Disclaimer: All DBZ content is owned by Akira Toriyama, Funimation, and Toei Animation.
Epilogue: Requiem
Requiem aeternam dona eis. Et lux perpetua luceat eis. "Grant them eternal rest. And let light perpetual shine upon them."
Three years had passed since that fateful day. Siyaka stood next to a large Capsule Corp spaceship, a three-year old Bracken balancing on her hip, sucking his thumb, a habit she was trying to break. Bracken, like the rest of his Saiyan family, still had the same hair he was born with. He hadn't gained control of his tail yet, but where they were going, it wouldn't matter. As he'd grown, ChiChi often remarked how much he looked like his grandfathers. Siyaka could see it. She'd only seen Goku as a toddler around the same age and could see a lot of similarities, but there were some expressions he had she knew came directly from Vegeta.
Siyaka and ChiChi had been taking turns taking care of the boy. Neither grandmother could part with him long. For Siyaka, Bracken had started to fill the void in her heart that Mia had left, and she felt it was the same for ChiChi. While they didn't agree completely on how to raise him, they agreed he should be well educated as well as well trained.
What made things difficult recently was when Siyaka had taken Kakarot's old files to ChiChi, just to tell her a little bit about her husband's family, she found Raditz had left a note giving the exact coordinates for New Vegeta. When Siyaka told her they should go, as Bracken was the heir apparent, ChiChi had originally refused. But after talking it over, ChiChi eventually agreed, as long as she came with to make sure he was still being educated as planned.
Now ChiChi stood next to her, with bags loaded with books and clothes to last a lifetime. She sold her house, citing too many painful memories and was ready to board the spaceship bound for New Vegeta to live among the Saiyans.
Trunks and Bulma stood opposite them. Trunks wore his new leather jacket, black tank top, and black cargo pants. He was sixteen, almost seventeen now. He wore his teen angst like a badge on his sleeve, like most kids his age. He'd be leaving later today too, his own mission to attend to.
"I can't believe this is goodbye," Bulma sniffled. Over the years, she and Siyaka had gotten close, just as Siyaka and ChiChi had.
Siyaka smiled. "I don't think it is. Not truly."
Trunks eyed her carefully. In Gohan's stead, Siyaka had taken the role of his mentor. "You mean that?" he asked.
Her smile widened. "I have to bring more Saiyans back to avenge Mia. Of course it's not goodbye." Siyaka passed Bracken over to ChiChi so she could pull Trunks into a tight embrace. "Remember," she whispered in his ear, "Don't let slip about Mia and I to anyone. In whatever timeline you go to, you still need to happen." Trunks blushed at the implication. Siyaka pulled away, giving Trunks a punch to his shoulder.
"Wait for us!"
Siyaka turned, seeing Libby running up the side of the building as fast as she could, Rulla in tow. Rulla and Bracken were best friends now. Libby brought her over frequently for play dates to make sure both kids were socialized. It took Rulla some time to learn that pulling Bracken's tail wasn't good playing though.
ChiChi set Bracken down as he wiggled out of her arms, and he ran up to Rulla who had also been set down. Rulla was a lot like her mother. Long blonde hair, brown eyes with a round face and cute button nose. Her golden tresses were pinned on one side, and she wore a cute lavender dress. She held her hands behind her back as her shoulders moved back in forth as she said, "Momma said we have to say goodbye. That you're going away."
Bracken nodded. He was a quiet kid.
"Do you know when you'll be back?" she asked, looking a little sad.
Bracken shook his head.
Rulla looked to the ground gloomily before reaching around him, pulling him into a hug. He hugged her back, a little unsure. "Just remember, I'll be thinking of you," she told him, hugging him tighter. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Ugh! Rulla!" he groused, wiping his cheek as they let go of each other. Siyaka and ChiChi tried to suppress a smile. They were in the "cootie" phase. Rulla pouted a little, but didn't cry. Libby had told Siyaka about Rulla's crush after Rulla told her preschool teacher she was going to marry Bracken one day. Siyaka didn't mention it to ChiChi. She might blow it out of proportion. But for now it was cute.
