Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
From the moment he had agreed to leave his home and work with the Supreme Kai of Time in preserving the main timeline and those that branched off it, Trunks knew there was no margin for error. Long ago, he and his mother had set out to change the future and succeeded, but aside from unleashing Cell, they never would have dreamed of what their work would have wrought:
Untold timelines erased for good. Entire worlds ended. Countless lives not only ceased, but were as if they had never existed to begin with.
To this day, Trunks was still haunted by seeing a world like his, but where he and Gohan had actually succeeded in stopping the Androids together, vanishing away to his counterpart's horror. Even knowing there were timelines erased where they were just as bad, if not worse off, the fact that worlds where the opposite was the case, perhaps nearly utopian, shared the same fate made it a sin for which he could not forgive himself.
And now even having helped create the Time Patrol, inadvertently saving the life of the daughter of his mentor from another timeline when he wished for a warrior to aid him, and after all her successes from training with him and others, Trunks was met with failure. The mission: ensure Piccolo fused with Nail before the latter passed away, just as it had been in history.
"We weren't fast enough..."
Lord Slug had preoccupied Piccolo and even with Pan helping to fend off the attacker, Piccolo had become increasingly suspicious of her and her reasons for helping them, further delaying them with an interrogation about who or what was behind Pan's actions. By the time he was ready to join with Nail in fusion, thus saving the warrior Namekian's life...
"Too much time passed. His fatal wounds took their toll."
"Pan's on Earth, Trunks!"
He heard Chronoa's voice over his comms.
"At the Lookout! Lord Slug's taken hold of her and she's not responding!"
Even as he absorbed Pan's current status, Trunks was left to try making words in his head in regards to what had just happened.
"Now have Piccolo and Nail...?!"
"Nail's dead."
Upon hearing Chronoa's shocked gasp, Trunks practically buried his helmeted face into the ground.
"Nail's dead and I'll be gone soon. So will Pan and who knows how much of the Time Patrol."
He could feel tears coming down from his eyes to his helmet's visor, sliding down to the rest of his face.
"I should've jumped out and done something. Made Piccolo... but he wouldn't have listened to me anyway."
As Trunks remained prone, what looked to be a figure in a brown cloak with an almost comically large hood slowly passed Trunks on his left with raised hands together and concealed by robed sleeves.
"Goodness me. This doesn't look right."
Trunks was not only unaware of the man's footsteps, but didn't even hear this man speaking aloud. Slowly, but surely, the figure proceeded onward to Nail.
"Oh, this doesn't look right at all. No siree."
Despite kneeling down on the other side of Nail directly in view of Piccolo, it was as if he were completely invisible to the Namekian. That and Piccolo was preoccupied with keeping his hand down on Nail, hoping in vain even with his death, they would fuse together.
"Here's the problem: it isn't nearly your time yet. Why, you're still quite the young feller."
If Piccolo had looked up from where he knelt, he would've gotten a look at the man's face under the hood. Instead, he looked away, still shy of taking his hand off Nail, contemplating both the Namekian's death and the fact he would be facing Frieza as he was now, his own demise an absolute certainty.
The man, meanwhile, took his arms apart, the slightest bit of a white and orange uniform becoming visible, and placed his hand, escaping the brown coat's sleeve, over the deceased Namekian's chest. A pure white glow left from his fingers and soon covered Nail's body entirely.
"Another time, I will not be permitted to do this. Only this one time in this one instance."
Once the glow over Nail concluded, the man stood back up and put his hands together once more.
"Now it is all up to you. Do what you have to... for all our sakes."
Trunks, unaware of all of this, lifted himself up just enough to look into the distance as he contemplated his mortality and that of the others.
'"How do we tell them, Supreme Kai of Time? Tell them that they're not long for the..."
He then heard an especially loud gasp of air coming from...
"NAIL?!"
...followed by coughs as Nail managed to lift his right arm enough to cover them with the back of his hand.
"But he was dead! Nail had passed on! And Piccolo can't heal with a touch like Dende... let alone bring someone back from the dead!"
"Now I don't know what brought Nail back, but I have a feeling this won't happen a second time. We can't afford for them to delay their fusion any further."
"You make sure Pan's okay and I'll make sure these two fuse this time. As soon as she responds to you..."
"I'm on it right now, Trunks."
From there, he watched the two Namekians from the corner of his cover, more than ready to hide if he had to, but their attention was nowhere near him.
"You're alive..."
Even with their time together being brief, Piccolo's otherwise unsmiling face still communicated something like relief.
"You... concerned for me?"
"With you gone, I'd have been the last Namekian..."
"...beside your other half."
"How did you...? Well he fancies himself a god anyway."
Trunks, hearing them getting caught in conversation, tried to keep still, but was getting impatient.
"They're all waiting on you! Just FUSE ALREADY!"
"But here, there's... another Namekian alive. He's with... the Earthlings."
Having been reminded by Nail why he was there to begin with, Piccolo finally placed his hand back down towards him.
"That's right. I'm in a hurry."
"Just be sure... to defeat Frieza."
"I'll do that for myself."
After letting out a small chuckle, Nail had both his hands atop of Piccolo, then closed his eyes. Piccolo saw a white flash around the warrior Namekian's body as he then felt a mass build-up of power surging from his fingertips traveling fast upward.
Sent backward onto his captain's quarters as a result of being taxed by his battle with Lord Slug earlier, Piccolo immediately peered down at Nail to find no sign of him remaining. But then looking back at his arms, he found no sign of his wounds from his combat prior. Not only had he been fully healed, but...
"This... awesome power..."
He grinned pridefully, fully assured he was far more powerful than he was before. Not only capable of defeating his prior opponent, but even the likes of Frieza for reasons he only now just grasped.
Having witnessed and felt Piccolo's fusion and power-up, Trunks could finally start to relax.
"At least the timeline didn't end."
