Chapter 2

Trunks really wasn't a morning person, but the huge breakfast he'd just enjoyed did make him wonder whether maybe the whole idea of early birds that caught worms may have something to it after all. He sometimes didn't quite know what to think of Goten's mother, but one thing was for sure: She could cook.

„Mom, I wanna fly on my own", Goten said. They two of them were sitting in the kitchen, while Chi-chi was washing the dishes. Goten had actually volunteered they help, but his mother had said she didn't need them to. Which Trunks was very happy about, since one thing that came with being the richest kid on earth was the fact that he had never washed dishes by hand before, and he knew it would be embarrassing if he broke something.

„You always fly on your own. I just want you to have someone with you, when you do", Chi-chi explained calmly as she put away another plate.

„But Trunks got to fly alone, too." Whether or not a tiny super saiyan really needed supervision while flying had been a point of argument in their household as well.

„Trunks is a year older than you, sweetie", she said.

Goten looked disappointed for a moment, but then replied: „But I'm nicer!"

Trunks shot him a confused look, while Chi-chi just laughed. „No offense", Goten quickly added. „But I do get into less trouble."

„Well if Trunks' parents think it's the right time for him to start flying on his own, then that's their opinion, and I have mine."

„Did you let Gohan fly on his own, when he was eleven?"

„Well, let isn't quite the word…" Trunks knew he had her there. From what Gohan had told them, when he was their age he'd flown wherever he wanted, mostly because there had been no one in the house who could've stopped him, or flown with him.

„You always say you love both of us the same", Goten said with a pout and crossed his arms.

Chi-chi turned around and crouched to eye level with her son. „Of course I love both of you the same. But that's just why I don't want you making long trips alone, because I worry about you."

„You don't need to worry. I'm a super saiyan."

„I know", she said with a sigh. „But I just can't help worrying, it's what mothers do." She patted his knee. „Tell you what, I'll talk about it again with your father, alright? If he thinks you're ready, I'll allow it."

Goten's face lit up at that statement. „Really? That's so cool."

„Yes, really." Chichi got up and went back to her dishes. „Why don't the two of you go outside? It's a beautiful day."

„Okay", Goten chirped happily and ran out of the kitchen. Trunks followed him.

„You're nicer than me? What kind of argument is that?", Trunks said once they were outside.

„Well…" Goten scratched the back of his. „Sorry. But I do get into a lot less trouble when I'm alone. Mom says you're a bad influence."

Trunks laughed at that. „Yeah, I guess I am. But that's just what you like about me."

„Yeah I guess that's true. Anyway, wanna spar?"

„Sure", Trunks said and jumped into a fighting stance, which Goten matched almost instantly.

Just as they were about to charge at each other, they could hear a crash coming from the kitchen.

„Does your mom usually drop plates?", Trunks asked. As far as he could remember she didn't.

„No…" Goten said, and walked quickly back to the kitchen. „Mom? Is everything okay?"

But she didn't answer him. She was staring transfixedly at the tiny television set in the corner that was currently on a news program. And it was showing what seemed to be a huge explosion.

„Whoa, what happened there?", Trunks asked. An explosion of that size surely would've been accompanied by an increase of ki, which they all would've sensed. Maybe it was archived material?

But then he read the caption underneath and suddenly felt as if he was hot and cold at the same time.

‚Nuclear bomb hits West City'

The news man was droning on something about the city itself. „… Housing several of the worlds largest companies, it's a center of both industrial and political…" Trunks could do nothing but stare at the screen for a moment. There was a map showing exactly where the bomb had been dropped, and it was incredibly close to his home. „… In reaction to the tragedy a statement has been issued…" His mind was struggling to keep up. He didn't know that much about bombs, or really any method of warfare other than ki blasts, but he knew enough to be painfully aware of the fact that this was really bad. „… Declaration of…" Radiation… he slowly remembered that that was one of the things that made nuclear weapons so dangerous. Long term effects and everything. „… Drastic steps may be …"

But there was one thing he knew absolutely nothing about. How dangerous was this to a saiyan? And even if it wasn't, what about his mom? He concentrated his ki sense, looking for his dad's familiar signature, but what he got from the direction of West City was anything but reassuring. The whole area seemed to be awash of ki flickering violently, and he couldn't make out a single life force at all. With a start he realized what he was sensing. People dying.

He barely noticed his hands trembling. He couldn't just stand around and watch the pictures or listen to the things the news man was saying. He turned and started for the door.

„Trunks! What are you doing?", he heard Chi-chi say, and her hand was grabbing his wrist. He could've easily shaken her off, but he was confused enough not to try.

„I gotta…" he said helplessly and looked at her pleadingly. „… Do something…"

„And what exactly are you planning?"

„I need to…" He really wasn't planning anything. His thoughts hadn't quite caught up with his feelings yet. „Go there, and…"

„No you don't!", she said firmly.

