The small plaza of Toki Toki city was always a welcome sight to him.
His name always being under dispute to all who knew him, people had often opted to either call him either Time Patroller or Future Warrior, it more typically being the latter.
Him lying on his back, the man with flaming red hair opened his eyes, hands folded on the back of his head as he looked up at the sky.
The Future Warrior had only just finished his recent adventure of fixing the errors in the timeline caused by Towa, Mira, and Demigra, and now that he'd experienced firsthand what such entities getting involved could cause, he'd gladly accepted the job.
Being a saiyan, such an offer excited him.
Oh how he wished first impressions weren't so liable to mislead people.
While he'd definitely gained a large deal of strength in such a short span of time, the mere thought of getting a good fight seemed out of the question for him.
He could even vividly remember not so long ago the moment where his partner, Trunks, had told him to simply "have a little spar" with new recruits for the Time Patrol squad.
Since the meaning of the word "spar" had rubbed him the wrong way after his first meeting with Trunks, as the young man had attacked him to the point that he needed to go all out against him to keep up, he did the exact same thing to all the recruits.
And this, of course, sent all four of them flying through the skies.
He found himself chuckling lightly at the memory, sitting up from his place of rest.
Picking up his green Scouter from his left side and putting it on, the man pushed the button on the side of it, feeling the familiar hum of its power starting up come into his ear, the high pitched sounds that it emitted letting him know that it was searching for the strongest being in the plaza, him having no doubts that it was Trunks.
Standing up completely, the Future Warrior followed where the Scouter led him, jumping from the top of the giant hour glass structure and flying down.
He found the familiar sight of Trunks in the official "office" of their boss, the Supreme Kai of Time, him cleaning up several broken pieces of technology inside of the room.
"Hey Trunks," the purple haired male looked over at him the sound of his name, "Do you or the Supreme Kai of Time have anything for me to do today?"
"Not right now Time Patroller," Trunks responded, the Future Warrior half-expecting that answer, Trunks himself smiling reassuringly, "But we'll tell you if we need any help."
"Alright." The Future Warrior replied, him about to leave when he heard the sound of heels clicking on the ground.
Turning around, he found the familiar small frame of the Supreme Kai of Time walking up the stairs of the Time Nest.
He smiled at the pinkishly skinned girl, "Hey there Supreme Kai of Time, how are y - ?" She stuffed a scroll into his hand before he could finish.
"Sorry, but I need you to fix something else in the timeline." She said quickly, "I'm sure you can handle it, right?"
Seeing her smile, he nodded, "I'm guessing so."
He opened the scroll up, and saw the first face that was revealed to him.
After realizing who it was, he looked back up at her, "I should be able to defeat the androids again. It's not like they're the worst thing I've fought."
He started to roll up the scroll of eternity, but just before he could concentrate, the Supreme Kai of Time held her hand up at him, "Wait, defeating them isn't your objective. Remember that."
"Alright. But what do I do then?" He asked her.
"I'll explain it when you get there." She responded.
He nodded, concentrating with closed eyes as he disappeared in a flash of light.
As he reappeared in what appeared to be a somewhat destroyed version of a city, he quickly spotted the power level of someone near a building labeled the Capsule Corp.
"Currently Gohan is trying to fly to Namek," The Future Warrior looked up at the sound of the Supreme Kai of Time's voice, "However, as the Androids have killed everyone who can stand up to them besides them, you need to make sure that Gohan doesn't die before he can leave."
He understood now...
That explained why the Scroll of Eternity had shown an image of a young Gohan being killed by the hands of Android 17 and 18 in his attempts to protect a blue haired woman clutching an infant close to her and an old man wearing a lab coat.
"In the original version of the timeline, the Androids hadn't arrived at the launch site until right after Gohan left. However, this time..."
"I understand." He said, concentrating and flying towards the Capsule Corp. building, a blue aura surrounding him, it stopping the wind from hurting his eyes.
