Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ A Time Mixup! ❯ Time troubles--A Nightmare that will not end. ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13:

Time troubles-

A nightmare that will not end

Bulma shook her head as she looked down at Goten, who's face was full of confusion. The rock she'd given him to hold had vanished-not in a flash-but just suddenly before it had even touched his skin. She looked to her tools-none of which seemed to be of any use. Goten blinked up at her, his young face showing innocent bewilderment.

"Ms. Bulma… Where's the rock?"

Bulma shook her head, feeling hopeless.

"I don't know, Goten…" She shook her head again, and turned away for a moment. She tapped her head set and spoke softly into the microphone. "I see what you were talking about, Chichi. It's really that bad…" She looked back at Goten. "I'm not sure what's doing it though… I know what caused this-the Time Machine's malfunction-but… What is happening to our boys?"

Sitting not far away in the living room, Chichi let out a long sigh, her face pained.

"Then… There's nothing you can do to reverse it?"

Bulma's voice crackled through the receiver.

"No… Not at present. I just don't have the tools for this… I'm sorry."

Chichi cried out, leaping to her feet. Gohan, who sat in a chair nearby jumped a bit at the sharp sound of her voice.

"But what if it gets worse?! Sure-it's rocks and silverware right now-but what if it becomes clothes, food, or people?!"

Back in her lab, Bulma shuddered and looked at Goten fearfully.

He would die… He'd be cut off from all nourishment, and we wouldn't be able to even comfort him… She shook her head and spoke strongly.

"We don't know that that'll happen, Chichi. It may stay this simple. So far-it seems to be isolated to small, low-density objects that touch his hands and arms. We've also found that smaller objects, such as sand, seem to vanish when approaching him. If anything-so far all he can't do is use chopsticks or pick up small objects. We'll need to keep him under observation, though."

Chichi paused, and then spoke softly.

"Trunks mentioned an experiment… Do you know anything about that?"

Bulma raised a brow.

"Experiment?"

Suddenly, the room began to shake a bit, knocking some of Bulma's smaller tools onto the ground. Goten suddenly cried out in surprise.

"It's Trunks!" He exclaimed, his eyes excited. "He's powered up-Wow! What's he doing?!"

Bulma looked at Goten in surprise.

"Trunks?" Why in the world would he… Bulma's eyes widened as she realized. She grabbed Goten's hand. Though she felt a slight shock when she did so, she took little notice. She pulled him out of the lab, and dashed towards the living room. Gohan was at his feet as well-his face pale.

"He's gone to the peak of his power! He'll rip this place apart!"

"Where?!" Bulma demanded. A voice behind her made her jump.

"The garden." It told her, coolly. She whirled about, her eyes angry. Vegeta stood there, his face as calm as ever.

"What are you doing?! Why aren't you there?!" Bulma shouted, grabbing his shirt. He sighed.

"I came to get you." He picked her up and swiftly flew through the hallways of Capsule Corp. until they heard Trunks's screaming. Bulma leapt out of Vegeta's arms just as they reached the entrance to the garden. Goten and Gohan, who carried Chichi arrived only a second later to the same scene. And all were equally shocked.

Trunks stood screaming in the center of a golden pillar of light, as lightning flashed down around the young Super Saiyan. The light seemed warped though, as though they were looking at it from underwater. Trunks's voice was suddenly lost among the screaming energies, energies that ripped at the ground at his feet. But the effect to the ground around him was what horrified everyone the most. He stood around several flowering shrubs, all of which had had no buds on them that morning. But now, the shrubs had many flowers-flowers that were born, that lived, and died all in a few moments. Suddenly, Trunks seemed to arch back a bit, floating into the air. He stopped screaming, and the energies that whipped about him ceased. His hair fell from its golden splendor back to its usual lilac color, but when it fell it was far longer than it had been that morning. He'd changed again-and he seemed as though he understood. He turned to his mother, as flowers fell all about him, joining a carpet of them that had fallen in the brief time that he had unleashed his fury. He spoke softly, his voice a bit deeper.

"It's a field." He looked around him, picking a flower. "When we power up-the field around us usually warps from our energy-hence the golden light. But… When the time machine exploded, it permanently warped our field. Whenever we power up now, it further warps our field, and makes the effects of the time machine's crash worse. That's why it took Goten's problems longer to surface. He didn't power up very often, where as I did several times. My problem has become so severe that just powering up for a few moments left this result. I've probably lost another year of my life… But it just doesn't effect us…" He powered up a bit, and the flower withered in seconds. All around his feet, the flowers withered and died as well. "It affects things that are around us… I can't tell if the field itself becomes bigger with time, but I'll assume that it will. Because time around me is sped up, I am maturing as I would have normally-but I don't have the experience. Eventually, I will mature to the end of my lifespan, and I will die. With the rate that I have been aging, I may die the next time I become a Super Saiyan-if I remain powered up for too long. If I can't find a way to reverse the effects, I won't last another three months. As for Goten…" He looked at his friend, his eyes sad. "I don't know what is happening to him… And I don't know how bad it will become. It is very likely that if he powers up again, it will become worse-maybe to the point where he vanishes. Space around him must be warped so that it leads somewhere else-and we don't know where exactly."

Chichi looked at Goten, and she narrowed her eyes.

"Then he won't fight anymore."

"It isn't that simple." Trunks said softly. "Even if he doesn't power up… Saiyans have a naturally warped field. That's why we can naturally manipulate our ki when need be. He may become worse over time." Trunks looked down at the ground, his eyes sad. "And… For me… I've already doomed myself… I was so stupid…" He looked at Chichi sadly, and spoke softly. "I'm sorry Ms. Chichi, Mama, Papa… I'm sorry…" He shook his head, tears coming to his eyes. "Why did I take that stupid time machine?!" Bulma bowed her head, and placed her hand on Trunks's shoulder. Trunks hopped back, shaking his head.

"Don't touch me! If you get too close…" Trunks backed away further, his eyes pained. Bulma looked at her son hopelessly, but then Goten piped up.

"Hey Trunks… If the time machine made you big, and made things disappear around me… Then why don't we just use the time machine again? Maybe we can find someone to fix us."

Trunks looked at Goten in surprise.

"Wow Goten! That's a great idea!" He smiled, his eyes brightening. "Maybe we can find someone who can fix us!"

Bulma shook her head.

"You want to go again?!"

Trunks nodded.

"You fixed it, right? It'll work now." Trunks smiled, his eyes hopeful. "If we can find someone to fix us… Then we won't need to wait 180 days!"

Chichi blinked.

"Why don't you just travel 180 days in the future?"

Bulma shook her head.

"That would be dangerous. They could create a paradox. If they were to do that…"

Gohan nodded, understanding.

"They'd be killed. Or worse-erased or something. We studied loopholes in school… Scientists speculate that if someone were to time travel, and they were to meet themselves or something-it'd really mess up the time-space continuum. The reason that nothing happened when Trunks came back all those years ago to warn us about the androids is probably because little Trunks was just an infant at the time, and wouldn't remember such a meeting. It's really dangerous."

Chichi sighed.

"Oh…" Vegeta smirked.

"We could always wait 180 days and just wish them back to life if they die…"

Bulma smacked him angrily.

"No!"

"We don't have another choice." Trunks said softly. "If we did, I'd go with it. I'm not really too keen on the idea of leaving again… But I know one thing… Once we get this fixed, I'm going to dedicate my life to figuring out how we made that jump to another dimension… What went wrong-and what it caused." He turned to his mother, and his friends, his eyes desperate. "…and how it did what it did to us."