Chapter Twenty-three - A Costly Decision

Marron had watched on intently as Bulma filed up six more chalkboards with her equations. She'd managed to fill out all four branching paths and she wasn't particularly happy about how any of them had turned out. "What's the problem?" Marron asked looking over the math. As she'd watched she'd figured out a few things but she didn't know the shorthand Bulma used, or what each varriable represented, to get a good grasp on it.

"Well... no matter which model we use... things are still out of wack." Bulma said with a sigh. "While it's true that all living things absorb and release equal amounts of energy it's also true that when a new transformation is attained vast ammounts of energy are absorbed in the process and not instantly released again. It takes time. Days, weeks, months, even years for it all to filter back out, depending on the race.

"With a Sai-jin... the release is slow. With the ammount of power Kakkarotto absorbed via his transformation it'll take two, maybe three years to filter it back into the universe. Beyond this the displacement in power created by his sudden transformation is felt two fold due to the vacum left by Buu's death."

"But, wouldn't the other Buu counter that?" Marron asked.

"I thought of that..." Bulma said, moving over to another board. "I actually had to branch off on this equation here to add some things up. Here, take a look at my SyncScope." the woman said pointing to a poidum like device at one side of the room. She'd consulted it several times during her math but Marron hadn't known why. As she approached it and gazed at the green glass display she learned why.

"This... it's an energy meter."

"Exactly. It keeps track of the energy levels around the universe. Well, an estimation of the average. The dispersion of energy through the universe isn't constant. There's pockets and fluxes naturally. Beyond that the center is always weaker than the outer."

"How come?" Marron asked, looking up from the device.

"The energy is pulled out from the center of the universe." Bulma explained. "Drawn out to where it's needed. And then it slowly washes back in to fill the void between the galaxies. That's what the Eye of the Universe really is, a storage site for all the extra energy in the universe. So that's where the instabilities will surface first. Not that I've detected any just yet. But that SyncScope paints the picture clear as can be."

Marron looked down at it again. She knew how to read these devices. They'd been designed to scan planets for destablized Xerudia deposits. The more the line waved across the screen the more energy was flowing through it. The line on the screen she saw wasn't all that wavy. "But how accurate is this for that kind of thing?"

"Best there is. I've modified it extensively. It no longer detects high frequency X-Proton energy, but base energy. Ether. See the red number?" Marron looked and nodded when she did. "What's it read now?"

"Umm, 63."

Bulma sighed. "63 now? It was only 62 when I looked earlier. It's getting worse. The reason the number is red is because it's below 0, or balanced levels. 63 points is a lot of difference from the balance. A lot of difference."

"How much?"

Bulma turned to look at her. "Buu appeared while the scale was at 40." she replied. The blonde's eyes widened a bit and Bulma nodded. "I had thought that Buu's destruction would have brought us closer to 0 again. But instead we've dropped even further off. And it can't all be Kakkarotto's transformation. That would have changed it by a few points but not this many. The fat Buu couldn't be the cause either. And together the two of them couldn't add up to more than 10 points. What's more, since this other Buu is weaker than the other he should cause less distortion than the small one. Instead the opposite seems to be happening."

She sighed. "I'm worried... worried that we've already gone passed the point of no return. Passed the level of damage where the universe could heal itself given the time. And now everything causes even worse damage than before. If that's the case then everything that occurs will just tip the balance further. Everything will just cause more damage at ever increasing ammounts. Until... Until the universe can no longer sustain itself and is destroyed."

"That... that's possible?" Marron asked shocked.

Bulma nodded. "Yeah, it is. If we're passed that point then... any attempts made by the universe to restore the balance will only cause it to tip further out of wack. Eventually... something has to give."

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Cold, Inferna, and their escorts looked around them in awe. They had stepped through the large doors of the building and now stood in a massive room, if it could really be called a room. It was at least three hundred yards wide, a thousand yards long, and two hundred yards high. From the ceiling hung dozens chandeliers made of gold and crystal and they came to life as the group entered the chamber.

The floor was made of marble, as were the walls. The ceiling appeared to be made of gold, or at least gold plated. Golden collums stood through out the room reaching from floor to ceiling to help support it. Gold trim lined the joints between ceiling and walls, walls and floors, and even between each wall. At the opposite end appeared to be a large statue, but from this distance it was hard to make out details.

