful. Even now, she'd already formulated the best means to escape the eternal trap down here. Oh, they would take the exit, of that she was certain, but who was to say they couldn't find some means of sealing the exit? Nothing was beyond destruction. This was something she'd become acutely aware of. Power began to manifest nearby her as she felt herself tense. It was way too familiar as she heard a footstep in the grey ground behind her. The hair on the back of her head would have shot upwards had it not already arched with a Super Saiyan Aura.

"Well, aren't you new… You remind me of Vegeta."

The tone was dangerous. She didn't dare turn yet, knowing that would lead to an immediate attack as she tried to assess just how powerful he was in this world. It was an extreme rarity that Kakarot's twin was alive in any respect, she'd learned in her travels.

"And it looks like you and my son are in the midst of trying to leave this plane without me, well, that is very rude, wouldn't you say?"

Her hand slowly formed into a fist.

If he was already here, that meant he'd died up there, and that meant that she was likely to be his superior. And it was such a rarity that he could sense power levels without a scouter. It was a calculated risk, but Junia took one step to the side and spun to meet what she knew would be her attacker.

"Turles," she almost sneered, feeling her heart starting to race as she noticed the look of confidence on his face.

The other Saiyan seemed to eye where she sensed Gohan, before looking back towards her.

"I'm afraid I don't haver the pleasure of knowing who you are in turn," Turles remarked in turn, his form remaining static as he stood like a statue in front of her. "But I am certain that you will make an excellent peace offering to Gohan. I would hate for you all to simply leave me behind… and you are certainly the weakest of the three of you, aren't you?"

Shit, he can sense power levels.

"Why don't you come and find out?"

Opening his palm, Turles stood there for a few more glimmers of seconds before he raised his right hand. His tail curled around his waist safely before he closed his eyes arrogantly.

"I had hoped you'd be a big enough person to admit you are at the back of the pack… Oh well."

A golden aura emerged around him, the world catching fire almost as he transformed. Waves of grey dust exploded from where it sat on the top layer of soil across Hell, before it whooshed towards her in waves. Electricity wrapped around his hair and body as his aura further intensified.

An Ascended Super Saiyan, like herself, stood there.

And she was reasonably sure, she still had the edge.

The only response she gave him was a dash of speed, before her arm shot out to strike at him, a roar emerging from inside her chest as she cut in towards him. When he disappeared from view, his power spiking to the same arena as her own, and she felt his knee slam into her stomach, her body almost lurched before she coughed before she felt his knee vacate the region of her abdomen. The pain there was replaced by a sharp new sensation in her cheek, as she felt a punch, much like the one she'd been aiming to deliver to him, come crashing down on her cheek, sending her flying back, skidding along the wastes before sliding to a halt.

A rising wall of dirt lay behind where she'd finally stopped, her face raw with the ground which had been scraped along it for dozens of metres.

When her face turned up, she felt her anger boiling as she let her mouth and face slowly twitch into a sneer. Walking towards her calmly, the other warrior seemed unfazed by the destruction around them as blurs of speed and bolts of energy were left as his backdrop.

"What kind of warrior are you, girl?" Turles's voice calmly carried over to her even as he closed from a distance, somehow sinking past all the chaos around them and reaching her ears.

In her time across space and time, she'd met many monsters and devils. The silhouette of a Saiyan which walked towards her, reminded her the first true devil she'd met in her life, was still the worst one.

Rising to her feet, Junia prepared to defend herself.

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Brass:

It was infantilizing to be the strongest being in Hell one moment, and be outshined within days by not only the man who'd killed him, but a depowered Taro as well. Every other being here were nothings to him. What did he have to worry about? Cell? Hardly. Even now he could crush the android like a bug with a minimal effort. Who did that leave as a threat? The only beings he could sense here that could even harm him were Gohan and Taro, and Taro was hardly in a position to be a problem after what Gohan had just done to him.

Even if his pride was tarnished, his sense wasn't. Waves of energy shot towards him in all the colours of the spectrum as Saiyans, and thousands of dead warriors fired at him. His body shifted and turned in the air, blurring around each attack as he swept around, keeping only an eye towards the exit of Hell. The massive explosion which had thundered out only a few minutes earlier had cleansed enough of the tide that it was beginning to give him ideas of his own.

Pointing his finger at one figure making for the exit, it exploded in a grizzly display of gore and ki. Dozens more scattered at the sight before he cast his hand out, annihilating another hundred warriors in the blink of an eye, including Nappa as far as he could tell.

He could sense Gohan in a "struggle" with Cell, which he thought was laughable. The Android was fighting coy, but would succumb in minutes he was sure. Landing in front of the exit, he could see the wall of warriors forming, preparing their next battery of attacks. There was a sense which was scratching at the back of his mind as he looked for different powers, there were so many it was hard to grasp. The storm of energy being thrown at him was still impressive, even if from thousands of weaker sources.

Behind it all though, near Junia, there was a familiar power.

Father.

And then there was something else he sensed, this time with his other senses. Vibrations were running through the air from colossal impacts… and he could sense Junia's power flickering.

The bolts of energy being fired at him had long ago stopped in the air, his own ki holding them in place where they stood. Thousands upon thousands of energy waves just slowing until they finally halted in place. Soon the lights in front of him barred his eyes from seeing anything.

Opening his right hand, Brass knew now was the time to clear out the rabble. After the rabble disappeared, he had every intention of saving Junia, even if she despised him for it. The truth was, even if she despised him, she'd been the only woman he'd ever wanted to be with. There was no way to convey this to her anyway, it just meant he was left in the wake of her moving on from him. He knew she still hadn't forgiven him for being selected by her father to marry her. A life left living, or an existence left, only to live in contrast to the will of one person was… hard, to grasp. So much of who she was, wasn't just her opposition to Vegeta, and maybe he was the only one who could see that.

