I warned you. . . I am changing gears. . . big time. . .

A Different Time

Trunks took breath of the fresh air and smiled.  He was tired and sore but it was so good to be home.  He wanted to rush home and see his kids and wife, but he didn't really want them to see him like this.

His clothes were a mess and were still stained with blood from the battle he enticed.  He was pretty sure that his shoulder was dislocated because it hurt like absolute hell and he was in dire need of a hair cut.  It was getting much to long and he had to tie it back in a braid so that it wouldn't fly in his face.  He kind of like it that way though.  He knew that his mother would complain about it and tell him to cut it, but maybe he would keep it long like that.  It did look cool when he transformed.

But it was still good to be back home.

He snuck into his house, feeling a little bit like a thief.  He couldn't feel if anyone was home.   The house felt empty but he knew that didn't mean much.  Too many people were good at disguising their chi.   He wanted a shower and he wanted a good look at his aching shoulder.  He wanted to crawl into bed.

"AH-HAH!"

He jumped and turned around.  His eldest daughter was looking at him angrily.  Her hands on her hips and her eyes on fire.  She was even tapping her foot.  He had left with only telling his wife that he was going.  He knew that she was going to be mad at him.   He was hoping to avoid that conversation until he could get Raymond to look at his shoulder.  He knew his daughter.  She would use the shoulder to her advantage.

"Where the hell did you go?"  She snapped at him.

Before he could even open his mouth she rushed him.  He had just enough time to prepare for the inevitable hit that was going to come, but it shocked him that it wasn't a hit. . .   No, she hugged him rather fiercely and looked as if she was on the verge of tears.  "Why did you go without me?  I could have helped you," she said and he did his best to hug her back but he could only move his left arm to pat her back and stroke her hair.

"I had to do it alone," he said.  He couldn't explain it to her.  He had a hard enough time dealing with it at times.  "But it is done and I won't leave you again."

She grinned and pulled back, but leaving her small firm hand on his sore shoulder.  "Oh, I am so sure dad.  I will make sure of that!"  She patted his shoulder and he winced.  That was his girl.  "It has been a mess around here.  Mom has been frantically worried about you."

"Yeah,  I know," he said.  "But I.. ."

She pushed on his shoulder a bit.  She could be so mean sometimes.  "Wow, you really did a number there, didn't you?  I could pop it back in for you dad."

Before he could say no, that's okay, She put her other hand on it and pushed it back into place.   He didn't even have enough air in his lungs to scream after that.  He feel into a near by chair and gasped for air.

"Raymond is teaching me all that sort of stuff," she said with a smile.  "It sure comes in handy."

He finally got some air into his lungs.  "You will make a terrible nurse," he said with a smile.  "You need to improve your beside manner."

She smiled back at him and then that scary stern look came over her face.  He hated it when she did that.  It was a reminder of how he could fail her and how he was trying so hard not to.  "You should have brought me with you.  You preach to me all the time about how I should never have to worry about fighting alone and then you go off and obviously, started a war somewhere, all alone."

He never thought of it that way.

"But I am glad that you are back, alive and well," she said and took a deep breath that was like a sigh.  "You should go get a shower, wash off that grime.  Everyone will be back soon and they will all be glad to see you again."

She turned on her heel and went into the kitchen.  He sat there for a bit and recovered his breath.  He did not want her exposed to that.  He never wanted her to have to fight those horrible battles that he had fought in the past.  He never wanted any of that for his daughter.  He knew what could become of her if he allowed it to happen and he strived really hard to stop her from becoming so cold and hard, like her counterpart.

She still could be stoic and hard, but she was defiantly a lot softer.  When they trained, she was almost flawless in her manner, after she got used to the loss of her tail.  She decided – finally – that it was time to cut it off.  He had laughed at her clumsy attempts in the beginning, but that only made her more determined to get her fighting form back into shape.

Of course, he never even considered taking her with him.  He did not want them to see her or for her to see them.  He did not want them even on his planet so he went into space, hunted them down and got rid of the culprits that hurt his family.

"Are you just going to sit there?"

He looked over at the entrance to the kitchen.  She looked so much like her mother.  "I'm going."  He said and struggled to stand.  Boy, he was certainly weaker than he thought he was.  His knee's wobbled and he just about fell and was grateful when his daughter rushed to catch him.  "I guess I could use a little help," he said.

She shook her head.  "How did you even make it home alive," she said.  "You certainly look as if you could have used a lot of help."

"It was for the best.  Trust me," he said as he felt himself being dragged by his daughter.  He couldn't even move his legs anymore.

"Right," she said with a voice rich with sarcasm.

"Everything will be okay now," Trunks said and he felt his consciousness slipping.  The edges of his vision were going dark.  "No one will hurt you here.  Everyone will be safe and we can all live in peace."

"Are you losing it dad?"  She said.

"Nope," He said as his vision started to go dark.  "I have saved you, Soyna."

……………………

He kept playing with the capsule in his pocket: The one that brought him here.

Vegeta wasn't sure what time he was.  All he wanted to know was if his wife was still alive.  He wasn't to sure about the controls on it but this place looked like it was the right place.

