Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
Pan, Gohan, Vegeta, and Krillin had all raced to stop Mira from getting to Goku only to come up short...
...yet right at the moment of what should have been the death of Goku, they and Mira found that the Saiyan raised on Earth had completely vanished.
"Patrollers," Mira muttered to himself.
"Patrollers?"
"No matter. My victory is already assured."
"Assured, Mira?"
Towa monitored not only what was above and around Mira, but also his vital signs, seeing that he had taken little damage from the battle thus far. Even then, despite his supremacy over the three Z-Fighters and Pan, Mira's boasting gave Towa some concern.
"Your four remaining opponents are still combat capable. And Goku is out of our reach."
"But Chronoa can't possibly interfere any further. Should any of the others disappear as well, not only would it leave less able bodies to face me, but whoever remains will become increasingly distrustful of the patroller's part... as I suspect they are already."
Vegeta broke off his combat stance and turned away from Mira, then floated upward to get in Pan's face.
"Oh great. What's his beef with me now?"
"This kind of stuff always happens when you're around! Where is Kakarrot?!"
Trying not to lie, but not wanting to leave him without acknowledging the situation...
"He's not here. Not that I can sense."
"Oh, of course. Why didn't I think of trying to sense him?"
He grabbed her cape's collar for the second time that day.
"Enough with that drivel garbage! Now cough it up! You know more than you're letting on!"
Pan could see Mira with his arms crossed, not sure if he was either waiting patiently to resume battle or actually enjoying Vegeta going on a tirade.
"This alone is already turning them against her. "
Just then, Mira began formulating something.
"Towa. If Chronoa is going to relocate our prize, perhaps we should do the same to the prize they protect."
"The Namekian Dragon Balls? But Mira, if I take those from Namek back to our base..."
"You won't steal them off Namek, but rather move them elsewhere on Namek."
"I see. But I wouldn't be able to watch over you if I do this."
"You won't need to at this point. I'll make sure of it."
Pan finally shoved the Saiyan Prince back.
"Focus on him, Vegeta!"
The two saw Mira uncrossing his arms, poised to attack.
"She's not wrong," Mira sneered.
The Supreme Kai of Time, while keeping a close eye on Mira and the Z-Fighters on Namek, had to be sure Goku was still in a state of blindness.
"It's one thing for him to fight alongside Pan until history's restored. If he sees me or this room, Goku might just retain a permanent memory."
"Hey..."
She heard him speak aloud, even if not directly to her, but knowing he wasn't alone.
"The floor's really cold."
While he couldn't lift his limbs, the back of his arms could tilt enough to feel...
"Tiles..."
A brief sniff followed.
"And the air's different too."
He turned his head right towards her, Chronoa hoping that this was a result of him locating her by sensing her ki.
"Where am I?"
"I'm afraid I can't say."
Goku gasped.
"You... the voice in my head."
"The voice in the earpiece."
He laid his head back.
"Oh, right."
She then saw his face go from having a bit of a smile to showing remorse.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I thought you were the bad guy or working with one. That you meant to trick me earlier. I'm sorry."
"It's all right, Goku," she assured him in the moment even as she focused elsewhere. "You were put in a really crummy situation. I understand."
As Mira's punch pushed a guarding Vegeta back, Pan tried thinking as quickly as she could before his next move.
"We need to fight him smarter. He's taken all our hits so far, but his energy's not unlimited."
She thought back to when they evaded him enough to cloud the area and sneak away underground. They didn't intend to strike him directly the majority of the time, instead vying to get his attention long enough for others to slip away from his attacks.
"That's what we need to do!"
Pan fired ki bullets at Mira, knowing they'd do next to nothing to stop him, but she had to sell that she was trying to harm him. He took the bait and blocked them, then tried swatting as Pan flew past him. She caught Krillin about to lunge at Mira, who was ready to swing in response.
Pan had to try mapping out the exact route Krillin was about to take. She couldn't risk going under, over, behind, or directly into him. And even then, her aim wasn't to get him to stop.
"Gotta get you to duck... now!"
As he lunged, Krillin saw a ki bullet flying in front of him. He was forced to duck in midair, rolling across the ground directly beneath Mira's chop. The seasoned Z-Fighter immediately noticed Pan's firing stance and deduced the projectile was hers.
"Hey, watch where you're firing!"
"Sorry!"
"It worked! Just need to keep that up!"
The moment she caught the slightest tilt of anyone's foot as the first part of an attempt to move in Mira's direction...
...one of Pan's ki projectiles fired in front of them, robbing them of their attention long enough to call off the attack and causing the location of Mira's intended counterattack to be far off.
