Disclaimer: I do not own nor have I ever owned Dragonball Z or any of its characters. They belong to Akira Toryiama. I do not own nor have I ever owned Sailor Moon or any of its characters. They belong to Naoko Takeuchi. The story does belong to me so don't steal it.

Author's Notes: I know. I know. This took longer to get out then I planned. Let me know in your review what you think of it!

I posted another story recently that is a one shot about Android 17 and Ami called Two Lonely Souls. (I am pretty sure that I am the first person to ever post a fic about those two as a couple.) Shameless plug I know.

Altered Destinies

By: Kynthia

Part 5

Smashing his fist through the brick wall did little to calm Seventeen's nerves. 'That was not me. That was not me. That was not me,' was the steady mantra in his head. He slowed in his flying only long enough to point at a building and release a stream of energy. Within seconds the building was completely demolished and he had already moved on to a more populated area of town.

People were running and screaming in the streets but he hardly noticed them. They were not loud enough to drown out his own thoughts. 'That. Was. Not. Me.' He then released a blast that took out the majority of the street and several nearby buildings.

*~*~*

Trunks woke up with a start and looked out his window already completely alert. Thick black smoke filled the air in the nearby town. The androids were attacking again and this time they were frighteningly close to his home.

Hurrying out of bed Trunks changed quickly and strapped his sword to his back. He had healed mostly from his last confrontation with the androids thanks to his saiyan heritage and a regeneration tank his mom had made but he was still a little sore and achy here and there. Putting it out of his mind he hurried into the hallway. He couldn't leave just yet though. He had to warn his mom. There was an underground shelter under Capsule Corp. and he wanted to make sure she was in it before he left just in case the androids were heading in their direction. 'They don't know where I live but they may come here just because it's populated.'

He almost flew down the halls in the direction of Bulma's lab but managed to restrain himself because his mom hated it when he did that in the house. Shoving the door open in his hurry he nearly took it off of its hinges. Trunks wasn't concerned about the door though he was concerned about the older woman sitting in front of a computer screen.

"Mom! The androids are attacking Salt City! You have to get in the shelter in case they come here!" Trunks exclaimed. Bulma was caught off guard though and nearly fell out of her chair when she heard him start yelling behind her. She turned around with a slightly irritated glare in place until she absorbed what her son had said. She hastily began saving whatever project she had been working on and picked up some files. Trunks could tell that if he let her she would pack up the majority of the lab.

"You have to go now!" Trunks yelled getting distressed.

"Hold on! Let me just capsulate these and we'll be out of here," Bulma said without turning around. When she did Trunks saw her slip a capsule in her front jacket pocket. He then promptly picked her up and carried her to the shelter himself before she could offer any objections or think of something she had forgotten. After reaching the shelter and setting his mother back on her feet he realized that picking her up might not have been the smartest thing to do.

"Trunks!" his mom turned to him. Her blue eyes flashed with anger and her hands were clenched at her sides. Trunks almost took an involuntary step back until he had control over himself. She was probably the only thing that could scare him more then the androids.

"Um, sorry Mom," he began looking shamefaced. "I just thought it was best to hurry since we can't be sure just how close they are." Trunks was looking at the floor the whole time.

He heard a sigh from his mother before looking up. She had visibly calmed down and her arms were crossed instead of straight down her sides with clenched fists. "Fine. There isn't anything still up there that I can't replace anyway." Bulma sounded exasperated but not as ticked as earlier so Trunks allowed himself to relax before turning for the door to leave.

"And where do you think you are going?!" came a rather shrill cry from behind him. 'Oh crap.'

"Someone has to fight the androids," Trunks said without turning around. If he saw his mother's face right now he wouldn't be able to take it.

"It doesn't have to be you!"

"Yes it does Mom," he said as he made a dash for the door. As he soared in the direction of the smoke he knew he heard someone scream his name behind him. He put on an extra burst of speed and tried to keep his mind on the upcoming fight.

*~*~*

At the first tremor that shot through the ground Hotaru shot awake. 'What the hell?' was the first thought that made it into her sleep fogged mind. Thunder sounded in her ears. She sat in her sleeping bag blinking for a few minutes trying to adjust her eyesight to the darkness and to clear her head.

As she finally became fully awake she began to realize the thunder she had heard was the stampeding of feet outside their home. She looked around at the slowly waking faces of her friends as the ground shuddered beneath them again. 'What is happening?'

