"The History of Trunks"

Disclaimer: you've heard it before but I'll say it again, I don't own Dragonball Z or any part of it.

The plot of this story, however, is from my own imagination.

Chapter 1

Trunks moved quickly and fluidly, over the ruins of a once grand city that now lay beneath him. He eyed all directions and anticipated the worst.

How I hate this place. He thought whilst cringing at the sight of his friend's makeshift grave site. Right down there is where it happened. I'm flying over Gohan's grave. His face contorted into a picture of disgust. He missed Gohan, the only other dimi-saiyajin to ever live on Earth besides himself.

Gohan surely would have beaten the androids by now had he lived. But his thoughts uncontrollably strayed to a better day when Gohan was still alive and well.

XxXx--

"You can't do that!" The young silver haired demi-saiyajin yelled in frustration. "You're cheating Gohan, you never said you'd transform!" Trunks stopped fighting for the first time in hours and glared at his older friend. The teenage super saiyan smiled and said matter-of-factly "I never said I wouldn't transform either."

Gohan could almost see Trunks blow his top. How he loved making the boy angry, it was hilarious! He wished Trunks could transform though, it would benefit them both but God only knows what Bulma would say about it. She's made it abundantly clear Trunks is NOT to follow in his father's footsteps and get himself killed young.

Trunks wanted to transform so badly he could taste it, but Gohan wouldn't train him officially. His mom would have a cow is she even knew they were sparring today. They took every chance they could get to spar, which was the occasional day for a shopping trip, trip into town for food or even if Bulma was in her lab working on those experiments of hers. Anytime she'd be preoccupied and not so worried about Trunks they'd hit the Gravity Room (GR). Today was a lab day for Bulma.

"Trunks, calm down. I'm only joking." He powered down, sat on the floor of the GR and let out a huff of air.

"What are you doing?" Trunks asked in a somewhat bewildered tone. Since when does Gohan quit after just a few hours? We have all day! Trunks waited for an answer, an attack, any kind of reaction but …nothing.

"GOHAN! Come on, lets get going again!" He yelled impatiently.

My goodness how I see his father in him sometimes. Gohan thought somewhat sadly. Today was not a good day for Gohan. Tomorrow he'd go to the cemetery to pay his respects. He wanted no reminder of that day though, not a single one.

Suddenly Gohan saw a fist reach his face. He flew backward and landed on his back, hard. He slowly sat up and saw Trunks standing their looking furiously at him. Apparently Trunks had been talking to him.

"Stop ignoring me! Lets finish already. Who knows when Mom will be done." Trunks didn't know whether to be angry or worried. Gohan seemed so distracted. Then it came to him. Tomorrow. I'm so stupid! That's why Gohan's acting like this. Tomorrow's the anniversary. He always acts this way this time of year.

It's been seven years. Seven long years. Gohan thought. He remained seated on the floor of the GR and just before Trunks walked out the door he spoke.

"Do you know why I was the only survivor of the attack on South City?" Trunks paused and let go of the door. He turned rather slowly as if to take in what Gohan had just asked. What kind of mood is he in now? He never talks about that day.

"No." Trunks answered cautiously. He really wanted to know this. Oh, how he wanted to hear of the day his father died. How it happened, was it quick or slow? Did he fight long? Any information would satisfy him.

"I was more a burden than a help." Gohan began. "I know now that it was a mistake for me to go but I was head strong and arrogant about my powers. I was not a super saiyan yet but I knew even without that transformation I was stronger than many already fighting, like Krillin, Yamcha…Tien. So I thought I could fight just as well." Trunks took a seat in front of Gohan and listened intently. "But I was very wrong."

Trunks had been raised on the stories of Goku, the great super saiyan and his untimely death. The Z-Gang that used to protect the Earth from evil and succeeded many times. Kami, the dragon balls, his Father. All of them he'd heard of all his life but never knew. Not a single picture was taken of most of them, not even Vegeta. The one man Trunks had a genetic bond to and he doesn't have a clue as to what he looked like. How he wished he could have known him.

"Your father is one of the main reasons I'm still alive." Gohan looked at Trunks' reaction. Just the mention of his father and Trunks was visibly interested in whatever you had to say.

"When it became evident that the Z-Gang would loose I wanted to leave, to stay alive. Piccolo tried to protect me as much as he could. Mainly he tried to turn attention from me to him, so I would have a chance to get away. It didn't work. He was killed in front of my eyes, they all were. But it hurt so badly when Piccolo was destroyed because I knew the Dragonballs were gone and no one was coming back."

Gohan wanted to scream, it hurt so badly to remember. Trunks, however, was wide eyed and clinging to every word Gohan said.

"Once Piccolo fell, I lost hope. I forgot all my training, all my determination and just felt fear. I didn't want to die. Worse though, I didn't want to die for nothing.

"That's when 18 stood in front of me, hands inches from my face and powering up for a deadly attack. She smiled at me like she was having the time of her life. I froze, because I knew there was no escape for me, this must be my end is all I could think. I closed my eyes and simply waited for my death. It didn't come." Gohan breathed uneasily now as the memories flooded back against his will.

"Vegeta had come to my rescue. I suppose I'll never know why, but I'm grateful he did. He knocked me out of the way of the beam before it hit. I was sprawled out on the ground and tried to regain composure when Vegeta knocked me unconscious.

"That's the last image I have of the battle. When I awoke there was part of a building covering me, as well as the bodies of dead citizens of South City. I got up quietly, not knowing what to expect. Then I saw the city, or what was left of it. People's bodies where everywhere and the smoke had still not cleared. The androids were no where in sight but the Z-Gang was. As I found their bodies I impatiently looked for Vegeta until I found him laying on his back, bloody and nearly dead. Why was he left alive? Is what I was thinking. Surely the androids knew it was best to finish him off. But there he was, still breathing, though in gasps, and really beaten up." Gohan saw the unblinking, undivided attention Trunks was giving him, he knew it was time Trunks heard the details of his father's death.

