The woman sighed. There was no way she was going into that building, no matter what Ippin said. There was just too much negative energy, too many people suffering, for her to do what Ippin asked. Quickly, she crossed over a few empty streets into her neighborhood. She and Ippin were the only ones still living on this street, and possibly even the only ones on this side of town.

The woman slowed as she hesitantly walked up the demolished concrete pathway to Ippin's house. What had once been a beautiful house, full of flowers and intricate little webs of ponds and streams, was now a shattered jumble of mud and the rotting remains of plants, with a dirty, worn-looking house sinking into the middle of it. The woman carefully opened the door and walked in, looking around for her friend.

"Ippin! Ippin!" she called quietly. Hearing no response, the woman wandered through the house, searching for Ippin.

The woman found her outside, near what had once been a rock garden. Ippin was sitting on the grass, her eyes shut, her sand-colored hair shining in the sun. The other woman sat in front of her, waiting for Ippin to open her eyes. After waiting nearly an hour, the woman reached out and gently shook Ippin's shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open, confusion obvious in their gray-green depths.

"Welcome back to Earth," the woman joked. Ippin smiled slightly and nodded.

"Hello, Talia. Did you check?"

The woman, Talia, looked down. "Umm...."

"No."

Talia grimaced. "It was just too..."

"I understand. It's okay, I'll go."

Ippin stood up and brushed the dirt off her dress. Pushing back her long, wide sleeves, she tapped the slender gold watch on her wrist.

"If I'm not back in three hours, get out of here as fast as you can."

Talia gaped at Ippin a moment. She stood up quickly. "But...."

"Just do it."

Talia sighed and watched morosely as Ippin strode back in the house. She followed suit and trod slowly over to her own house. She made a sign and silently prayed for her friend to succeed.

Ippin walked briskly along the street, trying not to hurry. She was not too sure if this was what she really wanted to do, but when she reached the revolving doors of the hospital she realized she had no other choice. Her eyes nearly closed, she searched out the distinctive ki of the man she was looking for.

Her eyes now fully closed, she entered the hospital and began making her way through the gloomy corridors, her sixth sense acting as her eyes.

Ippin soon reached the room and stopped near the doorway. She searched the ki of the man, weighing his strength and what of his personality she could sense. Aggressive, arrogant, cold....She gasped suddenly.

"Don't worry Mom, I'll be back soon!"

Her son, tall and dark, winked cheerfully. He was dressed in drab military attire. Grinning and thrusting his chest out in a mockingly over-confident gesture, he added, "I'm going to save the world from the evil aliens!" He posed dramatically, then laughed as he hugged his mother. One last wave as he walked through the door, and she had known something wrong was about to happen, though she couldn't put her finger on it. The next day, his name was listed in an newspaper, among many other names of those who had died trying to protect the Earth.

This man, the one she was about to help, had been one of the aliens that killed her son. His presence had lingered at the battlefield where he had been defeated, and she would never forget it. Except there was something different about him now, a sort of vulnerability...

Ippin mentally slapped herself. Of course he would feel vulnerable now, he was in a goddamn coma! But also, a bleak feeling, one of sadness and loss, a swirling gray-blue aura of heartbreak... Ippin could not stop the sympathetic tears from springing to her eyes as she quietly walked over to the side of the bed. This poor man!

She looked at the scarred face of the motionless Saiya-jin. Hopefully, he would be the one to defeat Hyakuhei, the one who would save Earth. Ippin placed a hand above his heart, and another on his tall, scowling forehead, and began chanting. A soft white glow surrounded her body, and she chanted faster, louder, until she was shouting. Her eyes rolled back in her head, revealing the now radiant whites.

Louder and louder, she repeated the incantation, the ki around her swirling out towards the comatose Saiya-jin. Ippin narrowed her glowing eyes and forced the ki out of her body and into Vegeta's. She was practically screaming now, her shrill voice reverberating the corridors of the hospital. With a magnificent flash all of the healing white energy shot through her palms into Vegeta. For a split second he seemed to shimmer with ki, before his deprived being absorbed it.

Exhausted, Ippin sank to her knees besides the bed, her eyes half closed. She stayed in that position a few minutes, until she heard a rustling noise from above her. She slowly stood up, her weak knees shaking as she went to put a hand on the bed for support.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, woman?!" a shocked male voice demanded from below her. Ippin opened her eyes. The Saiya-jin prince was awake, and had an odd angry/shocked expression on his face. He glanced pointedly at her hand. Ippin blinked, then let her gaze slide down her arm, down to where her hand was resting...

"Oh!"

She blushed, then stepped back, pulling her hand away as if burned.

"I, uh, I...Sorry about that," she murmured quietly, embarrassed. Vegeta let out a humph and sat up in the hospital bed, bewilderedly glancing around at the various wires and tubes attached to him.

"What is all this junk? Where's Kakarot? He was here earlier," Vegeta demanded, sounding much like a sulky toddler.

"Kakarot? I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about, but..."

"Never mind, I'll find him myself," the disgusted Saiya-jin replied, narrowing his eyes as he searched for Goku's ki. After a few seconds, he exclaimed, "Dammit! He got Kakarot!"

"Who got Kakarot?" Ippin asked.

