I closed my eyes and-he slapped me! "Goten?" He was glaring at me now. "It is you, Goten, isn't it?" He crossed his arms and sat back, continuing to stare at me. "What's wrong? I can't believe you're alive! This is so wonderful!" He said nothing. "Goten?"
The room was a bit dark, but I could see his face. He looked just the same. Did death change his heart that much? I absolutely knew it was he. I could sense his Ki now� he was the one I had sensed in the woods. That's why I thought I couldn't sense my enemy-because I thought his Ki couldn't be real. Just a phantom of my best friend, the boy I grew up with. The one I still wished could someday be my lover.
He shifted in his seat a bit, and finally decided upon pulling his wooden chair closer to my bed. I noticed his attire. A brown trench coat covering a familiar orange and blue gi. When I looked down at his feet, I recognized the style of the boots to be the same as his father's had been. This had to be Goten. Finally, he spoke.
"How do you know my name? No one knows my name. Yet you do."
"Goten-we grew up together! Remember? I'm your best friend. It's me!"
He frowned and crossed his arms. I couldn't help myself. I just had to smile. His manner was beginning to resemble my father's. Though, this was bad. I wondered-did he have amnesia? That must be it.
"Trunks." I nodded. Maybe there was hope after all! "Is that your name?"
"Hai. Do you remember me now?"
He stood up from his chair, a look of disgust growing ever more apparent across his face. Kami, he could give my father a run for his money with that look! "You're nothing but a deception. There is no Trunks! Did Yurei put you up to this?"
"Goten? What's going on? You're scaring me."
"You would say that. Well, you can't have Capsule Corporation. The ruins, and any technology inside belong to us until the sleepers awaken. You got that?"
"Sleepers? You mean Bra and I?"
"Don't play dumb with me. The legendary scions of Vegeta. I don't know who you are. You're just some figment Yurei placed inside my head. I should kill you."
I looked down at my hands, thinking. I hadn't the slightest idea what was going on. I knew this had to be Goten� but� "How can I prove to you I am who I say I am? Goten� please."
As he gazed at me once more, the uncharacteristically hard look to his eyes softened. "I almost wish you were Trunks, and that I was your Goten. I don't even sense any malintent on your part." He sucked in a deep breath, and let it out. He seemed sad. "These vague false memories Yurei placed in my mind� at least he had the decency to make them seem so nice. An ancient fantasyland with wonders I had taken for granted� a blue sky� parents� a brother� and you. Though, it's also all the more heart breaking, this way." A tear streaked his face. He stood up from his chair. "How dare you!"
I shifted in bed, letting my legs dangle off the bed. I attempted to stand, but immediately regretted it. My right leg was still injured from Goten's arrow, and I winced in pain. "Goten-it is me. Really. I'm no figment. I don't know who this Yurei guy is. Look, let's just go back to Capsule Corporation. You remember my sister, Bra? She's awake, too."
He moved closer to me, and lit another candle by my bed. "Look at me." He began to unbutton his brown, loose-fitting trench coat, revealing his clothes underneath. "I still do not trust you, though�" I looked on in awe, as I realized what exactly Goten was showing me.
I couldn't help it. I let my jaw drop in absolute shock. This had to be some sort of trick.
"You-- Goten? You're�"
Thief
"So, Bra, what's a Saiyajin?"
Bra looked at him carefully, assessing whether or not he could be capable of causing her any more trouble. Although he resembled her father, Vegeta, he did not seem to possess the same fighting potential. Bra decided not to relax her guard, much, but determined he was no real threat. At worst, the Baka was only a nuisance and she wanted to know more about him. "Why don't we go back inside, Yurei. We can talk about it over a cup of nice warm tea and cookies."
He smiled, and offered her his hand. "Alright."
Bra was hesitant to take the boy's hand, but against her better judgment, she did. Though he was dirty, and his clothes were quite ragged, and he had a strong immaturity streak in his personality, Bra thought he was quite handsome. Yurei beamed at this, though Bra did not know exactly why he was so happy.
Capsule Corporation was not very far away. In her mind's eye, Bra could see her home just as it used to be, before the war. A big, bright yellow dome shaped building, under a blue sky, amidst a busy city. Sometimes, such thoughts made her sad, but today, she grinned, ignoring the rubble for once, just remembering the good times.
Bra led Yurei back down into the lower levels, which had been carefully preserved throughout the ages. Her mother certainly was a genius. It's too bad she� she couldn't be here to see this.
"Bra, your home is nice."
