Welcome to Boxer & Rice

“Have you even seen a zombie Goten?” Trunks asked him condescendingly.

“No, but they’re real Trunks, they are!” Goten said forcefully.

“Well, I’ve never fought one, so they can’t be that strong…” Trunks countered.

“But Grandpa said that they’re ‘undead’ and very scary so that must mean that they’re strong. What does ‘undead’ mean Trunks?” Goten asked.

“It means they’ve come back from Otherworld, obviously. They were dead, but now they’re not, that’s the ‘un’ part.”

“Like my Dad?!?”

“I guess… hey, maybe they really are strong then!” Trunks’ face lit up, “What else did your Gramps say about them?”

“Well, he said they like to eat brains and body parts and stuff, and that on Halloween, the border between our world and the next is really thin, so that’s how they get through to us here.”

“Hmm,” Trunks mused, “I guess we could wish for some zombies then – but how many would we need? We don’t exactly know how strong they’ll be but it needs to be a good fight…”

“Yeah, if it’s over too quick that’s like wasting the wish” Goten agreed as he rolled a dragonball back and forth on the ground between his legs.

“Hey, I know! We can just wish for the border to be really, extra thin for that day, that way we can fight as many as we want and then they’ll be gone afterward!” Trunks exclaimed.

“That’s awesome Trunks! You’re a genius!” Goten whooped and jumped up off the ground, “Let’s hurry up and do it now, I have to be home for dinner in half an hour.”

“Eternal Dragon, I summon thee!” Trunks called out and the dragonballs began glowing at their feet. The already cloudy sky turned a darker shade of gray, then black as night when the Eternal Dragon made his appearance.

“WHY HAVE YOU SUMMONED ME?” he bellowed from the sky.

“Oh, Shenron, we wish for the border between our world and the next to be really, really thin tomorrow, then go back to normal after that!” Trunks commanded.

“YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED”

“Thanks Shenron, that’s all for now, we’ll save the other wish for later!” Goten shouted up to him.

The next morning, Trunks woke to the smell of smoke, and there was a giant hole in his room where the exterior wall used to be. Through it, he could see columns of smoke rising from various parts of the city, and many of the buildings looked like they had been blasted and half demolished.

Shit.

Trunks flew out of bed and ran downstairs, knowing he was in over his head – when he was stopped by a gasp from his mother. Only, she wasn’t his mother, not really – her hair was too long, and she was wearing some sort of coveralls with a backwards baseball cap; his mom would never be caught dead wearing anything like that.

“Trunks?” she said to him, confused.

He frowned.

“Who are you?” he said accusingly, taking a step back from her.

“Who am I? What has gotten into you? And what happened to you Trunks?”

“Hey, what now? Nothing’s wrong with me…” a slightly older looking version of Trunks walked into the room as well. He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at himself.

Trunks swore.

“Do not use that kind of language young man!” his imposter mom scolded him automatically, then paled, moving her gaze back and forth between the two boys. It was at just this moment that Vegeta came in from his early morning GR session, mad as hell.

“What the fuck happened to the house?” he shouted as soon as he opened the door.

Future Bulma screamed.

Future Trunks quickly moved in between her and this strange man, taking a fighting stance. Before Vegeta had a chance to react, they flickered and then disappeared. Trunks stood there stunned for a moment, then ran back to his room.

“Boy! Get back here! What the hell is going on?” Vegeta yelled after him.

Trunks burst through the door to his room, finding the wall now intact and no more smoke rising from outside his window. Whew, that was a close one…

Vegeta caught up with him, grabbing his arm.

“What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know…” Trunks stretched the truth.

“Come on boy, we need to find your mother” he said, dragging him out of the room.

Goten was so excited to fight some zombies, he dreamed about them all night. When Gohan woke him the next morning, the first thing out of his sleepy mouth was: “Are there any zombies to fight yet?”

“What?” Gohan laughed at him, “No zombies yet kiddo, most people are just waking up and don’t have their costumes on yet.”

When they came into the kitchen, Chichi was wielding a frying pan and looked ready to chew nails.

“I don’t know who you are but you get out of my house this instant!” she yelled.

Across the room, a tall man who looked vaguely like their father stared at her in disbelief. He had a scar down the left side of his face was wearing an orange gi and had one of his hands flung out protectively behind him. From this angle, Goten couldn’t see who it was behind him but as they moved farther into the room, drawing attention to themselves, he got a better look.

It was his mother. Well, an older, grayer version of his mother but she was actually wearing the exact same dress that his real mom was now… He looked back and forth between them, wondering what was going on. The older Chichi looked kind of pale but pissed as well. The man had looked their way when they came in and now his gaze was locked on Gohan. Goten looked up at his older brother; he was staring back intensely, starting to power up.

“Who are you? What are you doing here in our house?” he demanded of the intruders. When Dad was gone he took his responsibility as man of the house very seriously. The strange man’s eyes got wide as Gohan’s power rose but before he could say anything, he and the older Chichi flickered and faded away right before them.

