Vegeta narrowed his eyes, slowed, and then descended to land on the barren ground. He'd just felt a sudden power spike near him, coming quickly in his direction. It wasn't a huge power, somewhere near his own level best as he could figure. The fact it wasn't closer to what he'd sensed from the Supreme Kai back on planet Vegeta lead him to believe it wasn't the Dabura or Nefaria that he was looking for. /More likely it's another Demon./ he thought, turning his gaze in that direction.
He saw a spark of black and red energy coming toward him quickly and turned to face it. As he did he also felt another power spike, well off to his right, near where he could sense Gohan. Reaching his senses out further he found Videl some distance beyond him, another large power near her. /Demons, definitely./ he thought. /Probably placed here to watch for either defenders from above or Dabura. Well, maybe I'll get a decent fight finally./
A moment later the black and red aura burst open and the individual within landed softly just a few dozen feet ahead of him. He was short, about a head shorter than Vegeta, and covered in dark red scales. He wore robes like those of the Demons he fought before, his eyes glowed solid green, and his face was vaguely pig-shaped in appearance, complete with the large tusks of your average wild boar. All in all, he was a rather disgusting and ugly creature.
"Hmmm, you're not one of us." the Demon said in a high pitched squeal of a voice, like that of a mouse, that made Vegeta cringe. "Interesting. Your power is incredible and yet you lack a halo so you are not one of the dead champions of Shinkai, nor one of the dead prisoners of the H.F.I.L., and certainly not a native of Hell. They've all gone upward for the war effort."
"I take it you're another one of Quietus's lackies?" Vegeta asked, crossing his arms and smirking. "You wouldn't happen to know where Dabura or Nefaria are, would you?"
"You know of Quietus? Hm... And you seek Dabura and Nefaria? Interestng. Yes. Very interesting."
"Well, do you know?"
"Hmm? Know? No, I don't know. I'm supposed to, I've been hunting for them, but they are good at hiding. Not that I'm disappointed at that, I couldn't fight them, and I don't think I could escape from them either. So not finding them is good for my health. Finding you, I think, is good for me in more ways than that. Yes. Quietus will, I think, be interested in knowing who you are. In why you are here, yes indeed. So then, you will just have to come with me."
Vegeta snorted. He could feel Videl and Gohan's energies still and they'd gone active. The two of them were already fighting with the Demons they'd encountered. The other two Demons had become slightly more powerful than a moment before, putting them both stronger than Gohan and Videl. It wasn't by a staggering amount but he figured it'd be enough to prove a slight advantage for the Demons. He also figured it likely this Demon was a little stronger than he'd yet let on, though doubted he'd be much stronger than himself.
"I highly doubt that." he said at last, uncrossing his arms. "Let's go, pig face."
XXX
Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Saiya City
Yamcha clenched his hands into fists as he tried to look through the settling dust for some sign of his wife. The fact that she hadn't answered him yet bothered him, as did his inability to sense her, but he wasn't going to give up that easy. -Hotaru, come on, give me some sign you're ok!- he called telepathicaly.
-Y...Yam...cha...-
Yamcha's head twisted to the right as he reached out in the direction he thought the mental 'voice' had come from. Hearing it had both lessened and worsened his fears. She was alive but the voice sounded faint, weak. It took only a second longer to pinpoint her energy. It was low, incredibly low, and it was still dropping. In a flash of blue-white light he covered the distance between them in less than a second, kneeling down in the rubble beside where she laid.
The power of the attack she'd unleashed had blown her backwards, and down into the ground, litterly, by about three hundred feet. He wasn't sure which had done more of the damage he was seeing, the use of the Genkai Toppa or being driven so hard through the ground. Either way her clothes were in tatters, she was covered in blood, her arms and legs were twisted in ways that clearly marked them as broken, and her breathing was slow and shallow, small bubbles of blood forming on her lips.
-I'm here.- he told her, and then thought /Damn it./ as he looked her over, afraid to touch her for fear it would hurt her, maybe even kill her. /What do I do? None of us have any Senzus, we didn't bring any with us from Earth, we didn't think we'd need them, and I'm not even sure she'd be able to eat one even if I had it. And I can't carry her to a Regen Tank like this, moving her would kill her for sure./ He looked up and turned to look behind him as he felt powers nearing. Sango and Piccolo were flying over and at the sight of them he had an idea.
"Sango." he said as she reached him. "Do you think you could use your Terepo to reach Earth?"
She shook her head slowly and sadly. "No." she said. "It's too far for me."
"Damn it!" he cried, punching a nearby rock into dust. "There has to be something we can do! We can't let her die, she's been revived twice already!" Suddenly he felt a spike of power in the sky as a flash of blue light filled the area. /Cell!/ he wondered, looking up into the sky. But no, it wasn't Cell, it was the Grand Kai. All of them, the original and the copies. They were floating in a circle in the sky, arms held out, some sort of blue energy sphere forming between them.
