Squall had flown home with Joey after the bar incident, Trunks and Sepiroth in tow. He was going to run off so Joey could be restored with the evil essence but his controller didn't want to reveal his identity and position to Trunks and Sepiroth so he decided to let Joey off until he fully recovered and returned to normal so no one would be suspicious.

"What happened to him this time?" Vegeta groaned, he was getting really tired of Joey disappearing and coming back hurt or sick. He was starting to become a handful, he was past the worth of his keep and Vegeta was regretting ever unlocking the teen's potential. He was legal now, perhaps it was time for this 'grown up' to get out.

"I dunno, he'd gone back to the club and met with his friends. They did a song and he just passed out." Trunks explained, not fully sure what happened himself.

"Oh dear." Bulma sighed as she stared down at her unconscious son. "What ever am I going to do with him?"

"Darn you woman!" Vegeta growled and Bulma turned to him in shock. "Well, if you would stop babying him like you always do maybe he could do what you and I had originally intended and grow up!"

"But, do you think something might really be wrong with him?" Bulma grew fearful.

"I don't know, you're the smart medical one around here." He admitted quietly.

"Squall, do you know anything about what happened?" Sepiroth asked his brother.

"No." He shook his head.

"And are you telling the truth?" Sepiroth cocked an eyebrow in suspect.

"Yes." Squall nodded.

"Okay then." Sepiroth turned back to the situation. "Well I don't know what might be wrong with him, but rather than waste taking him to a hospital, why not just quarantine him in your sickbay recovery lab until he recovers? You can monitor him there."

"That's a great idea." Bulma realized and they took him to the infirmary. They put him in a bed as Bulma hooked him up to machines. "He might be out for a few days." Bulma said as she took the thermometer out of his mouth. "But this is really weird, he doesn't show any signs of being sick at all, his fever isn't even at 100." She read one read out. "At least his throat is fine, it's almost like he's faking, or hibernating or something."

"Well try this then." Sepiroth yelled in Joey's ear. "WAKE UP!"

"Hey…" Trunks grumbled, but of course Joey hadn't responded.

"And what else is odd is, his normal resting heart rate is 60 but on here it shows it as 75, so something's wrong. Is he under some kind of subconscious stress? What's going on here?" Bulma sighed.

"I don't know but he's been like that for two days already, something must be up." Sepiroth sighed angrily. "Maybe you should put him on immune system boost pills."

"Come on, we'd better leave." Vegeta stood up. "We'll watch him in shifts."

"Hey, you coming?" Trunks poked his head back in, Squall looked over at him and Trunks could tell something still wasn't quite right with him. "Come on, you'd better just leave him alone and let him rest up." Trunks left again and this time so did Squall.

As time passed, everyone grew eager for their turn to begin so they could be with Joey. They were all really worried. Each shift would be two hours and each person would have one shift, all in all the shifts equaled a full twelve hours. Puar had taken the first shift.

"Oh Joey, in yet another test." Puar sighed as he watched Joey sleeping peacefully. "You look so calm and quiet but yet there's something wrong with you only we don't know what is." Puar looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. "I remember all the time we spent together in the desert. You were so focused on your dad's solo training idea, you had no idea that he was gone and I was the only one you'd ever really had." He flashed back to one memory of Joey as a young boy, training at his home in the diablo desert.

Joey was very young, only a few years old, when Yamcha had been killed by Napa during the Saiyan invasion, Bulma had just left Yamcha and Joey at that time. He spent a few years training by himself and only Puar kept him company. At this time, Bulma was with Krillin and Gohan on Namek as Goku fought with Frieza and the Ginyu Force. Since the beginning, Yamcha had wanted Joey to grow up and be a strong fighter, so before he'd left to go protect the earth, he'd instructed Joey to do his solo training…

"Wow Joey, you're getting a lot faster." Puar smiled as he watched Joey punch the air.

"Thanks Puar." Joey smiled, about Gohan's age when Piccolo trained him. Joey crouched down and jumped up. "Hiya!" He did a spinning heel kick in the air, landing on his feet.

"That's amazing!" Puar cheered as Joey stood back up and bowed to Puar. "You're such a young warrior, you're just like your dad when I first met him."

"Hey Puar?" Joey asked as he sat down on a rock. "Tell me about my dad." Joey looked over to see Puar staring back. "I want to know what he was like."

