Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
Chronoa, tending to her garden while also keeping an eye on Tokitoki, who was drinking from the water close by, heard someone going through the gateway and stopped what she was doing.
"Toh?" went Tokitoki with a concerned tone.
Once she turned towards where he was looking, the Supreme Kai of Time understood why her oldest companion was like this:
Trunks in his olive turtleneck had his coat, which he almost always wore, wrapped around his waist, and his right hand was both missing its glove and was trying to hide in his coat's pocket.
"Ki! Ki!"
"I'm fine, Tokitoki," Trunks responded to the mystic bird. "I just need to clean myself up."
"Trunks, when Tokitoki is worried, you know there's a problem," Chronoa retorted back. "Now let me see."
"It's nothing."
He found the Supreme Kai of Time standing in his path and Tokitoki even flew next to her as he initially tried to step to the side of her.
"Toh. Ki."
Even if he didn't understand Tokitoki's speech, he could tell just from tones that it was a plea for Trunks to let them help him.
"Knew I should've stayed out longer..."
He lifted his right hand out of his coat pocket...
...holding his torn right glove and with blood covering his palm. After having a brief gasp at this, Chronoa put her shock aside and lightly held him by his wrist.
"Here, let's get this taken care of."
She didn't want to drag him, but tightened her grip just enough to let Trunks know that they were leaving. He followed her as Tokitoki watched them enter one of the two housing units, which, as they were among the oldest in Toki Toki City, just had the roman numerals II.
After Trunks put his gloves and coat into a hamper, he stood up against his bathroom sink as Chronoa stood on a chair next to him, positioning his hand over the sink to first pour green liquid over his wounded palm.
"This hasn't happened in a while, Trunks."
Once it appeared the liquid had healed the wound completely, she then turned on the faucet to soak a towel, then helped him wash his hand.
"Last time, I believe it was in your sleep..."
He peered over to his bedside table, seeing two palm guards.
"Never happened again once you gave me those."
Once his palm and fingers had been cleaned off, Trunks tried to move around her chair.
"Thanks for your help, but now I need to..."
She noticed something off about Trunks' reflection:
"Now wait a minute..."
Sticking out one of her arms, she stopped him, then put her hands on his face as she tried to get a closer look.
"Is that...?"
She found the slightest bloody fingerprint above one of his purple bangs, then pieced together...
"You wiped that handprint off with the inside of your coat."
Trunks didn't say a word, but his body language and facial expression gave away the feeling that he had been caught and couldn't get out of this situation. Chronoa, however, just rinsed the towel again.
"Trunks, you're making it seem like I'm going to punish you or something..."
She had her right hand on his left cheek as her left lightly scrubbed at the fingerprint under his bang.
"I understand there are things you don't want to share with me and I won't pry..."
Chronoa then started washing the right side of his face.
"...but when you hurt yourself, I want to know what happened so I can help you."
She concluded by scrubbing his nose, then lied the towel down into the sink. Putting both hands over his shoulders and trying to make eye contact, Chronoa asked, "Was this about Gohan?"
He understood that she was concerned with him, not with what he had done and tried to hide. While he couldn't bring himself to explain what was on his mind that led to that moment, he wholeheartedly regretted it.
"I'm sorry, Supreme Kai of Time. It was just something stupid."
She gave a light and almost playful "Hmph", having not gotten an answer out of him, then stepped down off the chair.
"I'll have your coat and gloves cleaned and repaired. But if you think you'll squeeze into your palms again..."
"It was a mistake. I just wasn't thinking earlier. It won't happen again."
She opened his unit's door to exit, peering back at him.
"If you don't want to talk about it with me, or Tokitoki... or Pan... that's fine, but just know you have that option. Always."
He nodded to her with a smile.
"Roger, roger."
Once the Supreme Kai of Time left him alone in his housing unit, he sat on his bed, contemplating his current situation.
"I just need to relax, that's all. Take my time and recenter."
With it now appearing to be night time in the Time Nest as opposed to Toki Toki City always being day time, Tokitoki slept standing up atop his perch while only one of the two housing units had a light on: unit II.
Trunks was taking a warm shower to get ready for bed.
"I was being too hard on myself."
Putting a dollop of shampoo and conditioner into his hand, he spread it across his purple hair.
"These things take time."
He then used both hands to scratch and scrub it in.
"We're not even that behind schedule."
Walking under the showerhead to rinse his hair out, he closed his eyes.
"Just a few more tries and I'm sure I'll..."
"That's what I thought too."
Trunks knew that voice from his past.
"Gohan?"
He tried to recompose.
"No, this is all just in my head."
"I figured you were just a kid, so I shouldn't go too hard on you."
The tiles on the walls of the shower almost appeared to be shaking.
"This isn't real. It's just me stressing myself out."
"That you were just a late bloomer Super Saiyan."
Now the tiles were flying off the walls one at a time, revealing something blue and purple-shaded, but which he couldn't make out.
"That you had it in you all along, but just had to go at your own pace."
"Knock it off, brain. All of this... it's not helping."
"Not helping?"
Trunks felt someone shove him from behind, forcing him to brace with his hands against what was left of the wall...
...which then seemed to shatter on impact into bricks.
"That's exactly what I was doing: not helping."
He stopped himself.
"That's not true, Gohan! You taught me what I needed to know to survive!"
Trunks then looked around, seeing rain all around him and neon lights from nearby buildings flicker on and off.
"I know this place."
"I made a mistake," went Trunks' mentor's voice. "I knew the danger. I knew the enemy. And what did I do?"
He turned, stepping into a puddle, then saw a reflection of his teenage self wearing a white long sleeve shirt with blue sleeves with "Capsule Corp." written on it.
"I babied you."
Along with that, his feet weren't bare: he had on his old laced boots and gray sweat pants.
"Didn't push you as hard as I should've."
Looking down at his hands, he saw long blue sleeves from the same shirt with slightly skinnier arms: he was his younger self.
"Thought we'd be just fine for the time being."
Peering ahead, he saw something lying down a short distance ahead of him.
"Look at what it wrought."
Trunks' eyes shot up in horror: the sight he had never wanted to see again.
"When I needed a Super Saiyan... you weren't enough."
"Gohan!"
"And it cost me everything."
He ran forward...
"GOHAN!"
...slamming into his tiled shower wall at full speed, then lying on his side as the showerhead continued raining down on him. He struck his head especially and was writhing with both hands over his face.
"When I needed a Super Saiyan..." Gohan's voice echoed.
He moved his hands back and looked at his palms...
...wounded and bleeding like they were that day.
Trunks startled himself, shouting and sitting upward, breathing heavily. He looked back to his hands, seeing that they were entirely unharmed after all, but the warm shower water coming down on his head and shoulders felt like the coldness of the rain on that day.
"Gohan needed a Super Saiyan..."
He curled up, his head on his knees.
"...and it was too late..."
