A/N Hi my loyal friends and readers. Sorry this took longer to get out than I planned. I was feeling a little burnt out and needed a few extra days to get some rest, then went away for a short holiday. I finally knocked this one out though. Hope you enjoy it.

To the story!

…

Chapter 23 – Short Wars and Serious Talks

Ceasefire Declared!

Welcome everyone to Citadel News!

Today, King Vegeta has declared a formal ceasefire to the salarian people!

As we all know, the Saiyan King was quick to declare war with the Salarian Union due to their actions in planning an attack on the Saiyan kingdom through the use of mercenaries, STG agents, and salarian Spectres. This was the same as last time. The comparison between the two has led some critics to claim that the saiyans are bullies, declaring war as soon as someone commits the slightest infraction against their people.

This is a marked difference to how the Citadel races have normally responded. With the asari as a baseline, most species either outright ignore, or postpone any actions against other races. The only times that this has not been the case was when large scale attacks came into play. The most recent of which was during the Krogan Wars, and even then only after years of attempting to resolve the raids on asari and salarian space peacefully.

Despite the short length of this conflict, it has had a serious impact on both salarian and Citadel stability. The majority of dalatrasses have been confirmed captured, leading to a societal vacuum as the people try to restore a semblance of leadership. So far, the response of the people has been to rely more heavily on the guidance of the police until the next dalatrasses come forward in the line of succession.

For the Citadel, it has caused some issues as Ambassador Gohan has confirmed that the Director of the STG and several high-ranking STG officers were party to the attacks on the Saiyan Kingdom and have been detained pending interrogation. A video confession from two of the STG officers has been forwarded to Citadel News Network and is being viewed alongside CSEC Executor Pallin to ensure accuracy and to make sure that security is not compromised.

Councillor Tevos has issued a formal statement regarding the conclusion of this conflict: "The Saiyan Kingdom and their Human Systems Alliance allies are not part of the Citadel community. They have embassies on the Citadel as a means of ensuring ongoing communications with us, to share intelligence and to open a possibility of further discourse and relationship building. In the short time that we have been aware of their presence, some parties have taken upon themselves the decision to attack the Saiyan Kingdom for their own benefits and reasons; none of which can be even remotely condoned by the Citadel.

Make no mistake; today is a day of both joy and sadness. Joy that this conflict has run its course, but sadness that the dalatrasses and intelligence agents thought to take up arms against the innocent children of the Saiyan Kingdom. They didn't even aim at the adults, save to distract them from their real targets. There is no excuse for such actions and there is to be no mistake that in this matter, the Salarian Union dalatrasses and certain STG officers were the perpetrators of this conflict.

At no time has the Saiyan Kingdom issued threats of violence against the Citadel as a whole without cause, and even then it was only to determine if the Citadel as a whole had been behind the attacks on their people. As the Citadel was not party to any attack, King Vegeta has never turned a violent mind towards us. In fact, in both instances, King Vegeta came to the Citadel with proof of wrongdoing from the guilty parties and sought redress from the Citadel. Escalation from there only occurred when negotiations broke down and even then, it was only at the parties that directly acted against the Saiyan people. While we are saddened with the actions that have occurred, we are capable of recognising the restraint, even if other parties are not."

We at Citadel News Network reached out to our military consultant General Oraka for his opinion on the matter. He was quoted saying this: "I don't know what game the dalatrasses were playing. They clearly thought that they could engage the saiyans in the same style that they normally would, if a lot more brazen. They are touted as the most intellectual of all the Citadel races, at least tactically. It's the doctrine their military has run with since before the Citadel community began. Unfortunately, that tactic only works if the target is running on your level. I would have thought that after the mess with the batarians, that the salarians would have realised that the saiyans are a whole different raptor."

In his statement declaring the ceasefire, King Vegeta claims that 'the situation with the Union was inherently different than that of the former Hegemony.' In the Hegemony's case, it was a system issue that existed at the core of their very society that would ensure that no matter how many times they were rebuff, they would try over and over again. Not just against the saiyans, but against their human allies and any other sentient being they could get their hands on. In the Union's case, a number of leaders acted without informing either the Citadel Council or their own people. In fact, King Vegeta was aware that significant persons within the salarian Union had even come to warn the saiyans about the upcoming attack. This led him to conclude that there was no problem with the Union as a whole, only "certain people who had let power go to their heads."

The response on the Citadel was certainly mixed, even among the salarians.