As he felt her power drop violently a second later as Turles's spiked again, Brass felt power flow through his hand as the lights in front of him were washed away in a wave of his own strength. Thousands of dead spirits were caught up in the surge themselves, and feeling them, all simply vanish.

Intervening was something she'd never forgive him for. He knew her too well. Standing here at the gate to his desired escape was like an agony.

"Tell her."

There was a narrowing of his eyes as he heard his guest in his head.

In front of him, the battlefield was cleared. He could still sense Gohan, and he could still sense Junia, and he could definitely sense Turles.

Turles's power spiked to something immense, putting him into contention with himself, and as soon as that happened Brass took off at full speed, internally swearing at himself as his body bound forward several times. Light itself seemed to bend as he pushed himself forward as fast as he could, instinctively letting his training kick in before he reached out, feeling his hand catch a hardened fist in his grasp. Behind him he could hear Junia breathing raggedly, and in front of him he saw a face he'd not seen in years, but one which was all too familiar.

The eyes in front of him were written with confusion as he could tell Turles didn't understand what he was looking at. Brass's own golden hair thrummed as the advanced Super Saiyan form, the third stage of Super Saiyan his father inhabited, flowed with raw power. In raw power, he knew he had the edge over Turles, but it was close.

"Buckle up."

"I didn't need your help," Junia spat from behind.

Turning his head sharply, he couldn't help but give her a cold gaze.

"Quiet-"

Before he could turn back, he already felt the heavy fist come down, crashing into the side of his face. Sliding back several feet, he bumped into the wounded figure behind him, blinking hard once as he breathed out angrily.

"Well, that was your first fucking mistake, old man," Brass snarled.

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Gohan:

In a flash of energy, finally he'd managed to rid himself of the Perfect Android. Standing there with his arms extended, his hands formed together into the Kamehameha wave, Gohan slowly resumed his stance. Turning his attention to the exit, his eyes scanned for Junia or Brass, only to find a destroyed landscape. Some bodies lay strewn about, but most had become simply part of the ash. Taking several steps towards it, he could sense an all too familiar power nearby. A power he had no intention of lettering escape from this realm. No, he deserved to be here, and he didn't deserve to get out. Especially because getting him back here might become a pain in the ass.

"Garlic, come out, I know you're here."

There was silence for several seconds before a familiar figure emerged from behind a spiked ball. The gigantic arms flexed slightly before the demon smirked back at him.

"Are you happy with the gift I gave you Gohan? The connection to all that power?" he chuckled. "I could feel it streaming through my own body. We were connected, you and I."

"Don't remind me, it was absolutely disgusting," Gohan snapped. "Knowing that anything about me is connected to you makes my skin crawl…"

"I know you enjoyed it," the demon chuckled starting to make his way forward. "And it's very easy to repay me. All you need to do is let me walk through that gate over there. A few simple steps. And I'll forgive you Gohan, for everything you've done to me."

"You'll forgive me?" Gohan couldn't help but laugh. "Well, I'm glad to know that you never got rid of your delusional self importance. Goodbye, Garlic-"

Raising his hand to open fire with another shot, he couldn't help but notice there was a grin on the demon's face, but it was almost wreathed in shadow. Something was going on, something he didn't know about.

Turles. I can sense him.

Ignoring the plight of his allies wasn't his biggest concern, as far as he was away… What was the demon up to? He didn't get it… unless Garlic had grown so accustomed to dying down here that he'd started to enjoy it. Knowing the imp even remotely, ruled that possibility out almost entirely. Black lightning crackled along the ground between the two of them as Gohan felt something cold run down his spine. It was a shiver. The connection Garlic had spoken of, seemed to link between the two of them even as they stood there.

The connection which had filtered all of the power of Hell into his body when he fought Taro seemed to almost come alive. Their energies interacted between the two of them as the demon started to chuckle, taking a step towards him, cracking his neck to one side, and then to the other.

"All of these useless rats down here weren't really worth saving. I don't want any of them to escape, if you must know the truth," Garlic admitted. "You and I, Gohan, you and I are the only ones who could have benefited from the power transference. You on the Earth when it happened, me being alive… All of that power."

An aura emerged around the other fighter as Gohan felt himself become increasingly cautious. Fuck, why couldn't things like this thuggish midget just go away? When the black and red aura wrapped around Garlic and he started to howl, Gohan felt the energy roll over him. Memories of circling the Deadzone came to his mind almost immediately. The sensation of being beaten to death wasn't far behind as he felt himself breathe in and out as Garlic's body bolstered with more power than before. His gigantic form bulged ever further as demonic energies crackled around him.

He's strong.

The yellow clouds above them started to swirl, leading to Gohan's eyes tracing skyward for several seconds, before he regarded Garlic again as the creature's howls echoed out further and further. Every second that passed, he didn't find himself worried, or despaired by what was happened. Truthfully, this was fueling his anger more than anything had since he'd come down here. These pissants had ruined his chance to escape this nightmare, and somehow, they thought he was going to let them out? He was just going to roll over for this batch of failures?

When the black aura reached its peak, Garlic stepped forward, his power brimming from his body.

"You'll never be truly free of me, Gohan," Garlic chuckled. "You and I… we're attached now, more than we ever were before. Your power… my power… we share in it."

