Chapter 57

The Return

Day One in the Month of Strength 18:35 (July 2  1:35 AM)

Roshi was shaking.  The tumult maelstrom of bedlamic emotion raging about within him found no outlet as he found himself racked with gasping sobs.  Emotion played upon emotion as the gratification and joy of victory slammed head on into the pain of loss and the desperation and rampant fury at the very injustice of the whole situation.

He cradled Ichigo tighter within his arms and forced his tears to stop.  "Get a hold of yourself."  He spoke as he tried to focus on the task at hand. 

Roshi pulled his head back and wiped his eyes to look at the sky.  "This isn't over!  Damn it this isn't the end.  This is not how things are supposed to be!"  He screamed at the ever-reddening clouds.

He moved Ichigo off of his lap and set her back on the ground.  "You're not dead yet!  I don't care!  You're not going to die here!"  He yelled at her before he jolted her with electricity again.

It didn't work

"Breathe damn you!"  Roshi pleaded with her as he started to perform CPR again.

Ice had slowly started to form on Ichigo's lips and cheeks.  Protected from the brunt of the storm by his ever-present aura, Roshi had not thought about how very cold it was until he started the mouth-to-mouth the second time.  'Fucking hell, her body is cooling too rapidly.  If she doesn't start breathing again soon I'll lose her.'

Roshi stood up and extended his aura in a burst of warm energy, "fucking forsaken snow!  Why the hell does it have to be the middle of the fucking winter here!?!"  He shouted at the sky.

The boiling red sky.

'Oh shit'

* * *

"What the hell do you mean by that?  We cannot leave without Ichigo!"  Momo half yelled half gasped from the far side of the bridge's briefing room.

Slip turned away from the computer and half glared at the woman.  "Yes," she emphasized, "we can, and we must.  If we don't leave NOW we WON'T be leaving.  While the Phoenix is one of the fastest ships Capsule Corp has ever built, all those smaller ships waiting to dock are not.  Since we have to play Shepard to the flock, we need to go.  If we don't leave now, we'll all die."

Momo closed her eyes and breathed in deeply though her nose.  "I was referring to the comment about my niece being dead and that this Roshi person was trying to revive her on the planet."

Goshu walked onto the bridge in time to catch the last of Momo's comments.  "Does Roshi have an ear piece?  I think he may need reminding that he is still in more danger than the rest of us." 

As both Goshu and Boxee were still Super Saiyans, their presence was known, but unlike Boxee, Goshu carried an air of authority and poise that could not be ignored.  Everyone in the room turned to look at him when he entered.

Boxee nodded.  "No, I don't think so.  But, he told us to get you guys off the planet while he and Ichigo stayed to fight Blizzard.  Anyway, he has a ship.  Roshi's not dumb enough to forget things like a star blowing up.  He'll be getting off."

"Is Roshi the really buff Super Saiyan?  I thought he died."  Sakura chimed in from where she was standing by Kit.

"That IS what Slip told me."  Kit added while looking perturbed by the whole situation.

"He did."  Slip replied over her shoulder as she turned back to the computer.  "I'm moving us and the fleet.  By these calculations, Roshi has about thirty seconds to launch or he won't be able to break orbit before the shock wave hits.  Either way we need to be further away."

"Do what you need to, but I need to understand something.  Was this Roshi you are talking about the only Super Saiyan at the start of this battle?  The very same one that Sakura here saw with my niece?"

Boxee suddenly split in two, and Boxers and Tee both blinked a few times to reorient themselves.  "Woah, that's a rush."  Tee replied as he leaned against the wall.  "I don't think we should've been Super when that wore off."

"You're telling me."  Boxers replied as he belatedly realized that someone was holding him up.  "Oh, hi there."  He said to Sakura as he slowly turned around.

Sakura smiled.  "Hello yourself.  Quite the trick you have there."

"Oh get a room!"  Kit replied before sticking out her tongue at the two of them and earning herself some choice glares among the majority of laughter.  "Oh and since no one else has answered you, yes, Roshi was the only Super Saiyan when we got to Saiya.  I don't know if he met Sakura but I would guess so."  She looked at Momo before finishing her statement.  "Why?"

"Then how is he alive?"

Goshu smiled.  "Roshi learns at an incredible rate.  I would fathom a guess that he did not in fact die, but only found a way to hide his ki from us.  We only think he died because we can sense power-levels and none of us could sense him for a while."  He paused and shook his head.  "Though to be honest.  I still think he died.  As for how he came back.  It may have something to do with Buu," Goshu held up his hands to forestall any questions.  "An ally of ours."

"No, if this Roshi is the person you say he is, then he died.  I saw him die."

"The battle was moving away from the city.  How did you manage to see that?"  Boxers asked looking skeptical.

"He saved Ichigo and I.  I went to watch and got in the way.  He blocked an attack that would have killed both of us and paid for it with his life.  There was nothing but a few strips of cloth from his outfit left."

Goshu face faulted.  "Roshi blew up?"

"Does it matter?  He came back.  Not even death can stop him."

Slip turned and looked at Tee as though he were the biggest fool ever.  "Yeah, but not having a ship might.  If he blew up and his gi was shredded then he isn't fighting in his gi so he doesn't HAVE his ship.  I mean, there are Blizzard and Snow's ships, but Roshi probably doesn't know where Blizzard's ship is, and we made sure Snow's was totally shut down when it landed so Blizzard couldn't use it to escape."

"oh"

Kit made an odd snort like noise.  "No it doesn't.  In my experience Roshi is more akin to an act of nature than a person.  He made a promise to me.  Which was altered but not broken.  Roshi came back.  He's not going to break his promise now.  He'll make it, just you watch, he'll make it."

* * *

"Ichigo please breathe.  Please come back to me.  Please... please don't let everything end like this."  Roshi pleaded with her one last time before trying to jolt her back to life.

It did not work.  Roshi looked at the sky and wished he still had his watch.  "Damn it, how much time?"  He asked himself as he looked down at Ichigo again. 

"Not enough."  He said with the sadness of finality as he reached over to close her eyes.  "I'm sorry Ichigo.  I..."  Roshi's voice broke and he found he could not say anymore.

'I'm out of time.'  He thought as he bent down to scoop her up and then took off and flew as fast as he could back towards where they had landed Snow's ship.  At first he was amazed at how light she felt, but then he realized just how gaunt she had become.  Super Saiyan had taken a lot out of her, and in the back of Roshi's mind he wondered if the stress of everything might not have compounded what she did to herself with the Disruptor.  If her body itself was too far-gone then nothing he did would bring her back.

'Stop that!  Stop thinking that.  She's going to be ok.  I'm going to save her!'  He screamed in his mind.

While he had been given both a Capsule Ship and an earpiece, he hated the earpiece and didn't think fighting with the Capsule Ship in his pocket was very wise, so he had left both near the gangplank of Snow's ship.

Roshi was furious with himself as he sped towards the ship.  'I can't give up.  I've never given up on anything.  This isn't going to be three first time.  I made a promise to her, and Goku, and myself.   I can't give up.  I have to think, Goku brought me back by giving me his life energy.  I wonder if I could give Ichigo some of the energy Goku gave me and bring her back?'

"It's worth a shot."  He announced to himself.  'Now how the heck do I do it?'

