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.

74. Chapter 74: Abyss

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

Be warned, this Chapter is going to be a fucking weird one.

The Long Road

Chapter 74: Abyss

Gohan:

That was the thing from his nightmare. The red demon he saw in passing in the reflections around him when trapped in his own nightmare. Red skinned, with black eyes on a yellow background. Even now its cold, serious features stared into his own. Whatever happened to that fat jovial thing that warped reality and ensnared people in prisons made of minerals, he wasn't quite sure. But this thing in front of him was Janemba, whatever that meant. Just from the force of the strike between the two of them, just from its speed alone, he knew this was a problem.

The half-dead… ironic… and critically injured Junia behind him was going to be about as useful as match in a room filled with methane. Defending her seemed like a pointless endeavor, especially given that she wouldn't want that, and also because her ability to influence this fight further had diminished significantly.

In other words, she was a boat anchor.

Not that it mattered anyway, within a second Janemba, or whatever this thing was, shoved him back before just giving him a hard look.

"All the fun and games are over, I'm guessing?" Gohan asked, slowly starting to circle the other monster. The creature began walking in turn, mirroring him.

It was almost like it was trying to emulate his walk and style on purpose, but it was unnatural, seemingly alien, in its mimicry. It took only a few seconds of walking for it to motion for motion replicate his exact walk however, were it not a purple and red monster, he'd have almost thought it was looking in a mirror. That was more than a little concerning, as he sincerely doubted it was doing it out of respect for him. It was learning from him. He looked past Janemba as they circled one another briefly moment eye contact with the other Saiyan behind them, who looked more than irritated by the circumstances around them.

Get the hint, go.

Why was it not a single person ever did as they were fucking told? Or, well, what was the most obvious decision?

By the time he refocused on Janemba, the creature had stopped walking, the look of cold seriousness vanishing from its face. When it stood tall in front of him, looking around their surroundings quietly, its mouth turning into a dark, mischievous, yet subtle grin, he already knew something was wrong.

"Nothing to say? No Janemba-Janemba this time?" Gohan asked, trying to catch the creature's attention again.

The darkness around them started to rumble, as did the ground. Something was happening. The hole they were in was the size of a planet, as far as he could tell. But in the distance, he could swear he heard an ocean. The demon's subtle grin became increasingly less subtle as the noise increased. Gohan let his own aura burst outwards to see better in this pit of darkness, and found the despair of seeing an ocean running towards them from all sides.

A golden star rose in the darkness as Junia took off, and Gohan was inclined to follow, bursting upwards immediately as the darkness below was filled with an ocean. As he cleared the immense crater, the still cooling landscape of Hell around them gently burning with the energy from Janemba's explosive attack prior, he saw an ocean of blood emerge below him, stretching as far as his eyes could see. And it was blood, he could smell it.

Reality itself seemed to be warping and shifting in its focus. The sky itself seemed to stretch, as the heavens themselves grew larger, bodies above became more distance as the very open sky above became an endless sunset. The position of several floating bodies above in the heavens almost made it look like Janemba's eyes staring down at them.

"What the fuck is this thing?" Junia asked, her own head pointed skyward.

"Janemba," Gohan answered, not really understanding the significance of what its name meant, only that it now carried a weight with him that was far more than irritation or ridicule.

"Are you as stupid as Kakarot in this timeline?" she asked as coldly as Janemba had stared at him before looking at the blood ocean below them.

The ocean began to swirl beneath them as the violence of the waves of the recently formed sea seemed to still elsewhere. Emerging from the blood, Janemba just stood on the liquid's surface staring at the two of them, his yellow eyes first glancing at Junia, and then to him.

"You're not going to be helpful, get out," Gohan ordered bluntly. "If you stick around, I'm not going to help when he kills you. And given how weird everything is around here, we don't know if the rules are changing on if we just respawn either."

There was an awkward pause from Junia while the other Saiyan slowly started to back off. He could sense what was happening, namely that she was assessing everything with her ki and deducing what she thought was the best course of action. He didn't have any power over anyone, but sometimes it paid just to be frank.

Not a word was uttered as her energy departed rapidly, though he could almost sense her disdain for him on her escape.

Yet another happy friend to see later, am I right?

"Alright, I'm getting tired of talking to a wall," Gohan commented. "Anything you want? Any maddened speeches about taking over the universe coming my way?"

There was just a dead silence on the other side as Gohan felt a nervous shiver move up his spine. The surface of the ocean below stilled entirely as Janemba took several steps forward, his footsteps pressing against the surface like it was solid. This thing was literally walking on 'water'. When it raised its arms, the entire surface of this planet spanning ocean pulled into the air beneath him, bringing him to Gohan's level.

It was unnerving to watch, because Gohan still couldn't sense the core of this thing's new power. The only thing he knew was that it was incredible. If this thing was anywhere near as powerful as Taro on Earth, he was fucked. Retaining some of the power he'd obtained through it expanding his ki, that was one thing. But something on that scale was utterly beyond him. And there was an increasing whisper in the back of his mind starting to tell him that this thing was stronger than he was.

And it might be stronger by a lot.

Tentatively, his feet touched the blood beneath him, hoping for stable ground, and found they passed through the liquid without any effort. Yep, this was definitely a thing where he could walk on the surface of this stuff, and he couldn't. For a brief second, he looked down at the blood, looking where his feet were, looking at his reflection. Only it wasn't his reflection at all. It was Janemba staring back at him, before grinning. It was enough to offset him enough that when he looked up, he was caught totally off guard by the actual Janemba being in front of him, preparing to strike. Only the blow never arrived, the demon threw its fist in front of his face, causing Gohan to zip backwards rapidly, but he knew this thing just caught him off his game and he knew it deliberately didn't land that strike.

In a blur of motion, the demon was on him again, this time appearing in front of him and lashing out with the same styled punch he had before, only this time Gohan blocked it with an aggressive motion, before moving in for the counterattack, looking to press this thing back, in hopes of unnerving it. His knee slammed into the demon who grunted, making its first audible noise so far in the battle. Following up by grabbing the beast by its purple mantle, Gohan was looking to drive it head first into the blood beneath them, only to find his hands passed through nothing.

Blocks of matter of multiple colours bled through his fingers as Janemba disappeared in rapid succession, literally one piece at a time. Before Janemba's feet had even finished disappearing, a fist collided with Gohan's head from his flank as it punched seemingly out of nowhere, only for Gohan to see as his head and body staggered back, that this thing had reassembled itself. Another strike landed on his stomach before Gohan himself grunted, blocking another strike before returning a strike to the demon's midsection once more. In a flash of pure speed, strikes exchanged as the two confronted one another. Beneath them, a depression of the liquid beneath them began to form from the force of the confrontation.

When the next blow landed it sent Gohan's head spinning, a single crack across his temple made him almost lose consciousness from an increasingly rapid series of strikes from Janemba. Stunning him enough, a kick landed against the side of his ribs as he lost the ability to defend himself for a moment. Gagging in response, the Saiyan tried to regain his composure and defense, but before he could Janemba's body had started to disappear again. Trying to follow where he'd be coming from next, he realized too late the demon was above him. Turning his head upwards only to catch a heel across the jaw.

Tumbling through the air towards the surface of the blood below, his body splashed into the liquid, drenching him and what was left of his battle worn attire in the blood Janemba had seemingly materialized out of nowhere to fill a planet's worth of volume. Pointing his hand out in response, Gohan gathered his energies into a Catastrophe Gun. Dozens of bolts fired out, breaking into smaller attackers as the blood swept away from the exertion of force, hoping Janemba couldn't dodge all of the attacks. Emerging from the blood, Gohan saw as his blasts went straight up into the heavens without a single sign of Janemba anywhere.

Immediately he was hoping to sense the other being's ki, or anything, but it was just a dead zone of power around him. Where the Hell did he go? It was so strange that…

Below him, a deep rumble of laughter emerged as Gohan looked towards the sea of blood. It reverberated without any hinderance through the liquid below. Janemba's face was staring back at him, formed in the blood as the head just cackled. A strange noise entered the air as he saw a gigantic torso pulling itself from the blood, formed of it in a solid mass. Its huge arms formed next before Janemba's head formed. The construct turned towards him, grinning the entire time. Swinging out with its arm, it was easy enough to dodge, before arms shot out of the blood itself beneath him, thousands of them all reaching for him. Immediately he found himself taking to higher air as the ocean seemingly drained out follow him. In the far distance he could still see his Catastrophe Gun shots flying above, before they all vanished.

What the Hell- SHIT!

Turning violently, Gohan shifted to the side just in time as the bolts rematerialized in front of him, shooting straight down into the army of arms extending for him out of the ocean below. Ripping through the surface of the arms, the blasts shot straight into the mass of liquid before detonating beneath the surface. Orbs of purple light broke through the red below as the blood was displaced, and little else.

Without any reasonable warning, he sensed a very real power nearby as a hand grabbed his neck. Twisting his head forward, Gohan saw Janemba grinning at him before he felt his body fire back like a bullet as Janemba's arm just started to extend. The fingers around his neck were digging into his flesh as he instinctively grabbed the limb, trying to break free. Snarling, he finally broke the fingers free from his neck and shoved the limb away, just as his body trailed past the edge of the blood planet below. It took only a few seconds for him to recognize however, that the blackened crater below had reappeared, and that the blood was receding?

The same strange noise filled the air again as colourful blocks started to form where he was going. Stopping himself in the air, Gohan found himself staring at the newly teleported form of Janemba, holding a single sphere above his right hand. It was a sold red, glowing gem, bursting with heat. It didn't take much for him to realize what that was made up of. That was all the mass of the blood ocean. Bracing himself, Gohan knew he'd want to dodge being hit with trillions of tons of matter, that much was very apparent.

Reaching back his arm, the demon prepared to launch the attack at him, as Gohan decided to take the initiative. Thrusting both hands forward, he unleashed the Calamity Blaster. The bolt seemed to catch Janemba by surprise as the substantial attack made its way towards him. Reaching down with both his arms, Janemba blocked the attack as Gohan blurred behind him.

I hope you've been working out.

The ball of compressed matter almost fell directly back from where Janemba held it. Shoving his hands into it as hard as he could, focusing his ki into the ball itself, Gohan managed to nudge it back towards Janemba, hitting the demon in the back. A surprised demon grunted in an almost frantic motion, but it was too late. Dropping like a stone out of the sky, the monster fell towards the darkness of the pit below. There was an explosion of blood a moment later as the crevasse immediately seemed to fill with the blood once again.

Brushing his nose, Gohan breathed a sigh of relief.

Right. That's done. Now to… now…

The entire ocean seemed to slowly start shifting in colour. Blood red turned to blackened glass, as if the matter just changed in its property without warning. Blocks of matter again appeared in front of him as Janemba came back together, piece by piece, his tail flicking after his reassembly, this time the cool demeanour on its face being much closer to anger than joy.

"Yea, I get that a lot," Gohan remarked. "The whole angry thing. I'm apparently pretty bad for ruining plans."

There were several twitches of frustration on the other fighter's behalf. Honestly, normally he hated it when people would talk during a fight, but this was unnerving. It didn't curse or swear. It barely made a noise at all. Its eyes were strange reflections of his own.

But there was something even more strange. As he blocked the next incoming attack, he noticed Janemba was fighting like him… it was adapting to everything he did. Swinging back with a straight punch, Janemba vanished from view again, though this time he was ready, turning and blocking the kick which came around from the side, he then ducked under the follow up, only Janemba's lower half was even materialized as it fought him. He naturally slid into reality itself before striking out at Gohan once again with his fists, a series of quick punches were blocked as Gohan looked for his opening, only to find his foot had been wrapped in Janemba's tail.

With a whiz of motion, he felt himself slung towards the ground in a rapid motion. Spinning in the air, Gohan used his ki to stop his fall only feet above the newly created ground. The blackened glass beneath him cracked, forming fissures across its surface even without his body hitting the surface. Landing on the ground with his feet, he breathed in heavily as blocks assembled in front of him, the red beast staring back at him impassively, its smile slowly grinning. The sound of matter morphing filled the air once more as the world around him began to reassemble with chunks of matter on the ground and air wrapping and warping in multi-coloured blocks.

