Author: The Noseless Wonder
Disclaimer: All the usual stuff. I don’t own Dragon Ball Z or GT *sigh*. I made a wish that I did, but when I collect the dragon balls and summoned the Dragon, Shenlong just laughed at me! Stupid lizard!
Pan woke up unknowing of where she was or how she got there. All she knew was that she was really sore, and she was lying on something really cold. Her memory was fuzzy, but she seemed to recall Goten going insane while they were fighting. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was a large blast coming towards her and Trunks in the background yelling something. She couldn’t hear him well enough to tell what he had said. She looked around the room curiously, trying to regain her senses. It was large and round and there was a computer consul right next to her. She was lying on a cold, hard tile floor. She moved around a little and discovered that her hand hurt a lot. She also felt as if she had hit her head. Looking at the keyboard, she saw that there was blood on it. Pan wondered which wound it was from until she saw her hand. It had a large slash stretching all the way across her palm.
“I must’ve landed in here and hit the keyboard when Goten blasted me. Jerk, fool-headed, pompous…” and the list went on.
As she rose to her feet, her body protested loudly. She realized that her injuries went far beyond a cut on the hand and a bump on the head. Her hand started to bleed again, so she took her orange bandana out of her pocket and wrapped it gingerly around her palm.
The door was shut, she noticed. This sent an unexplained chill down her spine. Thankfully, she knew how to operate most Capsule Corp vessels. When she couldn’t open the door with the computer, she went to go see if she could open it by force. The window in the middle of the door caught her eye. She looked outside the window and received the fright of her life. Instead of a laboratory, or a storage room, she saw stars, billions of them, and they all appeared to blur by out side the window.
A beep from the communicator snapped her out of her fearful freeze. “Please let this be somebody who knows where I am.” She prayed.
Trunks' voice suddenly came over the speakers. “Pan, are you awake yet? Something triggered the floor sensors.” His face appeared on the large screen in front of her.
“Trunks? Can you please tell me where on earth I am?” She pleaded.
“Heh, you aren’t on earth. You’re in space, flying towards a wormhole. You should be there in about 4 days.” He said, trying to hide a small smile.
“Wormhole?! I’m in Bulma’s time machine aren’t I?” She started to panic. This intensified every one of her aches and pains from her injuries. “You’d better not tell me I’m headed back in time seventeen years.”
“I’m afraid so, Panny.”
“What?! Can’t I turn the ship around?! Can’t you bring me back?”
“Nope, I’m afraid not. The course was preset. It can’t be changed.”
“How long am I going to have to stay there?” She started to feel sick. That, in addition to her injuries, made her want to pass out.
“It will take a week and four days to get there. Once you’re in the past, you have to leave two months later, to the minute. At the end of two months, the ship will take off, with or without you. That’s the way mom programmed it.”
“What exactly am I supposed to do for 2 months?” She asked.
Trunks blushed, remembering exactly what she would be doing. “Mingle, but don’t interfere with the timeline any more than you have to.” He replied.
“What if I do change something?”
“There are a few bottles of a specially formulated spray that we made up in case something like that happened. It’s under the counter. Spray it in a person’s eyes to make them forget everything about you. The formula travels through the blood stream to the brain and erases only you from their short-term memory. You’ll need to give a sample of blood so the computer can specify memory loss to your DNA.” He instructed. “Just put a drop of blood in the square on top of the computer desk. When it’s done, add the liquid to the spray bottle.”
“Just on drop? Not a problem.” She said showing him the blood-stained bandana.
“You’re hurt.” His smile vanished.
“Don’t worry, it’s a lot worse than it looks, thanks to my dear, uncle Goten.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened. He just kind of, weirded out, like before. He calmed down right after he realized what he had done. He’s still trying to figure out what he’s going to tell your parents. Considering you’ve been gone for three days, they’re probably wondering where you are.”
“Three days?! I was unconscious for three days?!” she sat down in the consul chair slowly and put her head forward into her hands. Her head was starting to really pound.
“Yep. Umm…Pan? There are senzu beans in the counter. I’d eat a couple if I were you. You look pretty beat up.” He said with concern.