"Damn it all Roshi, you have a photographic memory.  THINK!!  What the hell did it feel like when that happened?"  Roshi spoke aloud to himself trying to jog his memory into forming a clear picture of what had happened to him when Goku brought him back, so that he could use it to revive Ichigo.

He tried focus his mind on the physical sense that he got from the transfer of life energy and then push some energy into Ichigo.  While flying he couldn't focus enough to do what he needed to do.

Roshi landed and skidded to a stop on the ice, almost dropping Ichigo as he nearly lost his fight for footing.  He then quickly set her down and ran to grab the Capsule.

"Thank Dende!"  He sighed with relief when he found the capsule right where he had left it.  He took one last look at the piles of dead and frozen corpses that had so shocked him only a few hours before, hours that felt like and indeed were a lifetime ago, before he scooped Ichigo up again and flew to a location large enough to decapsulate his ship.

Roshi's ship was not the typical bulbous spherical ship like most of the other Capsule Ships were, but rather it looked like some sort of overly large delta winged supersonic aircraft.

"Computer, Emergency start of the engines, commence now.  Then autopilot take off for extra-orbital travel at best possible speed."

"Working, engine start in ten seconds.  Warning, planetary orbit detected as unstable.  Warning large Ion storm detected.  Warning Class ten Solar Flare detected.  Warning..."

"Override warnings, authorization Roshi, Son ID 707112114B.  Maximum emergency thrust.  Evade and outrun the solar event, best possible speed."

The deck of the ship lurched beneath him as the ship took to the air.  Outside, Roshi could see the clouds starting to burn away in the rising heat as more and more light energy began to strike the planet.

The ship was rapidly accelerating now and while Roshi could pilot it, he knew he wasn't nearly as capable as the computer, so he turned back to Ichigo.

"How the heck can I save you?"  He asked as he knelt down beside her.  "I wish I had a stasis pod or something in here.  If I don't revive you soon, you'll have brain damage."

Roshi quickly tried several different methods of transferring energy to her.  All he managed to do was give himself a headache as he realized what he was doing was only altering his ki much in the same way Ichigo had done when she had performed her Disruptor beam.

BANG

Roshi slammed his fist into the floor-plates denting them deeply.  "This isn't going to work.  I'm sorry, but I can't save you.  I don't know how.  I...  Dende I'm talking to a corpse."  Roshi mentally kicked himself for calling her a corpse and then just shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"At least you died for what you believed in.  Like anyone, you had many sides, but you truly were a hero Ichigo.  Rest in peace."  Roshi gently kissed her forehead and then stood up to go to the cockpit so that he could respond if the ship's computer could not handle his instructions.

'Dende she's beautiful.  At least now I hope she's found the peace within her soul she had so desperately been searching for.'  Roshi thought as he looked down at her one last time.  "She looks like she's sleeping, as though she'll simply just wake up and everything will be back to the way it was."  Roshi sniffled and shook his head, "but this isn't a fairy tail like Sleeping Beauty... Sleeping Beauty... I'M A FUCKING IDIOT!"

Roshi quickly thought back to any of the innumerable times he had tuned into Ichigo's ki.  Ki, the energy formed by the links between the mind, the soul, and the body.  The point of the Sleeping Beauty attack was to match someone's ki closely enough to that you could trick the mind into forcing it and the body to fall asleep.

Instinct forces the body to breathe when sleeping. 

Roshi focused and thought of all the time he had spent around her.  He focused on the mental sense that she had given off.  He thought back to the first time he had used the Sleeping Beauty attack on her.  Roshi knew that a simple Sleeping Beauty wouldn't do what he needed to have done, so he also thought about what he had done wrong in his previous attempts to revive her and about what Goku and the Rou Kaioshin had done for him.

He opened his eyes.  Between his cupped hands he now held a pulsating ball of glowing blue ki.  It was the same color as Ichigo's eyes.  'Please Dende work.'

Roshi bent down and carefully placed the globe of energy on her chest, over her heart.  It slowly sank into her and surrounded her with a faint glow of blue and then yellow light as it diffused about her. 

beat...

Her heart beat once.  It was weak and stuttered, but it had beat.

Beat...

Ichigo gasped for air a few times and then fell into a calm sleeping breathing pattern.

Roshi held his hand to her neck.  As her body warmed, her pulse and heart rate started to return to normal strength.

Roshi almost passed out with relief, but within moments was jumping around the cabin pumping his arms like someone who had just won the lottery.  "YES!  YESYESYES! WHOOO DENDE THANK YOU YES!!  She's going to make it!"

AAAAaaannnnTTT  AAAaaannnnTTT  AAAaaannnnTTT!  Warning klaxons suddenly sounded moments before the entire ship was tossed about like a leaf in the wind.  Roshi banged his head into a bulkhead and saw stars just as the lights in the ship flickered out.

* * *

The surface of any star can be compared to a stormy ocean.  Turbulent waves of plasma commonly churn and erupt into hundreds if not thousands of kilometer long geyser-like plumes of gas and energy known as solar flares.  Even with Roshi's added energy, Blizzard's attack was but a pebble tossed into the sea.  However, much like a pebble disrupts the surface of the sea, the attack disrupted the surface of the sun sending a jet of stellar gas and flame directly for the planet Saiya.

Everyone on the bridge of the Phoenix watched in mute horror as the blossoming fingers of stellar flame washed across the planet Saiya.  The atmosphere burned off within seconds as fire spread across the world.  The bright plasma flames caressed the planet in molten heat before washing past out into the void of space.

All the while, the gasses that had formerly been part of the sun were now interacting at high speed with the magnetic fields of the planet.  Under normal circumstances this would form small ion storms in the atmosphere known as the aurorae.  However, these were not normal circumstances.  Arcs of lightning like energy played across the sky and the plume of stellar flames.   Boiling waves of flame and energy in shades of reds, blues, and purples expanded around the planet as they interacted with the storms.

It was actually quite beautiful. 

At this point the pebble comparison ends and the butterfly theory took over.  Much like a water-balloon that has been punctured, the solar flare grew in intensity as Saiya's sun lost mass, and thus loss the gravity needed to contain the ever-expanding geyser of flame.  A secondary explosion had sent out an even larger shockwave than the first and that shockwave now raced for the planet.

The beauty of the dancing waves and boils of the storm were washed away in an instant when the main shockwave of gasses hit and the now glowing, burning planet cracked like an egg.  The crust of the planet split and the molten magma and lava of the depths sprayed out in the moments before the planet itself broke apart and was thrown out along the orbital plane as uncountable particles of space dust and burning asteroids.

"Oh...nooo"  Momo gasped.  "It is all gone now.  Everything is gone."

"The secondary shock wave was thrown out of the star at .73 times the speed of light.  It will reach us in two minutes thirty two seconds."  Slip stated from where she sat at one of the navigational computers.  "At our current rate of speed we will clear the main plume of gasses and the primary shockwave's path in two minutes twenty seconds.  We could go faster, but then we would leave the Capsule ships behind."

BeepBEET BeepBEET

"Hey check it out!  The scanners are picking up Ichigo's life signs again!"  Tee yelled as he turned toward the computer screen that had been keeping track of all the life signs on the planet during the battle.

"Oh no," Slip gasped to herself.

