Chapter 1: The Ultimate Foe

Aratana teki! Kami no you na ankoku ryu!

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(Note from the future: I think I said at some point that Episode of Bardock would be involved in EFB. It isn't. Plans changed. Just so you know.)

The seven strangers spread out, strolling casually across the Lookout. The leader (evident by the way the others waited for her signal to disperse) approached the startled group who'd summoned the dragon, most of whom edged nervously behind Pan and Uub.

"You," she said, jabbing a sharpened, claw-like fingernail at Pan. "Native. Thanks for summoning the dragon so often."

"Uh…sure, I mean…I, um…" Pan held out her hands in a placating gesture. "Can you please explain what's going on here? I'm totally lost."

"As am I," Dende chipped in. "I've never heard of Dragon Balls doing anything like this before…"

"Fine," the woman replied in a bored voice, "I'll indulge you. We've got time, after all." She stood easily seven feet tall, with a wiry frame and slightly hunched gait. A green, almost floor-length jacket was draped over her shoulders, and one's gaze was constantly being drawn to her hair, which was comprised of a pair of large brown locks hanging over her ears, and a swept-back swathe of blonde in the centre that formed itself into arcing spikes. The initial impression was that she was human, but a second glance revealed that this was unlikely: Her eyes were blank red orbs, her teeth were jagged fangs, and her fingers in fact ended not in claw-like nails, but actual claws. "I'll give you the short version," she barked. "Magic has to be powered somehow. Dragon Balls use positive energy to grant wishes, but have to create an equal amount of negative energy. Enough builds up, pretty quickly with huge wishes like yours, and it creates a 'breach' in the walls of your universe, allowing us to get through. 'Us' being the Shadow Dragons, of which I'm the strongest. Alpha Shenron, pleased to meet you though of course, not for long."

"Not for long?" Pan asked, taking a slow step backwards.

"Oh, of course. Don't worry, we won't kill you unless you attack first. But once a powerful Shadow Dragon like me gets into a universe, I start generating negative energy of my own. Eventually, the breach gets wide enough for the Eternal to stick a hand in. The Eternal, by the way, being the greatest being in the entire cosmos, and the one that created us."

"And the Eternal will kill us all?"

"Not just you—this whole universe. And when I say 'kill'…'eat' is more accurate." She grinned toothily. "That's what our master does, see. And we are its heralds."

Pan knew this wasn't too important, given what she'd just heard, but it was annoying her. "Have to say, you don't look much like dragons…"

"Yeah, that'd be all the inhabitants of this planet making wishes on these things. Warped our image towards theirs—normally, we look a lot more like the Shenron you know. Honestly, I was expecting Namek, but this is okay. Nameks don't warp your image, for one thing…"

"Huh? Why?" She frowned. "And why the hell do the Dragon Balls do that anyway? The Namekians don't know anything about this!"

"Sorry, bored now," Alpha replied, turning away and marching off. "Have fun with your last day or two, however long it takes before I can get the breach wide enough." The other Shadow Dragons ceased their idle inspection of the Lookout and fell into formation behind Alpha, following her to the edge.

Pan clenched her fists. "So the only way to stop it is to kill you?"

"That'd make sense, wouldn't it?" Alpha called back over her shoulder.

"Then get ready!" Aura springing to life around her, Pan leapt at the departing group, charging an energy blast in each hand.

"Kronos," Alpha muttered. "Attend to it." One of the other 'dragons' nodded, appearing directly in front of Pan the next moment. He was clothed all in black, with a mop of hair hanging over pale, glowing eyes. The air warped and folded around him, and tendrils of shadow curled around his feet, until one could scarcely tell where his legs ended and the ground began. Before Pan could release either charged attack, Kronos reached up and tapped her on the head with his forefinger.

She froze, energy vanishing, then flung herself to the floor, screaming and writhing. "I've just inflicted upon you the pain of every hurt you've ever suffered, physical or mental, during your life," he said in flat tones.

"Bastard!" Kuriza hissed, ascending into his fifth form and leaping at Kronos with a flying kick. The Shadow Dragon sighed, outline flickering slightly. Kuriza was hurled violently to the floor, cracking the stone beneath. "And if you must know," Kronos muttered as he turned and walked back to the others, "I created a Paradox Zone in the instant of your attack, allowing several versions of me from different points in the following second to travel to that moment and strike you simultaneously. I trust you will require no further demonstrations." Indeed, no-one else was eager to attack.

"Well, anyway, it seems the natives don't like to roll over," Alpha decided. "I guess we'll go with the tower, let them come to us. That's always a good way to kill time. Hephaestus?"

"It shall be done," rasped another Shadow Dragon; this one armoured in black and red, a flame pattern emblazoned on his chestplate. With that, the seven strange beings took off in unison, vanishing almost instantly from sight.

