Tien gave a deep inhale as he settled. Engaging on the spiritual realm was always exhausting. Heck, he almost didn't believe it when Goku had said what was happening because he had never considered it to be a possibility. Attacking someone spiritually was not something usually done. Sure, they heard about it but they were always just that…stories. Nothing more, nothing less.

As he took a glance around though, Tien felt that what Krillin had said was true—this was a deep, spiritual invasion. Perhaps with all the craziness they had come to expect from their lives, he should have expected it but this was one thing that he never pondered even being a possibility.

Looking around him, he took wary steps. Much as he meant it when he said that this would be a deep probe, an intrusion, he wanted to do so as little as possible. After all, he, of all people, understood the deep desire and importance of privacy.

Tien frowned, eyes focused. The presence that was haunting the boys was prominent. If that was the case then he should have been able to zone in on it without much difficulty. According to Krillin, it was nearly suffocating and he had no reason to doubt the ex-monk's words.

As he let the imagery around him become clear and less muffled, he felt it. Like the impact that a blast had on the face, only this was deeper and more personal. It was like feeling ants slowly crawl over your skin, slipping into areas that you never thought they would.

Tien frowned deeper and after a moment, he started walking again, just guiding himself with his spiritual eye. He was still at the surface level and judging by the heaviness, identifying the presence would be easy even here…

Yes! It was a twisting thing, just like Krillin had described. It slipped over the floor like it was part of it; in fact, he had to do a double take to make sure that he was not misidentifying it. But nope, there is was. A slick, black thing that moved like a large serpent.

Tien's blow into its back produced a sharp scream and squeal and more than anything else, the martial artist felt something familiar rush through his mind. It wasn't anything precise but more a feeling—a sense of déjà vu like he had been faced with this essence before.

He hardly had time to focus though because the force was enough to throw him onto his back. The ground nearly swallowed him but being as trained as he was, Tien was up and in the air. The swipe of the blackness was hard to follow.

Like mist in a way, it had solid state and yet did not. He passed half through it, as if it were water droplets breaking apart and then midway, they became solid as stone and he found himself hitting the ground hard enough to knock the air out of him.

Mine. Came that hissing voice.

A voice that Tien knew and yet could not place.

Dodging the next blow, he took to the air, utilizing the vastness of the mind to grant himself room to move. He was not going to win this head on. Judging by the feel of the thing, it was everywhere. It moved below him, behind him, around him.

But…wait. No. Not just one feeling.

Two, distinctly two.

He felt like he should have been not only able to place the feeling but to know it inside and out. To see and feel and hear and nearly taste it. This was not an alien force, though…yes, yes, it was alien as in outside of the normal but it was not unknown, somehow.

Tien tried to focus but he barely had the time to dodge another attack from above. This one was less slithery and more…well, more like rapid fire attacks from different directions. As if the presence was not entwined everywhere but rather split and divided and in multiple locations.

A hard blow took Tien in the chin and he nearly lost his balance but within a half moment, he was back in the air, his senses spread widely. Ki was what this world was made of but it was easy enough to spot his opponents. Their ki were so different—colder, darker and contrasted violently with Gohan's usual ki.

Get Out.

Not the same hissing voice that he had heard before but Tien knew this voice as well as he knew his own. "No…impossible.."

If it had green and purple colors…

No wonder Gohan had such a time resisting him. Probably the one enemy they had fought that would forever carry pain for him. So many years had passed but the kind of trauma that he inflicted did not fade and within the spiritual world, that was what had power.

He had been the 'perfect' opponent after all.

He dodged the latest blow and fell, longer than he should have but…yes, of course, this was Gohan's mind and he was likely feeling this as well as Tien was.

Wait…Gohan might could help him then!

"Gohan!" He called out. "Send me some help!"

Perhaps that was too vague. After all, this was completely new territory and it was hard to tell how deeply embedded these creatures were. They might be blocking Gohan's ability to even sense him here but if there was one thing Tien had learned over the years and the brief period of time that he had felt Gohan's power against Buu, it was that there was little that restrained that boy…

As if on schedule, a faint image, little more than a visage if he was to be honest appeared by Tien's side. But he only needed a faint help right now. Knowing all too well that maintaining a strong presence here was a strain, especially with the body failing, Tien jumped right to business, "Tell me, Gohan, do you feel them like I do?"

The room went cold and dark which was all the confirmation that Tien needed.

