33
Time
The pain was unbearable! Vegeta had not expected the pain. He was doubled over. His skin felt like it was burning, his eyes felt like they were going to pop out and his stomach forced his breakfast out of him.
He was not the only one retching. He could hear Cyrus doing the same even though he couldn't open his eyes to look at the boy.
But then the pain left, leaving behind only a small uneasy feeling in the bottom of his stomach. It was almost like it had been not even there.
He looked over and saw Cyrus on his knees and sitting on his heels. He was clutching his sides. He was taking breaths in deep gasps but he was smiling brightly as he looked up.
He followed his eyes and gasped.
It was unlike anything that he had seen before and he really didn't understand what he was seeing. It was amazing.
"I - should - have – warned – you - not - to – eat – breakfast," he heard Cyrus said between gasps of air. He forced his eyes to look at him. He couldn't look at the indescribable sight any longer. It was hurting his eyes. He had a small smile on his face but he still clutched his sides as if he were in pain.
"Where are we?" He asked and found that he was looking back around him. They were surrounded! He didn't know if he should be scared or in awe.
"Time," Cyrus said and groaned. He let go of his sides and took a deep breath. Was it the light? He looked different. The boy looked smaller, slimmer, hell, even his hair looked lighter than he remembered. "This is time," he said and swept his arms in a grand gesture and only winced a little bit.
He looked back as he looked at the ropes. He didn't know how else to explain it.
"Everyone thinks that Time is a line. Time is not a line but a thread but it is not weaved… that is so two-dimensional and old school. This is Time." Cyrus said and struggled to his feet, even though, he just realized, they weren't standing on anything.
He looked at the ropes. Some were thick as his body and they seemed to be slowly rotating with other smaller ropes wrapped around bigger ones. They went on forever.
He realized that they were moving. He tried to stop the panic that was rising in him as they followed a rope to one that had multi-colors on them. All the other ropes were white and seemed to move in a slow patter of waves. This one had every color of the rainbow on it and it was huge, it looked like it was almost bursting. Every cord that wrapped around it, was a slightly different color than the next. Some were even black but seemed to be emitting a light. Some looked tied off and some, looked as if they were pinched.
"This is us," he said.
The rope was huge: Larger than the rest of the others that surrounded him. This rope was taller than he was.
"Can you see the danger we were in?" Cyrus said as he stood in front of the rope. "Going back will stop this from happening." The smaller cords looked as if they were trying to strangle the bigger ones.
"What does it all mean?" Vegeta whispered. The large colored rope was rotating and he saw that it actually was 2 pretty big ropes with 3 other small ones, and they were braided together and seemed to be almost repulsed by the small cords that were wrapped around them.
Cyrus took a deep breath. "Yellow: that is the time that was supposed to be. The time where Trunks did not have a father and had to fight the androids on his own in the end… it was supposed to end when he died at the hands of Cell, but that was altered, here," he pointed to a bruised part and where a thread went a long with the others. "Of course, that became a sub line over the one that loops back and you get to see your Future son."
Vegeta blinked and stared at Cyrus. Yes, it made sense. Sort of. "Those two courses, even as split as they are, must exist for the Red to exist. That is your time. When you deal with cell and all the other things that made that time."
"The green is the next divergence. This is the one where mom is thrown back into the red, making it purple for the Yellow, no longer exists after that and turns into the purple which is a loop that turns into the pink…" He continued as he explained all the colors. He didn't understand it all that well. It was very confusing. "Everything is connected. Everything loops. Everything is together but they fight for dominance and that is what I fixed. All those little lines were strangling out the big ones. Once we go back, they will fold in on themselves. Those little ones and the big ones will only exist." He said. "Hopefully."
"What about the time…" Vegeta said as he was still trying to grasp this complex piece of physics. Bulma would have understood it. He couldn't even form the question!
