Fanfic / Dragonball Z: Legacies

Cover art created by AlphaDelta1001 on Deviantart.

Dragonball Z: Legacies is a Dragon Ball AU fanfic written by ALP113 on FanFiction.Net. It can also be read here on Archive of Our Own.

Official Summary: Following that fateful day at the Cell Games, Gohan quickly realizes that the role of earth's protector is filled with many great trials and tribulations. Encountering new enemies and friends along the way, the young half-Saiyan comes to learn that being a hero can be tough, but at the same time... it can be a lot of fun.

Starting with the events of the movie Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, the fic completely diverges from Dragon Ball canon and follows Gohan as takes up his father's mantle and learns to be his own hero, all while making new friends and enemies along the way.

The fanfic was completed on September 29, 2016, and although the author has mentioned plans to continue the story, a sequel has yet to be released.

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Tropes:

• Above the Gods: Even in a setting full of Supreme Deities, Orthros is truly a god amongst gods. Comparing her to Beerus is like trying to compare Beerus to a regular mortal. Her character bio mentions how her pinky finger alone has power equivalent to an entire palace full of Gods of Destruction. Even Zeno is as helpless as a mere child when faced with her.
• Adaptation Deviation: The 25th World Martial Arts Tournament happens seven years earlier than in canon and occurs while Gohan is still a child rather than a teen.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Gohan is stronger than in canon since he continued training after the Cell Games. Later in the series, he unlocks Super Saiyan 3 and briefly manages to transform into Super Saiyan God, neither of which was ever done by canon!Gohan. He also manages to accomplish something that even canon!Goku failed to do: defeat a God of Destruction (one that's stronger than Beerus no less) in his Super Saiyan God form.
  • Videl starts training with Gohan at a younger age and for a much longer period of time than her canon counterpart. As a result, she achieves a higher power level than a DBZ-era Frieza long before she even attends high school. To be fair, that's not much of a milestone by that point (even Yamcha has reached a similar power level by then). Gohan and Piccolo also teach her how to use Masenko, Kamekameha, Special Beam Cannon, and Kaioken.
    • Exaggerated with Orthros, an alternate version of Videl from a different timeline. Whereas canon Videl was a normal Earthling who never reached the fighting level of the Z-Fighters, this version is a Deity of Human Origin mentored by Beerus and Whis, defeated Majin Buu in his strongest form, and is capable of destroying multiple universes on a whim. Aside from having the same powers as Othinus, she's Even More Omnipotent than Zeno to the point where she has already killed hundreds of different versions of the Omni King.
  • Through constant training and spending years fighting by Gohan's side, Zangya grows leagues stronger than her movie counterpart, eventually achieving a transformation similar to Super Saiyan and becoming equal in power to an SSJ3 Vegeta by the fic's ending.
  • In canon, the Planet Trade Organization was Frieza's private empire and nearly collapsed after he died. Here, they're established to be much larger in scope with Frieza merely being a branch leader who operated in the group's fringes. As a result, the PTO does perfectly fine without Frieza and continues to function as a Galactic Superpower long after the tyrant's death.
  • Unlike his canon counterpart, Vegeta eventually does learn how to go Super Saiyan 3.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Videl meets and befriends Gohan during the events of Bojack Unbound instead of during the Buu Saga like her canon counterpart.
  • Sorbet and Tagoma are introduced and killed off at the end of the Zeru Arc, which is 5 years before their original introduction in Resurrection ‘F’.
  • Beerus and Whis debut during the God of Storms Arc, which is set more than four years earlier than when their canon counterparts first appeared.
  • Shin and Kibito make their first brief appearance during Gohan's battle with Set in the God of Storms Arc, which takes place a couple of months before the canon Buu Saga.
• Adaptational Heroism: Due to surviving Bojack's betrayal, Zangya has a Heel–Face Turn and switches over to the heroes' side, eventually becoming one of Gohan's most trusted friends.
• Adaptational Karma: Zen Buu from Universe 4 of Dragon Ball Multiverse gets hit with this in Orthros' backstory, where it's revealed that the Videl from his universe eventually hunted him down and killed him after Whis trained her to surpass Buu in power.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike in canon, where the Planet Trade Organization was your run-of-the-mill evil empire, here it's established that the PTO was formed by the God of Destruction Beerus as a way to maintain order over the universe.
• Age-Gap Romance: Gohan and Videl's relationship with Zangya later in the story counts. Although Zangya is given a Vague Age, it's stated that she's a couple of years older than Videl and had the appearance of a young adult when Gohan first met her as a child.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Alter-Videl, a Videl from an alternate universe who appears at different points throughout the story to Gohan and Zangya. Chapter 41 ends with The Reveal that she is literally omnipotent and omniscient, meaning that at any point in the story, she could instantly resolve nearly all of the fic's conflicts.
• Alternate Self:
  • In Chapter 25, the Gods of Universe 7 bring in deities from other universes as reinforcements due to the possibility of Esdraelon escaping its prison. Amongst them are alternate versions of Bardock, Frieza, and Cell.
    • Bardock is the God of Fury in Universe 6, where the Saiyans killed and overthrew Frieza when he tried to destroy their homeworld.
    • Frieza is the God of Destruction in Universe 9, where he succeeded in wiping out all the Saiyans and conquered the universe.
