Trunks's eyes kept staring at the sky where the eternal dragon had been moments ago, holding both the result of her wish and the cylinder containing the fuel for the Time Machine. The wish granted wasn't her first choice, nor the second choice, but at least it was in the top ten. Who could have guessed the Dragon couldn't grant wishes affecting things from another universe? Or that she was indeed from a different universe? The implications were maddening, but they didn't matter at the moment. Would she actually go back to her own universe? That was more worrying. But she wouldn't know until she tried.

"Not the best outcome eh?" Goku gave a friendly pat on her shoulder, a way of conveying sympathy. Gohan's attention went to the yellow, shining 'egg on legs' shaped machine and he walked to it, curious.

"I would have prefered to have my mentor back, but this will save many lives," her eyes went back to Gohan that was walking around with an expression of wonder. The boy liked science, and this was so sciency.

The time traveler walked to her vehicle to slide the cylinder back in place.

"A Time Machine eh.. it's so pretty." Gohan admired it, but didn't touch it, and even hovered to look inside. Goku approached as well.

"Well it's both a time and universe machine it seems," Trunks said as she locked the fuel hatch, and put her hand on the little graffiti written by her mother. 'Hope' meant everything for their world.

"Capsule Corp….?" Goku read out loud on the turbines.

"Yes, my mother used Capsule technology for the engine. It made sense to keep the brand, I guess?" Her mother was still attached to the brand for a reason Trunks didn't want to ask about. "The prowess couldn't have been made without the company's existence."

"It has so many buttons and levers." Gohan observed from the glass-like dome. Trunks let him go about and marvel at the object, he seemed respectful enough to not touch it so she was happy with letting the little boy be a child.

"Son-san," Goku looked expectant when called, and Trunks took the Dragon Radar out of the messenger bag with her right hand, the other still holding the precious senzu plant. "Would it be too much to ask to give this back to Bulma-san?" Goku accepted without hesitation, and the teenager gave him back the precious invention. "Please let her know I am grateful for everything."

"Sure thing Tora."

"If I am still alive by the time it's done recharging, I will see you in about thirty months."

The two shook hands, and Gohan landed back close to his father, Tora put a knee on the ground to be at his height like they first met, and held a hand to shake his hand as well. The boy took it.

"Gohan-san, take care of yourself."

"Please live, Tora-san," the boy half pleaded and squeezed her hand. Trunks' smile reached her eyes. She couldn't promise it, her world wasn't as forgiving, but she squeezed back, silently promising she'd at least try.

The father and son saw the teenager settle in the cockpit and do what they could guess was preparation work. They moved back when the machine began something similar to ignition. They saw Trunks check her watch a couple of times, the machine slowly took off, and after a last goodbye wave by its pilot, she and her ride suddenly disappeared.

Only to reappear at the same exact location, in another time (and universe, as it seemed). It was the middle of the afternoon. Trunks landed, exited the vehicle, capsuled it, and flew straight home with the plant hidden under her windbreaker.

A month in the past had cleared her biology of the dulling effects of tobacco, and there was a dreadful moment of regret when she arrived in her version of West City and her nose picked up the smell she had grown to hate. No matter, she'd smoke once at home. She touched ground close to the ruined version of the Capsule Corp compound and quickly walked through the hidden passages to make it downstairs, announcing her presence to the familiar presence she felt. She put the little sprout on one of the many boxes on the stairs, she'll take care of it later.

"Mother?"

Bulma jumped out of her soldering station when called, turned off the iron, spat out her cigarette and jumped towards her daughter. Trunks happily opened her arms to accept the hug, and held her mother close, hiding her face in the crook of her neck, tangling her fingers in her mother's loose braid. She'd kept physical contact to a minimum for the past month, she missed it and it showed. She inhaled the familiar scent of tobacco, coffee, and old oil stains she always associated with the only remaining loved one in her life. She held on tight, with more strength than she actually wanted to give, but her mother didn't complain about the force. Trunks felt hands slide under her windbreaker and shirt, and happily accepted the soft touch on her back. It took her a while to finally be able to let go (and let poor Bulma breathe comfortably).

