It was Bra’s terrified little face that compelled him to run into the house. Normally he would have waited outside until he felt the danger worsening, but Vejiita simply couldn’t ignore that horrified look on her face. She and Mirai Bulma had come out of the house just seconds after Mirai Trunks had gone crashing in, holding onto one another with identical, wide blue eyes. He had to admit that it gave his stomach a queasy feeling to see Bra attached to Mirai Bulma like that, with her tiny hands wrapped around the woman’s leg and Mirai Bulma’s hand firmly on the back of her head. It was something that he’d seen far too many times before --- just another action that he didn’t realize he missed until just now. They didn’t even have to say two words to him before he went into the house to find out what was going on. Common sense told him that he needed to go down to the laboratory first, and he did so with any kind of hesitation.

There was no doubt in his mind that it had been the jinzouningen. He wasn’t able to feel their ki --- the jinzouningen had no ki. But he was able to feel Tayhei’s pathetic human life force fluctuating, which was a sure sign that she was probably getting her snotty little head bashed in. He could also feel the large increase in his son’s ki, a sure sign that he had found the attacker and was proceeding to beat the hell out of him. Vejiita wasn’t worried about his son. Trunks was much, much stronger than both of the jinzouningen combined, and he knew it was a fight that Trunks would not lose. He wasn’t worried about Tayhei either, not in the normal sense of being “worried”. The main problem was that Vejiita knew Bra had some sort of an attachment to the girl. And she would be terribly upset if anything happened to her. Vejiita didn’t give a damn about Tayhei. He just didn’t want to see his little girl cry.

By the time he reached the laboratory doors, everything seemed to have returned to normal. Tayhei’s ki was a bit weaker than usual, but Trunks’s had returned to the normal level. The danger was certainly over, though he still had a burning sensation in his throat that things were not quite as happy as they might appear. These days though, it seemed like nothing was certain. Everything good just seemed like a mirage that was covering up the ugliness of the world. Much like the jinzouningen themselves, this world was a perfect shell with a dark sense of evil lurking within it. He wasn’t cynical; that was just the way that the world worked. Nothing was as it seemed. It was usually much, much worse.

Vejiita pushed the laboratory doors open; they smacked against the wall with a metallic clang and the sound reverberated back and forth in his ears. Standing in the center of the large room was Mirai Trunks, who looked as if someone had just shot his best friend. It was true that his future son never looked exactly cheerful, but this was almost pathetic looking. His shoulders were hunched, his arms hanging loosely at his sides, and his sky blue eyes were clouded over with tears. Vejiita followed the young boy’s gaze to see his son and Tayhei locked in a passionate embrace, their arms wrapped around each other and their eyes close.

Vejiita scowled. He had been suspecting it for quite some time, but it was still annoying to see it. He supposed it was his own fault for accepting a human mate. He had chosen to live a life with a human, ignoring all of the rigid Saiya-jin rules and even his own pride, which ran much deeper than anyone ever got the chance to see. Now his son was destined to make the same mistake. It wasn’t that he hated Tayhei; the girl definitely had her downfalls, but it wasn’t enough to make him truly, truly despise her. He didn’t approve of the relationship between Tayhei and Trunks because of the sheer fact that she was a human. And Vejiita knew better than anyone how delicate and short a human’s life could be. When he had first become involved with Bulma, he had chosen to ignore that fact, but now that she had died, it was becoming more and more clear. With a human mate, Trunks would eventually end up miserable, alone, and bitter.

And as hard and cold as Vejiita liked to think he was, he didn’t want that for his son. He wouldn’t want to wish this kind of grief and pain upon anyone, let alone his own offspring. True, there wasn’t much of a choice. There were no other female Saiya-jins left except for Koronu and Gohan’s brat, and Vejiita would rather die than see Kakarroto’s bloodline mix with his. It still didn’t make the situation any more pleasant for him however, and his patience grew then as he stood there watching his son hold the girl. He cringed when his saw Trunks’s hand gently stroke the back of Tayhei’s head --- a comforting gesture that he had only shown Bulma a handful of times.

