Pan followed Aneurin, Aideen, and Odianna out of the hospital. She looked around as they walked at this so called 'Haven'. If she had thought the hospital was a dump, it was even worse outside. Buildings were crumbled, there were makeshift huts and tents. There were trashcans on fire that people huddled around for warmth. There were clothes lines hung between broken, tapped together poles. There wasn't even a road, just dirt paths.
Off in the distance on the other side of Haven was a huge, broken tower, behind it a mountain, and embedded into the mountain was...
"Is that the lookout?!" Pan exclaimed, pointing.
Odianna paused, following her finger. "The Lord's Palace, it was knocked out of the sky in the battle that killed the guardian."
"I don't understand, what's with this place... why is everything so... ruined?" asked Pan.
Odianna crossed her arms. "Your world isn't like this?"
Pan shook her head. "No, not at all."
"Well, get used to it, our entire world is like this," said Odianna.
"I take it your world was never invaded by the Saiyans? Do they even exist in your dimension?" asked Aneurin.
Pan thought briefly. "Well, I remember Grandpa telling me about Raditz and Nappa..."
"Those are Saiyan names if I ever heard them. So, I guess then your world has fared better fending off the Saiyan invasions," said Aneurin.
"Well, I think there were only two 'invasions'," said Pan, "The Saiyan's home planet was blown up, not many survived."
The group paused, surprised at her words.
Odianna went between a smirk and a smile before she threw back her head and laughed. "Good! At least the Saiyan scum got what they deserved in someone's world."
Odianna's smile faded, and a brief look of horror replaced it.
She turned, walked forward, and grabbed Pan's shoulder hard, a dangerous look crossing her face. "That means your world is unspoiled, untouched. Pan, you must NEVER mention that your 'Earth' exists to anyone outside the four of us."
Pan winced under her grip. "Well, I dunno about untouched, Grandpa's had to undo a lot of damage with the dragonballs before."
Odianna let go. "So, your dragonballs, and guardian, are still active."
Pan nodded.
"All the more reason to keep it a secret," said Odianna, "The Saiyans can never be allowed to get ahold of the dragonballs. You cannot fathom the damage they could do with them."
Odianna narrowed her eyes. "And if that's not enough of a reason, if the Saiyans ever learned of your Earth, they would stop at nothing to reach it. They'd love to purge humanity a second time."
Pan felt cold. "P-purge?"
Odianna held out her hands to her side, gesturing into the distance. "Aside from a few hermits here and there, those in Haven are all thats left of humanity. Everyone else has been killed."
Pan's eyes went wide with horror. "W-what?!"
Aneurian spoke quietly, "Forty years Pan, the first invasion was roughly forty years ago. The saiyans have invaded us again and again since then. It's rare to go more than a month without at least a raiding party hitting us. It's why we were so unprepared, it's been strange, this attack was the first in over a year."
Pan couldn't find anything to say. She could hardly breath, her body trembled, first with sadness, then with anger.
"If Grandpa were here, he'd stop them all," she muttered.
"Hmph, you have a rather bold opinion of him," said Odianna.
"He's the strongest in the world! Way stronger than that super saiyan you beat, and even stronger than you," rebutted Pan, not liking Odianna's tone.
"Pan...," Odianna began.
"He would stop them, he..." Pan kept going.
"PAN!" shouted Odianna.
Pan went silent at her outburst.
"I do not care how strong your grandfather is or isn't, it doesn't matter," said Odianna.
"Your family and friends are not here, the only ones that can actually fight are the three of us, and maybe you if you can get your act together," said Odianna, "You cannot count on outside help."
It hit her, what she meant. Pan trembled a bit, and gulped, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. Grandpa, dad, Vegeta, Trunks, Goten, 18, all the others, they couldn't help. She couldn't count on them to save her if she was in danger. If... if she died here, without dragonballs, then it was over. She'd die, go to this universe's otherworld, and never see her family again.
"You still so eager to fight?" asked Odianna, almost a taunt.
If these people could fight like that, without dragonballs, then... then she couldn't forgive herself for not doing the same. "Yes."