Vegeta, however, was not deterred, either dodging or attacking through Pan's ki bullet to reach Mira. So Pan had to take the more direct route of getting in front of him.
"You're in my way! Move!"
He saw Pan put her arms out and scoffed at her attempt to shield him.
"Protect your own damn self!"
The Saiyan prince went for a one-handed shove to move her aside, but Pan shoved him back with two, just forcefully enough to avoid a blast from Mira while he still had his feet on the ground.
Krillin turned, whispering to Gohan.
"She's keeping us from approaching, let alone attacking..."
"That's the whole point. She's keeping us from getting hit."
While privately fuming from what had transpired, Vegeta also began to understand Pan's tactics in regards to Mira.
"Fine. I'll avoid him for now... but the moment I can tear him apart, I will."
Goku laid his head down on the library's floor as Chronoa watched over the diversion Pan hatched to keep the other Z-Fighters from reaching Mira.
"You brought me here so everyone wouldn't have to fight that guy and protect me at the same time."
"I will confirm that much, Goku."
"Huh. Different from usual. I usually get everyone to leave to protect them. The other way around, it feels..."
But thinking on it further...
"No. Gohan and Krillin came back before. Yajorobe too. It's why I'm still here. If they had done as I said, Vegeta would've finished me off. Probably Earth too. Those three saved me... saved everyone."
"You certainly helped with the Spirit Bomb, though."
"Sure, but their help was the only reason I even had a chance to. Even with how strong I was, training for the Saiyans with King Kai, I wasn't enough to beat him alone. They were the ones who made it possible."
While not moving from her spot, she glanced at Goku more directly than before.
"If you don't mind my saying, you're more humble than I would've expected."
"I hate having to rely on others... needing help. But as much as they need me, I need them just as much."
The Supreme Kai of Time noticed something off towards Frieza's ship:
Towa lifting up the Namekian Dragon Balls with a telekinetic beam from her staff.
"Was Mira distracting us from this the whole time? But why has it taken her this long to act?"
While thankful to this woman he had been conversing with, Goku was clearly eager to leave.
"I really appreciate you saving me, but you gotta send me back to Namek. I know I'm no match against that guy, whoever he is, but if Frieza's even half as terrible as I've heard, they're going to need my help."
"I will return you there the moment the danger has passed. You have my word."
She knelt behind Goku's head, putting her hands to the sides of his scalp. Chronoa wasn't going to force him into going asleep, but she did try to ease his mind...
"It will feel as though only a moment has passed, but when you wake, it will be as if you had never left Namek."
"Just promise me that Gohan, Krillin, Bulma... everyone will be okay."
"They will be. That's a promise."
Goku laid his head down onto the ground and closed his eyes, ready to rest. With her power, the Supreme Kai of Time rendered Goku asleep. But now that a key figure like Goku had met her and unwittingly learned at least part of her operation, even without having gained any knowledge of the Time Patrol itself, Chronoa knew this would normally lead to her erasing any memory of their encounter to preserve history...
"If Goku wakes up with no memory and the others acknowledge his disappearance..."
She knew that removing a key figure from play to prevent their death was the biggest move she had made thus far, and one that'd have greater consequences than Pan assisting in a battle.
"He might act out, or someone else could. They could do things differently knowing someone like me could take them off the board and back again like chess pieces. But if Goku remembers why I did what I did and my promise to him..."
Her hands, about to enact the erasure of his memory, ceased the spell.
"I really hope I'm making the right decision here."
"You can come out now, Trunks."
Once he knew Goku couldn't sense him, he pushed the doors open and flew back in to Chronoa's side.
"What's the situati... Towa's on the ground now?!"
"I doubt she planned this initially, but she's moving the Dragon Balls elsewhere on the planet."
"What would you have me do?"
Trunks had his hand out open for the scroll to be sent down to Namek.
"This time, I won't screw things up."
Instead, he saw Chronoa preparing to leave herself.
"Just like before, Trunks."
All seven dragon balls hovered above Towa in a bubble formed by the staff, making them seem weightless to her. She had made her way some distance from Frieza's ship in the opposite direction of Mira's battle.
"Towa."
The moment she heard the Supreme Kai of Time's voice, she stopped moving, laid the bubble down and dissipated it, allowing her staff to put all of its power into what was to come.
"Hmph. Had it been Trunks, I would have had something to counteract that. Did you presume that much or did you wish to deal with me personally?"
She formed a red energy field around herself.
"No matter. If it is your intent to wipe my mind once again, your spells won't be able to pierce my shields."
Towa then pointed her staff right towards Chronoa.
