Time Vault - Conton

Broly walked back and forth in the Time Vault, watching his hairy but good friend Kakarot dig through Time Scrolls. Beside Kakarot was Vegeta, whom was frowning so hard his mouth could have cracked and fallen off.

Vegeta tossed aside the Scroll he read to the long table in the middle of the room and growled out, "Useless! There's no sense in wasting time here."

Kakarot sighed and sat down his scroll and nodded. "I think you're right. But we can't just wait for him to strike again. There has to be something!"

Broly's hand rove across his green furry pelt. It was an old habit of his but he needed it right now. He loved his sister Rhuda, and would do anything to protect her. He just needed to know one thing: How?

"I'll hunt him down myself." Broly rumbled.

"Hm, and how do you suppose you'll accomplish that? We don't know where or when he's hiding," Vegeta replied.

"All we know right now is that there's a lot of baddies working for him. Some we've already beaten before." Kakarot added.

Kakarot walked over to Broly and gave him a reassuring clap to his massive shoulder, "we won't let anything happen to Rhuda. She's our friend, too."

"Sister...is all that I have left," Broly explained sadly. His chest tightened with that admission. Having been alone most of his life on Planet Vampa, when Rhuda had came and told him she was his twin, well, he'd finally found his home, and his place to belong. By her side.

"..." Kakarot watched Broly stroke his green pelt and glanced to Vegeta, who was searching some more. At length Kakarot said, "Family is important to us too. Whatever Fu has planned, we won't let him get away with it."

***

***

***

Capsule Industries - Trunks Bedroom

Rhuda fidgeted and veered her eyes from Trunks, who had sat down at his bed. It was beyond awkward being alone together. She had only been to one boys house and that hadn't ended well, and as such kept quiet. Too quiet.

Trunks broke her train of thought. "...You're nervous. Don't be."

Rhuda tensed. Why did he have to say it out loud? It only made her more anxious. "...I'm not. Not nervous. Why would I be? Ano..You're not a, you're not a creep."

While Trunks wasn't a creep, he was extremely good looking. All of his features fit him perfectly. A straight pointed nose brushed by long lilac hair that shone silver in the light of his room, broad muscular shoulders, dark rimmed blue eyes the likes of which could be found in an erotica novel, and a calm smile that hid the deep thoughts he probably always had.

She wondered what kind of conditioner he used to get his hair so buttery looking, but didn't dare ask. That was a secret of those born beautiful. Instead she motioned to his shelf of trophies, "You've got a lot of stuff collected."

He glanced up briefly to the shelf and nodded. "Yeah. These are from all my timelines, not just the history I'm from."

"Why did you, why did you decide to keep them? Ano...sorry, you don't have to answer that. I was just curious."

He shook his head, "i don't mind talking about it. I was younger then. Some of this was given to me by the other me." Trunks paused to really think it over, "Well, when your history keeps being changed...it's nice to have something physical to show it actually happened."

"The other you?"

"Yeah. You've met him before. The one who defeated Goku black; Mai's husband?"

It didn't ring a bell. He didn't need to know that though. "Oh! That one. Right! Ano...he's...pretty cool."

"..."

"..."

The edges of his mouth twisted. He covered the smile behind his brown gloved hand. "...He's alright."

As her eyes glanced around the room some more, Rhuda saw something interesting. On the beside beside his immaculate western bed was an end table. On it sat an alarm clock, a wrinkled cloth with darkness tinging it, and a framed picture. The picture was of a man wearing an orange gi. He was smiling from the photo amidst a beach background.

"Who's he?" She asked.

Trunks cradled the picture in his hand gently. With a tiny sad looking smile he answered, "That's Gohan. My master, and friend."

"Gohan..."

She had heard the name before. Rhuda cleared her throat. "Ah. Gohan."

"Yeah. He was my mentor. He taught me what I know about being a Saiyan, and a hero. Without him, I don't know what I would have done. I owe him everything."

The 'was' in his words gave her pause. So he was dead then, she deduced. But didn't he bring everyone back with Super Dragon Balls? "Those Super Dragon Balls," she asked hesitantly, "didn't they work on him, too?"

"...." Trunks stood up and looked off. Perhaps off into the past where his memories lay. After a moment's silence he said, "...He told me he didn't want to come back. I tried, but..." his fist clenched, "...he wanted to be remembered for what happened, as a hero."

The sadness behind his voice was heart breaking. Rhuda didn't realize that a video game character could be so emotional. She watched as Trunks seemed to be forcing himself to collect his thoughts, and wanted to comfort him somehow, yet didn't know if it was alright to do so.