It took a few moments and then there was a bright flash and a crack as the sphere vanished. Left floating in its place, at the point that was dead center in the energy sphere, was what looked like a crystal ball, about the size of a basketball. The copies of the Grand Kai floated into the original then, vanishing, leaving just the one behind who then floated over and took the ball into his hands, tucking it under an arm.
Zenryou then turned and looked down toward where Yamcha and Sango knelt beside Hotaru and floated down to join them. Landing he held the crystal ball out to Piccolo and the Namek took it, gazing into it in wonder and confusion. He gasped a moment later as he saw Cell's face swirl past for a moment, then vanish. Zenryou, however, had already moved over to Hotaru and was kneeling down beside her. He placed one hand gently on her forehead and the other over her abdomen as gold light began to emanate from them.
As Sango and Yamcha watched Hotaru's limbs began to twist and right themselves, her bones to mend, her skin to seal over where it had been sliced open, and her breathing became more and more normal once more. Then, at last, her eyes fluttered open again. Zenryou smiled, nodded, and lifted his hands away. "Your body is restored but I can do nothing for your lost energy." he said. "But that should return in a few hours on its own."
"And Cell?" she asked, sitting up and looking into the sky. "Did it work?"
Zenryou's smile grew. "It did indeed." he said, standing and taking the crystal ball back from Piccolo. "Cell is now contained in here. This will hold him until it's safe to release him and deal with him permanently."
"I can't believe you did that." Yamcha said. "Are you crazy?"
"I had to do something." Hotaru replied. "I couldn't hold him off on my own, if I hadn't used the Genkai Toppa we'd all be dead now."
"What was it, exactly, that you did?" asked Zenryou. "I've never felt anything like that before."
"The Genkai Toppa uses mental energy to break the bodily limits on ki production and expulsion." she said. "And to channel the released power in the desired direction. It effectively tranforms all of your potential power into raw power."
"Ah." Zenryou said, nodding. That would explain the sheer level of power, and the odd sensations, that the move had produced. There were actually four 'types' of ki. Passive ki, active ki, hidden ki, and reserve ki. Passive ki was what the body made use of to function, active was what a person used to fight and fly with, hidden was active ki that was present but could not be called upon for one reason or another, and reserve ki was energy that did not yet exist but had the potential to. Similar in concept to the idea in physics of potential energy becoming kinetic energy.
The body naturally drew out reserve ki to replenish its stock of active ki as a person wore down over time. The more stamina a person had the more reserve ki they had, and vice versa. He wasn't too surprised that Hotaru had found a means to convert all of her reserve ki into active ki, either. Her Kinryoku had laid the base work for that, forcibly converting and drawing out the user's reserve ki as active ki in order to make them more powerful. However, the fact that she had managed to convert and unleash all of her reserve ki in an instant, and survive, was quite impressive. That much power unleashed through the body would normally rip it apart.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Piccolo.
"Now I return to Otherworld, and take Cell back with me." replied Zenryou, turning his focus to the Namek. "From there... we wait and see how the battle goes in Makai. With any luck Goku and Bardock will be able to use the Spirit Bomb to defeat Quietus and put an end to this at last."
"Until then we still have Demons, ressurected enemies, and Zombies to clear out of the city." said Yamcha.
"I'm going to have to sit out for a few hours." Hotaru said, slowly climbing to her feet. "I need to rest to get my strength back, I'm utterly spent after that."
"Well, let's go let the others know the battle is over and then get started on that." said Sango, turning away.
XXX
Otherworld, H.F.I.L., Near the Entrance to Hell
"Well, that made things quicker." Bardock said, looking around at their new location. With Janemba's destruction Mikomi decided to try and teleport them all to the entrance into Hell, instead of flying there as the others had done. Now that he was gone it was possible again, and so they'd reached the entrance instantly, instead of having to fly several more minutes. Goku wanted to get down into Hell as quickly possible to make sure the others weren't in any trouble.
"This looks kind of familiar." Goku said, gazing up at the snake head. "Different color, and it's a tunnel instead of a bridge, but it's like Snakeway."
"Yes." Mikomi said. "This is the red Snakeway, the path to Hell. I'm unsure of the length but it will lead you into Hell."
"Well, I guess we should get going." said Bardock.
"One moment." Kibito said. "It may not be quite that easy."
"What do you mean?" asked Goku.
"Gohan was required to transform in order to cross the boundry."
Mikomi blinked and then turned and looked up at the large man. "Required to transform? What do you mean?"
"Both Vegeta and Videl were able to cross without issue but he was pushed back from entering the path into Hell by the same force as us, until he transformed." Kibito said, glancing at the Supreme Kai before turning his gaze back to Goku. "I am interested to see how these two fair. Gohan seemed to think that Goku would have the same trouble." Kibito walked up to the tunnel and reached a hand out, pushing it in as far as he could. "Gohan wasn't even able to get this far."
