Author's Note: Hi, everyone! I didn't mean to take such a long break between chapters but I've been tweaking my story a little here and there. I've changed the manner in which Charisma revealed her name to Trunks' at the end of Chapter 8 because it just didn't make sense to me when I reread everything. Although I have most of my chapters to this story completed, I'm always changing details and things from time to time so updates may not be as often as I initially thought they'd be. But I'll try to be somewhat consistent. I hope you're enjoying my story so far. Thanks for reading :3


Chapter 9:

A Shocking Discovery

Charisma, Trunks, Tien, and Krillin soared through the skies in an awkward silence as they made their way to Goku's house. After suffering such a humiliating and jarring defeat at the hands of the Androids, it seemed everyone could only hang their heads in shame.

Charisma trailed behind the others by a short distance. Charisma was not only shaken from her "battle" with Android 18, however. She was now riddled with anxiety after revealing herself to Trunks. He hadn't said another word to her since she told him her name and she didn't know what to make of his reaction.

'I wonder if he's upset with me…' she thought gloomily. Her eyes drank in his form from behind as he flew several feet ahead of her. 'If the timeline shift is really my fault…how can I blame him?'

"Hey, Krillin," Tien said, breaking the heavy silence. "I'm going to go get Chaotzu and begin training again."

Krillin looked over at him. "Okay, sounds like a plan. We're going to move Goku to Master Roshi's house. That should buy us some time. Meet up with us when you're ready."

"You got it," Tien responded. "Keep Goku safe." With one final wave, Tien took off in a different direction.

"Good luck, Tien," Krillin said. "We're all gonna need it…"

Trunks sped up his flight slightly to come up beside Krillin. "I don't know why the future I predicted changed so much. The Androids in my time weren't this strong and there were only two of them. I just don't get it."

He growled with annoyance as the events of the day replayed in his mind. 'To make matters more confusing, I don't know what to make about Charisma being here either,' he thought as his fists tightened with frustration at his sides. 'I'll need to talk to her as soon as we move Goku. If she truly is the Charisma that I know…then there are important details here that I'm missing…'

"It doesn't matter now," Krillin said firmly. "It is what it is, and if we don't get out of this mess soon, we'll all be history…"

'What a mess this has become…' Charisma thought with a deep pout. She could barely find the strength to try and keep up with the two, and instead kept a good distance away from them. In fact, all she wanted to do was gradually drift away and return to Bulma's house and pray that they didn't notice. After the disastrous events of the day, it was as if she just wanted to retreat into a shell and not come out again.

The flight towards Goku's house continued in awkward silence for several more minutes until they finally began to come upon their destination. The forest of trees slowly became rolling acres of grass and farmland. Goku's cozy and humble little home sat beside a cozy stream like a scene out of a picturesque oil painting.

"Here we are!" Krillin announced and began descending towards Goku's house. Trunks and Charisma followed his lead and landed in front of Goku's little home.

The sound of the nearby stream and birds chirping around was much welcomed and relaxing but it did very little to calm the uneasiness in the air. Trunks began making his way towards the front door of the house as Krillin and Charisma both trailed behind him, caught up in their own thoughts.

"Ugh, hold on, Trunks!" Krillin said as they approached the door, stopping so suddenly that Charisma nearly walked right into him.

Trunks was mere feet from the house's front door but he turned around to look at Krillin from over his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Just one question…" Krillin stammered nervously. "A-are the Androids...really as terrible as you say they are?"

Charisma scoffed at the question and gave Krillin a strange look. "What kind of question is that?!" she demanded. "Did you not see what they did to us?!"

Krillin chuckled nervously at her with his hands held up defensively in the air.

"They're ruthless and cold-blooded," Trunks snapped, his voice dripping with frustration. "I've told you this before, Krillin. Why even ask?"

Krillin turned towards him, still waving his hands in front of him nervously. "Hey! I was just hoping that not all of us would have to fight them! That's all!"

"Well, hoping doesn't get us anywhere, I'm afraid," Trunks grumbled.

"I know that!" Krillin said as he began walking towards the front door. "I-it's just that...I...oh never mind."

