A few days pa.s.sed again. Now it was not long anymore until the World Martial Arts Tournament. A few months now to be exact. At that point, the Z timeline would begin. Come to think of it a lot has already changed. Darc wondered if really something bad would happen for him to mingle around with time like this. Somehow he had a bad feeling.

He stopped sulking about what if scenarios and kept to his regular working and training. Trunks his birthday came up in November and Darc took a day completely off to celebrate it with him.

To connect his bond with the family he now had, he especially toured the Universe a little bit for beautiful gems and minerals to make two more pendants just like the one Bulma had. But they had to vary in color.

A red crystal was for himself and another green one was for Trunks to wear. Just like the basic colors, they would complement each other. With a little bit of help from his magic, he also made sure these materials were safe and that the pendant would also grow along with Trunks.

Bulma was actually pretty happy about the idea to connect the three of them like this. At least he made some effort to be somewhat of a father so she didn't bother to bicker about it needlessly.

Soon, A little bit after new years Darc got a disturbing message from Chronoa that he couldn't ignore. So he teleported right to the time nest.

----

"What happened!?", asked Darc with a somewhat angry voice after he reached the time vault where Chronoa was looking at a time scroll.

She sighed after she saw Darc arriving. "Take a look at this.", she answered and handed him the dark time scroll over.

Darc looked at it and saw the scenes in it. Those scenes were the depiction of Future Trunks his timeline and the Androids. But something was rather of. Instead of Trunks fighting the androids, it was Gohan. Normally that wouldn't be that much of a bad sign but what Gohan used inside the scroll was the Super Saiyan 2 state. A state he was never supposed to reach in canon.

What made things worse was that the androids were somewhat stronger than they were in canon and Gohan had a hard time by himself even in his SSJ2 transformation. This was really bad. What was the cause of that? Shortly after he saw Arkis in the scroll and that surprised Darc.

"How is it that I can see Arkis inside the scroll? Did you actually send her to fix this timeline?", he asked Chronoa immediately.

"No, I would never send her into such a dangerous time alone. And it's better she does not see this. That Arkis is the Future Arkis.", said Chronoa with frowned brows.

"What!? How!? Wait! Is there actually a version of me there as well?", asked Darc in a somewhat agitated state now.

Chronoa looked grim now. She didn't know how to start explaining. "No...actually I researched about you, Darc. You know when I mentioned that you felt like someone that didn't fit in this time? You...Are an abnormality in time itself. In every possible time, you are dead...Or better to say you were never born..."

Darc furrowed his brows now as well. He did have his guesses since he is a reincarnated being. But that doesn't explain Arkis. "But what about Arkis. If I am an abnormality then she should be the same. After all, she lives because of me in a way.", said Darc back.

Chronoa nodded. "That is correct. I did also find out about the origin of the black time scrolls that started to appear. It looks like your existence is the cause. These black scrolls start to appear where you are alive in the timeline. That is until a certain point where things may have happened to you." She paused and remained silent for a short while before continuing. „That is if my theory is right. I only managed to open up this scroll...Anyway, in this scroll, you died from the same heart virus that Goku had to fight against. Everything else pretty much followed the normal occurrences from the Future Trunks timeline. No Dragonb.a.l.l.s to revive anyone and most Z Fighters being dead...Just that your influence over the time made the z fighters stronger. Sadly it also applies to Dr. Gero's androids. The only good news is that the androids seem to have killed Cell themselves after he tried to absorb them."

Darc looked blankly at the scroll in his hand after hearing her words. Then his face became solemn.

"I will go in.", he said in a certain voice.

"What!? Didn't you hear what I said? The enemy is much stronger now. You stand no chance.", she rebuked his idea immediately.

"Come back to your sense, Chronoa. You probably know I already changed our current timeline a lot more than what should have been allowed. You even talked about the Half-Saiyan Trunks a minute ago but here he is a Human. You can't even get rid of this timeline on your own...Just let me deal with what I am at fault with.", shouted Darc at her with an angry voice.

Chronoa made big eyes after his words and stayed silent. Then she broke the silence. "Just be careful."

Darc nodded and smiled wryly "Thank you for letting me have a family here, Chronoa"

Chronoa was again surprised but then Darc stretched out the scroll in front of himself and concentrated. A dark aura surrounded him and pushed him through one time-barrier after another until he appeared in a destroyed city.

