“This is so typical of you, Tayhei.” Trunks sneered at her, shaking head. His sky blue eyes glared over at her sharply, furiously. He expected a snap of anger from her, expected to see her mouth draw into a tight line and her vibrant green eyes light up in anger. He had been living with her for almost a year now and knew precisely what to say to make that brilliant fury rise up and explode out of her. It was one of the things that he had come to count on now --- one of the most steady and unchanging things in his life. He almost needed to hear her snap at him now, needed to see her get angry. It would be proof for him that his life hadn’t been turned completely upside down. But instead of snapping or even glaring, Tayhei just turned her head away from him and studiously stared at the ground.

“What? No insults?” He exclaimed in surprise. “Nothing? You’re just going to stand there?”

She still stood still, giving absolutely no indication that she had even heard him. He glowered and crossed his arms tightly across his chest; his fingers were twitching with anticipation and anger. “You should just be glad that Otousan showed up when he did and saved your ass. Maybe now you can give him a little more respect. He didn’t have to save you, you know. He could have very well just left you there to die, but he didn’t. He jumped in front of that blast and saved your pathetic little life.”

He didn’t honestly think that his father would have left Mirai Bulma and Tayhei to die, but he wanted to make Tayhei feel as guilty as possible. He had actually felt a huge surge of pride in knowing that his father had been the one to save them. So often, Gokuu or someone else was the hero, but this time it had been his father --- the Saiya-jin no Ouji. Now everyone would know that even Vejiita had his moments of nobility; more often than not, everyone just viewed him as the angry little man who happened to be a Saiya-jin prince. Trunks knew better than that though; he knew how much it had taken his father to come out here at all, to jump in and save the two women from certain death. His father had been floundering lately and had been confused, but it looked as though maybe he had finally gotten all of his thoughts in order. He didn’t think that he would be able to hide again, now that he knew that both Mirai Bulma and Trunks were here. It simply wouldn’t be right, and his father always did what was right and what was true.

Tayhei gave no reply to his lecture at all however, just kept her head turned away. Her green eyes wandered over the cracked pavement, never lifting high enough for Trunks to catch them and read what was going on in her mind. Slowly, she picked up her hand and brushed away the dust that had accumulated along the hem of her white dress, and he could see that she was shaking a bit. Whether she was still in shock from what had just happened or actually shaking with anger, he didn’t know. But he wasn’t too positive that he liked this side of her. He was used to the vivacious, mischievous, arrogant Tayhei --- the one who wouldn’t have waited a second before snapping back a vicious response in his direction. To see her acting so quiet and so subdued was particularly disturbing for him. It was disturbing because seeing her like that made his arms ache to hold her. It wasn’t often that he caught Tayhei in a moment of vulnerability, but when he did, he couldn’t help the way that his heart wanted to reach out to her.

He was supposed to hate Tayhei. That was the way that their relationship went. She hated him, he hated her --- there were no secrets there. It was the foundation that they had been their entire, twisted friendship on. That’s why it so difficult for him to feel this way when he saw her so quiet and shaken. The sick fear that he had felt when he thought she was about to die also disturbed him. Given the nature of their relationship, he should have been almost satisfied that Tayhei was going to finally get what she deserved. But instead he had panicked, had felt fear slam into his stomach like a train. He consoled himself and thinking of Bra, in knowing how upset his little sister would have been if anything had happened to Tayhei. He was simply reacting out of empathy for his little sister --- there was nothing more to it than that.

Shaking his head to clear the heavy thoughts that were beginning to swim there, he walked over to Mirai Bulma. “Are you ready to go back now? I will carry you so that you don’t have to walk. It would be a good idea if we got you back to Capsule Corporation as soon as possible so you could work on some sort of a plan on how to restrain the jinzouningen.”

“I already have a tentative plan that I’ve been working on in my head.” Bulma offered slowly, as if she chewing over every one of the words that she had said. He could see in her eyes that she was already working on the plan, crunching numbers and dissecting her hypothesis in her head; he had seen his own mother with that same look many times. He could also catch sadness and guilt in there, buried underneath the impulse to create and invent. He wasn’t particularly clear on why she felt so guilty, but he knew that it had something to do with Tayhei. And he was pretty sure that it had something to do with Mirai Trunks as well. She brushed her long turquoise hair back and gave him a slight nod. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

He gently picked her up around the waist, just as he had done with his own mother many times before. In the beginning, when he had first started to fly, she had seen him as something as a taxi, insisting that he take her places for ‘practice’. He had never minded. His mother was not the heaviest thing on Earth, and she had usually rewarded him with some spending money or some extra treat after dinner. Next to him, Goten snatched up Tayhei and held onto her tightly as well, lifting off the ground in flight. Trunks purposefully ignored the pang of jealousy that came as a result of seeing Goten’s hands around the girl’s waist. He further ignored the feeling when he saw Goten bend over slightly and say something to her quietly, causing her face to brighten a bit.