Without another word, the group resumed walking. Pan took in the rest of Haven, and its people as they moved. She noted a difference pretty quickly between the older survivors and the younger ones that was heartbreaking to see. The older ones looked crushed, not an ounce of hope in their eyes. The younger ones still moved about with some fire in their eyes, as if it hadn't been snuffed out. Some though looked like they were starting to feel it. Pan couldn't imagine what it had to be like to have lived like this. To have lost so many friends and family, to have been driven down to only a few hundred people left alive. She could remember the last time she had flown around Earth, feeling the huge clusters of people in the big cities. She had taken that for granted. It just... the world felt empty with so few. She clenched her fists, she'd do whatever it takes to help them out. No one deserved to live like this.
They left Haven and moved onto a leveled, barren dirty area a ways outside of it. Odianna raised and lowered her ki a couple of times. Pan felt all the small ki signatures flying around stop and head their way. Within half an hour, what was left of Terra's defense corps gathered in front of them, and Pan felt horrified.
"They're just kids..." she whispered.
Not a single one of them looked older than Odianna did. They were all worse for the wear, bruised and roughed up.
"Everyone's given a choice of how they pull their weight," said Aideen, giving Pan a look of disapproval, "Some farm, some scavenge, some repair. These ones, like I did, chose to try and fight, and for the record, you're just a kid yourself."
Odianna stepped forward and spoke to the corps, "Alright, were doubling up on training after that last attack. We got hit when we weren't ready and lost far to many people. We can't afford that to happen again, nor for you to be weak. Pick a partner, start sparing, and I don't want to hear anything about you still being tired from that attack, tough it out."
Pan watched them all spread out before she nearly doubled over in shock as they all used the Kaio-Ken and started fighting. "Woah..."
"You seem easily impressed, most can't go beyond a times three, if they can do that at all, despite since training from the age of five," said Odianna, "Let's not even talk about duration."
"Jeez, don't need to bring them down," chided Pan.
"I'm not, I'm simply stating facts," said Odianna.
Pan worked to hide how impressed she was, attaining a passive looking face. Grandpa had told her this technique was hard to use. Even if they had been training since such a young age, it was still praiseworthy. Grandpa probably would have freaked out.
"Aneurin, go start coaching the corps," said Odianna.
Odianna turned to Aideen, then pointed at Pan, "Get her started."
Pan frowned. "But she's all bruised up, she can't fight like that."
Odianna raised an eyebrow. "Fight? You think you are going to be fighting with the Kaio-Ken on day one? You have to attain near perfect ki control, and the right state of mind, before you can even think of using it. You Pan, are going to be meditating and working on your ki for at least a month."
"Wha?!" Pan exclaimed.
Odianna turned around. "I'm going back to patrolling. I already found one bastard hiding out, there could be more."
With that, she flew off.
Pan crossed her arms. "A month? No way, I'm my grandpa's granddaughter, there's no way it'll take me that long, I bet I'll have it at the end of the day!"
Aideen smirked at her. "Good luck with that, now, sit down and start meditating. The first step is to empty your mind of thought."
Pan grumbled to herself before complying, well, somewhat. She kept one eye half open and her senses aware, watching the corps spar. She took careful note of how their bodies felt with the Kaio-Ken active...
"Hey! I wasn't born yesterday, you're not paying attention to your meditation," chided Aideen.
"I know how to meditate, Piccolo taught me" said Pan.
"That so?" asked Aideen skeptically.
"Yeah, and you know, he doesn't really sleep, he just meditates," said Pan.
Aideen raised an eyebrow. "Well, I don't know if he did a good job teaching you then, cuz that first attempt was weak. How about you show me a real meditation. Hold it for half an hour without getting distracted."
Pan crossed her legs, crossed her arms, and crunched a little bit. "Hmph."
She DID know how to meditate, but, she had to admit, not getting distracted or ancy for long periods of time was hard. When she was younger, before having to go to school all the time, she could meditate for hours. She smiled, ah, the blissful age of four, getting ready for her first martial arts tournament... wait a second... no daydreaming! She took a deep breath, cleared her mind, and started levitating a little bit. She thought she heard Aideen say something, but droned her, and the sounds of fighting, out. This wasn't a game, or just for fun, she HAD to do this right and prove she could. Odianna said they got hit frequently, at least once a month. She had to be well into fighting with kaio-ken before then.
...
...
...
p...
pa...
"PAN!" a voice shouted in her ear.
Pan gave a yelp and fell on her butt. "What?"
Aideen stepped back. "Unless you want to keep going for another hour, you can stop."
Pan blanked for a moment. "Hour?"
Aideen nodded. "I decided to let you keep going at the thirty minute mark."
Pan gave her an annoyed look.
