6/14/22 Update - The entire chapter has been written out.
Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
Pan woke up, her hair the longest it had been in six months, knowing today was going to be their last day in the Training Chamber. Something was off:
"I can't sense any of them."
She exited her unit and searched diligently, fully expecting that at any moment, they would jump out with an ambush.
"Must be for me to be ready for the unexpected at the drop of a hat."
Once she had exhausted the possibility of them hiding in or around their housing quarters, Pan decided a trek around the makeshift track was in order.
"Either I'll find them somewhere around it or I'll just get some exercise in."
When she made it halfway across towards the first turn, peculiar markings were visible on her left...
...in the shape of a diamond of sorts.
"Wait a minute... that's almost like a..."
Between the four points of the diamond were white squares and in the center of it was a circle with another white square.
"A baseball diamond?"
"SURPRISE!"
Pan ducked upon hearing the three from behind her, expecting to dodge any number of melee or ranged attacks from them. Once she saw them simply standing, Pan saw that they weren't dressed in their fighting attire, but instead in baseball uniforms.
"You guys set this up last night?"
"That we did," went Yamcha, wearing a uniform and cap almost identical to what he wore when playing for the Taitans. "When your Kai of Time Supreme... Supreme Time Kai..."
"Supreme Kai of Time," Pan corrected.
"Right, right. Well, when she first explained our training situation to us, I always thought we should have some fun on our last day after all our hard work. Guess you could say it was something I pitched."
Tien and Chiaotzu were silent after Yamcha's baseball pun, though Pan had to cover her mouth to keep a snorted chuckle at bay.
"So I asked for real deal baseball stuff and snuck them in."
Tien, wearing a Taitans uniform as well, but no headwear, actually had a smile on his face.
"You've come a long way since we first entered this chamber. You've earned not just a break, but something to enjoy."
As for Chaiotzu, also not donning a baseball cap like Tien, but rather his usual black hat...
"It sounded fun to me, so I convinced Tien to play along."
"But how are we going to play baseball with only four people?" Pan asked.
"Leave that to us," answered Chiaotzu, splitting into four, then back.
"Yamcha and I will be one team," Tien began to explain. "You and Chiaotzu will be the other."
Pan got ready to head towards the diamond when Yamcha had a hand out to stop her.
"If you're gonna play on a team..."
Pan saw him holding out a female Taitans uniform in front of her.
Now that Pan was dressed for baseball, though keeping her bandanna on, she got up to bat while four Tiens were the basemen and catcher. Yamcha got ready to pitch...
"Get ready for my greatest technique yet..."
And as Pan saw him turn for the pitch, one leg up in the air, she could swear that an image of a wolf emerged around him. Then, as he stepped on the pitcher's plate and threw the ball, now it appeared as though a wolf was running right towards Pan, the ball at the center of its face.
Pan knew the wolf wasn't real and this wasn't an attack, but the baseball was coming faster than any she had encountered. In that moment, she decided to duck, her bat raised enough for a bunt, but instead saw the ball swerve over her in a perfect arc.
"Strike!" went Tien.
"You controlled the ball?" Pan asked.
"I call that the Wolf Fang Pitching Fist Ball."
"It's like you combined the Wolf Fang Fist with the Spirit Bomb."
"Spirit Ball," Chiaotzu corrected on the sideline.
"Happens all the time. But yeah, that's the idea."
Now Tien was at bat, seeing four Chiaotzus and Pan pitching.
"Don't go easy on me. All my years with Yamcha have taught me everything I need to know about this sport."
"You heard him, Pan," began Yamcha playfully. "Go for a strike."
Pan's pitching stance seemed pedestrian, not much out of the ordinary. She then stepped and threw the baseball, Tien seeing it not appearing to be thrown with superhuman speed, but instead approaching slowly.
"A slow pitch? Your worst mistake."
He had the timing down and swung...
...appearing to have hit nothing as the baseball then flew past him.
