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duhragonball · 2 years ago

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (199/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: This story takes place about 1000 years before 66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[20 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]

The Time Vault was silent, save for the occasional coos and chirps from the Divine Tokitoki Bird. His guardian, the Supreme Kai of Time, had left the the Time Vault to attend to some urgent matter, leaving Tokitoki in the care of her most trusted Time Patroller, Trunks.

Though he was too modest to say it himself, Trunks was a natural leader. Forged in the conflict with Dr. Gero's killer androids and cyborgs, he had already become a formidable warrior when Chronoa recruited him to serve in her Time Patrol. The Saiyan contingent were eager to follow him, as many of them saw him as their rightful Prince, due to his descent from the Vegetas. Earthling Patrollers respected him for his pragmatic, hands-on command style. They knew Trunks would never order anyone to do something that he wasn't willing to do himself. The Namekians saw in Trunks a kindred spirit. His serious and dutiful personality was very consistent with their own culture, and they admired his perspectives on combat as a last resort. The Majins liked Trunks because he indulged their more whimsical eccentricities. He trusted them to do their jobs well, and he didn't quibble over how they carried themselves while they did it. And the Patrollers from Frieza's species were eager to work alongside the man who killed Frieza, liberating them from their greatest shame.

But while Trunks had the confidence of the entire Time Patrol, he still had lingering doubts about his own ability. In his own timeline, he had been too weak to help his master, Son Gohan, against the cyborgs. His mother, Bulma, had invented a time machine to give them a way to save their world, but Trunks had been dissatisfied with that course of action. Using the time machine was a tacit admission of his inadequacy, an admission compounded by his failure to anticipate the threat of Gero's ultimate weapon, Cell. When the Supreme Kai of Time confronted him about his illegal time travel, he eagerly accepted the chance to redeem himself by serving in her Patrol. He had found duty and responsibility to be an effective distraction from his shortcomings. But in the quiet hours, when there was nothing to do but stand by and wait, there was always that lingering fear that his best would not be good enough.

At the moment, he was keeping tabs on Luffa's mission, while coordinating the defense of Toki Toki City. Luffa was their newest recruit, and quite possibly the strongest as well. Trunks had used the Dragon Balls to wish for a powerful ally to assist him in defending certain periods of history from the demon witch Towa, and Shenron had granted that wish by bringing an ancient Super Saiyan from the past. Luffa was moody and disoriented from the experience, but eager to fight, and while she and Trunks had their differences, she had proven a reliable warrior for the Time Patrol's cause.

Now, with Towa defeated, another demon sorcerer, Demigra, was attempting to exploit the instability of the timestream to his own advantage. According to Chronoa, he had escaped from his prison in the Crack of Time, and it wouldn't be long before he made his move to seize control of the Time Nest. Luffa had been eager to face the challenge, and Trunks had been grateful to have her on their side. He wasn't sure how well the Time Patrol could manage without her in this crisis.

And perhaps Demigra had the same idea, because his first move after escaping the Crack of Time was to cause a temporal incursion on Earth in Age 778. Normally, Demigra used his magic to manipulate hostile fighters during historic battles, but this time he had chosen a time of peace, and his pawns were three villains who were supposed to be long dead by that year.

No one had expected this. Luffa had already proven herself to be more than a match for Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu in earlier missions, and Demigra's magic had been ineffective on stronger beings like the God of Destruction, Beerus. It seemed as though Demigra had no other warriors to manipulate, but instead he simply gathered three villains together and dumped them into the same time period. But how could he have done this?

Luffa's solution was as simple as it was brutal. Since Demigra's incursion was clearly meant to draw Time Patrollers away from their defense of the city, she would tackle the mission alone, and they could worry about the how and why of it some other time.

So far, her plan had worked well. Trunks normally monitored Luffa's missions by watching her in the mystic Scroll of Eternity, and talking to her through an earpiece communicator, but Luffa had neglected to wear her earpiece to the fight, and when Trunks saw how well she was doing against Majin Buu, he turned his attention to Toki Toki City.

"All sentry groups have reported in. No sign of intruders," said a voice in Trunks' ear. This was Percel, one of the senior Patrollers he had entrusted with security.

"What about the Scouter readings?" Trunks asked.

"Hakusa reported no unusual power spikes," Percel replied. "But if Demigra sends any artificial warriors..."

"We won't be able to pick them up on Scouters, I know," Trunks said. He was well aware of the tactical considerations for artificial fighters, but there was no point in scolding Percel over it. "Are the Majins in position?"

"Gamma shift is ready," Percel said. "I'd feel better if we could get the Alphas to wake up and help..."

"The Majins need their sleep, Percel," Trunks said. "For all we know, Demigra might wait weeks to make his move, so we have to stay fresh in case this drags on for a while. That goes for you too, by the way. There's no overtime pay on this job, right?"

"Yes sir," Percel said. "Is Tokitoki still secure with you in the Vault?"

Trunks looked over and found the cosmic bird gobbling seeds from his food dish. "He's just fine," he replied. "All quiet in the Time Nest."

