Pan's New Boyfriend

by IndigoSnake16

A sequel to Bra's New Boyfriend. Peace has returned to Earth, though it did not come without sacrifice. Pan, now struggling with the loss of a very close friend, realizes that it is quite difficult to find true happiness. Even as she and the Briefs attempt to find the dragon balls, Pan knows that there is a real possibility that she must learn to live without him.

12. Calm and Centered

Vegeta was worried. After feeling a sharp spike of ki somewhere far off and receiving a call from Gohan only minutes later that he needed him to take care of Auden because apparently it was dangerous for him and Chi-Chi to be in the same room, he'd brought over a thoroughly roughed up Auden to one of the rooms in the medical ward on Bulma's property, bandaging the obvious injuries. And then Vegeta had a nice long conversation with the scientist grilling him for details as to what had happened. Near the end when he was satisfied, Gohan insisted that he make sure that Auden was subdued or at least that it wouldn't be too easy for him to escape. The same thing that had happened to Chi-Chi could happen to him—every single human was a ticking time bomb and as of now, Gohan was trying to figure out a way to best handle the situation.

Auden was handcuffed in that room. Bra and Pan along with Machi and Jr. had gone out on a short road trip yesterday. They weren't safe. Anything could happen. The only thing that stopped him from dragging them back home was the fact that Pan was there and would be able to handle things should the situation take a turn.

Bulma was almost done with her little project of finding New Namek and they were days away from being fully prepped for sending someone out there to finally make the wish. She was so preoccupied that she had no idea what was even happening right now.

It was the dead of night and Vegeta was pacing, unsure of how to proceed. His sharp ears caught on to the rustling of covers and the clinking metal from the handcuffs—the ones which drew out energy from its wearer, perfect for someone like Auden with explosive ki who probably didn't have a whole lot of control over it. He opened the door quietly and peered inside. Auden wasn't awake, instead he seemed to be responding to some invisible stimuli—a nightmare. It reminded him of the first time he'd been brought there, only this time, rising ki wasn't associated. The more that he tugged on the cuffs, the more agitated he became—Vegeta wondered if he should release him from them. Moaning uncomfortably minutes before, he was much more vocal now repeatedly telling his unseen assailant to "Get off" at first demanding and then more pleadingly and now more desperately all the while pulling harder and harder at the cuffs. Vegeta couldn't stand to watch much more of the performance so he took it upon himself to jostle him to wakefulness, but that didn't have much effect.

"Auden!" Vegeta called out. "Wake up, it's not real." While he had to repeat himself a couple more times, it seemed to be working.

A mixture of emotions adorned his face as he finally awakened, he very briefly acknowledged Vegeta's presence as their eyes met, but he seemed more concerned with the cuffs which had each arm attached to the bedpost behind him.

"Vegeta? Where the hell am I? And what happened to Chi-Chi?"

"Chi-Chi is back with Gohan. You were brought here—Bulma's place." This seemed to vaguely satisfy him.

"Can you take these off already or am I prisoner here?"

"As long as you don't do anything stupid," Vegeta said as he fished a tiny key out of his pocket and undid the lock.

Auden had been struggling against them in his sleep and they had long since left angry red bruise marks around his wrists. He was able to sit up though with struggle since it seemed putting any pressure on his wrists was painful. He placed them closely to his chest while pulling up his legs, burying his face in his knees.

Vegeta decided that it was a good idea to get as much information out of him as possible, if he was to have any peace of mind that night. He couldn't quite read the man and that was a recipe for disaster. He struck him as one who was highly unpredictable and that his supposed pleasant demeanor was a coping mechanism rather than an accurate representation of his personality. Perhaps in a way, not so different from Malachi.

"How are you feeling right now?" It sounded strange even uttering the words, but these days, he'd rather get straight to the point.

"Worried," he replied after a moment. "Tired..." He sat up a little straighter, his eyes turned towards the window beside him on the far wall. "Something doesn't feel right."

That immediately put Vegeta on alert. "Care to expound?" he asked impatiently.

"I don't know how to describe it. It feels like something isn't quite right. Not with me," he finally clarified as he glanced over at Vegeta, "It's something else...I can't place it."

Vegeta couldn't even begin to interpret what that meant though he did think about it for a few short seconds. "You're tired," he said after a while. "Get some sleep. We'll see how it goes tomorrow."

Auden snorted at this. "So I really am a prisoner here—not even an offer to let me go home."

"You saw what happened with Chi-Chi."

"Yeah, I guess whatever's been going around got to her."

"She was completely out of her mind and that fate awaits the rest of the humans."

"Out of her mind? I prefer to think that she knew exactly what she wanted."

"Call it what you want, but nothing good comes out of it."

Auden gave him a weary look but decided to keep his opinions to himself.

"I don't know how long this is going to be dragged out—we'll see how it is in the morning."

"Right."

He wasn't very convincing, Vegeta knew, but he was waiting for Gohan to give him any sort of update. Looking at how much they didn't know about the situation, it seemed a little preposterous to be isolating people if they didn't know when the same thing would happen to them. Not to mention, the population at large had no idea that any of this was happening and that seemed far more problematic than anything that had happened today.

Vegeta exited the room but decided against locking the door. It wasn't that serious. If things got out of hand, he'd be able to handle it. If anything, perhaps it was better for this whole fever and headache thing to take place sooner rather than later just so they could be over that hurdle. But the personality change seemed permanent. The fact that at some point, it would happen to Bulma...Gohan had better come up with a way to counteract that. Looking at how she kept in contact with Gohan, she must already know about all this. Maybe she already had a plan or maybe the plan was that Gohan would have something by now. Vegeta wasn't exactly updated on matters such as this. It often wouldn't be until something needed to be pounded in that his opinion was sought after. To be honest, it was difficult to keep up with the science and tech talk, but he supposed he was slightly above average when it came to those things.

Bulma was still awake. Her grandparents were as well probably up watching late night shows. He knew that he couldn't possibly shut his brain off and relax despite telling Auden to do just that. He predicted that it would simply be one of those nights where no one actually found any peace.

A few hours later, he checked in on Auden, but even as he approached the door, he could hear the cover rustling—classic signs of tossing and turning. Of course. He didn't seem to be having such a great night and it was making him even more restless just watching it. He could see tears in his eyes clearly uncomfortable with whatever his mind happened to be conjuring up that night. Crying in one's sleep was no small feat—it had to be from something quite intense and quite emotional, something that was indistinguishable from reality.

"Auden!" Vegeta called out again to draw him out of whatever nightmarish scenario he was perceiving. He didn't respond as easily so Vegeta finally took it upon himself to shake him roughly.

Once he was somewhat wakeful, he turned away from him and buried his face into the pillow. "What do you want?" Auden asked with little to no ceremony though his voice was a bit shaky.

That was actually a good question. What was the point of waking someone from a nightmare? It would probably happen again as soon as he left especially if it was of things that were unresolved or worse, things that were impossible to resolve or trauma that would never disappear.

"There's something wrong..." Auden began again with a muffled voice. "I just know it." He pulled his face away from the pillow to look directly at him. "You just think I'm crazy, don't you?"

"I'm the least qualified person to be making judgements like that."

"I can't get it out of my head," he said sitting up. "Maybe if I could investigate the source..."

"What source?" Vegeta asked intrigued.

"I keep seeing a place. Something happened there."

"What are you, some kind of psychic?"

"No—I don't think. The same way I can sometimes know when someone isn't nearby even when I haven't walked around the whole place to make sure that's the case—is the same way I know something isn't right somewhere. Something happened. I just don't know what."

Ki sense. "Well, we better go see if there's anything to it—just in case."

Vegeta wasn't sure how much or how little Auden knew about these things, but he wasn't about to give him a late-night crash course on sensing ki or sensing trouble. It was strange though that he hadn't felt the same thing. It likely had to do with how closely connected he was to whoever was in trouble. He knew Bulma so well that he sensed intimate details about her that he'd never sensed with anyone else.

"Do you know where Jensen is?" Auden asked quietly, sitting on the side of the bed now.

"I don't know—somewhere with Aster probably. You can't get him to sit still for more than five seconds."

Auden looked at him thoughtfully. "There's a few favorite places Aster likes to go—the main one being the mall. If you're near an arcade, she'll appear eventually," he ended with subtle mirth. A full-on smile seemed out of the question.

Vegeta had only seen Auden on a few occasions, but the man seemed to wear a perpetually solemn mask as if there was never anything good to look forward to. It was a depressing thought.

"Quite a few arcades around here," Vegeta noted. "A lot of places for those two to have run off to at any given time. I haven't even seen him come home for the past few nights. Ever since Bra came back..."

"Can you blame him?" Auden said climbing to his feet.

Vegeta looked at him quizzically.

"Nevermind," he said quickly. "It probably isn't my place to say."

What? Did he know something that he didn't? Did Jensen still blame Bra for everything even after all this grieving? How could one still hold a grudge over something like this? While Vegeta was trying to piece things together, Auden was making his way to the large window. He didn't register what the man was attempting to do until he unlatched the locks. They were on the ground floor, but he'd never witnessed a human who preferred jumping out the window instead of using a door.

"So using the window as an exit is your M.O.?" Vegeta questioned as Auden lifted the window panel open.

"I mean, it's a huge window and the ground is right there. Why not?" Auden replied as if it was totally normal to think along those lines. At the very least though, it made sense.

"I'm keeping a close eye on you just in case you start exhibiting signs or any strange behaviors," Vegeta warned.

"Based on what exactly? You'd have no idea what's 'normal' for me. Maybe I climb through windows on a daily basis? Maybe I don't."

Vegeta certainly noted a grin, subtle though it was, as Auden turned and smoothly slipped through the window. The Saiyan followed in suit not the least bit put off by the activity as he'd done it plenty of times before—he made sure to close it back, knowing he'd never hear the end of it if Bulma found out that he'd left it open for all kinds of critters to make their way in. To be honest, he actually hadn't used this method of exit for years now—he was far too civilized at this point to casually do that if there was a perfectly fine door to use. Of course, if he happened to get upset, all bets were off.

"Great, I forgot how much of a maze this place is," Auden said looking around.

"It took a while, but I know this place like the back of my hand."

"A feat all on its own. Somehow I doubt even Bulma herself wouldn't get lost walking around here."

"You may be right."

Bulma had added on to the property a few times since he'd lived there. There were multiple labs, multiple recreational centers, multiple offices, and multiple everything and from time to time, Bulma would get confused as to what lab she happened to be in. In reality, there were only a few places that she frequented on the property. The other places were there for her to swing her huge imaginary cock around and brag about the sprawling manor her family owned—the maids saw more of the place than she did.

They walked at a pace a few notches above a leisurely one. Vegeta wondered if it wouldn't be more expedient just to fly to whatever place he had in mind. Then again, he wondered if he was even aware of the fact that people could fly. The night was perfect though—not too cool, not too hot, no chance of rain. It did wonders for his mounting anxiousness thinking about all the implications of the past events and the fact that he had little power to stop it. It was an uncanny feeling that he hated dwelling on. Besides, perhaps he could attempt getting to know the genius who Bulma had consulted with. It was very rare that she complimented other engineers or scientists on their skills, but she'd praised Auden with surprising ease. Maybe it was because she was already familiar with him, but then Bulma was familiar with quite a few people in her field.

"So," Vegeta began unsure of how to broach the topic he suddenly had in mind.

"So?"

"Care to indulge me on the dreams you were having tonight?"

"Um...well," Auden sputtered, "It's far too..."

"Personal?" Vegeta offered.

"Yeah, that."

"It must have had something to do with handcuffs, right?"

Auden didn't respond, but Vegeta continued after a passing moment.

"Something that happened long ago—something that had enough time to burrow and fester. Something that made you feel powerless. I know I'm getting warm."

"Vegeta," he said sharply. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You were handcuffed somewhere long ago," he continued unperturbed.

Auden sighed exasperatedly. "Yes, somewhere long ago."

"In some place other than your home."

"Amazing. I think I've found someone even worse at casual conversation than I am."

"Just tell me already since we're already on the topic," Vegeta said in irritation.

"Since we're already on the topic?" Auden repeated with clear amusement. "That's really cute."

"What did you call me?"

"Look, it's not something I talk about to people, if anyone."

"You may not know me very well, but there's nothing you could say that would surprise me. You could tell me you murdered someone and got away with it and you feel guilty about it and I wouldn't even blink an eye."

"Somehow I'm not surprised. You have a particular aura."

Vegeta waited for him to continue and then realized that he had stubbornly become quiet. "Just get on with your story already," he snapped. He wondered why he was getting so irritated at the man. It wasn't like he was being unreasonable. But he'd seen him in Bulma's lab that day and something had clearly been wrong with him, something not quite right. Then the rather dramatic nightmares. It was all quite disconcerting—humans didn't do things like that and it was reminding him a little too much of himself back before he'd ever set foot on Earth, back when he wasn't quite strong enough to defend himself from everyone especially not Frieza. After having Malachi pass away with his issues clearly unresolved, he had less patience in seeing other people suffering and attempting to keep it to themselves.

