One year later, King Yemma's palace
King Yemma was nervous despite dwarfing the group of mortals who stood before him. Piccolo, the namekian, looked up at him with an impatient frown. Behind Piccolo stood seven young namekians only slightly smaller than him. All of them looked up at Yemma with respect, which the gigantic ogre appreciated. That was how mortals should act when talking to gods, not like the last member of the group.
Gohan, son of Goku, looked up at him with a neutral, almost absentminded expression. He appeared to be thinking about something else. While King Yemma was waiting for Gohan to speak, the great hall of the Judge of Souls was silent, except for the "whoosh" sounds emanating from the dead souls who waited for their turn at the entrance, the tiny echoes of their movements carrying throughout the hall. Eventually Yemma coughed, calling Gohan to attention.
"Oh, sorry," the half saiyan apologized, shaking his head and clearing his mind. He had been training this entire time, maintaining a tiny wisp of ki and moving it throughout his body in precise, serpentine movements using only the power of his will. In fact, he kept maintaining the mist serpent exercise while talking, a feat of concentration and discipline that took months to master. "We're here to submit a formal request. We want to appoint these young namekians as guardians of their respective planets, all the information is here in this scroll." He floated up, unrolled an large, ornate scroll prepared by Popo, gently placed it on Yemma's desk and floated back down to the floor.
"Ahem," Yemma coughed uncomfortably. "This is highly irregular." Still, he raised the scroll gingerly with a giant finger and brought it close to his eyes. Sighing, he opened an enormous drawer with his other hand, withdrew a pair of colossal reading glasses and put them on.
"I see," Yemma said after a few minutes of reading. "It appears these nine younglings were all tested and verified by Dende, the guardian of Earth."
Gohan nodded. "Yes, Dende tested them. Mister Popo told us he couldn't make them guardians himself, though, so we came to see you."
Yemma nodded. "That's right, only a guardian can appoint his successor, but the line of guardianship was broken on all other planets except Earth." This made Gohan frown, and Yemma cursed himself for talking too much. He should know better than to make this absurdly powerful mortal any angrier than he already seemed to be.
"Broken? How so?" Gohan asked.
"Err..." Yemma hesitated. "I don't know the exact circumstances, but I assume guardians were either defeated in battle or otherwise forced to leave their station." Unsurprisingly, this did not make Gohan any less angry.
"So you just left it that way? Why didn't you intervene?" Gohan asked, slightly raising his voice. His maintained wisp of ki flickered, almost vanishing.
"We must not intervene in the affairs of mortals," Yemma said diplomatically. "Mortals chose to either kill or depose their guardians, we are prevented by the ancient laws of the gods from appointing new ones." Sweat appeared on his forehead. It wasn't the entire truth, and the extremely honest ogre found it difficult to lie even by omission. It was forbidden, but the gods also didn't pay that much attention to guardians, and Yemma knew the gods' indifference is what made Gohan so angry in the first place. In fact, if Yemma was being completely honest with himself, he found it much easier not to be burdened by the affairs of too many guardians, giving him more time to devote to judging souls. Gohan's eyes seemed to pierce right through him, and Yemma swallowed nervously, anticipating the young mortal's angry response.
"Elder," one of the youngling namekians said suddenly, "is everything alright?" It was Piccolo's eldest offspring, Chell. He didn't have to talk out loud, being proficient with mental communication like all his brothers, but the young namekian was wise beyond his years, and tried to diffuse Gohan's rising anger by asking an innocent question.
Piccolo looked back at Chell, nodded and turned his head to look at Gohan. The half saiyan looked at his mentor and sighed. "Okay, what's done is done." Gohan's anger didn't fade, but he brought it under control. The attitude of the gods towards the suffering of mortals was infuriating, but taking it out on Yemma would be wrong.
Yemma nodded, visibly relieved. Suppressing an urge to wipe his brow, the titanic judge considered the scroll. "These are the seven major settled planets remaining in the north galaxy, except Earth." Taking out a batch of forms from another drawer, Yemma laid them out on the table. "Everything seems to be in order, but I will need to talk with each of these younglings myself before signing their forms." He turned his attention towards the young namekians. They all looked up at him respectfully, nodding. "We understand," Chell said after communicating with the rest silently.
