Chapter 37

Their new combined group of warriors - now led by the Grandpriest himself - had just arrived in the timeline where Demigra and his Army had build up their base.

They were standing in the middle of an empty lifeless rock landscape.

Whis and Vados, who had assisted in bringing them here, now said their farewell. They would be returning to Universe Seven and Six to help in defending them in the quite likely case of an attack.

Beerus however was with them as well. As the Grandpriest had mentioned, he had volunteered to join their group and fight along with them. In opposite to most of the other God´s of Destructions, he was quite confident that the warriors they left behind would be able to defend Universe 7 from at least most of Demigra´s agents.

And if things came to the worst - like one of Demigra´s Fallen Angels showing up in their universe - Whis was still there.

That meant the only issue left in that regard was for Beerus himself not to be killed during the coming battle. In that case of course both Whis and the Kaioshin would automatically fall short as well. Whis because he would go dormant and the Kaioshin would die along with Beerus. None of the other Gods of Destruction was directly taking part in this mission and he knew this was part of their reasons.

If he was honest, he started to have doubts if it had been a good idea for him to come after all. But it was a bit late and his pride would not allow it to back out now.

And he had learned first hand not to underestimate Demigra and his followers. He just could not trust this mission unless he was here by himself.

While the planet around them itself was desolated and lifeless, there was however something else up in the sky above it that instantly draw their attention.

They all saw them, five giant planet sized golden orbs hanging in the firmament. Very similar like the Dragon Balls from Earth or Namek in their appearance, but countless times bigger.

From down here however, they looked like large golden shimmering moons.

Five - that meant only two of them were still missing.

"They are collecting the Super Dragonballs," the Grandpriest stated.

"I ask myself what Demigra could want to wish for," Goku questioned.

"Whatever it is, it can hardly be anything good," Vegeta remarked.

"Then we should hope we get there before they get the last one and Demigra manages to make his wish," Seventeen said.

"Yes - let us hurry up," the Grandpriest agreed. "But before the fight starts, there is still someone we have to meet."

"Really - who?" Goku asked.

"You will see," the Grandpriest replied. "He will meet with us on our way to Demigra´s base."

xxx

While they continued their way, Goku, Vegeta and the others had a short talk with Future Trunks about what happened in the timeline he was living in.

"So your other self from the timeline you now live in is dead," Gohan said with grim face.

"Yes," Future Trunks replied, "and so is his Mai."

"I am sorry," Gohan told him.

"We all are," Goku added.

Bojack - they all remembered him of course from their meeting in their own timeline years ago.

Vegeta´s expression was unreadable. He had said nothing so far. But the others saw that for a moment he balled his fist.

Yet - in the end he had never even actually talked with that other version of his son. He had only gotten a glympse of him from the distance.

And still, it was Trunks - a version of his son had been killed by one of Demigra´s agents.

"I came too late," Future Trunks said. "I settled down too far away from them. After everything what happened I should have expected something like this. I should have prevented this. I failed."

"You are wrong," Vegeta now spoke up.

"What?"

"It was not your responsibility to protect your other self from danger. Your counterpart was a saiyan warrior in his own right. He was already a Super Saiyan and it was not your duty to act as his bodyguard," Vegeta explained.

"As terrible as his death was, do you think your other self would have wanted you to always hang around him and protect him from everything?"

"No," Future Trunks reponded. "He would have certainly not."

He knew how he himself would have hated it to be in that position. "He is still dead and I could have prevented it."

"You could not have foreseen this son," Vegeta said to him. "You could not have known that Demigra would free Bojack of all people. You could not have known that he would do it in that timeline or at that point. Stop blaming yourself."

"Your father is right Trunks." A bit surprisingly it was the usually quiet Jiren who said this. "You can not save everyone, no matter how strong you are. Believe me, I speak from personal experience.

I once thought differently. I convinced myself if I were just strong enough, nothing could ever happen to me and I could never loose anything again. I came to realize how foolish I had been."

The fighters from the other universes were walking in a close distance to them. They had so far not said anything, but overheard everything they said.

"It is true," Toppo stated. "No matter how strong you are or how noble your goals, you can never guaranty that none of your comrades will be lost."

"I agree as well," Brinka said. "I once thought if my love was just strong enough, I could do and achieve anything - I thought that as both Brianne and Sanka. But then we lost our entire universe, not matter how hard we tried. If it were not for Seventeen and the others, we would still be gone."

"Don´t mention it," Seventeen commented.

"It is true," Cabba said as well, "sometimes you can not save everyone."

