It was a bit of a sick human obsession to want to see horrible things. No matter how gruesome and awful a situation was, it seemed as though everyone still wanted to know about it. As long as it wasn’t happening to them, it was interesting. No one would ever really admit to something like that, however. No one would ever freely say that they actually wanted to see the destruction of the future world. But Mirai Trunks still found himself digging through the pictures that he had brought along, sorting out the ones that were suitable for the others to see. As soon as they discovered that he had pictures, they had hinted all through dinner that they wanted to see them. Especially Bra, whose deep blue eyes would cloud over with unabashed concern every time he would mention something about his future world. Even his younger counterpart had seemed somewhat interested in seeing the pictures --- which was a vast improvement from his scowling and glaring. Mirai Trunks didn’t really see any reason why he shouldn’t let them see what his future world looked like. He just had to prepare himself for all of the questions that were going to come up, and the sadness that was bound to reawaken in his heart.

He descended the stairs quietly towards the living room, clutching a fairly large pile of pictures. He had taken all the snapshots of his Tayhei out of the pile when he went upstairs, knowing that he couldn’t very well show those. So far, Tayhei was the only one that knew about the existence of Mirai Tayhei, and he didn’t want to invite anyone else in on the secret. It could possibly change the events of this world, and he felt as though he had already messed up things in this timeline enough. Because of him, so many things had changed already. He really wasn’t willing to risk ruining a romance --- especially not one that he knew could be absolutely beautiful and rewarding. He had already risked ruining it enough by coming here and trying to interfere in the first place. From now on, he was going to keep his distance and make sure that he didn’t get involved.

The others were already waiting in the living room, seated on the plush leather couch. Bra was already dressed in what looked like her pajamas, and Trunks was reading a sports magazine. It had just barely grown dark outside --- summer days always seemed to last longer than they were supposed to. He knew that he would have a hard time sleeping again tonight; it wasn’t just because of the hot weather or the brightness of the stars outside, but mainly because he knew that he was about to dig up a lot of memories by showing them these pictures. He placed the handful of pictures on the coffee table and smiled down at Tayhei. “Dinner was wonderful, by the way.”

She managed to look smug and charming at the same time, raising her eyebrows as she reached for the first picture. “I image you don’t have many fine meals in the future.”

He shrugged and settled down into a nearby armchair. “We get by. Even when the jinzouningen were still a threat, we were able to grow crops. My mother developed something that she termed a “fake sun”. Even though we were underground and in hiding, everything grew at a normal rate. We always had enough food for everyone. Livestock was hard to come by, but we managed to figure out a way to handle that situation as well. Now that the jinzouningen are gone, things are going back to normal again. I assure you, we don’t starve. It was the people outside of the Underground City who starved. There was hardly anything left for them to eat.”

Tayhei handed Bra the first picture and reached for another one. He could see her just barely blanch as she looked at it; it was a picture of Capsule Corporation after it had been blown up and burned. He knew what she must have felt as she looked at it. Capsule Corporation was her home and her job. It was probably hard for her to imagine it being burnt to the ground and completely destroyed. Her green eyes widened as she picked up the next picture: Capsule Corporation from an aerial view; the domed roof had caved in and you could see clear through the rubble and into the basement area. “Was it all this bad?”

“You saw Satan City. Imagine the entire Earth looking like that. Every city destroyed, every forest and field burned and obliterated. It was horrifying.” He paused for a moment, not wanted to seem like he was asking for any kind of pity. Yes, it had been terrible, but it was over now. Now that the jinzouningen were gone, things were starting to turn around. The city that they lived in now was actually quite comfortable, though it was nowhere near the grand city that it had used to be. He smiled at all of them, trying to look encouraging. “Again, things are getting better now that the jinzouningen are gone. We are rebuilding the cities, and most of the crops have been restored. The forests are growing again as well….very slowly. It will take a long while, but the world will heal.”

“And ChiChi-san is still alive?” Trunks asked, smiling down at a picture of his mother and ChiChi with their arms around each other.

Mirai Trunks felt his heart warm slightly, thinking about the woman that had been such a positive influence on his mother’s life, and such a good friend. “Hai. She and my mother are the only ones left. They’re best friends --- much closer than the two of them were in this world. They share everything together, and for a short while, ChiChi was actually living with us. She moved back into the Son House, though. I think it made her feel better to be in the place that was her home for so long. The jinzouningen hadn’t touched it. It was exactly the same --- just a little dusty. I think she’s happy there now, though I do know that she misses Gokuu-san just as much as she did the day he died.”