"Thank you." Bra let go of his hand; amazed that she had held it the entire time. She motioned for him to go sit down at the kitchen table, while she filled the teapot with water and placed it on the stove. Once she was done, she joined him. "I'd like to ask you something, and I want a real answer. What were you doing in my room?"
Yurei looked into Bra's eyes and blushed bright red. "I, uh� I took a few things�" He reached down into his shirt pockets and pulled out a handful of colorful spheres, the size of marbles. "I was just curious." He popped one into his mouth. "I've never had real candy before. They taste good. You want one, Bra?"
Bra stared at him, flabbergasted. "Nani?! You're telling me you snuck into my home to steal my private candy stash?" She stood up, placing both fists on the sides of her hips. "You honestly expect me to believe that?!"
He looked down. "Uh, well� that's not all I took." He put the rest of the gumballs away into his pockets and pulled out a wad of cash. "I just thought this looked cool. We don't use money anymore. This is money, ne?"
Bra shook her head. She could not believe this! "What else did you take?"
He put the money back into his pockets. Bra didn't bother to take any of this back. She figured it would be pretty dingy after being in his smelly clothes. The boy needed a bath, bad. "One more thing. I� I think this guy kinda looks like me. Weird, ne? I hope you don't mind. He doesn't look too bad, for an old guy. Can I keep it?" He reached inside his shirt and withdrew a photo of Vegeta.
Bra snatched the photo from Yurei's hand. "That's my papa! I don't have too many pictures of him!" Yurei looked at his fingers with his eyebrows raised and a sad statement on his face. "I shot this photo, myself. This one's special to me, because it's the last one I ever took of Papa. He died a week later, saving our lives."
"Oh." Yurei did not slip the photo back into his pockets; he just stared at it, from where Bra had placed it gently on the table.
The teapot on the stove began to whistle. Bra turned around to pour the tea water into mugs. She did not know whether to believe the young Saiyajin boy or not. She felt he was only telling half the truth. Yurei made no sense. Though, he did look pretty cute smacking the gum with his mouth wide open, just like a kid. He didn't seem like he could cause any real trouble, besides being a royal pest. When she sat back down at the table with their tea, he sipped it carefully and smiled at her.
"So, are you going to tell me what a Saiyajin is, now, Bra?"
"How do you know do you know to ask that, if you don't know what one is?" She thought of his tail, and knew he had to be Saiyajin, though she did not know how this could be so. Goku and her papa were the last full Saiyajins, and they died, along with Goten. Gohan and his daughter were still, hopefully, in cryostasis, somewhere, so, where did Yurei fit in? "It's what you are, though I don't know how. I'm one, too."
She felt something brush against her foot. It took her moment to figure out what was going on. Yurei began to twirl one foot around her toes, and then probed farther up, towards her ankles. Bra looked him in the eye. She thought he was cute, but not that cute! Bra yanked her foot back, and then kicked him in the shin, hard. He smirked at her. "You like me, you know you do, Bra. I'm cute, ne?" He leaned over in his chair and rolled up his pant leg. "Look at the bruise you gave me!"
"Oh, poor baby." She could smell him, bad. "Do you mind taking a shower? You stink."
Yurei lifted one arm and smelled his pits. "Yeah? I think I smell like roses." He took a sip of his tea. "Well, you're welcome to join me. I could use an extra hand or two� you can wash behind my ears and all those other hard to reach places�" Bra smacked him hard across the face. "Well, if you'd like to decline my invitation, you just had to say so, Bra. You didn't have to hit me!" A scowl upon his lips, Yurei stood up from the table and left the room.
Bra followed him, noticing he already knew the way to the bathroom. When he got there, he reached inside the closet and took out a towel, some shampoo, and a comb. "Ah, so you have been snooping around!"
"Yeah. You only asked what I was doing in your room. I've been in your house lots of times. I like it here." He turned on the hot water. "So, you'd like to join me, after all?" Yurei pulled down his pants and stepped out of them. "That'd be nice." Well, that solved the age-old question: boxers or briefs? She found out, much to her horror, that he goes commando.
Bra turned around, hiding the fact that her face was beet red. "No, no thank you. I'll, uh, go get you some clean clothes. Don't you dare put those dirty rags back on again!!" She left quickly to go find the boy something to wear from Trunks' room.
Bra could hear Yurei singing, off key. The lyrics were pure nonsense, something about "Cha La, Head Cha La�" She sighed, wondering what to dress him in. She was tempted to put him in one of her father's blue spandex outfits, but� well, yeah, she could do that. Trunks, for some reason or another, had an outfit just like that, stored away in one of his dresser drawers. Then she reached for a belt, some boots, and a capsule corporation jacket from her brother's closet. She hoped they would fit him. Well, they'd have to do.
