The drive to Capsule Corp was a little awkward for Pan, the boys chatted in the back seat and Pan struggled with what to talk about with the young woman who was old enough to be her daughter.
"So, Ms. Pan what have you been up to in your time? Since it's been so long since the families gotten together I feel like I barely know you." Sarong said with a gentle smile her eyes narrowing into happy slants.
Pan looked down quietly, not really sure of what to tell her. The girl seemed so happy she didn't want to bring things down with her old ancient mistakes.
"Well.., as of late I've been retired, but for years I ran my grandpa Hercule's dojo." Pan looked up again and gave the girl a half hearted smile.
Pan started to wring the bottom of her shirt as the Sarong drove along on her way to Capsule Corp. Finally getting up the courage again, Pan cleared her throat.
"I don't mean to sound nosey or anything, but did your uncle ever marry?" asked Pan. Sarong shook her head sadly.
"No my mother said that he was in love with someone that he couldn't have. And that he decided a long time ago that if he couldn't be with her, he wouldn't be with anyone else. It sounds awfully romantic to me, but I guess he is the eternal bachelor; believe me there's still women out there who would die to be with him. He's gone out on some dates but, I guess he just loves who ever she was too much. Well here we are."
Pan looked at Capsule Corp as they pulled in, it was allot bigger but it still looked like had so many years go when Pan used to come there all the time. She had so many happy times, training with Trunks, her uncle Goten and Vegeta, sleepovers with Bra and Marron. She looked back at Goku and Vegeta happily chatting in the back seat. These where things that he daughter, and Goku JR. had missed out on. This made Pan feel guilty for her selfishness, she had so many good times, and because of her on stubbornness she had prevented Goku JR from having a friend that was similar to himself. She could tell that the two boys where going to get along well, and as they stepped out of the car her anxiety about the whole situation started to get to her.
Goku looked up at the building it was one of the most amazing things he'd ever seen. He had heard of Capsule Corp before. They made all the best stuff in his opinion, as he followed behind his grandmother as Vegeta and his mother led the way. Looking up at his grandmother he could tell she was uneasy about something but he wasn't sure quite what it was. It seemed like it was something that was a problem between grown ups, and he had never been the type to try to worry about grown up matters, because he could never really understand them.
He tugged on Pan's shirt tail " Uhh Grandma?'' he turned away feeling a little embarrassed about what he was going to ask and he began to twiddle his thumbs. "Umm if you know Vegeta's uncle Trunks so well. Why don't you talk to him more often and how come I didn't know Vegeta until now?''
Pan swallowed hard this was something she was dreading having to answer, the boys were both so young and it would be hard for them to understand when it comes to matters of the heart.
"Well there was an argument between the families and well we all just stopped talking to each other" it was all she could really say without making herself look horrible. It was just a long convoluted story she knew the boys wouldn't have the understanding or the patience to sit down and hear.
Vegeta JR. cocked an eyebrow at the old woman, "That seems like a stupid reason to not talk to someone".
Pan nodded in agreement "Your right honey but it's all in the past now and we can't do much about something that happened a long time ago. Vegeta why don't you show Goku the gravity room if it's still around" said Pan.
Vegeta could tell the old woman was just trying to blow them off but fight or not he would get to the bottom of it eventually. If there was one thing he hated was grownups keeping him out of the loop on things. Just because they thought he was too young to understand. "Humph come on Goku you like the gravity chamber".
In a lab within Capsule Corp and older man sat in front of a computer screen his fingers flying over the buttons on the keyboard. He stopped for moment sighing a bit pushing up the dark framed glasses on his nose. Trunks Briefs the former CEO of Capsule Corp was busy with a new experiment. Something he had been working on for a long time, being half saiyan the years had been good to him, and no one would have guessed that he was as old as he was. One hundred and twenty eight was nothing to sneeze at, but Trunks had never been the type to slack off... atleast in his adult years. A screen popped up in front of the work he was doing.
"Huh... well their home already." Trunks gave a sideways grin. "Vegeta must have done well at the tournament. The older that kid, gets more and more like his great grandpa all the time." He looked again, "Whats this?... there's some other people with them."
Sarong walked into the kitchen setting her purse on the kitchen counter, Pan sheepishly followed.
"Wow... this place hasn't changed too much.", Pan looked around so many happy memories, ran through her head. She smiled as her anxiety levels began to drop.
Sarong smiled at the older woman seemed to be caught up in memories. "Yes, my mother did her best not to change things too much. Ms. Pan excuse me a minute, I need to go check on something and I'll be right back, make yourself at home okay?", the clack of Sarong's heals echoed through the halls of the home as Pan looked around.
The boy's entered the gravity chamber, young Goku's eye's widened as he tightened his red bandanna on his head.
"Wow, this place is awesome Vegeta it reminds me of something in a video game." He was so in awe of all the things that Vegeta had.
Granted he and his grandma didn't live poorly but they never had anything like this. But even with all the new things, Goku couldn't help but think back to how his grandma seemed sad about something.
"Vegeta, this stuffs all great but maybe I should be more worried about my grandma, she seems sad about something?", he turned as Vegeta closed the door to the chamber behind them.
Vegeta shrugged his shoulders, "Don't worry so much about adult stuff, It's time for us to have a little sparring session... without any stupid DQ's." He walked over to the control panel and set the gravity in the chamber, already feeling the weight on his body bringing him down.
He didn't want to set it too high, his uncle Trunks always used settings that were always way too high for him to handle unless he was in super saiyan. He however strove to get to the highest settings that his uncle used.
"Now this is going to be fun, I've never been able to spar with someone my age" the young saiyan popped his gloved knuckles and got into a fighting stance.
