A/N: Here's the deal peoples. This story numbers about fifty five chapters, so I'm going to upload it in five chapter sections, possibly less. K? So that's why there's so much text.

CHAPTER EIGHT: Death, time and retribution-the strong will fall

"I surrender to it's sweetness And return death's soft kiss Lying in my crimson ocean My own blood My life I taste it's sweet aroma And touch it's gentle still The pain before the calm is quiet But hell Hell Hell I listen to it speaking Inviting me to stay I give in to its askings To have my calm snatched away. A world of turmoil And never ending emptiness Death will come for me It stalks me A huntress after her prey I close my eyes and wait For death's sweet embrace And enfold it in my arms For there is no more final Than the sweet embrace Of death"

Miko sailed downwards, breathing in the sweetness of approaching death. Her silent flight making her think of mythical ravines, where magical peoples flew silently to die as their kind did.

Tien looked up, something was wrong, he didn't know what, just knew something was wrong. He leapt into the air, one thought on his mind; Miko

He found her face down on the empty street. She had fallen, out of the sky most likely. He felt fear and anguish course through him. He knelt beside her to hear slow breathing. He rolled her over; she was conscious, her eyes hollow and empty

"Another fall?" he asked quietly, she nodded blankly, no expression, nothing

Miko did not move as he lifted her gently, she felt no pain, no emotion, just blank emptiness. She was aware of being carried and had a sense of weightlessness, the first feeling that came to her.

"No more flying unless it's with one of us" Tien told her sternly. She had really done it this time, her whole front was covered in gravel and he could see bruising from her collarbone to right underneath the boat necked blouse she wore under her favourite vinal jacket. She did not seem at all aware. This surprised him, now he had seen her eyes empty and staring for real it occurred to him how bright and quick and sharp they normally were. He landed on the island.

Miko gradually came out of her unaware state to find herself in a bed, some one was sitting next to her and she realised she was no longer wearing her jacket. Awareness came gradually, unlike normal when it crashed in on her. She raised her had and saw Tien sitting on the foot of the bed. He smiled as they locked eyes for a second

"Feeling ok?" he asked, she blinked, doing a mental check of her body for any pain, she blinked again and then frowned

"Yeah" she wonderingly

"Yeah I feel...great" He grinned

Tien was relieved, but inwardly he was perplexed. He noted the bruising had disappeared from what he could see of her front where the boat neck collar had been pulled down enough to reveal a healthy portion of cleavage, as she had twisted and turned under the thick covers. She sat up, this resulted in it moving even further down, he looked away, she did not appear to notice

"Umm, what happened?" she asked quietly. He frowned

"I don't know, I found you face down on the street, I assumed you'd fallen" She frowned as well

"But, how come you came? I don't remember ringing you" he blushed

"Oh.I-I, I thought you.well, you see, when you didn't ring I was worried" he finished lamely. She smiled a little

"I don't remember" she said vaguely. He sighed and suddenly there was a knock. Yamcha stuck his head around the door. His gaze almost immediately fell on her front.

"You're awake" he said, sounding rather distant. He jumped a little and grinned, reverting his eyes

Miko slid under the covers, she was cold all of a sudden, and unsure as to why. At this point she was not really thinking about much except for the fact she could not remember a thing. Yamcha grinned again for some reason

"Hungry?" she shook her head

"Thirsty though" He nodded and both him and Tien left the room

Once halfway down the corridor Tien grabbed Yamcha by the collar and slammed him into a wall

"What the hell was that" he snarled. Yamcha blinked

Yamcha blinked again, numb shock coursing through him

"Huh? What are you talking about?" he said slowly, not understanding exactly what his snarling comrade was talking about. Suddenly Tien blinked. He stared at him for a second then jumped back, his eyes wide in horror

"What the" he swore loudly. Yamcha frowned

"You ok?" he asked, his friend held his head for a second then turned a full circle, shaking his head, his two eyes closed. Seemingly drunk

"Sorry" he shook his head, staring at his hands as if they were covered in blood.

"...Sorry" he grunted, racing down the stairs

As he sat down heavily on the wet sand Tien wondered what he had just done, he remembered anger and possessive energy course through him, for a second he had wanted to kill Yamcha. He shook his head dazedly. There was the sound of soft footsteps on sand behind him and he looked up to see Miko watching him a few feet away

Miko frowned and pulled the thin gown tighter about herself. She watched Tien, her face expressionless. He looked at her in what looked like sorrowful exasperation, if there was such a thing. He turned his back on her, resting his head in his hands. Miko sighed silently and came to sit next to him. He looked up and she was startled to see his expression, it was....she couldn't describe it, a mix of affection, anger, hate, sorrow, horror and..love? She sat staring at him, she did not know how long. Eventually she went to sleep leaning on his shoulder, unsure as to why. The last thing she felt was a soft kiss on her forehead. Later on she would feel sure it was a dream brought on by whatever was screwing with her head.

*

Miko spent a few days more preparing meticulously for her trip, a growing sense of foreboding came over, she avoided Tien carefully, again her acting skills came in handy and no one noticed. But saying good bye was something she could not avoid, when the time came to wait for Gohan and Goku (Piccolo would meet them up there) she would say all her good byes separately, Yamcha was easy enough, a brief hug and a word was all that was needed, Chou zu; she just bid him good luck. But Tien, she didn't know what to say to him, it would be two days to him but over a year for her, how would she handle it, she could not sit on what had happened until then, it would drive her insane. She sighed

Tien jumped as he suddenly sensed her presence. She was standing in the doorway watching him. She would be leaving the following morning. It was near dusk now. He could see her hands shaking as the varying rays of sunset danced across her skin. Her face was a mix of non-expressions, but mostly pain, her eyes showed conflict. He still did not know what drove him to attack Yamcha in such a way, he had later apologised again but it did not explain what had made him do it. He stopped training above to study her, she was watching the sunset, leaning against the frame, her fingers were clenching and unclenching, giving away her awareness of him. He dropped to the ground, placing himself in her line of sight. She regarded him silently.

Miko watched, keeping all her conflicting thoughts and emotions in check, unsure of what to do. Playing him, screwing with his mind, and deriving a sort of security from it as she normally would have did not seem to have a point, when she thought about it, she did not know what she wanted, and therefore could not decide exactly what to do, perhaps this was what scared her more than his erratic behaviour, she had always had that effect on people, and he was just another weak minded guy who would bend to her will. Right?

He stepped closer to her, an inch at a time until she could feel his body heat radiating from him to her and back again. She inhaled sharply; his face gave away the fact that his head was as messed up as her own. Suddenly she got the urge to hit him, and hard, to hurt him for making her feel this way. To knock him over and shred his face, strike away the gentle touch he seemed to possess so naturally, beat him to a bloody pulp so she couldn't bear to look upon him. She realised with a jolt he was struggling with exactly the same thing. Suddenly she stepped close enough so their bodies touched, only just so she could barely feel it. He tensed then froze. She leaned up and kissed him hard, she felt a jolt of shock run through him as her hands found their way to the back of his head

Tien felt the impulse to return her kiss, but before he could react she pulled away. There was silence. She turned to go, he reached out and grabbed her shoulder, this was rewarded by a feral growl, he started and released her,

Then, without a word



She was gone.