With the Supreme Kai of Time still having not gotten back to him yet regarding Pan, he simply kept out of view as Piccolo retrieved his weighted clothes.
"She told me Pan was at the Lookout... but why would Towa have sent Lord Slug...?"
Once the reason became clear as day to him...
"Kami! If he dies, then Piccolo dies! A plan B in case the fusion wasn't stopped! And with the difference in their power, Pan will have to...!"
A combination of dread and infuriation took hold of him.
"Damn, you're clever! Pan and Piccolo only did so well against him before... and that was with her shoulder...!"
His white gloved hand from his armored disguise squeezed.
"She'll have to give everything to keep Kami safe and defeat him! And Lord Slug didn't look anywhere near fatigued before! Agh, if we had just thought of this before, I could've watched Kami and took Lord Slug apart the moment he stepped foot...!"
His thought was stopped upon catching a projectile firing right through his cover straight for his wrist.
"AGH! Who could've...?!"
The resulting attack hardly harmed him at all, but...
"The device!"
Sparks emerged from the damage done to the watch-like device.
"Of all the luck...! Godda...!"
"I knew you were there."
Trunks couldn't believe who had just attacked him and who was now speaking to him:
"Piccolo... but why?"
"I heard you sniveling earlier. And your ki stuck out like a sore thumb just now."
The newly empowered Namekian slowly walked towards his cover as Trunks saw his disguise start to fade away, beginning with his brown gloves emerging.
"Of all the changes that could occur... if Piccolo sees me..."
He crouched down, ready to fly straight upward as far out of Piccolo's reach as possible, perhaps deep into space if he had to...
...when right as this happened, Piccolo's arm stretched, punching straight through the cover and grabbing hold of Trunks by his neck.
"THIS IS BAD! How can I be botching it this badly?!"
Piccolo pulled him straight through the cover, seeing that this semi-armored man was less injured from having gone through such a layer of rock and more so struggling to do anything.
"If I break free and escape, he'll know something's afoot! If I knock him out, his delay's going to be far greater than it already is!"
His helmet and visor kept his face hidden, but as he looked down at his feet, he saw the bottom of his coat and his white boots giving way for his brown shoes.
"You're not one of Frieza's men, are you? Not in garb like that!"
To Trunks' terror, Piccolo's other hand grabbed a tight hold of the one remaining item keeping his identity a secret.
"Let's see just what you really are..."
"W-WAIT!"
With a greater squeeze, Piccolo's fingers dug straight through it, then crumbled the face of the helmet. And with a tug, nearly the entire front half was torn straight off, revealing to Piccolo a man in his early 20s with purple hair.
Now that he was living one of the worst-case scenarios in real time, Trunks gulped and tried to recompose.
"I'm really without a paddle now."
For what felt like an eternity, Pan felt Lord Slug peeling away at her brain for secrets with small ones escaping from the cracks. Her legs couldn't budge and her hands gripping his wrist seemed just as stuck. Even if turning her head was an option, she didn't know if trying to turn to Kami would even help her.
For now, Pan had to focus on keeping any memories regarding Trunks that involved her father or grandfather out of Lord Slug's reach or risk both Slug and Towa learning of her lineage.
"If Towa learns about my family... even if Kami and I win here, who knows what she'd do to get to me."
So far, Lord Slug had managed to decipher that she and Trunks had discussed Gohan at some point.
"Well that's funny," went the well-garbed villain. "The way this Trunks lad talks about Son Gohan, you'd think the kid was Purple Hair's older brother. Maybe Saiyans... even the half ones... they stay short for much of their life, then boom, they're all grown up one day."
Pan had to try getting Lord Slug's search through her memories regarding Trunks to side-track away from the topic of her father.
"Anything to keep my brain from spilling the beans. Something without talking about my past or family."
She scanned through her memories of all moments with this Trunks, from first speaking to him in the recovery room to him seeing her off for what was supposed to be her mission against Frieza before Lord Slug's interference. Happier memories seeped in as well, one being the two having ice cream after Trunks learned she was Gohan's daughter.
"Let me just say that it is an honor to be training the..."
"The way you talk about m..."
"No! Think of something else!"
Several revolved in her head of Trunks lifting her up when she was down and vise-versa.
"...you will get through this. Not because of your lineage or your bloodline..."
"I know my Gohan's not yo..."
"No, no! Zip it! ZIP IT!"
"Going Super Saiyan isn't what gives you worth. It's you..."
"ZIP IT NOW!"
While she did side-step the Gohan topic slightly, Pan realized that the memory of Trunks nearly gave away her name, as well as something else.
"Oh crap. If Lord Slug heard that just now..."
"Okay, now hold the phone..."
Towa, trying to decipher whatever she could of Lord Slug's ramblings regarding whatever he could learn from Pan's memories, stood in front of the screen with her full attention given to his words while writing her potential findings on a virtual screen to her right.
"Hold the phone? What do you know of her now?"
"Super Saiyan? Her? Now I'm not the nicest fellow amongst the stars and believe me, I look down on all my enemies equally, but... that girl in the orange bandanna... a Super Saiyan? I'm just not seeing it. Figured her for an Earthling at best."
While she had seen absolutely nothing that would suggest Pan could go Super Saiyan, up until this point...
"It never occurred to me that the patroller could be a Saiyan."
"Part, perhaps."
Mira added this and whether it was his intention to try downplaying Pan's strength after their last battle or simply an observation of her power between battles compared to the full-blooded Saiyans was Towa's to guess.
"It would certainly explain her increases in power between our missions. She has almost always managed to..."
"'Almost' being the key word. Her initial outing with the Ginyu Force was where she was outmatched. Even given her recovery from both them and Turles, her boost from both bouts made little difference when she faced the Ginyu Force once more."
"So if she had been a full-blooded Saiyan, Mira..."
