The fury that burned inside of him was like nothing that he had ever felt before. It burned with such an intensity that he could have sworn his entire body had just been lit on fire. Though he couldn’t sense any physical differences, he felt as though he had perhaps reached a new level in power --- a new height of sheer, raw Super Saiya-jin anger. The apprehension and sickness that he had felt was nothing in comparison to the feeling that was engulfing him now. His soul was so strong and so full of fire that it was tipping on the side of darkness. He had never in his life ever thirsted after death in this manner, had never honestly felt as though he wanted to kill someone in the most brutal, horrifying manner. He wanted to spill blood. Needed to spill blood. He wanted that jinzouningen piece of trash to feel the pain and horror that he had felt when he flew into that room and saw him aiming a shard of glass at Tayhei’s heart.

That was Trunks’s his only rational thought before he flew at Juunana-gou, clutching the future warrior’s sword so tightly in his hands that he thought his fingers might break. He had told himself before that he would never use a weapon --- that swords were nothing but instruments of death, just another shade of evil. But he couldn’t stop himself from grabbing the strap of the weapon when he hurtled out of the gravity room. For some reason, he wanted that instrument of death. Because he knew that if anyone ever hurt it, then he wanted to feel that metal slicing through their skin. He wanted them to pay for their actions in blood. Any peaceful thoughts that he might have had before disappeared in the instant that the awful, sick feeling of fear had hit him.

He slashed down with the weapon, managing to catch Juunana-gou’s stomach and causing a long, shallow cut. Arching the sword around, he brought it back again up higher, intending on decapitating him. But the android was too quick and ducked down before the sword could cut. The sword hit air, and because Trunks had put all of his strength into the slash, it made him spin. He was careful not to lose his balance, steadying his feet and circling the sword around to hit the jinzouningen as he crouched down on the ground. The android sprang up like a cat and jumped over the sword, landing neatly on the other side of Trunks, with a smirking expression on his badly burned and bleeding face.

He noticed that the jinzouningen’s right eye had been pierced with glass, and the jagged shard was still resting there, dyed deep red. A thick trail of blood gushed openly down onto his cheek. He realized then that Tayhei had had to put up a fight; the girl had obviously been trying to save her own life, fighting off this horrible demon that was a thousand times stronger than she would ever be. And just the thought of that made the fire in his soul burn even hotter. She had been perfectly defenseless, wobbling around in those damn high heels and a skirt. And this jinzouningen bastard had taken advantage of her, leaping out at her from the shadows and catching her by surprise. The protectiveness and devotion he didn’t even know he had suddenly began to ache in his heart, and the anger shot straight up out of his soul and poured into his mind, completely overtaking him.

He let out an incomprehensible scream and began slashing at the male jinzouningen with no strategy whatsoever, golden light shooting out around him like waves of fire.

Mirai Bulma held Bra to her closely, huddled in the corner of the kitchen, staring down the hallway that Trunks had gone flying down. She had no idea what was going on or why the boy had been heading down towards the laboratory, but she had an incredibly horrible feeling in her heart. She had never seen anyone look as irate and urgent as that boy had looked when he blasted through the kitchen, upturning the table and knocking over the chairs in his wake. No one got that upset and angry if there wasn’t an immediate emergency. She wasn’t sure what she should do --- she didn’t know if she should be getting out of Capsule Corporation as quickly as possible or heading after Trunks towards the laboratory. She knew that it had something to do with the jinzouningen, and it made her sick with worry to realize that Tayhei had been down there.

She clutched Bra tighter to her as her son rushed into the kitchen with horrified look on his face. He appeared to be every bit as shaken as the younger Trunks, whipping his head around to find the boy. Mirai Bulma felt even worse when she realized that she had only seen that awful, shaken look on her son’s face a handful of times. There was no doubt in her mind that something very serious had just happened. Her fingers absently gripped onto Bra’s shoulder tighter, her nails biting into the cherry red fabric of her dress.

“What’s going on?” She cried out to her son, standing up and holding the little girl as close to her as possible.

He didn’t answer her, but simply rushed on and head towards the laboratory. She could practically feel the apprehension in the air, and knew that whatever was going on --- it wasn’t safe to be in the house any longer. Grabbing onto Bra’s hand and gripping it firmly, she tugged at the little girl and ran towards the door with her, intent on finding Vejiita and getting to safety.

