A/N: This is a pilot chapter for a story I may or may not write in the future. I'll discuss the idea in more detail in the ending author's note. Thank you for reading in advance! God bless you all!

Disclaimer: NieR: Automata and DragonBall Z are properties owned by various companies and affiliates that I am not about to write down right now because ain't nobody got time for that.

Warnings: Spoilers for History of Trunks. There is also some blood and gore mentioned in the chapter. Beyond this there are no other warnings I need to give. Although, if anyone feels that I should up the rating from T to M based on this chapter, feel free to tell me. Things probably will get more violent from here if I actually move forward and write the story in full. Anyway, without further delay, onto the chapter below!

Wretched Weaponry
Prologue: Loss

Keep moving. You have to survive. You have to get back. You have to warn the others.

These thoughts repeat in my mind as I crawl on bloodied knees toward the time machine mom spent so many years slaving over in the hopes that we could somehow save this broken, tarnished world. Androids 17 and 18 have stolen so much...too much from us all. One by one, my mother's friends, the only real protectors of Earth, were cut down days after the Android's activation.

Gohan was the only one who'd survived the onslaught of tragedy back then. I was just a baby myself.

Growing up in a world dictated by fear left scars, both literal and metaphorical. For Gohan, the trauma of losing nearly everyone he cared about left him with a singular purpose to train and save as many people as he could from the Android menace. I grew up watching him train. I grew up listening to him talk to mom about the lives he'd narrowly managed to save and the many close calls he'd had fighting over the years.

I remember when he transformed into a Super Saiyan in front of me for the first time. He looked cool with the spiky blonde hair and golden aura, but more importantly, he looked strong. Untouchable.

And yet, it was clear he couldn't defeat the Androids alone. Even with all his strength and power, they simply outnumbered him two to one.

Realizing that, I made the choice to become a fighter too. Mom wasn't happy about it at first, but she knew as well as I did that we were living in desperate times with little to no hope of escaping the cruel, torturous fate handed to us. As a Half-Saiyan, I had just as much potential as Gohan to become a truly strong fighter...strong enough to put an end to those Androids and finally claim revenge for the human race.

So I trained with Gohan to learn to become a Super Saiyan. I tried hard. So many times I got close to reaching that seemingly untouchable power, but it was never quite enough. No matter how many hours of rigorous training I did, no matter the strength I gained in that time...the mysterious power Gohan called on so easily was beyond me.

He encouraged me not to feel bad about it, but it drove me crazy to think about how much better our odds would be if I could just manage to transform.

To make up for that I kept training, sometimes alone. Over time I became strong enough to battle the Androids alongside my mentor and best friend, my only friend really. Thinking about it now, I see that in many ways, Gohan was the father I never had. He was a constant source of male guidance, and though he was often hard on me in our training sessions, he would always praise my efforts afterward, especially if I'd mastered a particularly difficult technique that day. He liked to tell jokes too oddly enough, especially on the rough days. He never let me quit when I was struggling. He pushed me to fight past my limits.

But no amount of progress I made was enough in the end.

That day in the amusement park...

He lost an arm to save me.

My hubris and inexperience led to the tragedy, but Gohan didn't act like losing a limb even bothered him. He continued to smile brightly. He continued to bark orders at me as I tried in vain to transform into a Super Saiyan. He continued to encourage me in my failure.

In the end, that's what it all came down to.

He knocked me unconscious the day he died to protect me. A part of me believes he knew what his fate would be ahead of time. I think I knew it too. That's why I argued so hard about joining him when he opted to face the Androids alone, and just when I thought he relented, I wake up to find he's left me on the cliffs overlooking the city.

And in that abandoned city, I found Gohan lying face down in a deep puddle. His eyes were open but void of any signs of life.

This was the result of my weakness, my stupidity, my inability to claim the power that could have saved my friend.

To this day, I find it ironic that this moment of despair and loss triggered the transformation I'd been so desperate to achieve.

All I remember is the rain and my own screams.

It's raining now too...and Mom is screaming inside the house. It's a terrible, agonizing sound, but I can't deviate from my planned path no matter how desperately I want to.

With a heavy heart, I keep crawling toward the time machine. I've used it once before to warn Goku in the past about what's to come. Just as mom and I planned, I delivered the cure for the deadly heart virus, gave my warning, and came straight back home.

We had hoped changing the past would change our future. We were praying for a miracle to erase the Androids.

What a joke.

Multiverse Theory put an end to any hope going back to the past provided us. All we'd done was create a branching path in the original timeline. The future of said branch would be spared from this if all went well. It was a whole lot better than nothing, but the result of our efforts left little hope for our own future.

It was during this time, as I waited for mom to finish repairs on the machine so I could go back to the past again, that I trained harder than ever. Day after day. Week after week. Every waking moment was spent training and growing stronger.

One day the two Androids came to West City to wreak havoc on the few remaining citizens here.

It was their last mistake.

My dream of ridding the world of their presence had been fulfilled...

But not by any miracle.