"She would have torn through them with total ease just as Vegeta had after his recovery. Thus, she has to be partially, not fully, Saiyan. Half at best."
"A half-Saiyan, much like Trunks..."
In mid-writing, Mira caught Towa dropping her writing utensil and caught it.
"...and Son Gohan."
Mira, as he handed it back to her, was perplexed at first.
"Son Gohan?"
"Trunks seems to bring up Gohan quite a bit when speaking to her. And it's clear he treats her much more than just a mere instrument of the Time Patrol."
"Tell me about it," re-entered Lord Slug. "I mean pretty boy here might as well buy her a rin..."
"Hold it!"
Despite Lord Slug not being able to see her, Towa instinctively put out her hand in front of the screen as if to gesture to him were he in the room with them.
"Perhaps her being half-Saiyan reminds Trunks of Gohan, garnering her such preferential treatment compared to the other patrollers working with him... or..."
Towa put a hand beneath her chin and closed her eyes, trying to put the pieces of this puzzle regarding what, to her, was this mysterious female patroller together.
"...or it's not her Saiyan status that made Trunks think of Gohan in the first place. But what about her would make him equate this patroller with Gohan?"
Still missing that crucial piece that would reveal the patroller's identity to her, Towa decided on a way to find it.
"Lord Slug."
"Yes, my fair blue lady?"
"Focus your attention on Trunks... and Son Gohan. I want to know everything."
Pan was hit by a barrage of memories between her and Trunks, nearly all of them involving talk of her father or the Gohan of his world. She was forced to cut each short the moment she or Trunks was about to mention Gohan being her father, to which another immediately took its place. Try as she could, Pan knew at some point, she would slip up and her secret would be revealed.
"Lord Slug's getting SO CLOSE! One little mistake now... ONE F...!"
"I never told you what happened to my world's Gohan."
To her utmost fortune, she now had a memory running in which Trunks spoke about Gohan and his world at length, giving her a long stretch in which her lineage was not discussed.
"I can keep Lord Slug focused on this for now..."
Not having to strain as much to keep Lord Slug out and instead keeping him pinned to this memory for as long as she needed, she felt two things:
The slightest twitch in both her boots...
"Big toes..."
...and her fingers lifting upward, entirely unknown to her adversary.
"I'm moving again."
But while this was all under Lord Slug's nose so far, she had to remain lowkey with her movements for what she was about to try.
"Uh, this is just flat out torture."
"What's happening, Lord Slug?" Towa inquired.
"This one's stretching for ages. Killer robots killed his best buddy and he feels bad about that. I get it. Find something else to talk about already."
"It was just sheer dumb cosmic luck that I survived and that my mom found me."
"Almost time..."
Pan, turning her gaze slowly as Lord Slug appeared to be scoffing at the memories he was witnessing, got Kami's attention and blinked at him. Once he matched her blink with his own...
"Just one more memory..."
"And now every time I..."
...she cut it off, then cycled back through her memory, this time to one before she was the designated Time Patroller for Chronoa.
"This may get their attention just long enough to pull this off..."
Kami saw Pan's attention seemingly elsewhere, but saw one of her hands gesture three fingers upward...
...then shortly afterward, just two.
"You are a bright one for your age..."
"Ah, finally. A change in scenery. I can almost smell the rain... though she doesn't sound too happy with him. What's with all this drama?"
Towa listened closely, her ear just shy of touching her screen.
"...please, let me explain."
"You summoned me here... and you kept that from me."
"Oh ho, ho. Now this is interesting."
"What? What's interesting?"
"So that patroller... that team she's patrolling for with the pretty boy..."
Towa's impatience grew fierce as her hand struck the screen in a closed fist.
"SPIT it out!"
"She wasn't recruited: she was summoned there..."
Mira heard Towa gasp, as well as saw her eyes widen in the screen's reflection.
"...by him."
Seeing her stumble back, Mira then moved behind her as if to catch her from falling. But Towa kept her arms on the console and then waved off her creation, her shock turned to determined anger.
"What ELSE?!"
"Now let's see here..."
Kami saw Pan's two raised fingers shift to only her index finger. The moment the corner of her eye saw a glow of ki from Kami's hand, she squeezed her hands tighter around Slug's wrist. He felt this and looked over to see Pan's eyes closing and her fingers loosen and slowly slide down his wrists.
"If Pseudo Saiyan's going under, whatever you wanna know about her, I can g..."
His mental comment paused as he heard the sudden sound of ki releasing:
He found an orange sphere of ki coming for him and used his other hand to catch it.
"Good toss."
Kami, having put much of his energy into that orb, was awestruck at seeing Lord Slug winding up that arm with his own projectile like a pitcher without shaking Pan at all. Unknown to the Guardian of Earth, his pause from before during his conversation with Towa wasn't because of Kami's attack.
"Oh, would you look at that. I might have just heard the patroller's name. Let me try again."
And now Kami was almost frozen stiff as this immensely powerful foe was about to throw his attack back at him.
"Now keep your eye on the..."
"Almost got it. Aaand..."
Pan, putting her glowing hands to the sides of his helmet, feeling what she believed to be his ears...
"Get out of my head!"
She fired blasts at point blank, the burning scent making evident the damage dealt to him.
"P... n..."
Towa lost her feed right as Lord Slug was about to reveal her enemy's name, cutting out right in the middle with only a sliver of sound after the fact. She tried filling in the blank, softly speaking aloud...
"Pin..."
"This won't hurt our operation, will it, Towa?" Mira lightly interrupted.
She turned, a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
"There won't be any need for me to supervise him. With the power he possesses and where he is now, he'll be able to do all the damage I could want."
"As for the patroller's fate?"
"It's in Lord Slug's hands now, not ours."
