Chapter 14 – Meddling with Time

"Y-You!" Freeza screeched, eyes wide and jaw open. "You too?"

"Yes," Vegeta nodded, his trademark smirk unusually absent from his face. It didn't take long for it to break through, delighting in the shock he'd caused the tormentor of his youth. "You're finished, Freeza."

"Vegeta's a… that!" Krillin shivered. "I didn't know he could reach that transformation too!"

"I knew he could become a Super Saiyan God because we all saw him do it…" Gohan was awestruck. "… but I had no idea about this form. Dad and Vegeta must have found this form – whatever it is – during their training with Whis."

"Krillin," Vegeta called calmly. "Give Kakarrot a senzu bean before he passes onto the next life!"

"Oh… R-Right…" Krillin eyed up Freeza anxiously, letting his eyes fall down towards his fallen childhood friend. Bravery managed to prevail against fear and he darted forward as fast as he could.

Freeza lashed out with one arm extended, a single finger pointing directly towards the bald fighter's head.

The blast did not reach him. It was incredibly difficult to see but from what Corset could tell, her father had deflected the attack, suddenly stood between the two. The blast had missed its original target but still managed to claim a life, instead colliding with the subordinate that'd struck Goku unaware. With a horrid explosion and the sickening smell of burning flesh, the subordinate was deceased.

"H-He managed to outrun Freeza's attack," Piccolo gasped. "That's the same move he used against me while on Namek!"

'It's the same move he used to kill Dende, Piccolo… and me.' Corset was hit by a sudden urge to burst into tears. The last time she'd seen that attack… well, she hadn't really seen it and when she knew about it, she was pretty much on death's door.

"I didn't even see him get there," Gohan choked out.

"Go," Vegeta spoke, having noticed Krillin had stopped out of shock. He kept his eyes on his opponent, hearing Krillin's feet shift across the ground behind him. Within moments the Saiyan had launched himself towards Freeza.

Krillin shuffled closer to Goku's downed state. To his surprise the Saiyan was still conscious and even able to keep eye-contact with him! "Hey there, buddy," Krillin greeted him pitifully, reaching back into his shirt and taking the senzu bag out. "Don't worry, I've got something that'll fix you up nicely." He pulled out a senzu bean.

"Thanks Krillin," Goku happily accepted the senzu bean as it was dropped past his lips, chewing upon the small pulse and swallowing. Within seconds the life within him was restored, the warmth of his body returning as the blood stemmed and stopped its flow, the throbbing in his chest and ribs immediately subsiding.

Ahead of them, out to sea, Vegeta and Freeza were moving about rapidly. To compare it to lightning would not do them justice because not even lightning could keep up with them. Not only was it difficult to see, it was also difficult to sense what was going on.

"God-like transformations are a pain to follow," Krillin grumbled as he and Goku made their way back towards the others.

"Really? It's not so hard to follow once you get the hang of it," Goku responded chipper. "Can't you sense the disturbance their movement causes in the air?"

"I can but I can't register it fast enough!" Krillin retorted indignantly. "Darn it Goku, you make everything sound so easy! You've gotta remember you're one of the strongest people here and that we will find things harder to do!"

"Sorry, I've just gotten so used to being able to detect it since Whis has been training us," Goku apologised.

"Would I be right in assuming you can tell who is winning?" Piccolo asked with a chuckle.

"Sure," Goku nodded. "Vegeta's got this no problem. Freeza really is incredible as a fighter. If he can achieve this much strength after training for such a short period of time, imagine what he could achieve in the future! Too bad he insists on trying to hurt people."

Another bang went off, a blur shot across the sky and slammed into the ground metres from where the crowd stood. It was difficult to see but Corset could see Freeza had been outdone once again. Her father landed a few metres from the fallen tyrant. As the dust cleared, it became apparent that the fallen villain had lost his golden hue and had returned back to the ice-white shade reminiscent of their days on Namek.

Freeza was in deep, deep trouble.

Her father moved in for the kill, extending one hand out towards him. A ball of ki started to form agonisingly slowly, Corset feeling the breath in her throat hitch.

"DAMN IT!" Freeza hollered.

The ground shuddered violently. Below his hands, the ground had lit up and had started to shift, cracking and crumbling as the bright light grew more and more blinding.

