#still not sure what Demigra is doing here

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (210/?)

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

[??????????????????????]

The Time Vault had been destroyed, and with it, all of history. All that remained of the universe was Demigra, who had committed the destruction, and Luffa, the last warrior left to oppose him. They were all that was left of the universe, or so it had seemed.

"Demigra has withdrawn to the Crack of Time, his former prison. Since the Crack is cut off from the natural flow of time, it shelters him from the effects of the Time Vault's destruction. And you, Luffa, are here, with the Scroll of Eternity, and your friend Dotz, and with.... me."

Luffa looked down at the Scroll of Eternity, which she had dropped on the white ground of this empty space. Then she looked up at the being who had emerged from the parchment. "Who are you?" Luffa asked. "What are you? For a moment, you seemed to be Tokitoki, the bird from the Time Nest, but that doesn't make any sense..."

"Because Tokitoki can't talk," said the mysterious figure. "And Demigra absorbed the Divine Tokitoki Bird, so how could he be here now, speaking with you?"

"Divine... Bird?" Dotz asked. "Luffa, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure I understand it myself," Luffa said, glancing back at Dotz. "I mean, I'm still confused to see you here, and I still haven't figured out where 'here' is."

"The truth is," the figure explained, "that Dotz is not truly present in this moment. Her psychic abilities allow her to peek into her own future. From her perspective, this is all a vision of things to come."

"Well, uh, yes, that's how I understood it," Dotz said. "I've been trying to find out what happened to Luffa ever since she disappeared on Planet Nagaoka. I've been improving my abilities, trying to get a better fix on her, until... now. But I have to admit, it feels like I'm standing here with you both. I can see and hear and touch Luffa, even though I know I'm still in my dining room at home."

"It's an impressive achievement, Dotz," the figure said. "The reason your vision is so clear is because so little remains of this moment in time. Only Luffa and Demigra, and the Divine Toki Toki Bird, which he consumed to achieve his power over time."

"And you," Dotz said. "Whoever you are. Was it you who lead me here?"

"No, you made it this far on your own," the figure replied. "I could have prevented you from tracking Luffa to this point, but I was pleased with your efforts, Dotz, and so I chose to allow you to share this moment with Luffa, as a reward to you both. Your long quest to find your friend has reached a successful conclusion."

"A reward to us both? Why reward me?" Luffa asked. "What did I do?"

"Funny you should ask that," the figure said. "Even now, you position yourself between Dotz and myself. You don't know what to make of me, or what my intentions are, but you still make every effort to protect your friend, even though you doubt you have the power to do so. It's no wonder that you inspired her so."

"Inspired?" Luffa asked. "What do you mean?"

"He...uh, I guess I should say 'they'. Well, they're right," Dotz said. "You're the reason I went to all this trouble, Luffa. Ever since you brought me out of that coma with your powers, I've been intrigued by who you are, what you represent. It was like my psychic foresight was intensified, and I could see things more clearly. And yet I couldn't tell your fortune, which only intrigued me more. And more than that... You stood up for me. Like that day in the Federation Council meeting. I don't think you should have killed that person, but it still meant a lot to me. No one's ever really stood up for me like that before."

"Hmmph. That was nothing," Luffa said. "You did a lot for the Federation during the Jindan War, Dotz. That honorless toad should have shown you some gratitude, but instead she spoke to you with nothing but contempt. She was lucky I made it quick."

"Yes, well... it still meant a lot to me," Dotz said. "After you went to Nagaoka, I got involved with some activist movements. I wanted to try to make a difference, like how you always did. Using my abilities to help others, it was kind of like how I tried to help you. And it changed my life. I could tell you all sorts of stories, but... mostly, I just wanted to say 'thank you.'"

"That's..." Luffa began to say, though she couldn't find the rest of the words. At last she crossed her arms and turned away. "I didn't..." she said, trying again to respond, but she couldn't.

"I don't know what's happening here, Luffa," Dotz said. "I'd like to help if I can. But even if I can't, I know you'll do what's best for everyone. It's not a prediction. It's just something I've very sure about."

"Thanks, Dotz," Luffa finally murmured. "I... don't know if you're right, but I appreciate the support. It's good to see you again."

"Yes, but it's time for Dotz to return to her dining room table," the mysterious figure said. "As I said earlier, I was impressed by your efforts, Dotz, and I wanted you to reach Luffa so you could express your gratitude, but you've done that now, and I have business with her that I don't want to reveal to others."

"Oh," Dotz said. "Well, I hope I didn't overstay my welcome."

"Not at all," the figure said. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Dotz." It was difficult to make out its features, though Luffa thought she could see a friendly smile within the diffuse glow of its form.

"Uh... well, oh goodness. I guess I really am going back," Dotz said. Luffa turned to look at her, and found her body was beginning to fade away. Dotz held up her hands and watched them with detached fascination.

"Dotz!" Luffa said with a sudden urgency. "Tell Zatte I'm sorry! Tell her--!"

"Zatte?" Dotz asked. "Oh, dear me. I didn't even think of it! I should have told you before..."

"Tell me what?" Luffa asked. "Dotz! What do you mean?"

Dotz continued speaking, but Luffa could no longer hear her. She continued to fade away, and when Luffa reached out for her, her hands passed through Dotz's body as though she were not there at all. Indeed, she never had been there. Soon, even the image of Dotz was no more. Luffa stared at the emptiness that remained, then looked back at the mysterious figure.

"What was she trying to tell me?" Luffa demanded.

"If I thought you were supposed to know," the figure replied, "then I would have allowed her to stay and answer you."

"Then you're in charge of... whatever this place is?" Luffa asked, waving her arm at the emptiness. "You're the one who brought me here?"

"It was Demigra's idea to corrupt the Scroll of Eternity and leave it in reach," the mysterious figure said. "I just used his plan to suit my own purpose."

"You said you had business with me," Luffa said. "Well, here I am. Is it about me fighting Demigra? Because the rest of the universe is gone, so there's not a whole lot else left for me to do."

"Are you ready to fight him?"

"Does it matter?" Luffa threw out her arms in exasperation, then stared down at her boots. "I don't know. Probably not. I just know I couldn't leave things where they stand."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," the mysterious figure explained. "You've been fighting for the Time Patrol, but mostly to take your mind off your problems. You never really understood their cause. And now you're about to rush into another battle without pausing to prepare yourself, or to appreciate the stakes."

"Why does that matter to you?" Luffa asked. "You seemed to be Tokitoki, but Demigra absorbed him. You don't look like any of the gods I've met so far..."

As she considered this, she looked back at the unfurled scroll lying near their feet. "You rose up out of the Scroll of Eternity. So maybe you are the Scroll, assuming humanoid form?"

"Interesting guess," the figure said. "But that's not it. The full truth would be difficult for you to comprehend."

"Ninth Eye..." Luffa muttered. It was an ancient oath used by her old friend Dr. Topsas. He had spoken it in reference to his religion. Luffa only said it because Dr. Topsas used to say it.

"Well, that's an even better guess," the figure said. "Let's approach it from that direction."

The figure did not change, and yet it assumed a more distinct appearance all the same. Luffa might have expected it to transform in some observable way, but this did not happen. There was no flash of light or colorful metamorphosis. She was now looking at an arachnoid creature, similar in appearance to Dr. Topsas, but with nine eyes atop his head instead of the usual eight. Each eye gleamed a dazzling blue, like sapphire gems. Where Topsas' pedipalps constantly fidgeted and wiggled to indicate his mood, this arachnoid remained very still, suggesting a preternatural calm that no mortal could achieve. He stood on four of his eight legs, and held out the hands on his other four limbs in a welcoming gesture.

Luffa was not impressed. "Are you telling me that you're God?" she asked. "That Doctor Topsas picked the right religion, and everyone else is doing it wrong?"

"You recognize this imagery, Little Mammal," he said patiently. "I'm not claiming this as my identity, but it makes a useful model."

"Then you're some sort of overseer?" Luffa suggested. "Chronoa's boss, if she has one."

The arachnoid divinity was replaced with a new form, one Luffa had never seen before, but was somehow recognizable nonetheless. It looked like an alien child, with a large, egg-shaped head, blue in the center, and purple on the sides. The child's innocent eyes looked up at Luffa, and he smiled enthusiastically.

"Nuh-uh, this is Chronoa's boss," the child said with a giggle. "He thinks she does a good job, but she still gets really scared whenever she meets him. I mean really really scared."

"I'll take your word for it," Luffa said. "But I still don't understand."

The child was gone and the Divine Tokitoki Bird appeared. It spoke with a voice that reminded Luffa of Son Goku, if he had a beak and ate birdseed for every meal.

"You were right when you said I couldn't be Tokitoki, but let's consider him for a moment, shall we? Chronoa once told you that Tokitoki creates time. That sounds rather important, doesn't it? And yet, Tokitoki doesn't appear to be able to speak. He can't even feed himself, which is why the Kais chose one of their own to look after him."

"Just like how the Scroll of Eternity can't protect itself," Luffa said. "Demigra erased all of history pretty easily now that I think about it. I mean, it was an impressive attack he used, but the power behind it wasn't that intense."

"All of history? Then how are we talking to each other now? And what's that lying on the ground there?"

Luffa shrugged. "I just assumed Demigra left a chunk of time for me to exist in," she said. "Or he made all of this with his new power. I mean, he absorbed Tokitoki, the real one. That means he can create time now, right?"

"That's right."

The divine bird floating before Luffa was gone, and Demigra now stood in his place. Luffa's eyes narrowed, but she did not attack. The body language was all wrong, and though it was a perfect recreation of her enemy, she knew instinctively that this was not the same being.

All the same, it was still unnerving to see Demigra with such kind eyes, gesturing at himself like an elementary school teacher giving lessons.

"Demigra took the Divine Tokitoki Bird and assumed its powers for himself. He wants to control time in a way that Chronoa never could. After all, the Supreme Kai of Time isn't supposed to control time at all. She is a steward, tending her charge. The gardener doesn't command the plants to grow, nor does he bloom the flowers himself. There's an order to these things."

"Is that what you are, then?" Luffa asked. "You're some sort of... personification of nature?"

The not-Demigra raised an eyebrow, as though considering her question. "That's an interesting way of looking at it."

He was gone, and a new speaker was there. Luffa did not recognize this one. He looked like an Earthling, but not like any of the Earthling Time Patrollers Luffa had met. He was a civilian, tall, middle-aged, and entirely unremarkable. Without making eye contact, he paced around the emptiness, as though unsure what to do with himself as he talked.

"They wrote all those stories about you back then," he said, occasionally running his fingers over his beard. "You used to read them in your spare time, remember? Back when you lived aboard the Emerald Eye."

"You know about that?" Luffa asked. It had felt like a lifetime ago, but in her early career as the Super Saiyan, she had developed a fan following, and since they knew little about Luffa herself, they began to write their own stories and share them through subspace communication networks. Luffa had sampled a number of these for her own amusement.

"Yeah, like that one where you were a werewolf or whatever. Chapter... hold on. Right, Chapter 23. Sorry. I had to look it up. 'Sergio Blackthorne'. Great stuff."

"How did you know...?" Luffa asked. "Wait, 'Chapter 23'? What are you talking about?"

"One way to look at this is like you're a character in a story," he explained. "That someone is writing all of this down, right now, as you experience it. Everything you've ever said, done, or felt is in that story, no different from that other one you read, the one where you get sold to a boy band and they--"

"Could we not talk about that one?" Luffa said, blushing.

"Oh, right, sorry about that. Anyway, your whole life is the story. The Divine Tokitoki Bird just makes the paper that it's written on. The Scroll of Eternity contains the text, and the Supreme Kai of Time makes sure no one rewrites Chapter 23 and turns you into an accountant, or a space whale. But who's putting the words on the page? Who decides what happens next?"

"You?" Luffa guessed.

"Well, that would be telling," he said with a smirk. "It'd certainly be easier to just say that. Free will is an illusion, and everything you say and do is decided ahead of time by an old man with a beard sitting on a cloud. Or an old man with a beard sitting in front of a computer. Or it's a Kai with a magic wand, or a nine-eyed spider, or a disembodied Providence. But if it was all laid out for you in advance, then you and I wouldn't need to have this talk, would we? Demigra wouldn't be a problem either. You'd just do what you're predestined to do, and he'd do what he's predestined to do, and it would all be a formality."

"He gave me a choice," Luffa said. "He planned everything out, but he couldn't be sure about anything after he took out the Time Vault, so he offered a peace deal if I left him alone."

"And you chose to reject his offer."

She shook her head and made a desperate groan. "It was all wrong," she said. "I mean, I thought it was a trick at first, but it all seemed so real, and the longer I was in that world he created for me, the more I wanted to stay there. But it just wouldn't work..."

"I know. For what it's worth, it was real. Demigra really did use Tokitoki's power to preserve a slice of the old history for you to live your life over again. But you did well to refuse his temptation."

"Don't misunderstand," Luffa said. "I didn't leave that world because of any sort of selfless nobility or keen insight. I was in there for six weeks, living out my days on Dorlu Prime, trying to make things the way I wanted them to be. But in the end, I just found new ways to screw it all up."

"Exactly. You saw through Demigra's lie."

"What are you talking about?" Luffa asked.

"I'm talking about why it's forbidden to change history," the mysterious figure said. The form he took became that of the Supreme Kai of Time, and for a moment Luffa thought Chronoa had somehow joined them in this empty place.

"You always wondered, didn't you?" she asked. "Trunks changed history, and Chronoa allowed those changes to remain, but no one else gets the same exception. What's so wrong with changing the past? How could it be a crime to prevent a tragedy?"

"Trunks was trying to save his world from those killer cyborgs. Or androids. I forget which," Luffa said.

The figure changed again, this time assuming the form of Cell, in his perfect form. "And Trunks' actions led to a much greater crisis," he said. "Who's to say which changes were justified and which were not?"

"But it all worked out for him," Luffa protested. "Kakarot died either way, but at least he got to come back to life later on in one timeline. At least one version of Trunks got to grow up with his father."

"Perhaps, but what about some other boy who might have lost his father in the altered world? Trunks might have made a better world for some people, but it could have become worse for others."

"You don't know that," Luffa objected. "And even if you did, how could he be expected to anticipate every possible consequence of...?"

The mysterious figure looked like Trunks now, and he raised his chin triumphantly as the realization finally dawned on Luffa.

"Oh," she said.

"Oh," the mysterious figure replied.

"In the world Demigra made for me," Luffa said. "He killed all the Tikosi, so that I'd never become the Super Saiyan. My father never had the chance to betray me, never had the chance to turn my husband against me. I thought I had it made, except I never had any reason to go to the Plutark system, which meant I never had the chance to save Wampaaan'riix's life."

"Go on."

"I... I had no idea what to do with my husband and my future-wife. And while I was still making up my mind, they worked it out on their own. Some sort of dopey 'arrangement.' You're saying that was all real? That wasn't some crappy illusion Demigra came up with?"

"It was a real scenario, yes."

Luffa threw back her head and punched her right palm with her left. "I could have murdered them both," she growled. "The way they talked about... about sharing me like some half-empty canteen bottle! I expected Kandai to treat me like dirt, but she was special!"

"She would be special," he said. "Later, when time had passed and certain things happened between the two of you. Just because you and Zatte fell in love at a certain time, that doesn't mean you were compatible at an earlier time. She had feelings for you, even back then, but she wasn't ready for those feelings yet. Neither were you."

"The cake," Luffa said.

"Cake?"

"Chronoa tried to explain it to me," Luffa said. She began to pace around the void in wide arcs as she considered it. "She said time is what keeps everything from happening all at once. You can speed things up or go forward or backward, but the batter still needs time to bake."

She turned back to the figure with a worried look in her eyes. "What are you trying to tell me here?" she asked. "That there's only one way that everything has to turn out? Only one path that we all have to follow, no matter how much it hurts?"

"No," the figure said. "That's not it at all. I'm saying that the pain you experienced in the past may lead to something worthwhile in the future. When someone like you or Trunks tries to change the past, there's a chance it may make things worse, or different, or maybe even better. But how could you, with your limited perception, ever know for sure? In the end, all you can do is trade one sequence of events for another."

"Like with Cell," Luffa said. "He was designed to absorb 17 and 18, but they were already dead in his lifetime, so he had to go back in time to when they were still alive. Except that just wound up getting him killed."

"Very good," the figure said. Now it looked like Luffa herself. "Do you think Cell would rather be imperfect or dead? The point is that the time machine never actually offer him a better path. In the end, it only gave him a choice between two bad endings."

"I get it," Luffa said. "I mean, I sort of understood when I picked up that scroll to come here. But now it's a lot clearer to me. Sooner or later, no matter which friends I got to keep, no matter how strong I might have become, I probably would have run into some other problem. I could keep Keda from dying or disappearing, but for how long? I could avoid becoming the Super Saiyan, but that wouldn't just solve everything. Maybe I'd find myself in a pinch where I'd need that kind of power. It might have taken me years to get there, but sooner or later, I'd realize Demigra's 'gift' wasn't really worth it. It's just that..."

"Yes?"

Tears began to well up in her eyes. "It hurts," she said as she began to ball up her fists. "Not just the Tikosi, but all the other things that went wrong. And maybe Dotz turned out better off, but I let so many people down. Maybe if I'd done things differently, the Saiyans could have done something about Frieza, or... I don't know. Maybe my wife and I could still be together."

"You carry regrets," the figure said. "Things you wish you could undo."

"Yes," Luffa said. "I guess someone like you wouldn't know anything about that."

"Not exactly. But that's just why changing history is so dangerous. Trunks learned the hard way that regrets and good intentions aren't always enough. Your friends prayed to gods who could be called 'all-knowing'. They would exist outside of time. Everlasting. Eternal. They would know everything that ever happened and everything that ever will. To them, it's all like reading every page of the book all at once. And such a being would be wise enough to know how to alter history without any unwanted side-effects. But you? It just wouldn't work."

"Then what good am I?" Luffa asked. "If I'm bound to fail, then what's the point of going on?"

"Going on is the point," the figure replied. "If I were one of those eternal beings... I think I'd take some interest in the temporal existence of someone like you. Someone who can fail and succeed. Someone who doesn't know how the story ends, and so she has to do the best she can with what she does know. She makes her decisions based on what she's learned in the past. Life experiences, information gathered by others, and stories passed down from her ancestors. It's not perfect, but it gives her a code of conduct, a way to decide what to do when the path isn't so clear, and the answers aren't so obvious."

The figure took a new form, this time resembling Son Goku. Despite the physical resemblance, his expression lacked the care-free cheerfulness of the real thing. He looked down at Luffa with a sort of detached warmth in his eyes, like a person looking at a photo of a beloved pet. She didn't care much for this.

"Eventually," he went on, "you might go on to set an example for others, and they can learn from your mistakes or repeat them all over again."

"If that's supposed to make me feel better, then fat chance," Luffa said. "Kakarot's gone, remember? Demigra destroyed the Time Vault, along with the rest of history. And even if he survived somehow, he doesn't know a thing about me. He grew up on Earth, barely knowing what a Saiyan was. All he ever heard was that I was a man who blew himself up one day. Whatever legacy I might have had is through him, and he's gone now."

"You think so?" the figure asked. "So why did you take the scroll and come here, then? Demigra left it for you so you could fight him. But if everyone's already gone, then what would be the point?"

"I just wanted to get away from that other world he made for me," Luffa fumed. "He took away my Super Saiyan power when he stuck me in my younger body, but I still wanted to fight him, if only just to show him I wouldn't play along with his dumb plans."

"I see. Then you expect to die."

"Either he kills me, or I win and I'm stuck in the Crack of Time for the rest of my life," Luffa said. "What else is left?"

"Maybe you should take a closer look at that scroll and see for yourself."

Luffa was confused for a moment, then she reached down to fetch the Scroll off the ground. As she held it open, an image appeared in the parchment.

*******

[21 April, Age 850]

"After everything is destroyed, I'll make a new history! My history!"

As Demigra shouted these words, there appeared around him dozens of copies of his scepter, only they were blood red, and glowing ominously.

"What?" Chronoa asked. "What do you mean by that? What are you thinking?"

"A new history?" Luffa asked. "Can he do that?"

As she contemplated the question, Son Goku transformed into a Super Saiyan and attacked. Luffa followed his lead, but Demigra was ready for them, and he flung his hands forward, sending the crimson scepters down at them like a hail of arrows.

The two of them managed to dodge some of the energy spears, but there were too many of them, and one finally went through Luffa's chest. Soon enough, she was pinned to the floor of the Time Vault, and Goku was brought down only a few moments later.

As Chronoa knelt beside Luffa, the Time Vault echoed with the howls of the arcane wind, mixed with Demigra's triumphant laughter.

"Everything!!" he shouted. "Begone!"

"Demigraaaa!" Chronoa shouted. She stood between Goku and Luffa, and watched helplessly as Demigra produced a large energy distortion in the atrium of the Time Vault. There was nothing anyone could do...

*******

[???????????????]

In the empty world, Luffa looked up from the Scroll of Eternity and her eyes narrowed with quiet fury.

"That bastard..." Luffa muttered.

"You noticed something?" the mysterious figure asked.

She rolled up the scroll and waved it at him angrily. "This was all another temporal incursion!" she shouted. "It's the exact same crap I've been dealing with since I joined up with the Time Patrol!"

"Oh?"

She pointed to the scroll with her free hand. "Look!" she shouted. "It's got the same purple smoke coming off of it, just like every other time Towa or Demigra screwed around with history. I didn't realize it until just now, because I'm used to letting Chronoa or Trunks tell me these things, but it's the exact same deal! Which means I can go back to before it happened and fix it! Just like every other Time Patrol mission!"

"Well that is good news," the mysterious figure said.

"Which means," Luffa continued, "I can save the Time Vault! Kakarot and the others can survive! The history we knew can still exist!"

She began to pace back and forth, pumping her arms furiously as she talked.

"You seem upset about this," the figure observed.

"I'm upset because that coward Demigra knew all of this could be prevented!" Luffa seethed. "He knew this scroll would be left behind, and he knew I'd use it to undo his final attack, so he needed a way to keep me guessing instead of figuring that out! That other Dorlu Prime... that was no peace offering, it was a damn diversion!"

"Then it sounds like you're ready to face him," the mysterious figure said. "I suppose I should let you get on with your work. Good luck, as they say."

"Wait," Luffa said. "You never explained who you are."

"That's right. I didn't."

"Then whatever you are, at least tell me why you bothered appearing before me like this," Luffa asked. "You must be some sort of big shot in the hierarchy of the universe. So why take time out of your day to talk with little old me?"

The figure's form became vague and undefined again. It shrugged its shoulders, and Luffa had trouble making out the gesture. It was like looking at a shadow among shadows.

"Well, at the moment, you're the only one left in the whole universe," the figure explained. "So that makes you more important than you might think."

"I guess so," Luffa said.

"And the Divine Tokitoki Bird likes you," the figure continued. "That matters to me. He doesn't befriend people easily. There's a legend that says those befriended by Tokitoki receive a special protection."

"Is that what this is?" Luffa asked. "Did he send you to help me out? Are you some aspect of his time power or something?"

The figure turned and walked away from Luffa. "I never said that," the figure replied. "Anyway, Tokitoki is trapped inside Demigra, so how could he send anything to you? But maybe if you defeat Demigra, you can free him, and ask him yourself."

Luffa wanted to know more, but she lost sight of the mysterious figure as his form faded into the white expanse of the world around her. She was alone again.

"No," she insisted. "I was never alone. Dotz was with me in spirit this whole time. All of you were, in your own ways..."

She held up the scroll and stared at it. When held a certain way, the scroll would send a Time Patroller back to the moment of a temporal incursion, where she could intervene and set things right. The trip would be instantaneous.

But Luffa decided to wait a moment before proceeding with her mission. Instead, she held the scroll and began raising her power level, increasing her ki higher and higher, and directing her senses inward to monitor it.

It only took her a few moments to surpass her maximum level from when she lived on Dorlu Prime. Just as she had suspected, the younger body Demigra had "given" to her was another trick. Illusion or not, it was only temporary, and she was back to normal.

She continued to increase her power, letting her anger drive her on.

Then, after a certain span of time, when she was ready, she used the Scroll, and disappeared.

NEXT: Into the Crack of Time.

[nimedhel09]

SDBH commentary - episode 31 (SPOILERS AHEAD)

And we're back baby!

Well, not really, I'm still sick, still out of it, but I'm kind of alive, so let's go for a SDBH episode.

As always, it'll be more ranting about stuff and random commentary than anything else.

- I think Fuu's new design is growing on me, lol

- I LOVE SS4 Vegito. I love SS4 period.

- Bluper Saiyan is overrated and needs to die. SS4 SUPREMACY!

- And we're moving!

- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! He's comiiiiing! My evil legendary saiyan husbandooooo!

- Ok, but WTH is this animation? I hate it. Also Broly's face is weird. It's not its beautiful self. It looks all round and weird and stuff. Even his body is kind of weird? Like there's something off with they way they drew his muscle?

- OMG! SS4 Broly. I LIVE and I LOVE. (I'm a Broly fangirl, can't you tell?)

- Waiting for him to destroy the heck out of the protagonists and basically everyone present in this weird place. Though I'd be happy to see some BLOOD, thank you.

- I hate this fight.

- Fuu being ignored and going back to his nefarious plans.

- What is happening?

- Ah we see a bit of the baddies: Turles and scientist-guy (I can't be bothered to recall his name) and oh? Poor Cumber being imprisoned in that thing and looking at... Hearts?

- Hearts who, btw, got a glow-up, design-wise. He looks prettier this way, LOL.

Aaaaaand that's the episode?

Like, we barely go a fight. I didn't enjoy Broly destroying the heroes or anything, I'm still confused of what Demigra is doing here (ISN'T HE SUPPOSED TO BE A BADDIE????? SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME), as is nearly always the case in Super and Super-adjacent media (outside of the ToP ark and the DBS Broly film), the fights and most of the animation and just the way the characters are drawn are poopy, power scaling is a MESS, and the plot? How to say this? It's also a big old mess and I don't know why I keep on inflicting this to myself (I know why: SS4, the xeno crew and seeing old baddies make their comebacks, plus Cumber... yes, I'm not even sorry to say that I have a thing for big saiyans - be they evil or not, looking at you DBS Broly - , ok?).

[ofieugogyshz]

7, 17, 29!