    • Cell is the God of War in Universe 13, where Dr. Gero was a noble scientist who created Cell to defend Earth from alien threats.
  • Orthros is eventually revealed to be an alternate version of Videl from a universe where Majin Buu assimilated Vegito and won.
• Alternative-Self Name-Change: The alternate version of Videl that sporadically appears throughout the fic (and is eventually revealed to be the Big Bad) has long since discarded her original name and now goes by Orthros.
• Amazon Chaser: Maya has a thing for powerful women, having harbored a long time crush on her best friend Sandra, who also happens to be the strongest Saiyan in the universe bar Gohan. While fighting Zangya, the discovery that the Hera is almost as strong as Sandra causes her to immediately develop a crush on her as well. After Zangya defeats her, Maya straight up offers to have a one-night stand with her, much to Zangya's confusion and embarrassment.
• Angst Nuke: In her backstory, Orthros' discovery that she was too late to save her universe's version of Gohan after he had been assimilated by Majin Buu, followed by the realization that her decades spent training to defeat Zen Buu was All for Nothing, caused her to literally explode in rage and create a blast so powerful that it annihilated her entire universe, leaving her floating alone in an empty void.
• invokedAngst? What Angst?: When Gohan nervously informs his grandmother Hanasia that her son Raditz was killed during a battle with his own brother, she takes a moment to process his words before brushing it off with a cavalier attitude.
  Hanasia: Raditz died, huh? Guess I shouldn't be surprised. Bardock and Gine always spoiled him rotten when he was a child, instead of pushing him into developing his fighting skills like I told them to. He was also too arrogant for his own good… a little trait he probably picked up from me.
• Anti-Villain: Paprika is introduced as one. She is understandably peeved at Gohan for robbing her of the only family she had and destroying her home. Unlike most who try Avenging the Villain, she isn't out to kill Gohan nor does she ever try hurting his loved ones. Instead, her idea of revenge is to "humiliate" him by beating him in the World Martial Arts Tournament.
• Apocalypse How: Chapter 30 features a Class X-4 occurring in the Bad Future from the Phantom Enemy Arc. After ensuring that Sentinel Buu won't be able to transfer his consciousness out of his body, Future Bulma activates a specially-designed bomb that causes a rapidly-escalating chain of miniature Big Bang explosions which spread to every corner of the universe, destroying all synthetic and organic life in the process.
• Arc Villain: In addition to the overarching Big Bad Ensemble, Legacies is also split up into mostly self-contained arcs that each feature its own unique antagonist.
  • The Bojack Unbound arc has Bojack who plays the same role he had in Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound.
  • In the Collector Arc, Kana is an alien freelancer employed by Frieza's empire who tests Gohan's effectiveness as Earth's new defender.
  • In the Junior Tournament Arc, Paprika is the daughter of Garlic Junior who seeks to defeat Gohan in the World Martial Arts Tournament as revenge for the role he played in her father's imprisonment and the destruction of her home planet.
  • In the Zeru Arc, the titular Zeru is a mindless, planet-eating Kaiju that attempts to feed on Earth's life energy.
  • In the God of Storms Arc, Set is the God of Evil and a former student of Whis. She is bent on killing the other Gods and covering the universe in darkness after her minions release her from her 20,000-year imprisonment.
  • In the Highschool Arc, Vulcan is a mysterious man wearing Power Armor who kidnaps Erasa as part of a plan to lure Gohan into a trap and kill him.
  • In the Phantom Enemy Arc, Master Thief Hasky is an old enemy of Goku's who is hired to assassinate Gohan while the latter is in a coma from the heart virus.
  • In the Saiyan Invasion Arc, Sandra is the Empress of the New Saiyan Empire and one of the few survivors of Planet Vegeta's destruction. She plans to establish her new dominion over the universe by defeating Gohan and proving herself to be the strongest Saiyan in existence.
• Ascended Extra:
  • In canon, Zangya is a one-shot movie villain who gets killed off by her boss. This version of Zangya survives the events of Bojack Unbound and follows Gohan to Earth, ultimately befriending him and joining the Z-Fighters as one of their most prominent members.
  • In the original Dragon Ball, Hasky was a filler villain who only appears in two episodes and is never seen after Goku and his friends defeat her. Here, she returns more than two decades later during Gohan's high school days as a major Arc Villain working for one of the fic's Big Bads and becomes the archenemy of one of the Z-Fighters (Zangya).
• Audience Surrogate: Froze acts as one for the reader in Chapter 11 when he's shown to have barely heard of Varax and asks Kana who he is. Kana then proceeds to explain to Froze (and the reader) who Varax is and why he's so feared throughout the universe.
• Avenging the Villain: Played with. While Paprika does want to avenge her father, she mostly wants revenge on Gohan for blowing up her home planet. Unlike most examples of this trope, she isn't out to kill Gohan and is instead content with defeating him and proving she's stronger.
