CHAPTER 2:
Pink Moon

Forty-two was the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Trunks once read that in a space opera novel, and, coincidentally, it still applied.

It took forty-two entire days of waking and sleeping for the team to make it to the next destination. So far, it had been the longest stretch in their journey to find the Dragon Balls. It also had been the most dangerous leg of the journey that Trunks had yet traversed.

In the last month and a half, Trunks had to again face the harsh reality that space was big - really big…

… And so was that black hole that they narrowly managed to escape.

Going into these past forty-two days, Trunks acknowledged that he had a lot of practical skills, and even a couple "superpowers," like what Goten used to call Trunks' ability to do calculus in his head as if he were a computer, and Trunks' ability to keep track of an entire motherboard's wiring system with a single glance.

But Trunks would be the first to admit that piloting a spacecraft was not his forte. Despite how Trunks had been behind the wheel these past seven months, there were still a lot of tricks to the universe that reminded Trunks just how much of an amateur hot-shot he really was. And Trunks right now was feeling humbled … really, really humbled. And he was unable to talk about it with anyone, because if Goku and Pan understood why he was feeling this way, it might impact their confidence in his piloting skills, at the very least. Or they might know that he almost failed them...

Trunks was genuinely embarrassed. He hated this feeling; it had happened far too often on this trip. This time, he was upset with himself for how badly he misjudged the scale and magnitude of the black hole's gravitational pull. Despite how Trunks knew that black holes inherently bent space, Trunks had made an amateurish mistake when he had forgotten that they bent light too. The trajectory that Trunks had originally set was based on the black hole's mass that he estimated from an optical illusion, and his miscalculation almost got them all killed.

Thankfully, Goku and Pan were not fully aware of what peril Trunks had almost put them in. He only told them they were "slightly off course," and they believed him, because, well, he was the pilot - a stupid ass pilot that almost jeopardized their lives and the entire Earth.

At least Trunks was somehow able to contain the panic to just himself. But it was grueling, and he spent the last month trying to self-soothe with a nervous habit of biting pencils and pens. Almost every single drawing tool now had some kind of tooth mark on it, and it added to his sense of embarrassment. Trunks felt like he was falling apart.

Goku and Pan had attributed Trunks' heightened nerves to the fact that they were all stuck in space for such a long stretch of time. Their assumptions helped assuage Trunks, who kept replaying in his head that at one point, they were less than 20 minutes away from being pulled into the black hole at terminal velocity… and since Goku's twelve year old body was still too young to properly do instant transmission, they would have been doomed. They had come very close to either being crushed and dying horrible deaths, or emerging within one of the alternate Universes, and possibly in another timeline - either one or the other, according scientific hypotheses that Trunks had no interest to test.

And now that they unknowingly survived their near-death experience, Goku and Pan's initial assumption about Trunks suddenly became very correct. Now, all Trunks wanted to do was to get off the ship.

He needed real gravity. He needed a real atmosphere. He was sick of piloting. He was also tired of dreading some kind of existential threat for his future.

So today, he decided he was going to shed his bad attitude. After all, they were alive. They were safe.

They had no idea Trunks fucked up the trajectory so badly, but that's okay… because they finally arrived, and Giru confirmed the location of the Dragon Ball. It was definitely here. Well… sort of.

The reading was quite strong at first, and then it sort of… blipped out. But Giru vehemently confirmed with loud whistles and bleeps that the Dragon Ball must be at its last location. So, now here they were, getting ready to retrieve it, under the assumption that something was interfering with the Dragon Radar. Trunks had a strong inclination that it had something to do with the black hole nearby, but he could be wrong.

From the cockpit, Trunks was in the pilot seat while Pan and Goku had made a made a game out of pressing their entire bodies up against the viewport glass as if scrunching their faces and hands against the glass would get them closer to the sight. They were entranced by the massive green planet in front of them.

From Trunks' calculations, the planet's size was only slightly smaller than that of Jupiter, though its density was twice as much. Its green color was bright with swirling gas clouds that showcased turbulent winds and darker green jet streams that striped the atmosphere with shaded lines that decorated its upper and lower poles.

