The History of Marron

Chapter 36: How Much is A Billion Lives?

A/N: 1st flashback chapter

Marron's POV

My mind was in a frenzy, trying to completely figure out his words.

"My past self." He had said he wanted to aid his past self from enduring such a future he had inherited which meant he had some form of way to time travel.

If I had still been living in that cabin I probably would've thought the idea alone of time travel was a myth, but after being exposed to such technology that existed in this broken world I couldn't help but believe he had access to a time machine. His mother was the woman who invented all these things, I saw firsthand from being in her lab and I wouldn't put it past her dexterous personality to not have been able to accomplished something so great as a time traveling device.

And if it was true I had a chance of seeing my guardians once again, and if by assumption I'm pretty sure he would be traveling to a specific time before my mother and uncle destroyed the world, I could be able to peacefully stop them and figure out what drove them to this state of madness in the first place.

I knew from the time he realized he slipped up and told me something he shouldn't have, he might've assumed that these very thoughts would be running through my mind would take hold of my entire thought process. And I know by him saying he would help his past self from enduring a future like this meant he would eliminate my guardians all over again which also made it a fifty percent chance that I wouldn't be born (right?). I couldn't have that happen, they were kind people and I treasured my life. If they were androids they most likely had to be programmed to have no compassion, but at the same time they showed me they were able to show compassion for me. Where they just killing because they believed it was fun?

I collapsed on the bed with my forearm to my face after I decided to stop my pacing and my thoughts began to become a nuisance. Kid who had been watching my every move had sneezed.

"Bless you," I mumbled.

Silence.

I took my forearm from my eyes and looked at the spot where Kid was sitting to see he had disappeared.

I wasn't in the mood for hide and seek and told him that aloud, but he didn't seem to come out of hiding. How did he manage to hide so fast, I mean he was fast but I didn't expect him to dash somewhere without seeing or hearing where he went.

I sat up on the bed and ended up tumbling to the ground as I began to scream at what my eyes had just witnessed. I was out of words as I saw Kid who just materialized himself from thin air. He was sitting in the same spot I had last saw him as I saw his small body slowly begin to appear.

"H-how did you do that?" I finally gathered my composure enough to ask him. He wasn't an ordinary child, I established that matter a long time ago but now I was really coming to terms in believing he was an alien.

"When I sneeze I shrink," he giggled as he said this as though it was something normal and I was silly for having not known.

While I tried to figure out if he was serious. I noticed the toy Bulma had given him when she first invited us to stay was held tightly in his hand and realized it had shrieked with him as the toy wasn't visible as well.

If I can decipher this correctly he has the power to shrink himself and any object he has within his grasp. And going by another thought if they possessed a device to time travel it may only have space for one person but if there was a possibility that there was more than one space I wouldn't be gladly invited on that venture. I would need Kid to shrink us and I'll have a high chance of saving my guardians.

"How long can you stay small like you just were?" I asked Kid, a large smile forming on my lips.

"Sneeze!" He shouted while pointing at his nose, "or three minutes."

I stared at him for a moment, he had just told me when he sneeze he shrinks and now was telling me when he sneeze again he goes back to normal. This power was a bit cool but would be highly annoying especially if he fell ill.

If I wanted to make a successful discrete journey to the past I would need to train his nose or we could jeopardize the mission but we also had to beat the time of three minutes.

"What else can you do?" I asked, curious.

He paused, thinking.

"Fight! I can hear and see things that's very far away. Fly..." He trailed off, his memory seeming to fail him.

"Alright, it's okay if you don't remember. We just got to train that nose of yours for when we time travel, don't you want to see your mommy?" I asked and I watched him frown. I didn't want to assume the worst but right now the survival rate in this world is looking pretty scarce and I can't completely guarantee that his parents are still alive.

"I already see mommy," he smiled at me and though I was slowly realizing this I think I'm coming to believe that he really thinks I'm his actual mom, it was a bit sad if his memory failed him so much that he can't really remember the woman who birthed him, but I would gladly take responsibility and raise him. He was starting to make me fall for him.