Krillin lifted his hand and knocked on the door once. No less than a half second after that, the door flew open with a BANG, smacking Krillin right on the noggin with full force. Trunks and Charisma were both jolted by the sudden impact.

"GOHAN?!" Chi-Chi screamed as she peered out the door. She looked down at Krillin with disappointment as the smile on her face quickly soured. "Oh...it's you…"

Krillin stood up straight after nursing the huge bump that now formed on this bald head. "It's nice to see you, too, Chi-Chi…" he muttered.

"Krillin!" Yamcha greeted, coming toward the door as well. "I'm glad you made it here safe."

"And Goku?" Krillin asked, stepping into the house. "How is he doing?'

"He's okay. He's just sleeping right now."

Yamcha noticed Trunks was standing there, too. "Oh, hey man. Welcome back." Noticing Charisma behind Trunks, he held up at hand to wave. "And you're here, too, Charisma. Nice to see you again!"

Charisma nodded with a smile. "I'm glad to see you're doing well, Yamcha."

"Wait, if you're all here then, that must mean we won, right?!" Yamcha said hopefully. A gloomy silence fell upon the group.

Trunks simply shook his head. "No. We lost."

"We have to evacuate now," Krillin added. "We don't have a lot of time to talk, but the Androids are on their way here to find Goku and they're a thousand times stronger than any of us!"

It didn't take long before they began packing up to make their way to Master Roshi's house. Within fifteen minutes, they began loading stuff onto a plane out in the yard. Yamcha and Krillin took care of lifting Goku into the plane and placed him on a small mattress, as Trunks and Charisma helped carry other miscellaneous items into the plane.

"Be careful with him!" Chi-Chi shouted as she watched Yamcha and Krillin load Goku into the plane. She caught sight of a bright star in the sky heading their way and smiled brightly. "Oh, look!" she cheered. "Gohan's back!"

"Hey, what's going on?" Gohan asked as he came to land in front of his mother. Chi-Chi ignored the question and wrapped him up in her arms. "What are you guys doing?" he asked.

"No time to talk!" said Krillin. "Get on the plane and we'll explain everything!"

The group now sat on the plane on their way to Master Roshi's house, with Yamcha piloting the aircraft. Krillin and Trunks explained what happened after Vegeta found the Androids and everyone's close call with the mechanical monsters.

"Are they really that powerful?" Gohan asked.

"I'm afraid so," Krillin said, "They're even more powerful than the androids Trunks told us about."

Everyone simultaneously looked over to Trunks, who remained with his head down and his eyes glued to the ground as he contemplated the events of the day.

"But I thought those were the androids Trunks told us about," said Yamcha.

"No," responded Trunks. "They're different somehow…"

The aircraft felt silent for several seconds, until suddenly...

"AHHHHH!" Chi-Chi's high-pitched screams ripped through the silence, nearly startling everyone right out of their skins. "Oh no!" She hurried over to a knotted bag and began untying it. "What was I thinking? We don't have a minute to waste! We better hurry before it's too late!"

Gohan approached her cautiously with a concerned look on his face. "What are you talking about, Mom?"

"Well, let's hit those books, Gohan!" she commanded as she dropped a huge stack of textbooks in front of him. The others collectively sweatdropped but breathed a sigh of relief that Gohan's studies were the only reason for Chi-Chi's screaming.

The plane fell silent again for several moments as everyone became lost in their own thoughts. The entire situation was nothing short of a nightmare in its own way. Even after moving Goku to Master Roshi's place, they only had so much time to prepare for when the Androids would likely find him there, too.

As Charisma sat on a seat behind the pilot's chair, she carefully looked over to Trunks who sat across the way on the other side of the plane. It was clear that he was deep in his thoughts with his gaze pasted to the ground. For some reason, although her heart was full of worry and fear, just looking at him soothed her a little.

'It's still hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I found you here…' she thought. Memories of growing up with Trunks as a young child, the last times she remembered feeling genuine happiness, flooded into her mind. The longer she stared at him, the more she began to see how he really hadn't changed too much physically speaking. He had obviously grown into a young man, much taller and muscular compared to the little boy she once knew, but his eyes were as blue as she remembered them. His smile, however, was different in a way. As if his smile had lost its shine after so many hopeless and difficult years.

