They were all gathered in the large kitchen, talking and shouting at one another, with Tayhei and Marron at the center of attention. Bulma had called an urgent meeting just a few minutes ago, and it had only taken Gokuu one glance into the kitchen to realize what the meeting was about. The girls had obviously smuggled themselves onto the ship somehow --- which was going to make ChiChi’s rescue a lot more difficult. A lot more difficult. Everyone else on the mission was capable of defending themselves and had a mission, a reason for being there. The girls on the other hand, were untrained and not useful, and they were going to have to worry about their safety as well as rescuing ChiChi.

Gokuu wasn’t the only one who realized this. Everyone in the room knew of the danger that had just arrived, and everyone knew that the two girls could have just cost them their success in rescuing ChiChi. So the mood was black. Everyone seemed to be angry with someone else, and the tension in the room was so thick that it was almost visible. Juuhachi-gou and Marron sat together on one side of the table, looking solemn. Kuririn sat at the other end looking just as sad. Vejiita was glaring at Trunks and Bulma, and just generally everyone else in the room. Yamucha was glaring at him. Bulma was looking through a series of charts on the table, looking concerned and distracted, and next to her was Gohan, pointing things out and looking intelligent.

“Would you like a cookie?” A cheerful voice asked. He turned to find Tayhei at his side, beaming with a plate full of warm chocolate chip cookies. He had never really talked to her before, just heard about her vaguely from Goten and Bulma. An apron was tied around her waist, and her long blond hair was knotted at the nape of her neck into a ponytail. Her green eyes sparkled with a smile. Goten was right --- She was pretty. He instantly liked her. Gokuu smiled; a brief, hesitant smile, as if he weren’t sure if he was supposed to be happy or not, and then took a handful of cookies off the plate.

“I thought I might as well make myself useful while I’m here….” Tayhei trailed off and her face fell a little bit. “Gokuu-san, I know you don’t know me, but I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. About ChiChi-san. I’m here to help, and I just wanted to let you know that.”

The statement surprised him a little bit. He rose his eyebrows and took a bite of cookie. “Arigatou, Tayhei-chan. That’s very kind of you.” The cookie was absolutely delicious. It melted sweetly in his mouth and seemed to make every single nerve in his body cry out for another bite. He grinned. “And if you cook like this all the time, I’m glad to have you along. I was afraid Bulma was going to cook….”

“Arigatou!” She put her hand alongside her mouth as if she were telling him a secret. “I’m not so sure anyone else wants me here though.” Her eyes flicked over to where Vejiita was standing. “Especially Vejiita-san.”

According to Vejiita, Tayhei was nothing but trouble. In their rare sparring sessions, Vejiita had often ranted about the girl and how much he hated her --- but to Gokuu, it seemed as though there was something else behind that hate. Maybe just a tinge of respect? The way Vejiita described Tayhei, he made her out to be a manipulative little hellion, but there was something odd about the amount of pride that was in his voice when he spoke of her. Gokuu smiled to himself. Finally, Vejiita has found someone that mirrors him perfectly. Manipulative? Stubborn? Deceiving? Conniving? All of the traits Vejiita used to describe the girl were traits that he could have described himself with. Maybe Vejiita really was proud to have Tayhei living with them in some odd, twisted way.

“Can I have everyone’s attention, please?” Bulma asked, trying to shout over the noise. She was trying to look professional and calm, but to Gokuu, she just looked tired. Gokuu instantly felt sorry for her. He didn’t realize it, but he had put a lot of pressure on her to get the mission organized on time, and she was obviously suffering from some other sort of problems. Bulma was one of his dearest friends, and seeing her look so distraught just made his heart ache. Her pale hands were holding the charts tightly as she waited for the noise in the room to dwindle down.

“As you all know, we have a major problem.” She began. “But like it or not, the girls are in fact on the ship, and we have no choice but to deal with it as best as we can.” She pointed to the charts. “It appears as though we have two options, each with several stipulations.”

“The first option is to simply continue on to Sukuashi with the girls.” Gohan continued for her, his dark eyes grim. “This will of course put Tayhei and Marron in danger, but it will get us to Sukuashi, to my mother, faster. The girls could be kept in the ship at all times, and since the structure of the ship is reinforced in steel, it should be fairly safe. However, we all know how easily steel can be blasted away by someone with a lot of power. If we had someone here, on the ship to keep watch over the girls, it would be a lot safer. However, this also depletes the number of fighters on our side, and from the looks of things, we may need all the help we can get.”