• Bad Future: The Phantom Enemy Arc introduces one where Sentinel merged with Majin Buu, ascended to godhood, and conquered the entire universe. Nearly all of the Z-Fighters are dead, Earth is an inhospitable wasteland, and even the Gods themselves have been fallen to Sentinel's armies. To make matters worse, Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Goten, and Goren were brought back from the dead as brainwashed cyborgs enslaved to Sentinel's hive mind. This was apparently caused by Gohan and Sandra dying while facing an unknown threat, leaving Earth vulnerable without its protector. The surviving heroes consider this to be such a hellish future that — after sending Pan and Eva into the past — they activate a bomb which ends reality just to destroy any trace of this future in their timeline.
• Badass Boast:
  • Aphrodite and Gohan exchange these while she's pinning him down with one finger.
    Aphrodite: I wouldn't try breaking free if I were you. Right now I'm pressing down on you with the equivalent of two hundred quintillion tons of force.
    Gohan: I can easily push that much in Super Saiyan 3.
    Aphrodite: [shrugs] Then I would just press down even harder. The only reason I haven't punched you through the wall yet is because I've erected a spatial barrier around us to stop you from doing so. Even if you somehow managed to break free, you won't be able to leave. Not without my permission. [nods] So… do you still want to try and fight me?
  • In the future timeline, Sentinel Buu delivers one to Kaiser when he infects him with a nano-virus designed to prevent him from transferring his consciousness out of his body.
    Sentinel Buu: So what? I'm the most powerful being in the entire universe! The alpha! The omega! I am the creator of an empire spanning four entire quadrants! Even if you knock out my transferring capabilities, I can still return to one of my factories and reverse whatever the hell you did to me!
• Badass in Distress: Whis in the God of Storms arc after he's taken prisoner and chained up by Set.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Zangya makes out with Gohan for the first time and confesses her love for him in front of their gawking friends, a furious Videl interrupts them and yells at Zangya for daring to kiss her boyfriend... because "kissing comes after the confession, not the other way around!"
• Big Bad Ensemble: Over the course of the story, we are introduced to four major villains, each with their own independent goals: Varax, Sentinel, Kaiser, and Orthros. Varax is an alien warlord who wants to find Majin Buu so he can clone an immortal army to conquer the universe. Sentinel is a homicidal android created by Bulma when she first tried rebuilding Android 16. After going rogue, he goes into hiding with plans to kill the Z-Fighters and Take Over the World. He ultimately succeeds in the Bad Future that Pan and Eva came from. Kaiser Talos is an immortal supervillain who heads Capsule Corp's rival company and has secretly been creating Super Soldiers as part of a long-term plan to make Earth into a Galactic Superpower. However, all of them are overshadowed by Orthros (a.k.a. Alter-Videl), a nigh-omnipotent Dimensional Traveler determined to destroy every existing timeline and replace them with a single "perfect" reality built in her own image. Meanwhile, the threat of Esdraelon lurks in the background as the Gods do everything in their power to keep it from escaping its comet prison. At the end of the Phantom Enemy Arc, Orthros frees Esdraelon from its cell and sets its prison on a collision course for Earth.
• Brains Versus Brawn: The conflict between Kaiser and the Z-Fighters is set up like this. Unlike most Dragon Ball villains, Kaiser relies solely on his own intelligence against Gohan's overwhelming power. Although Kaiser has Complete Immortality and thousands of years of experience, he is physically outmatched by even the weakest Z-Fighters. Instead, he relies on careful analysis, power armor, proxies, and magic to challenge them.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Colonel Violet from the original Dragon Ball returns in Chapter 28 where it's revealed that she is now working for Kaiser.
  • Master Thief Hasky, a filler villain from the original series, returns in the Phantom Enemy Arc where she is hired by Kaiser to assassinate Gohan while he is in the hospital recovering from the heart virus that Kaiser infected him with.
• The Cameo:
  • Froze from Dragon Ball Heroes appears in Chapter 11 as one of the Planet Trade Organization's freelancers.
  • In Chapter 36, when Kana takes Gohan out to Nimbus 5 to celebrate his recovery from the heart virus, the duo briefly bump into Jaco at an alien bar.
• Captain Ersatz:
  • Esdraelon is Doomsday in all but name, sharing the character's physical appearance, superpowers, extremely powerful Adaptive Ability, and being driven to hate all life due to having been tortured and experimented on by scientists in prehistoric times.
  • Alter-Videl is a clear copy-and-paste of Othinus from A Certain Magical Index, down to her physical appearance, outfit, witch hat, and eyepatch.
• Captured Super-Entity:
  • Set, the most powerful goddess in the universe, winds up being captured by Varax after Gohan defeats her. She is then imprisoned aboard Varax's flagship where he begins experimenting on her.
  • Broly eventually becomes Kaiser's prisoner after the iceberg he was frozen in is found by some villagers who sell him to the immortal billionaire. For now, Kaiser is keeping him on ice, but has plans to study Broly's biology in hopes of replicating the Saiyans' abilities.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart:
  • According to Varax, in most alternate universes, he is the first victim of Majin Buu's rampage after Bibidi betrays him. The Varax in this fic was one of the few lucky versions to have survived his encounter with Buu, although he had to spend approximately one million years in a healing tank to make a full recovery.
  • Amongst the alternate universes that Orthros shows Gohan in his dreams are ones where Zangya is killed by Bojack as per movie canon, Kana perishes when Beerus destroys her planet, and Paprika is killed as a little girl during a mugging in an alien city.