Aideen crossed her arms, an almost jealous look crossing her face. "I'll admit, you have a good hang of meditation, took me a long time to reach that level. We can work on ki control for a bit before sunset."
Pan stood up. "I can control my ki."
"A bit sure, I've seen you raise and spike it back at the town. Do you know how to suppress your ki?" asked Aideen.
Pan did so.
"How about flying?" asked Aideen.
Pan flew off the ground and did a circle around the training grounds before landing.
"Damn," muttered Aideen.
"Alright then, hey Aneurin! Get the hell over here," shouted Aideen.
"I want to see how you defend," explained Aideen after Aneurin walked over, "Using the Kaio-Ken requires a continuous near perfect control over all over your ki. If you lose control when you take a hit, then your Kaio-Ken will hurt you worse than your opponent. Just focus on defense, don't let your ki get out of control, and don't fight back."
Pan nodded and braced herself, adopting the stance her grandpa had first taught her. She shifted her body side-ways then half crouched, one arm raised in the air behind her, the other held out in front of her towards the ground near her knee.
Aideen watched silently, suddenly looking very serious. "..."
"Interesting stance, she's definitely had martial art's training, must be turtle hermit style I guess, " murmured Aneurin.
Pan blanked for a moment. Now that she thought of it, she had never asked Grandpa what style this was. She didn't know if it was turtle hermit or not. Instantly Aneurin rushed her, taking a swipe at her face. Pan panicked and barely managed to raise an arm to block. Aneurin swept her legs out from under her, grabbed her arm, swung her overhead, and slammed her into the ground. She laid there, stunned for a moment before she recovered. Pan's cheeks burned with shame. Grandpa would have laughed at that piss poor start. Pan rose to her feet, retook the stance, and waited, this time not letting a thought distract her. Aneurin came at her again, this time with a flurry of blows. Pan blocked each one, falling back with each block to keep distance and not let him overtake her. He aimed a kick towards her stomach, she raised a knee to block. He aimed a chop towards her head, she raised an arm to glance it off.
He continued attacking for a few minutes, and Pan made sure not to let him land a single blow. Though, she did know he was going easy on her, he wasn't using the kaio-ken after all. She studied him as he attacked, a lot of his blows were very quick and light without any real stopping power followed by a heavy attack towards a spot where her defenses appeared weak. She also noticed he tried to trip her up a lot and shift her limbs out of the way with his lighter attacks. She assumed if she was attacking, he'd be trying to glance her attacks off him and leave her open to a counter. His style seemed to be about quickly overwhelming or unbalancing his opponent, followed by a single heavy knockout hit. It was unassuming at first, and could be devastating if unchecked.
"Alright, that's enough," called out Aideen.
"Yeeesh, I guess your grandpa must really be a good teacher, you're way farther along than you should be," said Aideen, "Most of the corps at your age panic and focus all their defense and energy towards where they are going to be hit as a natural response, leaving the energy in their body unbalanced. You did good to maintain control."
Pan stepped pass Aneurin and beamed with pride. "Yep, my grandpa is the best!"
She gave a yelp when Aneurin suddenly tripped her to the ground from behind. "Seems he didn't teach you to not let your guard down."
Pan scowled and rose to her feet. "I thought we were done."
"A saiyan isn't beaten until they are dead, and if you think otherwise, they will come back and kill you." warned Aneurin.
Aideen walked over to Aneurin. "So, where should we go from here?"
"As you said, she's ahead, perhaps we should just go to the end stages of ki control?" asked Aneurin.
"Why don't you just show me how to use it?" asked Pan.
Aideen gave her a look. "What do you think were doing? Pan, everything about the Kaio-Ken is about controlling yourself and your energy."
Aideen stepped forward. "I want you to power up a little and grab ahold of all your ki, every ounce of it in your body. Don't do anything with it, just focus on being aware of it, and keeping a hand on it. Got it?"
Pan nodded and clenched her fists, going quarter power. She closed her eyes, focusing her senses on her own body, grasping for each ounce of power flowing through it. She frowned, feeling strands of strength escape her grip. She began to scowl, trying to keep everything in tight order was annoying. For a brief moment, she held perfect control. She smiled, grew excited, and then completely lost her grip the moment she did.
"Grrrrrr!" Pan growled.
"You can't let anything break your concentration Pan," warned Aneurin, "Losing control at a critical moment when using the Kaio-Ken, say, when charging a ki attack for example, could obliterate your body."