“Why the hell are you just standing here gawking?” He suddenly snapped at Mirai Trunks. The future warrior turned to him with a startled expression, and Vejiita pointed at the doorway where his son and Tayhei were huddled. “Get your ass in there and find out what happened!”

At the sound of his voice, Trunks looked up immediately and saw them standing there in the center of the laboratory --- Mirai Trunks looking guilty and Vejiita just looking pissed. Vejiita didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but the boy suddenly distanced himself from Tayhei slightly moving away from her grasp and making the embrace seem much more innocent. Vejiita wasn’t surprised. It was probably the typical male reaction. He couldn’t think of any man, Saiya-jin or not, that would want to be caught in a less than masculine position with a girl. But if his son honestly thought he would be able to hide the traces of tears on his cheeks and the lovesick look in his eyes, then he was simply an idiot.

“Everything is okay.” Trunks told the two of them in an overly-authoritative voice. It was strange to hear such commanding, strong tone from a boy who was sitting on the floor with a girl in his arms, the evidence of tears still in his eyes. The boy nodded his head once, sharply. “Tayhei has a few bruises and some bad scrapes, but nothing that can’t be cleared up in the Capsule Corporation infirmary. I managed to subdue Juunana-gou pretty quickly. He looks like he just went through a meat grinder, but I’m not too terribly concerned about him right now. I think he must have somehow gotten out of the restraints that Mirai Bulma put on him. The son of a bitch was probably standing in here just waiting for someone to walk in through that door. I’m just glad it wasn’t Bra. She’s already been through enough.”

Vejiita smirked down at Tayhei and crossed his arms over his chest, staring down his nose at her with a condescending expression. “Luckily the brat here was the only one stupid enough to go trotting in without any kind of protection.”

Mirai Trunks simply stepped over the two of them and into the laboratory, surveying the damage that had been done. He leaned down to look at Juunana-gou’s body, then picked up his sword, which had been lying beside it. Blood dripped from the cool metal onto the floor, dark red spilling onto the tile and glass. He flipped the handle around and shoved the sword back into its sheath. He refused to look at either Trunks or Tayhei, and when he spoke, his voice came out cold and detached, almost robotic. “You shouldn’t just leave a sword lying around. Especially right next to an unpredictable enemy. He could have woken up any moment and sliced straight through both of you. It was awfully careless.”

“I don’t need you to lecture me.” Trunks replied with venom in his voice. Again, Vejiita didn’t know whether it was intentional or not, but the boy moved slightly close to Tayhei, flicking his eyes over to her and smirking at Mirai Trunks. “Besides, it looks like I can take care of things myself.”

Mirai Trunks still didn’t meet his gaze. “Looks can be deceiving.”

Slowly, Trunks stood to his feet, leaving Tayhei on the floor. He stood up tall, raising his chin up and tilting his head threateningly at the future warrior. His sky blue eyes glinted with a wealth of unhidden anger and hostility. “I’ll tell you what….You can take this sword and shove it straight up into that future---”

Mirai Trunks held up a hand, interrupting him. “Don’t start with the insults and threats again.” His eyes finally traveled to meet his younger counterpart’s, and Vejiita saw more sadness there than anger. The future warrior just looked beaten and tired, like someone who was on the verge of death and simply waiting for fate to reach out and take their life away. He looked….heartbroken. Still, his voice came out cold and robotic, his tone even and quiet. “Next time I won’t take either of them as lightly. You’re already on my bad side. Being an arrogant prick isn’t helping things.”

Trunks crossed his arms instantly, and Vejiita saw the way that his spine straightened up, his ki growing slightly with the excitement of a challenge. “You’re just angry because things didn’t work out the way that you planned them.”