As Siyaka turned to load up into the ship. She turned to Bulma, asking, "You made sure the communications are on this thing, right?"
Bulma nodded. "Completely up to date and running."
"Good," Siyaka sighed. "I'll be calling with updates. And I expect to hear if Trunks' experiment pays off before ours."
"Of course," Bulma replied. The blunette pulled Siyaka into a tight hug, adding, "You take care out there." Siyaka responded in kind, before walking into the ship, ChiChi walking behind her telling Bracken to wave at everyone.
"Bye Bracken!" Trunks called tearfully.
"Bye Bye Uncle Trunks!" Bracken called back with a wave.
Trunks eyes went wide. That was the first time Bracken had called him uncle. He saw Siyaka smiling and knew she'd been working with him on that. He blinked away his tears, trying his best to look tough. But his mother caught him and smiled bittersweetly. They waved at the ship as it shot off into the stratosphere and out into space. Trunks stood there, watching the ship become nothing but a dot. Rulla sniffled next to them, and Libby picked her up, whispering something to her. She looked to Bulma and Trunks, saying a small, "Thanks," before leaving with her young daughter.
Bulma nudged her shoulder against Trunks, pulling him from his stupor. "Come on," she sighed. "We gotta' get you out of here too."
Goku balked. "You're kidding, right?!" Trunks remained stoic as Goku continued, "You're positive Vegeta's your father!?"
The purple-haired hybrid scowled. There were more important things. "Yes."
Goku blinked at him, as if trying to assess his mental state as he did before with their little spar. "You're serious." He turned back to Vegeta, taking in the prince's general discontented demeanor. "Yes, I can kind of see a resemblance."
"I will be born two years from now," Trunks huffed, putting his hands in his pockets.
"My gosh," Goku gasped. "Vegeta's going to be a daddy!"
Trunks grimaced, muttering to himself, "He's already one," thinking of his half-sister Mia. He froze, eyes wide as he realized he let slip the one thing he really wasn't supposed to.
Goku's gaze snapped back to Trunks quickly. "What do you mean he's already one?"
"Nothing," Trunks stumbled, trying to move onto his bigger news.
"No," Goku stated, clearly not buying it. "Who else is there? What's going on?"
Trunks set his jaw before answering, "In my timeline, I had a half-sister named Mia, born and raised here on earth. She is Vegeta's daughter, conceived while under Frieza's command. She and her mother reside here on earth, but if Vegeta finds out, I won't be born. So, this has to stay strictly between us."
"Of course," Goku replied, nodding his understanding. "So, what happened to her?" He'd caught Trunks' use of past tense.
Trunks pursed his lips before answering, "What I came here to warn you about." Goku frowned seriously. "In three years on May 12th, on an island nine miles southwest of South City, two androids will appear, created by the now debunked Red Ribbon Army. They have dreadful power, even by our standards. They're monsters, Goku. That's the best way I can describe them. Monsters. Once they surface, the world you've protected for so many years will be gone for good."
Goku frowned, at Trunks, crossing his arms over his Yardratian garb. "Androids?" he asked.
Trunks nodded. "In three years."
"From the Red Ribbon Army?" Goku added, still confused. "I wiped them out years ago."
Trunks shrugged, "You left Dr. Gero alive. He's their creator."
Goku scowled. "So what's he after? The same 'I'm gonna take over the world,' plan?"
"Probably," Trunks answered, "But the androids killed him first, so we don't really know." Goku made a small disapproving grunt, pursing his lips. "What we do know is that they delight in pain and chaos. Hunting me down is their current hobby, because they've killed everybody else already! Piccolo, Krillin, Vegeta, Yamucha, Tien, Chaotzu. Gohan escaped the first round, but they eventually got him too, and Mia, fourteen years later." He clenched his fists, doing his best to push down the painful memory. "I'm not strong enough on my own, and Siyaka..." He paused, wondering if he should continue, but he'd already spilled about Mia. "Siyaka won't risk herself with Bracken …"
Goku looked at the Saiyan teen bleakly. "I don't know who..."
