Vegeta:

He lowered himself somewhat inelegantly to the ground and tried to control his breathing. That training fight had been tough. Vegeta had only fought Kera while Kakarrot had watched. Beerus, as usual, sat on his lounger at the edge of the forest and watched them, while Whis stood beside him and called out comments to them at irregular intervals.

Kera also lowered herself to the ground and leaned against his back, exhausted.

"That was awesome, guys!" Excitedly, Kakarrot came running towards them.

"Shut up, Kakarrot. We still haven't managed to just respond."

"Man, do you always have to grumble straight away?!" said Kera, annoyed. "No, we haven't made it yet. We'll get there though if we keep training, so stop with that negative vibe already."

Vegeta looked down in dismay. She was just right again. She always managed to remind them both that they could achieve more if they just believed in themselves. Sometimes he wondered if he would have come this far without Kera.

"You didn't realise, did you?"

"Do you want to enlighten us then?", Vegeta snapped at him.

"You were both briefly in the Super Saiyan God stage. Your hair was red!" Grinning gleefully, he looked from Vegeta to Kera and back again.

Skeptically, Vegeta raised an eyebrow. Kera broke away from his back and fixed Kakarrot.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Quite sure."

Irritated, he looked to his hands, as if he could read there what had happened. Had he actually done it? Then why hadn't he felt any of it? Even if Kakarrot annoyed him beyond measure, he wouldn't lie about that, so he had to believe him.

Whis came up to them. "Lord Beerus has suggested a new training method."

"Which ...?" Vegeta couldn't finish his question. Whis had raised the staff. The sphere on it glowed and seemed to increase in size. A suction engulfed him, Kera and Kakarrot.

He made a surprised sound and tried to brace himself against the suction, but he had no chance. The surroundings changed. A bright light surrounded them and he had to close his eyes, dazzled.

When he opened them again, he found himself in a strange room. He saw no floor, no ceiling. It was as if he was in nothingness. Everything around him shone brightly. He was floating. And at the same time he felt a pressure from all sides that seemed to have no physical origin. Increased gravity? He could not move. He tried to turn his head. Where was Kera?

Only with the greatest effort did he manage to look to his left. There was Kera. She too was suffering from the increased gravity. She tried to smile at him, but he saw that even lifting the corners of her mouth required the greatest effort.

Kakarrot was on Kera's other side. Vegeta only saw his shoe as he turned his head a little further.

He took a deep breath. Somehow he had to be able to move. He felt for his ki and found it deep inside him. It was there. What if he concentrated it right there? What if he tried not to let it leak out at all and just kept it inside his body?

He started with his little right finger. He let the energy that was there slowly move back so that it was only inside him, shielded from touching the outside. Then he moved on to the second finger. When he reached the thumb, he felt his hand move very easily. He repeated the procedure on his other hand and then extended it to his arms. He breathed calmly and deeply. The pressure around him became less. He could move more and more parts of his body until finally he was floating so freely in space that he no longer felt any pressure from outside.

"Kera, Kakarrot! Concentrate your ki only on your inner self. Then you can move again."

He turned in the air and looked at Kera, who understood him immediately, while on Kakarrot's face first a questioning, then an understanding expression became visible.

Vegeta felt Kera pull her energy back inside her and was able to move again in no time.

"So, what are we supposed to do here now?" asked Kera.

"Training, I suppose. We've already learned here that we can control our ki differently and ..."

"Guys?", Kakarrot interrupted him.

"What?", Vegeta snapped at him.

"Does this remind you of anything?"

Kera and Vegeta looked around. "You mean the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?"

"Exactly. Except there doesn't seem to be an entrance here. No door. And no house with food in it either." Slight panic resonated in his voice.

"What's that?" Vegeta pointed at a shimmering green orb hovering a few yards beside them. Moving closer, he realised it was Whis' staff.

"That's Whis' staff," Kakarrot said.

"I wonder if we are in Whis' staff?" pondered Kera aloud. "Maybe we can't get out of here until we have complete control of our ki."

"Possibly. Then attack me. You don't stand a chance against me anyway," Vegeta said with a snide grin.

Reyak:

"Where ... where did he go?"

Confused, Reyak looked to Menka, who looked equally perplexed. Then he looked to Gine. She still had her hand up as if she wanted to touch Frieza. He wondered what was going through her head.

"We got here too late. Apparently he's been revived," Menka said.

"Then we urgently need to get back now. Warn the others."

