Dragon Ball: The Tale of Trunks

"Hey Dad, you got a second?" Trunks walked into the gravity chamber at Capsule Corporation wherein his father, Vegeta, Prince of All Saiyans, was training at 50 times gravity. The boy noticed it for only a second before his body pretty much automatically adjusted. He didn't know why his father only trained this high when the man could survive ten times higher probably pretty easily but that was part of the reason that he wanted to have a conversation.

Trunks watched as his idol merely continued dodging robot attacks. There were blasts coming in from all directions and nothing was being done to destroy the robots, much to his confusion. He watched as his father jumped up to one and pressed some kind of button, disabling it, and Trunks realized that this was a reaction and speed exercise more than a strength one. After getting that one robot, however, a blast connected and ended the exercise.

"I've told you about interrupting my training." Trunks could not help but feel intimidated at the menacing look he was receiving from his father. Trunks had always thought that his father was scary and anytime the man was serious not even he would violate his serious rules. Usually if he found a clever way around the more minor rules, his father would just smirk at him; on the other hand, his mother would flip if it were anything she thought to be important. He knew better than to disobey his father, though the fear was really extremely minor. More than anything, Trunks thought his dad was the coolest guy in the world. Even moreso after recent events.

"Yeah yeah, I know. But this is important!" He tried to sound urgent but was met with a roll of the eyes.

"What scheme has that woman come up with now and how are we to avoid it?" Trunks couldn't help but laugh at his father's words, even though he had come into the room preparing himself for a serious conversation. The young half-saiyan could remember several times where his mom had wanted to do something and his father was willing to listen to his ideas for getting out of it. Oh sure, his dad could just say no, but Vegeta was far more than an awesome fighter. He was smart too. And few things were worth really upsetting his mother over, and few things upset her quite as much as when she thought of something she considered special and his father gave a stern no.

"No, no, nothing like that. This is different, okay." Whatever nerve he had built up was quickly diminishing under the iron gaze of his father.

"Boy, my time is precious. Every second wasted prevents me from surpassing that moron Kakarot." Trunks always admired his father's determination. Even back from the dead, his father still wanted to be the number one fighter in the whole universe and in his opinion that was super awesome. Things were definitely a little different than they had been before; even he could tell that much. His dad was obviously more involved with the family since his return to life. There was something bothering Trunks, however. One thing his father had said:

"Trunks, take care of your mother."

He'd heard those words over and over again in his head, the final thing he heard from his father before the man sacrificed himself to try and defeat Buu. His dad had entrusted him to look after his mother in his absence, and he had failed to do it. He should have been able to beat Buu, with or without fusion, because that's what he needed to do to protect his mom and avenge his father. He had failed at doing that, even when transformed into Gotenks. It was nearly impossible to describe the way that it felt becoming one with Goten; the power felt limitless and awesome but he didn't feel an urgency to fight. And then, the Earth was destroyed because of it, his mom along with it.

"Spit. It. Out." Trunks was a bit embarrassed at having gotten lost in thought; he had really thought he could stay focused.

"Train me." He didn't want to just go through the motions of training with his father, being casually offered pieces of advice every now and then. He wanted the full treatment: criticism, tough exercises, difficult robotic routines designed to improve him in some area of fighting. He'd been doing the bare minimum for too long, and there's no way his father could have known how much he was holding back before he revealed he was a Super Saiyan. He was going to give it all to become a great fighter but he needed help to do it, and there was no one better to help him become great than the greatest there was.

"Bah, what nonsense is this, brat? We train together too much as it is. If only your mother would finally get around to that second gravity chamber..." Vegeta had his arms crossed, looking away. Trunks allowed himself to get discouraged for only a second before pushing forward.

"Come on Dad, you know that's not what I mean! I don't want to train with you, I want you to train me! I know you know the difference so don't even try acting dumb." Trunks had a scowl on his face, knowing fully well that his father would not have misheard the first time. His dad always had to be coerced or convinced into doing things and Trunks was sure that no question of significance had ever been answered with a 'yes' in the first round by his dad. The man turned back toward him, a slight smirk on his face.

"Oh really? Please, you are a mere 8-year old child. What could you know of truly wanting to train? Let me guess, there's some human female you want to impress?"