“You’re not so bad yourself.” Pan joked. She reached into the cabinet and pulled out the small bag of beans. She popped one of them into her mouth and chewed. Almost instantaneously, she felt better.
“There’s a bed and a shower downstairs. There’s also some clothes in the closet, but be fore-warned, they’re my mom’s and my sister’s. Oh, and you’ll be happy to know that the fridge is full.” He joked sheepishly.
“I’m flying around in a space ship all by myself, I was just nearly killed by my uncle for no apparent reason and knocked unconscious for three days, I’m headed back in time, there’s no one around who actually knows how to work this flying piece of crap and I’m supposed to be happy that the fridge is full?” She said loudly, making Trunk back down.
“Don’t worry Pan, I won’t let anything happen to you.” Trunks reassured.
“Do you actually expect me to buy that? You’re millions of miles away. How exactly are you supposed to protect me?”
“Settle down Pan. Don’t go Super Saiyan on me.”
“Last time I had you and Grandpa Goku with me. Now I’m all alone. How am I supposed to feel?” She asked sadly.
Trunks could tell she was scared, but she would never admit it. “You’re not alone. I’m here.”
“Yeah, for now, but you’ll leave eventually. You have a job, remember? Besides, you have to sleep sometime.”
“Well, I have some vacation time coming, so I can stay right here with you, if you want. I’ll set up camp right here in the computer room and leave the communicator on, so you can reach me day or night.”
“Thanks Trunks, but you really don’t have to do that…if you don’t want to.”
“No worries Pan, you’ll be fine. I know you will. Look at it this way, when you get back, you’ll probably have some good blackmail on all of us.”
“Heh, you’re right.” She smiled softly, feeling a little better about it and wishing she would have brought her camera.
Goten paced nervously around the living room of his brother’s house. Videl could tell something was wrong, but when she asked, he had said that he refused to tell her anything until Gohan got home. He didn’t want to have to explain it twice. He had been waiting for Gohan to get off work for an hour…and he was growing more apprehensive by the moment.
“Sit down.” Videl said. “You’re about to wear a hole in my carpet.”
He smiled politely. “So when is Gohan going to get home?”
“He should be home any minute.” She said, counting that as the fifth time he asked in the past twenty minutes.
As if on cue, Gohan walked through the door. He slammed the door shut and threw his briefcase down. Goten could tell he was not in a good mood.
“Well, it looks like someone had fun at work today.” Videl remarked as she took his jacket and hung it up.
Gohan walked over and kissed his wife lightly on the cheek. “I’m sorry honey. I just had a real stressful day at work.”
“Maybe this isn’t such a good time.” Goten said as he quickly stood up and started heading for the door.
“Oh, hi brother. I’m sorry I didn’t see you there. Sit down, let’s talk. I could use the friendly company right now.” Gohan grabbed Goten’s shoulder. A little too tightly, if you’d ask Goten. He ushered him to the nearby couch. “Can I get you something?”
“No thanks. I really have to go soon.” Goten said, a sweat drop forming on his forehead. “I just came by to give you some news.”
“You should come by more often. I don’t get to see as much of you now that you’re a married man, little brother.”
‘Why does he have to be so nice?’ Goten thought to himself. ‘Maybe he knows what’s wrong. Maybe he knows what I did. Maybe he’s just being nice to me so I’ll relax, and then, when I least expect it, BOOM!’ Gohan put his hand on Goten’s shoulder and Goten freaked. “Okay! Okay! I admit it! I did it!” He yelled as he snapped out of his seat and backed up as far away as possible from the shocked Gohan.
“Did what?!” Gohan asked, concerned for his little brother’s sanity.
Goten could see that he had clearly let his imagination get the better of him, but it was too late. He had dug himself a hole, and now he had to explain everything. “Well, it’s about Pan’s disappearance...”
“Yeah, I know. She’s been doing that a lot lately. Ever since her training. Don’t worry, she just does that when she needs to clear her head. She’ll be back in a few days.”
