Unlikely Bond
By Bdegrees

Chapter 2
Fight and Flight

Trunks felt that his heart had stopped beating. Saiyans? Weren't all of the Saiyans dead? Why would they come looking for a fight? Surely now that they knew who his father was, they would concede.

"We know who you are, your highness." The title dripped with sarcasm as the leader spoke to Vegeta. "That is why we have come."

"This is a fine way to win approval from your liege," Vegeta growled at him, his features twisted into a sinister scowl. "I demand the return of those children."

The leader of the Saiyan group shook his head in defiance.

"It is for the glory of the Saiyan race that we cannot. We don't expect you to understand."

"What in the hell is that supposed to mean?" he spat back. "I exist to glorify the Saiyan race. I have reached the pinnacle of Saiyan power!" The air around Vegeta began to thicken with energy. "I am a Super Saiyan!"

The opposing Saiyan shook his head.

"That is too bad...."

Without warning, the Saiyans' numbers increased threefold, and Vegeta burst into the golden light of the ascended form. Before he acted against his adversaries, however, he turned his turquoise eyes to his son.

"Run," he hissed. "Do not disobey!"

Once the words were past his lips, he launched himself into the mass of foes. Trunks took several stumbling steps backward, dumbfounded by the scene before him. It was normal for Vegeta to wish to fight alone, but even when he was so grossly outnumbered? By members of his own race?

Trunks barely had time to weigh the options. If he disobeyed and was caught, he would suffer his father's wrath. If he left and his father was placed in greater danger, he would never forgive himself. But his mother couldn't lose all three of them in one day.

It took less than a second for him to decide before he pivoted on his foot and blasted off to the sky in the opposite direction of the battle. He would have to find Goku. He needed to get his father help.



~~~~~~~~~~

Goku stared up into the blue sky, quietly watching the clouds drift past. He had spent the morning sparring with his elder son Gohan, and after catching and cooking a delicious fish lunch, the two were now letting their meal digest and their clothing dry out as they lay in the lush green grass of the field.

Goku stretched his arms above him, a grunt of relief forced from his throat as his muscles pulled pleasantly across his back.

"You, Mom and Goten should come over for dinner tonight, Dad," his son spoke as he sat up. "Let us treat you for a change."

Goku smiled, twisting a blade of grass from the ground and bringing it to his lips.

"Can Videl cook enough to feed three Saiyans?" he teased. Gohan chuckled.

"Well, maybe we should try a pot luck or something! We haven't done that in ages."

"No," Goku replied with a sigh. "Not in ages."

Gohan narrowed his eyes and looked down at his father whose eyes remained fixed on the sky and his features relaxed in contemplation.

"Something bothering you, Dad?" Gohan asked.

Goku turned his eyes to his child and smiled, sitting up.

"Naw, just thinking." He shrugged, standing up to check on the clothing they had draped over a make-shift drying rack by the fire. "You would think after all these years and all of our 'adventures' that our friends would stay closer....that's all."

Gohan noted the slight hint of regret in his father's voice.

"Well, I'm dry," Goku announced, pulling his gi from the rack and began to dress. "You too, I think."

"Thanks." Gohan retrieved his own clothing as well. As he finished dressing, Gohan noticed his father's demeanor change. His frame was taut and alert, his eyes fixed on the distant horizon.

"Dad..." he began. Goku held up a hand to silence him. His usual childlike expression was now set with concern, and Gohan could feel the energy radiating off him as he stretched out with his ki. A word left his lips in a whisper as he brought his fingers to his forehead.

"Goten..."

Gohan's lips parted in a soft gasp of shock, first at his father's utterance and second that he did not disappear in the blink of Instant Transmission. Instead, the larger Saiyan stood, a look of pure bewilderment on his face. Gohan was about to speak when Goku, without another word, blasted off into the air.

Quickly, Gohan shot a blast of ki energy toward their fire, banishing it into a dry dirt crater before blasting off as well.

"Dad!" he shouted against the harsh blow of wind as he barreled through the sky, pushing his limits to catch up with the more skilled flier. "Dad, what is it!?"

"Something happened to Goten!" Goku shouted back, his tone deep. "I can't feel his energy. It disappeared!"

"What!?" Gohan snapped out immediately, though he'd clearly heard.

"I feel an incredible presence!" Goku continued, not dropping his speed as he shouted over the whipping of the wind. "I can't tell if it's one large ki or several.....but I sense Vegeta as well." Gohan's eyebrows drew together in confusion.

"Vegeta..."

Did that mean Vegeta did something to Goten? Gohan couldn't imagine that. In the seven years that his dad was absent from Earth, Vegeta was almost, albeit grudgingly, like a surrogate father to his father's look-alike son. And to be honest, even after his own father's return, Goten still looked to Vegeta as a role model. So did that mean Vegeta and Goten were fighting someone new together? That seemed almost as unlikely....Vegeta wouldn't have let the boy fight.

Gohan was pulled from his musing when he felt his father's energy spike to allow a sharp burst of speed. In the distance, a small dot was racing toward them, its shape becoming familiar, its ki unmistakable.

"Trunks..."

Goku came to an almost dead stop and barely moved backward as the teenager collided head-on into his chest. Trunks' face was flushed from exertion, and his body heaved with each breath. Goku grabbed his arms to steady him in the air.

"What happened, Trunks!?" he asked urgently. "What happened to Goten?"

Trunks shook his head, taking a deep ragged breath in.

"They took him!" he nearly shouted the answer. "My father...needs help...."

"Who?" Gohan cut in. "Who took him?" Trunks continued to shake his head, his breath coming in sharp gasps from the flight.

"Saiyans!" he snapped out. "Saiyans!"

Goku let go of Trunks' arms and blasted back into amazing speed, sparks of gold snapping against the wind.

Gohan turned to the teenager.

"Trunks, what happened?" he tried again as the boy caught his breath.

"Some guys took Bulla and Goten..." he told him, his eyes wide and vacant in disbelief. "And Papa.....and they were... Saiyans....out of nowhere!"

"Did they take Pan?" he asked next, afraid he would shake the younger too violently if he tried to steady him as his father had. Trunks shook his head.

"I sent her for Goku...I don't know..."

Gohan took off again toward his father's energy signature. He strained his senses, feeling the fighting aura that was unmistakably the Saiyan prince. Being so close to the source of such a power made it hard for him to use his ki to trace Pan. He narrowed his eyes as he flew, pushing his energy to reach for even the slightest trace of his only child.

Then, like a shot, her energy signal snapped onto his internal radar like a beacon. She was safe. Far away and safe.

The roar of the wind died down, and he slowly decelerated as the realization struck him.

He could feel Pan's ki.

The battle energy was absent.

His father and Vegeta were gone.