*

Gohan grinned as Miko shoved about twenty capsules into her pockets,

"What's in those?" he asked teasingly

"Mostly stuff to do, clothes and a tracking device, if I plan on wandering I'll need a way to get back" Gohan grinned and shrugged

"Ready?" she nodded, he took her fore arm and rose upwards, and she did the same remarkably well. He shot away, his father hot on their heels

Goku grinned, Miko was flying pretty well compared to what Gohan had told him the last time he saw her in the air. As if on cue there was a scream and she fell, he made a here-we-go-again face and caught her arm before Gohan could react, he smiled stupidly to himself, he was still far superior to his son when not powered up, she gasped for breath and shook her head. Lifting her own weight, he held her arm carefully and was surprised to find the hard muscles instead of tender flesh, though still considerably more breakable than any of the Z fighters. She grinned at him as he regulated his speed so she could keep up. The look out approached.

Miko took a deep breath and yelled over the wind force

"I'll be fine on my own now!" her words were whipped away but the saijin caught them and nodded, she increased the energy she was using and propelled herself upwards, none the less she was breathing hard when she landed. Gohan grinned and made the thumbs up, she scowled darkly. He flinched and looked away. She nodded curtly to Piccolo who was waiting by the arched doorway into the palace, the pergola, as she would call it hiding his scowl in darkness

Mr Popo flinched at the waves of whatever the pair of camealians generated bounce back and forth, he knew the others had not picked it up but it made being in the general area very uncomfortable

"This way please" he turned and led them into the depths of the palace. At the end of a long straight corridor there was a thick oak door.

"Here we are"

Miko looked around, she had no idea what was going to happen so made a mental note to just go with the flow. Goku, the unspoken leader of the Z fighters spoke up

"Ok! Who wants to go in with me first?" Miko shrugged to herself, not really caring in the least who she ended up partnered with, Gohan tapped her shoulder

"It might be a good idea if you went in with my dad first; he's a really good trainer, and he's spent the most time in there" she shrugged

"Miko?" Goku asked, she shrugged

"Whatever" He grinned, clapping both hands together in a business like fashion. Mr Popo as she now knew he was called, opened the door

"Step inside please" Miko shouldered her bag and strode into the blinding white

Gohan frowned as his father waved and disappeared inside. Piccolo scowled darkly

"One of them is going to go insane in there" Gohan frowned

"Miko? Nah, she's tougher than she looks" Piccolo scowled

"I didn't say Miko" he thought darkly, wondering just what she would do to the saijin once inside.

Miko glanced around her and strode over to the nearest bed, she dumped her small bag of capsules and turned to Goku who was inspecting the fridge

"They never put enough in here, how are both supposed to stay alive for a year" he said mournfully. Miko raised an eyebrow, she had heard a few stories of the saijin stomach

"Uh Goku?" he turned

"Yeah?"

"I have my own food" he grinned

"Great! Mr Popo never puts enough in here, me and Gohan nearly starved last time, oh and hey, can you cook?" she shrugged

"Does poison count?"

A large sweat drop made it's way down the side of Goku's head, he laughed nervously

"Ok. Let's get down to business, what do you know?"

*

Gohan shifted restlessly, he was beginning to feel uneasy for some reason. Piccolo and Dende were talking quietly, most likely about the coming threat. He hoped Miko would be ok; the time chamber was a hard place

Tien looked up, sensing a large ki and a small one disappear. He shifted his stance restlessly and charged, finding himself on his back. Chou zu frowned

"You're not concentrating" he nodded

"No, I'm not"

*

Miko flipped back, sweat pouring down her face, Goku charged, sending a ki blast her way she smirked and duck right under him, driving a ki blast of her own in to his gut, he flew up a few feet and flipped away. Miko got o her feet, rubbing her sore knees, Goku grinned

"Well done, you learn fast" she yawned, it had been three weeks, and she had slept little, getting up in the middle of what would have been night to train herself furiously. She smiled at how Goku recognized many of Master Roshi's moves. She pulled out the tracker and began trudging to her left. It had come in handy, as she could not stay in one place too long, wandering in the endless white had been oddly relaxing.

Goku grinned at her retreating back. She had potential to rival a saijin, and her tactics were effective, if rather unorthodox. He charged up to super saijin and began a strenuous routine. He heard a yelp and saw her fall, the gravity had given her hell lately, he shrugged and carried on, she always got up.

Authors note: MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! GOTCHA!!YOU THOUGHT I KILLED HER!!! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Gotcha gotcha gotcha, did ya cry? tellmetellmetellmetellmetellmetellme Oh yeah and Miko goes in with Piccolo next...ahem, foul language censored

Chou!

CHAPTER NINE: Training. Insanity-who will crack first?

Miko tapped away at the laptop, thanking the gods she had brought it, she couldn't handle just straight training, and she knew she would go mad if she tried. Goku stuck his head around the curtain, she grinned and closed the programme

"Hungry?" she said teasingly, it had been nearly a month now. Goku practically drooled every time the fridge door was opened, and it was opened a lot. He nodded eagerly, not picking up the sarcasm in her voice. She mentally shrugged and got off the plush mattress

"What are you making?" he was dancing on the spot, rubbing his hands together, his eyes wide, she could see a tiny dribble of drool running down from his lip, she blanched. He blinked

"Are you ok?" he said carefully, she nodded, forcing down the urge to throw up.

Goku went back to training, every now and then Miko cooked, not often and when he asked she normally did something to it to make it taste worse than if he had cooked it. The smell of cooking came to him and he hurried inside. Miko was roasting a whole leg of beef, suspending it in the air with her ki and slowly roasting it with a wide low heat beam, he drooled, she popped a capsule and began to pour some kind of mouth watering sauce over it. He drooled. The smell driving him nuts

Miko smirked as she poured hot chilli sauce on the almost perfect meat. Goku was practically choking himself trying not to swallow it whole. She smirked and turned, taking the leg as big as herself with her, he trotted at her heels like a dog, she rested it on a platter of sort on the small table in what could have been a kitchen had there been anything other than an open hearth fire

"It is done yet?" Goku asked desperately, Miko smirked, slowly slicing a huge lump of meat off, she took a silvery plate and slapped it on, making the juice sizzle and splatter, a little landed on his lip, he licked it away and nearly pounced on the food from the sheer taste of the juices

"Here you go" she handed him the platter

Miko looked away in disgust, he ate worse than Gohan. There was the sound of chewing and appreciation, it was rare that she cooked, only twice had she actually made anything for him. The rest of the time he drooled. Watching her force small amounts into herself, she had never had much of an appetite, and it had suddenly decreased with the presence of the boundlessly hungry saijin. She wrinkled her nose as he finished, she blinked, not just what she had given him but everything on the platter was gone, she mentally shrugged and headed for her bed, she had a capsulised fridge full of ready made average sized meals, though she knew Goku would end up eating half of those as well, after all, it was only hunger that forced her to eat, she could not stomach much anyway

Goku stared as she picked at the large sandwich; she had gotten into the habit of throwing the bits she didn't want straight into his mouth. They had made a training game out of it, she would throw the bits of food and far and as fast as she could and he would chase them down, catching them in his mouth before they hit the white, ground for lack of a better word. She absently tossed a piece of tomato to her left and he pounced after it. She smirked to herself, he didn't know it yet but half the time he had turned into her pet lapdog, apart from the fact she wouldn't let him sit on her lap, she knew how heavy saijins were. The other half of his time he spent training, and trying to train her. She viewed him as a sparring partner, not a trainer. Still cabin fever was what really bothered her, even after a month she felt claustrophobic. Though busying herself with anything that wasn't boring usually did the trick

Miko forced herself to swallow what would have been an eatable meal, it didn't seem very appealing after Goku's episode with the beef though, she had been planning on taking some for herself and storing the rest in the freezer for later but Goku spelt the end of that

Tien frowned, they had been training for an hour and a half now, and he knew Miko would have been through much more, he hoped she would be ok. His lapse in concentration earned him a fist to the face