What stuck out the most about the room was the pristine condition it was in. The gold still glinted in the light and there wasn't a crack to be seen. "Amazing..." Inferna said walking into the room and looking around. "It's in such good condition... there must be people here, or they must have only recently left."

"Perhaps." Cold said as he walked further into the room himself. "But I would expect anyone cappable of building something like this would be cappable of preserving it in perfect condition indefinately."

Inferna nodded as she continued looking around. "Yes, true." she said. "Do you think... could this be the homeworld of those Ancients you mentioned?"

Cold was about to reply when a voice interupted him. "Lady Inferna!"

She turned and looked and found one of her soldiers looking at the wall. "What is it?"

"It's writing." he said back. "I've seen it before. I think. It looks a bit like archaic Indolean."

Inferna raised an eyebrow and then walked over and looked at the text engraved on the wall. As she did she realized writing reached from ceiling to floor and it looked like it stretched the entire wall too. If this was on every wall... there would be over ten billion words here. She ran her fingers across the words as she scanned them over and she recognized some of the grammer and words as well. "Indolean you say?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am."

"Interesting. I recognize elements of archaic Valkano here as well."

"Let me see." Cold said walking over to look as well. He scanned over the wall as well, his expression changing from curiosity to shock to intense interest as he read. "My word... this is most interesting." he said. "I recognize elements of archaic Changeling, Sai-jin, Human, Vaadaa, Aisu-jin, and even elements of the Ancient's language..."

"What do you think it means?"

"I'm not sure. But I do not think this is Homeworld. This writing makes me think that this place pre-dates even the Ancients. This is... most interesting indeed." He turned to the nearest member of his guard. "Fyuu, send orders back to my ship. I want the entire science team I brought in here analyzing every inch of these walls."

"At once sire." he said with a small bow.

Cold nodded and then looked back at the wall again. "What is really odd about this writting..." he said after a moment. "Is that it isn't consistent with itself."

"How so?" asked Inferna as she looked it over.

"Well, here, look at this. This word is pure archiac Changeling. But this one here, right after it, is a mix of Changeling and Sai-jin. And I just saw that same word a little higher in pure Ancient. Granted, the languages have similiarities between them so in such writing as this it is hard to determine what is purely one race over another. But there are spelling differences, wording changes, etc, that make it more likely that it's got one origin over another."

"You sound like you know a lot about languages."

"Language, culture, and history have always interested me." he replied. "Ever since I first started noting the similarities between the races of the universe I've been interested in finding some sort of link between them."

"A link? Like what?"

Cold shruged and shook his head. "I don't know. A common ancestry, a common point origin, maybe an ancient empire that spanned the galaxies and allowed all the cultures to mingle and mix. Maybe something I hadn't thought of."

Inferna nodded. She wasn't so sure how likely a common ancestry or point of origin was, but there was always the chance some old empire had come and gone and that it had spread language and cultre to all the worlds. It certainly would explain all the similarities between the different cultures of the different races. As she looked back she read over some of what was written on the wall. Actually read it instead of just examining it. "Hmm, this looks like recorded history..." she said.

"Oh?" Cold asked and then read over part of the wall himself. "You're right, this does look like a recorded history. Bit of an odd place to do it though, don't you think?"

"Not if this room had some major significance to these people." Inferna said. "And judging by its desgin I would say it did." As she finished speaking a small army of a three hundred and fifty scientists began entering the room. The three hundred Cold had brought for studying the South Galaxy and the fifty that had come with Inferna to study the North Galaxy during her visit.

As Fyuu joined him again Cold moved away from the wall to give the scientists that were swarming it some more room. Hopefully they'd be able to fully decipher the text written on it. Granted, the fact it was in mostly known languages, although ancient versions of them, meant some of it was vaguely readable. Even so, it was far from enough for a clear picture. And the meanings of some of the words used had changed over the millenia which would make some lines sound like gibberish to those not trained to know the old languages.

