Chapter Hundred-thirty-nine

The Cosmic Ballet Goes On! New Threats On the Horizon!

Xibito woke up from her nap with a yawn and a stretch, scratching her underarm unglamorously and arching her back. With her cosmic awareness, she instantly knew that she'd been asleep for almost six months. "Jeez," she muttered, "Who am I, Beerus?" she grumbled and rubbed her eyes before standing up stiffly and stretching. Pracya hadn't woken her up at any point so it was a safe guess that the universe wasn't on fire.

Before she could go find the old– or rather new– Eastern Kaioushin and confirm it, however, there was a song on the breeze that made her pointy purple ears twitch. It was like the sound of a thousand chimes… only all perfectly synchronized and in tune. She followed the sound like she was in a trance, her feet moving one in front of the other until the next thing she knew, she was standing under one of the massive Kaiju trees that the gods were born from. It would take a person three whole years to walk around the trunk of one of a Kaiju tree it was so massive and another four years to climb from the roots to the tallest branches. They were called "The Trees of the World" for a reason. Xibito was left wondering for a moment what had drawn her to this particular tree… and then she saw them.

"Pracya!" she cried ecstatically. "Pracya, come look!" The old man was at her side in an instant thanks to Instantaneous Movement.

"What," he asked in a panic. "What is it?! What's wrong now?" But instead of speaking, Xibito just pointed up to the tree, her arm quivering with excitement. Pracya squinted for a moment before his eyes widened almost comically.

There, hanging from the branches high above, were three golden fruits. They were still growing and they weren't entirely ripe yet but they were there. For the first time in millions of years, there would be new Kaioushin.

Five Years Since Perfect Cell's Defeat

Trunks stood on a balcony overlooking a vast field of green as the first rays of the morning sun began to peek over the horizon. It had been five long, arduous years since his return from the past and subsequent defeat of Perfect Cell and things had been going pretty well, all things considered. After a trip to New Namek and some very carefully worded wishes to both Porunga and later Shenron, nearly half of the Earth's population had been revived and that included nearly all of its heroes. Of those, only Goku and Suno hadn't come back. Goku had chosen to stay dead, feeling responsible for all of the death and destruction the world had seen, while Suno chose to stay with her wife. Gohan had, surprisingly enough, been fine with this. His parents hadn't been a part of his life for most of it, anyway, and he knew he'd be seeing them again.

Having so much of the world be burnt and destroyed meant that they had a chance to start anew, to build something better from the ashes. It wasn't a super-advanced marvel and the rest of the universe had no real interest in Earth but it was growing again and thriving.

There had been a few setbacks, Trunks was forced to admit as he got dressed, namely the arrival of Babidi and Dabura. Unfortunately, nearly all of the warriors who had been revived had died again in repelling their attack and the Kaioushin, though he'd tried to help them, had ultimately been killed in the struggle. But in the end, Gohan and Trunks had managed to defeat Dabura and kill Babidi before he could release Majin Boo– whatever that was– and then they threw the egg into the sun. Plus, they'd received a decent amount of training as Dong's attendants, so they'd learned how to heal and use Instantaneous Movement.

Still, Trunks couldn't help but feel like something was missing. As though there was something… greater waiting for him. It was enough to make him restless, to set out on numerous pursuits with numerous people to try and find out what that was but nothing ever changed that call he felt deep within his soul. He desperately wanted to be satisfied with his current life and he was certainly happy but it just wasn't enough and that fact troubled him to no end.

And it all had to do with the slip of paper he was rereading for the umpteenth time and the woman who had given it to him.

Footsteps approaching from behind made Trunks quickly fold the paper up and tuck it away in his palm. "Morning, Trunks," Gohan said as he gave his lover a kiss on the cheek.

"Morning, Gohan," Trunks replied as he returned the kiss. "How'd you sleep?"

"Pretty good. Would have been better if you had been there when I woke up."

"Sorry about that. I was just feeling a little restless."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"There's nothing to really talk about. It's just the same old, same old. Wondering how the water purification plant is holding out, wondering about Lapis' animal population rebuild sanctuary, wondering about whatever mad science thing Mom's up to; you know."

Gohan was silent for a moment before speaking, "Are you ever gonna tell me about that note you keep reading?"

Trunks nearly jumped out of his skin as he backpedaled away from Gohan, "Wh-what are you—"

"You're not as sneaky as you think you are," Gohan said with a teasing grin. "I've seen you read that thing a lot over the years, including a few seconds ago before you heard me."

Trunks flushed in guilty embarrassment as he returned to leaning against the railing. "This is something I haven't told anyone before. If it wasn't for the note, I'd almost believe I had imagined the whole thing," Trunks began as he stared into the horizon. "When I was in the time machine making my way to the past, everything started going wrong. The time machine started cracking and sirens were going off everywhere and I was certain I was going to die. Then everything stopped. Not 'stopped' as in 'the sirens turned off' but stopped as if time itself had stopped. I was beginning to think that this is just what happened when you died while traveling across time but this woman appeared in the time vortex.

