Chapter 98: Twisted Reflection
Watching Ring fly off into the distance after that wallop to the face was... very satisfying. Watching the time corruption seeping through the air though dampened that considerably. The others need to go, now.
"You all need to get out of this timeplane! I'm the only one who can fight her," Potara roars at them, readying herself to pursue Ring.
"How?" demands Vegeta, "The Kai is dead!"
Potara pauses for a moment. Fuck.
She glances down at her hand for a moment, considering the White Time Ring. If her will could bring her here with the Demon Time Ring, could she do similar with this one? She focuses on its hymn, the warmth and peace the ring brings her. She pushes her intent to it. Vegetto, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan. Gone from here, somewhere safe.
It flashes, energy pulsing from it, and they're gone. It leaves her all alone on a collapsing corrupted timeplane, alone with yet another monster that had tried to use her to their own ends. Or well, she supposes most of the previous ones had been for Pan, not her.
"Difference name, same fate," she mutters sourly, watching Ring fly back at a leisurely pace.
"Do you believe yourself able to win?" the abomination poses, head tilted, apathetic tone betraying the fake curiosity, "All of my own inherit power, what I was fed from souls, from the timeplanes themselves, and at least half of your own soul reside within me. You are half of a broken soul, missing an arm, with only a unique Time Ring that you have likely no idea how to properly use. Even trying to use it directly against me would kill us both and rupture time itself according to Bardock, forcing the Omni-Kings to restart creation."
It smiles a cold smile. "The odds are rather in my favor, I think."
"A bit," said Potara mirthlessly, from what she senses... she is badly outclassed at the moment, her only advantage will be Ring's lack of actual fighting experience, "Hasn't ever stopped any of... of my family before I suppose."
"Oh? Claiming them now are we?" mocked Ring.
Potara shrugged and looked down at the White Time Ring, "With this on, so much of my hatred and conflict about Pan and the Doll just seems so... dulled, unimportant. Make no mistake, I'm still angry, but... its not so obsessively overwhelming. The mere thought of being from Pan doesn't send me into a spiraling rage. I wonder... is this what it would have felt like to be born whole, rather than a marred fusion?"
Apparently, she hit the nail on the head with the brief twisted look on Ring's face. Though why she'd be angry over that is... a curious mystery. Was it important?
"Your beauty is in your imperfection, Potara, in how marred you are," says Ring softly.
"I think, coming from you, that's not a compliment in the slightest," said Potara thinly, "Nor a good thing."
Ring shrugs. "Truth is in the eye of the beholder."
They floated there for a moment.
They both blurred and vanished, coming together in a flurry of destructive blows that rip apart the timeplane in minutes flat. Then they're falling and falling through a dark void, no light save for the white-blue aura of Potara and the black-red one of Ring. Reality rips and tears around them, both rings on their fingers rippling with terrible power. Each blow, each ki attack, sends more and more ripples around them until...
They tumble through the air, grappling with one another. Potara can only keep one arm pinned, Ring uses the other to slam into her side again and again before booting her down through some kind of black and blue distortion. Reality warps around Potara, and then she is in some kind of strange seemingly endless chasm. Blue crystals float around her everywhere. She glances at one, and is briefly surprised to see a scene of Goku and Piccolo facing off against a hairy Saiyan playing out in it. Is that... Raditz?
"What is this place?" mutters Potara, frowning and looking around.
"The Crack in Time," comes Ring's voice from above.
The hell is a crack in time? Or wait, she said 'the'?
Potara barely has time to raise her arm to block a heavy two-handed blow that still sends her flying despite her defense. She smashes through multiple crystals, sending shards flying everywhere before she corrects herself, expecting a follow up, but finding Ring having vanished. The abomination's presence fills and distorts the area, making it hard to try and track her. She tenses and waits...
She barely dodges to the side in time to avoid a death beam. Ring hurtles through the air, breaking through a crystal and smashing a fist into Potara's stomach. She wheezes and she's sent rocketing into the distance. Oh that's going to leave a mark...
Again and again Ring taints the area with its foul presence and comes at Potara seemingly out of nowhere, and again and again she is battered around the Crack in Time. Crystals and shards refracting light through the area making it so damn hard to see. She's growing rapidly sick of it. The next time Ring tries it, she acts.
She focuses her intent on the White Time Ring, and raises her hand into the air, a pulse of light rippling through the area that banishes the presence and makes Ring gasp out. Potara locks on, teleports, and gut punches Ring, having her turn to smash her putrid doppelganger head over heels across the chasm. She makes to charge a kamehameha before she realizes, with annoyance, she's moving her stump of an arm to try to match her other one.