"God, woman, you're dumber than you look! That thing, Hyakuhei!" He sat thinking a moment, then glared at the human woman. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Ippin stepped forward, clasping her hands together so the long sleeves touched.

Quietly, she said, "I came to ask if you would help save Earth."

The Saiya-jin prince stared at her, his dark eyes unreadable. Deciding she had confused, she tried to elaborate.

"What I mean is...Well...you're the strongest person in this world..."

Vegeta raised his eyebrows and hmphed.

"...Not even really this world...kind of like the plane of this world we are in now..."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked sourly.

"There are stronger people on this planet, or at least strong people, but they are not here."

"So then where are they?" Vegeta asked, his habitual frown deepening.

"They are on this planet, but not on the same plane as us. They are in the same dimension, but not the same layer," she replied slowly, trying to explain what she barely understood herself. "But, my point is, you need to find a way to get rid of Hyakuhei. No one else can. Only you."

The dark-haired man eyed her suspiciously. "Why should I? You're all just a pitiful bunch of humans. I'm surprised you even lasted this long without constant watch from a more powerful race."

Ippin placed her fingertips on her throbbing temples and rubbed, her eyes shut. Keeping her eyes closed, she continued. "I know you're not very fond of my race, but haven't you any family or friends you need to keep safe?"

She jumped back when he laughed bitterly. "I don't even know anymore!"

"But, please, you must at least try! If you do have someone you care about out there, you should help to save their homeland. And if they are out there somewhere, they might not have anywhere to return to if you just sit around without doing anything!"

Vegeta stared at her a minute, then sighed tiredly. Without looking up, he replied, "I suppose I must. My wife...my children..."

Ippin could only watch helplessly as the man buried his face in his hands, overcome with grief. Hesitantly, she patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm sure they're all right," she assured softly, jumping back when the Saiya-jin swung his head up to glare at her.

"No, they are not all right! That damn monster took my wife and my son! And..." Vegeta's eyes widened. "Bra...!"

He tried to jump out of bed, a hard task even for a Saiya-jin since he had wires and tubes protruding out of his body. Vegeta thoughtlessly ripped them out, leaving long bleeding wounds on his arms. He got out of bed and flew off through the window, heedless of the fact he was wearing one of backless paper gowns that the hospital issued to its patients.

Ippin sighed, frustrated, before turning to walk out the door. If she remembered right, he and his family lived at Capsule Corps. She had seen photos in the newspaper often enough. Strange, how she had never noticed that the husband of Bulma Briefs was also the evil alien who killed hundreds of people so many years ago.

She contemplated this on her long walk to Capsule Corps, then began trying to figure out what would happen next.

Vegeta burst through the doors of the Capsule Corp building and shouted loudly for his daughter, unmindful of the female shrieks and giggles from behind him. An aide rushed up from behind him, her face red, and informed him that Goku's wife had taken Bra to her house. Muttering to himself, Vegeta turned and stalked out the door, his paper gown fluttering after him. Still grumbling, he burst into the air and flew the short distance to Goku's house.

Not bothering to knock on the door, he walked in and called out his daughter's name, only to get no reply, as the house was empty. Cursing furiously, but praying silently, he went back outside and flew high into the air, searching the area for a sign of his daughter, but he could not see her. Again, Vegeta went back into Goku's house and just stood in the middle of the room, trying to figure out where Goku's wife might have taken his child.

He was still standing there, his back to the door, when it flew open and Chi Chi and Bra walked in. They both stopped in their tracks when they saw Vegeta, neither of them able to speak. Chi Chi's face grew red, and she growled softly. Hearing this, Vegeta turned around, only to meet the wrath of an angry Chi Chi.

"VEGETA!!!! What do you think you're doing, coming into my house when I'm not home while wearing....THAT!!" she screeched, pointing furiously at Vegeta's outfit.

Vegeta crossed his arms and glared at Chi Chi. "And just what is wrong with what I'm wearing?" he asked. A gust of wind blew through the door at this moment, sending the thin paper gown flying up. Chi Chi gasped and covered a giggling Bra's eyes, shielding her own with a hand while she shoved Vegeta into the next room.

"Stay here!" she commanded. "I'll bring you some decent clothes."

Vegeta grumbled to the empty room, while Chi Chi tried to find some of Goku's clothes that would fit Vegeta. Finally, she walked back in the room, holding in her arms a baby blue button-up tee and a pair of white pants, with a khaki belt dangling off the pile and bouncing around her knees. She dumped the pile of clothes unceremoniously in Vegeta's lap and left the room so he could get dressed.

Vegeta eyed the clothes cautiously, before dressing. He looked down and let out a sound of disgust. The clothes did not fit; it only went to show how much bigger than he Kakarot was. He bent over and rolled up the bottoms of the pants, then tucked the shirt in so it wasn't possible to tell that the shirt stopped around his knees. He frowned at the bright color of the shirt. 'What is with females and these disgusting colors?' he asked mentally, then turned as the door burst open.

"Ooh..."

Vegeta frowned at his daughter. "What?"

Cheerfully, she walked over and tugged at his borrowed shirt. Smiling happily, she exclaimed, "Pretty color!"

Vegeta humphed in reply, then listened carefully as his daughter began talking about what she and Chi Chi had been doing.