August 13, 2002 (barely): Ok, this actually used to be three or so chapters but I combined them into this. This may still undergo some work, but I just wanted to get it posted for now. So somewhere along the lines of rewriting this I decided to complete change the point of the story. Bwahaha. Before it was light, random, and kind of pointless. Now I actually have meaning for the story, not that you'll be able to tell until later…
Chapter One:
"They were kissing? Eeeeew!" Goten shrieked and made a face. He was dancing around Trunks, too much energy bouncing around inside of his small body to stand still. Trunks, possessing more control then his younger friend, was sitting on a large boulder, his only movement the absent fiddling with a shoelace.
"That's not the point." Trunks told Goten, freezing him with a stare. "She spends all her time with him now. He isn't even nice to her. Why can't he just go back to where ever he was before? We were doing fine without him."
"I don't know." Goten resumed his fidgeting, shifting from one foot to the other. "Maybe he wants to protect her."
"Do you think I don't? Or do you just not think I'm capable of protecting my own mother?" He asked a little too softly. His hand stilled it's movement for the briefest moments before returning to idly play with the frayed end of his shoelace. His eyes found Goten's, a lazy almost sleepy gaze pinning him still. The message was clear, even if cloaked under an air of disinterest. Cold swept in around the two causing goosebumps to break out on Goten's skin, despite the sun's hot glare.
Goten gulped audibly, recalling the one and only time he had seen this side of his friend before. Then he hadn't understood what that bored look meant, or the cold rage it hid. Now, being faced with that deceptive tone and sleepy stare, he understood.
Nothing in those eyes reflected the boy he had known all his life, in them he only saw raw power barely contained by the flesh of its vessel.
He laughed nervously, his young mind somehow grasping the dangerous and volatile nature of the moment but not knowing what to do.
"No, of course that's not what I meant!" He tried to think of something else to diffuse the situation and absently scratched the back of his neck. Already though, the temperature seemed to warm and his friends eyes focused once more, the indifference replaced with pain, as he stood up and took to the skies.
Because, Goten was right.
He couldn't protect his mother, not from the very thing that hurt her the most.
***
Why was his dad back?
His mother always told him he was just like his father, but he had a hard time believing he shared anything other then genetics with him. They were family only in training and his mother. He wasn't sure what it meant that the only time they got along was when they were beating each other up but he doubted it was a sign of a healthy relationship. When he was younger and so much more naive, and believed the world turned only at his fathers command, his father used to tell him stories of Vegita-sei. He would explain what being a saiyan meant, and about honor and the warriors code. He'd share stories of his childhood, or the mockery that was made of it, and his dreams of rebuilding the great saiyan empire. He hadn't had any idea at the time that every word that came out of his dear father's mouth was bull.
His father knew nothing of honor.
He thought you could find honor in a fair fight, a worthy opponent, dying in battle…
But what about the honor of keeping your promises? Maybe his father hadn't said the words to his mother, but spoken or not, he made her a promise. He promised her he would stand by her. He promised he would protect her. He promised he would never hurt her.
He broke all of them the first time he left.
He didn't say where he was going or when he was coming back, just disappeared under the cover of darkness, like some thief stealing away in the night.
If he lived to be a thousand, Trunks doubted he'd ever forget that day. He'd never forget how strong his mother was, as she fought to keep the tears out of her eyes so he wouldn't see her cry. And he'd never forget the hate that filled his heart as he heard her muffled sobbing after she thought he had gone to bed. He'd never forget, because that was the day all his misguided love and adoration and delusions of his father were shattered. That was the day he figured out that his father wasn't some sort of super-hero, that despite being a saiyan, he was still just a man. And not a very good one at that.
His father eventually returned, but the hurt didn't fade. Maybe if his father apologized, or acknowledged the pain he had caused some part of their relationship could have been salvaged, but a curt nod of greeting was the only indication Vegeta gave his son that he had even left in the first place. The wound only festered and grew as he watched his mother welcome him back into their life, and even when after awhile Trunks resumed his training with his 'father' he never kept the memory of that day far from his mind.
It wasn't that long before he left again.
The past few years he couldn't count how many times he found his mother in tears and his father gone, and how many times he let the rage burn within him as he watched the man that had helped give him life, walk back into it.
It was a hard lesson to learn to not love your father.
But the pains of betrayal stung too fierce not to guard his heart and keep his emotional distance.
***
II
***
Trunks wandered through Capsule Corporation in search of his mother. After finding her office vacant, he made his way to their private labs in the chance that she had just lost track of time working on some invention, which was the case more often then not. He found the main lab empty though, and turned to go as he caught sight of a light. He followed it down a hallway into his grandfather's lab.
The room was cluttered with objects, half-started inventions and blue prints everywhere. He even spied a couple cat toys and laughed to himself. Few people were allowed in his grandfather's lab, and yet he let his cat have free reign over the entire floor. Trunk's original mission was soon forgotten as he waded through the gadgets strewn about.
