Strength of Many

by Cerric

A fateful bump to a certain Saiyan's head never occurs. Without Goku, the humans must face the never-ending array of evil threatening the Earth with nothing more than their wits and will. To protect their planet they'll fulfill old legends, create new ones, and change the universe forever... (Starts in DB, now in DBZ!) Major AU. Cover art by Mitsukikii (chars) & Maxiuchiha22 (bg)

105. Cascade

TORA

Chapter 105: Cascade

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A calm settled and floated through a pool of thickened, swirling muck. That's what his head felt like, anyway — best he could feel it. He was tired, and twisting his arms and legs. He was on the ground, writhing like a worm. Get up. His mind willed him. Don't be a worm. Get up.

Bardock's eyes opened. A dull low pain spread from his skull through his body as he sat up, was defined as he rubbed his hands together to kickstart his sense of the world.

'Damn it… I really need to stop slipping in and out…' The forest he woke in was as peaceful and untouched as he could hope for while rousing from unconsciousness — so he was certain this wasn't where he had passed out. Raditz nowhere in sight… ugh.

Bardock realized just how exhausted he was as he finally rose to his feet. There was barely anything left in the tank. He hadn't checked out for too long — though the sun was past its daily crest, and quickly heading towards the horizon.

He couldn't even remember what the plan was. He'd struggled on, had Kakarot… Kakarot. Where is Kakarot? He lurched forward. Where is Raditz?

0o0o0

'One. Hit.'

Launch's bold declaration echoed through the air among them, flitting freely through the calm afternoon day. In rapid succession Piccolo, Tien, Rayne, and Krillin each made a passing face, ranging from amusement to skepticism to blunt frustration. Piccolo embodied the latter. 'Launch…' he growled.

'Launch, there's no need for theatrics.' Tien said under his breath — but loud enough to be heard.

'He's already missing half an arm,' Launch replied, taking a deep breath. When she exhaled, red tinged her breath. 'I'll make it half a body.'

'That's not the issue,' Piccolo growled. 'Gero's, he's—'

'CHARLATAN!' Gero exclaimed, pointing his good right arm towards his goader. His mind was whirring. Surrounded, yes, but not trapped. Need to make a scene. Need to get away, escape.

'He's unstable,' Piccolo continued, eyes swinging towards their enemy, 'and now he knows you're going to attack him.'

Launch snorted. 'What else were we going to do with him? A talk-down?'

'He's cornered, desperate,' Krillin joined in, his guard not falling for an instant. He wasn't going to be caught off-guard again. 'He might do something rash. Something—'

'Let me put this all to rest,' Launch said, floating more towards the center of them. Red energy still shimmered with her visage — now it started flowing and sparking, running down her like streams of water unblocked and unfocused. The air around her started to cloud, as a red haze surrounded her with every successive breath. Slowly, surely, they saw power being brought kicking and screaming to the surface.

'I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY — TRY ANYTHING!' Gero roared, eyes darting left and right. Despite an effort of concealment even he knew looking out that he must have looked pitiful and scared. His damaged left hand was held protectively behind him, as if he was ashamed to show the failing of his work to another living soul. He was in truth incredibly vulnerable — and running out of time to run.

His eyes tracked to the left — but in the same instant Piccolo appeared in his field of vision. 'No.' He said. 'You aren't getting away.' Gero's vision tracked right, then down, and then up again — and each time it was blocked by one of his opponents, hovering with menace. Gero slowly floated backwards, feeling the noose tightening. At last he turned again to his initial challenger. 'I DARE YOU TO APPROACH! MY DESIGN—'

With a single thunderous clap, sound was brushed away. In the air above them all Launch held her two palms skyward, each one sparking with red energy. Fake bravado shattered and floated away as Gero gazed upward, jaw unhinged, terrified.

'Just wait a second,' Launch said, dragging her energy down and holding a band of red in front of her. 'I'll approach!'

With a single spin, she dove, two hands leading in front of her as her power left a comet's tail in the air behind her. Gero could only watch as she closed the gap with incredible speed, understood nothing, had no time to think, instinct making his eyes jump between the other fighters surrounding him. On instinct as he raised his right arm, then his damaged left. No!

They touched in an instant. Launch's right palm, flashing with red, met Gero's right hand, bending but not breaking the limb. A sudden surge of power ran through Gero, filling his consciousness with the greatest sensation of power mania. She fell for it! He started twisting, preparing to thrust his other hand into her gut with surgical speed —

Her other hand was swinging around, hidden behind her body and whipped around with so much force as to catch Gero completely unprepared. Desperate, flailing, he met her strike with his left arm — and as her strike began sawing through first his left hand, then his limb straight towards his crucial torso and core, the mania and confidence turned to ashes in his mouth, as did any folly of belief that he could control the surge of power flowing into his right arm at the same time. Too much, too concentrated, and too red and full of life. It snaked through his body, set into his metal frame and surging wires and stuck to the walls of his faux-veins, until all was red and sick and wrong. He felt it then. He needed to purge. For an instant he realized what was about to happen, and shot clipped pink eye beams while almost blinded from the approaching calamity.

A moment of relief, and no more. Energy exploded out from every crack in his body. Inferno.

0o0o0

In the wake of the hit energy whipped and buffeted them as the air seemed to catch fire and rage outward. Wild bands of ki lashed against the surrounding landscape, stripping hills of dirt and rock. It couldn't have lasted too long, no more than half a minute — but it felt like an eternity.

Rayne had been pushed the farthest back by the blast. As soon as she found the pressure pushing against her lighten, she sped forward back to the blast area. The others had already gathered, looking as angry as her.

'Are you insane!?' Krillin shouted. 'You nearly blew up this entire mountain range! And I had to use half of my energy to stop myself from going along with it!'

Launch slowly rose — heavily injured. Her right arm was limp and heavily bloodied, dangling badly in the wind. 'Yeah. I overdid it.' She turned, frowning. 'I'm…' She trailed off, not knowing what to say.

'What happened to Gero?' Piccolo growled, eyes narrowing. 'Did you kill him?'

'If not, he's close.' She gazed at the land below — churned, turned over, like someone had shook the Earth. 'Whatever's left of him down there is… ouch.' She said belatedly while cringing, like she had forgotten to feel any pain up until that moment.

'She needs a senzu,' Tien said, turning his attention towards the ground in the same measure.

Rayne nodded and went for her belt. Her first grasp came back empty. 'Uh?' Second grasp got the same. 'Shit!' She hurriedly patted her obi's pockets around her waistline.

Krillin alone had watched her with growing concern. 'The bag is missing?'

'It must have come off during the explosion,' Rayne muttered, then cursed. 'Damn it! If I was only more prepared…'

It's my fault, Launch thought to herself, groaning as she tried to flex her damaged arm. But if Gero survived that, he's near death, she rationalized, if I'm anything to go by.

Unseen by her, Tien remained at an arm's length, waiting for Launch to defend herself. The others were looking at her as if she was to blame — she is to blame, Tien reminded himself. But she continued to say nothing, do nothing, except stare down at the ground. He suppressed a grunt of frustration.

'Gero must be severely damaged at a minimum,' Tien said, breaking the silence and moving the others' attention off of Launch. 'But there's too much detritus and debris to confirm that from here,' he went on, squinting at the upturned land below.

They spent several moments hovering in the air, all examining the ground from their higher vantage, all doing their best to ignore what they felt in the distance — but remaining in the air to fly at a moment's notice. Traveler's ki loomed in their consciousness, and felt wilder than it had earlier.

'I'm reliving some bad memories,' Krillin spoke up, 'of that day in the desert, and Traveler's ki getting more erratic as he fought the Saiyans. It's going the same way now, but worse.'

'I haven't seen or heard any explosions in the last few minutes that could have been caused by Raditz,' Rayne said. 'Why's his ki still so heightened? Changed… looser, less controlled.'

Piccolo, in the deep and unlit part of himself, thought he understood what they were describing. That sense of falling into a pool of power so deep you could drown in it. He'd felt the temptation when Slug had offered him that accursed submission — and no good came of thinking of it. No good could come from Traveler's ki feeling like this.

'We need to split up,' Piccolo decided, 'even though we shouldn't, but the situation requires it. We need to confirm Gero's status and find the senzus if possible, and we need to figure out what's going on with Traveler.'

'Piccolo and I have dealt the most with Traveler,' Tien explained. 'Or at least, he might feel beholden to us more than the others, considering he pledged his help at the Lookout. If he's losing his grip, maybe we can help him regain it. We should go.'

'You'll need help,' Launch said, uncharacteristically meek. Despite her exhausted physical state it was obvious she was filtering through several thoughts in her head. 'I'll come—'

'No,' Tien said it shortly, simply, and firmly enough to stop Launch's entire movement towards him. He kept her gaze. 'No,' he said, dismissing her. Some surprise flitted through her face. 'You're too weak to fight as you are now.'

A long second dragged before Launch sighed. 'I'll stay here, in the sky, and keep a lookout.'

'Then I guess Krillin and I will stay here and descend to find Gero,' Rayne said. 'Works for me. We'll do our best to find the senzus, too.'

'If you're in trouble at all, flare your ki,' Piccolo said. 'We're close to the end of this chaos. So we're not going to lose anyone now.'

Krillin nodded. 'Understood.'

The rest of their parting they exchange nonverbally — Piccolo followed by Tien sped off, leaving the three of them there. He sent a final stern glance at Launch before powering up and leaving. She waited in the air, watching, as distracted as Krillin had ever seen her.