It was true. Much like he had never truly gotten over Tayhei’s death, ChiChi had never gotten over Gokuu’s death. Sometimes when he visited the Son House, it almost felt as though Gokuu had never been gone. ChiChi still kept all of fighting clothes in tact, as well as all of his possessions. She still cooked much more food than necessary and still worked tirelessly around the house to keep things clean and neat. He knew that it made her sad sometimes to be living in that house; the Son House had been her life for so many years, through good times and through bad. When he had first helped her move into the house, he had asked her about it --- he had asked her why she wanted to move back into a place that obviously held so many bad memories. And she had replied that wanted him to be able to find her when he came home.

He knew how she felt.

“Besides ChiChi, no one else that you would know is alive.” He continued, but he felt as though his mind was in an entirely different place than his body. Images ran through his mind of the destruction that he had actually witnessed, and the people that had died right before his eyes. “Everyone else was killed by the jinzouningen, except for Gokuu-san, who died of heart disease. They were the strongest people in the world, so naturally they tried to defend the Earth. The strongest went first, and then it was up for the weaker ones to try and save everyone. Even Kamesennin tried to fight the jinzouningen, among others.” He added, thinking of Tayhei, who had lost her life trying to defend the Underground City. “They only ended up losing their lives, though. All of them.”

Just like he expected it to, the sadness welled up inside of him. He had lost so much because of the jinzouningen; they had taken away every bit of joy that he rightfully should have had. They had taken away Tayhei. And although it had been years and years since she had died, he could still feel the unbelievable pain of it. He looked from the pictures to this timeline’s Tayhei, looked at those same bright green eyes. He could still remember how those eyes looked right before she had died --- almost peaceful, but sad in a way as well. And he remembered how the pain of her death had affected him physically the moment that she drew her last breath. He had actually thought that he might die from it. The pain had just struck him straight in the heart, burning and stabbing all the way through his body.

He stood up suddenly and made an effort to smile. “I’m going to go up to my room now. You can just leave the pictures there, and I’ll pick them back up later. Have a good night.”

They all nodded, distracted by the pictures that they were looking at. And he climbed the stairs unsteadily, feeling as though his legs had gone numb. He wasn’t going to go to his room. He wasn’t going to go to sleep. He just wanted to fly somewhere and leave all of this behind him. He just wanted to fly somewhere where he could be alone and think. And he knew exactly where he wanted to go.

Tayhei stood in the bathroom with Bra, watching as the little girl brushed and flossed her teeth. Bra was making every effort possible tonight to not have to go to bed --- she normally would have hated the idea of flossing. Tayhei found it rather amusing. When she had been young, she had rarely ever wanted to sleep either. She had always thought that sleeping was rather useless. Why should you go to sleep when there were so many other things that could be done? Why should you go to sleep when the only dreams that came were nightmares? It made it hard to crawl into bed, no matter how soft and inviting it looked. She wasn’t going to let Bra get away with staying up, though. The little girl needed her rest, and Tayhei was going to make sure that she got it.

When the flossing was over with, the two of them padded into Bra’s bedroom. Bra looked over her shoulder at Tayhei and frowned deeply, furrowing her brow. “I feel bad for Mirai Trunks. Does he have to go back to his world? Why can’t he and Mirai Bulma stay here? We still have our city, and our house is really big.”

“Bra-chan, they have to go home.” Tayhei informed her, helping her into bed and pulling the covers up close. It was summer and hot in the house, so she would only be needing a light comforter tonight instead of the heavy down one that normally covered her bed. Tayhei thought that it was rather sweet that Bra cared so much about their future visitors. The little girl obviously had a big heart. Not many children would care so much about people that they had just met. She guessed that it had something to do with the pictures they had looked at, though. The images were nothing less than horrifying. “You heard what Mirai Trunks said --- they are rebuilding their world. They’re trying to make it a better place. And he didn’t sound as if it were too horrible anymore. Now that the jinzouningen in that timeline are gone, they really don’t have anything to worry about. They’re just trying to undo the destruction that was caused.”

Bra leaned her head back into her pillow. “He must be lonely.”

