CHAPTER 10:
Preparations

A ghostly dark green tint lit the moon as the large planet lingered in the sky. Goku and Trunks had flown back to the city at a high altitude, searching for the city lights. When they caught sight of the civilization ahead, they had landed in front of the chapel dome, the building brightly lit inside with mysterious sources of energy along the walls instead of candles. They greatly reminded Trunks of energy balls, but that would be impossible unless the building itself were a living thing. Trunks continued to ponder this moon's technology. His initial readings of this place had indicated that the moon had no mechanical technology and mislead him to believe that the place was going to be primitive. However, their own technology was far different than the type that Trunks was familiar with. If they weren't in such a rush, he would have loved to ask about their energy sources, and especially about the metal that he wore around his ring finger. He had never seen anything like it before in his life and would love to fiddle with the alloy and his capsule inventions.

Goku pulled Trunks away from his daydream and they both decided to check up on Pan first thing and headed to her dressing room. When they arrived, they saw that she was sleeping on her dressing room couch with Giru on standby mode, lying on the table beside it. Lelanu and one other small woman were standing in the corner, talking quietly among themselves. When they heard the two enter, they turned to face them, small friendly smiles lighting their faces. While Goku went to check on Pan, who was still in her pink dress, Trunks walked over to the ladies. He recognized the other woman as the girl who approached him at the party. He slightly returned their smiles and gave them a nod of recognition.

Lelanu's pale lavender hair, barely a shade lighter than Trunks', was tied back in a French twist. Her matching lavender eyes sparkled with a pleasant calming softness. It was easy to find oneself relaxing under her gaze.

"Mr. Trunks Briefs," Lelanu nodded, "I believe you have met my daughter, Shina." She gestured to the young girl beside her. "I hope you do not think I beprying, but she says that you have not determined a name for your first child. I find that unusual. Have you not thought of children?" Lelanu's eyebrows raised in question, "On Kikaru, we bond with the intention of having children. We would already know the names of our offspring before the ceremony. It is customary."

Trunks' expression went from one of shock to one of extremely shy embarassment, "Heh... heh... ahh..." He scratched his head and looked up, red tinting his cheekbones. "Well... you see... eh..." He coughed and looked over to Goku, who was sitting beside Pan, watching her. "I guess we'll see to that when, I mean if, the time comes..." He smiled shyly, "On Earth it's a little different. I mean, people marry because they want to have children, sure, but I think it's more of a legal binding than anything else..."

Lelanu smiled and nodded again, her hand on Shina's shoulder. Her daughter had long light lavender hair as well, cascading loosely down her back. She was a full head shorter than Lelanu, but as he looked at her more closely, he could immediately tell the resemblance. The older woman spoke again, "I would like to apologize on her behalf if her question offended you. Itbe merely tradition to congratulate people by asking their first child's name. Apparently, you had been embarrassed. Perhaps we may talk longer about the differences in our customs, but I must stress that you and Pan Son go to the Temple as soon as possible."

Trunks looked over to Pan again who was still sleeping on the couch. "Is there a great rush? Can't we wait a little longer, at least till she wakes up?"

"Only one couple may enter at a time, and depending how long you wish to stay there. If there were another newly bonded couple that wanted to enter the next plane, they would have to wait for you to leave."

"You know what, you are right. I should get this over with right now." He looked to Lelanu and Shina again and crossed his arms. "So what exactly do we do?"

Shina looked to her mother and to Trunks. She stepped forward, gaining their attention. When she spoke, her voice rang out in musical bells. "I can show you to the doors of the Holy chamber if you like. They lead to the Temple. You and Pan Son must go through the chamber and into the Temple. That is the room where you undress and leave your clothes. I can lead you to those doors, but I cannot go in." When Trunks and Lelanu nodded toward her, Shina continued shyly, "My mother and father cannon go near the doors, otherwise my mother would show you."

Trunks looked baffled, "Why not?"

Before Shina could speak, Lelanu silenced her with a hand. "Because those who have been bonded may only approach the Temple grounds once. Itbe tradition, just like the white robes we wear. Itbe part of our culture and beliefs."

"I see." Trunks put a thumb and forefinger to his chin as he thought. Only one chance to grab the dragonball. It better be an easy find. Or better yet... "Lelanu, do you know where the dragonball would be in the Temple? Is it in a shrine or something?"

