Chapter 21: Phil in the Blank

Son Residence

"Mom!" Gohan exclaimed as he rushed into his home.

Gohan went to the kitchen where she was left but she wasn't there.

"Where are you!?"

Gohan searched every room in the small house but she was nowhere to be found.

'Where could she be?' Gohan thought before closing his eyes as he began to search for her ki signature. '...She's not in the area...' After a few moments of searching Gohan found her location. 'Capsule Corp? How did she get there?'

IDS Ba-Myu

"The commander is on deck!" Tuse, as Goku entered the command room with the jar of white ether in his hands and Chronoa and Piccolo in cuffs. "Everyone, stand at attention!"

"That's not necessary." Goku replied.

"At ease, men."

"Is everyone here?" Goku inquired.

"Yes. All the injured soldiers including Tuse and Quill have been recovered and are recovering in the med bay."

"Good. I see you're back to yourself."

"Celes' time ran out shortly before you arrived.

"Where is my son? My new one, not the other one."

"He's asleep in your quarters. A crib has been made for him."

"Good."

" Sire...what is that in your hand?"

"Not sure. These two knuckleheads had it with them."

"Goku. Could you quit the act and just open the jar already." Piccolo stated as he easily broke out of his cuffs.

"Aw fine. You're no fun, Piccolo."

"Yeah, Piccolo. You spoilsport." Chronoa added.

"What are you three talking about..." Isol inquired before realizing what was in the jar. "Men, don't let him open that jar!"

Isol's realization came too late as Goku opened the jar releasing about a quarter of its contents. The white ether quickly spread throughout the ship going into the mouths of each one of the Sankakukankei. Just like with Goku the black ether came flooding out of every hole on their bodies shooting up into the air before quickly dissipating. Everyone affected by the white ether dropped to the ground, unconscious. After about a minute everyone regained consciousness and slowly stood up including a now separated Isol and Celes. A look of confusion came across all of the now cured Sankakukankei.

"Isol..." Celes said to Isol.

"Celes..."

"What..." Celes began to ask before everyone at once regained their memories. "Oh no..."

"...Were we really like that?" Isol wondered even though he really knew the answer.

"Yes, I'm afraid." Chronoa replied.

"Supreme Kai of Time...I am..." Isol began to say. "No words can begin to describe how sorry I am."

"How sorry we all are." Celes added.

"No hard feelings." Chronoa replied. "You weren't in control of yourselves."

"But still..." Isol replied. "We brought this upon ourselves...because of our arrogance..."

Every one of the former Sankakukankei's faces was filled with regret and remorse.

"Please don't beat yourselves up over this. I was just as complicit. I could have stopped your experiments. I should have. If anyone should face consequences for their actions it should be me."

"I think you're being pretty harsh on yourself too." Piccolo replied.

"I never finished telling you why I've been defying my superiors...I..."

"Whatever the reason I'm sure your intentions were right." Goku assured her as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Chronoa felt a sudden jolt go through her body as Goku touched as if she were in the presence of someone familiar. A single tear fell down the right side of her face.

"Goku's right." Piccolo added as he placed his on her other shoulder. "I know there's no way you would have let this happen if you didn't think you doing something good."

"...Thank you." Chronoa replied, comforted by Goku and Piccolo's words.

"Isol, could you go and release Krillin and Vegeta?" Goku inquired.

"Yes, Si...Yes."

Isol along with Celes went to Krillin and Vegeta's respective cells and brought them out to the command room. Each was battered to near unrecognizable conditions. Krillin was passed out completely but Vegeta was still barely conscious. Hanging on by just a thread.

"Kakarot..." Vegeta muttered as he tried to form a ki blast only for it to peter out as he fell into unconsciousness.

"Everyone step back." Chronoa commanded. "I can heal them."

Chronoa placed a hand over the two fallen Z-Warriors and after roughly a minute the two were fully healed.

After remaining unconscious for a few moments Vegeta and Krillin slowly began to stir.

"Hey, buddy." Goku said to Krillin as he helped Krillin to his feet.

