The Horse with No Name

by Bonsim

Some months after Buu, Gohan's walking the road paved out for him. He's studying for college, dating Videl, and enjoying normality. But normality is fragile and Gohan doesn't know that he's on borrowed time. When Death takes him to his reawakened destiny Gohan's dual nature pulls him between two very different lives; one of Gohan Son, and one of a god.

37. In God's House

The Horse with No Name

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Warning: Graphic violence

Get comfortable. Grab a cuppa'. 24K of fic for your reading pleasure.

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Chapter Thirty-Seven

In God's House

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The Estate, the Realm of the Almighty

"He's never seen me, either!"

Gohan…

Devoutly riveted, Goten blinks slow and lazy with dark eyelashes sweeping against blotchy cheeks. It's early. Pink, yellow and dark blues streak the room in a dismal rainbow of colours, its spectrum dull against fabric laden around the bed. With an arm curled under his pillow, he stares, body static as a stray beam of sunlight illumes stringently. Right now, it's somewhere between morning and night. The day is premature and as a result Goten could sleep eternally and it would still not feel enough. Even though this need threatens his consciousness, he wants to enjoy the peace; the stilt in time where he can exist between the waking world and the one of dreams.

In front of the drawn curtains, diamond-like speckles of dust float. They dance only for him at such an ungodly hour. Godly, huh? He has to laugh at his Freudian slip of thought. With a tired, empty smile, he watches the dust dance absently, the rhythmic hum of soft breathing in the backdrop.

In, out, in, out…

He listens as the bed's other inhabitant snores gently.

Gohan.

Cushioned in a mirroring impression of silk and satin, and feathers from whatever bird plucked, his brother is lost to deep sleep. Looking at him, you wouldn't think that they'd just had their worst fight yet, no. Against all odds, Gohan looks normal, with that usual boyishness Goten remembers of him. That's from Dad. They say Goten has it – the boyish complexion – too, that he in fact looks more like Dad, whilst Gohan has always looked a bit more like Mum. But to Goten, Gohan has always just been Gohan, even here with those under-circled eyes and that sheen of clamminess associated with the sick.

Not a murderer. Not a god. Not b… Not Lord Mori.

Gohan.

Through the drowsy haze, Goten notices that Gohan's wearing the same clothes as yesterday. He hadn't bothered to change, or even to crawl under the blankets. He's just lying over the quilts.

Goten dares reaching out. His hand grazes Gohan's cool fingers.

Whatever Gohan is asserting himself as these days, Goten saw the flicker of humanity last night. There'd been something vulnerable creeping at the surface. And after being starved of familiarity at the Spire, Goten can't help but to gorge himself on the memory of his brother's fracture of character. He remembers Gohan's anxious step, his need to escape the situation, the words lost when Goten had pushed as much as he had. Gohan has always been the strong one. Seeing him even remotely wobbled – by Goten's words no less – had left Goten feeling admittedly disturbed, even if it'd been the goal, even if that had been what… no, what he thought he'd wanted. After witnessing Gohan's lack of reaction to Doctor Jivel's murder (Something Goten's still processing) Goten hadn't known what to even expect.

Other revelations had left Goten even more shaken, of course.

Unbeknownst, Gohan slumbers as Goten rolls his brother's fingers around his own.

Did you really kill the kais? I find it impossible to believe that…

…Did you really?

For this… Revelation thing?

The lethargy of a disturbed sleep sways Goten. His eyelids are hunks of lead and his grip is just as heavy.

What happened to you?

What have you been doing here?

God, what will Dad say?

The morning glitter now dazzles atop orange near his brother's ear and Goten can't help his eyes being drawn there. The hand reaches out. Ah. That earring always gets him. Mum once said that if Goten ever got a piercing he'd be grounded until university…

Releasing Gohan's hand, a new target is acquired.

Oh.

Goten twiddles the rounded jewellery, wondering if it's real.

He jumps when a hand then encapsulates his. It holds him steady, angered to have been released at all.

A swill in Goten's gut makes him want to pull back so suddenly, as if touching Gohan is now the worst thing in the world, even though he'd been doing it moments ago. The burn of it makes him wonder if the impact of last night has damaged something beyond repair. Gohan, thankfully asleep, knows nothing else, he doesn't bear witness Goten's heart climbing in his throat.

Morbidly curious, Goten presses into the feather-clad softness of the bed. He stares.

How'd everything turned out like this?

Gohan doesn't reply, snoring gently.

It's not fair. Goten had just wanted things to go back to normal. He'd wanted Mum and Dad together, the girl he likes to like him back, his brother home, his life easier and less burdened with so many bullshit expectations. Now…

Dad will never let you do this… You won't succeed, Gohan.

It's even worse.

Gohan's sleeping visage warps as Goten grows tired himself. Bulging eyes glow in fury, swallowing up Goten entirely.

"He's never seen me, either!"

The imagination fuelled nightmare of Gohan slaughtering the kais one by one…

He'll see you now…

Goten's lashes flutter. His breathing slows.

What are you going to do next?

Goten doesn't wake for several more hours. He slumbers in the hold of a blissful, dreamless void, only momentarily rousing to the feeling of fingers gliding through his hair.

The morning is long gone by the time Goten rises, as is his brother

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The pendulum swings dutifully and nothing is truly static.

Gohan anticipates that everything will change.

This is his doing; this is the way of Revelation.

So when he has to steel himself that morning, readying himself for an altercation with no winners, kissing Goten goodbye knowing very well that the boy will come to hate him, he has to tell himself; it'll all be worth it in the end.

He dons his combat wear, sliding a baldric overtop for the Z Sword to slot into, a suggestion followed from Quell's incessant badgering for him to wear his weapon justly instead of whipping it out from smoke every five minutes. "Those lesser ought to understand the pedigree they're facing, sword and all." Really, that's just Quell's way to get Gohan to twist the knife by having a favoured Kai relic showboated whenever possible. He'll take the baldric but the sword won't emerge unless it's needed. Hopefully, it's not.

In the reflection of the bathroom mirror, Gohan breathes out, eyes dull. Completing his look, he pins a horse crest to fasten his cloak; the material dark with dusty blue linings – his colours, his sigma in battle.

By grace of the Almighty, let this battle be fast.

It's the afternoon by time he's pursued; Myra soon passed along the requested documentation he'd asked for last night. Today, she's poorly impersonating herself at her liveliest but Gohan can see the faux display for what it is. No matter how much caffeine she indulges in she'll never pull off functioning exhaustion like Gohan can. Her eyes don't smile, her heels drag, her bun of hair – whilst still tidy – is not intricate at all, and the papers she gives to him are not neatly bound in a way she'd often pride herself in. Gohan scans such papers. 132 confirmed dead from the Spire attack, with a further 238 injured. He recognizes several of the names as he makes his way through the list; Doctor Jivel's pulsates as though it'd been written in Bold. His ribs ache at the sight of it.

"Follow up on possible leakers," Gohan says, flicking to the following page, "I want to know how kais broke through the barrier into the realm. They couldn't have done this alone."

"Yes, sir."

He smiles thinly. "Be vigilant today. It's going to be… trying. Make sure Goten doesn't cause havoc, and more so, keep him away from the windows, especially when the shaman creates the barrier to keep him in. The less who knows he's here, the better."

"I shall try, sir."

Despite low energy levels, Myra had served all his other requests to her usual standard. Gohan's new whetstone isn't only appreciated by him; he spots Rixas using it in the distance before he even gets a look in, a great hunk of a sword pressed against it. Unfortunately, Gohan's other requirements from the blacksmiths hadn't been met likely due to the specific nature of them. For now, it's no matter; his Z Sword will do him just fine in its current condition.

Eyrelle has been called to attention. She stands with Zamasu in the courtyard. He's already heard the whispers that it must have been them to give entry to Brutil and the others. As easy as it would be to blame Zamasu for the attack on the Spire, Gohan knows how little he would actually gain from it, how little the kais would offer either of these two after their betrayals.

"I fear we will not be the popular sort around here for some time," Zamasu says candidly when Gohan reaches them.

"Definitely not but I'm sure they'll come around when they realize you had nothing to do with it. Personally, I think it was someone working at Spire," Gohan replies, "But my opinion won't sway the inhabitants of the Almighty so easily. Kai hatred is in their blood."

"How about yours? You accept such distaste so casually…"

"I can't usurp every tradition before the week is out. I'm sure the war on racism will still be there once Revelation has been achieved. I'll make it a pet project."

"Though, Lord Quell would not stand for that, would he? Badmouthing the kai has practically been made a public holiday here."

"If it's any consolation, I believe he dislikes Beerus far more than he dislikes you, or any other kai for that matter."

"How I'll sleep easier."

"My lord," Eyrelle finally greets, a touch of urgency to her tone, "After hearing about last night's events, I'm struggling to believe Brutil would do such an act unprovoked. He's vicious in the face of injustice but I could never fathom him attacking a… a hospital of all places. As much of a stubborn fool he can be, he—"

"Brutil dies today," he finalizes. Even if Gohan has to do it by his own hand, Brutil will face responsibility for what he did to Doctor Jivel, and not only for that but also for what he'd tried to do to Goten.

"Lord Mori, there must be a diplomatic—"

At the same time Gohan shakes his head, Zamasu scoffs. "Oh, honestly, and I thought you were the bright sort, considering."

"If you don't feel up to facing your old colleagues then I don't want you there, Eyrelle," Gohan outlines, "The time for peaceful negotiations has passed. We shall face down Beerus with or without you, but understand this, whatever you choose doesn't change the decisions you've already made in both the Almighty and Famis' name. So stop searching for opportunity in easing a guilty conscience. Either be done with all this and leave or commit and take ownership of your actions."

"I…" Her mane of hair falls against her shoulders, words jarred. "I… You're right. My apologies. I made my choice… I just…"

"You can't have it both ways."

The irony of the words isn't lost on him.

Gohan talks only briefly with Zamasu, and not at all a moment longer with Eyrelle, who disappears to the courtyard likely in search of Roarg. Zamasu, usually a confident, smug individual, is today laboured with uneasy discomfort at the idea of Gohan's meeting with Beerus.

"Expect Lord Beerus not to be alone, and I am not just referring to your mortal kin. The Kai, as you know, are heavily interlaced with Lord Beerus' activity, and would not encourage him to meet with you if unprepared."

"Quell believes it's a trap. Do you also think they're plotting something?"

"Definitely," he breathes, cryptic. "I would have been had I been amongst their seats. Walk tentatively. Utilize your ambiguity. They know little of Lord Rixas and even less of you."

"I know."

"Then make a weapon of it."

"We need the dragon ball so we must go, otherwise we wouldn't be so steadfast to walk into a trap."

Zamasu sighs, looking put out but not disagreeable.

"Perhaps you should come," Gohan next suggests, only half joking, "You're not exactly averse to combat."

"Tch. What I am averse to is Lord Beerus picking me out of his teeth. I know my standing compared to you brutish, divine thugs. No… I'll let you take this one for me, my friend, for I do know how much a saiyan relishes a barbaric throw-down." Zamasu haughtily considers him, smirk twitching at his lips. "So, I suppose this is it, then."

A hand strikes out and Gohan shakes it, gripping firm.

"Continue your research on the dizzy throw in my absence," Gohan reminds.

"Yes. And as for you… do not die." Beady eyes thin. "I cannot afford it."

Soldiers come and go from the property, Roarg speaks with them, and Rixas speaks with her. There's a lingering sense of apprehension. Some of the soldiers appear nervous even, with several ducking away from Gohan as he passes by on his way to the armoury. Even the house staff seem to have sensed something amiss. Whilst usually cordial with Gohan at the very least, they avoid him too, with only one braver cook serving him up a plate of fruit before Gohan's time to fast starts.

Byleath leaves his men in the Realm of the Almighty as per Gohan's instruction. Quell had wanted them on the offense, however, Gohan feels like the kai could see this as an opportune moment to strike the realm. They're instructed to guard and to oversee the civilians in the central district (Much to the dismay of the latter) whilst their leader is to accompany Gohan, Rixas, Roarg, Eyrelle and Quell to the meeting place.

And ready Rixas is. He's dressed ready to fight, his massive, ugly sword fastened behind. Quell, too, looks quietly prepared. He wears the same sturdy fabric that Gohan does to prevent ki burning through it, unlike Rixas, who detests the weight of it. Otherwise, Quell looks polished. However, Gohan isn't tricked with his layered robes and braided hair. Beneath, lies the rarely seen combat outfit Quell only wears upon a blue moon – or when he's training Gohan on some faraway planet in the middle of nowhere.

Which, ironically, is the destined meeting place.

"Old Planet Geo," Quell tells, brow pressed. "If I hadn't thought the meeting suspicious before I most certainly do now."

Rixas groans.

This is not an ideal ground.

Old Planet Geo is just… a husk of problematic history, for a lack of better phrase. Its small stature was once home to the most important, influential meetings that would once shape the play of the universe, that, along with the Grand Council, divine sanctuaries, inhabiting gods and all in between made up the meat of the planet. But now, it is a relic of its own. Its namesake is the only thread of connection to the current Planet Geo, the newer (If some billions of years can be considered new) rendition. What had once been the epitome of holy greatness is now laden with negative energy and blackened magic. Basically, it's cursed.

Likely, it's also an ugly metaphor as to why Beerus and kais have chosen it. Such a curse had been placed upon it long before Gohan's time, or even Quell's. In fact, it'd been three generations ago that the Gods of Revelation had set their sights upon it, dislodging the magical core within the planet and unearthing something evil as a result. This evil bled the planet dry. Coincidental accidents soon became understood as more than that, as twists of misfortune. Deaths had reason. Chapels burning became realized. Revelation had run its course there.

It hadn't been the most… successful of Revelations. Magic prevailed, after all.

"These kais are so romantic," Rixas scoffs. "You think they have a few hang-ups?"

"More that I think they want to utilize the wild magical energy orbiting there," Gohan responds, and then turns to Quell, "Can you do the same? Will the lingering magic enhance or inhibit your abilities?"

"Off-set," Quell admits, "I shall tread carefully. Dare I say that our ki control will be tested also."

Gohan's control is excellent, well, until it's not. If his father is there then these variables aren't in his favour.

"Remember what we discussed," Quell says, "Stay level headed."

Roarg, standing opposite, sends a meaningful look to the purposely ignorant Rixas. It's sad that she has to act as his pseudo babysitter these days. She's commendable in the battlefield herself, probably one of the best at their disposal who could face what they're going to face today.

This is dangerous.

Looking at Eyrelle, Roarg and Byleath, he knows that these three will not be able to match Beerus should it come to it. The odds aren't generous for them. Yet, perhaps with three gods against one they would have the upper hand. Theoretically.

It doesn't pan out that way, not at all.

When Gohan arrives on Old Planet Geo he's admittedly somewhat nervous. The planet is as Gohan remembered; desolate, barren; overall, it's just ugly with its desert backdrop and crumpled towers. With it being as war torn as it is he's surprised that the kais hadn't just done away with the planet, but ever the traditionalists that they are, here the ball of rubble stands – and just barely at that.