"Therebe nota shrine that I know of. But I have notbeen there in thirty four years. Things may have changed since my day, depending on where Raiyan likes to keep his offerings. And a dragonball? I be not sure what that be."

"I'm sorry, I meant the, uh... Holy Stone..." Trunks blinked as his mind side-tracked to another thought completely, "What do you mean 'where Raiyan likes to keep his offerings'? Raiyan is an actual being?"

"Recently, according to the eunuchs, wordbe that Raiyan has returned to our Temple. Perhaps you will be the first couple to meet him."

Wow, we could actually meet this 'Raiyan' guy! That sounds pretty interesting. Trunks smiled a bit in anticipation. Now that would be a trip.

"Trunks!" He looked over to see Goku gesturing for him to come closer. "Pan is waking up."

"Excuse me for a moment," Trunks bowed slightly toward the two Kikaruan women and stepped toward Goku. "Is she okay?"

"Uh..." The girl moaned sleepily, bringing her arm to wipe her forehead from small beads of sweat. "Uhhh, oh... I feel so... ahhh."

"Pan, you awake?" Trunks looked down toward the girl. Poor thing. "Hey Pan, can you hear me?"

Pan's eyes snapped open and looked at Trunks. "Trunks...?" She looked to Goku, "Grandpa...?" She tried to prop herself up, but flopped back down the couch unsuccessfully. "How long have I been asleep? Oh man... I still feel so tipsy..."

"It's been about an hour, Pan. Do you feel you can get up? We have to go to the Temple now."

Pan nodded sluggishly and yawned, closing her eyes briefly.

"Pan, I'm going to pick you up. I am not sure if you should walk yet." Trunks leaned over and scooped the sleepy figure into his arms. She put her own arms around his neck for support, even though he didn't need it. She was incredibly light and he had no problem holding her. If anything, her arms around his neck made him feel a bit awkward. It reminded him of the way grooms hold their new brides as they stepped over the threshold of their home. It was a slightly embarrassing thought.

Goku stood and beamed over to Trunks who was handling Pan as if she were a delicate piece of china. He chuckled slightly, noticing Trunks' awkward face. "Trunks, she's not going to break." Within seconds, Goku was searching through his pack again to find the forgotten camera. With Trunks holding Pan like that, the moment was just too good to pass by.

"Goku, could you just take this seriously, for once?"

Goku found it and brought it up to his face. "Say... 'Mr. Popo'!"

Trunks tried it hard to force a frown and ended up cracking a lopsided grin that he was finding hard to control. Goku came up with the most random names to scream out at any point in time.

Click! Flash! Trunks was blinded for a second before he realized that he was actually smiling for that picture. He never smiled for pictures. He smirked in pictures because he looked too goofy when he smiled. That camera had to go. "That's it! Giru, wake up!"

"-giru giru-!" The robot shot up from the table in a frenzy. "Giru awake! Giru find Pan, -giru giru-."

"Yes, I see you found Pan. I'm very proud of you, Giru. Now, as a reward, Goku has a delicious camera for you."

"What? No way!" Goku held the camera protectively to his chest. "Nuh uh! You aren't getting my camera from me!"

"-giru giru-!" The robot shot toward Goku, who in turn dodged the robot by disappearing and reappearing next to Lelanu and Shina, who were watching the display with blinking eyes. "-giruuuu-!" The robot chased Goku around the room several times before Goku ran out of the room and down the hallway with a hungry robot trailing behind.

Trunks stepped out of the room to watch Goku turn a corner and vanish from sight, wailing down the halls as he tried to escape the hungry robot. He smirked a bit to himself, and turned around to see that Shina had moved to stand beside him.

"Be you ready, Mr. Trunks Briefs?" Shina closed her eyes and smiled sweetly to him.

Trunks looked down to Pan, who had been in a daze ever since she woke up. "I guess as ready as we can be right now." He shook her a bit. "Pan? Are you still awake or did I lose you?"

She answered faintly, smothering her words in his chest. "I'm here."

"Then follow me," Shina gestured for him to follow and started to walk to the hall where Goku had escaped down. However, instead of making a right as he did, they turned left and began to head on a tilt downhill. They walked through several halls, all leading farther underground. The lights did not shine as bright here, and the air began to get a bit damp, muggy, and stale. It smelled slightly of mildew. After a while of walking down halls, Trunks began to wonder why it seemed so dismal. No wonder couples don't return here. This place reminds me more of a dungeon than anything else.