One salarian, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the dalatrasses were clearly working for the good of the greater Citadel community. "We live in a galactic community that has been set up to ensure that no one race is able to gain full power over the others. It is an effective and efficient way to maintain balance and harmony between the races of the Citadel community. The saiyans, with their powers, have upset that balance. Clearly, the dalatrasses were doing their part to restore it, as they should!"

Another anonymous salarian disagreed. "What reasonable person looks at what happened to the former Hegemony and thinks to themselves that they should stop further actions with something as slow as a genophage? Our own history shows that it took decades of active conflict before the krogan were able to see the effect it had on them. Something like that on the saiyans, who were able to conquer an entire race in less than a month, when they were vastly outnumbered? It was madness. Madness and stupidity."

Other races have also been approached for their reaction to the conflict. Aneeti, an asari on the Presidium near the Consort, said that the attacks on the saiyans were not justifiable, but the limited response by the saiyans to the perpetrators show that in this conflict were by far the less civilised. She further said that "any race that looks on the abduction of innocent children stolen right from the nursery, to be used as tools for experimentation, were not a race that any civilised person should want to have any further dealing with."

Finally, a turian CSEC Officer, requesting that his name not be published to show that he doesn't reflect the greater opinion of CSEC, said that he had never had an issue arising from saiyans starting a fight on the Citadel. Furthermore, in a moment of candour, he said, 'people look at turians as being the hotheads, those who are most likely to use force to solve an issue. With this conflict being what it is, I'm just glad it wasn't us this time.'

We hope to speak to Ambassador Gohan shortly to gain further insight. For now, we can at least be reassured that Former Councillor Valern has once again stepped into the Union Council seat to steady the salarian leadership crisis.

…

(Gohan POV)

Gohan fiddled with the cuffs on his suit as he stared at himself in the mirror. He had to admit, he was feeling a little nervous about this. Not like he had with Videl, but then, he had been trying to juggle a secret 'hero' identity, his first girlfriend, hiding his powers and abilities, and trying to go to school for the first time, all while going through the joys of puberty.

It had made for a nerve-wrecking time.

Now, he had lived for a couple hundred years, had a wife who he had watched grow old with, raised a daughter who had the spirit of her mother, and was one of the most powerful people in the universe. He could match words with the so-called 'brightest minds' in the Citadel community.

It still didn't stop him feeling a little nervous.

It was the first date that he had been on since Videl had passed. Not to say that there hadn't been several female saiyans trying to give it a go. After all, he had been around them all as he trained them. Not to mention, more peaceful saiyans or not, saiyans respected strength. And in the opposite sex, saiyans attracted strength.

None of the female saiyans had been successful in their attempts to woo him, or his father or Vegeta for that matter, but he couldn't deny that he was a little flattered by their attempts. It felt good to be desired.

He ran a hand through his hair, more than a little grateful that he hadn't inherited his father's completely wild mane. Being able to cut his hair was something he was truly grateful of.

A tiny pulse of energy behind him told him that someone had teleported into his room behind him. An instantaneous read of the energy told him that it was a very familiar person.

He turned around, feeling a little sheepish as he saw the person in the room with him.

"Pan!" he exclaimed, feeling like he had his hand caught in a cookie jar. The unimpressed look on her face made it worse. "It's great to see you, kiddo! How have you been?"

"Save it," she said curtly. "Vegeta told me you are going on a date with that asari, Tevos."

Oh, boy. He hadn't had to worry about any of this earlier himself, but he had wondered how Pan would take it if he started dating again. Clearly not well, if her expression was indicating anything.

"Well, that's true," he confessed. "She has been showing interest in me for a long time now and I thought I would go on a date with her to see if there is anything more."

"You know it's not really a woman, right?" Pan said with a slight sneer. "She could mate with me just as easily as she could with you."

"That's not a nice thing to say, Pan," Gohan admonished his little girl. Centuries old or not, he was always going to be her father. "Just because she could go with anyone else in the galaxy, male or female, doesn't mean that you can consider her not a woman. She certainly looks and acts like one."

"It's not the same and you know it," Pan argued. "Besides, why are you going on a date again? Are you just wanting to get your rocks off? Or are you forgetting mum?"

Gohan frowned and let out a small pulse of energy; not enough to do any damage to the room, but enough to pause Pan's tirade.

"You must think pretty low of your old man if you think I would ever forget your mother," he said, his voice a little harsher than normal. He had grown accustomed a long time ago to speaking to other saiyans from a position of strength. "I loved your mother, more than anything. I gave up so much to be there with her and with you while you were growing up. Maybe it's you who's forgotten that for more than a decade I essentially gave up on everything except being a husband and father. Can any of the other saiyans say that? Can you? Did your husband stop training once Gotel was born?"

