Disclaimer: They don't belong to me and I claim no ownership to them. This story does belong to me however and anyone who takes it will regret it. *Kynthia's personal army of hell demons appears and prepares to ritually decapitate anyone who would think to steal her property*

Warnings: swearing, angst, violence

Author's Note: Someone has asked me about Trunks' time machine and the final battle. This tells me that some people didn't read the Author's Notes on the first chapter. So here they are again and I hope that this answers any question you had. For pairings see the summary.

IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!! YOU MUST READ THIS TO UNDERSTAND:

(1) The sailor senshi have NO sailor senshi powers in this fic and are semi normal teenagers (at least for how they grew up in this thing) while they won't have their senshi powers anything else is ok such as Hotaru and her healing ability and Rei being psychic.

(2) This takes place in the Mirai timeline and for some reason Bulma was not successful in building the time machine so Trunks never went back in time and the androids are very much alive.

(3) Finally this takes place when the girls would ALL (Hotaru is not much younger then the others in this thing) be around either 17or 18 and Trunks is 18.

Altered Destinies

By: Kynthia

Part 3

Rei lay in her musty sleeping bag trying to fight back the tears that threatened to spill. She couldn't have lost it, could she? Wrapping her arms around herself as if to hold the tears back she did her best to remember every step she made after leaving the android battle. Her pendent was missing. The reminder of the happy days was gone. She couldn't leave it wherever it was.

Holding herself even tighter Rei bit back on a sob. The others didn't know it was gone or that anything was wrong yet. She was hoping to put off letting them know. She didn't want them to worry.

That night Rei cried herself to sleep.

*~*~*

Trunks flew his tired and battered body back home. He had lost again. As he landed and he put weight back on his feet he let out a hiss of pain. He had hurt something in his right leg. 'Great. Something else to add to the list,' he thought briefly. Limping, he pushed the front door open and paused. Listening for his mother.

His mom always worried about something happening to him and he hated to cause her any more trouble than she already had. She had never wanted him to train to fight the androids out of fear for his safety. When Gohan had been killed she would do her best to try and stop him from going out and confronting the androids every time he knew about an attack. He would go anyway and would feel guilty about it every time. Trunks always had slightly mixed feelings before leaving to fight. His anger and hatred over Gohan's death kept him going and training. His fear for his mother's safety kept him trying to escape whenever it was obvious that he had lost the battle. If he died there would be no one to protect her. His father was long dead along with everyone else so he was the only one that could protect her.

Stumbling through the hallway he pushed open the door to his bedroom and barely had enough time to pull his sword's sheath off of his back before collapsing onto his bed. Trunks was a sleep before his head hit the pillow. He didn't even notice the door being pushed open by an aqua haired woman who pulled the blankets up over him and kissed him on the forehead before turning to leave.

*~*~*

Seventeen flew in lazy circles over the area where he and Eighteen had been blowing up residents of some nearby buildings a few hours earlier. That was until that purple haired kid had to show up again. Smirking he landed on the cracked street. It was always fun beating the hell out of the moron. Unfortunately though the entertainment value from earlier had begun to wear off and he was getting bored again.

Walking over the bits of no longer standing walls, kicking the occasional brick out of his way, and pausing to throw an energy blast at an unfortunate bird was proving to be uneventful. He had come back to see if any of the humans that hadn't been killed or escaped were still around. A little target practice wouldn't kill him.

Seventeen paused when he kicked another brick in impatience. Something had caught his eye. He saw a flicker of gold before leaning down to pick it up. Holding it up for closer inspection he saw it was some sort of necklace with a phoenix pendant dangling from the end. He raised an eyebrow and glanced around to see if he had been wrong and some humans were still in the area. After a moment though he came to the conclusion that he had been right and that the owner was probably one of the numerous dead that littered the street.

Casting one last look at the pendent he shoved it into his jeans pocket. He had no plans on wearing it of course but if Eighteen started bitching about needing new clothes or got that look in her eye that said 'I am going shopping whether you like it or not and you will stand outside and wait on me or face the consequences' he might just be able to throw it at her and see if it saved him from standing outside for hours on end while she tried on clothes. With that plan in mind Seventeen decided to head home. He was getting bored quickly and this place was no longer offering much in the way of amusement.

