Disclaimer: I do not own them. Dragonball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama. Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. I am making no money from this.

Author's Notes: Not much to say except please read and review. Constructive Criticism will be appreciated.

Altered Destinies

By: Kynthia

Part 6

Rei looked into the crater where the mystery boy with the lavender hair sat cradling Hotaru. 'Damn it why did she do that?!' she thought angrily even though she already knew the answer. Hotaru couldn't have knowingly left someone that injured behind if she could do something about it. Hell, Rei would have done the same thing if it had been her but that didn't stop her from being upset. By helping this boy she had alerted an outsider to her powers. An outsider who could probably find their shelter. An outsider who HAD PURPLE HAIR?!

Rei stood blinking in surprise for a moment. Her mind flew back to the day of their attempted scavenging trip. Someone had shown up to fight the androids. Someone with purple hair. 'Now how many people could possibly have hair that color?' she mused as she turned to look to Makoto for confirmation. The brunette's shocked stare was all she needed. It was him.

Makoto started down to where Hotaru and the mystery boy were still laying and motioned for Rei to follow.

*~*~*

Trunks blinked down at the girl that had collapsed next to him. One minute he had been near death, the next he feels suddenly healed and wakes up to see a beautiful girl looking down at him, and then said girl collapses. Something about that equation didn't seem right.

He reached down concerned to see if she was ok. He put an arm under her back to lift her up a little and used the other hand to check her pulse. Her pulse seemed to be beating at a normal rate but her breathing was quick and shallow. Trunks tried to make her comfortable as he sorted out some of his still jumbled thoughts and think of what to do.

A crunching sound caught his attention and he looked up to see to two girls coming towards them. One had black hair down to her knees and the other had brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail. He saw them look at the dark haired girl in his arms and then look at him. The brown haired girl raised an eyebrow slightly before grinning at him.

"I see you and Hotaru have met," the brown haired girl said. "I'm Makoto."

He looked back down at the girl in his arms. 'Hotaru…so that's her name.'

"I'm Rei," the longhaired girl said catching his attention. She looked at his face for a moment before bending down to take a look at Hotaru and put a hand to her forehand and check her pulse. "Don't worry about Hotaru. She over extended herself more then she should have but she'll be fine."

He looked down at Hotaru to see her breathing had indeed slowed to that of a deep sleep. Sighing he looked back to the two girls in front of him. "I'm Trunks. What happened to her?"

He saw a look pass between the girls that had introduced themselves as Makoto and Rei. "Um. Hotaru has some…abilities," began Makoto while putting a hand behind her head. She seemed somewhat stumped as of how to continue.

"She has healing abilities," said Rei. She kept her eyes on the ground as though it had suddenly become the most fascinating thing in the world. She continued speaking every word carefully, "I guess you could say she isn't like other people. When she tried to save you she used up to much power." After finishing she looked up to judge his reaction.

Trunks thought about what she had said. It sounded like she was telling the truth. But how had Hotaru been able to do that?

*~*~*

Rei still sat trying to figure out this boy named Trunks. He hadn't acted as horribly shocked as most people would have if they had just been told they had been saved by a girl with special powers. He seemed more contemplative then anything else.

They needed to get Hotaru back to shelter soon and they needed to decide on whether or not they could let Trunks know where they lived or not. Sighing Rei searched her feelings on the subject. Sometimes her sixth sense would give her insight onto matters if she let it but not always. This time it seemed to want to help her out because the matter didn't set off any warning bells in her head to let her know of danger. She did sense that something had begun though. Mentally she shook her head and nodded to Makoto to let her know they could probably trust him.

"Follow us. We'll show you where we're staying and we can let Hotaru rest," Makoto said gesturing with her hand to follow.

Rei stood from her kneeling position and began to follow Makoto letting Trunks carry Hotaru. She knew that if he was who they thought he was then fighting him on the subject probably would be futile and besides the two looked kind of cute together. Rei's eyes suddenly widened. 'Crap. I'm beginning to act like Minako.'

*~*~*

Trunks followed the two girls carrying his small burden. Looking between the girls he followed he noticed they were slightly wary around him but if they lived around this disaster site they probably had reason to fear strangers.

He watched as they expertly avoided tripping over the scattered debris and picked their way easily around what used to be a wall that an earthquake couldn't have budged. They obviously were used to destruction on some level to be able to navigate this area. He had to admit to surprise when they suddenly stopped not to far from where they had started. He eyed the crumbling building. 'They live here!' He had to wonder how this place had kept from being destroyed in the earlier fight.

The doorway was nearly invisible in the shadows produced by a thick piece of plywood propped against the wall and a pile of old bricks in the street. He saw the two girls look at him then at each other again.

"Stay here. I'll be right back," Rei said turning to him before straightening and walking inside.