"Then why are you moving on with another woman?" Pan shouted. "Why do you need to?"

Gohan narrowed his eyes at his daughter, before letting his anger out in a slow sigh. It was a legitimate question after all. He had some reservations of his own when Caulifla from Universe 6 had started going after his dad. Now he was in his dad's position, he could see how his daughter felt about it.

"Pan," he began, "I will always love your mother. Videl was such a passionate person. I knew her from before I even first stepped foot inside of a high school. And at school, she was the most engaging and persistent person I knew." He grinned at the fond memories he had of the teenage Videl. "She was the first person to realise that I was running around wearing a costume to act like a superhero. She chased me with her gyrocopter so many times. I thought it was hilarious. She never gave up. Even when I started to teach her how to use ki. She kept going no matter how hard it was for her."

He looked up at Pan, whose eyes had the faintest shimmer of unshed tears beginning to form. "I will always have those, and thousands of other, memories. I will cherish them for as long as I shall live. The greatest crime for me would be to forget them, to forget her." He gave her a sad smile. "When she died, she took more than a little part of me with her to the grave. She didn't want the long life that we had been given. She wanted to grow old and see her children and grandchildren grow strong and become their own people. She didn't want immortality, because she was afraid that she would stop valuing what life really meant, what made it special.

"But even though I won't forget your mother, I also can't escape the fact that she passed away more than a century ago. I'm, well, lonely," he confessed, rubbing the back of his head. "I have dad, you and the other saiyans, but I miss the companionship that I shared with your mother. That closeness, the uh, relationship," he finished lamely to not give his daughter the wrong idea.

"I don't know how long we will live," Gohan continued before Pan could override him again. "What I do know is that I don't want to be alone for the rest of my life. Is Tevos someone that I could spend the centuries with? I don't know. But after more than a century of being alone, I am willing to find out. And if not her, I will probably look again."

Pan's face had been a myriad of expressions as Gohan had laid it out for her. In the end, she settled for staring into the wall as though it had personally offended her. She was clenching her fingers tight enough to turn her knuckles white and there were little sparks of wild ki that were coming out of her body as she was visibly trying to restrain her anger. Gohan tensed, ready to act. He wasn't afraid for himself, but Pan hard far more than enough power to destroy the Citadel without trying.

The sparks finally died down as Pan exhaled heavily. She unclenched her fists and looked at the floor.

"Vegeta wants me and Trunks to consider marrying again," she confessed.

Gohan's mouth dropped in shock. "What?" he asked, dumbfounded. "Vegeta wants you to marry Trunks?"

"No!" she shouted, her anger flaring up for a second. She calmed down with another couple of deep breaths. "He just wanted me and Trunks, individually, to being open to marrying again.

"Huh." Gohan collapsed on the bed with a soft thump. He wasn't really sure what to say about that. Her husband had been gone for a long time too, nearly a century. He hadn't been selected for advancement to Super Saiyan God and had lived to a ripe old age of one hundred, which was pretty standard for a saiyan. You know, if you counted how old he was before he died the first time.

Her husband, Jinja, had been a solid and dependable warrior, capable of standing up to his wife despite her being the physically stronger of the two. He had been a good person on top of that and had done a great job raising their son, Gotel, into a fine man and Saiyan warrior. Pan had been distraught at his passing, though Jinja himself had no regrets. He passed peacefully in his sleep after a life helping to rebuild his people.

"And, what do you think of that?" he asked, cautiously.

Pan just shrugged. "I don't know," she confessed. "Jin was a great guy and a wonderful husband. If he had been made a god like us then I would have been happy. Unfortunately, he didn't want it and didn't even ask for it. But I know that he would want me to be happy, just as much as he would hate the idea of me with anyone else."

Gohan nodded. Videl would be the same for him right now.

"I guess that I might come to that point, the same as you," Pan conceded. "Where I want to have that companionship. In some ways I miss it too. Deeply. But I don't feel ready for that just now. I love working with the kids in the nursery and training the younger ones. The others in the nursery are great company. But…" she cut herself off hesitantly, before ploughing on as Pan always did, "I can understand feeling lonely. Being at home after a long day, cooking a meal for one and eating it alone. Lying in bed, knowing that Jin isn't going to come through the door. It does get lonely. But I don't think I am ready to date again. Not just yet anyway." She sighed deeply. "Or maybe I just closed myself off to the idea of it and refused to think about it at all. I don't know. Probably both."