Getting ready the next morning, he first threw on his olive green pants. His damaged glove wouldn't be a problem, as he had plenty of spare gloves, though now he was going without his coat, which had to be cleaned thoroughly.
Opening up his closet, he had his olive turtleneck ready to go, but also saw a beige coat sharing a hanger with a black long sleeve shirt, white knee-length shorts, teal socks, and a blue handkerchief.
"I suppose to mix my color scheme up a bit..."
As he exited and made his way towards the gateway...
"Toh! Ki!"
"Good morning, Tokitoki," Trunks greeted while waving.
Chronoa waited until he left, then came out of her housing unit towards her oldest companion.
"Toh, toh."
"I heard him last night as well."
"Ki, ki?"
The Supreme Kai of Time could only barely see it from his unit's window, but she had been inside enough times to know that Trunks had a framed picture of himself, his mother of his timeline with a jacket and cap, and...
"Gohan. The Gohan of his timeline."
"Toh, ki?"
"I really do hope he's not having another episode."
Pan, just waking up and still in Time Patrol pajamas, heard knocking.
"One moment, please..."
When she opened her door, expecting either Trunks or Commander Hale, she saw the former with a black long sleeve and blue handkerchief in place of his coat and turtleneck.
"Oh, hey. That's a new look for you."
"Well, I've worn a few things over the years with the Time Patrol."
"Something happen with your coat or...?"
"Oh, that? Uh..."
Ultimately unwilling to lie about what happened with his coat, he cleared his throat, then tried steering the conversation back to why he arrived.
"We need to talk about our next sessions."
"Sure."
Seated back at her table again...
"I'm going to be honest with you, Pan:"
Trunks had his gloved hands together and she could tell he was looking more serious than usual.
"We're behind schedule."
"You mean in regards to prep for my next mission?"
"It could be sooner than we thought and we need to be ready."
"Okay. Are we talking weeks or...?"
"Weeks at best."
"And we've been at this for two already..."
"Pan, there's no easy way to say this..."
He stood up.
"I have to push you. Further than I have already."
Even as he believed in his mind that it was the right course of action, it was hard for him to put into words what Pan would be put through.
"It could hurt. Put you under a lot of pressure. You'll darn near hate me when we're through, I'm sure of it..."
Pan stood up as well.
"I get it. Time's on the line. Gotta get me to go Super Saiyan. Let's do it."
He was initially caught off-guard by Pan not just agreeing, but doing so right away.
"I thought she'd be more hesitant..."
But he also knew her determination.
"No. She understands it's what has to be done."
"Then it's settled. Now get ready for Hale, and I'll be waiting for you right after."
"Will do."
Trunks left from there and Pan, realizing Trunks was no longer going to be able to be patient with her, knew she was going to be pushed to the brink and then some.
"It'll be tough, but he knows his stuff about Super Saiyan."
The start of Commander Hale's briefing for her training left her stunned.
"You really think I am ready for his third form? But I don't think I've properly been able to face him in his second form alone."
"That could very well be the case, but I do believe you can do this. And all of the Z-Fighters on Namek managed to survive that form as well..."
She caught him pausing.
"Ah, forgive me. They also had the assistance of the young Namekian Dende."
"Dende?!"
This was a name Pan had not heard of in a long time, but she lacked the context of his being there, as well as being that much younger.
"Wait, wait, wait... I thought he lived on the Lookout on Earth. At least, he did on mine. I know: branching timelines, multiverse stuff..."
"Dende lived on Namek before coming to Earth. In fact, your father saved his life from Frieza and his men. Krillin as well."
Pan found a piece of the simulated canyon's rock to sit down upon as Hale walked about while continuing.
"Both were immensely outmatched in power and Dodoria had wiped out the village's warriors, but your father, not wanting to witness any more Namekians killed, struck Dodoria and flew Dende to safety with Krillin covering them and even leading Dodoria away from them so they could hide."
Pan had gone through phases of looking down on the power of Earthlings compared to Saiyans, as well as her only partial Saiyan status, any yet here was a tale of her father, even with him being half-Saiyan, and Krillin, a full-blooded human, having risked their lives to save a complete stranger even with the odds overwhelmingly against them.
"Heh."
"Something the matter, Miss Pan?"
"For how much I've looked down on my human side, I forget what the likes of Krillin and Yajirobe did. Not just surviving themselves, but saving others through their actions."
She then saw Hale forming an olive green hologram of Frieza in his massively tall second form she had practiced for alongside others.
"Dende proved pivotal in their survival against Frieza, saving each of them from near-death through his healing abilities."
"Even Vegeta?"
"For how powerful his boost was after Recoome, where he was even stronger than Captain Ginyu..."
She recalled just how effortlessly he harmed the likes of Recoome after that power-up, as well as easily dispatched Jeice when given the chance. While Ginyu in Goku's body held more than his own against Vegeta, Pan knew it came down to Towa's meddling.
"Ginyu only stayed in it as long as he did because of Towa's formula connecting him to my grandfather's brain and the Kaio-Ken and Kaio-Ken times four."
"With each of Frieza's transformations, Vegeta found himself as outmatched as the rest of his allies. Not one could survive or withstand fighting Frieza on their own."
"That's why we're jumping to his third form today," Pan began to conclude. "None of them had time to acclimate to it either. Can't afford for me to get comfy with the other two."
Hale's hologram then transitioned to Frieza's third form...
...only slightly shorter, hunched over, and his shoulders and the back of his head elongated.
"I'd say he's uglier, but his looks are the last thing I'm concerned about..."
"There will be more specific techniques of his to cover, but for today, we will have a more specific focus... particularly on one technique you've used upon first battling on Namek."
"The Kaio-Ken."
"You have made much use of Kaio-Ken against your enemies, but against the likes of Frieza, you will have to go further."
"You mean Kaio-Ken times six or seven?"
"I mean, I suppose I could do that. Just a little higher than four."
"All the way to Times ten."
Pan found herself falling back from where she sat, then climbing back up.
"I've acclimated to Times Four for so long now... but Times Ten?! Me times ten?!"
"I would neither expect you to perform such perfectly on your first try nor master it immediately, Miss Pan..."
Pan then hopped over the small rock formation with one hand, then landed with a fighting stance.
"But the meter's running. So let's go."
Commander Hale closed his eyes, then raised and clenched his fist while taking a breath.
"Let us begin."
Pan caught him gesturing to fly towards her left and moved accordingly, but then saw nothing of him, feeling a massive breeze pass her, as well as noted the ground shift from his movement alone. She had to move again, the same breeze passing her on the right, but before Pan could turn around, she had to duck.
It was only partially successful, with Hale not striking the back of her head, but between that and her scalp, knocking her forward and knocking off her bandanna. Pan thought catching her bandanna would only allow Hale another hit and quickly shouted "Kaio-Ken!" before pushing herself off the ground with her hands, putting her above the emerging Hale as he tried slamming her back down.
