2/25/24 Update - Chapter 15, 16, and 17 have now been written in full.
Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
Towa and Mira had watched the entire battle transpire from atop the Lookout all the way down. Lord Slug in his true form, having been somehow resurrected from death by Towa's formula, had Pan at his mercy until she took on a more feral form, which, as the battle progressed, almost acted on more disciplined instinct.
But now Lord Slug had taken advantage of her lack of flight, floating upward with her in tow, and, with a bite intended to chomp her in two, disabled three of her limbs. Pan escaped him, but was now grounded while Lord Slug hovered far above her.
Mira thought that this time, it was their moment of triumph: Pan, his sworn enemy whose name was unknown to him and Towa, rendered only able to crawl on her left hand, was helpless against an inevitable blast from her aerial opponent.
"The patroller's finished. Her and that stupid orange bandanna... we'll never see them again."
She saw him raise her left hand into the air. One last plea for her own survival?
"Even the likes of her is begging for mercy..."
Then he saw her charging it with ki.
"Is she so arrogant as to believe she can deflect that?"
As Lord Slug fired a blast from both his hands, Mira blinked...
...and when his eyes opened, he saw Pan sent above the blast and its radius with a blast of her own, then, as she came closer to Lord Slug, using that same hand for a punch overflowing with her ki.
"No, no, no..." he tried to whisper.
But once he saw Pan pierce through Lord Slug's body and him falling...
"DAMN IT ALL!"
His hands struck the console earlier, Mira having kept controlled enough so as to not cause any damage to Towa's instruments, but now, his total disdain for the patroller no longer hidden, turned to the right away from the screen and punched the wall closest to him with his left hand.
"Mira?!"
Towa put a hand to his back.
"Mira, what is it?"
"It's her!
His right wrist then struck the same wall, not damaging it, but his skeletal mechanical fist resting against it.
"It's ALWAYS HER!"
Towa then caught her creation putting his forehead against the wall, closing his eyes.
"He's never acted out like this before."
Despite the height difference between the two, Towa hovered upward however slightly and put her right hand over his mechanical right hand, intending to calm and soothe him.
"The victory is temporary. The patroller still has to return to Namek..."
She gently put his hand outward and extended his palm, then placed her right atop it.
"...and face what we have in store for her."
Mira lifted his head and turned back to Towa.
"Of course. With what the formula can do to his other forms..."
Korin, after inquiring to Yajirobe about this mysterious female the swordsman had brought with her, didn't quite get an answer.
"She's G...!
In the midst of Yajirobe trying to keep Pan's lineage a secret by coughing to stop himself, the centuries old cat immediately took note of bite marks on both her calves and ankles, as well as her right arm's wrist and upper arm. Most gruesome of all was the festering wound through her shoulder, which was now barely concealed by the bandage Kami placed over it.
"Uh, so yeah, she's a friend."
And from all these wounds, as well as down her lip, Korin noticed blood trailing.
"Uh huh. Well your friend's not looking too good."
Shortly, Korin retrieved a familiar green bean and held it in front of Pan with his paw.
"One of these... for one of your friends."
Pan, even in the state she was in, was almost hesitant to even accept the senzu bean.
"This is a senzu bean from the main timeline, not Toki Toki City. If I take it..."
"I'll work it all out, Pan," entered Chronoa. "Now let's get you healed up."
Korin noticed Pan's initial reluctance, but then saw Pan open her mouth just enough for the senzu bean to drop in. Once she crunched on it with her teeth...
...Pan was back on her feet, seeing her former bite wounds were no more, moving her right arm in a circle, then patting down her right shoulder to find it fully healed.
"Shoulder's never felt better!"
"Loads better, huh?" went Yajirobe.
"So now that you're all healed up, just who might you be?" Korin asked.
Pan, looking at Korin's face, had memories racing in her head of the times, however few, she spent with the cat growing up...
...playing and chasing after him as a young child...
"Kitty!"
As quick as Pan was at four years old, she found that Korin was able to elude her. Once she lied down on her back, exhausted from the pursuit, instead of being upset or discouraged that she couldn't catch Korin, the young Pan giggled.
"That was fun!"
"Quite," the hermit master replied, finding play with the granddaughter of Goku refreshing.
...then going for another attempt when she was a teenager.
"I'm gonna get you this time!"
Shorter than her adult self, but her attire not all that different from what she wore now, Pan ran after the idle Korin until he seemed to vanish. Having done this before, she didn't panic or need to look around, focusing her senses.
Korin found the teenage Pan turned around, ducking as her swiping hand nearly touched his ear. As she swept at his legs with her own, Korin hopped upward, then, before Pan could catch him, he used his cane to pull himself upward towards the ceiling.
"You're quicker now, but..."
He then noticed Pan wasn't there on the ground...
"Eh?"
...and felt a pat on his head between his ears.
"Agh!"
Pan hopped upward, appearing to be sitting on the ceiling when she put a hand on him. She had her eyes closed, then tilted her head with a chuckle.
"Ah. The same age as when her grandfather caught me."
The two then dropped down, Pan standing on one hand.
"Now that you've finally caught me..."
As Pan then flipped back onto her feet...
"...you're it!"
...she had to immediately swerve backward, her back nearly hitting the ground, to avoid a swipe from Korin's cane. She then had to separate her legs to avoid a downward swing, then flipped back and forth on her hands and feet to put distance between them.
"Aha!"
She then jumped right over another cane swing, her fingernail just shy of touching it. Once Korin turned back to her, he found what appeared to be several Pan's moving around him on the ground and in the air, some appearing defensive and others with goofy faces.
"Are you sure you've never met your grandfather? Heh. I guess it's deep in the genetics."
He jumped towards one of the Pan's, his foot outstretched.
"Found you!"
Instead of landing a kick on her, Korin seemed to phase through this afterimage of Pan.
"Brings back memories..."
