Auden yawned as he drove home that evening. Work hadn't been particularly kind to him that day. The allergy season was really hitting his employees hard as it always did when Spring went into full swing. He was practically working with a skeleton crew and it would likely be that way for the next few days. The very thought of it sounded tiring, but he'd have to take it one day at a time.

His phone began to ring as he waited for the latest traffic light to turn green. Looking at the Caller ID, he knew instantly that it was Bulma—he sighed with displeasure. It wasn't altogether surprising to get a call from her these days. She'd claim she was bored and just want to talk, but he suspected that she was fishing for something, likely to see how he was doing. Aster was always over at their place from what he could tell and perhaps her presence reminded her of his existence and piqued her curiosity. Every time she called, he made sure to keep things very surface-level and unobtrusive. Whenever she tried to ask questions that were too personal, he would disregard them completely. Usually their call would end shortly after. It was a tiring affair that he didn't particularly feel like dealing with right now, but he didn't want to make things harder for Aster or himself. He answered despite himself.

"Hello?" he asked plainly.

"Oh, Auden, you know it's me, right? Your fancy phone doesn't have Caller ID?"

"I don't like to assume. Someone else could have your phone."

"I told you before—no one uses this phone, but me."

"Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?" Auden heard her sighing exasperatedly over the phone. He knew exactly what he was doing as he refocused the conversation.

"Well, I have a little problem. It's been driving me crazy for months now. I thought I could figure it out, but, apparently not. I really need your help with this program I'm trying to create. I know this is spur of the moment, but it's really important to me."

"This sounds serious," he replied after a moment. "I'll lend my help in whatever way I can."

He wondered about her supposed issue knowing that Bulma was well-versed in hardware and software. Was there really something that he could come up with that she couldn't? Maybe this was some sort of trap.

"Really? You'll come over right now? I hope this isn't a bad time."

He couldn't turn back after volunteering so readily. Wanting to help someone who was in need was so instinctual that he'd not been able to stop himself. He wasn't the greatest liar and he'd feel bad about it if he came up with some crappy excuse to get out of it.

"I've just finished with work. I'm on my way."

Auden left it at that before ending the call. Whatever was the problem, he didn't foresee it taking very long—he either knew what to do or didn't. He took a right turn at the intersection and began to move in the direction of the largest house in the city—the Briefs' residence. He'd gone there plenty of times before dropping off Aster to know where the place was without needing to consult his GPS. He arrived at the destination in record time.

As always, he parked somewhere off to the side and near the main entrance so that he could make a quick escape if necessary. There was no telling what Bulma had up her sleeves. No sooner had he stepped out of the car, he could see Bulma's approach from afar. The property was obnoxiously large; practically a small city. It was a wonder she knew he was there so quickly. He waited with crossed arms as he leaned against the driver's side door.

"You actually came," Bulma said with some reservation in her tone—Auden was surprised to hear it.

"I said that I would," he reminded her.

"Yeah, I know, it's just—I thought you would bail at the last minute. I'm glad you took my call, I'm glad we got to talk. We don't do that very often, do we?"

"We do it enough."

Bulma laughed at this. "I'm talking about real conversation, face-to-face."

"The occasion never came up."

"Well," she began slowly. "We're here, face-to-face…"

"I thought you had some pressing issue you needed assistance with."

He could tell she was quite perturbed at his response. It began to dawn on him that he likely should have gone with his first gut instincts to completely avoid any of this even if there really was something she wanted him to look at.

"Auden, really? Why do you always have to be like this?"

He looked at her wearily. "I swear I will leave, if you don't just get to the point of whatever it is you feel like you need to tell me. I don't have all day and I don't like staying out late."

"Fine," she said with a sigh. "I just wanted to apologize."

"For what?" he asked genuinely confused.

"You remember back in high school? Sophomore year?"

He didn't respond and simply waited for her to continue.

"Geez, you're not giving me much to work off of, you know that?"

"I remember. Continue."

She frowned a little, but then did just this. "I wanted to apologize for pursuing you so relentlessly that time and probably making everything much worse for you. I thought I was helping you—I thought I was teaching you about life, but I was really just naïve and—

"When you insisted on buying me some new eyeglasses, I appreciated that more than I let on at the time."

"But…"

"The ones I had were the wrong prescription and Mom simply didn't have enough to pay for something at least halfway decent. I knew that she couldn't, but I was still upset about it. I could barely see anything at all, and each night was a struggle trying to do the homework or any sort of reading. I would literally have books inches from my face—it was ridiculous and headache inducing. The world was always so blurry until the day we went to that optometrist and everything just opened up for me. Any annoying thing you did afterwards easily became tolerable."

Bulma smiled at this. "I knew you liked them 'cus I never saw those other beat-up pairs again."

"Oh, I threw those away immediately. If I could, I would have thrown them into an incinerator. Mom appreciated it as well, if you wanted to know, but she also told me to be careful and that people didn't just give things out the kindness of their hearts."