“He is.” Tayhei said quickly and quietly. No one knew that better than she did. Mirai Trunks had been so lonely that he had actually crossed into this timeline in search of finding her. He had been so lonely that he had been willing to ignore the fact that she wasn’t the woman he loved, just so that he would be able to have someone. She felt terrible for having to disappoint him, but going back to the future timeline with him just wasn’t logical. It wasn’t right. She couldn’t lead him on that way, letting him think that she was the woman he loved. She just wasn’t that girl, and there was nothing that she could do to change that. She did however, respect Mirai Trunks and enjoy his company. He had already asked her to go with him on a mission the following day and she was excited about it. It would give her a chance to get away from Trunks and Capsule Corporation for awhile.

“I bet Mirai Bulma is really lonely, too.” Bra continued, though her voice was sleepy and slow by this point. “She doesn’t have Otousan anymore --- Mirai Trunks said that the jinzouningen killed him. Do you think that she got really angry and distant at first, like Papa did when Mama was killed?”

“I think that Mirai Bulma had much more to worry about than that.” Tayhei told the little girl honestly. “I don’t think she had time to get angry and upset. They were still trying to kill the jinzouningen at that time, and she was probably building the time machine already, so that she could send Mirai Trunks back. I’m sure that she felt like getting angry and distancing herself, but she just couldn’t. Sometimes when bad things happen, you don’t have any time to get over them. You just have to keep going.”

Her speech was wasted, really. Bra had already fallen asleep, snoring gently into her pillow, hugging Mr. Hippo to her chest. Seeing her sleeping there reminded Tayhei of the way that her own little sister had used to sleep: clutching a stuffed animal with her mouth wide open, dark curls falling into her face. She knew that she had never given herself time to get over Yakosoku’s death either. She moved on and kept going, but never let herself truly grieve over her loss. And even though she probably had the time to do it now, she almost didn’t want to. She was scared of it, really. She didn’t want to cry; she didn’t want fall apart. If she could hide from her sister’s death for the rest of her life, she honestly would. But hopefully she wouldn’t have to. Maybe with these dragonballs and this wish, she would be able to turn back time and undo everything. She wouldn’t have to hide anymore, but she wouldn’t have to face it either. She could just make a wish and have it all go back to normal.

As soon as she had turned off Bra’s light and stepped outside the door, she saw Trunks standing out in the hallway. His arms were crossed and there was a bored expression on his face, but there was no doubt that he was standing there for a reason. She glared. The bastard had actually been waiting for her. She knew that he wanted to talk to her --- he had already attempted it earlier while she was trying to work. And she definitely did not want to talk to him, not alone anyway. It would just complicate things even further. She really didn’t feel like taking another trip down emotional alley today. All she wanted to do was throw herself into her work and never look back again. As long as she kept herself busy --- and away from Trunks, she wouldn’t suffer any kind of a breakdown. This little talk that Trunks wanted to have was just going to confuse her even further her, and she was honestly afraid of what he might say.

“I can’t talk right now, Trunks.” She told him quickly, moving down the hallway at the fastest pace possible with six inch heels. If she moved out of sight fast enough, and seemed busy enough, maybe he would take the hint and leave her alone. “I’m extremely busy. I have to get down to the lab and work on this experiment that I have been putting off for a week, I have loads of paperwork to do for the company, and I still have to clean up the dishes from dinner. I really don’t have a spare minute to chat.”

“You just chatted with Bra.” He pointed out, following her. A wicked grin appeared on his face and he tossed his hair back, looking quite sexy and dangerous. “And if I do say so myself, I’m quite a bit more attractive than she is. I think you can give me at least a moment of your time. In fact, I think you want to give me a moment of your time.”

“Are you learning impaired?” She snapped. “I just told you I was busy.”

“Fine.” He agreed with another smirk. “I can wait.”

She hesitated, knowing full well that he would probably be waiting outside the laboratory when she finished her work. “I’m going to be busy all night.”

“Are you?” He asked, in mock surprise. “Well then I will just talk to you tomorrow.”

“I’m busy tomorrow too.”

“Imagine that.”

“I’m going with Mirai Trunks on some sort of mission for his mother.” She informed him, hoping that mentioning his future counterpart might scare him off. Although they seemed to be on better terms than they were before, she could sense that there was still a bit of jealousy brewing beneath Trunks’s sky blue eyes. Not that she paid much attention to his eyes, or even stared at him at all. In fact, she should probably just stop looking at him altogether. It didn’t help her to keep looking affirming the fact that he was one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen. She should probably just avoid him all together from now on. Looking at him just confused her. “She asked him to get something for her. Something for the jinzouningen, I assume. We’ll probably be gone all day long.”

