This is my first time writing a fanfic and publishing it online for others to see. Just as a note before you read, I aesthetically prefer lilac hair Trunks from DBZ and blue eyed Mai from DB. From 1995 to 2013, that was the way I had always known them to look and it's the way they materialize in my imagination, so if you catch me describing them in such a way, it's not a mistake just a stylistic preference. One last note, since I am not a huge fan of what they did with DBS because it makes it more difficult to work around plot holes, this will be based mostly on DB and DBZ. I will be pulling some elements from DBS and Jaco in an attempt to be inclusive in my AU.
Thank you anyone and everyone who takes the time to read. Reviews and PM's are welcomed, I appreciate constructive criticism, requests or ideas on how to proceed. If you spot any grammatical errors or inconsistencies, please do PM me, I'd love to correct them and make this flow to the best of my ability. Thanks again!
Chapter 1 : One more time
Why did it always have to be that way. His life was nothing but misery since the day he was born and he couldn't understand why. Were the sins of his father now his cross to bear? Was all the pain and destruction so great that karma as they called it came for not only him but his family? Or maybe he was wallowing in his own pain, the pain of being alone and having no one to turn to for comfort. It had to be that, or else his fate would've been such that he would've never been able to alter his other self's life. At least when he had traveled to the other timeline he got a glimpse of a world that could've been his, it brought a little consolation to his damaged heart, but this was his reality, the other life belonged to another and all efforts that went to preserve it would be for his other self to enjoy.
Despite his dark and depressive thoughts, he wasn't bitter, most days he was content with what he had and with the satisfaction of having done great good for his family in another place in some other time. He thought of himself last in times of crisis, but there were days when it all came crashing down on him and he couldn't help but realize that he had gotten the short end of the stick. His world was destroyed and all that was left was himself and his aging mother to rebuild and try to restore it to its former glory. Whatever that meant. He'd only been born shortly before the world had gone to hell. He took it one day at a time to avoid the overwhelming anxiety of looking at the scope of what needed to be done.
His chest felt heavy and he needed a day to himself, away from everything, to regroup and recollect his thoughts and go back to being the polite and helpful young man his mother raised him to be. She needed him to be strong and he couldn't allow her to see him breaking down, no matter what was going on with him, he had to be there for her because they were all they had left.
"Father." He thought out loud.
The man's life had been bitter to the very end in his world. Trouble followed him wherever he went, never having a moment of peace or good fortune. From his mother's words and all his time in the past he'd been able to gather up a broken image of what his father's life had been. There were so many pieces missing, but yet he knew enough to understand the terrifying truth of the disgraced prince's life: Discrimination from the truffles for being "mindless apes," to their enslavement and near extinction by the hands of Frieza. Then, in his timeline, the man had been brought to his knees by the creations of a mere human, a weakling, someone who used his genius to destroy some of the most powerful beings in the universe. And here he was, the last of his kind, the last saiyan. A half-breed, but a saiyan in all his right, the son of a future king that never was.
But his thoughts lingered on the saiyans and their dreadful fate. Would the peace in the world he helped save continue? There was a sinking feeling telling him otherwise, screaming at him that something would always follow to keep them fighting. Their incredible power made them into undeniable targets, putting everything around them in imminent danger
He wondered if his survival in this timeline and his presence here and now would only serve to bring more despair to the unsuspecting humans and his poor fragile mother. Were they cursed? All of them? Even Goku? What if the saiyans had never arrived on the planet? Would all the pain and suffering that had been brought upon Earth been the result of Goku landing there, thus his father following course then the rest was a domino effect? Would Earth just have been another backwater planet of no use to anyone, and it residents been left to live peacefully?
"Could it really be?"
He sat up abruptly, grass trailing after his form. He looked out into the water, watching the waves crash, mimicking his turbulent state of mind. He wasn't upset, he wasn't afraid, but he was becoming increasingly aware of what he wanted to do. He'd spent half his day sulking on the tiny barren uninhabited island, and suddenly he was filled with adrenaline. His feet were itching to get out of this place in all senses of the phrase; he needed to get moving if he wanted to see it for himself and learn all the truths of the past that made this world what it was today. There was research that needed to be done that'd give him the answers to questions that constantly danced around his brain. He Stood up, fixed his eyes at the skies and took off at maximum speed.
He burst through the clouds, the chilled wind cooling his body did nothing to calm his thoughts, and so they raced a million miles per second, branching out with unimaginable possibilities, but yet all interconnecting.
