Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
Earlier
Piccolo, en route to reach Gohan and the others in order to face Frieza, stopped for a moment upon sensing a small ki source close by his route:
Nail, the second Namekian Piccolo had ever met, lied on the ground, having been inflicted with fatal injuries by Frieza.
"I take it you're the Namekian the Earthlings spoke of. Their wishes... they got them."
"So you know what's going on."
Piccolo, while far from indifferent to Nail's condition and eventual fate, sensed Frieza and others and knew he had to depart soon.
"Then you know I need to hurry and save them. I'm sorry, but I'll have to leave you now."
"Oh don't you worry your pretty little head about it..."
The two turned, Nail only able to peer himself just enough towards this third voice that entered their conversation.
"I'll give you company."
This hooded and caped figure casually made his way towards Nail while not even trying to walk around Piccolo.
"You got somewhere to be, doncha? So chop, chop. Mush, mush. No time like the present."
Piccolo started to lift a foot to prepare to step aside...
"I can't just leave them to Frieza's devices... but this man... whoever, whatever he is..."
...but the man instead saw Piccolo looking ready to fight.
"Oh? Now this is unexpected."
He had his gloved hands together, cracking his knuckles.
"No matter. I don't get to fight many Namekians, so this will be a real treat for me."
"Another alteration brought into place by the patroller rather than my formula..."
Towa and Mira watched Pan hop into the practically pitch blackness of the crater Frieza created before, prompting Krillin to move towards where she was out of concern instead of leading the galactic tyrant on a chase as per history. Upon Pan vanishing via the light-esque construct, the three combatants and the hidden Dende were now at the mercy of Frieza and his considerably less wounded tail.
"And with that, she has led them to the slaughter," Mira added with the slightest hint of glee.
Shortly
Due to Krillin's attempt to pursue Pan, he was trapped towards ground level rather than taking to the sky, Frieza covering his every attempt to try doing so. He tried putting his hands towards his face to begin the Solar Flare, but Frieza's chopping hand nearly touched his right arm and he was forced to break it off.
"That could've taken my hand off the wrist!"
Krillin's eyes were on Frieza the entire time, yet he still caught Vegeta floating just behind the tyrant.
"Get in here already, you Saiyan jerk!"
But he was forced to duck from another chop, one that would've connected had Krillin been slightly taller.
"He's faster than this! He could step on the gas any time, but he's...!"
The Prince of all Saiyan's face appeared as neutral as he could possibly disguise it, but like Krillin, he knew why they all still drew breath:
"He's playing with us! He want us to suffer before he..."
He looked down at Gohan, then spotted Dende floating his way towards the half-Saiyan child, undetected by Frieza thus far.
"...before he kills all four of us."
"You came out again..."
Frieza almost sounded elated to have found Dende again, actually breaking off his combat with Krillin and allowing the Earthling to put distance between the two. Now with Frieza seemingly distracted, Krillin only lamented that he didn't have the ki necessary to seriously damage him.
"Should've just thrown one Destructo-Disk and saved my energy! Couldn't make one now if my life depended on... it does depend on it, and now I can't! Stupid, stupid!"
He turned to Vegeta, trying to get his attention with his glare and direct him towards Frieza.
"I know you have way more ki than all of us! You won't find a better opening than this! Attack him! NOW!"
But Vegeta didn't humor Krillin in the least, not even raising a hand or with a hint of ki at his fingers.
"It'd be a complete waste."
"I'm afraid, Namekian, that your friend's not going to be getting up any time soon."
As far as Vegeta could tell, Dende was trying to shake Gohan.
"You're wasting your time, you stupid Namekian! Kakarot's brat is going to die and you're just...! Gah, you're completely useless!"
A purple glow overtook Frieza...
"But you mustn't fret: now you'll be in the same boat."
...as he pointed his finger directly in Dende's direction to the immediate notice of Krillin.
"He'll kill Dende! Maybe Gohan too!"
Vegeta caught Krillin about to move towards Dende.
"What is that moronic Earthling doing?!"
Trying to parse out his movement against whichever attack of Frieza's was about to be unleashed from his finger, Krillin found himself in a seemingly no-win scenario.
"I can't push him out of the way in time! I can only...!"
Catching the slightest flicker emerge from Frieza's fingertip, he gulped, then threw himself into Dende's path to cover him.
"After I die, you have to heal Goku, Dende! He's the only way we'll survive any of this!"
Frieza found his Death Beam about to be intercepted by the Earthling, but instead of his smirk receding, it stretched out instead, his teeth vying to poke out.
"I may just kill all three of you in one gesture. I do hope the dear prince sees this."
Vegeta, believing he was about to become Frieza's lone target with their deaths, turned his back to the battlefield.
"Now there is no hope..."
He began to fly off to put as much distance as possible between himself and Frieza.
"I have to get off this planet now."
Dende tried to get out one last scream as the beam headed right for Krillin...
...but he was frozen completely before sound could leave him. As was the blast about to touch Krillin, the grinning Frieza, and the fleeing Vegeta.
"Figures."
Towa wasn't the slightest bit surprised at the stopping of time at her moment of triumph.