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

getting to escape, experience another world, be someone else entirely and experience catharsis from that. stuff like that.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

i havent touched anything lately, my most current wip is over a few months old i think. I'm not even sure what will or won't make it into it, because it's the db xenoverse squad fic. there's just. SO MUCH to ramble on about, following 5 diff characters even tho it'll focus mostly on Chikori.

i will admit that i still dunno what i'm gonna do for Kian for most of the series. but the story starts about 3-4 years before the events of xv1, with the Majin Time Patrollers Nanna and Mulla investigating a time anomaly/rift, and coming across Chikori. after vague exchanges in which both parties have varying levels of suspicions, the majins decide to drop the saiyan off on the saiyan rehabilitation planet Earth. they go back, chikori spends 2-3 years living on the peaceful planet in a sort of dull haze (and i'm... just realizing how that echoes my own irl... chikori so full of parallels of life for me circa freeing of my previous shackles.) meeting Fallafal and living with his family, until the Majins come back 2-3 years after dropping chikori off, going "oopsies" (well, nanna mostly) because they got yelled at by the supreme kai of time (skot) for not bringing her back. and then chikori goes with them and fallafal is just like wtf and demands to go with bc he has a crush on chikori is concerned about her wellbeing and doesn't trust people who just. forget to take someone back with them? and drop them off in the woods on a planet they're not even from???? so yeah that's def sus but also golden retriever puppy dog fallafal :c

and then they both become time patrollers over some time (maybe a year, maybe less), making friends with a few others' xv ocs, and then... the events of xv1 happen!!! and then it just becomes a regular retelling with ocs slapped in. there's a different saiyan arc, of sorts, that is centered around Chikori and her PTSD and closing the doors on some parts of her life that she was forcibly extricated from, and learning how to walk away and/or heal from that. Fallafal learbs some self-confidence/to not attach himself so closely to Chikori bc he feels all alone and useless being a human among super warriors that could destroy earth with just one finger, and his own feelings of inadequacy because he can't keep up with the squad. i don't know what the others' arcs are, beyond Kian opening up to the squad on the side, a la "powerful lone wolf joins the friendship squad and begrudginly accepts their friendship". Maybe something where Nanna's just been set up as this frivolous squad leader and then it's revealed how much she actually protecc/care her newbies. Mulla.... idek yet.

then idk somehow they defeat demigra with the power of friendship or some shit and chikori never learns ssj bc i'm just following my og playthru and i never used that skill at all LMFAO

this is a lot of pre-game story to set the fuck up though, a lot of fucking "how they all meet" details, and oh also i love fallafal's sister bc she's trans and gr8 but i'm sad bc i didnt make her a mc and she deserves to appear more but just. wouldn't fit in with most of the story. but she deserves her own shit. love her.

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

we just don't know. sometimes it's a "i have a MUCH more interesting idea based off this one random thought and i am going to take it and RUN WITH IT." most times its just "this random idea popped up and it sounds so amazing for a fic that i have to write it RIGHT NOW OR LOSE IT."

sometimes it's just the "here's how events would unfold if it was me or my ocs" and that's how you get my retelling fics LMFAO.

when the well is dry:

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (203/?)

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.

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

The Demon God Demigra had seized control of Toki Toki City, and had nearly defeated the Time Patrol.  Of the three who remained, Trunks and the Supreme Kai of Time were in no shape to fight.   The third, Luffa, was wounded, and while she could still fight, she couldn't protect the others at the same time.  And then, just when they needed it the most, reinforcements arrived.

"Goku!" Chronoa called out.   "You're here!"

Luffa had met him before.  Before launching his invasion of Toki Toki City, Demigra had instigated a crisis on Planet Earth, during the era of Son Goku's lifetime.   Luffa had gone to intervene, but was surprised to discover that Goku had been deputized by the Time Patrol to help her.   The two of them planned to return to Toki Toki City together, but for some reason, only Luffa made it back.  Now, at last, Goku had arrived, and from the sound of things, the Supreme Kai of Time had been expecting him way.  That caught Luffa's attention.  Chronoa had planned all of this?

"Hey, Luffa.  Looks like I'm a little late," Goku said.   He never took his eyes off Demigra as he spoke.   "I'll take over from here, okay?"

Luffa didn't like handing things over to Goku, but she was in no position to object.   She was hurt, and while she could still fight, Goku was fresh, which made him the obvious choice to go on the offensive.  At least this way, Luffa could protect the others so he wouldn't be distracted the way she had been when Demigra got the drop on her.  She flew over to Chronoa, and watched Goku with great interest.

"You must be Demigra!" Goku said.   "You've gone far enough!"

"Goku?" Demigra said with disbelief.  "And what can you possibly do to stop me?"

Hovering in midair, Goku raised his hands into a defensive posture.   "I guess there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" he said confidently.

To Luffa's great surprise, Goku suddenly dropped his Super Saiyan form.   His hair reverted to its natural black color, and his power dropped considerably.   For a moment, she wondered if he had gotten hurt somehow, but then Goku and Demigra suddenly vanished, and there were only loud booms that echoed throughout the city as the two of them collided at super-speed.  Luffa could have monitored their movements, but she was too distracted by Chronoa holding Luffa's injured arm.   Whatever Goku's strategy was, she would have to let it play out.

"This isn't a lucky break," Luffa said.  "You brought Kakarot here somehow, at this exact moment."

"I keep a set of Dragon Balls handy in case of emergency," Chronoa said.   "When Demigra broke out of the Crack of Time, I summoned Shenron and made a wish of my own.  Now hold still..."

Luffa could feel Chronoa's healing power working on her arm.  She supposed that it had a similar principle to Demigra's self-healing ability, except that Chronoa's was empathic in nature.   To heal Luffa's injuries, Chronoa had to take the damage onto herself.   Luffa would have objected to this under normal circumstances, but in the middle of a battle, it seemed like the only available option.

"You should have healed Trunks instead," Luffa insisted.

"He told me to save it for you," Chronoa said.

"That's ridiculous," Luffa said.   "I just fought Trunks, and he was tougher than anyone I've ever faced.  Without Demigra's mind control slowing him down, he'd be unstoppable--"

"He told me you were stronger," Chronoa told her.   "I mean, I'd rather heal you both part-way, at least ease your pain, but he was sure that this would be the way to win, and I trust his judgment."

Luffa didn't know what to say to that.  "I thought he was kind of a blowhard, but I had him all wrong.  He really will do anything it takes to win this."

"That's right," Chronoa said.   Her voice was becoming more pained as she spoke, and Luffa could tell that the injuries were taking their toll on her.

"You can stop now.  That's enough," Luffa said.   Factually, it wasn't enough.   Her arm was in no shape to fight, but at least it was healed to the point where Luffa believed could protect it to some extent.

"Shut up and let me do this, will you?" Chronoa said through clenched teeth.  "I need you at one hundred percent, okay?"

"No you don't," Luffa said, "That's why you summoned Kakarot here, isn't it?   So he could step in and finish this guy off after I blew it.     But if I'm recovered enough, I can lend support and--"

"You're afraid, aren't you?" Chronoa said.

"What?"

"Not of Demigra, I mean.  You're worried about the rest of us," Chronoa said.  "You're worried something will happen to Trunks or me, or to the other Time Patrollers.  Or that you'll die before the end of the fight, leaving us in a lurch.  Is that it?"

"There's nothing to worry about," Luffa said.  "I've seen Kakarot in action, and at this level, he can cover this.  I just need to warn him about Demigra's magic, but--"

"I knew we might need an ace up our sleeve," Chronoa said.  "Something Demigra wouldn't expect.  The reason we never asked Goku for help was because the changes in history were during his own lifespan, and that made it risky.   But I decided to make an exception to help you out in West City, so I deputized him into the Time Patrol, but that's not why I brought him here."

"Then why?" Luffa asked.

"I left Goku a scroll he could use to travel to the Time Nest, but I wanted him to show up at the moment we needed him the most.  You can't really use the Scroll of Eternity for that kind of fine tune work, so I used the Dragon Balls to help.   I wished for Shenron to make the scroll bring Goku here at the moment we needed him the most.   Which is now."

"Well sure," Luffa said.  "It's a good plan."

"No, it was just a failsafe," Chronoa said.   "You're the plan, Luffa.  Trunks and I trusted Shenron to send us a worthy ally.   And now... unf!... now we trust you.    You can do this.  We know you can.  And I think you know it too."

"You don't get it," Luffa said.  "I've screwed up before.  I've overestimated myself and good people suffered for it."

Once Chronoa's powers had sufficiently eased the pain, Luffa began watching Goku's movements, her green eyes darting side-to-side as she followed his movements.  "He's good," Luffa said.  "I think he's about as strong as me, but it's not just power.  His motions are so precise, so fluid.  I can see why Trunks was uneasy about me.  If this was the hero he expected, I can understand why he'd call me reckless."

"Goku's a great fighter, sure," Chronoa said, "but he's not the one who defeated Towa for us, or got us this far against Demigra. You're still the one we need, Luffa."

At last, Chronoa's work was finished, and Luffa found herself completely healed.  She looked back at the Kai and found her gripping her own left arm and wincing the same way Luffa had done moments ago.   It shamed Luffa to see her own injuries on Chronoa's body.   It was a living testament to her shortcomings as a warrior.  It infuriated Luffa, in a way that none of her enemies ever could.

"All right," Luffa said as she rose to her feet.  "If you're so sure I can win, I'll do it."

But as she rose into the air, she noticed Demigra glancing down at Chronoa, and then he raised his hand and smiled.

"Dammit!" Luffa shouted.  She picked up speed, but it was still too late.  Goku was caught in a field of purple fog, the same spell that had nearly enslaved Luffa before he arrived.

As much as she wanted to fight Son Goku, this was not the time or the place.  She could already see his body begin to stiffen as Demgira's magic immobilized him.  Trunks had saved her from the mind control spell, and Chronoa had used her own powers to free her body, but now both of them were too badly hurt to do that again.   It was up to Luffa this time, but she didn't know if she could make it before it was too late.  She could see the filament of magic power lancing out from Demigra's hand, reaching for Goku's heart. It was so much faster than it had seemed when it had been happening to her.   But just when she was close enough to strike--

It shattered.  The evil line simply cracked apart like a thin rod of ice.   The pieces floated in mid-air for a moment, then evaporated into an arcane mist, and then disappeared completely.

Surprised, Luffa looked to Demigra, who was somehow even more amazed.

"What?!" he growled.  "Impossible!"

She looked back at Goku, who was still immobilized in the purple fog.  If he had somehow blocked the mind-control spell, it had no effect on the other spell that held him in place.  He looked more confused than concerned.

Demigra tried again, but the result was the same.   And just as Luffa was about to take matters into her own hands, Goku vanished from the sphere of purple fog.  Before Luffa could wonder what happened to him, she saw him floating beside her, as though he had been there the whole time.

"Don't worry," Goku assured her.  "I'm all right.  But what the heck was that all about?"

"He tried to brainwash you," Luffa said.  "The way he did to Frieza and your boys back on Earth."

"Really?" Goku said.  He looked at his hands and blinked a few times with a perplexed expression.  "I don't feel like workin' for Demigra. Are you sure that's how it works?"

"He tried it on me before you got here," Luffa said with a sharp nod.   "Sorry, but I didn't get a chance to warn you about that."

He looked at her with a friendly smile.  "Hey, it's okay.  You had a lot to deal with.  Besides, that thing he used to hold my body still doesn't seem to stop me from usin' Instant Transmission."

Demigra was understandably furious.  He had been holding his own against Goku so far, but it was apparent that he had been waiting for this chance, only to have it go up in smoke.  "Goku...?  What a cursed man!" he snarled.   "Why won't my godly magic work on you?!"

"You must be running out of juice, Demigra," Luffa taunted.  "Kakarot wasn't even transformed, and you still couldn't snag him!"

"Impossible!" Demigra shouted.  "My power is growing with each second!  Why?!"

Goku put his hand to his chin and rolled his eyes thoughtfully.   "Huh.  I don't know either," he said as he genuinely considered the problem.   "I mean, it didn't work on Luffa either, though, right?"

"Only because Trunks intervened," Luffa said.  "But Demigra used it on Trunks before that, and I had to beat him senseless before I could snap him out of it."

Goku looked down at Trunks, who was still lying in the golden sands at the bottom of the hourglass.  Chronoa knelt beside him, doing  what she could to ease his suffering.  "Gosh," Goku said.  "I noticed he was all beat up, but I thought that was Demigra's doing.  No, I guess that couldn't work.  Demigra's not nearly tough enough to beat Trunks by himself."

"You insolent--!" Demigra roared, but Luffa cut him off.

"Why are we just floating here trying to suss this out?!" she demanded.

"Well, it's important," Goku insisted.  "Look, Demigra, you just said your power keeps increasing, so you must have been weaker when you fought Trunks, and Luffa took Trunks down, so that gives me a general idea of how strong you both would have been.  You don't have to get all offended about it."

He continued to stroke his chin as he contemplated the matter, which began to irritate Luffa, until she noticed how much it was enraging Demigra.  Then she began to enjoy the spectacle.

"And it worked on Vegeta and the boys too," Goku said. "But not me.  Well, it might be... I don't know... it might be because I became a god once.  A god like you.  Maybe that might be why."

"Yamoshi's ritual," Luffa said.  "Lord Beerus said your body somehow remembered that divine power, even after the god form wore off.  But you're nowhere near that strong right now..."

"You're right," Goku said.  "I can still tap into a little of that god power when I'm a Super Saiyan, but I wanted to hold back while I got a handle on what Demigra could do.  But maybe it's got more to do with the ritual than the power it gave me.   I'm not sure of any of it, I'm just thinkin' out loud, you know?"

"Maybe you've got something there," Luffa said.  "The ritual itself might have more to it than just power.   And you're probably the first Saiyan to use it since Yamoshi's day."

"Was that the guy's name?" Goku asked.  "Shenron told us the story, but he didn't say who it was."

"He was one of the old heroes of Saiyan legend," Luffa said.  "Maybe the first, but our folklore gets kind of murky that far back."

In spite of the situation, she felt a chill of excitement as she explained this to Goku.  By her own reckoning the old heroes of Saiyan folklore were all Super Saiyans like herself and Son Goku.  To discuss that lineage with another member of it was something special, even if she was the only one who could appreciate it.

"That must be it.  A Super Saiyan God!   Curses!"

Luffa had not forgotten Demigra, but she had been pretending to ignore him while chatting with Goku.   He now gripped his scepter tighter and his face twisted into a resentful grimace as he spoke.

"Something wrong with that, Demigra?" Luffa asked innocently.

"He's probably sore because he knew he couldn't beat me without switchin' me over to his side," Goku said.  "He kept checking on you and the Supreme Kai of Time the whole time we were fighting, like he was waiting for something to happen.  And well... you saw it for yourself, right?"

Luffa nodded.  "I did," she said.   "Even if he managed to get past you, I could have handled him.  His only chance was to turn the two of us against each other.   Now that we know he can't control you, his only chance is to try to enslave me, and that won't be happening again."

"Don't you dare underestimate me!" Demigra screamed.  "You've done well to last this long against me, and Chronoa was very shrewd to bring Goku here for reinforcement, but I am a god now, and you will fall before me!   Your immunity to my magic will only prolong your agony!"

"You're no god, Demigra," Luffa said.  "And even if you were, it won't win this fight.   I'll prove it to you.  Hey, Kakarot.  Take a breather."

"Huh?" Goku asked.   "You want to jump back in already?  But I was just starting to get into this."

"I've got a score to settle with this bastard," Luffa said.  "He only got the drop on me because he tried to attack the others as a distraction, but now you're here to protect them while I fight.  And I don't want him to die thinking that it took another god to kill him."

"Well, okay," Goku said.  "Just let me know if you want to switch out again."

"I won't," Luffa assured him, "but thanks anyway."

Goku descended to meet the Kai, while Luffa faced off with Demigra, who began to laugh.

"You truly are hopeless!" he said.   "Working together, the two of you might have had a chance, but now--!"

"Vengeance Cannon," Luffa said, though she didn't move.

"What?" Demigra snapped.

"I just wanted to tell you it was coming," Luffa said.   She held up her let hand, brushing her forehead with the index and middle fingers, and then pointed them at Demigra, mimicking the technique.   "You saw me use it before when I fought Trunks, right?  The red laser beam I shoot?   That's what I call it."

"You've gone mad with terror," Demigra said, shaking his head.

"No, I'm just calling my shot.  It's kind of dumb how fighters will call out the names of their best moves.  At best, it's overconfident, and at worst it just warns the enemy ahead of time.  But I think it keeps me sharp.  I try to make sure I only say it when I'm sure the enemy can't do anything about it."

"Is that so?" Demigra asked.  "And what makes you think I need to do anything about your pitiful techniques?  You've seen how easily I can reverse the damage you inflict upon me."

"I have," Luffa said.   "But I also watched you fighting Kakarot in his base form, and you couldn't lay a hand on him.  I think I've got you figured out, Demigra, which means I can put a hole in your miserable body whenever I please, and you can't do a damn thing about it."

"Then I shall just have to demonstrate how wrong you are!" Demigra shouted.

Luffa held out her hand, and for the briefest of instants, Demigra tensed up, expecting some new attack.  Instead, she simply curled in her fingers, beckoning him to come to her.

"Show me," she said.  "If you think you can."

Demigra seemed eager to attack, but then he relaxed his posture and smirked at her.  "Ah, Luffa," he said.   "You really are quite a fascinating warrior.   You'll make a fine addition to my Time Patrol.  You might even enjoy it."

"Try it," Luffa said.  "I dare you."

"No," Demigra said.  "Not before I prove that you were never a match for me.   You're too much like Trunks.  I'll have to break you before I can build you up again into the kind of servant I need."

He attacked, and Luffa did not fight back.   She only dodged his scepter when he swung it at her, or when he released it to attack her on its own.   When that didn't work, he aimed the scepter at her like a rifle, and fired a barrage of energy bolts, as he had done before.  Luffa dodged these as well, and swatted a few of them aside to clear a path for herself to move.

Below, Chronoa and Goku watched the fight with great interest.

"Yeah, she picked up on it, too," Goku said.  "Boy, you weren't kidding, Supreme Kai of Time.  She really is something else."

"Are you sure she doesn't need any help?" Chronoa asked.  "I've got my Potara earrings.  You could use them to fuse together, or--"

"Nah, she'd never go for that," Goku said.  "Maybe if Trunks wasn't hurt, I might try doing Fusion with him, but Luffa wouldn't want to double-team a guy like that.  When we fought everybody back on Earth, she kept her distance from me, like she wanted to make sure we didn't get in each other's way.  And she was really careful with my kids, too.  She's... I don't know... there's somethin' polite about the way she fights."

"Polite?" Chronoa asked.  "I didn't think anyone would use that word to describe Luffa."

"Well, sure, she talks real tough and she's cranky," Goku said, "but I can see it in her posture.  Heck, this is the second time I've showed up to help her out of a jam, but she keeps checking to make sure we're all right.   There, she just did it again."

"Did what?" Chronoa asked.  "I didn't see anything."

"I guess it's kind of tough to spot if you don't know what to look for," Goku said.  "My oldest boy, Gohan, he'd keep worrying about everyone around him when he fought, unless he got good and angry.  It took me a while to get him to loosen up, so I've gotten good at spotting it.   Luffa covers it well, but you can tell she's a softie.  I respect that... a lot.  That's why I won't interfere with her fight."

"So why didn't you turn into a Super Saiyan when you were fighting him?" Chronoa asked.  "You might have beaten him yourself."

"I was getting a handle on his moves," Goku said.   "Demigra's strong right now, but he's not much of a fighter.  I guess Trunks never got a chance to figure that out.   He likes to finish a fight as quickly as he can, so he never got a chance to study Demigra's movements.  And Luffa's really aggressive, so she was probably too busy trying to hurt Demigra to pick up on it, but now?  Yeah, I think she's got the pattern down.  The one thing I don't understand is why she's puttin' out so much power.  You'd think she'd wear herself out fighting like that.  The Super Saiyan form takes a lot out of you."

"She does that a lot," Chronoa said.   "Apparently she has trouble turning it off sometimes."

Goku smiled.  "Is that so?" he said.  "I guess I'll have to keep that in mind..."

*******

Above Toki Toki City, Demigra continued to attack Luffa, only to find that he couldn't connect.   Nor did Luffa land any blows on him.  She simply kept moving, letting him come after her, and then dismantling any offensive he could come up with.

"Curse me for a novice," Luffa said.  "I should have seen it for myself, Demigra, but I guess Trunks and I were too close to the problem to pick up on it."

Demigra was beginning to get flustered.  He continued to fight at the same pace, with the same disciplined movements, but the lack of progress was taking its toll on his patience.   On top of that, the fingers on Luffa's left hand kept glowing brighter as she charged them with energy for the Vengeance Cannon she had promised him.

"You haven't seen anything!" he shouted.  "I'll bring you to heel soon enough!  And then--"

A wild swing with his scepter might have caught Luffa in the ribs, but she avoided it at the last possible moment.  She spun around and nearly struck him with a backfist, only to stop short and tap him gently on the forehead with her knuckles instead.

"You are powerful, Demigra, but you've got no head for fighting," Luffa explained.   "You count on all those magic tricks and the time-warping stuff to beat your enemies, but you don't have any finesse at shooting ki blasts or setting someone up for a kick to the face.   Oh, you're not completely hopeless, but I would have thought a guy like you could do much better.   You've had seventy-five million years to practice!"

"Shut up!" Demigra screamed.

"But you were cooped up all by yourself in the Crack of Time," Luffa went on.  "Maybe you conjured up one of your mirage-selves to spar with, but that only gets you so far.  You've gotten into a rut, and it's made your fighting moves so predictable that anyone could keep up with you once they know the routine.  Maybe if you were a little stronger, you'd be more of a challenge but as it is..."

"You arrogant slime!" Demigra shouted.  His insults were the only thing that reached her, for his scepter could not.  "You only managed this well because you had your friends to save you, but with Chronoa down, there's no one to stop me from immobilizing you again!"

"And that's why I wanted Kakarot to step aside!" Luffa said.  "That teleportation trick of his is very impressive, but I couldn't let him steal my thunder!  I have to prove that if he can beat your mind control combination, that I can too!  But you're too cowardly to try it!"

Demigra began to fight more erratically now, but this only made him sloppier, and even easier for Luffa to anticipate.  And then, at last, he vanished, and began to flicker into sight, appearing and disappearing all around the City.   Luffa kept her guard up and chuckled.

"Well then," she said, "maybe you've got some guts after all."

"You're finished!" Demigra cried as he suddenly appeared behind Luffa's shoulder.  His free hand was raised, and Luffa could already see the purple fog coalescing around her.  Her limbs began to stiffen as she felt the same power forcing her to put her arms at her sides.

But before that power could take hold, she managed to spin around and point her left hand at Demigra.   And while her muscles were becoming less responsive, she still had enough control to release the ki she had already built up into her fingers.

"Gotcha," Luffa said.

As Demigra realized his mistake, his eyes went wide with terror.  The crimson beam leapt from her fingertips and collided with the purple filament that snaked out from Demigra's palm.   Unchecked, the mystic filament would have struck Luffa's chest, and enthralled her to Demigra's will.

Instead, the filament collided head-on with the beam of the Vengeance Cannon, and was ripped apart like a thread of silk in a blast furnace.

The crimson beam continued on, tearing through Demigra's open palm.

And on, running parallel to his arm, until it reached his head.

Then through his skull, leaving a small hole just above his right eye, through his brain, and then out the back, singing a patch of his fiery red hair.

Demigra's eyes stared forward at Luffa, his face still transfixed in shock.  He hung in midair, like a fly suspended in amber.

"Good luck trying to reverse that damage, Demigra," Luffa said.  "I don't know how your magic works, but I'm pretty sure you can't work your spells without the use of that hand, or the chunk of brain I just bored out.  But just in case..."

She swooped in and punched him in the gut, then worked over his back, head, and neck.  Demigra did nothing to defend himself, nor was there any sign that he was aware of what was happening to him.   At last, whatever kept him afloat in the air gave out under Luffa's vicious assault, and he began to drop.   Luffa flew down after him, landing a double-stomp on his back to hasten his landing.

He fell to the wreckage of the giant hourglass that once floated in the center of the City.  The pile of golden sand broke his fall.  Demigra lay face up in the sand, oblivious to the world around him, and the beating he had just taken.

Nearby, Goku and Chronoa watched the fallen Demigra with growing concern.

"I can still sense a lot of ki in Demigra's body," Goku said.  "Even after all that, I don't think he's beaten yet."

"You're right," Chronoa said.  "The chronal tides around his body are still shifting!  However he reverses the flow of time around his injuries, he must be able to do it without consciously thinking about it!   Look!"

She pointed at Demigra with her good arm, and she and Goku saw Demigra's wounds receding like melting snow.   It was taking longer than it had before, due to the damage Luffa had inflicted upon him, but he would be restored to perfect health in only a matter of moments.   There seemed to be nothing anyone could do about it.

"No, you don't, you son of a--!"

Then they looked up, and saw Luffa floating over them, with a large chunk of brass from the wrecked cogwheels of the giant hourglass structure.   Luffa raised it over her head, then dove down at Demigra, and threw it ahead of her as she reached the bottom.   There was a sharp, jagged end to the fragment, and this tore through Demigra's abdomen as it impaled him.

Demigra's half-healed hand reached out and curled its fingers, as though straining against something, but then his arm went limp, and fell back into the sand.

Luffa alighted next to Goku and Chronoa.

"I figured if I attacked him while he was in the middle of healing himself, it would screw things up for him," she said.  If he reverses one injury, he'll have to let one of the other injuries go forward, or something like that."

"Well, it's a little more complex than that," Chronoa said, "but it'll definitely make things harder for him."

"Nice work, Luffa," Goku said.  "His energy is dropping like a stone now.   I think you might have beaten him for good this time!"

"Just the same, I'm not taking my eyes of this bastard until I know for sure," Luffa said.   "How's Trunks?"

Chronoa turned to find him slowly rising to his feet.

"Hey, great!" Goku said.  "You were able to heal him too, then?"

"No," Chronoa said, "I haven't!   Trunks, you should really lie down!"

She rushed to his side, although the wounds on her left arm slowed her down.   While the Kai attended to Trunks, Luffa and Goku admired his resilience.

"Not bad," Luffa said.  "He's one tough customer."

"Yeah, he sure is," Goku said.  "With you two working on her side, I know the Supreme Kai of Time won't have any trouble from here."

"What.... h-happened?" Trunks asked.

"Demigra's beaten!  We did it!" Chronoa cheered.

