Disclaimer: I own nothing. Sad day. Akira Toriyama should call me though.

Author's Note: I feel a bit "meh" about this chapter. It just wasn't very compelling to write, so I'm not entirely convinced it will be compelling to read. I tried to insert some DBZ-esque character-based humor; I'm not sure if I was successful. However, at least my readers who have been patiently waiting to find out a little more about the technique that opens rifts in time and space will find out where it comes from. I'm afraid it's not hard to guess. I hope I'm wrong about feeling the way I do about this chapter, but if not, rest assured that there will be more answers and more Mirai Trunks in the next two chapters posted. I'm also aware that my chapters tend to be short (around 2,000 words) and I'm going to work on that in future chapters. However, he bottom line is where there is a nature break in my story, I end the for continued support, and enjoy!

If you are enjoying my story, I suggest you read the story "Role Reversal" by Neo Z Fighters. It's a collaboration of four authors, and it's looking to be a great one! Please support their efforts and check it out!


CHAPTER TWO

Age 768

June 21st

The next morning, Bulma was awoken early by a familiar wailing that originated from Trunk's room. She rolled over, groaned in protest, and yanked the sheets over her head. It had become painfully apparent over the past few weeks that her son was a morning person. Bulma, on the other hand, was definitely not a morning person. The heiress buried her head deeper into her pillow as she vainly tried to ignore the screaming for a few more precious moments. It was pointless, however, and eventually Bulma rolled up and out of bed, rubbing the last remnants of sleepiness from her eyes. As she blinked against the beams of sunlight peeking through her bedroom windows, she noticed that the other side of her bed was empty.

Vegeta hadn't come to bed last night.

Bulma raised an eyebrow quizzically. He'd been in the living area last night, she remembered, when she'd given him Krillin's manuscript. She frowned when she remembered what a foul mood the prince had been in, but was quickly snapped back to reality by the sound of yet another cry from her son. Yawning, the heiress pulled on her robe and made her way to Trunks's room. The toddler was waiting for her when she opened the door.

"Hey there, little man," she greeted him with a smile. "Up early again? Yes, you just couldn't wait to see your mommy, could you?"

Trunks shrieked with delight when she lifted him out of his crib and into the cradle of Bulma's arms. She balanced him on her hip, made his bed up, and then wandered into the kitchen. The toddler was unusually energetic this morning, and he struggled against her until she put him into his high chair.

"Yum! Yum! Yum!" the child demanded, pounding his tiny fists into tabletop.

Bulma shot the toddler a frustrated look. "Alright, already!" she said. "Obviously you inherited your appetite from your father."

"I heard that, woman!"

The familiar, gruff voice barked from across the room, and gave Bulma a considerable start. She glanced up in surprise. Vegeta glared sharply at her from the couch in the living area, his brow creased in annoyance. The prince was still dressed his Saiyan armor from yesterday, and as the heiress studied him closer, she noticed Krillin's manuscript was open in the prince's lap. He appeared not to have moved from that spot since she'd last seen him. Bulma blinked at Vegeta in disbelief.

"Vegeta, did you stay up all night?"

"So what if I did?"

"You didn't sleep at all?"

"Saiyans require less sleep than your weakling race, woman."

"Of course they do," Bulma countered apathetically, but then she smiled coyly. "You were up all night reading, weren't you?"

"Hmph," grunted the prince in response. However, even a minimal reply confirmed Bulma's suspicions.

"Well, did you find anything interesting?" Bulma probed, walking up and glancing over the Saiyan's shoulder. Vegeta mumbled something rude and promptly slammed the manuscript shut.

"This? This is filth," he sneered, throwing the pages to the ground without a care.

The Saiyan prince stood, stretched his stiff muscles, and stomped away out the door to the outside, where the sun was just beginning to rise above the surrounding buildings. Bulma watched as her child's father stalked into the middle of yard, crouched down, and then blasted upward with a violent burst of energy. An abrupt gust of wind accompanied his sudden departure, rattling the windows and sending waves of vibrations through the ground. The heiress rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers, and she felt a frown tugging at her lips. She could feel a headache coming on.

What a jerk, Bulma thought as she bent down to pick up the crumpled manuscript on the floor. Sometimes I wonder what I see in him…


"Hello? Hey babe! What? No, no one's dying. Well, I was just wondering, are we still on for Friday night? What do you mean that depends on where I made a reservation? I didn't even know you wanted me to take you out to dinner! Two-week anniversary? Well—no, no! Of course I didn't forget, babe! I'd never forget about our anniversary…"

Master Roshi groaned and tried to tune out the sound of Krillin's manhood being cut down one word at a time over the phone. The retired martial arts master sighed, feeling sorry for the young man. That Android Eighteen was gorgeous beyond compare, and she was an unmatched fighter, but both her beauty and her combat skills were dwarfed by her unbelievably difficult nature. Poor Krillin practically danced in circles around his new girlfriend in order to make her happy, but his courtship skills were rusty, and he was constantly making amateur mistakes. Today was no exception. Roshi rolled his eyes, leaned over his beach lounger, and grabbed his stack of magazines. It was likely he would be listening to Krillin beg for mercy for at least thirty more minutes. The old man was just beginning to flip open an eight-pager and return to his lecherous ways, when he sensed an energy signature rocketing towards his island. Roshi sat up, his senses peaked.

