CHAPTER 65:
Waves of Surprise
As the cruiser ship made its approach to the docking bay, Trunks was waiting at the forefront of the welcome crew. Nobody saw, but he was trembling again.
News of Gohan's battle with Pan had spread to the planet Tuffle several weeks prior, and since that date, he waited with baited breath to hear an update, any update at all. In the meantime, he had been assigned to oversee the development of the new Tuffle settlement and the establishment of the ecology on this empty and newly restored planet.
Construction was expedited to account for a short deadline, and the palace was already underway. Lately, Lord Baby was preoccupied with the new architectural plans and spent his days working with Trunks and Goten to coordinate migration logistics for the remaining Tuffles on Earth who were qualified to travel. To date, either the world's most affluent Tuffles, or the world's most proficient construction contractors, were invited to immigrate to the new planet.
As a darker thought, Trunks was also aware that there were not nearly enough ships to migrate every Tuffle to the new planet in time for Earth's destruction. Time was running out to ferry the last of them. Most life forms were unfortunately destined to stay on the planet and perish in the explosion. One life form in particular on Earth was haunting Trunks' mind.
Trunks had lately spent his evenings in solitude just watching the Earth, trying to scan for a ki at such a tremendous distance. He knew it was futile to search for the last Saiyan from his position, but there was nothing else he could do. He was alone in his anger and anguish.
For the last several weeks, he had developed a queasy feeling that constantly haunted him, and viscerally resonated throughout his body. His palms now often burned as he reflexively squeezed and released his fists in frustration.
The filthy Saiyan brat was still on Earth, awaiting impending destruction, and he felt helpless. But, there was a fire within him, a desire that burned with the hope that she would figure out a way to get back to him. He needed to make sure she was safe. Save Pan…
He needed to figure out a way for Baby to admit her. Save Pan…
He was losing sleep, unable to focus on his work because of the distance between them, not being able to sense her, and also knowing she was hunted. God, he hated her, but he would find a way to keep her away from Lord Baby.
His breath hitched as he thought of the lowly Saiyan, and then chastised himself inwardly for again being so weak to her. Despite the fact that Baby regularly purified Trunks' mind of emotions, this feeling of protectiveness was nevertheless a constant in his life.
Cutting his thoughts short, he heard the engines of the ship. He looked up to the sky and saw the clouds part in a circle as the gray ship descended to the landing pad in a vertical trajectory.
He tried to scan the kis of everyone on the ship. He regularly did this to search for her, just in case, but to no avail - he could not sense her.
But, he wanted to sense her. He needed to sense her. He knew she had to be coming.
If the Saiyan were the same girl he remembered, she'd figure out a way onto the ship, to stowaway on her own. She always had the impulse to dive straight into danger. That thought also kept him up at night. Except, danger was all around her now; everyone was dangerous for her now. Even himself.
He watched the ship land, its engines parting dust and debris from the concrete platform as it docked in the loading bay. He did a quick ki scan again with no result, and unconsciously touched his wedding ring through his left glove.
A dock opened on the ship and a platform extended to form a bridge. The unloading process was about to begin.
He sensed Lord Baby approaching from behind. The close proximity made his devotion flare and his thoughts put in check. He knew the drill by now, and how to navigate these swirling emotions. His thoughts would have to come later. It was impossible to think when Lord Baby was around him.
"Lord Baby," Trunks acknowledged his master who was behind him as Trunks' eyes never left the ship.
"The Queen returns," Baby declared with a shrill voice like metal against metal. "And also Lieutenant General Gohan. I'm sure you are eager to hear of his triumph against the Saiyan."
Trunks shifted a bit, but expressed no emotion. "Yes, Lord Baby."
Lord Baby sneered a grin as he watched Trunks. Trunks knew by now that Baby would purposely toy with him to exacerbate his mindfuck game. Baby knew all about Trunks' ring at this point, and rubbed it in as Trunks' weakness. Baby liked the challenge of riling up Trunks. The more entangled the ring magic became for the Tuffle control, the more Lord Baby treated Trunks like a conquest, especially to also rile up the body of Vegeta.
Trunks was the Achilles heel to Vegeta. Lord Baby knew this, and often kept Trunks on a short leash, and under constant threat, to ensure his coercion over Vegeta's body. Trunks knew that it made Lord Baby even more powerful to assert his dominance.
Baby stood beside Trunks and touched Trunk's left arm with his right hand.
Trunks, still watching the ship, reflexively swelled with pride for his master's power. He felt a rush of devotion burning within his soul. He was grateful to be a pawn. He was beholden to his master. The world was so colorful. Lord Baby's power was intoxicating.
Lord Baby then untouched him.
