It is often the smallest things that impact our lives, for better or for worse. Say you were just about to cross the street when you notice your shoelace is untied. As you bend down, a car skids around the corner and barrels past you, the driver in a hurry and not paying attention to the road. If you hadn't looked down and seen your shoelace, you could have easily gotten run over.

Or maybe it's time for you to go to work but the weather is so bad that you call in sick so you can spend the day reading and drinking hot chocolate. Had you sucked it up and gone to your job, however, you would have met the person who is perfect for you in every way, fallen in love, and gotten married. Instead, you stay home. Two fates that should have crossed miss each other completely, and as a result the both of you live out your lives alone.

The butterfly effect: where one tiny, insignificant action starts a snowball of cause and effect, resulting in a large-scale change. Did you know that the fate of the universe could be decided just by which direction the wind was blowing at a certain time on a small, backwater planet? It can. What follows is the telling of a case where the destiny of trillions upon trillions of people is changed by one man hearing eight words he was never supposed to.

Chapter 1

Vegeta took a few deep breaths. Seeing Kakarrot and the strange kid both turn Super Saiyan and then fight each other for a split-second -not to mention the dizzying waves of energy coming off both of them- made him light-headed. They were back to normal now, but just moments ago... Kakarrot, yes, but the kid... it couldn't be true… he couldn't have been strong enough to turn Freeza into mince-meat.

But Vegeta could still smell Freeza's blood on the kid's sword.

There was another Super Saiyan. The legend explicitly stated that one was born only every hundred years, and yet... there he was. Vegeta couldn't believe it... but he wanted to... if there could be more than one Super Saiyan, that guaranteed his chances of ascending. But how could the kid have Saiyan blood? The only Saiyans were Vegeta, Kakarrot and the whelp.

But there that kid was, sporting golden hair and casually destroying the man who had made Vegeta's life a living hell. How had this happened?

Never mind all that, Kakarrot was back. Vegeta had a few questions for him, mainly what kind of training he'd done on the way to Namek but also how he escaped alive.

But all that could wait. Right now, he was more concerned with the kid. The hot desert wind blew Vegeta's hair away from his face as he glanced around at Earth's most powerful fighters, plus Bulma. They weren't talking, just staring at the far-off kid and Kakarrot, waiting for them to finish so they could be filled in. Sheep.

Vegeta exhaled impatiently and wondered, not for the first time, what he was doing on this dustball. Once he ascended and killed Kakarrot, he would steal a spaceship and go somewhere more interesting. He must keep reminding himself that Earth was just a pit stop on his travels to conquer society; otherwise he'd start settling in and maybe even relent on his training. The instant that happened, he would cease to be a Saiyan.

Oh for god's sake, how much longer were they going to talk? Why was the kid even here?

As if in answer, Vegeta heard a single sentence, carried on a gust of wind:

"I've come from twenty years in the future."

That caught him off guard. Quickly, he looked around again. Looks like he was the only one who heard... but was the kid telling the truth?

…He must be. He had no reason to lie about something as unbelievable as being from the future, and that explained why nobody recognized him yet he knew all of them.

Fascinating... So the Earthlings weren't as technologically obsolete as Vegeta had thought. He hadn't heard of any species that were even close to building a time machine. He was grudgingly impressed.

Vegeta closed his eyes and focused all of his energy on catching more of the conversation. All of a sudden, he wanted to hear what this boy had to say.

But something was still nagging at him. Being from the future didn't explain why this kid could turn into a Super Saiyan. It didn't add up...

Of course! He wasn't thinking about it in the right terms. The boy didn't have to have been born on planet Vegeta to ascend... he just needed to have Saiyan blood...!

Which means that the boy was the son of either Kakarrot or... Vegeta. The dates added up; the child said he was from twenty years in the future and he couldn't have been more than nineteen. So either Vegeta or Kakarrot was going to have a son in the next few years, and that son would grow up to be the kid standing less than a hundred meters away. The whole situation was prickly. It was unnatural and it set all of Vegeta's senses on alert. In a year's time, one of them would have a son…

Of course, Vegeta shouldn't say that the father was going to be either him or Kakarrot, because he would never mate with an Earthling, he'd never stoop so low as to...

"My name is Trunks. And I do have Saiyan blood -because I'm Vegeta's son."

WHAT?!

Vegeta's eyes snapped open and he stared in horror at the far-off Kakarrot and... Trunks?! That was impossible. The wind must have distorted his words. It couldn't be... but it was. He knew what he heard.

Now that Vegeta knew the truth... he could see the resemblance in the boy's eyes. It was undeniable that they were related.

