Dragon Ball: AD Astra

The battle between Goku and Piccolo ended with Goku's victory—a hard-fought triumph that left the air thick with dust and the scent of scorched earth. There had been several tense moments where victory could have slipped away, but Goku's persistence paid off. He managed to dodge Piccolo's desperate final beam attack, the energy blast carving a molten trench through the rocky ground behind him. It was a complete and undisputed victory.

Perhaps it would have been wise to tell Goku not to let his guard down until the very end—a habit that would only worsen in the future and prove particularly troublesome during the GT timeline. But for now, the immediate crisis had passed.

As the fighters dispersed and the dust settled, Earth's immediate danger seemed to fade. That should have been the end of it... but of course, it wasn't.

"Lisette," the aging Guardian said, his weathered hands clasped behind his back as he gazed out over the temple's edge. "I will now retire as your successor. I will leave the Dragon Balls in your care, so don't worry about their maintenance."

"Um, please wait a moment." Lisette's voice carried a note of surprise as she turned from organizing her belongings. "You were rescued safely, so there's no need to forcefully hand the position over to me..."

"No." The Guardian's voice carried the weight of recent failure. "This incident made me realize just how weak I've become. Earth needs a strong guardian like you for the challenges ahead."

In the end, it was inevitable that Lisette would become the new Guardian of Earth.

The transition happened swiftly. The former Guardian moved into the cathedral where Lisette had been living—a building she now realized had always been intended as his retirement home, given its unusually luxurious furnishings. Meanwhile, Lisette found herself relocating to the ancient temple floating high above the clouds.

The former Guardian's voice echoed through the marble corridors as he explained her new duties. "First, I will transfer to you my authority as Guardian. With this power, you'll be able to teleport anywhere on Earth instantly. You can travel freely between this world and the afterlife, and if you remain on Earth, you can transport others besides yourself."

The abilities sounded incredibly useful. Lisette remembered how this same Guardian had transported Goku to the afterlife during their previous encounter. She nodded, urging him to continue.

"Next, you'll need to give your inauguration speech. We must travel to the Other World together so you can present yourself to King Yemma. There, you'll be officially recognized as Earth's Guardian."

Let's get this over with, Lisette thought, fighting the urge to kick her predecessor in the back as she followed him toward the portal.

She knew this was likely a temporary position—eventually, she'd probably need to hand the role over to Dende. But for now, establishing a relationship with King Yemma couldn't hurt.

When they arrived in the afterlife, King Yemma's booming voice filled his judgment hall: "Don't you have too much fighting power to be a Guardian of Earth? There's no Guardian of a remote planet stronger than a Kai!" Despite his complaints, the formalities were completed quickly, and soon it was time to return.

Back at the temple, Lisette began the process of moving her belongings. She relocated the gravity chamber and her personal items from the cathedral, while also transferring the carrot-transformed rabbits and their leader to work as temple staff. The normal rabbits remained in the cathedral under the former Guardian's care—he seemed genuinely pleased to have the company.

Mr. Popo, the temple's eternal attendant, accepted the change with his characteristic calm. "I am happy that a new Guardian has arrived," he said simply, his dark eyes crinkling with what might have been a smile.

Lisette briefly wondered if it truly didn't matter to him who held the position of Guardian, as long as someone did.

She also informed Korin of the change. The white cat looked confused by this unexpected reversal of roles. As a greeting gift, Lisette offered him some catnip, but when he immediately began rolling around on the floor in blissful intoxication, she decided to leave him to his enjoyment and returned to the temple.

The Ultimate Dragon Balls

The first major task Lisette undertook as the new Guardian was dealing with the Ultimate Dragon Balls—or as she privately called them, the "Earth-destroying bombs"—stored deep within the temple's most secure vault.

These artifacts had been created by the previous Guardian before his separation from the Demon King Piccolo. Their power dwarfed that of the normal Dragon Balls by an incomprehensible margin. In the GT timeline, they would even transform Goku into a child, demonstrating power far beyond Lisette's ability to control.

Worse still, if anyone made a wish using all seven Ultimate Dragon Balls, the planet would be destroyed exactly one year later, and the balls would scatter across the entire universe. It was a cosmic booby trap that served no constructive purpose whatsoever.

