Through the eyes of a monster, Juuhachi-gou gazed up at her husband. He was standing beside the examination table, looking down at her with a tense expression. His brows had drawn together and she could tell by the deep frown on his mouth that he had a lot of very serious things on his mind. His hands had been shoved into his pockets, and she imagined it was because he probably couldn’t stand to be standing here beside her and not touching her. Kuririn had always touched her in gentle subtle ways. He had always been reaching out to touch one of the pale blond strands of her hair, or cupping his hand around the curve of his shoulder to pull her closer to him. She had always permitted him to do this, even though she still was not used to touching, even after all these years. Now that she was unable to feel him, now that this invisible wall had been assembled between them, she began to miss it. At that moment, she would have given almost anything just to feel his warm hand on top of hers, or to be able to be held in his arms. In this lonely, desolate world that she had been confined to, she began to miss and appreciate the things that she had taken for granted before.

He spoke to her in a low, comforting voice, asserting the fact that he loved her and that he was going to be there with her the entire time, helping her through it. And as he spoke, she felt the desperate urge to reply to him, to be able to tell him how she felt. She wanted to be able to tell him that she was scared; that she was terrified. She wanted to be able to tell him that she had thought of him and Marron nearly every second since this entire thing had begun. And most of all, she wanted him to know how much he meant to her, and how much he had changed her life. Yes, she had turned back into the horrible monster that she had originally been created to be, but it could have happened sooner. The only the thing that had kept her heart alive and pure during all of those years was him. If it hadn’t been for the thought of him and the family that they had together, she would have given up long ago.

I love you. She told him silently, and prayed that somehow in his heart he would be able to hear it.

Marron was silent, still thinking over the connotations of Tayhei’s deal. On one hand, she would be able to get the dragon radar with little or no hassle, but on the other….It was almost insane to hand something as powerful as the dragonballs over to Tayhei. Who knew what she would wish for? The girl had so far shown her nothing but evil and deceit. She was quite certain that she had never heard a truly honest word from that girl’s mouth. It was nothing but an act. Tayhei enjoyed making other people miserable; she enjoyed hurting others and watching them suffer. That was just the way that she was, and people like that did not deserve to have the dragon stand before them and offer them whatever wish their heart desired. At the same time though, it didn’t seem like Tayhei was power-hungry enough to abuse the wish. If anything, she would probably wish for something simple but calculating, such as turning Trunks into a fruit bat or making Vejiita three inches tall. Yes, those weren’t nice things, but they weren’t horrible enough to warrant taking a wish away from the girl.

“Fine.” Marron agreed. “You can have the second wish. You just have to promise to leave me out of whatever evil thing it is that you’re planning.”

Tayhei sighed and shook her head dismissively. “Don’t flatter yourself, Muffin. If I had a wish in mind, I wouldn’t think twice about you.”

“My name is Marron.”

Tayhei shrugged. “Whatever. Listen, you have a lot of work ahead of yourself. I can take you down to Bulma’s workshop right now and get the dragon radar for you. I would go along to ensure that the all of the dragonballs are found, but I have more important things to do than go running around chasing after magical genie spheres. I will however, give you a different mode of transportation. I highly doubt that you can fly --- you’re barely even able to walk properly. You’re going to have a hard time keeping up with everyone else, and will most likely hold them back. A normal Capsule Car just isn’t going to be enough to get you up to the same speed, so I will give you the latest prototype of something that the company has been working on.” She paused for a moment and then flashed a brilliant smile, her green eyes sparkling. “Remember, it’s just a prototype, so it hasn’t been fully tested yet. If it blows up while you’re riding it, I refuse to take responsibility. After all, this was your idea.”

“Thanks.” Marron said dryly.

She watched as Mirai Trunks gently helped Tayhei up, and winced again at the painful looking wounds all over the girl’s body. Marron had been thrown around herself during the scuffle with her uncle, but at least she hadn’t ended up like this. It looked pretty painful --- and she knew that if she had been beaten up that badly, she would probably still be lying in bed right now. However angry she was with Tayhei for demanding the second wish, she had to admit that she admired the girl for being brave enough to ignore the pain and fear she must be feeling. Besides, considering how much easier finding the dragonballs would be with the dragon radar, Tayhei’s request seemed kind of insignificant. The important thing was that they got the dragonballs as quickly as possible and made the wish that they needed to make. Nothing else really mattered. She was doing this for her mother; and she refused to let anything hold her back.

