Chapter 3 – Training
Mirai Trunks heals fast. He's often visited by Goten and Trunks. Mirai Trunks turns out to be very interested in their fighting techniques and is stunned when they tell him about fusion.
"That is so awesome," he sighs. "If we had known earlier, Gohan and I could have tried that on the androids. He'd still be alive now."
"It must be hard to be the only one left," Trunks says, acknowledging his future self's pain.
"You have no idea," Mirai snarls. Then he makes a dismissive gesture. "Gomen. I've seen more hate than friendship in my dimension. Sometimes it gets to me and I lose control over the things I say."
"What about losing control over the things you do?" a dark voice asks from the doorway. Vegeta telepathically tells the brats to get lost. He approaches the bed as they leave.
"Well?" Vegeta stands beside his bed, demanding an answer.
Mirai is an inch away from losing control. Vegeta's eyes seem to be burning into his own.
'Tell me what you feel right now, boy.' Vegeta's voice echoes inside his head.
Mirai gasps for air. "Don't…"
'I need to know what you're up to, brat. You're hiding something from us.'
When Mirai hears Vegeta say 'us' instead of 'me', something inside of him snaps. He unleashes all his pain from the past years, channeling it into Vegeta's mind. Vegeta immediately retreats, grabbing his head.
"Kuso…" Vegeta slowly regains his composure.
"Stay out of my head, Vegeta. You have no right to be in there," Mirai Trunks growls threateningly.
Vegeta shakes his head as if to shake off the headache Mirai gave him.
"Fine. Keep your little secret. We'll find out eventually." Vegeta exits.
'Oh you will find out, Vegeta. And you won't like it.' Mirai clenches his fists.
No more incidents take place after that. Mirai Trunks has healed now, and trains on a daily basis with Goku, Trunks and Goten. Vegeta is present, but only to observe Mirai.
One day, Piccolo joins him at the 'sideline'.
'We haven't seen you in a while, green bean,' Vegeta says playfully, but with a grim undertone.
'Well, I tend to keep myself busy until I'm needed most.' Piccolo looks at Mirai Trunks. 'I sensed his screwed up ki and decided to drop by.'
'He arrived hurt, he's doing much better now,' Vegeta explains.
'You think?' Piccolo eyes Vegeta warily. 'Try to sense him at a deeper level, matchstick.'
Vegeta closes his eyes as he focuses on Mirai Trunks' ki.
'Nani?'
'Weird, huh?'
'He's… blank on a deeper level. I've never seen anything like that before.'
'Neither have I. It's normal that there are gaps, things that are private or too painful to share, but totally blank is just plain weird.'
'Thanks for your analysis, dr. Namek. What does this mean?'
'He's hiding something alright.'
'I knew that!' Vegeta thinks impatiently. 'How can we find out what it is?'
'Maybe someone should try and talk to him…'
'I can take a hint. I already tried once though.' Vegeta unleashes his memory from his little 'chat' with Mirai and feeds it into the telepathic link between Piccolo and himself.
'That's self-explanatory. Keep your distance, Vegeta. I'll go to Dende and ask for advice.'
Before Vegeta can nod to concur, Goten crashes down between them, hurt badly. Hovering over them, Mirai Trunks grins ferally, his eyes shining with delight. He seems to infinitely enjoy hurting Goku or any family member of his.
'You'd better hurry,' Vegeta thinks, obviously worried.
'Got it.' Piccolo takes off.
"You promised me a challenge, Vegeta. Where is it?" Mirai Trunks floats down to him, mocking him with his overconfident attitude.
Vegeta helps Goten up with one hand, never breaking eye contact with Mirai.
"Get yourself some senzu, brat." Vegeta calls out telepathically to his mate.
'Kakarotto…'
Goku appears in a split second. It only takes him a moment to see his son hurt and Mirai gloating about it. His eyes narrow as he powers up.
"Here's your challenge, brat. Enjoy it, for it won't last long."
Goku attacks immediately, this time he's not holding back. Vegeta called him here to punish Mirai. Vegeta might as well have done it himself, but since Goten is his mate's son he decided to leave the matter to Goku. Goku's face looks grim as he's forced to power up to SSJ2 to keep the upper hand.
'How the hell did he get so strong in such a short amount of time?' Goku thinks.
Mirai surprises him by powering up to SSJ2 as well.
"Nani?" Goku is stunned by what he sees. Alright, Gohan was only eleven when he achieved SSJ2, but Mirai is… different.
'I had to push Gohan so hard to get him there,' Goku thinks. 'It's like Mirai Trunks is pushing himself. To what purpose?'
Mirai attacks him with so much passion that it finally dawns on Goku. 'He wants to kill me!'
'Power up to maximum, koi. There's no way he can keep up with that.' Vegeta advises him from the ground.
As Mirai Trunks' attacks grow more intense and dangerous, Goku no longer hesitates and powers up to max. His battle aura grows even bigger and brighter than before. He attacks Mirai Trunks head on and pummels him into the ground.
After the dust settles down, Mirai reappears… unscathed. Goku gasps in surprise, but Vegeta assures him: 'He's bluffing, Kakarot. Look deeper. He's hurt alright.'
'Is that what he did when he fought Frieza?' Goku wonders.
'I guess. Then he almost literally scared the damned lizard to death.'
Goku chuckles. 'He won't get to me that easily.'
Vegeta marvels at his mate's confidence. The fight continues, but it is one-sided now that Goku's seen through Mirai's trick. Mirai Trunks ends up beaten and bloody, stretched out on the ground. Goku grabs the remainder of his shirt and pulls back his fist to finish Mirai off with one last blow. His golden hair waves in the wind, dust whirls up from the scarred ground.
'Why does he take so long?' Vegeta watches anxiously, already approaching both fighters to see what's going on.
Then the unimaginable happens. Goku gasps in surprise, then lowers his clenched fist. Groaning, he collapses half on top of Mirai Trunks while transforming back to Saiyan form.