"How about I murdered someone and I feel really guilty about it."

"Try again, human. Where do the handcuffs come in?"

At the mention of handcuffs again, Vegeta noticed Auden's hands clenching into fists for a moment.

"Are you really not going to drop this? I told you, I don't want to talk about it," he replied in a voice that strangely belied his growing anger.

Vegeta made a disapproving sound, but he found he had nothing left to say that could convince someone to speak on something they didn't want to. "Fine."

"Chi-Chi doesn't have the greatest opinion about you."

"That woman has impossible standards. Of course, she doesn't. Anyone who willingly mates with a guy like Kakarot and doesn't end up losing their mind would probably think I'm demon spawn."

"Kakarot?"

"Goku," he said quickly.

"Oh."

"Although, I do feel for her. Kakarot hasn't been back in years. Knowing that idiot, he's probably off having fun on some other planet in some other dimension and getting stronger."

"This person continues to sound quite interesting. I'm guessing he does the same kind of training that you do."

"The same?" Vegeta spat.

"I'm sure there's plenty of variation with combat training, but the same in that he's training to improve his fighting skills."

"Kakarot has had the luxury of learning various disciplines and combining the best parts to form his own signature technique."

"I suppose that would make for a well-rounded fighter and somewhat unpredictable. I think it would be difficult incorporating so many styles into one form. It's not something that could be easily replicated. I'm assuming you've done things differently."

"It would be difficult for some layperson to follow in his footsteps. No one really has. In my opinion, it's not entirely necessary to do all that. I was taught the basics from my father and I was a pretty efficient killer, but he wasn't around to teach me much else. The rest I learned from experience. I wasn't in an environment in which I could politely ask other people to teach me their techniques—that would have been seen as weakness. I would tweak things based on what I saw others doing. During battle, I was always looking for ways to exploit hidden weaknesses—everyone has them. That's basically what it all comes down to. Learning different disciplines probably makes it a little easier to counteract a wider variety of fighters. But there isn't a 'proper' way to fight. Just from instincts alone, you can determine for yourself what would work best."

"So, if I'm hearing right, you developed your instincts through trial and error instead of learning a set amount of forms and techniques. What you do in a fight is largely determined by figuring out how best to take advantage of their weaknesses."

"An accurate summary. I'm not against learning new things—it's just not paramount."

"I think I appreciate your approach more than the other. It sounds more intuitive and the idea of learning how to fight sounds less of a monumental task and more like a game of chess."

"That would be high praise if it was coming from a person who had any inkling of what they were talking about. Judging from your pitiful display before, I doubt you've ever been in a decent fight."

"I tend to avoid conflict as much as possible. But every once in a while, I wonder what it would be like if I knew how to defend myself—if running away wasn't always the only option."

"Retreat isn't always the worst option—I can think of times that would have saved me a lot of time and effort, if I'd simply pushed my pride aside and admit when a battle was impossible. There's a balance there that I doubt I'll ever reach."

"Having a high appreciation for yourself is often a strength—I think it can allow people to do things that others are too scared to do and break new limits. But I suppose there's a balance there as well."

Vegeta had led them to the main driveway. Not knowing how far or close Auden's destination happened to be. He assumed it was far and not suitable for walking, if they wanted to make it by a certain amount of time.

"You can use one of the cars here, doesn't matter which one."

"Well, alright," he said back as if it'd just dawned on him that he'd probably need one.

There were three cars out in the driveway and a clear case full of capsules attached to the wall beside the garage door that was likely full of other choices. Auden simply chose the one closest to the exit, a yellow sporty looking car. Vegeta wasn't too keen on driving and made it a point to sit in the passenger's seat. He often flew to places, but when it came to groceries or having to interact with other humans, he didn't mind taking a car to avoid all the questions and it was far less of a hassle.

Vegeta expected Auden to be one of those safe drivers who paid special attention to all the rules of the road, but he seemed to have thrown caution to the wind. Vegeta didn't even bother looking back at the man in surprise as they ran red lights and swerved around corners as if they were in some street race. Instead, he casually leaned his head out the opened car window to feel the rushing wind in his face. If one was going to drive recklessly, now would be the best time to do it when there weren't many cars out. Bulma would be horrified.

They were soon parking in the back of the nearby mall and climbing out the vehicle.

"That how you usually drive?"

This time Vegeta knew he was grinning when he responded. "No, I just thought you'd appreciate that."

"Hmph, there's faster ways to get places, but I appreciate the thought," he ended in some amusement.

Auden was making a beeline somewhere and Vegeta easily kept up with his more rapid pace. Already, he could smell blood in the air that wasn't quite fresh. At least hours had passed since it had been exposed to the elements—it was a scent that certainly brought back memories. Vegeta also caught undernotes of gunpowder as well. Aster had certainly been here and probably was still here because her scent was so strong, but Jensen's was faint and fading. He probably wasn't here.

They were walking down a narrow dirt path that led to a pond. Near where the path widened a little, Auden paused here.

"This—something must have happened here," Auden said turning to Vegeta with a determined expression as if he was still trying to convince him.

"I believe you. Now what exactly do you think happened here?"

He didn't respond as he started searching the area walking over to the trees which had been on both sides and peering into them critically. Wordlessly, he made his way slowly around the edges. Vegeta knew exactly where he would find something, but he didn't think it would be a good idea to be the first to find it. Perhaps he'd feel more ownership and control of the situation if he was the one who found it. His nose picked up the scent of a corpse that was likely mutilated—he debated with himself whether he should stop him. Vegeta didn't know Auden all that well. He wasn't sure if he could handle seeing that—he wasn't even sure if he could handle seeing his own daughter like that...

Vegeta stood with crossed arms watching him move closer and closer. It was too late to stop him. What would be the point? He would learn what happened at some point. Auden paused where he expected him too. A pile of dried leaves covered the body. He squatted down so that he could use his hands to expose what was underneath. Vegeta stepped closer to see it a little better.

Her face was unrecognizable. One of her arms was missing. Below her neck didn't quite seem human as bloody flesh was exposed and drying—intestines completely outside the body, her legs twisted in impossible directions. Vegeta wondered if Auden would be able to even recognize her as he sat there mutely staring. He got his answer soon enough, as Auden lifted the body enough to pull it onto his lap. He touched her cautiously as if it was a fragile thing that would break if he moved too fast. Vegeta could tell his hands were shaking as he did so.

It felt like hours had passed before Auden ever uttered a word. Surprisingly, no tears had been shed. One might venture to say that he was taking this quite well.

"Jensen," Auden said hoarsely, "Do you think he was here too?"

"He was here," Vegeta confirmed.

Auden seemed to take his response at face value as he nodded slowly. His eyes hadn't moved away from her. "I don't know what happened, but...I will find out. I will find out. Whoever did this won't be able to hide from me. Whoever did this will..." he said in a distant tone as if he was somewhere far away thinking of a million and one things. There was an odd cadence to his voice, not really an accent, but it was something that gave Vegeta pause and a shiver down his spine that he would never admit to anyone feeling.

Respectfully, Vegeta did not disturb him as he sat there longer. It was a lot to process and Vegeta was also looking about the scene with his eyes to see if he noticed anything else. Evidence had clearly been tampered with. There were no footsteps or signs that anyone had even walked in that area and that was obviously not the case. Someone had gone through all the trouble of making it seem like nothing had happened, but had left the body, hadn't even bothered to bury it. Perhaps they'd wanted the wildlife to consume the body. It wasn't the busiest place here and people would certainly not be looking this far into the trees. The smell might have alerted someone eventually, but then again, maybe not. Humans were great at ignoring signs of danger. Or they might have been in a rush. Maybe the "they" was just one person. Whatever the case, Jensen was missing as well. He couldn't sense him either and that was odd in itself. He was likely unconscious somewhere.

"You can do those ki blasts, can't you?" Auden said breaking the silence.

Vegeta didn't even dignify that with an answer.

"Is it strong enough to disintegrate people?"

"If I wanted to."

"Well then, please, could you take care of her body? There's nothing more to see here," he said standing up.

"Are you sure? You could be eliminating evidence."

"And who would do an adequate autopsy? I don't want to bring the authorities into this nor do I want people picking over her body."

When Vegeta glanced over at him, he knew that he was being serious. A part of him knew that Auden probably wasn't in the best condition to be making rational decisions. In fact, he might regret things later down the line. Taking someone who was so emotionally compromised at their word often didn't end well. Bulma almost always avoided involving the authorities out of practicality. She'd be all for eliminating evidence. Many of the Z-fighters had died at different points. Bringing people back to life would have had an added layer of complexity if they also had to deal with deleting any official records of death.

"Just get it over with," Auden said.

"Alright," Vegeta said after another passing moment, "But you better not be upset later. Stand back."

Auden quickly followed orders, moving a safe distance away as Vegeta started forming a concentrated ki blast on the tip of his index finger. Once it was big and powerful enough, Vegeta unleashed it onto the still form. The smoke took some time to clear revealing eventually a burnt grassy area. Auden stood there perhaps pensively, but Vegeta wasn't entirely sure. He seemed to have the blankest of stares.

"What are you gonna' do now?" Vegeta asked drawing him out of his reverie.

"I'm going home," he said looking at him directly, unafraid. "And that's all. Plan on stopping me?"

"Not yet."

Vegeta was being lenient. Sure, Gohan had told him that it was important that Auden be kept in a secure location, there really wasn't a reason do this other than Gohan being upset over him attacking his mom and leaving her in bruises. Auden was no more susceptible than any other human. Besides, from where he stood, it was self-defense. Following the logic to its conclusion, he now needed to isolate Bunny, Dr. Brief and Bulma as well as the rest of the world—looking at how the public still didn't know about any of this, that would be a tall order at best. There were simply too many unknown variables to make him feel justified in acting as jailer to someone who didn't take kindly to feeling trapped.

No further comment was made on the subject. He'd make sure he actually did the thing he was saying and then leave. Another part of him also knew that he couldn't possibly be taking this as well as he seemed at the moment. It would be irresponsible to leave someone who'd experienced such a sudden loss. Were he in his shoes, he'd want someone to stop him from doing something stupid. He didn't know him very well, in fact, he barely knew him at all, but he felt like he had to do something even if he knew he was terrible at consoling people especially someone who kept things close to the chest. Bulma was the only one who knew Auden to any significant degree and Vegeta got the impression that he actually didn't like her judging from what he'd seen the last time he'd been at their place.

He had no one to ground him. He was liable to do anything.

The reckless driving seemed to increase in intensity as Auden floored the pedal sometimes even forgetting to use the street. His full focus was on the road. To be honest, he barely acknowledged his presence at all. When he was at what Vegeta assumed was his home, he didn't bother questioning whether he wanted to join him or not—he opened the door and began making his way down a short stretch of sidewalk to the stairs that led to his apartment. Vegeta wordlessly followed since he hadn't heard any protests.

He opened the door and didn't lock it. He also continued to ignore him. Perhaps it was an invitation. Perhaps it was simply negligence. Vegeta stepped into a very hygienic apartment with a very neutral smell. No one but him had been there for some time. Everything seemed to be in place from what he could see, the dining and living room. Auden sat on the floor in the living room in front of the television fully concentrating on his phone, the bright lights illuminating his face in the dark environment. No lights had been turned on.

Vegeta only looked around for a few moments finding nothing of interest. Jensen and Aster had been here likely earlier this day as he could smell their scents faintly now. He could tell which one was Aster's room and Auden's master bedroom down the hall. Still, he'd gotten no comment from Auden. Eventually, Vegeta sat on the couch directly in front of him though a few yards away. He watched him for a while before interrupting his rapid tapping on the screen.

"Auden." He said trying to get his attention. "Auden!" he barked.

He only gradually looked up. "What?"

"You need to get some rest and some food while you're at it. When's the last time you ate anything?"

He seemed to consider his last question. "I don't know. I don't exactly care. It's not the time."

"Go make yourself something—humans don't survive long without sustenance."

He looked up again irritated. "Why do you keep referring to humans as if you're an alien from another planet?"

Vegeta could only grin at the irony. "I won't repeat myself."

"Maybe you will."

"Or I will force feed you myself."

"I'd like to see you try."

"You don't want to try me."

He'd already returned to his phone unperturbed. With a growl, Vegeta made it over to him in less than a second, yanking him from the ground, grabbing him by the nape of his shirt. Auden was already trying to pull away from him, but Vegeta's grip was iron and it was a fool's errand. Vegeta watched him struggle a bit before shaking him roughly, consciously using far less strength to do so to avoid breaking him in half.

"Let GO of me!" he shouted angrily.

Vegeta could already see the faint electricity of his ki in the air as he continued to struggle fruitlessly. He tossed him to the ground a bit harder. Perhaps a bit too hard as he was slower than expected getting up. When Auden turned to look at him now incensed, Vegeta noticed that his nose was bleeding out. Great... Auden rushed at him as if to tackle him, but Vegeta easily parried his attempt, throwing him to the ground again. After the second attempt, Vegeta grabbed him again to put an end to his foolishness. He was breathing a little harder and Vegeta could see some tears in his eyes.

