It was a beautiful day.
Chronoa was feeling a particularly cheery mood. Why shouldn't she be? It was a good month -by Trunks' standards, that is- since the fateful day that the Hero saved time and the cosmos itself. Fought in the crack of time he made a last stand against the Demon God Demigra who was intending on ruling time and space, remaking history into his own liking. With his downfall peace was restored and timelines were renewed back to the correct main one.
But among the hours she spent in the Time Nest, watering the plants near the pool of Tokitoki's favorite perch, she felt something amiss. Like a chill her own dominion as the Kaioshin of time allowed her a certain degree of premonition and foresight to the unnatural tamperings of age's flow. But unlike the reflex to that sense, her divinely attributed scrolls didn't stir with corrupted light of distortion in history.
Nay, it was as if time moved naturally while something plucked something important from it.
"Whatever could that be?" The adorably diminutive Kaioshin pondered as she continued watering some beautiful flowers. Looking up towards the pond she felt something else less eerie but more bordering the sinister. In the rippling pool's reflection the sight of an emerald complexioned, angular white-haired man in Kaio robes possessing a single Potara earring on his left ear suddenly surprised her. What's more, was the profound sense of sinister feeling emanating from him.
"What a beautiful place this is," He spoke aloud in an eloquent voice, bordering on gentle with a hint of barely subdued pretentiousness. Turning to look over at him with a start, he smiled amicably with his hands crossed behind the small of his back. "I'm sorry, I didn't to startle. I've only heard things from Master Gowasu about this place but I never thought such a serene environment could exist. His stories don't do it justice, I'm afraid."
Blinking with surprise, Chronoa placed a hand over her chest and smiled with relief. Still, her heart had yet to stop pounding. Wiping away the sweat from her brow, she folded her hands in front of her as she nodded to the young Kaio.
"It's so nice to hear that the Dao Kaioshin of the 10th Universe finally took up a student. I haven't heard from him in quite some time. How is Gowasu doing...?"
"Zamasu," He introduced himself with a halfway bow, a sudden chilling glow entering his blue eyes as they narrowed when he lifted himself back to an upright posture. "And he is well. He so loves his serenity and tea. I've often found a love for the marvel of creation the gods have crafted over the eons. Still, it is unfortunate that the humans sully its majesty with their sinful deeds."
"Humans?" She queried, suddenly finding a tether to the true nature behind his disguised polite behavior.
"Yes," Zamasu continued, walking to the right, beginning to look towards the bird perched and staring at him inquisitively. Passing a glance at the water as it rippled reminded him of the clear lakes on his own world he had been trained and groomed to be the next Kaioshin. Eyes glimmered at the memory before he continued his explanation, his fingers tightening against one another behind his back. "Have you had much time with them?"
"Oh yes," She smiled sincerely, letting her beaming grin dominate her otherwise cautious visage. "They are wonderful, aren't they? True there are some bad eggs here and there but I keep some of the best they have to offer as good company. I couldn't have accomplished as much as I have without their help; even if they are flawed, I can never say I'm perfect either."
"I see," The white-haired, green skinned Shinling sighed with his eyes closed. "They've poisoned your mind, as well."
"They...what?!" Chronoa exclaimed, startled at his sudden soft yet venomous choice of words.
"Humans are the root of the problem, the great mistake of all the gods of every Universe. Left to their own devices, they craft machines of war, tap into wellsprings of power beyond their understanding and blaphemize all that is rightfully ours. Either out of laziness or misguided belief in their 'good', we left tyrants run amok and bands of bandits to pillage and plunder all that is the bosom of nature that we have left to become spoilt by their sinful hands!" The Kaio exclaimed, letting his Godly Ki exude from him in a translucent lavender mantle.
The action of which, caused both the bird to start squawking with alarm and Chronoa to dilate her eyes with immediate urgency.
Turning on his heel he swung his arm around in an arc, letting loose God Split Cut in a slash across the garden all the way to the dome shaped building beyond. In the explosive strike a smoking gash was left in the earth up the structure in the distance. Seeing her land on the puddle of water hunched over in the corner of his eye made him turn, seeing that she clutched a stump of what was her left appendage.
"For a Kaioshin not versed in combat, you certainly move well," Zamasu declared, a curt grin spread across his impeccably soft face. "I had intended on cutting you down the middle."
"...and for a Kaio, that's a particularly dirty thing for you to do," She sneered, doing her best not to cry out at the loss of her arm. Sweat beaded down her brow and cheeks as she fought back any hint of weakness. It had been ages since she fought on her own initiative, but she'd be damned if she was going to be cut down so underhandedly. "Zamasu, right? How did you get in here without me noticing? I thought I felt a omen that something wasn't right, but I should've sensed even your presence."
