Unknown time-space.
"How weird… I can't sense the God of Destruction's realm at all."
Main-timeline Son Gohan was dragged by the spatial singularity into an entirely unknown dimension.
The moment he stepped out of the black hole, the singularity snapped shut and vanished.
Walking into that darkness, Gohan had, admittedly, felt a sliver of unease.
But the way his Primordial Qi and Eerie Qi were raging inside him had been a clear signal: Go in.
The instant he arrived in this time-space, he realized just how wrong, how abnormal this place was.
The spatial density here felt… fragile, far weaker than in the main timeline.
Yet at the same time, this time-space gave off a sense of pure infinity.
Yes, infinity.
Because Gohan couldn't feel any universal walls at all.
You had to understand: his Instant Transmission was a hybrid of Supreme Kai's teleportation and Yardratian techniques.
He couldn't pierce the universe's boundaries, but he could sense the barriers between Universe 7 and the other universes in the main timeline.
But here?
In this time-space, there was no universal barrier. It felt boundless, endlessly expanding.
"Earth? Planet… Tuffle?"
Gohan suddenly sensed Earth's location.
Unlike his home timeline, there was another faint red planet near Earth in this one.
He'd watched Dragon Ball GT. He instantly guessed what it was.
That red planet should be Planet Tuffle, created by Baby's wish using the Black Star Dragon Balls.
In this timeline, Kid Goku, Trunks, and Pan had gone through hell and back to gather the Black Star Dragon Balls… only to come home and discover their planet had been stolen.
At this point in the story, the plot had already advanced to the moment when Elder Kai pulled out Kid Goku's tail, and Goku had come to Planet Tuffle for his final showdown with Baby.
Whoosh!
Kibito Kai brought Kid Goku to Planet Tuffle with Instant Transmission.
"No!!"
Oob's final scream faded away.
Baby had reflected his transformation beam. Now Oob had turned into a piece of chocolate and fallen to the ground.
"Heh heh… you really are as simple as chocolate, kid," Baby sneered.
He popped Oob-shaped chocolate into his mouth and started chewing loudly.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
"Damn it… I'm too late. If I'd arrived just a bit earlier… I could've saved him…" Kid Goku blamed himself, anger mixing bitterly with regret.
"Oh? Goku, so you're still alive?"
Baby swallowed his "Oob-chocolate." Goku's appearance didn't faze him at all.
"Until I defeat you, even if I die, I'll come back to find you!"
Kid Goku clenched his fists tightly.
"Hooh… you really are a stubborn one. But no matter how many times you crawl back from the dead, you'll never defeat me," Baby said, full of arrogance.
"The me standing here now… absolutely won't lose to you."
Goku glared back.
Baby's eyes narrowed. He stared at Goku carefully, flaring his senses to probe Goku's ki before saying, "Is that so? I don't really feel much difference from before."
"Are you blind?"
Kid Goku swung his tail deliberately, letting the movement catch Baby's eye.
"Your tail? Pfft, hahahaha! So what if your tail grew back? How laughable."
Baby's tone brimmed with mockery.
"Heh, why don't you try it and find out? Yaaaaaaaah!!"
Kid Goku roared and powered up.
Golden ki flared around him in a jet-like blaze, streaked with crackling golden lightning.
His hair volume ballooned dramatically. In that instant, the red sky of Planet Tuffle seemed to lose its color, outshone by a blinding golden radiance.
Even the newly regrown brown tail turned gold.
Out in space, Gohan teleported in and arrived at Planet Tuffle.
He kept his ki completely suppressed.
"Adadadadada!!"
Kid Goku floated in the air, hammering Baby with a rapid series of iron-fisted punches.
On the surface, Baby looked like he was being driven back.
A dazzling flash of gold later, a figure was sent flying, smashing into a distant rocky hill.
Boom!
As the smoke cleared, Kid Goku's face was full of disbelief.
"Owowowow… that hurts, that really hurts. How can I not beat him?!"
His head had slammed into the rocky ridge. He grabbed his skull and yelled in pain.
"Hahaha. So this is your 'reborn' power?" Baby scoffed.
"Shut up! I just haven't adapted yet! The real show is about to start!"
Kid Goku shouted, and rushed in again.
Dadadadada!
His fists slammed into Baby's body, but Baby's expression barely changed.
"Your power… hasn't improved at all," Baby muttered, genuinely puzzled as he glanced down at himself.
"Not at all? That's impossible!!"
Kid Goku still refused to accept it.
Only the observer in the shadows, Gohan, understood what was going on.
What Elder Kai meant by "your tail will massively boost your power" was referring to Super Saiyan 4.
"Interesting. The classic scene is coming up."
Gohan watched with great interest.
Kid Goku was quickly overwhelmed.
The moment he charged again, Baby bent sideways, grabbed his tail, and soared into the sky.
With a mighty swing, he hurled Goku downward.
Boom!
The ground caved in, leaving behind a huge crater.
Kid Goku lay there weakly. His Super Saiyan 3 had already faded, returning to base form.
Barely managing to roll himself over, he lifted his gaze and saw Earth hanging in the sky.
"Earth… I probably won't be able to protect you anymore. My birthplace…"
In his mind, familiar faces flashed by. Krillin, Bulma, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Piccolo, Mr. Popo, Dende…
Thump… thump…
His heart started pounding violently, the loud, powerful rhythm echoing outward.
His tail raised itself, pointing toward Earth all on its own.
The light faded from Goku's eyes. A wild, bestial instinct surged up, and even his black pupils turned blood-red.
He began absorbing the Blutz Waves radiating from Earth.
Thump, thump, thump…
His heartbeat grew faster and stronger, huge currents of ki roaring out.
Pebbles and boulders around him were blasted into the air.
