A/N: Chris - I do have plans to finish it... eventually. Can't say as to when, exactly. I work on projects as the interest in that particular project allows. HoE is... a difficult story to work on at times. I've actually re-written chapters 13 through... I believe 18? at least a half dozen times trying to make it 'work' and I'm still unsatisified with what I've currently got. So, unfortunately, no ETA on that.
Chapter Eighty - Rising Tensions
Gohan stood on the Grand Kai's porch, staring off into Otherworld. It had been hours and hours since he'd gotten back from Makai. At least ten or twelve. His father and grandfather should have been back by now. Even if they'd failed, Quietus at least should have shown up by now. /Unless they killed each other./ he mused. He didn't like that idea any more than Quietus winning, though.
The waiting was the worst part about it. Not knowing. Not knowing who would show up, his family or the enemy. All of Otherworld was still on alert, all the warriors on the Grand Kai's world were keeping watch for even the slightest sign of attack. A pretty easy task for them since they didn't actually have to sleep, being dead and all. Apparently many prefered to sleep, even to eat, but could go without just as well. So there was no shortage of sentries, even when he himself had needed to get a few hours rest.
The best part, though, had to have been catching up with his grandma. He'd only seen Appla for a few moments before heading off to Hell, hadn't really spoken to her since the Cell Games. But shortly after his return she'd tracked him down. He'd told her about everything that had happened in the last seven years, and he'd told her about what had happened in Makai. About how he'd overpowered the two Demons and the Grand Mazoku. How his father had sent him back to Shinkai to help protect it if any of the Mazoku attacked. How he had no idea how to draw on the power he'd used on the Grand Mazoku's world.
"Trust yourself and just let go." she'd told him. It was all in his head. The power wasn't burried, he just refused to acknowledge it. He'd always feared the power he had, always resisted using it to its fullest, and the fear had grown after reaching the second level. He knew she was right about all of it, but he still wasn't sure how to call on that strength at will. How to make it come out when he wanted, and not just when he lost control.
It wasn't as simple as just powering up beyond what he felt was his maximum. If it were that simple he wouldn't have been as stunned by what had happened in Makai as he was, because he'd know the power was there. But he didn't. He couldn't feel it like he could the rest of his power. Until the battle in Makai he hadn't known he still had hidden power left. He'd thought that had all come out at the Cell Games and that he'd maintained it since then, not burried it again.
Appla had introduced him to some of those on the Grand Kai's world she'd thought might be able to help him with calling on that power. There was an alien named Pikkon, who reminded him a lot of Piccolo. Hotaru's mother, Sora, who he'd never actually gotten to meet in person before. A man named Olibu, who turned out to be human. And a couple others she'd met since coming here. He'd trained with them a little the day before, before going to bed, but he wasn't sure it had helped any.
"You think they won?" a voice asked from behind him. He turned and saw Olibu emerging from the Grand Kai's palace. "That would explain why no one's attacked in a long time."
"I don't know." Gohan sighed, looking back out over the planet again. "I keep debating the possibilities but none of it really adds up. If they won, why aren't they back yet? If they lost, where's Quietus and the next wave of the invasion?"
Olibu nodded. "I've been having the same thoughts. I was hoping you'd have an idea I hadn't th..." He trailed off as a commotion started among the warriors gathered in the field ahead of them. Both he and Gohan looked around from some idea of the cause but saw nothing. However, Gohan felt it a moment later. Three large powers were approaching quickly, from the direction of the H.F.I.L., and they'd be arriving in a few moments.
"That's not good..." Gohan said, stepping off the porch. He recognized one of the powers that was approaching from when he'd entered Makai. It was the guy who'd tried to attack them, the one his father and grandfather had exchanged a few attacks with. If he was coming then this was the next wave of the invasion. With any luck it was the three Mazoku who'd sided with Quietus, and not the Demon himself.
"We have a problem." Mikomi said, suddenly appearing beside him, along with Paine, Kibito, and Zenryou.
"Yeah, I know." he replied. "I recognize one of the powers."