"How astute of you to notice, Lady Chronoa," He commended her with a slow clap, laughing melodiously in a way that seemed more patronizing than sincere respect. Upon the final connection of his palms, he settled into a fighting stance with one flat hand angularly in front of the other. Heels perpindicularly locked as he kept a near perfect upright posture, his smile diminished into a stoic mask of emotionless resolve. "I did not come here to make idle chat about the weather and your machinations of harnessing your own army of humans. Yes, across time and space they've been gathered here, tampering the very fabric of existence. Here it does not matter to your precious equilibrium but to me...all mortals must perish, no matter the exception you twisted gods have blinded yourselves to being!"
"All mortals must-? Have you completely lost your mind?!" Chronoa shouted with indignation and equal amounts of anger.
"No more talk!" The White Haired Shinling shouted, leaping forth in a blur of surprising momentum and precision. Swinging his hand in a blur of violet aimed for her head she leaned back just enough to avoid the swipe, the pressure of which scratched the glass wall of the Time Nest far off. With the God Split Cut clad in his right hand, he continued to cut many lacerations in the environment, barely missing the spry miniscule Kaioshin with every move. "You'd never understand my Divine Justice! And for standing with them, you're as much to blame as the humans are!"
She knew right away she was no match for him. The power of this Kaio was unreal, capable of possibly putting up a match against Son Goku if not Vegeta as well. In her experience she had never put herself in a fight recklessly, but now the fight had come to her. She'd have to think of something quick, otherwise she was dead.
Then, she remembered something.
In the moment Zamasu cut through the water, splitting it down to the pool's underbelly, Chronoa channeled her power into a burst of speed. Leaving nothing but an Afterimage for him to tear apart, she appeared behind him slapping the back of his head. The move did nothing but stun the Shinling, causing him to stumble a few steps forward. Rearing around with a perplexed look, he'd feel a sudden hotness swell along his scalp. Gasping at the burning sensation as purple light of an unseen M burned into his skin.
"Wh-What is this?!" He screamed about in panic, trying to touch the brand that continued to overwhelm his senses in its searing agony.
"I once came across a 'gift' of the Demon God Demigra," Chronoa explained, her hand already mending her arm back to normality. Given her skill in seals and healing had never waned over time, unlike her battle prowess, growing back an arm was child's play. Restoring the fabric with a spell to clean herself up cast a condemning stare towards the flailing Zamasu. "It was the mark of Majin, a powerful dark magic spell capable of incredible destructive power. Anything I come into contact with physically in time can be replicated; even such despicable spells such as these."
"To think a Kaioshin would rely on the power of demons," Zamasu sneered, eyes pulsing with bloodshot veins, his complexion paling as the glow of crimson was encroaching his whole body. "You really are lost!"
"No," Chronoa uttered stoically, watching her modified spell rupture his body in a fantastic fireball, his body reduced to dust in the flames that cratered the pond beyond. Yet, despite the light show, she didn't look away. The sadness that entered her voice also mirrored her eyes. "You're the one who was lost."
The scene that had left a mess and sent Tokitoki flying in the highest part of the Time Nest. He squawked with fright, unable to find a desire to swoop down at all. The once beautiful body of water was now evaporated and a smoldering pit with what little remained of the Kaio disciple. But his fate didn't concern her nearly as much as the implication of the foreboding feelings of wrongness she felt but couldn't confirm.
"Could he have been messing with the fabric of time without me knowing it? He never confirmed how he got here either, so how did he obtain a means of entering such a holy place? I have to research this with Trunks," She thought, extending that train over to a telepathic signal to prompt Trunks to come hither. If the Shinling was acting with someone else, which seemed likely, she needed to gather her allies and act quickly.
The sensation of sudden white hot pain caused her to lurch. Gawking she didn't even see the purple outlined lance of white that pierced her heart. Even as blood bubbled up from her mouth to spill over her face, she fell to her knees and fall over to her right. The last thing her fading vision would see was the resurrecting figure of Zamasu floating out of the crater he was blown to bits from.
"Letting your guard down so easily. Tsk-tsk-tsk, what a fatal mistake, Lady Chronoa," Zamasu declared with a cold smile, lowering his hand defused of light from his sneak attack. "In the end, you were nothing more than another weak fool."
"NO!" A sudden howling shout rang the entirety of the structure. Like the voice of an angry deity, it'd make the Shinling turn with surprise such that it'd make him almost gape at the sight of a familiar individual. When the golden glow of the iconic transformation took over, the fur collared trench coat man flew into a fury as he unsheathed his sword from his shoulder harnessed scabbard. "YOU BASTARD!"