Pan nodded and resumed trying to maintain control. Her eyes briefly flickered to the few of the corps that weren't resting and were still sparring. When they used the kaio-ken, all the ki in their body went up, their entire body's shifted red at once. Hmmm... so that explained why they were having her control it all at once. Whatever she had to do to actually use the Kaio-Ken required her to do it to her entire body at once.
"Just focus on doing that for an hour Pan," said Aideen, "Then we'll go to the next step."
Pan obeyed, narrowing her eyes, and one-hundred percent focused on reigning in every little flick of energy that dared get out of line. It felt really weird in a way. This was nothing like gathering energy for an attack. Just holding everything perfectly aligned, and waiting, made her ancy. She frowned, that was the point of this though, she couldn't feel ancy or it probably wouldn't work.
Pan struggled with it for an hour, only managing to maintain perfect control in brief moments, much to her chagrin.
"So, we finally found something she's stuck on," said Aideen, "Do it for another hour."
"I can figure it out later, show me whats next and..." Pan began.
"Pan, you are being way to overeager, there is no skipping ahead for this," said Aneurin,
Pan grumbled to herself before resuming. Two hours later, her temper was starting to flare. It was frustrating to admit she had been wrong, there was no way she was going to get this by the end of the day. The more frustrated she got, the harder it was to keep ahold of her strength.
"Relax your power and take a break Pan," said Aideen finally.
"No, I'm going to get this down," Pan shot back.
"It's not a matter of 'getting it down'," said Aneurin, "It's not the same as learning a technique then perfecting it over time. Your body had to adapt and get used to your ki being used this way. It's not something that happens quickly."
She grumbled a bit before powering down and asking, "Can you at least tell me the steps were going to go through? Gotta have a goal to aim for."
"Well, since your already this far, there's only a few more to go, but, they are the hardest. You have to finish mastering controlling all your ki. Then, you have to learn to be able to attain that controlled state on demand with a moments notice, no slowly gaining that state over time. Next comes fighting while maintaining that control. Finally, you have to learn to actually amplify your ki and use the Kaio-Ken, after that, you learn how to maintain and fight with the Kaio-Ken, the final step is learning how to increase the levels of your Kaio-Ken," said Aneurin.
He crossed his arms. "And before you get any ideas, were not going to tell you how to actually use the Kaio-Ken until we think your ready to, we've seen enough recruits die by getting ahead of themselves and trying when they clearly weren't ready."
Pan gave a start. "Die?"
Aneurin narrowed his eyes. "Have you only been half-listening? Every time we have warned about the Kaio-Ken being able to destroy your body, we've been dead serious. More than half of the recruits usually fail to graduate. Most simply can't attain the control they need. Others who blunder ahead kill themselves with the technique the first time they try to use it. They usually overdo it and their muscles literally explode. If they don't outright die, then they are crippled for the rest of their lives. Judging by that overeager look you had on earlier, if we had told you how to do it, you would have instantly tried and killed yourself. And that, is exactly why we don't reveal how to do it until a recruit is ready anymore."
Pan's face paled. "O-oh..."
Aneurin walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "When we think your ready, we will teach you the Kaio-Ken. Now, go take a break."
Pan nodded, walked a bit away, and then sat down. Stupid stupid stupid! Aneurin was right, she was ignoring how dangerous this could be. She glanced over at the defense corps, it was horrible to imagine, thinking of their bodies exploding, and them dying, simply from training to use a technique. She closed her eyes, painfully wondering how many had died trying to attain the strength they needed to defend their world. For a brief moment, she wanted to just leave this world and go back home. This whole experience was getting more awful the more time that passed. She blinked and scolded herself, these people needed her! She couldn't just stop now. Not that she could anyway even if she wanted to.
She laid on the ground, putting her arms behind her head. Hmm...
Pan gave a start sometime later when water splashed over her face. "How long are you going to sit there and doze?"
Pan glanced up, seeing Odianna standing over her. Pan glanced around, seeing the corps and left and the sun was starting to get a little low.
She stood up and mumbled. "Sorry."
Odianna moved a way. "I've been told you're quite skilled."
Odianna stopped moving, turning, and stared at her. "Show me, go full power."
Pan blinked a few times before nodding, she half crouched and began to raise her power. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
The ground cracked a little under her feet, pebbles raising up into the air until she finished.
"Hmph, not bad I suppose," said Odianna.