On the floor, Tayhei suddenly slammed her fist down on the tiled surface, her green eyes glaring at everyone in the room. “Am I the only one aware of the fact that I’m bleeding here?”

Instantly, Trunks crouched back down again and reached out to help Tayhei up. Though he showed a great deal of care in touching her gently and smoothing her hair back away from her face, his eyes were on Mirai Trunks, not the girl. His voice came out pathetically concerned, as if he were trying to prove something to the future warrior as he directed his response to Tayhei. “I’ll take you to the infirmary.”

Mirai Trunks shook his head and glared, suddenly stepping forward. “No, I’ll take her to the infirmary.”

“The hell you will!” Trunks yelled at him. He spun Tayhei around closer to him and wrapped himself around her; Vejiita could see that his fingers were beginning to make small indentations in her skin --- he was holding her much too tight. As the girl wriggled around in his grasp like a cat, Trunks looked over at Mirai Trunks with the same arrogant expression that he had earlier, tilting his chin up and smirking. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but she’s in my arms. She doesn’t belong to you anymore.”

With his final sentence, Tayhei’s bright green eyes narrowed into a deadly glare. She shoved away from Trunks with all the strength that her beaten body possessed. “I don’t belong to anyone. And I don’t need anyone’s help! I can walk myself to the damn infirmary.” She affirmed, and to prove it she started to stomp away, limping slightly; one of her high heels was broken. Before she exited the storage room, she turned back to back at them over her shoulder, her eyes still smoldering with anger. “And while I’m gone, I suggest that both of you grow up a little.”

Tayhei stumbled out of the lab and through the heavy doors. Her entire body felt as though it were on fire. Her entire outfit had been stained pink with blood (though most of it was Juunana-gou’s), and she wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she had broken something. The bruises on her arms and legs were already turning black and ugly, and there were several places on her body were she could feel that she was bleeding. The thought that she must look quite frightening crossed her mind, but she shook it away. IT really wasn’t the time to be concerned about appearances. There was blood running down into her eye, but she was in too big of a hurry to brush it away. She just wanted to get the infirmary and get some painkillers into her veins as quickly as possible. Plus, she wanted to get as far away from the laboratory as possible --- if she didn’t hurry, one of those childish lugs was going to come running after her. And she really didn’t feel like dealing with either one of them right now.

She met Mirai Bulma in the hallway, and the woman gaped at her in horror, bringing both hands up to her mouth in shock. “Tayhei! Are you okay?”

Tayhei grinned at her and added a little bounce to her limping stride --- just for the hell of it. “I’m just fucking peachy.”

“Tayhei?” Bra’s little voice called out, sounding just as horrified as Mirai Bulma had.

Tayhei’s heart instantly softened and she angled her head around to see Bra hiding behind Bulma’s legs, nearly quaking with fear. Tayhei didn’t blame her. She didn’t even want to look in a mirror right now. Judging by everyone’s reactions, she probably looked just about half dead. She smiled at the little girl and attempted to coax her out from behind Bulma. She knew that the laboratory was really no place for Bra right now anyway. “Bra-chan, I didn’t see you there. Do you want to come with me to the infirmary? If the doctor gives me a treat, I promise to pass it along to you.”

Bra hesitated for a moment, then nodded with a brave smile.

“What happened?” Mirai Bulma asked her quietly.

Tayhei wrapped her hand around Bra’s and continued limping down the hallway, talking to Bulma over her shoulder. “Judging by the amount of blood on the floor of the storage room and the burn marks all over Juunana-gou’s body, I’d say he probably either let himself be electrocuted until he built up his tolerance against it, or he found some way to get the sensors out. Either way, there is quite a nice mess in the storage room for you to clean up. I’d also suggest that you move the surgery date up, because I don’t think the jinzouningen are going to play your little games anymore.”

