Beyond A Failed Future - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

He awoke…to hell.

He didn't know where he was, he didn't know how he got here and he definitely didn't know why he was here.

The last thing Ronan Rye remembered was pushing a young girl out of the way of a truck that had lost control of its wheels on a slippery wet road after an intense rainfall.

A brief, intense pain.

An utter, yet warm and comforting darkness that seemed to stretch on for an infinite span of time.

Only to be pulled forth from that darkness by a golden radiance.

…A golden radiance that was currently raining down atop a city like blinding hell fire and decimating vehicles, buildings and large pockets of land alike.

'…What is….going on!?' Ronan screamed internally as he huddled within a large crater, beneath a pile of debris stacked precariously together.

All things considered, he was lucky.

He'd fallen in this crater after a blast of golden light slammed into the ground right next to him, right after he woke up.

If it had been just a few inches closer to him, he would have been erased from existence just like the road that used to cover this crater.

In fact, even now, he wasn't safe.

All he could do was cower beneath the debris, hands clasped over his head in a fetal position and pray none of the golden blasts of energy landed in the crater with him.

'Please…please…please!' he pleaded mentally to any god that would listen.

Minutes passed by that seemed like hours to Ronan's terrified mind as he cowered and prayed.

And blessedly, it seemed his prayers were heard.

Bit by bit the roaring explosions that rampaged through his ears and the earth that shook beneath him as if multiple mighty earthquakes battled within the city grounds for dominance…began to dwindled down.

Until all that was left was an eerie silence.

"..Is it over?" Ronan whispered to himself, swallowing heavily.

The urge to crawl out from under the debris to check things out was there. But that curiosity and need to know, was ruthlessly crushed by his utter fear.

Never mind if it was over or not, he didn't even know what was causing it. He wished it was all a dream, that he was just unconscious and in the hospital after being hit by that truck.

But the smell of ozone in the air, the way his body trembled in the after shocks of the bombardment….the pain he felt in his palms and knees after he scuffed them upon falling into this crater.

It was all too real.

"Well, that was fun."

Suddenly, Ronan heard a voice above, right at the edge of the crater. Distinctly male, yet lacking the timber of an older, larger man.

Fun…what?

"Meh, I got bored halfway through," a lower, throaty feminine voice said in reply, "How many did you kill?"

"Wait, I was supposed to keep count?" the male voice asked, sounding confused.

"Duh," the woman of the two scoffed, "How else were we supposed to decide who won? I killed over a thousand by my reckoning. Honestly, such a tiny amount compared to what it was like when we first started."

"Oh, right," the male laughed, "I thought were deciding by who destroyed the most shit?"

"As if," the female huffed, "If it was like that, we'd fire bigger blasts and destroy the entire city, no precision needed. Though, guess that tells me all I need to know about who's more skillful between us. Not that I didn't already know that mind you."

"Hats off to ya' sis, you're the supreme human vermin killer." the male laughed, "You want a shiny gold star?"

The woman clicked her tongue audibly, "It ruins the game when you don't even play properly you know you moron."

"Eh, I'm just not feelin' it today, there's no challenge in killing humans, even the strong ones weren't worth shit," the male responded and Ronan could visualize the man shrugging his shoulders uncaringly over the amount of life he'd taken and it made the teen have to force himself not to retch, "How about we go see if we can find blondie instead? Kicking him around sounds like a way better time."

"We did that three days ago that punk will be laid up recovering for a while I'm betting," the woman responded, "Screw this, I'm going home."

"Hey, wait up sis!" the male called out as the female apparently left him behind.

…What kind of monsters were they?

Without even noticing it, Ronan's breath had hitched and he'd done all he could on sheer instinct and willpower to not make a single sound.

Yet, that same instinct made him crawl slightly out of the debris to see if he could catch a glimpse at the monsters who had so casually discussed genociding a city and mentioning contemptuously that killing over two thousand people was a small amount?

Ronan poked his head out of the debris and as he looked up his eyes widened.

For there in the distance, casually floating in the air, rising higher and higher with each passing second were two figures.

One, a blonde woman dressed in blue denim.

The other a black haired male dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt with an orange scarf around his neck.

'…..No….' a distressed whimper of dawning horror echoed in his mind as he stared up at them.

Android 17 and Android 18.

__________

It was a half an hour later that Ronan finally managed to gain his bearings and struggle his way up out of the crater he was seeking shelter within.

There wasn't exactly much purchase for him to climb on to get out and it took a little while for him to wrap his head around the fact that…two fictional characters were right in front of him not long ago and destroying a city and murdering every inhabitant they caught sight of.

Yet as he limped his way through the wreckage of whatever city he was in, Ronan wished he could return to his hole.

Already he'd come across multiple charred corpses. Or what was left of them at least.

Not a single one he'd seen so far had been intact.

A testament to the devastation those androids could so casually inflict while merely playing.

'I need to find a drink.' Ronan focused on that thought as he trawled his way through the city looking for any building that was in even slightly stable condition.

It helped him ignore the horror around him.

And he really needed to wash the taste of vomit out of his mouth. The terror of the situation and the horror of the first corpse he found…had been his limit.

He'd fallen to his knees and vomited up everything in his stomach right then and there.

That was five minutes ago and now he was soldiering on.

It took another few minutes of searching before he found what looked like a small dome shaped home. The exterior was cracked in quite a few places, the windows were smashed and half of the building was charred with a hole out front with burning flame that emitted a dark smoke into the sky.

Arms crossed over one another and rubbing them up and down his biceps to try and ward off the chill that permeated his body, Ronan stared at it blankly.