I smiled, "so are you ready to start training?" I asked as I looked for something ticklish that would make him sneeze.

"Yeah," he responded joyfully, grinning widely to show me all his beautiful small pearly white teeth.

Two days later

After being locked away in the room for two days after hearing the boy's plan to time travel I decided to take a little field trip. I decided to take a quick shower with Kid before finding my way passing the kitchen and before I was out the door Bulma stopped me saying she would like to talk with me when I get back.

I agreed and was glad she didn't ask me of my whereabouts. I dug through my brain trying to remember the location in which we last saw each other, though it had only been a couple of days it felt like I hadn't seen them in years.

I had landed near the broken looking building to shockingly find them outside. There face told me they hadn't slept well in days and I know my disappearance worried them. As I walked closer to their view they shouted with joy as they hugged me and Kid exclaiming how worried sick they were.

I apologized for having them worry, I knew they were going to be worried about our disappearance, but now they were both crying, and I felt really guilty even when I didn't plan to get kidnapped, almost die, and then come live with the people that were responsible of what was going to be my sudden death.

A long time ago I had believed it was just me, my mother, and uncle against the world, the trio and that if they were ever gone I really wouldn't have much of a will to live as they were my only family. But here I was surrounded around people who cared for me and would mourn me if I were to die.

I hugged my grandparents back, the tears they were shedding seeming to have been contagious as my eyes now watered as well. I had a new family.

We headed inside the safe haven and I was glad the receptionist didn't get a good look at me as I decided to put on a hoodie. I didn't know then that my face was alarming enough to put fear in people's hearts in which they thought I was my mother. So, as I had put the pieces together the woman thought I was my mother and that Kid and my grandparents were my hostages which led to me being kidnapped and almost choked to death. We headed to their bunker and they immediately tried their best to make me feel at home, from making me have a seat on the couch right as the door had opened and hurrying over to the kitchen to find some snacks to serve.

I decided to lie to them about my whereabouts not wanting them to worry and though I knew they could tell I was lying they didn't confront me about it, probably not wanting to hear the truth anyways. The atmosphere was quiet and stiff, it was a pretty awkward setting. There obviously wasn't much to talk about these days nor much to do.

I stared at my green tea in this finely white porcelain tea cup and looked at the reflection reflecting upon it. I wanted to discuss a more serious matter but didn't know exactly how to approach it, I wanted some form of answers to the never-ending questions swarming in my head. And if I were to actually go to the past for real I needed to know if my greedy actions were going to be for the right cause.

"You know when your mother and uncle were born I took a greater liking to your mother, she was an angel, my princess. As for your uncle I could say we kind of hated each other, though hate is a strong word I think that's the best way to describe our relationship. I wasn't the best father to him which I can say drove him to become a delinquent and his sister, though she was the oldest she followed him and became one. Once they pulled a heist and robbed the bank where I worked, they were never caught for doing it, but I know they did." He had begun telling the story I couldn't find my voice to ask about, but he soon grew silent, the story was hard for him to tell.

"They had detention a lot and most of the time they wouldn't show up, they ended up dropping out of school as they were told they weren't going to graduate that year. We tried to help them change their ways but they were at this point in their life where they didn't see the need to listen to their parents especially since they were now adults as well. One day when they had stepped out they had never come back, we called their cells but they were mysteriously disconnected, we filed a missing persons report but much justice wasn't given to us especially as they were famous delinquents. A couple years had passed, and we received no word and no signs of them returning but we couldn't come to believe the fact that they might be dead…" Kimi had stepped in for her husband.

"It seemed like it was just a couple days ago when we had turned on the TV to watch the news when it was still airing and saw them. I can't explain the mixture of emotions that were swarming through our hearts but one thing we could agree on is that we were happy that they were alive, but all that had changed when they began to attack. They weren't the children we had so much difficulty raising. They had powers… it looked like they had lost their humanity. And then the newspapers began to shelf up, calling them androids and killers…it was overwhelming. We hide from our own children, the parents they most likely wouldn't recognize and kill without hesitation," Jin fell silent.

