Kavera continued, sparking the logs into flames. "He killed Blizzard, but we all gathered and killed him after that... at least we thought we did. A part of Nuke survived... and he killed Cumber..."
The first thing everyone saw was Cumber. The Saiyan was sleeping with Zina and Yamoshi on his chest. Calera was sleeping beside the Saiyan, snoring away, the triplets were all clearly only a few months old.
The next image was that of the sky, blacking out with something that had no form, covering the planet.
The group became uncomfortable, looking to Nuke as he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
The planet was shrouded in darkness, showing Kohl and Cumber arguing, and then Cumber giving Kohl and Kora their children.
Another image flared up, showing Kavera's hand in view, ensuring the group that this was all from the demons' perspective.
Kavera cried out to Cumber as he held off countless black figures with red eyes, tackling the Saiyan, stabbing him to the ground before Kavera was pulled to another planet.
Kohl covered his mouth, sighing as he realized what his brother would have done for them; shaking as Kora rubbed his back. "He saved us..." Kohl murmured to himself.
Kora's grip on Kohl only tightened after seeing herself in this future holding her children, "Cumber..."
"That's what my future self was trying to tell you... he saved all of us that day." Kavera let her eyes fill with tears, "And it only got worse from there."
Tomiyasu was shown fighting off another horde of mindless creatures, all slow compared to him, but one eventually stabbed him, and that was it, taking over the android's body from within while the planet was consumed in a pitch-black shadow.
Eon appeared in the fire, pushing Kavera onto a ship, forcing them to flee as Eon yelled out, completely destroying the area as the ship took off.
Tomiyasu glanced to his friend, "You were going thermonuclear?"
"He did... but it wasn't enough..." Kavera closed her eyes as the next image flashed in the flames.
Before the survivors of this future, stood Eon, with something swirling around the inside of his eyes. He looked into Kavera's eyes before smirking, his body exploded; splattering the ground with blood and skin, shattering the body and snatching up Kora... and the triplets.
Kora let out a horrified gasp, unable to take her eyes off Nuke who tore their bodies apart, absorbing them.
Kohl shot to his feet, transforming with his hair going baby blue, he cried out, firing off a blast at the fire.
Everyone took cover as the campfire was destroyed, "No! That didn't happen!" Kohl looked to Nuke, "How could you do that?!" He grabbed the Frost Demon, holding him off the ground, "What did you want that you had to kill my family?! Was it worth it?!" He quickly rammed Nuke into the dirt before anyone could stop him.
Nuke gasped for air, seeing Kohls' eyes going blank as he gritted his teeth, "I.... don't know.... that's not me..." Nuke felt the Saiyans grip nearly squeeze his throat closed, taking his head off.
Eon and Wasabi grabbed Kohl, pulling him back, "Kohl! Stop it! Those events took place two years ago in another timeline!"
Kohl elbowed Wasabi in the gut, sending the demon to fall over. He turned to Eon, throwing a punch at his friend's face.
Eon rammed his head forward, colliding with the Saiyans fist, sending out a shockwave that caused Kohl to fall back into his base form.
"Don't you think it hurts everyone else, seeing themselves die like that?!" Eon yelled, standing over the Saiyan, "I just watched myself explode! Don't you think that's not going to be on my mind now?!"
Kora ran over to Kohl, helping him up, "Don't you think he knows that?! His reaction is what I've been trying to say! Even now with these restraints, he has a problem controlling his forms because of what she did."
Kohl stood up, rubbing a growing headache, "I'm sorry about that." He walked over to Nuke, holding out a hand.
Nuke shook his head, "No... I should apologize."
"No! You don't! You aren't that person anymore!" Kavera yelled, "Kohl, I showed you this because this is what I saw!" Kavera stepped aside, showing the last image the demon saw in this future of hers, leaving Saiyans speechless.
Kohl was on his knees, his armor shattered, his face bleeding and bruised, his arms limp and weak, like the life was sucked out of him, the joy had left his body, leaving a tired husk behind. The Saiyan had gone through hell to survive, all seen in the bags under his eyes and the loss in his expression.
Kavera looked away from the fire as a blade shot out of Kohl's chest, getting yanked away from the demon as she was transported to this timeline.
The group looked to the Saiyan, seeing he was the last one who was killed.
"You see... my other self lost you... and then there you were... standing in front of her as if nothing happened no more than a minute later." Kavera closed the fire, ending the memories, "She didn't want to see all that happen again... I didn't want that to happen." Kavera took a stand, stepping up to the couple, "I've done a lot of things... a lot of things I'm not proud of... I've betrayed my kind, put friends in danger, risked lives to save others... For god's sake, I'm the reason Eon is alone!" Kavera cried to the Saiyans, looking to the demons, and Nuke, and then Eon, who questioned the demon.