Dende rushed over to the downed pair of fighters, applying his healing magic as quickly as possible. "Did you feel their powers?" he asked. "Absolutely enormous…"

"Even more worrying, the lead one, Alpha," Marron said as she helped them up, "I couldn't feel her ki at all, and I don't see why she'd hide it when the rest aren't. Which means…"

Kuriza scowled, returning to his natural form. "Which means, more than likely, she's got divine ki…this is serious."

Dende gave a sudden yelp, then did the trademark looking-slightly-upwards stance of one who's just been telepathically contacted. "What? Yours too? Did anything come out?! Good…yes, I said 'too'—look, it's a long story, I'll get back to you!" He looked down. "That was Moori. The Namekian Dragon Balls have just shattered…no Shadow Dragons came out, but it's a pretty safe bet it's linked to this. And, just like me…he can't feel that power anymore. It's like the ability to create Dragon Balls has gone from this world. You know what that means, right?"

Pan nodded. "If the Dragon Balls are gone for good, which might just be the case…no more second chances. Anybody dies—they're gone for good."

Hakaishin temple…

"Bills! Wake up! Now!"

Bills yawned. "Mmh? 'S Lord Bills t'you…"

The God of Destruction found himself abruptly hauled out of bed. "Not today, it isn't," Whis snapped.

Bills woke up instantly, springing to his feet. "This is bad, then. I can't remember the last time I saw you serious…"

"A grave threat has emerged which could potentially spell the end of your entire universe," Whis said brusquely. "Can I make myself any more clear than that?"

"No, I gotcha," Bills grumbled, cleaning out his ear. "So we gotta go beat somebody up?"

"Trust me, old friend…if you could handle this enemy, I would not be worried, and if I could handle it alone, I would not have disturbed you."

"Somebody you can't beat? You gotta be kidding!" Bills protested as he followed Whis out of his sleeping-chamber.

Whis shrugged. "It is entirely possible, though not at all certain, that the two of us could overcome the Shadow Dragons that have appeared at the moment. However, attacking them will be like kicking a hornet's nest; and the two of us cannot handle the whole swarm, believe me."

"Wait…aww, we're not going to…"

"We are indeed," Whis answered, clicking his heels as they arrived at a seemingly-empty doorway. "You, as one of the twelve Hakaishin, can call a Council. With the combined might of the Gods of Destruction behind me, I may be able to save this universe."

Bills closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "…all right. But I can't guarantee that they'll agree to help."

"All I ask is that you try."

South City…

"Red Oni to Blue Oni. I'm at 450 metres and closing," the crouching figure whispered, observing the rotation of the security camera overhead and judging when the time would be right to slip through—the human guard was no problem, but the camera was pirated Capsule Corporation tech, and might spot a glimpse of his movement.

"Blue to Red, copy that," a voice replied over the radio. "I'm ready for extraction if you screw up again."

"Can it," 'Red Oni' muttered. "Only one of us screwed up the last job, and it wasn't me."

"Will you focus?" 'Blue' hissed.

"Fine!" The black-garbed operative stole a glance around the corner. Think I've got the camera's pattern…3…2…1…

"Hey, kid!" A distressingly familiar voice called from behind him, shattering the silence. 'Red Oni' practically jumped to the ceiling, spinning to see a smiling, moderately spiky-haired man in a business suit waving to him. "G-Gohan?!" the infiltrator spluttered. "Do you realise what you've—"

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" The guard came sprinting around the corner, 'Red' immediately dropping him with a spinning kick to the head. "Gohan, you moron!"

"Uh, Goten, what're you doing sneaking into a place like—"

"Let's go! Talk later!" Goten growled through his balaclava.

"Blue Oni to Red Oni," the voice chimed in. "You're blown. I'll cover, you haul ass—don't worry, I'll go easy on 'em." This was followed by a series of deafening explosions from outside.

"Alert! Priority 1 alert! This facility is under attack!"

"Uh, Goten, what's—" Gohan began, but Goten strode up and grabbed him by the wrist before he finished speaking.

"I said, talk later! Teleport us out of here already!"

They materialised outside, directly behind the source of the commotion: Vegeta Jr., AKA 'Blue Oni', was hurling fireballs at the compound and causing the occasional explosion, all the while dodging a cannonade of energy beams the guards were firing in return. "Well, guess who screwed it up again?" he shouted back over his shoulder.

Goten rolled his eyes. "I was doing fine, then my brother showed up, actually." He jerked a thumb at Gohan, waving politely from behind him. "Seems like he's got something important to say."

Vegeta shrugged. "All right. One thing, though—Gohan's face probably got caught on camera." He frowned, flexing his fingers and giving off a strange emanation of ki. "There. Just fired a low-power shockwave through the whole place; works kinda but not quite like an EMP burst. Fried all their cameras."

