"So...what were you doing out here again?"

Goku sat cross-legged across from Jamba, having just wolfed down an appetizing spread of apples, chicken wings, pork, rice, and fish. Jamba simply assembled a small bowl of rice for himself despite Goku's offer to share his own bounty, politely declining on the basis of his species not requiring all that much to eat. While Jamba slowly picked through his rice, Goku had blazed through his food in minutes, and was now quickly becoming bored. Jamba looked up at the Saiyan for a second before responding.

"I was ordered to the planet Arlia to initiate diplomatic relations with their new government. Their planet had been ruled by a despot for decades, but a popular revolt overthrew him, and, well...the Galactic Patrol needs all the members it can get these days, considering the scope of the Cold family's influence."

Goku nodded. "Ah. Gotcha." The two sat in silence, Jamba giving the appearance of eating his rice absentmindedly as he observed how Goku perceived him. It was like he was trying to see someone else in Jamba's features. It didn't take a genius to figure out who that someone else was.

"Son Goku?" Jamba piped up suddenly, startling Goku a little.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Is there any particular reason you are looking at me so intently?"

Goku began to fidget slightly before chuckling, caught in the act. "Yeah, sorry, it's just...man,

I really can't stop thinking about how much you look like my friend. I mean, I have one idea as to why, but it's a little far-fetched."

Jamba made a show of thinking it over before making a suggestion. "Well, perhaps you could tell me about this friend. I might be able to shed some light on this puzzle of yours."

Goku thought it over for a second before accepting. "Well, Tien...I mean, he's bald, like you. And he's got three eyes, all in the same places."

"Hm. Interesting." He had already learned about Tien Shinhan from Zuno, of course, but there were still some questions about the man which he hadn't yet gotten an answer to. He could easily ask Zuno those questions, given how he still had the man in his power, but...for some reason, he preferred getting his answers from Goku. He turned his attention back to the conversation. "Anything else? Blue skin color, perhaps?"

"Nah, his skin is kinda like a light peach color. He's got a similar face to yours, but in every other way, he looks pretty different. There is one other weird thing he can do, though," Goku said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, when we fought the first time, he sprouted two arms from his back," Goku explained, to which Jamba raised an eyebrow. He didn't think a distant hybrid would retain an ability like that, even if humans were fairly compatible. "Have you ever heard of something like that?"

Jamba nodded. "As a matter of fact, I have. It sounds like the solution to your puzzle is as I had expected: he and I are of the same species."

Goku's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean my guess was actually right?!" he said, a little surprised with himself. Jamba chuckled.

"Apparently so. Of course, based on your description, I imagine he is a more distant relation. Probably a hybrid a few generations removed." As he spoke, Jamba mulled over who Tien might be the descendant of. "Quinaren was of somewhat advanced age. It's possible that Earth was where she finally decided to rest. But, then again, if he resembles me, he may be descended from Farren. Hell, they may have both gone to Earth, I...I never did keep in touch with most of them. I doubt Son Goku or even this Tien knows that much about his ancestry."

As Jamba remained lost in thought, Goku nodded along, still surprised that he had actually been right. "Man, first me, then Kami and Piccolo, now Tien...Earth really is the place to be for a lot of different people, huh?" Goku remarked with an amused chuckle, to which Jamba responded in kind once his attention snapped back onto Goku.

"So it would seem." The two sat in silence for a moment before Goku spoke up, a question having come to mind.

"Say, what is it like where you come from, anyway?" he asked, his cheerful expression slowly shifting to one of concern as he perceived Jamba instantly flinch at the inquiry. "Sorry, is that a touchy subject?"

Jamba took a deep breath before replying, "...In a manner of speaking," his voice somewhat strained. He hadn't expected that particular question to come up so soon, although he supposed it wasn't too surprising that it affected him this severely. Goku frowned slightly as he observed Jamba's obvious discomfort.

"Gotcha. We can talk about something else if you-"

"No!" Jamba interrupted, surprising both Goku and himself. Where had that come from? "I...we will likely be traveling together for some time. It would be logical for us to establish a certain degree of...familiarity."

Goku looked at him for a moment, clearly torn over how far to take his concern, before nodding. "Well, alright. So long as you're comfortable."

Jamba nodded. "I appreciate your concern, Son Goku, but...I will be alright." Having said that, he took another deep breath, steadying himself as he began to reminisce. "My homeworld, Kasei...it was beautiful. The sky was a brilliant, golden yellow, complimented perfectly by the most pure white clouds you can imagine. The light from our sun shone brilliantly in the cool blue water of our oceans and lakes, which rarely varied in temperature and remained pure all year round. My people were the only carnivorous beings left on the planet; every other animal was herbivorous and docile, as calm as the rivers which many of them gathered around to feast on the colorful plants which lined their banks. In the time that I lived there, the architecture was built with the natural world around it in mind, fitting in seamlessly. ...There was nowhere else like it in all the universe."