Pan was immediately released, as was Kami's ki orb, Lord Slug putting both his hands over where Pan's blasts had struck, crying out in pain and stepping erratically while hunching back and forth. Kami, stretching his arm, pulled Pan back before his orb touched the ground, detonating and knocking their foe backward, now rolling on the ground.
"It burns! Oh, I can't hear! I can't hear anything! What have you done to me?!"
Pan, grasping her forehead afterward, was still recuperating from what may have been a minute long invasion of her memories, but what felt vastly longer in person. She did catch that the tile floor which the orb exploded upon had not suffered any holes, cracks, or even debris, appearing as if no such attack had touched it in the first place. The only thing out of place were a few tiny bits of the bushes flowing in the wind nearby, meaning the explosion had at least affected that much.
"Other than the plants, this place seems indestructible. Neither Lord Slug nor myself have even put a dent into it."
"Pan, is that you?"
For the first time since Lord Slug had trespassed into her mind, Pan could hear Chronoa clearly on the comms.
"I've said it before, Supreme Kai of Time, but I..."
"I'm so glad you're okay, Pan! Boy were we both worried about you."
"Kami and I might be all wrapped up here, so we can pick up Slug and you can send me back to Namek."
"Speaking of Namek, I'll let him know you're okay and send him back to the library... and you as well."
"Wait, Trunks is on Namek?"
"Right after you left, but just sit tight and I'll be just a moment."
"Enough with the silent treatment!"
Piccolo slammed Trunks straight into the blue-green grass, intent on shoving him even further downward to prevent him from moving.
"Piccolo, I..."
"I've got somewhere to be and I'm in no mood for lies or dodging questions, so you'd better tell me what I want to know now or his hole will be your grave!"
Trunks at first looked away from him, but then felt Piccolo grip him by his cheeks and turned his face towards him.
"Talk... or die."
Trunks' eyes and expression were that of unfiltered uncertainty, which Piccolo read as fear, but for the son of Vegeta...
"If I change history now... and neither of us are born... I am sorry, Pan."
But upon accepting this all-or-nothing situation he was in, he inhaled, then recomposed entirely.
"Here goes..."
"We haven't met yet, Piccolo, but some day, we will."
"What do you mean, 'We haven't met yet'?"
"I'm here in the wrong place and sooner than I should be."
"You make it sound like you're predestined to meet me... yet you specified not here."
"Not predestined, but when the time comes, we meet at the right time and place."
A concept, which at first seemed utterly ludicrous to Piccolo, had him loosen his grip however slightly.
"You mean to say... you're talking about...?!"
"Years from now."
Piccolo didn't let go completely, but did take on a much less aggressive stance as he absorbed what this mysterious purple-haired young man was telling him.
"Tell me who you are exactly and why you're here and I'll let you go."
"I'll tell you this much: I'm counting on you to save Gohan. He means a lot to me."
"How exactly?"
"Gohan was..."
Trunks tried to mind his words to not reveal Gohan's fate by speaking of him in past tense.
"Gohan's my mentor. He's like a brother to me. Taught me everything I know. He grew into a great man."
"A great... a great man?"
"He's not talking about knowing Gohan as a child. If he knew Gohan as a man, then that would mean this purple haired brat is from..."
Piccolo didn't gasp, but his eyes gave away just enough that was shocked at the realization of putting together what Trunks had presented him with.
"You're from the FUTURE?"
"Yes. And it's imperative he survives against Frieza."
The son of Bulma knew this was a tremendous gamble: revealing to Piccolo a glimpse, however narrow, of the future regarding Gohan's survival, at least of their trek on Namek, as well as his own origin further in time. He saw the son of Kami's other half absorbing all of this, as well as contemplating what to do with this information that could potentially change everything about the ensuing battle to come.
"If what he's saying is true, then we... we win this battle against Frieza."
"Just promise me, Piccolo..."
The Namekian heard Trunks not begging, but pleading with him.
"Promise me that you'll protect Gohan... and not to underestimate Frieza... and to speak of this to absolutely no one."
Piccolo had been immensely distrusting of Pan earlier, but this time, he was reacting differently to Trunks in a similar situation. Not only because Trunks gave him much more information, but almost as if...
"Hmph. Perhaps Nail has changed me after all..."
Trunks was let go as Piccolo began to float upward.
"I'll hold up my end of the deal. But I expect you to tell me much more when we meet again."
"Of course. I'll..."
But then it hit Trunks...
"Crapbaskets! I forgot to tell him...!"
"W-wait, before you go...!"
Piccolo saw Trunks flailing his arms frantically to signal for him to stay.
"Be quick with it, boy! You know Gohan and the others need me!"
"Okay, one more thing! When we meet years from now, I won't know about our conversation here. Treat it like meeting me for the first time since it'll be my first time meeting you then."
"But if we've already met now..."
"I'll be years younger then. Like I said earlier, I'm in the wrong place and..."
"And sooner than you should be. I heard you the first time. But if you're older now than you're supposed to be when we meet..."
"I'm from later than when you were supposed to first meet me. As much as I could go over it further..."
"Look, kid, I promise to treat it like meeting a stranger. Since in theory, that had to happen for you to be here in the first place."
"Y-you know about...?"
"What? Think I haven't read any books?"
Piccolo smirked, then took off as fast as he could towards the battle on the other half of Namek. Trunks, gripping his hand and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, lied his head down in relief.
"That means he won't alter history... at least in theory."
"'At least in theory', Trunks?"
He got back to his feet and put his hand to his ear.
"Is Pan...?"
"She's okay. But what's this about something in theory?"
"I'll explain everything, but first, I think we can agree I've been on Namek long enough."
Kami gently placed her onto the ground, where she sat down and let her hands back down.
"I apologize for waiting so long to act. In all my years, I've never encountered such power and I just..."
"It's okay, Kami," Pan allayed. "You were trying to gauge how to deal with the situation, not abandoning me."