"I know them all." said Paine. "Two of the Mazoku, Daikirai and Neikan, and Quietus himself."
/Dad... grandpa.../ Gohan thought, clenching his hands into fists. Apparently they'd lost when they challanged Quietus. The Spirit Bomb had failed. Now it was up to them to try and pull something off here, to find some way to win.
"What are our options?" asked Pikkon as he landed beside them, along with Appla and Sora.
"Few." answered Zenryou. "There's no one in the Realm, in either Realm, who can contend with Quietus's power."
"I could probably defeat Daikirai or Neikan one on one but..." Mikomi said, shaking her head. She wasn't sure why Aku wasn't with this group but she wasn't going to complain. Having one less opponent to overcome was a nice turn. Even if it would probably mean nothing in the end.
"Do we have any plan at all?" Gohan asked. "I'd at least like to go out trying..."
"I'll try and find some way to stop Quietus." said Mikomi. "The rest of you occupy the Mazoku so that I don't have to deal with them, too. Kibito, retreive Tatamo from Heaven. We'll need all the power we can get." Kibito said nothing, just vanished. He reappeard a couple seconds later with Tatamo at his side.
"What's up?" the Sai-jin asked. "He just said I was needed."
"Quietus." answered Gohan, glancing in his direction. The trio was only a few more moments away. Tatamo looked that direction, saw the specks of light, then felt their powers. They were undoubtedly supressed and they were all stronger than him.
"So, heroic last stand is it?" he asked. "Nothing like going out in a blaze of glory."
"If we can try and focus on just one of them..." Gohan said. "You, me, Paine, Kibito, and the Grand Kai. We all launch the strongest attacks we can manage... maybe we can overpower one of them."
"Unlikely, but possible." said Zenryou. "And better than nothing."
"But it only takes out one of them. That still leaves two more." pointed out Paine.
Gohan frowned. "I know..." he said. Before anyone could say anything more there were three bursts of light from above, and Quietus, Neikan, and Daikirai landed on the Grand Kai's world.
"Hello, Mikomi. It's been a while." Quietus said, grinning.
"Quietus?" Mikomi wondered, turning to face him. He didn't look like she remembered.
"Ah, that's right. You never saw this form before. This is my normal state. The form you saw two thousand years ago was a transformation. I doubt I'll need it to deal with the likes of you."
/A transformation?/ Mikomi wondered, starting to feel a sense of hope. She didn't know how much power he actually had in this state but if he couldn't access his full power like this then, maybe, she could still defeat him. If his arrogance got the better of him she could have a chance.
"Still feeling so confident, kid?" Daikirai asked Gohan. "Didn't get to kill you before, I'll enjoy doing so now." Gohan flashed golden as he transformed, Appla and Tatamo doing likewise a second later. Sora flashed orange as she transformed and Pikkon tossed his weights aside. Daikirai laughed as he watched them. "Look at this, Neikan, they actually intend to fight us!"
"Go." Quietus said, looking over to Daikirai. "Kill them."
"With pleasure!" the Mazoku cried, lunging in. Neikan trailed a few feet behind him. Gohan and the gathering of dead warriors scattered, Appla and Olibu's auras bursting red as they moved, all trying to get out of the way. But their opponents were far too quick. Gohan's eyes snapped wide in pain as Daikirai slammed a fist into his stomach, doubling him over. Appla, Tatamo, and Paine shot in, firing kicks at the Mazoku's head in an effort to draw him away, but the blows didn't even faze him. The power difference was too great.
Gohan recovered from the blow he'd taken and joined the fray of the battle. Daikirai wasn't the opponent he would have chosen to go after, he'd have prefered if he, Tatamo, Paine, and Kibito had all been able to challenge Neikan together, instead. The other Mazoku was the stronger of the two, and the four of them were the strongest on the Grand Kai's world after Mikomi. They'd have had a better chance at stopping him than the others would. Not that he felt any of them had much of a chance of winning at the moment.
