Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story This story takes place about 66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[9 May, Age 791. The Tuffle Planet.]
Son Goku was the Legendary Super Saiyan, perhaps the last, depending on how the legend was interpreted. The stories said that one arose every thousand years, but after Son Goku's ascension, there were many other Super Saiyans who arose in the next few decades. Were they any less legendary for it? Or was the timing all that mattered?
None of that was important to Goku now. The legend, his Saiyan heritage, his recent recruitment into the Time Patrol, the lore behind his present location. All of it was secondary to his current problem: He was fighting the previous Legendary Super Saiyan, and she had him on the run.
With incredible speed, he darted through a vast industrial complex, slipping between buildings and computer stations and leaping through gaps among the tangle of cables and pipes. When necessary, he would smash his way through an obstacle, but he tended to any course through the woods that didn't slow him down.
Behind him, a swarm of ghostly creatures chased after him. Their bodies looked like they were sculpted out of mochi, with mitten-like hands and blobby tails instead of legs. But their heads were more defined, and each of their cackling faces bore the likeness of Goku's opponent, the Super Saiyan Luffa.
Goku wasn't sure how many of the ghosts she had made. Counting wasn't something he excelled at, and there were so many of them that he couldn't spare the time to get an accurate tally. Also, the ghosts exploded whenever they touched anything, which was why he led them through the deserted complex. Every so often, a ghost would run into a retaining wall, or a fence, or one of her comrades. Each collision set off an explosion, which potentially caused other ghosts to get knocked into something else and set off additional explosions. And so there was no point in trying to count, since the number kept changing anyway.
Another issue was the yellow fog that continued to spread across the ground. Goku was unfamiliar with the technique, but he had enough combat experience to hazard a guess. It seemed like means to track Goku's location. He could sense Luffa's unique power in the fog, just as he could sense it in the ghosts. But the fog wasn't attacking him. At worst, it accumulated on his boots and pant legs as he ran. So if he concealed his ki , as he was doing now, then she could still track him by sensing her own ki, which was emanated by the fog. Any disturbance would represent her target, and the ghosts could follow Goku's wake.
It was a brilliant application, and Goku couldn't help but imagine how useful this would have been during the conflict with Dr. Gero and his androids. The ghost swarm also might have helped, as the energy constructs were just independent enough to search a large swath of territory. The only downside Goku could find was that both techniques used a great deal of power to implement. He doubted that he or Vegeta could have accomplished something like this back when Gero was causing trouble. As for the ki ghosts, they were a favorite technique of Gotenks, the fusion of Goten and Trunks. In the boys' hands, it was little more than a childish prank, and Goku had never seen either of the boys try to use it separately. Gotenks had the power to spare on such flashy techniques, but Goten and Trunks did not.
All of this meant that Luffa seemed to be operating on a different level. Whether or not she was on a higher level remained to be seen. Goku looked forward to putting that to the test, but he was still taking her measure. For now, though, it seemed she was much more willing to unload costly ki techniques to overwhelm an opponent. As powerful as her ghost swarm was, most of that power was being wasted on stacks and cooling towers and other inanimate objects that couldn't fight back. It suggested that Luffa was either reckless or overconfident, or she really did have the kind of power in store that would justify these tactics. Goku was very interested in seeing which it would be.
As he contemplated all of this, his next leap brought his foot down on a rusty pipe, and his weight caused it to burst apart into pieces. This gave him an idea, and he quickly turned around in the middle of his next jump and held out his hands. With a "Kiai!" shout, he produced a shockwave in the air, one powerful enough to blow the broken fragments along the path he had traveled. Before he spun around to continue on his path, he saw the ghosts were starting to catch up to him.
"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo- hoooooo !" came the ghosts' mocking laughter.
Then came a fresh round of explosions, followed by shrieks of panic.
"Heh-hee!" Goku chuckled to himself as he ran. The forest was doing most of what he needed without any help, but that didn't mean he couldn't help things along.
His best guess was that Luffa was flustered by the hit-and-run tactics he had used against her earlier. She kept increasing her ki , while he maintained a certain level, and she was impatient to know what he was up to. The fog and the ghost swarm were her attempt to force his hand, but what she didn't realize was that this was Goku's hand. He was used to fighting at a disadvantage, and holding back at the start of a fight was a terrific way to gauge an opponent's strengths and weaknesses.
And… all strategic considerations aside, Goku just enjoyed fighting this way. Battles like these were few and far between, and he had no interest in wearing himself out before things got really good later on. He believed that Luffa could understand that sentiment, since there probably wasn't a great deal of competition in her own era, but she seemed to have a different approach to that.
This fight was clearly important to her, in many ways. Goku didn't think he understood completely, but he understood enough. For her, it was more than just a battle with a worthy adversary. She saw in Goku a kindred spirit, someone who understood what it was like to be what she was. She wanted to make a good impression, and maybe that was affecting her judgment. She was trying too hard to make this moment live up to her expectations.
That troubled him somewhat. Goku felt she deserved to have a worthwhile experience from all of this. At the same time, however, he recognized this as a vulnerability that he could exploit.
As he ran, he snatched something from a catwalk that looked like a toolbox. Wrapping both hands around it, he crushed it, then charged a small amount of ki into his palms. When he threw the pieces over his shoulder, they launched from his fingers like bullets, which spread out in all directions behind him. The explosions that followed were further away than before, suggesting that the ghost herd had thinned out a little more, or perhaps they had learned to keep their distance.
There seemed to be a clearing up ahead, and Goku considered doubling back to stay under the relative cover of the facilty. Then, as he got closer to the edge of the complex, he could see another one that lay just beyond it. He would only be exposed for the short time it would take him to cross the clearing, so it seemed like a risk worth taking. Goku had lived in the woods around Mt. Paozu for most of his life, and he reasoned that if Planet Vegeta's terrain was anything like Earth, then the space in between was probably a creek or a river. With any luck, he could get a drink as he crossed.
But as he reached the edge, he soon realized that he had miscalculated. There was a stream running between the two complexes, but it was at the bottom of a deep ravine. By the time Goku was close enough to see this, he barely had time to grab hold of a guardrail to stop himself from going over a cliff.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed as he took a closer down the ravine. The water at the bottom looked like a thin blue ribbon along the rocks. It would be easy to fly across, but that would risk giving away his position to Luffa.
Whatever he did next, he would have to choose quickly. The ghosts were still on his tail, and they showed no signs of slowing down. As Goku considered it, he noticed the yellow fog was drifting over the edge, and dissipating as it fell down the ravine. That gave him an idea.
"Here goes nothing," he said as he stood on the edge with his back to the ravine. He held out his hands and raised them over his face. "All right," he called out. "Come an' get me!"
The ghosts obliged, and as they raced toward him, Goku shouted "Taiyo-ken!" and dropped over the edge.
The bright light he created could be seen for kilometers in all directions. As he had hoped, many of the ghosts, dazzled by the effect, veered off course and ended up colliding with each other. Others continued on their path, crossing the ravine only to run into the trees on the other side. Then there were some who managed to track Goku's movements. These pursued him down the ravine as he fell, but most of them were unprepared for the uneven surfaces along the sides. There simply wasn't room for all of them, and as the walls of the ravine narrowed on the way down, they found it even harder to avoid one another.
As Goku fell, he saw the ground above beginning to collapse from all of the explosions. Soon, he had an avalanche bearing down on him instead of a swarm of exploding ghosts.
"Yikes!" he cried. "I guess I didn't think this through so well after all!"
Angling his descent, he added just enough power to fall faster than gravity would allow. When he finally splashed into the stream at the bottom, he was mostly clear of the rockslide, and from there he could allow the current to carry him the rest of the way to safety. Satisfied, Goku floated along for a few more minutes before swimming to a bank to regroup.
He could still hear explosions in the distance, but he believed the worst of the ghost swarm was over. As for the fog, he could still sense traces of Luffa's ki on his clothes and in the air, but it was not nearly as concentrated as it had been up above. There seemed to be a limit to her ability's range. If he kept his distance, he could avoid detection.
"She must not be able to sense it when it's this diluted," Goku said as he looked over his boots. "Either that, or she's not looking for anything this far away. The ki from the water and plants is enough to drown it out. Hey, wait a minute…"
He snapped his fingers and a broad genial grin crossed his lips. "Yeah!" he said. "It just might work!"
Above the ruined industrial complex, Luffa surveyed her handiwork. There was no sign of Son Goku, and no indication that he had used his ki to escape the scene either. Frustrated, she turned her head and spat.
"This is really starting to piss me off," she muttered to no one. "Oh, it's impressive, sure, but we didn't go to all this trouble to play hide and seek! If I wanted to match wits in some sort of asymmetrical wargame, I would have set something up with the other Time Patrollers, or…"
The moment suddenly reminded her of training sessions with a band of Saiyans on Nat-Chezz II. Maybe it was the smell of burning buildings, or the lack of an opponent who could just stand and fight. Whatever it was, Luffa found herself thinking about her wife again. If she had been here for this, Zatte would have been rooting for Goku.
"You'd be proud of him, Zattie," Luffa said. "I'm proud too, but if that big orange goof doesn't start taking this seriously, I'm going to beat him within an inch of his life!"
"Looking for me, Luffa? Well, here I am!"
She turned to find Goku floating nearby. To her surprise, he was back in his base form.
"What the hell is this ?" she demanded. "Are you giving up already? We've barely gotten started!"
"Sorry, but you won't win this fight so easily, Luffa," Goku replied. "You did a lot of damage down there, but I didn't get a scratch. If you're not careful, you'll wear yourself out."
"Save your concern, Kakarot," Luffa said. "I've got all the power I need to put you down. Now get back into Super Saiyan and let's continue, unless you'd rather teleport back to your hiding place again."
"You fight your way, Luffa," Goku said, "and I'll fight my way. Just because I can turn into a Super Saiyan doesn't mean that's always the best move. I'll use it when I'm good and ready."
"Fine," Luffa said. "Have it your way. If this is all you've got for me, then I might as well wrap this up!"
With that, she charged Goku, ready to strike, though expecting him to teleport to safety. Instead, he backed away, and when she caught him with a punch, he rolled with it.
"You would have been better off surrendering, Kakarot!" Luffa shouted. "At least there's some dignity in that!"
She caught up to him and hit him again. This time, Goku dodged, but she caught him with a kick, and then punched him again. Every time she hit him, he cried out in pain.
"You're not even trying anymore!" she snarled. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Goku recovered and caught his breath. Then he raised his arms in front of his face. "Are you gonna talk, or fight?" he asked.
Luffa screamed as she pummeled him again. To his credit, Goku was able to block or avoid the first few strikes, but Luffa was too skilled and the gap between their powers was too great for him to last long. Soon, she was picking him apart with precision blows on his arms, chest, and abdomen. When she was satisfied with this, she readied a ki blast and fired. The resulting explosion sent Goku sailing through the air until he crashed to the scorched earth where the industrial facility had once been.
He lay there in a heap, not moving until Luffa alighted near him and grabbed him by the collar of the blue shirt he wore under his gi . Then he began to make a giddy chuckle, as though he were too delirious from the beating he was taking.
"What is the meaning of this?" Luffa demanded. " You challenged me , and then you go and make a mockery of our fight?! Now you won't even defend yourself? And you call yourself a Super Saiyan ?!"
"Heh… Heh-heh," Goku gasped. "Well… it seemed like the best way… but I gotta admit, I'm starting to wish I'd come up with a better distraction."
"Distraction?!" Luffa growled. "Distraction from what?!"
She saw it in his eyes. There was a glow reflected in his brown irises, one that Luffa might have mistaken for the sun, except the angle was all wrong. And it was getting bigger and brighter. By the time Luffa turned, it was nearly on top of her, and she barely had time to fly out of its path.
Then it turned and followed her .
She had seen the Spirit Bomb before. On past Time Patrol missions, she had seen Goku deploy it against Vegeta, then Frieza, and finally Majin Buu. Each time, the Spirit Bomb had proven exceptionally difficult to assemble and launch. The Tuffle Planet was abandoned, and yet somehow Goku had made a Spirit Bomb as big as a house, and in a fraction of the time it should have taken.
She had forgotten about the auto-tracking feature of the Spirit Bomb, but this didn't seem to pose much of a problem either. With her power, she could outrun it with little trouble, and its power probably wasn't enough to make it a threat. And yet, Goku had gone to a lot of effort to spring this little trap. What was his plan?
Then she heard the scream. For a man, he had a rather high voice. There was nothing wrong about that, and he sounded quite pleasant in casual conversation, but when he raised his power level, his voice became almost frightening, like a cat howling in pain.
She felt his transformation before she spotted it. The Spirit Bomb was big enough that she had difficulty keeping him in her line of sight, but Luffa was sure now that Goku was back in his Super Saiyan form. It was as though he had never turned it off in the first place. Luffa was impressed. Over the years, she had gotten better at controlling her transformations, but she still found it difficult to switch on and off in rapid succession. Goku had gone from high power to minimal power and back with a horrifying ease. That, along with his unorthodox tactics, made him dangerous.
More dangerous was the fist that suddenly collided with her jaw. She didn't even know if he had teleported or flown to her at super-speed. The Spirit Bomb kept getting in her way, and it still followed her, even as Goku's punch carried her through the air and into the dirt. Luffa scrambled to her feet, ready to confront them both, when suddenly the Spirit Bomb seemed to… open fire on her?
It was a barrage of ki blasts, not unlike any of the countless attacks she had dealt with in the past, but it took her a moment to realize that it was Goku firing at her from behind the Spirit Bomb. She deflected the shots, but this left her wide open to the Bomb itself. And while she believed its power was manageable, she knew that Goku would be ready to capitalize while she took the time to deal with it.
She couldn't help but smile. Goku had turned a one-on-one match and turned it into a double-team. It was only fair after her assault with the ki ghosts. What she still didn't understand was how he had managed to neutralize her fog, the technique she called Golden Duster. It was a mist of tiny globules of her own ki , spread across a large surface area, and yet somehow it was all gone, as though Goku had soaked it all up with a towel--
"Oh no," she said as she realized the truth. "No wonder he got that bomb ready so fast. Curse me for a fool! I practically handed him all that energy!"
Then, suddenly, the Spirit Bomb accelerated, and Luffa found that she couldn't move fast enough to get out of its way. She quickly caught it in her arms, and planted her boots in the dirt to brace herself. Frieza and Buu had done the same, with little success. Her only advantage was that she was reasonably certain this Spirit Bomb didn't have enough power to knock her out if it exploded. She still didn't want to take the chance, which left her pinned down as she tried to understand how to push it back.
There was still Goku to contend with as well. Luffa cast out with her senses, trying to locate him. As it turned out, he was still behind the Spirit Bomb, and wasn't moving. Then it all began to make sense.
"He's pushing it!" Luffa muttered. "Just like he did with Buu! That little twerp was strong enough to overpower Kakarot, and strong enough to throw the bomb back in his face, but when once Kakarot pushed it back, it was too much for him! He's using this damn thing to close the gap between our powers!"
"Ka… me…!"
Luffa heard him, and knew exactly what that meant. He knew the Spirit Bomb alone wouldn't be enough to beat her, so he was going to throw fuel onto the fire. Growing desperate, Luffa charged her own ki and fired an energy blast from her mouth. If she couldn't repel the bomb, then maybe she could destroy it.
But no. The golden beam from her throat was absorbed harmlessly into the Spirit Bomb. Any ki attack would only feed it. And without a trick like Instant Transmission up her sleeve, Luffa couldn't escape.
"Ha… me…!"
"No! There is a way!" Luffa said when the solution finally hit her. "Dammit, I should have figured it out sooner!"
Above, Son Goku had nearly completed his attack. Luffa was trapped, and his Kamehameha would drive the Spirit Bomb to deal her a critical hit. He had worried that she might find a way out, but now it was too late.
"Haaaaa!" he shouted as he released the energy gathered in his hands. A column of blue light spilled forth from his arms and down to the white globe below.
Or it would have, except the Spirit Bomb began to move…
"What?!" Goku cried out. "Where'd she go?"
He spotted her flying away from Goku and the Spirit Bomb. The bomb was giving chase, but Goku's Kamehameha was still firing down at their original location. But as the wave hit the ground, he felt something resisting it down below.
It was like there were two Luffas, one leading the Spirit Bomb away, while the other fought the Kamehameha. And then the Spirit Bomb exploded. Goku was so confused that he failed to notice that something was wrong with the Kamehameha. By the time he realized it, it was too late.
"Hah!" Luffa shouted as she emerged from the beam, just inches from Goku's hands. Before he could react, she slammed her fist into his face, knocking him head over heels through the air.
When he landed, he gathered himself up and found her standing over him.
"Nice try," she said. "I thought you almost had me."
"What went wrong?" Goku asked. "It seemed to be going so well!"
"I coughed up another ki ghost," Luffa said. "It couldn't destroy your Spirit Bomb, but I could put enough Golden Duster mist onto it that the Spirit Bomb would follow it, thinking it was me."
"Wha--?" Goku asked. "I didn't think you could fool a Spirit Bomb like that…"
"I wasn't sure it would work either," Luffa said, "But it probably helped that I let go of the thing and put the ghost in front of me. As for that Kamehameha, well, it was never going to do the job by itself. You kept it weak so it wouldn't damage the planet."
"Ha ha… yeah, I did," Goku said. He rose to his feet and faced off with her. "So, where do we go from here?"
"Seems pretty simple to me," Luffa said. "You've got a lot of sneaky moves and fancy techniques, but so do I, Kakarot. So why don't we just cut the crap and hit each other as hard as we can until one of us drops?"
"Maybe you've got something there," Goku said. He brushed the dust from his clothes and slapped his hands together. "All right, we'll do it your way. Ready?"
"Always," Luffa said.
They each drew back their dominant hands, and then punched each other simultaneously.
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story This story takes place about 66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[22 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]
Toki Toki City was a special place. Constructed outside of the flow of normal time, it served as the stronghold of the Supreme Kai of Time and her most trusted allies, the Time Patrol. Despite the divine mission of the Time Patrol, the city still functioned much like any other population center, and featured many of the same mundane infrastructure and services. There were a variety of dining facilities, including a cafeteria, which normally served breakfast to the Time Patrol every morning. But this time, the cafeteria had been taken over for a private occasion, as two Patrollers sought to celebrate their recent victory.
"How much longer is this gonna take?"
"Quit whining, Kakarot," Luffa said. "We're not doing this half-assed. I don't want you making excuses about stomach pangs when I beat you."
The man sitting at the counter grinned. "Heh. You won't have to worry about that. I just don't see why you're takin' so long to fix breakfast. We could grab something out of the fridge and bring it with us."
Luffa started chopping leeks with a calm precision that belied her expression. "This is special, Kakarot. You really don't get it, then? They told me you were brought up by aliens--Earthlings like Trunks' mother--but you really don't remember our people at all, do you?"
He crossed his muscular arms and rolled his eyes thoughtfully, as though looking up to his brain to locate an answer. "I only know you keep callin' me 'Kakarot', just like Vegeta always does. Every Saiyan I meet tells me that's my real name, but as far as I'm concerned, my name's always been Son Goku."
Luffa gave him a concerned look as she dumped the leeks into a bowl. "You don't mind, do you?" she asked. "I mean, I don't want to get off on the wrong foot here. I meant no disrespect."
"Nah, it's fine," Goku shrugged. "But it sure is weird havin' people call you two names."
"I… I didn't realize you never understood that," Luffa said. "Your mother named you 'Kakarot'. At least, I assume she did. Believe it or not, you wouldn't be the only Saiyan to grow up among aliens, or to take an alien name. But among our own kind, we Saiyans address each other by our birth names, to honor the Saiyans who gave them to us. I suppose you never knew your Saiyan name, so you wouldn't understand, but it means a lot to us. It's a sign of respect. Even if we were bitter enemies, I'd still do you the honor of acknowledging you as a fellow Saiyan."
Goku scratched his chin. "Well I'll be," he said.
Luffa switched to a crate of eggs and began cracking them expertly on the side of a large beaker. "Besides," she added, "I don't get to hang out with a lot of pure-blooded Saiyans. I… like using the name. It's less lonely that way, if that makes any sense."
"Yeah, it does," Goku said. He was still upbeat and carefree, but there was something somber about his tone. "When my grandpa died--the man who raised me on Earth, I mean--I kept his Dragon Ball. I started calling it 'grandpa', like he was in there somehow. It just made me feel better. I still call it 'grandpa' sometimes, even though I know it's not really him."
Luffa nearly asked how his adoptive grandfather died, but suddenly decided she didn't want to know. Saiyan children were a handful, even for Saiyan parents. And the Earth had a very large moon with a very frequent orbital period. Perhaps the old Earthman had simply died peacefully in his sleep, perhaps not.
"Well, Kakarot," Luffa said, "It's customary for two Saiyans to share a meal before a friendly contest. Sure, we could grab some field rations or slap some flour in water and call it done, but I want to savor this occasion, and I'm betting you've never had any Saiyan cooking before."
"I guess not," Goku said. "Is there something special to it?"
Luffa paused just long enough to point her knife at herself. "Just me, really. The original Saiyan homeworld was a distant legend even in my day. Our ancestors wandered the universe, sometimes establishing new home planets, but mostly roaming the stars in search of adventure. So the ingredients vary with the circumstances. It's more about resourcefulness, cobbbling together a good meal with whatever you have on hand. Of course, Toki Toki City has a really impressive pantry, so I can do pretty much anything I want. Potatoes, sausage, ketchup, they really know how to live on Earth."
"Well whatever you've got going on over there, it sure smells good," Goku said. "I used to cook fish when I lived alone, but Chi-Chi said I wasn't allowed in the kitchen anymore after I caused that fire."
"Hah. Typical," Luffa scoffed. "I've never met a Saiyan man who wasn't all thumbs over a stovetop. Oh, they like to brag about how good they are with their hands, but it never seems to pan out where it counts, if you know what I mean."
Goku laughed. "I know. One time Chi-Chi got this bookshelf for Gohan's room, and I tried to put it together for her and hoo-boy! That was a disaster."
Luffa stared at him incredulously. "No, I was talking about… never mind. You like pineapples, Kakarot?"
"Do I?!" Goku exclaimed.
"Thattaboy," Luffa said, grabbing a can of diced pinapples from the countertop. "So how much do you know about me, exactly? I'm kind of surprised you knew what Chronoa meant when she told you who I was."
"Hmm? Oh, you mean the Super Saiyan Legend." Goku said. "Vegeta told me about it, but he didn't say a lot about you personally. Just that you died a thousand years ago. Nobody said anything about you being a girl, either."
Luffa shrugged. She had already learned this from a Time Patrol mission on Namek, but the Goku she spoke to now was several years older, and she had hoped he would have heard more. It now seemed clear that his only source on Saiyan history was Vegeta, who only had so much information to share. "Better than nothing, I suppose," she finally said.
"I hope it didn't hurt too much," Goku added.
"What?" Luffa asked.
"I mean when you turned into a Super Saiyan for the first time. Things were pretty rough when it happened to me," he explained. "I was in really bad shape and Frieza was killing my friends. Later, when I thought about it, I realized the last Super Saiyan must have gone through the same thing. My boys had an easier time of it, but they're half-Earthling, and that seems to help 'em somehow. But with you and me and Vegeta, well, I think you have to get pushed pretty far to transform like that. I just hope you didn't suffer a lot when it happened."
"I did."
"Oh."
"I made them regret it, though," she said darkly.
"Yeah, I'll bet," Goku said with a knowing smile. "You're no pushover, Luffa. I can tell that just watchin' you chop that tomato. You're holdin' back a ton of power. You must have worked hard to keep it under control."
"I could say the same about you, Kakarot," she replied. "The way you sit there you'd think you were just some ordinary guy. You're not like any Saiyan I ever met before. Most of us wear it on our sleeves, but you, you're totally relaxed. Something tells me you're gonna stay that way right up until we're ready to start."
Goku simply chuckled.
"You must have kept it together a lot better than I did," Luffa said. "When you first transformed, I mean. All that Earth-style martial arts must have helped you regulate the form."
"Nah, it was pretty touch-and-go for a while. I was so mad at Frieza that I didn’t really want to rein it in, you know?"
"Heh. Yeah, tell me about it," Luffa said. "I didn’t mind until I ran out of things to fight, and then I realized I couldn’t turn it off. Fortunately I had some friends there to talk me down." She looked up from the eggs she was whisking. "I wouldn’t tell anyone else, Kakarot, but it scared the hell out of me. I thought I’d go crazy, or blow myself up, or…"
"Really?" Goku asked. "I thought you old-timer Saiyans knew all about that stuff."
She shook her head. "I guess the transformation itself never made it into the legends," Luffa said. "I knew about Chanisp and old Darbock and the other great heroes, but I never had any idea that they might have turned blonde to do the things they did. And none of those guys were women, so I don’t think anyone would have bothered filling me in. I had no idea what was happening to me."
"Wow, that must have been rough," Goku said.
"Well, like I said, I had someone there to help me. Same as you, I guess."
"No, I was mostly on my own," Goku said. "I mean, King Kai was keepin’ tabs on me from Otherworld, but I sent everyone else to get off the planet. After that, I spent a while in space before I made it to Planet Yardrat."
"I’ve heard of it," Luffa said. "In my era, it was said they developed some interesting techniques. Always wanted to go there… So they must have helped you get your powers under control."
Goku shook his head. "No, they showed me some things, but they weren’t very strong, so they didn’t know where to begin with that."
"Then how’d you--?"
There was a faraway look in his eye as he answered. "I was pretty scared myself at first, just like you were. But I remembered what Vegeta had said, about how scared Frieza was of a Super Saiyan showing up. And then Frieza asked me what I was, and I just knew. The story was true, and that meant that I wasn't the only one. There had to be another Saiyan, a long time ago, with the same power."
He locked eyes with Luffa and smiled. "And I knew if that old-timer Saiyan could handle it, then I could control it too. That was what kept me goin’. I had a couple of close calls on my way to Yardrat, and I almost wrecked my ship a few times. I probably would've lost control out in space and kicked the bucket, but I didn’t give up, because I knew he didn’t give up. Well, ’she’, I guess. Oops! Sorry, I guess I mean you, huh?"
"Are you saying… I helped you?" she asked. Suddenly she caught a whiff of something burning, and she darted over to save one of her pans.
"Yeah, I guess so!" Goku said. "Boy this time travel stuff sure is funny, huh? Even though the Supreme Kai of Time told me who you were, I guess I didn’t think it through. I never imagined I’d get to thank you in person. And look at you! You must have been younger than me when you became a Super Saiyan, and you didn’t even have someone like Vegeta to tell you about it. Hey, what’s wrong? You okay over there?"
"N-Nothing," Luffa said with a sniffle. "It's fine. I just… hey, you like onions, right?"
"Sure! They’re great on chili dogs and all sorts of other things! Chi-Chi doesn’t like what they do to my breath, but I guess she doesn’t have to know…"
"Fine, because…" Luffa paused to wipe something from her face. "I’m chopping a whole bunch of onions. Yeah. Like, all of them. I won’t tell her if you don’t."
"You bet!" He suddenly had a very coy look on his face. "We’ll keep it between us Legendary Super Saiyans, right?"
"Right, Kakarot," she said with a stifled sob.
After eating, Luffa escorted Goku to the Time Plaza, where they were greeted by the Supreme Kai of Time, and Trunks. The rest of the Time Patrol was still hard at work on repairing the city, and there were construction details all around them. Trunks was usually very serious about his duty, but for once he was in very good humor. Chronoa, on the other hand, seemed mildly annoyed with them.
"You’re late," she said to Goku and Luffa when they arrived. "You know, it’s not polite to keep a Supreme Kai of Time waiting. Ironic, sure, but not very professional."
"Sorry, ma’am," Luffa said. "We would have been here sooner if someone had helped me with the dishes."
Goku simply rubbed the back of his scalp and laughed sheepishly. It was enough to charm Chronoa into a better mood, and Luffa began to wonder if this was his technique for getting out of chores. It seemed very likely that Son Goku had never washed a dish in his life.
"It’s all right," Chronoa said. "Without you two, Tokitoki City wouldn’t even be here. You’ve earned some downtime. How was breakfast?"
"Well I’ve had better omelets," Goku said, as he patted his belly, "but I sure can’t complain about the portions!"
"I’m standing right here, you insensitive oaf," Luffa said frostily. "And I don’t remember seeing you in the Crack of Time while I killed Demigra."
"Hey we had our hands full in the Time Nest," Goku said with a giggle.
As Luffa turned to Chronoa to discuss the logistics of their time-jump, and Trunks took Goku aside.
"Listen, Goku," he said, "I’m pretty busy right now, so I might not get a chance to say this before you head back to your own time, but could you--?"
