The first thing that they saw when they reached Capsule Corporation was Koronu, calmly perched on top of Juunana-gou’s unconscious body. One boot was propped up on the android’s head, the other was curled underneath her, and her tail lazed about in the hot afternoon sun. A glass of iced tea was in her hand. With an inward smile, Tayhei surmised that she was guarding her kill. The Saiya-jin woman did have quite an interesting way of keeping watch, however. If it weren’t for the sleeping jinzouningen beneath her, she could have looked as though she were relaxing. When she looked up to see the approaching visitors, she merely raised her glass and gave them a sideways smirk, as if to toast their victory. Standing a stone’s throw away, in the shade of a flowering tree, was Piccolo. He had his arms crossed tightly, but looked to be relaxed, leaning up against the strong trunk of the tree. He raised his eyebrows in greeting, and Tayhei noticed a bit of discoloration between his eyes --- almost like a bruise.

“It’s about time.” The Namek growled at them in his usual deep, rumbling voice. He watched them carefully as they touched down to the ground, their feet making no noise as they stepped down onto the grass. Tayhei had no idea what had gotten him all upset, but she wasn’t about to ask. Normally she would have enjoyed a good fight, but at the moment she was far too drained to engage in such a thing. Instead, she merely rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head. Then she cast another glance at the fallen android noting that he was bleeding from the head. If they wanted to keep the jinzouningen healthy, that would have to be fixed later. Mirai Bulma could probably do it; she wouldn’t feel right about appointing one of the medical staff to take care of him.

Tayhei looked over at the woman, and found that she was staring at Koronu with wide eyes, probably taking in the wild black hair and the long tail. She didn’t look completely frightened, but her eyes seemed to waver on the tail for a moment longer than was necessary. Goten also caught the woman looking and grinned, the smile stretching all the way across his handsome face.

“Mirai Bumla-san, this is my Obaasan. Koronu.” He told her proudly, nodding towards his grandmother.

Bulma looked at the Saiya-jin woman with a wary smile plastered on her face. Again, her eyes fell on the tail. “Trunks told me about you. Gokuu’s mother, eh? It’s amazing that they found you after all these years. If I have time during my visit, I would be delighted to hear your story. I’m sure you have a thousand tales to tell. I keep records of everyone’s history for future reference --- you never know when you’re going to need things like that. Anyway, it would be quite useful to hear your story and be able to write it all down. I don’t have much information on Gokuu’s past, other than that fact that he was a sent here as a baby to destroy the planet.” She smiled again. “Luckily for the people of Earth, he didn’t follow through with that mission.”

Koronu shrugged and stared at her evenly. “We all make mistakes.”

Tayhei stifled a laugh, ignoring the confused and almost disgusted look on Mirai Bulma’s face. Koronu had tried to say something similar to her when they first met, but Tayhei had simply shot back a reply and given her a smirk. That was just Koronu’s way of testing people; testing them to see what kind of people they were and how they reacted to things. And more often than not, those tests were rather amusing. The Saiya-jin woman didn’t actually look upon Gokuu as a failure for not destroying the Earth. She just wanted to see how Mirai Bulma would react to the statement. If Tayhei weren’t so angry with the future woman at the moment, she might have comforted her with that fact, but instead she kept her mouth shut.

“We managed to cut him down before he did any damage.” Koronu told them suddenly, changing the subject and pointing down at Juunana-gou.

Goten released the two of them and Tayhei shook the dust off of her dress, smoothing out the wrinkles. She didn’t really care about Juunana-gou. The only thing she wanted to know was if Bra was safe. Trunks wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so she assumed that he was he was with his sister, but she could never be sure. Judging from Trunks’s usual lack or responsibility, he could have completely forgotten that she was in the house at all. It was possible that Bra hadn’t even met with Juunana-gou at all, but Tayhei was pretty sure that Bra couldn’t resist a new playmate. The girl was far too trusting and too innocent to realize danger, and it was that simple fact that made her stomach queasy. She just hoped that nothing had happened to her. As casual as she could, she pushed the golden hair out of her eyes and looked down at Koronu. “Is Bra okay?”

“Hai. She’s a little shaken up, though. The bastard tried to use her as his shield, took her hostage. I managed to distract him while Trunks came at him from behind, wielding that thing.” Koronu pointed at the flowering pot. “Knocked him good and hard on the head and he just crumbled to the ground.”

Mirai Bulma placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her deep blue eyes, staring at Juunana-gou. “I’ll have to get started on working out a plan right away. I have something in mind, but I’m going to need to take him down into my workshop. I don’t see any danger in that, so long as someone is down there to watch over him. I don’t want him waking up before I’ve figured out a way to keep him contained.”