"It might be strange for you hearing that from me, but we all know how it is to want to save someone and fail," Eighteen told him. Like her brother and Sixteen against Cell, like her husband and daugher against Buu. "Don´t blame yourself."

"Thank you all for saying this," Future Trunks said.

"He is here," the Grandpriest now said.

They all instantly noticed the being who was just appearing - it had an incredible high level of godly ki and was quickly approaching them from the sky. At the same moment they noticed that it´s energy was identical to the Grandpriest´s.

Nobody was really surprised as they saw the figure landing right before them. The newcomer was an exact double of the Grandpriest.

"Hello - I see you have arrived," he said. "This, as you can probably guess, is my counterpart from this timeline," he told the others.

"Hello," the Grandpriest of this timeline greeted them.

"I have been trying to keep an eye on Demigra´s activities for a time now, as good as this was possible without revealing my own location," he told them. "As you see Demigra´s followers are collecting the Super Dragon Balls. But that also means that because of it three of Demigra´s six Angels are not here right now. That means the best possible time to attack them, if there even is any, is now."

"I see," there own timeline´s Grandpriest replied. "I agree and since we don´t know when they will be back, we should be quick. But first, do you have any other information about Demigra´s base and his forces? What are we facing?"

"I will tell you what I know," his alternate self answered. "This is not so much, I admit. But it seems aside from Demigra´s own army, there are also several beings he seemed to have gathered from the different timelines. All of them what I sensed seem to at least rival a God of Destruction."

"I understand," the Grandpriest stated. "Well - this is not really unexpected. Let us move."

"Alright," Goku turned his comrades from Universe 7.

"Okay," Caulifla said, "let us do it Kale."

She took out one of the potara-earrings.

"Yes Sis," Kale replied and took out the other.

They both put them on and they merged into their Fusion Kefla. The same version of Kefla they had seen during the Tournament of Power, not the one formed through the Fusion Dance.

After she had merged, Kefla placed a deep kiss on Cabba´s mouth.

"Be careful," she said, "and good luck. I expect you to put up a good fight."

"Of course," Cabba replied.

"Then I guess it is time for me too," the Fusion of Brianne and Sanka from Universe 2, calling herself Brinka, stated. "I will then beginn my transformation now. There is no telling if our enemies will let me do it later or not."

She begann the typical longwired transformation-procedure from Universe Two. The resulting form possessed Kakunza´s talons, pointed ears and her sleek figure, but Ribrianne´s eyecolor and size. Her clothes were mostly a red colored version of Kakunsa´s battle gear.

"It is still good that you have learned from the past," Eighteen remarked smirking.

"We certainly did," Brinka replied.

They all had watched the transformation with different degrees of patience. They all had to admit however, Brinka´s transformed state seemed to leave out the more silly and to prefer the more useful aspects of both her Fusee´s transformations.

"While you were at it, you could have also tried to shorten the process," Beerus commented drily.

"Wha...? No Lord Beerus - that is absolutely out of question," Brinka called out. "The transformation is still a ritual representing the fighting spirit of Universe Two. Even if we don´t do it in front of our opponents, there is no part of it that can just be shortened."

"If you say so," Beerus replied sarcastically.

"What name should we call you now that you are transformed?" Eighteen asked her.

"Ahm - well..." This question took Brinka completely off-guard. Of course by tradition she should chose a new name for her transformed form. But...? "Ribrikunza? Kabrianne?" she said. "Ah - I don´t really like either of these. You know something? Just forget about it. I will not stay fused for long anyway."

xxxxxxx

At the same time inside Demigra´s makeshift palace, another very special group of beings was assembled.

While Demigra had send many of the agents he had recruited during the last years out to spread chaos over the different timelines and universes, the strongest under them he had kept here.

So aside from himself, Saek, Rum and Towa (the other three were still out to collect the Super Dragon Balls) and her personal adjutant - the artificial being Mira - along with two more of their Second Generation Demons (all of them either creations or direct offspring of the Fallen Angels), there were eight more beings assembled in the room.

The first was the Universe 4 God of Destruction Quitella. In fact it were two versions from two different timelines of him here.

Then the World Eater Moro - this version however was much more powerful than the one Vegeta and Eighteen had once defeated. He had absorbed the energy of countless planets and of some of the strongest beings in this timeline and his power now surpassed that of a God of Destruction.

Standing beside him was an nearly exact double of Broly. This Broly however was wearing the typical armor of the Freeza Force and was additionally carrying a strange device around his neck... and he had a cold and emotionless look on his face, completely different from the Broly the Z-fighters knew.

