Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.


"Even after the hell you put us through, she still saved you."

As he heard Krillin telling him off, Vegeta turned towards Dodoria's body...

But saw no trace of it.

"She saved you."

A flash occurred right after Krillin's remark and Vegeta looked puzzled at Krillin and Bulma.

"That blue-haired Earth woman saved me?"

Krillin didn't even know what they were just talking about: both their memories were that of the true history.

"Earthling, I believe we still have business to discuss..."

Krillin saw Vegeta walking closer and eyeing something behind him.

"Regarding your Dragon Ball."


Pan watched as the flash of light she was caught in revealed an entire different part of Namek. She sat on what looked like a round spot of land surrounded by pillar-esque structures. Sitting on a tree stump...

"Greetings, patroller."

Towa, cradling her staff.

"You...!" snarled Pan.

"I'll admit I underestimated you in your first three battles. I took precautions for this one and you still exceeded my expectations."

Even as her body felt sore, Pan began to turn away, ready to fly out.

"What's to stop me from leaving?"

"Nothing... although a sizable number of Frieza's forces are gathered outside this field..."

Pan put out her hand past one of the structures, seeing a field that made itself visible momentarily before vanishing.

"Should they spot you, they will likely report you to Lord Frieza... and that would alter history. You wouldn't want to do that, now would you?"

With a sigh, Pan realized Towa was right.

"So I'm your hostage, is that it?"

"It's simply incentive for us to talk. They will pass us in due time. There is a reason I wish to speak with you..."

Towa crossed her legs, sitting more casually and relaxed.

"And why I had Mire spare your life."

"You expect me to be grateful?"

"You are owed an explanation."

Pan turned back to Towa and sat on the ground.

"You care for them... the Z-Fighters. Goku. Gohan. Even Vegeta. More than professional courtesy."

Towa tapped her staff and the ground beneath Pan began to rise and shape itself, soon resembling a chair.

"You thought about ringing out Piccolo at the tournament, as well as pulling on Raditz's tail so Goku didn't have to die, but you weren't permitted to act on them..."

"She's figuring me out..."

"And yet you warned Yamcha before his death."

In anger, Pan's ki shattered the chair Towa had created for her.

"You don't get to talk about him!"

"You're acting as if he was meant to survive that battle. That was his death in history."

Pan pointed at Towa.

"You're the one powering up villains!"

Towa's grin shifted into a neutral expression.

"It was not my first call, but villains are far easier to utilize."

"All just to kill everyone?"

"Changing the past is never without casualties. Trunks knows that first-hand. One of the many secrets he kept... such as who his father really is."

Towa decided to stand up, her staff touching the ground.

"My last alteration on Earth and this one you stopped would've had positive effects."

"Like Trunks never being born?!"

"Like a smaller body count. Innocents killed by his hand living longer lives instead."

Towa noticed Pan's silence.

"You believe all his evil actions stemmed from Frieza... but that is a fiction."

Pan stepped back, trying to find a counter to this.

"No, he's..."

"Look..."

With a tap on the ground from her staff, a holographic image emerged of...

"A village of Namekians."

To Pan's horror, she saw Vegeta firing into the crowd.

"All murdered in cold blood by him..."

An all-too-familiar object was in his hand afterward.

"All for a Dragon Ball. He did all of this while going rogue against Frieza."

Pan felt sick to her stomach seeing this as Towa's staff formed another hologram of an event that the patroller had participated in.

"Him having Nappa and the Saibamen kill four of the Z-Fighters on Earth, then trying to destroy the planet."

As she saw the holographic Vegeta laugh at the deaths of Yamcha and Tien, Pan could practically hear the memory of those moments.

"All of this... behind Frieza's back."

Another hologram of a planet of insectoid-like beings.

"Arlia. This was a planet he and Nappa stopped at on their way to Earth."

They saw what appeared to be the tyrannical king of the planet being slain by a rock launched by Vegeta.

"They freed its populace from tyrannical rule, it's people grateful to them."

Indeed, Pan saw the Arlians celebrating what Vegeta and Nappa had done and joyously saw them off.

