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Trunks shot to his feet, his eyes brimming with unease.
It had already been three days since they'd arrived in this timeline.
Three whole days! By now, the Namekian Dragon Balls should have already cooled down from their last use.
Having Porunga directly transport Goku and Vegeta across dimensions might have been unrealistic as such an act bordered on a crime against the very fabric of space-time itself.
But using an intermediary? That was possible.
All it would take was a wish: to have Porunga locate and repair the Time Machine, then another wish to learn exactly which timeline Trunks and the others had been cast into. With the machine operational, they could set the coordinates and travel back.
Yet here they were, three days later, and there was still no sign of the Time Machine. Trunks stared at the lifeless, desolate landscape around them, and a creeping dread began to claw at his chest.
"Gohan… Bulla…" His voice trembled as he spoke. "I think… Father and Uncle Goku might be in trouble."
The solemn weight in his tone made Gohan and Bulla exchange uneasy glances. With Vegeta and Goku's personalities, if nothing had gone wrong, they would've rescued them long before now. Three days of silence were unthinkable.
"No! We can't just sit here, we have to go back!" Bulla exclaimed, panic tightening her voice.
Her words made sense, but if escaping this timeline were so simple, they wouldn't have been waiting for Goku and Vegeta's help in the first place.
Trunks' mind raced, every thought a frantic calculation.
His gaze swept over the ruins again. Yes… This wasteland was unmistakably the future world that resembled Hell itself.
And then, he realized something.
This place, this wasn't just any ruin.
It was West City.
But unlike the thriving metropolis of his own timeline, this West City had been reduced to rubble and ash. The ground beneath their feet, this was where Capsule Corporation once stood.
In the next instant, a memory struck him like lightning.
(Black… that bastard said he killed this timeline's version of me… If that's true, then it's likely I never even had the chance to board the Time Machine, never made it back to the past to seek help… I was killed before that moment ever came!)
(Which means… there could still be a Time Machine hidden here!)
Suddenly, Trunks launched himself toward the ruins, tearing through the wreckage with desperate speed. It was only a theory, but he refused to abandon even the faintest shred of hope.
One heap of rubble after another fell away under his relentless search.
"Nothing…"
"Still nothing!" He muttered under his breath, frustration burning in his eyes.
Bulla and Gohan exchanged questioning looks, watching his frantic movements.
"Trunks… what are you doing?" Gohan finally asked.
But Trunks was too consumed by urgency to answer, his entire focus bent on unearthing the Time Machine. Confused but unwilling to leave him, Bulla and Gohan trailed after him closely.
Then, Trunks' figure suddenly stopped before a crumbling warehouse.
Bulla's eyes widened as the sight struck a chord deep in her memory.
That warehouse… it was exactly the same as the one she remembered from her previous life.
This parallel timeline… could it have mirrored the same history?
Her heart pounded as her gaze trembled on the building.
If she was right, then inside that warehouse was the very thing she remembered… the Time Machine once codenamed "Hope."
At that moment, she understood what Trunks had been searching for.
"Brother! Let me help you!" Without hesitation, Bulla sprinted forward, racing toward the abandoned warehouse.
With trembling anticipation, Bulla pushed open the rusted doors of the abandoned warehouse. If the Time Machine was inside… then they still had a chance to return to their own world.
The warehouse creaked open.
Good news, the first thing she saw was indeed a Time Machine.
Bad news, it was nothing more than a ruined husk.
Bulla's eyes quivered. Dead memories surged back, stabbing into her mind. Because behind the broken machine, she saw a pile of pale, brittle bones.
The remains were wrapped in tattered, decayed scraps of fabric. Even so, she recognized them instantly. These were the bones of this world's Trunks, the Trunks who had been killed before he could escape.
The scene mirrored her past life with terrifying precision.
Perhaps, in another world, the sight was reversed: in front of a shattered Time Machine, it might have been her own bones lying there.
The broken machine loomed before them, and despair hollowed their gazes.
Their last sliver of hope had crumbled.
"We… we can't go back? But our world, it must be in danger right now too!" Gohan clenched his fists, grief and frustration weighing on him as he stared into the ruins.
Bulla sank to the ground, her face heavy with sorrow.
"No… there's still a way." Trunks' voice reignited like a spark in the darkness.
Gohan and Bulla whipped their heads up, their voices overlapping in desperation:
"What way?!"
Trunks didn't hesitate. He strode straight toward Majin Buu.
"Buu. Spit out Zamasu."
Majin Buu blinked with wide, childlike eyes, clearly confused, but Trunks' command was absolute. With a reluctant grunt, he obeyed.
"Bleeeaarghhh---!"
Out tumbled Zamasu, along with a torrent of slimy bile. As a god, nothing disgusted him more. He slapped frantically at the sticky filth clinging to his robes.
"Filthy… disgusting mort--- " Before he could finish, Trunks' hand clamped down hard on his shoulder.
To Trunks, the way Black had spoken so confidently of Zamasu before dying could only mean one thing: they had left themselves a contingency. And knowing these two… only the Super Dragon Balls fit the bill.
Zamasu could freely traverse the worlds, finding and gathering them would have been child's play.
Trunks' eyes hardened. In the next instant, his palm cracked across Zamasu's face and after that, a flurry of blows followed, fists and kicks striking in perfect rhythm, a storm of violence unleashed without pause.
Zamasu reeled with his teeth clenched and his face twisted in rage, but Trunks' follow-up combos gave him no chance to recover. He tried to flee, but there was nowhere to run. Even if he escaped for a moment, Trunks would hunt him down again.
When the timing was right, Trunks leaned in, his voice like iron: "Take me to the Super Dragon Balls."
Zamasu froze. Then, his gaze flickered, unintentionally, to the broken Time Machine behind Trunks.
And in that moment, he understood. So much time had passed. Yet these mortals were still trapped in this barren world.
Which meant that they were were stuck here.
A shudder ran through Zamasu's body before he erupted into hideous laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHA! You can't go back, can you?! I suppose I should enlighten you, this world's Super Dragon Balls? We destroyed them long ago! Oh, and that's not all! The Namekian Dragon Balls, you know, the ones you were counting on? Those too are gone! Smashed to dust! And more than that, there are no humans left in this world. Not a single one! The Gods of Destruction, the Kais, we killed them all!"
His words carried the venom of truth. He and Black had exterminated humanity… and wiped out the Namekians as well.
Which meant the Namekian Dragon Balls were gone.
Which also meant that the ruined Time Machine they had found could never be repaired.
(End Of This Chapter)