A flash of lightning went off, reaching its fingers from one cloud to the other with a quickness and urgency that was startling. The world lit up for a moment, and the path of lightning remained in Piccolo’s eyes long after it had already disappeared. The sound of thunder started out low and rumbling, then grew deeper and louder as it stretched across the heavens, seeming to stretch from one end of the dark sky to the other. Piccolo stood out of the rain with his arms crossed, watching the storm with the sense of childlike awe that one couldn’t help but feel. The force of the storm was so furious, so strong and huge. It was hard not to feel awed by the sheer strength and violence of it. Its power, though very different from the power that lived within him, was still strong enough to make him feel weak in the knees. He watched with unblinking eyes, anticipating the next flash of light and the next rumble of thunder. Somehow he knew that those impossibly black and sinister clouds had not yet displayed their full anger.

Just as he expected, another bolt lightning struck, this time aiming for the ground. Just on the tail of it was another ear shattering blast of thunder that seemed to make the world and the atmosphere and everything around him tremble. With this, the sky seemed to open up even further, and the clouds burst into a new onslaught of rain. It came down in monstrous droplets, flying sideways because of the angle and the force of the wind. From his perch high above the storm and high above the world, Piccolo watched calmly, thinking to himself that it had been a long time since the planet had seen such dangerously strong weather. It had also been much too long since he had last been able to close his eyes and breathe in the fresh, wonderful scent of the rain.

“It’s quite a storm, isn’t it?” Dende’s quiet, polite voice asked. The guardian of the Earth stood behind him, casually leaning against his staff, his eyes trained on the storm below.

Piccolo’s smile drew up into a smirk, revealing one of his clean white fangs. Dende’s observation could certainly be taken in more ways than one: the Earth was indeed physically experiencing a horrible storm; the thunder and lighting were among the strongest he had ever seen. It was as if the sky was actually trying to break itself apart, dark cloud fighting against dark cloud in a terrible, violent battle. But even though the strength and force of the storm was being displayed right in front of their eyes, Piccolo had a feeling that Dende wasn’t talking about weather. He cast a glance at his companion and found an impish expression on the young guardian’s face, his fingers lightly drumming the rough wood beneath them.

“Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take this ‘storm’ to blow over?” Piccolo asked him, and he turned back to watch another flash of lightning, which stretched across the sky in a full, jagged line. The real storm, he suspected, would be gone by morning. But the problems that the people of Earth were having at the moment? That might take quite a bit longer. Piccolo prided himself on being able to watch the world through open eyes and see things that others were not able to see. He could feel the storm brewing in everyone’s hearts now, gaining momentum as the days went on, fed by insecurity and mistrust, sadness and anger.

Dende looked down towards the storm with a thoughtful expression. “I imagine it won’t stop until our visitors from the future return home. I know they didn’t mean any harm when they came here, but they have unknowingly created a great rift in the design of the life. It might have been better if they had never come at all.” He paused for a moment as a loud roll of thunder passed under them, then brought his gaze back to Piccolo. “The first time that Mirai Trunks came, it was acceptable. He was warning you of horrible danger, and all of your lives were saved in the process. If it had not been for him, our world would be very different today. Very different, and very sad.”

“But it wasn’t wise of him to come back again.” Piccolo added quietly.

The young guardian shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t even wise of him to come back the second time, to help all of you fight. He had already made his difference; he had already opened up the door to our salvation. Coming here again, to stand by us and fight, was not necessary. Things would have ended the same way that they did: Cell still would have been defeated, and Gokuu still would have been killed. Mirai Trunks’s presence here the second time was not logical, and it wasn’t needed. The same argument applies to his most recent travel back in time. There is no real reason for him to be here, and even less of a reason for Mirai Bulma to be here. The two of them will probably never realize it, but by traveling back in time and interacting with the people of this world, they are greatly upsetting the balance of life.”

Piccolo sent Dende a sharp look. “Does their appearance have anything to do with what is happening to the jinzouningen?”

“Perhaps.” He replied thoughtfully. “Not in a direct manner, of course. But you have to understand that life here is on very delicate, yet very straight course. When that course is disturbed or shaken in any way, the very foundation that holds life together begins to crack. Those invisible cracks present openings and possibilities --- often things that aren’t pleasant, things that have been chained away in hopes that they would never escape. Our future visitors created a rift like this when they appeared, allowing any kind of waiting evil or malevolent force on the planet to become stronger. Whether or not that evil breaks through depends solely on the hearts and minds of the people in this world. If evil sees a way and a purpose, it will strike --- much like the lightning before us waits for an invitation to spread from one cloud to the other, or an opening to reach its fingers out towards the ground. Indirectly, they may very well have had something to do with the jinzouningen’s fall.”

