I knew it was stupid - but I had to go, I had to see for myself just what the cyborgs who had once been the Goten and Trunks of this world had done.  Nothing seemed real; it was as though I was sitting in a darkened cinema watching a horrible story unfold before my eyes, completely unable to prevent this world from collapsing into chaos.

Juunanagou was dead according to Dende, and I knew better than to doubt the word of God.  He couldn't have known what a chord his words had struck in my heart, drawing forth the memory of Juunanagou lying broken on the ground before me - and of the burning awareness that I carried what was formerly the cybernetic brain of my own world's Juunanagou at my side.  Would Dende have been so welcoming of me if he had known about that?

I doubted it, but it didn't really make a difference.  Bra was safe for the moment, but Juunanagou was lost; who else would I find frightened, wounded, dead in the wake of these new cyborgs?

I slowed down as I neared my destination - the blast that had preceded Dende's announcement had been centered here.  Kame House.  If this world was anything like my own, then Juuhachigou had probably married Krillin.  Juunanagou must have been visiting his sister when their uninvited guests showed up...  I repressed a shudder, fingering one of my ki-shields nervously as I approached what remained of the island.

Kamesennin's idyllic home had been torn apart, the debris scattered down the beach and into the sea, bits and pieces drifting away with the tide.  I clenched my fists as my feet touched the sand, swallowing convulsively.  Grimly I set about my task, searching the tiny island for any sign of Juunanagou.  It didn't take long, as his body hadn't really been damaged as badly as I had feared.  They'd only taken his head.

His head.

I sank to my knees beside the lifeless torso, wrapping my arms around my body as I fought against the surge of hysterical laughter that was swelling within me.  I knelt there, shaking, for quite some time as the last wisps of smoke from the ruins of Kame House were chased into the sky by the wandering sea breeze.

Eventually, my shudders subsided.  I licked my lips, tasting upon them the salt of my own sea of grief.  Slowly, I reached out to Juunanagou's body, examining in detail the damage that had been wrought upon it.  After a few minutes, I concluded that the majority was repairable, or would have been if everything was there rather than -

Where?  Where would they have taken it?  It's not like they were going to want to carry it around with them for long...  Or would they care?

I leaned back, absently staring out over the crashing waves as I considered the ramifications of the existence of Nijuuichigou and Nijuunigou.  The first was obvious.  Someone must have modified them.  But who could have done it?  Gero was the only person who had ever succeeded in constructing viable cyborgs, at least to my knowledge.  The naming - numbering? - of the new jinzouningen suggested that someone had continued on from where he had left off.  Whoever it was had chosen their subjects very carefully - they had to know us even better than Gero did.

That last thought brought me up short.  'Us'?  Since when had I become a part of this?  Beyond being an unwilling spectator, that is.  I'd always been good at convincing myself to believe in lies, but this time it was simply too much.  Part of the answer was lying right before me, its companion piece dormant at my side.  Another part was currently at Dende's Palace.

I'd made a mess of my own world.  I couldn't just sit back and watch another version of me do the same here.

I pulled my capsule kit out of my pocket, along with the dimensional transporter that housed Juunanagou's cybernetic brain.  I sat staring at it for a long moment as I weighed the last decision I would have to make in order to commit myself to this plan.

All things considered, I would have been much happier attempting what I was about to do within a facility such as Capsule Corp., where just about everything I could possibly need would be at my fingertips in mere moments if anything went wrong.  Unfortunately, given that my counterpart was currently the enemy, Capsule Corp. was compromised.  The only other place likely to satisfy my needs was probably wherever Nijuuichigou and Nijuunigou were created.  That meant that my plan stood a good chance of becoming a one way trip for me  - and for Goten.  Literally.

I didn't care about myself, but this wasn't fair to Goten...  Nor was it fair to Juunanagou, or Bra - but I hadn't hurt Goten, I hadn't killed him.  Yet.  Had I?

Gritting my teeth, I set to work.

