"Something's wrong," Goku said, expression pensive as his gaze slid back in my direction. However, it wasn't like he was really seeing me, more like he was lost in thought.

We would soon be coming within range of Planet Vegeta, judging by the coordinates displayed on the control panel of our ship. Or at least, what Goku had told me they were secondhand, as he'd merely been sent to wake me up.

All the same, I hadn't been expecting his unusual tone or the words themselves.

"Hm? What do you mean...?" I asked, sitting up so I could properly focus on the man.

"I mean, can you sense that?" he said.

My brain was still edged with the fog of sleep, but even so, I had no damn idea what he was on about. I couldn't sense anything, with the exclusions of my travel companions of course.

"Mm, no?" I replied, getting up anyway. Instead of responding back, Goku merely gestured for me to follow him out of my room. As quickly as I could, I slipped on a pair of boots before doing as bid and pursuing him.

Our direction led us to the control room, where Gohan and Goten already were though the latter appeared to have just awoken as well. But shortly after entering I found myself squinting to shield my eyes.

Sunlight was pouring in, casting long shadows that moved on the edges of the room. Our ship was angled such a way in space that the glow of Planet Vegeta's resident star was thrown on us, askew just enough to not directly hit our sensitive eyes. Still, I raised a hand over my face to lessen the glare, not appreciating the brightness after so recently waking up.

"So... what's going on?" I asked. I cast a glance at Goten, who gave me a shrug that meant he didn't know what was up either.

It was Gohan who answered my question after a moment. He was turned away from me and looking out into space.

"Come see for yourself," he said. His tone was unusual – calm, but restraining something behind it. Since I couldn't see his expression, I was unsure.

I approached the window, Goten following alongside until we stood next to each other and gazed out.

Dark space, decorated with distant points of light greeted us past the sun's brilliance. A cluster of titanic asteroids lingered here and there, on a slow drift through the emptiness. One momentarily obscured us in its looming shadow before continuing on its path of inertia.

It was a nice picture, but I still didn't understand what Gohan and his father were looking at.

"I don't understand," I wondered out loud, "I don't see anything."

"I don't get it either. It's just a few asteroids. Can we not fly around them?" Goten asked. "It says here we – ..."

I turned my attention onto Goten when he abruptly cut himself off. I was startled to find that, even under the sun's glare, I could tell he was becoming paler than normal.

"Trunks," he said, proceeding with his next words slowly. "There's nothing here. We should be able to see Planet Vegeta. Where is it?"

I looked out the window, down at the coordinates on the panel, then back out into space.

No planet. No moons. Nothing – almost.

Another gargantuan chunk of rock passed into our field of vision. There were no asteroid belts so close to my home world.

My answer to Goku's question earlier still held true. I couldn't sense anything, anyone, beyond the confines of our spacecraft, until reaching the very distant sensation of the life teeming in the rest of the nearby galaxy.

The constant, usually steady drum of my heart felt louder than normal. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out, thoughts staying pressed inside my throat and echoing in my mind with each beat of my blood.

It's gone. Planet Vegeta is gone.

I'd thought the life I knew had begun coming apart at the seams upon realizing my parents were keeping secrets from me. Then, I understood the cracks had always been there when the nature of those secrets was revealed.

What I still hadn't anticipated was that things could continue to tear open beyond that – like a collateral ripple in fate.

The aftermath before me was a few jagged chunks of rock, spiralling around in the emptiness of space where home should've been.

I wondered when the universe had decided it enjoyed taking the things I cared about from me. The place that held my past. What should've been my future. All gone.

It felt like a dull knife prodding at an old wound, beneath the rage simmering in my chest. Potentially, tens of thousands of people could've been on the planet before it was wiped out. I had no way of knowing yet when this disaster had occurred. Who had done it – would've had cause to do it. Frieza? But why?

Had Father incited something in the months I was away?

