Chapter Sixteen - Unravelling

Kakkarotto and Gohan stood side by side in identicle blue body suits and white and brown battle armors. They were on the bridge of the ship watching the last of the evacuation shuttles as it left Kurokokun. They were about fifteen minutes from landing on the planet and had just contacted Saiya to speak with Gero. "So, I was right then?"

Gero nodded. "Buu finished reforming about an hour after you left and started straight for Kurokokun. It did stop at one point, not sure why, but then started again."

"Maybe it sensed the evacuation and our approach?" Gohan suggested. "If it can sense powers like we think it would have no doubt noticed us coming."

"Yes, that is likely." Gero said. "In any rate, the creature will arrive at Kurokokun in another two and a half hours."

Gohan nodded. "Has Piccolo checked back in?"

"Yes. Shortly after you left in fact. It seems that Kami does indeed know a method that could possibly contain Buu. A technique called the 'Evil Containment Wave'. However, apparently, it is deadly to the user."

Gohan frowned. "Perhaps 19 or 16 could use it... being entirely mechanical it probably wouldn't kill them..."

Gero shook his head. "It uses life force energy. Of the Androids only 17 and 18 could actually use the skill. I've spoken to Vegeta about this already and he's got a few people in mind that could possibly use the skill. Fortunately it seems that differences in strength don't matter with this ability so literally anyone could use it."

"Well, that's good news at least." Kakkarotto said. "But I don't intend on losing this fight. I've not had a challange like this in so long... this is going to be great!"

Gero chuckled as the screen went black. Gohan had to agree with the scientist on that sentiment. Sai-jins looked forward to battle no matter what. A challenging battle was even more enticing. But with his father it was quite a different thing. Whereas most Sai-jins wanted to fight to get stronger Kakkarotto wanted to fight to fight. He just loved fighting, loved challenge, and loved the excitement of it all. The power was merely a bonus in his mind. Though, the powerful Sai-jin had often admitted he wished he wasn't as strong as he was sometimes. Being at the top rather limited one's options for good sparring partners.

"We're entering the atmosphere now." a tech said from behind the two warriors. "You may want to take your seats." The two nodded and moved over to their chairs. The clouds passed by quickly as the ship came down and made it's landing. A few moments later they were exiting as the engines revved up and the ship took off again. It would move back outside of the solar system and await the signal to return for the two Sai-jins, just in case Buu decided to destroy Kurokokun. This way they'd still have a ship to use.

The two gazed about at the massive complex around them. Kurokokun wasn't the most hospitable of worlds but it had been rich in a lot of resources. It made the perfect place for a research facility. "How big is this place?" Kakkarotto asked.

"About fifty square miles on surface, a hundred and thirty cubic miles of space above ground." Gohan replied. "Another good twenty cubic miles underground too."

"Damn... sounds expensive."

Gohan chuckled. "Around five hundred billion Zenni."

"Vegeta would kill me if I wrecked this place... come on, let's head out to a more open area." Kakkarotto said lifting into the air and taking off, Gohan close behind. It didn't take long for the two to find a wide open expanse. Not a mountain or even a hill in sight. Landing Kakkarotto laid down, put his hands under his head, closed his eyes, and he was asleep. Gohan stared at him for a moment, shook his head, and then sat down to wait.

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Tao stood in front of the storage area where the artifacts he'd collected were stored. One thing he hated about space flights, he couldn't do anything. Sure, he could squeeze in some training, and now that he had company even a little sparring, but that didn't actually get anything done. He'd been travelling through space for years now, tracking down these artifacts. Now he was close to the final two, he just had to find Slug and steal them. But then... then would come the hardest part. Locating the Ancient's Homeworld.

He knew a good bit about the planet. One, it was hidden from those that didn't know it was there. Two, it was actually a moon, as opposed to a planet. Three, it orbited a planet twice the size of Jupiter. Four, it was dangerous. Highly dangerous. The Ancients had left behind 'Automated Guaridans' on their Homeworld to protect it. Why or how he didn't know. Apparently the Potaras served two uses. One was the use Tao sought, the power to merge two beings into one. The other was as some sort of key... to what he didn't know. Just that it was hidden on the planet somewhere.

