AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those just joining us a recap: Ten years after defeating Cell, Mirai Trunks went back to the past where he met and fell in love with Marron, much to the displeasure of his Chibi self. When Mirai Trunks felt it was best he left – Marron decided to join him, but a little mishap with the Time Machine has left them in past. Of course if you want more detail, you'll just have to read Vol. 1 (shameless plug over). And yes, I know it's a lame title….sigh.

Now on to the story…

The Timeline Orphans

Volume II: Past Tense

The boy knew better than to be out alone in the daylight, going out in the daylight could get you killed if one of Them happened to find you. His Niichan had warned him over and over. It had happened to his Okaasan when she had tried to defy them; the big scary one had twisted his Okaasan's neck until it made a nasty sound then threw her away like she was a soiled rag.

The boy picked his way cautiously over a fallen portion of a building moving silently and warily, listening for any sign he wasn't completely alone. He should probably head back to the hideout before Sensei and Niichan came back, he didn't want to get into trouble, but it seemed he could never help it. Still, he didn't want to risk his Sensei's wrath if he didn't do as he was told, that would mean even more training and the amount he was receiving now often pushed the five year old past the limits of his endurance, but he never complained...Sensei wouldn't allow it, not from him and not from his Niichan either.

He often heard Niichan arguing with Sensei when they thought he was asleep, Niichan wanted to attack Them head on, but Sensei always told Niichan there were too many and the warriors that remained too few. That always made the boy sad to be reminded of how those who were important in his life had been taken from him; His Otousan before he was born, his Okaasan, all of his friends…and most recently his mentor, a man who raised him like his own son. Now there was only Niichan and Sensei to take care of him unless they sent him to live at the Lookout, which the boy had heard them discuss before.

The boy heard a strange noise and tilted his head trying to determine where it was coming from. It had a high-pitched whine to it and the boy looked up into the sky hoping against hope it wasn't one of Them. Not that he would know them if he saw them. Sensei and Niichan did their best to protect the boy from the horrors of the world. When he looked in the sky his mouth became a perfect 'O' as what he saw defied his five-year-old mind's logic. It was a spaceship, a golden spaceship with a clear domed top and spindly legs that was descending from the sky toward the ruins of Capsule Corp. It dropped below his line of vision behind some partially destroyed buildings, and the boy scrambled down from the rubble and ran toward the partially demolished dome, momentarily abandoning caution in favor of the boundless curiosity that is the hallmark of little boys everywhere to get a better look.

Peeking around the pile of concrete chunks he was hiding behind -he was curious not stupid- he watched as the crystal clear dome opened. He wondered what these aliens would look like…they couldn't be any weirder looking than Dende-sama, he thought to himself, so he was mildly disappointed when he saw they looked like regular people. There were two of them; a woman with long golden hair and a man with the strangest colored hair the boy had ever seen, it was a light purple, and the boy had only seen that color hair on one other person in his life. As he watched the man immediately exploded a capsule and strapped something onto his back. The woman flew back up into the space ship a moment later and climbed in, the boy couldn't see her face from where he was hiding but he could see the man's and whatever the woman told him made him look MAD.

The boy pulled back when he saw the purple haired stranger turn in his direction. When he dared look again the woman had rejoined him on the ground. The purple-haired man pushed a button on the spaceship and it disappeared into a capsule that he put in the pocket of his green jacket. He watched curiously as the purple-haired man took the woman's hand and they went into the ruins of the golden dome.

Niichan and Sensei would definitely want to know about the strangers in the spaceship. He would get into trouble now for sure for sneaking out, but even at five he knew this was more important. He waited until the strangers were certainly all the way inside and wouldn't see him, and then Son Goten ran home as fast as his little legs would carry him.

"What the hell…" Trunks breathed when he got a good look at his surroundings after opening the dome of the capsule. It was like waking up in the middle of a nightmare; regressing fifteen years in a single instant. He gazed mutely at the ruins of Capsule Corporation as he felt his stomach clench. He instantly knew he was in the past because of the size of the tree that lay broken and leaning against the caved in dome. That tree was the one outside his own bedroom window in his time and it was easily twice the size of the one he saw. Numbly he followed Marron as she jumped to the ground lightly.