"And what did Vegeta choose to do?"

Pan almost didn't want to look. Before entering his pod, Vegeta fired a massive beam...

"He destroyed it. And Frieza didn't even order him to do so."

Seeing the destruction Vegeta caused nonchalantly combined with her sore body led her to fall onto her knees.

"Are you convinced, or would you like me to go further back than the last few months? Or perhaps a preview of what's to come will help."

Now she saw Vegeta standing in the World Martial Arts Tournament ring, the crowd packed all around him. He fired off a beam behind him without even looking, leaving a colossal hole in the stands where hundreds of spectators once stood. Upon seeing Vegeta, a strange mark on his forehead, smiling with glee, Pan rose to her feet.

"Enough!"

She charged ki in her right hand and aimed it right at Towa.

"I know what you're trying to do!"

Towa didn't show any semblance of fear.

"If you believe my intent is to lie and deceive you... that I've made this all up just to sully him..."

She placed her staff on the tree stump.

"That I am a monster."

Pan couldn't believe it: Towa stood with her arms stretched out, fully intending to take the blast.

"Then kill me. Mira won't stop you this time. I will perish and my fiction with me."

Towa closed her eyes, as if at peace with what could be her death at the hands of Pan.

"All of this... it's..."


Pan's mind went back to her last day on her Earth: Frieza's invasion and destruction of her home. After he taunted Vegeta with his past deeds...

"...had you succeeded in killing Goku, you would have conquered the Earthlings, if not destroyed the planet."

"...after all the people you've killed, all the innocents you slaughtered... do you really think starting a family resolves you of your past?"

She then looked back at Bulla, who tried helping her father up.

"Dad... everything he said... is it...?"

"It's true."

Back then, Pan couldn't believe it, but now, after everything Towa had shown her...

"Everything he said... is true."


A tear leaving her eye, Pan lowered her hand, ceasing her intended attack.

"Just tell me... why did you turn on the Time Patrol?"

Towa took hold of her staff once more and sighed, indicating she wasn't fond of what she was about to discuss.

"Toki Toki City was my home after I lost Dabura. Once my brother was taken from me, the Demon Realm descended into chaos... and I couldn't do anything about it."

Pan could feel the pain in Towa's voice wasn't that of a deceiver. In fact, the tone was all too familiar to her.

"I cherished my time in the Time Patrol... I truly did. Then came the accident."

"Your sparring bot."


Towa remembered what happened clear as day. For the first demonstration, it was pitted against a group of Saiyans, whom initially seemed too much for it, but once it powered up, they were all defeated. The next to battle the bot was Hale, the recruit from Frieza's Race.

The Saiyans who were defeated prior heckled Hale, including Hakusa, but everyone was shocked to see him match the sparring bot even admist its increases in power. When the bot was downed, Towa shook his hand and congratulated him. She went to her control panel to shut her creation down for the day...

An error. Its power kept growing and its inhibitors keeping it from going too far were overwritten. As she tried to fix this, Towa watched as her creation was out for blood, critically injuring several before preparing to fire at the group of Saiyans. Hale, whom she just shook hands with, got in front of the sparring bot, taking the beam himself.

As she looked in horror at the hole in Hale's chest as he fell, Towa tried everything she could to shut it down then and there. Finally, the console was operational again and just as she activated its shutdown, Trunks descended upon the sparring bot, cutting it in half with his sword.

Then she saw the surrounding patrollers, those injured and those tending to them, all looking over at her and what her creation had done.

"I'm so sorry."

She ran, covering her face as she couldn't bear to look them in the eye.


"I was devastated. I couldn't bear what I had done. I ran into Chronoa's library..."

After closing the massive doors so she could be alone, Towa accidentally bumped into a shelf of scrolls, knocking over several before sitting against the shelf's side. When a few of them opened to reveal their contents, she noticed several notable events, including Goku as a Great Ape destroying Pilaf's castle, Goku and Piccolo's confrontation with Raditz, and onward. But one caught her eye... an event she knew by heart...

"A scroll showcasing the one moment I would give anything to change..."

