Solemn; that had to be the word that best described the mood on the ship.

From the moment Gohan had let the damning words flow from his mouth, every occupant had been in a stasis of numbness. To be more accurate though, the humans of the group protested the statement.

That changed dramatically when they heard the story.

From what they could gather, that huge, evil power Videl, Tien, and Sixteen had detected was coming from a saiyan, Broly. It was from Broly that the cause of Planet Vegeta's destruction had been revealed.

In short, a half mechanical tyrant had come to the planet seeking revenge. In response, Broly had obtained a great power but had ended up destroying the planet in the process. Now, while the saiyan had physically destroyed it, the cause that made the scenario possible was created by them.

Namely the battle with Frieza. How that alien had survived Gohan's last blast was beyond the Son boy, but he had; then headed for their home world to destroy it. Had the warrior been positive of the kill, things would've been a lot more different.

But no matter how much Videl could spin it in her head, there was no way she could persuade the boy to think that the whole matter wasn't his fault. Everyone makes mistakes, though most of those didn't result with floating debris. It would take awhile for her lover to put this whole matter behind him, that much she knew.

Unexpectedly though, it was Tien who released the somber mood from the group's mind. "Well, at least we know what point of time we have to change."

At that, Goten lit up. "Yeah, you're right! We can stop Frieza from arriving on Vegeta! We'd have a home again for sure!"

"But how are we gonna do that?" Trunks countered. "We don't know where that guy went after the battle on Namek. Then there's the fact of when it happened. We can't just go around guessing when it occurred."

"At least we know it happened in the last six months," Goten retorted. "That was when we left Namek, so we can at least transport ourselves back home around then and wait."

"That's a pretty good idea," Tien agreed. "We could even train ourselves for a few more months to make sure we're ready for him."

It was at that point that Gohan spoke up. "Don't forget, Broly mentioned that his father was with him at the time. It's quite possible we're going up against two Friezas then."

"So we should go back more than six months?"

That caused the saiyan to think. "We have to assume that if we did go back to six months ago, we wouldn't really have that much time to train. At least a month, maybe. But instead of waiting to go back in time, we should beef ourselves up on our way to the Time Milieu. That should help out our cause. Then there are those humans—"

"Humans?!" Videl and Tien exclaimed simultaneously. The reaction caught the Son boy off guard until he realized he hadn't mentioned that part.

"Oh, sorry about that. Apparently we have competition for the Time Milieu. Before Broly showed up, we ran into some old friends, namely Gero and company."

"That can't be right," Videl argued. "Me and Sixteen both saw you blow him into smithereens."

"Yeah, you did. However, someone had gotten their hands onto some designs for artificial bodies. The guys we saw down there were just like Sixteen."

Slowly, everyone's eyes shifted to the android, who had gone quite pale upon hearing the news. "That can't be…" he sputtered.

"Well it was," Gohan replied. "Now I want you to think real hard Sixteen. Who could possible have access to those kind of blueprints? I don't know Gero too well, but I'm pretty sure he would never let someone take credit for his own work."

The giant's eyes unfocused as he thought. Soon, something dawned on him as he muttered "Coten."

Gohan frowned. "Who?"

"I probably haven't told you this, but I have the others. Back when I was part of the Earth's government, I had a scientist unassociated with Gero make me my present body. At the time he was the only one I knew who had the resource to build one and I handed over the blueprints for the body to him willingly. It wasn't until later that I found out he was an associate with Dr. Wheelo."

"Who's this Dr. Wheelo? Gero mentioned him a couple times."

"He was a renowned scientist that had made his name through medical experimentation. Though he was brilliant, he was also insane, performing experiments that were considered crimes against humanity. Eventually, he disappeared, no one knowing what had become of him. His name disappeared soon after, though there were some followers that wouldn't let his name die. Coten was one of them, an assistant of his at one time."

Gohan's shoulders drooped. "And you asked him for help concerning your body."

"Unfortunately, that is correct. But that's all he did for me. Soon after the completion of the body, my main financer alerted me to a scientist that was sympathetic to our cause. He was the one who developed the chips that stored and transmitted my mind into this body. I stole the body Coten had made after that and hadn't heard from him since."

"Who was that scientist?" Tien suddenly asked. "I wasn't aware of too many people that stood against Gero and were still breathing."

At this Sixteen smiled. "His name was Dr. Briefs. A little kooky as people go, but quite brilliant."