Currently, they appeared as ordinary stone spheres, but if Piccolo and his predecessor ever fused together, the balls would definitely be reactivated.

With this in mind, Lisette gathered three of the seven Ultimate Dragon Balls and entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. The chamber stretched endlessly in all directions—a white void as vast as Earth itself, filled with crushing gravity and extreme temperatures.

She hurled the three orbs with all her considerable strength, sending them spinning into the infinite whiteness where they vanished without a trace. Even with her enhanced senses, she couldn't detect where they had landed in the chamber's boundless expanse.

The plan was elegant in its simplicity: even if Pilaf's gang somehow gained access to the chamber, they would never survive the harsh conditions long enough to search for the orbs. And if by some miracle they did survive, they'd be trapped forever with no way to return to the outside world.

Three Ultimate Dragon Balls lost in the Time Chamber, four remaining in the outside world. Collecting all seven would now be virtually impossible.

A Year of Training

One year later, Lisette had finally perfected what she called her "Imitation Spirit Bomb"—though she was the first to admit it bore little resemblance to the real technique.

By drawing tiny amounts of energy from every living thing on Earth—plants, animals, even microorganisms—and storing it within herself, she had achieved something resembling photosynthesis. She no longer felt hunger, and as an experiment, she had gone several days without food or sleep, feeling no fatigue whatsoever.

I'm basically a plant now, she mused, watching the sunrise paint the clouds below the temple in shades of gold and crimson.

The technique wasn't limited to Earth's life energy—she could absorb solar radiation directly, like a living solar panel. While she still needed water, her need for food had vanished entirely, and she rarely needed to use the bathroom anymore.

But despite these practical benefits, Lisette was disappointed. This wasn't the Spirit Bomb at all—she had made the same mistake as with the Kaio-ken, creating something entirely different from memory alone.

She was, she reflected ruefully, an incorrigible girl (even at 260 years old).

While she could gather ki into herself like a form of biological doping, making herself temporarily stronger as Goku had done in some of the movies, she had no idea how to launch the energy as an actual projectile. Maybe she needed to visit King Kai's planet via the afterlife route to learn the real technique.

For now, she decided to focus on improving her current abilities.

Four Years as Guardian

Four years had passed since Lisette began her tenure as Earth's Guardian. Living in the temple while occasionally training Goku during his visits, she had grown surprisingly fond of her elevated home.

The gravity chamber provided excellent training opportunities, and the temple itself offered unique facilities impossible to find elsewhere. The most fascinating was the "Room of Past and Future"—not to be confused with the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

This mysterious room allowed her to send her consciousness into the past, where she could fight against historical opponents and gain combat experience. The mechanics were unclear—somehow, her mind could interact with physical matter in these temporal journeys, perhaps through some form of psychic manifestation that perfectly replicated her body's capabilities.

Using this room, Lisette had accumulated pseudo-combat experience against warriors from across history. Even beyond training, these journeys into the past were endlessly fascinating. Best of all, the room enabled interplanetary travel through time, allowing her to explore distant worlds and alien civilizations.

For someone who dreamed of space exploration, it was the perfect entertainment system. She would close her eyes, let time flow around her, and in an instant—with no actual passage of time—find herself experiencing adventures across the cosmos.

Death in these temporal journeys was merely an inconvenience; she would return to the present unharmed, making the experience risk-free.

The Hyperbolic Time Chamber, meanwhile, remained largely unused. She had visited it only once since disposing of the Ultimate Dragon Balls—a thirty-second mission that involved entering, throwing the orbs, and immediately leaving. To any observer, it would have appeared as if she had simply opened and closed the door.

Someday she would probably make full use of that chamber, but not yet. Currently, no threat on Earth was serious enough to warrant the intensive training it offered.

At least, no threat serious enough... until now.

An Old Enemy Returns

"Li... Lisette..." The former Guardian's voice cracked with pain as he stumbled into the temple's main hall.

"Previous Guardian? What on earth happened?" Lisette rushed to his side, noting his haggard appearance with alarm.

The temple and cathedral were connected by ancient pathways, allowing easy travel between them. But in all four years of her guardianship, her predecessor had never visited in such obvious distress.