I can't remember anything from the battle. One minute the two Androids were in front of me, laughing as they stood over the mangled corpse of a child they'd chased into the city, and in the next mom was yelling at me to stop. Only after her voice reached me did I notice 17's body beneath me and the blood on my hands. His face was unrecognizable mush. Later, as my mind began to clear, I saw 18's bloodied limbs scattered along our driveway. Her head lay next to my abandoned sword with open, lifeless eyes.

Those eyes haunt my dreams now more than they ever did when she was alive.

Killing them brought no relief to me.

The world was safe again, but losing control like that made me wonder if I was a monster too.

And now...

My mom screams again, and it takes everything inside of me to keep crawling away from her shrieks of pain.

There's a new threat now - a being called Cell. He ambushed me and would have killed me if mom hadn't seen him from the window and rushed out immediately. She threw her shoe at the creature and he, with a vindictive chuckle, left me to bleed to death while he pursued her. They're in the house now. He caught her a while ago, but instead of killing her outright he's torturing her. In what way, I don't know, but the blood curdling shrieks feed my imagination with more than enough possibilities.

I want to save her. I'd give anything to prevent what's going to happen, but...

With a sharp intake of breath, I stumble to my feet and force my ki to lift myself into the air. Sweat and blood pour from my brow as I land in the machine, exhausted and guilt ridden.

I don't want to live. I don't want to move forward from this. I want to protect my mother from this monster. I want to make him stop. I want to make him bleed...

But I'm not strong enough. Why am I never strong enough to save anyone?

Gritting my teeth, I think back on the beautiful, determined smile mom gave me as she winked and ran into the house with Cell in hot pursuit.

I knew without words what she meant by the gesture.

You know what to do from here. I love you, Trunks.

Mom's ki is beginning a rapid drop as her screams dwindle down. She won't last much longer, which means I don't have much time left.

My trembling fingers brush over the mechanism that closes the machine. They pressed down on a few other buttons, but I'm too focused on getting out as quickly as possible to check over the new commands programmed into the system. My gaze darts between the house and the start-up sequence keys as the boot-up process begins. After a few seconds, the machine starts to lift from the ground.

Almost there...

Mom's ki abruptly blips out of existence. It feels like a sharp blade piercing through my chest.

Don't think about it now. You have a mission to complete. You can't die here.

With more firmness to my movements, I press the final button to confirm the timeline pre-programmed into the system. The instant Cell darts out the house, the machine zips out of the current timeline, hurling me through a familiar but terrifying realm of swirling lights and colors. I focus on piloting, only vaguely aware at this point of my bleeding wounds and the tears rolling down my face.

I won't forgive them. I'll never forgive them. I'll kill every last Android ever made if it's the last thing I do.

I won't forgive them. I'll never forgive them. I'll kill every last machine. No matter what it takes.

These thoughts echo in the mind of a female android as she stalks through a shallow stream in the midst of a large forest. In her hand she carries the latest model of the YoRHa issued Type-40 Sword, a weapon she stole from a pursuer she killed a few weeks prior. It sparks with electricity still, having just been used to destroy a cluster of hostile machine lifeforms inhabiting the area. Though the battle has ended, the android remains motionless, her icy blue stare fixed on her reflection in the rippling water as the wind plays with her long strands of platinum-blonde hair. Grime and dust cover her cheeks. Kneeling down, she takes a small bit of water into her gloved hands and gently splashes a bit of water onto her face. In the next second she's rubbing at the artificial skin furiously with her forearm.

I hate getting their oil on my face.

Once done cleaning some of the grime off, the female android rises to her full height and continues her march to the tall castle in the distance. She knows a whole hoard of machines live there, having cut themselves off from the machine network some time ago.

She has every intention of slaying them all.

It's what they deserve for all the damage they've caused.

The rogue YoRHa android stops moving for a moment as her ears catch a sudden, shrill sound in the distance. Though she can't place the exact location of the strange noise, it reverberates through the forest in a way that sparks apprehension as well as curiosity through her brain circuitry.

The smoke a little ways off helped with that too.

Groaning softly to herself, the fugitive known as Unit A2 turns on her heel, thus changing her pre-planned path.

Better go see what that's about.

A/N: And that is the end of this pilot chapter for a crossover story in which Trunks ends up in the world of NieR: Automata. I thought this would be a very interesting idea given Trunk's hatred for androids. In NieR: Automata, the androids are designed to protect humans and have been fighting a seemingly endless war against machines built by aliens for the sole purpose of getting humans off the moon and back on Earth. How would Trunks deal with a world full of Androids? I feel that's an interesting question to bring up because Trunks' temperament towards the Androids in DBZ is very hostile due to obvious reasons. A2 is an abrasive, rogue android whose rage against machine's is a direct reflection of Trunk's anger toward Androids. Maybe they could learn from each other or something. I don't know. I haven't actually written any more of the story yet.

Anyway, if you guys think this might be an interesting idea, feel free to tell me so in that comment box. In the future I can come back to it once I have more concrete ideas of where to go from here. Thank you all for reading. God bless you all!