Part Three
"A Place in the Stars"

But there's a smile on my face for everyone
There's a golden coin that reflects the sun
There's a lonely place that's always cold
There's a place in the stars for when you get old

"How is he?"

Trunks checked his father's pulse. "Weak, but steady."

"Pity this year's crop isn't fully ripened yet." Karin paced a bit closer, whiskers twitching thoughtfully. "Another week or two and I might have had some senzou ready."

"Nanimo, Karin-san." Gohan bowed his head a bit. "Just being able to rest here a while is help enough."

Turning, Trunks moved to the other motionless form, knelt to take a blond head into his lap. "Juuhachi-gou," he whispered, brushing a few wisps of hair from her face. "Wake up now...please wake up."

The jinzouningen didn't stir. She wasn't breathing, and familiar with her ki as he was, Trunks could barely feel it at all. In some corner of his heart lay a cold fear that what he did feel was only wishful thinking.

"Damnit." Piccolo paced to the edge of the Tower, leaned over it and glared at the world below. "We came out of that fight with our butts whipped. What the hell was that thing anyway?"

"It--he--called himself 'Hunter', Piccolo-san," Trunks answered, still watching Juuhachi-gou's face for any signs of waking. "He said he was here for Papa. He's a bounty hunter."

"Bounty-?" Piccolo blinked, then smirked. "So the Vegetable's past is finally catching up with him."

"Damare! Baka mitai! It's not funny!" Trunks caught himself, bit back the anger, bowed his head. "I...I'm sorry, Piccolo-san."

"Hm." The Namekseijin looked, if anything, more amused by Trunks' outburst than anything else. "Nice to see you've got some spark. I thought Bulma might've run all the fight out of you with that 'good manners' stuff of hers." His expression grew more serious. "Go on."

"Hunter has some kind of, I dont know...energy reflection field? Mom would be more likely to know. She's the scientist in these parts."

"Hai," Gohan agreed, nodding. "And it's not just any energy it's set for; it's ki energy. I hit Hunter with a kamehameha and he just shrugged it off."

"Makanko Sappou too." Piccolo's scowl deepened. "Well, that's just peachy keen. Especially considering that electric shock trick of his. That's how he got me--when I closed with him, he zapped the green right out of me."

"Yeah, you look a little paler than usual," Gokou said, earning himself a glare. "So, what you're saying, we can't hit him with our hands and we can't blast him? That's going to make fighting pretty one-sided."

"Tell us about it, Monkey Boy." Piccolo turned to face Gokou, arms folded. "Now that you've covered the obvious, how about figuring out something NOT so obvious. How do we fight an enemy we can't touch and we can't shoot?"

"Throw things at him," Trunks suggested.

"He'd only dodge," Gohan countered. "He's as fast as we are in that armor."

"Hai...." Trunks shook his head a bit. "That armor. It's not like anything I've ever seen. I'd swear it reached out to grab my sword when I swung at him."

"I think it did, Trunks-kun. I think it's alive, somehow."

"Living armor?" Piccolo rolled his eyes. "Great. Now I've heard everything. Next you'll be telling me rocks talk."

"Iie, Piccolo-san, it could be," Gohan said, starting to pace. "Bulma-san told me about the possibility of something like this once....We can't do it yet, our technology's not good enough, but what if the armor isn't really armor?" He stopped, looking at them all. "It's metal, that's true. But maybe it's metal filled with hundred of thousands, even millions, of microscopic robots, each programmed to work in unison, each one a tiny repair factory that can reshape the metal they're housed in almost instantly to adapt to whatever damage or environment they're in? Bulma-san called it 'nanite' technology. The armor can 'heal' and 'grow', just like it was a living thing. It can be whatever the Hunter needs it to be." He spread his hands. "This is alien science we're talking, we don't know how far advanced they are."

"Saaa...." Gokou's eyes turned thoughtful. "What you're saying, Gohan...this Hunter can change to defend against anything we throw at him, ne?"

Gohan looked at his father, a little surprised. "Hai, Otou-san. That's exactly the point I'm leading up to."

"Then every time we fight him he'll be able to protect against more of the things we can do. We'll have to hit him different way every attack." Gokou looked at them each in turn--Gohan, Trunks, Piccolo, then down to the fallen warriors. "We won't be able to keep up with that. We can't keep inventing new techniques blow after blow. So next time we fight Hunter has to be the last time, before he learns everything we can do."

