Blaring alarms woke Nitro up. An automated voice rang throughout the house: "History has been altered, proceed to Time Nest." Grumbling, Nitro pressed the button on his bedside table, turning off the alarm in his room. He got up and left for the living room. Halfway down the hall, he saw Quint leave his room.
"Something's happening already?" He asked.
"Apparently," Nitro responded. They got to the living room, where Mallet was already waiting. Alice joined them about a minute later, and then Brusselle and Sam came out.
"Ready for some action?" Brusselle asked, offering a fist to Alice.
Alice looked at her, seemingly confused. "Um, sure?" She tentatively hit Brusselle's fist with her own.
Ten minutes later, they were still waiting for Runa to get up. Nitro sighed. "I'll go get her." He walked down the hall and found the only room that still had an alarm going off. He opened the door to see Runa sprawled across her bed. A rather disgusting bubble had formed over one nostril, expanding and contracting with her breathing. Nitro walked up and shook her shoulder. "Runa, wake up." She didn't. Nitro grabbed both shoulders and shook a bit harder. "Runa, you need to wake up." Still nothing. Finally, Nitro gently picked her up in his arms, and unceremoniously dropped her on the floor.
Runa's eyes slowly opened. "Wha wuzzat?" She asked drowsily. She looked around. "Why is it so loud in here?"
Nitro turned off the alarm. "We're needed in the Time Nest."
"Time Nest?" She asked. "Oh yeah. Gimme a minute."
"We already gave you a minute. Multiple actually." Nitro sighed. "Make it quick." He left the room and entered the living room. The others were all looking at him. "She'll be out soon."
Thankfully she was. Runa had a different outfit this time, a small green tank top with a bright red scarf, and blue skinny jeans. Evidently she was not a morning person, as she closely resembled a zombie as she came out. "Everyone up?" asked Nitro as he did a head count. "Good. Let's see what happened."
Toki Toki City wasn't nearly as active during the early morning hours, so they made it to the Time Nest in a couple minutes. Trunks was waiting for them outside of his house. "Good, you're here," He said. "The Supreme Kai of Time is waiting for us in the Time Vault. Follow me." He led Nitro and the team to the large building at the end of the road in the Nest. It had an enormous tree growing out of it.
Inside was mainly a large, spacious room. Its walls were covered floor to ceiling with scrolls of varying sizes. At the center was a table, and at the table stood the Supreme Kai of Time, hunched over one of the scrolls.
As they approached, Nitro heard her muttering to herself. "This shouldn't be happening anymore, we fixed it. Where is he?" Trunks coughed, and she turned around with a start. "Yo- You're here!" She stammered.
"Yeah," said Quint, "you called us."
"Of course," she said, regaining her composure. "Look here." She gestured at the scroll. It was swirling with a dark, purple energy.
"This scroll tells of a specific time in history. When a scroll starts glowing like this, it means that its portion of history has been altered." The scroll showed a series of moving images. A tall, long-haired warrior in Saiyan armor was standing over a fallen foe- it was Goku! In the next image, Goku was holding the Saiyan from behind, as a Namekian fired a spiral beam of light at both of them. The next one was where the dark field started. The Saiyan had an aura similar to the one around the scroll, and he escaped from Goku's grasp. Before he had time to react, Goku was impaled by the Namekian's attack. The Saiyan laughed as Goku fell to the ground, and he turned to the exhausted Namekian.
"Piccolo was supposed to kill Raditz and Goku," explained the Supreme Kai of Time. "But he got some sort of power up. You need to stop him."
"Isn't this a bit of overkill?" asked Samphire. "I mean, any one of us could probably handle a low-class Saiyan, let alone seven of us."
"Altering history is risky, even if you're putting it back on track. The people responsible could still be there, or the change could give rise to a new or greater threat," said Trunks. "Besides, you won't need to do a whole lot. As terrible as it is, Goku's death is as important to the flow of history as Raditz's. Your job isn't to defeat Raditz, it's to make it possible for Goku and Piccolo to defeat him."
Then Mallet spoke. "We won't all be going. Nitro was about to tell him that they had to suck it up and work together when he pointed to the wall. "You've got another change in history. The Supreme Kai shrieked as she turned to see another scroll glowing darkly. She raced over to grab it and ripped it open.
"Oh great," she complained. "It's the Saiyans again." She regarded the team. "Ok, Alice and Mallet will deal with Raditz. The rest of you pay attention." She showed them the scroll. "One year after Raditz was killed, his partners Nappa and Vegeta showed up on Earth looking for the Dragon Balls. Chiaotzu, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Piccolo, and Nappa die in the battle, but under no circumstances must Krillin, Gohan, Goku, or Vegeta be killed."
Quint's eyes narrowed. "You want us to spare Vegeta?"
Trunks turned to him. "Vegeta may be a villain now, but he's very important. If he dies, I won't exist."
"Besides," said the Supreme Kai of Time, "the Time Patrol preserves history, whether it's pleasant or not." She snapped her fingers, and seven scouters appeared on the table. "Each of you take one."
"Scouters became obsolete over a decade ago," said Alice. "Why do we need them?"
Trunks explained. "They aren't for sensing energy; they're for detecting when an opponent has reached a Manageable Level. As we've said, you're job isn't to defeat the enemies, it's to make sure that the ones who originally defeated them can do it again. The scouter takes note of the power of everyone on the battlefield, and cross-references them with the levels recorded from history proper. Once everyone is at a level that would allow for history to correct itself, you can pull out."
The Supreme Kai of Time regarded them. "We know that you just got here, but we trust you. Go and save history!"
Once they had left, Trunks turned to her. "Chronoa… it's just like last time."
"I know," she responded.
"But he isn't the-"
"I know."
Trunks looked at the rows and rows of scrolls, each containing a different piece of History. "What does this mean?"
Chronoa looked at the scroll in front of her. Nappa and Vegeta were towering over Goku in their Oozaru forms. "I don't know."