"Is that all you care about? Me? Getting back at me?" Gohan asked bluntly, his eyes staring through Garlic as he felt the wind pick up around him as ki began to fluctuate in the air. "You're even more pathetic than I thought. Let me make this clear to you, Garlic. You'll never have the same power I do. And you'll never get out of here."

Garlic's look went from the joy of spring, to the depths of winter. The would-be ruler of the universe took a step forward, his chest heaving once as he tried to control his anger. It was easy to see that he just needed one more push, and Gohan was more than happy to help him get there. In the depth of the winter of Garlic's discontent, the half Saiyan didn't flinch as he told him the truth a moment later.

"You're pathetic, Garlic."

"Pathetic?" Garlic hissed. "Pathetic? I killed YOU didn't I!? I defeated Vegeta, and I would have defeated that wretch of a father of yours as well! And I'm the pathetic one!? I remember the sensation of beating you to DEATH you little rat! And you have the nerve to call me PATHETIC?!"

"Because you'd never have fought me if you weren't immortal. You're the ultimate coward. And no matter how much you cheat to gain strength, you'll never be my equal. You are pathetic, Garlic."

Trembles wracked the demon's body as his eye started to twitch with unbridled fury. Huge, fanged teeth crunched together as fire almost exited his nostrils. The illusion of his calm, outer self was replaced with the vain, pitiful creature he was. Even now black lighting arced once again between them, shredding the landscape. The ground itself pulled towards him as the titan launched itself forward, pulling the world with him. The angry howl of a wound which Gohan could have never physically inflicted, was the vanguard of his attack.

The world slowed down as Gohan honed his senses, following the ki as it came from all around him. Garlic's power was considerable… it was even stronger than Taro had been, in his diminished form.

The giant's body passed through where he stood though, as Gohan side stepped his charge. Garlic's huge legs cut into the ground as he slid forward, his breathing hard from anger alone as Gohan crossed his arms, remaining in place where he'd been, but turning to face Garlic again.

The giant looked left and right at first before turning back to face him, seeming confused. As the confusion evaporated, it was replaced by even more hatred.

"Need I say more?"

Another noise of something which Gohan couldn't understand echoed out as the giant lunged at him again. Focusing his ki, Gohan caught the giant's huge right fist with his hand, sliding back with force as the two made contact for the first time in months. They'd both transformed, their bodies adjusting to the flow of ki which had moved through them. Echoes of power which neither had possessed themselves pulsed through their forms. But the truth was, Gohan was stronger than Garlic before, and was as proportionately stronger as he'd been before.

Garlic's trembling arm started to almost buckle as Gohan started to push back towards the immortal.

"I… I…. I HATE YOU!" Garlic screamed striking down with his other fist.

Flipping up, and over, Gohan grabbed Garlic's hand as he leaped over the huge form, taking Garlic's arm with him, flipping the monster face first into the grey dirt, before dislocating the limb at the shoulder, and then at the elbow. A sharp yelp of pain, muffled by the ground escaped Garlic as Gohan wrenched his arm up and snapped his wrist next.

He needed to keep him off balance. Even if he was obviously more powerful, he couldn't be wasteful. Garlic's power regenerated. This could be a complete repeat of what happened on Earth if he wasn't careful. How did you demoralize someone who could only be hurt, but never harmed?

Right, the arm's gotta come off now.

Placing his foot in Garlic's back, Gohan started to twist, preparing to tear the limb free, if only to force the blue bastard to take some time to reacquire the limb. His awareness of the world around him was too focused on the beast that killed him however. A split second before it happened, he realized he could sense Turles, Brass, and Junia battling in a desperate confrontation. That was disappointing enough, knowing his old man had decided to throw himself into the battle. But there was another familiar power, from another rival he genuinely despised.

When the boot planted in the side of his face, Gohan's grip on Garlic's arm let go as he trailed across the ground for several seconds, catching the ground with his feet and right arm, dragging himself to a still without scraping his body along the surface of Hell. A critical gaze shot forward as he saw Taro's feet plan on the ground next to Garlic, the Majin M clearly on his forehead. The same one which Piccolo and Broly had when he'd confronted them.

Fucking wizard.

The sound of bones snapping back into place a second later was the only noise Gohan could hear as the angry immortal started to rise, his blood red eyes shining at him.

"You," Garlic snapped, looking at Taro before looking back at Gohan.

"Together," Taro remarked with disgust himself. "We can overcome this arrogant intervening bastard. Then we can arrange who between the two of us truly gets what they want."

There was no verbal response from Garlic, all Gohan saw was him starting to walk towards him, and seeing the vengeful look in Taro's eyes as his most recent problem came back to haunt him.

Fuck me.

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Turles:

Another strike came from his side as the female's blow cracked into his ribs while he grabbed the other Saiyan's throat. Not only did he have the problem of facing an equal in strength, but this annoying cow of a woman wouldn't stay down. His plans of taking one of them hostage was rapidly changing to murdering the both of them and making for the exit himself while Gohan struggled against the other two bigger powers. It wasn't that he didn't want to help his wayward son, but Hell was forever. And much like Gohan, he did not want to be stuck down here for an eternity.

When the male broke free, he felt his arm kicked up and out of place a second later, before another kick came around, this time catching him in the jaw. Flipping back helplessly, Turles realized only too late that his body crashed into a massive spiked ball. Preparing to pull himself up and attack again however, he found his legs wouldn't respond at all. Focusing his energy into his hands as the pair shot towards him, Turles launched his hands forward, forming the Calamity Blaster. When the bolt left his hands, it shot between the two of the figures and exploded. The purple blast formed into a massive orb of thrumming purple energy, shredding the landscape around them as the thrumming energies of the star of power vibrated out. Clouds stirred as titanic waves of dust and debris were kicked up. The spiked ball he was laying against was thrown back violently, as Turles found himself strangely going along with it. As he looked down, he saw the huge spike he'd found himself impaled on.

