Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
"You may be half-Saiyan, but you still could've caught a cold out there."
The Supreme Kai of Time checked up on Trunks in her quarters. He sat up in a chair in a different set of clothes and with a blanket wrapped around him.
"If you'd like, I can make you a hot chocolate."
Trunks stuck his hand out of the blanket, trying to hide any semblance of panic at the concept of her making something for him to eat or drink.
"No, that won't be necessary... but thanks."
Afterward, he put his hand back under: he was still shivering somewhat.
"Trunks, I just want to understand why you were walking around in the rain for that long. Why didn't you just came back here?"
"Because I felt terrible for what I did, okay?!"
"You should know better than to..."
"I didn't care!"
After a pause between the two, Trunks took his hand out again to wipe something from under his eye.
"I was careless. I didn't even think. I didn't tell Pan the truth... and then I had the gall to act like she owed me."
He put his head down, sighing.
"I ruined everything."
The Supreme Kai of Time walked up to him, using her hand to nudge Trunks' head up by the chin so she could look him in the eyes. She smiled at him.
"It's all going to be okay, Trunks."
In her housing unit, Pan lied on her bed without covers, not even having changed her clothes from the day before. Even though her day was starting, she didn't have the will to get up.
With it still raining outside like it was hours earlier, all she could think about was what transpired.
"From the moment I recovered, you were the one friend that I had. The one piece of my home I still had..."
She turned over onto her side, looking over at a wall.
"You said I was found... and that Time Patrollers could not change the future no matter what..."
But then she thought back to what Cloke told her.
"You were summoned here. It was Trunks."
And then what Trunks told her.
"If it wasn't for me changing the future, you would never have been born!"
She reached for her covers, then pulled them up over her body.
"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you keep that from me?"
"I was your friend."
Getting up wasn't a concern. Neither was eating breakfast or going to the academy. At this point, Pan didn't want to take care of herself. She closed her eyes, not wanting to be awake.
At the academy, Commander Hale and Trunks went about their routines in spite of the student they both noticed was missing.
As far as the rest of the class was concerned, Pan was sick. It wasn't irregular for patrollers not to show up every now and then, be it from injuries or any plethora of ailments.
But as the last of the exercises wrapped up and Hale let everyone leave, he approached Trunks.
"Might we talk in my office?"
Inside his office, Hale stood while Trunks sat.
"We both know Pan was physically able to be here today. No illnesses that we knew of."
Trunks was getting irritated, already knowing the point that had been ringing in his head since earlier that day.
"Damn it, does everyone have to remind me of my mistake?!"
Hale turned, seeing Trunks almost snarling with his teeth. Not at him, but clearly angry about something.
"Is something the matter, Trunks?"
Trunks realized what he was doing and calmed himself down.
"You told me not to delay telling Pan the truth about how I brought her here... and I waited too long."
Hale sat down to be at Trunks' eye level.
"You gave me the best course of action and I neglected it."
"You've acknowledged your error in the past, Trunks, but you must focus on what you can do now."
"But what can I do? For all I know, Pan's through being a Time Patroller... and through with me."
Hale turned back for just a moment, then a thought occurred to him.
"How long does she have?"
Trunks looked over at his wrist.
"...not long."
Even now at what felt like night time to Pan, it was still pouring outside. She had kept herself isolated the entire day with only her thoughts.
She thought back to her conversation with Trunks the first day she woke up.
"But what if someone was trying to stop something bad from happening in a timeline? Like... if I went back to stop Frieza. If he never gets to my timeline's Earth, then my family and home would be saved!"
"I'm sorry, Pan, but using time travel is forbidden, even if it is for good intentions."
Thinking on it now, it sounded hypocritical coming from Trunks.
The fact that time could be changed... that Trunks had changed it in the past... and that it was attainable...
But how?
Just then, a thought.
"The Plaza of Time... nearby was..."
She recalled the tournament area, where she fought Amura, but that wasn't what Pan was looking for. But past it, before the housing area...
"The gateway! That's it! It has to be behind there!"
She finally willed herself out of bed, donning the attire from her home. As she retrieved her grandfather's Power Pole, she began to realize the risk.
"They'll try to stop me. Trunks... and the Time Patrol."
But as Pan held the four star Dragon Ball in her hand, her mind was already made up.
