Cosmic Crisis 3 - A New Enemy

Chapter 21 - Back to the Future

Hermes laughed as his aura grew and the ground shook. Columns crumbled and the walls shattered as the palace fell apart around him.

"What a shame to see an entire empire fall in one day." He said, and continued to power up.

The three chibi Sidra-jin warriors finally made it to the launch pad.

"We have to get out of here!" Chibi Sirius cried. "This planet is going to cease to exist in a matter of moments."

Chibi Reena was forcing back tears as she shakily opened one of the space pods.

"We have to get into armor." Chibi Ceres said, gesturing down to her torn dress. The three placed their index fingers on their foreheads.

"Heneshin!" they cried, and in an instant, their bodies lit up. Sidra-jin armor formed onto their forms, and the light died down.

"Quickly." Chibi Sirius said, and jumped into his pod. They were three network space pods, meaning that they all operated on the same level. He set the controls in a frenzy as chibi Reena and Ceres jumped into their respective pods. As the doors closed, Chibi Sirius spoke.

"We'll see each other soon." He said, and the doors closed, sealing the pressurized lock. Wires came out from a control panel and rested in their temples and chest as the ships powered up and shot into the sky, placing the three warriors in a state of suspended sleep.

Trunks, Goten, Reena, Sirius, and Ceres shot out of the palace as it began to collapse. Trunks stopped running and turned around.

"Natalie...she's in there." He whispered.

"Trunks she's dead, come on." Goten said, grabbing Trunks' wrist and pulling him forward as debris started to fly into the air.

"We need to find a large space pod to take us off." Sirius said.

"What about the one we came in?" Trunks asked.

"There's no time. Besides, by then, the defense station will not be allowing any ships to enter or leave the planet. We have to leave it here." Sirius answered.

"But our things. The senzu beans!" Trunks cried.

"No time Trunks." Reena said as they continued to run.

Finally, they reached the north wing where the launch pad was located, just as three pods shot into the air.

"What was that?" Goten asked.

"Us." Sirius said, and gestured to Ceres and Reena as well. "Here...let's use this one."

Trunks and Goten looked at a large Sidra-jin space pod, about half the size of the one they came in.

"On board, now." Sirius continued to order, opening the pressurized door, which hissed as it descended. They five stepped on to the ship.

"Ceres..." Reena said, looking over at the girl.

"I'm almost done, I'm trying to convert this reading into energy waves which we can use to map his ki and trace his path." She said, her heart pounding as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. The door slowly closed behind them.

"Wait, our armor." Trunks cried.

"It's okay, there should be a couple of spare sets on board." Sirius explained, placing his forefinger onto his forehead. Reena and Ceres noted his actions, and did the same.

"What the...?" Goten said.

"Heneshin!" They said simultaneously. Trunks and Goten shielded their eyes from the bright light emitted from their bodies. After a few seconds, the Saiya-jins opened their eyes to see Sirius, Reena, and Ceres standing in front of them, wearing the Sidra-jin armor.

"How did you..." Trunks trailed off.

"It's a useful technique, ne?" Reena said. Ceres finally cried out happily.

"I've got it." She said. "Now we have to get out of here."

Sirius powered up the engine and activated the touch-screen control panel as the ground trembled.

"We're not going to make it." Trunks said.

He looked out the window and observed the ground cracking, forming huge holes in the ground. Buildings, trees, and even people, fell helplessly into the center of the planet.

"All these people...they're..." he trailed off.

"Going to die." Reena said. "I know."

"Okay hold on." Sirius said, as the engine began to power up. The ship hovered above the rapidly disintegrating ground. Trunks couldn't tear himself away from the window as the ship slowly rise into the air.

Suddenly, they were all pressed to the floor as it took off, speeding into the atmosphere of the planet.

After Sirius pressurized the room and set the gravity, Trunks stood up and looked out the window again. The glowing ball of Hermes' ki slowly began to fade as they left the planet. The purple sky faded into a black void, filled with millions of glittering stars.

After a few minutes, they were far enough away from Vela to see the entirety of it through the window.

"I thought Hesperos destroyed the planet." Trunks said softly, not taking his eyes off of the floating sphere.

"He did, but Hermes changed time." Ceres said. "So he never got his chance."

Then, Trunks felt such an increase of ki that it made the hairs on his neck stand up, and the planet of Vela abruptly exploded, sending chunks of rock flying outward at incomprehensible speed.

