Gine stirred from her afternoon nap, roused by her son's voice calling from the front door. It was a little over thirty-six hours since the ship bound for Namek had departed, taking a significant portion of Gine's family with it. She'd chosen to deal with that fact by spending most of those thirty-six hours not thinking about it.

She sat up and squinted as the red light of evening hit her eyes. Apparently her 'afternoon' nap had gone longer than she'd planned. At her age it wasn't physical fatigue that wore her down, but she was closer to fifty than she was to forty. Mentally that was a lot different than twenty, or even thirty, and the last few weeks had been full of stress and turmoil. Who knew how long she might have slept if Kakarot hadn't woken her?

"Ma, I wanna show you something!"

It was the same tone he'd used as a boy, tromping into the house with a frog in his hands. The only sign of the intervening years was his deeper voice and the larger collection of photographs on the walls of Gine's bedroom. He pushed the door open, immediately said, "Whoops, I forgot," shut it again, and then knocked loudly.

"Come in, Kakarot," she said, stifling a smile. He bounded in, grabbing her by the wrist.

"Come on, I wanna show you somethin'!"

She stood but went no further. "What is it?"

"It's a surprise!"

She rolled her eyes and let herself be led. He was probably going to show her a new training spot. He'd been cleared for exertion by Grandpa Gohan the previous evening, and he'd been making up for lost time ever since.

Gine was mildly annoyed at him for it. He'd endured the worst battle of his life scant weeks before, and become more powerful than nearly any Saiyan that had ever lived in the space of a year. What more was there to achieve? Why could he not take one second to be satisfied with the progress he'd already made? Her promise to continue training hadn't come to much so far, what with Kakarot's enforced rest and Chi Chi running around like a headless chicken trying to prepare for space travel. Half of her had hoped it would be forgotten entirely, but it seemed that was not to be.

Sure enough, he dragged her out of the house and into the air, but soon she realized they were heading towards the city— towards Capsule Corp. Kakarot kept sneaking glances at her, clearly wanting her to try to guess his surprise, but she had long ago learned to take what victories she could with her son, and did not give in.

It was for the best that she hadn't, because his 'surprise' was her old ship.

She stared at it, wires spilling out of its guts as it sat like a dead octopus in the middle of Capsule Corp's biggest warehouse. Scientists swarmed around it, taking measurements, soldering components, and Dr. Briefs stood in the center of the activity with a cigarette in one hand, absentmindedly petting the black cat on his shoulder with the other. He nodded slowly when he saw Kakarot.

"It'll be ready in about three weeks," he said. "Maybe four. But it'll be much faster than that other ship, so you might get there before they do. Well, maybe a little after. Depends on how hard the artificial gravity is to figure out. You never know with this alien tech."

Gine ignored him. "Kakarot, where did you get that?"

He gave her a tentative grin. "Gramps found it in a capsule. He said I could have it, and Dr. Briefs said he could turn it into a spaceship. It'll have gravity, and a place to train— It could hold both of us. We could both go to Namek. Together."

Gine did not know who to be more furious at: Grandpa Gohan, for going behind her back, Dr. Briefs for being an (unknowing) accessory, or Kakarot, for being Kakarot.

"I'm not going to space."

"Oh, ma, please? Pleeeeease?" Kakarot clasped his hands together like he was five years old. "I really wanna go to Namek and I really want you to come with me. You heard him, it'll be way faster. It'll only be for a little while. Please?"

"No," she said, and turned on her heel and flew away.

"Explain yourself." Gine stood solidly in Grandpa Gohan's way as he traipsed back from the forest with a load of firewood on his back. He looked up at her mildly, like she wasn't radiating fury.

"About what?"

"The ship," she growled. "Where did you find it?"

Gohan nodded.

"Ah, that. I finally remembered we'd decided to capsulize it, and then it was just a matter of finding the capsule. It took some doing, actually. We've been awfully behind on our New Year's cleaning, you know."

Gine shook her head slowly, too angry for words. Gohan set down his load with a sigh.

"I knew you wouldn't want it, and I saw no reason why Kakarot shouldn't have it."

"You—" Gine bit back a tirade. "What were you thinking? You know I don't want to go. Why are you taking his side?"

She felt petulant, and a little like crying, but she didn't care. Gohan understood her like no one ever had; he had to know what this was doing to her. So why was he doing it?

Compassion softened his face and he took her hand.

"My dear, I am not taking sides. You both need this, more than either of you know."

Gine shook her head vehemently. "I don't. I don't need to go back there. I never want to go back there."

Gohan spoke in that mild way of his that cut like a knife. "Do you plan to remain afraid of your past for the rest of your life?"

Several emotions cycled through her before finally settling on anger again.

"This isn't like with the Prince. That was just a childhood insecurity. I'm over it now. Being afraid of Frieza is just... sense."

"If it's Frieza you're afraid of, then why did you let Chi Chi and the others go alone?"

Caught by his logic, all she could do was bite her lip. He gripped her hand tighter, shaking it for emphasis.

"My dear, if you ever hope to be happy here, you must put your past to rest."

"I am— I have!"

"Then why does the thought of that pod fill you with such dread? The other reason I didn't give you the capsule is because I feared you might do something rash and destroy it."

It stung— but mostly because he was right. If he'd handed her the capsule and told her what was inside, she might well have crushed it before she could stop herself.

"And Kakarot needs this too," Gohan went on. "Surely you have noticed his behavior."

She had, but she'd been at a loss what to attribute it to. He had always been an independent child, more Saiyan-like than she had ever been, but ever since the battle he'd taken to following her around, watching her like a hawk, and giving her complicated, pensive looks she had no idea how to interpret.

"You think if we go on a road trip together it'll calm him down?" Her tone was acerbic, but she wanted him to say yes. She wanted Kakarot, at least, to be the constant in her life he had always been, even if everything else around her was changing.

Gohan studied her for a long time.

"You're his mother. What do you think?"

It was early the next morning. The sun was still an hour from rising, and fog lay thick around the little house in the woods. Gine wandered among the trees until she came to a waterfall, and sat beside it while the sun rose, thinking.

Frieza would find her and kill her, or he wouldn't. Vegeta would return and kill her, or he wouldn't. It wasn't them she was afraid of, out in space. It was… ghosts.

Here on this green and blue world, surrounded by beings almost like her, she could pretend to belong. She had a place here, a routine and a family to fit herself into. She was a mother, a granddaughter, a grandmother. She knew who she was, here.

Out there, in the firmament, surrounded by blackness and wires, she would have nothing to anchor herself to. The trappings of her Earth life would fall away, and all that would be left was the little weakling too useless even to be a scout.

She closed her eyes and drew in breath, letting the sweet, misty air fill her lungs to capacity. How much of her was still that little weakling and how much was the Earth woman she had worked so hard to become? How much of her old fears and insecurities, her destructive habits and cultural conditioning, had twenty five years been able to erase? Who was she, really?

These were not the kinds of questions you could avoid thinking, in a space pod.

Gine heard footsteps on the path behind her, and she turned to find Kakarot, still and pensive. He didn't say anything, just looked at her with wide, almost fearful eyes. She wouldn't be alone out there, she realized. She wouldn't be sitting alone in a claustrophobic pod, half-remembered dreams her only company for months on end. Her son would be with her. Her son, who apparently needed her.

"Alright," she said softly. "I'll go."