"What the – ! His hair looks different... Is this the strength he used? It's unreal!" a voice spoke from somewhere nearby.
"Yes, but I think something's wrong! Trunks, you're hitting Gohan too hard!" a more familiar one added.
Gohan? Gohan is hurt. Goten is hurt. Mom is in trouble.
I was in front of the Saiyan opposing me in an instant, the shock on his face at my speed clear. He was Broly – but he was not. I didn't know who he was, but my rational mind was not in the driver's seat as I struck him again, and again and again as I ignored the pain in my upper chest.
He was spared any more unexpended rage of mine when something solid crashed into my side, causing me to launch away until I reoriented myself mid-air and stopped, landing on my feet.
This new person wasn't Broly either, they were too small and compact. But their hair was glowing gold, so they had to be him, because neither Goku nor Father were here to help and Goten and his brother were dying, dying and I had to protect them.
"Snap out of it, boy!" the person said. They were unable to dodge my ensuant knee in the solar plexus, or dropping elbow in the back. I grabbed them by the arm and threw them away, their path driving a long gouge into the earth.
They struggled back to their feet, teal eyes staring into mine. Something in the back of my mind was screaming at me to recognize this face, but I couldn't.
"Kakarot! It's like he's looking right through me!" they said. "Trunks, it's me for gods' sake!"
Someone attacked from behind me, but I angled myself away and turned to grab them by their shirt, about to deck them in the face when a shred of sense broke through and I realized I did recognize this person. Their golden hair faded, as did their bright eyes.
Coal coloured irises stared back at me, full of concern. Tousled black bangs fell over his forehead, playful but masculine features now drawn with dismay. He was wary, still vigilant as I released his shirt and let my arms fall to my sides.
"Goten?" I said.
"Uh," he responded, blinking at me in mild surprise now. I blinked back, trying to clear the haze from my vision when I had another epiphany.
The sky was blue again, and I was standing not in front of my best friend, but his father Goku.
"Yeah, it's me," he said, and I recalled for the umpteenth time that he could read minds. "Now don't panic, but, uh, you almost turned Gohan and your dad into mashed potatoes. On the bright side, you did spark the ascended Super Saiyan state..."
"What?" I replied, taking a moment to look around. The first thing to catch my eye was the gouged out swath of dirt, which I followed until I reached where Father was standing, holding a hand over his chest. When we met eyes, he returned to his base form.
I let my own transformation go, allowing my energy to fall right back to my normal form, my hair drifting down to the sides of my face. It must've come undone while I was – while I was...
Gohan seemed to have recovered a little, able to stand upright. However, there was definitely blood coming out of his nose, which I didn't think was broken, but there was also a whole host of bruises likely waiting to form on his body.
I felt my legs become weak so I let them give out, now sitting on the ground.
"What... What was that?" I choked out. "It... I wasn't here. I was back there, the night that everything..."
"Trunks," Gohan said as he made his way over to me. (He sounded remarkably understanding for someone probably in a lot of pain.)
"Sometimes," he began, "when bad things happen to people... it triggers reactions they can't control. Negative moods, nightmares... even flashbacks of the traumatic memory, like what just happened to you. The reason you couldn't transformation at first wasn't any physical problem – you were just trying to avoid anything that reminded you of what happened. I shouldn't have asked you to do this so soon."
"You were able to continue the transformation once you came to your senses, but regardless of whether a loss of control like this occurred again, this type of instability is still a risk in battle," Father said, pursing his lips in thought.
Goku helped me to my feet again, but I couldn't meet the eyes of anyone around me.
"Don't worry about it, Trunks. We'll figure it out. I'm sure it'll be fine once we have Goten and your mom back," Goku tried to reassure. "Losing them is the main reason you're having trouble, no? Besides, since you have that Ascended Saiyan form now, you've proven that there is another level, after all this time. That means we'll have to train until we're eventually that strong, too."
"Kakarot, you and I have spent our entire lives training," Father cut in. "We know strong feelings can bring out our inner power, but all of us standing here have lost the same thing. Why could he achieve this new level and no one else?"
"That's not quite correct, Vegeta. None of us are the same, so logically what causes someone to snap would differ between each of us. Not only that, but Trunks was the last person standing during that battle, carrying the responsibility of everyone's lives, and he watched his mother and best friend die right in front of him at the hands of... that monster. I was laying barely conscious elsewhere, and neither you nor Dad were directly present. Facing a situation like that is a lot for anyone, not to mention an already turbulent seventeen-year-old," Gohan explained.
