Stumbling over the rubble, Tayven held her hand over her mouth, trying not to breath in the dust and dirt swirling around. Coughing, she picked her way through the debris towards the just-stirring forms of Bulma and Vegeta. She saw Goku speaking with Piccolo quietly off in the distance. She hoped they were coming up with a plan to end this. All though, by the looks of things, it was all ready far too late. As she tripped over a piece of concrete fallen from one of the larger buildings, she cringed at the sight of a mangled arm trapped beneath it.
She knew the person the arm belonged to was beyond helping. Shuddering, she averted her eyes whenever they fell upon someone's body laying sprawled in the litter left of the chaos. She knew there were still people alive. There had to be! Straining her ears, she tried to listen to see if she could hear anything above the pounding of her heart in her ears and the gushing of her breath through her mouth. Then, suddenly, she heard it. A cry. Growing louder. Gazing around, her eyes still burning from the smoke billowing upwards from the fires started by the explosions, she realized what it was she was hearing.
"Trunks!" Tayven heard Bulma's cry a moment before she came to the realization that what she was hearing was the Capsule Corp president's infant son now wailing. Tayven looked around frantically trying to spot the child. A sudden sound of breaking cement and the wailing became hiccupping cries. Blinking, Tayven watched as the child threw the hunk of cracked concrete and rebar he'd been trapped under to the side, as if it were no heavier than a toy block.
Just as she was rushing towards him, Bulma intercepted her and gathered the small child up into her arms, raining a series of grateful kisses down up on his chubby face. She wasn't crying, Tayven could see, but she was very, very happy that her son was all right. "Shh…Don't cry," she said, "Mamma's here…It's okay, Trunks…Shh…"
"Hmph, Stop coddling him, woman," Vegeta said, stepping over someone's impromptu grave to get to his family, "Of course he's all right. He's a saiyan, isn't he?"
"What are we going to do?" Tayven asked, bringing their attention towards her, "Hey, look, I don't want to be here but I don't want the world destroyed either! I don't know what to do! Sensei," she asked, turning towards Vegeta, "I didn't expect this," she waved her hand, indicting the horror all around them, "to be part of the deal!"
"It's always part of the deal," Goku said, using his ki to fly himself over the debris, (Why didn't I think of that? Tayven asked herself), and landing near the three…err…four of them, "When you hang out with this bunch. Piccolo!" Goku called to the green man, who'd followed behind him, "Do you have any ideas on how to fix things? You mentioned something about sending The Mistress bad to where she belongs…"
"Well, we can't do anything until we're better prepared," Bulma said, switching Trunks to her other hip, "I think we should do a little more research on that house, those children and what this all means…"
"We should train more," Goku said, his hands balled into fists at his sides, "I couldn't stop her…I wasn't strong enough! Those children died because of my weakness…"
"We haven't got time for that!" Tayven cried, not believing what she was hearing. All ready those…those little monsters and their demented charge could be heading for trouble, eager to wreck more havoc upon innocent, unsuspecting people! "We have to stop them now!" She didn't look at Goku as she said this. She couldn't meet his eyes, they were filled with too much anguish, too much hurt. She just wanted this all over with so she could get on with her life and never have to see this place again, save for in her nightmares.
"We can't, Tayven," Bulma said, patting Trunks' back, "Not the way we are now. If we try to stop them now they'll just take us over again and then it will start all over…"
"Bulma's right," Piccolo finally spoke up. He had been lost in thought during the exchange, "But, we need to train our minds more than our bodies this time. The only reason was able to fight them off was my mind has had more training than any of yours."
"Bulma," Vegeta turned to her, scooping both her and his son up into his arms before she could protest, "I'm taking you home right now. Namek!" he called, "I hope you know what your talking about!"
"What are you talking about, Vegeta!" Bulma cried, "We haven't got a home! You...I mean...when you were taken over...you..." Vegeta didn't allow her to finish but said gruffly; "I'm taking you to Kami's Tower. Hold on."
"Wait!" She said, holding onto him and her son as they gained height, "Take me back to Capsule Corp! Maybe...maybe we can still salvage some things!"
Tayven watched them with a hand sheilding her eyes until they vanished from sight. She thought she saw them turn in the air towards Capsule Corp...or what was left of it.
