Greetings again, and now time for Gine to face the Saiyans that broke her for life!

Based on MasakoX's What If series "What if Gine went with Goku to Earth?", but a retcon with some changes of my own on how I think the story would have went down had Goku's mother escaped planet Vegeta with him.

DISCLAIMER: The following is a fan-based work of fiction. Dragonball Minus, Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball Super, and Dragonball GT are all owned by FUNimation, Toei Animation, and Akira Toriyama.

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CHAPTER 20: CONFRONTING THE PAST

A loud crack rang from Gine's flying kick to the side of Naga's head. His scouter shattered into a shower of fragments, her foot crunching some of those bits of metal and glass deep into his flesh.

The force of the strike to his head whipped it around hard, and yanked the weight of his body with it to send him flying away. He smashed through a collapsed wall, then another behind that, and finally crashed into a pile of rocks that half-buried him.

Gine landed on her feet and glared after Naga's fallen form. Her white aura dissipated along with the red hot rage that blinded her, and for some reason she then felt dizzy and weak for a few seconds. But she managed to keep standing.

"What the?!" Banno exclaimed.

She turned to see the flabbergasted looks of the brother Saiyans of Banno and Onio. It had been over thirty years since she had seen their faces, and the sight of them almost made her blood boil again.

Young Gine looked at her in complete shock too, having lost focus on charging the ki blast to vaporize the Celnussians.

Both past and present incarnations of Gine locked eyes with each other. The younger one feeling a strange bond with this powerful woman who came out of nowhere, as if she seemed familiar; the older one looked at her child doppelganger and felt pangs of sorrow at all the things she knew that her past self had yet to experience.

A furious and anguished yell came from the rock pile, drawing present Gine's attention. The mound exploded just as Naga burst out from it and flew towards her.

She sidestepped him just in time to meet a punch directed at her which she also deflected, and arching her back over a follow up kick that swept underneath her. As Gine moved, she noticed how Naga's movements were easy to dodge, like it was slow motion to her.

He swung at her again, and this time Gine used the force of the punch to press her hands on his arm to shove herself away.

Putting some distance between herself and Naga, she touched down and faced off with him.

She had forgotten how tall Naga was. Her younger counterpart barely clearing above his knee. Now, present-day Gine was just at chest height to him. And he was much more muscular than she remembered, his gloved fists as big as her head. His hedgehog-like hair not unlike what Raditz's mane was like, save for some forward facing spikes.

Naga glared at this mysterious attacker with barred teeth, some of which he spat out shards of. He held a hand over the eye where his scouter used to be, blood trickled down his cheek.

"Who the hell are you?!" Naga demanded angrily. He looked pained while speaking, she might have dislocated his jaw too.

Gine was temporarily brought back to her senses when she realized that Naga was talking to her. Her present self.

She glanced over to her younger self, whose hand had limply fallen by her side and forgot about the Celnussians she was destined to execute. Instead, she was enamored by the confrontation unfolding. The Celnussian mother and child looked at her too, just as drawn to this new development that saved their lives.

"Answer my damn question! WHO ARE YOU?!" Naga demanded again, threateningly raising an open hand at the intruder.

Gine stayed silent for a moment longer, staring back at Naga with hardened eyes.

"Don't you recognize me, Naga?" She asked coldly.

The taller Saiyan was taken aback by her reply. He looked Gine up and down, sizing her up and trying to discern her identity. He noticed her tail, immediately knowing that she was one of their own. But he had no knowledge of other Saiyans on this mission to this planet, and what were the fabric garments she wore?

"How the hell should I know?!"

Gine answered with a sardonic tone. "Oh, you already do. You were my squad leader for the mission to this planet. In fact..." She pointed towards her younger self. "I'm her."

There was collective "Huh?!" of confusion from the brothers, and looked at young Gine who shrank back at the attention pointed at her. But she did a double take to the woman when she processed who she said she was.

That's me?! She thought, feeling bewildered.

Naga looked at present Gine as if she was crazy, then looked at the younger Gine to see what this woman was getting at.

Young Gine starred back at Naga affrightedly, unsure of what he was about to do. But he looked back at present Gine, and back to Young Gine again. He whipped his head back and forth between the two Gines again.

He could see the similarities, but didn't believe it.

"What's the meaning of this?! Who are you really?! Her mother?!"

Gine shook her head truthfully. "No. My mother died while I was off on the jungle planet you found me on. After you had been demoted from commander for drinking. It's really me, Naga. I'm Gine."

Naga's remaining eye widened in shock, completely at a loss of words. Onio and Banno were just as baffled, and young Gine could only gawk in amazement.

"That's... that's impossible! You're from the future?! How?!" Naga stammered, trying to comprehend what was happening.

This wasn't really happening, it was all a projection. But it felt so real. Way too much so, physically and emotionally. But Gine was also glad that what she did or said here would not enact a universe-ending time paradox. So she told him the truth.