Goku blinked as her fist brushed by his face, he had barely manage to get out of the way, he kicked her in the ribs sending her skidding back a few feet. He sighed as she flipped up and over, landing on her twisted ankle, she completely ignored what must have been quite a bit of pain and shot forward, he had gone as easy as possible on her to start with but he had found she only twisted this to her advantage, he knew now she fought with skill and strategy, not raw power. Though having his but kicked a lot wasn't a bad thing when you were a saijin. He glanced at the clock as he fielded her much slower attacks, it read two months, it felt like a lot longer, Miko made him restless, she always had something to do, spending a quarter or so of her time typing and reading and Dende knows what else. She sometimes spoke in riddles and her changes of mood were as violent as Vegeta's, he used the time when she rested to train himself, but somehow she knew when he did and would often jump in when he least expected it, it was as if she never slept, and often he would awake to the sound of training, in a female pitch. Once he caught her training and gaped for a full ten minutes before she noticed him

Miko yawned and stretched out, she had stopped training for the "day" and was trying to sleep. This had never worked in the past and was not working now, she often slept only an hour or so a night, and the constricting atmosphere and the fiery weather changes made it infuriatingly impossible to sleep without sheer exhaustion, and since Goku would not provide this she simply worked herself to the brink of death without him

Goku started, a huge spike of ki had jolted him awake, he attuned his senses and wondered who it was. Still half asleep he had not remembered where he was. The sound of female yelling came to his ears, he stepped out of bed curiously and slipped around the curtain with a grace unfamiliar to him.

Miko pulled her raw power out from inside her, all her hatred, all her frustrations, all the insanity encouraging factors of this place. She screamed loud enough to burst her lungs as her body caught fire with the massive uncontrollable burst of ki blasted out from her well-hidden heart. She had hidden it well all the time but this place drove her nuts, but with the violent distractions of training she had kept it at bay, but even she couldn't train forever, and intellectual stimulation was needed, but with all of that she was still on the verge of insanity, she screamed again and felt her throat rip itself to shreds, another wave of ki burst into the heavy air around her, flames erupted from the ground, her tortured yells quieted as an odd calm spread over her. She glanced at her hands, the pale skin had become a bluey green. She gasped and reached up to touch her hair, it being propelled upwards up the force surrounding her. She heard a small noise and swung around to see Goku staring wide eyed at her.

Goku gaped, how had she heard? The movement was so small not even Vegeta would have picked it up. Her face relaxed from the stiff scowl and the ki around her died, she staggered forward then fell to her knees, her eyes went dull for a second then she fell flat on her face with an odd sounding thud.

Miko opened her eyes to find herself on a bed, she sat up blearily and looked around, she felt oddly calm, this surprised her, normally when she awoke the reality of another day's work being alive in her cold hardened existence, life's everyday struggles and a lifetime's worth of pain in a few months came crashing down on her, this time though she felt oddly calm. She shook her head and saw a face poke itself around the curtain

"Oh good you're awake, that was some stunt you pulled, I never knew you had so much power" Miko blinked, thinking hard, nothing came to her

"Huh?"

Goku frowned

"You powered up last night, you took out half the building, you equalled an ascended saijin" she frowned, screwing up her eyes. A few seconds past

"What the hell are you talking about?" she said frustrated. Goku frowned

"You passed out when you saw me, it must have knocked your memory out or something, maybe you should sleep a while longer" she nodded laying back and closing her eyes, this surprised him, there was an odd calm to her ki, it being the only one other than himself he had become attuned to it, Now that he thought about it, her ki was normally an ocean of turmoil, beneath the forever level and unchanging small ki there was anger and hatred and sorrow and a million and one other emotions that should have become more apparent much further on. He had spent so long with her that now that he saw the difference he recognized the change. He frowned, could possibly her first power up have caused this. This amazed him, only Piccolo had been able to match and exceed the power of a super saijin without actually being one, strong as the others were they still had a long way to go before they rivalled the huge burst of energy it took to equal the golden fighters of the saijin. He left her sleeping soundly, this also amazed him, in the two months they had been there she rarely slept more than a few hours in every two days and they were restless nightmare torn hours. Yet the actual chamber itself did not seem to bother her in the slightest, she never got frustrated or flipped out as Gohan had done a few times. She did not strike him as one of such iron will. Maybe these things did just not bother her.

Miko got up and yawned, feeling very rested, suddenly a brief vision of a blue hand crossed her eyes, she frowned, it had been too fast to see who's it was. She shrugged, most likely a dream, she told herself. Goku looked up and grinned as she came out in her usual attire of jogging top and track pants. He waved as she rose unsteadily into the air beside him

"Your ki has gone up quite a bit" he told her encouragingly

"I want you to try and power up" she scowled, now he was acting like her trainer, some one hadn't trained her since she was a child

"Why? I've never "powered up" up in my life, I don't even know how" he frowned

"Ok, you know how Tien taught you to....fly. I want you to try and focus all of your energy on one place inside you, like maybe your hand or something, if you try often enough you'll soon be able to distribute it throughout your body evenly" she scowled as he watched her carefully, she shrugged, doing what he said, she found it surprisingly easy, a large blue shining ball forming in her palm

Goku raise both eyebrows, she had learned that quickly enough.

"Ok, now imagine throwing it at me" she smirked and suddenly the ki ball increased in size, it grew to be larger than Miko herself and then the size of the average house, he gaped, where was she getting the energy? All the while her ki stayed at a constant level, something he had noticed from the start, no matter what she did in general training, unless she threw everything she had into something her ki never changed, this led him to believe it was her who was holding back. He blinked as the ki ball was hurled at him, he made ready to block it but found it stop, motionless before him

Miko grinned as he let his guard down. She released her hold and the ball sent him hurtling back until he flipped to the side. He trotted back to her with his jaw dragging behind on the white ground.

*

Miko wiped sweat from her brow, The pair of them stunk real bad, having continued training at a constant furious pace for over two days without sleep, the only stop was for Goku to tank up on food. Miko simply rested while he did this, she hadn't felt real hunger for weeks, she only ate when Goku stared at her as if she were mad when she turned down a plate of food, though she had learned not to trust his cooking as far as she could throw it, which incidentally was a long way so the saying did not make much sense but the author could not think of anything else so bear with me. Goku rose into the air and charged up a ki blast, she rarely used ki, she could but it drained her stores greatly and no amount of training seemed to change this, she got faster and stronger but her ki stayed at much the same level, climbing but not nearly as quickly as anyone else's, she supposed it was just the fact that she was female and this gave everyone else an advantage barring 18 who was made of steel. She pulled up her train of self pity thought and scolded herself, this led to taking the blast full on in the face, she yelped like a wounded dog as it pushed her into the white ground, she drew her knees up and threw her efforts into holding her breath against the burning heat and kicked hard, the beam lifted a few feet and fell back to meet her waiting feet, it melted the soles of her boots, sending pain through the tough skin of her feet.

Goku frowned as the ball barrelled back at him, she should have been able to block that; she was normally completely focused. The girl had more guts and will than Gohan had when he was in here, and that was a lot, in the first few weeks when Miko was bored she had done other things but now when there was only a month to go she had trained non-stop for two days, and showed no signs of stopping. He still never powered up to super saijin for fear of killing her with too much force, she was a girl after all, and but she still gave him a run for his money. He also noted she never held back, going full tilt at a pace he would not have expected from anyone especially after her previous displays of strength. He had a feeling she was more dangerous than she looked. He stopped the ki ball easily and found her sitting on the white ground, frantically tearing at her boots; the soles of which he saw were completely melted. He jumped down and yanked at one, it came to pieces in his hands, she pulled her foot away and began scrabbling at the melted rubber that was clinging to the skin, he began working on the other. it wasn't working, she cursed loudly as his hands touched what was revealed to be charred and bleeding skin, he raised both eyebrows, he had put more power into it than he meant to.

