Chapter 26: The Decisive Final Battle, Part V: Climax
Trunks continued to pounce on Baby, each time causing Baby to throw up his main body and causing him additional strain to try and maintain his connection with Gohan's body.
"G-Gwarrrrrgh!" yelled Baby as he spat droplets of blood and was then elbowed in the forehead and downed to the floor by Trunks, "H-How is this happening?! I-I who have obtained the power of a Hakaishin, the power rivaling the mightiest of deities… am being trounced by a mere Super Saiyan?!"
"Just give up and free Gohan-san from your control, Baby… It's all over now," said Trunks, "you had your brand of justice, you fought hard to preserve it… But it all comes to an end now. I am going to rid the Multiverse of your twisted evil, and I will save you from your own suffering!"
"THAT WILL NOT BE! I WON'T LOSE!"
Baby, as a last resort, fired off a light blast from his mouth that shot Ki blades in random directions, only for Trunks to have anticipated this move and teleported behind him with Goten's help.
"It ends here and now!"
Trunks span himself around and attacked Baby in the side of his rib with a roundhouse kick, upon which he concentrated all of his Ki into his two hands and attacked the battered Gohan's chest and forehead, causing the disrupted connection between Gohan and Baby to be fully severed. Gohan-Baby released a massive torrent of greenish-black energy with massive bolts of white lightning jutting out in all directions, and from Gohan's mouth and severed arm stump, Baby's deformed, liquid metal form was expelled.
"I'll do the honors," said Goten as he, too, went Super Saiyan, upon which he muttered, "Kamehameh…HAAAAAA!" and fired off a large beam of whitish-blue Ki, blasting Baby's unstable liquid metal form into thousands of pieces. He then said, "Finally… It's all over…"
The remnants of Baby's liquid form, however, transformed into two large hands upon regrouping, and then snatched Trunks and Goten's Potara earrings.
"Hah! Hahahahaha! Even if your brother Gohan's body is now as good as dead with his injuries, you and your filthy Saiyan bitch niece may prove different!" yelled Baby as the two hands he'd transformed into formed mouths on the base of their wrists and said, "I will possess you both and use the Potara earrings to merge your bodies together! That way, I will no longer be encumbered by my genetic connection to you, Trunks! The lineage of the filthy ape King Vegeta will end tonight!"
"I've had enough of your crap, Baby. No one messes with my family like this and gets away with it," said a familiar voice as Baby turned around to see that Gohan, whom he'd counted for dead, had risen to his own two feet, still left with one arm and bleeding but conscious from his sheer strength of will.
"C-Curses! No matter, Goten's body can teleport straight to Pan and – "
"I'm right here! I've been hiding my presence this whole time, just waiting for you to let your guard down! You'll pay for all you did, you big, fat piece of crap!" yelled Pan as she destroyed the Potara earrings that Baby snatched with a Kiai, knocking both of his hand forms back hundreds of miles. There, Baby regrouped and attempted to blind the Saiyans with another light blast, only for Trunks to yell, "Oh no you don't!" and muster all of his hidden power to transform into a Super Saiyan 2 with all his might, grab hold of Future Trunks' sword, and then sever Baby's unstable, halfway solid form in half vertically.
"G-Gwargh!"
"Now's our chance! This ends now!" yelled Trunks as he tossed his sword aside and yelled, "FINAL…."
Goten, together with Gohan and Pan, then got into a Kamehameha stance as well and yelled, "KAMEHAMEHA!"
Trunks' yellow and white plasma beam of energy mixed in with the Son family's three-pronged Kamehameha attack to form a massive, white and yellow pillar of energy that quickly surrounded Baby completely, and within it Baby attempted to resist the blast by forming a barrier with the last of his strength, only for the effort to be in vain – his shield crumbled instantly in the face of such awesome power, and his threat was ended at last. The so-called "Mightiest King" was no more, with not even one single cell remaining of his cybernetic form.
