Many years earlier...

"Look, I really don't have time for this!" Goku pleaded with increasing exasperation, as he attempted to pick up the loaf of bread that had fallen out of the bag when the strange man in the ski mask had knocked from his hands. He responded by cocking his handgun again.

"Don't move a muscle, or I put one in your knee before your head."

Goku was not at all intimidated by that tiny lemon squeezer he was pointing. But Goku knew that he was late and could not afford to be late. He needed to be somewhere, now. "I haven't got any money! And I need these." He gestured to the groceries strewn across the dirt road. The man just smirked.

"I don't want anything you've got; I'm here for pay back." His voice was ominous and aflame with malice as he steadied the crosshairs on Goku's chest. "My brother couldn't kill ya, so I will."

Dawn had broken and the sun could be seen, a red crack on the distant horizon behind Goku, silhouetting the grand mountain before him stretched tall and fierce, but a less annoying issue than this moron. Goku fixed the stranger with a steely gaze, hoping to intimidate him enough to avoid last month's fiasco all over again.

'No such luck', he thought to himself as the idiot droned on. 'Oh these bad guys and their speeches: 'Blah blah blah vengeance, blah blah blah vendetta, blah blah blah, hey Goku, I'm wastin' your time!' Didn't he understand that time was of the essence here!?

"LOOK!" Goku raised his voice in order to stifle out the incessant raving, his patience quite evaporated. "The bullet bounced off my chin, bounced off the wall and hit your brother's spine; it wasn't my fault he didn't get out of the way! I'm in a hurry, so get the hell out of here!"

He advanced forward, picking up groceries as he went; ignoring the further threats and spurious insults, the exclamations of his apparent lies and the furious bangs of the handgun discharges that seemed to tickle slightly as they bounced off Goku's back. He really must get back in shape; bullets were starting to tickle again.

Goku's thoughts were interrupted by another sound, no rant or insult from the loser behind him, but a high pitched consistent beeping. But the sound emanating from the small black wrist watch supposedly had some significance to Goku, because he swore and began to pick up packages and bottles as fast as he could. His hands moved with such swiftness, they were more pinkish blurs that normal hands. His panicked motion only stifled when another gunshot rang out; piercing the small glass bottle and inch from Goku's outstretched hand.

Goku watched in dawning horror as the last of the bright yellow liquid dribbled out onto the hot gravel, and within an instant, it was gone. His eyes narrowed as the man began to laugh, laugh at the old man doubled over in the dirt...like the punk he was.

"KAIO-KEN!"

"I'm home!" Goku called out as he closed the door behind him. A whimper from the bedroom confirmed his fears. Goku threw down the groceries and burst through the door. In the absence of its regular cleaning, the bedroom had fallen into disrepair. Unwashed sheets obscured the carpet almost entirely; the bedside tables and windowsills were lined with empty medicine bottles and pain killer boxes. Food wrappers covered the faded white bed sheets, used up and cast away by the ancient woman in the centre of the bed opposite the door. She appeared to be in a state of half consciousness; her eyes, which were almost obscured entirely by wrinkles were half open and slow wheezing breaths emanated from the old woman's mouth, which hung ajar.

Upon Goku's unsubtle entry to the bedroom however, the old woman's eyes slowly cracked apart, her eyes focused on the door immediately. Despite her acknowledging Goku's appearance, he facial expression did not change, she seemed to be too tired. Her shrunken hands looked almost skeletal as they shakily rose from the bed covers, like the hands of a strange pale white mummified corpse. Goku wrenched a bottle of medicine from his coat pocket and breezed across to the old woman, kneeling down and leaning in close to her.

"Hey Chi chi, sorry I'm late."

"Goku...are you alright?" her voice was faint and wavering, as if the time speaking was depriving her lungs of more air and her body wasn't happy about it. "Did something happen?" Goku smiled and shook his head.

"Nothing at all; look, it's been three hours" Goku motioned to his watch and Chichi's eyes drifted over the bottle in her husband's hand. "It's time for you to have another dose."

Chichi looked at Goku again, and her face finally changed. The loose dreamy limpness had given way to a scrunched up grimace of disgust. "Already? I hate taking that stuff..." She then looked imploringly at her husband's solemn smile. "Could I have some juice to wash it down, dear?" Goku's face fell instantly; he recalled the bottle that had been smashed by that jerk with a gun.

"Sorry babe, I had some...but I lost it." Goku expected his wife's face to fall in disappointment, but her eyes flashed with sudden anger. It was miraculous how she could still intimidate in her old age. Gone was the raspy old lady voice and dreamy expression. In their place were fiery eyes, adding to the sharpness of her tongue.

