//------------------------------//
// Power 
// Story: Out of Time 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

Trunks roar shook the ground, but the blast of ki he fired at the Maestro shook the planet. Yet just like before, the Maestro held out a hand and absorbed the ki blast. Though there was a difference from the last time he absorbed a ki blast, for this time his body flashed yellow after absorbing the blast. Trunks snarled at his failed attempt to harm his foe before he went for his blade.

Maestro was on him in a moment. Five metal fingers wrapped themselves around Trunks neck and slammed the back of his skull into the ground. Maestro drove a boot into Trunk's kidney and sent him skipping across the ground, before he crashed into the side of an ancient pillar and came to a stop. Trunks had just long enough to realize that Maestro was vastly different than the last time they fought before a burst of shattered magic caught Trunks in the chest to blast him through the pillar.

Trunks was back up a moment later, appearing in front of Maestro with blade aimed right at the metal mans skull. Yet despite the speed at which Trunks swung, the metal hand of Maestro intercepted the blade before it could cleave through Maestro's armor. Maestro retaliated with a flurry of punches to Trunks face with his free hand, before snapping Trunks head to the side with a kick that sent Trunks tumbling into the dirt.

'What's going on? He was nowhere near this strong the last time we fought,' Trunks asked himself as he rose back up to his feet, wiping a bit of blood away from the corner of his mouth with his thumb. 'It's not even like he's gotten stronger or anything like that. It's like he's a completely being than he was before. As it stands now...I don't know if I can beat him.'

"Infuriating, isn't it? So strong one moment, only to be beaten into the dirt the next. But considering the world you come from, I take it you already know that gaining a new form of power means nothing in the long run," Maestro cackled as his hands filled with shattered magic.

"How are you so much stronger than before? The last time we fought you couldn't even keep up with my power and now you're...like this?" Trunks demanded to know, holding his blade out so it was between the Maestro and him.

"You want to know what's different? You want to know how I became so much stronger than all of your forms in such a short period of time? Maybe I'll tell you the next time we have this conversation."

Maestro was on Trunks once more, slamming the palm of his hand into Trunks face with such speed that Trunks wasn't even aware that he had been hit until he was rocketing backwards with blood on his lip and pain blaring through his skull. He flipped out of the air and slammed his feet into the ground to stop his trajectory, only for a metal elbow to drive itself into his ribs. He snarled with pain, but this time had the sense to turn and slash out with his blade at where the Maestro had appeared. Maestro blocked the sword swing with a metal forearm, making Trunks eyes widen once more.

"Trunks...be honest with me. Why do you even keep this blade around after all the times it has failed you?" Maestro asked Trunks. Trunk's response was to aim his free arm at the Maestro and unleash a beam of ki directly into his face. While the blast was strong enough to bring down a skyscraper, to Trunks annoyance he found that once again his ki attacks had done nothing to the metal man.

"It seems you are a slow learner. Your ki will not harm me. Nothing you do can." Maestro ripped the sword from Trunks grasp before slamming the hilt of the blade into the side of Trunks head. Trunks felt his head snap backwards as star danced across his vision, pain blaring in his brain. Maestros next blow caught Trunks right in the chin, sending Trunks into a series of backflips.

'This is bad,' Trunks realized as he began to channel his rage. His aura turned golden and he felt his hair begin to spike up, but before he even had the chance Maestro cracked Trunks spine with his knee. Trunks didn't even have time to scream in pain, as it was interrupted by two metal fists driving themselves into his face. Trunks body hit the ground hard a moment later and he coughed weakly in pain, trying to summon the ki to stand. Maestro put an end to that when he grabbed Trunks by the throat and lifted him with one arm.

"You may have caught me off guard with your appearance before, but this time I was more than ready to deal with you," Maestro explained before he tightened his grip around Trunks throat. Trunks hands grabbed the Maestro's and he tried to rip himself free, but to his alarm he found that he wasn't strong enough to break his grip. "At this moment you are asking yourself why your ki will not work the way it is supposed to. You are asking why your strength is failing you. It is because I am preventing it from doing so. Your ki is strong. My magic is stronger."

"I am sad that I have to kill you, Trunks. Believe me, I am. But if you continue to run amok saving these timelines, then you will only further continue to disrupt the plans that I have already put into motion for Clockwork. And that I cannot...wait a moment," Maestro muttered, looking into a sphere of shattered magic in his free hand. "You have not been saving the timelines...you've been erasing them. Out of all the beings that would do that, you are one of the few that..."

Maestro glanced up at Trunks to see that the Saiyan could no longer hear him and was dangling from his hand limply. Maestro knew that he should kill the warrior then and there, but once more the dangerous side of his brain made him think of the alternatives. And they were too good to resist.

