I don't own DBZ (duh).

***

Do you hate him

Because he's pieces of you?

-Jewel, Pieces of You

***

Fists clenched and teeth bared, Vegita snarled and leapt at his son. Taking a vicious hit to his already bruised face, Trunks plummeted to the floor like a stone. At the last possible second, he managed to throw his arms out in front of himself in order to absorb some of the shock of the fall. Dazed and seeing stars dance across his immediate line of sight, Trunks sighed wearily and let his forehead drop against the cool floor.

"You're pathetic, get the hell up and fight me!" Vegita's sharp command made Trunks' ears ring even more than they already did, but he managed to push himself into a standing position a moment later. Still hovering in the air, Vegita gazed upon his son intently, awaiting his next move.

"Father, please, I have other things I need to be doing now other than fighting! I have a company to run; I don't have time for this anymore."

"I'd suggest you make the time, boy. Have you already forgotten about what happened yesterday with Cell?" Trunks winced at his fathers words, looking up at him in frustration.

"Of course I haven't. But dammit, he came out of nowhere! How was I supposed to fight something like that?!"

"Your problem is that you've been neglecting your training for far to long, you should have been able to hold your own against that creature easily!  Kakarrot's brat was able to defeat him when he was just a child, and you're ten times more powerful than he was then!" Trunks massaged his temple as his father continued to rant at him about training and the like. It wasn't that Trunks didn't love to fight; quite the contrary, he loved a good sparing session more than anything. But in the recent years, he'd been forced to spend more and more time running Capsule Corporation, as his mother slowly began to let go of her head position and trained him to take her place. This left little time for training, much to his father's displeasure.

"Look Father, I'm a busy man, I don't have time for endless hours for training like you do." Trunks started towards the exit, grabbing a towel to run over his sweat slicked face and chest, "I'll be able to handle this guy, don't worry about it." With that said, he opened the door of the gravity room and left, leaving a scowling Vegita to float in the air alone.

"Keh, you don't understand, boy." Visions of another's face, frozen in horror as death overtook the pale features, came to the Saiya-jin prince's mind. Frowning deeper, Vegita threw himself into a vigorous training routine and forcefully turned his thoughts elsewhere.

***

Eyebrows knit in concentration, Pan's dark eyes swept the area before her, searching for anyone who dared to cross her path. Fortunately, her unsuspecting victim halted at the last possible moment and managed to save himself from an untimely demise.

"PAN! STOP THIS CAR IMMEDIATELY!" Videl, eyes wide in terror, clutched the armrest of the passenger seat in a vice-like grip that would have impressed her husband, while commanding her 16 year old daughter to pull her car over to the side of the road. 

"Aw Mom…"

"NOW!"

Reluctantly, Pan steered the vehicle into the nearest gas station, and nearly gave Videl a serious case of whiplash while at it.

"Pan, were you even watching the road? You ran that stop sign and almost hit that old man! And you were speeding! And…" Pan flushed as she noticed her mother's ranting was beginning to catch the ear of some nearby customers.

"Why do I even have to learn to drive? Why can't I just fly everywhere like grandpa Goku used to do?" Crossing her arms, Pan flushed and ducked her head. Videl sighed, glancing at her young daughter through the corner of her eye.

"Pan, honey, driving is a good skill to have, even if you do have…. easier modes of transportation already." Pan laughed a little at that, and the tension between the two dropped noticeably, "Well then, we might as well fill up the gas tank while we're here. Come on, I'll show you how the pump works."

"'Kay Mom." Unclipping her seat belt, Pan climbed out of the car and walked around to the other side of the car. Within a few minutes, the tank was full and Videl was pulling out her wallet.

"Here, why don't you go inside and pay for this. Go ahead and buy yourself something to drink also." Videl deposited a small wad of bills into her daughters hand and smiled, "And I think I'll drive us home." Mumbling something too quiet for Videl to hear under her breath, Pan took the money and staked to the service station with a scowl marring her dark features.

After choosing a soft drink from one of the many coolers that occupied the small convince store, Pan approached the cashier's desk. Frowning when she saw that no one was there, she rang the small bell next to the register, hoping to catch an employee's attention. Still, after two more impatient rings, no one came to the counter.

"Hello? Hellooooooo? Is anyone back there?" She called, leaning over the counter top to peer into the 'employees only' section of the store. What caught her eye, though, was a messy pile of clothing and a pair of shoes just past the doorway into the back room of the store, "What the… Um, if someone's back there, I'm just going to leave this money on the counter!" Not wanting to encounter a crazy and/or naked gas station clerk, Pan left the money she had next to the register and turned to leave. It was then that an unexplainable chill ran down her spine, and something cracked violently into the side of her face.

***

"She drives like you father! I don't know if this was such a good idea." Gohan laughed on the other side of Videl's cell phone as he listened to his wife explain her evening with their daughter. Behind him, his younger brother helped their mother make the vast proportions of food it required to feed his family.

