Mirai Bulma looked around the operating room in horror, nearly sick to her stomach. She knew that her long turquoise hair had come undone; it was hanging in front of her face like a dark curtain, but she didn’t have the strength to lift her hand and brush the strands away. Everything had gone. In one moment, absolutely everything had fallen apart. She began to cry in hiccupping sobs, gazing around the room in disbelief. Juuhachi-gou was dead, Juunana-gou was dead. All of that hard work, all of that hoping and praying….It had all amounted to nothing. She tried not to look at it as a failure, but there was nothing she could do or say that made it any better. There wasn’t any happiness in this. The worst possible things had happened, and it was all her fault. Everything was her fault. She crumpled to her knees without even realizing that she was falling, landing in a heap of glass on the floor. She placed her hands out in front of her and sobbed again, tears spilling off her cheeks and landing quietly on the tile.

It seemed as though fate was on a mission to destroy her. Everything she touched just wilted away and died. For the first half of her life, she had thought that she was destined to accomplish great things, but now she knew that she had only been destined to die. Life had no other plans in store for her except for torture and pain. No matter how hard she tried to undo the cycle, it wouldn’t break. Death always came back her in some way. And why had fate been so cruel to her? Why hadn’t she died as well? Why couldn’t she just have died along with her husband and her friends? Why did she have to keep on living when the only things that she were given were pain and suffering? Why?

The answer came back to her gently, a soft reply that seemed to caress her heart like a rose petal against her skin. She suffered because she was stronger than everyone else. She suffered because she was kind enough and strong enough to be able to take on all of the pains of the world. And she suffered because she had the ability to heal; to heal others and to heal herself. She was picked to live the life that she had lived because she was special. Because no one had a heart stronger and more resilient than hers. All this time, she had thought that that strength had come from living the life that she had lived, but she was wrong. That strength had been there all along, since before she had even been born. It had resided in her heart century after century, through every timeline and every dimension.

She sobbed quietly again, brushing the hair away from her face. She understood now; she understood why she went through the all of this pain, but it didn’t make it any better. It didn’t make her heart feel as though it weren’t breaking again. Because this time, her suffering had affected others as well. And although she might be special enough to withstand a lifetime of torture, she did not have the power to bring Juuhachi-gou and Juunana-gou back. Because she led a lifetime of suffering, anyone around her and anyone that trusted her would suffer as well. Like it or not, death followed her around like a shadow. It made her heart ache to know that she had been the cause of more pain, though. She had wanted to succeed so badly. She had wanted to help. And it wasn’t just for her anymore either; she had wanted to do it to help this family. But instead of helping it, she had just killed it.

Another tear ran down her cheek and she caught it with her hand before it could fall, squeezing it into her palm. She supposed that no matter how much hope she had in her heart, it still didn’t matter. Her life had already been decided for her. It had been decided a long time ago.

Her tearful eyes surveyed the room once more. She took in Juunana-gou’s body --- nothing more than a bloody heap on the floor. She would never have guessed that Kuririn could have such rage stored inside of his tiny little body, but she supposed that sometimes love gave people power that they never knew they had before. He was sitting on the floor now with Juuhachi-gou’s body pulled tightly against him, staring at the wall with unblinking eyes. Sometimes love felt so real that it was impossible to let go of it, and you kept clinging to it, even though you knew that it was gone. Slowly, her eyes traveled to where Dr. Cho and his assistant stood, still wrapped in the same passionate embrace they had been in for the past five minutes. Sometimes love showed up in the strangest, most unexpected places, so strong and pure that it was enough to make the rest of the world disappear. A rustle to the side of her caught her attention and she turned to see Vejiita looking at her, his dark eyes full of actual, real concern --- something that she had never seen in him before.

And sometimes loved died, and there was nothing that anyone could do to save it. Sometimes, just sometimes, when a person gives their heart away, they do so knowing that they will never be able to get it back. But love wouldn’t be love without throwing your entire body and soul into it. And although she had known somewhere deep in her heart that she would never be able to keep her Saiya-jin prince, she had fallen for him anyway. Because the thought of not loving him was much worse than that thought of losing him. Some things just weren’t meant to kept and cherished. And a soul as strong and free as her Saiya-jin warrior’s could never be caged. He had loved her as well, she knew that now. But that didn’t mean that he was meant to stay in her life forever. Sometimes love died, no matter how strong, no matter how passionate. The only thing that she had a right to hold onto were the memories that they had shared together. And she knew that she would, for as long as she lived.