Trunks stepped closer, a hand out as he said, "It might be easier if I just show you." Goku frowned as Trunks placed his and on Goku's temple before flooding him with images, thoughts, and how events unfolded in his timeline.
Trunks stepped back once he'd finished relaying the information, leaving Goku looking dazed, wide-eyed, and tearful. He blinked a few times, trying to put his thoughts together. "Gohan and Mia were …"
"Married," Trunks answered. "Only a couple months before the androids killed them."
"And Bracken is …"
"Their son. Yours and Vegeta's grandson."
Goku nodded blankly. "And I died of …"
"The Heart Virus. It's a pretty radical disease. You'll start hearing about it soon," Trunks commented. "Not even a Super Saiyan can beat it."
Goku continued to nod blankly. It was one thing to die in battle at his age, but a virus? He was only twenty-six, and would be dead before thirty. He swallowed his mild existential crisis before smirking, muttering a small, "Well damn. That's a bummer. I really want to kick their ass."
Trunks balked at the older Saiyan. "You're not afraid of them?"
"No, more disappointed," Goku answered, crossing his arms and glaring at the ground. "They sound really challenging, I'm going to miss out." He always hated missing on a challenge like that.
"Wow. Mom was right about you." Goku frowned as Trunks reached into his pocket, pulling out what looked like a pill bottle. "My mom developed medicine years back, and now the virus is pretty much gone. She told me if you got this, you'd be able to make a difference." Goku started smiling sheepishly, starting to wonder who Trunks' mom actually was. "She also asked me to ask you to pass this note to her current self. I don't know what it is though." He handed both the pills and the letter to Goku who looked at the objects as if they were pieces to a puzzle.
He held them carefully before looking at Trunks, warily asking, "So, do I know your mom?"
Trunks pointed blankly across the crater, stating, "She's standing right there."
Goku fell comedically, shrieking with laughter, "Bulma and Vegeta!?" Trunks blushed as Goku recovered, giggling hard, "I know you've had some pretty big news, but that one takes the cake. Bulma and Vegeta …"
"They'll find their way together soon, but if they get wind of it, I might not be born. Especially if you tell Vegeta about Siyaka and Mia. Promise you won't tell!" Trunks pleaded.
"I promise," Goku replied.
"Good," Trunks sighed. He looked off to the group, adding, "It was interesting to meet my Dad. I could see where Mia got her abrasiveness from."
"Are they a lot alike?" Goku asked, looking at his son now.
"Oddly, yeah." Trunks gave a relaxed smile before adding, "Hopefully with you in the game this time, things will turn out much better."
Goku smiled back. "Yeah."
Bulma sat at her desk later that evening, frowning at the letter the mystery kid handed to Goku to give to her. Contemplating what was inside. Was it specs to the time machine if they failed? The antidote recipe? The front read, "To myself." So at least she knew she was alive and well twenty years from now.
Bulma huffed, snatching the letter up, and ripping the envelop open. There was no use pondering its contents. She was supposed to read it anyway.
She held the note up to the light, seeing her own scratchy handwriting. Somethings wouldn't change.
"Bulma,
It's me, your future self. I can't explain much, but enclosed are instructions to creating two serums you must put on the market as soon as possible. One is for the heart virus Goku will contract. The other is for some people you haven't met yet, but when you do, they will become very important to you. They need that serum before you meet them, again for reasons I can't say. When you meet them, you will understand.
Sincerely,
Bulma."
Bulma frowned, looking at the other two pages, each with chemical structures drawn on them. She walked them over to her computer, putting each page under a scanner for the computer to identify the structures drawn. The first one popped up as, "Unidentified Antidote." The other read, "Unidentified Hormone Regulator." Bulma scowled at the last one, puzzled about who would need a hormone regulator and why.
Her lab buzzed open, and her father walked in. "Just checking in, honey," her father called, his hands in his lab coat's pockets. He frowned at the screen, seeing the new chemical structures. "What are you working on?"
Bulma frowned. "Something I told myself to put on the market."