"When'd you learn to do something like that?!" Gohan spluttered.

"Not long after starting this job. Aright, let's go." Vegeta batted away an incoming ki beam, flying off after the others and easily outpacing their pursuers in short order.

Once they were safely ensconced in a nearby cave, Gohan looked the pair of them up and down. "So what are you two doing sneaking into a private research lab out in South City?"

"Government hired us," Goten explained. "It's pretty much how we make a living. With our speed and ki control, not to mention the kind of teamwork only occasionally sharing a mind can give you, we make pretty good spies—and we picked up the rest pretty quickly." The pair of secret agents removed their balaclavas, causing Gohan to all but collapse in shock.

"Gah! Your face! And your hair!" It took them a second to realise he was talking about: Goten had a scraggly almost-beard, and Vegeta's hair was slicked back, hanging down over his shoulders, and not spiked at all. "What happened to you guys?!"

"Oh, this…" In quite an alarming fashion, Goten fired an energy blast at his own face, pulling his barrier back to only just cover his skin, neatly singing off the unwanted facial hair (and temporarily obscuring the entire bottom half of his head in an explosion). "Yeah, been working a while now and I keep forgetting…"

"And this is just hair gel," Vegeta added. "Can't really fit my normal hair under a hood. I mean, I could cut a hole for it or something, but a feature that distinctive kind of defeats the purpose of being stealthy." He narrowed his eyes, sending a wave of power up through his hair and giving it the 'jolt' required to shake off the gel and stand back up in his usual flame-point. "Aahhh, better."

"Anyhoo." Goten turned back to his older brother. "What's up? Somebody wants to kill us all, I guess? That or Bulma's throwing a party."

Gohan nodded. "The former. I don't know exactly myself; it'll be explained when I've gathered everyone. Now please, come with me."

East City…

The commentator leaned forwards, shouting through his moustache. "After a devastating roundhouse, Dog is somehow back on his feet, and back on the offensive! I don't know how much of this Break can endure!" The glaring stage lights beat down on the small, hot fighting ring, the yells of the small crowd only overshadowed by the rhythmic crash of knuckle on forearm.

Break let 'Mad Dog' Brody's punches rain down, allowing a couple to slip through her guard and hit her shoulders and head. She barely felt the impacts, but played up her reaction, grunting and falling back until she was backed into the corner of the ring. Too many easy victories would get boring—she had to play the crowd, give them something to remember. If she was honest, her job was more entertainer than fighter a lot of the time. Okay, about now should do it. She opened her guard, drawing a fist back slowly as if to attack, and the large, extensively-tattooed boxer lunged, landing a heavy blow to her stomach. She let the impact carry her back into the ropes, slumping against the edge, and Brody stood back, grinning stupidly.

"Hey…" Break slurred, climbing to her feet and patting her unmarked stomach. "…that it?"

"Wuh—" her opponent began, but got no further. Break's fist probably touched his face at some point, but he couldn't tell; all he knew was that he was now halfway through a wall with a cracked jaw, which is not a pleasant place to be.

Break exhaled, wiping a sheet of sweat from her forehead—more from the hot, cramped room than any kind of exertion due to fighting—then clapped her hands together, nodding to the queue by the ring. "Next."

Twenty-one fighters later…

A knock came on her trailer door, and she swung it open, tearing into a cooked steak she had in one hand as she talked. "Gohan? Watcha doin' here?"

Gohan smiled politely, having decided to be a little more normal in his sudden appearances after lat time. "Well, I think there's some serious trouble afoot."

"'Afoot'? Who even says—never mind." She inhaled the rest of the impromptu meal. "Somebody wants to blow up the planet, right?"

"Try the universe."

Break whistled. "That's new. I mean...we've had 'all the planets in the universe' tried, but just the whole damn thing...hmm. All right, I just got off, might as well."

"Uh…you might want to change first." Gohan scratched his head. "I mean, your parents are gonna be in there, and it'd be kind of awkward meeting them in your underwear…"

"Underwear?" she scoffed. "Listen, this is a professional fighter's outfit, and I'm wearing about twice as much as any of the guys, believe me." She paused. "But yeah, you've probably got a point…" She vanished from the doorway into the recesses of her trailer. "Be with you in a sec."

"So…how'd you end up here, anyway?" Gohan asked, raising his voice slightly over the rustling. "I mean, you were going to university, right?"

"So do you just suck at keeping track of your friends and family, or what?"

"Apparently," he laughed. "I mean, I've been meeting Goten pretty regularly, but I only just found out he's been doing spy stuff."

"Wait, spy stuff?"

"Can you answer my question, please?"

She sighed. "Ah, fine. Yes, I was studying nanobiology. Got my bachelor's, actually."

"…and?!"

"And it's just a hobby. I always felt better with fighting as my actual job."