Before he could stop himself, he was moving across the operating room, around the tables, to her side.

She looked up at him as if she did not see him, her eyes filled with tears. And as he stared into her deep blue eyes again, he felt another swell of compassion. This was not the woman that had been his mate. She wasn’t even close; the differences between them were two large to ignore. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t care about her. That didn’t mean that this woman couldn’t be a friend, or someone that he respected. And he did respect her. It had taken him awhile to understand her, to comprehend what was behind the tragic look in her eyes and the fragile human exterior. But now that he did, what he found was truly something beautiful. He would never have a love for her like the love that he had had for his Bulma, but he knew that he would never forget her. She wasn’t just the future version of his mate, not just a carbon copy of the woman that he had cared so deeply for. She was a unique individual in his mind now; completely different from the memory he had of his own Bulma. And though they hadn’t shared many words since she had been here, he still felt as though she had helped him. Somewhere along the lines, she had transferred some of her unfailing determination and strength to him.

He hesitated a moment, then placed a hand on her shoulder. It wasn’t much, as far as human affection went, but he knew that it would be enough for her. Because just as he understood her --- she was finally beginning to understand him as well.

Kuririn held his dead wife in his unsteady arms, numbly holding onto her as he sat on the cold hospital floor. No one had spoken. The room was so deadly quiet that he could hear the quiet ticking of Dr. Cho’s watch. Juuhachi-gou’s heart monitor had finally given up, quieting down into nothingness as the thin green line traveled across the screen on a straight, unchanging path. He didn’t know why no one was talking; perhaps they were all still so traumatized by what had gone on that they didn’t quite know how to find their voices. But although no one had said anything, there were still words running through Kuririn’s head. Over and over again he heard Mirai Bulma’s comforting words before the surgery, Gokuu’s speech at their wedding reception, Juuhachi-gou’s quiet voice saying that she was going to have a baby, the sound of Marron and Juuhachi-gou chatting about school and boys as they made dinner together. It all passed through his head like a slideshow of his memories, each of them melding together to form one giant snapshot of his life with Juuhachi-gou.

He cast a glance down at her. Another tear trickled down his cheek. How was he supposed to tell Marron? He didn’t think he was going to be able to tell her that her mother had died. Even though they both knew the risks that they would be taking with this, his heart had truly believed that everything would work out okay in the end. He never imagined that he would have to tell Marron that she would never get to see her mother again. What fate had done to him today was unspeakably cruel. He simply was not strong enough to face all of this, not at once. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to make it through the rest of his life like this. Hell, he didn’t even know if he was going to be able to make it to tomorrow. Yes, he had lived a long portion of his life without Juuhachi-gou, but that didn’t mean that he was able to do it now. Now that he knew what it was like to be with her and be in love with her, he didn’t ever want to go back to living alone. He knew that Marron would be with him, but that made it even worse. He could never replace Juuhachi-gou in Marron’s heart. He couldn’t raise her alone. He needed his wife.

The sun was just beginning to appear on the horizon when Tayhei finally began to put away all of her lab equipment and organize her notes. Although her mind had understandably been somewhere else all night, she had managed to get a great deal of work done. She was making up time for her absence in the lab much quicker than she had expected. For one thing, her advancements in cloning were moving along brilliantly. During the last experiment that she had run, both Benny and Lenny had managed to survive. She was quite happy about that as well, because if she killed any more hamsters, the animal rights people would be breaking down the door. Plus, she was kind of fond of them. With a smile, she tapped on Lenny’s cage door with the tip of her pen, titling her head to stare at his sleepy face and twitching nose.

Ah, to be a hamster. She thought wistfully. Lenny had nothing in life to worry about. He was feed each day, his cage was cleaned out, and there was always entertainment in the form of a wheel that he could run on. Lenny never had to worry about things like love and pain. The most complex and frustrating aspects of life were completely unknown to the hamster species. All they cared about was food and sleeping, and they were always well taken care of. Tayhei sighed and placed her pen in the pocket of her lab coat. Perhaps she should rethink her wish. Instead of wishing Yakosoku back to life, she could simply wish to be a hamster. It would certainly cut down on life’s complications.

