I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death.

Bubun: Nana

Silence, for a moment, a moment to take in what had happened, a moment to realize that it wasn't over.

The silence couldn't last.

Trunks' scream ripped through the dreamscape. Goten jumped, instinctively backing away from Trunks.

Confusion erupted between all of them. Nin began to scream death threats at Kokoro, Goku, Gohan and Goten were all trying to hold Trunks down, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Vensu got back on her feet, Sederi helping her up. Vegeta and Piccolo stood watching on.

"What is going on?" Sederi asked coldly.

Vensu wanted to glare at him, wanted to yell at him that this wasn't the time to act pompous and superior to everyone else around him. Instead she pulled her arm away from him and stood on her own.

"That woman did something to him," Vensu said, to all of them, not just Sederi.

"What did she do to him?" Kokoro asked, his voice was quiet but everyone heard it. Even Trunks seemed to be listening, as he suddenly stopped screaming.

The three Sons around him let him go, backing up a little, trying to hear what Vensu had to say.

"There… there was a light, it was like she punched him with light…" Vensu wiped the blood from her mouth.

Trunks raised his head and stared at Kokoro, fear and confusion in his eyes.

"You were there… when Hitomi died…"

Goten wasn't sure what passed through Kokoro's mind at that moment, but a look of pure anger seemed to flare through his eyes and he felt his heart go cold.

Suddenly Kokoro ran forward and before anyone could figure out what he was doing Kokoro had grabbed Trunks by the collar and pulled him through…

For a moment it seemed there was a wall in the dreamscape and that Kokoro had ran through it, dragging Trunks behind, but when Goku reached out there was no wall, his hand simply extended into the white void.

For another moment there was silence.

"You asshole Kokoro! Don't you leave me here with these assholes!" Nin screamed, running forward, but Kokoro was long gone.

The world here was not so bright. There was no white here.

Trunks looked up and saw water above him. Water that lay on bed of blue and purple, green and yellow. Drips of water fell up towards it, and they also fell down.

"This is where dreams are born…"

Kokoro's voice seemed to melt in the air.

He realized that he was also lying in water. Water on the floor. Water on the ceiling. Gravity reaching its hand out to both, drops of water falling up and down…

"And this is where dreams die."

Trunks turned his head and saw Kokoro standing above him, the water seemed to avoid him.

"I'm sorry I dragged you here," he looked down at him, "but I didn't know what you were going to say."

Trunks looked like he was out of breath, he said nothing, just laid there panting.

"I can't imagine what it must feel like, to suddenly remember everything," he kneeled down. "A hundred lifetimes of memory coursing through your brain. Are you all right?"

"Who's Hitomi and why do I know who she is?"

Kokoro smiled. "My, you are confused. C'mon, sit up."

He grabbed Trunks and pulled him up into a sitting position.

"I've been here before," Trunks whispered, looking around in wonderment. He couldn't remember being there before.

"Yes, I'm sure you have," Kokoro sat beside him and the two looked at each other for what felt life ages. "Ask away. I need you in a slightly saner and calmer state."

"Hitomi."

It wasn't a question, but Kokoro answered as though it were.

"She's my daughter… she died a year ago…"

"Wasn't that her... before?"

"No, she's Manako. Remember her?"

He shook his head. "Yes…" He looked at Kokoro, an accusation in his eyes. "She's your wife… She's Hitomi's mother… She killed Bulma."

"Now that's not exactly true…"

"I saw it," Trunks want to stand up, but Kokoro pulled him back down.

"What you saw never happened."

Trunks shook his head, digging his face into his hands. He screamed as loud as he could, the frustration seeking away.

"I can remember so many faces… but I don't know who they are!"

Kokoro sighed. "Ok, let's try to start at the beginning."

"Where did they go!"

"Stop yelling at me!"

Nin and Vegeta glared at each other, each one ready to pounce, everyone else ready to jump in at any moment.

"You're holding out on things woman, now tell me where they went!"

"If I knew where they went I would have followed them you short, bitter, old man!"

Goku couldn't help but smile.

Vegeta turned his attention to Goku. "Does this really look like the time to smile!"

"Calm down Vegeta," Goku's smiled slowly fell.

"Fighting amongst ourselves won't do any good. We still have that woman to worry about!" Gohan remind all of them.

"From the looks of it, we don't stand a chance against her," Piccolo said, his face grim. "I don't know why Kokoro even asked for our help."

Nin seemed to tense up.

"What? What aren't you telling us?" Sederi asked, stepping towards Nin.

"Sederi…" Vensu started to protest, and as usual she was ignored.

"I know there had to be another reason we were asked to come here," Vegeta said, ice in his voice.

"Hey, leave her alone," Goten stepped forward, but Vegeta stopped him with a glare.

"Start talking."

"I don't know what you're-"

"TELL US NOW!"

