Blood

Chapter 93: Veins and Wires


He breathed. The valley matched the picture. The stream, highway, slope and pitch of the rock, trees, cliff — that cliff. What looked like nothing more than a dip in a crag held an alcove and a door.

Gently he flew over. There was a door. Solid metal and faceless, just like the picture. Strong enough to deter any curious hands. Supposedly strong enough to keep any warrior of this time out, or at the very least delay them.

Traveler placed his hands on the welded grooves and closed his eyes, feeling its weight and texture. His aura pulsed for a second — and the door came out of its frame and fell over backward.

It was dark, gloomy, unlit, unexplored — and Traveler was forced to wring his fingers together to prevent them from lashing out. Even after everything — this was where the nightmare began, in this lab, between these walls, done by cruel, cruel hands and thinking. To be rid of it, even in this time, even after everything…

It would come, he reminded himself. In this time and his. With a tentative breath he took a step forward. First he had to find what he needed… and make sure nothing jumped out of the dark and killed him before that.

0o0o0

In the brief moment before chaos erupted, Gero's eyes lingered on the crater Piccolo's cowl had made. 'Bold of you to face death willingly.'

A massive blast scythed through the air, passing where Gero had been a second prior, and Tien and Piccolo reconverged, back-to-back, scanning the rocky expanse before them.

'Keep to the plan,' Piccolo reminded him. 'Get a grasp of his range. And play cautious…'

He heard a telekinetic mhmm. Then he felt Tien's presence dissipate as the human veered into the air to his left, red aura burning. Piccolo spotted a figure circle in the air, dodging the red mark as it zig-zagged, and with a pull on his own deep blue energy, he roared after them.

'Hyaaa!' Tien's hands, clenched together, swiped through the air several feet above Gero — and a lash of wind swung down, buffeting Gero's raised arms. Another quick touch in the wind made the android wheel around, blocking a jab aimed at his neck. The human snarled, unleashed a barrage of similar strikes — all blocked, and Gero pulled back his own hand, forming a chop, swung —

And Tien surged backward, leaving a wake of clawing red energy. Gero frowned. He is?—

His thought was smashed aside as Piccolo rocketed from below and slammed head-first into his gut. Gero allowed the blow to take him skyward, make him recede from the ground, as he stared at Piccolo and Tien. Both remained stationary in the air.

They are?...

Their images faded. Gero was batted back down as Tien and Piccolo appeared in the air above, their combined auras crashing into his back. As before he made no move to slow or stop — until he was just at the ground, and righted himself and landed without trouble. Small tears lined his clothing; he was scuffed in places. But he looked as calm as ever as he readjusted his tall black hat and glared into the air at them.

'I am not a fool.' His voice carried into the upper reaches of the valley, bounding off of rock. 'If you do not intend to fight me with your full force, then I recommend you do not fight me at all and submit to your execution willingly.'

'...' Tien gauged the distance between them and Gero. 'He immediately figured it out.'

'It's not like we were trying to hide it.' Piccolo's dark blue aura licked the air around him. 'We don't know what he's capable of. Until then… we need to keep our distance.'

'It won't work!' Gero's voice screamed up at them — a second before Gero himself appeared before them, face expressionless but tense, elbow swinging out and impacting Piccolo in the gut. As the Namekian was driven back through air from the force of the blow, Tien's red Kaioken aura exploded around him, as he shot forward and flipped, right foot arcing at superspeed towards Gero's head — caught by Gero's hand. Alarmed Tien immediately spun out of his grip and shot a point-black ki attack. Smoke and dust were shoved aside as Gero rushed to him and knocked aside his guard, then clamped his hands around Tien's forearms. 'Now, then—'

'Got you!' Tien's afterimage faded as the real warrior seized Gero by his shoulders and wrenched backward in the air, tearing Gero that way, then back, as they began to spin. A small tornado of pure aura formed in the valley as Tien accelerated, increasing his speed and blurring even what his ki-enhanced vision could see. Just as the centrifugal force was enough for his loose clothes to start sliding off of his wiry metal body, Gero was shot towards the base of the nearby mountain. He zoomed across the valley, visionless and disoriented — but quickly began decelerating to prevent a collision.