"I was literally dropped here by a Namekian Guardian from a frontier world. For some reason he wanted me to see... something, I'm not sure." Gine said plainly, then added, "Oh, and Frieza destroyed planet Vegeta."

Saying that out loud made Gine wonder herself, why did Kami transport her to a traumatic place and time in her life? And how could he even have the means and gull to do that? All that led up to here was they were having a disagreement over the values of strength. Then he said he wanted to show her something. But, what? And why? She was at a loss.

And so was Naga, looking as angry as confused by her answer. "Are you joking?! Am I supposed to believe that crap?! How are you here really?! Did Frieza send another crew?"

Gine thought for a moment, perplexed that hearing the extremely catching detail of Frieza's betrayal did not lead to any further questioning on that. Was the idea too preposterous to believe at all? Or was Naga not that inquisitive? But then again, she thought of Bardock, and how nobody believed him either on that fateful day all those years ago...

Perhaps since this was a vision, this projection of Naga was not aware that he, or it, was artificial? And could not formulate things that she didn't experience or think herself? It raised more questions than she wanted to think about.

"No, it's really me, Naga. I'm Gine." She repeated.

Naga shook his head. "Y-You can't be! You're a weakling! How were you strong enough to attack me like that?!"

That question made her pause. Gine didn't even think about how she could take on Naga herself, for she knew she never had the strength to even dream of laying a finger on Naga in a fight. Yet a moment ago, she somehow managed to plow him into the ground out of blind rage to stop her past self from falling down a path to a lifetime of suffering. With one kick.

It felt utterly alien to Gine that she had been able to hurt someone who was stronger than her. Even if it was a surprise attack which was considered a cheap shot by Saiyan standards, it still made a difference in a serious battle. And she got a hit on him anyway.

It made her feel strangely confident, and it felt good.

With that in mind, Gine chuckled darkly at Naga. "With lots of push-ups and sit-ups."

Naga didn't like that joke one bit.

"Watch it, bitch." He warned dangerously. It was one thing to poke fun at sneak attacks, but an entirely different matter altogether to mock the Saiyan caste system.

To him, it set the established order of all life. The rightful order as it should be, the strongest at the top and the weakest at the bottom. It was the truest way to rule, regardless of what disgusting drivel egalitarianists spewed about. Even though he wasn't the king or even above low-class, he respected the social hierarchy that made the foundation of Saiyan society. Everyone knew their place from birth, and from it their maximum growth. The stronger you were a birth, the more you could grow. If you barely registered a power level, you were nothing more than trash. There was no way around it, and the sooner everyone accepted it, the better things were. And it would allow them to conquer the universe one day.

And to hear that this girl had defied it by having the guts to claim she got stronger than he knew what she was born with? It was nothing but heresy. It had to be.

"You might not believe it." Gine said seriously. "But it's true. I am from the future, and I'm not the same person I am here."

Naga stared at her for a second, getting more agitated by the treacherous implications of her talk.

He pointed at her past self. "If you're the weakling I know she is, then you shouldn't be able to touch me!"

Gine thought of her past self's power level then and what her own must have been now, and how it would make sense to Naga that she by all rights would never harm him.

She then thought of Gohan. Of how he disagreed with the idea of power levels. And how he proved it...

"Yeah, well I am that same girl. And I did manage to hit you. Like you used to tell me: expect the unexpected." She shot back. If she learned anything throughout her life, and especially during her time on Earth, it was that surprising things can and will happen.

Naga had enough of this nonsense. He would not tolerate any further trash talk against what he had been born and raised in, and thought of teaching this girl the last lesson she would ever learn.

"I don't care who you really are or if you really are from the future. But you're gonna pay for what you did to my eye, bitch." He growled.

He lowered his hand to reveal the whole side of Naga's face was riddled with shards of his scouter embedded in his cheekbone. His ruined eye was shut from a shard of glass jutting out from it, bleeding profusely. It made the murderous look he gave her seem that much more menacing.

"Banno! What's your scouter read?" Naga barked over his shoulder to his subordinate.

The short, bald Saiyan focused the screen on present Gine and pressed a button on the side of the device. Naga braced himself for what it would say, and ready himself for a fight.

After a few seconds of beeping, the scouter chimed the final numbers.

"Hmph. Only six-hundred and fifty, sir." Banno read the stats out aloud, sounding bemused.

Gine's heart sank.

That's all?! She thought dreadfully.

Naga looked almost relieved at hearing that, then his attitude turned more arrogant.

"Oh no! Did you hear that boys? Six-hundred and fifty! Please, don't hurt us!" He declared in mocking surrender, raising his hands.

Banno and Onio, who were standing quietly to the sides started laughing too, feeling their sense of control over the situation return if their leader felt the same.

Gine could only stand there and take the mockery while despairingly mulling over what the power reading meant to her.