A hand interlocked with his. 'Come on,' Rayne urged. 'She'll be alright on her own up here. The faster we find Gero's body, the faster we can help the others. Let's do this.'

'Mm.'

0o0o0

With a drawn face, Launch watched Piccolo and Tien recede towards the horizon, then looked over her shoulder and saw Krillin and Launch land on the broken ground far below. She watched them split slightly. Hm. Her body was aching, creaking, and in agony. With a slow push of what remaining energy she had, she started floating through the air after Piccolo and Tien. Her tired eyes saw the growing storm — another ripple of ki streak out and line the horizon like lights.

0o0o0

Wind seized and thrashed the land, bending wood and flailing rocks into the golden maelstrom. The ground itself crunched and disintegrated as Traveler stepped forward, his body pulsing with unrestrained energy. Ki flickered and spun wildly, without control. Yamcha held his breath, willing every ounce of energy forward.

Traveler was unmoored, drifting just as much as his body inexplicably moving forward. Rage and raw hurt carved into his face. Yamcha had no idea what to do.

'Why, why, why…' Traveler muttered, lips pressing together. Bloodshot eyes roamed over Raditz's unmoving body. Dead, dead, dead, all my plans, they're…

'It's always you, Yamcha,' Traveler snapped, snarling, a plume of golden ki shooting out from his aura, scoring the ground like a wild arc of electricity. 'You never treated me like the others… you always made sure I knew I was different!'

Near them, but otherwise feeling like a million miles away, Chi-Chi looked on, using all her energy just to keep upright. She tried to yell through the waves of energy, but couldn't even hear herself.

Yamcha looked away, unable to face the suffering unraveling in front of him. 'Traveler… please…'

'YOU KILLED RADITZ!' Traveler roared suddenly, his voice flattening the ground. 'I NEEDED HIM! MY FUTURE NEEDED HIM!'

Without warning Traveler jumped forward, right elbow cocked back to strike. Billowing energy coiled and swung down — and was caught by Yamcha just barely, his entire body burning with the red glare of the Kaioken.

'S— stop!' Yamcha gasped, feeling a muscle tear in his chest. He had never taken the Kaioken to this height, this burning intensity. 'You don't know what you're doing! I'm not the Yamcha you knew!'

'YOU'LL BECOME HIM!' Traveler's other arm swung around, back-handing Yamcha across the head and ricochetting his body across the ground. He gasped as his hand returned to him, a sound of pure, choking emotional agony. His fist clutched his chest. It hurts, it hurts! I can't keep doing this! Traveler's thoughts kept coming, couldn't stop. I can't go to another future! Not again! Please, please!—

Rapid head swarmed Traveler's back, and spinning, he caught a fist against his cheek, sending him back a few feet. Wrenching his vision back up, he saw Chi-Chi's hand extended, red flame cloaking her entire body.

'You're out of control,' Chi-Chi said quickly. 'Stop before you do something you regret.'

Rage and shame pumped through Traveler's veins in equal measure, clenching and unclenching his arms like great vises. 'What's another regret?' Traveler said bitterly. 'I already have enough for ten lifetimes!'

'In my lifetime, you should have none,' Chi-Chi said carefully, not dropping her guard. 'Open your eyes. Raditz is dead. Gero too, most likely. We are not your enemies!'

'No! You shouldn't be!' Traveler roared, agony cutting into the bottom of his voice again. 'But that monster worked his way into your heads, turned you against me! Because of me… because I can't help who I am!'

Veins bulged on Traveler's neck. He could barely hear anything beside the thrumming beat of his swelling heart. He felt like he was going to explode. His energy acted like it, swirling all around him, like energy pulsing out from the center of a star. Get too close, get too close…

'It's… not your fault!'

The cry snapped Traveler out of another lapse from reality. He stared at Chi-Chi.

'It's not your fault,' she repeated, more carefully, dropping her guard. 'It's not your fault… you're half-Saiyan. But you're half-human, too.' She tried a word on her lips, felt like she couldn't say it, but then said it anyway. 'Gohan. It's not your fault.'

Floating in the air held each other at a distance, each afraid of coming closer for entirely different reasons. Chi-Chi made the first motion forward. 'You're not a monster, even if you feel that — it isn't true.' She slowly placed a hand on her chest. 'I don't think that's true.'

The energy cycling furiously around Traveler didn't cease — but she saw a face hearing what she was saying peering through the storm. 'It's all so broken… I'm so broken,' he said, anguish held close to his voice. 'And I've broken things here.' He closed his eyes and shook his face and hid from her with his hand, fingers pressing grooves into his burn scar running along his forehead. 'As I always do. There's never changing the past. Just changing it for others.' He looked at her through his fingers. 'I won't get forgiveness.'

'I'll give it,' Chi-Chi said, disarmingly honest. 'I promise. All you need to do is calm down.'

'You should listen to her. Lower your energy and surrender.'

Chi-Chi bit back a curse. Damnit. Not now...

From a higher angle, Piccolo and Tien descended through the air, coming to a stop to Traveler's right and Chi-Chi's left. No warmth showed on their faces.

Traveler smirked, and Chi-Chi felt whatever she was talking to draw away. 'Surrender? And why would I do that?'

'You're out of control,' Tien stated flatly. 'Can't you feel your own energy?'

'But you can stop this!' Chi-Chi shouted, trying to draw his attention again. 'You alone. We don't want to kill you. We want to help you as best we can.'

A snarl spat from Traveler's lips and spread across his face, his features lighted bright by his pulsing, erratic golden ki. 'You don't understand. I was never supposed to matter to you! I led you to Gero! I honored our agreement!'

'And abandoned us to fight a mess you created?' Piccolo growled back.

'YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT ME!' Traveler roared, energy splitting and sparking apart. Energy darted dangerously through the air, pushing them all back, down, as Traveler simultaneously rose upwards. 'Don't you understand? I'm a shadow to you, nothing more! I pass in and out of your timeline, alone, as I want! What I do here won't matter to me…' Energy collected in Traveler's right palm, blinding yellow as he raised it above his head, near-bursting with overwhelming power. 'And what I did here won't matter to you once I'm gone!'

Piccolo couldn't help himself. So much anger, confusion, and desire for a straight answer. At every junction Traveler built his ziggurat higher, trying to put more and more distance between them. 'Just answer!' Piccolo yelled, amplifying his voice with his ki. 'Why? Why do all this? Mislead us, trick us, desert us?'

'Why save Raditz at all!?' Tien yelled, letting his earlier anger feed into his voice. 'Why let Gero experiment on him, turn him into an Android?'

Traveler's head swung and hinged, an alarming lack of control for someone holding so much raw destruction inside them. 'You don't get it… None of you get it,' he said almost sadly, then regained his aggression. 'Most important of all… you were never supposed to care for a Saiyan. Raditz. You all disgust me.'

'Please, Traveler…' Chi-Chi's pleading made Traveler flinch. 'No one wants to fight you. No one wants to hurt you. We just want to understand.'

Piccolo kept Tien's gaze, both saying nothing, waiting.

'Please.' Chi-Chi began creeping forward again, seeing something in Traveler's exterior start to crack. 'I believe you now. Yamcha and I, Suno and Retu — were were deceived by him, Rush—'

'Rush?' Traveler repeated almost instantaneously. 'Who is?— Rush.' Traveler laughed, neck stretching, veins and muscles folding and wrapping around each other, sickly sound being forced through his throat and out his mouth like water wrung from a worn cloth. 'Him. Of course, of course.' Traveler appraised them all. 'He's gotten to all of you, hasn't he? I see now. Showing you all his true nature wasn't enough — you still believe him, even now.'

'He's not as he seemed,' Chi-Chi reasoned, 'but I know he's protected me—'

'Rush?' Tien asked of Chi-Chi, incredulous. 'You're holding water for him? After everything?'

Chi-Chi met his gaze with anger. 'I don't trust him! But he was more honest with me than Traveler. But—' She sucked in a breath, hating the circumstances of this. 'Rush wants Raditz! I'm sure of it! And if he is what I think, he might be an ally against—'

'Don't be crazy!' Piccolo yelled, swiping away that thought with a cutting motion of his hand. 'Rush tried to kill Krillin and Rayne! He's our enemy!'

That fact registered on Chi-Chi's face as she turned, eyes widening. 'Rush, he?...'

'ENOUGH!' Traveler's voice sawed through them. With a quick jerk, Traveler extended a hand over his head, drawing golden ki into a compressed yellow ball. 'You have five seconds to leave and clear the way to the Saiyan's body, before I clear it for you! Four! Three!'

Even as Traveler counted, energy whirled and snapped in every direction around the golden warrior, streaking and cutting across a nearby hill, sawing into the ground and cutting it in two. With every second his control was disintegrating. Chi-Chi froze, overwhelmed by so much energy so quickly. 'Gohan?...'

Tien! Piccolo glanced over.

Tien's hands rapidly shifted and formed into a triangle. I know!

'TWO!' Traveler screamed. 'ONEEEEE!'

With a mighty twist and heave, a small ball of rapidly condensed yellow ki sprinted towards the valley's beaten ground, the energy contained within whining mercilessly as it leaked pure force into the surrounding air. In an instant, Tien appeared below its trajectory, halfway between it and the ground, red aura surging and rushing forward to meet the incoming attack. 'TRI-BEAM, HAH!'

