Chapter Thirty-three - Course of Action

Yemma sighed as he looked at what remained of the sudden influx he'd started getting about thirty or forty minutes ago. Sudden influxes of souls were never a good thing. For the mortal world or for his head. Reaching up he rubbed his forehead and tried to ignore the throbbing migraine while the Oni dragged the latest soul, kicking and screaming, off to the H.F.I.L., the four hundred and seventh one in a row. So far. A new record and a real pain.

"Next!" he boomed, lowering his hand and gazing over his desk to see who was up now. He looked at the woman for a moment, asked her name, her place of death (not that he really needed to as the place of death had been the same for the last seven thousand people), and then started checking his books. As he flipped the page over and scanned down for her name he froze as he found it, and her details. He blinked, looked up from the book, then looked back at the remaining crowd. Just as he looked up past the woman he saw a few more new arrivals, one of which he recognized on sight. Blinking a few more times he looked back down at his books, at the information on the girl, and then flipped through the pages quickly for the information on the person he'd just seen.

XXX

It had been nearly a week, now, since Krillin had caught Bubbles. North Kai was becoming more and more impressed with the progress of his students as the days went by. Mitsuki had hit Gregory just the other day, Enzeru and Mitsuki had, as he had expected, started doing some light sparring almost as soon as Mitsuki had dropped the mallet. Tien was coming really close to hitting the little bug already, and Yamcha had managed to pull out a tuft of Bubbles's hair that morning in a grab for the fast monkey. He'd never seen such quick progress before, but then he'd also never had such determined students with so much riding on their training. All his other students had been dead and training only for the sake of it.

At the rate they were all going he wouldn't be surprised if they had all moved on to his main training by the end of the month. No doubt Yamcha would have Bubbles caught by the end of the day for sure. Once Bubbles was gone, and Tien had hit Gregory, then he'd call in his third assistant and the real training would begin. He could work on the three of them while Krillin and Yamcha caught up. He'd been hopefully optimistic about the Supreme Kai's plan when first learning of it but now.... Now he was convinced it would work, that these five could succeed.

He lowered his sandwich from his mouth before even taking a bite of it as he felt a telepathic nudge in his mind. "Huh? King Yemma?"

"It's been a while, North Kai." the large Oni said. "How goes your student's training?"

"Beyond anything I'd hoped." the Kai replied.

"That's good to know." said the Oni. "Your students... they're the ones from Earth, right? Krillin is among them?"

North Kai blinked. "Yes, why?"

"Well... I've got someone here...." he started. "Well, I was rather shocked about her, you see. I hadn't known of her...."

"Why would you have known of her? And what's she have to do with Krillin?"

"So, you didn't know either, then?"

"Know what?" North Kai asked, frustrated, as he finally took a bite of his sandwich.

"About Krillin's daughter."

The Kai spit his half chewed mouthful of sandwich out as he sat up. "Kril... his... WHAT?!"

"His daughter. Marron. His and 18's daughter. She's standing right in front of me. And if you think that's a shock you wont believe who's standing six people behind her."

"Don't tell me she's got a twin...."

Yemma chuckled. "Hardly. It's Trunks."

The Kai was now quite glad he hadn't swallowed any of that sandwich or he'd probably have started choking on it as he jumped to his feet and turned toward Yemma's check-in station. "Trunks? As in the Sai-jin Prince?" he demanded. "How...?"

"I looked it up, he was killed by 18 in retaliation for Marron's death." replied the Oni. "Something like this is likely to shake up the Masters quite a bit."

"Yes, yes it is. I'm going to poke around a bit. But... Yemma, could you do something for me...?"

After wrapping up his conversation with Yemma a few moments later, King Kai turned his focus from Otherworld to the mortal world and started adjusting his antenna as he searched. A moment later he had a lock on Saiya and then tracked down Vegeta. He was likely the best one to follow to see what sort of effect this turn of events was having on the Masters, and the universe as a whole. He found the Sai-jin King just in time to see Bra barge in on the meeting. "Ho ho, the girl's got a good right hook on her." he thought, smiling, as he watched her deck Vegeta.

"Two Masters missing?" he wondered a moment later. "Who's missing? I'll check into that next, but this turn is quite beneficial. 17, 18, Pan, and Bra all now aligned against the other Masters. Too bad it had to cost Marron's life to bring about. Now, let's see if I can find out who's missing...." A few moments later, by listening in on more of the conversation, he had his answer.

"Cold and Inferna vanished in the Eye?" he mused aloud. "Interesting. If they had died I'm sure word would have reached me by now. The death of a Master is always big news around here." He blinked a few times and turned to look toward his students. Krillin was just picking up the mallet to have his second go at hitting Gregory. The Kai cleared his throat and made his way over to them before the bug began his charge. "Hold on a moment." he said.

