Dragon Ball: The Tale of Trunks

Chapter 2

Trunks lay in bed, his entire body aching and totally unwilling to move. It had taken a lot for him to even get to breakfast that morning, and then he had trained with his father after that. They were interrupted by lunch, and then afterwards he had excused himself to his room. Surprisingly his father had not even scowled disappointingly at him when he did so; Trunks figured the man was probably satisfied to get some extra solo training in. For the past four days, Trunks had spent every bit of free time he had in the gravity chamber training with his father. Thankfully for the half-saiyan, they had not sparred again; instead he was forced to do simple but strenuous physical exercises. One-armed pushups got super annoying at fifty times gravity after the first few dozen.

Somebody opened the door, and Trunks groaned. The chances of it being his father were about one in a million; no way the man would seek him out for training. Vegeta hadn't even established a training schedule; Trunks just decided to be there everyday after school for the training and that seemed to be working fine thus far. Except, of course, for today, since today was Saturday and therefore the first day he hadn't had school during his training. He wanted to be sure that he wasn't spending too little time training and disappointing his father but right now he needed to rest. There was a chance it was his mother, and that could mean he was in trouble and he did not want to deal with that.

"Trunks, why are you still in bed?" Trunks supposed that this was probably the second most likely visitor.

"I'm exhausted, Goten. Been busy the last few days." He wasn't sure if he should mention his training but he supposed it would probably be unavoidable since he needed to tell Goten that they couldn't spar anymore. "My dad agreed to train me."

"Didn't you train with your dad a lot anyway Trunks?" He could hear the confusion in Goten's voice.

"Yeah, but this is different. I've always trained with him, and he'd give me occasional tips and pointers, but I usually just had to learn from him by watching him. This time, he's really going to be training me, teaching me stuff directly, running me through routines and all that junk."

"Whoa! Really?" There was amazement and excitement in the younger half-saiyan's voice, bringing a smile to Trunks's face.

"Yep. And he's crazy serious about it too."

"That's so cool! Do you think he'd train me too?" Trunks was surprised at that question and thought about the answer. It seemed incredibly unlikely, given that Goten was the son of Goku, a man whom Trunks almost heard exclusively referred to in a negative way. Additionally, Trunks was unsure if his father even knew Goten's name; he'd only ever heard his best friend referred to as 'Kakarot's Second' or some form of 'Brat'.

"I don't think so, Goten. Besides, I'd kinda like this to stay a thing for me and my dad, ya know?" Training was pretty much the only thing they really did together, and it was actually kind of nice. Trunks appreciated the way that his father had taken it seriously and not blown him off or just given him exercises and thrown him out of the gravity chamber. He definitely didn't feel like things were being taken easy on him, and the challenge of enduring it was more fun than the boring schoolwork he had to do. It also felt really different over the past few days than the rest of the time he had spent trying to train with his father. Everything was much more serious.

"I guess. I don't think I could ask my dad; he can't even manage to get time to train for himself. Mom really wants him to try this farming thing and is pretty serious about it." Trunks always appreciated his mom more whenever Goten talked about Chi-Chi. It made him remember that there were some advantages to being the son of the president of Capsule Corp. Trunks didn't know him all that well, but he found the idea of Goku working on a farm pretty funny. That made him think of his own father working on a farm, and he burst out laughing, imagining the man struggling to pick a carrot and yelling at it before blasting the dirt.

"What about your brother?" Trunks offered, to which the younger boy shook his head.

"He's busy with his girlfriend!" Goten said the word with a high-pitched, comical inflection. "And with school. Gohan's so boring; he doesn't ever want to have any fun."

"Yeah; who wants to spend all that time studying like him? School's so lame." Trunks sat up in his bed, ignoring all the pain and aching. He was still in his training gi; he hadn't bothered to change, choosing instead to collapse as soon as he got into the room.

"I know, right? Oh hey, do you want to have a little spar? I bet that'd be fun!"