After getting some fresh coffee, a cigarette each and removing the sword, bag and windbreaker, as well as the binder underneath her shirt, Trunks started to explain the events while they both sat on the lab's couch/bed. The radio was off, for once.

"In order of importance: mission success. I stayed an extra twenty-two days to be able to use the Dragon Balls. The Dragon couldn't do anything concerning our world, he said it was another universe."

"So multiverse theory. Sucks. On the plus side, I made a machine that travels through time and alternate realities. I'll prepare my prize acceptance speech in the morning."

"No one but Bulma fucking Brief could've done it," she praised her mother further with a smirk. "How long was I gone- for you?"

"About two hours."

That was a relief; the 'return' procedure more or less worked as intended. Trunks took a good dose of sweet nicotine, then blew the smoke.

"Shenron couldn't do anything to the Time Machine either, and I guess it wouldn't have been able to do anything to me because, well, other universe. So instead I ended up wishing for a Senzu sprout. I'll plant it in the portable greenhouse." The old engineer agreed this was useful; less time recovering and less potential sequelae.

Trunks paused a moment to drink some coffee, tap off some ashes, and continued.

"Past you thought about using the Dragon Balls to find out who the scientist was to deal with the problem preemptively."

"Let me guess. Vegeta told me to fuck off with that weakling mentality and Son-kun agreed he wanted to fight them?" Bulma knew and felt sorry for her past self.

"Stupid Saiyan genes," Trunks started and Bulma said the same phrase at the same time. Bulma continued on. "Told you so."

"Yes, I got it. Son-san's survival and the extra motivation will hopefully be enough to change things." She took in another dose of caffeine. "I was 54 hours early from Son-san's arrival, too, but Freeza was also early by about three hours. Had to do that. Felt pretty good to be on the overpowering side for once. Ah-" She pulled the bag from the ground, and opened it to take out the capsule case the past Bulma had sneaked into it for her. She handed it to her mother. "A gift from you, to you."

Bulma put down her mug, stuck her cigarette in her mouth and used both hands to open it and check it out. She mulled over the idea of how to thank herself- her other self. "This is going to be incredibly useful," she whispered.

"So.. Son-san knows Vegeta-san is my father, but that's it. I stayed about ten days with him and a couple of weeks with past you. You managed to burn toast, by the way," she promised herself she'd roast her mother in lieu of her past version, and gave her a little nudge to tease, and her mother grumbled about not being able to be a genius in everything, moved forward to the ashtray on the coffee table, and tapped her ashes off.

"Your mother called me Tora-chan," she shuddered at the memory, her mother chuckled, "but past you and everyone else used male language about me. Vegeta-san still tried to kill me though," she put her head on her mother's shoulder and was embraced in return, gently rubbing the shoulder as a gesture to reassure, the same gesture her past self had done the first night at Capsule corp. "So that was interesting." Her mind went back to what she'd learnt about her father, and the GR logs, and- she shot up and grabbed her capsule case in a hurry to take the computer out. "I got access to the servers. I took everything."

Bulma promptly stubbed out her cigarette and grabbed the computer from her daughter, eyes shining.

"You think we can charge the machine faster with this?"

"Haven't seen these in twenty years, Trunksie," Bulma half scolded her impatient daughter. "Give a few hours and a caffeine offering worthy of this triple PhD genius who just confirmed theoretical physics as plain physics and we'll see." The older genius had turned on the computer and started to browse the files already.

Trunks snickered at the request and went on to grab a stray cable to connect it to the computer so it wouldn't lose power, and grabbed the coffee maker to prepare a new batch. She let her mother work and got to work on planting the Senzu sprout, unpacking her things, and placing the time machine back where her mother had first built it, so it was ready to be recharged once the genius had found what she needed from the data.