She grits her teeth in frustrated bitterness. She could still do it with one arm, just more effort to push the same amount down one arm then two. Practically has her instead point a finger, firing quick lethal death beams. Ring raises her hands and releases a beam of energy, the force of it blowing her out of the way of the attacks. Potara cuts off her beams and considers the situation rather than continue to attack. Ring was right in that Potara was at an extreme disadvantage, and that she had no real idea how to use the White Time Ring.
However...
Despite little to no concrete knowledge, the White Time Ring seemed to react to her intent. How far could she push that? Without directly using it against the Ring? What even counts as a direct use? Banishing Ring's presence ability had hurt Ring, but not caused any cataclysmic event. She is drawing power directly from the ring, yet that doesn't apparently count either? Or did Bardock mean something like a direct beam struggle between both rings? How did that even work if the energy was mixed with her own?
Potara cuts her thoughts off and dodges to the side, avoiding a sudden beam of black and red energy. Ring is there a second later, swinging two-handed at her. Potara deflects the blow off her shoulder, wincing, but using the spin of the attack to flip herself around and slam a leg into the side of Ring's head, sending the abomination flying. Ring corrects her flight shortly, righting herself and rubbing the side of her head, annoyed, but not really harmed.
"Hn," Ring chuckles, its aura starting to swell and expand, a bead of sweat goes down Potara's face as Ring's power skyrockets, "You might have the capability to damage me, but the power seems... lacking."
Potara barely saw Ring move before a fist smashes into her face, sending her sprawling through the air.
Fuck, the abomination hadn't even been powered up yet.
"Aren't potara fusions supposed to be the pinnacle of mortal power?" mocked Ring, "Especially with God Ki?"
A knee slams into Potara's back, sending her flying.
"Or are you merely a lost and broken little girl? How different from Son Pan are you, really?"
Ring catches Potara by her arm, spins them through the air, rushing at the nearest floating crystal and two-hand smashing her through it.
"A pathetic little specimen who so desperately rushed and grabbed for power she barely knew how to use because she was afraid?"
Potara throws off Ki in all directly to stop her spiraling through the air. Only for Ring to appear and gut punch her. Potara folds over Ring's arm with a wheeze. Ring grabs her hair and yanks her head back leaning close and grinning, its twisted aura and maniac grim making Potara flinch.
"I'm going to enjoy feeding off the rest of you. Then, I will corrupt and devour the ring on your finger. Then, I will travel to your home timeline, and corrupt it too."
A knee comes up and smashes into Potara's chin, sending her spinning through the air. Ring rushes past and two-hand smashes her down. Potara spirals, snarling and launching a quick ki burst to correct her spiral, and then a trio of death beams to drive Ring off. Potara floats there, rattled and seething. Ring appears a ways above, watching her, her vile aura pulsing, her face cold and cruel.
"Are you ready Potara?" Ring asks in a sick mixture of mocking and gentle, "Shall we go home together?"
Potara hisses under her breath. Dammit all. That damn little soul thief, she feels so damn weak compared to normal, even with the White Time Ring helping out. If only she had a way to close the... gap...
Potara blanks, then reaches up and smacks her forehead. "Idiot."
Ring raises an eyebrow.
Potara lowers her hand gives a cold little smile. "Kaio-Ken times five."
Red ignites around her super saiyan god white-blue in a blaze of glory. Ring barely has time to widen her eyes before Potara catches her off-guard and is upon her smashing her through more of the crystals floating through the chasm. From what she senses, still not enough.
"Times ten."
Potara zooms past Ring's cringing form, coming from behind to drop kick her down. Not enough!
"Times fifteen."
Perfect.
Again she surges down and past, rushing back up aiming for Ring's spine, but Ring dodges out of the way, turns, as Potara starts to go by, and blasts her, sending her flying. Potara hisses, gritting her teeth and throwing off the energy blast. She lets the Kaio-Ken down for a moment to catch her breath. Its... oddly harsh to keep it going.
Ring wipes blood off her face, looking down at the blood briefly before looking back up at Potara. "Impressive, but I wonder how long you will be able to keep that up considering your... condition."
"Long enough," said Potara coldly, giving her a nasty little smile as she readies herself, this is probably going to hurt her badly to do, "All I need, Ring, is to burst up high enough to kill you in one go. One times-fifty, and you are through."
Ring hums. "Perhaps.
Why isn't she worried? Is she that arrogant? Or maybe...
"Considering the nature of your demonic energy," Potara snaps out, "You won't be able to use the Kaio-Ken yourself to match me without destroying yourself."
"Quite right," agrees Ring mildly.
A fissure of unease rolls down Potara's spine. Despite the power difference between them, and missing a large chunk of her soul, a times fifteen was enough to close the gap and overpower. A times fifty would be absolute overkill. Yet... Ring wasn't concerned. Considering the connection that had existed between them, she is absolutely certain Ring isn't hiding anymore of her energy. The White Time Ring protects her from Ring's control. So why is the abomination so unworried?
