Author's Note: This chapter ended up to be a little Star War-ish. This was due to the fact that I wrote it like two days before Attack of the Clones came out. Hopefully you'll like it anyway. Leave a review.

Disclaimer: DB/DBZ/DBGT belong to Toriyama and other rich Japanese guys, not me.

A Brief Moment in Time

Chapter 9: The Ki be with you Trunks.

On Board the Nigel…

The cell was clean. Its Spartan walls were starch and an electric force field separated Pan from the door. She knew that the door itself was made of a reinforced titanium alloy that was almost impervious to any ki attack. It was also strong enough to keep anything short of a Super Saiyan in. So she waited patiently and tried to piece together recent events.

She knew that Vegeta had been overthrown. At the same time she also knew that he was not dead. She was sure that she would have felt his passing if that had been the case. Bojack had a very tenuous hold on power if Vegeta remained at large. He could expect support from his own fifth fleet as well as the fourth and seventh. However, the first and second fleets were the border troops and would probably remain neutral. Their job was to protect the Imperium from Cooler who was by far a greater threat than Bojack or at least that would probably what they would believe. Vegeta would have support from sixth and third fleet, or whatever survived from the opening battles. It would be a hard fight but she was sure Vegeta would win. Without a doubt, the Emperor was heading for Chikyuu. After all, Goten would be headed there and there was no doubt in her mind that Vegeta would meet up with his right hand man to plot a counter assault.

Pan was very worried about her uncle. Bojack must have made a move against him, and one that would have been well planned out. One did not mess with the Duke de Sirrus in a half-ass manner. Many had found that out during the Union Wars. Of those, none were now living.

Of course, she had to worry about herself but escaping shouldn't be too difficult. The problem was Trunks and in her idleness her mind once again turned to him. The last thing she saw of him was that some soldier had beaten the crap out of him. While she and Buu could probably escape with their superior strength, speed and imperviousness to weapons, Trunks could not. After all, he was only a normal human being. As much as it pained her, she might have to leave him behind. She had a duty to her family and the Imperium and she had to place them first, even before a man she was beginning to fall in love with—Yes, she was sure of that. She'd try her best to help him, but her best might not be good enough.

For two hours she sat in the cell waiting impatiently. What the hell is he doing? She thought angrily as she paced back and forth impatiently. After another ten minutes her sharp Saiyan hearing finally picked up something. At the same time she saw the force field drop. These idiots really don't know who they are messing with, she smirked.

As she stood there, the door slowly began to groan and a few seconds later it was ripped off its hinges.

"Yummmmmy" announced Buu as he stood there popping pieces of chocolate into his mouth. Pan didn't want to think about what he was REALLY eating.

"About time Buu. I was getting worried there."

"No worry Pan… Buu save you!"

Pan just chuckled. "Ok lets get the hell out of here. Lets get to the shuttle bay and then hijack a shuttle."

"Trunks?" inquired Buu.

"We'll get him on the way. Do you sense his ki anywhere?"

Buu and Pan both took a second to use their Ki senses to find Trunks but neither could feel him.

PRISONER ESCAPE!

The voice over the announcement was cut off almost immediately. Klaxons immediately came to life and began to blare a harsh whirling sound.

Pan whirled and looked at Buu, who just shrugged. The two of them immediately started to move so that they wouldn't be caught. Out of nowhere, the entire ship shook on its foundation as if an explosion rocked it.

"What the?" Pan exclaimed, "Some idiot is using KI on a starship? Lets get the hell out of here Buu and keep a damn eye out for Trunks."

Buu nodded and the two of them ran down the hallway towards the shuttle bay.

Meanwhile…

A little while before Pan and Buu made their escape, Trunks was sitting idly in his cell as well. Unbeknownst to his captors, he hadn't been hurt at all and he was now trying to figure a way out of his cell. He could have simply gone SSJ and blown his way out, but he did remember Pan telling him not to use Ki. He was smart enough to realize that there had to have been a good reason for it and that unless he was in a lot of trouble he would do just as she had advised. He needed an alternate plan.