After having talked with Nail about this he'd begun to wonder if, perhaps, that is what Slug sought. Not to fuse with Turles but to locate this unknown secret. If that was true... perhaps Slug knew what this secret was. And if he wanted it then it had to be something important. As such they'd made a small change to the plans. Tao would locate and acquire the artifacts, once they found Slug's ship, while Nail accessed the computers and tried to determine what it was that Slug was actually after.

Of course, this all depended on them finding the Namek. Slug was good at hiding. One of the best. It's how he'd survived all this time. The Human turned from the artifacts and made his way back up to the command level of the ship. "Tao, we're passing through a transmission stream." Nail said turning to face the Human.

Tao nodded and moved over to the com station and began recording all the data off the stream. It was the only way to get the information without connecting to the network, and if you were on the network you were detectable by the computers on Saiya. Staying off the network made it easier to stay undetected.

The Human watched as the computer sifted through everything and in a matter of moments all the new information was downloaded, stored, and what the computer thought was important was tagged for priority reading. Instantly a broadcast appeared on the monitor with 'Earth' up in the top right corner. Tao had the computer set to automatically show him any info related to the Earth instantly.

The video was a news broadcast, a blue skined and red haired anchorwoman speaking. The date in the bottom corner was just over three hours old. "It has been confirmed, the entire solar system where the Planet Earth, the world Master Kakkarotto grew up on and birthplace of the Humans, is gone. It is unclear at this time as to what caused the destruction of the entire solar system but the Masters are looking into the matter..."

Tao switched it off. "Seems the Masters finally got smart." he said after a moment of silence.

"But the entire system?"

"Probably wanted to make sure no one was hiding on another planet." Tao replied.

Nail nodded. "So... now what?"

The Human shook his head. "Don't worry about my allies. They're fine. We had expected this and had a contingency plan in place. They're safe on a new world, hidden from the Masters just like the Ancient's Homeworld and Namek. Plans continue as they are."

The Namek sighed a bit relieved. "That's good to know. So, do we have any idea where to look for Homeworld? I know you've told me what you know..."

Tao shook his head. "Not really." he said. "That's something else I want to look into on Xentron. Once we're on a planet we can access the network without giving away our location to the Masters. From there I can research and find the place..." Tao suddenly paused in his pacing, a thought coming to him at that moment. "But who says Slug waited?"

"What?"

"Slug's great at hiding. He shows up somewhere. Does what he needs too. And then he's gone again. Just like that. His ship is rather large... I've wondered how you hide something like that. What if..."

"He's hiding out on Homeworld!" the Namek said in understanding. "That could work. If he found it first it'd make a perfect place to hide from the Masters."

"Yes. We'll try and locate Homeworld first, see if perhaps Slug is hiding out there. We may just get lucky..." He moved over to his command chair and sat down pulling up the information he'd downloaded and sifting through it.

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Bra stared up at her ceiling, her blankets pulled up tight against her. She figured Pan was probably even more worried than her, it was her father and grandfather out there getting ready to fight that thing. But... she was worried too. If they couldn't stop it... She'd never considered the possibility that she'd died. Never. She was one of the Masters, she'd live forever. Now, though, there was that chance... "At least I'd get to see Goten again..." she thought glumly.

However, thoughts of Goten soon lead to thoughts of Marron. She couldn't help it. The blonde haired girl had caught her eye that first day in the med bay. She wondered if, perhaps, that's why she'd clung to her so much that day. Or maybe... that's why she felt like she did now, because she'd clung to her then and still was now. "Ugh, I'm going to drive myself crazy trying to figure this out. Do I like her or not? Well, Bra, there's only one way to find out."

With that thought she tossed off the covers and sat up. "Oh, who am I kidding?" she nearly cried as she looked at herself in her mirror. "I'll die of old age before I ever actually say anything to her!" and with a groan she fell back onto the bed again, grabbed her pillow, and pulled it up over her face. "I'm hopeless." she muttered through the pillow.

"Got that right." a voice said from off to her right.

"Gee, thanks Pan." she said through the pillow.

"Just call them as I see them." the other girl replied. "So, what's wrong now?"

"Wrong? What could possibly be wrong? The universe is coming to an end at the hands of a wad of pink chewing gum and my brain wont stop thinking about Marron. Everytime I close my eyes it's her. Sure, Goten shows up first sometimes, but always her. Gah!" her muffled cry sounded through her pillow as she pulled it down against her face harder.

