“… Mr.… Popo?” Gohan asked in surprise as he looked at the black skinned genie man, he hadn’t seen in years believing he had died alongside the others years ago, but here he was standing in front of Gohan. “I’m dead, aren’t I?”

“To answer your first question, I’m not this Mr. Popo.” The man said placing a hand on his chest. “and the answer to your second question is a little more complicated you are dead in a sense, but you are also not dead, it can get confusing…  I will explain everything to you later.” The man said with a wave of his hand.

“… ok then why do you look like Mr. Popo if you aren’t him?” Gohan asked making a note to ask him to explain where he was later.

“This is just a form I took that allows me to interact with mortals like you.” the man said patting his body. “There’s no telling what would happen if you saw my true form, best case nothing happens, worst case you freak out and go mad, and no one wants that. I’m able to take any form I chose to.” The man said as his body changed into a young man, an old man with a long white beard, into Gohan, and many other forms before changing back into Mr. Popo.

“If you can choose who to turn into why did you transform into Mr. Popo and not someone else, I’m more familiar with?” Gohan asked politely.

“I choose to take this form because you are somewhat familiar with it and because there was a chance you would react differently if I chose someone who you knew to be dead. This form allowed us to have a civilized conversation, but it’s not working for me and since the ice has been broken--” The man said changing his body back into that of an old man with white robes and long white hair and a long white beard. “There we go, now I know you have plenty of questions and I will do my best to answer them all but first relax and take a seat, I mean you no harm.” The man said snapping his fingers making a table and two chairs appear in front of them before taking a seat with his hands folded in front of him.

“… alright.” Gohan said as he slowly took a seat not taking his eyes off the man, while trying to figure out what was going on, where he was, and who this person was. Gohan couldn’t sense anything from this person. Gohan didn’t feel any hostility from the man so he decided to see what he had to say, but deep-down Gohan had a feeling that if this man wanted to hurt him, he could have down it without Gohan ever noticing.

“Now before you begin to ask your questions do you want to eat or drink anything.” The man said clapping his hands once making a variety of food and drinks appear on the table in front them.

“I… no… not right now…I just want some answers. — please.” Gohan said adding the please quickly not knowing anything about this person except that they were very powerful. Gohan didn’t want to take any chances at upsetting them, so he was going to do his best to be polite.

“Very well, if you change your mind let me know.” The man said waving his hand clearing the table except for what looked like a cup of tea. “Also, please relax I meant it when I said I mean you no harm, it’s been a very long time since I had a visitor so calm down and I will do my best to answer your questions.” The man said looking at Gohan indicating that he could ask his questions.

“Earlier he called me a mortal … so he must be some type of God… I need to tread carefully and do my best to not upset him; I have a feeling that he’s a lot higher on the food chain than any of the Gods my dad has met.” Gohan thought to himself before turning his attention back to the man in front of him. The man sat looking at Gohan while taking a sip of his tea.

“… ok thank you… my first question would be who are you?” Gohan asked

“Oh, right I haven’t introduced myself yet, apologizes like I said it’s been a very long time since I’ve had any visitors and I seem to have forgotten basic etiquette. I have gone by many names over the years, but for the purpose of this conversation you may call me… Polycosmos, and I already know that you are Son Gohan.” Polycosmos said placing the cup down and nodding at Gohan.

“Polycosmos… Poly means many and Cosmos can mean universe or worlds.” Gohan said slowly remembering some of the reading his mom had made him do as a child. “… sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt you.” Gohan said his eyes widening realizing what he had done.

“No, it’s fine, like I’ve said it’s been a while since I’ve had a guest especially one who is calm and polite enough to have a proper conversation with me especially after finding out that they are dead. So, continue I want to see if you can figure out my identity.” Polycosmos said holding his hands up calming Gohan down.

“…Ok thank you… earlier you called me a mortal so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you are some type of God, right?” Gohan asked.