At that very moment, the laboratory doors opened to reveal life’s biggest complication. Trunks strode into the room looking fresh and rested, with a handsome smirk on his face. He paused and raised his eyebrows at her in greeting before settling himself down in her desk chair and propping his feet up on her desk. She couldn’t help but notice how attractive he managed to look sitting there in a simple tee shirt and shorts. She hated the way that the cotton fabric had to stretch against his muscles. Honestly, couldn’t he have picked a shirt that fit just a little looser? And did he really have to gel his hair so that those stray strands fell perfectly into his sky blue eyes? It wasn’t as if were impressing anyone, certainly not her. She couldn’t care less what he wore. For all she cared, he could roam around the house stark naked.

“I hope you got a lot of rest last night.” He told her cheerfully. “We’re probably in for a busy day today.”

She placed her hands on her slim hips and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t recall inviting you along.”

Trunks opened his eyes wide in surprise. “Losing your memory, eh? You might want to think about working on that. You wouldn’t want a little thing like memory loss to interfere with your job.” He eyed the rows of cages with another wicked smirk on his face. “Especially when you are doing such serious, ground breaking work with hamsters. If you had to quit now, the scientific community would be in an uproar. Whatever would we do without your hard work with hamster experiments?”

Before she could snap back at him, the laboratory doors opened again. To Tayhei’s horror, Mirai Trunks came striding into the lab carrying a makeshift bouquet of wildflowers. The future warrior smiled at her happily, looking as though he had just had the best night of his life. He smelled vaguely of the ocean; she had caught a whiff of that just as soon as he came in through the door. That annoyed her even further. It made her feel as though the two of them were ganging up on her, meeting for late night ocean rendezvous together. She liked the fact that they were no longer fighting, but did they have to act like friends now? She felt that she would just be much happier when Mirai Trunks finally did go back to the future. One Trunks was enough to deal with. Having to deal with two of them was giving her a constant migraine.

“Who are the flowers for?” Trunks suddenly demanded, snapping Tayhei out of her thoughts.

Mirai Trunks smiled and handed the bouquet over to his younger counterpart with a calm expression. “You. I saw them and thought: these flowers and beautiful, but not nearly as beautiful as you.”

“That’s not funny.” Trunks replied darkly, but took the flowers anyway. He stared at them for a moment, then looked back up at Mirai Trunks with an accusing expression on his face. “Why wildflowers, eh? Is there any special reason why you would pick wildflowers? Do they hold some kind of a significant, romantic value?”

“Trunks, have you been testing out the Capsule Corporation pharmaceutical drugs again? They’re just flowers, okay?” Tayhei said in exasperation. She was sick and tired of always having to referee their stupid squabbling sessions. It was about time the two of them started acting like adults. They didn’t have to be friends, of course. Just adults. “If we are all going to go on this mission for Mirai Bulma, then I think we should take Bra as well. I don’t want to leave her here all by herself. Not after what happened last time. I’m going to go wake her up now and get her ready. Can the two of you behave yourselves for a few minutes while I leave the room, or do I have to send in a supervisor to make sure that you don’t tear each other’s heads off?”

Trunks sighed and shook his head, as if he realized that she was right. He looked up at her with a slightly guilty expression and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “No, we’re fine. I was just….I just….didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Right.” She rolled her eyes in disbelief. “Bra and I will be ready to go in just a few minutes. Why don’t the two of you wait outside? I don’t want you messing up any of my experiments.”

As soon as she was out the door, Mirai Trunks turned to face him with a look of curiosity and frustration on his face. “I thought we were through with all of the arguing. What’s bothering you now?”

Trunks thought about it for a moment. On one hand, he wanted to ask Mirai Trunks about everything that he saw in those pictures. He wanted to know exactly what Tayhei had been to the future warrior; how long they had known each other, what happened to her, what she was like. And he also wanted to know the truth --- he wanted to know why Mirai Trunks had really come here. In his heart, he knew that it had all been about Tayhei, but he wanted to hear it from Mirai Trunks’s own mouth. The pictures certainly explained a lot of the future warrior’s behaviors. It explained why he had taken almost an instant disliking to him --- he had been jealous. And it also explained the fixation on Tayhei, which had baffled Trunks until just recently. But although he wanted to ask Mirai Trunks all of those questions, he knew that it probably wasn’t right. He didn’t want to make the guy dig up all of those memories, and besides, it was over with. Tayhei wasn’t going back to the future with him, so it didn’t really matter what those pictures were about.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Trunks told him evenly. “I was tired and I snapped, that’s all.”

