The sky was a pale blue ocean, just like it always was. Even when it was supposed to be night time the sky remained stagnant in its view. Some might have found that a comforting convenience to encounter every day, but for the short pink haired woman making her way down the cobbled path, it was a grim sight to be sure. It never felt like an actual sky, like nature's beauty draped over her. No, all she could see when walking under it was a hollow shell, an artificial projection that was stuck on one roll of tape.

It was a reflection of this whole place. One glance at the imposing marble tower made one feel small, the clean white shine that stuck with it only made her think of how long she had spent cleaning it. The freshly cut grass added to the overall gracefulness of the beautiful garden… Which had remained untouched for millions of years. Everything here was stagnant. Yes, many things moved freely and worked, but nothing ever seemed to have any sort of life to it (And considering that the tower had a tree growing out of the roof, that's quite the accomplishment)

Worse of all, it was basically empty. Though as the woman looked down at the tray of tea that she held, she was reminded that it wasn't completely empty. But still…

"I hope I'm not being too presumptuous…" She continued on her way to the intimidating set of stairs that led to the tower's open door. No matter what she thought of the overall scenery, she had to admit that there was a certain enchanting and mysterious feeling when approaching the top of the stairs; though nowhere near the feelings she had when she had first stepped foot here. "He won't mind if I disturb him working, right?"

Without hesitation she strode right through the open double doors, the tea cups jittering along with her shaky hands. He always said I had too much energy… On the other side of the doors stood a relatively short hallway, dimly lit with a purple glow that enveloped the entire hallway, as well as giving the woman a small head ache. At the end of the hallway the walls opened out into a circular room full of strange diamond patterns, which looked more akin to unintentional smudges than an actual design littering the walls. There was a small window here and there that pulled light from the outside in, actually giving the illusion of life for the moment.

There were other 'windows' on the wall that simply held more strange patterns to make the room look more interesting, all glaring towards the centre, where a large table of solid oak stood firm. A tall man stood as well with his back to the woman, his black and white overcoat running right down to his feet, along with a blue cape that adorned his shoulder; the dark colours making his smoothed back bright crimson hair stand out. "You didn't knock." His voice rung loud throughout the empty room, his eyes not even leaving the scroll that he currently had down on the table.

At his sudden acknowledgment of her presence the woman almost dropped the tray cradled in her arms, but only just managed to balance it out before anything spilled out. "Oh! Uh, sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you, Sir-"

The man stretched out his hand as a sign for her to stop, raising himself from his slightly crouched position and finally tearing his eyes away from the scroll, meeting the woman with a warm smile. "No harm done, Chronoa. But please, do remember common curtesy next time"

"Yes, Sir… Again, sorry for bothering you. But after going through my usual duties, I decided to bring you some tea!" Chronoa did not notice when the man's face visibly fall at the prospect of her tea.

"You didn't break anything, did you?"

"I didn't break anything…" She chuckled nervously "…Important. Anyway, my own special brew. Sir." Her head was lowered in a bow as she presented her brew to her superior, who took the cup with an expression that was in between a thankful smile and a grimace.

Immediately upon sipping the liquid within (His small apprentice now watching in anticipation) the man immediately felt sick. "I thought I insisted that you not trouble yourself with my drinks"

"It's not too much trouble, really!" He sometimes wondered if she knew how wrong she was and was actually trying to poison him this whole time.

"Sadly, I do not have time to savour the taste" While work was a neatly covenant excuse, it was still true that work had been exceptionally piling up over the past few years. Due to unforeseen conditions from the 'outside'. Setting the rest of the tray down, the pink skinned Kai made her way over to beside the man as he turned his attention back to the scroll, where only now did she begin to notice the purple aura that began to waft around the scroll like gas.

"What's wrong with the scroll?"

"Another change" The man's face soured at the sight. On the old and spread out parchment a picture had developed, the image began to shift to different views of the same environment and soon into movement, like a clip show transitioning into a full blown video. In it the two bore witness to a boy with hair of pure gold moving through the air at a speed that was barely visible to either, flipping in place before glaring down out of the view of the frame, before pushing his hands forward and screaming as he fired out a huge blast of ki down below him. "Somewhere in this world yet another change has taken place, another wrench thrown in the wheel of balance. But I'm afraid I'm having a hard time finding the change. All I know is that earth is its origin. In the same 'place' as last time"

Chronoa sighed briefly, in all her time spent working under the older man, Earth had been the very heart where all their problems pooled from. "The earthlings again?"

"While they may not have asked for it, their planet seem to have become the stage for the next universal disaster" Raising his hand he called forth a staff from the corner of the room.

