Chapter Text
You were immortal. A long time ago, before the Androids had even been a thought in Dr. Gero’s wicked mind, you had used the Dragon Balls to grant yourself immortality, but it had been a selfless sacrifice necessary to protect your world instead of a greedy desire that a normal human would wish. You, at that time, were Earth’s mightiest protector and were forced to defend the Earth against a horrible evil, but that being had long been defeated and was nothing compared to this new atrocity, Goku Black. Afterward, you had retired into the mountains to live a solitary life, watching the humans evolve around you while you stayed young. Over the decades, they had become more and more corrupt, making you wish for simpler times when the devastating poison of avarice did not blind nearly so many eyes. Yet, though you did not approve of the happenings of the modern world, you would have never have wished for the slaughter that followed Black like an impending hurricane. But alas, there wasn’t much you could do. You had witnessed the passing of the Androids and thought that was the end. You could not have been so wrong.
Buildings crashed around you as smoke billowed into the air like a dark clawed hand. Flames licked your ankles as you dodged the collapsing columns and screams echoed in your ear as you ran blindly in terror. In your haste to escape you didn’t notice the floating Saiyan watching your building burn, and everyone in it. He decided that he would just finish off any survivors and then return to the cabin and Zamasu. He would save Trunks for a later time.
Suddenly, the sound of soft crying barely audible over the sound of all the destruction stopped you short, reminding you what you had come back to the battlefield for in the first place. You had returned, unwillingly, from the mountains to try to save as many innocent people as possible, delivering them to safe houses and hideouts, where you had soon begun to grow popular. So, gritting your teeth, you turned back to search for the source of the sound, darting over flaming chunks of furniture and the occasional corpse. You burst through a broken door to find a small child crying on the dirty floor, underneath a window.
You let out a quiet sigh of relief and walked towards him, saying, “It’s going to be okay now.”
Unbeknownst to you, Black had noticed you, a shadowy figure through the window you were standing in front of. Grinning viciously, he shot an energy blast through the building, causing the ceiling of the room you were in to collapse, and a heavy chunk of concrete to fall. The kid let out a wail and covered his face, while you darted to crouch over him, with your arms raised above you. And for a second, nothing moved. Groaning under the effort, you managed to keep the concrete from crushing the both of you. The hard part was getting it off. Your muscles strained against your clothes and your eyes were screwed shut in concentration as the concrete finally began to move.
Black watched, astonished as you threw the massive concrete slab to the side and pulled out the child, who huddled into your chest. What human would be strong enough?
You let out a relieved laugh, cut short as you looked out the window and spotted him.
Goku Black.
He was even more intimidating at this distance, and his piercing onyx eyes seemed to stare into your very soul. You had frozen up in horror, and for a split second, you thought he was going to bring down the rest of the building down onto you two. The moment was broken though, as the little boy tugged on your torn shirt.
“E-excuse me? Thank you for saving me but maybe we should go...”
You smiled down at him. “Sorry kid. You’re right.”
And with that, you sprinted out of the building as fast as your legs could carry you. Panting, you made it to one of the safehouses were you knew Trunks would be, and there the boy was reunited with his parents. You watched them cry and hug each other, and soon they turned to you.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you!”
“How could we ever repay you?”
It was moments like this that made risking your own hide to rescue the innocents worth it.
“It was my pleasure,” you replied. “But I have to go now before it becomes dark.”
You were met with a torrent of protests and Trunks tried to persuade you to stay like usual, but you refused. Honestly, you weren’t used to so much attention and people after having stayed in the forest by yourself so long. The closest thing to a conversation you had for so many years was one-sided talking to animals like squirrels and birds.
As you crept back out into the open, you prayed that you wouldn’t come face to face with Black. Luckily, the coast seemed clear for now. Hesitantly, you slowly made your way through the shadows, still wary from earlier. You could still feel those cruel eyes on you, the way they seemed to pick you apart and delve into your darkest secrets. What a creepy guy, you thought. A sudden clacking noise made you freeze in your tracks; you had kicked over a chunk of rock as you were walking, and it bounced into a large crater, the resounding echo like gunshots. You cursed yourself silently for not paying attention. The air seemed to still, and you could feel someone watching you, but you couldn’t pinpoint from where. You spun around frantically in a circle, looking for those dark eyes and spiky hair.
