I just want to say a huge thank you to all you wonderful reviewers out there!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOO MUCH!!!!! And to answer a few questions; yes, this is a T/P fic; you'll just have to wait. And the reason I labeled this a tragedy will also come up a bit later in the story... And the ending might come as a bit of a surprise to all of you!!! Yes... it's all up here. points to forehead Anyway, enjoy!!!

Chapter 3: Training

After breakfast, Trunks said he wanted to practice his sword work.

"Can I come too?" Pan had asked excitedly. She had always been interested in all forms of martial arts and mortal combat and such. Plus, her father had never liked the fact that she was a bit of a wimp sometimes. He always preached that the weak were despised, and only the strong survived in battle. Pan couldn't imagine ever having to fight with anyone, but she thought it would make her father see she was not weak if she knew how to fight.

"Of course you can. You don't need to ask for my permission."

After getting dressed, the two headed down to a training room on the main level. Pan had put on a black t-shirt with a pair of blue shorts, and tied her hair back in a ponytail. Trunks was wearing a white t-shirt with a pair of long, baggy blue pants. Across his chest was a blue leather strap with a red buckle in the middle. It was holding up an all-too-familiar red sheath, and a long, thin, silver sword concealed inside of it. Pan gazed at it enviously. She had always admired her brother's sword. It was his trademark.

Trunks extracted a small gold key from his pocket, pushed it into the lock, and turned. The door revealed a large white room that looked to be about four stories tall, and at least the length of three basketball courts. In the middle was a circular platform with a few multicolored buttons and switches. Trunks immediately headed toward the center platform while Pan gazed in awe up at the ceiling. Everything was so white, she found herself in a deep trance from its brightness.

"Pan? Ohayô, Pan! Wake up!"

"Huh?" Pan tore her gaze away from the walls, and back on to Trunks, who had already drawn his sword.

"Is it all right if I turn on the artificial gravity machine?" He pointed to the center platform.

"Yeah, that's fine."

"How much do you think you can take?" Pan had to think about that. She had never been exposed to more than her planet's normal gravity.

"It doesn't matter, as much as you want." Trunks nodded, and set the control for 50 times the planet's normal gravity. Instantly, Pan found herself flat on her stomach, unable to get up.

"Oof! Trunks! This is too much!" Trunks saw her, sheathed his sword, and headed back over to the control panel to change it to a lower setting. Suddenly, Pan thought of her father, and how weak he believed her to be. She thought of how worthless he thought she was, and how much he would laugh upon seeing her like this. "Trunks wait! You don't need to do that!"

Trunks stopped, and looked at her.

"But Pan, if you can't take it, we should turn it down!"

"No, Trunks! I CAN take it!" (I have to take it!) She thought. The image of her father laughing raced through her mind over and over again. She wasn't about to lose. She was NOT about to let him see her like this. She would train, and become stronger, stronger than him... someday.

Slowly, Pan tried to stand up. Trunks only stared. She wasn't strong enough to take 50G yet. Why was she so determined to prove him wrong? Suddenly, a red aura started to form around Pan. She felt an odd sensation sweep across her body. She winced, then grimaced, then stood up with ease, looking a bit confused.

"Trunks, I was suddenly able to stand up easily! How did that happen?"

"You just powered up, Pan. See the red aura around you? It means that you're using your energy to make yourself stronger. That's why you were able to stand up; it was because you felt stronger!"

Pan looked at herself, amazed at what she had just done. Trunks smiled at her, then opened a cabinet in the center platform. He pulled out five strange-looking circular devices, and flipped an on switch on each of them. The tiny robots suddenly sprang to life, and they began to hover over Trunks' head. Then they zoomed off in different directions and stopped in a perfect circle formation about 15 feet off the ground. Trunks grinned, pressed a few buttons on the control panel, and then ran into the center of the robots' formation. He then started forming a small, golden ball of pure energy in his hand.