Miko scowled as he swept her off the ground, she tried to kick away but found this caused more pain to the soles of her feet, he shot in the direction of the building and headed straight for the bathroom, he dumped her in the tub and began running the cold water, she yelped as it washed over her soles, setting her nerves ablaze, she fought tears and growled instead. He stood over her as the low water level turned blue with the blood from the soles of her feet.

Goku raised both eyebrows again, she was not crying, no tears sprang to her eyes, this surprised him considerably, any other female he knew would be screaming her head off, and most likely many of the Z fighters, and he had come to believe that crying was the female way of screaming in pain, well most of the time. She scowled at him and growled a little, sounding a lot like Vegeta remarkably, considering the mutual...he couldn't find a word for it. She placed both hands on the edge of the tub and raised herself up, her heels dragging on the bottom; he turned off the water and pulled the plug. She swung her legs over the edge, sending filthy water everywhere, including his boots; she winced as the air touched the bloody soles. He crouched down. Placing a hand below her ankles to prevent her touching the ground, she growled low in her throat but did not resist, he lifted one of the rather small feet and inspected the damage, it was considerable "Well you won't be walking for a while" she swore loudly and he winced, Chichi had once kicked Yamcha out of the house for saying that one, so he knew it was filthy.

Miko scowled as he stood up

"Stay" he said sternly, she scowled, supporting her whole weight on her hands griping the edge of the tub, she rested her rear on the edge and winced as her weight pressed the narrow ledge into her tail bone. Goku returned with a strip of what could have been bandage had it not been soaked in a green liquid, Miko raised an eyebrow as he knelt back down to come to eye level with the soles of her feet

"Now this might hurt a bit, just don't move" she scowled but nodded, her grip tightening on the edge of the tub, it groaned and gave way under her fingers, he grinned and gently lay the cloth over the top of her left foot, noticing how small it was compared to his hand, yet it did not look out of place on her leg; it simply surprised him for one so strong. He slowly and carefully wrapped the soaked cloth around her feet, she flinched but kept her mouth firmly shut. This too surprised him; until they had begun training she had not struck him as one with iron nerves. He mentally shrugged and wrapped the right foot a little faster as he was now sure she would not move.

Miko was inwardly screaming as he finished wrapping

"It should heal in a few days" he said reassuringly

"When is it going to stop stinging?" she said calmly, he blinked, most likely wondering why she wasn't yelling her head off. He thought for a second

"Depends on the damage, but it's a good thing if it stings, it means the damage isn't too bad" she smirked

"It can't have gone deeper than the nerves then, otherwise I would be walking now" he frowned

"How's that?"

"Well when something burns deeper than your nerves you can't feel it anymore, but that doesn't stop the nerves around going nuts, it has to burn through most of your skin before it does though" he shrugged and laughed

"Whatever then" he bent and lifted her off the edge. She scowled and shoved away, cursing his strength so far superior to hers.

Goku held on carefully, fearing he would drop her, she wasn't helping herself by struggling, he sighed and placed her on the bed she had chosen, she scowled and cursed again. Goku winced, thinking of the vocabulary she wielded, wondering how Chichi would react if such words were said around either Gohan or Goten, though Gohan was seventeen now and fully able to make his own decisions, he was eighteen actually but the half year spent in the time chamber did not count in Chichi's books. He flinched as she swore again, he sighed and slipped around the curtain, leaving her to amuse herself. He would get some super saijin training done now.

Miko sighed and pulled her laptop onto her lap and began typing, she wrinkled her nose, knowing she stank with a vengeance, but this did not seem to matter, Goku always managed to smell like an overworked carthorse no matter how many times she ordered him to take a bath. She still bathed, she had that much of her sanity left, but only in between training and if she couldn't walk without Goku's help she would wave it for her dignity's sake.

Gohan glanced at his watch, only ten minutes left to go. he was unsure as to who he was more worried about; Miko or his father, Piccolo's words had unnerved him.

Tien shifted in his seat, he could not eat, however his stomach begged, he was worried. About Miko, and what she would do to Goku, he had been slowly learning just how deadly she really was, he could never be sure if anything she said was genuine. He figured that either a pair of insane wrecks or one insane wreck or two much stronger fighters would be exiting the hyperbolic time chamber

Miko sat up suddenly, they had three days left. She smiled with relief, the pressure had been driving the last of her hold on sanity away, it was hard, so very hard. She breathed a sigh and was suddenly hit with a huge jolt of hunger, she groaned, the last three months of eating little to nothing were catching up on her. She swung her legs off the bed and padded along the curtain and slipped through the opening. The kitchen was quiet and still, the sound of heavy snores emitted from Goku's corner. Miko scowled murderously, that was one thing she had not been able to get used to, simply adapting to sleeping only an hour and often none at all, their training had slowed down again in the last weeks, up until then, once she could walk again Goku had kept up with her insane regime easily enough, she scowled, knowing in an all out battle where the point was to win rather than get stronger she would be the easy victor. She had gotten to know him well over the last six months, she had held off insanity with her acting skills alone, pushing it down with the rest of her past, the rest of her various forms of madness she had collected over the years, a few times she had nearly bolted for the door but saved herself only by sheer will. She smirked to herself, Goku had not noticed but it was almost impossible to spend six months alone with some one and not get to know them extremely well, yet he knew nothing about her, the thing about her was that she had no set habits, no specific dislikes beside general stuff that anyone could have and would be "abnormal" without. This proved how good her acting really was; in the time chamber there were no breaks from your partner's company and no vacations. She wondered if she would fare better with Gohan or Piccolo, she doubted it, Goku was among the kindest men she had ever met, and most of them were among the Z fighters, Dr Brief was another, he seemed to be the one in the background and she had observed him carefully, she thought back to her many spur of the moment conversations with him

"Thinking?" Miko spun around to face a Bulma's hair and eyes, set in a wizened male face. She released her breath and nodded

"It's a lot to take in" he said softly, seating himself next to her. She sighed and nodded, downing her third vodka and pouring another

"Want one?" he smiled and nodded, she poured him a drink proportionate to his size

"You're rather skilled with a bottle, cocktail mixer?" she smiled and shook her head

"No just spent a lot of time in bars in my time before Sheme" he smiled, somehow setting her at ease

"I think we all have at one least low point in our lives" he said, still smiling warmly, somehow giving her more comfort than the glass in her hands

"Yeah well, I haven't got that excuse, I brought it on myself"

"Brought what? If you don't mind my asking" she took a deep breath

"All the trouble in my life, I've been in bar fights, riots, arrested many, many times, attacked, diagnosed with god knows how many forms of mental illness and some how managed to keep all of it out of Sheme's life. I'm a magnet for trouble" he smiled and patted her arm

"I must say, you are a top rate actress" she grinned, somehow not startled by his uncanny perception of her

"So you noticed, you seem to be the only one,"

"You must have been at it a while to be so natural, but you aren't acting now are you?" Miko was suddenly struck by the perceptiveness of those eyes, far sharper than Bulma's, yet so gentle

"How can you be so sure" she said softly, swallowing the fourth vodka in a gulp, switching now to whisky

"You have strange eyes, there is a wall between the outside and your soul, it can be covered but it's always there, some people prefer to focus on the pretty covering, while a handful of others like to know if the wall is there, it isn't right now, though if you feel at all threatened by me it will go up soon enough" Miko jumped, he had phrased it so perfectly. She was unsure how to not act. Even when she was truthful she always thought for a split second about all the different ways of saying it and how it would cause things to happen