The longer Charisma stared at him, the redder her cheeks became, and she didn't really know why but she found it harder to take her eyes off of him. Shyly, she managed to avert her gaze and instead stared at the ground with a small smile.

Trunks was so wrapped up in his own thoughts and worries that he didn't even notice how intently Charisma had been staring at him from across the plane. He bit down on his fingernail with frustration as he struggled to comprehend the entire situation that was rapidly unfolding before him.

'I still don't understand how I miscalculated so much,' he thought as his eyes narrowed angrily. 'Everything we planned for, everything we worked so hard for is falling apart right in front of me and there's barely anything I can even do about it.'

He glanced up at the blonde girl who sat across from him. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. 'Is that really Charisma? How did she get here and for what reason? And if she really is from my time, is she the reason the timeline shifted so much?'

Trunks was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't realize how intently he was staring at the girl. Charisma, feeling his eyes on her, suddenly looked up at him and their eyes caught each other.

Trunks' harsh gaze melted into a flustered one as his cheeks began burning bright. Charisma felt like her cheeks were on fire too. She awkwardly looked away from him and cleared her throat.

'Why is he looking at me like that?' she wondered. Charisma looked back up at him and caught his eyes shifting away from her nervously before staring at her again. At getting caught staring again, twice in a row, Trunks' cheeks burned even brighter. 'Maybe he isn't upset with me after all?' Charisma couldn't help but smile brightly at him, cocking her head to the side coyly.

Trunks' frustration seemed to melt away in that instant when memories of his childhood best friend flashed in his mind. So many happy moments, far and few as they may have been, were spent with Charisma.

'It really is her…she really hasn't changed much at all,' he thought. Trunks forced his eyes off her and looked down at the ground. A small smile tugged at his lips shyly. He brushed it off, however, when the reality of the present situation hit him again.

"So what are we going to do now?" Yamcha asked out loud to no one in particular.

Trunks took a deep breath and looked up at Yamcha. "Well, maybe there's something I can do to help…" The others looked up to stare at him curiously. "I could get back into my time machine and travel to the past and destroy those androids before Dr. Gero gets to them. It shouldn't be that hard since now I know where his laboratory is."

"Hey yeah," smiled Yamcha. "That's a great idea…"

"U-um, not exactly," said Charisma, holding up a finger. "What if you don't make it in time and have to fight those things alone? And didn't you say before that your time machine only has enough power for one trip? You might be stuck in the past forever."

"Hey," Gohan said, looking back and up from his textbook to stare at Trunks. "If you destroy the Androids then, what will happen to the Androids of this time?" Trunks stared at him wide eyed while Gohan continued. "They wouldn't just vanish would they? Just because of a change in the past…"

Gohan was cut off when his mother grabbed his face and turned it toward his book. "Mind your studies, Gohan!" she scolded.

Trunks looked like he'd been struck by lightning. "No! He's right! What was I thinking?! If I destroy the Androids there, I would only be saving the future of that world. But I can't change anything that they've already done once they've been activated, which means, there really isn't any point in me going back."

Krillin stared at him blankly. "...I don't get it."

Trunks looked down at his clenched fists and took a deep breath. "You know how Goku is alive right now because of the medicine I brought from the future? Well, in the future where the medicine came from, Goku didn't make it. That's because I can only change one reality, not both. In other words, there are two realities out there. In one, Goku survives, and in the other, he doesn't."

"Let's see if I can understand this," said Krillin slowly. "So even if Goku does beat the Androids now, it wouldn't affect the Androids from your world. They'd still exist there…Like some kind of parallel universe."

"Exactly!" said Trunks. "That's exactly how it works."

Charisma furrowed her eyebrows with confusion as she crossed her arms. "So...if that's the case, what was the point of returning to this time?" she asked, earnestly concerned, and confused. "Whatever you do here, even if we destroy the Androids, it isn't going to undo the damage done in m-" Charisma coughed as she quickly caught herself almost about to slip. "...y-your time. I just don't understand what the entire point of coming back to the past would be."

Trunks stood up and walked toward the glass door on the side of the plane, staring out below at the vast landscape. "…My mother…" he almost whispered.

