By Lady Trunks
The darkness surrounded her, pulling her down and threatening to engulf her. She fought it with all her strength. Suddenly it let up and she was able to see, but almost immediately wished that she had not. What she saw made her shudder. At 17 years of age she had seen more death than most people had, and prided herself on her strength. In spite of this, what greeted her gaze was enough to make her want to cry.
She looked out over a field. But not an ordinary field, this was a field of bodies. The ground was literally covered with bodies of the dead so thick you could not see the ground. She could hardly choke back her nausea. What was rally weird though, was the fact that among the bodies was little green men.
But what she saw next was even more horrifying. There in the midst of all the bodies she saw the familiar forms of her family and friends. She felt tears streaming down her face, but all she could do was watch.
Then she saw something that seemed to make the very breath still in her lungs. For one person was struggling to his feet, ready to keep on fighting. She barley connected the usually perfectly groomed young man with which she had been aquatinted with all her life and been secretly in love with for years to this battered person. It was only the lavender hair, barley visible through the blood that allowed her to recognize him.
As she watched, he confronted whatever it was that had caused this great evil. She tried to make out the features of the thing as it approached the young man, but all she could see was shadows. It slowly stalked forward to where the man was struggling to his feet. She wanted so bad to do something, to try and help in some way, but all she could do was watch and wait as the figure got closer and closer her friend.
She struggled against the darkness that was even now pulling her down, but it was in vain. Her last concious thought was that her friend was dying and all she could do was watch. Then there was only darkness.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pan woke up panting as silent tears coursed from her eyes. The dream was becoming familiar to her. When she had first had the dream she had thought it was just an ordinary nightmare. But the same dream had been occurring almost nightly for the last couple of weeks and she could not figure out what they met. She wished, not for the first time that her grandpa was back, but he had been gone for almost three years now.
"Ojii-san, where are you?" she asked quietly, but without expecting an answer. She wearily let her head fall forward and fought back the tears. Pan gave a sigh of self-disgust. "I have never been this whiny before, and now is not the time to start."
Not wanting to go back to sleep and face the dream again, Pan got to her feet and shrugged on her training clothes. She crept quietly out the door; careful so she would not wake anyone up. She glanced at the clock on her way out the door and noticed that it said 4 a.m. Once again she would only have four hours of sleep.
Oh well, she thought to herself, it will not be the first time. What little sleep she did get had been sporadic. Whenever she did fall asleep she had the horrible dream. It was easier just to avoid sleep whenever possible then to face them.
When she got outside she began stretching and began a vigorous training regimen. By exercising she was able to clear her mind and get rid of the horrible images that haunted her thoughts. She wished that there was someone that she could talk to, someone who would listen to her, but what could she say. That she had had a nightmare. Everyone already treated her like a baby, and they would think nothing of her dream. They would not understand the fear it caused, the pain she felt, every time she had it. It was not a dream to her, it was a vision of the future. She straightened her shoulders and started working out harder, realizing that it was probably in vain, that if it was the future, she wouldn't be able to change it, but was unable to accept that. If there was a way to save her family, she was going to find it.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pan jerked awake at a sudden snap right beside her head. She sat up straight and looked at the teacher that stood before her.
"Pan-chan, please try to stay awake." Ms. Sinira said with a sigh as she headed back to her seat.
Just than the bell rung, and Pan jumped up. But the exhaustion from the endless nights with practically no sleep finally started to catch up to her. Her vision went blurry and the room started to spin, slowly everything went dark as she fell to the floor.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Pan-chan, can you here me?" a gentle voice asked softly.
Pan opened her eyes and then blinked them when the light hit them. When she could finally focus, she saw the kind face of the school nurse staring at her in concern.
"What happened?" Pan groaned out as she tried to sit up. Her head started spinning, and with a groan she fell back against the pillows that she had been leaning against.
"You fell and hit your head," Nurse Ilene said softly as she assisted Pan into a sitting position. "Can you tell me how many fingers I am holding up?" she asked holding up two fingers while intently staring at Pan's eyes.
After giving the appropriate answer, Pan readjusted the ice pack that was on her head. "I tried to call your parents," Nurse Ilene informed her, "but there was no answer. I called the next name on the list. A Mr. Briefs I believe it was."