"What?"  Goshu asked as he walked up to her.

"Roshi's not going to make it.  He's caught in the leading edge of the flare, in the middle of that ion storm.   His ship isn't accelerating fast enough and the secondary shockwave... will hit Roshi's ship in about fifteen seconds.  That ship can't survive that much of an impact."  Slip finished stating the obvious.

"Zoom in on that ship!"  Goshu directed Boxers, who was now seated by one of the main view screen controls.

"They're caught in the solar winds.  The ionic interference is making it hard to track them." 

"Yeah, the ki scanner lost them too!" 

The view screen focused for a moment showing the delta-winged ship caught in the current of the ionic flames.  Arcs of energy played across it as it struggled to break free of the turbulent storm of flames and energy it had become caught in.  A sudden burst of lightning like energy caught one of the wings of the ship and played across its hull.  The ship rocked and began to spin at an odd angle when that moment of clarity fizzled out as the screen filled with static as the Phoenix's visual sensors overloaded and shut down.

"Get them back!"  Sakura yelled as she grabbed Boxers' shoulders.

"I'm trying!"

Goshu ran up beside Boxers and started to rapidly type in commands to the computer system but none of his efforts seemed to be able to restore the picture.  "The whole grid is shut down to stop itself from burning out."

"I've lost them on the neutrino scanners and bio as well.  There is just too much interference."  Slip said as she swiveled in her chair.  "Can you sense them?"

Goshu scrunched his forehead for a moment before he shook his head sadly.  "No.  I can't sense anything through that; there is just too much energy from the star."

"Wait!"  Slip yelled, "I'm getting an energy build up on the gravimetric sensors!  It's coming from where the computer estimates Roshi's ship should be."

Goshu quickly jumped over the rail and sat down beside Slip.  "Let me see those readings."

* * *

Roshi's head swam as he ran to the small ship's cockpit in the flickering lights.  "Don't be down, please don't be down."  He begged the ships computer as he jumped into the pilot's seat.

Roshi quickly shut off the alarms and focused on the problem.  His little ship was caught in the middle of what the flickering computer screen reported to be a class-6 ion storm.

Roshi guessed that was bad.

To make matters worse, the ion storm had knocked out the primary thrusters.  The computer also indicated they were now facing perpendicular to the direction of the flow of the gasses erupting from the sun.  Essentially they were caught in an eddy and lacking the power to fight their way free.

Roshi knew that was bad.

To make matters worse, the hull temperature was already reaching critical levels and the computer indicated a level 8 shockwave was approaching at close to the speed of light.

"This is really bad."  Roshi muttered to himself as he wiped the rapidly growing beads of sweat off of his forehead.  "First snow and now fire.  Extremes suck."

Roshi rapidly went about restarting the drive thrusters.  After a few seconds though he gave up.  "This is futile the whole thing's fried."

"Warning, Impact in ten seconds."

Roshi closed his eyes to clear his head and then glanced over his shoulder at Ichigo.  "I'm not going to fail now.  Not after everything else."  He said to himself before he turned back to the computer.

"Computer, what's the state of the jump drive?"

"Hyperdrive engines are fully operational but offline and charging."

"How long till full charge?"

"Five minutes and thirty three seconds."

"Dang...  Does this ship have emergency jump capacitors?"

"Yes"

"Then set course for the wormhole and engage the engines!"

"Cannot comply.  Safety regulations for..."

"Override"

"Authorization not accepted.  Emergency jump can only be used in..."

"THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!"

"Use of the hyperdrive in current environment not advised."

Roshi cursed to himself and then began to type a higher-level access code his father had given him into the computer.  If the computer was not damaged the access code should give him full authority to do just about anything.

He had about three seconds.

It took two for the Hyperspace field to be created.

"Disengage the safety protocols and jump!"

The ship shuddered and then rocked before it was suddenly plunged into darkness.  Acrid smoke filled burned into Roshi's eyes as energy arced across the console causing it to burst into flames. 

* * *

Goshu swore.  Hearing him swear was enough to cause Slip, Kit, Tee, Boxers, and Nail to come to full attention.

"Computer scram the main core."

"What?"  Slip's eyes almost fell out of her head.

"Matter Anti-matter core shutdown in 5..."  The computer reported almost instantly.

Goshu took a glance behind him and then quickly jumped into the seldom-used manual conning chair, disturbing long undisturbed dust.  "Kit find a wall socket and plug that suit back in.  We're in for a bumpy ride.  I'm adjusting course fourteen degrees along the stellar axis and rolling us thirty-nine degrees on our z axis."

Kit stood there blinking for a few seconds before she frantically started looking for a power socket for her gravsuit.  "What's going on?"

"Holy Dende!"  Slip was checking the readings on the screen Goshu had just left and managed to figure out what was going on.  "Roshi jumped while in the middle of that ion storm."

"So?" Tee commented.

"So why can't you use the hyperdrive engines in an atmosphere?"  Slip asked as if that question should mean something to them, before turning back to Goshu.  "Setting the internal gravity to make a sustained 32 g burst at moment of impact.

Boxers father was one of the foremost physicists in the world.  While he might not act it, Boxers did know a thing or two about what Slip was saying.  He moved over to look at a display showing the relation of the Phoenix to the rest of the Capsule Ships.  "They won't be ready to jump for another few seconds and Roshi caused a gravimetric cascade Tee.  Goshu's using the mass of the Phoenix to shield the Capsule ships."

Goshu nodded and then looked up from some calculations he was running on a side panel.  "Exactly.  Even with the internal gravity field, that kind of gravimetric disturbance would be very unkind to the gravity well containment on the MAMA core, and it would likely destroy the smaller ships right out.  Oh, and Slip not a sustained burst, set it to three micro-bursts 32.3, 34.6, and then 28.9"

"But um, isn't the hyperdrive offline if the main core is offline?"

Goshu ignored him and activated the ship-wide intercom.  "All hands, brace for impact!"

While there were actually several ways to propel a ship to speeds faster than that of the speed of light, the hyperdrive jump was one of the most efficient.  When the jump is activated a massive amount of energy rips a whole in the matrix of gravity/space/time and propels the ship into a field of sustained non-space in which it travels. 

The primary problem with the jump system is that if one were to jump while in a high-matter environment, like say an atmosphere of a planet, or a raging solar wind caused ion storm the energy interaction causes the matter to collapse into a micro-singularity, which then collapses and causes a highly intensive gravity burst to be flung out in all directions. 

If this were to happen in an atmosphere the resulting storms would be devastating.  Not to mention the earthquakes, tsunamis and other highly disruptive problems.

In space it just sends a shockwave out at the speed of light that can crack open normal ships like eggs and smear the passengers within into pât'.

Under Goshu's graceful piloting, the Phoenix spun through space to absorb the brunt of the invisible wave of the expanding sphere of compressing gravity. 

By setting the gravity generators that were spread thought the ship to microburst increases in the internal gravity, it not only strengthened the ship against the impact, but also helped to dissipate some of the energy of the shockwave.

Kit gritted her teeth as a visible bubble of coalescing energy played around her when the wave passed though the ship and played across her suit's own micro-gravity field.

"Channeling excess energy from the generator coils to the Training Room capacitors."  Slip reported as soon as she recovered from the stomach turning conflicting waves of gravity.