“You can say that.” Polycosmos said with a shrug.

“… if I take your name Polycosmos into account, that will make you a God of many worlds but, if I remember what my dad said about when he died the Kais watch over certain galaxies of the universe.” Gohan said.

“… That’s right they are given certain sections of the galaxy to watch over.” Polycosmos said closing his eyes and taking a sip of his tea before nodding and opening his eyes again.

“Based on your name, I have a feeling that you are a lot higher on the chain then them, and I’ve wondered where the Kais came from, so based on what little information I have, I’m going to guess that you are the one who created the Kais and maybe the universe.” Gohan said looking at Polycosmos.

Polycosmos smiled at Gohan, “Not bad, but you are not completely correct I did not create the Kais or your universe.”

“Wait my universe… there are more than one universe?” Gohan asked

“Yes, there are many.” Polycosmos said with a nod

“Wait… then that means multiverse theory is real!?” Gohan asked surprised.

“Yes, it is, and, following that thread, I am the God of the Multiverse. I know this revelation has likely given you more questions to ask and I will answer them later, but first let’s get a few of your more pressings questions out of the way.” Polycosmos said rising a hand to calm Gohan down.

“…right sorry.” Gohan said with a grin rubbing the back of his head.

“It’s alright that type of reaction is common when confronted with that knowledge.” Polycosmos said with a smile. “Now ask your other questions.”

“Right… where was I?” Gohan asked himself as he closed his eyes thinking, “... oh right I wanted to ask where are we? This doesn’t look like the otherworld my father told me about when he died.” Gohan asked looking around

“Ah yes… this is a place has been called The Void, The Empty, The Abyss, or Limbo, which ever name you prefer. I’m able to change its appearance to whatever I want like something from my guests own world to make them feel more at ease.” Polycosmos said with a shrug.

“Limbo… so that’s what you meant when you said I was dead but also not dead.” Gohan said making Polycosmos nod his head.

“Precisely you have ceased to exist in your world, but you still exist here in front of me, don’t think too much about it, it will make your head hurt but that’s not the reason I brought you here.” Polycosmos said

“… so why did you bring me here?” Gohan asked. “I thought I would wake up in the other world.”

“You normally would have ended up in your worlds afterlife, but I intervened and brought you here instead of letting you pass on.” Polycosmos said.

“… you did that… why?” Gohan asked.

“Relax it’s nothing major.” Polycosmos said gesturing for Gohan to calm down, “Before I tell you the reason why I brought you here, first I need to tell you a little bit about myself since it plays a part in my reason.”

“Ok, I’m listening.” Gohan said looking at Polycosmos and sitting up straight in his chair

“Like I’ve told you I’m the God of the multiverse and I told you that I would explain that to you in a little more detail.” Polycosmos said as Gohan nodded his head, “Like I said earlier I did not create the Kais or your universe… well not directly I did create the one who did.” Polycosmos said.

“… wait so you are saying that you created someone, and that person went on to create the Kais and then my universe.” Gohan said connecting the dots.

“Yes, that’s one way of seeing it… I created the God who had a hand in creating your universe.” Polycosmos said.

“Do they know about you?” Gohan asked

“… in a sense, they should know of my existence on an instinctual level, by that I mean they know that someone created them, but they don’t know who. That way if I want to, I can interact within their universes without them noticing, and if I don’t want them to notice me then they won’t even if I were to stand right in front of them, usually... I haven’t really tested it out.” Polycosmos said rubbing his beard in thought.

“… Wow that’s… a lot to take in.” Gohan said stunned

“I know… so I’ll give you some time to process the information before I continue.” Polycosmos said shaking his head before drinking some more tea.

“… Wait you said that you intervened with my passing, right?” Gohan asked after a while as Polycosmos nodded his head. “Why did you do that?”