As he flew around the building, the Future Warrior stopped at the sight of a spherical shaped pod painted white with several black markings on it, five figures standing around there next to it.
He flew at full speed towards them all, landing next to the shortest of the whole group, who sported a head of almost wildly unkempt hair, the purple gi making it obvious who it was.
Gohan looked over at him when he'd landed, asking him, "Who are you?"
"I'm on your side. I'll hold them off, you get to the ship." The Future Warrior said as he entered a fighting stance, him facing the pair who were standing a short distance away from them, the Androids alit by the purple aura that was so uncharacteristic of them.
"No, I can't just leave you here. They're just too powerful." Gohan said, standing his ground, the Future Warrior scowling at this.
"Alright, let's see what we can do about driving them away."
The Future Warrior charged up his energy, body lighting up as he did this, doing so as quickly as possible, waves of ki coming off of his body like a type of blue steam.
"You ready?" He asked the boy next to him.
"R-Right." Gohan responded, the seven year old momentarily too startled by the Future Warrior's power output to be completely focused on the Androids in front of him.
"Alright, let's go." He said, him flying straight at the Androids.
#17, hand caressing the side of the space ship as he examined it closely, had looked at the sight of the Future Warrior charging up his energy, and seeing the man speeding towards him after kicking harshly off the ground, quickly blocked the punch he sent #17's way with his left wrist.
The force behind the blow startled him further, it so great that a small crater formed on the ground, the dirt seeming to jump up in the air and rain back onto the ground, #17 pushed backwards by the punch.
The red haired man threw another punch after twisting his free hand, now a fist, back, and #17 scowled, bracing himself for the impact, only for #18 to intervene, the Future Warrior getting a drop kick to the face that made him stumble backwards, #18 falling flat on her two feet as she landed from being in midair.
"Thanks 18." #17 said to his sister, him holding his wrist, left hand clenching and unclenching itself as he felt the pain of one blow set itself in..
"No problem." #18 responded simply, arms crossed.
The Future Warrior recovered quickly from the blow, rubbing the side of his face that got hit by the bottom of #18's two feet.
"It looks like there's someone else who wants to get in our way." #18 commented shortly, before ducking underneath a punch that a flying Gohan sent her way, #17 seeing that he tried to do the same thing as the Future Warrior, the male Android punching Gohan shortly in the stomach, the momentum behind the punch making him unable to dodge or block in time, Gohan having the wind knocked out of his stomach as he was thrown back as well.
"At least now we're even." #17 said, him back to holding his left wrist and twisting it around.
Then, almost simultaneously, the duo moved, flying over the form of Gohan and immediately attacking the Future Warrior, the red haired man quickly bringing up his hands to block the onslaught of attacks that the two would unleash onto him, his hands becoming like blurs as he blocked and dodged every attack they sent his way.
Despite the two managing to force him to keep making constant steps backwards, the Future Warrior was having a harder time not trying to retaliate, as he realized that he was a bit scared of going overboard and accidentally messing up the timeline.
But as the attacks grew more and more rapid, he found that he momentarily didn't let this thought control his actions completely, acting entirely on an instinct that controlled him like a reflex.
After seeing the punch that #18 threw at him, he slid to his left, her right, putting him on the same side as #17, and he immediately wrapped his hands tightly around her outstretched right forearm, grunting, spinning on the ground with his feet still planted firmly on it, doing a full spin and trying to throw the girl, who at this point was spinning with his movements, was about to be thrown into her brother, only for the boy to dodge it by sliding underneath the swing the red haired man made out of #18, said girl being thrown through the air with a much unexpected bit of wasted momentum, the Future Warrior having already let go of her.
As he realized what had happened, the Future Warrior whipped his head to face #17, only to have the black haired android force his fist to collide harshly against his cheek, making him stumble back a step, scowling all the while, grunting slightly as he planted his foot on the ground, turning it to use the inertia behind the blow to his advantage, spinning around on the ground and thrusting his right bent elbow into #17's forehead, his right fist held by his free hand to add power to his attack.