The planet also had five moons, four of which were small and uninhabitable and orbited close to the planet's atmosphere. But its fifth moon, which had the farthest orbit from the planet, was also the largest of the moons, about the size of the planet Mars. On the light side of the moon, it had a blue atmosphere, white clouds, and a pink-and-blue landscape. On the dark side of the moon, the atmosphere resembled a dark green, lit by the ambient bounced light of the gigantic green planet by its side.

That moon allegedly had the next Dragon Ball, according to Giru. Luckily, Trunks had detected that there was adequate oxygen on the moon for them to visit safely.

Coming out of his daydream, Trunks remembered during their original approach to the planet, Pan had asked him why the planet looked green. Trunks at the time made an educated guess, but now that they were upon it, the spectrometer would provide a much more accurate reading.

Trunks looked down to the monitor "Yeah, Pan, it's chlorine alright." He punched a few buttons and brought his gaze to the planet again, "Pure gas."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Pan placed her hands against the window and pressed her face against the glass to get a better look, "So the moon is orbiting a gigantic planet-sized ball of poison?"

"Well…" Trunks blinked and brought his right hand to his chin, "I guess you could look at it that way… I guess…"

"Grandpa!" Pan turned to Goku and grinned widely, "Lets go get a better look!"

Trunks did not like the idea of them leaving the cockpit. It would involve wrangling them back into the cockpit in order for him to land the ship, and all he wanted to do was get off. He did not want to waste one more second of time. Forty-two days and counting. And Trunks was over it.

Trunks shook his head, "No, Pan, you should get back in your seat. We're going to be landing soon."

"Oh pfft!" Pan walked to Trunks' chair and leaned her elbows on his armrest, propping her head on her palms, "Wanna come look at the moon with us?"

Of course Pan didn't listen to him. She would do what she wanted, always.

Trunks closed his eyes and tried to prevent his temple from throbbing. He answered in his most emotionless voice, "No," before looking back to the computer, "I have to work on coordinates and preparing the landing gear."

"Aw, come on," Pan leaned closer to him, giving him those classic puppy eyes, "You never get away from work. Why don't you come to the observation deck with us?"

Trunks looked away from her face, pretending he was interested in looking at a large red star in the far-off distance of space - likely one of the planets in the current solar system, but he didn't care. He was not going to fall for Pan's pouting charade. He was ready to have his personal space again. "I'd rather not."

"Gosh," Pan stood and flicked her wrist, "You're no fun."

Trunks knew she didn't mean to hurt his feelings with that, but for some reason her words stung. And then his soul riled with a usual wave of frustration... and then he started feeling defensive.

"Yeah, well, I don't think I can take a break from this, unless you want us to spiral to our deaths toward that 'ball of poison''," Trunks pointed to the giant green planet and looked at her, "which is five times Earth's gravity, by the way, in case you didn't know. And although we may be used to handling that kind of gravitational pull, we'll never be able to get the ship out of the atmosphere. It literally will crush itself and then we'll all disintegrate if we get pulled in."

Pan crossed her arms, "Grandpa could fly us out."

"No," Trunks growled, "because as you said - it's a gigantic ball of poison. If Goku goes out, and even the slightest bit of that gas makes its way into the ship," he shook his head, "it's goodbye Grand Tour and goodbye Earth."

"Gosh Trunks," Goku turned around with a slight frown, "Lately everything's been all about death with you!"

"Because if I don't get off this ship right now, I'm going to die!" Trunks slammed his hands down on the control panel with a BAM to emphasize his point. Giru immediately hopped up from Pan's seat, bleeping about rising danger.

"Ooouuu, he's spiraling again," Pan teased.

"Excuse me?!" Trunks immediately reacted viscerally, feeling his face turn red and the veins in his throat pop as he restrained himself.

Of course, Pan did not help Trunks' mood. Fuck, he was supposed to be a good mood. How did it turn out like this?!

Goku continued to look at him with a frown. "You really should come with us. You sound like you need a break."

"You're damn right I need a break." Trunks could feel his fingers and toes tingling from the adrenaline that was starting to course through him. He really, really wanted off this ship.