"Oh, you did not bother Trunks-kun did you? He is so busy. I am fine. I can take care of myself." Pan said quickly. She knew how busy Trunks was being the president of Capsule Corp. Of course, knowing him, he would probably be happy for the chance to leave work.
"He seemed very concerned. Besides, from what I see you can not take care of yourself. You obviously have not been sleeping. Would you care to talk about the problem?" She asked gently, an expression of concern showing on her face.
For a moment Pan was tempted. She wanted to talk to someone so badly, but then common sense prevailed. She felt that Nurse Ilene, though she was a very nice and wonderful person, just would not be able to understand her problem. "I do not know what you are talking about. I do not have any problem."
Nurse Ilene just sighed but appeared to accept her answer. Just then there was a knock on the door and she went to answer it. Pan heard a voice that she recognized as belonging to her friend. A head of lavender hair appeared around a door and a pair of blues eyes met hers.
"So, how do you feel?" he asked her gently.
"Fine," she said with a grumble. "Can we get out of here now?" More than anything in the world, Pan hated being thought of as weak, and she considered illness a weakness.
"In a minute," he replied with a relieved smile. When he had heard from the nurse that Pan had collapsed, he could not believe it. He could not remember Pan being sick before in the whole time in which he had known her, which was her whole life. He was glad to see she was back to her usual grouchy but lovable self.
He turned to the nurse. "Is it okay if I take her home now?" he asked.
"In a little while," she replied. "I think she should rest for a few more minute. If you have a few minutes, I would like to have a word with you."
Trunks turned to Pan and told her he would be back in a few minutes. They then stepped out of the infirmary and into Nurse Ilene's office.
"Yes?" Trunks asked after they had both taken a seat. "What is it that you had wanted to talk to me about?"
"I'm worried about Pan-chan. Has she said anything to you about a problem she maybe having? Maybe problems at home?" Nurse Ilene asked.
"No, she hasn't said anything to me. And I am sure everything is fine at home. She has a wonderful family. What makes you think she has a problem?" Trunks replied.
"The reason she passed out today is because she is physically exhausted. She obviously has not had a good nights sleep in weeks, if not months. It's amazing to me that she was even able to last this long with the extent of it. Anyone else would have been in the hospital a week ago. Also, when I was examining her I saw bruises on her like she had been in a fight or something. Do you have any idea why she would be in this condition?"
Trunks was in shock. He had not been spending a lot of time with Pan in the last month because he was so busy with work. He had no idea that she had not been sleeping, or that she had been fighting. He made a vow to find out what was going on and get to the bottom of it immediately.
"No, I do not know why, but I plan to find out."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Trunks made the drive towards his home in silence, fighting back the feeling of guilt that was gnawing inside of him. When they had made the trip looking for the dragonballs to turn Goku back into an adult, they had gotten close. After they had come back and Goku had disappeared, Trunks had been so busy trying to make up the work he had missed he had not had time to spend with Pan.
Seeing her like this, without the sparkle that usually meant that she was about to get into trouble missing from her eyes, made him feel downhearted. Usually she was planning some kind of mischief that would undoubtedly get her into trouble and him with her. Pan was always trying to get him to lighten up and keep his life from becoming monotonous, which probably would of happened since he had such a boring yet stressful job.
Trunks realized that he had been working too much lately and wished that Pan would plan another one of her escapades to relieve the tension. But he realized that she was not in any condition to do anything of the sort right now. This only strengthened his resolve to help her as soon as possible.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They arrived at Trunks' house to discover that no one else was home. This was just fine with Trunks, it would give them some privacy. They both went and sat on the couch. They sat there in silence, Pan staring at the wall with a pensive look on her face and Trunks staring at her staring at the wall, trying to come up with a way to bring up the question about her condition.
Finally, though, the silence started to wear on his nerves and he just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Pan-chan, what is wrong with you?"
She looked up at him in surprise and a brief look of panic appeared on her face. A moment later the look had disappeared and was replaced by an expressionless mask. "I don't know what you are talking about," Was the only replied he received.
