AN: So I decided to re-read the whole fic, go over for some errors, and make sure I knew any plot threads I set up. The Red Ribbon saga was so long, I wanted to make sure I was ready before we get in to another long saga.

Which isn't quite yet.

The Next Dimension Over

Chapter Sixty-eight

Her heart lurched so painfully she was sure it would rip right out of her chest. At some point her hand had outstretched, as if she could have grabbed him and stopped him from being pulled in. Her extended hand trembled as the man laughed, and she stared at the gourd where Goku simply vanished. In the end, they hadn't asked Chao very much about the gourd. For different reasons, they'd both been more interested in the men who held it.

Still, the girl had been adamant that those who were captured by it never returned.

For a few moments, the village around her fell silent. The villagers huddled in their homes. The man's laughter died out as his gaze fell on his fallen comrade. The wind that blew through the wilderness stilled.

Goku wasn't there to say a word.

Fury.

Fury burned through her body and mind, fueled by the building grief and pain, and an anguished scream tore from her throat. It sounded strange to her own ears, but she had no time to think on the matter. It hurt too much to think.

She charged toward the taller man, still atop the platform where he'd been calling out names. Her fingers curled into claws, as another hand joined the one that reached for Goku, intent on pummeling the red haired man, whichever his name happened to be. She...she'd tear him apart, make him suffer for taking away the little boy who'd only wanted to be stronger. For tearing away the only thing she had left to protect.

Briefly, she saw the man's expression turn from confusion and concern to shock as she approached him, but she moved far too quickly for him to make any attempt to flee or defend himself. Her hands seized his arms, gripping tight and as unbreakable as steel. Tearing him in half would take a moment, a fraction of her strength, and be far too easy.

A familiar voice shouted out in irritation from somewhere behind her.

"Hey! Don't steal mine!"

She...blinked, momentum stalled in surprise, and the man's terrified expression flickered from her to over her shoulder.

"Go..." She turned her head in the direction of the voice, meeting the annoyed gaze of...the very one she'd seen vanish into smoke a moment ago. To that place he was never, ever supposed to return from. "...ku?"

He huffed loudly, looking as annoyed as she'd ever seen him, and tapped his foot. "You're taking my turn again aren't you? You do it every time!"

She released the man, and he scrambled immediately backward, rubbing frantically at his arms as she spun away from him back toward Goku. "You...were..."

He puffed out his chest and thumped his fist against himself. "I caught myself on the walls of the jar with the power pole and then jumped back out! No way I'd let a weird thing like like that eat me!"

That was...possible? Just jumping back out? That mist wouldn't just drag someone back in who escaped?

Well, obviously it was. Goku stood in front of her without any trace of the pink mist as proof of it. Of course...clearly it wasn't the same tool that she'd heard about. She'd determined that before. So...there wasn't actually any telling what it was and wasn't capable of. All the word they'd had on it, after all, was from a small child.

He spun the red pole of his and stuck it behind his back as he wandered back up to where she stood. "But he's still mine! I'm definitely not beaten yet, and I'm not gonna be!"

Her hands shook as she kept her hands and arms carefully at her sides while he made his way closer to her again, resisting the urge to hug the small boy in the middle of a village, in front of the other bandit who had been terrorizing it. It wasn't really the time for that sort of thing, and she hadn't exactly done that before now anyway.

Instead, she simply shook her head and looked away from him quickly. Before he could get any ideas about why her eyes looked red. He was probably too distracted by his impending fight to notice anything, but...still. She'd done enough of crying in front of him. In front of anyone, really. Eventually...she'd...

She coughed and planted a hand on her hip, forcing her tone to a level of flippancy. "I'm gonna make a rule about knock-outs and disqualification if you keep up almost dying. I can't tell when you're out of the fight when you do that."

He laughed at her, and started toward the man who'd now backed away from both of them nearly off of the platform. After a moment, Goku hesitated, and lifted the gourd himself from where the man had dropped it. She didn't remember when that was, but it must have happened some time before Goku escaped?

"Hey. If I said your name, you'd get sucked into here too, right?"

The man lifted a pacifying arm toward Goku. "N-now, let's not get-"

"Ginkaku!"

A moment of silence passed. The tall man's face scrunched up in fear momentarily, and then relaxed in relief immediately afterward. After the moment passed, however, his eyes widened again, and he gave a distressed shout. "Ginkaku-!"

A soft wind brushed by her ear, pink mist swirled over her shoulder, and the man she'd incapacitated earlier disappeared into the gourd.

"Oh. So that's what it looks like." Goku stared down at the gourd in his hand for a moment, expression thoughtful, before he looked up at the other man. "Kinkaku!"

"H...Here!" For a large man with a menacing and deep voice, his voice could apparently go quite high under the right circumstances.

Goku gave a childish laugh, and then pointed at the man. "Kinkaku!"

Kinkaku responded immediately, concern over the fate of his partner fading quickly back into one of apprehension and terror.