"What? No Dad, don't be weird!" Trunks took a breath to recompose himself after being slightly embarrassed by the question. "I am a Saiyan, right? Well I know I want to fight, just like you. I thought it was just for fun until I had to fight Majin Buu but I learned something. Fighting's fun, and super cool, but it's also serious so I need to seriously get stronger for next time."

"For next time? Please, do you believe that a creature stronger than that is both in this universe and likely to find Earth?"

"Duh! Wasn't Cell supposed to be the strongest ever but then Buu came around? Of course it could happen again. I need to be ready!"

"This planet truly may be the most dangerous damn place in the universe, I'll confess that much. But I do not think you know exactly what you are asking. You will learn to endure pain, boy, because there is no better way to correct mistakes. I will hold no punches for doing so is disrespectful to any true warrior. Do you possibly think you can handle that?"

Trunks was just smiling because this was actually going much better than he had expected it to. The fact that his father had already accepted the training as a possibility at all was great.

"Of course I can!" He could take a hit; he had taken more than a few Super Saiyan punches from Goten in the past, after all. He had totally faked it the last time his dad hit him to get a trip to the park.

Vegeta scowled. "The fact you are smiling shows me that you do not understand. Leave."

Trunks couldn't believe his ears. Where had that come from? He hadn't been ready to get shot down at this point. Why was his dad being so unreasonable?

"No." He said, without thinking any longer.

"What was that, boy?" A dangerous aura emanated from his father, one that actually made Trunks reconsider despite his week of preparing to ask. The look on his face was completely, totally serious and Trunks could feel himself shaking. He knew he couldn't give in if he wanted to be able to protect people like his mother in the future but it was stupidly hard to disobey his father when the man gave him that kind of look. Visions of every single form of entertainment he had being destroyed played in his mind, before he violently shook his head side to side to regain his composure.

"You're... you're just scared that I'll be stronger than you! Yeah, that's it!"

"Hah, insolent brat. A mere child such as yourself would surely prefer to play with friends and other frivolous wastes of time. Why should I sacrifice my training to train you when you would eventually decide to stop?"

Trunks took a moment to think about a proper answer. "Come on Dad, you really think I'd be like Gohan?" He saw his father roll his eyes before turning his head, letting Trunks know that he was on-target with who the man was thinking of. From what he had heard, Gohan was the strongest warrior in the world at the end of the Cell Games but he started to focus more on studying and school. "I don't want to run the company, that'd be super boring. I want to be a fighter, just like you! And I know that if you train me I'll be the best in the whole universe!" After all, nobody took training more seriously than his dad so if he could get his dad to train him who knew how great he would get!

A silence filled the room, feeling like it was going on forever but in reality only lasting a few minutes. At this point he started to notice the higher gravity in the room, like a persistent nagging feeling, but he continued to stand there. He just knew that this was some kind of final test. He had asked, he had pleaded, he had made his case, and he had stood up when his father said no. Surely that was a formula for success.

"Very well." He jumped into the air excited, one fist outstretched upward in celebration. The slight annoyance of the enhanced gravity was forgotten. He could practically feel his father's annoyance but didn't really care in that second. "However!" The gruff yell cut through the haze of celebration, making Trunks focus again. "I will tolerate no slacking or disobedience. You shall also not spar with anyone but me. Should you do so, the training ends." Trunks frowned at not being able to spar with Goten but he had worried his dad might say he wasn't allowed to see Goten at all. "If at any point this agreement becomes excessively inconvenient to me, I may end it. Understood?"

"Absolutely! Oh boy, I can't believe I got you to agree! I must be smarter than Mom!" He saw his father scowl, and he immediately panicked. "Oh, uh, I mean, thanks Dad!"

"I doubt you shall thank me for long boy. However, you seem very serious about this." The man smirked, before holding up two fingers. "Two months."

"Oh wow, it's only going to take two months? That's not very long."

"Hah, you stupid boy. Two months, before you give up. And return to your frivolous childhood passions." Trunks did not take well to being offered a challenge, and he swore that his father had the most challenging smirk that he had ever seen on anyone. And he had seen tons of them from Goten. A part of him processed that it actually seemed like his father was going to take this seriously, and that intimidated him a little bit. He had somewhat expected that even if the man agreed, he would be left doing some kind of lightweight wimpy training while his dad did the real stuff, so that his father could tell his mother 'Oh please, I am training the boy' if he were to ever complain to her.