"Once the patroller departed, it was only inevitable the Supreme Kai of Time would do this. She has done this before."
"Then does that mean the patroller has already intercepted our other alteration?"
Upon hearing Mira's inquiry, Towa swiped her hand at her screen, causing it to shift from the frozen battle in history to the new one she had orchestrated.
"We might as well check on my lord."
"That's my sweet lord to you, my fair blue lady," answered her ally on comms.
Lord Slug, arms crossed, communicated with Towa.
"We've got ourselves a party crasher."
"It was never ruled out as a possibility," Towa added.
"Oh, don't misunderstand. I'm not the least bit worried. In fact, I haven't gone all out yet."
Now that Pan had learned the identity of the man attacking Nail and Piccolo, she used this moment to try learning all she could about him.
"What can you both tell me about Lord Slug?"
"In multiple timelines, he's emerged as a would-be conqueror," began Chronoa. "But other than that, we don't know all that much about who Lord Slug is and where he comes from."
"Your grandfather fought him in some of those timelines and won, but they were never easy victories," Trunks added.
"Tell me, Lord Slug..."
Piccolo broke the silence by addressing his enemy by name.
"Why are you doing this? Why slay a Namekian whose already dying?"
"I don't owe either of you young punks an explanation."
Piccolo's fists tightened, utterly insulted by this.
"Who are you calling a young punk?!"
"For starters, compared to my centuries of living, you're but a mere infant, only beginning to crawl."
Piccolo stumbled back, but kept his fighting stance strong.
"C-centuries?"
"Not to mention you're, what, ten? By Earthling standards, neither of you can drink, but you couldn't even get into a grown up moving picture without her."
Pan caught Piccolo partially hunched over and heard a near-silent growl from his clenched teeth.
"What's really curious is the spawn of the Great Demon King playing guardian angel to a total stranger."
Nail lifted his head and back up partially upon hearing this.
"The spawn of the... the Great Demon King?"
A bead of sweat slowly slinked down between Piccolo's right eye and his right ear.
"How could you possibly...?"
"I did a little reading on your old man during my time on Earth. Admired what he did there, certainly, but your pops set his ambition much too low. I mean why just rule over one planet..."
Lord Slug uncrossed his arms and raised them almost triumphantly with closed hands.
"...when he could've ruled ALL of them?"
Everyone around Lord Slug was unnerved at what his aspirations were.
"Turles was bad enough acting as a pure Saiyan," Pan pondered. "But what Lord Slug wants to accomplish..."
Her thoughts were halted upon hearing a rough cough from Nail.
"You're just like Frieza..."
Nail's voice began to sound hoarse.
"You said it, not me. That's quite the compliment there, pal."
Pan took on what to Piccolo appeared to be a standing running stance.
"Slug's going to stall us. Talk Piccolo's ear off until Nail dies. I need to start the fight again. Get him away from the two so they can fuse."
"Kaio...!"
Lord Slug heard this and saw Pan taking a step forward.
"KEN!"
Piccolo covered himself from the shift in the air this caused, stunned by what he sensed emanating from Pan and having never encountered Kaio-Ken before.
"Her power... it just doubled!"
She was surrounded by red and moved so quickly as to appear to vanish to the untrained eye.
"I've landed hits on him without Kaio-Ken so far, so now..."
A right handed punch neared Lord Slug's face.
"My..." he spoke casually...
...as he caught her fist with his right hand.
"...oh my."
Pan found her movements ceased completely and his grip effectively pinned her.
"He's stopping me with just one hand..."
She tried swinging her left arm at him, but from the angle she was at, unable to move upward or downward, Pan couldn't reach him.
"Kaio-Ken's not even making him budge..."
Pan found that Lord Slug's left arm was raised and coming down towards her head, but his left hand's fingers took on a claw-like stance rather than a fist.
"Agh, I'm a sitting duck!"
After how she had performed alongside Piccolo just moments earlier, Pan hoped she could forgo higher levels of Kaio-Ken for the time being, but with this not being the case...
"Times Four!"
Lord Slug found himself being dragged backward, then lost his footing as Pan proceeded to tackle him at high speed. His backside was beginning to be partially submerged into the blue-green ground until he was slammed through a massive rocky structure.
Pan flew back over to Piccolo and Nail, deactivating her Kaio-Ken upon landing and gripping her right shoulder.
"Pan, your arm...!" began Trunks.
"It's fine for the most part," she replied back. "Using it with Kaio-Ken's just a bit of a pain."
She let go of her shoulder and pointed to Piccolo.
"Piccolo! You need to fuse now!"
Piccolo looked back at Nail, then at his own hands, aghast at what Pan was suggesting.
"J-join with him?!"
She shut her eyes and sighed.
"I did it again, didn't I?"
Piccolo shook his head and turned away from Nail.
"No, no! I have to be me! I don't want my personality... my mind... my soul... to change from joining you!"
And Nail, despite everything he had done so far to convince Piccolo to join with him, appeared reluctant to raise his hand towards him.
"Piccolo doesn't want to fuse with Nail... and Nail might feel the same way after what Slug gave away about Piccolo's father."
"This is bad, Pan! Really bad! We have to get them to fuse now! Or Nail will die and Piccolo will stand no chance against what's to come!"
