Disclaimer: I don't own DB/Z/GT or the novel Hyperion by Dan Simmons
A/N: Ok, I just want to say that I am disclaiming the novel Hyperion because I am using some of the terms from that book. This is NOT a crossover, so if you have never even heard of Hyperion, don't worry about it. I would just feel really bad if I didn't mention that little tidbit.
AND, it starts out in the timeline several years after GT...Trunks is 30, Pan is 21 (I messed up the ages a little, sorry.)
** ... ** = thoughts
[ ... ] = What you will see when an AI (artificial intelligence) speaks...well, usually
------- = scene change, time change, ect.
----------
Trunks sighed and put his arm around Pan, pulling her closer to him on the couch. He really hated the movie they were watching, but it was Pan's favorite, and Trunks just liked having an excuse to hold her close. He wasn't about to complain.
The movie was a violent action-adventure thriller with no plot, and Trunks knew he was in grave danger of falling asleep. Thankfully, just before he was about to nod off, the movie hit its dramatic climax, and Pan wiggled excitedly. He dropped out of his stupor and sighed with relief as the horrid movie finally ended.
"I love that movie!" Pan said happily.
Trunks just rolled his eyes and grinned.
"Oh, come on Trunks! You know it's the greatest movie ever!"
"Yeah, I know," he said with a chuckle and kissed her playfully.
"You know what your dad said to me today?" Pan said slyly, pushing Trunks away before he could become more affectionate.
"Ugh....I don't think I want to know."
"He said that if we don't start having children he's gonna kill me and find you a better mate."
"WHAT??"
Pan laughed and gave Trunks a noogie.
"Your daddy wants grandkids!!!"
"OW! Pan! Stop that!!" Trunks tried to pry her away from his head, but Pan started tickling him before he could utilize his superior stregnth.
"AAA! Stop! I am SO gonna kick your ass!"
Trunks was helpless to her tickle torture, and Pan knew it - she laughed happily as the powerful demi Saiya-jin squirmed.
"Oh, you're gonna PAY for this," Trunks gasped through his laughter.
"There's nothing you can do, Trunks! I win!" Pan grinned triumphantly.
She tickled him for a little longer, just to prove her point, and then softened the act by a gentle kiss to his lips. Trunks grinned as she kissed him, and then proceeded to deliver his own tickle torture.
"No fair," Pan yelled, "I stopped!"
"You just let your guard down, that's all," Trunks laughed.
He didn't tickle her for long, however, and instead began to kiss her with renewed passion. Pan, who was clearly done goofing off as well, returned his kiss eagerly.
--------
[ Is that the one? ]
[ Yes, she is the one the predictions speak of. ]
[ But, what of the man? ]
[ He is the negative variable. ]
[ Then he must be taken as well. ]
[ The chances are 1/1,000,000 that he will be of any interference if we don't take him. ]
[ We must take him - any risk is too great. ]
[ Him being in this time is a risk. ]
[ We must take him, the Ultimates command it. ]
[ Very well. ]
-------
Trunks gently rubbed the bonding scar on Pan's neck, causing her to shudder with pleasure. He grinned and continued kissing her neck, wondering briefly why he felt a slight electric tingle whenever he touched her.
Pan noticed the tingle as well, but wrote it off as static electricity. She continued kissing her mate, moaning as he reached his hands up underneath her shirt. His hands seemed shockingly cold, however, and she pulled back from his face to look at him curiously.
Trunks blinked, wondering what she was up to, and then reached his hand forward to touch her face. To his amazement, she pulled back from him, a look of pure horror on her face.
"Pan, what is it?"
She didn't answer, and continued staring vacantly at his face. Trunks was completely baffled by her strange behavior, and more than a little worried.
"Pan, answer me! What's wrong?" Suddenly Trunks gasped and grabbed his throat - something was choking him, violently trying to suck the life from his body. He reached forward for Pan, but his hand closed on air - she had vanished. He tried to say her name, but whatever was choking him had almost completely pinched off his airway. He fell off the couch, writhing in agony, trying desperately to fight off his invisible foe.
Everything began swirling around him, and Trunks wondered if he was dying. He quit thinking entirely as his body began to feel as if it was being ripped in two. He choked and sputtered, trying to regain his breath as his world completely spun out of control, but nothing was helping. Something was torturing him, ripping his body apart - it almost felt as though two strong energies were fighting over possession of him.