'Useless!' With a zip Piccolo appeared, flying parallel in the air above him. His right arm, veins near bursting, crackled and sparked with yellow energy.

'SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!' The Namekian's hand whipped forward and unleashed a massive beam of energy point-blank against Gero. The attack crashed into him, crushing his trajectory downward, and he and the beam plummeted to the valley's bottom. Leaves scattered in the wake of a huge explosion evaporating a huge portion of the area's stream and plucking trees from the earth like they were blades of grass. A second, then third wave of kinetic force passed by Piccolo — and then there was only dust and pattering rock.

As he panted the Namekian heard Tien fly towards him from behind. 'Direct hit. He's—'

Metal fingers pressed into Piccolo's jaw, nearly breaking it, and flung the Namekian into a nearby cliff. Charred and worn, Gero pulled back and flexed his attacking hand. 'He's very much still alive, thank you.'

0o0o0

In the ensuing chaos of Piccolo's follow-up attack, Tien lost his ally. Higher up in the sky he tried to search the dust-choked valley for any figures. His worries became reality when he sensed Piccolo smash into a nearby rockface — and Gero appeared in the air before him, damaged but still very much alive.

The android was staring at his palms. 'A successful test. Not under ideal circumstances, but a success nonetheless.'

Keep my distance. Tien's aura flamed as he began edging backward. And not without Piccolo.

Gero glanced up from his hands. 'Hm?'

Before Tien could make sense of what happened a blow crashed into his back, jarring his spine, flipping him, until Gero, moving faster than he could track, smashed blow-after-blow, jab after jab, chop after chop into the human's body. When a last blow dug into his gut, doubling Tien over and churning his face, Gero grabbed him by his clothes and hurled him to the earth — as his other hand wheeled around.

'Say hello to the Namekian!' Gero spat, as his propped right hand shot a tight beam of pink energy after him. Tien's eyes widened as the attack greatly outpaced his own speed. Bringing both hands forward, he extended every single finger and thumb he had.

'DODONPANA STORM!' Like so many threads pulled from a spool ten thin yellow beams shot from Tien's fingers — piercing the beam attack, sloughing off sections that exploded to either side in the air — and rushed towards Gero. Caught off-guard, the android quickly raised his block and tanked the attack.

Quick hits. Like rain sounding on a roof.

'Pah!' Gero dropped his guard and inspected the small craters drilled through his clothes and denting his metal body. Their nuisances...

0o0o0

Piccolo spotted the action in the air above halfway through — by the time he had freed himself of his crater and was ready to join, he saw Tien plummeting.

A second before impact he slid his own body behind Tien, using his aura to slow their descent. With Tien's aid, they quickly stalled to a halt, just a few yards above the ground. Neither of them knew this, however — neither had taken their eyes off their opponent.

'He powered up,' Tien said, separating from Piccolo. 'I'm not sure how he did it, but he powered up.'

'...'

'What?'

'He didn't chase us.' Piccolo pointed skyward. 'He's going over his body, like he's checking for injuries.'

Tien's third eye narrowed ever-so-slightly. '...So he was concerned my attack may have hurt him, is what you're saying.'

'Which probably means he's just as durable as before — no more, no less.'

'...His body can't get stronger, no matter how much artificial energy he has,' Tien said. With a gentle pull of his ki he floated leftward, distancing himself from Piccolo. 'His body's only as strong the material comprising it.'

'So it's likely he can't take many direct hits.' Piccolo scoffed. 'There's the plan. Even if he's got more firepower than us, we just need to last longer until his body starts breaking.'

'Sounds easy.'

'It always sounds easy.' Piccolo frowned. 'And we still don't know how he got that power…'

'Then we need to keep being cautious — and keep at him.' Tien scanned the rest of the valley. 'There — the forest,' he said, pointing. 'If we move the battle there it'll be hard for him to use his superior speed to get us — and we'll more easily sneak up on him.'

'Yeah — let's go!' Piccolo suddenly shouted, blue aura exploding as it deflected a pink blast. Together they flew towards the treeline — and Gero appeared in front of them.

