Cause, Effect, and Consequences

by Coltsguy

On the Fly

I was as ready as I could be for the battle. It had been almost thirty minutes which meant I would be in a fight soon against an army led by Aizen Sosuke for the fate of the uncounted masses. All I had to do was get Twilight to the rift and seal it up and that meant we would win. A simple concept that was complicated in its execution. I had no idea what I would be facing out there. Well, hollows for sure would be there as well as the man himself, and I guess the Espada too. Other than that, I didn't really know. He could have gathered villains from the places that the protagonists who appeared here came from. I would not be happy if he teamed up with Jail Scaglietti or Admiral Akainu. Fuck. That.

"One minute," Ayane called out from the cockpit.

"Open the rear hatch when we get into the airspace," Nanoha replied. "I want to make sure we don't get blown out of the sky before we have a chance to land."

"Yes ma'am."

A few moments went by before the hatch popped with a hiss. It lowered slowly into position after which Nanoha flew out with her device, Raging Heart. Or was it Raising Heart? Damn inconsistent subs. Not really important I suppose. After she left Twilight and I got a good view out of the rear.

A huge battle was laid out before me. Groups of humans were fighting against an onslaught of monsters. It was a massive fight unlike almost anything that I could imagine. Yet, for some reason I wasn't surprised. Despite some of the things I could make out from the over-watching height I was currently at, none of what I was seeing seemed out of the ordinary. It was like I was expecting this to happen. Even the fact that I noticed Twilight off to my side watching the chaos with utter shock didn't phase me a bit.

That was when it hit me.

"Thou misunderstandith the situation. This isn't merely a dream. This is also the future," she stated as she faded from view.

My precognitive dream, the one Luna had visited and I had forgotten, had come to pass. I briefly wondered if the other me had seen the same sight or not. After all, I was changing the history of this world right now, yet I had this dream before that happened. It was a heavy train of thought.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you view the topic, I didn't have too long to think about it. A very familiar sensation was tingling about in the back of my head. I couldn't believe I was about to start singing now. It took a moment to identify which one and another to figure out how I wanted to sing it.

"Twilight."

"Yeah?" she asked almost numbly.

"Can I get you to do backup vocals?"

"You're going to sing now?" she asked while whipping her head around to face me.

I responded by showing her my hand. My tattoo was glowing. I wasn't trying to channel any magic. It was simply already maxed out from all the energy Eris was feeding into me. It was no longer the slow trickle she normally channeled through to me. She had literally taken in so much chaos that she pushed it all out into me at once for me to use.

"Trust me. You're not gonna die."

I guess that was good enough for her as she nodded right before the music started. I was pretty sure the song by Skillet was appropriate for the occasion. It certainly caused a notable shift on the battlefield as the song was magically enhanced to be heard throughout the expansive area. A great many flashy attacks went off about the time the third line of the song came out of my mouth. I did love how Twilight was spot on with the backup vocal like I wanted too, though I may have helped with that.

The craft touched down and I jumped out just as I started the chorus. We were barely on the outskirts of the battle which was fine by me. Hopefully I could make a path or have one made for me to get where I needed to be. Twilight and I walked quickly but cautiously towards the battle with her flanking me on the right. It was probably quite the sight as the two of us were literally singing while we were strolling along. Twilight's horn was lit up while my hands were glowing in anticipation of an attack.

It didn't take long as a large hollow with four arms rushed us from the left. I answered the charge by blasting it away with a beam. It felt good to know that I could defend myself against regular hollows. I doubted that I would be anything but a hindrance on the battlefield if I couldn't beat even that level of an enemy. A smaller hollow with a birdlike face and a short horn was intercepted by Twilight. She handled the hollow just as easily as I had. We were still too soft though as neither of us had killed our opponents.

This thankfully didn't come into play to bite us in the ass as they were dispatched by the smatterings of shinigami that fought on the battlefield. I didn't recognize any of them for a while. They were merely troops sent in to deal with the relentless hoards of hollows that were pouring out of five gargantas that each had to be the size of a football field. Don't get me wrong. I definitely appreciated how they were dealing with the hollows. I just wouldn't know who they are. I guess it still sounds bad even if it isn't meant to be.