"Times Four!"
She zoomed backward from the approaching Hale, then tried to lead him on a chase. Now Hale's movements could be seen with her eyes...
...but he still had her outpaced, forcing her to duck to avoid several passes.
"I'm following him a lot better, but he's still so much faster."
She then felt herself bump into something:
"There shouldn't be anything for me to hit! I'm far enough away from...!"
Pan saw Hale, arms raised. Her attempt to guard against this had her struck back down, landing on her feet, but cratering where she stood. She found herself having trouble moving her arms down from their guarding position.
"My wrists..."
Even with Kaio-Ken Times Four, the hit left her arms immensely sore.
Back in one of their first sessions, Hale kept his offensive going regardless of Pan's state, but here, he remained floating in view and waited with crossed arms.
"Frieza won't wait on me, Hale."
"But I will, at least right now, Miss Pan. I want to see you try times ten unhindered."
First, she deactivated her Kaio-Ken Times Four, slightly hunched as her arms finally lowered down.
"You've seen and felt that times four will only help so much... against his third form out of the four."
"Judging from your speed just now without any Kaio-Ken, I'm going to guess his third form's power is about..."
Counting with her right hand...
"Triple or quadruple that of his second form's."
"A very educated guess. And quite close, in fact."
He took on a stance, but appeared not to be approaching her.
"Once you go Times Ten, I will combat you again. And I want you to see what it can do against such speed and strength."
Breathing out, Pan clenched both her fists.
"Kaio-Ken...!"
A red aura was over her body.
"...Times TEN!"
Now the aura was especially massive, almost appearing to encircle Pan.
"This... this is Times Ten...!"
The moment she flew towards Hale, he moved towards her as well, the two going for shoulder charges. The collision between the two not only led to cracks in nearby structures, but all but shattered those in the closest vicinity of them.
And thus far, Pan found Hale wasn't overpowering her.
"It's actually matching him!"
Hale broke it off and zoomed away, and even without seeing where he went, Pan's senses were dialed up to 11.
"I can hear him moving. Even smell changes in the air."
As Hale went for a sneak attack, Pan finally located him and took hold of his wrist. She then turned the two around while running in place, then flipped him off his feet and onto his back.
"This power...!"
She caught Hale about to spin on the ground and hopped backward, avoiding his swinging feet and tail. Once he was back on his feet, Pan punched at him, him redirecting with his wrists, but not seeming able to outpace her.
"This speed...!"
"That's it, Miss Pan!"
But as he said this, Hale then found the last two punches of Pan's came in much slower and immediately knew why.
"Agh! This whole time...!"
Now Pan stepped back, Hale making no move to attack as he could see she was now struggling with her power-up.
"Talk to me, Miss Pan! Just what is...?!"
"My muscles...!"
Her training jacket, while seeming to withstand the increase in size, did have small tears to the sides and on the sleeves starting to emerge.
"If this keeps up, my body will make Goku's after Times Four look like a shrimp."
She put both hands over her chest, specifically over...
"My heart! It's beating too fast!"
If Pan had tried to count her heartbeats in this moment, she'd have found it was at a pace no human heart was ever meant to reach, let alone exceed.
"Times ten the senses... and times ten the heart rate!"
It would be one thing if she were engaged in high speed combat or movement in this moment, but here, Pan was simply standing and her heart continued at this rate as if she were in a life-or-death battle.
"It's going to tear through my chest!"
"You have to relax your muscles, Pan!"
"They won't relax! They're freaking out right now!"
Hale knew just how dire the situation of Kaio-Ken going too far unchecked with the user unable to get out of it was getting, and immediately pressed on his gauntlet.
"Send Beetro to the Training Chamber on the double!"
Pan knew Hale would not let her die from this, standing to her side with his right hand in a chopping position.
"If it comes to it, I will render you unconscious. The Kaio-Ken will cease then."
Pan at first felt relieved that Hale could stop Kaio-Ken Times Ten from going as far as killing her, but then thought...
"My muscles won't stop themselves while I'm awake... unless..."
Pan fell to her knees and she saw Hale readying his right arm. She let go of her chest to gesture to him to...
"Wait!"
He did, then saw her closing her eyes and attempting to keep her upper body up straight. Pan's arms were to her side instead of her chest and her breathing, while heavy as it had been at first, then began to slow down and focus.
For Pan, now her surroundings became quiet to everything around her. Instead of hearing the build-up in power around her, she imagined calm winds, the sounds of water, perhaps that of a pond, and birds chirping.
Hale found that Pan was no longer panicked, calming herself to the point of near-meditation. He then caught a small smile on her face as, with one last exhale, she had finally exited Kaio-Ken Times Ten, the intense red aura gone.
She slowly shifted to sitting down with her legs crossed, finding her muscles had bulked up, but her jacket remained in one piece.
"Are you alright, Miss Pan?"
"Quite."
It was clear Pan was feeling sore and tried to keep her movements as minimal as possible, but she otherwise kept relaxed.
"I think we've both come to the same conclusion for next time, Hale."
The two heard footsteps, having not paid the training chamber's doors any attention.
"You called me here, Hale?"
Beetro, a medical case in hand, looked as if he had sprinted across for an emergency and, while he noted Pan's much larger muscle mass from Kaio-Ken, otherwise saw the situation seemed under control.
"I..."
"Sorry about that, Beetro. I gave you both a good scare there."
"Times Ten?" Beetro inquired.
Hale seemed hesitant to answer while Pan nodded to answer him.
"As you now know, forms of Kaio-Ken exceeding a single digit can be considerably harder to get out of, especially on the first few tries. It's why it's never to be attempted alone as it can be life-threatening in the worst scenarios."
"That's why he's here," Pan replied, keeping things lighthearted. "I gotta use Times Ten in much, MUCH shorter bursts... at least for now."
While Hale could tell Pan was trying to alleviate their situation from before, he finally spoke on the matter to Beetro.
"I should've accounted for the strain. Informed her to exit shortly after a brief use."
"Well, do you have a stopwatch?" she asked.
"No, but I can set a timer all the same."
Hale found Beetro did not appear dismissive or to have cast blame on him.
"Then that is good," Beetro replied, kneeling down to open up his case. "Though in the meantime..."
Pan found him taking out a vial and handing it to her.
"This won't bring the muscles down immediately, but it will make it less taxing and speed things up somewhat."
Now making his way back to his feet...
"I would suggest that you let your body recover while Hale goes over Frieza's techniques."
Hale not only nodded to Beetro, but began to unclench and smile.
"Sounds like a plan, Beetro."
Smiling back to Hale and to Pan as well, Beetro then took his leave.
"Carry on."
Hale crouched down to help Pan up.
"Might I ask how it is you managed to ease yourself out of Times Ten?"
She took his hand.
"I focused on a memory."
"Of training?"