"Gohan, I don't think I have the words to describe this woman to you. I didn't know it at the time but I think she might have been the same species as the Kaioushin. The crazy thing, though, was that, despite that having been the first time I ever saw her, it was like I had known her all my life. Then she was gone, everything was back to normal, and I found this note in my lap," Trunks said as he gave the note to Gohan.

"'See you soon', huh? Whoever she is, she has really pretty handwriting," Gohan said even as he glared slightly at the heart drawn next to the words before giving it back.

"I've been thinking about that incident ever since. I don't know who that woman is but I just can't shake the feeling that she's really important," Trunks said as he folded up the paper and slipped it into his pocket.

"Well, why don't we pay Kaiou a visit today? If this mystery woman is one of the Kaioushin, he might know who she is," Gohan suggested.

"Yeah, I think I'd—"

"Uhhh, guys?" Ocha called from the roof. "I think you might wanna shelve those plans. We've got a problem on the horizon."

"What's wrong?" Trunks shouted up, not noticing as the floor started shaking. But he and Gohan immediately noticed the bright, almost blinding light that shone around the edges of the building.

"There is no horizon," Ocha explained. By that point, Trunks and Gohan were already moving, flying onto the roof as well. The sight that greeted them was as awe-inspiring as it was horrifying. A massive wall of pink ki rushing forward to greet them, eating up everything in sight and reaching from one end of their field of vision to the other.

But there was something Gohan was able to see and he adjusted his glasses as he peered up at it. A figure dressed all in black with their arms splayed out wide, floating at the crest of the ki wave. A figure who looked remarkably like, but who could not possibly be… "Mom?" Gohan whispered.

One Year Since Majin Boo's Defeat

Lemo had been with the Planet Trade Organization a long time. Hell, he'd been around before Freeza was born. He'd seen both King Cold and Prince Freeza's style of ruling and command. What Freeza lacked in his father's clever mind and sharp wit, he more than made up for in tenacity and ambition, not to mention raw power. The "Emperor", meanwhile, had none of those things. Sure, he was well-spoken, charismatic, a capable warrior, and seemed to have a scouter in his brain or something, but as far as he could tell, Cooler had spent the last decade sitting on his ass with his tail where the stars don't shine while the Galactic Federation had been taking chunks out of the Arcosian Empire. So was it any real surprise that he'd found his way among the band of rebels working to return Freeza to life?

It had taken several years of careful planning and working in secret but they'd managed to build machines that could detect the strange and singular radiation given off by the "Dragon Balls". Since no one knew how to find this so-called "New Namek", that meant they would have to return to Earth, the site of their greatest failure. It was a maneuver that would need to be carefully orchestrated, carried out by the minimum number of agents. Lemo had volunteered for the duty, as had Tagoma.

"Now remember," The lanky lavender lieutenant reminded Lemo as their ship touched down on one of the two frigid poles of the planet, "We have to be subtle. Earth has only recently joined the Galactic Federation so they won't be too used to aliens. No sudden moves and nothing that will get the Saiyans' attention. We don't stand a chance in a stand-up fight."

"Kid, I've been doing this since before your shell slithered outta your dad's ass," Lemo told the other curtly as he took off his scouter and turned on the Battle Power dampener affixed to his belt. "I know what we're doing. You got that Dragon Sextant?" Tagoma huffed and held up the somewhat-cumbersome multi-pronged device. "Well, let's get movin', then."

It was a miserable four months gathering the Dragon Balls, mostly because Tagoma wouldn't stop whining. This place was too arid, this one was too humid, too cold, too windy, too hot. One would think that a soldier would be more used to adverse conditions.

"The planets I fight on have singular biomes," Tagoma had explained irritably during one argument. "My species has difficulty adapting to constant shifts in climate like this." Personally, Lemo thought that was a whole load of spacewhale shit.

Still, finally, they'd managed to collect them all and return with them to their ship in the arctic, which had thankfully gone undisturbed.

"Alright," Lemo said as they set the balls on the ground, "Now remember, we don't know what kind of energy this thing'll give off when the Dragon comes out, so set your Battle Power dampener to maximum." He was already doing so, cranking the dial on his belt as Tagoma followed suit. They stuck a few more remote dampeners around the site, just to be safe, while Lemo tried to remember the words. "Eternal Dragon Shenron!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the icy plains. "I summon you!"

The balls shone with a blindingly bright yellow light and dark clouds gathered as a massive bolt of lightning shot up out of the balls and snaked across the sky. With a roar of thunder and a crack of lightning, an impossibly enormous green serpent filled the sky, its red eyes looking down at them as if it could see into their souls.