It was hard for them to discuss such a sensitive topic, it was beyond crazy. My guardians had been kidnapped that's basically what I got from them having gone missing without a trace and some lunatic turned them into monsters. But there was still much that didn't explain their motive to destroying the world, sure the lunatic who programmed them may have been the number one cause but they took it out of their hearts to have and raise me even when they were causing the Armageddon, so were they really destroying the world by choice or force?

"I'm sorry for worrying you guys," I apologized once again, if they were in that much grief about my guardians I couldn't imagine how they would've felt with just uniting with a granddaughter they didn't know they had and I suddenly disappeared.

I told them about how I had meet up with these nice people and that I would be staying with them for a while. If I really was going to time travel I don't know how much time would pass but I needed them to know that I was safe. They were a bit overprotective as I was obviously their only family left and who was must trustworthy than family, but they gave in. They bought me my bag, it hadn't taken that much damage during the battle, but it didn't matter much to me as there wasn't anything important in there besides the…book.

Just thinking about that notebook, I knew were filled with my mother's words and possibly my uncle's I wanted to open it, it felt important, it held sentimental value but why did every time I wanted to open it I couldn't. I shook the feeling away. Maybe when I travel back through time I'll have the courage to read what they wrote as I could just see myself crying and wetting all the pages, my watery eyes wouldn't be even able to read a proper sentence.

Me and Kid gave our goodbyes before taking off a distance away from the safe haven. And just as I reached the home Bulma was there waiting for me. She ushered me to follow her, so I did. She brought us to the familiar lab where I had first woken up to after being on the brink of death. Beyond that was a huge garage where my eyes skipped pass the junky looking car and to the egg shape machine that was standing tall. As I read the words HOPE written across in black I didn't need her to tell me what I was looking at. I knew too well what it was.

I was mesmerized at what I was seeing, it looked pretty small, something I expected, and it had one seat, another thing I expected.

"Wow this is really real," I found my surprised voice voicing.

"Yeah," Bulma said as she nodded her head.

I watched the door to the garage open to see Trunks enter, as usual he was scowling, my presence tending to cause such an affect on him. He stood against the wall with his arms crossed, his attention on the time machine as well.

"You know Marron, this trip to the past to save humanity is imperative and I hope you realize it, it may seem like my son is the enemy here but trust me he's a savoir. You wouldn't want those people living how we are do you?"

You didn't have to be a genius to figure out why she was telling and showing me all this. It may have seemed weird or stupid to be doing this at all, but I knew why she was telling me about this imperative mission that was going to change the world for the greater good, she wanted me to understand that this had to be done and them destroying my guardians and most likely ridding my existence from that timeline can save billions. My one life wasn't important to the billions that were being jeopardize and I wasn't allowed to be selfish about it. I didn't put much thought about that and I know my life wasn't close to equaling billions. But somewhere in the back of my mind is that I felt as though she knew I had some form of way to disrupt this mission for my greater good, and if she did figure out something as this she was warning me to not be selfish. But how can I not be, I valued my life and after hearing the story of my guardians they were the victims as well. so how wrong would it be for me to think selfishly like that? Did my nor my guardians life not matter as well, wouldn't there be a way to resolve all this and have everyone live.

"I understand," my voice was low.

She looked at me with a look asking did I really?

I looked over at Trunks, his attention was on me for a split second, seeing my reaction to what his mother just told me. Then I looked over at the door and found myself heading towards it.

They were right, and I needed to understand that. But as I tried to I kept thinking about life being unfair and just thinking about that made my uncle's words bite me in the ass as he usually used to tell me life wasn't fair.

I wiped the tears of anger I had been suppressing while in the garage. Why did they need to resort in killing my guardians, I already suffered in this time and knowing they were going back in time to kill them once again I don't think I'll be able to handle it.

Why did I not have a shot of life in that timeline?