Unbelievably, Gohan looked around himself a moment later, seeing the cave… where Garlic had beat him to death.

Frantically, his eyes scanned the area, noticing Janemba was unmoving. The monster was just standing there, its grin slowly growing as it bore its teeth. It was Gohan's turn to seethe. The golden aura around his body burned brighter at the insult this thing had just pushed towards him. And it didn't make a noise, it was just standing there. Its eyes told him more than words could.

The rock along the walls around him began to rumble and crack as Gohan's energy caused the world… seemingly the entire world to quake. Energy crackled off the walls before the matter that made up this place began to erode away, turning to dust under the strain of the expansion of ki. The open sky returned around them, the long tail of snake way seemingly coiling at what was occurring. Whatever this thing was, it was about to understand what every other enemy he'd ever faced, understood.

Exhibition is over.

The glass beneath his feet melted before turning back to solid obsidian seemingly the moment his feet charged forward. The world began to slow for his perception as Gohan feigned his attack, shifting around and striking from the side. His leg shot out, cutting through the air towards the demon's head. The beast raised its arm, knocking the blow aside, much to his own surprise. The force of the rebuke was strong enough that the impact caused an ocean's worth of glass to crack. Fragments of thousands of images of himself and Janemba reflected back at them from below their feet, before the demon swung around, sweeping his tail at him before following up with a left hook. The tail hit nothing but air, and the punch sailed over Gohan's head as he moved under the Demon's guard. With his strength rallied, Gohan landed his own blow, his knuckles smashing into the beast's face. Whole mountain ranges would have collapsed under such power, but Gohan saw the beast's head rear to one side, clearly having felt the blow, but there was little else.

A furious mask turned back towards him before Gohan managed to shoot his other arm out, slamming into the monster's gullet. Stumbling back, only slightly fazed, Gohan blinked again, before he stepped forward with one leg, before shooting the other out on a thrust kick, twisting as he did to give it maximum impact. When the blow landed on Janemba's chest, the demon nearly toppled over. Gathering his energy into his hands before his foot had even come back to the ground, Gohan unleashed another Calamity Blaster at close range. The purple light lit up around them as Janemba's senses seemed to return to him, just as the orb was being thrust into his chest.

And then, the most terrifying thing Gohan had even seen happened. The monster's body split in two, building blocks of reality speckled in-between the two torsos as his orb shot through the moulding hole. Janemba's head too was split, and he could see the monster grinning back at him before he unleashed an attack on the stunned Saiyan. Morphing his head back together before his torso, Janemba's own fist caught Gohan across the cheek, sending him staggering back himself. Shaken out of his stupor, Gohan caught the next strike, catching Janemba's arm in the air, his own trembling against it as Janemba locked its gaze with his.

This is everything I have, and he's holding his own. I feel strained and he's not. This is bad.

Green energy seemed to brim around Janemba's reassembled face, and briefly Gohan wondered if this meant it was going to unleash some kind of morphing technique, or split reality again. Instead, the creature grinned… and energy poured through the teeth before he opened his mouth. Fire burned off his skin as the blast washed over him before he could form any kind of ki barrier. Unable to hold back, Gohan screamed as he felt his body struggle to even remain together as steam and fire poured off him.

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Junia:

That was big.

That was what Junia noticed as she watched reality being played with as if it were nothing. Something was more uncomfortable seeing it than when she'd seen her… brother… Taro, utilize the powers of the sword they'd found, the thing that drove him mad. Taro could shape reality in very limited ways. The world itself a plaything for whatever this monster was. And the explosion of green energy that just happened in the distance did not improve her thoughts on what was happening. Why the fuck couldn't things just work out? They try to escape Hell, it turns into a nightmare battle. They destroy the exit, or Gohan does anyway, and then this thing emerges from the bowels of the worst place in existance. Now what?

Really, now what? What did it want? Why was it fighting? Why had it imprisoned everyone in those strange gems, and playing with everything like some child? Now it was an unspeaking killer, as far as she could see. When it'd materialized a planet's worth of blood out of nothing, she had a clue that this might be over her head. Now, even from afar, she was more than concerned. The blackened ground that now spread all across Hell for as far as she could see… began to shift in colour, rapidly changing from bright red, blue, yellow, and green as it was seemingly remade.

It wasn't just remade in front of her, it was remade everywhere. The entirety of the world morphing like blocks of multi-coloured bricks. It was frankly the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen. The glass shifted from black, to marble, and then to dry, dead earth again. It shimmered a moment, before she started to see faces slowly emerging across the ground, each one twisted in horror. One more multi-coloured shift swept across the world before the faces once more turned to blackened glass. They were submerged beneath the surface. The world had become truly flat, yet truly curved.

Hell was more of a nightmare now, than it'd ever been before.

Her attention however, was abruptly interrupted as she saw a figure approaching her, a familiar purple aura surrounding it. It stopped briefly in the air, not moving, before the aura flickered away. Cautiously, Junia started to approach, her eyes looking for any sign of this Janemba creature.

Her own speed was sluggish, her body and power highly diminished. Blood had started to clot at least, even in her dead state. It made movement, ironically easier, and what little healing could have occurred at least allowed her not to be a cripple. That might be an optimistic assumption on her part, however.

When she arrived in the air, she could see Gohan floating there, his head looking about. The damage across his surface was clear, but she could still sense real energy there. It was familiar, but something seemed off.

"Where is it?" she asked from the side.

As soon as her voice hit the air, a critical glare was sent her way from Gohan, his eyes appraising her coolly before he went back to ignoring her. There was a sense that he was irritated with her. Well, given he'd ordered her to fuck off, she guessed that was the response treatment she was getting.

"I can help you find it."

"It didn't finish me off," Gohan responded. "It had the chance to. I don't know what it's doing. "

It didn't finish him off? I could sense Gohan's power decline rapidly in that blast. That means Janemba could have finished him but didn't? Why wouldn't it?

As the ground started to change colours again, Junia felt something cold fill the void in her dead stomach. He'd not finished Gohan off because he was learning. This was still a game for this creature, the same as before when it'd been that fat thing from before. Or even if it wasn't, it was an evolution of that thing. It was testing itself, finding out the limits of what it could do against Gohan.

She'd seen Majin Buu, Hirudegarn, Perfect Cell and others before all of this. She understood some of the darker nature of threats this world might not have seen, before they were crushed for sport by Taro, Brass, or herself. This thing reminded her of Buu. The Buu that Taro had to destroy as she and Brass had become helpless against it. The only reason they'd survived was because it was testing all of its new powers after absorbing most of the warriors on Earth. It wanted to see what it could do.

And this thing, even as it rewrote reality, she could almost guarantee, was the exact same.

"So, it's toying with you," Junia reaffirmed after a few seconds. "That's why it didn't kill you. It's using you as a test for its power."

The other Saiyan turned to look at her, the expression she saw, one of resignation and fading determination, told her that at the very least the other Saiyan suspected it. What were the implications for everything outside of this world if they lost? She'd never seen anything like this in the thousand universes she'd despoiled.

What would happen once this thing was done toying with them, and turned its attention to the world of the living?

Everything was now quite as well. Around the clear sky above them, the strange gems gently glided through the air, as if they'd replaced the clouds, but beyond it the endless heavens could still be witnesses. The waystation was even visible, despite it being encased in the gem.

The fact Gohan wasn't talking was increasingly damning as Junia felt her own nerves starting to fray. Neither of them had a plan. Neither of them had any confidence in terms of what to do, and they were being watched, she could feel it. This thing's eyes and ears were the very air around them as far as she could tell.

"Well?" she asked finally, breaking the silence. Her voice seemingly carried across the whole world it was so silent.

"Well, what?" he was quick to respond.

"How are you going to stop him? I saw how you fought Taro, you thought ahead, you had a plan. Did you lose your balls or something as soon as you got back down here?" she was quick to demand. "I can't believe you. You look like your fucking moping."

For a brief second, she was sure he was going to kill her. The look passed by his eyes as he glared back at her. Still, if she couldn't beat this thing, that meant the only thing down here that could win was him. And that meant that this idiot needed to get his shit together. Why was it everyone more powerful than her always ended up being some freak? Taro the degenerate, Brass the rage machine, and now Gohan the guilt-addled idiot. She'd kill for him to be the normal Gohan she'd met from most worlds, because at least he'd be eager to defend people.

This fool had the look of a man who was prepared to give up.

"I'm so tired," Gohan's voice sounded almost distant as he spoke, admitting something which took Junia back. "I'm tired of facing horrors. I'm tired of fighting for my life and suffering down here. What's the point? All of this strength is just a curse. All I can do is use it to fight these things, or murder for my own survival and gain. It gets harder every time. And I'm just… tired."

There was a tremble in his hands which Junia could visibly see. This was the last thing she needed, this guy was breaking down on her, even if he wasn't a sobbing wreck, his mental faculties were in free fall.

"Why leave here at all then?" she asked, her voice stern, but not harsh. "If its all so pointless and cursed, why bother even wanting to leave Hell? Get your head together."

"You've seen it down here. There is a difference between being constantly being cursed or fighting for your life, and suffering for an eternity," he responded, before turning his head away from her. "This thing is another nightmare. Another thing that everyone needs me to overcome and… and I can't keep doing this. I'm not even strong enough to fight this thing, and the whole fucking world is its ally. It controls the fabric of space and time; how do I deal with that?"

A strange sound filled the air, almost like a keyboard followed by the chipping away and assembly of blocks. Behind Gohan, she could see the pair of yellow eyes form first in the air, before the body rapidly assembled behind him. She was going to need to be the one to think their way out of this, apparently. They were Saiyans, both ascended. She certainly was at her limit, and her body barely was functioning. Gohan, despite being a total idiot, was still viable, but he was outclassed.

But there is still room to grow.

Son Goku and Turles in this world both demonstrated the ability to transform into the final state of a Super Saiyan, or Super Saiyan III. At his current power, she could only imagine what it would be like to have that strength. That was the only opening to victory she could see at all. He needed to transform. The only problem was of course, she had no idea how to do it herself, and she doubted Gohan did either.

Turning to face their attacker, the other Saiyan braced himself, but his posture was entirely defensive. Even now the world itself began to shift and change as blocks assembled and disassembled at the very basic levels of reality. The sky turned back to a crimson red as black clouds swirled around the gems, which gleamed through in the darkness. There was a grin on the creature's face as it arbitrarily reorganized the world to its liking.

"You've got to pull out more strength," she urged from behind. "You're not going to beat him like this. You've got to transform."

A scornful eye turned to her from the side as Gohan glared straight through her.

"I'll take just getting stronger under consideration," he snapped before turning back to Janemba, who was just floating there, his stance one of power and position, utterly unintimidated by what he was being presented. "Now back off."

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Gohan:

Are you for fucking real? Just get stronger. Here, let me do that for you.

Angry thoughts raged behind his mask. Anger at his inability to deal with this thing was at the peak of his frustration, on top of the fact he found himself fighting for his existence and the world around him, again, against hopeless odds, again. He could feel the cracks forming beneath his mind, all of his fears, doubts, and insecurities were raking through him. Death wasn't even a cure for him. Fighting this thing as it was after it'd left him to suffer in his own mind in its previous form, showed him the futility of everything.

And it didn't speak a word, instead just patiently waiting for something. Raising its hand, it gestured to him, demanding he take the lead in their struggle. Well, in his struggle, as he knew full well this thing was officially out of his league.

What he wouldn't give for his father to be here, or someone. The weight on his shoulders was almost unbearable.

"Tap into your strength. That's how Turles and Kakarot do it. Look at how their ki is arranged, you can figure it out. I know I did."

A voice emerged from the back of his mind as his eyes scanned around, looking for what could have sent that. It sounded familiar, most definitely.

"Hey! Freak!" a voice shouted out from below. "Don't waste your time on that coward. I'm the challenge you've been waiting for."