"Its a shame, you won't get the chance to do so," mused Ring, "Perhaps I cannot defeat you with your Kaio-Ken technique, but I can easily defeat Son Pan and the Doll if they do the same."
What the hell is Ring going on about?
Potara slow blinks. "...so what? They don't exist anymore."
"Oh, but they do," said Ring, slowly smiling, "Do you not remember what I told you about what Towa was doing to you? How she was damaging you?"
"What of it?" bites out Potara.
"Did she not mention what the damage would do to you?" posed Ring.
Potara thought for a moment, then froze.
"That if it wasn't fixed, you would split apart at the seams," said Ring, malevolence rippling off her.
Potara's heartbeat starts picking up speed. "Again, what of it? I have time to find a solution."
"No," said Ring, holding up a hand, glowing with dark twisted power, "You don't."
Potara's eyes widen. "Kao-Ken times fif..."
"Rupture Soul."
Agony.
Potara clutches her stomach and shrieks unholy sounding screams. Her potara earrings glowed with dark energy and black lightning, her vision blurs, her power starts ripping itself apart, exploding in a burst and...
Son Pan shrieks in agony as she falls out of the explosion, tumbling through the air. Everything hurts. Everything hurts so fucking much. She feels so empty, like she is missing chunks of herself. She gasps in sucks in deep breaths, forcing herself to pull out of a freefall. In and out, in and out she breaths, blinking rapidly and looking over herself. She... she was alive? But... she had fused with the Doll to make... to make...
She swallows thickly, her senses picking up the abomination her fusion had been fighting, and...
The Doll.
Pan stares at her doppelganger, at the God Construct that had stabbed her in the back. She screams in a rage and charges, plowing into the Doll and punching her.
"YOU! YOU!" she screams, "HOW COULD YOU?!"
The Doll snarls and throws her off with a blast. "Idiot girl! If you want to die that badly, wait until after the situation is dealt with and then I'll kill you."
Dark laughter carries down to them as Pan's third damn doppelganger gazes upon them. "It was a shame, Potara's beautifully broken soul had been so tantalizing. Alas, victory before pleasure."
Pan swallows thickly, looking up, and feeling the sheer difference in power. Even if she burst up to a time fifty, it wouldn't be enough, nor could she sustain that for more than a few uses. She's not even sure both of them together could equal up to what the weakened Potara had been before they were ripped apart. "Shit."
The Doll floated next to her. "We handle her like we did Beerus."
Pan scoffed. "You mean I take point and you float around uselessly while I get the crap beat out of me?"
The Doll gives her an annoyed look. "I have enough memories from Potara to properly use the Kao-Ken."
"I really, really don't think that's going to matter," mutters Pan, eying Ring, "Plus side I suppose, we have all our arms."
Pan's eyes flicker down to her hand. "...and I guess the White Time Ring?"
How the hell does she even use this?
The Doll nods slowly. "Abuse it as much as you are able, I will attempt to cov-."
The Doll barely manages to ascend to Blue before a black and red blast slams into her and sends her flying. Pan snarls, gives a yell, and taps into her god ki. Her hair flashes blue, and she glares up, eyes twitching, at the abomination smirking down at her. Once again, all the power of the gods at her fingertips, and it still wasn't enough...
Fuck it.
Pan aims the White Time Ring at Ring and unleashes a blast of white energy. Ring's eyes go wide, and she throws herself out of the way.
Rather than counter attack, Ring backs off, eying her warily. "Do you perhaps not recall the risk of attacking me directly with that?"
Pan aims again.
"Then again," muses Ring, "Between you, the Doll, and Potara, you are the most suicidal."
Pan shrieks in anger and fires again, again, and again.
Ring swerves out of the way, dodging this way and that. She spins around another, then surges down, bursting at Pan.
"Times fifty!" screams Pan, crossing her arms to block.
The impact rattles every bone in her body, nearly breaks her arms, and sends her rocketing back. Kami, that hurt. She feels Ring surging at her, and rights herself, bracing...
-zip-
The Doll teleports and dive kicks Ring at the last possible second, sending her flying. "Using that like a cudgel is not what I meant!"
Pan seethes, losing her kaio-ken and glaring at her. "Fuck off!"
"Get ahold of yourself," the Doll snaps at her, "You're even worse than you were before we merged!"
"Well no shit! I'm missing chunks of my damn soul!" Pan snapped back.
"Well so am I!"
"Actually, you're really not," comes Ring's voice.
They both startle and swerve, glaring at Ring as the abomination slowly levitates towards them, taking its time.
"What do you mean?" posed the Doll warily.
"You never figured it out, did you?" posed Ring, "How you came to be?"
The Doll narrows her eyes. "And you did?"