"Well, she was right. I wanted something in return. I like to think I'm this benevolent person, but I'm really not. I'm really just selfish and will help people only if it benefits me in some way."

"Everyone is selfish on some level, but I would argue that that isn't such a bad thing. Without some sort of self-preservation mechanism in place, we end up not being helpful to anyone."

"I guess that's true. I always try to be selfless to some degree now—it's harder than I thought. I know I was buying you a lot of things at one point because I sort of pitied you—

"I noticed."

"It was patronizing. It was probably embarrassing, and everyone knew what I was doing."

"Okay," he said simply. "Is this the point you were trying to get to?"

"No," she said with a frown. "Buying you new eyeglasses aside—it still doesn't excuse what I did, pressuring you like that, making it nearly impossible to tell me no. I always felt like I had to fix you in some way. I waited until no one was looking to push you into that corner to start making out with you and then you ran off in terror—I've felt guilty about that ever since. That was basically sexual harassment. I read all the signs wrong and ended up hurting you in the end. I'm sorry."

Auden hadn't thought that she would bring that part up or even see it in that way. These were simply things he kept to himself. No one cared. Normal people aren't traumatized by being pursued or kissed by someone who most people consider beautiful. And Bulma was not only considered beautiful, but intelligent, a social butterfly, rich, and popular. She was heir to one of the most influential corporations in the world. Normal people would call that being lucky.

She seemed genuinely sad about this which caught him by surprise. He didn't understand. He didn't know how to respond.

"Well," she said after a long passing moment. "Do you forgive me?"

"We were friends then, and we still are now."

"Do you forgive me?" she repeated determinedly.

It would be easy to just say the thing that would assuage her apparent anxiety over the incident. Yet he couldn't part his lips to do so. Why was she making such a big deal about this? Why now? "I don't understand why this is so important to you. Why must you always dredge up the past like this?"

"You haven't forgiven me," she stated. "I knew it. I just knew it. How in the world can you call me a friend if you secretly hate me?"

He looked away for a moment before his reply. "Because you helped me when no one else would and there's not a long a list of people I could say that about."

She was in no way pacified by this answer. He could tell from her sour expression. He already wanted to simply leave, problem or no. He had no idea the "right" thing he should say in this situation and he wanted to avoid outright lying and hurting her feelings.

"You saved me—is that what you wanted to hear? I'm indebted to you. I've done nothing to repay you."

"But you still secretly hate me and that's why you've been avoiding me like the plague. That's why you won't ever come in whenever I ask. You won't join us for dinner. You just pretend that it's totally normal to do that when your daughter spends so much time here."

"Maybe," he said in realization. He wanted to keep his distance from her—as much distance as possible. It wasn't as if he'd forgotten about those things that had occurred in high school, but he didn't like thinking of Bulma that way. It wasn't something he was all that fond of sorting through and everything was much simpler when things were left in the air, narratives disconnected from reality.

"That's why I thought we should talk about it."

"We're talking about it," he said flatly.

"You know what I mean. So now it's your turn. What do you think? About any of it?"

"Bulma, seriously? Right now?"

"Then when? Never? Now that we've identified the elephant in the room. I see no reason to not address it. We're both adults here—older, wiser perhaps. Maybe we can stop playing hide-n-seek."

His eyes closed wearily at this. If he could melt into a puddle and slide away, that would be perfect. She wanted to do this now. He could leave her hanging, but it would leave things even more awkward than it already was between them.

"Are you okay, Auden?" she asked.

Her voice sounded so pitying. She desperately wanted to be let off the hook about events that happened ages ago. He was trying to find a way to convince himself to do it. Logically, it made sense that he should. Suddenly though, just for this day, his emotions were eroding his generally rational decision-making. Could it be that she was confronting him and still held great sway over him? Did it feel like she was manipulating him to say something to make her feel better? Why did it matter, if that was the case? That was simply Bulma's way: Bulma gets what Bulma wants.

"You're just going to keep your thoughts to yourself, then?" she prodded. "Just say something. Anything at all."

He was looking at her again, eyebrows slightly furrowed. He could say something, if that's all she wanted, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to say something nice. "I hated everything about high school aside from the learning part. I tried my best to sidestep all the drama that came with it, but then you came to destroy any notion of remaining largely unnoticed. When you come to school with ratty, holey clothes, you're at the bottom of the totem pole. Everyone makes fun of you, but no one cares. I didn't care as long as I could ignore them. When the most popular girl in school randomly takes an interest in you and makes you her little project, then everyone hates you. All of her exes hate you. I liked you to a certain degree, but then every encounter had to turn into some romantic opportunity until you felt some foreign need to take it to the next step. At the time, we were still on good terms and no one liked that. Then after sophomore year, you disappeared. Meanwhile, the rest of high school was a train wreck for me. That's all I care to say about it."