'Running so—'

'OUT OF MY WAY!' Tien suddenly roared, Kaioken red flaring off his body twice as much as before, as he twisted and rammed his left shoulder into Gero — launching the android into the forest. Piccolo followed close behind as Tien chased to the sound of cracking wood and rushing air.

0o0o0

Where did that come from!? Gero's mind whirred as the leaves and bark of the forest flew past him faster than he could see. That was easily twice as much power as he showed previously!

'TRi-BEAM!' From behind Gero a small triangle of pure energy passed through where he would have flown, and darting, the android arced up and down, elbow aiming for the back of Tien's head. The human, expecting it, caught it with his left hand.

Gero's feet crashed into the dirt as the two began struggling with each other. Gero's other hand darted for Tien's gut but was caught at the wrist; two limbs tangled in the air, two limbs struggling just near Tien's skin.

'I'm going to kill you, you know!' Tien shouted through his gritted teeth. His red aura was rippling so far that it nearly encompassed Gero. 'For what you've done to everyone! For what you did to Chiaotzu!'

Gero quickly glanced between his jabbing hand and Tien. 'I would remember — relish! — killing such a fighter!' He shouted back, left palm suddenly lurching for Tien's gut — but the human warrior wrenched that limb up, pinning it against his other arm.

With one hand Tien rammed a punch into Gero's gut. 'There!' Metal bent, nearly gave. 'Now all there's left to do— augh!'

Without any explanation Gero watched as Tien cringed, body and veins flaring, as he stumbled back a foot — and Gero wasted no time in stepping in, whipping one arm free, and slapping the length of his forearm across Tien's chest, catapulting him deeper into the forest.

'Miserable!— Grah!' He coughed, stumbled forward a foot. The android inspected his chest — it was bent. He couldn't feel pain: not in the way humans could, at least, but he could feel that something that shouldn't have been squished had been. He did not doubt his body could take a few blows like that — but taking many would be costly.

More concerningly, that was from one punch... Gero scanned the nearby trees, searching for any movement. If he achieved that with his newfound power…

It was quiet: too quiet. All at once the air rushed away — and fell back in as Piccolo drew back from Gero's spun guard.

'You're fast,' the Namekian growled.

'You're dead!' Gero roared, clapping Piccolo's head between his hands. The Namekian's eyes fluttered, cuts opening on his temples, but without wasting a breath he dove and hooked one foot around Gero's — with a yank Gero lost his footing, and falling, blocked a punch storming in ki with his forearms crossed. His slide became an immediate impact as the momentum of the attack cratered him into the ground.

Piccolo paused; he stared from above him, one hand drawn to the side, two fingers tapered to a point. Like before, yellow sparks circled his sharpened nails.

'Stay there.'

With a zoom, Piccolo disappeared from sight. Alarmed Gero shot to his feet. Scanning the area — this forest is too thick! He couldn't see more than several yards in any direction; there was no telling where the Namekian had run off to. And he knew —

Every sensor interlaced into his consciousness screamed, whirling Gero around — staring down a massive yellow beam of energy: a searing triangle, same as before. He knows where I am! They both know!

The blast slammed into him, spilled off of disintegrating clothes, nearly consumed him. But his hands had risen quick, and the diodes in his palms grew hot, sucking in the ki threatening to obliterate him. Still his heels were pushed back through the dirt — but the pressure lessened.

Furthermore… Even while caught by this attack he began to feel an undeniable surge of power rush through his body — far more than before! Every gear and wire spun and supercharged, coiling with liberated energy, all ripe for a proper mind to use it!

The force bearing his front began to give. He laughed — and then Gero's heart stopped as he felt first an inch of force push into him from behind. The longest second of his life passed. And then he made the gut-wrenching decision to wrench around his left hand and catch the ki about to unleash itself on his back.

As the last remains of the first attack dissipated, even as Piccolo's blast was just barely stalled by Gero's right hand, ripping away one of his hands triggered the unstable energy molding to his other palm.

An explosion tall as the mountains lining the valley rose and decimated the forest.