Piccolo attempted to help Vegeta up but his hand was slapped away as Vegeta exclaimed. "I don't need your help."

"Goku..." Krillin stated. "Why did you...Why..."

"I'm sorry, Krillin. I wasn't..."

"It wasn't him." Piccolo interrupted.

"Well, it sure looked like him to me!" Vegeta exclaimed as he began forming a sizeable ki blast in his right hand."

"He wasn't in control of himself." Chronoa replied.

"And who are you!?"

"I'm Ch..."

"She's the Supreme Kai of Time and you best show her respect Vegeta!" Piccolo exclaimed.

"Now listen here, green man!"

"Vegeta settle down." Krillin replied. "If they say Goku wasn't in control of himself then I believe it."

"...Fine." Vegeta replied as he let his ki blast fade away. "But you..." Vegeta continued as he locked eyes with Isol. "No one tortures the prince of all Saiyans and gets away with it!" Vegeta approached Isol with a clenched fist. Vegeta pulled his arm back and attempted to punch Isol with full force but his arm was stopped just before touching his face. "Let go of my arm, Kakarot!"

"No, Vegeta. They were all in the same situation as me. I know how badly you want payback but it's not worth it."

"Kakarot, I have respect for you so that's why I was willing to let your actions go even if you were under the control of some evil force but I don't share that level of respect for him!"

"Vegeta...please."

Vegeta's bitter anger deafened Goku's words and Vegeta was close to breaking through Goku's grip and releasing his punch on Isol but Vegeta noticed something that caused him to pause. Isol hadn't tried to move away or put up any sort of defense and then he noticed the expression on his face. It was a face filled with regret. The face of a man who was ready to die right then and there to atone for his actions.

"...Damn it all." Vegeta sighed as he unclenched his fist.

"Atta boy." Goku teased.

"Stuff it, Kakarot!"

"Damn it we're all it going to space prison!" A loud voice suddenly exclaimed from outside the command room.

"Not so loud...I have a headache." Quil said to Tuse as he and Tuse entered the command room.

"I'm telling you, man, we're so screwed. We..."

"Relax you two you're not going to space prison." Chronoa replied.

"But what is going to happen to us?" Isol inquired.

"I need some time to figure that out, but in the meantime, we need to cure the rest of the SKK."

"...Goku, where's the jar?" Piccolo inquired, noticing the jar was no longer in his hands.

"I put it down right...here." Goku had sat the jar on a nearby control panel but when he went to pick it up... "Uh, the jars not there."

"What do you mean it's not there."

"Okay, everyone, look around it couldn't have gotten far."

"You are definitely back to normal." Piccolo stated with a facepalm.

"Has anyone seen, Phil?" Celes inquired.

West City – Capsule Corp

Gohan rushed into the empty lobby of Capsule Corp and headed to where he felt his mothers presence. 'Bulma's lab...' Gohan ran to Bulma's lab but it was completely empty. Gohan closed his eyes and began to feel for his mom's ki. '...She's...underground?' Gohan looked around for any sort of stairwell but found nothing. 'It has to be hidden. But where would Bulma...Of course!' Gohan noticed a framed and wall mounted picture of Mr. Satan. 'Bulma would never keep something like this here unless it was to hide something.' Gohan took the picture off the wall to reveal a small red button. Gohan pressed the button which caused a small section in the center of the floor to open up revealing a stairwell. Gohan quickly made his way down the stairwell and after about 20 flights of stairs Gohan came to a large metal door and proceeded to knock on it.

"Oh no have they found us!?" A voice exclaimed from the other side of the door.

"It's..." Gohan began to say.

"Gohan!" A very familiar voice rang out.

Gohan looked up and saw a security camera pointed him.

"What are you waiting for? Let him in!" Another familiar voice exclaimed.

The metal door slowly opened and Gohan walked in to see his mother alongside Bulma, with Trunks in her arms, and a battered and bruised 18, as well as several thousand citizens of West City in a surprisingly large underground bunker. That seemed to be at least half the size of West City.

"Gohan!" Chi-Chi exclaimed as she ran up and embraced her son.