"Whatever Dad. You won't be getting out of this so easy."

"I suppose you're ready to begin?" Well Trunks sure hadn't been expecting to actually do anything right now but he supposed there was no harm in it. Although, he was just wearing some of his casual clothes and not his fighting gear. He probably should have thought of that beforehand but he had been a little too nervous. He didn't ask for a lot from his father, and usually he would just talk to his mother for anything important, but this felt like it should just be the two of them.

"Let me go change into fighting clothes first!"

Vegeta nodded, Trunks immediately running out of the room. And head-first into something. He heard a light yelp as he heard it hit the ground but the surprise of it all made himself also fall to the ground.

"Trunks, honey, what are you doing running around like that?" Oh, it was his mother. He stood back up quickly, dusting himself off, smile on his face.

"Mom, you're not gonna believe it! I got Dad to agree to train me! Not, like, the usual stuff, but real hardcore awesome Saiyan Warrior training!"

She scowled slightly, a reaction that surprised him. "Oh, did you now?"

"Yeah. Did I... do something wrong?" He didn't know what else it could be, but his worries were relieved a bit when she smiled at him. The last thing he wanted was his mom mad at him; his dad may be kinda mean sometimes, but the man was typically straightforward. His mom was patient and sometimes waited months before bringing something up as leverage to get him to do something. He was pretty sure he'd heard her use things from before he was born to get his father to do things.

"Of course not sweetie. I just need to have a short talk with your father. You best be on your way." She was using a very troublesome tone of voice, and he felt a bit of sympathy for his father. However, he was happier that it wasn't him on the receiving end of whatever was about to come. Were the situations reversed, he knew his dad would be thinking the same thing. So he just nodded and ran to his room, racing through the hallways with ease. He burst through his door and ran to his closet; there, hanging up, were dozens of his fighting suit.

He took off his clothes and put on the dark green gi in an instant, grabbing his orange boots as well, before going to his dresser and reaching in the top drawer to grab some orange wristbands. Once he got all that on, he couldn't help but smirk. There was something about wearing all this stuff that made him feel super strong, like a real warrior. A super awesome one. Not wasting any time, he ran all the way back to the gravity room only to be stopped by seeing the door still open and the setting at 1G. That must mean his mother was actually in there, instead of just talking to his dad from the doorway or over intercom like usual. He tip-toed to the entrance, listening, not even daring to try to look.

"I'm serious, Vegeta! He is my son! You do not have the right to decide such important things without me."

"Woman, this is extreme, even for you. He approached me. Besides, there are some matters meant to be kept between men." Trunks could have leapt for joy at the idea of his father referring to him as a 'man' but that would be childish and, clearly, he was above that.

"Ugh, fine, whatever." He heard her sigh. "Of course I'm happy that you two get some male bonding. But I know you haven't forgotten, Vegeta." He heard a footstep, and he knew he only had a few seconds. He flew silently to the end of the hallway, before starting to run back down it. He put a surprised look on his face when he saw his mom walk out but it was for nothing as she didn't even look at him, strutting down the hallway at a quick pace. Perplexed, worry came over him that his training was going to somehow be affected. He saw the room was already back to 50G and he walked in quickly, only to see the man standing there with no obvious emotion on his face. Well, at least it wasn't a scowl.

"I'm back."

"Very well. Ascend." Trunks stood there, because he didn't really know what his father meant. "Turn Super Saiyan!" The yell certainly made things clearer. Nodding his head quickly, he started charging up and turned Super Saiyan.

"Um, now what?"

"Time to spar."

"Aren't you going to, you know... ascend?" It didn't seem fair that he was in a Super Saiyan form and his father wasn't.

The man smirked; he seemed to be doing that a lot today. "Unnecessary."

Everything suddenly felt serious as Vegeta entered into a battle stance, left arm and leg slightly forward with his right arm outstretched, creating a broad, low base. Trunks had his right foot forward, right hand held into a fist at normal length with his left held slightly back. He could feel himself being examined under the steely gaze of his father and, in that second, the idea that his father was treating him as a serious opponent was far more intimidating than the man's earlier pointed looks. He gulped, knowing fully well that any hesitation in combat on his part was going to get punished. He was currently a Super Saiyan, and his father wasn't, so he at least had that advantage.

