A/N: A HUGE thank you goes to 3 eye cowboy. He supplied me with a plethora of information on Tenshinhan, hence any congruency with the actual manga/anime can only be credited to him. Thanks, man!

THE DAY THAT GARLIC JR. INFECTED THE WORLD WITH THE BLACK WATER MIST… (OR MORE ACCURATELY, THE MOMENT KAMI AND MR. POPO COUNTERED IT WITH THE SACRED WATER AND EVERYONE CAME TO THEIR SENSES…)

PROLOGUE

Peaches, peppermint - some heady floral aroma, and…sweat?

Taste and smell. Those two senses were regained before his other three. It wasn't much, but it was enough to know that whatever he was doing - it wasn't familiar. Then 'feel' hit, and he was suddenly bombarded by an intoxicating, sensual warmth that seemed to encompass...everything.

For the first time in Tien's life, the harmonious unity of his spirit and flesh was completely disrupted, as he realized that his body had been acting without his awareness. Terrified, his eyelids peeled open only to find his face attached to someone else's beneath him - someone whose feline, copper eyes mirrored his own fright and shock in ruthless detail.

He gasped and rolled off.

She screamed.

He fumbled through a tangling of limbs and sheets until he fell back over the foot of a bed. Landing with an unceremonious 'thud' on the floor, he contemplated jumping to his feet - until he saw how completely buck-naked he was.

A small yelp escaped his lips and he yanked the cover off the bed and wrapped it around his torso. Granted, it was nowhere near his usual semblance of dignity, but at least he was modest, and he braved a look up at the woman he'd been with.

She had a sheet bunched up in both fists against her chest. Her chestnut hair was beyond disheveled, with a distracting chunk of white strands intertwining with the brunette from a birthmark atop her scalp. And her exotic face…

Under normal circumstances he might have seen beauty, or elegance. However, in this chaotic moment, all he saw was expression. And she was going from horrified to furious.

"YOU!"

He choked, still trying to calm his body down from an activity he never gave it permission to do. "I…what…" He frowned denial. "I don't know you, lady!"

"You BASTARD!"

He saw the flash of her teeth, and she moved as though to attack him. When the sheet slipped past her bronzed shoulder, however, she gasped and sat back on the bed, tugging it up to her chin. Her eyes watered then with a soul-piercing cocktail of loathing and mortification. "What the hell did you give me!"

"Nothing! I don't even know where I am, let alone how we…ended up…like that-"

"LIAR!" She screamed, and a sob leaked out. "Why! You already destroyed one of us, but now you've sought to break MY spirit, too?"

"What?"

"After all these years? To seek me out-"

"What are you talking about!" He cried, almost hysterical with confusion. "I've never even seen you before!"

She didn't believe him, apparently, because at that point her scowl darkened and she started to frantically scan the room. Tien figured it was for something to throw at him, and having no desire to prolong the most awkward situation of his entire life, he quickly located his pants in the corner and went to retrieve them.

"Hey!" she screamed behind him. "You're not leaving here without giving me the chance to kill you! I've trained my whole life for this moment!"

Huh!

"This is…insane," he stammered incredulously, and without waiting for her comeback, he powered up and crunched straight through the ceiling and fled into the afternoon sky.

The cool air that pushed against him as he flew did little to clear the pandemonium in his head. Convinced for several brief seconds that he was lucid dreaming, Tien pinched the inside of his arm - hard - in an effort to focus his tumbling thoughts as his panic frenzied for attention.

It didn't work. He swore. As if an indication of where he was might trigger the memory of how he'd ended up here, the three-eyed fighter scanned the ground below to get some bearing on his location. Little bits of information blitzed across his consciousness before being swallowed up in his vortex of confusion.

Mountain community.

Why was I here? Where's Chaotzu?

Medium-sized town, populated streets…

Who was that girl?

The people - bronze-skinned, sleek-haired, slightly pointed ears…

Feline eyes, like that girl's…

The knowledge washed over him like a cold shower. The People of the Caídos. Their unique, ethnic distinction told him he was near the Dodoian Mountain range. Unfortunately, it did little to relax him, as all his run-ins with the Caídos had been less than pleasant. Their culture was rigid, their temperaments hot, and they were openly prejudiced against those who weren't of their kind.

What the hell happened to me?

To his surprise, there were no gawking eyes, or pointing fingers as he soared over them. It was as though they were too distracted to notice he was even there, some gawking at the street signs, and others staring at their hands as though surprised to find them attached to the end of their wrists… Tien blinked and narrowed his eyes. They're all dazed…

Like me…

Whatever happened, it was on a large scale. He had slowed as he tried to analyze the situation. The the lightening air friction enabled her lingering aromas to trail up to his nose, and he realized that her scent was all over him. His tongue tugged involuntarily on his bottom lip as he sucked it between his teeth. The minty residue of whatever balm she'd been wearing still clung to his mouth, and he shook himself in frustration to focus his thoughts.

In a quick move, he let the bed sheet slip off his form and slipped on his pants, and it was then that he thought about Lunch. An unbidden, acute guilt formed in the pit of his stomach. He grunted with unease. Why did he feel like he'd cheated on her even though he had no control or recollection of what he'd done? Besides, he hadn't seen his old girlfriend since he abandoned her a few years back when he went to go train at the Lookout.

Agh… The feeling in his gut spread to his chest and squeezed his heart. He winced at the painful memory, made more so uncomfortable by the fact that he never sought her out later to patch things up. He usually tried not to think about it, and again found himself fixating on how he'd come to his senses in this strange place, with that strange girl, and engaged in no innocent act.

Suddenly, his stupefied train of thought was yanked into attention when he sensed a familiar surge of power in the distance. He frowned. It couldn't be Goku, yet it was similar…

He gasped. Goku's boy? Yes. It was him. And something else… Some force much more corrupt and evil.

No sooner had he noticed the darker power than it seemed to dissipate, shortly followed by the dwindling energy of Goku's son. Whatever struggle had occurred, it felt like it was over. He turned himself in that direction, figuring when he found the child, he'd know what infected his mind to land him in bed with that Caída girl.

His earlier dilemma pushed aside, Tien powered up and sliced through the air at his top speed. If he couldn't be there for the fight, then at least he'd be there to help pick up the pieces. Hopefully the boy was still alive.

Hang in there, kid. I'm coming!

.

A/N: I just have to tell you guys that that was THE hardest scene to write without mentioning body parts!