Mirai Bulma watched her son carefully, as he slid into the seat next to her. He was confident, casual, as if he had done this a million times before. He seemed as comfortable here, in this machine, as he was anywhere; as if he were merely sitting down on the couch to watch television. She watched him tighten the worn and familiar jacket around his shoulders, an action that struck her more as necessity than vanity. He reached a steady hand up to his head, brushed away the lavender strands that were shielding his eyes, and reached for his seatbelt. Though his face was usually emotionless and calm, she could spot a glint of excitement and wonder in her son’s eyes. He clicked his seatbelt into place, and turned back to face the front of the time machine, a hint of a smile on his handsome face. He looked so sure, so ready, so happy. She loved her son dearly, but at the moment, she felt like slapping him. The way he was acting so confident was annoying, really --- Especially considering the fact that she was sitting on the edge of her seat, wringing her hands in nervousness. Here she was, scared as hell, and he looked like he was about to start whistling a merry tune.

“So….what happens?” She snapped at him. She hadn’t meant to sound rude, but the fact that he was handling it better than her made her mad. “Am I going to feel anything? Is it scary? Should I be expecting something?”

He didn’t seem surprised by her tone at all, didn’t even seem to notice it as he proficiently checked the clipboard he was holding. He ran his finger down the page, his eyes flicking up to check the panel before him as well. When he answered her, he sounded distracted. “No. It’s pretty much like a ride, Okaasan. And you’re the one that invented this time machine, anyway. Shouldn’t you know what it does?”

She glared fiercely at him, her blue eyes burning into the side of his head. “You’re the only one that’s actually ridden in it. When I invented the time machine, it was all speculation. I didn’t know what it was going to do. I was pretty sure that it would work, but I didn’t know exactly how it was going to work. I knew that it could easily slide between dimensions and travel to other timelines, but I had no idea what it was actually going to be like.”

He looked up at her with a surprised expression, finally noting the anger in her voice. Instead of looking angry himself, he actually looked a bit hurt. His face, which had up until then held a look of boyish happiness, suddenly drooped back into his perpetual scowl. Bulma dropped her anger as suddenly as it began. There was no reason to be mad at her son now. He had done nothing to intentionally hurt her or make her mad. He was a good boy, and he had been taking very good care of her over the years. She couldn’t be mad at him, not for any reasons so childish. She couldn’t hold the fact that he was happy against him, just because she was too nervous to be happy. Besides, she had seen her boy hurt far too many times over the years. She knew that he would always hurt, that he would always carry around his pain, and as a mother, it hurt her as well. In their lives, which consisted of nothing more than broken dreams and hopes, she should cherish every smile that graced his face.

She held out a hand and touched his shoulder gently, as if to apologize for her tone. Then she looked down, moving a long strand of turquoise hair behind her ear. “Are you sure I shouldn’t be expecting anything? Nothing is going to jump out at me, right? Am I going to get airsick?”

“Okaasan….” He laughed, giving her half a smile. “It’s just a time machine. Not a roller-coaster or a haunted house. When I said it was like a ride I didn’t mean an actual ride. I just meant that all you had to do was sit back and relax. The time machine does all of the work. It’s kind of relaxing.” He shot her a sideways glance. “Why are you so nervous, anyway?”

“Well, this is the first adventure that I’ve had in years, Trunks. I don’t exactly go cavorting about in different time dimensions every day.” She reminded him. “Besides, I guess the weight of the situation is finally getting to me. I’m going to see so many people that I haven’t seen in years. I’m kind of worried about that. ChiChi keeps telling me that I shouldn’t worry at all --- that I’m a wonderful person, but I’m still nervous about it. I guess maybe I’d feel better if we could at least let them know that we were coming. I’d like to give them some kind of a forewarning.”

He laughed again, leaning his head back against the seat. “Just how exactly would we go about that, Okaasan? Send them a letter? Give them a phone call? This is an entirely different timeline. The only way that we can show up is by surprise. Besides, they’re going to be happy to see us. You shouldn’t worry about that at all. I doubt that we won’t be welcomed.”