"Ano--"

"Anyway. You have a parallel mission to do. Let's go. Oh, you should also have a boost from that near death experience."

A loud bell sound deafened the conversation. Trunks pulled back the leather of his sleeve and saw that his wrist watch was lit. He quickly tapped the screen. "Supreme Kai of Time, Trunks here."

"This is bad!" They both heard the tiny Kai say.

"What is it?"

"He's coming to you! Do you have anything made? Please tell me you have some food ready!"

Trunks and Rhuda blinked in bewilderment at one another. Slowly Trunks said, "... I don't understand, SKOT. Who's coming here?"

"Lord Beerus the Destroyer!"

***

***

***

Capsule Industries

Beerus and his angel attendant Whis popped into present time, Earth, just inside Capsule Industries. The feline God took a good look around. "It hasn't changed one bit. Still as boring as ever."

"I have to agree with you. It's so...stark," Whis said with a vague wave of his hand. "If it were me I'd paint the walls with a nice wash of yellow. It would really brighten the mood."

Beerus rolled his eyes. "Yellow hurts my eyes. Blue would be much better." After saying that his stomach growled audibly. "And where's that Earthling at when you need her? I'm starving!"

An odd energy emanating from above caused his narrowed gaze to flit upward, to the higher floors. "Hm. I can't get a reading on whoever that is. But, yes, Vegeta's half breed son is there."

Whis chuckled a little and replied, "That would be Rhuda. The one I told you about."

"Broly's twin? I see." Beerus rubbed his chin, purple tail swaying thoughtfully. While he was here for food, a pleasant surprise had came to entertain him. He would use this to his advantage. "I think I'll pay them a visit."

"Are you sure, My Lord? They are 'together' right now."

It took a moment before Beerus realized what Whis meant. When it dawned on him he made a sound of disgust. "Yuk! You mean they're doing that during the day? Have they no shame? No decency?"

"Apparently not. While we wait, let's see what Bulma has to offer us today." Whis' eyes shut thinking about all of Earth's delicacies, just waiting for him to try. It had been too long since he'd partaken of those little meatballs sitting atop a platter of intestine like ground wheat; truly, spaghetti was heavenly, what with it's sauce the color of blood. He shivered in delight.

"Fine with me."

Together they strode silently down the hall, down the stairs at the end of the hall, and down even more stairs. Once at the bottom Beerus sighed. "You'd think they'd install an elevator. This is ridiculous."

Politely Whis pointed towards a black double door marked clearly marked elevator. "Oh look, they do have one."

"..."

"..."

Beerus shot him a glare. "You enjoy yourself too much."

"Oh ho ho!"

The elevator door's opened and out dashed Trunks, the time patrol leader of Conton. His blue eyes widened. "Lord Beerus the Destroyer..." quickly he dipped into a formal bow, "can I assist you?"

"Perhaps," Beerus answered. He was more interested in the tiny little thing hiding behind Trunks. With a flick of his pointed claw, he moved Rhuda towards him, lifting her into the sky with his God energy. "So, this is her? She's rather scrawny if you ask me."

Rhuda squirmed.

To Beerus she favored a frightened animal more than a saiyan warrior who could parallel Broly. Beerus frowned. "I came for a good time. But it appears I was mistaken in thinking there would be anything worthwhile here. Since I'm angered I'll destroy her."

He dropped Rhuda to the floor. She looked fearfully up at Beerus and Whis. "D-Destroy me?"

Trunks moved in front of Rhuda protectively. "Lord Beerus, if it's a fight you want, I'll take you on. Leave her out of this."

Whis lifted a brow at Beerus, who sighed at the ceiling and placed his hands behind his back. "It would be an utter waste of my energy." Beerus said.

Trunks was calculating, Whis noticed. Inside his eyes the attendant could see his mind churning with possibilities, going through strategy's. At length Trunks put his hand on the hilt of his sword. "...Then let's make it a challenge. If I manage to scratch you...you'll won't hurt her."

The interest of Beerus the destroyer rose in that moment. His teeth pulled back in a smile, none to kind. "If you fail in this I'll destroy her."

Rhuda looked up fearfully at Trunks. He glanced at her and nodded. "Fine."

"T-Trunks--" She asked him, grabbing his pants in her grip and giving a shake to her double pony tailed auburn head, "--Y-You don't have to do that on my account...ano, I...couldn't ask you to fight for me."

"You didn't ask." Trunks replied. He leaned down and took her hand into his, "I'm doing this because I want to. Don't worry. I have a plan, okay?"