While she wasn't entirely surprised that she hadn't improved by a large margin above five-hundred in the last fifteen years, she thought she could have at least grown a little more than what normally would take a Saiyan a few months to attain through natural aging. Was she really that pathetic and weak?

Finished with making fun of her, Naga turned serious.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you wasted your time coming all the way here, "Gine."" He spat her name out sarcastically. "For in case you forgot, I sit at a power level of twenty-five hundred! While these two..." Naga thumbed toward Banno and Onio. "Sit at a thousand each. Do the math."

Gine looked to the brother Saiyans, who leered at her with the same looks as Naga. She had decades of experience in life and had been subjected to every kind of abuse known to Saiyans, yet the ridicule pointed at her from their looks alone was enough to make Gine feel as powerless as a child again.

Naga looked threateningly at her. "You may have gotten in a lucky shot on me when my back was turned, but rest assured that will be the last lucky shot you will ever have."

Gine felt fear grip her chest.

"Before I kill you, tell me why are you here anyways." He said, widening his stance in preparation for battle.

This is not real, it's all a vision. Gine kept telling herself. But she still felt so scared.

Could he kill her? She had been so caught up in bling rage with attacking Naga that she hadn't considered the consequences of this vision.

Kami wasn't clear if she could actually die from injury, but he did mention that the punches and attacks thrown at her would feel very real. So far, every hit she nearly sustained from that first scuffle felt real enough. In all likelihood, she could be killed if she was hurt enough.

Would he kill her past self too? Even if young Gine followed up with doing what she was forced to do? Gine couldn't stomach either of those things happening, but what could she do? It was just her against three.

She started mentally cursing herself for jumping Naga like that. Nothing she did here would change the past no matter how much she wished she could. But she had let her emotions take control of her, unable to witness for a second time something she had to live with. Now, she was staring down an enraged Naga. He will most likely kill her, and she had no way of knowing if Kami and Popo were somehow watching from where they sent her from, if they could get her out of this situation, or even if they would. Did Kami really leave her on her own?

"Fine, don't answer that then." Naga said in annoyance, ready to attack her.

"I..." Gine heard herself say.

He paused, curious that he got a response from her.

"I... came here to stop you." Gine said, thinking she sounded lame.

"Hm?" Naga raised an eyebrow, also sensing her uneasiness.

"Stop us? From doing what exactly?" He asked for clarification, with a rather taunting note in his voice.

Gine sighed, and forced out her answer. "To stop you from... making me, her..." She corrected, looking towards her younger self. "...execute these people." Her tone dropped off near the end, as if she already knew her statement was a futile effort.

Naga could only stare at her for a few seconds, then he burst out laughing. Despite the cracked jaw and the extreme eye injury, he couldn't help himself to the ridiculousness that was before him.

"Is that so?" Naga asked derisively, recovering from his little fit of laughing. "Are you seriously here all the way from the future just to save some worthless trash?" He said, gesturing towards the Celnussians who stood there quietly afraid. They eyed Gine especially unsure what to think of.

The ridicule and laughing did nothing to alleviate Gine from the humiliation she felt mounting on her.

"Wow, you really are?" He said, taking her silence as an answer. Then leaned in with mock sternness. "And how, pre-tell, were you going to do that? By fighting us?"

Gine still didn't answer, wishing as hard as she could that she was somewhere else now.

Naga snorted. "Well you certainly have high hopes, runt. But you are way out of your league thinking that lower-than-low class scum like you could take me on."

He then returned to speaking seriously. "Not to mention that you are a traitor for resisting a direct order from Lord Frieza himself, to purge this planet. AND..." He added with punctuation. "You owe me an eye." He pointed a finger at his destroyed eye and then pointing it to her face, as if to her own eyes. It made her think of that saying of equal justice and revenge: An eye for an eye.

"So...how about this: I kill you, and these "weaklings" alongside you." He spat, pointing towards the Celnussians.

In Naga's eye, it was more than she deserved, even with what she did to him. The mere fact that a Saiyan such as Gine actually wanted to protect this garbage was a level of treason and weakness that was too repulsive to think of.

He then pointed to young Gine, who backed away. "Then, I'll blast your younger self here as I should have just before you rudely interrupted our mopping up!"

Naga then turned to the real Gine, looming over her as he talked town to her. "And if you really are from the future, then I'm sure you'll disappear too, right?"

Gine was surprised at how he came to that conclusion of the laws of time paradoxes. Naga wasn't the smartest of Saiyans, but he wasn't stupid.

"OR!" He suddenly said that made Gine jump. "You could try to run like the coward that you are... who knows, maybe you might escape. Hell, I'll even give you a head start!"

Naga bent his head down to give an ultimative glare. "And that will be your only chance to live."

He was right. Gine would be toast if she fought him head on, forget Banno and Onio as well. Managing to hit Naga like she did was just a fluke. How the hell was she going to get out of this?