Piccolo and Nail both heard Pan openly groan with her hands against her head before breaking it off.
"Hurry, you two! Before he...!"
"Before "HE" what?"
Lord Slug was standing directly at her backside, arms crossed. Pan turned around and swung at his jaw with her left hand, but he vanished right as she felt she was about to connect.
"He was nowhere near this fast earlier..."
Piccolo began charging his ki for a technique Pan was all too familiar with the moment he put his right hand to his forehead, his index and middle fingers touching it.
"How can he expect to hit Slug with that when neither of us can keep up with his movements?"
Almost as if reading Pan's mind, he glared at her.
"Think I can't find him?! It's easy when I know his target!"
"Special Beam...!"
He turned around towards Nail and Pan immediately moved in an arc in that direction.
"CANNON!"
Lord Slug was visible again, his left hand raised and about to fire downward at Nail lying down to the side of him when he caught the spiraling beam fast approaching him.
"This attack's killed Saiyans! Let's see you walk this one off!"
Pan fired at Lord Slug from his right side. His right hand was occupied with blocking ki bullets while his left, instead of firing down at Nail as originally intended, now faced the Special Beam Cannon head on as if trying to catch it in his palm.
"What is he trying to...?!" Pan wondered before...
"No thanks!"
Lord Slug thrust his palm forward right and the Special Beam Cannon was now deflected, not only headed in the exact opposite direction...
"Impossible!"
...but now right towards the shocked Piccolo's head.
Lord Slug immediately tried blasting at Nail with two hands as Pan was caught in the middle, the man confident one of his foes would fall in this moment no matter what she did.
"Take your pick, dearie: a dying Namekian or the spawn of one of the most evil kings of all."
"Kaio-KEN!"
She flew in an upward arc towards Piccolo while firing two blasts at Lord Slug. They struck right as he was about to fire, his shots missing Nail as he was forced backward.
"Now she's turning into a party pooper."
Pan then all but pushed Piccolo into the ground, the Special Beam Cannon only striking her yellow cape, putting a hole directly into its center before arcing into Namek's sky.
"Times Three!"
Before Lord Slug could try another attack on Nail, Pan zoomed into him, the two engaged in fisticuffs as the rocky structure behind Nail was shaken by their impacts, small pebbles breaking off with each clash.
"Get him away from here, Picco...!"
"Oh, he's green like a pickle, alright!" Lord Slug taunted as he punched Pan in the face and then fired eye beams at Nail.
Pan retaliated with a punch to the face of her own upon recovering, but turned her head to see if Piccolo could even make it to Nail in time and if he did...
"Don't be a human shield this time, please."
She found that not only did Piccolo crouch down in front of Nail, but he put out his hands to stop the eye beams. The sound of the impact was akin to sizzling and Pan could even smell a faint burnt sensation.
She once again caught Lord Slug trying to seemingly strike the top of her head with a clawed gesture again.
"Again?! Cut that out already!"
She grabbed hold of his wrist, swung herself knee-first into his face, then booted him in the stomach before flipping onto her back and tossing Lord Slug away.
"Lord Slug..." Towa began. "You're taking hits. You may want to start taking things seriously."
"Believe me, I am a-okay, all thanks to what you gave me," he responded back.
"Do not take her advice lightly," Mira sniped back. "You'd be wise to heed her words... Slug."
Lord Slug got up at a comfortable pace, clearing dust off his uniform with his gloved hands.
"Call me Slug again and I'll have to take your robot hand away, young man."
"Hmph."
"That's enough, both of you. Show them your full might."
He noticed Pan no longer had Kaio-Ken's red glow and took a moment to catch a breather.
"Pan, you could use Kaio-Ken times ten for how long?" Trunks inquired. "Thirty seconds or so, right?"
"Somewhere around there, yeah."
"Then you should be able to use times three and four for much longer."
"Perhaps, but..."
She crouched over for a second, trying to keep her right arm's discomfort hidden from her adversary.
"Beating this guy, then having enough energy to face Frieza for the remainder..."
"Pan, you have to treat this as your one and only fight," Chronoa entered. "Once Lord Slug is out of the picture, we'll have you brought back here and properly treat your arm. Hopefully we have a senzu bean fully grown by this point. But one way or another, we'll make sure you're fully healed."
She then heard something loud crash to the ground:
Piccolo's weighted cape, soon followed by his turban.
"Hmph. 'Green like a pickle.' You sure that's not the pot calling the kettle black?"
"Well it was either that or you're green like a log of..."
Piccolo emerged in front of Lord Slug, each catching a fist and having the other caught.
"Piccolo, I told you to...!" Pan began to shout.
"I'm not taking orders from you, you little brat!"
She shrugged off his last insult and flew to strike Lord Slug, who now fended off each of them with one hand.
"Let me handle this, please!"
"You really think you can take him alone?! You're no match here!"
"For once, we're in agreement."
After his taunt, Lord Slug punched a guarding Piccolo back, then delivered a downward backhand at a guarding Pan. Without any Kaio-Ken, she struck the ground with so much force that she essentially bounced back upward.
"What was I thinking?! Trying not to use Kaio-Ken's only playing into his hand!"