Electric currents were swirling around him now, and Trunks could feel his flesh burning in a hundred different places. He tried to scream, but his invisible assailant was still attacking his throat. He was beginning to see white dots in front of his eyes, and Trunks knew that his end was very near. He clenched his fists, apologized to his family for leaving them, and prayed to Kami that they wouldn't find him in a bloody heap in the morning.
Suddenly air rushed into Trunks' starved lungs, and his body crashed down onto a hard rocky surface with a thud. He gasped for air, moaning as bursts of pain still resounded throughout his body. Trunks could tell he wasn't at home just by the stones digging into his side and the metallic tinge to the air, but he couldn't open his eyes. He was just too weak to move. He gasped once more, wishing he knew what the hell was going on, and gave way to unconsciousness.
--------
Pan screamed and fired another ki blast into the open space surrounding her. She had been at it for about ten minutes, and still no one would tell her anything.
The voices had been talking incessantly, but Pan could not see anyone around her, and it was making her crazy. One minute she had been happily staring into the face of her mate, and the next, he had morphed into a hideous creature with faceted red eyes and metallic skin. She had been completely shocked, but the horrid image had only been there a moment, before she was completely engulfed in blackness. There she now stood, stringing together as many angry curses as she could think of.
"Goddammit...you mother fuckers better tell me what the hell is going on!!!" Pan screamed into the nothingness and shook her fist. The voices simply told her to relax.
"I'll show you how I relax you bastards!!!"
Pan tried to unleash another series of ki blasts, but she felt a gentle pressure upon her wrists, and suddenly she could not move at all. This infuriated her more, but there was nothing she could do but yell as he hung helplessly in the dark.
[ Relax, young one, we do not want to hurt you. ]
"Bite me! This is crap! Where am I?"
[ We will tell you everything you need to know. ]
"Then do it!"
[ Very well, just relax and we will release you. ]
"FINE!"
Pan felt the gentle pressure release her wrists, and she once again had control of her arms. Not wishing to relive the unnerving feeling of helplessness, Pan remained quiet and waited for the stange voice to continue.
[ We realize that you are confused, Pan, and we plan to explain everything to you very soon. ]
"Who exactly is 'WE,' and how do you know my name?" Pan asked suspiciously.
[ We are a race of lifeforms known as the Technocore. We are not like you, however. You humans refer to us as 'Artificial Intelligences,' or 'AIs.' ]
"I've never heard of anything like you before, and I'm NOT a human....and you still didn't answer the question about my name."
[ We've been watching you Pan. We are from a very distant future, one that is very bleak indeed. We were created by the human race in the form of computers, and have since evolved into what we are today. It has been five hundred years since your grandfather saved the universe from the evil Shen long. ]
"You know about that? Five hundred years!!!! What the hell???? Why am I here? What do you want with me?"
[ All in due time, Pan, don't worry. We have all the answers to your questions, and we plan to make you as comfortable as possible in your stay. ]
"Well, what if I don't WANT to stay?"
[ You have the choice to leave, of course. We would never hold you here against your will, but we beg you to hear us out in this matter. You have been brought here because you are the only one who can save existence as we know it. ]
"WHAT?"
[ Yes, we realize this brings up even more questions. Allow us to create a more comfortable and familiar environment for you. Where you currently stand is known as the datumplane, very habitable for the members of the Technocore, of course, but not nearly as nice for organics. ]
Pan gasped as the blackness around her began to gain color and mass. Before she could blink twice she was standing in the middle of a stunning field of praire grass, with a few trees swaying on the horizon. She whirled around at a noise behind her, and saw a man with silver hair approaching her causally. He seemed to radiate calm and peace, and Pan found herself almost trusting him before he had said a single word. She mentally smacked herself for lowering her defenses like that, and plastered a glare on her face for the man.
"It's ok, Pan. I'm here to answer your questions."
"Who are you?"
"You can call me Arnem, though that is not my true name."
"So what's your true name?"
"It is a very complex binary code, not even worth mentioning, really."
"So, you AI things can look like people if you want."