I could remember watching my mother when I was little, as she worked on various bits and pieces of machinery.  She was almost always happy when she was working like that, designing, constructing, adapting.  She truly loved this kind of task.  I loved it because it reminded me of her.

She once told me a story of how she and my grandfather had repaired another cyborg, Juurokugou, after he'd been injured in a battle with Cell; but then, Juurokugou hadn't truly been a cyborg, but completely artificial.  Nor had he been repaired on a beach with sand being blown into his circuits.

I wondered how Gero managed to create a personality for him...

The question was not irrelevant.  I had no way of telling whether or not my plan would work, nor to what degree it was possible.  I wasn't a genius like my mother, nor was I Gero.  All I could do was trust in my skills and pray as I took apart my transporter and reconfigured it, connecting it to the cybernized body before me.

I wondered what Dende would make of my prayers.

"Ah, good, Juuhachigou.  You're awake," the little Namekkian smiled as I stalked towards him.  "Is something wrong?"

I gave him a cold glare.  "Oh, nothing much, just the little matter of Trunks and Goten being turned into cyborgs!" I hissed, turning away sharply as God tried to place a comforting hand on my arm.  How could he hope to offer sufficient comfort in the face of the death of my twin brother at Nijuuichigou's hands, not to mention my husband's impending mental breakdown!

"Where were you during all of this?  Why didn't you warn us?  You're God!  You're supposed to protect the planet, not run it into the ground!"  My harsh words cut him to the quick, I knew, but that didn't stop me from berating the little fool.

I turned and swept the floating platform with my gaze, noting the impressive turnout.  "Does Earth really mean so little to you that you would allow those two monstrosities to - "  My eyes widened in disbelief and just as quickly narrowed in hatred as I spotted an all-too-familiar face standing in the crowd near the palace steps.  How - ?!

"Nijuuichigou!" A bolt of energy punctuated my scream, and the cyborg barely leapt out of the way to avoid the attack, forming a barrier - just in time for another rage-filled blast to be slammed against it.  "Die, you murdering tin can!"

Voices yelled in panic and a dozen arms tried to grab me as the cyborg was forced to his knees before me.  I avoided them all, still throwing energy spheres at my brother's killer.  No one was going to stop me from avenging Juunana's death, no one!

"Juu-chan, NO!"

I turned to the familiar voice, leaving myself open a moment too long as I was tackled to the ground.  By the time I had thrown off my former friends, Krillin had placed himself between me and the automaton.  Cold anger roiled in my stomach as I narrowed my eyes.  Hell, now even my husband was protecting that - that abomination!

"Step away, Krillin.  I'm going to give that homicidal bastard what he deserves."  I saw him shiver at the death promised in my voice, but the little monk stood firm.  The other Z fighters kept their distance - and just as well.  If they interfered with my revenge a second time...

"No, Juuhachi.  This isn't Nijuuichigou.  It's Goten.  And I won't let you kill Goten."  I blinked in shock at my husband's stern visage.

"Goten?!"  I glanced at the others' faces as each one nodded in turn, then scowled as I turned my eyes back to front.  "Have you all gone insane?" I whispered, unable to believe the depths of their stupidity.  The glow surrounding me burned brighter and a cold rage filled my voice as I spat at Krillin's feet.

"Goten is dead, baka!  That goddamned tin puppet is trying to trick you, just like he did us!"  I prepared another blast... when a small clawed hand suddenly touched my elbow.

"Juuhachigou," Dende spoke quietly from behind me, "look at the boy."  I glared at the creature looking steadily back at me and snorted.  "Your brother could barely scratch Nijuuichigou.  If he were a cyborg, how could you have wounded him so easily?"  I blinked, the trickles of blood and dark shadowing of developing bruises registering now for the first time, while he stared at me darkly, yet with cautious understanding.