"Actually Goten, I need to tell you something." There was a questioning look in the other's eyes. "I can't spar with you anymore."

"WHAT? Why not!" He hated to disappoint his best friend and there was definitely an obvious look of disappointment on the other half-Saiyan's face.

"Dad's rules. It's not just you, though. He said I can't spar with anyone while he's training me." Granted, that was pretty much exclusive to Goten. The only other people he could have a good spar with were probably Piccolo, Gohan, and Goku. He may not have known what exactly Piccolo was up to but he didn't know the guy all that well. Gohan and Goku were too busy doing other things, and even if Goku were free, it'd be silly to expect to not get in trouble for training with his dad's main rival even if it wasn't directly against the rules.

"Aww man, that's awful. I thought Mr. Vegeta kinda liked me." Trunks wasn't going to say his dad didn't like Goten, but he was almost one-hundred percent certain the man had never done anything that might hint he did. Goten was just really bad at reading things like that. He got out of bed and immediately started to stretch, twisting his body in a bunch of ways to try to ease some of the soreness.

"So can we hang out at least?" Goten asked, making Trunks think. They certainly could; it was not forbidden. He was just trying to figure out when exactly he'd ever have time.

"Yeah; Dad didn't forbid that. Just give me until next weekend to figure out when I'll actually have some free time, okay?" It didn't seem like there would be any time during the weekdays, between school, training, homework, and anything else that might come up. He could probably steal a few hours during the weekends though, and that should be enough; besides, not even a training addict like his father would mind a few hours of doing something else.

"Aww, that long? But I'll be so bored!"

"Look, I'm sorry Goten, but this is important to me, okay?" There was not a serious bone anywhere in Goten's body, and it was starting to get on his nerves a little bit. As if everything was about having fun. Obviously it was great to spend some time and have some fun, and not be a stick-in-the-mud like Gohan, but some things were serious!

"Why are you taking this so seriously, anyway? Both our dads are alive again and they'll keep us safe."

"I need to be ready in case something happens again! I don't want to be useless the next time there's a real threat, you get it?" Trunks's voice had risen a little bit in annoyance, both at Goten's way of thinking and the memories that his own statement had brought up.

'Trunks, take care of your mother.' He needed to get stronger; much, much stronger. Why didn't Goten get that?

"But we weren't useless! When we were Gotenks we were way stronger than Buu, remember?"

"Yeah, maybe, but it didn't matter because we were too careless. Besides, no offense, but I don't want to have to fuse everytime we're in a fight, understand?"

"Not really. Fusing is awesome!" It was hard to stay angry at Goten, and Trunks's slowly rising temper started to cool off in the face of the guy's happy-go-lucky attitude. Still, he couldn't help but think that Goten was just never taught anything about Saiyan Pride like he was.

"Maybe, but if it makes me toy around even against Buu, I don't think it can be trusted." Trunks ran in place for a few steps, feeling good enough now to resume his training even with the lingering soreness still in the background. He knew the feeling would be back after fifteen minutes or so of anything straining but he needed to be willing to push forward anyway if he was going to be as strong as his father. Or maybe even stronger.

"Anyway Goten, I think I'm ready to train again. I'll see you next weekend, okay?"

There was a sad look on the other half-Saiyan's face but Trunks wasn't going to do anything about that.

"Alright Trunks. I guess I'll try to find something fun to do." Trunks watched as his friend went to the window and flew away. His mom didn't want Goten coming over without using the regular entrance but she didn't mind if he flew away to leave. Trunks was feeling a little sadder now that Goten was actually gone, but he figured that this is the way things were now and Goten was going to have to get used to that.

It didn't take him very long to get to the gravity chamber, and he was surprised to see the setting all the way up at 150G from 50G. What had happened to getting so used to the gravity that you wouldn't need to even think about? As he walked in the room, it felt like a crushing force was put on his shoulders for a second but with some effort he was able to move. Fighting Buu and the bits of training he had been doing must have already made him stronger because 150 was nearly impossible before. His father was on the ground, in base form, doing pushups with two fingers with a hand behind the back. Sweat was pouring down his face.

