“I don’t know.” Marron murmured as her and Tayhei entered the dressing rooms, where they kept the weapons and accessories like boots and gloves. They had changed out of the accessory pieces when they got back onto the ship, but now it was necessary to equip them again, along with anything else that they might need to take with them. Marron was still a little shocked at what had happened, her mind still boggled by Piccolo’s announcement. It made her uneasy that such a quick decision was made, and even more uneasy to know that everyone else that had gone out there had been captured. “I just don’t know if we should be going out there.”

The older girl rolled her eyes and moved her long blond ponytail back behind her, sat down on a stool, attaching a heavy belt around her thin waist. “The key to success in battle is confidence, nothing else. Actually, the key to everything is confidence.”

“I’m still not so sure I can do this.” Marron admitted, as she placed her feet into the heavy boots, latching them tightly around her ankles and her shins, stepping down to make sure that she could move properly in them. The fit excellently, molding around her feet, warm and secure, as if they had been made specifically for her. “I don’t have any kind of martial arts experience at all.”

Tayhei stood next to her, pulling a glove onto her small hand, a bored expression on her face. She pulled back the leather and snapped the wrist of the glove down, locking it into place, and looked up down at Marron with a demeaning expression. “Look, Muffin. You don’t actually have to do that kung fu crap. There are other ways of fighting, you know. They don’t expect us to just go out there and starting kicking ass, untrained and unprepared. And if you actually thought that, I seriously have to doubt your intelligence.”

“Then how are we supposed to defend ourselves?!” She demanded, angry.

Tayhei rolled her eyes and moved to one of the cabinets in the stark white room, lighting up the latch and swinging the door open with a bang. A row of huge, shiny guns stood there, along with boxes and boxes of ammunition, looking large and dangerous. She grabbed one of them out of it’s holding place and in one quick motion, she shook the gun and locked it into firing mode, pulling back the catch and watching the power stream in behind it, light blue and sizzling with electricity.

“With this.” She answered Marron, and aimed the gun at her head. “Capsule Corporation G-7. The latest model, designed by none other than myself. It could blow a hole straight through a double plated steel wall in point four seconds.”

Marron shoved the barrel away for her head and glared at her. “Then don’t point it at me!”

“Oh, don’t throw another one of your little hissy fits, Marion.” Tayhei sneered. “I wasn’t about to shoot you. If you’re scared of me pointing a gun in your face, then you’re going to be in for a real shock when you go out there to battle. If you think those Saiya-jins soldiers are going to go easy on you, you’re dead wrong. They’d blow your head off before your tiny mind could even realize that there was a gun there. You have to have faith in yourself and in your ability or you’re never going to make it.”

She didn’t want Tayhei to see her cry, didn’t want to show any kind of weakness in front of her, but she couldn’t help it. Her large eyes started to water, and a single tear trickled innocently down her cheek. “What if I don’t have faith in myself at all?” She whispered, and though she might have just imagined it, she thought she saw Tayhei’s face soften slightly.

“Then you have to find that faith. You can’t go through life never trusting yourself, or having confidence in yourself.” The older girl told her with wise green eyes, her head bent down in seriousness. “That’s something I learned a long time ago. If you can’t love yourself and have confidence in the person that you are, then life isn’t worth living. You have something to prove --- we all do. But you aren’t going to accomplish it through whining and tears. Stand up, be brave, and show the whole world what kind of person you are.”

Marron nodded through her tears, knowing that Tayhei was right. If she wanted to show her parents and everyone else in her life that she was an adult now, she had to start acting like one. And that began with herself, and how she viewed herself. If she didn’t have confidence in her own maturity, how could she possibly expect anyone else to? She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, and tightened the straps on her boots with a new sense of courage. This was something that she had to do --- had to do well, in order to gain respect and to become the person that she had sought to become for so long now.

The cell was dark now, shadows creeping in from all corners, surrounding the prisoners as they sat chained to the walls. Out of the tiny window, they could make out bits of light, twinkling with the heavy fall of snow that came down, washing the Saiya-jin tower in a clean white. There was a steady drip of water coming from somewhere, dampening the already cold floor, but other than the steady drip, there was no sound. The others would occasionally move, shifting silently in the darkness in a pathetic attempt to gain some sort of comfort and warmth, but Juuhachi-gou remained completely still, her body as if it were etched in stone. She saw no reason to move, no reason to try and find comfort in the dark, damp walls of a cell, no need to try and find warmth in a place so utterly, freezing cold.

