The Woes Of Dreams

The Crystal

The Horosha were once again silent.

"Please!" Goku yelled as he fell to his knees. "Let her live! She still has the rest of her life! I know you have other crystals, so please, can't you wait? If you must take a life, then take mine! I'm the one who disturbed the crystal - I'm the one who put it inside Pan both times! Don't punish her for my doings!" He screamed.

"There has been a misunderstanding," the Horosha's gentle voices rushed through the air. "We did not come here on our own accord. We were woken from our hibernation by a distress call."

"Distress call?" Goku asked in shock.

"We were summoned here," the Horosha said.

"By who?!" Vegeta demanded.

"By the crystal," they answered simply. They held out their right arms, pointing behind the group.

The air shifted again, just like he had when the Horosha arrived. Dende could see the cold sweat against the back of the Saiyans' necks as they and watched with eyes full of surprise and terror as a familiar figure appeared. It was Pan - at least, it was Pan's body, but her eyes were staring off into the distance like she was in a trance. She was wearing dark black training shorts and a large black shirt that Dende guessed was Trunks'. There was a glow to her as she walked forward, like something inside of her was bursting to come out.

Trunks ran to her first, his hands clamping on her shoulders ad Goten and Gohan surrounded him. "Where did you go?" He demanded, but Pan didn't respond. She was staring at him blankly and he let out a low cry. "What's wrong with you?" He snapped his head back to the Horosha, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" He hissed.

"Trunks," the voice that came from Pan was a gentle whisper like the Horoshas'. "It wasn't them. It was me."

Trunks turned his head to look at her slowly. He blinked, "you?"

"I am not Pan at the moment," the voice said, "I am simply using her body for the time being. Please, listen to my story.

"Eons ago, I lived in a galaxy far away with the Horosha and the other crystals like me. The Horosha tended to us for many centuries, and over time my siblings and I embedded their powers into ourselves and grew souls. In many ways, the Horosha are like my parents, and although I was very well taken care of, I craved more.

"While my family was asleep in hibernation, I ran away," the crystal admitted. "I landed on Yardrat, and I stayed there for so long, I lost count of the years that passed. The escape I made cost me much of my energy, and without being taken care of, I would remain too weak to call the Horosha for help. I thought I would never be found, and would eventually die. That is until Goku found me."

The crystal turned Pan's head to look at Goku, who was now standing up and looking at them in anxious worry.

"He found me, and kept me," the crystal continued. "He did not tend me as the Horosha did, but he did take care of me. I stayed with him for many years and watched many things. The Androids and Cell. Two more children were born to him and his wife. I enjoyed watching their family." The crystal blinked slowly and looked at Gohan and Goten, both of who had been quiet. It smiled at them before it looked back at Goku. "When Pan became sick, I saw an opportunity to experience the life you all lived. I could heal her, so I split my soul in half, and put half of it inside of her."

Trunks' hands fell from Pan's shoulders. "Are you saying it's been you the whole time?" His voice shook.

"No, of course not," the crystal looked up at him. "The Pan you all know and love is Pan. I have just been a mere backseat passenger experiencing and seeing everything she has. I saw many more terrible things; Buu, Baby, Villains from Hell, and the Shadow Dragons.