They have the honour of warping directly to the meeting point which is something that can't be said for mortals that will have to walk these grounds in order to make it to the top. If his dad is coming then he'll need to traverse the shit pit that this place is.

Gohan kicks a rock, watching it fly for miles into the sandy hills.

They're atop the Sky Coliseum, the highest point on Old Planet Geo and nested just above the once sacred Church of Revelation. Rixas is right. The kais are a romantic bunch, and God, are they tacky or what? Meeting here – above their church – is just to rub salt in the wound.

As Gohan stares off into the ever stretching distance, Rixas approaches.

Gohan tries not to look interested even though his visage is hidden behind his mask. "What?"

"Whatever happens here today… we're your family. I want you to remember that."

"Yeah. Great."

"Mori."

Gohan sets his jaw, stubborn. "I don't have time to mollify your petty jealously today."

"Why are you being such an asshole? I'm trying to—"

"We do not have time for this today," Quell hisses, looking between both of them with thinning patience.

He's clearly already pent up at the idea of dealing with Beerus today. Though, it surprises Gohan. After all these years, he'd suspected that Quell would take great pleasure in finally snuffing the cat. Perhaps it's the fact that Quell knows that they're walking into a trap and have little they can do about it except rely on raw power to push back. With Gohan being stronger now, the balance is most certainly tipped in their favour in that regard. Hopefully, their gamble pays off.

Minutes trickle on and on as they wait. Roarg is the only one able to keep her patience intact. She stands dutifully near the edge of the tiled square, watching the opposite side like how a cat would await a flock of birds. Her eyes never leave the entry point of the building opposite. Eyrelle on the other hand is jittery. She tries to replicate Roarg's stoic handling of herself yet that brain of hers seems to travel a mile a minute.

Meanwhile, Rixas has since given up talking to Gohan and sulks, staring over the views. It's hard to tell what he's looking at with the mask – not that there's much to see from here, beyond the ruins of a time long before them.

Around the church and the nearby ruins, Byleath surveys quietly in the shadows, keeping low and awaiting Gohan's orders.

It's closer to the centre of the square where Quell stands with Gohan, relaying the situation over and over in case things go wrong.

"Should we be separated then what must you do?"

The answer Quell wants to hear is for Gohan to return to the Realm of the Almighty, and so Gohan says as much to appease him. They both know it's a lie.

"And if I die?"

"Then I'll take my sword and fall upon it," Gohan says, smirking despite the unease, "You can't leave me with that idiot."

Quell laughs, quiet. "You mustn't avenge me."

"Like you are Famis?"

His brother doesn't reply but the smile remains. A hand rests upon Gohan's shoulder and doesn't leave until Beerus sees it fitting to arrive fashionably late, Whis of course at his heel. As a precaution, Gohan manifests as many mental barriers as he can, finding himself abhorrent at the idea of the angel in his head once more.

Whis settles for a smile and a bow of the head, thankfully choosing words over telepathy. "Good afternoon, my lords. How awful the weather is today, and on such an imperative occasion too."

"Go stand with Rixas," Quell commands of Gohan, eyes firm on Beerus.

Behind his mask, Gohan's expression falters because, really, Quell is in no position to be ordering Gohan about after everything. Without Gohan they wouldn't even be here. Still, he knows when to pick his fights and retreats to the corner of the square and takes his place next to Rixas, eagle-eyed.

Beerus isn't dressed any differently today. Gohan thinks the Destroyer uniform looks ridiculous but he supposes it's suitable to fight in, and there's no doubt that there will be fighting today. It's been building up long enough and has been bound to happen for years, and even if Revelation hadn't been pressing then they likely would still be in such a position. The tension between the two is electric. Beerus doesn't spare Gohan a glance, or Rixas. They could have been sizzling eggs on the pavement and would have had similar worth to the god – Gohan will make sure that changes.

His arms fold together, and he listens in, hearing only speckles of sentences.

But soon enough, he's rewarded when Beerus showcases a dragon ball. Like they had, Beerus had gotten his own ball resized for convenience. This super dragon ball is barely any bigger than the Orb of Permanence. Gohan can't help but wonder how easy it would be to swipe…

In the cat's grubby mitt, the ball rolls, shining despite the sky's grey offering.

"You're being obvious," Rixas tells him, raising a hand across Gohan's chest. Gohan nearly breaks it.

He moves the arm, managing to restrain himself. "He's teasing us," he whispers back, harsh.

Beerus and Quell talk for some time, which is odd in its self. They talk for so long that enough time passes for a new group to arrive; the dreaded one that has summersaults rocketing in Gohan's stomach. Dad emerges from atop a set of stairs first, followed by Piccolo, Vegeta and that bastard, Brutil. Gohan thinks there is a small mercy in that Trunks isn't with them. This isn't a place for a child.

Gohan feels Rixas' arm move on instinct, as though it's tempted to pull him back in case he'd decided to go rogue and help the mortals after all.

"Why are they still talking?" Rixas then asks, surprising Gohan.

Tearing his eyes away from his father and the others, Gohan studies the two gods. "I don't know."

"This isn't like Quell."

"Then it's Beerus."

Rixas nods, saying little else.

Gohan refocuses on the group on the other side of the square. Whis has since joined them, greeting them as if they were old friends. The guy is so strange. It rubs Gohan up the wrong way. When he turns and gives Rixas and Gohan a jovial wave, a sour taste erupts in Gohan's mouth. The creep is enjoying this, isn't he?

"Quell is becoming angrier."

Gohan looks back. Indeed, he is. Soft gusts of pressure are rolling free, sweeping along the tiles wave after wave. The heat of the conversation is picking up, their voices are louder, their gestures more poignant. Perhaps Beerus is trying to wind Quell up for whatever reason.

The moment Gohan thinks it, a sharp spike of pressure lashes free. On the other side of the square, Piccolo, Vegeta and Brutil fall to it. Notably, Dad does not.

Gohan wastes no more time. He waves his hand behind, signifying to Byleath to better investigate the coliseum arena for what's really going on here.

"What are you doing?" Rixas hisses when Gohan steps forward.

He thankfully doesn't follow; the good dog that he is, and waits by Roarg and Eyrelle for Gohan's hopefully swift return.

By the time Gohan reaches Beerus and Quell, the pressure now rolls out rhythmically; pulsing back and forth like the tide and making Gohan's feet itch unpleasantly on the approach. To match, Quell's face is puckered.

"Mori," he greets, agreeably despite being absolutely livid.

Gohan has his eyes on the dragon ball. "Why don't we save everyone's time and come to an agreement on the dragon ball?" he asks of Beerus, light, "I'm sure an arrangement can be made."

Beerus' tail, which had been batting side to side, now strikes the ground with such ferocity that a tremor threatens. "Don't you think it's a little rude to skip out on greetings? We have never met yet here you stand pleading with me for my most sacred possession."

"Your most sacred possession is over there with the mortals, likely discussing the weather," Gohan returns flatly, gesturing to Whis, "Tell me, Beerus, what use do you have in stepping in the way of Revelation? Would an alliance not mean more than the kai's favour? Should you partner with us I'm sure we could severe the life link you share with the Supreme Kai, and then you can truly be free. I'm sure that's enticing to you."

Beerus sneers. "Who do you think you are? Quell, I now understand why for so long you hid away this entitled weasel – how dare he question my loyalties to the kai?"

Quell's lips thin. Gohan speaks before he can. "Then why are you wasting our time with your pointless chattering if not to barter for the ball? Do you wish to be under our skin before you pull the rug beneath us? I'm sure with all the time spent with my brother you have some understanding of how to infuriate him, but really, how small minded of you not to consider the entire collective."

"Mori—"

"Tch. He's flaunting his dragon ball because he knows we want it. So, what is it that you want, Beerus? A reaction?" Gohan's voice becomes simpering, his head tilts. "That's it, right? Tell me. What's up your sleeve, Destroyer?"

"You impertinent brat," Beerus bites, "And what do you think you can bring to the table? You're weak. You're nothing. You, the God of Death, are the feeblest despite the ominous title, a mouthpiece for a dead cult of gods meaning nothing to the universe. Revelation achieves nothing! It never has, other than ill-implemented destruction not worthy of the name!"

Goten had mentally exhausted Gohan last night. In comparison, there's very little he feels he needs to react to, and a whinging cat is not one of them despite best efforts from the latter. He's trying to engage them in an argument. Gohan hopes Quell can see that now.

"The year old rumour of your demise now seems somewhat disappointing," Beerus continues through clenched canines, "It had the air of mystery to it. Perhaps you too had been murdered by the Zealites, but so it turns out… you'd been leading them this entire time – no one had expected that. Even Quell had us fooled. Good show, though… not quite as good as the Council pulling the wool over your eyes in regards to poor, old Famis, you must admit. How foolish you must have felt. Both of you."

The nasty bastard.

Quell is deathly still. He's clocked on to Beerus' aim now but that doesn't lessen the blow. Gohan closes his eyes and forces a smile even if no one can see it.

"I don't find matters as such something to joke about," Gohan returns silkily. "My brother's murder is but just one in a conveyer belt of atrocities committed in the kai's name. Considering your lack of respect on matters such as death, I'm sure you mustn't know about the carnage of which occurred in the Realm of the Almighty just last night, at a hospital no less, where the weak and young alike are housed—"

Quell takes his arm but Gohan's not yet done.

"132 and counting; dead. Perhaps you find their demise worthy of jokes, too, Beerus?"

"That number is insignificant to the work I do," he scoffs, "Do you believe I care when—?"

"No, I don't." There's a pause and Gohan stares the cat up and down much like a scolding teacher would their student. "This is the last time we offer such a generous deal to you, Beerus, you, a petulant toddler in no way deserving of his position. So how about it? Revelation is as natural as breathing. The longer you fight this, the longer you stilt the tide of the universe, the longer you deny divinity and the Almighty's reach to do what is right by the inhabitants of this place. Whist you seemingly care so little in regard to death and enjoy making humour out of it, I find little funny about the situation… except perhaps…" Gohan chuckles, trailing off. "Except perhaps, your lack of cooperation being what'll be the cause of destruction here today, when you are usually so inept at your role as a Destroyer."

"What did you just say, you punk?!"

Gohan laughs again, light. "Perhaps that is why Whis is flirting with the mortals over there. Has he got his eyes on your replacement already? Have you not thought about his fascination with them? With Goku Son?"

SLAP!

There's a sting of satisfaction that comes with the slap.

Nobody moves at first. Quell stiffens, and Beerus snorts and spits like an infuriated pig ensnared in a sty. His clawed mitt is still raised, shivering where it holds and filling Gohan with immense gratification.

Oh. Oh, I've really struck something there.

Before Quell explodes, Gohan stands to full attention.

"I take that's a 'no' on the offer then?" he then asks, sweet.

At that, Quell actually laughs. The anger sizzles and the pressure burns off into steam whilst Beerus' whiskers start to twitch hazardously. If smoke could come out of his ears it would.

Gohan takes that as his chance to go. He nudges Quell before he does so, a silent reminder to compose oneself, though in the face of an arch nemesis, Gohan supposes it must be quite the ask.

As he walks, he waves his hand back up and soon enough, Byleath comes to his side. Hopefully the distraction was enough time to gather decent intel.

"The Orb of Permanence is with Goku Son," the Zealite says lowly, confirming one of Gohan's worst possible scenarios. It doesn't get better. "Also, you cannot see from here but there is a magical barrier barricading the left field opposite."

Gohan looks to see a shimmer of glitter beyond the clouds. It's otherwise invisible. "I… see. Who's behind it?"

"I cannot say for sure but I believe there is a unit of individuals."

"Fighters?"

"Magic users, most definitely."

"Kais, then."

"Yes. A likely option."

Gohan stops short of Rixas, opening his mouth to inform him as much, yet that's when this all goes from bad to worse. There's a gasp – Quell's, no doubt – and Gohan whips around, experiencing a sudden thrust of pressure bursting from Quell. It stampedes with such intensity that the air is sucked from Gohan's lungs.

Rixas goes to lunge forward at the exact same time, until Gohan rushes to press him back.

What's got them acting so reckless?

He turns to see, and quickly understand what's sent his brothers dizzy with fury.

His body turns cold.

And then hot.

The hand holding Rixas crunches the jumpsuit in his grip.

I'll kill him.

In Beerus' hand is no longer the dragon ball. Instead, sits something that Gohan – as his current self – has never once seen before but knows exactly what is.

Famis' mask.

What kind of lowlife would hold this above them? All of Gohan's common sense starts to drain, numbness tingling his arms, teeth grinding. The world around starts to shrink and something ugly in his gut has him wanting to throw away all reason for good.

If Gohan didn't think it could get any worse…

The moment Quell reaches for the mask, Beerus clenches his hand around it, crushing it, snapping it into fragments and dust. White sprinkles, feeding the wind.

This is it. This is the moment Quell will lose it.

Rixas seems to be horrified, so much so that he's turned to stone. The anguish behind his brother's own mask must be something to behold if Quell's rarely witnessed vulnerability is anything to go by. Sadness contorts grotesquely and…

And he screams.

No ki emits from him, as expected, however.

Simply, he screams. And then collapses, hands to head.

What's happening?

In his stupor, Gohan hadn't realized but the sky has flashed dark, sinister vigour riding the shrill waves of the wind. It's a harrowing feeling. His breath is stolen. He feels filthy. Then, he can hear it, overhead; chanting. Foreign and in unison, a collection of periodic voices make themselves known beyond that veiled barricade Byleath had just warned him of. Back in the distance, Gohan spots his father's arm pointed up towards where a small ball now floats in the sky, likely having been the one to have thrown it. The light bleeds in the black, honing in on the newly emerged clan of gathered kais from behind the barricade.

This must be the trap they anticipated. Gohan tries to shake off the emotional baggage. He can't think straight, and when he turns to Rixas for guidance, Gohan's disturbed to see that he too has dropped to the floor in a fit of… of pain?

"What is it?!" Gohan demands, pulling at Rixas. "Get up!"

Rixas claws at his head, wailing.

And then Gohan feels it, the darkness asking for entry. His brain heats so fast that he feels his head might pop from the pressure, but it never once hurts.

He hears words, muffled. They try to break through the mental barriers he'd earlier installed against Whis. Whatever is trying to speak to him cannot reach him.

"A…cpt …he ...e. O… your… eart to…"

It's static.

Without much effort at all, he resists the honeyed words and pushes the darkness from his mind. He does this with so much gusto that Gohan physically feels himself recoil. He stumbles, dizzily returning to reality and to the strident screams of his brother. Rixas is still wailing, writhing like an ocean-starved fish on the sandy tiles.

"Fight it, you idiot!" Gohan commands, "What are you doing?!"

There's a clash elsewhere. Gohan turns just in time to see Quell warp Beerus away from the arena. God, if Gohan and Quell can beat whatever the hell this thing is then why can't Rixas?

When he goes to take a hold of his brother, an icy discharge chill sends a shock up Gohan's arm. It feels dirty to the touch. It's as if all of Gohan's darkest moments have returned to snipe him of his joy, a reminder of hate, of fear, of jealousy and all the evil within one's soul.

Why is this so familiar?

