Chapter 35

Main Timeline

After Goku and Uub had left, the Tournament was continuing without them.

Most of the audience was still stunned from the display they just witnessed. Especially with the both of them actually flying away.

While many were not exactly happy to see the legendary Goku leaving so early, they were still glad that they had been able to see him fight at all.

After all Goku had technically given up his career as a tournament-fighter long before Mister Satan did. Technically as far back as with his victory in the 23rd. His short presence in the 25th Tournament before Buu´s awakening without even an actual fight was hardly worth mentioning.

The main reason his name as still in everyone´s mouths was only the revelation about the role he and the other Z-fighters had played in the victories over King Piccolo, the Red Ribbon Army and finally the New Androids four years ago.

Many suspected that the only reason Goku had even been here was to look for a young fighter to train him. Which was pretty much confirmed with the scene they had seen between Goku and Uub and them leaving the stadium together.

xxx

While in the other timeline the Tournament had technically already been decided at the point Goku was not longer there.

With Vegeta as the obvious winner and Mister Buu the only one who could even put up something of a fight against him. After beating Buu, Vegeta then forfeited the final fight against Mister Satan and let the old Champion win, like the Z-fighters had promised earlier.

xxx

In this timeline it was a bit different, but ultimately the Tournament was still already decided.

The next following fight was coincidently between Marron and her cousin Jade. That meant now the second pair of fighters with superhuman abilities after the other.

While it was not comparible to the clash between Goku and Uub the part of the spectators that were not used to such fights were still fascinated by it. Which was still the far majority even after the world knew of most of the Z-fighters history now.

Both girls exchanged punches and kicks with superhuman speed and strength that left the audience stunned. Or would have if they had not just watched Goku and Uub. Still it left them marveled at what this two could do.

If just two teenage girls trained by the Z-fighters could do something like this, some people asked themselves, they wondered what Goku and the Great Mister Satan in their prime had been capable of back then?

Of course none of them knew that Mister Satan was actually not nearly as strong as people believed or that Marron and Jade were all but normal girls, but the children of genetically enhanced Artificial Humans.

In the end after a quite even fight Marron won through a more or less lucky ring out.

Two fights later, Marron herself lost against Buu, closely followed by her other cousin Kai in the fight afterwards.

None of the remaining participants, not even the Android children, could really match up to the redeemed Demon.

So Mister Satan´s supposed student and inofficial successor Mister Buu became the winner and new Champion. Just like most people would have expected after Son Goku left.

Not that it ultimately mattered much for the Z-fighters and their families. What was truly in the back of their minds the whole time were not really the current events of the Tournament, but the coming battle that was about to happen at one point later this year.

xxxxxxx

Two months later

Lord Beerus and the two Kaioshins, along with their assistants Whis and Kibito appeared in front of Capsule Corp.

They had just received a message from the Grand Priest a short time ago.

The message they had been expecting for a while now. The day had come.

Bulma was the first to see them as they arrived.

"Lord Beerus, Whis," she said. "I guess the time has come now."

"You are right Bulma," Whis replied. "We just got a call from Lord Zeno."

xxxxxxx

It was about an hour later. Most of the Z-Fighters and their relatives had gotten a telepathic call and were now assembled in Bulma´s living room.

This meant in this case Goku, Chichi, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Seventeen, Eighteen, Krillin, Twenty One, Trunks, Goten, Marron, Videl and Pan.

Also with them were Broly, Cheelai and Lemo. The reason for their presence was obvious. Because Broly was one of the fighters chosen to come with them to fight Demigra. It was something he himself had agreed to a few years ago.

And there was also someone else who Whis was right now on the way to get.

He had been gone for some time now and after a few seconds the Angel reappeared. Standing on his side was nobody else than Cooler. They had already agreed that he would join them on this day four years ago.

It was however only Cooler himself who had come. His troops, as powerful as they were, would only be a liability against the opponents they were about to face.

"So the time has come," Freeza´s older brother stated. "We will be facing Demigra."

Cooler was trying to keep his features expressionless, but they could tell that even he was nervous.

"Yes," Goku stated, "it looks like it."

"It is true," Whis confirmed, looking at Cooler, but he said it also for the sake of the others. "Lord Zeno has called for us and according to my father, the Grandpriest, this is the reason."

"So everyone is here now," Beerus said. "We should leave as quickly as possible and not let Zeno-sama wait."

"Not before we have said our goodbyes to everyone," Gohan replied. "There is no guaranty that we will return after all."

