Disclaimer:
Summary: This chapter takes place in Mirai Trunks time and the title of this one speaks for itself (This chapter carries a Kleenex alert though, so the tenderhearted among you might want to go get some first. (^_~) Awesome first chapter as we welcome Mirai Trunks into the story. Enjoy!
A Farewell to Fallen Heroes
"I love you, mom", he said as he waved goodbye.
"I love you too, son, more than you'll ever know". *
Bulma and Trunks
And Trunks sat in that silent bedroom and thought about the first time he and his mom had happened to stumble onto that beautiful, high mountain valley not far from Capsule Corporation. He was only about 8 then.
"Trunks, have you ever seen anything more beautiful in all your life? Hope lives in this place, can't you feel it?" And with that, she was like an overgrown child, running and looking and exploring and weeping, all at the same time.
"Ah, sure mom. The waterfall is nice, I guess", he had replied.
And he remembered looking at the tears that were streaming down her face and he remembered thinking that she had absolutely lost her mind. Of course he didn't feel it! He had been only 8 years old and he was a boy and his thoughts were on fighting the androids. He wanted to be down where Gohan was, continuing to try to talk the warrior into becoming his trainer. He wanted to get strong so he could fight them and he was convinced that if he and Gohan only just teamed up, they could take those monsters out in a heartbeat. But at that time, Gohan was still too cautious with him, and was refusing.
And after a time, Bulma got an idea. She had realized that none of the Earth's Special Forces who had sacrificed their lives, whether from fighting androids or from fighting heart viruses, had ever gotten a proper burial, and there was nothing to remember them by. And she wanted to have a place to go talk with them because she still missed them all so much. So she chose an especially beautiful site up in that high mountain valley, and it was nestled between a grove of tall pine trees to the right and magnificently large boulders on the left and in the early evening, the setting sun would shine upon it, and Bulma felt that they all would have liked that.
With that, she went to work in her woodworking shop and fashioned 7 slabs of cherry wood, which she honed and polished and lacquered until they shone as brilliantly as the people they were intended to represent. Then she created a protected inset in each one and called it the 'Heart of the Marker', knowing that one day she would find just the right words to place in those hearts. And she inscribed their names on each of those seven beautifully polished markers, and together one day, mother and son went up and placed each one in that carefully chosen spot, and for the first time in his young life, he began to understand and have compassion for what it meant to be heartbroken, because he had never seen his mom cry like that before. And even though they all only lived in the stories she had told him, Trunks cried too because her sadness touched him so deeply.
Then five years later, an eighth marker with the name, Gohan, was added.
And only just a few days after they buried Gohan, Bulma had finally heard just the right words she had been waiting for to express her love for her friends in the form of a song titled "My Heart Will Go On" and she came rushing up to her son and tears were streaming down her face. Finally, someone had put to words what she had always felt in her heart and now, even though he was still only 13 at the time, he too had developed a deep understanding of the love for another.
She felt that the most beautiful song in the whole world had been written just for them and she carefully wrote the words down on a simple, single, lined sheet of notebook paper. And mother and son spent another tearful day up in that beautifully quiet high mountain valley carefully selecting the best verse of the song for each warrior, carefully inscribing what she called her love songs to them and placed the inscriptions in the hearts of those memorial markers. And when it was time to chose and write Gohan's, she just held him and let him cry in her arms. And when it was time for her to chose and write the love song to Vegeta, he did the same for her.
And now he sat in that silent bedroom with another beautifully polished cherry wood marker in his arms, upon which he had just finished inscribing the name of his hero and very best friend in the entire world.
Bulma had died in his arms that afternoon, and in a heartbeat, she was gone. She had taught him how to love, and how to laugh and how to cry, and how to live life to the fullest, but one thing she had never taught him was how to say goodbye. And so he held her, and he rocked her, and when he had no more tears left to cry for her, he took to flight to bury his beautiful little blue haired mom with the people she had loved most in her lifetime, apart from him. Her death wasn't a surprise, as she had been sick for a long time and he supposed he should have been better prepared for it, but he wasn't. How does someone prepare for a pain that literally rips your heart out until it happens?
