He studied his father --- or the man that his father might have been, watched him with unblinking sky blue eyes. It had been a long time since he had last seen Vejiita fight, but it seemed different to him this time. He no longer attacked intelligently and smugly, no longer had the careful, calculated style of fighting that he used to have. Vejiita was fighting the female jinzouningen in a completely different style, in a style that made Mirai Trunks’s heart uneasy. His movements were quick and angry; his were eyes fierce. He was fighting like an animal, with so much fury that it was almost frightening. He was attacking Juuhachi-gou over and over again, so viciously that it was a wonder she was still breathing. The cold, raging look on Vejiita’s face was unsettling and scary for Trunks to see. This was not the Vejiita that he had met before, not the Vejiita he had trained with in the room of spirit and time. This was a completely different warrior --- one that was fueled by grief and fury.

When he saw Vejiita punch the android so hard that her head snapped to the side and blood appeared, Trunks had to look away. It was almost too much. He didn’t feel sorry for the jinzouningen at all, especially not Juuhachi-gou. After all, she had just destroyed an entire city, and killed thousands and thousands of people. But in fighting, there was a line of brutality that just shouldn’t be crossed. Even when he had killed the jinzouningen in his own timeline, it had been quick. They were dead in less than five minutes, he didn’t draw it out and torture them. He wanted to. His mind told him that those horrible machines deserved it. But his heart refused to let him kill someone that savagely. It just wasn’t right. To rid himself of the unsettling image, he turned his head and looked up to where Gokuu was still standing in mid-air, watching over the battle.

Without even realizing it, his feet were suddenly off the ground and he was flying through the thick haze of smoke. Vejiita and many others might have called Gokuu an imbecile, but Mirai Trunks thought he was a much wiser man than anyone gave him credit for. He was watching the battle with the same discontented look on his face, his brows furrowed together as if he couldn’t quite understand why Vejiita was attacking Juuhachi-gou with such cruelty. Slowly, Trunks flew out of the smoke and into the older Saiya-jin’s view, then tilted his head up in a greeting. Together, the two of them watched the battle, their eyes following Vejiita’s movements closely.

“Why is he fighting like that?” Mirai Trunks finally asked him, needing to find an answer. He simply could not accept the viciousness of his fighting. “This isn’t normal, is it? I’ve never seen him look so angry before.”

Gokuu looked over at him, crossed his arms uneasily. “I don’t think he’s really fighting Juuhachi-gou right now. I don’t know what it is, but there is something more than just this particular fight going on down there. There’s a battle raging within Vejiita as well. I’m sure Trunks told you about what happened on Sukuashi --- what happened to Bulma-san. Vejiita still hasn’t come to grips with it yet. If anything, I think he just might be taking out his frustrations and his anger down there. It’s healthy for him to do so; I think it’s a good thing that he’s getting all of that out of his system. But I don’t think that Juuhachi-gou’s life or her chance to be normal should be taken away, just because Vejiita is a grieving.”

“Juuhachi-gou’s life should be taken away because she killed an entire city full of people, and if we don’t kill her, she’ll just do it again.” Trunks clarified, narrowing his sky blue eyes at his companion. “I know what the jinzouningen are like, Gokuu. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve witnessed the kind of death and destruction that they can cause. I don’t agree that she or Juunana-gou should be killed so brutally, but I do believe that she should die. After she killed all of those people, I don’t think it’s fair to let her live. There has to be some sort of justice. She should pay for her actions; she should suffer the same fate that all of those people down there did.”

Gokuu edged him a sideways glance. “I think,” He began slowly. “That death should not be our decision anymore. Death has proven to have a mind of its own and a plan that none of us are able to comprehend. We killed Raditsu in the very beginning, but I was killed in the process. We killed Freezer, but we lost Kuririn. We killed cell, but you had to die, as well as me again. We killed Buu, but we lost Vejiita, Gohan….everyone. And in this latest endeavor, we killed Sukuashi and we killed Pi. But it came at the price of Bulma and Yamucha. Death has its own balance, its own set track. And every time we come along and mess with it, one of our friends has to pay for it.”

“You couldn’t just let those enemies live.” Trunks pointed out. “They would have destroyed the Earth.”

Gokuu nodded once, then pointed down towards Juuhachi-gou, who was pitifully trying to defend herself against a raging Super Saiya-jin. “But our enemies this time are different. It’s not some stranger from outer space, not some super-human monster. They’re our friends. And there is a chance, a very big chance, that they can be rehabilitated and lead normal lives. I don’t think we have a right to take that chance away from them. And we certainly don’t have a right to kill them.”

When Trunks didn’t say anything, Gokuu spoke up again. “This isn’t your world, Trunks. Things are different here --- the jinzouningen are different here. If you want one good reason not to kill Juuhachi-gou, it’s a young girl who wears her hair in pigtails and loves her mother more than anything else in the world. Your Juuhachi-gou might have been a ruthless killer, but our Juuhachi-gou is a mother, a wife. She’s just really sick and confused right now and needs our help.”