/If I could just draw on that power.../ Gohan thought, discourged. The power he'd unleashed on the Grand Mazoku's world was, according to Paine, greater than that of Daikirai. If he could pull that out they'd have a chance of at least stopping him. And while he wasn't sure just how strong the Demon was, he'd not followed the battle in the Mazoku Plane like his father had, he figured working together with Mikomi they might have a hope of beating Quietus. But that was only if he could draw on that power, and sustain it for more than a few moments.
Meanwhile Neikan closed in on Kibito. He wasn't a full Supreme Kai yet but that didn't matter. It would still feel good to beat him down. The future Kai tried to dodge but was as unsucsessful as Gohan. The Mazoku's fist slammed into his face, snapping his head back. Olibu, Pikkon, and Zenryou moved in to attack Neikan as Kibito recovered, but the Mazoku kept up with the trio easily, blocking and dodging without effort. Kibito joined in, but even with the four of them together Neikan still kept up with ease.
"This is pathetic." Neikan laughed, blocking a kick from both Kibito and Pikkon. Olibu then came up behind him and punched him in the back of the head, but the blow had no effect. The human's power didn't even come close to the Mazoku's. Neikan turned to look at him and, as he did, Pikkon shot up in front of him, slammed his open palms against his chest, and then unleashed a rapid volley of point blank ki blasts that all exploded violently.
However, even they did nothing against him. Even with his Hyper Striker Pikkon's maximum power was still less than Kibito's, and Kibito's maximum was about three times less than the Mazoku's. None of the four were sure how, exactly, they could win the battle. But none of them was willing to simply concede defeat. If they lost it would be because they'd tried everything and nothing had worked.
At the same time the two Mazoku charged in Mikomi decided to take the offensive as well and lunged in at Quietus. She wanted to try and catch him off guard, pull something off before he could transform and change the odds. As she charged him she felt his power spike up quickly, but it stopped below her own maximum, which made her smile. In this form he was weaker than her.
Reaching him she lashed out with a hard right hook but his arm came up and blocked it. She followed up with a kick aimed at his side but he managed to avoid that. Then he retaliated with an elbow aimed at her temple but she ducked under it and thrust out her left arm. This time she made contact, slamming an open palm into his stomach and knocking him back a little. He recovered quickly, however, and his next kick slammed into the side of her head, spinning her around.
He then slammed both open palms into her back, knocking her surging foward a few dozen yards before she could recover. When she did she came to a dead stop, spun around, snapped an arm out, and fired off a blast of energy. The energy slammed into his face as he charged at her. The energy exploding in his face brought him to a stop and Mikomi moved in again. There was a burst of blue white light as she charged, her aura shifting into a sparking electricity like aura, that seemed to draw into her body and vanish.
She reached Quietus before he could recover and slammed her knee into his stomach with a crack and flash of blue, his eyes snapping wide in shock and pain. Her arm came up then, elbow slamming into his jaw, snapping his head back, then an open palm cracked against his chest driving him back a couple feet. Arm still outstretched she shimmered and vanished in a burst of speed, zipping above and behind him and kicking him in the back of the head.
Moving at incredible speed she continued to dart around him, landing powerful blows everywhere she saw an opening, about twenty in all, until finally she appeared in front of him again and smashed both open palms into his chest, sending him surging backward. Then she crouched her body down slightly, leaned forward a little, and pulled her arms back as she readied for, what she hoped, would be the finishing blow.
The blue electricity like energy that snapped around her body drew down the length of her arms and in just a few seconds it was snapping and crackling only around her hands. She poured everything she could into the charging attack, hoping to end the battle before it began. Siddenly there was a bright flash of light from the gathering energy and she thrust her arms foward, palms pointed at her just recovering opponent.
"Kibou Taihou!" she cried, the energy balls merging and then swelling and exploding into a massive wave of blue white energy that rapidly covered the distance between the two of them. Quietus saw it coming, eyes widening in shock, and thrust his arms out to catch it. An instant later the energy slamed into his palms and drove him back. The attack, and the concentrated purity of it, quickly began to overwhelm him.
