#kabra

“Everything seems to be going well, considering the current state of everything.” Trunks rubbed his eyes with the side of his hand as he tried to keep his focus on his work. “The other Patrollers seem to be fixing all the alterations without any big problems, so that’s a plus on our side.”

“Any sign of Towa and Mira?” She asked in a hopeful voice. Trunks shook his head and sat down for a small break.

“Other than the changes they cause, no. They always leave before we can chase after them and sometimes before we even get there.” The Supreme Kai of Time nodded and walked over to the table to glance at the scrolls. Some held their normal color scheme while other were coated in a dark purple. A few would flicker back and forth between the two before any magic surrounding it would dissipate.

“It’s been getting worse ever since Mira destroyed New Namek.”

A deafening silence overtook the room as the two internally berated themselves. A few months ago, Mira had appeared on New Namek along with multiple Time Breakers. The reports (from what they could manage) mentioned that Mira had supposedly gone there for the Dragon Balls. The Namekians tried to defend themselves as much as they could, but the difference in strength was too large. Realizing that the Namekians had no plans of handing over what he wanted, Mira raised his arms into the air, his troops following suit, and began to gather energy at his palms as the others sent their energy to their leader.

Mira had crafted a Spirit Bomb in a short amount of time and threw it down towards the planet’s soil. However, the Namekians had escaped their demise at the last moment. Moori summoned Porunga and wished for all of the Namekians to be sent to Earth, saving them.

The Time Patrol had, of course, found out a little after Mira appeared on the planet. They had hurried around to gather as many Patrollers as they could in the shortest amount of time to try and stop them. By the time everyone was set to go, it was just a moment too late. Adding insult to injury, Mira hadn’t gone back in time to do so. He had stayed in the present time when he destroyed the planet. The Time Patrollers couldn’t do anything to change it; the Supreme Kai of Time wouldn’t allow them.

“I’m just as angry and upset about this happening as all of you are, but the laws of time can’t be broken! If we tried to ‘fix’ this, we would be altering history ourselves, not fixing it like we have been. I’m sorry, but I can’t allow any of us to change the present. The only thing we can do now is stay vigilant and keep this from happening again.”

Trunks clenched his hands into fists as the Supreme Kai of Time set her hand on his shoulder.

“I know, Trunks. I know.”

“How could we have let that happen? We were doing so well on staying on top of them! As soon as they changed something, we were there soon after to fix it!” Trunks slammed his fists into the table, causing it to shake as the neat piles of scrolls scattered from the motion.

“It wasn’t our fault. We had to make sure Demigra wouldn’t succeed in his plans inside the Demon Realm.” The Supreme Kai of Time sighed and sat on a chair next to him. “Towa and Mira had to have been planning that for a while. It makes a bit of sense; Mira was there with Demigra when we caught up to him but when he transformed, he was gone. They used our battle with Demigra to their advantage.

The two took a few deep breaths before a young Saiyan wearing a red Kai coat, black undershirt and pants and a Majin with white armor decorated with red lining had hurried into the Time Vault with exasperated looks. The young Saiyan let himself fall to the ground as the Majin set his hands on his knees, both of them gasping for air. The Supreme Kai of Time turned to them with a confused look on her face.

“Beat? Kabra? Is something wrong?” Trunks turned around to face the two Patrollers as well. The Saiyan, Beat, stood back up and gestured towards the door as he continued to take another breath. Kabra stepped forward and looked worryingly towards the exit.

“H-he just fell out of the air! He doesn’t seem to be moving much, but he doesn’t seem to be dead, either. We-..we don’t know how, but we managed to get him inside a bubble-like shield. I-I don’t mean that we had trouble because we didn’t! We just don’t know how he even got-”

“Kabra, it’s ok. Just take a moment to breathe.” The Supreme Kai of Time placed her hands on the side of his face and let him sit down for a moment. She turned towards Beat as he rubbed his face.

“What was Kabra talking about, Beat? Who’s ‘he?’” Trunks asked as he stood back up and walked over to the others. He looked around as he tried to think of a way to tell them what was happening. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of a way but saying directly. Beat took a deep breath, crossed his arms, and looked back to his bosses.

“Demigra. He’s back, somehow. We…” He ran his hand through his hair and took another breath. “We got him inside a barrier with a little help from some of the Majins who knew strong enough magic to re-enforce it along with Zen, Fen, and Wairu. He seems like he’s out cold, but we can’t be sure; he’s really beat up, though.” The Supreme Kai of Time and Trunks exchanged glances before the four of them started walking towards the exit. Tokitoki peeked his head out of the large tree and flew after them.