"What would stop my staff from firing back at you?"
A teal energy field formed around Chronoa.
"A deadlock, then. Now we wait to see who will strike first... even though we both know who drew first blood."
While the Supreme Kai of Time had kept composed up to this point, these words from Towa finally gave away the slightest inklings of regret on Chronoa's face.
"No apology of mine could ever make up for what I did to you, Towa. I've never stopped thinking about it. I should've done things differently."
"Oh? Appealing to my younger self, are we? Surely it's only been a couple of years for you, right?"
Towa broke off her firing stance and instead placed the staff on the ground beside her.
"Do you even know how many decades it's been for me, thinking about what you did? What you chose to do to me within seconds?"
Chronoa knew this was clearly Towa trying to demoralize her for any number of tactics to follow, yet she could still read pain in the former patroller's expression.
"And lest we forget all those times you sicced Trunks at me when you knew all I wanted was to save one single person."
"But all the lives that would be lost. Nearly uncountable if you succee..."
An irritated, yet sarcastic scoff interrupted Chronoa.
"Try telling that to Trunks. Oh, I'm sorry. You pardoned him for the nearly uncountable lives taken from his work to 'Change the future'. Completely different."
"He didn't know what would happen when he..."
"What do you know? I didn't know either."
Towa's staff created an elevated mass for her to sit upon.
"I thought you'd have rehearsed this a thousand times over by now. Found the perfect means with which to dulcify me into an easy capture."
"I don't want to capture you, Towa."
"In which case, you mean to stall me, though time is not an issue. The Namekian Dragon Balls are far enough and Mira will either defeat them all or occupy them long enough for Frieza to arrive at his ship."
Completely unintimidated by the Supreme Kai of Time, Towa crossed her leg and looked over her staff.
"By all means, Chronoa. I'm in no hurry."
Towa saw no movement on her part.
"Chronoa knows that if we do fight, even if I lose, there would be no chance of the battle not going unnoticed. History would know of us both."
Pan saw the other three finally taking steps to be more evasive of Mira. Krillin knew how to anticipate Mira's attacks and moved early enough in advance to make up for the speed difference. Gohan began to pick up on the same, the seasoned Z-Fighter guiding Goku's son with a few words, or even just glances, when needed. And Vegeta, for how proud and reckless he had been prior, was using his fundamentals across his career to stay ahead.
"Things are looking better, though what's our time frame, Supreme Kai of Time?"
"I'm not sure," answered Trunks instead. "Towa's on the field and the Supreme Kai of Time's keeping her from taking the Dragon Balls. If there's one upside here, it's that Towa's no longer watching over the battle, so Mira's without his support."
Chronoa decided to try taking this time to probe information out of Towa regarding her operations.
"Whose your friend?"
"Wouldn't you and the Time Patrol like to know..."
"Mira's his name, right?"
"Did Trunks tell you that?"
"No. She did."
"Ah, your patroller."
Chronoa then thought back to Pan aiding the Z-Fighters during the attack of the Saiyans, and had another inquiry.
"Mira's power was clearly greater than hers and yet she survived."
"She has certainly proved evasive when outmatched."
"You shielded her from my sight and communications, and Trunks couldn't risk appearing near Goku or his father. If you had wanted to kill her..."
Now Towa's nonchalance began to fade.
"Are you asking if I went soft?"
"I know you don't take joy in what you're trying to do. The method."
"Believe me, Chronoa. If I could give Goku's father the power to destroy Frieza, or snatch the tyrant from history without you finding me, I would. You don't get to judge me."
"You were fine with Raditz killing her. Something changed in that battle."
"Well if you must know..."
A holographic projection emerged of Pan shouting at Yamcha before the Saibamen reached his back.
"She nearly changed history. Perhaps you employ an irresponsible patroller. She might just succeed for me."
As much as Chronoa knew that Towa was playing it off as belittling Pan and taking advantage of her actions in each battle, she also began to read through the lines just why Towa would find interest in her.
"I scolded Pan for trying to save Yamcha. In the heat of the moment, even knowing it was history, she couldn't help it."
Towa noticed Chronoa in thought.
"Beerus got your tongue?"
She changed her facial expressions back to her default, though the Supreme Kai of Time pieced it together.
"Towa saw a part of herself in Pan when she did that... just as I feared Pan would go down Towa's path."
Mira had caught a ki bullet fired from Pan, crushing and dispersing it within his hand, then fired various blasts around him in case of any number of counter attacks. He then leapt upward to intercept anyone who had done the same to avoid the blasts, but instead found them lying down prone.
He flew back down, slamming into Namek to force them off the ground, but again, they had avoided the impact with a jump this time.