She took the scroll into her hand and squeezed it, then found herself leaving the libary back to...


Age 474

The Demon Realm, her brother, Towa as a child, and a short creature that oozed pure evil.

"The day I lost everything to that monster Babidi."

Dabura stood in front of the younger Towa to protect her.

"Leave, Towa! I will dispose of this warlock!"

Once the young Towa was at a far enough distance, he drew a sword, ready to do battle.

"Now I will show you why I am the Demon King!"

As Babidi readied a spell...

Towa emerged from behind the warlock, putting her staff in front of his neck before pulling it towards her, choking him. Dabura was stunned at this.

"T... Towa? Is that you?"

Babidi tried to slip free.

"Quickly, brother! Slay him, now!"

With a grin, Dabura pointed his sword at Babidi.

"With pleasure, sister."

He then readied it for a decapitating swing.

"Just when I was about to change his fate..."

Another flash followed by the glow of Super Saiyan hair and the clang of two blades meeting:

"Trunks interfered."

Dabura was puzzled at this stranger and his strength, but was also infuriated by his interference.

"You dare...!"

With a forceful shove, Dabura was sent onto his back, watching as Trunks then grabbed hold of Towa and flew away from them.

From a distance, Towa as a child, hiding behind a boulder, watched as with a single spell, Dabura fell to his knees before Babidi.

The adult Towa, trying to wrestle herself out of Trunks' grip, saw the same event as a child, but at a new angle. Now she saw Dabura's face showcase a struggle to overcome this fate, but once an M-esque mark formed on his forehead, his expression was blank as if he ceased to be his own self.

Once Dabura rose at Babidi's command and the two departed, the young Towa fell to her knees, burying her face in the rock as she sobbed while from above, tears streamed from the adult Towa.


Back in the Time Nest, Trunks and Chronoa both desperately tried to figure out just what had happened.

"Towa could've taken Pan anywhere." Trunks began, panicking.

As Chronoa was looking closely at the scroll at the moment of Pan's abduction, her eyes opened wide.

"Wait..."

"She could be in another timeline for all we know!" continued Trunks. "Who even knows what Towa will do...!"

"Trunks, calm down!"

She gestured Trunks closer to her.

"Look at this..."

She pointed over to the flash of light, which traveled upward, but never exited the planet's atmosphere.

"The trail doesn't exit Namek itself. Pan's still there."

She saw the trail curve and travel back downward before seemingly vanishing.

"I can tell she's on this half of the planet, but from here, Towa's trail seems to cloak itself."

Trunks began to recollect about Towa's last meeting with Pan.

"Towa seems to have found a way of making her location invisible to us and blocking our signal so we can't hear what's on Pan's end."

Now the both of them were attempting to find a means of tracking their location. Just then, a metaphorical light bulb floated over Trunks.

"I think I've got it."

He took out a vial of a sample of...

"The formula in Towa's staff gives off a unique ki signature. That's how Goku managed to find her back on Earth."

He inserted it into a scanning device.

"With this, I could scan for her formula. I'll be able to find them."

Chronoa handed him the scroll, having been moved back to the moment of Pan being taken.

"I know you will. Just make sure no one sees you."


Towa and Pan sat on the ground across from each other, Pan having taken in what Towa told her and Towa waiting until she was composed enough to continue. Finally, she started again.

"I watched my brother fall victim once again, as powerless to stop it in that moment as I was as a child."

Pan could only recall when she was willing to bet it all to change her past and save her family and home. She imagined herself trying to stop Frieza from killing Bulla and Hercule only for Trunks to take hold of her and fly her away, having to watch Bulla killed by a beam to her chest and Hercule choked to death once again.

"If that had happened..."

She then imagined herself in space having to watch the destruction of Earth.

"I don't want to think what I would've done."

She noticed Towa wiping her eyes.

"When I was brought back, they both deliberated on what to do with me..."


Across from Towa was bunches of scrolls knocked over. While Towa sat there listening to what Trunks and Chronoa were saying, she couldn't help but look at one scroll that struck her in particular...