*~*~*

Hotaru lay in her sleeping bag for the second time that day. When Rei and Makoto had come back so soon they had known something had gone wrong but not what. After hearing about everything that had happened they had resolved to wait another day or two before trying again to scrounge for supplies. An android attack this close was going to be making everyone paranoid for days. It would probably take another week before anyone was up to going out again.

After relaying the events of the day, Rei had gone to her sleeping bag presumably to get some rest. The slight shuddering of her shoulders was the only sign that anything was wrong. Hotaru assumed that she was still upset from seeing all those innocent people killed. Rei had abilities that made her more in tuned with the minds and emotions of others at times and the horror of the situation must have affected her. Makoto was keeping Ami company while she watched over Minako. Usagi had fallen asleep after the initial excitement had ended.

Hotaru replayed everything Makoto and Rei and told them about their excursion. The part that caught her attention the most was that someone would challenge the androids. Especially someone who seemed to stand a decent chance of winning, if everything the other two had said was correct. She hadn't thought there was anyone left that would fight the androids. After all anyone who would have ever stood a chance would have been killed early on.

With everything always giving the appearance of being hopeless this new development threw her a bit. The idea that the human race had some kind of hope was exhilarating to say the least. It was also a little scary. This new hope had also brought back her own desire for vengeance against the beings that had destroyed her home and killed her family.

Hotaru rolled over, closed her eyes, and fell a sleep. She hoped her dreams would be of the future without the androids instead of the bloody past that they had created. For tonight, her wish would be granted.

*~*~*

She sat on the step in front of her grandfather's temple. After the android attack her mommy and daddy had grabbed her up and run here. It had yet to be attacked but they all knew it was only a matter of time. For now though she was allowed to have her family nearby and they could pretend, at least for a little while, that everything was all right.

It was the way things had gone day in and day out. Until the day her daddy didn't come back. He had left earlier to visit a friend that was staying nearby. She had come running into the temple. Her mommy was crying. No one knew where he was.

The next day when she woke up she had heard low voices coming from the next room. Thinking her daddy had come home she hopped out of bed quickly and ran into the next room with a huge grin on her face.

"Daddy!" she squealed as she opened the door.

Inside her mother was huddled over on the floor crying harder with every passing second. Two men stood over her talking quietly wearing somber expressions. Her normally smiling grandfather was kneeling next to her mother with his arms around her with a deep frown marring his features.

When she had entered the room one of the men looked up at her and then quickly looked down again. He opened his mouth briefly as if to speak but closed it quickly looking pained. Everyone else was too deep in their own emotions or thoughts to notice her. An odd smell fermented the air around her. Her young mind had yet to wrap itself around what was happening.

She walked up to the man that had originally noticed her entrance. He was still looking at the floor as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world to him. She reached up her hand to hold his.

"Where is my daddy?" she asked in a small voice.

He still wouldn't look up but spoke in a low almost strangled voice, "I'm sorry."

She looked at him confused. She couldn't understand why anyone would be sorry she asked a question but assumed that he didn't know and looked around the room for someone else to ask. Something behind the man caught her eye before she could ask any more questions.

A sheet was covering something; something that was very lumpy and was saturating the sheet red in some places. Her eyes widened and she gasped in fear. This she had seen enough while escaping her home to finally understand what had happened.

Her daddy was dead. A wail went up from her mommy as tears leapt to the young girl's eyes.

Rei shot up straight from her position on the floor and gasped for breath. It had been a long time since she had had her nightmares of her father's death or even that of her mother. Every time she had them though she was left hurting as though it had just happened. Every nerve in her body felt raw and sore. The rolling feeling in her stomach left no room for argument though.

She pushed herself up and ran outside. She fell to her knees and lost the contents of her stomach just as the rest of her emotions caught up to her and she wrapped her arms around herself and wailed like a wounded animal letting out all her grief and remorse.

Miles away she was unaware that a certain very confused android had shot up straight from his own sleep in a cold sweat just as she had awakened. He had had a very similar nightmare.

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Author's Notes: This part has left me a bit emotionally drained.

School has finally calmed down and I hope to get in some writing with my newly established free time. This means I plan to be working on this fic and some of the others that were pushed to the back burner due to lack of time.

Please remember to review!