Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Time's Folly; A Bittersweet Symphony ❯ Observations ( Chapter 26 )

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Chap 26*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

- Four days later; early evening -

 

Azure sat at the foot of a large tree, her arm resting on her upraised right knee, her back against the trunk. Sparring high up in the sky above her was none other than Goku and his son Gohan. It seemed as though something had come over the Saiya-jin in the past four days. There had been an almost continuous sparring among them; the sense of urgency to fight and become stronger even extending to her fellow humans.

 

By moving here and there, Azure witnessed the various spars taking place: Autumn and Asia, with Piccolo periodically watching from a distance; Krillin and Yamcha, and the Saiya-jin fathers and sons training together.

 

Ah, there they are, she said to herself as Gohan and Goku descended, bringing their current air battle just within the limits of her human vision.

 

She then breathed in deeply. Finally, it's gone.

 

The past four days also had brought another onslaught of the burning pain she had experienced within the first month of arriving in this new world. Only this time, it was a lot stronger and more hindering to her daily life. This rest has done me a lot of good. I feel like myself again, she thought with relief as she saw father and son land firmly onto the ground.

 

A few minutes later, Goku kept his sights fixed on the skies above as he watched with pride as his oldest, now accompanied by Goten, flew off.

 

I can definitely feel something different. Something about her energy… Vegita. Something within the last four days tells me that he must have figured something out about her. It's time for him to reveal what he's discovered. He smirked to himself. She's still sitting over there.

 

Even though she was a fair distance away from where he stood, Goku turned his head and looked directly at her.

 

Seeing that Goku's attention was upon her, Azure stood up and casually strolled over towards him.

 

“Well, hello there,” he greeted in his usual cheerful manner after she finally came within a few feet of him. She nodded at him.

 

“Kakarott.”

 

Hearing her address him by his Saiya-jin name, Goku chuckled lightheartedly. “Since you've spent all this time under Vegita's influence, I suppose that's no surprise. But, would you mind calling me Goku?”

 

Azure thought about his request for a second or two before nodding silently.

 

On a slightly more serious note he then added: “I can only imagine how well all of your training with him has paid off. You certainly gave little Trunks a heck of a time when I last saw you two sparring together.”

 

“He has proven to be a difficult challenge,” she acknowledged.

 

“If you don't mind, I'd like to see your skill firsthand.”

 

“You are quite above my skill level,” she admitted as she advanced a few feet towards him. “But if this is your request, then I won't object to it,” she said as she gave Goku a nod, who in turn, smirked good-naturedly.

 

“Great!” he replied happily as he slid into a readied fighting position.

 

Azure gave another respectful nod before she rushed at Goku. Her first attack sprung her into the air, sending her body into a leap over him. Anticipating her landing, Goku turned around, but instead of landing on both feet, she surprised him by sliding into a split. Azure immediately shot both hands at an upwards angle and released a strong blast of ki.

 

The impact of the beam didn't overly faze him but it did knock him back a little bit, just enough for Azure to change her position so that she could swipe at Goku's legs with one of her own, which he avoided. Once she got back to her feet, the two started a short exchange, which consisted mostly of Goku systematically blocking Azure's hits. Dodging one of her kick combinations, he phased out then reappeared, putting some space between them. Azure sent a blast at her opponent, but Goku merely swatted it away.

 

As he did so, Azure took a couple of running steps then flipped forward on her hands, making a high arc with her body. Her legs landed squarely on Goku's shoulders as he faced forward. She immediately wrapped her thighs tightly around his neck and swung her body backwards so that she was hanging partially upside-down in front of his body. With ki ready inside the palms of her hands, she rose up slightly and thrust them straight into his face. Her legs unhinged from Goku's neck and moved into a wide straddle as the burst of ki power was released. The blast not only knocked Goku backwards several feet, but it also pushed her back a short ways.

 

Taking advantage of the slight opening, she sped towards him and was able to land an upward kick directly into the middle of his chest. The force behind it pushed Goku even further back and several feet into the air.