The next second however, he felt himself get blown forward by what felt to be a ki blast of some type, a second small but strong bit of energy causing him to be blown forward, falling face first into the ground and being pushed along the ground like a rag doll.
Scowling into the ground, he got up quickly, half stumbling back up, and charged his energy up beyond his maximum capacity while in his base form, his aura and hair becoming a bright gold.
His transformation complete instantly, the Future Warrior got into his fighting stance.
Behind the Androids, Gohan looked on in surprise.
This man was a Super Saiyan...?
"Time Patroller," Trunks' voice spoke into his ear, "You need to hold off the Androids until Gohan leaves. Then you can just leave the rest to the woman with the infant in her arms."
"Why?" The man responded, eyes still focused on the Androids in front of him, voice low, "I can't sense much energy from her."
For the first time, he could hear hesitance in Trunks' voice.
"... she has other ways of combating them than raw power."
The Future Warrior felt a bit of curiosity about what he meant by those vague words, but stopped himself from asking the question.
"Alright, Gohan!" He yelled, the boy jumping at the sound of his name, "You head onto the ship. I'll hold them both off."
"But... what about you?"
"I can handle them myself. The highest priority is you getting in the ship."
The Androids grew interested in the ship now, turning their attention to behind them, where, in their skirmish, they'd moved several feet away from it.
He took this oppurtunity and rushed them, screaming at them, "Heads up!"
They both looked, and he stopped abruptly in the middle of the air when he was just within striking distance of them, blasting off around them, going in an elliptical path as his body was consumed almost in gold light, before he reached to behind the Androids, stopping abruptly and elbowing them both in the back of their foreheads, throwing them head first into the ground.
Daring to look back at them, the Future Warrior looked back at Gohan, "Go! I can handle this - !"
He felt the wind suddenly get knocked out of him, his eyes widening at the feeling of the immense impact, finding that #17 had punched into his stomach.
He cursed under his breath, but saw the form of #18 attempting a spin kick to his head while in mid-air, and at the last second he ducked under the blow, cupping his left hand in his right and grabbing #17's head, pulling it down to his waist while swinging his knee up, the black haired boy unable to stop himself from yelling a curse in his pain as he felt the pain rack through him when the two forces collided.
As the Future Warrior dodged another attack from #18, Gohan was walking into the white ship, looking to his left as Bulma helped him in, her having given her child to her father.
"Do you still know how to use some of the techniques everyone taught you?" Gohan said slowly, looking up at her while holding his stomach.
Bulma nodded, face serious, "Don't worry. You need to get to Namek ASAP. You'll just be wasting your time if you stay."
Gohan nodded, "You're... you're right..." He walked slowly into the ship, him not looking back as Bulma got out, her quickly scanning the sky for the sun.
Moments later, the ship blasted off into the sky after the opening shut, Bulma having already spotted the setting sun and running to position herself in front of it, the battle between the robotic twins and the saiyan with natural red hair still being as brutal as it was a minute ago.
After instructing her father to try to get out of there, she yelled out at the three battling warriors, screaming out at the top of her lungs, bringing her hands up to be symmetrically apart from her face, fingers stretched as far apart from each other as possible, "HEY!"
When all three quickly looked at her, Bulma concentrated, and in that moment, Trunks yelled at him, "Come back to the Time Nest!"
The Future Warrior did just that, disappearing in a flash of white light, Bulma screaming out again, "Solar Flare!"
Both Androids were instantly blinded, having a sensation similar to having a flash bomb blow up in their face, both yelling out in pained anger and distress, both trying to look for Bulma when they uncovered their damaged eyes, the effects of the Solar Flare still working on them, impairing their sight to the point that everything was ten times brighter than what it should've been, especially considering that it was almost nighttime anyways.
Before they realized it, they'd fallen from their small elevation above the ground, the ground breaking their bearings enough to make them have to slowly crawl to move at all, their balance lost on them to a point that anyone who'd seen them being very liable to be characterized as drunk.
