CHAPTER THREE
I need air, gotta have air, where's the air? were Trunks' first thoughts as he snapped back to consciousness. He was gasping and struggling and freaking out when all of a sudden he heard glass break and he could breathe. He looked at his fist and it was bloody. He dimly realized he must have punched directly through the crystal. But he didn't care. He could breathe.
He sat straight up and hit his head on the remainder of the glass. He winced and began healing himself. As he healed his right arm, he caught a glance of his sister next to him. Her eyes were wide open and staring and she looked as if she were struggling with something. He swore and quickly broke open her "coffin." She gasped and began coughing. "Thanks," she got out.
He helped her get out. "No problem. Feeling better?"
"I shouldn't take oxygen for granted so much," she muttered. "Very precious commodity we've got here."
Trunks grinned. "Yeah, too true."
Bra smiled back, but it faded as she looked around. "Mom's lab never resembled a battlefield before," she whispered.
Trunks followed her gaze and saw their mother on the ground, unmoving, with dried blood on her stomach. "What happened?" he whispered in horror.
Bra gulped. "Let's go look at the security tapes. Well? Come on!"
Trunks numbly followed his sister to the small room. Bra quickly stopped the tape and rewound it. They watched in shock as 17 and 18 entered, killed Bulma, and banished Son. Bra's hand flew to her mouth. "Son-kun!" she choked out.
Trunks looked at her sharply. There was something in her tone that made him suspicious, something that kicked all his big-brotherly-protective-instincts into action. "Well…at least we know he might be alive."
"But where? What does that thing even do? What was Mom doing with it?" Bra snorted. "Son might be alive, but what good does that do if we can't get to him and he can't get to us?" she scoffed.
"Bra…what's wrong?"
He pulled her out of the wreckage and pulled her close to him.
"Oh, Dende, Bra, I'm so sorry, so sorry."
Was he crying? But why? There was nothing to cry over…
"Bra, Bra, Bra-chan, no, no, don't you die on me! No, no, NO! Bra…"
He WAS crying! But why, she wasn't dying. How could she leave him? She never would…
"Bra? Bra! No!" He gave her shoulders a hard shake. "No, Bra, don't you dare die! You just CAN'T!" And suddenly he was hugging her tightly and pressing kisses all over her face…she could taste his tears, they tasted salty…
"Bra!"
She blinked and pushed the memory aside as she realized Trunks had called her name for the third time. "Oh, sorry, Trunks."
"What on Chikyuu were you thinking about?"
"Oh…nothing, nothing."
"Really? And you were that involved in it? How extraordinary."
She began blushing. "The one thing that are totally my business are my thoughts, Trunks, and I plan on keeping it that way." She frowned at the screen. "Hmm…what does that machine do? Where does the portal go?"
"Well, why don't we go ransack Mom's lab and find out?"
As they worked, Bra sighed. "You know, I never thought that I'd miss Mom yelling at us to stay out of her stuff."
"Yeah, I know what you mean."
"I just can't believe all of this. I mean, what do you remember?"
"18 blasting you."
"What?"
"18 blasted you and I went crazy. I think. Wait, I remember Son carrying us here and leaving. Then I woke up and I couldn't breathe. And you know the rest."
"Yeah. Hey, hey!" Bra held up a packet of papers. "I think I found it…"
"What does it say?"
"It's just the plans for…" Bra's eyes widened. "An inter-dimensional traveling machine?"
"What?" Trunks exclaimed. "Inter-dimensional-"
"Traveling machine! What the heck was Mom going to do with this?"
"I have no idea! Does it say how it works?"
"Yes…kind of…" Bra thrust the plans at her brother. "You're smarter than I am about this kind of thing. You look at it."
***
Three hours later, Trunks sighed and kicked the machine. "I'm not getting this," he said pitifully. "Bra!"
Bra came in from the kitchen. "What? I'm trying to cook here!" she told him irritably.
"You try it," he whined.
"Oh, you great big baby," Bra said. She went over and hit the machine. The numbers blinked on. "There. Why didn't you try that?"
"I kicked it."
"You can't kick a machine if you want it to work, you have to hit them. Duh." Her eyes widened "Oh, crap, dinner's burning!" she wailed and ran out.
Trunks couldn't help glaring after her as she left.