At the last turn, they found themselves in front of two gigantic doors. At least, they seemed gigantic compared to Shina, who was standing before them. They were only about three feet taller than Trunks, but in either case, they were large and white, and were trimmed with the same metal that Trunks now wore on his left hand.

"Thisbe the farthest I can take you. From here, you enter the chamber, undress, and continue on through the next set of doors. Remember that thisbe a religious place, so be sure not to swear or deface any part of the Temple."

Trunks stood there, holding Pan, and watched as Shina began to walk away. There were hundreds of last-minute questions running through his head, but he could only make out one before he could go in. "Wait..."

Shina stopped and tilted her head. "Yes?"

"How long do we have to spend in there, exactly?"

"Ibe unsure. Enough so you can pay your respects properly. I hear therebe a bed available in the chambers if you feel you would like to... spend some alone time with your new mate in addition to that."

"So, it doesn't have to be a full night or anything like that?"

"Well... I guess, traditionally itbe a full night here. But time passes differently in the Temple. It goes faster there."

"I see. Okay." All his other questions seemed insignificant. Just take the dragonball and run. The idea kept playing in his head. There shouldn't be anything keeping him from running in and out. Another thought was that he could lay Pan on the bed and go into the Temple himself. He began to seriously consider that as he turned and looked at the white doors that lead to the chamber, but a voice interrupted his thought.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the place! I mean, it's so hard to get in here to see it, we actually had to get married to go there. I'm so excited to see what this place looks like... Ahh... Oh man..." Pan moaned against him, "I just wish my head would stop throbbing."

Oh yeah. Pan was still awake. He had almost forgotten that.

He sighed a bit, "You ready for this?"

"Mmm-hmm" Pan's grip around his neck tightened as she snuggled into him further, making his cheeks flush another shade of pink.

The intimate contact had to be ended. Now. She was getting too comfortable.

"Pan, I'm going to set you down now. Is that okay?"

"Mmm-hmm?"

He set her down gently, taking care not to drop her as her legs wobbled a bit. She latched onto his shoulder, squeezing tightly for support as she tried to regain her balance. Her eyes were droopy and her smile a bit lopsided. Her dress had a few wrinkles in the fabric and her hair was falling out of the bun it used to be in. In summary, Pan looked like she had seen better days. Trunks smiled encouragingly at her, his eyes betraying his anxiety of the moment.

He turned his eyes to look at the door, searching for a handle. Seeing none, he tried to push it, but it didn't budge. Blinking a bit, he tried pushing again, but the doors were steadfast. "What the-?"

"Let me try," Pan joined Trunks in trying to push open the door, putting both her hands on the metal lining that decorated it.

Suddenly, the metal on the door began to glow when both had their hands on it. In more shock than fear, Trunks jumped back as the door began to open on its own. By this point, he figured he would save the questions and ponderings for later. He and Pan had a mission. Not even glowing moving metal doors would detain him any longer.

The room before them was gigantic with high ceilings stretching up at least a hundred feet. All that distance they had gone underground was made up with the height of the place. Unlike the muggy air from the hallway, it smelled fresh and clean in the chamber. A large white bed with a pink canopy lay to his right, along with a wardrobe that was situated on the wall across from it. To his left, a large dining area was decorated with yellow flowers. There were no windows or torches, but the place was somehow lit. The light came from nowhere. It was as if the air itself were the light. It reminded Trunks of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, from when he was a little boy. It was one of the only memories that really stuck out in his mind from the Buu era. He had been too young to really remember that much without Goten's help, but the Time Chamber was hard to forget. Pan had never seen the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, however. And, in her groggy stupor, she looked around as if confused, still in her daze, leaning against him for support. Both their eyes settled on the door in the center of the opposite wall. A single white door which looked tiny compared to the size of the chamber. It must lead to the Temple. Trunks stepped into the room, helping Pan keep her balance as she followed.

"Pan...?" Trunks looked down at her as soon as they fully entered the room. The chamber doors began to close behind them.

"Mmm?" She looked up with glossy eyes.

"Okay, this is the hard part now."

"What is?" She yawned and closed her eyes, leaning on his shoulder.

"Pan, we need to undress. I need to take off my clothes and you need to take off yours. Can you do that?"

"No. I don't want to take them off."

"Pan, that door just proved to me that there is something going on here that is beyond his plane's physics. Metal just glowed, a door just opened and closed, but they don't have any technology for it. Even looking at this room, it reminds me of a place that is in Dende's Lookout. This really is a holy room, and I feel we need to get undressed."

