The History Of Marron
Chapter 21: Tick Tock OnThe Clock
A/N: Its been a while, but I've been facing some huge writers block and health problems. But I couldn't stop writing any longer. So here's chapter 21. Enjoy. Thanks for your patience. And thank you Alexis.
The sheer silence in the lab brought her a distaste feeling as the silence was too silent for her to bear, the only light sound that echoed through the room was the ticking of the clock on the wall. It was starting to annoy her and increase her worries as the ticking continued each passing second, while she tried to busy herself with some work. The power chip she'd been upgrading was finished long ago, causing her to have no actual thing to do. Everything in the house was in order, she didn't have anything else to upgrade and if she did she would have to save some spare parts for far more important things to build in the future, when it was time to rebuild this broken earth. Her hands were idle once again as she listened on to the annoying clock and examined the half-filled white sheet of construction paper she'd been drawing on for hours. It was a remodeled design of the time machine, it was much bigger and contained two seats.
She crushed the pencil that she held tightly in her hand, close enough to snapping it in two. Hours back she had been laughing at this silly idea of remodeling the time machine and adding two seats because it was a ludicrous idea that started off as an distraction to keep her from worrying about her beloved son. She would never have the chance to travel back in time with her son as she was still a protector of this world too, though she wasn't brawn she was sure wits. And even if she was able to actually remodel the Time Machine in time before her son's next trip she wouldn't have the guts to face the past, to see all the places and faces she had lost in her world. Especially her late husband, she wouldn't be able to face him and see him with her past counterpart even if that was still her. She would probably wish for death or wish to stay there forever, something she couldn't do in a million years.
She was giving her son the opportunity to see the world he would never have and also giving him a grave mission to help the people of the past to not suffer from a future like theirs, it wouldn't have been fair for them to endure a world like theirs. Fair. The word floated in her mind. Though she never truly discussed this with her son as he wasn't really the type of person to open up she knew that word would cross his mind several times like it did hers. Like life wasn't fair to them, that the people of the past would have a fair chance of not gaining a future like theirs, and that it isn't fair for him or his mother to have the ability to stay in the peaceful past instead of staying in a timeline that would kind of cease to exist as time would no longer changed once the future of those in the past was changed.
The loud snap of the pencil brought her back to reality and she wiped the silent tears that escaped her eyes off her cheek. She shook her head as though it would remove the painful memories that seized her brain. Everything had happened so fast. She grabbed the large sheet of paper roughly from her worktable and ripped it up to shreds before tossing the small pieces of paper in the trash. Her hands fisted themselves as she gritted her teeth, staring angrily at the trashcan as though it offended her. She relaxed her hands as her fingers uncurled themselves, and took several deep breaths before she would cause the bad memories to take over her anger and do something irrational. Once her nerves seemed to have calmed she grabbed the courage to finally look at the ticking clock. She had hoped it wouldn't say the sun was down but as she stared at the clock for a good minute trying to see if she read the time right she couldn't deny the fact that the sun was already down and her son wasn't back as promised.
Worry took over her body immediately as it was making no sense as to why her son hadn't returned home yet. He never really disobeyed her if you didn't count the times when he would go out to face the androids when she would tell him not to. But the androids were dead. She gulped at the thought, now it seemed like her son's crazy assumptions of the androids not being dead rubbed off on her. What if they were still alive and Trunks was right? She bared her teeth at the thought, she could believe her son's words any day, but trying to believe that the androids were still alive was a difficult pill to swallow. There was evidence of the past month that they were no longer here, but now it seemed like they could've been laying low.
Her instincts took over as she hurried and grabbed her winter coat from the coat rack and replaced the white lab coat with her warm coat. She just prayed that she was overreacting. She made it to the garage in a matter of minutes, and quickly grabbed the keys to her air car from the hook. The car seemed to have felt her impatience like a printer starting to malfunction when it knows you're in a rush. She rarely used the air car as it was deemed dangerous outside for the past years and her son would never allow her to risk her life for groceries. But the car still had to be in good condition. She turned the key in the ignition and hoped that it would start but all it kept doing was giving her low faint hums like a distant sound of an engine. She turned the key harder this time, not having time to deal with a bipolar engine. This time the hums of the engine was a bit higher, she turned the key again. The engine roared to life this time, bringing a smile to her face as she now had the ability to look for her son.