Trunks took hold of the steering wheel and started to count his deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He looked up to both Goku and Pan, who were still both standing there looking at him.

Trunks looked between them and furrowed his brow when he realized they weren't moving. Over the course of the trip, he learned that it was easiest to motivate them if he gave them a deadline. "Well, are you going to go to the observation deck or not? We land in fifteen minutes."

Pan frowned at Trunks and then looked to Goku, "I guess that's our cue, huh…?" Sighing softly, she leaned over Trunks' chair again and pouted her bottom lip, "Are you sure you don't want to come? I'd really like if you could hang with us…"

Trunks wanted to be alone. "I get enough view of the moon from here, thanks."

Pan's eyebrows angled upward in a saddened frown, "Wow, you're mean."

"I'm not mean!" Trunks wanted to be mean, though. He was doing his best to contain his temper right now. "I'm just trying to fly the ship, Pan! Please understand that!"

"Yeah, we understand. Come on, Grandpa." Pan walked over to her chair and picked up Giru. She glanced at Trunks and then gave a disappointed sigh as she made her way to the back of the room, followed by Goku.

Trunks sighed in exasperation as he watched the dynamic duo leave the cockpit. He watched the doors close behind them. And then, it was silent again.

But Trunks did not feel any better. In fact, now he felt even worse. Watching Pan walk out, disappointed in him, thinking he was no fun…

Trunks felt an incredible pang of guilt. He wasn't trying to exclude himself. Well, maybe he was. But he wished he felt more cohesive with the group. He wanted the chemistry to be there, to make it all feel like they could co-exist together and feel balanced.

Goten… Trunks was still sour about him not being able to come. It could have been so great. It could have been Goten who wanted to see the moon up in the observatory. They could have been joking about the chlorine planet and dreaming up how they'd turn one of the moons into a giant pool. They could have looked forward to roughhousing on the moon and practicing fusion techniques to impress Goku. They could have spent these past forty-two days helping Trunks work out his self-induced anger. Trunks could have talked to Goten about his navigational fuck-up. At the very least, he could have had an outlet - anything he could rely on for some semblance of balance in his life.

But Trunks was alone now. And, suddenly, he didn't feel so good about it. The thought of "what could have been" introduced tendrils of loneliness within him, and he felt himself fall back into one of his broods.

––––––––

Standing in the observation room next to Pan, Goku looked out at the planet and its respective moons in slight awe at the massive scale. There was no way to capture this kind of view on camera - the planet was so big that it scaled all the way upward and downward. It was even a little scary that they were this close, because it just felt like they were bound to fall straight into the green clouds in front of them.

Despite the majestic display, though, Goku's mind was elsewhere.

Goku was genuinely concerned for Trunks.

He had seen Trunks lose more of his composure every single day. Overall on the trip, Goku had observed the fun-loving son of his best friend Bulma, whom he always secretly viewed as a complex and sweet black licorice, turn into a sour green plum.

Trunks had been losing his ability to smile. This past month's journey was especially hard on him. Goku had barely seen Trunks, who had either holed himself in the cockpit like an unripe avocado seed, or had locked himself in their small gym, as bitter as black coffee rejecting any sweetener, where he had been adamant about working out alone, to "think."

Besides those signs, though, Goku could tell it was getting worse for him because of Trunks' cooking.

At first, Trunks started off the trip with grand gesture meals. He used the oven, and he'd make whole chickens and turkeys and all the other big bird stuff like what Trunks liked to eat back home. And he even made a whole bunch of really good side dishes to go with it, too.

Trunks also had a weird thing about "color" in food. He seemed to think his meals tasted better if they had many colors at once (though, for some reason, whenever Goku tried to cook with colors, Trunks was never happy).

And on top of all that, Trunks always complained about "seasoning," though it never made sense to Goku, because some foods were available all seasons. But Trunks put his foot down that no matter what season the food was from, it could always taste better with some shakes of bottles, and somehow Trunks was always right.

However, as time went by on their trip, and in this past month especially, Trunks had slacked on all three things that made his food good.

Now, it was like Trunks' string cheese had been unraveling into a hundred threads of loose, less-flavorful fiber strands. No, it was more like… now Trunks' refined wheel of cheese had devolved into a bunch of squeaky cheese curds.