And Gine realized: she won't. She was going to die here. Like the helpless inhabitants of this planet.

Her stomach dropped out from inside her, a feeling of hopelessness she hadn't felt since the day planet Vegeta was destroyed.

Gine's gaze wandered to an invisible spot on the ground.

This was it, this was the end for her...

"I'll take it that you'd rather die here instead then?" Naga gloated, seeing as how Gine hadn't moved or responded to his taunts.

"I don't blame ya... Wait, what am I thinking? I do actually! You're just a sniveling coward who can't face the fact that your about to be taken out with the rest of the garbage."

Gine didn't know if Kami or Popo could see what was transpiring. But if they could, she cursed them as violently as she could for practically throwing her into this trap. How she wished she could just beat each of them to within an inch of life for torturing her soul and ending her existence like this! How could they do this to her?!

And Kakarot...

The thought of never seeing her son's smiling face again again, to never see him grow up, made her feel the full magnitude of how much she messed up by interfering. Tears formed in her eyes and her knees wobbled as despair began to get to her, and Naga took notice.

"Tsh, look at you. Crying." Naga spat with disgust in his voice. "You're pathetic. A disgrace to the Saiyan race. And I ought to just go ahead and waste you right now."

Gine tearfully turned to her young self, who had been deathly silent during this entire exchange. She looked back up at her older counterpart as a frightened child would to a parent for dear safety, to tell her that everything would be alright...

The elder Gine's tears suddenly stopped, and she stared into her younger self's wide open eyes for a long time.

She remembered how as a little girl she knew that killing was wrong. Despite being born into a harsh world, she wanted no part in the life of a Saiyan warrior. That she truly believed in justice, to stand for what was right, and being kind to one another. She was, as elder Gine could see, the innocent girl she once was. A freak of nature in the Saiyan race that was the little blip of light in a sea of darkness and evil.

Until this day when Naga broke her, by making her kill the innocent people that lay on the ground here. And with it, being forced into a lifetime of servitude, subjugated to maltreatment for her inferiority, and to destroy her soul to partake in the bloody conquest of countless worlds. Decades of pain and suffering that grounded down her spirit into dust and replaced it with nihilism and misery. Molding her into the broken woman she was today.

This was the day that defined her life, one of accepting her fate and losing all hope. To never rise above her station, never to stand for what she believed in, never to right the wrongs of the world around her, and to never know true happiness.

And now she was just going to give up and accept her fate, all the while letting her past suffer the same? Was this all her life would lead up to? To fail herself?

"No." Gine said quietly.

Naga and the brothers, as well as young Gine, perked their heads in surprise by her answer.

She couldn't just let this happen.

Yes, she is weak. Yes, she cannot change anything here. Yes, she could die. And yes, she may never see her own child again...

But, she won't just give up or run away like a coward. She had done nothing but run away from danger her entire life, and lived in fear of death for enacting on the things she truly believed in.

No more.

"What was that, runt?" Naga asked again in a disappointed tone.

Feeling a wave of overwhelming defiance wash over her, Gine turned to Naga and squared her shoulders, facing him fully with fists clenched by her side and her feet planted firmly into the ground.

"No!" Gine simply repeated. She then got into her defensive fighting stance.

"I won't run from you. I'll fight you!" She declared with every ounce of conviction in her being.

While she was here, while she stood, while she breathed, she will fight.

Naga was genuinely amazed at her show of bravery in the face of impossible odds, laughably pitiful to him as it was. But, whatever flickering sense of respect he felt for her facing an enemy like every Saiyan with any pride in them should, was replaced with anger that she dared to insult him by refusing to atone for what she did to his eye. She was just going to make things difficult.

Oh well, at least he was still going to put her beneath the dirt where she belonged.

Naga gave her a deadly calm glare with his one good eye. "Have it your way then."

The two Saiyans starred each other down with contempt in each other's gaze. Both of their tails frayed behind them, sensing the oncoming battle.

Gine looked at him and thought of all the unfathomable pain that he inflicted onto her conscience that haunted her whole life. She thought of all the destruction he forced her to partake in across several civilizations, and the billions of innocent lives he slaughtered with such pleasure. And all of the lives he would slaughter after this planet. He was the root cause of all her emotional trauma, of all of her fears.

And now she was about to face him, as she should.

Naga looked at her and wanted nothing more than to pulverize this traitorous filth into a bloody mess. Even if she was who she said she was or if she came from the future, how DARE she take his eye and make him have to exact his due revenge himself! How DARE she refuse to know her place and defy him! HOW DARE!

Naga flexed his arms and crouched, letting out a loud roar as he charged up his energy. A blue-tipped flame aura erupted around him like a geyser.

"Welcome to your last battle, runt! This is what you get for messing with me!" He yelled at her, before screaming even louder. The ground shook as he brought all of the ki he had to bear.