Even when they'd recovered, it wouldn't matter however.
Bulma and the others were already gone.
When he arrived in the Time Nest again, the Future Warrior breathed, finding that he'd been transported into the Time Nest instead of the small house that he'd entered not too long ago.
"You did well, as expected." The Supreme Kai of Time greeted him, hands on her hips, smile on her lips.
"Yeah. I didn't expect Demigra to try affecting my timeline again though." Trunks said as he stood at the center of the Time Nest, not looking at anything except for the Scroll of Eternity.
The Future Warrior shrugged at these words, him more concerned on other matters.
"I wonder if his powers are getting stronger. The last time I fought the Androids I was much weaker than I am now." He said, voice questioning.
He'd fought against Buu and Beerus and had managed to stay evenly matched against them both, but those two were several leagues ahead of the Androids, and he was having trouble keeping up with them, let alone fighting against them both.
Was Demigra growing stronger...?
"While that's a reasonable assumption, I'm not sure if I'd say that Demigra himself is the cause of it." The one who was quite easily the shortest of the trio said, the girl lifting her hands up to be on level with her shoulders, elbows bent.
"Tokiii!" Came the sound of the bird that resembled an oddly colored owl, everyone looking up at the form of Tokitoki flying down at them, the Supreme Kai of Time rubbing his head when he'd landed on her now outstretched arm.
"Hey Trunks," the red haired warrior walked to the half-blooded saiyan's side, pushing a hand against the table like structure that supported Trunks' hands in their effort to keep him from falling forward, looking to his left at him, "Did you know that blue haired woman from the timeline I was just in?"
Trunks nodded, voice neither hesitant nor excited, "Yeah, that was my mother."
"Really?" The Future Warrior looked curiously at the scroll his partner looked over so heavily, voice reflecting that this fact interested him greatly, but didn't surprise him, "That explains a few things."
"Like what?"
"The reason the baby I saw in the vision had purple hair, why your mother resembled you so much, and how you knew to let me leave things to her." He spoke in a short way, pushing himself off the table and bringing his hands to the back of his head.
"Her being involved explains why the Supreme Kai of Time didn't give me a chance to see what the change in the timeline was until after you'd left." Trunks said, looking back at the pink skinned girl in question, "You thought that I'd try stepping in myself didn't you?"
Her attention mostly on the conversation between the partners, the Kai nodded, "I could tell that you were very protective of your mother from the first couple of hours after we met. I didn't want you to act irrationally."
"That makes sense." Trunks said, looking at the scroll again.
"You look like you have something heavy on your mind." The Future Warrior commented, Trunks giving him a bitter smile in response.
"Do I? Well, don't worry. I'm just thinking is all. Thanks for not showing me until Time Patroller got involved Supreme Kai of Time." Trunks, having walked away with the Scroll of Eternity in hand, said this, speaking the last part while looking at the Supreme Kai of Time.
She smiled kindly at him, "I understand how it feels to watch someone you love get killed Trunks," she said this with a glimmer of sadness in her gaze, "I don't want you to repeat the same mistake as before."
"Yeah, you're right." Trunks responded.
The Future Warrior looked back and forth between his partner and his boss, gaze questioning.
He couldn't help feeling he was a bit in the dark here...
"Supreme Kai of Time?"
"Yes?" She looked at him.
"Could I ask you something?"
"Of course. Ask away." Tokitoki flew off of her arm, and she held her hips again.
"... do you think that I could give you a nickname of some kind?"
The saiyan wanted to ask about what had happened to them - at first, at least - but seeing their expressions like that at the mere mention of the events felt bad enough.
Asking them to retell what had happened would be too horrid a thing for him to do, no matter how curious he became, and he knew this to be fact.
Besides all of that however, he honestly did want to try and give the girl before him a nickname of a sort.
She seemed startled out of her melancholy, "What? Why do you want to do that?"