"Look, Kokoro's plan is just a mystery to me."

"No it isn't."

"He just asked me to come along and help, just like you."

"I am about to get very angry."

"Let me guess, I wouldn't like it when you're angry?"

"Okay, that's enough" Gohan stepped in between the two, pushing Vegeta away. "This isn't helping – at all! Especially seeing if it wasn't for her, that woman would still be here kicking our collective asses!"

"Yeah!" Nin was tempted to stick her tongue out in triumph, but decided against it after another glare from Vegeta.

"Fine, act this way all you want, but I know you're lying about something."

"My god you're an ass. Why does anyone put up with you?"

"So… it was all a dream?"

"No, what happened with Hitomi did happen… it was just erased from… well… everything." Kokoro finished explaining.

"Why would she do that?" Trunks asked. His mind felt calmer, but it still seemed like there was a fog over every memory. Lives unfinished, things half said. He could remember hunting antelope on an open plain with a bow as clearly as fighting Buu.

"Have you ever done or said something you wished you could take back?"

"Well… yeah, I guess…" Hundreds of things came to mind.

"Well, she could. She felt regret, and she acted on it."

"But I…" He hung his head, staring at his feet, emotions overwhelming him. "I can remember loving her."

"I bet you can remember hating her just as much in this life."

Trunks raised his head; his eyes were red, full of anger. "No… this is stronger than that. I think I really, really loved her…"

"You did. You two were really in love."

"And she's dead."

"She's dead."

"And she wouldn't even leave me one single memory."

"She left you a dream."

"She left me a nightmare!" Trunks wanted to start screaming again, but instead he continued to glare at Kokoro, the only one close enough for him to take his frustrations out on. "Cut up images running through my head and all I could make out from them was death!"

"Look, I can't justify her actions any better than you can!"

Trunks couldn't think of anything to shoot back, the outburst had taken him by surprise.

"Now you need to sort through these memories because Manako is going to come back and find your friends and she will kill them! Can I trust that you will at least be quiet about all of this?"

His friends… Their faces ran through his head. They seemed so close and yet so distant, like they could have been in a life he'd lived a thousand years ago… But there was something else, something dark…

"Goten… Goten's there."

"Yes, Goten's…" Kokoro trailed off. The look in Trunks' face said it all, a scared confusion. "Look, this is one of those memories you need to get in check."

"It's so confusion. So many good memories… and so many bad ones… I can't deal with this…" Trunks buried his head in his hands again, though this time he stayed silent.

"I swear everything will be just fine again, but I can't help you at all until we get out of this dreamscape."

"… You're going to take my memories away?"

"Yes."

Trunks looked up again. "Even my memories of Hitomi?"

Kokoro was silent for a long time. No words seemed to work to explain this to him properly. "It would be the only way to set things straight again."

Trunks didn't answer, instead he asked another question. "How are we going to kill… Manako?" He almost said Hitomi.

"You remember Nin?"

"Isn't she dead?"

"No, that didn't happen, remember?"

"Right… Hitomi erased that."

"Nin is a witch, a very good witch, and she's going to perform a spell that will…" He didn't want to say the word kill, not about Manako, not about the love of his life. "It will get rid of her. For good."

"Just a simple spell, then why didn't you do it before?"

"It's a little complicated. Something specific has to happen first."

"What has to happen?"

"Let's just go back, it will al make sense when it happens."

Trunks shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me."

"I can't."

"Then I'm going to tell all of them my memories!"

"What good would that do?"

"Hopefully none! And seeing you don't want me telling them so badly, then just tell me!"

"Trunks, you don't want to know!"

Kokoro thought Trunks was going to yell at him again, but Trunks answered very slowly and very calmly.

"Don't you dare tell me what I do or do not want to know. Who the hell are you people to decide our fates for us anyway?"

"You'll hate me."

"Kokoro, I don't even like you."

"For the spell to work…" Don't say it, for the love of Dende don't say it. "For it to work… Manako needs to kill someone."

(So apparently it takes LS over a year to write a fucking chapter! Well, actually it took me a couple of hours to write this… BUT over a year to get motivation to do it. After I wrote the last chapter I made an outline for the four remaining chapters, and of course have since lost said outline, but I knew what was going to happen in this chapter… and have the vaguest ideas of what will be happening in the next few. I have no idea if this is going to be 9 or 10 chapters. We'll see, shall we? Unless you're reading this after it's been posted, then you already know. Also, I retract my earlier statement about reading 'Yume Mi', read it, because if you haven't you MUST be confused. And the mystical third book in this trilogy? I really doubt that one's gonna happen…. Oh dear lord I'm tired. It's 3 a.m. and LS needs sleep! Tomorrow I should re-edit the last 6 chapters and post this. Happy Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza to all, and to all a good night!)