For some reason, she was smiling. "See? Didn't that feel nice. That's all I wanted. Just be honest with me. I mean, I feel even shittier, but still. I'd gotten accepted into university, by the way—that's why I left."

"How nice."

"I bet you could have done the same thing with the kind of grades you had."

"Maybe, if I'd kept them up. That wasn't the case."

"Really?" she asked in realization. "I'm so sorry—your grades were always so perfect until—

"It's not your fault," he interrupted. "It was up to me keep them up and I failed as I always do."

"Auden…"

"I've never been all that great dealing with stress. Some days are better than others. Sometimes, I wonder why I try at all, but usually I'm pretty optimistic. At least, these days."

Bulma was quiet for a moment. "That's more than you've ever shared with me before. Guess I still can't convince you to join us for dinner, can I?"

"I'm starting to think you really didn't have an issue that you wanted me to look at and that it was all a hoax to talk me to death. Are we ever getting to that or not? I do still have work tomorrow."

"Ugh, alright, Auden. That's enough prodding for today, I guess. I'm just relieved to actually know where I stand with you."

"I still owe you so I will help you whenever you need me."

Bulma grinned though with a note of despondency and shook her head. "Follow me then."

Finally, they were moving away from the car, but Auden suspected that there was a ways to go before they reached the building she was currently working in.

"I normally would try to do things like this in my basement lab, but I needed far more sophisticated computing. Basically, I've been developing a program that can locate a specific planet in the universe. I know enough about the planet to narrow down the parameters, but the universe is unfathomably huge and at this point, just purely searching would take many lifetimes to finish and that's if New Namek is within the observable universe. There's also a few kinks in the program that's screwing up its searching capabilities. I really feel like I haven't gotten anywhere."

"First off," Auden began walking beside her now. "Are you completely certain that this planet 'New Namek' exists?"

Bulma looked at him wearily. "Of course. Why would I waste my time on a fairytale?"

"Because you're bored."

"It's not like that. This is serious."

"So you've told me. This sounds like the sort of computing that NASA would already be well-versed in. Maybe someone who works for them would have better insight."

"Oh, I've already consulted them on this. They even lent me the framework for what I'm using now."

"Well, of course. CC has its hands in everything."

She gave him a cheeky grin. "I didn't have to start from scratch. They were a huge help, but I can't let them in on everything. If the government caught wind of an actual, live alien civilization, all hell would break loose."

"But it's okay to let me know about this."

"I trust you. Anyways, I'm stumped; I need you to look at it. The program is barely working at all."

"I don't see how much help I'd be, but, sure I'll take a look. This still sounds like a 'Bulma is bored' project. Is there some reason you're keeping this hidden from the proper channels? Is this another instance of CC controlling the flow of information to the general public?"

"I didn't peg you for a conspiracy theorist, Auden. Just trust me. It's important that people don't know about this."

"It's not a conspiracy, Bulma, it's a fact. I work for you. I should know. All this secrecy just to innocently find some planet that may or may not be feasible in finding in the first place."

"If you must know, New Namek has dragon balls which means it has the ability to summon a dragon which can grant us any wish we want."

"Ah, yes, the dragon balls. It always comes back to that for you, doesn't it? You want to resurrect the late popstar and completely defy the laws of physics."

"His name is Malachi and, yes, my goal is to wish him back. But first, we have to find the needle in the haystack. I just need a fresh set of eyes. I've been staring at the same code for too long."

"Why don't you just take a break then? Look away for a couple days and then come back," he suggested.

"I can't afford to. I need to get this done as soon as possible. I need someone like you—someone of equal skill to see what I can't see. Everyone's been depending on me to figure everything out and this just seems a little beyond me. I'm dabbling in subjects that aren't even my strong suits. Physics? Hardware? Mechanical Engineering? That has my name all over it. Software? Programming? Not so much."

He wondered about her assessment of him being of "equal skill", but he didn't protest. She seemed at her wit's end with this. He probably should have been gearing up for the moment he utterly disappointed her. Yet the part about looking over the coding didn't seem too intimidating. Everything else was up in the air. He would still file this under "Bulma is bored" with a little bit of "Bulma is desperate" sprinkled in. The idea that there existed these mystical objects which could grant wishes if only one could collect them sounded more than just farfetched but completely made-up as well. Yet he couldn't deny that Bulma was convinced of them. That simply didn't add up to what he knew about her. He could believe that a human had lost their mind sooner than dragon balls being real. It didn't matter either way. People of her caliber and worth could afford to be airheaded. He would do what he can and then go. This visit was already taking entirely too long.

They arrived at another capsule building that was only a little smaller than the main house. Inside, Auden was presented with a mess of papers, tools, wires, and other mechanical paraphernalia. How could anyone work in such clutter? He sighed inwardly as they stepped over objects on the floor

"Here we are—my home for the last couple months."

