20 Minutes until the Tournament of Time.
"I can't believe the Grand Minister actually permitted the use of concession stands."
"And I can't believe they made a God of Destruction wait in line!"
The irate Beerus replied to the tutting Whis in his patented tone of aggravation. The god in question firmly grasped a bag of popcorn at his side, shaking it with a grumble as he stomped behind Whis. The angel was carrying a large assortment of consumables, primarily because Beerus had refused to share the load.
"We weren't even given assigned seating! It's our universe competing yet they sit us beside the peasantry!" Beerus shook his bag for emphasis.
"Please refrain from referring to your fellow Gods in such a way, my Lord," Whis scolded with a frown. "Enough of them dislike you as it is."
"They could have at least installed an elevator in this place," Beerus continued with a murmur, ignoring Whis. "Even the earthlings have figured out how those things work."
Whis simply rolled his eyes and continued his way up the stairs onwards to the top of the arena, where the Gods of the multiverse were designated to sit. Beerus had insisted on making a food run before the tournament began in full, and Whis had kindly taken the orders of his fellow deities; behind Beerus' back of course.
The journey down and up again had been taken by Beerus as an opportunity to vent seemingly every grievance that had ever befallen him. It had started with complaints about the Kai's, then the angels, then the crowd, food, stairs, noise, stairs again, before repeating the cycle. It was as if every minute they grew closer to the tournament, Beerus grew more disdained.
Of course having known Beerus for as long as he had, Whis could obviously see what was wrong with him.
"Have faith in the Saiyans, my Lord. They have served you well thus far." Whis' tone was swift and his words said with conviction.
"We can't lose this tournament, Whis," Beerus stated, scrambling to Whis' side. "What if they all go down in the first round? The Grand Minister said that erasure was off the table, but what if they screw up so badly Grand Zeno changes his mind?" Beerus voice was a mixture of fear and rage.
"Grand Zeno does not make decisions lightly, my Lord," Whis scoffed in reply. "If the Grand Minister was told that your universe will not be erased if you aren't victorious, then we are to take his word for it."
Beerus grumbled something inaudible and stomped his way past Whis and further up the stairs, Whis paused to roll his eyes yet again before joining him.
They emerged through the stone archway and into the peak of the stadium, encircling the ring and the entirety of the now full audience seating area. Beerus grumbled as he took notice of those present; the Gods of the multiverse were scattered around, all sat in silent anticipation for the tournament's commencement.
"Well if it isn't the man of the hour."
Beerus twitched his ear in the direction of the taunting voice, Lord Belmod's grating tone was quite familiar to him. "Just can't keep out of trouble can you, Beerus? And always dragging the rest of us into your messes." The clown-like god was sat to Beerus' immediate right; his arms crossed and expression teasing. "I hope you've whipped your boys into shape, they have to represent our multiverse after all. Though of course if Universe 11 had been given the honour of participating we would have nothing to worry about."
Beerus concluded that Belmod was trying to provoke a reaction out of him, so he responded in kind. "I think I hear something, Whis. It sounds like 'Oh Lord Beerus, thank you for choosing to restore us from non-existence over personal gain, you are clearly the benevolent god of a merciful universe." Beerus smirked with great satisfaction as he saw Belmod's face drop.
"Oh shoot, you're the actual Beerus."
"Eh?" Was Beerus' simple retort. For once he was actually at a loss for words due to general confusion at Belmod's exclamation. The clown seemed to take this as an indication to elaborate, though his angel attendant Marcarita chose to do so on his behalf.
"Lord Belmod has been passing the time by goading your counterparts, Lord Beerus. I count three so far, not including yourself." The pigtailed sister of Whis spoke in a regal yet boorish tone. She nudged her staff towards the far end of the arena, where Beerus promptly directed his gaze.
He thought he had suitably prepared himself mentally for any and all surprises this tournament was likely to thrust upon him, but even so, meeting the gaze of a second Beerus, then a third, and then a fourth in succession was enough to prompt a neck spasm and a startled squeak.
Even amongst Gods, this is insanity.
The presence of his counterparts plus, to his chagrin, the God of Destruction Top in place of another him, indicated to Beerus that the arrival of the participating timelines was most likely complete. With the sudden remembrance that only several minutes remained until the start of the tournament, Beerus felt his unease return full force.
"It seems most of the deities are content with keeping the mingling contained to their own multiverses," Marcarita declared to whoever was minded to listen. "Though considering we are technically meeting as rivals, that is to be expected."
Beerus replied with a snort before making his way over to the residences of his own universe; sat towards the front of the balcony overlooking the arena. He gave a sweeping glance around the rim of the stadium as he walked in order to ascertain everyone's position. There were of course the deities of Timeline 1's twelve universes, spread evenly across the stands around him in relatively close proximity. As he continued looking around in a clockwise motion, he saw more duplicate gods, likely originating from Timeline 2, with Timelines 3, 4 and 5 presumably following on.
As his eyes shifted to his immediate right, he drew to a stop and hardened his gaze.
A significant portion of the stands appeared to be empty.
- DB DBZ DBS DBGT -
"It looks like everyone else is starting to show up."
Goku knew he was stating the obvious, after all they could all feel the energies of the various beings materialising around them, but even so, despite expecting to be surprised at this point, it was hard to keep his heart from pounding in his chest from a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
"I sense Frieza."