"Whis!" Came a voice.

Corset recognised that voice and amidst the rising heat of the air around her, felt a shiver run down her spine as Whis followed Birus' instruction and surrounded the observers in an energy barrier. The flash outside pierced through the translucent shield, burning her eyes and reducing her to a collapsed heap on the ground. 'Damn that hurt!' It felt as if she'd just stared at the sun, or be hit by the effects of a Tayo-Ken. Slowly the pain died down and she found herself able to open her eyes once again.

They were in the middle of space, surrounded by a mass of rock spread out across their field of vision, as far as the eye could see. It took a moment for her to realise what'd happened and when it did, Corset was glad she was as close to the ground as she was. Otherwise she feared she would have collapsed hard.

"The Earth blew up…" She mumbled, unaware of what everyone else was doing. She could register Krillin saying something and Gohan falling silent and her mother wailing (when had she even gotten here?) and all she could think of was Soba and the fact he was dead because Earth had been destroyed by Freeza. That must have meant her father had also died because he hadn't been in this mysterious orb that'd somehow protected them from the explosion.

"Freeza won," Birus' voice cut through her thoughts like a knife. "His race can survive in space."

"Yes," Whis nodded in agreement.

"Damn, I should have beaten Freeza when I had the chance," Goku looked forlorn. "I wasn't serious enough, I let him do this!"

"None of us were able to stop him from blowing the Earth up," Piccolo responded solemnly. "You can't blame yourself."

"No, Goku is right. He should have been more serious…" Whis glanced down at the shorter being to his left. "… Shall I?" He asked.

Birus snorted. "… It can't be helped. Whis, use it."

Corset stood and watched as Goku muttered something about a do-over. Whis nodded, seemingly pleased that Goku had apparently remembered whatever it was they were referring to.

And then the view outside went strange, turning a dull sepia-tone-like shade. The rocks stopped and then started to float in the opposite direction, moving faster and faster until they were obscured by a blinding flash… and then the world was as it had been, her father and Freeza were there once again, Freeza down on the ground and at his mercy.

The shade faded, true colour restored as the shield Whis had created vanished, no longer offering the protection from Freeza's imminent attack.

'Was that… time travel?' This was news to Corset. She almost missed Goku lunge forward and holler out Freeza's name, firing off a Kamehameha directly towards him and Vegeta! The ground immediately shuddered and cracked under their feet, the blue beam throwing whatever was left of the tyrant straight into the cold reaches of space until his life force once again vanished. The Kamehameha left the atmosphere and slowly vanished out from view, dying in a small glimmer of light.

It took a while for the revelation to hit, even when her father (who had teleported out of harm's way so it seemed) had started to yell at Goku for stealing his victory. They were safe. They were all safe and he was alive.

"It's ok, Vegeta!" Her mother was shouting. "Goku saved you and the Earth!"

That was true, Corset thought as slowly the things going on around her started to overshadow the inner thoughts of her head.

"What was that?" Gohan had asked. "Did we just travel back through time?"

"Yeah," Goku nodded. "Whis can take us back and undo things."

"It's a little crude a way of putting it," Whis flinched a little, "but yes, I have the ability to reverse time – for when incorrect actions have been taken." The last part was spoken as a whisper, "Occasionally Birus may make an unwise decision so it is up to myself as his mentor to make sure these mistakes are rectified and learnt from… I can take us back as far as three minutes, which is my limit."

"That's a pretty impressive and useful ability to have," Gohan seemed awestruck. "Thank you. Because of your actions, my wife and newborn daughter are safe."

"What a pathetic ending," Birus muttered scratching the back of his head. "the Hakaishin ended up regenerating a planet!"

"Well the good news is it means I can prepare a feast for the two of you," Bulma pointed out with a smile.

Whis grinned, "I look forward to it! I turned back time just for the food!"

'Just for the food?' Corset felt a cold feeling sweep over her. Suddenly things had gotten rather uncomfortable around Whis.

"Jaco," Bulma continued, "are you sure you don't need to arrest him? Time control is a serious crime, isn't it?"

The little alien seemed unfazed by this – although to be fair, Corset wasn't sure what other expressions his kind were capable of. "I didn't see anything." Was his response.

