(A/N: I forgot to put this at the end of the last chapter, so the severing of the life-link between Android 17 and Android 18 by Universe 4's High Kai will be covered in the first paragraph of this chapter).
Just after Android 17 and Android 18 was revived, and after everybody had embraced them, the High Kai approached.
"Who are you?" Android 17 asked, to which High Kai replied "I'm the High Kai of Universe 4. I've got the power to sever the life-link between two mortals without killing either of them"
"Alright" Android 18 replied. High Kai nodded, then tapped both Android 17 and Android 18 on the head with his staff. A green aura appeared around them. A white thread appeared between them, and was severed, and destroyed.
"Thanks" both Android 17 and Android 18 said. High Kai nodded, then said "Now if one of you dies, you won't take the other with you. We don't want another Tournament of Power to happen again now, do we"
"No" both Android 17 and Android 18 said. Then, both of them joined the celebrations. High Kai turned to face Baija, Ganos, and Syanola, and said: "So, are we heading back to Universe 4?"
"Sure" Ganos replied. Cus turned to face Baija, and said "Thanks"
"No worries sis" Cus replied, The four of them then depart.
The day after the return of Android 17 and Android 18, Android 17 and Android 18 decided to head to Kami Lookout, because they wanted to see Cus.
"Android 17, Android 18, what are you doing here?" Dende asked, to which Android 17 replied "I wanted to talk to Cus"
"Alright, I'll go and get her" Dende said, and he ran inside. After a couple of minutes, Dende returned, and both Cus and Piccolo followed.
"Ah, hey Piccolo. You're here too" Android 17 said, to which Piccolo replied "I live here"
"Oh, right" Android 17 replied. Cus then asked, "What are you two doing here?"
"Well, firstly, I wanted to ask you, is it true that, in Angel years, you're the same age as Marron, and a year younger than Jasper?" Android 17 asked, to which Cus replied "Yes, I'm only 10 years old in Angel years"
"OK, I just had to confirm" Android 17 replied. Android 18 then added "I want to really thank you for spending the day with Marron, she enjoyed it"
"And I also want to thank you for spending the day with Jasper, he really enjoyed himself" Android 17 added, to which Cus replied "No problem. Jasper thinks I'm really cute"
"He does? Well, to be fair, you are cute" Piccolo replied, smiling, which made Cus blush.
"If you want to spend another day with them, then just organise it with Carnelia and myself, and Android 18 if Marron wants to join" Android 17 said, then Android 18 added "Marron would love that"
"I will" Cus replied. Android 17 and Android 18 then departed.
While Cus had been in Universe 7, her and Piccolo had spent quite a bit of time babysitting Pan. One thing that Cus was worried about, was that Pan was having quite a lot of nightmares that required either her or Piccolo to calm her down and get her back off to sleep.
After one particularly rough night with that, when Pan had woken twice that night after nightmares, Cus decided to consult Videl about what to do.
During the morning, she was sitting with Pan in the lounge room. When Videl entered the room, she asked "There you are Pan"
"Uh, Videl, I want to ask you something" Cus said. Videl turned to face Cus, and asked: "What is it?"
"I've noticed that nearly every time Piccolo and I babysit Pan, she's waking up during the night due to nightmares" Cus replied. She then added, "Does Pan have regular nightmares even when we're not here?"
"I don't know, I'm afraid" Videl replied. Pan, however, said "Mom, I'm having nightmares all the time"
"What? Pan, why haven't you told us this?" Videl asked, to which Pan replied "Because I didn't want you to chastise me for not sleeping properly"
"Pan. Is that why you're not getting enough sleep?" Videl asked, to which Pan nodded. Cus then looked at Videl, and asked: "Is there anything we can do?"
"How about a dreamcatcher?" Piccolo asked, who had just arrived at the entrance to the lounge room.
"A dreamcatcher?" Videl asked, to which Piccolo replied "Yeah"
"Uh, OK, I guess" Videl replied. Cus then gave Pan to Videl, then said: "How about we go and get a Dreamcatcher?"
"Alright" Piccolo replied. They then stood up, Videl said "Thanks for babysitting Pan Piccolo and Cus"
"No worries" Piccolo and Cus both said at the same time. They then departed.
On the way to the store, Pan asked: "Piccolo, what is a Dreamcatcher?"
"It's an object in the shape of a spider web that supposedly wards off bad dreams" Piccolo replied. Cus looked puzzlingly at Piccolo, and asked "Supposedly?"
"I don't know if it actually works. It's apparently helped some people Goten for instance, but it didn't work for others, Trunks for instance. It, sort of worked for Gohan, but that's about it" Piccolo replied. Cus then smiled, and said "Well, I'll make sure it works for Pan"
A few minutes later, they arrive at the store where Dreamcatchers are sold.
"Hello, what can I do for you today?" one of the assistants said as they entered. Cus turned to face her and said "We're looking for a dreamcatcher"
"A dreamcatcher? How old is the person you're buying it for? And what is the person's gender?" the assistant asked.
"Two-year-old girl" Cus replied. The assistant nodded, then guided them to where a bunch of dreamcatchers was hanging. The assistant then grabbed a small, black dreamcatcher, shaped like a white spider web, with white feathers and red orbs on it.