0o0o0

A storm of energy passed over his little bush, stripping away leaves old and new; Yajirobe clung to dear life to what little remained. Thorns pressed into his hands as he continued staring.

'...Damn.' His body and his sword in its sheath began to tremble — he had seen it, clear as day. Those hands… 'Damn… I need to d-do something, don't I?...'

0o0o0

Wind and plant debris swirled around him, pushed away by the carnage. Amidst it all and a coming calm, Piccolo breathed hard as he dropped his right arm.

He sought, and found, Tien. 'He's still alive. I'm sure.'

'I wouldn't expect otherwise.'

Though he couldn't see him, he sensed what Tien felt — nervous, anxious. The fight was close so far; too close.

'We're holding our own,' Piccolo said telepathically. 'Isn't that all what Traveler wanted?'

'I suppose. But I don't intend to die for him.'

'Meaning?'

'Meaning we promise to grab each other and run if need be. Gero — Gero's probably stronger than Slug, isn't he?'

'Probably. Hard to gauge him at all, considering he has no natural ki.'

'Right…'

Piccolo couldn't shake the foreboding feeling. 'Are you alright? I noticed —'

'You know as well as I do that the Kaioken is draining… I just hope that attack did some damage.'

'...' A shape started forming in the storm of dust.

'You jinxed it.'

With a swipe of his arm Gero cleared the last remaining airborne detritus shrouding him.

'Stay on the other side of him. It worked that time.'

'Will do.'

0o0o0

On the solid rock Gero landed, free of the fried remains of the forest, front of him scraped and scuffed and marked — back of him nearly shorn of any fabric, exposing skin-colored paint flaking away in patches from a gold grey chassis underneath. Dents and unintended curves. He wore a target on his back.

'Ingrates.' Gero's voice spilled over with venom, malice, and disdain as he stared at Piccolo. 'I should have expected no less, even at your end. You intend to make this as tiresome and tedious as possible!'

Piccolo rubbed his arms, smudging blood from his scattered cuts. His clothes too had seen better days. 'You expected us to lie down and die?' His canines framed his grin as he pulled back one leg, angling himself towards Gero. 'Clearly you haven't been studying us as thoroughly as you assumed.'

'Rash judgments lead to folly. And I have not made any of those.' Gero practically snarled at him. 'Today I came prepared for every continuity, plotted every strategy, predicted every move you two could make…'

The android's head turned, scanning something unseen on the valley's rim. 'Very well. A threat shall do.' He lifted his right palm, pointing it towards the mountains. 'Surrender. 'If you do not, I will destroy North City.'

Piccolo's eyes shot open. 'What?'

'Do you doubt me?' Gero tipped his head sideways like a curious animal. 'I know North City's location, size, and distance, I know where I am in relation to it, and I have more than enough power to launch a blast that way.'

'...Tien?'

'I heard.'

'That's… hundreds of miles away,' Piccolo said aloud. 'A blast that goes that far—'

'Wouldn't leave much standing between here and there, yes.'

Without looking, Piccolo tracked Tien float closer behind Gero. 'And you could do that to this planet? Your home? Do you care nothing about innocent people? Innocent lives?'

'Any damage I do this planet I can easily repair once I control it. And, in this scenario, innocent lives put into my hands cease to be that; they become tools, and can only be wielded as such.'

'Of course,' Piccolo mocked. He momentarily glanced away. 'In that case— AUCK!'

His lungs emptied of air as two pink beams shot from Gero's eyes and drilled into his chest — not deep at all, but enough to stagger him. As he floated back Gero spun around — and fired the pink energy beam gathering in his hand skyward, towards a charging Tien.

Crimson Kaioken light bloomed around the human as he hooked back his arm and batted the blast into a nearby mountain.

Gero vanished from sight when he turned back. 'GERO!' He roared, aura boiling around him. 'I'M!-'

'I'm right here.'

To their surprise Gero had elected to ignore Tien entirely — he had reappeared somewhere else entirely. Right arm wrapped around Piccolo's right arm from behind, restraining him like a constricting snake, right hand clamped on his forearm, as his left arm laid in the crook of Piccolo's neck and faced Tien with its palm.