His muscles bulged rapidly, fur sprouting and thickening all over his body.
"Roooooar!!"
In just a few seconds, Goku completed his transformation into a Great Ape.
And his fur had turned gold.
"Don't tell me…!"
With Vegeta's memories, Baby naturally understood the Great Ape transformation.
But Planet Tuffle had no moon.
He quickly figured it out.
He turned and looked up at Earth in the sky.
"He's treating Earth like the moon?" Baby muttered, unable to believe it.
In the shadows, Gohan watched Goku's transformation with real curiosity.
He himself had achieved this form, after all.
But he knew perfectly well: to trigger the Super Saiyan 4 transformation, you had to first become a Golden Great Ape. The golden ape form was basically a Great Ape layered with Super Saiyan.
Kid Goku clearly wasn't thinking at all right now, yet he had still transformed into a Golden Great Ape.
That let his power temporarily surpass Baby's, but because he had completely lost his reason, he couldn't step into Super Saiyan 4.
"Roooar!!"
In the Golden Great Ape's eyes, only Baby remained.
"Grandpa…"
Pan, who had fainted earlier, slowly woke up.
The first thing she saw was her grandpa, turned into a massive ape.
"Pan, don't go over there!!"
Mr. Satan rushed to drag her back, terrified.
The giant ape went completely berserk. Massive ki blasts shot from his mouth, bombarding Planet Tuffle and wreaking havoc everywhere.
Baby could feel power from Goku's body that far exceeded his own.
"You must die! Revenge Death Ball!!"
Quietly, he began gathering a hateful, pitch-black Revenge Death Ball.
The ape sensed the energy and turned toward Baby. In that instant, he found his target again.
That massive fist came crashing down. Baby was smashed away, slamming into a tall building.
The ape leaped, landing on top of the building. His eyes locked on the hole Baby's body had left behind.
Boom!
A pink ki blast slammed into his head. Baby seized the chance to dart out from the hole, swooping behind the ape and firing a rapid salvo of pink blasts from his palms.
Boom, boom, boom!
The building began to collapse. The shattered concrete poured down, pelting the Golden Great Ape.
"Even if you've gotten stronger, you're still nothing but a wild animal!"
Baby panted heavily, staring at the ruined building swallowed in dust.
"Roooar!!"
When the dust settled, the ape emerged without a scratch. After that feral roar, a fist big enough to blot out the sky crashed down on Baby again.
Boom!
Baby was launched away once more. He ignored his injuries, scrambling to reposition himself in the dust cloud.
"Damn it… just you wait!"
He flew off toward where Bulma was.
With Baby gone, the ape lost his target and went back to mindless destruction.
All the humans under Baby's control on Planet Tuffle were within his attack range.
Bulla, Videl, Chi-Chi… all stared up in horror at the Golden Great Ape looming over them.
"No, Grandpa!!"
Pan finally couldn't hold back anymore. She flew straight toward Goku.
"Run!!"
her shout snapped the others out of it. They fled at once.
Pan's sudden appearance also gave Goku's ape body a new target.
Boom!
The Great Ape fired a blazing beam from his mouth, straight at Pan.
She twisted aside midair, narrowly dodging it, then deliberately lured the ape toward a more deserted canyon.
"Bulma, why can't I transform into a Great Ape?!"
Baby was seething.
"Lord Baby, it must be because of your tail," Bulma replied, immediately finding the key issue.
"Damn it… is there any way around that?" Baby growled, unwilling to accept it.
In his mind, scenes from long ago flashed by Planet Tuffle being wiped out by Saiyan Great Apes. The long-buried fear flooded back.
"Please don't worry, Lord Baby. I'll definitely make sure you transform into a Great Ape too. If the Blutz Waves are strong enough, you should be able to transform even without a tail!"
Bulma started building a Blutz Wave Amplifier.
The poor rely on mutation. The rich rely on technology.
"Hurry!"
Baby gritted his teeth, glaring at the monitor image of Goku's ape form.
By now, Goku had been drawn by Pan to a remote canyon.
There was a perfectly still lake there. The Great Ape looked down at the water's surface.
Earth's reflection shone back at him.
He froze. For a moment, the wild rage in his eyes faded. He slowly lifted his gaze to Earth hanging in the sky.
His body moved on its own, climbing a tall peak.
He sat there, staring at Earth, both arms stretching out as though he wanted to hold the planet in his hands.
"Roar… roar…"
"Grandpa!"
Pan flew up again.
Smack!
Her body blocked his line of sight for a moment. The ape casually swatted her out of the air.
A red gi tumbled out of Pan's backpack when she hit the ground.
She remembered herself competing in the Tenkaichi Budokai. Remembered her grandpa, who had always spoiled her rotten.
Unwilling to give up, she flew up a third time.
Smack!
As expected, she was slapped out of the air again.
But this time, a photo slipped from inside the red gi.
The ape paused, gently pinching the photo between his huge fingers.
The picture showed his family playing together at the beach.
In those crimson eyes, a golden light flashed. Warm memories surfaced in Goku's mind.
Goten and Trunks burying a sleeping Vegeta in sand.
Himself holding little Pan as she giggled and played.
"So much has happened… if only we could always stay like this, just happy together…"
Chi-Chi's voice echoed in his mind.
"I love fighting… but this feeling… is nice too."
And that's exactly why GT hits so much harder than Super. This version of Son Goku was nothing like Super's battle-obsessed idiot. He still loved fighting, but he understood warmth, family, and quiet happiness too.
"Grandpa…"
Pan flew up for the third time.
A single tear fell.
The Great Ape extended a fingertip and caught the tear.
Then he stuck his tongue out and tasted it.
"Rooar…"
This time, the ape gently pushed Pan aside with his fingertip.
Golden light flooded over his body.
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