"You see, it was my mother's idea to send me back to the past. She didn't think there was anything more we could do to help the people of our world. But she knew there were other people that we could help…" His mind traveled back to those days. "I agreed that I would go, but for my own reasons. I believed that with Goku's help, I would find that the Androids had some weakness and return back to the future. Even though I couldn't bring back the lives that were lost, I might be able to save the people who are left."

Memories flooded back, memories that haunted him. They filled his mind so suddenly that it became all too vivid as he became trapped in a trail of horrifying memories of death and destruction.

"Trunks?" called Krillin. "TRUNKS!"

He snapped out of his trance and took a moment before regaining his composure. He turned back to face the others and sat back down on the floor. "I'm…sorry about that," he smiled. "Anyway, I hoped this plan would work out perfectly, except I didn't expect for there to be so many differences between the timelines of my world and this world. I thought Goku's heart problem would come sooner than it did. And I thought there would be two androids, and instead there are three."

His voice became distressed as he thought about the current predicament. "And now, everything's going wrong!"

"But," interjected Gohan. "There's still something that bugs me. How could you have miscalculated so much…?" He was cut off when Chi-Chi grabbed his head again and turned his face down toward his book.

"I don't know for sure…but my theory is that something changes when you travel back from the future. I don't know how or why exactly, but that's my best guess."

Charisma cringed as a surge of guilt washed over her like a tidal wave and a deep frown painted her face. 'That means it's my fault, too…'

"Try not to worry too much, Trunks," Chi-Chi said gently as she sat on the mattress beside Goku. "If you didn't come when you did, Goku wouldn't be alive right now. And that's all that really matters." She smiled lovingly down at her husband as he slept peacefully.

Trunks' eyes were fixed on her for a while, until the vision of his smiling mother passed before them. He slowly smiled, knowing he at least helped someone in some way.

"Yeah," said Krillin cheerfully. "She's right, you know! We all owe you!"

"Yeah!" agreed Yamcha. "We owe you big time!"

Charisma looked up to see the smile on Trunks' face and a small seed of happiness began to grow in her heart.

"...they have a point," she hesitantly added. He turned his head to look at her, his smile momentarily leaving his face. "Things might not be turning out the way that we hoped, but things are better now than they were in the future at this point, right? We all survived the first battle with the Androids, after all. I think it's a good sign that there's still hope left for us." Charisma wasn't certain if she was trying to cheer Trunks up or herself, perhaps. But she smiled brightly at him when coming to this realization.

'...And I found you after all…' Her smile grew to be the brightest at that thought, spreading from her lips to her eyes to her cheeks.

Trunks' breath caught in his chest as he remembered. "If anyone can defeat those Androids, it's you!" Her words echoed in his brain, as they'd never left him. Her smile was as big and bright as it was that day, brimming with hope for a future which was not lost.

Trunks finally smiled the biggest and brightest he had in a long time.

Krillin chuckled. "I guess we all should look on the bright side, huh? I mean, we're all safe and sound thanks to…me!" He rolled with laughter all by himself, drawing unamused stares from everyone on the plane. "…Hey Trunks, lighten up. I was only kidding…"

The reverberating sound of a smack resounded on the plane and across the entire landscape.

...

It was a smooth and silent ride on the plane until Goku began having a heart attack again. The others were immediately panicked at hearing his pained screams, but Chi-Chi went over without hesitation and gave him his medicine. After a few more minutes, he was sleeping soundly again.

"Woo," Krillin threw the sweat off of his shiny head. "Well, it looks like he's resting again."

"How intense," said Trunks. "Even in his dreams, he's still fighting."

"It looks like we'll be at Master Roshi's in no time," mentioned Yamcha. "Oh, and Krillin, don't you think we'd better tell Bulma what we're up to."

"Good idea," he said with a nod before catching himself. "Wait a minute, you're saying that I should call her? No way!"

"Come on," said Yamcha with a mischievous grin. "I'm flying the plane here! Thanks pal!"

Krillin sighed and looked over at Charisma who sat a few feet beside him. "Charisma, why don't you call her? You're good friends with her…"

"No thanks!" she giggled with a playful wink. "I'd like to see how you handle this, Krillin."