A while later, the door to his cell slowly opened and he saw three burly guards standing at the entrance. Both were armed with some type of rifle.

"Lay face down on the floor," commanded the first guard. It was obvious that they wanted to move him to another cell for some reason or another. Most likely it was for questioning. They probably wanted to get some information out of him about Pan. He wasn't about to let that happen. Anyway, these guards were fools for thinking that he couldn't get to them before they shot him.

Trunks didn't hesitate and sprung at the guard. He reached out with one hand and threw the forward guard into the wall knocking him out. Before the two other guards could react, Trunks moved with a speed that they didn't know was possible and punched both of them in the gut causing them to collapse unconscious from the pain.

"Well that was easy," said Trunks to himself as he walked out into the hallway. Unfortunately, he had no prior experience in the art of prison breakout so he didn't realize that there would be a guard that was assigned to remain behind just in case the prisoner overcame the others, however unlikely that was.

"PRISONER ESCAPE!" shouted that guard into an intercom and then the klaxons began to blare.

"Damn," swore Trunks as he moved and knocked the guard out.

Without warning several laser blasts flashed by him striking the wall on the other side. Trunks turned to see five soldiers running towards him. The next volley struck him and because he didn't have his ki raised they flung him to the ground.

"That fricking hurt…" he growled. Anger clouded his senses. He lashed out instinctively at the soldiers who had dared try to harm the Prince of all Saiyans. Trunks jumped to his feet and flung a ki blast down the hallway at the soldiers. Of course as soon as the blast exploded it incinerated the troopers. However, it did something Trunks didn't expect. It incinerated an entire three decks, tearing a gaping whole in the middle of the ship. Trunks could feel the entire ship shuddered in response.

"Kami… no wonder I'm not suppose to use Ki…" he gasped in terror as the ship rocked. He could hear the hull buckling and that scared the daylights out of him.

Emergency! Emergency! Emergency!

Trunks ran over to where, when they had brought him in, he had seen the guards stash his capsules. He ripped off the massive locks with ease and grabbed them. Double-checking that they were unused, Trunks didn't stick around to see what was happening to that particular area of the ship. He ran as fast as he could down the hall way on the other side of the 'accident'.

As he ran he encountered various members of the ships crew. Some of them tried to stop him, only to find themselves tossed aside like rag dolls. The smarter ones avoided him and scurried to try to contain the damage that he had caused. With the ship severely damaged and the crew feverishly working on trying to save the ship, Trunks was able to acquire himself a uniform. Under disguise, he quietly slipped unnoticed through the ship in search of Pan's ki.

"What is the meaning of this Admiral Anders?" The voice was hard and held no compassion what so ever.

"Lord Gokuya, it seems that we have had an escape. I am not sure how it is possible with ki restraining collars but apparently its so. We are hunting them down as we speak."

"I do not like the feel of this Admiral. I think I will go down to make sure that your people succeed."

"As you wish. We should have the situation under control in a moment," replied the Admiral.

"See that you do Admiral, See that you do," said the blue skinned minion of Bojack.

Trunks turned another corner and found him facing several dozen troopers. They had obviously set up this check point just to make sure that either he ran into it, or that Pan didn't double back. All of them were armed with lasers and with the profiles of the prisoners.

"Halt!" ordered the troopers. Of course Trunks did no such thing, rather he ducked back around the corner milliseconds before laser blasts struck the spot he had been standing in. He now faced a dilemma. He couldn't use ki blasts to wipe them all out, nor could he just take them out hand by hand without being hit by those weapons. It took him only a moment to realize that ki blasts, and hand to hand were not his only skills. He grabbed one of his capsules and pressed it. With a flash, his sword appeared in his hand and he strapped it around his back. Drawing the blade, he examined it quickly to make sure that it hadn't been fiddled with while he was in the cell.

"Come out or we'll come in after you scum!"