Gohan gave a puzzled look. "I think you've got those two the wrong way round…"

"Ah, what do you know." She emerged, jumping down and kicking the trailer door shut as she went. "This better?"

Gohan coughed. "Er…not really. I mean, surely that only just qualifies as a shirt…"

"Screw you. Let's go."

West City hospital…

Gohan's head peered cautiously around the door. "Er…Baby? Is this a bad time?"

"Gohan…" the cyborg sighed, "I'm performing knee surgery. How could this not be a bad time?" He raised his hand. "Nurse, check that anaesthetic level."

Gohan fell silent for a second, then came to a conclusion, stepping fully into the room and neatly dodging the pair of medical staff that tried to usher him out. "More to the point, why are you performing knee surgery?"

Baby made a tiny incision, hands totally steady. "Because I find it amusing. It really wasn't very hard to pick up; human medicine is shockingly primitive. Really, you'd find this kind of stuff in any first aid kit back on Plant—or Vegeta, should I say?" he goaded.

Gohan frowned. "Not in the mood, Baby, nor do I associate myself with that barbaric race."

"I was joking."

"Unfortunately, I'm not—the universe might be in danger, so I'm rounding up everyone I can track down."

"The entire universe? Seriously?" Baby calmly put his surgical instruments down, throwing off his gloves, mask and apron. "Somebody take over!"

"But the patient—" A nurse protested.

"—won't know the difference as long as somebody gets the damn bookend out of his leg before he wakes up!" Baby retorted. "All right, lead the way."

"Don't you have to train for years to be a doctor?" Gohan asked. "Even if you're smart enough to learn everything in weeks?

"Well, I wouldn't call myself qualified, exactly," Baby replied, smirking. "But once I'd figured everything out, I just walked in and started operating on people. First they realised they couldn't stop me, then they realised I was actually quite good at it and stopped bothering to try."

Eventually…

"…and then the Shadow Dragons just upped and left," Marron finished recounting. Gohan had finished gathering up everyone he could think of who might be useful, and the whole group now stood in an empty meeting-room in Capsule Corp.

"Yeah, well, their ki was pretty hard to miss, up 'till they went into hiding just now," Raditz said from the corner of the room. "I think it's pretty obvious what we've gotta do."

"Punch things?" Break guessed.

Goku laughed. "No mystery whose child she is…but yeah. That's about it."

"Are we ready, though?" Goten wondered. "I mean, you said one of 'em probably has divine power…and the rest have pretty insane ki anyway…can we beat them?"

"I'm not sure…" Raditz admitted. "Hmm. Might have something that'd help. Pan—wanna get stronger?"

"Huh? Um…sure…?" Pan raised an eyebrow, unsettled by the suddenness of this.

"Well, I mean, you don't have to…" he mumbled. "I mean, we've got Gohan, and it wouldn't be pleasant. I'd be surprised if there was anybody crazy enough, besides me, to try and put themselves through it." He realised he was sounding extremely suspect. "Well, I…okay, I was thinking of ways to get stronger on short notice. And so I thought, well, we used to turn into Oozaru; now we turn into Super Saiyans. Who's to say we can't do both at the same time? So I asked Bulma for a machine that generated Blutz waves, tried to get my tail to grow back."

"And?" Gohan prompted.

Raditz shook his head. "Nothing. I guess you really can only regrow it as a child…"

"But I still have one, so you're offering me a shot," Pan finished.

"Hey, I've got a tail too," Gohan pointed out. "Don't I count?"

Raditz smiled. "Sure. It's just, you're already the strongest one here; I was offering Pan the chance first, but you can try it if you like. And to tell the truth, I don't want more people doing this than have to; neither of you ever learned to control the Oozaru, and when you add the Super Saiyan rage to that…" He shrugged.

"Hmm…you have a point." Gohan scratched his head. "Well, like you said, I'm pretty strong already. I don't want to risk not being able to fight at all because I lose control trying your idea…I'd better see how I match up to that leader of theirs first."

"Good thinking."

Gohan turned to his daughter. "Pan? You're pretty much an adult now, so I won't tell you what to do…going to try it?"

Pan remained silent for a second, swaying slightly, then shook her head. "Like my dad said, if it doesn't work you'll have to knock me out or something, and I'll be even less help than I am now. I want to see what I can do against them anyway, then if we're completely outmatched I'll give it a go."

"Sounds good." Raditz nodded. "Then unless there's anything else, we don't know exactly how long it'll take them to let their boss-thing in to eat us all, so—let's move out."

Launch jumped to her feet. "There is one thing. Who's going? I'm gonna be blunt, we need our absolute best fighters for this one, and that doesn't include me. We can't afford anybody else hanging around slowing them down."