"Glad to hear it. Then if there's no new orders, I'll report back in an hour."

"Very good," Trunks said. "Over and out."

*******

From his command post in the Time Plaza of Toki Toki City, Percel disconnected his call with Trunks and turned to three of his comrades. "He's still in the Time Nest," Percel said. "And he doesn't suspect a thing. You know what to do."

The three of them nodded and exchanged eager grins as they left Percel's office to begin their tasks. Percel returned to his work, his tail swaying with anticipation of what was about to come next.

*******

Fifteen minutes after leaving Percel's command post, the three Time Patrollers returned to the Time Machine Station in separate time machines. To anyone watching, they had each embarked on Parallel Quest missions, a routine duty or training exercise performed by almost any Time Patroller. The Station was designed to accommodate hundreds of PQ trips every day, and the time machines used to access the time fragments were coordinated and maintained by a crew of Capsule Corp. robots.

"How did it go?" asked Laddis as he opened the canopy of his time machine. He was a Saiyan with a bad reputation in the Time Patrol. His defiant attitude had been blunted somewhat after losing a wager to Luffa, but he was still as arrogant and unsociable as ever. Normally, he spent all of his free time with his inner circle, an unofficial team he called The Crapkickers. But today he had other companions.

"Piece of cake," said Taino. She was a Majin woman who idolized the Ginyu Force. Despite her interest in such unrepentant villains, she was a model Patroller, and refused to have anything to do with hostile personalities like Laddis. But on this occasion, they had a common cause.

She held up a plastic storage container meant for food, and showed it to her partners. "And I mean that literally," she added as she pointed her free hand at the tentacles on her head. "One little zap, and that piece of Majin Buu I stole became a harmless piece of pineapple upside-down cake. Goku and Vegeta were so busy struggling with Kid Buu on the Sacred World of the Kais that they didn't even notice me."

"Same story, kid," said Big League Chew. Though much larger than the average Time Patroller, his Majin body was pliable enough to fit inside the time machine when he needed to use one. He looked like a gigantic piece of grape bubble gum, similar to the one he was constantly chewing in his mouth. As he stepped down from the time machine, he dusted his gloves off the seat of his baseball uniform and lifted his ball cap to reveal a small box of caramel-coated popcorn.

"Transforming Cell's nucleus into Cracker Jack, well that was a cinch. Tricky part was finding the thing in the middle of Son Gohan's Kamehameha blast before it disintegrated. But that's my wheelhouse, so I wasn't about to strike out on this play." He looked to Laddis. "So how about it? Did we get a triple?"

"Oh, sure," Laddis said. "I just intercepted Frieza's spaceship before it reached Earth, and killed his dad before anyone could stop me. The only hard part was that I couldn't turn him into a ham sandwich or a donut like you Majins." Halfway out of the time machine, he reached down and pulled out an unconscious Frieza, his body recently rebuilt with cybernetic parts. Holding his quarry by the tail, Laddis hopped down from the time machine and joined the other two on the platform.

"So now we just have to get these three to West City before anyone notices you carrying a hundred kilograms of contraband," Taino said.

"Don't worry about it," Laddis said. "Trunks may have confiscated my Micro-Bands, but the way things are about to go down, we won't have to worry about he rules for much longer."

"Yes," Taino said, in a low voice, very uncharacteristic of her usual ebullient self. "It's time."

"It's time," Big League Chew repeated.

"It's time," Laddis said.

The three of them frog-marched Frieza along the Plaza, and headed for a pre-arranged location. If asked, they were prepared to tell some lie about Frieza being a Time Patroller in a costume, but no one stopped them. Frieza's species was common sight among Toki Toki City, and with his head lowered, there was little chance of him being recognized.

A few passers-by did notice them, and recognized the alien they were carrying, but said nothing. They simply went on their way, and slowed down only long enough to exchange conspiratorial smirks with Laddis and the others.

At last, they reached a secluded spot in the Industrial Sector, where an Earthling woman was waiting for them. Normally, Amura wore a bright violet dogi, and boots with magenta trim to compliment her hair. But for this occasion, she was concealed in a black cloak, and knelt before a circle she had made on the lawn with red candle wax.

"Quickly!" she hissed as she saw the others approach. "It's time!"

Laddis dumped Frieza unceremoniously into the waxen circle, while Taino and Big League Chew set their cake and caramel-popcorn beside him. They each fired pink energy beams from their head-tentacles, and the snacks transformed. One became a blob of pink Majin flesh, while the other resembled a miniature figure of Cell, but pulpy and quivering. In time, both would regenerate into the legendary monsters who had once threatened the universe, but not before Amura completed her work.

While the others stood around the circle, she withdrew a bottle of water and held it up with both hands. As she poured the bottle over the three villains, the water began to glow purple, and a dark fog surrounded it, anointing the villains with the same dark energy. As she did the four Time Patrollers eyes began to flash red.

"It's done," Amura said with a satisfied smile. "They are our brothers now."

"Then send them on their way," Taino said. "Hurry!"

