The Time Keeper

Enough was enough!

The power was welling up inside him. His vision was going red. How dare they think they could do this to him! To this world! To these people!

The power was whipping around him as the monsters laughed. Blood was dripping from their hands onto the ground. Blood of the innocent. Blood of the hopeful. Enough was enough! He was going to stop them now!

A roar of rage tore from his throat as he rushed forward. He was the last. He was this world's last hope and he was going to make it count. The first monster hit the ground and stopped moving. The other five stood and stared for a moment. Their mouths hanging open stupidly. The next one hit his friend beside him before they started to move. Laughter turned to curses. Joy turned to pain. The family had been weakened. Good. It was about time they felt his pain.

The small one jumped towards him first and tasted its own blood as his fist collided with its face. The creature jumped back, screaming in pain as its destroyed face bled adding its black and corrupted blood to that of the innocents. An acceptable cost for getting rid of the creature.

Two came at him this time but he was prepared. He rolled under the taller one's punch and kicked out at the monster who attacked him from behind. Before the taller one could react, he had decapitated it with his sword. Funny. He had been worried about these clowns.

"Two down, four to go," he taunted as he faced the final four. They came at him as a group and it was child's play. They lacked the ability to work together even though they claimed to be the most powerful family in the universe. They were powerful though, he would give them that. He flew towards the ground to deflect the large chi blast that had been following him but not before knocking one of their own into its path to protect the Earth. Each one of them had chi he could only dream about but he still had the advantage because unlike them, he was used to running and dodging. He supposed he owed that to the Androids that had nearly killed him so many times in the past. Now, he used that experience and the other tricks he had learned in the past.

Three were coming at him from different directions. It was now time to make them mad. He paused in the air and hovered for a moment as he sheathed the sword that was now blood covered. He would have to remember to clean it later. For now, it was time to confuse them even more before they refocused their attack as a group.

"Solar flare!"

The area lit up in bright lights and he heard them all scream in surprise. However, unlike so many of the other villains that had battled on this planet before, these monsters created a barrier of chi around themselves. Well, there went his plan. Still, they would be blind for the moment. That would give him enough time to—

His mind was barely aware when his shadow appeared on the cliff in front of him in strict detail. He started to turn when the blast collided with him. Unlike the other villains who had been defeated on this planet, these monsters had won. As his body was devoured by the blast he caught sight of his murderer. The small one with the ruined face grinned at him through the blood and pus. It was over. He had failed.

The monsters were laughing at him. Kid could feel it as he stared at them. Goten and Trunks were still too far away to help. He was on his own and he had no escape routes. His eyes scanned the area behind his broken scouter but he knew he was screwed. It was written all other their faces. This time, they were going to kill him. Just like they had killed his brother. They were going to slowly torture him and wait for someone who gave a damn showed up and then kill him. Well the joke was on them. No one was left to give a damn about him. Still, if he played his cards right…

Power was swirling around inside of him but he didn't risk bringing it out. If he could just drag this out, maybe he could survive. The monsters hadn't attacked yet so they obviously wanted to watch him squirm. Well he could do that.

"Well?" he asked. "You going to kill me or not?"

The small one with the ruined face grinned. "Cocky little snot."

"You would have to be the expert with a face like that. How often do you swallow your snot? Hourly?"

His attempt to anger them failed. The small one just continued to smile. "More talkative than your old man, huh? Wonder if you will cry just like him when you die."

Mind games? What were they? Five? Kid crossed his arms and stared at the small one. The others seemed uninterested to join in the verbal duel but they also didn't seem interested in fighting just yet. Maybe there was still hope. But then, maybe they were just leading him on. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it before. My dad was a big cry baby. My dad was an ass. My dad was so poor he ate rocks. My dad should have drowned me as a baby. What else do you got?"

"Your dad thought he was a hero. He never showed fear even when we killed him. Maybe we would have spared him had he."

Okay. That was a new one. Still, they were just playing him. There was no way they could possibly know who his dad was. No one did. Kid and Goten had figured that he and their mother had been one of the first to die when the monsters attacked the cities. There were no records left that they could use to trace and there was no way to know who their father had been. The only way the monsters would know was if they had asked him and who asked who you were related to before you killed them?

Kid snorted. "Good one."

"He looked just like you. But—"

"Wait. Let me guess but I have my mother's eyes."