"The chance to change the past... save my home... and my family, is here... and I'm going to take it!"
Lightning struck outside.
The rain had begun to die down as Pan exited from her housing unit, though the dark clouds still hung over Toki Toki City. It seemed like not that many people were around at this time.
She tried keeping a low profile despite the Power Pole and its case on her back. Pan caught no glances from anyone, or at least none that meant any cause for alarm. Finally, she arrived in the Plaza of Time and to her right...
"The gateway."
An older Time Patroller with a bald head and white beard sat nearby it in a chair under an umbrella. Pan stood behind a wall looking over at him starting to doze off.
"Just him. No one else around. Now to sneak past."
Pan stepped forward one step at a time, minding the noise she made and keeping an eye out for any puddles. So far...
"Huh!?"
The man began to wake up from his doze, then looked in front of him. He turned his gaze to the left, Pan slowly moving around him to avoid being seen. Now there she was right behind, trying to stay still and not breathe, lest he heard her.
But she saw him starting to lie back in his chair again, his head lowering as she began to hear him snoring.
"Phew."
Pan saw the gate right there in front of her, just a few steps away.
"Just have to go through and..."
As Pan walked through it, a sound emerged from the gateway.
"Crap!"
This patroller woke up entirely, jumping out of his seat after he heard the sound and saw only a flash of Pan entering through before disappearing. He brought his wrist up to his face and pressed a button to activate a communicator.
"Supreme Kai of Time... are you expecting a visitor? Because someone just came through here."
"Orange bandanna?"
"Yes."
"It's fine. I'll take care of it, Ziko."
After going through the gateway, Pan saw herself in a massive round room with a field of grass. To her left, a body of water stopped by stones. To her right, a small round house.
"No, it couldn't be in there."
From above, it looked like...
"It's like a bird cage..."
"Toh!"
Pan looked up and saw a large white owl, one that looked like it had eyebrows and a long beard. She tried to stay still, seeing what it would do next.
"Please tell me he's not their guard animal."
The two stared down each other for the longest time until finally, this owl descended down from its perch towards her, screeching...
"Ki!"
She ran across the tiled floor, trying to find where to go next.
"This is bad! They probably know I'm here with that bird making that racket! Where...?!"
Pan saw a building ahead of her. Something like a cross between a temple and a library.
"It's there! It has to be! I have to hurry!"
Using as much of her speed as she could muster, she ran to this building. She saw a large door in front of her and pulled on its handle as hard as she could. It was heavy... extremely so, and the bird was catching up to her.
"Come on, come on!"
As she began to sweat pulling it, it was now open just enough for her to squeeze through. She did so, then as the bird nearly reached her, she pulled it back with all her might to keep it from her.
"Toh! Ki! Toh! Ki!"
The bird screeched from outside, which Pan was sure meant her time alone was going to be short.
"With that bird making all that noise, they'll be onto me any minute now."
Pan ran through various rooms, trying to find anything close to what she was looking for.
"Nothing in here... nothing there!"
She began to have doubts. That perhaps she may not find anything. That she would be caught before she would come close.
"Wait... THERE!"
A massive round room. She came across a stairway down. She made her way down to an octagonal table, which had a scroll on top of it.
"That scroll right there..."
Pan stretched it out on the table and saw...
"That's..."
"My past."
She saw herself in the World Martial Arts Tournament fighting Goten. She placed her hand on the image, then saw that with a wave of the hand, it began moving forward...
"GOTEEEN!"
Then there she was hearing her father cry out his younger brother's name as Golden Frieza broke Goten's neck with ease.
She waved her hand to the left as rapidly as she could, trying to get away from that moment and then saw herself sparring with her grandmother the day before the tournament.
"I still have no idea how this works, but maybe if I keep scrolling back... maybe when I'm younger... I can warn everyone. Maybe with enough training, they'll be strong enough to fight him..."
Pan then began to ponder just how far she could go.
"...or could I go back to before I was born? Find Frieza and stop him from ever arriving on Earth in the first place."
But then she realized...
"Wait... my scroll being out here in the open... that's too convenient... as if..."
"I had a feeling you'd be coming here..."
Pan turned around, seeing a short-sized woman with pink skin in purple attire approaching her.
"...so I picked that out for you."
"Damn it, I should've known...!"
