Chapter 7

Fighting Stage - Point of view: Timeline Nine

Android Eighteen from Timeline Ten was attacking Zangya viciously.

She had watched her from the start of the tournament and knew about her ability to rob other fighters of her energy, not just with the already known phsychic threads, but somehow also just by touching someone.

And Eighteen knew from experience with Bojack´s group from her own timeline, that this technique worked even on artificial ki like hers.

So she was instead raining down volleys of blasts at her from some distance, at least for now.

At first Zangya evaded and outrun the first few blasts she was firing at her, that were hitting the ground around her and blowing small splinters out of the fighting stage.

But given that Eighteen was starting to literally bombarding the entire part of the fighting area Zangya was standing on, it was impossible to avoid all of them and some of the blasts hit her.

And in the same moment she realized that Eighteen had been bluffing. The blasts were faints with no real power behind them. When they hit her, she barely felt it.

Eighteen however used the moment of distracted and charged at her in her incredible speed... and then landed a kick right into Zangya´s gut. She felt how a few of her rips broke.

Zangya tried not to cry out as the pain shot through her, but she failed.

Eighteen continued right away by sending a uppercut into her face that felt like it nearly broke her jaw. Followed by a another punch right into her face and then one on her chest, hitting her already broken rips.

And them a kick into her side, that send her flying a few meters away and landing on the ground.

Zangya struggled to stand up again. She realized that her shoulder must be dislocated, thanks to the last kick. Her nose seemed to be broken as well and blood was flowing down her face.

`Idiot,´ Zangya thought to herself. Of course this blasts were faints when they only blew small bits out of the ground. It they had been actually powered, they would have caused greater damage, even on this superhard material that the fighting stage was supposedly made of.

She had just let Eighteen´s threats and her tale of what her counterpart had done get to her too much. So she had completely expected her to aim to kill - or at least really hurt her - and not paid enough attention.

She had thought she had left all of this behind, Zangya thought. For a moment it felt nearly like back when she had first joined the others and especially Lazuli had a grudge on her. This literally felt like a repeat of it.

Right now she regretted that she had not accepted Iolite´s help. Damn pride. The same pride however still kept her from just giving up.

Finally Zangya managed to get back on her feet.

"Eighteen - that is enough. Stop this," someone called from outside the ring. It was Timeline Ten´s Gohan. "You are torturing her. I will not simply watch this."

"You remember what exactly her other self has done to us?" Eighteen responded. "Not only had she murdered your friend Dende, the God of Earth... she is also responsible for the fact that my brother and your father will never come back."

"I know how you feel. But this Zangya has done nothing to you. She is not responsible for what her counterpart has done. We have never even met her before."

"Gohan... I love you, but please don´t try to hold me back here," Eighteen told him.

"I love you too. But I hate it when you are like this," Timeline Ten Gohan said with a hollow, nearly resignated, tone. It sounded like he was talking as much to himself as to Eighteen.

Not only Zangya, but also a lot of the other fighters around realized just now that the Gohan and Eighteen from Timeline Ten were in fact a couple. Despite her terrible state and the pain, Zangya could not quite suppress her suprise.

"You and Gohan?" she said.

"You and Lapis?" Eighteen simply responded in the same tone.

xxx

Zangya was not the only one who reacted surprised.

Several fighters from Timeline Six were at least mildly surprised. Their own Eighteen had been married to Krillin for decades after all and it was hard for them to imagine her with someone else. Future Trunks with Eighteen - or rather Lazuli - was hard enough to swallow.

"Well - it is another timeline - right," Timeline Six Goku stated.

Timeline Nine´s Trunks and Lazuli were easily the most gobsmacked by this entire idea.

They had been watching the fight so far, worried about Zangya. But the rules kept them from interferring. Besides, Zangya herself had said that she wanted to fight this fight by herself.

Future Trunks was unsettled by the entire idea of Gohan and Eighteen. In the next moment he felt like a hypocrite, looking at his own relationship with Lazuli. He had however gotten used to seeing her and Eighteen as different persons. He also remembered that this Eighteen had never destroyed the world, neither as her human or her Gero created personality. But it felt just so unreal.

"Me - well Eighteen - and Gohan? It just feels bizarre, right?" Lazuli said as well, "But anyway, my counterpart needs to stop ."

"Yes," Trunks said. "But we can do nothing without being disqualified ourselves. And Zangya already said that she wants to fight Eighteen by herself. So she would hardly thank us."