"Well," Puar began. "He and I were bandits here in the desert, he led the Diablo Desert Gang. They've long since broken up because of your dad's departure. But we were cunning, vicious, nothing and nobody could stand in our way. We had respect. Then came along Goku, he was only about your age at that time but he gave Yamcha a run for his stolen money. That's also how he met your mom."

"My mom?" Joey stared blankly and Puar stopped himself and sighed.

"I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's okay." Joey gave a small smirk, petting him. "Thanks Puar." Puar smiled back.

Puar sighed as he opened his eyes and looked down at Joey. "I'm so sorry Joey."

"Hey Puar?" Puar turned at the voice, it was Trunks. "Your shifts over."

"Thanks. He's made no change, but nothing bad is something good." Puar floated out of the room and Trunks took his seat down where Puar had been sitting.

"Two hours." Trunks looked down at Joey. "Just you and me huh bud?" Trunks frowned as he stared at him. "Gees, what's with you man? I don't understand why. I don't get you sometimes, but I guess you're just you, we're different." He shook his head. "Boy, I remember the first time we met. Heh, what a shaky start to our friendship." Trunks recalled when Joey had knocked on their door and announced that Bulma was his mom. He thought to himself, "Wow, that sure was a shocker. Finding out that my mom had a kid with Yamcha before even meeting my dad." Trunks opened his eyes and smiled. "I guess you just never know who or what is out there. But I'm glad we met, I never knew what it was like to have a big brother, or rather stepbrother. Thanks Joey." The two hours passed quickly as Trunks reminisced about the good old times, finally Vegeta came in for his turn. Trunks snapped out of his thoughts. "Hmm? Oh hey dad. That time already?"

"Your two hours are up, it's time for my watch." Vegeta took his seat when Trunks left the room. He just stared around the room for about 15 minutes before looking down at Joey. He sighed angrily and groaned to himself, rolling his eyes before looking away. "Why do you have to be like this kid? This is not the boy I trained to be a warrior!" He spoke aloud now. "How many times have I told you to stop putting so much pressure on yourself? One minute you're egotistical and the next you attack yourself!" He growled. "Since the time we met I told you that you had potential and yet you still continued to stress out." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to calm down. "All that I've taught you, you'd better remember it. Look at yourself now, once again you've learned the hard way. You've made yourself so sick with all of your teenage human emotions that we don't even know what's wrong with you. Be a man, grow up! Be strong, I know you can be because you are." Vegeta stood up. "From day one I've taught you, have you learned nothing?" He growled, growing angry again. He wasn't mad at Joey, he was mad at himself. "Maybe it's time that we've all cut the leash and stopped treating you like a weak little child." He turned and began to walk out of the room before looking back. "You're on your own now kid." He walked out of the room, minus an hour and a half.

"Vegeta?" Bulma arrived and looked around. "Where is he, his shift isn't over." She folded her arms angrily. "Oh great, I bet he just strolled off early to take a short little breather." She growled and then looked over at Joey. She sighed and walked over, sitting down in the empty seat next to his bed. "Oh Joey. I can't help but think that this is all my fault. I only wish I could've been there for you, who knows what's wrong with you?" She was quiet for a moment and all of a sudden a small smile began to form. "Thinking about you makes me think back to when we first decided to get serious and have a child." She remembered back to when Yamcha and herself were still only going out. "So young…"

"I don't get it Yamcha." Bulma was sitting in her bedroom on the edge of the sofa.

"Don't get what?" Yamcha asked, turning away from the window.

"Goku is so happy now that he and Chi-Chi have had a kid." She looked over at Yamcha. "Do you think that if we had one our love life would become more, well, serious?"

"You… you wanna have a child?" Yamcha stuttered. "Are we even ready for that!"

"I think we are, just look at us and how close we are, and a son could only bring us closer together. We've been together for so long off and on, don't you think it's about time we matured, tied the knot and had a family of our own and strengthen our relationship? The whole reason we're off and on is we don't know our future together. People take kids seriously, they'll have to look at us different. I think we can do it, don't you?"

"Well I…." Yamcha gulped, he began to sweat nervously. "If you think so." He began to calm down and think about this. There was nothing going on in the world at that time, Raditz hadn't even come yet. Yamcha had a successful baseball career and Bulma was rich. This was the perfect time, if any, to have a baby. "Let's do it Bulma." She smiled.