I lowered my hands and stood down, feeling strangely empty, yet relieved as I kept my hardened gaze on Goku's son.  There was a scowl on my face and steel in my voice as I watched those glaring wounds - mild though they were, but wounds that never should have been possible had he truly been Nijuuichigou - disappear under God's hands.

"Explain.  Now."

Why was I letting them do this?

For that matter, why was I doing this?

I shook my head to dispel the fear that lay behind those thoughts and herded the girls behind the palace, ignoring my curiosity over the shouting we had just heard a few minutes before.  Soon we would be safe from the others' ears, so that Pan-chan could call out for Kintoun.  Soon we would be on our way, searching for the answers to this horrifying mystery.  Soon we would confront the monsters who hid behind the faces of our friends.

And we would stop them.

There was no doubt in my mind that they had to be stopped.  It was a matter of simple necessity.  What's more, I knew how to do just that.  All it would take was the flick of a switch; well, that and getting close enough for the control unit to work.

I'd often wondered why my uncle would entrust such a terrible thing to my keeping, all those years ago.  It seemed that I had finally been given my answer.

"Just in case," he'd said.  "Just for you.  And your mother."  His smile had twisted at that last, and even then I understood why.  The control unit had been designed to turn him off.  It would do the same to her.  The thought had made me sick at the time: how could I do something so horrible to my uncle, let alone my own mother?

Now, I would have to use it against my friends.  I could only hope they would understand, and forgive me when they were better.

Pan-chan's bright voice interrupted my thoughts as she called for Kintoun, Bra-chan and I watching as the little cloud appeared promptly at her call.  It always amazed me that something so insubstantial could support my weight.  It wasn't the strangest thing in my life, not by a long shot, but it was one of the most wondrously magical experiences of my childhood, I think.

Trunks used to tease me when I feared that I would fall off.  I pictured him in my mind, eight years old and so sure of himself, always getting into trouble.  And Goten, with his wild hair and silly little smile, holding his hand out to me as he assured me he wouldn't let me fall for long.

I wouldn't let them fall either.  I wouldn't fail them.  I couldn't fail them.

"Marron-oneechan?"

I blinked, the past clearing from my eyes to let me gaze upon the two little girls kneeling amidst the wisp of cloud that was Kintoun.  Within the depths of blue and brown eyes I saw hope and fear - and pain.  Those eyes...  They were older now than they had been just hours, minutes before.  I closed my own against their weight, knowing that I was in part responsible for that aging.

"You girls shouldn't come with me," I found myself saying.  "I don't want you to get hurt."

Pan shook her dark head emphatically at that, her red-rimmed dark eyes earnest.  "No!  We can help you!  You said you can stop them without anyone getting hurt, right?"

Sudden fear gripped my heart, chilling me to my very core: what if I were wrong?  What then?

"We can find them faster than you, Marron-oneesan."

I shifted my gaze from Pan's tear-streaked face, and was captured anew by Bra's solemn expression.  She, too, had shed tears today; yet now her tears had stopped.  Determination shone in her eyes like light from a lamp, overcoming the dark shadows that lurked within.

"I want my Niichan back," she said softly, firmly.

I couldn't argue with that.

A single step, and I had left the relative safety of God's Palace, standing upon Kintoun with my two young companions by my sides.  I seated myself carefully on the cloud, wrapping an arm around each of them and drawing them close.  We huddled together as Kintoun bore us away from our remaining family and friends, carrying me back -

Home.

It worked.

It actually worked.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  I wondered if Juunanagou would ever forgive the indignities I had committed upon his helpless body.  Either of them.  I somehow doubted it.  Not that it mattered much at this point.  The deed was done, their lives had already been spent.  I could at least make use of their deaths.  This new death.  God knew I had already used the old.  Can two wrongs make a right?  I would discover the answer soon enough.

I made a final adjustment of wires, praying that the atrocity I had newly wrought would hold together long enough to be of true value.  Then I stood back, watching as the headless body that had been lying recumbent in the sand pushed itself unsteadily to its feet, slowly scanning the area with intangible, unintelligent senses, then taking to the sky.  I followed behind it, keeping careful watch for any other fliers in the region.