Piccolo stepped forward now. "I also formally ask to be appointed the guardian of the entire galaxy, as a whole" he said. Yemma glanced at Gohan, who nodded.
"Hmm..." King Yemma considered this odd request. The position didn't exist, it never has. If Gohan wasn't here he'd laugh in Piccolo's face and banish the older namekian from his palace immediately, but experience taught him Gohan didn't appreciate this behavior. Whatever these two were planning, they were deadly serious about it.
"I'm afraid that's beyond my authority," Yemma said, "only King Kai can help you."
"Very well," Piccolo nodded as he stepped back, expecting an answer like this.
"We're going to see King Kai, then," Gohan said, rising into the air. "We'll pick up the children after we're done." Looking down at the namekians, he instinctively counted them to make sure they were all there. "They drink clean water," Gohan added, "preferably natural spring water, but they don't need anything else and they're very well behaved." The young namekians mentally sighed to each other. Despite being as tall as Gohan or taller at this point, and almost as powerful as Cell was in his imperfect form, Gohan still treated Piccolo's offspring like toddlers sometimes.
Auras flaring, Gohan and Piccolo took off towards King Kai's planet. "Just come and go as you please then, why don't you," King Yemma mumbled to himself in annoyance, "I'm only the judge of the dead, no one important."
King Yemma's palace, shortly afterwards
The interviews were over. The children were all great warriors from birth, all of them completely pure. This made Yemma worry, since it smacked of mental control. He repeatedly asked if the children were doing this of their own free will, and was appeased only when told that yes, it was very much their own choice, and Piccolo had two more offspring who didn't want to become guardians, choosing to forge their own path in life.
After everything was said and done, Yemma finally began to sign the forms. One by one he stamped them, the sound reverberating throughout his palace. One by one the young namekians began to radiate a subtle authority detectable by Yemma and his ogres, marking them as part of the hierarchy of heaven. Yemma read their names and assigned worlds as he stamped each form.
Chell, guardian of the Galactic Capital
Lugas, guardian of New Namek
Mull, guardian of Izra
Usca, guardian of Purnai
Linns, guardian of Hub
Cuttle, guardian of Teren
Balon, guardian of Yardrat
It was done. All the major settled planets of the galaxy had guardians again. Pure, young and exceedingly powerful. Despite himself, King Yemma looked at the new guardians and smiled. For some reason this entire process made him feel better, like some burden was lifted from him, bringing him back to the good old days of his apprenticeship. It was a simpler time, a time before King Cold and his spawn turned the galaxy into a bloodbath.
"You're going to do great, kids," Yemma smiled and spoke in his usual booming voice, now that Gohan wasn't present, "you're all going to do just great."
Omni King's palace, everywhere and nowhere
The Grand Priest smiled at the antics of the twin Zenos as they chased each around the palace columns. Still, for some time now something bothered him. Something was different. Taking his leave and letting the two overlords of creation play, he made his way towards one of the chambers of the palace. It was the divining room, where information from all the universes was displayed on colorful crystals in various shapes, all fixed to the walls of the chamber.
Moving between the shining displays, the Grand Priest eventually stopped at the section of crystals devoted to universes six and seven. The crystals, usually harmonious and quiet, were vibrating in an unusual manner.
"Hmm, most curious," he said to himself. After examining the crystals more thoroughly, he raised an eyebrow in surprise. The mortal level of universe seven was rising. Significantly so. There was a noticeable disparity now between the two linked universes.
"Most curious, indeed." How should he respond to this anomaly? His mind presented many ways of action, all of them eventually discarded with some inner turmoil, for the usual reasons. Sighing, he decided to alert his son and daughter and leave it at that. Whis and Vados must deal with this to the best of their ability, while he could only watch, and hope.
Author's Note: I'm back! I wasn't satisfied with the plot I had planned and decided to scrap it. Took me a while to come up with something that I really wanted to write. I admit the new Broly movie made me more interested in Dragon Ball again so that probably got the old inspiration machine going, but the movie itself isn't a part of my own story's "canon".