"No she wouldn´t," Lazuli admitted. "But if this continues like this, we might have to save her from her own pride."

xxx

In some distance Lapis was still fighting Cabba from Timeline Ten. He was using the Times Ten Kaioken. But even so he was clearly at the disadvantage against the Super Saiyan from Universe 6. And what was worse, Cabba had already shown that he could turned Super Saiyan Two and was not even using it against him.

"You are good," Cabba admitted.

"So are you," Lapis replied. "But I have no time for this." `We both knew that you could wish the floor with me if you wanted,´ he thought silently. `But you are holding back, because you feel unsure about this Eighteen´s actions as well.´

"Do you still think your teammate can be trusted after what she had already done to my wife?" he asked.

Cabba hesitated for a moment. But then...

"Look out," Cabba called out.

Lapis could instantly tell that this was not a trick. Both by Cabba´s genuily surprised expression and by the large amount of energy he felt right behind himself.

They both jumped at the side and let themselves fall to the ground. In the next moment Lapis saw what Cabba had warned him about. A large deep green energy orb that had been fired in their direction. And by what they sensed it had been powerful enough to maybe not downright kill them, but to cause serious damage even to them. Especially if caught by surprise.

And as they looked completely around, they saw the source of it. That saiyan named Kale, who was fighting Super 17 and had turned into a bizarre green haired bulky super saiyan form

And as it seemed, had completely lost her senses.

xxx

"I see you are not so hard after all, aren´t you?" Zangya goaded Eighteen. "Shooting me only with harmless blasts?"

"Bitch - you know if I had put actual power behind this blasts, half of the fighting stage would have been blown apart and we might have no place to fight anymore." She grinned. "But if you insist."

Eighteen rised her hands over her head.

"Masenko." One of Piccolo´s techniques. It should not be so surprising if this Eighteen and Gohan were lovers, then it was obvious that they also trained together.

Zangya barely managed to sidestep the attack. Every move she made hurt. But she raised her arms and fired back, with a certain move... Infinity Bulled.

The blasts hit Eighteen square. She had not managed to dodge. And not really made a move to and just let the attack hit her.

"You dare to use my own technique against me?" she asked.

"I have been training with Lazuli for years. What do you expect?" Zangya replied. "You sense it, don´t you?"

"You mean that you have been deplating my energy the entire time? You can even inbed your technique into your ki attacks - impressive. You can use it on my artificial energy," Eighteen stated.

"And not only that, it feels like your energy, I guess the same that this psycho-threads are formed from, has entered my body and is not constantly drawing away some of the power my Infinite-Energy Core is producing. You actually managed to weaken me by a good degree. I am not above to admit that," she stated.

"But it will not help you. You can barely stand yourself now."

"Really?" Zangya replied. "Then why don´t you come and finish me off? Or if you think that I am not punished enough for things I have not even done, you can continue to beat me into a pulp some more."

Eighteen took one step forward, then another one... and that was exactly what Zangya had been waiting for.

In this moment she used the same tactic Eighteen did a few minutes ago and unleashed a large volley of dozens of blasts into her opponent, each inbodied with a small bit of the energy of her psychic threads.

Eighteen now actually stumbled.

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Eight

Another one of these green globes hit Doctor Rota. Or rather it just gazed the ground in a short distance to him, left a large rift in the ground of the fighting stage. One piece of debris that was blown out of the ground however hit him and that had been enough to throw him out of the ring.

Timeline Eight´s Future Trunks, who was just about to face Beby, watched his teammate get eliminated.

Trunks had been somewhat curious to see his `Special Technique´ that he had been talking about the entire time. That was, as he said, `the reason he was called Doctor´.

But if this technique too this long to use and he could so easily taken out by attacks from others the entire time, then it was pretty useless in a tournament anyway.

In any case, he had more important things to deal with now.

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Nine

Iolite was continuing to evade the energy ball that Jeanna was directing to follow her. So far she managed to do that quite well.

But then Jeanna begann to do something else. She formed a spear out of ki energy in her hands and threw it at Iolite. It missed and hit and burried itself into the ground before her feet. Iolite also sensed that it didn´t seem to have enough power to seriously harm her anyway. But it was enough to hinder her movements.

Jeanna created another ki spear and another. All just thrown at Iolite´s feet, while she was trying to evade the energy-ball. It was clear now that she never had any intention to hit her with them. This were not attacks but merely roadblocks that made it more difficult for Iolite to evade her real attack.

Iolite had however already managed to get a few meters closer to Jeanna. So she did what she had been secretly planning the entire time. She jumped and made a leap right in Jeanna´s direction.

It looked like a desperate attempt of a frontal attack... on the first look.

