While Android 16 was being repaired by Bulma and her father, Dr. Brief, at Capsule Corporation, up at Kami's Sacred Lookout, specifically in the Room of Spirit and Time, commonly known as the Time Chamber, Goku and Gohan had just finished their training.
Upon exiting the Time Chamber, everyone present tensed up slightly upon sensing their Ki, before quickly relaxing when they saw who it was.
While Trunks approached and told them everything that had happened while they trained, telling them in detail about the Cell Games, none of them noticed a blurry shadow sneaking undetected into the interior of Kami's Sacred Lookout.
This was Zaiko, in search of the Ultimate Dragon Balls.
Before coming to look for them, he had used Magic Materialization to create two houses in a mountainous area, where they would live for a while.
He couldn't leave Paragus and Broly stranded on the street while he went off to do his things, right?
Besides, the idea of living on the street himself didn't appeal to him in the slightest.
Therefore, he had created two separate houses, one for Paragus and Broly, and the other for himself, right before coming directly here.
As for the Ultimate Dragon Balls... he really had no idea if they existed or not.
All that was left was to find out, right?
If a trio of incompetents like Pilaf, Shu, and Mai could find them, who's to say he couldn't do it now?
And he wasn't wrong about it...
Actually, it was a bit disappointing to find them so quickly.
It barely took him a few minutes to search the place.
The Ultimate Dragon Balls were hidden in a deep and forgotten area of the palace, resting on a pedestal. They were covered in dust. There was so much dust accumulated over the decades that you couldn't even see the stars inside them, looking like simple orange stone spheres.
Zaiko approached and, blowing on them to clear away the thick layer of dust, finally saw the black stars inside.
Upon confirming what he had in front of him, he couldn't help but smile from ear to ear, showing his sharp canines with evident excitement.
Only then did Zaiko notice that the Black Star Dragon Balls were surrounded by several cobweb-covered skeletons.
"I didn't remember this..." Zaiko muttered to himself, frowning slightly at the sight of the bones. "That gives off a bad vibe."
Without giving the matter of the corpses another thought, he carefully picked up the spheres, one by one, and placed them into a small cloth bag to carry them comfortably and without drawing attention.
Turning around, and taking one last look at the empty pedestal where the Black Star Dragon Balls had rested, Zaiko disappeared from Kami's Sacred Lookout without leaving a single trace.
He had absolutely no interest in presenting himself to the Z Fighters just yet...
After all... how else was he going to farm aura during the Cell Games?
...
Days passed, and the tension over Cell's imminent threat continued to grow.
Looking for a solution to all the deaths, Goku went to visit Piccolo to ask him if there was any way to separate from Kami. They desperately needed him to bring back Earth's Dragon Balls and thus revive all of Cell's victims.
Unfortunately, that was completely impossible.
Once the Namekian assimilation was done, they could never be separated again. They were united for life into a single being.
Then, a new idea crossed Goku's mind... he would visit New Namek.
If it was impossible for Kami to return to his old post, then he just had to find a new Kami, a new Namekian who wanted to stay on Earth for the rest of his life.
Goku immediately used his Instant Transmission technique, closing his eyes and concentrating to the maximum to try and sense a Ki similar to Piccolo's on another planet.
But he didn't succeed.
The Namekians must have been too far away for his detection range.
Faced with this obstacle, he decided to take a shortcut and asked King Kai for help.
And as he guessed, with his help, he managed to locate the exact position of the planet.
He immediately used Instant Transmission and arrived on the peaceful Namek, where he met many individuals identical to Piccolo, although, in his opinion, they were all much kinder and smilier.
Grand Elder Moori welcomed him and helped him immediately upon hearing his name, remembering everything he had done for them in the past.
Without hesitation, Moori introduced him to little Dende the very instant he heard his savior's request.
It was then, when he met and greeted Dende, that the story took an unexpected turn for Goku.
The small Namekian, with total innocence, asked him if Earth's problems had already been solved, discovering that just a few days ago they had had a visitor.
Goku heard for the first time about an incredibly powerful Saiyan named Zaiko, who had used the spheres and claimed with absolute certainty to be his eldest son.
Goku blinked, completely bewildered, bringing a hand to his head.
Had he had another son before Gohan with Chi-Chi?
But if that was the case... Why had Chi-Chi never said anything to him about it?
...
How powerful would Dragon Balls created by a God be?
Zaiko had thought about this from the beginning, from the exact moment he asked Porunga for that wish.
If Porunga could grant such wishes, with his current creator being Grand Elder Moori, a simple Namekian... What would happen if the magic came from a God as powerful as him?
«To make the Black Star Dragon Balls mine and enhance them, I only need to transfer my Ki into the spheres, using the technique I learned from Porunga to give life to the dragon», Zaiko thought.
