Piccolo:

The pain was so unexpected that he had to go down on his knees. Gasping, he grabbed at his chest, almost expecting to see a fist-sized hole there, but he was unharmed.

"Papa!" Menka came running up to him and touched him on the shoulder. "What about mum?"

Despite the inexplicable situation, he had to smile briefly. His daughter, even with only a few years, was able to grasp situations much faster than anyone else.

"Papa, what is it?" Reyak too landed beside him.

"I no longer feel the connection with your mother," he said quietly.

"You mean it's been cut?"

Slowly, Piccolo shook his head. "No, it's already there, just blocked, in a most painful way."

Menka closed her eyes. Piccolo thought he knew what she was doing.

"I can't feel Mama's energy," she said after a few seconds.

"You mean she's left the planet?" asked Reyak.

Menka shook her head. "No, I would feel her all over space. She's just gone."

"But she can't be dead either, because if she was, I would be too," Piccolo said in a sombre voice. "She was going to Dende. Let's fly there and ask if he knows anything."

The three of them flew to Dende, who greeted them joyfully. However, when he learned why they had come, the smile faded from his face.

"I had indeed sensed something strange earlier, but I would never have connected it with Kera."

"What was it?"

"A change in the balance of power. There are too many strong dark auras on Earth. The balance is no longer right."

"That's not very helpful." Threateningly, Piccolo lowered himself to Dende.

Menka stood protectively in front of Dende. "Papa, this isn't helping."

Slowly, Piccolo straightened up. "So, what was Kera doing here earlier?"

"That, uh ..." Looking distressed, Dende looked to the floor.

"Please, Dende. We need to find Mama," Menka asked the Namekian in a calm voice.

"All right. I examined her after she had another lapse of memory. In doing so, I found that she ..." He swallowed hard. "... That she is pregnant," he said so softly that his words were only a breath.

"She's what?" Piccolo would have liked to scream, but the words were only a whisper.

Without looking at Piccolo, Dende nodded. "And it almost certainly happened while she was in space."

Piccolo roared, sending a wave of energy racing across the platform. Menka and Dende were swept off their feet and were pushed towards the edge of the platform. Reyak jumped up and caught the two before they crashed.

"Papa, watch out!" shouted Reyak to his father.

Breathing heavily, Piccolo stopped shouting out his anger. Again he had to clutch his chest. The feeling of having lost something vital did not disappear. It was like a hole in his soul. Was it just the pain of the blocked connection or was there something more? Did he feel disappointment that Kera had betrayed him? Was this a normal reaction? He would never have thought that Kera felt the desire to lie with someone else. He himself would never have thought of the idea.

"What do we do now?" asked Reyak quietly, looking at Piccolo.

His mind was racing. He didn't know. If Menka couldn't sense Kera, no one would be able to. She could be anywhere. Why was their connection blocked? Then something occurred to him.

"Can you sense Vegeta's aura?" he asked his daughter.

Menka closed her eyes. After a while she shook her head and looked sadly at the ground.

Slowly, Piccolo straightened up. "I have to go to Bulma."

"I'll come with you," Reyak called out.

"I'll stay here with Dende. Maybe we can figure something out together."

Piccolo briefly embraced the little girl, who already seemed so grown up, and then flew with Reyak to Bulma's estate.

Bulma spotted them as soon as they landed, as she paced restlessly back and forth on the large terrace.

"What are you doing here?" She sounded sad.

"We're looking for Kera."

Bulma snorted. "She doesn't need to reappear here for now."

"What happened?"

"Oh, she hasn't told you yet?" she asked with a sarcastic undertone.

Piccolo shrugged and nodded at the same time. "She contacted me this morning and said she had hours again that she couldn't remember. That's why she wasn't home for the night."

Bulma looked unsettled. "She can't remember?"

"Now will you please fill me in on what happened!"

"I saw Kera and Vegeta this morning. They were both naked and hugging," she reported haltingly.

Piccolo sucked in a sharp breath. A stab in his heart. Jealousy. He tried to suppress that feeling. "Reyak, go to Trunks, please."

"But I ..."

"Don't argue!"

"Trunks is in the living room," Bulma hurried to say. Grumbling, Reyak entered the house.

"Tell me!" demanded Piccolo of the blue-haired woman.

She shrugged her shoulders. "There is not much more to tell. They stood in the doorway to the guest room. Kera had a towel on, Vegeta had nothing on and they were hugging. When I approached them, they jumped apart as if caught. I ..." She hesitated. "... I slapped them and told her I never wanted to see her again. Then she ran out."

