Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Tears of a Child ( Chapter 14 )

Chibi Goten: No, but I'll take the marshmallows!

Brenda: *sighs* Sure, here ya go. *tosses the blackened puffs of sugar to Goten*

Goten: Yay! You're the greatest! *munches on the carbonized sugar, sharing the bag with Chibi Trunks*

Tears. Tears on his face. Not his own. Whose tears were they? Someone was crying, calling out something that he could barely make out. A small, warm hand on his chest, shaking him. Whose hand was it?

"Grandpa? It's me. Goten. Grandpa, I have something for you."

Goten. I remember now. Child of my son. You're not supposed to exist yet. But you're here. Why are you crying? Oh. It's because I'm dying, isn't it. You don't need to cry. It doesn't hurt anymore. He opened his eyes so he could look at his grandson. The little face that looked so much like his own was so sad. Tears were coursing their way down his cheeks to fall lightly onto Bardock's face. You shouldn't cry, Goten. Tears are not for you. I'm glad you're here, at my side. I don't have much longer, I know, and if there were anyone I would like to have at my side when I die, it's you. Smiling faintly, he reached out to wipe the tears from Goten's face. "I'm sorry... I... didn't get... you home.... Wish..." Wish I could be there for you, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I really am sorry that I can't keep my promise to you, Goten. Promised you I would get you back home. I can only hope that you manage to find a way home without my help. Coughing, he spit up more blood. Really messed myself up this time. Bone shard in my lung. What a way to die.

Goten was speaking again. What's he saying? It's getting harder to hear. Getting darker, too, but maybe it's just night time. "....speak, grandpa," his grandson was saying. "Here. Just eat this." Does he still think that I'm just hungry? That food will make me better? I'm sorry, child, but I don't think there's any food out there that can help me now. He shook his head, refusing whatever it was that his grandson was trying to give him. Only have a few more moments. Want to spend the time talking to you, not chewing on food. "I'm not... that hungry... anymore," he chuckled weakly. Well, maybe I am a little hungry, but food is hardly the most important thing right now. "But thank you. Thank you... Goten... glad... I met you." Maybe we'll see each other again someday, though I hope for your sake that that day is a long time in coming. I guess it's time now. I can barely see, so I might as well close my eyes. Toma, Celipa, Panboukin, Totepo... Sereri.... Soon I'll see all of you again. Wish it didn't have to be so soon. Would have liked to spend more time with Goten. His hand fell away from Goten's face.

Goten was screaming now, screaming his lungs out. "No, grandpa! DON'T LEAVE ME!" He's putting something in my mouth. Can't taste it, maybe because it has no taste, or maybe because I'm dying and just can't taste anything. All I know is that it's small and hard. Don't know that I have the strength even to bite into it. But it's the last thing you'll ever give me, isn't it. It seems so important to you. You're my grandson, and I... yes, I love you, little Goten. I'll eat it, for you. "NOOOOOO!!!"

Goten's anguished cries covered the tiny sound of something hard cracking.

Goten had fallen asleep, still burying his face into Bardock's chest. His grief had exhausted him completely, though even in his sleep, tears still trickled from his closed eyes. Trunks sat with his arms folded across his knees, watching over his chibi friend. Guilt clawed at his heart. If only he'd remembered the senzu beans earlier. If only he'd made Bardock let them carry him. If only they had gone Super Saiyan in order to get there faster. If only....

There was so many things he felt he could have done to prevent what had happened. Sighing, he noticed that Vegeta was stirring. He hadn't hit him that hard, really. Just hard enough to knock him out. Guess now he had to deal with his royal-pain-in-the-rear. It was comforting to know that if Vegeta got on his nerves too much, he could always just knock him out again. He'd have to be careful not to do that too much, though. Didn't want to give his father brain damage or anything.

Vegeta groaned as he rolled over onto his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling. It took several moments before he recalled what had happened. The boy with the purple hair had challenged him, refusing to answer his questions. Then he had called him... Veggie-chan. The mere thought of the insulting name shot bolts of anger through the prince's mind and he sat up straight, glaring around the room until he found the gaki in question. Trunks was sitting a few feet from him, staring at him calmly.

"If you attack me or Goten, I will knock you out again," the younger boy stated in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

His jaw clenching with suppressed rage, the Saiyan boy nodded once, indicating that he understood. His brief encounter with Trunks had left him with the information that Trunks was quite capable of carrying out his threat, and that Vegeta would not be able to do anything to stop him. Vegeta shivered. First Goten, now Trunks. Two children, both younger than him, who could easily overpower him, and probably every other Saiya-jin on the planet. How?

He tore his gaze off of Trunks, looking instead at Goten and Bardock. Bardock lay still, blood staining the ground and his shirt, and the little look-alike was sleeping half on top of him, his face turned away from Vegeta. Vegeta mentally congratulated himself on being right when he had guessed that Bardock had been wounded. He wisely kept this comment to himself. His captor didn't appear to be in a very good mood.

"So what do you intend to do with me?" he asked, not looking at Trunks.

