Author's Note 12-16-10: This story is a companion story to "Is There Life?" While originally, I meant for each story to stand on its own, this one most likely will not (so after you finish here, you might want to go read the other story). This story happens in the Mirai timeline. Just one chapter at the moment; it might take me a week or two to get up the second chapter. A character listing can be found in "Is There Life?" Chapter 17. For this chapter, the only one to really note is that Anna (my own character) is Goten's twin. I hope you enjoy my story. I enjoy reviews, so please leave me a review (but no flames please, there is no need to be hateful if you don't like the story).

In Search for Restoration

Chapter 1: To the Past . . . Again

Trunks sighed as he watched over his sleeping wife and cursed the androids for he didn't know how many times. Anna was so weak these days. Nothing they did helped her. If Dr. Gero's androids hadn't come, maybe things would be different. Goku would still be dead from the heart virus, but Vegeta would still be alive, and he probably would know how to save Anna. Bulma had exhausted her knowledge of human diseases as to what was affecting Anna, so it had to be something from her Saiyan background, maybe something to do with her not having a tail. Trunks knew there was only one thing he could do. He had to make a trip to the past to see his father there. Trunks only prayed Anna and their child could survive without him for the time it took to get her help.

"Trunks, are you sure about this?" Bulma asked the next morning over breakfast after he told the others his plan to go back into the past to consult Vegeta.

"What other choice do we have, mother?" Trunks replied, picking at his eggs as he looked to the hallway down which led to his room where Anna still lay asleep, "Anna is getting weaker by the day. I don't even know if our child is going to survive. Nothing we have done has helped. If I go back in time and speak with father, maybe I can find someway to help them."

"Do you really think father would help?" Bulla asked from across the table where she sat with her husband, Goten, and ChiChi, "You've said he's not the easiest man to be around, and he keeps quite to himself."

"I have to try, Bulla. I can't just do nothing. Father may be a loner, but he's not completely without compassion. If he knows what is happening here, I'm fairly certain he will help me. If he won't willingly, then I can always get mom to put pressure on him," Trunks replied, winking at Bulma as she walked over to the table.

Bulma chuckled as she sat another platter of food on the table before taking her seat. "I doubt it will come to that, Trunks. Vegeta was a hard man, but he always cared about you children, even if he never showed his emotions. I'm sure he'll be willing to help you, Trunks. Anna and Goten are sure to have been born in that timeline as well. Chances are, Vegeta has already had to save Anna there."

"You think we will have been, Bulma? Even with father having died against Cell and us not born yet?" Goten asked.

"You were," Trunks answered, trying to force himself to eat, "After I defeated Cell here, when I went back, ChiChi was pregnant with you. Gohan was sustaining her. That's how I had the idea for you to help Anna, or well, would have been my idea if dad hadn't already had told you to do that."

"Well I for one agree with you, Trunks," ChiChi said, using her chop sticks to point at him, "Vegeta showed us how to help Anna here; I'm sure he'll help in the past too. Anything to save my child."

"Trunks, do you think, well, that maybe I could go with you?" Goten asked to the shock and horror of Bulla and ChiChi.

"Absolutely no way, Goten. You are staying put right here," ChiChi countered firmly before Trunks had a chance to answer, "Trouble follows the Z Fighters like a lost puppy. I won't take the chance of loosing you in the past. I already lost Goku and Gohan. No way will I loose you, too."

"But mom, I could learn from Gohan and the other Z Fighters. And Vegeta might need me to show me something to help Anna. Trunks learned so much when he went back before. Let me have a chance to do the same thing. Besides, I doubt you in the past will let anything happen to me," Goten argued. He just knew he had to go to the past with Trunks and learn from the Z Fighters like his friend had.

"He has a good point, ChiChi. Vegeta might need Goten in order to show him what to do for Anna. Vegeta has so much knowledge but he isn't the best at putting it into words," Bulma agreed with her son-in-law. She only hoped Trunks' plan to talk to Vegeta for help would actually work.

Bulla gently placed her hand on Goten's arm. "I think you should go, but be careful please. I would like to have you in one piece when you come back," she said softly. She wished she could go with her husband and brother but knew she couldn't as she carried Goten's child.

"Then I think it's settled. Goten will go back with me," Trunks replied, nodding to his best friend, "Mom, how long will it take you to prepare the time machine?"

"With modifying it to hold two people and refueling it, give me three days. That should give me plenty of time to get everything done. I'll start on it right after breakfast," Bulma replied. She couldn't help but notice the slight relief on her son's face.

"I hope you find what you need in the past, Trunks," Anna said softly later that day as Trunks sat at her bedside. She placed her hand atop her rounded abdomen. Part of her worried about Trunks leaving her for any length of time, but she knew her husband needed to speak with his father. "And Goten will be going with you?"

"Yes. He wants to train with Gohan. And there could be a chance that father will need him to be there to show him how to help you," Trunks replied, covering her hand with his own, "I know you're worried Anna, about me leaving you, but we can't wait any longer. Now is the optimal time for me to go. You are the strongest you have ever been. If we wait any longer, you might not be strong enough to survive until I get back."