Goku nodded along as he listened attentively to Jamba's explanation, while Jamba himself stared out into space, having gotten lost in his own pleasant memories. Goku hesitated to break him out of it, but his curiosity eventually got the better of him.

"...'Was'?" Goku asked, which snapped Jamba out of his recollection and back to the present. He looked at Goku wordlessly for a moment before casting his head downwards, clearly in great pain.

"Yes," he said, in a somewhat defeated tone. "Kasei was destroyed...almost ninety years ago today."

Goku nodded solemnly. "Got it," he said, not sure how else to respond. "...How did it happen?"

Jamba sighed, a sad smile crossing his features. "A dreadfully common story in this universe: a serene planet, whose people have no enemies to speak of, wiped out by the whim of someone whose power is matched only by their utter lack of compassion." Goku's eyes widened slightly.

"Was King Cold the one who did it? Or one of his ancestors?" he asked, his anger beginning to rise more easily than he had expected. Jamba shook his head.

"Unfortunately, no. The man who destroyed my world is someone much greater in power, lesser in cruelty, and somehow even more apathetic to the suffering of others."

As Jamba looked across at Goku, he saw something he knew was usually reserved for the Saiyan's enemies: a look of quiet fury and righteous anger flaring in his eyes, accompanied by a subtle, yet still noticeable rise in his ki. The man reacted strongly to injustice, more so than anyone else Jamba had ever met in his long life. The observation hurt him a little.

"Even stronger than King Cold?" Goku asked, a mixture of anger and slight confusion in his tone. After all, he had assumed that he was now the strongest person in the universe, by a pretty significant margin.

"Oh, yes," Jamba replied. "He is called the Destroyer: a man so powerful that he can destroy entire worlds with little more than a thought. And he has a mentor who is even stronger than him, who never leaves his side and supposedly serves to keep him in check."

To Jamba's surprise, Goku chuckled slightly. "You don't say. Well...honestly, that's something of a relief."

Jamba cocked his head in confusion. "A...relief?" he asked, to which Goku nodded.

"Yeah. After I killed Frieza, I was beginning to worry that there wasn't anybody stronger than me, or even all that close. I mean, I guess Vegeta could be stronger now, and he might be out there somewhere, but..."

Jamba found it surprisingly easy to express genuine surprise once Goku said those words. He still had trouble believing it, after all. "Y-you...killed Frieza?" he asked, selling his shock as best he could.

"Yup. He was strong, stronger than anybody I'd ever fought. I tried everything I had to beat him, but in the end, I was no match. If it weren't for me unlocking this 'Super Saiyan' transformation," he said, gesturing to himself as his Super Saiyan aura glowed faintly around him, "I would never have won."

Jamba nodded. "I'm still surprised that this is what it looks like," he murmured, which Goku just barely picked up.

"What was that?"

"Oh, um...well, I had heard the legend of the Super Saiyan before in various forms, but as you can imagine, the descriptions shift depending on who tells the legend." Goku's expression cleared in understanding, and Jamba breathed a silent sigh of relief before continuing. "Some depicted the Super Saiyan as a kind of golden-furred monkey, while others seemed to think that the user would wind up with dark red hair and a flaming orange aura, details likely lifted from a similar legend to the point where they blended together. I hadn't expected the form to even exist, much less to look like this."

"Huh. Well, anyway, a part of me admittedly didn't like how much of a downgrade King Cold would be when I fought him, so it's nice to know that there's still someone out there stronger than me. Somebody I can work to beat one day, you know?"

Jamba couldn't help but chuckle at Goku's naivete. "Ah, unfortunately, the Destroyer isn't the kind of person who can be bested by ordinary mortals like you and I. He and his mentor are like gods to us." Goku laughed heartily in response. "What?" Jamba asked, a hint of confusion in his tone.

"Ah, nothing," Goku replied, still chuckling a bit. "It's just, whenever I meet someone who's called a god or calls themselves God or whatever...I tend to get stronger than them sooner or later. I guess words like that are just kind of funny to me now."

Jamba looked at Goku with surprise before remembering some of the things he had heard from Zuno. He had to admit, Goku had a point.

"Well, I assure you they are both many, many, many times stronger than you are now, even if it was easy for you to kill the likes of Frieza," Jamba said. "It's rather unlikely that you could ever grow to match them in strength."

Goku shrugged. "Eh, maybe. Won't know until I try it, you know?"

Jamba couldn't help but smirk slightly. "I suppose."