The statue in the middle of the round-about on Main St. exploded in a hail of rock and gravel. Cars swerved and crashed all around it adding to the bedlam. 17 grinned with satisfaction as the drug store behind it was reduced to rubble as well. He fired another blast into the cell phone outlet beside it. People were getting out of their crashed cars and running for their lives now. 18 began picking them off, one by one, in order of worst to best dressed – laughing at their ridiculous attire and pathetic attempts to live. She was rudely interrupted by a kick to the head.

“What the hell are you doing 18?” Goku said furiously. He didn’t kill the android instantly, out of loyalty to Krillin but it was going to take more than just explaining to make up for all the innocent lives they had just taken.

“You! I thought we killed you a long time ago!” 18 shouted as 17 came to back her up.

“You’re going to regr-” 17 began but their images flickered in and out as he spoke, disappearing completely – though the damage they did was still left behind.

“What do you mean YOU MADE A WISH?!?!” Bulma yelled at them. He was starting to get used to random versions of themselves from the future walking in and out of their day, almost. Well, not completely random either, it actually seemed that they were progressing in age as the day wore on. It was easiest to tell with the future version of himself; at last appearance we was around 14 or so… Trunks wasn’t in that much physical pain from the spanking Chichi gave both of them after his Mom’s lecture; it was what Gohan said to them that made him feel really horrible.

“A lot of innocent people died today because of the immature way you two acted” he spoke solemnly with a shake of his head, “I expected better from you.”

Everyone had automatically gathered at Capsule Corp when the strange events had began occurring and that’s when it had come out that the boys had made their wish.

Damn it, they hadn’t meant to hurt anyone…

“In six months when we are able to bring them back with the wish that’s left, you two are going to personally apologize to each and every person who was killed” Bulma informed them.

“Yes Ma’am” they replied in unison.

The front door was kicked open with a bang, knocking it off its hinges. A badly wounded Trunks was carrying an unconscious Gohan over his back. Blood dripped in a nearly steady stream from the older man and the look on Trunks’s face was frantic.

“MOM!!!” he screamed as soon as he got through the door but stopped short at the sight of such a gathering in his living room. The loss of momentum was too much, and he fell to his knees on the ground, getting crushed by the weight of the man above him.

Gohan couldn’t help it, he ran to the boy’s side. Even though he knew he would be gone in a matter of seconds, he pulled what he now recognized as himself off of Trunks and helped him get ‘the body’ down stairs to Bulma’s lab. Thankfully, Trunks’s singularity of purpose in getting help for Gohan allowed him to function through the shock of the situation. Future Bulma was in her lab, oblivious, when they stumbled in and placed him on the table. As soon as she turned toward them in shock, they all began to fade away with a hesitant flicker. Gohan was left standing there alone with blood staining his shirt and hands and a twisting emptiness in his stomach.

Gohan had to leave Capsule Corp later that afternoon. He just couldn’t take the emotion in Future Trunks’s eyes whenever a version of him appeared and saw Gohan. It was heart wrenching and even though he felt like he was running away he had to go. Every version since the one that he had helped had come from a time where Gohan was dead… It would be easier for them this way too. At least that’s what he told himself. There were too many unanswered questions in those eyes. Gohan figured if he just stayed in his room for the rest of the day, there was very little likelihood of running into anyone from the future. Heck, he was exhausted from the emotional roller coaster, he might just take a nap and sleep through the rest of it.

It wasn’t like there was anything he could do to help anyway. Unless the androids happened to show up right under their noses, his Dad was the only one who could sense the loss of life happening and get there quick enough, with his instant transmission, to do any good. Other wise the androids had just faded away by the time they arrived on the scene. Gohan laid down on his bed and sighed, falling into a listless sleep.

He was woken by the sound of crying. Damn it. It wasn’t coming from his Mom/Future Mom though or even anywhere inside the house… He looked over to this open window, seeing the sun setting. He opened the window all the way, noticing the noise got louder as he approached it. Yes, it was definitely coming from outside. He hopped out of the bedroom window, leaving it open behind him, and headed around to the side of the house unable to not investigate. Off to the side a little ways, there was a huge tree on the edge of the clearing of the forest. Underneath it were three grave stones and a huddled form with lavender hair.

Gohan was unable to stop himself from moving toward him. He tried. His legs wouldn’t listen to his pleas to stop and turn around. When he got close, Trunks lifted his head, eyes going wide in shock as Gohan dropped to his knees beside him and hugged him tightly.

“W-What?…” Trunks’s brain could not process what was happening. Gohan pulled him even closer to him and out of the awkward half-sitting position he had been in.

“I’m so sorry” he whispered in his ear.

“How is this happening?” Trunks replied, hugging him back just as tenderly. After a moment, he leaned back just a little to look him in the eye.

“Are you real?” he began, only to be silenced by Gohan’s finger on his lips.

“Yes, but it won’t last” he said as he leaned in for the kiss he had wanted for so long. Their lips brushed together tentatively, then Gohan forced their mouths together harder with a hand on the back of Trunks’s neck. A small moan came out of him at the feel of those velvety lips. Trunks opened his mouth to him, letting Gohan’s tongue have its way as he slowly turned to putty in the man’s arms.

When Gohan opened his eyes, the grave stones were gone, and so was Trunks. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he got up and went back inside; purposefully never looking at that spot under the giant tree again.

The End