"Oh, I was there," answered Ring, sadistic glee on her face, "When Towa slipped into Whis's staff dimension and poured the bits and pieces of various tortured and torn apart souls from the Demon Realm into your shell to make you. I was there when she gave you emotion, when she gave you fear."
The Doll froze, a shocked, twisted expression on her face.
Pan's anger faltered, horror crossing her own face. "What the f-... at this point is there anything recently that can't be tied back to you and Towa?"
"More than you know," mocked the Ring, glancing at Pan briefly before turning back to the Doll, "You never really had your own soul. You were an amalgamation of butchery sown together and aimed at the gods. You are a fake, a pathetic little wind up doll that played to Towa's whims and design with ease. I suspect its why Potara was more Pan than you, as you were just scraps thrown into the mixture. I'm honestly surprised the potara fusion even worked all things considered."
The Doll shook with helpless anger, looking like her entire world just came crashing down. "You... you! It all comes back to you and Towa! I wouldn't have been made if not for your schemes! I wouldn't have been condemned to death at the hands of the gods! Even with all that, I still had found my purpose, I became great, more than I was, and found some form of peace, yet you stole being Potara from me!"
Pan startled and glanced over at her. "...?"
The Doll had actually liked being Potara? Pan didn't exactly like the self-hatred she could remember, but...
"I... being fused wasn't what I imagined, but it was better than this!" cried out the Doll, "I... I was whole, and you took that from me!"
Pan floated there quietly, awkwardly, not sure what to do about feeling pity for the Doll of all things.
"If ceasing to exist within a greater whole is what you desire I would be happy to oblige," mused the Ring, holding out a hand, "Come."
The Doll snarled, teleported, and booted Ring in her face, catching her offguard and sending her flying.
Pan takes a breath, lets it out, and shoves her anger and hate away. "Together!"
They both burst to times fifty and rushed at Ring. The abomination right itself, blocked Pan's attack and kicked her away. The Doll rammed into her with a two-handed sledge, forcing Ring back, but not dealing heavy damage. Ring grabbed the Doll's wrists, pulled them up, then rammed both knees into her stomach. The Doll spurted blood out of her mouth and went flying, Kaio-Ken puttering out.
"Super Kamehamehaaaaaa!" screams Pan, thrusting her hands forward.
The Ring turned, held out a hand, and blocked it. The energy surged around Ring, but did nothing to her. The monster grinned maliciously, then flew down the beam. She socked Pan across her face and sent her flying, nearly snapping her neck. Pan saw stars as she tumbled through the air. Ring was upon her in seconds, punches and kicks throwing her around like a punching bag. With a final two-handed smash, Ring sent a bloody and battered Pan rocketing through the chasm, smashing through multiple floating crystals.
"F-fuck," gasped out Pan, her Kaio-ken and super saiyan blue cutting out.
"Weak," comes Ring's voice, "Time to feed."
Then she's there, and all Pan can do is glare at her furiously, tears streaming down her face as the Doll grabs her by the throat...
-Zip-
"HAAAAAAAAAA!" screams the Doll, teleporting in with her hands thrust forward.
The energy wave catches Ring offguard once more and sends her flying, carried on away from Pan. Pan goes flying, dizzy and weak, before the Doll catches her.
"This isn't going to work," said the Doll, huffing and puffing, "You're done, and I'm one beating away from matching you."
"W-what else do w-e h-have," rasped out Pan, "I don't know how to u-use this d-damn r-ring!"
The Doll pursed her lips, looking down at the ring. "We... we need Potara back."
Pan blinked, looking at the blackened earing on the Doll, reaching up to grasp at her own and hissing with a bolt of black energy roiled down her arm. "T-the earrings are damaged, and e-even if we fused again, it w-wouldn't matter. Ring could just split us again!"
"I don't think its that simple," the Doll said quietly, "She called us marred, and she was right. We... I... its my fault. I forced the fusion. It wasn't right, Potara wasn't as she should have been. Ring took advantage of us because of how damaged we were. I... I created the weakness in us."
The Doll takes her earring off, and reaches for Pan's hand with the White Time Ring, clasping the earring between them. "I... was nothing but their tool... I'm... sorry."
Pan falters, her stomach twisting. "I..."
"That teleporting ability is rather annoying," comes Ring's voice in the distance, drawing rapidly closer, "But it wont save you for long."
Pan swallows thickly and looks down at their hands. Do or die. Ring will destroy her timeline, her family, if the abomination isn't stopped. Pan had submitted to the fusion reluctantly before. What would they become if it was willing? "What do I do?"
"Heal it, banish Ring's energy."
Pan closes her eyes, takes a breath, and pours her will through the ring. A light shines from her hands, and when she lets it go, the earring glows faintly with a green coloring. Pan takes off hers, and heals it as well. The Doll gently pries her earring from her and swaps with her own. They reach up and fasten the earring to one another.