Quietus growled in frustation and anger. He'd known his power in this form was lower than that of Mikomi's but he'd still expected it to be enough to take her. And yet, here he was, barely a minute into the fight and already being overpowered. With a cry his aura burst forth, his power churned, and then in a flash of red he transformed and easily deflected Mikomi's attack away from him. Seeing this the Kai lowered her arms and her shoulders sagged a little. Her best chance at winning, probably their only chance, had just disappeared.
The Demon smirked as he quickly shot in at her, spinning around as he neared and slaming the heel of his foot into the side of her head. He followed that up with an elbow to the chest, a right hook to her jaw, and then a kick to her abdomen that doubled her over and had her gasping for air. She could tell he was holding back, however. The mere fact that he hadn't killed her with his first attack was proof of that. With his power that was all it would take to end it, just a single blow.
/His arrogance still gives me a chance./ she thought. Even if it was a small chance.
"I'm finally going to finish what I started two millenia ago." Quietus suddenly said, his smirk growing. "Only this time, I'm not going to go easy on you. I am going to beat you down and then I'm going to kill you."
"Quietus, you have to stop this, before it goes too far." Mikomi said, recovering from the blow to her stomach. "With the current damage to Shinkai... if you keep this up you could destroy the entire Realm. If Shinkai fails Makai will collapse as well."
Quietus chuckled, flexing his wings behind him. "Yes. Yes it would. Not that it really matters. The Realms can crumble for all I care. They'll be destroyed when I win either way."
"W-what?" Mikomi asked, confused. "What do you mean?"
"I will tear down the defenses in the Realms, I will bring existence to the brink of oblivion, and then I will remake it in my own image!" With a cry he charged back in at her again.
/Remake it in his own image? What is he talking about?/ she wondered, even as she tried her best to dodge or block his blows. He was still holding back and so she managed to counter a few of the incoming strikes, but several still got through sending lances of pain shooting through her body.
As the three groups had begun their battles the remainder of the army of Demons, still numbering in the hundreds of thousands, swarmed onto the world as well. They'd felt the Mazoku and Quietus heading there, knew the final battle was coming, and had come to join in. The other warriors on the planet turned from the three battles that had just begun and faced the incoming threats. Sora moved to the head of the defenders and faced the approaching horde.
"Warriors!" she called, drawing all their attentions to her. They were distracted by the powers of the Mazoku and Quietus, distracted by their fear, and she knew she had to focus them. "Leave the main battle to the Kais and the others. We must deal with these riff-raff. Keep them from interfering, don't let them distract our people. Let's remind them of the power of Shinkai!"
A cheer went up through the crowd even as the Demons reached them and then the battle began. Fortunately it was mostly the weaker Demons that were left in the army. The majority of the stronger ones had been taken out during previous assaults. Still, Sora could feel a few powers in the mix that would be... problematic. She wasn't the strongest one amongst the remaining Otherworld Warriors, but only a few came close to matching the highest of the powers she could feel among the Demons.
Even as she cut down weaker Demons, blasting them with waves of energy from one hand and slicing through them with a blade of energy around the other, she called out orders to the crowd. Guiding certain fighters or groups to certain areas. Either to deal with stronger enemies or to help flagging warriors who were getting overwhelmed. The crowd responded readily and fluidly to her voice, shifting and flowing as she directed.
She felt Quietus's power spike a few moments later. Felt the hesitation among her allies. Attacks slowed or even stopped completely, attentions split between their own opponents and the impossibly huge power of the Demon, and the balance of the battle changed. They'd been holding their own a second before but now the Demons, bolstered by the power they felt at their side, backing them, pressed harder against the dead warriors whose morale had slipped.
She called and ralied them some more. Pulled some of the stronger fighters over to help out weaker groups. Most responded quickly, many of those who'd hesitated regained their footing and momentum, but some still lagged. Some had clearly lost their sense of hope, were just going through the motions of the battle even though they'd already accepted defeat. The balance shifted a little again, but still remained in favor of the Demons.
