AS: Hey guys, I'm BACK! Positing one final chap for my sake! Tell me what you think and go check out and help out my other stories too!

Zamasu sighed. Trying to train 'Gowasu' was harder than he expected. Apparently, the tree doesn't make kai's as they used to, as not only did it take millions of years for the damn thing to grow, but when the one kai that had been born from the tree emerged, he was hardly training material.

All Kais had it embedded into their code to know the basics, like flight and use of ki. 'Gowasu' could barely keep himself afloat for more than five seconds before tumbling to the ground. Zamasu knew if the other Kais that emerged were anything like this he'd have his hands full.

Zamasu considered 'Gowasu' a dud, but it wasn't like he was getting any new kai's soon, so he decided to do what he could.

'Gowasu' was for all intents and purposes, like the person he was named after, appearance-wise. Just a younger and smaller version of him with spiked hair. The issue was that outside of appearance, he was literally the opposite of Gowasu.

He was lazy, childish, naive, didn't care for training or mortals for that matter, and preferred playing games on God-Tube.

It felt like no matter what he did, nothing ever got better. At least, not for him.

"No matter what I do, it feels like I'm not good enough…Am I truly a failure?" The sins of his other self weighed on him.

He remembered the days of peaceful times. The days when he looked at Gowasu's teaching with annoyance, rolling his eyes at what he was taught. He still considered the mortal's nuisances, not enough to genocide them, but still looked down upon them. Until Black showed up, he still considered them beneath him.

And Zamasu had a feeling that if not for certain events he would've done the same things Black did. Perhaps it was because he still saw himself as him, or at least a part of him. Black was what he would've become had he embraced his darker desires.

Everyone Zamasu once knew was gone. Sure he had his apprentice, but Gowasu didn't seem to understand his pain.

And that wasn't the only thing Black had done. His immortality...it was a curse.

His eyes filled with tears. He knew he'd outlive everyone, even his own student. Everyone was going to fade away and it was all because of his immorality. It was more a curse than a gift since he could never die. It didn't help that he was so busy that visiting the afterlife was nigh impossible…

He clenched his fist, biting back the urge to cry. Despite his age, it felt like he was still a young apprentice deep down, lost for guidance. His life was hardly his anymore, it was a life built on fixing the misdeeds of others.

"Master Zamasu, are you alright? You've been standing here for a while and you haven't done anything." The young kai asked before noticing Zamasu's composure, "Wait, are you crying?"

"What? No of course not… I'm just...tired."

"Master, you're crying. Did something happen?"

"No."

"Master, come on. Don't lie to me." Despite looking like a child, Zamasu had to remind himself the person in front of him was an adult. A childish one at while 'Gowasu' was a bit thickheaded, he wasn't stupid.

"I'm fine. It's nothing."

"Master, come on. Stop lying."

Zamasu sighed, eyes closing."Gowasu, leave me be. I'm simply….in deep thought."

"About what? You can tell me! Come on, tell me!"

"You're too young to understand.."

"Master, I know I'm not even a year old technically, but I have the body and mind of an adult. I'm not a child and I refuse to stand by and be kept out of the loop because you think I'm too young. At least tell me what's bothering you, you're always closed up and not telling me. You're the only person I know and you just keep me out of the loop of everything none kai related and it's annoying! Why won't you tell me anything in-depth? You always step around the question when I ask why there aren't others around and you constantly deflect when I ask why you're sad! And you know what? I'm tired of it! Be upfront with me for once dammit!"

Zamasu stood there in silence, pondering his next move. While he did tell his student about the old ways to an extent, he left out certain details. He never mentioned the 'Goku Black Incident' to him, fearing he was too immature to handle it. He was planning on keeping it under wraps and moving aside the incident so that his student wouldn't know the horrors that took place, but it appeared Gowasu was more observant than you gave him credit for.

"Well?"