"We actually did it..." Trunks said wearily.   "We did it!"    Then he began to lose his footing, but Chronoa steadied him before he could fall.

"I'm sorry..." Trunks said.

"Don't be," Chronoa said.  "Just try to take it easy, okay?"

She helped him to a sitting position, and Trunks looked around to find Demigra's prone body, with Luffa standing guard over him.   Then he finally noticed Goku.

"Hey, Trunks!"  Goku said with a friendly wave.   "Long time, no see!"

"Oh, hey, Goku," Trunks said.  Then to Chronoa he asked: "How did he get mixed up in this?"

"I thought we might need some extra help in case things got out of hand," Chronoa said.   "So I found Goku at the moment in time where Demigra sent the bad guys to attack West City, and deputized him into the Time Patrol."

"I see.   But...doesn't that cause a change in history?" Trunks asked.   "If you restore the timeline to the original sequence of events, then Goku will never have been here to help us fight Demigra, and--"

"You're right," Chronoa said, "but that's why I had to do it.   I knew Demigra was planning this for a long time, and that he'd try to anticipate every contingency, so I decided the best way to beat him would be to do something I'd normally never try, something that he wouldn't expect."

"Then that means you'll have to leave the changes in," Trunks said.   Goku and Luffa's battle in West City will become part of history."

"Yep.  I guess I ended up committing the same crime you did when you first went back in time to warn Goku about the heart virus," Chronoa admitted.  "So it looks like I'll have to join the Time Patrol the same way you did."

"It's not so bad," Trunks said.  He smiled in spite of the pain he was in and winked at her.  "My supervisor in the Time Patrol is pretty cool.  When I see her, I'll put in a good word."

As they shared a laugh, Goku approached Luffa.

"Hey, aren't you gonna change back?" Goku asked.   He gestured to her glowing yellow hair, as though there was any chance that he might possibly be referring to something else.

"Not yet," Luffa said.  "Demigra might still try something."

"Well, sure, but you can always transform again if he does," Goku suggested.

"I could, but there's no need," Luffa said.

"I guess, but doesn't it tire you out, bein' a Super Saiyan for so long?"

"Are you saying it does wear you out, Kakarot?" Luffa asked with a smirk.  "If you need to take a nap, go right ahead.  I've got it covered."

"Okay, okay," Goku said, holding up his hands.   "I was just asking."

"So... Where's Tokitoki?" Trunks asked.

"That jerk Demigra swallowed him!" Chronoa said.  "We have to get him out."

"You heard the Kai, Demigra," Luffa said in a particularly vicious tone.   "Cough him up while you still can.  Otherwise, I'll just have to rip you apart until I find him myself!"

"Luffa, wait!" Chronoa yelled.

"Oh, fine," Luffa said.  "If that's too gory for you, I suppose I can cut the bastard open with Trunks' sword.  How about it, Demigra?"

As she approached Demigra, his body began to stir, and then a crimson aura flared up around him.  He levitated and rose to a standing position, with a wrathful glare in his eyes.

"How dare you?!" Demigra said.

Luffa and Goku prepared to renew their battle, but instead of attacking, Demigra simply raised his scepter, and angrily tapped it on the sand.   Then he suddenly vanished.

"What the hell is he pulling now?!" Luffa shouted.

"Did he just run away?!" Trunks asked.

"No," Chronoa said.  "He wouldn't give up that easily."

As they spoke, Goku raised his left hand and touched his index and middle fingers to his forehead.   He stood quietly for a moment, then shouted. "Found him!  Grab on to me!"

"Of course!" Luffa said.   She rushed back to his side, where Trunks and Chronoa had already taken hold of Goku's arm.   She placed her own hand on his back and said: "Nice work, Kakarot.  That teleportation trick of yours definitely comes in handy--"

And then they were gone.

*******

As soon as the four of them materialized, Trunks dropped to his knees, and Chronoa was so concerned about him that she didn't realize where they were.

For Son Goku, this was his first time in this location.   He glanced around, anxiously searching for Demigra.   "He's here somewhere, I'm sure of it," Goku said.   "Whatever this place is..."

So it fell to Luffa to explain it to him.   "This is the Time Vault, Kakarot," she said.  "But... why would Demigra hide in here?  There's nothing here but the..."

Now Chronoa finally realized it too, and she seemed to understand the implications better than Luffa.  "Oh no..." she said.   "He wouldn't!"

A wind blew around the atrium of the Time Vault, and they could all see streaks of purple light circling around them like a ghostly whirlpool.  As they sensed the source of the dark energy in the room, they all looked up and found...

"How can this be...?"

High above them, Demigra floated, surrounded on all sides by the cabinets that stored the multitude of scrolls that made up the Scroll of Eternity.  He began to wave his scepter furiously, like a conductor guiding the purple tempest around him.

"Damn this despicable world!  I'll destroy it all!"

"What are you doing?!" Chronoa shouted to him.  "Are you insane?!  If you destroy the Time Vault, everything will disappear -- gone forever!  It means you'll die as well!"

"Hmmph... Fool!   You think I'm not aware of that?!   After everything is destroyed, I'll make a new history.   MY history!"

Suddenly, there appeared around him dozens of copies of his scepter, only they were blood red, and glowing ominously.

"What?" Chronoa asked.  "What do you mean by that?  What are you thinking?"

"A new history?" Luffa asked.   "Can he do that?"

As she contemplated the question, Son Goku simply took action.   He transformed in an instant, and leaped into the air as a Super Saiyan, his ki increasing drastically as he ascended.   Goku raised his right hand, curling it up into a fist as he prepared to strike...

But Demigra simply smirked.   With a spiteful 'harrumph', he flung his hands forward, and the crimson scepters all pointed down at his enemies, and launched themselves at their targets like an accursed hailstorm.

During that instant, Luffa also leaped after Demigra, following Goku's lead.   They managed to dodge some of the energy spears, but there were too many of them, and one finally went through Luffa's chest.   As she fell to the ground, four more of them embedded themselves into the floor of the Time Vault, mystically pinning her arms and legs to the ground.

This did not escape Goku's notice, and in the split second he turned to see what happened to her, a scepter caught him in the shoulder, followed by a few more that hit his limbs.   Soon he was on the floor beside Luffa, and his hair turned black as he reverted to base form.

Luffa's Super Saiyan transformation ended as well, though she continued to flash back and forth a few times, as if her body were protesting against the effects of the debilitating magic.  As she struggled, Chronoa ran to her side, but there seemed to be nothing she could do.

As she knelt beside Luffa, the Time Vault echoed with the howls of the arcane wind, mixed with Demigra's triumphant laughter.

"Everything!!" he shouted.   "Begone!"

Luffa saw Chronoa stand up and face her ancient nemesis one more time.  It was getting harder for her to keep her head up.  At last, her head slumped over to her right side, and  Luffa could only see the Kai's white boots as Chronoa made her last stand.

"Demigraaaa!" Chronoa shouted, as Luffa saw Goku lying helplessly beside her.   Desperate to do something-- anything -- Luffa continued to look around, and spotted a scroll lying near her head.   And in the maelstrom, she thought she heard something like a bird's cry.   But it couldn't have been Tokitoki, she thought.

And then, the world faded to black, and Luffa succumbed to oblivion.

*******

 [??????????]  

Luffa awoke to a bright white light.  It reminded her of the experience she felt when the Scroll of Eternity transported her through time for Time Patrol missions.  As she opened her eyes, she found only a dark blue sky, like twilight.   Aurorae rippled through the sky like ribbons of pale blue light.   When she realized she could move again, she rose to her feet, and took in her surroundings.

It was a formless void.   She was standing upon a rough white surface, which seemed to go on forever.   At the horizon, there was a white light along the edge, and the sky was greener there.  Luffa had been to many alien worlds in her lifetime, but this one seemed to be stranger than any she had seen.   She began to doubt that this was even a "world" at all.   There was gravity, and she could breathe, but something told her that this was no mere planet.

Uneasily, she took a few steps forward as she considered exploring this place, but there was nothing to see.   Just an endless expanse with no landmarks or signs of life.

"Am I dead?" she said aloud, mostly to see if she could still speak or hear.   The silence was profound, and it wasn't until she heard her own voice that she realized just how unnerving it was.

The answer to her question came in the form of the aches and pains in her body.  She looked down at her hands and saw the dust and blood on her fingers.   She wasn't exhausted, not yet, but she had been fighting a lot of opponents recently, and she still felt the effort she had put into those battles.

"All right, so I'm alive," she said, mostly to distract herself from the silence.   "So where am I?"

The last thing she remembered was Demigra's threat to destroy history itself.  Had he made good on that threat?  Was this void all that remained of the universe?  Had she somehow been spared?

"That can't be right," Luffa said.  "Everyone, everything, it's all been erased, and I'm all that's left?  I'm just stuck here?  Alone?"

It was too horrific to contemplate.   If she really was the sole survivor of time and space, then there was nothing to do, no battles to fight.   No one to fight for.

Nothing to eat.

"Hell," Luffa said.  "Nothing to drink.  I'll die of thirst long before I have to worry about starvation or boredom."

But was death a release from this predicament?  The thought sent a chill down her spine.  If Demigra really destroyed everything, then didn't that include death itself?   What if she couldn't die?  What would that mean?

As the implications of these questions brought her to the brink of despair, Luffa's hands began to tremble.

"No..." she said.  "It's not going to end this way.  It can't."

She dropped to her knees and tucked her hands into her armpits.  Her whole body began to shake.   She transformed, naturally.  The entire experience reminded her of the first time, years ago, on the Tikosi Hiveworld.  The battle had ended, and her bloody vengeance was wrought, and there was nothing left to do, and she couldn't turn it off.  And then Dr. Topsas had come to her side, and held her trembling hand and waited with her until she calmed down.

But this time there was no Dr. Topsas.  No Tikosi Hiveworld.   Nothing.   No one.   Nowhere.

And finally, as she began to feel her sanity slipping away, she noticed something in the corner of her eye.   It was a dark object lying in the endless white field, just a few meters away.

The scroll.

She didn't know if it was the same one she had seen before blacking out in the Time Vault.  For that matter, maybe it made no difference.   According to the Supreme Kai of Time, there was only one Scroll of Eternity, and all of the multitude of scrolls stored in the Time Vault were one and the same. Luffa rushed to fetch the scroll like a starving animal racing towards a crumb of bread.   Whatever it was, however it was here, this was the only other thing left in the universe.  It had to mean something.

It was all that was left.

Luffa unfurled the scroll, and looked at its parchment, which shone with a bright white light as it revealed its record...

NEXT: Back to Square One

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (202/?)

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.

“Get his ass!”

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

The Demon God Demigra had conquered Toki Toki City, consumed the Divine Tokitoki Bird, and enslaved the warriors of the Time Patrol.   The Supreme Kai of Time had managed to evacuate the enthralled Patrollers, and Luffa had freed Trunks from Demigra's spell, but he was too badly hurt to aid them in the battle.  As Chronoa tended to Trunks, Luffa focused on their enemy, who now stood against them alone.

"You're going to pay in blood for what you did to him," she said.

They faced each other this way for a short time, and an eerie silence fell over the empty city.   The only sound was Demigra snarling with frustration at the sight of his last available minion lying defeated.

Then, at last, his face relaxed, and he closed his eyes and smiled.  

"Very well," he said.  "I suppose it cannot be helped. I shall deal with you myself, Luffa, and then--"

Whatever bold threats or pompous gloating he planned to say next, those words died on his tongue as Luffa collided with him like a shot from a cannon.   Her speed alone would not have surprised Demigra so much, for he had recently fought and defeated Trunks, who had similar abilities.   But it was her timing and intensity that caught him off-guard.  

Luffa tackled him and drove his body into one of the outer walls that surrounded the city.   She kicked and punched and headbutted Demigra in a continuous onslaught that left him no chance to regroup or withdraw.   And though her strikes were not as devastating as the dominating techniques Trunks had used against him earlier, Luffa's approach was able to keep him off-balance.  Where Trunks had sought to study his enemy and discover his hidden abilities, Luffa simply attacked, and gave him no chance to bring any of those hidden abilities into play.  

On the street, Chronoa attended to Trunks.   He had learned much about Demigra from their battle before Luffa arrived, and if he had been able to, he would shared with Luffa everything he knew about the Demon God's powers and techniques.    But he was too exhausted to do anything but lie still while Chronoa tried to heal him.  

"D... don't," he pleaded, fighting through his delirium long enough to say this much.  

"I have to heal you, Trunks," she said.   "There's no one else to do it, and I know you don't like the way my healing powers work.   I don't like the idea much either, of transferring your pain into my body, but Luffa needs your help, and I can handle it--"

"N-no..." he whispered. He reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could place her hands on his body.   "You can't... because you might need to heal Luffa first."

Chronoa glanced back to the battle.  Luffa seemed to be handling things well enough.    "She's fine," Chronoa assured him.   "Luffa can take care of herself for now, but--"

"She's stronger than me," Trunks said.   "You won't be able to heal us both, and if it's down to me or her, you've got to heal her. Maximizes... our chances..."

"Trunks...!  This is no time to play the selfless leader!"

"All due... respect," Trunks murmured.    "Y'r wrong, Chronnie.  This is... Toki Toki City.   Got a saying around here.   'There's time'.  Time enough to do anything..."

He stopped talking, and Chronoa wasn't sure if he was unconscious or just too tired to say any more.  She wanted to heal him anyway, if only to put an end to his suffering.   Instead, she trained her senses on the battle, and monitored Luffa's condition as closely as she could.  It was not only out of respect for Trunks, but because, as much as she hated it, she knew it was the right call.

"Get him, Luffa," she whispered.  

Luffa could not hear the Kai's order, but she carried it out anyway.  After several minutes of beating Demigra with no sign of resistance, she put her hands to her left side, and readied a Gallick Gun.  

"Last chance," she warned him.   "If you've got any tricks up your sleeve, Demigra, then now's the time to use them!"

"Urrghhh!" he grunted as he struggled to stay on his feet.   It seemed too easy, but Luffa didn't want to pass up a possible victory, and so she fired her Gallick Gun.  Unlike the one she had used to bait Trunks before during their fight, this one was charged to a much higher intensity.  

Demigra blocked the blast, and Luffa wasn't sure if he chose to do this because he was strong enough to withstand it, or too weak to avoid it.   She pushed harder, pouring more and more of her energy into the attack, but Demigra did not yield.  

"What's with this guy?" she asked herself.  And finally, she decided to stop adding ki to the attack.   If Demigra could withstand this level of offense, then so be it.  

To her surprise, he did survive, but not unscathed.   The Gallick Gun suddenly burst apart, scattering energy in many different directions, and dispersing into much weaker blasts that did only superficial harm to anything they hit.  As for her intended target, he now stood before her, his blue finery burned and torn to shreds.   His pale, jaundiced skin was covered in first and second degree burns, and his fiery red hair was singed beyond recognition.  

And in spite of all this, Demigra looked very pleased with his status.  

"Oh yes..." Demigra said.  "I can feel it now.  The power is magnificent!"

Before Luffa's eyes, his body began to repair itself.   His burned flesh reverted back to its original appearance.  His clothing seemed to regenerate like a living thing.   Even his hair was restored, although it didn't grow back as Luffa might have guessed.  Instead, it was as though the burnt strands simply unburned themselves, and regained their original color and texture.  

"Cute trick," Luffa said.  "But your magic isn't going to save you."

"This is far more than mere magic," Demigra boasted.   "This is how I survived in the Crack of Time for all those millions of years.  By manipulating the flow of time around my body, I can reverse any damage, renewing myself!  The effects of aging were relatively easy to control, but with great effort, I learned to repair grievous injuries as well.  Trunks pushed my ability to its limits before, but now that I have acquired the power of Tokitoki... I can repair my body almost effortlessly!"

"So I just need to hurt you faster than you can fix yourself," Luffa said.  "Yeah, I like the sound of that."

She rushed him, preparing a ki blast in her left hand as she flew.  When she was at pointblank range, she launched it at his face, only for the golden energy to spill harmlessly across a force field surrounding Demigra's body.  

"I can see that you still don't understand," Demigra said patiently. "This is only the beginning of my new power.   With each passing moment, I become more attuned to Tokitoki's energy.   Why did you think I stayed back while you battled Trunks?"

Luffa gasped with surprise.   "Then...!" she said haltingly.  "Then you'll only get stronger and stronger?" she asked.  

Demigra's lips curled into a cruel triumphant smile.  "Yes, that is exactly what will happen," he replied.  

Luffa's eyes suddenly narrowed and she drew back her fist.   "Good," she said.  

This time, her attack was more effective.  Demigra's field glowed green when her knuckles impacted against it, but it did not stop her.   Instead, the field's surface buckled, and while it slowed her arm down slightly, the force of the blow still carried through, and Demigra was knocked back in spite of his best efforts.  

As he regained his footing, Demigra found no sign of Luffa where she had been standing.  This was because she had circled around him, where she delivered a kick to his back.  

"At least this way I've got something to look forward to!" Luffa shouted as she chased him in mid-air.   Demigra managed to parry some of her follow-up attacks with his scepter, but he was still stuck on the defensive.  

"When you sent all those goons to distract me before, Demigra, I thought it meant that you were a weakling!  Otherwise you would have fought me yourself!   So I was worried you wouldn't be much of a challenge once I had you cornered," Luffa said.   "But I had you figured all wrong, huh?  You just needed to get your hands on Tokitoki first, and then you could fight your own battles."

She kept up the pressure, throwing rapid strikes to keep him off-balance.  As they fought, she led him away from the buildings of the city, and into the floating wreckage in the center of Toki Toki City.  It had once been an enormous hourglass surrounded by gigantic brass gears.  

"So I guess you're still the coward I took you for," Luffa said.   "You had all those centuries to train and get stronger on your own, but instead you needed to eat a cosmic bird and rely on his power to make up for your shortcomings.   Pathetic, really, but at least you can give me a decent fight!"

"You don't know anything!" Demigra hissed.  "Tokitoki is rightfully mine.  That bird was always mine!   Those wretched Kais claimed authority over him, and handed him over to that glorified zookeeper Chronoa!  But only I understood what the bird was truly capable of!"

"So then you're just another entitled creep who takes what he wants so he can have his way," Luffa said.   "Big deal!  I've been fighting chumps like you my whole life!  You all talk big, but all you really want is to push everyone else around!  Well push me, Demigra, and see where it gets you!"

Demigra was infuriated enough to strike back, and he managed to break Luffa's offensive with a few impressive blows.   He followed up by holding his scepter on his forearm and firing a powerful energy blast from the orb on the end, and for a moment Luffa was completely obscured by the red flames that engulfed her.  

But when the attack subsided, she was completely unharmed.  Demigra saw her floating there, curled up with her arms around her head, and he was visibly unsettled by this.  

"How?!" he asked.

Luffa relaxed her guard and stretched out to her full height.  

"What was that supposed to be?!" she asked.  

Before Demigra could move back, she grabbed him by the red hair on his scalp and dragged him through the air.   Picking up speed, she drove him into every chunk of the broken gears she passed along the way.  As he finally managed to escape her grasp, she grabbed the next piece of brass and hurled it at him.  

Demigra might have been able to dodge the projectile, but instead he chose to stand his ground.   Holding his scepter in both hands, he produced a black field around the chunk of metal as it approached him.  The crackling bubble of darkness shrank around the object, and when the bubble vanished, the brass simply stopped in midair and fell straight down.  

"Your primitive attacks are useless against my power!" he shouted.  "Now, then, let us end this futile conflict, so that I can properly-- what?!"

He had lost track of Luffa while he had been neutralizing the chunk of brass she had thrown at him.  Now, he found her behind another section of broken cogwheel, with a pile of smaller brass fragments bunched up in her hands.   She pitched these at him one by one, but with such great speed that they looked like a miniature meteor shower.  

Demigra was quick enough to avoid some of these smaller missiles, but not all of them.   He raised his scepter to fire a blast wide enough to destroy them, but as he did, Luffa managed to score a hit on his arm, and two more on his chest.  

"Rrrghh!" Demigra screamed as he recoiled from the pain.  Luffa swooped in to follow up with a another chunk of broken gear.   This time, she wielded it like a club, and swatted Demigra's arms, knocking he scepter out of his hands.  Another strike, and she knocked him down into the golden sands at the bottom of the broken hourglass.

"Let's see you reverse this!" Luffa shouted.   She hovered above him and arched her back as she gathered energy in her outstretched hands.  Her palms glowed with yellow light until finally, with a ferocious shout, she launched a barrage of ki blasts down on Demigra's position.  

The sands below were kicked up into a cloud of dust, but Luffa landed on the pile of sand and charged her ki, which produced enough of a disturbance that it blew the dust aside.  

"Now all of that damage should take you a while to deal with," Luffa said as she marched toward Demigra's last known position.   "And maybe you can repair yourself, but I wonder what will happen if I put a hole in your forehead before you finish.   I'm betting--huh?"

Demigra was gone.   There was only an impression in the sand to indicate that a body had once been there, and a red stain indicating some of his wounds.  

Luffa turned in the direction where she had last seen his scepter.  Wherever he was, she knew he was surely aiming to retrieve it.

"Demon God?!" Luffa called out.   "Is that the best you could do?!  You waited seventy-five million years for this?!"

There was no response.  

"I guess you've decided to retreat back to the Crack of Time, is that it?" Luffa said.  "So much for your 'resurrection'!"

Nothing.  

Luffa knew he was still in Toki Toki City, but she couldn't sense his presence.  With no other options, she flew out of the broken hourglass to confer with the Supreme Kai of Time.

"This can't be over," Luffa said.  

"It's not," Chronoa said.   "I'm sure of it."

"How is he?" Luffa asked, pointing to Trunks, who lay beside her.  

"He'll be all right," Chronoa said.  "I'd heal him, but he said-- Oh no!"

Luffa saw the look in Chronoa's eyes before she spoke, and turned to find whatever had startled her.  What she found was Demigra, with his scepter, completely unharmed.  

"Don't get cocky," he said.  And then he vanished.  

"Great!" Luffa muttered.  "Don't tell me he can teleport too.  I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one who doesn't know how to do that."

"He's moving through time," Chronoa said.   "I can sense that much, but I can't get a fix on where he'll show up..."

"Then we need to find some cover," Luffa said.  "Grab Trunks and head to the bottom of that hourglass.  I'll protect you as well as I can."

"The hourglass?" Chronoa asked skeptically.

"This whole city is built around it," Luffa said.   "So it'll be harder for him to sneak up on us if we stay in the center.   And if we're on the bottom, he'll have to come straight down to get us, and that gives me a free shot."

Chronoa lifted Trunks up by his good shoulder and carried him as she floated in the air.  "All right, if you think that's best," she said.  

It wasn't much of a plan, but Luffa was figuring it out as she went along.  She didn't like sticking so close to Chronoa or Trunks during a battle, but she couldn't risk Demigra attacking them while she couldn't find him.  

"Is there anything else about this guy that I should know?" Luffa asked the Kai once she had laid Trunks on the sand.  

"Almost everything I knew about Demigra is seventy-five million years out of date," Chronoa said.  "He never had these kinds of abilities before, and Tokitoki has made him even stronger-- Luffa, behind you!"

But by the time Luffa looked around, it was already too late.

"All too easy!" Demigra said as he raised his hand and pointed it at her.  

Luffa flew after him, only to find herself halted in mid-flight.  

What... the... hell?!" she gasped as she struggled against the unseen force.   Not only was she unable to fly forward, but her arms and legs became unresponsive.  All around her, a grim swirl of dark energy appeared, forming what looked like a bubble made of purple smoke.  

"No!"

Luffa could hear Trunks behind her, and she could tell that he was moving again, but barely.  Something had upset him, and Luffa could guess what it was.  

"Soon, you'll be my puppet, too!"  Demigra gloated.  

"Nuts to that... Demigra!" Luffa growled through her teeth, but it took everything she had just to speak.  

"And now you see just how great my powers have advanced, Chronoa!" Demigra said, still holding his outstretched palm toward Luffa.   "I had to wear Trunks down a great deal in order to make him susceptible to my mind control.   It's more effective when the target is immobilized.  But thanks to Tokitoki, I can create a binding spell at the same time, leaving your mortal 'champion' helpless!"

Behind her, Luffa could sense Chronoa stepping forward, raising her hands for some sort of attack.   "Let her go, Demigra!" she shouted.

He simply laughed.  

"Your demands are as pointless as your title!" Demigra said.   "I've already taken Tokitoki, and your Time Patrol, and your city!  And once I've enslaved Luffa, there will be no one left to protect you!"

Luffa continued to struggle, though the best she could manage was to tremble in place.  It felt as though some invisible manacles were holding her ankles together, and pinning her arms to her sides.   The purple fog was all she could see now, and she could feel something on her skin.   Something cold.  

Now she could no longer hear the others.   Demigra's threats decayed into nothing more than a distant buzz.   Luffa could feel something terrible happening to her.   It felt as though she were a towel or a sponge, soaking up the dark energy around her.  

Centuries ago, Luffa had succumbed to a similar magic, although from her perspective, only four years had passed since that incident.  She had been infected with the Black Water Mist, a potion brewed by the demonic people of the Makyo Star.   Under its corrupting influence, Luffa lost all sense of obligation and compassion, caring only for her most selfish desires.  The spell was thought to be irreversible after a day, but Luffa had managed to resist after a month under its power.  

The ordeal had been one of Luffa's many unspoken regrets.  Her wife, Zatte, had long admired Luffa's ability to break the power of the Black Water Mist, but Luffa privately wondered if she could have accomplished this much sooner.   For the Black Water Mist had allowed Luffa to forget her past traumas, and perhaps she had been reluctant to fight against it.  

And so, throughout her tenure in the Time Patrol, when learning of Towa and Demigra's use of mind-control spells, Luffa had assumed that their magic spells were like the Black Water Mist.   She had assumed that, in the worst case, that she would be able to resist such enchantments if they were ever used against her.  

But now, as Demigra's magic chilled her flesh and burned her brain, Luffa could tell that this was something very different from the Black Water Mist.  There was no seductive promise, no relief from burdensome responsibility, no lure of selfish desires.  This was simply a suppression of the self.   The parts of Luffa that defied Demigra would be locked away, and the rest of her being would obey him without question, forever.  

And as Luffa realized that she could not resist it, the thought occurred to her that she no longer wanted to.  Demigra had conquered her, and there was nothing left but to toil in his service for as long as he saw fit.  

There was no one left to stop this.   She had freed Trunks by hitting him until the spell was broken, but he was in no condition to return the favor, and no one else was strong enough to try.  She would become Demigra's ultimate weapon.  