"There will be the ones to maintain. Time is not certain. It changes with how others change it," he said. "It is not just a thing that man made up to keep track of things. It is tangible and travelable but then, it makes thing unstable, as you can see."
The rope made a pulse of light of various colors making a large white light that nearly blinded him.
"It is much better than it used to be." Cyrus said.
"Better?"
"It was almost destroyed itself a few times. Those smaller lines tried to strangle out the larger and a few times, it looked like they were going to be able to do it." He said and looked down the line. "when I tried to change things in the line, here," he said and pointed to the yellow part of the cord where there were dark marks. "It didn't work. I created a few lines that I had to destroy because of my interference, but at least," he took a deep breath, "I knew what was causing my asthma attacks."
He looked back at Cyrus who was frowning and the large pulsing rope that seemed to be swaying towards him. "Are you ready now Vegeta? Are you ready to stop the end? "
He nodded but he wasn't sure if he was ready. He was certain that it showed on his face because Cyrus just stood there looking at the ropes.
"You see why the Silver Ball wasn't working, it was reading to many divergences. They aren't dimensions. Dimensions are separate cords. Like those over there. See that one with the right sway, that is the one where demons live. These cords can cross and monsters can cross the lines over time and sometimes they converge… that is why our is so large. Over time, the ropes converged and became one, it wasn't until Bulma made time travel possible that the divergence happened that split the main cord into three and then all these others were created… it is time to fix all of that."
"Whatever you say," he said and swallowed hard. This was so much. So much.
They had moved somehow and Cyrus was standing beside him. "You will be first for I cannot go into myself unless it is stopped." He said and tapped his cheek. "Once this does not happen, I won't change and I will be the same and I can merge with myself so I won't be able to help you that first while. It will be confusing and painful, but you have to go in soon enough that you will hopefully realize what is going on."
"What do you mean by that? Can't go into yourself?" He said and looked at the boy that was standing there. He was different. He was smaller and younger looking than he had been before. How could that be?
He sighed heavily. "In all the travels that I have done with Benot and Cyrstal, we moved whole into the times to fix them. But there was times, when I went in by myself ad tried to go into myself when I was little. It was the reason for my asthma attacks that I had because I couldn't do it. I wasn't the same. When you did this," he pointed to the scar, "I became different. I started to split. A method of protection. Once this doesn't happen, I will be able to merge with myself and ensure that some of the things that happened don't and the Time will be safe. I still may forget things, and all of that differentials will disappear and our cord will not become crushed by the weight of the differentials."
"I caused it all," Vegeta whispered. Cyrus was looking so heavy minded as he stood there. He had a hand clutched to his chest, as he looked t the rotating cord. In front of him as the colors flashed on them.
"Who know that life could get so complicated?" Cyrus said and smiled. "But you just have to remember and I can be whole again. I can be like this," he said. "This is how I am supposed to be. The dragon and I merged and together, not separate like we have become. The power will be protected in me and in the children that I will have. There will be future dangers, as to be expected but the power will no be obtainable in the ways that they think. But it will be able to be tapped into the Saiyian part of us, making it so that our heirs will be the guardians of the universe and protect it from the tyrants that just want to rule with an iron fist. Golden warriors!" He spoke with a large smile. "What we were meant to be!"
He just blinked.
"It has to be better than being a hired thugs," Cyrus said with a smirk on his face and for the first time, he resembled his mother.
"All of this will happen?"
He nodded and then frowned. "Well, hopefully it will happen," he said. "If you remember that I cannot bring her back. I tried. I can't." He said as he looked at the bruised marks on the rope. "Then I can be home and where reside to where I am supposed too."
He was different. He looked complete. Yeah. That was the word. Complete.
"I am sorry," he said, "For causing all of this."
"How were you to know?" Cyrus said. "Shall we begin?"
He nodded. He was ready now.
"Will this hurt?" he asked.
"Terribly," Cyrus said as he stated to glow.
Vegeta braced for the pain to strike him and then….
Short, sweet and complicated…read on.