This topic is for Laetus and Cyril. And Makoto now.

Cyril approached the Vegetian Palace. "Laetus!" Cyril called.

An extremely un-extravagent looking Saiyan approached the man shouting, "Excuse me! Please be quiet. King Artik is having a meeting. Were you invited?"

Cyril's wrist beeped, "Let him in," Laetus said.

Cyril stayed silent and allowed the Saiyan to escort him in. King Artik?

Artik was talking to the man calling him self Leonardo. "You know, I knew a chap with that name. He saw me flying around and became obsessed with the idea," he had told Laetusnardo, "a shame he was born so far back in earth history."

Laetus winked at Cyril as Artik spoke, "...Won twenty quid from Churchill with that!" He chuckled, stopping abruptly when he saw Cyril, "Ah," he got from the throne and clapped him on the back, "Cyril, m'boy! How the hell are you?"

"Busy! Insufferably busy! But you know the rules, always waste time when you have none!" Cyril laughed. He had wondered if Artik would still be floating around in his past. It'd be interesting to see how Artik would react to the sudden melting of everything.

Artik suddenly laughed, "Dear God, you're old! Wings and things!"

Laetus spoke, "Su---"

"Susan? Were you about to call me Susan, Lenny?" He paused, "Catchy."

"Err. Right. Susan, your friend is a fighter. Why don't you ever train?"

Susan sighed, "I'd love to, but I owe it to Vegeta to be king. Priorities. I felt bad," he explained to Cyril. "Then, I found this nifty time machine!" He chuckled at the novelty, "A TARDIS! In this day and age! Well, I got this idea. I'm immortal, or damn close to it. So, here I am, not even able to go SSJ, being king for a century. Or several. Till they get sick of me. Then, pop back to you guys and I don't have to worry about my responsibilities. Well. I'll get my people back at some point. Leonardo here reminds me a bit of them."

Laetus tensed up. "Perhaps, Mr. Cyril and I should allow you to get on with it."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Cyril agreed.

Laetus waited until he and Cyril were wandering about the Capital City to speak, "You understand my surprise when I went to Vegeta, to find the BLOODY SUN KING SITTING RIGHT THERE."

Cyril grinned, "Well yes. You can hardly expect a time traveler to be dead all the time. Though I didn't expect him to still be alive in the present...."

This was the part where Laetus gulped. "I wasn't talking about the Artik you saw back there." He pulled out a small black disc, from which sprouted an HD hologram of Artik. "See that mustache? Well, for one it looks ridiculous. But the thing is, have you ever seen him with one?"

Artik tackled Laetus to the ground. Laetus gestured in disbelief from Cyril to Artik. The Sun King cracked his neck and took off the fake moustache, muttering something about, "the elememt of surprise."

Artik pulled Laetus up and hugged him. "Great to be back! Good thing I didn't set the damn thing to Nova Roma again," he tapped his neural wristwatch. "Before you ask, it's me. Synchronized with you me. Turned into goo. But," he tapped his wristwatch again, "Matter doesn't matter. The matter pattern matters. Saved my molecular blueprints and rearranged several atmospheric molecules, and Bob's-your-uncle! Every atom, right down to my braincells with every memory." He hit the device against a wall, smashing it. "Can't have that getting around!" He frowned, "I'll fall apart again by... february? Or the end of it." He shrugged, "C'est la muert! The universe wants me dead, can't change it." He slapped himself in the face and laughed, "It's good to be all put together! I regained my composure! We're on solid footing." He stopped the wordplay, "No, but seriously. Here to help save everything."

"No, no I haven't actually. Eugh." Cyril drew conclusions, "So this isn't an Artik we know?"

Laetus shook his head, "He's ours."

"Don't make me connect dots today, Laetus." Cyril warned. "I'm too anxious for that."

Artik smiled, "I'm Artik. The Artik. Present Artik. Well, I say present. Future Artik. ButI went back after being king for a while, and... here we are! I'm synched up with you. After Trenzalore."

Cyril scrunched together his eyebrows. "'After Trenzalore? Are you saying that YOU are after Trenzalore or that the TIME is after Trenzalore and YOU are in the right time, but the Artik on Trenzalore was FUTURE you?" Cyril shifted his weight and held up his hand. "Let me rephrase this. Not dead?"

Artik chuckled, "I am from immediately after Trenzalore. I've been going in a straight line for a while, now. It's been the same amount of time elapsed since the Five Armies for both of us. I died, this neural watch thimg brought me back to life. Until the universe finds out I'm alive and I get re-pureéd." Artik shrugged. "And now I have to help you guys figure out what's going on."

"Okay so not dead." said Cyril, satisfied. "Not dead, yet!" he corrected himself.
"Well, any theories?"

Artik looked at Laetus, "Oversee the research." He clapped his fellow Roman on the back, "Don't worry," he chuckled, "paradoxes almost always fix themselves." Laetus disappeared with a crack. Artik turned to Cyril with a swish of his robes, "Right. We're going to have to go on another Mystery Tour. But... this time... backtracking. We have to go back to pur previous adventures. There're things to look for." He stroked his chin for a moment, "Night as well bring Makoto along; I heard Riza's abusing him." He put on a solemn face, "Speaking of the Empty King... I must not allow him to know about me." Artik handed Cyril a black pepplesack, "Go get Makoto. I'll meet you at the Grand Observation Platform, or whatever the buggery I called it. The... platform overlooking the rift/gate thing."

Cyril took the black peoplesack. Not the blackpeople sack. That would be racist. It's a people sack that is black. "Sounds good. I'll kidnap Makoto and make sure his abuser can't track us." Cyril IT'd away. A few minutes later Cyril returned with Makoto in the people sack and let him loose. "Hi Makoto!" he said cheerfully.

Makoto looked at Artik. "God fucking dammit!" Makoto pulled out his wallet. "Give me a minute." Makoto teleported away then teleported back.

Artik grinned, "Lost a bet?" He laughed. "Gentlemen, we'll have to cross our personal timestreams. It'll be dangerous and hilarious."

"We'll have to all completely lower our power levels to hide our ki signatures. Even then we run the risk of being detected via ki sense." Cyril remarked. Cyril glowed white and sparks crackled along his skin. In a small whirlwind of energy Cyril changed his shape into that of small, female Rava with sparkling blue eyes and tufted cat ears and a tail. No wings. "There, who would guess I'm Cyril? You know, other than myself in a different time line after some detailed observation. And best of all, no bloody ridiculous rubber mask!" Cyril looked tired. Establishing oneself as canonically genderfluid was hard work. "You know it's been awhile since I was last a female." Cyril said thoughtfully.

Makoto growled. "Me Riza and El bet on how long it would take for you to reveal your dumb ass is still alive.... Riza won...motherfucker got 100 of my zenni."

Artik turned himself into a black man, "Wait... too rare." He thought about about and turned into Mr. Peanut--- monacle, tophat, gloves, and cane. "Glass onion!" He laughed.