 

Not noticing the small smirk appearing on his face, Azure jumped up and aimed a high, roundhouse kick at his head, which he avoided easily. After spinning around to face him again, she initiated another furious volley of kicks and punches, which he either blocked or avoided. That particular round was ended with a decisively swift kick from Goku that sent Azure to the ground.

 

At the last second, Azure shot ki at the ground, which slowed down the speed of her fall just enough so that she was able to touch down with only a little stumbling. Goku landed right as she regained her footing.

 

“Not bad. You're pretty creative.”

 

Azure only gave a small curl of a smile at his observation and quickly lifted a hand towards him. Ki rapidly built up and shot out of her hand at Goku, who was looking at her curiously.

 

What's this? he asked himself just as her image disappeared and the blast impacted the ground at his feet.

 

In the air directly behind him, Azure suddenly reappeared with her right foot aimed straight at his back. Goku whirled around right before she made contact and pushed her leg aside and down with one hand, although the awkwardness of the block made him take a couple steps backwards.

 

She jumped up again, this time kicking with both legs in a horizontal position, using extra ki to strike Goku in the chest. Goku flew backwards but readily stopped himself from going too far. Then he felt Azure do an abrupt power-up to send a sizable ball of ki in his direction. With one outstretched hand, he halted the ki's forward momentum and held it at bay. All the sudden, the attack weakened considerably. A look of curiously followed quickly by surprise graced his face right before she landed a fairly strong, ki-enhanced kick to the side of his head. Azure followed that up by launching a second kick, but Goku was able to jump backwards out of her leg's reach before it could make contact with his back.

 

As they continued their fight off the ground, the next few series of kicks and punches were naturally blocked by Goku. Although he was hesitant to make any truly offensive moves, he was impressed with her fighting skills and creativity, and noted elements in her style that were undoubtedly inspired by Vegita's own.

 

Kicking off of one of his blocks, Azure flew backwards to reposition herself away from him. Goku watched in curious amazement as a great power surge suddenly erupted from her, enough so that it visibly encased her body for a few seconds. This new power-up was immediately followed with a powerful ki blast that careened towards him.

 

His surprise and interest piqued, indicated by a single raised eyebrow, Goku quickly deployed a counterblast that would match hers in intensity. The two blasts converged in the middle with a mild explosion of energy and hung there, continually fed ki by their creators. Within a few moments, Goku felt another opposing burst of ki slam against his, but he easily matched that intensity and added just a little bit more to his own beam. It was becoming obvious to him that Azure was growing rapidly weaker as she tried to sustain her attack, so he decided that his next move would be the last of the spar. Anticipating her decline, he relinquished his ki output before blinking out of the way of her weakening ki blast. Reappearing behind her, he caught Azure just before her body went limp and she began to fall to the ground.

 

“The skill is definitely there,” Goku commented approvingly as he held her depleted and unconscious body in his arms. And… Then he thought back to the surge of visible energy she generated earlier in the spar. Is this what you've discovered, Vegita? he pondered mentally as he flew them in the direction of Capsule Corp.

 

<><><><><><>

 

- Evening -

 

Flying at a moderate pace behind Piccolo and Gohan, Autumn and Asia flew in close formation, talking quietly between themselves.

 

“I feel so worn out lately. It's weird; I don't think I've ever felt this drained…” Asia groaned as she rubbed her shoulder. “…and this sore, since we started training three months ago,” she added.

 

“Yea, you're right about that,” Autumn agreed, her brows slightly creasing in thought. She didn't feel quite as tired as Asia but her friend had brought up an interesting point. “I don't remember Videl being so tiring to spar with, either.”

 

Capsule Corp. loomed in front of them as the group descended to the ground. Gohan and Piccolo turned around to address the girls, right after the two touched down behind them.

 

“Listen,” Gohan began to say in all seriousness. “Over the next two days, it's probably best that you two don't engage in any training.”

 

Confused by his instructions, Autumn stared in puzzlement at him. Asia was only slightly surprised by what he said, but decided it was nothing worth arguing about.

