"The Future is Black"
(Mirai wa Buraku)
Written by: JacobKingston10
Edited by: LastationLover5000
"Again."
A command, spoken softly.
"Hiyah!"
Obedience in a shout.
A great sword spun upwards and shined brilliantly as it caught the sunlight.
It never had a chance to fall. A hand was there to catch it.
"Excellent, Trunks! That was incredible swordsmanship!"
Of course it was. Trunks had always been an incredible swordsman. He trained every day to hone his talents so that he might never again lose a battle. Even in peacetime, he didn't allow himself to become lax. He told himself that it was his father's fault, and perhaps that wasn't an exaggeration. He remembered every detail of his father's rigorous training and realized that he had taken a great deal away from his time there. But most importantly was this: Never allow yourself to become weak!
He remembered it in his father's voice. Vegeta's was a voice that would never leave him — even now, when they were separated by seventeen long years.
He turned to his spectators and smiled. "All the credit goes to you, Lord Kaiōshin. Had I been left to my own devices, I'd never have been able to hone myself to this degree."
A lie, but only a small one.
The Kaiōshin's training had indeed been beneficial. The Z-Sword was so much different than his own. It had proven itself difficult to master, but Trunks had succeeded nevertheless. He knew he would. He was the son of the world's greatest scientific mind and the prince of all Saiyans — there was nothing he couldn't do once his mind was made up. Nothing.
"To think a human would be capable of wielding the Z-Sword," remarked a visibly impressed Kibito. "I still can't believe it!"
The Kaiōshin beamed. "Yes, it's quite remarkable. I think it's time to put the final touches on his training."
"What do you have in mind?" Trunks asked.
The Kaiōshin answered by lifting his hand over his head. A large, black cube appeared there an instant later and Trunks frowned up at it. It was a metallic cube, glinting in the sunlight as the Z-Sword had done. Yet, it was no metal he was familiar with.
"This" said the Kaiōshin. "is Kachinko. It is, to be frank, the hardest substance in the universe. Let us see for ourselves if the legendary Z-Sword is as sharp as the legends foretell."
Trunks smirked. He was also eager to test the sword's mettle. He assumed a stance, like a batter ready to hit the pitch. "Sounds like a plan! I'm ready whenever you are!"
The Kaiōshin drew back to throw the immense cube, but never got the chance to go through with his plan. Kibito jolted as though he had just been struck in the back of the head with a stone and jerked around to face the eastern horizon of the sacred world.
"Kaiōshin!" he gasped. "Babidi is on the move! It appears the time has finally come…"
The Kaiōshin looked nothing less than confident, and Trunks basked in unspoken praise. He was ready. More ready than he had ever been. He knew about it all — Babidi, and Majin Bū — thanks to the Kaiōshin, and he vowed not to allow his world to fall to them as it nearly had to the Androids. Those days were long over and, if he had anything to say about it, they would stay that way.
"Right," the Kaiōshin said. "Let's go, Trunks! The Z-Sword is in your hands, so I am certain that we can win!"
Trunks smirked again. "Right."
—
A high-pitched, maniacal laughter peeled towards the sky. "Oh my! You seem to be in a great deal of pain, Kaiōshin! Maybe I should be polite and grant you a mercy-killing!"
Trunks ignored Babidi's banter and focused entirely on the fight at hand. Dābura was pressing him. There was no denying that. Even at the Super Saiyan level, and with the Z-Sword as his weapon, Trunks found himself to be in a dead heat with the demon lord. Worse, Dābura seemed to be enjoying himself if the crooked smirk plastered across his crimson face was any indication.
Then, in a surprising move, the demon brought his lips together and spat at Trunks' weapon. The sword began to harden at once and Trunks could no longer hold in his surprise.
"Trunks," shouted the Kaiōshin below. "Drop it! You'll be turned to stone!"
Trunks didn't have a chance to obey. Dābura's fist connected with the side of his head with such stunning force that he couldn't have held onto his weapon if he had wanted to. As the Z-Sword fell, the Kaiōshin's warning was fulfilled — it was soon entirely rock, and, when it struck the ground, it crumbled into dust.
Dābura pressed his attack, swinging his sword in a definitive arc in an effort to cleave Trunks in two; but Trunks was no rookie. He caught the sword between his palms and held it. Dābura's strength made his effort difficult, but Trunks refused to give him anymore ground.
The demon smirked. "Not so smug now, are you, boy?"
