PROLOGUE: Tears streamed down Trunks’ cheeks as he looked at the wreckage all around him. He still couldn’t believe it… after all he’d done, fighting the androids, saving the other timeline, and then those aliens had come just two years later and shattered everything. He wasn’t strong enough to beat them. Why did that always happen? Why? His gaze turned to the tombstone that stood in the distance, on a hill beside a tree. He could not see the writing from here, but he didn’t need to. Trunks knew all too well that it was his mother’s; he had buried her himself, after all. "I’m all alone now." He whispered. His fists clenched at his sides, and he grit his teeth. Hadn’t he suffered enough? In the distance Trunks felt the approaching kis of the alien invaders, come to finish him off. As he dropped his head, resigning himself to his own death, a small piece of paper fluttered by his feet. It was a page from a children’s novel, one which had been written to celebrate him after the androids were defeated. On it was part of his own picture, fighting Juunanagou and Juuhachigou. A single word was left on the page. It was a word that had driven him forward all his life. Hope. Suddenly Trunks felt ashamed. How could he let himself die, after all everyone had worked to do for him? So many people had perished. He would not let their memory fade. Resolution filled his mind, and without another thought he raced towards the ruined basement of Capsule Corp., pulling himself into his time machine. The systems still worked, but they were a little rusty. He powered the machine up, and typed in the co-ordinates for when he had last left the other timeline. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the craft, just as it was taking off. The aliens had found him too soon! Trunks gripped the sides of the machine tightly as it’s systems blew, and he was sent flying through time. The universe spiralled frighteningly around him, and Trunks grit his teeth as he was tossed like a rag-doll inside the time machine. Outside was a terrifying blur of colours. Trunks slammed his eyelids shut as he began to feel nauseous. Screeching sounds filled his ears as the vessel was almost ripped apart. When finally the violent shaking and the sounds of circuits failing ended, Trunks peeled his eyes open. He cursed. If the time capsule had been damaged, then who knows where, or when, it had taken him! Exhaustion and fear crept into his mind. Why couldn’t anything go right? Then, just as he was giving in to unconsciousness, he heard a female voice in the back of his mind. "Bra, Vegeta, Goten, Everybody! Come quick! Something’s happened!" It called. The last thought Trunks had before he drifted away was ‘…Wow, what a pretty voice…’