Gine could feel the power emanating from Naga, how much it overshadowed hers, and how he was about to bring it all down on her.

She started sweating nervously, but resolved to do what she could. She was NOT going to abandon herself.

Collecting herself, Gine did the same as Naga and clenched her fists, letting out a powerful yell to summon all of the ki she could muster.

It swirled from deep within the core of her being and she released it all with shouting at the top of her lungs, a faint aura flared up from her. It had been so long since she had to bring forth all of her power at once.

The whole area around the two shook violently, the wind blowing hard enough to make Banno, Onio, the Celnussians, and young Gine shield their eyes.

Naga shot at her with blinding speed, going for a body slam...

But Gine saw it coming. She easily stepped out of the way and he blew past her.

He saw that he missed, and rolled over to land on one foot and spring at her again with a flying punch this time. Again, Gine let him graze past her just barely, and swiped her hand on the larger Saiyan to direct him away from her.

Naga looked at her with surprise that she was able to dodge his attack again, and felt impatience rising too. He phased out from sight to reappear by Gine's side to deliver a kick to her torso for a quick kill.

He's sloppy. She thought, noticing how he moved during the fight, and thinking of what Gohan taught her all those years ago about defending yourself against someone stronger.

Gine jumped to avoid the roundhouse that would've cut her in half, and used the opportunity to be eye level with him and deliver a kick of her own to his face. It didn't hurt him as much as her first, but it caught him off guard.

She was surprised at how she was managing to evade him, and land these blows on Naga.

Naga meanwhile, feeling undignified of her foot in his face a second time, tried to reach out and grab her. But Gine was one step ahead. Using her small form to her advantage, she coiled her arm around his and swung downwards and around his torso like a snake to land another upward kick to the back of his head.

He staggered forward a little, then spun to face her.

"You little bitch!" He growled in irritation, then drove at her with a punch.

Gine got out of the way as Naga's fist plowed into the ground like a meteor, blasting away dirt and rocks in all directions. Then he swung the same fist up to try and hit her again, but she backflipped to get out of his reach. As she did so, she flung a hand out and fired a small ki blast aimed at his face, then switched hands to land with and fire a second blast.

He swatted away the first blast like it was nothing, but the second one hit his face square on. It did no damage itself to him, but it heated the scouter fragments in his cheek and eye to singe his flesh. He cried out in pain, holding a hand to the burning side of his face.

The remaining eye flared up with anger as hot as the glowing metal in his skin, and gritted his teeth to form the face of a deranged killer.

"Gaaaahhhh!" He screamed in fury, then charged after her with a barrage of punches. Naga had Gine on the backfoot, but she twisted and twirled around his onslaught of punches with effortless grace.

"HOLD STILL, GODDAMNIT!" He yelled, his frustration replaced by adrenaline and rage. But Gine still kept dodging his attacks.

He was stronger, a hit from those punches would take her head clean off. But she saw how sluggish he was in his movements. She felt a weird sense of Deja vu in how she used to fight like him, against Gohan. And against Mr. Popo. Relying entirely on brute strength against your opponent...

Redundant moves, she thought with sudden realization.

Seeing an opening in his attack, Gine stopped her retreat and sprung up between his arms and punched him square in the jaw.

She cleared over Naga's head with a front flip and landed a good distance behind him while he howled in pain.

He turned again to face her, holding a hand to his jaw. She must have hit him where she cracked it earlier.

Before, he was infuriated with her. Now, his eye looked to be on fire with pure hatred.

Naga screamed incoherently, and he launched himself high into the air above.

He held both arms out from his sides, and two white orbs of ki emerged from his hands that grew to half a meter in diameter each. He was fed up now.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" He shouted down at her, then flung the two spheres of burning light toward her.

Gine didn't hesitate and put some ki into her jump backwards. The two blasts exploded where she stood moments ago, sending out a powerful shockwave and rain of debris outwards that she had to shield herself from.

Naga saw that she got away from the blasts, and screamed again. He then fired a volley of ki blasts at her, a storm of energy to carpet bomb the landscape and box her in, and hopefully vaporize her.

But she dodged the strikes as they made landfall, hoping away from each new explosion.

Naga kept firing, getting angrier and angrier that Gine refused to get hit. And thus the rage fueled to keep up his energy bombardment, and followed after her as she got further away and had more time to see and dodge each new volley.

As Gine hopped, they got farther and farther away from the brothers and her younger self. Slowly, a plan started to form.

She wasn't strong enough to kill him outright, but if she could get Naga far enough away...

A fast ki strike nearly cut her off, forcing her change directions in her fleeing and to focus on surviving for the moment.