Her opponent then took hold of her by her left ankle, then span around with her in tow.
"Spinning so fast I can't even speak..."
The moment Lord Slug stopped, he went for a toss.
"Catch thi...!"
Lord Slug was struck in the gut by his Namekian opponent having covered the distance.
"This demon king spawn's... gotten faster?"
Pan, unable to speak, but still able to move, lifted her upper body up to grasp the top of her left boot in the midst of this.
"Know why I wore those weights?" Piccolo asked.
Lord Slug's right hand immediately went for a retaliatory punch, but he was surprised to find Piccolo had gotten around him.
"Quick little thing, aren't y...?"
Another punch of Piccolo's connected, this time to Lord Slug's right side, just below the ribs had he been a human.
"To make their heaviness become natural."
Lord Slug eyed Piccolo's feet starting to move, so he put the dangling Pan in front of him to use as a shield...
"Want to try her luck there, Pickl...?"
...or so he thought, only holding Pan's left boot in his hand. Now with Piccolo's approach imminent, he dropped the boot and immediately caught Piccolo's hands.
"So when I take them off..."
Lord Slug found himself being dragged backward a few inches before managing to stop.
"...my speed and strength reach a brand new peak."
Both tried pushing forward with neither budging.
"What kind of vitamins is this Namekian taking to be able to do this?!"
In the midst of their struggle, Lord Slug saw the gray boot he held before and peered to the side at its owner lying down on her side with a glow obscured by her cape and backside.
"And when I'm done here, I will train up to this in the weights..."
Pan then rolled onto her other side, her front and hands facing him. He tried to move, but Lord Slug was now being pressed downward, Piccolo effectively pinning him to the ground.
"...to ensure my next peak."
Pan fired a non-verbal beam. Seeing it was unavoidable, Lord Slug tried with all his might to break out of Piccolo's grip with at least one of his hands. He succeeded with his left and used his palm to repel it, but another punch to his gut had him reeling enough that he was not only exposed to that, but a blast from Piccolo as well.
"Now bow, Lord Slug."
He was sent in the far distance with the might of both beams, Piccolo's especially, becoming a speck in a second.
"You didn't expect that from me at all, did you?"
Piccolo stood almost pridefully, arms crossed, nearly smiling until...
"Oh. Of course."
Pan took the time to place her discarded boot back over her left foot.
"At least now I don't feel like I'm about to barf."
As she fastened it...
"There. That should do it. Now to regroup and..."
"Wh...? Hey!"
Piccolo stretched his arm to grab onto her by her left arm, nearly dragging her until she was back on her feet in front of him.
"What's the big idea?!"
"You're not pulling any more disappearing acts on me. You're coming with me."
She noted he wasn't putting crushing pressure on her arm, but still shook to get him to let go.
"Alright, alright! I'm not going anywhere!"
"Good."
He released her, but then gave her a shove in Nail's direction.
"But you're staying in front of me. Where I can see you."
Pan groaned, then stepped forward with Piccolo right behind her.
"He's just going to drag this out..."
Seeing Lord Slug crashing down far from the battleground and his objective, Mira openly scoffed.
"Maybe, LORD Slug, this will make you take this seriously."
Towa at first put her arm in front of Mira, almost as if trying to stand in front of him before another hypothetical person to keep a conflict from arising.
"Mira didn't mean..."
"I'll give the blue man this much: I've killed underlings for saying less, but he has a point."
On screen, they saw Lord Slug rising onto his knees, wiping blue-green grass from his clothes.
"I was not expecting that from the Demon King's brat. Now that he's shown me his stuff, it's about time I show them both mine."
He cracked his neck through his helmet while standing up.
"I won't have my victory come down to their friend expiring: I intend to get a kill myself."
Pan was now just short of stepping on Nail, seeing that the slightest movements became more painful and slight.
"Nail's looking worse. How long does he have?"
"Minutes at best now," Chronoa answered.
"Sit down!" went Piccolo, shoving her downward.
Pan adjusted to sit down criss-crossed, then noticed Piccolo paced back and forth without ever letting her out of his sight.
"You're going to stay right where you are until you explain everything. So much as try to stand and I'll send you straight back down."
"Go easy on her," entered Nail. "She's why we're still... still alive."
"But she's not just keeping us alive: she wants us to join together. She is insistent on it. But why is that?"
"Is it enough that I..." responded Nail, his voice becoming more rough. "That I will die if we don't?"
"But she knows something. Something I don't know. Something YOU don't know."
He pointed down at Pan, now addressing her directly.
"You know who Nail is despite him never meeting you before. Just as you knew all of us, where to go, and who to fight."
"Look Piccolo, if this is about me fighting you way back at..."
"You AND Goku. During my match with him at the tournament. You weren't in the crowd or even nearby: you beamed right in at just the right time before I won."
"You didn't have a problem with it before."
"Excuse me?!"
Pan, now increasingly frustrated with Piccolo, tried a new approach with him.
"Well I have a question for you, Piccolo:"
"Not until you spill the beans about what you're doing!"
"Why protect Nail earlier...?!"
"You won't get a damn thing from me!"
"...when you're just going to let him die now?!"