She looked at his hand within hers, green gems watering with tears. "...Trunks...is very kind to me." She whispered. In response Trunks' cheeks burned a deep red.

"Oh?" Beerus' tail flicked around, "A plan, you say? I hope it's entertaining at the very least."

Food was postponed for the moment.

***

***

***

The group left the hallway and went to the Gravity Chamber, where Trunks told Rhuda to watch from a safe distance. She obeyed, reluctantly, wondering if her wish to go back home would be granted, or if she'd be in debt to Trunks.

Beerus and Trunks stood opposite one another, calmly waiting for the signal to begin.

When Beerus rose his hand, beckoning his opponent, Trunks answered by charging his power to red hair heights. Rhuda watched as he threw off his jacket, grabbed his sword, and leveled it at Beerus evenly. "I won't even use my sword," he said to the destroyer. To prove his point Trunks tossed his blade to the floor.

"Now you're mocking me." Beerus said. "And I don't appreciate that one bit. I think you're more like your father then I originally thought." He lifted his finger and began charging dark purple energy. "...All bark and no bite," he finished.

Trunks moved out of the way as Beerus' orb of destruction crashed into the wall of the gravity chamber and disintegrated it. The wind from outside blew in, whipping Rhudas hair around into her face.

'If Trunks gets hit by that...he'll be a goner!' Rhuda shivered in fear and realized she'd be a goner, too. Beerus the Destroyer was truly formidable.

Trunks pushed off with his front foot and vanished, appearing before Beerus, who only moved his head backward to avoid the punch to his face.

It was hard for Rhuda to keep up.

All she could see where flashes of light as Trunks continually advanced on Beerus, who didn't seem ruffled in the least. He hadn't even used his hands to block, which she knew was a sure sign that Beerus wasn't taking the fight seriously.

*

*

Trunks was leading Beerus exactly where he wanted him to go. All of his offense would come down to how Beerus responded, and as Trunks had suspected, the God of destruction was toying with him. That would make it easier for Trunks to fool him; lure him right into his trap.

"Hyah! Dah dah dah!" Trunks well timed punches went unanswered as Beerus jumped, hopping from place to place to avoid a direct hit.

Beerus yawned. "Are you done? In case I wasn't clear earlier, if you can't hit me I really will destroy her."

Trunks saw that Beerus' guard had dropped. With a smirk Trunks blasted him, "Masenko!"

Beerus vanished.

He appeared behind Trunks, tapping the back of his head with his dark nail. Trunks was sent careening into the front wall of the Chamber and through it.

'Just a little more.'

Beerus waited for Trunks to return to the fight.

"Trunks, you're okay!" He heard Rhuda shout. She wiped her wet eyes.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm just getting started," Trunk told her.

Now that Trunks had given Beerus a false understanding of his power, the boy attacked faster and faster, pushing Beerus until he was just beside the sword he'd thrown earlier.

Trunks blasted him point black. Through the dust Beerus was unscathed. But at that precise moment while Beerus was blinded, Trunks sent a second blast to his sword. Not to destroy it, but to charge it with Ki, and as he swept his booted foot down, Beerus jumped into the sky as Trunks had predicted.

"Raaah!" Trunks unleashed Burning Attack.

Beerus didn't so much as move. He was so confident it couldn't hurt him that it annoyed Trunks immensely. Sometimes it sucked to be a genius, but Trunks didn't need to win the battle, he needed to win the war.

Before the Burning Attack could fade away Trunks met him head on--kicking, jabbing, swinging his legs. All were wasted efforts, of course, but it was a another fake out that Trunks needed.

Trunks shot a blast down to his sword. He was still pummeling Beerus, so fast the only thing visible was vanishing limbs, but the blast connected to his blade on the floor and bounced back.

Beerus saw it coming--

--He raised his paw to block the blast.

Trunks took that millisecond to grab his sword and threw it to the sky.

"Wasted effort," Beerus said. Trunks came at him again, and this time, faster than Beerus had expected. Trunks had charged his God Ki higher to rise to the demands of a God fight, and the cocky look in Beerus' face changed to interest.

Trunks' sword was still falling through the air and looked like a useless move. Beerus was focused on Trunks melee and thus didn't see the sword was moving now, manipulated at Trunks' will.

Beerus didn't spot the sword that had become hidden behind Trunks back until the swordsman moved, sending to right to Beerus.

Beerus dodged, of course--

--But a trickle of blood slid down his cheek.