It flew slowly, its speed far below what Juunanagou had been capable of.  Hopefully at this pace the makeshift bonds that held the transformed cybernetic brain in place would not be stressed.  Even as I eyed the horizons for unwanted company, I closely observed the progress of the jinzouningen's shell.  It wouldn't do to lose part of it in the ocean that stretched for so many miles before us.  In its current state, I seriously doubted that a sea-bath would be healthy.

There was little left of Juunanagou that could be termed 'human', now.  A few scraps of flesh, organs - and not much else.  I knew his design in detail, having studied Dr. Gero's plans after finding them amongst my mother's papers.  It was part of what made it possible for me to rewire the processor I'd modified for the transporter, connecting it with the fallen Juunanagou's body, supplying it with a crude, temporary 'brain'.

It was a joke compared to what I knew Juunanagou had been.  This cobbled-together travesty of a jinzouningen was little more than a glorified homing pigeon.  It had no mind, no soul.  It never would.  But it could find its original head, for however much good could be made of that.

Perhaps it would be worth it.

Perhaps.

One of the bad things about being stuck with two of the most powerful people I'd ever known was the fact that I couldn't beat either of them up.  And there wasn't anyone else who hung around us, because they knew what would happen if either of them lost their temper.  Which meant I had no one to take mine out on.  There wasn't even a wall I could punch, or a stone I could kick.   So I paced instead.  It wasn't a very adequate substitute.  I'd already worn a little trail in the ground, and I'd been here only a few short hours.

I couldn't believe the brat had done that to me.  Just snapped his fingers, and sent my body waltzing off God knows where...

No, I take that back.  Our dear little green God probably didn't have the slightest clue as to what this purple-haired freak had been doing, turning my body into a mockery of a marionette.  I'd been one once, twice if you counted Cell using my voice to call to Juuhachi, and now my body was playing a reprisal role.  Oh joy.  Swapping one puppet-master for another.  I failed to see the benefits either way.

Perhaps I had, once.  Perhaps I came into this sordid affair knowing what I would become.  Yeah, right.  If I had been a willing victim that first time my mind must have taken a hike after the promise of power sunk in.  I couldn't think of too much that would have been worth the price we paid then, and the same applied now.

Of course, if the brat did manage to pull off a miracle, I wouldn't be complaining.  Not too loud, anyway.  There were two people down there who were worth the cost, to me.  I'd already given my life for them, after all, so why not my body as well?  At least I wasn't stuck inside the blasted thing while he ordered me around.

I left off my pacing long enough to glance back at the crystal ball, and just in time to catch the kid, Ubuu, looking at me.

"You have a problem, brat?" I snapped at him, and he quickly shook his head.  Not that he had any reason to be afraid of me.  The kid was just too polite, and didn't like being caught staring.  What a laugh.

They'd changed the crystal's view back to God's Palace, where the whole gang was having a nice little chat.  And we were missing out.  Such a shame.

"Is there any way to get sound on this thing?" I demanded.  The idiot just blinked at me, while the kid narrowed his eyes.

"I know someone who can help us talk to them," Goku said slowly, frowning like he was thinking deeply.  Like that was possible.

"So why isn't he here?!"

"What would you tell them?"

"That's none of your business!"

"Unless we can help them out in some way, there's not much point in talking to them," he shrugged.  I stared at him, wondering not for the first time just how much his friends and family meant to him.

"They don't need us distracting them," the punk kid added.  I glared at him, then, and he met my gaze evenly for once.  Alright.  That I could accept.  I didn't like it much, but then I didn't particularly like anything that had happened so far today.  I did have one piece of information to offer, though...

"I can tell them how Gero came back from the dead," I told them, which caused the idiot to blink some more at me.  After a moment he headed off, presumably to get whoever it was that could provide two-way radio service around here.  That left me with the kid, who gave me another sidelong glance before looking back at the globe.