"Fair enough," Vegeta continued, pointing to various fighters as he named them. "How about Goten and I…Break, Raditz, Goku, Gohan…Pan, Uub and Eighteen. I hope no-one will object because they don't want to fight, or fear for their life. If we don't do everything we can, we may as well lie down and wait for the end."

Eighteen stood, turning for the door. "Well said. No objections here—let's go."

The nine chosen warriors landed atop a plateau overlooking a dusty plain (they did seem to encounter a lot of those). "This is about where I last felt their ki before it disappeared," Pan whispered; despite the lack of any response from the Shadow Dragons so far, the tension in the air was practically sickening.

Goku's experience was evident here; by contrast, he was clearly in his element. "Well, I think it's a pretty safe bet they're still here. I mean, that thing's pretty hard to miss."

'That thing' was a massive cylindrical tower, made of some kind of smooth black rock. It was divided into seven sections, bottom to top, upon which were carved, in enormous kanji, the symbols for 'earth', 'hell', 'forge', 'fire', 'ice', 'time', and 'one'.

Raditz folded his arms, scanning the symbols. "Huh. Well, that's nice and ominous. It'd be kind of weird at this point if they weren't in there."

Alpha, seated on top of the tower, hopped over to the edge and peered down at the Earth's defenders. "Yep, this ki…it can't be a coincidence we were summoned here. These guys, short of the Hakaishin himself, must be the strongest this universe has got." She placed a finger on her right temple, closing her eyes. "Gaia, you hear me?"

Perfectly clearly.

"Okay. You were on scouting duty—anything I should know about these guys, or should I just let you handle them?"

Their power and abilities, taken by themselves, do not seem to indicate a threat to one such as you. However, it is not their strength at any given time that should concern you; it is their ability to improve. They can increase their power at a phenomenal rate, and overcome the most overwhelming of foes. Particularly the full-blooded saiyans—it would be extremely unwise to engage them directly, based on past events.

"Thanks for the heads-up. Guess I'll just show 'em the door. I'll see what I can do with both charges, then you think you can handle the rest?"

Of course.

"Right then." The invading group was now fast approaching the tower, so Alpha leapt, landing with a mighty impact directly between them and the arched doorway. "Greetings, and hello again to a couple of you." She stood up. "Here's the deal; you have to kill me to stop the negative energy build-up; the longer I'm alive, the closer we get to the Eternal eating your universe. Bad news is, I'm going to be hiding at the top of this tower, and don't even try skipping to the top, because we know our enchantments and it'd take you months to break them, which is time you don't have."

Goten grunted. "All right, we get it, it's simple enough; we climb the tower, beat up your friends along the way, then get to you. But your henchmen could've told us that—so what're you doing here? Just practicing your evil gloating? Or you wanna twirl your moustache at us?"

"Cute." She raised her right arm above her head. "Actually, I'm just here to make things more interesting. See, I have an ability I call my Void Banisher; pretty multi-purpose. I store one charge in each arm, takes a few days to recharge."

"Your point?" Raditz growled, tensing up slightly as her arm began to vibrate, as if being viewed from multiple angles at once.

Alpha grinned. "Have patience. This is the fun part." Clenching her fist, she swung her arm back down towards the ground, smashing it into the rock beneath. "Right…BANISHER!" Contrary to what they expected, it only created a small crater, but evidently the effects went beyond the physical. As soon as she spoke the words, the world shuddered, colour and proportion skewing off into wild psychedelia for a moment.

Things quickly returned to normal, though, leaving Uub to ask the inevitable question: "What the hell was that?"

"That, children, was one of my two charges," Alpha replied smugly. "In this case, I chose to use as little finesse as possible, and basically just punched your universe right in its timeline. So now not only is space tearing, but time too."

"Let me guess, that makes it even easier for your Eternal to get in," Pan said grimly.

"Yup!" Alpha laughed. "You can't have more than an hour or two now, so…have fun with that."

Gohan took a step in front of the group. "Not if I can help it. I followed the trace your attack left…I can sense the wound you made, though I have to strain my ki sense and five-dimensional perceptions to their limits. And if I can find it, I can close it."

"You sure, dad?" Pan asked, turning and looking up at him. "That sounds kinda dangerous."

Gohan smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. If I can even get there, that is…I don't even know where 'there' is, or if it's even a 'place' as we know the term." He frowned, raising two fingers to his forehead. It'll be like both Shifting and Instant Transmission at once…a little like my God Step technique, but at a much larger distance and with an even greater degree of integration… "Do what you can, guys—and stay alive. I'll be as quick as I can." Turning Super Saiyan as a precaution against whatever he might encounter upon arrival, he vanished.

Alpha managed to keep a straight face for nearly five seconds, before erupting into roaring laughter. "Oh, perfect! That look of determination!" She calmed down, wiping away a tear of mirth. "The fool. That's an impressive teleportation ability, but he's just transported himself straight through the rift—and outside the universe. And trust me, no mortal can survive there."