"No Trunks…WHEN the hell are we?" she said softly, her hands on her slender hips as she surveyed the area with a critical eye. "I assume we're in the past – none of this destruction looks too recent, but it doesn't look that old either," she observed, turning her head sharply at a small explosion just in time to see Trunks strapping his sword onto his back, his expression fierce as he scanned the area with his piercing blue eyes. Marron's heart wrenched for him, if they had indeed returned to the time of the Jinzouningen's reign, then her lover could have to relive some very painful memories, and he'd had more than his share in life already. Marron flew back up into the cockpit to get a reading from the controls and see if she could find out what, if anything had malfunctioned.

Everything looked in order as far as the wiring went as Marron checked the connections to the controls. She frowned; Trunks couldn't have accidentally set the controls for the past instead of the future could he? She was closing up the control panel when something shiny on the floor caught her eye. She got down on the floor and there half hidden in the shadows was a delicate silver chain with tiny silver stars. Marron bared her teeth in annoyance as she plucked the silver anklet up and fisted her hand around it.

"Idiots! If I ever see them again I'll garrote them with this goddamn thing!" she snapped as she stood up. She could see Trunks down below looking off toward some nearby rubble, his expression as intent as a hawk.

"What is it?" he called up to her. Marron jumped down and handed him the anklet still scowling. At his questioning look she sighed trying to think of a delicate way to voice her suspicion.

"It's Bra's…I gave it to her for her birthday last year. There's nothing mechanically wrong with the time capsule that I can see from the cursory inspection I just gave it – so it has to be…human error. If Bra was in the capsule then it's a pretty safe presumption that Goten was with her. They have an…uh…predilection for…um-unconventional places to…you know. The settings could have been tampered with under those kinds of uh…circumstances." Marron finished lamely with a few vague hand gestures.

Marron tried not to outwardly cringe at Trunks' expression as his brows furrowed in anger.

"The good news is that there isn't-cross your fingers-anything functionally wrong with the capsule other than the fact that it's nearly drained. So that means we can leave if we can get it charged and reset for your time," Marron told him cheerfully.

"First things first, we need to find out when we are…if this is my past or another completely," Trunks said quietly and pushed the buttons on the side of the Time Machine and encapsulated it, tucking the container into his pocket. "Let's go check in here first."

Trunks took her hand and lightly pulled her after him into the ruin of the dome and immediately once he was out of sight pulled Marron around behind him and faded into the shadows to watch the area he'd been staring at earlier.

"Sense something?" Marron murmured backing farther into the shadows so she could see outside as well.

"Hai, not very strong but I felt like we were being watched," Trunks whispered. They didn't have to wait long before they saw movement as the young boy scurried from his hiding place back into the rubble of some nearby ruins and disappeared. Marron could only see the back of his head and a glimpse of a dark blue gi.

"I know that hair…Goten-kun had hair like that when he was a little boy. Could that be a Son?" Marron asked Trunks. "What do you want to do?"

"Follow him," Trunks said and started to move toward the opening and back into the light.

"What about in here? Shouldn't we search and see if there's anyone here? What about the lab?" Marron asked him. "We should check and see if any equipment is salvageable if we're going to get that Capsule recharged."

"There is no one here," Trunks said in an oddly flat voice.

"I'm so sorry," Marron murmured. Trunks reached out and caught her hand and squeezed it lightly in thanks. "Maybe I should check for the lab then while you follow him, ne?"

"I don't think we should split up until we know what's going on," Trunks said still looking out in the direction the boy had gone, tracking his ki.

"I'll be fine…takes a lot to hurt me remember. You go, I'll be ten, maybe fifteen minutes behind you," she told him pushing him lightly toward where the boy had disappeared. Trunks turned and faced her a moment his hands on her shoulders.

"Be cautious…if this time is anything like what I grew up in then it's very dangerous. Keep your ki down and fly low…" he said seriously as Marron nodded. "If you haven't shown up in half an hour I'm coming back to find you."

"Go…or you'll lose him. He's little so he can't have come too far," Marron said pushing him again. He looked deeply into her eyes and gave her a quick hard kiss before he turned and ran off.

