AN: This seems forced, but you all deserve a new chapter.

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!! I was so thrilled by the overwhelming number of reviews... you are truly the reason that this chapter is here. Gomen nasi that it isn't longer (you really deserve longer, but I didn't want you to wait any longer). So this chapter is dedicated to you all, who continue to remain faithful to this fic, though updates have become so rare. You all mean so much to me; thank you for your patient dedication as I continue to delay. ^_^"

Thank you again to all my wonderful BETAs. You really help me along.Domo arigato minna-chan for the huge response. And without further ado, onto the fic!

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The tile of the floor was cool beneath her legs, but her mind was abuzz with activity. She took several deep steadying breaths to a set rhythm as she sought to calm herself.

She had sought solitude as soon as possible, away from the crowd of people that haunted her past. Evasively, she had dodged their questions (though many seemed fearful to ask what they really wanted to know) until Dende had insisted she needed more rest and sent her away. Contrary to his orders, she had wandered to the edge of the Lookout, the farthest point she could find from the room where the boys were training.

Her legs were crossed and her eyes squeezed tightly shut, but still she struggled to find her focus. Never had meditation been so difficult before. But now, with everything changing from one end of the spectrum to the other in a matter of moments... realizing she had somehow returned to Earth, anxiously awaiting her senshi, finding those of her distant past--a younger Goku, a married dead Goku, fusion, evil wizards, marshmellows destroying cities . . .

No. She forced herself to stop, to calm, to focus. She needed to sift through this confusion and retain a level head. She still had her duty before her. There was still Majin Buu to reckon with.

The base of her head continued to ache softly as Majin Buu wandered free, wrecking havoc, without her stopping him. She Felt as he consumed entire cities, turned into mere chocolate bars, and simply blasted others once he was full. Each life lost was another swift sharp pinch in the base of her mind. And the aching Feeling of evil unconfronted continued to throb in her mind...

A breeze from below stirred her fuku and silver hair. Inhaling slowly, she breathed the sweetness of nature that she had missed for so long. The wonderful smell of Earth. She sighed softly.

Despite the evil threat, despite the anxiety and confusion and differences, it was good to be home. Her mind cleared slowly and she found her center, unknowingly beginning to hover nearly a foot off the ground.

How long she remained like this, she had no idea. But sometime later, she was awakened from her relaxed state by the aching Feeling, which had grown to a strong throb. She landed softly on the tile and clutched her head, with seemed to split with every pulse. Majin Buu must be near.

Trying to retain her calmed state of meditation, she tried to push some of the Feeling aside as she had trained herself to do. Slowly, she got up, magicked her staff from her subspace pocket, and hurried inside to warn the others.

The air seemed to be tense within the building. She hurried toward the room where Gok... Goten and the other boy, Trunks, had been attempting to fuse.

The scene that meet her eyes was far different from when she had left it. Everyone was silent, as if concentrating on something. She called out to them. "Majin Buu--!"

"He's over the Western Capitol," said the man, Yamcha, without looking up. "Goku's trying to distract him while Trunks fetches the Dragon Radar, before Buu blows the entire place up." He looked up, a look of slight surprise on his face at Cosmos' lack of response. "Can't you sense it?"

Cosmos was confused by his question, but she refused to admit any weakness. "Ah... sense?" She asked, waiting for an explanation.

"You never learned to sense kis," said the full-grown Namek, Piccolo, who leaned on the wall. This was not a question, but a statement. Cosmos glared at his tone.

The others looked surprised, but the Namek continued. "Come, now is the perfect time to learn. Try to feel the life-forces and energy-levels of those around you and the one in the distance..."

Cosmos had her eyes shut and was trying to do as he asked. She could Feel Buu, of course, but no one in the room held enough evil that she could really feel anything else about them. She reached out in the distance, towards Buu...

Then suddenly she sensed it.

She was shocked that she hadn't noticed it before. A life-force that had skyrocketed, that seemed to be radiating raw golden power. She had never felt anything like it before. She forced herself to continued breathing.

Gradually, she noticed that there was more to this ki than its seemingly limitless power. She Felt its purity and innocence, and she began to estimate its distance away. By slight fluctuations in the energy of this ki and Buu's, she was able to tell that they were battling. And she noticed that the sky outside seemed dark and crackling with the electricity from this one power.

"What *is* that?!" she gasped. Several of the Z senshi smirked.

"That's Goku," replied Yamcha smugly. A growl from the back of the room attracted her attention as she looked up to see the scowling man that she had saved, Vegeta, angrily leave the room.

Cosmos curiously watched him leave, something not fitting together in her mind. "I do not understand," she mused, as she closed her eyes and tried to sense his ki, as she had Goku's. "He obviously seems to be very strong, perhaps the strongest in this room, and the obvious solution to the Majin Buu problem would be to create the ultimate warrior by fusing with Goku. Yet instead, the boys..." She trailed off, wondering.

The Namek, Piccolo, remained silent, Yamcha and the others looked at her like she was crazy. "You obviously don't know Vegeta," said Yamcha. "He'd never share the same body with Goku!! He *hates* Goku!"

"I prefer the term 'brotherly rival'," interrupted the blue-haired woman, Bulma, whom Cosmos recalled to be the wife of Vegeta.

"All the same," continued Yamcha with a shrug, "he'd do anything to win victory, even let himself be possessed by the enemy," the crowd shifted uncomfortably, "but he'd NEVER agree to fuse with Goku. It took a lot to even get him to allow Trunks to fuse with Goten... not until he understood that it would be his son, not Goku, that would destroy Majin Buu," Yamcha frowned.

Cosmos shook her head, still not comprehending why this man would not look behind rivalries in the face of this danger.

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AN: Ack! Not much of an ending, gomen. But I reached a block there: What to do with Veggie? I want him to play a big part, but I'm not sure how to do this without completely altering the series. Hmm... any ideas are appreciated. Hopefully I'll work this out and get the next (longer) chap up ASAP.

And Gomen nasi for the lack of Review Responses. I will try to put them on next time, but I'm supposed to be running out the door right now and I just want to get this up for you all. ^_^'

And finally, if anyone else was angered by what happened in Matrix Revolutions, I'm coining the new phrase "doing a JK Rowling", i.e. killing off a character (without a good death scene) for no apparent reason. I think I'm gonna try to (finally) make my Sirius's Army site a protest against any treatment from authors to characters such as this. I'll put the link on my profile if you care, but it will just be the old site until I get time to add stuff.

Thank you for your continued patience and dedication. Please review! Domo arigato! Ja ne!

~Calli-chan