"Good, hot starting the MAMA and correcting our course."  Goshu replied.  "We will be out of here with time to spare."

"We're alive?"  Kit asked.  "So it's all done?  Please tell me there won't be any more surprises I'm starting to regret coming along."

"No you don't, when we pick up Roshi you're gunna wanna be here to give him an ear full."  Tee replied.  "I mean, we are going to go pick up Roshi and Ichigo right?  They did make it right?"

* * *

Roshi thanked every Kami in the universe that the fire suppression systems were still working.

Even so, there was nothing salvageable from the main computer counsel.  Roshi could tell by looking out though the windows that they were no longer anywhere near Saiya.  Just where they were however, he had no clue.

The seemingly growing haze of smoke within the ship was enough to make his eyes water and give him problems breathing.  Roshi tended to avoid places where people smoked, and the acrid burnt electronic smoke now filling the ship was enough to make him almost want to stop breathing.  That was, it would make him want to stop breathing if he could stop coughing, sneezing, and wheezing long enough to actually breathe.

'Life support must be having problems scrubbing the air.  This could be very bad.'  Roshi thought as he tried to get control over his breathing.

After what was probably only a minute or so, but felt like had been several millennia, the air cleared enough to actually see and breathe without too much irritation.  Roshi saw that Ichigo was still sleeping, so he set about looking to see if he could find a way to find out where they were and then get help.

Because they had had no idea how many people they might have had to evacuate, Roshi, Goshu, Nail, and Boxers had each been given so called command ships which could then lead some of the numerous spherical Capsule Ships back to Earth.  The specialized ship Roshi had chosen to take was large enough to evacuate some hundred or so people without need to dock with the Phoenix.  It was actually three decks thick, the topmost only having a fairly large captain's suite, and about one hundred and fifty meters long.  It also had enough computer power to auto pilot five hundred of the standard ships.

Roshi figured that as they still had working gravity, at least one of the various computer systems had to still be working.

"Oh, nothing good can come of this."  Roshi stopped dead as he walked into the foam drenched engine room to find both of the primary power relays off of the main bank of fusion reactors still smoldering while slogging off the covering of fire suppressant foam.  "Well that rules out going anywhere."

* * *

No one really wanted to be too quick to respond to Tee's question.

"Ah well, it is complicated.  If the ship managed to jump at the front of the cascade or through the cascade, then yes they made it.  If the cascade disrupted the jump, then no."  Goshu finally said.

Goshu waited for that to sink in.  "And given the size of the cascade and the general lack of control Roshi's ship had before the cascade..."

"Oh I can't believe you people.  Roshi is the most stubborn thick skulled person I have ever met and I know for a fact it's a family trait so would you please stop finding reasons to give up on him?"  Kit yelled from where she was unplugging herself from the wall mounted power plug she had found.

"Yeah if anyone could make it though that it would be Roshi.  He's like a freaking cat with nine lives."  Tee added.

"Please stop."  Sakura said quietly from the back of the bridge.  "I do not understand anything of what has just happened but please do not feed us false hope.  Ichigo would not want that, and from the sense of what I get about your Roshi, he would not either.  If they are dead then tell us so that we may mourn their deaths along with all of Saiya."

The stark reminder that many millions of people had died because of Blizzard and an entire planet lost dampened the mood in an instant.

"Hmmph, words have no power in moments such as these." Nail stated flatly.  Several of the people in the bridge jumped when he spoke, having forgotten that the often-silent Namekian was even on the bridge.

"No, no they do not.  Words only stain the moment with noise."  Momo said flatly.  "Sakura spoke truly.  We all saw their ship tumbling though that storm.  I am no scientist and know little of the physics you speak of, but I know when the odds are staked against me.  Let us mourn our losses in silence."

No one else spoke for several seconds, then a tone sounded across the bridge.  "The Hyperdrive is on-line.  We need to leave."  Slip said almost at a whisper as she brought the view screen to look at the death throws of the Saiyan Sun one last time.  "The star is fully going nova now."

"I know, be strong, Roshi would want it this way."  Goshu said as he walked over to give one of Slip's shoulders a reaffirming squeeze.  He then turned to Momo.  "You are both right, and while news such as this will not go over well I think we need to tell our passengers what is and has been happening."

Momo looked stricken.  "You want me to tell them?"

"You are the only remaining member of the Royal Family."

"But I am not!  I am but only my sister's sister.  I am not even a warrior!"

Goshu shrugged.  "Neither are any of us.  Not on our world at least.  I teach martial combat and am famous for it, but most of the time I am nothing more than a glorified accountant.   Max over there used to own and run a restaurant.  Slip, Tee, and Boxers are still in school and none of them truly trained before your niece showed up."

"You are a book keeper?  I find that impossible to accept.  The seven, er eight of you show up and kill four Changelings and no one knows how many other elite troops...  and despite the loss of my niece and your son and the planet itself, you survived!  No, there is no possible way what you are telling me is true.  As it has to be a lie, why are you even telling me this?"

Almost every single one of the people from Earth in the room rolled their eyes. 

"What was that for?"

"Heh, on the bright side considering everything that has just happened, she's a lot calmer than Ichigo was when she first got to Earth."  Boxers commented.

* * *

It took Roshi about fifteen seconds to figure out that he did not know nearly enough about repairing computers.  Row after row of memory modules were burned out.  One of the processing cores looked more like the charred remains of a campfire marshmallow than anything electronic.  There where, however, several screens still blinking, and an indication that the backup generators had kicked in supplying power.

The hyperspace communications system was still working too.  Upon finding that information out, Roshi felt an inexplicable degree better.  He quickly punched up the Phoenix's carrier frequency and then sent his SOS.  "Hey, um, this is Roshi, Ichigo and I are kinda in need of someone to come pick us up.  I'm going to leave this channel open so that you can trace it, as I really can't tell you where the heck I am now.  So... ah yeah, could you be so kind as to come get us?"

The screen indicated that the message was sent, so Roshi sat down on what had once been some type of a power flow regulation device and waited to see if anyone replied.

He did not have to wait long.  "Roshi!  You're alive!!"  Slip yelled over the speakers.

"Yes, glad to hear you're ok" Roshi replied.

"Do you have any idea how idiotic you are?  I mean really you pull how many close calls and then you go and do something harebrained like forming a micro-wormhole and shoot yourself half way across the Galaxy!"

"um... what!?"

"Ignore her Roshi, you're only four days away.  Though I am going to have to have a discussion about the dangers of causing gravimetric cascades sometime."  Goshu replied calmly.

"Huh?"

"He means you're an idiot and you almost killed us you idiot."  Boxers chimed in.

"Right, so are all of you there to mock me for just about getting burned to a crisp?"

"No, we're going to mock you for having to always do things the hard way, and for being an attention hog, and for scaring us half to death by your antics, oh, and for just having the incorrigible dumb luck that lets you always get away with it."  Kit added.

"Oh, Hi there Kit nice to here you there too.  Really, it is.  I don't know what I did, but if you say so."  Roshi replied.  "So am I really four days away from you guys or what?"

"Yes you are four days away."  Slip replied as though she were insulted by the mere idea that they might have been pulling his leg.

"Um, I might not be the best when it comes to physics but ah if we traveled this far in a few seconds, why will it take you four days to get here?"