  • Chapter 41 sees the participants of the Tournament of Destroyers between Universes 6 and 7 have their counterparts in Parallel Universe #4066987342690 brutally murdered by Orthros when she arrives to steal Super Shenron.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Much like his father, Gohan seems to have a talent for doing this. Zangya, Kana, Paprika, and later the New Saiyan Empire were all former adversaries that Gohan managed to befriend after defeating them. Based on commissioned artwork by AlphaDelta1001 on DeviantArt, the goddess Set would have also had a Heel–Face Turn had the story continued.
• Demoted to Extra: Goku isn't the main character here and he stays dead instead of eventually being revived.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the God of Storms Arc, Gohan defeats Set by ramming her into a star which then goes supernova. Not only is Set a God of Destruction like Beerus, but she is the first God of Destruction that Whis trained and had long since Surpassed the Teacher.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • In canon, Sorbet is killed when Vegeta deflects one of Frieza's energy blasts into him. Here, he has his head blasted off by Maya after he and Tagoma are taken prisoner by the New Saiyan Empire.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', Tagoma dies from being Thrown Out the Airlock by Frieza. Here, he's captured by the New Saiyan Empire and gets decapitated by Sandra.
• Distaff Counterpart: Paprika is a clear one to Piccolo. Both are the offspring of a villain that the main protagonist defeated as a little boy. Both initially desire to avenge their father's deaths. The way she's introduced to the story is practically a retelling of Goku's first meeting with Piccolo Jr. Like Piccolo, Paprika debuts at the World Martial Arts Tournament where she fights Gohan for the first time, only to lose to him. Much like how Piccolo became a Parental Substitute to Gohan, Paprika ends up slowly becoming a Cool Big Sis figure for Goten. Finally, both become an Aloof Ally to the Z-Fighters after undergoing a Heel–Face Turn.
• Doorstopper: At over 850,000 words long, Legacies is easily one of the longest Dragon Ball fanfics out there.
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: When Universe 6's Bardock meets Universe 9's Frieza in Chapter 25, neither of them are particularly fond of the other for obvious reasons. Bardock calls Frieza the "scum of creation" and tells him that he was glad U6's Saiyans were able to kill their universe's Frieza. U9's Frieza responds that the feeling is mutual and boasts of how he was able to exterminate U9's Saiyans.
• Enemy Mine: In Pan and Eva's Bad Future, Kaiser is shown to have allied with the Z-Fighters in the face of total destruction by Sentinel Buu.
• Erotic Dream: Chapter 27 sees Gohan have one featuring Videl, Kana, Lime, Erasa, and even Set. He's so surprised and overwhelmed by the intensity of the dream that he leaps out of bed in the middle of the night.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Hasky initially isn't happy about being hired by Kaiser to assassinate Gohan while he is hospitalized from the heart virus, considering it "bad sport" to kill sick targets. However, she changes her mind once she learns that Gohan is the son of Goku (who threw her into prison for a decade as a kid) and she salivates at the prospect of getting her revenge on him by murdering his son.
• Expy:
  • Kaiser is a combination of Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage. Like Luthor, he's an evil billionaire and a Villain with Good Publicity who uses his intelligence and advanced technology to combat a superhuman (one whose father has a similar origin story to Superman no less). Like Vandal, he's an immortal who has lived for ten thousand years and his goal to make Earth into a Galactic Superpower is clearly based on the Light from Young Justice (2010) (an organization which Vandal led and Luthor was a member of). Visually, Kaiser also shares a resemblance with David Xanatos, another evil corporate mogul who uses powered armor and elaborate plans to combat his heroic opponents.
  • Varax shares many similarities with Vilgax from Ben 10. Both are Galactic Conquerors whose names start with a "V" and end with an "X". Like Vilgax, Varax is a Dark Lord on Life Support who makes heavy use of cybernetics, wears a breathing mask with tubes fitted into the sides, and even has identical bio-implants drilled throughout his arms. Both are considered the most dangerous beings in their universes and have a reputation as a Bad Boss to such an extent that their armies are staffed entirely by Mecha-Mooks since no one else is willing to work for them. Finally, both have a plan to conquer the universe that revolves around creating an army of shapeshifting super soldiers (Vilgax by finding the Omnitrix and Varax by acquiring Majin Buu's DNA).
• Expy Coexistence: When Paprika (an expy of Piccolo) is introduced to the story, Piccolo has already been a member of the Z-Fighters for many years.
• Failure Hero: According to Alter-Videl, Gohan is destined to always be this. She claims that while traveling throughout the multiverse, the one constant she found in every universe was Gohan ultimately failing and dying. She also reveals that the Gohan in this fic shares the same doomed fate as all the others, something that's confirmed with the Bad Future shown in the Phantom Enemy Arc.
• For Want Of A Nail: The point of divergence from canon is when Gohan defeats Bojack without needing to be saved by Goku, thereby cementing himself on the path of a hero and forging his own destiny separate from Goku.
• Future Badass: In the Bad Future from the Phantom Enemy Arc, several of the Z-Fighters' future counterparts are shown to be far more impressive than their present selves. Videl has unlocked her own Super Mode called "Super Terra", Trunks is able to go Super Saiyan 3, 16 and 17 have fused into this fic's version of Super 17, and even Bulma is donning "Saiyan Buster" Power Armor that lets her trade blows with a zombified Vegeta in his Super Saiyan 3 form.