Staring at this future woman, who looked so much like the Bulma that she had known, Tayhei felt instant anger flare up. It felt as though Mirai Bulma was just moving right in and taking over; she couldn’t help but notice the fact that the woman had referred to it as her workshop. She fought the urge to scream that the workshop wasn’t hers --- it was Bulma’s, the real Bulma’s. She didn’t like the fact that Mirai Bulma thought she could just walk into this world and steal everything away, before they’d even finished grieving. She didn’t know for sure if it was like that or not, but Tayhei had never been the type to openly trust someone. Besides, the earlier incident in the Capsule Car was bound to cause a certain amount of animosity between them. After all, the woman had nearly gotten them killed. That wasn’t something that Tayhei could easily overlook.

Next to her, Goten reached up and scratched his head quizzically. His dark eye’s sought out Koronu’s, giving her a questioning glance. “How did you manage to distract Juunana-gou while Trunks hit him over the head?”

A wide, cat-like smile spread across the Saiya-jin woman’s face. Tayhei could see the mirth dancing around in those deep black eyes and found herself smiling as well. It wasn’t often that such a mischievous look crossed Koronu’s features. She was normally a very serious person, but it could be seen as plain as day now. The Saiya-jin woman lifted the glass of iced tea up and pointed it at Piccolo.

“Well, I suppose it really wasn’t me.” Koronu admitted. “Juunana-gou was distracted because Piccolo fell asleep and came crashing down from the sky.”

Piccolo looked at them all sideways, and lifted his mouth in a slight snarl. “She claims I fell asleep. I suspicion that there was a bit more to it than that.”

“That shouldn’t really matter, should it?” Mirai Bulma pointed out with a shrug. “The important thing is that Juunana-gou is unconscious and we have time to think of a plan. Koronu, would you be so kind as to pick him up and carry him down to the laboratory for me? I need to do some tests on him before I can get started.” The woman turned and met Tayhei’s eye. “I was hoping that you could give me a bit of help, as well. I may not know this workshop as well, and I’m sure that there is a giant gap between my technology and yours. Even if it’s just to show me around the laboratory, I could really use your help.”

Because the fate of the world was at stake --- and only because the fate of the world was at stake, Tayhei nodded her head.

Walking down the familiar hallways made Mirai Bulma feel calmer somehow, more relaxed. Maybe it was the warm yellow of the walls, or the clean, strong scent of the lilacs that staff always filled the house with. She hadn’t realized just how much she had missed her home until now. It had all been a blur back in her own world: they had packed up and left it so quickly that she had forgotten to take all of the memories with it. The Capsule Corporation of the future world had been destroyed shortly after that. The jinzouningen had nearly crushed it to the ground. Years later, when she came to scavenge around the wreckage for lost lab materials, she found it a dark and scary version of the building that she used to know. Instead of warm yellow walls, there was cracked plaster and cobwebs; insistent ivy crawled up the walls and wrapped around the exposed ceiling beams. And instead of the smell of lilacs, there was an awful, stale smell that seemed to hang in the air like a cloud around her head. It had hurt her to see her childhood home this way. And it had hurt her even more when she realized that she couldn’t remember what Capsule Corporation had been like before.

This Capsule Corporation though, still stood proud. It was clean, light, airy, and welcoming. It made her long to stretch out on the couch in the sunlight, wearing nothing but a pair of cutoffs and a bikini top. She used to sit on that couch for hours, reading fashion magazines and eating pastries. For awhile, she had been content with that life, but, as the case with most young teenage girls, she grew bored. She wanted to go out and have her own adventures, see some excitement. She didn’t know if she regretted that decision or not; she probably wouldn’t ever know. There were definitely times when she regretted stepping out of that door, ready to hunt for these strange things called dragonballs. It seemed as though her whole life had been one awful blur of death and disappointment ever since she had met Son Gokuu and nearly ran the boy over with her car. If she had just stayed on that sun soaked couch, reading her magazines and eating her pastries, none of those things would ever have happened.

But there were good moments too, moments that she treasured in her heart and would keep forever: the friendships that she had made, the beautiful places that she had seen, her time with Yamucha --- however brief it might have been. And there was Vejiita, of course. He was a tough warrior, a strong warrior, and there might not have been any room in his heart for her. But he gave her Trunks, and for that alone, she was grateful. She supposed that if they had had the time, their relationship could have grown. Like the Bulma and Vejiita of this world, they could have had their second child, could have lived in this beautiful home together. Perhaps they could have even spent their afternoons on the couch together. But she would never be able to find that out. She would never know what it might have been like. Fate had already dealt her the life that she had to live, and she was already well on that path.