His mouth opens and shut, reminiscent of a fish.

…No.

Just as he realizes what's happening; from Rixas, a bomb of wild energy detonates, sending Gohan askew. Laughing follows. Deep from Rixas' belly, a twisted, unhinged giggling rips free.

His worst fear is confirmed only seconds later.

---

Old Planet Geo, North-East Quadrant
A short time earlier…

I'll tear you down, Rixas…

Teeth grit, he vows to make not just Rixas pay, but Quell too.

This is for his boys… For Gohan… Gohan.

In Goku's palm, lays the spherical Orb of Permanence. The last time he saw this was when Goten swallowed it down in one go. He wants to smile, bitterly, but he can't bring himself to it. The orb is pocketed. It will be needed soon enough.

Breathe, Goku. Focus.

…So, this is Old Planet Geo. Goku can't say that he's all too impressed, especially compared to the newer version.

Besides his group, there isn't another person for miles.

It also smells, akin to rotten meat on a hot day. Goku's face twists as he steps through clods of dirt and sand. Beyond the stench, Old Planet Geo's wastrel nature exhibits a lonely atmosphere, burdened with decaying cityscapes. The weather is as bitter as it makes Goku feel. There are musky, low-lying clouds that swallow some up of the climbing scrapers. Pointed roofs disappear entirely.

He rubs his arms. The breeze is shrill and dust scratches along bare skin as debris soars wildly in the gust. Such grey matter dissolves into the turn of wind, buildings crack and crumble, what little fragments of the city remain become victim to gravity.

What a mess…

Around, mountain-sized crevices plunder deep into dirt, as though asteroids with the girth of houses struck down. They're everywhere, intermittent between blackened, burnt out structures and bullet shredded blockades. Goku notices that there's no life amidst the chaos, not even a simple sapling or a weed.

"It's rotten," Brutil tells him as Goku handles the chalky dirt. "Let's not linger. The meeting place is just upon us."

Piccolo swoops past him, and then, slower, Vegeta. He makes sure to catch Goku's eye before skulking onwards.

"For the boy," he'd said at his surprise volunteering for the expedition.

Piccolo on the other hand had said nothing of the sort, and in fact has grown even quieter since Goten's kidnapping. His detachment goes beyond stubbornness now… Something must be going on in that brain of his because since their trip to Geo – the real Geo – Piccolo doesn't walk the line of caution anymore, he's jumped it. Piccolo wants little to do with all of this. Understandably in some awful, horrid way Goku would never jump on board with at the expense of his boys. Aligning with the kai is now not in Earth's best interest – even he knows that much, but still, this seems to go beyond that. So… why is Piccolo even here? He'd been flapping his lips about it being too dangerous and now suddenly…

Hmm…

Whilst he doesn't understand Piccolo's motivations, Goku understands his own truths. This time, he will win. He will bring home both of his sons. He'll defeat Rixas and then he'll defeat Quell.

Goten will be returned and Gohan… Gohan will be…

His fists clench.

"Don't try anything funny," Brutil says, for what must be the fifth time. "Remember the plan. Do as you're told."

Goku nods, swallowing a lemon. "…Right."

Something about said plan makes him feel incredibly dirty.

They pass through the ruined hamlet and through a subsection of column lined crossroads. The land is disjointed, the levels are all different; stairs lead to everywhere and also to nowhere. Where buildings must have once stood, vacancy remains, surrounded only by rubble and trinkets of a richer past. Flecks of gold can be seen amidst the chaos. Shattered weapons, veteran shields… the trash has piled enormously.

At least the smell is gone.

Soon enough, an unimaginably large structure looms. It strikes from the debris and deadness. Amidst, large circular holes in the brickwork hint at the windows that were once there, and what brilliance they must have brought. Angled sharpness, patterned brightly in an array of colours, congregate in the windowpanes; hiding in the corners, sparkling amongst the dreary.

They climb this building, a church it so turns out, where faded paintings mark the walls as they climb ever higher. Golden eyes stare him down from from the walls they'd been envisioned onto, made more intense with each stroke of paint. They look from behind podiums. They watch beyond the aisles. Vegeta drags him when a mural has his attention for too long.

The eyes of the gods…

Goku hates them. He's not someone who can hate easily. He's a man of second and third and even fourth chances, with a heart so pure that nothing has rattled him and his morals. But these people have. The golden glare that makes him want to punch through to the core of the planet, the over indulged arrogance of those who see themselves above others; the power that allows them to act in such a way… It's disgusting.

Goku will make sure it ends today.

Months and months of training in the Room of Spirit and Time have taught him that with time anything can be accomplished. He'll stand toe to toe with them. His ascension into godly power will allow him to take them down.

His strength will be his strength.

From atop the journeyed spiral staircase, the door opens out onto a wide square; one not dissimilar to the rings Goku's seen at the World Martial Arts Tournaments of the past. Clouds have also made their way up this high, and occasionally discolour all as they pass. From the other side of such clouds, Goku finally sees Beerus and Whis, and even further back, he sees them.

Fire erupts in his throat.

Quell stands out, so neat and, well, for a lack of a better word, pretty in a world deceased. How strange to use that word for a fellow guy, but stranger yet how applicably it fits. Quell's royal white and golden robes flutter against the wind, crowning him appropriately as the ruler of his fleet. Pressure rolls in manageable waves from him. They hiss in warning. Goku notices Piccolo flinch, Vegeta too is not pleased to reunite with the feeling. Goku refuses to buckle this time.

Rixas is a little further back, seemingly talking with the captain from last time. It's hard to tell because of the mask. Watching him there, conversing so freely when Gohan's god knows where and Goten's imprisoned has Goku's blood bubble in his veins. Why the hell isn't that monster looking at Goku? Why doesn't he care what he's done? Why do none of them care? Goku could just – just –! A green hand claws Goku's shoulder.

Goku simmers, pulling free on an intake of breath.

…Eyrelle is there too. And a shroud of disappointment smoothers scorching anger; he'd thought she'd been decent when first meeting her. How can she stand with them after everything they've done? They'd even killed her people.

But then he remembers Famis, the other brother, the dead one she'd worked under, the one Piccolo had reminded him of when he'd first voiced his issue with her. No… Eyrelle's always been theirs, hasn't she?

"Goku, look."

Ah.

There's yet another person here too, a surprise. Goku hadn't predicted that the final brother would be present, and going off of raised brows, neither had Brutil. As he ascends the final step onto the tiled floor he lets out a low whistle.

"Mori needn't have bothered turning up," Brutil says, smug, "There will be nothing he can do here."

That doesn't make Goku feel better, nor does it ease Piccolo and Vegeta's concerns.

"Another god," Vegeta hisses, "Another. That's one more on top of two incredibly strong adversaries. How the hell do you expect us to face three and then whatever grovelling disciples they've brought along with them?"

"Lord Mori…" Piccolo says, numb, "The one who specializes in ki. How will that make him anything less than a strong opponent?"

Impatience flickers. "Tch!" Brutil's finger wags. "Only two of the Gods of Revelation can be combat worthy; that is the way, Namekien. He might be able to make some fireworks but he won't be able to use them effectively. I assure you. It's well documented. So stop your fretting. This changes nothing in the way of the plan."

Goku's reminded of his conscience once more. He suffocates the unease. No, they deserve this. Rixas deserves this.

"And yet you tell us nothing," Vegeta snaps back.

Piccolo folds his arms, gaze steady on Goku. "You know, don't you?"

"It'll… work."

"Of course it will," Brutil says, arrogance blinding, reminding Goku why he doesn't like him, but for his sons, he needs to cooperate. All Goku has to do is see out today and he'll be one step closer to both of them.

In the nearby distance, Quell and Beerus are talking amongst one another in quiet albeit heated tones. Goku can't hear what they're saying though he's sure Piccolo might be able to, only if by whatever luck that they're talking in Common. The grimace on his friend's face doesn't give him much hope however.

Whis, who soon notices them, apparently finds their collective far more interesting and walks over with the weightless ease associated with a summer's day, smile and all.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. Such nostalgia I'm feeling! Would you believe that it's been nearly nine million years since I last visited?" Whis asks of them, fondly whimsical, "It was once very different here. It'd been a true oasis! I remember the famous botanical gardens, and flowering budoonias that grew here quarter yearly. Oh, honestly, it had been the sweetest sap any one man had tasted. Alas, how time's arrow does not discriminate. I have yet to see such bright budoonias."

Goku nods in greeting when the angel stands beside him. "Whis."

"Hello, Goku Son. I hope you're ready to face the unknown. Today will be most illuminating, I believe."

"Uh—"

"Today is the day that those blasted gods will understand what misery they've brought upon the universe," Brutil barks.

"Misery? Oh, yes, lots of it. You are quite right." Brutil nearly falls where he stands when Whis waves over in the direction of Rixas and the others. "Yes, we're all so miserable these days so I do hope you boys get this out of your system, and soon at that. I worry about the consequences should this escalate. Revelation is so troublesome, and I've seen several now so I should know!"

"And once this is over, once we beat Quell and Rixas and that other brother, you'll be able to bring back Gohan, right?"

Whis turns to him, finger to lip, contemplative. "Perhaps."

"And Goten," Vegeta adds, "For God's sake, him, too."

"Goten Son would be less difficult. He's in the Realm of the Almighty," Whis says, more excited this time. "I'm sure he's having a wondrous experience."

"I hadn't seen him when I was there on a mission," Brutil says, "I was at the hospital where they've apparently been keeping him, yet Goku Son refuses to see reason that he is likely dea—"

"He's not," Goku interrupts. This is not a conversation for now. Goten's alive. He has to be. If he was dead then King Kai would have found him in Otherworld. His soul would be there.

But maybe it's different if a god kills you, a dark part in his brain whispers, a part Goku refuses to give his time of day to, a part he's scared could be right.

Whis surprises them all with a giggle. "Oh, no, Goten Son is definitely not dead. I would eat my hat if he were."

"Eh?! What do you know?!"

Whis taps his head and then runs a finger across his lips. "I already am on thin ice with these things. An angel cannot involve themselves too much otherwise the balance tips; the very same reason I cannot bring you… Gohan despite how your tears sway me so. Truly, how difficult it is for me. Lord Quell forbids it yet Lord Beerus asks for it. A conflict of interests between two staple gods is no place for someone of my position. Whilst I also serve Lord Beerus, I primarily serve the universe with ethic and code suited to our beloved and divine ways. And a man is his code, I'll have you know!" Then, with an overly expressively twitch of displeasure, Whis claps his hands together. His focus returns to the cluster of deities. "Ooh, no, look at that. We may already have a situation on our hands."

Quell and Beerus' conversation has been getting louder, to the point where Beerus' high-pitched hissing is enough to make Piccolo's ears twitch. The time for action will be upon them soon. Why ever these people bother with the pleasantries goes beyond Goku. What's the point when they're just going to fight? For Beerus, Goku understands the tactic this time only because he knows the plan, though it seems to be backfiring somewhat. They'd wanted to anger Quell but the only one seeming to get more and more wound up is Beerus himself. If he had fur it would be standing on end.

But then, pressure from Quell quickly pours thick and fast. It's such a rapid development that the others, save Whis and Goku, are sent to their knees.

"What an improvement," Whis praises as Goku remains upright. "Good for you."

Vegeta is not as pleased, dragging himself up.

In the distance, the others are less affected, noticeably Rixas and Mori, who it doesn't falter at all. In fact, the unknown one, Mori, wastes no time in sauntering up to Beerus and Quell and putting in his own piece. The conversation becomes quieter once more.

"Can you hear them?" Piccolo asks Whis. There's a nod. "What are they saying?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing pleasant, I assure you." The angel blandly smiles, shaking his head occasionally, sighing the moment next. "Oh, tsk-tsk, that Lord Mori doesn't mince words, does he?"

"Huh?"

Then, Whis sighs. His palm presses against his forehead. "Oh no."

"Did something—?"

SLAP!

It echoes. The vibrant ringing stuns them into silence. Beerus' extended hand still remains, Mori's head tilted to the side of it, neither moving. Quell appears just as stunned but the reaction must be brewing. Goku prepares himself to move. This is it. This is the moment where hell breaks loose and the plan will be put into action. But nothing happens, not yet. Quell, even from the distance, can be read as deeply unhappy; pressure billows out as, eventually, they begin conversing again. Then something else happens, the pressure eases and Mori leaves soon after, returning to talk to someone Goku finds himself only just recognizing.

The Zealite leader… When did he get here?

"Lord Mori heads the group," Whis informs.

"What a shit show," Vegeta spits, "We weren't able to manage the Zealites on every other occasion and now we're expected to take them on alongside all these gods? Whether or not Lord Beerus is here we're basically waiting to be sent first class to Otherworld."

"I'll bring down the woman," Piccolo says, "Should it come to it. I feel that she is someone who reads the scope of the battlefield all too well."

"Rixas is mine," Goku cements.

"Remember the plan, Goku."

His fists curl tighter.

"I will fight Eyrelle as I know her weaknesses best. I recommend that you, Goku, bring down the Zealite. You should have the power for it now." Brutil eyes Vegeta next. "Your job is Mori. We hadn't expected his attendance and so if he cannot be… detained then you will be the one to deal with him. I assure you that this role will be easier than anticipated."

Vegeta folds his arms. "And Quell? What can you assure about him?"

"That he'll be facing bigger problems."

"Well now, it seems you all have so much to do," Whis sighs, "I suppose I shall take this as a hint to be on my way. I hope when I return that things will be less chaotic, and that a majority of you still stand. Good luck, gentlemen!"

With that, he's gone.

It's like clockwork. The soon born silence, marred only by Quell and Beerus talking, is disrupted. A sudden eruption of rhythmic voices choruses out over the square. Collective chanting booms. The song, or whatever it is, is haunting; its melody eerie as though someone had set a tape to play backwards through static.

Piccolo and Vegeta are startled. The prior grabs his ears, cringing whilst Vegeta demands to know what's happening. Goku'd already expected this. He'd agreed to it.

The harmonization off-sets the gods, too. Quell's pressure sends out a shockwave so intense that the ground rattles, Rixas looks to rush forward – Beerus is laughing, holding something whilst the final one shouts into the madness. Finally, this is the disorder Goku has been waiting for.

"That's… a mask!" Piccolo cries out from the floor. "L-Lord Beerus has a—"

It's Famis'. This is what they need to do in order to…

"Throw the orb, Goku!" Brutil shouts.

He complies, running his fingers over the marble-sized relic before tossing it high into the sky. A clap of thunder follows. Black momentarily washes out the grey, inducing darkness. Menacing energy ripples, the winds grow from strength to strength, the singing echoes. A storm of chaos descends upon the square and lightning crackles in dark, waspish zigzags.

"No…" Vegeta mutters from his side, "Kakarot... This –!"

That's right.

A shadow of wrong swallows up all. It chills Goku to the core – the power is so… so evil.

As soon as the darkness comes, it fizzles, blending into grey. Where once stood nothing, now the source of the singing can be found. Kais – at least ten – are clustered together between two arching pillars. Their chanting is slowing, easing, dying as the black energy circulates. It never reaches them however and that's due to the glass-like barrier of ki pushing back. Like smoke pressed against glass, it climbs and never passes through, swimming to the sky until then giving up and U-turning towards Beerus and the others. Above, the orb now floats beyond the barrier and the kais. It's their stabilizing wheel. It'll give them the strength to enact the magic.