A glint of metal caught his eye and he smiled in recognition. It was one of his mother's inventions. His brow wrinkled as he tried to figure out why would it be here. He came to the conclusion that his grandfather must be making some modifications to it. Now that he took a closer look, it did have a lot more buttons and seemed a bit bulkier. He strapped the watch-like apparatus to his wrist. One of the buttons should activate the personal movie player, but the question was which one. His mother's sense of adventure happened to be one of the many traits he had inherited, and decided to ignore the warning bell signaling in his head. Instead he pushed one rather large looking button and an antenna popped out of a compartment.
"Wicked!" His exclamation echoed throughout the lab. He figured the antennae must be for television and flipped a random switch on the side. The watch began to hum, filling the silent lab with the eerie noise.
Something wasn't right.
The antenna began swirling around and he had an odd sensation of being there and not there at the same time. Too late he remembered his mother's warning to never touch anything he found in the labs. If he survived this, she was going to kill him.
He felt the air get knocked out of him as something punched him in the stomach. He tried to scream out as pain threatened to knock him unconscious but gasped instead. He felt his insides tear apart, felt his body being ripped from the reality it inhabited. The world shifted and with the pain, melted away, leaving him feeling all of a sudden scared, lost, and very very alone.
He could have been standing in the middle of the desert, or in a phone booth, the colorless void felt vast and confining at the same time. It was almost as if he was in the middle of the ocean, with the water pressing in against him on all sides, but with no clue how far it truly spanned.
He could hear wind rushing, roaring, screaming by his ears, yet felt none on his body.
He had the distinct feeling he was outside of time. The moment could have been seconds or years and it would have made no difference.
However long it was, it was over and light seeped into the alien environment until it was too bright for him to see anything. He shielded his eyes and blinked, trying to get them to readjust to the change. They stubbornly held on to the fuzziness, and he was left blinded and feeling vulnerable as they were as useless as a newborn babe's.
He took a hesitant step, trying to gain any clues to his location. The ground was cold and grimy, he thought it was stone but he couldn't be sure. By the light that was currently blinding him, he figured he had to be outdoors. A light breeze picked up a piece of paper and brushed it past his leg. He assumed it was litter, and combined with the grimy ground and slight metallic taste to the air led him to the conclusion that he was probably in the city… just which city? He took another step before making a somewhat obvious observation. One that under any other circumstances, he should have made first. Except for the watch-that-wasn't-a-watch that was still strapped to his wrist, he was naked.
He tried to calm himself down by doing some simple breathing exercises. His vision was improving enough already that he could make out vague shapes. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to it. A brownish blurry figure was shuffling past him. He reached out an arm to it, trying to make contact.
"Where am I?" His voice betrayed his fears and quivered slightly.
"You're in Sector 7."
Trunks stood confused for a moment as the blob left him. Spotting another, he stopped it.
"Where am I?"
"Middle of the slums, kid."
"But I..." Trunks knew he wasn't asking the right question. Well, considering he was naked and practically blind, he figured he shouldn't worry about people thinking he was asking strange questions. "Uh, what planet am I on?"
"Vegita-sei, home to the 'mighty sayins'." The thing chuckled dryly. But his sarcasm was lost on the kid and moved on.
Trunks was in shock.
Vegita-sei was destroyed.
His hand found the gadget on his opposite wrist and he ran his fingers across it.
"Grandpa, what have you made?"
***
III
***
Goku frowned and nudged Bulma, worried. He had already been awake for a few hours and she still wouldn't even stir. She needed rest, especially after the past months, but he needed her too. She was the only one left he could trust. When their world was destroyed, he was ready to give up. It was Bulma that convinced him he was needed, that he was the only one strong enough to save what was left.
The saiyan's purge wasn't quite as successful as they thought, leaving a few hundred of the billions that once inhabited the planet. Those survivors banded together and formed a resistance. They had managed to keep alive for a few months, but their time was almost up. The saiyan's had been auctioning off the planet's resources to the highest bidder, leaving a handful of guards to keep order as their machines raped the once bountiful land. It was in one of the guards pods that he and Bulma escaped, promising to find help to take back the earth.
But they hadn't figured on the differences in the aliens technology. The length of time spent in such a small enclosed space would drive any sane person mad, which is why simultaneously with take off, a gas is emitted to knock out the passenger(s) until they reach their destination. Only that was the one feature Bulma hadn't counted on when they made their plan. Before she could override the auto-destination programmed into the pod, they both lost consciousness. He had awoke on this seemingly uninhabited area of Vegita-sei minutes after their landing, but she had yet to learn of their predicament.
She finally awoke near dusk, Goku had started a fire to ward off the chill. He quickly informed her of what he had found out, but it wasn't much as he had been hesitant to wander far and leave her unguarded. The gas had taken it's toll on Bulma, and though awake she was still weak. Though harmless to a saiyan like Goku, it was too strong for her anatomy and she didn't think she could be exposed to it again so soon. Reluctantly they decided that he would leave to resume their original mission while she stayed and recuperated. He had wanted to stay with her until she was at full health, but she fought him, telling him it would only endanger her more. By herself, she could slip by unnoticed, not enough ki to attract attention. She had some food in a capsule that she could live on long enough to find an independent source and other necessities.
Time wasn't on their side, and so though reluctantly, Goku left after the first night.
Now all she had to do was stay alive...