"They're timing everything I'm doing."
More and more blasts followed, but he found that he couldn't hit any of his marks.
"I was... I am overpowering them. They realize harming me is futile. Now they are resorting to avoiding my every move."
He flew off after Gohan, but blasts from Krillin and Pan robbed him of enough of his attention for the son of Goku to descend below.
"They won't engage me directly. Only enough to distract me and protect the one I'm after."
He threw a punch at an approaching Vegeta, but was met by a surprise Masenko from behind by Gohan. Trying to attack and defend at the same time, he found the Saiyan Prince had flown over him and while the Masenok was stopped in his hand, he was pushed back. Vegeta simply grabbed the back of his armor and tossed him below, leaving Mira to lament in that moment that he did not have Towa to warn him of unseen attacks like before.
"She would have caught that for me! She would have known what to do in this situation...!"
He flipped to regain control in the air, but was met by a swing from the Power Pole, knocking him straight down into the ground.
"And I sent her off on an errand! Idiot!"
All four of them took turns circling around, then attacking him, noticeably landing more hits than before and getting past his swings and blasts more easily.
"He was calm, confident, and methodical with everything he did before." Gohan realized. "Now he's clearly aggravated, impatient, and his attacks are getting sloppy."
Mira was filled with shame at how his performance, one that Towa gave congratulations towards earlier, was falling apart.
"If she saw me now..."
He began to float just off the ground, curling into a ball.
"No! Towa will not see me like this!"
His four opponents felt a massive build-up of ki around him...
"STOP IT!"
...and Mira was about to unleash it.
A bubble-like burst of red hot ki expanded from around him, and threatened to envelop the four, whom tried to fly away from it. Vegeta found Krillin ahead of him, but about to fall back. Begrudgingly, he kept Krillin in front of him with a palm while not breaking his own momentum. Pan and Gohan escaped side-by-side, but she saw her father beginning to slow down.
"I'm tiring out! I can't...!"
Pan scooped him from below his left arm, then, realizing the burst was about to reach her back, put up her shield. It went over her just in time, but she and Gohan were sent down.
"Gohan!" cried out Krillin, witnessing this.
Forced to the ground, which soon evaporated as the burst completely enveloped the area they were in, Pan simply kept her shields going, but the heat grew more intense. She heard the shield beginning to crack and she felt her cape and the back of her jacket burning up.
"Kaio-K..."
She couldn't finish, now feeling the back of her arms starting to bake. Throughout her life, Pan had dealt with heat, but none that proved to be this harmful to her skin, and this already rated as the worst she had ever felt. But knowing that same heat would make its way to Gohan if her shield gave out now, she shouted through the pain.
"KAIO-KEEEN!"
Pan lied down, determined to shield Gohan with her own body if it didn't work, but her father felt the heat lessen with her shield having almost doubled in size. Shortly after, the burst had passed them completely, and the sky of Namek was visible again. The moment Pan knew the danger had passed, her Kaio-Ken dissipated, as did her shield.
Gohan, realizing Pan was struggling to keep herself up with her arms, crawled out from below and gently helped Pan to her side.
"Thanks again. Now let me..."
He saw not only steam behind Pan, but also the back of her jacket all but gone, held up only by what was beneath her cape's collar. The back of the blue shirt was visibly scorched, and both her skin beneath it and on the back of her arms showed clear burn marks.
Gohan could see Pan was trying to fight back tears from how much it burned.
"You okay?"
She nodded to him, but then gritted her teeth, almost feeling it get worse. Gohan didn't know what was the best way to go about Pan's pain and simply put a hand atop of her head in an attempt to get her to focus her attention elsewhere.
"Hang in there."
Knowing Gohan was comforting her, as opposed to Vegeta, who would've mocked her state, Pan lied her head down, allowing herself to openly cry.
"I lost you once. I won't let it happen again."
Towa and Chronoa could both feel the impact of Mira's burst. The Supreme Kai of Time hid it, but was worried about what it would mean for Pan and the Z-Fighters.
"If they were hit dead-on by such an attack..."
Towa, as confident as she appeared, was not sure what the attack meant either.
'"Mira wouldn't use such an attack unless he was finishing them off all at once..."
Chronoa saw the slightest hint of dread on Towa's face.
"...or if he's struggling."
From high above, the spherical crater appeared akin to Nappa's destruction of East City.
Mira was on his hands and knees, at the dead center of the crater panting heavily.
"I let myself get flustered. Lost control. I am better than this."
Taking a deep breath, he floated upward and forward, knowing that the Z-Fighters and Pan had been directly in front of him when he unleashed it.