Goku took his hand and shook it firmly. "When I get back, I’ll make sure to send Vegeta and Bulma your regards," he said. "You’ve accomplished a lot here, Trunks. Your father will be proud of everything you've built here. I know I sure am."
Trunks smiled. "It was good to see you again, Goku. Good luck with your fight."
"Hey, about that," Goku said, tugging his sleeve before Trunks could turn to leave. He leaned in and held his hand over one side of his face. "You’ve sparred with her before, right? Do you got any advice for me?"
"Did you bring a cup?" Trunks asked. His face suddenly bore an uncomfortable expression.
"What? No, we already ate, Trunks," Goku said. "What do I need a cup for? I’m not thirsty."
Trunks became even more anxious, and then he closed his eyes, as though resigned to the situation. "Never mind," he said. "You two have fun out there, okay?"
"Kakarot, are we doing this or not?!" Luffa demanded. "The door’s open, let’s go!"
"I’ll be right there!" Goku said. "Well, I gotta go, Trunks. Take care!"
Trunks watched him run off, then turned and shook his head. "It'll be fine," he said to himself as he walked off to attend to other matters. "They'll be just fine."
[9 May, Age 791. The Tuffle Planet.]
The Parallel Quest system in Toki Toki City relied upon a fleet of time machines, each modified to travel to various time fragments that had been preserved by Chronoa for research and training purposes. Time Patrollers would visit these fragments to experience moments in history, or to simulate mission scenarios they would encounter in the field. The main advantage of the fragments was that they each replicated a short span of time in the genuine universe, complete with many of the same events in the true history, but the fragments were completely isolated from the timeline. This meant that a Patroller could take almost any action in a PQ mission without altering history. The fragment would simply reset and return to its original state.
And so, this made the PQ system the ideal venue for two Super Saiyans to do battle. Any collateral damage would be of no consequence, and Goku and Luffa could fight as hard as they pleased. The only detail left would be to choose a proper setting for their battle, and Trunks had arranged this the night before. He had explained his choice to Luffa, but for Goku, this would be a surprise.
"Wow. So where are we anyway?" Goku asked as he peeked out of the dome-shaped canopy of the time machine.
"Planet Vegeta," Luffa said. "Or Plant, depending on who you ask. There’s a divergent timeline where a Tuffle machine mutant asked Shenron to recreate the whole planet inside Earth's solar system. He was planning to repopulate it with Earthlings infested with Tuffle spores, or something like that, but it didn’t pan out. Anyway, in this time frame, the planet we're on is deserted, so you and I can duke it out without any distractions."
They had both jumped out of the time machine as Luffa explained this, but Goku's attention was focused more on the horizon than on her words. The sky was crimson, with thin wispy clouds overhead. It almost looked like Earth around sunset, but the sun was still high above them, along with a large blue crescent. For a moment, Goku wondered if this was the moon, but then he sensed the ki from the living energy of the body, and recognized it as Earth.
The gravity was higher than on Earth, though it did not bother Goku at all. He had heard long ago that the Saiyan homeworld had a higher gravity, similar to that of King Kai's planet. Long ago, those conditions had given Goku some difficulty, but by now he was so acclimated to high-gravity environments that he barely noticed the difference. What truly made the planet look strange to him was the architecture. In the distance lay a city centered around a crater. A butte rose out of the middle of the crater, and on top of this stood a massive tower, with flying buttresses extending from all sides and reaching out to the city below like great steel tentacles. Goku had never seen anything like it in his travels. It was all quite strange to him.
And yet, there was something familiar about it at the same time.
"Say, I was born here, wasn’t I?" Goku asked.
"Yeah," Luffa said. "Trunks thought it would make a good neutral battlefield for us. It’s a Saiyan home-world, so we know it can take a pounding, but it’s new to both of us. You were sent away as a baby, and I've never been here before. I can see why Saiyans would want to live here, though. It is kind of pleasant to look at, don’t you think?"
"I guess," Goku said. "But it seems kind of creepy with all these buildings and no one else around. Besides, we ain’t here to admire the view."
"Damn straight," Luffa said. "Listen, before we get down to business, I have a request."
"Huh? A request? Okay, shoot."
"I don't know about you, but I've wanted something like this for years," Luffa said. "I never imagined I'd actually get to meet one of the old Super Saiyans, or that I'd live long enough to see the next guy… well, you. So just getting to fight you is a big deal for me."
"I'm pretty excited about it too," Goku said.
"Well, the thing is, there's no guarantee that we're evenly matched," Luffa said. "The fight will settle that, but we're from different eras. If Chronoa had contacted the Kakarot from five years earlier, you'd be five years weaker than you are today."
"I think I follow you," Goku said, though his expression suggested otherwise. "
"Look, there's a chance one of us could overwhelm the other," Luffa said. "I'm a lot stronger than I was when I first transformed, and I know you've come a long way yourself, but what are the odds that were dead even in this moment?"
"I guess we'll just have to find out," Goku said as he started rotating his shoulders to limber up.
"Of course, but what I'm getting at is that we shouldn't be in a hurry to settle things," Luffa said. "Even if this turns out to be a mismatch, it's still special to me. So let's take our time and savor the moment. It's a special occasion, you know? I bet every Super Saiyan before us wishes they could be doing what we're about to do."
"All right, that works for me," Goku said. "I'll ramp things up if it gets too dull, but otherwise… yeah, we oughta drag this out as long as we can."
"Good," Luffa said as she adjusted her gloves. "Now that that's settled, we ought to start out as Super Saiyans, right? Seems kind of appropriate."
Goku nodded. "Ladies first," he said.
Luffa nodded curtly and threw her head back as she transformed. Golden flames flickered around her as her hair glowed with a harsh yellow light.
"Incredible," Goku said. "From the feel of it, you’re more used to this form than your normal state."
"Let’s get on with this," Luffa said. "Or are you going to make me wait another thousand years?"
Goku balled his fists and widened his stance. He made a sort of humming noise as he gathered his energy, and then he cried out as he unleashed it into his transformation. His hair now glowed just like Luffa’s, and their fiery auras mingled together.
"A lot like Trunks," Luffa said. "I should have noticed it before. He said it was your son who trained him. But I couldn’t sense any of this in you over breakfast. It’s like you’re a whole other person now." She bent her knees and settled into a defensive posture. "Ready?"
Goku crouched and angled his body to one side, pointing his right knee towards Luffa. He lowered his hands just below his chest, and kept them slightly open, as though ready to grab or punch at a moment’s notice.
"Yeah! Let’s do this!" he said. But neither of them moved. Anxious as they were to begin, neither wanted to open with a mistake.
And then suddenly, without warning, they both rushed towards each other. Luffa landed the first blow, but it was only a glancing strike, as Goku had twisted his upper body to avoid it. He tried to bring his knee up to Luffa’s midsection, but she somersaulted out of range. Once she landed, she leaped towards him to hit him from behind, but Goku spun around and caught her in the face with his forearm. She toppled over, but just as her body had reached a certain angle, she swung up her leg and kicked at Goku’s face. He blocked this, but not the second kick she threw with her other leg a split second later. Then she broke her fall and launched herself into the air, where she held out her arms, expecting to exchange ki blasts from a distance
Then suddenly Goku was behind her. She had sensed his movement, but her position had left her ill-prepared to react. He grabbed her arm and started swinging her around. Then, to his surprise, she grabbed hold with her other arm, and started applying her own power to spin him. To an outside observer, it would have looked like a mid-air figure-skating routine, sped up to an absurd degree.
At last, they separated, and Goku went crashing to the ground, his body carving a trench as he slid into the ruddy earth of his birthworld. He scrambled to get back to his feet, but found Luffa was already standing over him.
"You like to toy with your opponents, too," she said. The she kicked him in the chest and sent him flying. An instant later she was beside Goku, flying under her own power to match Goku’s trajectory.
"We’ve got a lot in common," she added.
She raised her hands and gave him a double axehandle to his back, sending him back down to the ground. This time Goku landed on his hands and knees, but Luffa was once again right there to meet him.
"It’s weird, right?" she asked. "Like having a brother--wulp!!"
This time Goku was ready for her. When she tried to kick him in the ribs, he leaped up into a handstand to avoid it, then swung out one of his legs for a kick to her jaw. She barely managed to duck this, but not the palm strike which followed. For a moment, she stumbled backward, clutching her face, and Goku used the opening to flip himself upright again.
"I had a brother," Goku said. He was as cheerful as ever, but there was an edge to his voice as he said: "I was hopin’ you’d be more of a challenge than he was."
When she recovered and turned to face him again, she looked like she had been chopping onions again. She looked furious for a moment, then she made a vicious smile. "Bored already?" she asked. "If you want to turn it up, Kakarot, go right ahead. I can handle anything you want to throw at me."
"Is that so?" Goku asked. "You’re wide open, Luffa. You’re bein’ way too sloppy for you to be talkin’ like that. You must be up to something."
"I’m just used to giving other Saiyans a handicap, that’s all," she said. "Especially the men. I know how hard it is for your egos when you can’t even land a little offense."
"It is kinda frustratin’, I won’t argue with that," Goku said. "But I’ve tagged you a few times already, so you don’t need to worry about me anymore."
Suddenly he vanished, and before Luffa could react he was directly in front of her, his right hand closing in on her trapezius. She managed to tilt to one side to avoid it, but this was only a feint. She realized this only when Goku’s other hand had collided with her gut, knocking the wind out of her.
"You'd better start blocking my hits from now on," he said ominously. "You won't last long like this."
"Why not?" She gasped. She recovered and looked him dead in the eye. "If that’s all you’ve got, I can play with you all day!"
Goku was impressed, but not so surprised that he forgot to prepare another strike. He raised his hand for a punch to her face, but she foiled this by swinging her own arm across to deflect it, slapping him across the cheeks in the process.
The attack stung Goku’s pride more than anything else.
Instinctively, he retaliated in kind, slapping Luffa with his own open palm. Her head recoiled from the blow, but she immediately responded with an even harder slap. They went on like this for several seconds, until Luffa went for a punch instead. Goku blocked it and returned fire.
From here, their fight descended into a stalemate, as both Super Saiyans threw punches at close quarters, with neither landing a direct hit. The rhythm of punches, blocks, and dodges was almost soothing in its way. It was almost too soothing for Luffa, as Goku angled his body to avoid her fist and then kept turning, setting up a spin kick. His boot connected with her right flank, but she was able to roll with it enough to dampen the impact.
For a moment, it seemed the stalemate was broken, as Goku relied on his kicks to keep Luffa at a safe distance. He was taller, which gave him an advantage in reach. As long as he kept up his momentum and moved his legs to where they needed to be, Luffa couldn't get close enough to strike back. Ki blasts were always an option, but neither of them were ready to go there. In the moment, it meant more to Luffa to overcome him without changing the terms of battle. And so she continued to play along, flying around Goku and searching for an opening to strike. Likewise, Goku continued to keep up his game, daring Luffa to find a solution instead of shifting to a new tactic.
The answer was simple enough. Goku had longer limbs, but there was one reach Luffa possessed that he did not. She goaded Goku into throwing kicks that extended his leg as far as possible. Each time she avoided his feet, but sometimes he would graze her skin with the soles of his boots. Then, at last, she moved in close enough for him to land a strike, and she caught his leg in her arms. This left her wide open, and Goku went for a punch, but then Luffa flipped around and caught him on the jaw with the tip of her tail.
The strike wasn't hard enough to knock Goku back, but it did rattle him enough to break his guard, allowing Luffa to release his leg and deliver a heavy knee to his abdomen. This sent him flying backward through the air until he managed to recover and stop himself.
Luffa was already on top of him to press her attack. Earlier, she had kept her tail out of the fight, lulling Goku into a false sense that she would not, or could not use it offensively. Now, she used it along with her arms and legs, battering Goku on all sides, whirling around like a top.
She had inspired him! This thought continued to percolate through Luffa's mind as she pressured him. Despite the centuries between them, despite her story being lost to time and suppressed by her enemies, some small part of Luffa's example had still managed to find its way to her successor. It had brought her to tears in the cafeteria, and now that they were fighting in earnest, she could pour her emotions into combat. It was more than she dared to hope for, and now she could show him what she truly was, and inspire him to achieve even greater things.
To his credit, Goku continued to block and dodge her attacks without giving up any ground. Now it was his turn to find a solution without escalating the battle or shifting to a different scenario. She expected him to grab her tail, much the same way she had foiled his kicks by targeting his leg. It only made sense for him to try this, since she would have to face away from him to attack with her tail, and if he managed to get a good grip on her, he would have a free shot. But this was not what happened.
Instead, as she spun around, she found Goku holding his hands in front of his face. For an instant, she wondered why he had left his guard down and moved in to capitalize. In the next instant, she regretted falling for his trap, as Goku suddenly cried out "Taiyo-ken!"
Suddenly, the world went white around Luffa, and she found herself unable to see anything. Even her ki senses were dazzled by the brilliance. She had encountered this technique before during Time Patrol missions, but she hadn't expected Goku to employ such a maneuver, and not in this situation. Now that it had happened, Luffa was forced to back off, and she anticipated a heavy strike.
Instead, when the blow came, it was far lighter than she had anticipated. Luffa barely managed to block it, having detected Goku's approach with her other senses. She did not, however, manage to deflect the second strike, or the third, and so on. By now, her vision was returning, but she found herself too imperiled to actually make any use of it. Goku was all over her, hitting her from all sides.
At last, Luffa became frustrated enough to put a stop to it. Raising her power, she suddenly caught each of Goku's hands as he struck, and used her knees to deflect his kicks. Soon, their melee battle had ended, and was now a test of strength. They each pushed against the other, with their fingers interlocked together.
"Impressive, Kakarot," Luffa grunted to him as they struggled. "You don't seem quite as strong as you were when you fought… Lord Beerus… but it seems like some of that god power must have rubbed off on you."
"Thanks," Goku said. "Lord Beerus told me that my body must have 'memorized' the god form somehow. I can't turn into a Super Saiyan God on my own, but I can still use some of that power in my regular Super Saiyan form."
"You're… going… to need it!" Luffa growled as she pushed harder. Their struggle had begun in the air, but the two of them slowly floated to the ground, as each of them sought something solid to stand on to improve their position.
"I can't… argue with that!" Goku replied. "You're really… urrgh… really something, Luffa. To think… you got this far… in such a short time…"
"I got a lot farther than this," Luffa said with a smirk. "Let me show you."
"Huh?" Goku began to ask, but before he could say anything else, Luffa increased her ki, and began to force Goku backward. Unable to resist her, all he could do was take a step back, and then another, and another. He tried to pull free of her, only to find that Luffa wouldn't let go.
"Confused?" Luffa asked. "Let me make it simple for you."
With a loud yelp, she pushed him harder and faster, causing Goku to lose his footing altogether. She now shoved him backward, driving him faster and faster until they crashed into something. When the dust settled, Goku realized they had plowed through a mesa and caused it to collapse. But Luffa still wouldn't let go, and she swung him around and smashed him into one of the largest portions of the mesa that was still standing.
Her grip seemed to be inescapable, but as Luffa prepared to fling him into something else, Goku brought up his legs and slipped them between their arms. Once he had threaded the space between them, Goku bent his knees around Luffa's arms, and applied enough pressure to force her to let go of his hands. With his arms freed, Goku could then take advantage of the position, and while he had Luffa's arms caught in his legs, he brought his hands together and drove them down on her head with tremendous force.
Luffa stumbled backward as they separated, and Goku followed up with an elbow smash aimed between her neck and left shoulder. She seemed dazed, but just before he could connect, she recovered and dropped to the ground. This threw Goku off-balance just enough for her to slide between his ankles and get behind him. Before he could turn around, she was back on her feet and wrapping her arms around his belly.
"What the--?" Goku asked. The answer was: back suplex.
With a savage grunt, Luffa threw herself backward and pulled Goku along with her, driving him head-first to the ground. That was her plan, anyway. What she hadn't counted on was Goku's reversal. He made a grunt of his own on the way down, and his golden aura flashed more intensely as he applied his power. He raised his hands so that they would hit the ground first, and when they made contact he generated a force through his legs that propelled his body forward, adding to the momentum of Luffa's throw. This allowed him to perform something like a handstand, but with Luffa still hanging onto his waist.
It was an awkward position, but more awkward for Luffa, who now had to decide whether to release her grip or take her chances on whatever Goku would do next. Before she could choose, Goku took flight, and grabbed hold of her wrists, trapping her. He then flew backwards, angling towards a large rock formation in the distance. But just as they reached it, Luffa's hands began to glow…
The planet was deserted, but if an observer had been there to witness the battle, they would have seen the two Super Saiyans collide with the hillside while simultaneously blasting it apart with an explosive wave of golden ki energy. The entire hill was blanketed with a cloud of dust and debris, which all glowed red from the residual energy of the blast. And when the color faded, and the dust cleared, this hypothetical observer would have found both Super Saiyans floating over what was left of the hill, completely unscathed.
"You managed to dodge that?" Luffa asked. "I'm impressed."
"I could say the same to you, Luffa," Goku said with a smirk. "You're no slouch, that's for sure."
"All right, maybe it's time we picked up the pace," Luffa said. "I was a little worried that the planet might get damaged, but from what I've seen, it looks like it'll be tough enough to handle this."
"Yeah," Goku said. "As long as nobody shoots straight down, I think we'll be all right. We are using blasts from here on, right?"
"Of course," Luffa replied. "As far as I'm concerned, everything's on the table. Oh, I get it… you were waiting for me to do it first, just to prove you didn't need to resort to that."
"Heh… Something like that," Goku said.
"Games within games, huh?" Luffa said. "There's more to you than meets the eye, Kakarot. Well, I'd say we're done with the warm up. Let's move on to the next stage."
As they circled each other in the air, both of them raised their arms and prepared to continue.
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story This story takes place about 66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[21 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]
Trunks lay on the stone tiles surrounding the Time Vault. Beside him, Chronoa, the Supreme Kai of Time, tended to his injuries. He was always reluctant to receive her healing power, since it required her to take on his battle damage for herself in exchange. But now that things had settled down, Chronoa decided that it was safe to continue healing him.
"You were awesome, Trunks!" said Goku, who hovered over them. Chronoa had brought Goku in as a last-minute recruit to counter Demigra's attack on the city. He was weary from the effort of repelling Demigra's final attack on the Time Vault, but he had only gotten a few bumps and bruises from the battle.
"Thanks, Goku," Trunks said. "But all I did was lend you my power to save the Time Vault. And I didn't have much to spare, unfortunately."
"Aw, that's only because Luffa beat you up so badly before, when that Demigra guy used his magic to turn you into a bad guy," Goku said. "After all that, it's impressive enough that you got back up at all!"
"You all did well," Chronoa said. "But it's not over yet. If Demigra had succeeded in destroying the Time Vault, all of history would have been erased. So the fact that we're all still here is a big win, but he's still got Tokitoki, and he could easily come back and try to finish what he started."
"What about Luffa?" Trunks asked. "You said she followed him into that portal he created."
"Yeah, that was weird," Goku said. "Demigra took us both down with those energy spears of his, and we were both stuck to the floor. Then suddenly she's up in the air, helpin' me get loose. Does she know a technique like Instant Transmission?"
"I don't think so. To be honest, I have no idea how she did that," Chronoa said. "But I'm sure that Demigra went back to the Crack of Time. It's the only place where he'd be safe from the destruction of the Time Nest. And if Luffa followed him there, she'd be facing him on his home turf."
"Then we've got to go after her," Trunks insisted, but when he tried to get up, he winced with pain and regretted his sudden movement.
"We've got to regroup," Chronoa said firmly. "If we go to the Crack of Time now, we'll be leaving the Time Vault undefended. We'd be playing right into Demigra's hands!"
"She's right, Trunks," Goku said. "You need to take it easy. Getting all worked up won't help anybody. I just wish I'd brought some senzu beans so we could heal you up faster. Maybe we should get the rest of the Time Patrol. I mean, this is a pretty big city, right? So where is everyone?"
"I teleported most of the Time Patrollers to a different planet before you arrived," Chronoa explained. "Demigra had put them under his spell, and he threatened to make them kill each other to stop Luffa. I was going to bring them all back once it was safe, but after what we've just been through... Well, I probably won't have enough power to make the trip for a while."
"Hmmm," Goku said. He stood up and looked around the Time Nest. The entire structure was shaped like an enormous birdcage, and the only view from beyond the gleaming metal bars was an eerie green sky with several planets floating in the expanse. "Hey, maybe I can save you the trouble, Supreme Kai of Time."
"You think you can bring them all back with Instant Transmission, Goku?" Trunks asked hopefully.
"Yep," Goku said with a smile. "Well, maybe. I mean, your pals are pretty strong, right? And there's a lot of them all close together, so I oughta be able to sense them. Then again, I've got no idea where we are right now, so it might be too far away..."
"We can't take the risk," Chronoa said. "You might not be able to find your way back, and Demigra could show up while you're gone."
"Oh, right," Goku said. "I guess I should stand by then."
"We need to be ready for anything," Chronoa warned them. "Demigra made a big entrance before, but now that he's lost the element of surprise, he may try something sneakier like--!"
"What's wrong?" Trunks said as she looked up from her work.
"That energy," Chronoa said. "It's Tokitoki!"
"I don't sense anything," Goku said. He began to look around in every direction, wondering what he was missing.
"It's a temporal signature," Trunks explained. "The Supreme Kai of Time can detect things like that, but we can't."
"Oh, I gotcha," Goku said. "Hold on... I thought you said Demigra turned Tokitoki into a piece of candy and gobbled him up."
"That's right," Chronoa said. "Demigra must be using his power to come back here. He's going to attack again!"
The three of them braced themselves, though they had no way to know which direction to look. Then they saw a flash of light coming from near Chronoa's personal quarters. Something materialized into view, and as they watched with bated breath, Goku smiled broadly when he finally recognized them.
"Well hey!" he said. "All right!"
It was Tokitoki, just as Chronoa had said, but there was no sign of Demigra. Instead, it was Luffa who accompanied him into the Time Nest. As she walked towards them, Tokitoki flew around her and made a shrill-but-affectionate cry.
"Tokitoki!" Chronoa shouted. "You're okay!"
"Luffa!" Trunks said. "Then Demigra is--"
She raised her thumb and then held it up to the side of her neck, and drew it melodramatically across her throat. If the meaning of this gesture wasn't clear, her victorious smirk told the rest of the story.
"I knew it!" Goku said with a cheerful laugh. "Then we won!"
The three of them went to meet Luffa and Tokitoki, and the bird perched himself on Goku's arm while they talked.
"Looks like you held up your end of things, Kakarot," Luffa said as she glanced around the yard surrounding the Vault. The grounds were a mess from the fighting, but at least it was all still there.
"Thanks, but, I had a lot of help from the others," Goku said. He looked her over and nodded when he saw the scrapes and bruises on her face and arms. "Looks like Demigra gave you a little trouble. Did he get stronger in that Crack of Time thingy?"
"He transformed," Luffa said, though she didn't elaborate. "It made things more interesting, but nothing I couldn't handle."
"Nice!" Goku said. "It's too bad, though. I kinda wanted to take another shot at him myself."
"So what now, Chronoa?" Luffa asked. "Demigra's beaten, and Tokitoki is safe, so that's it, right?"
"We still need to clean things up here," Chronoa said. "I have to retrieve the rest of the Time Patrol and then we'll repair the damage he did to the city. After that, maybe we can get back to normal around here. Demigra's gone, but there are still time anomalies that need to be handled, after all."
"Not to mention Towa," Trunks observed. "Luffa defeated her, but she's still out there, probably plotting her revenge. I think it's safe to say we haven't seen the last of her."
"And we need to get Goku back home," Chronoa said. "Wow, we've really got our work cut out for us, huh?"
"Oh, that's right. I guess you need to get back home to your own time too, huh?" Goku said to Luffa.
"Uh... that's kind of complicated," Luffa said.
"Huh? How come?" Goku asked.
"Sending me back would cause a lot of problems with the time stream," Luffa said. "I think I understand that a lot better now than I did before. But now that Demigra's dead, I don't know what else I'm supposed to do..."
"If you'd like," Trunks said, "maybe you could help us from time to time. The main threat has been dealt with, Luffa, but I could still use your help."
"Seriously?" Luffa said. She raised an eyebrow at this. "I figured you'd be glad to be rid of me, Trunks. Now that Demigra's out of the way, that wish you made to Shenron has been fulfilled, right? You can get someone else for whatever comes next."
"Maybe so," Trunks said, "but as far as partners go, you're the only one for me."
Luffa was speechless. "I... well, okay," she finally said. "Thanks. I guess I can stick around and see how things go. Sure."
"That sounds nice!" Chronoa said. "With the two of you working together, I'm sure we'll do well."
"Does that mean you'll be sticking around for a while, then?" Goku asked.
Luffa shrugged. "I guess so," she replied.
Goku's eyes lit up when he heard this. "In that case," he said excitedly, "Maybe we could have a match before I leave? You know, if you're not too busy or anything..."
She looked over at him and her eyes went wide with anticipation. "Is that a challenge, Kakarot?" she asked.
"It sure is!" he said. "The Supreme Kai of Time told me about you, but I didn't get to see much of you in action so far. So how about it? Are you interested in a little fight with me? I want to see your power. Show it to me!"
"That sounds like fun!" Trunks said.
Luffa was surprised to hear Trunks' enthusiasm for the idea. "You don't have a problem with this?" she asked. "You didn't approve the last time I challenged him."
"That was because you were in the middle of a Time Patrol mission," Trunks said. "If you fought Goku in the past, it would change history. But since the Supreme Kai of Time brought him here, to Toki Toki City, he's in our present, so it should be okay."
"Well now," Luffa said. She widened her stance and raised her arms as she stared Goku down. "That's just what I wanted to hear. I've been wanting to do this for a while, Kakarot. I was starting to think I'd never get the chance. I was worried Chronoa would send you back before I could give you a proper sendoff."
"Is that right?" Goku said. He raised his left fist and angled his shoulders as he inched closer to her. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's do this!"
"My thoughts exactly," Luffa said. "Let's see if you have what it takes."
They each smiled as they prepared to do battle, but before they could begin...
"Wait! Don't do it here!"
Chronoa was suddenly between them, and she held out her hand at Luffa as she scolded them.
"If you two break the Time Vault," she warned, "everything we've just been through will be for nothing! We don't want that!"
"Oh, right," Goku said sheepishly. "Whoopsy daisy!"
He began to laugh, and Trunks joined in, then Chronoa as well.
"Hmmph. It's just as well," Luffa said. "I did just get back from fighting Demigra, and I could stand to freshen up. I've waited this long. We might as well do it right. Get some food, rest up."
"Exactly," Chronoa said. "You two have helped us a lot today, so you deserve to have some fun, but we need to work out the details and make sure the city won't get torn up any more than it already has."
"Where do we start, Supreme Kai of Time?" Trunks asked.
"There's still some Majins sleeping in their quarters," Chronoa said. "We'll wake them up and they can help us get the city operational again."
"Wake them up?" Luffa asked. "My roommate's a Majin, and she's an incredibly sound sleeper. If she slept through this entire battle, what more can we do?"
"Remember how I used my power over time to make Bulma's hair grow faster?" Chronoa asked. "It'll be like that. They'll sleep for days, but to us it'll only be a few seconds."
"Gosh," Goku said, awestruck by what she had just said. "You can really do that? The Supreme Kais I know weren't anywhere near that cool."
"Oh, that's nothing!" Chronoa said. "Altering the flow of time is child's play. What I'm really known for among the gods is my culinary skills."
"You don't say..." Goku said as he followed her toward the portal leading back to the city.
*******
With Demigra defeated, things moved quickly. Once Chronoa's full strength was restored by one of the Majin healers she had awakened, she performed several divine rituals which confirmed that Demigra was truly dead, and then she proceeded to return the injured Time Patrollers to Toki Toki City.
Trunks quickly took command of the handful of Majins from Gamma Shift. Among these was Dr. Reca, a Majin female who had tended to Luffa once before. She now examined Luffa at a secluded spot near a large chunk of the giant hourglass that had once floated in the center of town.
"Word travels fast," she said as she placed her hand over Luffa's forehead. "They're saying you killed Demigra."
"That's right," Luffa said. "I'm fine, really. You don't need to--"
"You're not fine," Reca said. "I'd need to run some tests, but I can sense a lot of temporal shifts in your ki. It's like you aged two months since the last time I saw you, and that was only a few days ago."
"I've been busy," Luffa said. She suddenly realized that only two days had passed in Toki Toki City, while Luffa had spent weeks in other time frames. First, Chronoa had sent her back in time to deal with the Ruby Loop, and then Demigra put her in that alternate version of Luffa's own past, a world where the Tikosi had never provoked her into becoming the Super Saiyan. And while the combat had been intense, she had managed to stay relatively healthy throughout the fighting. Still, all of it had taken a toll. It wasn't until Reca said anything that Luffa began to notice how tired she really was.