Before Piccolo could comment, Dende quickly held up a hand and continued to speak, a small smile lighting up his face. “But --- those cracks that are created when the foundation of life is shifted can also provide openings for love and good to seep through. They may have altered the world by indirectly causing the evil inside of the jinzouningen to awake, but they also formed another very small fracture in the course of life --- one that is a gateway for love and acceptance. It is this other tiny, almost insignificant opening that interests me. Love is much greater and stronger than any force of evil. Take comfort in that thought; place your every bit of hope in it. Because even as powerful and evil as this storm might seem --- just on the outskirts of it lies something unbelievably beautiful.”

Juuhachi-gou could hear the rain, could hear it beating rhythmically against the roof. She could feel the low trembles of thunder, could feel the cold examination table below her move slightly as the earth slowly shook from the strength of the storm. She knew that a summer storm was going on outside --- all of the clues pointed to it rather obviously. She remembered all of the summers that she and her little family would sit out under the cover of the porch, watching the storm unfold before them. Marron would sit in her father’s lap and gaze up at the sky with her mouth hanging open, squealing in delight when of flash of lightning lit up the sky. The thunder had never scared the small girl, but Kuririn had capped his hands over her ears anyway, just to protect in a fatherly manner. Juuhachi-gou would watch it all standing in the doorway, and she remembered that the storms had struck her as infinitely beautiful. But this didn’t feel like a storm to her. She couldn’t see the rain, couldn’t smell the fresh, damp scent of it. There were no flashes of lightning and no delighted squeals from her daughter. All she knew was darkness.

From somewhere in the depths of the storage room, water continuously dripped from a dusty old faucet, hitting the metal of the deep sink with a steady plink, plink. The sound of it was driving her mad. It made it difficult for her to think as she lay dormant in the mind of this evil being, shunned and cornered into some impossible hiding place. She thought the night would bring silence and time for contemplation. Now that Mirai Bulma had left the laboratory, the sound of papers shuffling and idle chatter had disappeared. That had been quite frightening for Juuhachi-gou, who knew that this evil being she was trapped inside of was awake and waiting. The future woman working in the laboratory, moving files and typing on her computer, had no real idea of the darkness that lay in wait. She had no idea of the danger that was just on the other side of the storage room door.

Juuhachi-gou knew that Mirai Bulma was pretty confident that these evil jinzouningen beings were contained. The woman had even gone so far as to bring in Kuririn and Marron, to let them stand beside the examination table and talk to her. And while Juuhachi-gou had appreciated the gesture, it made her nervous. They were too close, far too close. When Marron had reached out her hand to run it over the leather strap that bound Juuhachi-gou to the examining table, she nearly screamed out in horror. She knew that the other Juuhachi-gou --- the evil one, was just waiting for an opportunity like that. Although Juuhachi-gou had loved being able to see her daughter and her husband, she would much rather have them be safe at home. It had honestly helped her to see them and be able to hear the love in their voices, but she would rather have sacrificed her own happiness for their safety.

She missed them.

Oddly enough, it was the silly, simple things that she was missing the most. She kept thinking of the way that Marron’s face would scrunch up when she was thinking about something, and the way that her husband carefully combed every inch of his hair in the morning --- only to have it stick up all over the place anyway. She missed the simple act of making dinner with Kuririn at her side, and the childish glee she felt whenever she and Marron went shopping together. These were things that she had often taken for granted before, just tying them up as unimportant parts of a normal human experience. But she had been so entirely wrong. The ordinary things were what made her human. They were what brought her out of the cold, mechanical shell that Dr. Gero had created, and molded her into a person --- a real human being. As she experienced less and less of these things, she began to feel more and more like a machine again.

And she had worked far too hard and far too long to ever feel that way again. She didn’t want this cold evil to win, didn’t want to be forced to live life as a machine. The life that she had been living up until just a few days ago was the life that she should rightfully have. She deserved to be with her family, deserved to feel like she was a part of the world and not an enemy of it. She had been experiencing all of the human emotions, soaking them up and reveling in them --- even things such as sadness and anger. They too, were part of the human experience, and she wanted to live every part of it. That new life had been what she had wanted more than anything; it had been the only thing to give her true happiness. She knew that fate would not be cruel enough to take that away, not when she was just beginning to become whole again. In her heart, she knew that she would somehow overcome this.

But it was hard to imagine that when she was trapped inside of this body that was no longer hers.

As the rain continued to pound on the roof and the faucet continued to drip quietly into the sink, she could feel the evil part of her aching to attack, to kill, to torture. Like the storm growing outside the walls of Capsule Corporation, the evil was growing inside of her as well. It was taking a greater hold of her body and trying to seep into her mind, trying to gain the edge it needed to take over completely. And it scared the hell out of her. She wanted to believe that Mirai Bulma had done her job correctly, but well aware of the strength and capabilities she possessed, she was worried. The future woman had done a good job in temporarily containing her, but Dr. Gero had not built them to be contained. When he created them, he had given them every single tool that he anticipated the need for. He had built them with the power to be able to break free from any kind of entrapment, and the mental capacity to be able to figure a way out of any situation. He had built them to be invincible and unbreakable.