He lifted Pan onto her feet.
"No. A happy memory."
She looked aside for a moment.
"Not viable in a live battle, I know."
"Perhaps not, Miss Pan, but it is viable here."
A small group of various patrollers gathered together in the Time Machine Station.
"You too, huh?"
"Yeah. Can't get in to use the Training Chamber."
"Just need somewhere to blow off steam besides the academy."
"I'm supposed to have an exam in there to advance to the 60's."
"I mean what gives?"
Pima, overhearing the chatter from his usual spot, wanted nothing more than to shout out what he knew to be obvious.
"First, it was the city-wide slowdown from time dilation in that chamber..."
He accepted, but was not content with him being passed on even with all his strength.
"Now it's all but exclusively booked for her."
"What could be so important that it's all but blocked off to all of us?" went another patroller.
Pima stepped out from his corner, his first step clearly audible to those discussing this topic, as he finally gave them the answer.
"She's fighting Frieza. They wouldn't be doing this if she was ready for it by now."
He departed from the area, not hearing any of the chatter that followed as he not-so-privately brooded to himself.
"I could take Frieza... like I could have taken the rest before him... if they wanted me to."
"So you had a bit of a scare earlier today..."
"Hale and I sure did."
Pan began her session with Trunks with the two sitting down with crossed legs.
"Times Ten. I couldn't imagine what that does to the body."
"I remember passing out when Amura first had me try Kaio-Ken. I'm just glad I got out of it before that could happen again, or worse."
After she said this, Pan caught Trunks getting back onto his feet and looking away.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No. Just time to cut the chit chatter."
His tone went from casual to that of a mentor.
"You may think that the secret to going Super Saiyan is desire. A desire of what you want."
Turning back to her, his face especially serious at that moment...
"You have desired to go Super Saiyan all your life, but now, against Frieza, it cannot be a desire any more."
Pan felt her sitting there almost casually was no longer appropriate and made her way up.
"It is not born of a desire, but from a need."
From her sessions with Hale thus far only covering three of Frieza's four forms, the third of which required Kaio-Ken Times Ten to even match, and the fourth she couldn't begin to imagine...
"If it so much as eclipses his third form, I am going to need it."
Even as he caught both Pan pondering and her still slightly bulked muscles, Trunks asked, "Are you ready to start?"
"I already have the feeling what no would mean..."
"He won't wait for me to be ready."
He nodded.
"Pan gets it."
"That is the correct answer."
A rock shattered as Pan caught Hale destroying it with what for a normal human would appear to be only a glance.
"A basic technique, but one Frieza may use when you least expect it."
Now pointing his finger at another rock...
"This, however, is one of his primary means of ranged attack in his final form."
Pan had to shrug off the fact she knew this ranged technique by heart, almost feeling her arms and legs ache once the beam left his fingertip and pierced a hole in the rock's center.
"So Frieza knows the Dodon Ray?"
"It does appear to be quite similar, I will grant you, but it is not. One difference being Frieza's anatomy allows him to perform such a death beam with very little effort, whereas even the Dodon Ray requires considerably more of a user's power."
He then demonstrated this with a barrage of beams towards a larger rock, the resulting hits not so much drilling into it as going straight through.
"I do not wish to invoke memories on your part, Miss Pan, but from your experience, you must know to either avoid these beams at all cost or, if you have the sufficient power necessary, repel them."
Trunks believed Pan was trying to obtain Super Saiyan with a calmer, more controlled state of mind compared to other sessions.
"It won't appear the first time through a clear mind, a clear head, or a clear picture. It's none of those things."
Even with his frustration, he was clearly trying to keep collected as he felt an instructor should.
"It's about letting go. You can't let go half-way. It has to be all the way."
Pan now saw Hale encircled by boulders, then appearing to lift them into the air with only the slightest gesture of his hand. Captain Ginyu had done the same to the seven Namekian Dragon Balls and flew with them in tow with so little effort, yet this seemed even more effortless to her.
Instead of throwing them as she had anticipated, Hale stacked them atop and between each other like a house of cards, then got ready to swipe his hand.
"Watch carefully."
And with the resulting swipe, something fired rapidly, scattering the boulders and leaving a crescent-shaped crater.
"I almost didn't see them, but they almost looked like..."
"Blades of ki. A barrage of them created all at once."
She had struggled against Jeice's ki blade prior, though by the time she was facing Ginyu, she had finally managed to not just redirect or counter it, but could even stop it. Now this was several of those blades at once.
"Now stand back for this one."
A ball of immense ki formed from his index and middle fingers joined together and with a swing, a ki blade that almost appeared like a whip curved and swung into the ground, the impact and the ensuing crater well past Pan's view.
"When he used this technique on Namek, it could stretch miles across the entire planet."
"Recoome was said to be able to do that kind of damage with his Eraser Gun. It was basically his ultimate attack... but with Frieza, it's barely even a display of his power."
"Think of the last moments of your Earth."
Now Trunks was trying to get Pan to focus on the specifics that triggered her transformation.
"Describe it to me, Pan."
Her eyes closed, she was picturing the carnage Frieza unleashed upon catching up to her, Bulla, her mother and grandmother, and Hercule. Trunks could see her face twisting away from anger to mourning.
"Stay angry, Pan. Stay angry!"
She tried doing as he suggested, her fisted hand all but punching away a tear before returning it to her side.
"Now describe it."
Pan heard and saw the moment Frieza caught up clear as day:
"Yamcha... he gave his life for us..."
"There is time to mourn later, young lady."
Pan looked over at her grandmother as she spoke.
"We have to find Fortuneteller Baba... Roshi's older sister. She's the only hope we have now."
"What can she do?" Bulla inquired.
"She can summon someone who can help us."
"Who?"
As Bulla asked this, Pan turned to her, and by the time Chi-Chi opened her mouth to answer back...
"..."
Pan turned to see Frieza standing in front of her grandmother, piercing into her stomach with his hand.
"My grand..."
Even with Trunks' directive, she struggled to make words.
"She... my grandmother..."
"Tell me what happened, Pan."
Her grandmother's life, as far as Pan knew, may have ended when Frieza booted the lying Chi-Chi away with a kick to her head.
"She was... a kick..."
"And what happened next?"
Pan heard and saw her mother slammed onto the golden Frieza's knee back-first.
"My mother... her back..."
Trunks was getting some descriptions, but felt Pan had to give more to push her into transforming.
"We need more detail. More specifics to bring out Super Saiyan."
"What happened to Bulla?"
Talking about all these deaths taxed Pan, but now here Trunks was asking about one of the losses she wanted to avoid discussing most of all.
She heard the impact of several ki blasts with Bulla.
"Blasted..."
Along with this, Pan could hear the choking of Hercule in Frieza's hand.
"And Hercule..."
"Hercule what?"
"He..."
Hercule's frozen pink face stared at her.
"He what, Pan?"