He just continued to look at her, trying to think of a way to get her to open up and talk to him. But it wasn't necessary to say anything more. The burden of keeping the dreams was finally too much for her to keep to herself. She wanted to at least tell someone, even if they didn't believe her. And who better to tell it to than her best friend. Suddenly the whole story just started to spill out.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"And there was nothing I could do to help," Pan said sobbing after she finished retelling the dream. Trunks wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her as she cried. He could hardly believe that a dream had had this kind of effect on Pan. The last time he had seen her cry was when her ojii-san, Goku, had turned it a weremonkey and almost destroyed everyone on the planet. She was always strong, and never cried, and for that reason alone he believed her. But that wasn't the only reason.
For the last couple of days Trunks had had the feeling that something was going to happen. Pan's dream just reinforced it. But, unlike Pan, he wasn't as positive that it couldn't be changed. He had heard stories about a person, everyone called him Future Trunks, coming back in time to change the future. This led him to believe that nothing was definite, and the future could be changed.
"Pan-chan, maybe you're looking at this the long way. Maybe it's not a vision of the future, but a warning of what could happen. We can change it. It won't be that way." He stated assertively.
Pan looked at him as if she was going to voice her doubt about this, but instead she just smiled, a blindingly bright smile that expressed her relief. After all this time of having to worry, feeling like there was nobody she could confide in, she finally had someone to lean on. For the first time in months, she felt relaxed. Slowly she began to drift off asleep.
Trunks continued to hold her as she drifted off to sleep. He was glad to see the peaceful expression upon her face. He made a vow to do everything in his power to keep it that way. As he to fell asleep, his last conscious thought was about how right it felt to be with Pan again.
And so, for the first time in months, Pan slept peacefully.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pan groggily awoke to find herself in Trunks arms. She smiled tenderly down at his sleeping face. She had missed him so much the last couple of months. Not only was he one of her best friends, but she loved him. She knew that he was so much older than she was, but that didn't affect her love in any way. But she knew that she could never tell him. He thought of her as a sister, while the feelings that she felt for him were anything but brotherly. She couldn't tell him, but she knew in her heart that he was the only person she would ever love. She fell back asleep relishing the feel of his arms around her, wishing that he would hold her like this forever.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Shouldn't you guys be doing that somewhere else?" a snide voice woke Pan up from her very comfortable nap. Pan opened her eyes to see Vegita, with his arms crossed, staring down at her with a smirking grin. Then she noticed why. While they were sleeping, somehow shifted positions that could be misunderstood.
Blushing bright red, Pan jumped off the couch. "Vegita-san, it's not what it looks like. We were just sleeping. Honest."
She looked over to Trunks to get a little help, but found him to still be asleep. "I know that, girl," Vegita replied in his usual I'm-a-prince-and-one-of-the-most-powerful-peo ple-in-the-world-and-better-than-you way (we all know and love it). "Do your parents know you're here? It's late, and you know how that fool of a father of yours worries. Weak humans." He seemed to mumble the last part to himself as he went out the room.
Pan looked at her watch and gasped when she realized that it was almost seven o'clock. They had been sleeping for almost four hours. She looked over at Trunks who was still lying on the couch, and was surprised to find him smiling, even though his eyes were still closed. That is until something occurred to her.
Pan's glared suspiciously at Trunks. Then a suspicious gleam came into her eyes. He continued to lay there with his eyes closed, acting completely innocent. To his own misfortune, he had no way of seeing what was coming.
Smack, one of the cushions came down and hit him on the head. His eyes snapped opened, but before he had a chance to react, a weight was already holding him down. Though little, taking after her mother, Pan was a ¼ Saiyan and thus weighed more than a normal human. Added to this was the fact that she was determined to make Trunks suffer after the humiliating scene with his father. This all added up to make a very tough adversary.
Of course, Trunks wasn't an ordinary human either, and was actually very strong (big surprise there ~_- ). So before long, it had turned into a wrestling match. It was a battle of huge proportions and was sure to go down in history along with other famous battles; man vs. woman, good vs. evil, Pepsi vs. Coke. There could only be one winner and there would be no prisoners. They would fight to the death (or until Pan had to go home so she wouldn't get grounded).
But the end result was already fated and the winner was clear. "Do you give up?" the victorious girl asked, smirking down from where she was perched on his chest.
"Aren't you gonna be late?" Trunks teased, a little put out at having been bested by a girl.
"Aren't you a little old to be such a poor sport?" she teased right back. But at the same time she was getting off him. He was right though, it was getting late and she didn't want her father to worry.
