Goten watched as his father stared at their abandoned house.  It had been empty for only two years... <But it seems so much longer...>

"Why did you leave?" Goku rested one hand against the dirty window, peering into the past...

"Being here every day, it just kept on reminding us about Kaasan.  Niichan took her death pretty hard."

His father turned to face him.  "And you didn't?"

He shrugged, shifting his gaze towards Trunks.  Who was standing stiffly, with both arms folded across his chest, doing his best to ignore Vegeta.

There had been a minor argument after Goku had agreed to help them: everyone else had wanted to come along, too.  Fortunately, the fact that they had only brought four of the dimensional transporters with them forestalled a mass migration into this world.  Trunks had wordlessly given Goku his own spare, initiating a rather intense debate as to who should get to use Goten's.  In the end, Trunks had grabbed it off him and shoved it into the hands of a surprised Vegeta, before exiting the house.

"Is he... always like that?"  Bulma had asked hesitantly.

"Only around people."

"Oh."

He had stood up and was getting ready to leave when the other Goten called out "Ganbatte!"

"Yeah, and take care of yourself," the other Trunks had added.  The others had also given him words of support...

"Arigato,"  he thanked them.  <I have a bad feeling that we're going to need it.>

He had instructed Goku and Vegeta as to how to work the watch-like devices that were to transport them to his world, and Trunks had insisted that both Saiyajin take a ki-shield.  <After all, we didn't want our Vegeta to attack the minute we showed up...  Although, given that there's four of us here, he probably wouldn't have.  Coward.>

Goku had been surprised to see that his home had been left to the elements.  It had withstood them fairly well, but the mere presence of dirt on the windowpane was a reminder of Chichi's absence in this world.  <And don't I know it.>

Behind them Vegeta snorted.  "We're wasting time," he declared, before flying off towards Capsule Corp, the ki-shield concealing his movement.  Goku was still staring at the house.

"Gohan's going to think that he's him," Trunks commented, keeping his eyes on Goku.

<Shit.>  Goten glared in disgust at the tiny speck that was all that could be seen of Vegeta.  "I'll see you back home."  He leapt into the air in pursuit of the moving dot.  Which was getting further away from him with every passing moment. <Damn him!>

He slipped his hand into his pocket, fingers curling around his own ki-shield, before powering up.  It was for moments like these that he lived, being able to revel in the sensations of power flowing through his body, and that of the world around him.  Free to live as he chose... among the stars that glittered down on him during the dark nights, his comfort, his joy...

He caught up to Vegeta all too soon.  <He must have slowed down.  But why?>  They flew silently, side by side for several long moments.

"How bad was it?"

"Huh?" Goten was startled by Vegeta's sudden question.  "How bad was what?"

A pause.

"You said he was bleeding to death," Vegeta clarified.

"Uhn," he acknowledged.  "He was.  Severe bruising, several dozen broken bones, internal damage, and he lost about a quarter of his blood."

More silence.

"Was that the only time?"

He sighed.  "No.  I think just about all of their 'sparring' sessions ended up with Trunks getting beaten up beyond the level that 'sparring' should have limited them to."

"You 'think'?"

"He didn't like me hanging around Trunks much.  Something about my 'contaminating' him."  <And I think that a fair number of those beatings that Trunks received were about that... He's my friend!  I never wanted him to get hurt!  Maybe he would have been better off if I had stayed away...>  He eyed the Saiyajin flying next to him, a living reminder of the cause of his friend's pain.  <Then again, maybe not.>

They  were nearing Capsule Corp, now.

"You'd better let me explain to Gohan and Videl before they see you."

"Hmph."  Vegeta folded his arms across his chest, his posture reminiscent of Trunks as he watched Goku... <Except that Trunks' posture was defensive; Vegeta's on the other hand, is definitely offensive...>  "What are you waiting for, brat?  I'm not going to stand out here all night!"

Goten controlled his bristling temper, and entered the building.  Sensing Gohan's ki in the kitchen, he headed in that direction, lowering his ki, and returning the ki-shield to his pocket.

Gohan was sitting at the table with his head in his hands once more.  <It's like he hasn't moved since lunch...>  Goten frowned.

"Niichan?"

The single word caused Gohan to snap his head up, dark eyes blinking in confusion at his younger brother.

"Goten?  You're all right? I thought - !"  He exclaimed in relief.

"You though what, niichan?"  Goten stared at him in concern.

Gohan handed him a scrap of paper.  <Oh yeah, Trunks left him a note.>  He scanned it quickly.  And blinked.  <If he wasn't already so messed up, I just might have killed him for that one!>

The note was simple, direct, and to the point.  'Gone to see Goku - don't wait up.  T & G'

<And I know what Gohan was thinking.>

"Niichan," he asked mildly, "do I really seem the type to commit suicide to go and see a father who died before I was born?"

Gohan flushed. "No - "

"Of course not."  <Trunks, on the other hand...>

"Gomen," Gohan apologized.  "But the way things have been..." He slumped back down in the chair.

"I know.  That's why we went to see Tousan."

Gohan froze, before turning very slowly to face his brother.  "Excuse me?"

"In another dimension.  And I don't mean the afterlife."  Goten watched carefully as his brother absorbed this fact.

"Another dimension? Like Mirai Trunks' world?"