"What's up, North Kai?" Krillin asked, setting the mallet back down.

"There's been a... turn of events in the mortal world." the Kai explained.

"That evil Buu's not back, is he?" asked Enzeru.

The Kai shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that." he replied. "This is a... mostly good turn, mostly good news. I say mostly because while the turn is good for us the cause... well, you'll understand after I explain." He took a deep breath and smoothed out his clothes. "Half of the good news is that two Masters are missing, Cold and Inferna, gone without a trace, and that there's been another death of a Master." he said at last. "This time, it was Trunks."

"Trunks?" Tien asked in surprise. "Who? How?"

"The who is 18, the how I'm not entirely clear on, it was over before I knew it was happening."

"...18?" Krillin asked, shocked. "But... I thought they were... why did she?"

"That leads us to the bit that's not so good." replied the Kai. "18 was retaliating against Trunks for the death of another. The death of a young woman named Marron. Her daughter. Your daughter."

"M-my... my d-daughter!?" Krillin cried, eyes going wide.

North Kai nodded. "Yes. I don't know all the details just yet, Yemma only contacted me a few moments ago about the whole thing when he found out her relation to you during check-in. Anyway, this then leads us to the rest of the good news. From what I've gleamed from the mortal world it would seem that Marron was, er, romantically involved with Bra. 18 apparently got word out about what happened to her and what she did to Trunks pretty quickly. 17, Pan, and Bra have all defected from the Masters. They're going to join 18."

"No... way...." Enzeru breathed. "They've left? Even Bra and Pan? But... what about the bombs in 17 and 18?"

"Unusable." replied the North Kai. He'd caught that bit of information from Vegeta and gone probing around in Gero's labs for more information. "Another defense mechanism that Gero installed a long time ago." North Kai cleared his throat again. "Now, I pulled a few strings with Yemma and with the Supreme Kai. Yemma is sending Marron to the Grand Kai's world. In fact, she should be there by now. The Grand Kai will then work a little of his magic and call for me to come and get her. With his magic on her the gravity here wont effect her."

"She... she's coming here?" Krillin asked.

North Kai nodded. "Yes. I thought it might be a good idea. Besides, I want to pick her brain for information. Much easier to do with her here than me having to find her up in Heaven. Though the spell the Grand Kai is doing will take some time. It will be more than a week before she arrives here."

XXX

Hearing a knock at her door Bulma lowered her chalk and walked over to check the small monitor beside it. If it was Vegeta she'd just ignore him, she was in no mood to deal with him right now. But it wasn't, it was Videl, so she unlocked the door and let her in. "You ok?" Bulma asked, closing the door again.

Videl shrugged as she plopped into a chair. "Better than you, I figure." she said.

Bulma sighed and nodded. "You're probably right." she said. "I just... I can't believe they'd do something like that. How could they have not realized it would be a very bad idea?" She sighed again. "And I can't help but wonder if I could have stopped this if I'd just told Vegeta about Bra and Marron."

"None of this is your fault." Videl said. "Not what Vegeta and the others did, not what Trunks did, and not 18 catching him at it. Vegeta, Gohan, and Kakkarotto are the only ones at fault here. Them and their damned paranoia and stupidity." Videl leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "I just wish I knew where Pan was, what she was going to do, that she'd be safe...."

"17's with her. He wont let her do anything foolish." Bulma said, taking her own seat. "And Pan's a strong girl, she can look after herself out there."

Videl laughed. "I think that's what's got Cooler most concerned." she said. "She's the fourth most powerful person in the universe, she's stronger than him. If she'd wanted she could have killed him before leaving without even trying, if he weren't ready for her. Only Vegeta, Gohan, and Kakkarotto are stronger. But... that doesn't make me feel much better. If... if they could do this... then...."

Bulma closed her eyes. She'd had the same thoughts running through her head. If the three of them could so easily order the deaths of everyone at Gorneo just for a cover for killing Marron... could they... would they kill Pan and Bra if they surfaced with the two Cyborgs? "I don't want to believe they could." she said after a moment. "But I'm not sure I can, anymore."

Videl nodded. "Same here." She sighed. "I wish I hadn't let Pan go with 17. If she hadn't been there she wouldn't have seen 18's message to him."

"But he'd probably have still sent it to Bra." said Bulma. "Bra told Pan about her and Marron and Pan tells 17 everything. He would have shown it to Bra and Bra would have told Pan and the two of them would have left together."

"Probably, but then I could have gone with them."

Bulma smiled. "You too, huh?" she asked. "If I'd known Bra was planning on leaving I'd have gone with her, too."

"They'll be back... eventually. I'll try and... try and convince Pan to stay when they come. If I can't... maybe... I'll leave with them.... If they can leave after coming here."

XXX

"So you're locked out of 17 as well?" Kakkarotto asked.

