Twice Upon A Time
is a Dragon Ball Z Peggy Sue fanfic by NinjaWhisper. The story starts out some time after Bulma has died of lung cancer, with Vegeta lying on his deathbed. After telling his great-grandson Vegeta Jr. that he wishes he could wake up next to his dead wife, he drifts off to his death. He then awakens fifty-five years in the past with Bulma sleeping in a chair next to him while he recovers from being caught in the Gravity Room's explosion. At this, Vegeta realizes that Vegeta Jr. has used the Dragon Balls to grant Vegeta's wish. Vegeta makes the most of this unexpected development, using the knowledge and experience gained over the previous decades to alter events to his advantage. While changing the timeline for the better, Vegeta runs afoul of Hedoro, an old colleague of Dr. Gero's with unrequited feelings for the latter and a lot of experience with traveling to alternate timelines.
There are two related side stories: Reconstruction, a spinoff mostly concerned with Future Bulma's relationship with Future Vegeta after the latter is brought back to life with the main timeline's Namekian Dragon Balls, and Making Space, which is a one-shot about Goku adjusting to the changes his family have made to their lives in the one year since his death in the Cell games.
Twice Upon a Time and Reconstruction provide the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: At one point, Super Improved Cell worries about the fact that one of his components—a Yakumi alien named Ketchup—can telepathically contact her planet for help. The way it's phrased comes across as though it's building up to be a plot point, but nothing ever comes of it and Super Improved Cell is killed several chapters later.
- Adaptation Expansion: It's implied in Reconstruction that Goku picked up the heart virus while he was on Yardrat.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Downplayed with Vegeta, who is more powerful than he was at this point in canon due to his experience in his original timeline, to the point where he manages to beat Goku in a fight.
- Bulma trains until she has a power level of 100, making her the strongest woman on earth. In canon, she wasn't strong like the rest of the main cast, nor did she fight.
- Adapted Out: Android 16 is never so much as alluded to within the story, and he is presumably killed when Vegeta destroys Dr. Gero's lab.
- Age Lift:
- Bra is eight years older than she was in canon.
- Downplayed with Trunks, who is a few months younger than he was in canon due to being conceived at a later date.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Hedoro's feelings of attraction to Dr. Gero are left unreturned.
- Artistic License – Biology: Main timeline Trunks is conceived months after he was originally conceived in canon, while Bra was conceived eight years earlier than she was in canon. In reality, if a person's parents had conceived that person at a later or earlier date, then it wouldn't be that person—it'd be a completely different individual.
- At Least I Admit It: Vegeta reasons that the primary difference between humans and Saiyans is that while humans damage their environment and then try to absolve themselves of wrongdoing by not damaging all of it, Saiyans know that they’re conquerors who take neither souvenirs or prisoners.
- Baby's First Words: Trunks's first word is "Wo-man", which he learned from Vegeta.
- Back from the Dead: The Future Z-Fighters and Future Vegeta are revived using the Namekian Dragon Balls as Vegeta's gift to Future Trunks.
- Dead Fic: The story was last updated on July 10, 2016. A chapter in Reconstruction shows what the author intended for the story's future, however.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation
- In canon, Android 20 is killed when Android 17 kicks his head off. Here, he’s blasted into pieces by Vegeta after trying to drain energy from an unborn Trunks.
- Android 17 is killed (before he would've been woken up) when Vegeta destroys Dr. Gero's lab. In canon, he is absorbed by Cell.
- Cell is stepped on and killed by Super Improved Cell (the Cell from Dr. Gero's lab) before he can reach his Imperfect form. In canon, he is killed in his Perfect Form by Gohan.
- Bulma is killed by Hedoro seven years before her (canonical) death at the hands of Buu.
- Engineered Heroics: Bulma hires a worker from the Capsule Corp. manufacturing plant to pretend to rob her so that she can "stop" him as a way to prove to Vegeta that his training has paid off. The worker turns out to be a Spanner in the Works when he actually decides to rob her, forcing Bulma (and Trunks) to go on the attack for real.
- Erotic Eating: Bulma eats mayonnaise suggestively as a means of "torturing" Vegeta after she locks him in the gravity room in an attempt to get him to admit what's on his mind.
