Trunks's POV:
The rich aroma of roasted meat and fresh vegetables filled my nostrils as I stared down at the plate before me.
My stomach growled, but I found myself hesitating, savoring the sight of real food - actual, fresh food - arranged artfully on fine china. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen such colors on a plate.
"Please, eat! Don't let it get cold," Bulma - not my mother, but her younger self - encouraged with a smile.
I nodded and took a bite, barely suppressing making a sound of delight as flavors exploded across my tongue.
In my timeline, we'd been living on canned goods and whatever sparse vegetables we could grow in hidden underground facilities for years.
Good ingredients were impossible to find with the androids destroying everything, and killing you if they found you.
"This is... incredible," I managed between bites, trying not to devour everything like a starving animal.
"Just wait until you try my mom's cooking," Bulma said proudly. "This is just what we had around the kitchen."
Just what they had around? The casual abundance was almost painful to witness. I thought of my mother - older, worn by years of struggle - and how she always insisted I take the better portions while she ate the bland, sometimes spoiled leftovers.
Before her, Gohan had done the same for both of us.
My hand paused halfway to my mouth, the memory of my mentor sudden and sharp. Gohan always gave us the best food, claiming that as a half-Saiyan, his body could handle lower quality nutrition without getting sick. "Warrior genes," he'd joke, flexing his remaining arm.
Had that been a factor in his death? The dark thought had haunted me for years. If he'd eaten better, been stronger, could he have defeated the androids? Was his sacrifice of good food - for me - partly why he died?
I pushed the thought away and glanced around the room at the gathered Z Fighters. So many faces I knew only from old photographs, now alive and watching me with varying degrees of curiosity and suspicion.
Goku sat nearest to me, his face open and friendly despite the bizarre situation.
Beside him, young Gohan - so small, so innocent compared to the battle-hardened man who trained me - fidgeted uncomfortably under my occasional glances.
Piccolo stood against the wall, arms crossed, eyes never leaving me.
Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu clustered together on a sofa, while Krillin perched on an armchair.
Chi-Chi hovered near Gohan, protective as he'd heard.
Bulma was busy examining the heart medicine I'd brought, running tests with equipment I didn't recognize. The technology here seemed more advanced than even what my mother had access to.
"The molecular structure is fascinating," she muttered to herself. "I've never seen anything like this compound before."
Everything felt surreal. I'd spent hours explaining my presence, showing them the time machine, telling them about the android threat.
Goku had accepted the heart medicine with the characteristic optimism he'd heard so much about ("Wow, medicine from the future! That's so cool!"), while the others had reacted with varying degrees of shock and disbelief.
But nothing had prepared me for how different this timeline was from what my mother had described.
My mind drifted back to my arrival earlier that day...
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I'd emerged from the time machine in a barren wasteland, exactly where Mother had calculated Goku would land upon his return from space.
According to her calculations, he should have arrived in his space pod within minutes of my appearance.
But hours passed, and nothing happened. No space pod. No Goku.
Had I arrived too early? Too late? Had the time machine malfunctioned?
After waiting until sunset, I decided to head to Capsule Corporation. If anyone could help me, it would be this timeline's Bulma.
Flying over West City, I was shocked to see it intact - thriving, even. In my time, it was one of the first major cities the androids had reduced to rubble.
When I spotted Capsule Corp, I hovered high above, gathering my courage. The compound was much larger than I remembered, with several new buildings and what appeared to be a landing pad for spacecraft.
"Hey there! Who are you?"
The cheerful voice behind me nearly caused me to fall from the sky. I whirled around, hand instinctively reaching for my sword, to find Goku floating casually behind me, wearing some kind of formal golden armor I didn't recognize.
"G-Goku?" I stammered, unable to believe my eyes. According to Mother, he should have just returned from space, weakened from his battle with Freeza.
"Yep! That's me! Have we met?" He grinned, then his expression grew slightly more serious. "Mind telling me why you're floating above Capsule Corp staring at Bulma? Not that I think you're up to anything bad - your ki feels pure enough - but it is kind of weird, you know?"
I flushed, realizing how suspicious I must appear. "I... I need to speak with you. Privately. It's urgent."
Goku studied me for a moment, then nodded. "Sure thing. Follow me."
He led me to a secluded area outside the city, where I finally revealed everything, my identity as Bulma and Vegeta's son from the future - this one at the end, after everything - the android threat, Goku's heart disease, the destruction of Earth's defenders.
I showed him the medicine and explained its purpose.
"Wow," was all he said at first, staring at the small vial in his hand. "That's... a lot to take in."
"There's something else that doesn't make sense," I said. "My mother told me you returned from space today, after defeating the Galactic Emperor Freeza. But you're already here, and..." I gestured at his unusual attire.