Gero nodded. "I checked as soon as Vegeta came down earlier." he answered. "The notice came in while I was still trying to get some sort of link with Gorneo, I'd say maybe ten or fifteen minutes after Vegeta left for the meeting."

The Sai-jin royal frowned and sighed. That meant that 17 had to have seen the video that Bra had mentioned by then. Which meant that Trunks had been killed shortly after he'd left Gero's labs. "So, we just wait for them to come here and deal with it then." he said.

"17 and 18 wont be an issue... it's Pan and Bra that have me concerned." said Gohan. "I...."

"I know." said Vegeta. "I don't like the prospect much, either."

"We can capture the two of them." said Kakkarotto.

"Yeah, but then what?" asked Gohan. "Lock them up for the rest of their lives? How? Either one of them could smash their way out of anywhere we put them. Besides, they've got eternal youth, the rest of their lives is forever. I think.... Does that end if you quit being a Master, or even work if you quit before reaching twenty?"

Vegeta sighed. "Who knows, it's never happened before. I doubt it, though. Something tells me the Dragon doesn't care about specifics unless told to, and nothing in Cold's wish mentioned former Masters in any form." He crossed his arms and scowled as he leaned back against the wall. "But Gohan is right, Kakkarotto. We can't contain them. It's just not possible. We can try and get them to come back but...."

"They're family." said Gero. "I can understand your situation and I may have a solution."

"How so?" asked Gohan.

"It's not going to be an appealing solution but it is a bit of a... bypass to your dilemma. I still have several unfinished projects that I shelved over the years. With some modifications and upgrades I'm sure I could get something strong enough to deal with even Pan's power." Gero shrugged. "It's not a containment option but it keeps you from having to make the decision yourselves. Program them to go after 17 and 18 specifically, but also have them eliminate anyone that interferes."

"I don't like it." said Kakkarotto. "But as a last resort it's better than nothing. Though how can you be sure these ones wont turn like 17 and 18 did?"

"I have a few ideas for that." Gero said. "I don't think a pure AI would work in this instance. 16 and 19 have shown that even my best AI work still isn't fully reliable. Loyal and compliant, yes, but not fully reliable. I'll go over some of my notes and see what I have."

Vegeta nodded. "Go ahead and start on them. Even if they aren't needed for tracking 17 and 18 we could use the extra man power right now. Bulma was right, we're down eight members now. Inferna was new, Goten, Bra, and Pan didn't do much but.... Losing 17, 18, Trunks, and Cold, especially all so close together, is going to jam up the works for a while without some more hands to handle things."

Gero nodded. "Alright, I'll get to work on them right away." he said. As the three Sai-jins left the room Gero moved over to the console he'd been working at before Vegeta had shown up the first time and pulled up the data he'd been going over then. He gave it a cursory look, made a few adjustments, and then closed it again. Then he turned and made his way across the lab to a large freight elevator that led down to his storage area. A few moments later he was stepping back out of the elevator and flicking on the overhead lights.

The room was cavernous in size. It helped that it had been built inside a cavern. A massive underground cave beneath the palace, converted and modified into a gigantic storage room. Gero had hundreds of unfinished projects stored here. Some he'd discarded after discovering they were impractical, others he'd lost interest in as something better had come along, and many had simply not been possible with his technology of the time. There were also quite a few finished projects and systems down here that he'd locked away after completing, deciding their use was either unwise or impractical.

He bypassed several of his older projects, even a few of the newer ones, as he scanned the room for anything useful. And then he saw them leaning against the wall. Three metal containers that looked quite a bit like coffins, each with a small glass view port near the top. Moving over to them he wiped the dust off the glass and peered in at them, one at a time. They were little more than base shells right now. He'd started on them long before he'd left Earth but his resources and abilities did not match with what he aimed to do. And so they'd been stored and shelved.

"Yes, you'll do nicely." he said, nodding and lifting up one of the heavy metal coffins. "A few tweaks and modifications to your internal designs, a few updates to my current model of generator core, and I think we'll be in business."

XXX

Bra sat in the command chair on the bridge of her saucer ship staring at the monitor before her as her destination quickly approached. Her ship was one of the fastest in the galaxy, though not quite as fast as any of her father's, and it had still taken her nine days to reach Zendavou. It would have only been eight if she hadn't had to slow down and be so cautious while entering the system. The Zendavou system was well beyond hazardous. Old mines left long before the formation of the Empire littered the system, ready to blow any ships that neared into oblivion.

Beyond that, the system's former inhabitants had, for whatever reason, created hundreds of tiny singularities all over the place. Zendavou was the only world that had not been torn apart by the twisting flows of gravity. The other fourteen former planets had been shredded into asteroids, some only a few feet across, others nearly forty miles, a few were over five hundred miles. They made detecting the mines and avoiding them even more difficult than normal as they'd hide them from sensors or bounce a false reading at you making you turn the wrong way.