One showing Trunks emerging from a time machine, then flying to confront the newly cyborg Frieza, his father King Cold, and the Frieza Force.

"Trunks..."

He and Chronoa turned to her, then saw her holding out this scroll, watching Trunks slay these enemies of the Z-Fighters.

"You did all of this."

Chronoa put her hand out and tried explaining.

"Towa, what happened there was..."

Further down, she saw Trunks handing Goku a capsule containing medicine designed to prevent his death by a heart virus.

"He wasn't doing this preserve history... he changed it."

She got onto her feet and pointed at Trunks.

"You took it upon yourself, didn't you?!"

"What Trunks did..."

"You stopped me..." Towa interrupted. "...and you let him get away with this. All of this!"


"And what did they decide to do when I pointed this out?"


"Towa..." began Chronoa. "You will be sent back to the Demon Realm with no memory of your time here."


"So I ran out of there, taking only my creation with me. For what was only a short time in Toki Toki City, I spent years back in my old home, now ruined remains of what it once was."

"You tried changing time again..."

"Indeed. Without the Time Patrol's resources, it took me what seemed like ages, but eventually, I discovered a means by which I could travel back in time. With it, I tried again and again at several points in time to change everything and save my brother, but Trunks always came in and stopped me."

Once again, Pan imagined herself in the shoes of Towa: having who were once her friends stop her from what she was trying to do for so long that now she saw them only as her arch-enemies.

"But you stopped at some point."

"Only because I realized my efforts had gone fruitless and I had to rethink my strategy."

"Your formula..."

"That and I finally realized after all those years a way of keeping Trunks at bay: he couldn't afford to show himself prior to his first appearance in the timeline, lest he risk undoing everything he had done. That, I believe, is where you came in, to do what he couldn't."

"Why empower villains?"

"Heroes didn't take to my formula. The demonic energy... or evil, if you prefer... would always be refused and cast out. Villains were the only suitable candidates, as much as I would've preferred otherwise."

"But you got it to work on Krillin. What changed?"

"That was a test, actually. I speculated on if it were used on one in a moment of killing intent whether it'd overwrite their restraints. Time will tell if it works consistently."

"So when the villains kill everyone... when you win... what happens?"

"Every attempted alteration of time releases these..."

Towa opened her hand, revealing to Pan...

"Distortion shards. Their essence can be converted into a source of power. Should I successfully change history, the amount released would be incalculable. With that much power behind my experiments, not even the Time Patrol or Chronoa could stop me from changing the fate of Dabura."

"But what happens to the timelines branching from the main one?"

"They're erased."

This blunt answer gave Pan pause. Towa saw this and circled around her.

"What do you think happened when Trunks changed history?"

"He didn't know..." thought Pan. "He couldn't have known."

"All the original branches are no more, gone for good. That was the cost for Trunks making Earth a better place."

"And you're willing to do the same knowingly? All those lives and worlds lost?"

""Him saving Goku, warning the Z-Fighters of the Androids, and the rest of his interfering birthed new timelines whose people knew better lives. How many more would've lived better without Babidi ruining and ending them... or Frieza?"

Pan tried as hard as she could not to show emotion from hearing that name.

"I may not know who you are or where you come from, Patroller, but I know your anguish. Like me, you want more than anything to go back, save what you lost, and having that chance refused. What would you give to change what happened?"

"I... I can't end worlds for it."

"You had to have tried once."

She still couldn't believe how spot-on Towa was regarding her.

"Yes, but if I had know what it would've done."

"But your family... your loved ones... they must be worth it. Dabura's worth it to me, and I will take centuries if I have to."

She then noticed Pan putting her head down.

"What is it?"

"If you win... my world will cease to exist... and so will I."

Pan noticed Towa moving her arm and lifted her head back up, realizing the enemy of the Time Patrol was putting her hand out to her.

"I want you to join me."

Pan didn't know what to think. She didn't like what Towa was doing and as a patroller, she had stopped Towa's machinations four times now, yet here Towa was now, making her an offer.

"If you join me, I swear to you I will do whatever it takes to ensure your world's survival. I can create better timelines and you can save your world. Just imagine knowing peace for the rest of your life."