The emptiness inside Trunks suddenly plummeted him into a void. He was now nothing. There was nothing. Emptiness…. a void. His soul felt hollow and cold.
But then, there it was again - the light. The light was always, always there. He knew, somehow throughout all his pain of this past year, that he wasn't alone.
"Come. We'll have an audience with Gohan," Lord Baby waved a nonchalant hand as he moved away from him. Trunks remained another moment on the platform, looking at the ship as citizens began to disembark. He scanned all of the kis on the ship a final time and confirmed that he could not feel the Saiyan's ki. His heart felt like it was starting to pound.
Trunks turned to follow Lord Baby as his master began to cross the bridge onto the ship. They passed multitudes of citizens who immediately sensed the greatness of their Lord Baby, and the masses all sequentially groveled as a wave that followed Trunks and Lord Baby as they strode by them on their way into the ship.
It was as he entered the threshold of the ship that Trunks felt it.
It wasn't her ki, though. He scanned for her ki again, and could not feel it. Her ki was completely undetectable. But the… tug… His eyes widened slightly as he walked, realizing. No, it's definitely her.
She somehow learned how to suppress her ki level. The realization of this brought a wave of a sickly, joyous emotion that jerked a massive heartburn in his throat, and he gagged and let out a deep cough.
Lord Baby turned his head with a disapproving frown.
Trunks gave a smaller cough and shook it off with a slight shake of his head. The moment passed.
They continued their stroll without comment. Trunks kept a poker face.
It was not a ki signature, but something else. It was…
Light started to pulse in his glove and warmed his finger. Its luminosity grew stronger among the dark fog, and it was like he was able to get moments of clarity. In all that darkness, in all that void, he was suddenly not alone.
The clarity became like the pulse of a dragon radar. It strobed, and he felt her presence. His eyes darted up and to the right, in her general direction. His stomach began to lurch again.
Save Pan…
Fucking ring. Fucking light. Fucking Saiyan.
Baby and he stopped at the end of the hall, where two dark and brawny Tuffle males hoisted open iron doors leading to a cylindrical grand elevator platform with panoramic glass views along its outer side. The platform was lined with gold and ornate metallic fractal-like patterns that artfully trimmed stone facings of Lord Baby.
The platform continued to ascend, and Trunks could feel the dragon radar-like pulse hone in on the Saiyan's location. He was getting closer. His gut was getting heavier.
The elevator ascended to the penthouse conference room. It was there that they were to have an audience with Gohan… for Baby to officially learn the update about the last Saiyan. Trunks already sensed the truth of the status.
Trunks maintained his poker face.
On the top floor, he stepped out from the elevator, following Lord Baby down the hall. The light within him strobed again, stronger, in the direction of the walls. She's in the walls. No… Trunks knew this ship design from inside and out, having led the architects' board in its conception. She's not in the walls; she's in the vents.
He even knew which vent. That's how much of a homing beacon Pan was to him. After being in the darkness for so long, it was so much clearer now for him to sense when she was close. Save Pan.
His heartbeat was racing, but he still kept his poker face.
In the hallway, they were immersed in a deluge of wealth and visual status. The hall's red velvet carpet was embellished with marble and onyx statues of Lord Baby, and the golden-laced walls were adorned with intricate paintings of Tuffle warrior battle scenes.
The conference room was equally as magnificent, with tall, wide windows to view the endless expanse of space when in travel. Marble columns and statues of Lord Baby with robes and halos stood throughout the room, as if venerating Lord Baby as a god.
Despite the opulence and grandeur, Trunks could not tear his eyes from one location - a simple white metal grate on the wall to his left side. He sensed she was there. His heart thumped. Don't be stupid, Pan.
Lord Baby began his audience with Gohan and performed his usual psychological torment. It seemed like it might be slightly more egregious today, but Trunks was conditioned to not think when around Baby, and had no opinion.
No, yes he did. He did have an opinion.
For a split moment, his pupils dilated as he struggled to form the thought. He wanted so badly to form his own thought.
But then he continued to hear Lord Baby's anesthetic scratchy voice, and his consciousness was pulled again to his master. The feeling in his stomach couldn't let him form a conclusive thought. It was always this way around Lord Baby.
Save Pan…
The instinctive thought started again. She was going to do something stupid, he knew it, and swallowed, trying to hold down latent anger.
That Saiyan was always the type to jump in, heart-first, into a dangerous situation. He knew that she would never change. It is what made the Saiyan quintessentially Pan. And it was Pan that he had to save.
Suddenly, everything happened in slow motion.
Lord Baby had just given Gohan an order to kill Goten. Trunks snapped back to the situation, realizing with sudden clarity what was happening.