Just shy of getting up, Pan made it to her knees so she could point at Piccolo.
"Is interrogating me worth him dying over?! Huh?!"
"Why do you NEED me to fuse with him?!" Piccolo retorted. "What scheme am I to play a part in?!"
"You really want your friends from Earth to get killed by Frieza over this?!"
"I won't be a party to your plot... or whoever's pulling your strings! I won't be anyone's puppet!"
"Well fine then!"
Pan actually stood up and before Piccolo could retaliate...
"Go ahead and let Gohan die."
Instead of getting angrier like before, Piccolo was speechless and trying to shift his expression away from anything remotely concerned or conflicted.
"Why should you care, right? This is clearly more important than his life! You've already written off Nail's, so why should Gohan's be of any concern to you?!"
She turned her back to him, about ready to try departing.
"So if you want to catch me, catch me. Nail would've given you a fighting chance against Frieza, but you might as well wing it and get yourself killed."
Pan flew off, anticipating whether or not Piccolo would actually pursue her.
"I didn't know what else to tell him. I hope I didn't doom my father and everyone just now."
"To think Piccolo was trying to connect the dots once the battle was..."
"Wait!"
Trunks' thought was interrupted by Chronoa bursting in.
"What's wrong?!" the son of Vegeta asked.
"Piccolo's not coming after you. He's turning around."
"Back to Nail?" Pan inquired.
"That's right."
"Watch it, buddy!" shouted...
"Lord Slug?!"
The purple and gold-garbed foe tackled Pan at high speed. Piccolo, standing in front of Nail, saw the two about to collide with the ground in Nail's direction. He stretched his arms to pull Nail away, then hopped high into the air. Their ensuing impact tore through the grass and split the rock formation behind Nail in two, the halves flying in opposite directions.
"Ah, you kids really need to pay more attention when you're cruising through the air. You could bump into someone."
Piccolo, landing and placing Nail onto the ground, turned to face this new enemy once more.
"You expect this to go any differently from before, Slug?"
"Everything I've shown you up to this point was merely a free sample."
Piccolo smirked almost cockily upon hearing Lord Slug's claim.
"You bluff poorly."
"Well I've never been any good at bluffing. For one thing, I don't play cards much. But for another..."
Lord Slug began channeling ki around him to a small extent at first...
"I don't need to con anyone when I can just demonstrate."
...but then the gust expanded immensely, rocks and even bits of grass starting to lift off the ground around him. Piccolo stumbled backward from how much force was behind it.
"Lord Slug had this power all along? Maybe what he said about his prime was true..."
But the Namekian from Earth then took note of Nail's eyes wide open in utter shock and his expression being one of genuine terror.
"His power... it is just like Frieza..."
"See, this one gets it," added Lord Slug as pebbles and blades of grass dropped all around him. "That little spawn of Cold isn't the only one in the universe with that kind of power. And once I'm done here, even he and his father will fear my name."
"Times FOUR!"
Pan floated up from the hole Lord Slug had tackled her into earlier with a greater red aura than before.
"I've got to get Lord Slug out of here now!"
A red streak headed straight for him, but he simply put out his arms in front of him, stopping the first intended punch by her. He was pushed back, but otherwise his stance was unmoved even as he guarded against another blow.
"I'll take care of this, Piccolo!"
Lord Slug then floated backward, then zoomed around towards Nail, but found Pan beat him there, now defending against his strikes.
"Take Nail with you and go!"
But Piccolo, who seemingly had Lord Slug matched or even beaten before and was now awestruck by what seemed to be his foe's full power, couldn't believe the prospect that she was suggesting.
"We're outmatched! Both of us! Neither of us can win this!"
"I certainly approve of this message," went Lord Slug, floating just over Pan to fire downward at the immobile Namekian.
She tried to redirect his left arm, but by the time she touched him, Lord Slug's blast was already unleashed and his aim was true.
"NO!"
Pan heard Piccolo's cry, but was forced to guard with her left arm, then block Lord Slug's knee with her own.
"Times Four is only just keeping up with him. I have to go double digits to end this... but how high up?"
She then saw an elbow coming straight down for her head and guarded with her right arm...
"Wait, I should use my left to...!"
Pan was forced right downward, her right arm having absorbed the brunt of that blow, and pain creeping up to her wounded shoulder.
"Kaio-Ken's not giving it protection: it still feels just as bad!"
She turned for only a moment to check on Nail, then found that Piccolo was hunched over and his green skin was not only bruised, but even had small trails of purple blood from a few cuts.
"He looked like he had Lord Slug beat before and just from blocking that one shot, now he's... like this."
It almost reminded her of how Piccolo looked after taking the blast Nappa intended for Gohan. While nowhere near on Death's door now as he was in that moment on Earth, she knew he likely couldn't withstand a second blast as he was now.
"He won't die today, Dad."
Lord Slug charged a much larger mass of ki in both hands, aimed at all three from where they stood and lied.
"I love a good hat trick."
The moment it left his hands, Piccolo knew from its speed that he couldn't avoid it even if he tried.
"I'm sorry Gohan. I wasted your wish. Made it all for nothing."
He then found Pan standing in front of the beam.
