Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Another Time ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Another Time

By Karete-chan

Chapter 9: Nothing goes the way you want.

In a place where there was no sound, something beeped. It was an important sound and had it been a conscious entity would have been annoyed that no one was around to here it and gasp in awe. As it was the tinny beep was lost in the dark void. But that one beep started something. First there was a small flashing light, then gradually a rumbling could be heard, or would have been heard were there anyone around to hear it.

The spinning asteroid slowed to a stop before a blast of air set it moving slowly on a new course. In the distance stars began to wink into sight. Inside, something stirred and blinked.

*****

She went as far as she could, putting the greatest distance between them; her small bag slung over her shoulder. All her possessions were in there. She had left only enough odds and ends to make it seem as if she were going to return; a few photos in frames and some old clothes in her cupboard. Even some random circuit parts strewn across her desk.

The girl known as Kat, or for the past month and a half as Son Kat, sat staring out over her balcony at the lights of the twinkling city beyond. It was all she had done for the entire week she had been away but the identity of the sprawling metropolis was still unknown. Not that she cared; she hadn't left the room and only answered the door for room service. The money she had made working for Bulma was quickly dwindling away.

She didn't belong. Even before she had woken into this world she had known that and now that she was here it was worse. Perhaps leaving the others had been the wrong decision; at least there they had been like her. For the first time in her life there had been a reason for why she was the way she was. Of course there was still nothing to tell her who. The only people who could tell her that, were dead.

She shivered, her body had been telling her that she was too cold for at least an hour but the only thing she had done to remedy it was let her hair down to fall over her shoulders. Above her the dark clouds swirled and smelled strongly of rain. She half wished it would, even though her balcony had no cover.

A slight gap in the cloud cover began to manifest and grow larger. She turned towards it slightly and the light of the moon struck her face. Flinching, she turned away. The place where her tail had been tingled - another mystery that had been solved - remnant of the true power her body should have held but it also made the emptiness inside her worse. Where there was usually a dull ache now hurt like a physical blow. She had a theory of why this was so.

As far as she knew, human and Saiya-jin biology was not all that different, apart from the few obvious traits, so it was fair enough to assume that like human twins, Saiya-jin twins would hold some sort of empathy for each other. Yet the emptiness she felt seemed more than a slight empathic inkling. Her soul knew that her brother was no longer there. It called and received no reply. Not the silence that is met when someone doesn't answer but the echoing void of someone who is not there at all.

This was theory of course; there was nothing to prove it. Her thoughts drifted to her space pod. It was more than likely that there was something in there that could explain or even prove her idea but she'd never find out because she couldn't read any of it. Vegeta could…but she'd be damned if she was going to ask that egotistical vegetable-head to help. She growled under her breath but it tapered off into a sigh. It wasn't worth it. She couldn't be bothered any more.

The clouds broke open. The rain began to fall and she looked up into the clouds, wondering what Dende and Piccolo were up to at the moment. Her heart clenched as she thought of Kami. He was the only father figure she had ever had. She wrenched her mind away from it. No mother, no father, no brothers, just Gohan and ChiChi. Not that that was a bad thing; they were good enough to her but she felt that ChiChi thought that she was just a distraction to Gohan and Gohan, well, he was just a kid.

Rain ran down her neck and soon soaked through her shirt. What was she doing? Working at Capsule Corp.? Living her stupid childhood dream? What a joke. She just didn't want to any more. She didn't want to do anything.

*****

Bulma's fingers paused above her laptop. Her mind registered the sound but her ears were taking their time deciding if they had actually heard it. She took a guess.

"Hello Trunks."

This time the sound was distinct. The person pushed off the wall and walked towards her, pulled over a chair and sat down. Her fingers resumed typing.

"Have you decided when you're going?"

"Friday," her son answered, "but after dinner."

"That's good. You should invite ChiChi and Gohan around to say goodbye."

Trunks was silent.

"If you don't want anything else Trunks…I'm really busy at the moment. Uyki hasn't been keeping these files up to date or finishing her lab work before she leaves."