"You're rather perceptive for one who seems so bumbling" she said shrewdly. He smiled and nodded

"That is my wall I suppose, though it is not as impenetrable as yours, I can see the wall, but not what's behind it" She sighed

"I don't think there is much behind it, I've been this way for so long I don't know what to be, or who I am, I guess sometimes I just forget to think about stuff and then I act naturally but as soon as it hits me I forget, I suppose it's a control thing really, I calculate so as to get exactly the result I want, more what I need really. It has never failed in any situation, I somehow know how any person will react to any given thing" He nodded

"I am like that, but I am not the actor you are. Tell me, how old are you?" she shrugged

"Depends what I want from you in the end, if you have something to do with Sheme I am twenty one, if you're the cops about being in a bar I'm eighteen, if you're some jerk I'm sixteen, if you're a clerk for someplace with price reductions I'm fifteen, if you're a Z fighter I'm seventeen"

"What if I'm an old man who is rather nosy and would like to know" she giggled a little

"I'm eighteen, nineteen in two months" she did not mention the fact that she was more than bending the truth

"Well, you give the impression of an adult to be honest"

"People tell me I do, I guess its life experience rather than chronological age"

"I think it's more to do with wisdom, and after all, you are as old as you feel" she grinned

"I can't place an age one you to be honest, you are obviously very wily yet very wise, but you are young at heart" he smiled warmly, again sending a welcoming feeling all through Miko, such as she had not felt in a long time

"You make a good grandfather"

"Trunks and I share our secrets. Grand parents and grand children always have their own fairy land, it comes of being either before the point of sensibility or past it" Miko laughed quietly, swallowing more whisky

"Maybe you should stop" he said, removing the glass from her hand, she nodded, wondering whether this was a trick, yet she couldn't help but trust the old man

"You're an old soul, you'll survive" he said quietly. She smiled and he seemingly melted into the background again, she blinked, realising how he had somehow extracted some of her most closely guarded information without volunteering any of his own. She cursed herself, thinking it had been some kind of ploy set up to trap her by the Z fighters, clever bastard, she scolded herself. Bulma re-entered. She inspected her face carefully. She knew nothing new, Miko had a way of reading people. The man she guessed was Bulma's father and was now sure of was even better than herself, it had been anew experience

Miko smiled, she had had many conversations such as this at odd moments. The old man had become an instant friend. She envied him in some ways, he had achieved everything she had yet still was happy, she told herself she was happy but knew it was simply the lurking madness she interpreted as happiness that rested within her. She opened the fridge, she didn't want to decapsulise the last of her food; it would wake up Goku, destroying her peace. There was always an odd light about the place, giving no darkness. She knew it was this over all that drove her nuts, it was the darkness of outside that she missed most, the calm and still of peaceful black, this was why she always loved the dark, lurking like a wild thing in dingy alleys, scaring hardened urchins and muggers and other such people with her eyes and wild looks, she would skulk around the cops caught her and dragged her back to her home, but not after a trip to the hospital for mainly self inflicted injuries. She was in a remembering mood at the moment as she munched her way through a Goku sized meal, she guessed this would be an all night-er, at least it was an escape from the claustrophobic reality of the time chamber

"What are you?" the man breathed, shock and fear spreading like blood over his face, Miko growled low in her throat and glanced down at her torn shirt, it was ripped from the shoulder down to reveal half her collar bone, she scowled murderously and advanced, the man waved the knife at her, she lunged forward and caught it in her teeth, blood dribbled down her chin from her lip, she spat the knife into her hand and licked at it hungrily, the man yelped and skidded away. Miko smirked and snapped the knife, she scooped up the wallet and inspected it, finding nothing but funless green stuff she shredded it with the pointed end of the knife, there was a wail of sirens and suddenly a bright light blinded her, she sprang away, baring her teeth. There were shouts and two figures in blue jumped out of the hulking shape of the wailing beast. Miko growled low in her throat from her position hanging from the fire escape by one hand, her feet against the dirty brick. This was the run down part of town. One looked up and pointed, yelling something. She sprang away, moving like an insect, springing from side to side of the alley, landing on the hard roof of what people called "kar" she beat at it with her fists, leaving large dents, for blinding her. There were yells and noises of wonder as the roof gave way. She smirked evilly and jumped away. Landing in the middle of the road. There was the screeching of brakes and suddenly she was jerked off the ground, she glanced up and saw a teenage boy, the ground was far below, she growled and slashed with her teeth, he looked down in surprise, his spiky hair contrasting against his orange clothes, she scowled and struggle, his grip did not loosen

"Don't worry, you're safe now" she understood the words but was too worked up to care. He shrugged and suddenly there was a thud, he set her on her feet and smiled, she found his smiled to be oddly calming, he offered his hand, she took it uncertainly and slowly returned his smile, the muscles in her face complained loudly at the unfamiliar use but she did not care

"You ok?" he asked, she was unsure how to answer, she understood basic speech but speaking it was another story, she moved her lips but nothing came out

"T-fank oooh" she tried the words on her tongue, they didn't fit but he grinned and waved, taking off into the air, Miko tried to jumped after him but he was already gone, unfortunately they had landed on a building, she fell three storeys at terrifying speed before the caught hold of a ledge, the force of her fall causing her arm to snap out of it's socket. She had screamed for half an hour before some one found her and pulled her inside.

Miko thought of the kindly old man who had helped her, then betrayed her, or so it had felt to her five year old mind, she had actually been highly intelligent, but her wild nature had slowed it's manifestation in normal ways, she became a strategist, knowing what people would do instinctively. She smiled again, her stomach still protested at its emptiness, so she began to fill it again

"Well hello there" The old man with twinkling eyes and wrinkly skin. Miko growled defensively as he offered his hand, he took her collar and pulled her inside the window, she growled and yelled the whole way. He was quite strong for an old man really. Once inside her set her in a big chair, she suddenly felt calm again, despite the pain in her shoulder and fore arm, she wriggled back a little, liking the warmth and smell of the cushions and soft coverings, she felt herself falling asleep. There was a soft sound of amazement as she curled herself into a ball, her tangled green hair covering her dislocated and broken shoulder. When she awoke the old man was watching her a few feet away, she growled defensively, not willing to give up her new perch

"Now I wonder where you come from little one" he said softly, Miko immediately began to purr as the wild cat she had befriended had taught her. This was her only way of showing she was at ease; words were a rare thing from her. The old man reached out a hand to touch her shoulder, she immediately tensed and stopped purring abruptly, but relaxed as he rested his hand on her head, it was oddly comforting. She began to purr quietly again, she did not purr with her tongue as most humans did, but with her throat, somehow she was more in tune with animals than humans