I was about to protest being turbulent, but the objection seemed a little hollow considering what had just happened. I let it go in favour of mulling over the rest of what he'd said, which made enough sense, although I might've used a weightier term like 'desperation' to explain what that night had felt like. There were several moments where Broly had nearly killed me, the first of which Goten alone had saved me from. The helplessness in the ensuing hours made it worse.
It made me think. A Saiyan of Broly's strength (I supposed my strength, now) on our side would've been what our people needed to escape what Father described as slavery. Because of fear, his father had destroyed that chance.
Perhaps it was the sentimentality of my human side that enabled me to unlock my strength, that caused the perfect balance between the ambition of battle and the compassion to remember what it was you fought for. Perhaps this explained why the potential of a half-blood was more by nature than that of either a pure human or a pure Saiyan. Either way, fear was our antithesis – therefore, no matter what, I refused to let my emotions of a bygone event control me. I said so out loud, to the interest of the trio standing around me.
"I don't care what it takes. We're going to bring Goten and my mother back, and I'm going to train this new form until I can do it in my sleep," I promised.
"That's the spirit! We just have to think of a way for you to train that's safe," Goku said.
"I agree," Gohan added, "but you may have to be patient with yourself for a little while. It might seem time-consuming, but your mind is the most important organ in your body. Let it start to heal first before you do anything drastic."
"But how much time will that take?" Father asked.
Gohan shook his head. "It's been less than a week, Vegeta. I know you can attest to the fact that some scars don't ever heal. I think Trunks will be alright – just give him that time."
"I don't know how much of that we have," Father said quietly, but then made no more remarks about it. I wasn't sure what exactly he meant, but I assumed his concern was for leaving our people behind for too long.
Five days later, several pulsing lights on the edges of a circular, green display gave us our first leap forward.
When Gohan and I left the lab in excitement, we resolved to give the Dragon Radar a test-run to ensure it was working properly. Each blip on the screen gave an approximate distance, so we chose the closest one and got ourselves dressed for the weather – at our speed, it was roughly one hour to the north of Capsule Corp, and we'd be going by air.
Before taking off on our journey, we went around asking if anyone else at Capsule Corp (namely, Father or Tarble) wanted to go with us. Bulla was taking her nap for the day, and Tarble politely declined our request. Father's energy was elsewhere in the complex, but as I was anticipating finding our first Dragon Ball too much, I decided not to wait and ask him.
Once Gohan and I had donned warm enough clothes we sped off, eager to confirm the results of our days of work. As expected, the sky was cold, but the hour of flight seemed shorter than anticipated as we finally drew within a kilometre of distance to our target.
The area was completely forest, crowded with massive green trees and a towering cliff. There was no snow here like the mountains, but a faint chill tainted the air as we began narrowing down where exactly we ought to begin searching.
After wandering around the landscape of all identical vegetation (me following the older half-blood, as he held the radar), Gohan came to a stop and looked around.
"It says we're pretty much on top of it," he said. "It might be buried in a pocket underneath tree roots, perhaps."
"Alright. What am I looking for?" I asked. I didn't really know what a Dragon Ball looked like, other than the token spherical shape.
"It'll be a bright orange colour, with one or more stars in the middle. It looks like it's made of glass," he said.
"Bright orange, huh?" I said, taking his advice and surveying around the bases of the trees.
After a few minutes of looking, I began to get annoyed when no potential hiding spot turned up. Gohan didn't seem to be having any success either, and as he paused to take his eye-frames off and clean them with the cuff of his jacket, I was about to voice my complaints when a blur of movement caught my eye.
Off to the side, some small animal – brown pelt, with long ears matched only by the proportions of its back legs – emerged from the ground, then scurried off in a blur. Curious, I moved over to the hole it had left from, crouching down to inspect it.
Taking a second to mull it over, I pulled up my sleeve and stuck my hand carefully down the hole, stopping when I grazed something cold and smooth within the soft earth.
"Did you find something?" Gohan called over as I manoeuvred my fingers to grasp the object, drawing it free and then inspecting it in the light.
It was a lot smaller than I'd pictured, but otherwise as Gohan had described it – sunset orange, with a glassy sheen and two small stars in the core. It was smooth to the touch, and neither dirt nor fingerprints left blemishes on it.