"What?!" Pan choked. "You're saying he…"

"If he's still alive, he won't be for long," Alpha chuckled. "Your laws of physics don't apply out there. Your body simply won't hold together."

"Damn you…!" Goku yelled, leaping over his allies' heads at Alpha, Raditz a microsecond behind him. Alpha spun, dodging between the two veteran warriors' charges as their auras ignited, one red, one gold. A fist drew back on one side, a sword flashed out of its scabbard on the other. She skidded back, sliding out of the path of their attacks before raising her left hand, and her voice deepened for a moment as she spoke. "Left Banisher."

The saiyans' images flickered for a moment, and then they were gone. No explosions, screams of rage or anguish, no fireworks or flashy burst of light. There was simply empty air where Goku and Raditz had once stood. Alpha lowered her arm. "See, like I said—last time I used no finesse at all, and hit your entire plane of existence at once. This time, I focused it all on the two of them, and was able to achieve forcible, unwilling remote teleportation, a feat beyond even most other Eternal Dragons." She turned away. "Still, on the bright side, for you at least, I've now exhausted both of my Void Banisher charges."

"W-Where did you send them?" Break demanded.

"Outside the universe, of course," Alpha replied calmly. "I hope I don't need to repeat myself about what will happen to them."

"Y…You…"

"Well, I've had my fun. And either because of their power, or their ability to raise it in desperate circumstances, those three were the only ones among you that worried me. The rest of you, have fun with my guards." She turned back towards the entrance and flitted away, her speed carrying her out of sight before any of them could even begin to react.

"D…Dad…" Break reached out shakily, clutching at empty air.

Goten sank to his knees, fingernails digging bloody gashes into his palms. "Damn it…!"

"Stay strong," Eighteen commanded. "We've taken a heavy loss, but it'll be worse if you all come to pieces now. Come on. We didn't see them die. You know these people; if there's a way to survive, they've probably already found it."

"R…Right…" Uub said slowly, unconvinced.

"You guys go on ahead," Pan mumbled, straightening up and grabbing her forearm to stop its trembling. "I'm gonna go back and try Raditz's combined-form idea. If we're going to fight these guys, I'll need to be as strong as I possibly can."

Eighteen nodded. "Be quick."

"Not running out on us, are you?" Vegeta muttered, only to have Uub immediately round on him, lifting him one-handed into the air by his collar.

"She wouldn't do that!" he hissed. "If that's what you think, you don't know her…!"

"It's all right," Pan told Uub, turning away. "I understand what he's thinking—I know I sound a bit of a wreck. But I'll be back, okay? We don't have time to keep talking about this—go!" With that, she took off, propelling herself back towards West City. I should've done this in the first place…that speed…I had no idea how outclassed we are.

"You heard the lady," Break said firmly, striding towards the archway that lead into the tower. "Let's get started before we lose anybody else." The others fell in behind her, and as one they braved the cavernous, twelve-metre maw of an entrance.

The interior was not nearly as forbidding as they had imagined—in fact, it was so pleasant as to be positively bizarre. The black stone was almost completely covered in a blanket of flowers, flowing away a great distance in all directions. The plantlife continued up the walls, creepers hanging from the high ceiling, and the air smelled fresh and pleasant, giving the disconcerting feeling of having just come outside, rather than in.

"I can sense a presence now," Uub muttered, "somewhere nearby…but I can't feel any ki at all from outside anymore."

Break nodded. "This tower must shield ki sensing. That's why we couldn't sense any of the dragons from the outside."

"How'd they set all this up so quickly?" Goten wondered, kicking a cloud of petals into the air and watching them drift away on the breeze.

"Enjoying yourselves?" A voice spoke, seemingly from everywhere at once. Slowly, a figure reared up above the carpet of vegetation, rising to its full height and sighing. "This is Eden Palace, and I am its warden—Gaia Shenron." Gaia was shrouded in a cloak of blue and green, lit oddly from within in a blue and green patchwork pattern that formed, upon closer inspection, the exact shape of the world's continents and oceans. "Well, then," she said, in an off-puttingly calm voice, "who shall be the first to die?"

Alpha, back in her throne atop the tower, smiled. Yes, the remaining fighters won't pose a problem now I've disposed of those three. Gaia will be easily sufficient for all of them.

Somewhere. Somewhen. Somehow.

Goku opened his eyes, groggily standing and reaching out a hand to support himself on a nearby metal pillar, sheared off a metre or so above the ground. Whatever it had supported before had been completely incinerated, and the ground beneath his feet was blackened with scorch marks. In fact, as he looked around, he came to realise that the whole area resembled a warzone; ruined buildings, craters, fires still raging here and there.

He also soon came to realise that he was about four feet tall, possessed of a tail, and if he had to guess, something like twelve years old. This seemed wrong somehow, but he wasn't entirely sure why, since most of his memory was a complete blank. Come to it, he had no idea where he was or how he'd got there.