Now seeing Lord Slug continually writhing from the loss of his ears, Kami put out his hand as if holding an invisible object in his open palm.
"What are you...?"
"This will contain our foe until such a time as we can decipher his..."
Kami felt someone grip his wrist and saw not only Lord Slug's orange glove and purple sleeve stretched from where he lied, but witnessed and heard long pointed green ears pop out from where Pan had blasted him.
"Gotcha!"
As Kami was pulled towards him at blinding speed, he then saw up close that what he suspected was no longer just a hunch:
Lord Slug had Namekian ears.
"Surprise!"
Pan saw and heard a bottle drop to the ground, then saw Slug's other gloved hand immediately latch itself onto Kami's forehead before the Guardian of Earth could lift his arms.
"Now what surprises do you have for me?"
Pan hadn't seen Lord Slug taking information from anyone in person before and while she knew she could get herself to move and at least keep him out to an extent, Kami looked almost zombie-like with his arms dropping almost immediately, hanging without any sway.
"It's the difference in power... !"
"Kaio-Ken...!"
She immediately moved behind Slug and swung her Power Pole to strike his arm from below.
"...times FOUR!"
Pan then adjusted the angle of her swing for her foe attempting to use Kami as a shield, transitioning to a jab. It struck his armpit, making him stumble backward and let go, but not before trying to grip the Power Pole with his other stretching hand. With a hop, she leapt above him, swept at his feet, landed, then batted him away from the so far idle Kami.
"Kami!"
She put her hands to his chest and neck and could tell he was alive and his ki had not changed, but was in the midst of recovering from what appeared to be a worse experience of Lord Slug's mind reading.
"You were a tough nut to crack, little miss Saiyan..."
Pan knew he had gotten that much from her mind, but Kami actually sat up upon hearing this.
"She is a Saiyan... like Goku and his son."
"It was hard enough getting specifics from beneath that orange bandanna of yours. You, on the other hand, Kami... that took no time at all."
"W-what do you kn...?"
"Don't engage with him, Kami," Pan instructed.
"Oh, I beg your pardon... Miss Pan..."
She couldn't attempt to hide the reaction from Kami. King Piccolo's other half had suspected she had kept her identity, even down to her own name, a secret for a reason.
"...but Kami was asking me something."
But even if Kami was not intent on acting on it and they defeated Lord Slug then and there, she feared what would come if Towa was already given this information.
"Though before you ask, you busted my earpiece before I could give my fair blue lady the hot gossip."
Pan mentally sighed and tried helping Kami back to his feet.
"And speaking of hot gossip... I know just about every dirty secret you've had locked away in your noggin, Kami."
She saw and even felt Kami was even more shaken than she was as Lord Slug took each step forward almost tauntingly slowly.
"You know, for being the Guardian of Earth, you've made a lot of bad calls. I mean you trained warriors for a whole year who couldn't even stop two Saiyan invaders without another Saiyan at their side. You let King Piccolo roam the land... who, by the way, you created by splitting yourself into two halves..."
Pan was aware of Kami being Dende's predecessor, but now absorbed that not only was Kami responsible for Piccolo's father being unleashed, but also...
"...and that means Piccolo is Kami's other half..."
"...and that's without touching on the Dragon Balls you forged before you even got the gig."
Now Kami put out his hand, all the more desperate for Lord Slug to stop.
"No more..."
"You were so cocksure you would pass with flying colors that you made them ahead of time, but you still had issues to work out... and oh boy did you mess something up big time because they had a major design flaw for a 'guardian' of Earth."
A massive secret of Kami's was being laid out in front of Pan and those on her comms.
"Not another word."
"You were so afraid that if they were found, your little dream job would've gone bye-bye. So you hid them under the rug, split yourself, and got what you wanted. And it must've been quite a relief that they went all rocky when all was said and done."
Slug's steps now became menacing.
"But you're most afraid of what will happen if something comes too strong for anyone on Earth to tackle. Too strong for even your star pupil Son Goku. What will happen to those little seven black star balls if the threat is so great you had no choice but to join back up with your other...?"
"NO!"
Kami pulled his cane to him and actually appeared ready to combat him, the difference in power be damned.
"NEVER! It will never come to that! I WON'T allow it!"
"Oh, but after what I read from her mind, I'm not so sure about that."
Kami didn't want to intimidate Pan, but put a hand to her shoulder and shook her.
"What did you tell him?!"
"One of the first things I tried finding out was if she had anything on you. Tactical advantage, you know. But I was surprised to find she had absolutely nothing. Never knew you until recently."
The Guardian of Earth stumbled backward, using his cane to keep him from falling over.
"And she has been to the Lookout before. Just had a different landlord. Another Namekian named Dende as it turns out. And she's known Piccolo since she was a little one."
"Piccolo is only ten years old... and regardless of this woman Pan being a Saiyan or not, it would be impossible for her to know him past that... unless..."
A terrifying eureka that explained Pan's presence before and now took shape in Kami's mind.
"You are not from here and now. You are from..."
"You got that right, Kami. Pan here's from the future. Her future, at least. And if she basically learned all about you just today, that means one of two things: either you two joined after all, reawakening the Black Star Dragon Balls..."
"It can't be...!"
"...or you were dead before she was even born."
"Don't listen to him!" Pan shouted.
"Hey now. It's not like I'm lying. I don't even know myself. Unless, of course, you'd like to share anything. Really clear up the air here."
Pan saw Kami becoming increasingly shaken to his core and knew Trunks and Chronoa had been listening in.
"Towa doesn't know, but Lord Slug knows my name... and with what he took and gave Kami..."
"It's no longer just about protecting Kami," the Supreme Kai of Time began. "Kami has enough fears and doubt about his future to change it."
"So wait, Piccolo and Kami fuse? Did my Piccolo and Kami...?"
"They fused before the Cell Games," Trunks answered. "And if Kami's set on never fusing..."