"Whether any of them are dead or battle-ready nearby, I must focus my senses."
"Mira's getting up!"
Pan heard Trunks and immediately lifted her head to Gohan's surprise.
"What is it?"
She floated off the ground to spare herself trying to move her arms, and Gohan instinctively helped her upward. They both then saw Krillin and Vegeta floating towards them.
"You saved Krillin," went Gohan with thanks.
"Don't get your hopes up, kid. He was in my way, so I took him along."
Pan tried hiding her pained state from the two, especially Vegeta, and tried formulating a plan.
"We need to keep our ki low. He couldn't find us in that hole earlier, so if we do that again while he's vulnerable..."
"Powerful as he is..." began Krillin. "He put a lot into that. Maybe not most of his power, but enough to get at his reserves."
"So then what do we do when we get close?" Gohan asked Pan.
She had an idea.
Mira peered left and right constantly while finding no charred remains of any of the Z-Fighters. All he found was a burned piece of Pan's cape flying past him in the wind.
"If I have incinerated the patroller by accident, I will have disobeyed Towa's order. But perhaps if one of the others has been slain as well..."
He then saw the first sign of activity: four sets of footprints, all headed the same direction as him.
He finally reached the very edge of the crater, now seeing a trail of handprints from climbing. While he couldn't make out any of them poking their heads out, he also didn't spot any possible caves or holes nearby for them to hide in, concluding that they were out of the crater.
"With me down here, they could ambush me from any number of angles."
He flew upward quickly, eying the area around him when he spotted something behind a pillar-like rock:
Pan's cape.
"You never learn..."
He fired right at the rock, then saw several others all around: some small, but able to conceal Gohan and Krillin, and others just tall enough for Vegeta to crouch behind.
"They really thought this excuse for an ambush would work on me?"
He span in place, a barrage of blasts shattering any nearby obstruction that they could theoretically use for cover. Throughout this process, he also kept watch of the sky.
"They won't sneak up on me from above..."
Once he saw nothing remaining for them to hide behind, he still saw no trace of any of them.
"But the patroller... she was..."
Turning to where he saw Pan's cape and fired first, he found the cape lying down, its collar wrapped around the Power Pole.
"A scarecrow..."
He peered to his left and right, but as he was about to turn around completely, he was met by a tackle by all four of his opponents all at once.
"They circled around me completely! And I didn't even think to... stupid, stupid!"
He tried rotating to regain control, but the four slammed him right into the ground. Left crouching, Mira tried to get up, but found that Pan and Vegeta had trapped his left arm, and Gohan and Krillin his right. Now he was being held down, neither of his arms able to reach out and blast any one of them, and his legs weren't in any position to move into any attacks or propel himself.
Vegeta briefly punched at Mira's head with one hand, but Pan shouted, "Hold him down with both hands, Vegeta! Both hands!"
He scoffed, but did follow her instruction as her ambush had actually worked.
"Maybe this Earthling has some bright ideas after all."
Mira was at first demoralized, his face down to keep his opponents from seeing him so vulnerable.
"Towa was right. My victory wasn't assured at all. I'm just a... I'm just a..."
Just then, reaching out his right hand, while Mira knew he couldn't hit any of his four adversaries, he announced a realization...
"If I cannot slay one of you..."
Now his right hand was pointed into the far distance.
"...then I will remove a bigger piece from the board."
Pan could tell Mira was aiming right towards...
"Frieza's ship!"
"No!" shouted Trunks. "The healing pod!"
Mira's hand began glowing faintly.
"He's not aiming directly right at it, is he, Trunks?"
"Whether he is or isn't doesn't matter. If he puts a hole of that size into Frieza's ship, the consequences will be dire."
Pan left Vegeta, who pinned the left arm still, and as she tried keeping his right arm down, thought of one solution to keep Mira from aiming at Frieza's ship...
"Say it," Mira taunted. "Use Kaio-Ken once more. But we both know what one more prolonged use will bring you."
Pan had battled Jeice, Guldo, and Ginyu, had switched bodies twice, endured all the strikes her body had taken while Ginyu used it, and was now fighting through burns on her back. As useful as Kaio-Ken would be now, once it went out...
"It'll put me out of commission."
Everyone tried thinking of how to stop Mira, not just from firing, but to end the fight. Gohan saw Pan turning to him, mouthing something.
"Is she telling me 'you can do it' again?."
Gohan and Krillin, even with Pan's help, clearly strained.
"I hate to disagree with her, but right now, I don't know if I can."
Gohan then saw Krillin fall to his knees.
"I can't hold him much longer!"