"Your actions have saved you this day, Trunks," Maestro told the warrior. He then released his grip and allowed Trunks to fall to his knees, where he gasped for air while clutching at his throat with his hands. "I am not sure why this is the path that you have gone down, but it is one that I have yet to see. I cannot wait to see how you fail this time."

Trunks blinked and the Maestro was gone, leaving him alone. He gasped in a few quick breaths to regain his strength before he pushed himself back up, rubbing his neck while forcing his ki to flow through him once more. 'How did he manage to cut me off from my ki like that? No villain that I've ever fought has managed to do that to me,' he pondered, before shaking his head. 'He didn't even give me the chance to power up. Whoever this Maestro is isn't like the other villains  I've fought. He has no problem killing me in my weakest form. I'll have to remember that.'

"Is he gone?" Trunks turned to see that Starlight was poking her head out of the hole she had entered a little bit before. "He's not coming back, right? Because if he is, I don't want to be anywhere near here."

"Thanks for the support during that fight," Trunks grunted while rubbing his neck.

"He was kicking the crap out of you. Anything I would try to do would have only ended up with both of us dead and then who would save the timeline?" Starlight asked. Trunks found that he couldn't argue with her line of thinking. "But once again he lets you go when he has you dead to rights. It's not very smart to let somepony as powerful as you continue to live time and time again."

"I don't think he always thinks things through. He seems to be interested more in...events than being smart," Trunks replied. 'Yet he was still more than strong enough to smack me around like I was nothing. Maybe he doesn't see me as a threat because of that. Well then I'll just have to make sure that the next time I face him I go all out right from the get go. Then we'll see what he thinks.'

"Did you get what we came here for?" Trunks asked, but he could already see the book that Starlight was keeping close to her chest.

"Yeah, this is an ancient book of spells that Starswirl the Bearded was said to have written," Starlight explained to Trunks. "It will take a bit of time to decipher, but once we do so we should be able to punch through that magical barrier and get you your one on one with Tirek. Let's hope it goes better than your most recent fight."

"It won't be good for Tirek, I can promise you that," Trunks snarled as he picked up Starlight to fly off. "After being manhandled like that, I need to punch someone through a mountain. Tirek will have to do."

(DB)

The locals of a village that Trunks had rescued were kind enough to allow the two of them to use one of their larger homes for their needs. Which meant that Starlight sat at a table and went page by page through the book that she had found. While she did that, Trunks, having found the right kind of stone, sharpened his blade, his eyes locked onto the reflection that looked back at him.

In his mind, Trunks was going over the battle with the Maestro, trying to find the point where Maestro got the upper hand on him and what he could have done differently. But no matter how many times he replayed the battle while taking a different approach, he couldn't see any other outcome than the one they had reached. Which told Trunks that he had been at the Maestro's mercy the whole fight.

'Why? Why does this always happen?' Trunks asked himself as fury burned in his veins. 'I wasn't strong enough to stop the Androids when they first appeared. And I wasn't strong enough to stop Black. Why is it no matter how strong I get, I always seem to fail in the end?'

Trunks train of thought was interrupted when he glanced down to see one of the foals that he had saved was staring up at him from the door entrance. He could tell from the look in the foals eyes that the kid wanted to talk to him, but couldn't muster up the courage to do so. Trunks smiled at him and motioned for the foal to join him, before he sheathed his blade and knelt down onto one knee.

"Hey there little guy, what's up?" Trunks asked in a friendly tone. The foal, who had slowly approached Trunks with awe in his eyes, took a moment to respond.

"Um, I just...um...wanted to wish you luck against Tirek when you face him," the foal finally managed to stammer out.

"Thank you. A little extra luck never hurt anyone," Trunks smiled.

"And once you beat him, we can finally live again!" the foal continued on, his words causing Trunks smile to fall. "After all, once he's beaten, we'll have our magic back! We can finally have our lives back! my family and I can finally live! And it's all thanks to you!"

"Well, first I've got to beat him. But I promise you that I will do that," Trunks said, but this time with a more forced smile. The foal raced off, waving to Trunks as he did so with a hopeful smile on his face. Trunks sighed as he watched the foal go, before he glanced over at Starlight to see that she had watched the exchange out of the corner of her eye.

"Don't say anything," Trunks muttered.

"All I was going to say is that I've found the spell that will allow us to break through Tirek's barrier tomorrow," Starlight replied in a tone that gave away no emotion. But for a brief moment Trunks noticed a strange magic crackled around Starlight's horn, a magic that seemed...familiar. "So at the very least, you'll be able to keep your promise to them and bring down Tirek. After that...who knows."