His words were followed by a few moments of silence. Another version of them had not come back and they knew it. But this time around they had gotten an early warning and were much stronger than they would have been otherwise.

Vegeta and his family had already talked a few minutes earlier. So the Saiyan Prince just kept standing at the side.

"I promise this time we will return," Goku said to Chichi and then looking at the others.

"See to it," she told him direly.

"You can count on it mother," Gohan stated. "We are prepared this time."

He said this with a confidence he was not sure he really felt, with Videl and Pan standing close to him.

Both draw him into an embrace one moment later.

"Be careful Dad," Pan said to him.

Not far away from them similar scenes were happening between the others.

"You better come back," Cheelai, with Lemo standing beside her, said to Broly.

"I will do all what I can," he told her.

"You have to," she said.

He leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on her lips.

xxx

"Please - take care of yourself honey," Krillin told Eighteen. "I know your are strong, one of the strongest, but you sometimes have a habbit to be a bit, well... careless."

"I know Krillin," Eighteen replied. "I promise I will not let my guard down this time. This will not be like at the Tournament of Power. I have long learned from that."

Back then she had been nearly ringed out by an opponent playing dead and then later injured by an explosion caused by a stray shot. All that while she was still powered down, before she had even shown her actual strength. And that had then hindered her performance later on. She had still been able to pull through after Seventeen had patched her up.

But this trouble could have easily been avoided in the first place.

"Please come back save Mom," Marron said as well.

They looked at Seventeen who was standing next to them.

"I have already said my goodbyes to my family and my colleagues earlier," he stated. "When it come to me we can go now."

xxx

A couple minutes later they were actually about to leave. They all were standing around Whis and Lord Beerus.

The group that would go to Lord Zeno consisted, aside from Beerus and Whis themselves, of Goku, Vegeta and Gohan, Seventeen, Eighteen, Piccolo, Broly and Cooler. At least the group coming from this time.

But there was one other person who would join them.

xxxxxxx

First Future Timeline - one month earlier

Future Trunks was on his way flying back to the area of West City... as fast as he could.

This moment now was something he had thought he would never see again, that he had hoped he would never live through again.

He had been completely surprised by the five energies that had suddenly appeared right next to West City.

Five energies he knew all too well. He had met them before... in the past timeline.

It was Bojack with his group of fighters - a alien warlord who had been sealed away by the Kais a long time ago.

`Why had he and Mai even moved away from West City?´ he thought to himself.

Of course he knew the answer to that question perfectly well. To get at least some distance to their younger other selves that were originally from this timeline.

Both he and Mai had accepted a long time ago that there would be two versions of each of them when they came to this timeline. But that didn´t meant that they had to live in each other´s direct neighborhood, right?

Moving further away at least gave him and Mai at least a life on their own.

Only now that also meant he had been too far away when West City was being attacked.

xxx

As Future Trunks arrived over the town, he saw what he had feared he would.

In the air above the city he saw Gohan, who had arrived before him, fighting the enemy. He was right now surrounded by Bojack´s henchmen.

Not only that

Trunks looked downwards at the town, more precisely at a special part of it. To the house, just a few kilometters away from the Capsule Corp Building, that the younger Trunks and Mai had been living in for the last couple years had been blown up.

It had been completely destroyed, just like several of the surrounding buildings. All what´s left was a large crater. Obviously the work of a ki blast.

And not far away lying on the ground, he saw himself - the dead body of his own younger self that had been born in this timeline... and not far away he saw this timeline´s Mai. Who was also lying lifelessly there, her hand stretched out to his counterpart.

Future Trunks could imagine the scene play out inside his mind. Mai running towards his younger self... and being sho before she reached him.

He knew that this was not his Mai. His wife was waiting for him back home. But his rage and grief were still nearly overcoming him.

Had his counterpart already been dead and she had watched it happen? Or had he been forced to see her die instead?

Did it really made any difference?

xxx

If only he had been there earlier, Trunks thought.

Logically of course he knew that nothing of this was his fault.

The other Trunks was a Super Saiyan himself by now and should have been able to take on most possible threats by himself.

And nobody could have predicted five opponents of this caliber just showing up out of nowhere.

Trunks remembered how Bojack and his men had in the past also been able to hide their presence perfectly well until the moment they decided to show themselves. The thought was gnawing at Trunks.

If he had only the slightest suspicion that Bojack could have been freed, he might have anticipated this. But how could he have?