Trunks stepped out into the middle of the hallway with his sword in one hand. His face was as calm as it was when he had faced down Freeza three years before. "I think you should let me pass," he said. His voice was as cold as a mountain stream.

"Drop that pig sticker or we'll shoot," shouted one of the troopers. The trooper checked his scouter and saw that Trunks was still sporting a power level of five. How that man moved as quickly as he did boggled the troopers mind.

Trunks didn't say a word. He just started to walk forward. The look on his face was enough to cause the troopers pause, but not for long. They opened fire.

Laser blasts flashed towards him with incredible speed. However, his Saiyan senses were use to dealing with ki blasts that flew at him at light speed. The laser blasts were no different from them. In fact that's what the weapons actually did, produce tiny ki blasts that were fired at opponents.

Trunks blade whirled and deflected the blasts as if they were nothing. He leapt forward and continued to block the coming blasts with ease. As soon as he reached the first soldier, he swept out with his sword and cut him in two. Dodging another blast he took down a second soldier, then a third, and then a fourth. Within seconds the entire platoon had been decimated.

Trunks just smirked. He couldn't use Ki blasts or ki empower his muscles, but then there were always ways to get around such issues. He continued to move towards where he felt Pan's ki.

Pan and Buu turned another corner. In front of them were about twenty soldiers. What a bunch of idiots, she thought. "Put down your weapons and return to your quarters. I promise a fair court martial for you traitors," she yelled down the corridor.

The response was several blasts that struck past her. "Ok Buu… take care of them."

Buu stepped out into the corridor and before the guards could react a lightning bolt zapped them from the little protrusion that came out of Buu's head. They were instantly turned into Chocolate.

"Hmmm… more Chocolate," mused Buu as if that were a serious problem to be contemplated. "Maybe Jelly Beans next time Pan. Buu sick of chocolate."

"Ok, Jelly beans next time Buu," she agreed. She quickly darted into the shuttle bay and noticed that the crews were preparing several of them for departure. "Ok… the one on the right Buu. Take those guys out and I'll drop into the cockpit."

Zap!

Zap!

Zap!

Three crewmembers were turned into jellybeans without anyone noticing. Pan stealthily slipped by them, which wasn't really a challenge since they were jellybeans, and dropped herself into the shuttle. The first thing she saw was the face of a doglike alien. The first thing that the alien saw was the floor. Pan dragged the body to somewhere clear and then proceeded to the cockpit. She wouldn't have to worry about tying the guy up or anything since Buu would just turn him into something edible. Pan kicked open the cockpit door and reached out and grabbed the pilot, who was making flight preparations. It wasn't a fair fight. The results were pretty obvious when the pilot joined the other maintenance personal as sugar coated candy.

"Ok Buu, give me two minutes and I'll have this thing ready. Get down and make sure no…" Suddenly she felt a massive ki surge. It was enormous and easily the level of a Super Saiyan, perhaps beyond but it was a dark power. A moment later she felt another massive surge from a different source. What the hell? She thought to herself. There were some serious maniacs on this ship. Releasing high level ki inside ships was absolutely insane. On planets releasing ki caused rocks would rise up and disintegrate and so on, but on a ship, the same reaction was fatal. A ships superstructure couldn't handle the stress of ki.

So when the two massive ki signatures ignited, it did not surprise that the ship rocked with a massive explosion a few seconds later. The power and lighting went out and the emergency lighting systems went on. Then another explosion rocked the ship and another. The ship was coming apart and Pan knew that they had to get out of there. She frantically concentrated on getting the ship up and running so they could get the hell out of there.

Minutes before...

Trunks continued to pick and choose corridors in an attempt to get closer to Pan. He had encountered three or four groups of soldiers and had massacred them with ease. He didn't real feel good about it, but he was a hard man. He had been brought up in a hard world where taking life was sometimes the only option available.

As he entered through an archway that he thought led to where Pan was, he found himself overlooking a massive bridge. He was in the central power core of the ship and he saw several bridges above and below him. The core must have easily been eighty stories high and it was heavily shielded. In fact he was sure that anything short of a Super Saiyan's power wouldn't even scratch it.