With that however she also meant that as long as her feet were off the ground, Iolite could not longer dodge and made her self an easy target for the energy-ball. Nearly instinctively and without thinking Jeanna redirected it to go after her once more.

Exactly like Iolite had wanted. Just a split-second before the energy-ball hit her, she formed a barrier around herself. It was Seventeen´s technique or at least a variation of it.

But that meant that the only one who would actually be hit by the explosion... was Jeanna herself.

`Damn it,´ she thought. She should have noticed, Iolite had gotten far too close to her. She was barely one meter away. But she had concentrated too much on trying to her with the energy-ball - stupid.

In the next moment her own attack blew into Jeanna´s face. Of course it didn´t cause much actual damage. But it was enough to stun her for a moment and to blind all her senses. And that was enough.

Iolite had landed right next to her.

The barrier technique only worked efficiently for Infinite Energy Androids or other beings with endless ki supply. It just cost too much energy. But Iolite was able to keep one up for a second and that was in this case all she had needed.

She formed a Royal Blade in her palm and stabbed the blinded Jeanna into her right shoulder. Who cried out in pain.

Iolite however was breathing heavily. The barrier cost much energy, but somehow she felt even more worn out as she should be. But the same went for Jeanna, as she noticed.

"Y-you really don´t hold back, aren´t you `sister´?" Jeanna said.

"I have once trained with grandfather Vegeta in the Afterlife," Iolite stated. "This will not kill you. But it will seriously keep you from fighting effectively. Do you give up? Or do you want me to ring you out."

Jeanna looked at her injured shoulder. She had trouble to use her right arm now.

"I guess I have lost," she said. "But let us bring this to an end."

But then Jeanna´s expression suddenly changed.

"Iolite - behind you!" she called out.

Iolite herself sensed it as well. But it was too late. Especially with the weakness they both were now feeling. She sensed an energy attack right behind her and the next moment an explosion.

But the explosion didn´t hit them.

As she looked around she saw another Android Barrier that had shielded her and Jeanna. And as they both looked upwards they saw the Seventeen of Timeline Zero floating above them.

"Are you two alright?" he asked them.

"Yes," Jeanna said.

"Why?" Iolite questioned.

"This attacks could kill someone and that would be against the rules," Seventeen stated. "So we are authorized to interfere here. But only to stop them."

"Thank you," Iolite said.

As they looked around they saw that Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Eighteen and this tall musculous grey alien from Timeline Zero had stopped several more of Kale´s attacks before they could hit more other fighters.

Iolite and Jeanna turned back to each other.

"You said you wanted to bring this to the end?" Iolite asked her.

"Yes."

"Good."

In this moment a small ki blast came bursting right out of the ground a couple meters beside Jeanna and diagonally heading towards her.

"What?" she called out, completely surprised.

It was a blast that Iolite had fired into the ground at the short moment when Jeanna had been blinded by the explosion of her own attack earlier and that she had kept dormant there for the last minute. The attack didn´t cause any damage, in fact that blast that was just aimed in her general direction actually missed her.

But Iolite used the distraction to punch the other half-saiyan once more and then push her over the edge.

xxx

"It was a good fight," Jeanna said as she was lying outside on the ground.

One of the Angels just appeared next to her to heal her with magic.

xxx

"Yes," Iolite replied.

But she herself realized that she was stumbling on her own feet. Damn it, she should not be this exhausted.

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Six

Super 17 had just watched Kale´s crazy onslaught of green ki globes that had literally burst out of her and went in all directions around her.

One of them had actually been fired in his direction. But he had like before just absorbed it.

If his opponent provided him with more power, good.

However...

"Hey," he called over to her, "you know this blasts could have killed some of the other fighters, right? I am your opponent. And I am right here."

Kale roared. But as it looked concentrated on him once more.

`Good,´ he thought. This green globes could have killed some of the weaker fighters here, inside the ring and outside. This Timeline Zero guys might have stopped most of them, but even they had missed a few.

And Kale could probaly do this again anytime. It was better to avoid that risk as much as possible. So he draw her concentration to himself.

"Kale - please come back to your senses," Caulifla once again called out from the sidelines.

Kale however did not react to her and raised both her hands to charge up a very poweful blast and fired it at Super 17.

And once again he let it hit him and absorbed it. This time his body literally expanded from the ki energy and shrank down to it´s normal size one second later.

His power had just jumped drastically again.

Super 17 moved in incredible speed and crossed the distance between himself and Kale in the blink of an eye and punched her hard in the face, while covering his fist with a small barrier. Then he punched her again and send her even closer to the edge of the ring.