And all of that was ignoring the havoc that the warring gravity had on ships that tried to navigate through the mess of singularities. Three times Bra had felt her ship shudder as she strayed too close to one of the gravity wells and nearly got sucked in. She hit at least ten of the damned mines, too. She'd never had to navigate her own ship before, let alone try and fly through anything so dangerous. But it made Zendavou an excellent place for them to meet up. Undoubtedly there were various others who used the system and the planet to avoid the Empire, but Bra doubted there were many.

She pushed a few buttons on the arm of her chair and started broadcasting a page down to the planet over the frequency that 17 had given her. A moment later 18's face appeared on her monitor and the blonde's eyes widened. "Bra?" she asked, shocked.

Bra nodded. "Hi, 18." she said. "17 and Pan should be here sometime tomorrow."

"Pan's coming, too?" asked the Cyborg, surprised.

"Yeah. Can you give me your location so I know where to land?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." she said. She moved off screen for a moment and Bra saw trees and blue sky behind for a few seconds. Then her console beeped and she looked down and saw her landing coordinates. "There you go." 18 said, coming back on screen. "I... hadn't expected to see you, though. I'm guessing then that you know about...." the woman hesitated for a moment, as though not sure which word, which name, to end her sentence with. "Gorneo?" she finished.

Bra nodded. "I do." she said. "We can talk after I land. I've never done this before, so...."

"Ok."

The Hybrid turned off the broadcast and went back to watching the planet as she navigated down through the atmosphere. Her ship rocked back and forth like crazy as the wind buffeted it constantly. She nearly flipped the saucer twice from over compensating for the turbulence before, at last, she felt the thing settling onto its landing legs. Five minutes later she was walking out the exit and could see 18 waiting for her. "How are you doing?" Bra asked. It wasn't what she wanted most to know at the moment, but she was worried about 18.

"I'm ok." the Cyborg replied. "Bra... about Trun...."

"Don't." the Hybrid replied, shaking her head. "I would have done it myself as soon as I saw him again if you hadn't." she said.

18 nodded too, not really sure what to say. "I'm... surprised you came out here." was all she managed.

Bra swallowed as she gazed around at the area, she knew telling 18 why she'd come would dredge up her pain again so she wanted to put it off as long as possible. They were in a sizeable clearing in the forest and off to the right she could see open air after a bit. They were up on a high cliff, it seemed. "Do you... do you remember...." she began, turning back to 18, deciding the sooner it was over the better. "When you told M-Marron that my mom said she was happy?" 18 nodded. "Well... it's because we... we were... it's because I... I'd managed to... to tell her. How I felt, I mean. And... she...."

18 smiled. "She felt the same?"

Bra nodded. "Yeah. Well, she wasn't... you know, she wasn't very sure at first. Said she'd never even dated anyone before so... you know. But I think... by the en-end...." Bra shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. "We only had... six days." she said. She couldn't believe that's all the time they'd had. Six days. Less time than it had taken her to fly to Zendavou. "But by the time she... she left for Gorneo... she... didn't know if it would... would last but was... was at least sure she really did like me."

Bra smiled despite the tears that were burning at her eyes again, and then she turned away. "Damn you Trunks!" she suddenly yelled at the sky. "You promised me you bastard!" She calmed down a moment later as she felt 18's hand on her shoulder. Her eyes closed and she fought to get her anger back in check. There wasn't anything around here she could smash so she'd have to try and force it under control.

"I brought her with me." 18 said softly, and Bra froze.

This is what she'd wanted to know, what she'd wanted to ask when she got out of the ship. She'd seen 18 picking up Marron's body at the end of the video. "She's... she's here?" she asked, her eyes burning again.

"Yeah. I wanted to put her to rest somewhere nice. Not in the midst of all that destruction. Somewhere where she wouldn't likely be disturbed. I can... take you to her."

"Please." Bra managed to choke out. 18 nodded and lead her carefully through the trees, toward the open sky she'd seen earlier. After a few minutes they emerged from the forest again and Bra had a clear view of the valley below. Towering trees, snow capped mountains off in the distance, and she could see a river snaking through the forest below. The Cyborg lead her along the cliff ledge for a few more minutes and they came a small grove of trees set apart from the rest of the forest. Even from the outside Bra could see the small mound of dirt inside the grove and the stone set at one end.

The Cyborg lead the Hybrid through the trees and watched in silence as she collapsed on top of the grave, sobbing. "That bastard...." she muttered. "Both of them. I... I couldn't do it.... I wanted to, and he was standing right in front of me, but I... I couldn't do it." Bra swallowed and tried to force her tears to stop so she could talk better. "I punched him, I knocked him into the wall, but I couldn't.... I'm sorry, Marron. It's all my fault, I should have pushed Trunks more not to tell father. I should have warned you about what happened...."

