Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
Pan found herself struck straight down, landing on her left arm. She put a hand to her jaw, feeling that it was alright, but did catch a noticeable bruise between her lip and left cheek.
Commander Hale, still using just enough of his power to match Frieza's first form, was using his arms this time, and the difference showed.
"Last time, I didn't even need to use it, but now that he has five limbs to work with..."
Her instructor knew exactly what she was trying to do and wasn't about to stand back and allow it, even if Frieza was likely to do so. He approached her fast, interrupting her...
"Kaio-K...!"
Even as she tried blocking him, his fist snuck underneath her arms, striking her stomach before she could finish.
"You must understand that I can't let you get comfortable with the knowledge Frieza will play with his prey. He may willingly allow you to use Kaio-Ken, at least early on, but if you get content with this, you may use one window too many."
Spitting on the ground, some blood in her saliva, Pan scrubbed a small drop that came down from her mouth.
"I've never stopped not being comfortable with that."
As much as Hale's comment had unintentionally irked her, Pan tried to think quickly on what to do once her instructor, not about to let her try Kaio-Ken without a fight, resumed combat. Her left hand, which had been supporting her, dug its fingers into the ground while her right, which was over her stomach, then glowed.
Hale's demeanor changed and Pan knew this was her cue to act. He zoomed in front of her, forcing her to jump upward to avoid a slam to the ground. She fired away to cover her retreat.
"Kai...!"
He was already back to her, having evaded or gone through her ki bullets by the time she had said this much. She guarded against his arms with her two wrists, her right hand trying to fire at him, but kept at bay.
"Ooh...!"
It seemed as though he would overpower her when he realized her left hand was closed.
She shoved it at his face as her fingers opened, just below his two-eyed blue scouter, the dirt aimed at his eyes.
"KEN!"
Pan didn't risk trying to go for times three or four, using her immediate increase in power to catch Hale's wrists before they could attack her or try to help his vision. She struck his chest with her knees, then as his tail approached her, booted herself away from Hale while charging ki in her arms.
"Kamehameha!"
The faster version was never as powerful, but Pan could use it on short notice, particularly for a diversion or evasion. Upon firing this, she flew in an arc to get above him, but found him having already recovered and ascending upward to intercept her.
"Oh sh...!"
Forced upward, Pan redirected a barrage of punches with her wrists, then, seeing Hale spin in place, knew a strike with his tail or his feet was imminent. Feeling she'd be left exposed if she tried flying away, Pan put up her ki shield, stopping his tail swing, but with a small crack in it. His left foot then swung into it, a greater crack than before resulting from it.
Now Hale went for a two-handed strike as Pan crossed her arms, trying to time it exactly with the impact. The moment she felt his fingers were a millisecond from hitting, the shield expanded, then burst, knocking Hale back.
"Now's my chance...!"
The impact had sent Hale back a good distance and actually seemed to stun him enough for it to give her ample time for a further increase in power.
"Kaio-Ken...!"
"I'd better go four! End this quickly!"
"Times...!"
Hale tried going quickly, though only as fast as Frieza's first form would go. He realized she would complete it before he could reach her with these parameters.
"Fou...!"
Pan's back had struck the ceiling of the training chamber. This entire time, even after her shield burst, she had been going upward, and didn't realize how fast she had been traveling.
"Such a rookie mistake! How many times have I been in here to know the ceiling should be right there?!"
But she immediately had to avoid a swing from Hale's right arm, which managed to hook along and pin her left arm. Pan thought it was an awkward move on his part, as his left wouldn't be able to attack efficiently from that angle until she realized...
"Wait...! No, no, no...!"
Pan moved her right arm to guard what she knew was an exposed point, but found a tail quickly wrapped around her neck before her arm could intercept it.
"God, no!"
She tried pulling the tail back with her right, but even with Kaio-Ken, it wasn't enough. Maybe with two hands, she could have, but her left was effectively pinned with Hale's right arm not nudging.
"Not this!"
"Strength alone will not get you out of this," Hale advised.
Even without the tail tightening to choke her, Pan couldn't speak. Whether Hale was keeping her pinned for an incoming attack or about to render her unconscious, this was unbearable to her.
"This enables him to bludgeon one ensnared from behind with his fists."
Even with Commander Hale clarifying he wasn't going to attack her, Pan had to get out of this.
"Just gotta...!"
An attempt at hitting his head with the back of hers failed, Hale having avoided it.
"He will be ready for that," Hale responded. "You have to try something else."
"Legs can't reach! Unless...!"
She flung herself with such force to rotate the two of them in several directions in midair, but from no angle could she conceivably hit him with her feet.
"That won't be enough to disorient him," Hale continued.
Realizing how futile pulling on his tail with one arm was, she had one last move as her right reached behind her...
"It's not there!"
The Power Pole, her last resort to get out of this, wasn't on her person as this was a training spar.
"Keep trying, Pan. Find another way."