Pan thought she was far enough away from Korin after the attempted kick, then saw him bounce off a pillar after her. She swerved to avoid another kick...
...then found herself stuck in midair: Korin held onto a section of a pillar with one paw, his cane in the other having caught her by her pants' chain. A small chuckle escaped him.
"Got your little fashion accessory."
He then chuckled much more so, his entire body shaking.
"Got your kitty belly!"
In just the brief moment Korin caught Pan, she turned her upper body enough for her right arm to tickle him.
"Okay, okay. You got me."
He felt his paw's grip on the pillar loosening and let go of his cane only to find Pan floating in place and then tickling him with both hands. His chuckles were much louder and burst out uncontrollably.
"Uncle! Uncle!"
Once he couldn't hold on any further, he then found Pan caught, then held him up by under his arms, twirling in the air as she descended.
Korin found Pan smiling at him.
"Think I'm a cute wittle kitty cat, huh?"
"No... I mean, uh..."
"Korin can read minds, Pan!"
After hearing this from the Supreme Kai of Time, she tried to focus on anything and everything that didn't have to do with her lineage, the Time Patrol, or memories of Korin.
"Empty my mind. Empty it."
"There's no need to read her mind, Korin."
Kami, emerging behind all three of them, put a hand to her shoulder.
"She's a friend. Just as Yajirobe said."
Trunks, who had watched the entire scene between the three prior, was baffled at how Kami had snuck past him.
"There's no way... I should've sensed someone like Kami a mile...!"
He then realized just how Kami could've accomplished this:
"Kami hid his ki..."
Thinking further on it, he thought back to Goku's allies who knew how to sense the ki of others and hide their own.
"Krillin learned to hide his ki after he trained on the Lookout. Taught Gohan soon after. Kami... taught Krillin."
Especially thinking back on Kami's participation in the battle against Lord Slug, where he had hidden himself twice: the first to transport Yajirobe into a position to attack, and the second to blast the evil Namekian point-blank in the eye...
"He may have originated it."
"Ah, good to see you, Ka..."
Korin paused upon taking a closer look at Kami's white robe, noticing it was covered in purple. Even not knowing that this was Namekian blood, he asked, "Are you okay there, Kami? Your robe... it's..."
"I am quite well, I assure you."
Pan could tell that Kami was gesturing her to head towards the railing, after which he turned back to Yajirobe and Korin.
"I appreciate everything you both have done today. I'll take it from here."
She saw Kami start to float above the railing towards the lookout and waved to the two as she followed him.
"Thanks, you two."
Upon catching up to Kami, the two floated upward side-by-side from Korin's Tower all the way back to the Lookout, Pan now noticing the red pole connecting the two was akin to...
"No, that IS Grandpa's Power Pole! But then why did my dad have the Power Pole on him to give to me?"
A question to look into another time as they took their first steps atop the round floor composed of square tiles. Kami stretched his arm to retrieve his cane from earlier as Pan had a more pressing question regarding his survival.
"How did you survive that hit from Lord Slug?"
"A young man with a helmet. A colleague of yours, perhaps?"
Pan didn't answer.
"Regardless, you and him both saved my life."
Putting a hand to the back of her neck, she responded, "You imprisoned Lord Slug, so let's call it even."
He took Pan's other hand, then dropped the bottle containing Lord Slug into her palm before lightly closing her fingers around it.
"I believe he will be in safer hands wherever you are from rather than here."
After putting the bottle in her pocket, she caught Kami turning around, his arms behind his back.
"I am ashamed to admit this, but earlier, after Lord Slug read my mind and yours, I nearly lost faith."
"Faith in what?"
"The Supreme Kai of Time."
Kami lowered his head.
"What he told me of your world, half-truth or full, unraveled me. Left me burning with a desire to go to any extreme necessary to change my uncertain fate... and to prevent my original sin from ever coming back."
After taking a breath, Kami turned back to her with a look of reflection.
"My future will remain hidden to me, as it should. Even I am not naive enough to believe I will be Guardian of Earth forever. And whether I die... or give my blessing to my successor..."
In the midst of this, Kami found Pan with her left hand to her ear.
"Sorry, Kami. Just..."
"Telekinetic communication?"
"Yeah. I need to get going."
"Oh. Of course."
As he saw her taking a few steps backward, Kami then noticed that Pan, without her gray boots, was left with purple socks, which had a few holes in them, including her right big toe poking out of it.
"If you will permit me a moment..."
He made his way back to her and gestured his hand just over the tear in her shirt's right sleeve, where Frieza's horn and then Lord Slug's hand had torn it.
"One last token of my appreciation before you go."
Pan saw not just her shirt, but seemingly all her attire glowing white...
...and found in the glow's aftermath that all the damage to her shirt, gloves, pants, and socks had been repaired completely.
"You patched them up?"
"It was the least I could do."
Then with the hand on her shoulder and a nod of his head...
"Farewell, Miss."
He hovered backward, waving his right hand to her. Pan mirrored this.
"Hope to see you again, Kami."
And, as Pan was enveloped by a beam of light-like energy, the leaves that had come off the plants on the Lookout were back in their proper place prior...
...and Kami found his robes were clean as if he had never engaged in combat or had his own blood spilled on it.
"I do not know if our paths will ever cross again, Pan... and if they do, it will mean a battle is imminent... but your presence will ensure Earth's survival. Of that, I am certain."
After this thought, Kami went about his business as if Pan and Lord Slug's arrival had never occurred.
"I certainly hope Popo's search for the Dragon Balls is going well."
"Now clean that blood off my floor."
"Okay, okay."
Yajirobe was on his knees, a bucket of water next to him, and about to use a piece of cloth to wipe Pan's blood...
"Don't get your fur in a..."
...but then found nothing there.
"Did you make a spill, Yajirobe?"
The ronin was confused by what Korin had suggested.
"What are you talking about?"
"That's the bucket. You must've spilled something if you got it next to you."
