All that Marron could see for miles and miles was destruction. It surrounded her, buried her. There were fires everywhere. Bright orange and red flames jumped up and danced in slow motion around her body; she could feel the heat of them biting at her skin and singeing her pale blond hair. Skyscrapers tumbled to the ground in explosions of metal, glass, and people. Greedily, the fire swept them up as well, roaring over the rubble like a burning tidal wave, sending curls of black smoke smoldering into the air. The noise of the explosions and the shattering of glass was so horrible that it seemed to attack her ears. She felt something crack deep inside her ears began to ring loudly and painfully, an excruciatingly shrill tone, over and over and over. She threw her hands over her ears, clutching them tightly and trying to hold out the sound. She ducked to avoid the burning debris, which were tumbling through the sky, sending sparks and smashing into the remnants of buildings. The dust and smoke caught in her throat and she chocked, coughing so hard that her chest began to ache. She tried to run, but found that her legs were stone. She screamed through the fire and smoke, but no sound was heard.

Then, through the wall of flames, a figure began walking towards her. Marron couldn’t see clearly and she squinted, still struggling to quell the smoke-induced coughing. The figure moved slowly and smoothly, as if they were floating through the air, riding on the trails of smoke. Marron squinted again and leaned forward suddenly, forgetting the cough, the fire, the destruction, everything. Fear gripped her soul like a vise and again, she silently struggled to scream out in terror.

Ice blue eyes turned to meet her gaze.

“Human.” The figure hissed. “Human piece of trash.”

It was her mother, but at the same time, it wasn’t her mother. Wiring and bionics were showing through her usually pale, smooth, and flawless skin. Half of her head was completely wiring and metal, no sign of human skin or hair of anything ordinary except for the light blue eye, which drilled right through Marron’s soul. She seemed to threaten without even speaking. The smile on the usually beautiful face wasn’t demure or smirking; it was a cold, evil grin. It was calculating and knowing, as if she held all the power in the world between her two hands. She paused in her steps, looked up, and tilted her head in an unnatural angle. The evil grin grew into a malicious snarl.

Safe in bed at the Son House, Marron’s brows drew together suddenly and swear began to bead along her forehead. It was a nightmare that she could not wake up from yet, the same nightmare that she had been having over and over again. The scene varied from dream to dream; sometimes it was Juunana-gou, sometimes there was no destroyed city, and sometimes she could only watch as two of the most important people in her life began killing and causing damage. The end result though, was always the same: she was helpless, she was betrayed, and she was heartbroken. Again and again the dream repeated and again and again Marron died inside.

ChiChi had always been jealous of Juuhachi-gou. From the very moment that she had first seen her, a bit of envy had struck her heart. It was the way that every woman felt when they saw another woman that was a dozen times more beautiful. The female jinzouningen was stunning, a physically perfect specimen. Her body was long and slim and well-proportioned; the body of a model, with the strength of a fighter. Her features were delicate, her smile was appealing and bright, and her eyes were the most beautiful shade of crystal blue. In a room full of men, all she had to do was simply raise her head, tuck a stand of pale blond hair behind her ear, and she would instantly have an entire fleet of admirers begging for her affection. She was able to command the attention of everyone, so great was her beauty and mysteriousness. She was like Bulma in a way, though Bulma had always strived for attention and her skills at gaining affection and drawing crowds were practiced and finely tuned. Juuhachi-gou managed to do the same without even giving it a bit of effort.

What ChiChi envied the most about the female jinzouningen however, was not her looks or her charisma.

It was Marron.

When the girl had been younger --- nothing but a tiny little blond fairy with a big smile and innocent eyes, ChiChi had been completely captivated by her. Like most mothers, she viewed all children as the most endearing things in the world, and Marron had been no exception. It was her first time being around a little girl, really. She had gotten far too used to yelling and screaming and fighting, dinosaurs, filthy clothes, video games, band-aids, bad table manners, bugs, and lizards. The idea of a sweet, quiet little girl was anything but ordinary. When she watched Juuhachi-gou walking around, holding Marron’s little hand in hers, she felt as though her heart was aching. She loved her boys dearly; they had given her some of the best experiences in the world and they had both grown up to be incredibly men. But she had always wanted a little girl. She had always wanted a child that could be hers for once. No fighting, no lizards --- just tea parties and cooking lessons.