"When he knew I was kneeling beside him he looked at me for a minute and tried to sit up. 'Don't do that Vegeta' is what I said to him, I knew it would just hurt him worse. But he wouldn't listen, when he was sitting upright he grabbed the collar of my uniform and weakly, yet firmly said 'Boy, I saved you…now you will make…me an oath…before I die.' I knew without a senzu bean or Dende there was no way to heal him and apparently he knew it too.

"Then he said 'You are…a saiyan…Boy, protect yourself…and Trunks…from them. Don't let…the saiyan blood…die…out.'" Gohan paused, considering what must have been going through Vegeta's mind as he lay dying, knowing the androids' plan to destroy the Earth.

Trunks was on needles now, waiting for the rest. After too long a pause he waved his hand in front of Gohan's face. I know this has to suck for him, but I need to hear this!

"S-Sorry. Um, Vegeta wouldn't let me go, in fact his grip began ripping my clothes and I watched…blood stream from his head and mouth until he somehow found the strength to shake me." It became obvious Gohan was beginning to have trouble finishing the story. He paused to collect his thoughts every few seconds.

" 'Swear boy! Swear it!' He nearly yelled, how he had the strength I don't know. I nodded my head and meekly said 'I promise.' Then he glared at me for a minute and loosened his grip. 'I promise Vegeta' I said again as he laid back down. 'I promise, I promise you!' I kept saying, as if those were the magic words to make him get back up. But he didn't. He died, right there. Just…died." Gohan became quiet and still. He didn't move or talk, he held his breath and closed his own eyes. I wanted him to get back up. He wasn't evil anymore, he had a family. He should have been able to watch Trunks grow up, not me. He released a breath and looked at Trunks, who seemed to have his eyes locked on Gohan, watching his every move.

So, Dad's last thoughts were on me. I didn't expect that. Trunks had heard too many times from his friends: Oolong, Master Roshi, Gohan, even his own Mother that his Father was not emotional or even friendly. Apparently everyone had been afraid of him until Bulma became pregnant and it was obvious he was here to stay. The story of his arrival on Earth the first time still amuses Trunks, its crazy how people can change without trying or even noticing.

"Well," Gohan started, snapping Trunks out of his trance. "I think we should call it a day. I don't feel much like training anymore." Gohan stood up and lazily walked to the door. "You coming?" He asked.

"Yeah," Trunks answered while getting up himself. It was not the time to train, as much as Trunks wanted to. He wanted so badly to transform but he didn't seem to have the inspiration to do so, yet.

As the two walked silently down the hallways of Capsule Corp. Trunks stole a side glance at Gohan, his eyes looked heavy and dark. He was slumped over somewhat and pale, if Trunks didn't know better he'd think that Gohan was sick. Tomorrow would definitely be a bad day for him, Trunks knew tomorrow he'd have to do his best at being "nice" to him, maybe slacking up on the insults a bit.

Mom will want to do the whole "quality time" thing tomorrow. I'll get no training in at all. Then Trunks almost reprimanded his own self for thinking of nothing but training on the day so many had died, including his own Father. Sometimes Trunks had to keep himself in check. He often had the nearly uncontrollable urge to kill something, sometimes even someone, if he got angry enough. His thoughts, even when being forced to do homework or chores, was on training, fighting, and sparring. Any activity that allowed him to beat something up made him feel complete, odd as it seemed to Bulma.

Bulma, however, was not stupid nor unaware that her son was training behind her back. Even now, while working on configurations for her latest Space-Time Continuum experiment, she knew what those dimi-saiyans were up to. Gohan had made an interesting point that made her slack up on Trunks when he wanted to sneak off to train. He'd told her it made more sense for Trunks to train and become stronger so when the day came that he would have to protect himself and those he cared about, he would not be weak and die for sure. So here she was, adding, subtracting, multiplying and putting formulas to work when she heard the two coming down the hallway.

I hope nothing's wrong, those two would never quit this early if given the chance to train. Maybe they're just tired… I hope so. She put down her pencil and glasses, opened the door and surprised the two dimi-saiyajins walking toward her.

"Everything okay?" She asked. She noticed Gohan's grim look but said nothing of it.

"Yeah, just trying to find something to do." Trunks said. Bluma cleared her throat and put her hands on her hips for emphasis.

"Believe me, Son, I can find plenty for you to do." She said sarcastically. Trunks rolled his eyes and put on his trough guy act, crossing his arms and frowning at her.

"We don't mean that. Just something interesting that'll pass the time." Gohan said rather impatiently. He wanted to take his mind off tomorrow but he had no interest in training now.

"Well, I can only …" She stopped and her eyes grew wider.

"What? What is it?" Trunks asked quickly.

"I found something yesterday. A tape, in the attic, when I was cleaning. It's from years ago, a home video of the old gang at one of our little get-togethers. Krillin had a good idea when he taped it, though it was annoying at the time." She ran into her lab and returned moments later with a VHS tape labeled "Annual reunion" with a date that had mostly worn off. She handed it to Gohan who looked at it oddly.

"I'm not sure what all is on it and I really can't figure out how I ended up with it but one thing I'm sure, it's a long one." She smiled and patted Gohan on the shoulder. "You two should watch it. You can explain to Trunks who everyone is."

Slowly, a smile crept onto Gohan's face and he started walking toward the living room. Trunks followed close behind, curious as heck to see what the tape had on it, and to see the Z-gang he'd heard of for so many years.