Overlooking the fight from a distance, Banno and Onio looked on in utter amazement. To say that the unexpected change from mopping up the planet to this was jarring seemed quite fitting. Out of nowhere, a female Saiyan who claimed to be the pathetic little Gine from the future, had attacked their leader Naga and was now locked in mortal combat with him. And judging from how long it's ben going on, Naga was having trouble. They never saw him fight so vehemently against another opponent before, and they were disturbed to see how someone with a far weaker power level could survive for this long. But they had to admit that the fight was truly something to see.

Also during all this, they had lost interest in young Gine and the native Celnussians just off to their side.

The mother couldn't comprehend what was happening, but they knew the Saiyans were distracted.

She looked around and saw the outcropping of collapsed buildings that the stranger had burst forth from. If she could sneak herself and her child around the rock and towards it, they could try to sneak off.

Young Gine was drawn to watching the fight too, seeing her future self weave her way between ki strikes. It was the most surreal thing the seven year-old Saiyan had ever seen, and she felt a mixture of feelings she didn't understand how to process.

It was hard to believe that woman was actually her from another time, but she felt an actual connection when they locked eyes for a moment. And knew it was her own eyes even before she revealed who she was. And even though those eyes looked so... sad.

So many questions formed in her head. About where she actually came from and what the future was like. And most of all, why was she so sad? What happened to her?

Moments ago, young Gine was on the brink of being forced to murder the Celnussian mother and child on the ground, and was suffering the worst kind of emotional breakdown that any sentient being could experience. Then this woman who claimed to be her own self from the future came right at the moment she was about to commit an unforgivable act.

Did she really come to prevent it from happening? If so, it meant her older self had done what she nearly did, and this Gine had a pain on her conscience she couldn't fathom, and had lived a broken life because of it. It made her feel grief for the older version of herself that had to suffer bearing that guilt, and made her shudder at wondering what other things would have happened to her own self if she carried out the deed.

Thinking of the Celnussians, she turned to glance at them and froze.

The mother cradled her child to keep it quiet, and was slowly inching her way from Banno and Onio. Young Gine knew she was trying to slip away unnoticed.

The Celnussian mother turned to look at he, and froze in place.

Both the young Saiyan girl and Celnussian mother sat paralyzed with fear while locking unblinking eyes at each other.

The alien's expression changed to that of great sadness, realizing she had been caught and that death for her and her baby was certain.

Young Gine didn't react. Which the mother took notice of and felt... no, she couldn't dare to let herself hope. But...

The little Saiyan, staying as still as she could, eyed Banno and Onio still gawking at the action unfolding. Her gaze then turned to the fight, with Naga still having her future self on the run but holding firm. They were drifting further away from their vantage point, now a few thousand yards off.

The Saiyan girl's eyes drifted back to Banno and Onio. So far, no one seemed to notice her or the Celnussians.

Could she?

She risked certain death for letting them go, but if she used the excuse of being distracted like everyone was...

Making a decision, she gently turned back to the Celnussians. Then, young Gine subtly jerked her head in the direction where the mother was leaning towards, motioning her to take the chance to escape.

The alien mother's facial expressions morphed into a mixture of immense relief and gratitude that would've translated into crying for a Saiyan. It bowed it's head as a thankful gesture at her, and silently crept on all fours to crawl away.

Naga or the brothers would kill her for sure, but young Gine didn't care. She never wanted to execute these poor creatures, and she took the chance to let them live.

As young Gine watched the mother and son get further and further, she felt like a prayer had been answered. The Gine from the future had indeed stopped her from killing, and sparred her soul as well as those two innocent lives. As impossible as it was to escape from the reality of planet purging under threat of death from Naga, a miracle had nonetheless happened.

And she hit Naga! Which made her wonder how that was even possible. She heard that she only had a power level of six-fifty against twenty-five hundred. But, how was she managing to hold her own? She didn't understand why, but... she was okay with it. In fact, it gave her hope.

Was she stronger than what everyone told her? That she could become more than what the doctors predicted for her after she was born? It was an exciting and uplifting thought, and it made her want to cheer her older self on and beat that bastard!

"Hey! They're getting away!" Came Banno's voice.

Young Gine's blood ran cold when she turned to see Banno pointing after the Celnussians crawling away, they too looked back at Banno with eyes wide in shock.

Oh no... Young Gine thought in horror.

"NOT SO FAST, YOU PIECES OF FILTH!" Banno growled, then opened his hand pointed at the helpless natives.

"NO!" Young Gine yelled in alarm. Without thinking, she sprung after them with all the strength and energy in her legs as Banno fired a large ki blast to disintegrate the Celnussians.

She reached the mother and child, and shoved them away while she just narrowly missed the ki blast. The resulting explosion propelled her and the Celnussians away with such force as to make them crash against the surrounding rock outcrops.

The mother and child yelped from the impact, but were more or less okay. Young Gine slammed back first and upside down into a boulder and dropped to the ground, groaning in pain.

"What the hell?" Naga tore his attention away from the fight and looked toward the commotion that was developing.

