-1Chapter Four

Past, Present, Future

By: The Gypsy Scribe

Dende and Mr. Popo went into the Look Out and to the crystal ball that sat in front of the throne-like chair. Dende looked into it, the mist inside it swirling around. The picture began to clear and he wasn't that surprised to find himself looking at Capsule Corporation. He chuckled to himself, showing his fangs.

"Seems our Bulma had another invention backfire."

Mr. Popo laughed, "Ah, she does lean towards the dangerous, doesn't she?"

"I wonder what's going on? I sense an argument?" He moved in closer and, when the mist had cleared completely, he could see Yamcha hiding behind what used to be a wall, Bulma standing in front of a large, damaged piece of machinery, and Trunks and Goten running around singing something to the effect of, "Yamcha's gonna get it; Yamcha's gonna get it!"

"Seems Yamcha was showing off again."

"Why? He knows he's not near as strong as those two kids are." Dende scanned the room and stopped when he saw the older Trunks and a strange girl standing in the doorway of the lab.

"Hmmm. Who's that?"
Mr. Popo stood on his toes to see, "Ah, seems young Trunks has found another pretty young lady."

Dende looked closer, "I've never seen her before. She's new." He leaned almost to where his nose was touching the ball. "I've never sensed her before." He looked at Mr. Popo. "She's not from this world."

"How can you tell, Mr. Dende?"
"She feels different." He closed his eyes. "She feels…" he shook his head, "I can't explain it. She just feels different. Here." He put his fist to his chest. "I've never felt anyone like her before."

"Is she a threat?" Mr. Popo asked anxiously.

Dende shook his head, "No, not like that." He closed his eyes again, "Her ki is strong through." He gazed at the girl in the glass, "Unusually strong for a girl. I don't mean that condescending," He said, though Mr. Popo really didn't care. "It's just that girls usually have a weaker ki. Unless they are trained properly."

"Do you think she has had training?"

"I don't think so. It's different. It feels…familiar some how, yet…different."

Mr. Popo was completely confused. He watched his young charge. He was amused to find Dende staring at the girl, watching her every move.

"Mr. Dende. Is there something wrong?"

Dende jumped a bit, unaware he'd been staring, "No. Yes. I don't know. It's just…" He shook his head and looked at Mr. Popo. "It's fine, Mr. Popo. We'll have to meet this new arrival. I'm sure before long, they'll bring her to me, asking me if I can 'do' something." He sighed heavily. "They always want me to 'do' something." Then he smiled at the djinn, sadly, "I'm sorry, Mr. Popo. I don't mean to sound bitter. Go on back to your plants. I'm going to go…read."

Mr. Popo nodded and walked slowly away, wondering what could be bothering the young Guardian. Dende walked slowly back to the library and the Guardian Files. He looked back at the crystal ball. It's just a girl. He chided himself. You've seen girls before. Plenty of them. Pretty ones, ugly ones, tall ones, fat ones, thin ones. What's so different about this one? He turned back to the ball just before going inside library. She was pretty, that was obvious. Very pretty. But there was something…different about her. Different from all the other girls he'd seen. Yes, he'd been known to watch girls from the Look Out. It had been a long time since he'd done that, watching them on the beach, or just walking around, shopping. He was curious. Gohan teased him, saying he needed a woman. Dende would just laugh along and say he was a Namek. Namek's didn't need women. But he'd looked just the same, trying to figure out what it was Gohan was talking about.

It was just recently that he'd begun to wonder what it would be like to have someone, like Gohan had Videl. Someone who would always be there for him, be there to laugh with and enjoy life with. But what girl would want to spend the rest of her life with a green pointy eared alien atop a strange, mystical Look Out? Dende sighed. There wasn't any in the world who would do that.

But perhaps, he let himself think, a girl from another world would?

"Whoa, Dende, take a step back." He went over to the Guardian Files, pulled them off the podium and took them over to a chair. "She's obviously here by mistake. Bulma brought her here with an experiment. She'll go back as soon as she can. Besides," and, being alone, he let himself sink into the loneliness and, dare he admit, jealously he'd been feeling towards his friends, "she's there with Trunks. What girl in her right mind would choose me over him?"

He roughly pushed the thought away and went back to reading the files, trying to ignore the nagging feeling in his stomach that this girl was different. Why else would he have sensed something in her? But what was it? What was he sensing?

Bulma was standing next to what used to be her time machine. It was crushed on one side and spewing sparks. Yamcha had come out from hiding, thanks to Trunks and Goten prodding him with a long stick and loudly singing their humiliating chant. Oddly enough, however, a vase of roses was sitting, undisturbed, on the floor next to her.

"Would you two shut up!" Yamcha yelled. He looked at Bulma and gave her a sheepish grin. "I didn't mean to. The boys were training and I just wanted to show them a few moves I learned from Goku.

"You just blasted my time machine into a million and one pieces!!" Bulma crossed her arms over her chest and gave Yamcha a glare that would have killed a lesser man.