Pan chose to ignore the refrence to the Buu creature not wanting to think about it and instead pressed on the other matter. "Oooh, someone's got a crush."

"Ya... no... I don't know!" Bra nearly yelled pulling the pillow off her face. "I... maybe. I don't know. Maybe I'm just latching onto her, you know? Cause she was there... that night. Or maybe not."

"Well, you're a Sai-jin... it's natural."

Bra snorted.

"It is." Pan said leaning in closer to her com station so that her face filled the screen of Bra's monitor. "Sai-jins don't really show feelings, not most, but they're not solitary creatures. Haven't you noticed? You'll never see a Sai-jin alone unless they're asleep or possibly eating."

"So I don't like her..."

Pan shrugged. "I don't know. It's not the first time you've had a crush on a girl. You did have that thing for 18 a few years back." The raven haired girl smiled a little. "And of course, the thing you had for me."

"Hey! You said you were going to drop that! I was nine, give me a break."

Pan laughed. "I'm just saying, it's possible. You should talk to her."

Bra sighed. "I don't know. It just doesn't feel right, starting something so soon after... after Goten's death. And then... going through that again... losing him was bad enough... losing anyone else..."

"I know how you feel." Pan said after a moment of silence. "I couldn't take it if something happened to 17... and no matter what I'm sticking with him. But you can't let that hold you back Bra. You don't want to be alone for the rest of eternity, do you?"

"But that's just it!" she cried. "Even if I do find someone else... it'll only last for a while and then they'll die. I know dad doesn't seem to care that much... he's actually been looking at a lot of the women around the palace for a new mate I think, but me... I can't do that. I can't take a new mate every sixty or seventy years."

"Then don't." Pan said. "You are the princess. Use that, make whoever you take as your mate a Master, screw what your father says."

"That's easy for you to say. You wouldn't have to deal with him afterwords, I would."

"It's not like he can do anything. Think about it. He can rant and rave and yell until he's red and steam is pouring out of his ears but once you're a Master you've got Eternal Youth. Even if he says their not and they can't make any decisions or anything, they'll still live forever."

"Ya... I guess so. And dealing with his temper is worth it in the end, I think." Bra sat up and finally looked over to Pan's face on the monitor. "Thanks."

"No problem. It's what ex-crushes are for."

Bra threw her pillow at the monitor. "Just for that I think I'll send 17 off to some oxygenless planet for a few months!" she said sticking her tongue out.

"Oooh, want me all for yourself do you?" Pan joked.

"You are so full of yourself."

"Anyway, I was calling for a reason actually. More than just seeing how you were doing anyway. It turns out that matters here are being... delayed. Apparently Cooler's decided to hold off on all diplomatic actions until this... thing... is dealt with. Which means... I'm stuck on this rock for a month longer than I'd thought. I can't get through to your father to let him know so I was hoping you could tell him? 17 was supposed to deal with some problem on Leberion after he got back, some sort of rebel faction thing or something."

Bra nodded. "Sure, no problem. I'll see if I can find him now... I feel like sparring with Trunks anyway."

"You? Feel like sparring? Are you feeling alright?"

Bra laughed. "Ya, I'm fine. Sparring helps me relax and I'll need to before I talk to Marron..."

"So, you're going to go for it then?"

"Ya... I think I will..."

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Shin gazed at the warriors before him once more as they trained. They'd come pretty far in the last three weeks. Nappa had managed to learn how to do Bardock's Hell Fire move, though the power boost wasn't as great for him. Shin supposed it was a representation of how close the two were to attaining that power. Bardock was closer than Nappa and thus could tap into more of the power. Raditz hadn't even bothered attempting it deciding to stick with his Super Sai-jin transformation since it was stronger anyway.

"Ah, Supereme Kai!" Bardock called seeing the mohawked Kai at last. "Just the person I was looking for." he grinned.

Shin raised an eyebrow. He'd only seen Bardock this excited once before, when Nappa had learned the Hell Fire technique. "Something has you in good spirits."

"Of course." the Sai-jin said grinning. "Gains in power always do." He turned toward Raditz. "Come on, let's do this."

