He finally got over the withdrawal, sort of, and was up on his feet. He could cook now, which made life better for both of us. He started putting on weight, his hair got shinier, and his nails grew in better. It was like a complete 180 transformation. I found it hard to recall how sickly he had been when I first met him.

He was making dinner; some kind of Saiyan themed substance. I wondered if Da knew how to make the stuff he did. I don't recall Da ever cooking; but I would imagine he didn't know much about it.

Kage knew all kinds of stuff about cooking. He wasn't as good as Chichi; mostly because he wasn't afraid to experiment, and ruin a recipe just to see what it would taste like.

When he finished, he put a heaping plate of food before me. "What is it?"

"Well, it's supposed to be gorgion, which is charred flupas and mashed centricas, but I had to substitute a few things, since both of those are extinct, probably."

"What are they?" I asked, digging in. You couldn't go wrong with beef.

"Flupas are kind of like huge gofers, like as big as a dog, but they have these horns on their heads that if they sting you, you're paralyzed for a few weeks; you can starve if no one finds you. And centricas are like butterflies, but their wings aren't colorful, and they mostly eat rotting flesh."

I paused in my consumption. "So you replaced the 'flupas' with beef… what did you substitute the 'centricas' with?"

He gave me a mischievous look. "I can't tell you that; then you won't eat it."

I felt a dry heave crawling up my throat, but I fought it back. I tried not to think about what I was eating as I shoved it down.

I decided it needed some cheese. I got some from the fridge and put it all over it.

"Ew," He cried when he realized what I was doing.

"What?" I asked, taking another bite. It was much better now.

"Cheese? That's the worse food humans have created."

"You don't like cheese?"

"I hate cheese," He replied, tearing his eyes away from my plate. "It's discussing."

"So you're fine with eating gofers and butterflies, but cheese grosses you out?"

He nodded. "Do you know how they make cheese?"

"I don't want to know," I said covering my ears.

He shrugged and downed a glass of apple juice. And surprisingly, there wasn't even any gin mixed in with it. He leaned his head into the palm of his hand. "Hey, Aizel,"

"Yes?" I asked, pushing my food around my plate.

"What's it like to be a triplet?"

I shrugged. "It's alright."

"No, I mean what's it like?"

I understood his question, but it was still hard to answer. "Well… Vienna and I are fraternal," I paused for a moment. "Obviously, since she's a girl. But Lysander and I are identical. We're, essentially, the same person."

"That's pretty cool." He nodded for me to go on.

"Um… back on earth, we played this game called 'Guess Whose Who' and we would dress up the same, and have people guess who was who. They didn't get it right most of the time, and when they did, it was usually a good guess." I paused again. "I think Vienna's a little jealous, actually, since she's not as close as Lysander and I are. And people always ask if we're twins, and we always have to say that we're triplets."

He nodded again.

I swallowed. My chest ached to see them both again. "Lysander's my best friend. He's my opposite, and my other half. We share everything." I laughed suddenly. "At school, whenever I had a physics test, we would switch for the day; so I always had the highest grade in my class. And whenever he had trouble talking to a girl, I would go in and smooth it over for him first." I blinked at a sudden realization. "It's like we're each half of a perfect person."

He was smiling, as if dreaming of switching places with me, just to see what it was like.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" I asked, going back to my quickly cooling dinner.

He shook his head. "Nope. Litter of one."

"And what's that like?" I asked.

We both laughed.

"Do you ever finish each other's sentences?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, all the time. All three of us do that."

"How do you know what the other's going to say?"

I shrugged. "How do you know who you've fallen in love with? You just know."

"Do your parents ever mix you up?"

I thought for a moment. "Not really… Papa has on occasion, like once or twice, but that's just calling us the wrong name. Not mixing us up. And Da never mixes us up."

"How can he tell?"

"I guess we smell different… I don't really know." I made a face as the baby kicked.

He gave me a sympathetic look, and then a disgusted look when he looked down at my food again. "I was looking over a few maps-"

"How did you look at them?" I interrupted. "The ship's out of gas, remember?"

"There is such a thing as paper, Aizel," He reminded me gently, and I felt really stupid. "And they still apply. Anyway, I was looking them over, and I figured out where we are."

"That's great," I said. "Where are we?"

"We should be entering Earth's atmosphere in a few hours."

"What?!" I cried, standing up quickly. "A few hours?"

"Yeah, like two or three. That's a few, right?"

"You told me a couple of days ago it would be at least a week!?"

"I've found that when you're going through withdrawal, your sense of time is pretty warped."

I put my hand to my face. "You're such a space-cadet,"

"But I'm adorable, so that makes up for it, right?"

I hurriedly went about going through all the things I would say when I got back to Earth as I gathered all of my belongings. I must have been talking to myself, for Kage would comment every now and then and give me what he thought was constructive criticism.

"Why don't you just tell them that you ran away to join the circus?" He asked, poking his head out from a ventilation shaft.

"They would never believe that,"

"Why not?" He pulled off his thick welding goggles to give me a puzzled look.

"Because it's a terrible lie," I said a matter-of-factly.

He shrugged and disappeared back to wherever he'd come from.

"What are you even doing?" I asked.

"Well, since we're out of fuel, there's nothing to power the landing gear, so we're in for a rough entrance. I'm trying to rig a few things to make the landing gear spring out anyway, so maybe the whole ship won't get totaled."