"Strike!" went Chiaotzu.
"No way! How did it slip past me?"
"Pan, you found a way to combine your pitch with the afterimage technique," Yamcha elaborated. "How long did it take you to come up with that?"
"To be honest, just thought to try it now."
Tien shook off the strike from before, as if taking the game seriously.
"It won't work on me a second time. Do your worst."
Throughout this game, their superhuman might led to very few strike outs and not one single walk. The majority of at bats, even with Yamcha and Pan's pitching techniques, eventually led to hits. Without a proper fence for them to have home runs, the duplicate basemen or pitcher, if they couldn't catch it, instead ran after the ball, however far it flew into the distance, to bring it back, but had to do so quickly before the runner made it to home with their speed.
Pan ended up catching one high-flying hit by hopping straight into the air from the pitcher's plate in a move Yamcha couldn't help but chuckle at even while he was out as a result.
"You're definitely your father's daughter."
Chiaotzu at one point caught a ball with his telekinesis.
"Out!"
"Hold up," went Yamcha, his hands signaling a time out. "Tien, did we agree on whether or not you could catch the ball with telekinesis?"
"It never came up, Yamcha. You never once addressed it."
"Chiaotzu, you didn't bring it up either?"
"I didn't think it'd be a problem."
Yamcha fell to his knees, his eyes hidden by shade.
"I can't believe I overlooked that completely."
Later, Tien flew towards home plate with his hammerhead technique. Chiaotzu, appearing nervous, flew aside while Pan flew in front of the base, then realized how fast Tien was going.
"Oh crap..."
She hopped over, Tien going underneath her as he gestured his leg enough for his foot to touch home plate. He did…
"You're out!" went Chiaotzu.
"But how? I..."
Tien didn't even feel it: Pan had touched his back with the pitcher's glove, baseball in hand.
"My physique has toughed up so much that such a slight tap didn't even register..."
Once the game had wrapped up, all four of them had dirtied their yellow uniforms with the artificial dirt. While they had kept track of the score and stats at one point, as the game went on, they forgot and went on without scoring, just enjoying their time playing together.
After cleaning themselves off and changing in their own units, the four then hung out around the campfire for their last night together. Pan realized Yamcha had brought cans of an alcoholic beverage of sorts with him and shared them with Chiaotzu. She and Tien declined, the latter due to not having any interest and the former as she was only 18 still. Instead, Pan had a can of soda, drinking it as the four took turns trading stories.
Eventually, Pan realized Yamcha and Chiaotzu had fallen asleep, cans around them. She and Tien cleaned up and placed a blanket over each of them. Pan sat by the flames, keeping her hands close to it to keep warm, when she saw Tien place a blanket over her shoulders.
"Thanks, Tien."
"I'm glad we got to have today to ourselves, Pan, I really am. But now I have to go over perhaps the most critical factor you will face tomorrow."
He sat down, then, seeing Pan was paying close attention, continued.
"The one leading the Saiyan's mission, the one ordering his subordinate... is Vegeta."
Pan couldn't even manage a gasp.
"You have to realize that, while he would go on to become Bulma's wife and the father of Trunks and, as you said, Bulla, he was a vastly different man before he came to Earth."
She still couldn't make words over how this felt to her, but clearly was ready and willing to hear more from him.
"You can't afford to go easy on him just because you know he'll go on to be your best friend's father. He'll fight to kill and while you obviously can't kill him due to what it would mean for history, us, and yourself, you have to fight to stop him."
She nodded to him, but remained silent.
"Ideally, your mission will conclude before Vegeta gets his hands dirty himself, but should the Supreme Kai of Time require you to face him, it will be the fight of your life. More than it was with Raditz, and even more so than the Saibamen and Nappa before him."
Tien put a hand to her shoulder.
"I don't think 'We're counting on you' is what you really want to hear right now, so instead, just know that I believe in you. I know you can do it. And so do Yamcha and Chiaotzu."