"Do we have to? It looks so ridiculous." Bardock just scowled. "Alright, I'm coming." Raditz mumbled walking over. Shin watched in interest as the two lined up and he felt Bardock's power drop quickly. Soon it was even with that of Raditz. Then, together, they began to move and call out. "Fuuuuuu. Sion. Ha!" Their fingers touched, light sparked and flared, and then a new power replaced the two Sai-jins. A much stronger power.

"A-amazing! You've pulled it off!" Shin cried as the light faded away to reveal the new warrior. He looked almost exactly like Bardock but he had Raditz's eyes and hair. His pants were dark blue, the vest black with sea green trim.

The fusion smirked and laughed. "Radock at your service." he said in a double voice, bowing. "Care for a demonstration of my full power?" Shin merely nodded. Radock grinned and hunched over, a roar exploding from the pit of his stomach as he gathered every ounce of his power about him, a swirling blue aura dancing about him wildly. The entire planet trembled under his feet as the mighty warrior focused his strength. "Here we go!" he cried. "Hell Fire!"

His aura flared outward massively, shifting rapidly to the red fire like aura associated with the move. Blue, white, black, yellow, and orange specks of light floated up along the aura like burning embers as the ground beneath his feet exploded into rubble. The fusion threw it's head back and let out a roar as its muscles swelled up growing to twice their original size. His eyes turned solid red and Shin noticed that he grew a pair of fangs as well. And then he felt the true extent of the power increase. Twenty-five fold. Not twenty as Bardock could do alone or ten as Nappa could. Twenty five.

"That's... amazing." Shin breathed. "Outstanding! Only Gohan and Kakkarotto are stronger than you now!"

"Then I have something to work for." the fusion said in a deep and raspy voice. "But first, I need a sparring partner." he said turning to look at the others.

Olibu and Nappa looked at each other and grinned, the Sai-jin's energy dipping down slightly to match the Human's. A moment later, much to Shin's shock, they were going through the same steps Bardock and Raditz had just done. "Fuuuuuuu. Sion. Ha!" The light flared and swirled about them. And when the light faded it revealed a new warrior. He was very large and musclar in appearance. His pants were white and the vest was black with white trim. His eyes were iris-less but blue, his hair short and spikey blonde, almost Super Sai-jin in appearance.

The Fusion hunched over and gathered energy about it, the planet shaking once more. "Hell Fire!" his double voice cried a moment later. The Fusion's white aura exploded into a fire red one as his already large muscles grew even larger. It only took a moment and then two pure red eyed Fusion's stood grinning at each other, excitement on their faces. This new Fusion's power was a bit more than half that of Radock's... which was still very powerful. It also meant that he only got a ten fold increase with the Hell Fire like Nappa. And Hybrid's lacked access to the Human transformation so that wasn't a possibility for this warrior.

"So, Napu, ready to go?" Radock asked in his deep, raspy, double voice.

"This should be fun." Napu said grinning. "Going to join in Pikkon?" The green alien walked over, his weighted clothes already discarded, and stood beside Napu. He and the Fusion eyed up Radock for a moment and then all three vanished.

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Rain had her legs propped up on a crate as she leaned back into her chair and watched the TV Everfrost had set up. She was currently the only one awake. Her sister was stretched out on her own chair sleeping, Everfrost and Xeno were in their cots sleeping. And Eve had drained the water from her tub and packed it with ice and gone to sleep as well. They'd all tried to stay awake until the computer had finished cleaning up the message in the pod but one by one they'd dropped off. Rain had been the only smart one of the group having slept already so she was still fresh.

Suddenly she heard a series of sharp beeps from the area of the pod. Moving over to the pod she looked at the screen of the computer and sure enough it was done. She moved over to the tub and reached in shaking Eve. "Hey, you wanted me to get you up when it finished, well, it's finished."

It took a few minutes to get everyone up and about and then they were gathered around the pod again, Eve seated inside with the computer on her lap. "Alright folks, this is as cleaned up as the audio gets. Time to find out what it was Brolly was doing going to Earth." Her fingers danced over the keys as she cued up the cleaned up audio file and ran it through a few last minute filters to help with clearing out any odd background noises.