And as Luffa's mind twisted to conform to this interpretation of reality, there was still enough of her true self left to experience just how wrong this all was.  It was this realization that filled Luffa with a profound dread.  

She had failed.  She had failed them all.  And nothing, not even her legendary power, could stop it.

She might have wept bitter tears, but her new master did not permit it.

And then, just when Luffa had abandoned all hope--

There was a scream.  

Luffa could hear it, in spite of the absence of any other sound.   She could feel it, in spite of Demigra's spell cutting off her senses.   It penetrated the gloom like a knife cutting through hot margarine, and then, Luffa could see it as well.  

It was Trunks.  

She had written him off as defeated.   Luffa had beaten him senseless in order to free him from Demigra's control.  But here he was, sword in hand, leaping between herself and Demigra.  

As a Super Saiyan!

The yellow glow from his body shone through the darkness, and at last Luffa could perceive what Demigra was doing to her.   A thin filament of magic energy extended from his hand to her torso.  She was caught on this filament like a fish hooked to a line.   She could see it so clearly now.  If she could only move her body, it would have been easy to pull free and escape.   It was no wonder that Demigra had to immobilize her first.  

Trunks had understood this, because he had experienced the same spell for himself.  And so he knew exactly how to break it.   That was no great surprise.   What truly astonished Luffa was that Trunks had been able to muster the power to pull it off.  

No, it was more than just power.   It was courage, too.   Trunks had pushed himself beyond his limits, forcing his exhausted body to transform so that he would have the necessary speed to sever Demigra's magic filament before his hold over Luffa would be complete.    But now he was completely spent, and wide-open for an attack.  

As Luffa's mind returned to normal, her first impulse was to get to Trunks and move him out of the line of fire.  But she was still frozen in midair.   Trunks had freed her mind, but her body was still trapped.  

"Don't you touch her!" Trunks shouted, and with that, he collapsed.  

"Interfering fool!" Demigra shouted.   He clearly wanted to attack Trunks, but he kept his hand raised as he remained focused on holding Luffa still.  

And then, Chronoa stepped forth and fired something from her hands.   The purple energy that surrounded Luffa was mixed with something blue, and she could feel something dissolving around her.   It was as though the invisible chains holding her had turned to dust and washed away.  

"Trunks!" Luffa shouted.   At the very instant she could move again, she rushed to his side and put her hands on his shoulders.  

"Couldn't... let that... happen," Trunks said.  "Couldn't let you down... like Gohan..."

She didn't understand what Son Gohan had to do with it, but his gesture alone was inspiring enough.   When they had fought earlier, while Trunks had been the one under Demigra's control, Luffa had said terrible things to him.   Some were just to rattle him, while others were sincere.  

She began to regret those sentiments.  Of all the Saiyan royals she had encountered, he was the first one, the only one, who lived up to the ideals she had been taught as a child.  The fabled Prince of the Saiyans.  

Her own descendant, no less.

"Your magic won't work anymore," Chronoa shouted to Demigra.  "Give it up already!"

"Cheeky little thing," Demigra said with a smirk.  

The two of them might have begun fighting, despite Chronoa's disadvantage.  They would have, except for the sudden gust of wind produced by Luffa's rising power.    

As they looked toward her, Luffa rose to her feet, fists raised and teeth bared as she glared furiously at Demigra.  

"You're going to regret that little stunt you just pulled," Luffa said.   "And now that I've seen how your mind-control spell works, you're not going to pull it off a second time.  If I were you, I'd start fighting like my life depended on it, because it does."

For all her newfound resolve, Demigra didn't seem very impressed.  

"So.   If it's a fight you want... Then a fight... you'll surely get!  You shall now see the power of the Demon God!"

Luffa rushed at him again, but this time she veered off at an angle, and began to zip around the broken hourglass like a bullet fired inside a steel vessel.  Her purpose was twofold: find an opening to strike, while avoiding any further attempts to use his mind control spell.  

"Be careful!" Chronoa shouted.  "His power is even greater than before!"

Luffa knew she was right.   In the moments where she slowed down, even slightly, Demigra would hold up his right hand, which now glowed with the same purple energy he had used before.   In his left hand, he held his scepter, which glowed red with whatever eldritch power it possessed.  

She used this against him, slowing her movements just enough to give him a shot too tempting to pass up, and then, just as the purple filament shot out from his hand, she spun out of its path and buzzed past his ear.  

"You can't run forever!" Demigra sneered, "and I only need an instant to defeat you!"  Glancing at Chronoa he added: "And you're next, Supreme Loser..."

"I know a desperate enemy when I see one, Demigra!" Luffa called back.  "You're getting stronger by the minute, but it's not enough!   You thought you'd have this battle won a long time ago, and the longer this drags out, the less sure you are about your chances!"

She came to a full stop just meters away from Chronoa and Trunks, and her boots crunched in the shards of glass lying all around them in the golden sand.  Demigra fired again, but she was gone before his spell could reach her.  

"You're wrong!" Demigra roared.  "I have already won!  I am a god now, and nothing you do will change that!  This conflict is nothing more than the dying gasp of an already doomed regime!"

Luffa slowed down again, baiting him into taking another shot, but this time she only dodged the attack by a few degrees, and then veered back toward him.  

Then, before he could react, she did a flip, and drove her feet into his face.  

Luffa did not stop moving, even as Demigra fell on his back and cried out in pain.    But as she continued to fly around him, she made a satisfied smile the whole way.  

Then she opened fire.  

Demigra scrambled to his feet, dodging ki blasts from every direction as he moved to find cover.   He kept his free hand on his face, but this left enough of it visible for anyone to see the punctures and slashes on his flesh.   The soles of Luffa's boots had picked up some glass fragments along the way, making her kicks even more destructive.  

"Now what?" she taunted.  "I bet you'd like to use that time-reversing power to heal yourself, but I'm not going to give you the chance!  And while you're on the backfoot like this, you're never going to be able to shoot me down!"

"Mortal fool!" Demigra seethed.  "Watch and learn!"

He held up his scepter, as Luffa would have expected, but he did not aim at her, or anywhere near her.    Instead, he pointed his arms at Chronoa and Trunks, giving her only moments to intervene.  

And this was all Demigra needed.  As Luffa swooped in to move her friends out of the way, she saw the purple filament darting out toward her, and she swerved to avoid it.   But to dodge this and save the others at the same time left her open to Demigra's other attack, which was a crimson fireball from his scepter.  

For a moment, there was only an explosion, and the cloud of golden sand kicked up from the blast.   Demigra stood triumphantly nearby, eager to see the results of his handiwork.   When it cleared, he was dismayed to find Chronoa and Trunks still alive, but then he caught sight of Luffa, and he began to laugh.  

She had not taken the full force of his attack, but she had not escaped unscathed either.   She now stood between Chronoa and Demigra, her left arm covered in blood.    She clutched it with her right hand, and glared angrily at Demigra.  

"Not so high and mighty now, are you?" Demigra mocked.  

"I'm far from finished, Demigra," Luffa said.  "And you don't look so great yourself."

"I suppose you're right," Demigra said.   As he spoke, his wounded face began to change, and the blood spilled backward into the punctures, which then began to close.   Glass shards embedded in his flesh popped out and fell away, landing at his feet.    

"But unlike you," Demigra said, "I can fix that.  What can you do about that arm of yours?   It's too bad that Chronoa didn't ask for a Namekian savior instead.  Regenerating damaged limbs is one of their specialties."

"Don't count me out yet, Demigra," Luffa said with a wince.   "I've come back from worse than this."

They were bold words, but Luffa knew she had little to back them up.  Her resolve was unshaken, and she would fight on no matter what, but it would take more than determination to win this battle.  Chronoa could heal her, but Demigra would never allow her the time to do it.   Even if Chronoa could heal her, Luffa would still have a difficult time fighting Demigra and protecting Chronoa and Trunks at the same time.  

On top of that, Demigra's powers were increasing.   It was only a matter of time before he had her completely boxed in, and then there would be no way to stop him.  

And Demigra knew it just as well as Luffa did.  This time he didn't even bother to respond to her threats.  He simply laughed and raised his scepter, leveling it in Chronoa's direction again.  

"You see!" he shouted.   "I have proven my fitness to rule!  This world now has the only god it needs.   You will all worship me and despair!"

"Never, Demigra!" Chronoa said.  "We'll resist you for as long as it takes!"

Luffa wished that Chronoa would have moved away from Trunks, if only to give Demigra another target, but she understood why Chronoa remained at his side.   She would have done the same in her place.  

"Then you'll pay the price for your defiance!" Demigra shouted back.  

Luffa braced herself to act, though she only had two options, and neither looked promising.   The first was defensive: Move quickly to protect Chronoa and Trunks again from Demigra's next attack.   The second was to go on the offensive, abandoning Chronoa and Trunks to attack Demigra while he fired upon them.  

It was no choice at all.  

As the orb on Demigra's scepter glowed red hot, Luffa prepared to move.   She would try to save Chronoa again, and if she failed, then they would die together in battle.  

But as the vermilion fireball shot out of the scepter, and as Luffa flew into its path, something suddenly appeared between her and the oncoming blast.  

Something very familiar.  

The newcomer reacted quickly, catching the ball of energy in his hands like a pile of laundry.  Then he took a step back to brace himself, and while this slowed the attack, it did not stop it.  His blue boots slid backward through the sand, and he grunted as he fought to hold his ground.  

Then, at last, he transformed, and with a sharp cry, he released his grip on the fireball, and drove his left knee up, sending it straight up into the air.   As it exploded harmlessly, the city was bathed in crimson light, save for the newcomer, whose hair shone a brilliant yellow.

He turned to face them, and smiled pleasantly as he raised his hand in a casual greeting.  

"Yo!" he said.  "Looks like I got here just in time."

"Kakarot!" Luffa cried out.  

 NEXT: The End of History.

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (201/?)

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.

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

"Welcome back, Time Patroller.  It seems you're late."

Luffa had left Toki Toki City at its peak strength.  The city was on high alert in anticipation of an invasion by the Supreme Kai of Time's old enemy, the Demon God Demigra.  

Now, Luffa returned from her mission to find Toki Toki City in ruins.   The streets were deserted, and the skies were blood red.   The enormous hourglass that loomed over the center of the City was broken, surrounded by fragments of the huge brass gears which turned in place around it.  And there, waiting for her above the wreckage of the glass was Demigra himself, with the look of a man who had already won.

"Demigra..." Luffa called out in a resentful voice.   "I knew you'd make your play while I was gone, but I didn't think you'd get this far.   What have you done with the others?"

"They're safe enough for now," Demigra said.  "My conflict was with Chronoa, and it's just been settled in my favor.   I have no quarrel with the rest of you."

"Settled?" Luffa asked.   "Then Tokitoki...!"

Demigra gestured toward his torso, hinting at the answer to her question.   "Tokitoki is in my hands," he said.   "His power is mine.  I'm a new god now.   One that controls all of time... and all of space..."

Luffa looked around at the Time Plaza.  It was a shambles.  

"Seems to me," she said, "That you can't even control one city, Demigra."  

He laughed as he floated down to the street to speak with her face to face.  "Your criticism is noted," Demigra said.   "I do have some tidying up to do.  I seem to have inherited quite a mess from the previous administration.  I can see why Chronoa found the Time Patrol to be so useful.  But with your help, Luffa, I'm sure we can rebuild it even greater than ever before."

Luffa stared at him incredulously.  "'We'?" she asked, lingering on the word like someone holding a moldy piece of fruit at arm's length.  

"That's right," Demigra said.  "You and I."

"Maybe you hit your head on something while you were busy becoming a 'new god'," Luffa said with a derisive snort.   "We're enemies, Demigra.  You sent those creeps back in time to screw with history, and I went back to stop them, and then I came here to stop you. There is no 'we', Demigra."

He shot her an unctuous smile before he turned and strolled down the street.   "You need time to adjust, Luffa," he said.  "I can understand that.   A lot has happened while you've been gone.  But the conflict between us is over.  Your former master has been deposed.  I am the overseer of time now.  Whatever arrangements you had with the Kai are null and void."

"You're joking," Luffa said.

"If I considered you an enemy, Luffa," Demigra said, "then why did I allow you to return here after your mission was completed?"

"You didn't," Luffa said. "I was... wait..."

She was about to say that Chronoa had brought her back to the Time Nest with the Scroll of Eternity, but there was no one at the Time Nest when she finally returned.  There was a scroll Luffa had tried to use to send herself back to the Time Nest.   According to Son Goku and King Kai, it had been left with them by Chronoa.   But when Luffa had tried to use it, she couldn't make it work.  She returned to the Time Nest a moment later, but she had no way of knowing if the scroll on King Kai's planet had helped with that or not.

"It was I," Demigra said.   "You were sent on your mission by a particular iteration of the Scroll of Eternity, one which was still in the Time Nest when I seized control of this facility.   No other scroll would be able to bring you back, and I can promise you that you would not be allowed into my city unless I allowed it.  So I ask you: Why would I bring you here if I considered you a threat?"

"You think I'd switch sides," Luffa asked, "just like that?"

"No, I don't," Demigra replied.  "Not without some negotiation.  Then again, you were quick to agree to Chronoa's terms, weren't you?  She brought you here against your will, and asked you to help her defend time.   In exchange, you received... what, exactly?  Room and board?"

"They saved my life," Luffa said.  "I owed them one."

"Did you?" Demigra said.  "And were they planning to send you back to your own time when your tour of duty was finished?  Back to your Federation and your friends?   The talking spider and that hairy fellow?"

"I... How the hell do you know about any of that?" Luffa demanded.

"I've been preparing for this day for seventy-five million years," Demigra said.   "In the Crack of Time, there is little else to do except watch and plan.   When I learned that Trunks had wished for an ally to help him, I made it my business to learn all that there was to know about her.   About you."

"Funny," Luffa said.  "Early on, you acted like you barely noticed me.  All you cared about was your grudge with the Supreme Kai of Time."

"It took me some time to digest the information I gathered," Demigra said.  "Besides, you're correct.  All I cared about was my grudge with Chronoa.  Until that was settled, I had little interest in her warriors.   But you're a mercenary, Luffa, and you now find yourself between jobs.  And I am a newly born god, grander than any before me.   I have need of talented agents and enforcers.  And I have the means to pay them well."

"I think you're forgetting about a commitment I made to Lord Beerus," Luffa said.   "He wants you wiped out from existence, and I offered to handle that for him.  If I reneged on that, he'd probably take that personally..."

"Beerus is no longer a threat to me," Demigra said with a laugh.  "And if you pledge yourself to me, he will be no threat to you either.   Think of it.  A universe at your disposal.   Your own personal training ground, to increase your strength to its absolute limit.  No one would dare stand against you.  And in exchange for your services, you could have unfettered access to your own time.  You could resume your past life as you please, or set yourself up as a queen of some interstellar empire.   Or if you prefer, I could confer divine authority upon you."

"That's ridiculous," Luffa said.  "Even if you could do all of that, you can't expect me to believe it."

"We can work that out in a more detailed negotiation stage," Demigra said smoothly.   "The truth is, I still have to sort out my own plans for this role, so I would need time to decide just what it is  I need from you.   For now, I only propose a temporary agreement until we can establish formal terms."

Luffa looked around at the war-torn City, then back at Demigra.   "I have to admit," she said, "you do make it sound very lucrative.   And it's not like I have anywhere else to go.  I was going to wait until we settled things with you before I decided what to do next, but I guess that day is here, isn't it?  Time flies when you're having fun, huh?"

Demigra chuckled amicably and put his arm around Luffa's shoulder.  "I had a feeling you would see this as an opportunity.   So then.  Would you like to work for me?  You can live like a god.   Everything you ever wanted would be yours!"

Luffa looked up at him and smiled pleasantly.  Then she grabbed his arm and flung him into what was left of the hourglass floating above the city.  

To his credit, Demigra recovered quickly, and he righted himself in time to glare down at Luffa.

He was just in time to see her turn her head and spit on the ground.    

"You think I just side with the highest bidder?!" she shouted.   "You think I only fight for the money?!   Hah!  You stupid bastard!  You don't know a damn thing about me, but don't worry.  I'll bring you up to speed right now."

"What a waste of talent," Demigra said.  "But at least you've proven yourself to be unhireable.   Even if you could be convinced to join me, I could never trust anyone so volatile."

"Trust this!" Luffa shouted.  She rocketed through the air, closing the distance between them in a flash, but before she could drive her left fist into his chin, she sensed a powerful ki and rolled in mid-air to avoid it.  

Had she continued on her original course, Luffa would have been intercepted by Trunks.   As it was, she narrowly avoided the slash of his sword, and in doing so, she saved her arm from being cut off at the shoulder.  

"Don't tell me," Luffa snarled as she watched Trunks floating in front of Demigra.   His body crackled with the same purple energy that could be found in every fighter Demigra had manipulated with his magic. As revolting as it was to see Trunks as his latest victim, there was hardly any surprise or mystery to it by now.  

"It's too bad," Demigra said.   "Seems that your friends do my bidding now."

Trunks pointed his sword at Luffa.  He narrowed his eyes, which glowed red like hot coals.  

"You've done this to all of them, haven't you?" Luffa said.  "The whole Time Patrol.  I'm the only one left."

From behind Trunks, Demigra smiled.   "Most of them were in no condition to fight after the battle to take over this city," he explained, "but with a senzu bean to restore his strength, I believe you'll find that Trunks will be more than enough to deal with you.   You should have considered my offer more seriously, Luffa."

Luffa locked eyes with Trunks as they moved towards each other.  There was no hint of restraint or mercy in his expression.  If he could still recognize Luffa, he gave no indication that he perceived her as anything but an enemy to be destroyed.  

She sized up his power, then she looked at Demigra and started to laugh.  

"Your offer?!" she cackled.   "Fool!  I've been itching to square off with Trunks for weeks, and you hand it to me for free."  She paused to crack her knuckles, then raised her fists with gleeful anticipation.   "With enemies like you, Demigra, who needs friends?"

She watched Trunks carefully for a moment longer, then addressed him directly.  

"I know you're suffering right now," she said to him.  "As badly as I wanted to fight you, this isn't what I had in mind.  But if you can hear me... really hear me... then I just want you to know something.   As bad as you might be hurting now, I promise you... that it's about to hurt a lot worse."

With that, she sprang into action.  Trunks readied his sword to strike her, thinking she was trying to get close enough for a melee attack.   Instead, Luffa stopped short, and fired a barrage of ki blasts instead.

Trunks deflected these with ease, but this was only a diversion.  When the last of Luffa's shots was knocked aside, Luffa suddenly came up from behind him, and threw a kick to the small of his back.   But Trunks sensed it coming, and somersaulted in mid-air to avoid it.  Now facing her, he responded with a ki barrage of his own, except Luffa didn't have a sword to help her deflect it.  

Instead, she simply flew through the hail of ki blasts.  This caught Trunks off-balance.  He had attacked too quickly, neglecting to put his sword away, and so he could only fire his blasts with his free hand.  His sword hand might have been able to fend off Luffa's assault, but he had expected her to come at him from the flank, not straight through his offensive.  By the time he was able to adjust his position, she was too close to make effective use of the sword, and so he dropped it, just in time to block Luffa's first punch.  

"Smart boy," Luffa said.   "Now we see how tough you are."

For the next few minutes, they simply slugged it out.  At first, their strikes were relatively light, with both Super Saiyans conserving energy as they tested each other.   This quickly escalated into a more intense struggle, as neither of them could land a blow, and so they each applied more and more power to try to break through the other's defenses.  

"There's more to you than that sword after all!" Luffa said.  "I'm impressed!  That Earthling blood of yours isn't slowing you down much at all!"

"You're a hopeless fool," Trunks said, "if you actually think that sort of talk will save you."

"No, what's going to 'save' me," Luffa replied, "is the way Demigra's power slows you down!  I'll admit, you're not nearly as sluggish as some of the other goons I've fought, but if this is the best you can do, I've got nothing to worry about."

She punctuated this boast by setting Trunks up for a knee to the gut, one that she was certain would knock the wind out of him.  Instead, he blocked it, and countered with a punch to her own abdomen.  For a moment, the world seemed to slow down, as Luffa's head snapped forward and flecks of spittle shot out of her open mouth.  

Recovering as quickly as she could, Luffa pushed away from Trunks and raised her arms to defend, but not quickly enough.   Trunks followed up with a kick to her head, and Luffa crashed to the street, leaving a crater in the road.  

"Heh," was all she could say when she got her bearings.   She looked up to find Trunks, and when she saw him holding out his arms, her eyes when wide as she realized what was next.  

The Burning Attack was one of Trunks' specialties, and though Luffa had only seen it once before, it was enough for her to know she didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.   As she rolled clear of the blast, she felt a tremendous heat on her back, and the edges of her field of view glowed hot orange.  

She could sense Trunks closing in to attack again, so she launched herself back into the air, though not in an angle he would have expected.  Instead of flying toward him to take back the initiative, or leaping away to gain some distance, she simply went straight up, forcing him to slow down enough to make the sharp turn he would need to continue his pursuit.  And this gave Luffa the opening she needed to begin her counterattack.  

"Gallick Gun!" she shouted as she drew her hands together on her left side and fired a beam of violet light down on Trunks.   She saw him change the angle of his ascent to avoid it, but she simply widened the beam to catch him anyway.  

It was a hastily prepared Gallick Gun, so it lacked the stopping power necessary to be effective against an opponent like Trunks, but that suited her purposes.  He fought against the current of the beam, then began to move through it. And as he emerged at the source of the beam, fist raised to attack Luffa...

She deployed her true attack, which was a blast of golden energy from her mouth.  

Trunks managed to blunt the worst of the attack with his power, but it still hurt him enough that he covered his face with his hands and stumbled away from Luffa.   She made good use of this opening, and started throwing rapid strikes at Trunks' abdomen and legs.  

For a moment, it seemed that Trunks was helpless, and then he finally threw out his hands, and with a tremendous shout he released a wave of force that pushed Luffa away.  Before she could push her way back to him, he caught her with a kick to the chin.  

"Not bad!" Luffa said.  "If I didn't know better, Trunks, I'd say you were beginning to enjoy yourself!"

"The only thing that will satisfy me now," Trunks growled, "is your death."

"Then you better hope someone else grants your wish," Luffa scoffed.  "Because you don't have what it takes to get it done.  It's not just your mixed blood, Trunks, or even that purple crap Demigra is using to make you fight me.  You know what's really holding you down?"

Trunks didn't wait for her to finish.  Instead, he launched another barrage of ki at Luffa.   This time, he focused the range, and left her no room to dodge or escape.  This continued for forty-five seconds, until a bright light shone from within the zone of his attack.   Confused, Trunks eased off, allowing the smoke to fade from the area so he could see what was happening inside.  

He found Luffa, still alive, and making a low, gravelly hum.   Her arms were crossed over her face, and all around her was a golden sphere of light.  Trunks resumed firing, only to find that his blasts were simply being absorbed into the sphere.  

She looked up at him and smiled, then produced an ear-splitting scream as she released the captured energy, shooting it all out in every direction.  The entire Time Plaza lit up in yellow as each globule of power reached solid matter and exploded.  

Trunks managed to avoid being hit, but the attack left him unable to get a fix on Luffa's position.   The entire city was now saturated with Super Saiyan ki signatures, and Luffa had managed to give him the slip while he was dodging her attack.  Frustrated, Trunks landed and went to retrieve his fallen sword.   It had landed near the stream that flowed between the Shenron altar and the entrance to the Time Nest.  

As he bent down to pick it up, something emerged from the water, and grabbed hold of the tails of his black trenchcoat.  

The next thing Trunks knew, he was underwater, and Luffa was on top of him.   The water began to churn and glow as the two of them struggled.  And then, there was a loud boom as they released ki attacks at the same time.  

For a few seconds, the water in the stream was driven away by the sheer force of their powers.  Luffa and Trunks continued to brawl on the exposed streambed, and the water upstream of them simply flowed out of the channel and spilled around them until it found its way downstream of their battle.  

"You're going to lose," Luffa said, "because you've set yourself up to fail!  'Prince of All Saiyans'!  Hah!  What a joke!"

Her next punch missed, and Trunks caught her forearm and worked her into a hammerlock.  

"Dammit!" Luffa yelled.  

"You want to tell jokes, Luffa?" Trunks asked.  "Tell me the one about the raving lunatic who tried to blow herself up because she couldn't think of a better option!"

"Oh, and you would have handled it better, I suppose!" Luffa shouted back.   She threw her head forward, then drove it back into Trunk's face.   From there, it was a simple matter to reverse the hold, but she kept a grip on Trunks' arm and swung him into the bank of the stream.  She meant to hold onto him and keep slamming him into various surfaces, but he managed to right himself and grab hold of her other hand in a knuckle-lock.  

For a time, they stood against each other in a test of strength, each pushing back against the other, neither giving any ground.  Their golden aura's flashed and crackled against another.   Bolts of lightning flashed around them as the air ionized from the titanic forces they were applying against each other.  

"You're no warrior," Trunks said.  "Just a loose cannon looking for a brawl!"

"I didn't ask for any of this!" Luffa shouted back.  "But I turned into this thing and I've made the most of it.  It was good enough for Shenron when you went looking for someone who could do your job for you!"

"And you failed!" Trunks shouted.  "And I'm going to see to it that you never fail anyone else ever again!"

"You and what army, Your Majesty?!" she screamed.   "You haven't got what it takes!  I was wiping out you royalist clowns centuries ago!   You're no exception!"

Suddenly their struggle reached a tipping point, and they were flung apart from each other by a monumental explosion created by their opposing powers.   The water instantly rushed in to fill the void.    

Trunks was the first to get back to his feet.    He found Luffa then leaped after her, thinking she was too dazed to get up.   She drove both of her black boots into his face to show him the error of his thinking.  He stumbled back one step, and then Luffa swung her legs apart and closed them around his waist, locking her ankles together.   Before Trunks could understand what she was doing, she planted her palms onto the ground and lifted him up over her, driving him head-first into the pavement like a child tossing sand over her shoulder.  

"That's what makes you second-rate, Trunks," Luffa continued.  "You've got my blood running through your veins, and it's made you strong, no doubt.  But you've also got the blood of forty or fifty idiots who thought wearing a crown made them special.  Well you're not."

He didn't move, and so she kicked him in the ribs.   When he didn't stir, she kicked him again.  And again.  