"Seriously, let go of me!" he yelled trying to rip out of his grasp. "If you want to kill me, then get on with it already."

"I will keep doing this until you concede."

Vegeta could feel the man's ki bristling at the audacity. For some reason, it hadn't fully come forth. He'd expected that it would by now considering past experience. There was a defiant look in his eyes, something that Vegeta loved to see, something that was always a prelude to an especially challenging duel. When someone was so passionate, it became difficult to defeat them. He was human, he knew he could die easily at his hands, but his own stubbornness and pride wouldn't let him give up so easily.

He wanted to train him all the more as he possessed characteristics that he'd like to see in future protectors of Earth. Vegeta was still trying to find more humans to fulfill that role and it hadn't been going well so far. There was Malachi...He didn't want to think along those lines or else he'd make himself miserable. Auden had a lot of potential at the very least.

Vegeta tossed him to the ground again with a grin on his face. Electricity was buzzing around the man now.

"In the interest of keeping my home intact—I suppose I'll have to consider your suggestions."

"It's the dead of night. You're lacking in sustenance and rest. Once you have those things, you'll be able to make more rational decisions."

"I've already made my decisions," he said as he climbed back to his feet with some trouble. Vegeta didn't bother helping him up. "I doubt they'd change the next day."

"And what are your decisions?"

"I will find the people who did this—they can't hide from me and then I will administer an appropriate punishment."

"You'll kill them," Vegeta stated.

"I'm going to throw a sandwich together and then you are going to leave me in peace. I think you've overstayed your welcome."

Vegeta found it hilarious that this man still thought he could give him orders and that he was under some obligation to follow them. "We'll see. First make your food."

He waited in the living room as Auden made the short trek to the kitchen where he began taking a few things out of the fridge. Casually, Vegeta moved to the small dining room knowing that eventually he'd be sitting down there. As long as he came out with a plate of food, then he would be satisfied. Truly the sandwich he made was thrown together—it looked dry and unappetizing from afar. With a grimace, he made himself scarce from Auden's line of sight unwilling to exclusively watch him eat. He listened however, almost expecting more defiance on his end. It took him a few minutes of waiting to realize that he wasn't eating anymore after a while. Maybe he'd finished? Now making his way back to the dining room, he found Auden asleep, peaceful for the first time with his head taking refuge on the table. He'd only partook in a few bites of the sandwich. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Vegeta waited until it seemed as if he wouldn't wake if he moved him and carefully took him out of the chair and deposited him onto his bed. He hadn't reacted in the least and was more like deadweight as his body lay sprawled on the covers. No sooner had he turned to leave however, he heard Auden's stomach growling painfully and loud as if he hadn't eaten anything in quite some time—that probably wasn't far from the truth. He groaned in displeasure, turned on his side curling in obvious pain and eventually woke himself up after turning over a few times.

With an exasperated sigh, Vegeta exited the room to take the drab sandwich from its place and brought it back to him. Perhaps a few more bites would do the trick.

"Here. Finish eating this," Vegeta ordered Auden who seemed to be in a daze.

Wordlessly, he took a few more bites before quickly dropping off again—he hadn't actually finished it much to his annoyance, but it was clear to Vegeta that his own exhaustion was difficult to overcome. It was as if removing the distraction which was his phone had kickstarted every other bodily process that he'd been ignoring. The sandwich ended up being half off and on the plate itself. Vegeta moved the plate to the nightstand and decided he'd take his leave once it seemed like he was firmly asleep and wouldn't be waking anytime soon. At the very least, he'd escaped his usual nightmares for now.

There was no point in staying and watching him like a child. In the morning, Vegeta assumed he'd have a better reaction to everything. It probably wasn't okay to leave him alone...But what could he do other than to continue getting on his nerves? Gohan wouldn't like it, but he wasn't overly worried about that. He was more worried about the implications of the pandemic. He was worried about Bulma—he didn't know what he'd do if the same ended up happening to her...

---

"Daddy! It's almost noon time—you're already late!"

Auden groaned as he felt a headache coming on. Her shrill voice cutting through his wonderful sleep was mostly annoying, but it was nice to hear from her immediately upon waking.

"Seriously, Dad! Did that woman poison you or something? You're supposed to be up like hours ago and I've been calling your name for like forever."

"Why do you have to be so dramatic?" he murmured to himself with a voice that sounded almost too rough to be his own.

But then his heart skipped a beat as he jolted up in bed suddenly wide awake. No, this isn't right... She wasn't here. No one was here anymore. He found himself hunched over as the tears began to come unbidden. He couldn't stop them. He held his warm face in his hands as he continued for what felt like ages. Then he was interrupted by his vibrating phone in his pocket. As if on autopilot, he reached in and checked the caller ID. Brightly lit letters decorated the screen: Bulma. He canceled the call immediately. There was no way he was going to talk to her in this state. He really didn't want to talk to her at all. If he had it his way, he'd never speak to her again. What had she wanted anyway? Had Vegeta told her what happened? Of course he told her what happened. Why wouldn't he? Aster came over to their place all the time even though he mostly ignored that fact. He didn't want to think about how many times he'd dropped her off in the past. He would grit his teeth every time hoping to dodge that woman before she ever saw him until she chased him down one day. Besides…

Aster was gone.

Aster didn't exist any longer.

Aster would never again remind him to take his pills.

Aster would never get annoyed whenever he paid attention to anyone other than her.

Aster's room would remain empty forever.

Aster…

Just like Mama who he could never speak to again. He hadn't been able to save her like he'd planned to. She'd simply ceased. He'd taken too long. If it was possible to grow up a little sooner, to skip more grades…Nothing ever worked out as he imagined.

"This isn't real, right? This isn't real," he muttered hoarsely to himself. "I can't." he said breathlessly as one of his hands now pressed against his chest containing a racing heart that thumped painfully. "It's not real. It can't be real..." But his mind conjured up images from last night of her mutilated form and of her disintegration into nothingness as if she'd never existed, making him sick to his stomach.

He turned on the bed when it became too much, his knees digging into the mattress as he kneeled and bent down into his pillows. I can't breathe...I can't breathe...

His phone started vibrating again snapping him out of his panic. Instinctively grabbing his phone, he saw that it was Bulma. He cancelled it quickly. What the hell does that woman want? I don't want to talk! But then his phone started vibrating again out of defiance. He kept cancelling the call until she finally got the message. He sighed exasperatedly at her antics.

He was probably late for work come to think of it, but he didn't care. He couldn't muster the energy to even begin caring about that. And he wasn't done crying yet. He wasn't sure when that would be. He kept thinking about her, reflecting on her short life. The adventure they'd been on, in and out of hospitals both for her and for him, all the far too deep and personal conversations they'd had with each other, all the times they'd discussed what they hoped to do in the future, those long years when she wanted to be a professional pianist only to give it up in boredom, that time when she dabbled in tennis and soccer and rugby, the random trips they took to whatever struck her fancy each week, watching her grow up and mature, helping her to understand the world just as she did for him at times, relinquishing her from his often tight grasp on her life and allowing her her freedom. There were still yet things she hadn't gotten to. She'd had her entire adult life to look forward to. Now, there was nothing left.

When he no longer had the energy to continue crying about something he had no power to change, he found himself fighting sleep once again, his eyes fluttering shut, his body limp upon the soft bed—until there was a knock on the door.

"Shit," he grumbled under his breath.

He listened to the knocking for a while hoping the person would go away since they were probably solicitors trying to get him to buy a magazine. The knocking persisted however, and it became progressively louder.

"Fuck."

He rolled over so that he could crawl out of bed. He wasn't remotely presentable as he shuffled out of his room towards the door, but the knocking needed to stop or he was going to start screaming. He couldn't believe the nerves on whoever was still knocking so fiercely. He unlocked the door and ripped it open ready to chew out whatever insane person happened to be there.

It was Bulma. He closed the door immediately.

Then she was pounding on the door angrily. "You better let me in! I've been calling you over and over—you can't just ignore me. I'm worried about you! I thought something terrible had happened. Let me in!" she hollered through the thin material of the painted metal door.

He leaned his back against the door utterly exhausted. He thought about letting her stay out there to yell until her voice gave out, but he remembered that it wasn't a good idea to push a woman like Bulma. He was asking for much worse to happen "out of concern" of course. He turned and opened the door again to a red-faced and determined Bulma.

"Bulma, I'm fine. You can go home now. I'm surprised you didn't get the message when I didn't answer your million calls."

She stood defiantly with crossed arms. "You're not okay, Auden. No one would be okay after what happened. And you look like you've been crying all morning. What kind of friend would I be if I let you be by yourself all day?"

He stood in silence once again debating if he should slam the door in her face. At the last minute he decided not to. "You want to come in?"

"Yes."

He stepped aside and allowed her entrance. She made herself comfortable on the long couch in front of the television that was just beginning to get dusty again with disuse. He sat in the loveseat that was at a right angle.

"Oh, Auden, you look terrible."

"Thanks."

"I'm being serious."

"What do you want, Bulma?" he asked exasperatedly.

She looked at him a little frustrated. "If you need someone to talk to or talk at, I'm available. You know that, right?"

"I think you've belabored that point many times over," he said drily.

"Look, I know I'm not your favorite person, but pretend like I'm someone else. Pretend like I never took advantage of you before."

Auden sat back in his chair. "It feels petty even to bring it up."

"It's not petty. It affected you more than I could ever imagine and I was too close-minded to ever put myself in your shoes. It's alright. I'm sorry and I'll say it as many times as needed."

"I don't want to rehash the same issues. Is this really what you want to do right now?"

"No," she said quietly as she shook her head gently.

"If you really must know, yes, I was crying all morning. I don't know what time it is. I probably missed work. I don't know what to do with myself. I just…"

"Uh huh," Bulma said encouraging him to continue.

"I don't feel like talking about it."

"Let's talk about something else then. Something to take your mind off of all of this."

"Like what?"

"Don't let me commandeer the conversation. It's all about you today."

"Did you hear anything about Chi-Chi," Auden said suddenly as the thought came to him. "Is she alright?"

"Seriously? You're thinking about someone else right now? You don't need to worry about anyone else but yourself."

"Did you. Hear. Anything. About Chi-Chi."

"Okay, okay, I did. Gohan called me. She's not doing well. He's had to…well, he's had to keep her confined in her room. She won't stop asking for you. He's called on a few trusted psychiatrists to see if they can diagnose her and see if there's any medication that exists that could normalize her."

"Hm, I see," he said thoughtfully.

"You're not thinking about going to see her, are you?"

"No, it wouldn't be a good idea right now. After what happened last time—I don't want a repeat," he lied with a completely straight face. He held no loyalty to her and didn't feel bad throwing her off his trail. In fact, he was planning on going to see her and pilfer her from Gohan's annoyingly watchful eye (so long as she wanted to leave and he was sure she did) as soon as he could get rid of Bulma.

"Chi-Chi used to be a pretty skilled fighter back in her day—you didn't stand a chance," Bulma said on a lighter note. "Don't feel embarrassed about it."

"I wasn't, but thanks for the concern, I guess."

Auden was quiet not sure of what to say now. He knew that she wouldn't be satisfied until he revealed something private about himself and that annoyed him even more.

"My husband still wants to train you, by the way—that offer is still on the table. Maybe it could be something that takes your mind off of things."

"It's not really a concern for me."

"That's alright. It's not for everyone. I couldn't really picture a computer nerd like you doing that kind of thing anyway."

Auden wasn't exactly flattered by the label she used to describe him, but it was at least accurate. "Stranger things have happened."

"And I hope you know that we'll help you get to the bottom of this. The dragon balls will eventually be accessible. We can easily bring Aster and Malachi back."

"Bulma," he said exasperatedly as he shook his head dismissively. "I don't need to believe in a fairytale to make myself feel better. When people die, they don't come back. Everyone knows that." He looked at her squarely daring her to argue back.

"I can see where you're coming from. In most circumstances, you'd be right, but you need to trust me."

"Why should I trust you?"

Bulma seemed taken aback by this, but she tried to hide this. "I wouldn't lie to you like that, not about something this important. Many of my friends have died before and they're all here again."

"I'd have to take your word for it otherwise it's very poor evidence for an extremely extraordinary claim. You do realize that, right?"

"I do. I guess I can't blame you. Seeing is believing."

"That saying isn't exactly accurate."

"What do you mean?"

"Human senses can easily be fooled and we depend solely on our own senses to experience the world which are known to be imperfect instruments. Seeing is not believing—it's simply a hypothesis that still needs to be tested and verified."

"Always cold, hard facts for you, huh. How do you explain ki? Is that not magic?"

"It depends on what we define as magic. Whatever the case, since it's something that can be demonstrated and likely investigated on—it isn't even supernatural. There's likely a natural explanation for the presence of ki yet unknown. Though that's an assumption, nothing unexplained has ever been found to be anything other than natural later on."