"How long will it take until we're strong enough to keep them from possessing us?" She asked, turning from the grayish black sky towards Goku and then to Piccolo, her brows knitting upon her forehead as she waited for an answer. Piccolo spoke first, his deep bass rumble echoing through her head, even though they were no longer telepathically linked, "About a year…maybe longer. I don't know for certain. It depends on how strong you all are. Mentally."
He glanced sidelong at Goku as she said this, trying, Tayven noticed, to keep himself from breaking out into a smirk. Goku, for his credit, did not seem to notice as he took a deep breath and said, "I think we should all get a good night's sleep before we start."
Piccolo agreed; "I think Kami's Lookout is the only safe place we have left...for now...I suggest we all meet there as soon as possible."
"I have to go home and get Chi Chi," Goku said, with a stern look upon his normally jovial features, "I sure hope we can end this soon...a year might be too late..."
"Are you all insane?" Tayven screamed, waving frantically towards the purple and white mountains, "They're going to kill everyone in the world by then! We don't have a year…we don't even have an hour! We have to do something right now!"
"Listen, Tayven," Goku said, "We won't do anyone any good if we try and fail. A year gives us enough time to train our minds as well as to search out the dragonballs…"
"Dragonballs?" She asked, shaking her head, recalling bits and pieces of that story she'd read, and then rewrote using Bulma's computer. Goku nodded and she began to realize what he was getting at. She began to feel stupid for her outburst. "You understand?" he asked her and she nodded. "We can use the dragonballs to wish everyone back to life…after we get rid of the source of the problem…right?"
"Yeah, that's right," Goku said, and raised two fingers to his brow, standing motionless for a moment, "I'm going home to eat and rest up and bring Chi Chi to the lookout…you should do the same, Tayven."
"Where is this Lookout?" Tayven asked, rubbing the dirt and grime from her eyes. Her face hurt and she knew the bones were broken in her right cheek. It was difficult to speak. She waited for someone to answer her question. Goku replied; "It's a long way to fly. We'll help you get there. I know you're not as strong as the rest of us."
At any other time Goku's comment would have pissed her off. As it was she was aching too badly and was far too tired to care at the moment. All she wanted was a place to sleep for a few hours...hell, a few days wouldn't be bad, even if she knew they were working with borrowed time, so to speak. Goku placed two fingers to his brow and told them to take care and for Tayven not to worry. "Everything will work out, you'll see..." Even as he said this, Tayven could sense the feeling of dread beneath his tone. As if he were only saying this for her benefit.
"Do you really think we have a chance," Tayven asked Piccolo after Goku shimmered and disappeared, "Piccolo?"
"I don't know, kid," Piccolo said, "I'll send word out tomorrow morning where we'll be meeting for the start of the training. You better get back and rest up. You, out of everyone, are going to need it the most." As he said this last, the namekian vanished in much the same way as Goku, leaving the young woman to stand there, not liking the implication behind his tone that she was still, even after months of training with Vegeta, a little weakling.
"I'll show him!" She thought, concentrating on her own ki, lifting herself a few feet off the ground, "You'll see…I'm not…weak…." Losing her train of thought and control of ki, she felt herself falling. Before she could right herself, she landed hard against a corner of a broken building, crying out at the pain in her upper arm. "Dammit!"
She still had trouble thinking of other things and flying at the same time. It was hard to keep her mind on more than one task at the same time. Taking a breath, she steadied her thoughts and emotions and tried again. This time she was able to make it all the way back to the ruins of Capsule Corp. Her landing still needed work, as she rolled into a bush. Coughing up dust, she scooted herself out and brushed the leaves and twigs from her gi as she gained her footing.
Pacing within the confines of the gravity room, the saiyan prince ran his fingers through the dampness of his gravity-defying hair. His mood was irratable to say the least. Sweat dripped from his bare chest from his recent workout, his mind reeling with visions of what a bloody mess he'd like to make of that crazy bitch, if he could get his hands on her. The problem was, he knew, that there was nothing there, physically, for him to kill.
Whe he'd arrived back at the place he'd called home for the past few years, almost nothing remained but a gutted, still smoldering building. For some reason, and he assumed this to be the materials Bulma had used in it's creation, the circular gravity room was the only building still intact. Of this, Vegeta was as grateful as his arrogant, brash self could be under the circumstances.