When the multi-ton ball hit the ground, he was fortunate enough not to be beneath it, even from when it'd twisted and turned in the air. A trembling hand reached down, pulling his body off the spike before he slid to the ground. His golden hair turned to black as he breathed in and out, blood filling his mouth. He didn't even need to breathe, but at least he'd managed to turn things to his favour. Slowly pulling himself up against the ball, he looked with disdain at the hole in his abdomen.

How frustrating.

He could see in the distance his prize, the exit, only now he would have to spend an inordinate amount of time recapturing his energy before he could fly there, his shell, this body, utterly devastated. Normally he'd just die with this kind of injury to return at his fullest, but right now that seemed to be an idea which could be disastrous. Which meant he was stuck in this fucking circumstance for the moment.

Which are about to get worse.

Two feet landed in front of him as the male was left standing there, his eyes blazing with hatred.

"You are just as bad as you are back home, aren't you?" he spat, striding towards him with violent intent.

Well, dying appears to be back on the agenda.

Feeling fingers grasp his neck a moment later, Turles was hoisted into the air by his fellow Saiyan, before his body was slammed back against the side of the spiked ball. It was enough to make him gurgle more blood up as his hands tried to cover his wound.

"You killed her," the other Saiyan spat furiously.

"I think the objective was mutual," Turles coughed, before smiling back at the other Saiyan.

The newcomer to this reality, and to this realm, didn't seem impressed. He couldn't be choked to death, but there was a death grip now around his neck. Turles couldn't even swallow the blood back down anymore as the other Saiyan gave him a look of betrayal and hatred. The family resemblance was uncanny. But that didn't matter, he didn't know this Saiyan. And he barely knew Raditz, or Kakarot, so who cared there either?

"I'm going to make you suffer. I'm going to make sure you never get out of here."

The last words were damning. That was enough to make Turles nervous. He tried to respond, but only wheezes left his mouth. One of his bloodied hands reached out, grabbing at the other Saiyan's shoulder weakly. Did he know about the vortex? Was he going to join Broly in the cold depths of Hell, frozen in entropy for an eternity? No. No he wasn't going to allow that to happen. With what little ki he had left, Turles intended to gutshot himself with a ki bolt with the hand holding his internal organs together.

"Did you hear me, Father? I'm not going to let you just roam down here."

The last word was unexpected. He stared at the other Saiyan for a moment. Well, at least he was strong. That was really the only upside he could take from this scenario. He gave him a bloody smile to show his approval.

We'll see if you can get the better of me without that witch here-

Suddenly, the grip on his neck went lax as the other Saiyan froze, his mouth slowly dropping. The feeling of his hand on his shoulder weakened even as the shoulder slipped away. The brutish Saiyan's hair turned black before he crumbled into a heap, two halves split away from one another. Turles fell forwards onto the corpse, surprise striking him as he looked up, seeing a red disc flying through the air towards the clouds, have cut in towards them and bisected his 'son'.

Who the Hell did that? And where they Hell were, they?

Trying to crawl forward, the elder Saiyan began making his way towards the exit, towards his escape. What he saw next was more than surprising.

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Taro:

This wasn't quite as easy as he'd hoped it'd have been. Anger was at the edge of all of his thoughts as the mark on his forehead drove him to greater levels of hatred and anger, but it took a fool to not realize when things hadn't advanced as quickly as he would have liked. This abomination on time and space was still holding them at bay, and there was no compromise now on either side. There was no deal where they could all get what they wanted. Son Gohan despised Garlic, and despised him to such an extent that any window to manipulate him had closed long ago.

Even now, as Garlic's body lurched back after another blow to the head, and Taro slid back, having blocked a kick and retreated from the immediate melee with his newly found ally, the time traveling Saiyan was left to wonder how they could overwhelm this thing. Certainly, together they were more powerful, but not independently. They were not fighting as a team, despite their best efforts, and Gohan could always respond to their attacks before they managed to get their offense going. All in all, the situation was intolerable.

Never in a thousand universes, did he think he'd be fighting alongside Garlic Junior against Son Gohan. Looking at the Demon a moment later, he turned his attention back to their mutual foe.

"I will distract him. Take advantage of it," Taro almost snarled. "Do this and we will win. Otherwise he will continue to beat us."

"I'm trying,"Garlic snapped in response.

"Well then try harder," Taro almost hissed. "Or neither of us will get even a shred closer to what we want."

There was a real potential he could almost taste in the air. Every strike they'd exchanged had been one where he could measure Gohan's desperation. Despite the setbacks so far, he knew that they only need slip past his defences for the briefest of moments, and victory could be clapse. Behind his eyes, visions of reclaiming the lost pieces which had fled his form were dancing in the pale light of his ambitions. This world may not have been his dream, but it could be still. There was still a chance to reclaim it all, and to twist reality to his will.

All he needed to do, was defeat Son Gohan. Once this thing was out of the way, he could finally have what he always desired. He could already feel his fingers around the throats and faces of his lesser selves, bringing them back into the fold… They would all find their purpose again, within him. From the afterlife he would build the utopia of his visions, and claim a new life for himself before moving on to the next universe. He would find his life restored by any means.

In the reflection of his eye, amongst his dreams, he could see himself standing tall amidst a backdrop of his creation… a creation of all reality that would be his.

I am the one. The one to recreate reality. This is all but a… setback.