Roshi could not help but start laughing as Slip started having a fit on the other end.

"Stop.  I'm teasing.  I guess at the time, when if you recall a large wave of very hot cosmic gas was about to turn my ship and me and Ichigo into more very hot cosmic gas that jumping would cause an overload cascade.  I'm fairly sure the only thing on my mind was getting to safety."

"Yeah, well all things considered, it would have been better had you gotten off the planet within your own time constraints."  Goshu scolded.

Roshi rolled his eyes.  "Well you know, had Blizzard just rolled over and died like he was supposed to that wouldn't have been a problem but as it was..."

"Oh would you just shut up!  We know!"  Slip cut him off. 

"Well excuse me."

"AH hemmm, as much as I find this conversation to be painful and trite, I have to ask how my niece is doing.  Is she there with you now?"  A voice Roshi didn't know asked.

"Um, Ichigo is sleeping off the effects of a near-death experience.  As far as I can tell she's fine, but ah that's really all I know at the moment."

"Oh, well thank you for saving her, and ah..."  Momo trailed off.

"I know.  Don't worry."

* * *

Momo had been about to ask Tee exactly what he meant by that when Roshi's voice had suddenly blurted out over the speakers.  Before she knew what all was happening, they were in route to pick Ichigo and Roshi up.

"It would appear as though I spoke too soon.  I... I am at a loss as to how to explain my thoughts right now.  These last few weeks have been surreal, yet painfully irrefutable.  I..."

Goshu nodded.  "I cannot say that I understand, because I don't, but it seems now your message to your fellow refugees will have a more positive note to it."

Momo shuddered and then nodded.  "Yes, and when we get my niece back I am going to have to discuss just how little I enjoy having to give her speeches."

Tee laughed.  "Hey now there's a concept.  Differing to the younger generation."  He looked at Goshu.  "Any chance you'll... Um I'm going to take that as a no."

Goshu shrugged.  "Don't look at me.  Roshi and Slip have been doing their own thing for years now.  When you've earned it, the responsibility will be given."

"Hey! That's not funny man.  I'm not as smart as those two are cut me some slack."

Momo shook her head and then pointed a finger at Sakura.  "Ah, youth, it seems they are the same everywhere despite all the differences.

Max laughed.  "Yup, the younger generations will always want more than they can have, while the older generations will always want to keep more than they can hold on to."

Momo gave the red head a curious look.  "And what makes you the expert?"

"Oh, I'm not. I'm just too young to be in the old fuddy duddy group, and too old to be in the youngins group."

"Which means both groups get to pick on you for having the audacity of opening your mouth."  Goshu said teasingly.  "Anyway, we can save the never ending generation gap argument for later, in the meantime, I think you need to talk to your people so they don't start tearing the ships apart.  After that, I think we all need to sit down over a meal and fill you in on our history."

Momo nodded.  "Yes, I think I would very much like to know how the survivors of the Vegeta Rebels came to stand before me tailless, yet with selflessness few Saiyans I have ever met would know."

* * *

The smoke had finally cleared by the time Roshi was done talking to everyone on the Phoenix.  His stomach gurgled and achingly growled for food.  "Shut up you."  Roshi said as he looked down at his waist.  "Ichigo first."

Roshi wasn't a biologist.  While he was quite certain Slip could give a quite lengthy and horridly dull lecture on exactly how a Saiyan was capable of eating many times that which a Human could, and yet not have much more mass.  Slip might have even been able to tell him how that food was changed into energy and then eventually into ki. 

While everything Slip could tell him would no doubt be the best that science could fathom, there were some things that Roshi just had no for science with.

His hunger after a good fight was one of those things.  Anyone who was trained in the use of ki knows full well that they are expending far more energy than their body can possibly contain.  Goshu had often told them that the bonds between the Body, the Soul, and the Mind created ki.

Most people are so weak of soul or mind that they live their lives without any ability to tap into ki.  Others, like Kit clearly produced it, but were unable to control it.

For the people such as Roshi, he knew!  He knew without a fraction of a doubt that in those situations the body was not the source of power but more a tuning fork or focal point for that power.  The energy came from without rather than from within.

That did not of course mean that it did not take excessive amounts of effort and energy for the body to be that tuning fork, lens, or focal point.  It took immense amounts of it in fact, and the more energy one was throwing about the more strain it placed on the body.

In the end, that is how Roshi saw the Super Saiyan transformation, or even the various forms of the Changelings.  Sure, one was physically stronger when he was a Super Saiyan, but in all reality the transformation was just a better lens for their ki.  Albeit, the transformation was one that used massive amounts of energy in order to be that better lens.

He knew that during the fight he was mostly burning carbohydrates and excess proteins for energy.  Now that he was done fighting it had turned to his body fat.

Roshi could practically feel his body feeding on it's own body fat to repair damage and return to a balance after having spent so much energy in the battle.  From past experience he knew that, it would be days before he would stop losing body fat.

Thus, Roshi was starving for some food.

But he was also worried.

The Super Saiyan transformation itself was primarily a physical transformation.  It fed ravenously off of the body's own store of energy.  To make matters worse, the hunger Roshi felt now was nothing compared to how hungry he had been after his first transformation.

As Ichigo was unconscious at the moment, he knew she wouldn't be eating anytime soon.

Roshi walked to where he had left her on the floor of the hold and shook his head sadly.  Ichigo looked gaunt and nearly cadaverous.  The skin under her eyes seemed to bag and hang off of her face and her hands looked positively anorexic.  Roshi quickly closed his eyes to focus on her heart rate.   Steady, but still very weak for her.

"This isn't good."

While Slip might be the expert when it comes to biological and even a lot of technical things, Roshi had caught something she had missed.

In the ROSAT she had told them that testosterone was a catalyst for the Super Saiyan change and without it Ichigo would never be able to ascend to that level.

Contrary to Slip's statement a catalyst does not allow for a change, it only makes the change easier.

Pan and Bra had never been able to make it to the level of a Super Saiyan.  Roshi suspected more than anything that this was likely due to the fact they had both been raised in a human world. 

He knew from experience that Slip, even when starved would only ever eat slightly more than an average teenage girl.  Which of course was not very much.

Saiyans as a race were naturally lean, and this lead Roshi to suspect that the reason that Bra, and especially Pan had passed out every time they had come close to transforming was that the simply did not have large enough stores of energy to fuel the change.

So, Roshi had set his clandestine plan in motion by rigging Ichigo's rooms to always be colder than normal and supplying her with foods that were especially high in fat content.  He had also given her enough chocolate and other sweets to send most humans into a catatonic diabetic shock.  He then had continuously picked on her about not eating and goaded her into over-eating.

The end result, of course, had been that she had gained a touch of weight.  One could never have called her even pudgy, but as Tee and Boxers had been so keen to point out during their own clandestine plot, she had definitely filled out in all the right areas.

The definition that had created was gone now.  Her formerly tight spandex like undersuit Buu had created for her was now hanging in places it shouldn't hang.

Simply put, while Roshi was hungry, Ichigo could literally be starving to death.

Roshi quickly but gently picked her up and was again surprised at how light she seemed as he carried her up a floor to lay her down on one of the beds in the largest suite.