"How…" Gohan's question was faint, crackling, like a television broken by static. Tien grasped his hand tightly, forming as much of a bond as he could even as they took to the air again, dodging the next blow that came from below.

"A good question." Tien looked forward, downward and backward. If he could… "Gohan, can you form a ki blast here?"

The boy blinked at him and for a moment, he faded and Tien feared he might have been unable to hold himself here but he shimmered back into appearance after a moment. "Yes…don't know how powerful…"

"Doesn't need to be powerful, just enough to push them together." Tien interrupted. "They're focused on you and I need that right now."

Gohan nodded and Tien was grateful that they had opted to explore this with him. Goten and Trunks did not have the trust in him that Gohan had built over the years. It was needed right now and the fact that Gohan leapt right into action was a relief.

"You keep saying…mine." Gohan wheezed. "I'm not anybody's."

Oh, now the voices laughed. Outright laughed.

But it had the desired effect. The lightning fast attacks in the air that Tien knew the owner of came swift and hard and the slithery presence below moved to join them. Gohan dodged, luring the upper attacks lower while keeping his eyes on the lower.

It was not a solid figure. Neither one of them were but there was…solidness to them. It was impossible to describe. There was a detail to each of them though. One being a serpent like mist and the other being rapid fire, almost bee-like stinging.

Gohan's presence was enough to draw the rapid fire one though. Oh, that presence dove after him as if going after life itself. Gohan positioned himself between the two—the serpent like one at his back and the buzzing bee one at his front.

Tien waited until they were nearly colliding.

"Solar Flare!"

He closed his main eyes and left only his middle open. The spiritual eye was immune to the light. But it gave him what he needed to see. Amid the flash of light, the depth and path of those creatures became very clear.

It seeped downward, forming almost a twisted well like opening. Lunging for it before recovery was possible, Tien shouted at Gohan to 'go' and let himself slip down that dank passage, amid the cursing from the presences above him.

His left hand clutched at the serpent like thing as he went, enclosing a fist in the horrific feeling, nearly feeling that he would pass out from the negative energy as he went. But he forced himself beyond that, forced his attention forward.

Follow the path. Follow the path.

He knew he had little time to dally. Those two things would be trailing him and they knew where he was going whereas he was running blind but..

There. An opening. An opening to…

Tien blinked, rapidly.

"The Afterlife?"

It seemed impossible but no, as he prodded deeper, he felt it, a spiritual opening from the Other World. It was vague and small. The essences that were here now had grown far too large to go back through. It was from a remote opening, probably had been jimmied open somehow, someway.

Openings from the Spirit World were not unheard of but the prospect of it using that opening as a means to introduce a dark essence to attack the spirit. That was a very detailed plan, a very preplanned plan.

Well, it wasn't like Goku or Vegeta lacked enemies, alive or dead.

Tien focused, resettled…

The three eyes flew open in rapid succession and Tien flopped to the ground even as Gohan's body suddenly twisted and a raw scream cut his throat. The boy's hair shifted, turned gold then back to black before that odd energy he had carried into battle with Majin Buu took him.

At the same moment, Goten howled and Trunks groaned as their hair bleached back to gold and they doubled over on their beds, screeching in such raw pain that it nearly caused sympathy pains in everyone there.

"Goten!" ChiChi ran to her youngest's side, gathering him into her arms, even as the rapid heat cut her skin.

"Gohan!" Goku nearly mimicked his wife, jumping over Tien, only to call 'sorry, sorry,' to him as he fought to contain his son. "Gohan, it's okay, it's okay…Krillin, do that weirdo thing you can do."

Only Vegeta didn't move. Though, it was quite evident that Trunks' screaming was cutting him. The Saiyan Prince's eyes were focused on the three eyed man on the floor who was trying to reorient himself.

Walking over, the Saiyan kicked the man's enclosed fist, ignoring the scolding that came from the others in the room.

From Tien's hand, it clattered to the floor and it only had a solid state for a moment. To bring something, even a mirage from something from the spiritual world back to the real world took great skill and even Vegeta had respect for that.

The Saiyan had no thought for that now though. All he could do was stare at what was in front of him. Something he had seen for most of his life.

A very distinguishable F opposite an inverted one. The telltale purple and white shades.

Slamming his foot down on it, teeth clenched, Vegeta's hair shifted to gold himself.

"Freeza…"