She knew that they would be welcomed. She couldn’t imagine herself turning anyone away, not even in the strangest dimension. And as for all of her friends, there wasn’t one of them who held a grudge so deeply against her. At least, she didn’t think so. The different timelines had different circumstances, and different circumstances made people grow and change in different ways. What she thought would remain stable in this timeline could be completely different in another. She supposed that was what was frightening her --- the fear of the unknown. They were rushing into something totally unprepared for what might be going on. Yes, there were no jinzouningen to threaten this other world, but that didn’t mean they weren’t living through some other hell. And with the way that trouble followed them, there was a good chance that they would not walk in on a peaceful world. More so though, she was just afraid that everyone and everything she knew would be different.

“I’m a little afraid that perhaps everyone has changed, though.” She told him. “What if in the other timeline, ChiChi doesn’t like me at all? What if Gohan doesn’t like me? What if I don’t like me?”

Just a little frustrated, Trunks looked at her with laughing sky blue eyes. “Okaasan! Stop worrying. It will be fine, I promise. I doubt that anyone has changed that much. This was supposed to be a fun visit, remember?”

His face took on a concerned look, the one that she thought of as his ‘parent look’. It was the look he got every time that he was worried about her safety or her health. The one he gave her every time she started saying crazy, weird things or being depressed about the past. It was also the look, combined with a bit of anger, that he gave her whenever he discovered that she and ChiChi had drowned themselves in too many cups of sake. It was harmless, really. Who cared if a couple of old ladies wanted to forget about their troubles for awhile? But he did in fact care, and he would meet her in the morning with that same look on his face. In short, he watched out for her, just like he was the parent of the relationship, not her. He protected her and kept her safe, all the while looking at her as if she were nothing more than a three year old.

He stared at her. “If you’re going to stress yourself out about it, maybe you should stay home. I don’t want you to be nervous the whole time. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“I’m not staying! I want to go!” She cried, and she felt a bit like a child that was having a temper tantrum. She blushed, and straightened herself up, trying to look like more of an adult. “I really do want to go. Right now I am just expressing my doubts and concerns. That doesn’t mean that I am too scared or stressed to continue on and go with you to the other timeline. It just means that I am a little apprehensive. It’s a good thing to be just a little anxious, though. One shouldn’t go plowing right into a new situation without first weighing the upside and the downside.

Trunks crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. “It certainly sounds like you’re scared.”

“I am not!” She cried, and she crossed her arms in much the same fashion, turning her head to the side and pouting. “I am not scared. And why aren’t we moving yet? Let’s go! Were you planning to just sit around here in the time machine all day?”

He laughed at her again, shaking his head as he began flipping switches and starting up the time machine. “Strap yourself in.”

She did as he told her, her fingers shaking with nervousness. She had to admit that it wasn’t just the prospect of seeing everyone again that had scared her. She was a little afraid of what the flight was going to be like as well. But she trusted Trunks. He had saved her life more than once, and she knew that he would gladly do it again if he had to. She knew that there was nothing to fear as long as he was by her side, watching over her just like any child should watch over their parent.

As the engines whirred to life and the time machine began to move, Bulma turned to her son one last time, taking in his handsome profile as he steered. Again, she could see happiness hidden within the depths of his light blue eyes. Obviously, he was excited about going on this trip, so excited that he had dropped his usually calm demeanor and become almost a child again. What he was so excited and happy about, she didn’t know, but her heart went out to him. And though she had not felt it earlier, excitement began to sweep through her own veins. It rushed through her like warm water, hitting her heart instantaneously. And then, because the thrill of it was too much, and the expectation of things to come was so large, she could nothing to keep the grin from forming on her face.

Time opened up slowly, drawing back its borders and lines and boundaries, and forming one long, open road. They shot through this road at an unbelievable speed, flying past the barriers of dimensions and worlds. It all swirled around them, the living, breathing body of the times, rushing past them in brushes of black with strands of twirling silver. Time allowed them through, not because it wanted to, but because it did not understand what their intent was or what they were doing. It lifted the cloth of mystery and secrets, showing them a full view of what life and time and destiny held, if only for a split second as they flew blew. They moved quickly through all of this, on a straight course through the dimensions of time and space, hurtling through the thick blackness of it all. Their course was set and their destination had been selected, and all that was left for the machine to do was to find the way through the maze. Inside the time machine, mother and son watched out the window in wonder with wide, unblinking eyes.