"That bitch is going to pay," He said to himself, refering, of course, not to his mate, but to the vile creature who'd taken on a somewhat female form and wrought horrors upon the people he held dear. Recalling the torture of the past few days while he'd been trapped and unable to defend himself, Vegeta never wanted to feel such helplessness again. Shuddering in spite of himself, Vegeta vowed to pay her back ten-fold for the pain and humilation she'd caused him. Glaring into the dimness of the room, he began a series of one-handed push-ups. There was no reason, he thought, he couldn't keep working on honing his physical body as well as his mind.
He'd meditated before, but for Vegeta physical strength had always been more important than mental strength. He knew he was intelligent and he could manipulate his ki effectivally enough, but he didn't spend nearly as much time on the training within his body as some people he could name. That there was the threat of an enemy that could defeat him from within his own mind was too horrorific to contempulate. Whatever it took, if it took all the strength he had left, he'd show her that the prince of Saiyans was no one to be triled with.
"Where did I put that...?" Bulma punched a few keys on her state-of-the-art keyboard, the page loading faster than the blink of an eye as Tayven, recently washed up and changed into a pair of jeans and another Capsule Corp tee-shirt, stood behind her watching. Having expressed annoyance at the use of his personal shower system, the saiyan prince now tried his best to focus on his workout and not on the two jabbering females nearby. He had the gravity on normal so as not to be a burden to the two women using one of Bulma's computers, which had been built directly into one of the consoles of the room.
"...disk. Ah, here it is...let's see..." she read the black print upon the white background and Tayven saw a scan of an old black and white photograph. The center of the photo had been torn so that there was the mark of scotch tape holding it together. But, there was no mistaking it was the house that had mysteriously appeared a few miles from Capsule Corp.
"...a orphanage for ill-treated or abadoned children in..." Bulma read, aloud but mostly to herself. Tayven read over her shoulder, leaning forward a bit as she did so and resting her hands upon the back of Bulma's chair. Bulma had mentioned how lucky they'd been that the connection still worked. "It says here that the house was torn down after some kind of accident...accident. I wonder what could have happened..."
"I wonder if it has to do with the children?" Tayven asked, "The accident. What happened? Does it say?"
After a moment, Bulma clicked more links, gazed at more images and read a few more paragraphs in her search for answers, "Hmm, well, it says here the woman who ran the place vanished along with ten of her charges...there was an investigation but..." she looked away from the computer screen. Both her and Tayven's face were glowing from the light of the monitor, "...They were never found?" Tayven ventured at which Bulma nodded slowly.
"What about the house itself?" Tayven asked, glancing at the clock at the bottom of right-hand corner of the computer screen. It was a little after nine in the evening. Trunks was all ready asleep in a makeshift bed in the corner of the room, his mattress a workout padded mat and one of Bulma's sweaters, salvaged from a handful of capsules they'd found among the debris, covering him. Whatever bumps and bruises he'd suffered had healed up in a matter of hours. Bulma knew that was due to his father's blood. Although the Briefs family had a pretty high constitution as well, she knew. "Does it say anything at all about the house?"
"They found strange-looking diagrams and symbols written with some kind of dark ink throughout the basement and the people investigating said they felt," she read some more, "...'the air being sucked from thier lungs' in certain areas of the house..." At those words, Tayven instinctly drew her fingers towards her throat, remember what had happened to her upon her first foray into that house. "But, what does it mean?" she asked, "What happened there that could cause this?"
"That what I'm trying to find out, Tayven," Bulma replied, "You should get some rest."
"I'm all right," Tayven said, pushing a strand of her hair away from her eyes, "I want to go back there."
"What!" Bulma cried, jumping slightly from her seat, "You're not going back to that house alone. At night."
"We should find out everything we can about it, Bulma," she said, "I mean...if you want to come with me..." Tayven wished she'd say she did. She had no desire to face that place alone in the dark. By herself. Bulma's face visably paled as she chewed her bottom lip. Tayven could tell she was trying to think of a way out of this without seeming unconcerned for her friends and family and the fate of the very world on which she lived .
"Woman! I've been thinking!" Vegeta bellowed, as he snatched a towel from the shower area, draping it across his shoulders and swiping the end of it across his face roughly.