"Dende's never the Guardian of Earth," Pan added.
"...and threats well beyond Frieza will have a leg up on everyone," Chronoa concluded.
Pan, pulling Kami up by the back of his cape's collar, tried straightening him out into a more combative stance.
"Kami, we've got an immediate threat to Earth right here."
"Oh, no harm ever came from collecting seven balls," Lord Slug taunted. "Not like the Earth won't still be standing... give or take a trip across the stars. I mean, no pressure there."
Kami, his deeds from the past and the threat of his first set of Dragon Balls weighing him down like increased gravity, held onto the top of his cane with both hands to keep himself from crumbling downward.
"I have failed in my duties."
"Kami!" Pan pleaded. "You can't just give up now!"
"All this worrying can't be good for you. Allow me to remedy that."
Pan had to hold a punch from Lord Slug at bay without enough time to shout Kaio-Ken, but even using two hands, it was clear he was toying with her and increasing his might ever so slightly.
"You being here brought the Dragon Balls back! Goku, his son, and Krillin are on Namek now! Piccolo's there to help them!"
Despite Pan's words regarding Piccolo's intended aid...
"He'll turn on them, just as he would've after the Saiyans. He'll fulfill his father's will: dominion over all."
"He's not out to rule the world anymore! Piccolo died...!"
Now Pan was shoved onto her back, being forced away by Lord Slug's left arm stretching as Kami was left perfectly exposed to his right.
"He died saving Gohan!"
Just as Lord Slug's right neared his face, Kami was struck by the revelation:
"He saved the son of his most hated enemy at the cost of his own life... when Piccolo Sr. wouldn't have lifted a finger."
Lord Slug found his punch stopped, then himself sent back a few feet by a pure white explosive wave.
"That was pretty good..."
But now Kami knelt down, having expended much of his energy just to stop that one punch.
"...but now you're all tuckered out. Why don't you lie down?"
"Why don't you?!" Pan shouted.
Lord Slug saw the Power Pole stretching from her position to beneath his legs.
"Kaio-Ken...!"
The first strike to his leg was of some discomfort...
"...Times Four!"
...and the next took him off his feet. Pan then leapt high into the air, Slug's left arm in tow, as she lifted the grounded Lord upward, then flipped in midair with him in tow.
"Now get off this lookout!"
She released him for an immense toss, seeing he was headed past the edge of the lookout.
"I'll take him to go!"
Lord Slug's right arm stretched, managing to grab Kami's ankle. Just as the evil Namekian disappeared from sight, the Guardian of Earth was pulled off his feet at rapid speed without his cane. He tried to reach for anything and ended up taking hold of...
"Is this... the Power Pole?"
Pan saw Lord Slug descending past the Lookout with Kami in tow and his right arm retracting to normal size.
"Shoot, SHOOT, SHOOOT!"
Kami caught from the corner of his eye right beneath the bottom of the Lookout...
"I'm holding it in my hands right now... but that's the Power Pole right there, right where it should be..."
He had to cease his pondering once Lord Slug had him in range, protecting himself with the Power Pole to stop Slug's left hand from reaching his neck. Kami then saw the faintest glow from his adversary's eyes and ducked himself behind the Power Pole. The polearm not only withstood the eye beams, but actually deflected it back to sender.
"Agh, like a squeezed lemon...!"
The blinded Slug was then punched by Pan, trying to free Kami from his clutches. Releasing Kami's leg and the Power Pole, he then clotheslined Pan into Kami with his left, then Kami into her with his right.
"I can still snap you in half!"
Pan felt the Power Pole bump into her, caught it, then struck Lord Slug's nose.
"Kaio-K...!"
Slug then shoved it back into her face, striking her forehead and nose.
"That's enough out of you!"
"Watch out, Pan!" Kami shouted. "We're headed right for...!"
At the speed they were traveling, she saw what looked to be a large black and red blur pushing a smaller white blur aside. Upon closer inspection, Pan could tell this figure had a sheathe and was in a quick draw stance standing atop white railing.
"Korin's place! Yajirobe!"
The man she had not seen since the battle with Vegeta carefully eyed her and Kami to aim for whoever was holding them.
"I gotcha, Kami."
Pan pulled Kami towards her with her left and pulled down Lord Slug's left arm with her right. The evil Namekian, seeing the surprisingly fast sword draw coming for him, tried to grip Kami's head with his right, but found Pan had gotten the elder Namekian behind her. Instead, he grabbed hold of Pan's right shoulder, then began to squeeze, causing her to spit out and release the Power Pole, which ascended up to him.
**CLANG!**
Yajirobe found that his katana had struck and was bounced back by the Power Pole, held in Lord Slug's mouth, stopping what would've otherwise been a perfect cut between his neck and torso.
Yajirobe had no other means to avoid the impact, being struck by the three and crashing through several various items before seeing Lord Slug come to a halt and then himself falling. The proud Namekian conqueror spat the Power Pole downward, watching Yajirobe flailing his arms as he fell.
"That's right, fly you big dodo."
Now simply hovering in place, he tried to reach for Kami with his left, but found Pan, even in the state she was in, keeping Kami covered.
"You really going to cower behind her, Kami? Then again, not a big surprise."
Both in retaliation for her actions and to taunt Kami, he squeezed Pan's shoulder further. She was left shouting in pain from what was at first an immensely tight grip...
"I mean you're used to others sacrificing themselves for you rather than doing it yourself, ain'tcha?"
...but this evolved into screaming from blunt instruments piercing directly into her shoulder through her wound. This excruciating feeling exceeded even Frieza's horn from before.
"How about it, Guardian of Earth? Feel like a hero yet? Well, do ya?"
As much as hearing Pan's anguished cries reminded him of when Piccolo tortured the wounded Goku during the World Martial Arts tournament, Slug's demeanor and actions instead reminded him of...
