Disclaimer...I own none of the characters, etc. except the plot.

Once home, Trunks disembarked quickly and disappeared into the house, passing by his mother who had come down the launch bay to welcome their return. Bulma watched her son's backside as it departed and worriedly ran to Vegeta and the others.

"What is wrong with him?!"

Vegeta said nothing. It was obvious his son wasn't the same one that had left Earth many months ago. Even he didn't know what exactly Trunks had experienced while in the depths of space alone. Unsatisfied with the silence, Bulma tried the trio of ladies, followed by Goten who were now making their way off their ship.

"What's wrong with my son?" Bulma asked, nearly pleading.

Marron, Pan, and Bra all looked at each other and without a word, nominated Pan to tell the story of their ordeal. Goten, uncomfortable with being in the presence of a potential 'hen gathering' opted to enter the house with Vegeta. While Vegeta would head off somewhere as he usually did, Goten sought out his best friend who had virtually said nothing all the way back to Earth. After his shower, he had reassumed piloting the ship, but did so quietly. He only spoke basics such as food, sleep, and so forth. It worried Goten as much as it did Bulma.

Meanwhile, Pan was busy telling Bulma of their encounters as they sat on a picnic table in the yard. Naturally Pan excitedly mentioned all the fighting, which didn't help Bulma's concerned condition. Bra and Marron occasionally interjected, if only to prevent Bulma from dashing back into the house in a worried frenzy. The ladies knew Goten had the best chance of figuring out Trunks. Bulma would only cause her son to clam up moreso.

Goten found Trunks in his room, apparently locked in a sulking stare out the window.

"Trunks?"

There was no response. Trunks continued to gaze out the window, his body leaning against the wall and arms crossed in a pensive posture of longing.

"C'mon Trunks, you can't get past me. I know something's bugging you. You know you can't keep it bottled up inside. It'll eat away at your insides until you go insane. You told me that once. "

Trunks slowly turned his gaze and locked onto his best friend. Goten quivered slightly at the cold-hearted stare of his friend's cerulean eyes. They were almost bestial. "Not this time Goten." Trunks replied in a flat deep tone.

Goten's heart thumped desperately. If he didn't do something, he'd lose his best friend to something he didn't even know about. With a deep breath, Goten stood firm. "I'm not leaving Trunks."

Trunks' eyes narrowed to serpent-like slits and flashed the aqua green of a super saiyan. It was a threat gaze all the super saiyans had used from time to time, but this time, the threat seemed even more treacherous. Goten was on dangerous ground and he knew it. But his soul told him that he'd give his own life to save his friend's and if that was what it was going to take, then he was ready.

"As I said before. I'm not leaving."

"You're a fool Goten."

"Maybe, but at least I'm thinking straight."

Trunks' lips gave way to a snarl that would scare even the meanest pit bull. Goten braced, uncertain of Trunks' next move, but still, he pressed on.

"If you want to kill me for being an annoyance, fine. But you'll have to live with that. I doubt you can." Goten replied sternly playing on their bond as friends and the effects of the fusions they could perform. Though they remembered little after taking the form of Gotenks, their souls shared a portion of the fusion, imprinted upon each other in a permanent bond. Each was one in the same, sharing each other's strengths and weaknesses. It was a friendship deeper than any normal human could wish for.

Trunks huffed a heavy sigh and returned his gaze to the window. If Goten wasn't going to leave, then he'd simply ignore him. But a Son is difficult to ignore, especially if one thinks he or she has a cause to deal with. The Son saiyans could get under anyone's skin and turn the situation in their favor.

Goten knew Trunks might pull the 'I'll-ignore-you-til-you-go-away' routine. With a goofy Son grin, Goten bent forward and looked upward, mere inches from Trunks' chin. It was a comical scene at best and one that would rattle a royal bloodline member quickly.

"So, you gonna talk, hmm?" Goten said as he grinned goofily. "You can't run. You can't hide."

"I can kill."

"You won't."

"You're pathetic Goten."

"So are you oh mighty prince of nothing." Goten taunted. He was picking a fight, whether he'd survive it or not. If they couldn't talk like humans, then perhaps they could as saiyans.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't worry, you won't."

Trunks' saiyan blood was reading the obvious challenge, but his brain thought better of the matter. Besides, a fight now would only mean work later of cleaning up and reorganizing his already pristine room. "I'll not waste energy on such a trivial matter Goten. The result would be the same...more work for me."

"Well, geesh, you're boring! Use up all your saiyan genes on your little vacation eh?"

Vile burned deep within Trunks' gut, but still, he had more important matters to attend to. Matters of the mind, not of the body. He was thinking about the pathways he could take his life. The old one no longer fit. Perhaps he would consider a more 'human' life as his father had? It didn't sound so bad afterall, especially if he found a female like his mother, who had brains, a firey temper, yet served her man hand and foot. A subtle grin developed. His primal sense liked the end part of that thought. But his modernized personality wouldn't allow for such. No, if he took a female, she'd work, but not slave. Perhaps she'd end up as co-leader of the company. THAT was one thing he wouldn't escape. His mother wouldn't allow it...not until an heir was born and raised. Work was easy to fix however. He knew immediately that he would make new rules there...mainly for himself. He would work defined hours only, leave room for at least one day off, and train personnel to handle more responsibility so he didn't have to deal with it all.