Radiance exploded within him, and he felt the light inside try to claw into consciousness. And then, he instinctively knew that Pan was about to strike.
The world was moving at a snail's pace as he sensed her attack. The battle was coming. Save Pan!
"NO! STOP!" Trunks reacted before he could think.
The vented wall to the side of Gohan exploded into a thousand fragments of shrapnel and fire. A massive blue KAMEHAMEHA wave tore into the room and catapulted everyone back.
The light and its sound boom exploded everything in the room at once. The penthouse ceiling was torn to shreds as all the windows shattered outward with the immense pressure of the wave.
The blade that was in Gohan's hand was thrown and missed the mark, instead nicking Goten's jawline as Gohan was thrown back and hurled into the wall, with the ceiling collapsing on him as a giant pile of rubble.
Goten loudly hit the corner of the wall as several statues crashed around him.
Trunks likewise was knocked backward, but recovered in a reverse somersault, landing on all fours. His eyes widened to the scene. Everything was still falling in slow motion.
Lord Baby was lost in the dust.
Smoke and fire was suddenly everywhere, all at once. There was a mass confusion as the fire sprinklers all went off and sirens began to wail on the ship. There were distant screams from outside as the disembarking passengers ran from the cruiser.
There was a moment of shock as the dust and debris cleared.
And then through the smoke, there she was.
"YOU…" Lord Baby sneered as the dust revealed a young woman with dark, short-cropped hair.
Trunks could only stand in shock as his head was a cacophony of alarm bells. That's Pan..?!
The woman, who could only be Pan, stood with her hair and cheeks covered in ash as she manifested a deadly glare directed straight to Lord Baby.
"Baby," she stated as the dust fell around her. Her voice was dark and menacing as wind began to pick up around her, lifting the debris as an energy cyclone that began to tear the rest of the ceiling off, exposing the sky as the energy swirled above and around her.
"Saiyan filth," Lord Baby acknowledged her with a growl. But he did not yet power up.
Pan looked to Lord Baby, then to Trunks, and then back to Lord Baby again.
When she spoke, her voice was cool and collected.
"Thanks to you… I think I've begun to understand Tuffles," Pan started as the wind began to whip faster, lifting the heavier debris, and shifting away the rubble that contained Gohan and Goten, both who were watching with concern on the ground as they awaited Lord Baby's orders.
She looked to Goten with concern, and returned her eyes to Lord Baby. For a moment, her eyes softened almost with pity. "There is no love in your heart at all."
"Love? What!" Lord Baby paused for a second as he registered her words. Then he leaned back and began to bellow with a deep and grating laughter at her audacious comment. "Hehehehehahahahaha!"
Pan continued to power up, and Lord Baby stood by, laughing until his maniacal lips descended to an amused grin, still not making any move.
Trunks, meanwhile, was paralyzed as the wind whipped his lengthening hair, and the heat of his ring coursed like wildfire through his arm. He had no idea what to do. He had no idea how to save her.
Worse, he knew Lord Baby was toying with her, and was likewise exploiting his father's instincts. The truth of the matter is that Trunks knew Lord Baby also characterized two fighting motivations - that the Vegeta side within his master wanted to take Pan down at her greatest power; and, Lord Baby side wanted to relish in the conquest.
After another moment, Lord Baby decided to play her game, to toy with his kill. He straightened his back and began to walk forward a few steps, calm and calculated. It was clear that he knew he still had the upper hand in this situation, despite how loud and windy it was.
When he spoke, his voice had undertones of a buzz saw, as if piercing the ears with shrill sparks. He spoke with a dramatic, inquisitive tone as he raised his right hand cooly, palm up, as if he were giving a speech. "Tell me, Saiyan… What is love, anyway?"
He walked to the side, and began to pace a little as he watched Pan, who was hovering in place among the air currents. Baby smirked as glanced to the others in the room collectively before returning to her eyes. "There is no room for love in a Tuffle world, because love does not actually exist."
"How can you say that?!" Pan shouted, angrily, lifting to hover over the floor, the winds still encircling her. "It is love that drives ambition, inspiration and willpower!"
Trunks' eyes went wide as she spouted wild words. No…
"It is love that drives fulfillment and family! It is love that keeps us pursuing happiness." She was spitting as she shouted, "It's what makes us human... and Saiyan!"
She was triggering Lord Baby. Trunks choked.
"Shut up!" Trunks instinctively managed, at the realization of impending danger. He was surprised that he even got his voice out, but the urge to save her was paramount and he needed her to stop taunting Lord Baby! She was going to make all of this worse!
Trunks stood up next to Lord Baby, grasping his stomach as debris whipped around him, desperately repeating, "Shut up, Pan!"