Mirai Trunks raised in eyebrow, obviously not believing a word of that. But instead of arguing, he simply shrugged. “We’re going to get senzu beans for the jinzouningen today. Okaasan asked me to bring them to her. As soon as the jinzouningen are finished with the surgery, all we have to do is hand them a senzu bean and they will be completely healed.” He paused for a second, then added with a smile: “Completely healed and completely human.”

Trunks could see the logic in that. It sounded like something that his mother would have done. She had always been quick and efficient like that, and she never would have wanted someone to have to suffer. If Juuhachi-gou and Juunana-gou were going to go through the healing process normally, it could take months before they were perfectly healed. With senzu though, they could be back on their feet in minutes. Of course, this all depended on whether or not the jinzouningen made it through. Mirai Trunks seemed to be positive about it, but he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t think that Dr. Gero was the type of person who would make things easy. There would be major, if not deathly complications. It made him feel bad for everyone involved; Mirai Bulma had an immense amount of pressure on her, Kuririn and Marron were probably beside themselves with worry, and the jinzouningen were trapped inside bodies that were built like death traps. He wasn’t normally a very pessimistic person, but for some reason he wasn’t looking at the situation in a positive light at all. There were just too many things that could go wrong.

In silence, he and Mirai Trunks left the laboratory and headed outside to the yard. Tayhei had wanted them to wait outside, and since it wasn’t too hot out there yet, Trunks really didn’t have a problem with that. Actually, when he descended the front steps and strolled onto the freshly watered grass, he was glad that he had come outside. It was still very early in the morning, and a bit of the magic from last night still lingered in the air. He took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of summer: grass and flowers, lemons and warmth. Normally, the beautiful, silent atmosphere would have calmed his heart, but his mind was still too plagued with problems.

Mirai Bulma should have called by now. It was true that he didn’t know how long the surgery was supposed to last, but if things were going perfectly fine and well, then Mirai Bulma would have been able to take the time and give them an update. He knew that she was considerate enough to call them; she had to know that they were tense and worried as well. And if she couldn’t pull herself away from the surgery, she could have at least asked his father or Kuririn to make a quick phone call to Capsule Corporation. The only real, plausible reason for the lack of communication was that something had gone wrong. He figured that they would at least figure everything out soon, though. It would only take them a short while to reach Korin and retrieve the senzu beans that they needed. If some sort of a problem had come up with the surgery, they would certainly know about it by the time they reached the hospital.

Tayhei was another one of the bitter problems that was screaming in his head. Now that he knew, he wasn’t sure how to act around her. Mirai Trunks would have told her about his world and Mirai Tayhei by now; that was probably why the two of them had been so secretive. And although part of him wanted to talk to Tayhei about it, he knew that it probably wasn’t a good idea right now. He had gotten a pretty sturdy grip on Tayhei’s personality by now, and he knew that she would not react well if he questioned her about their entwined destines. But the fact still remained that the two of them seemed fated to be together. The two timelines were near perfect reflections of each other as far as romance went. The only variable was the jinzouningen. The jinzouningen had changed everything in the future timeline. Therefore, any romances that began after the appearance of the jinzouningen in the future world were not necessarily meant to be carried out in this world. It was possible of course, even probable. After all, Tayhei had still shown up here and there was undoubtedly some sort of attraction between them. But he didn’t know whether or not they were still fated to be together.

She appeared at the front door then, gently prodding sleepy looking Bra down the steps and into the yard. She was dressed in white as usual, this time in a more casual manner however; shorts and a tank top, white delicate white sandals tracing their way back up her leg. Bra was dressed in a similar manner, obviously wanting to be just like the girl that she idolized so much. The two of them walked across the cool grass, towards where he stood with Mirai Trunks. He stared at her as she moved, watching the way that her bright green eyes looked up to gaze at the slowly rising sun. Her hair had been tied back in the usual ponytail, but at the moment it spilled over her shoulder like a golden waterfall. She was studiously ignoring him, but that only made easier for him to stare without being caught. He began to feel something as he stared at her then; a constricting, aching feeling in his chest. He had felt it before around her --- this mixture of longing and fear that was so strong and so real that it actual made him feel as though his heart was about to break.