Mira felt his arm now more free to aim.
"Yes, waste more energy. By the time I break free, you'll be defenseless."
The three Z-Fighters then saw Pan letting go of Mira and taking flight.
"Get back here!" Vegeta exclaimed.
"You coward."
Pan flew a short distance in front of Mira, then cupped her hands together for a technique everyone recognized.
"I'm going to put everything I've got into this one!"
Both from sensing how much ki Pan was putting into it, as well as how close they were to Mira, Vegeta was completely baffled at her tactics.
"Is she insane?! She'll kill us all!"
"Kaaa… meeeee…"
Even from that distance, Chronoa could feel Pan's Kamehameha powering up.
"Pan, no! With that much power, you'll put a hole straight through Namek!"
"Towa, if you come back with me now, I will make things right."
"You won't be able to negotiate your way out of this one," went Towa. "This will end one of two ways, Chronoa, and in both scenarios, I will be reunited with my brother."
"Haaa... meeeee..."
Mira was undeterred, even as he saw the Kamehameha glowing more intensely.
"You simply have to be kidding."
He could see Pan was straining with all the power contained within the attack, so slow to release it.
"H..."
Mira then fired off an orange beam, one large in scale, from his right, to interrupt Pan before she could finish.
"Haa... augh!"
She shielded herself and ducked, falling to the ground. The three Z-Fighters could tell she had used up an immense amount of power only for her to fail to even get off her intended attack.
"What the hell were you thinking?!"
Vegeta felt Mira's left arm about to rise as well, but then forced it back down, but now having to use much more of his strength than before.
"I have to agree with Vegeta," began Mira. "You tried to blast me from the sky, yet chose such a poor firing position. Were you attempting to taunt me?"
He felt the pressure keeping him downward was dwindling and knew he'd be back up in time.
"You three may hold me now, but by the time you tire, I'll have free reign to..."
He caught a glimmer in Pan's eye, even as she looked down. Something in the shape of a disk...
"Vegeta, duck!"
Krillin stood a short distance to his side, having thrown a destructo-disk.
"The small one! I didn't even notice!"
Earlier, Gohan believed Pan was mouthing "You can do it" to him, but she actually mouthed "Destructo-disk" to Krillin. When Krillin shouted aloud to announce that he couldn't hold Mira for much longer, that was him making it appear he was almost out of energy. When Pan left them to pin Mira without her, Krillin signaled to Gohan not to say anything with a shushing hand before sneaking away. Pan's attack garnered Mira's full attention as he sensed its power to the point of not paying attention to that of Krillin's and the destructo-disk he was forming.
...and now it was heading for him.
"I've been tricked."
Unable to get up, he could only try to defend against this attack. With Vegeta still holding down his left arm, he tried lifting up his right with all his strength.
"Gohan!"
He let go to heed Krillin's warning and move out of the way, but Mira then gripped Gohan by his collar, gesturing him in front of him for a shield.
"My mission will be accomplished... one way or another..."
Pan saw that, while Mira would be struck by the Destructo-Disk no matter what, now her father was in its direct path.
"What have I...?!"
But Gohan squeezed himself out of his collar, falling below right as the Destructo-Disk was about to make contact with him. In the milliseconds he had left, Mira shielded himself with his wrist to protect his face.
It sounded like a combination of a buzzsaw cutting metal and a laser beam as the Destructo-Disk struck and continued spinning before dissipating. Gohan saw Mira still stood, but the armor on his right wrist had been sliced through completely, sparks and what seemed like oil spewing from it. Mira grasped it with his left, then, seeing Gohan, raised his right foot to step on him.
"This won't stop me!"
But then he found Vegeta directly in front of him, both palms facing him.
"Dodge this."
What could only be described as a golden beam eclipsing Mira in height fired directly at him at near-point blank, traveling straight into a mountain.
Towa felt this attack from Vegeta, and even saw a mountain in the far distance with a hole in it.
"M... Mira?!"
"That came from Vegeta," Chronoa responded.
"Nice try, Supreme Kai of Time, but I won't be fooled."
A teal projection of what was happening formed in front of Towa and she dropped to her knees at the sight of it.
As Pan tried to climb back up to her feet, she, Krillin, and Gohan peered around Vegeta to see what had happened to Mira:
He still stood, his right arm now completely detached, his shattered chest armor giving way to bruised blue skin, his right foot without a boot, his right leg seared to the point of a robotic knee being visible, and nearly half of his face missing, revealing a metallic skull underneath.
"Mira's not a demon..."
"He's a cyborg," Trunks added.