Even as she began to feel faint, Pan could not escape the memory of being trapped by Frieza, held hostage before her remaining family and friends.
"Ah, ah, ah."
Not only could she hear Frieza's voice, but she even saw the event.
"No..."
Her grandmother, blood coming down her forehead, trying to pull the golden Frieza back by his leg.
"Oh, ho, ho. Goku has a granddaughter."
"Get out of my head..."
Him letting her mother's body roll off of his knee.
"Oh come now. Don't cry..."
"Get out...!"
Hale could feel Pan's Kaio-Ken was starting to fade, adjusting his strength so as to not strangle Pan with his tail once it expired.
"If she can't get out of my grip soon, then that is something we will have to work on next session."
Pan once again had her right hand try to lift or move the tail away from her, but it seemed even more futile than before as Kaio-Ken was about to elapse and her vision was blurring. The last thing visible to her was herself punching at Frieza's golden form to absolutely zero effect whatsoever.
"I almost felt that."
Her instructor, seeing Pan close to losing consciousness, decided that was enough.
"That's a wrap."
He began to hover the two down slowly, loosening his grip on her left arm and around her neck.
"Next time, Miss Pan, we'll..."
He suddenly felt a massive burst of ki and was swung straight upward by his tail with tremendous force, heading right towards the ceiling. He went to stop himself with both hands, but then felt himself shoved into it by the back of his head, slamming into it at full force. Pushing himself back, he tried seeing through his cracked scouter.
"Miss Pan?"
From the little he could see, she had a golden aura around her skin, the edges of her hair were slightly tinted red, and her pupils were gone. Instead of replying back to him, Pan flew into him for an attack.
Hale found himself on the defensive, stopping punches at a power much greater than Frieza's first form, forcing him to raise his power.
"Pan!"
He caught her hands with his own, but she immediately responded with a headbutt, one which struck much harder than he expected. With his hands exposed, Pan then grabbed a hold of him by his forehead and his scouter with her right hand, then forced the two downward towards the ground while punching with her left to keep him from countering this.
Her right hand then squeezed, scratching his exoskeleton forehead and slowly chipping away at the side of the two-eyed scouter it grasped. While Hale managed to use his ki to stop them from diving through the ground, Pan then flew him straight through the same rocky structure he stopped himself against during their last spar.
The doors to the training chamber slowly opened, Trunks flying right in as soon as he had enough of an opening to do so.
"Pan! Hale!"
Now having flown through several structures and now hitting one of the chamber's walls, Pan had Hale pinned, squeezing her right hand even further. Now the left side of the two-eyed scouter all but shattered completely and now Pan's right fingers dug in further, her thumb between his left eye and forehead.
Trunks found them and saw Pan in this state punching at Hale, her barrage only stopping when his tail tried to protect him. She shoved it aside with her wrist and then slammed the back of his head into the wall.
"PAN!"
She turned to Trunks, his hands out to her, the latter now seeing her pupil-less eyes and her teeth all but grinding against each other.
"Pan..."
Throughout all of this, Pan's mind couldn't stop thinking of the battle against Frieza on her Earth. But now that she was looking at this face, one of someone she knew on her Earth…
"Tr... Trunks?"
...the golden aura left her, as did the red tint around her hair. Her pupils were visible again and she was herself again.
"I..."
She then realized her right hand was still gripping...
"Hale..."
She saw her thumb's fingernail digging into his skin and the other fingernails almost too dug into his endoskeleton forehead to see.
Upon releasing him, she put her left hand to her mouth, covering a gasp of shock and grief at her actions.
"Oh...!"
Pan backed up as Trunks tended to him.
"What have I done?"
Pan sat, her black training jacket off, her arms slightly bulkier with veins plainly visible, and a bandage over her left cheek and lip. In the same room was Commander Hale, a bandage over his forehead from where she grabbed it, a black eye on his right, and a temporary cover over his left eye.
Once the Namekian medical staff member who had treated them had left, they found Trunks the first to meet them.
"H-hey..."
He didn't quite know how to start and felt "How are you feeling?" would've been blunderous with what had happened earlier.
"Commander Hale, I..." began Pan.
"You have apologized to me enough," went Hale, the tone in his answer showing his concern was towards her being well.
"If I had been paying attention and hadn't hit the ceiling..."
"That was not the catalyst for this. What I did..."
This thought was cut short by footsteps: Beetro entered, covering his mouth with both hands upon seeing the shape the two were in.
"What happened to you, Hale? What happened to you, Pan? To you both?"
Pan got to her feet to approach Beetro.
"It was my fault, Beetro. I..."
Hale made his way upward as well, stepping in front of her.
"I held her by the neck with my tail."
He closed his eyes, then stepped aside, looking over at Beetro and Pan.
"It's one of Frieza's favorite tactics. I knew, as unpleasant as it was, it was something I should prepare her for. I held on for far longer than I should have and... something woke up inside her."