This woman put out her hand to Pan.
"I'm the Supreme Kai of Time."
Pan was starting to see that this woman's tone and mannerisms were not that of someone about to punish her. Meanwhile, the Supreme Kai of Time saw her handshake had not been returned yet.
"Pan, I know what you're going through... better than you'd think..."
"Then explain one thing to me: why did you allow Trunks to change the future?"
Chronoa knew this question was coming from the moment she had planned this.
"Very well, Pan."
With a teal glow emanating from her fingertips, the Supreme Kai of Time began forming an image of what looked to Pan like a rocket ship.
"Trunks and his mother were the first to have time traveled, as well as the first to have altered the main timeline. By the time I had noticed it, what was done was done."
"So Trunks got a freebie, is that it?"
While she could tell this answer didn't please Pan one bit, she explained further.
"Their time machine wasn't perfect. It created rifts... several alternate timelines. One which allowed a bio-android to invade the main timeline as well."
Pan knew what bio-android she was referring to.
"Cell."
"That's right. Trunks had inadvertently unleashed him and despite trying to stop Cell, was killed."
This fact shook Pan to the core.
"Trunks was... killed?"
"He was, but was resurrected by the Dragon Balls before returning back to his future, which was now a parallel timeline. That was when I had to intervene."
The image between the Supreme Kai of Time's hands began to shift, turning into a large line with dozens, maybe hundreds branching off of it.
"The discovery of time travel invited challenge. Without anyone to stop it going forward, it would threaten the entire universe itself. Thus, the Time Patrol was created, Trunks the first among them as penance for what he did."
Earlier this day, Pan had tried to run away and go back to her home, but now there she was being talked out of it by this woman.
"You're here talking to me when you could've just let me go through with what I was about to do."
The Supreme Kai of Time turned away from Pan for a moment.
"If you had tried to change history, we would have had to intervene, and you'd have been forced to suffer through that event a second time. I wanted to avoid that as much as possible."
Pan couldn't have even imagined what she would've done if she had to see her world destroyed again, this time with someone stopping her from saving it.
"...and now I have to ask for your help, both to protect time... and to save yourself."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm afraid your very existence is at stake."
A new image emerged from her hands, this time of a large line with dozens of smaller ones breaking off from it.
"Pan, you are born in various timelines, all stemming from the main timeline. And should that timeline be altered..."
The large line appeared to become distorted, then as it gradually disappeared, so did the others.
"...I'm never born and I cease to exist."
"Both your life and time itself is threatened by this."
She could tell from the Supreme Kai of Time's tone that it was serious, but even then...
"Why send me? You already have hundreds of others that could take this mission."
"The Time Patrol is spread as thin as it can be. And the recruits aren't ready for the field yet."
"And I am? I'm in the 10s. There's Saiyans here with more power in their pinkies than..."
The Supreme Kai of Time pointed at her.
"Don't put yourself down! You are the granddaughter of Goku!"
But then she lowered her arm and revealed a scroll in her other hand.
"And he needs your help."
Pan slowly took the scroll from the Supreme Kai of Time's hand, then opened it, revealing...
Age 756
Goku facing Piccolo in what looked like a barren wasteland at a glance. Both looked clearly exhausted when a purple energy flowed through Piccolo's body and his eyes turned a glowing red. The Namekian grinned...
And in a flash, Piccolo quickly overwhelmed and overpowered Goku, breaking one of his legs and his arms. He picked Goku up by his newly crippled arm and punched him in the stomach, causing him to cough up blood.
He then tossed Goku into the air, cackling maniacally before firing a massive golden beam from his mouth, one far larger than Goku's body.
It struck Piccolo's intended target dead-on and Pan didn't have to let the scroll finish to know what fate lied in store for her grandfather in this alteration to the main timeline.
Pan closed the scroll, not wanting to see what happens from that point on.
"If my grandpa's been killed, then my dad's never born, and I..."
She looked at her hand to see any signs of anything happening to her, but she looked the same and didn't physically feel any different.
"But then how am I still here?"
"The effect has yet to transfer to the rest of the timeline, but given time, it will reach the point of your birth." answered the Supreme Kai of Time. "And then it will be too late for you."
But something else didn't add up to Pan: why would Piccolo kill her grandfather?