"Anyway, why don't you tell me more about...Kasai?" Goku asked, to which Jamba chuckled.

"Kasei. And...what would you like to know?" Jamba responded, surprised by the eagerness in his own voice. He thought of his home every day, but...he couldn't remember the last time he had described it to someone who had actually cared.

"Well...you talked a lot about what it looked like, but I wanna know about what the people who lived there were like!" Goku said, a child-like curiosity shining in his eyes. Jamba smiled at him, a genuine smile that filled him with happiness and apprehension in equal measure.

"Very well," he replied. "My people, the Kasians, have a lot in common with many other species throughout the universe. Our temperaments varied as one would expect, as did our appearances. When I lived there, one could find Kasians of almost every shade of blue conceivable." Jamba chuckled. "Some of us even had hair," he said, like he was sharing an amusing piece of trivia. "There were certainly some strange things about us: our three eyes, our remarkable ability to survive the elements, our ability to sprout two additional arms from our backs..."

"Huh," Goku said, interrupting him for a second. "That would explain why Tien can do that." Jamba nodded.

"We tended not to utilize that ability too much. It's fairly painful." Goku nodded, and gestured for Jamba to get back to his original thought. "Anyway...there is one thing that sets us apart from every other species in the universe. We call it...the Copy Technique."

Goku's eyes widened, making a connection he hadn't expected to.

"Wait a second, Tien can do something like that!" he cried out suddenly, while Jamba looked at him with practiced surprise. "He calls it the Multi-Form. He used it when we last fought to split into 4 versions of himself." At this, Jamba raised an eyebrow. Zuno had been somewhat vague on the details of Goku's second fight with Tien, so Jamba decided to probe for additional information.

"I must say, that's rather interesting. Was one version much stronger than the others, by any chance?" Goku shook his head.

"Nah, they were equal in power, but they also only had a fourth of his strength, so they were pretty easy to beat. Once I did, the other three kinda vanished. I guess they were, like, reabsorbed back into Tien somehow."

Jamba nodded. "I see." So, Jamba thought, Tien had somehow developed the Copy Technique entirely on his own, albeit an overall inferior version. He idly wondered if that came down to Tien having to figure it out from scratch, or if it were simply due to Tien's hybrid physiology. He had displayed every other Kasian characteristic, but it was possible that some abilities could only be mastered by a full-blooded Kasian. Jamba set the thought aside. It was unimportant. "Well, our Copy Technique is fairly distinct from this 'Multi-Form,' I assure you."

"Really? How?" Goku asked, his eager curiosity coming back again. Jamba chuckled a bit.

"Well, the way it works is, we utilize ki to create a duplicate of ourselves, sacrificing a sizable portion of our own energy reserves in the process. In the process, this duplicate is created to be as real as you or I, operating as if it were a distinct entity yet still sharing the same consciousness, which can extend itself across incredibly vast distances."

Goku nodded along, vaguely understanding. "So...it's like you're two people, but also one person?" he asked, to which Jamba shrugged.

"Essentially."

"And this copy, is it weaker? How's that work?"

"Well, after using up that reserve of ki, the original creator is weaker for a time, yes, and the duplicate is born with that same level of power. Eventually, however, both of them will return to their original level of strength, each of them capable of making their own duplicates if they choose."

"Huh," Goku remarked. "You're sure that only Kasians can learn a technique like that?"

Jamba chuckled. "As far as I'm aware, yes."

"Did you all know how to do it, or did only a handful of you guys know how to use it?"

"A select number knew how to use it at first, but as the few survivors of the Final War, they made sure that all of their descendents knew the technique. It was so widespread and normalized that it quickly became the cornerstone of our entire way of life."

"Is that right?" Goku said, smiling a bit. "I gotta say, I haven't heard of anything quite like that. Going out into space is pretty interesting when people aren't trying to kill you!"

Jamba chuckled. "Oh, believe me, I know. I've seen things in my time the likes of which you could never imagine."

The two sat in silence again before Goku attempted to get the conversation back on track. "So, how exactly did this Copy Technique change everything?"

"Ah. Well, in the aftermath of the Final War, the structure of our society shifted greatly. Our world, which had previously been divided into a wide assortment of countries, had been forcefully united into a single global state. Entire cultures, entire ethnicities had been wiped out in the fighting and killing. It was a horrible, brutal time, one I'm thankful that I wasn't born in. But, with the Copy Technique, everything changed. Factors such as gender, ethnicity, and skin color, characteristics which left much of our society subjected to horrific systemic oppression before the war, hardly mattered under the new regime. All that mattered, aside from merit and skill, was whether you were a copy, or a prime."

Goku cocked his head. "A 'prime?'" he asked.