"Is she actually going to try stopping it? To protect us? Even with her power now, at best, she'll..."
Lord Slug had his hand over his brow like he was looking into the distance, awaiting for the impact. Pan put both hands in front of her as her ki shield covered her like a second skin.
"TIMES TEN!"
His mock gesture concluded soon after when he found that Pan not only wasn't moved by his two-handed beam, but seemed to split apart, their resulting impacts nowhere near his other two intended targets.
"Pinch me! I have to be dreaming this!"
But he found Pan left her position soon afterward and knew she was coming right for him. He found a foot swinging right for his face and tried turning to block it with his right wrist...
**SNAP**
Lord Slug let out a shout from the pain to his arm, but was soon met by said arm colliding with his forehead combined with the force of Pan's kick. He was rocketed backwards, but was then struck from behind with a punch to his back. Right as he began to try turning his body in mid-air, he was repeatedly punched several times in succession by Pan flying past him in rapid succession.
Piccolo, now able to take something of a breather, let himself fall to one knee as he witnessed Pan's unerring aerial assault of Lord Slug.
"I trained under King Kai all this time with the others... and in that same time, she's..."
But then Pan concluded with a tackle of her own straight down, Lord Slug essentially buried deep below. Soon after, she flew back to Piccolo and Nail, the red aura around her intense and almost flame-like...
...before she exited the form, putting her hands over both knees and taking breaths.
"Are you okay?" Nail asked her.
"Yeah. It's just... it takes a lot out of you."
Piccolo, having both felt and witnessed her power in Kaio-Ken times ten, came to a realization:
"Earlier when I had you... you could've done this and broken out of my grip at any moment..."
Wiping sweat from beneath her bangs, Pan looked Piccolo in the eyes.
"I didn't want to fight you, Piccolo."
"Because you'd win?"
"Because you're not my enemy. You're..."
She heard a groan from Nail and could see the wounded Namekian's eyes started closing.
"Nail!"
Pan knelt down next to him, keeping his head elevated.
"Hang in there, Nail."
Piccolo turned himself around to face Nail, seeing just how dire his condition was now becoming.
"His time was short before, but now... he may not last another minute."
But then ground beneath them was suddenly rocked by an explosion and Pan immediately knew it originated from Lord Slug's last location.
"Aww, would you look at what you've done..."
Lord Slug hovered just a short distance from the three, Pan noting that his right arm appeared completely limp.
"You went and completely totaled Righty."
Holding what appeared to be an almost rectangular stone in his left hand, he placed the stone between his teeth, then took hold of the top of his right shoulder.
"Don't tell me..."
Lord Slug couldn't perform this silently, but with another...
**SNAP**
...his right arm moved again, flexing in circles. He then spat out the stone, which had clear teeth marks, including indents that appeared to be made by fangs.
"Lord Slug's still in fighting shape after all that, Nail's about to die, and I can't let him delay their fusion any further."
Pan slowly let Nail's head down, then walked in front of Piccolo and Nail. Lord Slug saw her stance starting to reform and began to move his arms into that of a combative posture...
"Be ready to depart."
Towa spoke to him and Lord Slug immediately put up his right hand in a "stop" fashion.
"Just a second."
Pan watched him take a few steps backward and start looking away.
"My memory may not be perfect, miss, but I do believe..."
"I have another suitable target:"
He nearly gasped, but otherwise kept this to himself.
"Another target? You mean you planned for a backup in case I ran into trouble with this one?"
"Not out of any doubts of your abilities, my Lord. Merely out of habit."
"And I get to ditch her to the side of the road?"
"Keep your distance from the patroller and yes, you will have done that."
Pan, having taken this moment to catch her breath and get in as minimal of a break for her body to recover, then saw Lord Slug appearing to float away from her, Piccolo, and Nail.
"This doesn't seem right..."
"Towa brought him here to kill Nail and Piccolo to begin with," Trunks added, just as befuddled as her. "If he's backing away from you and them..."
She then found him coming to a complete stop.
"Wait a minute..."
He had his arms outstretched and looked upward, not even trying to appear subtle about waiting for his extraction...
"Beam me up."
Piccolo, wanting to go after Lord Slug, instead fell to a knee just from the attempt.
"He's getting away!"
Pan knelt down, her fist touching the ground.
"Pan...!"
But as Trunks shouted this, Pan flew after Lord Slug, whom shielded himself with his left wrist, which she then grabbed hold of with both hands...
"...WAIT!"
...and both her and her opponent seemed frozen for a split-second as a beam surrounded them, then vanished away in a flash.
The Supreme Kai of Time, using one of her hands to stop the battle of Frieza and the trio further ahead, peered over at Trunks upon hearing him openly panicking.
"She's gone! Towa's taken her! What do we...?!"
He then felt Chronoa all but shoving the scroll directly into his chest for him to grab.
"I'll find Pan! But I'm sending you down there! You have to make sure Piccolo fuses with Nail!"
"But every second we wait, Pan could be...!"
"If Nail dies or he doesn't join with Piccolo, this will all be for nothing! I give you my word I'll find Pan..."
With a gesture of her other hand, Chronoa lifted Trunks' wrist watch-looking device into the air off a table, then to him.