He was clutching his chest in agony, sweat beading on his wrinkled forehead, his legs trembling as if he might collapse at any moment. The symbol on his chest had changed from "God" to "Elder"—a reminder of his retired status.

"P-Piccolo has been defeated..." he gasped between labored breaths. "A grudge from the distant past has finally bared its fangs..."

"Piccolo?" Lisette's eyes widened. "Based on your condition, he wasn't killed, but he was certainly brutally beaten. Let's get you somewhere safe first—you need to lie down. Mr. Popo, please escort the Elder to the recovery room."

"Yes, Guardian," Mr. Popo replied, his eternal composure unshaken even by this crisis.

Once the Elder was resting comfortably, he told Lisette the full story, his voice gaining strength as her healing energy flowed into him.

"This happened three hundred years ago, forty years before you were born. There was once a demon named Garlic who competed for the position of Guardian but was defeated by my predecessor. He was a being of terrible ambition—the kind of ambition that would have made him a catastrophic Guardian."

The Elder's eyes grew distant with memory. "The Guardian before me saw through Garlic's dark heart and chose himself for the position instead. Naturally, Garlic didn't accept this decision peacefully. He rebelled against the chosen Guardian and was ultimately killed in the conflict."

"And this Garlic has been resurrected?" Lisette asked, sending more healing energy into the Elder's weakened form.

"His dying words were a curse—a promise to return in exactly three hundred years for revenge."

Lisette couldn't help but admire the patience required for such a long-term resurrection plan. But why specify exactly three hundred years? Was there some cosmic significance to that timeframe, or simply the time needed to gather enough dark energy for revival?

"Apart from you and Son Goku, there's no one else on Earth right now who could harm Piccolo," the Elder continued.

Lisette's mind immediately went to other potential threats: the androids that Dr. Gero was likely already developing in his hidden laboratory, and Majin Buu, who remained sealed somewhere on Earth like a ticking time bomb. Given her previous encounter with Dr. Willow, she suspected there were actually quite a few beings capable of defeating someone as powerful as Piccolo.

After all, even Dr. Willow's mass-produced Bio-Men had possessed power levels exceeding 1,000. There was something deeply unsettling about that man's scientific capabilities.

"Let me investigate," Lisette said, closing her eyes and expanding her consciousness across the planet.

Her ki-sensing abilities immediately detected four large, distinct energy signatures. Three were smaller than Piccolo's—probably manageable, though one was approaching Tien's level. The fourth, however, was clearly superior to both Piccolo and Goku.

Focusing on that location, she extended her vision across the distance. Sure enough, she saw a small, demon-like figure who looked remarkably similar to Emperor Pilaf, cackling maniacally as he collected Dragon Balls.

Oh, right. That one.

The memories came flooding back—this was the antagonist from one of the early Dragon Ball Z movies. An enemy with such minimal presence that she had almost forgotten about him entirely. The plot was essentially a rehash of the Raditz conflict, but with different villains.

Honestly, Lisette didn't particularly care about such a minor threat. He was like a buzzing insect—annoying, but easily crushed if necessary. If she wanted to, she could eliminate him instantly.

The real problem was the Dragon Balls themselves.

The Dragon Ball Crisis

Lisette's expression grew serious as she considered the long-term implications. She was certain that excessive use of the Dragon Balls caused negative energy to accumulate, eventually giving birth to the Shadow Dragons. This corruption required a century of rest to purify naturally.

The negative energy from wishes she had previously granted as Guardian had long since dissipated, but future usage would be different. Goku and his friends—and even their enemies—would use the Dragon Balls so casually that the hundred-year purification cycle would become impossible to maintain.

She was fairly certain that the GT timeline included not just the original anime but also many of the movie storylines, meaning the Dragon Balls would be used with alarming frequency. The movie versions were particularly egregious—it seemed like the Dragon Balls were summoned once per film release.

At their worst, they had been used for trivial purposes like restoring mountains damaged by forest fires, only to have the restored forest later burned down again, making the entire wish pointless.

That was exactly how Shadow Dragons were born.