"Well, we've got a trip on our hands," Gohan spoke up. "We're gonna need to be prepared for it, so it's about time I got some rest." And with that, the saiyan stood up out of his chair and headed for his room.

It had been two days since that incident and no one had brought it up since. Not a soul wanted to contemplate their whole role in the destruction of Vegeta, leaving them to figure out ways of preoccupying themselves.

Unfortunately, when you're in the middle of space, there's only so many things one can do. That was the position Goten found himself as he walked down one of the corridors.

Why was it that boredom was inevitable in this place? It was really getting to the young saiyan and he didn't like that. Never had he had a trip where something big wasn't going on and afterwards, they had to rest themselves for the next incident. So far though, there hadn't been anything of note to bother with. Hell, just stopping on a nearby planet would've been a nice change.

Suddenly, a door opened down the hall, Erasa appearing soon after. Well that was weird. Sometime during the Son boy's restlessness, he must've ended up around the bedroom branch of the ship…again…for the third time that day.

The sound of the saiyan's footsteps reached the girl's ears then, causing her to turn her head and see the warrior. "Hey Goten," she greeted.

"Hi," was his reply.

"You bored too?"

"Yep."

"Wanna hang out? It might help kill some time."

"Okay."

And with that small bit of conversation, Goten found himself sitting at the foot of Erasa's bed with his head turned to look at her; the girl herself sitting towards the head with her legs bunched up into her chest, her arms wrapped around them. There was just one small problem now.

Goten had no idea how to "hang out."

"So…what do we do?" the young Son asked, looking towards the blonde.

"You know, talk about anything that comes to mind, stuff like that."

"Huh, I've never done that before."

"You've never hung out before?" Erasa said, startled. That was definitely something she hadn't been expecting to hear.

"No, not really. I've been pretty busy doing other things to do it," Goten explained.

"What kind of things?"

"Well, there was surviving on Vegeta with Gohan and Trunks; then heading to Earth to start a fight there; and then there was the Namek thing; and then Dabura wanted to—"

"Okay, I think I get your point," the blonde interrupted. "So you've just been fighting all this time?"

"It's not like I had a choice or anything. You do what you have to do and that's all there is to it," the saiyan replied.

That sent the blonde into deep thought. Rarely had she ever had to see the ugly side of life, though that had changed the moment she had forced her way to going with Videl on her saiyan chase. About the worst she had seen was a small amount of corruption, which even she took a part of. However, the killing aspect was really the one thing that she couldn't get use to, understanding even less of it. Now though, she had someone who knew and understood it to a T. Perhaps she needed to do some research.

"So who taught you? To fight I mean," she asked.

"My brother did."

"He taught you to kill too?"

"Isn't fighting and killing the same thing?"

"No, it isn't."

"And what gives you that idea?"

"Well, killing is where you take a life and fighting is when you protect yourself, right?"

"Yes and no."

"Yes and no?"

Goten sighed. "One thing you have to know, the reason people learn to fight is to protect and kill. It's like learning how to use a sword; you're not just going to use it to wound someone, you use it as an instrument to kill your opponent. That's what the fighting style of it dictates."

"You thinking in order to fight, you have to purposely try to kill someone?!" Erasa exclaimed.

"Fighting is about survival, even if that means taking a life," the saiyan responded. "I can guarantee you, every opponent, human, alien, or demon, has fought to kill me. In order to protect myself, I have to fight to kill."

"But you don't have to kill them!"

"So I should let them live so they can try to kill me again? There's no grey area in this, girl. It's kill or be killed. That something noncombatants don't seem to understand."

Erasa was quiet for a moment. "I never thought about it that way."

"That's for sure."

"So because of that, you've only been around your brother and Trunks?"

"Yep."

Surprise once more filled the blonde. "You've never been around a girl before?"

A bit startled by that accusation, Goten said "Of course I have! I just haven't been around them to get to know any of them." After that, he turned his head away, refusing to look at the girl.

"Would you say you're attracted to any?"

"Maybe. I never gave it much thought."

"Is that so," Erasa mumbled out loud. Goten chose to ignore it in turn.

A slight rustling sound was made then, followed by Erasa's voice saying "Are you attracted to this?"

"Attracted to what?" the young saiyan said as he turned back to look at her. What he found was a something he had never seen before.

Make that two somethings.

And like most of the men before him, he found them utterly fascinating.