They stare eachother in the eyes, nodding as the earrings glow. Yet... they don't surge at one another.
"What?" comes a startled cry from Ring.
They look over and find Ring clutching her stomach a ways away, shaking in pain. Cracks start appearing throughout her body, energy seeping out and flowing towards Pan and the Doll. Pan feels warmth the moment it touches her. Her eyes widen.
"Our soul," she whispers.
She holds up her hand with the White Time Ring.
Ring shrieks as the cracks rip open and energy surges out into Pan and the Doll.
Ring's body starts to mutate...
The earrings shine...
Pan and the Doll exchange one last glance, one shared grin, before they surged at eachother...
Potara blinks rapidly, clenching and unclenching her fists as her fusion finishes. There is no moment of confusion this time. No uncertainty. No lack of understanding of who she is or who she came from. A piece of floating crystal floats by, and Potara catches a look at herself in it. Similar to before, yet everything just a touch off. Yet, her eyes were black and her earrings green instead of a marred red. She was complete, whole. No self-doubt preyed at her foundations anymore.
Wait.
She looked exactly like the Potara that Goku had seen during the Universal Survival Tournament.
Curious.
An inhuman screech assaults her ears, causing Potara to look over at Ring. No longer was the abomination a twisted reflection of Potara. Without her soul to use as a base, it had deformed and mutated. Its face and flesh stretched horrifically, its skin a sickly pale blue-teal, looking more like a demon similar to Towa than Potara. Its arms had elongated and ended in claws, same as its feet. The Demon Time Ring pulsed on its finger, a sensation of ravenous hunger emanating from it.
Ring seethes, glaring hatefully at Potara, raising its ring hand. "Soul Rupture."
Potara doesn't even twitch. "There's no link between us, nothing I gave to you willingly to weasel your way in. You don't even have me as a base anymore. Without me, I wonder just how weak you are now."
There is no fear despite this, just cold, calculated malice. "So be it."
Potara smiles coldly. "I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should."
Ring doesn't get to move before Potara ascends to blue and plows into her. Its sweet, sweet revenge to batter the abomination around the chasm, smashing her through crystal after crystal. Potara teleports and grabs an arm, snarling, flexing her power...
"Kaio-Ken!"
...and rips it clean off.
Ring howls in agony before lashing out, claw raking through Potara's clothes in a spray of blood and sending her reeling back with a hiss. Potara scowls and throws the arm away, flicking her wrist and blowing it apart. She floats there, watching Ring as dark energy, not even blood, seeps out of where the arm had been. Slowly, it begins to re-take shape until a new arm had formed.
"Hm," mused Potara, red and blue energy flowing off her, "That's right. Damageable or not, your body is not actually real."
Her eyes flicker to the Demon Time Ring. "Only that is."
Ring sneers, its voice modulated and oddly relieving for Potara to not hear it mimicking her own, "I don't need to be truly real to kill you."
"Come now Ring," mocks Potara, "I'm a little stronger even without the Kaio-Ken. What exactly can you do at this point?"
The Demon Time Ring pulses, rips in reality form around them. Potara throws herself back as energy seeps out. Her eyes widen briefly, sighting the forms of Golden Freeza, his father Cold, his brother Cooler, apprentice god of destruction Cell, Goku Black, and Zamasu seep into reality. Had Ring taken them from the time planes? How if they had all died or been erased? Maybe just copies or something...
Potara stares at the crowd for a long moment before scoffing. "Really? None of them are going to last more than a moment against a godly potara fusion."
Even immortal Zamasu is just a matter of swatting away until she finishes off Ring.
"Kill her," snarls Ring, "Zamasu, your trump card if you would."
Trump what?
The Cold family charges her first.
Potara scowls, she wants this to be over.
She wants to go home to her family.
She wants to move on and have a life.
"Times five!"
She obliterates them with a burst of energy, overkill or not. She rushes at Cell, plowing a fist through the bio-android and sending it flying. She cups her hands, and send a Kamehameha wave to annihilate him after. Then there is a flash of light. She turns her head, sighting Black and Zamasu surging towards eachother, potara earrings glowing.
"Shit," seethes Potara as the two fuse.
She had forgotten about this part of Grandpa's story.
"My form is justice, and my form is the world, I am the beautiful, the sublime, the invincible, almighty and divine, Zamasu," the fusion preaches, throwing his arms to the side, a divine halo appearing behind him, "Come pretender, defiler of the sacred Potara Earrings. You shall be struck down with but a flicker of my divine might, for without the godly Kaio-Ken, you are nothing."
Zamasu snaps his fingers, and Potara's kaio-ken cancels out.
"I really, loath that ability," snaps Potara, throwing her senses out and measuring.