There's no mistaking who it is with that power level, the old man thought. But why is he coming here?

The old man knew he wouldn't have to wait very long to find out.

Inside the house, the assault Eighteen was unloading on Krillin's ears was interrupted by alarm bells sounding in his head. He recognized Vegeta's energy signal speeding towards the island. A nervous jolt shot down his spin, and the small warrior gulped. Why was Vegeta, of all people, coming to Kame House? Reluctantly, he interrupted Eighteen's tirade.

"Hey, um…babe? Yeah, I'm…um…expecting a visitor. No, it's not another girl. It's Vegeta. No, I will not pass on that message to him. Because he'd slice me in half if I said that! See you tomorrow night. Yes, I promise. Yes. Yes. Okay, bye."

Krillin slammed the phone down on the receiver just as the front door burst open with such force that it was knocked completely off its hinges, and Vegeta's distinctive silhouette appeared in the doorway. The smaller warrior stood stiffly as the Saiyan stomped inside the small building. Vegeta's eyes settled on him, and Krillin began to feel like he was one of those insects often seen pinned under glass in museums and collections.

"Can I come in?" Vegeta sneered, an air of dark humor in his voice.

Krillin glared at the Saiyan warrior, not masking his dislike for the taller warrior. "Sure, no problem," he grumbled, clearly annoyed.

The prince surveyed his surroundings with little interest. "Charming place," he observed mockingly. "It's almost as pathetic as its inhabitants."

Krillin sucked in a breath, puffed out his chest, and tried to keep his knees from wobbling under the intense gaze of the prince. "It's nice to see you too, Vegeta," he replied sardonically.

"Save it," the taller warrior interrupted. "You have some explaining to do, baldy."

Krillin's nervousness increased tenfold when he heard the vicious quality in the Saiyan's voice. "Explaining? W-w-what do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb," Vegeta snapped. "In your pathetic book, you wrote that Kakarot had failed to master a technique that he learned about in space. I want to know what it is."

Krillin blinked, his shock eclipsing his anxiety for a moment. "You actually read my book?"

Suddenly, Master Roshi's head popped up in the window, with beads of nervous sweat forming on his brow. "Krillin, just thought I'd let you know that—oh crap, he's already here!"

Krillin looked past the Saiyan warrior in annoyance at his master, his voice once again slick with sarcasm. "Yes, Master Roshi, thank you for telling me," he replied through tightly clenched teeth.

Vegeta whirled around, snarling menacingly. "Get out of here, old man," he commanded. "None of this concerns you."

"Already gone!"

The head in the window was gone as swiftly as it had appeared, and Vegeta turned back towards Krillin, immobilizing the smaller warrior with another disdainful glare. The two fighters blinked silently at one another for a moment, the cool ocean breeze swirling around them, until Vegeta grew impatient.

"I'm waiting," the Saiyan prince growled dangerously.

Krillin continued to struggle to process what was happening. "Hold on, you want to know what about Goku's technique?"

"Imbecile! I'll say it slowly so your inferior mind can understand: In your ridiculous book, you have a chapter dedicated to Kakarot's past. In it, you reveal that he told you about a technique he learned about while traveling in space—one that he never had a chance to master. I command you to tell me everything he told you about this technique!"

Krillin's eyebrows raised, and he thought for a moment how comical this situation was at its core. Vegeta needed his help. The thought made him bolder than he'd normally be around the petulant Saiyan. "Well, pardon my inferior mind for wondering," he countered, "but why do you care?"

The prince's temper, and the aura of energy surrounding him, flared wildly. "Have you been blind, deaf, and dumb all these years? Because, you insolent numbskull, I will master this technique, and in doing so, I will prove once and for all that Vegeta—not Kakarrot—is the greatest Saiyan warrior the universe has ever seen!"

"Okay, okay!" Krillin said, backing away. "Calm down. I'll tell you everything I know. Just don't blow up my home, okay?"

Vegeta shot the smaller warrior another lethal look, but he inhaled deeply and his aura softened.