A girl entered the room laboratory, carrying a stack of files and equipment so huge that only the very top of her head could be seen. Kuririn guessed that she was Dr. Cho’s assistant; the doctor had mentioned earlier that someone would be coming to help with the transportation to the hospital. She was a small girl; just as petite as Marron. Well, at least he supposed that she was just as petite as his daughter ---- He could scarcely see anything but legs poking out from underneath a monstrous pile of medical equipment and file folders. If he had been feeling more like his usual self, Kuririn would have done the gentlemanly thing and rushed over to help her, but he couldn’t seem to find the will to move. It was as if his entire body was tied down to his chair by invisible cords, sternly holding him in place. His mind too, had somehow left him, and he viewed everything that was happening around him with detachment, as if he were watching a film or some terribly tragic television show. All he could do was stare with expressionless eyes as Dr. Cho’s assistant attempted to get through the door.

It appeared that the poor girl was already struggling with the large load in her arms, and maneuvering it through the doorway proved to be a bit more a challenge than she could handle. As she stepped through, the edge of a file caught on the doorframe and threw her off balance. She wobbled unsteadily in the doorway for a moment, wavering back and forth on the heel of one of her simple black shoes. Her voice came out muffled and quite frightened as she fought to maintain control over the load that she was carrying. “Dr. Cho?”

At the sound of her voice, both the doctor and Mirai Bulma looked up from the conversation that they had been having. The future woman just looked surprised, but the doctor --- who must have known the clumsy nature of his assistant, immediately dropped his mouth open wide and went running for the girl with his arms outstretched.

Normally, seeing a man in a full suit run past him with a look of sheer horror in his eyes would have been somewhat amusing to him, but Kuririn didn’t even smile as Dr. Cho rushed to his assistant’s aid. He watched with the same expressionless gaze as the doctor tried to extract the load from the girl’s arms without causing everything to fall, bracing himself against the doorway and catching everything that was already tipping towards the ground. After another moment, Mirai Bulma ran past him too, in a blur of turquoise and white --- she had obviously realized that if she didn’t take action soon, there was going to be quite a mess to clean up. The laboratory immediately turned into a roar of frantic yells and skidding footsteps. Kuririn sat calmly in his chair and watched the drama unfold in a detached manner, casually tapping his fingers on the armrest.

He would simply have to face the fact that this was one situation in which he had absolutely no control. There was no way for him to protect Juuhachi-gou now. There was nothing that he could do except stand by her side and pray. He didn’t know anything about what Dr. Gero had done to her body, and he knew even less about surgery. If anyone was going to pull Juuhachi-gou and Juunana-gou through this ordeal, it wasn’t going to be him. Their lives were in the hands of other people now, and he simply had to trust them enough to let them do their jobs. He had agreed to this in the first place because he wanted his wife to be well again. He wanted her to be able to open her eyes and know that she was human --- know that she was free of any of the evil that Dr. Gero had implanted in her. And in order to do that, he had to be able to trust someone enough to let them take the risks that needed to be taken.

When Kuririn heard the inevitable crash of paper, plastic, and metal to the ground, he merely closed his eyes. Slowly, he brought his hands up and pressed the tips of his fingers against his temples, trying to push away the anger and fear that was beginning to surge in his mind.

Normally he would have been more than accepting about the clumsy assistant’s behavior. He even considered himself to be perhaps the most accident prone human being on the planet. He had gotten himself into a lot of trouble over the years because of the fact that he still hadn’t been able to recover from his childish lack of balance and poise. But this was a bit different --- there was no room for accidents here. Mirai Bulma, Dr. Cho, and everyone else involved had to be sharp and accurate. Clumsiness was absolutely not acceptable anymore, and he hoped that they realized that. He cautiously opened his eyes again and found the three of them still picking the items off of the ground and placing them on the nearby countertops. The assistant, who was prettier than he had imagined, was studiously avoiding his eyes, and Dr. Cho had his back turned to him, hefting up a large stack of files. What really caught his attention was Mirai Bulma, and the look on her face. She had seemed so professional before --- so calm and so prepared. Before, she had managed to look as though nothing would go wrong. But now as he stared at her, he caught a glimpse of nervousness in her expression.