Once there he covered her with a fleece quilt and then hurried to the medical stores to see if he could find a nutrient drip IV for her.  Roshi shuddered as he found the box he was looking for and grabbed one of the IVs.  "I hate needles."  He winced.  "Oh, how I hate needles."

Roshi was in the middle of a thorough bout of cold sweats by the time he found the instructions for use. 

Private Stock:  Not for sale.
CC

Saiyan-proof Nutrient IV (Look no needles!)

Roshi stopped reading and thanked Kami, Kaio, and most definitely Bulma.

Warning, DO NOT USE MORE THAN ONE IV BAG AT ONCE!!!

Unroll the adhesive backed application unit and proceed to attach it to the wrist, under arm, or leg.  Micro needles will transfer the IV through the skin into capillaries and then into the blood stream.  Place the bag on hook of attached stand.  Select the race and then press the go button.  Then sit back and wait.

Roshi knew from the diaries that these things had never been used in Goku's time, so he started to wonder who would have designed them knowing for the natural Saiyan... or possibly family wide dislike for needles, but he quickly forced those thoughts out of his mind as he ran back up and hooked the thing up to Ichigo.

It immediately created a confusing readout of the current nutrient level in her blood and then started dripping drops of liquid nourishment.  The screen did report that the bag needed to be changed in six hours.  Other than that bit of information Roshi hadn't the slightest clue what the rest of the stuff meant.  As nothing was flashing, beeping, or otherwise indicating a problem he quickly went to the pantry to get himself some food.

* * *

July 2, 10:30 AM

Roshi had stayed up the entire first six hours and then changed the IV drip.  Ichigo was breathing stronger so one problem had been diverted.  However his remaining problem hung over his head like the blade of a guillotine.  The last time Ichigo had knocked herself out using the Stopper Beam, or the Disruptor or whatever the heck she called the idiotically effective attack, she had been out for four days.

Last time Dende was there to see to it that they didn't have to worry about certain necessary bodily functions.

Not so this time.

While Roshi had found a bedpan in with the medical supplies he was in absolutely no hurry to do anything other than glare at the thing like it was a curse.

So he stayed up the first six hours pacing trying to think of all the things Ichigo would do to him once she woke up if he DID make use of the bedpan verses all the nasty things she would do to him if he didn't.

Either way he was a dead man.

Finally after about seven hours of pacing he wore himself out enough that he could relax enough to slouch down on the one of the many couches within the room and fall asleep.

He woke suddenly to a feeling that something was terribly horribly wrong.

The suite had an observation bubble; much like a bay window, only larger and with a better view of space, overlooking the front of the ship.  Ichigo was awake sitting on the wrap around bench that touched up against the glass, wrapped in her blanket sobbing to herself with one hand touching the glass as though she were trying to reach out into space itself.

'Ichigo is awake! Oh thank Dende!'  Roshi thought to himself as he quickly used his foot to push the bedpan under the couch he had been sleeping on.

Ichigo startled as though she hadn't realized he was there, she jumped and knocked several of the instant food packs near her off of the bench.  Her tear filled bloodshot eyes met his for a moment and then she turned away as if watching the foils fall to the floor were more interesting.

"I... Roshi, please go away.  I need to be alone.  I... I do not want you t...to see me like this.  I can...not stop crying."

Roshi paused for a moment before he went to the refresher station to fill a large glass of water and grab several tissues for Ichigo.  "You have no reason to be ashamed.  It is ok to cry Ichigo."

She looked up at him and shuddered as racking sobs caught in her throat. "Bu..ut I... sh..ould no..ot be cry..ing.  It is..s shameful to.. the dead."

Roshi sat down beside her and handed her the glass of water, which she took and drank down directly.

"Ichigo, I cannot even pretend I understand your culture, but wouldn't those who died wish to be mourned?"

Ichigo nodded grabbed the handful of tissues, and turned away from him so that her back was to him.  "Yes," she said before she blew her nose, 'but I.. I am crying mo..re for myself th..an for them."

Roshi started to reach for her to massage her shoulders, but stopped as he remembered how little she liked to be touched.  "Ichigo, please, look at me."

She turned and looked into his eyes with a painfully lost and forlorn looking expression.  "You have nothing to be ashamed of.  You have lost more than I can even imagine, but you did everything you could to stop that from happening.  If there is anyone to blame it is myself.  Had I not been so stupid, we might have been able to prevent..." He said directly to her before she turned away again.

"No!  Do not say that Roshi.  Just do not say it.  Never mention that again.  Had you not been there, had you not done all the things you have done for me, everyone would have died."  Ichigo sniffled and then continued.  "I never even asked you for your help.  I never thanked you.  I just expected it.  You helped me even after I almost killed you the first time I ever saw you.  You alone believed in me.  You believed in me even when I could not believe in myself."

Roshi shrugged.  "Well it is not as though the first thing I ever did to you garnered any trust between us."

Ichigo sniffle-snort-laughed as she glared at him.  "You have no idea."

Roshi held his hands up.  "I know, and I am sorry, if their had been any other way..."

"Roshi, I know.  If there is anyone to blame for that it is myself.  I forced your hand."  She looked away.  "You did everything and more for me and I could not even forgive you for something I forced you to do."

"Apology accepted."

Ichigo blinked, sniffled and then looked up at him.  "I am sorry.  I am horrible at apologies.  I demand so much, yet give so little.  I think back and even now I am so selfish.  I cannot stop crying, but I cry for myself not for those who are lost."

"Ichigo, stop this.  You can't blame yourself.  And don't tell me that you are not, because you are.  In this moment you are being selfish.  Only you are being selfish in a self-accusing self-depreciative manner!"  Roshi shook his head, threw caution to the wind grabbed Ichigo's shoulders and forced her to look at him.  "Look at me!  Ichigo, you had to know what that attack would do to you.  You died to stop Blizzard.  You gave everything you had and more when you were alone fighting the three of them.  How can you possibly claim that was selfish?"

Ichigo looked away and her sobs became stronger.  Seeing her totally break down and cry in such a manner was definitely not the response Roshi had been expecting.

Ichigo grabbed the last of the tissues and blew her nose before she relaxed and forced her emotions to calm.  "Roshi... damn it, how do I explain this?"  She looked up and into his eyes.  Her eyes were bloodshot, yet at the same time their pure platinum-blue color was enchanted, enticing, and open to the truth, searching for answers her soul or mind denied her.

"When you died saving Momo and I...  I have known contempt and belittlement all my life, but I had never felt as unworthy as I felt in that moment."  She looked away and stared out the window for what felt like an eternity.  "I hated you.  Nothing would have made me more glad than to grind you under my heel like dirt.  You ripped off my tail and condemned me to a life of an outcast.  You fought better and caught me by surprise, and then, then when I had you beaten, you summoned more power that I could even imagine and you beat me."

"Ichigo I..." 

"I am not finished!  Let me finish or I'll never be able to!"  She turned and pushed her right hand over Roshi's mouth.  "I need to say these things.  I need to."

Roshi simply nodded.

"Then, when I was certain I was dead, you healed me.  I expected you to lord over me and mock me.  I hated you for that.  You were just like Banana and Budo and all the rest, and I hated you."  She looked into his eyes again, "only, you did not."