20 years young, and yet in the time that he'd been back to his mother after defeating the androids and restoring world peace, his life had remained still. He'd spend his days lending his superhuman strength to rebuilding various structures including the one and only Capsule Corp. He'd become quite the craftsman and architect, two things that never in his life had he imagined would become part of his skill set. It had come with ease as his mother was great guidance. The woman could do and learn anything if she put her mind to it, and being his mother's son, despite his modesty, he could admit that he had inherited some of those traits. None of his life's accomplishments would've happened without her, even meeting his father would've been impossible if she hadn't been there and solved the time continuum puzzle. He loved them both, flaws and all, and it stung to think about the misery they both had endured. He wanted to know everything, because maybe then he could come up with an answer.
"Mom!" Trunks yelled as he entered the newly remodeled Capsule Corp.
He was unsure of whether she'd be around. His mother had quickly regained her former glory as one of the most sought after persons in the world. Her expertise and resourcefulness was priceless in a world that needed everything rebuilt. Her mind was nothing short of a fountain of knowledge and as of late it had become a mission to fit into her busy schedule.
"Yes honey?" To his surprise, he found Bulma lying down on her newly acquired white sectional couch that he himself had brought in for her a few days before.
"Oh." His eyes widened at the sight of his mom.
"What?" She sat up, looking at him quizzically.
"Well, I, uh, honestly didn't expect to see you here."
"I know, I know, I've been so busy I've neglected my baby boy!" She teased and laughed.
"Mom, stop it." He felt embarrassed. That's not at all how he meant for it to come out, he wasn't upset about her busy schedule, in fact he was understanding and knew it had to be done. While he was her only child and the apple of her eye, he was bashful and didn't like to admit that he enjoyed his mom's company no matter how annoying she could be.
"I'm just joking sweetie, come sit, what's on your mind?" She sat up properly and patted the seat next to her, gesturing for him to come join her.
"Are you home for the day?" Hesitantly he sat down a few inches away from her, still unsure of whether it was the time to bring up what he wanted to talk about, but he needed to make sure his chat with her would go uninterrupted.
"I've been going non-stop for months. I get so caught up in my work that today I forgot to eat! If I hadn't nearly fainted, I don't think I would've noticed…"
A look of concern displayed across his features. He reached out his hand and firmly gripped his mother's shoulders.
"Mother! You've got to be more careful! If it's help you need, you need to tell me. You know I don't mind doing the work." He knew she was overworked, but he hadn't realized how incredibly exhausted she was. On a closer inspection, he could see the dark circles around her eyes and the creases in her skin. His mother wasn't the young woman he had met in the past, but she had aged gracefully, and what he was seeing on her face were not lines of age or worry but those of fatigue.
With a gentle smile, she reached out a delicate hand and placed it on his forearm to reassure him that she was alright.
"Don't worry about me. You already do more than enough for everyone. Look, if it makes you feel any better, that's why I'm home. I took the day off because you're right, I realized I need to slow down a little."
"Mom I'm serious, I'm half saiyan, if you're not feeling well you can dump the work on me guilt free." He felt selfish, all day he had lounged around, wallowing in his own self pity and here was his mother a mere human working days on end.
"Sweetie… You're a young man, you should be enjoying your life and not worrying about what needs to be done. Those monsters robbed you of your childhood and adolescence. When I was your age I was out on adventures exploring the world while my dad ran Capsule Corp. For once, I want you to have the life you deserve son. You've done more than enough for me, for everyone! I promise, and I mean it, that I'll be careful with my health and take some days off when I need them, but I also want you to promise me that you won't stop living your life." She too felt guilt. Guilt that her son had grown up to be a noble young man, but never experienced what it was like to be carefree and happy. She could see it. The underlying worry in his face was beyond his years. She wanted nothing more than to change that.
"Mom... It's fine, I promise." He smiled back softly. He didn't care about those things, he couldn't miss something he'd never had.
"I just want you to enjoy yourself." Trunks was such a good son, and she couldn't help but feel like he deserved more in life.
"Yeah, I know." He grew quiet and stared down at his hands.
"I'm sorry Trunks, I didn't mean to interrupt. What was it you were going to talk to me about?" In her monologue, she had almost disregarded what Trunks had wanted to say.
"Oh yeah, that. It was nothing really, I just wanted to talk to you mom about, you, and dad and well the saiyans. Dad didn't talk much when I was back there and I've just been thinking about a lot of things since I got back." He supposed it was as good a time as any to put it all out there.