Black sat silently on the rooftop, smirking as he observed you panicking and breaking out into a run. The logical part of him was tempted to blast you into oblivion, after all, you were just a small, insignificant human compared to him and the rest of the universe. But on the other hand, there was something about you that stopped him from wanting to end your life, at least for now. Maybe it was the way you had stared at him, scared yet defiant, or how you somehow managed to survive a crumbling building, while protecting a child nonetheless, which was not something most other people could say. There was something mysterious about you, you were unlike any other human he had met before, and that made him want to rip you apart and dig out all your secrets that you were hiding. For one, you were definitely stronger and faster than a regular mortal, and the look in your eyes told him that you had seen much more.
He snapped out of his trance as you vanished into the forest, and it took him a split second to decide to follow you, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. Zamasu could wait.
You dodged expertly around trees and over massive roots that came out of the dirt like gnarled limbs, barely making a sound. After a couple miles of running, despite which didn’t tire you as much as it would have a normal being, you came to a stop at your humble wooden cabin in a grassy clearing.
“Finally,” you huffed as you unlocked the door, completely unaware that Black had touched down on a large branch near your house.
The night was falling rapidly as Winter approached, and you quickly lit a fire in your small stone fireplace. The cabin that you lived in was sparse and wooden, filled with books and a tiny kitchen and bed. Everything was out in the open; it wasn’t like you were worried about anyone peeking in on you in the middle of nowhere. The only place that was in a separate room was a bathtub and toilet, completed with a sink. Other than the books, you had a table and some chairs, and a large poufy sofa. You didn’t have much, but you were content with what you did have. However, you did own some property in the city that Black surprisingly hadn’t destroyed, since it was on the less populated outskirts.
Black perched in the shadows of a large oak tree, looking into your house. He was, to be honest, surprised. You were different from any human that he had met before, and he had met a lot traveling around the world and committing mass genocide. He felt an unfamiliar pull towards you, wanting to learn more about you as well as seeing how far he could push you until you broke. But for now, he was just there to observe. He could always kill you any other time he wanted, after all. He watched you as you moved around the cabin, eventually settling into your couch with a book. It was clear that you were going to be there for a while, so with one last lingering look, he took off into the sky.
What an interesting human.
“So Black, did you find anything interesting in this dull world?” Zamasu asked boredly from the sofa when he returned.
“No, not really. There was this mortal though…”
“Oh?” When Black didn’t continue, he let out a little huff and turned to face him. “You know we should really hurry about the Zero Mortal plan. The humans are starting to bore me. This wasteland could really use some cleaning up. What do you think Black?”
When his partner didn’t answer he started getting annoyed. “Black!”
He snapped out of his thoughts about you. “Huh?”
Zamasu narrowed his flashing, gray eyes at him. “What are you thinking about?”
Black was hesitant to admit what he had been preoccupied with, especially when it had to do with mortals. He knew how much Zamasu loathed them, but he also knew that Zamasu would keep pestering him until he spilled the truth.
“Well…the mortal I mentioned?” He began hesitantly.
“What about it?”
“There’s something odd about it. It’s stronger than any other one I met, other than Trunks of course…I don’t know…I just can’t place the feeling.”
He could tell that Zamasu was beginning to get annoyed with all the talk about you; he was always the colder of the two. Sometimes Black began to wonder if it was Goku’s body that was turning him a bit softer.
“Well enough about the filthy insect!” Zamasu snarled at him. “Don’t you have anything else to worry about, or has that body made you weak?”
That hit a little too close to home, and he struggled to push you out of his head. What’s happening to me? He thought angrily. I’m a god for heaven’s sake!
Zamasu stared at him for a cool minute before deciding to speak again.
“We’ll settle this another day. It’s obvious that you’re not right in the head at that moment. I’ll see you later,” he said before stalking out of the door. Black had to fight the urge to drag him back and beat him to a pulp, but the last thing he needed was a fight with his counterpart.
All he did was let out a sigh before sitting down on the couch, settling his face in his hands and tangling his finger through his hair, clutching his head. What the Hell? What’s happening to me? GET OUT OF MY HEAD! He roared at you in his thoughts. The glass on a nearby window shattered, and he could hear Zamasu's angry voice yelling at him from the outside. It was going to be a long night.
And in your own house, you woke up in cold sweat not even remembering why you were scared. But even in your subconscious, you could feel him.