Chapter 33

Second Future Timeline

"You know I can not simply trust you," Future Trunks said. "Especially not after this charade you had put up here. Who said that you are telling the truth this time?"

"No," Marron agreed, "You can´t. But you can just stay on distance and wait until we leave, right?"

"Our ahm, people should find us sooner or later," Cabba said. "Then they will transport us back to our world and you won´t have to worry about us anymore."

"The town you had just left," Trunks stated. "It had been attacked before we met, right? Did you see the ones who did it?"

"They…" Cabba begann.

"We just saw a few glympses of them leaving," Marron said. "You are right by the way, the woman looks pretty similar to me."

"I see," Trunks replied with a stoic expression that reminded them both of Vegeta.

There was no real telling if he was actually believing them this time around or not. But in the end that didn´t even really matter, as long as he kept his distance to them until the others would have found them and they could go back home.

She only hoped that this would happen quickly.

But still, there was a good chance that their presence here had already created another timeline. Well - another issue they would have to deal with later.

xxxxxxx

Main Timeline – Universe 2

Goku, Vegeta and the others had for now returned.

As soon as they arrived, Mai threw her arms around Trunks.

"To send you to Trunks future," Goku said to them. "We should have expected her to do something like that."

"Wait," Bulma suddenly stated. "Trunks timeline. Maybe that is it… Whis – I think I know the next place we should look at."

"You had the same thought?" the Angel replied.

"What exactly are you talking about?" Kaioshin Pell asked.

"The evants that led to the separation from the timeline we just left from our own, had also led tot he creation of another one," Whis explained. Two more actually, he thought. But that would go too much into detail now.

"Multiple time-travels," Lord Beerus commented. "It is a pain actually."

"And you just let that happen?" Heles asked.

"I was occupied," he said.

"You mean you were sleeping. I have heard the stories about you."

"Whatever," Beerus replied. "What Bulma and Whis mean is that we should take a look at the other timeline that had been nearly identical to the one we just left."

"I see."

"With other timeline, you mean the one Cell originally came from?" Krillin said.

"Yes," Bulma replied.

"If Towa just wanted to send them all to a miserable place where they were on their own, this would make sense," Vegeta stated.

"But that means at this point in time our insane doubles there should still be alive, right?" Eighteen pointed out.

"Yes. Now that you mention it," Bulma said.

"That means Marron could be in the same world like two manical evil versions of me and Seventeen," Eighteen remarked.

"Then let us go," Seventeen stated. "What are we waiting for?" he asked.

Nothing as it seemed, since the Angels Whis and Sour were already opening the portal for their trip to the next timeline.

xxxxxxx

Second Future Timeline

While Future Trunks had now moved into some distance to them, Goten had met up with Marron and Cabba again, after they had given them a signal in form of a short ki burst.

Trunks stood now a few hundred meters from them, doing nothing mostly. Just like themselves, waiting for their `people´ to come and get them.

On this distance, he probably didn´t notice the enourmous similarity Goten had with Goku. Not that it mattered much after their attempted trick had failed.

Well - looking back it was not a very good plan anyway.

"Has everything worked out?" Goten asked them.

"More or less," Marron replied.

"He had looked through us easily," Cabba said. "But he had agreed to stand back for the moment."

"I see," Goten stated. "So this charade was for nothing."

"We better hope that the others will find us soon," Cabba said.

"What if they don´t find us?" Goten asked.

"They will," Marron replied. "They just have to search through the different timelines. And we are right on Earth, the first place they will look. They will find us."

"I hope so," Goten said. "Anyway, I guess if I am lost in another timeline, I prefer if it is at least together with you," he told her.

She gave him a small smile at his words.

And he was smilling back at her.

Cabba took a few steps away from them at their obvious flirting and gave hem a bit room for themselves. When he saw these two, he had to think about Caulifla and Kale. He could only hope that they were alright. Still - he was confident that Marron was right and the others would find them soon. He too was sure that they would do anything to find them.

Marron and Goten both knew that the future versions of themselves they had met three years ago had been a couple.

They - their current selves - had feelings for each other as well. But they were not quite at that point yet.

They were however not far away from it either. And they had feelings for each other, neither of them denied that.

In fact they actually went on a date together just a few weeks back - sort of at least.

Originally the two of them had just been accompanying Trunks and Mai, who were going out together in West City. A bit later however they split up, with their two friends going on alone and leaving Goten and Marron by themselves for the rest of the evening, which they had spend together. It had been a really good time.

Ironically there was however one thing that was holding their budding relationship back, something that Goten had said.

They had known about the relationship of their alternate future counterparts for years, ever since they me them three years earlier. So - could it be that they were just subconsciously copying them somehow? That somewhere in their minds they just thought they should be together because they were?

Of course he had actually put it in much simpler words when he actually said it back then.

xxxx

Flashback

Goten and Marron were sitting together in a small cafe in West City,

"Marron," he said, "that with you and me..."

"Yes?"