  • Sentinel's future counterpart is also shown to have taken several levels in badass from his present self. After undergoing a Fusion Dance with Majin Buu and rechristening himself as "Sentinel Buu", Sentinel then ascended to godhood, conquered the entire universe, and basically became the fic's version of the Borg. It takes wiping out all of existence in order for the Future Z-Fighters to destroy him for good.
• Galactic Conqueror:
  • Varax is an alien warlord that rules the Helix Realm and is known as the most dangerous being in the universe. His rep sheet includes the conquest of hundreds of galaxies, the destruction of countless planets, and the creation of several black holes. Even Gods of Destruction know of his reputation and are hesitant to confront him.
  • In the Bad Future introduced in the Phantom Enemy Arc, Sentinel Buu has conquered the known universe and built an empire that expands across all four quadrants. His forces are also in the process of invading the Land of the Kais and his victory over the remaining gods is stated to be all but inevitable.
• Godzilla Threshold: During the Future Z-Fighters' Last Stand against Sentinel Buu's army in the Bad Future, Kaiser frees Broly from cryostasis. At this point, the heroes have already decided to go down in a blaze of glory and just need to buy enough time for Pan and Eva to escape in the time machine. Broly provides a much-needed diversion by attacking Android Goku, removing one of Sentinel's strongest generals from the field.
• Good All Along: Empress Sandra and the New Saiyan Empire are initially set up as a major threat and cause quite a bit of panic when they come to Earth in their Planet Spaceship. It turns out that Sandra and her crew are Heroes of Another Story who founded their empire as a place where anyone can belong and simply wish to challenge Earth's defenders to a friendly tournament with the promise that Earth will be left alone regardless of whoever wins.
• Identical Stranger: PTO freelancer Froze is said to be a dead ringer for Frieza, minus the color scheme. When Kana bumps into him at the PTO's capital, she briefly mistakes him for Frieza, despite being a long time coworker of his.
• Improbably High I.Q.: The character bio for Kaiser Talos states that his IQ is well over 300.
• Karmic Jackpot: How Kaiser became immortal. During the Stone Age, he was a hunter who came across a wounded dragon. Rather than slay it, he showed kindness to the creature and nurtured it back to health. It's only afterward that he learns the creature he healed was Valika, one of the legendary dragons known for creating and destroying universes. Out of gratitude, Valika gifted him with Complete Immortality and made him immune to death.
• Kid from the Future: The Phantom Enemy Arc sees two of Gohan's daughters traveling to the present from fifteen years into the future: Pan (Gohan's daughter with Videl) and Eva (Gohan's daughter with Zangya).
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Aphrodite appears before Gohan for the first time, he initially assumes that she is hostile and transforms into his SSJ2 form, only for the goddess to effortlessly subdue him with a single finger. After a brief exchange, Gohan realizes that he's completely outmatched by the deity and wisely powers down instead of going SSJ3.
• Left Hanging: The author abruptly cut the story off at the end of the Saiyan Invasion Arc despite having plans to write at least four more arcs, resulting in several major plotlines being unresolved.
  • Sentinel, an evil android accidentally created by Bulma when she tried rebuilding Android 16, is hiding out in the mountains with unknown plans for the future.
  • Kaiser and his organization are still out there with their designs for world domination.
  • Varax, a Galactic Conqueror responsible for creating Majin Buu, has Set as his prisoner and plans to conquer the universe.
  • Pan and Eva, Gohan's daughters from fifteen years in the future, travel to the present day from a Bad Future where Sentinel has taken over the universe after merging with Majin Buu.
  • Finally, there's the reveal of the story's Greater-Scope Villain: Orthros (aka Alter-Videl). She's an evil version of Videl from an alternate timeline who is bent on destroying all of reality after achieving omnipotence. At the end of the Phantom Enemy Arc, she frees Esdraelon from its prison and sets it on a course for Earth.
• Long-Lived: The Seirei are a humanoid alien species that possess a very strong life force which allows them to live for hundreds to thousands of years without aging. Kana herself resembles a teenage girl despite being over a century old.
• Make Way for the New Villains:
  • Frieza and the Planet Trade Organization were major antagonists in canon whose actions had a rippling effect across the entire franchise. The fic's second Arc Villain, Kana, is also established to be a freelancer in their service. Varax gets introduced as an even greater threat by effortlessly storming into the PTO's capital planet, forcing the PTO's chancellor to kowtow to his demands, and intimidating the PTO's soldiers (the aforementioned Kana included) into submission when they try to stand up to him.
  • The New Saiyan Empire is introduced capturing Sorbet and Tagoma before they can resurrect Frieza and killing them both.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: The Phantom Enemy Arc sees Sentinel Buu cement himself as the "grand chancellor of the universe" and defeat what little remains of the Future Z-Fighters... only for Bulma to infect him with a nano-virus that prevents him from transferring his consciousness out of his body and then activate a bomb designed to wipe out all life in the universe, organic and synthetic alike. All Sentinel can do is furiously struggle as Super 17 restrains him while he alongside everything he's accomplished is erased in a single blast.