"Disaster!? But, we don't know if the change is that bad…"

"Chronoa." He gazed at her with a solemn expression, his other hand reaching out to grip her shoulder. "In all my centuries as the Supreme Kai of Time I've learned many things. The most important that being no matter the intentions, good or bad, messing around with time never ends well. Not only is it a sin in of itself, but it threatens all of existence. With the last few times we've only been lucky, but with each minute an echo of time makes the struggle all the more impossible"

She wanted to respond, but she could only start chewing the inside of her lip as a feeling of embarrassment started to flood her mind. She should have known that already. "You're right, Sir. But what do we do then?"

"The only thing we can do. Wait. Oversee. And hope we are not required to take even more risk and intervene."

A sigh of relief managed to escape from his lips for the first time in a while. Trunks Briefs dropped down to sit on the bench, a branded fizzy drink held loosely in his hands, its ice cold touch was a very relaxing combatant to the vigorous sweat that gushed down his exposed arms. It had been a long time since the half-saiyan man had been able to kickback for more than a minute, not that he would complain. Every second he and his mother spent breaking their backs in rebuilding the world around them, was a second he would savour. Yes, even for someone who could balance a sun on one hand with little effort, the constant work over the years was more than a little exhausting even if worth it.

And as his gaze swept over the newly rebuilt town square he could feel a large smile grace his lips, a smile he hadn't felt since all those years ago after Cell's demise, when the sun finally peeked over the edge of the world to greet him. Earth was a planet of very stubborn people, even after the androids had seemingly left the planet desolate, the Earth was still able to pull itself back together.

The first town to pull back together was Orange Star City, the city where it all ended. Where the pair of demons that ravaged the world was put down for good. The city was being built up as a beacon of hope, to show that the world wasn't over yet, so its reconstruction was top priority. In the square that was just across the road from the newly built mayor's office, the ground had been fitted with actual grass that looked like a soft green blanket, a few ponds sprinkled around the square filled with fresh water. Couple that with the sun's golden gaze, the large bushy trees sprouting from the ground and the (annoying) chirps of random species of birds, it was quite a beautiful sight to behold.

"And just in time for the world to celebrate its eighth year of… Peace" It wasn't as peaceful as Trunks would have liked, criminals were still a problem, growing bolder since the merciless androids left the picture. But surprisingly, there was much less than before; apparently criminals are a little jumpy when they know there exists a man who does care about the law who can also kill you with just his finger.

Eight years? Has it really been eight years? The thought brought a chuckle out of Trunks's mouth, though still broken up, just one glance at the street and you'd never guess how it was basically a wasteland only eight years prior. Earth had managed to put those days behind it. And for Trunks, that was truly a miracle. I wish you could have been here to see this, Gohan. Most of this is thanks to you, and yet you'll never get the praise you deserve… Drudging up memories of his old mentor was cut short when Trunks heard it. A low foot step. Slow, cautious, someone was sneaking up on him. Soon after he could hear their failed attempts to hide their breathing, as they neared him a pebble came into contact with their foot, dragging bits of dirt as it nosily rolled forward. And his 'attacker' didn't seem to notice.

Trunks sighed. And in one swift motion was on his feet with his arm lazily pushed out to block the incoming blow from his attacker's foot. "Oh common!" Moaned the attacker as their combat boots were easily pushed away from Trunks. He traded a cocky smirk with his attacker, her short raven hair now draping over her charcoal eyes after he shoved her back. Her eyes came down collectively to return his smirk with a glare, pounding her gloved fists together before charging at him again with her fists raised high. The fist had quite a bit of force behind it, Trunks was confident that if he didn't easily divert it away with his palm, it could have left a few good bruises. Either way he now dealt with her other fist much the same way, though this time his fist batted her own away just so it could reach down to grab her by her green camo shirt.

With a fist full of green fabric, he yanked her towards him, while twisting his body to place himself beside her as his leg came under to sweep jean-clad legs off the ground. Now that the girl realised her situation se could only pout at the man's smug grin before he slammed her to the ground with his hand.

"Truuuunks! No fair, you cheated." The girl whined as Trunks let go of her, returning to his seat on the bench.

He raised a quizzical brow at her accusation. "I cheated? Weren't you the one who was sneaking up on a guy just trying to relax?"

"You knew I was there the entire time, didn't you?"

"Yep"

"Smug bastard…" Said smug bastard merely grinned at the girl's grumbled insult, waving his finger in her face.