While this did lead to a small smile building on Pan's face, as Tien walked back towards his unit, he had one last hard truth for her:
"But most importantly, you have to be ready for what will happen to us. Us three and Piccolo. Know that it'll happen... and it has to."
He waved to her as he opened his door.
"Sleep well, Pan."
Shortly after, Pan gathered all her belongings within her housing quarters, ready to depart once the day began. But she found that she couldn't sleep in her bed, instead deciding to lie outside by the fire. Peering up at the ceiling simulating stars and a night time sky, she was left to wonder how different the Vegeta she was going to meet would be.
What felt like morning arrived and the first thing Pan did upon waking up was go into her unit's bathroom to cut her long hair back down to the length it was at before she entered the Training Chamber. She immediately got dressed in her Time Patrol uniform and, both as a precaution after her battle with Raditz and for whatever edge it could give her, had her Power Pole and case on her back hidden by her yellow cape. Stepping out, she found Yamcha and Chiaotzu dressed back in their attire from their first day and cleaned up despite their drinking the night before.
"So that's your fighting uniform, Pan?" Yamcha asked. "It's a good look."
"Seems a little casual to me," went Chiaotzu. "Do you really need to carry something on that chain while you're...?"
"Don't mind him," Tien interrupted. "Though if I might ask, while I understand the jacket, gloves, and even the cape, why those clothes in particular?"
"When my world was..."
Pan paused, trying to explain without bringing down their mood and hers.
"This was all I had left of it. I was never one for fashion, but Bulla, she..."
She caught herself stopping once again, then worked her way to a smile.
"Bulla had a better handle on fashion than I did. Said she'd make sure I looked okay at least."
Just then, for the first time in six months, the doors to outside the Training Chamber opened with Trunks there to greet them.
"You four have everything?"
He saw them each lift a bag up while nodding back.
"Good."
He approached Pan, seeing that, while it had only been six days for him and she was back in her standard uniform as usual, something had changed about her.
"Trunks?"
He realized he had been staring off at her and tried to play it off.
"So hey, can I see your wrist band?"
She tried not to appear nervous as she took it out from her pocket and handed it to him, knowing this moment would come.
"I'm really curious what your power level's..."
Trunks paused, realizing it was basically unreadable due to the cracks all over the band's screen.
"Trunks, what happened was... you see, I..."
"I broke it," answered Tien. "Struck it by mistake during a spar."
After putting it in his coat's pocket, Trunks then took out a capsule.
"We developed these for you."
Throwing it to the ground, from it poofed...
...a gray pair of boots, the heel and toes a lighter shade with a flaming symbol of sorts at its center.
"These were designed to withstand ki, so if you need to use your feet for a Kamehameha again, they won't burn through them like it did your shoes."
As Pan placed them on, they noticed the desert-like area around them began to shift away, and even a change in the air as it slowly reverted back to the Training Chamber's default state. As this happened, Pan realized the ten time's gravity had left and, having grown accustomed to it over all that time, she now felt lighter.
"This must be how Grandpa felt when he finished training with King Kai."
"Trunks."
Commander Hale stood by the open door.
"The Supreme Kai of Time can't hold the change at bay for much longer. I will take Pan to the Time Nest."
Pan ran over to Hale's side, then turned back to the three Z-Fighters with a waving hand.
"Thank you all for everything."
After the three waved back, she and Hale sprinted out with haste. Trunks knew this moment had come to discuss this topic with the three visitors from the main timeline.
"I'm sure you understand how important preventing changes to history is by now and why neither myself nor the Supreme Kai of Time brought this up until now, but..."
"I know I can't go around telling your mother that we bumped into you again," went Yamcha as Trunks paused.
"And, whether or not the Videl of our timeline has Pan or not, we can't bring her up to either of her parents," continued Tien.
"Sound like anyone we know?" went Chiaotzu, everyone knowing he was referring to when they first met this Trunks of the future.