Vegeta was hit by a wave of nausea and he waited for a few moments for it to pass. What the hell was going through his future self's mind when he decided to sleep with an Earthling? He would rather that the royal family died out with him than continue, tainted with bad blood. And anyways, Vegeta had sworn when he first learned of the hybrid that Saiyan and human DNA formed to never have children. He didn't want to be surpassed by his own offspring.

But what really baffled Vegeta is how he had slept with an Earthling in the first place. How could he ever be attracted to such a lower life form?

Vegeta had to compose himself. He used his chi to create an invisible slipstream in the wind to guide Trunks's voice more easily to him and he angled it so no one else could hear. This information had to be kept private at all costs.

But for all his trouble, the conversation had only turned to some bilge about androids coming in three years to kill everybody and Kakarrot had to use the time to train so he can get stronger and save the world and yadda yadda yadda. Same old boring garbage that Vegeta would rather stare at a rock than listen to.

At least, that's what he thought until he heard the part about him getting killed by the androids.

…They were really that strong…?

Vegeta was shocked. It was the fraternization. It had to be. He had gotten too cozy and slacked off and paid the price... there was no other way that he could lose again. He was almost happy that Trunks had came... surely, now that he knew the future, he couldn't lose... even though they had been too powerful for Trunks, a Super Saiyan, to defeat. That was good. Now he had an actual, life-threatening incentive to ascend. Maybe Vegeta had, in his own way, grown sedentary. But that was going to change. There was nothing like your impending death to get you working hard.

"All my mother wanted was for you to survive."

Vegeta's ears perked as he heard Trunks speak again. Was he about to say something about the mother? What could she possibly have that made Vegeta willingly sleep with her?

"That's why she worked so hard on the time machine."

Suddenly, Vegeta got a bad taste in his mouth. There was something off-putting about Trunks's words… but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Y-your mom... knows me?" Kakarrot asked, his voice high.

"Yes, very well."

She made the time machine. She knew Kakarrot well. Vegeta could name three women on Earth and one was married to Kakarrot, one was married to Briefs, and one was...

BULMA.

HE HAD SCREWED BULMA.

Any kinship Vegeta had felt with his future self crawled under the rug and died. Yes, yes, she wasn't the most idiotic or ugliest of Earthlings, but she was BULMA. She was mouthy and stubborn and... somehow promiscuous and naïve at the same time. Vegeta still went red at the memory of her coming on to him in front of a bunch of asexual Namekians when he had first found out he was stuck on Earth.

Vegeta edged away from Bulma as if she was planning the best time and place to jump him right then and there. He didn't want to give her any ideas.

He looked up just in time to see the boy (who he refused to call son) fly away as Kakarrot joined the group. Of course, now everyone else had to be filled in. Vegeta listened just long enough to confirm the date (May 12th, 10 AM) and place (an island 9 kilometres southwest of South City) before silently withdrawing from the conversation.

Eventually, the small-minded chatter died down and Vegeta noticed the boy, sitting in a device that could only be the time machine, rise into the air. With a pang of displeasure, he noticed that the boy's hair was purple. Of course... his parents' hair had been black and blue, respectively.

Who said that the blasted future was fixed? Vegeta could do anything he wanted. He didn't care if he caused the boy to disappear or even created a paradox -he was not mating with Bulma!

And who said he was going to die by the androids' hand? He was going to fight that battle and live, damn it. Actually, scratch that. Vegeta was going to savage those metal toys before anyone could even draw breath to tell him, "No, Vegeta, you don't have to go that far." And after that, he would finally, finally kill Kakarrot. And everybody else on that stinking planet, for good measure.

It was only after they learned how Kakarrot escaped planet Namek (took one of the Ginyu's ships to Yardrat... and learned to teleport, curse him) and everyone was packing up to go that Vegeta remembered one more thing that needed to be taken care of.

"Kakarrot," he said, "what kind of training did you do on the way to Namek?"

"Oh, I just got Dr. Briefs to install a gravity machine in my ship," Kakarrot said casually. "It went all the way up to 100 G!"

Vegeta nodded to himself before taking to the air. 100 G… no wonder he had gotten so strong… still, it wouldn't help him much at this point. But a gravity simulator, eh…?

Well, if Kakarrot considered 100 G's to be good for training, Vegeta would get Briefs to make him a 300 G room. Yes, he could see it now. That was the key to ascending.

He would have a word with Briefs the minute he got back to Capsule Corp. While the machine was being built, he'd go to the Snowy Mountains to train. The below-freezing temperatures and thin air would help his endurance.

And when Vegeta got back to use the room, he'd be sure to stay at least ten feet away from Bulma at all times.

And so, Vegeta began his three-year stint in the gravity room. When he had first started to train in 300 G's, he almost overdid it... and quickly learned that 300 times Earth's gravity was not to be taken lightly...