 

However, Autumn did not feel the same way and posed the question: “Why not?”

 

“You're overexerting yourselves. The energy you are using up is straining your bodies. If you don't take it down a notch and get some serious rest, you run the risk of causing serious physical damage to yourselves. And with things as they are, that is not something we want to risk, if we can help it,” Gohan explained as reasonably as he could.

 

“What do you mean, the energy is straining our bodies? That makes no sense,” Autumn contested stubbornly.

 

Piccolo then stepped in and gave her a hard look. “You'll only make yourselves more exhausted if you continue on without letting your bodies get accustomed to energy you've been expending. The fact that you are this tired all the time recently makes it obvious.”

 

Autumn eyed him suspiciously, clearly unconvinced by his explanation. Piccolo then glowered at her with irritation and stated flatly, “If you continue to train at this level without giving your bodies sufficient rest time, you will destroy yourselves.”

 

With that, he shot off into the air.

 

“I should be heading back myself,” Gohan said with a slightly apologetic laugh, but then his demeanor became somber, adding an extra warning. “Just, take it easy for a couple of days, just to make sure.”

 

“Thanks, Gohan,” Asia said gratefully, giving him a reassuring smile.

 

“Yea, thanks,” Autumn echoed, followed by a short, resolute sigh. “Goodnight, Gohan.”

 

As Asia bid him the same, he nodded at both of them then lifted off on his homeward journey. It was a minute or two later before Asia broke the silence between them. “You didn't tell him about your dream.”

 

Autumn looked at her and shrugged her shoulders. “Yea, I know.”

 

Asia gazed at her friend questioningly. “So what was all that about?”

 

“There is something weird going on,” Autumn declared knowingly. “And we're not getting the whole story from either of them. There is something missing; I can feel it!”

 

“Like what?”

 

“The barrier, for one; they've both said before that it has changed somehow. Apparently, it's also affecting us in some way, but they never said exactly how. This means for some reason, they don't want to tell us.”

 

“Or else they don't know. Unlike you, I happen to trust Piccolo's judgment and don't feel the need to keep criticizing and analyzing every little thing; especially, if I don't get it myself,” Asia asserted firmly before she turned around and headed towards the nearest entry.

 

“What? It doesn't bother you that he is withholding vital information about our condition?” Autumn questioned, a little astonished by her friend's statement. “Which could turn out to be really bad?” she pressed on.

 

Asia paused in her walking and calmly turned around, her young face reflecting her confidence.

 

“Piccolo is wise. He knows what he's doing. I'm quite sure that he feels it's probably better to let us know what's going on when he does understand what's happening than to give us misinformation that could only make things confusing and solves nothing. We already have that with this whole barrier business. And in all truthfulness, I think he's right that we should take a break. And, as both Gohan and Bulma like to remind us from time-to-time, proper training also involves proper rest.”

 

With that, Asia turned on her heel and proceeded to walk inside. Autumn stood, staring fixedly for a few moments at the light spilling from the opened doorway before heaving a sigh and finally following her friend into the building.

 

<><><><><><>

 

- Next day; very early morning -

 

Vegita stood quietly off to the side, cloaked by the shadows in the elder Trunks' room. During last night's observation of his son, Vegita witnessed repeated instances of restlessness in his son's sleep patterns. He watched as intermittent bouts of withering pain and raspy quick breathing, accompanied the sweating tension that racked Trunks' body. And his son did all of this while in a deep sleep, waking only once. That one time he shot upright in his bed into a sitting position then spent several agonizing moments calming his body before he could lie back down again. He never did go fully back to sleep.

 

Instead, after about a half an hour, Trunks got up and walked out of his room, never noticing his father. Vegita stood for several moments longer before also departing his son's room. As he came upon his younger son's room, he stopped in front of the doorway. Frowning slightly, Vegita reached out and gently swung the door inwards.

 

This Trunks was lying quietly in a half-awake state, although he sleepily moved his head to look towards the door. Vegita stood and took a long look at the boy, who merely closed his eyes again, falling back into sleep. Moments later, Vegita closed the door. Then he resumed shadowing his older son.