18 turned as she heard soft footsteps behind her and saw Faith approaching, arms full of firewood. "I saw the ship, is your broth...." she stopped then, seeing the girl crying on top of the grave.

The Cyborg shook her head. "No, he's not here yet." she said. "That ship is Bra's. She and Marron became Mates right around the time I left for Leberion."

Faith nodded. "I'd hoped I'd seen the end of scenes like this when I helped you stop Valor."

"Come on, let's leave her alone for now." 18 said, turning and making her way over to the make shift camp she and Faith had set up.

XXX

The more of the writing they translated the more everyone agreed it had to be prophecy. Cold was also convinced that 'False Gods' referred to the Masters. There were references to individual Masters, too, he was sure. 'The One of Many' he felt was Cell, for instance. The 'Ones of Metal' were likely 16, 19, and Gero at the least. Possibly 17 and 18 as well. Though the one refrence to them wasn't really clear. 'The Ones of Metal shall be forged by the False Gods and sent to hunt down the Angels of Death.' There were other references he didn't get at all, though. There was one who was referred to only as 'The Son' and another as 'The Daughter' and these two played a central role in the predicted end of the universe.

From what Cold could tell The Son was the God of Destruction, a being they had yet to find a name for. Meanwhile The Daughter seemed to be the Goddess of Creation. The Souzousha that had the massive statue in the room. The problem was, the Masters had a number of sons and daughters and there was nothing more specific for a description. If it meant first son and first daughter that would be Cooler and Pan. Last son and last daughter would mean Goten and Bra. Assuming, of course, no more were yet to be born. And then there was everyone in between, at least as far as sons went. Daughter, he was sure, had to be either Pan or Bra.

There were also references to other individuals and groups that Cold didn't think were connected to the Masters. 'The Chosen', 'The Angels of Death', 'The Archangel', 'The Harbinger', 'The Herald of Destruction', 'The Fallen One', and 'The Exiles'. A few he had some idea about, like The Exiles. One passage about them went 'And The Exiles shall band together, cast from their people but united in their own purpose, and they shall war against The False Gods and The Chosen and shall free The Fallen One'. Elsewhere The Exiles were said to be led by a 'Tailless One' and a 'Child of the Dragon'. Tailless he'd already linked to the Sai-jins while 'Child of the Dragon' only made sense for a Namekian.

He also felt that 'The Chosen' referred to one of the Resistance groups spread out across the Empire. He couldn't pin down as to which group it was, though. But a few of the passages talked about The Chosen being selected by The Child Gods, a term Cold hadn't been surprised to see, to stand against The False Gods. There was another passage elsewhere that said 'The Chosen shall be equipped by The Child Gods with the means and power to fight even with The False Gods before the End of Days' so he figured whatever group it was hadn't surfaced yet. Anyone capable of standing against the Masters to any degree would be easily noticed. The rest, though, he wasn't sure about. They'd found at least one reference to each so far.

'The Harbinger shall mark the Beginning of the End and shall call forth, upon death, the first of The Angels of Death, and so shall begin the Fall of the False Gods.' was the only line that talked about The Harbinger that they'd found so far. They only had one other reference to The Angels of Death. It said that the second one would appear in defense of a 'Fallen False God' and that the emergence of the second Angel of Death would mark the 'end of the Beginning of the End'. Cold got the impression that, until both Angels had appeared, there was still a chance to stop the events prophesized after them. Once the second had come Armageddon was assured. There was only one refrence, so far, to 'The Archangel', 'And The Archangel, sister of the Daughter and the Angels of Death, shall emerge from The Chosen and power unkown shall be unleashed and the Child Gods shall be no more'.

On the matter of The Herald of Destruction they'd only found two lines. One that said the Herald would 'lay in sleep for decades' and that he would 'begin to wake once the fate of The Harbinger was sealed'. The other said that he would 'seek the blood of the Greatest False God' and 'would destroy all that lay in his path'. Cold was tempted to claim Buu had been the Herald but everything that he felt for sure referred to Buu called it Demon. Besides, it had been trapped for thousands of years, not decades.

The other one, The Fallen One, they only had two lines for. The one saying he would be released by The Exiles and one that said that the death of The Fallen One would awaken the Destroyer, the God of Destruction. It was all rather complex and convoluted and Cold wasn't entirely sure he believed the chain of events caused each other. Perhaps a few of them, certainly, but some of them seemed related just by occurring around the same time. Like the awakening of the Herald and the 'sealing of the fate' of The Harbinger.

Still, it was all giving him an insight into the universe that he'd never dreamed of. He did wish that the writing was more precise in its explanations of things, though. Names would have been nice. He got the feeling that, perhaps, there was no audio to these visions, and thus the scribes of the prophecies had to come up with titles based on what they'd seen of their interactions. If their visions were anything like what the Kanassans got then it was quite likely. Their visions were soundless as well, from what he understood.