Goku could see that whatever had been holding Trunks together during the trip had been breaking down. And he wasn't sure how to get through to Trunks and make it better.

Trunks seemed to keep up some thought that Pan was the reason he was feeling this way, but that made no sense to Goku. Pan was truly the exact opposite of whatever Trunks was claiming.

Since her first day on board, Pan made Goku feel alive and happy and introduced all kinds of new ways of thinking of things. She was clever and funny and had a huge heart, with an even bigger personality, and a wild imagination for adventure and fun. She also was a promising warrior - she picked up fighting techniques quickly and learned to iterate on them.

She also had immense potential. For example, she had an interesting ability he had never seen before in either of his sons - her ability to make her ki hotter or cooler based on the technique she was using. Goku could sense that she, with a little training, could hone her innate ability to manipulate and control her ki much more efficiently than any other Z fighter, with the exception of Piccolo.

With all those wonderful qualities and more, Goku just couldn't understand what Trunks was not able to see in her. On top of all that, by the way they acted when Trunks was in one of his rare good moods, all Goku could see was a great rapport between them.

In fact, Goku saw a bit of himself and Chi Chi in them when they interacted, with Trunks ironically being a little more like Chi Chi, with good food and a short temper, and Pan reminding Goku of himself.

But Trunks just couldn't see it. Instead of warming up to Pan's fruit cup sweetness, Trunks preferred to stay a bitter melon.

Goku had tried to approach Trunks about this a few times, but had been shot down. He'd try again, though. If there's one thing Goku learned over his many years and battles, it was that persistence was key to breaking through a stubborn mindset.

He just wished he knew what Trunks needed to feel better. But until Trunks could voice otherwise, Goku really, really felt in his gut that if Trunks just opened up to Pan, things would get better for everyone. Trunks just needed help to see it.

And, Goku knew he was very good at being persistent. He looked out for his family, and the way Goku saw it, Trunks counted as family, too. I wont give up on you, Trunks…

–––––––

Trunks never had his father's ability to speak in telepathy, but he had a strange feeling that Goku was thinking about him with concern just now. And it just made him feel worse.

Sitting alone in the cockpit turned out to be a good decision. But he still just felt like shit.

Trunks had needed this private time to shout profanities into the air and whack his pen on the monitor, just to let it all out. He broke the pen, but it didn't break his spirit.

And now he was better. He felt awful, but he accepted it.

He recognized, with sour introspection, that Pan was right about himself spiraling. And this time it wasn't about Pan, but about himself. Because he almost fucking killed them, and there's no way he could admit it out loud, because then he'd look like the failure he was. And he didn't want them to know he was such a failure.

He was the worst. He was the worst teammate. He was the worst role model (he lived with secret guilt that graduated with top grades because of his A.I. - the same one that Goten got caught using, and which Bra used now). He was a terrible brother, a disappointing son, and the worst best friend…

Gods, Goten… Goten should have been on this trip.

But Goten was not here, and would never be here. Trunks had accepted it months ago. But even after going through all five stages of grief - shock, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, Trunks cycled right back to the beginning and started all over again. Spiraling…

"I need to get out of here." Trunks spoke to himself out of instinct, as if his body viscerally knew the answer to breaking the spiral.

Trunks unbuckled his safety belt and stood up, pressing 'Auto-pilot' before turning to walk to the back of the cockpit. His legs burned as he moved them. In fact, everything was burning. His body had been so tense, it was like he was recovering from some kind of trauma.

It had been so long since he was truly happy, that he didn't know how to pull himself up from this trench he had dug himself into. He felt the answer was at the end of a labyrinth.

Even with this interesting moon they were about to see, Trunks realized that the second they got the Dragon Ball, they'd be up and out again. And he'd be right back here, without anything changing except the Dragon Radar signal.

He felt trapped. He felt like there was never going to be a breakthrough…

…But who knows, maybe at least the two pipsqueaks might help.

Trunks smirked a bit at his inner thought. Sometimes thinking a little snarkily helped him feel more confidence. He knew, from his own inside jokes with his dad, that they both had that trait.