"I think we have our first Dragon Ball," I said, rising to my feet and pulling my sleeve down after dusting my arm off. I presented my finding to Gohan, and he smiled.
"It's the two-star. Excellent. That means our radar is working perfectly. Only six more of these to go. We might be able to find them all in a couple of days or less, provided we have a large enough group searching, and of people that can fly," he said.
I nodded. That would entail him, myself, Goku, Piccolo, and Father; possibly Videl, Tarble, and that other man who appeared to be an old friend of my mother – Yamcha – as well. Gohan and I figured we should head back to Capsule Corp first to alert everyone (including my grandparents) of the news, so I made to hone in on my Father's energy; since it was the largest it worked best as a beacon towards where I wanted to go.
Except that it wasn't at Capsule Corp anymore.
Pursing my lips, I expanded my senses to the larger reaches surrounding the complex, but turned up nothing. Deciding I didn't want to sit there and search the whole planet for my father's ki when he was probably just off being himself, I focused on my uncle's instead and took to the sky, Gohan following behind me.
We allowed ourselves to fly a little more quickly on the way back, but staying high enough in the freezing sky to remain out of sight – while simultaneously avoiding any possible aircraft – hindered our speed, just as it had on the journey there.
I doubted we'd commence the search for the rest of the Dragon Balls that day, as there weren't many hours left until sunset, but that didn't prevent me being anxious to reveal our success as Gohan and I touched down at Capsule Corp.
"Can I use your phone?" Gohan asked as we stepped inside. "I can call Mom and Dad and let them know we found the first Dragon Ball. Videl, too – I left my cell at our house."
"Sure. I think there's a communicator-phone in the kitchen. I'll find Father and my uncle and let them know. My grandparents, too," I replied.
After taking my jacket off, I wondered where I should put the two-star ball for the time being. I'd carried it in my hands the whole way; it was too big to fit in my pocket. (Gohan had carried the radar.)
I turned it in the light, taking a moment to admire how it refracted inside the polished sphere. Despite its apparent magical properties, it looked delicate, so I didn't just want to set it down on a table and have it roll off.
Shrugging, I compromised by placing it amidst the bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter, near where Gohan was punching in numbers on the telephone device. He looked over and gave a small grin at my choice of resting place just before I left the room.
"Grandmother? Grandfather?" I called out, sensing their energies close by. Behind me, I could hear Gohan talking, presumably to his mother as I heard my grandmother give an answering shout.
"We found a Dragon Ball!" I said, then felt her and Dr. Briefs' auras start moving towards me.
"Ack! Dad, what did I tell you!" Gohan suddenly chastised as I felt Goku's ki appear next to his out of nowhere.
"Sorry, Gohan. Didn't mean to scare ya. I heard your mom say you got a Dragon Ball? You guys finally got the radar working?" Goku said.
"Yeah. It's in the fruit bowl there. Mom's still on the line," Gohan replied as my grandparents rounded the corner.
"So you found the first one, eh?" Dr. Briefs said.
"Yeah. The radar's working pretty smoothly. I guess this means we can start searching tomorrow, right?" I asked.
"Oh, this is so exciting! I can't wait to see our girl again! How hard was it to find the Dragon Ball? Your cheeks are a bit rosy, you look like you've been out in the cold for a while," Grandmother said, putting her hands on the sides of my face.
"I was. Gohan and I flew for about an hour to get there, but it was worth it. Um, do you know where Father went? I should probably go get him and my uncle."
"Hmm... I'm afraid I haven't seen your father, dear. Tarble's reading in the study and I think Bulla should be getting up from her nap soon. Should I get a pot of tea on to warm you and Gohan up?"
I gave a vague sort of nod, wondering if I should just ask Goku to find and teleport to Father while I alerted my uncle of our findings. Turning back into the kitchen, I entered to find Goku holding the Dragon Ball in his hands, smiling at it.
"Goku," I said, making him direct his attention to me. "Can you get my father for me? I don't know where he went off to."
"Oh. Right! Okay. He's probably not too far," Goku answered, then put his fingers to his forehead to begin sensing around.
I indicated for my grandparents to wait in the kitchen as I left once more to retrieve my uncle, and Bulla as well.
A few minutes later, I found Tarble exactly where I'd been told he'd be. He looked up from his book when I entered the room, probably able to see my excitement from my body language.
"We have our first Dragon Ball!" I said. "Everyone's meeting in the kitchen area. Is Bulla still sleeping?"
