Disclaimer: If I owned this I wouldn't need to write fanfiction.

A/N: I have tried to make this as original as possible. However, Dragon ball fanfics have been around for a long time and I haven't read all of them. So if you see something that has already been done before I apologize; it wasn't intentional. BTW, The song "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago and the song "Brain Stew" by Green Day have nearly an identical main riff but it isn't considered plagiarism.

Please Review if so inclined. I would greatly appreciate it.

Hope

Chapter 1: The Future is Now

"The nightmare is over Cell! Die!" With a mighty blast of light, Dr. Gero's ultimate instrument of terror was obliterated from the future just as his counterpart had been obliterated from the past. Trunks powered down from his ascended state and took in his first breath of fresh air as a free man. All his life Trunks had been faced with one horror or another. First it had been the death of Goku, and although he had only been a baby at the time, Goku's death had profound consequences for the world that Trunks called home. For years he had experienced firsthand the destruction caused by the androids, biomechanical creations of Gero whose 20 year reign of terror in this timeline had only just ended thanks to Trunks himself; their crowning achievement had been the murder of Trunks' beloved mentor and best friend Gohan. Trunks still shook at the thought; he could remember the feel of the rain, the sound of thunder, the sinking, hopeless feeling in the pit of his stomach, and then there was the body…

After Gohan's death Trunks had finally been able to become a Super Saiyan like his father, Gohan, and Gohan's father before him; but for six years Trunk's version of Super Saiyan proved no match for the power of the androids. Then, a year ago, well, actually just a couple of weeks ago the "year" spent in the hyperbolic time chamber notwithstanding, Trunks had journeyed back to the past for the second time to see how his mother's old friends were faring against the androids in their timeline, the ones Trunks himself had warned them about. That's where things went wrong, so wrong. These androids were different; they weren't as powerful and didn't even look the same as the androids he had known. But eventually the real androids showed up and much to Trunk's horror, had wiped the floor with even the most powerful of the Z Fighters, his own father Vegeta.

But for reasons never fully understood, although the androids looked and sounded the same as the horrors from Trunk's time, they weren't bent on death and destruction like they should have been. No, they were almost juvenile in their approach to battle, merely testing themselves out as if to see how good they were, not trying to purposely cause lasting damage. Cell though, was another matter. Before long, an overgrown grasshopper called Cell showed up and revealed that he too came from the future as Dr. Gero's master plan for universal domination. Comprised of the cells of the most powerful warriors in the universe, Cell knew them all by heart; all their attacks, all their weaknesses.

Trunks had watched as his father foolishly allowed Cell to absorb android 18 to attain what he called "perfection", and then stood by in horror as Cell systematically dismantled Vegeta. Trunks himself fought Cell but likewise proved to be too weak to win. Several wild days later, the Z Fighters participated in the "Cell Games" a martial arts style tournament where the earth's bravest warriors would attempt to stop Cell's madness. In the end, they had won. Gohan, the younger version of Trunk's former master apparently possessed an unfathomable power which he used to destroy Cell once and for all…at the cost of both Trunks' and Goku's lives. But within days, Trunks was revived with the dragon balls which still existed in that timeline. After a few more days of rest, Trunks returned to his own timeline to destroy both the tyrannical androids and the future version of Cell of whom Trunks had been tipped off to expect.

And he finally did it! For the first time in Trunk's life there was no need to be afraid, no more enemies to try to fight. But now what could Trunks do? He had turned out more like his father then anyone would have thought. Vegeta had spent most of his life preparing for one battle or another, ultimately dying during one, twice. Trunks too had spent the first 21 years of his life in fear and preparation for the androids; then there was the yearlong preparation for Cell. What did one do with themselves once there were no more battles to prepare for?

The answer was obvious even though it seemed so unnatural: Rebuild. During the Android Terror very few people had tried to rebuild anything. What was the point when the androids might show up and destroy it again anytime? Most of the population had been reduced to living in underground shelters within the first five years so the thought of actually spending most of his time above ground was still a fairly foreign concept to him. Nevertheless, Trunks took off in the direction of the ruins of West City in order to tell his mother the good news. Of all the things Trunks had experienced by traveling to the past, seeing his alternate family had definitely been among the strangest.

The Bulma from this timeline had been a beautiful woman in her youth and still retained vestiges of her former radiance but her eyes had become hardened over the last 20 or so years and her face was far more lined than it would have been naturally; it carried a permanently worried expression. Her hair as well, though still the peculiar blue that seemed to be a trademark of the Briefs family, had long since faded from its former brilliance; the casualties of a life lived in fear and uncertainty, the scars of loss. In this timeline all Trunks ever heard about his father was that he had been very strong, proud and cocky; he wasn't an emotional man.

By contrast, the Bulma from the past had been bright, perky, and exceptionally good looking. Vegeta, though very much like what he had always been told by his mother and Gohan, had also revealed that he was made of much, much more. Vegeta had praised his son's power in front of Cell and had even defended him in battle; it was more than Trunks had ever dared dream, to know that he had his father's approval. Another highlight had been meeting Goku and the other long dead Z Fighters, his maternal grandparents, and going through the very strange experience of having his hair pulled by the infant version of himself!