"Trunks is right, Anna," Bulma said as she came into their room with a strengthening compound for Anna. Though Anna was not gaining strength from it any more, they did not want to risk stopping her doses in case the compound was helping stabilize her. "Trunks will set the time machine for him and Goten to come back rather quickly, no matter how long they are in the past. It won't seem they're gone more than a day or two here."

"She's right, Anna. I will make it seem as quick as possible here. Even with the ability to come back in a shorter span of time than I was gone, I probably won't stay too long. I can't bare the thought of being apart from you," Trunks agreed with Bulma before backing away so Bulma could tend to Anna. He turned to the window. Outside, dusk was beginning to fall, and on the horizon, a group of seven stars was beginning to rise. Trunks sighed. He somehow always found comfort in gazing at that group of stars.

"Your father used to stare at those stars every night," Bulma said as she came to stand beside him. There hadn't been a night since Vegeta's death that she hadn't done the same.

"He did?" Trunks asked, looking at his mother, and she nodded; he turned back to the sky, "I guess dad would miss traveling in space once he settled on earth."

"It's more than that, Trunks. Those seven stars are the seven suns of the Planet Vegeta, home of the Saiyans, of your father," Bulma responded, placing a hand on Trunks' back, "Your father was too proud to admit it, but he missed his home planet and his people. The planet is no longer there, of course, but the suns survived the planet's destruction."

"I've always enjoyed them, too. It may sound odd, but when I can see them in the sky, I feel stronger. Maybe it has to do with our Saiyan heritage that we are drawn to them. Goten and I used to go outside to look at them when we were kids before I became so weak," Anna said softly, looking out the window from where she lay on the bed.

"I used to go out with Trunks to look at them," Bulla said as she and Goten walked into the room, "I had always wondered why I was so drawn to them. Now I know. I wish papa was still here to teach us about being Saiyan."

"Your father was a proud man, Bulla. It would please him to know that you, that all of you, want to know about being Saiyan. I wish he was still here, too. And no, Anna, that you gain strength from the stars isn't odd; Vegeta did, too, though he never said it exactly. I often wondered if saiyans drew power from the suns like they do the full moon, but without a transformation," Bulma responded.

Goten looked curiously at the seven stars. "They seem brighter tonight than normal," he said and as everyone was starting to agree, a curious thing happened. The seven stars became so bright, they almost seemed like the earth's own sun. The Saiyans backed cautiously away from the window, but suddenly a beam from the suns captured Trunks where he stood.

Trunks felt the hold from the suns a moment before the light hit him. He would have struggled against the bond were it not for the strange voices he began to hear. "Such a young, inexperienced prince." "We don't have time to delay any longer. He's the only one." "There is another, and he is better qualified." "That one is not the direct line of the oldest son and previous king. No, this one is the choice. It must be done before his son is here. He must be crowned." Trunks felt power surge through him, reaching the very core of his being. Suddenly, he felt his father's power and his son's presence. "What is going on?" Trunks barely had time to think before the entire thing was over.

Bulma gently placed a hand on Trunks' shoulder and he looked at her. "What you heard and saw was for you only. Keep it to yourself and treasure it. Ask your father about it when you see him. He will explain it to you," she said softly.

Trunks just nodded. How could he speak about what had just happened? He had not felt his father that clearly since he had been in the past fighting Cell. And his son? A son? He and Anna had not know what the child would be. Was this how his father had felt, knowing he would have a son, the future prince? By what he had heard, Trunks had just been made king of the Saiyans. Sure, since Gohan's death, he had led the few Saiyan Z Fighters who were left, but king? He didn't feel worthy and he sure didn't feel prepared now that he could tell there were more Saiyans alive somewhere. How they were alive or where they were, he had no idea, but he knew they were. Trunks let Bulma lead him to lie down next to Anna.

"Come, Goten, Bulla. Let them rest. We will see them in the morning. Rest well, my son," Bulma said softly, ushering the other two young Saiyans out the door. She knew Trunks was overwhelmed and struggled to keep tears from her eyes as she remembered Vegeta's own ascension coronation.

Anna carefully rolled to her side to lie next to Trunks. She rested her head on his shoulder and draped her arm across his chest. "A son, Trunks. You'll have a son to carry on the legacy of the Saiyan prince," she said softly, smiling brightly at her husband.

Trunks looked down at his wife, bewildered. "But how did you know?" he finally asked, wrapping his arm around her.

"I heard them, too, Trunks. Bulma must have known I would. I would venture a guess she was part of your father's time. To think, you are king now," Anna responded, pulling closer to him.

Trunks gave her a little energy as he shook his head. "You heard what they said, Anna. I'm the son of the previous king. That means father was the King of the Saiyans. But why did he and mother never say anything? Father always referred to himself as the prince of all Saiyans, never the king," he stated.

"Then ask him when you see him," Anna responded with a yawn. She soon fell asleep on Trunks' shoulder, but Trunks lay awake for several hours thinking about his father and pondering what had happened tonight.

Three days later, they all gathered to see Trunks and Goten off. Ox King even brought Anna out so she could say goodbye to her husband. The time was bittersweet. No one wanted Trunks and Goten to leave, but everyone knew it was for the best for Anna. They all waved as Trunks and Goten set off down the river of time.

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. Please leave me a review, and I would love if you would read my other stories. I write them to share with you, the readers.