Neither of her fusees are as strong as Vegeta or Goku. Whole or not, without the kaio-ken, fused Zamasu is stronger by no small amount.
"Really missing the Power of Creation right about now," Potara mutters.
Zamasu makes a beckoning motion. "Come pretender."
Potara doesn't take the bait, considering her options. Killing Zamasu isn't something she can do. Not when he is both stronger and semi-immortal too. She needs to kill Ring, not fight Zamasu. She uses instantaneous movement, teleporting past him and rushing for Ring. Only for the abomination to raise its finger, a shield of black and red energy surrounding it and blocking Potara's attack.
She snarls, making to charge a ki attack, but fused Zamasu is there, slamming into her with a brutal elbow, then blasting her away.
"Behold, my divine radiance!" cries out Zamasu, a purple-bird like structure surging up behind him, purple lightning ripping out from it at Potara.
Potara crosses her arms and tanks the hit, hissing in pain.
Zamasu's halo begins to spread as he throws out his hands. "Blades of Judgement!"
"Super kaaa...," begins Potara, watching as bolts of red energy surge at her.
"...Mehaemeeeeee," she channels, waiting as they close in.
-zip-
She teleports in-front of Ring. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
She pours her energy into the attack, desperately trying to break through. The barrier cracks and shakes...
But Zamasu is there again. "Fool pretender!"
A hand is held out to her, then there is nothing but pain. Energy rips out from Zamasu, flowing over Potara and sending her away in brutal blast. Her clothes rip and tear and scorch. Burns and tears start flaying her skin. Its all she can do to teleport out of the attack. She floats midair when she comes out of the teleport, gasping and cringing.
"F-fuck," she stutters out.
Zamasu laughs, "A single hit front my divine brilliance, and you falter."
What the hell is she supposed to do? She has no time to break through and destroy Ring. All she really remembers from Grandpa's story is that Vegetto dominated Zamasu up until the fusion split with nothing but sheer raw power and skill. Zamasu's fusion was damaged by a spirit bomb sword thing, but took Zeno to actually destroy. Zeno isn't here, she has no idea how to do a spirit bomb and there is no Vegetto...
She pauses, narrowing her eyes in thought.
Actually... there is.
If Ring could draw these people in from time planes, then she could pull Vegetto from wherever she sent him.
She raises her hand, the White Time Ring glowing.
In a burst of energy, Vegetto tumbles through a brief portal of energy. "The hell?!"
He glances around. "Where? What?"
He pauses, looking at Potara, then Zamasu, then Ring, then back to Potara, eyebrow raised. "Need some help I take it?"
She nods. "Keep Zamasu off me, and I can destroy Ring."
"Zamasu... as in that immortal guy you told us about?" posed Vegetto slowly, sizing up the god sneering at them.
"Yeah, potara fused immortal god," answers Potara.
Vegetto pauses for a long moment. "You do realize I'm not that experienced with this blue god form yet, right?"
"You and I can survive Ring's corruptive energy, the others can't," said Potara quietly, "We are the only ones that can fight here. There is no other choice. We stop them here, or we lose who knows how many timelines, if not all of them if Zeno has to wipe it all away. If I can destroy Ring, we can find a way to deal with Zamasu after. Don't try the Kaio-Ken, he negates it."
"Hm," Vegetto muses, "That Ring looks a bit different than before."
"I took my soul back," is all Potara says in response.
No point in going over the unfuse-refuse... though is she technically even the same Potara? The memories seem seamless... but...
Doesn't matter.
Vegetto nods slowly, closes his eyes and whispers quietly, "If I don't make it, tell Bulla goodbye for me."
Potara nods and clenches her fists, her aura surging. Vegetto gives a yell, ascending to blue. Vegetto surges at Zamasu, and Potara teleports passed them both. Ring catches her offguard, dropping the shield and rushing at Potara, slashing a claw across her chest once more. Potara shrieks in pain, blood spraying, but counters with a viscious uppercut, rocking Ring's head back.
She drives a knee into Ring's stomach, bending her forward, then...
Then she grabs the claw with the Demon Time Ring.
Energy explodes around them as Potara screams in effort, channeling her power into her hand and trying to crush it. Ring shrieks as black and red lighting surges around them. Ring raises her other claw to slash, but Potara catches it. Gusts of energy rip from them, their auras mixing and contesting. Ring snarls and slams her head forward into Potara's, once, twice, three times. Potara grits her teeth and forces herself through the pain and rising headache. She clenches her fist together, feeling the disgusting Demon Time Ring push its power against her.
It pulses.
It CRACKS.
The resulting burst of energy makes Potara scream as she's blasted away. Pain echoes through every ounce of her body. She spirals through the air, dizzy and disoriented. She shakes her head rapidly, forcing herself back into focus. She lays her eyes on Ring, and her eyes go wide.