"Nuh uh. You must've left it out or something."
The two bickered back and forth, giving them something to do that would leave zero impact on the history of the main timeline.
The exact moment Pan arrived back, Commander Hale was in front of her, handing Pan her purple shoes.
"I retrieved these once it was clear your boots were out of commission," Hale explained.
After a quick thanks, she sat down, tying the laces.
"Gotta watch the Kamehameha from the feet if I can avoid using it, but at least if rocks come into play..."
But as she looked over at the Supreme Kai of Time and Trunks. Pan noticed the helmet he was wearing was exactly like her father's Great Saiyaman helmet, something she hadn't seen for quite some time.
"Of all of disguises he could've picked... heh."
Seeing Pan stare off less at his face and more above it, Trunks just realized he still had the helmet on.
"I completely forgot I was still wearing this..."
As Trunks removed it and held it against his side, Pan made her way up to Chronoa.
"The senzu bean I had earlier... hasn't that changed history already?"
"One day, senzu beans on Earth will be in short supply, and that senzu bean being missing will cause an alteration."
Both Pan and Trunks fell over upon hearing this, their legs straight in the air and partially bent towards the opposing feet.
"So yes, taking one has caused a distortion, but a very minute one. One that won't afflict history for quite some time. We can correct it with the next senzu bean we grow here."
Once the Supreme Kai of Time clarified this, the two got back up, relieved.
"That said, if we take more than one and let our IOU increase, THAT will cause far greater problems."
Now she had the scroll opened for Pan and Trunks to see the last point in time she had frozen:
"This was Namek after I retrieved you..."
Krillin, leaping over to protect both Gohan and Dende from Frieza's Death Beam, and Vegeta, believing all three would be killed in that instant, turned his back on them...
"Now there is no hope..."
...and began flying off in the opposite direction.
"I have to get off this planet now."
"...but before you stopped the intended change from Lord Slug earlier."
Someone had flown directly in front of the beam's path at high speed, then struck it with the back of their hand, knocking the beam away. Frieza was baffled at how this was accomplished.
"Th-that speed! And the might to deflect such an attack from this form!"
Krillin then found a cape blocking his view of Frieza...
"You're back...?"
...until it occurred to him it was a white cape, not Pan's yellow cape. But where else had he seen such a cape before?
"Mr. Piccolo!"
Frieza's initial reaction to seeing a new Namekian face that had deflected such an attack of his was immediately brushed aside by hearing the voice of...
"That brat!"
Seeing that Gohan was alive and well...
"He's been healed too! He was most certainly dying!"
The tyrant openly exclaimed, "Inconceivable!"
"You say that, but that word doesn't mean what you think it does."
Piccolo's very first words to Frieza were a light taunt in regards to his use of language.
"As the last Namekian warrior alive, I'll let you savor this moment of solace... but once you are within my grasp..."
"Ah, and who could it be but the green one Nappa killed on Earth," went Vegeta, having missed Piccolo's feat and only noticing his presence. "I could only wonder what you three wished for with the Dragon Balls, and it turns out you dolts used such incomparable power to bring back this... this useless sack of rubbish."
"Sorry I'm a useless sack of rubbish," Piccolo responded, not even the least bit offended by Vegeta's insult. "Just know it'll be your turn after I've dealt with Frieza."
Gohan saw Piccolo floating towards their foe and went to join him, but found Piccolo putting a hand out for him to stop.
"Stay out of this. All of you. I'll deal with this space garbage myself."
The young Namekian stood in awe at the one called Piccolo and yet something seemed familiar about him.
"Find cover, Dende."
"He... he knows my name..."
Dende floated away from the massive hole, eventually finding somewhere to peek out from. Elsewhere, Vegeta began to grin to himself.
"It'll be my turn? After he's dealt with Frieza? Either Namekians do have a sense of humor or coming back to life has made him go mad. Either way, he'll soon find out just how outmatched he really is."
And now for what felt like an eternity to those facing Frieza before, the tyrant and Piccolo simply stared down each other, neither appearing battle-ready.
"Die, maggot."
Piccolo immediately retorted with a flying strike towards his face, one at a speed the others could barely comprehend even compared to Frieza's own speed...
...when Piccolo found his blinding attack blocked by Frieza's right wrist and then found his adversary's eyes glowing red.
"Facing the likes of me takes guts."
Piccolo broke it off and flew around him before going for a double axe handle.
"I do enjoy guts."
The same wrist stopped this attack as well.
"I find it pairs well with wine."
What came next had Vegeta wishing he had been wrong.
"Piccolo should be landing hits on Frieza right now!" Trunks began. "His fusion with Nail may not have made him exactly equal to Frieza's second form, but it should at the very least catch him off-guard!"
"So Towa's making Frieza's stronger?" Pan asked.
"Actually, I have a different theory. Piccolo with his weights managed to do harm to Frieza's second form, so then Frieza began to hold back less. I think Towa's making Frieza go all out from the start."
"And with that, Pan, that's our cue to send you back to Namek."
After saying this, Chronoa gestured to Trunks, though he didn't know why.
"What?"
"Your coat, Trunks. For whatever protection it can offer her."
He hurriedly handed it to Pan, whom put her arms through the sleeves.
"You used the last senzu bean we had on Kami, right?" Pan inquired. "Otherwise you would've had Trunks get it to me."
"Y-yeah," he acknowledged.
"And if I get seriously hurt or drained again..."
"We'd send you back here and heal you," the Supreme Kai of Time explained.
"I'll set up equipment for if it comes to that," went Beetro, leaving the room after.
As she prepared to hand the scroll to Pan, Chronoa then saw her crouch down, all but kneeling on one leg, something in her gloved hand.
"Trade you."
It opened, revealing Kami's bottle containing Lord Slug.
"DEFINITELY don't want that getting open on Namek," Pan then lightly teased.
