Chapter 65: A Dark Interruption
Towa is a manipulative monster who knows exactly when and how to strike...
It wasn't really sneaking out if there was no one else there.
Potara could feel the fluctuation of Ki from Goku's house. It had likely been a terrible idea, for Gohan and Videl, to go argue with him after... after what had been said, but... but that was their choice. Regardless, Potara was making her own. She couldn't stay here, couldn't believe she had even considered trying. Everything hurt, in her head, and in her body. The... the Pan apparitions were still there, still everywhere, and now that she was looking, it wasn't just Pan. She's pretty sure one of the ghostly images was of Pan and the Doll flying through the air.
She leaned against the doorway, pressing her head to the wood and groaning, a trickle of... of something... going down her face... copper on her lips...
She reached a shaky hand up to her nose and came away with blood.
"...what the hell?" she whispered.
For a moment, all the echoes flashed brightly, and she clutched her head, falling to her knees and hissing in pain before it settled.
She took in a ragged breath and forced herself to stand. "Have to... have to get away."
Something wasn't right... right with her. This... this hadn't happened before, when she had been born she hadn't seen these ghostly hues. Nor had she seen any out in the other Dimensions. So why had they started when coming here? What was wrong...
"When you were born, you were surrounded in red negative energy. The Elder Kai said a few things about a... Forced Potara Fusion. He called it an ultimate heresy, its why he didn't like you. He said that the eyes were the gateway to the soul, and the red reflected what he called an 'improper musing of body and soul'."
She swallowed thickly. Was... was that why? A side effect of being born this way? Her old life... Pan's life... was stepping into it a trigger? She hadn't been like Vegetto they said, she... she rejected the people she came from...
"Is staying here going to kill me?" she wonders miserably, stepping out from the house.
"Likely," came a darkly amused voice.
Potara whirled around to see... to see Towa sitting on the roof looking down at her, a smirk on the demoness's face, the Demon Time Ring glistening on her finger. Potara tensed, assuming her Grandpa... Goku's fighting stance.
"Come now Potara," drawled Towa, "I have no desire to fight you. In fact, I've come to... help."
Potara scoffed. "Really now? I find that hard to believe."
"Why?" mused Towa, "After all, we are both dark, twisted, corrupted beings."
Potara flinched.
"Oh yes, I heard exactly what they said," Towa informed her, "A forced Potara fusion, oh... the last one was before my time, but even I heard things about it."
Potara swallowed and stood up straight. "Like what?"
"If you end up like the last," began Towa with sadistic glee, "You'll be insane and splitting apart unevenly in the soul within the year as your fusion tears itself apart."
Pure ice pours down Potara's spine, a choking sound escaping her lips.
"It will be agony unlike anything you've ever experience before," said Towa, voice hushed, "You'll rip apart at the seams, and whats left of you wont even be the Doll or Son Pan, just two twisted and insane little girls with bits and pieces of themselves improperly separated into the other."
Potara shook. "How... how do I stop that?"
"Well, stepping into Pan's old life only serves to make it catastrophically worse," said Towa, "If you were to leave, and live your own life, especially if you were content and happy with that life, you'd likely delay it for some time. But make no mistake Potara, as you are now, you are going to eventually die a horrific death, and as a part God-Construct, you will never escape to a better death by old age. The best you could hope for was someone putting you out of your misery earlier, or dying in battle. Even then, I'm not sure if your soul wouldn't split apart in the afterlife anyway."
She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't breathe.
"But...," mused Towa, "There is a way to... not fix, but indefinitely delay that fate."
"How?!" wheezes Potara, taking in a deep breath after.
Towa leaps down off the roof and approaches, then...
Potara ogles her as Towa takes off the Demon Time Ring and offers it to her. "What...?"
"Certainly you heard of 'Goku Black', how the Time Ring saved him from being removed from the Timeline when his original past self was destroyed by Beerus, correct?" posed Towa, "This is... along those lines. The Demon Time Ring is just as much an aberration to existence as you are..."
Potara flinched.
"...wear it, and it will preserve you so long as you preserve it," said Towa.
Potara closed her eyes for a long moment, taking another deep breath and letting it go. "And you're just giving it to me out of the goodness of your heart?"