Beetro seemed to grasp this, but then Pan took another step forward.
"It wasn't just that."
She tried to keep herself composed, but knew saying it aloud would get to her as much as thinking it did.
"Frieza... the one of my world... he did that."
Like when she had briefly mentioned it to him before, Trunks saw that Pan couldn't help but have a hand towards her neck when discussing this part.
"Held me as a human shield by my neck. And there was nothing I could..."
She turned to Commander Hale to address him directly.
"When you were training me to break out of it, I couldn't stop thinking about that day. Part of my brain... part of me treated it as the same."
She knelt down on one knee.
"I never thought to bring it up beforehand. I lost it and I hurt you, Hale. And I'm sorry."
He and the other two in the room didn't hear a sniffle in her tone, nor did her face give way while talking about what had transpired. Even as she apologized to Hale wholeheartedly, there were no tears had.
"Miss Pan, I accept your apology."
As she began to rise back up, Pan found that Trunks, even while having absorbed her and Hale's regrets, also seemed to key in on specific points.
"Replicating that event seemed to unconsciously trigger this pseudo transformation."
From Pan's perspective, he sounded like someone wanting to repeat this process like a laboratory experiment.
"If we can just focus on the source more precisely..."
Trunks getting even low-key excited from this wasn't sitting right with her.
"This could be the breakthrough that could lead to you going Super..."
"Trunks!"
Pan realized she had raised her voice at him and tried to calm herself as well as the others in the room, but pointed to him.
"Do not try to find a silver lining in this. Please."
"But Pan, this could be what we've been looking for. To give you what you've always wanted since..."
"Not like this!"
She caught herself raising her voice again, but this time, she wanted her point to get across.
"If I hurt you, Hale, or anyone else trying this again, then I'm done! You get me?!"
Gulping, realizing how he had sounded just now...
"Idiot!"
He nodded.
"Y-yes."
Knowing she had just made a scene, Pan put her hands together, facing the three.
"Excuse me."
Once Pan departed from the room, Trunks, Hale, and Beetro were left to deliberate amongst themselves.
"Pan and I will recover shortly, so then we can put this behind us and..."
"We can't have this happen again," entered Beetro. "This wasn't a fluke, Hale. We can't put her in that position a second time."
"What I did was to prepare her for..."
"Frieza, yes. But you could have warned her of that grapple beforehand. Went over said tactic in a lesson first before using it yourself. Not as a surprise attack completely out of nowhere with NO options of how to escape it at her fingertips."
"Her survival is in my hands and Frieza will not give...!"
"...but you can and you will because you are her teacher first and her opponent second, Hale!"
Beetro rarely raised his voice as such, especially at Hale. Trunks saw the two staring back at one another after their vehement exchanges regarding Hale's methods, neither standing down.
"I don't think I've ever heard the two argue, let alone shout at each other."
He didn't step directly in the middle between the two, but did come close enough to garner their attention.
"Look, I agree that Pan needs to be ready for what Frieza has in store, but I do think this can be done with more than just sparring."
Hale and Beetro's expressions altered only marginally.
"Not to mention my father did face Frieza one-on-one for a time, but it was primarily a team effort until Goku arrived."
Hale walked forward, arms crossed behind his back.
"You have given me much to think about."
He turned back to Beetro, no longer wishing to appear heated with him.
"Both of you."
Taking his two-eyed scouter, which had been repaired, Hale looked back at the two one more time before taking his leave.
"This won't happen again. I will make sure of it."
Now that Beetro was left with just Trunks in the room, he sat down in Pan's seat.
"I went too far..."
"Beetro, you didn't mean any..."
"It was like I accused Hale of deliberately trying to... to..."
When Beetro couldn't bring himself to finish, hunching over with both gloved hands over his face, Trunks tried to answer back, but couldn't find the best response in the moment. He sat down in Hale's seat, finally coming up with something.
"Hale knows you, Beetro. He knows you mean well and that you're looking out for Pan's best interest as well as his."
When Beetro put his hands back to his sides and sat up just enough to look up at him, Trunks stood back up.
"Give Hale time if you need to, but he won't hold this against you. I know he wouldn't dream of it."
While his mood was lifted somewhat by Trunks' words of encouragement, Beetro remained seated while appearing to be reflecting.
"You and him have been through too much together."
A knock on the door of Pan's unit the next morning was unsurprisingly from Trunks, whom she allowed in.
"About yesterday, Pan... I..."
"It's fine, Trunks. You saw me nearly go Super Saiyan and thought you found the next step."
"I was completely indifferent to how you felt after what happened to Hale, and I made it sound like we had to put you through that again... over and over even. I was unfeeling... a total jerk..."
"Hey."
Her hand touched his shoulder. Trunks had expected her to come closer to him, but Pan kept to where she stood.
"Don't beat yourself up over it, Trunks. It wasn't any of our best moments."
Trunks knew that to be true, especially with Hale and Beetro after she had left the room.