Chronoa took it from Pan, then handed her the scroll.
"After fighting the likes of Lord Slug," Trunks began. "...you're more than ready for Frieza now."
Pan nodded, a small smile from his words, then closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the scroll, soon feeling herself beaming away through time.
As Trunks looked at his arms, his coat no longer covering them...
"But if Piccolo sees her in my coat..."
"I'm devising a workaround so Piccolo doesn't change history when he meets you on Earth," she explained. "That's why Pan's wearing it."
"I thought you said after we stop Towa..."
"We'll be crossing that bridge soon, Trunks."
Pan looked down at her hand, seeing the scroll no longer in her fingerless gloved hand, and at the blue-green grass she had grown accustomed to on Namek since her first mission there.
"Went back to Earth for the first time in what's felt like ages... and now back here again..."
She then caught Piccolo being struck straight down into the ground, his gray shoulder pads starting to peer through his collar and cape.
"What's the matter, Namekian warrior? Fallen and can't get up?"
Frieza in his second form taunted Piccolo, floating above him with crossed arms and in seemingly no hurry to pursue him. While she openly saw the shocked and frightened faces of her father, Krillin, Dende, and Vegeta, however much he tried to hide it, as well as Piccolo's dire situation, Pan composed enough to take note of the condition of Frieza's still-attached tail.
"Krillin's Destructo-Disk earlier was supposed to cut off Frieza's tail, right?"
"Cut it in half..." Trunks began to answer. "I mean, not down the middle..."
"It sliced the top half of the tail off, yes," Chronoa clarified.
"Oh dear. Looks like something is weighing you down."
Even Frieza took notice of Piccolo's weighted clothing.
"Perhaps discarding an arm or two will give you a lighter load to deal with."
Pan could tell Frieza was about to make good on this and prepared herself to move at a moment's notice. But she still tried to work out a plan with her allies in the Time Nest's library.
"If I cut that half of his tail off entirely, would that help?"
"With Towa making Frieza not hold back on Piccolo..." Trunks started. "Yes. He'd have to contend with a fresh wound, you, and Piccolo when he's done holding back."
"Y-you mean Piccolo's been holding back too?!"
But as Pan mentally exclaimed this, she then saw Frieza, in merely a flicker to a normal human eye, descend down to Piccolo. She ceased the thought and flew right down to intercept the attack.
"Or better yet..."
Piccolo put out his hands to block or redirect strikes, but then found the massive Frieza gripping him by the back of his neck.
"I'll take this weight off your shoulders."
The Namekian from Earth gripped Frieza's wrists, fighting with all his might to prevent his own decapitation at the hands of the horned tyrant.
"D-don't look, Gohan!"
But then Piccolo felt the ironclad grip no longer:
Frieza released him and blocked against a barrage from Pan with both arms.
"H-her?!" went Piccolo before noticing... "...that coat! Almost exactly like... NO, THAT IS the coat that purple haired boy wore!"
The tyrant, however, was undaunted.
"Well look at you, Saiyan girl. You've changed your wardrobe."
He then shoved Pan backward and took careful aim with his next strike.
"How's your shoulder?"
His left arm went for a cobra-like strike to her right shoulder and he found that due to Pan catching his wrist, it only barely touched his intended target...
...which was completely lacking the gaping wound his horn gave it before.
"She's healed too?! Just like the others?! HOW?! How are they doing this?!"
Despite the near-distress this gave him, Frieza immediately moved his right hand to strike back at her.
"Without Kaio-Ken, I cut it too close saving Piccolo just now," Pan noted. "To get history back on track, I gotta go up."
As he found his right fist about to strike Pan's face...
"Kaio-Ken...!"
She ducked, then Frieza found himself pulled off his feet...
"Her strength! To do this to my second form...!"
"...Times Four!"
Before Frieza could try readjusting and landing, Pan punched his back, then zoomed in the direction she sent him for a kick to his face. Landing on his hands, he knew a flying pass was imminent and struck where he believed she'd emerge, but found himself outpaced and taking several hits.
"She was nowhere near this fast before! She's even faster now!"
By the time he was about to swipe his hand right at her, he found himself lifted right off the ground by his tail, which was far from painless for him.
"Y-you...!"
Pan then swung and slammed him onto the ground, then repeated each time it looked like Frieza was about to move one of his legs or one of his eyes glared for a beam. But both to avoid tiring, however long she had worked at mastering Times Four, and to wrap this up...
"Kaio-Ken...!"
Even with her highest multipliers, Pan knew tearing off one of Frieza's appendages was out of her wheelhouse, but with the half-cut wound in place on his tail in her sight...
"Have to be sure it's enough..."
"Times TWENTY!"
One hand tugged on the tail while the other chopped directly at what was still keeping that half attached...
...all in less than a second.
As Pan dropped to the ground, her reserves hardly touched due to how quickly she used Times Twenty, Frieza cried out in pain. The Destructo-Disk cutting it would've been a clean and superheated cut, but with what Pan had done...
"My tail...! With her BARE HANDS...!"
The others saw this occur and Piccolo, recalling how powerful Pan was with Kaio-Ken when the two of them fought against Lord Slug just earlier, knew...
"This girl's grown in power... immensely from what it was before."
Frieza, his initially and utterly pained face hidden away from view as he lied on the ground, then morphed into one of sheer rage as he rose to his feet towards Pan, the other half of his tail right next to her.
"You BITCH!"
Both his hands charged with ki for any number of techniques he could inflict. Pan could call upon her ki shield if needed, but instead saw something coming in fast from afar.
"This power she's kept from me! She's taunting me with it! I'll rend her...!"
A punch to his face led to his blast firing off into Namek's horizon and himself away from her. Once Frieza made it onto his feet, he avoided a two-handed strike on his location by hopping upward, but then the moment he saw the assailant...
"The Namekian warrior! He was nowhere this quick or strong!"