"Oh, that happened ages ago!" Goku laughed. "And I didn't defeat Freeza. Toji did."
"Toji?" The name meant nothing to me.
"Yeah! He's amazing! Stronger than anyone I've ever met. He's actually married to Freeza now - who by the way is actually an Empress rather than Emperor, turns out she was a woman all along. Isn't that wild?"
I stared at him, certain I'd misheard. "Married to... Freeza? The tyrant who killed your friend Krillin? The monster you fought on Namek?"
"Killed Krillin- that's not, oh, it's different where you're from. No, that was Cooler. Besides that, It's kind of complicated," Goku admitted, scratching the back of his head.
"A lot has changed. Earth is actually allied with the Cold Empire now- though only Bulma really knows, readying everything and all that for when we reveal about the Empire. Vegeta's something called a 'Grand Regent,' and - "
"Allied with the Cold Empire?" I interrupted, unable to process what I was hearing. "That's... that's impossible."
"It does sound crazy when you say it out loud," Goku agreed. "But Toji's a good guy, and he's kept Freeza in line. Plus, their son Megumi is adorable!"
Son? They had a CHILD together?
What in the Hell is this place???
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The sound of the door opening snapped me back to the present.
Three figures entered the room, and conversations immediately hushed.
The first was unmistakably my father - Vegeta - though he looked nothing like the man my mother had described.
He wore elaborate imperial regalia that made him look like royalty from some ancient civilization: a long black velvet robe with purple embossing, trimmed with what appeared to be real fur at the collar.
A chain belt and sash completed the ensemble, giving him a look I'd never associated with the man my mother had described.
But more shocking than his appearance was his power. Even in what appeared to be a completely relaxed state, his ki signature dwarfed anything I'd ever felt.
It was at least ten times stronger than my Super Saiyan form. How was that possible?
Next to him walked a tall man I didn't recognize, but who must be Toji based on Bulma's earlier descriptions.
He wore similar but more elaborate royal attire - his coat featured a dark black fur collar that complimented the black velvet, going well with it.
The sleeves were adorned with crisscrossing green ribbons, each intersection marked with what looked like small pearls. He moved with the casual confidence of someone who had never known fear.
(Toji's clothes appearance)
But what truly unsettled me was his ki - or rather, the complete absence of it. I couldn't sense anything from him, as if he existed in a different plane of reality.
Yet every instinct I possessed screamed danger. If I made this man my enemy, I would die. Not just die - cease to exist entirely.
The third figure was a child who appeared to be around six years old, floating rather than walking.
He had black hair and striking violet eyes, wearing miniature imperial armor scaled perfectly to his size.
Despite his young appearance, his ki signature was... impossible. Equal to my base form, at least.
From a child!
"Daddy! Daddy! Who's that?" the boy asked, pointing at me as he floated up to perch on Toji's shoulders, small hands resting atop the man's head.
"That's what we're here to find out, Megumi," Toji replied, his voice deep and resonant.
"Megumi, be polite," Bulma chided gently, though her expression was fond. "Everyone, this is Toji Fushiguro, Lord Duskborn of the Eastern Quadrant, his son Megumi, and of course you all know Vegeta."
Lord Duskborn? Eastern Quadrant? The titles meant nothing to me.
"Big brother!" Megumi suddenly exclaimed, floating off his father's shoulders to zip across the room toward young Gohan, who laughed and caught the smaller boy in mid-air.
"Hey Gumi! Did you learn any new tricks?" Gohan asked, surprisingly comfortable with the child.
"Yep! Unca Kaka taught me to make big boom!" The boy formed a small ki ball in his palm, which Gohan quickly helped him dissipate.
"Maybe save that for outside training, okay?" Gohan suggested with a smile.
Chi-Chi watched the interaction with clear affection and surprise. "He's growing so fast! How's he so big now?"
"Three days ago," Toji answered, taking a seat at the table across from me. "Growth spurt."
Vegeta remained standing, arms crossed as he examined me with unmistakable suspicion.
"So," he began without preamble, "you're the one from the future. Bulma tells us you've warned of some android threat."
I straightened, trying to maintain my composure under his scrutiny. "Yes. In approximately three years, on May 12th at 10 AM, two androids created by Dr. Gero of the former Red Ribbon Army will appear on an island nine miles southwest of South City. They're incredibly powerful - they killed all of you in my timeline."
"All of us?" Piccolo questioned from his position against the wall.
"Everyone except Bulma, and... Toji, who I... Have never heard about," I clarified, "Goku died before they appeared, from a heart virus. The others fell in battle against the androids. Gohan survived the longest, but eventually..." I couldn't finish the sentence.
"And what's your connection to all this?" Vegeta pressed. "Why come back to warn us?"