Gohan nodded. He knew his daughter well enough to know that it wasn't just him dating again that had made her angry. It was both that and the idea of someone expecting her to date again. This conversation was a chance for her to vent, and a sign to him that she trusted him enough to vent her concerns to.

He reached an arm out and pulled her in for a hug. She didn't resist. She never did. She might like to pretend that she was a big tough woman now, but deep down, she was always his little girl.

"You do what you want to do, kiddo," he said, giving her a kiss to her forehead. "I'll trust you to make good calls and I'll support you. If you want to date again, that's fine. If you aren't ready, that's fine too. But I do agree with Vegeta; don't resign yourself to being alone forever. Leave yourself open to the possibilities and if something comes up that you want, take it."

"Thanks, Dad," she mumbled, leaning into the hug. They stayed like that for a moment before they broke apart.

"Alright kiddo," he said, straightening up. "I need to head on out in a minute to meet up with Tevos. I'll see you later."

He started to move towards the bathroom to make sure everything was clean.

"Wait," Pan said sternly, causing him to stop and look back at her.

"That tie looks horrible," she said. "Wear the silver and blue one."

He grinned. Looks like his little girl had given her 'permission'. That was the last obstacle. Time to go on his date.

After he changed his tie, of course.

…

(Goku POV)

None of it really hurt. Sure, his baseline strength wasn't enough to hurt, or even dodge, Sleet in his fully transformed body. Goku might have been hurt by this level of strength once upon a time, but he had made a point of training his base strength to be more powerful, so that his evolved forms would be even stronger. He had done so since he first transformed into a Super Saiyan and had kept it up during all of his training with Whis over the decades. He had even done that when he was dead and living on King Kai's planet.

That meant that after nearly two centuries, his baseline form was strong enough to take powerful hits but it was still much more limited than his transformed forms in terms of speed and reflexes.

He took another hit to the stomach, knocking the wind out of him slightly and blasting him towards the ground. He wanted to test whether or not there was any way for him to naturally overpower the technique that took him out of his transformation, but Sleet wasn't giving him time to test things out.

A hammering blow to the back launched him skywards again as he felt a moment of vertigo distract him from his thoughts. An idle thought crossed his mind that this had been going on for some time now. If Sleet was anything like Frieza, then he was going to pause for a minute to monologue. Probably before he could let off his 'final attack' to kill Goku and his friends and family. Or he would make him watch one of the others die first.

A tail whip across his face hurled Goku back towards the ground, faster than his current form could control. If he had been even a regular super Saiyan, he would have been able to twist so that he could land on his feet. Right now, the best he could do was rotate so that he didn't land on his head. Not that it was a whole lot better. He hit the ground flat on his back, hard enough to leave a crater. It didn't completely wind him, but he felt his breath go a little short at the contact.

A blinding light filled his vision as he was hit with a massive ki blast before he could really respond. If it hadn't hit him directly, it would have had enough power behind it to drill through the core and destroy the planet.

As it was, it exploded on contact with him, tossing him about like a leaf in a hurricane. The sound was incredible, even with his ki naturally protecting his hearing. He could feel the heat of it burning his skin and shredding his clothes even as he pushed hard to protect himself from the worst of it.

Finally, the light died away and the sound faded until the whole planet seemed to grow silent. Goku reached out with his senses and could feel that everyone seemed to have stopped. All of his own people were still there, which was a relief. Not that he expected anything different. The only one who could probably have done any significant damage to any of the saiyans was Sleet himself. Unless they had more hidden techniques, the best thing that they could do would beat on the saiyans until the goons ran out of energy or got bored.

"I see that even in your untransformed forms you can take quite a bit of punishment," Sleet's cocky voice came from above him. He turned his head, even as he started to push his ki to test the technique that was being used against him, preventing him from transforming.

"Yeah," Goku grunted as he stood up slowly. "Lucky me." He wasn't finding much success at the moment. It was like whatever the technique that Sleet's female follower was doing was preventing his power from rising to the threshold that it needed to get to, to be able to access the super Saiyan transformation. He might be able to build up his ki behind the blockage and force the transformation, but he didn't know if that was a good idea. His instincts told him that the amount of power required to force his energy past the block would possibly damage the planet completely. "I guess I should have done what everyone always tells me I should do; go to full power right from the start to make sure that I don't get in these situations."

