Mirai Trunks stood still, his body strong and unwavering, but inside he was shaking like a frightened child. It felt as though his heart was one fire with the anger that had seeped in there, and he had to fight his mouth from turning into a snarl as he repeated ChiChi’s words over and over again in his mind. The jinzouningen were attacking people, attacking the cities. The jinzouningen were killing again, ripping away lives, shattering hopes and dreams, destroying beautiful, thriving cities. His life was being repeated over again in this world, being played out maliciously in the timeline that he had always thought to be perfect. More people would die. More children would lose their parents, more parents would lose their children. Lovers would die together or apart from each other, and people would have to stand by and watch as their homes and lives when up in flames. The jinzouningen would destroy without reason; they would keep on obliterating cities and homes and lives until there was nothing left on Earth except for the crushed remains of buildings, a sea of ashes, and a sky full of smoke and dust. At his sides, his hands twitched, and then curled into tight fists, anger pulsing through his body. He remembered what it was like to fight them; remembered how helpless he had felt.

He attacked the jinzouningen viciously. There was no other way to attack such creatures; he had to strike hard and fast or else they would use his mercy and his hesitance against him. He struck the female in the stomach, causing her to fall several feet before she caught herself and flew back up to him. Juunana-gou fiercely kicked at him and he phased to avoid the hit, moving quickly to the side. Juuhachi-gou was quicker unfortunately, and was waiting for him with a ready fist. She nailed him in the gut, and he doubled over, losing his breath. She gave a satisfied smirk and narrowed her ice blue eyes at him. He hated it when they ganged up on him like this. If he ever had the chance to fight just one of them alone, he might actually have somewhat of a chance, but when they fought together --- it was impossible. Trunks inhaled fitfully, trying to catch his breath. For the moment, the jinzouningen had halted their attack and were merely waiting for his breath to return.

Funny how they could be so civil at times.

He had heard them argue over his fate before while he was barely in consciousness in smooth, educated voices. They wanted to kill him and they surely could, but because they had already killed everyone and everything, they were bored. They kept him around for the sole purpose of amusing themselves with a good fight once and awhile. They weren't all together rough, wild, saliva spewing lunatics, but intelligent, resourceful beings, willing and ready to carry out any act of malice that appeared in their minds.

He had been too young and too weak to stop them back then. They were unbeatable and unstoppable and they simply surged on and destroyed his world; all he could do was watch with horrified eyes as they slaughtered innocents and leveled cities to the ground. By the time he finally grew strong enough and was capable of killing the evil twins, it was too late. It was too late to bring back all of the people that had lost their lives and too late to restore the cities to the grand sights that they used to be. It was a cruelly ironic that the one thing he had strived for his entire life had given him nothing in return when his goal was achieved. He had become strong enough to kill them, and he did. But that didn’t change anything or take anything back. It all remained the way it was. The guilt and the horror still hung over him like a dark and impenetrable cloud. He hadn’t been able to help Gohan or to save the woman that he loved. The two people that he had cared about most besides his mother, had died. They had died because of his weaknesses; died because he wasn’t strong enough to save either one of them.

But it was different now. Things had changed. He was strong enough. He had the power to defeat them now. In this perfect world, no one else would have to die. This Tayhei would live. This Gohan would still be alive to teach and guide. This Trunks would never have to look at himself in the mirror and turn away because he couldn’t face the weakness that was staring back at him. This world would not be harmed by the jinzouningen. Its cities would still stand and its people would be able to keep their dreams and their hopes, no matter how silly or foolish those dreams might be. This perfect world was going to stay perfect.

As gently as he could in his angered state, he removed his mother’s terrified hand from his jacket. Absently, he touched the hilt of his sword to assure himself that it was still there, then turned away from the group and began walking away. He was going to make sure that nothing happened to this world. He didn’t have a chance to make things right years and years ago, but he did now. And he wasn’t going to let that chance slip. He was going to end the lives of these jinzouningen before they could end the lives of anyone else. Anger flashed inside of his heart again as he remembered how cold and lifeless their ice blue eyes had been --- how deep and condescending their smirks were. This was going to end before it even started; he would make sure of that.