Then he formed another barrier, but this time right around Kale. And then he just have the barrier a push that send it, with Kale inside, flying out of the ring.

xxx

Outside she was still in her Berserk Form and showed no sign of calming down. But Goku from Timeline Zero restrained her quite easily, after he turned into a blue haired Super Saiyan, whose ki could not be sensed. Was this what they called God Ki?

And with what looked like a light chop on her neck, he knocked her out and she returned to her normal form.

"Kale!" Caulifla called out and run to her, taking her from Goku.

"You have not really hurt her, have you?" Caulifla asked him.

"I did my best not to, I just knocked her out."

xxx

Just a few meters from them was standing Goku Black, who seemed to completely ignore everybody around him and Syn Shenlong and the remaining Shadow Dragons next to him.

The Kaioshin of Timeline Twelve, who Goku Black had somehow compelled to bring them here instead of the fighters they would have normally chosen for this tournament was not longer with them and sitting in the spectator seats with the other groups instead.

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Eight and Ten

Future Trunks from Timeline Eight was facing Beby, who had possessed the Vegeta from Timeline Ten.

Trunks had just turned into his Super Saiyan Wraith Form.

"Weakling?" he said. "That are great words from a being who only came anywhere by stealing the energy and the bodies from others. Tarble had reached the power he has by training by himself What can you for yourself say? That you have stolen my father´s body?"

"This are the abilities I was created with," Beby replied. "I don´t remember a single saiyan claiming that it is unfair that they can turn into super saiyans or giant apes, while other fighters can not. And I absorb energy and take over host bodies. Like your hair turn golden and you eyes green," he claimed.

"You are right however," Beby admitted, "I should apologize to Tarble. His power now is actually remarkable, given the little he had in the beginning," he said sardonically.

"You don´t seem to have the power to match me either Beby," Future Trunks said. "So maybe you should not talk so much about strength."

While this was true, he was not sure for how long he would be able to hold this form. He needed to end this quickly.

He begann to charge up an attack.

"Really?" Beby replied.

And suddenly everything changed.

xxxxxxx

In some distance away Timeline Ten´s Eighteen was still facing Zangya from Timeline Nine in a brutal fight.

But now Eighteen´s eyes glowed up in a light red. And she turned away from Zangya as if she was not longer interested in her at all.

xxx

The same happened outside of the ring, where the fighters not taking part in Round One were standing.

Gohan, Piccolo, Goten, Trunks, even Dabura... their eyes turned red as well.

The only exceptions were...

"What the hell is happenening?" Caulifla exclaimed, with Kale - now in base form - standing next to her.

xxx

And it happened to Cabba who was fighting Lapis. As his eyes changed colors, his face first looked blank and then suddenly grinning and malicious, much like Beby´s own expression in the same moment.

And he transformed back into Super Saiyan Two.

xxx

"Hey you bastard - what have you done to Cabba and the others?" Caulifla shouted at Beby.

"They are infected by Beby´s eggs and are now controlled by him," Timeline Six Goku called out. "Be careful. They can infect you through open injuries."

"Okay - thank you," Caulifla said through gritted teeth.

xxxxxxx

"As you see, they are mine," Beby stated. "I got lucky and managed to get even this Cabba just before we arrived here. And now I just activated all the eggs that laid dormant inside them."

Future Trunks grimaced in anger and worry. He sensed not only had Beby infected almost all the other members of TImeline Ten´s group, they all were transfering energy to him.

He was getting stronger with every moment.

"Now give me more of your power," Beby called out.

They all were raising their arms, all except Eighteen. Beby could not absorb her energy.

Trunks unleashed a Finish Buster on him. But it might already be too late.

And like he feared, the attack hit Beby, but it did not cause any visible damage.

At the same time, two metallic looking appendages were growing out of Beby´s back and he was growing even taller and more musculous.

He had just evolved into a new form. One that looked very similar to the one the Beby of his timeline had taken in the end and that he had only barely managed to defeat.

His power might have grown so far that he even was an match for his own Super Saiyan Wraith Form.

xxxxxxx

Spectator Ranks

The two Zeno´s from Timeline Zero and their counterparts from the different timelines were meanwhile watching the events with great interest.

"Beby is really a mean person," Present Zeno from Timeline Zero said. "I hope Trunks can beat him."

"Yes - but he is quite strong," Future Zeno replied. "The fight will be interesting."

"Yeah," a few of the other Zenos cheered.

xxx

"This Trunks Super Saiyan Wraith is not as strong as the one of the Future Trunks we knew," Goku stated.

He, Vegeta and the other were back, sitting at the Zenos and the Highpriest´s side.

