Chapter 3: Into The Rifts
Roma had just settled into her covers and was drifting off to sleep when the rumbling began. It started as a slight vibration through her bed before crescendoing to bass and spiky trembling. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, almost hitting her head on the bunk above her.
"Well, that can't be good," she said. That was when both her roommate's and her own Scouters started to beep.
The bright yellow legs of her roommate swung down from above as the Majin woman shuffled off her top bunk and landed on the floor with a slight thud. She dashed over to the dining table where the two Scouters had been left and tossed Roma's to her. Roma put it on and tapped the side, bringing up the emergency message:
CITY-WIDE EMERGENCY ALERT
— CODE RED —
ALL TIME PATROLLERS ASSEMBLE AT
THE DRAGON PEDESTAL
Roma traded a quick look with her Majin roommate and then she swept off the last of her sheets and made a dash for closet.
The rumbling was beginning to subside by now but was still present as a duller vibration as Roma pulled off the shorts and tank top she'd been wearing as nightclothes as well as trying to take off her regular bra and put on one of her sports bras. She heard the door to the bathroom slam shut; her roommate must have gone in there to change. Their apartment wasn't as cramped as Roma had thought it'd be but there were only a couple of places to have privacy and the two of them weren't quite comfortable enough with each other to be mostly undressed, even in an emergency.
Finally pulling the top of her standard issue armor on, Roma backed out of the closet and dashed over to the sliding door that led to the apartment's small balcony. Her roommate was already there, pushing open the door, allowing a flood of daylight into the room. Roma winced heavily against the blaze of light; one of the problems of living in Conton City was that it was always daytime. When you wanted to sleep, you went someplace like your assigned living quarters, darkened the windows, shut blinds and closed doors to get rid of as much light as possible and went to sleep.
Once most of the spots had cleared from her vision, Roma saw her roommate wave to her with a quick, "Be careful!" and launch off into the sky. Roma followed suit, the law against those without licenses flying around town not applying in this kind of emergency. At least she could fly now; a week had passed since she'd begun training with her new partner and that, combined with regular visits to the Conton City doctors meant that her control over her ki was, finally, starting to improve. She stopped short mid-air though when she saw what it was that was causing all of the rumbling. Floating mostly above the Central Plaza and Business District were five gigantic spherical time rifts! No wonder the city felt like it was caught in an earthquake; the instructors at the Academy had taught Roma and her fellow students all about the phenomenon that could occur around rifts and these were all about the size of a city block!
Roma landed lightly on the marble steps of the Dragon Ball Pedestal. This incident, occurring during what was "nighttime" for so many Patrollers, meant she was one of the first to arrive but was quickly joined by many more who were flying in from all over Conton.
Roma had been trying to sense where her partner's ki was and this caused her to look towards the center of the dais. Standing before the ornate receptacle for the Dragon Balls were Chronoa, Trunks, the Toki Toki City heroes Beat and Note and a few other patrollers, including her partner Ultka. He was standing next to Beat and Note and Roma realized that she had never been this close to the famed Heroes before. In fact the only time she'd seen them outside of pictures, videos and the holo-statue in the Central Plaza was at graduation. They were a pair of Saiyan teens, who had been only 15 when Trunks had summoned them to Toki Toki City a year or so ago. They were also a couple and thus, besides being the most famous Time Patrollers, were a source of endless gossip for groups like the Romance Rangers.
Roma couldn't help but give a quick glance to Note's outfit, specifically the slit across the front of her shirt, exposing a modest amount of cleavage.
Pretty bold for such a young girl, Roma thought.
Trunks, seeing that most of the Patrol had gathered together bent down and whispered something in Chronoa's ear. The petite Supreme Kai was holding her hands up towards the rifts that were dominating the sky, fingers spread. She said something back to Trunks, who straightened up and addressed the assembly.
"All right everyone, listen up! To deal with these large rifts, we all need to channel our energy into Chronoa-sama!"
Suiting action to words he turned and held his arm up to Chronoa, palm up. A luminous stream of ki flared out towards Chronoa, surrounding her. Roma, Ultka, Beat, Note and the rest did the same and soon Chronoa was surrounded in a blaze of ki. She continued to hold her hands up towards the rifts when a blaze of blinding light flared up around her. Roma and many others had to turn away from the brightness but before Roma lost sight of the small Kai, she could have sworn that Chronoa's silhouette had changed, gotten taller.
In the sky, the five rifts began to shrink in size, floating down towards the pedestal area, Chronoa's flaring aura streaming out to meet them. With five more bright flashes, the rift's swirling purple auras disappeared, leaving behind only five strange objects which floated down to surround the central dais. The objects were inverted pyramids topped by glass or crystal domes under which miniature buildings could be seen. What looked like jewels on the sides of the pyramid glowed, each with a different color: blue, orange, green, purple and pink.