'So I wouldn't do anything rash.'

'FIRE, TIEN!' Piccolo shouted, shoving to the side, bucking Gero around.

'TRi-BEAM, HA!' A quickly formed blast leaped from Tien's hands, ramming headlong into Gero — and disappeared with a plink into the red diode in the center of the android's hand.

'Thank you for your contribution.' Gero was grinning wide enough to move his hat off-center. 'I will remember it.'

'Didn't hit?' Tien panted as he brought up his aching arms for another attack. 'Well—'

'TIEN!' Piccolo shouted, pulled back via his right arm into Gero's grip. The limb was burning, weakening, almost like… '...he's… draining me!' He bellowed. 'Gero's draining my ki!'

Gero laughed. 'So I am! Perhaps we can put aside the pretenses now!'

Try as he might Piccolo couldn't release his limb — his pulsing, quivering, shrinking right arm — from Gero's irontight grip. 'You avoided me and I avoided you because we didn't know each other's capabilities!' Piccolo bit his tongue to prevent himself from screaming; the feeling of his flesh being cut and taken away, piece by piece—

'But it's clear now!' Gero drew Piccolo's body tighter into his arms. 'Oh so clear! The flesh is weak, but metal is strong. You two were dead before you even sought me out! I had planned your death to completion! So please!' He waved his left hand. 'Shoot another blast my way! Otherwise I'll just have to take every last drop from the Namekian!'

Bizarrely, to Gero, to Piccolo, and to even himself, Tien held himself still in the air, watching Gero suck the life out of his friend. Not a single idea came to mind — not a single thing he could do to stop the grisly, incredibly gruesome death he was witnessing. Piccolo's arm was more skin than flesh now. In his face and the rest of his body he could see deathly alarm fade into even more morbid ease. Given enough time...

With no rush at all Tien raised his hands in front of his eyes and spread them. 'Solar flare.'

0o0o0

There had been no warning — just searing, painful, near debilitating light blazing into his eyes, blinding him. Enough pain that, coupled with the agony from his right arm, might have been enough to knock him out cold.

That wasn't an option. He knew this was the one chance he'd get.

'GRAAGH!' Piccolo's left arm spun and sliced downward through his right shoulder, severing the dried, desiccated, nearly contentless green-brown limb, and while blind busted his head back against Gero's and flew forward— hitting the ground, rolling, tumbling, purple blood trailing from the misshapen stump sticking out from his right torso. He collided against rock and then grass until he felt a cool splash of water envelop him and passed out.

0o0o0

From his lone spot in the air, Tien gaped.

0o0o0

As the force of Namekian's blow radiated from his head, Gero cursed his incompetence. Damn it all!' He had done it so casually — he hadn't expected the solar flare! He thought Tien was giving up! Damn it all! As he furiously rubbed at his eyes Gero clumsily landed, coiling around his stolen energy, ready to explode.

Just need… to wait until they reboot… He forced his hands away from his head. Until then… sense the others —

There had been no warning except for a sudden gust of wind against his upper torso. Still blind, he moved back, far enough that he thought he'd be safe. But no amount of dodging could have avoided this strike: out of the remains of the forest a curved blade charged, held out from the hip by a short and stout swordsman submerged in a roaring red aura. As he slowly approached his ki left his body and flowed into the blade, lining its edge and emitting a trail of wispy smoke from its end. All the while its owner's face grew more and more sour, pain lining its creases and dotting it with sweat.

Fifty feet away, Yajirobe disappeared. A second later he materialized at the other end of the clearing, nearly at the base of one of the valley mountains, and with a slow turn sheathed his blade and dispersed his red aura.

'Red Sword Strike.'

With the words spoken and his blade sheathed a yawning slice rushed through what had been his path past Gero — and the red scythe passed through Gero's hands, slicing one in half and severing the other completely at the wrist. Divorced of their master the metal limbs were carried away by the wake of the attack and unraveled into a cloud of metal pieces and wire.

Keen eyes watched this; by the time his attack reached him it faded completely. 'Well…' Yajirobe suddenly glanced around, then ran off to a clump of nearby boulders. 'Better hide again!...'