Jamba nodded. "That was our term for any Kasian...well, like you, in a sense. You are a person who was born to two ordinary parents, both of whom were born to two ordinary parents as well. Nobody in your family tree owes their entire existence to a being created from an identical being's ki...I assume," Jamba said, smirking before he continued. "That is essentially what a prime was: someone who didn't owe their existence to the Copy Technique. That definition, of course, included both people who weren't copies and people who weren't descended from a copy. There were subtle genetic differences between a prime and their copies which made such things easy to determine. Although not technically illegal, the social stigma attached to such...relations might as well have been a legal sanction."

Goku looked at Jamba, confused and a little upset. "Why did it matter so much? I mean, shutting out somebody because of who they wanna marry...that's evil."

Jamba looked back at Goku for a moment before sighing. "Well...the issue with primes and copies had to do with who was considered valuable and who was considered disposable. Civilizations all throughout the universe had, at some point or another, defined a certain group or groups of people as disposable, an acceptable loss justified by the continual march of progress. Or, at least, whatever the dominant group thought was progress. Before the Final War, marginalized ethnicities, gender identities, the working class, and other groups had been the disposable people. But afterwards...in a sense, virtually everyone was valued as both priceless and disposable at the same time." Goku looked at Jamba with curiosity, his eyes prompting the three-eyed man to continue. "Copies are not unique entities, but extensions of a prime's consciousness. They experienced everything that their primes experienced, and their primes experienced everything that they did. Both primes and copies could create other copies, making copies incredibly disposable and capable of being replaced with only moderate difficulty. As such, copies were left with the brunt of society's labor and hardship. They performed menial labor, they ran businesses, and they administered the global government, among other things. But, beyond that, they also did a lot of mundane tasks as well. They got groceries, ran errands, engaged in riskier leisure activities, all so that their primes, the beings upon which they were based, never had to directly. Primes lived their lives in luxury and carefully maintained safety, always attended by a couple of their copies and never engaging in anything that couldn't be easily kept at a low risk of potentially killing them." Jamba paused, staring out into space for a moment. "There was no greater tragedy than the death of a prime. Any Kasian would rather feel their copies die a hundred times than risk that. Living on without a prime...it was seen as living like a ghost."

Goku's eyes widened slightly as he nodded in response, and he dared to ask the question that came to his mind. "You...you're not one of those 'prime' things, huh? You're a copy. That's the only reason any of you guys are still around, isn't it?"

Jamba looked down, grimacing in response to Goku's question. He had hit it right on the head. "Yes," he admitted. "I am a copy. All of us are. ...We are all that's left."

"Yeah, I...I mean, jeez. I can imagine how hard that would be," Goku said, doing his best to console his companion before another question came to mind. "If you don't mind my asking, how did you and your friends escape Kasei blowing up anyway?"

Goku's wording unintentionally drew Jamba back to that day, the day where he both had escaped, and hadn't. The day where his prime and several copies had been vaporized faster than his nerves could even process what was happening, with his sole surviving copy left feeling all of it. The feeling of loss, of emptiness...he still had nightmares about it sometimes.

"Just over ninety years ago, our first spaceship had been developed. It was pretty primitive, and agonizingly slow compared to many of the spaceships I've seen throughout the universe, but it was an exciting prospect all the same. I had been chosen as Chief Engineer, with a good friend of mine serving as our leader. Our mission was simple: find new life, explore new worlds, and, if possible, leave copies behind everywhere we visited in order to continue making observations through them. We traveled for eight months, and just when we made it to the outer boundary of a solar system 7.3 light years away from our planet, we all felt what had happened on Kasei. A couple voices for some and dozens for others, all being plucked from the universe and lost forever in less than a second. We knew from our memories what had happened and who was responsible, but we couldn't agree on what to do. We went to the Galactic Patrol for help, but they quickly dismissed our case, leaving us alone to our own devices. Some of the crew abandoned the mission, trying to make new lives for themselves on other worlds. Others kept the mission going, a final tribute to a civilization that had been all but destroyed. And, frankly...I didn't know what to think at first."

Goku followed along, incredibly invested in Jamba's tale through his apparent skill at narration.

"Ultimately..." Jamba continued. "I decided to live my life as a member of the Galactic Patrol, although I no longer make use of my cloning abilities. And thus...I have lived my life as just one person, for almost a century now, doing what I think is right." Goku looks at him for a second before nodding slowly.

"Ah. I gotcha." Before anything else happened, Goku felt moved to stretch his arms and get up off the ground, shifting out of his Super Saiyan form. "Well, I better go ahead and hit the hay. Would you be down to do a bit of sparring when I wake up? It'd be a good change of pace."

Jamba nodded. "Sure, I would be happy to."

