<That's impossible!>  Goten stared into Trunks' aquamarine eyes.  They were cold and hard, almost identical to Vegeta's in Super Saiyajin form - as was the ki signature he was emitting.  <I don't believe it!  I can't believe it!  Why would he pretend to be his father?  And to kill all those people...>

Trunks ignored him, his attention focused on Goku.  He smirked.  "So, you are alive, after all."

<He even sounds like Vegeta!  But what does he mean 'you're alive after all'?  He knew that Tousan was here - it was his own idea to bring him!>

"What the hell are you talking about?"  Vegeta lifted himself up to join them, his narrowed eyes fixed on Trunks - who could almost have been his mirror image in super Saiyajin form.

<He doesn't seem too surprised - he almost looks as if he was expecting it to be Trunks...>  Goten's hands were shaking, whether with fear or anger he did not know.

"Why, Otousan," Trunks exclaimed with exaggerated geniality.  "How nice to see you again."  His smile was devoid of any trace of true joy, a twisted mockery of what Goten knew it could be...  "I always wanted another chance to kill you.  That first time was just too short."

<He killed his father?!  Oh gods!  Why didn't I see it?>

"I'm a fair bit stronger than you, these days."  Vegeta spoke calmly, ignoring the reactions of his companions.  "Think you could still do it?"

Trunks laughed.  It was not a pleasant sound.  Goten winced.

"Only one way to find out."  He blurred out of sight, only to reappear as his foot contacted Vegeta's face.

Vegeta grunted as he took the blow, but did not move to attack.  He simply waited as Trunks drove his fists into his gut, his knee into his groin.

Goku and Gohan looked on in horror.

"What's the matter, Vegeta?"  Trunks called out maliciously.  "Too scared to fight back against your son?"

Vegeta smiled.  "I told you I would never hurt you, no matter what."

Trunks scowled.  "And what if I make you want to?"

"You could never make me want to hurt you."

"Don't speak too soon."  Trunks was smiling again - at least, the corners of his mouth were turned up.

<His eyes look dead...  Or like he wants to be dead...>  Goten shuddered, a chill of premonition touching him.  <No!  I won't let that happen!  He's still my friend!  Even if he is a little crazy...>

"Trunks, talk to me," he pleaded.  "What do you want?"

Trunks ignored him.

"Trunks, you're not well," Gohan attempted.  "Let us help you!"

Cold eyes froze him through.  "My name is Vegeta!  You'd best teach your son some manners, Kakarotto.  Or shall I do it for you?"  A flare of ki accompanied his query, as he blasted the unprepared Gohan at point-blank range.

"Gohan!"  Goku vanished, reappearing some distance below them to catch his son's unconscious body.

"Trunks!"  Goten cried out.  "That was Gohan!  He wouldn't have hurt you!"

No response.  His gaze had returned to Vegeta.

<He's acting like I don't even exist!>  Goten realized, in shock.

Trunks' gaze had returned to Vegeta.  Specifically, to the dimensional transporter wrapped around his wrist.

"You're from another dimension, aren't you?"  Trunks - <No, Vegeta> - inquired in a conversational tone.  "That's a useful little toy you have there."  He smiled, secretively.  "Want to know something?  I have one, too."  He held up his wrist, to display his own transporter.  "And they're delicate little things, aren't they?"  He laughed again, as Vegeta's exploded.

"Nani!?"

"Is there anyone you care for in that dimension of yours, Otousan?  If there is - you'd better start praying for their souls."

A flash of green, and he was gone.

"Shit!  I wasn't expecting him to do that!"  Vegeta cursed.

"And just what were you expecting him to do?"  Goten demanded, furious with Vegeta for keeping secrets.  "How did you know that it would be him and not Vegeta?"

"I can hardly believe you didn't see it," Vegeta snarled.  "I guess idiocy does run in the family!  Didn't you feel his ki when he was defending you the other day?  It was very close to what mine is!  It wouldn't take much for him to alter it slightly, to make it an even closer match!"

"But he was right there with us when that city was attacked, the first day you were here!  How do you explain that?"