"Gohan wanted to know if we'd heard anything."

"About?"

"Kaasan," Trunks' tone indicated that she knew.

Bulma sighed. "She left at our busiest time of year, you can't expect me to just get over that can you? No warning Trunks and no reason either."

"Gohan says he can't sense her anywhere."

"So? She's probably just keeping her ki down. Or can't you sense her either?"

"I can't," he began, "but she's still here. Though keeping her ki that low is dangerous. She wouldn't have any strength and she's only a small person."

"Trunks, if she gets in trouble, she's not stupid enough to let herself get hurt."

"She's stubborn enough to."

Bulma sighed. "You know what? I really don't want to talk about it now. Okay?"

Trunks nodded. "Okay."

Bulma turned and watched him go. Cursing to herself silently about stupid insensitive Saiya-jins, she turned back and tried to force her mind to think of work.

*****

It was a miracle really. Here she was, sitting in this Kami-forsaken tree the whole day with Gohan sitting in the house and he hadn't noticed her. The air car seemed to drive off with painstaking slowness. When it finally disappeared over the horizon, or in this case behind the furthest clump of trees she could see, Kat jumped lightly from the tree.

Keeping her senses open she slipped inside the house. ChiChi never locked it for the very good reason that she was so far from anyone who would bother to come all the way out here to steal…Kat let her eyes take in the room…nothing. The only thing in the room that was of any immediate value was the television and even that was at least two decades out of date. She looked at it wistfully. She had used to watch shows at the mall on that model.

Shaking herself she snuck through the house heading for ChiChi's room. This was something she couldn't ask her sister in-law, otherwise she wouldn't be sneaking around like a common thief. The door squeaked slightly on its hinges at her gentle push and her dark eyes swept the room, falling on the cupboard. Inside, clothes didn't quite hide the telltale bulge of several boxes. She pulled them out.

They were labelled. Kat sighed in relief. At least she didn't have to go through everything, she felt bad enough about this as it was. Finding the one she wanted, she eased the lid off and pulled out the leather bound book on top, flipping it open.

Gokou grinned back up at her from the glossy photograph. Kat sighed. So, that's what he looked like. Sitting cross-legged on the floor she slowly made her way through the photo album. She could understand why ChiChi had packed away all her photographs. The sadness was welling up in her just looking at him and she hadn't known him as well as ChiChi. She hadn't really known him at all. Sighing she closed the album, then opened it again and removed a small photo from near the back.

Packing the boxes back in the cupboard she left, trying not to look at the smiling faces of Gohan, the only photographs that ChiChi had left out.

Outside she grabbed her bag from the tree and fished around inside. She popped the capsule and placed the picture of her brother inside the small box. Then, repacking her things she popped another capsule, jumped on the jet bike and sped off towards the highway.

*****

Vegeta scowled. The boy thought he didn't know. Thought that no one would notice when he snuck out in the middle of the night. He watched Trunks now as he went through some warm up exercises with one of the weakling humans. Hmpf.

It was pure coincidence that he'd seen him the first time and if the boy hadn't looked so guilty he wouldn't have given it another moments thought. But the boy knew he was doing something wrong and it would have been immediately obvious, even to Kakarott.

The boy was going to the brat. Or at least so Vegeta thought. Trunks always came back at the same time, just before dawn, and snuck in through the slightly ajar window he had left. Once Vegeta had snuck into his room after he was sure the boy was asleep. To his surprise there had been no trace of her. Not even a lingering scent. Either the boy was being very careful about leaving her scent on him; but why would he bother unless he knew Vegeta was watching, which Vegeta was sure he didn't; or he hadn't been going to her at all; he was only looking for her.

Whichever one it was made no real difference to Vegeta, he simply disliked the fact that his son was weak enough to be so concerned about her. Trunks performed a spin kick, far to slow to have ever been effective against his father but it sent Krillen flying, and landed lightly in a crouch, waiting patiently for the small man to get his bearings back. He's probably thinking of her right now, Vegeta thought, his moves are sloppy today. It gave him cause to scowl again.