With more experienced people at work on the walls he decided to go investigate the other feature of the room. The statue at the opposite end. Obviously Inferna had the same idea as she was already walking that way. Cold followed after her as he gazed up at the towering figure. He judged the room to be at least two hundred yards in height which would make the statue only a couple of feet shorter. The very top of it nearly touched the ceiling.

The statue was either made of gold or was gold plated and the figure was that of a woman who could have almost passed as Human or Sai-jin. The 'almost' was because she had a pair of horns upon her head much like his own. They were considerablly smaller, didn't go up any higher than the top of her head. But they were there. They emerged from the side of her head completely horizontally, reached out a few feet, and then hooked up. If the statue were Inferna's size he figured the horns would be no more than two feet long at the most.

Her hair hung down over shoulders and about halfway down her back. She was completely nude and she stood with her head tilted up slightly, her eyes closed, and her arms at her sides and slightly out. Almost like those images he'd seen of those beings... what had the Humans called them again? Angels, right. That was it. The statue was almost like the drawings he'd seen of Angels rising up into Heaven. It certainly had that 'otherworldy' feel to it.

He had reached the base of the statue now, as had Inferna, and she was already reading the inscription. "Any idea what it says?" he asked. He noted there really wasn't much writing there and figured she'd probably read it over a half dozen times by now.

"I think so..." she replied. "If I'm right, it says 'The Goddess of Creation, Souzousha. Creator and Protector of the Universe.'" she said.

"Hmm." Cold thought, rubbing his chin. "A goddess, eh? Perhaps this was a shrine of some sort? Or it could have been the central point of their religion. A building of this size no doubt could have housed a metropolis' worth of people."

"A holy city for this world's former inhabitants?" Inferna pondered aloud. "It's interesting, though. I've never heard of this Souzousha before. Every race I've ever encounted has always spoken of the Kais."

"Indeed." Cold concurred. "There have been a handful of races with more than one religion, but I don't think we have ever met a race that didn't at least know the word Kai. Even the Ancients spoke of the Kais, though they refered to them as the 'child gods' on more than one occasion. There were some refrences to other forces or entites above and beyond the Kais but never anything specific."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Kakkarotto yawned and stretched as he walked down the hall of the ship toward the exit. They'd finally returned to Saiya again and it was time to get off but he was still rather tired. He'd expended more energy in that battle than he'd thought he had. Him and Gohan both. They'd slept almost the entire trip home. As he walked down the stairs off the ship he saw Gohan and Buu already there and talking with Gero and Vegeta.

"What's up?" He asked reaching them.

"Just getting things settled." Gohan said as Gero and Buu walked off. "Gero wants to run a few tests on Buu while we talk with Vegeta about something, then he's going to do some tests on me too."

Kakkarotto looked over to Vegeta. "Talk to you about something? Did something happen here while we were gone?"

Vegeta nodded. "Something we need to discuss. But not here. We'll head to the conference room." And with that the Sai-jin King turned and walked off. The other two Sai-jins glanced at each other and then followed after him. There wasn't much they couldn't talk about in the open and so both were curious as to what this was about. A few moments later they reached the conference room and Vegeta sealed the door behind them.

"What's up Vegeta?" Gohan asked, beyond curious.

"Trunks came to me while you two were fighting Buu." he explained as he walked over to the table and took a seat. He put his elbows on the table, clasped his hands together, and rested his chin on them. "He and Bra were sparing when a stray energy blast nearly hit Marron. The girl... her power suddenly spiked to a level comparable to Gohan's base."

"What!?" Kakkarotto cried in shock. "Are you serious?"

Vegeta nodded slightly. "Yes. It was only temporary and she apparently didn't realize it. I don't know what could have caused such a power spike but it's dangerous no matter the source. At that level she could kill Bra, Trunks, me, even you, Kakkarotto, while we're in base. She's an unknown, more so than anyone before her. And with her father being who he is..."

"Right." Gohan said, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, but, he's dead." Kakkarotto said, shaking his head.

"That doesn't mean she can't decide to side with any new Human resistance groups that form." Gohan said. "Or just decide on her own to retaliate, if she ever learned to control it. And there's no telling if that was her full power or not."

"Those were my thoughts." Vegeta said. "But this is a... delicate matter. 18's state of mind hasn't quite returned to what it was before the poisioning incident. Or, should I say, before the destruction of the Earth."

