Chapter 9

Fighting Stage - Point of view: Timeline Nine

Zangya knew there was not much more she could do for this round of the Tournament. Like everyone, she would only get healed when the first round was over.

But there was something else she could do.

The mind-controlled Timeline Ten warriors were not paying even attention to her. Their focus was entirely on the other fighters who were not taking part in the Tournament´s First Round and who were standing in a large circle around them.

Beby and with him his puppets, were obviously not expecting someone from inside the fighting stage to get involved. Given that it was against the rules and you would get instantly disqualified if you attack someone outside the ring, this was not entirely unjustified.

But still, Beby obviously did not even realize that most people here would take saving Gohan´s life, even if it was an alternate version of the one they knew, as more important than winning this tournament. And that some could simply disqualify themselves. An obvious logic failure.

Of course, who would pay much attention to an injured and for all purposes already beaten fighter like her anyway? Zangya though with some sarcasm.

She had just watched Lapis willingly step out of the ring... after he had given a nod to her from the distance.

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Eight and Ten

Gohan was just standing there. His powerlevel completely down, making no move to defend himself by Beby´s will - helpless.

Future Trunks knew he should not hesitate and do what he had to do. But he had still let himself get distracted. Just enough to give Beby a small advantage.

He had let himself believe that he had to deal with this on his own... but he didn´t. He was not on his own here.

"Now," Beby asked him, "what shall it be? Your elimination or Gohan´s life?"

"Neither of it," Future Trunks replied confidently.

In this moment an Android Barrier appeared in the few centimeters right between Gohan and Eighteen´s outstretched arm, blocking the prepared blast she was holding in her hand.

xxx

"What?" Beby called out.

And in the same moment Super 17 from Timeline Six moved and was now standing between Future Trunks and Beby.

"You are interrupting my fight," Trunks said to him.

"Sorry - but you seemed... a bit distracted," Super 17 replied. "And with this guy I don´t want to take any risks anymore."

xxx

And Zangya suddenly jumped over the edge of the fighting stage... and fired a two handed blast at the possessed Eighteen, that hit her right into the face. Of course given that Zangya herself was injured and weakened, it didn´t cause much actual damage. But it was enough to throw her off her legs and keep her from threatening anyone else for the moment.

The next moment Seventeen from Timeline Zero appeared next to them.

He was giving the possessed Eighteen what looked like a light slap to her head.

And instantly the mind-controlling egg that Beby had planted in her was removed from it and was flying beside her in the air.

Seventeen just destroyed it with a blast from his finger.

"Good job," he said towards Lapis and Zangya.

"You could have done this yourself," Lapis commented.

"You were closer," Seventeen replied simply.

At the same time Timeline Zero´s Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Eighteen were moving and freeing the other Timeline Ten members from their parasitic eggs in the same way, using Spirit fission and destroyed them right afterwards.

Now that Gohan was not longer a split-second away from being killed, this had no longer any risk.

xxx

"You made a mistake Beby," Future Trunks told him. "Your mind-controlled victims only concentrated on the fighters outside of the ring. You ignored the ones inside."

"What are they doing? They shouldn´t have interfered. The rules... they can´t."

"Only if they had staid in the fighting area," Trunks reminded him. "You were thinking too much in line with the game. Had you never considered that anyone could just give up their place in the tournament?" he questioned.

And with that the chance of a wish from this mysterious Super Dragon Ball, he thought. A wish without any limit. Trunks could only imagine too well what Beby would have probably wished for.

In this moment Super 17 stepped out of Future Trunks way.

And Trunks instantly fired another Finish Buster. Which hit the still distracted Beby frontally and pushed him backwards. But he concentrated his own energy and at least put up resistance to Trunks attack. Slowing the movement, but still being pushed back.

But Super 17 joined in with a one handed blast on his own, hitting Beby from a different angle.

Against both their attacks, Beby was now overwhelmed completely. He lost his footing on the ground and was thrown out of bounds by the two blasts.

Beby was eliminated.

xxx

"All but four fighters have been eliminated. The First Round is over," the Grandpriest´s voice halled over the place. "The Remaining participants are Super 17 and Uub from Timeline Six, Trunks from Timeline Eight and Oceanus Shenlong from Timeline Twelve."

It was over.

At least as far as it came to the tournament itself.

xxx

Point of view: Timeline Ten and Zero

For the members of Timeline Ten however, there was a far more important matter.