Bulma looked around the room and cleared her throat. “The other option is to turn around---” She broke off when the room erupted in objections. She cleared her throat again. “To turn around and return to Earth. I feel this will put ChiChi in serious danger, because once we return to Earth, it would take the ship months to be prepared for a journey into space again. However, the girls would be completely safe.”

“We can’t just turn around! Look how far we’ve come!” Goten cried desperately. “We are so close, and I don’t want Kaasan to have to wait for us any longer….What if something happened to her?”

“What about Marron?!” Kuririn shouted, his eyes welling up. “What is something happened to her? I could never forgive myself. Never.” He looked at Gokuu pleadingly. “Gokuu, please. If it were your daughter, I would turn around for you….I’d want her to be safe. No matter what. She has her whole life ahead of her. A whole life! ChiChi’s nearly 50, Gokuu. I know you love her, but this is my little girl we’re talking about!”

Gokuu blanched. Kuririn was his best friend --- the one person who had been there for him through it all. He knew that Kuririn would honestly do absolutely anything for him. He also knew that Kuririn loved his daughter very much. Marron’s life was in Gokuu’s hands then --- one decision it could all be over. But ChiChi….Am I just supposed to ignore ChiChi when she’s in danger? I don’t think I can do that. He thought sadly.

“Please, Gokuu!” Kuririn begged again. “Let’s just turn around.”

“I am not a little girl!” Marron protested, her cheeks turning pink with anger. “I’m almost 15 years old, papa! I can take care of myself.”

Gokuu felt his resolve crumbling. He wanted to save ChiChi more than anything, wanted to have her back in his arms so badly that his heart ached. But there was this beautiful, vivacious little girl sitting here before him who had her whole life ahead of her, who was full of love, and had a future. He couldn’t take that away from her, could he?

“Marron, Calm down.” Juuhachi-gou warned. Her cool blue eyes found Bulma’s. “I believe that Marron is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Turning around would only needlessly endanger ChiChi’s life. Time is very important here.”

“I agree.” Bulma said, and she patted Marron on the head. “The success of the mission is based on time. We need to infiltrate Sukuashi before the Saiya-jins have a chance to harm ChiChi in any way.”

Vejiita snorted. “Woman, there are no other Saiya-jins.” He glared at everyone darkly. “This mission is a joke. Kakarroto’s mate is probably wandering around the forest somewhere trying to remember her way home. Piccolo obviously doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Piccolo demanded, uncrossing his arms and glaring fiercely at Vejiita.

Vejiita snorted again. “Iie, I’m calling you an idiot. You’re all idiots if you think Saiya-jins can still exist. Planet Vejiita exploded --- it was blown to pieces. The only Saiya-jins left alive from that planet were Raditzu, Nappa, Kakarroto and I. We all know what happened to Raditzu and we all know what happened to Nappa, so that leaves just Kakarroto and me. Two Saiya-jins. That’s all. There is no far off Saiya-jin land and there are no long lost Saiya-jins commandeering around space kidnapping wives and shooting up Nameks. It’s impossible. You with all of your pathetic little lives, thinking that you actually know something about the Saiya-jin race!” He was practically snarling now and the little veins on his temples were standing out. “We were not reckless, weak creatures who used weapons to paralyze our victims before we killed them. We paralyzed them with fear! Our victims knew we were Saiya-jin, and that’s all they had to know. Instantly we killed them! Why? Because they knew we could! They didn’t even offer up a fight! We didn’t even give them a choice! I don’t know what the hell Piccolo saw, but it wasn’t Saiya-jins! Saiya-jins have more pride than that! It isn’t just a tail that makes you Saiya-jin; it’s something inside! It’s courage, it’s strength, it’s pride. It isn’t using a stun gun to stop a Namek weaker than you and stealing someone else’s mate. That isn’t Saiya-jin !”

Everyone sat in stunned silence, gaping at Vejiita. Gokuu was shocked. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Vejiita say more than one sentence at a time, let alone an entire speech like that. And the look on his face? It was unbelievable. For once in his life, the prince of the Saiya-jin actually appeared to feel something. Gokuu knew that Vejiita was proud to be Saiya-jin --- he had said so before many times. But that speech was amazing.