"Cool." Goku paused before leaving the chamber. "It...it was nice talking to you, Jamba. It was getting pretty boring sitting here meditating all day."

"Likewise, Son Goku. It...I don't think I realized how much I needed someone to talk to about all of this. Thank you."

"No problem. That's what friends are for, right?" Goku asked, to which Jamba couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Yes...friends," he muttered to himself as Goku walked away, climbing down the hatch to his quarters and leaving Jamba alone to his own devices. He put up a hand to his forehead, not too surprised to find beads of sweat forming on it. There was an easy explanation for it: he was startled.

Startled by how nice that sounded.

Elsewhere, many light years away, Jamba stared out at a foreboding landscape, having flown over to a cliff overlooking a vast, virtually flat plane of land which he had chosen as the landing area for the Attack Balls he stole from Frieza Planet 352. Cooler stood beside him, staring at the plain impatiently before noticing two dim lights in the dim, cloudy sky, and sighing in relief.

"Finally," he said, until he noticed that Jamba wasn't paying attention. "Hey, triclops! Your pods have arrived," he said, sending a slight kiai Jamba's way to jostle him out of his trance.

"Hm?" Jamba remarked just as the roar of the two Attack Balls' engines grew louder and louder before they crashed into the ground several miles away, the impacts less than a second apart. "Oh. So they have."

Cooler looked at Jamba with a curious expression. "The hell is this?"

Jamba took a moment to reorient himself to the surroundings of this particular copy. "My apologies. I was distracted."

This only confused Cooler further. "Your consciousness is spread out between an innumerable number of duplicates all throughout the universe, and you can act through each and every one of them with hardly any effort. How the hell can you ever get distracted?"

Jamba simply grumbled. "In any case, the Attack Balls are here. Shall we depart, dear emperor?"

Cooler raised an eyebrow before chuckling. "Dear emperor" was a new one.

"In a moment. There's just one small matter that needs addressing," Cooler remarked as his ki momentarily shifted position. To Jamba, all he could register was one brief shift between where Cooler stood and the location of the pods. In that time, Cooler reached out with his ki towards the two copies of Jamba seated in the Attack Balls and snapped their necks instantly with telekinesis, flying back to where he had been just as Jamba began to sense that he had even left. Before Jamba could react, he felt a field of ki envelop his body before concentrating in his windpipe, and he began choking as he was lifted up off the ground by Cooler's telekinetic powers. "A matter thirty years overdo," Cooler finished.

Jamba frantically held out his hands in an attempt to get Cooler to stop while he struggled to get out a sentence. "Something...you...know!" he managed, although Cooler understood his meaning.

"Oh?" he said rhetorically, loosening his grip on Jamba's throat just enough to allow him to speak, with considerable pain. "And what's that?"

"Frieza...is dead."

Cooler was left feeling a whole range of emotions with that statement. It was little wonder that his first reaction was denial. "You're lying."

Jamba coughed in pain. "This copy is likely dead either way. There isn't much reason to put in the work of lying when there's no benefit for it, now is there? Especially when the truth is this copy's only chance at survival."

Cooler looked at Jamba with that same mixture of emotions for a moment, seeming to debate whether he was really telling the truth before nodding slightly.

"Very well. So Frieza is dead. And just who managed to kill him aside from me, I wonder?"

Jamba attempted to smirk, but the pain of being half-choked out and...some other feeling made it difficult to do so. "You won't get your answer out of a corpse," he said, to which Cooler smirked in turn.

"I suppose not. So, is this your play? I can't kill you without leaving myself in ignorance of a foe who may well be stronger than me?"

Jamba tried to nod, but found that his head had been restrained as well by Cooler's telekinetic grip. "More or less."

Cooler smiled, a genuine smile that left Jamba feeling more apprehensive than anything else the aspiring tyrant could've done. "I see. Well, it would appear that I have only one option."

With a wave of his hand, Cooler let Jamba back down onto the ground, where the three-eyed man dusted himself off, coughing a couple times to clear his throat. He looked at Cooler with satisfaction written in his features.

"Now, as I was saying, shall we depart, dear-?"

Jamba's snide remark was cut short by a harsh crack, followed by the immediate loss of all feeling in his legs.

As Jamba's legs began to buckle, Cooler lifted him up with telekinesis once more, breaking both of Jamba's arms and twisting them at unnatural angles before throwing him to the ground, where he landed on his back with a thud.

"Agh...it was worth a shot," Jamba remarked with gritted teeth from all of the pain he was experiencing, while Cooler laughed softly at Jamba's misery.

"Oh, Jamba...you have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that to you."

Jamba winced, getting a good impression from the extent of his pain. "No, but I can certainly...make an educated guess. You definitely...could've been subtler about it."