Stretching lazily, the purple haired Saiyan gave Vegeta a hard look. "In a way, it's kinda your fault Bardock's dead, since you're the one who sent that guy after us," he said bitterly. "Maybe I should kill you." Trunks wouldn't actually kill Vegeta, but he wanted to see his chibi father's reaction to this statement. Besides, killing Vegeta would not bring Bardock back and would prevent Trunks from ever having a chance of being born in this timeline. With Vegeta-sei undestroyed, the chances of that were already slim-to-none. No need to eliminate them entirely.

The reaction he got was not the one he was expecting. Vegeta's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he looked at the still form of the older warrior. "You think he's dead?" he spluttered, nearly bursting with laughter. "Baka gaki! Are you blind or something? Any fool who bothered to look at that lowly third-class could tell he's still alive!"

Time almost seemed to stop for Trunks as he absorbed this information, looking as though he'd just been hit by a ton of bricks. Or a strong ki blast. He jerked to his feet and stumbled over to where Bardock and Goten lay, falling to his knees as he looked at Bardock's face in disbelief.

The little cuts and scrapes that he'd earned from his fight with Nappa were gone. Blood still covered his mouth and trailed down his cheek, but it was old blood. No new blood was joining it. And he was breathing. Slowly, yes, but it was the kind of breathing done while one is sleeping, not the shallow gasps he'd been taking a short time ago. Trunks reached out to touch the man's face and found that it was warm and soft, not cold and stiff.

"He's alive," he whispered, hardly daring to voice the fact in case it was a dream. The dream remained reality and Trunks leapt up and shouted, grinning from ear to ear as tears of joy sprang to his eyes. "He's alive!!!"

To the prince's surprise and annoyance, Trunks grabbed him up and gave him a hug so strong it nearly cracked some of his ribs. The boy let go, his eyes shining, grinning like an idiot. "Yes, and now that you've told the whole world, perhaps you'd like to go tell the rest of the universe," the young prince growled sarcastically. How dare he! How dare he touch the Saiya-jin no Ouji! How dare he hug the royal heir to the throne!

Trunks ignored him. He was busy chattering to himself. "Goten must have given Bardock the senzu bean and it just took Bardock a little bit to bite and swallow it! And I guess he was too distracted to notice that his grandfather's ki hadn't disappeared. Ha! I stopped trying to sense his ki when it got too low for me to feel, so I didn't notice it when it came back! Now that I'm looking, I'm surprised I didn't feel it sooner, even if I wasn't paying attention."

"What the hell are you talking about, boy?" Vegeta muttered angrily. He didn't understand most of what Trunks had been saying, but he had caught one thing. "I thought that brat was the son of that third-class lowlife. Bardock doesn't even look old enough to have grandchildren!"

That stopped Trunks in his tracks. Scowling, he mentally pulled up some of his father's favorite curses, the kind that made Bulma threaten to make Vegeta sleep on a couch if he ever used them again, and applied them to himself. He'd accidentally referred to Bardock as Goten's grandfather. How would he explain that to the suspicious prince? He paused in his frantic search for plausible lies when he heard Vegeta gasp.

Vegeta was staring at Trunks, his mouth hanging open slightly and his eyes wide with shock. When Trunks had scowled after the prince had asked his question, Vegeta suddenly realized where he felt he knew Trunks from. With his purple eyebrows scrunched down and his mouth set in a firm frown, his face perfectly matched what the black haired Saiya-jin saw every day... in the mirror.

"You're me!" he exclaimed. The boy was about to say something, but Vegeta cut him off. "I don't know how it's possible, but I recognize your face now. It's my face!"

Trunks snorted in derision. "And you call me an idiot? Good grief. Listen to yourself, baka! How can I be you? I have purple hair and I'm younger than you and I'm stronger than you ever were." Though maybe not as strong as you'll be when you grow up, Trunks added silently.

The logic of what Trunks had said penetrated the shock-induced stupor the prince found himself in. He mentally shook himself, blinking, and focused on the other boy's hair. "Speaking of your hair, how in hell did you get purple hair? And why is it so... limp?" Curiosity pushed aside any fear or anger he had at the moment, as well as causing him to dismiss the reference to his relative weakness. He reached out a hand to touch the strange locks. Trunks just stood there awkwardly, a faint flush of embarrassment tingeing his cheeks pink.

"I get my hair from my mom," he muttered, smiling faintly. "Dad thinks it looks silly, too."

"Who is your father?" Vegeta asked, withdrawing his hand and sitting down on the cold stone floor.

Silence. Then, "I'd rather not say."

Smiling triumphantly, the prince leaned back against the wall. "You're related to me somehow, aren't you? I can tell. Your face looks too much like mine to be coincidence, and I've been having this feeling that I know you ever since I first saw you. Come on, you can tell me."

That earned him a rather strange look from Trunks. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Trust me."