"Oh! Uh, I'm not sure," he said as he rose to his feet. "I can go check on her. She'd be waking up soon anyway."
"Alright. By the way, do you know where my father went?" I asked.
He shook his head. "I haven't seen him since just after you left. I thought perhaps he might've tried to catch up with you, but I guess that isn't the case."
"Oh. So he did know what we were doing?"
"Yes. I confirmed to him that you'd gotten the radar working and were going to test it. Evidently it worked, but one would think he'd stick around to see the results."
"Hn. Anyway, Goku's probably found him already. Can I go get Bulla?"
"Of course. I'll head to the kitchen," Tarble agreed. We left in separate directions as I detoured over to where my sister's room was.
I reached the door, pausing to knock lightly before inching it open and looking in. Bulla was curled under a nest of blankets and stuffed animals, identifiable by her blue streams of hair. She stirred as I stepped into the room – being a half-blood like me, she'd probably heard me approaching from a ways down the corridor.
"Bulla, are you awake?" I asked softly. She turned over, rubbing her eyes and then slowly sat up, eyes locking blearily on me as I approached her bed.
"Uh-huh," she said. "I had a bad dream and I couldn't get back to sleep very good. I feel a bit better now that you're here."
"A bad dream? What was it about?" I asked. She merely shook her head in response.
"Well, either way, I have something to show you that might cheer you up. I found something that's going to help us bring our mom here," I said. "It looks like a pretty gem. Do you want to come see it?"
"Okay. But my dream made me feel bad. Can you carry me?" she asked. I agreed by gently scooping her up, and she made herself comfortable by snuggling into my shoulder and playing with my hair as I carried her out. It felt more natural to have her in my arms now than when I'd first arrived – she was smart enough to tell me if I was holding her wrong, despite her coinciding insistence that she was a 'big kid' and didn't need to be carried.
When we arrived at the kitchen, everyone was waiting for us – however, that group still excluded Father.
"You couldn't find him?" I queried to Goku. The man scratched his head.
"No. I'm not sure why. I guess he could be hiding his energy, but it doesn't make sense why he'd do that," he replied.
"Uncle – you were probably the last person who saw my father today. That was less than two hours ago, right? Did he give any indication to where he would go?" I said to Tarble.
Before he could respond, a soft voice against my shoulder answered.
"In my dream, Daddy said he would come back," Bulla said quietly. "But if he's not here, I guess it wasn't a dream."
"Hm? Bulla?" I sounded in surprise. "What are you talking about?"
"I thought I was dreaming. Daddy woke me up and told me he wanted to say goodbye. I asked why, and he said he had to leave for a little while, but that he was gonna come back after he fixed things," she replied.
"'Fixed things?' What would he have to fix, exactly?" Goku questioned.
"Bulla, honey, he didn't tell you anything else?" Tarble interjected as he stepped over to me and I set Bulla down.
"He told me to look after Trunks, and to be really good for Mom when she gets here," Bulla said.
"... I... I don't understand. Where would he go? And for what?" I thought out loud. It didn't make sense, him leaving as soon as the radar was completed and then not staying for –
"The ship," Gohan blurted. "We can't sense him anywhere on Earth because he's not on Earth. He remained here just long enough to ensure we were able to fix the radar. When Trunks and I were away from Capsule Corp, he took his chance – he could leave with the least likelihood of being noticed. Vegeta... He must've been planning this all along."
I felt my stomach drop as I listened to Gohan's reasoning.
"But that – that doesn't make sense. He couldn't have just... Even if he was waiting around for the right opportunity, what is he planning to do alone? Why would he leave me behind when I'm the strongest of all of us now? He didn't give any indication that he planned to..." My sentence trickled off.
'With the nature of what happened, I'm concerned he'll do something rash.'
'I don't know how much time we have.'
'Your lives were mine to protect, and I failed.'
'It is time to make things right. Until I do that, Trunks... forgive me.'
"Damn it," I said. "Gods-damn it."
We were in the pavilion where our ship ought to have been parked. Only Gohan, Goku, and Tarble had accompanied me, and we now stood in the empty space and stared at the sky, thoughts in various stages of emotion.
I, for one, was livid.
Every piece of profanity I knew was racing through my head and out my mouth in frustration. How could he leave me behind?
"Why that inconsiderate, insufferable, reckless son of a bitch! One of us is finally strong enough to defeat our enemies, and he just leaves me here?" I raged. "After everything I said to him, he decides I'm still not fucking good enough? He couldn't even be bothered to stay until we brought Mom back!"