A massive shape of yellow ki blasted out, slamming face-to-face with Traveler's attack — and even such a small ball fought even with Tien's onslaught of energy, a mosquito holding back a charging elephant.

The air buzzed behind Tien as Piccolo shifted into place farther up and braced. 'Hyaaa!' A parallel blast launched from Piccolo's hands, blaring light shooting forward and hitting the deadlock from the side, shoving Traveler's attack back, first slowly, then all at once towards the sky. Traveler's shimmering, twisted features shifted and disappeared entirely as he vanished from the reflected energy's path. All three curved and hurtled into the air, rising rapidly for mere seconds before the combined energy combusted.

A golden, yellow of a wide spectrum band erupted quietly in the sky, far enough and aimed correctly to produce nothing of any wind back towards the ground. For half a minute, the sun itself was hidden by the gash of power holding and fading across the sky. All the while Tien and Piccolo remained below, panting, staring.

Piccolo eventually swallowed, now breathing fast, adrenaline linked to realization pumping through his body. 'He's lost it!' he said, panicking. 'That blast would have destroyed everything for a hundred miles!'

Tien's arms dropped into a guard. 'He's… moving away. Can't you sense that? Where's he going?'

'I don't know.' Piccolo glanced to the ground in a mindless motion, and nearly choked. 'Raditz's body — it's gone!'

0o0o0

Air cut into Traveler's scarred face as he sped through the air, right arm holding the dead android's corpse tight against him like a vise. If I act quick enough, it won't be for nothing. Cellular degradation will be delayed — energy is still running through most of his flesh even now, sustaining them even if most of the brain is dead. These were Saiyan cells after all — they would last. They had to.

His energy uncontrollably surged, as a pulse of heat and pain struck Traveler's vision. 'Huh?...' He sucked in breath as vague images surged past his field of view. Old faces, older feelings. Mom… Yamcha, Suno…

Another surge hit him — but this time, took his chest. Something like death stabbed straight through his ribs, causing his heart to beat so hard against his chest, making him think he was about to explode. His flight slowed and listed to one side, until another pulse made him gag and dropped him from the sky. He fell to the ground clumsily and pathetically, barely landing on anything besides his face and torso. To his sides his arms twitched and writhed in sudden, unnatural, excruciating pain. What!? What's going?!...

He rolled onto his side, vision jumping between unreal visions and his target, his prized Saiyan-Android hybrid rolled and positioned like a pile of debris several feet from him — sparking. Glowing. Current after current of visible yellow-white electric rolled across Raditz's darkening skin, causing muscles to twist and joints to flex. Like a puppet made to move, the Saiyan began to rise, first rolling over, stop-start getting to his hands and knees, and finally standing with every part shaking or moving with an unwilled force. The head rose — one eye dead. The mechanical one glowed such a dark red.

A golden aura suddenly erupted around Traveler, pushing aside the pain. Current… his body shocked me. That's all. I'm in control. Traveler's right arm shook as he lifted it, but he was aiming for a nearly motionless target.

With one fluid step Traveler moved and slammed his fist into Raditz's head, crumpling the lower third of his face and slamming the Android back to the ground. Dirt kicked away violently as the current dissipated, red eye flickering on-off lifelessly. And yet a hand of Raditz's continued to twitch.

Traveler could spare a second of attention before a surge of pain took the right half of his body, forcing him to his knees. This… I can take my body further. Fury filled his mind. What is this!?

He swung his head side-to-side — he saw more visions, pictures, feelings. A weight wrapped itself around his guts, pulling him down, down, down into a pit he thought that didn't exist anymore. A depth that had been killed, or sectioned like a surgeon cutting away rotting tissue. No… No! This isn't my time… The condemnation rose heavy in his subconscious, making everything taste and smell and seem like rust. I'm not abandoning them! They were never my responsibility! Traveler reached forward, his left hand feeling like it was stretching away from him as he took a lurch towards Raditz.

A triangle of energy screamed down and slammed Traveler, casting his outline with blinding light, and leaving behind a triangle-shaped crevasse in the ground. The earth shook as it absorbed the full kinetic force of the attack.

'He nearly got away,' Tien muttered, breathing heavily above. Piccolo appeared at his side an instant later. It had taken a fair amount of energy to get here this quickly and use yet another large chunk of his ki to pin Traveler. 'But he stopped… why did he stop?'

'He's lost it,' Piccolo repeated what he had said earlier, but finding something new in those words, something he could latch on to. 'Or losing it. His grip on his power, or reality, or both. Which means we have a fighting chance of stopping him.'

Aura suddenly roared out of the crevasse, filling the air with golden light — but it was slipshot, intermittent, a stuttering flow instead of a mighty river. This was different.

'I think you're right,' Tien finally admitted, unbelieving he could now believe the idea of him winning a fight against who had seemed to be a god just a few minutes ago.

Traveler's attention fractured; even as he appraised those who dared to attack him again, his focus shifted towards Raditz — and saw her again. Chi-Chi staring at him, dragging away his prize — his goal! He wouldn't be denied! He couldn't! NOT NOW!

Energy zipped through the air — Piccolo and Tien swung down and past Chi-Chi, each approaching Traveler from a different side. Leading limbs shot forward with battlecries, and the three met blow-to-blow, a rapid exchange of hits, blocks, and dodges, before Traveler spun away and sped into the air, Piccolo and Tien in hot pursuit.

0o0o0

In a far away place the future was being decided for a world Gero would not see. Would never see, if he could obtain one last speck of power.

Please…. A little further…

He crawled on broken arms and half-remaining legs, limbs so torn from damage and wear that wires trailed on the ground underneath and behind him, copper and plastic wearing and spiraling apart with every further drag. He was more a torso than a person, his faux skin hanging off of his metal body in places like draped curtains, no longer able to conceal the horror of what he was underneath. He had chosen to give himself a truly horrifying death, he realized. When a real flesh-and-blood person died, the body liked to conceal that fact. Processing and thinking slowed. Pain receded. You felt like you were floating, becoming even as you were unbecoming — Gero had felt all of that, when that heart attack had nearly ended him. But a mechanical body? As long as what served as your brain was intact — and Gero's brain remained within his head, as far as he could tell — he could sense everything. The parts of him falling apart. The functions simply dropping out of him, so quickly, as if they had never even been a part of him. He was fake — a ghost, just remembering what he had been able to do.

He reached a slight rise in the broken ground. His sensors — no, nothing. He couldn't sense anything. He only knew what laid beyond the rise. He could only trust his eyes.

Going over would split him. He could feel it, in his gut — he would literally come apart.

Gero hooked his right arm over and pulled. He snapped in half like a piece of cheap wood, and left his legs behind him as his torso and mostly intact right arm rolled over the rise, down, down, uncontrollably, until he hit and stopped at something new. Something warm. Gero turned and looked, and found that his face could still smile.

Before him the desiccated body of Rush laid, his skin so pallid and hollow that it revealed the metal skelecature running through the core of his body and limbs. Rush was barely anything at all, besides a breathing entity, just strong enough to continue rising and lowering his chest.

Eyes made small and shallow, even drained of all their color, leaving behind only gray — slowly shook towards Gero — eyes Gero knew by now.

'My creation…' Gero said, finding some strength he thought had deserted him in his voice. 'I will ask of you one final thing. Grant me the power to destroy this retched planet.' Gero's hands fumbled at his waist, patting and shaking across his tattered clothing. 'I am sick of this existence — and disgusted by those who thought they could best me with finality. So I will wipe my hands clean of all of it.'

Rush's near-dead eyes simply watched, passive, waiting for whatever might happen.

'Ah.' Gero's right two fingers produced a vibrantly green senzu from a torn pocket on his right side. Slowly, Gero placed his left hand on Rush, his cold diode in the center of his palm digging into Rush's neck. 'Go…' Gero placed the senzu in Rush's mouth, and then slowly helped him by holding his jaw to chew and swallow. 'Eat. Give me a final boon.'

It was painful, silent agony, taking far longer than any previous theft of Rush's energy due to both of their conditions. Gero felt an electro-mechanical shudder take him — his energy nearly running dry.

Rush swallowed. 'Good,' Gero said. 'Now…'

They remained motionless for several seconds, Gero propped above Rush, right hand wrung around his neck, his half-destroyed left arm simply used to prop himself up. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Until they both understood what had happened.

With a simple shake from Rush, Gero slid off, hands losing any strength, and fell onto his side, his fingers still flexing and grasping. Cold mechanical eyes watched Rush rise, watching the flesh fill his outline, seeing his strength slowly returning to him.

'Hah. Hah, hah.' Gero closed his eyes, laughing quietly, contained, peacefully. 'I am truly dead. My hands are of no more use to me…'

It came to Rush in waves — the realization, and the wonder. Within a few seconds he was standing, awed by his body's recovery… and slowly turning an expecting eye on Gero. Without saying a word Rush knelt and produced a second senzu after a few seconds of patting around Gero's midsection. The second wave of energy, power, might invigorated Rush, tapping his power against the very limits of his control. He looked over his healed hands and felt his newly fleshy neck, saw the unblemished skin underneath his otherwise tattered gi.

'I still don't understand why your eyes are blue,' Gero said, almost wistful, and otherworldly, as if he had already passed. 'Saiyan cells comprise so much of you, Tora. Ah… but I never did understand genetics as well as I should have. Not enough time.'