"You are a spitting image of the Demon King, Slug!"
"I'd say Piccolo the First was certainly a source of inspiration..."
"Now release her!"
The Lord's left hand gestured back and forth with his index finger.
"Uh, uh, uh. You have to come out from your hiding spot first."
With one last squeeze into her wound, Pan's scream led to her Kaio-Ken fading entirely.
"WAIT!"
Pan saw Kami slowly coming out from behind her.
"Let her go... and you may fuse with me."
Lord Slug wasn't convinced and Pan couldn't believe just what Kami was proposing to him.
"R-he-he-he-heally?"
"With my untapped power joined with yours... just imagine how much further your conquest could go."
The would-be conqueror had a gloved hand to his chin.
"I could already fight Frieza as I am now... but together... oh, we could really put fear into him and his old man."
"So will you release her?"
"We fuse first, then you've got a deal."
"As you wish, Lord Slug."
Storm clouds emerged above Korin's place as Kami floated in place, his arms down and awaiting Lord Slug's left hand.
"Kami, you have to be kidding me..."
"Since we'll be one being, just a thought: how's the Demon Lord Kalug sound to you?"
"Pan, can you shield yourself like before?"
Pan heard Kami's voice in her head.
"Well, yes, but..."
"On my signal."
"Also thought of Slami, but... Slami sounds too much like something served with crackers."
She then caught a short figure looking over at them from the distance, gesturing with a hand... no, a paw, into the air...
"Now!"
She put up the ki shield and found just as Lord Slug, shy of touching Kami, discovered this...
...lightning struck him dead-on, electricity coursing across his body and, unfortunately, partially zapping Pan via his fingertips embedded into her shoulder...
...followed by the booming sound of thunder.
While not immune or close to unharmed to what had transpired, Lord Slug quickly gripped Kami by his collar...
"Took a bit after me, eh? I'm almost touched."
...then looked back to Pan, seeing a white cat gripping a wooden staff taller than himself in her eyes.
"That cute little feller did that?"
"Kaio-Ken TIMES TWENTY!"
With this burst, she took hold of his right wrist and with only her left hand...
**SNAP**
Lord Slug felt his right hand go limp and let go of Kami from the pain of it. He saw Kami try to fly away and aimed at him with his left, but was then met by a punch to his jaw. Effectively pinned to Pan thanks to his right, she utilized this to repeatedly swing and jab at Lord Slug, sending the two downward far away from the Guardian of Earth and Korin's place.
Pan's increased power and senses meant her shoulder's pain was amplified just as much, but wanting to stop him then and there, she pushed through, knowing the aftermath of the fight would be hell on her, but the consequence of Kami's death took precedence over it.
Lord Slug found himself unable to evade her and that even when trying to protect himself against her attacks, his guard was easily broken. His helmet had been struck multiple times and showed signs of cracking, including the gem atop his forehead.
"SHE'S taking me apart?! Where was this Pan brat keeping this power?!"
And in the course of a few seconds, the two neared the starting point of a climb Pan's grandfather took decades ago. Desperate to get himself away, Lord Slug resorted to breaking off his guard entirely and aimed his left hand in a chopping motion not at Pan, but instead...
**SPLATTER**
...he chopped off his right hand at the wrist, allowing him to boot himself off of her and avoid crashing into the ground, though he struck Korin's Tower back-first. Pan absorbed the brunt and immediately retaliated with a one-handed blast, one that appeared akin to a yellow-orange Kamehameha, and which Lord Slug was in no position to avoid.
"OH FIDDLESTICKS!"
He was struck below his chest and pinned straight to the tower as if it were impossible to move or break through. He felt his body begin to bend and even snap, openly fearing that he would be torn in half.
"No, no, NO! This is not how Lord Slug will perish!"
But Pan felt herself exit out of Kaio-Ken and her beam ceased, seeing herself headed right for what appeared to be a red, white, and blue teepee. At the speed she was at, she'd tear through it and the ground beneath her.
"Gotta come to a complete stop now!"
Her right hand could still move and generate ki, but her left had to supply the vast majority for this task. She span in midair like a drill, realizing she wouldn't be able to land comfortably, but had to try. Right as her bandanna would be the first part of her to make contact with the teepee...
"That should be enough to..."
...she put a hole through it, struck someone inside of it, and tumbled across the ground before her left hand dug into the grass beneath her to slow and then stop herself entirely.
"Hey, what's the big idea, pal?!"
While her face was in the dirt, she recognized that gruff voice immediately.
"I scope out this place for some good loot and now everyone and their grandma'll know someone was here! Oh, and you clocked me on the back of my head!"
She slowly peered up, seeing red and yellow shoes and green socks.
"Now quit cowerin' under that yellow bed sheet! What, you think I can't see you?!"
Pan then heard the cocking of a machine gun.
"You're really gettin' on my nerves now, sunshine! Now I'm gonna give you one shot to get outta here and if you know what's good for ya, you'd better...!"
Once Pan looked up at the rest of the figure, her vision fuzzy...
"Y-you?"
"That's that blue shirt girlie from the tournament."
...the woman put her machine gun away and ran towards her.
"You ain't lookin' too good."
She flipped Pan onto her back.
"You clobbered Junior with Goku, so whoever, whatever did this to you's gotta be some kinda..."
And even within this personality, she couldn't help but gasp at one of the primary causes of Pan's pain.
"Is that... oh Geez Louise, that's a hand!"
Pan saw Launch's face, blonde hair, and red ribbon clearly up close, then felt Slug's hand being pulled out of her wounded shoulder.
"That's out of there, but..."
She caught Pan reeling and noticed blood from behind her shoulder on the ground.
"H-hold on! I think there might be something I can grab for that!"
"No need, Launch."
Pan saw Kami, a white glow in his palm, forming a white bandage out of thin air.