"Part of this is my fault," Gohan admitted. "Those things I said about your mental state... Wherever he's gone, he wasn't willing to get you involved."
"I'm not so sure. Vegeta's fiercely independent... He probably thinks this is something he has to do alone," Goku said.
"He isn't the type to accept help, that's for sure," Tarble added.
"Rrrgh... He could've considered asking for once!" I said.
I'd underestimated Father's cunning, and what emotions would drive him to use it. All that time he'd been spending alone with his own thoughts – he must've been convinced that everything was his duty to deal with. I knew, of course, that some of his emotions over the past several days had been genuine, but he knew how to hide the deeper tempest underneath. Even if we were bringing Mom back, her death had tipped him over the edge, driving him to seek... what? Revenge? Against whom? Broly was dead, and I supposed Paragus would be resurrected by default, but Father wouldn't do this just for Paragus.
"Vegeta's still hiding his energy..." Goku said as he drew his fingers away from his temple. "Even if he wasn't, it would be risky to Instant Transmission to him at this distance, while he's moving in space. If he raises his energy enough at some point, I'll be able to find him, but it'll be harder guessing which direction to look."
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?" I demanded, then shifted my attention to Tarble. "Uncle! Don't you have a ship? You must've gotten to Earth somehow!"
"I – y – yes," he stuttered, "but Bulla and I were dropped off here. I can call Gure back, but the spacecrafts her people make are hardly big enough to fit someone my size, let alone you or Goku. I'm sorry..."
I wracked my brain, trying to come up with any other method available to go after Father.
"Goku, can you sense your mother back on Planet Vegeta? It's possible Father could be going there, and there's probably a ship you could bring back in case he's not," I tried as a last-ditch solution.
"Because her ki is so small, we're too far away. At this range, it blends in with all the collective energy in the nearby galaxy," the man replied.
"'Nearby' being a relative term," Gohan muttered. "Even if we got a ship, we have no way of knowing where Vegeta is unless he raises his energy higher than the life forms around him. If he doesn't want to be found, he's smart enough to keep himself restrained."
"What I can do is keep a watch out for him," Goku said. "But if he gets further every day, it'll be harder to catch him if he slips up."
I clenched my fists at my sides and said nothing else for a moment.
"So what, then?" I asked at length. Goku and his son turned to look at me, while my uncle kept his gaze on the sky.
I let my hands relax. "What do we do now?"
I already knew from books that Earth was over halfway covered in saltwater. Fathoms of it, cooling deep volcanoes and providing life for millions of species. However, knowing that already did nothing to quell the awe I felt upon seeing the ocean for the first time.
It wasn't quite the colour I'd expected. Instead of matching the sky, it was a much darker shade of blue, with grey and green undertones. A strong scent of salt permeated the area around it for quite a distance, enough that I could almost taste it. I'd known we were getting close long before the ocean had come into sight.
There was no end to it. It seemed to stretch out on an infinite expanse to both sides and ahead of me, shifting and yet not spilling over more than its tide allowed. Planet Vegeta had no oceans; most of our water supply was underground or in small lakes and oases. Even the poles were wastelands of cold rock.
The sand I stood in, what was left of stone worn away by the constant pressure and movement of the sea, was a warm tan, far different than the deep red of back home and much softer. I shifted it with my boot, examining the texture.
"This is it," Gohan said. I glanced at the radar in his hand, watching the careful blip of light that pulsed and indicated the nearest Dragon Ball's location.
The rest of our group was waiting a short distance away on the beach. Gohan, his father and I had all offered to fetch our next target, so there we were, mustering ourselves in preparation for the literal plunge.
Ironically enough, I didn't know how to swim. Of course, I wasn't at a risk of drowning unless I ran out of air or ki, as I could propel myself under the water like I did through the air. We didn't know how deep we'd have to go, but vision wasn't a problem when your hair could glow gold at will.
"Are you two sure about this? I can manage it by myself, if you want. I know you can't swim very well with only one arm, and you probably can't swim at all, can you?" Goku said.
"Not in the slightest," I replied.
"Don't worry. Trunks and I can keep an eye on each other in the water. I'm mostly worried about getting our clothes wet, but thankfully this Dragon Ball is a little closer to the equator – and I guess we can dry ourselves after with our ki," Gohan said.