"I'm... I was trained by Gohan before he died. I'm the only fighter left in my time. The androids have destroyed everything. Cities, armies, civilization itself. Less than thirty percent of Earth's population remains, all living in hiding."
"No matter how much I fought them, I could never truly win. Whenever I do some damage to one, the other joins in and I lose- the same happened constantly to Gohan..."
"And you expect us to believe you traveled through time?" Vegeta's tone was skeptical. "With what technology?"
"Bulma built a time machine. It took her years, but as you all probably know she's the- the most brilliant scientist on Earth."
I noticed Toji watching me with an unreadable expression, his fingers steepled before him.
"What I don't understand," I continued, "is why everything here is so different from what my Bulma described. In my timeline, Goku defeated Freeza on Namek. There was no alliance with the Cold Empire. No... Lord Duskborn." I glanced at Toji uncertainly.
"I see," Toji said finally, his voice thoughtful. "It makes sense."
"What does?" I asked.
"Why things are different. You didn't time travel - at least not in the way you think." Toji leaned forward slightly. "True time travel is a logical impossibility. You can't go back and change the past, because the very thing you went to change wouldn't have happened for you to then go and change it."
"I don't understand," I admitted.
"Time is linear," Toji explained. "The definition of 'past' is something that happened before something else, leading to other events. If you truly went back in time, the best case scenario would be creating a splintered timeline, diverging from your arrival point."
"But no changes in that new timeline would affect your original timeline. Bulma should've realised this, but I suppose it was her last hope. She had to do try and do something."
My hands clenched into fists beneath the table as his words sank in. "So... you're saying I didn't go back in time at all? I crossed into a completely different timeline? A different universe?"
"Exactly." Toji nodded. "One with a different history. One where I exist, where Earth and the Cold Empire are allied."
I felt the blood drain from my face as realization hit me. "Then... it was all for nothing? The time machine, the warnings..." My voice cracked. "If the past can't be changed, then my world is lost. Everyone who survived will die when the androids finally find them."
The weight of failure crashed down on me. All those years of work, my mother's desperate hope, Gohan's sacrifice - all pointless.
"Not necessarily," Toji said, interrupting my spiral of despair.
My head snapped up. "What?"
"You have a time machine, don't you? Goku can go with you to your future, handle the androids, contact King Kai, get the coordinates of Namek, and use one of Bulma's spaceship capsules - we have many spares for emergencies - to go there. Then you can summon Porunga and undo everything that happened."
I stared at him, hardly daring to hope. "But... the androids-"
"Goku is more than strong enough," Toji said dismissively. "Based on what you've described, these androids are nothing compared to his current power. He's at least a hundred times stronger than you are now and that's without even taking into account Super Saiyan."
"A hundred times?" I whispered, glancing at Goku who rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile.
"Well, I have been training pretty hard," Goku admitted.
Hope fluttered in my chest, but reality quickly crushed it. "There's only fuel for a one-way trip back. My mother couldn't synthesize more - resources were too scarce. I can't ask Goku to abandon everything to save my world."
Toji shrugged as if this were a minor inconvenience. "Then stay here while Bulma reverse-engineers the fuel. With her technology and my resources as Lord Duskborn - she is my advisor, after all - creating more shouldn't be difficult. Once we have enough, you can go to the future, fix everything, and return."
He made it sound so simple. So obvious.
"We have the strength and resources," Toji continued. "It's the least we can do for someone who warned us of a potential threat, whether it exists in this timeline or not."
I tried to respond, but my voice caught in my throat. Something warm and wet slid down my cheek, startling me. I touched my face, fingers coming away damp.
Tears. I was crying.
I hadn't cried since finding Gohan's body in the rain. Not once. It was as if my tears had dried up completely.
But now they flowed freely, streaming down my face as it all sank in - my world could be saved. My mother wouldn't have to live in fear anymore. The survivors could rebuild.
There was hope.
A sob escaped me, then another, until I was crying openly, shoulders shaking.
"It's okay," Bulma said softly, moving to my side. Her hand found my back, rubbing gentle, soothing circles. "We'll help you. You're not alone anymore."
I couldn't speak, couldn't even look up as years of grief, fear, and now sudden hope overwhelmed me.
All I could do was let the tears fall, each one washing away a little of the burden I'd carried for so long.
For the first time since Gohan's death, I allowed myself to believe in tomorrow.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter, do tell me how you found it.
Before anything, why everyone is so much stronger than Trunks is simple. This fic is based in the movie verse, where everyone is far stronger than the canon timeline.
Trunks is from the canon timeline.
Well, I hope to see you all later, do tell me how you found the chapter. I hope I kept Trunks in character.
Bye!)