“Umm…well…that’s not really what I mean. See, I was kind of…kind of responsible for it.” Goten admitted blocking a punch he was sure would come, but it didn’t.
“Well, I know she can get a little over-sensitive at times, but…”
“No, that’s not what I mean either. See, I kind of…well, we were sparring and…” that was all Goten could spit out. When he looked up, he saw Gohan and Videl both starring blankly at him.
“Goten, do you know where she is?” Videl asked. Worry was beginning to fill her eyes.
“Y-yeah.” He said. He started to savor the air he breathed, and the feeling of having no injuries. He wasn’t sure if he’d live to see tomorrow.
“Well?” Gohan was beginning to lose his patience. What scared him was the fact that Goten was so nervous, that he couldn’t seem to spit out what he wanted to say. That was very uncharacteristic of him.
“She’s-somewhere-in-space-heading-towards-a-wormhole-which-will-take-her-seventeen-years-to-the-past-and-I-was-the-one-responsible-for-her-getting-hurt-and-landing-in-the-ship-Bulma-was-building-which-is-taking-her-there-as-we-speak.” Goten had to gasp for air after he said that. He didn’t want to stop because he wasn’t sure he’d have the courage to get going again. He looked back at Gohan and Videl. Their expressions hadn’t changed.
Then, Gohan reached over and put his hand on Goten’s shoulder. Goten braced for impact and raised his ki just high enough to survive the initial beating. However, Gohan just chuckled and said, “That was funny Goten. I thought you outgrew the practical joke stage. I’m surprised though, I thought you would have been more creative than that. You should have come up with something more plausible.”
“No, that wasn’t funny.” Videl said, slapping them both on the back of their heads. “You really had me scared. Do me a favor, next time you see Pan would you tell her to come home and watch Goku for me so I can go shopping?”
“Why can’t you just take Goku with you?” Gohan asked, appreciating his daughter’s need for space and independence.
“Because…” Videl walked over to Gohan and put her arm around his waist. With her other hand she grabbed his tie and brought his head down to where she could talk in his ear. “I don’t think you would appreciate me taking our son to the kind of store I need to visit. Not on this shopping trip, anyway.”
Gohan’s jaw dropped slightly as a thin line a red appeared under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose. Goten laughed at his brother’s embarrassment. He was still rubbing his head where Videl had hit him, but he was showing a typical Son smile, which made him look like his dad even though his hair was shorter than Goku’s.
‘Wow.’ Goten thought. ‘Gohan is embarrassed and Videl is in a really, really good mood. This would be the perfect time for me to make my escape. Who am I kidding? They’re probably begging for me to leave. I’ve even told them the truth, so it’s not as if I’m morally obligated. Maybe I can make them think she’s on one of her vacations for a whole three months.’
“Well, got to go, bye.” He practically ran for the door. He was almost there when his nephew ran him down and somehow managed to jump in his arms. “Jeez Goku, you’re getting strong.”
“Hi Uncle Goten!” The hyperactive four year-old shouted in Goten’s ear. “Is Panny really in space?”
“Well, umm…” He didn’t know what to say. He looked over at Videl and Gohan to see if they were still listening. They were listening. In fact, they had one of those goofy-looking “isn’t—our—kid—the—most—adorable—thing—on—the—face—of—the—earth—let’s—listen—and—see—what—adorable—thing—he’ll—say—next” smiles plastered on their faces. Goten didn’t know what to say. If he said yes, she was, then Gohan would get mad at him, thinking he was lying to Goku. If he said no, then he really would be lying. He had to say no. He didn’t want to, but he had to. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Goku just sat there smiling brightly up at his uncle.
Gohan had been the only real role-model for Goten. Their father, the older Goku, wasn’t really around in those days when Goten needed a father the most. He had always taught Goten the value of family… and that you should be honest with them so they can support you, but there he was, lying to his family. What made it even worse was that it was concerning the life of their daughter. What if Pan never came back? What if she died, or was stranded there? When he put that into perspective, he saw how petty his fears really were.
