untitled

Mysterious Beauty
Chapter 2: Pan's Story
By Lady Starra
presea94@netscape.net
Rating: PG
See foreword for standard disclaimers.



"What do you mean, she called your name?"

"Just as I said, Kaasan. She said my name. In her sleep."

"Then do you know her after all, Trunks?" Bulma asked.

"Well, no...and yes," he faltered.

"What?"

"Well, Kaasan...you see..."

Trunks proceeded to tell his mother about the mysterious dream he'd been
having for the last few months. Bulma took it all in a little hesitantly,
although she knew Trunks would not have made something like this up. She
thought something had been bothering him, and now she knew why.

"I think she might be from the other timeline," Trunks told his mother.

"Quite possibly, but it's a real mystery how she could have crossed into this
world, unless they made a time machine in her world," Bulma said.

"But she fell from the sky, Kaasan. It's almost like she just appeared out
of nowhere."

"I know...that's the strange part. I don't see how this could have
happened."

"Mmmmmm..."

Again, she stirred in her sleep. This time, they watched as her eyelids began
to move.

"She's waking up!" Bulma said.

Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, and Trunks looked into a pair of gorgeous
eyes even bluer than his own. Her vision began to come into focus, and when
she saw Trunks, they widened in shock.

At first Pan couldn't believe her eyes. The fight with Zio...had it all been
a dream? Was she dreaming now? But the aches she felt all over her body
indicated to her that she was definitely awake. And, that was definitely
Trunks' face staring down at her. But she had to be sure.

"Trunks?" she said carefully.

"Wow...she DOES know who you are," Bulma said. Then Pan looked at her.

"Bulma-san?"

"Eh?!" Trunks and Bulma exclaimed in unison. She knew Bulma too?

Pan studied them carefully. They seemed to be confused that she knew their
names. 'Could it be that they don't recognize me?' she thought. Then it
seemed obvious to her. 'Baka, you were only 15 when Trunks died. You're 22
now. If you went even further into the past, then they only know you as a
little girl. Of course they don't recognize you.'

She wanted so much to just jump up and embrace Trunks, but she decided
against it. He probably thought she was enough of a psycho, being a strange
girl whom he had never seen before that somehow new his name. Hugging him
like that would probably confuse him more.

"I...I'm sorry, Miss. I'm afraid I don't know who you are," Trunks said.
"But...how is it that you know me? Have you...come from another timeline?"
he asked her.

Pan looked at him in surprise. She didn't expect he would guess right away
that she didn't come from his time. Then she got a better look at him. His
hair was long. In all the years she'd known him, Trunks had never grown his
hair out that much. Not that she minded...he looked very handsome that way.
But she never remembered it being like that. And Bulma looked different too.
What was going on? Then, realization hit her. She must have stumbled into the
wrong timeline.

"Well...have you?" Trunks asked again.

"Yes, but...I think I ended up in the wrong place," she said. 'How could this
have happened? The pendant should have brought me right to where I needed to
go! How did I end up here?' she wondered.

"I am Trunks...but I'm Mirai Trunks. I went back in time to fight with the
Z Soldiers about 5 years ago," he told her.

"MIRAI Trunks?" Pan was baffled. She had only heard stories from her
grandfather about him. He had saved Goku's life from a deathly virus and
helped the Z Soldiers in the Cell game.

"How did you get here, dear? Did you use another time machine?" Bulma
asked.

"No. It's kind of a long story."

"Well, that's all right. You don't have to explain now. I'm sorry we didn't
put you in the rejuvenation tank when we found you, but it's not in working
order right now. But it's getting repaired, once it's finished we can heal
those wounds of yours," Bulma said.

"Don't worry about it, Bulma-san. I...I can heal my own wounds."

"What?" Trunks asked, confused.

She closed her eyes, and within seconds a silver glow began to envelope her.
Trunks and Bulma watched in awe as her wounds healed up and the burn marks on
her body disappeared. Once she was healed, the silver light faded. Pan looked
at Trunks and Bulma and was slightly amused at their shocked expressions.

"How did you do that?!" Bulma exclaimed.

"Sugoi! Who are you?" Trunks said.

"I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Son Pan. My father is...or
rather, WAS...Son Gohan."

"EH?!?!" they both cried.

"Gohan-sensei...Gohan-sensei's daughter?" Trunks asked in disbelief. This was
getting weirder by the minute!

"Yes. I didn't intend to come to this timeline at all. I was hoping to go
back about 12 years from where I was, before...before..." Pan's eyes rimmed
with tears as she thought of the battle she just fought with Zio. "Before HE
came along."

"He?" Bulma asked.

"So. I was right. A new threat came to earth," Trunks said.

"No. Not a threat. More like an annihalation. Everyone, and everything...is
gone." Pan couldn't control her voice from breaking. The tears that stung her
eyes finally pooled over. "Everything...is gone." And the worst part about
it...was that it was partly her fault.