Turning his attention to the ground hundreds of metres away, Gohan shifted his focus as Janemba did as well. Power filled the air, power he could sense. There was a rising heat he understood to be a familiar power. It was much stronger than before as well, and given this was Hell, there was only one way that could happen. There was also a strangeness to the power… like there were two beings united into one, a fusion? Much like when Goku and Vegeta had fused to fight Taro? That power was familiar to him however.

No, the only thing he could see standing there was Brass.

There was a sense of disbelief, but it was rapidly replaced by a fraction of optimism. The amount of energy he could sense behind the body below was not insignificant. In fact, it probably could keep up with him, though he doubted that kind of strength could overtake him. That was largely because Brass had transformed. This was a major contributor towards him not feeling overly confident.

"We're buying you time, you idiot. Start focusing and arranging your ki like mine, and tap into your strength."

That voice in his head, he recognized, as being his own. But it wasn't his own. This was the Gohan Brass had absorbed in another timeline? He'd need to assess how he felt about that later.

In the meantime, Janemba's attention was turned downward. Part of him almost thought to lash out, to strike while he had a moment of distraction, but that part was easily quelled when he realized just how futile that was. Brass and… himself… were giving him a chance to try and emulate them. This transformation, he'd seen it before, but it was something still foreign to him even at a conceptual level. So much of his power traditionally came from emotion, or from deep reserves within.

There was a small voice of his own, genuinely wondering if he could ask this other him what it was like being… him… But it died as soon as Janemba's body disassembled itself, reassembling below.

Right. No time to fuck around then I guess.

Power flowed through his body as he started trying to emulate the flow of ki throughout his own body, beginning to prepare himself to delve into the vast reserves of strength he knew lay beneath the surface. Even without pushing himself, he sensed his own power rise dramatically just as he rearranged his ki. Golden energy moved more rapidly up his body as his aura brightened. There was a splinter of a second that he thought he'd touched on something he couldn't fully grasp, only to feel the pool of energy around him, coming from within.

His entire body seized a second later, muscles tightening almost painfully as he felt himself beginning to tremble. All the energy in his body wanted to withdraw inwards a second later, and with the force of willpower he shoved himself forward, reaching down inside of himself, trying to pull more out. Below, he could hear the thundering clap of battle, but his eyes had gone blind. The world turned white as he felt himself beginning to scream. The inside of his body felt like it'd caught fire. Every muscle screamed, burning with energy.

Inside the white light he could 'see' around him, Gohan saw the mirror of the nightmare he'd experienced before, staring back at him. Everyone he found himself involved with, all of them were standing there, judging him. From his father, to his daughter, their eyes were set on him. It was unbearable for him, mixing in with his ki. That was a new pain, a new pain he now knew would come to haunt him if he got out of this nightmare.

Something shattered, the white light around him cracking before cracking away. The Hellscape before him re-emerged as he heard himself continuing to howl. Something was happening, he could sense it. Not outside, within. It felt like his body was about to… explode.

Muscles bulged outwards as his entire frame almost came undone, before he felt his body beginning to almost seemed to change…

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Brass:

Junia is right. I'm a god damn idiot.

The blocks reassembling in front of him into the form of the red and purple nightmare he'd come to discover upon his resurrection. This was the problem with playing the hero. First things first, Junia hated it when he intervened on her behalf, so it wasn't exactly fixing his personal problems. In fact, this was creating whole new personal problems for him. The biggest personal problem being the monster in front of him.

"Don't worry. We've just got to hold him off."

It's not going to be you who gets torn to pieces.

Normally he'd have been confident. Brass was a god damn tank and he knew it, especially with this new form. The only problem was he knew he was weaker than Gohan right now, and if Gohan was worried about this guy? Well, that was a problem. The ever-changing landscape of Hell and the mister block builder in front of him gave more away. This form wasn't exactly infinite either. Hell, just wasting his time right now was a bad idea, but he wasn't so stupid as to lung forward and get his body shredded right away.

Instead, the bulked Saiyan flexed his arms in front of him before putting his guard up, narrowing his gaze on the demonic creature. The fact this thing didn't say a word was unsettling as well. Saying anything seemed pointless, the silence itself spoke volumes of what the thing could have said. Really, even now as he sensed Gohan's power starting to rise, he felt his confidence rise.

"Come on then," Brass ordered. "I don't get why everyone's being so apprehensive, I can't even sense your power you weakling."

The creature's face looked at him with all the respect it could muster, which was to say none. Its foot pounded off the ground. Force washed over him, almost blasting his aura off his body. The thing's face was in front of him just before he flinched, raising his guard desperately. When its fist slammed into his forearm, even with its new, enhanced power, he almost felt every bone in his arm buckle. Holding firm, he managed to skip backwards as Janemba's body evaporated from where it was, blocks spilling into the air as he vanished.

This was something he'd seen, if only briefly when it had appeared in front of Gohan a few minutes prior. It wasn't ki that he could follow, because this thing's ki was seemingly invisible, only the outline of it could even be sensed. Instead, the passenger in his mind raised a panic in him as he realized what the shift in the air meant first. Rolling forward in an attempt to dodge what was come, Brass managed to duck under a huge hooked strike as Janemba's body attacked while rematerializing.

When Brass prepared to strike back, rising to his feet as he came out of the roll, he saw only the dematerializing form of Janemba's face staring back at him, a grin appearing as it began to teleport.

Right, screw this.

Pointing a hand out, Brass unleashed a powerful energy wave. It passed clearly through where the demon once stood, traveling towards its own inevitable destruction somewhere in the distance.

However, the expelling of energy left him exposed and unable to respond as a pair of legs appeared in the air next to him as Janemba's body reassembled, and the other foot cracking into his back and the other kicking into the side of his head. It was enough to put him down. More then disorientating, Brass hit the ground hard. Focusing all of the immense reserve of energy he could muster, he turned immediately, this time firing a blast at Janemba much sooner, even as he began to dematerialize. The Calamity Blaster it Janemba's body, dematerializing along with it. There was a look of surprise on the demon's face as the purple light merged with him, teleporting brick by brick.

The front of the detonation blasted into seemingly nothing, before a gigantic purple wash of light burst out of a hole in seemingly thin air as the blastwave rolled out facing another point 5 metres away, clearly where Janemba had intended to teleport. Pouncing forward, Brass saw the scorched Janemba stumbling back, his eyes shut and his mouth grimacing as he shook his head. Landing his fist hard on the other combatant, Brass felt his knuckes impact into the side of the creature's head. The glass beneath them shattered as the blastwave from the impact rolled out from the centre.

The world in that moment, slowly ceased making sense. Because the demon's head shot to one side, fist pushed into his face, but there wasn't a noise of pain, or a sign of damage. Instead, it turned its head back towards him, as if asking if that was all. It seemed impossible, given the power output he'd put into his blast and that punch, he should have done something to this thing.

"Backup."

Ignoring the recommendation, Brass struck with his other fist, slamming it into the belly of the beast. This time Janemba's body barely flinched, only giving the most limited motion to the hit. Reluctantly, Brass looked down at his fist in the monster's stomach, before he looked back up at the yellow eyed thing. There was a moment of exchange which Brass understood, Janemba wasn't here for him, and he wasn't doing anything to further draw its attention.

Before he could take up his guest's advice, Brass felt a hand stab through his own chest. Immediately the Super Saiyan aura vanished around him as his ki was broken, dead body or not. His mouth went agape in surprise before he sensed what he'd hoped would have arrived by now. Janemba's attention turned upward as well as the beast seemed surprised. Behind the monster holding him up by the arm in his chest, Brass could see reality shifting once more… but this time the fabric of it was being pulled on by pure energy. Rolling colours and twisting skies formed into a beautiful and terrifying display. Before he could appreciate it further, Janemba pulled his hand out of his chest, leaving Brass to fall to the ground, near helpless.

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Gohan:

Fire burst around him like Gohan had never seen. Power surged across his body almost as it had when he'd been on the surface of the Earth last, though that was hyperbolic of course. He could feel the energy surging from his core as never before. A long mane of hair trailed down his back as Gohan was left in a sense of surprise. Saiyan attributes he barely touched on since his arrival on the Earth flared as he felt his fighting instincts hone. The world around him faze-shifted in colour several times as his new form emerged in the light. Blue, purple, and green washed over reality, reflecting back to him from below across the glass surface of Hell.

He'd done it. This was the technique that Turles and Kakarot had been using, and now Brass. Watching Brass get destroyed in the first moments of transcendence in this form didn't discourage him. As he was, he felt like he could do anything. The power flowing through him was familiar, as if it'd always been at his fingertips. It was a natural extension of himself, it wasn't alien or strange, and having held even more immense power in the past, he knew exactly how to utilize it.

"Janemba!" Gohan shouted.

The creature's features shifted up to him, scowling as it did. The use of its name seemingly caught its attention more than his outburst of power. It was a call to battle, a test of strength. This was what this thing wanted anyway, wasn't it? Zipping to the surface in under a heartbeat, Gohan appeared on the glass standing opposite of Janemba, whose head trailed after him, clearly not keeping up at full speed. The cold gaze it was giving him told him as much. There was only one unnerving thing…

When he overmatched anyone he'd faced before, save Broly, they showed signs of concern, or fear when they'd realized it. Janemba had no such fear. Without even realizing it was happening, reality shimmered around Janemba before he punched forward, cutting through reality as a bubble opened in front of him, his fist planting into Gohan's face. He could definitely still feel it, but it was only enough to stagger him this time. Before the hand could be retracted back through the portal, Gohan grabbed his fist, yanking him forward, sucking Janemba forward through his own reality warp.

There was a brief moment of shock before Gohan swung into him with his own right. Golden energy crackled off his fist, bouncing off Janemba's face before his arm crashed into the side of the demon's head. Spit shot out of its mouth as its entire head shot to one side, this time sending it flying back, dematerializing through its own portal once more before reappearing next to Brass, before skidding and sliding across the glass for several metres, bouncing once as he did before coming to a halt, face first.

The red skinned devil started to pull himself up, a dark purple energy rising from its body while its two yellow eyes locked with his. There was a snarl and a growl from it while it made it to its feet. The real battle was now afoot.

Reappearing in front of him, Janemba's entire body reconstructing itself and immediately lashed out, his frame even assembling in the midst of striking out at him with a sweeping kick. It was fast, much faster than Gohan expected too. When he slipped back to dodge it, Gohan braced himself on his backfoot, stepping back into Janemba the moment his opponent's strike hit nothing but air. Kicking low, Gohan's leg shot out and snapped into the side of Janemba's knee. Already only standing on the one limb, the red skinned fighter tipped, falling to one side in the air. Before the demon's body could hit the ground, it was only a matter of going straight for the win. Punt kicking the thing in the stomach in a rapid motion, Gohan knocked the beast straight up in the air.

Rocketing after him, his golden aura trailing behind him, Gohan struck with full force, centring his ki on his right arm before driving his fist into the primordial creature. Energy flicked through the air as time seemed to stop. Even Janemba himself paused in the air; his yellow eyes bulged in disbelief. A cyclone of golden power them exploded out, blasting through Gohan's body and arm as his ki caught up with his motion. The full force of the blow swept through the demon's form and it sent his body flailing out into the empty sky. Sweeping his hand after him in the distance, invisible ki spread across the path Janemba followed. Within seconds, fire exploded across the sky, almost emulating the scale and scope of the infinite sea of yellow clouds that once inhabited the heavens.

The entire world seemed to shake with the violence explosions of golden orange that rocked the afterlife. Left floating there, Gohan just watched as he saw Janemba's form disappear in the fire in the sky. As the lights faded, and the fires flickered out, there was seemingly nothing. The ground swelled beneath him at a speed no mortal could follow, before two huge glass arms made alive reached out, grasping him with their huge bulk. As soon as the two arms locked together, their material shifted around him, bright colours flickering through them as blocks of matter reassembled themselves into diamond, instead of glass.