Piccolo flew into him head-first, headbutting him like a cannonball. As he stopped in midair and aimed his hands outward, he found himself still reeling from his recently halved tail. By the time he was ready to fire, the Namekian fired at him with only one hand and the blast that resulted forced him to protect himself from it.
Gohan, seeing his mentor pulling this off, floated away from Krillin, Vegeta, and Dende as they stood awestruck.
"That girl and Piccolo, after being away..."
"Both are actually hurting Frieza... in his second form..."
"C-could we actually survive this?"
Frieza, his skin covered in bruising and some burns despite blocking the blast successfully, saw Piccolo's stance unchanged, the lone hand out which had fired at him.
"That was just from one of the Namekian's hands... just ONE!"
But he then took notice of one off detail about the Namekian he was just now realizing...
"The cape! The headwear! Gone! No, no, he couldn't have been hiding...!"
He heard the combat cry of the young half-Saiyan he had nearly killed earlier and went for a chopping swing...
...which Gohan swerved over in midair before delivering a kick directly to Frieza's cheek. He followed up with an uppercut to the tyrant's jaw, then rapidly punched at his chest, almost keeping him pinned.
Vegeta actually took steps forward to get a closer look at what was happening.
"Kakarot's spawn... drawing on power like this..."
The barrage concluded with a kick that left the battered Frieza flying back and having to quickly contend with a one-handed ball-like projectile from Gohan.
From above the battlefield, the explosion the ball caused could be seen creating violent winds.
Dende was forced to take cover, Krillin was grinded backwards and put his hand on a massive boulder just to keep himself in place, and Vegeta covered his face with both wrists.
"Unbelievable... he can't be... the closest to becoming a Super Saiyan..."
Frieza, even more worse for wear, was now being peppered by a ki barrage by the young half-Saiyan.
"Now, Vegeta!" Gohan shouted.
As Frieza actually started to counter the ki attacks successfully and actually worked towards counter-attacking, he then spotted from the corner of his eye the Saiyan Prince behind him and charging an attack with both hands.
"He won't become the legendary Super Saiyan! He won't slay Frieza! It will be me! ME! I will be the one! I WILL!"
"Haaa...!"
The last of Gohan's projectiles left his hand, drawing enough of Frieza's attention to prevent the tyrant from avoiding the impending blast from Vegeta. The son of Goku then descended, seeing the blast about to make impact and covering both Krillin and Dende from what was to come.
Pan, whom had watched this on ground level since wounding Frieza, actually had to shield herself as the explosion caused winds just as violent, if not even more so than the aftermath of her father's larger attack.
"The boy with the purple hair..."
She heard Piccolo speaking to her telepathically, then saw him peering at her.
"Piccolo, you're not speaking out loud..."
"I'm choosing to communicate with you like this so the others don't hear. But you'd better answer my questions."
"Sorry, Pan," entered the Supreme Kai of Time. "We forgot to mention Piccolo caught Trunks on Earth."
"Piccolo caught Trunks?!"
"So that's his name? Trunks?"
Pan gasped, realizing Piccolo heard that much from her and had to hope he couldn't hear a thing from Chronoa.
"What do you know, Piccolo?"
"I'll give you everything he told me, but I want a guarantee you won't lie or hide anything from me."
"Say you agree," entered Trunks.
Again, it seemed like Piccolo didn't hear anything from either of the two she was on comms with. Trying not to make a mental note out loud of it, she nodded to him.
"I won't lie or hide anything from you."
"So this "Trunks" said he hasn't met me yet, but will some day after we survive Namek. That he was in the wrong place and sooner than he should be when I meet him. He wanted me to protect Gohan and keep word of any of this from the others. And he's from the future."
He didn't hear an immediate response from Pan, who tried with all her might to keep from giving away responses he could hear.
"Is everything he said true so far?"
"Y-yes."
"Good. Then I have some questions about you."
"Crap," went Chronoa.
"Crapbaskets," went Trunks.
Gohan, after seeing the winds had stopped, floated off of Dende and Krillin, the two looking at the son of Goku with astonishment.
"You... you actually hurt him."
"I don't know how you did it, Gohan, but that incredible power. If only your father had seen it just now, he'd..."
"Hey, brat!"
The three saw Vegeta hovering down towards them.
"Don't even think about giving me orders again. You just found an opportune moment and I decided to oblige you, that's all."
"We're against a common enemy, Vegeta," Gohan responded. "And with what we and Mr. Piccolo have all done so far..."
"Speaking of..."
Krillin pointed them over towards him, seeing him standing in silence with the mysterious, yet familiar young woman with the orange bandanna.
"They're not moving or anything. Are they... talking with their minds?"
"What the hell are they doing?!" exclaimed Vegeta. "Frieza will be back at any moment and they're just standing around like jackasses!"
"Are you from the future as well?"
"Really wish he hadn't have asked me that..."
Pan immediately regretted letting that slip past.
"Well?"
"I am... but..."
"But what?"
"Pan, we need to carefully navigate here..." went Trunks.
"Are you from the same future as Trunks?"
"Trunks' future?"
"A simple yes or no will suffice."
"Pan, whatever you do..." Chronoa started, partially in a panic. "He can't know you're from another future. If he knows there's multiple timelines..."
As Pan heard this from the Supreme Kai of Time, Piccolo started to get impatient.
"You're wearing his coat right now. If you didn't get it from him or his future, then where? And where are you from?"
"I-I'm from..."
"Pan, just tell him..." Trunks entered.
"Yes?"
"Where I'm from is..."
"That you're from..."
"Out with it, woman!"
"Mr. Piccolo."
He turned away from Pan towards the young Gohan.
"Don't think I've let you off the hook, whoever you really are, wherever you're really from."
"I knew you had some kind of plan, Mr. Piccolo, but I didn't know you'd be this strong."
"How did you do it?" Krillin inquired. "It was almost like you were a total match with Frieza for a second there."