"The Rehvals thought their vision could unite the Saiyans into a nation, damn their eyes.  When they couldn't get enough suckers to play their game, Rehval III tried to play God.  Eugenics, alchemy, secret cults, there wasn't any depth he wouldn't stoop to!  He turned himself into a monster to keep me from wrecking his plan, and I became an even bigger monster to show him how it's done!   I-- whoa!"

Trunks suddenly grabbed her leg as she went to kick him one more time, and he tackled her to the ground.    She struggled to get out from under him, but he surprised her by avoiding the holds that she would have expected him to try.   Instead, he clamped both hands securely on her tail.

"You're no monster," Trunks seethed.   "You're just a throwback.   A relic who can't stand being forgotten and obsolete!"

He squeezed and twisted Luffa's yellow tail with a look of sadistic hatred in his eyes.    Luffa was confused, and then when she finally understood what he was trying to do, she became angry.  

Very angry.  

"You think it's that easy?!" she howled.  "You think I'm some kind of child!"

By the time Trunks understood that his plan would not work, it was too late for him to get clear.  Luffa squirmed out from under him and grabbed hold of his left leg.   Wrapping both arms around his ankles and both legs around his thigh, she locked him into a kneebar and began applying pressure with her hips.  

Trunks cried out in agony as his left knee began to hyperextend.  He quickly forgot all about Luffa's tail and tried to reach down to her shoulders to free himself.  

"Let me tell you a story, Prince," Luffa said through clenched teeth.  "It's about the mythical Prince of All Saiyans."  

Trunks started shooting ki blasts at Luffa's back, but with the pain he was in, he couldn't focus his powers properly.  

"It's a fable," Luffa said.  "About what a true Saiyan leader ought to be!   He would command through respect, not just power or cunning!   He would know that the Saiyan heart is unruly, and could only be led by agreement!  And the only way he could rule over all the Saiyans would be if he proved his courage and dedication again and again!  He would have to give everything he had for his people, because if he wavered in his commitment, even for an instant, then he would be exposed as a fraud!  He would be another self-centered creep using the strength of others to compensate for his own weakness!"

With every word, Luffa tortured the ligaments in Trunks' knee.   His screams were like music to her ears.  

"You blue-blooded...!  Condescending...!   Jackass!" she shrieked.  "You think you can beat me just by pulling on my tail!   You'd even insinuate that I wouldn't have trained it to withstand an attack!   I'd rip yours off if you still had one!  So I'll just settle for your leg instead!  When I'm through with you, I-- Aiieeerrghh!"

Perhaps motivated by the pain, Trunks finally managed to produce a ki attack strong enough to break Luffa's hold on his leg.  He kicked her away with his good leg, then used a handspring to vault away from her.   Luffa rose to her feet, and when she saw Trunks prepared for another skirmish, she grinned.  

"Yeah, you're a stubborn one, aren't you?" Luffa said.  "Just like your whole dynasty.  They didn't know when to roll over and die."

"You're the one who wanted to give up, Luffa," Trunks growled.  "I should have left you to suffocate in space like you wanted."

"Is that supposed to rattle me?" she asked.   "You can't even control your own mind, and you think you can play games with mine?!  Hah!  You really are Vegeta's son!"

They clashed again, but this time Trunks broke away early, and Luffa had to chase him.   They flew around Toki Toki City this way, filling the skies with high-pitched noises as they flew at intense speeds, peppered with thunderous peals whenever they came to blows.  

"Your ancestors were too stupid to quit!" Luffa went on.   "I killed Rehval, but the Saiyans wanted to follow his idiot vision all the way to the grave!  They bred our people like cattle, stupidly thinking they could produce another Super Saiyan!   And by the time one was born, they had lost their entire kingdom to Frieza!  Your grandfather stood around like a dope and let it happen!"

She took a sudden turn and weaved through a row of Capsule buildings to get the drop on him, but Trunks knew the city too well, and it only gave him time to prepare a Buster Cannon.  Luffa might have dodged it, except she had no idea how many survivors were in the city, or where they might be.  A blast of that magnitude could have killed them, and so she caught the golden blast and held it back with her hands.  

"Your father thought he could avenge his people through his princely blood alone!   'Prince of All Saiyans'!  Hah!  All the rest, is more like it!  Too little, too late, and when he finally realized it, his only hope was to become what I am!  A legend he despised for most of his life!  And by the time he finally figured out how to achieve it, it was too late!"

That got a rise out of Trunks, and he began to channel more and more power into his attack.  Luffa held fast and began to push back against the yellow fireball.   Trunks shifted the angle of his attack, forcing Luffa down to the ground, but while this left her with no room to withdraw, it also gave her something to brace against.   As she struggled, her hands began to glow to match the Buster Cannon, and lightning crackled from her fingertips.  

"That's it!" she screamed.  "Give it everything you have!   Everything you have!"

As she taunted him, she began to exert pressure on the Buster Cannon,  and with great effort, the massive globe of energy began to contract.   She grunted as she pushed even harder, encouraged by her progress.   And finally, she collapsed the ki ball entirely, and diverted its power harmlessly into the sky.  

When it was over, she expected to see Trunks looming above her, but instead he was gone.  Luffa glanced around for him, and found him just in time to see the edge of his sword swinging towards her.   She only had time to fall backward, and watched with awe as the blood-stained metal passed before her eyes.    Had she been an instant slower, she would have surely been decapitated.  

Trunks kept attacking, making relentless, wild swings with his sword with all the speed he could muster.  Luffa noticed that he was still favoring his knee, and that may have been the only thing that saved her.  At last, she was able to put enough distance between them that she could regroup.  

"Clever," she said.   "You used that big ki blast to keep me busy so you could fetch your sword.   And that might have helped you earlier, while you were still fresh, but now...?"

She held up her left hand, and grunted as she channeled her ki into her index and middle finger.  Then she pointed them at Trunks like they were a weapon of their own.    "You might as well back down now, Trunks," she said.  "It's all downhill from here."

Trunks did not back down.  If anything, Luffa's challenge only renewed his motivation to fight, as he charged headlong at her.   He swung his sword, and Luffa deflected it with her fingers.  

Frustrated, Trunks tried again, and again.  Each time, Luffa blocked his strikes.  There were openings where she might have tried to attack,  but she let these opportunities pass, and only blocked.   Occasionally, she would take a step back, giving ground as Trunks continued his assault.

"Prince of the Saiyans," Luffa scoffed.   "You inherited my power, but you still play by their backward rules.  Too rigid, too diplomatic for my tastes, Trunks.  You're so focused on the orthodox that you can't imagine anything beyond it!"

Then, after blocking one last strike, Luffa went on the offensive.  She drew back her hand, and lunged forward to jab at Trunks' chest.  Acting on pure reflex from his countless hours of training, Trunks blocked her fingers with the flat of his blade.  

And Luffa smiled at him.  

A crimson beam shot out of her fingertips, drilling through the steel like it was warm butter, and ripping through the flesh of Trunks' left shoulder like it was nothing at all.  

For a moment that seemed to linger, Trunks' face was frozen in a mixture of pained shock and self-recrimination.   His red eyes went wide as he stared down at Luffa.  

"Vengeance Cannon," she said quietly, but no less triumphantly.  

Then she spun around and delivered a kick to the arm she had just wounded.   Trunks' sword fell out of his hands and went flying.   It finally struck the hull of one of the Capsule buildings, embedding itself into the wall like a splinter sticking out of a giant thumb.

"Ordinarily, you would have seen that coming from the moment I charged up my fingers," Luffa said.  "But I played swordfighter with you for a bit, and you got so caught up in it that you forgot all about my finisher."

Trunks made a low growling noise at he clutched at his wounded arm.  

"You've still got some fight left in you," Luffa said, "and I'll be happy to see this through, but you have to know how this is going to end.   Bad knee, bad shoulder... Demigra's magic dulling your fighting instincts just a hair... add it all up, and you might as well hang it up, Prince."

If he had any interest in what she was saying, he ignored it, and clenched his right hand into a fist as he charged his energy for another round of battle.  

"You've got heart," Luffa said.  She raised an eyebrow as she sensed just how much power he could still bring to bear.   "Or maybe that's Demigra, tugging a little harder on the strings, huh?  Or maybe you just can't stand to disappoint your royal ancestors."

"Enough."

Luffa looked up to find Demigra floating overhead, his arms outstretched like a blasphemous parody of a figure in a religious artwork.  

"So you've finally decided to step in and do your own dirty work?" Luffa asked.  "Suits me fine, Demigra.  Trunks was just about finished anyway."

"Actually, I had something else in mind," Demigra said with a smirk.  "As impressive as your battle has been, I'd rather not see Trunks killed so early into his service.    If they were healthy, I might consider sending the other Time Patrollers in to support him, but they're all worn out from fighting Trunks earlier, not to mention each other.  But then I had an idea.  I may not be able to use them as cannon fodder, but they could still prove useful as hostages."

He raised his hands, and a purple mist rose from his palms like smoke rising from a volcano.   Luffa watched him carefully, but she had no way of knowing what he was doing, or the significance of the mystic gestures he was making.  

"They may be exhausted and hurt," Demigra said, "but my Time Patrol is always eager to serve their new god, no matter how gruesome their duty.  And so I'll summon them here, and if they can't fight you, then I'll just have them battle one another."

Luffa's eyes went wide with outrage.   "You'd sink that low?!" she asked.  

"If a god does something, it cannot be immoral," Demigra scoffed.  "You're welcome to continue your fight with Trunks if you wish.  Though I can see you're reluctant to keep fighting, now that you've wounded him.  If it were up to him, he would probably surrender, but it's not up to him, and my Time Patrol will never surrender."

Luffa was flustered.  Defeating Trunks was a simple task at this point, but it would still take time to incapacitate him. Saving the other Time Patrollers from themselves could also be done, but that would also take time.  And she was confident that she could beat Demigra, but not while Trunks and the Time Patrollers were still able to hurt each other while she fought.  It was an impossible choice.   There simply wasn't enough time!  

And then, to her surprise, Demigra's arrogant expression twisted into a look of annoyance.  

"What?!" he snarled.  "Where are they?  Why haven't they appeared?!   What happened to my spell?!"

And then Luffa heard a familiar voice.  

"I happened, Demigra."

Luffa turned to find Chronoa standing in the main road of the Industrial Sector.   Despite her petite frame, she projected a tremendous authority as she planted her fists against her hips and glared up at Demigra.  

Demigra looked down at her, decidedly less than intimidated.  

"Well, if it isn't the Supreme Kai of Time," he said with a chuckle.   "I'm sorry.  I meant ex-Supreme Kai of Time.   I believe your services are no longer required at this time."

"That decision isn't yours to make, Demigra," she said.  "And neither are the Time Patrollers you've enslaved with your magic.  I had a feeling you'd try to use them as hostages, so while you were busy watching Luffa fight, I evacuated them."

"Evacuated them?!" Demigra said.   "Where?!  How?!"

Chronoa held out her hand and smiled.   "Come on, Demigra," she said.  "You may have been stuck in the Crack of Time for millions of years, but surely you haven't forgotten the Kai Kai Technique?   It's what lets Supreme Kais teleport to different worlds to conduct their godly business.  I received the ability from the Grand Supreme Kai when I first assumed my position."

Demigra's face twisted with rage.  "You little thief!" he snarled.  

"I couldn't remove your spell, but you won't be able to control them since you don't know where they are," Chronoa said.   "Of course, if you were the god you claim to be, then you shouldn't have any trouble finding them and bringing them back.  Isn't that right?"

"It doesn't matter!" Demigra thundered.  "I have all the power I need to destroy the likes of you.   You won't take Trunks from me quite so easily, Chronoa.  Not to mention Tokitoki.  Yes, you should have thought of your little teleportation trick sooner, before I absorbed him!"

"You monster!" Chronoa shouted.  "Give him back!  Tokitoki isn't yours!"

Demigra laughed.  "You dare to command me!   To defy me?!" he screamed.    "Do you know what happens when you defy a god?!   Do you?!   You receive divine retribution!  You shall endure torment like no-- Arrgh!"

He was cut off when Luffa suddenly vanished from where she had been standing, only to reappear beside him to deliver a punch to the jaw.   For all his bluster, Demigra crashed into one of the buildings in the Industrial sector, and lay in an undignified heap for several seconds.  

"You talk too much, Demigra," Luffa said.   "You want to dish out some 'divine retribution'?  Go right ahead."  She pointed at herself as she said: "But you start with me."

But Luffa had neglected to take Trunks into consideration.  Though badly hurt, he was still driven by Demigra's magic to attack her, and so he did.   Reluctantly, Luffa had to fight him first, even though she knew he was practically beaten.

"Dammit, you're beaten, Trunks!" Luffa shouted.  "Roll over and lay down like a proper royal!"

But Trunks would not be deterred, and so Luffa went to work on his weakened knee and injured shoulder.   They were both on the left side, which made the ribs on his left flank an easy target.   Luffa kicked him, only for Trunks to block with his bad arm.   The pain should have been excruciating for him, but he continued to fight on.  He was literally a man possessed.  

"I'm not screwing around, Trunks!" Luffa growled.   "If you keep this up--!"

He kept attacking, though she had no trouble fighting back.  She grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head down as she brought up her knee.   Trunks was stunned, but not stopped.  He took a step back, but only so he could increase his power.  

"Luffa, be careful!" Chronoa called out.  "He's under Demigra's mind control!"

"I know that!" Luffa snapped.  "Why else would he be glowing purple like this?!"

"I mean he's not going to give up!" Chronoa warned her.   "Right now he'd tear his body apart if it meant killing you in the process!"

Trunks continued to push his body to higher and higher levels of power.    His screams began to sound less like those of a determined warrior and more like a man burning alive.    Despite this, Luffa used the opening to raise her own power to keep up with him.  

"I've got no choice!" she called back to Chronoa.  "It's him or me, and it's damn sure not going to be me!"

Behind her, she could hear Demigra laughing.   "Heh... You hit your own friends without hesitation," he jeered.    "Poor Trunks must be in such pain."

"Damn you, Demigra!" Chronoa yelled.  But this was all she could do.  

"Enough of this!" Luffa roared.  "If I have to go through you to get to Demigra, then so be it, Trunks!  At least I'll do my best to make this quick!"  

She leaped at him and landed a right hook to his face.  This staggered him, but he refused to drop.  

"Fall!" Luffa growled.   "Fall!"

She hit him again, and again, but Trunks wouldn't go down.  And then, at last, he spoke.  

"I-it's okay..." he said.   "Just... hit me again...!"

Luffa was so stunned that she forgot herself, and Trunks landed a blow of his own.  She almost didn't notice the pain of getting punched in the stomach.  

"You... you!" she gasped as she caught her breath.  

"Trunks!" Chronoa called out.  

"What?!  He's trying to escape my mind control?!" Demigra shouted.  

"It's to break out of Demigra's magic," Trunks said.  He sounded much more like himself than before.  It had always been his voice, but Luffa hadn't realized how twisted it had sounded until now.   But this was the true Trunks speaking.  The evil fog still saturated his body, but he was free enough to speak for himself.

"Don't worry about me!" Trunks pleaded, even as he continued to attack.   "I need your help.   Just keep it coming...!"

"Shut up!  You defiant little ingrate!"  Demigra screeched from the sidelines.  

Luffa blocked Trunks' next strike, and stared into his glowing red eyes.   "I've been hitting you this entire time, stupid!" she said.  "If that wasn't enough to break you free, what more will it take?"

Trunks screwed up his face into a resolute grimace, and then made a defiant smirk.   "Try hitting me like you mean it this time," he said. "Or maybe you really were overrated this whole time."

Luffa glared at him with a murderous fury, and then her eyes went wide and she began to laugh.  

"You know what?!" she shouted.   "You're all right, Trunks!  Okay, you get your wish, smart guy!"

Her next swing was wild, and Trunks avoided it easily, in spite of his wounds.   This was just to set him up for her next strike, which landed square in his abdomen.   Then an uppercut to the chin.   And several quick jabs to his ribs.  Trunks struggled to block, and to fight back, and to his credit, he managed to hold out, even landing blows of his own, though this had more to do with Luffa being unwilling to go on the defensive.  She was happy to take three hits from Trunks in order to score one.

And as she wore him down, in spite of the beating she was taking herself, Luffa howled with laughter the entire time.  

"Shut up!" Demigra shouted.   "What do you think is so damned funny?!"

"You are, Demigra!" Luffa screamed back.   "This was the big idea you've been planning for seventy-five million years?   You thought you could take over by pitting a Super Saiyan against another Super Saiyan?!  Hah!  Don't threaten me with a good time!     This only gets me fired up, so I'll be even more eager to crush you!"

"Stop... heckling... him!" Trunks said.   "And fight... harder!"

"You see?  You see?!" Luffa shouted.  "Even Trunks is enjoying himself!  But don't worry, Demigra!  I won't let him hog all the fun!  Your turn is coming soon enough!"

Trunks was on his last legs, but he still goaded Luffa to keep hitting him.   "Don't let up!" he said between coughs.   "It's... working!   But you're going to have to do... better than that!"

"Hah!  That's the spirit, Trunks!  Fight like a Saiyan!"  Luffa hit him in the midsection with a double-axehandle, and he collapsed to the ground.   He tried to get up, but couldn't get further than to plant his hands and knees beneath himself.   As he struggled to rise, Luffa put her boot on the back of his head and shoved him back down.    

"And you can die like a Saiyan," she added as she pressed her heel against his cranium.  

"Arrrrghhh!" Trunks screamed, although he barely had the strength to manage that anymore.  

"Luffa, stop!" Chronoa pleaded.  "You'll kill him!"

"It's better than being stuck under Demigra's thumb," Luffa said with a snort.  "Dead or alive, he won't get in my way when I tear Demigra to shreds."

Chronoa ran towards them, holding out her hands, although Luffa didn't know if she meant to rescue Trunks or continue pleading for his life.   By the time she reached them, the matter was academic.   The purple fog dissipated, and Trunks' body returned to normal.   His muscles seemed to relax now, as though a great tension had been relieved now that he was finally free.

"Good fight," Luffa muttered under her breath as Chronoa knelt by Trunks' side.  His hair, now reverted back to its usual state, was matted with blood, and he did not move, save for the rise and fall of his torso as he breathed.  

"He's... he's still alive," Chronoa said.  "For a while there, I was afraid you were really going to..."

The Kai looked up at Luffa and trailed off when she realized Luffa was no longer paying attention to her or Trunks.    With one opponent defeated,  Luffa wasted no time turning her attention to Demigra.  

She looked up at the Demon God, and raised her clenched fist at him.

"You're going to pay in blood for what you did to him," she said.

 NEXT: Luffa versus Demigra

[duhragonball]

Nanwum VI FINAL: 52,217

And here we are.  I was kind of hoping to put in a stronger performance this year.  I really went on a tear in 2021, and I knew it’d be unlikely to replicate that kind of success, but I still sort of hoped for an early win and a nice, cushy overrun.   Still, 52,217 is plenty.  My true goal all long was to add enough words to my fic to hit one million in total.  Well, 957,261 plus 52,217 is 1,009,478, so all I have to do now is get all of this edited and posted.  

Oh, and I also wrote 4930 in October, so that gets me closer to 1,014,408. 

Still, I think I could optimize this Nano business a little better if I really worked on it. On the other hand, Nano is just a means to an end, so maybe I should just leave it be. 

The important thing is that I’m well on my way to wrapping up the Demigra portion of this story.   I still have some more work to do on that, but I think I can finish it in the next few months.  After that, my agenda for 2023 is.... well, kind of undefined?   I have this manila folder where I keep my plans for upcoming Luffa stories, but the only thing I have in it now is a printout of this:

I mean, I took this screenshot years ago.  It looks cool, but what could it possibly mean?  This is like that Seinfeld where Jerry wakes up with a great joke idea, so he writes it down before he forgets, except the note makes no sense.

Dammit, this is going to drive me nuts.  Okay, so like... that background is very picturesque.  Maybe I should plot out an arc where Luffa goes camping?  You know, kind of a nice, relaxing diversion after the whole Demigra crisis.  She could wind up in a tourist trap and buy a lot of goofy souvenirs.  No, that’s not it.  I’m sure this image meant something to me, but I just can’t figure it out.  Well, if anyone has any ideas, send ‘em my way.

In the meantime, I gotta put Demigra to bed once and for all.  And I still need to finish up this year’s annual.  But tonight, I’m gonna take it easy.   Well, it’s 12:30 AM, so I should probably just go to bed.

[duhragonball]

Nanwum VI Update: 19,023

Yeah, I had a couple of slower days last week, but otherwise, I seem to have settled into a good, consistent pace.  Normally I either blast out 4000+ words in one day, or I struggle to get past 1000, and there doesn’t seem to be much in-between.  I’ve always wanted to be able to consistently do 2000-3000 words a day for multiple days, and lately I seem to be pulling that off.  If I can maintain that rate for a little longer, then I’ll be on course to finish by Day 19.  That would be nice, but I don’t want to take this too lightly.  One day at a time. I have to remember Schneider’s teachings.

This year is different, I think, because I’ve got a bit of senior-itis going on.  Do people still call it that?  I mean the thing where you’re near the end of your last year of high school or college, and it’s hard to stay focused on the here and now while facing the reality that things are going to change forever.  The fic isn’t winding down, but I am getting close to the end of the whole “Xenoverse novelization” bit.  I’m currently writing scenes that I’ve been planning and thinking about for the last seven years.  I’ve got this checklist on my desk, and after I finish those items, I’m like “Wait, what comes next?” and then I remember and I’m like “oh, wow, there really isn’t much left, is there?”

That’s not to say I’m running out of material. I’ll need at least 50k to write it all, but I’m basically doing my adaptation of the final boss battle in the game, and once I’m done setting up all the pieces, it really just boils down to a bunch of fight scenes.  It is surreal to me that I don’t have to worry about the Battle of West City portion of the story anymore, because I just wrapped that up two days ago.  I still have to finish the “Demigra invades Toki Toki City” part of the plot.   That’s what I’m working on right now.  But for years I’ve always thought of those two things as one large task, and it’s weird how half of it is just... done.  And in a few days the other half will be done too, and I’ll be moving on to the Luffa/Demigra battle with nothing left in the way. 

So I think that has a lot to do with what slowed me down on Days 2 and 3.  I stared a little too long into the abyss or something.   But once I got some momentum going, it’s been all right, because like I said, I’ve been preparing for this part of the story for years, so it ought to flow pretty well.   I just need to make sure I don’t fall into the same rut later this month as I prepare to check off some other box that’s kind of a major milestone for me. 

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (189/?)

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.

     [18 August, Age 778. Earth.]  

The God of Destruction, Beerus, had invited himself to a birthday party while seeking out a "Super Saiyan God" that he had witnessed in a prophetic dream. Then someone ruined his dessert, and he decided to destroy the Earth.

Luffa was the Legendary Super Saiyan, but she was not the divine arch-rival Beerus was looking for.  Even if she had he power to fulfill his premonition, she didn't belong in this era.  Luffa hailed from the year 234 Before Age, ten centuries before Beerus's visit to Earth. She had been brought to Age 850 to join the Time Patrol, who then sent her to Age 779 to investigate a possible temporal incursion.

The mission was a debacle before it began. The Supreme Kai of Time had detected a change in history on this date, but she was so horrified at the thought of Beerus being involved that she deployed Luffa without any proper intelligence gathering. Luffa had no idea what the change in history was, or when it would occur. She didn't even know what was supposed to happen in the original, unaltered event. And she couldn't contact the Kai for instructions, because she had forgotten her communicator in the rush.

The only lead Luffa had was an ordinary inflatable ball. For brief moment, Luffa had noticed it glowing with purple energy as it veered off course and knocked Beerus's pudding out of his hand. The purple energy had become a familiar sight to Luffa, as she had seen it in powerful warriors possessed by demonic magic. Towa and Mira had used it in their own schemes, and after Luffa defeated them, the Demon God Demigra began to use the same trick, manipulating warriors to alter history for his own evil purposes. Luffa had never seen the power used on a child's toy, but she couldn't believe it was a coincidence.

And yet, the ball didn't actually seem to change history at all. If anything, it had set things back on track. It had knocked Beerus's pudding to the ground, ruining it, but the only reason Beerus even had the pudding in the first place was because Luffa had gotten it for him. If not for that, Beerus would have become enraged over all of the puddings being eaten by another partygoer, Majin Buu.

"Rookie mistake," Luffa muttered to herself. "I assumed the goal was to prevent Lord Beerus from losing his temper. So when he got mad at Buu over the pudding, I just took it for granted that Demigra was controlling Buu again."

She took off one of her fingerless gloves and plunged her bare arm into a pond on the Capsule Corp estate. After a moment, she hauled up Majin Buu by the folds of his purple cape, and laid him on the ground. Luffa crouched beside the pink creature, and slapped him on his round, doughy cheeks. There was no response. Beerus had knocked him unconscious.

"Tough break, Majin Buu," Luffa said as she held open his left eyelid to make sure he was out cold. "I didn't even know for sure if you could be knocked out like this, but at least now I know for sure you're not under Demigra's spell. If you had been, Lord Beerus would have snapped you out of it just now."

She looked up into the air, and found Vegeta challenging Beerus instead. Vegeta's ki was stronger than Luffa expected, but it was nowhere near enough to tackle a fighter who could defeat Majin Buu in just a few hits. Then again, what else could Vegeta do? Beerus had already condemned the entire planet, and there was no escape.

"I guess I'd pull the same stunt if I was in his shoes," Luffa said. "Trouble is, I still don't know what I'm supposed to do here. I must not have botched the mission yet, or Chronoa would have pulled me back to the Time Nest by now. And I can't fight Beerus myself, because I'm pretty sure this is all supposed to be happening right now. And even if it's not, what good could I do?"

As she expected, Vegeta couldn't lay a finger on Beerus, who dropped him with a few simple strikes. It was almost distasteful to think of Beerus' movements as simple. He made it look easy, and he dispatched his opponents like a grown man fending off rowdy toddlers, but Luffa had seen Vegeta in action before, and she knew he was a brilliant fighter. The way Beerus dismantled Vegeta's entire offensive was truly sublime. She found herself envying Vegeta for the invaluable experience he was getting.

Now Goten and Trunks took a hand, but to Luffa's surprise, they did not attack right away. Instead, they took up positions and performed a strange ritual, where they sidestepped towards one another, then touched their fingers together. The result was a sudden burst of light, and when it faded the two boys were gone, replaced by a single child with a mix of black and lavender hair. During a previous Time Patrol mission, Son Goku had suggested something he called the "Fusion Technique". Luffa now realized that she had just seen it performed.