Trunks sighed, took a deep breath, and gasped before reverting back to his base form, upon which Goten, carrying his injured brother and niece on his shoulders, also reverted to his base form. Staring into each other's faces absentmindedly, the two grinned and high-fived each other with a fervor unlike any other. Gohan and Pan also joined them, and they then all collapsed and fell unconscious, having spent all of their energy in this exhausting bout. Sometime later, the four Saiyans awoke to see a shocking face staring into theirs…
"Good. You've all been out for two days now. I am glad to see that you've all made it safe and sound… Even if Gohan doesn't exactly seem to be in 'one piece' so to speak," said a familiar, green-skinned figure.
"Pi-Piiccccccccolo-san!" yelled Pan frantically, "Y-You were possessed by Baby! A-Are you still controlled by his eggs?!"
"Worry not. When his main body was destroyed by your combined attack, his eggs ceased to exercise any great degree of control over my body. I was able to isolate them into a corner of my arm after regenerating, sever it and then regenerate once more. The only reason why I didn't bother any of you for two days is because I was heavily exhausted, myself."
"What he's saying is true," said Gohan, "I don't sense even a tinge of untruth or anxiety in his voice. Above all, I know Piccolo-san better than anyone… It really is over, this long and grueling war with Baby."
"But more importantly, how are we gonna get out of this dimension?! My teleportation ability can't home onto Ki from other dimensional planes altogether, you know! A-Are we gonna have to just resort to trying to bust out of this dimension by yelling holes in the dimensional wall like we did when we escaped the Room of Spirit and Time?!" yelled Goten.
"Worry not, I have planned for such an emergency as well. It appears that in Universe 7, the dimension that we came from, Vegeta and the other Trunks have already wished back all of Baby's victims, including themselves. Naturally, this means that with the dimensional port that drove us into this pocket dimension having originated at Kami's Palace to begin with, I should be able to synchronize my psyche with Dende's to form a portal that leads right back to Earth. But before that…"
"Right. The Ultimate Dragon Balls are still scattered here. But with you having had two days to find them, you have them on your person, don't you, Piccolo-san?" said Trunks.
"Exactly right. The Ultimate Dragon Balls' wishing ability is something I still cannot fully fathom, but with my power having been enhanced further through multiple fusion with Warrior-type Namekians, it is possible that even Goku's dispersed spirit and body could be restored using their power."
"A-Awesome! T-Thank you, Piccolo-san! If Dad were to cease to exist forever, I couldn't ever forgive myself! Let's wish him back right away! Since there aren't any planets here, we can forget about having to regather them to prevent the Earth from being destroyed!"
"Very well! Ultimate Shenlong, we beseech your appearance!" yelled Piccolo as he took out the seven Ultimate Dragon Balls from within his cape, and a familiar, red-skinned Dragon rivaling a small town in size emerged.
"You… Who… Have… Summoned…. Me… State… Your… Wish… Any One Wish… I Shall Grant…"
"S-So this is the Ultimate Dragon, created before the Earth's Kami split himself from his evil half… I-It's bigger than any other Dragon I've seen…" said Gohan with reverence.
"Ultimate Shenlong!" yelled Trunks and Goten in unison, "A few months ago on the Planet Reito, a man named Son Goku was felled while already in a dead body! His spirit was henceforth completely erased, are you capable of wishing him back to life?!"
"Wishing… A Man Whose Body… And Spirit… Are No More… Is A Tall Task… Even For Myself…"
"S-So not even he can manage something so daunting… Damn it!" said Goten, only to be interrupted by the Dragon, "Hold On… I Am Not Finished… The Living Body of A Man Whose Spirit Is No More… I Cannot Restore… But Wishing His Spirit To Once Again Exist In The World of The Dead… I Am Able To Manage…"
"A-Awesome! Then that will be our wish, to wish my father's spirit to appear in King Enma's station, right near the base of Snake Road!"
"Your Wish… Is Granted…."