He stepped into the hallway that had an open floorplan with the central living area.

At the far end of the living space, between two green couches, was a gray pole that led upstairs. Grabbing the pole with his brown gloves, Trunks ascended to where the the hole opened to the observation room, a small but comfortable viewing spot, built like a glass dome along the top of the spacecraft.

When he reached the top, he was suddenly hit with extreme darkness. Billions of stars glittered in a vast sea of sparkling fireflies before him. He stood there a moment, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim blue lights that outlined the round soft flooring of the room. The floor was constructed from multicolored interlocking foam playmats that were upcycled from an indoor playground that used to belong to Bra as a baby. It might have looked silly, except the flooring colors went unnoticed in the darkness of the room. The only dedicated lights were among a string of upcycled LED holiday lights that traced the inner circumference of the circular room.

This room was special.

This room had been a last-minute add-on to the ship, at the request of Goten, who wanted a spot where they could lie down to relax in silence. Trunks had been inspired by the request, and had moonlit during the week's preparation to personally assemble and construct this space, resourcing materials that he had found from Capsule Corp's garage and basement.

It's the only part of the ship that Trunks personally contributed to the design and build, and he worked it into his busy schedule because he wanted to make this as a present for his best friend, as a symbol that he wanted to reconnect, and that he was willing to go the extra mile. This was supposed to be the room where they were to talk, and make up for their past, and just be friends again. This was the room…that always reminded him of Goten.

So he avoided coming to this room. In the entire seven and a half months that they had been in space, Trunks only came into here a handful of times, and only one time alone. It was one week into the trip, when Trunks truly realized there was no way to go back and get Goten, and he had a mental breakdown in this room. He had ugly-cried, and he had never felt as much despair as that time, when he was all alone in the darkness for hours.

He didn't like being here. It made him uncomfortable.

But he put his unease aside, and acknowledged Goku and Pan, who were both in the room.

Both Goku and Pan were smack-glued to the glass with their faces squished and palms flat against it, as if it made them more interactive with the environment. Next to them, Giru was also smack-glued against the glass, with all of his limbs extended excitedly.

It was just ridiculous.

They were so silly, Trunks did not know what to do with himself.

Trunks couldn't help but feel his lips lift in a smile he did not know he had within him. Fuck, it's happening again. They do the thing…!

He felt a laugh come on like a sunray that beamed and quelled a calming tempest.

Goku was the first to turn at the sound of Trunks' voice. "Hey, Trunks!"

Pan and Giru spun, "You're here!"

"Yeah." Trunks reached behind his head with his right arm and scratched his hair bashfully. He was mainly lit from the living area light in the hole below. "And you're going to be cleaning your faceprints off the glass later."

They both chuckled and moved toward Trunks, so all of them could be better seen in the light from downstairs.

"So…" Trunks crossed his arms, looking at the stars, and the panoramic view of the planet and its moons, "I guess this is it."

Trunks gave a half-grin to Goku, "Another adventure." Trunks stressed the word, knowing how they always seemed to get into predicaments with every single Dragon Ball they recovered.

Trunks sat forward and subconsciously adjusted his blue neck bandana as he forced a fake smirk to Goku. He turned his head to Pan and then looked between them, "You two ready?"

"Heck yeah!" Pan stood and brought her hands to the roof of the glass dome. "One more Dragon Ball, and how many do we already have? Let's see…" Pan brought her right hand down and counted her fingers as she recounted their journey so far, "One, t…thr…f… five!" She held out her hand to Trunks as if it would somehow prove her point.

"Wow!" Goku brought his hands to his head, his eyes going wide for some reason. "We got all those balls in just a few weeks?"

"Weeks!" Trunks burst out laughing again. Goku was insane.

"Hahahahah!" Trunks continued laughing, actually grabbing his belly, he was laughing so hard. "Goku are you mad?!"

Goku looked down and rubbed his belly, "I haven't had one of Chi Chi's super-mega-dinners in so long, I've lost track of time."

Trunks stopped laughing and then looked solemnly at Goku as his eyebrows turned upward a bit. He reflected on his own large family dinners back home. He understood what Goku meant. Despite his fear about work, there were still very good reasons to miss home. While in space, without sunlight, it was easy to lose track of time and feel you're a drifter.