Amura did not rush, nor did she dispute the point. She gestured with her hands exactly as she had been instructed. She recited the magic words perfectly, even though she now spoke in a language that had been extinct since before her species evolved. It didn't matter whether she understood the meaning of the ritual. It did not matter how much pain she felt as the knife drew blood from her left hand. It did not matter why she needed to drip her blood onto the three villains in the circle. All that mattered was that the ritual be completed as expected. There was no room for error.

And at last, the spell was complete. While the Time Patrol was accustomed to their technology and the mystic powers of the Time Nest to move through time, there were other, more blasphemous ways to achieve the goal. The four of them watched with fascination as the circle of wax was suffused in a pillar of energy. It looked like a swarm of black hornets confined to an invisible cylinder. And then, it all vanished-- the villains, the wax, the pillar of darkness, all of it. There was only a patch of ash in the ground where the ritual had taken place.

"Did it work?" Laddis asked.

"Of course it worked," Amura said testily. She had torn a strip of cloth from her cloak and was wrapping it around her hand when he asked. Now, she raised her wounded hand, and pointed to the center of the city. Blood still dripped from the wet bandage, but none of them noticed.

At the center of Toki Toki City was an enormous crystal structure shaped like a great hourglass. Golden sand funneled through it, and the glass was surrounded by gargantuan cogs of brass, like the innards of some impossible clock. The gears turned one another, but there was no clear purpose to the mechanism. It was a mystery known only to the Kais. Most of the mortal Time Patrollers dismissed it as a simple monument.

But now, as the hourglass began to pulse with purple light, and the brass gears vibrated just enough to produce an eerie harmony, the four Time Patrollers watched with detached satisfaction. The true purpose of the structure would remain a mystery to them, for the moment, its meaning to their conspiracy was clear.

It was an omen.

*******

For all his strengths as a leader, Trunks was oblivious to the looming danger. The first warning came when the Divine Tokitoki Bird began to screech and flap his wings in distress. Trunks just thought this was because Tokitoki missed the Supreme Kai of Time.

"You know, if you acted a little more affectionate while she was around to see it," Trunks said as he looked up from the status reports, "then maybe she wouldn't leave you alone with me as often. I feel for you, pal, but I'm afraid I'm all you've got until she gets back."

The second sign was the lingering sense of evil power he felt. Trunks had developed a sensitivity to evil ki in time distortions, but it was nothing like the divine perception of the Supreme Kai of Time. His was only a rudimentary understanding, and he had already sensed Demigra's escape from the Crack of Time, and so he assumed this heightened sensation was only a continuation of that event.

The third hint that there was something amiss was when Luffa's Time Patrol mission developed an unexpected complication. But Trunks had become so fixated on the defense of Toki Toki City that he did not check the Scroll of Eternity. He thought about it, but decided that it was better to trust Luffa to handle it her own way. Much of the tension between them had stemmed from his reluctance to accept Luffa as a partner, and he thought that it might mend fences to keep his nose out of her business.

And so, Trunks did not notice what was happening in Toki Toki City until the enemy finally came to him. To his credit, once he sensed the warriors in the Time Nest, he drew his sword at once and positioned himself between Tokitoki and the entrance to the Time Vault.

But, alert as he was, nothing could have prepared Trunks for the enemies who now entered the Time Vault and stood before him.

"The bird, Trunks. Hand him over. Now."

"What the hell is wrong with you, Percel?!" Trunks shouted.

Percel was a dependable part of the Time Patrol's command structure. He followed orders, but he could be counted on to seize the initiative when necessary. It was unthinkable that he would betray the Time Patrol, and yet there he stood, with twenty Patrollers at his back to support him.

"It's time, Trunks," Percel said. "The Supreme Kai of Time is finished. Her reign is over. Surrender the bird to us, or face the consequences."

"You've been corrupted by Demigra's magic!" Trunks said. The red glow in their eyes gave it away, but the evil in their ki signatures should have made it plain. It was simply too hard for him to accept. Even now, seeing it for himself, he wished that it was some illusion.

"Demigra," Percel explained, "is the true Master of the Time Nest. Tokitoki belongs to him. Step away from the bird and stand down."

Trunks held his sword a little tighter. "You know how this is gonna go, Percel," Trunks said. "And I'm not going to hold back."

"Of course," Percel said. "We all have our parts to play." He gestured to his comrades. "Take him down. Now."

"Have it your way, then," Trunks said. In spite of the situation, he made a confident smirk. And then he began to scream.

There were other Time Patrollers standing outside the Time Vault, waiting for further orders from Percel. Suddenly, a golden light streamed out of the entrance of the Vault, and they all took a step back from the intensity of the power they felt. They had expected to face stiff resistance, but it was hard to prepare for such a tremendous ki. They quickly regrouped and moved around the entrance, only to be knocked aside.

Trunks emerged from the Time Vault like a meteor. He had already sized up this second wave before he had finished defeating the first. Now, he stood still for a moment and raised his blade. His hair stood on end, glowing a preternatural yellow, while his eyes blazed a wrathful green. The hem of his long black coat flapped wildly around his legs, as if he were standing in the midst of a terrible storm. He was not.