"I knew something happened, you shouldn't lie to me! You know I hate that!" Chichi's eyes narrowed as she scolded Goku, who jumped back and hung his head. He was kind of used to this by now.

"Look...sigh, just give me the medicine." And as quick as the anger had come, it had dispersed. Goku was relieved by this; but not surprised; one of his sons shared the same trait. Chichi held her breath and downed the medicine, displaying vitality unlike anything Goku had seen in her for a while; she stretched and made to get up. Unfortunately, this is where her facade put too much strain on her, and Chichi fell down onto the bed again, and Goku helped her back into a lying position. She grimaced and resumed her wheezing and dreamy expression.

"You shouldn't do that" Goku spoke in little more than a whisper. "You don't have to be strong for me." He took Chichi's shaking hand and they sat for a moment in silence. It was spring time, and the sound of bird song could be heard from the trees outside. Chichi only spoke when she was sure she had selected the right words, she sat up slightly and placed her right hand on both of Goku's which cupped together on her left. They're eyes met and Chichi scrutinized her beloved's face for a moment. His hair remained unchanged, unlike his face which had not been shaved for about two weeks. She was not sure how he felt about it, but Chichi thought he looked much more handsome when he shaved. His eyes were tired from his own age and what with taking care of her. Yes, his face was lined alright...but not as lined as hers.

"It was so nice for Bulma to leave us all this money, It came in handy in the end didnt it?"

"Have you spoken to Vegeta lately?"

Goku smiled truly at the name. "Well, he hasnt saud anything, Ive seen him in the desert, he hasn't stopped training, even though Bulma..."

The sadness of the loss crept back into Goku's heart, and the pity he felt for Vegeta throbbed in it too.

"Goku...do you think you could promise me something...before I die."

"Don't say that, you'll be fine, I'm sure of it." Chichi gave her husband a very serious look and he hastened to add "-b-but sure I can promise you somethin', shoot."

"I...I want you to give up fighting...after I'm gone."

...

The request hung on the air for a good long while until Goku summoned up the most intelligent response he could think off. "Uh...what? Chichi, I'm fine. I don't need to-"

"You don't understand!" Chichi intended to have shouted, but the sudden faltering of her lungs had softened her voice even more, her body seemed to be seriously totalled from her standing up attempt earlier. "I always knew. That's why I kept on letting you go."

"What are you talking about?" Goku was quite unsure what to think. He was the strongest man on the planet, why would he need to retire?

"Because..." and Chichi's voice was quieter than ever. "Whenever you went off to fight...I comforted myself with the thought that I could always be here, to patch you up and take care of you. I was scared of whether or not you'd come back to me...like that one time you didn't come back..."

Chichi trailed off, the thought clearly too unpleasant to bring up. "But...when I'm gone-"

"Don't say that, you-"

"WHEN I'm gone, who will be waiting at home when you burst in half dead when another Cell happens?"

Goku opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again at the sight of his wife's face, not flushed with anger this time, but whiter than snow. Chichi had rested her head back to lie down and her eyes had slowly begun to close. "Promise me."

"Chichi, what's wrong?!"

"Promise me..."

"Honey, you're hands are freezing!"

"Promise me!" Goku jumped when she raised her voice out of nowhere, but did not leave his wife's side.

"Okay; okay I promise, jeez!"

Chichi's eyes were tiny slits when they opened and the smile was almost imperceptible. She blinked hard to get the tears out of her eyes. Her grip on Goku's hand was starting to slacken.

"Chichi?" Goku whispered reality dawning on him as horror gripped his heart. The tears had started to flow out in earnest and Chichi had managed to grin up at her husband.

"You know...this one time...I told someone about you. How I married a super hero from another world, about how we moved to a little house on a mountain top...how he gave me two beautiful smart children, who are big successes now...and she didn't believe me."

Chichi giggled, it was hoarse and her voice was slightly raspier afterwards. Goku felt a lump come into his throat, and his eyes began to fill up too.

"I guess...that's just how special what you gave me was...and...I'm sorry It couldn't last forever."

"Please don't say that" Goku couldn't hear the birds anymore, nothing in the world existed but that one spot where he knelt. Chichi's smile faded, and she looked truly peaceful. Her grip was getting looser by the second, but Goku hung on all the tighter for it.

"Hey...you'll...keep your promise...right?" When Chichi spoke now, it was in a whisper, and she did not open her eyes. Goku leaned in, desperate to keep her close to him. He grabbed her hands more directly, and she gripped his in returned, but only barely.

"If you helped me, then I could."

...