What would today even be? He stopped tracking after the mid-way point.. But this would be… 42 days after August 15th…. It was September 26th. And their drop-dead deadline was February 6th, since February 7th would be the official anniversary of the wish.

By his calculations, they still had about four months left, and two Dragon Balls to go. All-in-all, Trunks would say they were making good time.

–––––––

Considering the moon was the size of Mars, they all expected the gravity to be lighter than Earth, but not this bouncy.

It came as a huge shock to them that there was so little gravity… or at least, it came as a huge shock to Trunks, who was immediately intrigued to wonder about the moon's geology and how it was formed. It must have had an airy, or low-density core, like a balloon moon.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain the small gravitational pull unless one relied on the existence of magic.

But… magic was definitely real. Trunks had even witnessed it himself during the whole "Buu Saga" (what his mother called that time), when he was eight years old, and for a few long weeks, which included most of the time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber with Goten, he had to endure one of the scariest moments of his life.

It was within that time chamber that he saw Goten's mother Chi Chi turn into chocolate right before his very eyes. That was not ki. That was magic.

He knew Buu, who was now friends with Pan's other grandfather, Hercule, was still capable of doing Majin magic. Trunks just personally hadn't seen it in a while. But… magic was real. And he could not discount that from this moon's build, either.

Trunks found his mind was wandering as he climbed down the ladder to tall pink grass below the ship.

With several blinks and one hand shielding his eye from the glaring red sun, Trunks saw Goku hopping about on the pink grass, jumping several meters high before doing flips and landing on all fours, just to spring to action again.

Goku laughed and did a cartwheel in the air in one direction before landing back on his feet, and then bouncing to re-cartwheel in the opposite direction. "Wow, this is fun! Pan! You can hop really high here!"

"Grandpa, stop acting silly." Pan crossed her arms on the grass and huffed, "We need to find that Dragon Ball. Hey, Giru!"

At the sound of his name, the little robot flew down the ladder, whisked past Trunks, and immediately latched onto Pan's left shoulder, a very characteristic trait of Giru. Trunks still marveled at the robot's personality.

Pan smiled happily at Giru and reached her left hand up to pat him on the head. "Hey Giru, can you tell us where the Dragon Ball is?"

While Pan was handling Giru, Trunks stepped to the side and removed his blue backpack. He unzipped and shuffled inside it, pulling out a blue remote that looked like an old analog phone dialpad with a matrix of nine buttons. Trunks pressed the ship's password into the device, and then a red light began to blink on the remote.

With a slight creak of metal, the ship suddenly stirred on its own, retracting the ladder before closing and locking the exterior.

Taking a few steps closer to the ship, Trunks made sure the red security light was blinking at the bottom of the ship as well. After their experience at Imecka, with their ship being stolen, Trunks installed a security device that would send an alert to them via the remote if anyone were to tamper with the ship. The last thing they needed was to be stranded on a third-world planet or moon while their ship vanished somewhere.

"Come on, Giru, this is how you do a cartwheel!"

Trunks looked up to see Goku, Pan and Giru all cartwheeling around in circles on the grass. Just watching them do that instantly brought a wave of embarrassment through him. What they were doing was just so plain humiliating, it was funny.

"Come on, Trunks, cartwheel with us!" Pan squealed, her voice pitched in glee.

"Hah!" Trunks guffawed. There was a time when Trunks would have joined that cartwheel. And if Goten were doing that same cartwheel, maybe Trunks would have joined in. But the thought of him joining it now just shut him down emotionally. He did not feel joy at the idea of cartwheeling with them, and he felt a little bitter at himself for being no fun…

…But he had absolutely no interest in cartwheeling right now.

Trunks sighed openly, why two kids? He shook his head with a small smirk, mostly to himself, and then opened the backpack flap, dropping the remote in with the four other Dragon Balls he kept by his or Pan's side. The fifth Dragon Ball, the Four Star ball, was always tucked away in Goku's belt pouch. It was always best to keep at least one ball separate from the others, in case another group of Para Para Brothers or anyone remotely similar decided to come along and steal all the eggs in one basket.