 

<><><><><><>

 

- Late morning -

 

Bulma walked into the kitchen and came upon a couple of less-than-energetic girls sitting at the table, both slowly eating.

 

“You two look absolutely dead!” she clucked disapprovingly, shaking her head. “Piccolo didn't take over your training, did he? I know Gohan and Trunks are doing their own thing but if they are leaving you with Piccolo…”

 

“Bulma,” Autumn interjected calmly. “Don't worry. We are still under Gohan's care and instruction. Piccolo just sometimes drops by.”

 

“And actually, we've been ordered by both of them to take a couple of days' rest,” Asia said as she sat up and stretched her arms over her head. “Speaking for myself, I'm ready for a good break.”

 

Relieved, Bulma took a seat at the table. “Good! You guys deserve a few nice days of real peace.”

 

Asia and Autumn both gave small nods as they quietly continued eating.

 

<><><><><><>

 

- Afternoon -

 

“Straining their bodies,” Mirai Trunks repeated in a curious tone. “How is that?”

 

“I don't know,” Piccolo replied with a small shake of his head. “But, given their human limitations, they are certainly being drained, worn out after the simplest of workouts. It's almost as if neither of them had trained a day in their lives.”

 

Gohan frowned, his eyebrows creasing together. “I really hate this. And I don't like the idea of having to rely on the eventual appearance of these Augin-jin to get some answers,” he said heatedly after a few moments. “Waiting for whenever these creatures finally do decide to show up.”

 

“What other choice do we have, Gohan?” Piccolo said gravely.

 

“I just wish we knew more about what we're gonna eventually face! This is like the android thing all over again; not knowing where they'll strike, how they'll strike -”

 

“They will probably strike nearest the location I am in,” said Mirai, his voice sounding resigned.

 

Gohan's eyebrows quirked up as he turned to face the seated Mirai, who hadn't been saying a lot since Piccolo's arrival had interrupted their sparring session.

 

“I'm their location device,” he added solemnly.

 

Gohan gave him a curious look. “What do you mean?”

 

“His barrier, the girls' barriers, all work like transmitters, enabling them to hone in on their locations,” Piccolo explained as he realized what Mirai was saying.

 

“And what about when? That part we still don't know. Trunks, you estimated that the Augin-jin's arrival would be in two years, but isn't there a real possibility that your coming here may change the timing of events?”

 

“There is a good chance of that,” Mirai agreed with a nod.

 

Under the ridge of his brows, Piccolo studied Mirai, who didn't seem to notice the long, curious look he was getting from the Namek. A slight distraction came from overhead as they all heard something zipping through the clouds at top speed.

 

“Well, there goes Goten and Trunks,” Gohan observed offhandedly, although he was slightly surprised by the younger boys' brief appearance in the sky.

 

“Mother is planning on a big lunch tomorrow for the girls to `start them off properly' on their mini-break, as she put it,” Mirai said, shifting the subject of conversation. “Hopefully, it'll help them get back on track. Autumn and Asia have been looking pretty done in lately, come to think of it.”

 

“Yea, it was particularly obvious yesterday when they were sparring against Videl,” Gohan acknowledged with a nod. “I'll be sure to stop there as well. If it's all interconnected, perhaps whatever's been sapping their strengths will help to heal them as well.”

 

“It might do you some good, too,” Piccolo stated, shooting his former pupil a marked look under his brows. “You've been on edge lately yourself.”

 

“With everything that's happened and so many questions still remaining unanswered, it tends to happen,” Gohan admitted, his tone clearly reflecting his agitation at their situation.

 

Piccolo gave a slight nod as Mirai stood up, suddenly no longer in the mood to continue with the spar.

 

“I'm heading back, Gohan. We'll have to finish some other day,” Trunks said as he slowly ascended into the air.

 

“Yea, sure,” Gohan replied, watching while Trunks put on a burst of speed and shot away. Piccolo folded his arms over his chest and barely glanced up at Mirai Trunks' hasty departure.