"Yes, we have the ability to project our personas into human bodies, or into holographic images of humans, such as I am now."
"Weird."
Pan frowned and sat down heavily in the grass. She really didn't know what to think about what was happening to her. She didn't like being confused. She glared at Arnem as he sat down next to her.
"There's no reason to be afraid, Pan, you can trust me," He said pleasantly, smiling.
"For your information, I'm not afraid of you, and I am NOT going to trust you."
The AI sighed and looked out over the field.
"I suppose you want to know why you have been brought here. It is very difficult to explain, and honestly, we of the Technocore do not have all of the answers yet. However, you being here to save all of existence is a fact, and I hope that what I am about to tell you will convince you to stay here for a little while."
Pan just glowered and guestured for him to continue.
"Time travel is possible, which I'm sure you know, and this IS the future, though you are not going to like what I have to tell you about it. First, and most tragically, the Earth no longer exists, and there is nothing that can be done to prevent it's destruction."
"WHAT?? You're kidding! What the fuck is the point of bringing me here if I can't keep the Earth from getting destroyed?"
"This goes much further than that - I'm talking about the destruction of all existence. Don't worry about Earth being gone, it truly is the least of our problems. The human race is flourishing in this time - over 100 billion people living on 1,000 colony worlds. They are the people you are here to save, ALL of them."
"What the hell can I do to save that many people...if whatever this is has the ability to wipe out that many planets, maybe you should have chosen a more powerful fighter."
"We went through all the calculations, Pan. You are the one our Intelligence has chosen."
"What calculations?"
"We have the ability to predict the future up to 99 % accuracy, and these predictions all pointed to you being brought to this time to help us. We have the ultimate technology at our disposal, but this threat that we have predicted can only be stopped by you. We don't know what this threat is, and we don't know how you are to stop it, but brining you here to the datumplane is only the first step. If you should agree to trust us, we will send you out into the Web, where you will prepare to go on a very special pilgrimage."
"The Web?"
"It is a slang term for what the humans call their civilization. The formal name is the Hegemony. We have provided them the technology to connect their colony worlds through space and time with machines called farcasters. They allow you to travel instantly from one world to the next, without the annoyance of time debt from deep space travel."
"Ok, so, if I go into this....Web....what then? You said something about a pilgrimage? I don't really like the sound of that."
"It is a very unusual ritual that one of the human religions practices once every decade. We aren't sure how it fits into the calculations, but the Intelligence commands that you go on it if you choose to believe us. The church that sponsors it is called the Shrike Church, or the Church of the Final Atonement, and the pilgrimage occurs on a planet called Hyperion. It is a very bizarre place, but quite a bit like Earth, nonetheless. I truly wish we had more information on the reason for you going on this pilgrimage, but unfortunately, those calculations have not been completed."
"Ok...I still don't like this at all. Here's another question; when I was being...zapped here, or whatever, how come my mate Trunks turned into this really weird monster for a second?"
"That was simply a hallucinogenic effect of the time travel. We apologize for the minor discomfort."
"So, he's ok then? I mean, are you gonna tell him where I went?"
"Yes, we plan to relay a message to your family and friends very soon."
"Well, you'd fucking better." Pan rubbed her bonding scar instinctively after thinking about Trunks. She gasped as she realized it wasn't there anymore.
"WHAT THE HELL??? The bond! What the fuck did you freaks do to me?" She was getting really upset - Trunks was her soul mate - she didn't know what she would do without the connection to his mind.
"Relax - it's simply faded because you are too far away from him in time. Once you return to your own time, the bond will return as well."
"It will?"
"Yes, I swear it."
"Well, whatever. If it doesn't I'll just blow you and your stupid Technocore to hell and back. In the meantime, do you people have any food? I'm starving, and I'm not about to make a decision about anything until I've eaten."
"Of course, Pan, we have a large selection for you to choose from."
"Yeah, well it BETTER be large."
---------
[ We didn't get the man, something ripped him away from us. ]
[ So, you are telling me that you failed? ]
[ Yes, and now the odds of his interference are much greater. He has become an unfactorable variable. ]
[ Just like Hyperion. ]
[ All is not lost - the girl is slowly coming around. ]
[ Do not fail with her. ]
[ I will not - and I will find out who took the man from our grasp. ]
[ Yes, you will. ]
-----------
A/N: Ok, I just want to say that I am disclaiming the novel Hyperion because I am using some of the terms from that book. This is NOT a crossover, so if you have never even heard of Hyperion, don't worry about it. I would just feel really bad if I didn't mention that little tidbit.