"What would convince you that magic exists?"

"I have no idea, but unless it can be proven through something that can be verified I won't have a way of studying it and no reason to believe in its existence unless the method used to identify magic is a legitimate one. This is how we can distinguish fact from fiction. And if there happens to be an unexplained phenomenon, of which there are many, then it will simply be unexplained unless some adequate explanation is found."

"What if we were able to bring you daughter back? What would you do?"

"I don't know," he said shaking his head. He thought for a moment, but then came back to the same response.

Bulma gave him a sympathetic look like that of a teacher pacifying an ignorant student. He frowned at this. "It's like you said: stranger things have happened."

He saw no signs of her backing down from her claims. At the very least, he could tentatively conclude that she believed that it was true. Someone else's belief was perhaps the weakest evidence one could have for the veracity of a claim. "I think I'll be fine for now. Are you really going to spend the rest of the day here?"

"I was planning on it," she said with a smile. "Don't worry about work, by the way. I'll let Trunks know that you've taken an indefinite leave. Take all the time you need to recover."

Recover…Auden wasn't entirely sure if he was going to recover from this. The things that he was setting out to do—well, it was something he didn't plan on disclosing to others. Perhaps to Chi-Chi, but no one else. They'd probably lock him in jail afterwards and he wouldn't care in the least. He was struggling to find a reason to care about the future. Bulma's visit helped him little in that regard.

"That's nice of you," he managed to say without gritting his teeth. "I don't know if I'm even fit for that job anyway."

"How could you say that?" Bulma asked surprised. "Everyone loves you there. I might not agree with everything you do, but you've developed your own methods of managing and it works. Not only can you do your job, but you're innovative as well and that's hard to find in a typical employee. Not many people can say that they fundamentally changed the culture at their job; it's very difficult to achieve and, trust me, Trunks appreciates your efforts."

"I haven't done much," he said after a moment, "It's just in my small little section of a huge, global corporation. It's nothing permanent. It's nothing set in stone. My practices still aren't reflected elsewhere. Perhaps I've helped the lives of some, but for the vast majority, they still suffer on a daily basis."

"Oh, you bleeding-heart," Bulma said waving her hand dismissively. "Just take the compliment."

Auden glanced over at her—his eyes had been trained on the closed window on the other side of the room. "In that case, thank you."

Bulma was beaming, but for some reason his mood soured further.

"Listen, I'm not the best with keeping up dialogue—this whole thing is tiring me out. I doubt I'd be able to do this all day. I know you mean well, but it would help me more if I had some peace and quiet."

"Why? So that you can secretly fall deeper into depression?"

"No, so that I can further meditate on the circumstances without having the added challenge of entertaining someone. If you want, I'll call you later."

Bulma looked at him with narrow eyes, "I don't like it."

"I'll be fine. I promise. Look at me now. If I was going to be spiraling, it would have happened already. It's not something that happens slowly. I know you may not believe me, but I have been doing better mentally for the past few weeks."

"Past few weeks? And that's it?" Bulma leaned in to look at him closer. "I guess you seem better than I expected. When you ignored my call for so long, I thought the worst had happened. You just really don't want to talk to anyone right now."

"I don't. And I don't exactly feel comfortable being emotional in front of others. The fact that you're here is really annoying the shit out of me."

"Well—someone doesn't have a filter anymore," she said with a laugh.

Auden looked at her unamused. "Please leave. I promise you, I'm fine." Now let me go insane in the comfort of my own home. His patience was slowly dissipating the longer she sat there with her knowing looks and pretending as if she genuinely cared what happened to him. He was her little project and she hated being seen as incompetent.

"Alright," she said after another moment. "I guess we're just going around in a circle at this point. You better answer your phone next time if you can, okay? I'm really worried. Don't make me come over here like this."

"Sure. I live to satisfy your every whim."

"It's not like that and you know it!" she said frustrated. He was glad when she finally stood up. "You know that, right?"

"Of course," he said as convincingly as he could muster.

She studied his face and then finally nodded when she was satisfied. "I'll check on you tonight. Please answer your phone, okay."

"I'll do my best."

Auden followed the blue-haired engineer to the door. She turned around one more time to give him a reassuring smile and repeat that she was there for him and definitely on his side before he was able to close the door on her. Once he was sure she was gone, he let out a long breath as if he'd been holding it the whole time.

The first thing he was going to do was free Chi-Chi from Gohan's clutches. If she wanted to fight, then that was fine, but he had a feeling that he could get through to her if he had more time. She seemed perfectly capable of talking before. After that he was going to lock himself in a room and solve the mystery as to who was behind Aster's untimely death. It had something to do with Jensen. It was probably all connected to him. Being part of such a shady family as the Briefs was a curse in itself and he was sure they had made plenty of enemies. He had quite the head start in his investigation. As far as he was concerned, he would uncover all there was to learn about the Briefs and anyone connected to them—no scrap of information would remain unknown to him.

He looked outside for good measure to make sure her car was gone. He made some cursory attempt at getting himself ready and then left for the day. He decided this time that he would take an airplane to Satan City. Looking at his watch, he had another fifteen minutes before another flight went out. Since it was only a ten-minute walk away, he took a brisk stroll to the port and made it just in time. Then he was off.

After making it to one of the stops in Satan City, he had twenty more minutes of walking to get to the neighborhood. He made it there in twelve minutes, walking faster the closer he got to the house. He'd barely come up with a plan. In reality, he really didn't have a plan at all. Knocking on the door probably wasn't a good idea. Trying to get Chi-Chi's attention with the window likely wasn't feasible considering Chi-Chi's condition and that she might be handcuffed by now. What was he going to do exactly?

He saw his car still sitting at the entrance as if he'd been there the whole time. He would escape in that when the time came—it was better than his original plan of running and hiding. The more he thought about his nonplan, the more fascinated he became with his own decision to show up. Was all this risk necessary? He knew the real reason he was here, and it was overruling his rationality at the time. He knew it, but he didn't want to change it.

Only Gohan and Chi-Chi was in the house. He didn't know how he figured that out, but he was confident in his assessment. So far, his senses hadn't been wrong yet.

He could take Gohan, couldn't he? He was just some nerdy scientist who sat in a lab all day.

He knocked on the door and waited for Gohan's arrival. He had to knock quite a few times before he did arrive at the door. He was already none-too-happy to see him as soon as he cautiously opened the door.

"I asked Vegeta to do one thing—and then he just goes and ignores me," Gohan said frustrated.

"You know who I'm here for. Please let me see her," Auden said politely, mustering the last of his patience with the man.

"I can't let you do that—she's too dangerous to be left to her own devices and if she receives too much stimuli, she may start fighting against her restraints—I can't go through that again. Anything she says now shouldn't be taken seriously; she's too out of her mind now."

"Let me see her." It was the last shreds of his patience currently being torn apart with the growing tension in his body.

It was difficult to pacify the presence of ki in his body when his own emotions betrayed him. Gohan was already looking at him quizzically.

"Go home, Auden."

That was it. Like a spark in a gas-filled room, his anger got the better of him and his ki sprang forth. Auden wasn't completely upset about that. He enjoyed that feeling of power coursing through his veins spilling out into the air. Gohan was so surprised that he didn't have much time to retaliate.

He could take him.

He lifted an arm out pointing his palms towards the startled man he could barely see through the fierce yellow flames and unleashed a tremendous amount of ki cobbled together and launched in a large column of electricity towards him at point black range. Once that was done, he was in auto drive, sprinting through the house towards where he knew she was. Gohan was unconscious for now. For some reason he knew that and for some reason he believed himself. He didn't feel like questioning himself about it—maybe later.

He whipped the door of Chi-Chi's room open and found her on the bed, handcuffed to the bedpost behind just as he had been. These "friendly" people sure loved their handcuffs. How many of those did they collectively have?

She was awakened upon his arrival and her eyes sought him out immediately. "Auden! I knew it was you! You came back for me!"

"Of course I did," he said approaching her quickly. She was already straining against the cuffs just like Gohan had predicted. "I'm going to break you out, okay? Stay still for a moment."

She obeyed him immediately with a nod. Just as he'd seen Vegeta do in his haze of disbelief of seeing Aster so torn apart, he gathered his ki into a focal point on his finger. It was a little difficult to reign in his energy into such a small area, but he felt it was much more potent. He didn't make it as big as Vegeta had—he wasn't trying to disintegrate a body after all, just a piece of chain. He aimed and launched it directly towards it target. The chain broke away easily. The next one was even easier as he got used to the procedure. The metal band was still on her arm, but she was free. He noticed a bit of technology infused on it which was likely for draining energy—there might be a way to override the lock through something other than a key. He'd have to see. For now, they had to go. Vegeta might decide to show up since he did use a ridiculous amount of his energy. Somehow Vegeta knew whenever he did things like that—a scary thought.

"C'mon," Auden said grabbing the wrist of the wide-eyed woman. It was better to guide her towards the car—she was just a little unpredictable.

"Okay," she said. But once she tried to stand, she stumbled in weakness. He caught her just in time. "Oh, thanks." She quickly pulled herself up. "I'm just a little weak—well, more than a little weak."

"I understand, they did the same to me."

"You? What for?"

"They don't fully understand the situation—they decided to take as many precautions as possible. Now, let's talk in the car."

Chi-Chi followed behind him now. He risked letting go of her wrist when it seemed like she understood where they were going. She seemed a lot more manageable, but that may be because she was so weakened. They moved quickly down the hall and through a couple rooms before they galloped down the few porch stairs and made a beeline for his car that she had driven there a lifetime ago. Finally, he was getting it back.

"Strap up," he said.

She did this as well though with some trouble as it seemed difficult even to pull out the seatbelt. She seemed so frail at the moment—did Gohan really need to go that far?

"They handcuffed you too?" she said tiredly. Her mind seemed fixated on this point.

"They did. Much earlier this morning, I woke up being handcuffed to a bed—it brought back some memories I'd rather forget."

"Sorry to hear that…How did you get out though?"

"I talked Vegeta into letting me out."

"I tried talking to Gohan too…but he wouldn't listen!"

"Maybe Vegeta is a little nicer than Gohan."

Chi-Chi spat at this. "Don't make me puke. But…" she paused as a thought came to her. "Maybe…it's possible that he's more understanding. Something similar happened to Malachi and I heard they were close."

"I had no idea."

"He was training him, I heard, for some silly reason or another. He's always training people these days."

Auden glanced over and noticed her struggling to stay awake. Her voice sounded weak and shaky. His teeth gritted more and more at the sound of it. He'd never seen her like this before. "It's okay, Chi-Chi, just rest."

"I just need to know something—did they drain your power as well."

"They did—at least, Vegeta implied he did. I'm not sure."

"And you recovered so quickly," she said with the beginnings of a smile. "You're so…powerful," she said in conspiratorial tones. "They must have drained a good amount of energy to subdue you, but even with that little bit you still seem to have a lot more to spare, like a bottomless well. I felt it when I was fighting you." Her eyes were fluttering closed.

"Chi-Chi…"

"It's not that you've ever ran out of energy when you get tired and winded, it's that you haven't dipped back into that endless well of energy waiting to be brought forth. When we meditated for the first time, that was only the tip of the iceberg. Even after you think you've put your all into a ki blast, there is always more to pull from…" She started murmuring something else, but he didn't quite understand and he didn't want to wake her up for it.

He thought back to the time when he'd ran out of his apartment because he couldn't control his ki spurting forth. He'd thought he'd used up his energy earlier that day during that meditation, but it was back again and after Vegeta later tired him out, his energy came back moments later and he'd easily took an hours long walk home with Chi-Chi. There was never a moment when he didn't feel like he could bring forth his ki, but he wasn't sure if he'd truly been put to the test on that. He didn't like the sound of testing such a thing.

Auden drove far over the speed limit, constantly maneuvering around slower cars until he caught up to the cars who were going faster still. It only edged him on further. In this fashion, it took him almost thirty minutes less to reach West City. Once he was within city limits, he calmed down his driving as it was the middle of the day and there was no way to escape the traffic. It took the same thirty minutes he'd saved getting there to get to the apartment and park in his usual space.

"Chi-Chi," he said turning to shake her gently.

"Huh?" she said tiredly.

"We're back. Let's go up."

"Oh," she said almost to herself as she fiddled with her seatbelt a few moments longer than usual to get it off.

Slowly, she climbed out of the car and wordlessly followed Auden up the stairs taking each step as if it was a monumental task. He waited patiently for her at the top as she grasped the railing. It took him a moment to realize that Vegeta was already there leaning against his door with his eyes closed and his arms crossed as if he'd been waiting there for ages.

"Shit," Auden said under his breath.

"Vegeta," Chi-Chi said just loud enough for him to hear. "You think we could take him?"

"I wouldn't try it if I were you," Vegeta said as he stood up straighter. He was just a little too far away from them and Chi-Chi had spoken too quietly for Auden to not immediately conclude that the man had extraordinary hearing.