 

Gohan's upturned face was then graced by a curious look for a moment as his thoughts turned inwards.

 

<><><><><><>

 

- Night -

 

After waiting for three months…these past four days of training were the best ones I've ever had, Mirai Trunks reflected as he stood just outside the entrance of Capsule Corp. I've never had the chance to spar with Father before…

 

Moments later, he looked up with a puzzled expression as Goku came into view. Goku? What's he doing here? He turned around as Vegita stepped outside, right as the taller Saiya-jin touched the ground.

 

“Good evening, Trunks!”

 

“Good evening, Goku,” Trunks greeted back

 

“Hn, Kakarott,” Vegita said in a low, amused tone before he turned to address his son. “I have an opponent for you.”

 

Trunks blinked and looked at his father questioningly. “Goku?”

 

“No.”

 

Trunks happened to notice that Goku's eyes were affixed on a point behind him. As he turned his head to follow the path of Goku's gaze, Azure came into his line of sight, and he nearly smirked. He then looked at his father, who merely grunted in acknowledgement.

 

“Let's go, Kakarott,” Vegita ordered. With that, he and Goku ascended almost as one into the night sky shortly before Trunks followed suit. A second later, Azure did the same, although she was unaware of the exchange that had just happened between other three.

 

A few minutes into their flight, Goku began to say, “Vegita…” but the other immediately cut him off.

 

“Not now, Kakarott,” he growled warningly, but his friend wasn't going to let the subject go.

 

“You figured something out, haven't you?” Goku continued in a lower tone.

 

“This area should suffice,” Vegita suddenly announced, blatantly ignoring the question as he descended from the sky into an open area a good ways away from any populated areas.

 

Goku touched down near Vegita as Trunks and Azure also landed a few feet in front of them. Trunks stood and looked at his father, anticipating more instructions.

 

“Do not get carried away,” was all that Vegita said, a small smirk pulling at his mouth.

 

Trunks snorted and rolled his eyes. “How could I?”

 

Azure shot a quick glance over at Goku before inhaling deeply to cover any signs of nervousness. The two combatants looked at each other then shifted and slid into their practiced fighting stances. Trunks smirked with confidence, while Azure had nothing more than an indifferent expression on her face.

 

“You've felt this new energy, I'm guessing,” Goku posed in an aside to his fellow Saiya-jin just as Trunks and Azure started their match. Vegita continued to remain strangely quiet.

 

Once again, you're choosing to show me rather than outright tell me, Goku thought with a slight frown. Something is going on that's getting to you. What is it, Vegita?

 

Undaunted by his friend's stubborn silence, Goku continued prodding. “You were right about Azure being from our world, being that her ki signature has changed so much. It hardly resembles the ones that Autumn and Asia have anymore. And this new energy I'm sensing from her…”

 

“Perceptive, Kakarott,” Vegita mumbled with a hint of sarcasm.

 

Azure dropped down and aimed a slashing kick at Trunks' ankles that he neatly avoided with a small leap backwards. She swiftly flipped over to one side and sent a ki blast at her opponent's chest, which managed to hit its mark, knocking Trunks onto his back for a second. Quickly flipping upright, Trunks's forearms blocked a trio of rapid punches before capturing Azure's wrists and pulling her forward so that he could knee her. A follow-through kick then knocked her some feet away from him.

 

Trunks charged at his fallen foe once she stood back up, which she did with some difficulty. At the last moment, Azure dodged to the side and rounded her body over Trunks' shoulder, forcefully planting one knee at a hard angle into his back, which drove him into the ground. It was the second good hit she had gotten on him.

 

In an abrupt move, Trunks radiated a quick ki burst out of his hands to push himself up and flip himself over into the air. Not expecting such a maneuver, Azure lost her footing and fell onto her back. Trunks delivered a downward blast at her while in mid-air, but she phased out of its way and landed on one knee a few paces away.