It took a few minutes, but Krillin eventually divulged what he could about Goku's mysterious technique, while Vegeta listened intently and committed every word to memory. Apparently, on Planet Yardrat, while honing his teleportation skills, another race that called the planet home had appeared to Goku. This race had the ability to manipulate matter like the Yardrats, but in a very different method. Instead of dematerializing your own body to move faster throughout the universe, these beings could manipulate the very fabric that separated time and space on a molecular level. They taught Goku how to sense energies beyond that of this dimension, and to focus his own energy on these points with the objective to form a wormhole between them. When used properly, a warrior could use the technique to open up a portal that would suck his opponent into another dimension, effectively removing the threat without resorting to violence. The fact that it didn't require him to physically hurt anyone made the technique especially attractive to Goku. Unfortunately, he was forced to leave Planet Yardrat to intercept Freiza and his father before they reached Earth, and was never able to complete his training with its inhabitants.

"It's a complicated technique from what I gathered. Goku had years to train, and that's not even counting the time he spent in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber," Krillin explained. "But he never mastered the technique. He wasn't strong enough at the time, but there was something else—"

"Aha!" Vegeta interjected with a wicked grin. "He wasn't strong enough. Well, I'll just increase the intensity of my training and I'll surpass him soon enough."

"No, that's not the reason he didn't master it, he stopped on his own—"

"I will master this technique, and I don't need any interplanetary filth to show me how. I'll do it myself."

"Vegeta, seriously, Goku stopped trying to perfect the technique for a reason!" Krillin insisted desperately.

"Shut it, baldy," the Saiyan prince responded with a sneer. "I've got what I came for, and I don't need to hear any more of your useless babble."

Vegeta shot the shorter warrior one last condescending glance, and before Krillin could say anything more, the prince was already out the door and rocketing back into the sky. A tumultuous wind rippled across the small island and the surrounding waters, and Krillin shielded his eyes from the blast. By the time he'd reached the doorway, the warrior could see that Vegeta was already long gone. It would be fruitless—and potentially dangerous—to try and follow him. Roshi's head popped up from around the corner of the house, his sunglasses slightly askew.

"What on Earth did he want?"

Krillin's brow furrowed. "He wanted information about the technique that Goku never mastered."

"The time-space rift technique?" the old man replied, his eyes filled with concern. "I thought that Goku had stopped trying to perfect that because he found out how dangerous it was."

"Well, Vegeta didn't want to hear any of that from me," Krillin grunted in disgust.

"What? You didn't tell him? What if he tries it and gets himself killed—or worse?"

Krillin entertained the thought for a moment. Unsurprisingly, he didn't feel a whole lot of remorse for failing to tell Vegeta of the potential danger the special technique could pose if he attempted to use it. He almost wished for such a thing to happen. A world without the egotistical, megalomaniac Saiyan might be better off. Vegeta was like a ticking time bomb, and now that Goku was gone and Gohan had returned to his studies, there was no one strong enough to rival his power if he exploded. But then again, if something happened to Vegeta, Bulma would be heartbroken and Trunks would grow up without a father.

"No, I didn't tell him," Krillin sighed in exasperation. "But don't worry, I'll place a call to Bulma this afternoon and let her know what's happened. She'll let him know, and hopefully Vegeta will listen to her."

"This afternoon may be too late," Master Roshi urged.

Krillin glanced worriedly at his old master, and then down at the sand at his feet. "You're right," he finally relented. "I'll make the call right now."


REVIEWER RESPONSES:

A huge THANK YOU to those who added my story to their Alerts: Apollo1147, Cosmic Cannon, DrzMarcelo, Full Power, LucifVegeta, Spirrow, Super Vegetarott, TaniaKoi, don't call me green, six23, and smalsa!

A second THANK YOU to those who added my story to their Favorites: 3rdb33re, Apollo1147, Cosmic Cannon, DrzMarcelo, Full Power, Jason9000, Lucif Vegeta, Spirrow, Super Vegetarott, and TaniaKoi!

Smalsa: Hooray! Thank you for following me! I really appreciate it. I'm glad you thought my moments of Vegeta's dark humor funny. I tried to incorporate that a little more in this chapter—please tell me what you think! I know that this chapter doesn't divulge much about Goku's mysterious technique other than where he came from, but I promise you, it will be much more thoroughly explained in the next chapter. I actually did some serious research to make sure that such a technique would be believable. I agree with you about how it was really disappointing that Goku's instant transmission technique wasn't further explained or taught to anyone else. I suppose part of my disappointment about that found its way into the plot of this story! Thanks very much for your kind words!