Pan looked closer at Mira's skull, seeing that it had a sear mark down the center, akin to two halves having been welded together, and an insignia on the upper right:
TP. Akin to the Time Patrol's logo, but simpler and less detailed than the one she had seen.
"Trunks, is Mira...?"
"Mira's not just a cyborg. He's the original training bot Towa built."
"Oh would you look at this..."
While everyone else was stunned at Mira's mechanical workings, Vegeta laughed in the face of his opponent's damage.
"You're just a mere toy."
Mira went for a punch with his left hand, but the pain of his detached right arm had him gripping his wound immediately after.
"Aww, you want to be a real boy?"
He swerved out of the way of another swing by Mira, then grabbed his arm.
"Remember when you tried to crush me in your arms?!"
He punched Mira in the back several times.
"Tried pawning off my body to Ginyu?!"
This last punch knocked Mira onto his chest, dangling by Vegeta still holding his arm. He stomped on Mira's back, then pulled the left arm back, electricity surging across Mira's shoulder.
"What did I say? Ah yes."
Mira's left arm dislocated from its shoulder, then bent unnaturally.
"I'd tear you apart."
"Vegeta, that's enough!" Pan shouted.
"Put a cork in it!" he shouted back, kicking Mira in the side, who rolled onto his back. "Unless you want to crawl over here and stop me!"
"Vegeta, this is..." Krillin stumbled at first until he saw Vegeta stomp on Mira's chest. "This is far enough!"
"This toy man... this..."
Another stomp, this time to Mira's stomach, breaking more of his armor.
"This THING will pay for his transgressions against the Prince of all Saiyans!"
"Vegeta, please," pleaded Gohan. "My dad wouldn't want this."
"You think your father would stop me now?!"
Gohan was being pulled back by Krillin.
"Krillin, what are you...?"
He whispered to Goku's son, "He can't be reasoned with."
Towa, even in the shock she was in at what appeared to be transpiring with Mira, rose to her feet, pointing her staff at Chronoa.
"You've conjured that to lower my guard. An illusion."
"You know I don't create illusions, Towa. This is happening right now."
In another scenario, Chronoa could have tried taking advantage of this, but she did not wish to.
"Mira's not just your hired muscle, is he? He's your protector. If not that, your friend. And now he needs you to save him."
Pan, unable to pick herself back up, but managing to float off the ground, hovered in Vegeta's direction, witnessing him punching Mira's head repeatedly, his white gloves slowly getting spots of oil and white hair stuck to them.
'"If this keeps up..."
"Towa, if this keeps up and you don't do something now, Mira will die."
The former patroller lowered her staff slightly, but then aimed it back again at Chronoa.
"He's not expendable to you like Turles was."
One tear slipped by Towa unnoticed until it reached her cheek.
"Is he?"
And with Chronoa's last two words, Towa lowered her staff, blasting the ground in front of her to cover her tracks as she flew off towards the battleground. Chronoa put a bubble around herself and the Namekian Dragon Balls, then had her hand against her earpiece.
"Library, Trunks! Double time!"
"Vegeta, stop!"
Vegeta heard Pan and seemed to throw one more punch, then stopped, but upon closer inspection, what appeared to be the last close-fisted hit wasn't actually a punch at all...
...but rather Vegeta spaced out and bent his middle and index fingers so he could squeeze them between Mira's left eye socket.
"Make me," he sneered.
Mira had hardly grunted from any hits landed earlier, and even with the damage Vegeta was doing to his body and arm, only short and brief noises had escaped him. But now with Vegeta putting greater pressure around his eye and starting to yank it, he openly screamed out in pain, his cold and unfeeling nature having given way.
"Mira is an enemy and he tried to kill us, but this..."
Krillin and Gohan could both hear Mira's screams from where they were. The Earthling Z-Fighter then felt Goku's son trying to run forward as he held him.
"Gohan, we can't...!"
He broke out of Krillin's grip and flew forward.
Pan, now seeing Mira's left eye out of its socket, a mix of organic nerves and electrical wires still keeping it attached, couldn't stomach any more of what Vegeta was doing.
"I said STOP!"
As Vegeta went for one last tug to rip the eye out, Pan flew into him head-on, knocking the Saiyan Prince off of Mira, the left eye dangling, but still attached. Once the two stopped rolling, Vegeta floated off the ground, looking down at Pan on her back.
"You're on this mechanical freak's side all of a sudden?!"
"No, Vegeta," answered Pan. "You've won. Just stop. Please."
She saw him turn away, wondering if he actually contemplated stopping...
"You Earthlings really are so soft..."
...but instead flew back down to Mira, gripping the sides of his head.
"Fine, then! I'll go faster just for you!"