"Well, I certainly hope you didn't injure yourself, Vegeta." Bulma responded without skipping a beat.
Ignoring her jibe, he went on, leaning somewhat against the console; "You and the brat need a safe place to stay while Goku and I are training with Piccolo...Tayven," he turned to thier guest, "I know you want to continue your training with me."
"Oh yeah," Tayven said, sarcastically, "More than I can say..." Actually, she did wish to continue. For some reason. It seemed to give her a sense of purpose. She hadn't felt that in a while. Not that she would eve admit it.
"Don't interrupt me!" He snapped, "But I want you to stay with Bulma and Trunks."
"What! You're not leaving me behind!" Bulma cried, at which Vegeta winced.
"I just told the brat to not interrupt me!" he said to Bulma before addressing Tayven once more, "Tayven, I can't concentrate on this training we're going to be doing with Piccolo if your around getting into trouble. I won't have time to babysit you."
At this Tayven felt her cheeks flaming. Anger rose up inside her, "I'm not a baby, you bastard!"
"Watch your mouth, girl," Vegeta said, "I wasn't finished...I need someone to stay and protect my family for me. Trunks is too small even if he's going to grown into a saiyan warrior like me!"
It rankled Vegeta to ask this of anyone, least of all a measily human female. In fact, the words tasted sour in his mouth. But, he knew that just screaming at the girl that he wanted her to stay behind while he focused on his training wouldn't be enough. He knew if he convinced her she was doing something important that she would be less likely to question his decision. If not she'd find a way to follow him and make him do something rash.
Like blast her into a million peices for mouthing off one too many times. Kami knows he'd all ready come close more than a few times during the months they'd been training together. If he made it sound like she was doing something useful for him, he was almost certain she would't catch on and that would the end of it. At least, he hoped so. Who knew, he thought, as the words fell from his lips, she might prove him right and actually be helpful to him and his family during his absence.
"Hey!" Bulma snapped, interrupting his thoughts, "I can take care of myself and Trunks just fine, Mister! And Capsule Corp has a panic room, you know...that's large enough for a family of five to live there for up to five years! It enough food and bottled water...and plumbing pumped right in! The walls are thick enough that even an explosion right next to it wouldn't phase it."
"Where is this room?" Vegeta asked, his eyes wide, "Why wasn't I ever told about it?"
"You were!" Bulma said, clicking a few keys and closing down her computer. She stood up and stretched, "You workout there everyday."
"What?" Vegeta cried, "You mean in here! Where? Show me. Now!"
"Well...actually, I should say you workout right above it every day," Bulma smirked to herself, "Over here." Bulma continued to speak, explaining that she'd found time to tinker around on her project between other things here and there for the past few years. "I felt the need to create a place we can go in the event of an emergency...so I thought of an expanded on panic room."
Pressing a few buttons along the console nearest one of the rounded walls, Bulma coded her password into the machine and waited for a moment. After the clearance went though, Bulma pressed the palm of her hand against one of the wall panels and they heard it click. They watched as it fell backwards, out of sight, leaving a small, sqaure-shape hole in the wall in it's place. Reaching into the hold, Bulma pulled slighly and Tayven's intake of breath could be heard through the room. A door of some kind seemed to...appear...along the wall, cracking open slowly. She knew it was just an optical illusion, that the doorway was alway there. It was just that all the panels, buttons and lights had hid it from her eyes.
Vegeta seemed mightly put off by the fact that his mate had been messing around inside the place he considers his home-away-from-home, so to speak, and not just to fix something he'd broken or give him more challenges to overcome in his training. Even though he was as interested as Tayven in what the pretty genius was revealing to them.
"I'm not going close it yet, in case you want to look around," Bulma said, "Everything has been calculated and gone over three times. I made sure of it."
"I still don't see why you'd keep this a secret from me," Vegeta said, very close to pouting.
"Once I close the doors, the computer will lock them and seal anyone within inside for at least one year," she said, ignoring Vegeta.
"I thought you said five years?" Tayven asked, wrinkling her brow.
"I can calculate it to stay locked for up to five years...or one year," Bulma said, "It's just a matter of putting the correct amount of values into the computer..But anyway, it's not like we're ever going to need it. I plan on going out to find the dragonballs while you and the others work on your training."