0o0o0

As the last of the stray wind dispersed Tien watched Yajirobe duck behind some rocks. An incredibly useful technique made even more so by the Solar Flare. And Yajirobe had no warning that was even coming...

'MY HANDS!'

Tien's attention whipped back to Gero. Like a blind beggar he was on his hands and knees, palming the ground around him. 'Where did they go?! Where did they go!?'

He could taste metal and sweat in the air; the tide had shifted. He breathed.

Before Gero could look up Tien's blazing red aura charged across the valley and slammed into him a kick, scraping the android off the ground. Impacts sounded against the mountains as Tien, flying as fast as possible, launched, caught, and struck Gero over and over in different spots in the air, at each point ramming a blow into his crumpling metal body, denting arms, legs, his chest and back, knocking off his hat, tearing off sections of his baggy pants, his striped shirt, twisting what was left of his arms, nearly snapping Gero's knees, spewing oil out from the newly opened seams in his skin like blood violently sifted through a pipe, force and ki raging in a massive, growing storm of chaos, and as Gero feebly reached for Tien to grasp him with what was left of his left hand, Tien twisted, yanking off the arm below the shoulder to a shower of bolts and copper sheathing, and punted him skyward with one last kick.

He appeared in the air above, both hands raised above his head, body cramping and seizing enough to compress his veins, his blood, his heart, but with a face of pure agony he kept his roaring aura wrapped around his strike. Waiting.

Waiting.

'Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!' With a scream Tien's knotted hands crashed downward, slamming into Gero's body, cracking the air like a bolt of lightning splitting the skies. With that force the android plummeted to the earth and exploded the valley around them, throwing up rock and rubble and stumps and water, marring the land and knocking out the base of the mountains around them. Hills and peaks tipped and started rolling inward, rushing to fill the huge impact zone, and within a few seconds — the valley ceased to be.

As smoke and dust clogged his vision and his lungs, Tien's arms dropped. There. His aura flashed away, and with a sigh he lost his grip on his ki and began falling.

0o0o0

Water streamed and splashed as Piccolo's head broke from the stream. Coughing, soggy, he crawled onto the bank with his left arm, groaned and turned onto his back, eyes closed, calming his breathing.

He sat up slowly, pain pulsing again through his face, as he held the right side of his torso, hand pressing to the purple blood spilling down his body. He grimaced.

With a pop, a new arm slid out from his right shoulder, spraying yellow fluid. After a grunt, as a test Piccolo lifted the limb, grasping his hand, flexing his fingers. It was pale green and too pink at parts. But… it was there, and whole, unlike what he had left behind.

Gero...

Groaning, Piccolo staggered to his feet, fighting off the fading but excruciating sensation of his arm being severed, and climbed out of the streambed. He was at the far end of the valley — or what he quickly recognized was left of it. Smoke and dust clouded the air further in, obscuring what he sensed was an impact crater — a large one.

He lifted into the air, ignoring the knots in his stomach.

0o0o0

Once he sighted Gero, Tien let his energy dip and dropped to one knee, panting hard, fingers pressed to his forehead. Too much ki used, too quickly. His body was struggling with the strain.

He would have kept up his guard if not for his opponent.

'You!...' Gero half-roared, half-grated, like something was perpetually stuck grinding against his throat, as he stumbled forward, arms limp at his sides, barely usable, the rest of his body not much better. His hat was gone and the glass where his skull should have been — housing what looked like was his brain — was cracked. He was a dead man walking, and he acted like one.

'You…' Gero muttered, glancing around, searching for something so vigorously he nearly fell over. 'You…'

'You… ha… lost,' Tien said, head falling to his chest. 'Not bad for us fighters, huh?'

'...' Gero's gaze hit the ground. '...No… please…'

'I kept my word.' Piccolo dropped between them, hand held back, a lance of yellow ki forming in his palm. 'You die today! Right here, right—'

A bolt of pink energy ripped across the ground around them, scoring into the rock and throwing them all off balance. Piccolo's ki shot wildly into the air as the world began tipping —

'TIEN!'