„But… I need to do something! Help them!", he yelled.

„There's nothing you can do. I'm sorry, but you won't help anyone if you go there. You'll only be putting yourself in danger."

„But…" he started strengthlessly. He knew she was right, and he really had no idea what he would do if he actually went there, still… how could he sit around? „What about my parents?"

„You won't do them any good if you go there and endanger yourself." She pulled him closer and crouched down to his eye level. „Look, if anyone can get out of there, it's them. And I don't want them showing up here and having to tell them that you left and put yourself in danger, okay?"

„I can't just sit around and wait!", he protested.

„You have to have some faith. Both your parents are really resourceful. I know you want to do something to help them, but right now it's better if you just stay here, okay?"

Trunks sighed, and dropped his arms. She was right, of course. Going to West City wasn't really going to help at all, but to him, inactivity was just one of the worst things. And of course, she was right, if anyone managed to get out of the city in this situation it would be his parents.

If anyone… but what if no one got out?


He'd done some pretty intense things over the course of his young life, like learning how to fuse with someone and battling majin buu, but it turned out that sitting around and waiting was the most taxing activity he had ever attempted.

The fact that the Son family were all acting weird ever since they found out what exactly he was waiting for, didn't help either. Goten hadn't even known what a nuclear bomb was, until his mother had explained it to him, and listening to her vague describtion hadn't made Trunks feel any better at all.

Gohan and Goku had been out sparring, and when they had come back and heard the news they had both tried sensing Vegeta, and the look on their faces had told him that they had picked up the exact same confusion as he had, and both of them had looked like they were just as anxious as him to do something about the sitation, even though they knew they couldn't.

Trunks had just been sitting in the kitchen all day. All of them had tried cheering him up, or at least encouraging him not to loose hope, but the more they said how sure they were that his parents were going to turn up, the more he thought that it was an empty promise.

They knew just as little as he did, and what he knew told him that it was very unlikely he would ever see his parents alive again.

And even if they made itr out… pretty much everyone else he knew from the City hadn't, that much was sure. Including his grandparents, probably and everyone he knew from school. Most of them were probably reduced to mere shadows on the wall by now, and that thought made him feel sick.

He didn't even quite know what he was waiting for. If they hadn't made it out, he would never hear anything. He would just sit around in this kitchen all day long trying desperately to hold onto a futile hope.

Suddenly his head snapped up. Finally he was sensing something other than the general confusion. A familiar ki. Glancing at the clock above the frigde he realized he hadn't even been waiting that long, but it had felt like an eternity.

He got up and ran outside. He got there just in time to see his dad touch down on the ground, gently setting down his mom. „Mom! Dad!", he yelled happily and ran towards them. His mom looked pretty shaken, but none worse for the wear. He ran over to them and hugged her as tightly as he dared.

„I was so worried, but they said I shouldn't go to West City so I've just been sitting in the kitchen going crazy", he said. His mom hugged him back.

„Well it's good you stayed here", she said looking relieved at seeing him. But that didn't steal away from her otherwise distraught features. Apparently she had been crying.

„Are you okay?", Trunks asked worried.

„I'm just shaken. But Vegeta…" She turned to look at her husband.

„It's nothing", he waved off, but when he turned slightly Trunks could see the burns on his back.

Which definitely didn't look like nothing.


„Are you crazy? You're not annexing our island!"

The young soldier held his clipboard a little higher as if in an attempt to hide behind it. „I'm sorry, Ma'm but these are our orders. In a war situation…"

„War situation?" Eighten snapped back. „What the hell are you talking about?"

„Well, you know, with the bomb and everything…" he started. He looked as if he was about to piss his pants at her intimidating presence, and that was just the way Eighteen liked humans to act around her.

„What bomb?", she interrupted. She hadn't payed close attention to the news lately, but it wasn't like her accurate memory would ever let her forget anything she heard. There had definitely been no bomb talk when she had last watched TV.

„You know, the nuke that hit West City. There's been a declaration of war and that's why we're here. Because of the strategic location and stuff." He probably hadn't been working in this job for a very long time.

„There's only ocean for miles. This isn't a strategic location at all." At least that was what she assumed. She wasn't quite sure who was waging war against whom, so it was a little hard to tell if she was right. „And even if it where, I don't care, you're not getting this island." She stomped her foot to emphasize her point which probably would have been more impressive if she hadn't been standing on a sandy beach. It was still enough to make him sink even further behind his clipboard, though.

Krillin came out of the house. „What's going on here?", he asked confusedly.

„That cretin wants to have our island and I'm telling him he can't have it", Eighteen explained.

„Well it's just about the war…", the young officer looked at Krillin in the hopes he'd be a little easier to persuade.

„War?", Krillin stared at him incredulously. So at least she hadn't missed anything if he didn't know about it either. Which was of course a ridiculous notion to begin with. She was physically incapable of missing or forgetting anything anyway. „There's no war", he emphasized.