Her heartbeat slowed down to almost nothing, beating softly in her ears, and she envisioned a different place, a different life. Before Sukuashi had captured ChiChi, her life had been nearly perfect, and very special to her. She had felt loved by her family, especially her husband, who had seen something in her that no one else had: feeling. No matter what she thought of herself, no matter what her nightmares might entail, she had faith in herself, confidence in her ability to think and feel and cry, because Kuririn did. As much as she’d like to pretend that what Kuririn thought didn’t matter, she knew that it was really everything to her. Somehow that little man had managed to shake her up more than anyone or anything ever had in her life. And it wasn’t so much that what he had said hurt her, it more that she was afraid of herself, afraid of what she would be if she didn’t have his constant support.

Without moving, she slid her cool blue eyes over to look at him, watching him sleep in the darkness, his face bruised and full of scratches. These days, it seemed like he was the one that needed more support. She suddenly felt very guilty for being so angry at him, and for putting him through all the pain that she did. If she expected respect and support from him, the least she could do was show him the same, every day of their lives, and she hadn’t been doing that lately. She had let the anger and fear control her, and in the process, she just might have broken his heart. She moved her eyes forward again, and closed them, hoping that maybe if she could imagine that she were somewhere else, in a place of relaxation and happiness, she might be able to fall asleep and not have to be there.

As soon as she closed her eyes, she heard a faint sound: a shout. Her eyes snapped open, and she tilted her head up, listening intently to the sounds that she was hearing from the outside world. There was the sound of blasts and shouts, all distant, yet loud, as if something were getting closer to him. She looked around the room, and found that everyone was awake and watching the door, their eyes full of heavy anticipation. When she heard the sound of gunfire and running feet, a loud bang from right outside of the cell door, she sat up straighter, hope slowly growing in her in her ice blue eyes.

Something was happening out there, and she didn’t know what, but she felt that it was good, that they were on their way to freedom. Gokuu, Yamucha, someone must have come to save them, and to set them free again. Once they were freed of their restraints, they would have no trouble defending themselves, and those Saiya-jin soldiers wouldn’t have a chance. When the door crashed down in a blaze of ki and sparks, she didn’t flinch, but merely waited, knowing that somehow they had all just been saved. Through the smoke and haze, stepped a very familiar, very green figure, a smirk spreading across his face.

“Piccolo-san!” Gohan shouted suddenly, and strained against the chains, creating a bright white glow in the room. Kuririn did the same, and felt the sharp draining effect as the restraints quickly sucked all of his power back into the center of them, glowing with the electricity of it. All of them sat up quickly, eager to be relieved of their restraints and take revenge upon the Saiya-jin scum that had attacked them in the first place. Bulma started shouting things to Piccolo in a very high, very demanding voice, but her cries were lost in the sea of shouts and the firing of guns down the hallway.

A small Saiya-jin appeared from behind Piccolo, and Kuririn jumped, afraid that perhaps their rescue was going to be short-lived. He was very small indeed, and did not look like one of the soldiers, wearing a long white lab coat, with his hair pulled back away from his face. He peeked out from behind Piccolo’s green form warily, then turned and shouted over his shoulder. “They’re in here! Try to hold the soldiers back!”

In a motion quicker than what Kuririn saw through wide, fascinated eyes, the Saiya-jin jumped over the broken down door, his lab coat flying behind him as he ran. He flipped open a pocket in his coat and drew out two large sets of heavy black eyes. He turned and threw one set back to Piccolo, who snapped them up and jumped over the broken down door as well. Together the two of them rushed to either sides of the circular room. Gohan and Juunana-gou were chained on either side, and the Saiya-jin and Piccolo worked speedily to undo the restraints, their fingers and arms moving in quick, fluid motions.

“Hurry!” The Saiya-jin shouted, and Kuririn could see dark green figures running over the screen of the scouter perched on his ear, amounting to immeasurable heights, detecting approaching figures. The Saiya-jin finally undid Gohan’s restraints and pointed towards the hallway, practically shoving him. “There’s no time! Fight as best as you can. More soldiers are coming!”

