Kyloa did not emerge from the tree for an entire week. But that was all right. All that was left for them to do was train and Goku was the best one to lead that operation. But there was one thing that Kyloa had yet to tell them that even Goku didn’t know. Once on her feet, she held a little meeting to explain, avoiding looking at Piccolo the entire time.

She got right to the point. "You will have to include Dende in your training sessions."

"Why?" asked Gohan.

"In case a fusion is needed."

"WHAAAT?!" roared Piccolo. Byrn, who was upon his shoulder, squawked a reprimand for hurting his sensitive ears and flew to a nearby tree.

Kyloa was startled by his reaction and dared to take a glance at him. He had a look of such hostility on his face that she didn’t dare to look again.

"What do you mean?" asked Goku. Skorch chirped, confused as well.

"If you are unable to defeat her separately, than fusion would be your last chance. The four of you would combine together to become a much stronger entity."

"Than why would you need me?" asked Dende.

"The four Chi warriors would represent the limbs and portions of the brain. But the guardian is needed to represent the heart to complete the fusion. It is a five-person fusion. Not two or four. Five."

"Will we be able to separate from each other afterwards?" questioned Piccolo, his voice strangely cold.

Kyloa gave him a confused look. "Of course. Before fusing you must declare to the Earth why you are fusing and she will grant you the power to maintain it and will not take away the power ‘til your task is done. Then the fusion will end and you will all be separate persons once again."

"And if we don’t complete the task?" continued Piccolo.

Kyloa frowned in thought. "I am not sure. No one has ever failed in completing the task before."

Piccolo growled and Dende looked worried. "It won’t kill us, will it?"

"It shouldn’t. Kaachi loathes the taking of life."

Piccolo grunted and looked like he was going to argue but he looked into Kyloa’s eyes and felt his belligerence slowly ebb away. It was as if she was begging him to trust in her. And he had trusted her so far. Why stop now?

"All right," agreed Goku. "We’ll include Dende but I think we should leave fusion as the last resort. Sort of as a back up plan."

Kyloa looked relieved. "Good." Noticing her look, Piccolo realized that she was worried about their safety. That was why she had suggested the fusion technique. Adhering to Goku’s word, they left to continue their training, dragons following.

Days passed in quick succession as the warriors prepared for the arrival of Queen Frozena. Kyloa kept them updated on how close she was. She kept track of their progress and occasionally gave an insightful tip on how to use their new gifts. But most of the time she kept out of their way.

Piccolo received his first clue to his mission a couple of weeks after he had been reborn by the Earth. He had discovered earlier that not only did he have genitals, but he now needed to eat and sleep as well. At least his appetite wasn’t as big as Goku’s. After eating a small dinner, he had gone to the riverbank so he could sleep in peace away from Goku’s snoring. But the second he fell asleep, his mind was flooded with strange and vivid dreams.

Images flashed through his mind of humans living in a small, peaceful, village deep in a forest. Going about doing ordinary everyday things. Then, as if he was a video camera, the visions zoomed in to reveal that these people were not ordinary at all. For every last one of them had blood red drops tattooed upon their foreheads. Just like Kyloa. His head began to ache as the scene changed again. This time it showed that same village burning. The people were no longer peaceful as they ran screaming from some unknown terror from above. Head pounding, the scene changed for the last time. The village was completely destroyed now, with blood and rubble everywhere. Here and there was a body but most of them seemed to have been burned to ash. Suddenly all the images swirled together and Piccolo got one good look at a new picture appearing before awaking. It looked like a little baby wrapped in a snow-white blanket. But he couldn’t tell if the baby was human or not and somehow he knew that knowing this was the most crucial part of this dream.

He awoke sweating to find Dende and Kyloa studying him worriedly. The others were fast asleep in the cottage. "Are you alright Piccolo? You’re sleep seemed troubled, the way you were tossing and turning," questioned Dende.

"Well, I had some pretty troubling dreams, kid," replied Piccolo, sitting up. Byrn flew to his shoulder, trying to hide his concern but Piccolo saw right through him and it strangely gratified him to know the little dragon cared.

"What about?" asked Kyloa.

Piccolo frowned as he collected his thoughts. "I dreamt about a village in a forest."

"That doesn’t seem so strange," commented Dende.

"The strange thing was that they all had the same tattoo as nature girl here. I also dreamed about the village being destroyed and all the people dying."

Kyloa turned away, realizing what he had dreamed about. "You dreamt about the Shizen, before they were destroyed. It is clue from Kaachi. Your mission has something to do with the Shizen and their destruction. Do you remember anything else?"

"At the end of the dream I saw a baby. That’s all I remember. What kind of clue is that?"

Kyloa gave a brief answer before walking away. "Part of this mission is about proving yourself to her. She not will make this simple for you." Embyr chirped puzzledly as she hurried to catch up with her mistress as Kyloa walked briskly away.

Dende looked at Piccolo in confusion. "I think there is something about this mission you were given that bothers her."

Piccolo shook his head. That girl keeps too many secrets for her own good. "Don’t worry about it, kid. If nature girl felt it was something we needed to know, she would tell us." Dende nodded and left to leave Piccolo to his sleep. Piccolo grunted and laid back down as Byrn flew back to his tree to sleep. This sleeping business is turning out more annoying than I thought it would be.