*~*~*

Rei had been sitting with her head bowed in her hands when the tremors had first begun. She had been so wrapped up in trying to understand the strange dream she had just had that she hadn't noticed them at first. As they had suddenly begun to get more and more violent she had been forced out of her confusing world.

The others had already woke up and were sitting around with varying expressions of distress or confusion. At first no one spoke. They just sat entangled in the sounds of the thundering feet outside and the screams of distress, which they could only assume, belonged to the runners. The monotonous noise was only broken when Rei's ears caught the sound of rustling clothing coming from her right. Turning she saw Makoto push herself out of her own sleeping bag and stand up. She began to walk over to a boarded up window to peek out into the street. Rei quickly followed.

Peaking through the cracks didn't offer much of a view but it did show her the street directly in front of her. People were pushing and shoving in their flight to what Rei could only assume was safety. 'I didn't even realize there were this many people in this town.' As she watched a sick feeling began to well up in her stomach. There weren't many things that could cause this much havoc and only one came immediately to mind.

"Androids," she whispered quietly. The word was spoken softly but carried with it no small amount of bitterness and contempt.

When she noticed the crowd appeared to be thinning Rei tried to turn her head to get a better look. She wished she hadn't when she felt head impact with something.

"Ow!" came from two different throats at once. Rei brought a hand up to her poor injured head and turned to glare at the person she already knew would be rubbing her own meatball head and pouting. She was not disappointed. Usagi was standing beside her with her hand rubbing tenderly at the spot on her head that had impacted with Rei and, of course, pouting.

"Rei watch what you're doing," Usagi said annoyed.

Rei's eyebrows drew together into a deep scowl and her jaw clenched in anger. That little twirp had the nerve to get mad at HER like she was the one at fault. Naturally Rei was already stressed a bit to far at the moment and this hadn't helped anything. Usagi must have seen this because she suddenly looked a little too apologetic.

"Uh…sorry…um…I should probably have warned you before just sneaking up here like that," Usagi said hesitantly. Her eyes drifted to the fist the raven-haired girl had been clenching at her side unconsciously. Rei followed her eyes in annoyance and after realizing what she had done began to try to calm herself down. 'I have to keep a cool head.' Logically she knew it was true but right now egging on Usagi didn't seem to bad of an idea.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Rei said with a slight smirk before turning around. "For once."

"Hey!"

"Guys!" Both girls turned to look over and slightly up at Makoto who was gesturing frantically for them to shut the hell up. They turned back to the window and tried to peer between the boards at different angles and see what was happening. Being much more cautious about it of course.

The streets appeared to be pretty much empty now but from their position they couldn't be positive. A high pitched whistling noise caught their attention for a brief instance before it was cut off by the sound of something big hitting and crashing through pavement. The ground shook momentarily under their feet and Usagi tried to grab something to balance herself. This something just so happened to be Rei. They both fell to the ground in one big mass of arms of legs. After much cursing, taking one foot to the head, and nearly being strangled by one of Usagi's pigtails Rei managed to pull herself out of the heap and get up right.

"Geez Rei you need to lose some weight," Usagi grumbled while rubbing her head in annoyance. In her opinion Rei had not needed to pull her hair just because she had slipped.

Rei opened her mouth but the retort died on her tongue when she noticed a shadow moving out of the corner of her eye. She jumped backwards automatically out of surprise until she recognized the shadow that was now leaning down in front of the doorway.

"Hotaru what do you think you are doing?!" Rei shouted.

"I want to see what happened," the shorter dark haired girl said as she finished fixing the laces on one boot.

"That's not a good idea," Ami interjected softly from her position next to Minako. Minako looked more awake and aware then normal but nearly having a building fall on you could do that.

"It's quieter now. It's probably safe to take a look as long as we stay down," Makoto said. She was still next to the window but was now leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, someone could be hurt," Usagi added thoughtfully before looking up questioningly. "Hey Rei! You can sense things. Do you think you could just tell us if it is dangerous?"

Rei knew she was talking about her psychic ability. Obviously Usagi didn't really know how it worked. She hadn't been able to sense the androids that time they had gone scavenging so what made her think she could tell them if it was safe to go wandering around in an already dangerous area that appeared to have just been attacked?!