While the other two were off in their own world, Trunks took the opportunity to look around, walking away from the party.

They seemed to be in a large field of pale pink grass. A bright red sun and the gigantic bright green planet hovered above them, adding an eerie effect to the color of the sky, making it a purplish dark blue.

Trunks stared in amazement at the green planet. Wow… He just couldn't take it all in, he was so hypnotized by the view. Is that what the moon would have looked like, back on Earth? Just hanging in the sky like that?

It was beautiful, and the more he looked at it, the more he wished that the Earth had a moon.

His mother told him that the Earth used to have a moon - actually two moons. The first was destroyed by Master Roshi. And then the moon was brought back by Kami, but then destroyed again by Piccolo, of all taciturn people, during the year he had trained Gohan for the eventual arrival and fight with Trunks' dad, Vegeta, and his Saiyan partner, Nappa.

"–t way!"

Trunks tore his vision from the planet a moment and watched as Pan was running toward him.

Gohan's daughter, Pan, on the other hand, was an example of a student who trained under Piccolo, yet never had any maturity smacked into her. Pan called herself a fighter, yet she most often got her way through pushiness, and big pouty eyes. Without even the ability to go Super Saiyan, she was more of a joke than an actual warrior. But at least she had a positive mindset, which helped to support the team, and her intentions were always innocent and pure hearted.

Pan reached Trunks and stopped, leaning forward as she placed her hands on her knees and gasped for breath. "Trunks!" She panted heavily and then stood up, her face slightly flushed from excitement, "Giru says the Dragon Ball is that way," she pointed to the direction away from the sun, "about twenty miles!"

"Wow, that's pretty close." Trunks smiled, feeling a tinge of hope that his gut feeling would be correct - that this would be an easy, happy Dragon Ball find.

Trunks look one last glance at the green planet, and then turned his head to look at her, "So you ready for some flight?"

"Aww," Pan faked a frown and said with mild sarcasm, "We're not going to take a capsule car?"

Trunks looked down to look in his shirt pocket and brought his right hand up to pull out a dyno-cap container. He looked around to see all the plains covered in the pink grass, and it appeared there weren't any major obstacles. He wasn't sure if the convertible would be best for off-roading, but it did have four-wheel drive capability…

Trunks absentmindedly spoke out of goodwill, but then immediately regretted saying, "You can take the convertible if you like."

Pan's eyes suddenly beamed with this big bright eyes, "What? You mean it?" She took in a deep breath of air as her shock settled in, "I can drive the convertible?!"

Oh shit. Oh shit, Trunks didn't mean it.

"Ahhhhh…" Trunks suddenly remembered her kamikaze driving skills back on Imecka, and thought twice about it. He lowered his tone slightly as he gave an embarrassed frown, "You know what… I mean…"

"Oh please!" Pan latched onto his arm, which Trunks instantly brought back in a spring of surprise.

"I don't think so!"

"But I'm fifteen! I'm old enough for a permit…"

"No way." Trunks retracted his arm.

"Trunks, pleaaaase." Pan gave him the puppy eyes. Fuckkkk, augh, goddamnit. Trunks greatly disliked how she used her charm to sway him. It reminded him of his mother. But those eyes were different. They were dark like… Goten's…

There was a lingering moment when Trunks stared wide-eyed at Pan and she put on her best pouty face. His hand remained clenched around the convertible capsule.

After moment, Pan frowned and sniffled, obviously trying to hold back invisible mimed tears. She looked away and crossed her arms. She bit her bottom lip as she whimpered, "You're so mean."

"I'm not mean!" Trunks's expression turned reprimanding as he shook his head, "It's just so happens that this car is a nice car, and I am not sure I can trust your driving skills with it."

"What are we going to hit?" Pan spun around, flinging her arms out to point in all directions, "We're in the middle of nowhere."

Trunks hesitated a moment, understanding where she was coming from. It also had been his first thought. But this was his car. And this was Pan. Not Goten. Pan.