"Here you go" the assistant said. They went to the checkout, and Piccolo paid for it. They then departed.
As they departed, Cus activated one of her powers, and actually used her Angel magic to reduce the incidence of nightmares for Pan.
When they returned, Cus showed the dreamcatcher to Videl. Videl smiled, then said "Nice, hopefully, Pan will sleep better"
"Hopefully. I've also added a bit of Angel magic to it, so that it'll help even more with Pan's nightmares" Cus replied. Over the next few minutes, they installed the dreamcatcher above Pan's bed.
Over the next few months, Pan only had one nightmare. And it wasn't even when Piccolo and Cus were babysitting her. Videl managed to calm her down quickly, and she slept fine afterward. Knowing this, Videl even let Pan sleep in a little longer than she normally would, to make up for the lost sleep Pan had,
Over the next four months, Cus continued to slowly recover. The restoration of Android 17 and Android 18 had helped speed along her recovery, and spending one day a month with Marron and Jasper, mostly as a ten-year-old playing with them, also helped.
For Cus, however, she had something else that she was struggling with. Her feeling for Piccolo. She wasn't sure if Piccolo shared her feelings, but there was a couple of small hints that he did. She also didn't know how to tell Piccolo how she feels.
Thankfully, Gowasu's tea time therapies were showing the steady progress that Cus was making, recovering from the events of the Tournament of Power. That being said, she really didn't want to do this much more.
"Gowasu, I'm sorry, but I don't want to do this anymore. I've recovered enough, but I feel like I need to break completely from Universe 10 in order to fully recover. Or at least, recover as much as I ever will"
"Is anything from Universe 10 triggering you?" Gowasu asked, puzzled. Cus nodded, then said "Sorry Gowasu, but, unfortunately, that is the state my mind is in at the moment"
"OK, I understand" Gowasu said, placing the tea back on his tray. Then, he briefly hugged Cus, and said "I guess this is farewell"
"Afraid so" Cus replied, hugging Gowasu back. Gowasu then departed, leaving Cus to return to Capsule Corp.
For Cus, she was very surprised when she realized that she had been in Universe 7 for eight months, and tomorrow, it was going to be Bulla's 1st Birthday, and she, for the first time in nearly a year, felt a sense of excitement, something that she had never felt until this point.
"So, do you want to attend Bulla's first birthday?" Piccolo asked, to which Cus replied "Of course I do"
"Alright" Piccolo said, smiling.
The following evening, Cus and Piccolo were both out the back of Capsule Corp, enjoying a major feast cooked up by Bulma with help from Chi Chi, Videl, Android 18 and Kale.
"This stuff looks great" Cus said, having only had a Yiros during her time on Earth, which she encountered a flavor explosion that she loved. All of the times previous, she didn't eat, because Piccolo only drinks water.
Cus ate through everything that was there, surprising everybody. She loved everything she tasted and even combined multiple different items to see how they would taste together.
"You must be hungry" Videl said from across the table. Cus looked up, swallowed, then said "I just want to try the cuisine Earth has. I've heard about some of it from Whis, and it has lived up to what he said"
"That's nice to hear" Bulma replied, smiling.
After dinner, but before cake, Shin, the Supreme Kai of Universe 7, walked up to her.
"Hello Cus, I've finally managed to see you" Shin said. Cus turned to face him, then, unexpectedly, Shin hugged her.
"Shin" Cus said, returning the embrace. After they broke apart, Shin said "You've made an enormous amount of progress since I heard about what was going on with you while you were in Universe 10"
"I know, I must give big thanks to everyone here in Universe 7 for that" Cus replied. About a minute later, Bulma stood up, banged her glass, and, when everybody turned to face her, she said "Before I go and get the cake for Bulla, I want to say something. Cus, I want to say that you have come an incredibly long way since you arrived here. So, raise your glasses to Cus"
"Cus" everybody said, making Cus happy and her face went as red as a tomato. She then said "Thanks to everybody here, for helping me recover from the extreme trauma of the Tournament of Power. I really want to thanks Piccolo, Videl, and both Marron and Jasper for helping me to recover"
"No worries Cus" Piccolo, Videl, Marron, and Jasper said. The rest of the party went buy awesomely, and the cake that Bulma created for Bulla was a taste explosion. She didn't expect that the cake would taste so good, and she wound up having multiple pieces of cake.
"You'd want to be careful with how much you eat" Piccolo said, to which Cus replied "Not really, I can burn it off easily. Since tonight is a night I'm going to be in stasis, but, even though my body is basically comatose, my mind is very active, so all of the energy I've consumed now will be burned during the time I'm in stasis"
"Oh, interesting" Piccolo replied.
After everybody had departed at the end of the party, Piccolo and Cus returned to Kami Lookout. Piccolo held Cus in the way he normally did, placing one hand on her waist, while placing his other arm vertically on her back, and cupping her head in his hand, and Cus then placed herself in stasis. She knew that it would only be a couple of weeks before she could get off them. After the first few months, she didn't like spending time in stasis too much. That being said, she did like being held like this by Piccolo, as it was a protective hold, and she felt safe and secure while Piccolo was holding her like that, despite Piccolo being infinitely weaker than Cus.
"Piccolo is my dreamcatcher. Well, more like a mind focuser" Cus thought to herself as she lied in stasis.