"It's just that..." The Future Warrior tried to find the right words, "Calling you "Supreme Kai of Time" is kind of a mouthful. Can we call you something shorter? Maybe something with less syllables...?"
"Like...?"
His brain went to work, and he spoke, "Maybe something like "Time Kai" or - "
He didn't even get the second nickname he had in mind out before she cut him off, "No way!"
"Huh? But what's wrong with...?"
"If you just called me "Time Kai" that would undermining my rank among the Kais."
"There are other Kais?"
"Yes. And if you were to just call me something like that, you'd make me sound like I'm at the bottom of the barrel among them all."
"What other Kai even exists? I haven't heard of any others since I got here, so how would that undermine your rank?"
"You have! Goku talked about King Kai when you fought with him on Namek."
"That guy is higher ranked than you though!"
"No he isn't! He is much, much less high ranking than I am!"
"Why do people call him King Kai then?"
"How the heck should I know? He thinks he's some king of comedy."
"Regardless," the Future Warrior said, feeling them getting off topic, "If not Time Kai, what would you like us to call you?"
"Supreme Kai of Time."
"That's too much of a mouthful!"
"Tough! Just think for a second, if you were to suddenly start being called "T.P." instead of "Time Patroller," how would you feel?"
"... to be honest kind of happy. It'd be nice to have a name like that instead of just being called "Time Patroller" all the time." He answered honestly.
She groaned, "Ugh," she brought her hands to her head, "You don't get it at all!"
"In all fairness," Trunks piped in, his right forearm holding his left elbow as he held his chin in thought, "Calling you T.P. would probably feel a lot less dehumanizing."
"Thanks." He smiled back at his partner.
"And with all due respect," Trunks looked at the Supreme Kai of Time, "Saying your full name is kind of a mouthful sometimes."
"I could wipe the floor with both of you without batting an eye," she glared daggers at them both, "So shut up, the both of you."
"I don't get why you're so mad, we're just trying to help - what the?"
The Future Warrior stared, as the Supreme Kai of Time had disappeared from sight.
Then a split second later, the side of his face that didn't wear a scouter collided harshly with the calf of someone else, the force behind the hit throwing him across the room, him just about to slam into the wall when he felt a pair of feet slam into his stomach, the attacker plummeting back to the ground and using his body to cushion the fall, a small crater cracking into the floor.
The Future Warrior laying battered and defeated on the ground, the Supreme Kai of Time whipped her head back to look at Trunks, the man jumping slightly at the sight of her now glowing eyes, an aura covering her that had an odd tinge of color to it.
He set the Scroll of Eternity back onto the table, bringing both hands up in the air in a manner similar to how a person would be expected to respond when a police officer asked them to put their hands up, doing this as a form of surrender.
But the damage had been done.
She disappeared again, and before Trunks knew it, he found her standing in front of him, the blows he felt being faint, but enough for him to feel pain explode all over his body.
He collapsed, holding his stomach, which was one of many countless places that hurt indescribably.
Standing in an angered victory over the two men, the Supreme Kai of Time started to literally kick them out of the Time Nest, them sliding through the floor at first before she reached the entrance, finally delivering a final swing of her leg which sent them both flying through the air, landing with a crunch on the path that led to the Time Nest.
"Just how strong is she?" The Future Warrior asked incredulously, coughing up blood while lifting his head up, it falling back on the ground seconds later.
"In theory every Supreme Kai should be as powerful as a thousand Frieza's at full power put together," Trunks responded, lifting his head off of the ground, him completely face down, "But she's been training for several years by herself, so I have no idea T.P..."
T.P. smiled at his nickname.
At least now his name felt less generic...
A/N: If you're wondering what moment in history was changed, it was at a point in time that took place right after the death of all the Z Fighters by the Androids, and before the eventual introduction of Trunks as a fighter against the Androids.
It's technically not a part of any canon material, as neither the manga or the anime have really written this out. The biggest hint that I'll give anyone reading this however is that the point in history the time shift took place in is somewhat alluded to in the DBZ movie "Wrath of the Dragon".