"You set me in my place and you helped me.  I did not understand what your goal was.  I kept trying to figure out how you were using me.  I was so suspicious and angry those first few days before Banana showed up.  Then when Banana and his goons... when you found us and saved me from them, I was not thinking straight.  You meant to coddle Banana by proclaiming what your linage was, but I saw you as yet another person claiming I was not worthy.  I almost killed you.  I tried to kill you, but you beat me back.  You beat me back and then stopped Banana's men while I raged."

Ichigo looked away and poked at one of the empty foils.  "You gave me half a senzu.  I blocked most of those memories out, but I remember.  You saved me yet again, and I almost killed you for it.  I was so hateful and angry."

She took a deep breath and sighed.  "And then you forgave me."  She looked at him.  "You forgave me.  You helped me recover, and you taught me how to sense ki.  I still remember that eagle.  You have a capacity to trust and to help that I have never seen in anyone."  She looked at him again.  "I came to rely on you.  I came to trust in you.  You were my support.  My foundation when I had no support.  You never gave up and you did not let me give up."

Two large tears rolled down her cheeks.  "When you died to save me, I felt completely unworthy.  I realized how much I needed you.  Without you, I was nothing.  I had lost everything.  And... And then you came back.  You came back and I woke up from a dreamworld of pain and loss to find you saving me again.  You forced my rage and found a way to push me back to the level of Super Saiyan.  A level I would have never reached had I not had your belief that I could.  For a moment there, everything was perfect.  I knew in my soul that my people would live.  You were back and nothing would stop you."

"And then Blizzard surprised us both.  We were out of time, but it did not matter.  I had accepted death the moment I left Saiya in the first place."

Ichigo looked away again, balled up her right fist and slammed it into her thigh hard enough to make Roshi flinch.  "Then when I told you to leave, you would not go.  You spoke of your promise.  Your promise to Kit to return for Mariah."

Ichigo pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.  "You had a life to return to.  You had so much to live for.  I had lost everything, even you."  She rocked and sniffled a few times.  "That's why I did it.  I knew it would kill me.  Roshi that wasn't an act of selflessness, that was a suicide."

"I was dead.  I was in this place with yellow clouds.  I could hear you trying to call me back, but I did not want to go back.  Then as I stood there, my people, the ones who had stayed on Saiya, started to show up.  Some with bodies, others as these wisps of smoke, and they thanked me.  None of them were angry with me.  Then, I felt myself being pulled away.  You brought me back again."

Ichigo shifted and then looked directly at Roshi with a gaze that pierced his very soul.  "Why?  Why did you bring me back?"

Roshi sat their transfixed while Ichigo watched him.  He opened his mouth and tried to talk, but nothing came out.  There were no words for him right then.

Roshi took a deep breath.  "Oh Ichigo, what have I put you though?"

Ichigo's eyes filled with question.  "What do you mean?"

"That was the wrong promise.  When you told me to leave, Kit's promise didn't even register in the far reaches of the back of my mind.  When I died... no that's not important.  I made a promise to myself and to Goku that I wouldn't let you throw away your life.  That was the promise I spoke of.  I couldn't let you die."

Ichigo looked away and spoke so silently Roshi could barely hear her speak.  "But why?"

"Because your people..." The safe diplomatic reply was out of his lips before he even thought.

"My people don't need me anymore!  They are all refugees!  They need you and your family and anyone who will accept them.  I might be able to help, but they certainly do not need me!"

Realization as to what caused her anger struck Roshi like a slap across the face by a small planet.  'Support, need, nothing without; those are words of love.  She loves me.'

"Ichigo, I saved you because I love you.  I couldn't live with myself if I let you die."

Ichigo's eyes bulged as she nearly fell off the bench when she pushed herself away from him.  "What?!?

Roshi blinked.  "Not exactly the response I was looking for."

He could feel her heart racing as she slowly pulled herself together and looked back at him.  "But what about Mariah?  What about your promise to Kit?"

Roshi looked down.  "I don't... This is hard to explain.  Mariah's my friend.  I love her, but... but she's like a sister.  And I promised to return home for her, not to marry her or anything.  I am returning home, and I will be there for her, but I...  with you, it is different.  I don't have to hide.  I can be myself.  I'm truly alive around you."

Ichigo was shivering so Roshi picked up the blanket she had long sense abandoned and moved closer to her.  He was starting to drape the blanket over her shoulders when she jumped forward and hugged him.  Roshi was so surprised that he almost fell off of the bench, and did manage to smack his head against the glass dome of the view window.

"Hold me.  Just hold me, I need to know this isn't a dream.  I need this to be real."  She sniffled as moist, hot tears fell onto Roshi's shoulder.

In that moment, she was so small, so fragile, so warm, so soft, so delicate, so very right, and Roshi wanted to hold her forever.  He pulled the quilt around the two of them and hugged her tighter before he started to stroke her back.  "This is real."

For several minutes neither of them said anything. Then Ichigo pushed herself away from Roshi and shook her head sadly.  "I wish my father would have lived to meet you."  A single large tear fell from her right eye to roll down her cheek.  "I think he would have approved and been happy."

Roshi smiled.  "Ichigo, I know this is hard for you.  But please stop.  I cannot bear to see you cry.  Please stop looking to the past.  We can't change it."

"I know but I just..."

She was stopped when Roshi reached out and pulled her closer.  He gently kissed her on the middle of her forehead and then bent down to kiss away the large tear that was still rolling down her cheek.  "Don't cry."

Roshi was about to move to her other cheek when he suddenly found a finger nearly shoved up his nose.  Ichigo pushed him back and then shook her head.  "No.  Not yet."

"Not yet?"  Roshi repeated sounding almost as sorry/hurt as he was.

"No, I... not yet."  Ichigo looked away and took a deep breath before turning back to him.  "Besides, if you are going to kiss me, you should do it like this."  She said softly as she bent in to kiss him directly on the lips.

The kiss was soft, and sweet and very very much alive.  Heat seemed to pour from her lips to flood his entire body in a moment of hot euphoria.  And then it was over far too soon, with a bit of a pull on his top lip hinting at the passionate hunger lurking there.

Roshi opened his eyes and forced his heart to slow down.  "Wow."

Ichigo seemed to be doing the same thing.  "That was... intense."

"Yes it was, and I am sure with your apt tutelage I will learn.  Shall we try again?"  Roshi said with a glimmer of a smirk in his eyes.

Ichigo sniffled and then laughed.  "Oh no you do not!"  She said as she poked him in the chest with her right index finger.  "I waited a long time to do that, and I am going to saver the moment you big goof."

"Goof?  Me?  I do believe you have me mistaken for Tee.  Now come here you flirt!"  Roshi laughed as he pulled her into another hug.  He slowly pulled his hand up to run it though her hair.  "I wish you hadn't cut your hair.  From a non-combat point of view it looked... really awesome."

Ichigo pushed herself away from him and started coughing as her laughter caught in her throat.  She rolled her eyes and looked at the stars through the glass canopy over their heads.  "This from the fool that wouldn't stop telling me to cut it every-time he saw me for the first several months I knew him?"

Roshi blushed.  "Well ah... you see... ah... now that we're done fighting..."

Ichigo broke out into full beautiful laughter.  "You really do not know anything do you?  I keep forgetting how little you actually know."

Roshi pushed himself further away and half glared at her.  "What are you talking about?"