Gine noticed too and looked to see a cloud of smoke and dust clearing from a ki blast fired by Banno.

Her heart nearly stopped in panic at seeing her own younger self laying motionless on the ground.

"BOSS!" Onio called up. "SURVIVORS TRIED TO ESCAPE, THE LITTLE RUNT WAS HELPING THEM!"

Gine looked at Onio, then back to her young self. In her panic, she also felt joy. Awed and touched that the girl she used to be would have actually done what she wished she could've done all those years ago.

Her past self tried to save them!

But Naga didn't look so happy. His good eye twitched, he had seen it all now. He knew that waste-of-Saiyan-blood girl was trouble, and now she was willingly helping the enemy?!

Now he didn't need an excuse to kill Gine's younger self.

Young Gine tried to get up, but struggled. She fell back on the ground, as helpless as the Celnussians.

Overhead, Naga raised an arm and charged up a large white ki blast.

"THIS IS WHAT TRAITORS GET!" He shouted down at her, then fired.

"NO!"

Gine phased to her past self with blinding speed and scooped her up, evading the deadly energy attack at the last moment. She dived on top of the fallen Celnussians when it hit the ground.

The blast was deafening, but Gine pressed her body against the aliens and her past self to shield them from the heat and sand.

When it subsided, and Gine propped herself up. The Celnussians were unscratched by the attack, looking up at her with a look of what she guessed would be "that was close".

Young Gine groaned in pain still, but had regained consciousness. She looked at her older self on top of her, grateful to still be alive.

Gine looked around, they were shrouded by a thick cloud of dust thrown up from the explosion. Naga still floated above, but neither he or the brothers could see through the screen of dust particles.

I have to get them away from here, she concluded. The dust swirled around, but she could sense the other three Saiyans trying to search for them. With Naga's scouter crushed into his face, Banno and Onio tried to scan the area.

Gine suppressed her energy...

Wait, they can't sense energy! She realized.

But they still had scouters, if she could disable them somehow...

Deciding on her next course of action, Gine charged up two small yellow orbs of ki in each hand. She had to be quick and hoped the dust would obscure her movements.

She heard Banno's and Onio's scouters go off from her ki charging, using her ears to hone in on the sounds of the beeping, she flung the two blasts toward the sound. The ruckus of two small energy bursts, followed by the yells of surprise and pain signaled for her to seize the opportunity to escape.

Gine scooped her younger self in one arm, and with the other yanked up the surviving Celnussian mother clutching her child for dear life. Then Gine leapt forward, flying low to the ground so the dust would cover her tracks, but didn't go too fast as to accidentally slam into a wall.

She hoped like hell she hit both of their scouters. If they had even just one still functioning, they would track her down for sure. So she tried to keep a balance of setting a good pace and suppressing her energy. If anything, she hoped she would at least slow them down.

After a mile, the dust cleared and Gine went as fast as she could. Up ahead, Gine saw the ruins of the destroyed megacity, and headed towards it.

She flew low to the streets and threaded around structures in random order. She wanted to put as much distance between herself and the Saiyans, and throw them off if she was being tailed.

As she retreated, Gine tried to think of what to do next. If this was a vision, how was she supposed to get out of it? Was there a time limit or exit? Did she have to win the fight or some other objective? She had no idea, and tried to fight off the urge to panic when she thought of the possibility that there was no way out here, that she was stuck here.

Why did Kami had to just throw me in here without explaining anything?! She screamed internally.

The only option she could think of was to steal one of attack pods that the Saiyans arrived in, which if she remembered correctly, was on the other side of this city.

Would Naga and the brothers suspect her of doing that? Maybe. And would she need to steal at least two of them to fit all four of them? Where would they even go?

So deep in thought that Gine nearly rammed through a glass building, only to roll to the side out of the way at the last instance.

She had to land and think of a plan, she couldn't do it while scud running.

Rounding another corner, about several miles deep into the labyrinth of burning buildings and rubble, Gine stopped and surveyed the area. It was a narrow alley sandwiched between two spires that stretched hundreds of feet high, providing shelter from nearly all vantage points.

Gine reached out with her senses, and didn't feel a living thing nearby.

Feeling safe that the Saiyans hadn't followed her, Gine floated down to the ground. Young Gine landed on her feet and the Celnussians were set down gently.

The mother and child looked around, a quiet wailing escaped from them at seeing the destruction befallen to their civilization. And then turned back to Gine. She regarded them with immense regret that something so horrible had to happen. But the alien mother walked up to her and surprised her with taking Gine into it's spindly arms in this being's equivalent of a hug, thanking her for saving the life of her child and herself.

Gine's heart felt so touched by the gesture, but it clenched with aching pain that this saving of their lives was not real. But she wished with all her being that it was.

She gently patted the alien's back and tried to get them to calm down, they didn't have much time until Naga came after them.