“I’m only here to prove you wrong.” Vejiita wrapped it up, and stormed from the room in fury.

“Saiya-jins or no Saiya-jins, I’d like to help.” Tayhei suddenly interjected. She set down the plate of cookies and wiped her hands on her apron thoughtfully. “That’s why I came: to help. I’ll do whatever I can, whenever I can, and I promise not to be a bother. I know those charts as well as Bulma-san and Gohan --- if not better. It’s too much of a hassle for you to turn around now, plus, you’d be putting ChiChi-san in danger.”

She looked at Gokuu. “I promise I’ll do whatever I can to help bring back your wife, Gokuu-san.” Her eyes moved over to Marron, who was crying softly. “And I promise I’ll watch over Marron too. I’m not exactly sure why she came, but I’ll do my best to protect her.”

Marron sniffled and looked up with her eyes wide with gratitude and surprise. Kuririn looked as though he might cry. Juuhachi-gou looked at Tayhei blankly, but there was a hint of gratefulness in her eyes. Tayhei had captured everyone’s attention, and everyone’s hearts as well. At that moment, everyone in the room was in love with the small, green-eyed beauty who made cookies and heartfelt promises. Everyone except for Trunks --- who saw right through it all.

“Protect her, my ass!” He howled in laughter. “Oh, you are good, Tayhei. Do you practice this stuff or does it just come naturally to you?”

“Trunks!” Bulma scolded. She placed her hands on her hips and glared at her son, her blue eyes clouded with a dangerous anger. “Apologize right now!”

He looked down. “Gomen ne.” Then under his breath: “Bitch.”

“I heard that!” Tayhei cried out angrily.

“Good!”

“You’re such a bastard, Trunks!” Tayhei shouted, taking a menacing step towards him.

“Hey now!” Gohan grabbed Tayhei’s shoulder and pulled her back. “There is no need for fighting. We have a very serious mission here, and Kaasan’s life is in jeopardy. We can’t fight among ourselves! We have to band together and form an army --- not a war.”

Bulma put an arm around Trunks. “Gohan is right. We can’t complete the mission if we’re going to be fighting amongst ourselves. That will only put us in even more danger.”

Trunks and Tayhei glared at each and both spoke at the same time. “Gomen nasi.” Their voices implied that they really weren’t sorry, but everyone else seemed to accept it.

“So that’s it, then?” Videl asked. She cupped her chin in her hand and thoughtfully tilted her head. “We’re going to continue on with the mission?”

Bulma hesitated, then looked up at Gokuu. “This was your mission, Gokuu. It’s your wife that’s in danger. What do you think? Should we continue on or take the girls back?”

Kuririn gave him a stricken, pained look. Marron looked up at him with tears streaming down her chubby little cheeks. Goten’s face was too painful to look at. Gokuu bit his lip. Everyone was depending on him to make a decision that he just wasn’t capable of making. On one hand, he had ChiChi, and all the guilt of not being able to protect her. On the other, Kuririn was depending on him to keep his little girl safe.

Gokuu closed his eyes. He didn’t know what to do. Marron stood up then, and walked over to him, standing hesitantly with her hands behind her back. “Gokuu-san, I just want to let you know that if anything happened to me, I wouldn’t hold you responsible. It was my choice to come. My choice.”

Staring at her then, he imagined her with darker hair, with darker eyes, a little girl of ChiChi’s. His daughter. It would be him who was worried about her life and her future; it would be him instead of Kuririn who sat at the table with his head buried in his hands. His sweet little daughter with pigtails and big sweaters and chubby cheeks. It would be his daughter that he would take to school every morning and teach how to drive and see off to the senior prom. It would be his daughter that kissed him good morning and goodbye. She would be his daughter. He thought of ChiChi, and how she had always wanted a little girl. He couldn’t give her that now, of course. ChiChi was too old to have anymore children, let alone a little girl. There were a lot of things that Gokuu had never been able to give his wife, including the one thing that she seemed to need more than anything --- love. He could never make up for any of that, he could never make it up to her, or to Goten, or even to himself. But he knew what ChiChi would have wanted him to do right now, right at this moment.

ChiChi would have wanted Marron to live.

I’m so sorry. He whispered to her, wherever she was, feeling his heart constrict in pain. ChiChi, I am so sorry.

“Turn the ship around, Bulma.” Gokuu said softly. “We’re going back to Earth.”

Chapter 31
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