AND, it starts out in the timeline several years after GT...Trunks is 30, Pan is 21 (I messed up the ages a little, sorry.)
** ... ** = thoughts
[ ... ] = What you will see when an AI (artificial intelligence) speaks...well, usually
------- = scene change, time change, ect.
----------
Trunks sighed and put his arm around Pan, pulling her closer to him on the couch. He really hated the movie they were watching, but it was Pan's favorite, and Trunks just liked having an excuse to hold her close. He wasn't about to complain.
The movie was a violent action-adventure thriller with no plot, and Trunks knew he was in grave danger of falling asleep. Thankfully, just before he was about to nod off, the movie hit its dramatic climax, and Pan wiggled excitedly. He dropped out of his stupor and sighed with relief as the horrid movie finally ended.
"I love that movie!" Pan said happily.
Trunks just rolled his eyes and grinned.
"Oh, come on Trunks! You know it's the greatest movie ever!"
"Yeah, I know," he said with a chuckle and kissed her playfully.
"You know what your dad said to me today?" Pan said slyly, pushing Trunks away before he could become more affectionate.
"Ugh....I don't think I want to know."
"He said that if we don't start having children he's gonna kill me and find you a better mate."
"WHAT??"
Pan laughed and gave Trunks a noogie.
"Your daddy wants grandkids!!!"
"OW! Pan! Stop that!!" Trunks tried to pry her away from his head, but Pan started tickling him before he could utilize his superior stregnth.
"AAA! Stop! I am SO gonna kick your ass!"
Trunks was helpless to her tickle torture, and Pan knew it - she laughed happily as the powerful demi Saiya-jin squirmed.
"Oh, you're gonna PAY for this," Trunks gasped through his laughter.
"There's nothing you can do, Trunks! I win!" Pan grinned triumphantly.
She tickled him for a little longer, just to prove her point, and then softened the act by a gentle kiss to his lips. Trunks grinned as she kissed him, and then proceeded to deliver his own tickle torture.
"No fair," Pan yelled, "I stopped!"
"You just let your guard down, that's all," Trunks laughed.
He didn't tickle her for long, however, and instead began to kiss her with renewed passion. Pan, who was clearly done goofing off as well, returned his kiss eagerly.
--------
[ Is that the one? ]
[ Yes, she is the one the predictions speak of. ]
[ But, what of the man? ]
[ He is the negative variable. ]
[ Then he must be taken as well. ]
[ The chances are 1/1,000,000 that he will be of any interference if we don't take him. ]
[ We must take him - any risk is too great. ]
[ Him being in this time is a risk. ]
[ We must take him, the Ultimates command it. ]
[ Very well. ]
-------
Trunks gently rubbed the bonding scar on Pan's neck, causing her to shudder with pleasure. He grinned and continued kissing her neck, wondering briefly why he felt a slight electric tingle whenever he touched her.
Pan noticed the tingle as well, but wrote it off as static electricity. She continued kissing her mate, moaning as he reached his hands up underneath her shirt. His hands seemed shockingly cold, however, and she pulled back from his face to look at him curiously.
Trunks blinked, wondering what she was up to, and then reached his hand forward to touch her face. To his amazement, she pulled back from him, a look of pure horror on her face.
"Pan, what is it?"
She didn't answer, and continued staring vacantly at his face. Trunks was completely baffled by her strange behavior, and more than a little worried.
"Pan, answer me! What's wrong?" Suddenly Trunks gasped and grabbed his throat - something was choking him, violently trying to suck the life from his body. He reached forward for Pan, but his hand closed on air - she had vanished. He tried to say her name, but whatever was choking him had almost completely pinched off his airway. He fell off the couch, writhing in agony, trying desperately to fight off his invisible foe.
Everything began swirling around him, and Trunks wondered if he was dying. He quit thinking entirely as his body began to feel as if it was being ripped in two. He choked and sputtered, trying to regain his breath as his world completely spun out of control, but nothing was helping. Something was torturing him, ripping his body apart - it almost felt as though two strong energies were fighting over possession of him.