"Gowasu...I see you're frustrated. And I believe this is partly my fault, I haven't been rather honest with you about certain things in your studies. I've left out crucial information about the past because I feared you weren't ready for that."

"But I am ready, what are you protecting me for? There's no one else around, we're the only kai's here."

"Have you ever thought about why?"

"Yeah. I just thought they all quit or something." He shrugged."Why?"

"Gowasu, they didn't quit. Once you're a kai, you cannot quit until you raise an apprentice unless you are killed. Even then, they usually have someone to replace you at that time if you haven't picked an apprentice."

"Oh…" Gowasu looked down, "That explains a lot. So what does this have to do with anything?"

"Gowasu, eons ago, I used to be an apprentice just like you. I was training to be Supreme Kai with my teacher who I named after you. We had to watch over mortals for a time period and while you found it boring, I found it disappointing."

"Disappointing?"

"Yes, because the mortal would just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Nothing truly changed and it felt like the same constant endless cycle…."

"I mean, mortals can get boring, but something new does happen sometimes. No need to be so pessimistic."

"Believe me, when you see the same thing happen over and over again, it's hard to keep an idealistic attitude. I've long since lost that wide-eyed idealistic view eons ago, the incident that happened simply killed it off completely."

"What incident?"

Zamasu sighed."Do you know what I said earlier about you being named after my teacher? There was a reason for that. You see, millions of years ago, there was a Saiyan named Black. He wasn't an ordinary Saiyan, as while most were bloodthirsty, none of them were on Black's level of ruthlessness. He killed everyone he saw, mortals, gods, everyone was free game. He even killed my teacher…"

"Master-"

"I'm not finished. When he succeeded in doing so, he left his body for me to discover. I didn't realize he was dead at first and I attempted to heal him. It didn't work, of course, he was long gone by the time I got there. When Black made his presence known, I was scared witless. He then asked that I join him in his conquest for his ideal utopia, one that would be free of mortals and where we could rule together."

"You didn't accept it did you?"

"Not initially-"

"Initially? You joined him willingly?"

"I didn't have much of a choice. Black would've killed me had I not joined him. He stated if I didn't cooperate I'd be good as dead."

Gowasu remained silent, not saying a word.

"Once I agreed to join him, Black led me to a place where he had gathered the Super Dragon Balls?"

"The Super what?"

"Super Dragon Balls. They've been rendered inactive for eons, this is an important element for the story. Black granted me immortality, meaning I couldn't die and could live forever. Ideally, Black must've thought that once his plan had been accomplished, we'd merge into the 'perfect' being and rule over the multiverse. But I had other plans. For when we were about to head out...I did something I never imagined I'd do."

"What?"

"I killed him. Black had his guard down and it all came back to me. Anger. Hurt. Sadness. I was so distraught over what he did that I killed him. As strange as it sounded, I didn't feel much afterward. I'd think I"d feel regret..but I didn't. Just slight satisfaction that was soon replaced with emptiness…"

"Master, you did what you had to do back there, that was an act of self-defense. You did what you had to do."

"It doesn't feel like it...I murdered someone in cold blood and-"

"You killed someone in self-defense after that person had genocided entire civilizations and attacked the gods without remorse. I get qualms about killing, but you aren't at fault for what happened."

"Easy for you to say. Anyhow, Black soon realized my betrayal and lamented on how we could've gone far together. He called me weak for turning back. Likely thinking I was a spineless coward with no convictions."

"More like someone with a basic moral framework."

"Call it what you will. Afterward, Black soon realized his time was up, and in a last-ditch effort to ensure his 'work' didn't go undone, he destroyed the Super Dragon Balls, preventing any hopes of returning things to normal as they once were. Everyone who died couldn't be resecured…"

"Master I-"

"Save your pity, I don't need it. Long story short, because I know you don't want to listen to this is that well, I approached Lord Zeno about this. The Grand Minister of course thought I was the one who did all of this and it took some convincing to get him and the guards off my case."