Pan, at the end of her ropes both in regards to her body and her ki, wondered if she had just made things worse just trying to stop him.
"Now he'll really do it..."
Vegeta tried squeezing Mira's skull itself, at first seeing the cyborg openly cowering...
...but then grinned.
"You enjoying this now?!"
From Mira's right eye, Vegeta saw a purple glow behind him.
"Get away from him."
Pan recognized Towa's voice, a hint of anger in it, but just calm enough to command Vegeta with her staff.
"Get... away from... him," he repeated.
While her presence was known only to Pan and Mira, Towa heard footsteps fast approaching. Once Vegeta got off of Mira and took a few steps, she had a quick solution with her last command:
"Kill one of the others."
"K... kill one of... the others."
Gohan, running to stop Vegeta, froze upon seeing him hunched over and glowing with a purple aura.
"One of... the others."
"Vegeta?"
Upon hearing Gohan's voice, he turned, a red glow in both his eyes.
"He'll kill my dad!"
Vegeta flew forward for an attack with Gohan now realizing he was his target.
"W... wait!"
Seeing her father trip over his feet onto his back, Pan had to think of one thing to snap him out of it.
"Frieza!"
Vegeta, even with Towa's command, stopped, almost in midair, upon hearing Pan say his most hated enemy's name.
"You need him and the others to defeat Frieza, right?"
He peered over to Pan, his eyes seemingly normal again.
"To defeat... Frieza."
But once he looked back at Gohan, his eyes glowed red again.
"Kill one of the..."
But he couldn't make either of his hands into fists, as much as he strained to do so.
"But... Frieza..."
He grasped the top of his head with both hands and cried out, Towa's order and his revelation about Frieza clashing in his brain.
Krillin, having caught up to Gohan, helped the son of Goku up, but had no idea...
"What's happening to Vegeta?!"
Towa, helping Mira to his feet to begin their retreat, heard what sounded like muscles bending and metal screeching from her creation:
His left arm, twisted behind him by Vegeta, was snapping itself back into place, a process that was far from painless to Mira, who gave off a blood-curdling roar.
Vegeta, turning around to this noise, soon saw Mira run in with a punch to his head, rocketing the Saiyan Prince away. Once Mira fell straight to the ground and they knew no further battle would take place, Pan pointed in Vegeta's direction and shouted "Follow him!"
Krillin and Gohan did so and Towa, cloaking herself from their sight, emerged by Mira. She flipped Mira onto his back, horrified at the damage done to him, but, knowing Trunks and Chronoa were likely watching at this point, had to get him and herself out of there.
"Patroller..."
Pan saw Towa speaking to her directly.
"I won't forget what you did."
A beam overtook the area and Towa and Mira had vanished. Pan wasn't sure what Towa meant by her words, but was distracted upon seeing herself leaving Namek...
...and back in the library.
"You stopped Towa last-second. Saved your father and mine."
Trunks seemed ecstatic to have Pan back and at her accomplishments, but she couldn't help but be worried about what was still unresolved.
"But Vegeta... and my grandfather."
Chronoa crouched down next to Pan, a hand to her cheek.
"Don't worry, Pan..."
"It's all taken care of."
Finding Vegeta lying down nearby Frieza's ship, a fist-sized bruise on his forehead, Krillin tried to help him up while Gohan kept his distance.
"What was that all about, Vegeta?"
He waved Krillin off of him and tried sensing Mira.
"You were really freaking us out, you know."
"Shut it. I'm trying to..."
He couldn't sense him at all.
"He's gone!"
He made it to his feet.
"Oh that's just great! First Kakarrot, and now...!"
"Hey guys!"
The three of them saw Goku lying right where he was before.
"Where did you go?" asked Krillin.
"Huh? What do you mean?" went Goku inquisitively.
"You disappeared when that guy tried to attack you."
"Me? I was right here. Where'd you guys go?"
"Oh, that's right Kakarot. You still can't see anything."
"I can see you right now."
Goku's eyes were no longer pale and he looked over at...
"The Dragon Balls!"
The seven were back in place, having never appeared to have left.
"They really are bigger than ours on Earth."
The hole in the mountain was no more, as was the crater Mira created. Vegeta's bruise was gone, and his white gloves were worn, but without anything on them.
Gohan and Krillin helped Goku off the ground and carried him together.
"Take Kakarot into the ship. There's a pod that'll heal him. I'll need him at full strength for when Frieza arrives."
The three had no memory of anything occurring after Ginyu's final body change. Goku, back with his best friend and son, who were safe as promised, looked up to the sky and smiled.
"Thank you, Queen Kai."