“It’s so beautiful!” Bulma exclaimed suddenly, and Trunks could see that she did not want to tear her eyes away from the scenery out of the window. “Why didn’t you tell me how beautiful it would be?!”

They turned slightly, tilting to the left as they scaled along a non-existent wall that was built with threads of silver and white, blackness falling in between the cracks. He watched as it all went past him, knowing all too well that it would be over in seconds. The move from one timeline to another was fast, so fast the first few times that he was not able to appreciate what he was seeing. But now he knew, and he took it all in with watchful blue eyes.

“You asked if it was going to be scary.” He told her. “You didn’t ask if it was going to be a pretty or not.”

“You are so much like your father sometimes.”

The statement caught him by surprise, and although he did not want to, he turned his eyes away from the window and looked at her. “Am I?”

“It’s strange.” She said, her eyes still watching time travel by outside her window. “You were hardly ever around him, he barely even spoke to you, and yet you still have some of his tendencies sometimes. Perhaps that is just the way that blood works. You didn’t just inherit his nose and his mouth….You also inherited some of his most appalling personality traits.”

“Thanks.” He said sarcastically. Time turned once more, and they tilted in the other direction. The black was becoming more transparent now, and the mists of silver were beginning to thin out. He knew that they were approaching the end, and that any moment now, they would reach their destination. The thought of it thrilled him, and as he watched the wires of silver fly by him, he did not see it. His mind was in another place entirely. He thought about her. About what it would be like to take her back through this illusion of time and space --- black and white and dark and light all surrounding them at once. Knowing her, she would take it all in with wide and beautiful green eyes, never once peeling her eyes away from the glass. She would take it all in just like she took everything else in: with an open mind and an open heart.

His mother continued talking, her thoughtful voice breaking through his thoughts. “It will be very interesting indeed to see how the other Trunks developed. He was around his father so much longer. I wonder if he’s more like you or more like Vejiita used to be. I think it might be quite humorous to see you acting like him --- arrogant, prideful, rude. I’ve gotten so used to your personality now that it just might be a little shocking. Do you think that it’s possible for something like a personality to be completely different in the two timelines?”

He wanted her to be the same. He wanted her to be exactly the same. He didn’t know if his heart could take it if she were different. He didn’t know if he would be able to fall in love with her again if she were different. And perhaps that would be even worse than never finding her at all.

As they were shot through the last remaining piece of the maze, blackness around them fading into the bright blue color of the sky, he barely even heard his own reply over the sound of time closing tightly behind them, sealing them into this new world.

“I hope not.”

Bulma was the first one out of the time machine. It actually seemed as though she burst out of it, throwing open the hatch and scampering down the side of the machine. She jumped down into the grass below and spun around, taking in the sights of the world, just like a child might have. She spread her arms out, her face practically glowing with her grin, and looked over the horizon at the city that peeked out above the trees. Deep blue eyes took in the sight, her eyes watering with tears. Her chin began to tremble with a happiness that was so strong and powerful in her heart that it almost felt like sadness. This was the world that she remembered, the world that she dreamed about. It was perfect, untouched, unspoiled. The world where everyone was still happy and everyone still had their loved ones. This was her world, the world that was at home in.

“I can’t believe we’re here!” She whispered, and it seemed as though her voice grew with every word. “I’m so excited! Look, you can see West Capitol City in the distance! Isn’t it amazing to see those tall buildings again? Look how high they stretch up --- right up to the sky! I bet all of the shopping centers are still in tact, as well! Can you imagine the look on ChiChi’s face when I bring her home a new dress? And can you believe all of the food that they probably have here? There was this amazing little restaurant downtown that Yamucha took me to once while we were dating. I wonder if it’s still open? They had the best Italian food in all of the city --- their manicotti was like a dream. Just melted in your mouth. Would you look at how high the trees have grown? And look how green the grass is!”