Young Gine looked around, seeing that they were not in immediate danger. She then looked back up her savior, who lost track of thinking of a plan and was completely focused on her little doppelganger.

They locked eyes, and immediately felt the connection that they briefly shared when she saved the Celnussians.

"Are you really me from the future?" Young Gine asked, still in disbelief and couldn't help herself but try to be certain.

Gine looked at her younger self. She had the same shoulder-length hair style that never changed since birth, the same thin female-Saiyan complexion, and had the same large expressive eyes as she did.

Young Gine was less than half her height, and had the distinctive black and bronze trimmed Saiyan armor lined with the skirt for female warriors. A sharp contrast from the self-knitted dress gi that the elder Gine had. But most of all, young Gine's eyes held all the innocence and naivety that she once had. The eyes of someone who truly believed in compassion and abhorred all evil. Eyes that didn't hold an ounce of sorrow, or were haunted by an unbearable guilt, devoid of all hope. Eyes that didn't hold a broken soul behind them. Eyes present-day Gine had, which gazed down at her pint-sized self from the past with a sad smile.

"Yes I am." Gine said softly.

The younger Gine gasped in amazement. There was no denying it now.

They couldn't look away from each other, as if it was like looking into a mirror.

Young Gine thought of the questions she wanted to ask, unsure what to say first.

Present Gine looked at her past self, lost in thought. There was so much she wanted to tell her...

"Why are you really here?" Young Gine asked, settling on a question.

Present Gine wasn't sure how to respond. How was she? Like with Naga?

Does she tell about Kami throwing her into this place? That it was part of some kind of training? And tell her of Kakarot? And Raditz and Bardock? Not to mention that her past self was as much of a projection as everything else here. It all felt so weird.

But... she felt compelled to say something. With Naga, she didn't have to, for he was a pure tormentor that deserved no answers even if he was real or imaginary.

With her own childhood projection?... She deserved the truth.

"I wanted to stop Naga. From forcing you to kill these two." Gine said, glancing at the aforementioned Celnussians.

Young Gine looked at her older self for a few seconds, then between her and the alien mother and child.

"Did you...I mean, did I..." She tried to ask, but couldn't finish.

An uncomfortable silence followed. They both knew the intended question, and the answer.

Young Gine looked to the ground with tears swelling in her eyes.

"It's all my fault." She whimpered.

"What?" Present Gine was startled by that. "What do you mean by that?"

Young Gine couldn't hold back anymore and started crying.

"I'm... too weak. It's all my fault that I wasn't born strong enough to not be forced to do such a horrible thing! It's all my fault!"

"But that's not true, Gine." Present Gine said to her younger counterpart, feeling odd about addressing herself by her own name as if in the third person.

Young Gine sniffled and looked up at her older self. "Yeah it is... I'm the weakest Saiyan that was ever born. I'm pathetic! I just know it's wrong to kill, but I'm not strong enough to fight back otherwise! And I can't even kill when I have to in a fight! I'm worthless! WORTHLESS!"

The little Saiyan girl collapsed, her crying now full on sobbing. "And I... I almost killed innocent people! I'm a monster!" She wailed inconsolably. The image of the Celnussian's laying helpless before her about to be vaporized by her own hand still vivid in her mind, and couldn't think of what would've happened if she fired...

Gine looked at her younger self sympathetically. She had felt this very way before, and she still did.

But she felt the need to say something. And that something was what she long within her wished she heard from someone...

Present Gine kneeled by her younger counterpart's side and laid a comforting hand on her tiny back.

"No, Gine. Listen to me... It is not your fault, it never was. You don't need to be forgiven for things that were out of your control." Present Gine said, not sure where the words she was saying were coming from. It didn't sound true to her own ears given how she herself felt about being strong enough to make a difference.

But, it somehow felt right to say it.

"You were just a child, being forced to kill, against your own will, under the thumb of a monster." She continued calmingly. "And you are not a monster. Naga is, as well as those thugs that call themselves brothers."

The words were meant for her younger part, but she felt herself tearing up as well. As if they were meant for both of them...

Young Gine looked up at her with tear-streaked eyes. "R-Really?"

The elder Gine wiped away her tears, and placed both hands on her small shoulders.

"Yes." Gine smiled sincerely. "You are innocent. You are a good person."

Young Gine's crying soothed to a stop as she absorbed her words.

"And you know something else?" Gine asked, a small smile appearing on her face. These were words she wanted to hear for a long time.

"You ARE strong, Gine."

Young Gine's eyes widened in shock, pointing to herself in incredulity. "I am?"

"Yes. You-" Gine stopped.

Her eyes widened in icy cold horror, when she felt three energy signatures rapidly approaching from behind her.

A/N: Slight goof in making this spirit quest too long for one or even two chapters. So the third one is the final segment of this arc for sure! The conclusion to a true journey of self discovery! Should have it up by Memorial Day weekend.

See you then!