After parking the car out of the garage she closed the garage door before she hopped back in the car and started driving to an unknown route. The light from the headlights of the car were dim and she cursed herself for not replacing them or anything else in the rusty car. If only she knew she would need to use it for an emergency like this. The car breaking down was one of her only fears right now, though the world was dark and anything such as the androids could appear out of nowhere and kill her she felt a bit safer in the car, a car that would be better at escaping then her own two slow feet.
The car seemed to have blessed her as hours of worthless driving past and it didn't stop on her, she had found no trace of her son and the night seemed to have grown darker, bringing fear into her body as she didn't know what laid beneath the shadows. But for her son she kept on driving squinting each time the light could barely make out a collapsed building and swerving each time the light and her eyes failed to detect a broken building. She figured he was at a town that had been demolished a while back but not knowing exactly which one she just searched the scorched towns for signs of freshly made destruction. Her eyelids were getting heavy but she forced them to cooperate with her, she couldn't sleep in a distress moment like this. Her son seemed to have been nowhere to be found.
She gave the car a break once she found a building still burning in the distance, and stepped out of the car. Once her foot made contact with the ground her body shivered with fear. She had one simple task, find her son and flee to their safe home. She popped open the trunk and grabbed her spare flashlight. Once lightly closing the trunk she turned on the light, it was brighter than the headlights on her air car.
She took a deep breath before walking with shaking hands into the destroyed town, it was like she was walking into a scary movie and didn't know what to expect. The constant shaking of her hands caused the flashlight's beam of light to bounce from one place to another before she had a good chance to completely survey the area. She stepped on several piles of rocks as she walked even further. Her fear escalating with each step. She had to be brave for her son and she felt that she was accomplishing her goal as long ago she would've just thought this was an insane thing to do and not do it.
Soon her foot made contact with something that didn't feel like rocks, nor dirt. It felt rough and a bit smooth, she tapped her foot on the ground and heard a light sound of metal. She immediately shined the light on the object and almost fainted at the sight. It was Trunks sword, with a big trace of blood running through the hilt. Her mouth was open wide but the screams didn't seem to want to escape the depths of her throat. She closed it and guided her flashlight even further to the ground.
Her hands stop shaking and the flashlight fell onto the ground with a low thump. This couldn't be her son. It was the first thing that came to mind, it looked like him but her mind couldn't come to a fact and believe what her eyes were seeing. His body was disheveled and his stomach was burned badly. A small trail of blood was seeping through his opened mouth and his expression was a pained one. She gasped once she saw a piece of cloth belonging to a jean jacket soaked with blood wrapped around his ribs and didn't even want to guess what happened there.
She almost found herself backing away to keep on searching as her mind repeatedly told her this wasn't her son; it was a doppelganger. But she soon grabbed enough courage to approach the body and she prayed that she would feel a pulse. His hand was cold as she felt for a pulse, her heart stopping as she tried to detect life. She broke into a loud sob once she felt his faint pulse, he was still living, but barely. She whispered a low thanks as she stood up and stared at his mangled body once more.
Never in her life had she ever ran this fast in her life, even when she was in danger for many years in her life she never saw herself reach this type of speed. But her son's life was at a heavy risk. She had made it to the car and started the engine and thankfully it started with no trouble. She pulled up to her son's body in what felt like seconds and got out of the car. She shakily picked up the bloody sword and store it in the trunk before trying her best to pick her son up and laying him down in the back seat.
Her back became soar immediately and the slightly comfortable driver's seat didn't seem to soothe the pain in her muscles. Hauling her son to the car wasn't an easy job for a mere human like herself to do with ease, it took her a while to just figure out a way to pick him up and once she managed to sweep him off his feet she instantly regretted feeding him so much food. Once she was on the road again she kept sparing glances at her unconscious son, afraid he would remain lifeless forever.
She kept whispering encouraging words to him even when he wouldn't be able to hear it. She needed to reassure herself, that everything was going to be alright. She was driving with one hand as she held the flashlight in the other, needing better lighting than her crappy headlights. Every time when they reached a bump on the road she would quickly look back and see his chest slightly rise, still breathing. If she managed to make it home on time before he awoke she would be able to put him into a deeper sleep and operate on him in order to not have him feel the pain as she was already feeling pain in her heart each time she looked at his broken body. The sky seemed to have grown even darker and it made it harder for her to see, she was growing scared as she continued to drive, whatever attacked her son could still be out there, looking for a next prey. She heard a slight shuffle of movement when she was turning left and speed up, not wanting to meet her new acquaintance.