Silence followed the moments upon moments Goku waited for a reply. The terrible fear that he had been quashing in his stomach was starting to boil over, and he was just about to remove his hands from his beloved, when they tightened ever so slightly around his own.

"...Oh I'll be with you Goku...my dear...Goku"

There was a long final exhale, and Chichi's hands slackened completely.

"No, don't! Come on…you can do it! You're ok, just take my hand. Chichi?!"

Reality was trying to set in but Goku couldn't let it, he wouldn't believe this was happening; he didn't want to believe it. But the absence of motion in his better half's chest where there had been a lot a moment before made it clear. Goku leaned over his wife's body, his own hands just as shaky as hers had been before...Goku leaned in, and kissed his wife on the lips...for the last time.

Then he fell back, and gave in to despair. He still thought the birds merely on mute, but they did not sing once the deed was done, they sat in their trees outside the house in vigil. They refrained from breaking the silence in what seemed to be a final terminal gift. It seemed to say: 'Goodbye, and thank you for everything.'

"Kakarot, hey Kakarot!"

Vegeta called out before knocking roughly on the front door of the dark house, only to have it swing on its hinges and scraped on the dusty floor, coming to a stop when the door was half open. The darkness within did not deter Vegeta, or his bad mood. Shoving the door open fully and storming in.

"Kakarot! Get out here!"

Vegeta marched around Goku's dark house, throwing open doors and flicking on lights. He almost wished he hadn't, the place was in terrible shape, the dust and messy floor gave it an air of neglect. A twinge of concern flitted across Vegeta's mind just for an instant. He didn't know why, that fool would get acupuncture before he let anything happen to that wife of his. Vegeta stopped at the thought of the word 'wife', his finger on a light switch. It was after all... two years ago now... he switched on the light and continued his search.

Vegeta found Goku in the master bedroom, sitting on a wooden chair next to his sleeping wife. The old fool's face was alarming, chalk white and emotionless, inconsolable. Vegeta had never seen him like that before, and as he opened his mouth to try and snap him out of whatever trance he was in, Vegeta saw that Kakarot was holding his wife's pale limp hand, and understanding broke over Vegeta like a wave over a sinking ship.

Goku's chin lazily rose at Vegeta's presence; his face was limp like his wife's, it had none of it peace. It was saggy and grey in the dingy light, flecked with dry tear stains. His eyes were blotchy and red, pink and bloodshot from lack of sleep. Vegeta thought that he must have been crying all day. He said nothing as Vegeta approached him, but his head sagged back down again when Vegeta was close enough to speak without shouting.

"Is...Is she...?" Vegeta asked softly. Goku spoke in a croaky weary whisper, eroded by hours of despair. But it sounded on the verge of further sobs.

"Vegeta...I...I don't..." But words failed him and Goku fell silent again. Vegeta turned to look at Chichi, her grey patchy hair and her vacant expression. He would not show it, but the sight of her lifeless body was genuinely upsetting to him. She had always been so fierce and full of life...yet here she was; the wife of Kakarot...stone dead.

"I could pull some strings back in the city...get her a big tomb." Vegeta turned back to Goku, and saw him shake his head. He had gotten weakly to his feet, the same lowly emptiness in his eyes, but a scowl of conviction replacing his pallid expression.

"No, she lived here...I don't want that to stop."

Vegeta nodded and looked back at Chichi. "I guess we should bury her then; come on, this place is depressing."

The sun had started to set over the mountain and the shadow of the house began to lengthen in the deep orange light, along with the broad white stone that sat before it. A large patch of recently shifted earth lay before two shadowy figures as they looked at the stone. In a flash of motion, the one on the left had sliced the stone back with was seemed to be his own hand, until it resembles a rectangle. The man on the right then leant down in front of it for a few long seconds. When he drew back, words had been burned into the shiny stone. A monument for future generations to see and remember:

Here lies Chichi, a passionate and loving wife and mother.

Goku stepped back to admire the grave, he had wanted to write more, but did not feel all too poetic right now. Somehow it felt better to just keep it short and sweet. He sniffed and felt Vegeta tap him on the shoulder.

"Kakarot; let's go, I want a word."

"Sure thing...just gimm'e a sec" and Goku vanished into his house once again. It was a good ten minutes before he returned, Vegeta was actually about to go in after him when Goku emerged, clutching a short orange stick in his hand. It was his power pole. Vegeta had no idea what the silly thing was, oblivious to the sentimental value that it held for Goku, how he had held this pole since he was a child, how he was wearing it when he met her. Goku walked slowly over to the grave, holding the pole in both his hands, kneeling down and placing the small weapon against the white stone.

"Until we meet again."