“I am so sorry.” Mirai Bulma began quickly, facing her son, Vejiita and Trunks in the storage room. Her entire body was shaking with fear and guilt, and she was certain that she was about to throw up any moment. She had seen Tayhei in the hallway and witnessed firsthand what Juunana-gou had done to her. It was the second time that she had put Tayhei’s life in danger, but this time it had ended up being just a little more serious. She babbled on with a long string of apologies, moving her hands through the air frantically, as if she were trying to grasp onto whatever shred of respect they still had for her. “I have no idea what could have happened….I was certain that I had the sensors up to a high enough level. I know that I didn’t have a chance to test it, but I was just so sure that it would be enough to keep them restrained. I thought that I had researched it thoroughly enough, but I was wrong. What happened to Tayhei was all my fault.”

Vejiita turned to her with a wicked smirk. “You do seem awfully intent on killing the girl.”

Her son was a little kinder, and softened as he stared at her horrified face. He placed a hand on her shoulder and his touch felt warm and soothing to her. “It’s okay, Okaasan. We know that you didn’t do it on purpose. But I don’t know what we’re going to do now. You can’t possibly restrain them in the same manner, because they’ve obviously figured out a way to get out of it.”

“Why didn’t Juuhachi-gou get out?” The younger Trunks asked her. He was standing next to the examining table that the female jinzouningen was strapped to, his sky blue eyes taking in the harsh glare of her expression. He looked strangely unnerved as he stood there beside her, as if he expected her to jump off the examining table any moment and attack him.

“I don’t know. Maybe Juuhachi-gou is a little stronger inside than Juunana-gou. Maybe she was able to fight off whatever evil was telling them to get out of these restraints. That’s an enormously good thing. It gives me a little more hope than I had before. It looks like he physically clawed the sensors out of his skin.” Mirai Bulma told them. She gestured towards the numerous gashes on the android’s body, where he had obviously clawed away his skin, plucking the carefully placed sensors out. “See all of those gashes in his skin? That’s where the sensors used to be. My guess is that he slowly dug them out, one by one until he was completely free. That would certainly explain all of the blood on the floor. It was probably a very painful process. In fact….The more I look at him, the more I think we should get him some medical attention. He’s lost an awful lot of blood, and some of those burns look quite serious.”

Her son snorted and for a moment --- looked years younger than he really was. “Who cares?”

“I’m sure Kuririn and Marron care.” She reminded him gently. “And Juuhachi-gou as well. Juunana-gou is a part of their family, like it or not. And they asked me to take care of both of the jinzouningen. I am not going to let them down by simply leaving Juunana-gou to bleed to death on the storage room floor.”

Vejiita glared at her. “Tell me again why the hell we’re waiting to take care of this surgery.”

“I haven’t thoroughly researched their body structure yet. Dr. Gero’s files have extensive gaps, and my knowledge of the jinzouningen only goes so far. These things take time. You can’t rush into a serious surgery like that without knowing anything about the patient. I have compiled a lot of the information already, but like I said, there are some huge gaps. There are also discrepancies between my files and Gero’s files. Some of the information that I obtained simply doesn’t correlate with what he had written down in his notes. Most likely, he changed his mind during the experimentation and neglected to write down the new procedure.” She paused for a moment, realizing that she was rambling again. She cleared her throat. “To sum things up, I have been waiting on the surgery because I want to go into it carefully. The consequence of this surgery failing is death. It’s just too dangerous to rush into this.”

“We don’t have time to be cautious.” Vejiita said evenly, while shooting a glance over at Juunana-gou’s unconscious body.

“I agree.” Her son said softly, as if it hurt him to oppose her. He frowned. “I know that you want to be careful, but we don’t have time for that. What happened today could happen again. Only if could end up worse. Tayhei could have easily died today. Next time it could be you, or even Bra. We just need to fix the jinzouningen as soon as possible, before anything like this happens again. You understand that, right?”

“I suppose.” She agreed after a long moment. “I’ll call Kuririn and ask him what him he wants to do. If he gives me permission to start earlier than planned, I will call in the surgeon immediately and start.”