Vegeta knew very well why he disliked the brat. She grated on every nerve he had, she defied him even worse than Kakarott and behaved even more un-Saiya-jin like than her dead brother. Running away - it was a coward's path. At least Kakarott had never contemplated it. Not even her weakling elder brother Radditz had ever had the thought cross his mind. That damn Namek-jin that had called himself the god of Chikyuu-sei had planted too many un-Saiya-jin ideas in her infant head. She enjoyed tinkering with things almost as much as she loved fighting. School. It made people soft headed. Just look at Kakarott's brat. The boy can't hurt a fly.

Still, Trunks was leaving in a few days and then all this nonsense would be over. All he could hope for was that Karete wouldn't turn up before then.

*****

Gohan had decided to study outside that day. ChiChi watched him through her kitchen window trying to decide when would be the most appropriate time to take him a snack. The young boy sat with his back to the brilliant sunlight casting a shadow over the white pages so that he wasn't blinded by the glare. He made a note then turned the page. Satisfied that he was too engrossed at the moment ChiChi returned to the pile of dishes heaped by the sink.

Trunks had been by yesterday with the Chibi in tow. It always cast a strange feeling of unease when she saw the two of them together. It was like they were breaking some unspoken rule of the universe. But the cheerfulness of the baby always put her at ease. She smiled softly to herself. Bulma's son was so well behaved and if he grew up to be anything like his counterpart, he would be a son to be proud of. Hopefully his cheerfulness and manners would rub off onto her baby. She glanced out the window again. Gohan was going to be so excited when he found out he was going to have a little brother or sister. She still hadn't told anybody and she was bursting to tell the news but she had promised herself that she was going to wait. The smile fell from her face. She had been so cross when Kat had failed to turn up to dinner that night and she knew Gohan had tiptoed around her for a few days afterward. They were family and she was going to tell them first, together. As sweet as her son was, he would inevitably let it slip if she told him first. Kat would have kept her mouth shut. Now if she waited much longer someone would inevitably guess.

ChiChi's frown of disapproval became a frown of worry. She missed her sister-in-law more than she cared to admit, only having known the girl for such a short time. She disapproved of the way the girl was always interrupting Gohan's studies; she disapproved of the fact that Bulma had given her such an important job at such a young age, even though Gohan had explained how smart she was ChiChi believed she should still be in school like all good young girls; she disliked the way that she looked so much like Gokou, although it was only when she smiled really and the fault wasn't hers. But she missed the way the girl offered help, kept her father out of her hair and was unconsciously keeping her company.

Looking up into the sky ChiChi half expected to see the girl streak down and leave yet another set of scorch marks on her lawn. As if on cue, Gohan suddenly looked up and turned around. ChiChi's heart gave a little jump and she lent out the window to see down the side of the house. She could just see the dark speck hovering over the treetops and not for the first time wished she could sense ki. The dot gradually got bigger as it approached them.

The large pterodactyl flew overhead, casting a shadow over the whole house. Gohan waved at it cheerfully as it passed then settled back to his work. ChiChi scowled. The giant flying reptiles were the other things she disapproved of. She wished fervently that Gokou had never made friends with them. They were just more things she couldn't compete with.

More than once she had wished she could have stopped Gohan from flying after them when he was younger. But she couldn't fly, even though she was well aware that she could have learnt. More then once she had resolved herself to ask Gokou to teach her but something had always happened to prevent her doing so. She had never dreamed of asking Gohan, he was far to busy studying to become a great scholar. So, when Kat had come along she knew it had been her chance. She had had a hard time of it when Gohan was born and back then she had still been training. Now with the new baby, she wanted to train again, knowing very well her lack of discipline the last few years had put her out of shape. Kat had been her answer and ChiChi had hoped that her sister-in-law would understand, being a girl herself and, presumably one who would go through the same thing one day.