With that in mind, Trunks launched himself forward with a scream, leading with a right hook. When his father dodged to the right, he tried to do a roundhouse kick to surprise him but this time the Prince dodged backward. Not wanting to lose the offensive, Trunks pushed onward, throwing a flurry of punches that all failed to connect. Things were switched up slightly when one of his punches was caught but he freed himself with a kick. He kept up his attacks, starting to get frustrated a little bit that none of them were working. Suddenly his father barely dodged one of the punches; Trunks felt the fist in his stomach before he could react. The impact knocked the breath out of him and he jumped back, but there was no time to recover as the man attacked.

There was no time for anything but dodging as a hail of punches flew at him, forcing him to bend in crazy ways as he continually backed up. They'd been fighting for maybe a minute and already he was sweating a lot. He blocked one punch with his forearm but it hurt so bad he might as well have not done anything. Next thing he knew, there were kicks being thrown at him as well. He ducked under one, attempting to sweep his father's other leg out from under him, when the man jumped in the air and delivered a spinning kick. Trunks was knocked off his feet backwards, landing on his back with a thump.

He slowly got back to his feet, panting from the constant exertion at full energy. His father was barely breaking a sweat and that made him a little mad. Figuring that the man expected for him to take some time to breathe, he decided to immediately attack. His father barely dodged the first few strikes, and Trunks thought the surprise may have worked, but his attacks were quickly starting to look useless. He grit his teeth, trying to pick up the pace, but he was tiring out too much. He decided that, no matter what, he was going to hit his father one time. And then he got a good idea of how to do it.

When one of his punches missed, his father threw one of his own. Rather than dodge it, Trunks took the punch directly to the shoulder. Gritting through the pain, he used all his remaining energy to throw an uppercut aimed at his father's chin.

"Got you, old man!" As soon as it connected, he saw the man's head go up and felt himself smile that his attack had hit. Next thing he knew, there was a knee in his stomach, knocking the breath completely out of him. He fell to the ground, having a hard time catching his breath, and his Super Saiyan form faded away. Suddenly, without its aid and being so tired, he felt nailed to the ground and found himself barely able to move at all. With the adrenaline slowing down, he also started to feel pain all over.

"That will do for now," he heard his father say, completely neutral in tone.

"No... I can keep going..." Trunks struggled to his feet, trying his best to ignore all the pain and the fact that his body was feeling ridiculously heavy. He closed his eyes, trying to find the energy but coming up short. "AAAAAHHHHHH..." He let out a powerful scream as he summoned up more from deep within him, determined to continue the spar. After several seconds, he managed to ascend once more, albeit it already worn out and panting. He needed to push himself to the absolute limit and farther if he were going to ever become an equal with his father.

"Don't underestimate me, Dad!" Trunks launched himself forward, putting more energy than usual to maximize his speed. He attempted a kick, knowing that he had been throwing more punches and thinking that he could catch his father by surprise. It connected with a firm forearm block; Trunks used the momentum of the kick to spin himself around, attempting to deliver a kick with his other leg. The attack was dodged and he felt an elbow hit him in the head, hard. He fell to the ground and once again out of his Super Saiyan form, trying to reach up to rub his aching skull but the gravity holding his arms down. This time he felt really unable to move.

"I didn't. Spar's over."

Trunks wished he knew whether his father expected for him to even land a clean hit. The safe bet was no, but it was a Super Saiyan versus a regular Saiyan so who knew. Overall, it didn't matter; he couldn't be happy with that. He needed to be able to win.

Vegeta began talking. "Your fighting form is surprisingly..." Trunks readied himself for the worst, "average." He considered that a rather high compliment, at least coming from his father. If anyone else dared call him average then they'd be in for it. "Your striking is lax; it leaves you open, and your defense was far too panicked. Unskilled opponents would probably not notice but we don't train to fight wretches. Your power sensing is completely pathetic. I let my power fluctuate, and you failed to take advantage. And if you actually thought I didn't sense you eavesdropping on myself and your mother, then your suppression is also atrocious."