Hera was a marvel at the mess. She looked at the time machine. It was quite a miraculous mix of wires and metal and sparks and now, smoke. The room itself was full of strange equipment, most of which she'd never even seen in a sci-fi movie; half of it was now in pieces.The two boys who had been chanting at Yamcha's misfortune, now stopped. One, who looked a lot like the Trunks she was standing next to, pointed at her and asked,

"Who's that? You got a new girl friend, Uncle Trunks?"

"What?" Trunks turned red and sputtered, "Ah, no. This is Hera. She's, ah, she's going to be staying here for a while."

"Why's that?" Goten asked. He wandered over to her and looked at her. "She's really pretty. I'm Goten. How are ya?"
Hera smiled, "I'm pretty good considering I've just found out I've been transported 100 years into the future."

"Whoa!" Trunks the smaller said, "You mean, Mom's contraption really worked?"

"Of course it worked, Trunks!" Bulma snapped, "Don't doubt your mother's inventions." She bent down and picked up the vase of flowers, examining it and the wreckage that was once her invention.

"Cool! You're really from the past? Wow!" Then he did the oddest thing Hera had seen yet. He lifted off the ground and hovered in front of her so that their eyes were at the same level.

"Whoa!" Hera took two steps back. "You can float?!"
"Duh!" Trunks said as if he was offended. He crossed his arms and glared at her. "All the toughest fighters can fly, right Uncle Trunks?"

"Ah," Trunks put a hand behind his neck and laughed nervously.

Hera looked at him and his younger counterpart, "Let me guess. Just another part of the "not your average Kung Fu" story you have yet to tell me?"
"To put it bluntly, yes." Trunks smiled. He looked at the younger Trunks and said, "Why don't you and Goten go play upstairs. We'll have to help your mom clean up this mess."

"Fine."

He was joined in the air by Goten who looked again at Hera and said, "You should be his girlfriend. He doesn't have one right now. Can't seem to find Mrs. Perfect or whatever it is he's looking for. I'd date you, if I was older. Come on, Trunks. Let's go see what my brother's doing."

"OK!"

"Trunks, you be back here in time for supper!" Bulma called after the boy as he flew away with his friend.

"That was perhaps the strangest, most awkward conversation of my life." Hera said with a laugh.

"You can say that again," Trunks, whose face was blood red, began to busy himself with cleaning up some of the rubble.

"O, no," Bulma said, "You are going to take Hera for a tour of the house and then take her to meet Goku. Yamcha can clean up this mess on his own!"

"But! Come on, Bulma. It was an accident!"

"Do you want me to tell Vegeta you did this? Or would you rather him assume it was an accident and you were here to help clean up?"
Yamcha didn't answer but quickly found a broom and busied himself cleaning.

"Come on," Trunks smiled, "I'll show you around."

Hera followed Trunks around three levels of Capsule Corp. He showed her the working part of the building and she met some of the employees. Everyone had such weird hair, she thought. Everyone apparently assumed Trunks had a new girl friend for many of the guys whistled and gave him a thumbs up while a lot of the girls smiled at him and glared at Hera.

"You bring a lot of girls through here?" Hera asked when they were riding back down an elevator.

Trunks rolled his eyes, "Look, can't a guy be picky when it comes to finding a woman to date?"
Hera laughed and threw up her hands, "Hey, I was just wondering. Everyone seems to take it for granted that you have a new girl. And wow are those women mean looking! They must all have a crush on you."

Trunks turned red.

"I'm sorry," Hera apologized, "I shouldn't have said that. Of course you have every right to be picky. Heck, I'm so picky, I've never had a boyfriend."

"You're joking." Trunks looked at her wide-eyed.

"No I'm not. Why would I want to date someone just to date them? Believe me, I had a lot of weird-o's ask me out in college."

"O. What was your major?"
"I never got to declare one." Her eyes grew sad. "My father died suddenly and I had to quit school to take care of my mom. She took it really hard. She died a year later and I had to get a job to pay all the medical bills."

"Geez, I'm sorry to hear that. No wonder you're in no hurry to go back."

"It's ok. To be honest, I don't think college was right for me."

The elevator stopped and they stepped out. He led her down a long, quiet hallway to a door. This door led outside to a lawn where an oddly shaped car was parked.

"And just between you and me, if I never go back, I don't think I'll ever be sorry."

Trunks considered her statement before saying, "Are you serious?"

"Hey, you're the guy who left the future to come to the past. Why can't I leave the past to come to the future?"
He smiled at her and she found herself liking this strange, purple-haired man's smile. It was shy and a bit childish. He pressed a button on the car and the dome-shaped top folded back.

"Here, get in. I'll take you to meet Goku. He's really cool."

"Is he another one of these 'special' martial artists too?" Hera asked as Trunks jumped in and began punching buttons on the strange car.

Trunks just smiled and said, "He's the most special of all."