"In order to prevent changes to time once you return back, your memories of everything here will have to be suppressed," Trunks explained. "Of the Time Patrol, Toki Toki City, the Supreme Kai of Time, Pan, and all your time in the Training Chamber. All of it."
For most, the thought of six months of their lives just disappearing away from their memory would've seemed like a hard concept to accept, let alone agree to. But for these seasoned Z-Fighters, they appeared ready to go through with it.
"We understand," acknowledged Tien.
"It's like the saying with the butterfly and dinosaurs..." added Chiaotzu.
"I don't know about you guys, but with how much we grew in that chamber, I bet we can do it again, memory or no memory," went Yamcha with a fist raised. "Besides, we've shown just how great of teachers we can be."
Tien gave Yamcha a friendly hit on the back.
"Who knows? Maybe we three will teach a dojo together like in her world."
Chiaotzu, however, appeared disinterested.
"Sounds like too much work if you ask me."
Pan arrived at the library, seeing the Supreme Kai of Time straining at this point.
"Supreme Kai of Time?"
"Save it."
Pan was not expecting to hear Pima's voice, seeing him crouching by a table.
"You're..."
"No time for small talk. Take the scroll."
He was blunt and to the point regarding the stakes as Pan grasped the scroll, seeing the possible change she was trying to stop:
Age 762
Tien, Chiaotzu, and Krillin lied in round craters with pieces of Saibamen around them. Gohan and Piccolo were hunched over, exhausted and heavily bruised, and Yamcha was fending off the final Saibamen while missing his left hand. He fired off a blast with all his remaining ki and life force, destroying the Saibamen, but at the cost of his own life, dropping down in front of the two to Gohan's horror.
Nappa, entirely untouched at this point, fired off a one-handed beam at Gohan, one larger than his entire body. He couldn't even move while Piccolo flew in front of him to protect Goku's son, taking the brunt of the blast. But it didn't take long for the blast to tear through Piccolo, his head, shoulders, arms, and legs scattering as his upper and lower body burned away. The undeterred beam soon enveloped Gohan, eventually reducing him to nothing.
Pan's thoughts at what had transpired were interrupted by a tap on her shoulder by Pima.
"Now look... I'm trusting you to do what has to be done, but should you fail or end up dead, I'll put things back in their proper places. Got that?"
As Pan closed her eyes, she nodded to him...
"Loud and clear."
Pima and the Supreme Kai of Time both saw Pan transported from the library into the past.
"Now, Supreme Kai of Time!"
With Pima's signal, she stopped herself from slowing down the flow of time any further, falling onto her back. Despite his less than affable attitude towards Pan earlier, Pima rushed to help the Supreme Kai of Time back up.
"Are you okay?"
"I'll manage. I can watch over her."
He bowed...
"As you wish."
...and headed back to his position from before.
As per history, Yamcha, Ciaotzu, Tien, Krillin, Gohan, and Piccolo stood against Nappa, Vegeta, and their six Saibamen. Pan watched over the event behind cover.
"Seeing as how there are six of you Earth warriors, the same number as our Saibamen..."
Vegeta's voice, while obviously different to the one Pan was used to due to decades, had a different tone to it, almost as if he were acting out a role of a character in a play. Less resigned, more casual, but with an aura of grandiosity to his every phrase.
"How about fighting one at a time? Sporting, wouldn't you say?"
Piccolo appeared to object to the arrangement until Krillin hopped out in front of him.
"W-wait, Piccolo! This could work in our favor!"
Tien stepped forward first.
"Nothing out of the ordinary yet?"
"Not that I can see..."
Trunks' voice answered her. He had finished his business with the three Z-Fighters of the main timeline.
"Now Tien should soundly defeat this one."
This first Saibamen up to bat ran to Tien, but was struck back with one hand.
"That can't be right..."
The Saibamen fell onto its side, seemingly unable to get up.
"The first hit shouldn't have hurt the Saibamen that badly. It was on its feet for its next attack."
