Crusade of Time
GQ Code
Notes: All right, this fic takes place not to long after the end of the Dragonball manga. That means, NO GT and NO MOVIES. It'll follow Daizenshuu 7 timeline dates. You can find this timeline on a lot of websites, mainly on the Ultimate Dragonball Z Information page. I'll just do a little correcting of my own to it… First, Kuririn has one year added on his age over Gokou. It was stated in the manga that he was 2 years older. For obvious reasons, Goten wasn't born before the Cell Saga… and finally, Bra and Pan's birth dates have been swapped. Before any Pan worshippers or Bra youth committees attack me, it's a fact that Pan was 4 at the end of the Dragonball manga AND anime. Since I doubt Bra was three, AND the fact that she was taller, I'm just going to go with the flow.
I don't own Dragonball, that honor goes to Toriyama and Bird Studios. Dragonball Z of America is owned by FUNimation. Dragonball Z of Japan is owned by TOEI.
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Prologue: Keeper's Palace, The Void of Time
A massive hourglass stood within the center of the grand hall of the Palace. The glass had an unlimited amount of sand falling upon a limited amount of room on the lower half of the hourglass. On the top of the hourglass was a throne, and upon this throne sat Father Time, in a deep slumber. However, he was quickly awoken by a jolt. He jumped down from his throne and looked into his hourglass… a purplish black grain of sand had just fallen from the top of the hourglass, and was slowly turning the many other fallen grains into its dark and mysterious hue…
"It has begun."
With those words, the Palace began to shake. The great columns, decorated with many different cultural writings, began to crumble. Paintings of key historical events in the entire universe began to fall off the cracking walls. The same purplish black color began oozing out of the walls like jelly.
When a good amount of the ooze had entered the main hall, a large blob of it rose from its sloppy puddle on the ground and into a floating ball. Father Time just watched, unmoving. The ooze began to take the shape of a long, sharp spear. The second it achieved that shape, it shot out toward Father Time.
Father Time did not move an inch. Instead, the spear whizzed by him by a hair and pierced the hourglass. The massive time tool shattered, the grains of sand spilling all over the ground only to be absorbed by the now knee-deep dark ooze. The Keeper's Throne and remains of the hourglass fell along with it. Father Time, however, was untouched. A strange, invisible aura prevented the ooze from getting to his feet. Within minutes, the infected grain shot from the ooze like pellets and began to swirl in midair where the Keeper's Throne once existed, forming a purplish-black wormhole.
Now was his time to act. The old Father Time swung around at speeds that looked ridiculous for the old man's age, although in truth he was ages. He faced the portal and raised both hands in the air. A white glow emitted from both his palms, and he pushed them facing toward the portal. A ray of light shot out toward the portal, which began to nullify it's swirling movement.
This time, however, he would not be able to keep them contained…. The ooze around the room began to penetrate the old man's aura. Like needles through a pincushion, they began to pierce the barrier, and the old man. Immortal he was… he was still helpless to the shear power of the ones whom had just been released from the Darkness of Time.
Before he was blurred beyond vision by the infectious dark daggers running through his body, he saw the portal shoot out two spheres of similar make-up as the portal.
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Dr. Verne's Lab, 784 AD
The lab was filled with huge super computers, power generators, basketball diameter wires and cables, and massive cooling fans. In the center of all this mess, a massive machine was at full blast. The machine, resembling something between a massive gray titanium turtle and a Mac Truck, was roaring with the sound of mechanical life. Live electric volts shot from coil towards, filling the machine with energy. A white glow emitted from the inside of this mysterious machine.
Standing from an elevated area enclosed by a glass window, a tall scientist with brown hair, weak and lanky appearance, and stereotype scientist attire, stood among with his equally geeky colleagues.
The strange machine began to lose its hum, the electric volt towers powering down, and the white glow fading. The scientists in the enclosed area began to read the statistics on their monitors. After a few minutes, one of the monitor scientists got up to face the lead scientist.
"Dr. Verne, the experiment… was a failure. We were unable to send the mice through time. Time travel, quite simply, is impossible."
Dr. Verne's face sank, and he started at his creation… another worthless hunk of junk.
"Dayles, we'll check the machine tomorrow for any circuit problems. There IS a secret to time travel, and I know it. I'll find it, someday…" the lead scientist, Dr. Verne, vowed.
The other scientists just sullenly left the room to return home to their families… they had collected their week's pay check in this one experiment. Dr. Verne just stood, staring out the glass window at his creation. One of the scientists walked up next to him.
"I'll have one of the janitors remove the mice from the time machine. We can have World War 1 delicacy for dinner."
The scientist just chuckled, and walked off.
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Capsule Corp, not long after.
Vegeta had finished his training session for the day. The horror of human society was slowly consuming him. He was training less and less, becoming more and more convinced that another villain would never have the balls to show up on Earth, and that he knew he would never be able to match Kakarotto.