"Earth to Trunks...come in Trunks..." Goten was saying as Trunks was lost in thought. Goten's face was close enough to Trunks' to feel his breath upon his cheek. Too close. Trunks' reaction was swift. A single, well angled thwap sent the youngest son of Kakarrot out the window. Goten had no time to powerup to fly. He hit the ground with a solid splat. Trunks looked down with a guilty grin of satisfaction. It was an amusing spectacle, yet it was at his best friend's cost. So, emotions of right and wrong continued to play out simultaneously within a single being. But, Trunks knew who Trunks was now. It was up to others to learn and experience the new Trunks now.

From the large livingroom window, Pan and the others saw the blurred image careening towards the ground then hitting said ground with a large thud, followed by groans. It interrupted their conversation.

"Goten?" Pan asked herself.

"Guess he got his point across to moody-boy up there eh?" Marron added.

"Hmm, wonder what THAT was all about?" Pan wondered out loud.

A nice sprawled dent formed upon the grass Goten laid in. His cell phone rang.

"Goten here, stud-extraordinaire." Goten smiled with pride. He had actually come up with that rhyming line all by himself!

"You splat well." It was Trunks.

Goten, on his back, looked up to see his friend smirking that traditional Vegeta smirk as he leaned over the window ledge.

"You're wasting my minutes. I'm right here."

"But you react the quickest to your cell phone, doof!"

"Not a doof!"

"Why are you in such denial?" Trunks replied as he hung up the phone and flew out of the window. He stood over Goten like a king conquering a land.

"So you gonna kill me or something?" Goten asked as he gazed up at his friend's cocky stance.

"Nope. Just this." Trunks said as he put a boot upon his friend's chest, then stepped over him. Before returning to the main entrance of the house, he stopped and turned to look upon his friend once again. "Thank you." he said then entered the home.

"Wonder what that was for?" Goten pondered as only a Son could.

Inside, Trunks met his family and other occupants once again.

"You out of your funk yet?" Bulma asked, hints of anger and frustration within her tone.

Trunks strode over to her. His stride was so proud and defined that it frightened her. Even Vegeta, who had returned to the gathering for some reason known only to him, flexed a couple of muscles in anticipation of a potential fight. As he neared his mother, Trunks held her in a loving embrace, surprising all within the room.

"I'm home. And I know who I am now. Unlike Gohan, I will succeed in walking the path of the in-between for I am both saiyan AND human. I will accept both parts of me as one."

Trunks then released his mother and turned his attention to Pan and Marron.

"I am deeply grateful and humbled by the fact that both of you care so deeply for me. I also have you two to thank for allowing me to find myself. While I know both of you want something beyond friendship, and I myself was toying with that idea as well, I now know that I am not meant for any one female. I'm sorry mother, but if an heir to the company is required of me, it will be done out of wedlock. Perhaps someday I may fall in love. But for now, my destiny, my passion, and my goals require me to stand alone. The world will be better off if I share myself with it entirely and not selfishly give myself to any one being."

It was then that Pan understood what her father had been trying to be as a teen, yet failed. In Gohan's failure to serve the world, and in going beyond anything Goku had ever done, Trunks had found the formula of success. To serve the world, one had to make sacrafices. One could not let things such as the strong ties of love cloud one's responsibility to the greater needs of the entire world.

Vegeta geniuinely smiled. His son would indeed surpass the Kakarrot line...in his own way. The son of Vegeta had learned the true meaning of being a good and just king. Indirectly, Trunks was going to rule the world through his deeds and actions to assist humanity in its progression to a greater good. No saiyan had ever tred such ground before. Not even goody good, Kakarrot. His son, born from the light torched upon Vegeta's heart through love, would blaze a new trail for the saiyan and human species alike. It was a whole other version of love. And, it was one all could accept. Though heartbroken, both Marron and Pan knew that it was better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Trunks was still their friend.

As the others acknowledged and took in the deep emotions and meanings of all this, Goten stormed in, sporting his goofy Son grin. "So, what'd I miss and when's dinner?"

THE END.

author's notes: There, finally complete! Depending on your perspective this ending may be taken in several ways. No matter, this is how I wanted it to end all along...hence the title to this portion of the fic. Sorry this conclusion seems a bit abrupt, but the last chapter was only meant to tie things together and bring the fic back to a lighter side. It took me a while to write because I was unsure if I wanted it to end exactly like this or not. But, my passion for this series is waning a bit as I take on an interest in a new series. Like other anime series, this one will be returned to, naturally, but at this point, I'm exploring new ground with a new series. I need to do that every now and then to keep my intersts and passions high for a hobby I love...anime and manga! I allow my readers to ponder this fic deeper in their own minds if they so desire. I hope it wasn't a disappointment. I know many of you had high hopes and aspirations for this final chapter. So much so that it was scaring me. Yet another reason I kept putting it off. But, alas, I'm only human and I can't elevate anything beyond what I plan for it to be. So please keep this in mind.