The two of us did make good time even after the song had finished. Quite a bit of time was spent at a fast walk. Most of the first part was uneventful as barely any hollows approached us. Some of that was due to how the shinigami seemed to rotate around us as we moved along.

It was after we were over halfway there when things changed. After all, there would have been no fucking way I could just walk up to the rift and seal it without someone or something getting in the way. I just didn't expect what got in my way. Or that the entourage that was following us would suddenly disappear on us.

All three members of Harribel's Fracción, that would be Emilou Apacci, Franceska Mila Rose, and Cyan Sung-Sun if you didn't know of them, touched down in front of the two of us. I was pretty damn concerned if the looks on their faces were any indication. I had power, an incredible amount of power because of the battle, but I did not think for a second that I could take one of them on let alone all three. They had life and death combat experience for who knows how many years and I had the equivalent of eight hours' worth. I needed to not fight them.

"Where have you taken our Harribel-sama?!" yelled Apacci.

I still can't believe what I said next.

"What? You mean out to dinner or something?"

Two of the three of them drawing their swords, which I'm not going to call zanpakuto because fuck that since they're just imitating shinigami, was about what I expected as a reaction to what I said.

"Don't you dare speak like that to us you pervert!" Mila Rose yelled in return. "She went to meet with you two weeks ago and she never returned!"

"I wouldn't know then! That was future me! He's the suave ladies man. I'm just the past version who knows nothing and just admires how awesome I could be."

"You know, he does look quite different from the times we've seen him before," Sung-Sun commented. "He's certainly in much worse shape. A pity as that version looked more appealing."

"I'd be insulted if that wasn't also flattering."

"I said more appealing. It's like saying one patch of dirt looks better than the other."

"Would that mean you all like Harribel for her personality because I've always been curious about the possibility of relationships between humanoid hollows-"

"Enough!" Apacci yelled into my thoughts. "If you don't know where Harribel-sama is then you are of no use to us!"

"Alright look! I don't know what future me did, but she's one hundred percent alive. I would never kill a beautiful woman no matter what the situation! And yes that includes the three of you, and now I'm rambling. Oh god what am I saying? Twilight help me out of this," I said spewing out the last few lines.

"Per~vert," Mila Rose sing-songed with a predatory grin.

"After seeing what his future self did, I'm not sure I can completely deny that."

"You know what? Whatever! I don't care! If she left with me then I know she's safe and that's all I can tell you! Can I please get by so I can seal the rift and stop Aizen from killing everyone and everything!?" I asked in a loud, exasperated tone.

"Not a chance asshole," Apacci replied.

See, I thought that they might let me by because I could shift the blame away from myself onto my future self. I'm not exactly sure why I thought that might work. These three were devoted to Harribel on a dependence kind of level. Talking wouldn't work on them too well in the first place. There was also the fact that Aizen's entire army was exposed to Kyōka Suigetsu which meant they were instinctually hypnotized to follow his orders. That didn't mean they always would, but without a reason in their minds to do so, they would keep fighting for him.

Thankfully, I didn't have to fight them. In that moment just as it looked like they were about to rush me, Goku appeared in front of me using his space time move, instant transmission, or instantaneous movement depending on which language you want to use. It stopped the trio from attacking me before they could take a single step. Yeah, even with his back to them Goku could exert that kind of presence.

"Hey there Seth! You look... different... than usual."

"Time travel shenanigans are happening. I'm a past version."

"Ah! That makes sense. Were you who I was supposed to give this ball to?"

He flipped his hand over and in it was a glowing sphere a little smaller than a basketball. It was the orb that my future self had made.

"We would've brought this here sooner, but somebody ended up attacking Dirk on the way here so they asked me to come and get it."

"Dirk?" I asked.

"He's someone you got to know. He's okay though. Just a broken arm. I left the battle to go collect this for you since he couldn't deliver it. It's important right?"

"My future self says so and he's essentially me so... yes?"