And then, standing a small distance aside from the rest of the group, there were also two alternate versions of Super Android 17 and 18. While they were looking mostly identical to the fused super-forms of Seventeen and Eighteen from four years ago, there were a few things fundamentally different about them.

And the last ones were the giant monster created from the dark entity of the Castle of Doom, that was still controlled by the Wizard Hoy, who was sitting in a secured room close by with a magical monitor device to direct his monster.

Standing next to The Beast however was another similar sized monster.

This second large creature had a remarkable similarity with Cell in his second form. Only that this being was deep red instead of green. This creature was called Cell Max. It was supposed to be a improved and far stronger successor of the original Cell, created by the members of a resurrected Red Ribbon Army in one of the alternate timelines.

Demigra had snatched them all from different points in their respective timelines. This of course interrupted the timeflow of this worlds and would lead to the creation of more splinter-timelines.

"It seems our new group of `guests´ are here," Demigra announced to them. "We all should go and welcome them."

"The deal we have made regarding the saiyans still stands?"

The voice came from the giant Bio-Android creature Cell Max. But it´s lips were not moving as it spoke. Instead the voice seemed to be coming from inside it´s body. And somehow it´s tone just seemed `wrong´ for the monstrous creature.

"Of course it does." The voice that said that came from a different direction. But it was Demigra´s voice.

Walking out from one of the neighboring corridors was a figure that everyone around was greeting respectfully.

The figure was a second Demigra.

But this being was not a mere apparation. For eons Demigra´s true self had been trapped in the dimensional void. So the splitting of the multiple timelines had no effect on him. There had only been one of him.

But that had now changed.

"You can do with them whatever you want, if you can manage to defeat them," the alternate version of Demigra stated. "Of course with the exception of the ones called Son Goku and Vegeta. They have raised my special interest."

A barely hearable growl came from the large creature.

"Vegeta is the last direct member of the saiyan´s Royal Family, the decendant of the Saiyan King´s," the voice hissed.

"Yes - if you can not accept this, you can always go back on our deal," the first Demigra said. "But then you will have to try on your own and I have told you how dangerous these saiyans are."

"No. That won´t be neccesary Lord Demigra. I already have a possible replacement for him in mind," the voice said with an evil glee.

xxxxxxx

When they arrived in front of Demigra´s castle a few minutes later, the team of warriors was already greeted by Demigra and his group of allies, who had just moved outside.

It was however only one of the two Demigra´s with them. The second had so far successfully hid his presence.

"I see you have arrived," Demigra greeted them. "Brother - and the rest of you too of course."

Goku and the others actually froze for a moment and they saw the other enemies next to Demigra and his followers.

They saw the other versions of Broly, of Super Seventeen and Eighteen and even of Moro, who was now radiating incredibly power,, possibly rivalling that of the beings around him - just how strong could he have become if they hadn´t stopped him early?

Seventeen and Eighteen especially scoffed at their own fused doubles and the creature that ressembled Cell.

And they of course remembered The Beast from Universe Two and how strong it had been. Only that it actually seemed even more powerful now.

"It seems you have gotten yourself a few new friends," Vegeta commented sardonically, not wanting to show any fear.

"Yes - and you will have the chance to get to know them more closely very soon too," Demigra replied with equal sarcasm.

"What do you want to wish from the Dragon Balls?" Goku asked bluntly.

"You don´t actually expect him to answer that Kakarot?" Vegeta cut in.

"Now - you will see very soon, Demigra responded.

"No - we will not, because we will keep you from making your wish in the first place," the Grandpriest told him. "I will and my counterpart will deal with him myself. You should deal with the others."

"Yes," Goku said.

"Well - we will see about that," Demigra stated. He lifted off the ground. "You heard it, take care of them," he said to his allies, before he quickly flew up into the sky.

He was heading for the Super Dragon Balls, they all realized.

"He is planning to make his wish as soon as the last two Dragon Balls are here," Seventeen said.

"It looks like it," Gohan agreed.

The two Grandpriest´s had lifted off as well and were following Demigra.

But none of Demigra´s allies made any attempt to stop them. Instead they were turning towards Goku and the others.

"So here we are finally," Towa said. She was facing Seventeen and Eighteen. "I have not forgotten the humiliation you two caused for me."

"You mean the humiliation you caused yourself, right?" Eighteen responded. "After all you are the one picking fights, thinking no Mortal could challenge you."

This was enough. Towa attacked.

But Seventeen intercepted and landed a punch into her face. To Towa´s shock the blow actually pushed her backwards... and it hurt, much.