He knew that Bulma tended to view only the things that revolved in her own little universe, but he hoped that she would be able to step outside and see how this was affecting other people as well. How it was affecting him. The other Bulma that he had known wouldn’t have been able to do it. He had loved the woman dearly as a friend, but he had never known anyone more self-centered. She was the commanding force of her own world --- her own empire, and there were very few times when she was able to venture out and see what other people were thinking and feeling. He knew that this Bulma from the future though, this other woman, was different. Perhaps she would be able to truly see how her actions would affect more than just her own life. Maybe she would be able to see Juuhachi-gou and Juunana-gou as something more than just a project or a mission. Maybe she would see them as a family. And if she did, maybe, just maybe, she would be able to pull them through this together.

Mirai Bulma bent down to help the doctor and his assistant clean up the mess; a humongous pile of papers and files and plastic transportation equipment that had been scattered all over the laboratory. It wasn’t really that big of a deal. Nothing had been broken of course, and it appeared that nothing was too terribly out of order. It was nothing more than just a minute long delay in the entire process. It was Just a small bump that they had to get over before they could continue on with what they really needed to do. It had been an accident --- a pretty, unsuspecting assistant walking into the room with too heavy a load for her small arms to carry. And yet….She still couldn’t shake the feeling that it was more than that. As she knelt down on one knee to catch a pen that had rolled under one of the shelving units, she remembered the day when she started believing in signs.

It had been an accident much like this one. She had just arrived back home from a day of shopping and in one arm, she was carting an armful of bags and boxes. In her other hand was her favorite purchase of the day --- there was always one thing that she was thrilled about when she came home. This time, she had purchased a gorgeous vase for her room; a blue vase painted with intricate vines of purple blooms floating from top to bottom. She couldn’t explain the true reason why she bought it, but she knew that she had taken it off the shelf because it reminded her of her life. Like the vase, her life was perfect and smooth --- absolutely flawless. She had been young and impulsive then, a selfish, spoiled girl who still thought that the whole world belonged to her. In her eyes, she was just as perfect and polished as that delicate vase, as if her entire life had been molded and sculpted in the exact same manner.

She had taken the vase home with pride, and as she stepped through the doorway she glanced at it again, admiring the careful paint job and the shining finish. Back then, she viewed her life in the same way that she viewed that vase: something so perfect could never fade or tarnish. Something so perfect could never be robbed of his beauty or intrigue. But as she rushed into the next room to show her mother the beautiful vase, she had run into Vejiita in the hallway. By no means did she consider herself a clumsy person, but when she slammed into his thick chest, she suddenly felt herself falling. Her balance slipped away from her almost immediately, and she was vaguely able to sense his strong grip on her arm, holding her up. In slow motion, she saw the vase fly out of her hand and fall to the floor. She winced when she heard the sound of it shattering, and her deep blue eyes welled with tears when she saw what had happened to her beloved purchase. It cracked into a thousand pieces and scattered along the shiny surface, painted purple flowers staring back up at her mockingly.

Vejiita had released her then and growled at her for being clumsy and stupid. Still angry that she had lost the expensive vase, she had simply turned around and placed her hands on her slim hips, narrowing her eyes at him.

“It was an accident.” She defended herself. “If you hadn’t been standing the middle of the hallway like that, this wouldn’t have happened.”

He had looked back at her with glinting black eyes. “There are no accidents, woman. Just glimpses of what fate is really trying to show us.”

She had brushed it off then, snapping back a few angry words at him and watching him walk away. It was typical of him to say something cryptic and nasty like that, typical of him to stomp away and leave her to clean up the mess. She glared at after him with angry blue eyes, tucking a strand of turquoise hair behind her ear and sticking her tongue out. After she was certain that he was gone, she bent down and began to pick up the larger broken pieces of the vase, placing them into a small pile on the floor. It was only then that she realized that she would never be able to put this vase back together again. It had been broken beyond repair --- splintered into so many jagged pieces that it had nearly turned to dust on the floor. Her beautiful vase; this perfect pieces of work that had been molded into perfection, had been destroyed.