"Here too-?!" The White Haired Kaio began to speak, only to find himself cut off in the most literal sense of the word. The speed of Trunks, the first Time Patroller, displayed was something he hadn't expected. It was on par with the likes of even his own first fight with Goku. The sensation of being beheaded came over him in a shower of blood from his neck, his head rolling over soon afterwards with his body falling limply to the ground.
Panting heavily, the tear-stained face of Trunks looked over to the lifeless frame of Chronoa. Sheathing his blade, he blitzed over to cradle her frame against his, droplets of moisture staining her blood stained top. Doing his best to hide sobs, he thought quickly to use the Dragon Balls that belonged to this domain.
Turning towards the exit, he lurched back to avoid a blade of Ki that aimed to decapitate him as well. Instead, he felt a shallow cut bleed on his right cheek from the near encounter.
"You're definitely of an upper tier, human, despite not possessing the power of a god," Zamasu spoke in an echo, his body standing upright while a tendril of eerie lavender spoke connected the severed head and its headless body's neck. Pulling it back in place till the wound wasn't even recognizable, not even a drop of blood was shown across the ground or his own clothes. Smiling he raised his arm-blade upright with a sinister luminescence cast over his visage. "If you think I'll let you revive this Kaioshin, you can forget it. My partner will dispatch not only the Dragon Balls that were exempt of our actions in other Universes, but your precious Time Patrol."
"Partner? What the Hell are you?!" Trunks snarled, clutching Chronoa's husk close to his chest as his eyes welled up with more anger than grief. It boggled his mind that someone could live through being beheaded, especially when he wasn't a offspring of Majin Buu. Too angry to contemplate the ramifications of a seemingly immortal enemy, he snarled out with wrath ebbing from his words. "Who do you think you are?!"
"I'm Zamasu, Kaioshin of the 10th Universe since I slew my predecessor and took his station," He declared nonchalantly, waving his blade to his side as he took casual menacing steps forward. The grin never wiped away as he drew closer to his prey. Leaping forth he stabbed towards him, only to find the Super Saiyan avoided in a duck and roll, flying quickly towards the exit. Using his deified ability of teleportaiton, he beat him to the door and slashed downward, forcing the Super Saiyan to change course once again. The ground torn asunder, the Shinling turned to glare as much as smile towards the frustrated Trunks. "And I will achieve my Zero Mortals' Plan. It is inevitable."
"We will stop you!" The son of Vegeta shouted hotly, kneeling down to set Chronoa gently prostrate upwards on the ground. Crossing her hands over her chest and closing her eyes, he brushed her face affectionately one last time before standing up. Howling aloud, his aura thundered the inner space of the Time Nest just as Zamasu's Ki ignited gently over his own form.
"You will try," Zamasu stated with a smirk, leaping forth to clash his arm blade with Trunks' drawn sword, causing a flash of steel and light that cracked the earth beneath them. "And fail!"
The sudden trembling caused the students inside the academy to turn about in alarm. From those who were being taught by a professor on space/time mathematics, to those flying freely or walking in the open courtyard where the Hero's Statue stood all felt something terribly wrong. There, in the distance, was a plume of smoke followed by ominous thunderclaps of combat taking place.
A figure was seen flying through the canopy of the Time Nest, high up into the heavens and covered in flames. A second silhouette flew at incredible speed to crash through the holographic projector fountain, sending a blast wave that sent patrollers knocked off their feet. Emerging from the moist debris was Trunks, clad in his transformation as the bloodied frame of Chronoa was held under one arm while his sword was clenched in his free arm.
Immediately, a number of recognizable faces approached the first patroller, looking at him with concern.
"What happened?!" The Freeza Clansman, Percel, inquired with alarm at noticing the lack of any life coming from the limp frame of the Kaioshin in his embrace. "Is she dead?! Tell-!"
"No time!" The Saiyan halfbreed declared, handing her limp frame towards the Frost Demon. "Take Chronoa's body to the Dragon Pedestal. Summon Shenron, and wish her back to life!"
"Wait, who killed her?!"
Before Trunks could answer, a distant explosion eradicated the distant monument in question. Feeling a tremble in his body at the succinct knowing of what was destroyed, the only thing more terrifying was the figure that burst forth from a pillar of smoke. Enamored in grey and black uniform with a red obi was none other than Son Goku wearing a despicable grin on his face with a malicious stare aimed at them. Unlike the Goku he knew, his Ki was nonexistent to his mortal senses. Either he was masking it extremely well or like Zamasu, he too had the power of a god.