"Uhn, something like that.  Goten grinned wryly at him.  "Maybe you shouldn't have told us so many bedtime stories when we were younger.  They've given Trunks some pretty far out ideas."

Gohan eyed him closely.  "Why do I get the feeling that you're talking about more than just crossing dimensions?"

"You make it sound like we were crossing the road!" Goten laughed softly.  "But you're right.  Tousan's here."

"What?"  His jaw dropped.

<He took that pretty well.>

"Did you think we went there just to say hello?"

"Don't be silly, Goten.  But bringing someone here from another dimension...  How can you know what effects it will have?"

"We can't."  He shrugged.  "But he should be able to handle Vegeta for the time it takes for the rest of us to get to him."

"'Handle Vegeta?'  We can't even find him!" Gohan exclaimed incredulously.

"That's the point.  You did say that Vegeta was almost desperate to defeat our father when you were younger."

"Desperate to kill him, Goten..."

"Of course.  The victory is not complete until one warrior lies dead."  Gohan froze in horror at the familiar voice.

"Vegeta!"  In an instant the air was vibrating with power - and the gentle Son Gohan was ready to do battle in order to protect his younger brother, his wife, his daughter...

"Niichan, wait!"

Black eyes narrowed in contempt.

"Wrong Vegeta, baka."

Goten blinked.  <Like father, like son...>

Gohan's ki level didn't alter.

"That's right! He's from my world!"  Son Goku's cheerful voice broke the tension in the room.

<Well, most of it, anyway.>  He watched in relief as his father entered the kitchen, Trunks hovering in the background.  <Someone else can give the explanations this time!>

"Tousan?"  Gohan stared wide-eyed, at the man whose appearance was so like his own...

"Hai!  We came to visit!"

Gohan soon caught his father's infectious grin, and recovered to greet him warmly.

"What's all the noise about?" Videl's voice reached the kitchen before her.  "I just got Pan to sleep, and I don't want..." she trailed off at the sight of the two 'extra' men standing in her kitchen.

"Oh, so you married Videl, too?"  Goku inquired.

"What do you mean, 'too'"? Videl demanded, her gaze flickering between him and Vegeta.  "Who are you?"

"I'm Son Goku, Gohan's father," the person in question introduced himself.

"Nani? I thought you were dead!"  she exclaimed, staring wide eyed at Goku in shock.

"I'm not dead," Goku informed her.  "Well, I was... but now I'm alive again... But his father really is dead..."

"He's from an alternate dimension," her husband hastily informed her, interrupting Goku's confused attempt at explaining.

"An alternate dimension?" She repeated weakly.  "I think I need to hear this one sitting down."

A few minutes - and several cups of strong coffee - later, they were all seated around the kitchen table.  Goten, after a single look at Trunk's taciturn face, had explained himself yet again, this time aided by his older brother.  Videl had been rather startled to discover the identity of their other 'guest' - for she had never met her own world's Vegeta, only ever hearing of him.  <Lucky her.>

"So Pan was born in this world, too?"  Goku was pleased to discover that his granddaughter still existed in this world.  "What about the others?  Kurilin and Yamucha and the rest?"

"Kurilin's living out with Kamesennin.  He married Juuhachigou, and they have twins - a boy and a girl."  Gohan's smile was touched with sadness.  "We don't really see them much.  Not since Juunanagou was killed."

"Eh?  What happened to him?"

"Let me guess," Vegeta's voice dripped with irony as he spoke before Gohan could say anything.  "Vegeta, right?"

"However did you guess?"  Goten muttered sarcastically.

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at the remark, his ki starting to rise -

- when Trunks rose out of his chair and leaned across the table towards his 'father', bared teeth and blue eyes hard as ice set in a mask of pure fury.  Everyone froze.

Vegeta blinked, then slowly released the ki he had gathered, Trunks subsiding with it.

"Umm, so, what about Yamucha?"  They all turned to stare at Goku.

Gohan took a deep breath, sighing heavily before answering his father.  "We haven't seen him in several years.  I don't know where he is now."

"Under the big tree in the backyard."

For the second time in as many minutes everyone in the room turned to stare at Trunks.

"Nani?" Goten finally choked out.

"At least, I'm pretty sure it was Yamucha," Trunks continued calmly.

"Trunks! What are you talking about?"  <Although I've got a bad feeling that I really don't want to know...>

"He'd been dead quite a while - the body was barely recognizable, it had degraded that much."

Videl started to look green.  Goku and Gohan weren't much better.

<Okay.  I can deal with this.>  Goten took a deep breath before taking Trunks chin, forcing him to meet his gaze.

"When did you find Yamucha?"  He kept his steady dark gaze focused on the flickering blue eyes before him.  And waited.

"Two years ago."

"And you buried him in the backyard."

"Uhn."

"And you didn't tell anyone about it."

"Uhn."

"Why not?"  Silence.  Then -

"It was just after Chichi died."

Goten sighed, dropping his hands to the table.  "I don't suppose there's anything else you'd care to tell us?  No-one else dead?"

Trunks shook his head once, his pale curtain of hair once again concealing his face, before slipping from his chair and escaping the room.

Goten folded his arms on the desk, resting his head on them.  The others glanced amongst themselves in anxious confusion.

<I think that Trunks and I need to have a  nice   long   talk...>

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.
 

End Part 2    Go to Part 3