"Y-yeah."
While he couldn't see it, Trunks suspected that his face was going red and turned around, trying to recompose his posture.
"Since Hale's taking today off and we didn't have our session yesterday because..."
He cleared his throat to try side-stepping that topic.
"I thought before we start another one, perhaps we should talk more about yourself. Find details besides... that day..."
After having to go over her last day on her Earth with him and Chronoa before, and having lived it again unintentionally to disastrous effect, Pan was more than up to talk about anything else.
"Sure, we can do that."
"I know the Supreme Kai of Time suggested your body is unconsciously keeping you from going Super Saiyan, but I have to wonder..."
"How much of it is being done mentally... right, Trunks?"
He tried to pick his words carefully so as to not make it sound like Pan was the one keeping herself from the transformation all along.
"Just want to help you achieve it."
"I know."
She sat down at her table, Trunks following suit as she decided on where to start.
"Well, if it's of any help, the first time I started to believe I couldn't go Super Saiyan was when I was younger. And not just because I thought I wasn't old enough yet."
"Then why?"
"Because my heart wasn't in the right place."
"But how could you think your heart wasn't in the right place, even as a kid?"
"When we traveled to see old friends of my grandpa Goku, I heard so many tales about him. Him saving people from monsters or armies of men, and all while wielding the Power Pole..."
Trunks had seen Pan wield it since her mission against the Saibamen, Nappa, and Vegeta on Earth. While unarmed combat and ki took up the majority of her fighting style, she still managed to utilize the Power Pole to great effect, most recently by using it along with her cape as a scarecrow to trick Mira.
"She's definitely proven more than just proficient with her grandfather's polearm."
"...and if my grandfather wasn't traveling by foot or vehicle, they say he flew across entire regions on the nimbus."
"My mother used to tell me stories about the flying nimbus as a kid."
"Really?"
"You have to remember, Pan, that my mother knew your grandfather longer than just about everyone in his circle of friends. It was thanks to her that he was introduced to the world beyond his grandfather's home."
Pan seemed to contemplate regarding what little she knew of Goku's early life before meeting Bulma. While she now knew Goku was sent to Earth to wreak havoc to the select planet's population as was customary for low-level Saiyan youth, Pan recalled little about who had raised him on Earth aside from this man being referred to as Goku's grandfather despite not being blood-related.
"Ah, I'm getting us off-track. So, the nimbus."
"I knew it was once Master Roshi's, then Goku's... and after Goku was gone, it was my father's, then Goten's... and then..."
"Come on, Pan. Let's go out."
There Chi-Chi and the young Pan were exiting her grandmother's home, the former wearing yellow with white sleeves and blue-green pants while the latter was in an outfit similar to Chi-Chi's, but in blue and white sleeves with red pants.
"Where are we going, Grandma?"
"To pick up some odds and ends."
"But how? I don't see any cars."
"With this."
Chi-Chi whistled with both her hands, then shouted out "Nimbus!" Pan heard a strange sound from above them and saw the yellow puffed cloud flying towards them.
"I thought that was Uncle Goten's."
"It was your uncle's, but now that he doesn't use it, I do."
But then Pan recalled her parents both being strict in regards to flying where she could be seen by others.
"We're not supposed to fly."
"We won't fly. The nimbus will."
Chi-Chi crouched over to pick up Pan and placed her over her shoulders. Once she was certain Pan was stable and had a good grip, Chi-Chi stepped onto the nimbus. Even atop her grandmother's shoulders, Pan could feel it akin to Chi-Chi going up a step.
"Now hold on to me the whole way, okay Pan?"
"Okie-doe."
With that, Chi-Chi used the nimbus to take flight. As much as Pan enjoyed flying by herself, holding onto something or someone who was flying seemed just as fun, almost like a theme park ride. She raised her arms upward.
"Weeee!"
Chi-Chi knew Pan was against her head, but not holding on to her, so she tilted just enough forward to keep Pan from falling backward.
"I need you to hold on with your hands."
Even as she was caught up in her fun, Pan knew her grandmother's tone was serious and did as she was asked.
"Sorry, Grandma."
The two were above a forest, Chi-Chi focusing when she felt Pan climbing down her back.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"Holding on."
Pan was now holding onto her ankle, her feet just inches from touching the nimbus.
"Hold on tight, Pan."
She had just seen and felt her grandmother walk atop of it.
"If Grandma can do it..."
Chi-Chi saw Pan sticking out one of her feet.
"Wait, don't...!"
Pan did this, expecting to stand atop of it akin to a solid surface...
...and upon feeling nothing at all below her feet, she panicked, her hands suddenly slipping from around Chi-Chi's ankle down to her foot. Pan tried to grab hold of her shoe, but her vision was covered by phasing through the nimbus itself, seeing nothing but yellow. Pan then saw her grandmother floating above her on the nimbus while she fell.
"Grandma!"