As she reached the door to her laboratory and touched the familiar, cool metal handle of the door, she sighed. It seemed like everything in her life began and ended with the jinzouningen. It was their fault that she would never get to have that perfect family or live in this comfortable house. They had caused everything --- all of the destruction, all of the death, all of the pain. And now she was helping them. Though she wasn’t sure why she was helping them, she had a pretty good idea. She was a good person; she had a strong heart and a true soul. And no matter how many times she was kicked and thrown down by life, she still had hope and faith in it. Foolish as it may be, she still believed in fairy tales, believed wholeheartedly in the good of people and the kindness of those that were watching over her. The jinzouningen had ruined her life in the future world, but these jinzouningen were different. There was still hope for them, hope that Mirai Bulma felt burning brightly in her heart.

They entered the laboratory, in a single file line with Bulma leading them. As she switched on the lights and saw the fluorescent rows light up before her, her mouth dropped open in shock.

It had changed completely. There was much more technology now, many more instruments and tables and testing sights. The way that she remembered it before, back when her father had been running it; it was perpetually messy and cluttered. There had been papers and files everywhere, and test tubes had broken and shattered on the floor, seeping into the dirty tile. But now, as the room lit up before them, Bulma was startled to see that it was sparkling clean. The counters and tables gleamed white, the instruments were shining metal, and the tile floor was spotless and bare. In the corner, there was also a row of cages, each holding tiny, fuzzy animals that looked suspiciously like hamsters. She was amazed. Her father’s old, decrepit laboratory had been changed into a professional, clean work station. In surprise, she glanced up at Tayhei, her deep blue eyes wide.

“We cleaned it up a bit.” The girl clarified evenly.

Bulma watched her as grabbed a lab coat off of a hook near the door, shouldering into it as she walked. The girl rolled the sleeves up to her elbows, quickly smoothing out the wrinkles. She moved around a row of countertops to a long, flat examination table; this was also a new feature to the lab. The girl stepped up and flicked on the light that was above the table, casting a much brighter glow onto the clean, white surface of it. Bulma titled her head, impressed. The way that Tayhei moved around the lab was proficient, but it wasn’t that part that impressed her; it was her confidence, the way that she didn’t pause or hesitate before doing anything here. She acted much like Bulma herself had acted in the laboratory, so long ago: as if nothing could touch her and she couldn’t possibly fail at anything.

“Is that where you want me to drop him?” Koronu asked Tayhei with a smirk. “The last time I dropped something down on one of your tables, you just about had a fit.”

The girl flashed an equally intimidating smirk. “That wasn’t a table --- it was my desk, baka. And for your information, it took me hours to redo those notes that you let Piccolo bleed all over.” Tayhei paused when the Saiya-jin woman let out a low laugh. “Just set Juunana-gou down and stay close. I don’t want Juunana-gou waking up and causing trouble in my laboratory.”

Mirai Bulma bristled at her words. The girl had referred to it as her laboratory. It was true that she didn’t know the circumstances of the relationship between this world’s Bulma and Tayhei, but it bothered her just the same. It almost seemed as though she had just moved right in as soon as Bulma died, changing things and taking over. She didn’t really think that Tayhei had it in her heart to do something like that, but at the moment, Mirai Bulma was too tired and too on edge to listen to reason. She gritted her teeth, trying to tell herself that this young girl was the same Tayhei that she had known. She was the same Tayhei that had listened when she wanted to talk, the same Tayhei that had fallen in love with her son so long ago. She watched the girl carefully, focusing not on the way that she was strapping Juunana-gou down to the table with assurance or the way that she talked with Koronu, but focusing on her eyes. They were still the same, bright emerald green. It was those beautiful eyes that gave away the only hint of the real Tayhei --- the Tayhei that Bulma had known in the future world.

Mirai Bulma had loved that girl. She had known from the very first time that she met, from the very first time that the girl and her son appeared in her kitchen together, that Tayhei would somehow change their lives. She had been shy at first, hadn’t quite known what to say to anyone. But those big green eyes had been so open and so full of life. Bulma could see straight through them, to the girl that she really was. She could see the goodness and purity of her heart; could see the childlike wonder and aching loneliness that was etched in her soul. Little by little, she had fallen in love with that girl, just the way that her son had eventually fallen for her too.

Thinking of that, thinking of the way that her son had felt about Tayhei, made the guilt sweep over her again. Their Tayhei had died. Her life had been cruelly taken away by the jinzouningen in a battle that she just wasn’t prepared to fight in yet. She had seen the way that her son had ached after Tayhei died, had seen the way that his eyes had just become permanently haunted and hollow. It was only just recently that she had seen a little bit of life slip back into the boy. She realized now that he had come here looking for her, that he had known he would find her here. And stupidly, selfishly, she had taken his hope out in a Capsule Car and practically driven right out on top of Juuhachi-gou. Once again, the jinzouningen had threatened to take Tayhei’s life again, and once again, Trunks had to watch it.