"What do you mean, like my relationship with your dad?" She was confused as to what he was asking. Almost as if he didn't quite know what he himself wanted to ask.
He looked slightly panicked. That came out wrong, he didn't really want to know the details of their relationship again. They'd already been over that and it was quite an awkward conversation. Sure he was 20 now, but because of his rough upbringing, he'd never been in a relationship and didn't know how to talk about those things so he mostly avoided them. It also brought back memories of his own inexperience and foolishness around women.
When he was out working on rebuilding there were plenty of girls that he knew were flirting with him and did all they could to try and entice him. He may be shy and reserved but he was still a man. There had been a beautiful brunette woman whom he had been working with on a project for several weeks, any opportunity available she would "accidentally" bump into him, or squeeze herself past making sure to brush up on him. One day, they were alone inspecting the final finished product and walked into what would be the main office room together. As they entered the door, the young woman stopped abruptly, Trunks unwillingly bumped straight onto her backside. The shameless woman proceeded to bend over as if to pick something off the ground and Trunks could do nothing but stare. Her skirt was so short that as she bent over it rose up revealing the bottoms of her bare butt cheeks. He felt his pants grow tight and all he could do was stare as her scent grew stronger. Slowly she straightened herself back up and she knew she had him because the bulge in his pants was more than confirmation. Like a wild animal, Trunks lost his self control and as she turned around, he pressed her against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck bringing him closer to let him know how much she wanted him. They practically ate each other's lips until he picked her up and set her atop the desk. There, between her legs, he nestled his throbbing bulge desperately seeking relief. And as he stared down at the woman, flustered and he hanging on by a thread, an immediate pang of shame washed over him and just like that his desire to continue was over. He couldn't do it. He didn't really know her, she was an attractive woman and his body wanted nothing but to be inside her, but he was not that kind of man. He let go of her, apologized, and quickly left the building never to see her again.
Blushing with embarrassment of the memory, he blurted out to his response to her question.
"No mom, definitely not. I just want to know about what your life was like before you met any of the saiyans and what dad's life was like out there before coming to earth… that is if he told you."
"Oh. Hmm." She looked slightly disappointed, he knew that his mother would've loved to have someone to confide in about her relationship with Vegeta.
"Yeah like what was earth like?" He was genuinely curious.
"Well to be honest honey, it was a quiet time. I set out to have an adventure when I was sixteen and that's when I met Goku, so technically I've been around saiyans practically the entirety of my life. I was just your average rich school girl who knew nothing of the world before I dragged Goku out of those mountains there wasn't anything exciting in my life. There's not much to tell." She truly believed that her life had began the moment she set out on that adventure. And she regretted none of it. The danger, the excitement, it made her into who she was.
"What about dad? Did he tell you about his life?" There were some hard truths to face when it came to his father's person, while she had talked about them before, he was curious if there was more to say now that he'd finally met him.
"Your father was a complicated man with a difficult life. He didn't like to talk about his past because it was filled with nothing but unfortunate events. There's not much to say either, I've told you all that I know…" She felt like she was letting him down, her son wanted to know more but there wasn't much to give. The prince's dark past was something he kept buried deep. She could see that it brought him great pain to recognize it no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
"That's alright mom, we don't have to talk about it." It hadn't gone exactly as he'd hoped, but he didn't want to press her.
He had an idea where to begin, and that was good enough for now.
"Mom, you should get some rest, I'm going to head down to the lab and get some blueprints I need to look over for next week." It wasn't the best way to excuse himself from the conversation, but nothing about him was smooth. He was kind but unrefined.
Bulma laughed at his awkwardness. She had such an adorable son, for the life of her she couldn't understand why he didn't have himself a girlfriend now that there was time.
"Alright sweetie, but you too, ok?"
He gave her his biggest smile and nodded in agreement. Sorry mother, he thought. He wasn't going to be looking at blueprints tonight. There was something else that he needed in that lab.
His mother kept a history of everything. Anything to do with technology, she logged it and had extensive notes on all that she studied. After years of working under her wing, being her right hand man, Trunks had learned her shorthand and knew all the passwords to whatever computer and database he needed to access. He wanted to know more about his dad, the saiyans, and especially Goku. He was a peculiar case, a saiyan raised as human, never knowing his true origins until he was well into adulthood.