Before his legs moved on instinct and carried him towards it.

The door was thankfully wide open, and as he entered, he found a modest furnishing that wasn't all that bad off, most of it just fallen over.

It was a single story ground floor home and it didn't take him long to map it out and find the kitchen.

"…As expected." he noted as he opened the cupboards with shaky, trembling hands.

Most of the glasses were all shattered. Only a few mugs remained in tact.

At least the tap was still working though.

Grabbing one of the mugs, Ronan filled it with water and took a seat on a single stool that was beside the sink and lifted it to his lips and began to greedily gulp it down.

The cold water running down his throat and washing the taste of vomit away, did a lot for him.

It calmed him down a bit and let him centre himself.

And it cemented his situation right here and now. This was his reality now. And all he could do, was make something of it.

He lowered the glass and pinched the bridge of his nose, "…What can I even do though?" he wondered.

This was very clearly the timeline Future Trunks came from. And if he wasn't wrong, the 'blondie' they talked about earlier.

That was Future Gohan.

The only one left alive of the 'Z-fighters', the heroes of this world, the half saiyan son of Son Goku.

The one who never lived up to his potential and died to the androids, setting up his apprentice Trunks to take over his mantle for him and eventually go back into the past with a Time Machine and go through a whole other massive adventure in the past there and become strong enough to defeat the androids himself when he returned.

…Trunks whole thing didn't really help him though.

Gohan was a whole other matter though. When he died, Android 17 claimed that he was only using half of his full power to defeat Gohan.

Ronan always called bullshit on that, but he would have to approach things as if that were true.

…If Gohan could achieve Super Saiyan two though, things might change up. That would put him on even footing…with one of the androids.

And still be set up to be double teamed by both that had infinite energy and never tired.

"Which doesn't help me all that much anyway at the moment." Ronan sighed, rubbing a hand through his short spiky black hair.

While he knew of the existence of Super Saiyan Two and even three, four and recently there had been a newly unveiled god form in a new movie he'd saw.

He didn't exactly know how they were achieved. The Gohan that first went Super Saiyan Two got it through raging out of control on a desire for revenge against Cell.

Unless someone he cared about died to the androids right in front of him, that wasn't anything he could replicate.

And even beyond that was the fact that….he didn't exactly know where to find Gohan. He knew Bulma's address and had a rough idea where Gohan's home growing up was.

But it wasn't like he was familiar at all with this worlds geography. And not to mention, how would he even get there?

There wasn't exactly any vehicles or anything in working order sitting around.

Any he'd saw had been blasted out of existence by those damn androids.

Shaking his head, Ronan put those thoughts out of mind for now. His extended surival could be thought on later.

What he needed was to assure his survival right now.

This house would be adequate shelter for now, to shield him from cold and rain. And he could set up a barricade at the front door and at the windows too.

He had clean water to drink.

What he needed now, was to see about his food situation.

He made his way over to the fridge and pulled it open. And grimaced when he saw it wasn't working.

Lovely.

Though not that were were many articles of food in there anyway.

Shaking his head, he closed the fridge and began to raid the kitchen cupboards.

And to his luck, he found a rather large amount of tinned food. And a lot of noodles too.

Enough to last him a few months if he rationed it right.

It seemed whoever lived here had a thing for easy made food. While it wasn't the most nutritious edibles.

It would do for now.

After checking over the food and taking stock, Ronan made his way out of the kitchen back through to the living room and collapsed on the couch, one of the only pieces of furniture not knocked off its legs or upended in anyway.

"…What the utter fuck man." he groaned, staring up at the ceiling.

He wondered, if he went to sleep right now would he wake back up again in his own world?

….That would be nice.

But that wasn't feasable.

'Honestly, the only thing I can do is find a map or something and try and find a working car.' he mused.

He might be in more luck for a working one if he looked around for something like a dino cap.

…And wasn't that kind of crazy? He was now in a world where people could literally carry houses around in little finger sized capsules.

He would probably be in a lot more awe over that fact if he wasn't currently stuck in a post apocalyptic world.

'It's not like I can even use ki like the Z-fighters or anything to give myself an edge and…wait!' Ronan's eyes widened and he shot up into a seating position.

That might not be true actually!

Every living being in this world had ki and since he was in this world now, didn't that mean he would also possibly have ki?

"And I remember word for word how Gohan taught Videl!"

__________

"…This…feels weird…!"

Hours had passed, how many, Ronan couldn't tell. All he knew was that it was pitch black outside.

Literally.

The only light at all came from the moon and stars above. There was not a single street light working around the residence he called home currently.

Well, there was one little flickering light beyond them.

Sat cross legged on the couch, a bead of sweat trailed down Ronan's cheek and his teeth were gritted as he tried with all his might…

To keep the small, grain sized flickering light of burning orange light cupped between his palms alive.

…He was right and Gohan was indeed a good teacher. Even second hand advice from him teaching another, had allowed him to draw upon it.

His ki.

He'd finally managed to bring it forth…ten seconds ago.

The light flickered and died just one more later.

Just likes his hopes and dreams.

And Ronan collapsed on his back, breathing heavily, his muscles limp and unresponsive, his body exhausted.

_______________

Something I've been idly writing in parallel with To Go Even Further Beyond. Got a few chapters of it I meant to upload a while ago. Just a little project to keep me from getting burned out when doing Dbz cuz I went pretty big and hard with To Go Even Further Beyond and somewhat regret it. This is contrast, is set in the Mirai timeline where he can't abuse the dragon balls.