"...but you have to go now!"
Trunks caught it, then nodded to her.
"Tell me first thing when you find Pan. Please."
He disappeared from the room after his last plea as Chronoa took the scroll and began rapidly swiping her hand, viewing all of Namek...
"No, they're not over by Frieza. Not at his ship either."
Now she expanded the view to that of the galaxy.
"Towa couldn't cloak travel of that much distance. Now to follow their path..."
Pan, as she gripped Lord Slug's left wrist, felt their travel across vast distances, if not time, nothing beneath her as if floating, as they were surrounded by a white void. As much as she wanted to combat her foe, she couldn't seem to move and Lord Slug felt the same, as much as he wanted to try shaking her off or throw a punch with his other hand.
"Where the heck is Towa sending Lord Slug... sending us?"
The moment the void vanished away and Pan felt the ground beneath her feet, she immediately swung her opponent around her...
"Wherever we are, I've gotta stop him before he can..."
...and found that before going in a full circle, Lord Slug was slammed into something right behind her, knocking him out of her hands.
"Oh, that smarts! My back!"
Pan found that what she swung him into was a white pillar.
"Now that's solid."
"Swinging me around with that much strength..."
"...he should have smashed straight through it."
From the corner of her eye, two shadows:
One stretched upward and arched into a point.
"A tree... or a really tall bush?"
The other, at first shaped like a capital letter T with a branch attached to it...
"No, that's an arm. A hand holding it."
"You..."
She remembered that voice, not from her Earth, but...
"At the tournament..."
"I suspected I would see you again."
Lord Slug, slow to get to his knees with a hand to his back...
"I certainly like your setup here."
What appeared to be a wooden staff was pointed in his direction.
"Stay right where you are. If I even sense a spark from your fingers..."
"Okay, okay..." the otherwise proud lord responded, throwing his hands up while wincing from his last impact.
From there, a green hand gestured to Pan.
"Come right this way."
She approached the green-skinned figure in white robes with a purple cape.
"Kami."
"You remembered me. I know we weren't properly introduced."
Now taking the time to look over her whereabouts, a memory took shape from her childhood:
"Pan, this is one of my oldest friends: Dende."
Her father, alongside her mother and grandmother, introduced the little Pan to the tall Namekian wearing white robes with a purple sleeveless vest.
"You're like Piccolo."
Piccolo, standing next to her, lightly ruffled her hair. Alongside the trio was another family visiting:
Krillin, his hair black and not yet balding, his wife Lazuli, wearing a sleeveless red dress, and their daughter Marron, a teenager with pigtails in similar attire to her mother.
"We met a long time ago," Marron's father began. "Far, far away from here."
And shortly afterward, a Capsule Corp hover car landed nearby.
"That's an understatement."
Bulma hopped out in a black dress and three followed:
Her husband, son, and daughter all dressed formally in black as well.
"Trunks. Bulla. Dende is a dear friend of ours."
"I know, Dad. We've met bef..."
Trunks' remark was stopped cold by a glare from his father, after which, he cleared his throat and recomposed.
"Um, hi. It's been a while. It's good to see you again."
Pan saw Vegeta walk up to Dende and extended a hand out to him followed by the two shaking hands.
"We've come a long way, Vegeta."
"Indeed we have."
"Mr. Dende, sir..."
He saw Pan raising her hand upward and crouched down.
"What is it?"
"Is that your house?"
He chuckled lightly.
"I suppose you could call it that."
"And is this your yard?" asked Bulla.
"Everything you see here... is the Lookout."
Pan was not only back on Earth, but at the Lookout.
"And if Towa sent Lord Slug here when he couldn't kill Nail or Piccolo..."
She gently shoved Kami backward.
"I have to get you away from here."
"I can't leave."
"But you left before for the tournament."
"Not on a whim unless absolutely necessary."
"Believe me when I say you're in danger and he's..."
Pan turned to face Lord Slug...
...then felt his gloved hands grip her wrists.
"But he didn't even move from that spot!"
She caught a glimpse of his arms outstretched, then felt herself swung with tremendous force and speed.
"I'm staying right where I am," Lord Slug taunted. "See?"
Pan's back struck another pillar, this one not breaking either, but the impact painful all the same to her.
"Let her go!"
"As you wish."
He let go of her wrists, allowing her to fall onto her front.
"Don't you dare touch her!"
Just then, Pan felt herself hovering just off the ground and being sent into Lord Slug's path.
"Whatever you say."
She saw his hand just above her head...
"Telekinesis!"
...then felt herself rotate onto her feet as she now stood toe-to-toe with him. By the time she tried moving any muscle of hers, Pan felt a tight grip on the top of her head.
"This whole time, he's tried grabbing me by the head. What is he...?"
"I barely even know you. So let's fix that."
The sensation that followed was as if some force was trying to pull something out of her very brain. Pan could still move her legs, but Lord Slug lifted her upward, her feet left dangling.
"Tell me all about yourself."
Her hands gripped his wrist, but couldn't seem to tighten, or at least not enough to hurt Lord Slug.
"He's getting into my head. Can't let him... know about..."
"Have any good secrets? Oh, I love those."