A calm set of features stared over the gauntlets which now held him in place. Confidence had returned to him as the creature had been so spectacularly outclassed only moments prior. This kind of attack, he'd learned while fighting Taro, typically meant that they knew they couldn't win on their own power anymore, they would rely on cleverness. Or at least… that was what Gohan thought.

Blocks assembled in front of him as Janemba's body rebuilt itself in a split second in front of him, a smile on its lips.

Say something. What is it that you want? Global domination? Power? To destroy everything?

It'd already destroyed the Afterlife, and apparently according to that one Ogre, could spill into the real world of the living.

A wave of golden light burst from Gohan's body as the artificial hands which grasped him melted away, their smouldering and burning ruin washing back down to the surface of Hell. Floating there in front of Janemba, he remained ready, all prepared for what was to come. The demon just seemed to size him up, increasingly fascinated with him with every passing moment. Normally Gohan expected to see fear, frustration, and fury from his enemies by now. Everyone from Turles, to Taro had displayed this. This thing instead was never angry with him, only more and more amused.

In a blur of motion, Janemba was on him, Gohan's arm rose to block the strike, this time impacting him with an immensely more powerful strike than prior. The entire inside of his limb felt like it was about to cave in as the blow landed. It was all he could do to focus on the fight itself, rather than recoiling from the force of the blow. Raising his knee, he barely managed to catch the demon's next blow before he felt the vicious left hook catch him across the cheek and temple. The side of his skull fractured, that much he felt, blood filled his eyeball as Gohan sensed all the fluid in his head sent violently to one side, causing one side of his face to swell instantly.

Another fist hit him, this time in the chest. Blood shot up through his nose and mouth from the hit before he felt himself launch further into the air. Material began to construct around him, assembling into the form of Janemba, before he drove both of his fists down onto him in an axe handle smash. When the blow hit, for a brief second reality seemed to flickered around him, the façade of what existence was shed away, the reality of what it was appearing around him like shattered fragments of glass, before his body plummeted into the nightmare below. With the sound of a thousand-thousand glass sheets shattering, Gohan's body hit the surface of Janemba's Hell.

Blood tricked out of his ears and face as Gohan struggled to start pulling himself to his feet. Cuts and other lacerations now adorned his arms and legs as the blocks of Janemba assembled once more in front of him, this time already in an aggressive stance. Marshalling all of his power, Gohan realized what this meant. He had one chance to take this win. The opening was presenting itself as Janemba continued his attack without realizing that the damage to his body wasn't an equation. He'd lost no limbs or major functions, so despite everything hurting… Gohan wasn't short on strength.

Charging straight into Janemba with a level of velocity he didn't even know he could perform, he kicked straight up, his leg flying into the space between Janemba's legs before colliding with his pelvis before his body could fully construct itself. Hunching forward, the creature's torso had yet to finish forming before the Saiyan relentlessly continued, chopping the monster's abdomen from above as Janemba's chest formed around his fist, displacing the blocks for a brief moment as the body flailed unexpectedly before he swung around, catching the half formed creature in the chest with a ruthless roundhouse kick.

Staggering back as his body finished forming, finally, Janemba stared back at him, barring his teeth with pain. It lasted only a brief second before Gohan tackled into the monster, slamming his body into the fragmented surface of Hell. Before he could respond, Gohan fed a punch straight down into the demon's head as he tried to pull himself up. The force was enough that he imbedded the monster ten metres further into the surface, his body cutting through the very landscape of his making. Blocks disappeared again, this time appearing several dozen metres behind him, turning violently, and kicking off at full speed, Gohan burst into a run, his body blurring across the face of the afterlife.

Turn my dreams into nightmares? Try to kill me? Think you can just play with me? Well fuck you, you fucking thing! I'm so tired of this bullshit!

This time, Janemba fully formed, raising his right hand and opening it in the air, a dozen pieces of glass formed into javelins before launching themselves at Gohan, cartwheeling through them before flipping off the ground into one great pounce, Gohan pulled back his fist one last time, before driving it almost through the body of the incarnation of negative energy. His entire form recoiled from the hit, his face twisting into shock and surprise. The golden whirlwind of power following Gohan's strike once more launched Janemba back, but this time he knew it was time to follow up immediately.

Feeling his body waning, his power draining, Gohan placed his hands together. After this, he could rest, he knew it.

"Cataclysmic!-"

Purple power flowed through his hands before one half of it shifted to a brief blue, forming together with the other bolt of energy into a chaotic, dark blue-violet mix.

"-Ka-Me-Ha-ME-HA!"

Throwing both his hands forward, the endless horizon seemingly turned blue as the light from the attack washed over the heavens, for a brief moment seemingly erasing the dark dream of Janemba's world. The intensity of the attack was so intense, Gohan's own feet couldn't keep themselves planted on firm ground as existence itself was seemingly repelled from the power. In the distance, a purple and blue sun seemingly rose over all of reality as the explosion from the attack detonated, inside the beam he could feel Janemba's body screaming seemingly, before vanishing into the light.

Before it was even over, Gohan felt his hair shorten, his aura vanished, and his body finally give out. Darkness enshrouded his mind despite standing in the brightest light he'd ever seen.

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Junia:

It figured she'd get stuck sitting here next to this dead piece of meat. Brass couldn't even speak. Only gurgles could escape his throat from the massive hole in his chest. The fact his spine had been severed as well, meant that he was a useless sack as well. Killing him would be a mercy, but as she and Gohan had discussed, they didn't understand how death worked in this new afterlife. The look on Brass's face told her that he too realized it.

"You've gotten your ass kicked since we came to this reality," she remarked. "Not even just Hell, I mean since we got to this backwater of a universe."

There was a brief smile, she could tell he wanted to speak, but well, that wasn't in the cards right now. Instead, carried through the ki between them, she sensed what he was saying in response.

"Well, I seem to keep picking fights with people stronger than me, or when I'm outnumbered ten to one."

They both felt the energy in the distance spike. It was more fantastical than anything she'd sensed, outside of Taro's full power. The rise of the purple-blue supernova in the distance left her with an unsettling feeling in her gut. This Gohan was scum. First of all, to get sentenced to go down here was an issue in and of itself. She was down here for the same reasons, of course, but it was different being on the outside looking in. There was a violence beneath the surface on him, much like the anger behind every Gohan they'd met, but it was poisoned. If he was raised by Turles, that just meant unlike in their world, Gohan had been more receptive to whatever he was being taught.

The acts of selflessness made her question it, but the kind of ki he produced, and his attitude allowed her to see just how dangerous this guy was.

"He win?"

"I don't know yet," she responded, her tone uncomfortable despite her trying to keep herself in check. "But I do know he's far too strong as he is, and he's not to be trusted. If we stopped being useful or he saw need for it, he'd turn on us in a moment. I can see it in his eyes."

"We're already dead."

Casting him an annoyed look as the light began fading in the distance, she half expected the world to begin changing again. Once the monster was destroyed, she assumed the world would shift back to the way it was. The strange gems still floated across the 'sky', and the clouds never returned. The blackened, reflective surface of Hell still sat below them. They couldn't really sense this thing's power, it was strange. Really, it was more than that. It was horrifying. This thing did nothing but play games with them, and she'd seen it bend reality like it was a plaything. She couldn't get into whatever this thing's head was. She didn't understand what it wanted, or why it was doing what it was doing. Its agency wasn't something she could see.

It was madness. Literally, as far as she could tell, it was as twisted as the images they saw in every reflective surface that now covered every piece of the afterlife. Looking at the distorted glass beneath her, Junia stared in the broken and warped reflect she saw looking back at her. It was as warped as her reflection, wasn't it?

Turning back to Brass after several minutes passed without a moment of fighting, she got to her feet, staggering as she did, trying her best to keep her head together, she just breathed in and out.

"Either he's won, and he's a total mess right now. Or he's losing and needs to get the Hell back up," Junia almost growled. "Someone has to do it."

"Look at you, playing the hero."

The remark rubbed her raw, angering her. For a brief second she thought about finishing Brass off, save for the problem again, that they didn't know what would happen if any of them died right now.

Lifting off into the air, she began to move towards the site of the battlefield.

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Gohan:

The air around him felt stale, as stale as ever. Gohan's eyelids slowly parted, revealing the world around him once more. The ground beneath him was hard, as in, it was still glass. Any signs of the light which had encompassed his attack had faded, but how long ago he didn't know. Weakly, he put one hand beneath him to begin lifting himself back up. Ending up on his knees, he just breathed in an out, the falsified sensation of 'breathing' passing through him. It made him feel all the hollower as he realized it was just him reacting to the exertion, rather than fixing it. It felt like every drop of energy had fled his body, and it was only the faintest tethered of power remaining to keep him conscious. Lacerations were scattered across his pulverised vessel as he tried to stand up.

There was no sign of it. That was the main thing that ran through his mind as he scanned the horizon for anything. Honestly, he half expected reality to shift back when this thing died, but there was no sign of that. Maybe it was a permanent change then? Was this just what the afterlife was?

As far as he could tell, there was no Hell, or Heaven. It was just one plane with an endless sky, and endless expanse. And below, it was an endless reflection. Sadly, it was just as nightmarish as the Hell he came from. This was going to be the new eternity for everyone then.

… I… I ruined the afterlife for everyone.

There was something cold running through his dead blood when he realized the gravity of what had just happened. Everything, an eternity up until this point, had changed and for the worse, all because of his own selfishness. Was it worth the risk for his own escape? No, that much he'd already decided before he set the events in motion to create…

"Janemba," he finished his sentence, almost as a whisper, as if a forbidden word left his throat.

This was why he was down here, inevitable. No matter how much he reviled it, or felt it was unfair. This nightmare he'd created for everyone explained perfectly how he got here, and sadly, even now; he knew he'd do whatever it took to save himself after this got fixed.

"So, you're alive?" Junia's voice emerged from his side. "Not surprised, but maybe a bit disappointed."

Turning his head awhile he climbed to his feet, if only barely, Gohan almost glared at the other prisoner of this nightmare. The jabs were not what he wanted to deal with right now. Reflecting on the future of existence because of his actions, and having fought that monster only minutes ago, well, at least he assumed minutes ago, was enough to keep his defences up.

"The only disappointment I have is that you're the first one to congratulate me," Gohan snarked, before turning away again, looking down the path of destruction his energy wave had wrought.

Staring at the ground, he could see himself staring back at him, the darkened reflection making his brown-black eyes look almost red. A nightmare, to be sure. This was the new floor of everything. A reminder that he was trapped here, forever. Even if he got out, he'd be back.

"That attack was incredible," Junia remarked, taking some steps closer to him. "Where did you get all that strength?"

"You already know. I also figured out how to make that new form Turles and my dad uses work."

Nodding as she listened, Junia seemed to smile while she looked at him. Great, she wanted to learn how to follow in his footsteps no doubt. Saiyans were mostly very predictable.

Blah Blah Blah I will be the strongest.

"That's not entirely what I meant, what I mean is inside yourself. Everyone could sense how far you reached into yourself, its from that depth that you can draw your real strength. I'm just curious how you've tapped into it. I mean, that attack was incredible."

The question was a bit strange, and he really didn't want to answer. There was something that made him almost feel compelled to answer however, because saying it almost explained it to himself. He barely understood where it all came from. All of his power, all of his strength, always came from his anger or pain, even since he was a child.

"While I was in the Planet Trade, I was mortally wounded all the time, it was a lot of pain. I also had a lot of pain from everything that happened to me to land me there. When that power finally opened up when I fought Turles on Earth, I've always been able to draw on it. Broly, Garlic, and Brass. That power always comes to the fore when I need it. It boosts what's already there."

"Do you think it was enough to kill that thing?" Junia's voice chimed in, asking immediately as she looked down the pathway of destruction.

"Can't sense him, but I could feel him in the blast. He definitely got all of it."

Looking at the torn wreck of shoes on his feet, Gohan kicked the shredded attire off before he started to stretch. Well, where the Hell was he going now? He felt aimless now. There was no one left to fight. There was no mountain left to climb, and there was no escape from all of this.

And is it going to be any different if you were alive?