A gasp of surprise drew Roma's attention back to Chronoa and her retinue. The Supreme Kai of Time had collapsed but Trunks and Note had managed to catch her before she crumpled to the ground. Roma could feel that Chronoa's ki was fluctuating very wildly; clearly it had taken a lot out of her to deal with those huge rifts.
"OK, everyone! Show's over!" called out Beat, waving his arms to get everyone's attention. "Chronoa-sama will be just fine, so don't worry!"
"We'll have a full briefing in the morning, so get some sleep, ok?" added Note.
As the majority of the Patrollers began to walk off, use their vehicles or fly away from the Dragon Ball Pedestal, Roma went over to join her partner where he was still watching Trunks help Chronoa back to her feet.
"I didn't know you were buddy-buddy with the elite Patrollers?" she asked playfully.
"You never asked," Ultka replied, grinning, "It's a good thing I didn't have to call you back, we've got a job to do."
"Job? What job?"
"That," he said, pointing to the row of time miniatures on the other side of the dais.
"What, you mean we're going to go inside them? Right now? Isn't that a bit of a big job for a rookie?"
"Except you're going in with me, who isn't a rookie. Yeah, normally Chronoa-sama would use her abilities as the Supreme Kai of Time to look into the Rifts and see what's going on but as you can see, she's a bit winded at the moment. These rifts are far larger and more potent than anything we've come across before. Don't worry too much though, this is strictly recon," explained Ultka.
"Recon? Maybe I should go alone, you're not exactly built for not sticking out, Big Guy."
"Yeah, that's not happening. Which one of us is the rookie, remember?"
It was certainly something to think about, as far as Roma was concerned; did Trunks and Chronoa not fully trust her, that they'd have one of the senior Time Patrollers partner up with her? Well, in any case, Ultka had played straight with her mostly until now, so she'd follow his lead.
Ultka and Roma joined a small group of Patrollers over by the time rift miniatures who were then joined by Chronoa and Trunks, though the Supreme Kai still tottered slightly on unsteady legs.
"All we have to do is touch the dome over the miniature and we'll enter the rift. Pretty handy, huh?" said Ultka, pointing at the aforementioned dome.
"Yeah, not too bad. How come we can't do this with all the time rifts?" asked Roma.
"Mostly because they're usually not big or powerful enough to warrant this kind warding," explained Chronoa. It didn't escape Roma's notice that she was also still a little short of breath.
"OK, everybody, remember, this mission is strictly recon," said Trunks, "If you run into anything too heavy, get back to the exit point. There'll be a copy of the these time miniatures on the other side; just touch them like you do here and you'll be transported back to Conton City, got it?"
Everyone nodded in assent.
"Then good luck everyone and come back safe," said Chronoa, smiling at her Patrollers despite how faint she still felt.
"OK, ready when you are," said Ultka, stepping over to one of the miniatures. Roma joined him and paused for a moment as she lifted her hand over the dome. Underneath, there was a miniature of the yellow dome of Capsule Corp. and surrounding grounds in exacting detail.
"Nervous?" asked Ultka.
"No… just remembering," replied Roma, her eyes seeming to reflect a deep sadness.
"Hey, this may just be a basic recon mission but I need you focused, OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry."
Ultka didn't look like he entirely believed her but he raised his hand up to the dome just as she had done.
"On three. One, two, three!" he said. They touched the dome at the same moment and there was a flash of swirling blue light, Roma felt weightless for a moment and then…
She blinked and gasped softly in amazement. They were no longer in Conton City but were now on the fenced edge of the Capsule Corp. property. The real dome, now much more life-size, towered before them, casting a long shadow in the afternoon sunlight. Roma turned around and saw that it wasn't just Capsule Corp. but the rest of West City was here as well. Just how big was this rift?
"Well we seem to have arrived with all our parts intact," commented Ultka, "I'll go high, you go low. Since this rift is focused on Earth, I'd rather the sight of a Namekian didn't draw too much attention. Speaking of, remember not to use too much ki to move around."
"Yeah, I remember my classes," replied Roma, slightly annoyed that Ultka felt the need to remind her of something so basic.
"Then let's meet back here in fifteen minutes," he said. With that, he floated up off the ground and soared into the skies above the city, although no aura flared out around him since he was deliberately trying not to use too much ki to fly.
For her part, Roma decided to take a quick jog around Capsule Corp. to start with.