Auden eyed a spilled cup of coffee on one of the workbenches with a still drying puddle of brown liquid on the floor—he unconsciously grimaced at the carelessness. She brought him over to the large computer that took up a significant chunk of the wall. The sheer size of it left him awestruck as his eyes finally took it in. The amount of computing power this device had was probably unlike anything that was out on the market even for businesses. He could do a lot of damage with this especially if it was web-enabled.

"I knew you'd like it. This baby took me quite a bit of time to put together, but I need this for what I have instore. Here—" She pulled back the only chair at the massive supercomputer wiping away all the papers and writing utensils that ended up on the seat. She also brushed away the crumbs on the keyboard before presenting the seat to him—"It's all yours."

Partially disgusted but more curious, he sat down cautiously. Noticing more stray crumbs however, he wiped these away as well.

"Oh, c'mon, Mr. Prim and Proper. Sorry for the mess. I had to eat and I didn't want to stay away too long."

"Right," he said with pursed lips. "Just show me what you have so far."

There was a stationary mousepad which her hand hovered over to click through files before she got to the source code. Just like the computer, it was massive. She quickly scrolled through pages and pages of code. His eyes skimmed these over in the meantime. By the time she got to the last portion of it, he was wearing an obvious frown.

"Alright, Auden, do you see something wrong already?"

"Just like this place, this program looks like a mess. It's atrocious. No wonder you can't see the forest through the trees. Where are your variable names? Why are there unnecessary spaces? Why haven't you spelled out each module's function?"

"That's elementary, Auden. I know what each variable is doing. I know what each piece of the code is doing. Just ask me and I'll explain." She seemed amused with his reaction to seeing the script.

"No. This is unacceptable."

"Auden—

"I'm going to have to reconstruct this entire program."

She snorted. "I didn't ask you to completely rewrite my program."

"I wasn't asking for permission. If you want me to be of any use, then your program will be restructured so that a sane person can understand."

"Oh, and you're sane?"

"When it comes to coding, apparently, I am."

He'd already scrolled back to the top, trying to figure out what was evening happening there. From there, he began questioning her on every inch of the program until he knew enough to translate it to what was on the screen. Her frustration only made him bolder. Clearly, she was desperate because at no point did she tell him to leave. For all her sucking of teeth and exasperated sighs, she answered his questions for the next half hour. It was all starting to make sense in startling clarity. Bulma was beginning to see the minute changes he was doing to what was already there.

"Oh, I see…" she'd said at least three times now. Or she'd proclaim "Brilliant!" when he wrote out an additional module to assist with another or reworked one of her nested loops into something much simpler. It was nice hearing her ringing endorsements. He could feel her anxiousness slowly easing off as he combed through what was there eliminating each issue she pointed out in the programing. He didn't think he was doing anything too incredible, but Bulma seemed to think so. Maybe she'd simply been too burnt out to do what he was doing at this point.

Hours slipped by as they delved further into the details. He hadn't realized what time it was until he happened to glance at the time on the corner of the screen. It was nearing midnight. Without windows, time had become nearly irrelevant. The day had become entirely too late and he was completely off schedule. This was not the quick visit that he had envisioned. Worse than that, he'd forgotten to take his pills which he hadn't bothered taking with him. He was always at home by this time. He hadn't stayed out this late since…Well, he couldn't remember if he'd ever done anything like that before.

"Aster is going to kill me," he said before Bulma could draw him to another issue with the programming.

"What?" she asked caught off guard. "What's wrong?"

"My medicine. It's at my place."

"Oh," she said, not thinking much of it. But then realization set in. "Oh," she said in a different tone. "Are you okay to drive back for them? Maybe we could continue."

"I don't think it would be a good idea for me to drive now."

"Then stay here. I have so many rooms around here."

"I can't stay. Could you do me a favor? I don't live that far away—

"Say no more," she said following his train of thought. "Just stay here, okay? I'll be back in a jiffy. Text me everything I need to know. I didn't mean to throw you off your schedule. I should have told you this would take a long time. With your help though, I'm even closer than ever to finishing this once and for all."

"Well, I'm glad to help even if I'm not so sure on the success you'll have with all of this."

"Don't worry. It'll work. We'll find the dragon balls."

Auden watched as she expertly made her way over the treacherous floor to the door on the other side of the room. He was left alone with his own thoughts. It certainly wasn't the first time this was the case, but it had been awhile since he wasn't in the grips of the controlling properties of his usual drugs. He turned his attention back to the source code and he continued to manipulate the structure.

He found his fingers tapping away at the keyboard at first at a normal speed. As minutes began to roll by, his fingers moved faster and faster, his eyes sweeping through the code finding more and more errors.

"This is such clumsy form, Bulma," he said to himself. "The execution…so beneath you….Don't worry. I know what you meant to do…"

He remembered thinking just how massive and intricate the source code was. Now he was wondering why it was so short. He looked through everything a few more times changing, correcting, rewriting, reworking, adding, and taking away as he saw fit until he couldn't find anything else—a fact that became utterly frustrating. Was he actually done? Hadn't there been so much more to work on? He glanced at the time again—only ten minutes had passed. Bulma likely hadn't even made it to his place yet.