"Our Future Trunks had been fighting a God Ki user like Black for nearly a year, all that before we even fully instructed him on God Ki," Vegeta pointed out. "This one obviously only had a short training. Let us hope that his grip on it is good enough."

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Six

Pan was now fighting against Oceanus Shenlong. Both of them had fought the other before in their own timelines.

That time - in both timelines - however, Pan had not been alone. She had however also not been alone.

Fighting Oceanus control over the air however was just as hard as Pan remembered. It was not simply normal wind. The air molecules were moving by her command. In ways designed to keep you off balance. At the same time she felt the air thinning around her, making her weaker.

Not that the air was alright anyway, with what the Shadow Dragons were trying to pull here.

"That is a nice power-up you have here Pan," Oceanus said. "Do you really think it is enough to beat me?"

"I don´t need to beat you," Pan replied suddenly smiling. "I just need to keep you occupied."

Oceanus realized it instantly. Pan´s two teammates the two SDF members Cabba and Caulifla had just moved were now running towards Haze Shenlong, who had been mostly shielded by her and her other teammates so far.

But now that they were the only two of their group left in this round... and Pan was keeping her occupied, Haze was vulnerable.

Oceanus turned around. Behind her she could see the two Super Saiyans now standing right in front of Haze, at the edge of the stage.

She raised her hand.

"Oh no - you won´t," Pan said.

She had been running around her, just outside of the small tornado Oceanus had formed around herself and was now standing right between them, blocking her way.

The attack Oceanus unleashed in this moment was not simply wind, it was practically a rift in the atmosphere.

Pan concentrated her energy to stop Oceanus attack... and she managed to do it. Cabba and Caulifla had the the few moment they needed to deal with Haze Shenlong. But she felf quite weakened.

After all the poison in the air had affected her too, just like everyone else 50 meter around them.

xxx

"That is not fair," Haze Shenlong called out as the two Universe 6 Super Saiyans were standing before him.

Caulifla simply fired a ki blast at him that pushed the small toad-like Shadow Dragon out of the ring.

"What is fair about poisoning the fighters during a tournament?" she shouted after him.

During the last few minutes Haze had created a not visible, odorless poison-gas and spread it over at least half of the fighting stage. Slowly weakening several of the other fighters.

The Z-fighters from Timeline 6 however already knew his tricks and informed their teammates about it. And with Pan´s help Caulifla and Cabba had now put and end to it.

xxx

As he landed on the floor ourside the ring Haze felt, like his comrades Rage and Naturon did before, the cold eyes of Syn Shenlong and Goku Black on him.

"Well - at least unless the other two you were not completely useless," Black commented.

xxx

"We got him," Cabba said.

"That´s right," Caulifla replied.

But in this moment Eighteen had appeared behind them unnoticed and fired a blast right into Cabba´s back, that send him over the edge as well.

"You!" Caulifla turned around to Eighteen, who was just being joined by the Cabba from Timeline Ten.

She noticed the strange red in both of their eyes.

"What the hell?" she said. Like some others, she had been too occupied to pay attention to what Beby had been doing at the other side of the fighting stage.

"His Majesty Beby has send us to eliminate all needless other fighters," Cabba stated, "especially disgusting saiyans like you."

"What the heck? You are a saiyan yourself," Caulifla replied.

"Not anymore," the possessed Cabba said. "This body might be, but my mind is now pure tsufuru."

Caulifla, Pan and even Oceanus raised their arms to fight them.

"Maybe we should work together against this opponents," Pan suggested to Oceanus, "just for this time."

"Okay," Oceanus said in a flat tone after a short moment. She sounded and was all but happy. But she was not sure if she could take either of this two alone and even less both of them together.

None of them realized that Eighteen was still weakened by the energy depletting attacks Zangya had used on her and those leftovers were still in her body, hindering the working of her eternal energy.

But so were Caulifla and Pan by the poison.

In this moment however someone else appeared behind Eighteen. It was Lapis.

"Can I join the fight?" he asked.

Participating Timelines:

Timeline Six: GT Timeline (Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z series and movies five, nine and thirteen)

Timeline Eight: Alternate Future Timeline (connected to the GT instead the Super timeline.)

Timeline Nine: Alternate Future Timeline (based on the fanfic Dragon Ball OT from Raos)

Timeline Ten: Unseen timeline - A timeline where Cell did not came from the future (based on my story Unseen Timeline)

Timeline Eleven: Reign of the Androids - A timeline where Doctor Gero and his Android have taken over Earth.

Timeline Twelve: Alternate GT Timeline