Hearing and seeing her granddaughter in a panic...
"Pan!"
Chi-Chi changed course, diving downward with the nimbus and appearing to stand on it sideways as they descended.
Pan, even though she knew how to fly, was in such shock from falling through the Nimbus Cloud that she found herself panicking, unable to get herself to hover or stop.
"I can't... I can't...!"
Now the two descended down into the forest itself and while Pan thankfully had avoided any branches so far, the ground was now visible to Chi-Chi. Fast approaching a tree devoid of any leaves with a sharpened top, Chi-Chi hopped off of the nimbus towards Pan. She didn't know if the cloud had stopped right before or had been split by the impact: Chi-Chi's priority was saving her granddaughter.
She got her arms around Pan and immediately tried landing on her feet, but at the speed they were traveling and the distance from the ground, Chi-Chi found herself bouncing sideways off the uneven terrain and forced into a roll. She used her arms to shield Pan from whatever branches or rocks could be in their path, waiting for them to slow down.
Once the two realized they had stopped, Chi-Chi made her way back to her feet and held Pan in front of her, checking for any bruises or cuts and finding a few small holes on her sleeves and pants from the roll. Unlike other experiences in the air where she had complete control, the feeling of helplessness while falling had her trembling. Chi-Chi set her granddaughter down on the ground, where she sat instead of stood, and kept her head down in front of her grandmother.
"What were you doing, Pan?"
She tried to keep to a calm tone, but received no response from Pan.
"Pan!"
The young girl looked up at Chi-Chi, her grandmother practically towering over her.
"I told you to hold on to me! At all times!"
Now the young Pan appeared to cower, as if afraid of what her grandmother was going to do to her.
"You could've gotten hurt! If I hadn't caught you, you would have...!"
Regardless of her granddaughter's part-Saiyan status, Chi-Chi wasn't about to picture Pan being perfectly unharmed from such a fall, even as she didn't want to imagine any of the far worse results.
But Chi-Chi was losing patience with her granddaughter, kneeling down and holding onto the sides of her face so Pan would look at her.
"What were you trying to do?! Tell me right now, Pan! What were you doing?!"
Closing her eyes, Pan shouted, "I wanted to be on the cloud!"
Chi-Chi saw Pan's demeanor shift from shock and terror to shame and dejection.
"You stood on it. I wanted to too."
When Pan opened her eyes, seeing that her grandmother was no longer angry with her, this did little for her spirits.
"You can be on the cloud, but not me."
Chi-Chi felt tears on her hands from Pan.
"Why not me? Did I do something wrong?"
Chi-Chi let go, then hugged the crying Pan.
"Grandma... is something wrong with me?"
"Oh no, no, no, Pan..."
She patted Pan's back while lightly shushing whenever she heard a sniffle from her granddaughter.
"It's nothing wrong with you."
The nimbus floated on the ground nearby them, catching Pan's attention, turning away from Chi-Chi.
"What did I do, cloud? What did I do wrong?"
"I'm sorry that happened to you, Pan. I couldn't imagine how terrifying that must've felt."
"My grandma and I got a ride back home. She knew I didn't want to go on the nimbus again after that ordeal and we went about the rest of our day back at her home. I know everyone in our circle of friends tried to keep mum about the nimbus and how it worked exactly, especially once they caught word of what had happened... but I heard that not just anyone could ride it. That those who couldn't would fall right through it."
She put both her hands together and breathed out, finally reaching what for her was the hardest part to tell someone.
"And it had to do with a person's heart."
As if anticipating Pan about to be hard on herself, he added what he knew about the discussion.
"My mother couldn't ride the nimbus either. She talked about how she, or Krillin, had to hold on to Goku when he flew on it."
She could tell he said this in response to her last comment, and proceeded with what she had in store next.
"As I got older, I tried several other times to ride the nimbus... on ground level, of course. Thought it might've been me not being ready for it before, or not until I was older, but it never seemed like anything changed. Fell flat on my face every time."
Now Trunks was absorbing that it wasn't just one moment from her childhood of falling through the nimbus, but Pan spending all her years growing up and still having the same result occur over and over.
"Eventually, I stopped trying to ride it. Not because I felt like I'd outpace the nimbus by that point, but because it seemed as futile when I was becoming an adult as it did when I was a kid."
Pan knew Trunks wouldn't say it directly, but she felt like he was still waiting for the big reveal in regards to the topic at hand.
"As it pertains to Super Saiyan... since I couldn't go Super Saiyan over the years, I equated it with riding the nimbus: needing the right heart. My grandfather did and he could ride the nimbus. Same went with my dad and uncle Goten once I knew they could too."
Trunks then recalled Pan mentioning four Super Saiyans on her Earth facing Frieza all at once.
"After my first battle working together with your father on Namek, I even wondered if, since the Vegeta of my world could go Super Saiyan, even after everything he had done before, and I couldn't, that meant his heart was pure and mine's..."