There was no place to rest his head, so he moved over to a workbench where a stool sat. The space on the bench was completely cluttered with objects he couldn't even begin to put a name to, but he did see a number of tools. He pushed some things aside causing some metal trinkets to hit the ground so that he could lay his head down somewhere. He knew paranoia would set in; he was already getting anxious. Time seemed to be crawling at a snail's pace. What could he distract himself with in the meantime? He couldn't think of anything at the moment. Instead, his mind kept visualizing the code musing over every line wondering if there was something more he could do.

Just then, he heard something solid hit the table beside him and he nearly fell off the stool as he looked up with a fearful jolt. It was a tall, cold glass of yellow substance, but what had caught his eyes was the spikey haired man that now stood in front of him. Auden hadn't even heard him enter. Was he even real? How could anyone avoid making noise on this floor?

"So you're the guy Bulma said she was consulting," he said roughly.

"Ah, y-yes." He didn't have the presence of mind to ask who he was, but it was obvious that he knew Bulma at least.

"You're finished with that?"

"With the program?"

"Whatever you guys are working on."

"Well, I can't find anything else to adjust so…"

"Good. That woman hasn't left this place for more than a few minutes. It's a little worrisome. I know how important this is to Bra, but it was getting a little out of hand. This is a glass of lemonade, by the way. Bunny made it for you."

"A bunny?" he asked confused.

"No, you idiot, that's just her nickname."

"Oh," Auden said as he turned to the glass that now looked quite refreshing knowing what it actually was. There was even a straw along with a parasol cocktail pick leaning to the side. He hadn't consumed anything since lunch and his mouth was long since parched. When he took a sip, his mouth was immediately bombarded with the tingly sensation of fresh lemon. Whoever Bunny was had worked hard on this particular drink. It was dizzying. "Perfect…"

"I guess you like it then."

Auden didn't bother looking back at him as he took a much longer swig of it.

"Anyways, since you're done, mind looking at something else for me?"

This piqued his interest immediately. Something to distract himself with. "I'm not sure I can help, but I'll try my best."

The spiky haired man made his way over to an overflowing bin in the corner and Auden followed him. Conical, spherical, and even rectangular prism bots filled the bin. They seemed turned off and relatively new.

"These are those training bots Bulma said she'd get to eventually, one day. She's been busy though, so I haven't really pushed her on the issue. I don't know if she's actually done with them—can you just take a look and see if there's anything that still needs to be done?"

Auden had already pulled out his phone and began accessing the A.I. software. "What kind of training are they used for?"

"Let's say, martial arts. I have an idea for all the students at the dojo, but I've kind of been sitting on this for weeks now."

Auden's eyes were running through the functionality. Then, seeing the changes he could be making to optimize the technology, he made his way back to the main computer to display it on the screen so that he could easily type on the keyboard. The stranger who'd asked him to do it was now more of an afterthought as his focus became exclusively on the coding.

"There," Auden said after what felt like ten minutes, but when he looked, he realized that only a minute had passed. "It should be ready for use."

The man was looking at him strangely with a raised eyebrow and Auden wondered if he'd missed something.

"I'll just have to take your word for it, then." The man looked from the screen to him again. "I'm sure if Bulma asked for your help—you know what you're doing."

"It was child's play," Auden said returning to his phone. "It had Bulma's fingerprints all over it. I'm sure she'll be ecstatic to learn that I've changed a few things about it. You'll appreciate the results, if you're using it for martial arts."

When he heard the heavy bin of bots being moved, he looked back with surprise. Clearly, the man was no stranger to the gym. He easily carried everything out without saying another word. Shaking his head in amazement, he returned to the workbench and laid his head down again.

"Are you alright?" came the now familiar gruff voice of the man.

He'd entered once again without Auden noticing. "I'm fine."

"Bulma has plenty of guest rooms. You're not trapped in here."

"I'm fine," he repeated.

Auden could still feel his presence nearby and he wondered if the man might say something more.

"Suit yourself then," he said finally before leaving him alone.

Auden started to count to himself breathing slowly in and out. The anxiousness was becoming far more intense. He finished the cold beverage quickly before returning to his position. "…Why the hell did I come here…? Aster will probably be so upset right now…This is so stupid." He looked up to see that twenty minutes had finally passed. Perhaps Bulma was on her way back. "Please…"

But what did it matter that she came back at all? Did anything really matter? Why was he so anxious? Was it really so important to continue to do this over and over again? What it really so important to show up at work again to continue being the insignificant cog in the machine he was always destined to be? He closed his eyes in exhaustion. He had no idea the amount of time that had passed before Bulma was shaking him to wakefulness. Her touch was startling to say the least, but it had been brief.