Trunks was the storm.

Few Time Patrollers had ever experienced Trunks' full power. Luffa had witnessed it firsthand, when Trunks had come to her aid during a battle with Towa and Mira, and again when they had to prove their might to Beerus and Whis. But the rest of the Time Patrol had never found themselves in such dire straits, nor had any of them been bold enough to try to pick a fight with him. Neither was Trunks eager to show off his power to them. As he had told Luffa, he refused to waste time fighting his allies. His strength was reserved strictly for defeating his enemies, and he would do so without flourish or fanfare. A fight was something to be finished all at once. That was Trunks' martial philosophy.

In this lay the foundation of his Saiyan Pride. In his adolescence, Trunks had been baffled by his father's prideful ways. Gradually, he began to realize that it was Vegeta's values that had troubled him. Standing for those values had always made sense. What Trunks had to learn was to decide what mattered to himself, and stand for his own truth without comprise. He would no sooner surrender Tokitoki than he could cut off his own right arm. The Time Patrol was more than just a sacred duty, or an obligation to the cosmos.

They were a family, no different from his mother back home, or the other people of his world who had survived twenty years of attacks from Gero's cyborgs. No different from the bond he had shared in the past, with Son Goku and the Z-fighters. He would not forsake the Divine Bird, nor his fellow Time Patrollers, nor their city.

And that was why no blood was spilled during Trunks lighting offensive on the enthralled Time Patrollers. For all his speed and ferocity, for as much as his sword slashed and thrust at his foes, he was careful to strike with the flat of his blade. No one would die on his watch, he promised himself.

As he fought, Tokitoki took to the air, and flew in wide circles in the upper reaches of the Time Nest. This worked to Trunks' favor, as the enemy was often distracted by the bird, and they would leave themselves wide open as they tried to leap after him. But the risk was too great. There was only so much room in the Time Nest to fight, and a battle here would put all of creation at risk.

"Head for the city!" he called to Tokitoki. "Get as far from everyone as you can! I'll cover you!"

"Kiiiiiiiiiiii!" cried the bird, and just as Trunks wondered if he could understand his instructions, Tokitoki flew through the large portal that led into the main city.

Even as Trunks prepared to follow, he could sense some of the downed Patrollers beginning to stir. He would need more time to neutralize them properly, and there were sure to be more of them. As much as he hated to leave the Time Nest unprotected, he knew his first priority had to be the Tokitoki Bird, and their best chance was to get into the City.

With a frustrated grunt, he turned away from the Time Vault and stepped through the portal, vowing to return as soon as Tokitoki was safe.

As he emerged on the other side of the portal, Trunks felt a chill run down his spine, as he realized that his promise might be impossible to keep.

*******

[12 September, Age 778. Earth.]

Luffa could not join the defense of Toki Toki City, because Demigra had arranged another time incursion to open a second front. The self-styled "Demon God" was betting that the Time Patrol could not simultaneously defend itself while fulfilling its duty to preserve the course of history. And so he sent three evil warriors to attack West City: Frieza, with his cybernetic upgrades; Cell, who had just discovered the frightening potential of his perfect form; and Majin Buu, purified in his original childlike incarnation.

The Time Patrol would have to commit substantial resources to combat such a threat, and so Luffa went to tackle the mission herself. Though she relished the challenge, there was more to her methods than simple courage or selflessness. She believed herself to be the Time Patrol's strongest warrior, but she was also their newest recruit, and had the least familiarity with Toki Toki City, and its defenses. They could hold the line without her, at least for a while. As for Luffa, she had fought Frieza, Cell, and Kid Buu before, in recent Time Patrol missions. And since that time, she had recovered a great deal of her strength.

"Come on!" Luffa said as she taunted Majin Buu. She had already neutralized Cell and Frieza, and proven that defeating Buu was just a question of time. "Let's get this over with so I can get back to the city and make Demigra think twice about his little pincer attack!"

Majin Buu was livid, but reluctant to fight as recklessly as he had before. One of his favorite tricks was to separate his fluid body into numerous pieces, and attack from multiple directions. But Luffa had managed to destroy some of his body while he was doing this, and while Buu could regenerate the lost mass, he could not do this indefinitely. Most of his opponents wore themselves out long before Buu's regenerative powers could reach their limit, so he rarely had to worry about such things. But Luffa was now strong enough to give him pause.

With a spiteful sneer, he raised his hand and curled in his fingers to call Luffa to attack him instead.

"Fine!" Luffa shouted. "Have it your way!"

Her golden aura flashed with a sudden burst of ki as she charged Buu, who stood his ground and glowed with a pink aura to match. Despite her advantage over him, he fought ferociously, swinging his arms and legs to counter her attacks while responding with heavy blows of his own. The air thundered around them as their fists connected.

"Good!" Luffa cried out. "You learn fast, squirt! No more sloshing around and tossing big blasts in every direction. You've got to tighten up and concentrate your power if you want to last against me!"

