The flow of time has never been this difficult to traverse before. Trunks actually had to use half of his strength fighting the controls and keeping the time machine on the right path. It was almost as if some divine force was trying to push him off course. It had to happen just as he was traveling back to the past after defeating cell in his timeline, like he hadn't been through enough hardship at this point. He had no idea what would happen to him if he fell into the void of space-time.

Something next to him short circuited and he waved away at the smoke while coughing. He leant too far to the side away from the cloud to see outside and realized he was steering out of the river.

"Oh no."

He tried frantically to veer away from the edge but as the machine flew past the edge it started being pulled down another path, and the force of the pull was enough to break his steering controls. With the machine in fits he traveled precariously down the stream in a panic. Was he be led into another point in time? Into a another universe completely? Would he be lost into the void of space and die?

Trunks gripped the sides of the cockpit for support and kept his eyes shut through all the jittering.

He kept telling himself, "Don't think. Don't think. I'm going to be okay. I'm going to land somewhere and get the machine running again."

Finally, after an hour of rumbling through time, he landed somewhere. It wasn't the usual smooth landing, however. Trunks manage to slow the machine down but upon meeting the ground it tumbled over and he raised his arms over his head to shield himself as it fell against the ground. He opened a manual hatch to crawl out from the machine and take in his surroundings. It looked like he was still on Earth, though the only buildings in sight were in the distant horizon. He cracked his neck and tried to stand up straight after being stuck sitting in a tumbling bucket for so long. He then right into analyzing the time machine's damages.

"Damn it! It's going to take days- maybe months- to fix this."

After sorting through the machine he sensed lifeforms approaching him from the rear. He quickly capsuled the machine and turned around to face a group of vehicles approaching him. There were three vans and two motorbikes heading his way. Trunks was pretty sure they were wondering why a UFO just landed on their planet. The group stopped after circling him and a group of men armed with guns surrounded him. Many wore unkempt uniforms while others wore tattered clothes with scarfs covering their faces.

"Drop your weapon!" came a voice to his right.

Trunks cautiously tossed down his sword and raised his hands in truce.

A man with brown hair, a beard, and tanned skin exited the van in front of him and approached him with his hand on his gun holster. He wore shades but tugged down his scarf to speak.

"We know you came in that machine just now." He pointed up at the sky for evidence. "Left a whole cloud of smoke just for us to track you. Now, are you a human escapee? There hasn't been any destroyed ships in weeks, so it's unlikely that you're an enemy escape pod survivor."

Trunks processed his words but only ended up more confused.

A feminine figure with goggles and red hair pulled back into a bun stepped out from the driver's seat of the van. Her voice sounded matured and dignified. "I know who he is. That's Trunks, prince of the Saiyans."

Murmuring came from the crowd and Trunks looked at the woman hesitantly. How did this group know what Saiyans even were? "You know who I am?"

The woman scoffed and walked towards him casually. "Of course." She lifted off her goggles and although her face was not familiar her eyes were that electric blue he had come to fear. "You are our enemy."

Trunks realized another thing. Somewhere on their person, everyone around him was wearing a red ribbon patch.

"Well, shit. Just my luck."