“… I’ll get to that later, I need you to know that I can see, hear, and intact with the various worlds in the multiverse if I choose to and in the rare cases that I do, I sometimes do more than that if I want to or if I feel like it.” Polycosmos explained

“Like stopping me from passing on to my worlds afterlife.” Gohan stated

“Exactly.” Polycosmos said nodding. “Now I don’t always interfere with how things are supposed to happen because when I do there’s a very small chance someone may notice. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t always intervene but in very rare cases I do, the other reason is because I don’t like to mess with my creations natural order of things.”

“So… why… why me… and why now?” Gohan asked, “You say that you don’t normally intervene with how things are supposed to happen, that you like to let things play out but for some reason you decided to intervene in my case. What makes me so special?”

“… nothing really.” Polycosmos said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“…. What!?” Gohan asked shocked not believing what he heard.

“Oh, don’t take it personally, I’m just speaking about it from my perspective you aren’t that special, I mean sure you have a strong warrior spirit, a good pure heart, you have good head on your shoulders, and all the other things that make up a hero, but I’ve seen it countless of times before you and I’ll probably see it countless of times after you.” Polycosmos said

“… then why intervene with my passing at all if I’m nothing special… why not just let me pass on to the afterlife in peace without ever meeting you. I could be meeting my family and friends now but here I am in front of the God of the multiverse who’s telling me that they’ve intervened with my passing to the afterlife for no reason at all.” Gohan said

“I didn’t say I intervened for no reason at all.” Polycosmos said

“Then why did you?” Gohan asked

“Right… well when I was telling you earlier that I’m able to see and hear everything going on in the multiverse if I choose to?” Polycosmos asked as Gohan nodded his head, “Well I was looking through the multiverse and I came upon your world and your fight, and I watched as you gave your life to fight those two cyborgs. While you fought them, I decided to look in to the past to see what lead you up to that point and I saw that you were dealt a bad hand in life, and I decided to do something about it.” Polycosmos said.

“… that can’t be all there is to it, there has to be another reason to why you decided to intervene with my passing instead of letting me pass on to my worlds afterlife and letting me reunite with my family and friends.” Gohan said looking at Polycosmos.

“What do you mean?” Polycosmos asked

“… well like you said you’ve seen people like me countless of times.” Gohan said as Polycosmos nodded his head, “So why intervene in my case and not in other times?”

“… I don’t really know but I intervened in your case for three reasons.” Polycosmos said

“Can you tell me them please?” Gohan asked

“Yeah sure, although the first one will be seen as selfish on my part… it’s because I was bored.” Polycosmos said

“… bored?” Gohan asked

“Yes, it can get boring just watching things happen in the multiverse, so I find different ways to entertain myself, one way is by interacting with the multiverse, I do this in many ways but one of my favorites is choosing a form and interacting with one of the many worlds out there, at least for a while. Other times I decided to change small things in them if I choose to.” Polycosmos said

“… so, you brought me here… to relieve your boredom?” Gohan asked

“Not exactly.” Polycosmos said

“What do you mean?” Gohan asked

“Although I told you that there’s nothing special about you that wasn’t the complete truth.” Polycosmos said

“… what do you mean?” Gohan asked

“Hmm… I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like you have a chance to provide me with a good source of entertainment.” Polycosmos said running his hand through his beard.

“… how would I do that?” Gohan asked

“That brings us to the third reason I brought you here.” Polycosmos said smiling.

“…which is?” Gohan asked

“To give you a second chance at life.” Polycosmos said with a grin.

_____

(AN: December has not been my month; I’ve spent most of it in bed sick with the flu which I somehow ended up getting twice followed by a minor eye infection which made it hard for me to write.

I’m still a little sick but well enough to work on this story again and to make up for not being able to write much I will continue to work on this fanfic during the month of January before focusing on something else in February.

The next chapter will also have a lot of dialogue to help finish setting up the story going forward; I drew some inspiration from One-Above-All from Marvel for writing Polycosmos.)