It always made him angry to see any kind of flirtation between the two of them, though he wasn’t sure why. He told himself that it was because Goten was too nice of a guy to have someone as evil as Tayhei lurking around him. He also told himself that he was just angry at Tayhei for taking advantage of Goten’s kind heart and naïve nature. But if he really examined his heart carefully enough, he would find that those weren’t the reasons at all --- not even close. Fortunately, Trunks had never been one to examine his heart that closely; he was not an introspective person and never intended to be. He liked to live life for the moment and ignore all of the thoughts and feelings that grew inside of him. It wasn’t because he was scared of them; that wasn’t it at all. He just didn’t deem them necessary. Besides, he had much more important things to think about than silly things like his feelings and emotions. The world was under attack, his father had possibly just returned, his sister was upset, they had visitors from the future….He wasn’t even sure he would have time to think about thoughts and feelings with everything that was going on in his life at the moment.

Rising above the rubble of the city and into the air to join Goten, he held onto Mirai Bulma tightly. He was sure that he wouldn’t drop her, but he wanted to hold on tight just in case. The city below them would not be something very nice to fall into. The fires were still raging, burning a vicious orange color as they raced across the fallen buildings, hungrily lapping up anything that was flammable. There were also live wires, jagged shards of glass, and broken sheets of steel that looks every bit as sharp as razors. His fingers twitched at her waist, taking in all of the horrible damage that was below them. It made him nervous to know that Juuhachi-gou had done this and even more nervous to realize that both Mirai Bulma and Tayhei were still in danger. They had to get them out of the city and into safety before anything else happened.

He and Goten shot through the air quickly, heading over to the three pinpoints in the air that they knew were Piccolo, Koronu, and Gokuu. Just when they got close enough to be able to make out the actual shapes of their bodies, something happened. It was quick, almost too quick for Trunks to catch, but suddenly Piccolo was falling out of the air and the male jinzouningen was racing off into the distance. Swaying a bit, Piccolo rose back up and then immediately chased after Juunana-gou, following Koronu who had already begun to hunt the jinzouningen down. Trunks blinked in shock for a moment, not quite sure what to do. It had all happened so suddenly that he had barely had time to breathe before it was all over with.

His head whipped over to Goten. “Did you see that?”

He nodded slowly, his dark eyes wide and unblinking. “Juunana-gou got away.”

In his grasp, Mirai Bulma looked sharply over her shoulder, her mouth gaping. “What? He got away?!” Her deep blue eyes shot back to the tiny figures in the air, trying to make some sense out of what had just happened. “Is anyone hurt? I thought they had him contained! How could he have gotten away so easily? Are you deliberating just trying to frighten me?”

A little surprised by the sudden barrage of questions, Trunks raised his eyebrows at her and smiled grimly. “No unfortunately I am not just trying to frighten you. He really did just get away from Piccolo, knocked him out of the air for a moment. And no, no one appears to be injured. I don’t know how he managed to get away, unless he caught Piccolo off guard. And believe me, catching Piccolo off guard is not an easy thing to do. The Namek knows all and sees all.”

“Juunana-gou isn’t coming back towards the city, is he?” Tayhei asked quietly, directing her question towards no one in particular. Again, she looked slightly unnerved, as if she were just on the edge of being scared. Trunks had to look away from her before he started feeling sorry for her again. He didn’t want those kinds of feelings polluting his system right now. Not when they obviously had an emergency to deal with. With Juunana-gou on the loose, they were obviously going to have to work harder. Now they weren’t just battling one jinzouningen, they were battling two. And both jinzouningen had a strong amount of power and could potentially hurt a lot of people. If Juunana-gou was heading back towards the destroyed Satan City, he might actually feel a bit better. At least there was nothing left for him here to destroy. But as he watched the male jinzouningen fly off, an icy cold feeling began to creep into his heart. Juunana-gou wasn’t flying towards them at all. He was flying straight towards a different city.

Goten looked ahead and squinted, scrunching up his face as he watched Piccolo and Koronu race off after the male jinzouningen, each bursting into a brilliant display of ki and power as they chased him. He nodded his head towards them, indicating their direction. “They’re heading towards East Capitol City.”

Tayhei frowned deeply, looking out over the horizon and raising a hand to shade her eyes from the sun. “Capsule Corporation is in East Capitol City.”

The icy cold feeling grew stronger and it gripped hard onto Trunks’s heart, squeezing it like a vise. It spread out through his veins and into his limbs, until his fingers began to tingle with horror and apprehension. That same, sick feeling of fear that had struck him when he watched Juuhachi-gou’s attack hurtle towards Tayhei began to seep into his trembling heart once more. He turned to her with wide, sky blue eyes, not even thinking to guard the frightened expression that he knew had fallen onto face. He spoke in a quiet, shaking voice.