"Alright then!" he said loudly and tossed me the orb.

As I caught it out of the air a fun little event happened. I received a fun slideshow of events in my brain. Well... not really that fun. Why? Because the information was going at super speed and hurt like hell. I'm pretty sure I let out a yell at the beginning as everything that the future me had experienced was now stampeding through my brain. Years worth of information at a pace that the human mind was not meant to view events at.

After a short time I made it to the point where future Seth started the recording and I promptly fell to my knees. I went to clutch my head and the orb literally faded away as I did so. Twilight was at my side already and placed her foreleg on my shoulder as the worst headache I had ever felt was quickly, and thankfully, fading away fast.

"Seth, are you okay?" she asked.

"Kinda," I gritted out.

"What just happened?"

"Yeah, I remember the first time I saw a memory orb in action," Goku commented helpfully. "Although I thought you had gotten rid of the side effects."

A memory came to the forefront that explained why.

"Yeah, future me was evening a debt and that was the payoff. Vegeta is a real asshole sometimes."

"Yeah he sure can be."

I was getting back to my feet when I noticed that the trio of ladies had disappeared during the little ordeal I had. Were they actually scared of Goku? Actually, that makes sense considering how powerful he is. I'm not concerned because I know who he is, but all they know is he's an enemy and he is incredibly powerful if not from what they could sense now then from what he has been capable of before.

"Now that that's over, we can go seal the rift," Twilight commented.

"I'd rather you didn't do that."

The sudden calm voice was jarring to everyone's near yelling voice. The fact that it came from above me made it even more confusing. At least until I realized that a lot of these people could fly or hover. So I looked up to see who it was and immediately was not happy.

It was the big boss man, Sosuke Aizen.

"Aizen," Goku said angrily. "We were wondering where you were for this. You've finally shown yourself," he finished while getting into a fighting stance.

"I was here the whole time. I wished to observe the man who thought that he could stop my ambitions. I must say that when I saw you entering the battlefield that I realized something was amiss. I may never have had the opportunity to talk with you face to face, but even I can see the obvious physical changes in you. You're not really at your best right now are you?"

"He doesn't have to be. I can take you on right now!" Goku yelled adamantly.

"Perhaps, but can you defend both of them at the same time?"

I didn't even see or hear his answer. Instead, I had a flashback of my other self's life. The other me holding Twilight's body with a bloody gash on her side and a puncture wound on her neck as he cried in anguish. With that image in my head, I feel more determined than ever to keep it from happening again. As such I tossed Eris over to Twilight.

"Goku, you and Twilight head to the rift."

"You can't win against him!" he yelled back at me. "Even the other you couldn't win against him and he's much more battle hardened!"

"I don't have to! Get her to the rift! She's the only one who can seal it anyway! Do it and this ends! GO!"

Even I was surprised at how authoritative I sounded right then. It didn't look like they were going to listen though. At least at first it didn't. Goku then let out a sigh of resignation.

"If this is your battle then so be it. Just don't die."

Twilight gave him quite the look that I barely caught out of the corner of my eye.

"You can't possibly be considering-"

She didn't have time to complete her sentence as Goku disappeared with her using his Instant Transmission technique. I had no idea if she would just come back to me or if he could get her to go on without me. It didn't really matter. I had to hold off Aizen either way.

...

...I really hope the Dragonballs work on me.

Author's Note:

I found out while I was making this chapter about Skillet releasing a new album. I found it funny considering that I had planned to use the Skillet song in this chapter since last year.

Comments

[D48]

Well, this looks like it is going to hurt. Have fun.

Also, I'm a bit concerned that Twilight's death may be locked in because her soul did go back to Equestria which apparently does not allow branching timelines, so the need to form a stable time loop there could affect things here and force her to die again.

[Kichi]

:o Do you like Skillet? I only heared around two songs... Monster and Hero, but they are very good.

[Coltsguy]

7264859 Yeah, they're a pretty good band. They put out two new songs for their next album already. Feel Invincible is something I jammed to for almost an hour straight when I found it.

[Kichi]

7264936 Listening right now... I think I will add it to my list