I sat in contemplation, fighting down my baser emotions as I idly rolled Mom's capsule between my thumb and forefinger. Even though she had set the temperature of our ship to a Saiyan's comfort level, I felt chilled, the inner disturbance echoing in different ways with my companions. Goku sat quietly a short distance away, Gohan stood motionless across the room, and Goten slowly paced.

"What're we gonna do?" he said, running a hand through his hair. "Who would've... When? Fuck. What do we do?"

"We find who did this," Gohan said.

"And how do you suggest we go about that? How do we find survivors, if there are any? There's no way every Saiyan would be on Planet Vegeta at once..." Goten replied.

I let out a breath through my nose, closing my eyes as I clenched the capsule in my fist, delicately enough not to break it.

Vegeta... Father... You'd better not have been on that planet when it was destroyed.

I opened my eyes again when I sensed Goten standing in front of me. He wasn't facing or looking at me, but merely standing at my side.

"What about the Dragon Balls?" he asked.

"Well, yeah," Goku answered, "we can bring back the people with them, but we can't bring back the planet at the same time. And they still can't be used for another eight months or so." He then walked over to me, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I looked up at him, and he gave a small half-smile. "Don't worry. We'll figure it out like always," he assured.

"Our choices may be limited," Gohan began from across the room, "but there's a good chance we can use the -"

A low beeping came from the control panel, interrupting the eldest half-blood before a stranger's voice followed.

"Unknown spacecraft – identify yourselves," the voice demanded.

I stood up, all four of us staring towards the control panel where the sound had emitted from.

"What now?" Goten muttered to himself before the stranger continued.

"I repeat: alien craft, identify yourselves or we will open fire. You are in restricted PTO territory."

We all looked at each other, then out the window. There was no other ship in our line of sight yet, but that didn't necessarily mean they weren't there.

Gohan, being the first person to snap out of his shock, quickly moved over to the panel and pausing before hitting a command and responding.

"This is one of the crew members speaking. We were unaware this area was restricted," he said.

"Identify yourself and the affiliations of the rest of your crew," the stranger repeated. "Only authorized Planet Trade ships are currently given access here. The design of your craft has no registry in our system."

Gohan looked back at us. Goku offered only a shrug, at a loss for what our next move ought to be. Regardless of our own strength, if our ship were destroyed we still couldn't breathe in space. Our best bet was to get them in close quarters and overwhelm them, but our only way to do so would be by luring them in or Goku transporting us there. I was about to ask the man in question why he hadn't already done so, but reaching out I realized I couldn't sense our new acquaintances at all. Instant Transmission would be useless.

Gohan pursed his lips before coming up with his next response. "We're merchants from, uh, Planet Krypton. Again, we didn't know we were trespassing. Let's just settle this like civilized people – you can come search our ship to see that we're telling the truth."

There was a moment of silence while whoever was on the other end of the transmission seemed to mull their options over. A pity for them that they had no real idea who they were trying to threaten.

"Maintain your position," they said at length. "We'll be taking you aboard for questioning. Prepare to surrender any weapons you may carry – any other physical threats of violence will be met with force."

I could tell Goten was holding back a retort by the way he pursed his lips, but kept himself from muttering anything under his breath as Gohan acknowledged the stranger's commands.

After the connection was severed, the oldest half-blood turned to face us again.

"None of us should make any sudden decisions until we're on their ship. We can take them down as soon as we aren't at risk of being exposed to outer space," he said.

"I wonder why I can't sense their energies. Maybe it has something to do with the ship they're using?" Goku added.

"I don't know," I said. I didn't know anything. I didn't understand any of this.

We didn't have to wait much longer before the other ship came within range, using traction technology to draw our crafts together. Their ship was several times the size of ours – very much resembling the last one we'd found – and we were pulled inside, the air feeling tense as we waited for the right moment.

A faint rumble echoed outside our ship as it was locked into place within the bowels of the other. Now, I was able to sense the group of life forms aboard, like we'd passed some sort of barrier. Some of them were drawing close to us, preparing to board while we waited near the door to our craft.