There was a hint of his own thoughts bleeding through behind everything else. The nightmare Janemba had showed him, he could see how it was so real. Betraying yourself was one thing, but betraying everyone else was another. All the mistakes he'd made since arriving on Earth were going to catch up with him, which was something he was more worried about in many respects than being strong. You couldn't force people to care about you, or turn back time. Once something was done, it was done.

Sitting down on the glass floor of the universe, Gohan just stared up at the scattered gems in the sky, and the calm white clouds which were scattered amongst the heavens. Planetoids at extreme distances reflected back the light which came from no star. He wondered what this place would look like with a sun in it, briefly. The next most maddening part of this nightmare was that he'd laid the foundation himself. He wasn't blind to it anymore, or at the very least he now understood his own attempts to keep everything under wrap.

He knew, he always had.

"Well?" Junia asked.

"Well, what?"

"Are we going to leave? You've gotta know a way out of here. Is it through the Waystation, or is there another passage?"

Giving Junia a strange look, Gohan shook his head.

"You think I know this? Lady, you've got problems," he laughed before laying back. "This whole thing's fucked now."

And it was true, he'd somehow ruined half of existence, the half that was the afterlife. Everything he'd seen told him that much, just what was left? This was his legacy; this was what he'd leave behind for eternity. The destruction of the order of eternity. Quietly, he could imagine every living creature alive scornfully spitting at him for what he'd done. Truth be told, he'd deserve it too, wouldn't he?

"Stop playing stupid," Junia remarked coolly. "You clearly know a way out of here."

Sitting up and glaring at the pushy creature, the one who was made from Vegeta, Gohan almost wanted to snap her neck. Not that it'd make any difference if he did or not. How many times did you need to let someone know that you didn't know?

"Ask Brass, he knows about as much as I do," Gohan quipped before hopping to his feet, staring at all he'd "accomplished".

The ruination was as endless as his shame.

There was something strange, his senses caught something on the edge of his vision, sensing a hint of ki. Both his eyes quickly narrowed in as Junia landed a few metres away from him. She brushed the edges of her armour before spitting, clearly haggard.

"Are you alright? You look like shit," she remarked. "…What… the Hell?"

Something cold immediately filled his core as Gohan prepared to turn to see what exactly was going on. Wasn't Junia just over-?

His arms flexed as his shoulders began shifting his frame before a red blade emerged through his chest. Blood burst down his front as everything immediately while Gohan felt red come up his esophagus, before it burst from his lips in an inadvertent gag. As soon as the blade was cleared from him, he turned his head, looking at the creature standing there. It still wore Junia's face, even as its right arm had formed into an elongated blade.

It took all of his power and his understanding of his undead body for Gohan to step back as it cut across his chest, opening a wound just below his collar bones. With all of his remaining strength, Gohan kicked out, catching Janemba in the abdomen and chest, sending the creature sliding back before it could make the final lung at him.

Its form slowly started to ripple before blocks of matter reassembled themselves into a new order, this time taking the form of himself, staring back at him with a devious smile.

"You really need to learn to relax," he heard himself say before the creature, emulating his every move, perfectly began striding towards him, just as his old Planet Trade Armour formed over its body.

It knew? How? What… what was this thing? Staring into its eyes, he only saw his own. That was the worst part about it. That thing was what he'd been… Hell, it was more like what he was. You never stop being you, that was the one thing he seemingly couldn't run from as long as he was here. There was no escaping himself. This thing knew it too.

That was the worst part about all of this, wasn't it?

"Something wrong?"

"You can talk now?" Gohan shot back to it, stepping back while his hand pressed against the front of his wound.

Why even bother? I don't really bleed like this. I'm acting alive.

And it was true, his body was still very much functional, if only impeded by the sliced-out bit in his middle. Janemba would have to do far more significant damage than that to stop him.

Its eyes didn't break from his as it took another step towards him, mimicking his fighting stance as it did, a wind blowing around them as the cape he once wore fluttered in the wind while power swept around them.

"Can I?" it asked in response. "Or am I the one really talking with you? Talking back to you like the reflection you see in the mirror? What am I? What are you, Gohan?"

The cold feeling that was at the centre of his body reminded him that it was there as his double remained in front of him. What the Hell was Janemba? Slowly, he was beginning to realize… Was he the reflection? What did that even mean?

Light flashed brilliantly above them before Gohan needed to recommit to the battle or to a rebuttal, but in truth he didn't have one. There wasn't much to say right now at all. The flash of explosive energy in front of him sent Gohan sliding back across the smooth surface of the ground. Dozens of other tremendous energy bolts exploded into the ground as the flashes of noise and light became more and more intense. Furious cries of anger were the only thing mixed with the assault as Junia sprung into her attack.

Looking up at her, Gohan could see the pale look on the other Saiyan's features despite the blue tinted light of her assaults. What she saw this thing doing was clearly unnerving to her, but this wasn't helpful at all. Junia's attacks were insignificant to what this thing was.

"Junia!" Gohan shouted. "What are you doing?!"

There was no time to respond when the blocks of matter assembled above her, revealing Vegeta, whom dove kicked down, crashing into her shoulder before sending her body crashing into the blasted surface of Hell she'd just created. Great, what was he supposed to do now? His power was extremely limited at the moment, he had cuts across and through his body, and he couldn't even transform. Just what was going to get this thing's attention?

Fuck me, why do I even want it?

Because there was no avoiding it, was there?

"JANEMBA!"

When his voice echoed out across the barren expanse. Immediately Vegeta's body shimmered, revealing the Devil within. It looked at him, disassembling and reassembling in front of him, this time in the form of an all too familiar figure.

You've gotta be kidding me.

The familiar roar of a complete mad dog of a Saiyan filled his eyes as Broly's fist connected with him, harder than he'd ever been hit before by anyone, especially the real Broly. His body was sent scattering to the winds as he bounced off the ground before colliding with one of the floating gems in the sky. The gigantic Saiyan roared as he took off after him, his hulking body pulling the air around him into a heated vortex of energy, seemingly.

Before it could collide with him again however, its body broke apart into thousands of chips in the air, disassembling itself entirely before Gohan felt a blow crash into the side of his face, blinding his left eye from the violence of the impact before he was impacted into the ground. Broken glass stabbed into his back and lacerated across his skin as his father… Goku, landed in front of him.

"You have no idea how much you've hurt me, Gohan. At every step I've done everything to help you, and you've always just caused more pain, not just me, but for everyone. Your mother, your daughter, all of my friends, anyone you touch. I'd have been better off if you'd never returned."

That was hard to argue, wasn't it? Getting up, wincing with every flesh of cut skin, Gohan managed to stand at his full height, staring at the image of his father. Briefly, Gohan could imagine that really was Goku. Because that was what he was afraid Goku and Chi-Chi really thought of him. Worse, it was what he thought they should think of him. Did Janemba know that? Or whatever this thing was?

"Yea," Gohan admitted a moment later. "Your probably right. That's why I'm stuck down here, isn't it? Finish whatever you were starting, this is over."

There was a moment of elation that was written on his "father's" face. Why, he didn't fully understand, but it seemed to take some kind of pleasure in him admitting something he never spoke about. It'd body slowly started to morph back into its true form, starting with his father's boots shifting into purple feet. Maybe it'd been waiting to hear that before it finished him off. What did it want? He still wasn't even sure. All he knew was that he wanted to escape this place-

And it was asking me how to escape.

This… this thing… He didn't understand, but it was all connected. It was connected to everything, yet it was connected to nothing. It was a reflection? Or… or was it a reflection of a reflection?

"Maybe it'd be better if I was destroyed, so I couldn't suffer this anymore. No reincarnation, no Hell, no Heaven, just an end."

It stopped, grinning darkly at him, its teeth being revealed as it did as it raised one finger in the air and gently wagged it at him while it shook its head slowly, as if it sensed his plot.

Well, it was worth a shot.

Stepping back carefully once more, Gohan prepared for the next assault with the limited resources he had. Instead however, much as before, a bolt of energy cut the attack shot, this time Janemba teleported it away without even looking at it, but its eyes were clearly not impressed. A dark fury was written in its features, before it seemed startled, though not afraid.

Looking up himself, the Saiyan felt something akin to relief, though in truth, he wasn't sure what to make of it.

Because there had to be several hundred Trunks up there.

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Junia:

Managing to pull herself up, Junia felt her entire supply of energy having been drained from one hit from what she thought for a moment had been her father. When it took on her form, she'd been afraid… especially as its body morphed and changed. This thing had stolen her form and face, and then just shifted into Gohan's visage next. She only saw it as her father for the briefest of moments before it'd taken her down like she'd been nothing. Of course, she rationally knew there was no way that her attacks could have done much of anything, but just standing there and letting this thing make a mockery of everything seemed like complete madness.

Because this is complete madness.

The sky above was filled with her brothers, the ones she seldom thought of as her actual brothers. It was a sight to be taken in however. They together, had formed the power Taro had used to dominate hundreds of universes with far more powerful adversaries, now they were coming to stop this thing, if they could. That was the first thing that came to her mind. This thing wasn't Taro, it was a nightmare far darker and more despoiled than her mad half brother could have been.

For all his madness and ambition, Taro had been a Saiyan, a man.

This thing. This thing wasn't like any of the monsters she'd seen in hundreds of battles, and it was using powers and abilities she thought impossible to manifest through ki. Reality itself was seemingly its plaything. Even its own appearance and personality were just… masks? She couldn't tell, not anymore. Was what this thing appeared to be, even what it was? This thing wasn't like anything she'd encountered before. Its warped mind and presence had even changed the very nature of time, space, and reality in the afterlife so far that it no longer was recognizable. To call it just a demon seemed now to so… off… when Gohan had answered her earlier, his voice almost distant when he'd called it what it was, she was beginning to understand.

This thing was Janemba. Whatever that meant, whatever power that word somehow held, it wasn't just some silly thing a giant fat monster spouted. It meant something now, at least to her, that she found to be deeply uncomfortable.

Janemba meant change. Janemba meant destruction. Janemba meant looking into a broken mirror. It meant the uncomfortable feeling she felt in her stomach, the nightmares that haunted her dreams, the perversion of her wants and desires. This thing was the end of all things, wasn't it?

Even as it was looking across the sky, staring at the Trunks above, it paused, before turning its attention back to her as soon as her thoughts turned to the nature of the beast. Its eyes met hers before its large mouth pulled up in a dark, knowing smile. Its yellow and black eyes seemed to swirl as in them she could see her father staring back at her, even as it didn't change form. Her insides felt like they were on fire as the glass beneath her became hot, almost. When she looked down, in the broken wreckage of the ground around her, the very surface of Hell stared back at her, changed, different than before.

And mixed amongst the reflections staring back at her across the broken, jagged surfaces, she could see not just her own eyes. In amongst them, she could see the fathers she'd killed, as well as other victims, she could see Brass, and Taro, her mother, and as her eyes scanned the sea of glass, almost every person she'd ever killed. But on the largest fragment, her eyes were drawn to the red visage of the thing which had just stared at her, and here, mimicking her eyes and motions, even in this splinter of realization, she could see Janemba.

Then every face, every person she looked to, were Janemba as well. When she looked at her hands, feeling as if reality was slipping away around her, she stared at red palms. Her breathing became erratic as her body started to tremble.

A hand grabbed her shoulder, seemingly awakening her from whatever was happening. Her eyes immediately were cast up, seeing Trunks standing next to her, the purple haired young man wasn't looking at her, instead was staring intently at this thing.

"Come on," he urged, offering her a hand. "We'll get you further back."

Looking back at the mirrored surface, Junia only saw herself, before looking back and seeing Janemba's attention once more set upon the Trunks.

The void stares back.

Even now, her power broken by a single blow, Junia pulled her shoulder away from the man who was the brother she never truly knew.

"It won't matter," she said quietly before looking back towards the battle that was about to ensue. "This whole world is apart of him. Now that he knows about you, you cannot outrun him, you can't escape, not anymore."