The same person who now dropped to the ground behind him.
"I can feel it. Your strength is quite substantial, even if it isn't on par with the Trunks I met," Black Goku stated in a low tone, almost a whisper that sent chills down those who convened spines. Eyeing Zamasu who stood behind the group he kept speaking with his eyes closed. "Unfortunate you won't give me a challenge. None of the people I've sensed here are even close to being a worthy adversary."
Upon reflex, Trunks activated his second form's release, the Ascended form of Super Saiyan. With hair standing more rigid with sharper tresses of gold and lightning crackling about his frame, he presented his sword before himself with both hands on the hilt. Breathing in deeply he exhaled in preparation for what he knew was a titanic battle, "Everyone. Get everyone to the Time Machines. Escape to any timeline, I don't care where. You must survive and find a way to undo this atrocity!"
"But-"
"GO!" The Super Saiyan howled, his body taking off in a brutal acceleration that left no imprint but a flash of yellow. Reappearing with a current of Ki unleashed by his blade that sent a trail of eviscerating destruction in an arch. The attack was deflected by a timely swipe of Goku Black's hand, using his spare palm to slam into the flat of the swordsman's guard, sending him flying across the air. Twisting about in the air, he barely had time to block Zamasu's incoming flank strike, kicking away the God Split Cut armed appendage.
Just in time for him to fire a clean headshot with a free palm, blowing his head off his body. It bought him time enough to witness Black cup his hands in front of his face and then hold them at his sides. He didn't need to hear the chant to know what was about to be unleashed.
But like before, Zamasu regenerated from the seemingly lethal blow, smiling with visible euphoria at the experience. When he lunged for an attack he couldn't help but gape at the sight of his partner firing at him simultaneously. Thinking fast, he backpedaled away from a chop by the Kaioshin while sheathing his sword. Crossing his hands above his head he both palms forth in a blast of golden light.
"MASENKO-HA!" A loud shout unleashed towards the Shinling just as Goku Black's Kamehameha was unleashed, both beams eradicating the third person while connecting at insane velocities. The courtyard was blasted asunder in an expanding orb of plasma, hurricane equivalent winds howling outward to form a twister vortex of pressure. Overcasts of purple and yellow swam outward, continually flashing to the heavens and the far-off horizon of Conton City.
The struggle of power seemed even at the moment from an outsider's perspective, but inside the prince child's head, he felt an overwhelming opposition.
"Can you feel it, Trunks? That's called fate. Let it take you!" Goku Black cried out with a cackle, unleashing a surge of power that upped his Kamehameha. The likes of which began to push him back on his heels, the energy wave nearly overtaking him instantly. The madman laughed wildly as he pushed his enemy to the brink of being overwhelmed.
Then, an outstretched hand unleashed an orange blast along Trunks' Masenko.
Bewildered, the Super Saiyan saw the hand of Percel join his. It wasn't long that a host of other hands joined in their desire to help him. The Taino Corps, the Top 5 of the Hero Society and a host of rookies. Seeing them join gave him an overwhelming boost of encouragement and motivation. Turning to stare back at the wall of violet-black Ki aiming to encroach over him, he let out a warrior's cry as he pushed himself even higher and as a result, push back the Kamehameha.
Goku Black watched with stark surprise at his technique being pushed back by a host of lesser beings. Still, it made him excited, a sense of challenge welling up within his being. Laughing loudly he became engulfed in a smoldering aura of darkness, firing another swell along the path of his lancing beam of light.
The result was near instantaneous.
An explosion of enormous magnitude blasted away all those standing in the effigy of history's greatest hero. Tossed back like ragdolls, Trunks being among them, their bodies crashed into a number of areas across Time Patrol Command. Within the blaze of flames came the eradication of their time machines, blasting apart the machines that managed them including the artificial intelligent drones.
"D-Dammit! Dammit!" Trunks swore aloud, rasping out breaths as his lung stung from the smoke that made his eyes water. His coat was burnt off his frame, leaving only a bloodied purple undershirt to cling wetly to his muscular skin. Muscles burned and consciousness barely retained made him push himself upright off the ground. What he saw surrounding him made him want to puke.
Surrounding him was the partial remains of people he had come to know and recruited himself. Percel, along with the maimed body of Chronoa who he had kept underarm, was burnt to the bone barely distinguishable had it not been for his unique skeletal shape. Taino was nothing but evaporating goo, while her crew was turned to debris or burnt meat. Even the rookies and top 5 were nothing but a series of melted, charred and burned effigies of their former selves that made him feel an increasing amount of dread.