- Flesh Golem: At one point, Hedoro combines his and Dr. Gero's bodies together in a grotesque patchwork. The resulting amalgamation refers to itself as "Hedgero".
- Flight Is the Final Power: Inverted with Trunks, who learns to fly before he can walk and talk.
- Frying Pan of Doom: When Goku contacts Chi-Chi through King Kai, she grabs a frying pan and wields it like a weapon.
- Girlish Pigtails: Teddy Briefs wears her hair in twin pigtails.
- Groin Attack: After traveling back in time, one of the first things Vegeta tries to do is attempt to seduce Bulma, prompting her to knee him in the groin.
- Half-Identical Twins: Vegeta Briefs the Second and Teddy Briefs look identical to each other (though Teddy wears her spiky black hair in a different style).
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream: Bulma digs into a pint of Rocky Road ice cream after breaking up with Yamcha.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: Bulma is put in danger when Android 20 drains the Ki from an unborn Trunks.
- It's Personal: In response to Bulma's death at the hands of Hedoro, Vegeta seeks out Hedoro and fights him, barely escaping with his life the instant before Hedoro would've killed him.
- Lemon: Being M-rated fanfics, both Twice Upon a Time and Reconstruction have several, though they can be skipped.
- Literal Genie: Inverted, as Vegeta is pleasantly surprised to wake up in the past with Bulma sleeping at a desk beside him when all he hoped for was to be reunited with her in death.
- Lysistrata Gambit: Inverted, Bulma promises Vegeta more sex if he'll help out more around the house.
- Manchild: Vegeta refers to Goku as "a big child in a man's body".
- Maternity Crisis: Bulma goes into labor while Vegeta, Future Trunks, and Goku confront Super Improved Cell. The fact that Hedoro has sabotaged their plane doesn't help.
- Meaningful Name:
- "Hedoro" is Japanese for sludge/vomit.
- Ketchup and Mustard are Yakumi Aliens. In Japanese, "Yakumi" means "Condiments".
- My God, What Have I Done?: While training Bulma in the Gravity Room, Bulma shuts off the GR’s Gravity because she doesn't want to train anymore. In frustration, Vegeta launches a Ki blast at her, barely missing her in the process. He instantly regrets it, fleeing the scene in guilt immediately after.
- Mythology Gag: Vegeta transfers energy to Bulma in order to save an unborn Trunks in a manner similar to when Goku revived a bird in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge.
- Peggy Sue: Vegeta is sent back in time, waking up with Bulma sleeping beside him after the Gravity Room's explosion.
- Plot Hole: Despite Goku's wish to be revived a year after his death, Vegeta only revives Bulma, making Goku's reappearance in Making Space a mystery.
- Related in the Adaptation: In canon, Vegeta Jr. was Vegeta's great-great grandson. Here, he's Vegeta's great-grandson.
- Revenge by Proxy: In revenge for the deaths of Super Improved Cell and Dr. Gero, Hedoro murders Bulma and threatens Trunks.
- Shout-Out:
- Vegeta compares Bulma's mother to Lucy.
- When Trunks learns to fly, Bluma calls him "our own Superbaby". When Vegeta thinks that she means that he can go Super Saiyan, Bulma clarifies that he can fly like Superman.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: When Bulma protests that Vegeta needs to do more than just train her how to fly, he kisses her to get her to be quiet, amongst other reasons.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Android 18 doesn't get absorbed by Cell in this story.
- Future Trunks doesn't die at the hands of Cell (see below).
- Taking the Bullet: Rather than let Future Trunks be killed by a Ki blast from Cell (as he was in the original timeline), Vegeta pushes Future Trunks out of the way from a similar blast from Super Improved Cell, taking the attack instead.
- This Cannot Be!: Thought verbatim by Vegeta while losing a fight against Hedgero.
- Training from Hell: Bulma views the training she receives from Vegeta in the Gravity room to be hellish.
- Trust Password: In order to convince Future Bulma that he is who he says he is, Future Yamcha starts talking about their first time together. Realizing that it's him, Future Bulma cuts him off before he can finish the story.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Hedoro tampers with the plane that Bulma, Vegeta, Goku, and Future Trunks have taken to investigate the time machine that Cell arrived in by cutting some wires and removing some engine parts, preventing Bulma from leaving when she goes into labor.