"This will help you for now," Reca said as her hand began to glow. "But you're going to need some rest later, and then I'll want to perform a more thorough examination later, after we get the city up and running."
"Fine," Luffa said. She was in no mood to argue, and the relief she suddenly felt in her bones and muscles was enough to convince her of Reca's point. "But what about the others? There were guys in a lot worse shape than me..."
"You hero types are all alike," Reca said. "Always telling me to work on someone else instead, like I don't know how triage works. Well, for your information, I've already seen to several other Time Patrollers, including a few Namekian healers, who are probably working on some other healers as we speak. So I've got plenty of time to work on you, okay?"
"Sorry," Luffa said. "I keep underestimating doctors."
"We'll have the whole Time Patrol back on their feet in a matter of hours," Reca assured her. "Then we'll start repairing the damage to the city. And before you get any funny ideas, when I say 'we', I mean me and everyone else in the city besides you, okay?"
"Okay, okay," Luffa said. "I'll go straight to bed, I promise."
"Are you single, Luffa?" Reca asked.
The question caught her completely by surprise. "Huh?" was all she could say.
"I only ask because people will start asking me," Reca explained. She fished a lollipop out of the pocket of her white coat and stuffed it in Luffa's hand before she could object. "I've seen this sort of thing before. One of you hotshots does something big and important and soon everyone wants to know all about you. People still ask me if Trunks is dating anyone."
"It's... complicated," Luffa said.
"Of course, of course," Reca said. "None of my business, say no more. But they'll probably have a big celebration later, and people will be throwing themselves at you, so... Well, I should probably move on to the next patient. Off to your quarters, then."
She was gone before Luffa could even thank her. She rose to her feet and immediately felt a wave of fatigue. She had already decided to follow Reca's instructions, but now it was clear that she never really had a choice. It was either rest in her quarters or pass out in the street.
*******
As Luffa recuperated, the rest of the Time Patrol carried on with the reconstruction. With their combined powers, the work proceeded swiftly. It also helped that Demigra had shown some restraint during his attack. Since he intended to use Toki Toki City as his base of operations, he left much of the infrastructure in tact. And so most of the damage was superficial.
As Trunks supervised work in the Time Nest, he made conversation with his teammates. As word got around about Luffa's triumph over Demigra, the Patrollers naturally wanted to know what had happened to her, and so Trunks had explained that she was preparing for a fight with Goku. This led to discussion of the venue for their fight, since Trunks still had to choose a suitable location for them.
The Parallel Quest system was the obvious solution. The city was equipped with special time machines that could take Patrollers to various stable time fragments. Each fragment contained a replica of some historical era. There, the Patrollers could fight freely and sharpen their skills without fear of damaging Toki Toki City. It was ideal for staging a Super Saiyan duel, but that only solved half of the problem. Trunks knew how give them a place to fight, but he still had to figure out where.
Fortunately, the other Time Patrollers were eager to offer suggestions.
"What about Planet Namek?" asked Excitebike, who worked beside Trunks as they filled in the craters in the Time Nest lawn.
"No, that won't do," Trunks said.
"Hmm, well respectfully, sir, I disagree. It's the place where Son Goku first achieved the level of Super Saiyan. What could be more appropriate?"
"That's just it," Trunks said. "It's a historic site for Goku, but not for Luffa. She's only seen the planet in Time Patrol missions. I don't think it fits."
"Right, right, right," Excitebike muttered.
Dewar was standing nearby re-installing the cobblestones that had been blasted out of the walkway to the city. "Hey, what about that planet in the South Galaxy?" he asked. "You know, the one Paragus tried to pass of as a new Saiyan homeworld? It's unfamiliar to both of them."
"No, Luffa's tail is the problem there," Trunks said. "If she sees the comet she'll turn into a giant ape, and I don't want her to have to wear goggles the whole time."
"Eh?" Dewar replied. "Welllll, Trunks, it seems like you're splitting hairs over this, aren't you? I don't think either of them would complain about being at a slight disadvantage, right?"
"That's true, Dewar, but I still want to make the playing field as level as possible. This might be their only chance to have this fight, and I want it to go well for them. I owe them that much, at least."
"If you say so," Dewar said. "Stillllll, better to have a planet picked out for them than none at all! You can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, eh?"
"Wasn't there a Saiyan homeworld before Planet Vegeta?" Excitebike asked. "What was it called? What, what, what...? Salado or Sardon or something..."
"Sadala," Trunks said. "It was destroyed in a civil war. It might work, but we haven't done much temporal reconnaissance of it. I don't want to stick them in the middle of some other battle, and I don't want to make them wait for us to do the legwork.
"Wellllll, it sounds like you want something impossible, Trunks," Dewar remarked. "I mean, a planet suited for Saiyans, but with no Saiyans on it? Where would you even look for something like that? It's too bad about the Dragon Balls, I guess."
"What about the Dragon Balls?" Trunks asked.
"I heard the Supreme Kai of Time used them to wish for Goku to come here and help fight Demigra," Dewar said. "So they're inert for a while, which means you can't use them to wish for this planet you want. Too bad, since I think Shenron's the only one who could help you..."
There was an ancient Saiyan proverb that said hunger was the best seasoning. It was something Saiyan chefs meditated upon to keep them humble in the kitchen. For all their culinary skill, even the simplest meals were delicious on an empty stomach.
In her apartment, Luffa put that philosophy to the test. All her roommate ever ate were sweets, so Luffa maintained a supply of cake batter in their refrigerator. She downed a bottle of this without thinking twice, then tore open a package of raw ground beef.
Normally, she had more discipline than this. She would have taken the time to cook something properly, and savor the entire experience. But the battle with Demigra had left a bad taste in her mouth, and she was more interested in moving on than in celebrating.
From a distance, it had all made sense. She couldn't just go back to her own time. Too much had changed. Demigra had tried to tempt her by offering a chance to go back to where it all began, a time before Luffa became the Super Saiyan. But it was all wrong, and thought it took Luffa a long time to realize it, in her heart she had known it was wrong from the start.
The ground beef was cold in her throat as she gulped down another mouthful. Her Saiyan stomach could digest raw meat with ease, and her hunger would be sated, but she couldn't help but appreciate how incomplete the experience was. A fresh kill would have the blood of the animal, and the scent of wild game. Properly cooked, the meat's proteins would be denatured into something exquisite to the palate. But this meat was minced, packaged and refrigerated, and lacked the primordial thrills of hunting or cooking. It was enough to sustain her, but it was fundamentally flawed.
And so was any notion of going back to relive her life. Luffa was a warrior, not a philosopher. She held no special interest in "destiny" or "fate", but her adventures with the Time Patrol had proven that even the worst parts of her life had been necessary in some way. Even if those events could be undone, it would only serve to diminish her as a person.
It was a harsh, difficult truth to accept. Perhaps, Luffa considered, this was why she was eating all of this raw food. Perhaps the truth would be easier to swallow if she had some other unpalatable things to wash it down with.
At last, she turned away from the refrigerator, and sought refuge in the shower. The past was past, and all Luffa could do was to take whatever satisfaction she could from it as she looked ahead to the future. Demigra was dead. As frustrating an opponent as he was, Luffa couldn't help but smile at the thought of his downfall. Her future with the Time Patrol was unclear, but at least there would still be a Time Patrol for her to return to. Chronoa had offered her some sort of reward for her service, though this was too uncertain to think about. And then there was Son Goku.
"Kakarot," she muttered under the stream of hot water.
A fight with a fellow Super Saiyan was a dream come true. She wasn't sure if he understood just how important it was for her, but he had still offered the challenge, and she had every intention of facing him. But she wasn't sure she was ready. It all felt too... sudden.
Her friends and family from the past had all died centuries ago, but from Luffa's perspective, they had only been gone a short time. Thanks to Demigra's power, she had even seen some of them a few hours ago. She accepted that it was wrong to try to go back, and yet it still felt equally wrong to move on.
But as she dwelled on her relationships from the past, she found herself reminded of the new friends she had made in the present. As she wondered what had become of Zatte and Dr. Topsas, she also found herself worrying about Mosh, and Dewar, and the other Time Patrollers she had not seen since Demigra's attack. She had to remind herself that they, at least, were probably fine. And even if they weren't, she could check up on them easily enough.
She could sense Jayncho's ki less than twenty meters away. The Majin was still in her bedroom, having slept through the entire crisis. There was something reassuring about this. Luffa had failed so many people in her life, but she had saved the people of Toki Toki City. Trunks had been badly hurt, but he would recover. Chronoa had taken a lot of damage from healing him, but she would recover too. The Divine Tokitoki Bird had been through a harrowing ordeal, but he would survive.
That word--"survive"-- resonated with her. In spite of it all, Luffa had survived everything that had come her way. The Dorluns cherished survival, in much the same way Luffa's own people treasured battle. But Luffa's wife Zatte had always spoken about how important it was to find something to live for. Many Dorluns, Zatte felt, were simply content to keep breathing, when there had to be more to it than that.
As Luffa mourned her wife, she kept coming back to their lack of funerary tradition. Dorluns left their dead wherever they lay, disposing of bodies only if it served to benefit the living. For them, the only true way to honor the dead was to go on living. Or, as Zatte might have put it, to find a reason to go on living.
Luffa had struggled to accept this, but now she wondered that maybe she had found something to live for without realizing it. The Time Patrol was a worthy enough cause, and the Patrollers were worthy comrades. According to Capsule Corp's genetic studies, the Saiyans in the Time Patrol were all Luffa's descendants, which made them family. And then there was Keda's miraculous presence on Earth.
It wasn't home, exactly. Luffa still felt very much like an outside in this place. And yet, it felt like a place that could be home.
She stepped out of the shower and toweled off, feeling surprisingly refreshed. For the first time since arriving in Toki Toki City, she began to feel optimistic. There was something to look forward to, beyond the fighting, beyond the work. Even beyond this match with Son Goku.
But she would still face Son Goku. As she put on a clean set of clothes, her anticipation for that battle began to swell. But what truly lifted her spirits was the anticipation of what lay beyond him...
*******
The most important repairs to Toki Toki City were things that only the Supreme Kai of Time herself could fix. The great hourglass that had floated in the center of town was a landmark to everyone who lived and worked there, but no mortal Time Patroller had any idea what it was for or why it was so urgent to rebuild it. The Kai called upon the Divine Toki Toki Bird for assistance, and Patrollers working nearby were treated to an inscrutable light show, as they floated in the air while glowing sand and chunks of crystal began to reassemble. Some of the Patrollers grew bored with trying to make sense of it, and so they returned to the mundane work of repairing shops, offices, and roads in the city. Others stopped and stared with fascination.
Among these gawkers was No. 44, who looked like a teenage girl, but was something more than her clerical job suggested. She watched the Kai work, not because it was interesting or breathtaking, but because she wasn't sure what to do with herself, and this was the one place she could find in the city where the people around her would be too distracted to strike up a conversation. Or so she thought.
"Hey there!"
She sensed the power suddenly winking into existence behind her, and though she recognized him from before, she was still surprised when she turned around to look at him. "Wha--?" was all she managed to say.
"Hey, it's me, Goku!" he said with a cheerful wave of his hand. "Remember? And you're... 45, right?"
"44," she said.
"Oh, right," Goku said. "Sorry, I'm not always good with names, and I've never been much when it comes to math. But I guess I was close, though, huh?"
"Of course I remember you," 44 said. "I mean, it wasn't that long ago..."
"Well, I wanted to thank you for helpin' us out," Goku said. "You were in such a hurry to leave, I didn't get the chance before, and then Luffa showed up and everybody else came back to the city and--"
By now, Goku's presence had begun to attract some attention. As much as the Patrollers were interested in Chronoa's cosmic repairs, many of them were great admirers of the famous Son Goku. Anxiously, 44 took him by the hand and tried to lead him away.
"Can we talk about this someplace else?" she pleaded.
"Huh? Well, sure, if you say so."
Without warning, he raised his hand to his forehead and before 44 could react she found herself standing on the roof of one of the buildings in the city. She recognized it as the Industrial Sector, but she wasn't used to seeing it from this elevation, and she had no clear idea of her exact position. All that remained constant was that Goku was still holding her hand.
"Is this better?" Goku asked.
"What did you do?" she asked.
"Instant Transmission!" he replied proudly. "I was flying around earlier, but some people told me there's a rule against that, but no one said I couldn't teleport, so I've been checking out the city that way. It's pretty neat!"
"Could you give me a little warning next time?" 44 asked, gasping for breath. "You really startled me with that!"
"Hey, you were the one who wanted to go somewhere else to talk," Goku said with a shrug. "Anyway, there's no people here, so I thought this would be good."
"You didn't tell Luffa about me, did you?" 44 asked breathlessly.
"Well, no," Goku said. "I mean, you asked me not to, right? Besides, we all got to talking, and I kind of forgot about it for a while. But once everybody started working on the city, there really wasn't much for me to do, so I remembered again."
"I thought you'd be on your way home by now, Mr. Son," 44 said.
"You can just call me Goku, okay?" Goku said. "Anyway, I'm stickin' around because I asked Luffa to have a match with me, but the Supreme Kai of Time said we gotta wait to set it up somewhere so the Time Nest won't get wrecked again."
"You and Luffa are going to fight?" 44 asked. "Why?"
"Why?" As Goku repeated her question, he looked at her like she had grown a second head. "I mean, because she's really strong, duh. That'd be enough for me, but on top of everything else, she's a Super Saiyan from a long time ago. Now that's an opportunity I just can't pass up!"
"But you're on the same side," 44 protested. "And you're both so powerful. What if one of you gets hurt?"
"Aw, we'll bring along some senzu beans," Goku said. "It'll be fine. I've fought with my other friends lots of times."
As he said this, an eager smile stretched out across his face. "Hey, you know, while we're waiting, you and I could spar a little? I mean, nothing serious, just for funsies, right?"
"No!" 44 said, more sharply than she intended. "I mean... I'm not a fighter, Mr. Son... I mean, Goku."
"Really?" Goku asked. "I mean, you've got some impressive power. It's not on the level of Trunks or Luffa, but it really gave us a boost when we needed it in the Time Nest. And if you trained, I bet--"
"I'm not a fighter," 44 insisted. "I'm just a clerk."
"Oh," Goku said, looking more than a little disappointed. "Sorry, I guess I got carried away. It's just, your energy kind of has a Saiyan feel to it. Not exactly, but you don't look much like a Saiyan, so I figured you must be part-alien or something. Like my boys. They're half Earthling."
"I'm not a Saiyan or an alien," 44 explained. She gestured to her face, which was a purple-grey color unnatural to Earthling humans. The same was true for her yellow irises, which seemed to shine from beneath the shade of her trucker hat. "I'm a cyborg. Red Ribbon model."
"Oh, yeah," Goku said. "I meant to ask about that. But doesn't that mean you're programmed to kill me? I mean, you must want to fight me a teensy bit."
"It's a long story," 44 said. "My design includes Saiyan genetics and other bio-enhancements. That's why I look the way I do."
"What's with the hat?" Goku asked.
"Wh-what about my hat?" 44 said. It was a trucker cap with the logo "98CIAL" printed on the front. All of 44's hair was stuffed inside it.
Goku craned his head to one side and pointed at her head. "Do you wear it to cover up your brain?" he asked. "I remember Dr. Gero had a glass dome on his head, and when his hat came off, you could see right inside. It was kinda gross."
"I don't have a dome," 44 said. "I just like the hat! It helps me blend in a little."
Goku made a skeptical look as though he weren't entirely convinced of this. 44 reached up to her scalp and pulled a length of white hair out from under the brim.
"Look, why would I have hair if I had a dome?" she asked. "I'm based on the 13-14-15 line. None of them had domes. Wait, 15 did, but his brain was a computer... Never mind..."
"Well, okay," Goku said. "I guess it doesn't matter much if we're not gonna fight. Too bad, though. With your Saiyan ki and those yellow pants, I thought maybe you were Luffa's student or something."
44 looked down at her clothes. She wore a thick belt with several pockets. Otherwise, she had adopted Luffa's trademark black and yellow fashion. Instead of boots, 44 wore black sneakers with black socks. Her pants were slacks, and her shirt was a blouse, but the general theme was more in line with what Luffa wore.
"I'm not her student," 44 said. "I just thought we were getting along, and maybe this would help."
"Oh well," Goku said. "I was hoping to find out more about her from you. Kind of scout the competition a little before we fight. But if you're not her disciple or sparring partner or anything.... Wait, if you two are friends, then why didn't you want her to know about how you helped us in the Time Nest?" Goku asked. "I'm sure she'd be proud of you for that. I know I am."
"The only reason I was around for that was because I was hiding from Demigra during the battle," 44 blurted out. "Everyone else got infected with his magic spell, and then the Supreme Kai of Time evacuated them from the city. But not me. I was in Luffa's apartment, because I didn't know where else to go."
"Sure you did," Goku said. "You came out and found us in the Time Nest, trying to stop Demigra's blast from blowing up the whole place."
"I only did that because I couldn't sense anyone fighting in the city," 44 explained. "I went to the Time Nest to see if anyone was still there, and there you were. I... I wouldn't have gotten involved if I had known..."
Goku smiled and put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, hey, hey," he said. "Listen. You may not be a warrior like me and Luffa, but you still did a really brave thing by lending me your energy back there."
"But I--!"
"You were scared, I know," Goku said. "I was pretty worried there myself for a while. I wasn't sure I could stop that blast. But we did it together. That's what matters, 44, and if Luffa were here right now, I'd bet she'd say the same thing. Well, maybe she'd say it a little meaner. Heh-heh! She's kind of grouchy, you know?"
44 lowered her head, concealing her eyes behind the bill of her hat as she wiped the tears from her face. "Look, you can't tell her about that. Please."
"If that's how you want it, then okay," Goku said. "I won't say anything about it to her. But I've seen her fight, and she's no dummy, 44. Sooner or later, she'll see for herself what a hero you are. I don't think that's something you can hide. Not for long, anyway."
"We'll see about that," 44 said. "As long as you don't tell her about me helping you against Demigra, that'll do. Let me worry about the rest."
"Deal," Goku said. "I don't understand it all, but you've got a good heart, 44, even if it's like some kind of robot heart or somethin'. And Luffa took good care of my sons when we fought Cell and Majin Buu on Earth, so I've got a good feeling about her. Whatever's going on between you two, I'm sure it'll all work out."
44 made a weary sigh. "I hope you're right," she said. "I wish I could explain it to you, but... Well, it's sort of a relief to talk about it a little bit. I'm glad you came to find me."
"Hey, no problem," Goku said. "The Supreme Kai of Time made me a deputy Time Patroller, right? So we all gotta look out for each other, don't we?"
"I guess you're right about that..." 44 said with a slight smile. Then she looked out at the city below and asked: "You can get me back down, can't you?"
"Huh?" Goku asked before he realized what she meant. "Oh, sure, sure. Just grab on to my arm, okay? It won't take a second..."
*******
While the shops of the Time Patrol were still recovering from the damage sustained during the battle, the various department heads in the city suggested that the victory celebration be catered. Trunks and Chronoa agreed to this, although when they received the delivery, they began to have second thoughts.
"How many Time Patrollers are there anyway?" Trunks asked as workmen loaded trays of barbecued pork into the dining hall. One of them, a young woman, made a flirtatious smile at him, but he was too focused on signing the paperwork to notice.
"A lot," Chronoa said. "I remember thinking Toki Toki City was enormous back when we opened it, but now it almost seems too crowded."
Trunks leafed through the last few pages and handed them back to one of the uniformed delivery drivers. "Speaking of that, have you had a chance to look at my PQ request? The one for Goku and Luffa."
Chronoa had scooped a glob of potato salad on her finger and had put it in her mouth when Trunks asked the question, so she could only nod and give a thumbs up.
"Thanks. It means a lot to me, and I'm sure it'll mean a lot to them, too," he said.
"It's the least I can do for them, but to be honest, I'm not sure I understand what the big deal is," Chronoa said. "We just had a huge battle, and Luffa fought several more battles before that. I know Saiyans love to fight, but what makes this one special?"
"Luffa was the only Super Saiyan in her time," Trunks said. "Fighting another Super Saiyan is something she's always wanted to do. When she found out I was a Super Saiyan, she challenged me on the spot, even though we were in the middle of a mission."
"Right, but you two already fought each other," Chronoa said. "When you were under Demigra's mind control."
"I know," Trunks said. "And she's probably still itching to challenge me later, now that I'm back to normal. But Goku's the one she really wants."
"But why Goku?" she asked.
"Because of the legend," Trunks said. "Gohan told me that my father once said there was only one Super Saiyan every thousand years. I never thought about the timing much, but apparently it's literally true. Luffa transformed almost exactly one thousand years before Goku did, and there was a Super Saiyan before her that lived about a thousand years earlier than that."
"Maybe so, but it doesn't matter anymore, does it?" Chronoa asked. "These days, there's lots of Super Saiyans."
"That's true, and it's not as big a deal to the rest of us, but it means a lot to her. It's like there's a lineage of once-in-a-millennium Super Saiyans, and she and Goku are part of that club. I think she's thought about him for a long time, even before she came to this time."
"What do you mean?" Chronoa asked. "She didn't even know Goku."
"Not by name," Trunks said. "But she probably believed that there would be another one like her in a thousand years' time. Maybe that was comforting to think about. I sort of understand what that's like. It was pretty tough for me being the only Super Saiyan after Gohan died. In my world, I might be the last one. So when I traveled to the past to meet Goku for the first time, it was kind of reassuring to see another Super Saiyan in person like that."
"I suppose I never thought of it that way."
"The thing is, I'm not sure if Goku understands all that. He may just like the idea of taking on a fresh opponent. But I'm sure the tradition means a lot to Luffa, and they both really helped us out, so arranging a proper battleground for them was the least I could do."
"I'm sure they'll enjoy it," Chronoa said. "And even if they don't, at least the city won't get wrecked all over again."
*******
[22 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]
The victory banquet went well. Son Goku couldn't complain, since he had eaten his fill of pulled pork, rice, and cole slaw. The Time Patrollers were mostly good company, although he found some of their questions confusing. One young woman kept asking him if it was true what 'they' say about Goku's best friend, Krillin. But she refused to explain what it was that 'they' said, and when he asked she would just gesture with her hands and say 'well you know.' Goku, in fact, did not know, and could not answer.
People were often confusing for Son Goku. While he enjoyed public gatherings-- especially ones with food-- he was something of a loner, spending most of his life in the company of fewer than five people at a time. His adoptive grandfather understood the joys of solitary living, and so had Master Roshi, and so did Goku's wife Chi-Chi, and their children, Gohan and Goten.
And so, while he was not especially self-aware of this aspect of his personality, Goku still felt a swell of relief when the party was over and a helpful Capsule Corp. robot escorted him to his guest quarters for bed. He lay awake for a while, eagerly anticipating the dawn, and the one person he had not seen at the banquet, the one he had been looking for the whole evening. He hadn't seen Luffa since she accepted his challenge in the Time Nest. Was she avoiding him for some reason? Was she not feeling well enough to go through with their fight? Or was this some sort of strategy? Had she been observing him without his knowing it?
The thought of that excited him, though eventually he drifted off to sleep. For the next several hours, Son Goku slept well, dreaming of his wife and children, and also a monster truck that he had seen on television once. In the dream, the truck could talk and it was friends with Goku. They went on adventures together.
When he awoke, he put on his gi and found the same robot waiting for him outside his door, ready to escort him to anywhere in the city he wished to go. Naturally, he asked it to take him to a place where he could get some breakfast.
The Blinking Twelve was a popular restaurant among the Saiyan community in Toki Toki City, and the robot led Goku there. It reminded Goku of a diner he had visited with Bulma a few times in West City. He took a seat and was about to order, when a familiar voice called out from the entranceway.
"For shame, Kakarot."
He quickly turned to find Luffa at the door. He had not sensed her presence, and he did not know how she had gotten so close without his noticing. From the grin on her face, it seemed that she took great satisfaction in his uncertainty.
"There you are! I was starting to worry about you, Luffa," Goku said. "When I didn't see you last night, I thought you might have decided to cancel on me."
"Hell no," Luffa said. "I just needed some time to prepare. Trunks has a place all picked out for us, but I thought you and I should have eat first."
"Oh sure!" Goku said. "I hate fighting on an empty stomach. Pull up a chair, I was about to order--"
"Not here," she insisted. "I've commandeered a kitchen in the cafeteria. You were raised on Earth, so I thought I would do you the honor of preparing a proper Saiyan breakfast."
"Is that right?" Goku said. "Well, I can't turn that down. You've got style, Luffa. I've been in a lot of battles, but I've never had an opponent feed me before a fight."
"Right this way," Luffa said, waving him towards the door.
As Goku approached her, he noticed the dark circles under her eyes. He considered asking her how she had slept, but he decided against it.
Everything he needed to know about Luffa, he reasoned, would be revealed to him soon enough.
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story This story takes place about 1000 years before 66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[21 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]
"Demigraaaa!"
The atrium of the Time Vault was lit with the ominous purple glow of Demigra's evil magic. High above the great octagonal table, a ball of dark energy roiled and churned in mid-air, like a dark sun looming over the cabinets that housed the Scroll of Eternity. Demigra had created this attack to destroy the Time Vault, and with it, all of history. He then opened a mystical portal to escape into the Crack of Time, where he had once been banished. He would ride out the destruction of the universe from his former prison, and when it was over, he would emerge victorious and create his new world from the ashes of the old.
Below, the last of Demigra's enemies were defeated.
Trunks, the leader of the Time Patrol, had been incapacitated from intense combat. Thanks to Demigra's mind control, he had been forced to fight on both sides, and he was exhausted from the effort.
The Time Patrol's newest recruits, Son Goku and Luffa, were pinned down by glowing red spears of energy. Though they weren't injured, Demigra's magic kept them immobilized.
That left Chronoa, the Supreme Kai of Time, who could only stand between Luffa and Goku, and watch helplessly as the dark fireball descended upon them. It was Chronoa who cried out Demigra's name as he slipped away into his hiding place.
As hopeless as the situation seemed, Chronoa did not despair. Among her divine powers was the ability to alter the flow of time in a particular location, and so she applied this technique to Demigra's blast. She raised her hands, and concentrated. For a moment, it looked like nothing was happening, and then the ball slowed down, seemingly stopping in midair.
Chronoa did not allow herself to relax. Thought mortal eyes might be fooled into thinking the energy ball was frozen in midair, it was still moving. Chronoa had slowed it to a crawl, but the energy ball still continued on its collision course with the floor, where it would surely explode and destroy them all.
Still, she took some comfort in this. "There's time," she muttered to herself. It was the unofficial slogan of the Time Patrol. It was an encouragement not to rush or panic. The answers and solutions would come eventually, and the Time Patrol could afford to be patient. Carefully, she took stock of the situation. She did not have the physical strength to repel the energy ball by herself. Nor could she free the others or heal Trunks without releasing her temporal field around the energy ball.
There was, however, Demigra's portal. Chronoa knew that it led back to the Crack of Time, since it very closely resembled the portal she had used to imprison Demigra there in the first place, seventy-five million years ago. Demigra had already passed through it, but the portal still lingered, for Chronoa knew it would not close quickly or easily.
The thought occurred to her that she might follow after Demigra and try to retrieve Tokitoki from him. It was a desperate idea, one that would mean abandoning the Time Vault to be destroyed. But it seemed like there was no other alternative. By all accounts, Chronoa had failed. Demigra had absorbed her charge, the Divine Tokitoki Bird, and he had used Tokitoki's power to destroy everything. But the universe still had a few moments left, and Chronoa would not abandon her duty. She would stand her ground and preserve history for as long as she possibly could.
And so, knowing it would do little good, Chronoa held out her hands and pushed back against the energy ball with all of the power she could muster. It did little to halt the ball's advance, but that didn't matter anymore.
She spared a moment to look at Trunks, who was passed out beside her. He and the other Time Patrollers had been wonderful companions, and it was good to face the end with him, even if he wasn't conscious. She had spent most of her tenure as Supreme Kai of Time in solitude, with only Tokitoki for company.
And while her plan to bring in Goku as a secret weapon had not succeeded, she was still grateful for his efforts. He had only been a deputy Time Patroller for a few minutes, but he had fought gallantly.
Then there was Luffa, whom Trunks had summoned using the Dragon Balls. Chronoa glanced over to her, and might have had some final thoughts regarding Luffa's service to the Time Patrol, but those sentimental musings were forgotten when Chronoa noticed that Luffa was... gone?