"You can't be a cousin, since my father never had any siblings, and neither did my mother," Vegeta speculated out loud. "Wait! I know! My father mated with another female and produced you! You don't want me to feel bad about my father, so you're trying to hide the fact that your his bastard son. Am I right?" He looked at Trunks expectantly, hoping to catch a glimpse of some sign that indicated he'd guessed the boy's true heritage. The boy's face remained carefully blank. Vegeta took this as an affirmative and smirked in satisfaction. "I thought so. Well, you don't need to worry about my feelings about my father. He can do whatever he wants when he's in bed, as far as I'm concerned." The chibi prince hid his surprise that his father would bed another woman besides his now-dead mother. It just didn't seem like him. But there was no other explanation for Trunks's relationship to the royal bloodline.

A choking sound brought him out of this line of thought. Vegeta glanced at Trunks and found that the kid appeared to be torn between laughing and dying of mortification. "I'm not a bastard, Vegeta. And your father is most definitely not my father!"

"Well, then, who is your father?" Vegeta growled irritably.

"For your information, you-" Trunks hastily shut his mouth with an audible click.

Damn. Nearly got it out of him.

Ba-bump.... ba-bump... ba-bump...

A heartbeat?

Ba-bump....

Warmth on top of him. Small hands clutching him tightly.

Ba-bump....

No pain. Where was the pain?

Ba-bump....

Blackness. No. Wait. He had his eyes closed. Slowly, he opened them, amazed that he was able to do even that small act. Was he alive? Or was this the afterlife? Looking around, he found himself exactly where he had been when he had closed his eyes. Goten remained on top of him, tear tracks visible on his dusty cheeks. Asleep. Bardock let his eyes drift around the room, settling on the arguing prince and demi-saiyan.

"Trunks?" he asked, confusion evident in his voice. When had the Prince of the Saiyans joined them?

Both boys jumped, startled, and whipped their heads around to look at Bardock. "Bardock-san!" Trunks chirped happily, grinning in a way that reminded Bardock of Goten. "You're awake!" Beside him, Vegeta muttered something about Trunks stating the obvious a lot today.

"I am," Bardock agreed, a puzzled look on his face. "How? How can I still be alive?" Looking again at Goten, he shifted the boy so he could sit up, cradling his grandson in his arms. Goten remained asleep, murmuring something indecipherable.

"Senzu bean," Trunks grinned, holding up his other bean for Bardock to see. Vegeta edged forwards a bit so he could take a closer look. The bean was rather unremarkable, just a hard, pale brown lump. "Senzu beans have the ability to heal almost anything and bring your power level up to full." He tucked the bean carefully away into his pocket. "I forgot that I had them, or I would have given you one earlier. I gave one to Goten and he gave it to you right before you nearly died. In fact, we thought you had died. I was afraid Goten would lose it when it looked like you'd died."

Bardock allowed a moment to absorb this. A bean with that kind of power was... unlikely, to say the least. But there was no other explanation for how he had suddenly and miraculously been healed. He focused on Vegeta. "When did Vegeta-ouji join us?" he asked carefully.

"Oh, I kidnapped him and threatened to kill him if everyone kept chasing us," Trunks answered lightly, a faint smirk on his lips.

Still disoriented from nearly dying and then waking up to find that he hadn't, the Saiyan muttered the first thing that came to his mind. "But isn't Vegeta your father? If you killed him, then you'd never be born."

Trunks slapped a hand to his forehead and groaned. Damn it, Bardock! And I've been trying all evening to keep Vegeta from finding that little detail out! Sighing, and leaned against a wall. No help for it now. "He is," he said simply, ignoring the bug-eyed stare he was getting from chibi-Vegeta. "But his guards didn't know that. The bluff worked, so now we'll be able to get off this planet without any problem."

"Are you both insane?!" Vegeta yelled. "I don't have a son! I've never even had sex!"

Bardock frowned as he realized that he'd just blurted out a secret that was probably better off unspoken. Trunks sighed again and rubbed his forehead as though he had a headache. "It can't really get worse, now. Might as well tell him the rest," he grumbled. Turning to look Vegeta in the eye, his face serious, he continued, "Goten and I are from the future. Goten is really Bardock's grandson, not his son. And I'm your son. Goten came to the past by accident, and I followed him to bring him back to our present, or your future. Only I guess it's not your future, anymore, since history's been altered, making this a different timeline than the one that created our time." Bardock noted that the demi-saiyan carefully left out any part that mentioned who his mother was, where the two boys had been born, and any mention of just how they had come to the past, and how they planned on returning to the future. He smiled amusedly, thinking that Vegeta probably didn't notice the evasions because of the absurdity of what had been said.

Clutching Goten to his chest, Bardock leaned back and closed his eyes. He had his grandson and a second chance at life. He would be able to help him get home after all. And he would be able to spend more time with him. He smiled. It was good to be alive.

That was odd. The feeling of impending doom had vanished after only a few hours through the journey home. Radditz still had no idea what had caused the feeling, but it was gone now. Troubled, he decided to remain on the same course, determined to find out what had happened to make him feel as though disaster were looming on the horizon, and how that disaster had been prevented.

"Father, what the hell is going on over there?" he muttered, settling back into his cushioned chair, mentally preparing himself for the long ride home.

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