She didn't like what she saw.

Nevertheless, the results were impressive, as "Gotenks" was a lot stronger than Goten and Trunks. It still wasn't enough. Gotenks could talk a good game and argue with Beerus about pudding, but that was all he could do.

Luffa looked at the food trucks and vendor carts in the area, and briefly considered making her own pudding to sate Beerus's craving. She shook her head and dismissed the idea.

"Whatever they do about this," she said, "They have to settle it without me, because that's how it would have happened originally. All I can do is stop Demigra, except I can't even find him..."

As Beerus made short work of Gotenks, Luffa's thoughts turned once again to the ball. Demigra had affected it, but only to put history back on course. But why? What good did it do Demigra to let things play out?

Then she sensed Vegeta's ki rising, exceeding what she thought was possible for him. Why had he not used this power before?

Luffa flew closer to the battle to see for herself. She found Bulma lying on the ground, and Vegeta wailing furiously at what had happened.

"Beerus... he hit her?" Luffa asked. "But why would he...?!"

And then Vegeta attacked Beerus in a blind rage. To Luffa's amazement, he seemed to be driving Beerus back, even drawing blood with one of his punches. He finished with a Gallick Gun, and for a moment, Luffa wondered if that might have actually worked. It was impossible to tell in the moment. Since Beerus had no ki that she could sense, there was no way to know if he was alive while he was engulfed in the blast.

But when the light subsided, she could see Beerus was completely unhurt. He wasn't even fazed from the blows Vegeta had landed earlier. And it suddenly made sense. Beerus was playing with them. He was so desperate to find the Super Saiyan God that he was willing to enrage Vegeta in the hopes of somehow bringing it out of him.

For Beerus, this had all be an elaborate production. Attending the party, his anger over the pudding, all of it was just a show to get Vegeta or one of the other Saiyans to fulfill his premonition.

"And maybe that's what Demigra was up to," she said to herself. "He stopped me from altering history because he needed this battle to play out, because Demigra has something bigger planned for later on..."

Before she could speculate on what that might be, she suddenly sensed Goku's ki as he arrived on the scene. His proposal was simple: Use the Dragon Balls to wish for the method to summon a Super Saiyan God. And it worked.

Luffa withdrew to a distance and watched as Goku called the Eternal Dragon, Shenron. It was the second time Luffa had seen the creature. The first was when Shenron had brought her forward in time and deposited her in Toki Toki City. Shenron was intimidated by Beerus, but he still carried out his duty and explained the tale of Yamoshi, and his doomed effort to reform the Saiyan people. More importantly, he explained how Yamoshi became a Super Saiyan God. His five disciples joined hands with him, and sent their power into his body. According to Shenron, it was their "righteous hearts" that made the ritual work.

After Shenron's work was finished, Goku, Vegeta, and their children attempted to recreate the ritual, but it didn't work. They needed a sixth, but Luffa didn't want to volunteer, since that might change the course of history. Instead, Gohan's wife stepped forth and suggested that their unborn child might be able to fill the vacancy.

Luffa doubted it would work, and yet it did. Despite the children's Earthling heritage, it still worked. Goku received their power, and he transformed, not into a Super Saiyan, but into something else.

He looked very much the same, except his hair and eyes had turned red, and his body had gotten slimmer. Unlike the Super Saiyan form, Goku's hair did not stand up on end when it changed color. Luffa could sense no ki signature from him at all now. He had become like Beerus, it seemed. The only question was whether he was strong enough to defeat him.

Luffa followed their battle as well as she could. At her top speed, she could keep pace with them, but only because Goku and Beerus were moving in different directions as they fought their way out of West City and into the wilderness.

As much as Luffa tried to appreciate the battle as a milestone in Saiyan history, she couldn't help but be disappointed. Unable to sense the ki of either fighter, she could only follow the action using her other senses, which were not quick enough to keep up with their movements. At times, they seemed to be nothing more than loud booms in the sky, or flashes of orange and purple light.

Every so often, Luffa thought she could sense their powers, but it was too short and sudden for her to be sure she wasn't imagining it.

Then the battle led to the shoreline, where Beerus' attacks on Goku generated enough force to part the waters. They descended through the bedrock below the seafloor, and ended up in an underground cavern. A large group of Goku's friends had followed them in a flying vehicle, but they simply paused and watched the hole in the ground that Goku and Beerus had made. Luffa simply dove in after them.

"Don't mind me," she said as she touched down in the ankle-deep water on the cavern floor.

They didn't. If Goku or Beerus noticed Luffa at all, they were too focused on one another to acknowledge her presence.

"I still haven't come close to using my full power in this fight," Beerus said to Goku.

"Oh, that makes sense," Goku replied. "I've been goin' at about eighty percent myself!"

"What?! You've been holding back?!"

Luffa wanted to ask Goku the same thing.   Unable to sense their powers, she had no idea what level they were fighting at, and so she assumed that Goku was giving it everything he had.  The fate of his adopted world was on the line, after all.   And yet, this transformation was new to him, and it probably made sense to get acclimated to it before testing its limits.  As she wondered what she might do in his place, she noticed a strange sensation coming from Beerus.  

"All right, fine! Let's see how you do at this speed!"

It only lasted a moment, but Luffa had encountered it enough times to recognize the tell tale energy signature of Demigra's sorcery.  Even though she had found no sign of Demigra himself, he must have somehow attempted to use his power on Beerus.  The effects seemed faint at best, but Luffa was sure of it.   The only question was: What was Demigra going to do with Beerus?  

As Beerus charged toward Goku, another question occurred to Luffa: What could she possibly do to stop it?  

The battle of gods continued, and Goku and Beerus looked to Luffa like little more than blurs of orange and purple bouncing off stalactites in the cavern.   Occasionally they touched down in the shallow water in the cavern floor, and sometimes they slowed down long enough for Luffa to see them more clearly.   She was so frustrated with the lack of clarity that she amplified her own power, increasing her ki in an attempt to enhance her senses.  It helped, but it was humiliating to have to rely on her once-vaunted Super Saiyan power just to be a spectator.  

Then, she noticed the orange light vanish.   For a moment she wondered if Beerus has killed him, but then Goku slowed down enough that she could see him.  

He appeared to be well, except that his hair was black.  

"Idiot!" Luffa muttered.   "You let your time expire!"

She cursed his foolishness.   Up until this point, she had assumed that Goku had some sort of intuitive understanding of his Super Saiyan God form.   Why else would he have held back, unless he knew he would have enough time to bring his full power to bear?  But no, he seemed to have no idea, and now his slim chance of defeating Beerus had dissolved into nothing.  

Suddenly, it occurred to her that this was exactly what had happened to Yamoshi against the wicked Saiyans.  The old stories never spelled out the details, but he was always supposed to have been on the cusp of victory, only for his time to run out.   Implicit in the story was Yamoshi's fatal flaw.  For all his power and moral fiber, he had made a grave miscalculation.  

Had Son Goku done the same?

As Luffa pondered that question, she realized something very strange about their battle.   It was still happening.  Goku had lost his orange glow, but he was still holding his own, even after Beerus had declared his intention to fight more seriously.  

For a moment, she wondered if Beerus had slowed down, but there seemed to be no motive for such a thing... unless Demigra had somehow manipulated him into holding back.   But why would Demigra do such a thing?

But at last, Luffa realized that Goku was still moving almost too fast for her to follow.  He seemed to be in his base form, but the power of Super Saiyan God had not left him, at least not completely.   If she had any lingering doubts of this, they were settled when Goku used his Instant Transmission technique to dodge Beerus, teleportation behind him to land a punch of his own.  

Luffa couldn't help but grin, even when Goku's second attempt to use Instant Transmission failed to catch Beerus off-guard.  The idea of a Saiyan-- any Saiyan!-- giving Beerus the Destroyer this much trouble was awe-inspiring.  When Beerus responded by firing energy blasts, Goku managed to cope with those as well.   He seemed more irritated than worried, as though he thought ki blasts were somehow off-limits for this fight.  

It struck Luffa as odd that she could sense Beerus' blasts, but not Beerus himself.  And then she noticed that she could sense Goku as well.   If he really was still empowered with the Super Saiyan God form, then she shouldn't have been able to perceive him at all.  

Beerus' onslaught had almost no effect on the cavern they were fighting in.  Goku avoided every shot, and yet the blasts did little more than disturb the water or break apart a few rocks.   It was a testament to Beerus' mastery of such power.  To most observers, he would have seemed to be attacking in a blind rage, but he wasn't.  If he had truly gone berserk, he would have blasted apart the entire cavern in his attempts to hit Goku.  

As for Goku, his power--or at least the power Luffa could sense--continued to rise.  He was keeping up, but only enough to stay on the defensive.   He managed to tag Beerus once more, but this only made Beerus fire even more ki blasts in all directions.  Consciously or otherwise, Goku kept pushing his ki further.  It was as if his body was trying to compensate for the limitations of the Saiyan God form.  

"But if he keeps that up--" Luffa said to herself as she struggled to avoid stray ki blasts from Beerus.  Her only salvation was that Beerus wasn't aiming for her.   "If he... whoa! If Kakarot keeps that up... then he'll have to--!"

Goku finished the thought for her.  As Beerus' attacks brought the cavern down around him, Goku made a furious scream, and a yellow light shone from his body.   The next thing she knew, he was flying through the crumbling rock, tunneling his way to the surface.  

It still rattled Luffa to see others using the Super Saiyan form.   Even the God power Goku had been using earlier had been less disturbing to Luffa, because it was something new.   She knew the strangeness of the golden power far too well, and it was still bizarre to see it outside of her own body.  It always reminded her of just how bizarre she was to every other Saiyan she had known in the past.   This time, it was even more unnerving, because Goku didn't just look like her.   He had surpassed her in power as well.  

"Dug through all of this in seconds!" Luffa gasped as she followed him toward the surface.   It was faster to use the passage he had bored, but this only forced her to acknowledge what he had achieved.   "Did he even fire a blast ahead of him to clear the way?!"

She had lost Beerus completely, but once she reached the open skies, it was easy to spot him in close combat with Goku.   They bounced around like bullets fired inside a steel vessel, occasionally colliding, only to bounce away and circle back to one another.   Once more, Luffa was only able to keep up with them because she was flying straight up, while they were only moving gradually in that direction.  

It was clear now that Goku was in trouble.  It was possible that he hadn't even noticed his transformation.   He had just done it, instinctively, much the same way he had reacted on Namek when Frieza had pushed him past his limits.   Luffa understood the feeling well.   She had grown accustomed to having control over her Super Saiyan form, but she could never forget the desperate shock that she felt the first time it had happened.   Goku was fighting wildly, doing whatever came naturally as he tried to keep up with Beerus.   Whatever self-control he had was simply a testament to his discipline as a warrior.  

The problem was that Beerus was still showing no signs of wearing down.  It was only a matter of time before Goku wore himself out.   His power was amazing, but if he needed to hold Super Saiyan at this level to maintain it, then it was just a matter of time.  

Perhaps this was the reason Goku was willing to take the battle into the upper atmosphere.   He may have been planning a desperate offensive, and he didn't want to damage the planet in the attempt.   At last, they stopped moving higher into the air, and the blue sky lay only beneath them.   On every other side, there was the blackness of space, and the starlight twinkling through the thin air that remained at this altitude.  

Luffa focused her breathing.  As intimidating as Beerus's power was, as awe-inspiring as Goku's power was, she had spent most of her life in starships, and she had been taught from an early age to cope with the effects of high altitudes and thin atmospheres.   She supposed that Goku must have learned similar disciplines in his lifetime, while Beerus may have never needed air to breathe at all.  

At first, she thought Goku's last-ditch effort was a massive Kamehameha wave, but it turned out to be a diversion.  Beerus was completely unharmed, but the attack still gave Goku a chance to throw a kick.   Nevertheless, Beerus avoided the blow with ease.    He then responded with an even larger energy attack, and launched a massive ball of power down toward Goku.  Even if he could avoid the attack, it would mean letting it fall to the Earth below.  And so, Goku tasked himself with holding the energy ball back somehow.  

From a safe distance, Luffa watched Goku's struggle.   He couldn't stop the power, which looked like a miniature star inching its way closer to the ground.    The situation reminded her of Goku's Spirit Bomb attack on Majin Buu, only this time it was Goku defiantly pushing back, and Beerus didn't even seem to be trying hard.    

"Evidently you hadn't realized it yet!" Beerus called down to him.

"Realized what?" Goku asked between desperate grunts.  

"Your God Power.  It ran out some time ago," Beerus said.  

This came as a complete surprise to Goku.  Whatever he had been doing to compensate, he hadn't even noticed.

"It seems that when you fought me in God Form, your body learned from the experience," Beerus explained.  "Merely feeling that level of power was enough to push you to new heights!   So now, even though your God Form has expired, your power is much greater than before!  I didn't think it was possible..."

But Luffa did.  She had never dreamed of it on this sort of scale, but the concept wasn't too different from the Saiyan zenkai, the ability to gain greater strength after recovering from near fatal wounds.  It took a lot to bring a Saiyan to the brink of death, and it was believed that the experience itself was something a Saiyan body could "learn" from.  

Every Saiyan possessed the zenkai trait, although few had the courage to put it to the test on the battlefield.  Fewer still had allies willing to rescue them and mend their wounds.   Even so, the potential was commonplace among their species, even if the application was rare.

Rarer still was the ability to learn and replicate the techniques of others.  Most Saiyans chalked this up to mere intellect, but there was more to it than that.   The truly gifted Saiyans could learn from an attack simply by experiencing it firsthand.  

And then there were the Super Saiyans, the rarest of the rare.   Luffa's own transformation had been an accident, or perhaps a instinctive reflex to her physical and emotional distress.  But soon after, she had learned to control the transformation and use it at will.   Was this so different from what Beerus was describing?   She had experienced Super Saiyan power once, and her body began to acclimate to it, becoming capable of wielding that power on command.

And now, Son Goku had done it all over again, using Yamoshi's God technique and turning it into a power all his own.   Only it wasn't enough.   Despite Beerus' glowing praise and Luffa's silent admiration, Goku still lacked the power to hold back the ball of fire that Beerus had thrown at him.

Making matters worse, Beerus had no intention of stopping his assault.   As impressed as he was with Goku, he didn't seem to care that he was about to kill him.  Instead, he raised one of his clawed fingers, and fired an energy beam into the ball of flame, adding to it's already overwhelming  power.  

Goku couldn't do it.   He couldn't hold it back.  Luffa's ability to analyze their power was limited, but she could tell Goku was nearly spent.    The yellow glow of his Super Saiyan form faded, leaving him, apparently, back where he had started.  And yet, he continued to struggle.  And then, just when all seemed lost...

There was a mighty scream, and the orange light of Beerus' energy ball suddenly swirled and churned like a living thing, and then it imploded, vanishing completely, leaving only a figure floating in the center of where it had once been.    

For a moment, Luffa could see Goku in his God Form once again, and then he reverted once more to his base form, gasping as he caught his breath.   Beerus floated towards him and they began to converse.   It seemed that the fight was finally over, and Goku had conceded defeat.  

Luffa watched them carefully.  If this was truly over, then what had Demigra tried to do with Beerus earlier?   Had he failed, or was his purpose in this time period more subtle than the Time Patrol suspected?

And then, suddenly, Beerus's eyes glowed red, and he raised his arms to attack with another enormous ball of fire.  

"It's time..." he shouted, "to destroy Earth!"

Goku was horrified to see this.  It had taken everything he had to stop the first energy ball.   A second was completely out of the question.    And that left matters up to Luffa, except she had no idea how to proceed.   The only way to snap someone out of Demigra's spell was to hit them very hard, but Luffa doubted that she could even lay a finger on Beerus at her current level.   Knocking him out was simply out of the question.  

Nor could she leave this matter up to history.  Whatever was happening now was not supposed to be.   It was up to the Time Patrol to intervene, but how?

As she considered her predicament, she heard laughter, and turned to find the image of Demigra shimmering into view, just as he had appeared in the Time Vault earlier, to taunt them.  

"Look," he said, gesturing to Beerus.  "Even Beerus has his weaknesses.  Now he is my puppet."

"You bastard!" Luffa shouted.  "So that ball Goten and Trunks were playing with... this was your plan all along!"

"I knew the Supreme Kai of Time would panic if I came to this time," Demigra said.   "I only used enough of my power to get her attention, but I made sure to wait until you arrived before making my move.   Instead of subverting Beerus' mind all at once, the way I did with the others before, I used a more... subtle approach."

Luffa looked back to see Beerus still getting his attack ready.   It was the same orange ball of ki he had used before, but this time he seemed to be dragging out the process.   Luffa couldn't tell if he was doing something special with the attack, or if Demigra was forcing Beerus to hold his fire as a demonstration of his control.  

"You  were so worried about that ball spilling his dessert," Demigra chuckled.  "You never even considered what effect it might have for my demonic magic to come into contact with his hand.  And by the time you suspected, it was too late for you to do anything about it."

"You're wrong, Demigra!" Luffa said.  "The Time Patrol can just send me back to tackle this mission all over again!   Now that we know what you're up to, and who your target will be, we can--"

Demigra's laughter grew louder and louder, until she finally stopped talking.   "Really, Luffa," he said with a broad, unctuous smile.   "Is this just bravado in the face of defeat?  Or do you actually believe what you're saying?  I know you're new to this sort of thing, but I expected you to have a better grasp of the tactical situation."

"You're wrong," Luffa said.  "I've seen what the Kai can do.   She can send me back as many times as it takes--"

"And do what?" Demigra asked.   "You'll go back and destroy the children's ball before I can use it?   Then I'll simply channel my magic into some other object.   The glass containing his dessert, for example.  The dessert itself.  The table he was sitting at.  The chopsticks he used to incapacitate Tien and Piccolo.  Perhaps even the very grass he was standing upon in a certain moment.   I have a nearly infinite number of ways to entrance him, and for each one you intercept, I'll simply choose another."

"You think we'll just back down and let you have your way, Demigra?!" Luffa growled.   "You must not know me very well."

"No," Demigra mused, "but then, I don't suppose I need to know you very well, Luffa.  You think yourself persistent, but just how deep does your commitment run?  Will we keep replaying this moment in time, again and again, until one of us gives up?  For how long?   A day?  A year?   Are you prepared to spend the rest of your life protecting Beerus from becoming my slave on this date?"

Luffa had no defiant words to respond to this, and so she simply looked back at Goku, who was still staring in awestruck horror at Beerus.

"And even if you were willing to devote your whole life to this futile crusade, what is that to me?" Demigra asked.    "Don't speak to me of persistence, Luffa!  I have been plotting this campaign for seventy-five million years.   Your lifespan is nothing more than a fleeting curiosity.  A snowflake that happens to land on an eagle's wing.   Now then... do you think you can stop Beerus' power?  Even after the mighty Goku failed?"

As he posed this question, Goku reached out to Beerus and pleaded for him to stop.   He still had no idea that Beerus was being influenced by someone else, and he was powerless to do anything more than beg for mercy.  And then, Son Goku was too exhausted to even do that.   At last, he succumbed to his fatigue, and Beerus' attendant, Whis scooped his unconscious body into one arm and carried him back down to the Earth.  

"You're on your own now, Luffa," Demigra said triumphantly.   "Unless you think your fellow Time Patrollers can help you make a difference here.   Perhaps you'd like to bring a few of them with you and try again."

Luffa didn't bother to respond to that taunt.   Trunks was the only other Patroller with strength comparable to her own.   Even working together, she doubted that they would be able to make any difference against an opponent like Beerus.  

"So this is your master plan, Demigra?" Luffa asked bitterly.   "You make Beerus destroy the Earth, and anyone else who gets in your way?  I thought you wanted to control the Divine Toki Toki Bird.   None of this gets you closer to the Time Nest."

"How little you understand," Demigra scoffed.   "After everything has been destroyed, Demon God Demigra shall rule!"  

"By default?" Luffa asked.   "You'd rule an empty universe where everything has already been annihilated?"

Demigra's only answer to her question was maniacal laughter.   When she considered how long he had been trapped in the Crack of Time, Luffa supposed that even ruling an empty universe was better than languishing in a prison.

But before she could give any thought to her next move, Beerus took the dilemma out of her hands.   As she turned to face him, she noticed a smirk on his face, and then he turned and launched his attack, not at the Earth, but at Demigra.

"What?!  Impossible!" Demigra gasped as he narrowly avoided the path of the ki ball.   It hurtled onward, away from the Earth or any other target, and vanished into the depths of space.  

Demigra turned to confront Beerus, who now stood calmly and clasped his hands behind his back.    

"I knew you were there," Beerus announced.   "You see, my friend, I faked being affected by your magic.   Trying to control me?  That's blasphemous."

Luffa could scarcely believe what she was seeing.  "You... you're okay?" she asked.

"I'll get to you in a moment," Beerus replied.  "Now, Demigra, was it?"  He raised his hand and pointed one of his clawed fingertips at him.    "I guess I'll just destroy you instead."

A beam of energy lanced out from Beerus' finger, and passed directly through Demigra's chest.   There was no effect, save for a shimmering purple glow that appeared over the point of impact.   As it expanded in size, Demigra's expression was unconcerned.  

"I hadn't expected this," he said, more to himself than to anyone else.  "Apparently I can't control Beerus after all.   Well, it doesn't matter.  My mission here is complete..."

A moment passed, and then the image of Demigra vanished.   Beerus planted his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes.  

"I'm sorry, what's that?" he asked.  

"He wasn't actually here," Luffa explained.   "He sent a 'mirage' of himself instead.  I've fought them before, and I think if you hit one hard enough, it can't stay together.  Or maybe he just makes it seem that way, and he turns them off whenever he wants."

"Oh?  Are you saying he's still alive somewhere?" Beerus asked.  

"I'm not sure, Lord Beerus," Luffa said, "but I'll find out for certain when I get back to--"

She hesitated for a moment.  Up to now, her strategy for dealing with Beerus was to cooperate with him fully, giving him no reason to destroy her.   That had been fine while she was discussing Saiyan mythology with him earlier, but now she was talking about her mission to preserve the timeline.   How much could Beerus be allowed to hear about the Time Patrol's business?  And if she refused to tell him, how would he react?

"Go on," Beerus said with an expectant look.   "You two mentioned the Time Patrol earlier.  And something about the Supreme Kai of Time.   You're working for her, no doubt."

Luffa's eyes widened.  "Y-you heard that?" she asked.

Beerus smirked and gestured toward the top of his head.   "Do you think these big ears are for show?" he asked.  "Besides, you both thought I was under Demigra's control at the time.   You probably had no idea I could understand what you were saying."

"I guess there's no use keeping secrets then," Luffa said with a sigh.   "Forgive me, but it's my job to undo Demigra's meddling so that the Supreme Kai of Time can repair this part of history.   The less you know about it, the easier it'll be for her to put things back the way they were."

"I understand, but I'm afraid I can't allow that," Beerus said firmly.  "Whatever else Demigra must answer for, he has now incurred my wrath.   And if you're right about this 'mirage' business, then I cannot allow this transgression to go unavenged."

"I... appreciate your position," Luffa said, "but none of this was supposed to happen.  The Kai has to repair this event.  I'm not sure how that works, but I think it means that no one will remember Demigra or me being here."

Beerus made a low grumble in his throat, and Luffa felt a chill down her spine as she wondered if he was going to attack her.   Instead, he glanced off to another direction and asked "Well? Is that how it works?"

For a moment, Luffa was confused, and then she turned to see what he was looking at and found Whis floating behind her.   He was eating ice cream from a dish, seemingly oblivious to what had happened only moments ago.  

Whis savored one more bite of his dessert before answering.  "It's not quite as simple as she makes it sound, Lord Beerus," Whis explained.  "Still, that is a rough-but-accurate description of how the Kaioshin deal with temporal meddling."

"Then all that's happened here," Beerus said.  "I won't remember any of it."

"More precisely, there will be no experience upon which a memory can be based, my lord," Whis said.

"Don't bother me with semantics, Whis," Beerus said.  "My point is that if I allow the Kai to have her way, Demigra's insult will go unpunished!"

"True, but the insult will never have happened in the first place, Lord Beerus," Whis corrected.  

Beerus turned to address Luffa.   "You there," he said.  "You said you fought Demigra before.   Does that mean you remember the things he's done?   Even after the Kai restores history to normal?"

Luffa was beginning to feel uncomfortable with this conversation, but the look on Beerus' face warned her not to prevaricate.   "I do remember," she said.  

"And Demigra seemed to remember you very well," Beerus continued.   "There seems to be quite a grudge between the two of you."

"That's right," Luffa said, this time with no hesitation in her voice.    

"There you have it, Whis," Beerus said.   "Even if this entire debacle is wiped from history, there will still be those who know what Demigra tried to do here.   I simply must destroy him.  My reputation as the God of Destruction demands it."

"And how would you go about destroying him when you wouldn't even know what you were destroying him for?" Whis asked.  

"My point exactly," Beerus said as he thrust his index finger up in triumph.    "I insist upon resolving this matter myself.   Until I have satisfaction, the Supreme Kai of Time cannot be allowed to restore this affected history."

Luffa looked to Whis, hoping he would find some way to talk Beerus out of this, but instead the attendant simply closed his eyes and held out his hand.  A long staff appeared beside him, with a black orb floating just above the top, surrounded by a metallic ring.  Whis took the staff and held it close, as though examining something he saw within the orb.  

"Very well, my lord, but you should know that this will be no minor undertaking.   In the interests of protocol, we will need to at least discuss this with the Supreme Kai of Time herself."

"Naturally," Beerus said.  "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Excuse me," Luffa said, "but are you saying you want to go back to the Time Nest with me?"

"Why not?" Beerus said with a smug grin.   "Your business here is concluded, is it not?  If we're all going to the same place, we may as well travel together."

"It's just that... I don't actually have any control over going back," Luffa said.   "I used the Scroll of Eternity to come here, and they always did something at the Time Nest to retrieve me.   I don't even know if I can bring passengers along.  I've never tried--"

"Oh, there's no need to trouble yourself with that, Luffa," Whis assured her.   "While it's true that I haven't been to the Time Nest in quite some time, I believe I remember the way."

"Then it's settled," Beerus said.   "Just put your hand on Whis' shoulder and we'll be on our way."

Luffa didn't know what else to say.   "I... but... Well, all right.  I guess if there's a problem with this, it's best to let the Kai sort it out."

"Splendid," Beerus said.  "If there's time, I might have some more questions for you about this Yamoshi you told me about.   Fighting Son Goku has renewed my interest in the Saiyans."

