I also have two sidestories up on my page, now at:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/3226/fanfics.htm

Disclaimer: The characters portrayed within are not mine, but the
property of Akira Toriyama and a whole lot of other people who are not

me, and who actually have money (which I don't), so please don't sue
me!

What Friends Are For - Part 5
By Rhionae

Trunks was sitting at the window with his back to the door, gazing out
at the gravity room, when he entered the room.  He quietly shut the
door behind himself, and leaned back against it.

"So, did you dig him up?"

"Nani?!"  Goten shuddered.  "No, of course not."

"I thought you'd probably want to check up on me."

"'Check up on you'?  Why would we want to do that?"  Goten tried to
keep any uncertainty he felt *out* of his voice.

"Don't, Goten."  The plea was barely audible.

"Don't what?"  Goten moved slowly to stand behind him.  <Damn, he's
tensing up.  What's he afraid of?>  "What's wrong, Trunks?  Do you
think I wouldn't believe you?"

Trunks turned his head to face him.

"You shouldn't, you know."  His eyes were dark, his expression blank.

"What do you mean?"  Goten shook his head, bewildered.  <What the hell
is going on inside that head of his?>  "Of course I believe you -
you're my best friend, we've known each other practically all our
lives!"

Trunks turned away again.  "Baka."

Silence.  Then -

"I should have told you about Yamucha."

Goten sighed, and pulled another chair over to the window.  He set it
down facing Trunks, and sat down.

"Yes, you should have.  Why didn't you?"

"Gohan was so upset over Chichi's death, and so were you...  I though
that if you knew that Yamucha had died here, you wouldn't want to come
and live with me."  He looked across at Goten.  "And I didn't want to
be alone.  I wanted you to be here."

"Do you know how he died?  Or when?"

Trunks shook his head.  "Like I said before, his body wasn't exactly
in good condition... I could barely make out who he was, and that was
with his ID papers."  He shrugged.  "The last time I saw him alive was
more than three years ago.  He was arguing with *him*."

"About Bulma?"

"About me."

"You?"  Goten frowned.

"Yamucha wanted to take me away from *him*.  He said if *he* wasn't
going to be a good father to me then he would be, for my mother's
sake."

<Oh great, that would have *really* pissed him off.  Not that he cared
about Trunks, but that was a blow to his pride.>  "What happened
then?"

"Don't know.  *He* sensed my ki.  I didn't wake up until morning."

"Ah."

"Goten?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think he likes me?" He appealed to his best friend with wide
blue eyes.

<Do I think *who* - ?  Oh, the *other* Vegeta.>  "Is *that* why you
wanted him to come?"

Trunks nodded hesitantly.

"Why wouldn't he?"

"I'm not like his own son."  He looked down at his feet.

"So?  I'm not like that other Goten, either.  It hasn't made a
difference to Tousan."

"Yes, but that's *Goku* you're talking about... besides, you're better
than the other Goten.  He goofs around too much."

"I can't really afford to."  He answered solemnly, before breaking
into a sudden grin.  "But believe me, I can goof off just as much as
any other Goten, if I want to!  Want to see me try?"

Trunks snorted, a tiny smile on his lips.  "Baka."

**************

"*That's* your idea of a plan?  You're just going to wait until he
decides to attack Kakarotto, and then jump him?  Are you as idiotic as
Kakarotto himself?"  Vegeta's scathing comment caused Trunks to shrink
in on himself, but his eyes didn't waver from Vegeta.  "And why the
hell are you looking at me like that?"

<That idiot!>

Trunks blinked, confused.  "Aren't you going to hit me?"

Vegeta's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed, his frown deepening.

>From behind Trunks, Goten scowled at his friend's 'father', crossing
his arms over his chest.  "No, he's not going to hit you."

<He doesn't look convinced...>

"Trunks," Vegeta's voice was gentle, his expression softened ever so
minutely.  "I will never hurt you, no matter what."

<NANI!?!>  Goten was completely taken aback.  <*This* is *Vegeta*?  Or
rather, Vegeta as he *could* have been...>

Gohan and Videl were having similar reactions.  Only Goku was unfazed
by the sudden revelation of Vegeta's well-hidden compassion.

"Eh, Vegeta, I always knew you cared!"

"Shut up, baka."  Vegeta's returning scowl appeared to be the
precursor to yet another scathing commentary - but he was interrupted
by the sense of rapidly elevating ki to the north-east.  A ki that was
very familiar...

"Vegeta!"

"It's him!"

"What are we waiting for?  Let's go!"

"Idiots!  Kakarotto can teleport us there!"

Three sheepish half-grins.

"Oh, yeah..."

A moment later they were floating above the point where the blast
originated.

There was nothing left.

Presumably, this had once been a large town, or a small city, with
people bustling around the streets.  Now...

Now only a flattened crater remained.  There was no movement amongst
the debris.  Goten searched frantically with his senses, desperate to
find *one* survivor amidst the devastation...

<No-one.  Shit.>

And no Vegeta.  <Except the one who came with us...>

The alternate Vegeta was scowling at the crater.  <Looks like he's
offended by it...>

Goku was shaking his head, sadly.  "This is bad... and with no
Dragonballs..." He blinked.  "Hey, I just thought of something: what
about the Namekkian Dragonballs?"

"We tried," Gohan answered, resignation evident in his voice.  "Namek
isn't there anymore."

"What do you mean 'not there'?!"  Goku asked incredulously.