He reached out to see if he could feel her.

He never felt so much joy as knowing that she was alive.

He never knew that he was going to miss her this much.  Hell, he didn't think that it was possible for him to care at one point in his life.

He started to walk towards where he felt her.  He was not sure how he was going to approach her.  He walked slowly.

Things didn't look too bad around here.  You could still tell that not everything had been repaired after Trunks took care of the androids but it looked like everyone had moved on with their lives.

There it was.  Capsule Corp, the place that he had called home:  A place that he struggled hard to avoid in the beginning but he had found himself drawn.  Drawn, as he felt now.  He would want to talk to her alone.  He didn't want to have any other interferes when he saw her.

The house was full though.  He could feel and hear it.  Kids yelling and screaming:  a shrill voice telling them to start behaving like humans.  Ah, Bulma.  Yes, there was only one person with that kind of voice.

She was alive.

……………………………………

Trunks remembered the story his older future daughter told him word for word and all that the others told him about her.

He made sure that he changed it so that did not happen.

First thing he did was that he tried to avoid getting his wife pregnant with their second child.  He got along with his son back in the other time, but he didn't want his loose his wife, but that failed miserably.  He remembered the day she told him that she was pregnant with Junior- or 'Geta as they call him that here.  He just about fainted.  She looked at him so angrily.  "You wanted more than one kid too."

He couldn't tell her why he was acting the way he was.

But they found a good doctor.  Raymond as a matter of fact.  He was shocked when he stumbled across his sister's husband at the hospital and demanded that he be there doctor.  Of course, he would never find Bra, for she was not born in this time, but he was a rather amazing doctor.  He also seemed to understand the Saiyian physiology better and it was a relief to finally find a doctor that wasn't guessing.

Even though he was in a state of being scared for the whole time she was pregnant.

When the time came, he was a wreck.  Things were going wrong and he wasn't allowed in the room with her.  He thought he was going to loose her.  The only thing that kept him stable was the fact that his daughter needed his comfort as well and his mother kept him grounded as well.

Carmen lived though.

He was a grinning idiot for days after that.  He had a new son and he still had his wife.

He could not imagine how he could have left the boy without his father around to raise him?  But then, his own father had not been around for him that much.  Of course, he made up for it in other ways.  He took good care of his daughter in the other time.  He saw that she adored him.

Things were much different here now.  Happier.

Not only did he have Soyna and 'Geta now, he had two other children as well.  'Geta was ten right now, Boxer was 6 and (for a sister that he never really knew) Bra was 4.

One big happy family.

Unfortunately Soyna did marry that Brennen fellow.  He did not trust the guy.  He remembered how sad she was when she talked about how he betrayed him.  He knew he scared the guy.  He knew it well and he was glad of it.  He threatened him, when they first started seeing each other that if he hurt her, his body would not be found.

He had even made sure that they still lived with him in Capsule Corp.  He did not want her to be out of his sight and more importantly, Brennen.

Of course, now with the Krad issue gone, there won't be the opportunity for Brennen's treachery.

He did not want her to be exposed to Krad and Ligh who did try to talk their way into persuading him to join their army.  The fight was harder than he thought it was going to be and thought that he should defiantly have brought Soyna.  Thankfully he was able to avoid the poison sneak attacks.  He had some medicine that the OTHER Raymond gave him that would prevent him from dying but he did not want to be weakened.

He killed the father and son that caused his family so much pain.

He destroyed their ship and fleet.

Earth and his family were safe.

His family.

He opened his eyes to see two large blue eyes staring down at him and a little four-year-old girl hovering over him, about maybe an inch from his face.  Bra.

"Daddy's up!"  She bellowed and bounded off his chest and placing a foot firmly in his stomach as she did so.

It was good to be home.

…………………………….

She was happy to see her son wobble down the stairs.  He looked awful though.  He hadn't brushed his hair and there were bruises all over his body and it looked as if his shoulder was one giant purple mass.  Of course he looked a lot better than when she first saw him.  Soyna was dragging him up the stairs.  He looked as if he were dead, the way his head kept lolling around, but he was alive and well and back home.

Her grandkids surrounded him and you could see him wincing as they hugged him, but he didn't complain.  He smiled brightly at them as they rambled on about how much they missed him.  Bra was crying again and clutching his leg.  Boxer was jumping around like he was on a trampoline.  'Geta had him in a full bear hug.  He was pretty big for a ten year old.  He was almost as tall as Soyna who was standing back with a large smile on her face.

There family was whole again.

Carmen then came in and cried as she hugged her husband.  She did not know the whole story of why Trunks left and Trunks did not want her to know.  "She doesn't need to know about the danger that our family is in.  She doesn't need to know that Soyna and 'Geta are forced to go to another time.  She doesn't need to know…" his voice had trailed but she knew what he wanted to say.  ". . . that I had abandoned my own children."  He never wanted her to know that she died and he left his children because of his grief. 

He still felt guilty for something that he didn't do.

But he was home now and the threat gone.

She couldn't think of anything better

………………….

He was surprised at his own patience.  He waited for her to come to him, more or less.

