The Best Friend I Almost Never Had

Title: The Best Friend I Almost Never Had

By: Slytherinette

Rating: PG now but it'll will get worse

Summery: Alternative Truten: Mirai Trunks/Goten relationship. Goten gets thrown into Miari Trunk’s life.

Warnings: Yaoi, my own characterizations at times, the amount of sap that will be in this could be sickening, and, since I’m writing it, some one wont be happy in the end. Oh, and I may throw in some fruity lemony-lime flavors as a refreshment ;)

Disclaimer: I don't won them so I’m not even wasting my time.

Thanks to Mutt for Betaing the first round of this

--01

They had fought too long and too hard to give up now. Their bodies burned ached with fatigue. They had mentally exhausted every possible way to outsmart each other. No one was winning. No one was losing. If things didn't change soon they would all fall to the ground beaten.

Kana warily raised a hand, forcing an energy shield around her. She had attacked in her usual manner; quickly and without a plan. It had always worked for her in the past, why should this time be any different? The Elders had warned her that this wouldn’t be as simple as before but she hadn’t heeded their advice. She was too power hungry, always searching for more energy to feed her appetite… and she should have known. The Elders had told her long ago that it would be her downfall.

She should turn back now. She should run, go crawling back into the dark corner of the universe that she had crawled out of.

But she couldn’t. She had tasted the power the Saiyajin’s possessed and now she had to have it.

Trunks studied her ki shield. It was too strong for one of them to punch through it and they had learned first hand that she merely absorbed all ki blasts sent at her. Hell, she wasn’t anything but a big ball of ki. She had no true form of her own so she took the shape of the first person’s energy she tasted.

It was strange battling with someone who looked just like your best friend.

He clutched the box his mother had made for them to put her in. It possessed the same properties as the one that had held Tapion and once they got her into it she would be powerless. The only problem was he had to wait until she was caught off guard and she seemed to make too few errors in her fighting to leave an opening large enough for him to get to her.

Kana-Goten’s eyes studied each of the powerful beings that were before her. Vegeta, to her direct right, seemed to be more concerned with defeating her before Goku, who was slightly to his left. Goku was genuinely concerned about what would happen to the earth if they failed, as was Gohan. Trunks was trying to find her weakness and poor Goten didn’t know what to do.

One thing was certain; while Goten was the weakest of them all, he was their lifeline. They were all having problems fighting her because she had his form… even the stubborn Vegeta, although he didn‘t realize it.

Her eyes fell back to the purple haired young man. He was the most dangerous of them all. He had the highest potential and most concentrated natural energy. He also seemed to be preoccupied with making sure Goten didn’t get hurt, even though it was obvious that it unnerved the boy.

It was settled. She had to get rid of them one at a time and the first would be Goten. She would have to put him some place where he wouldn’t be a threat. As long as he was here the others would feed off his presence.

Suddenly she recovered her mask of superiority.

"Well, it seems I underestimated you all. But that’s no matter. I will win anyway. You see I have lots of powers, even ones that mess with time and dimensions. Allow me to demonstrate."

She had to move fast, no time to stop and rethink. The second she made her move she would have to lower her ki shield and with Trunks waiting for her to make a mistake there was no room for doubt.

A flash of black light emitted from her hands aimed straight at Goten. Goten had no room to move, he was frozen in place, and before allied hands could counter, he was engulfed in alien light.

Trunks had been waiting for this very second. Before she was finished with her attack, Trunks appeared behind her. He pressed the box against her spine and said the words as his mother had instructed to activate it.

The black light that surrounded her suddenly disappeared only to be replaced by a blinding white light. There was the sound of a shrill voice screaming before her entire being was sucked into the box.

There was a long moment of silence, each of them silently thanking whoever was listening that it was over.

"Well, that was easy," Trunks said sarcastically, tossing the box into the air playfully.

Gohan snorted. "Right. Next time someone wants to drain us of our powers for their afternoon snack lets throw garlic cloves at them."

Strangely enough, Vegeta was the one that noticed that they were one half Saiyajin short. "Where’s you second brat, Kakarotto?"