Trunks gritted his teeth. Dābura's smirk widened. The demon lord delivered a swift kick to Trunks' ribs, robbing him of the air in his lungs, and sent him sailing towards the ground. The young half-Saiyan managed to catch himself at the last moment, skidding to a stop alongside Kaiōshin and Kibito.
"Now," continued Dābura, his grin fading and he extended his palm for the finishing blow. His face creased with concentration. "I'll send all three of you into oblivion at the same time!"
Trunks bit back a stream of curses. His muscles ached, his ace weapon was in shambles, and meanwhile, Dābura didn't seem the least bit drained from their skirmish. He had one move left — a failsafe he had picked up from his father in the past — but he wasn't sure he had enough energy left in him to preform it.
I used up too much power against Babidi's other minions, he thought bitterly. If only I'd conserved more power…
"I'm sorry, Trunks," the Kaiōshin said ruefully. "Forgive me… I hadn't anticipated Dābura becoming one of Babidi's pawns."
Babidi looked euphoric. "Pocus and Yakon were only decoys, you fools! Puppets to bring you here!" — he snickered — "I've spent far too long gathering the necessary energy to bring back Majin Bū! Ten years! I can't possibly fail now!"
Those words, as it turned out, were the Kaiōshin's breaking point. In a move that jolted Trunks from his angry daze, the Kaiōshin burst into action and flew at Babidi. Trunks saw the desperation in the deity's eyes as he raised his fist to end the wizard's life; he also saw Dābura change his aim at the last moment, but by then it was too late to stop him.
"Da– Dābura!" Babidi squealed.
He was answered by a blast the color of magma. The bolt of malicious energy screamed through the air from Dābura's palm and connected with the Kaiōshin an instant later. He was forced to shield his eyes as the resulting blast engulfed the Kaiōshin and shook the ground beneath his feet. When he opened them again, the Kaiōshin was an unconscious heap of limbs a few feet away from where he had been — there was a trench in the ground which served to measure how far the blast had carried him.
"Kaiōshin, no!" Kibito cried. He lurched forward, despite his own injuries, to go to his master's aid. "You of all people must not be allowed to die!"
Trunks reacted a moment too slow. Dābura appeared and instantaneously released a second energy wave. Kibito had no chance to defend himself and, when the blast cleared, none of him remained.
"KIBITO!" Trunks roared.
Babidi laughed again, high and cold. "Serves you right for trying to interfere with my plans! And now" — he approached the fallen Kaiōshin — "I believe I promised you a mercy-killing, Kaiōshin! It'd be a pity if I didn't follow through! I'm nothing if I don't keep my word!"
The wizard raised a reptilian hand and silently cast his spell. The Kaiōshin rose into the air like a rag doll and, with a snap of his long, skeletal fingers, Babidi broke his neck.
As the life left the Kaiōshin's body, Trunks saw a dreadful vision. He saw cities ruined; he saw the streets filled with the bodies of the dead, children and their parents among them; he saw Gohan lying motionless in the rain, his eyes blank and unseeing; and then he saw the faces that had haunted his dreams for so long, even after he had liberated his world — two faces, a young black-haired boy and a young blonde-haired girl.
Then the faces morphed into Babidi and Dābura's and a rage that had laid dormant for ten long years uncoiled and rose to the surface like an angry dragon.
"I — I won't let… — I won't let it happen again…!" Trunks seethed. His hair stiffened and he felt his power swell. "I ABSOLUTELY WON'T ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN AGAIN!"
Power escaped from Trunks like the detonation of a bomb. The earth beneath his feet crumbled and shook; lightning freely danced around his body, mingling with the golden aura that flared around him like a wildfire. His muscle mass increased momentarily, but shrunk down a second later as his body grew accustomed to the sudden flood of power. When the young half-Saiyan looked up again, he had ascended.
"This world is finally at peace," Trunks snarled. "I won't allow that hard-earned peace to be shattered by the likes of you!"
Trunks was a blur, and this time it was Dābura who couldn't react in time. He struck the demon so hard, that he was nearly sent sailing into Babidi himself. The tiny wizard seemed to dance for a moment before diving out of the way.
"What just happened?!" Babidi shrieked. "How did he get so strong all of a sudden?!"