Seeing his nemesis, the one who'd stolen his chances of victory whilst he'd been alive, approaching in an aggressive stance, Taro prepared himself and his plan. He'd had enough experience fighting Gohan to see how he'd respond, and that was taken into consideration already.

Taking off in a wave of speed, Taro tried best to manage the new hatred and rage Babidi's gift had provided to him. When he clashed with the other Saiyan, he saw the response come into view long before Gohan's body moved. Deflecting his strike with his left forearm, Gohan, he knew would come in with a punch to his right. Pre-emptively shirking to the side, he saw the blurred motion zip through the air where he'd once been, barely able to follow the other warrior's movements. Striking out with his leg, he caught Gohan's arm again, this time trying to circumvent the counterattack by cutting low, managing to move below the counterattack once more. Ducking, he drove forward, throwing his fist out and catching the other Saiyan across the face with a hard right.

When the blow landed the two almost froze in time as Taro's grin extended past what he'd expected. Instead of launching Gohan back however, the blow only staggered the other Saiyan, whose face turned to a sneer. The first blow returning towards him slammed into his ribs as Gohan stabbed into him with another blow, before a dozen more followed, only offset by occasional punches to the face. Blood shot from his nose as Taro gagged while he was staggered by every blow.

Before the final blow could come, which Taro could almost predict would be a round house kick, he managed to let his body sink to the ground almost lifelessly. The force of the strike was enough to sent a wave through the air, shattering a mountain of spikes behind him, but it'd left the other Saiyan exposed. Focusing his power into his right hand, crimson energy bled into the air around them as he threw his hand into Gohan's lower abdomen just as he came back to a standing position. The son of Kakarot looked down at him with a measurable level of surprise as the Crimson Destruction wave was unleashed.

The Wave of read caught fire against the backdrop of a yellow sky. It cut into the air between the ground the ceiling of Hell, before scorching into the fabric of damnation above them. With his one hand out, still shaking, the light started to fade as still standing above him, his cousin was left standing there. Burn covered his frame, and the material of his clothes across his chest were entirely vaporized. He was shaking just like Taro's own hand, but there was a rage behind it, mirror his own from the mark of the Majin.

This was it you giant blue invalid. Strike now.

A hand came out, extended and pointed back down at him in a reflection of his own as purple energy began to form. The world turned violet as Taro felt his stomach almost churn as oblivion awaited him on the other side of the energy bolt. When it disappeared in an instant, he felt relief as a huge arm shot out, catching Gohan across the face. Blood shot out of his eye from the strength of the blow even, as Taro watched his most hated adversary, perhaps barring the Vegeta of this world, staggered back.

People just can't understand my intentions… I know you're all still listening. Our journey together isn't over yet. I can't see you the way that I used to, but make no mistake… I am going nowhere.

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Garlic Junior:

The first blow had focused all of his energy behind it. When Gohan's face shot to the side and blood exploded from the opposite side of his face, Garlic could taste it in the air and licked his lips with anticipation. Finally, his return to the world of the living was nigh. Better yet… his revenge was finally to be wrought, all at one time. When the opponent tired to turn to round on him, Garlic had already planted another blow into his stomach, his huge fist hitting as hard as he could, feeling ribs buckle under the strain. Mortal injuries didn't matter much to these echoes of life, they could only be "killed" through catastrophic injury.

Something which he would be more than happy to deliver.

Recognizing the change in momentum, the demon took the initiative, stepping into Gohan's space and striking out with short blows. Taro's attack had left the Saiyan's power diminished for the moment, and his body badly burnt. Quick strikes landed with great effect, each one of Garlic's lightning fast jabs, striking in high, cut into the face further of the one he knew he'd been destined to kill. When the Saiyan tried to manage a defense, predictably, he went low, landing a shot on his rival's stomach again instead, going in with full determination, he rained blows across Gohan's body as the two slowly moved across the surface of the Hell around them.

Dozens of blows turned into a dozen squared. Each one softening flesh and muscle. A feeble hand tried to block him near the end, as the blue skinned demon just grinned as blood spurt out of the meatbag in front of him with every attack before he finally finished with a massive right, focusing all his remaining energy into his arm. The limb glowed with a black energy, crackling with lightning before he seemingly punched through Gohan almost. When the blow landed, it caught the Saiyan on the jaw. Golden hair turned black as the limp body sailed back, flying into the side of a massive set of spiked balls, cracking into one of them, splitting it in two.

Fire almost seemed to breathed out of his lungs. His massive form laboured heavily as he sensed his own power having been spent, focusing all of his ki on delivering blow after blow. Even with eternal life, he'd spent far too much of his reserves, but he knew when it'd been the time to do it. He'd fought Gohan hundreds of times, more than any other combatant. He knew him better than anyone… Laying there in a puddle of his own blood, was the object of his obsession, the one thing he never wanted to let go of… but the thing he'd just managed to finally overcome.

Look at you, Gohan. In all of your arrogance, in all of that bravado and confidence, you've lost at the exact moment you couldn't afford. It's so sad, isn't to? To be undone by the one who'd killed you before. To be left laying there in your own blood, broken, defeated, by a being you thought yourself better than. I'd be sad… but… well, you know why.

Licking the blood from his knuckles, Garlic chuckled lightly to himself before turning around, his feet crunching into the battle-scarred ground beneath him. The other Saiyan, Taro, had been walking his way towards the exit, his own power spent. Now was the time of ascension to the real world. And this time he knew he was in an advanced setting of power in comparison to his cohorts. Better yet, he was going to get an opportunity to thank the Grand Supreme Kai for his lack of faith in him. Oh yes, he was going to have an immense amount of fun.