As far as Trunks had known, Bojack and his group should have still been sealed away like they had been for centuries. Without King Kai´s death like it happened in the past, that had weakened the seal, how did he even got out?

It didn´t matter right now.

Trunks looked up again, where Gohan in his Super Saiyan form was still fighting Bojack and his team.

This Bojack and his group were however stronger than the ones he had met in the past, far stronger. Originally Bojack´s power about rivalled the one of Cell after he became complete. This Bojack however was even stronger than Cell had been after he came back from blowing himself up.

But not only that, Trunks sensed something strange and sinister about their energies. As if their powerlevels were not entire natural.

He saw the Alien Warlord laughing loud and saying something.

"The power this Demigra gave us is even better than expected," Bojack called out.

Demigra. The name their visitors from the past timeline had mentioned, Trunks remembered their warning.

Was he also the one who had freed them from their prison in the first place?

Bojack and his team were much stronger than they had been in the past.

But so was Gohan, who now transformed into his Super Sayan 2 State.

Future Gohan had trained with the elder Future Trunks during the last years and had reached an incredible strength.

He was still surrounded by Bojack´s warriors, who were trying to use their special powers on him, that allowed them to bind their enemies with psychic threats and draw away their energy.

And just like in the past-timeline, it did not work. He difference in their powers was just too great.

The enraged and grieving Gohan was not only tore apart their threats and break free, but also ripping his way through his opponents.

The first one was the tall musculous man with a Mohawk. Gohan just punched him into the gut and his body exploded and was vaporized by the energy released by the punch.

Trunks knew he didn´t even needed to interfere. Gohan had his opponents outmatched by an absurd degree. Bojack and hit team did not even seemed to have notced his presence, possibly because they were concentrating their eyes on Gohan and could not detect God Ki.

Then came Bojack´s swordsman. A single move of Gohan´s hand just broke he blade of his sword and then cut through the man´s upper body, before he exploded in a similar way like his comrade.

Next Gohan raised his arm and fired a blast at one of the last two remaining members of Bojack´s team, the orange haired woman, and disintigrated her in a single moment. The look of shock and fear on her face visible for the last split-second.

All this had happened in just a couple seconds.

The last living member, the small guy with the turban was moving backwards, terrified by what happened to his comrades, only to be blasted away by his own leader who had a look of clear contempt on his face a moment later.

Bojack then send out a powerful blast with both of his hands, aimed at Gohan. Who however simple swapped it aside and up into the sky with one hand.

In the next moment he appeared right before Bojack and punched his fist right through his chest, before with a small move of his other arm, blasting him and wiping him from existence completely.

It was over.

Gohan finally calmed down somewhat. He changed back into base form and flew down, right next to the younger Trunks body.

He kneeled down next to him and pressed his hands on the ground in anger, while tears were flowing out of his eyes.

For Trunks this was like looking at a twisted scene of himelf as he found the dead body of his mentor Gohan so many years ago.

"Gohan," he said.

"Trunks," he replied in a hollow tone.

"I did not come in time," Future Trunks stated.

"Neither did I," Gohan answered, "and I was hundreds of miles closer than you. It had already happened when I arrived," he said. "Don´t blame yourself."

They said nothing for a short time.

"Trunks," Gohan told him a few moments later, "when they really come for us to help fighting Demigra... I will not come with you." His voice sounded still broken, but serious. "At least one person needs to stay here and protect the planet. This here only proves that."

xxxxxxx

Now

That was one month ago.

Now Whis had suddenly appeared at Trunks and Mai´s door and he knew it was time.

This had been his free choice. He had offered his friends from the other timeline to help them after all.

"Look out for yourself Trunks," Mai said to him, "and come back to me."

He remembered the stories how powerful and dangerous Demigra was.

"I promise, I will," he still said to her.

xxxxxxx

A short time later Whis and Future Trunks arrived at the front entrance of Lord Zeno´s Palace in the main-timeline.

The others were already waiting for them.

"Trunks - it is good to see you," Goku called out.

"Trunks," Gohan said.

"Son," Vegeta greeted him.

"Trunks," Seventeen said to him.

"Seventeen, Eighteen," Future Trunks replied respectfully.

"That means we are now complete," Beerus stated. "Lets go inside. I am curious what the other universes will bring on the table."

They walked through the gate, all together 11 warriors from Universe 7.

Here is he newest chapter. With the prelude of the Demigra Battles and a very sad set-up for Future Trunks.