Lord Baby grinned demonically. "Your concept of love is an illusion. Love is a weakness…" his voice bellowed and grew louder as he began to shout, "... because in battle, it is a hesitation!"
His left arm instantly sprang to the side for Trunks' neck, which he grabbed in a deathgrip. Trunks choked on the pressure and the surprise, but he was still able to breathe. He impulsively brought his hands up to meet Baby's hand on his neck. Trunks stood with a pained grimace as Lord Baby throttled him with one hand in demonstration.
Baby continued, leering, "He who hesitates is lost." He kept his hand on Trunks' throat as he moved behind Trunks. "And in this universe, everything is determined through power levels!"
Trunks kept his eyes on Pan, whose eyes were pained upon watching Trunks' throat. He realized Baby was now toying with her, and her own reaction to her ring.
Baby stayed behind Trunks as pulled back his head to expose his neck slightly, and then he slowly and seductively stroked Trunks' neck with his left hand, from his jaw to his clavicle, causing Trunks' breath to hitch. "And that power gives us control." Baby's grin widened.
Baby tightened his grip and pulsed an immense shockwave into Trunks that brought him down to his knees as he gagged more on the chokehold. Gohan and Goten both began to mechanically move away from the walls and toward Pan, ignoring the items that crashed around them in the wind.
"Let me demonstrate." Lord Baby's grin widened further as he knew he controlled the situation. Everything was in his domain.
The hand that was stroking Trunks' neck suddenly formed a ki ball at the side of his face. And the blast quickly intensified to get bigger and hotter, to the point that Trunks was truly vulnerable at point-blanc range.
It immediately became apparent that this display was an actual, real attack.
Pan's reaction was too slow. "No!" She raised her hands and ignited her ki.
BOOOOOOM!
Out of nowhere, another KAMEHAMEHA wave came crashing in from the side, and the ship again erupted in a wave of light that exploded away the rest of the walls. It smacked straight into Lord Baby with a tremendous force that knocked everyone on the floor to tumble out of the ship, and thrust Lord Baby in a beam of light straight into the mountains several miles away. He crashed and cracked the whole landscape below with a tremendous earthquake and aftershock that collapsed cliffs around the cruise ship and the loading dock.
Trunks and the rest of the Tuffle elite fighters crashed into the loading bay below, the impact of everyone's fall making the whole dock collapse in its shaking. What the fuck just happened?
Trunks' face was burned, but it was a surface wound. He touched his face as he tried to sit up from the rubble, looking up to the penthouse of the ship, where Pan still hovered, and another figure, some young man, joined her side. Trunks gurgled as he tried to make out the figure who had such an immense power level. Who the fuck is that?!
Trunks realized in a shock that Pan and this mystery man had been working together. Pan had been a distraction in their strategic attack. They never even sensed that man, and who the hell was he? He had the power level of… of… Majin Buu!
Somehow, Pan had gained initiative in the battle through their element of surprise against Lord Baby. She was out in the open now, where the fight could be better managed. The tables were still stacked against her, but she somehow flipped the situation. Somehow… Pan… was someone who had become strategic and formidable.
He inhaled, with a foreign emotion swelling in his gut that he couldn't recognize in his inner darkness. He felt his ring flare.
As he stood, he watched Pan and the mystery warrior flew off to chase down Lord Baby in the mountains.
He also watched, with dread, as Gohan and Goten shot after her. And he knew, with a heavy gut, that Gohan still had a mission to kill her.
There was no way that Lord Baby would let Pan live. There was no way that Gohan would give up the fight. Every alarm within him was shrieking, Save Pan…
Fucking ring. Fuck. Fuck!
Trunks powered up, and shot after the group.
-8/6/23-
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
After an almost 17.5 year hiatus following a burnout from this epic, I'm back and feeling good about getting back into this.
TP is still my favorite couple of all time, and I know I have it in me to showcase the rest of this epic Dragonball universe love story for you all. Up to recent chapters, I was determined to follow much of the GT plotline to this point so that I could keep it as canon as possible, based on real GT events, and/or filling in GT plot holes from other character perspectives.
I am excited to work toward the real story that I've been planning for a long time. From this point on, it will more clearly be a Trunks x Pan fic, and the whole ring scenario will start to make sense as a catalyst for their relationship. This was something I planned since the beginning, and the rating will stay a consistent M for Mature.
Also, a disclaimer for my writing. I haven't written in a long time, and I have an idea for a novel I'd like to write. I'd like to get to a point where I'm at the level where I used to be, so I'm flexing my writing chops with this story that I promise to actually finish, even if it has taken me years. This story has literally been in my head the entire time, and I'm getting it out now. Enjoy!