When a muffled voice outside told us to open up, I moved forward and activated the doorway's release function. As it slid open, out of the corner of my eye I saw Goku put two fingers to his forehead before my attention was drawn back to what was in front of me.

Through the narrow archway, several dozen armoured soldiers stood with hand-held weapons aimed in our direction.

"No sudden movements. Step out with your hands where I can see them," one of them said.

One solid backhand was enough to cast him off to left, knocking aside another soldier or two on the way. The rest of them fumbled in their split second of confusion, and then began firing at me – or at least, the spot where I'd been.

I leapt forward, spurning myself into action. Any stray blasts being fired that managed to hit me bounced off or fizzled out, so beneath my strength that the most any of them did was singe my clothes. I was being a little careless, not bothering to avoid the shots as carefully as I should've because I knew they couldn't hurt me.

Delivering a roundhouse kick to the head of the closest soldier, I spun as he went down and let loose a pair of ki beams, bowling over another group of opponents. In the back of my senses, I noticed that Goku had teleported himself and his oldest son elsewhere into the ship to make our job go faster, while Goten's energy was just behind me.

I probably didn't need to be hitting the soldiers as hard as I was, but at the moment I didn't really care. They could tolerate a broken bone or two – my planet had been destroyed.

As I was in my base form, there were a few of the soldiers that were able to take more than just a single hit. One large individual in particular managed to catch my swing in his palm, leaving me open so he could punch my jaw with his free hand.

Unfortunately for him, I raised my energy just enough that when his strike impacted, I could hear the bones in his hand crack. As he cried out in pain his grip loosened, so I took ahold of his armoured chest plate and used it as leverage, smashing my forehead into his nose. He went down like a sack of rocks.

An unexpected ki ball collided with my shoulder, disrupting my balance a little. I turned to meet eyes with the perpetrator, far behind him espying Goten across the room dealing with the other soldiers left in the room. However, the one in question was clearly focused on me, fear quite obvious in his expression.

It wasn't necessary, but I powered up, feeling my ki heat vividly as I burst into Super Saiyan. All the scouters around the room still functioning exploded, and I could see Goten pause in surprise as he noticed my transformation.

My opponent's face had gone from fear to terror. I could see him shaking from here, as he was one of the last PTO recruits standing in this wing of the craft.

I felt my expression tighten. Afraid, huh? How many young Saiyans were afraid as they were consumed in the flames of my burning planet? How many survivors, unaware of what happened, were returning home only to be slaughtered by people they thought were allies? What right do you have to be fucking afraid?

I raised my arm, aiming a single finger at my lone opponent. Summoning my ki, a glowing ball began forming at the end of my outstretched limb, becoming brighter as its energy density increased.

The soldier threw his hands up and dropped to his knees. I approaching him at an even pace until the concentration of glowing power was less than a foot from his head.

"Where's the captain?" I asked.

"C – contro – control room," he stuttered back. "Pl – please, I – I don't w – want to die!"

I allowed the energy ball to dissipate, instead choosing to kick the soldier in the head solidly enough to knock him out.

The room was now largely quiet, though a few distant sounds could be heard from the other end of the ship where Gohan and Goku were. Goten hovered uncertainly by the door leading onwards, waiting for me to follow.

Before doing so I tugged at the capsule around my neck, clicking it free and activating it with a puff of cloud. Out emerged the dark blade that had become familiar to me, but that I hadn't had a proper chance to use yet. Slinging the scabbard over my shoulder, I withdrew the weapon with a satisfying ring. The weight was something familiar in a moment where I felt like I was surrounded by the unknown. But I had no doubts these people would have at least a few answers for me.

By the time we met up with the other two, most of the soldiers had been taken care of. Since we'd worked our way in, our final destination was the token control room in which we located the captain. She was some sort of large, green-feathered bird creature, identifiable by her armour and the oddly high-pitched voice that was barking orders when we came in.

Now, she lay battered on the floor, fixing her small eyes on me furiously.

