This is my first time writing a fanfic and publishing it online for others to see. I'm using future Trunks from Z and Mai from DB. This story was created to help me with writing an original that I'm working on. I wanted to see how people would react to my style of writing and to practice in other areas I know need work. Thank you!
Chapter 1 : One more time
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 his father but also 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. At least when he had traveled to the other timeline, he got a glimpse of a world that could've been his, and 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.
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 Tuffles 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. What if the saiyans had never arrived on the planet? Would Earth just have been another backwater planet of no use to anyone, and its 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 that 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'd give him the answers to questions that constantly danced around his mind. 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.
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. Despite everything his mother tasked him with learning to occupy his time, he still couldn't shake those pervasive thoughts. He loved his parents, and it stung to think about the misery they both had endured. He needed to talk to his mother, 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 before he started scoping her out with his senses, he found Bulma lying down on the living room couch.
"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. He wasn't some needy kid that was upset about her busy schedule, in fact he was understanding and knew it had to be done.
"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.
"I've been going non-stop for months. I got so caught up in my work today that 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 with his hands 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, 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, embarrassing memories that he would much rather block out of his memory.
"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, 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 begun 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."
She had such an adorable, hardworking 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. After years of working as her right hand man, Trunks had learned her shorthand and knew all the passwords to whatever computer and database he needed to access. He felt like he was violating her trust by going through her stuff without notifying her, but 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 after the events of Namek. 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
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. Curious, he typed in his father's name to see what would come up and sure enough, there was an extensive file dedicated to him with multiple sections.
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 logs. Trunks wondered what had made him take a break. As atrocious as what his father had done for a living, Trunks knew that just like his father took his training to the extreme, he was sure his missions were no exception.
He scrolled through the images of his father, noting the change from a young devious looking boy, to a hardened battle scarred man. He looked so similar yet so different from when they'd met... 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 was that it didn't last longer.
This was the best he could do, learn through records about the man he so admired. He was curious to know everything about him. 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. 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. 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 would never agree...
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 adventures 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, including 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.
Thank you for reading!