It was Bardock's voice that sounded from the speakers. "Kakkarotto, this is Brolly, he's a friend, I asked him to help you. By the ... .ou .et this I'll probably be dead. Things are going badly .. ... ..pire. Prin.. ..geta doesn't see it but Para... ... I can. I wanted to warn you, before they found you. The Chan...ings, or maybe just Cooler, are aft.. ...methi.. and aren't ... .. .ur side. I know he'll kill us all eventually, once .. ... ..atever it is he's a...r. Kakkarotto, be careful, and don't let your gaurd down."

The five looked at each other, the same look of confusion and shock etched on all five faces. "What... the hell?" Eve said finally breaking the silence after several long moments. There were some parts still missing to the audio but nothing could be done about that. Didn't really matter anyway, she could make out the gist of the message now. "I don't get it..." she said shaking her head. "Bardock and Brolly where on the same side? But... what about the events on Tinto?"

Xeno rubbed his forehead. "I don't know." he said slowly. "We... we need to work this out." he turned and started pacing around the room. "We'll go from the beginning, with what we know... or think we know."

"Where's the beginning though?" Everfrost asked.

"The meeting of the Empires." Eve said pulling herself out of the pod and moving over to her ice packed tub to cool off. "When they first met it was Master Cold that stopped a fight from breaking out when his sons' egos clashed with Master Vegeta's father."

"Right." Xeno said nodding. "Then, a few years later, Paragus and Brolly made their debut by killing the Sai-jin King about a year before the Tinto incident. Damn... who was the strongest back then?"

"The young Master Vegeta." Storm replied. "Just around 90,000,000 according to records. And then came Master Frieza at just short of 70,000,000."

"How strong was Cooler?" Eve asked.

"Around 20,000,000 I think."

Xeno nodded. "Alright, alright, that's something... Paragus was around a 100,000 and there's no exact records on Brolly but he couldn't have been much stronger than Bardock's 500,000."

"No." Eve said shaking her head. "That number is wrong. Yes, it's Bardock's last recorded power, but it was nearly a year before Tinto that that power was recorded."

"What do you mean?" Rain asked, turning to face the Nezorf.

"When Bardock went to Kanassa his power was at 500,000. He came back from that battle half dead so he would have recieved a Zenkai from that. But before his power could be recorded again he took off, apparently having picked up word of what Paragus was up to while on Kanassa. We have little records of his actual exploits, with the state of matters on Saiya after the King's death... it was near chaos."

Eve sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "We do know that Bardock got into a number of battles though. There's a record of him appearing at the hospital complex on Vergo 7 and then again a few weeks later on Vergo 8. And we know he was on Cold's ship for a short time and there's records of him using the Regen Tanks there as well before taking off again."

"Shit." Rain said softly. "Four Zenkais?"

"At the least." Eve said nodding. "Most don't even give it a thought I've found, but... well, I've always been interested in Bardock so I've done little bits of research here and there. Anyway, with at least four Zenkais, with a starting power of 500,000 he would have been at least around 1.5 million on Tinto."

"And he still had trouble fighting Brolly?" Everfrost wondered. "How? I mean..."

"I spoke to a doctor a few years ago." Storm said slowly. "While I was stationed on Saiya. He was an old guy and we kept each other company sometimes, talking all night a few times. He told me he was one of the attendants the morning that Master Kakkarotto and Brolly were born. Kept going on about how he couldn't believe how strong Master Kakkarotto had become having only had a power of 200 at birth. He said that Brolly had attracted a good bit of attention, since his power was already 15,000 at birth. Granted, he was in the 'Second Generation' so it wasn't too suprising, but he said there was something... different to the boy."

"Different? Different how?" Eve asked.

"He said it was the same with Master Kakkarotto. They both had the same... feel to them. He couldn't describe it but he had the feeling the two of them would be great warriors and play a large role in the future." Suddenly Storm's eyes snapped open as she remembered something else. "He told me once that he would show me the records from then, about those two, but both of them had been sealed and he didn't know why. None of the other records ever were."

"Just what we needed to do." Eve muttered. "Stumble onto a damn conspiracy in the Empire. Shit."

"If Master Cooler really is out to take over..." Everfrost said. "We'd get a big reward for finding out about it and warning the other Masters."

Eve sighed. "Bring me my computer again. I'll hack into Saiya's database and find the records on Master Kakkarotto and Brolly."