He started to cross the bridge when he saw another squad of Imperial Troopers line up. In response, he unsheathed his sword and prepared for battle. However, the troopers never fired. At an unseen signal they broke apart and retreated, leaving behind only one person behind.

The man who had remained behind had a powerful ki level. He as tall, and well built. His skin was a light shade of blue and his hair orange. He too wore a blade.

"So you are the boy that has been causing all this trouble. I am Gokuya, Blademaster to Emperor Bojack."

"Good for you," responded Trunks. He moved to a fighting stance with his blade pointed outwards.

"Now that's quite rude boy. I like keeping track of all the people I kill." Gokuya also moved into a fighting stance with blade in hand.

"You won't need my name then," said Trunks in a low voice.

"Cockiness will get you nowhere." Gokuya attacked as he spoke. He whirled ran towards Trunks and slashed downwards with a tremendous blow that would have snapped any ordinary blade and killed any normal person. Trunks was far from normal however, and nor was his sword. He parried the blade downwards bringing it into contact with the floor. He then head-butted Gokuya in the face and sent him reeling backwards. Trunks gave Gokuya no chance to recover. He moved and thrust forward, intending to pierce his opponent in the chest. His blow was parried and in response he adjusted his grip and came back with a slash only to be blocked again.

Gokuya stepped back after the initial clash. The boy had impressed him with his speed and strength. However, Gokuya was a master swordsman and had decades of experience. It never even occurred to him that the boy could win. After a brief pause he opened again. This time he struck with a sideswipe, which the boy leapt over. Gokuya chuckled to himself at the boys move. It was amateurish, something done in movies but not in real combat. That the boy would even try something like that prove to Gokuya that he would be an easy victim. With practiced ease, he whirled around and blocked the blow from behind. He smirked and shook his head at Trunks.

"You have much to learn of the art of the blade, boy," he said. "Unfortunately you will never get to improve."

Trunks merely growled and attacked with a flurry of strikes. Again and again the two blades clashed. Trunks had strength and speed on his side, but Gokuya's experience easily made up for it. Neither were gaining the advantage and the battle continued to rage on. Sparks flew on the bridge as the swords rang against each other.

After several minutes Trunks was getting frustrated. He could finish this guy easily if he could just use ki, but he didn't dare. He thrust again in an attempt to impale the bastard, but his blue skinned opponent side stepped, then countered. Trunks realized his mistake then. He could do nothing as he saw the blade slash across his arm and slice through his flesh. Falling back, he gritted his teeth and blocked out the pain.

Gokuya smirked as he saw the blood begin to flow down Trunks' arm and drip onto the floor. The fight was over now, the boy had no chance with a wound. He just had to take his time and let blood loss take its toll. He lashed out again with his blade. Trunks blocked it, but Gokuya spun and delivered another strike with the speed of a cobra. Caught slightly off balance, Trunks failed to block it and this one slashed across his lower ribs. However, just as he struck Trunks, Gokuya felt a massive punch to his own gut. He dropped to one knee and brought up his sword just in time to block Trunk's sword from decapitating him. Instinctively he powered up and kicked Trunks in the chest sending him flying into the wall on the other side of the bridge.

Trunks knew he couldn't beat the guy the way he was now. He removed himself from the wall and powered up. To hell with the ship's safety… He dropped down and launched another attack with his sword against Gokuya this time powered up. The blades clashed again and the sheer force of it shook the bridge. As they both powered up, the bridge that they stood upon began to buckle and the other bridges began to break apart. For the moment the shielded core was untouched.

Trunks knew he was weakening from the blood loss. The arm wound was a mere flesh wound but the slash across his ribs was beginning to tax him. He had to end it soon. However, before he could do anything he felt a massive surge of ki and felt Gokuya fling him upwards. Before he could react, he saw Gokuya in his face and felt himself being struck into the far wall again. Grimacing in pain, Trunks had no time to waste. Gokuya was flying towards him now at full speed with his blade before him. His intentions were clear, he was going to drive that sword through Trunks and end the fight once and for all. There was only one thing Trunks could do to save himself. He went Super.