She was halfway around, marveling at how everything inside the rift looked, smelled and even felt the same, when she heard voices. She ducked behind some crates that had, for some reason, just been left on the side of the domed building and poked her head over them to see what was happening. The one voice, a woman's had sounded familiar and with a jolt, Roma realized it was Bulma. She was dressed in the red, one-piece dress she'd worn around the time of the battles with Majin Buu and seemed to have the same hairstyle as well. She was talking to and shaking hands with what seemed to be a man. The figure was dressed in a black cloak and hood that covered most of the body except for some armored boots and was fairly tall, taller than Roma although nowhere near as tall as Ultka. Though the hood concealed the person's head almost completely, his face was exposed just enough for Roma to get a good look…
Roma froze.
The face… she knew that face. How could she ever forget the face of the man who'd set the ruination of her timeline in motion? Her heartbeat thundered in her ears and she felt her breath hitching in her chest. Dimly she was aware of of a voice that sounded much like her own faintly chanting in the back of her mind.
It's him! It's him! It's him! Kill him! Kill him! It's him! KILL HIM!
Slowly, as if in a trance, Roma stepped out from behind the crates. Bulma and Beez were still talking and Roma was just far enough away that they didn't notice her. Slowly, Roma cupped her hands at her side and began to subtly channel her ki into them. She had too, otherwise the slippery little wizard would notice and be able to dodge her attack. The edges of Roma's vision seemed to have gone fuzzy; all she could do was focus on the black-garbed warrior-mage and her impending attack. All he needed to do was keep talking with Bulma for a little bit longer…
A part of her mind idly speculated that firing a Kamehameha this close to Bulma would certainly injure or even kill her. Another part, the part that seemed to be in synch with the thundering of her heartbeat told that first part to kindly shut up. What would it matter if Bulma got hurt? The people, places and things inside these rifts were just shadows of the real timelines, right? Dim reflections in a mirror. No, she had to do this, he had to pay for what he'd done, HE HAD TO DIE!
"Ka… Me… Ha… Me…" she chanted softly, eyes laser-focused on Beez. So focused that she didn't feel a rush of air behind her but she did feel an arm wrap around her waist whilst a large hand clamped itself over her mouth. Roma was yanked back behind the crates, away from her quarry… and that made her really mad. She tried to knee her attacker in the gut but found herself spun into and armlock and shoved into the ground.
"What in the name of Guru do you think you are doing?!" snarled a familiar voice. So, it was her own partner thad stopped her. The fuzziness at the edge of her vision receded and the roaring in her ears died down but she was still hopping mad and she tried to brace her knees under herself so she could throw Ultka off.
"It's him! He's the one behind these rifts!" she snarled back.
"Him who?" replied Ultka, more softly this time, but still putting all of his weight into keeping her down.
"Beez!" she hissed, hatred dripping from every syllable. "Now… get off me so I can kill him!"
Roma felt her ki surge as she tried to toss the big Namekian off her but then she felt a squeezing sensation in her chest, as if a giant's hand had locked around her torso. Her vision hazed over in red and her mouth opened, as if to scream, but all that came out was a strangled gasp. Her eyes rolled up into her head and the red in her eyes faded to sweet, peaceful black…
When she woke, Roma found herself back in her shared apartment in Conton, although instead of her yellow-skinned Majin roommate, she saw Ultka sitting in the cushy chair near the bunk beds.
"Ahh-owww, my head. Feels like I got pile-drived by Recoome and Android 16…" she groaned, regretting that she had tried to sit up in bed so fast.
"That'll happen when you do exactly what the doctors told you not to and try to rapidly increase your ki" said Ultka, dryly.
"Tell me something I don't know. So, what happened after I blacked out?"
"I hauled our butts back to the time miniature as fast as I could without drawing attention. The medics treated you and I brought you back here."
"That's it? What about reporting what happened? I bet the Supreme Kai of Time had a field day with this one…"
"I reported what we'd seen… most of it. I omitted certain details though."
"Wha-? But, what did they say when you brought back your unconscious partner?!"
Ultka shrugged nonchalantly, "I just told them your ki had gone screwy again so I had to cut the mission short. I did mention that we saw what we thought was a Time Breaker."
Roma scowled. "No 'thought' about it. It was him, I'd know the face of that genocidal bastard anywhere. If you'd just let me blast him then…"
"Then Bulma might have been caught up in your blast, assuming you'd have been capable of damaging anything at all. Maybe she would have been killed. Did you even stop to think of what that would do to that rift? We don't even know what's going on in there yet and you almost made the situation even worse. You DO remember that we can only close these rifts if we correct whatever deviation from the established timelines is present, right?"
"Don't patronize me! You don't know what he did to me and my…"
"I DO know what he did. First-class Time Patroller, remember? I've seen some of your file when they told me you'd be my partner" Ultka retorted sharply. "I don't know all the intimate details, admittedly, but I know that you're a refugee from a timeline that was completely annihilated by a paradoxical space/time collapse caused by Beez the Wizard, one of Towa and Mira's handpicked lieutenants. So yeah, I get why you freaked out when you saw him but that doesn't entirely excuse what you tried to do back there."