Ring's demonic form is cracking at the seams, energy leaking out of it. More importantly, the Demonic Time Ring itself is cracked and glowing. Red and black lightning sparks around it, wild and uncontrolled. She feels Ring's power start to slip, little bit by little bit. But... the sensations its giving off... the White Time Ring reacts, vibrating violently on her finger.
"What have you done?" screams Ring, "What have you done!"
Potara smirks, and is about to respond, when she hears screaming. She turns her head to see both Vegetto and Fused Zamasu writhing, clutching at their stomachs, negative energy roiling through them. Oh...
Oh.
They were both created by the Demon Time Ring. If it died... did they both go?
She hesitates, but rather than capitalize on Ring, she teleports to Vegetto and lays a hand on his chest, the White Time Ring pulsing. She pushes her intent through, and cleanses the taint out of him. She wants him anchored, she wants him real. A timeplane might be beyond her, but him? She can do this. She has to do this. Or what was any of this for? She pushes her will, and makes it reality, going further, out to his daughter.
"Appreciated," he rasps out, "But you really should have just killed that thing and been done with it."
"No," she answers back, "She and Towa have already taken to much from all of us. No more."
She sizes up Vegetto briefly, noteing him torn and bloodied. "How you handling?"
"Another day in the time chamber, or even just some more time to regulate this form and I'd flay him alive," says Vegetto flatly, sounding more annoyed than worried, "To even for my comfort right now, but he looks destabilized after what you did to the Demon Time Ring."
"FILTHY MORTALS!" screams Zamasu, rushing at them.
Vegetto surges past, a beam of light ripping from his arm and skewering the fused god, dragging him along and away screaming.
Potara turns away from their fight, glancing over at Ring who is staring down grimly at the damaged Demon Time Ring. Or well, she supposes Ring is staring at herself, even if the thought is odd. Potara levitates towards Ring, readying herself for the fight of her life, she has the advantage, but she can't get cocky. Ring still is strong enough to kill her if Potara screws up...
"Congratulations Potara," said Ring slowly, thoughtfully, "You won."
Potara blinks, taken offguard. "What?"
"You won."
Potara's brows furrow. Is this a joke? "I hope you're not expecting to surrender. You're not leaving here alive. I'm not going to fall for any pleading or plots."
"Oh, I know," said Ring, a cold, malevolent smile spreading across her face, "I'd need to consume a truly absurd amount of energy and souls to have a ghost of a chance to repair this damage. You wont give me the chance to tear a hole out of here, which would take desperately needed energy as it is to do. You might not realize it, but its not easy to leave the Crack in Time. Pulling things in or falling in or being banished into it is one thing, but escape is another all together. You must expend significant energy to do so."
Potara narrows her eyes. "Your point?"
"If I can't win, neither can you," says Ring, prying herself off her finger, raising it into the air...
...and clenching down, damaging and rupturing it further.
Reality rips and rends around them as Ring screams,. "...even if you do flee... MY DEATH WILL CASCADE OUTWARDS THROUGH ANY TIMELINE TOWA BROUGHT ME INTO!"
Bile threatens to rip from Potara's stomach at the vile sensation ripping through the area. The White Time Ring whines and pulses, reacting violently. Zamsu screams in agony, and Potara briefly looks towards it to see the so called immortal god disintegrating, his existence unraveling with Ring's suicidal attack. Vegetto has his arms crossed in front of him, crying out in pain. Potara takes a deep breath, and aims a hand at desperately at him.
"Go to your daughter."
It takes effort to push him out, effort and time that Ring's death throes use to spiral further out of control. When she turns back, Ring is ripping apart at the seems, the Demon Time Ring is melting away, boiling and bubbling. Potara can feel the sheer destructive and rotting energy it will unleash. How does she stop that? Would this have happened anyway if she had obliterated it in one go? Or is Ring amplifying it somehow?
She supposes it doesn't matter now.
She can't stop that herself.
But the White Time Ring might be able to.
Yet... if she uses it directly against the Demon Time Ring's energy, isn't the end result the same?
There's no more time to think.
Ring's demon form disintegrates.
The Demon Time Ring ruptures and blows apart.
Potara screams, pushing her power into the White Time Ring and thrusts a hand forward. Energy pulses out. The rips and tears flicker and wane, up until the dark and light energy touches and clashes. The sheer destruction ripping through the Crack in Time shatters every single crystal in sight. If not for the time ring on her finger, Potara knows, godly potara fusion or not, she would have instantly died. Black and red haze seeps through the area, tearing and clawing at both her and reality itself. Through the ring, she feels the Crack in Time shudder, and a flicker of alarm runs through her, from the White Time Ring itself.
She doesn't know nor understand the significance of this place, but beyond Ring's taint itself, she's pretty sure 'Bad Things' will happen if this place collapses.