A purple glow overtook its green skin and it angled its head in Tien's direction. Its head then split in two, a burst of acid shooting out straight at Tien, who tried to move to the side, but was caught off-guard by its speed.
**TSSS**
His left wrist couldn't avoid it in time as Tien screamed out in pain, his right hand over the bubbling flesh.
"Tien!" shouted Yamcha.
Chiaotzu seemed especially demoralized to see this happen to Tien.
"Oh no..."
Krillin tried to keep his composure, but realized...
"Tien's hurt bad... and that was from just the first Saibamen. The first... of six."
Vegeta's smirk became even more pronounced.
"I guess our entertainment will be brief. Less of a full feature and more like a short commercial."
As the Z-Fighters heard this, they then realized the Saibamen had left its spot in a blur.
"Where did it...?!" went Gohan.
Piccolo followed its movement through its ki, realizing...
"Tien, move!"
He looked in the Saibamen's direction, seeing in terror that it was lunging right for him, its arms outstretched to grab a hold of him.
"TIEEEN!" screamed Yamcha.
"And there goes the three-eyed..."
Nappa stopped in the middle of his comment upon hearing a sudden high-speed strike and saw the Saibamen flying straight into a large boulder. He and Vegeta, as well as the Z-Fighters, saw a caped girl in front of Tien, having delivered a kick, then firing a barrage of ki blasts at the Saibamen before it could recover.
"You won't die this way, Tien."
The six had differing reactions of shock to seeing her, some having not seen her since the World Martial Arts Tournament six years ago.
"It's you again," went Gohan first.
"You haven't changed since Raditz, yet your power has..." went Piccolo next.
"Raditz?" Krillin went inquisitively. "I thought it was just you two and Goku. You mean she was there too?"
"And what's with the jacket and cape?" Chiaotzu chimed in. "You're gonna bake in those out here."
"You don't appear to have aged a day since you and Goku fought Piccolo," added Yamcha.
"Thank you for that," went Tien, now back on his feet, but still tending to his left wrist. "I'll make sure that doesn't happen again."
As for Nappa and Vegeta's thoughts on Pan's presence...
"She certainly handled that Saibamen a lot better than that three-eyed Earthling did."
"Hmph."
They turned to the Saibamen, seeing that once the dust settled from Pan's blasts, the creature fell onto its front, struggling in vain to get up. Seeing Vegeta pointing his palm at it, the Saibamen squealed and raised its hand, trying to plead, but was then eviscerated by a blast by the Saiyan Prince.
"I offered you Earthlings a fair chance. One-on-one. That was the deal. But now thanks to..."
He directed their attention to Pan, pointing at her.
"This caped Earthling girl interfering in the three-eyed man's fight, now your lives are forfeit. Saibamen!"
The five turned to Vegeta.
"Attack all at once! Give these scum everything you have to offer!"
While Pan had saved Tien and stopped a change to history, this...
"I've already created a change, haven't I?"
"A short term one," went the Supreme Kai of Time. "As long as the Saibamen are defeated, it won't amount to much of an alteration."
But now that the five Saibamen, the aura over them, charged, Pan focused on their movements, watching them pick their targets. The first of them to near its target chose Krillin, who was more than prepared, but the Saibamen found its path blocked by...
"Yamcha?" went Krillin. "But Yamcha I can..."
"Let me take care of this," the former desert bandit answered back, guarding against the Saibamen and keeping its claw-like hands at bay.
The next Saibamen found Chiaotzu hopping over it, firing acid straight into the air, but just missing his black hat. The third swung at Gohan, who backed away from each swing, not even wanting to risk blocking, when Piccolo got in front of the Saibamen to occupy it.
"Gohan, what do you think you're doing?!"
"It's too fast, Mr. Piccolo! I can barely see what it's doing!"
"Then sense its ki, you idiot!"
As she saw Piccolo guarding the young child who would become her father, her focus turned to Tien, who was fighting back against the fourth, but was still injured from the spray he took earlier and began to struggle.