Mikomi blinked again. "Incredible. I have never heard of such a thing."
"I'm confused, what's all this about?" asked Goku.
"I'm with Goku." said Bardock. "What was it that kept Gohan from going through?"
"His purity." replied Mikomi. "I said before that we can not enter Hell, it is because there is too much good in us. The opposing forces of good and evil are polar opposites. When in a high enough concentration the two forces will push against each other. It is this force that prevents us Kais, and apparently an untransformed Gohan, from entering Hell."
"I think I get it." Goku said, walked toward the red Snakeway. He stopped beside Kibito and reached out an arm, his hand stopping at about the same point as Kibito's. "Huh, you weren't kidding. It's like pushing against an invisible wall."
Bardock walked over and tried the same. "I don't feel anything."
"Neither did Vegeta or Videl." said Kibito, lowering his arm. "And Gohan found more resistance than Goku does. Either way, it means that Goku will have to remain transformed while in Hell."
"Yes." Mikomi said. "It is the only way to enter and it could be dangerous to revert while inside, I have no idea what effect a pure pressence inside of Hell might have."
Goku shrugged and then flashed gold as he transformed, arm still outstretched. "Huh, cool." he said, pushing his arm in further. "The invisible wall is gone."
"Alright, let's go catch up to the others." Bardock said, transforming as well.
"Good luck, both of you." Mikomi said, nodding to them.
"Don't worry." Bardock said, grinning. "We'll take this Quietus guy down in no time."
"It's gonna be great!" Goku cheered. "Come on, let's go!"
XXX
Otherworld, Hell
A sharp, shrill, laughing sounded as the pig faced Demon brushed the dirt off his robes. "You call that an attack?" he asked in his high and squealy voice. "That was pathetic."
Vegeta panted, floating a few dozen feet in the air, arms still outstretched. /How is he... still standing?/ he wondered. /I put everything... I could muster... into that attack. His power isn't that much greater than mine, this makes no sense!/ He lowered his arms and shook his head. "This isn't over yet, you freak." He was just about to charge down in to attack again when there was a sudden loud crack of an explosion behind him, accompanied by a bright white light.
He paused and looked back over his shoulder toward the sound and light. /Gohan's power just dropped off, I can't sense it anymore. Damn, Videl's is gone too./ He scowled as he turned his focus back toward the Demon he'd been fighting. This was seriously starting to annoy him. He shouldn't be having nearly this much trouble and the brat and the girl shouldn't have lost so quickly, either.
"Looks like you're on your own." the Demon said, grinning.
"For now." Vegeta replied. /Though I don't intend to rely on Kakkarotto to help out./ he thought, scowling more. In a burst of gold he shot down at the Demon, pulling back his fist as he flew. He had almost reached the Demon when a new power suddenly twinged in his mind, off in the direction of Gohan and Videl. A rather large one. But he didn't have time to think about it now.
XXX
Otherworld, Red Snakeway
Goku had suggested transforming again, and flying at full speed, after about ten minutes of flight down the tunnel. He was anxious to catch up with the others, both to make sure they were ok and to get moving on their 'mission' so he could find out just how strong this Quietus actually was. Bardock and vetoed that idea, however. Getting healed up by Kibito earlier had been a nice surprise but they couldn't expect similar to happen again and wasting energy by flying at full speed could prove a bad thing.
"I just hope we reach the end of this thing soon." Goku complained, frowning. It had now been about a half hour since they started down the tunnel and still there was no sign of an end. "We'd have reached King Kai's a long time ago if this were the same length as that path."
"I know, but there's nothing we can do about it." responded Bardock. "I just hope the others reached the other end in time to catch this Dabura person. We've been flying along this long at our speed... if they didn't go up to top speed we might actually catch up to them soo..." he trailed off as the tunnel suddenly came to an abrupt end around the corner he'd just turned and the two of them emerged into a barren wasteland. Black and red clouds in the sky and dark brown, black, and red rocks covering the ground.
"Wow, this place looks friendly." Goku said, gazing around. "I wonder if this is where Frieza and Cell have been the last few years?"
"Probably." said Bardock. "And I don't like this. I can't sense any of the others, just one high power..."
"Me either, come on, let's go."
Bardock nodded and the two of them took off, flying toward the high power they could sense. Neither of them recognized the energy which had them concerned. Whoever it was was weaker than them but had the others totally outclassed. If they were an enemy... Bardock wasn't sure what would happen to a living person who died in Hell and he wasn't interested in finding out. As they drew closer to the high power he also noticed it shift slightly. Whoever it was had noticed them coming and wasn't running.