"Yeah well, what did you expect? My family was never that skilled when it came to

cars-" A thick burst of static interrupted Gohan, and suddenly all he could hear was his wife's panicked voice screaming their daughter's name. It felt as if his heart had stopped, and the phone slipped from his slack fingers as a feeling of terror welled up inside of him.

"Gohan! Hey, wha-" Outside of his mother's home and flying faster than he'd ever thought possible, Gohan ignored his brothers inquiry and focused on the feeling of his wife and daughter's ki.      

***

Standing protectively in front of her unconscious daughter, Videl's heart hammered in her chest as she watched the hideous, yet strangely elegant creature step through the broken pane-glass window Pan had just came sailing through. All around her was the sound of people screaming in terror as the panicked mob of the city tried to flee, but all Videl could do was stand as if she were a deer frozen in a set of headlights, her mind trying to deny that this creature could not be here!

"O-Oh, god…" Her voice shook and the creature known as Cell smiled at her in a way that could have been called friendly, if he were not holding a half dried corpse in one hand, his tail imbedded into the mans back and sucking away the last remains of his being.

With a disgusting, pained groan that would haunt Videl for the rest of her days, the last of the man was absorbed into Cell; the sound of his shoes clattering to the ground seemed strangely loud in her ears as the rest of the world seemed to fade away. Everything slowed down as the deadly tail righted itself, twitched, and came at her with deadly accuracy.

"Pan, I'm sorry I couldn't save you…"

In a last ditch and instinctive move, Videl threw herself at her young daughter, praying that she would make it out alive even though she herself wouldn't.

The attack never struck it's target.

With a furious scream, Cell spun to meet his attacker as his severed tail flew past Videl and harmlessly landed on the pavement a few feet away with a wet smack.

It took a minute or two before Videl realized that she was still alive, and yet another minute to remember to breath again. Gasping, she gathered her daughter up in her arms and began to stumble in the opposite direction she had last seen Cell. It was then that Gohan landed at her side and gathered her in a fierce embrace. He was followed shortly by Goten, who had immediately followed his panicked brother, and Trunks and Vegita, who had picked up on the Son boys' distressed ki signatures and had also followed.

"Videl! Are you ok?! Pan, what happened to her?!" Gohan quickly checked them over for injuries, thanking anyone who would listen that his family was alive and now safe.

***

Trunks listened with half an ear as Gohan attempted to comfort his distraught wife and tend to his unconscious daughter, but his eyes were glued to the battle that raged high above them.

"Shit, I can't believe it's him." Vegita's faint curse echoed loudly in his ears, and Trunks felt his hands begin to shake.

"Its… Its impossible…"

Above them, Cell was struggling to remain on the defensive against his aggressor, but the young man clearly outmatched him and was quickly beginning to wear the monster down.

"You! Kisama, I won't let you defeat me again!" Cell's outraged cry reached Trunks's ears, and he felt a wave of deja-vu sweep over him.

"Go to hell." The young man's words were chilling, the sheer amount of rage repressed in them causing Cell's eyes to widen in fear.

Weaving a complex pattern in the air with his hands, Trunks watched as the young man created a powerful ball of energy between his fingers and shot it at Cell with all the strength it appeared he could muster.

When the last of the man's attack had dissipated and the smoke had cleared, the creature that was Cell no longer existed.

Two sets of identical blue eyes locked onto each other as the man slowly lowered himself to the ground, and Trunks could have sworn his heart stopped right then and there.

"Is this what an out-of-body experience is like?"

Trunks eyed the man's long violet hair, so much like his own, but a few shades lighter, as if he spent most of his time outside. In return, the man stared intently at his much shorter, neater, and darker hair.

"You… you're…" The mans quiet voice seemed to hold a level of maturity that Trunks's own never showed unless he had to; that one word also seemed to hold more sadness and grief that Trunks had ever felt in his life.

He took in the faded black pants and simple tank top, over which rested a denim jacket with his corporation's logo sewn onto the arm; a very familiar sword was slung across his chest as well. The man took in his own attire, a neatly pressed suit and tie, and suddenly Trunks felt extreamly over-dressed.

"If this is an out-of-body experience, why do I look so different?"

"Who… what… who are y-you?" The words felt like marbles in Trunks's mouth, but he managed to spit them out somewhat coherently. Before the familiar stranger could respond, a startled gasp caught his attention.

"Trunks?! What the hell happened to your hair?!" Apparently, Pan had woken up.

***

Ah! Thank you so very much to those of you who have reviewed my story! You have no idea how excited I was when I logged onto fanfiction.net one day and saw I had 3 whole reviews. I know it's not much, but to me it might as well be a million reviews.

Next Chapter: The re-appearance of Cell is explained, and tensions grow as Trunks is introduced to his time traveling counterpart.