"Y – you'll pay for this! Allying yourself w – with Saiyans... you've signed your own death warrant!" she squawked, having deduced my companions' origins from their appearances.

"You seem to misunderstand," I replied. "I'm not just allied with them. I'm their prince – son of King Vegeta and heir to the throne. I don't give a fuck if you believe me or not, but know that a few hollow threats won't save you from a worse beating if you don't answer my questions."

I paused when her eyes widened.

"Y – you can't b – be," she stammered. "You can't – everyone thought – you're supposed to be dead!"

I narrowed my eyes. Dead? "Am I? You tell me."

"Y – y – I c – can't -" she tried, but when I raised the edge of my blade to her throat again her will seemed to break.

"Fine, I'll t – tell you anything you wanna know! Just p – please, don't kill or eat me!" she squeaked.

I'd heard tell of Saiyans who sometimes consumed the flesh of their opponents, whether to symbolically gain their strength or feed themselves when there wasn't another option. Though I would never deign to doing so, judging by her pleading to avoid such a fate the captain did believe my claim of being the Saiyan prince.

"Start talking," I commanded.

"We – well," she began haltingly, "the word is th – that there was an insurrectionist attack amongst the Saiyans... r – right on their home turf..."

I supposed that this was referring to our clash with Broly, and while it was actually an act of revenge from he and his father, I knew full well that the truth of events could get twisted from word of mouth or otherwise.

"D – during the battle, the royal family managed to t – take the enemy down with them," the captain went on, "b – but the king's only son was said to have d – died in the pro – process... So did the queen... The king himself survived, but... when the dust settled and he realized what happened, he went m – mad with grief...! And then he... he declared war on Lord Frieza!"

"He... What?" I breathed out.

"That's what I know, I swear! The S – Saiyan race is in chaos! They're rebelling, killing PTO soldiers, even killing each other! The Organization's a mess too because of it! Everyone's panicking, even Lord Frieza's seer has gone missing! B – but I don't know who destroyed your planet, I don't! I – it was probably Lord Frieza! W – we were just told to deal with any Saiyan stragglers who came this way! But th – that's not my fault, it's just orders! A – anyone found to be harbouring Saiyans will be killed alongside them anyway!"

I could only stare at her numbly. The weight of her words settled into my mind, growing heavier with each second that I absorbed their meaning. My metaphorical cognitive gears felt locked into place.

"If I thought things had gone to total shit before..." I heard Goten mutter over the captain's repeated begging for her life to be spared.

I stepped away from the cowering bird creature, feeling lightheaded.

For all anyone knew, Broly had crushed us into a bloody powder. They could also have thought that Vegeta, presumably resurfacing and being the only one of us to do so, was the one who defeated the Legendary Super Saiyan.

All I'd left behind was a broken hilt and blood in the sand.

But if all this happened while I was just training on Earth, with hardly a care, where was Father now? Had Frieza destroyed the planet with my father on it, or was he elsewhere gathering war forces?

"Do you know where King Vegeta is now?" Goku asked the captain in my gap of silence.

"N – no! Please believe me! But i – if he's the one who started all this, I doubt Lord Frieza has allowed him to live!" she squeaked back. "Not to mention Vegeta's reputation before... if that Saiyan really is his son, he's a deadman walking too!"

Vegeta. What have you done?

My father – I didn't know what to call him anymore. The last time I'd seen him, I'd allowed my vulnerability to show through, wanting to try and repair the distance between us. But then he'd gone and left without me. There hadn't even been an explanation for it.

And now, likely thousands of Saiyans were dead. How had it come to this?

'It is time to make things right. Until I do that, Trunks... forgive me.'

It had been a day or two since we'd apprehended the enemy craft and overwhelmed it, learning what information we could from the soldiers. Soldiers that had been stationed there to kill Saiyans nonetheless, but the Sons and I were far more merciful. Before we'd rounded them up and destroyed their artillery and navigation systems, we'd also learned that the PTO had developed technology that blocked ki energy with a barrier – the reason we hadn't sensed their approach, and (as Gohan theorized) the same type of technology Paragus had used to hide his base of operations. Neither scouters nor sensors could penetrate this barrier.