Towa threw her head back and laughed. "Oh gods no. There is a price tag to all of this. To you, and from me."
"Which are?"
"If you put it on, you make yourself an enemy to the Gods," said Towa, "You will be forced to leave this timeline behind and never return lest they destroy you. That is the price you will pay to yourself in exchange for your own existence and happiness."
Potara swallowed. "And the price I'd pay you?"
"I still want my own paradise," said Towa, "I've been... experimenting with the Demon Time Ring. I've altered things to the point where I can sustain a few Timeplanes without affecting the Timelines at all now."
Potara's breath hitched.
"But the expenditure of energy to maintain the Timeplanes VS storing energy to create an actual stable Timeline...," said Towa, scowling, "Would take likely more than twice as long as I've been alive, and I'm not exactly a patient lady."
Potara narrowed her eyes. "And how do I change that timetable?"
"Because," said Towa with malicious glee, "You are part Kaioshin God Construct."
"...and that matters why?"
"The Demon Time Ring is still a Time Ring, corrupted and empowered perhaps, it still holds affinities to certain rules that I could breech because of what I did to it, and because I stole the Potara Earings I wear now, but the ring will never truly fit me. Only a Supreme Kai could use it to its full capabilities," said Towa, "Or someone with that same affinity."
"Me," muttered Potara.
"Correct, I fully expect you to help me with creating my own place at some point, a fair trade would you not say? You can claim your own existence with this ring," whispered Towa with a hushed, alluring town, "Create your own place in reality. Prove yourself better than Pan ever was, and even fix one of her mistakes if you are so inclined."
Potara knew Towa was playing her, in some way or form, something was being hidden from her. But oh did Towa know how to play her right. Better than Pan echoed in her ears over and over again. "So inclined?"
"I've been watching you since you returned here," said Towa, "I couldn't help but notice you flinched when Piccolo mentioned Vegetto."
Potara twitched.
"How would you like to bring his Timeplane back to life?" asked Towa, "They were innocent, after all, did they deserve to be murdered, their entire existence frozen in time? Dead but not dead? Trapped in an eternal frozen prison? You'd be saving an entire timeplane. Much more than Pan ever did."
Potara clenched and unclenched her fists. "And why would you care?"
"Well, if you wanted it to last, you'd need to eventually transform the timeplane into a true timeline, and that would be practice for using the Demon Time Ring to create MY paradise," said Towa.
It made sense.
Towa didn't care in any of the ways she knew Potara would care, just used it to get her own selfish ends as a temptation, and yet...
Potara still feels uneasy.
"You'd have to stay there for a bit I imagine, and who knows, Vegetto is like you, you might find that you like it there...," said Towa, bringing a finger up to her lips, "You might find that you belong there."
Its like she's been brutally gut punched. "I..."
She knows she's being played.
She knows it.
But Towa is offering her everything she'd ever want...
She's going to eventually die horribly if she doesn't accept, and if she does take the ring and bring back that timeplane, she'd save so many people...
So...
She finds that she doesn't care if Towa is using her, so long as she gets something out of it herself. After what had just happened between herself, Gohan, and Videl, the pain of that moment, she doesn't think it was going to work out if she stays here, even if she hadn't been doomed by being a Forced Potara Fusion. Thus...
She reaches out and takes the Demon Time Ring, cradling it in her hands. Where it touches her feels cold. Something in her is repulsed by it, it feels wrong, and yet...
That doesn't stop her from slipping it onto her finger.
Towa grinned to herself, giddy beyond belief.
She had won.
It had been so easy.
She had won.
All she had to do was pry at the seams of Potara's soul using the Demon Time Ring to start it all off. Then stretch the truth about a Forced Potara fusion a bit, dangle a so-called 'fix' out in front of the desperate girl, offer her a place to belong, to prove herself better than her previous selves, and it was over. A godly powerful fusion or not, Potara was a foolish little girl, young and inexperience in such affairs, defenseless against magic, and carrying damages from both Pan and the Doll into her being. Son Pan hadn't been quite right in the head for awhile now, and the Doll... well... she'd only been a disposable tool and weapon who knew no other life, one Towa had filled with the tortured bits and scraps of various souls. Potara was just as screwed up as her parent fusees, in her own way.