“Trunks, go on ahead and make sure everyone has their guard up in case he’s planning something.” Trunks gave her a strange look as they continued walking.

“What are you thinking, Supreme Kai of Time?”

“I want to at least know why he’s here, especially in a weakened state. He’s too clever to let himself do something like this on accident. Either he’s planning something or something’s wrong.” She glanced up and watched Tokitoki fly through the gate heading towards the recreational plaza. The four of them walked through the gate and entered the plaza, only to be met by a multitude of Time Patrollers gathering around the statue. The Supreme Kai of Time and Trunks continued forward and floated down to the plaza, skipping the steps to save time while Beat and Kabra headed down the stairs. As soon as the patrollers noticed the Supreme Kai of Time and Trunks, they started to swarm them with questions upon questions.

“Supreme Kai of Time, what happened?”

“How is Demigra back already?!”

“Do you think he’s planning something?”

The Supreme Kai of Time glanced at everyone as she tried to keep up with what they were saying. She felt closed in and took a step back to give herself some room before placing her thumb and index finger close to her mouth and let out a loud, shrill whistle to get everyone’s attention. The whistle only lasted for a second, but as she looked back around she could see everyone covering their ears.

“Sorry about that, everyone, but I just need to see what’s going on first. So first things first, where is Demigra?” As soon as the question was asked, she noticed someone making their way through the crowd towards her. Everyone started to shuffle to the sidelines to let the person through as quiet murmurs circulated around the area. A young Kaioshin with blond hair and a light blue Kai outfit walked up to her and smiled as the Supreme Kai of Time smiled back.

“Hello, Fen.”

“Hi, boss. He’s over here if you want to check closer.” Fen gestured to the others to follow as Beat and Kabra disappeared within the crowd. Once they stepped onto sidewalk leading to the plaza, they saw three Kaioshins standing in front of a large energy barrier.

To the left was a younger Kai with light purple skin, red hair and an off-white robe covered by a red coat. His arms were crossed as he kept his line of sight on the interior of the barrier. This was Zen.

To the right was another young Kai, Wairu, who looked similar to the Supreme Kai of Time herself except for her longer hair which was kept in three separate ponytails and a yellow dress with a dark green coat. Her hands were set on her hips as she watched Zen’s actions.

In the center stood the Elder Kaioshin. It wasn’t too long ago that he had arrived in Toki Toki City to help train Time Patrollers and soon became some more help to the Supreme Kai of Time as well. He looked over his shoulder and moved to the left to let her assess the situation. When the Supreme Kai of Time came closer, she glanced over the unconscious Demon God inside the barrier with a bit of shock.

His clothes were torn and tattered with blood stains all throughout. He had wounds and bruises on his entire body, some of the wounds were still bleeding a bit. The gold bands and circlet he wore were cracked and chipped as they started to fall apart. His hair fell flat against his face and seemed to be a bit duller than usual. Overall, it seemed that he wasn’t critically injured.

That still left the Supreme Kai of Time wondering what happened to him.

The Supreme Kai of Time went to step forward as she heard something crack under her foot. As she lifted her foot up, she noticed a small piece of something unusual. She picked up the small object and looked it over, feeling like she had seen this before. Out of the corner of her eye, the Supreme Kai of Time noticed more pieces similar to the once she held. It didn’t take long for her to piece everything together and realize she was holding a piece of Demigra’s now broken staff. She took a quick glance at the pieces and noticed that the two gems that usually sat at the tips of his staff laid on the ground completely unscathed.

She turned her gaze back to the Demon God, lost in her own thoughts, as Trunks had finally made his way up to the others after answering some of the questions the Time Patrollers had. His hand twitched a bit when he finally saw Demigra, his instincts telling him to grab his sword and prepare to fight. However, now that he saw the situation up close, he knew there wouldn’t be as much danger with Demigra being unconscious. Trunks knew that there was no need to take up arms at the moment, but he also knew that wasn’t his call to make.

“Supreme Kai of Time?” She stayed silent as her grip on the broken staff piece increased slightly. Trunks tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump a bit and look over her shoulder at him. She sighed a bit and turned to face him as the three Kaioshins around her did the same.

“Sorry, Trunks. What did you say?”

“I was going to ask what you think we should do about Demigra.” He glanced over at her with a calm expression. The Supreme Kai of Time looked back over towards Demigra as he shifted slightly.