They stepped closer to the man. Auden wasn't sure what he was going to do. Vegeta was always a frightening prospect. For some reason, he thought he'd gotten away for now. It's not like he was in the same area as when the incident had occurred.

"Gohan told you what happened?"

"The man was beside himself in shock and horror. He really let a guy who doesn't even know how to throw a punch to best him with sheer will alone."

"I had to—he was keeping her trapped on her own bed and—

"Color me impressed," Vegeta said cutting across. "I wasn't going to go chasing after you. I knew you'd come back here eventually, and I was just bored enough to wait here doing nothing. You made it in good time."

Auden waited in bated breaths. Was Vegeta going to attack him? Could he really defend himself against him in even the slightest? He wanted to make sure Chi-Chi was safe but…He glanced back and noticed she was starting to fall asleep on her feet as if completely oblivious to the growing tension.

Vegeta stepped away from the door. "Let her rest."

Auden looked at him a moment longer, but he couldn't sense any ill will from him. Cautiously, he moved to open the door and he held it for Chi-Chi to easily walk through. Before she passed Vegeta, he took out a small key and carefully unfastened the broken handcuffs around her wrists. It was one less thing to worry about apparently. Chi-Chi took it upon herself to retreat to the back where his bedroom was. It was just as well. He still had a lot of work to do and a Vegeta he still had to speak to. Since Chi-Chi was now safe, the tension between them seemed to settle, but Auden didn't know what to make of him.

Auden joined him on the walkway outside. Vegeta was turned towards the railing that looked out to the passing traffic with arms still crossed.

"How can you stand living by so much noise?" he asked the moment Auden stood beside him.

"I always have. I'm used to it. If it's not there, it feels as if something is missing. And if you close your eyes long enough, it starts to remind you of the ocean especially at night."

"Hmph, I suppose there's perks to having terrible hearing." A moment passed before he continued. "So you've successfully taken Chi-Chi back, what do you plan to do now?"

"Lots of research. I have a feeling that this whole thing has to do with Jensen."

"Why is that?"

"He's a Brief and Briefs have a lot of skeletons in the closet."

"Maybe to you it seems that way—

"No it is that way. Maybe you've gotten used to it, but the general public doesn't know half the things that CC does. The pandemic is one thing, but there's plenty of other inventions and dealings that is kept under wraps. I'm sure there's more where that came from."

"So you think that will lead you to the perpetrators?"

"I have a strong feeling."

"Even I don't know everything about CC. I try to stay out of it, but I know that I'm irrevocably part of it now. Perhaps your research will take you to Malachi as well. Maybe you should start there."

"Seems like a good a lead as any."

"I want you to keep me updated with everything that you find."

"So you can share it with Bulma?"

"Bulma is too busy right now with other matters. I'll be the one dealing with this. If I find anything concerning enough though, I'll let her know—it is her grandson who's missing too. If I reassured her that you were looking into it, she wouldn't be panicking so much now. So far she's found nothing at all."

"I see."

"Once Chi-Chi has recovered, she'll be a handful again. How do you plan to deal with that?"

"I'm sure I can get her to see reason. I talked to her earlier and she didn't seem nearly as out of control as last time."

"Right. Well, we'll see how that goes. Gohan planned on having a couple psychiatrists come in and prescribe her medication under emergency purposes. I'll have Gohan send them here."

"Thank you."

"You just keep up your side of the bargain. It's clear that she's more comfortable here and Gohan doesn't need the added stress of taking care of his mother—emotionally, he's not really cut out for seeing her like this. I need him to focus on helping everyone rather than specifically just her. Already, there's been reports of random acts of violence around this city and the other. The media can't seem to get enough of it."

Vegeta stepped back from the railings at this and made his way towards the nearby stairs.

"I'm surprised this didn't end in you knocking me out and dragging Chi-Chi back," he said watching his retreating form.

Vegeta snorted at this. He turned to him so that he could look at him squarely. "I'm on your side, Auden. You haven't given me a reason not to trust you. Don't make me regret my decision."

Auden stood just a little more erect when he said this. Vegeta didn't give him a chance to respond before he was taking off into the air. Even though he'd seen Pan do it, he rushed to the railings to catch a glimpse of him speeding off into the sky until he was a tiny dot. Incredible.

"He's on my side?" Auden said to himself.

It was as if the doors of opportunities were opening up for him. If a guy like that was no longer going to be an obstacle, it would possibly be smooth sailing from here. It made him feel a bit giddy. He had no idea that things would turn out so well. Somehow, he was making the right decisions.

Once inside his apartment, he pulled up a chair at his desktop computer situated between the dining room and living room on the wall next to the window. He sat down and began searching in earnest.

---

Bra had decided out of the blue to go on a short road trip to Parsley City which had one of the largest and well-maintained parks on the continent and it was a known attraction for young children. Pan didn't think Jr. and Machi were quite old enough to fully enjoy it. Machi especially couldn't walk all that well and often wound up crawling everywhere. Still, it was nice to get out of the house.

It took about a day to get there with Pan driving. Bra was beside her and the two toddlers were in the back giggling and carrying on. Bra attempted conversing with them, and Pan was amused with the whole thing. It was hard to know just how much those two were even understanding or just repeating things that had been said in front of them. Pan noticed as she glanced back at them that Jr. was quite a bit darker in skin tone compared to the porcelain white of Machi who's dark rust colored hair contrasted sharply. It was as if Jr. spent much more time outside than Machi, but Pan knew that wasn't the case. Jr.'s skin tone was not quite the tan one would get from the sun either, it was a different shade of brown, a more natural tone. She wondered where he could have gotten that from especially since it was different from any other person in the family including Vegeta. The same went for the rust color of Machi's hair. Were these traits that could be mapped back to Malachi somehow? She didn't want to dwell on the possibilities, and she didn't want to stress Bra out anymore than she naturally was just taking care of them in the first place. Her children were alive and happy and that's all that mattered at this point.

Taking those two with them was quite the challenge. They found out quickly that they hadn't brought enough snacks and diapers, that Machi got pretty hyper when she was forced to sit in one spot for too long, and that Jr. loved instigating mayhem—though it was okay because he was so cute. He could use his ki fairly well for someone who could barely talk. Pan didn't think it would be a good idea to have him interacting with other children especially with his penchant for setting things on fire. It didn't help that Machi was always entertained by his antics and would egg him on further and further. She suggested that they wait until nighttime when the park was far less populated. They were supposed to go to bed at a certain time, but rules were made to broken, right? Pan couldn't help but feel like they were terrible parents. At the very least, though, they were having fun.

When they were at the park, Machi and Jr. had a blast—in a good way, not in the Jr.-accidently-burnt-down-the-park kind of way. Pan had to remain vigilant and honestly it was stress inducing and not really all that fun for her. Bra was able to relax, however. She played with them on the swings, helped them on the jungle gym and led them through the main part of the playground with the slides and stairs. They spent quite some time at the fireman's pole because Jr. seemed determined to climb it on his own—he didn't have the arm strength and Machi kept running and/or crawling up the stairs to slide down the pole again probably hoping to fall on top of him because she was not above causing some mayhem herself.

Later on that night though, when they were at the hotel tired and burnt out, Pan received a serious phone call from Vegeta and everything went downhill from there. For some reason, Vegeta had felt the need to tell her instead of Bra even though she was free to tell Bra of her own accord—it wasn't a secret. He wanted them to stay safe and he was putting her in charge of that. Of course, she took on that responsibility willingly, but it left her feeling even more tired than she had been from the outset. People were turning violent and there was no way to tell when someone might snap. There were symptoms that individuals went through at different levels of intensity and then after that the change would occur. Not everyone would lie down at the first hint of a headache or even a fever. Many people couldn't afford to do that and often worked through symptoms that they didn't see as life threatening. Sometimes, if the fever wasn't high enough, some might not even notice it was happening. She'd asked why all this wasn't on the news or why she was just now hearing about all this and all Vegeta could say was that CC had not deemed it necessary to inform the public. It was quite disconcerting to say the least. Sure, they might be in danger somewhat, but other humans were even more so. He also informed her that as far as Gohan's research had revealed, it only affected pure Earthlings and not hybrids like her, Bra, and the toddlers. But they would be around other humans and that was where the danger lied.

Once Machi and Jr. were put to bed, Pan disclosed all this to Bra who didn't worry overly much about the news.

"I've heard of stranger things. As long as it's not some foreign entity coming to destroy the world, I don't think I'll lose much sleep over it."

"But Bra, there's a lot of people who's lives could be changed or completely torn apart because of this."

"My family will be fine," she said.

"What about your mom?"

"She'll figure something out just like she always does. I can't imagine this being the one thing she just couldn't handle. We've been through a lot. I'm sure we can get through this."

"Alright, well, I'm glad you're taking this so well. I'm still worried though."

"About Auden, right?

"What? Me? Never—Alright, maybe a little. I haven't talked to him in a while. He's been hanging out with my grandmother. With all this happening now, it could turn pretty disastrous really quickly. I know your family's been through a lot, but I think Auden has too. I hope nothing bad happens—well, nothing too bad."

"All we can do is hope. Does he know about any of this?"

"I'm not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if he did. He's really good at keeping himself informed about certain things especially when it comes to CC."

"I guess hacking has it's merits. Anyways, I'm going to go get something from the vending machine. You want something?"

"Get me some potato chips and whatever soda you're getting."

"We're both being sooo healthy right now," Bra teased.

"Whatever. The kids are asleep, they won't see us pigging out. While you're at it—could you get more than one bag?"

"Way ahead of you," Bra replied laughing softly so as not to disturb the two sleeping.

Pan watched Bra leave with purse in hand. The room was dark, but light streamed in between the curtains from the lights that were on outside. She waited for a while, sitting on the bed near the window. As the minutes drew out, she grew more and more impatient. Leave it up to Bra complicate a simple visit to the vending machine. She wondered if she even knew how to operate one—maybe that was too far. Sure, Bra had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but it wasn't as if she was dumber because of it and they'd gone to vending machines plenty of times as kids. Then she heard a scream and Pan was already scrambling out the door to where she'd heard Bra.

There was an older gentleman whaling on the helpless Bra who's swinging arms did nothing to push back the assault. Pan grabbed the man roughly and soundly knocked him out with one punch to the face, throwing him to the ground in disgust. She was more concerned with the crumbled Bra who was crying now with a reddened face and hands covering it as if in embarrassment. Seeing her like that immediately made her feel guilty about the sour thoughts from before.

"Bra, it's alright," Pan said softly as she dropped down to her level and sat beside her. "It's alright. It's over."

"I'm so weak!"

When she looked up at her, Pan could already see bruising on her face and there were some cuts on her elbows. Who knew where else she'd been injured?

"We need to get you bandaged up, okay? I need to check for wounds."

"Okay," Bra said settling down beside her and then leaning her head on her shoulder. "All the food's over there."

The food was either crushed or spilled open and Pan laughed despite herself. Suddenly her appetite was no longer there. She had to take care of Bra and maybe she'd think about food afterwards. Bra giggled as well.

"Can't believe I can't even defend myself from some random old man. Maybe I do need to go to that dojo."

"You know it has to be serious if you're seriously considering that. Let's just see how you feel in the morning. C'mon," Pan said as she began helping her to her feet.

It wasn't exactly fun sitting on cold, hard concrete and she wanted to get things squared away before the open wounds became serious. Vegeta was probably going to kill her, but, at least, Bra was safe. Going to the playground could have turned out far worse had everyone started losing their minds at once. It was a small miracle that they didn't have to deal with anything until now out at a hotel in the dead of night when there weren't many eyes on them. The Briefs loved their privacy after all and, to be honest, so did she.

Pan made a quick trip to the 24-hr pharmacy not too far away, bandaged up her lover, and finally crashed for the night with Bra comfortably snuggled in her arms.

Come the next morning, they made haste driving home with strangely solemn kids in the backseat. When asked again about whether Bra really wanted to start training, she looked at her like she was crazy. Yeah, of course not. Besides, Pan liked her just the way she was. They'd have to spend more time indoors though just until this blew over—if it blew over anyway.

---

Auden was compiling a document that contained all the information he was finding in his research. He knew very quickly that he was going to be bogged down with projects and developments that CC had under wraps. The amount of data that CC had that wasn't available to the public including less than above board deals and relationships that they had with other companies that still existed or had been bought out by them, other politicians, as well as key people in society that held power was astounding. He felt like he was being dragged down into a void of deceit and lies and he felt like it was all besides the point. Auden suspected that these sorts of things were in CC's closet—the biggest conglomerate ever to grace their world—but he'd consciously chose to ignore it. He stopped himself short of stumbling upon these things when his curiosity would get the better of him in the past. Hacking into various databases was a pastime of his—he simply liked knowing things. He rarely did anything with that information unless someone pissed him off.

It all felt like a dead end, but he had to be thorough. He came upon various shady characters which he would then have to take a more in-depth look into later on. One branch would split into two and so his document grew exponentially as he tried to keep whatever he found in an organized flow chart and then other key terms explained extensively in agonizing detail on another document with links that went back and forth between the two.