Darc looked around and narrowed his eyes with a stern look. Only death was in front of his face. That he really had to see the earth like this someday really made his mood go rock bottom. He could feel the negative energy surrounding him and nearly suffocating him. And it made him think about his son at the same moment.

Just a few hours ago he held him in his hands and now he also knew that there existed a future image of him in this timeline. Darc made a pledge to help Future Trunks because of Bulma but knowing that his own son actually existed in one of these timelines made it even more bitter for him. The question also was what happened to this timelines Trunks anyway? It nagged at his mind.

Then he picked up an immense ki signature. It was not the androids since they didn't emit any energy. But just knowing about them being close to that energy was making him angry. And that he currently couldn't feel Arkis ki signature made it even more rage inducing. Hopefully, he was not too late.

Gritting hos teeth in anger he started channeling his ki and flew straight to that place he felt the energy from.

----

A few kilometers away Future Gohan was really fighting against the androids in his Super Saiyan 2 form. His dogfight went on pretty well for a while until No.17 and 18 slowly overpowered him with their coordination.

No. 18 kicked a high kick to his head which he could defend against but 17 came with a straight punch to his gut and broke his defense for a bare second. 18 used that moment and shot a ki blast straight to Gohan´s face.

That send him falling down to the ground and he couldn't keep his transformation and revert back to base form. He was unconcious.

"How boring. While we get stronger he is not even improving at all lately.", said 18 to her brother.

"Well, you can't expect them to match our unlimited potential. Unlike normal humans, we can become infinitely stronger, sis.", answered 17 and looked down at Gohan. "Let´s finish him before that woman comes and interferes again."

18 nodded but just when they wanted to act they picked another energy signature that came very fast to their coordinates „Oh, what's that? Another fighter coming to play? From the energy type, it's not that woman.", exclaimed 17 and looked at the direction where the energy came from.

Different than their counterparts these androids had somehow learned to sense ki. Well in a way they still were mostly human.

"Careful, the energy I feel from that person is very high.", frowned 18. And just as she said that, Darc teleported behind 17. Darc used his energy like sonar from afar and quickly found their position. Not taking them lightly he used any advantage he could.

So Darc sends 17 with a powerful kick through the buildings in the surroundings.

"17!! b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Wait, how is that possible. You are Darc! You should be dead!", shouted 18 out and recognized Darc immediately.

"I am and now its time to pay for your heinous actions.", threatened Darc her.

18 only snorted. "Hmpf as if that is going to happen. I don't know why but it looks like you are not as dangerous as you used to be? The rumors about you seem exaggerated. That kick just now was all your power?"

17 charged out of the rubble and attacked Darc. Darc noticed that and repelled his attacks with his own and started a dogfight with him.

´d.a.m.n, I knew they were strong but this beats everything. They really are at about Super Saiyan 2 level. Just a tad weaker though. Well, still too much for Future Gohan to handle. Even after he reached Super Saiyan 2 he still is outcla.s.sed.´, thought Darc and gritted his teeth. ´But I will not back down so easily. First thing I need to do is get Gohan into safety.´

When 17 made a mistake it was the perfect time and Darc used that to get a knee into his abdomen and kick him away from him to get some distance.

The weird thing was that he saw 17 smiling as if he enjoyed that hit.

"Very interesting. You are strong but if we keep this up you will run out of energy. And I am not even using half of my power. Now...", he said and charged once more. This time 17 was so fast that Darc got hit in his ribs because he failed to react in time. He yelped out in pain but before 17 could succeed with another attack Arkis appeared out of nowhere and kicked 17 away.

Then she placed a hand on him and teleported to Gohan and once again away from this place.

The destination they arrived at was actually another planet. They were in a capsule house.

"Gah!" Darc knelt down shortly because his side still ached from that hit. "Thanks, looks like I underestimated them too much. How in the world did they get so strong." It was a good question since Darc was already as strong as a Super Saiyan without Kaioken.

Arkis remained silent and looked at him after she placed the unconscious Gohan on the bed. Her eyes vibrated with certain emotions. Then she came closer and just hugged him.

"Urgh. Easy there. It may look like I am back and alive but...I am not the same Darc. I am from the past...", he told her.

She stiffened after those words and slowly let go. "I see...", she answered and her eyes looked sad.

"Can you tell me what happened? And where....are Trunks and the others? Don't tell me they all...", asked Darc now with a sad voice.

Right at that moment, someone with black hair and blue eyes entered the room they were in. The person saw Darc and made a surprised face and stared at him blankly. "Dad...!?"