She felt the hand leave her shoulder as Junia felt herself almost have a breakdown. It was an opponent that couldn't be defeated, she understood that now.

"What is it?" Trunks' voice asked, his own features hardening as hers had when she'd first thought to fight it.

"Janemba."

As soon as the word left her lips, the battle begun.

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Gohan:

The first blast sent shockwaves through the air, it was familiar, and Gohan immediately knew a hopeless cause when he saw one. There were hundreds of Trunks, they were the real power that had embodied Taro, and without sensing Janemba's trust power still, knowing he could barely sense anything unless it wanted him to sense it, immediately he knew the dark truth of it all. This creature, this Janemba, was stronger than all of the Trunks above, and himself, and perhaps even all the denizens of Hell themselves.

Two bodies hit the ground as Janemba ascended into the sky, having torn through the two undead Trunks as if they were nothing. A familiar figure landed behind him, looking at him knowingly. Powers rising all around them caused all of the fragments and damaged glass to begin to rise into the air, even chunks as large as cars were slowly pulled skyward by the ki. In every reflection, when he looked into it, he saw Janemba staring back at him, and Janemba in the form of the Trunks behind him. It was like being surrounded by a house of mirrors.

It was enough to make his stomach turn as he realized just the depth of what he'd unleashed. This wasn't some monster that he could just kill. It wasn't Broly, or Taro, some depraved beast which needed to be stopped and he could just throw enough power at it at a critical moment. This thing… it… it was beyond his comprehension. His mind even trailed back to what he'd seen only a few minutes earlier as it took on his own form and talked with him. It asked if it really was speaking with him, and in truth, he didn't think so. It transcended that.

Whatever it was, it was beyond his understanding. Around him there was madness behind everything, as he was starting to understand that this Janemba wasn't just the body fighting them… it was everything. It encompassed everything, and what was starting to scare him as he looked in the reflections in the mirrors, it might actually encompass him as well. Perhaps it had always just simply been everything, everything here? Maybe everyone always had some kind of connection to it? Or perhaps, when it was born… everything here, everything, became apart of it.

And if it got out of this life, this world beyond the living, it would do the same to everything else.

Watching as it disappeared, reforming itself in five forms at one moment before recombining into one, before splitting into forty as it dashed through the sky, striking Super Saiyans and Ascended Super Saiyans with the force to shatter reality left him with the full understanding of how small he himself was. One Trunks literally shattered like glass, breaking into a thousand wailing shards before clattering across the floor of the universe. All of the forms stopped moving, all of the hundreds of warriors stopped in their tracks taking in the broken statue below, transparent and fragmented.

"Can you help us?" the Trunks he'd become friends with so long ago asked, the one trained by Tien. The voice was distant, as if the space between them was growing for one moment, and shrinking in the next as reality itself started to expand and contract on a primal, base level. He could sense it in his body.

When his head turned to look at him, Gohan saw just how unnerved he was. There was fear in his eyes, and he knew that fear was mirrored across all of them. When he looked at the floor, seeing Janemba staring back at him instead of himself, Gohan saw the fear in the creature's eyes, mirroring his own. It was the most honest thing he'd seen of himself in a long time.

He. Was. Afraid.

He was afraid of it all. Whatever this thing was going to do to him, and everyone else. What it'd do if… when it got out of here. He was even starting to sense it in the back of his mind, slithering… probing… pulling itself into his mind and body as if he were an extension of it. The nightmare he'd lived through in the sand storm, trapped in the crystals above, slowly started to resurface as he could hear whispers from everyone he cared about.

You're pathetic.

Why can't you save us?

All you care about is yourself.

You. Are. Helpless.

You are me.

The last words were in his own voice, but they were hardly his own.

The last one shocked him, it was like a jolt of electricity running through his body as he felt himself almost vomit, in fact, he did as soon as he thought he'd had it under control. Purple ooze pulsed out of his throat as Trunks grabbed hold of him, trying to pull him back. It dripped out of his eyes, hazing his vision, before it merged with the tainted reflection beneath him. It was enough to cause him to nearly black out, his one hand left struggling as he almost felt himself being sucked into the ground itself.

"What the Hell is going on?" Trunks asked hurriedly.

"I'm dead," Gohan managed, staring at the reflection beneath him, seeing what it was and knowing it might just be what he was. "We all are."

"You've gotta snap out of this," Trunks urged, pulling him back up. "I know your stronger than everyone right now. You can stop that thing."

You have no idea.

The fact that even now this guy's hope strung eternal was remarkable to him, looking past him, he noticed his brother's best friend, Trunks, another one, the younger one, looking at him, as well as dozens of other young examples of Trunks. Talking about how they were all going to be annihilated from existence, or morphed into extensions this thing's will. He was already beginning to wonder what his ideas actually were. A wave of nausea and disorientation filled him as he looked back towards the floor of reality.

"Don't you see it?" he asked quietly, pointing at the reflection.

"See what? Our reflections?" Trunks asked, looking down before looking back at him with a real worry in his eyes.

No, he didn't. A shimmer ran over the surface of the universe as reality itself started to quake. When he looked skyward to the halted battle above, Janemba's form started to pull back together. Colour bled across the sky as the bodies of all but one of the copies of Janemba began to pull back in towards him. Blocks of matter became smaller and smaller until they were a fine mist of red matter, pouring into the one form. The ground itself started to beat like it had a heart. It almost felt like his own blood was going to pour out of his body into this thing.

Falling to the ground, he looked over to Junia, who was at a distance, as she started to scream in pain as well.

They'd been exposed the longest. Hours they'd been on the surface of… it wasn't Hell, not anymore, they'd been on the surface of Janemba. The ground reverberated with a deep, dark noise, so loud his eardrums nearly shattered, the only thing he could hear above it was the chuckle of Janemba's form above them. Matter started assembling all around the thing above in different forms before the monster lifted out his right hand, and a single, long, red blade formed in his palm, the edges around it seemingly severing through the space around it, leaving empty, dead space, free of light for almost a second after the blade moved. The intense, red blade somehow still bleeding through the darkness it made.

"Gohan," Trunks, the younger Trunks, quickly said, his own voice laced with the fear of what was happening. "What do you need us to do?"

Die.

Shaking his head, he stared back at the kid he'd fought Broly beside. The memories already felt distant, like they weren't his own, but it was enough. He grabbed hold of them, pulling himself to the fore of his own mind, blocking out the fear, and blocking out… Janemba. For a brief second across from him, he could imagine the destroy remnants of the human city, Orange Star City, where he'd clashed with the beast born of his first tormentor. Taking hold of that hatred, and that pain, remembering pulling out his own implants, he closed his eyes hard before starting to pull himself together.

Rising, he didn't realize he almost formed into his full height as he stared at the others before looking back towards Janemba, the creature's sword sliced through the air, and a dozen bodies were split, torn, maimed, and destroyed. Hunks of Super Saiyan flesh cleaved through the air in the greatest of ironies. Perhaps that was even why it… he… no it, formed the blade.

"I need your power," Gohan said honestly. "Just enough to restart my own engine. And I need you to know that we're probably not going to make it anyway."

Looking in the air, the younger Saiyans all stared in horror at the blood as it scattered through the sky, one broke into tears immediately even as the other Trunks desperately began to dodge the slashes which cut through reality. The ground behind Gohan was cleaved open, revealing an endless black pit of nothingness, seemingly having cut through the very bottom of existence itself. The crescent of crimson and purple energy had lit the air around him into an unearthly refracting off the ground around him. Absently, he looked at his hand again, noticing it'd turned red in the light, and as it faded, his left arm remained red.

When he looked forward, he felt the teenage and younger Saiyans connect with him, their ki flowed through his body. When it did, it was the final anchor, seemingly pushing away the infection inside of himself. With relaxed breaths, Gohan felt himself beginning to open up ki gateways as he prepared to transform.

What did it mean to be alive? Certainly, he wanted to be alive again. He wanted to experience everything he'd been denied. He wanted to save himself from this Hell and this nightmare and go on to live an expanded existence. All his desires were his own. He wanted to see Pan again, and try to make amends for so much of what he'd done wrong. At the least time he wanted all of this for himself. He didn't want to take responsibility for what he'd done. He wanted to ruin and destroy anything that got in his way, especially after what Garlic had done to him, and the unending torment of this place, both emotionally and physically.

The contradictions within himself were where he knew what had to be done. Sometimes there was no win situations. Much like when he'd died fighting Garlic. Sometimes there just isn't a happy ending to things.

"What will happen if we stop it?" Trunks, the elder, asked him.

"I don't know," Gohan answered, moving his attention between Trunks, and the now spectacle of carnage above. "What does stopping it even mean?"

A concerned and puzzled look came in response before more screams filled the air. Some of the bodies were now floating through the air along with the blood and lost limbs. Some of them had seemingly collapsed back into themselves upon their deaths, turning into writhing masses of shorn meat. They were as much playthings to Janemba as he was. Several bright beams connected with the red skinned devil, only to be deflected even in unison, before the monster cast his sabre upwards. Fire emerged around them, licking off the ground before emerging from the glass itself as if it was the origin of the fire. Reality itself was sliced in two for the briefest of seconds.

Time froze for everything save for himself and the monster above. The world broke into two colours, one side tainted in red light, the other in purple, the line being marked by where the blade had cut perfectly done the middle of existence. He could almost feel his own heart beat as it was stuck in his mouth. Rising into the air, Gohan moved slowly, moving past where the bodies of his compatriots now floated. Several of the crystalized gems floated in the air, bearing familiar faces, inside one he could see Bojack staring back at him in elation and horror, his eyes frozen forever in time.

The bodies in the air, the limbs and maimed bits, all seemed to reflect Janemba more and more the closer he came to them. Even when they fell, they were pulled into the corruption of whatever this thing was. It was everything he feared. Looking at his own red left arm, he no longer saw it as an extension of himself, but as something foreign, sickly attaching itself to him like a parasite.

"You're trying to imagine how you can beat me," Videl's voice almost whispered to him.

Ahead of him, Janemba's body started to twist and contort, fragmented blocks of matter changing places before it turned to stare at him, reflecting back on him the human he had more than a terrible series of interactions with. It's body almost moved like Videl's had from his visions. Predatory motions of a trained killer, though it was naked, and looked almost pale, much the same as the last night they'd had sex. That was a low point for him.

"But we are the same."

That was infuriating as it hovered towards him. The ground came up to meet their feet before it started to walk towards him, its blue eyes not breaking from his own as it reached its hand out. Instinctively, his red arm moved out as well, linking with its fingers as it looked into his eyes. It felt like it was draining everything out of him, even his own self control. The frozen world they stood in, reflecting between the dark reds and purples seemed to shimmer.

We are both poison, aren't we?

The thought came to the fore of his mind as his skin started to merge with his. Everything it touched was corrupted… it was a spoiled reflection of whatever it was meant to be. And everything he touched he ruined. Everyone he knew was the worse from having met him, even those he'd saved.

But I can change that.

Its eyes became more alien as soon as his thoughts emerged in his mind as he reflected on everything he was, and everything this thing was trying to do. He didn't understand what it wanted, Hell, it may not want anything. It may just be something beyond comprehension. He couldn't sense anything from it in this moment except his own thoughts. Whatever he was staring into, it wasn't real.

Our thoughts.

There was a chill that ran through him as his own mind seemingly whispered to him. When it placed its hand on his cheek, he tried to pull away. It was pulling his mind apart. As soon as the fingers touched his skin, chaos emerged. All the horrors he'd faced in his life, all the near deaths, and pain, it was all mixed together, memories blended into one another and what was true and what was a lie all became one thing. He gasped as he looked down at himself, his skin beginning to morph and shift towards the red taint. It stepped into him, its body melding further and further into his own. His chest, and Videl's, began to merge together. The moments of pain were dotted with moments of pleasure and happiness, until the two emotions became indistinguishable to one another.

Murdering whole worlds became the same as trying to help Pan. They even mixed together as time itself seemed to become a lie. Sex became the same as when he tore his implants out, or his arm was blasted off by Slug. Flashes of new moments started to emerge, images of himself hanging in an empty void, surrounded by nothing but darkness except for a fading light in the distance.