"Where--?" Chronoa asked. She had been too busy to notice one of the Scrolls of Eternity next to Luffa, or Luffa's subsequent disappearance. If Chronoa had seen this, she might have realized what had happened, and what was about to happen next.
Instead, Chronoa was completely surprised when a bright yellow glow appeared from behind Demigra's energy ball. She looked up and found Luffa floating near the ceiling of the atrium, her face twisted with rage, and her short hair rippling on her scalp like tongues of flame. She held out her hand, and shrieked.
Chronoa thought Luffa was going to stop Demigra's attack. Instead, she fired down at the ground, blasting away the energy pikes that held Goku down. The golden ki blasts dissolved the crimson skewers like toothpicks cast into a furnace.
"On your feet, Kakarot!" Luffa called out through gritted teeth. "You've got work to do!"
Goku didn't need to be told twice. He was already standing before Luffa had finished speaking. He looked up at her with amazement, and he might have replied to Luffa, but then Chronoa groaned from the strain of her exertion, and he realized she needed help. In a flash, he was suddenly standing beside her, and he threw out his hands, and began to apply his ki against the oncoming attack.
"It's okay, Supreme Kai of Time," Goku said. "I'm here!"
"Luffa!" Chronoa said. "Get... get down here! Hurry!"
"Wait, where'd she go?" Goku asked. "I could sense her power, but then she just disappeared all of a sudden!"
As he wondered about this, he began to feel the energy ball pushing back against him, and Goku set his jaw and widened his stance to brace himself.
"No..." Chronoa said. "Demigra opened up a portal to the Crack of Time... and Luffa must have followed him into it!"
"Rrrghhh!" Goku grunted as his muscles tensed against the force of the energy ball.
"This is bad!" Chronoa said. "If she takes on Demigra alone--!"
"She'll be... fine!" Goku said with a grimace. "You saw her before.... She can take him!"
"That's not the problem!" Chronoa said. "She should have stayed and helped us here! If we can't stop this thing from destroying the Time Vault, then it won't matter if she wins or not! It'll be the end of everything!"
"No way!" Goku insisted. "I won't... let... that... happen!"
And with a shrill cry, he transformed, his dark eyes glowing a brilliant green, and his black hair shining a baleful yellow to match Luffa's.
"This ain't the end!" Goku shouted. "Not even close! Not while I'm still standing!"
And the energy ball... stopped in midair. It continued to push down against them, but Goku had truly halted it. The only question now was: for how long? Had he only managed to delay the inevitable?
Chronoa held out her own hands and continued to support his effort. She wasn't alone in the fight, but the situation hadn't changed. She would continue to buy as much time for the universe as she could. And maybe, with Goku's help, they could do more than that...
*******
[21 April, Age 850. The Crack of Time.]
Luffa dashed through the portal just before it could close. She emerged from the other side to find herself in the Crack of Time, a dark expanse containing a multitude of crystals, each one larger than an adult humanoid. They floated in the Crack of Time like motes of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Demigra was not hard to find, since he was the only other living thing present. He hovered among the crystals with his back to Luffa, though he quickly turned around to register his displeasure.
"What are you?" he asked indignantly. "What in the world are you?!"
"I think we've already been over that," Luffa said. "If you still haven't figured me out, then I'll just have to explain it with my fists."
"You know," Demigra said, "I just finished arranging that scroll to take you to the world I created for you. And I spoke to you a moment ago, explaining where you were, and why I put you there."
"Then it all really happened?" Luffa asked. "I was on that fantasy world of yours for weeks, but I started to think I dreamed the whole thing."
"Weeks for you, minutes for me," Demigra said. "And for your friends in the Time Vault, only a second or two. "I had to manipulate the flow of time in order to prepare that temporal fragment for you, Luffa. I had to make sure you'd accept the arrangement, but I couldn't afford to wait around. But since you're here, I suppose I must assume that you've rejected my offer."
"Offer? You mean 'diversion', don't you? That whole thing was a sham, just like your claims of godhood."
"Oh, you are a frustrating one," Demigra growled. "After all of that fighting, you're still alive. Even my efforts to make peace were useless. I see now. You want to interfere. It's not just a matter of duty or stubborn pride. You simply cannot help yourself. Shenron chose you well. It seems you're driven to oppose me, no matter what."
"Good," Luffa said. "You're beginning to understand me, at least."
"So be it!" Demigra shouted. "I won't hold back, then. With every ounce of my limitless, divine power... I will defeat you!"
As he spoke, he gripped his scepter with both hands, and held it in front of his chest. Then he released the scepter, and it floated in front of him. The crystal orb at the top of the scepter glowed bright pink, and swirls of color emerged from the glow, surrounding Demigra until Luffa could no longer see him. There was a flash of light, and when it faded...
"You shall rue the day! I will erase your miserable life from history! When I'm through with you, you will have never existed!"
As Demigra raved, Luffa took note of his transformation. Before, Demigra had looked like a humanoid man with red hair and chalky yellow skin. Now, he had become a hulking brute. Large black spikes protruded from his shoulders, toes and forehead. His fine blue clothes were gone, though his demonic hide was the same color he had worn before. His mouth was filled with sharp, fangs, including a pair of large teeth that jutted up from his lower jaw. Behind him was a thick, muscular tail, similar to the tails she had seen from Frieza's race.
There was no sign of Demigra's scepter, but there was something resembling a red crystal in the center of Demigra's chest, and it was surrounded by a golden lattice that spread across his torso. Luffa wondered if Demigra had somehow absorbed the scepter into his own body to accomplish the transformation.
Despite his more bestial appearance, Demigra's voice had not changed at all. He still spoke in the arrogant, self-assured tones he had always used before. It was somewhat surreal.
"No one who has ever witnessed this form has ever escaped alive. And you... you are no exception!"
In spite of his grim threats, Luffa began to laugh.
"You find this amusing, do you?" Demigra said. "Or perhaps you've already gone mad with terror."
"Oh, I'm mad, all right," she said as she raised her fists. "You think I came here to escape, Demigra? No. I'm here to kill you, no matter what form you take. So let's see what you can do."
As Demigra rushed toward her, Luffa's eyes went wide. Before she could do anything, he struck her face with his massive right hand, and sent her flying into the surrounding crystals. Luffa slammed into one of them with a loud thud.
Demigra followed up with an energy blast, summoning three ki balls that appeared around his shoulders and below his legs. From these, a barrage of ki bolts fired at Luffa, knocking her around like a leaf in a hurricane.
He continued attacking, striking her with a powerful swipe from his left hand, then quickly spinning around to swat her with his tail.
"You're just another monkey brute!" Demigra insisted. "I spent a great deal of time preparing for you, but now that it's finally come to this, I realize I needn't have bothered! With this form, combined with Tokitoki's power, I'm more than a match for you! Looking back on it all, I'm surprised you even made it this far!"
Demigra continued his attack, grabbing Luffa by the head with one hand and punching her in the gut with his right. She cried out with each blow, and Demigra's inhuman lips curled into a satisfied smile.
"I won't leave a speck behind!" he raved. "I will erase you from this world!"
Eventually, he grew bored with this line of attack, and he kicked her away, letting her crash into a nearby crystal before diving after her. Then he slammed into her with incredible force, enough to shatter the surface of the crystal. For a moment, there was a cloud of sparkling fragments around them as Demigra dragged Luffa up by the collar of her black shirt.
"So... Now do you see?" he gloated. "You will vanish without a trace! Forever forgotten!"
With that, he drew back his fist, and it started to glow red as he energized it for a killing blow. Luffa's only response was to wince. And when Demigra finally threw his punch...
Luffa's eyes snapped open.
And she screamed.
Demigra's strike missed her completely. The force of her ki was so intense and so sudden that it deflected his punch and caused him to lose his balance. Demigra began to tumble away from the crystal, and when he regained his bearings, he found Luffa was still standing, and still gathering her power.
"I'm impressed, Demigra," Luffa called out to him. "That new form of yours is a lot stronger than anything you've managed so far. It almost makes up for your predictable movements."
"Don't you dare bluff with me, woman!" Demigra growled. "You are finished, and your false bravado will avail you nothing!"
Luffa's aura suddenly vanished, and she glared up at him. Then she raised her left hand, and curled her fingers inward, daring him to attack.
Demigra did not hesitate, and as he flew toward her, he charged his fist again, and this time, his punch connected...
... with Luffa's open palm. She caught his strike and stopped him cold. There was a sound like thunder upon the impact, and then for a long, awkward moment, they remained still, with Luffa's hand on Demigra's fist.
Then, Demigra finally, stubbornly, tried to push against her. His fist, already glowing red, began to glow brighter. Luffa smiled, then bared her teeth as she pushed back. Her own hand shone like molten iron as she applied greater force.
"You'll see to it that I'm forgotten?" Luffa said as they struggled. "You think that frightens me, Demigra? Erase me from history? Well I'll let you in on a secret: That already happened."
"I'm not talking about your precious legacy, fool!" Demigra said. "I mean to eliminate your very person from existence!"
"But you'll still remember me, won't you, Demigra?" Luffa grunted. "If you can win, that is. You beat me, remake the universe in your image, and have everything your way, but in the quiet hours, you'll still remember the time I knocked you on your ass. Or were you going to erase your own memories along with the rest of it?"
"You'll be gone," he insisted. "And that is all that matters!"
"Wrong," Luffa said with a bitter smile. "You wanted to know what I am, right? Well, I'm a legend. And we legends have a nasty way of sticking around. Even if you could kill me, you still wouldn't be rid of me."
This enraged Demigra, who pushed even harder against Luffa's hand. She did not budge. Instead, she applied more force herself, and flung his hand to one side, leaving him open to an attack. She quickly closed the distance, and drove the point of her elbow into his abdomen.
"Legacy is all I have, Demigra," Luffa said. "Even if it's just your bad dreams, or a lousy movie someone made about me, or the wreckage of my old star-yacht, it's all me. My reputation still counts, even if no one remembers it."
He tried to grab her with his enormous arms, but Luffa slipped through and kicked him in the ribs.
"That's your whole problem, isn't it?" Luffa continued. "At first, I thought I understood your motivation. You wanted to break out of this place and conquer the universe. I can understand that. I know what's it like to be trapped someplace, with nothing to look forward to but a dream of revenge You wanted Tokitoki's power over time, so you took it. You wanted to make yourself a 'Demon God'. Sure, I can relate to ambition. But it's not really ambition, is it? It's just fear. Fear of a universe you can't control."
Demigra spun around and swung his tail at Luffa, but she caught it instead and gripped it tightly in her arms.
"I kind of wondered what your story was, Demigra," Luffa said as she charged her ki again. "Chronoa told me about how you tried to betray the Kaioshin, but she never explained why you did it. But I think I get it now. It doesn't really matter what you were like back then."
Demigra struggled to free himself from her grip, but the best he could do was to swing her around. She refused to let go.
"Something must have changed back then, didn't it?" she asked, unconcerned with the effort of holding on while Demigra flailed her around like a fish caught on a line. "Yeah, you wouldn't be so interested in controlling time unless you had a regret or two in your past. So you found your opportunity, but you blew it, and then you had to wait seventy-five million years to get another chance! And now that you've gotten this far...!"
She applied her power, and came to a stop in midair. Suddenly, Demigra found himself unable to move his tail at all. He couldn't break Luffa's grip, nor could he budge her. And then, with a shrill cry, Luffa moved him, swinging him into the nearest crystal. Then another. And another. The Crack of Time seemed to shudder with each impact.
"What was it, Demigra!" Luffa shouted. "A failed romance? You lost someone important to you? Is there some bridge out there that you desperately wish you could un-burn? I'll bet you don't even remember it yourself! Seventy-five million years is a long time, after all!"
Demigra finally managed to regain control of himself, but as he curled around to remove Luffa from his tail, she held it up to her face and sank her teeth into it. Demigra roared with pain, and while he continued to try to remove her, his movements were now clumsy and unfocused. At last, Luffa released her bite, and backed off to a safe distance.
"You animal!" Demigra shouted.
Luffa simply smiled, offering him a full view of her bloodstained lips and teeth.
"That was for calling me a 'monkey brute'," Luffa said. "I was already furious with you for trying to tempt me with that whole Dorlu Prime thing, Demigra. But you just had to take it to a new low. Well, I was always going to kill you. After that 'second chance' business, I decided I wouldn't bother making it quick. But now...? Now...? Well it's not going to be clean, either."
"When I'm finished with you, you'll--!"
Demigra didn't finish, as Luffa struck him in the gut first. He gasped for breath, and she followed through with an uppercut to his chin.
"You said that already," Luffa said. "You'll 'erase' me, right? That's your answer to everything! Stupid bastard. You're probably thinking about how to reverse what I just did to your tail. Who needs first aid when you can just undo every bad injury you don't like?"
He recovered and went after her again, this time firing a barrage of energy beams at her. Luffa moved between them with breathtaking agility, and she continued to taunt him as she advanced closer to him. Demigra kept firing, but he had to back away to keep to a safe distance.
"You're probably wondering why I let you beat me up right after you transformed," she said. "You're thinking: 'If she's got this kind of speed and power right now, then why didn't she use it from the start?' I'd call that a good question... if it came from a Saiyan child, or an inexperienced fighter. But from a 'Demon God'? It's kind of sad."
She managed to get within twenty meters of Demigra and then vanished completely. Confused, Demigra fired more rapidly, until he noticed Luffa floating directly over his head. Before he could react, she stomped his face, then grabbed the fingers of his right hand and bent them away before he could shoot her.
"It's simple. I needed to get your measure," Luffa explained. "You said everyone else who witnessed this form never escaped alive. I guess you scared them with it, got them so panicked that they couldn't put up a proper defense. But I've already fought you a few times before, so this transformation of yours is the only new trick you've got. I just needed to see how hard you hit, and how all that added bulk affects your movements."
As she said this, Demigra grabbed for her with his left hand, and Luffa twisted and bent the fingers on his right. As they struggled, she pulled his right hand as far from his right side as possible, and Demigra wound up whirling in circles trying to stop her.
Then she broke his index and middle fingers, and the Crack of Time echoed with Demigra's agonized screams.
"You hear that right there?! That's what you should be trying to do to me," Luffa scolded. "Take out my fingers, you take away the Vengeance Cannon, my most dangerous technique. The pain you're feeling now? That's a lesson. So is that bite I took out of your tail. A true Saiyan warrior wouldn't let an opponent isolate a vulnerable spot so easily."
She kicked the back of his neck, and Demigra pitched forward, still cradling his injured fingers in his good hand.
"Of course, I say that, but I'm a damn hypocrite," Luffa said. "The Tikosi beat me down, took me prisoner, and they took my tail apart trying to figure out how it works. You made that little fantasy world for me where you killed them all, and I guess I'm a little grateful for that. But I still remember the pain. I promised myself I'd train my tail even harder than ever after that. Let me show you."
She turned her back to him, and Demigra howled with rage at her blatant disrespect. To his credit, he thought ahead before attacking. Instead of rushing at her back, as she clearly intended for him to try, he flew within a few meters, then sharply cut to his right, circling around to strike from a different angle. Again, to his credit, he attacked with his right arm, despite the broken fingers. He refused to be intimidated by the pain she had caused him.
Luffa was still one step ahead. She deflected his strike with her left forearm, then spun like a top, maneuvering away, then around Demigra before kicking him in the knee. As he recovered from this strike, she leapfrogged over him, and in the moment when they were back-to-back, she lashed out with her tail.
There was a loud snapping sound, like the crack of a bullwhip, and Demigra went careening across the expanse of his former prison. A crystal stopped him, and as he recovered from the attack, he kept his arms behind his back, probing for the wound Luffa had made.
"You could do a lot more with that tail of yours," Luffa said. "As thick as it is, you must have more muscle mass than mine, and you're no slouch when it comes to raw power. I bet you could take my head off with that thing, but you've never really trained for anything like that. You've never needed to. You've never lost anything that you couldn't recover with some time-manipulating trick."
"You don't know anything about me!" Demigra shouted. He fired another energy blast at Luffa, and she avoided it, slipping around to respond with her own ki blasts.
"I can see it in how you fight," Luffa said. "You move like someone who's never really tasted defeat. Even when you were trapped here, you saw it as a temporary setback, or even an opportunity. Your ego couldn't let you admit failure, much less learn from it."
Demigra couldn't avoid her bombardment, she he crossed his arms over his body and weathered the storm. When the golden explosions all faded, he found Luffa waiting for him with a boot to the face.
"Then you have me. I've got so many losses I don't know where to start. You know, the Old Heroes of Saiyan Legend were supposed to be invincible, but that's just a corny joke. We Saiyans get stronger from defeat, so why would the Old Heroes be any different? And even if I were an exception, I've seen the same thing happen with the others. Kakarot, Trunks, Vegeta, they all had to rise up from humiliation to claim victory. That's how we Super Saiyans grow. But you're afraid to grow, Demigra, and that's why you'll never beat me!"
Demigra pulled himself together and put his left hand over his jaw as he caught his breath. Luffa simply glared at him with a self-satisfied grin.
"Is that really what you think?" Demigra asked. Then he began to chuckle.
"Something funny about this?" Luffa asked as she crossed her arms.
"If I'm so doomed to defeat, Luffa," Demigra asked, "then why am I still alive?"
"You're a tough bastard, I'll admit," Luffa said, "but don't get cocky about this. I'm just making sure you suffer as much as possible before I finish you off."
"Is that right?" Demigra scoffed. "It seems to me that you've forgotten about the other front in this conflict. Remember the Time Vault?"
"I already took care of that," Luffa said. "Kakarot can save the Time Nest while I rip you into pieces."
"Can he?" Demigra asked. "I fought you both, Luffa, and while I admit that you've overpowered me here, I found Son Goku's strength to be somewhat less impressive."
"He was holding back, idiot," Luffa said. "He fought you in base form to study your movements. Not my style, but you're a fool to think he was going all out."
"Oh I would never presume such a thing," Demigra said. "But I do think I have a good estimation of his power level on the date he came from. Why do you think I chose that date to attack West City? That was a distraction to keep you busy while I conquered Toki Toki City. If Goku had been too powerful, it would have ruined everything."
"You're babbling, Demigra," Luffa said. "You never expected Chronoa to recruit Kakarot to help us fight you. His power will be more than enough to save the Time Vault."
"You haven't been very impressed with my transformation so far," Demigra said, gesturing to himself. "I admit, I've given a poor performance, but perhaps you might not judge me so harshly when you consider how much power I put into that attack on the Time Vault."
"What's your point, Demigra?" Luffa demanded.
"My point is that I've been fighting two monkey brutes at the same time," Demigra said. "And if it's taking you this long to kill me, then I think it's fair to assume that Goku is no match for the energy blast I left with him. Perhaps you should have stayed behind to help him."
"You're full of it, Demigra," Luffa said. "Kakarot will prevail. I'm sure of it."
"And what if he doesn't?" Demigra asked. "You might win here, but there will be nothing left for you to return to. I, on the other hand, don't need to defeat you, Luffa. I only have to outlast you. And from what I've experienced so far... that seems like a reasonable task."
Luffa had no answer for that. There was nothing she could say. And so she simply attacked.
*******
[21 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]
When Demigra finally escaped from the Crack of Time, the first thing he did was to invade Toki Toki City. Using his magic to contaminate the city's water supply, the Time Patrollers became infected with an insidious mind control spell, and they turned on one another in a terrible battle that nearly ruined the city.
Eventually, the fighting died down, as only Trunks was left in any shape to fight, and Demigra pitted him against Luffa. When Trunks fell, Luffa battled Demigra himself, and then Goku arrived to assist. Then the action moved to the Time Vault, where Goku was struggling to save it from Demigra's deadly energy blast.
Throughout this crisis, a number of Majin Time Patrollers lay asleep in their beds, their hibernation cycles leaving them oblivious to the danger around them. The rest of them had been worn down from the fighting, and Chronoa had teleported them to another world to keep Demigra from using them as hostages.
Then there was one other Time Patroller. Known only by a number, 44 was a humble file clerk in the administration office of Toki Toki City. Unsure of how to respond to the citywide riots, she fled to Luffa's apartment. There was no sensible reason for her to have done this. It was simply that 44 didn't know where else to go, and though she knew Luffa would not be there, it gave her some small comfort to know she was in Luffa's home. All 44 found was Luffa's Majin roommate Jayncho, who slept soundly in her bed. For a time, the teenage girl sat on the floor and waited. When the fighting stopped, and she could sense no activity in the city, she continued to wait, hoping for some sign that it would be safe to come out.
But there was none, and eventually 44's fear gave way to frustration. Whatever comfort she had taken from Luffa's apartment felt hollow as she waited for an all-clear sign that never seemed to come. She felt ashamed of herself for hiding, even though she knew it was the smart thing to do.
And so, at last, 44 rose to her feet and resolved to take her chances outside. If the streets were truly deserted, then there could be no danger, and at least she could find a way to call for help. 44 did not know how to make such a call, or where to send it, but she preferred to find that out on her own than to wait in silence. Eventually, Jayncho and the other Majins would awaken, and they could help her.
As 44 made her way through the city, she found only damaged buildings and clouds of dust and smoke where the Time Patrollers had fought. The great hourglass that had loomed over the center of the city was shattered, with large shards of crystal and great brazen cogs lying all around. She could sense ki signatures, but found none. At last, she came to the archway that led to the Time Nest. There was a glowing white portal in the arch, which rippled liked the surface of a placid lake, impossibly standing vertically.
44 had never been to the Time Nest before. It was a restricted part of the city, and she lacked the proper authorization to enter. She had never had much interest in seeing what was inside. She knew the Supreme Kai of Time carried out her divine work in that place, and important Time Patrollers like Trunks and Luffa assisted her there. That was enough for 44. It was their business, and she was content to leave them to it.
But now, as she stood at the portal, she wondered if anyone was still on the other side. Her senses could not perceive beyond the veil, and she had no way of knowing if the Time Nest was secure. Was the fighting still going on? Was there anyone inside at all?
Was Luffa there?
The uncertainty was what spurred her to step through the portal. She couldn't bear the suspense, or the eerie silence of the empty city. For some reason, she held her breath when she crossed the threshold, and mentally prepared herself to take a step back into the city at the first sign of trouble.
When she emerged on the other side, she found a large building, like a temple, with an even bigger tree growing out of the roof. It was surrounded by a spacious lawn that might have looked like a park, if not for all the craters and rubble strewn across it. There had been fighting here as well.
But what caught 44's immediate attention was a tremendous Saiyan power coming from inside the Time Vault. She had sensed it before, shortly after Luffa and Trunks had fought in the city. And there was another large energy as well. It felt... awful.
It was Demigra. It had to be.
She could feel her pulse quicken as she gasped for breath. A Saiyan was fighting Demigra inside the Time Vault. She did not know much about the Time Vault, except that it somehow contained all of history. A battle inside the Time Vault seemed like a very dangerous idea. Every fiber of 44's being told her to run and hide. There was nothing she could do here.
And, to her surprise, 44 found herself walking towards the Time Vault. Not every fiber of her being, it seemed, wanted her to run. To this part of herself, another part seemed to be telling her:
"You already ran and hid. And if this turns out as badly as you think it might, if all of history gets destroyed, then were can you possibly hope to flee?"
That part of 44 led her to the doorway of the Vault, and to a grand stairway that led to the atrium below. There, she found a Super Saiyan man in orange clothes, struggling with all his might to hold back an energy ball that glowed with a sinister purple light. Black lightning crackled across its surface, occasionally lashing out at the walls and ceiling.
It was Son Goku. It had to be. She had read the files on him, seen images of him all over Toki Toki City, but she had never sensed his ki before. It was very much like Luffa's, but with a distinct signature all his own.
Nearby, she saw the Supreme Kai of time, doing something with her outstretched hands. She was trying to help Goku, that much was clear, but it didn't seem to be enough. And near her feet lay Trunks, the leader of the Time Patrol. He appeared to be out cold.
"Rrrgghh! Dammit!" Goku shouted. "It's no good! I didn't realize Demigra had this kind of power!"
"He doesn't!" Chronoa said. "He's only able to do this kind of thing because of the power he absorbed from Tokitoki!"
"I hope Luffa's doin' better than I am right about now," Goku said. "I'm starting to think she shouldn't have been in such a hurry... to follow him like that! If he can generate this kind of an attack...!"
"Just hang in there!" Chronoa said. "If she wins, maybe she can come back and help you out!"
"No!" Goku said. "No, that's not how this is gonna go!"
He clenched his teeth, and grunted as his ki increased. His Super Saiyan aura thundered around the edges of Demigra's energy ball, like hurricane winds buffeting an island. The ball did not move, but Goku's expression seemed more self-assured.
"I won't lose!" he shouted. "If she can beat Demigra by herself, then we can handle this on our own! I just need a little more power! Just a little more!"
From the top of the stair, 44 did not like the sound of any of this. Goku was doing his best, but the power he was fighting against was so intense, and if his mighty strength wasn't enough, and Luffa was gone, then what chance was there?
And then, as if in answer to her question, she noticed Trunks slowly rising to his feet.
"Let me help you, Goku!" he said as he staggered towards him. When Trunks was close enough, he placed his hand on Goku's shoulder. "Take as much of my power as you need!"
"Trunks!" Chronoa said with a frightened gasp. "But you were out cold!"
"I couldn't get much sleep... Not with all that racket you guys were making," Trunks said. "I'm a mess right now, so I can't help you fight, but I can do this much at least."
"Don't do it, Trunks!" Goku said. "I can sense how exhausted you are."
"Heh. You're a great guy, Goku," Trunks said wearily, "but I think I finally see why my father gets so annoyed with you. Use your head! If I don't help you now, there won't be a 'later'. Besides, this is Time Patrol business, so this is no time for me to save my strength! I won't stand by and watch everyone else fight without me."
With a pained grunt, Trunks transformed, although he was too weak to maintain a stable Super Saiyan form. His hair kept flashing back and forth between its normal lavender and a gleaming gold.
"Luffa used this trick to help you out in another mission," Trunks said. "You don't remember it, but I do. She gave you a boost when Demigra was controlling Majin Buu. If it worked for her, then it should work for me."
Above, 44 could sense Goku getting stronger. Trunks' power was flowing into Goku's body, and it was helping, but she couldn't tell if it was enough to make a difference.
"Trunks, that's enough!" Goku said. Even as he felt the power entering his body, he could sense Trunks' own body weakening.
"Focus on what you're doing, Goku!" Trunks said. "We've got to stop Demigra here or we're all done for! I don't care what it takes! I'll sacrifice everything I have! My power, my health, my life! All of it!"
"Do as he says, Goku!" Chronoa added. "Trunks is right. We have to pull out all the stops."
"All right," Goku said. "If you guys think it's that bad, then I'll do everything I can!"
And so he did, but it still wasn't enough. Eventually, Trunks collapsed again, and while Goku made good use of the power he had received from him, he still could not dispel Demigra's attack.
"This isn't working!" Goku shouted. "Trunks had the right idea, but we need more power! Isn't there anyone else from the Time Patrol?"
"No," Chronoa said. "I had to move them to a different planet to keep Demigra from controlling them. They're all beaten up anyway."
"Rrrgh! There must be something we can do!" Goku growled. "We can't let it end like this! We can't!"
"Maybe I can help."
It was a small, uncertain voice that echoed through the atrium of the Time Vault. She almost didn't recognize herself as she spoke. She wasn't sure what had compelled her to descend the stair, and to approach them while they struggled. Goku didn't recognize her, but Chronoa did.
"Number 44?" Chronoa gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"I... it would take too long to explain," 44 said. "I thought Luffa would be here, so I came to find her."
"She was here a little while ago," Goku said, "but she followed Demigra through a portal! But if we can't stop this thing from blowin' us up, we won't be able to help her!"
"Then... Okay," 44 said. "I'll try."
She approached Goku and put her hand on his shoulder, just as Trunks had done before.
"I'm just a clerk," she said. "I'm not much of a fighter. I'm not much of... well..."
She knew some fundamental ki techniques. Luffa had even challenged her to accompany her own a few of the easier Time Patrol missions, and 44 had managed to hold her own against foes like Raditz and the Saibamen. She wasn't completely helpless, but she had no interest in combat. And in spite of that, Luffa had taken a liking to her anyway.
As 44 projected her ki into Goku's body, she shook her head. It was no mystery at all, really. She knew exactly what it was that had compelled her to leave Luffa's apartment, what drew her to the Time Vault, and now to Goku's side. Physically, 44 supposed she was no closer to Luffa than she had been in Jayncho's bedroom.
But spiritually, she knew she was exactly where Luffa would have wanted her to be.
In spite of 44's uncertainty about her power, it seemed to make a great difference. As she applied her own strength, Goku began to rally. The energy ball started to budge in the opposite direction, and Goku straightened his arms to push it back instead of merely holding it at bay.