He turned those words over in his mind, tried to digest them and accept them. He thought of his mother, thought of all of the people in the world that needed protection, thought of Tayhei. There was a whole world full of people out there that counted on him and needed him; a world of people that trusted him to keep them safe. And he had done his job. He had rid his world of the jinzouningen, made it a safe place for people to live in again. But Gokuu was right. This was not his world. These were not the jinzouningen that he knew. He had to remember that this Juuhachi-gou had a family, that she was loved by many people. It wasn’t easy to accept the fact that she was different, but it was necessary. It would be hard for him to show mercy and let her and Juunana-gou go, but it was the right thing to do.

“Things are getting pretty tense down there.” Gokuu suddenly interjected, in a voice that had just a tinge of alarm in it. “I think we should probably fly down and make sure that Vejiita doesn’t take things too far.”

Trunks let his senses guide him, let his heart feel for Piccolo’s ki as he flew. The fear was so thick and hot that it stung his eyes, blinding him as he dashed through the city, the wind flying past his face. As the cluster of skyscrapers went careening by, he began to feel even sicker and more frightened. He had a bad feeling that he was going to find Bra in danger. Her ki had never been that strong, or that significant, but he could feel it now, rising up and calling to him, like a flickering match in the dark. She was scared. He couldn’t see her, didn’t even know where she was, but he could practically taste her fear in his mouth. As he rounded the bend and flew down low, towards Capsule Corporation, that same sinking feeling returned.

He could see them now, Piccolo and Koronu in the air. Koronu was holding Piccolo back, struggling as the Namek leapt forward, shouting to something or someone down below them. His ki flared up like a sudden forest fire, shocking Trunks with its power and its anger. He had never seen Piccolo lose his cool before, had never known him to shake the calm exterior and become blindingly furious like that. There were very few things that could even possibly trigger Piccolo’s anger like that. Unfortunately, he knew that one of the Namek’s softest points was children; his friendship with Gohan, watching over them when they were on Sukuashi, rescuing Marron just now. As he neared the Capsule Corporation building, he fought the urge to bury his head in his hands and just hide. He knew that it was going to be bad, knew that something horrible was going to happen. He could feel it deep down in his soul.

Creeping closer in the air, he finally got a look at what was happening down on the Capsule Corporation lawn. His breath stalled in his throat and his heart nearly leapt out of his chest. Pale and shaking, he looked on with wide and horrified sky blue eyes as Juunana-gou held onto his sister, poised to snap her little neck.

All reason and logic left him. He just stood there, dumbfounded as Piccolo and the jinzouningen argued back and forth. All he could think about was Bra’s wide, brilliant smile, the soft turquoise hair, the way that she would sing made up songs in the car to annoy him. He remembered the time when he had gotten sick and she had attempted to make him soup --- a bowl of water with chunks of cooked chicken floating in it. He thought about her she would curl up against him at night, terrified of some childish nightmare. How she had cried when he told her that their mother was dead. She was so young, so full of life. So eager to please him and gain his affection. She just wanted to be loved and accepted, just wanted to make him proud. Tears threatened to come to him as he thought about it all, watching her as she struggled in Juunana-gou’s grasp.

He floated in the air for another second, debating what he should do. Then, he saw Koronu notice him. Maybe it was because she was a Saiya-jin warrior who had practiced such tactics before, or perhaps it was her sheer intelligence and deduction about what was going on below him. For whatever reason, she gave no indication that she had seen him except for a quick flick of her dark eyes and a light wave of her tail. No one else would have been able to tell that she had seen him, would have been able to know that he was there, just out of view, floating quietly in the air. But she knew, and Trunks could tell that she was willing to help him. She would distract Juunana-gou. He had no idea how this would work or what was going to happen if it didn’t work, but he had enough faith and hope to try it.

Stealthily, he backed up, then changed the course of his flight. He flew down low, behind the buildings that surrounded Capsule Corporation, then came out behind the house. He would attack Juunana-gou behind. The android was vulnerable now, his eyes focused completely on the two warriors before him, his hands full and his guard down. He figured that as long as he had a hostage, he’d be able to keep his enemies at bay. He didn’t even know that Trunks was a part of this --- didn’t even know that he was there. He would take advantage of that vulnerability, just as Juunana-gou had taken advantage of his sister’s sweetness and trust.

Well, Koronu thought with an inward smile. This is an interesting change of events. He’s come to rescue his sister. To be a hero. This does make things a bit easier. With Juunana-gou completely focused on her, Piccolo, and Vejiita’s brat, he most likely won’t even notice Trunks coming up behind him. But if he does notice, the girl will surely die. I have to think of some way to distract him then, some way to keep his attention on me instead of what is going on behind him. And, I have to keep Piccolo from alerting the android.