"You moron!" Vegeta roars, "This will lead to nothing—!"

Vegeta isn't the only one to realize what's happened. Mori is shouting again – orders, it sounds like – but the wheels of motion are already set.

Quell cries out, raking fingers along his scalp.

It's happening.

Rixas dashes forward only to then fall, face crushed against the dirt. Fury twists Goku to attention.

"This isn't part of the plan!" he snarls at Brutil, "Only Quell!"

"Shut up! This isn't about you!"

"Did you lie to me? You said I could fight Rixas!"

"What's happening, Goku?" Piccolo next demands, "This energy… it feels like… but, surely not…"

It's expected for Mori to fall next but he never does. Goku turns to the kais, their faces warped in concentration. Yet, it quickly edges into pain. Something isn't right. One of the kais drops to their knees, nose bleeding from their attempt, another follows.

Quell subsequently stops screaming. The broken second of time feels like such a fraction of a moment but it's enough. The god is up, Beerus is charged at and then they both disappear into the cladding of thunderstruck clouds. It'd been so quick that if one blinked, it would have been missed.

Back on the ground, Mori is standing over Rixas' jutting body. At another time, it would have been awful to watch. The spasms, the cries of pain; Goku turns to Vegeta's horrified reaction and soaks up what he's supposed to be feeling. Instead, something rotten… something broken within has him enjoying the display.

For Gohan, you bastard.

Once this is over, Goku will fight him. He'll bring justice to his son's name.

There's a sudden pulse of energy and Goku knows that it's over. Mori courses backwards, cutting dirt as Rixas stands.

Goku tenses.

The mask is ripped away, and Goku watches with bated breath as an 'M' presents itself upon Rixas' newly revealed forehead.

Piccolo exhales, wide-eyed. "What have you done?"

Dust clouds propel in quick succession one after the other from Rixas as he laughs. It carries over the vastness, loud and haunting and diminished of control. It's unhinged.

Like Quell, Rixas has blonde hair too, this time cut shorter and battering about the wind like a mustang's mane. Cutting gold eyes burn brighter than Goku ever thought possible, illuminating with wild, unhinged joy. This planet, like the other Geo, stops all from feeling individual ki, but if Goku was able to feel it he's sure it would be enough to make him sick. The manic darkness has Rixas' laugh simmer into giggles. He holds his sides as if he's just been tickled.

"What the HELL?!" Vegeta has Goku by the front of his gi, and he's spitting and red faced. "You knew of this and didn't tell ME?"

No. He didn't tell Vegeta. Of course not. That would have been really stupid.

"This is for my sons," he reminds.

"This is evil, Kakarot! You assisted them in performing MAJIN magic! Don't you remember what happened last time?" Yes, Goku does, hence not wanting to tell Vegeta. What little shame Goku had felt earlier starts to rise up once more. "I broke free let me remind you, you brain-addled moron! I managed to escape the grasp and use the power boost for my own – did you not think that beast strong enough already?!"

"The orb will prevent that," Brutil snaps on behalf of Goku, "The union of the kais will keep Rixas under control, channelling the power of the Orb of Permanence. I didn't risk my life to get it for nothing. With this, the god is as good as ours!"

"Yet you just lost Quell!"

Brutil flinches. Yes, Goku wonders too. Just what had happened there? Quell slipped through their fingers because they couldn't capture the third.

"Majin magic is immoral. You really want to win the fight like this, huh, Kakarot? What the fuck is going through your head these days? What is wrong with you?!"

"You said it's about doing what we have to," Goku says, brows pressed, "You're the one who said it's not about the fight, right? It's about protecting people. You're the one who didn't even want to fight these guys in the first place; it was you who was scared."

"Of course I was! And I am, even more so now!"

"Vegeta's right. This is too far," Piccolo interjects, panicked. "How will Lord Quell react to this? Didn't you think about what could go wrong?"

"He's a lunatic," Vegeta bites out, "Look at him!"

Mori is trying to talk to Rixas in whatever language it is, but Rixas is louder than ever, laughing and laughing and saying nothing at all in return.

"The kais controlling him aren't novices, you faithless heretics. There are several of the depleted Council ensuring he stays under. Have confidence!" Brutil snags Vegeta away from Goku, snarling, "Remember your targets. Rixas works for the kai now so don't get any ideas, Goku. For us, he'll kill easily Mori, who isn't combat worthy, and—"

That's not exactly as it goes.

Rixas isn't the first to strike. Mori moves, lightning fast, launching himself and a bullet-like fist into the beast's gut. Rixas isn't laughing now. He ricochets into the distance as the three other fighters gather around Mori, awaiting orders.

Brutil nearly falls over from the shock, impossibly pale. "Wh-What?"

"You said—!"

But Piccolo is interrupted and shoved aside. "Oh. What was it you said about Mori not fighting? 'I assure you. It's well documented'," Vegeta mocks. "DOES THAT LOOK NON-COMBATIVE TO YOU?"

Three. There are three gods now that Goku needs to take down.

In an unseen twist, Mori is most certainly combative. The robe is strewn and beneath is adequate fighting wear, Goku notices a place for a sword, and boots and gloves made for impact.

"I-Impossible…" Brutil turns to the kais. They're so deeply concentrating that they can't even afford a reaction. Something tells Goku that it would be equally as unpleasant as Brutil's. "You don't understand… there's… there's a balance."

The plan had been to control Quell as a means to maintain Rixas. Now with it being the other way round, it would have made sense for Rixas to assist Beerus in his fight against Quell (Wherever they are). However, with things the way they are…

"Brutil, what now?" Goku asks, "Do you want me to go after Mori—?"

Brutil really is having a bad day. Before he can even reply, a pinprick of steel emerges through from the depth of his shoulder. Its point glistens with freshly drawn kai blood before Brutil even realizes what had happened. It's then, face to face, Goku sees Eyrelle's determined gaze from over the other side of Brutil's enormous size, her sword still deeply implanted.

"You bitch," Brutil spits.

She pulls back to strike once more. Her sword slashes so fast that it might as well be invisible, hissing as it carves.

Goku and the others draw back, Goku just enough to physically back into his next distraction. Black swamps him, familiarly so. Smoke spins until that's all Goku knows. The day is stolen, the grey with it, no light flows through as the tell-tale Zealite attack entraps him as it had once before.

But Goku's stronger this time.

"This old party trick, huh?" he taunts, "Don't you have anything new to show me?"

His prison does not respond. Whilst Goku had been aiming for Rixas, dealing with the Zealite leader isn't too bad. It'll be a good test of strength before getting to the meat of the battle. Just how long will the Zealite be able to keep him here for this time?

Powering up in a super saiyan, Goku is more than willing to find out.

---

It's a good thing that in the briefest of time allocated Gohan was able to instruct the others because Gohan doesn't have a moment to catch his breath. Rixas is faster than Gohan's yet seen him, returning that guttural punch with one in return, burying Gohan into the face of a pillar and then through it, sending him flying through the air until caught, punched once more and then sentenced to the far away desert floor. The ground groans upon impact.

Gohan doesn't allow himself rest. He's up and out of the crater before Rixas is able to land the next hit on him. The fist deeply engraves into where Gohan once was, sending up a storm of sand barely a fraction away.

"Shit," Gohan curses. His stomach already hurts, twisting. Rixas isn't messing around. "Th-They really got you, huh?"

Rixas, windswept and wearing the sand as though he rules over it, grins manically. He admires his hands, flexing them.

"Famis was on to something," Rixas says, slurring as if drunk. "This… this power… I feel so… alive."

"So… So you understand what's happening," Gohan tries to reason, clenching at his abdomen as he walks closer. "You know that this is Majin magic?"

"What? You think I wouldn't? Ah, because I'm stupid, right?"

Gohan halts. "Then you know that it's messing with your mind, brother."

Rixas barks a laugh, the 'M' atop his forehead creasing. "Oh, I'm your brother now, am I?"

"You must fight this, Rixas," he snaps.

If Vegeta can break then so can this lug. There's no magical net big enough to contain the whirlwind that is Rixas of Revelation. Just how the hell were they even able to stabilize the incantation over a god? There's no way the kais would be able to hold Rixas for longer than a few seconds without some sort of…

That fucking orb!

Gohan recalls the memory of his father throwing something. It must have been the Orb of Permanence, freshly synched from the ruins of the Spire last night. Good fucking god! Gohan could just…

He growls, hating himself all the more.

"Rixas, wake up!" he snarls, channelling his frustration out, "We don't have time for this! Snap out of it! Are you really going to help the kais after they slaughtered Famis?"

Rixas tilts his head back, a stupid fucking grin plastered there as though Gohan had just told the funniest joke. "My masters did what was right for the universe, Mori. Considering how much you're not enjoying the use of Majin magic right now I'd have thought you'd at least agree on that much."

"God… damn it…" Gohan looks up, far into the sky where the Sky Coliseum resides, and where Roarg is single-handedly attempting to manage both Vegeta and Piccolo. "I know you're angry at me but think about your captain," he tries, "Roarg could die up there!"

There's a twitch at that. It's as if Rixas had touched an open socket. Electricity seems to journey from one inch of his body to another. As quick as Gohan sees it, it's gone.

"Mm… Yes, I bet you care about her, don't you?"

"Of course I do!"

The gold in Rixas' eyes dim before alighting with bright fury, parting the clouds. He sniggers, pulling at his hair and wrapping his arm around his chest; appearing completely deranged. "Yes, another thing you think I'm stupid about."

Gohan's eyes widen. "What—?"

"You think me such an idiot, DON'T YOU?!" he roars, "I'll fucking show you, you ungrateful, snivelling brat! You think you can out-power me? You think you've outgrown me? I made YOU! You were NOTHING without ME!"

The next punch strikes Gohan in the exact same place he'd originally been assaulted, this time cracking something in the process. He doubles in half, bending over Rixas' arm and leaving himself open to a follow up attack. Rixas wastes no time. This newly found speed born of the Majin magic serves itself well and Rixas is able to strike him twice more until Gohan collects himself. He grasps onto the wrist, scaling the skin with a flush of ki until Rixas finally pulls back.

Gohan doesn't stay on the back foot. He barrels forward, twisting for momentum and kicks Rixas so hard that he burrows into a towering sand hill. He sends a chaser to be safe, firing sweltering blasts of ki after him. As expected, the ki strikes the sand first, turning it a bright orange and melting it instantly. The molten sludge slides fast, catching and turning more sand as it trails. It's not enough. Rixas plunges free, embers liberated into the wind and returns with thrice the vigour.

"Using your little energy attacks against me?" Rixas coos. "How like you."

Yes. It is like him. Taking chances against Rixas would be like taunting a lion with a beef steak.

Gohan looks up once more at the Sky Coliseum. Above that, the clouds illuminate with colours unbefitting Old Planet Geo's natural blandness.

He's rewarded with a fist cracking his nose for his negligence. A pool of blood follows.

"Eyes on the prize, little brother," Rixas laughs, "I taught you better!"

Gohan spits red, just about managing to avoid a further onslaught. Above, Quell and Beerus are fighting somewhere in the atmosphere. The peppering of ivory and gold fireworks is easily recognizable as Quell's. God, he needs to get back up there, at least back up to the coliseum where the others are fighting.

"Look at ME!" Rixas has him by his front, violently shaking. Spittle hits Gohan's mask. "Do you really want to see dear old Dad so FUCKING badly?!"

The misunderstanding isn't worth mentioning. Rixas is losing his mind. Those eyes are dilated; the entire eyeballs are nearly fully gold. And long running self-inflicted scratch marks tear along tanned, filthy skin, glowing red with sprouting blood. Even his hair is more a bird's nest than usual. He's the image of lunacy.

"I'll kill you and then I'll kill him!"

Rixas submerges Gohan into rubble, drowning him under the concrete and skeletons which lie there. The Majin might is driving Rixas insane, far worse than it ever did Vegeta or any other enslaved Gohan's known about. It must be relative to one's power. Rixas was already a beast. Cackling above, Gohan can see the magic illustrating the worst parts of him.

Gohan doesn't like to use the same trick twice but he also doesn't like to fix what isn't broken. His hands wrap around Rixas', sending a shock of heat there. This time, however, the beast doesn't move, laughing harder as his skin must blister and boil. God, he's horrifying. Gohan twists in the hold, sickened by the smell of cooking meat and spluttering as he's pummelled ever deeper into the earth.

Gohan reaches out this time, grabbing onto what thinning air there is. He charges it, speeding up the particles with his own explosive energy until it detonates. All around, the air catches fire until an explosion of debris sends them both free of the prison. Bones fly alongside them, along with rocks and the silver cladding of soldiers unfortunate to ever have come here. They strike into the base of the Sky Coliseum, wobbling the buildings and church that lies beneath it. Dust falls, snowing over them alongside a collection of pebbles and, of course, more rocks.

Rixas doesn't hesitate. He aims another punch, and so Gohan does the same. They both miss but Gohan is in the better position, winding around and managing a swift elbow to the back of the neck. Rixas – the brute that he is – barely moves, and laughs. Oh, does he laugh.

"You can do better than that," he says, immediately following it up with a head butt.

Gohan sees white, and then black, and then the fist that cracks his nose – breaking it the other way, this time.

"You're pathetic!" Rixas tells him. "You've been training all this time without me and you can't handle even this?"

"I don' wann' 'urt you!" Gohan splutters.

"You were fine to hurt me at the estate – after your holidaying on Earth! You'd wanted to KILL ME then, HUH?" The anger fizzles so fast that it's jarring, the dreaded cackling returns. "Yet, ha-ha… now… now you can't even touch me! Ha-ha…-ha ha, ha! Why had I been so worried? You're WEAK! You're UNWORTHY to even stand next to me and Quell – why had I believed that had been me? Ha-ha-ha…!"

Gohan flinches and not from the break in his nose. Is this what he's been thinking?

Of course it is, comes the dark voice in his head, you've preyed upon it countless time. You've always known of his fickle jealously and his weak state of mind…

And for that, Gohan's just desserts backhand him so hard that he spirals into the cliff side. His mask bounces off, the ridge jutting at his shoulder until he's parallel to the floor.

Rixas jumps, knee burying into Gohan's gut. "Get UP and fight me properly!"

A fountain of blood hacks free, splashing straight back down courtesy of gravity, and because of the accursed mask.

"I want to look at you," Rixas says, atop. "I want to see your face when big bro kills you. Take your mask off."

God, is Rixas even trying to fight it?

Gohan does. He slides his hand across his face and the mask disappears into the smoke, leaving him face to face with the idiot who's allowing himself to be controlled by kais. It infuriates him. Gohan pushed them out, he'd managed to stay able-minded – and Rixas has the gall to call himself the stronger one?