"That's it!" he shouted. "We're doing it!"
Had it really been that simple? She wondered if that was all it took. Just one more Time Patroller to turn the tide. And as she felt a surge of exhiliration, her knees began to wobble.
"I... I don't know if I can keep this up," 44 said. The strain of giving her energy to Goku was starting to take its toll.
"You're doing great, 44!" Goku said. "Just hang on a little longer!"
"But... what if I--?"
"You've... got to hold firm..." Trunks said. He slowly rose to one knee, and took 44's other hand in his own. "You're... you're not alone. We're all in this together..."
"Trunks!" Chronoa called out.
"I'm not finished!" Trunks said. "I... refuse to let Demigra have his way... You hear me, Demigra! I am Trunks!"
As little power as 44 and Trunks were able to provide, it gave Goku the boost he needed. His muscles tensed as he applied his ki to Demigra's fireball, and with a sharp cry, he forced the ball in upon itself. The fireball convulsed and shuddered like a living thing, fighting back every step along the way, but Goku did not relent. At last, he screamed, and the energy blast finally collapsed and dissipated into thin air. There was a powerful gust of wind, and then at last, the Time Vault was silent, and the harsh purple light gave way to a soothing darkness, illuminated by the yellow glow of Goku's Super Saiyan aura.
"Did... did we do it?" 44 asked.
"I think... I think so," Trunks said.
"What do you think, Supreme Kai of Time?" Goku asked as he caught his breath. His hair turned black as he dropped back into his normal state. The Time Vault grew darker, lit only by a few working light fixtures along the walls. He began to rub the muscles on his arms as he looked at her with a hopeful expression. "Did we stop him?"
Chronoa looked around at the Time Vault for a moment, as though searching the walls for an answer. At last, she turned back to them and smiled.
"Yes, I think we're safe for now" she said. "But as long as Demigra still has Tokitoki, he can always come back and try this again. It's up to Luffa now."
44 wasn't sure if she was relieved to hear this or not.
*******
[21 April, Age 850. The Crack of Time.]
"You think it changes anything? Are you that delusional?!"
Luffa was speeding across the Crack of Time, zipping past Demigra without actually touching him. At first, he would raise his arms to defend himself, or try to shoot her with a ki blast as she approached, but he soon realized this wasn't worth the effort. Instead, he tried to study her movements, hoping to anticipate when she would actually strike.
As she shouted at him, her voice echoed throughout the Crack of Time.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe Kakarot isn't strong enough to save the Time Vault. Maybe the universe will be destroyed no matter what happens here. Then what? You think I'll lose my nerve? You think I'll surrender, and beg you to let me go back to that time fragment you made? Idiot!"
"You don't have much other choice, Luffa," Demigra said. "The only way out of this place is through me, and I don't intend to be gracious in victory. Not anymore. Not after all the trouble you've caused me."
"You think I chased you here with an exit strategy?" Luffa shouted as he zipped past him again. "The only plan here is the one where I kill you, Demigra. I may never get out of this place alive, but I promise that you will definitely die here. One way or another, this is where it ends. Are you ready?"
"Pathetic," Demigra scoffed. "After all of this, I would have thought you capable of more than childish threats. All you're doing now is trying to bait me, Luffa. Moving in an obvious pattern, waiting for me to attack at the opportune moment so you can spring some desperate trap. You talk about growth, but you still haven't learned to understand what makes me worthy of Tokitoki's power. Here in the Crack of Time, patience is the only virtue, and time has ever been on my side."
Then, suddenly, she stopped flying past him. Demigra expected something to happen next, but instead, there was only the quiet hum of the crystals in the Crack of Time. The yellow flashes of Luffa's movements was gone. And its place was... laughter.
Demigra looked around to find her, but could not. Her ki was everywhere, making it impossible to track her by her energy. It was then that he realized that he had misinterpreted her strategy. She wasn't luring him into attacking. She was using her ki in as many places as possible to mask her presence.
"You made this personal, Demigra," Luffa called out to him from everywhere at once. "I was always going to kill you, just out of loyalty to Chronoa. But then you nearly blew up my hand. Then you pissed off Lord Beerus, and he tasked me with destroying you on his behalf. Then you turned Trunks against me with your mind control tricks, and then you nearly convinced me to throw away my principles for a phony second chance at life."
Demigra looked around for the source of her voice, but in vain. Then, at last, he sensed her approaching him from behind, and he whirled around to face her...
... and that was when he noticed something grabbing his tail.
Demigra looked back, and found Luffa's face, but it was not Luffa at all. Rather, it was one of her exploding ki ghosts.
It was not the sight of the ghost itself that filled Demigra with dread. It wasn't even the realization that they explode on contact, or that it had crept up behind him without his noticing. Even the explosion itself wasn't what truly terrified him. As the blast seared the flesh of his tail and scalded the rest of his skin, Demigra knew that this was only the beginning.
As he reeled from the blast, something clipped knee from behind, and that produced an explosion as well. His instincts told him to withdraw to some safe location, but there was none. Luffa's ki was in every direction, and he had no idea where the next attack would come from.
"I was actually going to do it, you know," Luffa said from the shadows. "I was seriously going to make a go of it in that world, and let you have your way. It sickens me to admit it. You took my grief and tried to corrupt me with it."
Several ghosts now flew around him like tiny missiles zipping past him at oblique angles. They moved in the same patterns Luffa had been using earlier, but it did Demigra no good. Even though he could anticipate their movements, he had no idea what order they would attack in. As it turned out, none of them attacked at all. They were a diversion.
Something tackled him from behind, and Demigra expected another explosion, but this one was heavier than the ghosts. He could smell Luffa now, the real one this time. Her Saiyan sweat was unmistakable in the pristine air of the Crack of Time. But knowing she was there didn't do him any good now. She had grabbed both of his arms and pulled them backward while she pressed her knee into his spine. It made no sense to him, for she didn't have the reach to do such a thing, and then she heard her voice.
"Let me explain your biggest mistakes, Demigra," she said. It was the same woman, but her voice was heavier and gruffer than before. There was something different about her ki, now that he could sense it up close. She had transformed somehow, gotten larger.
"Your first was getting banished to the Crack of Time in the first place," she growled. The tension on Demigra's shoulders was incredible. He did not cry out, though he wanted to very badly.
"The Supreme Kai of Time is a really nice lady," Luffa explained. "You threw her friendship in the trash, and that was a foolish move. She should have killed you for your treachery, but she showed mercy. Then you escaped from the Crack of Time. Your second mistake."
At last, she released her hold on Demigra and he tumbled clear of her. Now that he could see Luffa, Demigra realized that she had assumed a different version of the Super Saiyan form. Her body was much larger and more muscular, and her hair and aura had a greenish tint to them. Her eyes glowed solid white, and she was stalking towards him with a twisted grin on her face.
"See, if you would have just stayed in this rathole," Luffa said, "then you never would have met me. And that leads into your third mistake."
Demigra tried to fight back, but Luffa suddenly flew right into him and when they were chest to chest, she suddenly generated a green ki attack from her torso and detonated it, flinging him away like an errant branch in a tornado.
She wasn't as fast in this form, Demigra noticed. And she was weaker as well. It was as though she had only used it for the reach it provided. For a moment, he considered how to exploit that to his advantage, when she was suddenly on top of him again, bending his legs around her own.
"Your third mistake was coming back to the Crack of Time," she thundered. "You thought you'd be safe here in your little prison. But it's not a prison at all, Demigra, not the way I look at it."
She cinched in her latest jointlock and Demigra howled from the pain. She had already softened up his knees, and now she was following up on that. But that wasn't all. As she reared back on his legs, the ki ghosts were still zipping around them, and they began to maneuver into position. Demigra could sense their power intensifying.
"This isn't a prison, Demigra," Luffa said with a cackle. "And it's not a refuge either. No, for those of us in the mercenary business, this place is what we call a kill box."
Suddenly the ghosts all pointed their arms at Demigra and fired ki blasts at his head and torso. Luffa did not release him, and he was forced to defend his upper body even while his legs were being twisted out of frame. Demigra's tail swung helplessly in the middle, having been reduced to little more than a bloody mess.
When it was over, Luffa released Demigra and flung him into the nearest crystal. Before he could recover, she gestured to the ghosts, and they all flew at him en masse, producing a tremendous explosion.
And despite all of this, Demigra was still alive. His monstrous form was beaten and bloodied, but it had proven tough enough to withstand Luffa's onslaught. He needed to recuperate, but he knew that there was no chance for him to use his spell to reverse the flow of time around his injuries. He had used that trick once too often in Toki Toki City, and Luffa had learned to counter it by attacking another body part while he was reversing damage elsewhere.
If he could hide from her, for only a few minutes, then he might be able to heal himself, but she had already ensured that was impossible. She was right. The Crack of Time was proving to be more of a liability to him than he ever imagined.
"Still alive, huh?" Luffa asked. "Well that's pretty impressive, Demigra. Maybe I haven't given you enough credit."
She shrank down to her normal size, and her power suddenly increased to its former intensity. All around him, the Crack of Time was bathed in a terrifying yellow glow. In that moment, Demigra felt despair. The sudden rise in her energy reminded him of just how powerful she was, and how weakened he had become from the damage he had sustained so far.
His only chance was to go on the offensive. If he could hit her just once, he could slip out of her line of sight, and find a few seconds to undo his wounds. In his panic, Demigra could not objectively consider this hasty plan, but it was all he had left.
He charged his ki into his right hand, and it glowed with red flame as he prepared to attack. His broken fingers were a problem, but he shut out the pain as he launched himself at her. He would buy himself an opening, or he would fail. There was no other choice. He had to succeed.
Luffa saw him coming and stood her ground. She smiled.
"Seventy-five million years," she said. "All that plotting and planning, and it all comes down to a frontal assault. Beautiful."
She charged her own ki and raised her left hand up to her head as she prepared to fire. "This is too good for you, Demigra. Too quick. But what the hell? Let's put an end to this. Vengeance Cannon."
She pointed her fingers at him and fired a crimson beam at his forehead. Demigra flung his right hand ahead of him, and the power he had built up was enough to resist the beam. She managed to slow him down, but she hadn't stopped him. The pain in his broken fingers was excruciating now, but he still had a chance. His left arm was relatively unscathed, and if he could just make use of it while she was focused on his right, then he could find an opportunity...
But as he brought his left arm forward to attack, Luffa responded by bringing out her right, and she pointed her fingers at him and screamed.
The second beam of crimson light lanced out from her right hand and into his left, and suddenly Demigra was back where he started. It was a standoff, except his broken fingers put him at a profound disadvantage.
"You weren't expecting me to shoot two of these at once, did you?" Luffa called out, her voice trembling as she spoke. "I...I still haven't gotten used to doing this little stunt! I improvised it during a scrap with Lord Beerus, when he was testing me to see if I had what it took to kill you. So I guess it's appropriate, huh?"
He had no idea. Demigra had studied Luffa's battles in preparation for this day, but he hadn't been privy to everything she had done while training in Toki Toki City. Had he miscalculated that badly? As he struggled to push forward, he realized that he had already lost whatever initiative this attack would have given him. Luffa was unsteady, but there was no way for him to capitalize on it. It was all he could do to hold back her power.
"You lose, Demigra!" Luffa shouted. "I may die in this place, but not before you! Now... fall!"
The next few seconds were sheer agony for Demigra. At last, his right arm faltered from the pain of his broken bones, and Luffa's Vengeance Cannon tore through him like a spearhead through gelatin. His left arm was next, and the second Vengeance Cannon passed through his body on a similar trajectory. The resulting damage left Demigra completely immobilized. For a moment, he floated in the Crack of Time, utterly helpless.
There was nothing left he could do. Every careful scheme, every strategy, all the power at his disposal. It had all led to this moment. All of his preparation had been for nothing.
Then Luffa prepared a Gallick Gun. Demigra knew the technique well. If he had been able-bodied, he could have defended against it. As it was, he could only dread its execution, and wonder how it had all gone so wrong, so quickly.
The purple light of the Gallick Gun washed over him like a tidal wave, and Demigra's body began to disintegrate.
"Impossible!" he wailed as the end finally came. "I am a god! I have become... a god!"
Then, finally, Demigra was gone. His last words of protest echoed in the Crack of Time, then faded away.
Luffa was alone. And as she considered her situation, she noticed something happening in the expanse of the Crack of Time. She was never certain of what the Crack of Time really was. It might have been a cavern of crystals, or simply an endless void. But now, in every direction she looked, there appeared white fissures, as though the Crack of Time itself was beginning to... fracture.
"Oh, great," she muttered to herself. "This place was Demigra's prison, and now that he's dead, it doesn't serve any purpose, so it's self-destructing. Well, it saves me the hassle of starving to death, I guess."
As the Crack of Time began its collapse, Luffa looked around for some possibility of escape. Then she noticed something else. It was a small, glowing orb, no larger than a dinner roll. As it floated toward her, she realized it had come from the spot where Demigra had been before his body was destroyed.
Instinctively, Luffa reached out for the orb. She did not know for certain what it was, though she suspected that it was too important to ignore. And just as she touched it, it transformed, becoming a large bird.
"Tokitoki?" Luffa gasped with surprise. In her fury, she had almost forgotten that Demigra had absorbed the divine bird, and that they were still merged together when she killed him. "Then... You survived all of that?"
The Divine Tokitoki Bird stretched out his wings and made a loud warble. Luffa wasn't sure what to say. Fortunately, there was no need for words. The divine bird knew exactly what to do. He flapped his wings and began to flutter around Luffa in tight circles. And as Luffa watched Tokitoki in confusion, the Crack of Time began to fade away, as the two of them were transported to someplace else.
Luffa had a feeling she knew where they were going, though she was too tired to think about it. For the moment, any destination would be an improvement.
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story takes place
[??????????????????????]
The Time Vault had been destroyed, and with it, all of history. All that remained of the universe was Demigra, who had committed the destruction, and Luffa, the last warrior left to oppose him. They were all that was left of the universe, or so it had seemed.
"Demigra has withdrawn to the Crack of Time, his former prison. Since the Crack is cut off from the natural flow of time, it shelters him from the effects of the Time Vault's destruction. And you, Luffa, are here, with the Scroll of Eternity, and your friend Dotz, and with.... me."
Luffa looked down at the Scroll of Eternity, which she had dropped on the white ground of this empty space. Then she looked up at the being who had emerged from the parchment. "Who are you?" Luffa asked. "What are you? For a moment, you seemed to be Tokitoki, the bird from the Time Nest, but that doesn't make any sense..."
"Because Tokitoki can't talk," said the mysterious figure. "And Demigra absorbed the Divine Tokitoki Bird, so how could he be here now, speaking with you?"
"I'm not sure I understand it myself," Luffa said, glancing back at Dotz. "I mean, I'm still confused to see you here, and I still haven't figured out where 'here' is."
"The truth is," the figure explained, "that Dotz is not truly present in this moment. Her psychic abilities allow her to peek into her own future. From her perspective, this is all a vision of things to come."
"Well, uh, yes, that's how I understood it," Dotz said. "I've been trying to find out what happened to Luffa ever since she disappeared on Planet Nagaoka. I've been improving my abilities, trying to get a better fix on her, until... now. But I have to admit, it feels like I'm standing here with you both. I can see and hear and touch Luffa, even though I know I'm still in my dining room at home."
"It's an impressive achievement, Dotz," the figure said. "The reason your vision is so clear is because so little remains of this moment in time. Only Luffa and Demigra, and the Divine Toki Toki Bird, which he consumed to achieve his power over time."
"And you," Dotz said. "Whoever you are. Was it you who lead me here?"
"No, you made it this far on your own," the figure replied. "I could have prevented you from tracking Luffa to this point, but I was pleased with your efforts, Dotz, and so I chose to allow you to share this moment with Luffa, as a reward to you both. Your long quest to find your friend has reached a successful conclusion."
"A reward to us both? Why reward me?" Luffa asked. "What did I do?"
"Funny you should ask that," the figure said. "Even now, you position yourself between Dotz and myself. You don't know what to make of me, or what my intentions are, but you still make every effort to protect your friend, even though you doubt you have the power to do so. It's no wonder that you inspired her so."
"Inspired?" Luffa asked. "What do you mean?"
"He...uh, I guess I should say 'they'. Well, they're right," Dotz said. "You're the reason I went to all this trouble, Luffa. Ever since you brought me out of that coma with your powers, I've been intrigued by who you are, what you represent. It was like my psychic foresight was intensified, and I could see things more clearly. And yet I couldn't tell your fortune, which only intrigued me more. And more than that... You stood up for me. Like that day in the Federation Council meeting. I don't think you should have killed that person, but it still meant a lot to me. No one's ever really stood up for me like that before."
"Hmmph. That was nothing," Luffa said. "You did a lot for the Federation during the Jindan War, Dotz. That honorless toad should have shown you some gratitude, but instead she spoke to you with nothing but contempt. She was lucky I made it quick."
"Yes, well... it still meant a lot to me," Dotz said. "After you went to Nagaoka, I got involved with some activist movements. I wanted to try to make a difference, like how you always did. Using my abilities to help others, it was kind of like how I tried to help you. And it changed my life. I could tell you all sorts of stories, but... mostly, I just wanted to say 'thank you.'"
"That's..." Luffa began to say, though she couldn't find the rest of the words. At last she crossed her arms and turned away. "I didn't..." she said, trying again to respond, but she couldn't.
"I don't know what's happening here, Luffa," Dotz said. "I'd like to help if I can. But even if I can't, I know you'll do what's best for everyone. It's not a prediction. It's just something I've very sure about."
"Thanks, Dotz," Luffa finally murmured. "I... don't know if you're right, but I appreciate the support. It's good to see you again."
"Yes, but it's time for Dotz to return to her dining room table," the mysterious figure said. "As I said earlier, I was impressed by your efforts, Dotz, and I wanted you to reach Luffa so you could express your gratitude, but you've done that now, and I have business with her that I don't want to reveal to others."
"Oh," Dotz said. "Well, I hope I didn't overstay my welcome."
"Not at all," the figure said. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Dotz." It was difficult to make out its features, though Luffa thought she could see a friendly smile within the diffuse glow of its form.
"Uh... well, oh goodness. I guess I really am going back," Dotz said. Luffa turned to look at her, and found her body was beginning to fade away. Dotz held up her hands and watched them with detached fascination.
"Dotz!" Luffa said with a sudden urgency. "Tell Zatte I'm sorry! Tell her--!"
"Zatte?" Dotz asked. "Oh, dear me. I didn't even think of it! I should have told you before..."
"Tell me what?" Luffa asked. "Dotz! What do you mean?"
Dotz continued speaking, but Luffa could no longer hear her. She continued to fade away, and when Luffa reached out for her, her hands passed through Dotz's body as though she were not there at all. Indeed, she never had been there. Soon, even the image of Dotz was no more. Luffa stared at the emptiness that remained, then looked back at the mysterious figure.
"What was she trying to tell me?" Luffa demanded.
"If I thought you were supposed to know," the figure replied, "then I would have allowed her to stay and answer you."
"Then you're in charge of... whatever this place is?" Luffa asked, waving her arm at the emptiness. "You're the one who brought me here?"
"It was Demigra's idea to corrupt the Scroll of Eternity and leave it in reach," the mysterious figure said. "I just used his plan to suit my own purpose."
"You said you had business with me," Luffa said. "Well, here I am. Is it about me fighting Demigra? Because the rest of the universe is gone, so there's not a whole lot else left for me to do."
"Are you ready to fight him?"
"Does it matter?" Luffa threw out her arms in exasperation, then stared down at her boots. "I don't know. Probably not. I just know I couldn't leave things where they stand."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," the mysterious figure explained. "You've been fighting for the Time Patrol, but mostly to take your mind off your problems. You never really understood their cause. And now you're about to rush into another battle without pausing to prepare yourself, or to appreciate the stakes."
"Why does that matter to you?" Luffa asked. "You seemed to be Tokitoki, but Demigra absorbed him. You don't look like any of the gods I've met so far..."
As she considered this, she looked back at the unfurled scroll lying near their feet. "You rose up out of the Scroll of Eternity. So maybe you are the Scroll, assuming humanoid form?"
"Interesting guess," the figure said. "But that's not it. The full truth would be difficult for you to comprehend."
"Ninth Eye..." Luffa muttered. It was an ancient oath used by her old friend Dr. Topsas. He had spoken it in reference to his religion. Luffa only said it because Dr. Topsas used to say it.
"Well, that's an even better guess," the figure said. "Let's approach it from that direction."
The figure did not change, and yet it assumed a more distinct appearance all the same. Luffa might have expected it to transform in some observable way, but this did not happen. There was no flash of light or colorful metamorphosis. She was now looking at an arachnoid creature, similar in appearance to Dr. Topsas, but with nine eyes atop his head instead of the usual eight. Each eye gleamed a dazzling blue, like sapphire gems. Where Topsas' pedipalps constantly fidgeted and wiggled to indicate his mood, this arachnoid remained very still, suggesting a preternatural calm that no mortal could achieve. He stood on four of his eight legs, and held out the hands on his other four limbs in a welcoming gesture.
Luffa was not impressed. "Are you telling me that you're God?" she asked. "That Doctor Topsas picked the right religion, and everyone else is doing it wrong?"
"You recognize this imagery, Little Mammal," he said patiently. "I'm not claiming this as my identity, but it makes a useful model."
"Then you're some sort of overseer?" Luffa suggested. "Chronoa's boss, if she has one."
The arachnoid divinity was replaced with a new form, one Luffa had never seen before, but was somehow recognizable nonetheless. It looked like an alien child, with a large, egg-shaped head, blue in the center, and purple on the sides. The child's innocent eyes looked up at Luffa, and he smiled enthusiastically.
"Nuh-uh, this is Chronoa's boss," the child said with a giggle. "He thinks she does a good job, but she still gets really scared whenever she meets him. I mean really really scared."
"I'll take your word for it," Luffa said. "But I still don't understand."
The child was gone and the Divine Tokitoki Bird appeared. It spoke with a voice that reminded Luffa of Son Goku, if he had a beak and ate birdseed for every meal.
"You were right when you said I couldn't be Tokitoki, but let's consider him for a moment, shall we? Chronoa once told you that Tokitoki creates time. That sounds rather important, doesn't it? And yet, Tokitoki doesn't appear to be able to speak. He can't even feed himself, which is why the Kais chose one of their own to look after him."
"Just like how the Scroll of Eternity can't protect itself," Luffa said. "Demigra erased all of history pretty easily now that I think about it. I mean, it was an impressive attack he used, but the power behind it wasn't that intense."
"All of history? Then how are we talking to each other now? And what's that lying on the ground there?"
Luffa shrugged. "I just assumed Demigra left a chunk of time for me to exist in," she said. "Or he made all of this with his new power. I mean, he absorbed Tokitoki, the real one. That means he can create time now, right?"
"That's right."
The divine bird floating before Luffa was gone, and Demigra now stood in his place. Luffa's eyes narrowed, but she did not attack. The body language was all wrong, and though it was a perfect recreation of her enemy, she knew instinctively that this was not the same being.
All the same, it was still unnerving to see Demigra with such kind eyes, gesturing at himself like an elementary school teacher giving lessons.
"Demigra took the Divine Tokitoki Bird and assumed its powers for himself. He wants to control time in a way that Chronoa never could. After all, the Supreme Kai of Time isn't supposed to control time at all. She is a steward, tending her charge. The gardener doesn't command the plants to grow, nor does he bloom the flowers himself. There's an order to these things."
"Is that what you are, then?" Luffa asked. "You're some sort of... personification of nature?"
The not-Demigra raised an eyebrow, as though considering her question. "That's an interesting way of looking at it."
He was gone, and a new speaker was there. Luffa did not recognize this one. He looked like an Earthling, but not like any of the Earthling Time Patrollers Luffa had met. He was a civilian, tall, middle-aged, and entirely unremarkable. Without making eye contact, he paced around the emptiness, as though unsure what to do with himself as he talked.
"They wrote all those stories about you back then," he said, occasionally running his fingers over his beard. "You used to read them in your spare time, remember? Back when you lived aboard the Emerald Eye."
"You know about that?" Luffa asked. It had felt like a lifetime ago, but in her early career as the Super Saiyan, she had developed a fan following, and since they knew little about Luffa herself, they began to write their own stories and share them through subspace communication networks. Luffa had sampled a number of these for her own amusement.
"Yeah, like that one where you were a werewolf or whatever. Chapter... hold on. Right, Chapter 23. Sorry. I had to look it up. 'Sergio Blackthorne'. Great stuff."
"How did you know...?" Luffa asked. "Wait, 'Chapter 23'? What are you talking about?"
"One way to look at this is like you're a character in a story," he explained. "That someone is writing all of this down, right now, as you experience it. Everything you've ever said, done, or felt is in that story, no different from that other one you read, the one where you get sold to a boy band and they--"
"Could we not talk about that one?" Luffa said, blushing.
"Oh, right, sorry about that. Anyway, your whole life is the story. The Divine Tokitoki Bird just makes the paper that it's written on. The Scroll of Eternity contains the text, and the Supreme Kai of Time makes sure no one rewrites Chapter 23 and turns you into an accountant, or a space whale. But who's putting the words on the page? Who decides what happens next?"
"You?" Luffa guessed.
"Well, that would be telling," he said with a smirk. "It'd certainly be easier to just say that. Free will is an illusion, and everything you say and do is decided ahead of time by an old man with a beard sitting on a cloud. Or an old man with a beard sitting in front of a computer. Or it's a Kai with a magic wand, or a nine-eyed spider, or a disembodied Providence. But if it was all laid out for you in advance, then you and I wouldn't need to have this talk, would we? Demigra wouldn't be a problem either. You'd just do what you're predestined to do, and he'd do what he's predestined to do, and it would all be a formality."
"He gave me a choice," Luffa said. "He planned everything out, but he couldn't be sure about anything after he took out the Time Vault, so he offered a peace deal if I left him alone."
"And you chose to reject his offer."
She shook her head and made a desperate groan. "It was all wrong," she said. "I mean, I thought it was a trick at first, but it all seemed so real, and the longer I was in that world he created for me, the more I wanted to stay there. But it just wouldn't work..."
"I know. For what it's worth, it was real. Demigra really did use Tokitoki's power to preserve a slice of the old history for you to live your life over again. But you did well to refuse his temptation."
"Don't misunderstand," Luffa said. "I didn't leave that world because of any sort of selfless nobility or keen insight. I was in there for six weeks, living out my days on Dorlu Prime, trying to make things the way I wanted them to be. But in the end, I just found new ways to screw it all up."
"Exactly. You saw through Demigra's lie."
"What are you talking about?" Luffa asked.
"I'm talking about why it's forbidden to change history," the mysterious figure said. The form he took became that of the Supreme Kai of Time, and for a moment Luffa thought Chronoa had somehow joined them in this empty place.
"You always wondered, didn't you?" she asked. "Trunks changed history, and Chronoa allowed those changes to remain, but no one else gets the same exception. What's so wrong with changing the past? How could it be a crime to prevent a tragedy?"
"Trunks was trying to save his world from those killer cyborgs. Or androids. I forget which," Luffa said.
The figure changed again, this time assuming the form of Cell, in his perfect form. "And Trunks' actions led to a much greater crisis," he said. "Who's to say which changes were justified and which were not?"
"But it all worked out for him," Luffa protested. "Kakarot died either way, but at least he got to come back to life later on in one timeline. At least one version of Trunks got to grow up with his father."
"Perhaps, but what about some other boy who might have lost his father in the altered world? Trunks might have made a better world for some people, but it could have become worse for others."
"You don't know that," Luffa objected. "And even if you did, how could he be expected to anticipate every possible consequence of...?"
The mysterious figure looked like Trunks now, and he raised his chin triumphantly as the realization finally dawned on Luffa.
"Oh," she said.
"Oh," the mysterious figure replied.
"In the world Demigra made for me," Luffa said. "He killed all the Tikosi, so that I'd never become the Super Saiyan. My father never had the chance to betray me, never had the chance to turn my husband against me. I thought I had it made, except I never had any reason to go to the Plutark system, which meant I never had the chance to save Wampaaan'riix's life."
"Go on."
"I... I had no idea what to do with my husband and my future-wife. And while I was still making up my mind, they worked it out on their own. Some sort of dopey 'arrangement.' You're saying that was all real? That wasn't some crappy illusion Demigra came up with?"
"It was a real scenario, yes."
Luffa threw back her head and punched her right palm with her left. "I could have murdered them both," she growled. "The way they talked about... about sharing me like some half-empty canteen bottle! I expected Kandai to treat me like dirt, but she was special!"
"She would be special," he said. "Later, when time had passed and certain things happened between the two of you. Just because you and Zatte fell in love at a certain time, that doesn't mean you were compatible at an earlier time. She had feelings for you, even back then, but she wasn't ready for those feelings yet. Neither were you."