I stalked over and stared down through its curved surface at the image of Bulma arguing with Vejita.  Their little domestic dispute was not something I was especially interested in, so I changed the channel, calling my sister's name aloud.  She was arguing, too, only with Gohan.  I rolled my eyes.  These were the people who were the world's last chance against Gero's toy soldiers.  Chikyuu was doomed.

"You're a cyborg, aren't you?"

I glared at the punk-haired boy.  I used to be quite good at glaring, but I must have been out of practice: he glared back.

"Your point?"

"You don't remember anything from before you became one?"

"No."  I made it sound as final as I could.  Some people just can't take a hint.

"Do you want to?"

I stared at him some more, only he'd shocked me into forgetting the 'glare' part of it.  Did I want to remember?  What kind of question was that?!  I opened my mouth - only to find I didn't have an answer springing to my lips like I thought I would.  I slowly closed my mouth again and tried to figure out why.

Trunks and Goten...  Gero had pared every scrap of compassion from them, made them subject to his will, taken all their choices away from them.  I know they wouldn't have willingly become his pawns; but was I like they had been?  Could I live with myself if I found out that I had killed people I knew and cared for?  Could I bear to remember doing so?

All I knew was...

"I want to know."

"Would they?" he pressed, his gaze boring into mine, as though to reach my very soul.  What I had of a soul, anyway.

I leaned back, considering the matter.  Gero would most likely have been made wary after my betrayal of him, and had probably set up safeguards against his new toys rebelling; but it was a possibility, however slight.  It was certainly no worse an idea than attacking them head-on.

I focused on the figure of my sister in the globe, and wondered just how many improvements Gero had made.  I found it difficult to believe that he would rely solely on the added benefits of Saiyan blood for his victory.  Altering the in-built off-switch would probably have been high on the list, as that would have been an all-too-simple solution to our little problem.  I sincerely doubted he would have left any of our few weaknesses in his new design.  A pity we couldn't borrow his plans to find out.

I shook my head to clear it, then focussed my mind on my niece.  Obediently, the crystal's view shifted to her normally vivacious face.  She looked more dead than lively for once, and I could see from the red tinges around her eyes that she'd been crying.  I wondered why.  Her parents were both still okay for the time being; but I suppose she was friends with the two Saiyan brats.  That might be worth a tear or two to her.

The globe's eye drew back a bit, enabling me to see her surroundings - and I felt my blood freeze as I recognised the face that loomed over her shoulder.

I held the girls close to me as we travelled slowly, so very slowly towards my home and the secret I had kept hidden for so long.  Pan-chan had scrunched her eyes closed, concentrating on keeping her ki level down so that we couldn't be tracked by it.  Bra's eyes were shut also, and she seemed lost in the folds of sleep.

I shifted my arms, wrapped around their small bodies, to gain a more comforting embrace.  Bra wriggled briefly before settling once again; Pan opened one eye for a single moment, but her expression remained unchanged.

The attack caught us all completely by surprise.

The first thing I knew was that Kintoun was gone, vaporised in its entirety from right beneath us.  The second thing I realised was that I still didn't know how to fly - but two pairs of tiny hands were grasping at my wrists even before I had a chance to scream.  I looked up gratefully to see Pan's concerned gaze, and Bra's fearful visage.  My eyes flicked down for barely an instant.

The sight of the ground so far below my feet was enough to tighten my chest painfully in terror.  The agonised cry that sounded above my head was enough to make my heart skip a beat.

And then I was falling.

But not for long.

A new pair of arms were now wrapped around my waist, pulling me irresistibly back against a firmly muscled body, much larger than my own.  I didn't need to look to know who it would be.  I recognised the hands that were holding me safe.

Even after all that had happened, he'd kept his promise: he hadn't let me fall, not for very long.  But looking up into his dark, dark eyes, I had a new question for him, one that he had yet to answer:

Would he let me live?