"Why would they think that?"

"Well….it's because..at one point. Black and I were the same person."

"What? How is that possible? You can't become a Saiyan! Saiyan aren't even native to our universe!"

"That's correct. Which is why my other self wished for Goku's body, likely out of envy for his strength. Since Goku had obtained the powers of a god, he thought this power was not worthy of being wielded by a mortal, so he stole it with another pair of Super Dragon Balls and did the same thing he did in this timeline. The only difference being I managed to kill Black before he slaughtered everything in existence. I was soon given this job to fill in the gaps, and ever since then, I've been working to fix the damage Black has done. It will likely take millions of years to fully undo the damage and the scars will remain from his rampage, but in a twisted way, Black got what he wanted. Change. Just not in the way he intended. And fittingly, I'm the one who has to clean up my other half's mess. It's my life now, fixing the mistakes left and picking up the life isn't even my own at this point, it's just living for others and fixing their mistakes as they go simply another burden I have to take up, since now that I'm immortal, there's no true escape from this never-ending cycle."

Gowasu frowned, "Master, there's no need to be so negative. Things will get better. You won't spend your whole immortal life doing this. One day I'll be Supreme Kai and you won't have to do all the work."

"Yes, until the next kai is created. Until all twelve universes have their individual Kais, my job will be far from over. I'll never rest until things are back in their proper place, even if it costs my happiness."

"You don't have to cost your happiness to make things work. Things will get better, you just need to look forward. Mortal civilizations have developed and while it's not perfect, it's still better than a barren wasteland…And it's that way because you chose to fight back. The only reason I'm here is because of you, the only reason there are mortals left is because of you."

"..."

"Master, you need to look toward the future. What Black did was horrific, I'm not going to deny your pain. But, you can't blame yourself for what he did."

"But he was me…I could've done the same thing in his position. If things had gone wrong, I might've-"

"Master! Who cares? That doesn't' matter, what matters is that you didn't! You aren't Black! You are you! You're Zamasu, you aren't a genocidal maniac! You're the only reason the multiverse isn't dead and I'm not going to sit here while you blame yourself for what a crazy man did!"

Zamasu fell silent.

"Look, you got stuff off your chest, so I think it's time for mine. I don't know if it's correlated to what happened to you but...Every time I go to sleep, I have fragments of memories, but they aren't mine…"

Zamasu stared at him, clearly confused as to how that was possible.

"And the strangest part is...that you were in them. Whoever I am, I'm seeing through their eyes and they were teaching you. Doing all the things we did. And you were so happy back then. You smiled, you laughed. Sometimes you were upset, like seeing a mortal do something that disappointed you and you lamented it aloud. I wanted to speak to you, but when I opened my mouth my voice wasn't my own and the words weren't mine. It was older and somewhat raspy."

"Intriguing. So what was your latest memory?"

"It was similar to what you talked about. I was waiting for you to come back and then I saw this blur charge at me and stab me. It felt so real and I didn't know what to make of it. I woke up when I 'died' and it felt so real. It was so scary…"

Zamasu blanked. He could think of an explanation for this.

Unless…his student was his former teacher's reincarnation. And that at least some of Gowasu's memories were stored inside. At least the ones Gowasu treasured the most. And from what his student was saying...all the memories were connected to him in some way.

"Master? Are you alright? You're crying again."

Zamasu blinked before smiling, not a small one but a genuine one."I know. But it's not sadness, but joy. I haven't felt this happy in eons…"

He then hugged his student.

It was the closest he was going to get to his former teacher, so he was going to take it. All these years of self-loathing and hatred soon poured off him, leaving his body and replaced with happiness and determination.

'I'm going to make the future better. For my teacher's reincarnation. For everyone. Even if I cannot fully enjoy the luxury, surely someone else can…' His work was far from finished, but the progressed he accomplished on his own was a start…

And a start could go a long way.