Kakarotto… Vegeta's last chance to fight him was at the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai a month or so back. Instead, he ran off with the reincarnation of Majin Buu, Ubuu, before much of the fighting could go underway. Still, he always trained. There was still a chance that some idiot who doesn't know what he is getting himself into would want to try and conquer the world… and SOMEONE would have to stop him.
Vegeta also had the instinct that he would need to protect his family… especially his wife and daughter. The lazy teenager that was his son would be no good at it, so it was all up to him.
Sitting down at the kitchen table, he noticed his wife reading a newspaper with fiery eyes.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked.
"What's wrong? Well, look at this! That Verne asshole is trying to make a time machine!"
Vegeta smirked; his wife had recently gained a major rival in science the past few years…. Dr. Carl Verne.
He was a young fellow, fresh from college and already gaining a lot of support from the science community, even despite the fact that most of his "breakthroughs" were worthless at best, and he knew it himself.
"This idiot is getting so publicity just for making another thing that simply wastes good science funding money… a time machine! First, I INVENTED IT. Maybe not ME, but my future counterpart, and second, since it doesn't alter events, only splits timelines, it's just about worthless."
Vegeta had sat down for barely a few minutes and he was already sick of his wives bitching already. Instead, he made his way to the living room, only to spot his daughter sitting alone, watching cartoons. Almost like radar, she sensed her father and ran up to him.
"Daddy! Mama doesn't want to play with me, and Trunk is a meanie! Will you play with me?" she begged. Vegeta stared down at his young daughter, and then… smiled.
Yes, he truly was getting soft. Hoisting Bra up on his shoulders, he carried the little girl to her room.
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World of the Kaios
Kaiobito-shin and Rou Dai Kaio-shin sat around the crystal ball, watching the affairs of the galaxy.
"Do you feel that?" Kaiobito-shin asked the elder god.
"Disturbance... in the force..." Rou Dai Kaio muttered.
"What?"
Rou Dai Kaio smirked, and then cracked up laughing. Kaiobito groaned.
"No, for real, what was that?"
Rou Dai Kaio stopped laughing, "Your right... there is something going on... almost a disturbance in time." Kaiobito blinked. "A disturbance in time? Well, what should we do?"
"There is nothing you can do."
Rou Dai Kaio and Kaiobito looked over to see an old man facing them. The old man had a look of concern and worry.
"Father Time! It can't be!" Rou Dai Kaio immediately bowed his head in respect. Kaiobito on the other hand just stood there with a look of confusion on his face, until Rou Dai Kaio forced him to bow as well.
Father Time simply began to explain.
"In some other alternate timeline... one which runs identical to this one except for events which should have started around... now... and in this alternate timelines future, there was a great battle. The master of dark matter and...."
"Whoa, whoa, what is dark matter?" Kaiobito blurted out. Rou Dai Kaio gave Kaiobito a scornful look for interrupting Father Time. However, Father Time remained patient. "If matter is fire, and anti-matter is water... then dark matter is thunder. Unlike matter and antimatter which naturally conflict, dark matter has pretty much nothing to do with the others, except that it is, like thunder, powerful... and the makeup of dark matter, like thunder, can be used to enhance mobilization. Ironically, like thunder and water, dark matter and antimatter conduct with each other better than dark matter and matter."
"Kaiobito-shin, you should know this already anyhow!" Rou Dai Kaioshin laughed.
"Any ways... and her sworn protector went into battle with the most powerful and advanced civilization in the entire universe. I'm sure you may know and fear this race yourselves... and it is against the rules of all God's to speak of them... but lets just call this an exception. When the battle was looking grim for the super advanced military, they used a secret weapon, a device which can exceed beyond even my power."
"Viagra?" Rou Dai Kaio joked, and immediately started laughing.
"What was that about interrupting?" Kaiobito pointed out.
"Hmph. This device sent the master of dark matter, her protector, and millions of soldiers whom were willing to give their lives for their government, were all banished to the Darkness of Time... an area were age is eternal, and even my powers cannot reach."
"So, let me guess, this disruption we are feeling is this battle in action somewhere in time?" Kaioshin asked, hoping he would be right.
"Wrong. Like the Darkness of Time, the Void of Time, where I dwell, is ageless. However, events are still chronological, and although a short time ago for me and an eternity ago for you, these evil beings have escaped from their prison. When they established a portal to the Void of Time, all they needed now was a link to the end of the chain. And, because of something that happened in this timeline, they've found that link. Once they establish themselves in this universe, they will slowly begin to conquer all of time."
Kaiobito and Rou Dai Kaio stared at each other for a second, and then faced Father Time and simultaneously yelled.... "WHY DOES ALL THE BAD STUFF ALWAYS HAPPEN IN THIS TIMELINE?"
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To be continued...