And he still had trust issues with her, whether or not they were founded. But the thought of Pan… driving his car…

Trunks still hesitated. "I don't know, Pan…"

The voice came from behind him, "You know, Trunks…"

"ACK!" Trunks spun around, his heart suddenly leaping in his chest from the surprise of someone standing right behind him. "Goku! Goku, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

Goku grinned sheepishly and brought his left hand behind his head while his other gripped Giru, "Whoops, sorry. Didn't mean to sneak up on ya." Goku lowered his hand, "But yeah, I mean, I don't see why Pan can't drive the car around. This place is like one big parking lot, right?"

Trunks crossed his eyes and raised an eyebrow, "And what would you know about driving, Goku?"

"Hey!" Goku pouted, "I got my license fair and square."

"Yeah," Pan grinned and shifted in her stance, "after how many tries?"

"It doesn't matter. You've convinced me." Sighing inwardly about how he could never hold his ground against the Pan and Goku dynamic duo, Trunks held up the capsule labeled '249'.

"You win." Trunks clicked the container and threw the capsule, like all his pride, away from them.

There was a huge explosion with topsoil rising in clouds of dust around the capsule machine. When the smoke cleared, a beautiful newly-waxed red convertible lay on the grass, shining with a celestial splendor.

This was Trunks' dream car. He never rode her because he loved this car so much. This was his summer vacation project between high school and university, when he had the chance to bond with his grandfather and they built a car together, from scratch. This baby was equipped with capsule technology that was modular and enhanced with an artificial intelligence system which he named… or rather, Goten named.

"Her name's Van." Trunks' heart leaped as he tossed a set of keys to Pan.

Pan frowned as she caught the keys in both hands, "Van?"

"Yeah, Goten's girlfriend's nickname at the time. He named it."

Pan grimaced as she made her way to the right side of the car, "God, I hate how he always gives weird nicknames to all his girlfriends."

Goku perked up as he followed Pan, "He does?"

"Her name was Havana." Trunks thought back to that time. She had dark blue-black hair that was curly like a Nimbus cloud. When it came to Goten and girls, they were a meaningless blur to Trunks. Goten never really had a long steady girlfriend, and neither did Trunks really, except... well… a complicated situation with Havana… but that ended the second his mother found out, and in a way that Trunks did not want to remember. Goten never learned about it, because Trunks never told him about it…

But yeah, there was history with this car… Van…

"Yeah, there was what? Lon for London?" Pan mused.

Trunks opened the front passenger door, swinging it wide open as he stopped to watch Pan. He battled emotions that threatened to rise with his memory. "Yeah, who knows."

"And then there was what?" Pan opened the driver's seat door and slid in, "Oh yeah, Syd for Sydney."

She was still talking about Goten. And Goten made Trunks think of other things at that time. And she was now sitting in the driver's seat. This was starting to feel triggering.

Trunks tried to shut out the screaming voice in his head as he slid into the vehicle and shut the car door. He felt a burning swell of anxiety wash over him as he again realized who was behind the driver's wheel. He closed his eyes and with a stern voice, he replied, "Let's just go."

Goku hopped over the car and settled into the back seat. "Okay, let's get a move on!"

"Giru!" The robot sprung up from Goku's right hand and flew up excitedly. "New adventure! New adventure for Trunks and Pan!"

"Alright, here we go!" Pan turned the key and then floored the gas.

Trunks leaned back in his seat, tense and preparing for a zero-to-hundred whirlwind of a drive in which they would be screaming and doing donuts.

The car instead sputtered a moment, and then died.

A long pause lingered as the three just sat there.

After a while, Trunks' head came back to reality, and then he felt a wave of something big wash over him. A feeling flooded him that he had not felt in a long, long time.

He ostentatiously turned his head to Pan and sneered in delight and haughtiness. He felt triumphant, a true victor in all of this. Ohhh, he got her so good!

"You do know how to drive stick, right?!" His fanged grin stretched ear to ear in hilarity.

Pan sat there another moment in the silence and then gave an embarrassed cough as her cheeks flushed a light pink.

"You know … on second thought…" Pan gave a large innocent grin as her eyebrows knotted upward, "I think we should maybe fly …"

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–A: 10/11/23–

–F: 07/23/24–