"I found the pill box with everything parsed all out just like you said," she said. She'd placed it on the table before him, "And I got a bottle of water for you. Man, that's a lot of pills. Do you really have to take all of them?"

"That's what I've been prescribed," he replied drearily.

"Oh, it's alright, Auden. It's a small price to pay. Now c'mon, take them already—maybe we could get a bit more done tonight."

Auden looked at the pill box with disdain. There were quite a few in there with multiple colors. For some reason, he couldn't even motivate himself to pick the box up. "What's the point, anyway?" he said wearily.

"Auden—

"I'm no use to anyone whether I take them or not."

"I need you right now—doesn't that count for something?" she reminded him with hands on her hips. "And Aster too. Where is all this coming from?"

"Why continue pretending that any of this is worth struggling to maintain?"

"What do you want me to say?" Bulma asked now becoming desperate. "Please, just take them for me, alright? Take them because I want you to. Could you do that for me?"

Auden's eyes which had been trained on the pill box glanced over at her and then nodded. He flipped open the appropriate section of the box and poured the multitude of pills into his hand. There were so many of them, all of them with names he could barely pronounce. It felt so futile and tedious. What was so wrong about ending it all? Why was it so pertinent that he continue and fail, continue and fail, in an unending loop of events?

"Please," Bulma said interrupting his thoughts.

He'd almost forgotten that she was there watching his actions. Slowly, he bit the bullet once again just like every other time he forced himself to down the sheer magnitude of pills that supposedly made him feel better. It was done in a few moments at which point he simply returned to his previous position.

"Auden, I can't let you drive back in this condition. Why don't you just stay here for now?"

He didn't respond. He didn't feel like responding.

"Auden?"

Her voice sounded so concerned. Why? Her little project must have been extremely important to her. It was the only reason.

"Are you even listening to me anymore?"

By the time he looked where he supposed her voice was coming, he realized that he wasn't in the same place. He was somewhere else completely unfamiliar. No, he wasn't back at home. He couldn't hear the familiar whirring of electrical devices and he didn't see depressing clutter on every possible surface. This was cleaner; the air was cleaner.

"Bulma?" he asked confused.

He was sitting on a bed and she was standing right in front of him. At the moment, she looked relieved.

"You're back."

"From…where?"

"I don't know—you tell me. You just stopped responding to me and I just kind of led you here. It was like—well, it was kind of like before at the institution…"

He couldn't recall how he'd gotten to this room and he likely never would. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Please don't tell Aster—

"It's okay. This is just between you and me, but I'm not going to let you leave like this. Just wait until you're normal again."

"What do you mean, 'normal'? This is me. This is who I really am."

"Auden…"

"Normal is abnormal for me which is why I depend so heavily on drugs just so I can function properly."

"That's alright; it's nothing to be ashamed of. Every person is different, people require different things to cope with life in general."

"I'm sure they do," he said drily.

He didn't actually feel like arguing with her. If there was one thing he knew about her, it was that she was hardheaded and didn't listen well. It was a fruitless task trying to fully explain himself. It would probably be too dreary for someone so hopeful. Her expression had become weary.

"I'll be back in a little while to check in on you, okay?"

He was a little frustrated with her babying, but he gave her a brief nod. He felt as if he was on watch and it felt too similar to being in a hospital. Maybe he should still be there.

"Please keep the lights on," he said as she turned towards the door.

Auden watch as she reached for the light switch, but at the last minute left it alone and then closed the door on her way out.

Bulma walked a little ways down the hall back to the main area of the building.

"Well…so much for getting a little extra help. I swear, at the first sign of trouble…" she muttered to herself as she made her way to the mainframe.

"I heard talking to yourself was the first sign of insanity," Vegeta said from somewhere behind her.

She used to jump every time he seemed to come out of nowhere, but now she was used to it and just assumed that he was likely always somewhere nearby or could probably hear everything that she was saying.

"If that were the case, then we'd both be in the funny house by now," she said dismissively. "I just really hoped he could shed some light on some of this and…"

She paused as she started to look at the code. It looked unrecognizable from what they had been working on. She could find little of her own work left. Effectively, he'd rewritten the entire thing…and it was brilliant. A confused and surprised look graced her face as she parsed through it all. It was so simplistic, so easy to follow.

"I was watching him work on that," Vegeta said, "and I don't think I've ever seen anyone write out code as quickly as that. Either he knew what he was doing or it was just plain gibberish."

"It's not gibberish. He did it. This will do it. Within a year, if New Namek is out there and my parameters are correct, this program will find it."

"Wait, are you serious?" Vegeta asked. "This thing you've been working on for months now that's been completely rewritten, works better than what you first predicted was even possible?"

"Yes to all of that," Bulma said with a wide smile.

She hardly knew how to react. It was mindboggling. She ran over to Vegeta and kissed him directly on the lips before immediately working on the next phase of the project—building the device that could possibly do what the program was instructing. She was already at the workbench looking around for the proper tools.