Later on that night, she saw on the news that two mysterious beings had destroyed a nearby city. The jinzouningen --- that was what they were calling them. Two horribly powerful monsters that had been created to destroy the world and every living thing on it. That was the night that her own life fell to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces. And the night when she truly stared to believe that accidents were not just accidents anymore. They were glimpses into the future.

The memory swept over her so quickly and so forcefully that nearly fell over, and pressed the palm of her hand into the tiled floor to regain her balance. The laboratory started to spin around her wildly, fluorescent lights and shining countertops all blending into an ugly swirl of color and light. Sickness began to rise up in her stomach and she stumbled uncertainly to her feet. A dull roar began to sound in her ears, and she could faintly hear the beating of her heart echoing there, rising and falling in rhythm as she tried to maintain her balance. Her eyes opened. Her eyes closed. It was too much. There was just too much pressure and too many people depending on her. There were too many things that could go wrong --- too many obstacles in her way and just too much damn responsibility. She didn’t know if she could handle it anymore, didn’t know if she was going to be able to keep herself calm through all of this when she really felt like just curling up into a ball and dying.

She burst out of the laboratory as discretely as she could, intending to either run to the bathroom or just get out of there --- she wasn’t sure which. But instead of finding an empty hallway and a clear path of escape, she found Vejiita. Unable to stop in time, she slammed into him, and just like before, felt his strong grip on her arm, steadying her. Instead of fighting against him in the way that she normally would however, she merely melted into him. All of the intimidation she felt from him was washed away with just a simple hug, and she clung to him limply, feeling as though she had just wandered into the arms of an old friend. She was tired of acting tough, tired of pretending that she was capable and ready and completely confident. All she wanted to do was let someone know how she really felt about the jinzouningen and this surgery: fear. Defeated, her head fell against his chest and she slumped down, letting all of the stress and fear seep out through her carefully placed barriers.

“I don’t know if I can do this or not.” She told him through her tears. “I just don’t think I have what it takes to be able to do this.”

He was quiet for a moment, but she was aware that his grip on her arm began more gentle. Instead of holding onto her so that she wouldn’t fall --- he was simply holding onto her. When she gazed up at him, he was staring at down at her with calm dark eyes, and the edge of his mouth was turned up into a slight smirk. His voice came out lacking its usual harshness, but was just as firm and deep as always. “Don’t be stupid, woman. If anyone can do this, it’s you.”

Their embrace was hardly romantic, and she knew that she felt no sexual tension between them --- it wasn’t like when they were on the roof, in the rain. And though his voice not at all kind or compassionate, it still brought her comfort. Its familiarity and strength were enough to make her believe. He said the words in such a casual manner --- as if it were simply a fact that she was going to make it through this. It made her heart burst with love and appreciation, a different kind of appreciation than she thought it would. In his arms now, she felt almost the same way that she did when her son was comforting her; he would always reach out and hold her shoulder, giving her that look that made her believe he was the parent, not her. It was the strongest, most beautiful kind of comfort that anyone could receive; it made her entire body feel warm and heavy, as if she were swimming through tepid waters, moving her limbs slowly and gracefully.

She pulled away from him and touched her hand to his face for a moment. He stared back at her with expressionless dark eyes, but his gaze was so strong that it felt as though he were staring straight into her soul. She knew what he was seeing then, could feel what was heart was feeling. She didn’t know when it had happened, or even why it happened, but somewhere between that rainy night on the roof and this moment, things had changed between them. He was seeing her for what she was now, touching her instead of the ghost that lingered around them and between them like an impenetrable cloud. And as she stared into those seemingly familiar black eyes, she realized that she was staring into the eyes of a stranger. This was not the Vejiita that she had known and loved. This was not the Vejiita that she had shared a passionate, unending connection with --- he had been taken from her long ago. This Vejiita was different, and though she had known it all along, it had been hard for her to truly accept it until now.