First, I'm going to pull the limbs off of everyone my friend Gohan over there cares about. Oh! And then I'm going to kill Vegeta. Yes, I definitely want to kill Vegeta more than Piccolo now. And Piccolo! My old friend, I'd almost forgotten about you and your attempts to stop me! Or should I say Kami? Hah! HAHAHA!

The smile couldn't disappear from his lips as he caught up to his "ally", Taro. Someone he knew was in a weakened state, compared to his own, if only by a fraction. The question was simple, turn on him now? Or turn on him once they emerged from the other side of this nightmare. A nightmare he'd been trapped in for a year. To spend an entire eternity here? Well, he appreciated it more than being trapped in the Deadzone… But… A life among the living, controlling their lives and becoming master of all the material universe, was a much better plan in his estimation.

Looking to his left, he saw Turles crawling his corpse of a body towards the exit, and he could swear that he sensed Frieza around here somewhere as well.

Strange.

"So," Taro remarked quietly as the opening came into view. "You listened. Very good, I was worried you were going to cock that up."

Maybe waiting to kill him until later is less of an option that I thought.

The demon just gave a sarcastic smile.

"Oh? I was just weighing the options of letting him turn you into a burnt stain on the landscape. But since I wasn't going to stay long enough to enjoy it, I thought it was better than I took my opportunity when he was distracted. Lucky you."

The icy they were stabbing at one another calmed for a moment at Taro put his hand up, breathing in and out as if trying to control himself. In the distance behind them, Garlic saw Babidi's form floating towards them, clearly elated.

"We did it!" he laughed.

He came to the mouth of the door itself, putting his hand on the frame.

"Yes, yes this is it! Look at it! Just… Garlic."

Garlic looked at Babidi with a questioning stare, seeing Babidi's eyes widen.

"What?"

"Did you kill, Son Gohan?"

Giving a half smile, Garlic shrugged.

"I beat him into the point where his body couldn't work. I broke his ribs, I fractured his skull. I left him in a pool of unconscious agony. I wouldn't want him to just die and wake up and be fine."

Taro's look was one of pure hatred a moment later.

"You didn't kill him!? Are you mad? He'll follow us through! IDIOT!"

"We'll destroy this entrance on our way out, will you stop-"

Then, in front of them, Babidi's face was one of pure terror as his finger pointed past them, his mouth agape.

"H-He's coming back!"

What? In the state he's in?

Garlic turned to face the figure, walking towards them in the distance. He could make out the staggering form of a broken man, stumbling almost as he walked.

"Please," Garlic chuckled. "You're worried about that?"

Something however, felt uneasy in his guts as he sensed power beginning to shift and flow around them.

"Let's finish him," Taro snapped, walking back towards the battlefield, and with an irritated grunt, Garlic followed suit.

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Gohan:

It's a good thing he didn't need to actually use his nostrils. Breathing, drinking, eating, none of that mattered to a body in this condition. His eyes scanned what had once been the only managed part of this hellscape. The fountain of blood seemed to be one of the few things left standing, along with parts of a burnt and destroyed orchard. Blood was coming down from his hairline as he felt the shame of defeat. Garlic had left his brutalized, knowing that might be better than leaving him dead. Well, except for timing. Maybe it was just him being a sadistic piece of garbage.

No, it was definitely just him being a sadistic fucker.

Even standing was agony on his body. His neck felt like it'd been damaged as well from when he'd taken the hit on the side of the spiked ball which was now behind him. Ahead of him, he could see the two last figures in his way to freedom. A freedom he now knew he couldn't have, at least not right now. Even if he got past these two goons somehow, he was in no shame to do anything on the other side. Then it'd be even worse, as scumbags resurrected across Hell, they'd all make their way to the exit in a constant wave until they finally got what they wanted.

That really only left one option, didn't it?

Standing still, Gohan let his body just tremble as he forced ki through his broken form. Injuries that would have left him dead if he were alive, like ribs poking into organs, were shirked off as golden fire caught around him as his aura emerged once more. His hair shot straight up as it turned to its fair colour. The familiar sound of a Super Saiyan aura thrummed in his ears as he stared at the last mountain range and the two figures walking towards him from it.

Alright. They're not the target. The mountain is. Everything I've got.

Placing his hands in front of him, he calmed himself, easing past the pain, acting as if his body weren't really his own. It was just a vessel for his ki and spirit, the pain could be ignored. His energy was still there, he wasn't weakened, it wasn't lost, that was all in his head.

The aura around him grew more violent as he focused in his power. It seemed fitting as he finished assuming his stance, that the abandoning of his hope of destroying the power structure of the afterlife, would come at the end of the technique of someone he knew was a better person than him. For a second, he almost couldn't speak as a familiar blue glow appeared in his hands.

"Kaaaaaaaaa-"

Bolts of golden and blue power started to wrap around him as a tornado of energy started to roll around him. The pace that Taro and Garlic took to intercept him picked up, he could sense their panic.

"Meeeeeee-"

The environment around him seemed to react to him almost. Maybe it was just the bloodloss, and even the sense of being out of his body, but he could imagine the clouds about him not to be the damning ceiling of red, and the horizon being that of fire and misery, but instead being of pure white clouds and a beautiful blue, nitrogen horizon beyond. He could almost feel the warmth of the sun on his shoulders.

"Haaaaaa-"

The two powers stopped in their tracks, knowing they couldn't close the distance, now trying to form their own defenses. They'd caught onto what he was doing, maybe. They were going to challenge the beam. And inside himself, he tapped into a strength he barely understood, and barely knew was there. Beside him, the orb of blue energy increased, spreading blue light across the world around him. It almost made his hallucinations come true as to where he was standing.