Even as she said these words, Buu raised the tentacle on the top of his head. It extended slightly, then quickly lashed out like a cobra, and just as it circled around Luffa's neck...

She angled her next strike and sliced off the end of the tentacle with a razor thin beam of energy. Before Buu could react, she backed way and grabbed the tendril in both hands. Buu looked on in astonished dread as she held it out in front of her face and bit into it like an oversized pastry.

Her teeth glowed, and lightning began to arc from her mouth as she made a low, guttural snarl. Moments later, the entire length of the severed tentacle was suffused with a yellow aura, and then it began to smolder and blacken.

Buu made another howl in protest, but it made no difference, as the piece of tentacle turned to ash and disintegrated in her hands, leaving only Luffa's satisfied grin.

"Another wrong move, squirt," she said in mock-pity. "How many more can you afford to make? But that's not what you need to be asking yourself."

She charged at him and delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of his head, causing him to stumble and stagger in midair.

"What you really need to be asking yourself is: 'What happens if she gets her hands on my whole body, instead of just a piece?!"

Despite her ominous threats, Kid Buu didn't look much worse for wear. He recovered from the kick quickly, then stuck his thumb in his mouth and blew on it, which somehow inflated his head enough to undo the dent Luffa's foot had made in his cranium. He also regrew the severed tentacle as well. But the beads of sweat on Buu's face told a different story, one Luffa was very eager to complete.

"I wouldn't get too confident, if I were you!" called a voice from below. Luffa glanced away from Buu to see who it was, but she didn't need to bother. She recognized the approaching ki signature even as it flew up to meet them in the sky.

"Cell?" Luffa asked. "I'm impressed. That hole I drilled into your brain looked like it would keep you down for a long time."

The bioweapon looked good as new, save for the mystical purple fog that wafted from his body, and the red glow in his eyes. Buu had the same appearance, a signature of Demigra's demonic enchantment.

"You underestimated us, Saiyan," Cell said haughtily. "We came here for one purpose, and that was to destroy you. Did you really think we would let you prevail so easily?"

Luffa snorted. "Out of the three of you, Buu's the only one who can defend himself."

"Is that so?" Cell replied. "And who ever said there were only three of us?"

Luffa was expecting a sneak attack, but only from Frieza, since he was the one member of Demigra's team unaccounted for. Instead, it was an altogether different ki that she sensed, and as she turned to meet it, she sensed another coming at her from a different direction. And another.

They were all Saiyan powers.

She kept her back to Cell, knowing that she could overpower him if he tried anything. The others swooped into view and took up positions around her. It didn't take Luffa long to recognize the new players.

"You've gone far enough," Gohan said through clenched teeth.

"You're gonna get it now," said Gotenks. "It's butt-whoopin' time!"

"Silence," Vegeta grumbled. "Finish her off. Now."

All three of them had the same purple energy and red eyes as Cell and Kid Buu. Luffa raised her arms and prepared for an attack.

"Well, at least Demigra had the decency to make this a little more interesting," she said.

"Oh, it's far more interesting than you think," Cell hissed.

As he said this, several more ki signatures began to approach Luffa. She recognized these as well, and she began to chide herself for not expecting it sooner.

"Cell Juniors," Luffa said in disgust as the seven miniature duplicates of Cell arrived to join the others.

"Thirteen against one!" Cell said. "Face it, Saiyan. No matter how strong you may be, you're sorely outmatched."

Luffa wondered why Cell continued to include Frieza in his count when she had already beaten him, but she had twelve other matters to worry about first. The situation had worsened. She still believed she could win a battle like this, but the cost would be too high. No one knew how Demigra had brought Cell, Frieza, and Buu to this time period, so killing them had seemed like a viable option. But Gohan, Vegeta, and Gotenks were supposed to live, which meant Luffa had to defeat them without hurting them. And she had to do it without damaging West City beneath them. Drawing her foes away from the civilians had seemed simple a moment ago, but now she had ten more enemies to wrangle. The battle wasn't hopeless, but it would take time, and every moment she wasted in West City would play right into Demigra's hands.

She shook her head and smiled. "Oh well," she said. "Nothing I can do about it now. Let's just get this over with."

Suddenly, she threw out her hands, and a golden glow shot out from her body in all directions, catching all of her opponents in an explosive wave.

*******

[20 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]

It was a full-scale war. As Trunks stepped out of the portal from the Time Nest, he almost thought he had been transported to a battle on some other world. But there was no mistake. This was Toki Toki City, and in every direction he looked, he found Time Patrollers battling one another.

The only exception was at the retaining wall which surrounded the giant hourglass floating over the center of the city. There, Trunks spotted several Time Patrollers clad in black cloaks, all staring up at the hourglass. With their arms raised over their heads, they chanted words in some alien tongue Trunks had never heard before. Occasionally, the golden sand in the hourglass would glow purple. Trunks didn't know what that meant, but he was sure he didn't want to find out.

Overhead, the Divine Tokitoki Bird was circling the giant hourglass, making a series of distressed chirps and hoots. Trunks had sent him here for relative safety, but it now looked like there was no safe place left in Toki Toki City.