Before Pan knew what he was doing, Trunks had hurtled the ki at one of the robots. Pan had expected the ki to totally neutralize the little robot, but surprisingly, the ki blast simply bounced right off the robot, and headed toward another one. The second robot did the same, and sent it toward another one. Soon the one ki blast was being bounced and knocked in between the robots like a volleyball. Suddenly, one of the robots bounced it directly at Trunks!

Trunks closed his eyes. He put his right hand on the handle of his sheathed sword...

A brief flash of light blinded Pan for a second. When her eyes focused on Trunks, his sword was clasped tightly in both of his hands, and hanging just a couple of inches above the ground directly in front of him. The ki blast was nowhere to be seen.

"Wha... what did you do?" Pan stared at her brother, a clueless expression on her face.

"I'm working on a new technique. See, I slash my sword at an oncoming ki attack, and absorb it through the blade. I have to do it just right, but if I'm successful, it replenishes my energy depending on the size of the attack. It took me long enough just to learn how to absorb my own ki through my hand, let alone my sword."

Pan just stared. She blinked. She gaped. "...wow...... That was incredible! You were so fast; I didn't even see you move your sword at all!"

Trunks rubbed the back of his head and laughed.

"Hey, do you think you could help me train? I've only worked on this technique using my own ki, so I'd like to see if it's just the same with other people's ki. Can you shoot a direct ki blast straight at me? Not too big, alright?"

Pan hesitated, and then faced her right palm directly at Trunks, as he had done before. Trunks raised his sword over his head, spread his legs apart, and waited...

"What are you waiting for? Are you going to shoot me or not?"

Pan suddenly clasped the back of her head with her shooting hand. "Uh, I kind of don't know how to shoot ki!"

Trunks fell over abruptly. He quickly picked himself up, sheathed his sword, crossed his arms, raised one eyebrow and sighed. "Why didn't you tell me? I can teach you if you want."

"Really? Oh, Trunks, that would be so awesome!" Trunks walked over to her.

"Okay, now do you remember when you powered up earlier? Well, it's kind of like that." Pan listened intensely as Trunks demonstrated proper hand position, and how to control the size of your blast.

"Okay, Pan. Are you ready to try it?"

"Yes!" Pan got into the exact position Trunks had showed her. She spread her legs apart, balled her hands into fists, and arched her back forward slightly. She felt the same sensation she had when powering up earlier. The red aura formed around her again. She spread her fingers of her right hand apart, and concentrated on that spot.

She closed her eyes.

"Pan, look! You did it! And on your first try, too!" Pan opened her eyes and looked down at her hand. Sure enough, there was a small golden ki ball in her hand. She gaped at it, and then raised her hand above her head, and shouted.

"I did it! I did it! I..."

"Watch out!!!" Pan looked at her palm. What she saw alarmed her. In her excitement, she had tripled the size of her ki blast, and it was still growing.

"YAAAAH!!! Trunks, what happened?!?" Trunks didn't have time to answer. He dove right into Pan, knocking her against the wall and away from the ki blast, which she had lost control of. It had shot up into the air, bounced off the ceiling, and was hurtling back down at an alarming rate. Pan looked back to see Trunks trying to hold the huge blast up, but it was no use.

It came down on top of him, and a bright light and deafening roar shook the whole castle. Trunks flew back right into Pan, and they both blacked out.

Pan awoke to find herself in her room. Someone had carried her to her bed. She looked out the window to see it was pitch black outside.

"How long was I out?" Pan looked at the clock on her bedside table- and instead caught sight of a bowl of soup and some crackers. Someone had brought dinner for her.

Pan hungrily devoured the soup, which was a little cold, and then collapsed back on her bed, trying to remember what had happened. She had shot her first ki blast... and it had knocked her out. How had it become so big? She felt like going to find Trunks to ask him about it, but decided against it when she saw it was after midnight. She changed into her pajamas, and went back to sleep.

That night she dreamed she was in front of a large, white wall. Pan tried to climb it to see what was on the other side, but kept falling. Then she spotted a large shape in the distance, which looked to be just shorter than the wall. She would climb it. She headed toward it, but woke up before she could reach it.