Maybe this is what it's like to be alive.

"MEEEEE!-"

The power hit its peak, and Gohan knew it was time to let it go. He wasn't looking at Garlic and Taro, he was looking at the blackened mouth in the distance, the demon door that would've taken him out of this nightmare, whether he was wished back or not.

"HA!"

When his arms shoved forward, he threw all the power out of his body. The world in front of him turned into a mixture of blue and white. Waves of displaced ground formed waves as tall as skyscrapers, and thousands of kilometres seemingly. The two walls blasted out wider and wider as his wave blasted forward. Beyond it, in the light, he could see Garlic and Taro's beams be washed aside like a stream fighting a river. The current of energy hit the mountain behind them. Steam rose off the ancient rocks before the entirety of the mountain collapsed, leaving only the tower it'd been built around standing. In the light, fragments of ancient powerful stones started to chip away for a few brief seconds, before the entire structure shattered, collapsing in on itself. The ground of Hell around it seemed to splinter, sending cracks across reality itself.

The ground started to sink in front of him as the world itself almost seemed to fall away.

As the light faded, Gohan was left standing there as the chaos and destruction of the wave played out in front of him, the huge walls of earth collapsed along the edges of his vision in the distance, reigning destruction on the barren world of Hell. But in front of him, a hole emerged at the heart of Hell itself, a great swirling vortex replaced the fragmented glass of the world as it started to swirl. It looked like the great pit which they'd thrown Broly into, only a thousand times larger.

Black lighting crackled around the pit as what seemed to be entropy, took over the world itself.

But his body finally did give out, a lack of power to even keep himself awake. He felt his legs give out first, before his body just collapsed into the ground.

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King Yemma:

The door to his desk opened, leaving the Ogre king with a strange sensation. For a moment, he could have sworn there was a blur of motion which came out of it.

"Strange," the giant murmured, before closing it, looking back up at the judged before him. There were at least very few physical forms coming through today.

Not many people were strong enough to maintain their physical form, and that was a blessing. They always caused so much trouble, whether they were in Heaven or Hell. The ones in Heaven would train all the time, and self importantly show up on police actions against the ones in Hell. The ones in Hell were always causing trouble and-

In his view outside his window, the world started to turn blue. Cracks of light were breaking through the ceiling of Hell.

Just what's going on down there?

Suddenly his room started to rumble. The entire castle started to rumble. Snake away itself took to tremors as his huge eyes scanned the room, ogres and spirits looking as thought they were about to panic.

What… what is-

Light started to come glowing through his desk? White light coming from the drawer he'd just closed. Grasping the handle, he opened it, trying to determine what was happening down there. The second he pulled back on the small door, the entirety of his desk exploded. A white ball of energy seemingly detonating in his office, blowing the walls out of his castle. The force sent him falling back, sliding down Snake way, a burnt door in his hand being the only piece of his desk remaining. His purple suit was torched and marred, and part of his beard had caught fire. Putting it down frantically, Yemma sat up, staring at where his office had been.

Staring over the side of snake way towards where the light was now fading, he just blinked.

"Damn it. What are they doing down there now?"

And then… everything seemingly started to freeze. Everything seemed to almost start warping. He almost couldn't move, even… and then he couldn't.

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Gohan:

Slowly, his world started to come to.

"Are you up? Tell me you got him up?" a voice breathed. "Hey! Monster, look! Wake up!"

Blinking several times, Gohan managed o stare at the same, familiar yellow ceiling. His ribs were healed, that much he could tell when he breathed upon waking.

"You're one of the last ones left, you need to get up! You owe me! Understand?" Mez demanded, his red face looking panicked. "We need to put that thing back before it destroys the whole afterlife! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

A suspicious glance was cast towards the red ogre as Gohan sat up, seeing the world around him had indeed changed. And it'd changed a great deal. The first thing he noticed, not twenty feet from him, was Garlic. The titan was frozen in place, a giant…jelly bean? Almost encasing him. The blue tint of the giant gem-candy thing was one of the strangest things he'd ever seen.

"What's going on?" he managed to ask, his head still feeling almost light.

"You fucked up the whole world, that's what's going on! And you've gotta fix it-"

Grabbing Mez by the throat, Gohan didn't bother looking at him as he continued to look around, listening now to the gags and desperate sounds of flapping.

"I don't appreciate your attitude," he murmured before he let him go.

His other senses started to return to him as he started to stand up, noticing himself standing beneath the land standing tree from the orchard. The giant vortex had shrunken, but it was still vast. And the giant strange gem-like jelly beans floated through the air, some of them containing powers within them, others not.

The fire tornados in the distance seemingly stopped, and the ground itself looked to almost have more a purple tinge to it. The horizon was now purple as well, or was it turning to crimson? The world was… shifting… colours saturating it at one moment, and then changing the next. Reality, even in Hell, didn't seem to make sense anymore.

"He's going to completely destroy the afterlife, and then it'll start to spill over into the real world!" Mez shrieked. "Are you listening!?"

Breathing in and out with a degree of real anger, Gohan looked at the half-eaten fruit on the ground, noticing the taste in his mouth. They'd fed that to him to wake him up, it looked like.

What is he babbling about? What nonsense is this?

"Who?" Gohan asked bluntly, turning his full attention to the red ogre finally.

He was guessing he was their last choice to help with this problem, given that he cold sense Turles and Garlic, trapped in those strange barriers and prisons. There was a massive series of thuds in the distance, like huge feet were walking.

What the Hell is that?