He took a step forwards, feeling something tap against his waist. He looked down; a rounded metal device was attached to his belt. He blinked, the sight of it giving him a strange feeling. His mouth unconsciously formed around half-remembered words. "…radar. Gotta find…Dragon Balls."

"There you are, Kakarot!" A voice growled from behind him. He turned, dropping instinctively into a defensive stance, and his eyes widened upon seeing the armoured figure stomping towards him over the burnt ground. "You failed in your mission, you low-class dog! You were supposed to kill the inhabitants of Earth!" A pair of gloved fists clenched. "I cannot tolerate failure in my soldiers."

Another unfamiliar word rose from the depths of his mind. "…Vegeta…"

Prepare for all the epic foreshadowing to pay off, everybody.

...I mean, not all in the next chapter, but, you know, soon. Ish.

In regards to Pan's power, here's the best analogy I could think of:

Most Super Saiyans have a 'digital' power, where they gain distinct increments and levels, and she has an 'analog' power, where it's the same potential amount of power but each time she taps into it she gains a variable amount directly proportional to her training and willpower, and there's no fixed initial levels of limits between stages. So she can probably trigger it at will now, but not to nearly as high a level as an actual mid-battle emotional trigger would cause.

Here's something interesting! Toriyama said in an interview just the other day that SSJ2 and SSJ3 were "nothing more than powered-up variations of Super Saiyan. After the fight with Beerus, Goku realized that mastering his normal state and Super Saiyan would raise his level more and sap less strength, so I think he probably won't become Super Saiyan 2 or 3 any more." (By which I take it that he means they're similar to USSJ in a way, though without the speed loss I suppose) This is interesting, and actually fits in with Battle of the Gods; Vegeta, when he had his epic power-up, didn't have any SSJ2 sparks from what I remember (or am I wrong…?).

Anyway, this fits in nicely with my theories too. I've already said that Super Saiyan has demigod ki potential lying dormant within it; I guess I can just say that this power is maximised with a sufficiently-mastered level of SSJ1, and SSJ2 and 3 really don't have any bearing on it.

Q: Hey can this timeline's Break access her Legendary Super Saiyan power? or Psuedo LSSJ or whatever? Just curious.

A: Yes, she did it briefly in the Buu saga.

Q: How's Zarbon doing? Eighteen still can't sense energy? And Kuriza has absolutely zero ambitions to return to ruling?

A: He's fine, I guess? She's not the type to train (and to be fair, many normal people still don't have any ki abilities, just like most normal people nowadays don't do martial arts, and many don't work out at all), and after her somewhat traumatic experience with her last 'upgrade', is going to have a sort of phobia of getting any kind of alteration that doesn't directly work to restoring her humanity; therefore a built-in detection device isn't on the cards. Quite possibly she owns a scouter or something, but I doubt she bothers to wear it much.

Kuriza is in his 'rebellious teenager' phase and has a knee-jerk negative reaction to things associated with his father. Maybe he'll look to the stars again when he's older.

Q: how long do u think even further beyond will last I hope it goes on ages like break threw the limits also I wanna how much stronger everyone is now

A: How long will it go on…no idea!

Q: Also how strong are the next generation fighters? I know they're not as strong as the Big Three (Gohan, Goku, Raditz) so who would you compare their powers to?
I'd say (in order of strongest to weakest): Uub, Pan, Kuriza and then Marron.

A: Yeah, that seems about right, at least in 'base'. Uub and Pan's maximum power…well, we'll see soon enough! Uub's 'base' power is now up to about Buu's when it was first created (i.e. canon Kid Buu).

Q: So, Even Further isn't a separate fic?

A: Nope, I figured this would be easier.

Q: Regarding Pan's transformation last chapter, can she not go conventional super saiyan at all because of being 1/4 and has this new false SSJ inspired form instead, or has she just not cracked it yet? Interested to see where you take her character.

A: Partially due to being ¼ saiyan, and partially because of her unusually-powerful parents, yes, this form replaces normal SSJ entirely. But as explained above, it's really just a different way of calling on the same reserve of power.

Q: I know its spoil-y to ask, but can we NOT have a stupid hide and go seek dragon saga? :-P that ALWAYS irked me...

A: Don't worry, we won't. It's more like the Muscle Tower or Babidi's spaceship bits, only this time actually challenging for the heroes.

Q: So those are the shadow dragons they must be more fearfull than gt , since whils got angry they were free right?

A: Well, Whis wasn't around in GT, we don't know how he'd have reacted…I mean, in my opinion yes, these dragons, Alpha in particular, are stronger, but that's mainly because I personally class GT stuff from SSJ4 level and up as demigod ki, and Bills, Whis and Alpha have full divine ki. But then it's entirely possible to interpret either BotG and GT stuff as being stronger than the other, that's just my opinion.