Rush felt the energies afar — and realized he was in no hurry at all. In fact — it was to his advantage to wait. 'Poor, poor Dr. Gero,' he said finally, having determined he could have this conversation now, one which he'd waited his entire life to have. 'The little jewels in your hands gave up at last. Such is the weakness of an inferior Android like yourself. You're a parasite — dependent on others being strong to empower yourself.'

'Hah. Hah, haha.' Gero laughed, a bit louder than he had earlier. His right hand spread itself as it to clear his name. The red diodes at the center of his palms were unmistakably cracked and shattered beyond cohesion. 'Yes, I'm sure you know all about that. You are what I should have been, after all. Your potential — it should have been mine.'

'If you wanted what I am, you should have won your war, then.' Rush squatted down, and with a simple push of his finger, shoved Gero onto his back. 'But you lost your war then, too. Good thing, because I wouldn't have existed otherwise.'

Gero smirked and averted his eyes. 'Yes. Time-travel and all its fallible possibilities. Such an ugly concept. Unpredictable and uncontrollable. Only a fool would create such a danger to all other temporal universes.'

'Perhaps you're right about that. But I have to thank you for getting this ball rolling, after all.' Rush said. 'Imagine a malice so monstrous you forced your enemies to scour every possible timeline for a way to overcome it. Regardless of who invented time travel, you were the reason for it — I'm sure of it.'

'Hmm.' Gero's smirk slowly dissipated, and in its place was a worn and creased expression born of decades hunching over the uninterpretable in a laboratory. 'Do you hate me, or respect me?' Gero asked, his gaze moving back to Rush. Maybe there was something to his brain inducing some feeling of euphoria — when defeated at every turn, and with death imminent. 'You threatened me, before. Did you fear me, or hate me?'

Rush slowly moved a hand to Gero's chest, feeling the outline of the cavity underneath. 'I wanted to know you. Understand what of you became of me.'

Gero's drawn expression didn't falter. 'I don't understand. You said I lost. I must have died. Otherwise, I would have stripped you for parts.'

It was said so calmly, evenly, that even in his near-death state, Gero instilled one last time an old emotion in Rush — fear. After a moment Rush stood, leering down with all his height. 'Yes, I assume that's what you had done. Your lab created me with little direction. I can't say specifically how it happened, but I remember being in a tank and breaking myself out of it.'

Rush paused, weighing something. 'I have memories before that,' he said more quietly, 'But the more time I've spent alive the more those have felt unreal. Fake. I can't deny the metal inside me. But…'

Gero's eyes remained motionless as they appraised Rush, all of him, before the old doctor closed them. 'What does it matter, considering what you can become? What you will become, if you only have the confidence to take it.'

'And what is that?' Deeper than any other cognition within him, Rush had always dealt with a voice whispering to him in the dead of night, within long silence among idle motion across a dim, peaceful field, when standing alone in a windy and bare desert, or sitting on a beach slowly being lapped by a calm ocean. Words unexplainable and inexpressible, but understood all the same.

'Your cowardice disgusts me. Even now… you hesitate.' Gero's right hand clenched, fingers digging into the dirt. 'If I was you, as I should be… I would be taking what is mine!' Gero screeched, suddenly lifting off the ground, lurching with a clawed hand.

Pity. Rush appeared in the air far above, watching the speck of Gero fall flat to the ground, coughing, arm splayed out like an old corroded cable. Anger. Then focus. Rush studied the horizon to his right and disappeared.

0o0o0

The cleanest combat of Tien and Piccolo's lives, carried out in smooth, coordinated strokes, with careful pausing, and rapid follow-up of each other strikes, pushed across the air, each one dodging, sliding, and wheeling around to catapult another strike at their opponent. It was careful, clinical combat born of long practices and even longer, stronger patience to learn each others' fighting styles and common avenues of attack. Tien's style was surgical, cutting, and disarming, while Piccolo's merged brute endurance with heavy striking and surprise.

Even as their power rose over the years, Tien's aura shifting to Kaioken red and Piccolo's coloring moving from pink, blue, and yellow to different gradients of white, the basic aspects of their fighting remained the same. They had spent almost a decade fighting first against, then alongside each other; today, they would fight together.

We can't lose, Tien quickly thought, pulling back an instant to let Piccolo hammer a punch before rushing forward with a kick. His leg landed cleanly on a low block. We won't!

At the start of their offensive, Traveler had drawn up and collected his aura — now, it was leaking from him, like water through a sieve, and some drastic, dramatic impulse slowly seized his defense. His mechanics degraded piecemeal, then all at once, as his arms burned and heart beat faster and faster, rising and falling through his chest like a bell being wrenched by a rope. His vision stayed blurred — it grew worse. All of a sudden two fighters seemed like four, then eight, then one, and all the while his body moved on autopilot, reacting before, then autonomously of his mind, as he felt himself falling deeper, deeper, deeper…

There was a deep pool in his mind, vast and black enough to eat all the light around it. Falling, falling…

'HYAAA!' From a diagonal Piccolo swung above and past Tien's right shoulder, right knee diving hard. Traveler's head was utterly turned away when he zipped up, energy spitting him higher into the air, both hands slamming together at the wrist's base. Soundless, a bolt of yellow light launched from his palms.

Tien surged between Piccolo and the blast, turning, and held out his right hand. On instinct, Piccolo grabbed it.

Screaming past them, the yellow bolt came within just inches of hitting them — singing their gis — but parallel to it, Tien zoomed upward, dragging Piccolo behind him, turning in the same motion to strike with the left side of his body.

Traveler was caught flat-footed, stunned in the air, as his aura pulsed and suddenly shrunk. His guard raised, catching a heavy body-hit from Tien — but on his other side, Tien helped Piccolo swing up and around Traveler's guard, releasing his grip to shove all his weight against Traveler. Jammed up, Traveler could do nothing as he gazed upward, saw the aura collecting in the air, and suddenly wrench downward. Piccolo flipped, bringing his clenched fists down in one blow.

Dooooooom. Like a meteor falling, the sound of impact distorted the air and pressed against the landscape, its direct force being sopped by Traveler. One second, the golden warrior was in the air — the next, dust trailed his descent and ultimate impact with the Earth far below.

After an exhale Tien drew back, holding up his arms tenderly. 'I felt that.'

Piccolo drew back and down to Tien's level. Layers of green skin fell down around his fists like ribbons. 'Both of us did,' Piccolo said. His gaze shifted slowly to the ground. 'Him too.'

They uttered nothing for a moment, simply focusing their ki sense to the ground.

'I assume that's as clear a signal as we're going to get,' Tien said.

'Carefully,' Piccolo advised, as they began to descend.

Their opponent slowly cleared the dust choking the air himself. Whereas before his aura was unraveling, now it was calm. The answer and cue appeared to them soon enough. Traveler's golden aura had vanished, and beneath it now stood a tired, battle-worn warrior with a clear aura and black hair.

For a long moment no one said anything, Traveler apparently and visibly working through a few different thoughts in his head. At last he settled on, 'Thank you. I needed someone to knock me out of my… state.'

Tien and Piccolo both landed on the ground — close enough to talk, and far enough to not get surprised. 'Your thanks is wasted on us,' Tien said bluntly. 'Any apology you could make would be wasted. You nearly destroyed the Earth back there.'

'Anything I say would be wasted on you,' Piccolo said even more harshly. 'There's no trust left between us. You've burned it all, for your self-serving and selfish goals. There's nothing more for you here; go back to your own timeline.'

Traveler made no effort to hide his disappointment; it cut across every muscle, fold, and scar across his body. 'I don't want to fight any more. So I'll gladly take Raditz and go.'

'STOP IT!' Tien yelled suddenly, all the anger he had been bottling up spilling out all at once, mixing and riding out with his aura. 'OUR TIMELINE ISN'T YOUR PLAYTHING! We're real! Real people! And what you've done has hurt us!'

A frown settled onto Traveler's face. 'I know.' He turned away. 'But… if you knew…'

Piccolo stepped forward, wary. 'Knew—'

In an instant Traveler phased forward and around the Namekian, cocking an elbow high into the air. Half-turned, he rammed it into Piccolo's back, causing the warrior to gasp and expunge purple blood, body cracking against the ground below.

'That's was a warning, because his body can take it,' Traveler said to Tien, voice even. 'I'd rather not do that to you, too. Back away, and this can all be over in a minute.'

Two things were made blindingly apparent. Traveler still had strength to spare. But Tien has been able to follow every sequence of that. Piccolo too, he suspected, if he hadn't been surprised. This is it, Tien realized. He's done.

That realization cut the last shackle holding back his overflowing anger.

'TRY IT!' Tien roared, surging forward. He met Traveler with quick, countering strikes. Rapid back-and-forth, precise technique — it was obvious that Traveler had regained control of his martial senses. But he was so much weaker! Tien's mind raced as he went blow-to-blow, their strikes bounding and bashing against guards and deflecting limbs. He could see the flicker of concern on Traveler's face — without his transformation and injured as he was, Tien was holding even!

That realization must have hit Traveler, after a particularly dextrous dodge under a forward elbow, as Tien ducked and jabbed Traveler's shins with his feet, stumbling him. A growl escaped Traveler's pressed lips. He flipped backward — as Tien went to pursue, in mid-motion and mid-air Traveler stopped and shot out his legs, slamming a clean blow to Tien's sternum. Winded, he reeled back, and Traveler quickly corrected his posture and aimed two ki-laden hands at his opponent.