"...East City is running out of empty capsules, South City is low on fresh water, Orange City (*AN-I assume it’s not Satan City because Mr. Satan didn’t save the world from cell*) needs more buildings and we need more vaccines. Hepatitis is running rampant from the filthy living conditions and we can‘t produce it fast enough."

Trunks Briefs nodded and sighed as he plopped himself down at his kitchen table. "Okay. There should be plenty of empty capsules in storage, go to the warehouse and have some of them shipped. I think there may be a box of water purifiers; send them where they need to go. Orange City is going to have to wait. The building capsulater is..." he waved his hands around, "being dealt with and…" He sighed sadly "I can’t help you with the vaccines. The Vaccine Producer is fried and until I find Mom’s notes on it..." he shook his head.

Lael frowned but nodded. "And there’s still talk that people are flocking here. We had 200 people arrive just last week. We don’t have enough supplies to sustain everybody." When Trunks didn’t respond he changed the subject. "How’s the satellite coming?"

"Better," he said. "I need to finish some basic stuff on it to make sure it keeps it’s orbit but other than that it’ll be ready to hit the skies in… a week or two maybe?"

Lael smiled. "That’s great. Our biggest problem has been with communication across the oceans but once that baby goes up we’ll at lease get to get important messages delivered quickly."

Trunks sighed and leaned back, his body not nearly as tired as his mind. Rebuilding a planet was more than one person could handle, but with him being Capsule Corporations owner he felt like he was responsible with helping in the reconstruction process. CC had the most advance technologies and the largest amounts of recourses and in the past 4 years they had developed and mass produced everything from more empty capsules to food processors for mass food production. Even though there was only a third of the earth original population left, an estimated 98,000, it still left hundreds of people without the needed supplies to survive.

He wasn’t even going to go into the estimated amount of the population for next year. With all the diseases, starvation, 6 males to one female, and only a lucky few children living past the age of 10, lets just say it’s drastically lower. Fact was the human race was a dieing species.

Lael chose that time to interrupt "I gotta get back to the hospital. Come with?"

Trunks made a look like he was going to protest but Lael insisted. "Please! The kids love it when you come, and we got two new ones and the others do nothing but talk about you and I just know their dying to meet you! PLEASE!!!"

"You just had to bring up the kids," he complained. He knew damn well he loved those kids and couldn’t say no now. "Fine, fine, fine." he said as he stood up to go with him.

"Good! And when’s the last time you ate a full meal.. you know.. one the size that you’d prefer to eat?"

Trunks laughed. "It’s been a while."

"Fine then! It’s settled. You eat, visit the kids, and then go shopping to stock up your cupboards."

"Now, where did you say you found him?" The old nurse asked as she checked over her new patient.

"He just, like, appeared out of thin air," a blond boy told her excitedly gesturing with his hands.

"And then he just, boom, was slammed into the ground," his twin brother finished for him.

The nurse was too old to doubt what the boys had seen. "Was anybody else there?"

"No," said the first boy, "It was the blocked side of the city. Ain’t no body stupid enough to go down there."

She frowned at them both. "Then why were you two down there?"

Neither boy answered.

She shook her head, a few strands of her gray hair falling around her face, "Never mind. Go get Dr. Brown. This poor boy has several broken ribs and he looks like he just came from the battle of his life." She tisked to herself before she rolled him into one of the free rooms.

---

Trunks always enjoyed visiting the kids that resided at West City Central Hospital. It was the only fully working hospital within 300 miles and it was where most children who needed constant care resided. They had a variety of problems; some had diabetes, others had some sort of physical deficiency, most had broken bones… but there was this one little girl named Iona, a six year old who had brain cancer. Trunks, despite his best effort, had grown incredibly fond of her. It could have been because they both had the strange color of hair (even though hers had fallen out but in it‘s place was a purple bandana) or because she called him Niisan. Whatever it was, he adored her, and she him.

The second he walked into the brightly painted room he was surrounded by chibis, all wanting to show him this, or play that. After fighting them off and telling a joke or two, he finally made his way to her corner. She tried to hide a smile, and pretend like she didn’t see him, but she still burst into a fit of giggles.

"Hi, Niisan," she said beaming up at him.

"Hey, Iona," he said softly. "Did you draw me any new pictures?" He knew she had. She always did. Sometimes they would be of her, sometimes of him. Many times she would draw flowers and bugs, which she loved.