Juunana-gou was freed, and he jumped up to join Gohan, lightly running over the broken down door, his black hair flying up behind him as he powered up, a blue light surrounding him like flames. Juuhachi-gou was freed next, and though she rightfully could have jumped up and ran just like Juunana-gou had, Kuririn was surprised to see that she simply stood by and watched as Piccolo undid his restraints, waiting for him. Her cool blue eyes reflected nothing, but Kuririn could see a sense of urgency and sadness in her heart, deep down in the depths were no one else had ever dared to venture except for him. As Kuririn was freed, she moved quickly, and silently reached for his hand. Though no words were spoken and no expression was on her beautiful face, Kuririn knew that he had been forgiven, as easily as he had been shunned. Together, the two of them jumped over the door and flew out into the hallway, not knowing what to expect.

It was a narrow hallway, and there wasn’t much room at all to fight, and there was hardly enough light to even distinguish enemies from allies. Blasts and gunfire from all directions caused the both of them to duck down and cover their heads, not wanting to be hit by another paralyzing ray. In a split second of silence, they jumped back up and barreled down the hallway after their friends. There was a battle going on here, in the small space of the hallway, where puddles of snow, beginning to fade into ice were already appearing. Kuririn and Juuhachi-gou dropped each other’s hands and jointed into the frenzy, fists flying faster than the eye could follow.

A solider attacked Juuhachi-gou from the left side, and she turned backwards and spun until her powerful leg nailed him in the chest, cracking the armor and sending him flying against the stone wall behind him. She moved quickly, a blur of white and gold, more beautiful than any picture that could have been painted, and drove an uppercut straight into his slack jaw, nearly cracking his head off backwards, and sending spiderweb cracks all along the wall. Another flew at her as she paused, but Kuririn was there before the soldier could blink, and sank both fists into the stomach area, driving straight through the armor with a sickening crunch. When another jumped up to kick at Juuhachi-gou’s beautiful face, the jinzouningen dropped down low, sliding away on the stone floor and rolling up to grab his leg out from behind him, flinging him down into the ground as if he were a toy.

She looked up at Kuririn calmly, and he smiled at her as she brushed away a strand of pale blond hair and tucked it behind her delicate ear. He wanted to say he was sorry then, to apologize for whatever he had said to hurt her. Juuhachi-gou was calm and unmovable, unshakable and powerful to no end, but she could feel things, and he knew that. There was no doubt in his mind that Juuhachi-gou was capable of feeling love, of pain, of anything that life happened to throw her way. She had shown him that so far, and he knew that she always would. A machine could display forgiveness the way that she just had, and a machine could never be so in love with him, which he knew that she was.

In his thoughts, he didn’t realize that he was being attacked from behind, a Saiya-jin soldier running after him at full speed, charging with a large spear in his hand, sharp and ready. He watched Juuhachi-gou’s expression drop into shock and fear, and turned to see the soldier lunge at him, the spear aimed straight at his pounding heart. Before he could even blink or move out his arms to attempt to defend himself, the Saiya-jin before him suddenly burst into flames and fell to the ground, shaking and smoking as blue ribbons of electricity ran through his blackened body. Kuririn stared down at him in amazement, his eyes wide as saucers and his heart beating painfully fast in his chest, horrified that he had just come so close to death. There was a moment of silence, where Kuririn regained his senses, looking up to see who it was that had shot the attacking Saiya-jin soldier.

Standing before him, wielding a gun that was almost half the size of her, was his baby girl. He stood there stunned for a moment, taking in the smoking of the gun and the tense look on her face, which looked so adult, and so confident that he couldn’t believe it.

“Marron?” He asked timidly, and she nodded, her pigtails bobbing gently. There was an expression on her face that he would never forget; one that was full of pride and strength, something that he had never before seen on her eyes. She stood before him in all her glory, then shouldered the gun, and moved quickly, running to meet him in the middle of the hallway, her arms outstretched.

“Gomen nasi, Papa.” She whispered. “I’m sorry I came, I just wanted to help.”

She flew into his arms, and he held her tight, crying fatherly tears into her soft blond hair. He had spent so much time trying to protect her from the world, trying to keep her safe from harm and away from the troubles that he knew existed outside of their home. He had tried so hard to protect her and keep her innocent, that she had never gotten a chance to grow up and become a person all on her own. But she had grown up now, had been grown up all along, and it was finally time that he realized that.

“Iie, Marron.” He murmured, and held her tighter. “I’m glad you’re here, and I am so sorry for trying to keep you from growing up.”

Chapter 64
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