The one thing about the writing that irked him was how little of it was actually translatable. He had assumed, as had everyone else, that it was all the same written language. Perhaps the language all current known languages were derived from, to explain how different languages were mixed in together, but just one language on the walls. Their studies had revealed this not to be the case, however. The farther 'back' you went along the wall, the father back in the history of the universe, the more the languages written on the wall became unknown.

In some places the shift was slow and small, in others it was sharp and sudden. The oldest bit they could read was a single line barely even an eighth of the way back along the same wall that the prophecy ended on, and it talked about the birth of the first of the False Gods. Which meant it was about his own birth since he was the oldest Master. Comparatively speaking with the age of the universe as a whole it wasn't that far back. Everything before that was written in languages unknown to anyone with him or Inferna. In one area it looked like a sudden and major shift in language occurred and all of his science team was in agreement, no translation beyond that point would be possible at all.

It was disappointing, to say the least. The fountain of knowledge that the wall presented about the current age was fascinating but he would have loved to have seen how these people had viewed things that had occurred earlier. Perhaps even found stuff talking about them and this world, about who they were, where they went, and what this place was, exactly. Since the wall couldn't tell him he was hoping that the Record Orbs might. That had been the main focus of the bulk of his people the last few days or weeks or however long each of them had been on the task in their own time frame.

So, when Cold heard the shouts coming from back in the circular hall area, and then the thudding of feet, he thought that they'd made some major break through. Instead, when he turned to look, he saw his and Inferna's men running in fear. A moment later he saw why as several dozen creatures came charging out through the doorway into the hall. "Yiku, Rikoo, Fyuu!" Cold called out. "Incoming!"

"On it!" Fyuu called back, directing the other two.

These creatures, whatever they were, would be no match for him, his Guard, or Inferna, and he charged in to the fray of battle as more and more of the beasts flooded into the room. Their powers were all the exact same level, 100,000 on the scouters scattered about the room. Their appearances were all identical as well. Six foot tall, broad shouldered, black exoskeletal armor over shins, forearms, and chest, deep green skin, large glowing white eyes, and powerful legs with knees that bent the opposite way as normal.

Cold heard a cry from in the hall and saw a bright flash of red wash through, blasting several of the attackers into pieces. Then a distinctly different form entered the room. Five foot eight with dark orange skin, dark red natural armor covering shins, forearms, and entire torso, bladed spikes emerging from her forearms, black horns just above her ears about three inches long, ice blue eyes, and bright red hair reaching half way down her back. Inferna, in her second form. "They're everywhere!" she called, blasting several more of them.

"Where are they coming from?" he asked, slicing several in half with the same motion he drew the sword from under his cape with.

She shook her head. "No idea. We were examining a new room when suddenly they started flooding the halls and the room." she said. "There was no warning, they just suddenly came at us."

"The attackers our friends from the orb mentioned, I would expect." said Cold. "Fyuu! Leave them be and get our people outside!" he called. Unlike the previous group and their five thousand people he and Inferna only had a little over twelve hundred men between the two of them. They couldn't afford severe losses. Fyuu nodded, relayed the orders to Rikoo and Yiku, and then started seeing to the escape of the others. "Inferna, let's wipe these things out. Maybe we'll get lucky and our people can learn something from studying them."

Inferna nodded as she blasted another five of the attackers into dust. The two of them kept up the offensive against the attackers as they continued to flood the room. The creatures seemed to realize that the pair were the only threats because, before long, they began to ignore all others and focus only on them, trying to overwhelm them with numbers. But, slowly, the throng of bodies began to subside. Inferna was panting heavily by the time they'd gotten down to the last thirty of the creatures. Once they, too, were gone she collapsed to the ground and reverted to normal trying to get her breath back.

"There... must have been... at least five thousand... of them." she said between breaths.

Cold nodded as he bent over one of the few that was still mostly in one piece. "Odd creatures, these." he said. "All the same, no variance in looks or power. I don't think they're the natives. More like... guard dogs."

"But guarding what?" asked Inferna.

"Something deeper inside this place, most likely." replied Cold. "We'll need to step up security after this. We don't have enough men to risk losing them."

Inferna nodded as she pulled herself back to her feet again. "I'm... going back to my... ship." she said. "I need... to rest."

Cold nodded again. "I'm going to stay here, oversee the clean-up." he said. "In case any more come along."

She gave him a nod and wave and made her way out. He watched her leave and then his men come back inside, slowly and tentatively. None of them noticed the remaining creature behind the statue that peered out around it at them. Or saw it leave the room, running through the halls to some unknown destination.