"Please don't even think that, Pan," he interrupted. "Don't even think for a single moment that your heart is less pure than..."
He couldn't finish his thought regarding his father and his past, but had to let Pan know...
"You're not a lesser person for not being one hundred percent pure of heart."
For perhaps the first time that morning, Trunks saw Pan start to smile.
"I really do appreciate that."
"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it."
He thought his face might've gone red again and tried to shrug it off.
"Just know, Trunks, that I don't think like that anymore."
"Y-you don't? I'm really happy to hear that. Genuinely."
"You said it sounded like I went Super Saiyan before, so that means everything I thought was keeping me from it's not the case."
Trunks' wrist began beeping.
"Supreme Kai of Time asking for you, Trunks?"
"You know it."
As he got up, he had one more thing on his mind regarding the concluding topic.
"Just know nothing's wrong with you, Pan. Being a late bloomer Super Saiyan doesn't say anything negative about your character. Not a thing."
As if knowing he was blushing after these words, he made his way to the door.
"Take it easy today and we'll work towards Super Saiyan again tomorrow. I'll see you then."
As he opened her unit's door to leave...
"Thanks again, Trunks. Truly."
"Any time."
Pan's spirits were much higher compared to the day before and what Trunks had told her towards the tail end of their discussion were words she had longed to hear for so long, beginning to reduce her Super Saiyan anxiety.
"If he thinks I can do this..."
"Now we can't really quantify Mira as a factor, even with the state he was in, but here's what we have:"
Chronoa had gathered Trunks and Commander Hale to discuss Towa's next target.
"Our best case scenario: to empower and even control someone like Frieza, Towa would need two months."
"Two months to get the formula just right?" Trunks asked.
"Or perhaps you mean after having expended so much for the Ginyu Force."
"That's right, Commander Hale. Not only had she empowered the three, but she even found a way to give them techniques they shouldn't have possessed."
"With Ginyu, she gave him access to the parts of Goku's brain that knew about Kaio-Ken and times four..." added Trunks. "...well, just enough to activate them."
"As for Guldo learning to hide his ki, we could only ascertain so much without his head," went Hale.
"Now if we have two months at most, what's our minimum? Our worst case scenario?"
"A month, Trunks."
Chronoa felt there could be some skepticism in regards to her estimate and decided to elaborate.
"I won't underestimate Towa's capabilities, especially as of late, but that's as quickly as I'd imagine her pulling off something like this."
"But she went from empowering Raditz to my father and Nappa in no time at all."
"That was a much shorter gap in power. We're talking going from Captain Ginyu to Frieza. And not just Frieza's first form. Towa would have to ensure her formula adjusts accordingly to each of them. Maybe even all of them."
"Perhaps we could slow down the Training Chamber once again. Buy Pan more time. After all, with how much stronger she's become..."
"The city's still recovering from six days of slowed time even now," she explained. "I really hate to say that we lost another asset, but that might just have to be a one time only usage of that room."
"Then that leaves us all with at least a month," Hale concluded. "We will do what we can within that month. Hope for more time, but plan for it to be cut short."
Pan stood before Hale back in the canyon, only this time...
"This will be a group exercise. All of you against myself."
She stood alongside Amura, Umiu, and Goma.
"I don't see you that often, Pan, but when you need to train..." went Goma, almost appearing confused to be there in his expression.
"Uh, if I might be permitted to ask a question," began Umiu, a pink arm raised in the air. "While this whole thing is obviously very important for Pan especially, seeing as how we figure time's on the line again..."
"Not hearing a question, Umiu," teased Amura, the most eager of the three to participate.
"What will this do for us exactly?"
"Think of it as extra credit towards getting to the next rank," Hale answered.
"Exactly," went Amura ecstatically. "See, this is why we should get involved more often."
"Are we still on the Ginyu Force?" asked Goma.
"For this exercise, I will be taking on the role of Frieza in his second form."
An olive green projection of Frieza in his second form emerged from Hale's gauntlet, one that towered over everyone present, Hale included.
"While I will not be at his height and weight, I will be at his power, which is nearly double that of his first."
Pan needed Kaio-Ken just to handle Hale at the level of Frieza's first form once he used all of his limbs, and now double that...
"Kaio-Ken Times Four might not be enough against him."
"If there is one advantage you, Pan, will have against Frieza throughout the entire battle, it is that he cannot sense ki. First he relied on his scouter to pinpoint power levels and then..."
Commander Hale removed his dual-eyed blue scouter...
"Only through his basic senses."
And placed it onto a perfectly round structure with an indent to comfortably hold it.
"As such, I will face all of you without sensing ki either. But even with this advantage, I will be utilizing a tremendous amount of power."
The four of them felt Hale emanating with power, pebbles lifting off the ground around him, as well as bits of the surrounding structures chipping off from them.
"As those who faced him on Namek used their numerical advantage to keep away from him and do damage when they could, I would advise you to do the same."