 

Azure took advantage of the couple seconds it took Trunks to land on his feet to go at him with a high kick to his head. When he leaned back to avoid the kick, she then jumped slightly into the air, her knee angled to hit upwards, which he stopped with his hands. She quickly followed with a ki-enhanced, double-fisted punch to the jaw that knocked him backwards, before flipping backwards away from him.

 

Trunks stopped himself easily by digging his boot heels slightly into the ground. As soon as he stopped, he fired off a fair-sized ball of ki straight at his opponent. Azure responded to his attack with a ki ball of same magnitude. The two blasts met between and the battle for dominance began anew as the two fed more and more energy into their ki beams.

 

Goku's attention stayed focused on Azure as he watched the way her ki energy rose again and again, each time meeting Trunks' challenge as he fed more energy into his blast. At one point, each of them did a simultaneous quick power-up to maintain their end of the current beam struggle. Goku was quick to note that what was merely a simple response for Trunks was an effort for Azure.

 

Vegita remained quiet; observing, waiting.

 

Trunks decided to end the struggle. Using a sharp, enhanced ki pulse, he pushed it through the great clash of ki energy towards Azure.

 

From where they stood, the two fighters were far enough apart for some type of response but not far enough for Azure to completely dodge the blast. She responded by summoning up her own raised surge of energy that surrounded her visibly for a couple of seconds, then sent her counter-blast back in Trunks' direction. One of the observers glanced at his companion as Trunks merely jumped into the air.

 

“She did the same thing yesterday,” Goku stated, looking for Vegita's response.

 

Vegita turned his head and looked up at his son, whose expression held a similar one to Goku's and his own at what they all just felt.

 

Trunks didn't have much time to deliberate about this discovery. Azure swiftly leapt into the air then did a back-flip kick, which knocked him back a bit. Finishing out her flip, she slammed her heel into his chest, knocking him out of the sky and onto the ground.

 

Trunks grunted, a little surprised at her abrupt and sizable increase in strength. But all of this effort was clearly taking a lot out of her because now he could hear her breathing become more labored when she landed. She paused for a few moments to gather in a couple of deep breaths before dashing at him. Trunks stood prepared as the two met in a clash of punches, which he won easily after punching her back away from him.

 

It was obvious to the Saiya-jin that, after the last exchange, it had become much harder for her to get up. But what happened next surprised all three of them.

 

When she finally did straighten up, Azure clenched her fists and tensed her body, this time generating an even larger amount of power than before. For a second or two, a dull, diluted glow appeared around her as she tossed a blast that would equal the strength of something Trunks' himself could create just shy of being Super-Saiya-jin.

 

Though astonished by what he was sensing, Trunks reflexively put his arms up in front of him to block the oncoming blast. It slammed into Trunk's forearms, pushing him backwards a few inches before he countered it by using some of his Super Saiya-jin energy, automatically sending it back in the direction in which it came.

 

The blast never hit its intended target because it was diffused by a side ki blast that came from Goku.

 

“Well, that was certainly something,” he commented as he walked over to Azure's unconscious body. “The way she was able to call on her energy like that, so easily and quickly, and with the amounts… She did this yesterday too, although I must admit, she fought a lot better today.”

 

Vegita remained unmoving, silently regarding the body lying on the ground.

 

“Fainted again?” Trunks asked, walking over to take a look at Azure.

 

“Well yes, but I was referring to the way she raised her energy level,” Goku clarified.

 

Vegita turned his head to the side and closed his eyes for a moment. But she always faints any time she produces a sizeable ki attack. Her body can hardly handle large amounts of energy. She may be able to take hits from Saiya-jin, but only so much and so often. She has the frailty of a human in every possible way…

 

“I can see why you had her fight with him, Vegita,” Goku commented, pulling him away from his thoughts.

 

“As she fought with this Trunks,” the taller Saiya-jin continued, “she was forced to call on all the energy she had and maintain it at a constant rate, instead of drawing it out intermittently in various-sized pieces like she would with the other one. A type of life-and-death use of ki energy.