Vegeta thought back to the display Piccolo had earlier and begrudgingly admitted...
"No. You were even... stronger."
...but never aloud. The thought that Piccolo not only was as powerful as Frieza, but could even be a threat to himself was something he'd never openly share with anyone.
"If we survive all this, I'll need to become a Super Saiyan... just to be on the safe side."
"You couldn't tell just by looking?"
They heard Piccolo crack his neck and realized he lacked...
"Your weighted clothes, of course!" went Krillin.
Pan took in this calm before the storm, knowing one key factor that had made a huge difference:
"Towa's formula made Frieza go all out. Me wounding his tail made him manageable."
"When you first fought him, he seemed to have you beat, but without anything weighing you down..."
"He couldn't contend with you," added Gohan. "You were too fast for him to handle."
"Oh, indeed."
They all jumped back at the floating Frieza, his second form's flesh as covered in minor injuries as it had ever been before after both Gohan and Vegeta's explosive impacts.
"With that weighted attire discarded, you changed, Namekian. Nothing held back. As for the rest of you..."
He peered to the young half-Saiyan...
"That attack the young one did... it reminds me of a Saiyan I killed. But who? Who was it?"
...then to Pan.
"I do not fully understand your Kaio technique, but earlier, it only helped you shield yourself just enough. But now it overwhelms me... while I'm in my second form."
"You've been hiding your true power from me. All of you."
"I still haven't shown you everything I have, murderer," began Piccolo, whom took on a combative stance. "Now you will feel the wrath of the countless Namekians you killed!"
"Oh, I appear to have misled you," replied Frieza almost casually. "Allow me to clarify. See, I have been hiding my true power from you as well. Even now as we speak."
"W-what?"
"Ah, do forgive me, Namekian," went the tyrant, noticing Piccolo's puzzlement. "This isn't my natural form. In fact, I transformed into this. Vegeta knows all about my transformations. He may just tell you all about them... if he isn't too frightened to speak."
He descended before them, landing on a boulder.
"My power greatly increases each time I transform. You weren't here earlier. And you should really experience the same fear as Vegeta and the little ones."
Frieza raised his hand, gesturing with just his index and middle fingers.
"Just a friendly reminder: I still have two transformations left."
Everyone who had received this information so far took steps back and struggled not to appear afraid of the ramifications...
...except for Pan.
"I've trained all this time for your forms. I'll be ready for your third."
"You really should feel honored with what I'm about to show you! You will be the first to have ever witnessed it!"
Whether the others were too frightened to act or, like Pan, knew that attacking during a transformation would ultimately be fruitless, they all watched Frieza with his arms raised.
"Behold! My second transformation begins now!"
He hunched over, his adversaries seeing three spikes protrude from his back. Frieza's shoulders stretched outward, the pointed shape almost akin to Piccolo's shoulder pads. Then, to Krillin's horror especially, the tyrant's head began to elongate with his face in tow.
"We're fighting a m-m-monster..."
But Pan noticed something behind Frieza...
"His tail..."
It wagged, but then it almost appeared like it was... it couldn't be...
"Is his tail supposed to regenerate?"
"NO!"
She heard Trunks unnerved on comms as she mentioned her sightings.
"It's not supposed to regenerate... not in his third form!"
Just then, it appeared as if cracks emerged all across his entire body and small fragments of it began chipping away.
"This can't be...! Towa shouldn't be able to...! To make Frieza...!"
As Trunks' openly mused over this, Pan caught a small and faint split down the middle of Frieza's forehead...
"Towa's making him...!"
Now it spread and his body then appeared to be splitting in half from the head downward towards the torso...
...revealing a seemingly skinnier body emerging from its center. Pan recognized it immediately.
"He skipped his third form..."
The two halves of his third form's shell, almost bending like banana peels, were shoved aside by Frieza, soon followed by a massive surge in ki that, even where everyone stood, was akin to seeing a massive ball of light on the ground.
Once it concluded, Frieza touched down, not only landing back on the boulder, but appearing to sink his feet straight into it and pulverize it to dust upon touching the ground effortlessly.
"This is his third form?!" mentally exclaimed Piccolo. "And he still has one after this?"
"The long face, the spikes, and the shoulders..." went Krillin in disbelief. "I wasn't the only one who saw it, was I?"
"The gap in power between these two forms..." Gohan openly spoke. "It shouldn't be by this much."
"He's yammering on about what we're all dreading..." mentally murmured Vegeta.
Dende fell onto his hands, just trying to keep any composure before this new menace.
"I... I never would have imagined..."
The young Namekian then saw Pan's fist clenching, the woman from Earth unafraid and instead angered.
"That damned form... not a trace of gold on it... but that form... it's never left my mind."
"It was clear the patroller was well prepared for his second form even before whatever boost she was given with battling Lord Slug," began Mira. "Her performance here was of no surprise or consequence."
"No matter how much her training had prepared her, the Time Patrol could not have given her the means to combat his final form in the allotted time," added Towa.
"But to think your formula made him bypass his third form so readily..."
"They've no doubt prepared for Frieza... as have I for the patroller's interference."
Pan had trained for every single one of Frieza's forms up to this point, up to training for Frieza's third form with Kaio-Ken Times Ten for extended periods of time. But this...
"I don't know if Times Twenty will cut it here. If it comes to it..."
"There is only one silver lining to this..." went Trunks, trying to recompose himself. "Towa's formula may have let him skip his third form, but nothing Towa could do could make him go a hundred percent now. Even when he unveiled his final form, he began with small percentages and only went up from there once Goku arrived."
"How low?"
"M-maybe around five percent or so..."
Pan wouldn't show it, both to keep her own composure and not to give her already frightened allies any more reason to lose their own, but the idea of this shook her.
"Only five percent of his power? His full power?"
"Namekian."
Dende cowered.
"No, the big green one."