"That sounds like a good idea," I agreed, following the sound of his crawling into the other room. A moment later, he opened a hatch and his legs dangled out from the ceiling for a moment before he jumped down onto the floor. He had a piece of rope tied around his wrist, and a roll of duct tape in his mouth.

"Do you want me to tell you how it should work, or do you just want to be surprised?"

I sighed deeply. "Are we going to die?"

"Maybe,"

"Then surprise me."

He opened a laptop and pressed a few keys. "Five minutes. Looks like we're landing in the Sahara Desert."

I made a face, and then sat down in the passenger seat. I pulled the seatbelt over my chest, and leaned back bracing myself.

Kage danced around me, threading the rope through several make-shift pulleys that were attached with tape. He returned to the laptop. "Four minutes. Wait, looks like we're going to miss the desert. How well can you swim?"

I rolled my eyes as the ship began to speed up. Kage put the laptop away, and got into his own seat.

"This is the best part." He pressed a few buttons, and then the windshield cover opened so we could get a good view.

The Earth at first blinded me with the sheer brightness of its blue. The feeling of falling came a moment later as the ship began to shake and rattle. The baby began to freak out, as did I, as the ground came into view. What looked like ants from up above, I suddenly realized were mountains, and what seemed like a pond was actually a vast sea.

Kage lifted up his hand and pointed. I couldn't hear what he said, but it was something along the lines of 'I bet we land right there'.

A long time seemed to pass before we actually hit the water. The impact was much rougher then I thought it would be, considering it was just water. The ship jerked violently, and then creaked out a moan as it slowed down. Then it was quiet. Dark, too.

Kage flicked on the overhead light, and then unbuckled his seatbelt. "You alright, love?"

I nodded, though I couldn't talk.

"That was fun. We should do it again soon." He rubbed my stomach. "Alright, Junior?"

I rolled my eyes. "We're not calling him Junior."

He shrugged. "That's kind of cool, huh?" He pointed at the windshield. The water that surrounded us was murky, but you could still see quite a ways in all directions. There were no fish; probably scared off from the impact of the ship; but there was lots of seaweed, and coral, and things that didn't move. They seemed oddly out of place without any fish around them. It was still beautiful, though.

"How are we supposed to get out of here?" I asked after a moment of silence.

"The ship will float up to the top after a while." He replied. "I'm gonna take a nap. Tell me if your Da shows up so I don't get hit in the face again." He left the room.

I unbuckled my seat belt and continued to stare out the window. We were defiantly floating back up to the top, but very slowly. The water was becoming lighter as more sunlight hit it.

It was just past dawn on this side of the world. I wondered which side, though. We were either in the Indian Ocean, or the Atlantic. I mulled over this a little longer, until something caught my eye outside.

I thought I'd seen the glimmer of a shark or something. I leaned forward, cocking my head, wondering if it would come back again. It did swim past again, and I realized it was some kind of mermaid creature; nothing like a shark. It defiantly had arms.

It swam past again, and this time, it stopped to wave at me.

"Papa!" I cried, pressing my palms against the glass, waving back at him. He grinned broadly and pointed upward. I gave him a thumbs up. He nodded and disappeared from view.

"Kage!" I cried, dashing out of the room. "Kage!"

"What?"

"Kage!"

"What?!" He cried again, opening the door.

"My parents are here!" I didn't know whether to be exhilarated or apprehensive. Either way, I was glad they were here.

"Okay, great!" He cried, jumping up and down with me sarcastically. I guess I must have looked like an overexcited prepubescent girl, but I was excited.

"You have to open the door!" I cried, still too thrilled to control the volume of my voice.

"If I open the door, then the whole ship will fill up with water!" He said in the same tone.

"Can't we just air it out later?"

"No!"

He made me wait another fifteen minutes before he would open the door. I was surprised that my parents waited that long. When he finally did open it, and I crawled up onto the surface, I was hit with the smell of fresh air, and the feeling of moisture on my face; something I hadn't experienced in months.

"Aizel!" Papa cried, and moved to grab me, but then stopped short.

I followed his gaze to my stomach, and I unconsciously turned away a little.

"You're…" He trailed off, and then his eyes returned to my face. "How are you doing?"

I blinked. "Uh… good…"

Kage emerged from the ship and shook his head. He waved. "Akente," Which is 'hello' in the Common Speech.

Papa waved back. He knew even less about the Common Speech then I did.

"Where's Lysander and Vienna?" I asked, looking around. "Where's Da?"

"They're all asleep," He replied, but that couldn't be true. It was early, yes, but Da was always up before the crack of dawn, and Vienna and Lysander would have come running the second they sensed me coming. And why would Papa come for me without waking any of them? Something wasn't right.

"Don't lie to me, Papa," I said, crossing my arms. "What's going on?"

He scratched at the back of his head. "Well… to be honest… I told Vegeta to stay away…"

"Why?"

He nodded his head at Kage, and I understood. I nodded back for him to continue. "Vienna and Lysander are… in one of their moods."

I got it. They were mad at me. "I have to go talk to them."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Papa said. "Lysander's been a little out of control these past few months,"

I gave him a look for him to elaborate.

"He's… well… you'll just have to see for yourself."