"Uh-huh. Well, let's get going then, before we waste daylight," Goku said as he moved to wade right into the water. Gohan took one last look at the distance indicated on the radar, then set it down on the beach.
After a second's hesitation I followed them, floating above the water's surface while Goku and Gohan swam out. The ocean level quickly got deep enough where I could tell they no longer felt the bottom, nor could I see anything but a shifting blue mass when I looked down. Behind us, the beach had become a beige strip, the figures waiting on it small dark sticks.
"Ready?" Goku said, and then he was gone – diving under the water ahead of me with a small splash. A faint glow began to emanate from beneath the surface as he generated his own light.
Gohan glanced up, gave me a quick salute and then disappeared, following his father.
I looked up at the clean blue sky once more, so different from home and yet a familiar shade. Truth be told, I didn't know if my memories of an azure expanse were of Earth's atmosphere, or the ocean below. At the edge of the horizon, their colours blended together.
I took a deep breath, then let myself drop.
"Eternal Shenron! By your name I summon you forth!"
With Goku's words, the sunset sky above Capsule Corp blackened completely. Within seconds, the fierce radiance of the collected Dragon Balls shot into the darkness, twisting and forming itself into a massive shape. White lightning transformed into a long body of green scales, into a clawed creature with a crested head and glowing eyes that fixed themselves onto us down below.
I hadn't known what to expect, but certainly not something this huge.
"I am Shenron. I shall grant you any one wish. Now speak your heart's desire!" the dragon's voice boomed.
"Th – that's a dragon?" I gawked. Its teeth alone were half the length of my body.
"Hey Shenron! We want you to resurrect everyone killed by Broly, the night he attacked the royal palace on Planet Vegeta!" Goku called to it, utterly unperturbed by the sight of the beast.
For a moment, Shenron did nothing. Then his eyes flashed, and his thundering voice rang out once more.
"It is done," he said.
In front of us, two glowing blobs began to form, and then as suddenly as they'd appeared, two familiar figures stood in place.
Though we didn't have their bodies with us, I supposed the dragon was able to interpret what a person truly wanted instead of having to rely on specific wording – because there, plain as day, stood Goten and Mom.
The two of them looked bewildered, wearing the same thing they'd been when I'd last seen them, but tidy and unhurt. Mom blinked around, dazed, and Goten looked up above him, eyes widening.
"Shenron?!" he blurted.
"I have fulfilled your wish. Farewell," the dragon rumbled, and then he became a twist of light once more.
The Dragon Balls rose into the air with him, and then there was a flash and through it, I could see seven glowing forms strike separate ways across the heavens, lighting up the clouds for a brief moment.
The weather cleared, returning the sky to its original burnt orange and deepening blue edges.
"Um... are we on Earth?" Mom asked.
"Well, it's definitely not in the afterlife," Goten replied, and then he and Mom both turned to look at everyone else, including me.
Chi-Chi was the first to move at a surprising speed.
"MY BABY!" she wailed, tackling Goten right to the ground, Gohan and Goku right behind her and Videl and Piccolo at a greater distance.
Not having expected them to appear right in front of us, I was still frozen in shock for a moment before I darted forward.
"Mom! Is that really you?" I said, having the sense to stop in front of her. I put my hands on her shoulders, feeling for the first time that she was indeed real.
"Trunks? You're..." she began, but stopped as I pulled her into an embrace.
I hugged her as tightly as I dared, burying my face into her shoulder. I felt my grandparents at my back, joining in with the reunion.
"Trunks, I'm so happy to see you," Mom said. "I wasn't sure if you – if you'd made it. I couldn't find you in the lineup or after that, there was only Goten and then Goku showed up to -"
"I'm alive Mom, I'm okay. It's okay, you're here," I said. Abruptly, when I felt my eyes start to sting, I relaxed my hold and turned a little so that she couldn't see my face, bringing a hand up to wipe it.
"Bulma, sweetheart!" Grandma cooed. "We're so glad to see you! It's been so long!"
"Mom, Dad!" my mother said, keeping me close while greeting her parents. "I've missed you! What happened? How long was I dead?"
"L – less than two weeks," I answered, trying very hard not to have any more sudden fits of tears. Although it felt like I was going to break down whether I wanted to or not. "It t – took us awhile to fix the radar, but that – that doesn't matter now."