Trunks continued to slash away at the android with his sword, perpetually turning and circling and cutting, never stopping the motion of the weapon in his hands. The android was successful at blocking most of the hits, but he was already bleeding and his movements were getting slower and weaker. Trunks knew that if he kept it up, Juunana-gou would certainly not be able to fight much longer. He had already lost too much blood, and though his body was definitely stronger than the average human, there was only so much that it could take. His piercing jade blue eyes grew wide with the opportunity to kill, and when Juunana-gou stumbled over and fell, Trunks slashed down again, cutting the jinzouningen deeply in the arm. He fell on top of him instantly, taking the sword up in both of his hands and raising it above his head.

Through the white hot rush of anger and the haze of an impending kill, a memory surfaced.

A gleaming sword was sticking out of the ground, its handle presumably buried within the snow, blood running down the cool metal, mixing with the ice. And stuck on the sword, facing up to the snowy white sky, was Pi. Her eyes were large and dark, unseeing and dead. A trickle of blood, frozen by the cold, ran from the corner of her mouth down to her chin. Her face was the only part of her that remained unscathed. The rest of her body was soaked with red, and evidence of thousands of angry slashes with a finely sharpened sword. Her clothes were torn and tattered, soaked in deep red, and her flesh was so soaked in blood that the only evidence of the slashes were slightly deeper indents of red, running along in crisscross lines all over her body. Snow had already begun to gather on the body, caking on her eyebrows and falling innocently in the wounds.

The sword gleamed, and blood ran in rivulets down the side, freezing halfway down into red icicles. His mother’s blood, the blood of his mother’s killer. The blood of a thousand angry Saiya-jin warriors before him, who only sought to hurt and destroy and conquer. That very sword had probably seen more dying faces and more blood than Trunks even cared to think of. And after Pi’s body had frozen and been chipped away like ice, that sword would still remain, standing tall and gleaming in the winter wind. The very symbol of death and anguish. How many more warriors would kill with this sword? How much death would it see before the steel rusted away to nothing, and the handle became so brittle that it would crumble in a soldier’s hands? How many more mothers would die, their families left alone and grieving?

He took a step forward, and reached down to grab Pi’s body. With shaking arms, he lifted the bloody mess off of the sword, dying his own hands red with the blood. He placed her gently in the snow beside him, then forgot she had ever existed, and her memory flew away like the flakes of snow that whirled around him. His mother though, he would never forget. She would live on in this: in his heart and in his memory. He pulled the sword out of the snow and flipped it around, shaking off the blood and the ice. It gleamed in his hands, the handle fitting just perfectly into his palms, power surging into his arms, mixing with anger and grief. There in that cool metal, he caught sight of his reflection, looking older and more determined than he ever had before in his life.

He would keep it, lock it away, and the sword would never see death again.

With the sword poised straight above Juunana-gou’s heart, he paused, and looked down into the face of his opponent. He had made a promise then, in that moment in the snowy fields. And although this sword was not the same one that had ended his mother’s life, it was similar enough. It was all the same --- the premise of death never changed. It moved slightly, taking on different forms and moving from one thing to another, but it was always there and it was always strong and dark. He couldn’t let it take him over, couldn’t let himself fall into the shadows that he knew lurked in his Saiya-jin heart. He had the blood of a killer in his veins, but that wasn’t the man that he wanted to be. Death was never the answer --- it was the enemy.

The sword fell to the floor with a clatter.

He couldn’t kill Juunana-gou, couldn’t bring himself to cause anymore death. Trunks reached out his fist and slammed it into the android’s head, smashing it into the tiled floor of the storage room, knocking him unconscious.

He stumbled to his feet and backed away from the male jinzouningen, feeling suddenly dizzy and sick to his stomach. The room spun around him in a blur of fluorescent light, glinting off of the shards of glass on the ground. Bringing a shaking hand up to his face, he wiped away the sweat and blood that had accumulated on his brow. He bent his head down and let out the air that he had been holding in. The golden aura that surrounded him faded down to nothing, and his hair fell back down around his face again, soft and lavender. The feeling of intense, burning anger left him then, and the darkness fled with it, disappearing into the deepest most hidden voids of his soul. He stumbled again, slipping on the glass that was under his boots, and leaned up against one of the shelves for support.

Realizing that he needed to find Tayhei, he raised his head up and gazed over to the doorway, where he had seen her last.

She was crumpled on the ground, facing away from him. Her clothing had nearly been dyed pink with blood, and she was lying in a puddle of it, her body motionless. He felt his heart constrict at the sight of it --- at knowing that she had been hurt. It was that moment that he realized how much Tayhei really meant to him. The feeling hit him so hard that it took his breath away, and his balance faltered again as he stared at her; stared at the long blond ponytail soaked with blood, and the delicate hands that were lying limply on the floor. Seeing her laying there so hurt and vulnerable made it impossible for him to close off that part of his heart --- impossible for him to ignore the feelings that he knew had always been there.