In reality, the process was quite simple and didn't require much effort, although at the level he intended to do this, it would probably consume a lot of his Ki.
Right now, Zaiko found himself surrounded by trees, not far from his new house in the mountains.
The seven Black Star Dragon Balls were lying on the ground on the green grass, with him standing right in front of them.
The time had come.
Zaiko aimed the palms of his hands towards the spheres and prepared to speak.
He was going to use the sacred Divine Language, the tongue of the gods.
Just as it happened with Porunga on Namek, who could only be summoned in the Namekian Language as a protective measure, Zaiko intended to make it so his dragon could only be summoned in the Divine Language.
He didn't want anyone to have access to the Black Star Dragon Balls so easily.
If someone found them by chance, they would be simple useless stones to them.
Initially, his main plan was to eliminate the annoying drawback that if the Black Star Dragon Balls didn't return to the planet where the wish was made within a year, said planet would be unconditionally destroyed.
However, after making his wish to Porunga and receiving all the knowledge about the creation of the Dragon Balls, he understood the harsh reality.
He realized that it wasn't possible, or rather that it was, but the power of the Black Star Dragon Balls would decrease drastically.
Therefore, blocking their use through the Divine Language was the only security measure he had come up with.
Only then, absolutely no one would be able to use them accidentally or against him.
And considering that the Gods don't use the Dragon Balls, since they don't think it necessary or they have the Super Dragon Balls at their disposal...
Yes.
Zaiko smiled with total confidence.
He firmly believed that the Black Star Dragon Balls were now safe.
This, of course, didn't mean he was going to leave them unprotected and unsupervised.
Without thinking about it any longer, Zaiko closed his eyes, clenched his fists at his sides, and let out a deafening roar that made the ground tremble.
His aura erupted around him.
His stature increased drastically, growing at least two heads above his normal height.
His musculature expanded so much that the upper part of his green Gi couldn't withstand the pressure and tore to pieces, flying off in shreds.
His torso and his arms were quickly covered in a thick and savage, shiny silver fur. His hair, previously a grayish-white, took on the same silver tone, lengthening and spiking up into an imposing form that fused the savagery of Super Saiyan 4 with the length of Super Saiyan 3.
Even the thick fur of his tail adopted that same dazzling silver color.
This was the mythical Super Saiyan 5, his most powerful form to date, and that was only because he hadn't yet wanted to try forcing his body to reach its divine forms.
"This power should be more than enough..." Zaiko muttered, his voice sounding much deeper due to the transformation.
He extended his hands and began to transfer his Ki directly into the spheres.
It is then that, using the Divine Language, Zaiko exclaimed:
"You, who are born from my hands, do not judge the heart of whoever calls you, limit yourself to being the mirror of their wishes. Awaken now. Cease being stone and turn into life."
The spheres began to rise into the sky slowly with his words.
"From this moment on, your destiny is bound to my breath."
The ground began to crack, and a massive fissure opened up in the ground.
Zaiko thought at that moment that perhaps he should have done this further away, considering he could still see his house in the distance.
"Flood everything, Dragon of Balance! Take your place in the sky, God of Dragons!"
As soon as he uttered the final word, the Divine Ki transferred into the spheres suddenly erupted towards the sky like a pillar, first forming the colossal silhouette of an ascending dragon.
Only then, a gigantic and majestic dragon materialized in the sky.
It was very similar to Shenron, but instead of being covered in green scales, its entire immense body was covered in a beautiful, shining silver fur that rippled in the wind.
"Manifest yourself, Zen-Long, and fulfill my wishes!" Zaiko exclaimed, giving a name to his creation.
Looking up, Zaiko observed his creation.
Zen-Long was so inconceivably massive that its presence completely blotted out the sky.
It seemed to have no end, wrapping around planet Earth entirely, as if it were a serpent embracing the world.
It just needed to bite its own tail and Zaiko would have jokingly called it Ouroboros.
The sky didn't darken as it did with Shenron or Porunga.
Instead, the entire sky was dyed a deep and intimidating blood-red color.
A deafening and majestic roar echoed through every corner of the planet after Zaiko exclaimed its name.
Ultimate Shenron had disappeared from existence; in his place, a new God of Dragons was born, the Dragon of Balance, Zen-Long.
Lowering his arms, Zaiko felt how his energy reserves had drastically decreased, but he wasn't exhausted enough to be in any real danger right now.
He would probably be fully recovered by the next day after a good rest and a large meal.
And in case he ran into Cell earlier than expected...
Zaiko smiled arrogantly, clenching his silver-fur-covered fists.
«That bug better be able to multiply himself at least a thousand times, because in this state, I can still beat the crap out of him with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back», he thought to himself.
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