Super Vegetarott: Greetings! Thanks very much for your comprehensive review! I'm glad you thought my "English teacher" gag was amusing. I have to say, I was nervous while waiting for you to review my first chapter, since you seem a very methodical reviewer with high standards. Imagine my delight when I read your review! Thanks ever so much for adding my story to your favorites list! I think I jumped up from my computer and danced around the room a little bit to celebrate. I'm so pleased that you found my characterization of Vegeta and Bulma accurate. Thank you! As for Krillin's characterization, I hope you found it acceptable in this chapter. And Android Eighteen…ah, that android! I guess I just think of her as a very high maintenance and shallow person, as evidenced by her quest for new clothes in the beginning episodes of the Android Saga, and so I write her that way. Also, I needed a reason for Krillin to write the book, and that was the first idea I had! Thanks so much for commenting on my plot. I'm glad another person knows what en medias res is and approves of my choice to use it. As for the technique Vegeta is going to attempt to learn, in theory it is one that can be used repeatedly, but just to use it just once is extraordinarily difficult. I don't want to give too much away, so I suppose I will have to say that I explain the technique and the "science" behind it much more thoroughly in the next chapter. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments and compliments! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Spirrow: Hey there! Thank you for your review! I'm glad you think my grasp of the DBZ universe and characters is a solid one. Characterization, in particular, is one thing I pride myself upon. However, I don't know everything, so thank you for pointing out my GLARING mistake in Chapter One. It's been fixed. Thanks again for your kind compliments. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Jason9000: Hello, friend! Thanks for reviewing my story! I'm happy to hear you like my writing style, and I'm curious and looking forward to reading a story of yours since you say you think we have similar writing styles. Personally, I try to keep my chapters very quick and to the point, with as little filler as possible. That's why my chapters tend to be shorter (around 2,000 words each). Some stories I've been reading have a good plot, but are very repetitive and redundant, with little to move the story forward. I want to avoid that as much as possible. I'm glad you enjoyed my ideas about Krillin writing the book and Piccolo keeping an eye on Vegeta! Thank you for all of your reviews, including those for my Zutara stories! I will strive to reciprocate once the school year is completely over! Thanks again, my friend!

HamacaSkyWalker: Hello, and thank you very much for your wonderful reviews! Oh, and the "cookie." You asked many (good) questions, so here I'll try to answer them in the order that you asked. First of all, in response to your inquiry about writing stories about original characters: No, I generally do not write stories about original characters, whether they are someone else's or my own. I find that they are too often author "self-insertions" and limit the creative challenges that writing a story using only characters from the canon can offer. You also asked about whether or not the androids would still be at large in Mirai Trunks's timeline, but in my prologue, I wrote the following: "Ever since [Trunks had] returned from his adventure in the past and destroyed Androids Seventeen and Eighteen a few weeks ago, Trunks had felt restless." I intended for that to make it clear that he had destroyed the android threat in his own time. Sorry if that was unclear! Thanks very much for your compliments!

LucifVegeta: Thanks for your detailed review! You're absolutely right. I've been using the wrong word. I meant "compliment", not "complement". Bad English teacher. Kudos to you for noticing the mistake I didn't! I'm glad you found the rest of my chapter without error. I'm equally ecstatic to hear you are supportive of my writing technique and style. We totally agree about Vegeta's characterization; so much of his identity is centered around his competition with Goku that I can't imagine what it must have been like for him in the seven years the latter was dead in the series. I see his desire to perfect the technique explained in this chapter as his simple, last-ditch effort to prove that he's more skilled and dedicated than Goku. Vegeta would never use such a technique in battle; he would rather take on a foe head on and beat him with his own fists instead of suck him into a portal. He's not intending to use the technique in battle in my story, but just wants to finally prove he can do something Goku could not. I'm glad you're looking forward to more "intricacies", as you put it; there will be a very complex plot coming in further chapters! Thanks again!

Luke: Oh, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you think I write and characterize well, and I will certainly continue to do my best to do just that in the future! Thanks so much!

Apollo1147: I'm glad you were (and are) looking forward to more chapters! I will keep them coming! I'm so happy to hear that you're enjoying my writing style and that I don't use clichés! And yes, when I said "full-blooded Saiyan child would have transformed and devastated this entire planet and all of its pathetic life forms by now" I meant that the child would transform into the Great Ape, not a Super Saiyan. As for whether or not Trunks was born with a tail, my hypothesis is this: I believe he was not born with a tail. If he had, I doubt Vegeta would have allowed Bulma to remove it, and he's not seen with one in the series at any age. I figure that a half-Saiyan child has a 50/50 chance of being born with a tail, the same as a child with a blue-eyed parent and a brown-eyed parent has a chance of inheriting either eye color. We see this evidenced in Gohan being born with a tail and (as far as DBZ viewers know) Trunks being born without one. Thank you again for your wonderful reviews! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Cosmic Cannon: Thank you for your compliments; I'm very flattered. I'm glad you thought my characterizations were spot on, as I believe that is one of my strengths and is something I constantly strive to improve. Certainly, Vegeta is very irritated in my story, but this is because he has to be in order to be motivated to do what he does in this chapter, and the next, and the next. You see what I mean. The anger he is feeling is the catalyst that begins everything. I'm glad you think my ideas are unique in a good way. By the way, I like your name! Thanks again for your kind review!