The Nightmare Never Ends

Mini-story 2 – Reflection

They stared each other down on the rocky plain, each one thinking of how they could get through the other's defenses. Once decided, they somehow appeared in the middle of where they stood just one moment before, and, in flurry of movement, they fought.

A giant hand made contact with his cheek, forcing his head to the side, his lavender hair flying out in all directions. In return, he tried to knee Gohan in the stomach, but the man's hand fell down to catch it and use his leg to throw Trunks into a near pile of rocks. "Aw, c'mon! I have to at least be able to hit you once!" Trunks whined, but Gohan just laughed one of his hearty laughs and replied with another punch to the face, forcing Trunks' head to the other side. Trunks knew, though, that his laugh was a sad one, for they both knew that if he couldn't even hit Gohan, then there was no way he could stand up to the Androids…But we knew that anyway, just from the experience I've had so far with those monsters…

The two of them sparred for a little while longer before heading back home, tired and hungry after the day's activities.

- - - - - -

He wrapped his towel tighter around himself as he stepped from the hot, humid air of the bathroom into the cool air of his bedroom. As he casually put on his usual gray pants, now freshly clean from the robots' cleaning, he paused for a second to look at his reflection in the mirror hanging on his closet door. What stared back at him surprised the boy, a dark realization coming to his mind…

Trunks didn't have the eyes that a child his age should have. He had eyes that had seen far worse than most; death, destruction, bodies lying in the ruins of once beautiful cities…The sad image of that poor little girl, her blonde hair matted with crimson blood, her hands still holding on to her torn teddy bear while her face showed an expression of pure horror, came to his mind, and tears started to roll down his cheek, still scarred from their last battle. Why did it have to happen this way? Why couldn't those darn androids just leave us alone? Maybe…maybe if Son Goku had lived…His shallow tears soon gave way to sobs, his emotions pouring out from inside of him.

Gohan watched from the doorway, wanting so badly to comfort the boy, but knowing all too well that this was part of the hard process of getting stronger – hopefully, strong enough to beat the Androids…

- end -