It was easy enough to tell who was on which side. The Time Patrollers under Demigra's spell all had glowing red eyes, and their bodies were surrounded by an aura like dark purple fog. With a furious shout, he charged toward the nearest enemy and dropped him with an elbow to the face.

"It's Trunks!" shouted one of the Patrollers whose mind was still his own.

"Let's give him some room to work!" shouted another.

As he darted around the city, attacking enchanted Patrollers, his own forces began to rally and regroup. For a few minutes, it seemed like the tide had turned, and it was only a matter of time before the insurrection was foiled. As Trunks rescued Ziko from a pair of mind-controlled Namekians, it seemed like there was hope.

"They started attacking all at once," Ziko said. He was a bald Earthling with a long grey beard, and one of Trunks' most trusted advisers.

"Why didn't anyone call me?" Trunks asked as he helped Ziko to his feet.

Ziko coughed for a moment before answering. "It happened so quickly," he said. "At first it was only a few of them, and we thought we had it under control. But then more of us began to change, until--"

Suddenly, Ziko stepped away from Trunks and grasped the sides of his head with his hands. "Grraaaahhhh!" he shouted, and he began to double over.

"Ziko!" Trunks shouted.

"Take him down! Hurry!"

As Trunks looked on, Ziko's body began to glow with the same purple fog as the other affected Time Patrollers. When he looked up at Trunks, his eyes glowed red with menace....

And then another Time Patroller blindsided Ziko with a precision kick to his jaw. He collapsed into a heap on the cobblestone road.

Trunks recognized her as Hakusa, a specialist with scouters and other ki detecting techniques and devices. He was about to ask for an explanation, but there were too many enemy fighters ganging up on them, and they had to fire ki blasts to drive them away.

"He was starting to change, sir," Hakusa said. "I had to lay him out while I had the chance. Things are dicey enough without Ziko on their side."

"But how?" Trunks asked. "If Demigra can cast his spells into the city, why didn't he do this before? And why not everyone at once?"

"I don't know," Hakusa said. "It's almost like an infection, and it's spreading!" She tapped the custom scouter mounted over her left ear and read the readouts displayed on the screen that was positioned over her left eye. "All I can tell you for sure is that something strange is happening in that hourglass."

"That's it!" Trunks said. He swatted aside three Saiyan fighters as they fell back to the Industrial District.

"You know what they're up to?" Hakusa asked.

"No, but I'm sure the hourglass is involved in some way," Trunks said. "It must mean something to Demigra, or he wouldn't have Patrollers standing around the thing doing that weird chant. Maybe if we take them out, we can disrupt whatever he's planning."

"Easier said than done. We're having a hard enough time defending the city," Hakusa said. "And more of our people are getting taken over the longer this goes on. If you're wrong, we might not have another chance."

"I know," Trunks said. "But it's the only option we have. They want Tokitoki, and at this rate there won't be enough of us left to protect him. I've got to go on the offensive."

Hakusa fired a ki beam into a thin Majin man before responding. "Okay, take your shot. We'll cover you as long as we can."

Trunks nodded and took off. It wasn't far to the retaining wall, but there were plenty of enchanted Patrollers in the sky to block him. Trunks dispatched some of these with a well-timed Masenko.

"It's over, Trunks! The old regime is finished here!"

Trunks looked around to find Laddis, as well as a few other Super Saiyans backing him up, all contaminated with Demigra's spell. Hakusa was right: this would be much easier said than done.

*******

While Trunks fought in the city, the Time Patrollers under Demigra's spell took advantage of the situation, and secured the Time Nest. Since there was nothing in the Time Vault besides the Scroll of Eternity, they shifted their focus to the only other structure in the Nest: Chronoa's personal quarters.

"Keep looking!" growled a shrill, albino Namekian in an orange jumpsuit. The arcane glow in his eyes was muted by the tinted visor of his motorcycle helmet, but the purple fog roiling off his body made it clear whose side he was on in the conflict.

"Face it, Excitebike, there's nothing here!"

"Nothing, he says. We're standing ankle deep in a pile of junk and he says there's 'nothing here'!"

Dewar swung his tail, sweeping aside a pile of mechanical parts that were sitting on one of Chronoa's endtables. He was equipped with a Scouter, a sidearm, and a vast knowledge of historical information, but none of that was helping him find anything useful in the house.

They had entered the Time Nest with a larger force, but when they found no sign of the Supreme Kai of Time, or any Patrollers still loyal to her, they dismissed the rest of their squad to rejoin the battle in the city. Chronoa's house was small enough that they thought they could comb the entire building with just two people, but they had not reckoned on the amount of clutter in her home.

"Welllll now," Dewar snarled, "if you'd stop and think about it, Excitebike old pal, you'd realize that there's nothing here worth Lord Demigra's time!"

"Time, time, time, there's no time for time!" Excitebike ranted. "This is the Kai's inner sanctum! There must be something special stashed away in here, something Lord Demigra would want to know about! A magic time ring, a secret weapon, anything!"