"No. I have them." The small monster removed a small bottle from his pocket. Inside was a clear liquid and sitting submerged in the liquid were two brown eye balls. Despite himself, Kid was shaken. Who did that people? He didn't believe for one second that those were his mother's eyes but the fact that the monster carried something like that around him with all the time just so he could use that line was sickening beyond belief. Seriously, what crack was he on?

"You look like a copy of your father. Actually, your father had nearly the same expression on his face when I showed him. Shock followed by disbelief. Of course at the time, we also had her body to throw at his feet but those are annoying to carry around even with your capsule technology and you," the small one chuckled to himself as he replaced the bottle in his pocket. "You show fear." It licked its lips as Kid tried to steel up his expression.

"Don't worry," the small one said. "There's still room in the bottle for your eyes and if your brother's haven't already been eaten by birds, we'll put his eyes in here too and you'll all be together again."

This guy was nuts. Kid once again scanned the area for an exit but only cliff walls stared back at him. Why hadn't he taken the chance to get flying lessons back in the peaceful time before rushing back to save Goten? If he had done that, maybe he wouldn't be stuck in this mess. He couldn't even use the scouter to check how far away Goten and Trunks were. Damn it. What was he going to do? He couldn't fight them but he couldn't let them carve out his eyes either. Damn it, damn it, damn it!

His right foot started to take a step back when a hand shoved him forward. Damn it. He hadn't even seen the big one move. What was wrong with him? He had let them surround him. Damn it. His fear must have been showing on his face because the monsters started to laugh again.

"We would have kept your father's eyes as well but it's hard to do that when the only thing left is ashes. He didn't want to play to the pain you see," the small one said through his chuckles.

They wanted him to talk. As long as he kept talking, he would live but he could only think of one question and he didn't want to know the answer to it. The purple monster behind the small one took a step forward and Kid sputtered out the question before it could take another step, "What's to the pain?"

The purple monster took another step forward and the big one grabbed onto Kid's shoulders. The small one watched Kid's expression with a look of hunger on his face as if he couldn't get enough of Kid's fear. "He never showed fear but you will. You will take his place and show us all the fear we deserve."

The purple monster was standing in front of him now and the small one had floated over to be closer to the inevitable blood bath. Damn it. Where was Goten and Trunks!

"First, we'll start with your feet."

The purple one was holding a ball of energy in his hand. Kid hadn't even seen him create it, he had been focusing on the small one. Damn it. He was going to get it now. Kid screwed his eyes shut but was forced to open them when a hand grabbed onto his face and jerked him forward.

"No," the small creature said as it held his face. "You have to watch. Otherwise, you'll lose both your legs."

Kid stared at the small monster for a moment. Inside him, a little voice snapped. Well, screw it.

He spat in the creature's face and head-butted the shocked creature into the path of the purple monster's energy ball. The big one still held his shoulders but Kid was used to ducking out of shopkeeper's grips to steal food for his brother and himself. Before the monsters could regroup, he had already ducked down causing the big one to have to lean over to keep a firm grip. Off-balance, Kid was able to roll on the ground and out of the big one's grip. He was half way up the cliff when they reorganized. Energy blasts began flying towards him but there was nothing he could do. If he was lucky, they wanted him dead. If not, they still wanted to play with him.

The blasts kicked up dust around him but he continued running. He wasn't going to give up his eyes or his life without a fight. For Goten's sake he had to keep going. He had just grabbed onto the lip of the cliff when a blast connected with his back. Pain shattered his grasp and focus. His feet lost grip and his hand reflexively let go of the lip. He started to fall back to where the monsters were waiting for him to finish their game. Damn it. He couldn't do anything right.

He started to retreat back into the little place in his mind where he hid when those adults broke into the house his brother and him had been sharing and ransacked the place when he was jerked back into reality. He had stopped falling. He was being lifted up. Behind him, he heard the monsters cursing and the sounds of a fight begin. He looked up from the cliff face to look at the being who was pulling him. He looked at the face of a humanoid man with purple hair and blue eyes.

"Miss us?" Trunks asked.

A/N: I just really needed to blow off some steam and oddly enough, Trunks was in a good mood and helped me with this preview. The Time Keeper is still in the process of being written and I really want to post it but I'm still waiting until my writing is up to par. For now, please let me know what you thought of this preview.

-d101

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball belongs to Akira Toriyama.