Bulma couldn't take it anymore, there'd only been one large crash and then complete silence, with no sign of her older self. Her molars ground together and one of her cherry-red fingernails had been bent from the sheer pressure she was exerting on the arm holds. Terrified question after terrified question raced through Bulma's mind. Had she been ambushed? Had she been taken in by the androids? Had the device worked? What was taking her so long?!

She scowled and decided fiercely, "I am not going to let myself die in there!" Picking up her capsules, she turned the engine completely off and opened the door.

It was as she looked up, that she saw the strangest of images.

Vegeta walked calmly out of the doorway with two electronic devices in his hands. The deactivator and android tracker. She simply gaped as he smirked that irritating little grin of his and blasted off with a trail of white light trailing behind.

Vegeta? She thought, dazed. How in the world did Vegeta get here? In this time he's dead. Unless… She gulped. Unless he's…a…ghost?

"Well, that's two. Possibly four androids down so far," her older voice cut into her thoughts. In her shock, she had not even noticed the older woman walk out of the laboratory.

Stuttering and pointing one finger vaguely in Vegeta's direction, she asked, "Wah—Was that…Was that…?"

Older Bulma put her hands on her hips and stated, "Yeah. That was Vegeta. Looks like he hitched a ride somehow. Typical Saiyan. Goku never managed to get a driver's license either." Before her younger self had a chance to catch up, the older, blue eyes fixed on her. "Speaking of which. You have the time machine with you, I hope."

Assuming the worst, the fiery, young woman turned on herself and stomped a foot stubbornly. "I am not getting sent back now. I won't let you fight those androids alone and I have just as much right to fight as—"

"I'm not sending you back yet!" Bulma shouted to get the annoying voice to stop. It was hard not to lose her temper with the girl, she never thought of anything besides herself. Was I really this bad? Bulma asked herself, putting one hand to her forehead and forcing herself to calm down. After a few deep breaths, she managed, "I just need you to open it up and look at what modifications you made to the original system. That's all."

"Oh." The short, blue hair seemed to deflate as the younger girl pulled out a capsule obediently and activated it. In a second, the tiny capsule was replaced by the many legged and golden time machine.

The older woman walked up as if in a trance and reached up one arm tentatively. With shaking fingers, she slowly traced the letters…H…O…P…E…

It was so long ago, that she had written this script and waved farewell to her lilac haired, Saiyan son. So long ago…

With some difficulty, she pulled herself from the past and forced herself to focus on the matters at hand.

Her younger self was already climbing around on the inside of the ship, banging on one wall here and pushing buttons there.

Just when the older woman was starting to wonder just how many modifications her younger self had made to the tiny ship, there was a undoubtedly colorful and utterly unintelligible set of yells from inside the cockpit followed by a clear, "Vegeta!!! I swear! I'm gonna kill him!!"

One blue eyebrow raised in amusement as Vegeta's soulmate called, "Let me guess, you figured out where the Prince's first class seat was located."

One manicured hand rose over the side of the cockpit and gestured for her friend to come and see for herself. Bulma climbed the ladder, one of the many modifications that had been made to the ship since she had sent Trunks away in it. She folded her arms and rested them on the wall, tilting her head to see around her younger self in the cramped space.

There was a metal grate removed from the wall to the left side of the only seat. Bulma smirked. Yeah, the space looked just big enough for one person to slip in. And if he were strong enough, he could hold the grate in place even during the shifting gravity sequence. "But what did you put there in the first place?" She asked.

The younger woman stood up, brushing dust off of her clothing and indignantly muttered, "Ugh. I should have known. I thought I was just imagining his laughter, but no…he actually heard me. Darn it. And I bet he feels so smug right now." She punched the palm of her hand and explained, "I didn't know how long I'd have to stay in that machine. For all I knew, it took a long time to travel through time. So, I rewired a lot of the stuff and made space for my stereo system. That jerk! He probably smashed it. If so, I'm making him pay to use the gravity simulator. See what he thinks of that!"

Bulma laughed with nostalgia. It would be quite a while until her younger self realized that she kind of liked to grind her teeth and yell at someone without them backing off. It sure had taken older Bulma quite a while to really miss it after it was gone.

Oh, Vegeta… she thought, turning her head in the direction her heart told her he was in. For all our sakes, please beat those two…and come back alive...for me.