"HIM! That's him! That's the one!" Mez shrieked, before starting to run for his life seemingly.

Staring after the fleeing ogre, Gohan turned towards where he heard the noise, and in the distance that was an immense… fat creature. It was hopping around, seemingly playing with the marbles in the air. Its chuckles were deep enough that his ears almost twitched.

The only thing it seemed to say was…

"JANEMBA!"

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Author's Notes:

Where to begin? I've been incredibly busy with work. During a few periods I felt really uninspired, and my self esteem as a writer collapsed during that time. I also got pretty badly sick a few times, and my spare time has been utterly devoured. Even with all of that said, I actually wrote this chapter three times, each time with different stories and outcomes. In one, I was even going to have Lord Slug emerge as the main baddy, but it just didn't fit, and it felt like too much of a retread.

I like the idea that Gohan, even as he improves as a person, tends to pick the worst choices until he has little choice, or he sees a bigger picture than just himself. There is big growth coming for Gohan however. After the next Saga, it's probably the most exciting Saga I have planned for the entire story for Gohan's character growth, as its when his contradictions really come to a head, and no one has any idea how excited that makes me to write. But, you'll all see it when I get there 😉

I decided to use Taro and Garlic, his last two baddies, both with similar benefits to Gohan in the "I've had tons of powers in me, so my power has grown" vein to push him in this chapter. It's a good last hurrah for them in their roles in the story, I think. Garlic's almost perverse obsession and Taro's singlemindedness were tons of fun, but they'll only have cameos after this point in the story I suspect. #Iamtheonlyoneinexistence #IamimmortalandwanttoslowlykillGohan. lol

I was originally also just going to end with the escape from Hell being utterly destroyed. But because of all the delays, and because I've had a lot of people ask for him, as an apology almost as well as from inspiration, and something I think would be fun to write, everyone's getting one of the things I said I'd never do… Janemba.

I did a lot of jump cuts for fights in this Chapter, as I really didn't want to oversaturate it. The chapter has had multiple lengths. I can say that if you could all of my versions of it, it is around 100 pages, about 60 of which are failed attempts. Even this chapter has a few pieces from those ones in it. I worry it doesn't flow right, but at some point, you really just gotta go with what you've got.

After Janemba's role, Hell's placing in the story really disappears, with only a few brief scenes and plot points going forward. So, fear not! We're gonna escape Hell! lol

So, where do things go from here? I am going to try and get updates back to normal, but that'll probably be in the New Year. I'll try to get some content out for December, but I just can't promise that. All this time not getting this done, I did manage to clear up how I was going to get to the end of the story structurally, and the stages people would go through and how they'd train and what I'd adopt for certain points. So at least there is that.

For music, I listened to a lot of things when writing this chapter. Some of it was pretty unexpected even. "Say Something" was the really bizarre one which stuck in my mind from Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton of all people, which is super not in my usual catalogue at all.

I do apologize to everyone again for the 6-month delay. Just know my current job eats tons of time, but is helping me really get on my feet and prepare for the later stages of my life. It's all got give and take in life, unfortunately.

Reviewers:

Blades of Fury: I can't wait for Cooler's saga. There are only two inbetween before we get to it. Easily is going to be the coolest Saga, however 😉

Commander M2: She's a half Saiyan, Chi-Chi and Goku's youngest.

Thomas-The-TMC: But I'm so far away. I don't remember throwing any water.

Dharshan: Thanks!

Pyromania101: Yea, I do as well honestly. Pan's probably my favourite character in the story at this point, so I look forward to her getting more time to shine.

MaximuSSJ: Not meant to be mimicked, but I do think this is more how Goku kinda is. The English dub from Funimation is a bit wrong in how it portrays Goku as a whole. But I've never been good at writing Goku anyway. I mean, Movie 12 Goku is basically "Super" Goku as well. :\

Super Mystic Gohan: Uhhhh… We'll see?

Guest1: This whole "positive" track thing for Gohan… what's that? :P

Dr. Blue22: My pickiness also delayed an update for half a year. Soooo… sorry

DBZfanthefirst: Thanks!

Luke: I hope this chapter answered your question. Hell sucks, lol

Sekhelmet: Nor can I 😊

Tellemicus Sundance: Well, you now know what comes next :D

KingSo: Junia's got a pretty big role in the next Saga.

Some Dude: It was done that way on purpose. There are still MULTIPLE Sagas left. We've still got Cell Junior floating around, Cooler floating around, the "Gaia" character that was alluded to earlier, and more. The story's not hit its climax yet. Pan's story has only begun. 😊

OrigamiArrows: Gohan's almost an addict when it comes to making bad choices. He gets past it, but then gets dragged back down sometimes. Is he going to get out of Hell? I hope so. But… who knows? He is in the short term, that much is for sure…

IliekFishes: Binged the entire thing? My god. The Garlic fight was more about Gohan, than Garlic. It was the endurance test for the people fighting him, not for Garlic's indestructability. I will admit though, I personally love the scene where Goku Dragon Punches him and then IT's him to the afterlife. I think my favourite scene in the Taro fight was when Gohan blows his eye out, and destroys the Z sword.

Stinger: Thanks. It's a lot of hard work.

SuperHuman31: It will continue. There is a Long Road to go still.

Proman1398: Mistakes are the best part of the characters. I love it when they all make mistakes. It's what makes them great. Piccolo messing up Pan. Chi-Chi's handling of that situation. Goku's mistakes. Vegeta's entire life- I mean, mistakes. 😉

MalikJamalTimberlake: Ironically put the review up before just as I was finishing the last pieces of this chapter. I believe I answered by PM?