He sent a questioning look to Makoto who merely shrugged and rolled up the sleeves on her green sweatshirt. Trunks sighed and looked back down at the girl in his arms. Hotaru's hair was so black he could see violet highlights as it was splayed across her forehead and over the side of his arm. Her long black coat hung limply around his knees and her dark clothing contrasted sharply with her pale complexion almost giving her the illusion that she was glowing with some inner light.

"You can come in now," came a voice from the doorway. He was brought back from his musings abruptly and looked up to see Rei standing in the doorway with one hand on her hip and a girl with blond hair in pigtails peering curiously over her shoulder.

"Hi!" said the blond girl cheerfully waving over Rei's shoulder.

"Um. Hi," muttered Trunks a little surprised. After seeing Rei and Makoto's behavior around him he was a little taken back by this girl's cheerful demeanor.

Rei rolled her eyes before speaking, "This is Usagi. Just ignore her."

"Hey!"

Trunks blinked and looked between the girls somewhat nervously. Glancing at Makoto he saw the brunette was shaking her head in apparent exasperation. Apparently this was normal behavior.

"Guys he needs to be able to get in if he is going to set down Hotaru," said Makoto. She looked like she was about ready to just shove the two inside and be done with it.

The two stopped bickering long enough to see the expression on Makoto's face and nodded mutely before backing into the room.

"Come on," said Makoto as she gestured for him to follow.

*~*~*

Rei sat with her back against the cracked wall of the tiny room she shared watching Trunks and Ami look the still asleep Hotaru over. After Trunks had laid Hotaru down on one of the sleeping bags Ami had descended onto both of them getting all of the answers of what had happened from Trunks. When Ami was worried she could be a force to be reckoned with. Trunks had answered all of her questions and they had learned that he was the person they had seen fighting the androids. Right now Ami was answering Trunks questions about her and the other girls since they had decided unanimously that they could probably trust him. He was acting way too concerned for Hotaru to have any bad intentions.

Turning her musings inward Rei let her mind wander back to the weird dreams she had been having. With the excitement earlier she had to push them to the back of her mind for a while. Everything was calmer now and she didn't have much else to do but think.

In the last dream it was obvious that she hadn't been either of the children. It had felt like it had come from somewhere else. 'Or someone else,' her mind supplied. She had never done it before but she didn't know the extent of her powers so it could be possible. But whose dreams could she be sharing?

Unconsciously her hand drifted upward to clutch where her pendant would normally be. When all she felt was the cloth of her red tank top she cursed her own absentmindedness under her breath. She still hadn't had a chance to find her pendant and with the events from earlier she hadn't gotten a chance to give it much thought. 'I have to find it!' Rei thought angrily. The other girls would never let her go out looking for it but maybe she could sneak out later that-

"Rei! Guess what!" shrieked an ecstatic Usagi, abruptly bringing Rei back to the world at hand.

"What?" asked Rei tired and annoyed.

"Trunks said that his mom has a lot of medical equipment at Capsule Corp that may be able to help Minako and since they have a lot of spare rooms that we can stay with them!"

Rei wondered idly how she had been able to say all that in one breath before she leaned over to look behind Usagi and raise an eyebrow in question at Trunks. In response to her scrutiny he blushed slightly and shrugged.

"If you want to and I'm sure my mom won't mind."

"It looks like our best chance to help Minako," said Ami.

"It's not like there's anything for us to stay here for," added Makoto.

Rei smiled at Trunks, "Thanks."

Suddenly Trunks had a blond headed spore attached to his neck repeating 'thank you' over and over again. In response Trunks blushed all the way up to his lavender roots.

*~*~*

Seventeen landed in front of Gero's old lab. He hadn't been back since his sister and he had been awakened. He had immediately killed the sick bastard and they had left. He never really thought about it except to relive the moment he had crushed Gero's head under his shoe. It was a great mood picker upper.

That wasn't the reason he was there now though. The reason was he still had too many emotions swirling around in his head for his liking and if he went back home now Eighteen would be able to tell something was up and he didn't feel like answering any of her questions right now. He knew she would never think to look for him here.

He leaned against the doorway of the lab not bothering to go in. He doubted anything had changed over the years enough to hold his interest. He shoved his hands into his pockets and his ice blue eyes widened in surprise when he felt something at the bottom of one of them.

Gripping the mystery object in his fingers he pulled it out to study it curiously. It was that phoenix necklace he had found earlier. He had completely forgotten he had picked it up. Looking it over he took in the details of it. It was around the size of his thumb and he could tell where feathers had been etched into the gold and where in some places it had been smoothed due to constant rubbing. It would have just been another bird if it weren't for the engravings of flames that drifted off the wings and tail.

Seventeen shrugged and put it back in his pocket seeing no point in getting rid of it. Deciding he was calm enough to return home he decided to do something to put himself back in the proper mindset. Maybe he would put itching powder in his sister's underwear drawer or something.