She sighed a sigh of relief once she made it to the doors of her garage, she waited for it to open fully before parking the car inside and closing the garage doors. She quickly cleared her lab table by pushing away tools and braced herself as she went to pick up her son and lay him on the table. After back breaking pain she finally managed to get her son on the lab table in five minutes. She grabbed her emergency medical tools and placed her gloves on before she got to work.
His entire body was engulfed with warm soothing water that not only healed but rejuvenated his body like magic. His eyes remained closed as he figured he was in the healing tube, the tube his mother only used in case of emergencies as they lacked an immense amount of electrical power. For a moment he was calm before the memories on why he was in here swarmed in his mind like a group of buzzing bees. He gritted his teeth and fisted his hands. He knew he was right when his gut told him the androids was still alive, but wanting to finally believe that they were dead was his downfall. Though it was just one the other could've been hiding in the shadows watching the interesting battle go down, but it didn't make sense if her companion was watching in the shadows and didn't step in when she was in danger. Everything didn't make sense, her new appearance, her carrying a gun, the absence of her companion. His brain began to hurt as a migraine was coming on, this was too much thinking as there were so many unanswered questions his mind couldn't simply answer.
The water began to drain and he felt relieved that he would be leaving, he felt like he'd been in here forever and all he wanted to do was talk to his mother and figure this out before taking a different approach in defeating the androids.
He was just finishing getting dressed when his mother opened the door to the lab with a tray of food. She almost dropped it once she saw her smiling healthy looking son. She quickly placed the tray down before running up to hug him, tears streaming down her face. Trunks held a shock expression before hugging back and smiling brightly.
"I love you Trunks," she whispered into his chest, squeezing him tightly.
"I love you too mother."
She was hesitant to let him go at first, like he would disappear as soon as she let go, but she quickly ushered him to sit down and brought the tray of food next to him.
He couldn't seem to find his appetite when he stared at the food, he was just hungry for answers. He pushed the tray away from him and his mother frowned at his actions. He ignored it.
They stayed in utter silence for a while as they both tried to think on what to say.
"How long was I out?" Trunks finally asked.
He watched his mother shift in her seat and already knew he wouldn't like her answer.
"Eight days," she whispered so low even his saiyan hearing barely caught her words.
He just stared at her for a while, his eyes saying disbelief. But as swift memories of the battle entered his mind he could see why it took eight days, it wasn't as bad as when there was two but it was close.
"Are they-" his mother started.
"Yeah," Trunks said interrupting fisting his hands tightly.
He stared at the ground as he had the urge to get his revenge.
"There were no reported attacks," his mother said lowly causing Trunks to look up.
"Maybe they're still trying to stay low."
He got up from his seat and began pacing around the large room.
"What's the matter Trunks?"
He paused for a second once she asked the question before continuing his pacing.
"That female android," he muttered with anger.
Bulma opened her mouth to respond but Trunks continued on, "She's different, like a reincarnation. Her features are altered a bit and she called me a beast."
Bulma looked up to her son, she didn't know how to exactly feel about this new information her son was giving but just try to figure out what was going on.
"Anything else?" Bulma asked interrupting her son's pacing for the second time.
"S-she helped me…"
The bloodied jacket she found wrapped around Trunks rib now made sense, but having the android helping her son made no type of sense.
"But it was only her, the guy wasn't there."
Bulma's eyes widened at his words, "You said her features were altered a bit and the guy wasn't there fighting by her side."
Trunks nodded, "What're you getting at mother."
"The androids are dead," she whispered.
"Dead! Did you just not hear what I just said mom," Trunks exclaimed.
"They're not laying low Trunks; don't you get it. The guy wasn't there and the female looks different, the androids aren't alive."
Trunks finally stopped his pacing and looked at his mother, "I think you need to sit down mother," Trunks said guiding his mother who had stood up and walked to him back to her seat.
"I'm not crazy Trunks, just take your time to think. I analyzed the behaviors of those androids for years and only once when you were a toddler the male was by himself destroying more towns. And if you say the guy wasn't here the female that done this to you looked a bit different put the pieces together."
Trunks gagged as he finally put the pieces together, "You're telling me those two androids produced a child?!"
Bullma just nodded her head.
"That was possible?" Trunks asked, now taking a well-deserved seat.
"They're half humans."
Bulma placed a cup of tea in Trunks hands and gave him a slight smile, "Just rest some more and we'll figure things out."
Trunks took a sip of tea that seemed to have calmed him instantly, a little more things were becoming clear to him now. The female did look a bit younger.
He headed to his room to rest and once he made it to his room he crawled into bed with one last thought creeping into his mind.
Why did she save me?