"She still cared about Krillin." Gohan said, his eyes narrowing a bit as he thought. "She knew there was nothing she could do, though, and simply accepted the Earth's fate. But I've noticed, too, that it hasn't exactly sat well with her. She's always been soft. I think the only things that have helped her keep herself together are Trunks and Marron."

Vegeta nodded again. "Yes. She's got them to help keep her going or she would have likely slipped when the Earth's destruction was ordered. However, I don't think even Trunks is enough for her to hang on to if something were to happen to Marron, at our orders at least. But, if it were to be some outside cause..."

"She'd have an outlet for her emotions." Kakkarotto said, getting where Vegeta was going. "She'd have something or someone to direct her feelings toward, something to fight for."

"Exactly."

"What did you have in mind?" Gohan asked.

"Slug." the Sai-jin royal replied. "We stage an incident involving him that results in Marron's death. I believe she's being sent to Gorneo in a few more days. I can send Trunks along with the orders. He knows how to set up staged attacks like this. The Gorneo project has been the source of problems lately anyway. I was thinking of just sending someone to whip them into shape, but wiping them all out works just as well."

Gohan stood there in thought for a few moments before looking up at Vegeta again. "What about Bra?"

"Bra?" Vegeta asked, confused. "What about her?"

"You mean you haven't noticed?" asked the Hybrid, raising an eyebrow.

"Noticed what?"

"The way she's been watching Marron. Starring at her might describe it better. The way she acts around her, looks at her."

Vegeta's eyes widened slowly as he realized what Gohan was suggesting. "You think that...?"

Gohan shook his head. "No, I don't think. I know."

"Know what?" Kakkarotto asked lost. "What is it?"

His son glanced over to him. "Bra's been looking at Marron as a possible mate. Pretty much everyone's noticed. Videl's mentioned it to me more than once. Trunks even brought it up about a week ago."

"You're kidding!?" his father asked, suprised. "But... they're both girls... how does that work?!"

Gohan blinked, sighed, and hung his head. "Anyway, what I'm getting at is that 18's reaction isn't the only one we need to consider here. I don't really think Bra would have as bad a reaction as 18 but... well, you know how she can get."

Vegeta pursed his lips. Gohan had a point there. "Well, with our current plan that shouldn't be a problem either. Neither Bra or Trunks has mentioned this to me so nothing has come of it yet. She may still take it badly but we can deal with that if and when it comes. So, are we in agreement then?" The two Sai-jins nodded. "Good. I'll start getting things ready.

"Now, we need to talk about this... Buu creature." he said, straightening up. "It's power is exceptional..."

"I don't think he's dangerous." Gohan said. "Not really. I've gotten the impression he's like a child. Which means we can mold him the way we like. We befriend him and he'll join us, simple as that."

"And if he ever does become an issue I am stronger than him now." Kakkarotto said with a shrug. Vegeta merely grunted at the reminder of the other Sai-jins new gain in power. "But really, I'm with Gohan on this one. He's harmless, despite his power. Not smart enough to be a Master by any stretch of the immagination, but he'd make for an unstoppable ally."

"Alright then. I'll see what Gero has to say about him before I make a formal decision." Vegeta said. "But it sounds like he stays."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Gero looked over the flow of data as it filled the screens before him. Videl was assisting him in his tests on Buu, tough the woman hadn't been overly fond of being near the creature at first. Now, however, she seemed to view him as simply an oversized infant and the two were getting along fine. Currently the creature was standing in a small room looking around in wonder as the scanner's lights passed over its body.

Videl walked up beside the doctor and looked at the monitor as well. "This is amazing." she said, reading some of the data. "His composition is..."

Gero nodded. "He's made of 70 oxygen, 20 nitrogen, 3 sodium, 2 sulfuric acid, and 5 calcium. And that's it. It really shouldn't be possible for him to be alive with these components. Especially at these proportions. He shouldn't even be solid, he's more gas than matter."

"Magic doesn't really follow the same rules, though." Videl said, reading another part of the screen. "And he's certianly got a lot of that. These readings are off the scales..."