Shaking, Gohan pushes himself up and Rixas up off of him. For the effort, there's another backhand across the face. It's expected and so Gohan falls against it, bringing his legs up and over, catching Rixas in the neck and slamming him down. There's an eruption of dust, one which Gohan bounces back into, losing himself into the whirlwind of grains. In fact, he encourages the sandstorm, heating it, sending shocks of ki and pushing the wind until tornadoes are born.

The more chaos the better. Rixas shines best in a clean fight. He isn't as adaptable as Gohan. If this Majin zombie wants a fight then Gohan'll give him one – and he'll end it too!

The wind picks up. Heat billows.

Rixas is already dazzled by the new conditions. He flies well enough, but Gohan was born a bird. He applies the mask as not to swallow the spiralling sand and shards, and soars readily.

"You sold your soul to the kais," Gohan hisses through the warp of the mask, floating ever higher, "And for what? A bit of dark magic? You talk big yet you're the one with masters."

Rixas is trying to keep up with him through the twisting winds, his expedition treacherous as Gohan sends out electrifying cyclones one after the other. Every misstep comes with a nasty shock, slowing the pace – and nothing angers Rixas more than being halted at every stop. His impatience will do him no justice here.

"Wake up!" Gohan shouts over the blusters, "You're better than this!"

Rixas looks angered as opposed to inspired. He charges through the cyclones, jolting with each landing electric current striking a hit. By the time he reaches Gohan, he's twitching so much that he's quite possibly vibrating, which is perfect because it sends him off balance, making him open to Gohan's much charged roundhouse kick.

Bones creak with one of them being in Gohan's own leg. Rixas, at least, looks winded from the attack. He retreats, gasping and flailing in the air as he holds his side.

Knees wobbly and stinging with second-hand electric shocks, Gohan finds himself unable to dawdle; he follows his leg around, twisting until he faces Rixas. He strikes once more, this time in the shin. As a result, Rixas' balance is compromised. He slips forward and Gohan takes him, quick, fingers threading into hair, holding in place, before he then yanks hard.

Knee meets face and Gohan repays his brother with a broken nose of his own.

By the uncontrolled weight against Gohan's leg, it's safe to assume that it was an immeasurable blow. Red bleeds out instantly. Rixas' brown jumpsuit is no longer that.

"Yes." Rixas breathes against the knee. A chill runs down Gohan's spine. "Let's have this out, my little duckling – once and for all."

Rixas pushes Gohan back, licking his lips and the subsequent blood that's pooled there.

He grins, teeth stained red.

---

Goku's prison holds the outside world at ransom.

The longer he's here, the more determent he's allowing the situation to fall into. He can't feel anything from within here, not that he could even before that. Old Planet Geo is strange and mystical and just… well, just awful. The energy here feels disgusting, worst yet from within Goku's blackened cell. The confinement enhances the negativity, smoke carrying around and snaking around Goku like shackles.

"Awh, don't say I'm alone here," Goku continues to goad, walking, "That wouldn't be very hospitable."

He runs his hands through the smoke, walking, feeling the stiff walls. Unlike before, he can tell now that these walls are made from ki; it tingles his fingers despite being as smooth as marble.

"I see you can make some pretty neat things with your energy. My friend can do that, too. He's outside right now, the Namekian. You saw him, right?"

Goku continues his endeavour, his fingers running along the energy infused walls.

"He can make clothes. I've seen him make bigger things too, like weapons, materials, walls… He can also duplicate himself like you can, but his technique is different. Yours isn't just splitting your power, is it?"

The tingling evolves into a spasm. Goku moves past it, only to return to that spot when the pain recedes back into tingling. The sting spikes once more.

Ah, here it is.

"When I realized that your technique was to multiply yourself, I was pretty caught up on what that could mean in how you operate, y'know?" Goku digs his nails into the wall. The spasm jolts his entire arm, but he digs ever deeper. "D-D-Duplicating."

Goku builds up energy – a beautiful blue – in his hand and feeds it into the wall. The payoff is prompt. The black walls pulsate, blinking blue and black, thumping like a heartbeat. Oh, yes. Talk about being right on the money. This time, Goku sends a pretty pink blast into the thrum of energy along the wall.

As such, pink is now added into the repertoire of dancing colours, and then yellow, and then orange.

With how bright it now is, Goku can see that his prison had once been a box. But now it's mushily devolving, wheezing in on itself as the colours distort the construction of it.

There's a whir of movement behind, impulsive.

Here we go.

Goku turns on his heel, fast, snatching the dagger and twisting the hand that holds it. The weapon clatters to the floor. "Hey, welcome to my disco," he says, "Do you like what I've done with the place?"

The Zealite says nothing, producing yet another dagger from smoke and striking Goku low. To him, after facing Rixas, this is child's play; this is slow. Goku toys with him, permitting the Zealite to try and land a blow on him while he side steps each and every attempt, no ascension needed.

"Duplicating… I mean, I don't know how you do it to yourself. I kind of came to the conclusion that, like Piccolo, it's to do with some mythical power from your race, and so I'll never understand the workings in the technique. However, I definitely know how you do it to energy attacks. It's about balancing the ki levels just right before splitting," Goku says, "And once that balance is disrupted…" He throws a concoction of colours into the walls, so many that a prism of colours flitter, unable to decide which to land on. "The form breaks down."

The Zealite breaches at that moment – the very moment the prison shatters into a rainbow of falling glass – before then manoeuvring at speed. There are now four very real opponents, covering each of Goku's sides

As the sharp rain falls and the flatness of Old Planet Geo returns, the amusement drains from Goku's face. He looks at the one facing him, cold.

"You're going to regret taking my son."

He throws the first punch, connecting. The others move at once.

His eyes aren't suited to the brightness of day just yet, admittedly having taken a hit back in the prison where he'd set off his light show. It's perhaps his luck that Old Planet Geo is dim; a depressing a place where the stars hide behind dense clouds because his little vision, though limited, still helps. The blurs making up the Zealite attack all at once. Not one lands an attack; they in fact crush together clumsily as Goku disappears above.

"Move!"

It's then that Vegeta soars past, followed by the woman – the captain – and then by a series of shining, yellow blasts of ki that are definitely too much to look at. They're Piccolo's Masenko attacks.

On Goku's other side, Brutil and Eyrelle whir by, her sword but an inch away from cleaving away half of Goku's hair. He stoops, landing down on the now vastly cracked square just in time for the entire floor to rumble beneath.

It's coming from below.

Tremors follow.

Rixas is fighting below, along with Mori.

The Majin power must still be working, then.

Apprehensively, Goku gazes towards the kais. They're no longer chanting but their eyes are pressed in deep, deep concentration; many of them are effervescent with the communal magic thrumming between them. Their radiance is to be marvelled. It's so vivacious in a world so dull. Yet, Goku feels the energy – the magic – and its… its might seeded in evil.

It was necessary. We needed to do this… We…

God, it does feel wrong.

The madness doesn't stop. A clap of thunder above sounds, indicating Beerus and Quell are very much in the thick of it, wherever they are. At the exact same time, the wind around spirals, twirling faster and faster until Goku has to move out of the way of a newly born twister. It courses downwards.

"Finally," Piccolo snaps, landing as his side.

What does he mean finally? Goku was away for less than a few minutes.

"You've been gone at least thirty or forty, maybe more," Piccolo asserts when Goku suggests otherwise.

What?

On cue, the Zealite bounces back but so quickly does Goku apprehend him, catching the blackened snake and entangling him by the front of those smoky robes. Still, not a sound is uttered in retaliation, perhaps because his clone sneaks upon Goku, and tries to strike him from behind. Piccolo has none of it. The clone bursts into smoke the moment Piccolo's hand curls around his throat. The one in Goku's grasp follows suit.

"The girl is the same," Piccolo complains, "They're all so slippery."

"They don't fight straightforward," Goku says, "Once you figure out their sneaky tactics then it's easier."

On cue, the Zealite returns, dagger in one hand as he charges; it's so painfully a ploy that Goku feels bad destroying the clone, and then the one that tries to assault him from behind.

With a Zealite clone of his own in hand, Piccolo gasps. "Goku, look out!"

But it's too late. Another attacker rips a blade southwards down Goku's left arm. Immediately, it's numb and useless.

Damn it!

Piccolo tries to help and his thwarted so fast that he needn't have bothered at all. The Zealite slaps him hard, sending him soaring into one of the columns. Stone crashes down; the passing clouds swallowing it before the dust can be seen coursing upwards to the heavens. A cold swath then wraps around Goku too as said clouds envelop him, chilling all except for the numb arm. The Zealite uses this opportunity to disappear into the fog, and then into the torrential rain that follows so suddenly that it startles Goku.

There aren't even any rain clouds.

Though, from the dark banquet of ki explosions above, Goku assumes anything possible to fall from the sky. Just hopefully, Beerus is not one of them.

His eyesight is thankfully adjusting, just in time for it to be jeopardized by the rain. This is not a good turn for him. Will he need to power up after all?

He decides not to take any more chances when the Zealite strikes once more. Ki fires. Even with the rain dampening its heat, it's still more than enough. The blast hits and the body immediately ignites, dropping and crisping up, dying. It's not the real one. Goku's seen these clones die before. More copies attack, each meeting the same fate. One after the other, they appear in succession yet Goku doesn't break pace; he spits out the rain, skidding wetly along the tiles as he sends each attacker down.

In this blind flurry, he rounds straight into someone. He originally thinks it's the Zealite and prepares yet another blast, but this one moves differently. The blast is smothered; Goku's hand is used against him, twisted and pressed into his own chest with a fluid firmness not associated with the Zealite. He swiftly realizes who it is and reaches out, trying to pin her – yet Piccolo had been right. She's indeed slippery. The captain weaves below his arm, tucking herself small despite nearly being as tall as Goku himself before merging into the fog of rain.

Yet another cloud passes by and Vegeta decides to follow suit.

"Get out of my way," he growls, shoving Goku aside. He's sporting a purpling lip, bloody noise and a limp that looks like it'll take more than a senzu bean to fix. "The COWARDLY wench can't run forever!"

And then he's gone into the white as well.

Nonetheless, Goku is never alone. Vegeta is hastily replaced by yet another Zealite. A blast of ki shoots and this one frazzles quicker. The quality of the clones is not what it once was – the main Zealite must be reaching the end of his reserves.

This… is taking longer than it needs to, even with the captain. Why are these people running or trapping them or playing tricks? Just why are they so slippery?

It feels like cat and mouse, like a chase and little else. It rings a bell.

Goku recalls the last time he'd faced this Zealite, along with Goten.

Dad, they won't do anything," Goten had assured, back then as he'd been at their mercy. "They're full of crap!"

Had Goten been right after all?

Whis had been certain that Goten is okay, too. He'd said that Goten is in the Realm of the Almighty, wherever that is. These gods and their people… are not killing them. No. They're not despite having had every chance.

Good God, Goten had been right.

Goku takes a deep breath, knowing that this will either be an exceedingly effective moment or one so very stupid.

The next Zealite that attacks is not killed with ki. Instead, Goku takes the copy by the hand and rearranges him until the dagger points (but not touches) directly under Goku's chin. He holds it there.

"Do it," Goku urges, his numb arm dangling. Slowly, it's regaining feeling. The feeling is pain. "Go on."

The Zealite doesn't move.

"Kill me. That's the order, right? Right?"

The knife hurriedly vanishes, and so does the Zealite, exploding into smoke and giving way for what Goku feels must be the real one. He pounces at Goku, faster than the others. He's also weightier in Goku's grip upon being captured, wrangling harder, this one's blade longer and glistening in the familiar poison Goku's seen used before to inhibit Vegeta.

Thinking fast, he snatches the blade before then plunging into the Zealite's arm. Finally, there's a sound; a grunt, and then another and another and another as Goku pierces each of man's limbs. Immediately, the Zealite collapses, sliding low and breathing heavily; his body vibrates and Goku worries that he'd administered too much – that he's in fact not spared the man like the man had spared Goku.

"Are you dying?" Goku asks him.

There's no response and so Goku shakes him. "Talk to me! Are you dying?"

"…No," the man eventually responds.

Either he's lying or he'd truly not been sent to kill Goku, otherwise the poison would be finishing him off. The realization rocks Goku. He lets go and the man falls back against the tiles.

"You took my son," Goku utters, lost, "Why? For the orb?"

"…Yes."

"We have it… the orb. We have the orb, so why?" Goku looks around, as though the answers might jump out at him through the haze of rain, "You didn't take good care of it – you mustn't have cared that much about it. Yet you still have Goten. Why?!"

There's no response.

"Hey, I'm talking to you—!"

Whooosh!

The howl interjects; it's one so loud that Goku quickly throws his hands over his head, flinching from the sharp onslaught against his ears. He spirals, looking for the source. Oh, crap. There's a twister; one huge and humming with electrified energy that barges across the square. It's a rapid development to say the least, and the once brutal wind is now ravenous for chaos. There's no fighting it. It lugs up the Zealite and Goku, carrying them, battering, and then thrusting both respectively into opposing positions of the square. Tiles then sprint along the gale, along with other debris, sand and whatever else the gust has picked up, chasing the twister as it descends.

Whether or not this carnage has come from below or above, Goku's unsure. He braces himself, powering up. There won't be any more chances taken. He ascends past Super Saiyan, embracing the divine transformation of Super Saiyan God. Red colours his aura. A swill of confidence fills him.

He'll be ready for whomever.

His next opponent in fact turns out to be the weather. More twisters ravage the square, consuming all that dares stand in their way. Electricity now sparks freely. It hisses at Goku when he's not fast enough to get out of the way.

These aren't normal.

The coliseum rumbles once more. Another explosion from below tests the foundation.

"Goku!" Cries a familiar voice; Piccolo, thank God. "Goku, where's the Zealite?"

"I dunno'. The wind carried him off."

Piccolo looks bedraggled. He's bleeding like Vegeta, bruised too, and like Goku, he's drenched, but unlike Goku, it doesn't look like he'd been struck with just rain.

"Is that snow?" Goku asks, gesturing to the white on green shoulders.

"It's ridiculous," Piccolo complains, "They're even turning the weather into weapons. Just how powerful are these gods?"

"Where's Vegeta? Brutil?"

Piccolo growls, looking around and then up at the sky. "I know where Lord Beerus is, if only because of these blasted displays of seasonal might."

Goku shakes his head. "Not all of them are coming from up there."

"I'm aware." Piccolo looks down and over the side of the square. Dust sporadically exhausts wherever Mori and Rixas clash, whiplashes of impact shockwaves pushing indiscriminately. Columns crumble, brickwork shakes; ruined buildings below quiver until they powder into nothing.

"…He specializes in ki," Piccolo mumbles, perturbed. "I can't believe I'm rooting for Lord Rixas to win."

Goku says nothing, face tart.

Downwards, a sandstorm blusters, one so viciously intent on eating the structure below that Goku considers vacating the square entirely. If these guys aren't intent on killing them then they're making a damn good show of it.

"Goten had been right," Goku says, then, contemplative, "About the Zealites. They hadn't been trying to kill him – or us, for the matter. The one I just fought had every chance and he didn't take it."

"Are you saying that you… you gave him the chance?"

Goku nods, frowning.