"Hey Dad, sorry I took so long." All the man did was scoff at the statement. "So, ummm, why's the gravity so high right now anyway?"

"Higher-intensity physical workout." Was all the explanation he received about that before his father continued talking. "For you, boy, you should spend this time focusing on sensing energy. On this miserable planet, there are only ten energies of any significance. I expect you to be able to sense all of them."

Trunks nodded his head, the gravity making him have a hard time lifting his head back up temporarily. At least it was nothing too physical. He walked to the wall and sat down, closing his eyes with both his hands held into fists. He knew that he was going to get this done pretty easily and he started feeling for the sources of energy. The first was obvious: his father, an extremely large and overpowering energy, probably due to their closeness. The next source of energy was also clear, even though it was some distance away. Definitely Goku. He could tell it was spiking a bit every few seconds and figured the guy must have been training somehow, despite what Goten had told him.

It was actually kind of difficult to find the next one, with those two energies overwhelming his senses with their size. He had to work to get past it, starting to sweat from focusing so hard mixed with enduring the high gravity. However, he then identified one that was moving very quickly, seemingly away from him. Certainly Goten. Then there was another one, a good bit stronger but much further away. Gohan. He sensed for more but it was getting difficult with all these energies starting to blend together to his senses.

Trunks took a deep breath, keeping the four energies he'd sensed so far separated in his mind while he looked for the others. His father's energy, being so strong and so close, was the hardest to keep separated mentally followed by Goten's, strangely enough. It seemed like forever before he found the next energy, far away, in a location that Trunks didn't think there was anything around. He remembered the feeling of that energy; it was Piccolo's.

He tried to ignore all the energy signatures thus far but it became impossible. When he searched for new ones, he kept running back into the ones that he had already found. He was surprised at how much trouble he was having; he really should've guessed that just because he could sense energy that didn't mean he was all that good at it. That was, after all, part of the reason he'd asked for real training. He kept trying but it was like there was some kind of block and he could feel that he wasn't making progress. After a while, he got frustrated enough to open his eyes and lose the energies.

"Ummm... how long was I sensing?" He asked because he saw his father was now doing some kind of exercises with the training robots. How had he not heard that?

"Thirty minutes." Trunks was kind of surprised to get an answer but was more surprised at how long he had tried. He noticed he was sweating pretty hard but ignored that for now.

"Man, that's a lot harder than I thought it'd be." He said to himself. "Hey Dad, how long did it take you?"

"My sensing was learned almost exclusively on fields of battle; I spent little time training dedicated to it. Consider your ability to do so a luxury." Trunks watched as his father dodged a blast from the robot, before sending one back and destroying it. He supposed this is why his mom and Grandpa made hundreds of the things. He watched as his father breathed heavily, panting, with sweat pouring down his face. Yet, the man simply walked to the control panel, pressed a few buttons, and two more robots came down from the ceiling.

"How many fights have you been in, anyway?" He knew his father had been on some planet called Namek, fought in the Cell Games, and of course fought against Buu, but he didn't really know how many fights his dad had been in during that time. That was, like, twelve whole years or something close to that.

"More than you could imagine, boy." Vegeta answered, in an even tone.

"Wow, really? Come on, tell me about them!" He knew his father was the greatest fighter in the whole universe and he wanted to hear some of the stories of his fights. Sometimes it felt like he barely knew anything about the man he admired more than anyone else in the world.

"Focus on your training!" Trunks could detect a bit of anger in the man's voice.

"It's so unfair. I know you're the greatest warrior there is, and you always mention being in all these battles, but nobody ever tells me about them." He crossed his arms in front of his chest and had a scowl on his face at the thought. After a few minutes, however, it was obvious that this approach was not going to work. He needed to change his style if he wanted to learn more about his dad.

"Can you tell me more about my Saiyan heritage at least?" He tried not to smirk as his father looked at him somewhat suspiciously. His father was the proud Prince of All Saiyans so asking a question like that was more likely to get a response.