"Um, sure," Luffa said.  "I'll tell you anything you want to know."

"That won't do you any good, Lord Beerus," Whis said.   "The Supreme Kai of Time will need to repair the timeline eventually, and you'll forget everything she tells you."

"Oh, don't be such a spoilsport, Whis," Beerus said.  Then to Luffa he asked: "I'm curious, do they have anything good to eat at the Time Nest?  We may be there for a while..."

A white light enveloped the three of them, and Luffa did her best to stifle an exasperated groan.

 NEXT: Divine Right-of-way

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (188/?)

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.

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

The Time Vault was a palatial structure built in the center of the Time Nest.  An enormous tree was growing on top of the dome in the center of the Vault.   It was within the dome that the Scroll of Eternity was stored.   This document contained the record of all of history.   Despite being a singular scroll, there were simultaneously many hundreds of scrolls in the Time Vault.   These were contained in a network of cabinets that lined the entire wall of the dome.   The roots of the tree could be found clinging to the walls, as if they were drawing sustenance from the scrolls.    

The rest of the dome served as a large atrium where the Supreme Kai of Time conducted her business.   An octagonal table stood in the center of the atrium, and several platforms along the edge of the room surrounded this table.    It was at one of these platforms that Trunks was monitoring for any activity among the scrolls.  

Luffa entered the Time Vault and descended the wide staircase into the atrium, and passed the table to reach the platform just as Trunks turned to report to the Supreme Kai of Time.

"It's strange," Trunks said.   "I don't see any changes in the Scroll yet.  But then, maybe Demigra gave up."

Chronoa was about to reply to Trunks' optimistic suggestion, and another voice began to speak instead.    

"Heh heh heh... Don't be foolish."

The three of them turned and looked up to find Demigra floating among the roots at the top of the dome.   Dressed in blue finery, the ancient wizard looked down upon them and brandished his bone scepter as though ready to attack.    Below, Luffa and Trunks braced themselves for a fight, but they all knew that this was only an image of Demigra, and not the real thing.  

"Still using your mirages, Demigra?" Luffa said defiantly.  "Then you're still trapped in the Crack of Time.   Or maybe you've already broken free, and you're too cowardly to come here in person."

"Cheeky as ever, I see," Demigra scoffed.   "I'm assuming you've heard about me from the Supreme Kai of Time, no doubt.   I have waited seventy-five million years for this.    Are you insane?  I'll never give up."

"Bold words, Demigra," Trunks said.    "But that's all you've got!   We stopped you from manipulating Majin Buu, and there's no one else strong enough to threaten us."

"Hmph... Do you really think so?" Demigra chuckled.   Then he began to laugh maniacally, and then he vanished completely.  

Luffa waited a moment to be certain the mirage of Demigra was truly gone, then approached Trunks to ask a question.   "You weren't bluffing, were you?   Is there really no one stronger for him to use for altering history?"

"As far as I know," Trunks said.  "I haven't studied the much history beyond the Majin Buu crisis, but you fought Buu yourself.   It's hard to imagine anything tougher than that, and you handled it brilliantly."

"I'm not so sure about that," Luffa said.  

"I never expected you to be the modest type, Luffa," Trunks said.    "But I mean it, you really did great in that fight--"

"No, that's not what I meant," Luffa said.  "I'm saying that I'm not sure Buu is--"

Before she could finish, the Supreme Kai of Time made a terrified shriek, and they both looked over to find her pointing at the display on the platform.    

"What's wrong?" Luffa asked.  

"Did Demigra come back?" Trunks asked.  

"This... this is horrible!" Chronoa wailed.  "Demigra's gone to that time period?!"

"What time period?" Trunks asked.   "Was it a dangerous era or something?"

"Dangerous?!  Dangerous?!"  She looked back at Luffa in disbelief.    "He wants to know if it was dangerous!"

Luffa looked back at the Kai, then to Trunks, and shrugged her shoulders.   "Well, is it?" she asked.

Chronoa sighed and forced herself to calm down.    "Ignorance sure is bliss, isn't it...? All right, then.   How about I explain it to you?"

There was a dramatic pause as the Supreme Kai of Time collected herself.   Luffa relaxed slightly, as she expected an elaborate discussion of temporal phenomena.  Instead, Chronoa took a deep breath, then shouted at them right away.

"It's the time period, when Beerus, the fuh-reaking God of Destruction went to Earth!"

"Beerus?" Luffa asked.

"The God of Destruction?" Trunks simply held his hand up to his chin thoughtfully.   "Is Beerus that powerful?"

Chronoa glared at both of them.   "Lord Beerus," she shouted.  

"Sorry," Trunks said.  "But is Lord Beerus really strong or something?"

Chronoa didn't bother to answer.   Instead, she grabbed Trunks by the arm and began to physically drag him to the octagonal table.   As she passed Luffa, she grabbed her with her other arm and pulled them both.    

"Hey!" Luffa said.

"Just go and stop him!" Chronoa pleaded.  "Quickly!  You have to hurry!  If Lord Beerus turns against us... He'll... he'll destroy everything   All of history!"

There was no arguing with Chronoa, and the only way to console her fears was to pick up the affected Scroll and travel back to the altered history.   And so Luffa did, as quickly as possible.

*******

     [18 August, Age 778.  Earth.]  

Luffa arrived in West City, in front of the Capsule Corporation estate.  She had expected a major battle.   Instead, she found a party.  

"Oh my.   Are you one of Vegeta's friends?"

A blonde Earthwoman wearing denim jeans and a tube top approached Luffa from the main entrance.   She was carrying a watering can in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.  

Luffa looked at her for a moment and then nodded.  "Uh, yeah!" Luffa said.   "What gave it away?"

"Well, when my grandson Trunks was born, he had a fuzzy tail just like yours," the woman explained.   "At first, I thought that was unusual, but Bulma told me that Vegeta used to have one before it got cut off years ago.   So you must be one of his relatives from outer space?"

"Something like that," Luffa said.   "Is Vegeta around?  I have some... business with him."

"Oh, he was holed up in the Gravity Room," she said, "but I saw him join the party a little while ago.   It's so nice of him to finally socialize a little.  You should join us!  It's my daughter Bulma's birthday, you know!   She's forty-five years old.   Oh... wait.   No, that's right, she told me not to say that in front of the guests.  She's such a sensitive girl sometimes.    Anyway, she's 'thirty-eight' years old today."

Luffa regarded Bulma's mother more closely this time.   She had no frame of reference for Earthling aging patterns, but she would have guessed Bulma and her mother were about the same age.  

"Well, I don't want to intrude on a private ceremony," Luffa said.

"Don't worry about a thing!" Bulma's mother said.  "I only stepped out for a moment to water the garden.   You know, there's a lot of handsome young men there, and I'm sure they won't mind having a sophisticated lady like you to talk to."

"Uh... right," Luffa said.  

As Bulma's mother led her through the building to the rear exit, Luffa was already scanning for unusual ki signatures in the vicinity.   She located Vegeta immediately, along with several others she had met in past Time Patrol missions: Son Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Majin Buu, Son Goten, and the other version of Trunks.    There was no sign of Demigra, or anyone under the influence of his demonic magic.   Nor could Luffa sense anyone powerful enough to fit the reputation of Beerus.

As they reached the party itself, Luffa excused herself and headed for the buffet table.   Bulma's mother was easily distracted, and made no attempt to introduce Luffa to the others, which suited Luffa's purposes.  While Luffa had met several of the guests before, none of them knew her at all, due to those encounters being excised from history.   She was a stranger here, though not so strange that she seemed to draw much attention.  

It suddenly occurred to  Luffa that there was one person in West City who would recognize her.  She had recently determined that her old friend Keda had somehow become stranded in Son Goku's era, and that she had taken up residence in West City.   Luffa couldn't sense Keda's presence at the moment, but it was a safe bet that Keda would sense Luffa, if the mission called for Luffa to use her full strength.   But there would be nothing accomplished by contacting Keda here and now.  If all went well, this entire segment of time would be altered and corrected, and anyone native to this era would remember none of Luffa's actions here.  

No, if Luffa wanted to visit Keda, she would have to do it decades further in the future, when Keda was an old woman.   It was a decision Luffa was still wrestling with.   She forced herself to set the matter aside and focus on the mission at hand.  

"All right," Luffa said as she began filling her plate with appetizers.   "I'm here.   Most of the strongest warriors on the planet are here.   But nobody's fighting.  Where's the problem, Trunks?"  

There was no answer.  

"Trunks?" Luffa repeated.   "Can you hear me?   Trunks?"

"Are you talking to me, lady?"

She looked around to find a young boy of about twelve or thirteen.   He had a bowl haircut of fine lavender hair, and he was dressed in blue overalls and a black T-shirt.    It was Trunks, but not the one she had left in the Time Nest.   That Trunks--the Time Patroller-- had lost his father to Dr. Gero's androids, and he had altered history to ensure that this version--the little boy in overalls-- could grow up in a world free of Gero's vendetta.  

At times, Luffa was surprised by how well she was able to keep these things straight in her head.  

"Oh, sorry," Luffa said.  "I was just thinking out loud."

"Are you a Saiyan?" the young Trunks asked.  

"That's right," Luffa said.  

"Do you know my dad?" Trunks asked.  

"Uh, not very well, but yeah, I know him," Luffa said.  

"Oh, then you must be with those other two guys who showed up a while ago," Trunks said.  

"Other two guys?" Luffa asked.  

"Yeah, over there," Trunks said.  He raised his arm and pointed to a cluster of tables nearby.   At one of them were a pair of aliens sampling the local cuisine.   One was a felinoid, but unlike any Luffa had encountered before.  His purple skin was completely devoid of hair.  The other alien was a humanoid with pale blue skin and white hair, not unlike the demon witch Towa, whom Luffa had recently defeated.  But this man didn't have pointed ears, so it was unlikely that he was one of Towa's species.  

Luffa could sense no ki from either of them.   It was as if they weren't even alive.  

"Oh, those two.  They're friends of your old man?" Luffa asked.   "Then I should go and pay my respects."  

As she moved away from the buffet table, she felt a tug on the left leg of her yellow pants.

"Wait, hold on a second," Trunks said.   "You're a girl, right?"

Luffa looked at him skeptically.   "Last time I checked," she said.   "What about it?"

"It's just... do you have any advice?"

"About what?" Luffa asked.  

"About girls."

"Kid, I'm kind of busy," Luffa said.  

"Well, I've got this girlfriend, sort of," Trunks said, "and I don't really know what to do with her."

He gestured in another direction, not as subtly as he probably thought he was being, and Luffa saw three Earthling children lurking near some bushes.   The tallest of these was a girl with long black hair wearing what looked like military surplus gear.  

"How old are you?" Luffa asked.  

"Thirteen," Trunks said.  

"Don't you think you're a little young to be dating?" Luffa asked.  

"We're not dating," Trunks said.  "She's just my girlfriend, that's all."

"Can she cook?" Luffa asked.

"I dunno," Trunks said.

"Can you cook?" Luffa asked.

"Does the microwave count?"

"No."

"Oh.   Well, no," Trunks said.  

"Well, one of you needs to learn," Luffa said.   "There's more to it than that, but that's enough to start you off.   That ought to keep you busy for a while."

She walked off, leaving young Trunks' romantic life hanging in the balance.  

"Thirteen," Luffa muttered to herself.   "Can you believe--?   Oh, wait."

She had forgotten that she wasn't getting any response from the Time Nest.   Luffa balanced her buffet plate in one hand while she reached for the communicator in her left ear, only to find that it wasn't there.  

"Aw, crap!" she grumbled.   Chronoa had been in such a hurry to send her on the mission that Luffa had never bothered to put the earpiece in.  

"Just as well," she mumbled.  "It keeps getting lost or destroyed anyway.   And it's not like I have anything to report.  What was she so worried about in the first place?"

By this time, most of the guests had gathered around a stage for a gambling tournament.  The two aliens whom Trunks had pointed out were sitting alone, and no one else noticed when Luffa approached them.  

"Excuse me," she said.   "Would either of you be Lord Beerus?"

"I am he," said the felinoid.  He regarded Luffa for a moment and his left eye widened with interest.  

Luffa gripped her plate securely as she genuflected.   "Then I'm honored to make your acquaintance, my lord," she said reverently.   "My name is Luffa."

"Well met," Beerus said.  "I didn't know Saiyans were capable of that sort of tact."

She rose to her full height and smiled.  "Well, I've always been an unusual kind of Saiyan," she said.   "My parents were mercenaries by trade, and they taught me that good manners get you better clients."

Beerus gestured to the table.   "Why don't you join us?" he said.  "I thought I had already met all the Saiyans on this planet, but it seems there was one more."

Luffa bowed her head graciously and pulled up a chair.   "I'm an off-worlder, actually," she said.   "And I just arrived a few minutes ago.   Vegeta is a... distant relative of mine.   I came to pay my respects."

"There, you see, Whis?" Beerus said to the tall blue man.   "There's still hope for my premonition yet."

Whis dabbed a napkin gently over the corners of his mouth before answering.  "Faint hope at best, Lord Beerus," he sighed.

"Premonition?" Luffa asked.  

"Yes, I've already asked the others," Beerus said, "and they couldn't tell me anything about it, but perhaps you know something they don't."   He leaned over the table and pointed one of his clawed fingers at her as he asked: "What can you tell me about the Super Saiyan God?"

Luffa was about to answer him until she heard the word 'god'.   Instead, she simply repeated the name.   "Super Saiyan God?" she asked.  

"That's right," Beerus said.   "Judging by your puzzled expression, it seems you've never heard of it either."

"Are you talking about Yamoshi?" Luffa finally said.  

Beerus' eyes widened with excitement.   "Ah, now we're getting somewhere!  And you said this trip was a waste of time, Whis."  

"That's not quite how I put it," Whis said evenly, "but one name does not a premonition fulfill, my lord."

"Oh, we'll just see about that," Beerus said as he shot Whis a dirty look.   "So tell us, Luffa, where can we find this Yamoshi fellow?"

"He's been dead for thousands of years," Luffa said.   "I only brought him up because he's known as the God Saiyan in my people's folklore."

"Thousands of years?" Whis said.  "My, Lord Beerus, you really did oversleep this time."

"Keep out of this, Whis!" Beerus grumbled.  

"Can you tell me about this premonition you had?" Luffa asked.  "Maybe we can sort this out together."

"Very well, it's really quite simple," Beerus said.   "Thirty-nine years ago, a very talented Seer foretold that an arch-rival worthy of me would appear.   I took a nap to await his arrival, and while I slept, I dreamt of a battle with that fated warrior, and he was called a Super Saiyan God."

"Tell her about the pop star who was supposed to move to your planet, Lord Beerus," Whis suggested.   "That prophesy might be linked to the others as well."

"That will be all, Whis," Beerus muttered.    

"I believe you," Luffa said.   "At least the premonition part, anyway.   A friend of mine was a fortune teller.  She once helped me during  a war, predicting which planets the enemy would attack, and when.   It wasn't a perfect system, but she was accurate enough.   I'm not sure what I would have done without her..."

"Yes, fascinating," Beerus said.  "But it seems you find the substance of the prophecy to be far-fetched.   Am I right?" he asked expectantly.  

Luffa fought to suppress the urge to panic.  In the short time she had known Chronoa, Luffa had never known her to exaggerate, and the Kai spoke of Beerus with great dread.   Luffa only knew the name from various myths and legends.  It was said the God of Destruction could annihilate anything just by touching it.  The fact that he had no discernible power level only made his enigmatic glare that much more intimidating.  

But this was nothing new, she told herself.  She had not always been the Legendary Super Saiyan.   Growing up, it had not been unusual to encounter beings with greater power.  The key was to be as polite and as truthful with them as possible.  They would only attack you if you presented yourself as a threat or a nuisance.  Beerus was far beyond any alien client she had ever dealt with, but the same principle seemed to apply.

The only catch was that Beerus seemed to want a Saiyan to threaten him.  It seemed rude to even suggest such a thing, but he had been the one to bring it up.

"It's... it's an exciting prospect," Luffa said, choosing her words carefully.   "You're saying there's a Saiyan out there who could challenge your power?   Well, maybe Yamoshi could have pulled that off... I'd sure like to see a fight like that."

"You're certain he's dead?" Beerus asked.  

Luffa nodded.  "The story goes that he was a martyr.  The Saiyans of that age were unspeakably wicked, bereft of honor.   But Yamoshi was different.   He knew that corruption could only breed weakness in the Saiyan race."

"As you said before," Whis interjected.  "Well-mannered mercenaries get better clients."

"Exactly," Luffa said.   "Better clients mean better assignments, which lead to bigger and tougher battles.   Sure, you could cheat your customers, cut corners, take shortcuts.   You might make a profit that way, but you won't get stronger from it."  

"And yet," Beerus said, "you make it sound as though Yamoshi failed to defeat these wicked Saiyans."

"Yamoshi was strong," Luffa said, "but he knew he couldn't take on the entire Saiyan race all by himself.   Somehow, he and his five disciples developed a technique to increase his power, but it only worked when all six of them were joined together.  He became so powerful that he could wipe out whole armies of Saiyans, but the technique would wear off very quickly, so he had to be careful about picking his battles.  That was how he came to be known as the God Saiyan.   His attacks were quick and unstoppable and completely unpredictable, and then he'd just vanish.   It was like the wrath of an angry god... or so they said."

"Interesting.  Then another Saiyan could recreate the technique he developed," Beerus suggested.  

"Possibly," Luffa said.   "But it was lost when Yamoshi died.   Just as he was on the verge of wiping out the most evil of the Saiyans, he lost that extra power, and he was cut off from his followers, so he had no way to get it back.  But Yamoshi was a man of conviction, and he saw the battle through to the bitter end.   His disciples must have known the secret, but they were only five, and they needed six to make it work.   And so, the technique was useless to them, and it was forgotten within a few generations.   Yamoshi became a legend, like the Super Saiyan..."

"Yes, I've already seen what a mere Super Saiyan can do," Beerus said.   "Son Goku arranged a demonstration for me earlier.  Impressive by mortal standards, but hardly what I had in mind."

Luffa inhaled sharply.   "Kakarot fought you?" she asked.  

Beerus shrugged.   "If you want to call it that.  It wasn't much of a battle, though I respect the audacity of his challenge."

So did Luffa.  While she had been sitting here trying to imagine a Saiyan fighting a God of Desctruction, Son Goku had already tried it for himself.  

"Well, that settles that," Luffa said.   "I've heard of you, Lord Beerus, but the stories were mostly about you being invincible and all-powerful.   They used to say the same things about me, though, so I never was sure how I'd stack up against you in a fight.   I didn't even know you had a physical form until today."

"Not what you expected, eh?" Beerus asked.  

"I don't mind saying, I'm pretty nervous not being able to sense your power," Luffa said.  "They said no one could sense Yamoshi coming either.   Maybe he really was on your level..."

"If only he were still alive to prove it," Whis said.   "Unfortunately, Lord Beerus, your premonition is beginning to sound more like a ghost story.   Yamoshi must have haunted you while you slept."

"Maybe not," Luffa said.   "You're looking for a Super Saiyan God.   Yamoshi may have been a one-time thing, but Super Saiyans show up a lot more often.   And that's not a technique with a time limit.     You just..." She waved her hands around the sides of her head.   "And you can hold the transformation as long as you want, or until you get too tired to keep it up."

"Then you believe the Super Saiyan God can exist," Beerus said.  "It's just a matter of discovering the means to become one, is that right?"

"I'm not sure... But I do believe in legends," Luffa said.  "Not just the events they describe, but the implications they have for our own lives.  The story of Yamoshi carries a warning for all Saiyans: Conduct your lives with respect, or a mighty warrior may rise up and strike you down.   But it's also promise to all Saiyans: One day you might become that mighty warrior.  Your being here, Lord Beerus, well that sounds like an omen to me."

"There, you see, Whis?" Beerus said with a smile.  "She gets it."

"You may have found a kindred spirit, Lord Beerus," Whis replied, "but that doesn't get you any closer to the Super Saiyan God than when you started.  Correct me if I'm wrong, Luffa, but you've already admitted that you have no idea how Yamoshi's technique worked, or if it could be recreated at all."

"You're right, um... Lord Whis?   I'm sorry, I'm not clear on the hierarchy here," Luffa said.

"Just call him 'Whis'," Beerus said.   "He's difficult enough as it is without anyone calling him 'Lord'."

"Well, you're right, Whis," Luffa went on.  "I am just speculating.   But I've seen a lot of amazing things in my time.  Hell, I'm making small talk with the God of Destruction."  

She paused to glance back at the others.   Vegeta was struggling to relax in a deck chair.   Gohan was embroiled in the same game as the rest of the guests.   Goten and Trunks were playing catch with a ball.   There was no sign of Son Goku, but if he had truly lost a fight with Beerus, then she supposed he was probably recovering at home.

"Lately, I've been finding that my people have a lot more potential than I ever gave them credit for," she said.  "I think that dream you had must have given you the same insight.   Give us Saiyans a chance, Lord Beerus.   I think you won't be disappointed."

"Hmm... well those are very reassuring words," Beerus said, "but in the end that's all they are.  The fact remains that there's no sign of a Super Saiyan God on this planet, at least not today.     This party has been a pleasant diversion, but that seems to be all the Earth has to offer me.  Though I will say that their cuisine has been truly delightful.   Perhaps a return visit would be in order..."

"Speaking of cuisine, Lord Beerus," Whis said, "have you tried the pudding yet?"

Beerus' large ears twitched with interest.  "Pudding, you say?"

"It's a dessert made up of a viscous fluid," Whis explained.  "I believe the flavor was 'French vanilla.'   Very remarkable."

"You had me at 'dessert'," Beerus said.  He began to lick his lips excitedly.  "Where might I find this 'pudding'?"

Whis stood up and gestured in the general direction of the food carts that had set up for the party.   "I believe they were over this way," he said.   "Oh yes, I see them now.   It looks like that pink fellow has them all."

Luffa followed them, mostly because she didn't want to appear rude by leaving without Beerus' approval.  And Chronoa had been extremely concerned about this mission, specifically because of Beerus, and so it seemed sensible to keep an eye on him until another lead presented itself.  

"Doesn't really add up, though," she said to herself.   From what she had seen, Beerus was actually quite even-tempered.  He was even something of a gourmet.  She wondered if Chronoa just didn't get along with Beerus because he didn't like her questionable cooking.   That was no reason to involve the Time Patrol, though.

Luffa was so lost in thought that she almost didn't notice the argument breaking out over the pudding.  

"No!  All pudding for Buu!"

She had forgotten that Majin Buu was one of the guests at this party.  While the Majin was no longer destroying whole cities, he still seemed to harbor some anti-social tendencies.  He now sat alone at a table, with a tray holding every single serving of pudding, enough for at least a dozen guests.   Apparently he planned to eat them all himself.   Luffa found this idea revolting.   At the very least, he should have gotten some meat to dip in the pudding.   Eating that much of it by itself was just tacky.

And to his credit, Beerus didn't care what Buu did with the rest of the tray, so long as he got a single serving for himself.  But Buu was in no mood to share, and he seemed to have no idea whom he was dealing with.   There were tales of Beerus the Destroyer wiping out entire solar systems over minor grievances. Majin Buu, apparently, had never heard these stories.

And so, when Luffa reached out and snatched the glass from the tray, she considered it an act of mercy more than anything else.  

"Here you go, sir," Luffa said as she handed the glass to Beerus.   This irritated Majin Buu, but she made sure to position herself between them so he would have to go through her to do anything about it.   "Please, forgive my... friend's... attitude.  I think he may have had too much to drink."

Beerus was so fixated on the dessert that he seemed to have already forgotten Buu's transgression. But Luffa had not.  

"That pudding belonged to Buu!" Majin Buu whined.  

"If you have a problem," Luffa said, "you can take it up with me.   Honestly, I was sort of hoping for another crack at you, Buu.  I guess Demigra couldn't resist possessing you one more time..."

But there was no sign of demonic influence.  Buu was visibly upset, but his eyes lacked any of the red color found in Demigra's other victims, and there was no purple fog rising up from his body.  If Demigra had done anything to Majin Buu this time, it was too subtle to tell.

"Mean lady take Buu's food!" Buu squealed.   "Buu turn you into candy instead!"

"Wait," Luffa said.   "If you're not under his spell, then who--?"

She turned to check on Beerus, who had spooned a glob of pudding out of the glass, and now held it up to his mouth.   Then she noticed the ball, the same one Goten and Trunks had been playing with.  Without warning, it suddenly took on a life of its own, veering wildly off its trajectory and striking Beerus' hand with such force that he dropped the glass and the spoon.  

Now Vegeta had taken notice of the situation.   Judging by the look on his face, Luffa realized that he was the only other person at this party who understood who and what Beerus was.   While he stammered a hasty apology, Luffa looked at the errant ball, which had finally come to rest on a nearby hedge.  

It was glowing with an energy that looked like purple smoke.   It was the same power that she had expected to find in Majin Buu.  

Demigra had outmaneuvered her.

"Now," Beerus said angrily.   "Now, I'm mad!"

With that outburst, the God of Destruction's body erupted with energy, bathing the entire property in a violet glow.   Beerus would destroy them all.  And there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

 NEXT: Divine Intervention

[duhragonball]

Camp Nanwum Update: 7,760

I thought that I would start out strong and knock out 10k by July 4, but that hasn't happened. I'm still satisfied with my progress, since I'm only a little bit under par for the month. If I keep averaging about 1k per day, I'll be fine, and I plan to pull ahead a little this weekend. I'm definitely in a better place than I was in April or January.

What slowed me down is a process I call "bonepiling" where I write scenes for future chapters, and when I finally get to those chapters, I have to incorporate those scenes into what I'm currently doing. I let it get out of control in 2019, and I spent most of 2020 fixing it, but I still do it from time to time. It's not so bad as long as I don't do it to excess. But it really kills momentum for the opening days of a writing month like this.

For example, I was doing some plotting (read: checking the Xenoverse 1 article on the DB wiki to see what happens next in the game) and I got sorely tempted to skip ahead and do some Demigra stuff. But I can't afford to do that. That's what got me all fucked over in 2019, and I can't let that happen again. I have to keep the bonepile small. Actually, maybe I should impose a limit for that. I have the text files in a folder, and I could just say "no more than 100kb of loose scenes". Or whatever a good number would be.

I've been writing this stupid, stupid longfic for six years now. My productivity seems to be fine, but morale is low, and I want to try to capture the reasons for that.