"Don´t get me wrong. I really like you. We were friends since we were children and you are one of the closest people to me. But - don´t you ask yourself sometimes if we are just doing this because our future-counterparts had been together and somehow hat makes us believe we should be too?"

xxxx

Flashback End

At the first moment Marron was not sure how to even react to this question. Maybe she should have been angry that he actually thought about their feelings for each other like this.

But as she let it cross her mind, she realized that she herself had similar doubts. So the relationship between them ultimately came to an halt.

"Goten," she turned to him, "what you said during our, well - date... you know, about us and our future-selves? she asked him.

"Yes?" Goten replied.

"Forget about it."

She stepped closer to him.

Then she put her arms around his shoulders and placed a short kiss on his lips.

"Marron?"

"Even if we are copying our future-selves. I mean technically they are us, right? And they were happy with it - so why shouldn´t we?" she said. "Let us just not worry about it anymore. If we feel like being together then let us. And even if they were the ones who brought us to the idea in the first place... who cares?"

"I-..." Goten replied. "I guess you are right. We were being stupid."

"That is nice to know, but shouldn´t you worry about something else, like getting home first?" a voice interrupted them. It was Seventeen.

He was standing beside Goku, Krilin, Eighteen and Chichi, in front of Whis and another Angel in front of an opened portal.

"They just arrived a moment ago," Cabba told them with a shrugg.

"Ahm - Hello Mum, Dad," Marron said a bit awkwardly. Why did they have to appear now of all possible moments?

"Yes hello," Goten said as well.

"As you see Goten and I have just become boyfriend and girlfriend," Marron added.

"Yes - I see," Eighteen stated stoically.

Chichi had meanwhile stepped forward, laid her arms on Goten´s shoulders and draw him closer to her.

"You are alright," she said. "Never - Never go to another universe and do something risky like that again, do you understand," she exclaimed.

"Have you already found the others?" Cabba asked.

"We did," Goku replied. "We found them just before you. They are waiting back in Universe 2."

"Caulifla and Kale are alright?" Cabba asked.

"Yes - they are," he assured him. "And so are the others."

"And you will not again go out on your own into space again, do you understand Young Lady?" Eighteen said. "Not if you take stupid risks like that."

"I understand," Marron responded. She could really not debate this given what happened. Looking back they - or at least she and Mai - should have staid behind as soon as the name Towa was mentioned.

"The same goes for you young man," Chichi said sternly.

"Mom - I an a grown man," Goten replied defensively.

"I don´t care about that. If you get yourself lost in another universe like that, then you obviously can not take care of yourself."

At this everybody started to laugh. In this moment Goten was just happy that Trunks was not here right now. Oh well - technically he was. It was just not the same Trunks he was worried about.

xxx

Future Trunks on his part was still watching them from the distance. He recognized Goku, Chichi and Krillin instantly. And also the two doubles of the very same Androids he had been fighting against his entire life. This ones however seemed completely different and interacted with the others completely peacefully.

He could not be more shocked. He guessed that explained the ressemblance between the girl named Marron and Eighteen.

No -they were no aliens. This was some kind of alternate world instead. Was this the result of the time-machine his mother had build? he asked himself.

The urge to fly over and question them was incredible. But he remembered how desperate Marron had been to keep him from finding out. Had she tried to keep him from changing events? If they were truly from a world he had changed with the time-machine, what effects could it have that he was meeting them now? Maybe it was truly better to keep his distance.

Of course the others had noticed him as well. So much for any chance to keep the timeline intact, they all thought. But they could not change it anymore anyway.

xxx

"Excuse me," Whis said, "we should go now. We already had the portal opened longer than we should."

"Of course," Goku answered.

They returned to Universe Two. And from there they all returned to their own Universes.

Heles and Pell once again apologized for what had happened before they left. They accepted their apology and travelled back to Universe 7.

xxxxxxx

At the same time, back in Universe Seven, on Earth, a small pick-up truck was driving on it´s way on the highway towards West City.

Sitting on it´s cargo area and casually watching the landscape was a very tall red haired man with a mohawk cut - nobody else than Android 16, who in this timeline had survived his confrontation with Twenty One.

"Are you alright back there?" the driver called out to him.

"I am," he answered.

"I am sorry that you have to sit back there," the driver told him.

"I know, I just don´t fit into the cabin," Sixteen stated. "Don´t worry about it. After all, I am the one who asked you to take me to West City."

"Are you visiting friends there?"

"Yes - I have been on a long trip around the world and have not seen them in a while," Sixteen told him.

xxxxxxx

Future Timeline 2 - Universe 11 - around the same time

A battle was taking place, a battle like this universe had not seen it in billions of years.

Lord Demigra had sensed it, the disruptions in the timestream of this timeline - cracks in the structure of time and space, the forming of yet another timeline - an opportunity.

His followers entered the new born timeline, that had just branched off and differenced from the original one just in a few details.

It had started with a surprise attack.

At the beginning their new `allies´, the Wizard Hoy and their creation - the creature that they had formed from the negative energies from the `Castle of Doom´ - appeared on a random planet in this timeline´s Universe 11.

