I grimaced slightly as the connection from my main body through the wormhole took on a weird feeling to it. It felt out of place - pun intended. I hadn't expected it since I thought it would be similar to a normal portal like those of the boom tube, but I guessed I shouldn't be too surprised since the wormhole was connecting two points not only through space but through time as well.
It made me feel a bit sluggish, but it appeared like it didn't hinder my ability to act on my own, which gave me an even better opportunity to delay them from entering the wormhole if not completely stop them. Just as I was wondering when the Justice League would arrive, they appeared from all sides, by multiple methods like running, teleporting, or crashing through the ceiling.
They lined up in a half circle facing me and the wormhole behind me, releasing a worrying degree of energy. Just standing in front of it created a shiver down my spine. Coincidentally, the inside wasn't as dangerous, but that was all I could really tell since the connection to my main body was really murky. As if I wanted to see through some swamp water.
This also made me realize that I, as a clone, have almost become autonomous. I believed this clone was the most advanced one I had created yet. Weirdly, or rather, fortunately, I didn't really identify myself as a clone, but merely a thought strand of my normal thought process, like I was an extension of myself.
My main body didn't need to focus on it and it could develop on its own, like an idea or problem that was being tackled by one's subconscious in one's sleep. My clone's mind was the subconscious awareness in that analogy, just that my clone wasn't sleeping and could actively think about whatever I wanted to focus on. Fortunately, this was the case, otherwise, I might have developed thoughts of overthrowing myself. If my main body decided to discontinue my existence, I would die regardless of my autonomy and return as usual.
With that realization out of the way, I turned my focus back on the Justice League. My main body had initially thought that I could only have a brief moment to deter them before I lost connection to my main body and 'died'. Either way, now it seemed I could delay them even further. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
Batman looked around with narrowed eyes before J'onn attracted his and the other members' attention. "He is a clone! Nathan and the other two have already entered the wormhole!" He said, after wiping away the blood leaking out of the corner of his mouth.
"Don't bother. By the time you are able to pass me, I would have already finished what I was traveling to the past for." I said with a confident smile on my face. How could I not be confident? Even though I was running on half of my strength, I was still confident to delay them for a measly 20 minutes if not beat them into submission.
Though, I had to give it to them. They were a lot stronger than they used to be and with Batman's suit, Hawkgirl's mace, and Zatara's spells to absorb my ki, they were a serious threat to consider.
"It's not too late to stop this." Batman said as he took forward.
"I am afraid it is, but you guys should just relax. We are just traveling into the past to gather some data, to witness something. I won't change anything. You can be reassured."
"You think we can trust your words after everything you've done? After all you have been up to since you have come to earth, you expect us to listen to you?" Batman retorted with heat in his voice, "How can we be reassured when all you did was lie to us, grew a criminal empire behind the League's back? Mind-controlled dozens of people if not more... You have killed people, only for you to mess with something that you don't understand and you expect us to do nothing? And for what?!"
It was surprising to see Batman this angry. I had long expected him to suspect what kind of man I was and just write me off as a common villain, but I guess this new Batman had a closer relationship to his Nathan than I ever had with Batman.
"I truly did some horrible things to accomplish my goals, but... it is too late now. Not when I am this close to seeing my family again. I can't give up on this. Not now." I said as I lowered myself into my stance. "Not one of you will enter this wormhole." To be honest, they could just destroy the machine and let me, Kara, and Raven strand in the past, but they knew it would spell our doom and as the heroes they were, they wouldn't let that happen even with our falling out.
"Nathan please, just stop. This isn't like you!" Wonder Woman pleaded, her eyes portraying how desperate she felt. I had already realized how much she seemed to care for me, but the one she knew was now gone. Just like all the members of the Justice League, I had grown to know were gone.
As Wonder Woman spoke, Batman no longer hesitated and moved to throw several blinking batarangs.
My telekinesis brushed over them, but I couldn't affect them easily. The amount of force I needed to influence them was unproportional to their apparent weight and size. What kind of material did he use to create these?? Just as I pushed them slightly away, they exploded and interconnected with each other into forming a giant net.
I wasn't arrogant enough to let myself be hit by this and immediately jumped over it. Letting the net fall harmlessly to the ground.
After jumping over, Superman arrived and punched out. I met it with one of my own. The resulting shock wave knocked over the equipment of the lab. I glanced at the others and saw them ignore me for the wormhole.