Piccolo slammed into him just as another beam shot through where he was standing, bisecting stone like it was nothing. Together they fell down the side of a hill and rolled onto a stretch of land still containing dirt and grass and as Piccolo shot up —

'...Damn it.'

The Namekian barely spoke loud enough to be heard, much less understood — but Tien didn't need to hear him. He had eyes; he could see the figure in the air — another obvious android.

'...19,' Gero muttered from the ground, shocked, surprised, and overwhelmingly grateful.

A fist pounded into the ground; Piccolo bit into his cheeks hard enough to fill his mouth with blood. 'Damn it!'

As Tien's vision drifted back to Piccolo, 19 landed in front of Gero, standing like a guardsman, legs planted wide apart and ready to take any he came to realize the full extent of what had happened Gero's head cranked off the ground in stages, eyeing his stocky and dark-haired creation. '...my, 19. You're here. You… saved me…'

'I serve you, Doctor.'

He had a fleeting experience of something real — something human. '...Yes, well… thank you, 19,' Gero said, breathless, as he remained prone on the ground, black, viscous oil leaking from the stub left of his left arm. Under 19's warding protection he slowly stood, holding his right wrist, frayed wires and all, to his chest. '...your arrival was incredibly timely.'

Enough of that. Back to the matter at hand. Focus. Focus. 'I assume your task is complete?'

Monotone: 'The subject has been released and is dealing with our unwelcome guest,' 19 replied.

Piccolo calmed himself — barely — glanced towards Tien. 'He's talking about Traveler.'

The human stood. 'No doubt in my mind. Can't be anywhere else except the lab.'

'In any case,' Piccolo's vision swept the field, landed back on the two androids. 'We have bigger issues right now.'

A shockwave passed through the ground, momentarily knocking all four off balance — a second later, a massive phrooomm of wind passed over them, whipping their clothes to the left. Successive waves of force and then dust gusted past them, and as Piccolo turned he saw it: a massive pillar of fire, like a slice of hell shoved into their world, rising into the sky in the distance. The size of it — the necessary width of such a blast, considering how it looked...

'...And he has bigger issues than us,' Tien communicated to him quietly.

Gero straightened back into the shape of a man. So there it was: his creation was proceeding as intended. 'Our unwanted guest has been confronted, then. He is… strong.'

'The subject's power is greater,' 19 pulled Gero's attention back towards their opponents. 'We need not worry about him.'

'Quite right.' Gero hunched over, eyeing his missing hand. 'You prove yourself smart, 19, now that you can speak.' He frowned at his body — his broken, beaten, nearly failed body. 'But now that you're here, 19… take care of these malcontents, please. And…' Gero frowned, trying to remember. '...Keep an eye out for a third with a sword…'

As Gero finished Piccolo and Tien immediately called on their auras — slower than they had at the beginning of the fight, unable to burn quite as bright.

Tien's body trembled even as his aura whipped into a frenzy around him. 'We… need to... augh…' He dropped again to one knee, aura fizzling out from around him. 'Damn… I've maxed my body out.'

Piccolo didn't turn. 'For the rest of the fight?'

'For the next few minutes, at least.' Suddenly angry at his own feebleness, Tien pressed a hand to the ground. 'Piccolo…'

'Take as long as you need.' Twice as large as before Piccolo's dark blue aura erupted around him, wracking the ground with fissures. Every ounce of power he was keeping in reserve was on display now — enough to surprise Tien. 'He won't get through me.'

Tien rolled those words around in his head. 'You don't think you can win?'

'I don't have to.' Piccolo's head showed itself to him, mouth bent, teeth barely showing — eyes clear. 'We have friends coming, after all.'

0o0o0

Through every darkened hallway and empty room he scoured, searching for even the smallest clue or trace of knowledge. He upended empty cabinets and bare metal tables. He punched through discolored walls and rusting floors, metal snapping against his will, and studied the marks of passage on the ground. Even to the lowest level, behind a door that looked like a wall, he dragged himself forward, looking. But all this chamber offered him was broken glass and rust stains of now missing implements and fixtures. All this lab offered him was dust.