First, I think my "bonepile" problem isn't just a folder of loose scenes on my computer. I've been mentally plotting the Time Patrol segment of this fic since 2015. At the time, I always looked forward to reaching this place I'm in now, because it would be so much easier and more fun to write. I have all the Dragon Ball characters at my disposal now! I have the story mode of XV1 to serve as my outline!

But the downside is that I've been mentally preparing for this part for so long that it feels kind of dull to actually write it. This isn't a confidence thing, because I can tell I'm putting down good material. It kicks ass; but I just don't care, because I've known a lot of the plot details for so many years. I've got to figure out how to deal with that. Maybe writing some short fics on the side might help, but I don't want to take away productivity from this thing.

Second, I've just been feeling worn down by the sheer length of this project. I knew it would be this way. Tumblr and the fandom have changed like four times since I started, and it feels like I'm still here doing the same old shit. I knew it would be like this. People were going to come and go, and I'd get older and greyer, and I'd worry that I'd lose touch with the audience if this dragged on too long. That's why I put this thing off for so many years in the first place. In 2015, I decided that if I didn't do it now, it wouldn't get done. I made my choice, and I planned to stick to that choice no matter what.

But lately, it just feels less worthwhile. I'm operating less on enjoyment of the game and more on resolve to see this through. I read somewhere that writing is like gardening, and I'm definitely tilling soil and pulling weeds this year. Been a long time since I got to enjoy a salad from my harvest. To be clear, this isn't me whining about a lack of feedback. I've gotten plenty on this story already, and I'm grateful for it. The issue is that I used to be able to get hype for this all by myself, and I'm having a harder time doing that.

Third, I may be getting desensitized to the boost I used to get from the numbers. I found word counts and Nanowrimo stats to be pretty exciting a few years ago, and I still think they're a valuable tool, but I need something more, I think. Maybe blocking out four months for writing sessions isn't the right call anymore. I'm not sure what to do instead though.

I read once that Hirohiko Araki got really disillusioned with the quality of his work while he was doing JoJo Part 6, which probably explains why he took so many drastic measures near the end, and why Part 7 is so different from the ones before it. The thing is, I liked Part 6 just fine, so I never understood what it was that made him feel like the work was getting stale. Maybe, objectively, there was never a problem, but he'd been doing the comic for about 15 years, and just needed to do something different for his own sanity. I'm starting to think I've reached my own Part 6 crisis, only I'm not sure how to resolve it. For now, I'm just going to stick to my plan, because I know it works.

[duhragonball]

🌻

For years now, I've worried that Luffa #29-36 was too dark, and it would put off new readers from continuing with the rest of it, and actually getting to the part where she murders Demigra and hangs out with Goku, which is what I started writing it for in the first place.

And a few months ago, someone left me a comment on AO3, basically to that effect. This bothered me at first, but gradually I started to accept that I can't change it now, because there's too much that builds off that arc. Also, I was extremely proud of the execution at the time, and if I went back and reread it, I'd probably think it still holds up.

At the same time, I realize that I'm shackled to stuff I wrote in 2015-16, which is kind of the downside to writing a longass fanfic. I've shelved one-shots before, and that's an easy call. "Oh shit, this is actually bad, I'm putting it in a drawer and never looking at it again." With Luffa, I can't do that, at least not as easily. I started it under the assumption that I'm a genius, and that no one would actually read the darn thing and call my bluff.

I never discussed it before, because I didn't want to spoil the story, but I'm currently at the "Fuck it, Mega Chiaotzu" leg of my fic, so I don't think I care anymore. Around Chapter 29 I had Luffa get infected with the Black Water Mist, because I like the Garlic Junior Saga, and I knew that was a piece of DBZ lore I could borrow without being too cute. Mostly I wanted to explore the Makyans and the experience of being infected. What were Chi-Chi and Yamcha experiencing at the time?

There were several challenges to this. For one thing I couldn't use the Sacred Water as an out, because I wanted this to last longer than a full day. I had an idea to set up a band of supporting characters to rescue her, but then I realized it was too similar to Luffa #6-10, where I set up a band of supporting characters to rescue her. So I decided to have Luffa "self-rescue" to borrow an expression from Bear Grylls. But I had already written and published a scene where someone was on the way to help, so I had to figure THAT out.

So I ended up having her hallucinate all these other characters trying to snap her out of it, and she "kills" them in gruesome fashion, until finally she realizes that she's been fighting with herself the whole time. There's some Majin Vegeta vibes to the whole thing.

And this worked out pretty well for me, because I didn't want the Makyans to actually make her do anything that evil. There's a lot of implications that they'll do terrible thinks with her, but it never actually gets that far. This is because I found Master Roshi to be the scariest fucker in the Garlic Jr arc. Maron's terrified of him, but he never actually does anything to her. That became sort of a theme in my arc, where the villains consider themselves "pure evil" but they lack imagination. They're like "Well now we have a Super Saiyan on our team and we can make her do whatever we want!" but they never actually come up with anything. I was thinking of an episode of the George Reeves Superman where a crook tries to extort Superman but he just asks him to rob a bank or dig up a huge diamond. That's kid stuff; Superman could do almost anything and you could rob a bank yourself. So they just make Luffa guard the base and look at her inappropriately.

But it's pretty damn edgy, because this is an OC, and for all you know she's stuck this way. That probably doesn't stick now that I'm 150 chapters in, but my hope was that, at the time, you might see it and think: Holy shit, is he going to kill everyone and end it here? And that was what made it fun to write.

In hindsight, though, it's probably not something I should have done so early in the story, where now you gotta get through that and all the other stuff before Trunks finally shows up. On the other hand, there's a ton of other dark shit in my fanfic too. If I shuffled it around, I'm not sure it'd go down any smoother. The whole point was to make this a tragic character. This isn't a happy shonen protagonist, this is the precursor to that. Goku's the Goonies and Luffa's that pirate skeleton they find in a cave. He didn't end up there for happy reasons.

And I tried to put some happy times in my fic, but mostly that's to make the tragic scenes feel more tragic. It's a mood. I'm taking all my grief and anger and throwing it into this thing, and I haven't run out so far. One of these days I'll probably try to write some other story with different themes, and maybe that one will be happier, but it's not this one. Nor should it be.

[duhragonball]

Cult Classic

I had a really exhausting week, so I’m going to try to chill out by writing this thing about cults that’s been bouncing around in my head since... oh, like January 6th?   For some reason?     But it’s also about my insanely long OC fanfic slash vanity project slash concept album.  Join me, won’t you?

Okay, so back in... geez 2018?   Has it been that long?   Around October 2018 I started working out the details for the big climax of the “1000 years ago” section of my fanfic.  From the start I had this idea that the Legendary Super Saiyan would be locked into a death struggle with pretty much the entire Saiyan population, led by a Saiyan King who just can’t handle being upstaged.   But I had to figure out a lot of details to make that actually work.   What I finally ended up with was the Jindan Cult. 

Why a cult?  Because I wanted my King character to be the main villain, but also be physically weaker, but also he needed to be powerful enough to challenge the heroine. I came up with all these different ways to beef up his power level without making him a Super Saiyan himself, but ultimately I wanted him to have an army of Siayans at his back.   That led me to consider some sort of magic elixir that would make them all stronger, but especially the king, since he’s ultimately in this for himself.  At first, I considered having him mind-control all of his goons, but I spent the mind control nickel in earlier arcs, and I’ll have to use it again later, because Towa and Demigra use it.   Then I thought of drug addiction, which is sort of like mind control but not literal brainwashing or anything like that.  And that led me to the cult concept.  

One major inspiration for me was the real-life cult called “NXIVM”, which made the news back in 2018 when their leaders started getting arrested, including “Smallville” star Allison Mack.   Every time I read about it, it felt like something from a movie, but it was real.   I guess the celebrity angle made it more bizarre to me, because it’s sort of like “Hey, this isn’t just some group of randos; someone you’ve heard of is in this thing.”   Not that I ever paid much attention to “Smallville”, but you get the idea.  She didn’t just join NXIVM, she eventually became one of the top recruiters.   Some of the character arcs in my fic were my own attempt to understand how a person goes from Point A to Point B. 

The big plot hole, though, in my mind, was that I came up with this whole master plan for the bad guys, but it involved sending wave after wave of Saiyan cultists to die in pointless, unwinnable battles against Luffa.    I couldn’t have them win much, because if they beat her, they’d just kill her, and the story would be over.    It struck me as fishy that these Saiyans would sign up for a war where the casualty rate is 100%, but I tried to lampshade it as best I could.   “Yeah, all those other chumps couldn’t beat Luffa, but I’ll pull it off because I’m special!”   It still seemed a bit unlikely.  

But then 2020 happened, and I guess the main thing I learned from that year was that people will accept almost anything in order to believe a comfortable lie.  The joke I’ve seen on the internet is that we need to retire the expression “avoid it like the plague”, because it turns out a lot of people don’t actually avoid plagues very well at all.   The horrifying thing about COVID-19 is how easily people will accept the climbing death tolls.   “Oh, well this person was already in bad health, so they would have died eventually anyway.”   I don’t want to get too political here, but I’m pretty sure a lot of the anti-mask, coronavirus-is-a-hoax crowd are the same people who made up tall tales about “death panels” in Obamacare.    “They’re gonna euthanize your grandma!” they would say, but now they say your grandma is acceptable losses if it means reopening bars and restaurants.

Actually, I do mean to get political, because holy fuck, Qanon stormed the Capitol Building.    Look, if you don’t believe Joe Biden won the election, I don’t know what to tell you, except please get far away from me, right now.  If you’re not familiar with Qanon, a few years ago some guy on an image board posted a bunch of cryptic messages and claimed to be an important government figure who would know about important things.    People started “deciphering” his “clues” and when he stopped posting new ones they started inventing their own “clues” and interpreting them any way that suited them.    This led to an overarching narrative that Donald Trump was actually part of this massive sting operation to arrest hundreds, maybe thousands of left-wing politicians, celebrities, and whoever else.    Any day now, he was supposed to have Hilary Clinton arrested, and also JFK Junior would somehow show up and help him, even though he’s been dead for 22 years.  Every day, these Qanon guys would add on more bizarre lore to their “theories”, and every day none of their predictions would come true.  Then Trump lost the election, which put them in a bind, because their whole mythology is based on the idea of him saving the world as POTUS, and now he wasn’t even going to be POTUS for much longer.  

I’m pretty sure this had a lot to do with the lies about election fraud.    Trump himself refused to accept defeat, and his supporters didn’t want to accept it either, so they all told each other that it wasn’t real, and they believed each other so much that they dug in their heels.   But then they’d take this stuff to court and the judge would be like “Uh, what evidence do you have of mass voter fraud?” and they would just be like “lol nvm!”  I mean, if there was proof for any of this, why would they not want a judge to see it?   But for Qanon, it was more than just being sore losers.    They needed all their whackamaroo predictions to come true, and Trump losing re-election would upset the applecart.  

So then they started telling themselves that they could win this thing through the boring certification process.   I think it was like, December 14 when all the states had to certify their results.   So they held out hope that nothing was over until then.    Then they pinned their hopes on the Electoral College, and that there would be enough faithless electors to hand Trump the victory, in spite of the voters.   I found this one amusing, since I used to see tumblr suggesting the same thing back in 2016, when they were still trying to come up with ways for Bernie Sanders to win.  

Then they decided Mike Pence could fix everything, because on Jan 6, Congress would officially count the Electoral Votes and formally declare the winner, and Mike Pence would step in and overrule the whole thing, because the Vice-President oversees that process.    Except he just oversees it, he can’t legally change the outcome, especially on a whim.    And then the riot at the Capitol happened, and I’m pretty sure all these Qanon types thought it would mark the beginning of a nationwide uprising, with all seventy-odd million Trump voters going apeshit, but it... didn’t work out that way.  

Then they convinced themselves that everything was building to January 20, because the innauguration was actually a clever trap, and once Joe Biden took the oath of office, he could then be arrested for treason, so you see, they had to make it look like Trump lost the election, because it was the only way to fool Joe Biden into incriminating himself... or... something.   But Jan 20 came and went, so the latest fallback position I heard was that there’s a double-secret REAL inauguration day, and it’s in March, and the January 20 one isn’t legitimate, even though Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2016, but whatever.    That, or the guy we see in the White House now is actually Trump disguised as Joe Biden, or a Joe Biden android or something.   

I think I sort of understood that Qanon is a cult, but I didn’t really put the pieces together until the events of January unfolded.    Pre-November, it just seemed like a conspiracy theory, without any real timetables or prophecies, like Flat Earth.    But once the end of the Trump Administration was in sight, it really started to look like all the doomsday cults I’ve heard about over the years.  The predicted events wind up failing to come true, and they invent new predictions to explain away the old ones.   It’s not about the veracity of the claims as much as the claims themselves.    People want to believe there’s this whole elaborate explanation for everything.    They wanted to believe that Trump was this hypercompetent superheroic messiah, because the alternative is to face the uncertain reality: that he had no idea what he was doing, and real people were going to suffer for it.  

I think I sort of worked that idea into my fictional cult, but I backed into it.   NXIVM was a sex cult, not a doomsday cult, or an elaborate conspiracy theory, so I was mostly fixated on all the depraved things the cult could do to its members.   But they all share the same lure: a belief system that promises to make everything fit. I’m not sure what the hook was for NXIVM, but Allison Mack didn’t go in thinking about how much fun sex trafficking would be.   That came later, after she was convinced that NXIVM had all the answers, and one of those answers involved sex crimes, apparently.   In the same vein, Qanon attempted to explain mass arrests and executions by claiming that Hilary Clinton eats babies or something.   “Well, I don’t want babies to get eaten, so I guess breaking into the Capitol building seems like a reasonable course of action.”  

Weighed against real life, a bunch of Saiyans accepting a 100% casualty rate doesn’t seem so outrageous.   It also helps that sometimes the leaders of these groups can buy into their own hype, and think they’re infallible when they’re really not.    This week, I started reading the Darth Plagueis novel again, and I’ve seen the Sith from Star Wars referred to as a cult, but I never gave it a lot of thought until I noticed that Plagueis buys into the whole Dark Side of the Force thing a little too hard.   At times, he’ll wax philosophical about how the Jedi are the real bad guys when you think about it, and he’s not just saying that to be manipulative.   He honestly believes that the Sith can save the galaxy from decline, which is stupid and hypocritical, because they’re the ones causing all the decline.    I always got the impression that Darth Sidious understood that it was all about accumulating power as an end unto itself, and any high-minded talk of necessary evil was just to keep the rubes in line.    Rise of Skywalker plays into that idea nicely.   He somehow survived Episode VI, but he let the Empire collapse, because if he can’t rule it, he doesn’t want it to exist at all.   But he’s still playing himself, because he thinks he can win by following the same failed ideology that got all the previous Sith Lords killed.   

That’s pretty much all I have to say about it right now.    I need to move on to other topics, because Towa’s not doing a cult thing, so my fic is moving in a different direction.   But I feel better for getting this out of my head.

[duhragonball]

Time Patrol Chronology

75 Million Years Ago: Chronoa and Mechikabura are two Core People and rivals for the position of Supreme Kai of Time.   They’re assigned to raise a Tokitoki egg, but during this job, Mechikabura tries to speed up the process with dark magic and that messes things up.    He then attempted to raise a phony Tokitoki named Dokidoki.     Mechikabura’s wickedness was eventually exposed, and he was banished to “a space beyond time”, which is either the Crack of Time or what would eventually become the Demon Realm.    

During this time, Demigra, Putine, and Gravy were underlings of Mechikabura, and Demigra attempted his own evil plot involving Tokitoki.    He was later exposed and banished to the Crack of Time.    I’m not clear on whether this happened before or after Mechikabura’s exile.  

Sealas, First Time Patroller: This guy was a Galactic Patrolman whom Chronoa recruited, but he couldn’t handle the darker side of maintaining the timeline.    After witnessing one of Kid Buu’s primordial rampages, Sealas becomes disillusioned and tries to turn against Chronoa, only to get sealed in the Crack of Time.    Later, he returns and tries to destroy all of history so he can start over fresh.   Sort of like Sensui from Yu Yu Hakusho except, no it’s exactly like that, the guy who writes Dragon Ball Heroes is a hack.

Dark Demon Realm Saga: Chronoa confronts Trunks about his alterations to the past, and recruits him for the Time Patrol.    Trunks and Chronoa track down the Dark Demon Realm Army, led by Towa and Mira.  Their objective is to gather energy to release the seal on the Demon Realm.   Also they have Bardock working for them thanks to a mind control mask.    Trunks liberates Bardock, so they team up against Mira until  Towa orders a retreat.

Towa then executes her plan to bring her dead brother Dabura back to life.  Unclear if she actually resurrects him or just alters the timeline to circumvent his death.  They fight the Time Patrol, but are eventually defeated and then Broly runs in and attacks them?    Okay?

Dark Empire Saga: Towa uses her stolen energy reserves to release Mechikabura from the Crack of Time.    The Dark Demon Realm Army then becomes the Dark Empire.   Why all these name changes.    Mechikabura is old and weak, so Towa proposes using the Dark Dragon Balls to restore his youth.   To aid them in this quest, Mechikabura bestows “Demon God” powers on his top demons: Towa, Dabura, Gravy, Putine, Shroom, and Salsa.  

Chronoa recruits Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Goten to assist the Time Patrol.   I guess these are alternate timeline versions of these guys.  The team travels to different eras to intercept the Demon Gods before they can make their wish. 

Ultimately, the Demon Gods are successful, and the rejuvenated Mechikabura absorbs their powers, becoming so strong that Chronoa is forced to use her “Time Power Unleasehed” form to defeat him.    She traps both herself and Mechikabura in the Crack of Time.    The Time Patrollers return to the Time Nest to Time Discuss how to arrange a Time Rescue.   Time.

Dark King Mechikabura Saga: The Time Patrol responds to another time disturbance and runs into the Demon Gods, along with Towa’s newest creation, Fin.  Also, Chronoa is with them as a mind-controlled henchman.    Then the Demigra Army shows up to join forces with the TP.   He wants this alliance against Mechikabura so he can defeat him and then overthrow Chronoa at a later date.    Also Pan joins the Time Patrol, so that’s a thing.   

Mechikabura defeats the TP anyway, but Trunks is spared the effects of Chronoa’s time powers because he has something called the “Key Sword”.   The others pool their power into him, which turns him into a Super Saiyan God.  Oh, so that’s why Pan showed up.    SSG Trunks fights Mechikabura and frees Chronoa, and she helps seal Mechikabura in the Crack of Time.   Again?

Following the defeat of Mechikabura: Towa assumes control of the Dark Empire and reorganizes it into the Time Breakers. 

Prison Planet Saga: Pretty sure this is the storyline depicted in the Super Dragon Ball Heroes anime.  

Sealas Returns, World Mission: Sealas escapes the Crack of Time through a wormhole that leads to the Time Nest.   He beats Trunks then leaves through another wormhole.  

Chronoa then assigns Trunks to investigate “anomalies in the Super Dragon Ball Heroes game world.”  Apparently SDBH is a virtual world based upon the official history recorded in the Scroll of Eternity.  You have got to be shitting me, Pyle.  

Trunks sets up a secret base in the city of Hero Town, along with his assistant Leggings.   But Trunks is a character in the game, so everyone knows his face.    The only way he can keep a low profile is to disguise himself Great Saiyaman 3, which is... certainly a sentence made of words.   Also, chicks dig Great Saiyaman 3.   Well of course they do. 

Okay, so the deal here is that Sealas wants to alter the timeline, but he wants to make sure he’s altering it correctly, so he’s using the virtual world in the SDBH game as a model for the actual space-time continuum.    Because it’s based on the Scroll of Eternity?   I mean, sure, but how the hell did Capsule Corp’s game devs get ahold of it?    Anyway, Trunks needs help from experienced players to suss this out, so he recruits an elite team of super nerds: The Dragon Ball Heroes.   

Dragon Ball Online: The Time Patrol recruits warriors from Age 1000 to help them fend off temporal incursions by the Time Breakers, an evil team led by Towa.  

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1: Trunks uses the Dragon Balls to wish for a strong ally, one who can help him defend the timeline from another round of tampering.   It’s the Time Breakers again, but this time they do enough damage to the timeline that it wears down the barrier separating the Crack of Time from the rest of the universe, allowing Demigra to escape.    Demigra finally launches his long-promised takeover of the Time Nest, and briefly usurps Chronoa’s position, until the Time Patrol finally defeats him once and for all.  

Between Xenoverse 1 & 2: The TIme Patrol expands its roster as more and more time anomalies occur.   They bring in the Elder Supreme Kai to help with the administration, and continue searching for Towa and Mira, who remain at large.   During this period, Chronoa accidentally wrecks Toki Toki city, then decides it would be easier to build a new city instead of fixing the old one, and thus creates the larger, cooler Conton City.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2: I’ll worry about that later.   

Things to clear up.

1) There seems to be several different names for the Crack of Time.   Time Abyss, Time Labyrinth, eternal labyrinth, etc.   I thought these might be different places, but they all serve the same dramatic purpose, which is to act as a prison for the bad guys.  

2) However, if all of these things are the same, then Chronoa keeps tossing bad guys into the same prison, yet they keep breaking out, some of them more than once.   I guess its established that if you gather enough energy, you can bring someone out of the Crack of Time, so maybe it’s just a matter of making sure that doesn’t happen.    Chronoa tried to imprison Mechikabura more permanently by locking herself in with him, but that just backfired on her when he mind-controlled her.  

3) How did Demigra join forces with the Time Patrol against Mechikabura when he was still imprisoned in the Crack of Time?  Or did he participate in that battle remotely, via one of his illusions?    Hell, he probably snuck out and snuck back in and no one even noticed.

4) I guess the Demon Realm was inside the Crack of Time?    That explains how Mechikabura could create it and run the place while he was banished in the crack.  

5) I’m pretty sure “Time Breakers”, “Dark Empire”, “Demon Relam” and “Dark Demon Realm” are all the same thing.   They didn’t change the name necessarily, it’s just that no one can decide what to call it.  

[duhragonball]

Nanwum V Update: 55,352

From a word count standpoint, I’m in fantastic shape.   Closing in on 60,000, closing in my year-end goal, and I’m getting used to forcing myself to write 1668 words every day through the end of the month, whether I need them or not. 

However, I’m feeling a bit stuck now, because I gotta untangle a knot.  Let’s discuss.

Everything after Luffa #142 has been me adapting Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 1 into a novelization, with Luffa as the custom character protagonist.   I’ve deviated from the game’s plot when I needed to, but I find it handy as a plot outline.   I think part of the reason things have gone so well this year is because I’ve been able to refer back to the game whenever I needed to move on to the next part of the story. 

However, I’ve finally reached the Demigra part of the run, and now that the euphoria of that has worn off, I’m left trying to figure out the Super Buu mission in the game’s story mode.   Team Four Star did a playthrough of it in 2015, which you can watch here and here.

In brief, Demigra can send his “mirages” or “shadow clones” to different points in history to change stuff, kind of like what Towa had been doing up to this point.  Except Demigra’s powers and objectives are different.  He forces Piccolo to turn against his allies, which I’m pretty sure was something Towa never did.  She usually just made the bad guys stronger and meaner to make the good guys lose.   Also, Demigra somehow causes Super Buu to devolve into Kid Buu earlier than he was supposed to.   The messaging from the game is that Demigra is more dangerous than Towa, because his mind control is more potent.   He can control stronger characters and even make them switch sides.

Anyway the problem I have is that the mission in the game is just “Help the good guys fight Majin Buu”, but a lot of details got swept under the rug.  Like, you’re supposed to help Gohan fight Super/Kid Buu, but there’s no way to prevent him from blowing up the Earth.   Maybe that’s okay, since Kid Buu was supposed to blow it up anyway.  There’s this unspoken message in the game that you only have to restore the general outcomes of these past events.  In my fic, I established that this is necessary so that the Supreme Kai of Time can “massage” the minor details out later.  

But if that’s the case here, why should the Time Patrol fight Super Buu at all?  Just let him turn into Kid Buu and wipe out the planet.  There’s no point in helping Gohan, since he’s supposed to die anyway.  Except the next stage is set during the Kid Buu fight on the Supreme Kai Planet.  It’s basically just like the final battle in the canon, with Kid Buu teleporting in to fight Goku and Vegeta.    It’s like they just skipped over the part with Super Buu absorbing people and Vegito fighting him. 

And that doesn’t work, because you need that Vegito fight to set up the Kid Buu stuff.   Vegeta, Mr. Satan, and Dende are there only because Goku went to Earth and gathered them all up so Kibitoshin could teleport them to his planet.  And Kid Buu was only able to follow them there because he had seen Kibitoshin’s teleportation move and learned how to do it himself.  The game just takes all of this for granted.  Somehow, all these players ended up where they were supposed to be, and the Kid Buu episodes can just play out the same way, but with the Time Patroller there to balance out whatever Demigra’s mind control does to make Kid Buu stronger. 

Again, I can rewrite all of this to make it more logical, but I have to figure out how before I can do that, which is kind of irritating, since I still need to log 1668 words by midnight tonight.   (These blog posts don’t count, btw).

At first, I considered that maybe the discontinuity was the point.  Demigra arranged this because it’s confusing, and therefore harder to correct.   That could work, except I’m not sure it would be much fun to write.   Basically Luffa would have to clobber Piccolo, then clobber Super Buu until he transforms to Kid Buu, then fail to stop him from destroying the Earth, then follow him to the Kai Planet and help kick his ass there, without any help from Vegeta, Mr. Satan, or Goku’s Spirit Bomb.  It’s just a long, drawn out fight that way.

Alternately, I could have other Time Patrollers arrange for the other characters to be on the Kai Planet when Kid Buu gets there, so the battle could play out as it was supposed to, just a few minutes ahead of schedule.  But that seems cheap, and maybe more complicated than it needs to be.

It might be simpler to just... stop Super Buu from transforming into Kid Buu, but I’m not sure anyone would know how to do that.  I guess Luffa could just hit him really, really hard at the critical moment. It’s the Time Patrol, after all.  Demigra’s spell happens very quickly, but if they know the exact moment when it happens, they should be able to tell her when to unload on the guy.   Then Luffa could withdraw, and the stuff with Kid Buu on the Supreme Kai Planet could be a separate mission.

But that sounds a bit too simple.   It’d be nice to do something more interesting with Super Buu.  Have him absorb somebody he wasn’t supposed to, for example.   Except he had already wiped out everyone on Earth by that point... wait.

Buushinhan?   That might have some legs.