Pan's mind jumped to that of her most ideal scenario of her life back on her Earth with all her friends and family. Thinking of how long it'd been since she heard their voices, saw their faces, or felt the warmth from hugging those she loved and cherished.

"Please, let me help you."

For a brief moment, Pan moved her hand towards Towa's...

But she hesitated, her hand frozen in place. Towa simply waited, letting Pan decide for herself.

"If there was a chance to save everyone, I would take it...but this...I can't..."

Both suddenly noticed a shift in the barrier above them, followed by...

"TOWA!"

Towa and Pan both saw Trunks hovering downward, but still floating above them both.

"Trunks! Haven't you tormented me enough?"

"You tried to have my father killed!"

"My mistake. I should've done that before he slaughtered that village. Then those Namekians could've lived out their lives."

In spite of his anger at Towa's actions and words towards his father, he slowly morphed to a more calm demeanor, trying to negotiate.

"Please, stop this. All of it. We can work something out with Chronoa."

"You really expect me to believe that after what you both tried to pull on me?"

"No... I didn't..."

"I'm not a fool..."

Then she directed Trunks' attention towards Pan.

"And neither is she."

"Step away from Pa..."

He almost let Pan's name slip.

"Her. Step away from her, now!"

"She's seen your father for what he really is. How many innocents was it over his career?"

Pan saw what Towa's words were doing to Trunks, whose fists began to clench and who began to look down.

"He didn't deserve offspring, yet he had you. You're not the son of a hero. You're the son of a murderer... a monster!"

His teeth were now visible, trying in vain not to grind against each other.

"Tell me: how many Gohan's did you erase?"

With a shout of anger, Trunks put out his hand and began charging ki.

"Trunks!" Pan shouted. "Stop!"

He didn't head her warning and fired a blast at Towa, who, like earlier with Pan, had no intention of avoiding any intended attacks towards her. Trunks watched as his ki bullet approached Towa...

Then he realized Pan was standing in front of Towa, intending to stop the projectile.

"What have I...?"

But before it touched Pan, a flash of light emerged in front of her, then the projectile bounced off...

"Mira!" began Towa in surprise, followed by frustration. "I told you not to be here!"

Towa's creation turned towards her.

"I can't risk your demise at the Time Patrol's hands. We're leaving."

Both his arms wrapped around her as Towa tried to wiggle her way free.

"No! I'm not leaving! Not without her!"

"I am sorry to disobey your order, but we are leaving now."

Trunks, now having recomposed himself, tried to reach out to Towa.

"Towa, wait!"

By the time his hand was about to reach her, Towa and Mira had vanished from their sight. For a moment, all he could think about was their first exchange in years and how poorly he acted in response.

"Towa knew just which of my buttons to press. I was so stupid."

He sighed and turned back to Pan, then clicked on his earpiece.

"Alright, Supreme Kai of Time. Send us back."

And with one last flash, both of them left Namek.


Now having been returned to the Time Nest, Pan let herself crouch over, grasping her stomach.

"Pan..." began Trunks, noticing the makeshift wrap across her stomach to her back she made from her cape. "Are you okay?"

He put a hand on her shoulder...

"Don't touch me!"

She smacked his hand away, then made her way back to her feet.

"After what I almost did..." he thought to himself. "I had that coming."

Pan pointed at him.

"You promised me..."

"I haven't lied to you about anything."

"'My father is difficult.' It's half-truths all over again! You're always finding technicalities!"

She then turned to the Supreme Kai of Time next to him.

"As for you Chronoa..."

While she and Trunks didn't hear any of Pan and Towa's conversation, she already knew what was coming.

"You're going to admit what you and Trunks did. Towa didn't just turn on you: you both tried to wipe her memory! You did this!"

She saw Trunks fumbling to say something.

"Both of you!"

"No!" interrupted Chronoa. "Trunks didn't!"

Pan waited to hear her explanation.

"He didn't. I... it was my fault."


Upon reemerging in the library, Trunks let go of Towa, whom fell to her knees, then lied on her side, sobbing. He didn't know what to say, but he eventually spit out the only thing he could think of.