“Bra is in East Capitol City.”

Gokuu looked up just in time to see Trunks fly past him in a rush of gold and power, his hand clenched tightly at his sides and his face grim.

The boy raced after Piccolo, Koronu, and the male jinzouningen, slicing through the clouds and the smoke from the city like a freshly sharpened knife. Gokuu didn’t know what had upset the young boy so much, but he was glad that his mother and Piccolo would be getting some extra help. Trunks was a strong fighter, a determined fighter, and someone who wouldn’t give up until he drew his last breath. The boy could be very much like Vejiita sometimes; he could sense that same, never-ending fortitude and pride in the boy’s heart. It was nice to know that some of the Saiya-jin no Ouji’s more pleasing attributes were passed down the line, along with the burning temper and blind arrogance.

“Otousan!” A voice yelled towards him.

He spun around to see Goten behind him, carrying both Mirai Bulma and Tayhei in his arms. He was glad to see that both of the women were in good condition; he had been pretty sure that when Juuhachi-gou’s blast headed towards their Capsule Car, they were done for. But because of Vejiita, they were both alive and well, thought they might be shaken up a bit. Tayhei looked more calm than the older woman, her green eyes on the landscape below them, watching the battle between the Saiya-jin prince and Juuhachi-gou. Mirai Bulma looked a little more worn out and frightened and her familiar deep blue eyes looked red from tears. Goten was carrying each of them on either side of his body, and the women had their arms locked around his neck.

“Goten-kun, why didn’t Trunks help you carry them safety?” He wondered aloud, looking in the direction that Trunks had just disappeared in. “Why did he just chase after everyone like that?”

Goten frowned momentarily and met him with dark and worried eyes. “He said something about Bra-chan, then just handed me Mirai Bulma and took off. I think he’s worried that something might happen to her, because she’s at Capsule Corporation by herself. Since Juunana-gou was headed in that direction, he got a little spooked. I mean, look at what Juuhachi-gou did to Satan City….There’s nothing left. He just didn’t want the same thing to happen to his city or his little sister.”

Gokuu accepted the answer as a logical explanation. Trunks had never shown that much interest in his sister, but he guessed that since Vejiita left, the boy might have been trying to be more of a father figure for Bra. As for him leaving Goten with the responsibility of carrying two full grown women, it didn’t, that was pretty acceptable too. The boy didn’t appear to be struggling with his burden, so Gokuu didn’t ask if he could help. He did grin boyishly at Mirai Bulma though, glad to see her. He had just told his mother that he wished she were here, and it looked as though he had gotten his wish. “Bulma-san! It’s so good to see you!”

A smile lit up her face as well, and she began to look more like the Bulma that he had known. She tilted her head slightly and her eyes sparkled more with tears of happiness than defeat. “Son-kun….I thought I would never get to see you again. I am so glad that you are here and that you’re fighting the jinzouningen. I would be a lot more frightened if I didn’t know you were watching over us.”

He laughed heartily and then pointed back down towards the battle that was going on below them. “I’m not actually fighting during this round. I think Vejiita can handle it on his own. I am only here to make sure that he doesn’t do anything to harm Juuhachi-gou too badly. I think both he and Mirai Trunks have that look in their eyes like they want to kill her.” He paused for a moment, his expression growing serious. “Do you think you’ll be able to find a way to turn the jinzouningen back to how they were before? Back to normal?”

Bulma tightened her grip around Goten’s neck and pursed her lips in thought. The look on her face was so familiar that Gokuu had to smile; it was her ‘scientist face’, the look that she got whenever she had a new task and the beginnings of a plan. There was never a time when her deep blue eyes had looked more intelligent. She smiled sadly. “I don’t think there was ever a time when the jinzouningen were normal, Son-kun. Dr. Gero created them to be abnormal, created them to be this way. I think that they were able to resist his programming for a while and try to lead normal lives, but that programming was always still inside of them. Something happened to make it stronger….I’m not sure yet what it was. But if I can figure out what it was that triggered their relapse into evil, I can possibly fix it. In the meantime, I think I may have an idea on how to restrain them. But I’ll have to get to Capsule Corporation first so that I can work it out.”

Gokuu nodded, then cast a glance at his youngest son. “Goten, do you think you can take Mirai Bulma to Capsule Corporation as fast as you can? I know it will be hard if you’re carrying both her and Tayhei, but I can’t leave my post here to help you. You probably aren’t going to be able to beat the others to East Capitol City, but you can try. Bulma-san needs to get there as soon as possible so that she can use her tools and her workshop to figure something out.”