Chapter One: Jaded Laughter

Trunks stared at Jade. He couldn't believe it; she was breaking up with him! Didn't she know about the Bond? Didn't she realize that they were already bound together more strongly than marriage?

No, he supposed she didn't.

She was too carefree, not even the Age of the Androids had managed to wear down her buoyant spirit, and that was what he loved about her. She had been everything he had dreamed of in a woman: strong, intelligent, beautiful, and sweet.

She was still talking, and he focused back on her, devastation written across his face as she playfully shattered his heart.
"You know Trunks, please don't think that this is your fault. I love you, I really do, but I think I've found someone else. He's everything that I've ever wanted in a guy!"
He tuned her out as she babbled happily about another man, ignorant of the fact that she was his. His, damn it! He had claimed her, and she had accepted the Bond, though she didn't know it for what it was.
"Please Trunks, I still want to be friends! Please don't get mad or anything, I just need something new. Please tell me that we'll still be friends Trunks…"
What could he tell her? That he couldn't be her friend? That it would kill him every time he saw her, knowing that she was with another?

He loved her with his entire heart, and he wanted her to be happy. Even though it hurt, even though it was the ultimate sacrifice.

He turned his head away for a moment, and when he had turned back, it was with a shaky smile. "Sure Jade. We can stay friends." 

She had beamed then, as if this meant that everything was all right now. Her eyes sparkled and she hugged him, but not in an intimate way.

As a friend would.
Only friends.
He had watched her walk away, watched her wave to him as she crossed the lawn and slipped into her car. With a screech of tires she left, leaving only a cloud of dust and a broken heart in her wake.
He had let her go, and walked silently back into the house.

He shuffled dismally into the kitchen where his mother sat sipping a cup of coffee. She looked up and could tell right away that something was wrong.

Silently, she got up and walked over, enfolding her son into a tight embrace. He had stood there, not wanting to cry, but unable to stop the tears from trickling slowly down his cheeks.

Bulma led him to the table and sat down with him, offering him a cup of coffee. She hadn't said anything; she made no demands for him to tell her what had happened.

She didn't need to.

There was only one thing that could make so strong a man as her son cry. Without pressing him, she simply offered him her presence; he would talk when he was ready. It hadn't taken long before he began to talk, broken and choked with tears.

"Jade broke up with me. She said she had another man. Someone who was everything she ever wanted. Wasn't I? Wasn't I enough for her? I gave her everything; attention, love… What more could she want? What could some other man give her that I couldn't? My sweet Jade… heh, she broke up with me by telling me that she loved me, that she still wanted to be friends…" He trailed off into silence, staring into the black pool of liquid in front of him. "I told her that I would. What else could I have said? I want her to be happy. But why another man? She's mine damn it! Why can't she see that?! Why can't she feel our bond? Why doesn't she realize how much I care?" He trailed off again, and this time he looked to his mother, seeking answers that she couldn't provide. She had sighed, squeezed his hand and offered the only thing that she could. Loving, undying support. A wordless way of assuring him that she was his constant.

That she would always be there for him.
They had sat like that for a long time before he had gotten up and gone to his room. He curled up on his bed and stared at the picture on his wall. It hurt, and yet it made him smile fondly.

It was the picture from her senior prom, before they had started dating. She had told him that she didn't have a date to the prom about a week before the big day, and he had volunteered himself.

At the time, it had just been an activity for two close friends, and they were both happy with the idea. They had gone, and everyone had been impressed. As she told him shortly after their picture, the girls had been especially jealous that not only was her date a very hot older guy, he was also very famous. But she hadn't seemed to care, she simply saw him as her friend, and he was glad of that.

It was that night, when he had walked her to the door of her house, that he let her know that she meant more to him than just a friend. It had been one of those classic moments, where he had kissed her goodnight, but with one difference; she had laughed at him. It hadn't been until a week later that she let him know she reciprocated his feelings, and their relationship had begun.
He sighed and rolled over, breaking off his thoughts on that particular subject, only to find himself confronting a picture of her that he'd taken himself.

She was sitting on her front steps in shorts and a tank top, her light brown hair brushing her shoulder blades. She was playing with her 'tail', the long slender braid of hair that shed let grow past her butt, despite the fact that she had cut the rest short, and was laughing at the camera, her green eyes sparkling.

Ah yes, her laugh, the thing he loved most about her.  It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard, sweet and clear.  It was her laugh that had first drawn him to her, this extraordinary girl who could laugh, despite the Android's oppression. 

Even now he seemed to hear it, floating in on the breeze that wafted through his open window, could hear it in the warm breathe of wind against his cheek. 

A single tear fell slowly to his pillow, and he gently turned the picture so it lay face down on the nightstand. 

He closed his eyes, trying desperately to sleep, as if by sleeping everything would be right again.  As if, when he woke up, Jade would be by his side, smiling, telling him that she loved him.

His dreams were haunted by that laugh he loved so much, but it had been twisted.  No longer was it clear and sweet, but heavy and evil.

His eyes flew open. 

It was still dark, and a glance at the clock had told him it was only midnight.  Even awake he seemed to hear the sound, hanging in the darkness, threatening to eat away at him from the inside, to torture him with twisted memories. 

But that couldn't be his Jade's laughter.  No, no, of course it wasn't hers.  She was sweet and pure. 

She was his All.

 It was impossible that such a pure being could torment him so. 

And yet she did. 

He leapt out of bed, running through the house as if pursued by devils.  He had to get away from here.  The place was tainted; too full of memories.  Too full of pain.  He couldn't bear to sit alone, as his most beloved memories were wrenched from his grasp and twisted beyond recognition. 

He headed straight for his mother's lab; for the Time Machine.  It was the only way he could think of to escape this horror. 

 He flipped on the lights as he entered the room, walking through the clutter towards where it stood in the corner.  He carefully wiped away the layer of dust that had accumulated since they had repaired it.  He smiled fondly as he climbed in, punching in the coordinates. 

His hand hovered for a moment above the button that would send him into the Other timeline.  It seemed second nature to choose to go there.  All his memories indicated that it was a happy place; one without the androids, or the devastation that his world knew.  One where is mother was young and happy, where Gohan had never died.  Where Jade had never left him.

Or at least, she hadn't yet.

That thought pushed his resolve.  He brought his finger down on the button, sending the machine in motion.  But even as he left this place of memories, he could hear beautiful, triumphant laughter.

Even now, his Jade was laughing at him.