Bringer of Death

Tournament Saga - Part 6: Dawn of the Destroyer

Tournament Saga - Part 6: Dawn of the Destroyer

Warm light from the morning sun filled the room slowly.

"This is it," the young man thought out loud. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling of his room. This was the day it would all be decided.

He wouldn't dream of abandoning this timeline to its fate, not now. Thinking back, Trunks realized that he could never have anticipated just how much everything would spin out of control. He and his mother had planned for everything they could think of...yet he had been unprepared even for the power of King Cold; they had only narrowly been able to overcome the frost lord. Preventing the subsequent duel between Goku and his father had also been much more difficult than he had thought it would be. But against fate, he had succeeded, and his hopes of a better, brighter future were awakened again.

Trunks knew the risks he was taking by staying in the past. The longer he stayed there, the less of a chance he would have of ever seeing his mother again. But those risks were far outweighed by the risks of leaving and trying to come back later. Simply being able to warn everyone about the coming android menace had been advantageous, but waiting patiently along with them had also been incredibly rewarding. By training with his father and Goku for more than three years, he had achieved an unprecedented level of power. But for this experience, he never would have possessed the skill to fight like he could now.

When the darkness rose on the fated day, Trunks had hoped for the best as he prepared himself for the worst. But things became complicated...far more complicated than he could have anticipated. The first set of androids were different: weaker, more obedient. His father, dissatisfied with their lackluster performance, had insisted on seeking out 17 and 18. Trunks had known he wouldn't be able to stop Vegeta, so he went along. But these cyborgs were far different from his recollection.

They were actually strong enough. Though Number 17 was even stronger than Trunks remembered, Vegeta was evenly matched with the dark-haired cyborg. And the young man found himself to even be slightly stronger than Number 18. Things couldn't have been going any better; the end of Gero's threats was finally soaring beautifully into sight. All he had hoped for was coming true, and on Judgment Day no less.

As if it would be so simple.

He had faced two great emotional challenges in his life. The first was a great tragedy: the moment he had lost his friend Tapion. The Konatsian musician had devoted his life to protecting others from Hirudegarn—and in the end, he made the ultimate sacrifice to save the world from the demonic beast.

But Trunks had been the one forced to deal the final blow...not to Hirudegarn but to Tapion. In his mind, that was the single hardest decision of his life. And in that moment, his grief had overpowered him. He finally embraced his pain and owned it. He finally became...a Super Saiyan.

But the second most difficult choice in his life was a struggle for different reasons. In all his life of hating the androids, running from them scared, worrying about Gohan when his mentor fought them all on his own, he never felt any sympathy for the two cyborgs. It was not only extremely clear by their actions that they felt no remorse, but Trunks had grown to hate and despise them. In his mind, they were they very symbol of evil...they were the exterminators of innocence, literally and figuratively.

Fighting Number 18 in this time and winning was...indescribable. He hadn't just defeated her; he had defeated himself, that frightened child inside him. Everything that symbolized hate and malice in the world was before him, and he clobbered it into the ground. Not only had Trunks' strength increased amazingly, but he had honed his fighting abilities to levels he hadn't dreamed of...levels nearing that of even his father. 18, though impressive, was simply no match for him. The young Super Saiyan could hardly contain his excitement as he prepared to finish her, to put a final end to her existence even if she wasn't the same evil bitch from his universe.