"You who have gathered the–" Shenron began to bellow, stopping either because it had never seen these creatures before or because they were frantically waving their arms and begging it to keep its voice down. Surprisingly, it complied, floating down lower toward the ground as its eyes flashed red. "You who have gathered the seven Dragon Balls," it whispered, "State your wishes and I shall grant them." But even that whisper was impossibly loud and made the ice tremble under their feet. Tagoma knew they'd have to move quickly.

"I wish for Lord Freeza to be restored to life!" Tagoma hissed in a frantic whisper.

"A simple matter," Shenron replied quietly and its eyes flashed red. "It is done." Tagoma and Lemo looked around but there was a distinct lack of their lord anywhere in sight.

"Where is he?" Lemo whispered.

"On the surface of this planet's sun," Shenron replied matter-of-factly while Tagoma and Lemo quietly panicked. That was where Freeza had last been alive, after all. He hadn't truly died until he'd been pushed deeper inside of it. Where was it supposed to put him?

"We wish for him to be brought here!" Lemo whispered. "Now!"

"A simple matter," Shenron repeated and its eyes flashed red again. With a "pop", a charred lump of meat landed on the ground in front of them, the ice melting underneath it. It took Tagoma and Lemo a second to realize that this charred meat was Freeza. The fingers of one hand were still visible as only a charred, blackened skeleton while the rest of the meat of his one good arm still sizzled and burned. He had no legs or tail and only one good eye that looked frantically about as his blackened throat tried desperately to suck in air. His lips had been burnt off and his skin was sizzling, boiling, and blistering. The metal that had been used to repair the damage to his skull was now melted to his head, which only added to the portrayed of wordless, unspeakable agony he painted. It was only thanks to that skeletal fist clenching tightly that one could tell he was clinging to life rather than begging for death.

"Can you heal–" Tagoma started to ask before Shenron cut him off.

"Farewell," Shenron told them curtly before the Dragon Balls shot across the sky and then disappeared. As the sky cleared, Lemo and Tagoma looked down at Freeza and screamed in abject horror. Tagoma actually vomited. But then a voice snapped them back to reality.

'Get… me… onto… the ship!' Freeza's voice screamed in their brains. 'Imbeciles!' Gingerly, with an equal mix of concern as well as disgust, Tagoma and Lemo carried Freeza into their ship and loaded him into a healing pod before blasting off into space at full power, leaving their equipment behind in their haste.

Four Years Since Majin Boo's Defeat

Hidden inside a swirling nebula out in the vast reaches of infinite space, there was a strange planet. It was not round or square or oblong or cylindrical or concave like any normal planet would be. It was a segmented, upside-down pyramid made of shimmering purple glass. At the top of this pyramid was a large and sprawling wilderness as large as the entire planet Earth. And at the center of this wilderness there sat a dead Kaiju tree, one of the largest ever grown. Carved in the center of that tree was the palace of Beerus the Destroyer, the Hakaishin.

While the angel Whis, an odd blue figure with a tall tower of white hair and a long black shawl accented with platinum and gold over a burgundy robe, busied himself in the garden with his pruning, Beerus slept inside the palace on his large, soft, pillow of a bed, dressed in his pajamas and curled up in a ball.

Beerus the Destroyer was a tall, lanky, purple, hairless cat.

As Beerus slept, as he had been doing for decades, he dreamed. The dreams of Gods, it was often said, were visions. And in Beerus' dream, he saw a golden figure of immense power with spiked hair. So powerful that the very air around them turned red and was set ablaze. A warrior finally worthy of his full and unrestrained power. He dreamed of a legendary battle worthy of a God, one that shook the foundations of the cosmos and tore planets to pieces in its wake. It was so palpable, so real, that it made Beerus salivate in his sleep at the prospect. It was a dream so good that it demanded Beerus wake and bring it to life. So he opened one eye and the universe trembled.

The God of Destruction was awake.

SSV/N: I'll be entirely honest, the anniversary coming up so fast kind of snuck up on me. I was determined to at least get one chapter out before that happened, but it was actually Zelenal's idea to get four chapters out on the day of, so you've got him to thank for kicking my butt into gear. But more importantly, I have some good news! Due to the boondoggle of our update schedule falling into a slump, there really isn't a worry of burnout that there previously was, so our originally-planned break before getting into Super won't be nearly as long! Get ready for GoDs, Gold, and Games very soon!

Z/N: Four years. Four long, long years. It's crazy to think of how much has changed since we started this journey. Not just how much the world has changed but how much I've changed as a person. The me of right now and the me of back then are almost two completely different people. And through it all, this story has been there as a pillar. It's been there through all of the changes, all of the tears, all of the laughs, all of the anger. It's grown throughout the years as well and reflected the growth Cloud and I have undergone. As should be obvious, this is, by no means, the end and I can't wait to see what the future holds not only for this story but for us. When we meet again, it'll be time for the universe itself to shake as they bear witness to a Battle of Gods.