"She must have contacted me after that. She told me she didn't remember why she woke up in your house and wanted to see Dende so he could check if there had been a change. In the process, he noticed something else." This time he hesitated. "She is ... Kera is pregnant."

A variety of emotions flitted across Bulma's face. Surprise, joy, confusion, then shock. "Please don't tell me ..."

"She most likely conceived when she and Vegeta were in space."

Bulma could no longer stay on her feet. She slumped to the floor. Piccolo was just able to hold her before her knees hit the ground hard. Sobbing, she clawed at his battle suit. He held her tightly.

This situation was so unreal. This woman had hated and loathed him, feared him. Now he was the only one around her who understood how she felt. And she, this loud woman, knew exactly how he felt. Jealous, betrayed, disappointed, left alone. Even if she didn't connect with Vegeta the way Piccolo did with Kera, her soul certainly ached.

He waited until she calmed down, then he told her everything Dende had told him. About the prophecy and about the darkness in Vegeta's and Kera's souls.

Interrupted only by a few sniffs, Bulma listened the whole time. When Piccolo had finished, she sighed.

"Now what?"

The one question he didn't know the answer to. "I have no idea."

"Can't you just trace their auras?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. Not even Menka can sense their energies." At Bulma's questioning look, he added, "Menka would sense her mother's energy throughout the universe. But she can't sense them."

"So that means we don't even know if Kera and Vegeta are still on Earth?"

Piccolo nodded somberly. Bulma cursed. She looked as helpless as he felt.

"Maybe we'll find them somehow."

He really didn't have a better idea at the moment. Everyone who could help had to search the earth. Searching for a needle in a haystack. Menka had to monitor the energy changes. Maybe ...

"King Kai!"

"What?"

"Maybe King Kai can track them. He has more power. Menka and Dende need to talk to him. Can I leave Reyak with you?"

"Sure."

Piccolo turned on his heel and flew back to Dende. He found Dende and Menka in one of the rooms in the palace. Before he could say anything, Menka spoke up.

"We have made contact with King Kai. But he is unable to track them down."

His hope, built up during the flight, crumbled like a house of cards. Leaning against the wall, he slowly slid to the floor. He had the feeling that he could never be happy again.

They began their searches. Krillin and 18, who had actually become a couple, supported them as best they could. Reyak and Menka formed teams with Goten and Trunks, Dende kept an eye on everything from his palace, even Yamcha and Tien Shinhan helped. But as the months passed, their searches became less frequent. They found no trace, no clue.

Piccolo saw his children suffering. Menka tried to hide it, but she missed her mother very much. She withdrew more and more. Reyak, on the other hand, got lost in training. And he just didn't know what he could do to make them feel better. He found it harder and harder to be a support for his children. He felt restless and at the same time he seemed to have no strength to do anything.

He didn't want to give up hope, but with each waning day it became harder to motivate himself. Piccolo still felt a tentative tug at the connection to Kera from time to time in the beginning, but this too became less with the passing weeks. He was sure she was alive, but what if he couldn't find her again?

Kera:

How many days had already passed? She had lost track. She had screamed, she had fought. Sometimes she managed to emerge. At first, she could regain control of her body for minutes, until Malaha pushed her back again. She had managed to fly away once, but she did not get far. Malaha was so much stronger than her. Now she was barely managing to gain control.

Malaha and Aitor had holed up in a cave on a tiny island in some ocean. With the help of their magic, they had made themselves comfortable. Whenever Malaha looked at herself in a mirror, Kera saw herself. Her features seemed changed, harder. Her eyes were completely black. Kera was frightened every time she saw this distorted face of hers. The most striking change, however, was the steadily growing belly. If Kera hadn't completely lost track, she was pretty sure that her belly was growing much faster than during her first pregnancy. Was the child growing faster than the twins back then? She felt nothing from her body.

Kera's strength was sinking. Locked inside herself, she was condemned to watch what Malaha was doing to her body. And what Aitor was doing to Malaha. Kera tried to close her eyes and ears, but she couldn't quite block out the moments when Aitor and Malaha shared the bed. And they often did. They were now making up for the many years without a body in a hurry.

Kera wished she could talk to Vegeta or contact Piccolo, but all her attempts came to nothing. Would she ever regain control of her own body? And what would happen to her soul if Malaha continued to claim her body?