And then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a powerful wave of green energy tore through the throngs of Demons greatly reducing their numbers. Sora turned to see where it had come from and her eyes widened as she saw Piccolo diving into the fray of the battle. Yamcha, Pug, Senator Vegeta, and others came behind him, also charging into the mix. She'd been so focused on the battle she hadn't noticed their, unexpected, arrival. She let out another rallying call, drew the attention of the warriors with her to the new arrivals, to their back-up, and felt a renewed momentum surge through the crowd and the battle began to shift their way once again.
Elsewhere, Hotaru and Tien had floated up into the air, high above the battlefield where their plan would be less likely to be discovered. Aiko stood on the ground below them, out of the battle and out of sight as much as possible. She didn't want to risk being distracted while managing the attack that would be created above her. Nova stood with her, alert and ready for any attackers, intending to keep them off Aiko so the Tanarian could focus.
Hotaru floated up a little higher than Tien, until she was several feet directly above him. The Spirit Bomb would be generated over his head but her technique had to be formed in the palm of her hand. So she had to be higher, so they could create the attacks directly on top of each other. Cupping her hand like a claw, as Tien raised his arms above his head, she focused. She felt the spark of pure energy from the Spirit Bomb begining to form inside her hand, then drew in power to form the core of the Ikioi Reikon Ikioidzuku around it.
It proved harder than she'd imagined. The pure energy from the Spirit Bomb resisted coming together with the normal energy her technique was trying to draw together. It was like trying to mix oil and water, the two energies kept wanting to seperate. To pull back apart into individual masses. And then she felt a third enegy flow reach in, wrap around the small mass in her hand.
Aiko's technique had reached her and, using her Wakusei, the Tanarian introduced a third energy form to the mix. One that was more compatible with the nature of the Spirit Bomb's energy. The new energy worked like a glue, drawing in the powers of both attacks and linking them all together. Hotaru's eyes suddenly widened and she lowerd her arm as she shot backward quickly, the forming attack suddenly swelling to the size of a basket ball. She watched as streamers of white, gold, green, blue, and yellow energy began to flow into the attack and it began to grow.
/Alright!/ she thought, floating toward the ground and giving Tien a nod. The Human nodded back but kept his focus on drawing in energy for the Spirit Bomb. As she descended she contemplated the speed of the charge she was feeling and felt a surge of hope rush through her. Based on the power she was feeling from Quietus, an incredible and unbelievable amount of power, she figured their combonation attack would be strong enough to destroy him in about seven minutes. This had an excellent chance of working.
She turned her focus to the ongoing fighting then. Her primary task was complete, she'd be damned if she was just going to float around waiting, doing nothing. In a flash of orange she transformed, and in a burst of silver she charged in to join the battle.
Elsewhere in Otherworld one of the tears flared open and Autoro emerged. He looked around for some clue of where he was but that didn't help at all. There was pink sky all around and ground way, way, way off in the distance and... an entire planet floating maybe fifty miles above him. This was most certainly bizarre indeed.
He activated his long range scanner systems to try and locate some powers, though he wasn't sure what luck he might have. Their maximum range was seventy-five miles and if the planet was as far away as he thought there might not be anything within... The system beeped as it began to lock onto power after power after power. Dozens, hundreds, thousands maybe. And a lot of them started coming up as "Out of Range" which meant they were beyond the twenty million limit of his systems.
"Well, that's as good a place to start as any." he said, locking onto the energies. The onboard computer estimated a distance of about sixty-three miles. It would take a while to fly there but the computer said he had sufficient power to teleport to the location, though it would drain nearly all of his reserves. He activated the teleport system and his metal arm began to whine and glow white. A few seconds later there was a bright flash and he vanished.
A second flash occured several seconds later twenty feet above the Grand Kai's world, and about two hundred yards beyond the main throng of battle. He grinned as he looked around, this was definitely where the action was. Now he just had to figure out which side he was supposed to be on. As he searched the crowd, looking for an opponent, he spotted something that made him freeze. He lost it almost as soon as he'd seen it, had only caught a quick glimpse, but he was sure it had been his daughter.
XXX
Unknown Location
Activity in the command room had been subdued for the last several hours. After the plan had failed the command room had been reduced to a skeleton crew. Only a handful of individuals remained, monitoring the incoming data for anything noteworthy. They all figured the only thing left to track and record would be the arrival of either Quietus or the Mazoku, and the fall of Shinkai to Makai.