Ultimate Shenlong's yellow eyes gleamed and let out a massive glow, upon which Goku's spirit was restored near Snake Road as the Dragon promised, and once there, his body was brought back as well, halo and all.
"H-Hey! I-I can see, walk and breathe again! Woohooo! Goten and the others must've done it! They defeated Baby and got the Ultimate Dragon Balls back! I knew I could count on you kids!" yelled Goku ecstatically.
"Now the next order of business is to open a portal to Earth. Dende, are you ready?" said Piccolo telepathically as Dende nodded and then released a pair of orange rays from his twin antennae, which synchronized with Piccolo's as they then let loose a pair of Makankosappo-like rays from their hands and enlarge the portal.
"Now, let's jump right in! This portal won't stay open forever!"
"Can't wait to get out of this dump! Finally, it's all over!" yelled Pan while crying with joy, as she then jumped into the portal, upon which the one-armed Gohan followed suit. Trunks and Goten, looking at the complete wreckage that the red-tinted, strange dimension had been reduced to, smiled as the Ultimate Dragon Balls scattered into opposite corners of the flipside dimension and said, "Thank you, Ultimate Shenlong… Thank you, people of Earth… Thank you, Redjic, and thank you…. Thank you, everyone…. These past six months were half a year we'll never forget."
The two Saiyans, grabbing each other by the shoulders, jumped into the portal as Piccolo followed suit, and the dimensional rift closed completely, but not before Piccolo generated a doorway similar to the one in the entrance of the Room of Spirit and Time in case the Ultimate Dragon Balls may one day be needed again.
Bra, Bulma, Dende, Vegeta and the future Trunks all then welcomed the triumphant heroes home.
Bra huddled up with Trunks and Bulma and cried, saying "Onii-chan… I-I was so scared, I thought Baby'd done something horrible to you after what he put me and Mom through! I-I'm so glad you made it safe and sound!"
"Trunks… I couldn't be prouder of what you did. When Baby tricked you into killing me, I was worried sick every second that I was dead… My pain was only momentary, but you'd effectively lost everything… I-I'm so glad y-you…"
"You two don't have to say any more. Us three all came out of this alive, and it's all thanks to Dad and the other me. Isn't that right?"
"H-Hahahaha! I have the funniest story about that, actually!" said Dende ecstatically as he'd just finished tending to Gohan's wounds and restoring his severed arm, "You see, after Vegeta-san killed Kaiba, he said something totally unlike him! Something about how if anyone could end Baby, it's you, Trunks-kun! He was just too shy to say it to your face directly!"
"Y-You shut your mouth! God of the planet or no, you're still the same greenhorn brat I could've killed back on Namek!"
"H-Hahahahahahaha!" yelled the entire crew in a bittersweet moment.
"But now that all of that is taken care of, there's still the matter of restoring Dad to attend to," said Gohan, "after all, that was the original objective of this journey to begin with, moreso than putting the Ultimate Dragon Balls back in their rightful place. Since his spirit was restored by the Ultimate Dragon Balls themselves, he shouldn't be rendered 'unable to be revived' by any other force… And if what the future Trunks-kun tells me about the two wishes Vegeta-san used on New Namek is true, then we should still have another wish on our plate… Which is perfect! We can wish Dad back in just under two months, since a Namekian year is only roughly 130 days!"
"About that, actually…" said a booming, otherworldly voice that everyone was familiar with.
"D-Dad! The Ultimate Dragon Balls really worked, your spirit really is back!" yelled Gohan and Goten both.