"Hey, I'm not old." He said stood up and smoothed out his suit. "Besides, I look great for my age. Not a day over twenty." He added with a decided lack of modesty.
"Oh!?" she asked, "Then what's with those wrinkles."
"What wrinkles?!!" he asked, hurrying over to a mirror. In his haste, he had failed to notice the wicked gleam in Pan's eye. After a thorough look in the mirror "I have no wrinkles!"
Then he turned around and noticed Pan on the floor holding her sides, fighting to keep the laughter in. But this was one fight that she felt it was okay to lose, and soon was rolling around on the floor in laughter. Trunks ego was always good for a laugh.
"What is so funny?!" Trunks huffed, trying to control the grin that was tugging the corners of his mouth. It was so great to hear her laugh, even if it was at his expense.
"Don't worry, Trunks-kun." Pan managed to get out between laughs. "You're still the best looking forty year old I know."
"FORTY!!! I'll have you know that I am only 31!!" This just caused Pan to laugh harder.
Trunks started to smirk. There was nothing else he could do. So arming himself with a cushion, he stepped in to do battle. He was going to attempt to knock some sense into her, literally.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A couple days later, Trunks and Pan were lying outside watching the stars.
Lying beside the man that she had secretly been in love with for as long as she could remember, she felt complete. Which caused her to get introspective. "Trunks-kun," she asked softly, "do you ever think about it?"
"What?" he asked, completely clueless to what she was talking about.
"Dying, Going to the next dimension. Do you ever think about what it would be like?" "Of course. When you fight a lot like I have, you have to think about it." He turned and lay on his side facing her. "So what's with all this talk about death anyway. Are you still having those dreams?"
"Not really. Well, I'm still having the same dream but it's changed. She sat up and wrapped her arm around her legs. She had a very serious expression on her face. "I don't know. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, what with the dreams and all. And, well, I don't think it would be all that bad. Not that I want to die or anything, It's just that, you know, like the people that I've talked to that were brought back with the Dragonballs didn't think it was that bad. I mean if I was to die, at least I'd know what to expect."
Trunks sat up to and looked intently at her. "What's all this talk about death?" he said trying to cheer her up. "You're not going to die for a long time now."
"Hmm." She said not quite agreeing. The she said with a small, kind of wishful smile. "But if something was to happen to me, would you do me a favor? Could you watch over my family for me? You know how protective they are of me, being the youngest in the family. And now that Grandpa Goku is gone, they're even worse."
Trunks started to say something, since all of this was starting to worry him. But looking at her face, he realized how serious she was. "Hai, Pan-chan. I promise."
"Thank you." She gave him a quick hug and went into the house before he could say anything more on the subject. He stared after her for a moment and then shrugged. Women!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was a week later and everyone was going on a picnic. Everyone had decided that they should still have get together at least once a month, despite of the fact that Goku was gone. Since it was summer, they decided to have it at the lake. The group consisted of Vegita, Bulma, Chichi, Yamcha, Kullin, 18, Gohan, Videl, Goten, Trunks, Bra, Marron, and Pan.
Chichi had brought along enough food to feed a small army or in this case a few Saiyans. As everyone was eating, Trunks looked at Pan. She looked a lot better than she had.
As if she noticed him watching her she looked up and smiled. His breath caught in his lungs. For a moment, the sunlight shined off her, giving her an ethereal appearance. Then the moment was gone and he shrugged it off.
After the initial feeding frenzy was over, everyone was just lounging around and in a lethargic state. That was when disaster struck. One minute everything was peaceful and then the next they were swarmed by a band of ugly little green men. There was no warning at all, just an instant attack. They managed to beat them back while the women, with the exception of Pan got away.
Pan started to fight back. There was no way she was going to let these monsters win. She managed to fry a couple with some ki blasts. Before she even had time to recover more were surrounding her.
The monsters surrounded her, pulling her under a sea of bodies. She felt their teeth and nails sink into her skin. She felt a throbbing in her shoulder where the teeth had sunk, hampering her ability to move her shoulder. She managed to throw a few off, but there was always more to take their place.
The monsters had short bodies, making them seem insubstantial and not a real challenge. Normally, she could beat them effortlessly. Saiyans, being a particularly strong race, had conquered planets with inhabitants ten times as strong as these abominations. But their power wasn't in their strength, it was in sheer volume. Whenever she did manage to trounce one, another was there to take its place. This fact alone was enough to make them a formable enemy.