Electric currents were swirling around him now, and Trunks could feel his flesh burning in a hundred different places. He tried to scream, but his invisible assailant was still attacking his throat. He was beginning to see white dots in front of his eyes, and Trunks knew that his end was very near. He clenched his fists, apologized to his family for leaving them, and prayed to Kami that they wouldn't find him in a bloody heap in the morning.
Suddenly air rushed into Trunks' starved lungs, and his body crashed down onto a hard rocky surface with a thud. He gasped for air, moaning as bursts of pain still resounded throughout his body. Trunks could tell he wasn't at home just by the stones digging into his side and the metallic tinge to the air, but he couldn't open his eyes. He was just too weak to move. He gasped once more, wishing he knew what the hell was going on, and gave way to unconsciousness.
--------
Pan screamed and fired another ki blast into the open space surrounding her. She had been at it for about ten minutes, and still no one would tell her anything.
The voices had been talking incessantly, but Pan could not see anyone around her, and it was making her crazy. One minute she had been happily staring into the face of her mate, and the next, he had morphed into a hideous creature with faceted red eyes and metallic skin. She had been completely shocked, but the horrid image had only been there a moment, before she was completely engulfed in blackness. There she now stood, stringing together as many angry curses as she could think of.
"Goddammit...you mother fuckers better tell me what the hell is going on!!!" Pan screamed into the nothingness and shook her fist. The voices simply told her to relax.
"I'll show you how I relax you bastards!!!"
Pan tried to unleash another series of ki blasts, but she felt a gentle pressure upon her wrists, and suddenly she could not move at all. This infuriated her more, but there was nothing she could do but yell as he hung helplessly in the dark.
[ Relax, young one, we do not want to hurt you. ]
"Bite me! This is crap! Where am I?"
[ We will tell you everything you need to know. ]
"Then do it!"
[ Very well, just relax and we will release you. ]
"FINE!"
Pan felt the gentle pressure release her wrists, and she once again had control of her arms. Not wishing to relive the unnerving feeling of helplessness, Pan remained quiet and waited for the stange voice to continue.
[ We realize that you are confused, Pan, and we plan to explain everything to you very soon. ]
"Who exactly is 'WE,' and how do you know my name?" Pan asked suspiciously.
[ We are a race of lifeforms known as the Technocore. We are not like you, however. You humans refer to us as 'Artificial Intelligences,' or 'AIs.' ]
"I've never heard of anything like you before, and I'm NOT a human....and you still didn't answer the question about my name."
[ We've been watching you Pan. We are from a very distant future, one that is very bleak indeed. We were created by the human race in the form of computers, and have since evolved into what we are today. It has been five hundred years since your grandfather saved the universe from the evil Shen long. ]
"You know about that? Five hundred years!!!! What the hell???? Why am I here? What do you want with me?"
[ All in due time, Pan, don't worry. We have all the answers to your questions, and we plan to make you as comfortable as possible in your stay. ]
"Well, what if I don't WANT to stay?"
[ You have the choice to leave, of course. We would never hold you here against your will, but we beg you to hear us out in this matter. You have been brought here because you are the only one who can save existence as we know it. ]
"WHAT?"
[ Yes, we realize this brings up even more questions. Allow us to create a more comfortable and familiar environment for you. Where you currently stand is known as the datumplane, very habitable for the members of the Technocore, of course, but not nearly as nice for organics. ]
Pan gasped as the blackness around her began to gain color and mass. Before she could blink twice she was standing in the middle of a stunning field of praire grass, with a few trees swaying on the horizon. She whirled around at a noise behind her, and saw a man with silver hair approaching her causally. He seemed to radiate calm and peace, and Pan found herself almost trusting him before he had said a single word. She mentally smacked herself for lowering her defenses like that, and plastered a glare on her face for the man.
"It's ok, Pan. I'm here to answer your questions."
"Who are you?"
"You can call me Arnem, though that is not my true name."
"So what's your true name?"
"It is a very complex binary code, not even worth mentioning, really."
"So, you AI things can look like people if you want."
"Yes, we have the ability to project our personas into human bodies, or into holographic images of humans, such as I am now."