And he had chosen to wait to write his love song to her until the marker was set and only then would he inscribe the last verse of that beautiful song and place it within the marker's heart. Except this time, he would make the journey up to that beautiful high mountain valley alone and there would be no arms to hold him when he cried.
As Trunks landed in that quiet, high mountain valley where that makeshift cemetery was, he walked past each marker carrying both her lifeless little body and her memorial marker in his arms and he dropped to his knees, stopping at the spot that he had prepared for her days earlier because he knew her time was close, and he gently laid her down into the earth that she loved so.
And as he began to cover her with handfuls of dirt, he found that his tears had returned and soon began to land in tiny droplets upon her. Then he finally found the strength to say goodbye and he wanted so desperately to believe that the stories she told him about the afterlife were true and that somewhere, somehow, she continued in the next dimension, and that she could still see him.
As he stood looking down at ground, a sudden and unusual breeze began to swirl down and careen through that quiet mountain valley and it took his long lavender hair and lifted it up and almost seemed to twirl it around in a way that felt strangely familiar to him. And he was moved when he remembered that she had told him that when she had arrived in the next dimension, she would send her love to him on the wings of the very wind itself and would mess his hair in that special way that always irritated him so much. And then he would know that she was all right, and safe, and was watching over him, living on in his heart and in the next dimension.
'Trunks', she would say, 'the heart of a good person is filled with the wings of love that are just bursting at the seams to take to flight and touch someone else, and that continues always, even into the next dimension'.
And a small glimmer of hope was planted in him right in the middle of all that pain and sorrow. It was just like her to do that to him now, because no matter how hard things got, she would always tell him that hope, however tiny it might be, had to exist somewhere to give birth to life, and she would then remind him that once upon a time a long time ago, he himself was just a tiny little seed of hope within the body of a warrior who thought hope was dead, and 'just look at what happened!' she'd say throwing her hands up in the air beaming at him, and then she would always hug him.
"Who is going to hug me now, Mom?"
And with that, he glanced over at those eight silent markers that didn't have arms, in that makeshift little cemetery that Bulma had created to honor and remember the Earth's Special Forces, and where just moments earlier, he had buried her too.
Now, with pen in hand, Trunks was trying to find the strength to inscribe the final verse of his love song to his mom which he would then place within the marker's heart. And with that, he unfolded that original, wrinkled and tear stained, eleven year old sheet of lined notebook paper that she had kept for so long.
"My Heart Will Go On"
By Celine Dion
"I don't think my heart can go on alone mom, there's nobody left to love me".
And with one arm around his waist and his face buried in hand of the other, Trunks stood alone in that quiet high mountain valley, weeping uncontrollably.
And he knew that he should be stronger, he had the blood of a Saiyan warrior in his veins, and he found that he could be fearless and impassioned in battle, and that he was no longer a little boy rather, he was a grown man now and yet, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself otherwise, he found that his tears continued to flow as passionately as they had when Gohan died when he was only 13.
And right then, he wasn't so sure he even wanted his heart to go on anymore, but that stupid damned wind wouldn't leave him alone and was buffeting him now, and Bulma seemed to be trying to tell him that she continued, and he would too.
Still weeping intensely, he now felt driven to read the words of the love songs Bulma had set within the hearts of those eight markers because they represented real people who used to be, and were now gone, and he wanted to honor them. Even though another version of them was alive in the past, the ones who were represented by these markers could not replaced.
Trunks took a deep breath and tried to calm himself as he decided to read those love songs out loud because he want to tell each warrior how much his mom had loved all of them.
Dear Goku,
Every night in my dreams*
I see you, I feel you,
that is how I know you go on.