"The cake," Luffa said.
"Cake?"
"Chronoa tried to explain it to me," Luffa said. She began to pace around the void in wide arcs as she considered it. "She said time is what keeps everything from happening all at once. You can speed things up or go forward or backward, but the batter still needs time to bake."
She turned back to the figure with a worried look in her eyes. "What are you trying to tell me here?" she asked. "That there's only one way that everything has to turn out? Only one path that we all have to follow, no matter how much it hurts?"
"No," the figure said. "That's not it at all. I'm saying that the pain you experienced in the past may lead to something worthwhile in the future. When someone like you or Trunks tries to change the past, there's a chance it may make things worse, or different, or maybe even better. But how could you, with your limited perception, ever know for sure? In the end, all you can do is trade one sequence of events for another."
"Like with Cell," Luffa said. "He was designed to absorb 17 and 18, but they were already dead in his lifetime, so he had to go back in time to when they were still alive. Except that just wound up getting him killed."
"Very good," the figure said. Now it looked like Luffa herself. "Do you think Cell would rather be imperfect or dead? The point is that the time machine never actually offer him a better path. In the end, it only gave him a choice between two bad endings."
"I get it," Luffa said. "I mean, I sort of understood when I picked up that scroll to come here. But now it's a lot clearer to me. Sooner or later, no matter which friends I got to keep, no matter how strong I might have become, I probably would have run into some other problem. I could keep Keda from dying or disappearing, but for how long? I could avoid becoming the Super Saiyan, but that wouldn't just solve everything. Maybe I'd find myself in a pinch where I'd need that kind of power. It might have taken me years to get there, but sooner or later, I'd realize Demigra's 'gift' wasn't really worth it. It's just that..."
"Yes?"
Tears began to well up in her eyes. "It hurts," she said as she began to ball up her fists. "Not just the Tikosi, but all the other things that went wrong. And maybe Dotz turned out better off, but I let so many people down. Maybe if I'd done things differently, the Saiyans could have done something about Frieza, or... I don't know. Maybe my wife and I could still be together."
"You carry regrets," the figure said. "Things you wish you could undo."
"Yes," Luffa said. "I guess someone like you wouldn't know anything about that."
"Not exactly. But that's just why changing history is so dangerous. Trunks learned the hard way that regrets and good intentions aren't always enough. Your friends prayed to gods who could be called 'all-knowing'. They would exist outside of time. Everlasting. Eternal. They would know everything that ever happened and everything that ever will. To them, it's all like reading every page of the book all at once. And such a being would be wise enough to know how to alter history without any unwanted side-effects. But you? It just wouldn't work."
"Then what good am I?" Luffa asked. "If I'm bound to fail, then what's the point of going on?"
"Going on is the point," the figure replied. "If I were one of those eternal beings... I think I'd take some interest in the temporal existence of someone like you. Someone who can fail and succeed. Someone who doesn't know how the story ends, and so she has to do the best she can with what she does know. She makes her decisions based on what she's learned in the past. Life experiences, information gathered by others, and stories passed down from her ancestors. It's not perfect, but it gives her a code of conduct, a way to decide what to do when the path isn't so clear, and the answers aren't so obvious."
The figure took a new form, this time resembling Son Goku. Despite the physical resemblance, his expression lacked the care-free cheerfulness of the real thing. He looked down at Luffa with a sort of detached warmth in his eyes, like a person looking at a photo of a beloved pet. She didn't care much for this.
"Eventually," he went on, "you might go on to set an example for others, and they can learn from your mistakes or repeat them all over again."
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, then fat chance," Luffa said. "Kakarot's gone, remember? Demigra destroyed the Time Vault, along with the rest of history. And even if he survived somehow, he doesn't know a thing about me. He grew up on Earth, barely knowing what a Saiyan was. All he ever heard was that I was a man who blew himself up one day. Whatever legacy I might have had is through him, and he's gone now."
"You think so?" the figure asked. "So why did you take the scroll and come here, then? Demigra left it for you so you could fight him. But if everyone's already gone, then what would be the point?"
"I just wanted to get away from that other world he made for me," Luffa fumed. "He took away my Super Saiyan power when he stuck me in my younger body, but I still wanted to fight him, if only just to show him I wouldn't play along with his dumb plans."
"I see. Then you expect to die."
"Either he kills me, or I win and I'm stuck in the Crack of Time for the rest of my life," Luffa said. "What else is left?"
"Maybe you should take a closer look at that scroll and see for yourself."
Luffa was confused for a moment, then she reached down to fetch the Scroll off the ground. As she held it open, an image appeared in the parchment.
*******
[21 April, Age 850]
"After everything is destroyed, I'll make a new history! My history!"
As Demigra shouted these words, there appeared around him dozens of copies of his scepter, only they were blood red, and glowing ominously.
"What?" Chronoa asked. "What do you mean by that? What are you thinking?"
"A new history?" Luffa asked. "Can he do that?"
As she contemplated the question, Son Goku transformed into a Super Saiyan and attacked. Luffa followed his lead, but Demigra was ready for them, and he flung his hands forward, sending the crimson scepters down at them like a hail of arrows.
The two of them managed to dodge some of the energy spears, but there were too many of them, and one finally went through Luffa's chest. Soon enough, she was pinned to the floor of the Time Vault, and Goku was brought down only a few moments later.
As Chronoa knelt beside Luffa, the Time Vault echoed with the howls of the arcane wind, mixed with Demigra's triumphant laughter.
"Everything!!" he shouted. "Begone!"
"Demigraaaa!" Chronoa shouted. She stood between Goku and Luffa, and watched helplessly as Demigra produced a large energy distortion in the atrium of the Time Vault. There was nothing anyone could do...
*******
[???????????????]
In the empty world, Luffa looked up from the Scroll of Eternity and her eyes narrowed with quiet fury.
"That bastard..." Luffa muttered.
"You noticed something?" the mysterious figure asked.
She rolled up the scroll and waved it at him angrily. "This was all another temporal incursion!" she shouted. "It's the exact same crap I've been dealing with since I joined up with the Time Patrol!"
"Oh?"
She pointed to the scroll with her free hand. "Look!" she shouted. "It's got the same purple smoke coming off of it, just like every other time Towa or Demigra screwed around with history. I didn't realize it until just now, because I'm used to letting Chronoa or Trunks tell me these things, but it's the exact same deal! Which means I can go back to before it happened and fix it! Just like every other Time Patrol mission!"
"Well that is good news," the mysterious figure said.
"Which means," Luffa continued, "I can save the Time Vault! Kakarot and the others can survive! The history we knew can still exist!"
She began to pace back and forth, pumping her arms furiously as she talked.
"You seem upset about this," the figure observed.
"I'm upset because that coward Demigra knew all of this could be prevented!" Luffa seethed. "He knew this scroll would be left behind, and he knew I'd use it to undo his final attack, so he needed a way to keep me guessing instead of figuring that out! That other Dorlu Prime... that was no peace offering, it was a damn diversion!"
"Then it sounds like you're ready to face him," the mysterious figure said. "I suppose I should let you get on with your work. Good luck, as they say."
"Wait," Luffa said. "You never explained who you are."
"That's right. I didn't."
"Then whatever you are, at least tell me why you bothered appearing before me like this," Luffa asked. "You must be some sort of big shot in the hierarchy of the universe. So why take time out of your day to talk with little old me?"
The figure's form became vague and undefined again. It shrugged its shoulders, and Luffa had trouble making out the gesture. It was like looking at a shadow among shadows.
"Well, at the moment, you're the only one left in the whole universe," the figure explained. "So that makes you more important than you might think."
"I guess so," Luffa said.
"And the Divine Tokitoki Bird likes you," the figure continued. "That matters to me. He doesn't befriend people easily. There's a legend that says those befriended by Tokitoki receive a special protection."
"Is that what this is?" Luffa asked. "Did he send you to help me out? Are you some aspect of his time power or something?"
The figure turned and walked away from Luffa. "I never said that," the figure replied. "Anyway, Tokitoki is trapped inside Demigra, so how could he send anything to you? But maybe if you defeat Demigra, you can free him, and ask him yourself."
Luffa wanted to know more, but she lost sight of the mysterious figure as his form faded into the white expanse of the world around her. She was alone again.
"No," she insisted. "I was never alone. Dotz was with me in spirit this whole time. All of you were, in your own ways..."
She held up the scroll and stared at it. When held a certain way, the scroll would send a Time Patroller back to the moment of a temporal incursion, where she could intervene and set things right. The trip would be instantaneous.
But Luffa decided to wait a moment before proceeding with her mission. Instead, she held the scroll and began raising her power level, increasing her ki higher and higher, and directing her senses inward to monitor it.
It only took her a few moments to surpass her maximum level from when she lived on Dorlu Prime. Just as she had suspected, the younger body Demigra had "given" to her was another trick. Illusion or not, it was only temporary, and she was back to normal.
She continued to increase her power, letting her anger drive her on.
Then, after a certain span of time, when she was ready, she used the Scroll, and disappeared.
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story This story takes place about 1000 years before 66 years after 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[12 March 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Luffa had once been the Legendary Super Saiyan, until the Demon God Demigra offered her a chance to do it all over again. She found herself in a new history, where the alien hordes who captured and tortured her were all dead. With the Tikosi's extinction, and Luffa's foreknowledge of events to come, she had a chance to live her life the way she had always wanted. All of the friends, the love, the triumphs, with none of the loss, the regrets, the tragedies.
Or so it had seemed.
She was still trying to decide whether to accept Demigra's truce. His terms were simple. If she agreed to remain in this new reality, he would leave her alone. But if she refused to accept his triumphant ascension to godhood, then Luffa could confront him for one final battle. She only had to take the magic scroll he had left for her, and she would instantly travel from her world to his. Since that path lay open to her, she decided to take her time and see what this new world had to offer.
At first, it had seemed like a dream come true. She was back on Dorlu Prime, where she had spent her teenage years guarding the planet as a mercenary. Her treacherous father had left the planet in a profound despair. His plans for the future had died with the Tikosi, and only Luffa knew just how shaken this had left him. That suited her well, as it meant she could chart her own course without him.
Keda was alive in this world, still a healthy nine-year-old child, unaffected by the terrible conflicts that only Luffa could now remember. The same was true for Zatte, the captain of the Dorlun militia. In this era, she had been Luffa's best friend, although later they would fall in love and marry. However, in this era, Luffa was still married to her first husband, Kandai.
Luffa's plan was fuzzy in places, but the basic goal was to divide her time between the Dorlu Colony and finding mercenary work in the surrounding space sectors. That way, she could still have Zatte and Keda in her life, without taking them away from their home. From there, Luffa could reach out to other close friends she had made in the old reality. It would be a challenge to make contact with them all and befriend them all over again, but Luffa cared for them too much to simply ignore them.
But that part of the plan had ended before it could truly begin. She had contacted Dr. Topsas on Plutark VII, hoping to strike up a friendship with him while he put her in contact with Wampaaan'riix. Instead, he informed her that Wampaaan'riix had been killed in a Deathmatch tournament.
This had been a huge blow to Luffa, who had never even considered the possibility. In the old reality, Wampaaan'riix had survived the tournament, thanks to Luffa's refusal to kill him. This time, she had skipped the tournament, never suspecting that her Yetitan friend might lose his life to some other opponent.
After hearing the news, she was inconsolable for hours. The worst part was that she couldn't even tell anyone what was bothering her. There was no way to explain it.
In the old reality, she might have commiserated with Zatte through her telepathic abilities, which had become much more sophisticated after Luffa became a Super Saiyan. But in this reality, Luffa was still at the power level she had been at the age of nineteen. Telepathy on that level, with an alien, was impossible.
And eventually, after Luffa had neglected enough mealtimes in her despair, it was Kandai who reached out to comfort her. He didn't know why she was upset. Indeed, she had been distant towards him for days without any apparent reason. But he still knew how to charm her, and how to get her to vent her emotions without hearing the context behind them.
The answer was combat.
Their battleground was on the far side of the planet. Dorlu Prime was mostly a primeval wilderness covered in sparse vegetation and inhospitable wastes. The Dorluns had grand dreams for the planet, but their colony was only a tiny speck of civilization on an otherwise uninhabited world. And so it was easy for Luffa and Kandai to find a suitable place to fight without damaging anything important.
It was a one-sided affair. At her present level, Luffa's powers were no match for Kandai's, but that didn't stop her from hitting him with everything she had. As for Kandai, he held back, allowing Luffa to fight to her fullest without shutting her down too quickly. He still fought back, but only to keep her motivated to try harder.
In the end, Luffa put everything she had left into a final assault, charging all of her power into the fingertips of her left hand, and firing a focused beam of ki at his heart. But he was too fast to hit, and before she could react, he was grasping her by the wrist and spoiling her aim. She tried to headbutt him, only for Kandai to use his free hand to deliver a chop to her neck. Luffa collapsed to the ground in a heap. She was still conscious, but too weary to move.
"Not bad, Luffa," he said as he alighted beside her. "I guess training those blue folks really helped you improve."
"Th-thank you," Luffa said between gasps. When she finally found the strength to roll over onto her back, she saw Kandai had lain down beside her.
"Something's got you all riled up," Kandai said. "I don't know what it is, and I guess you're never gonna tell me, but I could sense it in those punches of yours. Oh, and that red laser beam thing you just used a minute ago. Where'd you learn that one?"
"Long... story..." Luffa said.
"Yeah, well your emotions were all over the place," Kandai said. "It's like you wanted revenge for something, and I don't even know what for. If I didn't know better, I'd think you wanted me dead."
"Maybe..." Luffa said with a bitter chuckle.
"Whatever it is, I'm sorry, okay?" Kandai said.
With a loud grunt, Luffa sat upright, and began grabbing at her black, sleeveless shirt.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"The same thing we always do after we spar," Luffa said as she pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it to the side. "Unless you're not up for it."
"Well, yeah, but I didn't think you'd be in the mood," Kandai said. "You haven't been... I mean, for the last month or so..."
Luffa started taking off her boots next. "I know. I've had a lot on my mind, that's all. And... and..."
He kissed her before she had to struggle to find the words that she couldn't say. Luffa returned his embrace, and they continued on in this way, lying in the crater they had made in the dusty wastes.
She was conflicted about making love to him this way. She was married to him in this world, but in the old reality, they had become enemies, and she had pledged herself to Zatte. It felt wrong to pursue her feelings towards either one, but after the news about Wampaaan'riix, she couldn't stand the isolation any longer. She needed to be held, and to be reassured, and Kandai could understand her without the need for words.
Later, as she lay beside him, her head cradled between his chest and his arm, she decided to ask the question. "Did you know my father was negotiating with the Tikosi?"
"What?" he asked, somewhat drowsily.
"I found out," she said. "Don't ask me how. He was plotting something with them. That's why he was so grim after he found out they were all dead."
"You're kidding, right?" Kandai asked. "No... no, you're serious, aren't you? Well, no. He never said anything to me about it. What the hell were we doing during all those patrols then?"
"They wanted a Saiyan specimen," Luffa said. "That's what the Tikosi would do. They wanted the Dorluns to study their abilities, and they wanted to study our zenkai."
"Luffa, why are you telling me this now?" Kandai asked.
"Because I want a straight answer," Luffa replied. "And you're a lousy liar after we've... well, you know."
"No! He never said anything about this," Kandai said. "What, you think he was going to hand me over to them?"
"I don't know," Luffa lied. "He might have had someone else in mind. Maybe even me."
"You're his daughter."
"So tell me," Luffa said. "If it had been me, he would have had say something to you, sooner or later. Would you have gone along with it?"
"The Tikosi are dead," Kandai said. "Your dad's long gone."
"Answer the question," Luffa insisted.
He sighed, then said: "Well yeah, I probably would have. I mean, what else could I do? Fight your dad and take on all the Tikosi all by myself? I'd just get us both killed."
As chilling as the answer was, Luffa found the honesty refreshing. "I see your point," was all she could think of to say.
"I mean, what would you do if they had picked me instead?" Kandai asked. "You're telling me you'd rush off and die in a fight you knew you couldn't win?"
Luffa was about to say that she would, without question. Her pride as a Saiyan would have demanded it, and the example set by the tales of the Old Heroes would have inspired her to fight in spite of the odds. She had proven her convictions time and again during he career as the Legendary Super Saiyan.
But then she thought of Demigra's truce, and how she still hadn't decided whether or not she would accept it. The conflict with Demigra seemed pointless now. The Time Patrol no longer existed, and the history they had fought for was already gone. How would the Old Heroes of Saiyan Legend have dealt with that?
"I think, once, I would have died for you without hesitation," Luffa said. "Now... I'm not so sure."
"So it's this business with your dad that's been bothering you this whole time," Kandai said. "And you were worried that I was in cahoots with him."
"Let's just say I've been rethinking my whole life," Luffa said. "And I'm seeing everyone I know with a new perspective."
"Oh yeah? And what do you see in me?" Kandai asked.
"You're a pushover," Luffa said.
"Hmph. Yeah, I suppose you've got me there."
"You said before you prefer to go with the flow, that you prefer to be a follower. The truth is you're just a doormat. You'll play along with whoever offers you the safest or most profitable path."
"I never pretended otherwise," Kandai said.
"You're probably right," Luffa said. "I just assumed you were more principled than that. I saw something noble in you, but that was only what I wanted to see. I put you on a pedestal because you were so much stronger than me. The ideal man."
"You weren't complaining a few minutes ago, when I was--"
"Yeah, yeah, you do that part just fine," Luffa said with a wry smile. "I guess I let that cloud my perception too.
"So we can call it off here," Kandai said. "If that's what you want. No hard feelings. Strictly business between us from here on out."
"I didn't say I wanted that," Luffa said.
"Then what do you want?" Kandai asked. "You've always had this glint in your eye, Luffa. Like you craved something with all your heart, and you could never put it into words. So how do we get it for you? You always talked about starting a family, but... well, I think we already know how to do that."
Luffa sat up and looked around for her clothes. "I... I think we should head back to the settlement," she said.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing!" she said, more anxiously than she wanted to sound. "I just... remembered I needed to check on something."
*******
Luffa did not spend long in the settlement, and headed directly for the Saiyans' ship. She fetched the medical scanner, and waved it around herself. She had done this before, but only to investigate the lack of certain scars on her body. Now, she understood that Demigra had somehow transported her into her younger body, that was no longer a mystery. But something Kandai had said to her in the wastes had convinced her to perform a more thorough examination.
The results were as she suspected, but before she could truly react, she heard Zatte and Kandai on board. They were looking for her, and so she stepped out to greet them.
"I just got back from meeting with the Elders," Zatte said. "It's not perfect, but I think I have a way to join your crew, Luffa."
Luffa was confused for a moment. She had completely forgotten Zatte's report to her superiors.
"Wow, you really worked her over, huh?" Zatte said to Kandai as she pointed at several scrapes and bruises on Luffa's arms and head. "I could sense you two going at it all the way from here."
"Whoa whoa! Hey...!" Kandai said. "You could tell we were--?! Oh, wait, you meant fighting. Well, yeah. Sometimes a little spar is the best way to get out of a funk."
"Sure, it's just weird to see Luffa be the one who gets all worn out," Zatte said. "I can come back later."
"No, it's fine," Luffa said. "The Dorlun Elders. What did they say?"
"In principle, they like the idea of a Dorlun operative maintaining a presence in space," Zatte began. "The problem is that I have obligations here, to this place. I'm not at liberty to explain that, but I can't just be re-assigned offworld so easily."
"So they want some other Dorlun to go with us instead?" Kandai asked. "That wasn't the idea. It's you or nobody."
"That's what I told them," Zatte said. "And they agree, I'm the best qualified for the position. The Elders just don't like one Dorlun running off by herself with a pair of aliens. But I've read the Holybook, and I think there's a way to flip this around to satisfy them."
"Holybook?" Kandai asked.
"Their religious text," Luffa said.
"Oh."
"Basically, if there was a familial connection between us, that would clear everything up. A legal relationship-- like adoption or marriage-- can be just as valid as blood." Zatte paused and looked at them both before continuing. "All right, so this might be a little too radical for you Saiyans, but hear me out. If I was married into your family, then I would have sufficient justification to go with you, and the Elders would approve of my transfer."
"What?" Luffa asked.
"Married to who?" Kandai asked.
"Well, Luffa," Zatte said. "I mean, scripturally, it could be to either one of you, but you're not my type, Kandai. No offense."
"Are you out of your mind?" Luffa exclaimed. She pointed at Zatte, then at Kansai. "I can't marry you, I'm already married!"
"No, this could work," Kandai said. He began to rub his hand over his chin as he considered it. "Once we make it official, we're free and clear, aren't we?"
"That's right," Zatte said. "The marriage itself is the thing. Once that's accomplished, well, I can play it any way you'd like."
"Well, this could work, I guess," Kandai said. "Luffa and I had been talking, and maybe things aren't working out between us as well as we thought."
"Oh?" Zatte said. "I don't want to cause any trouble between you..."
"It's fine," Kandai said. "I'm not that thick-headed. If things play out that way, then so be it. Or Luffa can switch back and forth for a while until she makes up her mind. Right, Luffa?"
"I... I need to get some air," Luffa said.
"What's wrong?" Zatte asked. "Look, if this is a problem for you, I apologize. I just thought--"
Luffa ran past them and kept going until she had made it through the entrance hatch. She did not stop until she reached her personal quarters in the settlement.
It was all wrong. So very wrong. Wampaaan'riix was dead, and Dr. Topsas didn't even know him or Luffa well enough to care. Kandai barely seemed to value their marriage at all, and Zatte was willing to exploit that to get a berth on their ship.
Perhaps it would have been simpler to part ways with Kandai and make a clean break, but even that option was muddied by the results of her medical scan. She was pregnant. It was so early into the term that she hadn't noticed it before, but the scanners could tell. He was only a cluster of cells in her uterus, but her only son, Katem, was already beginning to enter this reality.
She could still cut ties with Kandai anyway. His behavior in the old history had already proven that he cared little for their son. He might have been grateful to be excused from the responsibility of fatherhood, but it still rankled her to consider it.
Then there was Zatte. Luffa felt like their relationship in this reality had gotten off to a wrong start. There was something cynical about Zatte's approach, something she couldn't put her finger on. Then it hit her: The Makyans.
In the old history, the Makyans had captured Zatte after the Tikosi massacre. Luffa never learned exactly when that was supposed to have happened, or why the Makyans had been on Dorlu Prime in the first place. Luffa had rescued Zatte from their power, and that had changed the entire dynamic of their romance. Luffa had no intention of letting Zatte fall into their evil clutches again, but that meant her relationship with Zatte would never be quite the same as what Luffa had once known.
And that only raised further questions. Was it right to keep Zatte off Dorlu Prime to protect her from a possible Makyan raid? Would the Makyans even go to Dorlu Prime without the Tikosi attack to precede it? How could Luffa warn the colonists of a threat she wasn't even sure about? And whatever she decided, what would be the effects of those choices?
Her son, Katem, had died in the old reality, betrayed by everyone who claimed to be on his side. She imagined him as a grown man, still calling himself "Xibuyas"-- the name King Rehval had given him. She imagined him dying, abandoned on some nameless battlefield, wondering why his mother had been too weak to spare him from such a fate. Now, she had a second chance to get things right for him, but was it right? Was it worth Wampaaan'riix's life? And even if it was right, how could Luffa be sure that her son wouldn't end up suffering the same fate, or worse?
She couldn't stand it any longer. Every action, every inaction, every decision she made in this new world was fraught with consequences. It filled her with a dread she couldn't describe, and in her haste to be rid of it, she flung open the cabinet in the corner, and reached out for the glowing scroll that lay inside.
Demigra threatened to kill her if she used it, but that no longer mattered. If he had the power he claimed, then she would die in battle and have done with it. And if not...
She had no idea what a victory over Demigra could even be. If he had truly destroyed all of history, then killing him would mean there would be nothing left, except for her. What then?
The thought of drifting alone in the emptiness was enough to stay her hand. Was that her fate? To be the last survivor of a doomed universe?
Her hands began to tremble. She set her teeth and balled her fists, drawing blood from her palms as she tried to force them to be steady. Then, with a defiant snarl, she reached out and took the scroll, moving as fast as she possibly could, faster than her mind could second-guess herself.
The scroll glowed more intensely as she drew it towards her chest . And just as she wondered what was supposed to happen, the world around her went white.
*******
[??????????????????]
Luffa remembered this place, or at least another one just like it. It was a featureless expanse. The ground was smooth and snow white, while the skies roiled with turbulent aurorae. The scroll was still in her left hand.
"I'm back?" she asked. "This is where I was before I ended up on Dorlu Prime. Isn't it?"
"Yes. It's good to see you, Luffa."
The sound of another voice startled Luffa so much that she nearly jumped out of her boots. She spun around, and found a familiar face, one she had never expected to see.
"Dotz?!" Luffa gasped.
She was a fortune-teller Luffa had befriended at the beginning of the war with the Jindan Cult. Much of her appearance was the same as the last time Luffa had seen her. Dotz was tall, dressed in a long purple gown with hood around her face. A mauve shawl was draped across her shoulders, and her thin bony hands were clasped together in a hopeful gesture. The only differences lay in some of the arcane ornaments she wore, and her age. The Dotz Luffa had known was middle-aged. Now, she looked to be much older. Her once-subtle wrinkles now cut deeper lines in her face, and the greying hair under her hood now shone stark white.
"Oh, goodness. You look just like I remembered," Dotz said with a smile.
Luffa stepped toward her and placed her free hand on Dotz's shoulder. "Where are we, Dotz? Did you bring us here? What happened to you?"
She took a deep breath before answering. "It's funny," she said. "I've been wanting to find you for so long, and now that you're here I can't think of what to say. I, uh, well... I didn't bring us here. Let me start with that. This is just where you happened to be when I finally found you."
"You've been looking for me?" Luffa asked.
Dotz nodded solemnly. "Yes," she said. "Ever since you vanished that day on Planet Nagaoka. Everyone believed you had died. I mean... well, the planet exploded and everyone knew you were there when it happened. It made sense that you had perished there. It made sense to everyone, but not to me."
"I survived," Luffa said. "A magic dragon rescued me and took me into the distant future."
"Yes, yes," Dotz said. "I knew it had to be something like that. Shenron."
"You know about Shenron?" Luffa asked. "Then you know the rest? The Dragon Balls? The Time Patrol?"
"No," Dotz said, "but I've seen bits and pieces in my visions. What I meant was that it had to have something to do with you being sent forward in time. That was why I could never get a proper reading whenever I tried to tell your fortune. My psychic abilities improved after we first met, do you remember?"
Luffa nodded. "We couldn't have fought the war without you, Dotz," she said. "Well, we might have, but it would have been a lot bloodier without your ability to predict which planets the Jindan Cultists would attack. And you worked so hard to improve your abilities even further. I... never really got the chance to tell you how much I respected you for that."
She became overcome with emotion, and before she knew it, she dropped the scroll and embraced Dotz with both arms.
"Oh, well, I wasn't expecting this..." Dotz said.
"I've missed you," Luffa said. "You and all the others... I..."
"There now... it's okay," Dotz said as she patted Luffa on the back. "I... forgot how young you were when you disappeared. To tell the truth, I've been trying to find you for so long, it started to feel like an abstraction. Now that you're here, I... well. It's very good to see you."
"How did you find me?" Luffa asked. "I don't even know where this place is."
"After the war, I continued to develop my abilities," Dotz explained. "It always bothered me that I couldn't tell your fortune, even a little. That's why I didn't believe you died on Nagaoka. That should have been easy to foresee, but I had no idea until it happened. Well, over time, I got better at telling fortunes. I learned some new tricks, and improved on some old ones. I found out you were still alive in the far future, but there was still something obstructing my vision. It took me a while to get it right, but I finally managed to get past that obstacle. And uh... here I am."
"You transported yourself through time?" Luffa asked. "You never had that kind of ability before?"
"Well, no, and I don't have it now," Dotz said. "I'm not really here, Luffa. I can talk to you and touch you, but I think that's just because this vision I'm having is so focused, so clear. There's nothing else here in this time and place. So there's nothing to distract me from what I came to find, which is you."
"Then... then there's nothing you can do," Luffa said.
Slowly, she released Dotz from the embrace and stepped back. "When I saw you, I thought you might have had something to do with the scroll, or this place. Or maybe you could take me back with you."
Dotz shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm not really clear on what's going on. I saw visions of a man, screaming something about making a 'new history.' Is that why there's nothing here? But how did you survive?"