It would be a historical moment, Shinkai had never before been conquered by Makai, even if it would be undone before long. Once their leaders had adjusted their plans they'd engage their temporal stabilizers and Razor would use his magic create a 'back shift' however far was required. Shinkai's defeat would be reversed. And not in some other timeline, but in the very one they were watching.
Unlike with most time travelers, the nature of where they were and how they 'traveled' through time allowed them to actually remain in the same timeline when they traveled back. Because they didn't actually travel anywhere. They weren't, technically, in the current timeline, and it wasn't, technically, advancing. They existed outside of time and, while they were able to observe events happening beyond their location, those events weren't, exactly, happening. Not really.
Most of them didn't really understand it, existing outside of time, being able to see and experience how future events could unfold, even interacting with those inside the timeline, all without actually being there, or it even being 'real.' They were 'anchored' in a single point in time, one that was currently millions of years before the events they were actually observing would occur. Nothing they had done, nothing that had happened, had actually happened yet. What they were doing was like a massive prophetic vision on steroids, and so any changes they made were not really changes. Not until the anchor was released, dropping them into the timeline and making it real. Until then, it was all just a big 'what if.'
While most of them didn't grasp the complicated nature of their existence, their actions, they all understood that what they were now recording would be the only record that this history, where Shinkai fell to Makai, had ever been. That once their commanders gave the orders to back shift, to change their interaction time frame to a point in the past from what they were watching, the events they were observing would cease to be because they would have never happened.
When the systems flared up indicating high powers in Otherworld, no one in the room was the least bit surprised. Or particularly interested. None of them even bothered to bring up the video feeds from the probes. The system was automatically tracking events and recording what was happening. If anything noteworthy actually occured it could be analyzed later. If it was truly important they'd be alerted.
And so they were, about six minutes after the high powers were detected, when the systems picked up a pure energy reading. Already at 15,000 RADs and climbing quickly. They stared at the main screen, which had lit up with the reading, in surprise and disbelief. It was several seconds before anyone moved. One of the techs, the first to recover their wits, quickly entered a command into their terminal. As soon as they hit enter an alarm sounded through the entire ship, and yellow lights flashed, alerting everyone of an Important Event.
A few moments later Razor, Ravenna, and her parents all entered the command room. Before any of them could ask what had happened they spotted the data on the large main screen. The reading had already climbed to over 600,000 RADs and was going up incredibly fast. All four could see that. Raven moved first, breaking away from the others and walking up to the large screen.
"Where is it coming from?" she asked.
"Otherworld." replied a tech. "Quietus is attacking the Grand Kai's world."
"How long until it breaks the field?" asked Raven's mate.
"Estimate for complete field collapse is around... eight minutes." There was a hint of disbelief in the tech's voice.
"Eight minutes!?" Raven asked, shocked, turning to face the tech that had spoken. "How is it charging so fast? Who's doing it?"
"Unknown at present."
"Bring up a video feed from that location." her mate ordered. "One of the new probes Raven ordered sent through yesterday should be within range. Also, alert the generals outside that we may be proceeding shortly after all."
The techs quickly did as ordered, one contacting those outside while another patched into the feed network and accessed the probes that had been sent into Otherworld. They found the one closest to the Grand Kai's world and directed it toward the energy reading. A moment later the main screen filled with an image of the on going battle outside Zenryou's mansion. It shifted and refocused from a wide image showing the entire battle to a more zoomed in view of a single individual, arms raised, with a large and rapidly growing ball of blue, white, green, and yellow energy floating above his head.
"Tien?" Ravenna said, shocked.
"Unexpected." said Razor. "The look of the technique is different. Perhaps Tien developed a modified version?"
"One that's incredibly quick to charge." Ravenna's father said. "Being in Otherworld, on the Grand Kai's world no less, is likely helping with the charge rate, but even so..."
"It is impressive." agreed Razor.
"Let's just hope it works this time." said Ravenna.