• Meanwhile, in the Future…: The Phantom Enemy Arc is split between the A-plot set in the present day and the B-plot taking place 15 years later. The A-plot has the Z-Fighters come to the realization that all the new villains targeting Gohan are secretly working for one person (Kaiser). Meanwhile, the B-plot follows the older Z-Fighters in a Bad Future where Gohan has died and the universe has been taken over by Sentinel and Majin Buu.
• Minor Major Character: Chancellor Ging is the true head of the Planet Trade Organization and, by extension, the superior of Frieza, King Cold, Cooler, and Kana. This effectively makes him the Greater-Scope Villain to the canon Saiyan and Namek Arcs, as well as this fic's Collector Arc. Despite this, he only appears in one scene where he's forced to submit to Varax's intimidation in order to establish how dangerous the latter is.
• Move in the Frozen Time: When Hit freezes time around Orthros and then moves in for a pressure point strike during their battle in Chapter 41, he's shocked when she is still able to move and catches his punch while he's in the midst of his Time Skip.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Videl's signature technique in this fic is called Hawk Arrow, which was taken from several video games where it's typically used as her special attack.
  • Goku's mother being a Saiyan Elite named Hanasia is a reference to Dragon Ball Multiverse.
  • When Gohan brings up his uncle Raditz to his grandmother Hanasia during their first meeting, she reminisces about how Raditz was considered weak that several planets named their lowest form of currency after him. This is a nod to Dragon Ball Z Abridged, where Raditz's name being used for currency was part of a Running Gag making fun of him.
  • The universe that Orthros is based on Universe 4 from Dragon Ball Multiverse.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Android 17's unnamed wife is named Ami.
  • Hasky is given the last name "Valentine" in this fic.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Not that they really had any other choice, but Future Bulma's decision to send Pan and Eva into the past to neutralize Sentinel before he can become a threat drew the interest of Orthros (a Humanoid Abomination worse than Sentinel Buu) and brought her into their timeline.
• Noodle Incident: In chapter 31, Varax recognizes Alter-Videl's energy signature and is aware of her true origins, revealing that the two have encountered each other sometime in the past.
• Not Always Evil: It's shown that not all of the Planet Trade Organization's representatives are tyrants like Frieza and Cooler. Kana is shown to be a considerate individual who cherishes life and it's later mentioned that most of the PTO's evil members come from the company's destruction branch. It's also explained that the PTO has construction branch dedicated solely to preserving and protecting rare planets like Earth.
• The Not-Love Interest: Even though she's an Original Character in a harem fic, Paprika is one of the few female characters that isn't attracted to Gohan in some manner. Though given that he blew up her home planet and threw her father into a black hole, it's understandable that Paprika wouldn't fall in love with the guy that made her into a homeless orphan. Even after her Heel–Face Turn, she keeps her relationship with Gohan purely platonic, though she does find the teasing between the various girls in his harem entertaining to watch.
• Not Quite the Almighty: Beerus gets hit with this especially hard in this fic. Not only is there an entire Crossover Cosmology of Top Gods just as strong as him, but Beerus is established to be the runt of their group, being the weakest out of all the Supreme Deities.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The normally eccentric and carefree Whis becomes dead serious when he goes to confront Set in Chapter 20. While talking to her, he is in full Tranquil Fury mode, releases so much Killing Intent that it causes Set's pyramid to crack, and treats her with nothing but disdain.
• Odd Friendship: Paprika's friendship with Goten counts. Aside from their age difference, Goten is the younger brother of the boy indirectly responsible for ruining Paprika's life and whom she has sworn revenge upon for the destruction of her family and home. Although she initially finds Goten annoying, she slowly grows attached to him and ends up becoming a Cool Big Sis for him.
• The Omnipresent: Orthros isn't bound by the laws of space-time and has no limitations for where or when she can go. Not only can she freely travel to every dimension, universe, and timeline in existence, but she can also jump to any time period with perfect accuracy. Even one's thoughts and dreams aren't safe from her reach. This allows her to be "everywhere and nowhere" at the same time, effectively making her omniscient as she already knows exactly what will happen in the future, as well as the results of any alternate futures caused by For Want Of A Nail.
• Our Time Travel Is Different: The method that Pan and Eva use to travel into the past is different from Future Trunk's since they are traveling back in the same timeline rather than going to an alternate one. Future Bulma deliberately designed her time machine that way because she wants to avoid repeating the events of the Cell Saga.
• Pet the Dog: In Chapter 20, upon seeing how heartbroken Gohan is over Videl's apparent death, Set genuinely offers her condolences and explains that she also knows the pain of losing someone you love... not that it keeps her from trying to finish him off while he's busy grieving.
• Polyamory:
  • Although Gohan initially starts out with only being in a relationship with Videl, as the series goes on he slowly grows a harem that includes Zangya, Erasa, and Kana. Had the fic not been Left Hanging, Gohan's harem expanded even further to include Lime, Set, Sandra, Maya, and Cleopatra.
  • It's mentioned that Bardock was in a polyamorous relationship with Gine, Hanasia, and another Saiyan woman named Palantay, and that all four lived under the same roof.
  • Aphrodite mentions how Ra clocked out at having ten lovers while Thor gave up at fifteen.
• Put on a Bus: After the Collector Arc, Future Trunks returns to his own timeline and exits the story entirely, though not before the Z-Fighters throw a farewell party for him.