He wasn't sure at what point of the day his eyes became so tired that it was becoming difficult to keep them from closing or when his brain refused to read one more sentence as it continually remained on the same piece of data like a skipping record or the words on the screen more and more often began to look like gibberish, but he was certain a lot of time had passed since he'd sat down at the computer. For some reason, he pushed himself to continue mindlessly. His eyes continued to gaze into the bright wall of text until he became frustrated enough at his lack of progress to try and remedy the situation. There wasn't a lot of desk space to place his head down, but he moved his keyboard closer to the monitor so that he could have a tiny spot.

When he wasn't gazing at the computer, his mind was rummaging frantically over the things he'd just learned, relieved that he'd decided to keep a document of his finds because he certainly couldn't keep it straight in his head. It was all pooling into an entire ocean of nonsense, and he wasn't sure if he was actually getting closer to his goal. He wouldn't give up though. That wasn't really an option. It wasn't part of the plan. In the background he noticed that it wasn't quiet. Heavy objects were being overturned, things falling to the ground, someone stomping around, someone laughing. Maybe it was just his imagination. He didn't feel like lifting his head to find out just what that was.

"Hey, sleepyhead, you should get some rest. You keep staring at the screen and it's getting annoying!" came Chi-Chi's voice from above.

He looked up to where the sound was coming from and found that she was right there in front of him in all her glory—quite a sight for sore eyes though her image was blurry. "Hm…you're right," he said barely able to get the words out.

"I know I'm right. You'll feel better after that and then maybe we can spar again."

"Okay," he replied not really registering what she was saying.

He found himself in his room again, but he wasn't entirely sure how he'd gotten there. All he knew that once his head hit the pillow, he could no longer escape his exhaustion. He was awoken in what felt like a few moments later by the sound of glass shattering on a hard ground. When he tried to open his eyes, he found that he couldn't and eventually drifted off again until his sleep was interrupted sometime later by his phone vibrating. He grabbed it, instinctively lifting it to his ear.

"Hm?" he answered wearily finding it difficult to even part his lips. How long had he been asleep? That was a mystery in itself. Time seemed to have become fluid.

"Auden, have you found anything interesting yet? Bulma's pretty much hit a wall in her research," came Vegeta's clear voice cutting through the fog.

"Nothing earthshattering. I can send you what I have though." He could hear a noticeable slur in his own voice as if he was partially intoxicated and he wondered if he'd spoken loud enough for him to hear. He felt his eyes closing again—it was difficult holding the phone to his face.

"How are you right now," he demanded over the phone. "Is everything—

"I'm fine…"

"Hmph, right. Remember those psychiatrists I told you about before? They should be coming in tomorrow evening to evaluate her. Will you be ready for that?"

"Of course."

It was barely registering in his mind as his eyes refused to stay open once again and he fell asleep. Hopefully Vegeta hadn't had too much else to say. The phone never disturbed him again. Then again, it could be that he was simply too deeply asleep to be disturbed.

When he woke up on his own, the haze from before was gone, though his hunger was back with a vengeance. He grunted a little in pain as his stomach seemed to twist and squeeze tighter all on its own. He couldn't remember the last time he'd sat down and eaten anything, and he didn't feel like dealing with such a mundane activity. All he wanted at that moment was to be back at his computer gathering information. He knew he had a long ways to go.

He was grateful for the clarity he was experiencing as he easily recalled what he'd learned yesterday. Despite the sheer amount of information he'd found, he felt he was headed in the wrong direction. CC likely had nothing to do with the incident and it was his own biases getting in the way of the truth. Jensen wasn't associated with CC directly. Perhaps it was like Vegeta had suggested before. Maybe the fact that Jensen was the son of the late Malachi was a better lead. He'd redouble his efforts today if possible though something told him that it would be more difficult to ignore everything else around him today.

When he climbed out of bed, he stretched a little, noticing quickly that the soreness from before was gone—he was completely refreshed though still starving. Outside of his room, the façade of normalcy disappeared. The fact that his apartment was trashed beyond recognition came into startling focus. Every inch of floor past his bedroom door had something on it, be it picture frames, things from the bathroom or living room, and even shards of glass from broken picture frames. He suddenly felt both tired and not tired at the same time. He carefully made his way down the hall into the living room where it seemed like a hurricane had torn through the place—there were even a few holes in the wall where Chi-Chi had presumably punched though. He sighed inwardly. In fact, he found himself doing that more than once as his eyes took it all in. He should have been upset or angry, but for some reason he couldn't muster up the concern for such strong emotions. His one-track mind was already trying to minimize and disregard the impact of the situation.

Chi-Chi sat upside down on the couch (which had fluff coming out of it now from rough use) watching television—he could see her boots sticking out from the top of the headrest. At the very least, she seemed preoccupied for now. He shuffled past her. The PC was untouched. Everything else was destroyed. The dining room table had lost two legs. The blinds were in shambles, the floor was still littered with trash and things out of place. It was all beginning to feel like a dream. Once in the kitchen, he knew he'd probably have to order out today if he was going to find any decent food. There was such a waste of food on the floor, on the walls and on the counters. She'd thrown out every leftover from the bottom part of the refrigerator as well as the freezer. Cracked frozen plastic storage containers littered the ground along with thawed ice and food that was melting and beginning to smell a little funny. The refrigerator was empty and all its contents were elsewhere. All of it was ruined. Here, he should have been outraged. Instead, he simply sighed again. He imagined it would take some time to get it all back into order, but that was an activity for another time when he wasn't so busy. And when were those psychiatrists supposed to be coming today? He quickly took out his phone to confirm that, in fact, it was today in the evening—at the very least the call from Vegeta which he barely remembered had occurred on the previous day. Hopefully he was remembering what was discussed accurately.

He carefully made his way back out again to Chi-Chi's last known location. He peered over the couch and found her fully engaged with the television which happened to be on the news channel; her head resting on the ground. He watched a few minutes of it despite himself as his curiosity got the better of him. Seemed as if certain parts of the city were looking just as trashed as his apartment as increasing incidents of violence and property damage began to spread. Law enforcement—or what was left of them—were already herding these individuals into the hospitals to isolate them. And still no one knew the cause of it. No one knew about the hidden pandemic and CC continued to sit on the information as public health and society itself seemed to be in, at least for now, growing chaos. That was going to change. He pulled out his phone again and began tapping on the screen rapidly. All the key figures he'd seen on the news including prominent reporters and news agencies would be getting the pertinent information needed to better handle the situation. He made sure not to implement Gohan, but simply CC itself. They would be linked to sensitive information on official sites and they would do with it as they like. This situation was too big for a single scientist to be trying to figure out. It affected everyone—so everyone should be trying to find a cure or at least an adequate treatment. Sometimes, he felt like the only sane person left in his small group of known associates. Bulma seemed sensible. Gohan seemed sensible. No one thought it was a good idea to inform the public. It made little to no sense. He slipped his phone away when he was done and turned his attentions to Chi-Chi.

"How are you feeling?" he asked cautiously.

She looked up at him with the beginnings of a smile. "I feel like I just want to keep destroying things. I want to destroy everything and everyone except for you. I kept your computer nice and tidy for you. I know you don't care about anything else."

"How thoughtful of you," he said with obvious sarcasm, but she didn't seem to notice.

"And you've been slacking on our training!" she accused as she pointed the remote at him.

"I thought we were just exercising."

"No, training! We have to keep making you stronger so next time when we fight you won't be so pitiful!" She sat up from her awkward position which was a bit of a struggle.

"We'll do that later on then."

"You promise?" she said gazing at him intently.

"I promise."

"I want to do it right now though—I'm so bored."

Auden glanced over at his PC wondering when next he'd be able to engage with it. She seemed to be getting anxious again. Maybe he should not have disturbed her. His stomach growled much louder than before as if to remind him about his other urgent situation.

"Ooooh, you're hungry? Let me make you something in the kitchen," she said preparing to climb to her feet.

"No," he said stopping her movements, "Don't try to make anything in that travesty of a kitchen. I'll just have to order out."

"Oh, okay," she said as if she'd been chastised, "I guess that makes sense."

A thought came to mind as his eyes sought out a marginally clear space on the ground to sit. In front of the television was a clear strip of floor. That would have to do. He came around the couch to sit there, drawing her attention as he did so. She seemed to listen to him when he gave her direct orders. He wondered if that was the case for everyone or just him.

"Could you come over here? Sit with me," Auden said as he made himself comfortable sitting mostly cross-legged.

Wordlessly, Chi-Chi joined sitting in kneeling position. "I feel like we're about to hatch our plans to destroy the world."

"Not quite," he said ignoring the fact that Chi-Chi seemed very concerned about doing this. "I thought we might meditate for a little while like we did in the past."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Alright, if you insist. Seems like a waste of time."

"Close your eyes," he said as he did just this.

"Auden?"

"Yes?"

"We don't need anyone else; the rest of the world can perish."

"Even your family?"

"What have they ever done for me? It makes no difference to me whether they live or die."

"Why are you so fixated on such wanton destruction? And why do the people you care about mean so little to you now?"

"That's simply what I want. What I enjoy doing. I don't care about those people anymore. And you, so separated from everyone else have no one except me to care about. Wouldn't that be beautiful then, to leave it all behind? How much would you care if you woke up tomorrow and Earth is completely annihilated?"

"It's true that I might not have the strongest personal connection to anyone at this point aside from you—I would still be horrified with the demise of so many other people. I don't think I'd be able to live with myself."

"Your conscience is your weakness. You should leave that behind as well—all that baggage. If I eliminated such trite from your mind, you would feel the same as me: unshackled and free."

"That is simply a part of who I am."

"I can feel it," she began.

Auden at that moment felt something being tugged on and gripped tightly, but not physically. He couldn't pinpoint where he felt the sensation until he realized it might have been entirely mental.

"Your ties to this world grow thin and weak. I can see it and I could rip it apart so easily."

The grip seemed to tightened two-fold and he gasped despite himself.

"Then you would see things my way."

"P-Please, don't do that."

"Alright," she said after a moment, "since I respect you, but it won't be long until the same thing that happened to me, happens to you. I won't even have to lift a finger."

"By then, hopefully, we'd find some remedy. We evolved to have such things as conscience and empathy because we learned long ago that we're stronger together rather than apart."

"But you're not like other people, Auden. I could train you to your fullest potential and you would be a god among men. You would have power beyond any other person I've ever known. No person, no matter how skilled would be able overcome such an advantage. And you would be pragmatic and rational as you usually are and not succumb to arrogance and pride or some insatiable need to grow stronger—you would be the perfect warrior."

"Chi-Chi, please. What you're envisioning is nothing more than a fairy tale. We are here together now in this moment and we have plenty of issues to deal with in the present. Like everything else, we have to take things one step at a time and strive only for things that can conceivably be achieved and setup realistic milestones which we can reach in a reasonable amount of time. Do you agree?"

"I suppose."

"Then repeat after me: I am calm and centered."

"I am calm and centered."

"I am calm and centered," he repeated once again.

"I am calm and centered—how many times do we have to say this?"

"As many times as I think is necessary. You're still fidgeting. I am calm and centered."

"But I'm not."

"I am calm and centered."

She sighed. "I am calm and centered."

They repeated this many times over until he felt as if he was nearly in a trance—he was almost certain it had to be the same for her because she'd become much more still and her previous chaotic aura felt tranquil—he wasn't sure how he sensed this, but he felt certain about it. The phrase which he was having her repeat was one his psychiatrist had told him to tell himself when events started to get out of hand or if he needed a moment to collect himself. Life was often hectic and unexpected. Anxiety could spring up at any time brought on by any number of triggers. It was relieving feeling Chi-Chi's anxiousness seemingly ease off.

"I easily handle whatever comes my way."

"Hmm…Is that right?" she said in a quieter tone.

"Well, I try to anyways. I easily handle whatever comes my way."

"I easily handle whatever comes my way."

"I easily handle whatever comes my way."

"Mmmm, I love how soothing your voice sounds—it sounds like rolling thunder in the distance."

"Th-Thank you," he said caught off guard as she giggled.

His stomach decided to remind him that he was, in fact, starving as it made a particularly drawn out growl which caused her to laugh once again.

"We should probably find some food soon," she said teasingly.

"Don't worry, I have something in mind."

"Are we going out then?" she said with some excitement.

"No, that would be too much for now." He purposefully kept his voice at a near monotone so that it wouldn't stimulate her too much. While she felt much less anxious, he knew that that could change quickly. "We'll stay here, calm and centered, and I will order something. Then you're going to help me clean up as much as possible before those psychiatrists show up."

"Pyschiatrists?"

"They'll…give you some mental training."

"And what about our training at the park?"

"If there's enough time—

"Right after we clean up this place. We're going to the park."

"Only if the cleaning is done in a timely manner. Then I'll freely go with you."

"Really?" she asked as if it was simply too good to be true.

"Of course, I told you I'd do that with you anyway."

