Goten ran out to meet them, a huge smile on his handsome young face. He flew through the snow, his legs moving as quickly as possibly, tossing snow in all directions. His mom was finally, completely safe, and for once, there was no look of sadness and longing on her face. She looked completely happy, held tightly in Gokuu’s strong arms, her hands clasped behind his neck. Though snow was whipping around the two of them furiously, Gokuu was flying strong and faithfully, and didn’t appear to even notice the snow in the slightest.

He stopped and turned back to the ship for a moment to smile at the group behind him, watching out the window with smiles on their faces. He flashed Gohan a victory sign and stopped to wait for his parents, excitement running through his veins, just like he was a little kid on Christmas morning again.

“Okaasan! Otousan!” He called out, grinning from ear to ear as his father dropped to the snow and gently placed ChiChi on her feet. Gokuu gripped ChiChi’s small hand in his, and they walked over to where Goten was standing. He placed his hands in fists at his sides, and tried to keep the tears of happiness from coming to his eyes. They were finally, finally going to be a family again.

Gokuu reached out and ruffled Goten’s hair affectionately. “Hey there.”

“Otousan….” He murmured, biting back the tears.

“All together again, eh?” ChiChi asked, releasing Goten’s hand and wrapping her arms around Goten. “Arigatou Goten-chan, for coming to save me.” She pulled back, staring at him, and cuffed him lightly under the chin. “You’ve grown up so much.”

He laughed. “Kaasan, you just saw me a little while ago. I still look the same.”

She knocked lightly on his head. “I didn’t mean here….” She smiled gently, and pointed to his heart. “I meant inside. You’ve become quite a person, Goten-chan.”

“Hai!” Gokuu agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

Goten beamed at him, then frowned slightly when Gokuu’s expression changed. There was a look of shock in his eyes, and his whole body seemed to have frozen. Goten took a hesitant step forward, reaching a hand out, hoping that his father was okay. They had come so far and they were finally a family again….He had to be okay.

“Otousan, what’s wrong?” Goten asked quietly, peering at him, concerned.

“Gokuu?” ChiChi questioned. Her and Goten looked at each other, confused.

“Masaka!” Gokuu finally stumbled out the word, his eyes widened in horror.

ChiChi gently put a hand on Gokuu’s forehead, checking for a fever. His eyes were wild, and there were drops of sweat running down his temple. Goten thought he looked as though he were dying, or near to death.

“What happened? What’s wrong?” His mother cried, panicking.

For a minute he said nothing, then he grabbed ChiChi into his arms and buried his face in her hair. “Bulma-san….”

Trunks suddenly stopped walking, his hands dropping to his sides limply. Tayhei noticed that his footsteps had quieted beside her and she sighed in contempt. They had been walking for quite awhile now, and the threat of a storm was still brewing. They were out in the middle of a snowy field, and it appeared as though there was no end to the whiteness. It kind of scared her actually, though she’d never admit that to Trunks. She just wanted to get off of this awful planet and take a nice warm bath, preferably with a lot of candles and bubbles. “Listen Trunks, if we’re ever going to get back, you need to hurry up, baka! I don’t want to be stuck on this awful, cold planet for the rest of my adult life. Especially if I’m stuck here with you.”

He ignored her completely and still stood there, his breathing uneven and shallow. Tayhei whirled around and glared at him, preparing to launch into a full-scale verbal sparring match, then blinked. His were eyes glazed over with horror and his chin trembled slightly. Beads of sweat were dripping down his temple. Tayhei took a hesitant step towards him, her heart suddenly full of fear and sorrow.

“Trunks-kun, what happened? What’s wrong?” Her usual sarcastic voice had turned into a genuine, gentle tone. His eyes found hers and a tear slipped out, falling to the snow. She blinked again and reached out to touch his shoulder, a comforting gesture. “Trunks-kun, are you okay?”

“Okaasan.” He whispered quietly, and another tear fell. “She….” He swallowed hard, blinking back tears. “She’s gone. I can’t feel her ki at all. Someone just….killed her.”

Tayhei felt the world fall out from underneath her, and she blinked back tears of her own. Bulma had been more of a mother to her than anyone else in the world, and she had loved her dearly. She had welcomed her into her home, given her friendship, given her respect, and most of all, given her love in return. She wanted to cry out and scream obscenities, she wanted to hunt whoever killed her down and beat them senselessly. But right then, there was only one thing that she had to do. For once, she didn’t care if it made her look weak, she didn’t care what he thought of her, didn’t care what anyone else thought either.

Tayhei choked back a sob and wrapped Trunks up in her arms.

If he was shocked at the gesture, he didn’t show it. He just merely hugged her back and cried soft tears into her hair. She rubbed his back comfortingly, and though she felt like sobbing, her eyes remained dry. I have to be strong for Trunks. I have to be strong for him. She asserted, and held on to him tighter.

“I’m so sorry, Trunks-kun.” She whispered softly, meaning it with all of her heart.

His tears subsided, and he pulled back slightly to glare at her fiercely. “You don’t understand. She was my mother. God, I loved her. I don’t what I am going to do. She was all I had! Otousan doesn’t care. She was the only one that really cared about me that much! The only person.”