"I am so sorry."

After hearing this, Towa looked up at him, her sorrow replaced with anger. She sat up on one leg, then jabbed him away from her with her staff. He was bumped into a table, knocking over several scrolls.

"WHY?! Why would you stop me?!"

"TOWA!"

Chronoa was furious.

"Do you realize what you could have done?! Did you even think about what would happened to EVERYONE HERE?!"

Towa couldn't even speak.

"Any of the patrollers born after that event would've ceased to exist! Gone for good!"

"I didn't know..."

"You were willing to sacrifice your fellow patrollers for..."

"I DIDN'T KNOW!"

In spite of seeing and hearing Towa's sadness and regret, Chronoa didn't change her tone or posture for even a moment.

"You've broken our trust. There is no second chance after this."

As Towa began to notice something about the scrolls near her, Trunks stepped in front of Chronoa.

"Supreme Kai of Time, please... please reconsider."


"When Towa questioned us, I made the decision to wipe her memory then and there."


"You will be sent back to the Demon Realm with no memory of your time here."

Towa looked terrified after hearing Chronoa's sentence for her. Trunks, however, was desperate to stop this.

"You gave me a second chance for what I did. Please, give Towa..."

Chronoa's hand glowed. Towa took a few steps back, dreading what was to come.

"Please, Chronoa, don't...!"

Towa turned and ran, trying to get away as Chronoa fired from her hand.

"No!"

Trunks flew right behind the fleeing Towa, intercepting the blast before it could touch her. As Chronoa ran over to Trunks, shocked at what she had done, Towa was gone.


Pan's entire view on Chronoa and Trunks would never be the same after hearing what had transpired with Towa.

"After I recovered..." Trunks began. "The next time I met Towa, I stopped her trying to change history in the same place as before. I tried to bring her back with me, but she escaped. This happened again and again until I became synonymous with Babidi: the one that kept taking everything from her."

"Having been at war with you for so long, Towa has forgotten what you did for her," thought Pan.

While no tears emerged from Chronoa's eyes, this was the first time Pan had ever seen her with such remorse.

"At the time, I stood by what I did, but as time went on, I realized what I had done."

"That's why you stopped me from doing what Towa did..." realized Pan. "So I didn't become the next one."

"I realized too late I should've had compassion for Towa instead of casting her out. In my millions of years of life, that was the worst mistake I've ever made."

She fell to her knees, looking down.

"She was our friend... and I did this to her. Look at what it has wrought."

Trunks knelt next to Chronoa, trying to comfort her, but unable to find anything to say.

"After I was so heartless... we don't deserve your help..."

"If you don't want to do this anymore, we understand."

Even with all they had done and with the offer Trunks began, Pan wasn't about to knowingly stop protecting history and those she cared about.

"I won't stand by while Towa does harm, temporary or otherwise..."

At first, Chronoa and Trunks felt reassured, but Pan's tone made it clear she was done being kept in the dark.

"But if I even think either of you are keeping anything from me, you can wipe my memory and send me home for all I care! You understand me?"

Both nodded to her, but this did not suffice.

"I want to hear you say it!"

They looked Pan in her eyes.

"Yes."

Trunks struggled to do so, but finally...

"Yes, Pan. We understand."

Now having her answer, Pan left, waiting until she was out of their sight before letting herself limp from her condition. Tokitoki saw Pan pass him, then flew into the library to Chronoa and Trunks.

"Toh... toh..."

Chronoa turned to answer him.

"I don't know anymore."


As Pan lied on her bed, bandages over her wrists and upper body, and her muscles not yet back to normal, her mind kept coming back to her best friend Bulla's lineage.

"How?"

As she saw Trunks and Bulla with their mother and father, Pan couldn't stop seeing flashes of Vegeta's horrible deeds.

"How did you...?"

She then narrowed her focus to Bulma, who had children with Vegeta.

"You didn't know what he did? What he was?"

Trying to think back to her world's Vegeta did nothing but remind her of all the life he had taken, both unnecessarily and joyously.

"...what he is."