"Someone's controlling Piccolo, right? They have to be possessing him to do this."
The Supreme Kai of Time sighed.
"I'm afraid there's a lot you don't know about your family and friends. Piccolo as just one example."
She began forming images of past events in her hands.
"Piccolo's father was Demon King Piccolo, an evil Namekian who wreached havoc on Earth before being sealed away by Master Roshi's master. Centuries later, he was freed from his imprisonment, made a wish on the Dragon Balls for eternal youth, and briefly took over Earth, but was stopped by Goku."
She remembered when she asked Piccolo about where he came from long ago.
"My father was from space. A planet called Namek."
"And where is your dad?"
"Before he died, King Piccolo spit out an egg, which contained Piccolo Jr... the Piccolo you know."
Pan could never have imagined that Piccolo's father was an evil being, let alone that Piccolo could come from one.
"Early on in his life, Piccolo initially intended to avenge his father's death and take over the Earth. And it seems whoever is interfering with history is trying to help him succeed."
The Supreme Kai of Time could tell Pan could barely believe anything she was being told, like her whole world was being torn asunder.
"Pan, many of your grandfather's friends, including Piccolo, once began as his enemies, but over time and through his actions, they changed. And some time after this, Piccolo changed for the better as well."
But now Pan had hardened her resolve.
"But for now, I have to fight him. Keep him from killing my grandfather."
"You got it, Pan. Now let's get you goi... oh, almost forgot."
She handed Pan what looked like a tiny earpiece.
"This allows you and I to communicate with each other telepathically so that no one else can hear us."
"...so you can hear all my thoughts?"
"Only on missions. And it'll all stay strictly confidential."
Pan looked over at the Supreme Kai of Time with a doubtful look.
"Now why would I give out your information?"
"Fine. Can I get going now?"
"Yes, now..."
Pan gripped the scroll again when the Supreme Kai of Time pointed right at her.
"Wait, wait!"
"What?"
Pan saw that the Supreme Kai of Time was pointing at something behind her.
"The Power Pole!"
"What about it?"
"You should know that weapons aren't allowed in the World Martial Arts Tournament! Even the older ones!"
"Oh."
Pan handed the power pole and its case over to her.
"Anything else?"
"Just remember what the handbook says, okay?"
"Okay."
From there, Pan stood, grasping the scroll in her hand, then closing her eyes as a familiar sound overtook her:
The same sound from the day she was nearly killed, which she now recognized as her traveling through time itself.
Back in Age 756, Piccolo stood after having unleashed his attack that destroyed the World Martial Arts Tournament arena. With no sign of Goku, he was cackling in victory, his arms raised high.
"I have won."
Krillin, poking his head out from cover saw no signs of his fellow colleague...
"Goku!"
Piccolo's eyes shot up: Goku was still standing, his arms covering himself and with only some bruising to show for it.
"Surprised to see me, Junior?"
"You're... but that's impossible! You should be...!"
"Goku's alive!"
All of the friends and members of the Z-Fighters rooted for Goku as Piccolo backed up a few steps, clearly nervous at the prospect of his opponent being alive and well.
Goku got ready to return the favor.
"Alright. Let's finish this."
He charged with energy to Piccolo's surprise, who seemed terrified at this point.
"Oh no. This is really gonna hurt...!"
"A lot."
Goku charged at him, but as he was about to strike Piccolo with his elbow, something changed: Piccolo became overcome with the purple aura and managed to block Goku's strike with his palm.
"...for you," grinned Piccolo.
He pushed Goku back several feet with just one hand, then when Goku ran back in, appeared to be stopping his attacks with hardly any effort.
"How is that possible?!" exclaimed Krillin. "Junior was panicking and on the ropes earlier and now it's like he's totally fresh."
Goku gripped Piccolo's hands with his own, trying to overpower him, but already began falling to one of his knees.
"This isn't good..."
Piccolo broke the clash, hopped backward, then dashed forward as Goku looked over at him partially in panic before receiving an elbow to the face.
This struck with tremendous force, as it looked like Goku was going to be sent out of the ring. Kami couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Has Piccolo truly...won?"
A strange sound...
He and everyone else all looked over at the center of the ring to see what looked like a white silhouette in Goku's path.