"Choked... with one hand..."
"And what about Bulla?"
As much as Trunks didn't intend it, to Pan, this session was turning into an interrogation.
"My sister, Pan. What happened to her?"
She heard Bulla spitting in Frieza's face, then couldn't bear what came next.
"Trunks, I..."
"What happened to my sister?!"
A death beam flashed between Pan's eyes...
...as she shouted out, her hair becoming a golden hue...
...but it was flickering almost immediately.
"Hold that anger, Pan! HOLD!"
He could see Pan's anger clearly, but could also see other emotions conflicting with it.
"It made you angry, Pan, but why?"
The flashes seemed to slow for a moment.
"Tell me why. Why are you angry?!"
They slowed down even moreso even without Pan having answered him.
"What makes you angry?!"
Pan looked to be opening her mouth to answer him...
"M..."
...then lied down on her side, the golden aura having left her. Even before Trunks approached her, he felt her slamming her fist into the simulated ground, causing a shake.
"What do I keep screwing up about this?" she asked, not rageful, but clearly unhappy.
Despite how much he had been pushing her thus far, Trunks still offered her a hand up.
"Even with this, there comes a time to stop, and this is it."
"Look, Pan, we'll stop for today and then..."
"You're the instructor here. You can tell me, Trunks."
She didn't take his hand and instead peered at the ground.
"What am I getting wrong?"
Trunks sat down, as if trying to figure out the answer himself.
"I wish I knew, Pan. This is the best I've got."
"I think it's a matter of bottling up."
She lifted her head back up, then transitioned to lying on her back.
"I really hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, Pan, but we worry about what others will think... what we could do... so we bottle up. We bottle up a lot."
She nodded to him, having found herself unable to disagree with him.
"When you need to transform into a Super Saiyan, you have to stop bottling up. Let it all out, whatever it is you're feeling angry about. Every last bit. Okay?"
Another nod followed.
"Good. Then let's call it a wrap."
He walked to her left side, then crouched down with a hand, which she finally took. Now that Pan was back on her feet, he couldn't help but look down for a moment.
"I know I said I'd push you so much it'd hurt, and what I was doing earlier just now was..."
"I get it, Trunks. There's a reason for it."
"Still, part of me knows this whole thing on your end must be just..."
He caught her putting a hand on his shoulder.
"You know what you're doing, Trunks."
After patting it twice, she headed towards the training chamber's exit.
"It can't be easy for either of us. That's why it'll work."
Despite Pan's lack of discouragement and her utter confidence in him...
"I really wish I could believe that I do..."
That night, Trunks seemed to be sleeping soundly even with how the day had gone earlier. His mind wandered back to old memories:
There he was as a teen sitting next to his world's Gohan in a more rocky region, not by the water where they normally trained.
"Man, what a joke."
His mentor, standing in front of him, could tell Trunks was in a funk.
"Relax, Trunks. Let's put that aside for right now."
"What am I getting wrong, Gohan? Why can't I go Super Saiyan?"
"You can. It just takes the right motivation."
"I want to stop the Androids. Stop them from hurting anyone else. Isn't that motivation enough?"
He tried squeezing his fingers into his palms, but stopped upon recognizing how much it hurt to do so.
"Why isn't that good enough?"
"Trunks, the universe isn't telling you that it's not good enough. You have good intentions, no doubt about it, but that's not the key to Super Saiyan. For me, it's..."
Gohan stopped, then sat down to the left of Trunks.
"Look, you've heard me go over Piccolo and Krillin's deaths what feels like a thousand times now. And frankly, I have no idea how your father did it..."
"But I'm his son! The son of Vegeta! If my father could go Super Saiyan and I can't, what does that make me?!"
"Just because you haven't yet doesn't mean you're..."
"Maybe I physically can't! Maybe I'm biologically unable to! All because I'm not a Saiyan like him! Because of...!"
"Hey!"
He pointed with his right hand.
"You mind your mother, Trunks."
Catching what he almost said about Bulma, his own mother, Trunks hunched over further, his chest to his knees and his hands toward his heels.
"I'm sorry, Gohan. I didn't mean to talk like that. It's all on me. Nobody else. I'm just..."
He looked down directly at his feet.
"I guess... I'm just not good enough to do it."
He didn't hear a response from Gohan and couldn't think of anything else to add himself. Trunks couldn't bring himself to tear up, almost as if he believed it would've been beneath him to do so, instead remaining in a self-loathing state.
"Hey," went his mentor, kneeling down to look him in the eyes at his current eye level.
Trunks still couldn't bring himself to face him, so Gohan gently lifted him by his chin with his hand.
"Trunks, you're the brother I never had and you have your whole life ahead of you. You will become a Super Saiyan some day."
He knew Gohan would say something to ease his spirits, but this actually began to lift them.
"You really think I can do it?"
"Oh, I don't think it. I know it."
A smile began to form on his face...
...when an explosion, barely audible, could be heard in the far distance. The two made it to their feet to face its direction and both could tell this was neither an accident nor the cause of anyone other than the ones they already suspected.
"Damn them!"
Trunks was ready to race off when from behind...
**CHOP**
...he was struck on the back of his neck.
"Such a rookie mistake!" went Gohan, his gentle tone from before now entirely gruff.
Trinks fell onto his chest, immobilized for only a moment before lifting himself up by his arms.
"Turning your back to an ally! An ally bigger and stronger than you! Not anticipating them wanting to bench you!"
He saw his coat and gloves instead of his blue long sleeves and bare hands: he wasn't his younger self anymore.
"I thought I taught you better than that! Evidently, I did not."
Trunks rose to his feet to face him after his comment.
"No, Gohan. You taught me well."
"How? You couldn't go Super Saiyan, even with all of my instructions."
Clenching his fist before his pupil...
"Clearly, you had yourself a bad teacher."
"You weren't a bad teacher, Gohan. I was..."
A sniffle made its way through.
"I was a bad student."
A tear escaped his eye.
"I failed you."
"Past tense, Trunks."
After hearing this, Trunks turned, seeing that Gohan had disappeared.
"What?"
"Just what have you been teaching her?!"
"Y-you don't mean...?"
"My daughter, Trunks."
Now Trunks was no longer in the rocky region, instead standing in the Plaza of Time.
"I never taught you the secret."
Lightning nearly struck where Trunks stood followed by rain coming down and the loud roar of thunder.
"What makes you think you can succeed with her where I failed with you?"
Now the temperature began to drop and the rain turned into hail.
"You're already making the same mistakes I did."
As Trunks had his gloved hands against his mouth to keep his face warm, he caught something lying on the now snow-covered ground, but upon closer inspection...
"Are you going to fail my daughter like I failed you?"
...it was Pan as she appeared on the first day he had met her: nearly frozen.
"Like you failed me?!"
He held her close to try to warm her, but found only ice cold breaths left her.
"Are you going to let my family die?!"