Two Weeks In

Just as Vegeta finished the follow-up for a devastating new attack he had invented himself, he felt a twinge. He froze and shut off the room.

A quick check instantly said something was wrong. If he held his arm completely still, he felt okay, but the tiniest movement sent numb pain spiking through his entire arm. He must have pulled a muscle- or worse.

This was bad. If Vegeta kept training, he would risk permanent damage to important nerves in his shoulder, but he didn't have the time to spare on long-term recovery. What could he do?

Well, what had Kakarrot done? There was no way he had trained in heavy gravity without hurting himself; Vegeta hadn't been doing a particularly strenuous routine and he'd almost dislocated his shoulder. Earth didn't have healing tanks, but Kakarrot had come out of his spaceship looking perfectly healthy. Come to think of it, it had been less than two months since Vegeta had basically ruined Kakarrot's body. So how had he recovered so quickly...?

"AAAARGH!"

Realizing the answer, Vegeta had slapped his forehead using his bad arm. All the nerves in his shoulder cheerfully burned and stung like they were being scraped raw by gravel.

But at least he knew how he could get better- senzu beans! How could he have forgotten? Vegeta had only had one once, but he knew that they were grown somewhere on Earth. They completely healed all wounds and restored energy, and since he was Saiyan he would get stronger as well.

But how to get some?

Vegeta's face darkened as he realized the answer. It had to be Bulma. Out of all the Earthlings, she was the one that he had interacted with the most. She would be the logical choice to help him. Even if she didn't have any herself, Vegeta bet she knew who did.

Reluctantly, he set off to find her. Vegeta wasn't even sure she'd help him, but it was his only option. He didn't have a candle's hope of catching up to Kakarrot without senzu.

Vegeta tried to divine where she was by sensing her chi… but to no avail. He'd still only gotten as far as telling different power levels apart... so he knew where Yamcha was in Capsule Corp., but Briefs, Mrs. Briefs, Bulma, Pu'ar and Oolong all felt the same.

Still, it was dealt with easily enough. Vegeta knew the places in the mansion that Bulma frequented. That and his sense of smell lead him to the library. Right before he stepped in, a thought struck him…

Since she ended up bearing his child in the future, didn't that mean Bulma was… attracted to him on some level? Maybe… if he utilized that… getting her help wouldn't be so hard after all.

Vegeta gently eased the wooden door open and stepped into the library.

Bulma was seated at a table, poring over a thick textbook: Advanced Quantum Mechanics for the Inquisitive Mentality.

Vegeta leaned casually on the table. (With his good arm, of course.)

Bulma looked up. "Oh. Hey," she said, closing her book. "What's up?"

Vegeta considered. How should he put this? Normally he'd just say, "Get me some senzu beans," but would Bulma respond more to a disguised request than to an open demand? Better try it… at the very least, it would be good practice. His charisma wasn't on the greatest form, and it was about time to practice now that he knew he would be stuck on Earth for three more years. Vegeta's last brush with diplomacy had been when he was twenty and had ended in a pile of corpses anyways. "I've started my training and I found something that gave me… pause." He had noticed Earthlings' tendency to skirt around the issues. They rarely just asked for something up front.

Bulma's eyes narrowed shrewdly. "What do you want me to give you?"

Vegeta smirked. Apparently not all of them. "Senzu beans."

Bulma leaned back in her chair and exhaled noisily. "Really? I'm afraid I can't help you there. Our company doesn't manufacture them." Though she was dismissive, there was something in her eyes.

A challenge. A challenge for him to make her want to help.

Challenge accepted. Vegeta walked around the table and leaned down until they were eye-to-eye. "You sure about that?" he asked softly. "All that heavy gravity... what if something happens? Forget about training, I need the beans just to stay alive… and you're the only one I trust." He gazed at her imploringly.

A few tense seconds passed with neither blinking nor looking away. Bulma swallowed. "Fine!" she burst out, getting up. "I'll ask Karin." She started to walk away but stopped. "... What do you mean... if something goes wrong? You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No," Vegeta said quickly. "Of course not." Fantastic. He'd almost forgotten how much of a worrier Bulma was. He was lucky he had the foresight to leave out his injured arm.

"Okay..." she said reluctantly, turning to go again. "Just be careful."

Vegeta watched her leave in amusement. He'd almost thought he had overdone it with the part about her being the only one he could trust. As if he'd open up to anyone on this damn planet of worthless fools. Anyway, Bulma had eaten it up. Vegeta was once again amazed at how much Earthlings needed confirmation that they were worth something. And what they'd be willing to do to get it.

Of course, getting a few senzu beans was hardly a big deal. But Bulma had lots of connections to people... Vegeta was curious to see what else he could get her to do.

Dance, puppet, dance.

I am taking requests for the update date/frequency.

~Lily F. Sang