"Well you certainly are a strange one, you're like a stray cat, and you act like one too" he stroked her hair as one would the ears of a friendly but temperamental cat, one with claws and a taste for flesh. Miko slowly got up, the pain in her arm forcing her to walk completely upright, which she was not used to. She blinked at the false light coming from the centre of the roof as she wandered around, he disappeared for a minute, leaving her to inspect things and break one of them and returned with food, the smell brought her running to his feet, he laughed softly and handed her the round thing, she took and sniffed at it, she frowned but stuffed it in her mouth anyway. He smiled and got her a few more, she swallowed three and then refused a fourth. He sat her in the chair and gave her a glass of milk, she knew how to use a glass and gulped it down, he offered her more and was soon down to water, this did not bother her animal like mind, it quenched her thirst and that was enough for her, The smiling old man placed a blanket as she yawned widely, showing sharpened teeth from years of chewing stuff that wasn't meant to be chewed. She fell asleep within minutes. She opened her eyes to sunlight, she blinked a few times and was surprised to see a strange face, it was not the old man, he was standing a few feet back, the face was attached to a body, dressed in blue, she sprang straight up in the air, landing on her back, and jumping across the room, there were gasps and yells, she swung around, a man in blue was slowly approaching, she growled aggressively and scowled in the direction of the old man, he was talking to the man still approaching, she saw something in his hand, it was black and bigger than her fist, a sudden flash of fear, she remembered what those things did. They hit stuff, she jumped away jarring her shoulder on impact, she yelped in pain and suddenly the hands attached to the first face she saw closed around her, she growled and yelled, struggling with a vengeance. The old man began talking, this distracted her long enough for the man in blue to take both her arms, she screamed and the hands let go

"Look at her arm" it was the old man who spoke, she scowled, backing away, nearly tripping over a low table and bumping into various objects in the small apartment room

"Dislocated I'd say, how're we supposed to subdue her, you said she didn't seem able to speak"

"That's right, she acted like cat, purrs and everything" there was a low whistle and the rustle of paper

"Looks a bit like her"

"She's so filthy you wouldn't be able to tell, and she's older"

"Yeah but they said it's not a recent picture"

"Well whatever the case we have to take her in anyway, we can't cuff a minor unless she's committed a crime and she can't be older than five for Christ's sake. Besides, it'll hurt her if you grab her arm again, man she moves like a monkey"

"Spider man would be the word I'd use"

"It fits alright, so how are we gonna get her to cooperate, Mr Johsa, you said she's pretty calm with you"

"Err, well she was alright until she saw you, I suppose she's familiar with the police"

"Maybe if you came with us, we'll need a written statement anyway" the old man nodded and turned back to Miko.

"It's alright little one" he said slowly, Miko immediately felt the urge to purr, she liked this man, but she was afraid of what letting her guard down with the people in blue would mean. She had learned not to trust people in blue; they were not friendly like the old man. He offered his and she stared suspiciously at it

"It's alright, I won't hurt you little one" he said quietly, she shifted her injured arm painfully so it sat out of the way more. He took another step towards her, she considered for a moment, then reached out with her fingers and touched his palm, and he slowly closed his fingers and hers. She glanced nervously at the people in blue, they had not moved, she moved closer to the old man, using him as a shield, there was another low whistle, causing her ears to prick up, she had amazing control over her ears, she could twitch them and move them for better hearing. The man gently pulled her towards the door, she heard footsteps behind them and half spun around to face the two in blue, they backed away immediately. She scowled and pulled the old man closer, he squeezed her hand gently and led her out into a corridor

"I think the stairs would be a better option to the elevator, I doubt she would like the closed in space" the people in blue walked a few steps back. Suddenly a door opened and a large woman stepped out

"What on earth is going on!" she yelled, Miko jumped, swinging herself onto the old man's shoulders, he nearly fell over with her weight, she was not heavy but the force of her leap took him by surprise, she leaned over his head, placing her good hand on his shoulder and snarling at the woman, the woman in blue was talking to the big woman, Miko snarled and growled louder, curling her lip back to reveal her teeth, the action caused the half healed cut in the corner of her mouth to open up and a little blue blood to dribble from it, she licked at it quickly, knowing it cause people to scream and make loud noises. The woman closed the door but Miko heard voices saying long words she did not understand on the other side. She jumped down and backed up against the old man's leg, he patted her head softly and that odd sense of calm came over her once more. She took her hand and led her to a staircase, she was not used to stairs, simply climbing straight down the stairwells. She uncertainly stepped down. It took nearly fifteen minutes to get her down the three flights of stairs. Outside on the side of the road was another beast, just like the one she had dented, she growled and shrieked, jumped back, knocking the man in blue off his feet, she back against the wall, undecided as where to go in the morning street, it was full of people, a small crowd gathered, pointing and making noises, she snarled and bared her teeth, her lip stung but did not bleed. The pointing people backed away and the old man pushed through the crowd followed by the people in blue. No matter what was said or offered she would not be convinced to get in the beast, afraid it would eat her. In the end the old man actually carried her, she did not fight him, she was afraid to hurt him, she knew she was much stronger than most people. He set her on his lap as the vehicle shuddered into life, Miko sprang all over the place, unable to find a way out without the use of both arms, she eventually settled for trembling, curled into a defensive ball against a door. The short trip set her in edge. When the door opened she leapt out, past the woman in blue and sat crouched in the middle of the pavement before a large white building she recognised from past visits. The old man led her inside to bustle. Suddenly she saw her father and backed away, peeling her lips back to bare her teeth. He began speaking to the woman in blue

"So she is the one"

"Yes officer, wild thing"

"You're sure"

"Definitely, the hair alone is enough, no other child has it naturally"

"I wondered about that. It seems she has a dislocated shoulder, so she'll need to get sorted out and we'll head down to the station and get the missing persons report sorted out, how long has she been missing"

"Two days, this is not a rare occurrence, you see she's been like this since age one, wild thing"

"Considered a hearing difficulty?"

"Oh she can hear fine, besides she's downright vicious. She can actually hear things we can't, knows when the mailman is three blocks away, we had her hearing tested, she ripped the headphones to shreds first sound, too loud, she doesn't like loud noises anyway"

"I see, here comes the nurse" a woman in white approached her father and smiled

"Back again? What's she done this time?"

"Dislocated shoulder they reckon, can't think how she did it"

"Fell off a building and caught a ledge, Mr Johsa pulled her in and called us, she went straight to sleep in his apartment"

"Well that's a new one, she normally trusts no one, even her mother, and she barely sleeps at all"

"Well she seems to trust him, went nuts when she saw us, and yet she let him take her right into the car"

"You got her in a car?" her father's eyes widened

"Not us, Mr Johsa she, went nuts, nearly broke my arm"

"She's unusually strong, like a modern Mowgli"

"That would explain the way she moves" it was a three way conversation between the nurse, her father and the woman in blue. Miko clung to the old man, suddenly she spotted her mother and leapt at her, sending pain shooting through her arm and shoulder in the process but she did not care. She pounced on her, immediately purring and snuggling into a ball on her laps, there seemed to be less and less room there these days, but she did not care, a hand stroked the back of her neck as she closed her eyes, she heard voices above her, she listened sleepily, sitting like this always made her sleepy, no matter how much sleep she had had

"That's a fine girl you have there"

"She down right wild"

"There's nothing wrong, she's just different"

"You're the first person besides my self and my husband she hasn't either attacked or run away from"

"She didn't seem too pleased to see her father"

"She's annoyed with him at the moment"

"Feisty little thing"

"She's just defensive, she's intelligent yet she hardly speaks, we've had psychologists access her and they can't work it out"

"Is there any history of such things in the family?"

"She was adopted at a month old"

"That explains a lot, like the difference in colouring" the hands stopped stroking her neck, she complained with a whining growl. the hand resumed it's former occupation, she fell asleep to the sound of two voices she trusted

Miko sighed sadly, her stomach was still complaining, she had a feeling her trip down memory lane was far from over.