It shortly revealed itself to them to be a young woman with an orange bandanna in a blue shirt, light purple pants, and dark purple fingerless gloves and shoes.
"Who is...?" asked Krillin.
Piccolo was certainly surprised to see this as well.
"Huh?"
Pan looked at her hand, seeing the scroll was no longer there.
"Okay, now to just find my..."
She turned and saw her grandfather flying backward right towards her.
*CRASH!*
Everyone was absolutely puzzled: someone had just gone into the ring and had gotten in Goku's way, and due to that, the intended ring out was prevented.
"That girl..." began Krillin. "She stopped Goku from being rung out."
Despite how honorable that sounded, Pan had taken the brunt of Goku's impact by complete accident as the two lied near the ring's edge, lying on the ground.
"Owww!" went Goku, gripping his head before turning to see Pan, who had her hands on her stomach. "Wait... who the heck are you? And what are you doing here?! This is my fight!"
Pan looked over and saw her grandfather in the flesh, about her age.
But as for his comment, she couldn't come up with any answer to the question that wouldn't result in her telling him about the future. Instead, she was struck by the first words she had ever heard from her legendary grandfather sounding somewhat ungrateful.
"Yeah, you're welcome, grandpa."
"Pan..." started the Supreme Kai of Time in her head. "Your grandfather is... well, a complicated person. Plus, you have to realize we're interfering with a one-on-one tournament."
"How are we not already changing history doing this?!" asked Pan.
"As long as we restore the correct outcome by Goku's hands, everything will be fine."
As Pan looked around while she and the Supreme Kai of Time conversed, she looked over at the others hiding in a square hole outside the ring. She had seen old pictures of how everyone looked back in their younger days and there they were, clear as day to her.
Her grandmother was a young woman with pure black hair. Despite Pan intercepting Goku's possible ring out, Chi-Chi was suspicious of her.
"Just who is that girl with the bandanna? She better not try anything funny with Goku!"
Yamcha and Tien were both much younger with the former having black hair in a ponytail and Tien with a bald head and clean shaven, as well as with a fresh scar in his chest.
"Whoever she is, I hope she's on our side, Yamcha."
"I don't know... I mean it seems to me she didn't mean to stop Goku."
Launch was in a red dress behind Tien, not a trace of grey in her blonde hair.
"If she's with us, I sure hope she's tougher than she looks."
Bulma, her hair much longer, was in an indigo outfit next to Yamcha pondering about the whole situation.
"How did she get here? And why?"
Kami, someone whom Pan didn't know or even recognize, looked over at Pan, then back to Piccolo.
"I think someone is trying to interfere with this fight... but not just her."
Roshi still looked about the same to Pan, though he had on sunglasses and a black suit. He also looked closely at Goku's opponent.
"The very attack that destroyed this arena used up much of Junior's energy. For all accounts, he was frightened at Goku's survival and could barely react to his approach... but something or someone has revitalized him."
Goku had overheard this.
"You mean that Junior is cheating?!"
Piccolo cackled after hearing this.
"Don't be so sore from me beating you. And be thankful I'm giving you time to get up before I destroy you."
He then turned to Pan and pointed at her.
"But as for you... leave the ring, now."
Goku finally stood and got back into a fighting stance as he and Piccolo both noticed Pan not moving.
"Did you not hear me, girl, or do you have a death wish?"
Her grandfather looked at her with concern.
"Even if Junior is using a dirty trick, you're going to get hurt. Get out of here."
Pan didn't say anything back to him and instead took on a martial artist stance. She tried hard to ensure it didn't resemble that of anyone he knew, so, for the time being, her stance looked like that of her mother's.
Goku thought over the whole situation: Piccolo suddenly regaining his composure and power, this girl that was there next to him in the ring, and Kami and Roshi's suspicions of interference from someone or something.
"I'd prefer this to be one-on-one... but if Junior's using someone else for power, then I guess having someone at my side should even things out."
He turned to her, this time with a smile.
"Alright then. Let's do this."
In spite of his attitude earlier, with the power at his fingertips, Piccolo was indifferent to the situation.
"Don't want to leave? No matter. I'll just kill you both."
Pan tried to remain calm and composed, but this was her first mission, and it was against Piccolo, someone who had babysat and cared for her since she was a baby... yet vastly different from the Piccolo she knew growing up.
"Piccolo..."