His mother turned as well and met him with frightened deep blue eyes. He knew that she knew what he was doing, but she made no move to stop him. Whether she cared to admit it or not right now, she felt the same way that he did. She didn’t want anything to happen to this world either; this world that they had always held as perfect and unscarred in their minds. She didn’t want these people to have to go through what they went through in the future timeline. Though she said nothing, he knew that she wanted the jinzouningen to die just as much as he did. She might have had other plans when she first came here, plans of interviewing them and understanding them. But deep in her heart, she would always feel the same way about the androids. They had destroyed everything in their world. Absolutely everything. How could anyone not hold a grudge? How could his mother ever look at the jinzouningen and not feel hate or anger? His mother wanted them dead, and he knew it. His younger counterpart however, had different ideas.

“Where do you think you’re going?” The younger Trunks demanded.

He didn’t even turn back to meet his gaze, just continued walking away from them, straightening his jacket and preparing himself for a fight. “I’m going to go kill those machines before they harm this world too.”

“No! You can’t kill them!” ChiChi sputtered from the doorway, surprised.

He turned to look at her, his sky blue eyes narrowing into slits. He had always respected the ChiChi of his world and admired her wisdom and discerning nature. But staring at the woman now, he couldn’t help but feel as though he didn’t want to listen to her. It seemed to him as though she were being irrational, and he refused to respect that. The truth was, she didn’t understand. No one understood. None of these people knew what it was like to come from a world like his. None of them could possibly know what it felt like to realize that your truest enemies, enemies that you had defeated long ago, were killing innocent people again. None of them could ever know what he was feeling and it made him angry that they would try and stop him.

Mirai Trunks faced them with a scowl. “Give me one good reason why I can’t --- they have taken everything away from me. They have literally destroyed the future world. All that’s left in our world is a handful of people, crushed hopes and dreams, and the shattered remnants of cities. Do you honestly expect me to just stand by and watch as they do the same to this world as well?”

“It’s different here.” ChiChi informed him in a gentle voice. “Juuhachi-gou is Marron’s mother, Kuririn’s wife. They’re a family. They’re our friends.”

“Friends? No friends of mine would destroy half of a city. No friends of mine would attack an innocent child.” He argued, growing more and angrier as he thought about the situation. He was losing time just standing around here arguing with them. He needed to attack the jinzouningen before it was too late and more lives were extinguished.

“You’re right.” The younger Trunks spat out vehemently. “They’re not your friends. They’re our friends. And no one is going to let you kill them. This is one battle that you’re just not going to win.”

Mirai Trunks stared at the younger boy challengingly, sky blue eyes meeting sky blue eyes in a fierce competition of pride and strength. It was eerily silent for a moment as they glared at each other, neither one willing to give any ground to the other. Mirai Trunks looked at the boy as someone who didn’t understand --- a reckless youth who was being irrational and unintelligent. He was too much like his father, too harsh and egotistical to accept or respect anyone else’s rational arguments. He was a prideful, arrogant boy who thought that his way was the only way --- a boy who treated the most beautiful, lovely girl in the world like she was nothing.

His eyes traveled to Tayhei suddenly and caught her staring at him with a rather frightened look on her face. His expression softened suddenly. He hadn’t meant to scare her. He would never intentionally do something like that to her. But he was trying to keep her safety in mind as well. The jinzouningen of his world had brutally killed his Tayhei. He knew what they were capable and he knew that this Tayhei was pretty much defenseless. And if he had to see that beautiful face in pain again, he would die. He would simply not be able to handle it. He couldn’t take seeing her die again. It had been unbelievably painful the first time, and if he had to live through it again….He wouldn’t make it. He would rather kill himself. It was true that he didn’t know this Tayhei that well yet or have an emotional connection with her yet, but it was the same girl. She was the same Tayhei that he had been in love with so long ago. And he didn’t want her to have to die again. He was going to kill the jinzouningen before they even had a chance to touch her.

His mother suddenly spoke up. Her face was a mixture of sadness and regret as she looked at him. Her deep blue eyes filled with tears. “He’s right, Trunks. Things are different in this world. We have to respect that.”