Her mind mulled over that last problem for a moment. She couldn’t just flat out tell him what was going on. She didn’t know what kind of hearing the jinzouningen had, but since they were created to be perfect, she was pretty certain that he would be able to hear anything that she possibly might say. But if she didn’t let him know what was happening with Trunks, then he might possibly ruin the plan by darting his eyes towards the boy or worse, shooting at him. A plan came to her suddenly, a wicked awful plan that had her grinning like a cat. Slowly, she turned to her furious companion and looked at him with serious dark eyes. She reached her hands out, made it look as though she were comforting him, steadying him so that he would drop the anger and be normal again. Piccolo looked back at her warily, as if he already knew that something bad was coming. In a tone so soft that it was barely heard over the breeze, she spoke to him: “I’m sorry about this.”

Then she drew her fist back and clocked him right between the eyes.

At first, the evil Juunana-gou didn’t know what to think. One moment the two of them were hanging the sky, glaring at him and ready to fight him --- and the next minute, the Saiya-jin woman slammed her fist into the Namek’s face and sent him crashing down to the ground, unconscious. There was no anger, no pause, no nothing. It happened so quickly that he didn’t even have a chance to blink. It took him a moment to actually comprehend what had just happened, then he burst out into a rich, wild laughter.

He lifted his hand up off of the girl’s head for a moment and pointed at the unconscious Namek, his body shaking with laughter. “What the hell kind of an offensive fighting tactic is tha---”

He broke off when he felt a sudden, sharp pain at the back of his scull. It felt like his head had actually been broken in half, as if it had simply split right down the middle. Then his arms and legs began to puddle at his feet and he melted down to the ground, dropping the girl and seeing stars.

Bra scrambled out of his grasp and ran off, but all he could focus on were the blades of grass that were in front of his face. They were so green, so vibrant, and still damp from the sprinklers that had probably been turned on that morning. The blades of grass faded, green seeping into gray, and his vision went completely black, except for a tiny pinpoint of light that appeared in the distance. His body relaxed, his mind reeled, stupefied, and then he dropped out of consciousness.

Trunks set down his mother’s cement flower pot and immediately raced over to his little sister, who was standing in the bright green grass with her arms wrapped around herself. She looked as though she were in shock, and there were still tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. Her hair was messed up, falling out of its ponytail as she stood there, rocking herself back and forth and crying. She didn’t appear to see him, didn’t appear to see anyone. Her deep blue eyes were glazed over and distance. His heart ached, and he walked closer to her, slowly, gently. “Bra-chan! Are you okay?”

Finally, her eyes lit up with some sort of awareness. She looked down at Juunana-gou, at the cracked flower pot, the blood coming from the android’s head. Then she saw him standing there, and his heart leapt when he saw the joy and relief that was written all over her face. In a flash, she was in his arms, hugging him so tightly that it almost hurt. She cried into his shoulder for a minute, just letting all of the fear and emotion out. He didn’t blame her. It was a scary situation for a girl that young to be in --- especially a girl that had not grown up fighting and didn’t know anything about defending herself. When she spoke, her voice was blubbering and watery: “I was so scared, Niichan, so scared. I’m sorry. I should never have come out. I should never have talked to him.”

He hugged her tighter, holding her head close to his chest and moving his hand over her soft turquoise hair. With a comforting and encouraging smile, he looked down at her face. “No, it’s not your fault, Bra-chan. You didn’t know.” His smile grew into a mischievous smirk, the kind of prideful, smug look that all members of the Vejiita line had learned to display. “And you were so brave. Can you think of any other little girl’s that would have been able to live through something like that?”

After a moment, she shook her head. The same, smug look was on her own face now. As if she was happy about the fact that she would be able to brag to her friends about the incident. Pride might have been something that she inherited from their father, but a love of drama was something that she had inherited from their mother. And there was nothing more dramatic than a near-death situation with a positive outcome. She would probably tell this story until her dying day. He smiled, ruffled her hair.

“Neither can I.”

Koronu came up beside them now, and quickly nudged Juunana-gou with the toe of her boot. When she didn’t move, she looked satisfied and then turned towards them, her dark eyes amused. She probably hadn’t expected him to knock the jinzouningen out with a flower pot. Then again, he hadn’t expected her to sucker punch Piccolo either. He actually had to fight to keep himself from laughing when that happened. He thought it had been funny to see Piccolo in a rage earlier, but seeing him get knocked out with one punch and sailing out of the sky was hilarious. No wonder Juunana-gou had let his guard down. He smiled again, thinking of how much Koronu probably enjoyed that.

“Is the girl okay?” She asked, reaching out to tug at Bra’s ponytail gently. She winked at her, then waved her tail about in an amusing fashion, probably trying to get Bra to crack a real smile. She was rewarded with a giggle, and didn’t even flinch when his sister reached out to pet her soft brown fur.