"Fine." She stumbled away from him and walked with a slight wobble toward the dresser. "But you can't look."

He sighed, holding his head in his hand. "Pan, you know...listen..."

"No looking! You can't look! Ever!"

"Pan! Listen to me."

"No."

"Augh! What do you expect to do? Not have us look at each other at all! You look right, I'll look left, and we'll play a game of Marco Polo to find each other? Is that what you have planned, Ms. Drunk?"

"Yup."

"You need to grow up, Pan. I honestly could care less right now that you'd be naked. All I want to do is get out of here." Trunks walked over to the left side of the room, as far away from Pan as he could get, and removed his blue bandana from around his neck. "I mean, it's not like you haven't seen a naked man before, either." He tugged his black shirt over his head and threw it beside the bandana on the table.

"What do you mean I have seen a naked man before! How would you even know that!" Pan yelled from across the chamber.

"I'm not too knowledgeable about your recent life, but when you were little, Goten used to take baths with you all the time."

"Eww, don't even tell me that! That's a gross mental image."

"I seem to remember myself taking a bath with you, also. You must have been two... maybe three..."

"Okay stop it, Trunks. As it is, I feel sick. I don't want to think about how I've seen you and my uncle naked before."

Trunks smirked to himself as he undid his belt and set it on top of his shirt. "And, besides, you see Goku naked all the time."

"That's not my choice! Besides, he's just a little kid now. It's not like he has anything to hide."

Trunks scoffed as he stepped out of his shoes and unzipped his shorts. "It's not like grown men have anything to hide either, Pan."

A moment of dead silence followed his comment. Trunks froze in shock. It struck Trunks that he actually said something sexual to Pan. He never said anything like that to her. He was glad she couldn't see the pink on his cheeks. He felt so foolish for saying that, as if he were actually flirting with a fourteen year old. If he knew any better, he'd say that he was acting more tipsy than Pan at the moment. He needed cold water splashed on him. This stress was making him say really stupid things.

The silence ended with a "You're such a dork, Trunks, you know that?"

That wasn't really the word he'd use to explain himself, but that would work. Whatever she said. He stepped out of his shorts and placed them on the table. He was now in only his boxers and socks. He wondered how Pan was faring, but kept his eyes glued on his own corner of the room, "How are you doing, Pan? Able to undress alright?"

"Yeah, I'm done. It's not like I was wearing a lot of layers. What's taking you so long? And I thought women were supposed to take forever."

He hesitated a brief moment, then removed his boxers and then his socks. He now stood there in the nude. However, although he didn't have any clothes on, he wasn't uncomfortable at all. The temperature was warm enough so he didn't feel an chill.

"Pan, I'm going to back up toward the center of the room facing away from you, okay?"

"Okay, you do that."

Trunks stepped backward and stopped when he reached the white door. There was a small handle to it that also was made from the same metal. He touched it and felt the metal. It was warm, like Pan's ring had felt when he first held it. He attempted to turn it as if it were a knob, but it wouldn't budge.

"Pan, I think you need to come here, too. I think we both need to be touching this thing."

"Okay then, I'll back up."

Trunks sighed for the umpteenth time that day. It would be so much faster if she would just get over her qualms about seeing him this way. But no, she had to be stubborn and stick with her idea of not looking at him the entire time.

He felt her warm skin bump into him and suddenly felt himself jerk out of his thoughts. Immediately, they both recoiled a few inches away from each other in shock.

"Watch where you are standing!" Pan sounded irritated.

Trunks' eyebrows knotted angrily, but he kept his thoughts to himself. She was intoxicated. No need to yell at her. She'd be feeling her punishment in the morning.

He glanced over to his hand on the doorknob and saw her hand join his in touching it. The metal glowed for a second and then the door began to slowly open, very much like the previous entrance.

This was it. Just a few short minutes from getting the dragonball.

It was impossible to see what lay beyond the door. The entire view was blinding white light. "You go first and stick to the right," Trunks suggested and dragged his eyes away from the white Temple to stare in front of him.

"Going." He could hear her stepping through the door, but then after that, it seemed her steps vanished completely. Her ki even felt distant. He could still feel it, but it felt distorted, as if some sort of barrier were put up around her. He took her absence as his queue to move, and stepped sideways through the doorway.

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10/9/04