Mr. Briefs gave her a strange look, and she waved him off. She looked at each of the structures, her hand on her chin as she contemplated each structure. They were both simple. All the ingredients looked to be readily available. A part of her wondered if she really needed to spend her time working on that kind of stuff, before she mentally reprimanded herself. If her future self said it was important, then it was.
Goku followed his wife and son into Orange Star Mall. ChiChi had forced them to take a day off from training to go clothes shopping. As much as he protested, reminding his wife of the androids coming to take over in a year and a half, but she wasn't having it, and in the end she won. While ChiChi looked at clothes for herself, Gohan had dragged him to one of the bookstores left in the mall a couple stores down. Goku wasn't a fan of this type of shopping either, but Gohan was adamant that he was going to get this book by a scientist with radical concepts on theoretical physics as well as a book on advanced martial arts.
As Gohan perused for his book, Goku's attention was drawn to a corner of the store where a sitting area was as a security guard walked up to a girl sitting in one of the red chairs. Goku's eyes went wide as he recognized her immediately.
"Ma'am, you've been sitting here for two hours reading," the guard commented. "This isn't a library. Either you buy the book or you leave."
The girl's cutting glance to the guard was a dead ringer for Vegeta if Goku ever saw one. She was the same age as Gohan, around nine, but it was clear she was already starting to mature physically. She snapped the book close and moved to get up.
"It's ok, sir," Goku said, stepping in. "We're about to check out."
Both the guard and girl frowned at him. The girl looked like she recognized him a little, but couldn't place where. "Is she with you?"
Goku nodded.
The guard shrugged, turning to leave the girl alone. The girl stood, frowning sheepishly as she said, "You didn't have to do that."
Goku smiled his trademark Son Family grin. "Don't worry about it." Gohan walked up to his dad, his arms loaded with books. Goku looked at his son weirdly before asking, "You get everything?"
Gohan nodded emphatically before seeing the girl and awkwardly squeaking out a small, "Hi."
"Hey."
There was a long silence between them. Goku wasn't really sure what he was hoping for. His son finally met his future wife, and all he could do was squeak out was a small "hi." Maybe he'd been hoping for a little more, like some recognition or some banter or common ground, but they didn't know each other … yet. "Ok," Goku sighed awkwardly, realizing he couldn't very well say, "Hey, remember purple-haired guy? He says you two get married in fifteen years." It was the same issue with Bulma and Vegeta. They would never talk to each other after that. Instead, he offered, "I'll get your book if you want to ring up with us."
The girl muttered a small, "Thanks," tucking her book under her arm. She walked towards the front, and both Gohan and Mia placed their books on the counter, Mia refusing to look at Gohan.
"Whatcha' reading?" Gohan asked as the man behind the counter began ringing them up.
"Harry Potter," she muttered, "the third one."
"Oh," Gohan uttered, "I've never read that."
She frowned, shifting a glance at Goku curiously before stating, "It's good. Wizards, magic, good versus evil."
Gohan pursed his lips, muttering, "I mostly read nonfiction."
"Oh," she breathed, pursing her lips looking outside the window awkwardly. The cashier gave Goku a total, and he reached in his pockets, pulling out a crisp $5,000 zeni bill ChiChi had given him. Gohan noticed, and shot his father a weird look. Goku handed Mia her book. "Thanks Mr …"
"I'm Goku. And this is my son, Gohan," he offered.
She gave a small nod and bow. "Thanks." Quickly, she turned to leave, opening her book to where she had been before the guard interrupted her, reading as she walked.
"Dad, you spent your allowance," Gohan stated as the left, his and his father's gaze following the curious girl, but heading the opposite direction back to ChiChi, his books in tow.
"Uh-huh," Goku sighed blankly.
"Why?"
Goku smiled. "You should do nice things for people you don't know. You never know who could be important." Gohan frowned at his father's advice, turning to look at the girl again, engrossed in her book. He turned back to follow his father into the store they had left ChiChi in, missing Mia turning to look back at him curiously.
The End
AN: I have had a blast writing this. Thank you so much for reading this! As always, favorite, follow, remember to leave a review!