At last Traveler returned to the main level, staring at the round metal door he had pushed off its hinges, letting the slightest amount of sunlight and fresh air spill onto him from outside.

He should have been mad — should have been enraged that there was nothing here. But this was something he could not have predicted: more to the point, this was something that should not have happened. It was safe to assume that Gero knew someone was coming — but that by itself made no sense. Gero had succeeded in West City, as the record said. He should have been confident, cocky — not fearful, scrubbing down his lab, preparing to run. Gero must have known something or someone was coming.

So the question was: who? Traveler had done nothing to reveal himself. He had found Piccolo and Tien and brought them here. Not once did he fight and show the extent of his power. And Gero had no reason to suspect the energy he sensed against the Saiyans would show itself again… he was a passing blip, nothing more. And certainly nothing that could have been foreseen… foreseen...

He turned, gazing back into the lab's gloom. Where were the others? Chi-Chi and her group were recovering from a fight; some were in space, he knew, though his device couldn't tell him who exactly. But no one should have known where Gero was… let alone felt confident enough to intimidate him. No one… from this time…

The light filtering towards him shifted. Traveler saw a shadow move past his feet… a shadow he had both sought and seen and feared and awaited, and yet still couldn't believe existed.

He struggled to contain his adrenaline as he looked forward. This was all he needed. One fight, one win, and he could leave.

'You're not supposed to be here.'

'And that means?'

'I get to kill you.'

Metal lined him, melded with flesh, wove with veins and color and skin until his entire body was a long mass of life and wiring that walked with two legs, stared with one real eye, one red, swaggered with what was left of his arms — and thought with a metal surface circumventing, digging into his head. At every part of him what could have been modeled to what his body had been was: in every part, it cultivated an image so ghastly no one would ever mistake him for something real or tangible. A half-artificial being where the line between body and husk wasn't clear was the stuff of nightmares.

He had never fought him, Traveler reminded himself. Not when he was alive, and not how he is now. He had been told he would be strong — strong enough to pose a danger if he wasn't careful — but was nothing he couldn't handle. That was the key to this whole strategy after all. Hitting Gero before he could fight back. Use his own work against him… and here was the pinnacle of what this time could produce until now. Here was the key to winning the war in his time, on his terms, locked within the potential of engineering, his flesh, his DNA...

The one and only part of the puzzle.

'You're screwed,' Raditz spoke, voice girded by a scratchy, almost raspy metallic drone. 'The last Saiyan who challenged me died.'

And that's when Traveler in a blind rage exited their conversation and bathed himself, the ghost, and all the world in cleansing gold flame.


A/N: Hey all. So I'd like some thoughts from any reviewers if you got them: I've been writing in a bit of a different way that's been resulting in shorter chapters. My question is this: are these chapters too short? What about the fights? Any feedback is appreciated.

Other than that, we continue on. Things are picking up...

Reviews:

Anonymous: I cannot confirm or deny anything of what you've said about Rush, but it's interesting to say the least.

Bulma's definitely plotting something… first up, an obvious problem space problem that needs fixing…

You got some gold aura in this chapter, right at the very end. The trifecta is complete! Thanks for the review!

the1andonlyLucian: Interesting theories about if the Saiyans actually tried to take control of the ship… but they're not in this chapter, so I can't say anything more than that xp

Thank you for the review!

Cityracer: Gero's a pretty evil dude. Smart, but evil. Can be tactical, too.

Traveler has an interesting relationship with Piccolo and Tien at the moment. Once other certain people make an appearance, it's going to become way more complicated.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! They strike me as a good fighting pair.

Very interesting comments about Rush… IF he's lying, which I'm not saying he is (though perhaps the text suggests a different reading!), I would think there's a reason for why his best lie is so paper thin…

Yamcha and Bulma finally parted. Bound to happen but both needed to do it on their terms. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the scene!

It's amusing that you pointed out your waning interest in the space arc just as the narrative "camera" of this story is zooming in on Earth. This chapter of only Piccolo, Tien, and Gero was planned.

gabves15: Thanks for the review and the kind words! I appreciate it.