She had told Gokuu this once, long ago during an especially close moment. She had whispered it to him in the dark while his arms were still around her, not even realizing what she was saying until the words were already out of her mouth. She remembered the way that he had frowned intensely, staring at her with searching black eyes. He had thought it was his fault, though she knew it wasn’t so. He might have been happy with their boys and loved to spar with them and teach them how to fight, but he would never have wished for her to have only male children. Gokuu wouldn’t have cared if their children were boys or girls; he would have loved them the same and raised them the same. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, really. That was just the way things were.

She paused while cooking for a moment and placed a warm hand on her stomach. Hesitantly, she wondered how things were going to end up this time. The odds were against her of course; it seemed as though she and Gokuu were predisposed to churning out wild little boys. The chances of her actually being blessed with a daughter to have tea parties and cooking lessons with were slim. She didn’t know much about genetics or how to determine the sex of a baby, but all of the evidence seemed to point straight at another boy. She sighed and used her hands to softly mold the rice she had made into different shapes. It didn’t matter, really. The important thing was that she was having another child with the man that she loved.

Though, she thought with a smile as she arranged Marron’s plate, it wouldn’t hurt to hope.

A thought suddenly occurred to her as she set the plate aside and began to wrap it to keep it fresh. All of this was going on, but no one had thought to call Kuririn. She wasn’t sure if he knew where Marron was or not, but if he didn’t, then man was probably worried sick. He was notoriously protective of his little girl, even to the point of irrationality. She was actually a bit scared to call him. She didn’t want to hear that panicked, terrified tone in his voice. But it had to be done. In fact, she was rather ashamed of herself for not getting in touch with him sooner. It was beginning to get light outside now and pretty soon Kuririn would wake up and find his daughter missing.

She abandoned her cooking projects for a moment and walked over the phone on the far wall. Without hesitation, she picked up the receiver and dialed. Kuririn’s number was not one that she dialed often, but she had an amazing capacity for remembering such things. She cradled the receiver in the crook of her neck and busied herself with wiping her hands off on her apron. The phone rang several times before she finally gave in and hung up the phone. Either Kuririn was sound asleep and hadn’t heard it ring or he wasn’t home. Either way, she made a mental note to send Goten or Gokuu over there later on in the day. She wanted to make sure that Kuririn knew his daughter was safe so that he wouldn’t worry about her.

Another thought occurred to her as she picked up her cooking projects once more. It wasn’t something particularly pleasant to think about, but if Juunana-gou had snapped and reverted back into his old jinzouningen habits, then it was possibly that Juuhachi-gou had done the same. And if Juuhachi-gou had done the same while she was at home with Kuririn, something awful might have happened. She wanted to believe that Juuhachi-gou would never harm her husband, but if she wasn’t herself, anything could happen. She also knew for a fact that the female jinzouningen could easily kick the living daylights out of Kuririn, possibly kill him as well. If Kuririn had managed to escape before anything could happen, that was great --- but it also meant that Juuhachi-gou could possibly be harming other people. She didn’t feel as though anything had happened to Kuririn. She usually had a sick feeling when something awful had happened to one of her friends. She honestly felt that the man was okay, but she was still worried about Juuhachi-gou.

The female jinzouningen might be beautiful and charismatic, but she was dangerous as well.

Noticing that his patient seemed to be uncomfortable, Goten reached down and soaked the towel in cool water again, replacing it on her forehead. He felt horrible. Just knowing what had happened was giving him an awful, sick feeling in his stomach. He liked Marron, he really did. And he hated seeing her hurt like this, especially since he was well aware of how defenseless and innocent she was. She was a sweet girl that didn’t deserve to be pushed around and hurt, especially by a member of her own family. Feeling ill again, he brushed back a stray strand of pale blond hair from her face. Waking up might be even worse for her. Then she’d have to know that it wasn’t just a nightmare. She’d have to know that all of this had really happened to her.