To his horror, Pan's skin, clothes, and hair all began to become covered in what seemed like a layer of ice. His gloves couldn't do a thing to stop it and soon found that her body was completely petrified like he was holding a statue instead of a person.
"HUH, BROTHER?!"
Now Pan was no longer flesh, but instead like she was composed entirely of ice. Trunks could see his own reflection...
"If my Pan dies..."
...which shifted to that of his younger self.
"...her blood is on your hands..."
For a moment, Trunks didn't feel the icy cold of holding Pan and instead felt another body. Peering down, it was wearing orange and blue gi.
"Just like..."
Trunks shouted as he sat up in his bed, his sheets flying forward and knocking over various items in their path. He couldn't hear if anything fell down hard or broke as his heavy breathing was all he could catch at that moment.
Once he began to slow down his breaths, he looked over at his hands, the palm guards having worked, but with indents from how hard he was squeezing.
His first order of business was to turn on the lights and get his sheets back onto his bed. He found the sheets over by a small table and as he picked it up...
…a sharp sensation which he knew to be glass. He pulled the sheet down from its corner, revealing his framed photo from his world. Aside from several pieces that had gotten out, the glass frame had cracks that all but obscured Gohan's face entirely.
"I don't know how you did it, Gohan..."
After putting his sheets back atop his bed, he peered into his open closet, seeing a set of body armor and a suit designed by his mother of the new main timeline he had helped create. By the point he was wearing it, only Goku, himself, and Vegeta had become Super Saiyans.
"It was just us three..."
But he recalled doors opening, and not only did Goku exit through as a Super Saiyan...
"...but your younger self..."
In the days that ensued before the Cell Games, Trunks had inquired to the teenager who was his mentor in his own timeline just how he had managed to obtain it.
"Of course!"
It was all coming back to him.
"I know what I have to do now."
Getting dressed on the double, Trunks exited his unit and headed towards the gate out of the Time Nest.
"Toh! Toh!"
Tokitoki flew into his path.
"I've rested enough, Tokitoki. This is important."
"Ki! Ki!"
"I said I'm okay. I just need to get out there and prepare the next session."
"Toh."
Chronoa, opening the door to her unit quietly, could see and hear Trunks was getting impatient.
"You think I'm about to push Pan too hard?"
"Ki. Toh."
"Well I won't let her die against Frieza. Now move."
"Toh, ki. Toh, ki."
"I'm going! Now get out of my way!"
Try as the mystical bird did to step to the side and expand its wings out to keep Trunks from walking around him, Trunks instead slid directly underneath him, then ran towards the gate.
"Ki! Toh, Ki!"
Whether Trunks heeded his last words or not, Tokitoki saw and heard him leave his presence entirely.
"Tokitoki!"
Chronoa ran to Tokitoki, one of her oldest friends, and saw him putting his head down.
"You don't really think Trunks would do that, do you?"
"Toh. Toh."
His dejected tone gave her pause in regards to how seriously Tokitoki took Trunks' attitude and what he thought Trunks was about to do.
"He has his limits. He wouldn't go that far... but if he felt it was the only way for Pan to survive..."
Pan made her way down the steps towards the training chamber, thinking over what Trunks had told her the day before.
"You have to stop bottling up. Let it all out, whatever it is you're feeling angry about. Every last bit. Okay?"
She was certain she was early, beating Trunks there, but was curious to find the door was open, as well as a complete lack of him there to greet her.
"Are you in there, Trunks?"
She entered, the same formations surrounded by water she and Trunks had trained in for some time seemingly void of his presence.
"Trunks?"
"Why would he not be in here?"
She tried sensing him, but was finding no trace of his ki.
"Why would he leave the door open for me? To work on my own?"
Pan heard the doors close...
...followed by that sound she had heard when she faced Goten in the tournament, when four gathered to fight against Frieza, and when Trunks had to fly her across Namek quickly...
...Trunks was above her, having gone Super Saiyan and now building up a massive amount of ki in his hands.
"Now listen carefully...!"
He had his hands in a diamond shape, the power it was creating far eclipsing any she had encountered in any of her battles.
"This attack's going to go straight towards you!"
Pan's first knee-jerk reaction was to get herself ready for a roll or a hop to avoid it and Trunks could tell from her stance it's what she was thinking of doing on reflex.
"You have to stay right there! Avoiding this isn't an option!"
Pan understood this, but with the amount of power he was generating, one that put estimates of Frieza to shame...
"Wait, but Trunks, I...!"
"As you are, you won't be able to stop it! You're only going to be able to stop it with your anger!"
Even with Trunks, her instructor, as a Super Saiyan before him, she didn't like her odds in this moment.
"Anger's going to stop this thing?! Stop it from ripping me apart?!"
"Trunks, this...! I don't know if this will...!"
"Now here goes!"
Having no choice in the matter, she took on a stance to repel it, timing it as Trunks finally released the orb from his palms.
"Kaio-Ken TIMES TEN!"
Pan had managed to stop it, but she felt it in her body that she would not be able to keep the orb at bay for long. It was already starting to drag her back inch by inch, and its sheer force was already causing the rocky ground around her to crack.
"I'm stopping it for now, but once this goes out... so do I."
Trunks knew just as well as Pan that her Kaio-Ken would only last so long, especially times ten, and thought about what would awaken her inner Super Saiyan.
"We've gone over everyone she lost in that battle and its aftermath. Everyone she's SEEN die. Let's see who else..."
"Your classmates! Your teachers! People working at your favorite stores!"
Pan, ignoring the glowing orb threatening to bring down and engulf her, closed her eyes and began visualizing them.
"All the people coming home from work! Children who had just woken up! Families with no care in the world!"
Pan's face twisted away to sorrow briefly, but then seethed again with rage.
"But it's still not pushing her past the brink!"
He tried thinking of people who would be almost like family to Pan, but would not have been present in such a battle.
"Puar and Oolong!"
The two took turns transforming to the amusement of the young Pan, sitting and clapping at their antics as she giggled at each funny face they made.
"Probably at Kame House watching TV! No harm came to them, right?!"
It especially struck hard with Puar since she knew...
"He was Yamcha's oldest friend. Yamcha... he died without him."
"Korin!"
Her parents both watched as Pan, donned in her orange gi from training with Master Roshi, chased after Korin with glee.
"Come here, Kitty!"
He had outpaced her so far, but even he was astonished at her speed.
"My, she's fast for a little one."
"On his tower as usual! Totally safe, huh?!"
And like with Yamcha, she recalled...
"Yajirobe. He left Korin to join us. Korin had no idea what would..."
Trunks tried to think of more non-combatants when one of the most obvious hit him.
"My mother..."
"What about Bulma and all the people she was evacuating?! Did they make it out okay?!"
A flash of several memories all at once:
Pan starting to say words, and pronouncing Bulma's name.
Bulma showing Pan the four star Dragon Ball.