Her smile grew ten times its normal size as she nodded happily. She pointed down at the piece of paper in front of her. It was of a caterpillar and a ladybug on a huge sunflower.

"Wow!" he said smiling at her, "That’s really good! That's one of the best ones yet! I’ll put it right where I can look at it everyday, okay?"

She smiled sweetly and pointed to another picture.

It was of three people. Two with purple hair, one was obviously him and the other her, holding hands. The third person, who was holding Trunks’ other hand, was someone he couldn’t place. He, he assumed it was a he, had wild black hair, kind of the way Goku‘s had looked, but a bit shorter… it was just a crude drawing by a child, so he guessed it wasn’t a surprise.

"Wow! This is wonderful. Who are these people?"

She smiled again. "Me and you," she pointed to the two purple haired people, "and the Tenshi."

He blinked, utterly confused. "Tenshi, huh?"

She nodded. "Our family."

He smiled at her, "Well, then. I’ll be sure to take extra care of this one, okay?"

He wrapped his arms around her, and she leaned into him. "I gotta go now, okay, but I’ll be sure to come back really soon?"

She frowned but nodded.

Sadly, he kissed her forehead just before he got up and left.

He loved coming here. Seeing these kids made him fell a little better and not so beaten up. This was the generation he fought so hard for. They had a chance to live a life and not know what it’s like to be terrified all the time.

"Man, it was awesome!" a voice said loudly, pulling Trunks’ out of his thoughts. "If I had of been him, I would have been splattered, dude!"

Trunks turned to see two blond boys talking animatedly to each other.

"What happened?" he dared to ask as they passed him.

"Man, it was so cool! Me and Taylor were hanging out by the west side..."

"No one is supposed to be near that part of town. It’s to unstable." Trunks said, sounding way too much like his mother for his liking.

The boys managed to look guilty, but the other one picked up where his brother left off, "Anyways, and suddenly there was this flash of purple-blackish-looking light and then this guy appeared out of thin air..."

"Yeah! And then he was, like, thrown into the ground, and he left, like, this huge crater."

"Yeah, man. No one will have to worry about that part of town anymore. That dude took it out with just his body."

"Trunks blinked at them. "And then what?"

"Well Tyler and me ran over to him, and man, he was still alive! We managed to get him here..."

But before he could finish what he was saying, Trunks had already turned and was heading to where the boy they had brought in was most likely taken. Maybe they were just making it up but....

"Trunks," came a familiar old voice from the nurses' station. He turned around to see Elda, the aging nurse who he had known all his 22 years, waving him over.

"Turn around," she said as he nudged him. "Let me see that mark on your back."

"Which one," he asked as he obediently let her raise his shirt up.

"This one." She let her fingers softly touching the brown scar that used to be the base of his tail, causing Trunks to arch forward just a bit. "Gohan had one just like this, correct?"

"Yeah," he said as he lowered his shirt. "But you know that story; Our fathers were from another planet."

She nodded, "And they were the last of their kind?"

"Yea." He looked at her oddly. Did this have anything to do with the guy the two teens were talking about?

She looked at him grimly. "Then I wanna show you this." She said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him into a room just to their right.

Laying in the middle, on a normal hospital bed, was a boy, younger then he, 17 or 18, with wild black hair asleep on his side, his arm effectively covering his face. He looked like he had seen better days with the bruises that littered his creamy skin. Elda walked around the boy to his back.

"Please tell me how am I supposed to explain this?"

Trunks followed her. She pulled the covers down just a little, and his blue hospital gown up to reveal a dark brown spot in the middle of his lower back. Trunks’ eyes grew wide and he bent down to get a closer look. It looked just like the one he had in the very same place. He couldn’t help it when his jaw dropped. A gentle hand reached out and traced the skin around it causing the sleeping boy to shiver.

Trunks jerked his hand back as if he’d been shocked.

What in the hell! He shook his head in astonishment. "But... but..." he tried to reason but failed to find anything logical about it. If he was only 18 then there would be no way that he was a secret child of Vegeta's or Goku’s... and Gohan... didn’t have any kids… did he? He scratched his head utterly confused.

"Maybe he’s from another race. Another one that.. has tails... I guess."