He couldn’t believe the betrayal that he felt at her words. It was as if she had just stabbed him in the heart. He stared at her in shock, his face disbelieving and somewhat disgusted. He had been certain --- certain --- that she would feel the same way as him. She had been there to see what had happened when the jinzouningen first came. She had been there when everyone else died, been there to see the first cities crumble to the ground. His mother had seen it all, experienced every kind of pain. Didn’t she understand the weight of the situation? Didn’t she see how this world could end up being just like their own if they didn’t stop the jinzouningen right away? Obviously she did, but she was choosing to ignore it. She was pushing her own feelings and intuition aside in order to accommodate the people of this world. He had to admit that a small part of him knew that things were indeed different here, but his hatred for the jinzouningen outweighed that by far. His fear of what the jinzouningen were capable of outweighed that by far.

“It looks to me like things are exactly the same, Okaasan.” He said tensely. He didn’t like fighting with his mother, but he had to make her understand. “Do you recognize this situation? Do you remember what it was like to see the world fall apart and see all of the biggest cities tumble to the ground?”

She bent her head down, turquoise locks falling forward to hide her face. “I remember. But this world is different. The jinzouningen aren’t the enemies here, they’re allies --- allies who are obviously sick and in serious need of help. I’m sure that they are just as scared as everyone else here. They probably don’t know how to stop themselves.”

Her eyes came up to meet his and he met her gaze and held it steadily. He frowned, crossing his arms tightly across his chest as he looked at her. “Is there any way to stop them without killing them?” He challenged.

“I don’t know.” She murmured.

He wasn’t going to wait around and find out. People were dying, and he didn’t want that to happen at all. As long as he was around, no one innocent was going to have to die. Families were not going to be torn apart, lovers were not going to die in each other’s arms, and every city on this Earth was going to keep standing. He uncrossed his arms and with a burst of speed and energy, he shot up into the sky. His eyes found his mother’s eyes again and he frowned tensely once more.

“Well, you better find out quick.” He warned. “Because I’m going to go fight them.”

As soon as Trunks took off in flight, a new face appeared in the doorway behind ChiChi. He looked slightly rumpled and sleepy, with short black hair sticking up everywhere on his head and a wrinkled, long sleeve tee shirt. Mirai Bulma was immediately struck by how similar his features were to Gokuu’s. If he had Gokuu’s classic, wild hair, the boy could be an exact copy. In fact, in the first instant that she saw him, she had mistaken him for Son-kun and felt her heart flood with the emotion of actually seeing her old friend. This boy was clearly not Gokuu though; he was far too young. He stood in the doorway for a moment, then walked around his mother and looked up into the sky where Trunks was just disappearing into the distance.

“What’s going on? I heard yelling.” He said, his brows furrowing as he looked at his mother.

Just now noticing him, ChiChi snapped to attention and placed her hands on her hips. Her face took on a stern, confident look that Bulma hadn’t seen on Mirai ChiChi in years. Actually, as she stared at her friend’s face, she noticed for the first time that she looked miraculously younger than she rightfully should. Bulma had aged quite nicely herself, but this was amazing. The woman had no wrinkles, no gray hair….She looked as though she were no older than thirty. Bulma knew that something must have happened and she made a mental note to ask her about it when things calmed down. Right now though, she was too afraid to even speak. She was well aware of her friend’s temper.

“Mirai Trunks is going to go kill the jinzouningen.” Trunks told him. “He didn’t even listen to us when we told him not to.”

“Mirai Trunks is here?”

“Goten! Trunks! Stop chatting and go after him!” ChiChi commanded in an authoritative tone and she pointed after Mirai Trunks. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything too impulsive.”

The two young boys took off like lightning, not even bothering to question her command. Still intensely worried about what was going to happen, Mirai Bulma bit her lip and stared after the boys as they flew. Her son had been right. Everything that was happening was too eerily familiar for her to ignore. A very big part of her wanted to see the jinzouningen dead as well, but the more sensible part of her knew that such a thing simply could not happen in this world. The jinzouningen here were different; as hard as it was for her to accept something like that when she knew that they were killing again, she knew that she had to. The circumstances in this world were simply not the same and like it or not, she was going to have to respect that. She was beginning to see that everything here was different. Her deep blue eyes filled with tears again as she watched the two young boys disappear over the horizon, on their way to find the jinzouningen.