"There isn't much reason to put in the work of lying when there's no benefit for it, now is there?" Cooler parroted back, causing Jamba to chuckle morbidly.

"Fair enough."

"You know..." Cooler began, thinking of exactly how he wanted to say what he thought, now that the moment he had been waiting for came to pass. "Technically speaking, I've known you longer than I've known anybody else in my life. And I've spent all of that time since our first deal trying to figure you out, Jamba. Trying to ascertain when you were lying and when you were telling the truth, if indeed you were even capable of telling the truth. Do you want to know what I realized?"

"Oh, yes, please, do go on," Jamba said with dripping sarcasm, his pain still evident as he lay there too weak to do anything.

"It doesn't matter," Cooler answered. "That was it. The answer I'd been looking for all that time, and it was so stupidly simple. It doesn't matter, because you're always lying."

Jamba's eyes widened, Cooler's words getting to him more than he would have cared to admit.

"Even when you think you're telling the truth, even when you want to tell the truth, it's always wrapped up in lies. A shroud of deception you use to protect yourself."

Jamba couldn't help but tremble slightly, in a mix of anger and...that same strange feeling again. What was it? Was it fear? Shame? ...Guilt?

"I'm not sure whether you've always been like this or if the course of your life has made you this way, but to be quite honest, I could care less," Cooler said, turning away. "I'm just relieved that I'll never have to bear another of your attempts at deception for as long as I'll live."

As Cooler walked off, Jamba sat there, still under the effects of his turbulent emotions. And yet, even so, whether it was his own pride or his desire to prove the disgraced prince wrong, he couldn't let Cooler have the last word.

"I...wasn't lying...about Frieza," he called out as much as he could, getting Cooler's attention. "He was killed...by someone far more powerful than you...or your father. That man...will destroy you." Cooler chuckled with genuine amusement as he turned back around to face Jamba.

"Perhaps you weren't lying about that. I'll have to see that for myself. But there was a lie buried in your pathetic attempt at bargaining, whether you recognized it as such or not."

"Oh? And...what lie was that?" Jamba asked in a mocking tone. Cooler grinned.

"That you were still of use to me," he said, before firing off a finger beam and piercing Jamba's skull, finishing that particular copy off.

Minutes later, one Attack Ball took off from the planet at dizzying speeds before stopping in its tracks, just short of leaving the surrounding star system. Cooler took off after it, matching its pace until he came to about the edge of the planet's atmosphere and stopped to look at it from far above, for the first and last time. He held out his right index finger, and a crackling sphere of black and purple ki began to form above it, slowly but surely growing in power. Jamba wasn't the only thing which no longer had a use.

With a slight smirk, Cooler threw the sphere down towards the planet, effortlessly piercing through miles of dirt and rock before finally hitting the planet's core. Seconds later, the sphere's full destructive power was unleashed, destroying the core and triggering a massive explosion which turned much of the planet and everything on it into bright yellow plasma. Cooler stood his ground, as it were, hardly budging from an explosion that would've annihilated all but a handful of mortal beings throughout the entire universe. When the explosion had petered out and the plasma had dissipated throughout the system, Cooler looked at his handiwork with satisfaction. He looked towards where he had left the Attack Ball, a smile on his face.

"Now," he thought to himself, "let us see what I'm supposed to be so worried about."

"Well...that seemed a bit excessive."

Zuno sat on his throne, his attendants flanking him while Jamba stood a couple feet in front of him, the position that copy had habitually taken up ever since he had been assigned there. As was typical whenever a copy of his died, he had to take a second to reorient himself, blinking as if trying to shake off an unpleasant memory.

"Which part? Breaking my copy's spine, or twisting both of my copy's arms at a 125 degree angle?" he asked, an unusual degree of irritation in his tone.

"Well, I was referring specifically to him blowing up the planet, but...I suppose the answer is yes."

Jamba scoffed. "He's a member of the Chilled family. Blowing up planets is their main means of catharsis."

"Indeed."

The two sat in silence for a while, Jamba wrestling with a number of things while Zuno sat there, knowing every single thought that was going through Jamba's head. Eventually, he decided to chime in.

"You're thinking about what Cooler said to you."

Jamba flinched, standing still for a moment before turning towards Zuno with anger in his eyes. "Get out of my head," he said, in a low tone.

"I am omniscient. I will always know what you are thinking at any given moment."

"Well then perhaps you should refrain from making that knowledge known!" Jamba snapped. "Unless, of course, you want me to hurt you!"

Zuno looked at Jamba with a dry expression, calling his bluff before he even made it. "You will not kill me. My knowledge is too valuable to your own endeavors."

