"Things kept getting progressively worse over time, but we managed. Humanity managed, as it did take a while for things to progress. Gohan trained me, and he and Mom kind of both raised me as best they could. He kept trying to help me surpass my limits and reach a state called 'super saiyan'. He'd achieved it, as had Goku, and presumably my father. Perhaps if Goku had survived, he and Father together could've stopped the androids with it."

Trunks shrugged. "In any case, that was our hope. But I wasn't ready, no matter how much I thought I was. Or how much I tried. I couldn't do it. And we still did our best to try and stop the androids when we could--we were the only ones who had any chance. But....Gohan lost an arm protecting me." There's a slow blink, Trunks obviously trying to keep himself calm.

"A few weeks later, we were training, when the androids struck nearby Pepper Town. Gohan knocked me out, so I couldn't join the fight. We'd already lost so much--we were about to lose one more."

Trunks' fists were clenched against his legs, in remembered anger and pain.

"I woke up later, and went to Pepper Town to find him, to try and find them. It was raining. I...I found him. Lying facedown in a puddle, looking like a mouse that a Cat had played with and then discarded. I remember Rage--and pain welling up in me. I remember something unlocking, and I'd finally done it, while tears were streaming down my face. My, in some ways the new world's as well, greatest loss yet, and finally my achieving super saiyan as well.