Goku heard the sound of eating and blinked, he figured it was Miko; she hardly seemed to eat anything. He supposed it was finally catching up with her. He shrugged and went back to sleep, his own stomach pleasantly full

Miko sighed sadly, making a note to ask Tien out if she managed to keep her sanity, she blinked, wondering where that had come from. She frowned and shook her head. She screwed up her face, it had been three years since she had had a boyfriend, and she did not miss it. It was just a whole new way of acting to her, and since she really didn't want anything out of a relationship of that kind it made no sense to have one. She shook her head, telling herself she was just lonely and Tien had been the person she got on best with, She scolded herself and suddenly remembered what happened next

Miko scowled and flinched as the nurse touched her arm

"This might hurt sweetie" she scowled and pulled away, her mother held onto her hand. There was a sharp sudden pain, causing her to scream, she closed her fingers around her mothers hand and immediately released them at the gasp of pain in her ear. She looked with worry at her mother, who was rubbing her hand. Miko frowned, she did not know how to say sorry, she knew she felt bad because her mother was hurt and she was the one who had done it, but she did not know how to make it better, her mother looked up and smiled at her expression

"It's ok honey, don't worry, I'm ok, the nurse is gonna set your arm now, so be brave ok" Miko winced but nodded, taking the next burst of pain without a sound. Miko scowled at the sling around her neck, she yelped as the brush pulled at her hair, she allowed her mother to finish though, leaving the shiny oily curtain to hang about her knees. The old man was at her left and her mother sitting behind her, she sat cross legged on a bed while they did the routine she was familiar with, they would check her over for the millions of other little injuries, and then they would clean her up and give her something to eat, which she would not touch, and then they made her stand on some weird platform and wrote down the little black shapes on something and then a woman she did not like would come and talk to her parents about her, Miko always knew when people were talking about her, she didn't know how she just knew. The old man talked to her

"What's you name little one?" he asked as the woman she did not like left the room

"M...m-ee...koow" she choked on the words, her frustration at not being able to say them clouding her sense. She did not speak because her tongue would not respond to her vehement commands, she did not think in words because she did not use them, she thought in visions and emotions. She knew she liked the old man and told him so by purring whenever he was around

"You're a strange one Miko" she smiled as he got her name right. Not realising he knew it from her mother, he simply was getting her to speak

Miko's parents took her home the next day; her arm was almost healed. As usual the doctors were surprised at how fast it healed, it took another week but was good as new soon enough.

"Miko! Come here" Miko growled at her mother, springing away

"Come here now" she stopped for a second, something clicking in her mind

"Haa-ear?" she experimented. Frowning in concentration. He mother suddenly smiled, taking a step towards her

"Here" she repeated clearly, pointing to the floor in front of her. Miko thought for a second

"Heeer?"

"Here"

"Here?" her mother clapped her hands

"That's right sweetie, here" Miko grinned, it was the first time she had gotten any word right

It had been a weird experience, she had learned how quickly and bluntly she could speak fairly quickly, and all it's uses

"How old are you?" the woman asked. Miko scowled

"Don't know" she grunted. The woman frowned

"Surely you must, you've been able to understand speech for a lot longer than you have been able to speak it" she went to tap the tip of her nose but received a sharp slash of teeth, she yelped and pulled back. Miko scowled

"Don't" she said bluntly. The woman smiled in a way that made Miko edgy, her mother held her hand carefully, Miko moved closer to her

"How old do you think you are honey?" her mother asked. Miko frowned

"10?" the woman laughed in a high pitch that made Miko's ears hurt

"Don't" she repeated. The woman stopped

"Why not?"

"It hurts" Miko told her annoyedly, rubbing her ears

"Oh, you are six years old" Miko frowned

"So?"

Miko frowned a little, she remembered visiting Mr Johsa a lot, still known to her as the old man, she saw him every few months, usually to bring him some present to help him. He had died two years ago, almost on the same day her parents had died. He had stuck by her as a friend, he had been around a lot after her parents' death

Miko stood with her back straight and her face set in a mask of expressionless nothing. A hand touched her shoulder, she turned to see the old man, he smiled sadly

"They were good people" he told her, she nodded, Sheme tugged on her skirt

"Sheme, can you go help the people with the flowers?" he nodded, wet trails still visible on his cheeks, he ran off to the crowd of people by the small church

"They loved us both" she said softly. He nodded

"You know Miko, from the moment I met you, I knew you were special" he said quietly, Miko nodded a little, not even smiling

"Wild would be the word most would use"

"Well you may not remember it but you claimed my favourite chair for your own and would not give it up. You curled up and went straight to sleep, you were just like a little stray cat, ruffled hair and all" his hand stroked her long hair hanging loose to her waist, Miko sighed

"I remember, and you gave me three cookies, and four glasses of milk and five of water" he smiled and nodded

"And you slept three hours"

"Four, if you don't count before I had something to eat"

"You were aware at the time you know, you just couldn't speak well"

"I could say a few words, but I hated talking because I couldn't do it properly"

"You always were a perfectionist" Miko managed a weak smile

"You know you were always my best friend, Sheme loves you too"

"You would be the closest thing I have to a grand daughter little one" Miko turned and hugged him carefully

"Thanks" she said softly, he smiled and patter her shoulder

"You'll be fine, I'll be here"

"Just don't go dying on me, I'll kill you if you dare" He smiled; sharing the private joke they had had for a long time. Miko looked out across the harbour of the little seaside village they lived in.

"You know, your mother once told me you were the smartest little thing around" he told her. Miko nodded

"I always was the different one. I'm going to raise Sheme, I don't care if I'm underage, no one else knows that" he nodded

"I knew you would, I'll help where I can, just be careful little one" she nodded, turning back to the church.

Miko sighed sadly, it had been one of the worst days of her life, she had wished every day of her life she had treated her parents better. The way they had deserved. It was too late now, she blinked to find a single tears fall from her eyes. She decided she would spend her six hours of freedom before returning to this constricting place at her parents' final resting place. Suddenly she heard footsteps; Goku stuck his head around the door

"You ok?" he asked sleepily, she nodded

"Just hungry" he grinned, Miko stood, leaving her empty plates on the table, she yawned, sleep claiming her eyes

"I'm going to bed" she left the room at a fast pace

Goku blinked, wondering what he had missed, there was something strange about her manner. He shrugged and devoured the unfinished pile of food. He supposed she had left it for him, who else would she make it for?

Authors note: Well, I'm unsure as to where to take this so bear with me ok?

CHAPTER TEN: Time. Alone. Free.

Miko shifted restlessly, a day to go, she spent it humming crazily to herself. Only by her acting skills had she warded off such insane signs of cabin fever, such as talking to inanimate objects and dancing around the room singing Christmas carols. She smiled to herself, thinking of all the little treasure's she had found in Goku's mind, he had a deep emotional intellect, but it made him all the more fun to toy with. She blinked, wondering just where she had got such a devilishly evil streak. She shook her head with a tinge of insanity, and lay back, three hours to go.

Gohan began to count down the seconds. Ten, nine, he prayed his father was alright, seven, six, he hoped Miko was ok, she seemed very breakable when you knew her for a while, three, two. He held his breath.

Miko staggered out and sucked greedily at the air. Her first instinct was to throw herself over the edge, just to feel the wind rushing past her, strong signs. She fought down the madness. Goku grinned at her and waved to Piccolo, who she found would be going in next. She sat down on the ledge, enjoying the warmth of the mid day sun

Tien looked up, sensing to two powers come back to life. He breathed a sigh of relief; they were both alive. He wondered whether it would be a good idea or not to go up and see how she was doing. He decided against I and resumed his intense training.