With a teasing tone he spoke "Son Pan, what did your mother say about swearing?" Emphasising her full name to annoy the girl even further, she had spoiled his relaxation and she would pay for it. As predicted she continued to pout and groan as she sat herself on the bench next to him.

"Mom says a lot of things… But it's my solemn duty as a delinquent to ignore them" She was slumped next to Trunks, only coming around to just over his hip in height. He resisted a chuckle that she of all people would use such an old-timey sounding word

"Aren't you a little old to be a delinquent?" As he spoke he finally got around to opening up his can, giving it a refreshing sip.

"Can I have some?" Pan piped up as the heavenly cold liquid just began to drip down his parched throat. She now held enormous eyes and an equally sweaty and pathetic face, perfect for tricking gullible and nice people. Trunks was such a person and eventually handed the can over to Pan. As expected the girl 'accidentally' downed the whole can in her thirst, leaving none left for Trunks, to which she noticed when she attempted to hand it back to him. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I guess I got carried away there, huh?" She frowned, shaking the can again to try and hear more liquid, but no dice. "D-don't worry, I'll go get you another one! Where did you get it!?"

"It's fine, Pan" The man shrugged, thinking to himself Yep, she is her Grandfather's Granddaughter. Son Pan had been a troublesome (As his father would put it) brat since day one, all the way back to when Videl had first given birth to the little 'Rebel'. Who had then proceeded to punch Trunks in his face when the boy had attempted to hold her baby self.

"Alright, I admit it. You kicked my ass back there. But that's just a onetime thing!" After Trunks cleared her of all guilt for the can stealing incident, Pan went back to rant about Trunks beating her yet again. "I mean, if I got some training from some ultra-powerful, Android killing, sword wielding master. I would totally win" That marked a stark difference Pan had with her father as Trunks had learned after his trip to the past, she was always striving to be like the stories she had heard about her grandpa. The Legendary Goku. Where Gohan fought because he had to, Pan fought because she loved it.

"You want me to train you?" Honestly, Trunks felt flattered by the suggestion, the daughter of Son Gohan asking HIM for training. Though considering Trunks still had much to learn himself, he couldn't really imagine himself in a teaching role.

"It makes perfect sense! My dad trained you, so it's kind of like you passing on the family torch!" The girl now had her arms behind her head, fixing Trunks with a determined stare. She was really fixated on this. He supposed it wouldn't hurt to train another up someone else to protect the Earth if he's ever absence during a major threat (Really, with this planet's record. Eight years was even more of a miracle), though he doubted that anything would come that would really be that big of a threat. Makes me think of how it went for Pan in the past. Would she still even exist there? Did Gohan even meet Videl?

"I'll think about it…"

With that classic Son smile the little girl jumped into the air "That's basically a yes, right? AHA! I'll show you, Old Man. You won't regret it!"

So, Gohans her father and Videl is her mother… So, who the hell did she inherit her attitude from!?

_

The dark hallway was littered with what remained of Dr Gero's underground lab, various chunks of rock had collapsed in on the now broken equipment that had made up the room. With the sea of darkness flooding what at the moment could be considered a cave, the only source of light that scared away the shadows for a brief moment was the instantaneous flash of sparks that came from loose wiring. None of this phased the lone visitor that calmly walked over the destroyed corpse of Gero's lab, a calm grace to her step as her bandaged hand came up to the green scouter that slightly illuminated her pale forehead. "You sure this is the place; all I'm seeing is scrap metal"

"I'm sure. All signs point to there… They should be right below you, if you look around maybe you can find a trap d-" Before the deep voice on the other end could finish his response the woman had raised her hand and let out a small blast of ki into the ground. "Or you could risk harming them like the reckless monkey you are"

"If that blast destroyed them, I wouldn't be down here in the first place" She stated bluntly as her body hovered over the hole she had created, enabling her to stare down a dark abyss where she could only just tell that there was something below. "He's got a sub-lab in his sub-lab? What a weird guy"

"Dr Gero wasn't the most predictable man from what I heard"

Lowering herself down the hole the woman faced the ever familiar walls of weakened rock with a look of boredom, each inch deeper made it slightly harder to breathe. "Someone wrecked this place up good, think the half-breed had a tantrum after he broke Gero's toys?" Soon her feet finally touched the ground with a soft and echoey thump, creating a ball of light in her hand to make it easier to see. "Found em" Within second she spotted what she had come for aligned neatly in a row at the side of the room, it seemed that whoever destroyed the upstairs lab didn't even come close to touching this one. As she shone her ball of light on the what she could see were pods, she could read the writing clearly, even if a bit dusty.

13 – 14 – 15

"Activate them"