• Redemption Rejection: Despite the countless universes she's destroyed, Gohan can't help but feel sympathy for Alter-Videl's Dark and Troubled Past and reaches out his hand as he offers to help her making everything right again. Although his words cause her to briefly hesitate, her failed experiences with Gohans from other universes causes Alter-Videl to reject his compassion before trying to Break Him By Talking using her knowledge of his future death.
• Reforged into a Minion: This is what Sentinel does to Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Goten, and Goren in the Bad Future from the Phantom Enemy arc. After killing them, he robbed their graves and resurrected them as cyborg zombies completely enslaved to his Hive Mind. Both Future Videl and Trunks are horrified by what he's done and consider it a Fate Worse than Death.
• Related in the Adaptation: Hanasia reveals that Turles is Gine's son in this fic and Goku's half-brother by extension.
• Remember the New Guy?: When the Z-Fighters meet Kana, Vegeta already knows who she is and mentions that she was a freelancer who Frieza's empire frequently hired.
• Sensor Character: Eva (Gohan and Zangya's daughter from the future) is so well-attuned to sensing ki that, even after traveling to the past, she is still somehow able to detect the deaths of her mothers and Bulma, despite said event occurring fifteen years in the future. She's later able to detect her mother's energy when Zangya is transforming into her Super Hera 2 form for the first time.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The Phantom Enemy Arc starts with Bulma and Kaiser sending Gohan's daughters, Pan and Eva, to the present from the future in order to eliminate Sentinel before he can put his plan to conquer the world into motion.
• Shout-Out:
  • The scene in Chapter 4 where Videl dodges Kana's Eye Beams is inspired from Justice League Unlimited when Batman dodges Darkseid's Omega Beams.
  • In the scene where he introduces himself to Bulma and her family, Sentinel ominously sings "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio. This also references Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Ultron also sings a Dark Reprise that song when he first meets the Avengers.
  • Gohan and Videl watch Man of Steel at the movie theater as part of their date in Chapter 13.
  • Set's followers are called the Minions of Set. The flashback where the various gods of different pantheon battle Set also reference a Samurai Jack episode where Odin, Ra and Vishnu were fighting against the evil that created Aku.
  • The dialogue between Set and Whis during their fight in Chapter 20 mirrors the one Tai Lung has with Shifu during the climax of Kung Fu Panda.
  • The starships that make up Varax's armada in Chapter 31 are identical to Imperial Star Destroyers, with Varax's flagship in particular bearing a close resemblance to an Executor-class Star Dreadnought.
  • According to the author's note for Chapter 32, Kaiser Talos' name was directly inspired from the villain Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects.
  • While visiting an alien city on Nimbus 5 with Kana, Gohan describes the city as looking like something out of Blade Runner.
  • Kana quotes Star Wars while describing the type of people that come to Nimbus 5, which Gohan misidentifies.
    Kana: You will never find a more retched hive of scum and villainy.
    Gohan: [laughs] Let me guess, Star Trek?
  • In Chapter 41, Gast's line about how "challenge incites conflict" is taken straight out of one of Vision's quotes from Captain America: Civil War.
• So Last Season: When Paprika faces Gohan in the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament, she unveils her Super Makyan transformation, which makes her slightly stronger than Perfect Cell and allows her to go toe-to-toe with his Super Saiyan transformation. This would be impressive if not for the fact that Gohan has long since mastered Super Saiyan 2 and has already defeated Cell-level fighters like Bojack and Kana, the latter of whom was half again as powerful as Super Perfect Cell. The only reason that the ensuing battle wasn't a complete Curb Stomp was because Gohan deliberately held back since this was supposed to be a friendly tournament match and he wanted to make the fight fair for her.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • This version of Zangya survives the events of Bojack Unbound.
  • Since Frieza is never resurrected, Ginyu remains trapped in his frog form and isn't killed by Vegeta.
• The Starscream: Bibidi was a successful one to Varax. In Chapter 31, Varax reveals that he originally hired Bibidi to create a new body for himself millions of years ago. However, the wizard went mad from isolation and instead of making a new body, he created Majin Buu, who he then sicced on Varax. Varax just barely survived being attacked and had to spend a million years in a healing tank while Bibidi went on a universal rampage with Buu.
• Super Mode:
  • Gohan unlocks Super Saiyan 3 and briefly taps into Super Saiyan God during the God of Storms Arc.
  • Zangya achieves her Super Hera and Super Hera 2 transformations.
  • Paprika is introduced with having unlocked a Super Makyan form. During the Saiyan Invasion arc, she unlocks a second transformation which she calls Super Makyan 2 or her "Devil Queen Form".
  • It's later implied that every species has its own version of the "Super" transformation. The Phantom Enemy arc introduces Future Videl with a "Super Terra" transformation while the Saiyan Invasion arc has Kure's Super Kio-jin transformation, Cal's Super Sura-jin transformation, and Gast the Super Namekian.
• Taking You with Me: In the Phantom Enemy Arc, after the future Z-Fighters hold off Sentinel Buu's forces long enough for Pan and Eva to travel to the past, Bulma — knowing that they will all be killed and assimilated by Sentinel — unveils her secret weapon: a bomb designed to unleash a second Big Bang that will purge all organic and synthetic life from existence. Her plan works, destroying herself and the universe, but also taking Sentinel with it.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: Both Videl and Zangya become full time Z-Fighters in this fic, which wasn't the case in canon.