Turning to see Goku Black joined by the reformed Zamasu, their pair of smiles were the most horrible things he saw since Cell.
"You...you...," He began to rasp out, his body pushed up achingly to stand with a hunch. Then in a eruption of golden light over his still transformed body, he lunged forth with bloodied knuckles with widened eyes of pure anger. "YOU MONSTERS!"
Every swing he launched felt like lead filled his appendages. From his perspective, both Black and Zamasu easily avoided his attacks like the flailing of an angry child. Not since his pitiful fight with the Android menace of Eighteen and Seventeen had he felt so overpowered. Grasping his sword, he unsheathed it to slash down on Goku Black's head only to watch him casually stop it with his index finger.
Wrapping it around the razor's edge of the weapon, he put the slightest amount of exertion with visibly black Ki coating it. The force from his single digit cracked then snapped the sword in half, causing an already broken Trunks to feel incredibly brittle at the sight of his trusty iconic weapon of choice to be rendered to nothing. With shavings of the sword sliding off his palm, Goku Black clenched his open palm into a fist-
-then punched Trunks' jaw hard enough to make his vision spin. Blood spouted along with several teeth, his body sent tumbling aside. Not even able to regain his senses when his form felt the impact of Zamasu's boot kicking him in the back upwards. Flying up with a open mouth of agony he'd feel the sudden axe kick of Black's into his abdomen that landed him straight into the earth. Hoarsely wheezing in a bounce off the cratered ground, he had time to catch a glimpse of both of them, engaging their blades of energy over their dominant arms.
Then, in the blink of an eye, they cut a clean arch that overlapped his neck and promptly decapitated him. Even the look in his eyes shown of horror as his limp body dropped onto the ground, joining the host of dead that joined the main station of operation for Conton City. Soon they'd be joined by many more dead to follow in the wake of the two's plan for eliminating all mortals.
"That certainly was easy," Zamasu spoke aloud as he dusted his hands of the entire affair. "Certainly more than The Hero they all hold with such high regard. He put up a much bigger fight than even this Trunks."
"There's still work left to do," Black countered, already walking out of the ruined control center.
"Right. There is still the Academy, most likely in chaos. And the time displaced counterparts of Goku and his allies even enemies alike the preside here. What should we do with Conton City as a whole?" The white-haired Kaioshin inquired his partner, joining him in a calm walk out of the ruins.
"Leave it. There is a possibility that time for all of the Multiverse could be unraveled and existence itself ceases to be if the Time Nest is left to burn," Goku Black declared, his tone serious in his intent. Eyes narrowed as he looked at the distant, smoking ruins that was the canopy of the said structure. Sighing, looked over his shoulder and inquired the green skinned Shinling. "Please use your magic to restore whatever damage is done to the environment there. IF you can, please don't kill Tokitoki. We may need to keep him alive if the stability of our new Zero Human Cosmos is to exist onwards."
"Understood," The Kaioshin responded with a slight sigh. An additional smile breached through his soured demeanor. "It is a beautiful place. And I'm sure that avian creature will take to my guiding hand, one way or another."
"See that it does, once our plan is realized," The dark reflection of Son Goku announced, spotting a host of Time Patrollers heading in the direction of the massacre he was responsible for. Raising his hands to crack his knuckles one at a time, he grinned with readied anticipation. "But for now, it's high time we mop up the rest of them."
"Indeed," Zamasu concurred with a stance that mirrored his ally's. In a dash, they'd continue their culling and return to that one future that was still inhabited by another Trunks entirely. He and the last vestige of Earthling's humanity was all that stood in the way of their plan coming to fruition. That and their past's heroes of Son Goku and Vegeta.
"Our perfect world will soon be realized!" They thought as of one as they joined the fray in a murderous duo of rampaging flurry of fists and cutting waves of light.
A/N: Yes, I did it. I wrote a dark What-if Time Patrol Trunks and Chronoa got slaughtered along with the entire Time Patrol in Conton City. To be honest I could've made this story longer but I felt like it'd paint an inefficient light on Zamasu and Black's characters given they're possibly some of the more pragmatic villains in the Dragon Ball line-up to date. Plus, it got so dark I wanted to just reduce the amount of slaughter they did and end it swiftly. Whether that hurt the overall quality of this story is up to you to decide in letting me know in a Review below. Or if you happened to like this dark piece of fan literature, feel free to comment about that as well.
Thanks to all those who stuck with this little One-Shot and took the time to read it through. Until then, I'll see you all in the future with possibly more Dragon Ball Super related material or Just things involving Goku Black as well.