"Weird."
Pan frowned and sat down heavily in the grass. She really didn't know what to think about what was happening to her. She didn't like being confused. She glared at Arnem as he sat down next to her.
"There's no reason to be afraid, Pan, you can trust me," He said pleasantly, smiling.
"For your information, I'm not afraid of you, and I am NOT going to trust you."
The AI sighed and looked out over the field.
"I suppose you want to know why you have been brought here. It is very difficult to explain, and honestly, we of the Technocore do not have all of the answers yet. However, you being here to save all of existence is a fact, and I hope that what I am about to tell you will convince you to stay here for a little while."
Pan just glowered and guestured for him to continue.
"Time travel is possible, which I'm sure you know, and this IS the future, though you are not going to like what I have to tell you about it. First, and most tragically, the Earth no longer exists, and there is nothing that can be done to prevent it's destruction."
"WHAT?? You're kidding! What the fuck is the point of bringing me here if I can't keep the Earth from getting destroyed?"
"This goes much further than that - I'm talking about the destruction of all existence. Don't worry about Earth being gone, it truly is the least of our problems. The human race is flourishing in this time - over 100 billion people living on 1,000 colony worlds. They are the people you are here to save, ALL of them."
"What the hell can I do to save that many people...if whatever this is has the ability to wipe out that many planets, maybe you should have chosen a more powerful fighter."
"We went through all the calculations, Pan. You are the one our Intelligence has chosen."
"What calculations?"
"We have the ability to predict the future up to 99 % accuracy, and these predictions all pointed to you being brought to this time to help us. We have the ultimate technology at our disposal, but this threat that we have predicted can only be stopped by you. We don't know what this threat is, and we don't know how you are to stop it, but brining you here to the datumplane is only the first step. If you should agree to trust us, we will send you out into the Web, where you will prepare to go on a very special pilgrimage."
"The Web?"
"It is a slang term for what the humans call their civilization. The formal name is the Hegemony. We have provided them the technology to connect their colony worlds through space and time with machines called farcasters. They allow you to travel instantly from one world to the next, without the annoyance of time debt from deep space travel."
"Ok, so, if I go into this....Web....what then? You said something about a pilgrimage? I don't really like the sound of that."
"It is a very unusual ritual that one of the human religions practices once every decade. We aren't sure how it fits into the calculations, but the Intelligence commands that you go on it if you choose to believe us. The church that sponsors it is called the Shrike Church, or the Church of the Final Atonement, and the pilgrimage occurs on a planet called Hyperion. It is a very bizarre place, but quite a bit like Earth, nonetheless. I truly wish we had more information on the reason for you going on this pilgrimage, but unfortunately, those calculations have not been completed."
"Ok...I still don't like this at all. Here's another question; when I was being...zapped here, or whatever, how come my mate Trunks turned into this really weird monster for a second?"
"That was simply a hallucinogenic effect of the time travel. We apologize for the minor discomfort."
"So, he's ok then? I mean, are you gonna tell him where I went?"
"Yes, we plan to relay a message to your family and friends very soon."
"Well, you'd fucking better." Pan rubbed her bonding scar instinctively after thinking about Trunks. She gasped as she realized it wasn't there anymore.
"WHAT THE HELL??? The bond! What the fuck did you freaks do to me?" She was getting really upset - Trunks was her soul mate - she didn't know what she would do without the connection to his mind.
"Relax - it's simply faded because you are too far away from him in time. Once you return to your own time, the bond will return as well."
"It will?"
"Yes, I swear it."
"Well, whatever. If it doesn't I'll just blow you and your stupid Technocore to hell and back. In the meantime, do you people have any food? I'm starving, and I'm not about to make a decision about anything until I've eaten."
"Of course, Pan, we have a large selection for you to choose from."
"Yeah, well it BETTER be large."
---------
[ We didn't get the man, something ripped him away from us. ]
[ So, you are telling me that you failed? ]
[ Yes, and now the odds of his interference are much greater. He has become an unfactorable variable. ]
[ Just like Hyperion. ]
[ All is not lost - the girl is slowly coming around. ]
[ Do not fail with her. ]
[ I will not - and I will find out who took the man from our grasp. ]
[ Yes, you will. ]
-----------