Trunks smiled wickedly. “It sounds like fun. I’ll ask him if I can come along too.”

With a sigh, Tayhei stomped away.

Feeling happy that he had managed to unnerve her yet again, Trunks strode confidently to Mirai Trunks’s room. The future warrior was probably asleep, seeing as though he had gone to bed quite awhile ago, but he might still be awake. Trunks would simply tell him that he heard something about a mission for Mirai Bulma and ask if he could come along. He wouldn’t even mention Tayhei at all. He knew that Mirai Trunks wouldn’t dare tell him no, especially since they were finally starting to get along. It seemed as though Mirai Trunks was treading around him rather delicately now anyway, not wanting to start another fight. And as far as Trunks was concerned, that was just fine with him. Mirai Trunks had every reason to feel guilty and ashamed for trying to take Tayhei back to the future with him. What kind of a man did something like that, anyway? Yes, Tayhei was beautiful, but that didn’t give every guy in the world the right to try and steal her away. Mirai Trunks should have taken some things into consideration first. Mainly the fact that Tayhei did not belong to him.

The light was still on in Mirai Trunks’s room. He could see it shining in the darkness of the hallway. That meant that he was probably still awake. He knocked on the door briskly, trying to keep the anger down. He had already decided to forgive his future counterpart. After all, it was all over with now. Tayhei was not going to the future timeline --- she had told him that much straight out. He had nothing to be angry about now and he didn’t want to start hating Mirai Trunks all over again.

When no answer came, he opened the door a crack to see if Mirai Trunks was sleeping. Maybe he had just forgotten to turn his light off. He did that himself sometimes when he was extremely tired. He just flopped onto his bed with his clothes on and his light on, and didn’t wake up until morning. Mirai Trunks didn’t seem like the type of guy that would do something like that, but it was possible. The guy had been looking more and more tired every day. It was about time the lack of sleep finally caught up to him. But when he looked inside the room, the bed was still made up and untouched. Mirai Trunks was nowhere in sight.

He opened the door even further and furrowed his brow. “Hey! Future boy! Are you in here?” Again, no answer came. Trunks scowled. It was just like the guy to run off in the middle of the night for some reason. Now he would have to wake up early and ask him in the morning before he and Tayhei could disappear.

Just as he was closing the door and muttering a curse, something caught his eye.

There were pictures spread out on Mirai Trunks’s bed --- more pictures from the future, he supposed. The other ones were still down on the coffee table; he had just seen them before he came upstairs to wait for Tayhei to finish with Bra. He frowned, wondering why his future counterpart hadn’t brought these down for them to look at as well. Maybe they were just duplicates? He opened the door back up and strode into the room, walking over the neatly made bed and bending down to look at the pictures.

The first picture that he picked up to look at was a group picture, taken in front of a city street. He recognized the city as the Underground City from the other pictures that Mirai Trunks had shown them, but this wasn’t one that he had seen before. He squinted, wondering why Mirai Trunks had neglected to bring this one down for them to see. He tilted his head, looking towards the left side of the picture. Besides Mirai Trunks, his mother, and ChiChi, there was another girl there. A girl with long golden blond hair and bright green eyes; only half a smile was on her beautiful face, not like the rest of the people in the picture that were grinning madly. She was facing to the side with her hands in her pockets, wearing a Capsule Corporation tee shirt, jeans, and old work boots.

Tayhei?

He stared at the picture, incredibly confused. When had this picture been taken? It was impossible. Narrowing his eyes, he looked down at the rest of the pictures and saw Tayhei everywhere. There she was with Mirai Trunks’s arm around her. There she was standing next to ChiChi, holding a vase of orchids. There she was on the beach, walking barefoot in the sand. Tayhei with Bulma, Tayhei with Mirai Trunks again, Tayhei by herself….There were dozens of pictures here, and all of them had featured Tayhei, who always looked up at the camera with that peaceful half-smile, her green eyes open and full of life. He picked up another picture of Mirai Trunks and Tayhei --- they stood with their arms around each other, gazing into each other’s eyes. He stared at it for a full minute, not wanting to see it, not wanting to believe it. And then the realization hit him.