Love, Bulma
Goku - Compassionate Hero, Friend
Dear Yamcha,
Far across the distance
and spaces between us
you have come to show you go on.
Love, Bulma
Yamcha - Warrior, Friend
Dear Tien and Chiaouztu,
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on.
Love, Bulma
Tienshinhan - Moving Mountain, Defender of the Earth
Chiaouztu - Warrior, Gentle Friend
Dear Piccolo,
Once more you open the door
and you're here in my heart
and my heart will go on and on.
Love, Bulma
Piccolo - Namek, Keeper of the Dragonballs
Dear Vegeta,
Love can touch us one time
and last for a lifetime
and never let go till we're one.
Love was when I loved you
one true time I hold to.
In my life we'll always go on.
With a love that lasts to this day, Bulma
Vegeta - Warrior, Father, and Saiya-Jin Prince
Dear Krillen,
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on.
Love, Bulma
Krillen - Tenderhearted Warrior, Lifelong Friend
Dear Gohan,
Once more you open the door
and you're here in my heart
and my heart will go on and on.
There is some love that will not go away.
Love, Trunks
Gohan - Master Teacher, Warrior, and Light
And with that, the brokenhearted son of Bulma Briefs put the beautifully crafted, handed polished cherry wood marker into place, and copied the last verse of that moving song for her which was his love song to her, and set it deep within the heart of the marker.
Dear Mom,
You're here, there's nothing I fear,
and I know that my heart will go on.
We'll stay forever this way
you are safe in my heart
and my heart will go on and on.
Love, Trunks
Bulma Briefs - Loving Mom, Best Friend, and Hope's Hero
And with that, the adult son of Vegeta and Bulma struggled to hold on to that tiny glimmer of hope, as he longed to feel that familiar pair of arms around him again. He could handle almost anything except being alone, which he now was, and the night was coming, and it was beginning to rain, and he refused to think again about that night when Gohan was killed, not now. And he stood to his feet and he cursed the rain, and the night, and death.
And soon, that glimmer of hope was gone. And Trunks wondered if that was how his father felt, because Vegeta always seemed so without hope to him. With that, Trunks wished he could be more like his father, hard-hearted and cruel and then nothing would bother him.
'Father would rip me to shreds if he could see me standing here crying my eyes out like a little girl', Trunks thought to himself. 'He would never cry for her like this.' And with that, Trunks wondered if Vegeta had ever cried at all in his lifetime and he decided that a heart of stone simply was not capable shedding tears. And Trunks hated himself for being so weak, and he wished he had a heart just like his father's, and he hated himself for loving those in his life so totally, even Vegeta.
For just a moment in time, Trunks let himself imagine that his father was embracing him and simply weeping with him over their loss and holding him tightly in his powerful warrior's arms. And Trunks was filled with a longing to go to him and tell him how much he loved him anyway, regardless of how he might feel. And it wouldn't even matter if that love wasn't returned, he simply wanted to be able to say it at least once to him and then watch the reaction in his father's onyx black eyes. But now, he would never have the chance to even try because he only knew how to fly time machine, not repair it.
"Okay Trunks, just stop it! Get a grip, say goodbye and just go home". And with that, he chose to walk, rather than fly, through the pouring rain back to Capsule Corporation.
But still unknown to the heartbroken lavender haired demi-Saiyan, Hope did exist and it was waiting for him in the lab back at Capsule Corporation. Bulma had put the finishing touches on it just yesterday and had spent weeks programming it for one last trip to the past, but she slipped into unconsciousness before she could tell him. All he had to do was believe that hope existed, and then go looking for it in the form a time machine, which was his best friend's final gift to him before she passed into the next dimension, because she truly loved him more than he would ever know.
"I love you, mom", he said as he waved goodbye*.
Trunks
*The History of Trunks,
For those of you who might not know, Hope was the name Bulma gave to, and wrote on, the side of Trunk's time machine, in both the movie and the anime.
+
Dragonballz,
(To be continued)