XXX

Bra looked back over her shoulder as she heard footsteps approaching and saw 18 coming over, a bunch of flowers in her hand. "I hope you don't mind...." the Hybrid said, turning to look at the head stone again.

18 wasn't sure what she'd meant at first, but then she took another look at the stone. All she'd been able to bring herself to do had been to carve Marron's name in the stone. Now, beneath that, it read 'Beloved Daughter And Mate' and under that was a three-quarter profile image of Marron. The image was amazingly detailed and had to have taken hours to carve. "No, it's beautiful." 18 said, laying the flowers down in front of the stone. "I think she'd like it."

Bra just nodded until she realized there were more footsteps approaching and she looked back again and saw Faith nearing. She'd met her the previous day, a few hours after landing, and after the introductions and explanations she had instantly liked her and couldn't stop thanking her. Thanking her for saving 18 in the first place, which she was sure was the only reason she knew the truth about Gorneo instead of some bull story from her father, and thanking her for everything she'd done after the two women had landed here on Zendavou.

Apparently 18 had used the hibernation gas on the way to Zendavou in order to escape from her pain. All it had done, though, was delay it until after they'd landed. The Cyborg had broken down then, she'd barely gotten out of her pod before collapsing into tears and hadn't so much as moved for two days. It had been Faith who had found the tree grove where Marron now lay. Faith who, without any ki control, had dug the grave with just her bare hands. Faith who had gone searching in the forest for a suitable tree, cut it down, and carved it with tools she'd found in 18's Capsule case, to make the coffin that Marron now rested in. After hearing all of that Bra had instantly taken a liking to her.

Then she realized that she was hearing more than just one set of feet and looked behind Faith. "Pan, you made it." Bra said, smiling a little, as she saw her friend nearing, 17 right behind her.

"As if there was ever any doubt with my piloting skills." said 17 as the three of them entered the small grove.

Pan shook her head and knelt down beside Bra. "Don't let him fool you, he was cursing the ship the entire time and I swear we hit at lest a dozen mines." she said softly. Bra laughed, surprised that she even could anymore.

"Well, it's a lot harder getting through that stuff with a ship instead of a pod." 17 said with a shrug. "First time I've ever had to do it."

"Huh?" Bra asked. "You've been here before?"

"Yeah. Zendavou here has been our escape world for years."

"Escape world?" asked Pan. "How come I didn't know about this?"

"We didn't want anyone knowing." said 17. "Telling anyone would have meant the chance of being overheard. We didn't want word getting out to Gero about this place since we decided it would be our meeting place should anything ever happen and we needed to get away from the Empire."

"How come?" asked Bra.

"The 'natural' defenses out in the system." explained 17. "Not just because they make it hard to get here but because the distorted gravity from the singularities jam all signals, even our link up with Gero's computers. The one world we knew of in three galaxies where Gero wouldn't be able to reach us. Not that it matters now with this 'failsafe five' stuff."

"You too?" 18 asked, looking over at him.

"Yeah, just before it popped up on your video." he answered. "Right after I realized you, and in turn me, were now on the outs with the Empire. It doesn't really make sense to me still, though, why Gero would include something like that."

"Who cares why?" Pan asked. "All that matters is now you're free. Really and truly free." 17 just smiled at her and she turned her focus to the head stone of the grave. "Oh, did you do that?"

Bra followed her friend's gaze and saw the drawing of Marron carved into the rock. "Yeah, this morning." she answered. "I wanted to... do something."

Pan nodded. "I'm sorry, Bra." she said, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I can't believe... I can't believe my father and grandfather would do something like this...."

"What do you mean?" asked 18, before Bra was able to make a reply. "Vegeta was the one who ordered...."

"But he wouldn't have if they hadn't approved." said Pan, looking over to the blonde woman. "Vegeta may have given the orders but they let him." She turned back to the head stone then. "I can't believe they'd do that, though. It's one thing to wipe out threats to the Empire, Kami knows I've got blood on my hands for that, but this.... This had no point. Trunks said her power was near that of dad's base, but so what? Piccolo and Cold are both way over that and they've got the lowest resting levels of anyone not a Sai-jin."

"I don't think it was just the power." said 18. "It was her father. No one else's father openly opposed the Empire, or was killed by it. Piccolo's father was just at odds with Kakkarotto because both wanted control of Earth, and Kakkarotto really only fought him for the challenge of it anyway. But Krillin... Krillin was an active Resistance member, constantly causing trouble on Earth. I think if... Marron had had a different father... they wouldn't have reacted like this, just over a simple power spike. I'm sure the only reason she wasn't executed a few days after getting to Saiya was because of her antidote that saved Trunks."

"Father's sense of loyalty." Bra said, nodding. "Seems it can only stretch so far, though." She sighed and looked back at the others. "So, now what do we do?"