"Vegeta, we're in the homestretch now!"

"Well, do you need anything from me?" he asked pretending to keep his cool.

She knew he was just as invested as she was in this. He'd visited the lab more often than he ever had in the past and he'd encourage her in his own way, bringing food when she forgot to eat for too long, reminding her that there was no rush, and not mentioning the fact that she spent so much time away from everyone these days. There were a few bedrooms in the building that she'd been occupying so that she could be closer to her work. On some nights, he'd joined her, but he knew that she preferred to be in her own element alone, so he didn't overstay his welcome.

"I'll let you know if I do. This is just incredible. I never imagined…I swear to god, I can't just have Auden wasting his talents in some lowly tech support position. He could be inventing things, optimizing things, actually make some sort impact on the world. Then maybe he wouldn't be so down on himself all the time."

"He actually likes working for you?" Vegeta said with a snort.

"Oh, shut-up, I'm not so bad and I pay well."

Vegeta only responded with a 'hmph' before disappearing out the exit. She was hardly paying him any attention anyway as she began in earnest on her contraption. Hours passed having finished less than a fourth of what she had in mind. Not to mention, she still needed to buy some special material for her new planetary radar.

She paused in her work to finally go check in on Auden. It was a little late and she hadn't meant to keep him so long. He mentioned he had work the next day, but it was a moot point considering who she was and she certainly wouldn't allow him to be fired so easily. When she opened the door to the room, she noticed the lights were still on and that he hadn't seen fit to use the bed he'd been sitting on. She was hoping he'd reconsider just staying for a few days, if need be. It took her a moment to realize that Auden was there sitting on the ground in the very corner with knees pulled very tightly against his chest and shivering as if he was freezing cold. He didn't seem well in the slightest and it immediately dampened her mood. All this because he'd missed one round of medication? She approached him cautiously and decided to get down on her knees. He wasn't asleep. Instead he was staring forlornly at the nearby wall as if in a daze. Oh, no…Please still be responsive…

"Auden, sweetie—

He turned to look at her and that relieved her to some degree, but the pain and sadness etched so visibly on his face took her by surprise. She couldn't understand it. Why was he still like this? Didn't the pills counteract that sort of thing?

"You're back," he said with some strain to his tone.

"What's wrong? What can I do to help?"

"You wouldn't understand. I don't want to talk about it."

"But that's all we can do. You took your medicine and you're still like this. I just don't know anymore."

"I don't either," he said despondently as he returned his gaze to the plain wall. "I do know that it's all been impossible. It's always been impossible."

"What's impossible?"

"Everything. Everything that's worth anything at all. Just impossible."

She wasn't entirely sure he was coherent, but she went along with this train of thought. "Perhaps some things are impossible, but most things are within our grasps."

"How can you say that with so much confidence?"

"Because…" she thought for a moment, but she couldn't come up with anything particularly enlightening to say. "I just know, Auden. That's how it works. You can't just think something is impossible. If you never try to reach for it, then it will always be, won't it?"

He'd turned back to her as she spoke, but now his expression darkened. "Just platitudes. Just lies we tell ourselves trying to convince ourselves that life has some sort of meaning. No one wants to admit how futile struggling is. It isn't pleasant, too uncomfortable."

"Listen, I honestly don't know what you're getting at, but I feel like I'm going around in a circle with you. Help me understand, Auden. I want to understand what it is that's going through your head right now."

She noticed that tears had begun rolling down his face. He was a mess. He parted his lips to say something, but he didn't manage to say anything even as she waited patiently. Then, she had a sneaking suspicion of what this might be about and the air grew colder between them.

"It's about that incident…back in college," she began carefully. "What those women did to you. You were never like this before. This isn't how I remembered you. You had so many goals. You had it all so planned out and you believed that you could actually do all the things you set out to do. I never told you this, but I was jealous at the time because I had no idea just what I wanted for my life. But now…Seeing you like this—it's painful for me."

More tears slid silently down his face, but he finally spoke. "I was silly and naïve back then. I know better now."

She was watching him give up right now and it angered her more than anything. After the success with the program, how could he be like this? Why was he sucking the joy out of his own achievement? Why was he twisting everything into something dark and depressing? She slapped a hand hard on the ground which did little more than startle him much to her irritation. He stared at her wide-eyed with fear.

"Will you just—" She had to calm herself before she continued. "You're not powerless anymore. No one is stopping you from doing what you've always wanted to do. You don't need to be like this anymore."

His eyebrows furrowed at her. Good. It was better that he was angry. It was better than what this was now.

"I am powerless. I've always been. It never changes. Always at the mercy of others and their whims, to those women, to my own sense of decency, to you."

She felt a sudden pang of guilt and she hated it. How long would he hold that over her head? "Are you putting me in the same category as those monsters?"

"I'm always at your mercy."

"You can trust me. You know that, right? I won't ever try to hurt you."