“Yeah, she is in outer space.” Goten looked over and saw his brother’s face fall instantly from a smile to a disappointed frown. “Hey, Goku, can you do me a favor bud and go upstairs so I can talk to your parents?”
“Okay.” Goku said reluctantly as he climbed out of Goten’s arms. He wanted to stay and talk about space.
After Goku was upstairs, Goten began the pain-staking task of explaining everything to his brother and sister-in-law. He sat them down and told them about him loosing his temper and blasting her with an energy beam that he knew was too strong for her. He also tried to explain the quantum mechanics of time travel, but he forgot most of what Bulma had told him, and he didn’t understand any of it himself. A few hours later, after he had finished apologizing profusely and begging for forgiveness, he sat back and waited for the beating to begin, but they just sat there, which scared him more than anything.
“Is she okay?” Videl asked, looking like she was going to either pass out or strangle him.
“She’s fine. For the next four days we can even talk to her.” Goten was trying to make it sound as optimistic as possible. “Trunks assures me that she’ll get there and back just fine.”
“I want to talk to her.” Videl said flatly.
“Yeah, but it’s a little late tonight, and considering the Brief’s alarm system is set, it’s kind of a bad time.” Goten said.
“Then we’ll get up early tomorrow.” The same blank look was still written across Videl’s face. “Goodnight.” She stood up, her eyes fixed on some distant point as she walked up the stairs.
Gohan watched her walk up the stairs and to their bedroom. When he heard her close the bedroom door, he turned to face Goten. Goten felt a sudden raise of ki and saw his brother’s eyes narrow as he looked dead at him. He swallowed hard.
“Look, Gohan, it wasn’t…” he tried to explain, but Gohan cut him off.
“You lost your temper?!” Gohan said through partially gritted teeth. “You simply lost your temper and ended up knocking her unconscious for three days?!”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly…”
“You’ve done this before don’t try to say it was an accident!”
“I talked to Vegeta. He said that I have a new power. It needs to come out, and when I spar, it tries to. It makes me more aggressive, and I end up losing control. He also said, that with proper training, I can control it. Vegeta told me that losing control because of a new power was just part of being Kakarot’s son. It was just part of being a Saiyan.”
“We’re not Saiyans!” Gohan shouted. “You should have been able to control your ki. We’re human, and humans don’t try to kill their nieces!”
“Gohan, I didn’t mean to…”
“Save it. I’ve heard it all before. Vegeta told you last time that you needed to train, but you haven’t. That means that this time, it might as well have been intentional.” Gohan bitterly turned his back on Goten and walked up the stairs. “Goodnight.”
Goten took that as an invitation to leave. He was frustrated that he hadn’t had the chance to plead his case with Gohan. He let out a sorrowful sigh as he walked out the door.
Trunks was just beginning to dose off. His eyes were fixed on the screen in front of him. It had seemed like forever since Pan had fallen asleep. It had taken some persuading just to get Pan to even go to bed. If he wouldn’t have thought to put a communicator in the bedroom, she probably never would have settled down enough to lay down. She said she would only relax if he promised to turn the communicator on. She didn’t like sleeping when she was alone and in a situation like that. If something happened, there would be nobody there to help her through it.
He had a sleeping bag lying on a cot. It was probably a lot more comfortable than his office chair, but it was slightly out of view from the computer screen. He wanted to watch her and make sure that she was okay. She turned over in her sleep and faced the screen. She looked so peaceful when she slept. He zoomed in to her face. He admired her fair complexion, her cute little nose and her delicately shaped mouth. He never thought that he’d find a woman’s facial features so interesting.
Trunks remembered when Pan was fourteen and they went on the galaxy tour. At that point, she really hadn’t changed much since she was a child. She had only gotten taller. Then, something happened when she went off for field training in those three years. He wasn’t sure when it occurred, he wasn’t even sure when he had first noticed it, but it happened quickly. One minute, she was a snobbish tom-boy, who could probably pass herself off as a boy, if she wanted to. The next minute she was a beautiful woman, who smelled great and had curves in all the right places.