Pan hopped backward, as did the other three to follow suit, waiting for Hale to make a move.
"Understand that his bulk does not make him slower."
With Zarbon's true form and Recoome, Pan knew this to be true already and eyed Hale carefully.
He zoomed forward at a pace far faster than that of Frieza's first form, forcing Pan into a roll to avoid any number of attacks. Once she came to a stop, she realized Hale's shadow was visible to her.
"He literally beat me there..."
He was ready with a jab when he heard ki bullets firing from behind from the other three participants. Hale swung at them with his right, not even needing to turn around completely to do so, as Pan hopped back, preparing a Masenko. He then began to lift his left hand upward, teeming with ki in his five fingers, as Pan could tell...
"He's not going to blast back at me: he's going to detonate the area around us!"
She broke off her Masenko, shouting "Get back!" as Hale then thrust his left arm straight into the air.
The explosion within the canyon was massive, leaving an enormous crater that nearly appeared bottomless with only where Hale stood still standing as a lone pillar.
Not sensing ki as promised, Hale looked around, seeing that Pan had made it to the outskirt of the crater, her ki shield over her, but practically like stained glass.
"Even if Hale held back on me, had the shield given out..."
She then looked to the opposite end behind her instructor, Umiu lying on the ground with his arms outstretched...
"I've got you both..."
...having grabbed hold of Amura and Goma.
"Nicely done."
Hale clearly ceased combat for the time being.
"Pan, you took note of my technique and its purpose, and warned your fellow comrades. And you, Umiu, ensured the safety of those closest to you by moving them out of harm's way."
Letting go of two of his teammates, Umiu stood up, the back of his green gi with several tears across it, and when he turned to face Hale, a small purple wound on the right side of his forehead became visible.
"Shall we continue, Commander?" the normally nervous Namekian patroller inquired.
"Indeed we shall... now!"
Hunched over in the seemingly peaceful surroundings of rock facing and above water, Pan tried once again to focus on her anger alone. Trunks could tell that this time, she didn't become overwhelmed with grief.
"She's managing to key in on her rage."
"That's it, Pan. You're doing great."
"Not now, Trunks. Angry."
Seeing his words of encouragement were becoming a distraction for her, he stepped back and tried getting back to a stance more resembling a teacher.
Wearing what appeared to be akin to laser tag vests and helmets on her Earth, Pan and the other three were curious what Hale had in mind.
"Aside from growing in size, Frieza's second form brings with it another change:"
He faced them with what first appeared to be a foam cutout attached to the top of his head.
"His two horns protrude upward, making them ideal for impaling attacks."
His stance now having Hale's head leaning towards them like a bull, the four more than pieced together the idea of this exercise even as he laid out the scenario for them.
"I will attack with flying collisions primarily and it will be your task to avoid contact with them and, if possible, keeping each other out of harm's way while doing so."
After a stomp felt by his four pupils...
"And... go!"
Pan sidestepped his first flying charge, her hand just touching one of the cutout's horns. She then had to hop over another, but this time, both feet were atop the horn, sending her off-course and to the side.
"I've got you, Pan!"
Amura fired ki bullets to dissuade Hale from attacking Pan, knowing this'd likely make herself his next target. Using kiai with her hands, she knew the gust wouldn't be enough to push Hale back and instead had the opposite effect of sending herself away before his horns could touch her.
Even still, she felt one of the horns scratch one of her legs, indicating it was sharper than she and the others thought. Pan fired between Amura and Hale to allow her to recover, but then saw Hale had zoomed around the other side entirely with a clear path.
"I can sense him at any time, but when he moves like that..."
As it looked like Amura was about to be struck, Umiu had hopped upward, his stretched arms over Hale's eyes and trying to steer him away. It was only partially successful, though Amura did recover enough to descend below the two. Once Hale had shaken Umiu off of him, he was immediately struck down by a divekick to the side of his head from Goma.
"Go Team... uh..."
Seeing how quickly Hale recovered, Goma flew backwards while firing ki bullets, but found Hale tore straight through them.
"Knew we should've come up with a team name first..."
He swerved to the side, but felt the horn cut his cheek from one of the few areas the helmet didn't cover. Goma covered it with one hand, but had the other charging and aiming for Hale.
Pan and Amura both fired not just between Hale and Goma, but behind their teammate in case Hale tried to go around one barrage as he had prior. Umiu also flew above Goma to watch him from above.
With three of his routes covered, Hale took the only opening he could find:
Back down beneath the ki barrages, then straight up towards Goma. The green patroller fired his blast at Hale after all, but he avoided it, an explosion of considerable size resulting upon impact with the ground from how much power he put into it. He tried charging for another attack even as Hale came closer to making his mark...
"Huh?"
He felt a hand grab the back of his vest and pull him backward.
"Get bac...!"
Umiu then swung Goma away as Hale fast approached them, but even as he tried to move aside, he felt a massive impact to his stomach...