"Now that I think about it, I'd already resolved to stay dead after the battle with Cell. The fight against Boo saw me comin' back, but between raising Oob to spread his wings as a great fighter on his own, and seein' you guys grow up and handle yourselves so well against Baby, I honestly think bringin' me back won't be needed anymore! I've died, what, a good four times now, includin' being erased on Planet Reito?! Honestly, at this point bringin' me back may as well be an affront against Nature! So I appreciate y'all's feels towards me, but I feel like at this point the Other World is my home! We'll see each other again, but I got no intention o' comin' back anymore! I still have a day in reserve now that my spirit's been recycled into a new phase o' existence so to speak, so maybe one of these days y'all can invite me into another Tenkaichi Budokai! And we'll make it one to remember! But that day won't be today, and it won't be this year's tournament! This tourney, I'mma be spectatin' from the world beyond! And I want Gohan, Goten, Trunks, all of you to enter!"
"T-That's right! In about half a year it'll have been six years since the last tournament, the championship title's up for grabs!" yelled Goten, "And I won't lose to anyone, not you, brother, and not to either of the two of you Trunks-kun!"
"You won't beat me if I have anything to say about it! I'm walkin' home with the championship belt, just like in the Junior Division way back!" yelled Trunks mean-spiritedly.
"Hahahahaha! I guess Dad's roped me into entering, as well! You got it, Dad! I won't let these kids get the better of me just yet! I'm normally the last one to obsess over a martial arts championship match, but you three are all on! I'll train hard these next six months and show you all why I was the one who defeated Cell!"
"Getting to fight against my master Gohan… And the two of you?! I'm so excited! Before I go to back to the future, you all are going down!" yelled Future Trunks.
"C-Can I enter? I'm Saiyan too, I've always had it up to here with Dad always bothering to train Onii-chan and not me!" said Bra, only for Pan to interrupt, saying "Please, I'mma beat ya to it! I'll show you why I'm the granddaughter of both the champs!"
And so, the six partial Saiyans trained hard for the next six months in preparation for the tournament that was to come. The Junior Division, predictably, was hogged by Pan and Bra's dominance over all competition, and through an unpredictable stroke of fate, the two Saiyan girls met in the quarter-finals.
"Honestly, what kind of bull$#$t luck of the draw is this?! Not only do we not get to face off against any of the adults, but we don't even get to fight in the finals?!" pouted Bra in frustration, as she went Super Saiyan in a fury.
"Tell me about it. But if you think about it, it's all the better for you, since you're gonna get humiliated by me here and now, and it'll be all the more embarrassing if it were televised as th' final match, right?!" said Pan as she, too, went Super Saiyan and stuck her tongue out at Bra mockingly.
"I'll make you eat those words!" yelled Bra as she punched the Tenkaichi Budokai ring with enough force to levitate each of the tiles into the air and then used her Ki to fling them all toward Pan, who dispelled them all by powering up to Grade 2. Bra then used superspeed to appear behind her and knocked her forward with a Kiai, and yelled, "Heh! Enlarging your muscles just created an opening, and you got nothin' on me with just that much! You can do better than that, can'tcha, Pan-chan?!"
"You shut up! I know you're just baiting me into takin' up the muscle thingy another notch and slow myself down, you won't fool me!" yelled Pan as she charged up a Masenko, only for Bra to dodge it and then kick her in the stomach. Pan, however, took advantage of her greater durability and then went Grade 3 upon tanking Bra's kick, after which she tried to throw Bra out of bounds. Bra, however, not wanting to lose, destroyed the entire ring and fired off a mouth blast, knocking both of them out of bounds.
"Well, I don't really know what to say, but both participants are out of bounds… And the ring itself is destroyed! The remainder of the tournament is therefore postponed henceforth until we can rebuild the ring!" yelled the aged announcer, upon which Piccolo suddenly appeared behind him and said, "No need to postpone anything. The audience came here for the greatest tournament ever, and it'd be uncouth to keep them waiting."
Piccolo then used magic materialization to restore the ring, upon which the rest of the boring Junior Division took place without Pan and Bra in a battle royale now that the only two worthwhile participants had been knocked out of the tournament. And so, the main attraction was now to take place… The final tournament to decide the Mightiest Under the Heavens, between the four half-Saiyan sons of the two greatest Saiyan warriors, Goku and Vegeta….
To be continued…