"What do you mean? You had nothing-"
"You didn't evolve into this human form... With Shenron's help, I wished you had a human form. As Kohl said, when I made the wish, I thought of the Saiyans because they turned into a great ape and then took human form again. So I thought you should be able to take human form and your true form. You would have stayed a monster, but during one of your fights, I was there... on Malanac. A Saiyan had found her way to your planet by accident. She tried to help you, but she died aiding in the battle. When you finally killed the thing that attacked, I saw something in you. I saw loneliness. So I asked Chardona if we could do something. I was given the chance to make you like the rest of us."
Eon walked over to Kavera, "Keep going."
"I thought, maybe you could talk to the people on Malanac... But now... I see it only made your life distant from the others... I should have wished for that Saiyan to return back to life, or sought out others like you, so you wouldn't be alone... but now... I see I chose wrong." Kavera kept her eyes from meeting Eons, seeing him trembling, trying to put all this together.
The warrior's hair began to glow blue, "So you chose... after all this time... Kavera how long were you going to keep this from me? After all this time.... you've seen me spend days with your other self, and none of you, neither of you thought to tell me about this?!" Eon looked to his palms, seeing the hidden scales that made up his skin, the blisters, and cuts from years of fighting. "Do you know anything else about me? What about the things that I fought on Malanac?! What are they to me... what do they want with me and that planet?!"
"I don't know!" Kavera screamed, "I'm sorry, but I don't know! After decades, Chardona could only theorize that they were trying to make something that could kill you, cause that's all they ever did, was go after you, or draw you out. The greys were making life forms, multiple of them, so that one may succeed in killing you."
"Why?!" Eon demanded to know.
"Because they were probably trying to create something to kill Tundra! He was their greatest enemy, and you were the one person below him that they could test their experiments on, and since none of them ever bested you, and Tundra was hunting them to extinction, they went into hiding." Kavera explained, "After talking with Tundra and Chardona, after hearing this story and seeing the outline of that ship, this all seems to be the case unless they had other motives."
Eon shook his head in disbelief, "And you are just now telling me this?!"
"When was I supposed to tell you?! You have friends now! You aren't alone! My other self has done nothing but spent her time with you these last few years." Kavera looked up to Eon, "I gave you this form because I thought you would be happier."
"Kavera, decades on Malanac, alone, fighting by myself and you... you left me there, thinking I evolved by myself, for what?! What reason did you think I would do better in this form if you were going to leave me alone with my thoughts!" Eon's eyes began to steam, crying tears that boiled away. He turned his back to the demon, marching to the portal, "I spent half of my life by myself with my thoughts, left to question why I was here?! Why do I exist? Was I born to fight? To protect people I would have never understood? What or who in this universe or the next, would subjugate me to a life where I'm only able to fight for my life?" He marched into the portal onto Kavera's planet.
-
Kavera thought back to one of her early conversations with Lord Chardona, being told if she was going to live here in this universe, she would have to aid the god and any others who required help. She now saw that was much harder than she thought, she had to be specific and think these things through, or be honest with her reasoning for her actions.
The blue looked to the couple, "I didn't plan any of this, I was just trying to do what's right. Our future is changed because of what I did. Yamoshi, Calera, Zina, were born three years before they did in the other timeline. They might not have Cumber as their uncle, but when you time travel, you risk messing up the future... so can you please just look at me, and ask yourselves, is this future so bad? Is it that horrible that you are willing to stay mad at someone who just wanted to see your lives flourish?"
Kohl hadn't realized it, but she was right. He was happy, of course not everything was perfect, but after seeing his fate in this canceled timeline, he could only think of how different it all ended. He looked to Kora, seeing his wife going through the same thoughts.
Kavera looked to Nuke, "And you... you don't have to apologize for anything, you are you, not that thing which you just saw. You are a human who has made mistakes just like anyone else. As far as I can tell, you have spent years on Earth, alone just like Eon and..." Kavera cut herself off, "That would drive anyone insane... Now I see why Eon is mad."
- Kavera's planet -
Eon shouted for the other demon.
The future Kavera came floating down from her home in the massive tree, "Hello Eon, back already?"
Eon stepped away as she landed before him, trying to hug the heated warrior, "How long were you going to leave me in the dark about you interfering with my life?"
"What? What the hell are you talking about?" Kavera asked.
Wasabi came through the portal, standing aside as he listened to their conversation.
Eon glanced to Wasabi, "You, leave us! I want to talk to her alone!"
"I can't have you hurting -" Wasabi stopped, seeing Eon's eyes brightening up, turning into slits as he stared into the demon's soul. Wasabi stood his ground, remembering his place, "I know you won't hurt her, but I'm just here as insurance."