In an instant Piccolo phased in the path of Traveler's planned strike, holding a yellow ki cloaked first behind him. 'Remember? You're fighting two!' Piccolo roared, lurching forward, palm extending to reveal a larger ball of ki. Traveler was caught off-guard as Piccolo's hand slammed into Traveler's— detonating both of their attacks in a rapid, close-combat chain explosion. Energy boomed and flattened the air, bending trees and sending leaves afar in a skitter of wind.

The cloud of fire and energy pulsed past where Traveler had been — he zipped into the air, flames streaming from his skin, eyes darting.

'NO YOU DON'T!' Tien roared, appearing like an angry red smudge above Traveler, cocking back one engorged arm. Traveler got halfway turned to block when Tien's blow slammed into his side, warping his body and sending him flailing down.

Still Traveler tried to turn —

'HYAAAA!' Piccolo sped into view, leg arcing and spinning down, whipping down across Traveler— adding already to his incredible momentum. In less than a second, the sonic boom of Piccolo's hit was deafened by a crater stretching open in the ground far below, filling the bottom of the valley's dip.

Birds skittered and screamed and cawed away. As they passed Piccolo kept panting, watching, waiting.

0o0o0

A strong wind pushed through the air, again drawing Rayne's attention to the originating horizon — they were fighting Traveler now, she could tell. They would need all the help they could get. If she was going to help at all…

Rayne steadied her mind, wrenching her attention back. Focus! She spied Krillin descending to check another crevasse. Launch's earlier attack against Gero had made this place almost impossible to search efficiently. Best she could do is alternate between scanning from the air and palming the ground.

Focus. Rayne swept her gaze over a dip in the land — all that remained of a hillside, now just a few feet below a wall of upturned rock shielding most of the area from the sky. Dark slate ran along the ground perpendicular beneath the wall.

Rayne felt an itch. In an instant she had landed beside the wall, examining its break from the lower ground. That break went deep, she realized. About a hundred feet of newly created cavern.

As she leaned forward to get a better view down, she suddenly pushed the rock wall forward onto its back. She twisted, looked down, and silenced an imminent gasp,

Gero's legs were hidden in a compartment pressed against the hillside, the rock wall pulled over it like a canopy. As Rayne crouched down, she saw the start of what she thought was slate, streaking through the ground and running past her the legs, wasn't rock at all. She touched it. Dried pneumatic fluid. Oil.

'Ah.'

In an instant Rayne spun lobbing a hasty blue energy attack with her right hand. No sooner did she throw it, two pink eyebeams slammed into her chest, throwing her back and down into the compartment she had unearthed. In the next instant her attack hit her mark and exploded.

Out of smoke and fire Gero's torso leapt up, body emptying out the bottom as he flew. With a pained grasp of his arms, Gero floundered mid-air, losing his upward momentum and suddenly falling forward, careening…

Cloaked in the Kaioken's red, Krillin appeared in Gero's path, swinging his fist, slamming the android back to the ground and driving Gero several feet into the earth. The crater had barely finished forming when Krillin retrieved Rayne, laying her out on higher ground, examining the two holes in Rayne's shirt. He controlled his breathing. 'Are you?…'

Rayne took his hand, smiling weakly, but affirmatively. 'He got one good hit,' she said. 'I'll be ok. Ok? Get him.'

Krillin nodded, holding his Kaioken. He turned, rose quickly — but slowed once he saw the state of things. Gero remained within his crater, unmoving, broken. The once and mighty doctor has been reduced to a head and half a neck. The rest of his torso was strewn around the crater, like toys discarded by a child, uncared for and unloved.

As Krillin landed, his Kaioken remained at a low level, never quite trusting how things appeared to be, Gero's cold eyes followed him almost automatically without any accompanying action. Once or twice Gero impassively wiggled his jaw; whether that was intentional or not was beyond Krillin.

'Gero…' Krillin muttered, stopping at the top of the crater. 'Is this really it? After everything?…'

He dared not approach while Gero still made such strange motions with his head. For a few seconds the android's eyes joined the jaw in rote, swinging action. Then they slowed, and seemed to be drawn to a point in the sky far above Krillin.

'So it is,' Gero said. Up close, Krillin could see cracks in the reinforced glass holding in Gero's brain — the vessel was leaking as the seconds ticked, trickling water down the android's face in thin streams. 'The end.'

He knows it, Krillin thought. As well as I do.

Gero kept staring upward — and then suddenly hinged his vision down to Krillin. The color was draining from whatever matrix was made to make the eyes appear a bit more human; every second that passed made them more as they always were, red and lifeless. 'Our conversation earlier. About that man. The time traveler.'

Instincts warred inside Krillin as he slowly raised a hand, aiming his palm into the crater, cradling the smallest energy blast to end things if necessary. They were talking about… 'Rush, with the black hair, the tan one, you mentioned,' Krillin said aloud. If there ever was going to be a time for Gero to let slip something he shouldn't, it would be now.

'Rush?' Gero said flatly, one withered eyebrow raising. 'You're incorrect. His name is Tora. Or was, perhaps. I think I made him, you see, or will — if he's truly a time traveler.'

'…' Krillin sensed Gero was moving towards something. He held back the energy in his palm. 'Tora,' he repeated.

'Yes…' Gero made a weak smile, again looking to the sky. 'How I despise him. He's everything I should have been.'

Silence took them, and Krillin saw a thought flicker through Gero's face. Water was now streaming down his cheeks, pulling away layers of skin, revealing the bare machinery under his face. When his gaze turned again, Krillin saw the jaw twitch and pull into the widest, most harrowing grin, splitting skin and pulling back the fake flesh from his mechanical mouth. Nothing organic — just warped and pitted metal.

'Keep him away from Saiyans. He'll eat them.'

Then Gero died, or Krillin thought he did, because the cold light behind his eyes shut off in an instant, like a switch being flicked. Solution had ceased flowing down the Android's face; the brain had fallen flat to the floor of its chamber. The face…

Krillin stepped closer, could take no more of the death grimace, and quickly crushed the head under his heel.

No words in his mind. Just relief. At last his Kaioken faded from his aura.

When he drew his foot back, Krillin thought about the warped man who had caused unmitigated destruction, danger, and misery — but who died a sad, pathetic death, a slave to his hatred, his body long past gone, with just a darkening mind to keep him going. It was a fate undeserving of anyone — besides Gero.

He almost said a word. Then Krillin rose and turned his attention afar. Energy and activity flitted across his senses. He was needed elsewhere.

Quickly — he appeared beside Rayne, who remained in the same spot where she had fallen, pained. The dual black-seared holes in her gi wouldn't be healing anytime soon.

'He's dead?' She asked of him, even though she knew deep down the answer. Krillin nodded. 'Good.' Rayne sighed and made herself more comfortable on the rocky earth. 'Good. It's done. Bulma, Marron, the others… they'll all be okay from Gero. Now we only need to worry about the others.'

The thought of their one and only kid nearly took Krillin out of it — but he reminded himself that the longer he didn't see her anywhere near the battlefield, the better it was for both her and them. I want to see her, but I know she's ok… but for now…

'Hey.' Rayne grasped his hand, dragging his attention to here, now. 'I can feel the battlefield, too. You don't have to stay with me.'

'You're sure?'

'I'll be walking around soon enough.' She thought of making a half-motion to indicate she could move whenever she wanted, but the pain shot through her, making her grit her teeth beneath her lips. Don't show it. Not now. He can still fight.

He waited a few seconds, taking her words to heart. 'You'll be ok,' he said, saying what he wanted to hear.

'I'll be okay.' She rested a hand on his cheek, squeezed a little, and then settled back. 'Now go help our friends and save the day like you always do.'

He nodded, smiling slightly. 'Gladly.' He stepped back, lit his aura, and launched into the sky, arcing towards the horizon.

Sound lapped over her as her eyes traced his trajectory. The energy of his flight made some rocks shift, then topple to her right. She spared an absent glance.

Rock. Rubble. Brown pouch.

Brown pouch?

0o0o0

The sudden series of explosions had knocked Tien back, pushing him out of a large kick-up of dust. As it began to clear, he floated higher and called out.

'Piccolo?'

'Yeah.' Out of the smoke, Piccolo rose, singed and damaged, but otherwise looking unconcerned. Noting Tien's concern, he shrugged. 'I'm fine. Traveler was hurt more than me.'

Tien grunted. 'Speaking of.' The outlines of a crater were visible through the smoke far below them. He directed their attention there. 'Is that where Traveler went?'

'Think so, but be on guard,' Piccolo said. 'I can't imagine that was enough to beat him.'

So they waited. Long seconds, then long minutes. Silence suffocated them both. Tien and Piccolo kept waiting, waiting, waiting, for any sudden attack or speech, thinking, worrying, and then wondering. Yet still Traveler remained unseen and unfelt.

'Did he run?' Tien asked, frowning.

'It wouldn't be out-of-character for him,' Piccolo said, closing his eyes. 'But… I can still feel him down there. It's soft, but it's there.'

Tien arched an eyebrow — Piccolo had sensed something he hadn't. But now that he turned his attention, he could agree with his ally. 'So he's waiting,' Tien thought out loud. 'Waiting for what?'

'...' Piccolo hovered to the side a few feet through the air, seeking a different perspective on the crater. 'He might be regaining his energy. To use that golden transformation again.'

'Then he'd lose control quickly, how he is,' Tien said. 'I think he's waiting because he doesn't know what to do.'