As she had planned Miko strolled to the edge of the lookout, completely forgetting Tien's "request" for her not to fly alone. She rose into the air, feeling her aches and pains that could not heal as quickly as the saijins could. She glided down. Not particularly noticing her forever-level ki was much higher. She shrugged to herself and blasted away, testing her speed. Unfortunately she was still not a pro at controlling her energy and flew into a few mountains. In the whole month and a half she had known the Z fighters if you didn't count the hyperbolic time chamber she had single- handedly reshaped the landscape, it amazed her how few scars she had though, most were from old times and could be covered with make up, and cuts and grazes from training never ever left a scar. She smiled at her speed and turned quickly to head west, it took her upwards to half an hour to get the hang of flying once she took off, no matter how many times she had done it, and this was no exception. She landed three more times than she took off for real.

Tien felt the tiniest flicker of life force somewhere to the west, it was not large but burned with an intensity that could belong to only one person. He blinked a few times, remembering more than one occasion she had touched his heart, then drove a long claw into it, screwed with his head, pulled his soul to pieces with a thread of her silken shoulder length hair. Suddenly thoughts of holding her, knowing who she really was, understanding her heart, how her mind worked, holding her against him, making her heart his own, stroking her beautiful hair, kissing her tender lips, feeling her whisper in his ear, and whispering back, feeling her cheek against his own. He jumped, wondering where that had come from. He shook his head, ever since he had had the sudden surge of knowing all was not well with Miko he had been acting weird, he had a feeling she was as messed up as him, she just didn't show it. She was good but he knew in his heart she was not a cruel person, it was buried even than his suspicions of her motives

Miko placed the single rose on the ground before two graves in the little seaside cemetery. She smiled sadly and sat down. For the first time in a long time, she allowed herself to cry.

~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER ELEVEN: The demon king-The deception queen

Gohan shifted restlessly, he was getting worried, it had been five hours and Miko was not back yet. He munched his way through the mammoth meal Mr Popo had made for him. He couldn't her energy anywhere, but that was not surprising, Miko was notorious for somehow managing to be impossible to find, not that she knew how to push her ki down, it was just she somehow managed to blend in, unless one had been near to her in when her emotions were running high you never could get a fix on her ki. Ki was linked directly to emotions. And a persons ki fluctuated with every emotion they had, at least the more powerful ones. Yet Miko's ki was entirely different, she could appear petrified and yet her ki stayed the same, it never altered even when she was fighting. He glanced at the door, shivering slightly against the cold night air. He suspected this was what had led his mentor to sit him down and give him the most serious lecture of his whole life

"Gohan. I need you to know something"

"Umm, whatever it is, I didn't do it"

"No, it's about Miko" Gohan frowned

"What about her?"

"Gohan, I know you like her, but she can't be trusted" Gohan frowned deeper

"Huh? What do you mean Piccolo? I know she's a bit aggressive sometimes but most women seem-"

"Gohan you aren't listening. Listen, I understand, yes she is pretty, yes she is likeable once you think you get to know her but don't act on it! Trust me, she is not to be trusted, not under any circumstance, you need to be wary of her" Gohan smiled

"You don't mean because of all the weird things that have happened, but Piccolo's she's not human, and I mean what saijins can do is just as stran- "

"Gohan! You-are-not-listening-to-me I know how you feel, she is pretty yes, and she knows how to seduce a man, that is for certain, but I guarantee, I guarantee, she is not sincere, you cannot trust her. Do not trust her" Gohan stared at his mentor's face, his voice was urgent and worried, he blinked a few times

"Why can't I trust her?" he asked confusedly, not liking the fact his teacher had picked up his attraction to Miko so easily, it was not that obvious was it? He was confused as to what to do; he was drawn strongly to Miko for reasons he could not fathom, but at the same time, there was Videl. Gods, Videl, what would he do, they were not together, but deep down he liked her as much as Miko

"Gohan, there are things about Miko that none of us can predict, I can sense it about her when she gets going, she's friendly and likeable sure but haven't you noticed strange things about her? Little things. Haven't you seen the way Dende acts around her, we can't afford to trust her. We have no idea what her motives are. I need you to trust me on this one" Gohan opened his mouth to question further but closed it

"Ok Piccolo, I'll be careful around her" Piccolo nodded and smiled, a rare occurrence

"You're smart Gohan, and normally I would say to trust your instincts, but she has a very dangerous way of fooling anyone's instincts" Gohan grinned back as his mentor ruffled his hair

"And don't forget, you have a certain world champion's daughter to think about" he said smugly. Gohan gaped, how had he known?

Miko sniffed and sighed, she felt strangely calm, she had not felt this way in a while. All the while she lived her miserable, evil, horrible, tortured life she had always had a churning sea of emotion so well hidden she actually forgot about it most of the time. She suddenly gasped, she had been sitting on the cliff's edge for over three hours, wailing to high heaven. She threw herself off the edge, kicking off with her feet against the sandy stone.

Gohan smiled as he sensed Miko approach, she would arrive in roughly ten minutes. He frowned, she was flying rather fast from what he had come to know, and the fact she was flying unaided at all surprised him.

Miko landed like a cat, bending her knees to take the impact, she was tire now, her muscles bitched at her for a while until she sat own a few metres away from Gohan, bent over, staring at her knees, he hair hiding her face from view. She stayed motionless for the next fifteen minutes as Gohan stared warily at her, he had not forgotten what his father had told him. She looked rather dirty and as though she had just flown through more than one rainstorm. He heard footsteps as his father and Piccolo walked up behind him, he could sense the increase in power coming from both of the. He also noted how Piccolo's eyes trained immediately on Miko, both narrowed with suspicion. She did not move. Either unaware of their presence or just plain ignoring them. He cold not tell.

Goku watched Miko carefully, every once in a while something strange would come over her, like she would sink into a trance, or just stop being aware, he could not tell if this was the case at this point. She was a strange one, she really was. He supposed the huge amounts of stress she had been through did a lot to mess a person up, especially a girl. Ad if haring his thoughts she looked up sharply, her eyes sliced into him, he took a step back, what he saw in her eyes scared him more than any threat to earth ever could. He blinked, it was gone. He smiled nervously as she stared at him, puzzlement on her face, so genuine....yet he couldn't shake the feeling of unease abut what he had seen in her eyes.

Piccolo narrowed his eyes. Miko was not looking at him but something told him her senses were indeed trained on him rather than Goku. He wondered how he knew. He shrugged to himself

"Who's next" he rumbled in his deep voice

Miko stood up, wondering how long she could the insane urge to turn and run right over the edge, to feel the wind. She mentally slapped herself, it mentally hurt, her overindulgent mind screamed blasphemy at the scolding she gave it. She turned to face the green man, he towered above her, and the fact she was on the lower step that led into the made her feel even smaller, she did not feel she had the strength to stand up to his over bearing personality.

"I'll go" she said evenly, knowing her eyes were shot with blue, though her face was washed clean from flying through storm clouds. He smirked and turned, with a swishing movement of his cloak. She took a deep steadying breath, stimulating her new "scared" persona and followed him.

Gohan watched careful, taking in her body language, there had been a tiny shift that went from tired to tense and scared, it was so small, and it was just as real as any other person but with Piccolo's lecture he had taken to thinking carefully about her actions, piecing the puzzle together. He frowned a grinned as his father sat down next to him

"How'd it go?" he asked, the older saijin grinned goofily

"She's a really good cook"

Miko looked about her with a growing sense of claustrophobia welling up inside her chest, she forced it down, covering it with anger. She went to the bed she was still painfully familiar with to find none of her stuff had been moved. The green man was watching her

"You ready?" he asked, she knew what was coming, she shrugged and nodded, physical pain was better than mental stress

"Bring it on" she challenged

Authors note: Ok so I didn't take it anywhere in particular this chapter but I'm deciding whether or not to keep the long, long periods of time in the chamber or not, we all know her mental condition so can we leave it at that? I'm lazy so what do you expect



And thus ends the first chunk. :D

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