Eon growled, "Kavera... why haven't you told me about the wish you made, so I can have this form?"
Kavera eyed her friend, "Who told you? My other self?"
"Answer the damn question Kavera?!" Eon yelled, trying to remain where he stood.
"Why are you so angry with me? Don't you have a better life now?"
"Kavera you don't understand! All those years on Malanac, I thought I was being punished! Most of my life I spent worrying about others, that I was given this form to protect them. You have no idea how long I waited for someone to end me... but I could never let someone kill me. Something told me that I would eventually be free of my burden, of facing threat after threat, over and over again... And then Lord Chardona finally showed up." Eon backed away; sitting down, going over the wraps around his hands. He looked to the demon, and then the bandages, hesitating but slowly tearing them off.
The other Kavera walked through the portal, listening in from behind Wasabi, now knowing what she had done to this creature, watching Eon tear off the bandages. Strip by strip, the bandages fell to the dirt, getting blown away until the last of the wraps had fallen from the man's arms.
Eon turned his arms out, letting her see countless scars from his wrist to his forearms, "What sucks about this body is, I heal no matter what... I can't turn it off... and I can't make the scars go away. Even when I lose these limbs, my arms always regenerate with this pattern, like a permanent reminder." He glanced to the other Kavera, "Do you hear me?"
Kavera fell to her knees, grabbing his hands, unable to put the words together. Whimpering, trying to apologize... but that wasn't good enough.
Wasabi looked to the Kavera behind him, seeing she had the same reaction.
Eon pulled his hands away from her, "I... want to be mad at you... I want to... but I can't. After all this time, you demons have kept this from me, I get it... I just wish you had stayed with me. I just remember waking up one day. My life started all of a sudden and I was just left with questions, like who was I?"
Kavera just stared at the scars, "Eon..."
"Don't say anything, please. I can't think straight right now." Eon hid his scars, turning his wrists down, "As angry as I am, I think I'm just mad that no one told me that I was supposed to protect those people. I wish at least you or Chardona had told me that I was meant to protect them... or at least leave me elsewhere so Malanac wasn't always in peril. At least in solitude I could forget the questions and return to being a beast. But I lived among intelligent beings, reminding me that I was like them, but I wasn't one of them."
The future Kavera trembled with her hands on her knees, quickly grabbing Eon's hands.
Eon almost pulled away until her hands began to glow. The warrior questioned her motives, following her eyes to his arms.
The scars began to fade, disappearing from sight. "I can't correct what I did... but hopefully this is a start."
Eon lifted his arms, seeing only the hidden scales. He clenched his hands closed, almost smiling at the demon.
The other Kavera walked over to Eon, falling to her knees and handing the man a pair of arm braces, "We should have stayed with you... or visited you."
"Lord Chardona... and you, you visited me when I was a beast, why?" Eon asked the twins, "Why did you leave after making the wish? Why did Chardona reappear years later, when I was dying?"
The Kavera's looked to each other, asking themselves the same thing. Were they busy during that time? Were they in a rush to help others? What reason did they leave him there so quickly?
Eon expected a response but their eyes said it all, they didn't know. The only one who could know why is Chardona, and he could only wait for her to return.
The Kavera's watched as Eon got to his feet, leaving them behind, leaving the braces behind as he marched through the portal, changing its location to the prison planet. Wasabi stepped out of the man's way, seeing he didn't want to be bothered.
Wasabi walked over to the two blue demons, "Are you guys ok?"
"Do we look ok?"The future Kavera clenched her fists, looking to her other self, "Where did we go so wrong?"
The present demon sighed, rubbing her eyes, "I just want Chardona to return... she always has a way of handling these kinds of things."
Wasabi leaned down to the demons, "Hey. I'm certain you had your reasons. Maybe you were given orders by the god to leave him there."
"The only thing I can think of right now is Eon was appointed Malanac's guardian by Chardona." The future Kavera guessed.
"Guardian?" Wasabi asked.
"You know how the Saiyans have been spreading out to other planets in the past couple of years?"
Wasabi nodded.
Kavera held the braces, seeing a single tear fall onto them from her cheek, "Well, it is an unspoken rule Chardona has made, for every planet to be protected by one or more individuals. Tundra and his sons watch planet Winter. The Tuffles created a machine called Hatchiyack who you met. Even Tomiyasu was created to keep his people safe."
"Actually I was created along with my brother to stop a civil war," Tomiyasu said, giving away his position by the portal. "It just so happened that only one of us was needed after the war ended, so I offered my services to Lord Chardona, who gave me my position as a prison guard, along with Eon, and Janemba."
The Kavera's looked to Wasabi who understood now.
"Can I ask why you are here?" Wasabi stood up.