"Sorry, but no," Rei said slightly annoyed. What really annoyed her the most about the suggestion was the fact that she couldn't do it and not because of Usagi.

"Waiting around here won't accomplish anything," Hotaru said quietly before ending the argument by walking out the door.

"Someone should go with her," Makoto said as she pushed off of the wall to follow. There was a gleam in her eye that made Rei just a mite nervous. 'That girl likes an adventure just a little too much.'

Letting out a long suffering sigh, Rei walked outside. In all the excitement the worries about the dreams had been forced back for the time being.

*~*~*

Hotaru slinked through the shadows as quietly as possible. If there was anyone still around she was not going to bring any unneeded attention to herself. Growing up with her childhood, or lack there of, she had learned how to hide and go unnoticed. She was putting some of her lessons to work right now.

She quickly assessed the latest damage that had been done to the city. The place hadn't exactly been in the best of shape when they had come and now it was all but totally gone. It didn't look like there was anyone in the area besides her and the other girls. Since she hadn't gotten up to look out the windows like some of the others she hadn't seen the teeming horde of people running for safety. She had heard the noise though and that sounded like far more people then they had originally thought were around. While trying to step carefully around a crater where an energy blast had melted glass into a bowl shape she decided it would be best to keep her head down for the time being.

'What was that?' Hotaru had heard something. It had been faint but just loud enough to catch her attention. She stopped dead in her tracks and more of felt then heard the other two girls with her stop also. Nobody said anything for a few seconds until the same noise came back that she had heard before. It was louder now. She looked around for the source of the sound. It sounded more like someone was hurt then anything else. She held still for a few more moments to see if anyone came out to help their fallen friend. When nothing happened and no one appeared Hotaru frowned and quickly made up her mind as she headed in the direction of the sound. Being careful where she stepped among the debris she would stop every so often to listen to make sure she hadn't passed whoever it was.

'There!' Her eyes had caught a flash of blue and she quickly headed over to it. The sound of shuffling feet behind her reassured her that Rei and Makoto were following her lead. She sped up when she realized just how much worse this area was then the one she had just been in. Stepping over a half melted tricycle she stopped at the edge of a very big crater. The flash of blue she had seen was a jacket that was tore almost beyond wear that had gotten caught on a jutted out junk of concrete. Inside the crater was what looked like a boy.

After jumping down to get a closer look she realized he was probably around her age and appeared to be taller then her. The real attention getter was his lavender colored hair that was at the moment slightly stained by his own blood and sticking to his sweat soaked forehead. He was breathing, but barely. Whoever he was he had just taken a serious beating.

Hotaru kneeled down at his side and held her hands palms down over his chest. She heard Rei and Makoto from where they were still standing just above her try to get her attention that she should probably wait till they were sure no one could be watching but she ignored them and focused on the purple healing energy that was gathering in her hands.

*~*~*

Pain. That was the only sensation Trunks was capable of feeling at the moment. He couldn't hear anything but the erratic sound of his own heartbeat in his ears. It was unsettling but at least he knew he was still alive. He couldn't see anything and had at first panicked that he might have been dead until he had recognized the sound pounding in his ears. That let him know either he was blind or it was just the darkness from keeping his eyes closed tightly. Take a guess at which he hoped it was. He was also feeling unbearably cold.

He was alive at the moment but it was chancy on how long it would last. To bad they couldn't just use the dragonballs to wish him back but they were gone when the androids had killed Piccolo. 'Damn it I can't die now!' His mom would have absolutely no one. There would no longer be anyone to protect her. Hell, if he died there weren't exactly a lot of people lining up to challenge the androids after seeing many of their friends and family members bite the dust just because those mechanical bastards were trying to amuse themselves.

Trunks was totally unaware to anything going on around him until he realized the numbing cold was receding. There was a warm feeling starting at his chest and spreading out to the rest of his body. He began to feel instantly better wherever the warmth touched.

He felt a groan escape his lips. He still had his eyes closed but began to try and move his hands and feet a little. Everything checked out which meant he more or less still had all his body parts. He groaned slightly as he forced his heavy eyelids open to take a look around. Blinking back the sudden light in his eyes he made out the face of a girl with tendrils of black hair falling around her face and dark soulful violet eyes the he could drown in looking down at him. The sunlight seemed to flame out around her face a moment before she gave him a weak smile and collapsed next to him.