Sarong headed to a door that was locked with a card key, she pulled the card out of her pocket and swiped through the slot. Turning the knob she opened the door to the lab, grabbing a chair the sound of it dragging across the floor echoed through the room.
"You need to let some fresh air in here every once in a while uncle Trunks, not like you have to worry about anyone stealing anything out of here at home. And it's not healthy for you to stay kooked up in here for day on end." She shook her head as she walked up behind Trunks who was still sitting at the computer.
Trunks stretched and and spun the chair her was in around, running a hand through his pale almost white lavender hair.
"Hey, I'm not some hermit I do come out... I've just been really busy lately is all." It was then that a small black kitten hopped up on his shoulder and gave a small mew at Sarong.
"So whats keeping you so busy Uncle?" she pulled up another chair and sat next to him at the computer.
He pointed over to a large object in the room it was covered partially by a cloth, but from what Sarong could see it looked like a large type of space ship. It was hooked up to many cables and wires all hooked up to the computer that he was working on.
Trunks gave a proud smile, "Now nothing is certain yet and I have yet to run any tests, and modification's have been made. I believe I have calculated a stable formula. For an object of this mass and size to carry at most three people through the fabric of space and time."
Sarong was amazed her uncle's intellect was vast and typically if he said something would do it, it would so she had no doubt in her mind that this ship would travel through time. "It's amazing uncle Trunks, isn't this that ship that grandma made for you and the others to travel through space. Way to recycle. I can't wait to here when you start the testing on it let me know and I'll get the ball rolling on trying to find someone to try it out with you. Maybe even Ms Pan might consider it considering she tagged along when this old ship was planet hopping huh" she said with a chuckle.
Trunks' eyes went wide and a slight tinge of pink crossed his cheeks, "Ms. Pan... what do you mean by that?", he asked with genuine curiosity.
Sarong had never been told the true reason the families split up and frankly she didn't want to know. But after seeing the two older peoples reaction to each other she assumed it had something to do with her uncle and Ms Son. "Keep me posted uncle Trunks" she said with a smile.
Trunks tried to shake off the shock of his niece mentioning Pan, how did she even know the Briefs and the Son's hadn't spoken to each other for years. Memories of what happened began to cross his mind, and a flash of concern and regret crossed his face. But it was all in the past no need to worry about it now he thought to himself.
''Thats the problem Sarong, there are too many risks in order to even test. I mean what if it works and we send someone into time, but we where unable to retrieve them. I don't think any one would want to take that chance, and... Pan is last person I would want to test it on.'' Trunks sighed and slumped back in his seats, reaching over with a few strokes on the keyboard he brought up schematics for the ship. '' You see the numbers work well in my head. Almost as if I've done this before, but when I think of what could happen, It all just seems to risky.''
Pan had spent the past twenty minutes looking at family pictures in the living room, until she finally decided that it was best that she and Goku JR started thinking about heading home. And knowing her grandson like she did, after the tournament, and the sparing session he was having with Vegeta JR right now, he was going to be hungry soon.
After fighting with herself about wandering around too much in the house she decided to head in the direction that Sarong had gone before. Going down the hallway it began to seem familiar to her she realized that it was the way to Bulma's laboratory. When she made it to the door she found it propped open by a chair she stood there for a moment listening to the voices in the room, one was obviously Sarong... the other was very familiar and it made Pan's heart feel like it was about to beat out of her chest out of nervousness.
"Aw come on uncle Trunks what happened to your sense of adventure" Sarong said as she looked over his shoulder at the screen, "Just keep it up I'm sure you'll come up with something, you always do... oh Ms Son". Sarong had glanced over at the doorway and smiled when she saw the older woman.
Pan stood in the doorway, and swallowed nervously as Trunks turned and looked at her standing there as well. She couldn't read what his facial expression said, but it didn't look good at all.
"I was just going to let you know I should probably be getting Goku home soon. I know my grandson and he'll be hungry soon." She tried not to sound like she was nervous.
"Oh Ms. Pan why don't you and Goku stay for dinner tonight my mother and her husband should be coming and we'd love to have you" said Sarong with a big smile and a wink at her uncle.
Pan swallowed she was already uneasy she was sure Trunks was feeling the same way, but the thought of seeing her friend Bra after so long was hard for her to pass up.
"Oh I don't want to impose any lounger and Goku has terrible table manners I can't take him anywhere" she tried making up another excuse.
"Don't you worry my sons manners can't be any worse then Goku's. Please I insist I promise I'm a better cook than my mother or grandmother ever thought about being", she laughed.
Pan looked at the young woman with such a sweet smile, all she was doing was being nice and Pan didn't want to make her feel bad "Uh... well I guess if you put it that way... we can stay for dinner... I suppose... are you sure it's not going to be too much of a problem"
Sarong shook her head "Of course not, we'd love to have you both.", she got up put her arm around Pan's shoulder with a sweet smile turning to look at her uncle. Pan stood next to her looking slightly embarrassed this girl was definitely like her grandmother.
Trunks listened to Sarong go back and forth with Pan who was obviously trying to get out of staying. So this was why his niece had mentioned someone she had never met in her life. He also concluded that Vegeta JR had gone up against Pan's grandson in the tournament that afternoon.
He gave a frustrated sigh and turned back to the computer, he didn't have time for sentiments he had to some how make this whole time travel thing make sense. '' I'll be taking dinner in the lab tonight Sarong.'' he commented as he typed.
Sarong shook her head and admitted defeat, she went past Pan and headed out the door of the lab. Pan stood their for a moment looking at the back of Trunks' head, wanting to say something, but not really knowing what to say. Eventually she gave up as well and decided it would be a better idea if she went and helped Sarong cook dinner for the group of hungry saiyan decedents.