Q: Great chapter! I think the Shaddow dragons are way stronger than in cannon. Omega was as strong as Bills in cannon, so, I think they will be much stronger than in cannon, otherwise, Wis will just addomise them in a second, there will be other gods aswell! Can't wait! Great work! Can't wait for the next chapter!

A: …how do you know Omega was as strong as Bills…? (Or is that still part of the "I think"?)

Q: my god just sat here and read this and bringer of death and both of these were amazzzzzzzing. one question will chi-chi have a quest for great grand children and videl a quest of grand children in that case pour pan ):

A: Hmm, not sure. Hadn't really thought about it.

Q: After you do the Shadow Dragon Saga, I want you to do the Future Majin Buu of Future Break's Timeline. I want to see what happened after Future Break, Future Gohan, and Future Broly defeat Future Super Android 17 and 18. Also, I want to see Future Break and Future Broly achieved Legendary Super Saiyan 2 and Legendary Super Saiyan 3. And I want Future Pan to exist in the BTtL Mirai Timeline and I want to see Future Broly having been told of Kakarot's death at the Heart Virus and having his insanity cured and adjust his life on Earth and having Future Broly reformed.

A: Er…I'd kind of prefer to leave all that implied. I like the open-ended ending I gave the future timeline. I do have about half a chapter of a future timeline chapter typed up and floating around somewhere, so maybe I'll post it as a 'bonus feature' sometime and you can see a bit more of that story.

And now, because, like, three of you demanded it:

The Break Through the Limit Really Crappy 'First Draft' Script/Plan Thing From Several Years Ago: Part 2

As before, present-day me will be leaving sarcastic comments/wails of distress in italics. We rejoin our hero, Young Stupid Me, as he's just finished the Cell Saga.

Brace yourselves, readers. Stupid is coming. Advanced-level stupid.

So, the whole Gohan/Great Saiyaman thing happens, Goten grows up to be like the future one—serious and not that fun-loving—due to his lack of a father. He trains a lot on his own.

I should remind you all at this point that 'Goten' in this version is Raditz and Launch's child, and his future counterpart was the Trunks/Break character in this version. What happened to actual Goten? I don't know! I guess he just was never born.

Videl, annoyed that Gohan isn't training her very much, goes to Piccolo for lessons, and eventually becomes stronger than Gohan's base form.

BWAHAHAHAHAAAAA NO. Just...no! He's a Super Saiyan 2! His base should be...I just...you...wha...NO.

The tournament happens, with just about everybody entering, and Babidi's henchmen interrupt it (Videl beats one of them, so they gang up on her, the other heroes intervene, the henchmen steal energy and flee). The fighters all chase after them, and arrive at Babidi's ship, defeating his henchmen. However, Babidi attempts to use mind control to turn Gohan evil, but Nail blocks it, becoming Majin Piccolo, much more powerful and back to being evil (Piccolo also becomes the dominant personality). He kills Babidi, and finishes reviving Buu, who appears as Super Buu, as Babidi's henchmen managed to steal not only Gohan's power, but all three Super Saiyans'.

...how?! How did Yamu and Spopovich steal so much energy from all those powerful fighters?! And wouldn't that just make fat Buu come out, and leave some spare energy in the draining thing? Gah, already with the plotholes!

Luckily, they've since been healed by the Supreme Kai,

...you mean by Kibito.

and they all fight Piccolo, Buu and Dabura. The battle is interrupted by Janemba's arrival, and Buu defeats him.

Hahaha what.

WHAT.

WHAT?!

NO!

However, Raditz turns into a Super Saiyan 3, and Tien and Yamcha fuse into Tiencha. The two of them battle Buu, while Goku, Gohan and Videl fight Piccolo, and Zarbon, Goten (who, it is revealed, is also a Super Saiyan, having trained himself) and Cellin fight Dabura.

Yeah, remember how Cellin was a thing in this draft? With a really half-assed explanation? Aaaagh.

First Zarbon, then Goten, are turned to stone, but when Dabura is killed, they revert to normal (Videl was also injured). Then, Tiencha defuses, but only after severely weakening Buu, and Raditz finishes it. Goku snaps Piccolo out of it, bringing him back to normal (however, Piccolo is still the dominant personality). (the Supreme Kai was watching the fight, waiting for his turn, but after a while, considered himself outclassed).

Wait, so...that's it?!

Yup. That's IT. That's the ENTIRE Buu Saga. One battle. One. WHAT IS THIS I DONT EVEN

...wait...there's another page of this.

But I wasn't doing the Shadow Dragons or Even Further Beyond back here. I hadn't thought of it.

What had I planned after Buu, then...?

Find out next time, on Oh Kami, Did I Really Write That.