"Oh ho ho!" Whis chuckled, "I do see a scratch, My Lord."

Beerus seethed.

He dropped down to the gravity floor which had become a pile of debris and swiped off the blood, staring at it. "...One scratch." He said, "Hn. It seems you have more tricks that I realized, saiyan."

Trunks tapped down.

He was out of breath but satisfied that his ploy had worked. By faking that his 'secret' attack had failed, Beerus had been sure of victory, and thus had lowered his guard down even more.

"Still," Beerus shook his head, "You said you wouldn't use the sword. The victory is void."

Trunks smirked. "If we're being technical, I didn't use the sword. From what I could see it moved all on its own."

Whis chuckled again.

Beerus, with a glare and smack of his tail to the rubble replied, "I said it didn't count, so it doesn't count!" He then added, "And I don't like how you held back during the fight. Why go through all the trouble of pretending you were weaker?"

"....I know I'm weaker than you," Trunks replied. "The only way I could hope to even scratch you would be a trick. I hid my energy a little because I wanted to give you a false sense of security. It worked, from what I can see."

"Hmm..." Beerus shut his eyes. He had underestimated Trunks, thinking him like his father and would surely go all out at the beginning. That had been his own demise, comparing the two as the same. "...Fine. I won't kill her. Today."

Trunks gave Rhuda a relieved stare.

**

**

'He did it...Trunks really scratched Beerus.'

Rhuda couldn't look away from his impressive display of wit. It was that moment she knew--sensed--that her heart had been tugged quite heavily in one sole direction.

'Nobody has ever done anything like that for me. He...really fought someone like Beerus...all to protect me.'

Her eyes blurred with tears.

"I for one was quite entertained by that fight," Whis said. "But I do confess that I'm rather interested in filling my stomach with yummy food. You can do that, can't you?" He asked to Trunks.

"Yeah. Follow me." Trunks gave Rhuda a lingering stare before turning to leave.

Seeing that thanks were due, Rhuda hopped up and ran at his back, throwing her arms around his tight waist. "T-Trunks!"

Beerus and Whis looked at the tiny girl clinging to Trunks. Whis giggled, "We'll leave you two alone."

"Ah ha ha..." Trunks turned, gave his neck an awkward rub, and said to them, "T-The kitchen is just down the hall. I'll meet you there."

"Very well." Whis smiled once more, and he and his cat God left the ruined Gravity Chamber.

Once they were gone Trunks got down onto one knee, wiping Rhudas tears with his gloved hand. "H-Hey. It turned out fine, right?"

"But you could have been hurt...! T-Trunks didn't need to do that! But I..." Rhuda shut her eyes and smiled, "...I'm so happy. For the first time, I know what it means to be protected. Thank you so much!" As she said that, fresh tears ran down her smiling face.

She was smothered in his arms in an instant. He burrowed to her neck, smelling of sweat and cologne and leather. "You're welcome."

"Uuu.." Rhuda unleashed her sobs and clung to him, inhaling his scent and warmth like it were nourishing.

**

**

Trunks hadn't meant to be so bold and hug her like that, but knowing how grateful she was, and hearing her words had made his chest squeeze so tight he had to act on it.

'She's never been protected?'

As her sobs echoed in his ears he thought back, recalling her shaking hands, the cowering, and the hesitance to ask for anything. In that moment Trunks knew she'd been through many difficulties. He pressed his nose to her ear and decided at that moment he'd watch over her. Whoever she was, wherever she came from. Even if it was the only thing he could offer.

"Hic...I'm ruining your clothes...I'm so sorry...but I can't s-stop crying."

He tightened his hold and replied, "Don't worry about that. I'm washable."

"...You're so...nice to me...I-I'm getting spoiled...!" she cried out.

'Haa...what do I say to that?'

His body grew hot, pulse roaring in his ear drums. "W-Well....in that case...I'll spoil you. So...uh, so...j-just let me, then."

She leaned away, chin quivering. "Trunks...."

Beautiful. Kind. Innocent. All those things he saw within her misty eyes. It was safe to say that he was greatly affected by her in that moment. His mind churned, wanting to ask who she truly was, yet he couldn't find words. Instead, Trunks gave in to his impulse and lightly brushed his lips to her red, damp cheek. "...That's my name." He said, releasing her. "W-We should go. Shouldn't keep a God waiting."

"Y-Yes!"

He stood, and his heart did a three sixty, watching Rhuda touch her cheek and shyly nod her head. With a peek at him from her spiked bangs she hurriedly stood and left the room.

Trunks followed; a silly grin on his face.