I glanced at J'onn, whose eyes were glowing slightly. He clearly was talking to them telepathically. Just as Wonder Woman was about to reach the wormhole, several figures appeared.
"I was wondering when you would arrive... what happened to you?" I asked after roundhouse-kicking Superman out of the building. They looked roughed up.
"Sorry, boss. This bitch beat us up after we woke up." Gilotina said before pointing her spear hand at Wonder Woman. Her hand was glowing slightly, and I suspected she was using her ability, which allowed her to slice through anything.
"Alright, just make sure every one of them remains on this side." I ordered before dodging Batman's strike. I had to be careful dealing with him, especially since my clone's building blocks were pure ki, so it would be easier to absorb if I landed in Batman's hands. If he hit me and forcefully absorbed it, I could regenerate some ki as a clone, but I doubted I could regenerate faster than Batman absorbed.
The Justice League quickly divided between me and the new arrivals - my mind controlled new gods - though it was clear that they were overpowering the new gods. Their sudden increase in strength after their time-travel trip had already pushed them past what these little new gods were capable of. I was forced to take on most of them.
It was then that I noticed something. I had somewhat ignored him since he wasn't that much of a threat, but... "Where is Flash??" I looked around but couldn't find him. Batman smirked, saying nothing as he tried to corner me with the others. His demeanor was all I needed to know. I retaliated his aggression with a kick to his thigh, cracking the armor at impact before having to retreat in the face of Wonder Woman's sword. I could just hope that the main me was doing fine.
...
It was like a glass tube underwater, like they had in some aquariums, just instead of water and fishes, dark clouds and terrifying lightning could be seen twisting around us. I didn't stop to admire the sight and headed straight through the tunnel, following the path through time created by the machine.
The coordinates should lead me directly over Arva moments before I had woken up. Of course, there were some concerns that I would arrive too late and my body had been traveling through space for a while before my soul inhabited the body. The possibility that my entrance into this universe hadn't begun when I woke up was there, but my intuition told me otherwise.
Just as we continued through this seemingly endless tunnel, I heard something behind us, making me turn my head. A little dot in the far distance. Although I couldn't make out any shapes, I knew that someone had made it past the clone already, which I had already guessed might have happened.
Surprisingly, it was only one figure and not the entire group, as I had thought it would be. Not to mention, the figure was gaining on us. There weren't many that could reach my speed, even if I was only at half-strength.
Probably only Superman and Flash could take me on in that field. Given that Flash's acceleration speed was higher than Superman's. It would give him the advantage of bypassing my clone, so he was the more likely one of the two.
I ignored him and continued on with the two. The possibility to send several ki blasts at Flash was in my mind, but what would happen if I accidentally hit him and sent him into the space-time turbulence around us or the resulting explosion collapsed the wormhole? I shook my head and just waited until we reached the end.
We exited the wormhole without stopping and arrived above the planet of Arva. I had known the exact coordinates of the planet and even the impact zone through the logs of my attack ball, but considering that one traveled through time and space at every moment, meaning even if one could reverse time perfectly one would have to consider the space one had traveled through. My team had long calculated the coordinates of the planet Arva back when I first arrived, but it seemed they were off a bit with the calculation.
I had wanted to arrive in the upper atmosphere on the other side of the world to prevent being seen by past me, but now we were rather deep in space on the side where past me had entered the atmosphere on. We weren't too far away from the planet if one considered our potential speed, but it certainly wasn't optimal. There were concerns that past me would see us now, but there was nothing we could do now.
Just as we oriented ourselves, Flash shot out of the wormhole that was floating in space with its blue space lightning visible to the rest of the universe. He looked shocked as he held his breath. Not being able to survive out in the empty space was enough to make it a risky decision to follow us. At least, it was a risky move for Flash. Maybe they should have sent Superman, but perhaps my clone was too much for them? Which made my brain halt as I still felt the connection to it.
After shaking my head in an attempt to ignore the fact that I had created a possible autonomous clone, I detached the collapsible helmet from my suit and put it on Flash's head, allowing him to breathe once more.
He took several deep breaths before looking at me complicated as he uttered his thanks, "Thank you... but don't think that I won't stop you." He raised his fists as he floated in space. How did he expect to fight in space when he couldn't move?
My telekinesis surrounded him as I tried to get a hold of him, but as soon as I did, he started vibrating and making my control over him completely impossible. Instead of trying to grasp his body, I tried to make it into a sphere containing his body. He could try to punch it, but I doubted he could destroy it easily.