Elda gave him a funny look but didn’t respond.

"What happened to him?"

"I assume that Taylor and Tyler already told you, with the way they were going on and on." Trunks nodded. "Well, that’s about it, or all I know. He suffered several bruised ribs but he has other injuries that look like they are at least an hour or two old and the boys said they found him about 30 minutes ago.

Trunks nodded but his stomach spoke before he did.

Elda chuckled. "Why don’t you go get something to eat. I’m sure he won’t wake up before you get back, and if he does I’ll save all the good questions for you."

He laughed a little but agreed. "I won’t be gone long."

---

The first thing that registered in Goten's mind was pain… a lot of it. His sides hurt, his back ached, and his head pulsed agonizingly.

He blinked open his eyes and rolled to his back, regretting the movement..

He was greeted by a plain white ceiling. It took him several seconds before he could raise up to take in his surrounding. He noted the barely-there gown and the sterile looking walls.

A Hospital? How had he gotten here? Did he get hurt during the fight with Kana-him? Then why would they bring him to a hospital? Gohan had sensu beans; he could have just given him one.

Goten shook his head of the haze of sleep he was still in and let his feet touch the cold tile floor. He stood up, his back protesting every pained movement, and made his way to the window.

What meet his eyes was NOT what he was expecting. He blinked, shocked, and rubbed his eyes. It was West City, he guessed, or at least what was left of West City. Everything was destroyed or in ruins. Buildings that once stood tall and proud were now indifferently crumpled on the ground.

Had Kana done this? Had she succeeded in getting everyone's power and is now running rampant, destroyed everything?

If that was true, why did this hospital survive... why was he still alive?

"I can still remember what the view looked like before the Androids attacked."

The voice nearly caused Goten to jump out of his skin. He spun around to be greeted by a plump old woman in a nurse’s uniform.

"Pardon?" He asked politely.

"The Androids." She repeated. "I worked in this hospital even before the androids attacked. I can still remember what the view looked like from that very window."

"An.. androids?" he asked, not sure if he had heard her right. Maybe this isn’t West City, what Androids? What the hell was going on? "Uhh, where am I?" He asked, his voice just above the range of human hearing.

She chuckled good naturedly, "West City Central Hospital, of course." The boy continued to look at her in shock and she frowned. He did get hit in the head pretty hard, what if he didn’t remember anything? "Maybe you should lay down. You don’t look too steady."

Goten held up a hand. "No." No, he had to figure this out. "Androids?"

She looked at him nervously. If he was suffering from amnesia the last thing she needed to do was to make his upset. "Yes. The androids attacked Earth 20 some odd years ago, do you not remember."

He shook his head. "I remember, just not that." Gohan had told him about the androids attacking earth and he would of had to of grown up in a cave not to know about Cell. He continued to gape at her, his eyes wide. He shook his head softly, trying hard to put the pieces together despite the massive headache he was beginning to get.

He was seconds away from asking her another question when someone came in behind her and moved to her side.

Goten’s jaw dropped. It was Trunks.... but it wasn’t Trunks. He had Trunks’ purple hair, blue eyes, and beautiful face, but this was NOT Trunks. The man standing before him was, well, a man. He was older and more rigid, no, more battle worn then Trunks. His blue eyes didn’t hold the youth Trunks’ had and he was just...

Absolutely, utterly, amazingly gorgeous.

Now, Goten had always had a bit of a crush on the boy he had grown up with it. He had admired Trunks’ looks, his attitude, his.. ass..., but that was a kids thing that he was growing out of but this was something totally different.

This was a man Goten had only seen in pictures and heard of in stories that Gohan had told him when he was a child.

"Mirai Trunks," Goten breathed.

Then it clicked. Powers that mess with time and dimensions.

He froze, half horrified and half confused then he sighed sadly as he walked back over to his bed. "I’m dreaming. That’s it, it’s all a dream," he muttered before he covered his head up.

Elda and Trunks exchanged looks of concern and confusion.

"Honey," she said as she stepped foreword comfortingly, "Are you alright."

Goten thought that this was a stupid question. He was in a hospital, Kami (if there even was one here) knows how he got here, and he didn’t really want to think about how in the hell he was going to get home.

"I think I’m in the wrong place." He said quietly.

01--