Another factor was there very mindlessness. They attacked with only one thought, kill. They didn't think about the repercussions, or the fact that there was a very good chance that they would be killed. They were thoughtless, programmed to carry out one task, and that task was unfortunately to destroy her.
She felt herself began to fall under the weight of their repeated onslaught, helpless to try and protect herself. Right then Trunks appeared and managed to knock them away. All the while dealing with his own group. "You should go." He informed her in between kicks. Take care off your mom and grandma."
"They can take care of themselves." She informed him and jumped back into the fight, forgetting all about her injuries.
Pan looked around her and saw everyone being attacked. Though one of the things would hardly be able to damage a strong opponent, as soon as one was defeated, there was two more to take its place. There appeared to be an endless supply of them, and Pan knew that they couldn't last forever.
She also realized that these monsters wouldn't have the brains to organize an attack of this magnitude. She looked around to find the mastermind, and noticed someone suspicious. A man about 6 foot tall standing a distance away, calmly looking at the battle and smirking (though not quite as good at it as Vegita, but who is?) and appeared to be enjoying the battle. He had purple skin and white hair, which stood straight up. Pan got the feeling that he wasn't from earth.
Pan managed to knock the remaining little green men (I know, an alien cliche) off her. For some reason they weren't swarming her as much as before, probably because they didn't see her as much of a threat. She attempted to sneak up behind where the man was standing and got ready to attack. Before she got close enough to touch him, he had put a shield up around him. This also gave Pan a chance to feel his power level.
Pan was stunned. His power level was well over anything she had experienced before. She got ready to attack again but before she had a chance, he lifted her up and heaved her into a group of the monsters.
She was occupied with fighting them and didn't have enough time to even tell everyone else what she suspected.
When she finally had a moment, she looked over at the others and was surprised at there condition. They were beaten and bloody but still kept battling gallantly. Then she saw her father go down under an attack by multiple green men.
She had a flash back to her dream and realized that it was coming true. In her mind she saw the bodies of her friends and family, and it was too much for.
"NNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, loud enough to be heard over the sound of the fighting. Everyone seemed to pause and looked over at her.
They immediately had to turn away. Pan was glowing with a golden light so bright that it burned the eyes to look at it. Her power was steadily increasing, first to that of a super Saiyan and then beyond even that. Her power just steadily kept rising. But in spite of the power, her body didn't change at all. Where the others got bigger and their hair turned blond and they got blue/green eyes when they went super Saiyan, she remained exactly the same.
The glow spread and when the green guys came into contact with it, they immediately disintegrated. The whole time, though, Pan was focusing on something behind them. The man had backed away in shock upon witnessing the whole scene. He was shocked to see such a tremendous power in the hands of a mere girl.
Before he had time to flee though, she was behind him. It appeared that her speed had increased as well as her power. His eyes narrowed and with out another word he attacked. Pan matched him blow for blow.
At last he attacked with a powerful ki blast at her. Pan, using her newfound power, made a huge ball of golden power and called out "Golden Lash".
The blasts hit and a huge light exploded. The Golden Lash slowly over took the alien's attack and headed closer to him. He tried to get out of the way, but soon it had hit him and he disintegrated.
As soon as he was gone, the rest of the monsters disappeared. The others slowly gathered their wits about them and started to walk towards Pan. When they were a few feet away from her she grinned weakly and asked, "Did we win?" then collapsed on the ground.
Trunks rushed over to her and the others quickly followed suit. He cradled her head on his lap and gently tried to wake her up, "Pan-chan, can you here me? Wake up!"
She opened her eyes and forced them to focus. Pan looked at Trunks and said weakly, "Remember your promise. Take care of them for me."
Trunks instantly knew what she was talking about and felt the panic set in. "Pan, what do you mean? We won, you won."
"Yes I did," she managed to get out, even though it was getting harder to talk. "You will be able to keep on living. That's all I wanted."
Trunks looked down into her sweet face and felt her passing into the next dimension. He started shaking his head in denial. This wasn't how it was supposed to end. They had won. And slowly the tears started to fall as he held her lifeless body in his arms.
next