"K-Kami? But you need to get back to..."
"I know, but once the threat has been taken care of."
Launch yanked the bandage right from Kami's hand...
"Time's a wastin', old timer!"
Despite her disrespectful tone, Kami was relieved that Launch was concerned for Pan and tending to her wound. He knelt down, a hand over Pan's left shoulder to comfort her.
"There you are!"
Lord Slug, his back against the bottom of Korin's Tower, saw Pan and Kami at a distance from the now flattened teepee.
"That's right. Just sit there all buddy-buddy..."
His left hand raised upward, aiming at the group with a gun gesture.
"Don't mind little ol' me..."
"Hey, dirt bag!"
The three of them heard a shout from the distance, as well as saw Lord Slug taking aim at them while seemingly sitting down. Just as he was about to fire, he saw a katana headed for his neck. He tilted his head enough to avoid it, then saw the man he sent to his death earlier about to take another swing.
"Great fall didn't kill you, eh?"
He caught Yajirobe's blade with his left and the swordsman couldn't get it out of his grip.
"Then I'll hardboil you!"
His eyes glowed...
...but the eye beams missed, searing holes through the top of Yajirobe's hair, as Lord Slug cried out in pain. A small portion of the top of his head slid down, purple blood dripping, and Yajirobe saw that as the stump touched the ground, underneath the helmet was not only green skin, but...
"That f-freaky antenna!"
In a rage, but also in pain, Lord Slug pushed Yajirobe back with a Kiai wave, sending him rocketing towards the other three. Kami put out a hand, catching the swordsman in one fell swoop and stopping all of his momentum. Pan, her right shoulder's bandage tied in a knot by Launch, flew over to Lord Slug, though couldn't help but crouch down and grip her shoulder afterward.
"Oh look at you, kid. How's your arm?"
Pan then saw why Lord Slug wasn't standing up...
...his lower body was entirely limp, a bend in his waist clearly visible even from underneath his clothes from the blast he endured against Korin's Tower earlier.
"Nearly snapped me in two yourself there, I'll give you that."
The other three approached behind Pan, Launch and Yajirobe having no idea of who he was.
"You've got some explainin' to do, One Hand!" went Launch, entirely unafraid and aiming her machine gun at him.
"H-he's some kind of d-demon like P-Piccolo!" Yajirobe stuttered.
"'Like P-Piccolo'?" taunted Lord Slug, gesturing his right arm at them to the two Earthlings' confusion until...
... a green right hand emerged from the wounded stump practically instantaneously. They saw him focusing his energies once more followed by the opening towards the top of his purple helmet being filled by green, as well as an antenna.
"Piccolo's beneath my rank!"
The Earthlings of the past saw Kami forming another object in his hand...
"What, you gonna cuff him or somethin'?"
"Not quite."
With one last push, the bend in Lord Slug's waist was no more and he jumped up onto his feet, but with a hand against the tower to steady himself, Kami suspected...
"Repairing that damage has used up much of your power."
"Yeah, so?"
All parties saw Kami placing a small white bottle with red kanji onto the ground.
"Now I have another chance at trapping you so you'll do no more harm."
"What about what I saw in Pan's head?"
She tried as hard as she could not to show a reaction, but Launch and Yajirobe immediately caught this.
"This guy talkin' about you?"
"Now that you mention it, we don't even know her name..."
"Damn it, he's blabbing it to everyone!"
"You ain't gonna be Guardian of Earth forever, you know," continued Lord Slug. "You won't even be a memory by that point. Forgotten. And lest we forget about...?"
"ENOUGH!"
Kami fired a Kiai wave that pushed Lord Slug into the tower, the evil Namekian actually having to try getting back to his feet afterward.
"Whether I fall to you today or to another in the days to come, I will ensure Earth's survival with my last breath! Now enough of your games!"
Kami raised his palms, facing straight towards the evil Namekian.
"Your reign of terror on my planet and all others stops here!"
Lord Slug put out both hands, shaking.
"Oh no, not that! Anything but that!"
"What's Kami doing?" Pan asked on her comms.
"The Evil Containment Wave," Trunks explained. "It's a technique Master Roshi's teacher used to trap King Piccolo centuries ago."
"He's going to trap Lord Slug... in that bottle?"
"Just about any container would work," the Supreme Kai of Time added. "Roshi's master pulled it off with a rice cooker of all things."
Pan's mind wandered back to something at her world's Bulma's house besides the Four Star Dragon Ball and the round white and green device...
"THAT rice cooker trapped King Piccolo?"
"So you've seen it, then."
Lord Slug then knelt down, his hands on the ground and looking down.
"Oh please, please show mercy! Have pity on me, Kami old pal!"
"Your kind never learns."
A near-invisible wave of sorts left Kami's hands, headed right towards their foe at blinding speed.
"After this, we can get back to Namek and..."
But a huge shift in the ground sent everyone off the feet, Kami included. He saw Lord Slug leap into the air and tried to course-correct the Evil Containment Wave, but his loss of footing left him unable to do so.
"No, this is our only chance!" he lamented.
Once Lord Slug landed on his feet away from the tower, he clenched his fists and the four could see him channeling power across his entire body.
"Even after all that... oh, please tell me he's not about to transform."
"Pan, I'm afraid..." Trunks began.
Pan lifted herself back up, her reserves much less than ideal to face Lord Slug now, let alone against whatever he was about to do.
"When I was kicking your little behinds, that wasn't me at my best, not by a long shot."
"Oh, what's he going to do, change colors or something?"
The ground began to shake once more, Pan able to remain standing as the other three tried to get back up, in awe at what appeared to be his shadow stretching further.
"You had a chance, however small, before."
But as Pan saw clearly...
"He's becoming..."
Now the evil Namekian towered above everyone, his hands alone larger than her.
"Now you're facing the almighty Lord Slug in his true form."