He moved towards her quickly, and fell to his knees at her side, ignoring the sharp pain as glass dug into his skin. She was hurt. She was hurt badly. He didn’t have to be a doctor to see tell that some of those wounds were going to need serious medical attention. But under all of the cuts and bruises, he could feel her heart beating --- just as strong and steadily as always.

“Tayhei….” He whispered.

The world came back into focus slowly for her. She glided out of the comforting haze of unconsciousness lightly, like a feather floating through the air. The first thing that she felt was warmth, and the feeling surrounded her on all sides, holding onto her lovingly, cradling her. It seemed as though the warmth radiated straight through, gently warming her heart and brushing away any of the lingering feelings of fear. She opened her green eyes slowly, barely able to gain the strength to move them. The colors and light gradually began to appear out of the darkness, dim and blurred as she moved her head.

Limpid blue eyes stared down at her, half hidden by soft locks of lavender hair. Trunks’s strong arms held onto her, holding her so gently and yet so tightly at the same time. His voice came out soft and genuine, a tone that she didn’t often hear from him. “Are you all right?”

The small part of her that longed to be loved and cared for began to see hope once more, and she was touched to the very depths of her heart by the compassionate look in his sky blue eyes. Not even knowing why, her eyes began to glaze over with tears, as if the emotion that had so suddenly sprung up was overflowing. The strong feeling of contentment returned, and for the moment, her body was so numb and so in shock that she didn’t feel anything except for the warmth and the insistent flutter of her heart in her chest. She didn’t think her heart would ever ache this much; that she would be able to stare into someone’s eyes and feel as though all the pieces of her life had been firmly set into place. “I’m fine….”

“You’re not fine.” He argued in a distressed voice, smoothing the strands of golden hair away from her face. “You’re bleeding, damn it. You’ve bleeding all over the place.”

The memory of her struggle with Juunana-gou came back to instantly, and an involuntary shudder ran through her body. “Where is he?”

“Don’t worry about him. Where does it hurt? What hurts the most?” He asked her in the same comforting tone. Then his fingers gripped tighter onto her body and his eyes glassed over with a strange look as he stared down at her face. His voice came out fast and shaking, the words tripping over one another as he let them out. “I thought you were going to die. I thought he was going to fucking kill you. I looked over and saw you lying there in a puddle of blood with him standing over you and I just lost my fucking mind….I’ve never felt like that before. I thought he was going to kill you.”

“Trunks-kun, I’m okay.” She said soothingly, locking her eyes on his and giving him the most genuine smile that she could muster at the moment. She repeated the words over and over again, trying to get through that dazed look on his face. “I’m okay. I’m okay. It hurts, but I will be fine. I’m fine.” “I thought I was going to lose you.” He told her softly. “I thought you were gone.” I’m not going anywhere.

Though her arms were numb and aching, she gathered all of her strength and raised them up, wrapping them tightly around Trunks’s neck. She had to hold him, had to touch him, had to soak in more of the warmth that she knew was coming from inside of him. She clung to him with all the desperation and passion that she had inside of her, curling her head down and nestling it into his chest. It felt right, it felt amazingly right. And she knew that she would never be able to feel this way again, not with anyone else. Not anyone. She let the tears slip down her cheeks, crying silently into him, knowing that he was crying as well. And he held onto her tighter, cradling her in his strong arms, his heart beating wildly against hers.

Mirai Trunks ran through the laboratory doors at full speed, his heart pounding mercilessly in his chest. All he could think about was Tayhei, and the thought of losing his last chance at love. He couldn’t lose her again; couldn’t bear to see her take her last breath again. The truth was; he didn’t think he could live without her. He had tried --- he had tried for years, but he knew now that he would never be truly happy unless he had the woman that he loved in his arms. This Tayhei, this love, was the only chance that he had left. And if something happened to her, if were killed, then he would have absolutely nothing left. He skidded on the tile floor and ran towards the storage room, where he knew the jinzouningen were kept, sick with fear.

When he saw them through the open doorway, he unconsciously froze, coming to a standstill in the empty laboratory.

They were embracing each other with their eyes closed, and he could see the sparkle of tears on their cheeks. It was impossible to not see the love that existed there, or the passion in the way that they held each other. It was so real and so strong that it made his own heart ache just to see it --- just to know what it actually felt like to be on the inside of it. He recognized it because he had been there; he knew what it was like to be in her arms and to hold her. He had treasured that memory in his mind for years now, and kept holding onto the love he remembered, the love that he still felt every day.