Roma glared at the Namekian; she had half a mind to slug him but finally she sighed heavily, her head hung low.
"Then why didn't you tell Chronoa-sama or Trunks what I did? You got a thing for lost causes or something?"
"Not really," Ultka replied, levering himself out of the chair, stretching his neck as he did so. "Honestly we haven't been together long enough for me to be that sentimental but… well, let's just say I'm big on second chances and leave it at that."
"Second chance? I think I'm on my third or fourth at this point," said Roma, wryly. She finally looked up only to see that Ultka had already made his way to the apartment's door.
"Whatever. Point is, I'm letting it slide this one time," said Ultka as he pressed the button which opened the door. He paused and then looked back at Roma, a solemn look on his face.
"One other thing, on the next mission, I'll stick closer to you. Burdens like yours are easier to bear with a friend by your side."
With that said, Ultka walked out of the apartment, the door swishing shut behind him. Roma stared at the closed door for several seconds before she got up and headed for the bathroom. She felt desperately in need of a hot shower to try and take the edge off her headache. But despite the aching pain in her head, a faint smile tugged at her lips.
"A friend huh? Been a while since I had one of those."
Outside the apartment, Ultka had just flown out of one of the hallway windows. His personal quarters was a small hut in the Planet Namek section of the city. As he flew, he reached into the folds of his black gi and pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment. Just after Roma had blacked out in the rift, Ultka had swept her up into his arms and shot a quick glance over the crates. The person Bulma had been talking to, presumably Beez, was gone and Bulma was headed back into the Capsule Corp. dome but just as Utlka was about to zoom off back to the time miniature, the aforementioned parchment had floated down in front of him. He'd paused briefly to unfold it and read the luminescent letters that had materialized on it. The message had been why he hadn't mentioned it to either his bosses or Roma. It had read—
My, what a pleasant surprise!
I wasn't expecting you to actually survive the destruction
of your timeline, my dear.
I assume I have Piccolo to thank for that. Know that
he begged for death like a mewling baby when
I was through with him.
I wonder, how does it feel to be the only survivor,
knowing that your family, friends, even your enemies
are all worse than dead?
I hope it hurts.
Ultka snarled, landing in front of his Namekian hut much harder than he meant to, startling some of his neighbors. After a few deep breaths he glanced over to the hill in the distance where the entrance to the Time Nest was located. He should have told Chronoa and Trunks what had happened. He owed them a lot and it had hurt to obscure the truth from them, but…
Memories flashed across his mind's eye: A village in flames, Ultka kneeling amongst the withered bodies of fellow Namekians, Time Patrollers fighting a giant hulking darkness.
A flash of ki flared across his palm, reducing the note to ash.
"I know your kind, Beez," he said softly, "And I'll be damned if I let you and your masters beat us. If Roma doesn't put you in the ground first, I'll be the next in line to do it."
A/N: I've updated and replaced the original prologue for the story into something I think is a little more streamlined. Hope you like it. ;) As for the rest of the story, there will be a short interlude chapter next and then Part 2: Spice, Spice Baby! will begin. What will happen when Roma and her fellow Patrollers have to tangle with the infamous Garlic jr.? Find out, next time on Dragon Ball Xenoverse!
And now we present Author-san's Character Corner!
Name: Roma
Race: Saiyan/Earthling
Tribe: Modern Saiyan/Human
Age: 19
Height: 5' 9"
Hair: Dark cyan
Eyes: Dark blue
Gender: Female
Transformations/Special Techniques: Oozaru, Kaioken, Super Saiyan(?), Kamehameha, Kikoukenjutsu-ryu, Flash Slash, Gravity Break, Kichokuzan, Spirit Bomb, Spirit Breaker
Patron Deity: Chronoa, Supreme Kai of Time
Home City: Conton City
Paramour: ?
Bio: A refugee from a destroyed timeline, Roma took a Saiyan alias partly on the orders of Chronoa. Usually a pretty friendly and outgoing young woman, Roma has acquired a cynical sadness since her timeline was destroyed and very much wants to prevent that from happening to any other timeline.
—
Name: Ultka
Race: Namekian
Tribe: ?
Age: 25
Height: 7' 1"
Hair: None
Eyes: Black
Skin Color: Yellow
Gender: Male
Transformations/Special Techniques: Kaioken, Great Namekian, Bio-Armor, Makankosappo, Hellzone Grenade
Patron Deity: Chronoa
Home City: Conton City
Paramour: None
Bio: Ultka actually comes from the future, the year AGE 1,000 specifically. He was recruited by Time Patrollers who were battling the Time Breakers in that era on Earth.