So simple to play to her tune.
A Supreme Kai would never aid Towa... but a damaged and desperate girl like Potara? Oh yes...
Towa could create little timeplanes with the Demon Time Ring, and perhaps if she had managed to feed it enough power, an unstable Timeline, she hadn't lied about that. Nor had she exactly lied about Potara being able to use the ring, perhaps even better than Towa herself could. Towa had done a great deal of experimenting with the Demon Time Ring since the initial Timeplane excursions, she knew her own limits, and found that the capabilities of the ring so far surpassed her own. Especially since the last experiment...
...where she had fed the Demon Time Ring the souls of the Towas she had taken from the Timeplanes, her idiot brother, and the lesser corrupted Time Ring. The ring felt so powerful now, it almost felt alive. Who knows what would become of the Demon Time Ring when it was done with Potara! A forced Potara fusion of godly power. With the girl taken into it, the capabilities of the ring would become unimaginable even if Towa was using it instead of a Kai, especially if Potara had any traces of the Power of Creation left in her to feed on.
After all...
The Demon Time Ring was going to eat Potara's soul from the inside out and leave not even a husk behind.
"...so what do you think, Elder Kai?" asked Gohan patiently.
He, Videl, and a sulky Goku sat in attendance on the Sacred World of the Kai after having a yelling match at the latter. Tensions had been a bit high coming here, but, the Kai's had agreed to give their input on the situation with Potara. Shin didn't appear to know much, but the Elder Kai...
"Hmm," mused the old purple being, "I've been researching the last time a Forced Potara Fusion happened ever since Potara was born. Its not been easy to find information, especially with Whis being stingy about it."
"But...?" posed Gohan.
"But I found out a few things," said the Elder Kai, "That back in the old days before the Potara Earings were more regulated, it used to be a bit more common than I thought. When it became classified as forbidden, an ultimate heresy, was because of the last one."
"Okay, so start from the beginning then, we'll get to the why its called that later," suggested Gohan.
The Elder Kai huffed a bit. "Gods can be petty beings, greedy too. Capable of being corrupted by ideals. Zamasu is an example of that. Some Kai's were jealous of others, or coveted them. Tricking or forcing them into a fusion. A despicable thing. Some could be split apart of course using the Dragon Balls if they wanted to be split. But, not always, because they, of course, didn't want to die. Their fusions were left... unstable."
"Like Potara seeing things?" asked Videl quietly.
"Mmmm, not usually," admits the Elder Kai, "Generally its emotional instability, prone to outbursts. Personal struggles, identity issues, social failings. All because the fusions were not in-tune, or perhaps hated one another. Two souls that reject one another forced into a merge is a terrible, terrible thing. The seeing things, mental instability, madness and insanity, was very rare."
"Why was it rare?" asked Gohan uneasily, trying not to panic at the mere thought of Potara going insane.
"Because, while the merged soul was damaged, it could be healed," said the Elder Kai, "If only the fusion accepted who they were, who they came from, and allowed themselves to heal and thrive. If Potara is happy and content, if she comes to terms and finds peace with who she is, who she used to be, she will stabilize, the improper fusion will smooth out. She will become whole."
Pure relief poured through Gohan.
"However," said the Elder Kai, holding up a finger, "If Potara keeps rejecting herself, who she used to be. If she cannot find peace, she will continue to struggle. It could eventually lead to severe instability, and yes, madness if it gets bad enough."
"But... she's seeing things now!" exclaimed Videl.
"And I'm not sure why," admits the Elder Kai, "The last Forced Potara Fusion was during the last God of Destruction's reign. I don't have all the details, but I know there was a war of some sorts, that the Kai's got involved with despite the rules. That two Kai's operated on separate sides of the war, and that a Forced Fusion was preformed to try to obtain information on one of the sides. The situation was much, much worse for that fusion than Potara, it was composed of two souls that had little in common, that were actual active hated enemies, not rivals like Goku and Vegeta. There was no acceptance, no aligned goals as Pan and the Doll had in fighting the Gods. The fusion was tearing itself apart. It..."