Pan walking alongside Bulma, Bulla, and Vegeta.
Tears started, but then seemed to evaporate.
"I always told Bulla that Bulma was like a second mom to me. Not just because she knew Goku the longest. No. She truly was."
He saw Pan's Kaio-Ken dissipating away and golden glows forming in their place.
"Just one last push..."
Pan, even in this continuing rage, almost dreaded who Trunks would mention next.
"What about Colm?!"
Her eyes shot open, not having anticipated this.
"I only brought him up once... but now Trunks is..."
"You saved his life! Taught him how to fly!"
The events Trunks described came back to her, as did their last day together...
The day Colm left, she was hugged by him.
"Thank you, Pan... so much... for everything."
Then after he waved and said "Goodbye," to her...
"See you next time."
"My last words to him..."
She could almost swear she felt Colm's hug from that day, warm from the coat he wore.
"He never got to..."
More and more steam fumed from near her eyes as more tears were vaporized upon trying to touch down on her face.
"He's just back in his village, awaiting your visit! Isn't he, Pan?!"
Trunks saw that this had registered the strongest reaction by far, Pan now starting to float off the ground, as well as...
"The hints of gold are staying longer! This could be it! Just a little more..."
"How does all that make you feel?!"
She wasn't speaking at this point, just shouting with guttural sounds in between.
"Colm had his whole life ahead of him, and Frieza... he..."
Trunks, keeping his mentor demeanor, almost couldn't help but smile from seeing Pan near her transformation as planned.
"I've almost done it, Gohan. Just like it worked for your younger self..."
"Tell me, Pan! WHAT. DO. YOU. FEEL."
Now peering over at Trunks, seeing past the orb.
"Out of everyone, Frieza..."
"WHAT! DO! YOU! FEEL?!"
Closing her eyes and looking away...
"You're finally going to be a Super Saiyan, Pan!"
"It should've been me!"
Upon hearing her shout this, instead of believing he had succeeded...
...he was in dismay.
"That can't be right."
For the first time since starting this session to end all sessions, Trunks wasn't set on pushing Pan even further beyond, but instead worried she had been hurt by him.
"You can't really mean that, Pan."
"Colm had nothing to do with any of it! Frieza could've just taken me and left him and everyone else! It's not fair!"
Trunks couldn't believe Pan was directing her anger at herself.
"No, no. This isn't... not like this..."
And she continued.
"My mom! My dad! Everyone! Everyone who fought alongside me! With everything they had done before I existed! What they could've still done!"
"Pan, you can't trade..."
"Bulla! If I hadn't been held down, I'd have done anything to stop that beam from hitting her! I'd have taken her place! If she were wished here instead of me, you could've met your sister!"
Trunks saw Pan's tears were no longer being dissipated, coming down cleanly in the midst of her seething anger.
"Goten! My uncle Goten trained his whole life to live up to my grandfather!"
Now she slouched over.
"He won the tournament! He went Super Saiyan!"
Her posture took a worse turn.
"It should've been his turn! Goten's time!"
Her hair flashing gold was now going slower and slower as her feet slowly began to touch back down.
"He should be the one here! You and him working together! And I..."
Her anger began to dissipate.
"I robbed him of it."
And upon transitioning to a quiet sadness...
"It should've been me.
...the gold was no more...
...and with her having exited Kaio-Ken during her ranting at herself, the orb now pushed her back full-force. The floor beneath her gave out almost immediately and she instinctively brought out her ki shield before the orb struck, but was being sent back fast towards the water below.
"It could kill her! Oh God, what have I done?!"
Trunks tried flying around the orb's path to intercept it with a blast or even stop it by hand.
"I wasn't helping Pan at all! And if I don't stop that now...!"
Seeing herself about to strike the water, not knowing if she'd hit the training chamber's bottom soon after...
"Kaio-Ken...!"
Trunks didn't stop, heading straight for the orb to knock it away from Pan.
"I'm going to make this right! I'll...!"
"Times TWENTY!"
The moment she began this, she should've been submerged, but instead, the waters around her didn't even touch her. It almost seemed as if the sheer energy around her was turning any liquid in her closest vicinity to steam. The orb's momentum ceased completely and Pan turned herself around in the opposite direction and lifted it to change its course.
During all this, Trunks just kept flying in her direction faster, so intent on crashing into the orb with all his might he didn't even notice Pan stopping it herself, as if he was flying so fast time stopped around him.
"I won't let your daughter die, Gohan! I won't fail you again!"
Pan then appeared to throw it overhead with both hands like a soccer ball, sending it into the distance.
Trunks, meanwhile, zoomed past her, realizing then that Pan had sent the orb away, and at the speed he was going, splashed down straight into the water.
Now that the orb no longer threatened her, Pan immediately left Kaio-Ken times twenty, but even having only used it for a few seconds, she fell, lying on her back...
...on solid ground: the very bottom of the training chamber. She expected the waters to take her soon after, but it was as if she were surrounded by a small barrier keeping them at bay.
Pan had been fueled by anger for some time, and in the brief moment that followed had to act fast to save herself. Whether because she was drained or left adrift after unleashing so much raw emotion, she didn't know what to think.
"Pan."
She looked up at Trunks, his clothes and his handkerchief soaked from his splash down, running over to her, then stopping short of entering her circle.
"Trunks. You must've landed pretty hard there. Are you okay?"
He crouched down, his head over his knees.
"I don't deserve an apology for what I just did to you."
"You were pushing me to become a Super Saiyan. Hard, but..."
"I could've killed you!"
He struck the ground with his hand, splashing it upward, but still not reaching Pan, as he then transitioned to sitting down. Pan saw his face completely wet, making it hard to discern whether he had tears or if it was water already there.
"I forced sink or swim onto you! Made you hate yourself just now!"
"Trunks, that wasn't anything new."
"Please tell me you don't hate yourself, Pan."
"I don't hate myself, Trunks. This feeling has been with me since I first woke up here. When I realized everything that happened wasn't a dream. That everyone but me was... is gone."
He figured out the exact cause...
"When I told you to stop bottling up..."
"It came to the surface. Anger at being the only one who got away."
"That feeling..."
After Pan caught Trunks pausing, he scooched forward, still just shy of entering her circle.
"I never told you what happened to my world's Gohan."
Pan saw Trunks being choked up regarding the topic he was about to discuss, but he finally pushed himself to speak at length.
"The last time Gohan and I trained, it wasn't here. It was somewhere new. He might've thought changing things up would've done something for me. But the Androids attacked a city in the far distance. We both got ready to leave, but he told me to stay where I was. I told him I wasn't going to let him go alone with his injury from when we fought the Androids together. We were both nearly killed in that last battle. I was in bad shape, but Gohan saved me at the cost of healing himself."
Pan started to lift her upper body upward slightly so she could try sitting up and look directly at him eye-to-eye.