ChiChi grinned to herself. If you ever listened to anything Bulma said, that time might come sooner rather than later. Probably later, ChiChi thought. Bulma and Trunks have to get over being angry with her first and besides, Kat is even younger than when Gokou and I first got together. And if they did have children, how would they explain to chibi Trunks that he was playing with his son?

*****

It was nice of them, he conceded but he wished they'd leave. Trunks watched as his mother, no, not his mother, she was…he sighed. She was his mother, just a happier version. Her eyes were shining now as her friends surrounded her, while every now and then she would steal a glance at Vegeta, who sat in a shadowed corner of the room.

Glancing up at the clock, he rolled his eyes. He wanted to get going but unfortunately the others seemed to want to draw this out at long as possible. Yamcha suggested another round of charades to many boos and hisses and sulked off to a corner looking dejected. Trunks smiled. He felt sorry for the guy but maybe this meant that they wanted to wrap things up now.

Standing, he tried to look like he wanted to go. This meant he edged towards the door, while staring at and shuffling his feet. Bulma got the hint.

"I'm just going to walk Trunks out," she announced to the world in general. This was followed by shouts of farewell and good luck and Gohan announcing that he was coming with them. Trunks smiled and followed his mother.

Just before he walked through the doorway he glanced over at Vegeta. The man gave him a curt nod and a small movement of his hand. Trunks knew that that was as much of a `goodbye son, I love you' as he would get from his father. He nodded back before exiting down the front hall. His mother and Gohan were waiting as he stepped out the door but he cast his eyes around anyway. There was no one else there and he couldn't help but feel disappointed. Where was she? She would have been able to tell - the way theirs ki's had gathered - that something was going on. And knowing that this group only got together for special occasions, she should have come back.

Even though he had had time to think, what she had done still gnawed at him. Trunks knew now that they had both acted in the wrong way and he had been fully prepared to apologize if she was. He sighed and a slight frown graced his features. He wasn't going to seek her out. If she wanted to say goodbye, she would but he had a feeling that she wouldn't, and that hurt more than he cared to admit.

"You'll come and see us again, won't you?" his mother was asking.

He nodded absently. "I will but I've had my holiday. There's so much work to be done back home. Rebuilding and all that."

She nodded. "Well, we'll see you when we see you," she smiled but it didn't hide the sadness in her eyes. She pulled him into a sudden hug. "I'll miss you Trunks."

Trunks felt the blush spread across his face.

Sniffing, Bulma took a step back. "Sorry."

"It's all right," he answered, giving her a small grin. He put his hand on Gohan's head. "Look after you kaasan, okay?"

"You bet," Gohan grinned up at him.

Trunks ruffled his hair. "I'm going to pop the capsule over there," he said, inclining his head towards the adjoining field. "You can go back in, it's cold out."

"But…" Gohan began. Bulma put a hand on the boy's shoulder, silencing him. She could see in her son's eyes that he wanted to be left alone.

"Okay," she said softly. "Take care Trunks."

He smiled. "I will," he answered as they disappeared into the house.

Trunks didn't move for a few moments afterward, then he turned and made his way to the empty field.

The wind blew a cold chill down his spine as he walked, the dark grove of trees on one side of the field bending and swaying to the breeze. He heard a branch crack and fall to the ground but it was too dark to see where.

The cloud of smoke created by the capsule blew away quickly and Trunks was grateful when the domed hatch finally closed, leaving the chilling wind outside. He punched the now familiar buttons and felt the machine hum to life beneath him. Then he was lifting into the air. The time machine gave a slight wobble as it hit a strong gust then the scene before him disappeared and Trunks began his long journey home.

Author's note:

Well I got my little butt moving - thank you Cat's Meow - and that was the next chapter; slightly shorter than usual though. Hopefully the next one won't take as long (yeah right - something will happen, something always happens to make me a liar). And now we have some action going. By the way if ever mm.org or ff.net aren't working you could try looking for new chapters on my website. And I just noticed! 321 hits! woo hoo!!! I never thought that would happen!

Reviews help my stamina while boosting my confidence in my writing (hint, hint)

- Karete-chan