He didn't want to barge into the house and have to deal with Trunks and his family and Bulma.  He just wanted to deal with her.

There she was.

Vegeta stayed in the shadows and watched her.  She looked older than he remembered her ever being, but this Bulma's hair was longer and rested against her back in slightly graying waves.  She still walked with that confidence that she always had and she had a most wonderful smile on her face.

"Wait up Grandma!"

A little voice and a small girl came running from the door, a girl that sharply resembled his daughter at that age.  A little taller maybe and the hair was darker than his daughters light blue hair.

"Okay.  Okay.  I thought you would want to stay with your father.  After all, he just got back," She said and took the hand of the girl and started walking.

She looked around as if she were going to say a secret and motioned her grandmother to come closer to her.  "I think he wants to be alone with mom," she said in a hushed voice.

Bulma laughed.  A real laugh.  It still hurt so much.

They started to walk out of his hearing range.  They mentioned something about the lab… of course, where else would she be going this time of night.

………………………

………………………

………………………

"Calm down Benot," Goten said and grabbed his arm.  "This won't help anything.  We have to be calm and prepare."

Benot tore his arm away from Goten.  "That is why people attack us!"  He said.  "Because we prepare!  We get stronger so then our next enemy is stronger and the next thing you know, we are so strong that a dark creature from the nether part of the universe seeks us out!  That is what is happening isn't it!  But hey!  Guess what everyone!  We are the dark creatures!"

Soyna was still comforting Legen who was refusing to let her go.  "Don't talk nonsense like that!"  Her voice was curt.

"It isn't nonsense!"  Benot snapped.  "It is what you taught me!"  He said curtly.  "Fight or die.  What good does that do us?"

"Someone needs to protect us and if mom dies…" Legen yelled at his brother through tears.

Goku chewed his lip as he watched them continue to argue.  Everyone was watching them and watching how Soyna seemed so… so different.  And she was.  She was avoiding talking about actually fighting.

But his attention went to Cyrus who looked as if he was fighting tears and rubbing his black hands against his pants.  What did he see before the ball fizzled out and turned to ash?  He looked anxious to get it off of him.

"What good is it to fight one more time!"  Benot snapped.  "Something else will come and ruin our lives!  There is no escape here!  NONE!"

It was Trunks that put a comforting hand on the boys shoulder.  Benot was shaking and his power level was rising.  The boy sure could become strong when he was angry.  "We all need to calm down," Trunks said.  "And think things through."

Benot just shook his head.  "I am so done with all of this."

"What do you mean by that?"  Goku said and felt a little uncomfortable when all the eyes came to him.  He thought he knew what he meant and didn't like what it meant.

"I am leaving.  Going someplace where I am wanted!"  he said.

"Benot?" Cyrus said and still is wiping his hands against his pants.  His former tan pants were starting to look black.  He looked like he was going to say more but Benot just shook his head.

"Everything is just to crazy for me!  I am going to a place where it is sane!"  Benot yelled.

Soyna stood.  "And where is that?"  Everyone was looking at them.  It was almost as if the strong Soyna was back… it was like those dreams he used to have when he was still part of the dragon… it was weird.  It was like the warrior and the mother were actually two different people here.

"With my father," he said with a sniff and started stormed out.

He turned to his son and saw a confused look and then a look of pain.  Yes, they had been getting along well, before all this started.  Before Bulma died and Vegeta tried to get the wishes out of the boy.

Cyrus was the one that spoke.  "No!  Benot!  You can't go.  Benot!"  He ran forward, stirring up that black dust which really seemed to be clinging to his clothes.  It wasn't even on Benots boots and he had kicked the stuff up.  What did that mean. "It won't be safe with Brennen."  Benot stopped.

The name sent ripples throughout the room.  Soyna just closed her eyes and opened them again.  Goten looked as if he were about to collapse.

"It will be a hell of a lot safer than will all you crazy people!"

Benot left.

No one else moved to comfort the weeping Cyrus.  He did.  It all started with him anyway.  Goku put a comforting hand on his shoulder.  How did the dust get up there?  Cyrus took a puff out of his inhaler and tried to catch his breath.  He knelt beside him.  He was completely black now.  The dust, how did it do that?

"I shouldn't have touched the ball," Cyrus said and took another puff off his inhaler.

What the hell was happening?

Soyna got anxious now and came forward and knelt on the other side of him and tried to wipe some of the dust off of him, but that wasn't working.  "Let's go home and get you into a bath.  We can talk about this unpleasantness later."

She was brushing of her son storming out as if it were nothing?  Goku just blinked at her.  Yes, it was like the dreams.  The side the warrior called the 'weaker' side or the soft side, but this was the extreme side.

"But mom," Cyrus said and gasped.

"Let everyone one else deal with it," She said.  "We are going home to take care of you.  You shouldn't get so upset.  I don't want to have to take you to the hospital.  They are the fighters."

Legen who obviously was still shaken by his vision, "But you're a fighter too mom."

She just smiled that sickly smile that was almost more terrifying than seeing her transform into that half ape, "Not anymore."

……….

Warned you.