It's so cold.

It felt like he was becoming further and further away from everything.

And then he felt another hand touch his shoulder. Immediately Videl's head turned, its eyes staring into the other one. Juna was standing there with them, her bare hand touching his red flesh, her eyes looking at him with a combination of determination and fear. It took only seconds before her flesh began to sink into his as well. Looking back at Janemba, he could see its eyes moving between the two of them with alien calculation.

The orbiting bits of flesh from the dismembered Trunks started to be drawn into them as well. His body was no longer his own, what had been his was now theirs. Janemba seeped into him, as he started to seep into the ground while Junia's body was drawn into his own. He had no reflection; he had no form. Instead all he was, was just a memory.

Someone else's memory. A forgotten memory.

Seconds were years, minutes were hours, and days were eons. It was eternity, an eternity of the passage of nothing. Everything he was broke down, breaking down into smaller and smaller fragments before what he was, was nothing. There was the void, and it was no longer simply cold… To be everything was to be nothing.

There was another. Another piece of him, another fragment of existence independent of what he was. It had no name, no form, no memories. Unknowingly he reached out. In the darkness his hand formed from seemingly nothing before his fingers pressed against skin, it was a new sensation, though familiar all at once. A pair of black eyes turned towards him, forming seemingly of the void itself, before a face slowly took shape around it. Mimicking it, his own features seemingly took form, feeling bones in his face and skin taking shape.

He wanted to remember. What was its name? What… was… his… name?

Janemba.

The word was soothing, almost calming in his mind. The other body relaxed against his as their forms took shape. Radiating a strange energy, something he knew was ki, their bodies started to entwine. He held her, holding onto the shape as if it was the only thing he knew, because it was… he could hear the name resonating from her as well, reflecting back through him as their thoughts were one.

They were one.

Soft black hair pressed against his chest as she rested against him in their mind.

My mind...

Our mind…

My mind.

For a brief second she stared back at him, and they were strangers in that moment. No longer one purpose, no longer of one will. She began to look over him with the eyes of an outsider.

"Gohan."

It whispered his name, and a piece of what he was seemingly came back into view. Behind his eyes a story began to unfold, instinctively, in that intimacy, they could both see through their eyes. He could see himself through her. Reaching out his hand, he touched her, almost trying to merge their bodies together as their minds had so recently been. It was so lonely. All the peace of being nothing was gone, evaporating and being replaced by chaos. In that, he could hear himself whisper a forbidden memory himself.

Junia.

Her eyes closed before she grabbed him, pushing herself against him as they almost seemingly swirled together. Everything he was, everything the memories were, all their pain and all their highs and lows, were there for him to see. But even as they were there, he could see the life of another, being of a plaything for others to be bartered with. He could see herself… himself… killing the one who'd wronged her most again and again. He could see through the eyes of Junia.

Instinct, compassion, a sense of elation and despair, all were one thing to him now. The desire to be not himself came to him. The desire to not be Junia was equally there. Instinctively, they tried to escape into one another, trying to flee from their pain. He didn't know who he was anymore, was he Gohan? Was he Janemba? Was he Junia? He even thought he might be Brass. When he felt Junia's lips on his at the final thought, he let himself embrace it, before he became one with her again in a much more physical sense. Bodies intertwined in this place, was it a memory? Or was it something new? It was born of all their pain, all of their memories.

He could see Videl staring back at him as he relived it, and he could see her staring through at Brass.

Familiar sensations were awakened as skin touched skin. For brief moments he felt his consciousness passing in and out of its own independence, it was almost a high as he saw the reflection of what he had wanted before, only with hints of the truth coming to the fore. As their bodies, the avatars of which they were, exhausted themselves, he heard the whispers of something in his… their mind.

Janemba.

The name no longer felt like it was unifying. It no longer held elation or joy. It held a deep, dark pit. The very place where he was. Looking up, he could finally see the surface, a surface of glass flowing like waves of water. Pressing his hand against it, he felt the warmth of life beyond it. He couldn't pass through though, not on his own. It wasn't until he saw Junia's hand next to his, that finally the roof of existence melded away.

His body moulded out of the ground, his skin was molten crystal, dripping with excess as Junia's body formed next to his own. These new, sand bodies slowly began to fill with blood vessels, muscles and organs, before skin formed at the outer layer. Ichor dripped off his form as he remained in the purple, and Junia remained in the red. Between them, a line was there, it was all too familiar. The same line of existence there had always been.

And in the near distance, Gohan could see something that made his heart come to life seemingly, before stopping again. There was light, a bright white light, a doorway in the middle of the two sides of existence. With its arms raised in the air, the familiar form of what he'd been, or who he was… of… Janemba walked towards it. In that moment, he understood finally what it wanted.

It wanted everything. Everything he wanted. Everything everyone wanted, at all moments in all time. It wasn't a person, or an entity. It was apart of existence, a cancer of reality growing out of control. It was what everything in this Hell had made it to be.

It was as much a reflection as he was of it.

"Janemba!" Gohan shouted, his voice cracked the silence that had held this place in a slumber for eons.

That name. It wasn't just a name.

The creature's footsteps stopped, its entire body bristling seemingly before it turned its head back, looking at them dispassionately, its eyes weren't filled with shock or rage, but with the look of a machine.

"I don't fully know what happened," Junia's mind whispered to his, he looked down noting how naked he was, and how naked she was. Their forms were reborn in their 'purest' state, he supposed. "But I know we can't let him step through that gate. No matter what I am, or you are."

"I know," he responded. "I know who we are. I think. And I know what that is. I don't know if I can stop it. But I know I have to try."

"You can," Junia's voice responded, even if it sounded bleak. "You know you can, I've seen it. But I know the price. You saw it as well."

She really had seen everything. He could see the misery of being Vegeta's daughter as well in a Utopia. In the darkness beneath the glass, Gohan had indeed seen what he needed to do, and he knew what the price was. If he managed to do this, he didn't fully understand what would happen.

It had seen it, Janemba. It was the only glimpse of the creature's mind he'd retained from when he'd been one with it.

Golden energy flared around his body before his full power returned, reborn not just from the power the Trunks had given him, but from his rebirth. Junia's own torch burnt brightly as Janemba walked towards them, its body shifting between different forms with every step. Garlic, Broly, Goku, Turles, Vegeta, Cooler, and dozens of others. At any one time it was them, as it was Janemba. When it made its last step in front of them, it was him. But it was himself as he'd never seen himself before.

He was wearing glasses, he had a button shirt on, and looked... happy. It betrayed none of what Janemba was beneath.

"You are me. And I am you."

This time, instead being entranced, or enthralled, or drawn back into the monster, Gohan's fist shot out, crashing into the creature's face. Shattered glasses broke into a thousand fragments of glass in the air, before merging with the mirror of reality below. The creature's eyes were lit up with delight from the strike, a grin crossing its features before its body resumed its natural form and it started to just laugh.

In a blur of motion Gohan was on him again, his fists and kicks shooting out. His leg passed clearly through the creature as reality bent around it, or as its body dematerialized where he would have landed. Each time he was about to connect, one of the creature's parts would just vanish, leaving empty space, holes in its body as it simply moved where it existed at any one time, to somewhere else.

Even at close range after a flurry of strikes, Gohan formed a massive ki wave directly in front of him, throwing both his hands into its chest. Before the blast could even connect, in the microfraction of space and time, it materialized behind him, matter disassembling and reassembling before it cracked one of his ribs with a single blow.

Turning to look at it, he saw the sword which had torn through the Trunks, who some still remained frozen in time above, reformed in its hands. Preparing to strike down, Gohan could see reality already being cleaved before a single bolt of red energy caught Janemba in the midsection.

"You can't beat him this way!" Junia shouted before the red bolt expanded in the distance.

Gravity warped immediately as Gohan felt a thousand times heavier, even this far away. Immediately Junia fell to one knee as she increased the density of the Red Gravity Bomb. Pulsing waves of gravity rippled through them as even the warped nature of Janemba's world seemed to buckle. The red energy became so intense its core became almost black as a near singularity formed, beginning to absorb all the red light.

However, Gohan could see the lone figure walking through the corona of energy, unimpeded, as if nothing were happening at all.

Any doubts he had vanished at the sight. Immediately he let the energy in his body condense, before he started gathering everything he could. Waves of golden and purple light rippled over his body within seconds as he began to draw every bit of energy he could. The very soul which inhabited his undead body seemingly burned with every passing second as Janemba came closer and closer to them. His skin was almost on fire, much as it had been when it'd been molten glass only minutes earlier.

For a brief second, his thoughts were mixed with Junia's again.

He could sense her fear at how it was approaching them, and instinctively he responded to it.

"You're not the one who needs to be afraid," he reminded her. "If you make it back, to Earth, let my parents know what happened to me."

Those words could mean whatever she wanted. As Janemba closed with her, she looked back at him, her eyes staring at him with an intense fear before she nodded. Just as the monster raised his blade to cut her down. It was almost time, but he knew he needed a few more seconds. Intercepting the monster as it was about to strike, he finally landed a blow, his right came in, crashing against the top of Janemba's left eye. The force of the blow was powerful enough that it sent the monster hurtling back into the gravity well, time seemingly reactivating almost around it as it swirled in the distance.

"Hold him there," Gohan urged, but before he could even check on Junia, he saw Janemba's body half rematerializing in front of him.

Faster than he could act, the crimson blade came up, cutting across his left arm, severing it immediately from his body.

It was a shock; he felt his own body almost go limp. Blood splattered across his left leg and face, as well as across Junia's right side. He was left in shock was the wound opened up around him, before purple fire burst from within, an explosion of ki rolled out and he quickly turned his arm stump upwards, facing the energy towards Janemba himself before he got it under control. The violet fire burned the thing in front of him, and it howled.

The very world howled. The glass beneath them resonated in agony, and even he did, feeling the edges of Janemba's connection to him at the points around his mind. The gems floating in the air itself, resonated. As he contained the energy, focusing back into himself once more, Gohan was left staggering back as he recaptured everything he could, drawing more into himself.

In the distance, the red gravity well shattered. The very singularity at its core thrummed to life as the Red Gravity Bomb was destroyed, only for it too to shatter like a mirror dropped from a higher. The very black core just evaporated as Janemba's form compiled itself in the heart of where Junia had sent him.

The energy inside himself was reaching its critical mass, multiplying again and again as he pushed it further and further within, building more and more pressure. Purple flicks of power broke through his skin and eyes as Junia started to get up, blasting herself off to the side as quickly as she could. He roared as he tried to keep everything as it was.

Walking towards him with blade in hand, Janemba disappeared, materializing a dozen times around him in a dozen directions, before at last the monster appeared in front of him, already striking down in the air with the blade. Gohan felt the cut come down the centre of his body cleanly, just as Janemba had broken reality before. There was no pain, though he could see as if his eyes were still together as he felt the last embers of his body slip to either side.

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Junia:

It was exactly what they'd seen together through Janemba. The creature itself cast its sword down, cleaving through Gohan as it had the world. Its old, younger persona came to the fore as it grinned at its accomplishment. But Gohan was still standing, she could see it. The purple outline of ki was there in the shape of his physical form. Time started and stopped around them as the line which Janemba had rend through reality started to fizzle, burning with purple energy at the immediate exposure from Gohan's form.

It was his soul, and she knew it. All of the power his ascended form could contain had been given to this one purpose, this one moment. To have sacrificed herself to save Vegeta had been the only thing she might have been proud of when she was alive, if she ever admitted it to herself in her quiet moments. Perhaps Gohan himself knew now. She'd seen him give up his life for his daughter, a daughter he'd hidden from the world from the shame of how she'd been created. But being beaten to death by Garlic wasn't what he was giving up here.

The energy form of the body started to resonate along with the mirrored surface of Janemba, the creature itself still hung in the air, sword down before it finally landed, staring with fascinating into the purple light. Wind picked up across all reality, as far as she could tell. Energies greater than she'd seen in her life, even from Taro, sparked across reality around them as it seemingly began to fold in on itself.