He started with ship logs. Goku had arrived back on earth on a saiyan space pod. It want his father's space pod but it belonged to someone who had also been under Frieza's command. The ship would have clues as to where the ship frequented, what its missions were and where its home base was. The ship had several logs referring to a place called Frieza planet 79. It remained ported there months at a time which indicated to trunks and his mother, since she had already made a note, that it was its home base. In the data base, there had been general information on each of the planets visited by the pod. Giving useful details such as what was breathable air, the terrain, species and their abilities as well as route options to get there depending on the departure area.
His mother noted that this specific pod belonged to a fellow by the name of captain Ginyu. He'd never heard anyone mention his name, but according to his mother's notes, the guy had been a high ranking official in Frieza's army which made it so his pod had valuable information that would not be seen in other pods' databases. Curious, he typed in his father's name to see what would come up and surely enough there was an extensive file dedicated to him with multiple sections. Apparently his own father had been quite important to Frieza regardless of the treatment his race was given. There was mission after mission logged assigned to his party with him being the head of the operation. They were all back to back without much of a break in between with the exception of one. It looked like he had remained on planet 79 for a period of 5 months, the longest recoded break between missions since the beginning of the records logged. Trunks wondered if he'd been injured or what had made him take a break. As atrocious as what his father was doing for a living, Trunks knew that his father was raised into it and knew no other way of life and just like he took his training to the extreme, he was sure his missions were no exception, there were never any breaks if he could help it.
Then there were images of his father at different stages of his life on file. It appeared as if they had every so often updated his picture just like they did on Earth with identification cards. There it was, from a young devious looking boy, to a hardened battle scarred man. He looked so similar yet so different... The androids robbed him of the opportunity to get to know his father and he was forever grateful to his mother for the opportunity she had provided him. His only regret is that it didn't last longer. Worried about how he would further affect the timeline by continuing to interact with them, he reluctantly left to come back home to his mother who he knew needed him more than anyone.
There he stared at the image of his younger father. This was the best he could do, learn through records about the man he so admired. He was curious to know everything about him. On a map available on the space pod's database Trunks was even able to find where exactly his father's quarters were on planet 79. He was instantly excited by the fact that they had a diagram of a layout detailing how the quarters were designed. He let his imagination wander and recreate what he believed to be his father's past life.
He had heard stories about his mother's family, about her past, he'd seen pictures of them and had luckily been able to meet and interact with his grandparents before they passed away, but his father's entire life was new to him and he was excitedly consuming the information at his fingertips. As he relaxed and laid back to daydream, the bright yellow of the time machine caught his eye. His mother had left it out of its capsule because she had been working on improving it on her spare time. They no longer needed it but she was a perfectionist when it came to her inventions and was always constantly working on things that in all honesty didn't need to be worked on.
Thoughts he'd had earlier that day came rushing back and his excitement over discovering about his father's life took on a whole new meaning. Would doing a little more hands on investigation really do any harm if he was careful? His eyes lingered on his mother's prized possession, debating back and forth on what and when to take action. She would never know, he told himself, trying to convince himself of his own lie. Stupid thought, of course she'd know, she was Bulma, even though he planned to get back to the exact moment he left, the time clocks on the machine would give away he'd made a trip. And not only that, it was about who he was. He didn't like to lie or deceive people. He was an honest man and his mother was the last person he'd want to lie to. If he told her, she never agree... but right now it was the only thing that could give him the answers he needed for his own peace of mind.
Now standing in front of it, he placed his hand on the cool metal , triggering fond memories of people in times past. Dad, Gohan, Goku and young mother. He had to know. Sorry mother. I promise you I'll stay out of trouble. Just like she had gone on and adventure in her youth, now it was his turn. Not exactly the most rational comparison, but it was all he could come up with to ease his guilt at taking the machine without permission. He looked back up at the stairs, knowing that his mother peacefully slept beyond the doors. He'd tell her the truth once he got back, and that was a promise.
Heading to where his mother kept her emergency supplies, out of one of the desktop drawers Trunks took a handful of capsules, the spaceship capsule and proceeded to jump on the time machine. He set the coordinates and dates, staring at them long and hard thinking about how this was his last chance to change his mind about the journey he was about to embark on.
"I need to do this," he said out loud. And with that, he pushed the button. Poof, gone from his plane of existence only to reappear in one completely alien to his own.
Chapter 2 is complete and will be uploaded shortly after this one. Chapter 3 is halfway done and will uploaded in the next couple days.