"Trunks, come here, I want to see you," Mom said, pulling me back to her. She brushed my hair away from my face, looking me over to ensure I was safe and sound. I probably appeared a mess, getting emotional like this plus not having slept well or had a real appetite in so long. Although I hadn't paid too much attention to my health, Saiyans required a lot of fuel to keep themselves in top shape, and my diminished appetite and high metabolism had started to make me leaner.
Mom didn't comment on any of this, instead reaching up and kissing me on the forehead.
"Mom, you don't have to do that," I protested halfheartedly. She smiled, hands gently on my face the same way Grandma would do.
Mom's expression shifted, then she looked around. "Where's your father, Trunks?"
I dropped my gaze to the ground.
"Oh no – honey, look at me, is he -" she stuttered.
"He's alive," I reassured, "but I don't know where he is. He left... without..."
I didn't bother to finish. I was distracted as Yamcha came over to greet Mom, and at that point I heart the conversation from the group across from us.
"Guys – I just got brought back to life. I need air if I'm gonna stay that way," I heard Goten wheeze from within his pile of family members. "And if you two keep crying, it's gonna make me start crying."
I looked over. Goten had gotten to his feet and was smiling in embarrassment as Chi-Chi clung to him on one side, Gohan on the other. Both of them were shedding tears, the former more so, as Piccolo, Videl, and Goku had untangled themselves from the reunion.
I gave Mom one more glance, then broke away from her to approach my long-lost friend.
When I stopped a distance away from him, he met my eyes, realizing I was there.
"Hey," I said to him.
"H – hey," he said back. His family gave him a bit of space as some of them went to greet Mom, Goten moving until we were an arm's length apart.
"The last time I saw you, you were... I thought you were dead too," he continued.
"Not quite," I replied, the collar of my top loose enough for me to pull it and reveal just the upper part of my scar for a moment.
"How did you survive?" he asked. "Dad gave me a vague explanation of what happened, but..."
I shook my head once. "Long story."
He raised an eyebrow, but then set the matter aside. "Nevermind that. For now, I'm just glad we're both here. I really didn't think..." He started moving towards me, maybe to embrace me, but I put a hand on his chest to keep him where he was.
He stopped, then blinked his dark eyes at me in confusion. They looked more of a soft brown in the sunset than their normal coal black.
"Explain something to me," I said.
"... Explain?" he echoed.
My hand fisted into his shirt where it rested.
"How dare you just give up and die on me!" I blurted, lightly shaking him as I felt my emotional dam cracking.
"Wha...?" he sounded. "You're mad at – you think I died on purpose? Maybe you should try it sometime!"
"I'm not trying to say you died on purpose, you idiot! I'm saying that you dying without me is unacceptable!"
Some sort of understanding combined with his surprise as I went on. "You saved my life, refusing to let me die, but then Broly kills you and you just expect me to accept that? How would you feel if I died and left you behind? You're the one who said that where we go, we go together!"
Goten smiled softly. "You can't just say you missed me, can you? You really are a mess. I don't think I've seen you cry since we were kids."
"I'm not cr..." I was crying. Damn it all.
I let him hug me this time.
Once I'd found my composure and pulled away, Goten gestured with his chin.
"I'd ask who your uncle's holding over there, but I think I can make a pretty good guess," he said. I turned around, espying Tarble some space away, visible but still retreated from the group. Behind him hid a familiar little girl, clutching at his hand and tail. I'd never seen her act shy like that, but the unfamiliar amount of people could be overwhelming, especially when a mother she'd never met was a part of those people.
I gestured for Goten to follow me, and then when I caught Tarble's attention, did the same to him.
He hesitated for a second, then moved our way, leading Bulla along behind him. When we drew close enough to the mass around Mom, I gently shouldered my way in, parting the bodies for my diminutive uncle and sister.
"Mom," I said. Her intelligent blue eyes fixed on me, flickering to Tarble and then back again.
I looked behind me, reaching down to take a small, pale hand and guide its owner to stand beside me.
"There's someone I'd like you to meet."
- End of Book I -
A/N: Damn. 130,000+ words is a milestone to me, especially since when I started this story I envisioned it being half that size. For both its qualities and its cons, this fic is the first actual novel-sized thing I've ever completed. Not only that, but I never thought it would be a series, or ever have a sequel. But the story just grew and grew until it eventually didn't fit very well into just ADARB.
The story will continue in book two (not Distance From Fate), which will be posted when I have a chapter or so completed. It'll be a little faster paced and have more action, and will conclude the overarching plot established in book one.