Nearly in the same moment he was out, Vegeta from Timeline Zero appeared right next to Beby.

He gave him what looked like only a light slap, but he was using Spirit Fission to get Beby out of his counterpart´s body.

Beby, who for a moment was now just a humanoid-shaped silvery mass that only took distinct features again a short time later, was flying out of Timeline Ten´s Vegeta.

A Vegeta who looked shocked, confused and somehow broken for a second. But then his expression became focused again as he saw the creature who had taken over his body and tormented him and his family for so long.

One year - for one year he had been possessed by it. He had to watch helplessly as Beby did the same to Bulma, Trunks, Bra and the others.

But now...

"You," he growled angrily. He raised his arm and fired a blast at Beby.

The attack disintigrated the left arm and shoulder of the parasite. But Beby´s body regenerated itself within seconds.

Vegeta however already followed with a stronger attack... Galick Gun.

"No - damn it!" Beby called out as he saw this.

He tried to get away, getting as much distance between himself and the saiyan as he could, possess someone else.

But it was too late.

xxx

"Is this allowed?" Goku from Timeline Six asked as he and the others were watching the fight.

"There is no rule against killing someone outside of the Tournament," Timeline Six Vegeta stated. "And if my two counterparts don´t finish him off, I will do it myself."

xxx

Timeline Ten´s Vegeta fired his Galick Gun, which hit and completely engulfed Beby´s body.

Vegeta from Timeline Zero joined in with a blast of his own, similar to how Super 17 and Future Trunks had done it a few seconds earlier.

The two attacks wiped out every cell in Beby´s body this time. He was gone.

Now it was truly over.

"Are you alright?" Timeline Zero´s Vegeta asked his TImeline Ten counterpart.

"I - I am not sure," he replied.

Vegeta knew himself well enough to know that the insecure answer alone meant that he was obviously not.

"We can help you," he offered. "We can also teach you the technique we used to free you. That means if any of the other people you know in your timeline had been infected by Beby."

"Thank you," Vegeta from Timeline Ten said.

A few meters from them the rest of Timeline Ten´s team was in a similar state like him.

xxx

One who looked particular distraught was Timeline Ten´s Eighteen. Who just realized that she had nearly killed the man she loved when she was under Beby´s control.

And she realized who were the two people who had stopped her. She looked at Lapis and then at Zangya and she was overcome with another feeling, guilt.

Especially when she saw the state Zangya was in, because of her. In this moment she fully relized for the first time that this Zangya had actually never done anything to her.

She would have liked nothing more than to blame this also on Beby right now. But the truth was the egg in her head had been dormant until Beby had activated it and taken control of her. Her actions until then had been entirely her own.

"I - I am sorry," she said.

One of the Angels appeared next to them and used healing magic on them both. After a few seconds Zangya´s injuries had disappeared, followed by Eighteen´s

"You know - I understand why you did it. I understand perfectly well," Zangya stated. "Hell, there was a time I would have probably thought that I deserved what you did to me for all the things I had done as I was with Bojack."

"But that is not excuse, isn´t it?" Eighteen replied.

"No - it is certainly not," Lapis said sharply. "But like my wife said, we understand where you came from."

"But," Zangya commented, "there is one thing I wanted to give you."

With this she punched Eighteen in the face.

"I guess this is what I deserve," Eighteen said holding her cheek. "Does this mean we are good now?" she asked.

"We are," Zangya replied, "unless you want me to hit you another time."

"I think I will pass," Eighteen responded.

Timeline Ten´s Gohan was walking towards them.

"Thank you, all of you, for helping us," he addressed Lapis, Zangya and the Timeline Zero fighters around them.

"No need to thank us," Timeline Zero´s Gohan said.

xxxxxxx

"Now that the First Round is over... and other issues have been resolved," the Highpriest announced, "we take a short break of an half hour, before the Second Round begins."

Taking a break, that was an understatement if the fighters who took part in this Tournament had ever heard one.

Several participants had suffered serious injuries and had just been healed, Zangya only being the worst of them, a good deal had been poisoned by Haze Shenlong and the entire Timeline Ten team just had been freed from mind-control.

`Taking a break´ was really putting it lightly.

xxx

Point of view: Timeline Ten

There was also another question regarding Timeline Ten.