“How is she?”

Goten looked up at the question and found his mother standing in the doorway, a plateful of food in her hand. She didn’t look half as tired as he felt. Tense, yes, but there were no signs of weariness around her eyes. He supposed that she had already seen it all. For a woman that had experienced everything that she had in life, something as terrible as this was just another ordinary, everyday occurrence. She had told him all the stories when he was younger, everything about all of the enemies that his father had fought in the past and all of the adventures that they had been through. Although she looked back on it all with a smile, Goten couldn’t help but feel bad for her sometimes. His mother deserved an ordinary life, one without aliens and androids and evil forces. She seemed so content to simply cook and garden and make her family comfortable and happy. On the other hand, though, perhaps she really was just the woman for the job. He highly doubted that any other woman could ever put up with his father or tolerate him and his brother. His mother was always a strong woman, but she showed her strength the most in times like these.

With a sigh, he looked down at Marron, who was sleeping with her brows drawn together in sadness, as if she were trapped in a bad dream.

“She’s still completely out.” He told his mother and he placed the cool towel back on the girl’s forehead. “I think the temperature is fading, though.”

“That’s a good sign.” His mother observed. “I’m sure it’s nothing too horrible. She just experienced some serious trauma and her body doesn’t know how to deal with it. Can you imagine how you would feel if it had happened to you?”

He shook his head rapidly. It was horrible to think about what she must have felt when her uncle attacked her like that. If anyone that he knew decided to try and kill him, he’d be hurt and betrayed, but it would be even worse if it were someone in his family. He knew that Marron and her uncle were close, too. It was simply too bad that it had to end up this way. Goten just hoped against hope that the same thing wasn’t happening to Juuhachi-gou. Given her position as Kuririn’s wife and Marron’s mother, it would make it very difficult to stop her. They couldn’t very well kill her. She was a wife and a mother and a friend. If they ended up having to fight the female jinzouningen, it would be unlike any fight they had ever been in. Instead of doing their best to defeat the enemy, they would have to find some way to stop her --- non-violently. That proposed a threat that none of them were used to. And besides all that, Juuhachi-gou was kind of scary.

His mother bent down and offered him the plate of food, dropping a napkin into his lap as she handed it to him. He accepted it gratefully, almost greedily. He had been concentrating so hard on watching Marron that he hadn’t even realized how hungry he had been. His stomach growled loudly as he began to eat, moving back out of the chair so that his mother could sit down again. He sure hoped she had cooked something else too, because he already knew that this little plate wasn’t going to be enough for him. He wouldn’t eat everything, of course --- he needed to save at least part of it for when Marron woke up. But that didn’t meant that he couldn’t have a tiny little feast of his own while she was still sleeping. He exited the room quietly and shut the door behind him, still shoveling food into his hungry mouth.

Without his father and Koronu around, the house was oddly quiet. He was used to silence and being alone; his father hadn’t been around much in the past few years. He had even grown to enjoy the quiet after awhile, using the darkness silence of the Son House as a way to calm himself after trouble at school or fights with Trunks. Now that his father was back though, and now that he had the addition of a grandmother to the family, the house was always busy with activity. Even his mother was much more talkative and bright than she used to be. Goten was slowly learning what it was like to be with a real, true family, and he was starting to like it. It seemed as though the house had fallen back into its old rhythm again now, however. His father was gone, Koronu was gone, and his mother was being quiet as well --- though not because she was depressed this time. He knew that it was nothing too serious. Within days the house would be back to normal again, hopefully sooner.

He wandered into the silent living room and took a seat on the couch, leaning back and flipping on the television. At this hour of the morning, they were usually running old fashioned cartoons; the kind of cartoons that were perfect for simply forgetting about everything else in your life and zoning out for a few minutes. He didn’t consider himself a cartoon-fiend by any means, but every once and a while it was good to let your mind have a rest. Especially if you were going through something as horrible as this, and had this many things on your mind.

As the screen flashed on before him though, he didn’t see cheerful cartoon characters or hear bouncy music and exaggerated sounds.