Black and red and white lightning surges through the area, cackling and sparking in a destructive frenzy. Reality rips and tears where the black and red go, but mend where the white touches. Where they both touch at the same time, reality withers and dies, becoming void. Only for the energy to refill it, turning it back into the crystal shard filled chasm. Potara's hand heats up, the White Time Ring feeling like its burning on her finger. Potara closes her eyes, grits her teeth, feeling out desperately through the ring. The energy is clashing and ripping itself apart in a brutal escalation. Her efforts to contain it is only going to last until...
...until the White Time Ring is destroyed as well.
Fuck.
She can feel it.
The strain, the destructive energy seeping in.
The White Time Ring will crack soon, just like its counterpart.
If both rings go, its over, the energy will cascade out ripping through the timelines.
This is what Bardock had meant.
No.
No, she refuses this.
She gives a yell, her screams of power echoing through the ruin around her as she goes as high as she can naturally go.
Then she goes beyond.
"Kaio-Ken times fifty!"
Red and blue shade the destruction around her.
She pushes her power down the White Time Ring, and it shines with sheer power. She focuses her will, grasping the destruction around her, the Demon Time Ring's destructive energy. She tries to compress it, to force it smaller. She grits her teeth as white lightning roils down her arm, burning through her clothes where it touches, scorching and bleeding her more.
"F-fuck!" she rasps out.
Its... its not enough. Its too slow, its only slowly constricting.
She needs more, but can she even survive going higher with the Kaio-Ken? Can she even survive containing these energies anyway? Bitterness flows through her, she had only just become complete. Had only just accepted her life, her desire for her family. She thinks of her life, and wishes she hadn't tried so hard to push Pan's family away. There was no reason they couldn't have become her friends, her family...
"Would you sacrifice everything, even who you are as a person, if it meant standing up for what you believe in and, in your mind, protecting your friends and family?"
Its odd, how Bardock's words echo in her mind now of all times. She wonders... if he knew she was going to be born... did he know this would happen? Were... were any of those words for her?
"Just remember what your answer when the time comes to make that sacrifice. What happens isn't exactly what you think it will be."
She purses her lips.
"Pan... not everything can be solved with the dragonballs."
Potara closes her eyes and exhales. "Times one-hundred."
She opens her eyes, screams in power and pain as her muscles bulge and her power skyrockets. In one do or die moment, she pulls all of the destructive energy to herself.
Within herself.
She ties the Demon Time Ring's destruction into her body, her flesh, then seals herself with the White Time Ring. Agony doesn't begin to describe what she feels.
Then she is falling...
Falling...
Fading...
Reality warps around her. Her body heats worse than the most brutal fever she had ever been through. She feels... sluggish. Her body starts to turn translucent, little specks of it flaking off. Energy flows around her, and she sees. She flows down through time, seeing herself struggling. Sees Pan and the Doll. Sees her family that should have been. All of Pan's struggles. She grieves for old self, and for her current self.
So much was unresolved, so much was left undone.
With all the dimensions ripped wide open to one another for travel, what would happen to her family after this?
Without her? Would they even know what happened to her?
Dizziness hits her, ringing in her ears.
She's falling faster.
Burning faster.
The energy inside of her is both rupturing yet canceling itself out.
And her with it.
It wasn't...
It wasn't fair.
She feels bits of herself fading away. It gets harder to think. Memories start burning away. More and more...
She feels...
She feels something familiar.
Grand...father?
She tilts her head and reaches out...
She hits the ground hard. Pain ruptures through her, and she starts to chug power, fading fast. Where... where was she...?
Wasn't this... where the Omni-Kings had their Universal Tournaments?
She sees the Omni-Kings, she sees a few members of her family. Grief stricken and pained. She sees baby Pan in her crying mother's arms. She sees her Grandfather, she sees Son Goku so angry, glaring at the Omni-Kings. This... this was the Universal Survival Tournament?
Wait.
Wait...
Wasn't this where Goku had seen a version of Potara?
Had... had it been her?
How?
She thought time travel created new pasts... not that it was a loop.
Then she remembers what Goku had wanted to wish for.
Horror rushes through her and she forces herself to her feet in one last desperate bid.
"Don't do it!" she screams at him.
He startles, and looks straight at her.
He sees her, where no one else here does.
Perhaps he had always seen her.
Her power completely guys out. She loses blue, and falls to her knees. Her body stops just flaking, and starts full on disintegrating, funneling into a black portal behind her.
"D-don't do it, p-please, have… have hope in them…" she begs.
Its funny in a way. She had been born hating the Omni-Kings. Now she was dying saving them.
She collapsed, one of her earrings falling off.
She stares at it weakly, reaching for it. Everything was leaving her... it was... she... she was...
"Potara..."