~~~~~~~~~~

Bulma placed a hand on the top of her son's lavender head as he buried his face angrily in the crook of his arm. Gohan had just finished telling her and his mother what little of the story he had as Trunks was sounding more like a broken record.

"How could this happen?" she questioned in disbelief. "Saiyans? How could they overpower not only Vegeta but Goku with him?"

"I should have done something!" Trunks shouted, jumping to his feet. "I left Dad!! I left him! It should have been me!"

"That's enough!" Bulma retorted, but not unkindly. "You obeyed your father. You did what you were supposed to do." Using a gentle pressure on her son's shoulder, which incidentally was barely a feathering touch to a Saiyan, she guided her son back into a chair. "Besides, if Vegeta and Goku couldn't stop them...." She let the sentence trail off as she glanced to Gohan.

"Even I would have been no help, Trunks," Gohan added. "Our fathers train more relentlessly than we do. We are going to have to think of something else."

"Like science!" Bulma stated, triumphantly. Gently, she cupped her son's face between her palms, looking into his grief-stricken face. A face so much like his father's.... "This is where you can show your power, sweetheart. The lab."

Trunks nodded, taking a deep breath and steeling his nerve.

"Right."

Gohan watched mother and son head from the kitchen. When they were gone, he turned to his own mother who sat quietly in her seat. Her face was emotionless, her hands clasped in her lap.

"We'll get them back, Mom." He spoke softly, kneeling in front of her, looking into her eyes.

"I can't do this again, Gohan..." she whispered. "It's always something...one thing after another...." Her lip began to tremble as she continued. "And the next thing you know, he's gone again...." She brought a hand to her mouth, breaking eye contact to stare at the far wall. "My heart is weary from this yo-yo of emotion, wondering if this time it will be for good...and now Goten...." As soon as she spoke the name of her youngest child, her shoulders shook with sobs she tried to fight.

Gohan wrapped her arms around his mother. He felt her pain. He understood it. His father's hectic life had taken him from them too many times and always when they least expected it, when they were comfortable and content.

"We will get them back..." he repeated. Chi Chi held tight to her son, almost as if he too would disappear if she let go.

"Oh Kami, please..." she cried into his shoulder. "Please, I just want him back. Please keep him alive...please bring him back..."

TBC

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