They stand in wooden stillness, eyes trailing after the chaos below, mulling over what Goku had just admitted. Piccolo's cape is long gone, turban too, but the tattered purple gi batters just as well, pulling at the tears born from battle. He looks tired, even now, amidst one of their most dangerous situations yet where the gods below advance ever closer.

He exudes a sigh.

"Goku… What do you think this means for …Gohan?"

Goku nearly falls off the square in shock. Did Piccolo just willingly bring up Gohan?

"I…I… what do you mean?"

"It's all connected. Haven't you yet realized?" his friends says, tone flat. "Goten did. That's why he knew the Zealites wouldn't touch him back at Capsule Corporation before they took him."

"Connected? Like how? Do you know something?"

Piccolo shakes his head, pensive. "Nothing… worth mentioning just yet." Words tease at the tip of his tongue. "But, Son, for what it's worth… I don't think Gohan killed himself."

This time, Goku does slip, not off the edge thankfully, but on the tiles. His numb arm does nothing in way of catching him. "Why are you saying this now?" Goku questions, "What does this have to do with everything going on here?"

Piccolo purses his lips. "I don't know."

"If this is your apology then it sucks."

"I'm not apologizing."

Goku flinches, confused. "Then why—?"

There's then an updraft – a hot one at that – that pushes them back. Goku powers up, readying himself in case anyone should spew forth. Sand does, litres of it, gushing upwards like a confused waterfall, propelling for seconds until it starts to cascade down, and from it emerges two figures, one horizontal and coursing for the remaining tiles, and the other floating above and touching toe to the square, somewhat more gracefully.

Mori.

Meanwhile, Rixas lands in a heap, taking down the last surviving column. The stone smashes, practically obliterating the moment he touches it. Goku looks at the other god, and the ill-omened mask that casts the darkest shadow. Golden eyes burn when they turn towards him.

He instinctively takes a step back, but his lips curves into a wry smile.

The one that isn't supposed to fight, huh?

---

Gohan's pretty fucked up.

He pants, briefly allowing himself a moment of contemplation. His father and Piccolo stand just beyond, at the halfway point of his desired destination. The chorus of kais huddle together like cowards. They hide behind their barrier. Gohan will ruin them. He'll destroy that fucking orb and then he'll cleave the wretched beings with his Z Sword! How dare they impose Famis' work upon them? How dare they turn the magic of Majin upon them?!

Stepping back, his knee clicks. He stumbles. Spitting, the mask returns the wad of blood back at him.

Where are the others?

Piccolo and his father look unsure on how to approach him. Are they letting Rixas do their dirty work?

His stomach twists at the thought. How much had they known about the Majin plan? Did his father really agree to this? Is he that far gone?

Unable to look at them a moment longer, a jet of energy consumes him. He powers up, singing tiles as he flies higher in search of Roarg. It's she who finds him. But she's not alone. Vegeta is upon her, aiming true and nearly on her tail. She beelines right for Gohan, bringing her unwanted parcel along as if to say: 'You decide what to do with it'.

Gohan tries not to be vindictive.

Roarg catapults herself up at the last possible minute, delivering Vegeta to him. Gohan doesn't dally. Swinging, Gohan drives his leg – his good one – into Vegeta's gut, digging deep because Vegeta hadn't had the time to stop himself mid-air. Vegeta coils around the knee, immediately gasping. His eyes bulge. Kicking him up like one would a football, Gohan stops Vegeta floating ever higher and smacks him against the back, sentencing the man down to the sandy plains below.

"That'll keep him down for a while," Gohan tells her. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah," she pants, most definitely not. Sweat coats her, diluting the bloody cuts and bruises. "Where's… L-Lord Rixas?"

Gohan had instructed the others not to kill anyone – except for Brutil, but now, looking at how exhausted Roarg is, he sees how difficult that must have been. Roarg prides herself in getting the job done quickly. She's not built for the long game.

There's a roar from the square. Rixas has emerged, sporadic along the tiles as he twists with unnatural movement. Hands squeeze at his head.

"Arghhh!"

"He is f-fighting it," Roarg splutters.

Gohan grits his teeth, looking towards his brother, then the kais, and finally at his father and –where's Piccolo?

"Find and immobilize the namekian," Gohan instructs, he then snatches at her wrist when she turns towards Rixas regardless. "And don't be stupid. Don't go near him. He's not right."

"But—!"

"That's an order!"

He propels her towards where he cast Vegeta, thinking that Piccolo had likely gone to check on him. Roarg doesn't look happy about it but she goes, as does Gohan, in the direction of the kais and that soon to be shattered barrier.

Red flashes.

Gohan avoids the first strike very easily.

He'd wondered if Dad was going to be offensive or defensive, yet it's somewhere in the middle. He throws punches without any meaning, soaking up the flavour of Gohan's style – Gohan knows, he's seen it all before. He doesn't retaliate, but as a result, he does find himself road blocked. The kai and their barrier seem further now.

Damn it!

Where the hell is Byleath? Did Dad do away with him already?

The cost of Gohan not returning an attack is that he gets trapped in his father's pattern. The rhythm is contagious, Gohan gets caught into it and then into the break of it when a punch crunches against his mask.

It doesn't hurt.

Dad goes to repeat the action and this time Gohan catches the arm.

"I can't let you over there, I'm afraid," he tells Gohan.

It's supposed to be patronizing. But, it's not, not to him. It's in the same tone he'd have used when Gohan was a little boy, when he'd have to warn him away from the ocean because Gohan couldn't yet swim and – No, no, he can't think like that. Quell's face appears in his mind, sour and disapproving; it gives him the strength to do what he has to.

Gohan pulls the arm closer, twirling it until –!

It doesn't go to plan. Dad isn't Rixas. He doesn't allow himself to be manoeuvred quite so much, clearly more on-guard than Rixas is with him, already defensive and not falling into underestimation.

But then, in a surprise move, as if to retaliate, Dad pulls Gohan; it's horribly aggressive. It's horribly stupid. Gohan hadn't quite expected to be invited closer, he hadn't expected to be allowed opportunity to attack so closely to his father's vital organs. Just what the hell was he thinking?

Gohan plunges back, appalled.

"I see," his dad says, smirking. "You too, huh?"

Rounding his fists, Gohan bites his lip. Does he have a death wish?!

"So what is this? Why are you toying with us?" he asks, having realized the situation far quicker than Gohan believed he would. "You guys haven't been trying to kill us at all, have you?"

"…You need to get out of my way and leave," Gohan says as steady as he can, voice crackling in the mask's warp, "If you don't, Quell will finish Beerus and then he'll finish you, too. Do you understand?"

"No, actually. I don't."

There's another scream, and then a rip of laughter.

Rixas.

Gohan doesn't have time for this. He crosses his arms, pulling back and sending out a single ball of ivory ki. It doesn't shoot. It lingers. Gohan jumps back and then around it, taking off in the direction of the barrier. When Dad tries to follow, the ball detonates, exploding, burning white and searing into the grey like the greatest star of them all. Heat of immense magnitude scalds. It burns indiscriminately. It splinters the skin like nothing and Gohan is thankful to be out of reach – unlike his father who unluckily experiences the worst of it.

The attack is courtesy of Quell's teaching, and perhaps one of the nastiest in the curriculum. Gohan had suffered burns for weeks upon learning the technique.

The Bone Blister Blast; it's not something Gohan likes to throw out. Time is, however, pressed and that barrier isn't going to destroy itself.

Piccolo coming at him next is definitely a surprise, and one most unwelcome. Refusing to be the one caught off guard, Gohan halts, vanishes and reappears to snag at the purple. He brings a knee up, breaking a rib – maybe two – before then spinning the namekian counter clockwise and then into the direction Gohan had just come from. What's left of the ivory glow accepts him gladly.

Finally, Gohan skids to a halt opposite the barrier. The kais behind flinch appropriately, the sheen in front suddenly appearing all the thicker.

"What ya doing?"

Unfortunately, he's not the only one to arrive. Rixas thunders into his peripheral, chaos incarnate and red from fresh indents carved into flesh. Tiles crack free as he crash lands.

"We're not finished, Mori," he rasps. God, he sounds awful, as though he's swallowed an entire roll of sandpaper. "Don't you fucking run from me!"

Gohan raises his arms with less than a split second to spare. Rixas makes contact, arm poised to do real damage. It holds between them, wavering. The bastard is so strong. His stomach still hurts, activating the core to push against Rixas' might is near impossible.

Boots etch into the tiles, excavating into the sand.

"Arghhh…"

Gohan falters, and ultimately crumbles. Rixas follows through, landing on top and crushing Gohan between his thighs, mouth open and twisting in mirth. Punches follow. Unlike Dad's, these hurt. Blood hacks when Rixas coils a fist into the cavity of Gohan's abdomen.

He groans, flailing back. Metallic sweetness runs along the tongue warmly and then down his chin.

Above Rixas, Gohan sees the skies continue to blaze an amalgamation of colours.

Quell…

His hand reaches out on instinct, palm open to the sky as if to beckon him. He'd know how to manage Rixas now. He'd be strong to – Ugh; it's Rixas who takes the hand, squashing the flesh there. Gohan groans again, swallowing air, pressing his eyes desperately. It hurts. Fuck. It hurts.

"Quell won't help you," Rixas hisses cruelly. "He won't help either of us – we're beyond that, can't you see? We're… fucking… fucking…"

He screams again, leaping away. Gohan gasps, hand burning but free, as Rixas scrapes himself along the dirt, yowling and clutching his hair with such verve that Gohan expects it to rip free.

"Revelation!" Rixas howls, "WHAT IS THE REVELATION?!"

Gohan turns to the kais. Many of them are disturbed. One of them is shaking, violent. They're struggling to hold him.

"Rixas, come on," Gohan urges. He looks up at the orb. It's where his father threw it, rotating in the air just above the barrier in a projected light of energy. "Fight it," he adds, stepping back, clambering closer to the projection. "Come on!"

"You b-both TALK!" Rixas screams at the ground, mouth open against sand. "You both PLOT! It's always you TWO!"

Gohan goes to fly up to reach the orb when a hand snags at his boot.

"What is the Revelation?!" he demands, ankle in hand. Gohan is condemned back to the stone. He bounces, rocks scattering. "Tell me, Mori!"

"I will!" Gohan promises, "O-Only if you beat this! Do you really want to lose yourself to magic? To ki? To everything you've worked so hard to overcome being without?!"

"Fuck you!" Rixas snarls, "Who are you to say that? You killed yourself – you broke our hearts, you slithering piece of shit – just to be reborn into… into this just so you could fight. You overcame NOTHING!"

Fuck you, Famis, Gohan thinks, so, so bitterly. Majin magic is disgusting; it truly brings out the worst in its victim, as though it's dug deep to the core of Rixas insecurities. It's unleashed more than just a monster, something deeply rooted that shouldn't have been turned into a weapon. Neither of them knows how to deal with this, least of all Gohan.

Quell – where's Quell?

"And what do you have to show for your little experiment?" Rixas goads, arms wide. "Daddy up there? A cute little brother …a mama? What about us? Did you forget about us? Was playing House so much FUN?"

"I already said sorry!"

"No, you didn't! Not to me!"

Gohan falters. Is that true? "Y-You knew that—"

"I knew what? That 'Baby Bwother was weal sowwy, Quell'? That you would throw us away once again the first moment you got? That you think yourself better than me, stronger than me, more important than me?! Tell me, Mori, tell me how you laugh and laugh about me with Quell, tell me how foolish you think I am! Hah-HAH-HAAAH!"

Rixas screams again, throwing his head, wild and manic.

Gohan turns to the kais, shouting in Celestianese. "You're killing him! Is that what you want?"

They persist, their glow as unified as ever. Closed, rapt eyes don't even acknowledge him. The bastards! Teeth bare, Gohan snarls, raising his hands and casting an array of blasts at them. Each bounces off the barrier like rubber. They ricochet back, setting off explosions behind and setting an off an updraft of smoke like a homing signal.

Don't be reckless. Think.

Clarity dawns upon him. The orb has got to go. Now.

He jumps, reaching, for it once again to be thwarted.

Rixas' great sword cleaves into his arm. It'd been dropped earlier. How Rixas had come upon it so quickly will only ever be understood between him and the kais who'd likely given it to him. Gohan cries out, withdrawing his arm, causing it to be sliced as he drags free. Blood liberates. Hotly, it trails down Gohan's arm, and then along the Z Sword once it's called forth.

Smoke evaporates, sourcing from the hilt and hiding the seared wound Gohan just closed up. His entire arm burns. Though there's no time for self-pity; he's already on the back-foot. Rixas has his sword pointed at the heavens and is already swinging it down like a guillotine, missing Gohan and the Z Sword but only narrowly. Gohan, in turn, levies the Z Sword, which swings in momentum. It spirals, sparkling with virgin cleanliness not suited to this land before being marred by Rixas' tarnished steel.

Gohan's arm vibrates at the collision. He doesn't worry for the Z Sword as it's the strongest of its kind. His bones however are a different story. They rattle. Wind gushes from the impact. His Z Sword never once falters, and Gohan's more thankful than ever for it. Once he's finished here then he'll take it and run it along each of the kais' necks. He hopes they're enjoying the show now. It's going to be their last.

"Hyaaah!"

He almost feels revitalized because of the sword. It's an extension of himself.

Rixas could match him back at the estate with the rusty knives they'd played with, but here, Gohan proves to have outgrown him. The Z Sword is leagues above Rixas' terrible excuse for a cleaver, and Gohan, too, is advanced. It seems so long ago that it'd been Rixas who'd introduced Gohan to swordplay.

So Majin magic doesn't improve base skills.

But it does charge Rixas with vitality not needed. Rixas is already a powerhouse of energy. This is just overkill.

The blades clash, once, twice, thrice… so many times that Gohan doesn't bother keeping track. They hiss through the air, spitting. Whilst the magic has given Rixas speed, it's not improved his finesse. Through the sand, they dance, and Gohan doesn't just dance, he floats. He glides, snaking, balancing and proves himself fluid in a way Rixas just isn't. Rixas is relying on the magic for speed whilst Gohan's speed has always been stellar. Rapid, and in spite of the injuries, Gohan tears along Rixas' wielding arm, and then fast across the other because he knows him to be ambidextrous.

Rixas snarls. The sword clatters and he swings, bare-fisted.

Gohan lunges back, swinging the Z Sword and jutting into his brother's flesh once more. A fine line rips across the chest. It'd been a bit too close to the heart for Gohan's liking.

"Damn it!" Gohan shouts, "Snap out of it!"

Rixas attempts to take him again, this time succeeding despite the sword standing between them. The blade cuts through one of his hands, slicing until emerging at great length on the other side. Disgusting. Rixas collects Gohan with the other hand, clasping his throat and indenting a thumb into the crook as he drags him from the sandy tiles.

Rixas' eyes are completely blown out. He's laughing and crying, so elated to be strangling his little brother.

Gohan claws at the arm holding him.

"R-Ri…Rix…"

He kicks out. The beast doesn't move.

Gohan feels like his eyes are going to burst. Desperate, he looks around for salvation. An idea strikes before midnight does, yet it's hard on him, his body flails, it's betraying his will. Somehow, Gohan resolves himself in calling upon his ki. He can't manifest anything – not in this state – but he does his fucking best with what he's got.