That night, Yamcha lay in bed waiting for Bulma to come out of the bathroom. The moment seemed so magical as Bulma entered in a stride to music, wearing Yamcha's favorite silk outfit. He was in regular boxers. Bulma approached the bed but halted.

"Yamcha." She was beginning to have second thoughts. "Doing this would change the rest of our lives forever, I'm happy yet scared. Is there something wrong with me?"

"There's nothing wrong with me, loving you." Yamcha sang quietly to her as the music played quietly in the background. Bulma smiled, growing more relaxed at Yamcha's tone. "I promise, you can trust me. I will always be there for you and our family…" She gently crawled into bed as the rest of their lives would be changed forever indeed. "You know I'll always love you, no matter what. This baby will be the perfect thing for us."

"I never realized that Yamcha and I would grow on and off as time would go on. We never even got married after having you. Sure the idea came up and we wanted you to have a good upbringing, but then Raditz came and our lives took another dramatic change, we started fighting and I left him again, then I went to Namek after your dad died and…" Bulma sighed and began to rethink her whole process. "Our lives really did change forever, and so did yours. It didn't bring us closer as it did make us drift apart. I never meant to drift away from you, Joey… I'm sorry we've made this so hard for you. It's really all my fault after all!" Bulma began to cry.

"Hey, hey." A soft voice cut her off and Bulma turned around to see Sepiroth. He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "You gotta stop beating yourself up."

"The two hours are already up?" Bulma wiped her eyes and sniffed.

"Yeah." Sepiroth nodded. "Why don't you relax, you're making yourself too upset."

"Thanks Sepiroth." Bulma stood up and took a deep breath to calm down, slowly walking out of the room, then turned. "Just take good care of him and make sure he's alright."

"Don't worry, I will." Sepiroth smiled assuringly and Bulma left. Sepiroth sat down. "So, how you doing sport?" Joey gave the same answer he'd had to everyone else that day, nothing but silence. "Well, it looks like everyone's had a little stroll down memory lane with you hu kid? I can't say that I can. You and I barely got to know each other before this happened. We just talked and you seemed like an okay guy, but it doesn't look like you are right now. Hey, sorry about those stories, I hope you know that none of them are real. I, kinda like to get carried away sometimes you know? Heh." Sepiroth stopped and began to think. "This is just so wired, nothing's wrong with you at all, and yet..." He looked around at the different machines, everything was fine and normal. He shook his head and sighed, confused. "What's up with that, what's wrong with you?"

"Hey Sepiroth?" Sepiroth whirled around to see Squall.

"You?" Sepiroth glanced at the clock. "What are you doing here, it's only been half an hour! It's still my turn watching sleeping beauty."

"I'm not here to take over your shift brother, you're needed for a moment." Squall said. Sepiroth stood up and walked over, looking carefully at him.

"What's wrong, who wants to see me?"

"Trunks does, I don't know why, but I think it's about Joey and it's pretty important."

"Alright then." Sepiroth slowly walked out of the room. Squall watched him go and made sure he left before looking back at Joey.

"Good, it's about time he's gone." Squall smiled as he walked over. "We're alone. Now that nobody else is here, our master has already made plans for your preparations. And since everything's going accordingly, you and I will have no problem carrying out the rest of our mission, right?"

"Right." Joey smirked evilly as he awoke, his eyes were red before returning to normal.

"We have to go, your little episode has already put us way behind schedule." Squall opened a window. "Are we off then?" He turned around and Joey nodded. "Hm. Good." Squall nodded back and flew out the window. Joey ran over and flew off after him. About ten minutes later, Sepiroth was heard walking back down the hall and entered the room.

"Squall, I couldn't even find Trunks, and Vegeta said that nothing…." He stopped, noticing the room was empty. "Huh? What the…! Hey!" Sepiroth turned around, hearing footsteps running. It was Vegeta, he sensed something might be up and came over.

"What is it, what's going on?" He froze when he saw the empty room with the window open, the wind blew the curtains. Vegeta looked around. "Alright, where is he at!"

"What's the commotion, did something happen?" Trunks appeared and froze when he saw the empty bed. "Where did he go?"

"I don't know, but I think I know who does." Sepiroth growled angrily. "Squall." Something was going down, and he knew it. Whatever it was, it was gonna happen, soon. And it will happen next time, find out only on DragonBall Z!