"I don't know!  But if he can make ki-shields he can probably make ki-bombs, too!  We're wasting time!  There's no telling what he'll do in my dimension!  Give me your transporter!"

"No!  I'm going too!  There are spares back in the workshop."

They flew back to Capsule Corp at top speed, Goten leading the way to Trunks' workshop.  Goku materialized next to them with a slowly recovering Gohan, who demanded to know what was going on.  Vegeta filled them in briefly while Goten searched out the remaining transporters Trunks had shown him a week ago.  Goku discovered that his had also been destroyed.

"Absolutely not!"  Goten was forced to pause as his brother ripped the transporter from his wrist.

"Niichan!" He protested.  "I have to go!"

"Goten, Trunks is out of his mind!  He could kill you without meaning to!"  Gohan's face was pale, still recovering from his own encounter with Trunks, and not willing to risk his younger brother's safety.  "It's too dangerous for you to go."

"He would never hurt me!  I know he wouldn't!"

Vegeta appropriated the device from Gohan, and was gone in a second.  Goten frowned, finally digging out the box with the extra transporters.  He opened the box, but his brother grabbed both the spares before he could.  He gave one to his father, and they swiftly followed Vegeta, leaving Goten to fume in anger.

<Damnit!  They're going to get themselves killed!  Or Trunks killed... They wouldn't - would they?>

He slammed his fist on the desk in frustration.  Without another transporter device...  He turned back to the box they had been kept in.  Definitely empty.  He knocked it off the desk in anger, accidentally sending the boxes next to it with it.  They crashed to the floor in an untidy pile, and on top -

- on top was something that looked remarkably similar to the devices the others had just made use of.  He blinked.  It was still there.  He grabbed it, examining it frantically.  Slightly bigger and heavier, obviously not meant to be worn on the wrist like the others, a lot more buttons and dials...  But there were several features that matched the transporter he had used.

The settings were blank.  He turned to the computer, calling up the program he had seen Trunks use.  <Just because I'm not as good at this kind of stuff as he is doesn't mean I can't use it!>  Within a minute he had the settings for the world that the others had gone to.  <At least, I hope these are the settings.  If they're not, I'm going to be in pretty serious trouble.  But it's worth the risk.  Trunks...>

He checked it over one final time.  <It's now or never.>

He pushed the button.

The room he appeared in was not much different from the one he had so recently departed.  <The inventions piled up around the place are slightly different shapes, but that's about it...>  He reached out with his senses to locate the others...  <There!  And it doesn't look good...>  He could sense his Trunks - still in Super Saiyajin form, his ki a match for Vegeta's - not too far away.  That was all right.  What wasn't so good was the fact that there was a much smaller ki right beside him - <Bra!> - and the fact that he was cornered by Vegeta and Goku, with several other people.  <People like the other Goten and Trunks.  Heavens know what they're going to make of this.  But I can't sense Niichan...>

He moved quietly, ki-shield in hand, towards Trunks' location.  He stopped at the back door.  Trunks was in the backyard, underneath the big old tree.  <At least that tree doesn't have Yamucha buried under it...>   Goku and Vegeta were facing him, trying to get him to let go of Bra.  Bulma was standing some distance behind them, demanding that they tell her what was going on.  Beside the door -

He reached out quickly with one hand, and dragged his counterpart inside from where he was standing next to his Trunks.

"Nani?"  Goten slammed his hand over the other Goten's mouth to forestall any further questions.  He lifted one finger to his lips for quiet.  He removed his hand slowly as the other Goten nodded.

"What happened?"

"Dunno."  He shrugged.  "Trunks and I were just messing around when Trunks... umm, your Trunks, that is... He just turned up, saying that he couldn't stand staying in your world while his father was still acting crazy-like.  Bulma said he could stay here until Tousan and Vegeta got back. He seemed happy about that; he started playing out there with Bra.  The next thing Vegeta comes bursting out of the house, and your Trunks grabs Bra and goes Super Saiyajin.  What's he up to?  Tousan and Vegeta aren't talking - they just keep telling us to stay away."

The short haired version of Trunks had caught his friend's soft-voiced conversation; he ducked inside, looking for explanations.

