Chapter 1.

One week. Seven days. 168 hours.

It has been a week since Gohan had died. His only friend and mentor had died.

Has it been that long? It felt like just yesterday he was holding Gohan's dead body in the middle of the destroyed road. What he had left to fight for, he wonder? Sure, his mother was still there, but that's it. At this point, it's easier to just bring his mother into hiding than fighting and get killed. Human was already losing, and he didn't have any obligation to those people, did he?

Trunks slapped himself, hard. If Gohan could hear his selfish thought earlier, what would he think? Gohan always taught him to protect humanity, because it's the right thing to do. And it's their responsibility to revenge the friends and family the androids killed.

But again, how much of Gohan's desire to fight was from revenge, and how much was it from wanting to protect humanity?

No matter, because Trunks himself would revenge Gohan's death.

''Vuuuuuuu..."

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw something flew past, falling into the patch of forest just below the mountain he was sitting on.

"Vuuuuuuu...BOOM!" the thing exploded.

'It look like a crashed aircraft, but why would anyone use an aircraft now? Everyone should have known better to not be a flying target for the Android's shooting practice by now, ' Trunks wondered. Immediately, he flew toward the crash site to check if anyone survived.

As Trunks flew closer, he sensed a ki signature. It was considerably higher than that of the normal human. A lot higher. Trunks dropped to a stop. Hesitating, he expanded his sense to get the better feeling of the ki signature, wondering why he hadn't noticed it before.

No, it's not the android. That was the first thing his instinct was telling him. This ki was not at all hostile. It's warm. And familiar. A lot like Gohan's.

And it's weakening.

Without thinking, he shot to his feet and flew straight to the ki source. Gohan was alive! Gohan was still alive and Trunks was not going to fail him this time!

As he landed on the crash site, he noticed the aircraft in question to be much smaller than he original thought it was. There were broken pieces of black painted steel, machines parts and broken glass everywhere. If Trunks made an educated guess, it was probably a one-person hover car.

What Gohan could be doing in a hover car would probably be a mystery though.

Getting closer, Trunks let out a sigh of relief. While the ki signature was weakened, it was still considerably strong. That mean while the person maybe injured, it's not threatening to their life. Which is understandable. It would take a lot more than a crash to kill a super saiyan.

Just a bit closer... A surge of hope rose to his chest.

And then it disappeared, leaving a cold spot in his stomach.

A form was laying battered in the middle of the rubble. He was unconscious with some heavy bleeding from his head. His chest was rising and falling in uneven breaths. He was wearing a familiar yellow ki, his spiky black hair was stuck to his face with blood.

It wasn't Gohan.

It was a little boy.

A battered, heavily injured little boy.

Broken out of his disappointment, Trunks shot to where the boy laid, carefully scoping up the little form and hold it close to his chest. A life was at stake here, and he couldn't let his personal problem cost this boy's life.

'His head injury has stopped bleeding but he could still have a concussion. I need to get help for him right away.'

With that, Trunks shot to the sky, holding the small body to himself like dear life.

There is something strange, something important about this boy that made him not wanting to let go.

Trunks didn't understand was was going on.

He was flying straight to his home, where his mother was waiting, all the while not getting why he was doing this.

Usually, if he saved someone, he would bring them straight to any medical center or shelter that still running. He was a fighter and a rescuer, not someone who run a shelter center. It was less personal that way; and in this world of chaos, the last thing he wanted was getting attached. Gohan's death had already brought him enough grief for a lifetime.

One week after Gohan's death and here he was, already getting attached to a little boy.

A little boy he had never met before. A little boy who look and feel so familiar. A little boy who made Trunks felt as if he should have known him for a long time.

Landing in front of his house, he swiftly carried the boy to the basement, shouting,

"Mother! Please help me! This boy need help!"

"A boy!? Bring him to my room right away! I will get my equipment ready!" Bulma shouted back from her room, her voice worry.

While Trunks rarely bring victim home, Gohan sometime did, and sometime Gohan himself was the victim that need treatment. They have brought home various equipment and supplies from the abandoned hospital for emergency case.

As Trunks brought the kid into the room, Bulma was setting up the equipment .

"Set him on the bed, I will examine his injuries now,"she instructed.

Trunk did so, and as Bulma turned to the boy on the bed, her eyes widened in surprise,

"Goku!?"

Trunks was pacing back on fork in the hallway

After the initial surprise, his mother has kicked him out of the room, all the while mumbling that 'this have to be a coincidence'. Now Trunks had understood why this boy seemed so familiar. A long time ago when Chi Chi was still alive and Gohan's house in mount Pao Zu was still standing, Gohan had brought him over and show him around. He had seen pictures. Picture of Gohan's father whose hair was almost identical to that little boy. Picture of Gohan himself as a child, who clearly resemble the boy just one room away from him at the moment. He thought the boy's ki was similar to Gohan's but warmer and more innocent, more like Gohan's ki prior to his mother's death.

But it's impossible. The whole Son family was dead. Goku died from the heart virus before Trunks was even born, and this little boy was seven at most. Then perhaps he was Gohan's... But how? That must mean he had the kid at sixteen, which wasn't impossible, but it was really unlikely to happen. His whole life, Gohan was always either around Trunks to teach him or fighting with the androids. He was always serious in fighting, never have time for anything else. But again, back then Trunks was just seven, he couldn't have known.

The sound of door opening startled Trunks out of his musings.

"I have patched him up. He had a mild concussion but it's not threatening. He could wake up any minutes now." Bulma stated.

Trunks hesitated, and then voiced the question that had been in his head all this time.

"Mom, could he be... Gohan's...you know?"

Bulma nodded, "Most likely. The resemble was so uncanny so I have done some test on his blood. While I don't have the equipment to check DNA, these is definitely Saiyan in his blood. And considering Gohan was the only one that fit the ages..."

"May be it was someone else? What if there were another Saiyan alive that you didn't know?" Trunks tried. He didn't want to believe that Gohan could have a child and then abandon him like that. That would break the image of the mentor he idolised so badly, he couldn't believe it.

"Then maybe you should look at this, I think it's proof enough," Bulma handed him a tattered orange bundle. The boy's gi.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence that he has a similar gi. Maybe he learn martial art from somewhere with that same uniform." Trunk tried again, all the while knowing that it was too much of a coincidence.

"No, dear, look at the inside, under the collar," Bulma said gently.

And then Trunks saw it. Sewed neatly in black under the collar was a name: Son Goten.