"You'll do as I say!" he said, the purple vein in his forehead pulsing. Bulma's face turned crimson as she screamed at him; "I will not! I have just as much right to be involved in this as you! You little..."
"Don't finish that sentence, woman," he threatened, at which Bulma closed her mouth and just glared bullets at him. Tayven was afraid to get caught in the crossfire of these two feiry people. "I'm going to sleep. We'll discuss this in the morning." Seething, Bulma watched as her mate took his place upon an excersize mat on the floor in the farthest part of the room from where the women were standing.
The little girl was crying softly in the corner. Golden sausage curls bouncing slightly with every sob. Ignoring her, Gohan looked around, trying to find a way out. It was so dark he could hardly see his hand in front of his face. One thing kept playing over and over within his head. "What would Dad do?" He asked, aloud, at which the child, snuffling, looked up. She glared over at him and in the darkness he saw her blue eyes flashing like a cat's eyes when the light hit them just right. "Your Dad's not gonna help you or your friends!"
In spite of himself, Gohan felt sorry for her. What if it wasn't her fault she was like this. What had happened to her...to all of them...to make them this way? After a few more moments of pounding on the walls around him, he settled down, sighing and thought; at least we seem to be at rest right now. He knew everyone else was spread out on the ground within the cave they'd found inside one of the mountains they had been heading for earlier, curled into each other like a litter of puppies, snoring softly. He wondered if the other children within his friends and family were resting as well, if he and this...being...were the only ones awake at the moment.
"It feels strange," He said, talking to himself as well as to her, "To be trapped within my own head...Have you done this before? Taken people over?"
"It's all your fault!" She cried, wiping at her tear-streaked face with a fist, "If you hadn't distracted me...I wouldn't have lost her!"
Gohan thought about what he'd done to gain control of his own body, just for a few moments, enough to convince the other children that he was still possessed and have them follow him, away from their leader. Actually, it had been Piccolo would had given him the idea. The plan. Having been struggling for control, Piccolo spoke to him briefly, via telepathy, costing them precious time, Gohan knew. It had been a risk, but a risk well worth taking. At least now maybe Goku and everyone else who was still free and could still fight would have time to solve this problem.
You need to strengthen your mind, Gohan Piccolo had told him, one of the last things he'd said, If you can help the others...be strong...you'll be able to keep things somewhat in hand...
"What are you smiling about?" The girl asked, blowing her nose on her dress, "It's all over for you, you know. It's just a matter of time. When The Mistress..."
"Why do you call her that?" Gohan interrupted, "She's not your mother, is she?"
"No...But, I don't...don't remember having a mother," she said, blinking towards Gohan, "It's always just been...us and her...always."
"Don't you wish you could be free?" Gohan asked, crossing his legs into the lotus stance, he'd learned from Piccolo.
She couldn't move from her place near the corner, Gohan knew, but if he allowed his attention to stray too far...
"I was free." she said, at which she glared once more at the near invisible barriers holding her in place.
"Don't you want to be free from her," Gohan clarified, taking a few deep breaths and feeling the air working it's way into his lungs. Strange, considering he had no lungs to fill, being merely a ghost trapped within his own head. "To have fun? Like a kid should? She won't ever let you have any real fun, you know...she doesn't love you."
"I have fun..." she said, but seemed uncertain. Gohan picked up on this hesitation, "I mean, The Mistress cares about us! She's like a mother...she is!"
"She's just using you," Gohan said, "You and the other kids. Can't you see that?"
The girl, who seemed to be about five years old, (although Gohan knew she could be a thousand), didn't answer. Deciding that the time for talking was over, Gohan closed his eyes, took in a few deep breaths and tried to still his mind. After a few moments he fell into a deep state of meditation, focusing on the intake and outtake of his breathing until the world around him began and ended with the air rushing into his lungs. Curling up on her side, Gohan was vaugly aware of the child next to him sucking noisily at her thumb.
"Wha-wha-what are you talking about, Goku?" Chi Chi was standing in the kitchen of the small, rather qauint abode she shared with her family, her voice rising higher with every word that leapt from her lips, "How can Gohan be...be possessed! He has school on Monday!"
