Escarot

Today, I was training with Whis, meditating in the middle of one the many deserts of Planet Vegeta. The red sand kicked up around us in violent gusts from left to right, it was… relaxing in a way, even if it itched a bit every now and then. 

"Open your eyes, Escarot," Whis said, snapping me out of my trance.

I let my eyes snap open. He was hovering a few inches above me, his staff floating by his side.

"Humor me for a moment," Whis began, tilting his head as he looked down at me. "When you transform into a Super Saiyan, what is the trigger you rely on?"

"Anger," I answered honestly. "Why?"

"I see…" Whis sighed gently, his feet finally touching the sand. "That will complicate things a bit... First of all, I must confess, I do not know a great deal about the history or mythology of this 'Legendary' state of yours. Even by my standards, it is an exceedingly rare cosmic anomaly, and, well… Angels do not typically study regional folklore. However, I know more than enough about the ins and outs of spiritual energy to deduce how it all works."

He stepped closer, the base of his staff cutting a clean line through the red dirt.

"The Super Saiyan state acts as a direct gateway for you. Until you manage to reach that form without your emotions filtering into the process, you must strictly limit its use. In fact, you should avoid it altogether."

I frowned. "Avoid it? Whis, if I can't use the Super Saiyan… I'm practically defenseless against any real threat."

"Perhaps, but you would be switching a threat for another if you do," Whis countered smoothly. "The slightest spike on your emotions as a Super Saiyan will create a chain of reactions that will inevitably lead to the Legendary Super Saiyan state. The moment you let a drop of frustration, anger or panic slip into it, it will alter the frequency of your energy, triggering a cascade that will destabilize your ki, feeding off your adrenaline, and forcing open the floodgates to… the other part of you, so to speak."

He looked me dead in the eye, his usual playful demeanor completely vanishing. It was weird seeing him serious, he was always in that permanent “I know something you don’t” state that… Well, this took me off.

"Unfortunately, you have evolved to a point where you cannot afford to use emotion as a shortcut, Escarot. Because a single spark of temper while transformed is and will be a point of no return."

So… I guess that means that for the foreseeable future, I had to say goodbye to the Super Saiyan. A sudden wave of energy tore through the desert air, cutting through the howling wind, an energy signature I could recognize anywhere.

“Oh my,” Whis smiled, and before I could wonder what he meant, there she was.

Okara stood in front of me, a few, a massive, wild grin plastered across her face.

"There you are, bastard!" she roared, sliding down the shifting red sand toward me with an explosive burst of speed. "You are not going to believe it! I did it! I beat up Cooler—all by myself! The cold bastard didn't even see it coming! I absolutely pulverized him!"

A genuine smile finally broke through my depressing mood as I stood up, brushing the sand off my armor. Looking at her now, her ki was completely different. She had grown a lot… 

"You've grown incredibly strong," I was proud of her, of what she had accomplished. "I’m proud of ya."

"Yeah yeah, whatever, all I care is that now….," she said, stepping right into my personal space and slamming her fists together, her grin turning feral, "WE CAN HAVE A REAL FIGHT! So let’s do it! Right here, right now! Let’s clash as absolute equals, so don't you dare hold back on me!"

I stared at her for a second as she transformed into Super Saiyan, as the image of the shattered, melted glass crater from a few days ago flashed behind my eyes. And before I knew it, a heavy, bittersweet chuckle escaped my throat, and I shook my head, taking a step back, both hands up, signaling my surrender.

"As fun as that sounds, I can't fight you, Okara," I said, letting out a sigh. "I'd lose anyway... because I can't use Super Saiyan right now."

Okara froze, her hands dropping to her sides as the golden aura around her died down, and her brow furrowed, her wild excitement instantly twisting into a look of fierce irritation. "What? What do you mean you can't use it? Don't tell me you're making excuses to get out of a real fight!?"

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck as the desert wind whipped between us, all Whis watched us quietly from a few paces away.

"There's been... a development," I muttered, looking her dead in the eye. "And… Well, long story short; if I enter the Super Saiyan state right now, well, I... I might hurt people, I… I might lose my mind completely and become a... a beast. Or what we know as The Legendary Super Saiyan, the one from the legends."

Okara blinked, and before I could even blink, her fist flew forward like a rocket, hitting me across the face, as her knuckles connected squarely with my jaw, sending a sharp jolt through my head and forcing me to stumble back a step into the dirt.

"Ow!" I barked, rubbing my face and looking at her in shock. "What the hell was that for?!"

That hurt a fucking lot! I can’t tank those hits if I can’t go Super Saiyan…

Okara pulled her fist back as she glared down at me, her eyes burning with a terrifying, unyielding intensity that was very familiar for me to see in her.