Sleet chuckled. "Yes," he agreed, surprising Goku with his candidness. "Uncle Frieza always did say that you were easily manipulated that way. The slightest hint of remorse or engaging you in a casual conversation was enough to make you lower your guard. The natural way that you tried to believe in the nest of people. HA!" He spat to the side. "It made it so easy for Uncle to be able to move where you couldn't see him until it was too late. He said it was sickening, but useful because you were too stupid to even notice the most blatant of manipulations that he used to stop you killing him before he was strong enough to fight back!"

Goku's lips pursed. He realised that he was taken advantage of by his enemies. He had been since he could remember. His mercy was something even his allies got frustrated with from time to time. He didn't believe that he was fully wrong to do it though. After all, Piccolo and Vegeta were great examples of an enemy who became a solid life-long friend and ally. Even others who hadn't been as far along the villain track as they had been had worked out for him. Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu had all been enemies in one form or another. The last two of those had even tried to kill him!

"I don't see it as a weakness to believe in the best of people," Goku countered as he stood up. "It's worked for me more times than it hasn't." he kept flexing his ki to try and weaken the barrier that had been placed by that minion, to no avail. Still, it seemed to only be working on his normal ki…

Apparently, his efforts hadn't been as subtle as he thought.

"Maybe not," Sleet said condescendingly. "The weak will often cower together to try appear strong. You've certainly surrounded yourself with the weak followers you have. But doing so has only exposed your own weak heart! That same weak heart that Uncle Frieza took advantage of time and time again. And now look at you! Too weak to stand up to me on your own. Too weak to defend yourself because my uncle was able to use your weakness against you time and time again to prevent you from stopping him."

"But grandpa did stop Frieza!" Gotel shouted from where he was hunched over, surrounded by dozens of Sleet's goons.

"True," Sleet conceded. "But not before Uncle Frieza restored his empire and managed to increase it significantly." His tone turned mock sad as he jeered. "All those poor lost souls who could have lived on. If only Goku hadn't been so weak and had finished the job when he could have decades earlier!" He lost the fake sadness and kept up the jeering as he sneered down at Goku. "And now thanks to Uncle Frieza's information on you, I have you at my mercy."

Sleet's words hammered into Goku harder than the alien's fists had. He had even forgotten about Frieza lots of times before he had finally finished the job and killed Frieza for the final time. But he had also let Frieza go for years at a time because he had hoped that Frieza would tone down all of his anger.

He was aware that his nature differed from most saiyans. While, like the rest of them, he always sought out strong opponents, it wasn't for the purpose of dominating. It was to test himself so that he could get stronger and have someone to set himself against.

But he had Whis for that, now. And Beerus. And one day he wanted to take on the Grand Priest who looked after Zeno. Those people were absolute monsters in their strength. Beings that had power on a level that would take centuries of dedicated effort and training before he would be able to take them on. And, if he understood Whis's hints correctly, the more powerful universes who would be in the next Tournament of Power that Zeno would hold.

He didn't need Frieza anymore for that. Or Sleet.

Goku sighed even as he felt the one path that was open to him through the technique keeping him from transforming starting to build power.

"That's the same thing that people have said to me over and over again," he admitted to Sleet, who seemed to have no inkling of the build-up of ki that Goku was forming. "I used to joke and ignore their concerns. After all, Vegeta tried to kill me a few times before we became friends and he has helped me defend Earth and the Universe as friends for nearly two hundred years. But I do suppose that they are also right; I have always given too many chances. I am going to have to change that."

Sleet sneered down at him. "That's very presumptuous," he replied. "You think you will live long enough to stop me from killing you?"

Goku chuckled. "I don't need to think about it."

In that instant, the ki that he had been quietly building up exploded out of him, leaving Sleet and his goons to shield their faces from the bright flash of light.

Sleet looked back and gaped in horror. "What?" he gasped. "How?"

Goku stared back at him as he let the godly ki that allowed his transformation to Super Saiyan Blue cast its blue aura around him. A moment later, the other saiyans all copied him and transformed into their Super Saiyan Blue forms. The cries of fear from Sleet's minions had the odd effect of heartening Goku. He even saw Caulifla grinning triumphantly at her opponent, the one that had used the anti-transformation technique.

"It seems like I finally need to learn my lesson," Goku said rising from the ground and coming up to Sleet's level, his blue aura forcefully pushing back any minion too close to him. "My friends and family will be so happy, so thank you."

Caulifla burst into laughter behind him, while the others chuckled. Sleet, supposed master of the universe even if it was self-proclaimed, could only stare in horrified shock back at him.

…

A/N

Bit of real talk in this chapter and as people could see, blocking normal ki isn't the same as blocking god ki. Too bad for Sleet he had to push like he did.