"I took a spaceship there to try to resurrect Piccolo and Dende...  It
just wasn't there...  And I checked *everything*!"  He clenched his
fists with frustration.  "The coordinates were right, the spaceship
was working perfectly..."

"Vegeta?"  Vegeta inquired in a bored tone.

"I don't know..."  He shrugged his shoulders.  "He *did* have access
to the spaceships at Capsule Corp."

"Well there's no point in waiting around here."  Trunks' voice and
face were expressionless, but Goten could see the tension in his
muscles...  "He's not here."

Goten moved closer to him.  "Are you okay?"  he asked softly.  Trunks
rarely visited the sites of destruction caused by his father.
<Hearing about it is bad enough, but *seeing* it...>

Trunks nodded jerkily in response.

"Think Capsule Corp could help out again?"

Another nod.

Goten sighed.  "Come on, then.  Let's get you home.  Niichan?" he
called.

Gohan glanced up, then nodded his acknowledgment.

The trip back to Capsule Corp was made in silence.

It continued for a week.  Goku would move around the world with his ki
raised - and with the others monitoring him from a safe distance -
hoping to attract Vegeta's attention.  It worked - but not in the way
they had been hoping.

Each time that Goku made his presence felt a town was destroyed - one
far away from Goku and the others.  Sometimes they were able to sense
Vegeta's ki as the towns were wiped out.  Sometimes they did not,
learning of the destruction only from the media coverage later.  Not
once were they able to reach the location in time to see Vegeta, or
even find a trace of him.

"We can't keep doing this," Gohan stated flatly.  They were once more
gathered around the kitchen table, this time without Trunks or Videl.
Videl had taken Pan out for the day.  Trunks, on the other hand, had
not been seen outside his room for two days.

"Innocent people are being killed because of me," Goku agreed,
dejected.  "He wouldn't blast so many towns if he didn't sense my ki."

"He would," Goten assured him with a bitter smile.  "It would just
take him a little longer to get around to it."

"He's not going to take what is so obviously the bait for a trap,"
Vegeta told them impatiently.  "I *told* you this was a stupid idea at
the start."

"Then why don't you come up with a better plan, instead of griping
about ours," Goten snapped.

"I have," came the smug reply.

<Of course he has.  He just hasn't bothered to mention it to the rest
of us!  Jerk!>

"So what is it?"

"You'll find out."  He smirked at them and left the room without
another word, leaving the others to wonder - and worry -  about what
he had in mind.

They did not have to wait too long to find out.

Within the hour another town was destroyed.  Only *this* time the
culprit made no attempt to conceal his identity.  In fact, he flaunted
it in the faces of all those with the ability to sense it.

Vegeta again; but with the subtle differences that marked the changes
that had led to two distinct timelines.  *This* was the *alternate*
Vegeta.

Gohan stiffened in his chair in alarm.  "What the *hell* does he think
he's doing!?!"

"Oh great," Goten groaned.  "Now we have *two* insane Vegetas
wandering about!"

The brothers stood, preparing to track down at least *one* of the
errant Saiyajin.

"Wait a minute!"  With one hand on each brother's shoulder, Goku
restrained his 'sons' from dashing off.  "I think he's right, in a
way," he told them.

<Has Tousan lost it, too?>

"*Nani!?*  You can't possibly mean that!"

"I mean we need to start thinking like Vegeta," he lifted his hands
placatingly.

<I'd sooner die.>

"Go on."  Gohan was a bit more willing to listen than his younger
brother.

"Your Vegeta isn't going to come after me, either because he knows
it's a trap or because he doesn't believe it's really me.  I *have*
been dead in this world for fifteen years.  But now he can sense
another version of *himself* - one who's put out a lot more power than
*he* has so far.  He's *not* going to be happy about the competition."

<And he'll want to do something about it.>

"Maybe so... But what about all the people who've been killed?  We
were supposed to be *saving* lives, not throwing them away!"

"The sooner Vegeta is stopped, the sooner people will stop being
killed, right?"

"Exactly," Goten agreed.  "*Both* Vegetas."  He froze for a moment,
realizing...

<Oh shit!  *Trunks!*  He must have felt that!>

He raced up to his room half-hoping for, half-fearing what he would
find.

He *didn't* find Trunks.  The room was empty.  He stood motionless,
reaching out with his ki, desperate to locate Trunks' familiar
presence.

A faint trace.

It wasn't Trunks.

<*Vegeta!*>

His *own* world's Vegeta, closing rapidly in on his alternate self.

<And from the *feel* of his ki, he's not very happy...  Tousan was
right.>

He dashed back down to the kitchen, where his father an brother were
still standing.

"Tousan!  Take us to Vegeta!  *Now!*  Our world's Vegeta is on his way
there!"

Goku didn't argue, holding out one hand to each of his 'sons'.  Goten
grasped the hand proffered to him, and with his other hand grasped his
ki-shield.

<I hope this will cover all three of us...>

An instant later they were a fair distance above Vegeta - and the city
he was in the process of annihilating one fragment at a time...

To one side there was a rapidly approaching speck, laced through with
Vegeta's presence.

<At last!>  Goten closed his eyes and clenched his fists, willing
desperately that nothing should go wrong...  Suddenly, his brother
gasped in horror.

"B-b-but..." Goku stammered, his disbelief evident in his tone.

<What's wrong?  What's going on?>

Goten turned his head towards the presence of *his* world's Vegeta,
and opened his eyes -

- to find himself face to face with Super Saiyajin Trunks.

**************

Rhionae
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/3226/fanfics.htm