/Not that I'd expect them too. Goku and I are strong but, as far as they can tell, not on their level. Of course, that's assuming they're an enemy. That's probably what they're waiting to find out./
"Do you think this could be the Dabura we were told about?" asked Goku. "It's not stronger than the Supreme Kai but it could be a supressed level."
"Maybe." said Bardock. "I don't know, it's not what I expected. I mean, I can feel evil in it, but..."
"Yeah, it's weird." said Goku. "Janemba's energy was really dark and chaotic, but this doesn't feel nearly as evil, and it's a lot more controlled. Even Cell's energy was darker than this." The two of them flew on in silence for a moment longer before slowing. "Oh, hey, I can sense Gohan!"
Bardock nodded. He could now, too. His power was low but stable, and near the higher power. They'd simply over looked it because the larger one was so big. As the two of them came down to land they spotted Gohan sitting on the ground, leaning back against a rock, and resting. He'd obviously been in a fight, one it looked like the losing end of. His gi was torn and there were blood stains on his face, but despite his low power he was still transformed.
Standing beside him was a woman in a blue gi with a black belt, black wrist bands, purple skin, and wild and spiky red hair. The normally white part of her eyes was black, the irises were white, and then the pupil was black, giving her eyes an odd look. She was watching the two of them closely, obvious interest in her eyes. Neither Sai-jin paid her much mind after the first glance, she was standing by in a relaxed posture so she wasn't an enemy.
"I thought it was you I sensed." Gohan said, smiling slightly and then wincing.
"What happened?" asked Bardock.
"We split up to try and find Dabura but some Demons found us." he replied, shaking his head. "The one I fought wasn't that much stronger then me, but... I couldn't seem to hurt him."
"It's because of this place." said the purple skinned woman in a much softer and gentler voice than either Sai-jin had expected. "Here in Hell the Demons would have a distinct advantage. The amount of evil floating around in the air would strengthen and heal them."
"So... where are the others?" asked Goku.
"I don't know. I was just losing my fight and got distracted when I felt Videl's power suddenly nose dive. The Demon I was fighting almost got me then, but then she showed up and saved me, and chased him off."
"So who are you?" Goku asked, looking toward her.
"My name is Nefaria." she replied. "I am one of the Supreme Mazoku of Makai. As for the other two who came with him they were most likely captured by Akuhei and Paine, the Demons they were fighting. There hasn't been any information coming through from Shinkai yet so they'd be considered valuable sources of information, to find out how the war is going."
Bardock snorted. "The war is over." he said. "At least, it is in Shinkai. The attacking forces, Demon and formerly dead alike, have been dealt with."
"Maku and Angel?"
"Don't know about anyone named Angel," began Goku. "But the Supreme Kai took out Maku after he transformed in our fight."
"Same with Angel." said Gohan. "She was the leader of the forces on Planet Vegeta."
"I see." Nefaria said, nodding. "We had not expected Shinkai to so successively drive back Quietus' army." She roamed her eyes over the three Sai-jins for a moment. "Gohan has explained some of who you are to me. There is no mortal in all of Makai wtih even half as much power as you three. He says that you have been sent by the Supreme Kai to help us in stopping Quietus? You are strong, I will give you that, but I do not see how you could help us to stop him."
"The Supreme Kai's plan is a Spirit Bomb." explained Bardock. "A technique that Goku and I know that draws out pure energy from any donors willing to give it."
"Ah, I see." Nefaria said, nodding in understanding. "An attack of pure energy would be devastating to him, and if the energy comes from donors then the attack is not limited by your own power."
"Yeah."
"So where would these Demons have taken Videl and Vegeta, exactly?" asked Goku. "Cause now we've got to rescue them, too."
"They'll most likely be taken to the palace in the Mazoku Plane." answered Nefaria. "Which, if we are to stop Quietus, is our destination as well."
"I want to come, too." Gohan said, picking himself up off the ground.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea..." Bardock said slowly.
"You two have to create the Spirit Bomb to stop Quietus. You don't have time to try and rescue Videl and Vegeta. Let me come along, I can get them out while you fight Quietus."
"The kid has a point." said Nefaria. "He doesn't compare to any of the Supreme Mazoku but he would have no issue dealing with anyone else in Makai. My fellow Supreme Mazoku will likely have their hands busy dealing with Lord Dabura and I, if they're even still alive by then. Lord Dabura does not take betrayal lightly."
"He's not in any condition to fight, though." countered Goku.
"I can correct that." said Nefaria, holding a hand out toward Gohan. A moment later black and red energy flowed from her palm and into the half Sai-jin and he instantly felt his power return and his body heal. "There. He's at full power once more."
"She can do like Kibito..." Bardock said, grinning. "That's good to know. It could come in handy."
"So, are we ready to go then?" she asked.
"Let's go." Gohan said, nodding.