She hated the thought of having him here. It was too risky, not only to her, but to the Patrollers, the Time Vault, Tokitoki, and everything within the city. The barrier would hold him with no problem, especially if it was re-enforced with her magic. That didn’t ignore the fact that Demigra was particularly skilled in magic, either. On his own, he was a formidable foe to her. He had grown stronger during his imprisonment in the Chasm of Time with both his magic and fighting skills. It was much too dangerous to have him here; weakened or not.

However, something at the back of her mind was bugging her. She was honest on what she mentioned earlier; Demigra was too clever to make a mistake like this or even have it happen on accident. If this was a temporal problem and anything related to the timestreams, she had to fix it. With her own knowledge, she wasn’t aware of any recent changes. If something was being planned or was managing to stay hidden, then Demigra could probably be the only source she has.

The Supreme Kai of Time held her hands out and put some of her magic into the barrier to strengthen it. Trunks let out a quiet sigh as he watched her do so. He felt like he knew what her decision was and that he had to keep himself calm when he heard it. As much as he wanted to question it and ask her why, he didn’t want to cause any more panic from the Patrollers; he’d make sure to ask her about it later, though.

“Take him into the Time Nest and place him near the lake for now. I’ll talk to him when he wakes up.” The six people closest to the Demon God could hear mumbling circulate through the crowd. The Supreme Kai of Time turned to Trunks as Tokitoki landed beside her. She petted the avian as she turned her gaze to meet with Trunks’.

“I don’t like this, but if there’s a chance that something is happening that we’re not aware of, he just might know about it.” She took a quick notice of all the uncertainty on the Patrollers faces. Knowing it would be best to keep them from getting stressed, she looked towards Trunks and smiled.

“And trust me, I have ways of making him talk. I’ve dealt with him before and I can certainly handle him now.” Her smile was contagious; even though everyone was unnerved by the situation at hand, they couldn’t help but smile as well. Everyone started to disperse back to their duties as Trunks, Fen, and Wairu moved Demigra into the Time Nest. The Supreme Kai of Time sighed and rubbed the back of her neck as Zen and the Elder Kai came up beside her.

“Do you really think he’s going to cooperate?” Zen turned to her as she ran a hand through her pink hair.

“If we’re lucky, he’ll mention at least something. He’s always been a bit secretive.” Tokitoki nudged his head against her side, trying to cheer her up a bit. The Supreme Kai of Time let out a small laugh at the bird’s action and patted his head. She turned towards Zen and gave him a smile as well. “Why don’t you catch up with them, Zen? They might need a little help.”

Zen looked at her for a moment before smiling back and heading towards the Time Nest. With the two of them alone, the Elder Kai turned towards the Supreme Kai of Time.

“What are you thinking, Chronoa? I know you’re concerned about the reasons you mentioned earlier, but I think there’s something else on your mind.” The Supreme Kai of Time sighed and crossed her arms.

“It’s like I said; if we’re lucky, he’ll mention at least something. The only thing I worry about is that if I only take a few things he says, they’re either lies or he’s hiding information from us. I just…” She sighed and rubbed her head.

“You’re thinking of keeping him around?” She hesitated to answer but nodded her head after a moment.

“I don’t have much of a choice. I run the risk of being told lies if I keep him here, but if I let him go, we’ll probably never find him again and lose that information.” The two stood in silence before they started to walk up the stairs heading towards the Time Nest, Tokitoki already flying towards the gate.

“I suppose I can always keep him in the barrier, but I worry about what’ll happen when he gets better. This is the last thing I want to do, but I can’t think of another way.” The Elder Kai chuckled and looked over at her.

“I know you’ll figure out what to do, Chronoa, but just be careful. He did manage to keep his plan secret all those millennia ago, so who knows what he could be planning this time.” She nodded and sighed. After all of that had happened, she was frustrated with herself for not noticing it earlier. If she had noticed that he was acting strangely earlier, she could’ve stopped him.

The Supreme Kai of Time brushed her bangs behind her ears and smiled at the Elder Kai.

“Thank you. I’ll do the right thing when I can.” He nodded as they walked through the gate. Demigra’s temporary ‘prison’ was floating off the ground as Tokitoki sat on top of it. He was still unconscious, but he seemed to move a bit more than before. She had a feeling that he was going to wake up soon and decided to walk over and sit by the pond. The Elder Kai had walked over to the Time Vault and glanced over his shoulder before turning back and heading up the stairs.