"Quit slacking," was the only response.

"I'm not slacking; I'm training by enduring the gravity." It wasn't all that bad now that he was a little bit used to it but it was still kind of the truth. He saw his dad close his eyes and Trunks figured the man was trying to figure out whether it'd be less trouble to answer or not answer.

"The Saiyans are a warrior race known and feared throughout the galaxy." Trunks noticed his father refer to Saiyans in the present tense, even though he knew there were only five of them. "We lived on Planet Vegeta, conquering planets though never settling them. Our goal was to fight and vanquish opponents above all else. We'd sell the planets after we were finished." Everything after Planet Vegeta was new to Trunks and he was hanging onto every word. It surprised him that his ancestors were conquerors; he thought Saiyans trained and fought just to get stronger. "One day, Planet Vegeta was destroyed by a meteor and the race annihilated, except for a few of us who were off-world." He knew the planet was destroyed but hadn't known how. So that was how Grandpa Vegeta had died, he guessed. But something didn't really add up.

"A meteor? But couldn't everyone have just blown that up when they noticed it? And didn't the planet have good technology if they traveled through space so much? So, they should have seen it coming right?"

Trunks saw his father frown, an eye ticking in anger, and for a second he regretted questioning the planet's destruction. However, he determined that look wasn't directed at him which just made him even more curious.

"I had similar thoughts when I was told. But saying them aloud was not an option. The planet was destroyed, by a tyrant named Frieza."

"Whoa, really? Well what happened to this Frieza guy?" He made a note to look up what a tyrant was later.

"Kakarot beat him on Namek by becoming a Super Saiyan." His father's voice was rough and Trunks could hear the anger in it; was it because Goku beat Frieza instead of him? There was a hesitation before his dad continued. "Frieza came to Earth two years later because Kakarot didn't finish the job on Namek. But..." there was another pause, before the man sighed, "Kakarot killed him that time." That struck him as a bit odd. Goku seemed like a nice guy from what Trunks had seen so it was hard to imagine him killing someone. Battles could be confusing though so who knew what might have happened. Maybe if he visited Goten anytime soon he would ask Goku then. For some reason, Trunks couldn't help but be confused about his father's tone when he said that last line. Why wasn't it angry like when he spoke of Goku beating Frieza the first time? Maybe he was just happy that Frieza was dead.

Then something struck him from what his father had said. "Wait... Namek. That's the planet that you and mom met on, right?"

The look on his father's face made him aware that he was suddenly in a dangerous topic. "What do you know of Namek, boy?" It was the kind of tone that demanded an answer.

"Ummm... nothing really. Mom told me that she was on Namek the first time she met you but she never answers anything else about it."

"That's enough of this nonsense. Back to training." Trunks watched in amazement as the Saiyan Prince launched himself into a routine involving the two robots. They were zooming around the room, seemingly unaffected by the gravity - probably thanks to something his mom invented - launching blasts from two directions at high speeds. His father continuously dodged, and briefly he wondered why the man didn't destroy the robots quickly before deciding that was not part of this training.

Despite the high gravity, his father was still kind of fast even without being a Super Saiyan. It was obvious that there was a bit of resistance to his movement, like a rope was pulling him the opposite direction no matter what, but the movement was still pretty smooth. After about a minute of dodging, Trunks watched as Vegeta deflected a blast from one robot into another, destroying it in a small explosion. Almost immediately following that, the first robot was destroyed in a similar manner.

Trunks went back to sensing for all the energies he was expected to find; this time, it was a little easier finding the top five: Vegeta, Goku, Goten, Gohan, Piccolo. All the energies kind of had their own unique feeling so it was easier to detect when he kind of knew what to look for and, of course, a general idea of where. Although Goten and Piccolo had moved quite a bit it's not like they had travelled the whole planet or anything. All their energies danced around in his head and, despite his focus, he was still unable to sense past them. Then, something clicked in his head.