"And if she really had something like that," Dewar reasoned, "why would she risk losing it in a junk heap like this?"

That got Excitebike's attention. "Oh," he said. "Hmm... you might have something there after all."

"The whole city belonged to her," Dewar continued. "If she wanted to hide something, she could put it anywhere she wanted. She wouldn't put it in her house. That's the first place someone would look."

"Then that's what all this trash is lying around for," Excitebike said. A micro-transmission box was crushed under the weight of his bootheel as he walked through the hall. "It's a distraction, designed to make us think that she doesn't have anything hidden anywhere!"

"Exactamundo!" Dewar cried.

"Oh she thinks she's so clever!" Excitebike said. "We'll just see about that! Oh we'll see! Well what are you waiting for?! Let's get out of here and find someplace else to search!"

*******

[20 April, Age 850. Toki Toki City.]

There were too many unknowns.

Chronoa trusted the Time Patrollers, and she had complete confidence in their ability to fight the imminent battle. She also recognized that their skills might not be enough to win the day. Demigra had proven to be a dangerous and elusive foe.

She needed an edge, and she saw only one way to get it.

Leaving Trunks and Luffa in the Time Vault, she had gone to her personal quarters, a humble Capsule House on the grounds of the Time Nest. Her home was a perpetual mess, always cluttered with various machine parts and gadgets that she never got around to putting away. An enemy might rummage through her house to find some important item or information, but they would never be able to find anything among all the clocks and can openers and crystal radios and circuit boards. As the Earthlings liked to say, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Most visitors simply assumed that the clutter in Chronoa's home was a sign that she was disorganized, or too busy being the Supreme Kai of Time that she never got around to sorting out all the junk. Who would have time to go through it all?

Who indeed?

Chronoa was the Supreme Kai of Time. The unofficial motto of Toki Toki City was: "There's time."

Her powers gave her all the time she needed to organize her possessions. Most visitors never stopped to consider this, but what never occurred to anyone was that she had already organized it all. She knew exactly where everything was. She would rearrange it all once in a while, but no one ever noticed the 'mess' had been reconfigured into a different 'mess'.

And so when she entered her house, she simply marched straight to a particular spot in the living room and dug through a pile of self-sealing stem bolts and multimeters to fetch a can of lithium grease. Only it didn't contain lithium grease. She had emptied it out and hidden a Hoi Poi capsule inside.

She activated the capsule and when the smoke cleared, seven crystal orbs lay on the floor. Each of them was orange, with a different number of red stars embedded in their center.

Nearby, Excitebike and Dewar, possessed by Demigra's magic, were searching her home in vain. They could not see her or what she was doing, thanks to her ability to alter the flow of time around her person. They left, and she made no move to stop them. All that mattered now was using the Dragon Balls.

The Dragon Balls were the Earth's greatest treasure. When Bulma invented the Dragon Radar in Age 749, it ushered in an age where the Eternal Dragon, Shenron, would be summoned almost every year. Wishes had to be used carefully, for there were only so many available, and so many existential threats to the Earth. Trunks had already used the Dragon Balls in this year, Age 850, when he made the wish that brought Luffa to their aid. That wish had not been made lightly, for it meant that there would be one less wish for the future.

And yet, Chronoa had prepared herself an ace in the hole. It would have been irresponsible to gather the Dragon Balls and hoard them in her house in case of emergency. They were too critical to the course of history.

This was why Chronoa had gathered the Dragon Balls from a time before Bulma was born. In Age 610, the Dragon Balls had lain undiscovered for decades, and would not be missed by anyone. And so she had gathered them and stored the Dragon Balls of this time in her home, with arrangements to return them once they were no longer needed.

At last, the day had arrived, and she laid them in the grass just outside the Time Nest. The enchanted Time Patrollers continued to mull around on the grounds, but they had no idea she was there. As Chronoa held out her hands, the Dragon Balls began to pulse with a bright orange glow.

"Now is the time," she said ominously. "We need your power..."

There was a flash of golden light, and an enormous green dragon appeared above her. His long, serpentine body coiled around the interior of the Time Nest. His talons gleamed in the light as he made a low rumbling noise from his throat.

"You have collected the seven Dragon Balls," Shenron thundered. "You may ask for one wish, and this I will grant you."

Chronoa cleared her throat and began to speak. She had no doubt that Shenron would be able to fulfill her request. But would that be enough?

She chased the doubt from her mind and spoke her wish. They would find out soon. There was time enough for that, as well.

*******

[12 September, Age 778. Earth.]

The battle in West City had not gone well. Luffa had managed to kill two Cell Juniors and destroy a few more pieces of Majin Buu, but that was a hollow achievement at best. Buu was far from beaten, and with his allies to support him, it might take hours to take him out of the fight. As for the Cell Juniors, Luffa had a sinking feeling that Cell could spawn more of them whenever he wanted. The bioweapon had been careful to keep his distance throughout the fight, as though he knew he would have to provide reinforcements later.

