As they approached East Capitol City, Gokuu was pleased to see that it looked as though everything was peaceful and calm. There will people moving about on the sidewalks below, and the streets were full of taxi cabs, cars, and bicycles. There didn’t seem to be any kind of disturbance or any hint of fear, and there wasn’t any dark black smoke curling up into the sky either. Everything pointed to the idea that Juunana-gou had been contained. His heart leapt with joy at that thought; now that both of the jinzouningen had been captured, all of the drama would be over. The only thing that they had to worry about at this point was somehow changing the androids back to normal, and Gokuu had complete faith that Mirai Bulma would pull through for them. No one was smarter than Bulma. He looked over at his companions with a sloppy grin, his dark eyes dancing. “Everything appears to be okay. The whole city is unharmed. I guess they must have gotten him under control pretty easily.”

“Well, you apparently thought you had him under control before too, but that didn’t work out now, did it?” Vejiita snarled viciously, darting ahead of them and flying in the lead.

Gokuu frowned. Vejiita was right. They had let their guard down and Juunana-gou escaped. Perhaps things weren’t as simple as he originally thought they would be. He had learned early on that things didn’t always turn out they way that they were expected to. He was optimistic at heart, so it was hard for him to look for the flaws in logic or the snags in a well formed plan, but he had to accept the fact that things didn’t always go perfectly. They would simply have to keep their eyes open and their senses alert until this whole thing was over. With that in mind, he flew straight ahead, but kept his eyes on the landscape before him and under him, searching for any subtle signs of destruction. But by the time the large, domed building of Capsule Corporation came into sight, he had seen nothing but the usual city atmosphere.

As the three of them dropped down onto the vibrant green lawn, Gokuu caught sight of a figure leaning up against the trunk of a flowering tree, nearly hidden in the shade. Because Piccolo was so green and so bright, he nearly blended in with the flowers and leaves that hung over him. At least he knew that if Piccolo was out here, so calm and relaxed, then everything must be going according to plan. He knew that the Namek would not stop until he was certain that Juunana-gou had been captured and wasn’t going to hurt anyone. But instead of the tense feeling that usually came during a fight or during a frustrated moment, there was nothing but a relaxed, cheerful feeling in the warm summer air. Gokuu smiled and waved a hand in the air. “Piccolo! Is everyone okay?”

The Namek straightened up a bit, and tilted his head towards the Capsule Corporation building. “Mirai Bulma is inside the laboratory, working on a way to keep Juunana-gou restrained right now. Everyone else is already here.”

“That’s great!” Gokuu exclaimed. His heart began to ease up a little on the edge of fear that had been pushing its way inside. Mirai Bulma was already hard at work, and both of the jinzouningen were contained. Things were definitely looking much better than they were this morning, and he could practically taste the optimism in the air. He nodded over towards Vejiita and Mirai Trunks, who stood in identical positions with their arms clenched at their sides. Limply, Juuhachi-gou’s head hung over Vejiita’s shoulders, her pale blond hair moving slightly in the warm breeze. “Vejiita can take Juuhachi-gou down there now, so that Mirai Bulma can get to work on her, too!”

Again, Vejiita seemed as though he did not take it as an order, but a suggestion. He hesitated briefly for a moment, which made Gokuu wonder, then a determined, prideful look appeared on his regal face. He simply walked into the house, turning sideways slightly to avoid smacking Juuhachi-gou’s head against the doorframe. Wordlessly, Mirai Trunks followed him.

He waited until they were safely inside the house before speaking to him. He had wanted to talk to him during the entire flight there, but it felt a little awkward around Gokuu. Mirai Trunks knew how to handle his father --- the only father he had ever known. But he wasn’t quite sure how to handle him around Gokuu, especially when Vejiita was in a bad mood. They walked down the corridor of the house in silence, and Trunks turned his head to the side, admiring the soft yellow walls and the rows of family photographs. The silence hung heavily between them, almost tangible in the quiet house. Finally, Trunks worked up the nerve to say something to him, speaking in a voice that was both casual and serious. “It’s good to see you again.”

Vejiita didn’t say anything. Trunks shrugged --- he hadn’t expected him to say anything. Most of their very few conversations had been held this way. He would attempt at talking and Vejiita would reply with either a grunt, a glare, or a long, uncomfortable silence. It had been that way during the entire first few months of their training. It as only after Vejiita was considerably more comfortable around him, that he began to speak a little bit more. And even then, it was still mostly a barrage of insults. That didn’t really matter to him though, because he had already seen the person that lay underneath all of those mean comments and fierce glares. He knew Vejiita well, not as well as he would have liked, but well enough to expect certain things out of him. And Mirai Trunks wasn’t expecting much more than a few sentences out of him during this trip.