'Hm.'

More silence passed between them, now each examining and really confirming that Traveler's energy remained below the ground. Strong enough to signal he was awake, and ready to fight, but it wasn't moving at all.

'He's sending some sort of message,' Piccolo said.

'We should find Chi-Chi,' Tien said at last. 'She must have hid Raditz's body. If we know where it is—'

Tien's head turned, sending an energy approach. A handful. 'They've rallied.'

Piccolo turned, frowning. 'His message.'

They came in quick succession — Chi-Chi the most energized, supporting in-flight a haggard Yamcha, trailed by an even weaker Suno and Retu. Retu was barely keeping himself in the air, barely supported by Suno. After hesitating, Piccolo and Tien nodded and gestured to the ground. All six moved and landed onto a small hill overlooking the impact site. In each their own time they steadied and sat, not bothering to hide the wear of the day's battles.

'He's brought us here,' Tien said to them, 'by leaving his energy unconcealed like that. Be prepared.'

'Don't tell me where Raditz's body is,' Piccolo said, suddenly paranoid. 'We need to keep it hidden from Traveler.'

Chi-Chi, Yamcha, Suno, and Retu all looked unsure, uncertain, but after a moment of awkward silence Chi-Chi stepped forward. 'I have it right here,' she said, calmly, tossing a capsule to Tien. He caught it with the slightest surprised expression. 'But that's unimportant. We need to discuss what we're going to do.'

After a second spent glancing over the crater again, Piccolo turned towards Chi-Chi. 'There's no need to complicate things.' He had a feeling he wasn't going to like the end-point of this conversation. 'At the moment, we're facing three threats — Gero, Rush, and Traveler. Launch, Krillin, and Launch stayed behind to find and finish Gero — we nearly killed him before Tien and I left. Not to mention that we destroyed his Android lackey. Rush is…' Piccolo frowned, suppressing a surge of panic as he realized that he didn't have a good idea where and in what state Rush was in.

'The last I saw he was heavily injured,' Chi-Chi jumped in, perceiving the procession of thoughts on Piccolo's face. She paused, weighing the best choice of words. 'Rush… isn't what he appeared to be, to us,' she said, indicating herself, Yamcha, Suno, and Retu. 'His fight with Traveler left him weakened and disfigured — and revealed his inner body is metal. He's an Android — I'm sure of that now.'

'We're all sure of that now,' Suno added, muted.

Tien scoffed. 'The first good thing Traveler has done for us.'

From the edge of their hill, sitting on a rock, Yamcha made a face and began to stand, but a glance from Chi-Chi kept him seated. Wait. She turned back to the others. 'These past few months we've been disunited, distracted, divided. We've been misled by people we shouldn't have trusted. On that, I'm sure we both agree.'

Tien eyed her. 'On that, we do.' He was still angry, he realized. With Launch, but with everything else… Grievance was threatening to flood his mind, but he knew this wasn't the place or time. 'What matters now is that we make amends for our past actions.'

'So I'll repeat myself,' Piccolo said sternly. 'Gero, Rush, Traveler. Before we can track the others down, we need Traveler to emerge — and then deal with him.'

Yamcha, farthest back, sighed quietly enough to conceal it.

Concealed from everyone except Piccolo and his ears. 'Is there an issue?' He asked, looking towards Yamaha. His fangs dimly glinted as he spoke.

'…We need to stop fighting,' Yamcha said, finding the strength to stand and the courage to speak. 'All of us. With each other.' He gestured to the torn landscape before them. Trees and rocks and rivers all made broken, burned, erased. 'With Traveler and Rush, wherever he is. We need to make peace.'

Tien stared, his eyes sharp enough to burn holes in whoever they landed on. From each one — landing on Yamcha. 'After everything that's happened, that's what you say?' Tien was barely keeping himself composed. Anger had gripped his mind. 'You just want to pretend like nothing's happened?'

Despite his weakness, Yamcha kept himself upright. 'We know what happened to Chiaotzu,' Yamcha said evenly, eliciting a shock from Tien and Piccolo. 'We can't begin to say sorry. It's horrible. But he died because of Gero. And if it's true that Gero's been defeated… then we've avenged him. Right?'

Tien was caught, openly, obviously, utterly speechless. His closed and opened his mouth but it was clear he wasn't even trying to say anything. It was the best he could do — open, close.

It was clear to Piccolo what was happening — but he knew he should bite his tongue.

'I'm sorry Tien,' Yamcha went on. 'We're all sorry.'

'We are,' both Suno and Retu said in rapid succession. 'We should have been stronger,' Retu said further, 'but he gave his life to save us. It was his choice. He made the ultimate sacrifice — and because of that, we're alive.'

Waves of feeling — feeling Tien had never even felt before — washed over him with such violence that he physically turned from them, scared they would see through his barely placid exterior. 'I see,' he managed, weakness from the prior battle making it all so much worse. 'I didn't—'

'Let's make one thing clear,' Piccolo interrupted, speaking slowly. His eyes went over them each in turns trying and failing to find Tien's gaze. 'We're on a battlefield, and our opponent is still out there, able to fight. And Traveler must be stopped.'

Abruptly Yamcha sat back down — his legs had given up the fight to stand. 'If you want my help, don't expect it.' He looked expectantly at Chi-Chi, waiting for her to say something. 'But fighting further isn't the way. Gero'll be stopped; but then we need to make peace, with both Rush and Traveler.'

Something in Piccolo snapped. 'Have you lost it? He spat, disgusted. 'They're our enemies!'

'It doesn't matter what we want. Traveler and Rush want to kill each other,' Suno interrupted, trying to steer the conversation away from the imminent fissure. 'I don't think any amount of talking between them can fix that.'

'None of you understand,' Chi-Chi said, frowning more with every second. 'I've learned— I mean Traveler is—'

'You don't understand!' Piccolo shouted, making everyone flinch. 'The time for talking is done! We've moved far beyond that! Traveler and Rush betrayed us all!'

Tien half-looked at Piccolo — the war was still present on his face. 'Piccolo…'

'Don't deny it!' Piccolo continued yelling. 'We know from Launch — Rush tried to kill Rayne, and punted Krillin to another time to get rid of him!'

The blood drained from Yamcha's, Suno's, and Retu's faces. 'What?' Yamcha stuttered. 'When did?—' Chi-Chi avoided his gaze — She already knows?

'And Traveler is no better!' Piccolo continued, bitter. 'In our prior fight he lobbed a blast that could have destroyed the planet, if Tien and I didn't stop him! His golden transformation makes him violent, out of control, unhinged! As long as he's in our time, the Earth is in danger!'

'—Piccolo,' Chi-Chi cut in, finding her voice. 'You don't understand. There's more here than it seems. Traveler— I think… I think he's my son.'

'This really isn't the time for more speculation,' Piccolo tried to say.

'I think he's Gohan,' Chi-Chi said, staying firm, being brave, and accepting the consequences. She looked over the lost faces of her friends. 'I think he's my son.'

Piccolo's rising swell broke in his voice. 'I— what?'

'You heard me.' Chi-Chi glanced around. 'You all heard me.'

Long seconds passed. Everyone tried to square the idea that this mysterious, scarred, and ultimately antagonistic figure could be so intimately related to them— 'It makes sense,' Suno said at last, sighing. 'How he avoided us, took steps to hide his identity from us, but somehow knew so much about all of us and our fates. He's a survivor of the deaths that befell us.'

Tien met Piccolo's gaze. This can't mean… he said telepathically.

How else… would he have known us so well?… Piccolo muttered in his mind, so upset, so bitter at his own distractions and failings to not notice something that could have stopped everything from spiraling. The image of Traveler more collected, calm, resting on the edge of the Lookout and gazing warmly down at the Earth below rested in Piccolo's mind. It was always in plain sight. I'm such a fool…

'Then it's clear he has bad blood with us, some of us,' Yamcha added. 'His words towards me earlier indicated as much.'

If there was a brief moment where Piccolo climbed down from his growing fury, it passed as soon as Yamcha's comment connected with several other thoughts. Force and presence came back, ringing soundly through his voice. 'He hates us,' he said. 'He hates all of us, because we failed him, his time. There's no other way to explain what he's done — his desire to obtain Gero's handiwork within Raditz trumps all. He doesn't care about us, our time!' His goading of me! Making me doubt myself, saying I'd run away from the Earth… it all makes sense! He…

Piccolo's eyes slowly widened. No… from the very beginning… Rage flashed through Piccolo's body, making his fists ball up. Every move… made to divide us!...

Chi-Chi's frown continues to deepen. 'Piccolo, I know you heard what Rush said of Traveler, same as me, that he worked with the PTO—'

'No, you don't understand!' Piccolo cursed. 'Forget what Rush said about him — lies or not, they don't matter! Traveler has never saved us when it wasn't expedient for him! Defeating Vegeta and his lackey, then stealing away the one we beat so we couldn't talk to him — he kept information from us, made us dependent on him! So when Tien and I went out looking for Gero, we would follow him and fight his battles as he searched for his ultimate prize, Raditz!' Piccolo's voice grew louder, aura churning once more. 'He probably knew where Gero was from the very beginning! Think of everything he could have prevented!' His eyes shot to Yamcha. 'West City would still be whole!' To Tien. 'Chiaotzu would still be alive!'