18 closed her eyes. "I... still have a promise to keep." she said. "Trunks was... just part of the reason Marron's gone...."

"You want to go after Vegeta?" Pan asked, shocked. "But... Vegeta's way too strong for any of us. His first level alone is almost as powerful as my second."

"I can take him now, I think." 18 said, smiling sadly. "I'm not sure but... I think I can." She sighed and looked over at Bra. "I'm sorry about this but it's something I have...."

"It's ok." Bra said with a shake of her head. "I... I wanted to do it so bad myself before I left. I wanted to but I just... I couldn't bring myself to do it. Even with him standing right there. Even with him telling me to my face that he thought he did 'what was best'. But I... I couldn't do it. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. All I could do was punch him into the wall. But just because I couldn't do it doesn't mean I don't think he deserves it. Marron was my Mate. We may have only been together for a short while, we may not have worked out in the end had we been given the time, but the bond was there. I may not be as much of a Sai-jin as dad would like but this is one area where I'm about as Sai-jin as you can get, you kill my Mate and you pay the price."

18 closed her eyes again and nodded.

"Still, how?" asked Pan. "How do you plan to fight Vegeta? What happened on Gorneo, anyway? How were you able to kill Trunks?"

"I'm not entirely sure." 18 said. "Something... happened. I'd felt it starting while I was still sitting and holding Marron, felt it more when I started confronting Trunks." She walked a few steps away from them and then turned to face them. "After Marron was buried I spent some time trying to figure it out and while I still don't understand how or why I do understand how to use it."

"Use what?" asked 17. "What are you talking about?"

"This." 18 said, as she began to glow blue. The light got brighter and brighter and then suddenly flashed like bulb burning out, and then it was gone. Now 18 was taller, her eyes were purple, her hair was different, and the sides of her face were blue. "I've got no idea what it is. I went through all of the files in my head and there's nothing that mentions it. Nothing mentioned that 'failsafe five' either, though, so it could still be something Gero added on purpose. Or maybe it's something he hadn't meant to do that just happened by accident. I don't know and I don't really care."

"Th-that's...." Pan said, wide-eyed. "I can... actually sense your power. But... you're not even as strong as me. Even like this you wouldn't be able to beat Vegeta."

"If the sensable energy is all there is." said 18. "It exceeds my scanners so I'm not sure how high it goes, exactly, but I don't think it's the extent of my power. Why would it be? I still have the generator in me, it's still making power, power that can't be detected. Though, with you here, I can think of a way of at least getting an idea of how much power I have."

Pan blinked. "How?"

"Hit me." 18 said. "Go to your full power and hit me with all you've got. If what you can sense is the extent of it... it'll hurt like hell but I'll survive. If it's not...."

Pan bit her lip and looked up at 17 who just gave her a small nod. "Alright." she said, climbing to her feet. "I'll do it." The group moved away from the tree grove then. 18 walked up to the edge of the cliff and then turned to face Pan who flashed gold once, her hair jumping up into a spiky and unruly mess, and then again, her hair standing up fully on end with just two bangs coming down on either side of her face.

"Remember, don't hold back." 18 said.

Pan nodded as she took a deep breath, pulled her arm back, and then suddenly surged in at 18. 17 and Bra held their breath for the split second it took for Pan to reach the blonde Cyborg. And then there was a loud crack as Pan's fist smashed into 18's chest. The Cyborg didn't even budge. "No... way...." Pan said slowly, shocked, as she floated back from 18. "I gave that... gave that everything I had...."

18 just smiled and then started glowing again as she changed back to normal. "Go get Bra's ship ready for launch." she said. "We'll go say good-bye to Marron and then set out for Saiya."

"Hang on." Pan said, reverting to base herself. "You might be able to handle Vegeta but what about my father? My grandfather?"

"If she challenges Vegeta, one-on-one, they wont step in." said Bra. "He's lost a son, 18's lost a daughter, Sai-jin law gives them both the right to fight the other, without interference, to the death."

"Nothing says they wont interfere if they think they have to." countered Pan.

"Father would never let them. If they tried he'd blast them himself, if he's still got the strength for it."

"So it's settled." said 18. "We leave for Saiya in an hour."

XXX

The creature was far deeper inside the palace than Cold or his people had ever gotten. Deep underground in a room a hundred feet by a hundred feet by eight hundred feet. There were no doors in the room, just four holes in the ceiling, each ten feet across. It was through one of them the creature had entered. In the center of the room was a massive clear crystal. Set along each wall, in their centers, were other crystals. Red, blue, purple, and yellow.

The creature ignored the crystals along the walls and landed before the one in the center of the room. Reaching out a hand it pressed its palm against the crystal and the large stone began to glow. Suddenly the creature vanished, the crystal pulsed, and then darkness returned to the room. The darkness remained only a moment before the yellow crystal along the east wall slowly began to glow.