"It's a long story," Luffa said. "A goddess of time needed my help to stop an evil wizard, and I failed. He destroyed... everything." She waved at the emptiness around them, as if Dotz had not already seen it for herself. "He said he made a timeline just for me to live in if I left him alone... but... it's no good, Dotz. I'd just make a mess of that world too."
Luffa pointed at the scroll she had dropped. "He told me that if I changed my mind, I could use that scroll to take me to him for a final battle. But instead it just took me to this place. I don't know why. I don't understand any of it."
"What about the other one?" Dotz asked. "I sensed another presence in this time."
"Who?" Luffa asked. "As far as I know, it's just Demigra and myself at the end of existence. Who else could there be? Wait... you don't mean..."
"That's right. She's referring to me."
The new voice was not one Luffa had heard before. She and Dotz looked around, but found no sign of the speaker.
"Who's there?" Luffa asked, unsure whether she actually wanted answer. She nearly suggested that Dotz should stay close to her, but thought better of it. Even if Dotz were truly here, what could Luffa possibly do to protect her?
At last, she noticed the scroll beginning to glow a brighter shade of purple, and it unfurled all on its own. Luffa watched as something began to emerge from the parchment, like an animal rising up from a murky swamp. The form was indistinct, more like a glowing fog than a person. Then, as it cleared the parchment, it took shape, and Luffa could recognize the vague outline.
"It can't be," Luffa said. "I mean, you're the only one left, but how can you be here?"
Despite Luffa's confusion, there was no mistaking the Divine Tokitoki Bird. He floated there with outstretched wings, and stared intently at Luffa.
"Well then, Luffa," the voice said. "Are you finally ready to fight?"
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story This story takes place about 1000 years before 66 years after 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[2 February, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Luffa was not the Legendary Super Saiyan, but she still remembered another time, another life, when she was the Legendary Super Saiyan. That life, that time was over.
In that other lifetime, at the age of nineteen, Luffa achieved the mythical status after enduring a horrific ordeal at the hands of the Tikosi. After dispatching her father, Orij, who betrayed her to the Tikosi, she began her Super Saiyan career by hunting down her husband, Kandai, who had sold their unborn child to the Saiyan King, Rehval III, for study. Luffa found a measure of solace with her second marriage to Zatte, the former captain of the Dorlun militia, and their friends: the young Dorlun Keda, the arachnoid physician, Dr. Topsas, the Yetitan Wampaaan'riix, and later on, the fortuneteller, Dotz.
That all came to an end when Luffa became embroiled in a conflict with the Saiyan Kingdom, which culminated in a final showdown on Planet Nagaoka. Luffa used the light of the full moon to combine her Super Saiyan form with the Oozaru form, and ended up destroying the entire planet. She had expected to die along with her enemies, but then she was rescued by the Time Patrol, a band of warriors from the distant future. They recruited her to help them defend time itself, only to fall before the ancient Demon sorcerer, Demigra.
Demigra had triumphed by destroying the Time Nest, and along with it, the Scroll of Eternity, which contained the entirety of history. But he had saved a small piece of it, and offered it as a cession to Luffa, the only other survivor of the old universe. Luffa, it seemed, was the one foe he could not take for granted. For the Time Patrol had used the Dragon Balls to wish for an ally, and Demigra feared that the wish, granted literally, could mean that Luffa was somehow destined to thwart Demigra's plans. Unwilling to put that to the test, he offered her a truce. If she agreed not to oppose him in his plans to create a new history, then he would allow her to live peacefully in the last remnant of the old history, a world where she never became the Super Saiyan.
And so, Luffa was nineteen again, a mere Saiyan housewife in a family of mercenaries, stationed on Dorlu Prime. The Tikosi had not yet carried out their massacre of the colony, and this time-- thanks to Demigra's intervention-- they never would. Thanks to his magic, the Tikosi had all turned upon one another and they were all dead. Orij's betrayal would never take place, and Luffa could live her life over again, without the trauma that had changed everything.
*******
[3 February, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Technically, Luffa was still thinking it over. There was a Scroll of Eternity lying in a cabinet in her living quarters on Dorlu Prime. According to Demigra, if she opened the scroll, it would bring her to the Crack of Time, where Demigra was busy preparing his new history. Once there, Luffa could renew hostilities, and Demigra would accept the risk of a final showdown.
*******
[6 February, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Technically, Luffa was still thinking it over. She could use the scroll at any time, so there was no need to rush. She had missed Dorlu Prime, and its dull, dreary scenery was a perfect place to recuperate and plan. If she chose to fight Demigra again, she could do it on her own terms. Here, she could consider strategy, or even train for the fight. And the longer she waited, the more surprised Demigra would be when she finally rejected his offer.
*******
[14 February, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Technically, Luffa was still thinking it over. After the second week, she decided to return Kandai's affections. In the former timeline, Kandai had gone along with her father's betrayal, but in this world, the Tikosi were all dead, and so Orij's scheme was undone before it could ever truly begin. Luffa had been uneasy around Kandai, but she also discovered how much she had missed him. And it was hard to hold a grudge against him for something he hadn't done yet. Luffa told herself it was to keep up appearances, so no one would notice that anything unusual about her behavior. That she happened to enjoy the way he would plant his hands on her sides was immaterial.
*******
[19 February, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Technically, Luffa was still thinking it over. She had kept a professional distance from Zatte during this time, hoping not to complicate things after that impulsive kiss they had shared. They had been married in the former timeline, but that was still years away. It would take time to transition away from Kandai and towards her true love, but Luffa had tipped her hand. For her part, Zatte seemed to respect Luffa's embarrassment over the incident, but it still changed their friendship. Things would be awkward for a while, but in the end, it wouldn't matter.
*******
[27 February, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Technically, Luffa was still thinking it over.
Practically, she had been so busy making plans that she hadn't given much thought to Demigra, or the scroll, or the Time Patrol. With the Tikosi dead, life on the colony was different, and everyone was figuring out what to do next. Everyone except Luffa's father, who had been plotting with the Tikosi all along.
Ever since he learned of their extinction, Orij had been despondent. The Dorluns had agreed to extend their contract with the Saiyan mercenaries, long enough to verify that the Tikosi were truly dead, but this would only confirm what he already knew. And so, while everyone else prepared for the future, Orij was left to wonder how things had gone so wrong. No one knew that he had been secretly conspiring with the Tikosi, and so no one really understood what was bothering him.
No one but Luffa, and she had no sympathy for his loss.
She had more important people in her life to worry about.
*******
[1 March, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
"What's on Plutark VII, Luffa?"
The Dorluns had a communications array for contacting other planets and starships in deep space. It rarely saw much use, since the Dorluns preferred to keep to themselves. Today, Luffa sat at the controls, while Keda watched her with great interest.
"Just some friends of mine," Luffa explained. "I think you'd like them too. If I can ever get ahold of them on this thing, I might invite them over. Introduce you."
"Your dad left today, didn't he?" Keda asked, still eyeing the controls. She reached for one of the translucent plastic buttons that was glowing green.
Luffa brushed Keda's fingers away before she could touch it. "Hey, I told you to be careful with this stuff," she said. "Governor Coyto will put us both in jail if you break it."
"Nuh-uh," Keda said. "You'd just bust out."
"Yeah, well what makes you think I'd take you with me when I escaped?" Luffa asked. "Nah, never mind. I guess I owe you, kid."
"Owe me for what?" Keda asked.
Keda had infiltrated the Tikosi Hiveworld and eventually rescued Luffa from their clutches. Luffa had felt indebted to her ever since. She couldn't explain that to the child, since those events had not happened yet, and never would.
"Never mind," Luffa finally said. "Just don't touch any of these controls. I can't get through to Plutark today, but I might have better luck tomorrow... so I can't have you messing around with this stuff and breaking it, all right?"
"Okay," Keda said.
It felt surreal to tell Keda not to touch any of the equipment, since Luffa had seen an older, more capable Keda operate most of a starship by herself. Luffa had shown her much of the basics, and Keda had learned from a few others, but she was mostly self-taught. She even had a knack for figuring out the controls on other ships with unfamiliar configurations. It would probably only take a few days for her to figure out how to operate the Dorluns' communication array, but there were more experienced technicians in the colony, and the need for Keda to learn such things never came up.
It was better this way, Luffa told herself. Here, Keda could just concentrate on being a kid. She could live her life the way she was meant to, without being a sidekick for the Legendary Super Saiyan.
"What about your dad?" Keda asked.
"What about him?" Luffa said, still looking over the readouts on the monitors.
"He left," Keda said. "This morning. Kandai took him up in your ship, and then he came back without him. He said he dropped him off someplace."
"Yeah, they salvaged a Tikosi ship during their last run," Luffa said. "Father's going off to do his own thing, but we still need our ship, so he'll be operating out of the Tikoshi ship from now on."
"Forever?" Keda asked.
Luffa shrugged. "Who knows? He might trade it in for something better. That's his problem now."
"No, I mean, he's not coming back?" Keda asked.
"I told him I was thinking about going solo," Luffa said. "Turns out Kandai wants to tag along. That leaves Father on his own, so he decided to move on."
"Didn't you want to say goodbye?" Keda asked.
"Not really," Luffa said coldly. "I said everything I needed to say to him already."
That was true enough, though Luffa didn't want to explain the details to Keda. Luffa alone knew the truth about her father's scheme, though she couldn't confront him, since she lacked the power to defeat him if he chose to fight. It was better this way. He secretly feared Luffa's potential, and without the Tikosi to help him exploit it, he was eager to get as far from his daughter as he could. And that suited Luffa as well. If they ever did meet again, she planned to be ready for him.
Still, she could tell from Keda's expression that the youth was not satisfied with this, and so Luffa reached out and patted her on the shoulder.
"It's fine," Luffa said. "I can always contact him if I need to talk to him. But right now I've got more important things to worry about."
"Like what?" Keda asked. Luffa couldn't help but smile. She had learned long ago that there was no way to stop Keda from asking questions, but one could distract her with new questions.
"Like confirming that you and your people are truly safe," Luffa said. "And if the Tikosi really are gone, then we can start to plan for the future..."
*******
[6 March, 238 Before Age. Tikosi Hiveworld.]
The planet was just like Luffa remembered it. From orbit, the Tikosi Hiveworld looked like a large ball of mud. There was some sparse vegetation, but no farms or roads or any other sign of civilization. The Tikosi kept these hidden beneath earthen fortifications. Like ants and termites on many other planets, the Tikosi dwelled in underground tunnels, but their advanced technology allowed them to remain hidden indefinitely. They grew food in hydroponic vats, drew energy from geothermal taps, and maintained their fleet of spaceships in vast hangars constructed under hollow mounds of dirt. An unsuspecting visitor would easily mistake it for an uninhabited world, and by the time that visitor got close enough to the surface to realize the truth, it would be far too late to escape.
"Hard to believe it was so close to us," Zatte said as they walked across the barren surface. "I mean, thirty light-years isn't close, but still..."
"Surprised the hell out of me too," Kandai said from a few steps behind her. "We passed through this system a few times, and I thought it might make a decent base, but the scans showed nothing unusual. Well, nothing unusual then. But now...well, you can tell this placed used to be inhabited."
As he said this, he stepped over the half-burned corpse of a Tikosi adult. Its broken exoskeleton shattered under the weight of his bootheel. All around them, thousands of bodies just like it lay scattered around the city. The earthworks that had once covered the area were now partially collapsed. The western edge of the city was still shaded by a partial dome of dried mud, while chunks of dirt lay in the streets in the center. On the eastern side, the dome had collapsed completely, burying countless Tikosi underneath.
Not far from their position, a column of smoke wafted out of a wrecked machine. This odor, combined with that of the Tikosi casualties, was what stirred Luffa's memories the most. As she surveyed the ruined world, she could only compare the devastation to the carnage she had wrought when she first transformed in the Legendary Super Saiyan. She had managed to restrain herself from slaughtering all of the Tikosi in that reality, but she had destroyed most of their warriors and infrastructure that day. Seeing them all dead wasn't all that different.
She hung behind Kandai and Zatte, glaring at the scenery without really seeing anything. She already knew what had happened here. All that really mattered was letting the Dorluns confirm it for themselves.
"Over here," Kandai said. He gestured to a pair of Tikosi bodies lying in the doorway of a partially collapsed building. Each Tikosi had four arms, and all eight of their hands were still locked around each other in a death struggle.
Zatte drew closer, and knelt down to examine the bodies. "Interesting," she said. She pointed at a hole that passed through the thorax of one corpse and continued on into the head of the other.
"We found a lot of them like this," Kandai said. "They died at each other's throats. Literally. Looks like a third bug must have snuck up on them while they were fighting, and took them both out with a plasma rifle."
Zatte had reached the same conclusion, and was already looking around to find the shooter. "There," she said, pointing to another structure nearby.
Luffa was staring off into the horizon when she heard Zatte snapping her fingers.
"Hey. Hey, dummy," she said. "Wake up, will you?"
"Huh?" Luffa asked.
"Clear away that debris, will you?" Zatte asked with a grin. "I want to check for something."
"Debris? Oh."
Zatte was pointing at a collapsed building behind Luffa. It only took a moment for her to hold out her hands and produce a burst of force that scattered the clumps of dirt in all directions. Much of it was knocked away in large pieces, while the rest was pulverized into dust, which hung in the air like an ominous orange cloud. What remained was a much shallower pile of dirt, and the remains of several Tikosi corpses that had lain underneath.
"There it is," Zatte said. She headed for the site of the former building, patting Luffa on the shoulder as she passed her.
"Something bugging you, Luffa?" Kandai asked.
"No," she said. "I was just distracted, that's all."
"She misses her grill, that's all," Zatte said as she sifted through the dirt.
"Yeah, I should have known," Kandai said. "Not that I mind the company, but it kind of sucks that you won't have dinner ready for us when we get back."
"Got it!" Zatte said, raising a dusty weapon from the debris. A Tikosi hand was still clinging to the handle, and she had to wrestle it free before standing up. She wiped off the metal surface of her prize, then inspected it.
"Now how did she know where to find that?" Kandai asked.
"She's more formidable than you might think," Luffa said. The truth was that each Dorlun had a special ability, which the colonists had kept secret from the Saiyan mercenaries. Luffa had only learned of this later on, when Keda had used her own ability to help save her from the Tikosi in the old reality. Zatte's power was revealed to Luffa months later. She could manipulate different forms of energy, and this gave her certain perception that Saiyan senses couldn't match. A plasma rifle had no ki signature, but Zatte could locate the power cell inside the rifle quite easily, if she was tuned to its particular energy patterns.
"This one shot the other two," Zatte concluded. They were rolling around that spot over there, and this one stood right about here, and..."
She leveled the weapon, and fired it at the pair of corpses, then walked over to inspect the new hole she had put in them.
"Burn pattern's consistent," she said. "I might have suspected an enemy of stealing their weapons to cover their tracks, but seeing all of this... it's pretty clear they turned on each other."
"That's what I said from the start," Kandai told her. "Hmmph. 'Formidable'."
"Oh, she's pretty handy with a rifle like that," Luffa said. "I bet she could take you out without too much trouble."
"Yeah?" Kandai said. "How about it, Captain? You think so?"
Zatte aimed the rifle at his chest as she considered it. "I'd need a few hundred yards for safety," she said. "And a better scope. But yeah, if you weren't on your guard, Kandai, I think I could put you down."
Luffa couldn't help but chuckle at this. In the old reality, Zatte had shot Kandai while he was busy trying to kill Luffa. It was surreal to see the two of them getting along so well. It had been like this before. Zatte and Kandai were never close, but they got along reasonably well. Luffa just hadn't appreciated the rapport between them until now.
Kandai laughed as well. "I can see why you two are so close," he said to Luffa. "While I've been out with your dad, you two were back on Dorlu Prime plotting against me."
"It's nothing personal, Kandai," Zatte said. "I have to be prepared for anything."
She checked the Tikosi rifle and removed its power cell, then tossed them both to the ground.
"I'm satisfied," Zatte finally said. "Governor Coyto still wants me to take aerial recordings of the planet's surface, maybe find one of their computers, but at this point I think that's just a formality. Everything you told us checks out, Kandai. I can't imagine why the Tikosi turned against each other like this, but they're definitely all dead. If Coyto wants to know more, that's his call, but it's a job for a forensics team, not mercenaries like you two."
"Good," Kandai said. "Nice to see there's at least one of you blue people that listens to me once in a while."
"It never hurts to verify these things," Zatte said. "Our species didn't last this long by being reckless. But we can talk about that on the ride home. Right now, I just want to get away from this stench. You mind if I borrow your wife for a little while?"
"Fine, take your pictures for Coyto," Kandai said. "I'll meet you back at the ship, ladies."
Luffa watched him take off, and kept staring into the distance after he vanished from sight. At last, Zatte took her by the hand to get her attention.
"You're really out of it today, you know that?" Zatte said.
"Huh?" Luffa asked.
"I need you to fly me over the planet's surface," Zatte said. "Were you not paying attention? Maybe I should have had Kandai do it, but it's more fun when you're the one carrying me."
"Right, sure," Luffa said. She shook her head, and scooped Zatte up in her arms, one hand gripping her knees, the other tucked under Zatte's shoulder.
"Oh," Zatte said.
"What?" Luffa asked.
"I just wasn't expecting this," Zatte said. "I mean, it's fine. Uh... really fine, but uh...."
Luffa grumbled under her breath and leaped into the sky.
*******
[10 March, 238 Before Age. Interstellar Space.]
"That's right. 'Topsas'. He runs a clinic in the city. Yes that's the number I have, but there was no response on the line. All right. Okay. Well, thanks for checking it out for me. Luffa out."
Luffa pulled off the headset and tossed it onto the deck. The communications array on Dorlu Prime was more powerful than the one on the Saiyans' ship, but their position relative to Plutark VII was apparently more favorable for interstellar transmissions. None of that mattered, though, when Dr. Topsas never answered his subspace radio.
She stormed out of the pilothouse and made her way aft to the habitat section. There, she found Zatte and Kandai sharing a kettle of nutrient tea.
"You should have seen his face!" Kandai said. "I didn't know their eyestalks could stick out that far!"
Luffa only caught the end of his anecdote, but judging from Zatte's laughter, it must have been very funny. She still wasn't used to how well the two of them had been getting along, but after four days alone together, it was starting to feel more normal.
"Any luck with that doctor you told us about?" Zatte asked as Luffa approached.
"No," Luffa said. "He's probably busy with a patient or something. I may have to go there in person."
"You really think he can score us a better ship than this one?" Kandai asked.
"Trust me," Luffa said. She hadn't bothered to explain the details to them, since they wouldn't understand. As far as they knew, Luffa had a contact that could provide them with better transportation. The truth was that Luffa planned to steal the same star-yacht she had been "awarded" in the former version of reality. And she planned to reach out to Topsas and Wampaaan'riix while she was there, since she knew they would all be in the same place. It would be awkward befriending them when they didn't know her yet, but she would figure that out when the time came.
As she passed the small booth where they were sitting, Kandai reached out and took hold of her tail. "Hey, hold up a second," Kandai said. "We wanted to talk about some stuff."
Luffa gasped, more from surprise than discomfort, then stepped backward, letting Kandai reel her in until he was sitting beside him.
"I can't believe you two do that," Zatte said.
Luffa had forgotten about it herself until they set out for the Tikosi Hiveworld. It had been easy to keep her distance before, when she had first arrived in this new reality. Dorlu Prime offered plenty of ways to be alone, and if she acted strangely on that first day, it wouldn't be so conspicuous. But now that grace period was over, and she faced greater scrutiny aboard a small ship with two people who knew her so well. Fortunately, she found it was getting easier to fall back into the old routines.
"He's just making sure I haven't gone soft," Luffa said with a smirk. "So what's the big deal? If this is about dinner, I already told you..."
"I want to come with you guys," Zatte said.
Luffa's jaw dropped. That had been her plan all along, but she hadn't expected Zatte to just blurt it out in front of Kandai. She looked over to him, and he smiled.
"We were talking earlier," he said, "and we both realized we had the same idea."
"But it's your show, Luffa," Zatte said. "I mean, we kind of discussed it the other day, but... well... I didn't want to push for anything."
"Well, I'll push for it," Kandai said. "I think you should let her join us. So how about it?"
"Hold on," Luffa said. She looked at Kandai with one eyebrow raised. "You're asking me to bring her along?"
"Well sure," Kandai said. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer. "You're the one who wanted to split off from Orij, Luffa. This is your caper. You decide who's on the team, or if there even is a team."
"I just thought... You and Father were so much stronger than me," she said. "I mean, yeah, it's my plan, but I didn't think you'd be this comfortable letting me call the shots."
"Kandai's a chain-of-command kind of guy," Zatte said. "So am I. I'll admit I had my concerns, but hanging out with you two on this mission, I can tell we all work together well. And Kandai feels the same way."
"She's not much of a warrior by our standards," Kandai said, "but she can handle herself better than most aliens I've met. And she brings a lot of other skills to the table. And she's not as squeamish as I thought she'd be. The other Dorluns, I don't think they'd be too eager to dig around a dead planet full of Tikosi corpses." He glanced back at Zatte and added: "Uh, no offense."
"None taken," Zatte said. "That's why I wanted to come along. Now that the colony is secure, I'm not sure there's much more for me to contribute. But if I could serve on this ship, I could do some scouting, and maybe identify some potential threats to Dorlu Prime before things got out of hand."
"Of course, that'd mean sticking close to this sector," Kandai said. "But we've been using her planet as a base for years anyway. We just wouldn't be getting paid to stand guard over it."
"I think I can talk Governor Coyto into letting me join your group," Zatte said. "I'd still have to clear it with the Elders, but I have some ideas to convince them. So, what do you think, Luffa?"
"You're seriously okay with this?" Luffa asked Kandai.
"Oh, come on, Luffa," Kandai said. "You girls are best friends, right? I'd feel bad if I split you two up."
"Riiiight," Luffa said. She had impulsively kissed Zatte a month ago, and had regretted it ever since. In this era, Zatte had unrequited feelings for Luffa, which weren't supposed to be requited until much later, after Kandai's betrayal. But without the Tikosi and Luffa's father, Kandai's betrayal could never happen. This left her in a very awkward position, one made even more awkward by how well the three of them seemed to be getting along.
"The best," Zatte said with a knowing grin. She winked at her with her right eye, the one Luffa still hadn't gotten used to seeing again, since Zatte originally lost it during the Tikosi attack that was no longer destined to happen.
"Well, let's see how the Dorluns feel about it," Luffa said. "But if they're okay with it, I mean... sure. I'd love to have you aboard, Zattie."
"Zattie?" Zatte asked.
"Well she we can't keep calling you 'captain'," Kandai said. "On a starship, that kind of thing gets confusing."
"Ha-ha... right," Luffa said anxiously. "Anyway, if you can clear it with your people, then you're welcome here with me... us. Both of us. Yeah."
"Great!" Zatte said. She jumped up from the booth and went to the other side, where she gave Luffa a hug.
"I'm really looking forward to this," she said as she finally released Luffa and reached over to shake Kandai's hand. "And I won't let you down, I promise."
"She'll hold you to that," Kandai warned Zatte as he pointed at Luffa. "My wife can get pretty demanding."
"Oh, I know all about that," Zatte said. "And this time I don't have fifty Dorluns to back me up like I did in those training drills. Listen, I should get started on my report for the Elders. Luffa, when you have some time, you mind if I pick your brain about some things?"
"Sure," Luffa said. "After dinner, maybe."
Luffa waited until she heard the hatch close on Zatte's cabin, then looked up at Kandai. "You're really okay with this?" she asked.
"You keep asking me that," Kandai said. "It was my idea. Well, I guess we all thought of it separately, but that just means we're all in agreement, doesn't it?"
"I just thought you'd object to having an alien on the crew," Luffa said. "Or you'd have a problem with me splitting off from Father. Or... having a woman on the ship with us."
"Oh, so that's what this is about," Kandai said. "Thought I'd get jealous, is that it?"
"Well... are you?" Luffa asked.
"Luffa, you're the one who wanted us to get married," Kandai said. "You wanted the happy homemaker bit, the litter of brats, and all the rest. I, uh, enjoy your company well enough... uh... well, you know what I mean."
"I hear you," Luffa said. This was as close to a love declaration as he had ever made. Sparing him from finishing it was the most honorable way for a Saiyan mate to receive it.
"Right, well... if it ends, it ends. Personally, I don't think you're the type to run off with some alien chick." He glanced back in the direction of Zatte's cabin before continuing. "I mean... I'm not blind. I see the way you look at her sometimes. I get it. Some of those blue women aren't bad at all. I'm not into their weird colorations, but that why they invented light switches. It's the lack of tails that I can't get around--"
"Let's try to stay focused here," Luffa chided.
"All I'm saying is I'm not your dad, Luffa. I worked for him because it was easy money, and his daughter practically threw herself at me. I know he was real particular about how his ship was run, and he didn't mind using his higher power level to get his way. Me, I'm more of a follower. If you and 'Zattie' wanna run the whole show and use me as muscle, I can live with that. If you want a divorce, I can handle that too. As long as I'm well paid and well fed, I think I can handle just about anything."
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had always thought of him as more principled, at least somewhat like herself. That was what made his betrayal hurt so much in the old reality. But now, it was clear that she had only ever seen in him what she had wanted to see. She had been, after all, an idealistic, lovestruck teenager, convinced that she had a duty to marry a proper Saiyan mate and raise a family. Like her parents had done... or so she had believed at the time.
And she always assumed Kandai was driven by the same duty. Instead, he was ambivalent enough that he could take or leave their marriage as long as his basic needs were met.
It seemed so obvious now, and yet she had never suspected it before.
"The truth is," Luffa finally said, "that I'm not really sure what I want out of this. I guess with all the changes we've seen, it's too fluid for me to make up my mind. Maybe that's why I thought you'd put your foot down on something like this. In a way, I almost want someone to decide for me."
"Now I don't buy that for a minute," Kandai said, squeezing her tightly in his arm. "You're just like your old man... well, not just like him, thankfully... but you're too bossy to be indecisive. But I know you want Zatte on this crew, and she seems up for it, so we might as well play it out and see what happens."
And in that moment, with the quiet thrum of the ship's engines, and his scent filling the air, Luffa found herself remembering just what she had found so attractive about him in the first place. She had misunderstood him in so many ways, but he was also very pliable and receptive to her ideas. He would listen to her ramble on in the small hours, and none of her aspirations were too radical for him. And so, overcome with that affection, she said the most loving thing a Saiyan could say to their mate:
"I'm gonna get dinner started."
*******
[12 March, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime]
"Who is this?"
"I already told you. My name is Luffa. I'm a Saiyan. I wanted to talk to you about the Deathmatch Tournament they're holding on Plutark VII."
After returning to Dorlu Prime, Luffa continued her efforts to raise Plutark VII on the communications array. At long last, she had finally gotten a response, but her triumph seemed less than satisfying.
"Then you ought to contact the tournament organizers. Though if you want my advice so badly, then I would counsel you to steer clear of such a competition."
Luffa rolled her eyes and groaned. The alien on the viewscreen was her old friend, Dr. Topsas. He looked the same as the last time she had seen him, five years in the future, in another reality. But Topsas did not recognize her at all, and she had forgotten how blunt and dismissive he could be towards strangers.
"Doc, I'm not looking to enter the tournament. I wanted to get in touch with one of the participants. And I happen to know that you provide medical services to the competitors between rounds."
"And how could a little mammal like you possibly know about such things?" Topsas asked. "Not that I am admitting to anything of the sort, mind you."
The truth was that Luffa had entered the tournament on Plutark VII, and met Topsas backstage. She had gone to Plutark seeking to test her skills, and the competition had proven very beneficial. By the time she faced her last opponent, a Yetitan named Wampaaan'riix, she had become so powerful that he was no match for her. Then she discovered that her Saiyan telepathy had been greatly enhanced, and she decided to test that ability on him. She had hoped to learn his fighting strategy and nothing more, but instead Luffa ended up learning almost everything about the man: His name, his homeworld, his family and personal history, and his deep regret that he would meet his death at the hands of Luffa. And so, Luffa was overcome with empathy, and spared the Yetitan's life.
This had greatly upset the tournament organizers, as mercy was against the rules in a Deathmatch Tournament, but their security forces were no match for her, and Luffa convinced them to let the matter drop, in exchange for a star-yacht owned by one of the principal owners of the event. In time, Luffa's actions on Plutark VII won her the gratitude of not only Wampaaan'riix, for sparing his life, but of Dr. Topsas as well.
"You never approved of the Deathmatches," Luffa said, "but you still felt an obligation to treat the competitors, even knowing they would probably die the same day. The medical boards all boycotted the events, and threatened to revoke the license of anyone who cooperated with the tournament organizers. But you worked out a deal to practice there in secret, Doc. Your pride as a physician would allow for nothing less."