Shakily, having crossed, his hands slowly but surely propel the gift from Quell; Gohan's precious Bone Blister Blast. It surges into the hills of sand piled behind Rixas and sets the sand alight. Orange illuminates and throbs, and gurgles yellow and red, so very quickly evolving into something new entirely. The sand around Rixas is no exception. It pools around his shins, turning into liquid fire.

The jumpsuit and boots are annihilated instantly. The skin is next.

Rixas' gleeful expression dies so fast that it's cartoonish. He screams, launching upwards, releasing Gohan and embosoming the agony that drives up his legs. The Z Sword carves a clean lean free of Rixas' hand as it journeys away. Gohan pulls it, stumbling to his feet at a safer distance. The breath next taken is the sweetest yet for Gohan. He coughs, it all being too much.

As Gohan turns back to the orb, the skies pause in its vibrancy. The lightshow courtesy of the gods riding the hemisphere stagnate. Rixas' screams fill the void.

"W-What… the?"

Gingerly, Gohan raises his fingers.

It's raining again. Gohan had experienced the shower earlier but this rain… it's gold. Thousands of droplets fall – beautifully like floating diamonds – to the ground; so dazzling, so… so charged.

Suddenly, it's less beautiful. Gohan realizes what's to come.

"Take cover!" he bellows, in Common for all to hear. "HIDE!"

Yet, he can only see Rixas.

Where is everyone?!

His arms raise and he tries his best to call forth a barrier of his own, but his defence techniques aren't as strong as his offensive, and will most certainly not be sturdy enough against Quell's valour. The shield's dismal smoky grey grows at a snail's pace, stopping and starting, testing Gohan's energy reserves as it suffers palpitations. He groans, urging his body to do better.

"Arghhh!"

Gohan ignores the ripping of his joints, the ache of his body; he forces the energy out.

The shield picks up stride, finally expanding into a half dome. It grows bigger and bigger until the entire square is sheltered, and even beyond that just in case the others are hiding. It's not a moment too soon. Gold glitter continues to fall until it's not gold glitter at all. Violent, unhinged spheres of energy soon plummet; they rain with urgency, battering Gohan's shield and detonating into awful – albeit brilliant – explosions of royal might.

He moans under the weight, sweating. His core is once again letting him down. Electric agony shoots along his nerves. His eyes, which had been pressed in concentration, momentarily open to Rixas before him, of who watches in empty fascination. Gohan wishes his mask was off in this moment so his brother could see his pain. He wants Rixas to see what the fuck he's done!

"ARGHHH!"

It's the heat of a hundred suns, and more – God, it feels like so much more. Where is everyone? Are they safe? Are they hiding?

"R-Rixas," Gohan breathes, "Please."

He needs Rixas to wake the fuck up. Gohan doesn't want to fight him, not anymore. He's done. For God's sake, he's done being mad at him. Fuck everything else. Gohan wants his brother to stop being a psycho.

There's a scrape, like nails to a chalkboard. Gohan's chest hollows at the sight of his brother's slow but precise movements. That great sword drags across what little tiles remain, before then lifting, shaky and threatening high above Gohan's head.

"For f-fuck's sake… Rixas."

Empty eyed, the gold twinkles almost prettily in tune with the gold pouring from the sky. It's a sick visage. Blood, dried and new, frames the mania.

Gohan can't even defend. If he drops this shield then the others are as good as dead.

Goddamn it…

He squeezes his eyes shut and prepares himself for the strike.

Nothing happens.

And so, Gohan, one eye at a time, allows for the world to remerge; it's still as dismal as remembered. Rixas is however different; the vacancy that had been there is replaced with something new, something not yet seen… fear.

"I… I…" the beast rasps. "R-R… Roarg?"

So sharp that the shield flickers angrily, Gohan turns and his fear is confirmed. "G-Get away!" he chokes, "I TOLD YOU!"

She's more battered than before. Whoever she's been managing has definitely been more than a handful. Her limp carries her closer and Gohan wants to smack her until the sense returns.

"He's not right!" he cries, shirking under the weight. "R-Roarg!"

Her hair is strewn from her braid, half of it sticking to the smattered blood along her neck and cheeks. She's as filthy as them, as tired as them.

Why isn't she listening?!

"My lord," she says, still fucking approaching. "Remember who you are, please. You must. Remember… that this isn't right, that what we serve is beyond our mistakes here."

Rixas whines. The blade rattles.

"P-Please," Gohan whispers, "Not her, Rixas. Please not her."

"Whatever darkness has taken you, I know the truth of your character persists within." Roarg is close enough that she's able to handle the steel. Bare hands push back against it. "You are a good man."

Rixas flinches. Doubt clouds gold.

"I… have never claimed to be g-good," he tells her.

Gohan dares to hope. "…Rixas?"

As quick as hope appears, it's taken; there's a thrust of magic sent upon Rixas for his misgivings, sending him into a fit of writhing anguish. He wails. The sword swings violently and Roarg barely moves in time.

"I… I don't want this!" Rixas cries, "Get out of my HEAD!"

"Fight it!" Gohan roars.

The sword clatters and Rixas swallows himself up, cradling his head as he screams. The torrent of golden ki pelts hard against Gohan's shield. The hush of the demonic rain entwines with Rixas' shrieking; it's all too much. Gohan can barely breathe.

"Lord Rixas!" Roarg bellows. Gohan actually pulls a hand down from the shield to snatch onto her arm. She flails, trying to pull free. "Get UP!"

Gohan's shield turns the tide of collapsing. He has to let her go.

When he does, the sun itself seems to fall. Gold burns so bright that Gohan's eyes instantly water. Tears pour, chiselling lines down and through soiled cheeks.

Shit!

His barrier is consumed by the eclipsing shine. Beside him, a familiar cackle rides the chaos. The deranged laugh grows ever louder as the heat singes all, even as he, too, blisters indiscriminately.

Gohan's smoke dies. The shield is ash.

There's a wail of suffering. He sees it just as the light touches the stone of the earth, a pair of silhouettes. No. NO! What connects them is the great sword. It extends into the bowels of her gut, carving up and washing Gohan in the sweltering wetness. Rixas looks so happy he might be sick.

"NOOO!"

BOOOOM!

Catastrophic energy erupts.

The last thing Gohan sees is Roarg's listless head flattening against her shoulder, eyes shocked. Empty. What's left must have now cooked and sizzled into nothing. The shield is down. They're directly in the line of fire. Gold blazes into ivory and Quell's destruction sweeps all those unworthy.

It's like being boiled.

Gohan bites through his lip, swallowing a scream. Tears bulge in his throat. Roarg. Roarg. Roarg…!

He preserves himself best he can. A pathetic version of the shield previously emerges, protecting him like a blanket. It can't end like this!

Rixas laughs and laughs. He laughs so much that he starts crying.

Soon enough, the light goes out.

---

The orb is destroyed.

Gohan can only hear the whine of his ears. He looks around, head moving in slow motion. It's as if mines had detonated in his ears. There's slow motion around him. Kais, Gohan realizes, scramble like the ants they are – no, like the roaches they are. How are they still alive? How dare they still be alive?

He stands, dragging his limbs. They're stone.

His Z Sword lays only a few feet away. He sluggishly collects it.

Dust fogs what's left of the square now. The dark energy that holds this planet together must really have a backbone because the shithole still stands.

A cough leaves him, wet.

Still, he walks through the haze, growing ever closer to the kais. The barrier is gone now. It's time for them to die.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap…

Boots hit the surface in approach.

Rixas somehow still stands. The 'M' engraved into his head is fainter now, yet it's still there. It still mars him. At least he's no longer holding his sword, he's in fact barely holding himself. His rags scarcely cover his modesty; the jumpsuit is ruined. Rixas, too, looks ruined.

"I…I…" The madness now only lies in haunting. Scratches perpetuate downwards along his skin – new ones – as his eyes suffer as swollen puffs. He's crying. "I… Mori… I… I'm s-sor…"

"Move," Gohan orders.

Rixas doesn't.

So Gohan makes him. He vanishes, reappearing with alacrity just behind. Gohan slashes with the Z Sword, cutting the nerves at the back of Rixas' legs.

Rixas buckles, groaning, sobbing.

Gohan can't even look at him.

His attention shifts back to the kais. These are the pathetic worms that escaped justice when Gohan had originally committed pest control on the Council. Amidst the rubble, some struggle to keep themselves alert, Gohan suspects a few may already be dead. They're the lucky ones.

With hatred burning in his veins, Gohan jumps to action. He lunges with the sword – with the kai relic that sentences those of kai blood to Oblivion, and puts it to use. The first screams. The second cries. The third begs.

They all bleed, they all end up the same way.

I'll kill you all.

Gohan is cold. Something has snapped.

He murders the last, horrifically making him swallow the blade. Before the Z Sword arises, Gohan feels his body automatically turn, responding on instinct. He ducks away from the oncoming fist, leaning back before then kicking the attacker from whence they came.

From ice to fire, rage suddenly floods Gohan. He throws the sword aside.

"I told YOU!" Gohan roars, thundering over to where his father skids along the dirt. "I told you to STAY OUT OF IT!"

His father has also taken a nasty hit from Quell's barrage of rain. He's in a state. Burns redden the skin – though, some of that's likely from the earlier Bone Blister Blast – and dark patches of skin contrast newly formed wounds. His gi is a mess. The orange vest is completely gone, only leaving the tatters of the blue undershirt to match his single remaining wristband.

If his sluggish dodging is anything to go by, he's tired. Gohan strikes the piles of rocks where he just was, but only marginally so.

"You STUBBORN FOOL!"

"What?"

Gohan realizes from the look of confusion that he must be shouting in Lanit-Tongue. The stupidity of it angers him more. He growls, lashing out, sending a streak of energy in a tight line coursing, splitting rocks evenly as it voyages in reach of his father. Dad does the expected. Instead of blocking, he jumps left, but by doing so he lands into Gohan's right hook. He takes the hit well, shifting to return the favour. Gohan is still faster. For years, Gohan has been faster. Gohan parries and strikes back with thrice the strength.

"What are you trying to ACHIEVE?" Gohan demands of him, in Common this time. "Why are you so intent in involving yourself where you don't belong? Why can't you let things GO?!"

"W-What do you mean?"

"How many times do people need to spell it out for you?!"

Gohan collects the man off the floor and punches him again. The strike is so intense that it propels his father through the rubble, casting him down the stairs he'd earlier walked and sending him tumbling. Floor after floor is travelled until finally they crash through stained glass.

It shatters colourfully. Green, red and blue drizzle from the ceiling, sprinkling them.

They're in a church. Between the aisles, Gohan has his father pinned as painted golden eyes watch Gohan's fury bubble. The irony is nauseating – they're in a fucking church.

When his father retreats back against the marble, Gohan realizes how sloppy the footwork truly is. He pays the lesson forward; the one from Rixas, years prior. Gohan feints left, encouraging his father to advance – it's here that he strikes, planting his foot down and crunching the shin beneath.

There's a cry, yet it doesn't satisfy Gohan enough.

He wants more.

The haze of rage still blinds him. Gohan wants to be sick. He wants to hurt – he wants to tear out the throat of any one person who has wronged him today. For Roarg… For Rixas. God, for fucking Rixas. How the hell will his brother even live with himself?

In his grip, his father hacks up sticky red. The Super Saiyan God transformation bleeds away; the useless fucking thing it was. Gold takes its place and that angers Gohan even more.

A roar rips from his throat and he pummels the man into the ground.

There isn't enough kais to kill for what they've done. Roarg was good! She was brilliant and kind and… and good! They think Rixas a monster? He bets they do. Oh, they can wait. Wait until they see what Gohan can unleash. He doesn't need the power of Majin to devolve into something wretched. He'd long ago accepted his villainy.

Gohan smoothers his father in the unearthed dirt from the fall. His throat constricts as he does and tears slops into a misshapen mouth. Does his father still think that Gohan won't kill him, does he think that –?

It's quiet… but… Gohan hears it.

"Ka… me… ha… me…"

How dare you.

"Ha—!"

Gohan catches the blue like a tennis ball, forcing it straight back down.

There's a burst of dirt, the sphere popping blue and murky grey. The blast isn't at all strong. The winds that follow are simple breezes compared to what they've seen today. For what – for what instance did Goku Son truly think that he would be able to compete with those of divinity?! Has all this really been worth it for him – for Goten, who's not here, for Gohan, who he should have let go years ago, for everyone else that exists outside the man's fruitless desires?!

Gohan breathes, having forgotten the sensation.

His father splutters. The smoke from the failed attack chokes him and he coughs, reaching around to spit bile into the rubble.

"Y-Y-You killed… them… all," his father finally says. "Yet… me… you… Goten, he too…"

The sneer splits Gohan' face, his retort is on the tip of his lips, only for it to be stolen. A pinprick of ki darts into his back, shredding at the already tested fabric; it stings, barely, but it's enough to momentarily drive his attention elsewhere.

Piccolo stands opposite. His pointing and index fingers are still raised in Gohan's direction.

Below, his father gasps. "P-Piccolo…?"

Piccolo is in marginally better condition than his father, yet he still struggles to stand, stinking of cooked flesh and concrete dust.

What does he think can do, really?

"I thought you would know better," Gohan continues before then turning back to his father, "Then to follow him into this madness."

"Tell us… Please…" Piccolo actually responds. "Goten; you have him with you in the Realm of the Almighty… because he knows too much, right? Is that true, Lord M—"

"Don't you call me that!"

There's a break in noise; silence falls, yet it's so easily disrupted when a whir of movement befalls the situation. Circles of ki take flight in Gohan's direction. They're hardly menacing. They explode into lime green fireworks as Gohan cuts through each of them like butter. Through the explosions, a blur emerges. Behind, Brutil, looking like death warmed up, bares a toothless, manic sneer.

"You BASTARD!" he yells, aiming true. Gohan captures the fist, cracking the knuckles instantly. The fingers pop and he squawks.

Dad knows Gohan's next move before even he does. "Brutil, MOVE!"

Fast, Gohan thrusts the kai back, driving him into the crumbled stonework, foot to chest. His hand reaches out. It tastes air, waiting patiently until the Z Sword returns to it.

"BRUT—!"

But it's too late. Gohan slices the bastard's gullet. Blood gushes and Gohan watches the light drain.

His father tries to get up – but to what? Oppose Gohan? The thought of it, after all this shit, has him spiral. He punches his father back down, swinging, one after the other.

His father finally fades from Super Saiyan into neutrality, gasping. "I… Gohan…! For… him… I need—!"

"You need to what?" Gohan chokes out. Before he has time to stop himself, he waves a hand over his mask, turning it to smoke. "WHAT? Tell me!"

The body below stills, eyes bulge.

"SAY IT!"

"W-Wha… G-Goh—?!"

Gohan shakes him. Is his father hurt by the revelation? Good. Where he'd once wanted to spare his father's feelings, he now wants nothing less than for the man to pay for the emotional labour he's put Gohan through. Gohan had tried to help him – he'd tried to help all of them!