Trunks felt his heart go out to her as he watched the tears emerge from her
eyes. He felt the need to comfort her and knelt in front of her, taking her
into his arms and she welcomed his affections gladly.

"Trunks..."

"It's all right, Pan-san," he soothed.

Kami, it felt wonderful to be this close to him again. Even though it wasn't
the Trunks she actually knew, he was still Trunks, and it was heavenly being
encircled by those strong arms.

"Come on, Pan. Since you're feeling better, let's get you to the house and
into some fresh clothes," Bulma said.

Pan had just realized that they had dressed her in another set of clothes.
Then she remembered the pendant. "My...my pendant, where is it?!" she
said frantically.

"Pendant?" Bulma asked.

"It was on my cape..."

"Oh...I have your other set of clothes here." Bulma brought her the cape and
her other garments, and Pan took the pendant from her cape and put it around
her neck.

"Well, I am sure that you must be starving Pan. Let's go to the house and
I'll make you something to eat," Bulma offered.

Trunks helped Pan up and they went to the main house and sat in the kitchen
nook. Then Trunks began to throw questions at her.

"What happened to everyone in your time?" he asked.

"Like I said, it's a very long story, Trunks. I hope you're not too tired to
listen," she said.

"I have to know. What happened to the earth, Pan-san?"

Pan took a deep breath as she began.

"It all started about seven years ago, when I was only 15. An evil sorcerer
from deep within space came and invaded our solar system. His name was Zio,
and he was the most powerful being in the universe. He wielded unfathomable
powers by using sorcery and magic, and because of this...none of the Z
Soldiers could even touch him. We all tried to fight him...but only me and
two others survived."

"Who?" Trunks asked.

"My uncle Goten, and...Bra. Goten is my father's brother."

"Goku had another son?" Bulma said.

"Yes. And Bra...she's my best friend and...Trunks's younger sister, the
second child of Bulma and Vegeta."

"WHAT?" Bulma and Trunks said. NOW they had heard it all.

"We almost didn't survive. Zio was about to finish us off when someone came
along and saved us...a man named Lutz. He had transported us to a planet
called Dahlia, which is in the Alisa solar system very deep in space. He...he
claimed that my grandmother on my kaasan's side...whom I'd never met...was a
native of the Planet Dahlia.

"Many years ago, when my grandmother was still a very young child, Dahlia was
having a terrible war with one of its neighboring planets, Terminus. The king
of Terminus, Siren, wanted to take over all of the planets in the Alisa
system. He had a special hatred for Dahlia though, because he had been
infatuated with my great-grandmother, and she rejected him and married my
great-grandfather, who was King Orakio of Dahlia. Because of this, he wanted
every person in the Dahlian royal family dead. So, fearing for the life of
their young daughter, the king and queen of Dahlia sent their only child to
earth, in the care of an escort. They wanted to be assured that someone from
the royal bloodline would remain alive and be kept safe, if anything did
happen to the king and queen.

"The wars got uglier as the years passed," Pan continued. "Dahlia, which had
once been a beautiful and peaceful planet, had become an all-out war zone and
much of it had been destroyed thanks to King Siren and his minions. One day,
Siren had finally managed to kill my great-grandmother. It threw my great-
grandfather in a rage and then he and King Siren had it out...and it ended
with both of their lives. They ended up killing each other. After that, they
had tried to make contact with the escort that had taken my grandmother to
earth, but for some reason, they couldn't find her. So, for the last 80
years, Dahlia had been without a monarch. And then, they found me...and
brought me back to Dahlia."

"This is all very interesting, Pan, but what does this have to do with the
guy who invaded earth?" Bulma asked.

"Zio was a sorcerer, the strongest magician in the universe. The reason he
defeated all of the Z Soldiers was because of his magic. The Dahlians have a
secret form of sorcery called Mystoke, and only someone in the Dahlian royal
bloodline can learn how to use it, with the exception of Dahlia's Head
Sorcerer. When used to its fullest potential, Mystoke can easily be the
strongest form of sorcery in the universe, even superior to the magic Zio
used. But the rumors about Mystoke slowly began to fade out, because everyone
thought the entire royal family of Dahlia was dead. But Lutz, the Head
Sorcerer, knew that wasn't the case. He searched for many years until he
found me."

"But how did they know it was you?" Trunks asked, confused.

"When they sent my grandmother to earth, they had given her this," Pan said,
lifting up the pendant. "Lutz could not go and search for her right away
because the wars had destroyed Dahlia's technology and space travel was
virtually impossible. Most of the planet's scientists had survived but it
still took Lutz and the remaining survivors decades to rebuild Dahlia and
restore it to the planet it once was. When they finally came to earth, Zio
had already invaded. Lutz was able to sense the power of the pendant and
tracked me down, and he was able to save me, Bra and Goten just in time. He
knew who I was because I had been wearing the pendant around my neck."