His home, Goku had been relieved to find out, had be saved from the damage inflicted by the possessed saiyan and thier family only by the location in which the property stood; far from the city limits. Spending more time with housework than watching television, Chi Chi had missed the news of the nearest city's devestation. When she saw her husband's tattered orange and blue gi and bruised, dirty features, she'd just assumed he'd been out sparring again. Par for the course for Goku.
"Listen, Chi Chi!" Goku cried, spreading his hands out in front of himself in a gesture of calmness, although he knew it was wasted on his significant other, "There was nothing we could do! They were just too strong..."
"Oh, there's something I can do!" she growled, marching past him, her stare was feirce enough to shove him nearly bodily out of the way, "I'll teach that bitch to take other women's children away!"
"Listen to me, please!" he tried, "Piccolo and I are going to train for a year and locate the dragonballs so that we can fix everything!"
"A year!" she shrieked, "Gohan may be dead by then! We don't have a year! And who's going to be looking for the dragonballs while your off training!"
"Wait, Chi Chi!" Goku ran after her as she stomped outside, slamming the door open so hard it banged against the side of the house, "You have to calm down! Gohan has things under control...he..."
"Oh, don't you give me that, Mister!" Chi Chi snapped, starting up the hovercar they'd purchured a few months ago, with Goku's prize money from the last martial arts tournament, "If you hadn't insisted on continuing his training, none of this would have happened!"
"But...but, Chi Chi..."
"Now tell me where that she-bitch took my son!" she screamed at him, from the driver's side of the car, her knuckles white upon the wheel, "Or I'll just hunt her down myself!"
Goku cocked his head to one side, not liking it when his wife went off on one of her tangents. He wished she'd get out of the car. She was a horrible driver when upset. He didn't want to see any more people come to harm, not when he could help it. I can't let her go, he thought, I can't let her see what's happened...
"Chi Chi...I..." He looked away from her and for the first time since she'd know him he couldn't meet her eyes. A horrible panic seized her heart, like fingers of ice squeezing. "Goku...?" she said his name, uncertain, like a plea. Afraid of what she'd see if he looked into her eyes once more.
Oh, Kami, I can't ever tell her what I've done. She must never know. How could I do such a thing to those...they were just kids! In the back of his mind, Goku knew that it hadn't been himself that had killed... no. Slaughtered those children, but it was too difficult to make the distinction when his heart was filled with the stabbing, dull aching pain of guilt. "Chi Chi," he said, laying a hand upon one of her her own over the steering wheel, "Get out of the car."
"Goku..." she began, but stopped when she saw the look upon his face. She'd never been afraid of her own husband before, but something in his face told her she'd better do as he said. "I'm sorry," he said, in a near whisper, "I can't let you go."
Helping her from the car, he slipped his arms around her, held her as tightly as he could and not break her bones. Visions of whole families perishing at his and his friends and family's hands washed across his vision as he held his face against his wife's neck for a few precious moments. Knowing her husband like she did, Chi Chi knew that he rarely showed outward signs of physical affection of the romantic kind. And even this wasn't romantic. She felt a need within him, a need to have her and keep her safe.
"Go," she said, all the spleen gone from her voice, when she finally broke free, "Do what you have to...but, just...just come back safe...with our son...please, Goku..."
Goku Gasping, the saiyan turned from his wife and stared off into space, seeming lost for a few moments, Can you hear me?
"It's Piccolo!" He cried, for Chi Chi did not hear the namekian's mental call, it was meant only for Goku, "I can hear you fine, Piccolo..."
Meet me at Capsule Corp, Piccolo's voice rumbled inside Goku's head, tickling in a way, Bring Chi Chi.
"Chi Chi, but..." Goku glanced at her and she raised her brows in query, "No. I won't allow her to...to...Chi Chi needs to stay out of this, Piccolo!"
Just shut up and bring her, Piccolo said, irritation echoing across into Goku's head, Bulma's created a safe place for her...as well as Trunks and herself. Hurry. We haven't got time to bicker here!
With that, Piccolo broke the connection and Goku turned back to Chi Chi, shrugging, and said; "He wants me to bring you. It seems Bulma has a place that will be safe for you, her and Trunks to stay while we bring this..." he glanced at the smoke rising into the sky from the direction of Satan City, "...to a stop."
