Disclaimer: Chapter 2.

Even though my college schedule is more lenient on me this semester than last, they still hold above fanfiction. Oh well. Less time less chapters.

Chi-chi couldn't get a hold of Piccolo immediately; he ran off to get something that he left "in a hotel". Apparently it was very important to him since he refused to leave without it.

He came back with a collection of alcohol and smoking blends in one hand and a dampening bag in the other, then asked Arufuredo if they had something portable to preserve organic matter.

"Yes, we do… why?"

"Could I perhaps borrow it for the time being? I have something that I've been trying to keep from rotting but its getting harder and harder to maintain it…"

"Very well," Arufuredo left briefly and came back with a silver, soft-edge box. "What is it that you want to preserve?"

Piccolo put down the drugs and reached into the bag, pulling out a severed, human head. This made everyone jump, and Bulma almost screamed and covered her mouth.

"I-I see…" Arufuredo made some adjustments on the box's setting and opened it.

Piccolo placed the girl's head in the box and shut it, and then taking took it into his hands, said, "I know that it seems odd, but it might hold some more clues on how to get rid of this mania."

Chi-chi strained to remember the name of the girls, and it came to her tongue before it came to her brain. "Uwaki!"

He blinked, hesitating before he turned to her. "What did you say?"

"That's Keshou Uwaki, isn't it?" I knew that he hated her, but I never imagined… She came forward to him and showed him the picture of him and his co-workers. "You told me about them, remember?"

"Keshou Uwaki? Oh my God…" Bulma held her head. "You're kidding. Piccolo killed Taifu's daughter?"

"Uwaki…" He said, looking at the picture. "That is her… I remember now…" He paused a moment, then snickered. "I killed both her and Shuran, didn't I?"

"Err…" Chi-chi retreated a few steps. Him too? Did he keep his head or just Uwaki's?

"Can we get on the ship now?!" Arufuredo groaned, "We already know where Atsarute went, and it will only take us 6 hours to get there. Lets get on and discuss the decapitated head on the way…"

.----------------------.

The ship had 10 living quarters, which was more than they needed. Its size came from the fact that it was equipped with 3 full labs, a sickbay, and, in the main "observation" room, a large chamber behind a pane of glass for a living specimen.

Piccolo had immediately set away his things and announced that he would speak nothing more about it. But Chi-chi wouldn't leave him alone, and insisted on talking to him about a girl in the picture.

"I said that I wanted no more conversation on that wench's head!"

"I'm not talking about Uwaki!" She huffed, "I'm talking about Jin!"

"Jin?" He seemed rather stunned, and he sat down on the couch in the observation room. She came up beside him and showed him the picture again.

"You remember her, right? Jin Uotsuka?" She leaned over and spoke a little more quietly. "I know that it's been a while, but I'm sure that you still have feelings for her."

"That's ridiculous!" Piccolo reared his teeth. If he hadn't have already gotten everyone's attention, he would have now.

"How about the queen? You're suspicious of her, right?"

"Damn right, I'm suspicious! How could someone who never met me before know so much about me? And say that she wants to marry me?"

"Maybe if she's Jin, she could."

He looked on the ground. "…She can't possibly be Jin."

"Why not? Because she's decayed, she cannot be Jin? You know why that's happened. You know why she doesn't look young or like a Human. You knew that she was a warrior, and that she probably belonged to a high family."

"But… she can't be… Jin was…" He paused and breathed for a moment. "Jin would never marry me, for one."

"Just because you were weaker at the time. You've gotten much stronger since then!"

"I have to be stronger than her. I know that I will never surpass her."

"Piccolo!"

"Is the Namek afraid of telling everyone else his little secret?" Vegita scoffed.

Goku merely scratched his head as he came out of his room. "Chi-Chi… I looked in that suitcase and all I found were men's clothes and some old newspaper articles. Who's is it?"

"This isn't the time, Goku." Chi-chi knew that this situation was giving her more trouble than she wanted, and Piccolo, already ready to fly off the handle, was getting more and more agitated. She turned back to him. "What makes you so self-deprecating, anyway? Why wouldn't she want to be with you?"

"Look, she didn't like Ma Jr. in the tournament. She preferred your husband because he was stronger. Do you honestly think that she'd accept me? She's more likely to accept him!"