If he had been running around like crazy, it wouldn't have been easy to capture him like this, but with him floating in space, it was child's play to catch him. Before he attempted to destroy my barrier around him, I spoke up. "Just sit still and watch. You can't do anything in your state, anyway."
I turned to Kara and Raven, who were discussing something. "So, girls, where are we exactly?"
They looked at me, unsure, "According to the data we could gather if we just flew straight to the planet, we shouldn't be too far away from your impact zone. Just a few dozen meters away, in fact."
"Wait? Really?" That was some great news since that meant we wouldn't have to waste time heading to the location where I should appear in this universe. The logs of my attack ball back then had shown that it encountered an anomaly shortly before I arrived on Arva. With that in mind and the time I took to reach the planet from when I regained consciousness to when the attack ball actually hit the ground, I had an estimate of where my attack ball would appear in this universe.
Of course, that also meant that we might be discovered by the past me, but there was nothing we could do now. Even if we returned, we wouldn't make it in time to close it before past me arrived.
"Yeah, according to your estimate, we should be just a couple of hundred meters away from where you entered the universe." Kara supplied as she compared the data with widened eyes.
I could understand the disbelief. The calculated coordinates we used to travel through time and space had caused us to appear away from our original intended location, but instead brought us closer to our goal? Just this alone made some suspicion rise in me.
"Entered the universe? What is she talking about??" Flash asked, confused, and I couldn't help but glance at him. I knew if I didn't answer his questions, he would be an annoying pain in the butt.
"I am originally not from this universe. Saiyans do not exist in this universe. I have traveled into the past to find my home universe and a way to return." I answered easily as I looked at the area they pointed at. It was close, very close.
This coincidence of us arriving at this exact spot was too unlikely. The thought of someone having a hand in this wasn't impossible, but who would have done something like this? Or rather, who had the capability to do this?
I pushed that thought into the back of my mind and set up all the sensors around us, letting them float around us. I just needed some information about how I got here and I could research the way back from the data.
All the equipment that we carried on our suits was activated, sending data in real-time to the display on our wrists. It was time to wait. I glanced at the timer and found that 5 minutes had already passed. At least the time should be correct, only a few minutes until past me arrived.
"Wh-what?? But you said- no. Even John confirmed that the Guardians of the Universe have records of your species!" That certainly gained my attention.
"What kind of information?" Was it possible that Saiyans have already arrived in this universe and contacted the Green Lanterns? Was I not the first?
"He said that Saiyans belonged to an unknown organization called Cold Force..." I frowned slightly as I waited for him to continue. "He said that Saiyans need to push their bodies to their limit and beyond, otherwise you fall sick, so to counterattack that you move to different planets with differing hostile environments to live in while fighting the inhabitants to stimulate yourself."
I halted slightly as I heard this. It sounded oddly familiar... Wasn't this what I told the Preserver when he captured me to make him create a training environment for me? I couldn't help myself and chuckle a bit. It seemed like the Guardians of the Universe had some ins with the Preservers' data. Or did they hire the Preserver to 'preserve' other species and gather information?
"It was something I made up."
"Y-you made it up?! What- how??" Flash was exasperated and I couldn't blame him. "Wait. It doesn't matter. If you just wanted to collect some data, why didn't you ask us? We could have helped you!" He continued, aggravated, but I shook my head.
"Would you have helped me travel back in time with all the dangers that you would have known theoretically and now know, even practically?" I asked as I stared at him. "If I had told you, being able to come this far would be a pipe dream." My look made him grit his teeth.
"...We would have found another way! There is no need to travel into the past! We could have run some diagnostic body scans and searched for differences in your body compared to others! There are hundreds of different ways!" He decided on.
"I take that as a No." My response made him gnash his teeth, but he didn't speak up any longer. My gaze left him and I continued to look around attentively, deciding to ignore any further distraction from Flash. At least he didn't continue to subtly escape my telekinetic barrier.
Maybe he accepted it would be hopeless in this situation. In outer space, without friction to support his powers and with us three as his opponents. Not to mention that any grand movements would only worsen our influence on the past.
Perhaps he disagreed with my plan, but he should know that the attempt to change our situation might cause a greater impact on the past. If we truly did not want to change the past and just observe it, then the best course of action would be to wait and see. At least, that was what I could guess, given his tendency to see the good in others. That was if he was still the same Flash I had grown to know.