"It doesn't look good for him."
When the last Saibamen joined and tried to gang up on him...
"REALLY doesn't look good for him."
Chiaotzu took notice of his friend in trouble.
"Hold on, Ti...!"
The Saibamen he was fighting got a lucky punch in to his red dotted cheek, knocking him down. It looked ready to hop on top of the grounded Chiaotzu when Pan flew under, catching it by its torso, stood on her feet, and slammed it back down.
With Chiaotzu relatively safe, at least for the moment, Pan made her way to Tien's side, ready to fight back-to-back with him.
"I'll cover you."
Had she not trained in the Training Chamber for all those months, Pan knew this would've felt like fighting Raditz, and just this one Saibamen would've been an overwhelming challenge she could barely stand against. But where she was now, Pan not only kept pace and at an even level of strength with them, but could surpass it.
Even then, as she found Tien taking a kick to his leg, Pan found that her Saibamen seemed to speed up, trying to scratch at her stomach. She caught its wrists, then angled its head away from her and anyone else so it couldn't counter with its acid spray.
"They're still formidable all the same. My ambush was a big part in the first one seeming so easy to bring down."
"Just don't kill any of the Saibamen," instructed Trunks. "They're the ones that finish the creatures."
"That's a copy," went Pan, simply throwing the Saibamen's arms upward, exposing it to a punch to knock it away.
As vulnerable as Tien seemed in the moment, crouched over and the Saibamen he faced now lunging at him, he fell onto his back, then booted the Saibamen with both feet. Before it could look down at him, he flipped, sending it right into the one Pan had punched just then.
"I won't fall for that one again."
Chiaotzu kicked his Saibamen backward, Piccolo swiped his and Gohan's away with a backhand, and Yamcha, having struck his to the ground from high above, began charging his...
"Kamehame... HAAA!"
It appeared completely helpless in the crater it lied in already as the beam fast approached it, trying completely in vain to stop it with its arms. A cloud of dust overtook the whole area until at last, the Saibamen's beaten and battered body was shown, steam stemming from its body and its opened mouth, frozen in its last expression of fear. Almost as if reacting to what happened to their comrade, the other four Saibamen backed away, regrouping in the face of another one of their own having fallen.
"Yeah, that's right, you better run," taunted Yamcha.
Pan watched Nappa appearing to have some shock, but noted Vegeta's demeanor had hardly shifted.
"Guess what, creeps?! Your little monsters won't win you this battle, and you're not taking Earth from us!"
While Yamcha was showing off some of his pride at his accomplishment, another part of him, having seen what a Saibamen had done to Tien just moments ago, was declaring not just his strength, but that of his friends and temporary allies.
"Pan."
She heard Trunks.
"Goku will come back to us to find that we took care of the trash for him!"
"Listen closely..."
"Neither of you are going to lay a hand on even a single Dragon Ball, and that's a promise!"
Pan heard both Yamcha speaking aloud and Trunks on her comms, but she found that, while Yamcha and the Z-Fighters faced the Saiyans and the four Saibamen...
"With the seven of us together, our power combined..."
"You have to..."
...the one they thought to be dead lunged forward toward Yamcha's backside with blinding speed. It was almost as if everything went absolutely silent. Pan couldn't hear Trunks' voice anymore and now she was reading Yamcha's lips.
"Even you two Saiyans..."
Her mind flashed with so many memories of her with her world's Yamcha:
Him training her in his moves when she was a child.
"Puppy Tooth Punch!"
"No, no. Wolf Fang Fist."
Him at the reunion with his extended surrogate family of friends.
"Pan, long time no see. How's my old pupil doing?"
Him trying to raise her spirits after her loss to Goten in the tournament.
"Always keep trying. I'll be rooting for you at the next tournament."
Him saving the small boy she couldn't reach in time from getting run over by a car.
"Watch where you're going, buddy! You okay, kid?"