"She's stronger than we were at that age by far," Aneurin called over.
"So?" Odianna called back, "Until she can use the Kaio-Ken she's dead weight."
Pan narrowed her eyes. "I bet I could beat you if you didn't use the Kaio-Ken."
Odianna crossed her arms. "What your saying is if I held back then you could win. Even IF that's true, so what? The Saiyans could do the same."
She smirked. "Though, when you are fighting saiyans, don't hesitate to issue them challenges like that if you are losing. The majority of Saiyans are stupid brutes. I won many fights in the early invasions simply because Saiyans will handicap themselves for a challenge, especially when fighting woman because they default to thinking we're weaker."
She turned her head in spit. "If you ever hear a saiyan say 'I'll give you one free hit', please kill them."
She grinned savagely. "There's very few things more satisfying than using a saiyan's arrogance against them, aside from torturing and killing them of course."
Pan hesitated, really not liking that gleeful tone she was hearing. "Okay...whatever..."
Odianna grew serious. "You will listen when I'm teaching you."
Pan blinked a few times. "Teaching?"
"Going into battle against the Saiyan race isn't just about overpowering and beating them into the ground. The proper mindset, and knowledge of how to abuse their weaknesses, goes a long way," explained Odianna.
"Their arrogance is generally a critical weakness to exploit, not just in regards to challenges, but to their entire fighting style. When Saiyan's think they're winning, they grow sloppy, instead of just winning, they toy with their opponent," she continued.
"That super saiyan this morning could have easily killed you, Aideen, and Aneurin before I got even half way there. Instead, he screwed around and picked you apart one by one, I imagine he mocked you the entire time, or at least for part of it," said Odianna.
Her eyes narrowed. "However, that isn't always the case. Very few saiyans are capable of controlling their arrogance to the point where it doesn't distract from their performance. The ones that do are exceptionally deadly. In my experience, that only happens with their so called 'super elites', and first time super saiyans and ascended super saiyans. The latter two are only because they are one hundred percent focused on killing you, though, if the battle lasts long enough, that bloodlust will weaken to the point where their arrogance can influence them again."
Pan frowned. "Ascended super saiyans?"
Odianna grew deadly serious. "What you saw this morning was a novice super saiyan. I don't think he mastered the state, or that bulky muscle form. There is another level, so far beyond the powers of a normal super saiyan, I've only encountered it a few times. If you ever see a super saiyan with lightning sparking over their body with super spiky hair, I'll be blunt, unless I'm there you are dead."
Oh, she was talking about super saiyan 2, but wait a second...
"Your Kaio-Ken times fifty... it wouldn't be strong enough to fight that," said Pan.
"Your point?" asked Odianna.
"Then... how could you win against that power?" asked Pan.
Odianna frowned, looking rather uncomfortable. "None of your business."
Odianna turned around. "Power down and go with them to get something to eat."
"Wait, wait a second," said Pan.
Odianna ignored her and flew off. Pan stood there, feeling incredulous. There was no way she could match a super saiyan 2 with the Kaio-Ken. Even if she could somehow go times one-hundred, ridiculous as the thought was, Pan didn't think it wouldn't be enough.
Pan turned and asked, "Just how high can she push the Kaio-Ken?"
Aneurin frowned. "She doesn't go above fifty, says it gets too unstable to control the further up you go."
"Then how could she win?" Pan asked.
Aneurin crossed his arms. "She didn't win, not the first time. While she fought, and by fought, I mean got the crap kicked out of her, I began charging the ultimate technique and used it to kill the first ascended super saiyan."
"Ultimate technique?" asked Pan.
Aneurin nodded. "It calls upon the energy of all living things on the planet in order to create a massive ball of pure energy. It's called the spirit bomb."
Oh, wow! They knew how to use the spirit bomb?
Aneurin sighed. "There's wasn't enough living things left on this world to use it anymore after that. Humanity was nearly finished off during that one battle between Odianna and the ascended super saiyan."
"Oh," Pan said quietly.
"But, she's fought a few ascended super saiyans, right? How'd she manage to win?" asked Pan.
An ill look crossed Aideen's face. "She found a way."
The woman ignored Pan's questioning look and slowly shook her head. "Let's just go eat Pan."
Pan slowly let herself power down before taking off with them. The thought nagged her, how could Odianna match the power of a super saiyan 2, and why did both her and Aideen look so uneasy about it?