Prologue

It has been three long months since Trunks had returned from the past to his future home. Three months since his training and experience in the past had finally paid off and he was able to defeat Juunana-Gou and Juuhachi-Gou after all the years of suffering they had caused him and the Earth. Three months since the defeat of Cell before he could attain his perfect form. But these past three months had taken their toll..

Trunks stood in the shower, his thoughts reeling once again around the events that had happened in his life. He knew that it wouldn't be easy going into the past and seeing his dead friends, but leaving them to return to his own time was like having them die all over again.and the pain of that seared into his heart and his mind. He closed his eyes, stretched out his arms pressing his hands against the wall in front of him, and let his head hang under the water. His lilac hair draping wetly over his large shoulders as the water ran down his solemn and lonely face.

Seeing Son Gohan, even though he was but a child in the past he visited, was one of his happiest memories of his time with his lost friends. It was a memory that he knew he would cherish along with the memories of knowing him whilst growing up in this time. He was his best friend and once again Trunks was without him. His thoughts of Gohan kept him going through every battle he had fought since his death at the hands of the Androids, and for a brief moment, in what had seemed and eternity since he returned, Trunks smiled a little as the thought that through his actions of going to the past he had, in another time-line, helped to keep his friend alive and give him the life that was taken from him, when he could not do that here.

There was one thing that affected him that even Trunks himself was surprised at, and that was being able to meet his father, the proud Prince Vegeta. He had spent all his life questioning him for the way that he treat his mother. To outsiders Vegeta ignored her, he never really showed her any signs of love, but his mother would always say that he did.deep down in that proud Sayajin heart of his was love for her. Trunks thought that she was just deluding herself, and that thought was reinforced when he had the chance to meet him in the past. The Androids took the life of his father whilst Trunks was still a young child so he never really knew him and going into the past and finally seeing what a dark man he truly was made him glad that he never did. That was up until he experienced what his mother had been talking about when she spoke of his deep down emotions; the moment when Trunks was killed by an energy blast from Cell and his father brought all emotions to the forefront in an effort to avenge his dying son and defeat Cell once and for all. Trunks felt proud to have him for a father for that brief instant because, like his mother, he knew that he did care, though he may not always show it.

The water trickling down his face began to taste of salt and Trunks realised that he was crying again. Uncontrollable sobs convulsed along his muscular back as his hands turned into fists that he pressed ever more firmly into the wall. The plaster began to crack.

Bulma stood on the other side of the bathroom door. She could hear her beloved son's sobs and she rested her forehead on the cold wooden frame. Tears began to fall down her delicate face, as she knew the pain that tormented her son. She so desperately wanted to turn the handle that her hand rested upon and hold him in her arms to sooth his subtle cries, but she knew better. Inside that room stood a lonely, but like his father, proud man. She knew that he cried alone at night and that he wouldn't turn to her because he was being strong for his mother, helping her to rebuild the shattered world in which they lived. But now was also her turn to be strong for him. She pulled her hand from the handle, wiped her tears, and proceeded to make breakfast.they had a long day ahead.