"I know."

Yet his eyes looked haunted and it was beginning to scare her. "Are you going to come out of the corner? You can't stay like this. I thought you said you didn't want to stay here." He just kept looking at her. She had no idea what he wanted from her. "At some point, Auden, you have to do something. You have to accept things as they are and move on. It's been so long since 'it' happened…"

He seemed to consider her words, but he made no movements to try and stand up. In the face of his apparent hopelessness it felt silly trying to encourage him, but that was all she could do.

"The terror I felt that night has never left me. It feels as if I'm trapped there. I don't think I'll ever be able to 'move on' as you mentioned so casually. It never feels like it happened long ago. It's always as if it happened just moments before and it always feels like it can happen again at any time."

Bulma barely managed to hold his now searing gaze. "I had no idea…"

She jumped when she heard frantic knocks on the door.

"Dad, are you in there!? You better not be in there this late!" came Aster's irate, but muffled voice behind the door.

She looked back at Auden who was also now looking at the door. He seemed to have snapped out of whatever she'd been witnessing before, he appeared more present. "Should I tell her to go away?"

He shook his head no. "It's fine. She's just worried."

"Alright," Bulma said as she climbed to her feet and made her way to the door.

"Hey!" Aster's voice shouted, "Answer me!"

"I'm coming! Hold on. Geez!" Bulma called back. She'd never seen Aster quite so demanding before. It reminded her of her own daughter.

Bulma eventually opened the door to a very upset looking Aster who instinctively had her little arms crossed; she quickly brushed passed her. By that time, Auden was already standing much to her surprise, but his eyes were red-rimmed and his clothes ruffled. If he was trying to not alarm her, he was already doing a poor job of it.

"You've been crying," Aster accused the other. "I'm taking you home, right now. I'm driving. I don't want to hear anything from you."

"Aster…"

"Dad," she said warningly.

He looked as if he wanted to say something, but then, at the last minute, decided not to. It was strange and at the same time a little sad considering how little he pushed back against her brazen behavior. Bulma wondered if she should say something.

"Listen, Aster," Bulma began. Aster's heated gaze turned to her, but Bulma was no pushover. "I asked your father to assist me and he did. He singlehandedly figured out something that I've been stuck on for months now and that is a very important project to me. We got a little carried away and time got away from us. I gave him his medication. He should be fine. There's nothing to be upset about, okay? And I've said this a million times, but he can stay here, if he wants. You don't get to decide that for him. I know you're concerned, but I can't just stand by and let you disrespect him like this."

Aster frowned at her. Bulma noticed that Auden hadn't taken his eyes off of Aster since she stepped into the room.

"You got what you wanted from him. We're going home," Aster said in a somewhat calm, but obviously filled with sizzling anger tone. She didn't even bother asking if Auden agreed or not.

Bulma looked at him trying to get his attention until finally she just addressed him. "Auden, I don't know what the hell this is, but it's not healthy."

"She knows perfectly well how to drive," he said glancing at her. "It's fine."

"It's not fine," Bulma said.

"You're standing in the way," Aster said matter-of-factly. She seemed so reassured now since she knew she was getting her way.

Though Bulma didn't like it one bit, she decided there was little else she could do—she stepped aside and allowed them to leave with Aster, of course, taking the lead.

"Auden," Bulma said quickly when he was passing her on his way out. Thankfully, he acknowledged her. "What the hell?"

"It's getting late," he said wearily. "If you need me, you can always call. Sorry for all the trouble."

She wanted to say that it was no trouble at all, but she knew it would be a lie and she knew that he knew that it would be a lie. "Alright…" she said finally as she watched him leave.

They went out a side entrance. Bulma couldn't help but think that this entire day had ended in shambles. She felt like she needed to do something, but she couldn't think of anything. Auden was not okay. She knew that for certain. She'd already known that. Today had just made it much more crystal clear. Unlike every other issue in her life, however, there was no new contraption or invention that could fix the problem.

She couldn't help but feel relieved that there was now a path to victory as far as finding New Namek. In a matter of months, the planetary radar would be able to pinpoint the location and give her coordinates. The rest was easy. CC had plenty of spaceships to choose from. Just like that, her worry was replaced with the feelings of success. It was such an easy transition of emotions. Imagining an instance in which that wasn't true…it seemed unfathomable. She had no idea what it might feel like to be trapped forever in spiraling, darkening thoughts and always pretending as if that wasn't the case. Whenever she was upset or sad or angry, she'd step away from whatever was causing her to feel that way and then later, sometimes without having to do anything significant at all, she was just able to cope. She just moved on to the next thing. It wasn't something she necessarily controlled, she realized. This was why it had felt a little futile if not belittling when all she could suggest was that he 'moved on'. Her ability to do so was something built in, undamaged, and always working behind the scenes. She really had no useful advice for someone like Auden and that troubled her.

AN: I had to finish this or else I'd get nothing else done today.