With a cry, Trunks ki rose exponentially and the wall around him disintegrated. His eyes turned from blue to turquoise and his hair flared upwards into the golden locks of a Super Saiyan. Just as Gokuya's blade came downwards, Trunks' free hand shot up, and caught the blade and snapped it in half. His opponent had only a fraction of a second to realize that he had loss before Trunks plunged his own sword into his gut. Trunks then spun, decapitating the man, and sent his soul to hell.

As Gokuya's body dropped down onto the bridge below, Trunks descended and dropped out of SSJ. He looked around and saw there definitely was a reason why Pan had told him not to use Ki. The entire wall was breaking apart and he could feel the ship shivering. The power was flickering and explosions from fried circuitry were occurring with more and more frequency. The ship was falling apart.

Warning! Warning! Core Containment Breach in one minute. Abandon Ship.

Trunks didn't know what a Core Containment Breach was, but it didn't sound good. He DID know what abandon ship meant and that was very ominous. He ran out the opposite door that he came through and powered up. In doing so he saw parts of the ship disintegrate around him but he knew he had to make it to Pan before the ship blew apart. The only way he could do that was if he used a little bit of ki. He frowned to himself, if he was going to die, he didn't want to die alone.

Pan was completing the final checks on the ship.

"Power check, Engines check, life support check…" she rattled off to herself.

The ship's vibrations were increasing and the klaxons were blaring unceasingly. Outside the other shuttled were also being prepped and people were frantically jumping into escape pods everywhere. No one got near their ship though because Buu was zapping people left and right. He, at least, was having a good time.

"Pan! Pan! Came Buu's shout. Trunk's Ki… Trunk's Ki is coming."

Pan stopped for a moment and threw out her senses. The two high level ki's were gone, but she did feel a low level ki that she recognized as Trunks. It was substantially stronger than she expected, around three thousand or so. Pan shook her head and forced any and every suspicion down. I will have to ask later, she thought as she went back to getting the ship ready.

"BUU WE ARE READY TO GO. GET TRUNKS AND LETS GO," she shouted as she fired up the engines. She slowly brought the ship into a standby state and hovered it above ground.

She whirled as she heard a commotion behind her preparing to blast the person to oblivion. Seeing that it was Trunks, she took a deep breath.

"Let's get out of here," huffed Trunks as he dropped to a sitting position in the co-pilot's seat. He was immensely relieved that they had a chance to live.

"Hold on," warned Pan as she brought the throttle forward. The shuttle slowly moved forward and out the bay doors. Explosions continued to rock the massive Dreadnaught as the trio slowly pulled away from the ship.

"Buu… how far are we from the hyper point?" asked Pan.

"Four minutes!" answered Buu.

"Ok… lets hope that the escorts are too distracted with saving people for about four minutes so we can get the hell out of here."

"Yeah I hope so," said Trunks wearily. He was exhausted from the battle and from the stress of a near death experience.

"I think we'll make it," smiled Pan. She looked over at him and then gasped. "Trunks, you're bleeding all over the place."

"Flesh wound… be fine," he said as he began to feel a bit woozy.

"That is not a flesh wound… shit BUU! BUU get Trunks a Senzu now," shouted Pan.

"No more Senzooos Pan…"

That was the last thing Trunks heard before he fell into unconsciousness.

Next time:

Pan and Trunks have escaped the clutches of the foul Admiral Anders… or have they? Goten goes to the Capsule reception and has a grand ole time. Videl learns some things about her brother in law, and so does Bulma and Trunks…Who will be the secret guest from Goten's past? An OC? What will Goten's families' reaction be when they discover he is the Duke De Sirrus? Stay tuned…

In a Galaxy Far Away…

And a movie theater near you…