We had also pilfered data from the enemy ship, to make our own navigation around the cosmos easier. That being said, we had no idea where to go. We didn't even have a fucking clue where to start looking, aside from a few PTO stations that would warrant the same treatment as the last ship (that was if they even had any more useful information for us, lest we waste our time).

Aside from a select few individuals who may have disagreed in private, the only other opponents to Frieza were – or had once been – the Galactic Patrol. But they'd become something of history's joke after the tyrant's armada bowled them over a long time ago. However, it wasn't just Frieza himself that presented a problem, it was the size of network he commanded. If anyone else was plotting back against him, they kept themselves low-key.

That meant if the Saiyans were at war, both the PTO and everyone afraid of it would be against us. Though my family and the Sons were strong enough, in simple terms... everything was fucked.

We assumed if we found my father, we'd find Saiyan survivors. It was the only goal we'd agreed on within the last day and a half of discussing our options. I had less enthusiasm than a gods-damned crust of stale bread at the moment, and a default broody scowl had worked its way onto my face even when Goten had been trying his best to cheer me up.

Right now, though, I was alone. The others had all begun getting settled for bed, and despite our resting schedules naturally changing from what they'd been on Earth, we'd managed to keep our sleeping and rising times within an hour or two of each other. The calmly pulsing auras of my companions revealed that Gohan was the only other person still awake.

Standing up, I rolled my shoulders to stretch when an unobtrusive, but insistent beeping reached my ears.

I paused, trying to locate its source. The sound continued.

As I walked towards the control room where it seemed to be coming from, I realized it was the communicator that Mom had given us. I quickened my pace a little to reach it before whoever was calling was kept waiting.

Upon entering the room, I spotted the drawer where we had it stored, pulling open the compartment to retrieve the device. It was smaller than a scouter, though it could fit over one's ear for a private conversation or could be held in the hand like a speaker. Not wishing to make too much noise, I chose the former option as I fitted it on and clicked the necessary button.

"Hello?" I asked gingerly.

"Trunks! Is that you?" Mom's voice came through. In the background, I could hear other distant noise. It was probably daytime at Capsule Corp, or wherever else nearby she was.

"Yeah, it's me."

"How are you? Is everything alright? I figured you'd be on Planet Vegeta by now, but you haven't called me."

My throat felt dry.

"Hello?" she said again. "Are you still there? I know I built these to work over ridiculous distances..."

"I'm still here," I answered. "I... didn't call you because... we haven't found Father here. I'm sorry."

"Oh... Well, I can't say I expected him to be there, or you guys would've known with your energy sensing thing. But either way, you must be glad to be home! It's pretty sunny out here right now – I mean, I can actually tan safely under Earth's sun – but I know you missed all that hot weather from home. You definitely lost some of your colour over the winter here, but I know you'll be good as new in a week," she joked.

She sounded so happy.

"Yeah," I replied simply.

She paused, letting the silence go on for a few long moments.

"Honey, are you okay? Did something happen? You don't sound like yourself," she said finally.

"I'm fine. You – you just caught me when I was sleeping, that's all. I'm just a little out of it still. It's weird being back on Planet Vegeta," I said, forcing a smile into my voice.

"Did I wake you up? Sorry Trunks, I must've miscalculated the time difference a little. Where are you guys now? I guess you're at the palace. Is it repaired? How are the Saiyans functioning?"

"Um... a lot of them aren't here anymore. I guess it's because of the confusion of Father's absence, but we're figuring it out. And yeah, we're in the palace and most of it's fixed. I'm actually in my room right now. It somehow didn't get destroyed – it looks just how I left it, although the door is still broken." I let out a faint laugh at the end.