"His power must be stimulated by rage," Dābura deduced. "But it is of no concern. Such a menial boost will not save him from m—"
Trunks' boot-clad foot struck Dābura hard in the abdomen, and this time he did slam into Babidi. The evil duo was sent hurdling backwards, but Dābura recovered quickly, and magically summoned a spear into his right hand. The demon gritted his teeth angrily as he hurled it towards the young Super Saiyan, but Trunks was unfazed. He knocked the spear aside, shattering it in the process, causing Dābura to growl in frustration.
"Why you insolent little rodent!" the demon lord snarled. "This'll finish you!"
Dābura spat and Trunks could no longer hide his own malicious smirk. He had been waiting for that. Pulling his arm back, he punched the air, unleashing a tremendous shockwave which sent the spit right back at Dābura. The wad of saliva struck Dābura's cheek — incidentally, some of it also trickled onto Babidi, who was cowering behind his demonic minion. Both looked horrified as the transformation into stone set in.
"I see," Trunks said menacingly. "So you can fall victim to your own move. That's inconvenient — for you." — he bore his teeth angrily and thrust his palms out. "This nightmare was over before it even began! I won't let you sully the peace we've worked so hard for! DIE!"
A blinding blast of energy erupted and screamed through the distance between Trunks and his petrified enemies. Neither Dābura nor Babidi were able to scream as the blast consumed them their stone forms shattering and crumbling away until they were naught but dust.
As the smoke cleared, and with his enemy beaten, Trunks reverted. He couldn't celebrate, though. Not when he had still failed. Kibito's body had been reduced to dust, much like Babidi and Dābura, but the Kaiōshin's remained. Trunks gazed mournfully at it from a distance — another life lost for the sake of lasting peace on Earth.
"We did it, Lord Kaiōshin," Trunks said to no one. "We've kept the peace of this world."
—
But the peace wasn't kept. It never had been. It never would be. A specter of death watched the end of the battle from afar. Clothed in black, save for its white boots and glistening jade earring, the specter watched with particular interest as the Kaiōshin met his end.
"Splendid," an all-too familiar voice spoke to no one in particular. "I've found a timeline where the meddlesome Hakaishin Beerus no longer exists. Now, at long last, to begin…"
—
Ten years later, Trunks too realized that the peace wasn't kept as he ran through the streets towards the source of the disturbance. Black smoke rose up in the distance, and he could hear the frantic screams of the city's citizens as they fled the scene. As he drew closer, Trunks could see a form floating in the air above the destruction and he gritted his teeth. Even now, ten years later, the cities were being rebuilt. He wouldn't allow some hot-shot to steal away the reconstruction efforts.
He wouldn't.
When he arrived, a small, brave crowd had assembled beneath the floating figure — the figure Trunks could only barely make out with all the smoke around. And then the Thing-Within-The-Smoke spoke:
"At last," said a voice that sent chills up Trunks' spine. It was familiar. Eerily familiar. "This world's savior has come. With you out of my way, no one will exist to stop my ambition. And" — a gust of wind blew through the streets, pushing back the dark curtain of smoke and revealing a face that caused Trunks' stomach to fall into a bottomless pit — "I'll annihilate the Earthlings for the sake of justice!"
Trunks' breath was coming in short, labored gasps.
The figure in black was exuding foul ki, but its face and voice were that of an old friend.
Recollection came in flashes behind Trunks' eyes. A man in funky alien clothing climbing out of a pod and cluelessly staring up his friends who had gathered to welcome him. A man standing resolute before a completed Cell, who first demonstrated the full power of a Super Saiyan. A man who selflessly gave his life to save his friends and prevent the world's destruction. A man who refused a wish to return him to life so that the world's peace could remain.
Such a man could never have done this.
Such a man would never want to do this.
"You…" Trunks managed between labored breaths. "Who the hell are you?!"
The familiar face, dressed in black, gave him a wicked grin. "You of all people should know, Saiyan. I" — Trunks' breath hitched — "am Son Gokū."
A/N: So this is the first time I've put a project entirely written by someone else up onto my account. JacobKingston10 is a good friend of mine, and wanted to make this mini-series tie-in to my Erased Chronicles story — set in the future, well after the current arc (the Majin Bū arc) has ended, and set in Trunks' timeline, during the invasion of a mysterious entity calling himself Son Gokū. This story will more or less cover established material from the latest arc in Super, while adding Jacob's own original twists and turns as it leads into a special chapter of my Erased Chronicles story, "Chapter Black". I hope you all enjoy the ride Jacob takes you on as you continue to enjoy the Erased Chronicles as well!