"Indeed. Magic is what holds him together and gives him life. I think, perhaps, the only reason he has a body is because it's what he's used to. By these readings he doesn't even really need it. He could exist without it..."

"What I want to know is, is it possible for him to die? Or is that little one still out there somewhere?"

"Hard to say." Gero replied. "If something were to cause the cohesion of the magic that makes him to break down, concievably that would kill him. However, I don't know if the magic would re-condense given time enough or not. When parts of Buu are torn from the whole they hold a small magic charge but the core of his magic remains focused here..." he highlighted a small portion of the creature right in the center of its body.

"That's its core. In theory, it works like Cell's nucleus. So long as it remains intact he can reform. In Cell's case he has a nucleus in each individual cell of his body. For Buu, he only has the one core. However, that core is no larger than an atom and thus much harder to destroy. And, even if it is destroyed, I can't say for certain that there wouldn't be some residual energy that would allow it to come together again."

Videl sighed. "So it might still be alive?"

"It might, if the core can repair itself. In which case Buu is effectively immortal. Considering that neither Master Gohan or Master Kakkarotto could sense him anymore I'd assume his core was destroyed. Which means it's a 50/50 chance he's alive or dead." Gero shut down the scanners and then opened the door and let Buu out of the room. "Alright, we're done with the tests now." he said.

Buu walked out smiling. "That felt funny!" he laughed. "You should try it!"

The other two glanced at each other but before they could say anything the door to the lab opened and Gohan walked in. "Ah, Gohan, perfect timing." Gero said. "We just finished up our tests on Buu so we can get started on you now." He moved over to one of the metal beds in the room and patted it. "Lay down, I'm going to start off with some blood work. You had three attacks out there, including that odd power-restoring one?"

Gohan nodded and moved over to the table and laid down. As he did he looked over to Buu. "Hey, I never got the chance to ask you before. How did you kick that little freak out of my head?" he asked.

Buu blinked. "Buu no did. Other consciousness did!" he said. "You get knocked out and then he show up. Blew him away, boom! One shot!"

"What?" Gohan asked. "Other... wait, you mentioned that before. That I had two consciousnesses..."

Gero turned from the work he'd been doing and looked over to Gohan and Buu. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"When that little guy tried to absorb me." he explained. "We had to fight him off inside of my head. Before the battle Buu told me I had two consciousnesses. I never really found out what he meant by that." He turned and looked at Buu again. "You mean this other thing is the one that kicked the other Buu out?"

Buu nodded. "Yep!" He tilted his head a little and his face scrunched up oddly. It was hard for Videl not to laugh. "Buu think he know him somewhere. But I not sure. Little one did, though! Bad Buu knew him. Bad Buu was scared, I never seen Bad Buu scared before."

"Most intriguing." Gero said, rubbing his chin in thought. "You mean there's another being inside of Gohan?" Buu nodded in confirmation. "Well, that could explain a few things. Though it creates a lot more questions..."

"What, exactly, would it explain?" Gohan asked.

"Simple." replied the doctor. "It explains your attacks. At least, the source of them. This other entity is, most certainly, the cause. As to if the alterations to your DNA are being done on purpose or simply as a side-effect of this other presence being there I can't say for sure. Its presence may simply be causing your body to take on characteristics of its body. Or, it may be altering your DNA itself, to make itself a new body..."

"Terrific." Gohan muttered.

Gero didn't hear him, however. He'd turned his gaze back to Buu. "You say this other mind showed up after Gohan was knocked out?" Buu nodded again. "Hmmm. That would make sense. With him unconscious the other presence would have been able to exert more control than normal. It may have been unable to appear until Gohan was no longer cappable of restraining its presence. Undoubtedly it was also the source of the power you got back as well."

Gohan laid there thinkng for a moment. "Well, the way things were going..." he said slowly. "We wouldn't have lasted much longer. That power pretty much saved us."

"Yes. Self preservation. If you died then this other being would have likely perished as well. Not wanting that to happen it infused you with some of its energy. A rather unpleasant process..."

"You're telling me."

"Still." the doctor continued. "This begs the questions of who, what, how, when, and why? Who is it, what is it, when did it get there, and why is it there? Well, now that I know more about what is going on I may be able to find those answers."