"At first, he said he agreed for us to work together once again. When I turned my back to him..."
He put his hand in a chopping stance to the back of his neck to illustrate his next point.
"Gohan knocked me out. Benched me himself. And when I finally woke up and reached the city..."
He peered down at his hands, imagining them shaking someone...
"You can't leave me!"
His younger self in the rain tried getting this body to move.
"Why? Why did you have to go it alone?"
No matter how much he tried finding any signs of life, there were none.
"No! No, no, no! No, it's not fair! It just isn't fair!"
Now Pan could see a tear on his face separate from the rest of the water on him.
"Gohan was dead."
In all their talks on the subject, Pan never knew just what Trunks time traveling and joining the Time Patrol meant for his mentor, and even when she tried finding out, Trunks either dodged the question or redirected the conversation elsewhere.
"Trunks never had a father growing up. Gohan basically was his father and he... he lost him."
A tear dropped onto the water by his sitting lower body, leaving a ripple.
"All I could think in that moment was why him? Why did he have to leave me? And..."
As if Pan were reading his mind, she knew what four words he was going to say next.
"It should've been me."
Pan was about to tell him that it wasn't his fault, but his expression made it clear he wouldn't have reacted to it, at least not now.
"He was a hero fighting back against the Androids, one of the last of the Z-Fighters, the son of a legend, and a Super Saiyan. And I was just this punk teenager. He had so much more to offer my world... more than I could've... but he was the one that was gone, not me."
Instead, Pan focused on his desire to take Gohan's place instead.
"There were times where I would've traded my life for any one of the innocent people the Androids had killed on all their rampages... and Gohan."
"Trunks, how would your mother have reacted to your death? Or Gohan?"
This registered a reaction, Trunks' mood becoming reflective.
"At that time, I thought Gohan set me aside because I was too weak... because I couldn't go Super Saiyan if my life depended on it..."
"That's why you pushed me to go Super Saiyan so hard just now..."
"...but now I realize it was because he couldn't bear the thought of losing me."
But then it shifted towards a melancholy anger.
"And yet there I was, ready to throw it away at the drop of a hat. I told my mom and even myself that I left to save people from the Androids... but really, all I wanted was to either make them pay... or make myself pay for letting Gohan die."
Pan sat up completely as she caught Trunks looking down again.
"I had no chance. I should've died at their hands. I didn't outwit them or escape. It was just sheer dumb cosmic luck that I survived and that my mom found me."
He saw Pan's reflection in the rippled water, seeing that she was now at the circle's edge.
"And now every time I look at you, Pan..."
One ripple almost made one of Pan's hairs over her left eye appear like a scar.
"I see him."
He started to lift himself back up to get to his feet.
"I know my Gohan's not your father, but it's like you're my Gohan's daughter all the same. And Pan, I'm..."
He turned away, as if unable to face her, but then felt Pan putting a hand on his shoulder, the ripples in the water making it look like she had just one arm.
"You're worried about me."
"I'm afraid, Pan. Afraid of what could happen. Of losing you."
He put his gloved hand over hers.
"Not because I feel like I'd be failing Gohan. But because..."
He turned around to face her.
"I don't want to lose someone I care about again."
He then felt her putting her hands on both his arms.
"But I went about it the wrong way. Even if it was all because I care, I don't deserve..."
He was interrupted by a hug.
"I'd say you're only human..."
Even without seeing her face from that angle, Trunks could tell she was trying to lighten the mood with her comment with a smile.
"...but we're both part Saiyan too."
This resulted in a small chuckle from Trunks, whom hugged her back.
"You were right about one thing, Trunks..."
"What?"
"We both bottle up. We don't share because we worry what others will think."
"Because I'd be asking someone to suffer with me. To absorb all of my pain and be dragged down by my..."
She lightly shushed to interrupt him, akin to her grandmother comforting her when she was young.
"Friends don't only talk to each other when they're happy. Remember?"
It was then Trunks recalled finding Pan hurt physically and mentally, and helping her to find out what was wrong even as she tried keeping it to herself.
"Just talk to me, Trunks. Whatever's going on. Okay?"
As much as he loathed himself in the moment for everything he had done with Pan up to this point, having her comforting him led to him slowly starting to let it all go.
"I will, Pan."
"Are you sure about this," the Supreme Kai of Time asked.
"I am."
Trunks sat on his bed, wearing dark green Time Patrol pajamas with his wet clothes in his hamper.
"I will help Hale with Pan's sessions going forward. Nothing else I do will be without his supervision."
Chronoa sat down next to Trunks, debating whether she should put a hand on his back as he wasn't wallowing in guilt in this moment.
"When Pan first told me she was the daughter of Gohan, I was so excited. I couldn't wait to get to know her and see what she'd make of herself. But after all these battles and with what's to come... I got scared."
She instead elected to put her hand over his.
"Gohan meant a lot to you. And it's clear she does as well."
"If I'm going to help Pan succeed, I need to be better. And that starts with me opening up."
He turned his hand around, then gently closed it around Chronoa's.
"I'll take you up on that option."
They both heard a pair of wings flap open and then saw Tokitoki in front of them: Trunks had his window open.
"Now watch his stuff, Tokitoki. And your feathers especially.
"Ki," groaned the mystical bird, as he walked to Trunks' side.
Trunks thought of how just earlier that day, he had lost his patience with Tokitoki and literally evaded him for what he thought was the solution.
"You were telling me what I needed to hear and I wouldn't listen. I'm sorry, Tokitoki."
"Toh, toh."
The bird had his head out where Trunks could reach as he lightly pat him, resulting in a happy chirp from Tokitoki. The Supreme Kai of Time saw Trunks starting to smile and closing his eyes, sitting up straight and relaxed.
"You are certain your formula will work on Frieza and all his forms?"
Mira was shown the batch of Towa's formula up close, where he found the glow to be more intense than it appeared prior.
"It will, Mira."
"And in all this time, the patroller..."
"That's where our guest comes in."
Hearing a beaming noise, Mira found the one who communicated with her the day before now standing before him. This older man in gold, orange, and purple garb fashioned for royalty, yet practical enough for combat, and with the black cape and hood hiding his face was slightly taller than him.
"Hello there, sport."
Up close, Mira could make out that the blue gem he thought was a part of his head was actually adorned on a purple headpiece beneath the hood and saw a scar beneath his left eye towards his cheek.
"You think yourself a king?" Mira asked him.
"Well, in my younger days, I was a bit of a nomad, but..."
This green-skinned man, seeing Towa holding something behind her back...
"Ah, I completely forgot why I was beamed here to begin with... "
He lightly shoved Mira aside...
"I've waited a long time for this, and I can't wait another minute."
...and extended his orange gloved hand out to her.
"Give it here."
Towa didn't move.
"Pretty please with cherry on top?"
Her closed hand hovered over his open hand and dropped something into it.
"Come to Papa."