"You..." she whispered, not quite believing it.

But after a split-second, she responded by sending a powerful ki blast with one hand and meterializing her staff in the other.

But Seventeen´s barrier, that he raised up in the last moment, stopped the attack easily.

The Angel Saek had moved as well and was now clashing with Goku, who had transformed into his Ascended SSB and was using Blue Kaioken Times Twenty, his strongest form aside from Ultra Instinct.

And the two were exchanging blows quite evenly.

Towa was not the only one who was shocked.

"W-what? They are actually matching the Angels!" one of the Quitellas called out.

"That should be impossible," the other exclaimed. "Just how strong are they?"

"That is not your problem right now. You should rather worry about us," Beerus said.

He and Toppo stepped up to face them.

xxx

Moro was meanwhile facing Vegeta.

"So you were the one who had killed me in your timeline, Lord Demigra said?" Moro mentioned. "We will see how you deal when you face my true strength."

Vegeta smirked.

"Your strength? Please - you mean the power you have stolen from all the others."

"You will see how much this power is mine when it destroys you," Moro hissed.

"Then bring it on," Vegeta called out. "I have better opponents than you to fight today."

xxx

The fight had now fully broken out.

Kefla was fighting the alternate Broly and Cabba,

Piccolo against Mira. While Mira´s power had not changed much during the last years, Piccolo´s had drastically... and he was not even at full strength right now.

Their own Broly meanwhile was fighting the Angel Rum.

And Jiren was facing The Beast from the Palace of Doom of Universe Two.

xxx

Gohan, Eighteen and Cabba were together facing Cell Max.

Until the two Second Generation Demons moved in and charged at Cabba and distracted him. The first one them had the light blue skin of an Angel, but brown hair and yellow eyes. The other looked a bit like a green skinned version of Dabura.

Gohan though for a moment if Demigra´s army had been somehow related to the old Demon Lord. But that question was not even important right now.

So it were right now only Eighteen and Gohan left against the monster. Luckily that was possibly more than enough.

xxx

And Future Trunks was being attacked by the two fused Androids at the same time.

"Trunks," Super 17 hissed as he send a punch at him.

Of course it had to be them, he thought.

"Be careful - remember, they can absorb your blasts," Gohan called out.

"And they can scann your movements," Eighteen shouted, while she was just doging a strike from Cell Max tail. "If you are not careful, they can easily copy your techniquest.

`Just great,´ Future Trunks thought to himself.

The two Androids, despite being fused, seemed however not to be as strong as their counterparts. Or they were toying with him.

He had until right now been in his Super Saiyan Rage Form. Now however he powered up into an actual Super Saiyan Blue, a form he had reach during the last years.

So he was now able to hold himself somewhat against them both. But 17´s and 18´s fight-coordination was just as good as he remembered.

He was not sure how long he would be able to keep this up. Especially since he could barely use any ki attacks, unless they were somehow distracted.

But right in that moment Brinka interferred and jumped with a kick into Super 18´s side, sending her away from Trunks.

"Thanks," he said.

xxx

Cabba meanwhile had beaten one of the two Second Generation Demons down. He had been completely dominating the fight, even if he was `just´ in his first Super Saiyan form. Even his base form would have been enough to beat the both.

The two Demons were incredible strong by normal standards, somewhere between the original Cell and Majin Buu.

But in this fight they were fodder. Yet even fodder could cause damage.

While he was dealing with the first one, the second Demon got way from Cabba and used the chance to fire a blast in Gohan´s back, who was still busy with Cell Max, along with Eighteen.

The blast itself didn´t cause any real damage. It however distracted Gohan for a short moment that allowed Cell Max to land a hit on him with his tail that threw him off-balance and then to wrap the same tail around his body.

On Gohan´s shoulder, his clothes were ripped and a small wound was underneath.

"Finally" the voice coming out from Cell Max body said.

The next moment something happened that shocked everyone who saw it.

A silvery liquid came flowing out of Cell Max mouth and quickly formed itself into a seemingly humanoid looking shape, before it became liquid again and, through the open wound, flew right into Gohan´s body.

"What the hell?" Vegeta was speaking out what everybody was thinking.

Gohan´s eyes suddenly glew up in a red color and his body started to laugh manically.

Author´s Note: Here is the beginning of the Great Final Battle. The `fighting pairings´ seen here however will not stay the same during it, since it is an all out battle, not a tournament.

This chapter also contains a few references to the new Movie. As seen in the last scene however this version of Cell Max was actually two villains in one.