She would exist long enough to see it.

Because in the core of reality, as time and space bent towards Gohan and Janemba, she saw a purple star seemingly come to life. The greatest light she'd ever witnessed immediately burnt away her eyes and scorched her skin, but she could still see. She could see through Janemba, her faint connection still in place. The violet light expanded from Gohan's form as his body disintegrated into a blast of pure energy. Left standing next to him, Janemba looked down at its crimson sword before it shattered, breaking down into nothing and being washed away in the violence of the blast.

The creature remained unbroken seemingly, even laughing as it looked at the destroyed sabre before it raised its hand, staring at it before smirking. Finally, its features displayed something which she knew all too well. Uncertainty, the blast carried on, showing no signs of stopping. It was almost ki fusion, burning away all that Gohan was to create the monster of an explosion. A single fragment of Janemba's finger broke free, clinging to the edge of its finger as it flapped in the destructive force of the blast. Its hand started to trembled before the chip broke away, the cubic piece of the monster vanished in the wind, utterly destroyed.

A blank look of confusion now turned to panic. Its yellow and black eyes frantically looked at itself as its body started to tremble, another piece breaking away, and another, before they too were carried off and destroyed. Instinct for survive flourished immediately as it began to dematerialize, only for the energy to not only follow it, but to flow into everything that was Janemba.

The glass floor burst with violet energies as the monster's panic accelerated. The very base of the afterlife began to burn. Glass melted away into molten sand before it simply vanished, leaving nothing behind but the void, and the rising purple star. It began to flail in the energies around it as Janemba's voice finally called out, screaming into the void that was the afterlife.

Its cries were the screams of the death of a universe itself, seemingly, horrifying and endless as they rolled over reality. As the world shrank into the energy, as the world took on new dimensions as the floating crystals melted away as well, Janemba's body became less and less. Limbs disappeared before its chest vanished as well, block by block at an ever-accelerating rate being washed away in the seemingly eternal light. It's last scream was cut shot as its very mouth simply blew away in the wind, the last thing to disappear in its being was its yellow eyes, the eyes she found herself staring through, as it vanished along with all of the afterlife, Junia found herself vanishing along with it, disappearing into the void and into the darkness.

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Junia:

Light slowly came back into her vision as Junia felt herself laying in a field of flowers. It was uncomfortable for a brief moment before her eyes scanned the long, beautiful blue sky, topped by a ceiling of wonderful white clouds. It was… beautiful. Even she wasn't beyond admitting that. She breathed in the fresh air and exhaled, feeling… alive. Which was ironic, as she sensed her own heartbeat and found it not even there. When she started to sit up, her eyes quickly scanned where she was.

Where am I?

An endless series of fields, some of tall grass, others of beautiful flowers went on as far as the eye could see. Individual trees stood in amongst the fields, with massive, strange, twisting towers of trees seemingly holding the very sky up. Was this heaven? Where was this place?

"Where am I?" a familiar voice asked, turning her eyes to the side, she saw Cell standing only a few feet away. "I can't be alive."

Pulling herself up to her feet, Junia moved her hand across the meadow below her while walking forward. She could see Brass, and hosts of others all looking around in confusion as to what was going on. She was the only one to see it all come to an end, wasn't she? She remembered seeing the energy wave roll out over existence. She saw the shattering and melting of the very bottom of the afterlife. While her eyes peered upwards, the only thing she could see that survived was the waystation and Snake Way. Even the sky was different, filled with blues instead of yellows and oranges.

This… this was Hell. It was what it had become.

There wasn't a hint of Gohan's energy at all, it was nowhere in the entirety of her sensory range. She could see fragments of his memories still in her mind. From a tormented childhood to a vicious adulthood born in the same violence as her own. When she looked over what this place was, and when she saw his final moments however, it was almost beautiful in its irony.

With his passing, he'd made this. An endless sea of despair, inescapable, replaced by a beautiful meadow, which was still inescapable. But there was a tranquility here. An uncomfortable passed through her insides as she understood what had been paid for all of this.

There had been two pieces of herself she'd lost, Gohan, someone she'd never have wanted to have her consciousness merged with… and Janemba.

She was the last remnant of all three of them. She carried the last of their memories, of their moments, of their understandings. The latter, Janemba, was gone, but she felt an emptiness from where it had gone, despite the depraved nature of what it was.

"What happened?" Brass asked, seemingly confused as he made his way towards her. "Junia? Hey, are you alright?"

What she said in response left a confused and worried look on Brass's face.

"Janemba," she responded, her voice almost too quiet to be heard. "Janemba happened."

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Author's Notes:

My god. I finally finished that. Lmao. It's 4 am on a work day getting this fucking thing done. I do still want to put some extensive author's notes, just due to how strange this chapter was. I like going over what my brain registers as my creative process.

This thing transformed itself in the conceptual phase while I was working on it, so I had some extensive rewrites in every part of the chapter. Originally it was just going to be another climatic battle, and then I really started asking questions about what I wanted, and how I wanted Janemba to be, especially after the first chapter.

I wanted to do was define Janemba, while at the same time leaving it amorphous. You'll note, I never write from Janemba's perspective. I wanted to leave that open, blank, even when it speaks while in the form of others, is it speaking? Or is it just the reflections it creates, mirroring back what you think it'd say? The closest thing to understanding Janemba is as Gohan and Junia become part of it.

Even thought here is fighting in this chapter, and it is a "fight" chapter, I really wanted to avoid making it too much about outright fighting. There are stages where that's extremely important, but it's more about what Janemba is, more so than just a beat um up.

I wanted to take the core origin of Janemba, and its broad set of powers, and build on top of that. It's born from all the Negative energy trapped beneath Hell, instead of just a few containers. I tried to stay mostly true to how it fought. Janemba in Fusion reborn is just a wooden post for Goku, Vegeta, and Gogeta to fight. That's not something I wanted. Instead, I wanted to expand what Janemba was, until it was something more than just a strong fighter, but truly the embodiment of evil that its meant to represent.

It's a nightmare. It's not just some fighter or monster. As I mapped out its concept, I wanted it to be something greater than that. It's the Devil. It's desire. It's insidious. It's cancerous. It is you, it's the worst of you, and the best of you, perverted and tainted. It mimics you and becomes you, before you become it. I wanted the name even, Janemba, to be a word, a seal of power. More than just its name, it has a meaning behind it to the people who say it, the longer they're exposed to it. It's the devourer of dreams. It's an intelligence more than it is a living being. I also wanted to base so much of it on reflections and glass, making it the perverse reflections of those around it. Perhaps its only real purpose is to twist everything everywhere into what it is, the bottom of an endless abyss.

It's you, turned back against you. I really based a lot of what it is on the phrase from Nietzsche, "If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

I actually also wanted to build it up into more and more of a strange entity the longer it existed, the more things reflected off of it, the more things it mimicked.

I think out of all the villains in the story, Janemba disturbed me the most. Even when Junia and Gohan are mutually absorbed into one body with Janemba, and for an indeterminate time lose what they are in this thing's existence, I thought it was unnerving. They're drawn into it, it's too late for them, they are as much apart of it, as it is of them at that point. Only after their rebirth do they have the willingness to confront it and destroy it, having been apart of it and knowing what it was.

It's also going to create all kinds of problems for Gohan and Junia moving forward. Janemba leaves its mark much more than any prior villain, perhaps with the exception of maybe Garlic when he sent Gohan to Hell in the first place. The best way I can describe it, is Janemba simply is.

Hell, Gohan and Junia being one being sharing thoughts, they separating as their memories come back, and then having sex in the void of their minds while imagining one another being their distorted desires and ex partners is sure mentally healthy for them, I'm sure. I know a lot of people think that will lead to romance, but I sincerely doubt it. It's something deeper and darker than that, and it really speaks more about the mindsets of Junia and Gohan.

Also, for people worried Gohan's dead for gud, the next two chapters will be interesting for you, lol. His story's not done yet, but the afterlife portion finally is. Ironically, with the leaving of the setting, I wanted to leave Hell itself forever changed. Its new form after Gohan destroyed it and Janemba, resembles that of the prison which Frieza is left in, in Dragon Ball Super. I just didn't want it to be automatically hated by the villains. It's a beautiful prison, but its still a prison.

And remember everyone…

Janemba.

At some point before the end of September, I intend to write a lot of stuff for The Long Road and The Catalyst, and will be releasing smaller chapters from now on, instead of giant ones. With the exception of really important chapters of course. This is a way that even under the worst-case scenario, I can get a release out once a month, if not every two weeks. So, there will be faster updates, just not yet! But I can promise TLR will start being more regularly updated now that I've gotten past this massive hump. Lol

Music: I listened to tons of distressing ambient music from horror sci-fi movies while writing this, and gave myself anxiety and couldn't sleep for two days. lol

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Reviewers:

Narelclolie: Thanks!

Perfect Carnage: You know who else had it coming? Everyone in this chapter, lol

Blades of Fury: .BA!

Pyromania101: So did I

Kacarrot: No fusion dance unfortunately. Though in a way, Gohan, Junia, and Janemba (as well as all of Hell) fused into a single consciousness for a while! That's. That's pretty exciting. Hey? :P

Navarone2013: It could be any ogre really, doesn't need to be the same one, lol.

Zyr0TruthCanExist: Janemba and reality are one and the same thing. Gohan's not achieved pseudo-redemption, lol.

Super Mystic Gohan: No worries, glad you enjoyed it.

Phantom: Junia x Gohan? Ehhhhhh. I don't think that's really what either of them want.

Guest1: Thanks!

Dharshan: Janemba? Lol

KagariAsuha: Yea, shorter chapters are definitely going to help. They're also easier to keep consistent and easier to proof, but I do still want to keep my battle chapters large. I really hate breaking up battles into smaller pieces.

Commander M2: I think they'd be hard pressed to convince Gohan to turn himself back into a five year old, lol. He's strong enough the Dragon might not be able to do it without his consent.

Also: first of all, he didn't rape thousands of people, this is just being hyperbolic. Second, the biggest crimes he's committed, which is what I've tried to convey, is that Gohan killed hundreds of billions of sentient organisms for his own gain and survival. He even killed his own men. Gohan's not accepting responsibility for it because he doesn't think its fair that he got judged on it after he made a turn in character. Well, life's not fair, but I don't know if Gohan's able to get over that, certainly not yet.

Hek'UnnSkipper: It's an alright movie.

Luke: I am too good to you guys, like updating only a few times a year .… lol

RedHunter87: Way darker than Fusion reborn, lmao.

Crazy Jam1e: Janemba!

MegaCharizat: I do get it. I dig it. I'm down Charlie Brown.

VargasREborn: Janemba?

Nikola Einstein: Truly, Gohan could never beat Janemba if it wasn't for first merging with him, and sacrificing himself by transcending his physical form in a kamikaze attack, which spread like a cancer through all of the afterlife and destroyed everything that was Janemba, which is ironic, as Janemba itself spreads like a cancer.

Kuma Dzurui: I hope you enjoyed this one as well :)

Thomas-The-TMC: I hope this one, in all its weirdness, also met expectations, lol

Reviewer: Now Part 2! The longerer edition :P

DBZfan the first: If by soon you mean 2 months and a week. Yea, soon.

Heseltine: Got 2 chapters to do that will be moderately large, but open up the final sagas. Man, it's crazy, after Janemba we have only… 1… 2… 3…. 4… I think only four sagas remaining, and at least one will be short.

Maximussj: I'm personally hoping to see Janemba and Cooler get canonized, I doubt they'll canonize any other movie villains, and I doubt they'll do it right away. And given how they've changed Hell in DBS, Janemba won't be recognizable.

RoxaShadow: Janemba? Lol. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, I'm glad its your favourite (Up until this chapter, lol)

Silence: There is a reckoning coming for Gohan.

Guest2: I wish I had more to say, other than thank you for the review! Don't worry, updates won't take six months anymore, lol

Absolute Fury: Answered by PM.