Jamba growled angrily. Having a conversation with someone who was always right and knew everything about you was remarkably frustrating.

"If you know this, then why have you cooperated? You've answered every question I pose to you, even ones that aren't related to King Cold's goals. Why bother if you know I won't kill you?"

Zuno briefly entered into his answering trance. "I have no means of leaving this planet. King Cold destroyed every other spaceship here when he killed all of those petitioners. Refusing to answer your questions puts me at risk of eventual retaliation."

Jamba cocked his head. "I don't see how. Son Goku will eventually kill King Cold, assuming Cooler doesn't beat him to it, and if he does, Son Goku will kill Cooler. What's there to worry about?"

Zuno snapped back to his trance in the blink of an eye. "His odds of doing so have just decreased sharply."

Now Jamba was especially confused. "...What? How?"

As always, Zuno's response was prompt. "Cooler is going to attempt to bend his father to his will in order to help him deal with this new threat."

"What?!" Jamba barked in surprise. "He despises his father more than anything! He's thought of little else besides killing him for decades!"

"Even so, he appears to have taken your warning seriously, even if he does doubt its veracity. If your statement was true, he's cautious enough to believe that he may not be strong enough to fight this person alone, so he's traveling to Planet Chilled to coerce his father into joining him, and possibly to obtain more information. From his perspective, should you turn out to have lied to him, he'll simply kill his father and brother as he had planned."

Jamba stared off into the middle distance, lost in thought. "That's...hm. I would not have expected that from him. Son Goku...he may not be strong enough to fight them both, particularly if they have the opportunity to train with each other. ...I'm going to have to address that."

As Jamba already began to make preparations through several other copies, Zuno looked at him with interest, idly noticing the progression of Jamba's thoughts.

"You don't like me," Zuno said bluntly, to which Jamba couldn't help but laugh.

"Did you require your omniscience to tell you that, Zuno?" he asked mockingly, causing Zuno to shift into his trance again.

"No. It would have been obvious from your body language, manner of speaking towards me, and your general personality," he said before shifting back. Jamba chuckled.

"Well, as always, Zuno, you're correct. I don't." He began to turn back to his many preparations, while Zuno, undaunted, continued.

"You don't like me because I'm the only person who knows what you really are," he said simply. Jamba grumbled.

"And just what do you think I really am, oh great and powerful Zuno?" he asked, a smirk forming on his face. It was fun forcing Zuno to enter his trance now and again. However, what Zuno said next quickly sucked all of the fun out of the situation.

"A horrible person."

Zuno exited the trance as Jamba stood there, every single one of his copies all across the universe stopping in their tracks for a second, staring out into space.

"That...that's not...you're speaking subjectively."

"That is incorrect. I am making an objective analysis of your moral character, based on every code of ethics whose existence I am currently aware of. In the overwhelmingly vast majority of them, your actions would be considered utterly reprehensible."

"M-my cause is just! I'm doing what has to be done in order for-!"

"You are complicit in maintaining a regime which has ruled 70% of the universe with an iron fist, killing untold billions in order to maintain total control."

"You don't think I realize that? The empire must be destroyed!"

"You have personally killed one hundred and twenty-seven people, and have directly orchestrated the deaths of two thousand and fifty-six more. You are currently planning to carry out the deaths of several dozen others, including a six year old child, purely because they are a threat to your plans."

"I...t-they would try to stop me. They can't stop me, not until I-!"

"Plans, mind you, which involve killing someone who wasn't involved in the atrocity for which you have sworn vengeance. Someone who exists in this universe solely to create and protect life."

"The hell he does!" Jamba said, anger working its way through his calm facade. "If what you told me about this 'Shin' is true, if he just stood by and let that monster slaughter my people to 'maintain the balance of the universe,' then he's just as guilty as the Destroyer! Who knows how many planets he has laid waste while that coward stood by and watched?!"

Zuno sat up straight. "Five thousand two hundred and-"

"Shut up!" Jamba interrupted, drowning out the noise of Zuno finishing his answer. After a couple seconds of silence, Jamba's expression shifted, and he looked at Zuno almost pleadingly. "But you know," he said with despair in his voice. "You know everything I lost! My people...my home...my friends..." To his own surprise, he found himself barely restraining himself from crying. "My family...you know why I'm doing this! You know!"

Zuno looked at the man with a completely neutral expression, devoid of pity. "Yes. I do. This has no bearing on my analysis, nor should it. None of what you have experienced justifies your actions under the vast majority of moral frameworks in the universe. Under those standards, therefore...you are a horrible person."

Jamba stared at Zuno for a moment, utterly speechless, before he curled his fists in anger. Without another word, he looked at Zuno with complete and utter hatred in his eyes, while Zuno himself looked back with a slight degree of confusion. He brought up what he knew of Jamba's thoughts to get his answers.