A wave of unease went through everyone, not least Tien — but in that moment Chi-Chi stepped forward, holding Piccolo's attention. 'We've all made mistakes. We've all been led astray,' she said carefully. 'But to act rash, now, would be a mistake.'

'Do you think I want to do this?' Piccolo yelled louder, his clear aura kicking dirt and dust into the air around him. 'Act without a plan?' He growled, emphasizing his own point. 'But I'm tired of being misled! And if we beat Traveler now, and ensure Rush is beat, too, we can take back the initiative, regain our timeline!'

'Piccolo…' Yamcha began to speak, but a surge of weakness kept him on the ground, faded. 'It's not like…'

For a long second Piccolo glanced and found all eyes either unwilling — or in Tien's case, unfocused, turned away, caught in some internal thought. The abandonment of his now habitual ally snapped something in him.

'FINE!' Piccolo's aura roared to life, blasting air and energy past their raised arms. With a flourish he rose into the air. 'YOU'RE ALL DANGEROUSLY NAIVE!' Piccolo shouted down at them over the roar of his aura. 'BUT IF I HAVE TO FINISH THIS BY MYSELF, I WILL! THIS IS OUR ONE CHANCE OF RECLAIMING CONTROL OF OUR FATE, OUR WORLD — AND I WON'T PASS.'

Tien made a sour face, but was still uncertain as he spoke. 'Piccolo—'

Too late. Another buffet of wind whipped across them, and they watched Piccolo's aura tail off and towards the crater Traveler had been buried in.

'Damnit,' Retu breathed, still held up by Suno propped under his arm. He couldn't think of anything else to say and bit his lip. To the side, Chi-Chi moved towards Yamcha, making sure he was comfortable sitting down.

'…' Tien remained silent as he gazed towards the crater. After a moment, he turned to Chi-Chi and Yamcha. 'It's true, what you said, about Chiaotzu.

Chi-Chi hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

'He chose a warrior's death,' Tien said. 'To protect you.'

Wind kicked. Above the crater Piccolo remained, aura blazing. And below the image, very deep under the ground, Tien felt a familiar quality of ki. Golden. Dangerous.

All prior doubts vanished in his mind, if only for an instant. Tien seized the clarity and seized his aura, dragging it kicking and screaming to the surface of his worn body. Once more… He could distantly hear voices behind him, but could spare no energy to understand them. Whatever happens… Piccolo won't die on my watch. He suddenly blasted forward, rushing towards the crater. None of them will!

0o0o0

Piccolo's advance shortly followed by Tien's froze the hill they left behind. For a dragging handful of seconds, Chi-Chi fists clenched beside her, and she really thought to go after and stop them — but released her ill thought. She turned to the others behind her; Yamcha, Suno, and Retu were all seated, having spent their little energy remaining standing.

'There's too many unknowns,' Chi-Chi thought aloud.

The calm air seemed to grate on Retu — he grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose. 'Too much,' he echoed. 'I mean… even just ignoring the bigger issues… that Saiyan… who was with Kakarot…'

Chi-Chi pursed her mouth. 'And Kakarot.'

On the precipice, Chi-Chi realized she could barely say his name without feeling something hurting, deep and buried inside her. When Kakarot had died it had signaled the end to a lot of things in her life — her youth, her… not innocence, she decided, which had been culled early on by the quest to revive Roshi, but her naivety… her blind belief that things could get better for anyone if she tried hard enough. Stupid…

'I'd like to think, being a hopeless optimist,' Yamcha spoke up, trying to adjust his posture, 'that if we sat down with Kakarot and his buddy we'd be able to talk things through.'

Chi-Chi turned, and made immediate eye contact with Yamcha. He had read her mind, it seems — not actually, but it felt like it. She shared a small smile with him.

He has regret too, Chi-Chi reminded herself, looking forward again.. And yet, he's keeping his hopes up. Was there any point to holding onto that moment of Kakarot's death, as something turning or life-changing, if he was walking around again, alive?

Something to consider, later. She focused her attention on the wide crater in the distance, dimly sensing Piccolo stopping in the air above it.

Suddenly a hand clapped on Chi-Chi's shoulder. She turned, half-surprised. 'You should be sitting,' she said.

Yamcha flashed a familiar, joyful, and lighthearted smile. 'You should be sitting with us,' he said amiably, 'not standing all by your lonesome.'

'And join the ranks of the convalescing,' she said, smiling.

'Or you could fight.'

Both of them glanced towards Suno. She was standing now, too. 'If you have the energy to fight, then I think you should. That's what you were thinking over, right?'

She said nothing — it was at the very least obvious that of the four of them that she had the most remaining strength.

'No matter how this all gets resolved, we're all aware of that army approaching Earth from space,' Suno went on. 'I know we've all sensed it at some point over the last few days,' she said, glancing at each of them. 'And now it seems that army is just a few days from the Earth.' Suno grimaced as she sat again, body aching. 'We can't let Traveler's game distract us. One way or another — we need to end this.'

Chi-Chi held back a response, feeling that Suno had something more to say. She did. 'I know Traveler is your son. I know you're going to protect him. So are you prepared to fight Piccolo or Tien to do that?'

At her side Yamcha held a hand on her shoulder, steadying her. 'I can't fight Piccolo or Tien,' Chi-Chi said, 'At least not intentionally. I won't.'

'Even if they try to kill Traveler?' Suno asked.

'It won't come to that,' Chi-Chi said, quieter. 'Traveler, he's…'

'He's lost a lot of energy,' Retu spoke up. 'He's nowhere near as strong as he was at the start of today.'

'But he can last a little bit longer,' Chi-Chi reasoned. 'Hmm…'

Yamcha had tried and failed to make Chi-Chi sit with him. 'Chi-Chi, what are you?...'

'If I can prove Rush is beaten, as I saw him, maybe I'll be able to satisfy Piccolo,' She said, turning to the three of them. 'Make Traveler and Piccolo stop fighting. Show our common enemy is no longer a threat. Then… reach some sort of understanding on Raditz. What to do with him.'

Chi-Chi felt along the waist of her obi, eventually producing a capsule. 'Here,' she said, tossing it to Suno. 'Keep it here — keep it hidden. I'm going for a quick trip.'

'Now?' Yamcha said, speaking to the same concerns that Suno and Retu had. 'With everything that's going on—'

'Can you think of any other way to stop this?' Chi-Chi asked bluntly, directly, holding Yamcha's gaze. 'Stop this fighting? And save Traveler without making me fight Piccolo myself?'

'...I mean, if it comes to that… I don't…' Suno tried to reason out.

'It won't,' Chi-Chi said definitively. 'It can't. We're not going to let our reality turn out like Traveler's — we're not going to turn on each other.' Unbidden thoughts of Kakarot ran through her head, memories of West City and his sacrifice and all those years prior — No. No regrets. The past is the past. I need to make the present right.

Retu frowned into the ground. 'I understand what you're trying to do, but… I mean…' He struggled to articulate his next words. It was just as broken up and unspeakable a doubt in his mind as it was said. 'If… you do this, and bring back Rush, almost as a sacrifice… we're trusting Piccolo's word completely. Even after…'

He couldn't finish his thought, but they all knew what he was talking about. Giving up Rush like that, after all that time they spent together, and Rush helped them, protected them.

Chi-Chi sighed. 'I know we all trusted him,' she said. 'But we can't ignore what Piccolo told us. If he tried to kill Krillin and Rayne, he needs to answer for that.'

Yamcha closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Once he looked up again, he was on-program. 'Do you remember where he was?' He asked.

Chi-Chi turned and indicated a gentle crest of mountain to their south. 'In the valley next over.'

'Then that's where you should start. We'll be ok here in the meanwhile.'

'But be quick, please,' Suno added, half-smiling. 'We're not defenseless, but we're not exactly spry either.'

'Speak for yourself…' Retu muttered, to which he got a light tap of Suno's knuckles.

Chi-Chi nodded. 'Mhmm. Alright.' Her eyes met Yamcha's. 'Be safe.'

'We will,' he replied.

Sated, Chi-Chi turned forward — as she did she unbottled a little trick she had played on them. Rings of energy and ripples of wind suddenly flowed out from her, moving out like small waves on a placid sea. She could have sat, she realized, but standing while channeling your energy made it feel a bit more serious, more urgent. She wasn't near her full power — but she wasn't exhausted now, either. As the others made a series of surprised expressions, she bolted into flight and arced towards the south — away from Piccolo and the crater.

0o0o0

Long minutes passed. As Chi-Chi cut through the air, the energy behind her grew cloudy, muddled — there were more people back in the broken valley, now. More to stop anyone from doing anything rash. She felt Traveler's energy still — which meant he was okay, undefeated — for now.

The ground rose and fell away again as she entered the adjacent valley. The remains of a broken and blasted forest was scattered across the landscape. Her eyes sought the familiar landmark… There. She started descending towards a sharp drop of the hill towards the west. We were around here, we rolled…

She landed, putting one knee to the ground and examining the patterns in the dirt. The marks of a body being dragged, she recognized. A trail led down the hill, past the outer edges of burned tree stumps to the few remaining trees. He crawled? She made her way down the slope, holding her energy at the ready. He crawled farther than I would have thought.

Forest retook the path, hemming in her vision on both sides with evergreens, and kept her focused on the marks of movement ahead. Several seconds passed until she met a stop — an outline of two bodies on the ground, close on top of each other. Chi-Chi slowed to a halt. Someone else? But, who?...