"Shut the fuck up!" Okara bellowed, stepping closer until she was practically standing over me. "I don't give a damn about whatever 'legendary' nonsense you're spouting! Don't you ever say something that pathetic to me again! If you're so damn terrified of turning into a beast and hurting people, then I'll just have to become strong enough to beat the crap out of you if you ever lose control! I'll get so strong that you won't ever have to worry about hurting anyone again, are we fucking clear?!"

I looked at her, and for a moment, I couldn’t help but laugh. In her own, aggressive way, she was telling me not to worry, that as long as she was here, she would be the deterrent I needed, and even though I knew she wasn’t a match for that power, it warmed my heart to know she was willing to try. “I suppose I’m being quite pathetic, it doesn’t suit me to be this depressed, right?”

"Damn right!" Okara snarled, her wild grin flashing back onto her face as she roughly grabbed the collar of my battle armor and yanked me down to her eye level. "You look completely ridiculous moping around in the dirt! I didn't push past my limits to reach this level and smashed Cooler's face into dust just to come back and find my rival acting like a broken-hearted moron!"

She let go of my collar with a forceful shove, rolling her shoulders as her golden Super Saiyan aura burst back to life.

"Now get your head in the game," she demanded, taking a ready stance and beckoning me forward with a sharp flick of her wrist. "You said you can't use your transformation, right? Fine! No Super Saiyan. I don’t need it! I can still beat some goddamn sense back into you without it!"

I wiped a smear of dirt and blood from the corner of my mouth, feeling the familiar, competitive spark finally overriding the dread that had been suffocating me all morning.

"Don't cry to Whis when I end up winning, like always," I smirked, dropping into my own fighting stance.

"Oh, please! I'm going to make you eat these words, you bastard!"

With a brutal roar, Okara vanished from sight, kicking up a massive shockwave of red sand where she had just been standing as she made her way towards me, where I waited, eager to start our spar.

"My, my," Whis chuckled from the sidelines, casually floating a few feet higher into the air to stay clear of the impending dust storm. He tapped his staff against his hand, his usual playful amusement returning in full force. "What an incredibly aggressive method of emotional support. Though, I must admit, it is… quite effective."

Potato I mean, Chronoa POV.

I am officially on my… 234th cup of coffee, and if one more historical scroll flashes a red error light at me, I am going to throw the entire Time Vault into a black hole, and blame Trunks when the Grand Priest comes.

"This is… impossible," I muttered, aggressively slamming the glowing parchment flat against my desk. "It violates at… all laws of mortal genetics. I literally refuse to process the sheer stupidity of this timeline!"

I have been keeping a very close eye on this specific timeline for a while now. During my first assessment I was able to discover the first two anomalies. I had personally logged Escarot (the annoying little bastard that said I was ugly)—the older brother who unexpectedly took the throne of Planet Vegeta—as LSSJ Variant 1, then his younger brother, Broly, as LSSJ Variant 2.

Two Legendary Super Saiyans in one family… in one universe…  was already pushing the absolute limits of what was normal or expected for each timeline, but it was a naturally occurring one, so… it was meant to be, so after a mountain of overtime and paperwork, I decided to accept this was out of my control and just move on, all while bracing myself for the inevitable day those two grew up and had a standard sibling fight that would probably punch a hole straight into the fabric of reality.

I was done… with this timeline, for now at least. The file was supposed to be closed.

So, I grabbed the scroll, fully intending to lock it away in my highest-clearance vault so I could finally go take a well-deserved nap while ignoring it for a bit. But as I rolled the parchment closed, a brand-new, violently fluctuating green digital marker began to blink at the very bottom of the lineage tree.

“I swear to Zeno… I hate my job sometimes,” I muttered as I leaned forward until my nose was practically touching the glowing paper, begging the universe to let it be a system glitch.

I was already done with… all the forms and stuff I had to fill for this universe, I WAS SO CLOSE TO MY NAP!

Right there, in the scroll, tracking the localized coordinates of a tiny scout ship drifting in a deep-space quadrant, a third energy signature was beginning to incubate in the mother's womb. It was faint, barely a tiny cluster of cells, but the genetic frequency was a direct, horrifying match, and a future headache for me.

"Tomat," I read the mother's name out loud, my voice dropping into a flat deadpan. "For the love of…. Breathe Chronoa, you are a beautiful Goddess, just breathe…" 

I will personally give Paragus a vasectomy…

I dropped my head onto the desk with a loud thunk, three anomalies, two beings that were not supposed to be, all coming from the exact same parents, who… had absolutely no idea they were casually populating a family tree capable of collapsing the twelve universes for fun.

"That's it," I groaned into the wood of my desk, staring blankly at the blinking green dot. "I'm calling a mandatory staff meeting. And I am personally sending a bill for my mental therapy straight to the Saiyan logistics department."

I need a break… I need to dump this problem on someone else, I need Trunks. 

“Trunks~”