Piccolo tried to gesture Gohan back, then approached the tyrant, who went from standing above him in his second form to now standing below him as he was now.
"You were much quicker without your armor. Let's see if you're still so sure of yourself."
Piccolo hopped to avoid Frieza's first strike, a downward kick to the ground, the impact of which appeared almost like a tsunami of grass despite how little power appeared behind the gesture.
"Your power has grown, but speed is my specialty! You'll never...!"
"How long has it been?"
Piccolo saw Frieza in front of him, then felt his momentum come to a dead halt as Frieza simply put a hand out in front of him.
"I let you avoid that one to see what you'd do. I'm frankly disappointed. I'm leagues above your speed in this form."
Piccolo then felt Frieza release him.
"Do try and get away. Or attack if you so wish. I leave it up to you."
Piccolo snarled his teeth just to keep his composure and the exact moment he tried to move...
...Frieza had his hand out with a firing gesture.
On ground level, Pan and the others saw Frieza firing a barrage of tiny projectiles almost faster than they could even perceive it.
"NO, STOP!"
Gohan flew upward to help Piccolo. Krillin tried to join Goku's son, but as he was a quarter of the way there, felt himself stopped and being gripped by Vegeta.
"Vegeta, what are you...?!"
"There's nothing you could do! Not to him."
"'Not to him?' What the hell does that mean?"
Pan didn't understand the context of what was going on at all, but saw just how tightly Vegeta gripped Krillin's arm and how serious he was about this. She then looked back at Piccolo falling and her father nearing him...
...and no sign of Frieza.
"But you can..."
As Vegeta spoke and Pan flew upward to protect the two, she felt a breeze so quick as to be completely undetectable at first...
"Fatally wound…"
Then both her and Vegeta saw Frieza floating before them, his right hand out and his arm outstretched.
"M..."
"Aww," Frieza taunted.
And with only the very tip of his backhand, Krillin was struck on the side of his forehead out of Vegeta's grip and into the far distance.
"Holding on to your little friend, Prince Vegeta?"
"OH MY GOD, KRILLIN!" Pan screamed in her head.
She looked over in terror at him becoming a speck, then back to Frieza.
"You fooled me before with your little scared ploy earlier, Saiyan girl, but this time, you do fear me... don't you?"
Pan neither confirmed nor denied it, but her mind was on an even more pressing issue than her opponent:
"If he killed Krillin just now..."
Gohan then flew right at Frieza, whom hopped nonchalantly over his flying kick.
"Gohan, wait!"
Piccolo, despite several purple bloody spots across his arms, legs, and torso, flew over to assist him. Frieza decided to fly further from land and over the water, letting his adversaries come to him.
"Now, now. There's plenty of me for everyone."
"We're detecting no changes, Pan," re-entered Trunks. "I think he held back just enough not to kill Krillin. Fits his M.O. of torturing his enemies."
Even with everything Pan had seen Piccolo and her father do to Frieza's second form just earlier, with him having jumped straight to his final form already...
"But if Piccolo or my dad die..."
Pan mused that she'd have to go straight to Times Twenty from the start, or even past it...
"Kaio-K...!"
"Hold it, Earth girl!"
Vegeta gripped her to keep her from joining the battle.
"Vegeta, they'll die if we don't...!"
"They're as good as dead!"
"To resort to this..." the proud warrior mused.
"You need to fatally wound me now."
"And still, Frieza plays with his prey."
Towa didn't sound as frustrated or angered announcing this, now regarding it as if it were to be expected rather than a hindrance.
"But even Frieza will tire of a game that easy, right?" Mira inquired.
"Right."
"So even with the spotted Earthling's survival, however barely, he will not survive a second time."
"And with him out of commission..."
The two saw Vegeta holding Pan by her arm in midair.
"New possibilities. New alterations."
"F-fatally wound you?" went Pan, who couldn't believe what Vegeta was asking her to do.
"Listen well: the only chance we stand against Frieza now is for me to get a boost from near-death, then be healed by that runt Namekian. I can't do it myself and those fools are too busy fighting him or being healed... so you have to do this for me."
"Krillin's the one that wounds Vegeta!" exclaimed Chronoa. "If you do instead, the risk..."
"But Krillin's completely incapacitated!" Pan replied.
"Supreme Kai of Time, we may not have any other choice," added Trunks. "My father has to get that wound one way or another, and at least if he does at her hand..."
"Now hurry! Before Frieza transforms into his final form!"
Pan didn't know what was the right course of action: wait for Krillin to recover or risk killing Trunks' and her best friend's father.
"I... I can't... not even to you."
Vegeta's grip tightened further as his frustration practically foamed from his clenched teeth.
"What's this?! Don't have the stomach to beat me within an inch of my life? Need another Earthling to do it for you?! Grow up already, you stupid brat! Grow a pair and blast me like you mean it, you childish coward!"
This did nothing to improve his case with Pan, who instead looked over at him just as unsure as before.
"Is... is there no other way for Vegeta to get the wound?"
"The whole scenario changed the moment Frieza went from this second form straight for his final," explained Trunks. "He made Krillin wound him as a response just to his third form."
Now Vegeta saw two lone tears escaping her eyes.
"Really? Tears? You going to cry about it now, you big baby?! Agh! Damn it, I'm surrounded by...!"
He then stopped, seeing no further use in the rant he had began.
"Berating her isn't working at all! I have to somehow appeal to her Earthly principles!"
Looking back at their first meeting on Earth, where she intercepted the first Saibamen, then kept both Krillin and Gohan alive until Goku arrived.
"From the start, she's been fighting to protect others! The Earthlings! Kakarot and his brat! Even me! She failed the others three and the Namekian before, but that's always been what drives her!"
He didn't let Pan go, but loosened her grip from hurting her to just gently enough for her to slip through if she so desired.
"I know how to convince her."
"Kakarot's boy. The short Earthling. The Namekian from Earth. The Namekian here. Even me. You want us all to survive, don't you?"