So far, the civilian population hadn't been hurt, although Luffa had failed to lure the enemy out of the city. The best she could manage was to keep the battle confined to an amusement park that had been shut down for renovations. The facility itself was built on a dome, elevated high above the ground, but the grassy fields surrounding it gave Luffa some room to maneuver.

The conflict had become a virtual stalemate, as Luffa could easily defend or escape from almost any of their attacks, but if she tried to target any of them, they would always cluster together to stop her. Her only chance was to keep moving and wait for an opportunity to strike, but that only dragged out a fight that was already taking far too long.

"Really now, Vegeta," Cell called from the sidelines. "Is this the best you can do? I thought you were more formidable than that!"

Vegeta gave only a gruff snarl in response as he hammered Luffa with his fists. She blocked most of his hits, but as she tried to back away, she got caught in a crossfire. Three Cell Juniors and Gotenks were firing ki blasts at her from all sides.

"Idiots!" Luffa shouted. She broke away from Vegeta and held her fists close to her chest. There was no time to dodge, so she concentrated her power and generated a defensive field. As she summoned more power, there was a chilling tone in the air, almost as if the field she was producing were shrieking. The ki blasts splashed harmlessly on the surface of the field, but Luffa knew she couldn't stay put for long. She could already sense Majin Buu and Gohan charging attacks of their own to batter her defenses.

But as she shot up into the sky, something followed her. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought it was Gotenks, but when she tried to swat him aside, she saw the figure for what it really was... too late.

"Haaaaa-ha ha ha heeeee!" cried the ki ghost as Luffa's hand made contact with its chin. Its face looked like Gotenks', but the rest of it was an indistinct white blob with doughy arms. It was just like the Ghost Attack Luffa had often used herself over the years.

As the ghost exploded in her face, Luffa had no time to be honored by the unintended tribute. The blast wasn't strong enough to hurt her, but it did knock her to the ground, and she rolled across the parkland like an air-car tumbling out of control.

When she came to a stop, she found she was surrounded. Gotenks hadn't just made only one ghost. Now there were twenty all around her, cackling with glee as their young master stood triumphantly in the background. The others--Vegeta, Gohan, Cell, Majin Buu, and the Cell Juniors, were close by.

"You're dead meat, lady!" Gotenks said as he held up his fingers in a 'V' sign. "One false move, and you get blown up into a million pieces!"

What infuriated Luffa was that even in this tight spot, there was still a chance to win, but it would only take longer and longer for her to secure a victory. In spite of her frustration, she still readied herself to counterattack. She couldn't give up, no matter how bleak the strategic picture was becoming. The Time Patrol had sought her help for a reason. She was the Legendary Super Saiyan, and she had a reputation to uphold.

But it was beginning to feel like a Legendary Super Saiyan would not be enough.

She would fight on nonetheless. For Luffa, there was no other way. It was more than pride or resolve. The sight of Gotenks acting as Demigra's puppet was sickening to her. And the thought of the Time Patrol fighting Demigra without her was equally revolting.

But it began to sink in for Luffa that she might win the battle and lose the war. And that there would be nothing she could do about it.

And then she heard a sound, like gas suddenly releasing from a pressurized valve. It reminded her of the airlock hatches she had seen in various spacecraft.

And as Luffa recognized the presence she suddenly sensed, she also recognized the voice that called out.

"Gotenks! Step away from her, right now! If it's a fight you want, then you can take it up with me!"

It was Son Goku.

All of her opponents turned to face him, and Luffa used the distraction to scramble to her feet and get clear of the ki ghosts. Most of them didn't even notice her as she leaped past them. They were too distracted by the newcomer. It would have been smart to exploit that advantage, Luffa thought. She could have used the lull in the battle to get some distance, or ambush another Cell Junior.

Instead, she approached the man and waved her hand to warn him away. She couldn't let him get hurt either.

"It's not safe here, Kakarot!" Luffa said. "They're after me, and I can't fight them and protect you at the same time--!"

As she stepped closer, he walked forward to close the distance between them. She expected him to be confused about her presence here. She had met Son Goku before, but only in time anomalies that had been wiped from history. Each time she encountered him, he would always ask who she was, and how she knew his name.

But this time, he made a confident smile, and held out his right hand.

"You must be Luffa, right?" he asked. "The Supreme Kai of Time told me all about you."

Luffa was so startled that she took Goku's hand without thinking. "You... know me?" she asked.

"Some of it, anyway," Goku said. "Now, how about we take care of these guys so you can get back to the Time Patrol, huh?"

Their foes gathered around them, and Cell chuckled with great relish.

"Ah, Goku," he said. "I don't know how you survived, but this is splendid. Killing you again will be far more entertaining than squashing this little no-count."

Goku glared at Cell and he withdrew his hand from Luffa's. "I don't know how you got here, Cell," Goku said firmly, "but whoever's behind this is going to pay for whatever they've done to my sons!"

With that, he made a mighty yell, and his hair, which was already bright yellow, now glowed brighter, and his aura roared around him like a storm.

And for the first time in long minutes, Luffa felt a renewed sense of triumph.

NEXT: Ally to Good.

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