The first thing she did when she got home was wrap her arms around him with no explanation. Naturally this was met with a confused and agitated response from Soba.

"Sorry, I almost lost you today," Corset apologised. Now she thought about it, perhaps she'd been too thoughtless and had put a little too much strength into it. He was only a brittle, regular human being after all and she could easily crush him without meaning to.

"What?" Soba glanced perplexed at her. "… I take it those weren't just earthquakes this afternoon then?"

"Nope, that was Freeza," Corset shook her head. The look on his face made her continue. "He's an alien, was hell-bent on ruling the galaxy and had loads of followers. We beat him back on Namek about nineteen years ago? My brother from another timeline then killed him about seventeen years ago? I thought I'd told you about him…"

"Him could mean several people at this point," Soba grumbled. "… I'm gonna need to sit down for this, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Corset nodded. "I could have sworn I'd told you about Freeza and Namek…"

And so the two of them sat for a good half an hour as Corset explained why they'd had to travel to a distant planet, what had happened when they'd arrived, who Freeza was and why he had such an influence on what'd happened to her father and Goku, what'd happened when they'd fought him and then how her brother from another time had come back and killed Freeza and his father. Then she explained briefly why her brother had come back from another time – at which point Soba cut her off.

"You look pale."

Corset stopped, suddenly feeling very self-conscious over her complexion. "… I do?"

"Why would I say it if you didn't?" Soba flatly responded.

"Because you're an ass," Corset's brows dropped over her eyes. "Can you blame me? I just spent the day fighting and watching the Earth be destroyed and regenerated and trying to deal with Dad and Goku suddenly being so much stronger than the last time we saw them – which is a good thing… but…"

Soba exhaled loudly and shuffled a little closer. "Ok, ok. I'm sorry for being observant… but you do look pale and it's hard not to notice how much more positive you've been sounding about work over the past few months so obviously you enjoy your martial arts thing... You seem happier. Or you did anyway."

Corset was stumped. "… Seriously, you're an ass!" She abruptly rose from her chair and stormed out the room, sensing the annoyance radiating from him and feeling it bounce off her back. Her anger bubbled and she turned on the spot. "What the hell is that even supposed to mean? You tell me I look pale and now you're saying I'm miserable to be around? Of course I enjoy my new job but I'm not gonna be there forever, am I? And for your information, maybe I'm looking pale because I thought I'd lost you today as well as the majority of my family as well as my friends, so it's perfectly fine for me to look a little off-colour!"

"And irrationally cross," Soba added.

She was spitting venom through her eyes… and apparently out of her stomach from the feel of things. If it decided to come up at least she'd have something acceptable to throw in his general direction. How did he manage to make her so angry so quickly? "I. Am not. Cross."

"You're not?" He rhetorically snorted.

"No, I'm not," Corset growled. "… I'm just tired. I'm going to bed."

Soba watched her vanish from the room resentfully. It wasn't his fault he'd apparently been killed and then brought back by some magical ability, what was he supposed to do? But he was observant and he had been observing her over the past few weeks. Something had off-set her, something had caused a slight change in her. He couldn't be sure it wasn't just her job change and how her mother had reacted to the news – Corset annoyingly hadn't talked about that part so he could only assume it hadn't gone well. It was hard to be supportive when she wouldn't let him be. It was hard enough being supportive when his job was as demanding as it was.

He wandered into the living room and turned on his computer, not having to wait long to start his search. Regardless of what she said, she was getting cross with him and seemed moodier than normal and he was going to find out why, so he could help her stop being such a jackass towards him, otherwise they may as well just forget being together.

"That ass!" Bulma was screaming. "How dare he just up and leave like this again!"

"Because that's what Dad does," Trunks muttered through his toast. "He goes off and does whatever he wants, then he comes back for a bit. Goten's dad does it too… You've been friends forever and you don't know this?"

Bulma shot him a look. "Watch that lip young man or I'll start cutting your allowance again."

Trunks rolled his eyes, blue orbs falling over towards his older sister standing in the doorway. "Since when were you here?"

Bulma's head spun, a smile creeping across her face. "It's alright. Your dad's not here so he can't kill Soba."

"Why would Dad wanna do that?" Trunks asked, intrigued.

"Because your sister has some big news," Bulma grinned.