“Thanks for saving Okaasan.” He told him suddenly, meaning it with all of his heart. He paused then, thinking about the other passenger that had been in that Capsule Car. He still couldn’t believe that the two most important people to him had almost died that afternoon. “And Tayhei too. I’m sure they’re very grateful.

Again, there was no reply, but he went right on talking. Casually, he walked alongside of Vejiita, burying his hands in his pockets. “Trunks told us that you haven’t been around very much lately.”

There was a sudden flicker of anger in the Saiya-jin no Ouji’s eyes. “Are you going to lecture me too?” He asked in a harsh, mocking voice.

Mirai Trunks shook his head once. “No. I understand why you left.”

And he really did. At first it hadn’t been so easy to accept. He had thought of what he would have felt like, if Vejiita had run out on him and his sister. It would have been unbelievably hard, especially since the Trunks of this timeline had just lost his mother as well. But then he looked at it through the eyes of Vejiita. Trunks knew what it felt like to lose someone that you loved. Losing the love of your life was not an easy thing, not something that you got over within just a few months, or even a few years. And there had been a long period, a very long period, when he didn’t want to see or hear anything that reminded him of Tayhei. It was simply too hard for him. And judging by the looks of Bra, the young girl probably reminded Vejiita of Bulma far too much. Besides, Vejiita wasn’t exactly the perfect father. It was Bulma that had managed to keep the family together for this long. Without her, he was just lost.

She was hard at work in the lab when she heard the doors open, and felt the cool brush of air from the hallway. It was hot in there as usual, but she didn’t mind. The heat wasn’t so stifling that it was unbearable, and she would rather have it be warm than freezing cold. She could never manage to get her fingers to work fast enough when it was too cold in the room. She didn’t bothering turning around to see who had entered, didn’t even look up from her work. Juunana-gou was spread out on the examining table before her, strapped down with thick leather straps. She had made several very small incisions in his skin, and was working on planting chips into those incisions. They had already shot the android with enough drugs to take down a tyrannosaurus, so she imagined he wouldn’t be waking up any time soon. But she still wanted to get the work done quickly. There was no use in dragging things out.

“I see you’re already hard at work, Okaasan.” Her son’s voice called to her from the doorway, and she caught herself frowning at it. She was already in a bad mood. She didn’t need any added guilt. She already felt bad enough for almost ruining her son’s only remaining chance for love.

“Hai.” She told him softly, still not turning around to look at him. She didn’t think she could handle looking into those sad, sky blue eyes right now. “I have a plan.”

“She is going to place electrical triggers all over his body, so that if he moves even the slightest bit, he’ll get a hell of a shock.” Tayhei explained in a casual tone, gesturing towards the unconscious jinzouningen. “She’s working on the voltage right now.”

Bulma nodded her head, speaking more to Tayhei than to her son. She looked down and squinted, using a clean metal instrument to carefully guide a chip in through one of the incisions that she had made. “It has to be very high, but not lethal. Right now, if he struggled continuously, he could risk electrocuting himself, which would completely defeat the purpose of this mission. I noticed that when Juuhachi-gou was fighting, her body was able to take on much more damage than was humanly possible. She was moving through live wires with absolutely no hesitation at all. So I am assuming that the jinzouningen have a higher threshold for electrical currents than normal human beings. I have to find the right amount --- enough to keep them restrained, but not enough to kill them.”

“Well, we brought Juuhachi-gou down for you as well.” Trunks voice called from behind her again, this time much closer. She felt the familiar pressure of his hand on her shoulder. “So now you can work on both of them.”

Once more, guilt swept over her. Her son cared about her so much and did so many kind things for her. It seemed as though he were constantly working to make their lives better, constantly adjusting his schedule to better accommodate hers. And even though she had just almost killed his last hope for love, he had forgiven her and still loved her. He was a far better son than she deserved. She wanted to cry then, knowing that she would never be good enough for him. She might never be good enough for anyone again. She was once, a long time ago, but her Vejiita was dead now, and there was no going back. She reached her hand up to pat his gently, then turned around to face him, ready to apologize once more for what she had done. But instead of focusing in on her son’s sky blue eyes, she found herself gazing over his shoulder.

“Vejiita.”