"Good," she said satisfied. "Then let's get some food."

"In a few minutes," he said taking a deep breath. "Repeat after me again."

Chi-Chi sighed and then went over the same two phrases a few more times before Auden finally called it quits. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that she looked a great deal more still and she wore a subtle smile. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of that, but soon he was distracted with his phone ordering from a place nearby.

"What are you going to get?" Her tone was conversational and far less animated than before.

"How does…sushi sound?"

"It's like you can read my mind."

"Or I noticed it's the main thing you get at the café at work."

"Same difference. Having someone who notices things about me—well, I suppose it's difficult for me to get used to. It makes me feel…like I'm appreciated."

"You're very much appreciated, Chi-Chi. I hope I've made that obvious enough for you. Since the moment I first met you, I wondered how nice it would be to connect with a person like you."

"When you say connect, what do you mean by that?"

"It means," he began thoughtfully, "getting to know you better, better than anyone else—emotionally, mentally—

"But not physically?"

"Let's just say that I'm not all that interested in that aspect."

"Hm," she said almost to herself. "Well, let me see the choices already," she said referring to the app he was using to make an order.

She moved closer to him and he held out the phone to her so that she could see. From there, he quickly made the order. To his surprise, Chi-Chi simply sat quietly beside him with her eyes closed.

"Anything on your mind?" he asked curiously.

"I just…have a lot to think about at the moment."

She didn't expound from here, but he simply let the matter rest since it seemed like she didn't want to be engaged. He turned to his usual habit of using his phone and thus the time passed swiftly as they waited for the order. Once the food arrived, the two of them wasted no time consuming everything. This was a fairly large order, but they made impressive headway in record time. While chopsticks were still used, their usual manners were almost nonexistent. As soon as a morsel of food touched his tongue his stomach was demanding more very quickly. He'd never been so ravenous before and he wasn't even sure he was satiated by the time he went through several plastic trays of food.

"Here," Chi-Chi said with a gentle smile, "You can have these two—I can't possibly eat anymore."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Of course, silly, or else I wouldn't have said it."

Auden studied her face noticing an expression there he wasn't entirely used to seeing—a mixture of nostalgia and knowingness as if she'd seen this before. If she had, it certainly was not with him. He gave her a questioning look, but he soon partook of her two conveniently well stocked foam containers and consumed its contents much quicker than he'd anticipated. Why was he suddenly a bottomless pit? Eating in general wasn't exactly a favorite pastime and he'd often put it off until absolutely necessary. Even when he was hungry, he could never put down as much as this in one sitting. Growing up, food was often scarce. He'd learned early on to simply ignore hunger pangs or to drink some water to fool his body into lasting a bit longer before it tore itself apart with starvation especially when he'd have to face consecutive days of forced fasting. The fact that he needed food in order to survive was often the bane of his very existence. If his appetite had been this way before, he wasn't sure if he would have made it very far.

"Sorry," he said embarrassed as he began gathering the empty containers and cartons meal into the plastic bag it came in.

She laughed at this. "Don't be—it's completely normal! And luckily you have me around because I'm a professional at making a lot of food at once."

The thought of having to contend with such an appetite on a regular basis made him quite weary and he sighed in response to her enthusiasm. Maybe today was a fluke. He could only hope.

"Alright, Chi-Chi, you know what we have to do next."

Now it was her turn to be weary if only for a millisecond. "Let's get cleaning then!"

While his energy wasn't completely restored, he wasn't feeling as sluggish as before and at the very least, his hunger pangs were under control. They began in earnest. Auden grabbed several plastic bags and handed some to Chi-Chi. They'd be throwing out quite a bit of broken things. If his apartment was sparsely decorated before, it would be more like a prison cell now complete with bare walls and subpar furniture. As they were cleaning, he couldn't quite understand why she'd felt the need to do all this. It was amazing that she was now enthusiastically helping him get rid of the mess. He couldn't help but compare her to a particularly rambunctious child who was bored and wanted to get a rise out of their parents. If he kept her preoccupied, perhaps he could avoid this in the future. That would be difficult to do if he wanted to be left alone at his computer. Speaking of that, he was missing his desktop already, but for now he'd have to focus on the task at hand.

They made astonishing good time with the task. The kitchen ended up being the worst of it and they both saved it for last. After the vacuuming, the sweeping, the mopping, and the wiping down with strong cleaning solutions, the place at least smelled immaculate by the end of two hours. It still looked rundown, giving him unbidden flashbacks to his old childhood home. There was nothing to do for the holes in the walls, torn carpet, broken cupboards and other appliances and furniture. This was the best they could do for now. The rest, was a project for later or more likely, he'd simply replace everything else later.

"So now are we gonna' go to the park? We gotta' keep up with your training."

"Exercising," he corrected.

"Right, of course," she said with an overly pleasant smile.

"Since you've been so cooperative and we've made such good time, then I suppose we can squeeze that in today, but let's not go overboard. You have an appointment to keep."

"Don't worry," she said dismissively as she headed for the door.

He had to keep her preoccupied. This was the perfect way to do it. A thought came to him as he unlocked the door. He hadn't told her about Aster. He wondered suddenly if she would even care if he brought it up. Maybe he'd mention something later, after the appointment. It was like living in a different world while dealing with Chi-Chi. Not that it hadn't been like that before, but now that feeling was more pronounced. As if she was some sort of distraction or ward against anything bad happening in his life, when she was around, he felt more at ease. He'd woken up barely able to stop crying and now he was happily going to some park just to get in a little exercise. He was sure as soon as he sat back down at that computer, his mind would be one-track again and he'd feel his anguish building up right where he'd left off before. His priorities were all over the place.

Once at the usual park, they walked briskly down the nearby trail. He thought they were going to the area near the pond and bench, but they passed it altogether. He simply allowed her to take the lead. Maybe she had something better in mind. She stopped directly at the beginning of a different trail that Auden knew to be a very winding path through the entire park. He was a little worried as to what she intended.

"Alright, Auden," Chi-Chi said looking back at him. "Try to keep up!"

She barely finished her sentence and she was running at breakneck speed. He couldn't get a word in edgewise as he was forced to run if he even hoped to voice his objection. He knew he wouldn't make it far, but he couldn't let Chi-Chi get away! He was her chaperone. Vegeta had entrusted her care with him. He had to keep pace!

His legs pumped much harder than they'd ever had in many, many years. He could see her in the distance somewhat close by, but she was getting further. The more winded he became, the further she became. He tried regulating his breathing, but his lungs were on fire after only a minute and he still didn't have the proper shoes on for these kinds of activities. He had all the motivation in the world, but his body wouldn't go too much further. He had stop or else his chest would burst. He stumbled down to his knees in an attempt to catch his breath. His eyes were watering as he watched her form become less and less visible. He struggled to his feet again to jog a few more paces before giving up altogether and his body deciding to do so for him. He couldn't really even stand up or kneel. He wound up laying down on his back on the surrounding grass. Chi-Chi was well out of his reach.

She could be doing anything right now. She could be out in the streets right now causing more and more property damage in her wake and he was too pathetic to stop her. She was much more powerful than him and her stamina far outclassed his own. He'd known that already and today it was made glaringly obvious. He was spent from barely a minute of full-on running and his bleary eyes now gazed up at the sky hopelessly. When he tried to move, he couldn't so he simply stayed right there greedily sucking in the air. Eventually, when his breathing was more regulated, everything became quite peaceful around him. He didn't have enough energy left to do much else and it felt comfortable just lying down—his eyes were half closed, half opened, in a daze thinking of absolutely nothing in particular. It was the most tranquil he had felt in a while despite everything. Maybe this had been Chi-Chi's goal for today, but he doubted it seriously.

He wasn't sure how much time passed when he heard some gravel nearby being disturbed. Chi-Chi's face came into his view blocking out most of the sky.

"There you are. I lost you for a while and I was worried. I went around a few times, but I guess I missed you."

Auden just looked at her wearily, too exhausted to laugh at her impossible expectations.

She moved to sit down. "I got a little winded too after a while too, so I stopped and caught my breath. That was a pretty intense workout for me."

Auden still didn't think it was possible for her to get winded, but he simply took her at her word.

"Are you gonna' say something or am I talking to a corpse?"

His eyes had been on the sky, but for a brief moment he looked directly at her. "Hi."

She giggled at this. "You tried really hard. I can tell. I guess…this was kind of too much for you."

He didn't bother with verbally confirming with her.

"I know, why don't you use some of your ki to fuel your stamina."

"That doesn't sound possible," he managed to say though his speech was a bit slurred.

"Hmmm….I guess I've never tried before but it sounds doable, right? Try it out."

He sighed and closed his eyes as he felt for his now familiar ki. It wasn't as energetic as before and pulling it forth was more of a challenge this time. His ki presented itself in a way that seemed just as exhausted as he felt at the moment. It generally resembled lightening, now it lazily came off his skin in intermittent wisps and that was all. He felt warmer, he felt a bit more stronger physically, but there was no change in his stamina and, in fact, he was moments away from dropping off altogether—it felt like he was draining what energy he had left to stave off fainting right then and there. He stopped forcing his ki to appear after a few moments of no real improvement.

"There. Happy now?"

"You don't feel any better?"

"I don't think you can use ki to improve your own levels of fitness. Doesn't matter how much or how little I have—if I'm too tired, it's difficult to use."

"I guess that makes sense. Having a lot of ki is usually coupled with having a lot of energy as well, but ki must be different from your overall condition, maybe it works in tandem rather than on its own."

Auden took a chance and sat up which was more of a struggle than he realized—Chi-Chi helped him until he was in a good sitting position. "It's better to set out realistic goals, otherwise people tend to give up when it looks like they're not making much progress."

"Auden…"

"Let's not do this again. If you want to run around, that's fine. I'll just wait for you in the car." It took him a moment, but he climbed to his feet with a bit more ease. "C'mon, let's go—you've had your fill, right?" He glanced at his phone's time. "And I suppose we can make it back in time."

"Wait, Auden…"

He paused and turned to her as she hadn't started moving yet. He looked at her questioningly.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you like that."

Auden looked at her wearily, but turned away when he realized he had nothing nice to say back. He started making his way in the direction of the parking lot. Chi-Chi trailed him for some reason.

"Maybe pushing is the wrong word. It was more like being an asshole to someone I knew couldn't keep up and embarrassing them in something they were just doing because they're extremely polite and wanted to spend time with me and they're willing to compromise."

This time it was his turn to pause. He waited for her to reach him but she never did. Instead, he had to glance back at her. "Your apology is accepted. I suppose I see where you're coming from. It can be frustrating to have to babysit someone who's so far beneath you in skills. I would suggest finding someone else to train with if that's the case."

"No, that's not what I want at all! I want to help you improve. You're not beneath me! You're incredibly powerful—you just don't know it yet."

"Right, because you've become so taken with figuring out just how much ki I happen to possess. I'm not sure if that even matters at this point. I'm not sure if I even care. It's really more of a nuisance than anything else. I doubt you or Vegeta would be so invested if my ki was within normal range. I hate overexerting myself or being active in any way, but I realize it would be beneficial to my overall health and longevity if I at least put in some effort."

"I get it," she said quietly as she nodded to herself, but she didn't expound. She did, however, have on a determined expression and Auden didn't like what that could possibly mean.

Chi-Chi finally caught up to him as he slowly made his way back to the car. Every step was painful. He'd thought he'd gotten over his soreness from before, but now he felt as if he'd taken two steps back. He felt even more broken down. He decided to drive despite himself because he didn't trust the spontaneous Chi-Chi behind the wheel. At least he wasn't in danger of falling asleep anymore. As soon as he'd stopped desperately trying to pull forth his now allusive and tired ki, recovery from today's asinine activities occurred a bit more swiftly than he anticipated. Chi-Chi was presently gazing out the window deep in thought and that was just as well. He was a little frustrated with her, but he didn't imagine he'd be that way for long. It was already fading.

When they were climbing out the car, Auden noticed two well-dressed men doing the same a few parking spots away—he wondered if these were the people who would be seeing Chi-Chi. He waved at them and they waved back. Auden continued on his way with Chi-Chi in tow but stopped when they made it to the door. He waited to see where the men were headed.

"Oh, you must be Chi-Chi," one of the men said as they walked to the door they were standing.

She smiled and nodded at the man. "That would be me. Let's hurry up and get this appointment over with."

Auden was already opening the door so that they could all step into the freshly cleaned apartment. They introduced themselves as the doctors who Vegeta had told him about—Dr. Sevant and Dr. Lee.

"Do you have a private place for us to begin," Dr. Lee asked politely.

"You can use my room," Auden said as he led them down the hall.

Chi-Chi followed along as well, trailing behind all of them. Auden could tell that she wasn't all that enthused about any of this and he had a feeling she was cooperating only because he'd suggested that she should. He was glad that she listened to him somewhat otherwise this whole thing would have been a lot more difficult. His room was untouched by Chi-Chi's destructive ways, but it was also not very big. They'd have to make do with a bed. On second thought, he supposed he could grab chairs from the kitchen.