"We're going to be hit!" Reena cried.

"No, we've got a shield system." Sirius said, setting the controls. No more than a few seconds after the shields generated, they were pummeled with Vela's remains. The ship was knocked around, causing the five warriors to lose their balance and fall onto the floor.

A few minutes passed, and the berating finally died down. Ceres was the first to stand, grasping her mini-computer in her trembling hands.

"So that's what it looked like..." she trailed off.

"Just don't think about it, Ceres." Reena said, standing up shakily and dusting herself off.

"Where do we go from here?" Trunks asked, also standing up. "We have to go back into the future, where we came from, right?"

"Exactly." Ceres said.

"Tell me this thing can time travel..." Trunks said, dread looming in the pit of his stomach. If they didn't, they would be stuck here...unless they went back to Earth. But he didn't want to risk any more time paradoxes.

"All the Vela-sei pods do. Time travel is a fairly developed concept on our planet...or...was." Sirius said. "Now Ceres, what's the plan?"

"Well we need to travel into the future from this spot, and trace Hermes." She said.

"How do we know that he even survived?" Goten asked. "How could anybody survive that?"

"Trust me...he survived." Reena said, looking into Goten's eyes.

"How do we know he'll still be in this spot?" Trunks asked.

"We don't. But, we start from here." Ceres replied, looking up from her statistics.

"What if he didn't go into the future?" Goten asked. "He could have just stayed in this timeline."

"No, he needed the future body of Carina. In this time, she was too young." Sirius answered. "Now stop asking questions so we can get there."

"Gomen." Trunks said, lowering his head. Hell, he couldn't help it if he was anxious. Who wouldn't with their mate lost in time?

After a few minutes of losing himself in flashbacks, he was brought back to reality by his own senses.

"No, set it for two." Sirius said to Ceres as they stood over the control panel. "To the day."

"Huh? What's going on?" Trunks asked, shaking his head and standing up.

"We're setting the space-time generator." Ceres replied. "And this will work instantly, so there will be no waiting period."

"That's great." Trunks said. "I really wasn't in the mood to wait anyway."

Goten walked back upstairs, arms full of food. He tossed a chicken leg to Trunks, who caught it in the blink of and eye, and started to eat hungrily. He really hadn't eaten at the party...he had been too nervous to stomach anything.

"Hey listen up." Ceres announced authoritatively. "Sirius and I have already set the calculated controls. We're going to go forward in time to the exact day we left, but one minute after, to prevent another time paradox. This means there will be one minute in space-time where we will cease to exist."

Trunks and Goten looked at her and blinked. They didn't like that phrase.

"This time travel is getting confusing." Goten said, rubbing his head.

"Don't worry...when and if we defeat Hermes, it will all correct itself." Ceres replied.

"What do you mean IF!" Trunks cried. "Of course we will...we have to get Nat back."

Ceres narrowed her eyes.

"Don't yell." She said in a calm but firm tone. She raised her hand and extended her index finger, holding it over the control panel. "Is everyone ready?" she asked.

A few seconds of silence proceeded.

"In that case..." she trailed off, and brought her hand down, pressing the "execute" button. Suddenly, everything froze, all sounds and lights came to a standstill, and the stars outside blurred into continuous streaks.

Everybody was frozen in suspended animation, even if their senses were well aware of what was going on. After about thirty more seconds of this strange sensation, time caught up with them, and the streaks condensed into stars once more. The lights on the control panel continued their blinking, and all of the sounds resumed.

Trunks shook his head, making sure that he was still able to function.

"I...is that it?" he stammered, pressing his hand against his chest to make sure he was still a solid mass.

Goten blinked a few times and shrugged his shoulders.

"Should be." Ceres spoke. Almost instantly after she said that, Trunks and Goten were hit with the sensation of a moderately high ki nearby.

"Hey...I can feel it." Trunks said. "It must be Hermes."

Ceres plugged her mini-computer into the main control panel and brought up a graph similar to the one Bulma had used to explain the distortion in time.

"Probably." She said. Sirius leaned against the wall, folding his arms.

"Sirius you look like a Saiya-jin." Trunks joked. Sirius just raised an eyebrow.

Ceres narrowed her eyes and stared at the screen, her fingers twitching while she was deep in thought.

"What is it?" Sirius asked, relaxing and allowing his arms to hang at his sides as he stood up straight.

"I think..." she said, "that Andromeda still exists."