"You're thinking about...no," he said, a look of horror immediately crossing his features. "No, no, no, please! Please, anything but that!"

"Zuno-"

Zuno couldn't quite get himself up off of his throne, but he still held his hands together, looking down at Jamba as he begged for mercy. "Please!"

"-tell me everything you know...until I tell you to stop."

Zuno immediately stiffened up, entering into a trance far more manic and terrified than anything he had entered previously. There was a reason that no one had ever thought to ask him to do this before.

"My name is Zuno! There are only fifty-six Xerenian Hay-Devils left in the wild! Zylian bats are incredibly sensitive to bright lights and loud noises! The Multin Dynasty of the planet Barain has just been toppled by a popular revolt led by Gafrichtek-Legh-Klyziplark! Burlipa trees grow to maturity after five hundred and twenty six years! The Saiyan Prince Vegeta is currently located on-!"

Jamba walked out of Zuno's chambers, still stewing over everything that he had experienced that day...and pushing aside how satisfying it was to hear the utter horror in Zuno's voice.

Alright, another chapter completed!

The good news is, I'm just about done with the next chapter-could maybe add a scene, or just add a couple hundred words, but for now it's workable. Additional good news: I'll be on a week-long break from school soon, meaning a lot more time to work on chapters. With luck, that'll be the boost I need to catch up and get through this arc. As always, I hope you guys are enjoying it so far!

With that said, let's get to review responses!

mastercheif1229 says:

"Great chapter! I can't wait for the next one! 3:10 A.M. this time! I'm going to bed now, goodnight!"

Jesus Christ, you guys, sleep at a reasonable time, please!

(He says, as he's finishing this note at 1 AM, regularly going to sleep at 2 AM or later.)

RKF22 says: "Excellent work can't wait for more." Why, thank you!

GojiRanger says:

"I'm really liking the interaction between Gohan and Chiaoutzu. It's a good way of giving both of them character development whilst also just allowing the to interact at all; seriously I think they interacted all of once in the original, at least in Kai, and that was just Chiaoutzu commenting on how he looked like Goku's son, so it's nice to see them having such an important conversation.

I'm also liking the closer connection between the Z-Warriors that in the original. Tien and Launch, Chi-Chi and Launch, Piccolo and Tien, Piccolo, and Chi-Chi; it's really nice to see these characters interact with each other.

And to think, all of this is happening because Roshi joined in during the training for the battle with the Saiyans; who'd have thought it could be such a big deal.

Anyway, good chapter, as usual. Update again soon!"

Thanks! I really enjoyed writing their conversation, so I'm glad that it impacted you guys.

Honestly, part of making this story a What If is to give myself the opportunity to examine some of the elements of Toriyama's original work. Upon examination, the idea that the characters went years and years without hanging out or speaking to each other never made sense, especially in a world with phones and where most of them can fly faster than sound. I mean, I can understand being preoccupied with your own things. Hell, I go weeks or months without contacting my friends from back home, but years? I'm a hardcore introvert and even that seems unthinkable, and we all know Goku is anything but an introvert. Focusing so much on the Z-Warriors' relationships with each other is sort of my response to that, placing greater emphasis on the fact that these people are friends, or even more than friends, who regularly interact and genuinely care about each other. In my estimation, this increased emphasis would be a lot harder to pull off in a manga compared to a fic like this, so I'm really thankful to be telling this story through that medium.

Amanny says: "I hope Gohan won't have any nightmares anymore." Honestly, don't we all?

Guest says: "This was bloody awful." ...Okay, are you the same person each chapter, or a different guest each time? I can't quite tell. If the former is right, I apologize for the fact that my work is not to your liking. Obviously I can't please everyone, but it does admittedly sting somewhat. Regardless, if you're going to comment or continue commenting as the case may be, I would at least appreciate clearer criticism. Simply saying "This was bloody awful" doesn't really help me much. Something like the last comment is a step in the right direction-that guest was upset about "awful politics" relating to the Kais. It was still vague, but it was something, at least.

anon says:

"love the story, always nice to read, would you ever consider doing for non sayians like in super, the non saiyans ask the dragon for a way for them to keep up?"

I'm still working on the way that they'll at least start to catch up, not to worry. In my personal opinion, though, I'm usually not a fan of those kinds of stories in Dragon Ball fics. Especially the "Turn me into a Saiyan!" type deals. That's just rubbing salt in the wound there.

Alright, with all that said, no new relevant power levels again, so that'll do it for this update! As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and let me know what you think about it in reviews. Until next time, I hope you all have a fantastic day, and take care.