"Kohl and Kora are talking about what you said, and Nuke wanted to return to Sadala, so I thought I should leave too. But I wanted to check on you guys and Eon... where is he?" Tomiyasu glanced back to the tear behind him, "He didn't return to the Prison Planet, did he?"
"He did. He wants to be left alone." Wasabi mentioned, "I think these two want to be left alone as well." The demon floated up, "Just tell me if you two want to talk."
The android watched Wasabi return to the treehouse, stepping out of sight to his room. "Before I go, I would like to remind you that Nemora is still with the Saiyans." Tomiyasu headed back to the portal, "Is there anything I can do before I leave?"
The future Kavera looked to the android, "Did we wrong you in some way?"
The present Kavera glanced over her shoulder, "When Eon feels like talking, tell him we are here... or maybe you should talk to him. You two have spent the most time together guarding the prison... I don't know what to do anymore, so I'm not going to do anything..."
"Not until we know what to do," The future Kavera continued, sulking with her other self, leaving the android to question if he should talk to Eon or not. He headed into the portal, stepping onto the prison planet, "He'll want to talk. He just needs some time alone."
The android put his hands in his pockets, walking over to the prison doors, crossing his arms while thinking of what he could do to help the demons. He flew into the prison, checking with the security guards, giving Eon some time to himself.
- The Saiyans home -
Kohl and Kora sat on a hill not far from the cabin.
"Can you do me a favor, Kora?" Kohl asked.
"Sure, what is it?"
"I don't want the kids to know about my condition. You were about to tell everyone, and I don't want them to know. They know enough." Kohl explained as he rubbed his restraints.
"You enjoy fighting, so what? They already know why you have to wear those restraints." Kora scooted closer to Kohl.
"That's not what I meant when I told you I enjoy fighting. I mean I want to break these things and fight. It's like there's a voice constantly reminding me that I can just break these and no one can stop me... and I want to." Kohl tugged at the gold brace around his neck and his crown, "Every day, training with Tundra, I just want to fight him at my max. I want to face him with all my might, so I can finally say I'm the strongest." He looked to Kora, seeing her listening, giving him all of her attention, "You can keep going."
Kohl looked to the stars, "I know if I break these and prove I'm the strongest, I'm proving nothing. If I have no control over myself, then I'm not the strongest. When I can take these off without feeling the need to kill Tundra, then I will accept that I am the strongest Saiyan... but not the strongest being... I still have a long way to go."
"Thinking realistically?" Kora wrapped her tail around Kohls.
"I am. I will accept I am the strongest Saiyan," Kohl clenched his fists, "But there's a desire inside me that I've had for a long time, and after meeting Chardona, that desire only grew. I could barely beat Blizzard, but here I am, facing off against Tundra." Kohl looked to the sky, seeing some clouds, "How much longer until I can face Chardona?"
A heavy gust of wind nearly pushed the Saiyans back, but they remained, "Can you tell me how long you've had this desire?" Kora held Kohl's arm, laying her chin on his shoulder.
"For as long as I can remember." Kohl placed a kiss on her forehead, "For as long as I've known you. I just wanted to become stronger. Because I was the strongest for a while, until Chardona showed up, I never gave it much thought. I'm back at the first step of my journey, unable to transform unless I put others at risk."
The clouds above started to fill the sky.
"Can you imagine how powerful I might be, after training all these years?" Kohl asked as Kora let him get up. She admired her husband, seeing him standing proudly, "I just want to fight, with all my might, I want to face Tundra, and Janemba, and Chardona. I want to taste victory against such powerful people! I want to visit Lord Speyer, and show him how much he helped me with these restraints. I don't like them, but he laid out a path for me to continue." He looked to Kora, holding out his hand. "Do you understand?"
Kora took his hand, getting up and placing her hands on his shoulders, "I understand now my love, and I want to be there every step of the way."
He held her waist, entangling their tails; holding each other close.
"I would still like the train the kids," Kohl said, looking to the sky which was getting darker, "I want the kids to become powerful too. We need to continue to train them and your father, so one day our people can transform and brighten this universe with our power."
Another gust of wind caught the Saiyans attention, "Alright, what is going on?"
Kora looked to the sky, watching heavy clouds block out the stars and the moon.
"Have we had a storm on this planet?" Kohl asked, "I've only ever seen a storm on Sadala."
Kora let go of Kohl but their tails never unwound, "We should go inside."
Thunder caught the two off guard with lightning striking above.
"Is someone doing this? Where is this coming from?" Kohl started to levitate off the hill as Kora reached out to grab him, barely missing his hands and unwinding their tails, "Maybe I can blow it away. But go check on the children. I don't want them thinking we are sparing again like last night."
Kora nodded, watching Kohl get curious about the storm.
Kohl shot off the air, soaring to the sky and forming a ki blast in both hands.