During her training, Pan matured greatly. She was no longer the spoiled, little girl he had come to know. Her personality really hadn’t changed, just some of her mannerisms. She was softer, even though she had gone through field training, and she was more feminine. Well, as feminine as Pan could ever want to get. She had grown up.
‘She looks like her mother now.’ Trunks thought affectionately as he gave a small smile. All together, he felt a sudden urge to be near her, and a craving to hold her while she slept. She looked nice and cozy. Trunks had made sure there was a comfortable bed in the ship. He silently wondered if the time would ever come where he would be lying next to her, keeping her warm. ‘I’ve waited seventeen years for her. I can make it another three months.’ Sometime soon after that, he fell asleep. Never leaving the computer consul he was sitting at.
The next morning, Trunks was woken up by the sun shining rudely in his eyes. He could have promised anyone that he had fallen asleep only a moment before. Judging by the time, however, and the fact that he had an imprint of the keyboard on his face, he figured that he got a good four and a half hours sleep. “Pan?” He called, realizing she wasn’t in bed. “Pan!”
“Coming!” He heard her call from the bathroom. “Hold on a second.” She walked out of the bathroom wearing two towels… one was in her hands, helping her wring out her hair, and the other was wrapped tightly around herself. The towel covered everything important, but not much more. “I saw you were still asleep, so I took a shower. I was going to wake you up, but you looked so peaceful drooling all over your expensive equipment like that.”
Trunks just sat there. His jaw had gone slack and he could feel the heat rising to his cheeks. He hoped she hadn’t seen him blush.
“What time did you get to sleep?” She asked, starting to comb out her wet hair. There was no answer. “Trunks?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, um…I guess around three or four.” He said, his eyes unable to move from her.
“Thanks for staying up with me. I won’t make you do that again.”
“That’s alright. I didn’t mind, really.” Trunks slapped himself mentally for sounding so eager.
That happened to be the moment Gohan and Videl walked in. Perfect timing. They had come over first thing in the morning, just as they said they would.
“Oh, hi Daddy!” Pan said, suddenly becoming aware of how bad the situation must have looked to her parents.
“Pan, that isn’t funny.” Trunks said, but felt Gohan’s ki and quickly realized he really was behind him. “Oh! Hi Gohan! Hi Videl! I guess Goten finally gave you the news?”
“Yeah.” Gohan said frowning at the picture. He saw Trunks staring at the image of his daughter in a very small bath towel. What really bothered him, was the fact that Trunks was really jumpy, as if he had done something wrong. The pinkish hue across his face didn’t exactly help his case either.
“Pan, are you all right?” Videl asked as she rushed to the computer screen. She backed up when she got there and gave her daughter a disapproving look.
“Hi mom. I’m fine. I was just going…” Pan was slowly backing up into the bathroom. “…to put some clothes on.”
Pan felt bad. She hadn’t meant to flirt with Trunks. When she walked out in a towel, she didn’t even think anything of it. Trunks had seen more than that when they were traveling together. In fact, she had seen more of both him and her grandfather than she had ever wanted to before. That’s just what happened after traveling together in the same small ship for a straight year. Of course, she was a lot less…mature in those days. By the look of things when her parents walked in, they probably thought she was trying to seduce him or something.
Pan had worked through the closet earlier that morning. She had been wearing the same clothes for four days straight, so she figured she had better change. She shuffled through the clothes trying to find something modest. She found some nice clothes, but she didn’t think there were two months worth. Everything else was either too revealing, or too small. They were, after all, some of Bulma and Bra’s old stuff. Bulma had put some men’s clothes in there too, but they were either Trunks’ dress clothes, or Vegeta’s spandex. The dress clothes would probably look really wrong on her, although she’d most likely use the longer dress shirts for sleep wear. The spandex was too tight. She couldn’t imagine how Vegeta could wear that all day, and frankly, she didn’t want to try. She walked out wearing the clothes she tried on that fit her the nicest. She chose a gray, v-neck sweater with sleeves that went half way down her arm, and a black skirt that went down to just above her knees.
“Pan, you look adorable.” Videl said referring to her daughter’s uncharacteristic skirt with a nice top.