She didn't nod, but Vegeta could tell he was getting through and she was responding to his words.
"If you want to protect them... if you want them to survive... wound me. Then when I power up, we can stand a chance against Frieza."
Pan heard the Supreme Kai of Time sigh, less dejected and moreso with uncertainty.
"Then we have no other choice. Okay, Pan. Do it. But whatever you do, don't kill Vegeta."
Both aloud to Vegeta and for Chronoa and Trunks to hear...
"Okay."
Pan's hand charged with ki, which she gestured towards his chest...
"Not that high, Pan, or you'll hit his heart," went Trunks. "Between the chest and his stomach."
She tried as hard as she could to try visualizing the scale of the damage. Trying her hardest not to picture a gory version, she kept it to mathematical shapes, namely a circle that stretched back and forth between larger than his torso and tiny.
"Don't want to blow him in two or barely pierce through him..."
She found the visual she created was still a bit larger than she thought would be survivable...
"Now to just bring it down a little bit more..."
Vegeta, meanwhile, saw both Gohan and Piccolo's midair battle with Frieza had gone no differently since he pulled Pan back with the two starting to tire.
"I thought the two would step up... I have to do everything around here!"
And upon looking at Pan, trying to be as careful with her aim and her power...
"Trunks, I almost have it, but it's still too much. What do you think I shou...?"
"You almost have it. Just a bit less power."
"And you're taking far too long, woman! Those two will be memories of Frieza's conquest by the time you're done!"
Vegeta, now seeing Frieza start to turn his head in his direction, forced Pan's hand...
"NOW, DAMN Y...!"
...the sudden jolt causing her to fire the blast prematurely.
"Good! Yes! Finally! Now I can become... the Super Saiy...!"
But his thought of glory was cut short as the wound that resulted was far greater than he expected...
"T-too much...!"
Pan saw her one-handed beam pierce straight through between his chest and stomach, a splash of blood from in front of and behind Vegeta's newfound wound. Except the very top of the wound was...
"His heart...!"
She couldn't help but cover her mouth with her other hand to quiet a shocked whimper.
"I overdid it! I completely overdid it!"
Gohan and Piccolo both saw Frieza stop combating them, or moreso avoiding their every move while barely glancing them with the effect of strikes with actual effect, to then see a blast piercing straight through Vegeta at the hands of their mysterious ally.
"W-why would she do that to Vegeta?" Gohan mentally whimpered. "She didn't kill him on Earth. She wouldn't let the Ginyu Force or that blue man kill him here. Why kill him now?"
"If this girl really is from the future, is her part to ensure Vegeta dies to prevent a future threat?" Piccolo inquired to himself. "Why else would she do this now and not before while I was dead?"
The two broke away from Frieza, seeing that he didn't pursue, but not wanting to speed up and risk detection.
"I see now," went Frieza. "When he gripped the Earthling before... it was no accident at all."
Vegeta was so wounded he not only couldn't land on his feet, but upon crashing down onto his back, the Saiyan Prince couldn't even manage to lift himself off the ground.
"She wounded me too much. Perhaps I... I pushed her too hard. A slightly stronger blast and it would've taken my entire heart."
But luckily, as he had hoped, the Namekian Dende was near him.
"No matter. All according to plan."
"Y-you there..."
Instead of appearing skittish of him or cowering away, the short Namekian approached him.
"That's it. C'mere boy."
"H-heal me..."
But now the Namekian's face went from its default, which was always always frightened whenever Vegeta saw it, to having total disdain for the Saiyan Prince.
"No!" Dende shouted. "I won't!"
Besides his vision getting worse, Vegeta's hearing also took a turn with his condition.
"Not good. Don't have much time..."
"Idiot. Can't k-kill Fr-Frieza... "
He gestured his right hand, its white glove covered in his blood.
"...unless you heal me."
But Dende was no stranger to Vegeta's deeds. While he may have had no working knowledge of what he did working under Frieza, he, Nail, and Guru were well aware the blood he spilled on Namek wasn't just that of those aligned with Frieza.
"You killed so many Namekians! Just like Frieza's men!"
"You healed the others..."
"To heal someone like you...!"
"H-hurry... losing c-conscious..."
"It'd be like healing Frieza!"
Dende wasn't sure, but he was almost certain he saw someone lying idle in the far distance. One of the few non-Namekians who had shown kindness to him, was bleeding from near the top of his bald head.
"Krillin..."
Vegeta couldn't hope to scooch his entire body over and instead tried reaching out to grab onto Dende, as if he could do so from a distance and pull the Namekian towards him.
"Whatever it takes... whatever deal... trading away my soul... I can't die here."
"I'm... I'm begging you, l-little one..."
"Someone else needs my help!"
Dende ascended off the ground and into the distance.
"B-brat!"
The Saiyan still found himself reaching out even as the Namekian was already out of his sight.
"B-blasted little sh-sh... "
His right hand couldn't keep itself off the ground any longer, slamming into the blue-green grass and sprinkling the nearest blades with specks of red.
"I'm really going to die here... and at the hands of that girl..."
Goku, in his healing pod, was at first relieved, his eyes still closed.
"Piccolo? If that's him, he's gotten a lot stronger. He's actually fighting Frieza. Almost on par with him."
But as more time passed, something shook him out of his relaxed state.
"Frieza! His power's... insane! How could it have gone up that much?! That many times?!"
But one last event had his eyes wide open.
"Vegeta! His ki's gone down! He's going to...!"
Now he actually tried wrestling himself free.
"Gohan will die! And Krillin! Bulma won't be spared! They'll all die if this keeps up!"
Small cracks formed on the pod's see-through material, some of the liquid starting to seep down from them, and Goku's breathing apparatus starting to loosen.
"I know I'm nowhere fully healed, but I have to get out of this pod now. I have to save them! MY SON! MY BEST FRIENDS!"