...followed by a flashing light and beeping noise from his vest.
"That means you're out."
Umiu, while hurt, realized the horn striking the vest was more akin to a punch than the impalement he had warned them about.
Pan and Amura watched as Umiu hovered down, the colored lights visible even from that distance.
"Guess it's like that game with the plastic zappers back home," Amura pointed out.
"Focus," went Pan. "Umiu's out and now it's three against one. And as far as I'm concerned, we're outnumbered."
Goma floated down next to them, his stance and expression showing him actually appearing to be taking things seriously.
"He sacrificed himself for me. I won't let it be in vain."
After hearing Pan and Goma, Amura clenched her fist, then stood ready as Hale finally moved towards them.
"Okay then."
Pan wasn't hunched over as much and even opened her eyes this time. The serenity around her wasn't enough to throw her off as she snarled from the anger within. Trunks not only saw larger rocks floating around her, but even saw the ground beneath her beginning to crack.
"That's the way."
Her two bangs were clearly floating upward during all of this and he could've sworn he saw brief flashes of her black hair turning gold.
"You're so close, Pan."
Circling around her, he saw the cracks below her increasing in number and spreading.
"It reminds me of..."
But just as he reminisced about his past for that moment, he saw Pan lifting her upper body and head upward, roaring as the flashes of gold lasted just slightly longer...
...and the rocky floor all but crumbled completely.
"Aw, crap...!"
Pan suddenly found the ground she stood on gone completely and found herself dropping down towards the water below...
...when Trunks dived forward, grabbing onto her left hand. While he had stopped her descent, he found the ground he was lying on was starting to break down as well.
"...crapbaskets!"
The moment he could lift himself upward just enough to get to his knees, he pulled Pan up with both his hands, then flung himself and her backward. Trunks, on his back, and Pan, on her side, saw the ground they were just on break off of the larger mass and drop down.
"Sorry about that, Pan. This completely slipped past my mind "
"What, you mean us falling in?"
"Happened to me in one of my first sessions with Gohan. Worst part for me was I didn't know how to swim."
He slowly sat up, swiping off bits of dirt from the front of his coat.
"I think next time, we'll set the ground to be made of stronger stuff."
"Was this the only place you trained with your Gohan to go Super Saiyan?"
"There was one other area that we..."
As Pan caught Trunks pausing, she also saw what looked like a flash of regret over his face.
"That was before he..."
"You okay, Trunks?"
He realized he had the smallest tear trying to escape and wiped it away with his arm.
"It's nothing. Dust around here got in my eye."
He knelt down and helped Pan up, the two dusting themselves off of whatever got on their coat and jacket respectively.
"So it sounds to me like you took a while to go Super Saiyan yourself."
"You are correct."
"So when you say I'm doing good or getting there..."
His right hand touched her left shoulder.
"I know it."
He then sweeped it, a few tiny pebbles coming off it as he turned to lead them towards the exit.
"That's why you're so patient with me: because it wasn't overnight for you either."
Trying to parse out his response carefully...
"Not to say 'I've been there', but yeah. I got frustrated at it not happening fast enough, but Gohan... he was patient with me, even when I went off on myself."
He stood at the open doorway as if keeping it open for her.
"Anywho... until next time, Pan. Take care."
Once she exited the chamber towards the hallway, she briefly turned back to him and waved.
"Thanks. You too."
As she took the steps up, Trunks' smile began to fade as his mind went back to what Pan had been saying just earlier.
"So it sounds to me like you took a while to go Super Saiyan yourself."
He had his back against the now closed door and let himself slide down, his head against it.
"So when you say I'm doing good or getting there..."
"Oh who am I kidding?! I don't know at all!"
His gloved right hand began to make a fist.
"I believe in you, Pan, I do, but..."
He thought back to all the times he had tried going Super Saiyan only for it to fizzle out just as it had for her.
"I couldn't go Super Saiyan under Gohan's tutelage. Nothing he taught worked for me at all. It took..."
"Was this the only place you trained with your Gohan to go Super Saiyan?"
He began to tear up, this time not stopping himself because Pan could see.
"It took that."
He was squeezing his fist tighter, then his sorrow turned to anger.
"Or maybe I could have even back then and was just too stupid to figure it out...! And she can too, but I'm just not teaching her right!"
His thumb began to tear its way out of his glove, as did the knuckles.
"Her life... my life... all of time depends on me getting this right and if I screw this up...!"
He then struck the wall beside the door, a visible indent left as a result.
"A sacrifice for absolutely nothing... again!"
He put his hands against his face.
"Gohan, give me a sign!"
He then caught the smell of blood and moved his hands away. He saw all five fingers out of his right glove, as well as blood in his palm: Trunks had pierced into it without knowing it, too caught up in his anguish to even notice the pain. Turning to look at the reflective surface of the door, he saw a partial red handprint on the right side of his face.
"What am I getting wrong?"