After what happened, all of their team-members looked worn out and somewhat broken. They had just been freed from what it seemed a year of mind-control after all.

"Will you guys even take part in the rest of the tournament after what had happened to you?" Goku from Timeline Zero asked them the question.

Their Eighteen, Vegeta (or rather Beby with Vegeta technically never having taken part) and their versions of Cabba, Caulifla and Kale had already been eliminated.

Which left Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks, Goten and Dabura.

Gohan gave a short look to Eighteen.

"I will continue," he said then.

"So will I," Dabura stated.

"I - I think I will not," Goten said. "After what happened I... I just don´t feel like fighting anymore."

"You don´t have to explain yourself Goten, it is your decision," Gohan told him.

"I think I will quit too," Timeline Ten´s Trunks stated.

None of their teammates were actually surprised by their decision. Trunks and Goten might had never been nearly as dedicated to fighting as their fathers. But after what they had just gone through, none of them could blame them.

"But I will take part," Piccolo told them.

If he was honest, he had considered dropping out too. But he would stay at least to support Gohan. He knew Gohan saw this as a chance to bring back Dende and the Dragon Balls and maybe his father Goku and Seventeen.

"Okay - that means two more people are out," Timeline Zero´s Seventeen stated.

That meant Timeline Ten had three fighters left.

xxxxxxx

Point of view Timeline Eleven

Meanwhile Doctor Gero and Paparoni were drawing their own conclusions from the First Round.

For Gero, his primary purpose of collecting combat-data and information about the other timelines had so far certainly been fulfilled. The power that some of the other participants had shown were shocking to say the least. The data he had collected was more than promising for future projects. Alone the revelation that the technique called Kaioken could be used by Androids. He had not thought this was possible and never considered the idea.

If he was honest though, Gero had realized that he should probably give up any hope of actually winning this tournament. Even his strongest Androids would be completely outmatched. And he seriously doubted that the remaining fighters of his Universe 3 `partner´ would do much better.

Their only real chance would probably be to hack and take over one or more of the stronger Androids from the other timelines. Which meant either the Super Android Seventeen from Timeline Six, the Sixteen from Timeline Eight or the Androids from Timeline Nine.

But which one of them was the most promising target? That was the first question.

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Twelve

The four Shadow Dragons who had taken part in the First Round were standing before Syn Shenlong and Goku Black, who both looked all but happy.

Standing next to them were the three corrupted Universe 2 fighters from their timeline. But they did not take part in the conversation. Despite being temporally allies, they did not really consider they issues of the Shadow Dragons their business.

"Well, it seems you at least are not entirely useless my dear," Syn said to Oceanus Shenlong. "In fact I am actually a bit surprised that you came this far. Well - it was a bit luck in it, wasn´t it?"

Oceanus frowned. He did not need to tell her that many of the other fighters were stronger than her. She had already noticed that herself.

"She still fought well," Nova Shenlong stated.

"Yes - she did," Syn replied.

Then he turned around to Rage, Naturon and Haze.

"You three however..." he said.

Syn Shenlong raised his hands and blasted Naturon´s and Rage´s heads off. Completely off guard and weakened from their earlier fights, they had no chance at all.

And then he did the same to Haze, who had still time to look at him in absolute shock as he realized what happened and call out desperately... "Syn - please don´t...!"

But he too was one moment later engulfed by another blast and disintigrated.

xxx

The fighters from the other timelines had turned around to them in alarm. For a split-second they had thought they were being suddenly attacked. They saw however that this was not the case.

Many were shocked that Syn Shenlong had just killed three members of his own team. And about the massive increase in power he had just gained.

Many others however were less shaken by it and had just watched the scene with silent contempt.

Under them were the different versions of Son Goku, Vegeta and Gohan. They had seen the same from Freeza, Babidy, Bojack, even Vegeta himself in the past and others.

Why should they be surprised? Of course they still didn´t like it.

xxx

All what was left were the three corrupted Dragon Balls that had created the three Shadow Dragons that were floating in the air before them.

And that Syn Shenlong quickly pulled towards himself with a move of his hand and absorbed them into his own body. In the same moment he got an incredible boost of power.

Even the other Shadow Dragons were shocked.

"You just killed them," Ice Shenlong said.

"Yes," Syn replied simply.

The three Dragon Balls from the other Shadow Dragons were now placed on his chest, next to his own.

"Are you planning to do the same to us?" Nova asked him.