"It probably doesn't mean much by now, but... I am sorry." I said, making him still in place and stare at me. I didn't just mean my attempt to time travel behind their back, but everything that led to this point. All the things I had done. Maybe I should have waited to get used to being back in civilization as a battle-hungry Saiyan, but what was done was done. I made my decision and now I have to accept the consequences of my actions.
He sighed heavily, "Nathan..."
They would know that I wasn't the man that they knew. I wasn't even the man that their previous timeline selves knew. The things I had done were now laid out in front of them, and it wouldn't take long before they knew all of my little secrets. What kind of man I was... what kind of man I had willingly become. Although I was close to achieving my goal, my chest felt heavy...
I decided not to focus on that. I didn't want to focus on the fact that I had lost people in a previous timeline who I had subconsciously recognized as my friends, even though I had tried to be distant. I didn't want to understand that I had betrayed their trust without ever being able to come clean to them. Hell, I even destroyed this new Justice League's image of me. This should have been a happy occasion, but all I felt was empty...
Raven glanced at me, giving me a concerned look. I gave her a smile and a look that conveyed I was fine. Her lips thinned as she hesitated to speak up before ultimately looking away. We hadn't much time to be sentimental, after all. Time was ticking.
There was no bright light or portal appearing as a familiar attack ball suddenly appeared in the space in front of us, just a few dozen meters away, heading towards the planet at high speed.
It had just popped into existence without an entrance. The space and time tunnel seemed to be roused as it created several bright lightning, encasing the attack ball in bright blue light. I could see how my past self's eyes twitched at the sudden influx of light.
He passed us before opening his eyes. I glanced at the space pod that was heading to Arva. It was the start of my adventure and I couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"Did you gather any relevant data?" I asked the others.
"There was no change in space or time that happened because of your entrance, but... there are some unusual data coming directly from the attack ball, though." Kara supplied and, looking at the data I gathered, it was the same that my sensors had gathered. A look at Raven confirmed the results.
"We still have a bit over ten minutes until we have to go back. We will follow past me, gather enough information as we can." I said, while ignoring Flash's protests. The other two nodded, and we headed down to the planet.
I looked at the fast-draining battery of the suit as I activated my camouflage, knowing that most of the energy went into obscuring all the energy frequencies released by my ki. My energy department had been working on absorbing life force, but the best they were able to do currently was sensing and blocking others from scanning it.
It needed some special materials and a lot of energy to get these results. Even though it wasn't something I had wanted, I figured it might be useful, so I had set my team on it.
It was far from what Batman's new suit was apparently capable of, but it was a start and certainly suitable for this scenario. I carried Flash with us, just in case my scouter picked up his life force in outer space. I certainly hadn't remembered noticing any life force out in the atmosphere.
After heading down, I set Raven and Kara to follow past me who had just arrived on the planet and would soon track through the woods until past me found my cave that would be my home for most of my time on this planet.
I split off with Kara and Raven and carried Flash towards the cave, where I wanted to install some sensors that would gather some data, which I could then pick up in the present. Although Dr. Wakati had some theories that any changes would be swept away by time itself or created another timeline because we hadn't created a corresponding time machine in the past to stabilize any changes, I had some hope that if it didn't change the past significantly, it would remain true even after returning to my time.
So, I arrived at my former home after a few moments, knowing the place like the back of my hand after spending all that time here had certainly helped me find my way. It was the start of my journey and even though the times here were somewhat monotonous, the place and the time still held a special place in my heart.
Now I returned to this place as a Super Saiyan. I certainly have come a long way. My feelings were bittersweet.
Without wasting more time, I was about to head inside, only for a ferocious beast to step outside, growling at my sudden intrusion. I looked at it in surprise. Its power level was in the low to mid-range for this planet and I couldn't remember having encountered this one. It would kill past me with one swipe with its long claws if they met right now.
I waved my hand. The creature couldn't even cry out as its body splattered into a pool of blood and flesh. It happened so fast that I froze after I had done it.
"Nathan! What are you doing?!" Flash didn't need to remind me. I had killed it instinctively, as if someone had infiltrated my territory. Just as the panic rose in me, I calmed myself down.
With another wave, I started to clean up this mess before realization dawned on me and my clean-up stopped. I deliberately left some blood spatters in front of the cave to dry and headed into the cave instead. "Don't you want to clean this up?" Flash pointed at the tracks showing an animal had lived and died here.