"Come on." Menka reached for Reyak and Gine to return them to their body, but Gine floated backwards a little, eluding Menka's grasp.

"Gine, what is it?" Questioningly, Reyak looked at his half-sister.

"I want to look." She turned and flew away.

"Oh, crap. This is trouble," Reyak muttered and followed Gine. "Come Menka," he called over his shoulder.

As he flew after Gine, he thought feverishly about what to do next. Gine was fast, even though she was younger than Reyak. Menka, on the other hand, was rather slow. If they continued like this, he might catch Gine with a bit of luck, but he might lose sight of Menka and without her he would not find his way back into his body.

One curse after another crossed his lips. In between he called out to Gine, who ignored him. What was wrong with her? She was always reserved towards all strangers. Only once had she approached Beerus of her own accord during Bulma's birthday party. And now Frieza.

Reyak knew his mother had been possessed by a divine being when Gine was born, as had Vegeta. They had always thought it would have no effect, but maybe it did have an effect on her.

Reyak swallowed. He was afraid that his little sister would be a threat after all. He trained with his father as much as he could and knew that Dende was looking for a way to bind Gine's powers in case of need, but what if all that wasn't enough? Then he might have to fight her and he didn't know if he was ready for that.

Vegeta:

He had adapted surprisingly quickly to the change in environment. He kept the ki in his body. When he wanted to hurl an energy ball, he called the energy from his centre, passed it through his arm and made it appear in his hand. It felt different than usual and yet it was so simple. Why hadn't he tried this much earlier?

"There it was again!" Cheering, Kera jumped up and down. Questioningly, he looked at her. "Your hair was blue. I saw it clearly."

He smiled. "So is yours."

Slightly irritated, Kera looked down at her braid and a smile flitted across her lips. A moment later the blue colouring disappeared from her hair again and they looked as black as ever.

"That was awesome!"

Kakarrot, who had been watching Vegeta and Kera in their training battle, floated over to them in the endless space and grinned broadly.

"So Whis was right. We need to control our ki."

Kakarrot agreed with Kera and nodded eagerly. "I don't know if I could have done it so quickly outside this strange room, though."

Kera nodded as well. "It's hard to say. It was here that I really understood what Whis meant."

"How long have we been here anyway?" Vegeta looked up at the sphere hovering above them, giving a glimpse of the outside world, or at least pretending to. Their only point of reference in this room. Outside, the time of day didn't seem to have changed, at least he hadn't been able to detect any change in brightness.

"If this is something like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, then it could also be that time passes differently here." Kera looked at the sphere.

"It's possible," Vegeta muttered, stretching. "Kakarrot, now it's our turn." He moved into attack position.

"Stop. It's my turn with Kakarrot now. That's what we agreed."

Sullenly, Vegeta pushed his lower lip forward. He had hoped she had forgotten. He was in such good shape right now. Sighing, he pulled back a few yards from the two of them while Kakarrot and Kera looked at each other.

"It's good to know that we can reach the Super Saiyain God even without other Saiyans."

"And we've even gone one step further. Reyak is going to freak out when I show him this."

"What are we going to call this blue form, anyway?" exclaimed Vegeta.

Kakarrot shrugged his shoulders. "Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan?"

Kera and Vegeta exchanged a look. No way!

"I'm sure we can think of a better name," Kera said, attacking Kakarrot.

Vegeta focused on his sister's movements. By not letting her energy leak out, Vegeta could only guess at her current fighting strength. Her movements were smooth and became even more precise with her transformation into the blue form.

Suddenly Kera groaned and stiffened. Had Kakarrot hit her and Vegeta had missed it? No, Kakarrot struck at that moment and Kera slumped forward. Kakarrot took another swing. Kera made no move to block the blow. Something was wrong.

Vegeta rushed forward and was able to catch Kakarrot's punch at the last moment before it hit Kera again in the stomach area.

"Stop it, you idiot! Can't you see she's not fighting back?"

Kakarrot's expression changed from anger to surprise. Instantly he let go of Vegeta and put a step of distance between him and himself. Vegeta turned to face Kera.

Her breathing was labored. She was convulsing and slumping more and more. She was in a lot of pain.

"Kera, what is it?" Vegeta touched her shoulders. Heat waves were emanating from her body. The energy she had controlled so well all this time now seemed to pour out of her uncontrollably.

Rattling, she took a breath, unable to complete it, and tried again. "Piccolo." That was the only word she managed to utter before she slumped further.