"Only if you loose," Syn said. "We still need you for the Tournament after all."

"Do you truly expect us to believe you that you won´t end us too as soon it is convenient?" Ice answered.

"Either that or I can end you right now. It is your choice," Syn Shenlong stated.

Nova, Ice and Oceanus looked at each other. They knew they had no chance against him now. Not after he had just absorbed the power of their brothers.

But they also held no illusions. If Syn Shenlong intended to unify the power of all the corrupted Dragon Balls into one, then it was only a question of time until they needed to die as well for that goal.

But it was too late to stop him. Even if they teamed up, they were no match for him now.

"You don´t need to look so desperate," Goku Black said to them. His voice sounded smooth and more than a bit arrogant.

"I have an offer for you. What if I gave you the ability to exist without your Dragon Balls? Then you would not longer have to worry about Syn Shenlong taking them from you, right?" he stated.

"If you prove yourself worthy of such a gift of course," he added.

"And why have you not mentioned this before our three brothers were killed?" Nova Shenlong asked him.

"Now - why would I have bothered with this three weaklings?" Black replied.

He smiled. He and Syn Shenlong had planned out this entire scene perfectly.

xxx

Right next to them the three dark versions of the Universe 2 maidens had witnessed the entire exchange as well.

Their doubts about their `teammates´ had increased as well. Not that they had trusted them much from the beginning. They were just here because this Goku Black character had offered them a chance of a wish from the Super Dragon Balls.

xxxxxxx

Point of view: Timeline Nine and Eight

"That was good work," Future Trunks from Timeline Nine said to his counterpart.

"Good work - yes," Timeline Eight´s Trunks repeated. "I could not stop him by myself. But I realized I didn´t need to."

"Very right," Lazuli said to him.

"I have to agree," Goku from Timeline Six said, "you did great."

"Thank you for your help," Timeline Eight Trunks said to Lapis and Zangya.

"Don´t worry about it," Lapis said.

"You sacrificed your place in the Tournament to save Gohan."

"And to get one over Beby," Lapis responded drily. "To be honest I did not care that much about winning this tournament in the first place, as long as the one who does is someone halfway decent. It is not as if I need a wish from this Super Dragon Balls. I am quite happy as it is."

"We are," Zangya added, "and besides Trunks, Lazuli, Sixteen and the others are still in. So we might still take this, right?"

xxx

They and the other teams left the fighting area and were now for the moment roaming the place around the stadium itself. Zeno and the Highpriest had allowed that, as long as they were back in time.

To say the sight was interesting would be an understatement. This was the planet of the Grandkaio after all.

Goku from Timeline Six introduced the two Future Trunks and their teammates to Paikuhan and some of the other Afterlife Warriors. Well, technically it was the first time they met, since this Goku was from another timeline. But he did not care much about this.

"So you fought Goku in another torunament when he first arrived here?" Future Trunks from Timeline Nine asked.

"Yes - in both our timelines as it looks like," Paikuhan replied. "We were pretty even back then. But now I have absolutely no chance against him. The rate you saiyans grow stronger is just too high."

Goku only smiled at this.

"I fear I am not quite as strong as the me from this world," he said.

"And I have met you Dabura," Paikuhan stated as he looked at the former Demon King standing in the group of Timeline Ten. "We have fought before too. But in our case it was not a tournament."

"I assure you, I am not longer the same man you have met," Dabura replied.

Everyone around knew this could be interpreted in more than one way.

"Excuse me," someone said from the side.

It was Android 18. More precisely the Eighteen from Timeline Six in her Super Form.

But right then she deactivated the systems of the Android copy she was merged with inside her Super Android body. And her appearance turned back into that of the regular Eighteen. While she was technically still fused with it.

Just her hair was a bit shorter than Lazuli´s own.

"Lazuli - right?" she addressed her Timeline Nine counterpart, "You prefer to be called that?"

"Yes?" she replied.

"I have a suggestion for you," Timeline Six´s Eighteen said.

xxxxxxx

The rest of the half hour passed quickly. The Second Round of the Tournament was about to beginn.

"Are you ready?" Goku from Timeline Six asked his world´s versions of Goten and Trunks.

xxx

A short time later the remaining 40 fighters were standing assembled on the fighting stage.

Another `gong´ announced the beginning of Round Two.

This intermate chapter is a bit shorter than the other ones.

xxc

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