Dr. Sevant turned to speak with him as the other doctor led her to the bed to lie down. "We were told that the situation is dire, but she does seem a bit calmer than what was described—still, I trust Dr. Son's judgement on the matter. This is an emergency intervention. If medication is needed, we'll be able to obtain it quickly."

"Just to transparent, my place generally doesn't look so trashy. This morning, I woke up to a place that was far worse than what you see now." The man looked at him with eyes that suggested that he had his full attention. "She seems calm now, but left on her own, she's liable to start ripping things apart and I'm afraid that this destructive need doesn't end with just inanimate object—it just so happened that that was all she had within her grasp."

"And what about you, sir? Do you feel safe around her? You've been in close vicinity to her for some time now."

"I don't feel as if my life is in danger when I'm around her, but she's admitted to me that she takes pleasure in destruction of any kind."

"From your estimation, why do you think it is that she hasn't done anything to you directly?"

"I think it's likely because she trusts me or that she sees me as some means to an end—whatever that might be. It's not as if she hasn't tried to fight me before."

"I see," the man said thoughtfully.

"I'll bring some chairs in here for you two to use."

"That would be most appreciated."

As it was with obtaining help from others, it was better that they had as much information about the situation as necessary so that they could make an accurate diagnosis. Auden felt a little better with them around. He hadn't been entirely sure about it before, but it seemed like they really wanted to help and though people had some misgivings about mind altering medication, they did, in fact, work and he'd been on many of them. They all had side effects and it depended on the person how much it would affect them. It was a reasonable treatment to a pandemic which seemed to be changing the very DNA of the population in a permanent manner. He couldn't imagine anything which could actually reverse the affects of what had already been done.

Once he had the kitchen chairs situated in the room, he closed the door after a brief reassuring wave to Chi-Chi whose eyes looked a bit more concerned by the time he left. She was preoccupied now; he could return to his obsession on the computer. He was all too happy to begin again and this time he went down the endlessly looping trail that was Malachi's life. There was much more data to trudge through since he was such a high-profile individual and once again he seemed associated with a number of shady characters almost on par with CC's not so great habits. He continued indefinitely from there adding more and more to his document which organized relevant information and possible new leads.

He heard the door to his place open and close a few times as one doctor would leave and return—they would say why they were leaving, but Auden wasn't paying attention. They seemed to know what they were doing so he left them to their work. It wasn't until they announced that their visit had come to an end that he acknowledged them a little with a brief nod and thanks. Chi-Chi was resting in the bedroom and she should feel much better afterwards, and they would be back with a follow-up in a week's time. They exchanged numbers as well so that they could speak directly to him rather than just to Gohan who did not currently have Chi-Chi in his care.

"Mr. Tyga, you've done an excellent job taking care of her. I wasn't too keen about having her in handcuffs. Surely, there must be a more civil way of going about things, especially if we're trying to establish some level of trust," Mr. Sevant said standing near the door a few steps away.

Auden paused from his work though it was difficult tearing his eyes from the screen. "Thank you, but I can't take all the credit—it was her decision as well to agree to work with me. It was mutual effort."

"It certainly is. I'm relieved we were able to make some headway today. Anyways, Mr. Tyga, have a good evening and we'll see you next week."

"Likewise."

That was that. Now he could focus a bit more knowing she was alright. After they left, he went to check on her and found that she was indeed resting in the bed. She seemed peaceful and he didn't see a need to disturb her. Maybe she'd be a new woman in the morning or maybe he'd have to deal with an even worse apartment. He was hoping for the former. He returned to his computer and continued where he left off.

---

Auden was no longer keeping up with time. He had no idea what was happening around him. He did, however, know everything that he'd wanted to learn since he began his painstaking investigation. He knew where Jensen was likely located. He knew who was likely behind this pandemic, their motivations and how it all had to do with Malachi. Reduced to the most simplified explanation—it was the very human tendency of obsession which had ended up dooming the entire population to a pandemic that would be difficult to recover from if at all. Already, he'd seen news articles about new research that was being done in the wake of widespread realization that they were dealing with a global disease along with widespread panic. It was already being connected to a massive uptick in miscarriages, stillborn, and fatal pregnancies as well as a whole host of other side effects. At the very least, these things were being addressed rather than swept under the rug so that the suffering could be lessened. So far, no one had angrily called him about letting the cat out of the bag, maybe they finally understood that this was necessary and that more doctors doing research would always be better than relying on one or two people. More data was always better especially if it was collected carefully and accurately. Having a better picture of who was infected and who was going through changes and how much variations symptoms could take were all valuable information that was very much needed to combat all this.

It was about self-preservation as well. In the back of his mind, he was worried about himself. He'd just been able to ease off of a good number of medications he used to take. Now it seemed he would be right back where he started once the changes occurred within him. He hoped he'd never have to experience it, but it was a silly notion. It would happen one way or the other, but hopefully not before he could get his hands on the person who'd put events in motion that would end up taking his daughter's life. After that, he didn't care what happened to him.

He noticed, before he tapped on his cellphone screen to contact Vegeta, the sound of cooking in the distance. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion wondering who that could be in the kitchen. It had to be Chi-Chi, but he didn't remember her getting up today. He walked cautiously over to the entrance of the room where all the noise was coming from and found her chopping away at onions. He didn't interrupt her until she was finished with the knife as he didn't want to surprise her during such a precarious activity, but to his surprise, she turned to him.

"Oh, Auden! You finally managed to pull yourself away from that awful computer!" She set the knife down and walked over to him.

"Awful?"

"It was like talking to a brick wall. You were very tunnel vision, nevermind the world outside of a computer screen. Without me, you'd just be a slave to bright screens. Anyways, this morning was crazy. I woke up in your bed and I had no idea how I got there honestly. I was actually pretty scared, and it took me a while to even leave the room. I looked around and found you at the computer. This place looks terrible too. I'm still not sure whether this is real or not. I don't know why the furniture looks a thousand years older or the holes in the wall or why certain things are missing. The kitchen was bare, so I went shopping and bought a few things which I'm cooking right now. But now that you're back in the world of the living—maybe you can explain why it's like this and why I'm here. I could have sworn I was back in Satan City!"

"Wait, you did all that and I didn't notice?"

"Yeah, your little love affair with technology is really getting out of hand."

"I…was researching something very important. I'm done at the moment. First, I have to ask you—how are you feeling?"

"I feel fine," she said looking at him confused. "Well, I guess, not as bad as I was feeling when I went back home. I was fine when I went there and then Gohan was running his tests and then it was downhill from there. I was having these awful headaches and this fever that wouldn't go away making me dizzy."

"That sounds terrible. I'm glad you're feeling better and more like yourself. You were under the weather for a time and then I visited you."

"You did? That part I don't remember. Maybe I was asleep."

"No," he said shaking his head. "You were wide awake. You knew I was there and called my name. Bulma told me that you were asking for me."

The confusion never left her face, and it was beginning to slowly and painfully break his heart.

"Did something happen?"

"You…" he began, "became quite violent. Gohan would be able to fill in the details better than me. When I arrived, you started to attack me and we got into a fight. It was broken up soon after. Don't worry, we all knew you weren't of your right mind and I'm fine," he said as her expression became concerned. "Gohan was able to bring the situation back under control. At some point, I decided it would be better if you were here instead of over there so I took it upon myself to drive you back—at the time, you were onboard with that decision and came with me of your own accord. That's why you're here right now. A couple doctors came and evaluated you and gave you medication that apparently was able to stabilize you with the added side effect of forgetting the past events since the change occurred."

"So that medication on the nightstand—that was really for me. I took those beforehand."

"Exactly."

"Still this is a lot to swallow. Hearing it from you, well, I guess you have no reason to be lying about that. I'll certainly have to speak to Gohan about all this."

"Please do—I'm sure he'll give you a fuller picture."

"Also, there's something that's been bothering me since I knew you were here. Well, I guess I just want to apologize for taking your car like that."

"I was never upset about it. I'm sure you had a good reason for doing so. I have it back already."

"Yeah, I know. I saw it in the parking lot. A lot really happened between what I remember and now apparently. Still, I'm sorry. That night, you had said something to me, and it didn't sit well with me. That's why I had to leave in such a hurry."

"It's alright, we can discuss that sort of thing later. I have a few things I need to take—

"No, enough time has passed, and I want to get this off my chest."

Even though he knew that his heart wasn't actually being torn apart—it still felt like it and it was still painful, but he was quite good at hiding his emotions so he simply stood there waiting for the guillotine to drop. After the blood drained from the ensuing gaping wound, the pain would subside eventually, right? Nothing good was going to be said. Falling in love? That was too soon, too fast. No one did that so easily. No one except for him who didn't require much for that to happen. Aster knew that all to well and she always warned him against it. She always told him how ridiculous he was being and that he was never thinking things through when it came to those matters.

"Of course," he said, "Whatever you need to say, I'm always here to listen."

She took a deep breath and then began. "I already fell in love a long time ago with someone I told you about from the very beginning. Just because Goku isn't here, doesn't mean I love him even less. In fact, the opposite is true and I know he'll be back someday eventually. He always comes back. I know you said it's possible to fall in love with more than one person, but that's just not the case for me. I can't imagine doing it. You've been nice to me though. I appreciate your affection, your honesty, and you've encouraged me to be a better person. I appreciate all of that, but I would really like it if we were just friends. That's something I really need right now. What we have—I don't want it to end because I think this is the best I've felt in a long time. Getting out of the house, seeing things other the same places, getting to experience someone so far outside of who I usually spend time with—it's been very healing. I'm sorry if I led you on in anyway. I could say that I love you as well, but as a friend."

"I…understand," he forced himself say. He could feel the tears coming, but he was successful at staving them off.

"Really?" she asked with suspicion in her tone. "It certainly sounded different when you were talking to me last night—or whatever night that was. I know you said it casually, but we both know what that meant and who knows how long you've been feeling that way about me. I hope it wasn't long."

"I do understand," he started again. "It's not like you were ever hiding anything. You told me about this Goku from the very beginning. I'll simply have to make do with just being friends. I knew there was always a good chance that it would end up like this and I'm just glad we can be honest about that."

"Auden," she said with crossed arms. "How naïve do you think I am? It's not that easy to just turn off your emotions once they're there. I know that better than anyone."

"It doesn't matter, right?"

"What?" she asked confused.

"What I feel doesn't matter. That's what all of this means, right?"

"No, Auden, that's not it at all. We just feel a little different about things."

"Since we're being candid at this point, I'll just be blunt and tell you that actually I don't understand how you could still be in love with someone who's made himself completely unavailable to you. What sort of relationship could there be when there isn't even any communication? And I still love you even if it is unreciprocated. Since that time you decided to spend the night here with me, that has always been the case and, yes, I know that sounds silly. I don't know when that would ever change. But I promise you, I will always respect your boundaries the same way you've always done for me."

"Auden—you're right. I don't know why I'm still devoted to him, but I am and I can't seem to change that and it would hurt more if I pretended as if that wasn't the case. And I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't want any of that to happen. I didn't want to lead you on, but I ended up doing it anyway. Your feelings do matter to me. They will always matter to me."

"Alright, Chi-Chi," he said with a sigh. "I really must go. I have some things to take care of."

"What things?"

"Things."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but then let the matter rest. "I've made a lot of food for us and I have a feeling you haven't eaten anything all day—it's not good working on an empty stomach!"

"I'll get to that later," he said making his way now to the door. "Just put it in the refrigerator."

She tsked at this. "Ugh! You and your refrigerated food. It's way better fresh, you know. You can't be in that much of a rush. When will you be back? Maybe I'll have it warm for you by that time."

"I don't know."

"You're acting strange all of a sudden," she said in a more serious tone.

He glanced back at her. "Well, maybe you don't know me as well you think. I'll be back at some point. Please don't waste the food."

He left it at that even as she protested. He couldn't take any more of her at the moment. He needed some space and he was sure that she needed some as well. Surely she wasn't expecting to have some pleasant meal at home after all of that. He needed some time to accept where their relationship was now. In the meantime, he couldn't really feel his heart anymore—all the blood must have drained out by now. It was the perfect state to be in as he thought about the ways he would take out his anger on the asshole who was behind everything. Of course, he hadn't acted alone, but he was the ringleader. The others would be taken care of too in far crueler ways. If anything, the ringleader was getting off easy. His accomplishes would have to suffer. All he needed to do was buy some zip ties and he could put his shoddily made plan into action. First, he would call Vegeta and tell him about everything he'd found out as promised. Vegeta would likely take care of getting Jensen back on his own. In the meantime, he'd have other things to attend to.

---

SierraLarson: . The part about describing Aster's appearance? That was definitely influenced by your review and the fact that I really haven't described her appearance since I first introduced her in the previous story. Other stuff was a coincidence, I was planning on talking about the age. And about the phone, I didn't mention him grabbing it again, but he did. Auden without his phone? That'll be the day! Lol.