"That was a long time ago, Piccolo."

"So was when we met, and worked together, and lived together. I walk into this universe, and it's not half a year before she realizes that I'm here? Does that sound at all plausible to you?"

"She seems to be able to always know where you are and your strength. Maybe she found you as soon as you came in and remembered you immediately?"

"So? It still doesn't explain why she…" He growled in frustration. "Look. I'll take care of it, whether she's Jin or not. I'm going to my room." He pushed everyone out of his way, including the still-chuckling Vegita.

Then the Saiya-jin prince exploded in laughter.

"Vegita!" Bulma scowled at her husband. "Really, you've done nothing since we got here except ridicule and argue. Don't you have training to do?"

"Training requires a place to train. Have the past few places had a training area?"

"It doesn't mean that you can't go do something else."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know… read a book, watch television…"

"What television? I never saw a television on these ships."

She rolled her eyes and took out a couple capsules. "This one has a television, and this one has several recordings of movies and shows that you could watch on it." She threw them to him. "Now, go off to our room and watch something. The Sopranos are in there, too, so there's definitely something for you to watch."

Vegita grumbled a little since he lost another argument to his mate, but didn't really complain since he finally had something to do. This was about the moment when Gohan and Videl excused themselves into Gohan's room, earning a nagging "Keep your door open, Gohan!" from his mother, bringing a furious blush to both of their faces.

.----------------------.

Upon landing on the planet (a cold, backwater place of mostly swamp called Palus VI) there was no hesitation before they began looking for the ship. They tracked it down quickly, and Arufuredo and Bulma went into the computers and accessed the files.

Videl didn't understand why they didn't just go straight for Atsarute. "Why are you looking through the computers, anyway?"

"It's important to see if the video feed of this vessel recorded and is intact for study. We might have a better chance of trapping and containing the walking fiend if we know how it acts."

"I got something!" Bulma shouted as the screen blinked on. A high-angled video of Atsarute taking over the ship commenced, showing how it pulled and kicked out everyone from the ship (which was a simple thing with only a main chamber). It managed to use the controls to shut the door, lift off, and set the course. However, it did these actions very slowly, and progressively retarded until it typed in the last digits it needed and collapsed on the floor. Bulma fast-forwarded through until it woke up not an hour before the ship landed. It got up, shook its head a bit, and simply left the craft when it touched ground.

"This seems to suggest," Arufuredo began, "that it cannot perform actions that require great mental ability without exhausting itself. We might be able to use this to our advantage. For instance, it gets out of our grasp because we don't think that it can possibly have the mental capacity to go against us (it seems to be regaining its former intellect somehow).

Bulma nodded. "I see. We might be able to keep it contained by such complex methods that it tires itself out before it could escape."

"Precisely."

Piccolo walked absentmindedly towards a different direction, obviously somewhat agitated and wishing to continue searching for it immediately. Anything to get that constant babble in his head to stop. The scientists eventually finished up their observations of the ship.

Piccolo lead them in the direction that he was compelled to go through thick vines and cold wetland that went past the shins often. Everyone trudged through until a call went through the foliage.

"Atsarute-sama!"

"What was that?" Videl pulled closer to Gohan.

"Atsarute-sama!" A different voice called.

"Great." Arufuredo shook his head. "They know that their general is here. If they find us…"

"Let's just lie low," Vegita said with a scowl on his face, as if he didn't like suggesting such a cowardly action.

They ducked behind rocks into the water, making some of the women squirm in their great discomfort of having cold swamp-water cover more than half their bodies and soaking into their clothes. Several soldiers of another uniform approached, looking around to every corner of the overhanging branches.

"Atsarute-sama! Atsarute-sama!" They all called again, trying to find their general. One turned to the largest man in the center.

"Are you certain that Atsarute-sama is here?"

"I recognized the scent. Who else could it be? My nose is infallible."

"But it would be hard to find a scent again in swamp, wouldn't it?"

"Which is precisely why we're having trouble." He turned and gestured to go in a different direction, briefly looking back, sniffing the air, and then shrugging before he went back into the mossy wood.

You'll have to pardon me if I start falling back into Star Trek lingo. I managed to make one of my essential classes ST based, and I used to be a major trekkie when I was a kid (how bad I was: I knew how the warp drives worked when I was about 9).