"I...I'll go pack," she said, clearly not liking the situation one bit, but she was used to being left whenever Goku and the others had to rush off to save the world. "Honey?" Goku stopped her, "Can you make me something to eat...for the road?"
"You just had dinner, Goku!"
"Please?"
"All right," she stepped away from the car and back inside the small house, her anger flashing in place of the fear she felt deep within, the all-too-familar fear that this time she would never see her husband alive again...and it would be forever as well, with no way to bring him back. She tried to ignore that feeling as she readied a suitcase for herself and Gohan, telling herself that Goku would bring him back to her, as well as a snack for Goku to take with him...which, of course, cleaned out the rest of thier stores of food for the month.
She clung to his shoulders, carried into the air, her back braced against one of his arms, his other beneath the curve of her well-shaped legs. "I think it would a good idea if, while you and Piccolo are training, that myself, Bulma and Tayven concentrate on finding the dragonballs. It will all go faster that way..." They were flying towards Capsule Corp and Goku tried his best to sheild her vision from the mess of the inner city they sped past by staying as high into the clouds as possible. She'd seen enough chaos since the years they'd been married and would see even more once they arrived at the ruins that used to be the Capsule Corp location. Although, Goku knew, they could always rebuild the buildings that had been destroyed.
"I don't know...That does sound like a good idea, Chi Chi," Goku answered after thinking for a moment, "I hope we can wish everything back to normal. But first we have to find a way to send The Mistress back to where she came from...We need to contact Krillin, Tein and the others to help..."
"The Mistress?" Chi Chi asked, nodding in response to sending word out to the other Z fighters, "Is that what she calls herself? Hmm, pretty slutty sounding if you ask me."
"She's strong, Chi Chi," Goku said, his arms tightening around her as they approached thier destination, "Promise me you won't try to go after her yourself."
After a few moments, she answered; "As long as you bring our son back, unharmed, and yourself as well, I won't have to, Goku."
"How's your face?" Bulma asked as Tayven sat upon one of the mats. The door to the panic room still stood ajar within the wall next to her. Bulma and Vegeta had slept across the room. Vegeta, having awoken hours before, was doing something outside. Tayven absently stroked her sore cheek with one hand. The area around the skin from her jaw to the corner of her right eye was bruised an ugly purple and yellow and it hurt to talk, even though she'd been trying to shove the pain of it to the back of her mind for the most part. She knew there were more important things to worry about than a little physical discomfort. Instead of waiting for an answer, Bulma opened up a backpack laying against the wall, something Tayven hadn't seen before.
Tayven waited, watching as the woman, clad in a pair of light pink shorts, white blouse and sandals, finally located what she had been seeking within the contents of the pack. Withdrawing an amber-hued medicine bottle, Bulma shook out a small red and white capsule, Tayven expected her to toss it across the floor and watch as it exploded into something three times it's size. However, when she just handed it to her, Tayven just stared at it in confusion. "What's this?"
"Pain reliever and antibiotic," Bulma explained, "One of my own creations. One of my only forays into the alchemy of pharmesuticals. Father had been complaining of muscle aches and infections of the bladder." she went on, and Tayven saw her face sadden with worry. She wanted to tell her that he parents would be all right, but Bulma went on before she say anything; "I did some research and after awhile, came up with the pill you now hold in your hand. Take it. It will help."
"Is...is this the only one?" Tayven asked, hesitant to swallow medicine that Bulma's elderly father might need. Bulma shook her head and the bottle at the same time, "There's lot's more where that came from. I was able to save as much as possibe from the lab. Capsule Corp sells them over the counter at the stores...at least...they used to...before..."
"Yeah," Tayven said, cringing, popping the pill into her mouth and using her tongue to shove it near the back of her throat, she dry-swallowed it, "I know."
A sudden noise outside startled them both. "Did you hear that?" Tayven asked, at which Bulma ran to the window, glancing out. "Vegeta?"
"What is it?" Tayven asked her, rising to look out of the thick glass windows as well, "Hey, it's green bean and numbskull!" she cried, though with far less venom and contempt than she would have displayed a week ago. Bulma gave her a sidelong glance and punched the buttons that would unseal the door to the gravity room, allowing herself and her guest outside.