Gohan punches him again, in the gut. "You selfish idiot!"

His father wheezes. Spittle and blood soars.

"Look at your mess," he hisses, "All you had to do was stay on Earth, be a good father, a good husband, a good protector of the people there, yet you couldn't even do that – you had to play the hero and chase the power you so desperately have sought after for years! I left you in a good position. I helped you. I had patience for your terrible decisions. And what do you do with all that? You throw it away for a moment of petty vengeance – at the cost of your other son! Goten, do you remember him? Do you remember how you let him so easily fall into the clutches of the unknown?"

Gohan pants. He shakes. Goten's pain, his pain, Rixas', Roarg's… Roarg…

He cries out, pushing his father deeper. "MAJIN MAGIC?! ARE YOU DERANGED?"

"Go…han?"

His father looks so confused. Dazed. He's hurting like a stupid little boy who doesn't understand anything.

"Do you even know what you DID, what you assisted with?!" Gohan feels his chest deflate. "Y-You—"

"Gohan…?"

He freezes.

"Y-You're hurting him." Piccolo stands only a few inches away, just above. He's pale. His arm is shaking despite the daring hand that curls around Gohan's shoulder. When Gohan tugs, Piccolo doesn't relinquish his grasp. "At this rate, you'll kill him."

Gohan jerks back, scorned. "Don't touch me."

"Please."

He drops his father, launching backwards; suddenly, it'd been too hot to handle. Breaths stagger. He wants to swallow himself up. He wants to shout until hoarse. He wants to… to—!

He shoots a white blast. It strikes the podium atop the aisles, catching light and scorching the rotten wood there. It crackles and creaks. Wood snaps, embers fly. Gohan breathes – or at least, he tries. It feels as if his lungs are being compressed, like they're being squeezed with all the resentment in the world.

His father watches with wide, red-dyed eyes, his own chest heaving.

"W-What? Gohan?"

Gohan snarls like the creature he's become. The fire rips at the podium and then the pews, spreading unnaturally fast; he takes transient satisfaction in its fury, in the red glow that swallows the paintings along the walls. Gold bleeds.

"Y-You," Gohan manages. It's hard. He tries to measure himself. "You… argh!"

"Gohan?" his father croaks. "It-It's you, right?"

"Wait, Goku. Look. His eyes."

At once, the situation dawns – there's little time for regret, there's not enough space in Gohan's chest for it. A hurricane brews there.

"What the hell is going on?" Piccolo breathes. "What is all this? Why do your eyes…?" He trails off. "Are you even him? You have his face, yet the Gohan Son I know would never have committed such atrocities!"

"Fuck you!" Gohan bites back, "Don't talk as if you know me. You know nothing about me!"

He balks. "I… this isn't right. Are you even…? This isn't possible."

Gohan's mind powers fast, his mouth faster. "Y-You think you get to say what's right or not? You conspired to use dark magic to control someone for your own ways. You saw what it did to Vegeta, yet you still harnessed it against us!"

"…No. No. This is impossible. I don't understand. How are you here?"

"Gohan…" his father croaks. "What h-happened? Where have you—?"

"No, Goku… this power. This isn't Gohan's." The namekian looks about ready to be sick. "You're… Maybe you're not him at all. Maybe you're simply parodying Gohan Son's memory, or you're using his image for Revelation, or preying upon Goku's obsession."

At the mention of Revelation, his stomach twists. "Is it so—?"

"G-Gohan." Horrified, Gohan sees his father's hand encircle his wrist. "It's you… It is." he breathes unsteadily, probably concussed. "You're here."

He snatches his hand free, burned.

"Stop this idiocy," he hisses, "You've finally found me. Are you happy? Does this scratch your itch? Can you now leave well enough alone? Now, that you've… you've…"

He sees it. He recalls her burning, cindering to nothing with eyes empty.

Gohan flares. His aura reaches to the sky. Tears loom and so he casts his mask up to hide them.

Quell – where's his fucking brother? He needs him here; he needs the dragon ball so they can go.

"Be gone," Gohan orders, "Leave now. I can't look at either of you. I… I—"

I don't know what I'll do if you don't.

The fire crunches the church greedily, its flames molten shadows casting up to the roof. The remaining stained-glass pops, the smoke predatory in its circling. Warm and dark dance. They flicker in a waltz, casting an ominous glow throughout the church and bathing them all dirty.

"You killed B-Brutil," Dad then rattles, somehow finding the will to stand. He's weak, so much so; his legs shattered and twitching from the strain. "And the other kais, them too. G-Gohan, what's going on? Why? You…?"

The memory from last night floods in, unwelcome.

"I warned all of you," he'd let out at Goten, just last night. He'd been equally as horrified. "And now you've made it so much harder. I didn't want you to know."

"You killed people."

"And I'll kill more."

He'll kill, and kill and kill – it's fine, Gohan will do it with a fucking smile on his face, killing every kai involved for what they did today, for Rixas, for Roarg – for Revelation.

"Gohan—?"

"You all couldn't leave well enough alone! I told you all to stay out of this. I warned you on Earth."

"On Earth… You've known… all along…" Piccolo realizes, "It is you. You—"

Bitter, Gohan surprises himself with a bark of laughter. "Don't do a disservice to yourself. How would you have known? I haven't existed to you for years."

"You died!"

"Yes, I did! I'd died and then was hauled back. Yet even before you'd all forced me back, you – Piccolo – had thrown me away the moment I hadn't suited your morals. Isn't that correct"

"Because I thought you'd…"

"What?" Gohan seethes. "Go on. Say it. 'Committed suicide', right? That's the question of the day, isn't it? Did I? Didn't I? That's my value!"

"Did you?"

"It doesn't fucking matter!"

"Take off the mask, Gohan," his father says.

They don't get to tell him what to do, not anymore. None of them do. Gohan calls for the Z Sword and she comes, gliding into his outstretched hand loyally. It's smattered in blood now. Gohan doesn't shirk that. He wants them to see. This is because of them – because of the people they chose to help in disregard for the safety of Earth. He slips the sword into the baldric as a trophy.

"This is the last time I tell you," Gohan says, dark, "Do not involve yourselves further. This is has nothing to do with you. It is dangerous. It is divine. It is not to be heeded by mortals who shouldn't have left their planet in spite of the warnings received!"

"Take it off," his father repeats, sterner. "This… isn't you."

He slips and Piccolo rushes forward. Gohan moves not an inch, sneering. "This is the 'me' I tried sparing you."

"W-What's happened to you? What did they do to you?"

Goten had assumed the same thing, like someone could not change or grow over the years.

"What did I do?" he seethes, "You're the ones who forced my hand—"

"Rixas killed you," his father says, fast, "He had to be stop—"

Gohan throws his hands. "He destroyed the vessel that meddling angel had creased me into! Rixas discovered me on Earth because of your interfering between the kais and gods. By doing opposite of what I asked back then, you stuck a target on my back!"

"You went to the meetings," Piccolo interjects. "You knew everything and said nothing!"

"I made sure you didn't get yourselves killed!"

"Gohan, your mask—"

"You have no idea the depths this runs," he continues, "By assisting the Supreme Kai, you're endangering more than just your lives – you're threatening your salvation, the mortal experience – you're making enemies of indescribable magnitude!"

"What?" His father is the picture of perplexed dizziness. "What are you even saying?"

There's a sound of comprehension. "So you're the reason the Zealites never truly hurt us, or why Lord Rixas was never able to finish off your father last time." Gohan doesn't know Piccolo's angle with this. He hardens, holding the Z Sword by the hilt for strength. "You're the one who's been protecting us."

Gohan chin tilts high, turning on his heel. He can't stay here any longer.

"What are you doing, Gohan?" questions his father, "I don't understand what this is for. Why are you helping them? What did they do to you – your eyes, why are they like that? Gohan! W-Where are you—?"

"What's this all even about?" Piccolo drills. "Why do you care about Revelation? N-No, Goku, stop— !"

Somehow, his father musters up the strength to chase. He dares snatch up Gohan's shirt, graceless and chaotic in his step. His face is torn. It's pink and blotchy and bloody; his expression anguished. He pants. "W-What did… did they do to you? Take off the mask!"

Finally, he does, to drive the message home.

"I will give you back Goten," Gohan says as calmly as he is able. His father's eyes connect with his, widening. "When I do, you stop. Stop this madness, stop interfering with kai business, stop chasing power; stop chasing me. You've found your truth and it's ugly. So now it's time for you to do something for someone other than yourself… It's time for you to be a fucking father." Gohan takes the man's arm. He clenches it. "And I don't mean to me."

There's a snap and his father goes down with it, groaning.

"I am Mori of Revelation," he says just above a whisper, "And your actions today caused the murder of one of my people. As you've already seen, I'm not above stripping anyone of life, and normally, you would already be dead for what you did."

Gohan takes the Z Sword and nudges his father's cheek to look up. He'd wanted this. He'd wanted to look at Gohan's eyes. He can fucking look.

"He's never seen me, either!"

He's seeing something now. Pain pools in the expression.

"I'm giving you this. Go home." Gohan spares Piccolo a glance. "We're done."

"G-Gohan, wait—"

Gohan retreats the sword, shifting away, his chest icy cold. He hears Piccolo hush his father, yet even if his father had been begging for him, crying even, Gohan feels that he has managed to steel himself against it. Nothing can chisel the hardness. There's nothing there for them anyway. He's hollow.

By the time he's climbed the stairs and made his way back to the top, Rixas is not alone. Quell is finally with them. He's ravaged but not nearly in as bad as a state as his brothers; blood trails down purpling arms, intermittent with the peeled flesh likely born from that apocalyptic golden rain, yet, by praise of the Almighty, he's so very well considering.

Gohan however doesn't react to him, or the dragon ball in his grasp. He simply drags his ever exhausted body onwards, collapsing onto his knees next to Rixas' sprawled state. Blood has since circled him. It's vibrant against all else.

"M-Mori," Rixas hoarsely manages. He's such a mess. His body is ruined. More painful yet, tears cascade and the grimy, beaten face puckers with wet garble that can barely be understood. "I'm… s-so… Mori, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry. Mori—"

Gohan rests his forehead on his brother's chest.

"M-Mori," Rixas says over and over. "I… I… she's – because of me – she's…"

"Not you," Gohan murmurs, knowing it'll never be enough.

"She t-tried—"

"I'm sorry." Gohan presses in deeper. He'd be crying too if he hadn't already run out of tears, his throat hurts enough for it. "For everything, I'm sorry. I've not been good enough to you. Please don't let this be on your shoulders alone, brother."

Rixas whimpers, swearing. A trail of sobs follow.

Quell softly speaks; "Mori, where is your mask?"

"I don't need it anymore."

"Ah."

Tightening his hold on Rixas, he curls his hands in tattered fabric, feeling each jutting hiccough of his brother's agony. "It's done."

After everything, all feels deathly quiet.

---

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Goten startles when the bathroom door clicks shut.

There'd been light, so very briefly he'd seen it, before it'd flickered lifeless. Covers rustle and the heavy duvet he'd been submerged under welcomes the brief breeze of chill.

"G'han?" he murmurs.

He's been waiting all day for him. Where's he been? Why had he left without saying anything? He's been stuck in here all day, mostly alone. After their argument last night, he'd been scared that Gohan wouldn't be coming back at all. The fear fades as brother shuffles beside him. Where it'd once felt cool a surge of warmth fills the space, there's the heat of a fresh shower.

"Go back to sleep," Gohan whispers, faintly smell of mint and soap.

Goten hums. He turns over, the pillow already absorbing him in. "Mmm… fine. Don't leave me tomorrow. Don't..."

"Okay."

The acquainted feeling of fingers running through hair is most welcome. Goten submits to it, his earlier frustration melting into the easy forgiveness of lethargy. There's a sweep of relief. The familiarity is enough for Goten to hope for the return of his brother's usual self. He's still there.

"I love you," Gohan mumbles.

"You too."

"Goodnight."

"'Night."

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I'll answer some questions in reference to this chapter that a few may have:

Gohan V Rixas: Who's stronger, then?
Gohan handled Majin Rixas best he could and didn't die. That says a lot for his strength. It was his know-how in battle that aided him most, however, as it's not always about "strength" but about how this strength is used.

Beerus V Quell: Same Q.
Quell. Though, it wasn't an easy fight for him. We didn't see a lot of it because of Quell's quick thinking to get away from Old Planet Geo.

Where are Eyrelle, Byleath and Vegeta?
More next chapter. According to my notes, we'll directly continue with a Goku POV from where we left him.

SSJG Goku still lost?
Goku still hasn't learned that power doesn't equate victory. Despite being so much stronger, Byleath still got a nasty swipe on him at the end - so maybe that'll encourage a new train of thought. Only when Goku used his brain in battle did the tide turn in his favour. The main kicker unfortunately was Quell's mammoth energy attack at the end, which he didn't manage to entirely avoid.

What was Quell's attack?
The golden ki raining down was the symptom of an attack he used to defeat Beerus. Gohan had realized what it was because of their training together. Speaking of which, the Bone Blister Blast was first seen used by Quell in Chapter 15.

Is Roarg actually dead?
Aye. Her soul won't go to Otherworld either. It will ascend to the Almighty like all of the Almighty's children. It's unknown and beyond Otherworld's reach. RIP, girl.

Gohan is the God of Death?
The Gods of Revelation are based (as many have guessed) on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They bring upon the end as we all know; they bring, ultimately, death. In many ways, Death is so often read as change, and that's the angle I've taken in writing their purpose. "Death" also represents Gohan's personal character shift as well – his metamorphous is not only physical in the way of reincarnation, but also by the nature of his role as the God of Death.

As for the others, Rixas represents humanity most in his person and so suits his role as the God of War. War is intense, dangerous, beastly and yet so human. Some of the most hopeful and positive moments come from dark times – Rixas represents the highs and lows of this human experience. Quell is the God of Conquest. He's the most straightforward. He's the leader, the white horse; he shines and domineers. Truly, Quell is the face of the collective. Lastly, Famis was the God of Famine. It's as it says on the tin. Famis brought the Majin disease into the world and let the poison spread. That's not to say he was a bad person, it's just, well, he wasn't likeable, not in how Rixas and Mori are/were. He lived for his craft.

Other notes
I've been waiting God knows how many chapters for Gohan to break Goku's foot. Rixas did it to him very early in the story and I've known since then that Gohan would do the same to Goku. He's come to learn that his father's teachings aren't always perfect.

Most of the last month was of me agonizing over having to write this chapter – the last week was me solidly writing the fucker. Because it has one of the biggest moments in the story (most definitely the one most have been waiting for) I'd been plotting and re-plotting over and over to get it to where I'd wanted. I hope the finished piece was a fulfilling read!

Here I want to give a massive, massive thanks to Kags as always. She beta'd this chapter really fast considering the length. She's honestly so fucking great, AND she pushed me to not split this chapter, which I very nearly did. So you've got her to thank for the short novel!

If you haven't yet reviewed and you're enjoying the story, please let me know as much. This chapter has been personally victimizing me for too damn long and a quick review would sooth my woes. We've finally hit this mark – there's no going back now!

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, PM'd faved and followed. See you on C38.