• Time Abyss:
  • According to Kana, Varax is around 85 million years old. However, it's implied that Varax is even older as he mentions having "over a hundred million years of experience under [his] belt" while giving a Badass Boast to Set.
  • Kaiser is an immortal Neanderthal who existed throughout human history for the last ten thousand years.
  • The Gods are impossibly old with many having been around for dozens of millions of years. Cleopatra, a 30,000 year old deity, is considered young for a goddess by Ra. Cleopatra's mentor Isis is mentioned to have been a member of the Supreme Deities for eighty million years before her recent retirement.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Goku and Raditz aren't Gine's sons in this fic, rather it's a Saiyan named Hanasia who gave birth to them while Gine merely took care of them in her place.
• Unusual Animal Alliance: In Chapter 42, Ginyu (still trapped in a frog) is shown to have formed an army consisting of all the reptiles and amphibians (including frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, and turtles) living in Bulma's animal sanctuary. They are then shown going to war with an army of mammals including mice, rats, possums, armadillos, cats, and otters. One of the scientists observing the animals even lampshades how weird this is:
  Female Scientist: This is the third time this week. What is wrong with these animals?
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Upon meeting Gohan, Set quickly develops a crush on him and offers to make him her consort if he agrees to become her servant. She is disappointed when he turns down her offer.
• Villainous Breakdown: Chapter 30 ends with Sentinel Buu's previous confidence dissipating after Future Bulma activates her universe-destroying bomb and he realizes that there's no way for him to escape the blast.
  Sentinel Buu: No. NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! If you do that, every single one of you will die!
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Kana is the first Arc Villain who poses a real challenge for Gohan, being the first person he's fought who can go toe-to-toe with his Super Saiyan 2 form at full power. She also establishes that many of the powerful foes the Z-Fighters have previously defeated are considered small fry in the wider universe.
• Warrior Therapist: Vegeta of all people plays this role for Zangya in Chapter 33. After easily defeating her in their sparring match, he dissects her unusually sloppy fighting form and deduces that she is experiencing feelings of inadequacy due to being unable to help Gohan as he lays dying from the heart virus in the hospital. From there, Vegeta helps Zangya recognize and come to terms with the fact that she has fallen in love with Gohan.
• We Are Not Going Through That Again: The reason Future Bulma warns Pan and Eva not to interfere with Gohan's past battles and to avoid all contact with the present-day Z-Fighters is because she doesn't want a repeat of what happened during the Androids Saga where Mirai Trunk's meddling with the past threw everything Off the Rails and led to them having to deal with an alternate Cell from another timeline. She is determined to see Sentinel destroyed for good and the last thing any of them want is the possibility of having to deal with multiple Sentinels from other timelines.
• We Can Rebuild Him: During the 7 Year Gap, Bulma tries rebuilding Android 16. While her first attempt doesn't exactly go as planned, she eventually succeeds in creating a watered-down version known as Android 16#C.
• Weak, but Skilled: Videl is one of the Z-Fighters' weakest physical fighters with even Krillin having her beat when it comes to raw power. That being said, she's a fighting prodigy and a quick learner who was able to master techniques like Special Beam Cannon in only a few weeks.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 41. Sentinel learns of Pan and Eva's existence as well as their identities as Gohan's daughters from the future. Alter-Videl visits the Dragon Ball Super universe and kills Zeno, Beerus, Whis, Champa, Vados, and the canon Z-Fighters, before then stealing Super Shenron's powers for herself.
• Willfully Weak: While fighting Paprika in the World Martial Arts Tournament, Gohan holds back his true power. Even after she transforms into a Super Makyan and proves to be an even match for his Super Saiyan form, Gohan refrains from going Super Saiyan 2 in order to give her a fair shot at winning.
• The Worf Effect:
  • A flashback reveals how Set gave Beerus a hard time and only lost because Beerus had the various Top Gods of different pantheons supporting him. When Whis arrives on Earth for a rematch with Set after sensing her awakening, he gets overpowered and ends up becoming her prisoner.
  • When Sentinel Buu confronts Future Videl, Zangya, Bulma, and Kaiser at their hideout in the Bad Future, he offhandedly boasts about how he's already assimilated Beerus and Aphrodite.
  • Orthros establishes just how much of a threat she is by casually killing Zeno with a Neck Snap. Her character bio also mentions how she's already killed countless different versions of Zeno, Beerus, Whis, Vados, and Zamasu.
• Worf Had the Flu: Varax is only able to capture the goddess Set because she was still recovering from her earlier battle with Gohan and he had come specifically prepared to nullify her Godly ki.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • Paprika's family and home planet are forever out of her reach because Gohan destroyed it during the Garlic Jr. Arc in Dragon Ball Z.
  • Orthros can never return to her home universe because she accidentally erased it from existence during a fit of rage.
• You Wanna Get Sued?: In Chapter 15, while talking to Videl about becoming a superhero, Gohan does his best Batman impression complete with the iconic "I am not the hero the people deserve, but I am the hero that they need." line. Videl finds this hysterical and bursts out laughing before jokingly pointing out that he could get sued for copyright.

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