Maybe sensing past them was the wrong idea. Instead of doing that, he should sense through them, just in case there were small energies around the bigger ones. He could tell that Goten was not close to his home at all so he focused in more on that energy. Wherever Goten was out raising trouble there was at least some chance that someone else strong would be there as well. The location was in the middle of the sea... wait, he had been there before with Goten actually. Kame House or something like that. Didn't that old man live there, Master Yoshi or something like that? Oh yeah, Roshi. He lived there with Krillin and Eighteen. Looking through Goten's energy, after a few more minutes, he could detect two other smaller sources. So that was probably Roshi and Krillin. After fighting Eighteen, he knew for sure that hers was not that low. She was super tough and must be really amazing at suppression. She was probably there though so he'd go with that.

"Alright, eight down. I'm gonna master this in no time!" He was feeling really excited but that excitement was killed by a single sound. The sound of laughter. Not his own, no, his father's, a loud laughter that echoed across the room.

"Master? Boy, you best temper your expectations. You should be able to sense all ten energies within seconds, even in the midst of combat. You're still an utter novice." He knew that training was going to be a lot of hard work over a long amount of time, but the words were still like a bucket of cold water to the face. "Oh, and don't think that Eighteen or her brother count."

"Eighteen has a brother? Wait, why don't they count?"

"None of your concern. Now get on with it."

He had been hoping that he would get sensing mostly down today so he could focus on the cooler stuff like blasting things. Now he knew that this boring kind of training was going to take a lot longer. He couldn't help but scowl at the thought, but he was still determined to keep up his training no matter what. If Eighteen didn't count then he supposed he was back to seven with three energies left to find. He wasn't going to get put-down by some stupid sensing; no, he needed to be able to protect his mom.

It occurred to him that he hadn't even sensed his mother yet and therefore wasn't familiar with her ki. He focused entirely on the energy all around him, which mostly involved a large effort to block out his own father's. As he tried to keep that up, he found it incredibly difficult to sense anyone in Capsule Corp. He was trying his best but he couldn't feel any of the servants or scientists. He kept looking for less and less, knowing that normal humans didn't have a lot, but still unable to find it.

"You are not to be in this room tomorrow," Vegeta said, breaking Trunks out of his young boy was surprised by that statement but he waited for clarity. "We shall spar, after your schooling in two days. Use tomorrow however you like."

Trunks understood: he needed to take it easy and heal up a bit for the spar. He was a little excited to have a day off from any physical training and he figured he could at least work more on his sensing. He tried to nod his head, but this time the gravity was really troubling and he couldn't lift his head up. Before he knew it, he was laying on the ground. Moving at this point didn't even feel possible. He heard a sigh from his father.

"Ascend." Trunks felt excitement at those words, gathering a bit of energy in his back and quickly turning into a Super Saiyan. The rush of energy felt great and he jumped to his feet, the gravity merely a nagging feeling to him now. Briefly he tried sensing for all the energies again, wondering if it'd be easier as a Super Saiyan, but he noticed that it was actually harder due to how high his own energy was. He couldn't help but frown. Sensing was a lot harder than he'd expected.

A/N: Hey everyone; so, if any of you are familiar with my other stories, I always like to post Chapter 2 pretty quickly after Chapter 1 so that readers know what to expect. Update speed is definitely not going to be this fast in the future.

So one particular point in this chapter: I don't know if it's ever mentioned whether Trunks & Goten are aware of Eighteen's past. So unless someone can point me to a definitive moment saying otherwise, I'm going to say no. If you can, then I'll appreciate it and edit some things around.

I'm hoping this chapter explained sensing in a decent way; I ran with the idea that Trunks was bad at sensing due to the part of the Buu Saga where Goten looks at a beat-up Vegeta and says "Is he dead?" and Trunks replies with "No, he can't be" as opposed to "No, I still sense some energy" or something like that.

As always, thank you for reading. Please feel free to follow, favorite, and/or review!