Like it was in it´s nature, the Beast instantly started to wreck havoc. The Beast materialized right at the border of the largest city on the planet.

xxx

And like it was in their nature, the Pride Troopers appeared a short time later to stop the creature.

Since they had sensed it´s tremendious energy, Toppo and Jiren themselves had come to stop the monster, along with a their comrades Kahseral, Dyspo and Coccote.

But as soon as they engaged the monster, they were themselves being ambushed.

Towa, along with, Mira, Saek and another one of their fellow Fallen Angels named Rum, together with a couple of so called Second Generation Demons, teleported next to them.

The Second Generation Demons - in all there were twelve of them - were the children and grandchildren of some of Demigra´s original followers, the Fallen Angels. In opposite to beings who had been recruited or corrupted by them to join their army.

Most of them were not nearly as strong as their ancestors, or `even´ as the Gods of Destruction. But they were powerful fighters in their own right.

In short, the Pride Troopers had no chance at all and were slaughtered in seconds.

Kahseral and Coccote died nearly instantly - Coccote as she tried to trap Saek into a dimensional bubble, that he however ripped apart and blasted her to atoms with one move.

Dyspo tried to outrun his enemies, was however caught as they simply blew up the ground before him to slow him down and disintigrated him.

Toppo was being outmatched by the former Angel Rum, even using his Destruction Powers. Especially with Mira coming to assist Rum a few moments later. Toppo was being overpowered from two sides and killed.

Jiren was facing Towa. She admitted she was impressed that the Mortal acually managed to hold himself against her for a while.

Still - he was weaker than the Jiren she had faced before. This one had never experienced the Tournament of Power, never set against Goku, Vegeta and Seventeen, never broken through his shell doing it.

But even he went down, even easier when the two Second Generation Demons were backing her up and like Toppo he was overwhelmed by multiple opponents at once.

Towa was not especially happy about this `help´, she detested the idea that she couldn´t take any Mortal on her own, even Jiren. But they didn´t have time to waste.

xxx

At the same time, back at the home-planet of the Pride Trooper organization, another Fallen Angel appeared teleporting in orbit far above the Pride Trooper´s Headquarters.

He send a blast downwards and blew it apart, along with the entire planet it was located on. The he teleported away to join the others.

xxx

At the same time Demigra had already send the rest of his followers after the Gods of the different universes. The Kaioshin fell easily and the Gods of Destruction died with them, the Angels becoming dormant. Just like Zamasu had done it a few years earlier.

Demigra felt the barrier keeping him away from the normal worlds getting weaker and weaker. He was close - so close.

Meanwhile his influence was spreading over all twelve universes of this timeline. On countless planets beings were falling under his influence, received power from him and started to attack their fellow people. The strongest of them were being recruited into Demigra´s army itself.

His Servants freed the World Eater Moro - again - and the other prisoners in this timeline´s Universe 7, obliterating the Galactic Patrol in the process.

Moro continued to absorb the energy of even more planets that had not fallen under Demigra´s influence yet.

Every kind of cosmic balance was being turned upside down.

Until finally the barrier between the Void and the Material Universe broke... and Demigra after eaons materialized himself back in the physical world.

He looked down at his own body, felt the difference between the real space and the Void he had existed in before.

He was back. His power now spread like a dark wave over this entire timeline. Living beings were turned into monsters, stars went supernova, planets crumbled or were thrown out of their orbit, entire galaxis were ripped apart. Nearly all life hat existed had either been wiped out or been corrupted.

After - first days, then weeks and finally months - had passed since Demigra´s followers had first appeared, the Zeno of this timeline had finally enough and decided to erase everything.

xxx

Back on this timelie´s Earth in Universe Seven, Future Trunks - who had been left behind with his questions had noticed the ongoing disaster as well, when worlds and star systems in his universe were being destroyed and millions of life-energies just vanished from one moment to the other - again and again.

What in the world was going on out there? he asked himself in a shock like he had never felt before.

The time-machine was nearly ready. But even that seemed insignificant now.

All his thoughts ended as Zeno´s erasure washed over his Earth and the entire galaxy and universe and afterlife both ceased to exist.

The newly formed timelines ended just a short time before it sprung off.

But Demigra and his followers just left this timeline... and moved on to the next.

Here is finally the final chapter of the current Arc.

With the epilogue part incuded, it is not a happy ending at all. The opposite actually, there can hardly be a more terrible one. And it is just the beginning of the next. Originally the Arc was meant to end with Sixteen´s reappearance though, leaving the start of the interdimensional war for the following one. But in the end the tragic ending seemed better.

xxc

A small addition regarding the continuity. Like stated earlier, for this story the events of the last two story-arcs of the manga (or events very similar to them/a.k.a the Anime version) are meant to have happened in the timeline that was changed when Goten and Marron travelled back to the past.

The same would go for the new Dragon Ball Super movie Hero, that would play around the same point in time as this Arc here.

For the sake of this story lets say that in that timeline the cloned brain of Doctor Gero and Twenty One were secretly involved in the founding of the reformed Red Ribbon Army, but had not shown themselves openly during the movie.