Since becoming Guardian, she had periodically collected all seven Dragon Balls and left them in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a hundred days to purify any accumulated negative energy before returning them to Earth. But even with these precautions, continued frivolous usage would eventually create the Shadow Dragon crisis.

"I can see them clearly," Lisette announced, opening her eyes. "Four idiots collecting Dragon Balls. They've kidnapped Goku's son for some reason and are trying to draw Goku to them. Their names are... let me read their minds... Garlic Jr., Ginger, Nicky, and Sansho. It seems they're targeting Goku's son rather than Goku himself."

"So the tainted ambition has passed to the next generation... Like father, like son," the Elder said grimly.

Using her enhanced perception, Lisette was able to read the minds of Garlic Jr. and his subordinates, studying their unique techniques. Most were useless demonic abilities—transforming body parts into weapons and similar theatrical nonsense. However, Garlic Jr.'s signature technique, the "Dead Zone," was genuinely impressive.

The Dead Zone created something resembling a black hole, banishing targets into a lightless void from which even the user couldn't escape. It was clearly designed as a mutual destruction technique, meant to be used after achieving immortality.

Interesting concept, but the self-destruct aspect needs work, Lisette mused. Otherwise, it's too dangerous to use practically.

"So, what's our plan?" she asked aloud.

"We must settle this grudge from the past once and for all," the Elder declared, struggling to sit up straighter. "Lisette, will you accompany me?"

Though part of her thought, Oh great, I'm getting dragged into this mess after all, Lisette nodded her agreement. Preventing the unnecessary use of the Dragon Balls was more important than the minor threat Garlic Jr. represented.

She had to prevent the eventual birth of the Shadow Dragons, no matter what.

---

Author's Notes:

[Give me back my Gohan!!] The fourth Dragon Ball movie and first Dragon Ball Z film. The timeline is somewhat confusing—while Gohan and Goku are alive, suggesting it takes place before the Raditz fight, there are also scenes showing Gohan and Krillin are already acquainted, implying it's after Raditz's defeat.

Garlic Jr., the main antagonist, later reappeared in an original anime arc, confirming that this movie exists within the main "Z" timeline rather than being a parallel world story.

[Garlic Jr.] The son and reincarnation of Garlic, who competed for the Guardian position 300 years ago, lost, and was sealed away. He bears a strong resemblance to Emperor Pilaf, though their relationship is unknown. Interestingly, when he reappeared in the anime, he shared Pilaf's voice actor—perhaps indicating Pilaf is a descendant of Garlic.

His initial plan involved killing the Guardian by eliminating Piccolo, but since the Guardian's death would cause the Dragon Balls to disappear, his strategy was fundamentally flawed from the start. Despite this logical flaw, he somehow succeeded in obtaining immortality from Shenron. However, he was ultimately defeated because he had mastered the self-destructive "Dead Zone" technique.

Not only did he achieve immortality, but he also prepared his own method of defeat—truly a villain with a service spirit. When he reappeared later, he generously used the Dead Zone again despite it being the cause of his previous downfall. While he couldn't win due to his immortality, he also couldn't lose if he simply avoided using the Dead Zone. Yet he used it anyway. Remarkable dedication.

Unlike certain other villains (looking at you, Zamasu), Garlic Jr. is a model antagonist who fully understands the rules of Dragon Ball combat.

[Ginger] One of Garlic Jr.'s subordinates. Becomes giant by shouting "Ginger Pork!" His power level according to the official pamphlet is 350.

[Nicky] Another of Garlic Jr.'s subordinates. Grows huge by shouting "Throat Lozenges!" Power level: 350. While his companions shout food names, he's the only one who settles for throat medicine.

[Sansho] The third subordinate. Becomes giant by shouting "Unaju!" (grilled eel). He's the only one who shouts something ridiculously expensive. He should learn restraint from Nicky, who settles for throat lozenges.

Despite being completely dominated by Piccolo while wearing his weighted cloak, his official power level is listed as 350—higher than Piccolo's 322 at the time. Even with superior fighting power, he was treated like a weakling, with Piccolo dismissing them as "nothing when taken one by one."

His defeat is attributed to poor focus—shouting about expensive food like "unaju" during battle was probably not the wisest combat strategy.