Disclaimer: DBZ and whatever shows up (especially some of Opal's attacks in chapters to come) do NOT belong to me! So don't sue meeeee…. *wails* Opal is mine, so in the words of my older sis Juuhachi-gou: "Rip us off and DIE!"

Opal: Exacticly. Besides, I recently got swearing lessons after falling into the South Park universe. Getting your ears, eyebrows, and any other body hair burned off by profanity is painful.

Author's note: A biiiiiiiig thank you to my friends: Opal, Ikaria (AKA the REAL Seikimatsu), Myuusa, Lugia-kun, Runi-chan, Andreas (go little sis, the Queen of dis! BWAHAHA!), Kasey, Jerono, Kudo, Cyan, and Jeremy.

And of course...

Uji-gami no Trunks! Daisuki, ashke! Hehehe…

WE HAVE MUSHINESS BETWEEN OPAL AND TRUNKS! FINALLY! If you think Trunks is yours, console yourself with this thought: this is a completely different Trunks. Go ahead and like the Mirai Trunks of DBZ, but Mr. Teddy Bear Trunks here is MINE. If you have to, feel free to print out several copies of this story to burn and otherwise mutilate.

And now, on with the show!

There is never just black or white; there are only all the…

Shades of Gray

Chapter Four: Silver

***O***

"ON YOUR LEFT!" Opal yelled, grinning, as she threw a punch.

Trunks grunted as she hit him hard in the right side of his ribs.

"Cheater," he winced; despite the fact that she was only half trained, she was still more powerful than he was. That punch would leave a bruise in the morning.

She twinkled at him. "Who says? Besides, if this was a real fight---"

He finished for her. "---There would be no rules, I know. Its not fair that you get to quote the stuff that I should be quoting at you, seeing as I'm your sensei…"

"Be-da," was her only reply, as she promptly pulled the classic Japanese insult and shot through his legs to kick him in the small of the back.

"Hey--- UMPH!"

He spun around to face thin air… then hit the ground, unconscious, as Opal yanked out his sword and hit him over the head with the butt.

"Trunks? You okay?"

No response.

Opal promptly began swearing; this wasn't the first time she had accidentally knocked him out. She drifted lower…

And froze as his arms shot up to grab her feet. Before she could move, Trunks had grabbed her.

She struggled, kicking at him and hissing, cat style.

"Hanash'te, anata hiretsukan no hentai!

"Henta--- AHH! KISAMA!"

Opal had managed to get enough leverage to kick him, where it counted.

"Kuso… what was that for?"

She gave him a glare that could have easily frozen hell over.

"You grabbed me," she groused, and folded her arms over her chest to make sure he knew where he had grabbed her.

Trunks promptly went very, very, red,

"A-anou… g-g-gomen…!"

She twinkled again.

"Na, s'okay. You don't fight with girls often, after all…"

"Hn…"

It had been about 6 months since Opal had arrived in that world, in the body of one of the evil jinzouningen. It had taken a while for her to get used to things, to shed her cloak of morning and get on with her life. Fortunately, it had taken about the same amount of time for Bulma and the other towns-people to get used to her; by the time she was ready to live again, the world was ready for her. One thing had helped very much though: despite how he had been portrayed in many a fanfic, Trunks had been very reasonable about the whole thing. Unlike his many jinzouningen-hating counterparts, he believed that she was not Seikimatsu, and could have named many reasons why.

And, of course, now that she was happy and feeling reasonably at home, she had taken up her old Trunks worshipping ways.

Heh. I actually didn't mind being grabbed that much. Ooh, naughty naughty. And to think I called him a hentai…

Her fanfic knowledge was very useful, actually. When Cell had shown up, she had had the idea of pulling a Walk This World and talking Bulma into cloning the Z-senshi. So far it was working, but she wasn't going to tell Trunks a thing about it anyway. She had also come up with several other, less major ideas: the BOSS from The Taming of Trunks, for example.

Damn. What's taking so long? Piccolo should be waking up about now…

There was a sudden ki blip as something shot out of CC and headed straight for her.

Ai sheva. Me and my big mouth…

"All right, you. You are going to pay for killing me…" came the rusty sounding voice of the Namekseijin.

WTF?!?!

Several strong punches hit her across the jaw. She winced and slid under his guard, then hit the ground and played dead, in the hopes he would stop attacking her.

"Piccolo! DAME DA!"

"CHIKUSO! YAMETE!!!!!!!!!!!"

Two voices sounded out at once. Opal opened her eyes a little bit.

"Seiki-saisho-chan! It's okay. Momotte ageru."

She pulled herself to her feet and rolled her eyes.

"Protect me? Shumimasen, but whom did I just beat in a sparring match, less than five minutes ago? And what does seiki-saisho mean?" He'd used that nickname before.

He grinned, embarrassed. "Touché. The nickname means the opposite of 'Seikimatsu': beginning of a century."

Piccolo interrupted, imitating Opal. "Shumimasen, but WHY THE HELL ARE YOU PROTECTING THE JINZOUNINGEN THAT KILLED YOUR FATHER AND I?!?!"

Killed… oh. Oh no, I couldn't have…!

An old fear swelled within her.

Trunks blinked. "Killed… my father…?"

"Yes. That… that thing… killed all of us. The other two jinzouningen weren't strong enough for us then… so they sic'd her on us instead."

Silence. For one moment, a horrible silence. Then, a heart-rending cry split the air as Opal took off, Piccolo's words ringing in her ears.

"Killed us. Killed all of us. GOD DAMN FUCKING MURDERER!"

*******

Opal landed, finally, on a plateau, not too far away. There was a large crater in the middle, and a red bandanna and a blue vest could be seen, weighed down by bits of rocks.

It was the place where she had first come into this world… and at the same time, the place of her death.

No no no get out of my head… GET OUT!

For she was Seikimatsu in a way; one moment she would be her, then Seiki-saisho/Opal another. One moment, a girl stuck in a strange world, the next, a killer who had given in to a temporary weakness.

She was afraid she would stop being able to tell which was which.

"Seiki-saisho!"

Leave me alone… LEAVE ME ALONE!

"Opal."

She looked up, face stained with tears, tears she should not, could not be shedding. She wasn't human, right?

Or was she?

She couldn't remember anymore…

Strong arms picked her up, wiped away her tears.

"Trunks…?"

"Shhh… I'm here."

The girl/jinzouningen/? sobbed brokenly.

"What… what am I…?"

Still holding her, the purple haired boy looked at her.

And, this time, he really saw her. He saw her, the mass of sadness, angst, and confusion that she'd become.

And said the exact right words.

"Seikimatsu, Seiki-saisho… Opal… it doesn't matter. You are you, and a rose, by any other name, would still smell just as sweet."

A sound of clapping. "Bravo… bravo. How very touching."

Another voice. " A beautiful speech…"

Finally, the third and last. "Hn… you would make such a cute couple. Too bad you won't live that long…"

*******

Muwahahaha! Yet another evil cliffhanger! Not too big of one tho… you can prob'ly guess who two of the mystery people are. Especially with that quote I popped in… I'll do a special drawing for the first person to review with the correct answer for those two speakers… Kasey, you don't count. I KNOW you know who two of the people are (especially since that one quote is our little favorite inside joke!) but I'll do a drawing for you anyway, V^_^