Him smirking after they brought down Frieza's ship.
"So... how did we do?"
Him pushing her and Bulla aside to save them from the self-destructing Chiaotzu.
"Look out!"
Him bloodied and on Death's door in the aftermath.
"You're all... still here. I'm... glad."
Her attempt to save him with a senzu bean all for naught as they burst into flames.
"Pan?"
Seeing the Saibamen so close, and her the only one aware of it, a lone tear drop only barely poking out from her eyes...
...she broke the silence.
"YAMCHAAAAA!"
In those milliseconds, the Z-Fighters turned to her shout. Yamcha in particular saw Pan's panicked face, realizing right then and there that not only was she warning him of something from behind, but from her tone and expression that she was deathly afraid for him. He glanced the Saibamen he had supposedly killed from the corner of his eye, and immediately went into shock.
"I didn't even think to..."
The other five then quickly looked over at Yamcha, not able to see the creature inches from him. But both he and Pan saw it. He turned his body, as well as his torso, to try to swerve around it, to get away, to just narrowly avoid its intended grapple.
"Oh no you don...!"
...but to his horror and the other Z-Fighters, it managed to scratch its way to his back all the same.
"Oh no, no, no...!"
He saw Pan's face take a turn for the worse: in her eyes, he was about to die.
"This can't be it...!"
He turned to his friend, Krillin. His former enemy, Chiaotzu. His hated–turned-friendly rival, Tien. The son of one of his three oldest friends, Gohan. And even Piccolo, who he considered a monster years ago, but who, even with his ill intent towards the world, had joined him and the others side-by-side to stave off a worse threat.
"I can't be going now...!"
A bright glow began to emerge all across the Saibamen's body. Even without an increase in heat, he could tell...
"This really is it for me..."
As it grew brighter, his shock wore off, and now Yamcha was left to reflect.
"You're going to have to win this one without me, guys. At least now... you won't screw up like I did."
He thought of this mysterious caped girl, who saved Goku from Piccolo in the tournament, saved Tien from this very fate he was tethered to, and had just tried to save him by warning him.
"Thanks for trying, but it looks like we just weren't fast enough. But maybe... you'll keep everyone else alive..."
The glow had reached its apex as Yamcha thought back to his oldest friend by far...
"Puar. I'm sorry to leave you like this. You were always there for me. Through everything."
He felt the slightest change in the Saibamen's appendages, as if it were about to burst at the seams. This could be the last thought he'd have while living on this Earth. And now his thoughts went to...
"Bulma. I... I should've cherished what we had instead of throwing it away. But just know that even when I'm gone..."
One droplet escaped his left eye towards his cross-shaped scar.
"I hope you find happiness..."
His eyes closed.
"...with whoever you choose."
The Saibamen self-destructed, an even more massive cloud left over the area than the one his Kamehameha did. Pan couldn't see his silhouette at all, tears now freely coming down her cheeks.
"No..."
Seeing a crater where he stood, but still no sign of him, she fell to her knees, then her hands.
"I couldn't..."
Now the dust had settled and Pan saw scattered remains of the Saibamen's limbs and hands...
...and Yamcha's body, curled up and now completely lifeless, just as Tien and the others appeared in her vision. She had gone through losing Yamcha once before. Even though she didn't see him die or the aftermath, Pan had felt it, sensed it. But now she saw not only the cause, but the end result. She had tried to do what she couldn't before, but Yamcha still died all the same.
"Yam... cha..."
Her wrists struck the ground, as did her face, sobbing into the dirt as the other Z-Fighters had their collective reactions of shock and grief.
Elsewhere, the two mysterious figures watched what had transpired on a monitor.
"Intriguing."
The larger one took notice of the shorter figure with a hand to her chin.
"What is it?"
"Did you see it too?"
"Of course. But the action was inconsequential. What of it?"
"On the contrary..."
A staff clanged on the ground.
"What she tried to do... changes everything."