As he neared what used to be West City the reality of the situation finally began to sink in: The nightmare really was over now! Humanity could be at peace once again and he and his mother could finally live their lives the way they had always wanted. Who knows, maybe he could finally reach out and find a girlfriend… Trunks never had much experience with women except for his own mother and Android 18, if you could call her a woman. Most of the other females Trunks had met were frightened humans who he and Gohan had tried (and sometimes failed) to protect. It just never seemed right for him to get close to anyone when the possibility of his death was such a real and imminent danger. Not to mention the fact that the androids would probably target anyone Trunks got close to for the sole purpose of getting to him. No, Trunks would not put himself or anyone else through that danger. So when it came to relationships Trunks was not the most experienced guy around. There had always been that one example though.

Trunks remembered the first time he had walked in on Gohan and his girlfriend making out in the spare house Bulma had more or less given to Gohan to crash in. Trunks was ten years old and knew next to nothing about girls. What Gohan and that girl had been doing was the farthest thing from his young mind. But she had made Gohan happy, and Trunks was happy that his best friend was happy. Trunk's face darkened. Yes he remembered alright; he also remembered Gohan's agonized screams of rage and sorrow when they learned that she was dead.

"Videl! No, Videl please, no!" Trunks struggled to hold back his tears. It was the first and only time he had ever seen Gohan so distraught. Gohan had always been so tough and confident, a look of pure cool plastered upon his face at all times. To see his master shaken to the core like that had been very painful to watch.

Not to mention the fact that Trunks himself had really liked Videl. Not in the way that Gohan and Videl had liked, no, loved each other, but anyone who was cool with Gohan was cool with Trunks. Finally, Trunks touched down in front of his half demolished home.

"Mother, you can come out now! It's over, it's finally all over! We're free!"

Bulma rushed outside and slammed into her son with a bone crushing embrace. She may not be a Saiyan, but nothing can quite compare to the intensity of a mother's love for her son.

"Trunks, do you know what this means?"

"What does it mean mom?" Bulma's eyes twinkled with pure joy; it looked as if she had been holding in this information for years.

"Years ago I helped your grandfather build earth's first intersolar space ship which I traveled on with Gohan and Krillin to the planet Namek, remember?"

Trunks, who had heard this story before nodded. "Yeah, so what's the deal?" Bulma's eyes welled up.

"The ship was never mass produced; I owned the only model but I had to destroy it when the androids came. If those monsters ever came across that ship and figured out how to operate it they could've taken their terror across the galaxy…I couldn't let that happen. But now…Now thanks to you I can rebuild that original prototype and use it to fly to the new planet Namek! We can use their dragon balls to revive all the people that have died since the androids first showed up as long as it's not a natural death! Trunks, we can bring everybody back! Gohan, your grandparents, even…" She paused, looking slightly breathless and afraid. "Even your father."

Trunks stared dumbfounded. He should have expected this. It was similar to what their friends had done in the past timeline; they traveled to New Namek using Goku's Instant Transmission technique and brought back with them a young Namekian named Dende who used his powers to recreate the earth's vanished dragon balls. Yes, Trunks should have known that this was a possibility. For whatever reason however, he had let this solution slip his mind and now that his mother had mentioned it his face reflected Bulma's look of near ecstasy.

"Mom this is fantastic!" Trunks said. "How soon do you think you can rebuild it?" Bulma looked thoughtful.

"Well, since our supplies are greatly depleted from the chaos of the last 20 years and since it's possible that my family's money may not actually be worth anything at this time, I would say anywhere from 1-5 years." Trunks was momentarily crestfallen. One to five years was a long time to wait for something you wanted so bad you could practically pull your eyes out. But then again it was understandable. It would take a long time for the world to recover economically from two decades of android oppression. Once word spread that the androids were really gone, there would be that brief period of time when near universal harmony existed between everyone. But, left to their own devices, quarrels and dissensions would be bound to rear their ugly heads.

Hotheads and self-styled strongmen would be clamoring for position as leaders of the new society. There would be fights over resources and ownership of land. There would be squabbling over fuel and energy and maybe even outright war. It only stood to reason that a private company, no matter how storied the family name used to be, might need to wait a while until these important issues were settled. Then they would be able to make their trip.

Trunks nodded and said "Ok. We'll wait as long as we need. The important thing is, we're safe and we have a plan to make things right again." Suddenly, Trunks was struck by an idea. "Hey mom! What if we told everyone that we had a way to undo all the damage the androids had caused, including bringing people's loved ones back to life? We can't fix any structural damage done to our cities but if we went public with our plan? Do you think people would cooperate with us and make it easier for us to build our ship?"

Bulma looked thoughtfully at her grown up son. It certainly was an idea. But going public was not what the Z Fighters had ever really been about. Still, times had changed and the sooner Gohan and the others were brought back the happier everyone would be. "That's an interesting idea Trunks. But do you really think they'll believe us? Do you think people will believe that if they just allow us enough resources to build a spaceship we can go to an alien planet and make a wish that will bring all the android's victims back to life. If I didn't already know about the dragon balls I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even believe a story like that."

Trunks nodded. "You have a point but remember, androids with super power weren't exactly supposed to be possible either. And enough people saw the battles Gohan and I had with the androids over the years that I'm sure at least some people will recognize me and acknowledge that I possess powers that they don't. That could work in our favor." Bulma contemplated her son's words for a few moments. Finally she said "Ok, how about this? Why don't we just enjoy the next few days as a family and then take our request to the people? You can demonstrate your Super Saiyan powers to jog any one's memories as to who you are and what you can do." Again, Trunks nodded. "Sounds good mom."

It was quite possibly the best day of Trunks' young life. He defeated the androids, defeated Cell, saved the world, and learned of a plan to bring back all of lost friends and family. Trunks looked down at the design emblazoned on his time machine, the machine that had made all of this possible in one way or another: HOPE!