Trunks couldn't hide the surprise on his face at hearing that, but if his father was mad, there was no indication. It's not like he had overheard anything important; just some stuff about 'male bonding' and what was probably some old agreement between his parents. The man simply continued talking. "Your stamina is also lacking. Unless I say otherwise, you shall train in your base form."

"Why!" Being a Super Saiyan was incredibly awesome, and he didn't want to throw that away.

"Brat! What did I say about disobedience!" There was irritation in his father's voice, but Trunks was certain he'd heard much worse. This was not the 'back down, or else' level of irritation.

"Hey, I didn't disobey you! I just wanna know why!"

"The transformation multiplies your strength. Therefore, the stronger you are naturally, the stronger your ascension. That's why we will focus on your base power, and you shall ascend only on occasion to adjust."

Trunks thought for a moment, supposing that made some form of sense. 5 multiplied by 100 was 500 but 10 multiplied by 100 was 1000. He wasn't sure how much stronger the transformation made him but it should work in about that way. "Hey Dad, I want to learn to use your fighting stance. Can you teach me?"

Briefly, there was a look of surprise on his father's face. It disappeared so quickly he almost could have thought he'd imagined it, except the expression was so rare that he doubted he'd falsely picture it. "My fighting stance is the ancient style passed down only to those born as Saiyan Elites. It was taught to me..." Vegeta's face contorted in true anger, and Trunks was shocked enough to get back to his feet in case he needed to get out of there. Trunks could hear gritting teeth. "By my father. King... Vegeta." It was like every word caused a deep amount of pain. However, with a sigh, he could see all the tension ease from his father's face. He wondered what that was about but he wasn't dumb enough to think asking about it now would do anything. "I shall not teach it until I am certain you shall never deny your place as a mighty Saiyan warrior."

Trunks frowned; who knew how long that would take. Still, he was not worried, because he knew that he would prove himself eventually. He just hoped that no major threats would pop up for a while. Although, now that he thought about it, if it was only taught to Saiyan Elites, and his father was willing to teach it to him eventually, then that meant he must be elite. He couldn't help but smirk at that thought.

"Dinner in 5 minutes, boys!" His mother's voice rang through the intercom, thankfully sounding happier than she had earlier. Now his smirk shifted to a smile; dinner sounded amazing right now! He was starving after using up so much energy so quickly but that's what going full power from the start could do, he supposed. He attempted to walk out the door only to find that he couldn't lift his leg. He struggled momentarily, before summoning up enough energy from somewhere - probably his stomach - to move it forward.

"Oh man, this sucks, if I'm late she'll kill me!"

"To truly master this level of gravity, it is not enough to be able to handle it. It must become second-nature, to the point where it does not impede you in anyway no matter your state of exhaustion."

Trunks was surprised at having an unspoken question answered; he would not have dared to say anything along the lines of 'Hey Dad, why are you training at 50G? That's wimpy' but he had wondered about it earlier. It was rare to have anything answered by his father, much less something that hadn't even been asked. Maybe the spar had gone good in his dad's eyes after all!

"You best hurry, brat. Your mother will tolerate nothing right now." And with that, the Saiyan Prince left the room, Trunks still trying to summon up the strength to walk out, finally reaching the door a few minutes later. The half-Saiyan rushed forward once free of the extra gravity, fearful of getting on his mom's bad side.

beta read by: Andorian

A/N: Hey everyone, let me get things out of the way. I am very busy writing my other stories, and I don't know how often I'll be able to update this. This is, for me, very much a passion project in which I try to inject a little more of Kid Trunks into the Storyline of Dragon Ball Super. I hadn't planned on posting it for a while, but I'm hoping for at least a little feedback on the first few chapters. I've had a hard time finding good fan-fic with this version of Trunks as a main character (I'll be honest, I've been able to find pretty much zero), and I personally feel like it's an area that could be fleshed out quite a bit given a bit of proper writing.

I'll also be attempting some world-building and some explanation of the basic stuff in the DB universe so we'll see how that goes. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter (which takes place after Buu, before Battle of Gods, if you're curious)!

As always, feel free to follow, favorite, review, or simply continue onward!