"What the hell is wrong with him?"  Trunks demanded in a fierce whisper.  "Why's he holding my sister hostage?"

Goten sighed.  <What do I say?  What can I say?>  "Living with his father drove him a bit insane."

"Nani?"  The twin reply was incredulous.

"Or maybe it was killing his father..." Goten mused, only half-aware of what he was saying.  Most of his attention was focused on Trunks.  His Trunks.  Who was currently threatening to kill a little girl.

"Pretty little thing, isn't she, Otousan?" Trunks' mocking laughter grated on Goten's ears.  "Shall I kill her slowly, a piece at a time?  I'm sure she'd like to play a game with me, wouldn't you, Bra?"

Bra blinked in confusion.  She twisted in Trunks' grip, turning towards her parents.  "Kaachan?  Touchan?"

"It's okay Bra," Bulma told her.  "Trunks just wants to play a game with you."  Her voice faltered at the end, her blue eyes darkening as she started to realize that Trunks wasn't joking...

"That's right!"  Trunks beamed at Bra.  "We're going to see how many times I have to make you scream before your Touchan decides to fight seriously."

Vegeta grimaced.  "Trunks, let her go."

A surge of anger flashed across his face.  "My name is Vegeta, Otousan.  Surely you can remember that."

Inside, two boys gaped in shock.

"Vegeta?"

"He's nuts!"

"Shut up!" Goten hissed at them, dark eyes blazing.  They shrank away from him.  <Probably wondering if I'm going to go nuts, too... Not that I can blame them.>

A hint of movement behind his Trunks caught his eye.

<I can't sense any ki...  What - ?>

A figure became visible, moving ever so slowly towards Trunks.

<Niichan!  He must have a ki-shield with him!  But what's he going to do?>

Gohan's face came into his field of view, his expression set and determined.

<What's he - ?>

A glint of a tear shone in Gohan's eye, quickly wiped away...

<No!  He can't!>

Gohan leapt towards Trunks, preparing to deliver a blow that was meant to kill.

The world around him seemed to grind to a halt as his brother prepared to kill his best friend.

Vegeta appeared to be frozen with indecision, incapable of choosing which child to save.  Bulma did not even see the danger to her could-be son.  Goku watched his son with a helpless sadness in his eyes.

"NO!"

He moved, faster than he had ever moved before, flashing into Super Saiyajin -

- and beyond it.  He met his brother's strike - first equaling it, then overcoming it - and drove him back, away from Trunks.

"Goten!"  Gohan landed several meters from Trunks, and turned to face his furious younger brother.

"How could you?!"

"We don't have much of a choice, Goten!  We can't control him, and he won't listen to reason..."

"I don't care!  I won't let you touch him!"  He altered his stance to a defensive posture, ready to defend his friend from anyone.

"Goten?"  The soft query caught his attention like nothing else could.  He spun around.

"Trunks?"

Trunks' pale hair was falling in cascades out of its stiff Super Saiyajin style.  His blue eyes were wide as he blinked in confusion, before focusing on the strange dimensional transporter that Goten still held in one hand.

"You idiot!" He shrieked, horrified.  "That one isn't functioning properly yet!  And it's for time travel too, so you could have ended up any time as well as any place, baka!"

Goten looked down at the device.  <Good thing I didn't know that before!>

Trunks calmed a little - enough to stare in puzzlement at the sight of  Bra, whom he was carrying on his hip.  He looked up from her only to see the looks of wary uncertainty on the faces of all those around him.  Except for Goten.

"We're not in our world."  His tone was flat, as he gazed desperately into Goten's dark eyes.

"No, we're not."

"Oh."

"Hey, are you going to let my sister go, now?"  The other Trunks asked tentatively, as he moved slowly towards them from the doorway, Goten a step or two behind him.

"Let her go?"  Trunks repeated blankly, staring at him.

"Yeah, you know, you were gonna kill - oof!"  This world's Goten gasped as his version of Trunks elbowed him in the stomach.

"Baka!  Don't say it!"

"Hey, he's all right  now," Goten grumbled.  "He's not crazy anymore, so..."