A darkening haze seemed to fall over her vision. The day was wearing on — but this was something different. Something else. She saw the trail resumed, went further ahead, and followed dutifully, now making no effort to hold back her energy. Crisp blue ki swaddled her as she went the full length of the hill's slope downward and emerged into a small meadow. Untouched and verdant green grass waved calmly with a gentle breeze. Her eyes slowly tracked to the far end. She stopped.

Rush sat there across from her, cross-legged, waiting, and staring. More than that — he was whole, unlike at all how he was the last she'd seen him. On instinct her energy rushed out from her, rapidly rising to a pitch—

'Stop that,' Rush's voice reached her, moving alongside a gentle breeze. Pink ki floated in the air around her, and at that moment she realized the area was suffused with his power — the full weight of it returned, mind-bogglingly the strongest thing she'd ever felt beside Traveler. Whatever fantasy of fighting she imagined dissipated; her energy receded quickly.

Rush stared at her for a moment, and then all at once withdrew his aura, returning the glade to a normal state. As he stood he brushed stray strands of grass from his lap. 'Better we speak now instead of later. You're really the only one I can say this to, now.'

'You are not my child,' Chi-Chi said suddenly, surprising herself with how forceful she sounded. Her body was shaking, she thought — but her voice betrayed nothing. And proceeding with force might be only way to make Rush tell the truth. 'That was a lie, to gain our trust, to make Yamcha and I care for you, protect you.'

Rush pressed one hand against his hip. 'You're right. I did lie. I did want your protection.' He sighed, his face almost drawing into itself. 'I needed your help. Later on, I came to want it.'

'By lying?' Chi-Chi asked, bitter. Perhaps her subconscious knew something she didn't — she kept speaking as if she wasn't in mortal danger here. Rush was not as he was earlier — he looked fully healed, inexplicably, as if he had never been brought to near-death by Traveler. Yet here she was goading this seemingly invincible being… but his posture indicated no threat. Nothing. She didn't understand Rush. Even after all this time spent with him… I don't think any of us understood him.

'The unsatisfactory answer is that you and Yamcha were the only tools I could use.' Rush closed his eyes, frowning. 'I knew… only bits and pieces of this time, this world. I didn't know much about Traveler then but I knew some version of him would likely show up here, would be stronger than me, would kill me without a second thought. But I knew he would be secretive, distant… unattached.' Rush's eyes opened, and the intent was clear in his eyes. 'I knew Traveler could be misdirected, manipulated, and replaced, because I knew he would never admit he was your son, Chi-Chi. So that let me slip right in.'

Hot, numbing anger flashed through Chi-Chi's body. There was something simultaneously enraging and pitiful about this all, some energy in Rush that kept him present here, speaking, which infuriated Chi-Chi and yet made her listen. He was… He's… I can't believe…

'You're asking for forgiveness,' Chi-Chi said, shaking her head with disbelief. 'As if I could believe anything you say.'

'You know he's your son, Chi-Chi,' Rush said, holding her gaze with his sharpened blue eyes. 'You can't deny that's true.'

'I can deny you.'

Rush spread his hands wide, showing his empty palms to her. 'I'm not asking for you to trust me anymore. I just need you to stop. To listen.'

'If you think—'

'Not to me.'

Her pushback caught her flat-footed for a moment. As she began to open her mouth a brush of energy swept over her back. Half-confused, she turned, focusing her ki sense further, frowned… her face growing more confused.

'They're fighting, your friends,' Rush said.

'No…' She felt them so clearly — felt them crash into each other suddenly, as more wind ripped through the valley. She felt Yamcha was flying now, against what he had promised. No… 'What's?...'

Rush sighed, tilting his head. 'Right now, they're all turning on each other. The funny thing is — that's Traveler's plan, not mine.'

'What?' Chi-Chi snipped, snapping her head back to him.

He waved away her look — he just kept waving, as if he wanted to move on entirely. 'You just need to understand. When I came to you—'

'I don't care about that,' Chi-Chi shouted, throwing out an arm. 'You're just the same as Traveler! Whatever affection or respect you have for us, you show it by betraying us, hurting us, making us fight amongst ourselves!' As she grew louder, energy unconsciously began to flow through her body. 'Both of you are broken!'

'...I don't think—'

'YOU tried to kill Krillin and Rayne!' Chi-Chi yelled, anger alone pushing power into her aura. Behind her, her right fist collected energy, a yellow orb inside humming quietly. 'Don't you feel shame? Regret? If you truly do care for me or Yamcha? You tried to kill our friends…'

'...You need to understand…' Rush repeated, his posture deflating a little. 'You just need to listen—'

'You tried to kill… OUR FRIENDS!' Chi-Chi roared, sprinting forward and swinging her right arm over her shoulder, aiming her blast of energy directly at Rush's chest. Halfway there she phased from sight, reappeared behind Rush, zeroed in on his back—'

Tch. In an instant her right arm was caught at the wrist. Now turned, Rush glowered, pinching Chi-Chi's right wrist until she gasped and released the hold on her energy. Without any more control, the energy ball slowly circled apart into thin strands of energy.

'When I came to you…' Rush's voice was low; whatever emotion he was carrying beside his main thrust now banished entirely. He was all point now. With a simple push, he forced Chi-Chi to her knees, and then shoved her onto her back, discarding her pathetic attempt to hurt him.

'When I came to you, I just needed somewhere to hide,' he said, drawing back. 'Someplace to be… steadied,' Rush settled on, frowning. 'My confusion when I first met you and Yamcha wasn't faked. I've had to grapple with who I am my entire life.' Rush held out his fists, as if he was gripping something in them. 'Dr. Gero made me. And yet I never met him in my time. He was long dead, killed by Traveler and his alien masters. He had what I wanted — I always knew that — but didn't know if I could do it.'

Chi-Chi edged away from him on her back, catching her breath, terrified she hadn't been able to touch him at all.

'And yet…' Rush's voice regained that odd emotion earlier, revealing in every successive word his laments. 'Meeting your maker is nothing but disappointing. He was a scared old man, too weak to survive on his own, content to steal until no one including himself had anything left. That's what I come of. An irredeemably pathetic old man.'

His shoulders drooped, and after a long sigh found her gaze again. No ill intent. No malice. Chi-Chi found the slightest cushion to breathe.

'I did what I did to Krillin and Rayne because I was afraid of being caught. No matter what you may think, I enjoyed what I had with you and Yamcha. You cared for me, even though you didn't really know me. That's more than anyone has ever done for me.'

Chi-Chi kept breathing, now simply on edge instead of exerted. He was building towards something. She didn't want to listen. Why… why me? Why is he speaking to me? But she knew the answer, and was horrified by it, and so pretended to understand nothing at all.

'I think I owe it to you — to all of you — to show you what I'm worth,' Rush said, looking beyond her now. 'So I'll say it clearly. There's a voice in my head telling me to approach Raditz, so I will. I'll topple anyone who stands in my way. But I won't kill anyone.'

He waited, and Chi-Chi wasn't sure if he was trying to emphasize this to her, or whether he was thinking to himself if he could really honor that promise. 'After I do what I need to do, I'm going to leave for a little bit. I'll be changed. But the deal I'm about to tell you will stand. I don't want to remain in this time — it isn't mine, it's not where I grew up, and it's not special to me.'

Energy suddenly rippled out, forming a crater around Rush, nearly blowing Chi-Chi from the meadow. And yet she could sense none of it, only see it, feel it in her body and bones.

'So when I get Raditz,' Rush went on, cloaked in jagged and shimmering pink ki, 'I'll adjust, and then I'll leave this time willingly, so long as you give me Traveler's time machine. I want to see his world, Gero as he should have been in my time. Alive and complete.'

Impossible power seemed to patter out of Traveler's aura, propelling him into the air, body turning towards a growing ki in the distance. 'Understand? I'm ready to go.' He raised his tanned face, sharp features and blue eyes looking towards the horizon. 'I'm ready to go,' he said, and blasted off.

---

A/N: Hello everyone. This chapter was originally going to be a two-parter — twice the length of a normal chapter. However once I hit 20,000 words I realized it would be wiser to split the arc finale into two parts. So consider this chapter "Finale Part 1", and next chapter "Finale Part 2". Even with splitting, this chapter clocks in as my second longest ever. As always, I hope you enjoyed and would love to read your reviews and hear any feedback about the story.

I have more boring news but which might interest longtime readers. Over the past three years I haven't updated very frequently — there has been a reason for this. I finish my professional degree at the end of May, so yay! That's time in my life I'm about to get back. It's odd to think that this story has been bouncing in my head to some degree these past three years, and yet I've been unable to write to match that degree of attention. But I'd like to think more productive, faster-updated days are ahead. I can't really promise anything except this story never really strays too far from my mind. As long as that remains true, (and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't, because I do truly love this story and its characters and all the crazy ideas I have planned for it still!), this story will never be abandoned or forgotten. And certainly, no review ever goes unread.

Reviews:

guest: cool review :^)

Swiggity Swootyy: First of all, I'd like to say, I really enjoy the username you chose to end your long period of lurking.

As to your review — it was wonderful and nice and pretty much everything I've ever wanted to read in a review. If I were to print out reviews to hang on my walls, I would print this one out first. I'm glad you've enjoyed everything you've mentioned; I'm grateful you left out the things I'm sure irked you while going through my story. To say anything more would dilute the gratitude I hope my few sentences have conveyed. So thank you dearly, and cheers.