It was Vegeta who had spoken, having taken up a position to Goku's left, arms crossed and expression as focused as ever.
"I guess the bastard got lucky in his universe," Vegeta 2 snidely contributed, mirroring his counterpart's stance at Goku's right.
Goku veered back ever so slightly, his eye twitching uncharacteristically. "I feel another you too." It only served to unease him further that the unmistakable energy of Vegeta he could feel did not prompt even a hint of a smile to form on his face. "It's not with Frieza, but it's definitely here… and it feels."
"Like how I use to be."
Goku wasn't sure which Vegeta had spoken, but he was certain the feeling was mutual between them.
Given the size of the arena, Goku didn't have a clear view of the distant figures emerging from the entryways into the surroundings of the ring directly opposite them. He could instantly tell that all those who were turning up, with the exception of this variant of Frieza, were keeping their powers suppressed; some to the point he could barely even tell they were present at all. Whether this was due to habit or tactics, he couldn't say for certain.
All he knew for certain was that many of these energy signatures were familiar.
He looked to the air above; a blank space currently occupied the greenish brown haze he hesitated to call a sky. No doubt it was left vacant for Grand Zeno to materialise in his palace at some point soon. And no doubt when that happened, the tournament would begin in full. Despite only being mere minutes away, it couldn't have felt longer.
The mixed group of Timeline 1 and Timeline 2 stood together in silent hesitation. Each warrior wordlessly pondered the situation as it evolved and as certain specific energies became more defined. Everyone present seemed to have sensed at least one other person they would have preferred not to. And suffice to say, the mood had soured quite significantly in a short amount of time.
As the adults stood and pondered, none seemed to take notice of the three girls who ducked under the wall and snuck towards the entrance of Timeline 3.
- DB DBZ DBS DBGT -
"I felt him, and I wanna see him!"
"This is stupid, we're going to get into trouble!"
"Come on, other me, don't be a bore. We're just going to take a peek and we'll head right back."
Pan 1 grumbled something innocuous to her counterpart as a reply, but nevertheless continued to follow behind Bulla in a hastily stride. She looked over her shoulder towards their fathers to confirm no one had spotted them leaving; they all seemed too transfixed on the sinister feeling energies at the opposite end of the arena to even notice them scattering off. Pan would have to make sure she avoided going to that side of the ring any time soon.
In the meantime, the twin Pan's were jogging behind the quicker paced Bulla, whose head had perked up a few moments ago when three new energies had appeared within the Timeline 3 entryway. She had been off before either Pan could get a word in, both silently decreeing to chase after her. She had said something about 'feeling him' but neither Pan had taken the time to ascertain what Bulla had actually meant by that.
Bulla came to a sharp stop at the left side of the archway, peeking her head round the corner discreetly, with Pan 1 and Pan 2's own heads soon following. They almost appeared to be stacked on top of each other. Their attempts at being inconspicuous failed spectacularly as their combined weight caused them to tumble right into the view of two figures emerging from the dark.
The man in the blue jacket gripped his sword in surprise.
The one armed man to his side simply chuckled.
"Kind of jumpy aren't you, Trunks? It's just some kids."
"Gohan, we were just transported to an alternate universe by a literal angel. I can't just take this in stride like you are."
Pan pushed herself up with a grumble and adjusted her bandana. She gave her two companions a single glance before her gaze focused forwards. She locked eyes with the purple haired man, who's hand still gripped his sword tight. The stare he gave her was so stern she thought for a moment he was actually going to swing his sword at her. It took her a few seconds to register that this man was undeniably the Trunks of another timeline.
Bulla seemed to have picked up on that fact slightly faster.
"Yes! I told you I'd felt him!" Bulla had an uncharacteristic look of glee in her eyes, a far cry from the usual imitated look of her father. "It's Trunks see? I mean the cool future one, the one with the sword!" She gave a girlish squee, looking momentarily embarrassed at herself in the process. "Mom always talks about you, I've always wanted to meet you. You sounded so much cooler than my Trunks, he's a dweeb!"
Trunks released the grip on his sword. It was a comical sight to watch the seasoned warrior back away from a girl half his size in apparent fear.
Everyone stopped and turned to look at the tallest man present when he started to laugh louder. The sight of him was enough for Bulla to halt her outburst in sudden wonder, both Pan's however had a slightly more severe reaction, freezing in place and staring with wide eyes at the spiky haired man in the orange gi.
They didn't need a second further to realise who this man was, or what he meant to both of them. But neither said anything, or even had the capacity to form any words. They were too distracted by the deep scar that ran along the man's face, too startled by the hardened expression visible even now behind his pleasant demeanour. But their eyes were inevitably drawn to the man's left side, where something obvious was missing, and the scenarios that started to play in their heads as to the circumstances of its loss was enough to make one Pan gasp and the other one flinch.
"Pa…" Pan 1 whispered.
"Pa?" Pan 2 finished.
"Pan!"
The three girls jumped at the stern voice that suddenly called out from behind them, while the men present simply stood and waited casually. "You know you shouldn't be wandering off without…" Gohan 1 was approaching, so focused on his daughter and her new friends that it took him a moment to notice the two other men present, but the moment he did, his words died in his throat. He could tell who Trunks was at a glance, but the sight of the other man gave him pause, his shocked expression being mirrored on his scarred twin's face.
"I am really starting to hate this place."