He sighed. "It went insane very quickly, the mind, body, and soul, corrupted and twisted. Killed a lot of Gods and mortals, and eventually the fusion fully rejected itself and ripped itself apart into... well... two twisted parts of itself. Not the original beings, but two entities that were composed of broken parts of themselves put together wrong. They had to be put out of their misery, and after that, it was regulated to being a heresy, something forbidden."
Gohan felt sick just hearing it, couldn't imagine Potara, or Pan, hell, even the Doll as much as he loathed it, being subjugated to that.
The Elder Kai sighed. "She wont be happy being brought here, or hearing this, but you need to fetch Potara so this can be explained to her. I'm not sure why she's suffering so quickly, but it needs to be rectified immediately if she's starting to experience negative effects. She will need to meditate frequently to find equilibrium within herself. Its good that you brought this to my attention now, rather than later."
The Elder Kai smiled. "Because it can still be easily fixed now, and as much as Potara loathes the gods, none of us truly wish her ill. I... regret my initial reaction to her based on ignorance, and would like to apologize. Perhaps starting with that could make her more open to listening to what she needs to do to heal herself, hmm?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to get her in the right mood," agreed Gohan, before turning, "Dad? Could you go get Potara?"
"Sure," said Goku, making a two-fingered salute, pressing them to his forehead.
"A moment," interrupted the Elder Kai, "I admit, mortals aren't my forte, but even in my old age and imprisonment in the sword for so long, back in my day they didn't take kindly to implications of... well, being batty! I'm sure its the same now, am I correct?"
Gohan winced. "Ah... yeah."
"Hmm," mused the Elder Kai, "Delicate handling then."
"Are we sure its actually a mental problem though?" posed Shin, "These are very specific hallucinations, or rather, perhaps imposed memories. It could simply be because of her... impressive vehemence that they've alluded too towards Son Pan and the Doll. A side effect of the improper fusing and rejection of the fused soul, not necessarily a sign of the start of madness. Phrasing it that way could be taken much more easily than implying disability."
"Ha, knew there was a reason I kept this young whippersnapper around," teased the Elder Kai, earning a scowl from Shin, "Alright then Goku, off with you."
"Be back in a bit!" Goku said cheerfully and zipped away.
Gohan sighed with relief. Glad that this was caught in time, and hopefully, hopefully, Potara would see this as an extended olive branch. That despite the rough start earlier, they wanted this to work. That they cared for her. Assuming Potara wasn't too explosive about it, they'd start today with explanations, tomorrow they'd work on settling her into her home... her new home, it wasn't her home despite the memories, they had to remember that. It was very likely she wouldn't take kindly to taking Pan's old room, so they'd need to figure something out about that. They'd see about forcing meditation, though it was unlikely she would reject it, she had after all backed down from challenging the Omni-King to save her own life. There was a good chance she'd willingly do it. Anything else... well... they'd take it as they went and work with Potara.
Overall, it left him hopefully optimistic.
Goku Instant Transmissioned back, a slightly panicked look on his face. "Uh guys, Potara is gone. I don't sense her anywhere."
Gohan put his head in his hands and groaned. "Not again..."
Videl sighed. "She's a lot more like Pan running off when upset than she'd like to admit."
"Were not waiting like we did with Pan last time though," said Gohan, "This isn't something that can be put off for months of years, we need her starting on fixing it sooner rather than latter. Lets head back and find her."
They nod in agreement, and a second later, return to Earth to begin looking for the wayward fusion...
Review Responses:
Curse of Kings: No clue on voice actors. Chapterwise... it depends really. If I want to end it after this next Arc and start a sequel, or keep it all to one story. I have an idea of how I wish this to 'end', that could allow for a sequel into something new that could focus on other dimensions through the main character(s). Though I'm certainly not going to be nice to Potara in this next arc if this chapter is anything to go back. Bad Towa, baaaad!
TheDarkPokeMaster: Oh, they'll figure out Towa's involvement in this arc, along with how Towa is continually trying to ruin things.
Astral Chronicles: I update whenever, I don't have strict schedules. I work full time, game, read other fanfiction, and work on far to many stories as it is that draw my attention. Had a rough time writing anything for a little while now, was rather surprised when I sat down and typed this out all in one go. Not that it was a large chapter, but it got me started on where things are going next. Glad you enjoy the fic.