She hadn’t even been aware that she had said his name aloud. She was so surprised to see him there that she nearly fell over. He looked impossibly handsome under the bright fluorescent lights, his muscles sharply outlined and his eyes dark and deep. He was dirty and bleeding from his fight, but it only added to his attractiveness; it made him seem rugged and dangerous and sexy. Feeling completely self-conscious, she gently tugged at one of her turquoise coils, wishing that she had taken the time to actually do something with her hair that day. Words failed her for a moment, then she found herself stumbling through a mass or words, not even really comprehending what she was saying. “Thank you for….for saving me earlier. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t of been there.”

From behind her, she heard the smooth voice of the female Saiya-jin. “You would have died.”

Impatiently, she leaned a hand back on the examination table and shot the woman a deadly glare. “Yes, thank you for clarifying that, Koronu.”

“She’s right.” Vejiita agreed in a voice that was heavy with venom. His usual sneer took on more of a furious look as he stared at her, looking almost disgusted. Quickly, he slammed a balled fist down on the countertop next to him, and the vein on his forehead appeared, throbbing with anger. “You would have died. That was a completely idiotic thing of you to do.”

She blinked at his sudden outburst of anger. She had to admit that their relationship had been filled with nothing but fighting, but most of it had been playful banter. She couldn’t ever think of an instance when he was actually, truly angry with her. For the most part, the silly ‘human woman’ things that she did weren’t enough to rile him up. But he was looking at her with complete fury at the moment, with the same wild-eyed look that he usually only reserved for fighting opponents. The look actually scared her a bit, and further crushed her heart. She had stupidly come here hoping to find romance, but instead she had found nothing but hatred. He was truly looking at her as if he wanted to kill her.

She stuttered out her response. “Well, it was necessary to---”

“It was necessary for you to keep your nose out of the damn fighting.” Vejiita interrupted her, bringing his chin out towards her and baring his teeth. “You have less common sense than a mealworm. The other Bulma was at least half intelligent.”

The last sentence made her stiffen, and she visibly backed up from him. She tried to coat her heart with ice and not feel the sting of that remark, but it was far too late. It had already sunk straight in and was torturing her. All the fears that she had had about coming on this trip had just been confirmed with that sentence. She had gotten into that time machine fearing that she wouldn’t be able to live up to what the other Bulma was, fearing that she would just been seen as an older, washed up version. But this was far worse. It was as if he were telling her that she had never been as good as the other Bulma --- as if nothing she could ever do would bring her up to the woman’s level. It made tears want to sting her eyes so badly that she had to turn away from him. She couldn’t handle looking into those deep black eyes any longer. But she wasn’t going to let him or anyone else know just how much those words had hurt her. She dug her heels in, straightened her shoulders, and cleared her eyes of any signs of hurt or sadness.

“I’m very busy here, Vejiita. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get to work.” She told him icily.

She bent back over and began working on Juunana-gou once more, forcing her hands not to shake as she picked back up the shining metal instruments. When she heard the laboratory door slam, she didn’t even flinch. But inside, her heart quaked, and it felt as though the dam that had been holding back years of sadness and frustrations just busted and flooded out her whole body. She kept her cool, methodically sewing back up the incision that she had placed a chip in, keeping her hands steady and her face expressionless.

Across the examining table from her, Koronu suddenly yawned and stretched her long, strong arms up over her head. “Am I released from guard duty now that he’s here?” She pointed at Trunks. “I’m rather bored.”

At the sight of Trunks, standing beside the doorway where Vejiita had left, Bulma felt anger simmer inside of her. It was his fault that they had come here, his fault that she was having to suffer through all of this guilt and sadness. And the worst part of it was this: he had led her there under false pretenses. It wasn’t just a visit, it wasn’t just to check on the other timeline and see how they were doing. It was all about Tayhei, and it had been that way from the very beginning. She had gone along with it because she trusted him and loved him. She didn’t think that he would lead her into this. She didn’t come here expecting to be hurt. And if he had never had the crazy idea of finding his dead lover in the other timeline, then she wouldn’t even be here.

Part of her knew that Trunks had never meant to hurt her. It had been her idea to come along with him. He had wanted to go by himself in the beginning. If she was hurt, it was her own fault. But she was too tired and too frustrated to listen to reason at the moment. All of that just simply faded away as she looked at her son in fury, thinking of how he had deceived her --- how he had lied to her when he said there was no other reason for coming to this place. He had known all along, but he had lied to her.