"My hair!  While you are Saiyan enough, you are not full blooded and that makes you clueless."

"Hey now!"

"A Saiyan's hair doesn't change length once they reach maturity.  It will always grow to the same length and then just stop.  My long really awesome hair will be back in a few days.  That is why it is pointless to cut it.  It just grows right back."

"Oh really?  Well what other Saiyan secrets do you have?"  Roshi replied teasingly.

Ichigo laughed stood up and then bent over to give him a peck on the lips.  Would not you like to know?"  She said as she walked past him to get herself more water.

Roshi bent down to pick up one of the empty food pack foils.  "So I see you found the support rations."  He said pointing at the huge pile of empty foils.

Ichigo came back and sat down across from him.  "I was hungry."

Roshi wiggled the package he held.  "Tofu?  Plain unseasoned tofu?"

Ichigo blushed.  "I was really hungry.  Now throw me that blanket.  I'm tired of always being cold."

Roshi wrapped the blanket around himself.  "Why don't you come get it?"

"Jerk!"  Ichigo replied before she started laughing.  "Hmm, funny how some names just seem to stick."

Roshi picked up one of the cushions from the bench and tossed it at her.  "You should talk Kinomi!"

Ichigo caught it and tossed it back at him.  "That is my Grandmother's name!  Show some respect."

"Uhha!"  Roshi replied as he threw the cushion back at her.

Ichigo jumped at him.  She landed on him and knocked him off the bench and onto the floor where the two of them rolled around half tearing the blanket to shreds as they each tried to pin the other.

Roshi ended up on his back with Ichigo laying on top of him caught in a bear hug.  "There, I got you, and I'm not letting go."

Ichigo's eyebrows arced evilly.  "That so?"  She asked as she pushed her knee up into his groin just hard enough for him to know it was there.

Roshi let her go.  "You cheat."

Ichigo pushed herself off of him and started to poke him in the ribs.  "What is that human saying?  Oh yes, all is fair in love and war."

Roshi who was about the most ticklish person he knew rolled into a ball and squirmed laughing as she tormented him.

"What's that?  Love and war?  So you do?"

Ichigo paused long enough to let the blue faced Roshi catch his breath.  Her mouth clicked shut a few times.  "I... yes I love you!  I would be lost without you."

Roshi rolled over sat up and hugged her.  "I know, I'm sorry.  You said it without saying it.  I shouldn't have forced you."

Ichigo yawned.  "It is ok.  I love you.  I truly do, and I want to hold you forever."

Roshi held her and stroked her back for several minutes until she fell asleep on his shoulder.

"I know, and I'm never letting you go."

Roshi sat there for a long time thinking about what he had said.  He didn't doubt a single word he had said.  The truth when spoken from the heart could not be denied.

He gently ran a finger down Ichigo's cheek.  "You are so beautiful."

"Now, how to break the news to Kit and Mariah without losing them?  Mariah will be hurt no matter what I do...  Kit, well if she can't accept it... she'll accept it."

"Dende what am I doing?  I'm holding the most beautiful, wonderful girl in my arms, and I can't stop worrying.  I'm hopeless."

Ichigo stirred and rolled a bit in his lap so that her hip was pressing down on his groin in a way that was not unpleasant, yet caused him to worry about other things.

"Oh to hell with it all."  Roshi said before he bent down to kiss her gently on the forehead.  He opened his mind fully to her and felt everything from the beating of her heart to the firing of synapses in her brain as she slept.  It would be a long time before she fully recovered from her momentary death, but she was well on the way.  As this knowledge slowly sunk in Roshi relaxed and calmed down.  Without even thinking about it, Roshi's heart and breathing fell into rhythm with Ichigo's.

Shortly thereafter he too fell asleep in her arms.

Ichigo for her part was oblivious to Roshi's worries.  For the first time in many, many months and perhaps the first time in her life, she slept totally at peace with the universe fervent joy filling her heart, mind, and soul.

Each of them returning onto the other their love.

* * *

Up on the Kaioshin's planet Goku looked down and smiled.  "YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!!!  I knew if they just admitted it to each other everything would work out!"

Kaioshin looked down and across space at the two slumbering Saiyan teens before he looked up at Goku.  "You had this whole thing planned from the start."

Goku stopped jumping up and down and looked over at Kaioshin.  "What do you mean?"

"THIS!!! Those two falling in love and the whole thing!  You knew from the start that she wasn't evil so you removed Buu so that He wouldn't kill her and that forced your descendants to work with her and eventually return home to Saiya to try to save it and its people so that those two could fall in love and be happy and so that now that Buu is here you could just go and return to Chichi and get out of your duty to the universe!"  Kaioshin was an odd shade of blue-green when he finished his rant.

Goku scratched his head.  "I don't know what you are talking about, I just hoped for the best and it worked.  Things tend to work out right when you just let them."

Kaioshin grabbed his mohawk and screamed.  "YOU!!!   OH you are impossible!"

Goku scratched his head again.  "Ok, well um thanks for letting me live with you and all.  I had fun, but I better go return to heaven now that I'm dead again.  Besides, ChiChi will be glad to see me."

Kaioshin was holding his head and shaking.  "How can he be such simple minded?  He doesn't even realize his actions, which always end up working out right in the end, have changed the universe yet again.  Gahh, I've never even heard of a smarter idiot!"

Goku was scratching his head again.  "Right, well um... what's he talking about?"  He asked Rou Kaioshin.

Rou Kaioshin laughed.  "Oh nothing.  He's just confused."

"Oh, ok, well I should be going then."

"Just a second there Goku.  I was wondering if you recalled that the lifeforce you gave to Roshi was originally mine that I gave you when Buu was terrorizing the Earth?"

"Oh yeah.  I remember.  I hope you're not mad I gave it to Roshi."

Rou Kaioshin waved the thought away.  "Oh no, not at all.  I just was wondering if you remembered that there were still more than five hundred years of life left in that life?"

"Oh yeah!  I remembered."

Rou Kaioshin paused and then scratched his head in an obvious mimic of Goku.  "And are you planning on telling Roshi that he's going to live for more than five hundred years then?"

Goku smiled.  "Nah, seems he gave almost exactly half of that to Ichigo.  They're smart kids, smarter than me anyway.  They will figure it out."

Rou Kaioshin blinked.  "If you say so."

Goku suddenly turned.  "Hey I would like to keep talking but I think I can smell ChiChi's cooking so..."  Goku didn't even finish before he used instantaneous movement to vanish.

"Goku go bye-bye!  Bye-bye Goku!"  Buu cheered after watching his friend return to Chichi.

"Hmph, and it all worked out in the end."  Kaioshin shook his head.  "Perhaps Goku was right.  Perhaps I am too cynical."

Rou Kaioshin shook his head and laughed.  "He took the Dragonballs with him.  I wonder if this truly is the end?"

Kaioshin's eyes bulged.  "You don't suppose he means to return them to the Earth do you?"

Rou Kaioshin shrugged.  "He has been hoping for a reason to return them for over four hundred years.  What do you think?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thank you all for reading.  This is the last "true" chapter.  An Epilogue should be up shortly.

Please review.

To all of you who have been waiting for this day:  Thanks for your continued support. 

The Smooster

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Any final thoughts would be loved.