 

“I noticed that her earthling ki signature, what's left of it anyway, disappeared completely when she called upon that last huge amount of ki. I don't know why,” Goku wondered aloud, pausing to rub the back of his head, “but lately her ki signature, especially in that moment when it disappeared… almost seemed familiar.” Goku looked at Vegita, his face full of unanswered questions.

 

What? But if Kakarott can't completely recognize it… then perhaps it's not what I think it is and I am just going crazy! Someone, or something, is fucking with me! Vegita fumed silently.

 

“Familiar?” Trunks finally spoke. “How?”

 

Goku dropped his questioning expression, which Vegita had blatantly ignored anyway, opting instead for one of thinking, cocking his head to the side. “I'm pretty sure I've felt something like this before but… I can't really place it, so I can't really be sure. It's still really… foggy,” he said, ending is observation with an uncertain shrug.

 

Trunks crossed his arms in front of him and glanced at his still-uncommunicative father. Goku is pretty much the only one of us with the ability to read ki to such a distinctive degree. Then again, Father has had a hell of a lot more encounters with various beings out in the universe. And if he can't recognize this other signature of hers, that does narrow down the possibilities quite a bit.

 

“So, what's the next step, Goku?” Trunks asked of the elder Saiya-jin, but still keeping his eyes on his father.

 

“Now we know she's definitely from our universe; I have the proof of that. It's also been rather obvious that her true power is still being suppressed, probably from an outside source. However, since her original ki signature has changed so much, at times disappearing for a couple of seconds, I would have to guess that there's a big chance that she's not from Earth,” Goku supplied in answer. “So, who is she?"

 

“Maybe, the barrier is actually affecting Azure, working against her. Maybe that's why this other ki signature is so muddled. If you can't decipher it, then that has to be it. I'm from this dimension, and other than the barrier preventing me from leaving it, I'm not otherwise affected. And, since we've determined that Azure is also from this universe; it's not doing anything different than it's doing to the other two. The difference lies in the fact that she came with them from their world, so it has to be doing more than just blocking her from leaving this timeline. Assuming that their world is significantly different from ours, there had to be some kind of transformation, right?”

 

“That's a good point,” Goku agreed. “Vegita?”

 

“That's what I've predicted ever since this situation started,” Vegita pointed out.

 

“And hopefully that will lead to an opening that will help us figure out this barrier business,” Trunks concluded.

 

“I wonder just how strong she truly is,” Goku wondered, his expression thoughtful. Vegita glanced at him.

 

“But what if Gohan's suspicions turn out to be correct and she ends up being an enemy, and a dangerous one at that?” Trunks offered.

 

“It doesn't matter,” his father declared firmly. “She can still be easily killed.”

 

“Either way, it looks like we are finally getting somewhere,” Goku cheerfully asserted, grinning widely.

 

Trunks nodded as Vegita shot an unreadable glance at Goku.

 

“Well, if that's all then, I'll be heading back home. Hopefully Chi-Chi hasn't noticed. She might get a little mad that I left so suddenly without telling her.”

 

Trunks gave a little chuckle at the Saiya-jin's henpecked remarks.

 

“You two'll make sure she gets back and rests, right?”

 

Nodding, Trunks picked up Azure.

 

Goku paused, giving one last look at Vegita. With a quick good-bye and a wave, Goku rose into the air and headed home.

 

The flight home for the other two Saiya-jin was as quiet as could be as Trunks flew, just slightly behind his father, carrying the unconscious Azure in his arms.

 

As they touched down in front of Capsule Corp., Trunks looked over at Vegita.

 

“Father.”

 

Vegita, though not turning around to face his son, paused in his movement.

 

“You know something, don't you? You're holding something back.”

 

“Am I?” Vegita taunted, just slightly turning his head over his shoulder. “`I know you're hiding something'…is that what you're really trying to say to me, Son?”

 

The not-quite-hidden disdain in that question made Mirai's eyes widen in abrupt surprise as he watched his father enter into the house.

 

What the hell…

 

His jaw clenched in tight frustration, Trunks, along with his unconscious burden, followed into the house moments later.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*