"Shut up!  Some friend you are!"

Wide blue eyes started to glaze over.

"Trunks?"  Goten gazed intently at his Trunks, ignoring both their immature counterparts.

"I'm okay," came the soft reply.

"Great," Vegeta complained sourly.  "He listens to that precious friend of his over his own father."

"Well, you're not really his father, are you?"  Goku commented, cheerful once more.  "Just a substitute."

"Hmm, like the reflection in a mirror," Bulma added, thoughtfully as she watched over her children.  "It's never really you, but it's the closest you can get..."

A surge of ki, a gust of wind -

- and Trunks was a Super Saiyajin once more.  One hand gripped Bra's neck tightly, ready to break it in an instant.  Bra's own tiny hands pulled at his, to no avail.

<Why?  Was it something somebody said?>

"Mirrors can be shattered, Okaasan,"  Trunks was sporting a mad grin, that twisted his face almost beyond recognition.  "Want to see me break Otousan?"  He held his free hand up against Bra's cheek, caressing for a moment with his palm, before dragging his fingernails down it.  Bra screamed as the four red streaks of broken flesh began to bleed.  Bulma was horror-stricken once more; Vegeta stood motionless, his fists clenched so tightly that his own fingernails were drawing blood from his palms.

Trunks smirked.  "I guess that's a start."

The other Trunks and Goten had exchanged a single glance before backing away hastily, not wanting to be the cause of more pain for Bra should Trunks take offense at their close proximity to him.

"Trunks, don't do this, please,"  Goten appealed.  Yet again Trunks was ignoring him.  <It's like he doesn't want to know I'm here - why?>

"Goten, he's not going to listen,"  Gohan told him quietly, a touch of sorrow evident in his voice.  "We don't have a choice.  There's no other way to stop him."

Goten closed his eyes, and remembered: camping trips studying training adventures school days sparring sharing arguing teasing comforting joys fears sorrows...

His entire life with Trunks.  His entire life.

<I'm not going to give up!  There is another way!  It's going to hurt Niichan... but he's strong.  He has Videl and Pan now.  He won't give up for their sakes.  Just as I won't give up for Trunk's sake.>  He turned to see his friend press his lips to Bra's bloody cheek, and smile menacingly at her parents.  <Somewhere behind that 'Vegeta' personality is the best friend I've ever had.  I just have to find him again, and set him free...>

He brushed off Gohan's warnings, moving to stand behind his Trunks.  Vegeta and Bulma stared over Trunks' shoulder at him, unable to fathom what he was doing, desperately hoping that whatever he did, Bra would be safe.

He slipped his arms around Trunks' painfully thin waist, pulling him back against his own body.

Trunks gasped in surprise, turning his head to see who had dared to touch him -

Aquamarine eyes suddenly flickered blue; Trunks let go of Bra, ignoring her as she ran to her parents.  Bulma hugged her tightly, Vegeta touching her undamaged cheek lightly.  Trunks simply stared at Goten, lost in the depths of his dark eyes, eyes that accepted him without hesitation.

<Yes!  I can help him! I know I can!  But - not here...>

He looked back over his shoulder at his brother.

"I'm sorry Niichan."

Gohan's puzzlement was apparent in his expression, but as Goten turned back to Trunks he caught a glimmer of understanding, and apprehension in his brother's eyes.

"Goten, wait!"

<No, Niichan.  Not this time.>

He lifted the unfinished dimensional transporter in one hand, and once more pressed the button.

Only this time he had no idea where, or when, they would end up.

Nor did he particularly care.

He dozed in front of the small fire under the starry night sky, his arms wrapped around Trunks as he willed his own energy into him.  Trunks had collapsed as soon as they had been transported to this unknown world.  <I'm not surprised.  He barely eats enough to keep himself alive, much less sustain himself in Super Saiyajin form.  How he managed it...>  He sighed.

"Goten?"  Trunks' voice was weak and strained.

"Hmm?"

"Where are we?"

"No idea."  He blinked.

"Why not?"

"Remember this?"  He waved the dimensional transporter under Trunks' nose.