„Well there wasn't this morning, but there is one, now", the soldier claimed. „And that's why you need to move off this island. I'm sorry, sir, but it's just my orders."

„There's plenty of other islands. You don't need to pick the only one that's inhabited", Eighteen remarked. She had just noticed someone else getting off the huge ship the young soldier had come from.

„But it's in my orders", he said, and waved his clipboard. „Apparently this is the island we need, I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is." The little speedboat neared the beach much more quickly than she had expected.

A man got out of it, who wore a much more elaborate uniform than the soldier in front of them was.

„Well, I believe the orders may have been a tad misleading", he said as he climbed onto the beach. The young soldier immediately stood at attention and even went so far as to salute.

„At ease", the man said. „Of course the reason we're here is not about the island itself, Miss… Eighteen."

She stared at the man for a moment. She was sure that she had never seen him before, and she had no idea where some military guy would've picked up her name.

„Who are you?", she demanded with a threatening undertone.

„Who I am is not nearly as interesing as who you are. Finally I get to see Dr. Gero's master piece." He stepped closer, a little too close for her comfort, but she wasn't going to step back and let him know how much what he was saying actually unsettling her.

„How do you know that name?", she asked with venom in her voice.

„That's of little significance." The man chuckled into his luxurious moustache. „But let me clear up the confusion of my young associate. We're actually not here about the island." He waited an instant.

„We're here about you."

„About me?" She really didn't like the sound of that. Couldn't they have come to take Master Roshi away, instead? At least that would've been beneficial.

„Yes. We want you to come with us, in order to study your… unique physique", he said.

„Yeah well good luck with that. There's no way in hell I'm coming with you, and if you know only half as much about me as you seem to, you should be able to tell that you won't be able to force me to, either."

He just chuckled again, and pulled a device out of his pocket. One that she had never expected to see again in her lifetime. Krillin beside her noticeably blanched. „Where did you get that?", he said.

Of course he knew what it was. One of the starting points of their whole relationship had been him smashing a device just like that. She knew that she couldn't waste any time. She moved to grab the device out of his hand, but she was just a split second too late.

The weird military man pressed the big red button and all of her functions ceased.


Truth to be told, Vegeta felt like shit. But he wasn't about to tell that particular truth.

Kakarot's mate had given him some smelly stuff to put on the burns on his back and offered to help him apply it. He really hadn't been keen on needing help, particularly not hers, but once he had made a rather undignified attempt at doing it himself he had given in.

Which was a good thing, because that way he could zone out and ignore the fact that whatever it was she had given him it burned even worse than his burns did on his own.

Ever since they'd gotten here he'd been getting an ever growing headache, and he felt slightly nauseous. Which was a pity since this way he couldn't even enjoy the fact that unlike his woman, Kakkarot's mate could actually cook.

He was sitting at Gohan's desk while the owner of the room was rummaging through his closet to find something for him to wear. As much as Vegeta liked training in shorts, the fact that this pair of shorts along with his sneakers were now the only items he owned was less than ideal.

„How about this?", Gohan asked, and tossed him a simple dark blue t-shirt. Vegeta pulled it on. It fit a little loosely, which wasn't how he preferred his clothes, but remembering the outfit Bulma had given him the first time he'd had to borrow clothes on this planet, he knew he could do a lot worse.

„It's good", he said noncommittally. Really, he would've prefered to have his saiyan armor right now, or even better, he would've liked to have been wearing that when the bomb had went off. But since that had been in the building that didn't exist anymore, he would just have to make do with what he got.

He leaned back in the chair. „You're more informed about Earth politics, aren't you? Did you know something like this was coming?"

„Not really", Gohan said and sat down on his bed. „We'd been talking about some conflicts about resources and stuff in school, but nothing I heard sounded at all like there was going to be a war. I still can't really believe it. It just seems, so… surreal"

„Oh it's real enough. But the way all of you always go about saving humanity I didn't expect them to turn in on themselves. Guess that was naive." Vegeta looked out the window at the peaceful scenery and couldn't help but wonder whether it would remain like this for long, now that a war had been declared.

„No one could've seen this coming", Gohan said. He didn't seem to like that Vegeta was dismissing believing in something good as naivety.

„The guys who dropped the bomb did." Honestly, Vegeta liked being on the inflicting side of senseless destruction much better. So this must be what the people had experienced when he'd… no, that was just not something he wanted to contemplate right now.

„I just don't see why they did it. All of the talk on the news about war and what not, but they haven't really said anything about the reasons…" Gohan said.

Vegeta ran a hand over his head in the hope that this would help alleviate his headache. When he looked at his hand, though, he noticed something that shouldn't have been there.

Several loose black hairs in between his fingers.

And that just wasn't a good thing.


A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Let me know what you think about this chapter!