"Really? That's great. Tomorrow you should take a look and see if my room's still intact. A lot of unfinished work is still in there, though I doubt the average Saiyan would even know what they were looking at. I also kept a lot of our old photos in there. I know I have some pictures of you as a newborn here, but it would be a shame if the rest of your childhood ones got destroyed."

"Oh..." I rested my face in my palm, concentrating on keeping my voice level. "Well, I'll make a point of checking for that stuff tomorrow."

"Thanks, I'd appreciate it. I guess I should probably let you get back to sleep now. Call me back tomorrow or something though, okay? I want to talk to Son and his boys and so does Chi-Chi."

"Alright. I'll call you back soon. Goodnight Mom."

"Goodnight, son. I love you and sleep well."

"I love you too. Goodnight."

I hit another button and the line disconnected.

Pulling the device away from my ear, I let it rest gently in my palm at waist level. I briefly contemplated crushing it, but doing so – if Mom tried to call and we never answered – it would only worry her, the very thing I'd lied to avoid.

At some point, I was going to tell her. I didn't know how long the lie could be kept up anyway, but until I knew for sure whether Vegeta was alive or otherwise, Mom didn't deserve grief.

An abrupt sensation of another's ki in the room made me whirl my head around, locking my gaze on the figure standing in the doorway.

Gohan.

He stood there silently, fixing me with a flat, unreadable look. It was one so alien to him that I felt my gut twist. I didn't know how long he'd been listening, but it didn't matter. It'd been long enough. He heard me lie to Mom.

He didn't appear blatantly angry – Gohan angry was both obvious and formidable to witness. But he clearly wasn't happy. My father's default emotion was anger, so despite that he could use it to terrify people, at least he was predictable in his rage. The Sons, on the other hand, were mostly peaceful creatures and difficult to perturb. But it was very clear when someone trespassed over their moral grounds.

Like right now.

"Trunks," he said softly, breaking the dead quiet despite that he was almost whispering. His eyes softened a little. "I'm not your father and you're not a child, so I'm not going to tell you to call her back and explain the truth. But I want to know... why?"

I don't want her to worry or feel grief. I will tell her, when I find out if my father's still alive, I replied telepathically.

Oh, Trunks... Eventually, she's going to find out what happened and suffer that grief anyway. But on top of that, she's also going to realize that you lied to her. The fact that she'll forgive you isn't the point, he said.

I know you care more about Mom than you ever did about Planet Vegeta or the Saiyans. In this way I can understand why you disagree with me. But I don't think you can tell me you've never lied to spare your loved ones.

His expression went harder again. That's cruel of you to say. I do care about our people. But I had to protect your mother from them before you were even born. Perhaps I seem disillusioned from that part of my heritage for a reason, but that doesn't mean I won't be helping you every step of the way. But if you recall, a certain man lied to you for many years because he thought that was best for you and Bulma.

You knew about that lie too, and you never told me.

He sighed. "Alright, Trunks. Look... I understand things are tough right now. I think you're the one who's worrying the most out of all of us, and you have every right to be concerned. I'm not trying to demean you when I say this, but you're still so young – and a half-blood like me. Like Goten. Please remember that you have other people to lean on if you need."

I didn't reply, gazing idly at some spot on the floor.

"We promised to help you find Vegeta, so that's what we're going to do," he continued. "And we're going to get to the bottom of this big mess that sprung up while we were away. But for now, you should probably get some sleep, don't you think?"

"I guess," I said. I felt more emotionally tired than physically, but perhaps he was right about letting my mind rest so that I could consider the situation clearly. I hadn't slept well last night – I doubted any of us had – but we definitely wouldn't be getting anywhere without thinking rationally.

"I'm sorry, Gohan. I guess I'm just starting to get strung out. You're right, I should get some sleep. I didn't mean to bother you from yours, either," I acknowledged.

"Like I said, it's alright. Now come on," he gestured, "if we accidentally wake up Goten I'll never hear the end of it."

I trailed after the older half-blood as he left the room, slipping the communicator into my pocket.