When she returned, he was already done. "You can come in, if you like."
"Are you decent?"
Yurei opened the door. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, and nothing else, except little droplets of water covering his body. He took the comb and brushed his wet bangs upwards, into the rest of his black hair. "Think I should lose the bangs? This style looked pretty good on that old guy."
"No!" Bra threw the bundle of clothes she was carrying at him, and stomped off. She didn't understand the boy one bit. One moment he's coming on to her, the next he mentions how he's the spitting image of her papa� and he's a snoop! A kleptomaniac! And, and� totally adorable.
Revelations
"You-- Goten? You're a woman!" I could not believe my eyes. This had to be some sort of trick of the light or a bad dream. This just wasn't right. After all this time� I wondered, as I looked at Goten's voluptuous curves, if this was some sort of mistake. It just had to be� I hoped. I had liked Goten as a boy. "What happened to you?"
"What happened to me? I was born this way!" She smiled at me, in disbelief. "I can't believe you're carrying this charade so far!"
"What?"
"You heard me. I was born this way. I'm Son Goten, though no one is supposed to know that name, except my parents, and they died a long time ago. I figured you would react this way, though I know it's just an act. Yurei put you up to this, ne? Him and those damn Kikai-jin!"
His face was still the same, and though he was angry, his voice still sounded just as sweet to my ears as I remembered. This had to be my Goten; there was no mistaking it. Even if he was a woman at the moment. "I don't know who this Yurei is, or what these machine people are, all I know is� You're Goten. I can sense your Ki, and you're him." I looked down at my feet, noticing someone had removed my boots. "You even knew my name."
There was a knock at the door. "Lea-chan, are you okay? Is that vermin scum threatening you?"
"Klylyn-san?! He's here, too?!" I could sense his Ki from outside. "He is a he still, right?" Goten looked at me quizzically, with both her hands on her hips, so I took that as a yes. I don't think I could ever get used to him like this, I thought to myself. It's pure torture.
"I'm coming in!"
Goten moved towards the door. "I'm fine! Just wait a moment!! I want to talk to the spy alone!"
"You sure?"
"I'm the super-Saiyajin! I can handle this myself, thanks!"
"Well� I don't like this. But, alright."
Klylyn still stood there, by the door. I could sense him, and knew he was not at ease. They were really frightened of me, it seems. Goten pushed up her sleeves, and turned her attention back towards me. "Alright. Let's get off this funny business, and start talking about what matters. I am NOT going to let you get to me. I want answers. Just who are you?"
I kept looking down at my feet. I just did not know what to say, really. Part of me was happy Goten was alive, another part dismayed that he didn't know me. Perhaps, I wondered� was I mistaken? She had his Ki. Perhaps, she was just his descendent, and she just shared a few common traits? I wasn't sure anymore.
"Look. My name is Trunks. I was born a few thousand years ago. After my father, Goku, and my best friend were killed in the war, my mother put us into cryostasis, along with Gohan and his family--though they're somewhere else. She thought it'd be better for us to be able to live in a world that wasn't completely uninhabitable, destroyed by war and radiation from the nuclear bombs. So far, though, that I know of, only my sister and I are alive. I don't know about Gohan and his family. I was on my way to his house to see if they were awake yet. Though, they shouldn't be. For some reason, I woke up ahead of schedule." I sighed, not bothering to look up at her. "That's who I am, and why I've been wandering the land. I'm searching for survivors, that's all."
I could feel her gaze upon me. I was beginning to wonder if this was even worth my time. Maybe I should just go. Sure, I was injured, but that wouldn't stop me. Well, not much. Absently, I touched my hand to the area, just above my heart, where her arrow had struck me. If she wasn't Goten, that arrow would've been toast before I'd ever have let it graze my skin. The things we do for love� I began to test my right leg, by shifting more of my body-weight in that direction, hoping she wouldn't notice.
She didn't speak for a while. I thought to myself that this might be another interrogation tactic. She'd just keep silent, until I began to say more. Clever. Would my Goten have thought of that? No� probably not. I don't know. I began to wonder� were their faces even all that similar? Perhaps I only saw what I wanted to see, when I first awoke. For comparison, I reached within my jacket pocket, slowly, and withdrew my wallet. Though I had no real use for money, I still carried it, because inside, that's where I had always kept photos, of my family and friends. I flipped through the plastic pages until I found photos of Goten and I.