"…All right…" Krillin sighed and trudged over to the co-pilot's seat. "No offense, man," he told Trunks. "But your mother is just hard to deal with sometimes."

Trunks laughed. "Believe me, I know what you mean!"

Krillin sat in the chair, dialed Bulma's number, and picked up the mic while putting the call on speaker. The phone at Bulma's house began to ring, and a perky operator promptly answered it. "Capsule Corp!"

"Oh, this is Krillin," he spoke. "I was wondering if I could speak to Bulma."

"Bulma? Oh yes! Please hold while I transfer your call! Thank you!"

Krillin was placed on hold for several seconds while a gentle call tone played in the background. Krillin and Trunks were almost scared out of their underpants when Bulma's voice suddenly boomed through the phone.

"Krillin?! What's wrong?! Is everyone all right?! TALK TO ME!" she screamed in a complete panic. "Where are you calling from? I've tried calling Gohan at his house, but there's no answer. It just rings and rings. By the way, is my son there, I mean, Trunks? You know…the one from the future?"

"Huh? Yeah, he's sitting right behind me." Krillin looked back to look at the future boy.

"He is? Well then put him on the line!"

"He can hear you. We're on speaker, so go ahead and say whatever you need to say, Bulma."

"Well, tell him that I got a call today from this guy who lives somewhere to the west of here. He says he found some sort of weird old, abandoned vehicle and he wants to keep it. But he doesn't know how to fly the thing. So, he phoned us and asked us if we knew."

"Yeah…go ahead…"

"He tried to explain what kind of vehicle it was, but he didn't make sense. We didn't know whether it was one of our products or not, but he swore that it had Capsule Corporation written across it. So we asked him if he could send us a picture of it." Bulma stood up from her chair and walked over to grab it from the table. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. It was a picture of the time machine Trunks came in. And I've got some bad news for you. It was a wreck…"

Trunks gasped in surprise and reached into his jacket's pocket. "But that can't be true!" He pulled out a small case with capsules in it. He stood up and showed the capsule case to Krillin. "Here! Look! I put it up and I put it back into its capsule when I landed!"

"He says the time machine is right here," Krillin spoke into the receiver.

"Seriously?" asked Bulma, still staring at the picture in her hands. "But the time machine in the picture…I guess it's the same, but it looks like it's been there for a while…It's almost completely overgrown with moss and stuff. So, exactly how many time machines did we make in the future?"

"How many?" repeated Trunks. "Well, we barely managed to make one."

"What? That's strange…I'm sure this is a time machine in the picture, but I wanna make sure. Hold on. I'll send you a copy of the picture through fax. Trunks, I want you to take a good look at it."

Soon enough, the picture came through the fax machine and Krillin handed it over to Trunks.

"That's my capsule!" Trunks gasped in disbelief. "There's no mistaking it. What's going on here?"

"And get this…" Bulma added. "I don't know if this is related, but a few months ago, I was contacted about another strange machine that was found about a half hour south of West City. The person who found it thought it was some kind of high tech port-a-potty…"

Charisma gasped and looked up towards Krillin. "...what?" she mumbled with disbelief.

"I didn't think much about it at the time," Bulma explained. "Now that I've seen this, I wonder if the two things are related somehow. I mean, what are the odds of two strange machines being found out in the wilderness, in the same area, like this just a few months apart? Seems too peculiar to be just a coincidence to me."

Charisma immediately jumped to her feet and hurried to where Krillin sat. "Hey, Bulma," Charisma said. "Did you see what that other machine looks like, too?"

"Yes," she responded. "I'll have to take a look through my files, but I do have it. I kept the picture just in case because it's an interesting looking machine...but it's definitely not a Capsule Corp product, I can tell you that much."

Charisma felt her stomach drop. '...I can't believe I completely forgot about my time machine.'

"Do you know if that other machine is still out there?" Charisma asked, drawing curious looks from the other passengers for the plane.

"Unfortunately, no," Bulma said. "According to my source, it was removed and scrapped. There weren't any logos on it or anything, so they didn't think it was ours. And I can tell from looking at the picture that it definitely wasn't."

Charisma exchanged a perplexed and concerned look with Trunks. It seemed she couldn't hide the truth from anyone any longer.