"Hey, mom." Gohan replied as his mother's arms wrapped around him. "Are you okay?"

"I should be asking you that."

"Chi-Chi, you really shouldn't move around too much after giving birth." Bulma suggested. "Especially the way you did it..."

"It's my baby boy I'd walk a hundred miles after getting into a head-on collision if it meant seeing him."

"I understand." Bulma replied as she'd do the same for Trunks.

"I'm fine, mom. Bulma, what is this place?"

"I started building it after Cell's tournament. In case any more threats came I wanted there to be a safe place for civilians to hide. I wish I could have gotten more people in..."

"You still helped a lot." Gohan replied. "Even if you had just saved one person that would have been one less life lost."

"Thanks, Gohan."

"Listen, Mom, about what happened. About dad..."

"That wasn't really your father right...The man who took you...who took your brother. It was just someone who looked like him right?"

"It's not quite like that, mom. It's a little more complicated than that. You see.."

Gohan cut his explanation short as he began to feel several power levels fluctuate including his fathers.

"Somethings not right. Listen, mom, I'll explain everything later. Just know that I'm fine, my brother's fine, and dad's fine. Everything's going to be alright now."

"Be careful." Chi-Chi replied.

"I will."

IDS Ba-Myu

Right as Celes asked the question an intense and mocking laughter came from near the entrance of the ship.

Goku, Piccolo, Chronoa, Vegeta, Krillin, Isol, Celes, Tuse, and Quil ran to investigate while Isol told the rest to stay behind. When the nine of them got to the ship's main entrance they saw Phil holding the jar of white ether.

"Phil? What's going on?" Celes inquired.

"Did the white ether not get to you?" Chronoa also asked.

"Oh no, it did." Phil replied. "I just decided I liked being evil."

"Okay Phil, now's not the time for jokes." Goku replied. "Just give us back the jar so we can cure everyone else."

"No! I'm tired of being told what to do! Phil do this! Phil do that! Phil, pretend to get your neck broken so I can freak out my son! I'm taking charge now. I'm going to destroy the last focal point and free the rest of the Sankakukankei!"

"Phil, you dick! Give us back the jar.!" Tuse exclaimed.

"No." Phil replied.

"Then we'll just have to take it from you." Vegeta stated

"I don't think so." Phil replied as Vegeta tried to take a step forward. "One more step and the jar goes bye bye."

A shit eating grin came over Phil's face as he opened the entrance and took off.

"So we're going after him right?" Krillin inquired.

"Of course." Goku replied.

Phil managed to get a few miles away from the ship before Goku, Piccolo, Chronoa, Vegeta, Krillin, Isol, Celes, Tuse and Quil caught up with him. Everyone tried to get the jar away from him but a surprisingly agile Phil was able to avoid all their attempts.

"Hahaha! No one can stop me n..." Phil began to brag before he was cut off by Gohan who laid into the side of his face with a stiff punch causing him to drop the jar which was quickly recovered by Krillin.

"Got it!" Krillin exclaimed.

"Ah damn it! You haven't heard the last of Phil!" Phil exclaimed as he took off towards the atmosphere.

"Can I at least kill him!?" Vegeta exclaimed to no one's objection. "Thank you!"

Vegeta put his hands together and formed his "Final Shine!" attack.

"That's right I'll get my revenge on those bastards just wait and see...OH SHI..." Phil said to himself before being engulfed by Vegeta's Final Shine.

"Now let's go cure your stupid comrades." Vegeta declared with a satisfied look on his face.

Narrator

With the final true threat, Phil, taken care of, Goku, Gohan, and the rest look to cure the rest of the Sankakukankei. And what will be their ultimate fate? Find out next time on Strained Bond: A Hero's Fall to Darkness!

A/N

I hope you enjoyed chapter twenty one. That despicable Phil! How could he!? I forgot to mention in the notes for the previous chapter that I went back and retconned Goku taking Chi-Chi to him just leaving her on the floor. So, in case anyone was wondering why Chi-Chi wasn't on the ship that's why. Please let me know you're thoughts and as always, have a great day ~TheUltimateMystic.