"I see," Bulma said, looking as baffled as her son did. "So what happened next?"

"Lutz took us to Dahlia and explained Zio's powers. Then he asked me about my
parentage, and what I knew about my grandmother. I told him that I'd never
met her, that she had died before I was born, and all I knew about her life
was that she had been found as a child and had lost her memory. Then he told
me about who my grandmother really was, that I was part of Dahlia's royal
family bloodline. He told me about Mystoke, that I could learn to use it, and
only then, would anyone even have a remote chance of defeating Zio.

"I began training under Lutz, and in seven years, I was skilled in Mystoke
and knew every technique inside and out," Pan went on. "Lutz told me that it
normally takes almost all of one's pre-adolescent and teen years to master it
fully, but because of my Saiyajin blood and the fact that I was already
somewhat strong, I was able to do it in less than half the time. Once I was
confident I could beat Zio, I used the pendant and returned to Earth.

"When I came back...everything had been taken over by Zio and was even more
of a disaster than it had been when we first left. Earth was now Zio's main
base, and he had killed all of its inhabitants and had begun to set up what
he called his 'new empire' there. After what seemed like forever, I managed
to defeat him, but..." Tears began to form in her eyes again. "I...ended up
destroying the earth, too."

"WHAT?!" Trunks exlaimed, as Bulma's eyes widened in shock. "You destroyed
the earth? How?"

"It's...a little hard to describe. You see, in Mystoke, there's what's called
the Forbidden Technique. It's basically when, all of your anger builds up so
much that you can't control it, and it causes everything around you to
crumble like a violent earthquake. My...my anger was so out of control...that
it created a force strong enough to wipe out the entire planet. The same
thing happened when my great-grandfather defeated Siren. They fought on
Terminus, and he became so angry that the Forbidden Technique destroyed
Terminus, plus my grandfather and Siren along with it. And now...earth is
gone...and it's all my fault." Pan hung her head down as the tears began to
flow.

"Hey, Pan. Listen," Trunks said as he went to embrace her again. "You didn't
take any innocent lives. You said that only Zio and his minions were there,
and he wiped out the entire earth, right?"

"I know that. But just the same...earth was my home. It was hard adjusting to
life on Dahlia, although their atmospheres are virtually the same. But...I
had some hope of keeping the earth alive, possibly even returning to live
there again. But I can't now. No one can. And that's why I left. To give the
earth a second chance."

"I see now. You meant to go back to warn everyone about Zio," Trunks said.

"Yes and no. If I just went back to warn them, it wouldn't do any good, no
matter how much they would prepare for him. His magic was superior to all of
their powers. Even I, being a skilled master of the Mystoke sorcery, had
difficulty defeating him. So, I thought I would go back and train my younger
self. The younger a Saiyajin is, the easier it is for them to learn and catch
on to things. At fifteen, I was able to do it in seven years. If I'd been
about five years younger I probably could've done it in even less time. So,
with me and my younger self there to fight Zio...he won't stand a chance."

"But Pan, even if you did go back. It wouldn't change things in your world.
It would only create another timeline, and your earth would still be
destroyed," Trunks told her.

"I...I know that. Dahlia is my home now, and that's a reality I've come to
accept. But still, I can't allow the life of my friends and family to end
the way it did. Even if it is a different world, I can't let Zio do what he
did to the earth, and if I can save it, then I'm going to. I owe that much,
seeing that it was my magic that actually destroyed it," Pan said firmly.

Trunks had felt the same way those five years ago, when he had gone to the
past to meet Goku. He had wanted to give the earth another chance at life,
just as Pan wanted to do.

"I don't know why I ended up here. But it was my first time using the pendant
to cross worlds, and I was pretty weak when I did it so maybe something went
wrong. But...tomorrow I have to try again," she said.

"So...you want to leave tomorrow?" Trunks asked, disappointed.

"I have to. I need to get there as soon as possible."

"Well then, I guess you'll want to get some rest then, ne? We have plenty of
spare bedrooms for you to use," Bulma said.

"Thank you, Bulma-san, but I'm really not tired right now. I just slept for
ages, and I feel really energized thanks to my healing spell. I don't think I
could sleep right now if I tried," Pan said, smiling.

"I'm not tired either," Trunks said. "I know...let's spar! I'd like to see
what you can do with that sword of yours!"

Pan blinked. "Are you...sure you're not tired, Trunks?"

"Nah, I don't need to sleep much. C'mon, I'll show you to the gravity room!"
he said, pulling her up from the couch. "Let's go get your sword!"



Well, that's it for now! I'm not sure when I will have the next part up,
maybe in a week or so...but feedback ALWAYS motivates me! Tell me how you
liked! And I promise there will be more romance as the story goes along.
Until next time!

Sincerely,
Lady S