“Well, Bulma didn’t really leave me with much of a choice.” Pan shrugged.
Gohan noticed that Trunks was looking at her, in an admiring fashion, and gave him a death stare. Then, he crossed arms, which made him look even colder than Vegeta. Trunks saw the movement out of the corner of his eyes. He had to do a double take when he turned to see Gohan making a face that seemed to say “I’ll—kill—you—if—you—so—much—as—even—look—at—her.”
“I-I’m just going to…g-get some breakfast.” Trunks stuttered as he made a timely exit.
Pan and her parents talked for what seemed like hours. About nothing at all. Pan was beginning to regret the fact that it was a communicator with video. Videl saw Pan’s interest wavering, so she suggested that they leave. “Well, it’s almost time for lunch, so we should go Gohan.”
“We can afford to stay another hour or so.” He pushed.
“No, Gohan, we have a babysitter, remember?” Videl insisted.
“We’ll pay her extra.”
“Gohan, I don’t have that much cash.”
“Then we’ll go by the bank.” His voice was beginning to rise slightly.
Pan just sat there and watched. When her parents argued like this, it looked like a game of ping pong. She was really wishing that they would leave her alone.
“The banks are closed!” Videl was beginning to lose her patience.
“Videl, I don’t think Pan would really want us to leave right now!”
“Actually…” Pan spoke up quickly. “I’ll be fine Dad, thanks. Besides, Trunks is here. If I need anything, he can help me.”
“Okay. We’ll talk to you later Sweetie.” Videl said, ushering Gohan out the door. She practically had to hold a gun to his back to get him to leave, especially after Pan’s last remark. As they left, they passed Trunks who was on his way back in. Videl gave him a polite goodbye, but Gohan just gave him another scowl.
The next three days went basically the same. Gohan and Videl dropped by twice a day... once in the morning and once later at night. Trunks stayed with her the rest of the time, by her request. He always waited for her to go to sleep before he did, and he made sure he woke up, took a shower and ate before she was out of bed. He normally let her sleep until nine or ten in morning, but on the third day, he woke her up early.
“Pan?” He had tried to wake her up softly, but it didn’t work. “Pan!”
She groaned and rolled over to face the screen. “Trunks? What’s wrong? It’s too early.”
“You have three minutes to go upstairs and get strapped in.” He urgently said.
“Three minutes until what?” She groggily sat up and rubbed her eyes.
“Until you get to the wormhole.”
“What?! No! It’s too early!” She shouted, bolting up from her bed.
“No it’s not. It’s been a week since you left. Now go strap yourself in, it may be a bumpy ride.” He warned.
She was only wearing one of his long dress shirts, but she didn’t bother changing. She quickly ran upstairs and sat down in the chair. She reached over and buckled her safety belt. Just then, the upstairs computer screen turned on and Trunks was in front of her once again. The ship, all of a sudden started to shake and she gripped the edge of her seat.
“Trunks? What’s that?” She asked, referring to the shaking.
“Don’t worry, the shaking was expected. It just means that you’re nearing the edge of the wormhole. Do you want to see it?” He asked.
“No!”
“Don’t worry Pan, you’ll be fine, trust me.”
“Trunks…” The ship started to shake even more violently.
“Pan, I don’t know how to say this, but…I…” The screen on Pan’s side suddenly went blank as the ship entered the wormhole. The screen on Trunk’s side just blurred out. “…love you.” He finished too late. ‘Stupid machine!’ He thought. ‘No. It’s better that she doesn’t know that yet. Now I just have to wait.’
“Trunks, what did you say? Trunks!” She started to sob when she saw that he was gone. “I hope it was nothing important.”
The ship shook harder. It made her want to throw up. She didn’t know why she was so scared. She had been through something like this before, it just that she wasn’t so alone then. She started to taste blood, and she realized that she had bitten her tongue, hard. It started to drip down her chin. That made her even more nauseous. The ship hit one really hard jolt. It caused her head to go flying into the not-so-soft head rest behind her. The last thing she saw was a bunch of flashing lights. Then, everything went black.