There he was, staring back at me, his usual goofy smile upon his face. I couldn't help but smile back and the tears streaked down my face, freely, not caring if she saw. I missed him so much! It just wasn't fair. I didn't ask him to die for me. It wasn't necessary. I bit my lip, holding back a sob. I could feel myself choke on the air, as I swallowed it down into my stomach. Droplets of my tears began to land on the photograph, as I held it there, in my hand.
I felt a soft body brush against me. Female Goten had sat down next to me on the bed, and she wrapped her arm around my shoulders. She was trying to comfort me, I could tell. As I turned to look at her, I couldn't help it. I cried more, mourning the loss of my love. Her face, it really was his. "I'm sorry." I wasn't sure if those where her words or mine. All I knew was that she was hugging me. "I'm sorry."
The door opened, and Klylyn stepped inside, as we embraced. My eyes were too filled with tears to really see him at all; I just sensed his familiar Ki. He stood there a moment, watching us. I don't think he liked what he saw. I drew away from Goten and wiped the tears from my eyes. Then I closed the wallet, afraid that I'd start crying again. I was already beginning to feel self-conscious. Under ordinary circumstances, I would not have wanted anyone to see me like this. My father had always thought such a display as weak; though, I think he really did know better.
"What are you doing? Lea-chan? He's the enemy!"
I looked to Goten, watching for her reaction. "I don't know. Klylyn, I don't think he's trying to fool us. Look at him." She looked to the wallet I held in my hands. "Can I?" I nodded, though I was reluctant to let those photos out of my grasp. They were one of my few links to the past, and were irreplaceable, once lost
.
As she began to flip through my photos, a curious look crossed her face. "Are these real?" I didn't bother nodding. Of course they were. "These faces� they look like people I've known." She was looking at a photo taken at my 16th birthday party. Goten and I were devouring my cake as Chi-Chi and my mother looked on, laughing at us. Goten had frosting on his face. Goku-san had taken this one-I remember, because his thumb made it into the shot. "That boy with you� he looks a bit like me." I nodded. "Where is this?"
"My home. Capsule Corporation."
"Lea-chan! He's lying!" I took my first real look at Klylyn. He was taller than the man I'd known, though he still had the same clueless eyes and wide mouth I had remembered. Though, this Klylyn-He actually had a nose! "It's that Yurei again, messing with your head!"
"Klylyn. Stop it. I'm the leader. I can make up my own mind."
"But�" She shook her head to silence him. "Hai."
"Can I ask what happened to you, Goten-san?" Goten-san� that form of address, it sounded strange to my ears. But� I wasn't sure how to address her, without offense. "Is that how I should call you?"
"I'm known here as Leader. In front of the others, you should call me that. I want no one to hear that name." She looked at me appraisingly, as if trying to measure my sincerity. "The boy, Yurei touched me. And ever since� I haven't been the same."
"I don't understand�"
"He placed his hands on my head when I was sleeping. Yurei is a telepath. We think the Kikai-jin sent him to read my thoughts� though he did something more. Since he touched me� I remember strange things, things that never happened to me. And, when I saw you� I thought you must be working with him. But now� I'm not so sure."
She looked a lot like my Goten, right then. The way she looked at me, it was like we were old friends. "I'm not sure what's going on, either. When I first saw you, I thought you were my Goten, my best friend. He and I, we grew up together, and were really close. We fell in love... and he died saving my life. When I you came at me in the woods, I dropped my defenses, thinking you were him. I'm sorry I kissed you� I thought you were him."
Klylyn made a statement with his face of absolute disgust. It was the first time I ever saw him scrunch his nose up like that. "You mean you're gay?"
I shook my head. "Hai," I admitted it freely, though it felt strange to place myself in such a category. The only male I've ever been attracted to was Goten, and� I just never thought of myself that way before. Though, he was right. I am gay. Well, if it means loving Goten� it can't be such a bad thing. No, not bad at all.
"Klylyn!!"
"What? He's the enemy! Who cares about his feelings!!" He whirled around to look at me. "Besides, I don't want you getting any funny ideas-got it?"
"Klylyn! That's enough! Stop picking on Trunks!"
"It's alright, Go-ahh, Leader-san�"
"No, it's not! Klylyn, you are to treat Trunks with respect. I really don't think he's the enemy." She leaned forward in her seat a bit. "If what he says is true� Think about it� Vegeta's prophesy-it's real, and he could be living proof. There may be hope for the land, after all."
"You mean�"
Goten smiled. "We might just be able to find the Dragonballs."
