wasn't enough. And it's still a long way from broken.” A cold grin pulled the corners of her mouth up and let her beauty take on a ghostly touch. "Slowly, over and over again, horror without end, and then, when he begs for mercy, for his life, then I will smash the last spark of hope, extinguish the embers once and for all."

Not taking her eyes off the mirror, Bulma pulled open an inconspicuous drawer on her dressing table, reached inside and pressed a hidden button. After that, nothing happened at first, then the drawer closed automatically after Bulma pulled her hand out again, and a low creak filled the room, accompanied by an unpleasant squeak that indicated that some of the hinges needed an appointment with the oil spray had. Finally there was a rumble behind the mirror and then the entire dressing table began to move, made a half-turn and carried Bulma into a hidden room that was only a few seconds ago in the dark, but now, after the secret switch was turned, it was one of many Neon lights light up.

Bulma rose from the small stool and walked over to a rusty locker that was about to collapse in a nearby corner. While she opened the door with a certain instinct, pulled out the white smock and threw it on, she wondered if someone could look for her.Even if someone, contrary to all common sense, came into their quarters, they would not notice anything unusual, since the dressing table, which was usually on this side, was the exact copy of the other.

"But no," said the princess aloud. “Who should be looking for me?” With that she pushed open another door and entered the actual room she wanted to go to.

Strange things had happened to her lately, and if she wasn't mistaken, she had a vague idea what the trigger was.

(+) - (+) - (+)

For only a second the eternally dark sky was lit by what one might have taken for a shooting star, then suddenly there was a new star. On closer inspection, of course, you could see that it wasn't a star, but a spaceship with the word "Hope" carved into it.

Trunks tried to grasp the situation with a frown.Either he had failed to enter the coordinates or his mother had not screwed the time machine together properly. Since his mother was the brilliant Bulma Briefs, the fault could only be his. Little by little he went through everything again, every command, every calculation that should have led him to his goal. But he always came to the same conclusion: He was spot on here.

"But that can't be!" He uttered in frustration, looked out the window and thanked his mother, who had designed the time machine with such constant pressure. "Just impossible ..."

When he couldn't come up with another result after another thirty minutes, he tried a different tactic. He quickly searched the narrow cockpit for the radar that Bulma had screwed together just for him at the last minute. Partly based on the principle of the Dragon Radar, this device scanned the wanted person for the Ki pattern with the help of DNA samples. As a result, he was only able to scan for people from whom he had a DNA sample.The aim of his mission was to warn Son Goku about the attack by the cyborgs that would invade Earth in three years, but if he was careful ... he seemed too late.

Trunks' gaze fell through the window again into the infinitely black night, which was only interrupted by the sporadic flashes produced by a larger boulder that reflected a stray photon beam.

How could that have happened? Was he too late? No, according to the information he was three hours early, just enough time to take care of Freezer and King Cold, but ... there was nobody, there was nothing. Just a pile of large and small boulders and dust that slid weightlessly around in space and that had once been the earth.

"What just happened here?" Trunks wondered aloud. "That shouldn't have happened at all, after all, it should have affected my future too, if things had turned out right here.But this is the first time I'm going back in time, so I can't have created an alternate universe, "the purple-haired boy continued with the volatility of his mother's genius." It all makes no sense ... "Then he looked up the Ki-Radar in his hand and clicked through the people: Piccolo, Kuririn, Gohan, Goku ... The radar charged and the display began to glow as he saw the area - 5 billion kilometers, Bulma had a tendency to Exaggeration, which came in handy now - scanned for Son Goku. Nothing. Trunks expanded the search area. Nothing.

"Impossible," Trunks whispered. "He can't be dead ... he mustn't ..." He paused. What was he doing there? The earth was destroyed, Goku was dead. What else could he do great?

Trunks dropped the hand holding the radar and accidentally hit the button again.

He had to go back home and protect his mother, who was left to the cyborgs on her own.He didn't have time ...

-Beep-beep-

Trunks tore the radar in front of his widening eyes in surprise when he realized who he had just spotted.

"Freezer," growled Trunks. Should he be responsible for the destruction of planet earth?

He looked sadly once more at the remains of his home planet. At this level he hadn't been able to save his parents, but his mother in his time was stronger than he sometimes liked to admit. She had protected herself even when he was a baby. She believed in honor ... and he wasn't going to let her down.