"No." I didn't bother to explain and went on to hide my sensor deep into the ground of the cave where I knew I wouldn't dig.
After several minutes, I met up with Raven and Kara again, knowing that we wouldn't obtain more from this trip. I looked at the timer and found that there were only 3 minutes left until the wormhole would lose power and close, so we headed right back.
We almost reached the wormhole when suddenly Raven groaned out before it turned into a painful scream. She held her head as she plummeted back to the lower layers of the Arva's atmosphere.
I quickly caught her, and we continued our journey. "Raven, are you alright? What happened?" I asked as we continued our journey into the waiting wormhole.
"I-I don't know. It felt like I connected with my siblings and with Trigon... I don't know how, but I think they noticed me..." She answered, unsure, her voice strained and a bit scared.
"Trigon? Siblings? Wait, those that had attacked Portland in this timeline?" Flash asked. I frowned as I looked at his frown.
"In this timeline?" I muttered slowly before looking at Raven, who seemed to have understood the ramification of what this meant. Her eyes widened as the realization settled.
Her skin slowly turned red, and her forehead gained another pair of eyes as she lost control. She had been pretty solid the past few days, but now her emotions bubbled to the surface in an untimely fashion. "N-no." She uttered in misery, guilt, and anguish, emotions washing out and crashing emphatically into us like a tidal wave.
Her demonic aura radiated out in all directions, impacting the invisible barrier of our wormhole that prevented the horrors of time itself from reaching us.
"Raven, calm down!" I shouted before flinging Flash towards Kara, as I saw her aura grow worse. She hadn't completely fused with her demonic side yet, so now that it had spilled out of her control, her emotions would spiral up, growing worse with every second.
"Kara, take Flash and return to our time! I will handle this!" I shouted, and I could see that she wanted to argue. I raised my hand and pushed her telekinetically before entering Super Saiyan after dispersing my clone on the other side of the wormhole.
"Go!" I shouted again. She caught Flash and hesitated.
"...Please. Go!" I pleaded.
She gritted her teeth and I could see how tears welled up in her eyes. "Don't you two dare die! I will kill you if you do!" She shouted before flying away.
My ki and telekinesis were already isolating Raven's aura, but it was steadily thriving. I gave Kara a last glance. "I love you." I uttered with a chuckle as I heard Kara's whispering words.
I focused back on Raven. Although I wasn't that good at sensing magic, I could feel that her aura differed somewhat from normal. It was tainted. Someone was influencing her, worsening the situation, but that wasn't all. Something was messing with the wormhole as well.
New cracks on the invisible walls of this wormhole appeared around our section, growing by the second. My golden ki soared as I tried to forcefully take Raven with me through the wormhole, but she was rooted in space. The same could be said about me as I felt the surrounding space solidifying weirdly. It wasn't heavy, instead; it felt like a quagmire. My movements were sluggish and heavy.
My Super Saiyan power grew beyond its default.
51x
52x
53x
...
All the way to a 60x multiplier, but it was still not enough. For all my power, I could not shatter the restraints the space had over me.
My mind went to the combination of Ikari and Super Saiyan, but I couldn't power up in this place. I couldn't control the output of those two transformations created in tandem. It would instantly shatter this place, but as I watched the cracks increasing around us. I knew I had no other option left.
A sliver of Ikari power entered my body and I could instantly feel myself growing in power. The mixture of these two transformations was too chaotic, wrecking my body from the inside with every second. With my Super Saiyan growing stronger, this combination now was even harder to manage than back against Darkseid.
70x
80x
90x
100x
110x
120x
My strength soared, only stopping when I doubled in strength. A sliver of Ikari added to Super Saiyan had catapulted my power to this degree. It only stopped because I prevented more power from mixing into my Super Saiyan power. I feared that anymore would lead me to explode spectacularly.
My golden ki gained a tinge of green as I encapsulated both of us in a ki barrier mixed with all my psychic energy. Just as I finished creating my barrier, the wormhole collapsed on us. I instantly felt the strain of space and time as it tried to penetrate my barrier.
Countless terrifying lightning impacted my barrier as if it attracted them like a lightning rod. At the same time, Raven's demonic energy crashed into my body in powerful waves, increasing as time went on.
In the periphery of my view, I coincidentally saw a figure sitting on a floating chair, watching us calmly being swept away by time and space.
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A/N: I had forgotten to release the results of the poll last week, so here you go.
[Poll Results]
Harem with 4+ won
Anyway, thank you for reading. See you next week.