"Lift your arms over your head!"

Kinkaku's arms immediately lifted over his head, palms facing outward. "P-Please now..."

"Hop on one foot!"

The tall man frowned in indignation and pointed toward Goku. "That's-"

"Kinkaku!"

The man yelped, and made a rushed and awkward attempt to hop in place, his bulk making the action...difficult. Once again Goku called his name, and the man struggled to respond while continuing to jump.

She frowned, and walked up to the young boy, who still seemed entirely too amused. As much as she could understand the desire for justice, after what they'd done and after Goku nearly..

Still. He was getting carried away. "Goku..."

"It's not funny when you have to do it, huh?" Goku held the gourd in his hand up high above his own head for a few moments, before he flung it to the ground. The fragile container shattered on impact, sending yellow-orange fragments flipping violently through the air and spinning wildly across the wooden platform. The clear liquid it carried splattered wildly across the raised platform and splashing across both of their feet. The liquid was as thin and weightless as water, and warm from the heat of the sun that probably shone on the wilderness too often.

"Y-you..." The man stared down at the shattered gourd, a mixture of confusion and despair written across his features, stumbling back a few more steps. "Why...?"

"I don't need a dumb trick like that to beat you." Goku gripped his fist in front of him. "I'm gonna beat you fair and square the normal way! Then when I'm done, you'll apologize to everyone here that you've hurt and never do it again!"

"I..." The man stuttered, gaze flickering between the ruined gourd and Goku. "I'm sorry!" He immediately dropped to his knees and huddled his hands over his head. "I'm so very sorry, I'll never do it again!"

It wasn't the most convincing display of honest regret.

Goku stared down at Kinkaku in confusion for a few moments and glanced between her and the man. "Uh...? I haven't even beat you up yet, though."

She had a feeling his statement was less a statement of disbelief than disappointment, considering how enthusiastic he was about fighting the man. He, perhaps, should have tried imparting his lesson about terror after fighting the other man a bit longer. But then, if the man's abilities were as pathetic as the one whom she'd fought, it probably would have been a let down and a bit of a waste of his time anyway.

She gave a little shrug, and he gave another huff of annoyance.

"...Well, either way he can't use the gourd anymore. You broke it." Which didn't mean that he couldn't harm the villagers. She very much doubted that they simply found the tool while they were honest and upstanding citizens, and without it they-or he, as the case now was-would go back to that honest and simple life without it.

She placed her hands on her hips and glared down at Kinkaku, advancing a few steps toward him. "What you'll do instead is submit yourself to the village's judgment. Imprisonment, labor, or banishment. If you break, or even try to break, their rules we'll know immediately. Just like we found you this time, we'll find you next time. No matter what you try to do to hide from us. And next time, you won't get the chance to apologize."

(*)

The village was surprisingly forgiving, for having an unknown number of their population taken away by the two terrors. They'd simply determined that Kinkaku would be forced to repay all of the work they'd been forced to do by he and Ginkaku. Considering how much work she'd heard mentioned as the villagers spoke among themselves, though, it was likely he'd be doing errands for the village for the rest of his life.

While neither she nor Goku actually carried a phone, she did have Bulma's number memorized from the month they'd stayed in Capsule Corporation's headquarters. It'd been repeated so often, it would have been almost impossible for her not to memorize it. One way or another, if they contacted Bulma when Kinkaku tried anything, they'd find out. Or Yamcha would, and he'd be more than enough to deal with someone like that weakling.

From there, the rest of that particular strip of wilderness lacked any significant population. Occasionally she spotted traces of civilization, campsites, trails which led off somewhere behind rugged looking mountains, but nothing of any significance or size that would indicate villages of a similar size to the one they'd left behind. Where the two bandits even came from...well, they probably could have asked before leaving the village, but she hadn't thought of asking much more about them at the time. Goku had been eager to move on once he figured out what would happen to the red-haired bandit, and she wasn't that inclined to stay in the village any longer either.

Ginkaku and Kinkaku, with a gourd that could eat people.

They weren't anything to do with the Gold and Silver brothers that she knew of in her own world, and the gourd was far from what she'd heard of the powerful ninja tool, either. Yet...the similarities...she couldn't make herself let go of them completely.

Some small, lingering part of her still wanted to discover why.

It didn't matter, because...she couldn't reach that world, and even if she could, it was as empty and lifeless as the wilderness that stretched on around them in every direction. As silent as the emptiness that settled upon the village before Goku returned.

There weren't any connections left to find between the two worlds. One day...in the future, she'd find her way back, she'd collect those golden orbs and save all of the people whose hopes fell on her, all of the people she'd failed so far. One day, she'd make it worthwhile that she walked through this wilderness alone, that she lived in a real world and still had people to protect and they couldn't.

One day, she would bring Team Seven back together again, and make sure they never shattered again.

For now...

All she could do was walk forward.

But...

If every step brought her one step closer to the ones who needed her...

She'd take however many as she needed to.