Tayhei swallowed hard, remembering the feeling of his warm lips on hers. “That’s not true.”

“Who else then?!” He demanded, “Who else in my life really loves me?!”

Everything stopped. The time, the snow, her breath, and even her heartbeat. All she could see was the perfection of his face, the pain in his eyes. Who else in my life really loves me?! The question ran through her mind, echoing endlessly until it buried itself deep in her heart.

“I do.” She murmured under her breath, too quietly for Trunks, or even herself to hear.

“We have to do something!” He cried, suddenly grabbing her hands. “Please, you have to fly with me. I can’t leave you here and I need to go….I need to find her and Otousan. I need to find out what happened.”

She gave him a small nod, and he gently grabbed her around the waist, stopping for a moment to gaze into her green eyes. Tayhei swallowed quickly, trying desperately to regain her composure, to not let any part of her be revealed to him, because she had revealed too much already. If Trunks knew how she felt, if anyone knew how she felt, she would lose respect, and she just plain couldn’t handle that. Looking into his soft blue eyes then though, it was hard to forget about her feelings, and hard for her to keep her balance. She wanted to let him know that she cared, that she really wasn’t a bad person, but she had been acting for so long that she didn’t trust herself to be normal again. More importantly, she didn’t trust anyone else, and if there was a chance that she might get hurt, she didn’t want to take it. She took in a shaky, deep breath and closed her eyes. Later, she promised herself. Later.

Not sensing the change in Vejiita yet, Pi let out a frustrated nonsensical yell at his lack of reaction, turned and began walking towards Bulma’s body, the bloody sword still clutched in her hands. She wanted pain, she wanted anger. She wanted revenge for all of the years on this god forsaken, freezing cold, hellhole of a planet. There was a burning hatred inside of her, and although she knew it wasn’t normal --- knew that no one else was like this, she relished in it. She had no heart, and as far as she knew, she had no soul either. The one thing that gave her any satisfaction in life was the feel of fresh blood, someone else’s dying scream. They had told her before that she was evil, that there was something not quite right about her, but as far as she was concerned, she was the truest Saiya-jin that had ever roamed the universe. Every Saiya-jin had these thoughts, these feelings, the bloodlust. They all chose to ignore it, or tone it down.

But I have cultivated it! Made it into something spectacular; something so dark and purely powerful that it’s incomprehensible for most. The others don’t understand, and never will….But they don’t matter anymore. Nothing matters except getting my revenge, and getting power.

It wasn’t Vejiita’s fault, deep down she knew that, but he was here, he was an enemy, and that was good enough for her. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be reacting at all. She thought for sure once she killed his Earthling mate that he would be ready to fight, but he was just sitting there staring at her like a dumb doll.

She brushed a strand of hair away from her face with one bloody hand, leaving a streak of red across her forehead and looked at the Earthling woman. She was still bleeding, and the snow around her was a deep red; her body was twisted around haphazardly, and her face was staring up at her, looking calm and peaceful in death. Pi suddenly hated her too.

“What? She isn’t dead enough for you, Vejiita?” Pi asked angrily. “Maybe I can fix that.”

She raised the sword above her head, preparing to slash down, to obliterate the Earthling, wanting nothing more than to taste blood and feel the life drip away from someone else.

And then suddenly, she was flying through the air.

All she could see was gold; it fell around her, thick like snowflakes, warm like blood. She landed hard in the snow several feet away with a loud thud, scattering snow up into the frigid, golden air. The golden glow surrounded her, and became so bright that she had to close her eyes to protect them from the pain. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck rose up, and she fumbled around in the snow blindly, trying to get back up on her feet. The power that was there was so large that it was crackling like electricity, she could feel her body tingling with it, and she began to quake in fear.

Footsteps crunched at the snow until they reached her, and she looked up to see Vejiita’s boots, and then followed, looking up at the entire length of his body. When she reached his face, she gasped, looking at the bright emerald green eyes and the golden hair. She brought her hand up to her mouth in surprise, and scrambled to her unsteady feet, frightened. She might have had a chance before, stronger than almost any other Saiya-jin she knew. But against a Super Saiya-jin? She didn’t stand a chance.

The gold glow that had surrounded her was actually coming from Vejiita, lighting up the snowy landscape like a torch in the dark. His hair had grown longer too, making him look almost unrecognizable as a Super Saiya-jin. However angry he might have been inside, his chiseled face showed no emotion whatsoever as he calmly reached down and grabbed Pi around the neck.

Her sword fell from her hands and for once, Pi actually felt helpless. He wasn’t actually gripping her that tightly --- she could still breathe, but something in that expressionless face of Vejiita’s told her that she was going to die.

She swallowed hard and fought to regain her composure. “Killing me will not bring her back.” She choked out, struggling to annunciate her words.

He blinked and loosened his grip on her neck a little. “You’re right.”

Pi sighed with relief, and then gasped with a sputter when she felt his grip tighten again. He reached down with his other hand and picked up her bloody sword, gripping it so tightly that the handle nearly shattered.

Vejiita glared at her and flipped the sword up to her neck. “But it’ll bring me a hell of a lot of satisfaction."

Chapter 73
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