And that meant that Mirai Bulma’s electrical restraints would only work for so long.

The evil that had taken over Juunana-gou’s body was restless. He had awakened hours ago, only to find itself surrounded by the darkness of the laboratory storage room. With no sense of direction and no comprehension of what had happened, he grew frustrated and angry. And when he became aware of the electrical restraints that had been placed in his body, the anger only increased. The woman --- the scientist, she had done this to him. He and Juuhachi-gou were lying side by side on examining tables, just as they had been so long ago when the doctor put his hands on them. The woman had taken advantage of them; she had dulled them with medication and strapped them down on the tables so that she could destroy them. He had seen her come into the storage room for a final time to check on them, carrying a clipboard and a pencil to write down her observations. She had barely even looked at him, barely even gave an indication that she knew he was awake. She had looked nervous.

But she was gone now, and the laboratory outside of the storage room door was silent. There were no rustlings, no voices, not a sound, except for the steady drip of the faucet. Occasionally, a rumble of thunder could be heard from the outside world, accompanied by a quiet patter of heavy rain on the roof. The laboratory was empty, and they had been left unmonitored and unsupervised. The woman had unknowingly left an open door for them --- she had given them the opportunity to break out of these restraints and slaughter them all. She thought that it was safe to leave them, too confident in her own abilities as a scientist. She had maybe taken the precautions of locking the door and tightening the restraints, but that was simply not enough. The woman simply wasn’t informed enough of their powers and abilities. She did not know what they were truly capable of.

Although he suspected that he would regret it, the jinzouningen moved his arm slightly, just to test the power of the electrical sensor that had been placed there.

An immediate shock went through his body, momentarily stopping his heart and causing him to shake uncontrollably on the examination table. In the darkness, he could almost see the blue, winding trail of electricity as it passed underneath his skin. It pulsed through him for several more seconds, and his eyes bulged with the power of it, his breath quickening. The pain of it might have been excruciating, but because he had been built to be resilient, the hurt went away quickly, fading into nothing but a distant memory.

He smirked. The woman had not made the restraints powerful enough. She had underestimated their resilience. She didn’t know how truly powerful and invincible the doctor had made them. Because she had only read his notes and looked through files that were incomplete, she didn’t know of all of the tests and experiments that they had been through. She didn’t know that the doctor himself had tested to see how they would stand up against a powerful electrical shock --- and had built their bodies to be able to withstand it. Her pathetically human mind was only thinking in human terms, and she had assumed that a particularly large amount of electricity would be able to hold them in place. But she was wrong. And that meant that the door of opportunity that she had left them had just been opened even wider.

He couldn’t attack anyone in this position, though. Even if he could recover from the shock fairly quickly, it still left him vulnerable. In those few short seconds before his body regained control again, anything could happen. He wouldn’t be able kill anyone or cause any damage if he was shocked every time he moved. It just wasn’t logical. The only way to be able to break free and kill was to rid himself of the woman’s restraints. He knew that they were embedded into his body, several of them in his arms, legs, torso, and neck. She had taken great care to place them deep under the skin, where they couldn’t possible be removed.

But again, she had been thinking in human terms.

He waited a moment, bracing his body for the pain that was certain to come. Then with a movement so quick that it would have been impossible for the eye to see, he flung his arm up and placed his hand over the sensor that had been embedded in his neck. The straps that had been placed over his arm had broken so easily that they seemed more like dental floss than thick, durable leather.

The shock came just as hard and just as fast, and for a moment, he was completely buried with the pain. Again, his body shook uncontrollably, and he could see the blue line of electricity running from sensor to sensor in the darkness of the cold, damp storage room. This time the pain seemed to last forever before it finally subsided, and his heart pounded hard in his chest. With his hand still clutching the side of his neck, he kept himself calm, and waited a few more minutes until his breathing and heart rate returned to normal.

Then, with another quick move, he bent his fingers back, digging his nails into the soft skin of his neck. The agonizing electrical jolt came again, followed minutes later by relief.

And then, gathering all of his strength, he raked his hand back, clawing his fingers across his neck. As another shock screamed through his body, his hand fell lifelessly to the side, soaked in blood and filled with flesh. The blood dripped in a steady stream, falling to the floor and creating a deep red puddle beneath the examination table. Still shaking from the shock, his body jerking back and forth, his hand finally opened, releasing the blood and skin that he had dug out from his own body.