His pedipalps began to tremble in a particular way. Knowing him as well as she had, Luffa could interpret his body language to some extent. His arthropodic gestures were impenetrable to most humanoids, but Luffa could tell he was concerned... and curious.
"An interesting story," he said after a short pause. "But even if it were true, I fail to see why a Saiyan warrior would go to the trouble of blackmailing a doctor."
"I'm not trying to blackmail you, Doc," Luffa said. "I just wanted to get your attention. I'm looking for a Yetitan by the name of Wampaaan'riix. My... sources... tell me he entered this year's tournament. Chances are, you helped patch him up."
"And what of him?" Topsas asked.
"I have some business with him," Luffa said. "I'm... not at liberty to say more."
"Ah, of course. I might have expected something like this," Topsas said ruefully. "There's a bounty on his head, isn't there? Or you're looking to avenge some terrible deed he may have committed. Or perhaps he simply had unpaid debts."
"What?" Luffa asked. "No, that's not it at all. I just want to--"
But Topsas had heard enough. "Ms. Luffa, was it? I am quite busy today, and while this conversation has been very intriguing, I must say that I've had my fill of romance for one afternoon. The fact of the matter is that your Wampaaan'riix is no longer available for 'business', yours nor anyone else's. He was pronounced dead yesterday."
"Dead?!" Luffa gasped. "That... that can't be right!"
"You seemed quite familiar with the Deathmatch Tournament a moment ago," Topsas said. "Were you unaware of the rules? The competitors fight to the death, and the winners go on to face one another, until there is only one survivor. Your friend did enter the tournament, and he did not win. Therefore..."
"But that's impossible!" Luffa said. "He won every round until--!"
It suddenly hit her like a bolt of lightning. Wampaaan'riix had won every round before facing Luffa. She had simply assumed that he would have continued winning, if she hadn't been in the bracket.
But in the old reality, she had stopped the entire tournament. Dr. Topsas had been very grateful to her for this, but she had only done it because the tournament organizers had dared to oppose her, and she found fighting them to be more amusing than the scheduled opponents. In that version of history, the Tournament was canceled, and Luffa never found out who would have been her next opponent, or the one after that.
And while Wampaaan'riix would have made it that far in this new reality, there was no telling how he would have fared in the later rounds.
No. That wasn't true. There was telling. Dr. Topsas was telling her right now.
"He... he can't be dead..." Luffa said. "He had wives... and children..."
"So I had assumed," Topsas said. "I have, of course, contacted the Yetitan authorities to inform the next of kin--"
"This can't be right," Luffa said. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but she was too upset to care. "It can't."
Topsas sighed. "I recognize that you soldier-for-hire types are notoriously stubborn about these matters," he said. "You are, of course, welcome to come to Plutark VII, where you can view his death certificate in person. A waste of time, I should think, but alas, it is your time to waste."
Her dear friend was dead, and Dr. Topsas, who had been like a second father to her, was talking to her like she was a bothersome nuisance. She didn't know what to say, or even what she was feeling. And so, she didn't bother trying to express herself to him. She simply terminated the call, and let the video monitor go blank. Dr. Topsas could resume his practice. The 'little mammal' would trouble him no further.
For a long while, Luffa sat alone in the Dorlun communication center. She did not move, and so the sensor in the room deactivated the lights. It was a device intended to conserve power, typical for the ever-cautious Dorluns. There was only the light from the consoles, and the long, murky shadows they cast from Luffa's figure in the chair.
"I spared him," she finally said. "I never imagined..."
As she wept, she stared down at her black fingerless gloves. Between the dim, multi-colored lights, and the tears in her eyes, her hands were little more than indistinct blurs.
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: This story This story takes place about 1000 years before 66 years after 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[2 February, 238 Before Age. Dorlu Prime.]
Less than thirty-six hours ago, Luffa had been battling for the fate of the Time Patrol in the distant future. Then she found herself in a featureless void, which led her to Dorlu Prime, five years in her own past. Now, as she struggled to make sense of it all, her surroundings changed once again, and the man behind her predicament greeted her with an insincere smile.
"Demigra!" Luffa shouted. "Then this was an illusion, and you're a fool if you thought it would stop me!"
She had been standing in her apartment on Dorlu Prime. The Dorlun settlement had hired her family to help defend it from the Tikosi, but in practice, Luffa's father and husband spent most of their time patrolling the sector, while Luffa stayed behind to watch over their clients. The Dorluns had provided her with living quarters to use while her ship was unavailable, and Luffa had come here to think when Demigra had suddenly appeared. As she leaped across the room to attack, the walls and sparse furniture faded away, leaving in their place an dark expanse. Crystalline shards, each as large as a humanoid, floated in midair like chunks of ice drifting across an ocean.
Luffa barely noticed any of this, as she was singularly focused on her enemy. Yet, as she drew closer, he made no move to defend himself, and when she tried to tackle him, she found herself flying through Demigra, as if he were a phantom.
"So predictable," Demigra scoffed as Luffa went tumbling onward. She let her momentum carry her for a short distance, then somersaulted and flew back the way she came. The result was the same, except when she flew through Demigra's body this time, she turned back and fired a ki blast at his face. But this also passed through him with no effect.
"I would think the point has been made," Demigra said idly. "But if you insist on trying that again, I suppose I can wait a while longer."
"What have you done, Demigra?!" Luffa shouted as she floated in front of him. Despite being unable to touch him, she still balled her fists in a threatening pose anyway, as though she could defeat him through sheer determination.
"Oh, come now," Demigra said. "You make it sound like I've hurt you in some way. I thought if I gave you some time to acclimate to your new surroundings, you would understand that it's for your own benefit. I had hoped you might even show some gratitude, but it seems you believe we are still enemies."
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Luffa demanded. "You turned the entire Time Patrol into your personal army of slaves, and forced me to beat Trunks half to death to snap him out of it! And then, when you couldn't turn me into one of your puppets, you tried to destroy the whole Time Nest!"
"I have destroyed the Time Nest," Demigra corrected.
"What?" Luffa asked.
"The Time Nest," Demigra said. "It's gone. The battle between us is over. I've already won."
Luffa turned her head and spat. Normally her phlegm would hit the ground, but in this bizarre expanse, it just continued to fall, perhaps forever.
"How stupid do you think I am?" she shouted. "If you destroyed the Time Nest, then all of history would be destroyed along with it! Chronoa said so, and you didn't deny it!"
"Of course not," Demigra said with a smirk. "History was destroyed. Why do you think you're not in the Time Nest right now? No, I can see that you don't handle rhetorical questions very well, so I'll just save you the trouble: You aren't in the Time Nest because I destroyed it, and it no longer exists. It never existed. The history in which it was built has been erased. All that remains of that timeline are you and I, and our memories of that former world."
"You're bluffing," Luffa seethed.
"Why bluff when I've already won the game? I'm a god now, Luffa, the only god left in this universe! Everyone who could have stopped me no longer exists."
"Then why am I still here, Demigra?" Luffa asked. "Because as long as I'm still breathing, it's not over between us."
"Which brings me to the purpose of this little visit," Demigra said. "I've come to negotiate a settlement, Luffa."
"Why negotiate when you've already won the war?" Luffa asked, imitating Demigra's snide tone.
"Because I recognize that you won't accept defeat so easily," Demigra replied. "I had to erase the Time Patrol, but you're different Luffa. They drafted you into their ranks, and I'm willing to offer you more favorable terms. So tell me, have you enjoyed your return to Dorlu Prime?"
Luffa's impulse was to respond with more defiant posturing, but when he said "Dorlu Prime", she suddenly found that she had nothing to say. "What are you talking about?" she finally asked.
"It's no illusion," Demigra said. "It's not a fantasy or a dream. Nor is it one of those 'Parallel Quests' as you call them. It is the real Dorlu Prime, of 238 Before Age, to use the Earthling calendar."
Luffa shook her head. "You're lying," she said. "Things are different in that world. I've seen the changes myself."
"Yes, it was rather unfortunate what happened to the Tikosi, wasn't it?" Demigra said.
Luffa's eyes went wide as the realization struck her like a bolt of lightning. "You killed them," she said. "Father said it looked like the Tikosi all turned on each other. He thought they had all gone mad, but it was you. You used your magic to make them fight one another, just like you did with the Time Patrol!"
"Well, I could hardly allow them to capture you again," Demigra said with a smile.
"Why?" Luffa asked. "Why are you doing this?"
"I'm doing this," Demigra explained, "because this is my destiny, and I will do anything to make it into a reality."
Several large crystals now drifted around Demigra and Luffa, and as their facets glowed with a preternatural light, images began to appear in their surfaces.
"I'm sure Chronoa told you her side of the story," Demigra began. "A tale of the Divine Tokitoki Bird, and how the Kais chose her to be his guardian. Mechikabura was older and more experienced, but he sought to use the power of Tokitoki for his own gain. He was banished, and sealed away in what became known as the Demon Realm."
"So they made Chronoa the Supreme Kai of Time," Luffa said. "And not long after, you tried to screw with Tokitoki too, and got banished yourself."
"True," Demigra said. "The difference is that I understood the true potential of Tokitoki. Mechikabura only wanted to extend his lifespan, and increase his power. But I knew Tokitoki could give me control over all of creation. And because of my knowledge of the workings of time, Chronoa could not risk sending me to the Demon Realm. Instead, she banished me to the Crack of Time, a place where I would be unable to meddle with the flow of history."
"But you found a way," Luffa said.
"What the Kais never understood was the the true power of ambition. They already rule over the universe, and want for nothing. Beings like Mechikabura and myself have always managed to prosper by using less powerful beings to support us. We fulfill their lesser ambitions, and they help us achieve our greater ones. Mechikabura had his Dark Empire, and demons like Towa have their lesser underlings, and I had my own disciples and lackeys. They were the ones who helped me interact with the outer universe during my long imprisonment in the Crack of Time. Through them, I was able to gather the knowledge I would need, not only to escape, but to triumph!"
"So while she thought you were ancient history, you spent all those millions of years plotting against her," Luffa said. "What does this have to do with me?"
"Simply this," Demigra replied. "In preparing for my escape from the Crack of Time, I considered every possible contingency. These crystals floating around us are natural formations in this place. They may seem inert, but they actually resonate with chronal energies. Eventually, I learned to use them to see what was happening in the outer universe. I could look to the distant past, or glimpse possible futures. Including yours, Luffa."
He gestured with his outstretched hand, and Luffa noticed the crystals displaying more familiar images. Before they had only shown strange worlds and unknown people but now she saw places and people she knew. The scenes would only last a moment or two before changing to some other event. Luffa thought she saw her mother in one of them, but before she could look closer, it suddenly changed to show a meadow on Hexil VI. Then she saw an enemy soldier she had killed in battle years ago. Then the Camelian Senate in session. Then a dam being built on Planet Wist. And then Luffa saw herself as a Super Saiyan, slaughtering the Tikosi on their Hiveworld.
"Then you claim to know everything about me?" Luffa asked. "Seems like you wouldn't have underestimated me so badly when we fought in Toki Toki City."
"I can see almost anything from here," Demigra said. "The problem is that it's too much information to sift through. So no, I don't know everything about you, Luffa. But I learned what I needed to know."
"Give me a strong ally! Someone with the kind of power to help me defend time itself! This wish I ask of you, Shenron!"
Luffa looked over to find Trunks in one of the crystals. He stood before the altar in Toki Toki City, making a wish before the Eternal Dragon, Shenron. The Dragon's eyes glowed red, and then a figure began to materialize.
"I didn't know you got audio on these things, too," Luffa said.
"I had to reconstruct that one from outside reports," Demigra said. "Toki Toki City was one of the few places where my vision was limited, but I still learned what I needed. Trunks wished for an ally, and that ally was you, Luffa. Once I confirmed your identity, I could study your past, and see what sort of threat you would be."
"And you caused those time anomalies to test me in the present, didn't you?" Luffa said. "I mean, sure, you needed them to weaken the seal keeping you trapped in the Crack of Time, but besides that, it helped you take my measure."
"True, though there was little need for that," Demigra said. "Your power was diminished after Shenron brought you forward in time, and while you recovered quickly, it was easier for me to witness your power in the past."
There was another crystal, which showed Luffa as a giant ape, glowing yellow like molten iron. Surrounded by magma and broken enemies, she raised her bestial head to the sky and howled with righteous fury.
Luffa tried not to wince at the crystal as the image shifted to the explosion that destroyed Planet Nagaoka. It was the height of her strength, but she had lost control of her ki by combining her Super Saiyan and Oozaru forms. The thought of looking at the full moon again still bothered her.
Then the image changed again, to show Luffa lying naked on a broken chunk of Nagaoka's crust. A faint force field protected her from the vacuum of space, but she was too exhausted to save herself. Then, suddenly, she vanished in a flash of light, echoing the same effect seen earlier, when Shenron granted Trunks' wish.
Luffa turned to Demigra and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Is this what you do in your spare time, Demigra?" she asked. "You look up moments in time where I blew off all my clothes?"
Demigra made a mirthless snort. "You can use all the humor you like to mask your trepidation," he said. "It doesn't matter how you react. What matters is that I understood your perspective, Luffa. Time and again, I found you caught in moments like this one. Glorious triumphs, coupled with humiliating despair."
What Luffa saw next in the crystals came as no surprise, but she still shuddered at the images they revealed.
In one crystal, there was Luffa, on the bridge of the Emerald Eye, learning that her alliance to destroy the Jindan Cult had collapsed. Her son had betrayed her for the final time, and there would be no final assault on the Jindan base of operations, unless she dared to fight alone.
In another crystal, Luffa saw herself drifting through the upper atmosphere of Pflaume II. The city state that once floated through the skies of the ice giant had been utterly destroyed, leaving Luffa stranded in a hostile environment with no hope of escape or rescue.
In a third crystal, Luffa saw herself on Extraliga, moments after defeating the Shockmaster. It was to be the greatest victory of her life, but her wife had been badly injured and left in a coma, while their dear friend Keda had been lost without a trace.
A fourth crystal showed Luffa on the Plant Wist, moments after her first encounter with the Shockmaster. The mighty warrior had been the first to defeat her since her ascension to Super Saiyan. Worse, he had refused to kill her, leaving her to languish in the shame of knowing her legendary power was found wanting.
The fifth crystal saw Luffa wandering the crimson fields of the Makyo Star, a rogue planet illuminated only by the bioluminescent glow of fungal stalks that covered much of its surface. Lost in her own private madness, her eyes burned red and her blood ran hot from the Black Water Mist that had taken hold in her mind and body. Corrupted as she was, Luffa eagerly submitted herself to the eternal servitude of the demons who lived on the Makyo Star. Their ruler, Wildthyme, found it amusing to have the galaxy's ultimate warrior patrolling his planet like a guard dog.
Then there was the sixth, which only showed Luffa screaming herself hoarse in the shadows of the Tikosi laboratory.
Though Luffa took a moment to look, she did not bother to linger on any of these unwanted memories. Instead, she focused her gaze on Demigra.
"I knew right away what a person like you would want," Demigra said. "What would desire more than anything," he said. "It was the one thing I knew Chronoa could never give you."
"You altered history," Luffa said. "You sent me back to a time before the Tikosi captured me, then you made them kill each other so that it would never happen. The suffering, the treachery, the loss..."
"You know as well as I do that Chronoa would never allow you to make such a drastic change in your own past," Demigra said. "It would do harm to the rest of the timestream. But that no longer matters, because I erased the rest of the timestream when I destroyed the Time Nest."
"Are you telling me," Luffa asked, "that you went out of your way to preserve a piece of history, just to give me chance to live my life over again?"
"It was an interesting challenge for my new abilities," Demigra said. "Now that I've absorbed Tokitoki, I'm beginning to find that there is very little I cannot do with the fabric of time."
"That still doesn't answer the question," Luffa said. "Why would you bother with this at all? And why do it for me? Why not just kill me, or use your powers to make my parents kill each other before I was born?"
Demigra chuckled. "I keep forgetting the mortal perspective," he said. "Your lives are so brief that you cannot grasp the timescales of gods."
"I know, I know," Luffa said. "Seventy-five million years. Enlighten me."
"As I said, I left nothing to chance when I planned my conquest," Demigra said. "Any possibility of failure had to be eliminated. Using projections and forecasts, I could anticipate possible outcomes. In some cases, I could predict the future more literally, using divination techniques. Looking back, it all seems so... crude to me now. I have become so much more..."
"Then why didn't you just divine a way to defeat me?" Luffa asked skeptically.
"Because no matter how hard I tried," Demigra said, "I was unable to see beyond a certain date. April 21, Age 850."
It took Luffa a moment to catch on. "Oh, right," she finally said. "The day you destroyed the Time Nest. There can't be an April 22, because you destroyed it."
"Exactly," Demigra said. "The End of History, the ultimate proof that my triumph was inevitable. For once I became a true god of time, I would create a new history, one much more suited to my liking. But I couldn't find a way to eliminate you as a threat. Any measure I came up with would lead to the collapse of my victory. After all, without you, Towa and Mira would have erased Trunks from history, which would have altered the formation of the Time Patrol. And I needed you to lead Beerus to the Time Nest, so that he could carry my enchantment into the city and enslave the Patrollers."
"So you couldn't get this far without me," Luffa said. "But now that you've gotten this far, I could still be a threat..."
"There's no way to know," Demigra said. "I couldn't predict what would happen after I destroyed the Time Nest. Time is fluid now, waiting eagerly for my divine will to shape it into being. And since I couldn't kill or erase you beforehand, I knew I would have to deal with you now."
He turned his back on her and walked along the emptiness of the Crack of Time, gesturing towards the crystals that floated in the distance. "As I see it, you have only two choices. You can continue to oppose me, and perhaps you can find a way to defeat me. I doubt you have much of a chance, but the fact remains, you have a chance, however small. Shenron chose you to fulfill Trunks' wish. Perhaps he saw something in you that I cannot."
"Perhaps," Luffa said, clenching her fists.
"I won't throw away my hard-fought victory on a gamble, Luffa," Demigra said. "That's why I haven't destroyed you already. You Saiyans have an annoying tendency to discover hidden potential within yourselves. The Tikosi underestimated you. I won't make the same mistake. But even if I refuse to fight you, you could still choose to attack me. That is why I've come to negotiate a settlement, Luffa. That's your second choice, Luffa, and I want to make it as attractive to you as possible."
"Let me get this straight," Luffa asked. "You won't kill me because you think there's some tiny risk that I'll ruin your plan. So you created a whole other timeline for me to live in, just so I'll leave you alone?"
"As I destroyed the Time Nest, I made sure to secure a fragment of the original history," Demigra explained. "It's not a recreation of Dorlu Prime. It's the real thing, just as you remembered it, but without the Tikosi to spoil it for you."
"You said you'd create a new history," Luffa said. "Or was that just an idle threat?"
"I will create a new history, Luffa," Demigra said. "It will proceed independently of the one I made for you. I only need your world to carry on for a few centuries, or however long you expect to live."
"Then what?" Luffa asked pointedly. "You just erase everyone else in there?"
"If that troubles you, then I can make other arrangements," he said. "Fifteen billion years. Is that long enough a legacy for you?"
"How would I know you'd honor that?" Luffa asked.
"Are you asking me for immortality, Luffa?" Demigra asked.
"No, I'm just trying to--"
"How could you ever be sure that Chronoa wouldn't simply pull the plug on all of existence?" Demigra asked. "You're going to have to trust me to some extent. I would think that what you've seen so far would demonstrate good faith."
"All right, all right," Luffa said. "I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around all this. You're going to run off and be God of your own universe, and leave me in another one. And what am I supposed to do with myself?"
"Anything you please," Demigra said. "I don't have any stuffy rules and constraints, unlike Chronoa and the other Kaioshin. The world I have set aside for you is yours, Luffa. Tikosi aside, I will not interfere. You may live your life as you wish, unencumbered by the burdens of the Super Saiyan form. Or you can train and fight to your heart's content, and achieve the Super Saiyan transformation in your own way. Or you can settle down on Dorlu Prime and start a family."
"Just like that, huh?" Luffa said. "You think it's that simple?"
"I think you and I want the same thing, Luffa," Demigra replied. "When I first sought to usurp the power of Tokitoki, I wanted to alter the course of history to suit my purposes. I accepted my banishment in the Crack of Time, because I knew that it would not matter in the end. When I am finished, the banishment will have never happened. My fondest desires will be realized. I am offering to share that opportunity with you. I could make you a goddess to rule alongside me, but we both know that holds no interest for you. You're a mortal, who treasures mortal values. Strength. Family. Self-actualization. Fine. Have your humdrum little life. I won't quarrel with your narrow vision."
"You're forgetting," Luffa said. "I made a promise to the God of Destruction. You insulted his honor, and I offered to serve as the instrument of his retribution. I can't just let an obligation like that slide. What would Lord Beerus say?"
Demigra shook his head. "The Lord Beerus you knew," he said, "no longer exists. I suppose he would still remain in the world I left for you, but he has no memory of any dealings you had with him in the 9th Century Age. Those events no longer transpired. They were erased when I destroyed the Time Nest. The insult you pledged to avenge... Hmph. It simply never occurred."
"And the Time Patrol?" Luffa demanded.
"The same," Demigra said. "In your new life, the year is 238 Before Age. The Time Patrol doesn't exist. Trunks and Son Goku won't be born for another thousand years."
"I still remember them," Luffa insisted.
"Then you remember this as well, no doubt!" Demigra said.
Suddenly, the crystal closest to Luffa displayed a new vision of the old history. The planet was unfamiliar to her, but the spaceship in low orbit was not. She had seen the craft before, during a Time Patrol mission on Planet Namek. And she had also seen the alien who emerged from the ship, riding in a personal hover-carrier. With an arrogant smirk, he raised the index finger of his right hand, and formed a tiny spark of ki energy from his fingertip. Like a miniature star, the ball of ki shone a bright, baleful orange, and then it expanded, rapidly swelling up until it dwarfed even the starship beneath it. And then, with a sadistic cackle and a flick of the wrist, Frieza launched the giant fireball straight towards the planet. Then he watched with glee, laughing as the ball of ki exploded on contact with the planet's surface. Bright lines appeared on the disc of the planet, like cracks in a pane of glass. The cracks spread, and then, finally, disastrously, the entire planet exploded, leaving nothing but broken bits of its crust, and white hot iron-nickel vapor from its interior.
And as the force of the explosion buffeted the starship, showering it in sparks of molten debris, the alien continued to laugh, enjoying the spectacle like a child watching a fireworks show.
Luffa waited for the planet's remains to fade into darkness, then looked back at Demigra.
"Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta," he said, "dooming your entire species to extinction. I've erased that tragedy as well, along with countless other disasters that you never even knew about. By accepting my terms, Luffa, you not only give yourself a second chance, but the rest of the universe as well."
"No," Luffa said. "This is all some kind of trick. You're just trying to confuse me."
"I knew it would be difficult for you to accept the situation," Demigra said. "That was why I arranged for you to see Dorlu Prime for yourself. I wanted you to experience it firsthand before I explained what I had done. I would have allowed you to go on experiencing it, but then you found that scroll, and so I had to step in."
"The scroll?" Luffa asked. She had nearly forgotten it. On Dorlu Prime, she had noticed what looked like the Scroll of Eternity, glowing in a forgotten corner of her quarters. She had reached out for it when Demigra suddenly appeared, and brought her to the Crack of Time.
Demigra nodded. "As I said, Luffa, you have a choice. The world I left for you is a cession, not a prison. You're free to leave at any time. The scroll is your doorway to my world. I have allowed you to see into my world, but we appear to each other as phantoms, unable to touch one another. But if you choose to take up the scroll, you will be brought to me in person, and we may renew hostilities."
"A battle I'm sure to lose," Luffa said. "According to you, at least."
"You asked how you could trust me, Luffa," Demigra said. "The simple truth is that I don't need your trust. If you think this is a trick, then go ahead. Take the scroll, and fight for a world that no longer exists. Win, if you can. But if I were in your position, I would take my time before deciding. Think long and hard about the opportunity I'm giving you. Think about what it would mean to give that up, only to die for a useless cause."
He raised his hand, and his bone scepter appeared in his palm. The red crystal ball at the head of the scepter began to glow, and the Crack of Time began to fade away.
"Think about it, Luffa," he said again. "Or if the dilemma is too much for you, then act impulsively. Take the scroll, and fight a battle that you will almost certainly lose. It's all the same to me, really. The choice is yours..."
Luffa stepped toward him, holding out her hand as though to ask him to wait. But she said nothing. There was nothing more to say. Demigra's position was as clear as it was ever going to be.
As the Crack of Time vanished around her, Luffa found herself back in her quarters. The Scroll was still there, tucked away in the cabinet. She knelt down and examined it closely. Then she sat down on her cot, and stared at it for a long time. She wasn't sure how long. The sunbeams from the windows had time to drift across the wall.
"It's over, then," she finally said to herself.
This was the only certainty of it all. One way or another, her time as the Legendary Super Saiyan was finished. She could either start over in this place, or take her chances against Demigra, but there seemed to be no way back.
Now that the truth about this world was revealed, she felt silly for having played along with it. She had tried to avoid doing anything that would give away her knowledge of the future, but now it didn't seem to matter. The future she knew was no more. And the future that lay ahead was unwritten. All the half-formed plans she had shared with Kandai and Zatte had just been idle conversation, fabricated to keep them from getting suspicious. But now...
Maybe she hadn't been fabricating those ideas after all.
Perhaps, without realizing it, Luffa had begun to accept that she was stranded in this place. And she had already started to make choices about how to start over. It was easy enough to plan. All she had to do was keep the things from her old life that she enjoyed, and steer clear of the things that had gone wrong.
And with the Tikosi out of the picture, that seemed very easy to do.
It was all very tempting. In spite of this, she still felt the urge to grab the scroll and be done with it all. And yet... the scroll wasn't going anywhere. She could exercise that option at any time. What was the hurry?
As she mulled it over, she heard something outside. Footsteps, but lighter and more scattered than the typical pedestrian traffic that walked through the Dorlun settlement. These were children, and the sound of their laughter and playful chatter confirmed it at once.
Luffa might have ignored them, but she heard a familiar voice among them, and she stood up on her bed to look out the small windows that ran along the wall, just below the ceiling. She could see them clearly. Five Dorlun children, three boys and two girls. They all had long red hair and blue skin. Once upon a time, Luffa had trouble telling them apart, but one in particular stood out very well.
It was Keda. Nine years old. Alive and safe.
Keda had lived a strange life in the history Luffa remembered. After the Tikosi massacred the colony, Keda stowed away on their ship and infiltrated their Hiveworld. She then organized a rescue mission to free Luffa from their captivity. Afterward, Keda became something like Luffa's personal assistant, maintaining her finances and handling various functions on her ship. Then Keda sacrificed herself to save Luffa, Zatte, and the entire population of Extraliga. Luffa had thought Keda had died, but when she joined the Time Patrol, she soon discovered that a strange twist of fate had sent Keda to the era of Son Goku. She settled on Earth, where she started a family. The last time Luffa had seen her, it was on the streets of West City, where Keda had lived to a ripe old age.
It all seemed very unfair, though Luffa had no idea what should have been done about it. The Supreme Kai of Time had promised to "consider" the situation, but it seemed to Luffa that Chronoa's hands were tied. There were rules surrounding time travel, and Chronoa had to enforce those rules. What was best for Keda could not outweigh the good of the entire universe.
But now! Now there was no universe. At least, not the one Chronoa had been concerned about. There was Keda, young and happy, and free to live her life without the burden of Luffa's failures.
Demigra was wrong, then. This wasn't just a second chance for Luffa. It was a second chance for Keda as well.
For all of them.
Was it right to deny them that chance? She could imagine what Chronoa or Trunks might say to that question, but their rules no longer applied. And while Luffa could accept an honorable death fighting an opponent like Demigra, could she accept what that would mean for the Dorluns?
By the time she got down from the cot and opened her door, two more children hand joined the group, and they had begun playing with an inflatable ball. When they saw Luffa, a few of them took a step back, and one even took cover behind an older boy. The children of the colony had always been fascinated with Luffa. They were frightened by the other Saiyans, but her constant presence in the settlement, and her eagerness to cook for them had made her more approachable. They saw her as a sort of gruff-but-friendly monster.
Even Keda seemed slightly nervous, but she maintained eye contact as she saw Luffa step outside. In this era, they knew each other, but not as well as Luffa had known Zatte.
"Hi, Luffa," Keda said. "Sorry if we were disturbing you."
She wanted to rush over and embrace Keda. As it was, she barely managed to suppress a smile. A lump was forming in the back of her throat. She wondered if this was how it had been for Trunks, when he first traveled into the past.
"It's fine," she said with a wave of her hand. "I was just... I was wondering if I could join you guys..."