"You didn't!"

"I did."

A pause.

"But why?"

Goten heaved yet another sigh.  Trunks twisted out of his arms to sit up shakily, facing him.  He gazed at Goten with no little trepidation in his eyes.

"How much do you remember?"

"From when?"  Trunks asked, a bitter smile touching his lips.  "I remember seeing you with that transporter, in the world where we picked up Goku and Vegeta...  I was holding Bra, my parents were there, so were Goku and Gohan, and our other selves...  But I don't remember how I got there; or how we got here, wherever 'here' is."

"Do you have any idea about that?"  Goten inquired carefully, not wanting to upset his friend.

Trunks hung his head.  "Uhn," he grunted.  "More than I want to."  Goten waited a moment, then lifted Trunks' chin.

"Tell me."

Several minutes passed in silence.

"Ever since that time three years ago, I've been blanking out from time to time.  I mean, I'd be somewhere, doing something, and then the next thing I knew I was somewhere completely different.  And every time I blanked out, something bad would happen."  He tilted his head to look up at the multitide of stars shining brightly above them.  "I didn't connect the two at first; and when I did, I kept hoping that I was wrong, and that this was all some horrible nightmare that one day I could wake up from and forget about..."  He looked directly into Goten's eyes, pleading forgiveness.  "I was stupid.  I should have asked for help.  But I didn't want - "  He turned away once more, a tear trailing down his cheek, glistening in the flickering light of the fire.

"You didn't want what?" Goten prompted gently.

"I didn't want you and Gohan to hate me.  Especially you."

"Trunks, I could never hate you.  Get upset with you, yes.  Frustrated, infuriated and confused, yes.  But I couldn't hate you."

"Even after I've killed so many people?"

"Did you mean to kill them?"

"No!  Of course not!"

"So I don't hate you."

"I killed your mother, Goten."

A pause.  Goten froze.  Trunks didn't dare move or speak.

"You - you were the one who - "  He couldn't continue.

Trunks nodded wordlessly.

"Are you sure?"  Goten turned his narrowed gaze on him.

"Pretty sure."

"How do you know?"

"I blanked out about the right time.  And I was a bit annoyed at your mother for not letting you stay with me."

Goten considered this.  "I don't believe you did it."

"I did it.  I know I did it.  You should hate me."

"Fine. You did it."  He shrugged.  "I forgive you."

"You can't."

"I just did."

"Baka!"

"Uh huh."

The stars traveled their celestial paths in silence.

"Even now that you're lost in the midst of countless dimensions and times, and all because of me?"

"Uh huh."

"Baka."

"Uh huh."

"Just what do you plan to do now?  We can't go home, or even back to that other world.  This transporter isn't connected to my computer - it doesn't have access to the frequencies of the worlds I've already been to.  And they're a bit too complicated for me to remember."

"How is this one different from the others?"

"It's a complete unit, not just a remote.  It's more powerful than the others - it was able to bring the two of us here.  It has a built in recharger - it can either use solar energy or our ki energy to recharge.  I told you it can move between times as well as dimensions."  Trunks shrugged.  "That's about it."

"So, where would you like to go?"

"Nani?!"

"There are a lot of worlds out there, Trunks, just waiting for us to come along and explore them!"  Goten grinned with excitement.  "It should be lots of fun!"

Trunks stared at him in disbelief.  "Baka!"

Goten laughed.  After a moment, Trunks began to smile, too.

"Just think of the adventures we can have!"

Trunks sobered.  "Not all the worlds are going to be nice to visit, Goten."

Goten nodded solemnly in acknowledgment.  "I know.  But we can always leave if we don't like it - and maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference."

"Uhn.  Maybe we can."

Goten lay down, curling up next to the fire.  "We should get some sleep.  Tomorrow will be a long day."

"Uhn."  Trunks joined him, staring into the flames, letting them lull him to sleep.

<Tomorrow will be a new day, and a new start - for us both.>
 

End What Friends Are For
(But not Trunks' and Goten's adventures! Any particular world you want them to visit?  Write and tell me!  They just may get there! ^_^ )