Marron touched her lips a moment as she watched him move quickly and silently off after the boy. He was acting like he'd never see her again if he let her out of his sight, and then she remembered that in his awful past any time could be the last time. She caught a last glimpse of his pale lavender hair and green jacket as he vaulted a wall and disappeared from view.

"You be careful too," she whispered before turning to go look for Bulma's lab.

Trunks caught up to the boy quickly. Marron was right about one thing, the boy was small and couldn't move as fast as one full grown demi-Saiyajin jacked up on adrenaline. Suppressing his ki he followed the boy discreetly, there was no sense barging into wherever the boy was headed since he couldn't be assured of the reception. He watched as the boy disappeared into a partially collapsed building and figured this must be where he lived when he didn't see him reappear.

He straightened from where he was crouched behind a partially collapsed wall and walked out into the open area in front of the building. Rather than barge into a situation he wasn't fully aware of, Trunks decided to let them come to him. Slowly, he let his power increase, knowing it would draw whatever Z Warriors remained like a homing beacon. He didn't have to wait long before two figures emerged from the crumpled building; a dark haired boy of about fifteen, and a short bald monk whose distinctive nose-less visage Trunks would know anywhere. Still wary he waited to see if they recognized him.

The boy Trunks had followed peeked out from behind the older boy's leg, looking at Trunks owlishly. Seeing his face Trunks was astounded by how much he reminded him of Gokou. "That's him! One of the ones in the spaceship Gohan-niichan," the boy whispered loudly.

Gohan nodded at the boy and looked at Trunks closely. Kuririn was also examining him with hawk like eyes.

"I remember you. You're the one who came and warned Otousan about the Jinzouningen, aren't you?" Gohan asked him. Trunks was getting a sinking suspicion.

"Hai," Trunks acknowledged.

"Why have you come back a second time?" Kuririn spoke up, and not very warmly either as he eyed Trunks with more than a little animosity and suspicion.

Trunks tried not to look shocked. Second time? He had come back a second time to help them fight the androids, had fought along side Kuririn and Gohan both. Did they not remember him – or could it be that he was in an alternate past?

"Do you know my name?" Trunks asked them. He wasn't sure where to start to get the information that he wanted, how did this past differentiate from the one he had just left? Gohan shook his head.

"You never told us your name. You just took care of Furiza, talked to Otousan and left. But you're Trunks aren't you? The hair's a dead giveaway," Gohan said. Goten was tugging on his brother's pant leg.

"Niichan…there were two of them," he said. Trunks held up his hands in a supplicating gesture.

"Forgive me, I'm not here to cause trouble…" he said to the second group of people he'd visited – maybe he should just have cards made up, and save his breath. Kuririn looked around, noticing he was alone.

"No, I'm sure you're not. And you did help us out last time – but if we're going to have a reunion and play catch up we should do it elsewhere. It's not safe around here," the shorter man said with a pointed look to Goten, who had the good sense to look chagrined.

"Before we do I would prefer we wait for Marron to join us. Otherwise she won't be able to find us," Trunks said politely. Kuririn gave him the strangest expression at Marron's name.

"Who is Marron?" Gohan asked, completely forgetting Kuririn's old girlfriend by the same name, as the little monk's face fell. Trunks shifted nervously, how to explain Marron…

"She's my…" he started when he sensed Marron approaching. He turned to watch her approach, flying low just as he'd told her. She landed lightly a few feet away looking as beautiful to him as a beam of sunshine in her jeans, black scoop neck top, and faded short blue CC jacket. She tucked a strand of long white-gold hair behind her ear and gave him a hint of a smile.

"I'm here," she told him, and turned to look at the others curiously. Trunks shifted his gaze back to them as well and his eyes widened in alarm. Gohan and Kuririn were both powering up tremendously, Gohan shoving his younger brother behind him. Kuririn bared his teeth as he drew his arm back, a ball of ki flattening in his palm. Trunks leapt toward the smaller man.

"Kuririn! Wait!"

"JINZOUNINGEN! SHIII-NEEE!" Kuririn thundered with rage and let the Keinzan go before Trunks could stop him.

"Oh not again…" he heard Marron mutter.