"Stay out of her head and release her!" shouted Kami.
Upon seeing the Guardian of Earth gesturing with ki in his hand, Lord Slug had his other hand over his mouth in a mock "oops" fashion.
"Oh no. I'm not following the ground rules you gave me. My sincerest apologies, good sir. I'm being a terrible guest."
"If you don't release her this instant..."
Despite increasing the ki he generated, Kami couldn't help but notice Lord Slug was still entirely unintimidated by his show of power.
"Let me put it to you this way..."
The moment Lord Slug's other hand was aimed at him, the sheer quantity unveiled almost effortlessly by comparison easily eclipsed his own efforts.
"You're vastly outranked, pal."
Kami never broke his stance or left Pan to his devices, but was visibly intimidated by the power difference between them.
"My other half... the Saiyans... even Goku... his power outclasses them all."
Towa, her sights on the Lookout on Earth, conversed with Lord Slug as he attempted to access Pan's mind.
"What do you know about her?"
"This egg's shell isn't an easy one to crack. It's some serious shrink wrap. Can't get her name or anyone else's. She's hitting mute before anyone says one and the rest is gibberish."
"Okay, then what do you see?"
"Just a bunch of kids and playing around. Faces might as well be blocks of cheese because I can't tell 'em apart other than their hairstyles."
"The patroller's mental defenses are actually impressive," went Mira begrudgingly. "Whether the patrol trained her to do so or not, she's..."
Towa pondered a way around this and came up with a specific route for Lord Slug to take.
"Do you see a young man with purple hair? One in a coat perhaps?"
"Purple hair, yes. Coat, no. Oh, wait a second..."
"Is that him?"
"Just found him. And what a horrid coat he's sporting. What, is he expecting to shovel snow in that weather?"
Towa and Mira, almost in sync, nodded to each other as they knew the next step from there.
"Focus on him."
The moment Pan felt Lord Slug locked in to memories of Trunks, she tried tightening her grip.
"He's laser-focusing on him! Have to keep him from learning about...!"
She caught herself letting out a fearful gasp.
"He's getting in! I can't keep him out!"
"What the hell kind of name is Trunks?"
"You can hear names now?"
"Oh, and this guy's a total blabbermouth. He just keeps dragging on and on about 'we're all counting on you' and 'don't give up'. 'My father' this and..."
Towa caught the slightest movement from Lord Slug reacting to that.
For only a second, Pan could hear Lord Slug's inner thoughts.
"'My father' this and..."
His voice went quiet afterward, but what he had revealed so far told her...
"Lord Slug's getting everything about Trunks!"
She broke off her defenses for a split-second just to try getting Lord Slug's feed once more.
"I know that name..."
Pan was all the more fearful of the possibilities of whose name that could've been until...
"That half-Saiyan brat from my Earth. The son of that Son Goku fella."
She tried to shake herself free, but the iron grip of Lord Slug all but made her legs completely numb.
"I can't keep him out anymore! If Lord Slug zeroes in on my dad or Grandpa, then he'll know... "
As fearful as she was now of what Lord Slug would do with her lineage regarding Kami and all of history, another took even greater precedence...
"And if Towa knows..."
Trunks, emerging a small distance from Piccolo and Nail with his full-helmeted disguise already equipped, slowly flew over to cover as he heard the two conversing.
"Piccolo..."
The dying Nail reached out his hand to him. The Namekian from Earth at first held it, but then Nail's other hand tried gesturing it downward.
"You...? You still want me to join you... even after what that Slug told you?"
"What your father did... it doesn't have to define you."
"But everything I've done, it's..."
"Tell me truthfully... do you intend to rule over Earth?"
Trunks ducked down, but even without some kind of monitor of Nail's vitals, knew...
"You are both really cutting it close here!"
Piccolo didn't answer vocally, instead shaking his head.
"Then the Earthlings made the right choice wishing you back. And they need you now..."
Nail slowly brought Piccolo's hand downward, but felt him stopping it just shy of touching his chest.
"But... if I change..."
"I won't change your personality. The power you'll receive... I'll merely be... the catalyst."
As much as Trunks was tempted to tackle Piccolo and place his hand over Nail himself, he knew it would be naught since...
"Piccolo has to join of his own free will. If he doesn't wish to..."
"I think now..."
Nail's speech was at its worst by far.
"...only of... of Namek... its people... and... and the universe."
Hearing this, Piccolo finally stopped relenting and placed his hand fully over Nail.
"I hope you... you will... t..."
Trunks, not hearing another word, poked his head out even further to see Nail's hands slowly let go of Piccolo's and drop to the ground. And even from that distance, Trunks could tell Nail's eyes stared off completely still and his frozen lips no longer drew any breaths.
"Nail... he's gone..."
Trunks found himself falling straight onto his side, looking over at his hands like he was not long for the world.
"We were too late..."
Parts unknown
Unknown to Trunks and Piccolo, they weren't the only ones who witnessed Nail's death. From within a massive crystal-like construct, another pair of eyes saw what had occurred from a bird's eye view. The moment Nail had perished of his wounds and Trunks lied down in defeat...
...red iris' glowed and the slightest reflection of smiling teeth gleamed.