Trunks opened his mouth to say something, but in that second Juuhachi-gou sat up. SPRANG up, taking a battle stance, eyes flickering around. Then she relaxed, bewilderment filling her features. "Doko ni...?" she said. "Murasakige? What happened? Where's the Hunter?"

"Juu-chan..." Trunks got his feet, clasped her shoulders, a wave of relief washing through him. "This is Karin's Tower. It's near the Tenkai. Gokou-san sent us here after the fight with the Hunter went badly. You and Piccolo were down...do you remember that?"

The Jinzouningen's brow creased faintly and she reached up, swept back her hair slowly as she thought. "I...hai. Yes. I think I do. Gohan-san and I flew in after the Hunter got hold of you... my systems must've shut down to avoid burnout when the electrical current hit." She looked at Trunks, then very hesitantly touched his face. "I...worried you?"

"You bet you did." Trunks swept her into his arms, burying his face in her hair. Juuhachi-gou closed her eyes and put her arms around him as well, leaning into the embrace.

"Okay lovebirds, knock it off." Piccolo swept an arm out, indicating the planet below. "We've got a problem to handle. Time for playing Romeo and Juliet later."

"Spoilsport." Nonetheless, Juuhachi-gou took a minute to touch Trunks' face again, then stepped back and put her hands on her hips, looking down at Vegeta. "I'd say our first priority is to get him back to Capsule Corporation and into a regen tank."

"Hai," Gokou agreed. "I better do that. I can go and be back before Hunter knows I'm around." Carefully Gokou hefted Vegeta to his shoulder, steadying him with one hand.

"Be careful, Otou-san," Gohan warned. "This Hunter won't stop at killing us to get at Vegeta."

"I know. Shinpai shinai, Gohan-kun. Don't worry so, okay? I'm not ready to be dead again just yet." Lifting his free hand. Gokou touched his forehead and vanished.

"Well, that takes care of Vegeta for a bit." Juuhachi-gou paced to the edge of the Tower and looked down at the clouds below. "Wish it was that easy taking care of the Hunter."

"So do I." Trunks joined her, leaning on the stone balustrade.

"This bothers you."

"This bothers me a lot." Trunks glanced up, lavender bangs framing his face. "I'm used to the idea of my father being...someone that hasn't always been, and still isn't always, a very nice man. I can't deny the fact that he's killed before...sometimes simply because it suited him to do so. But he's still my father, and...and I--"

"You love him. That's no surprise. It would take a blind man locked in a box on the next continent to miss that, Trunks." Juuhachi-gou swept back her hair. "I think the same goes back. What good there is in Vegeta grew there and lives there because of your mother and you, and how much he's devoted to each of you, in his own Saiyajin princely way. He has become a different man than the one the Hunter's after, but I don't think that's going to make a lot of difference. Bounty hunters are not the most sympathetic people you'll ever meet. And whoever Hunter's working for will be even less likely to listen. They wanted vengeance, and Hunter is their chosen weapon. Might as well try to shut off the sun with sweet words."

"But what good will it do to destroy our lives too? Who will it bring back?" Trunks stood up. "It's all past now, and doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?"

Juuhachi-gou shook her head. "You're asking the wrong person. If I had those kinds of answers, I'd be Kami-sama."

"Don't think the brat has all the answers either," Piccolo commented from the other side of the platform. "Nobody does. In this life, we all find our own answers." He sighed. "And that debate--how right or wrong it is to take a life to pay for lives taken--is one that's gonna go on long after we're all permanent residents of Heaven. No use turning this into a philosophical debate. Put it aside, kid." His voice was almost kind. "Let's just concentrate on keeping your dad alive."

"Hai, Piccolo-san." Trunks glanced back over the side. "I just wish I knew what the Hunter was up to..."

****

Something was wrong. Not just amiss, but terribly wrong.

Regaining her youth hadn't affected Bulma's mind (well, at least not the wealth of her experience). She stood in the open doorway, looking up at overcast sky. It was going to rain again this afternoon; lightning flickered restlessly, without sound, across the dark-bottomed clouds. The air was heavy with the promise of the coming storm.

Bulma felt like that inside too, and it wasn't just because of the weather. Something was building just out of perception's reach, something she could almost touch, and she knew with a soul-deep conviction that it wasn't going to bring any joy to their troubled world.

"Bulma! Bulma-san! Hayaku hayaku!"

"So-Son-kun?!" Bulma turned around; Gokou's frantic shout had come from inside Capsule Corporation. She rushed down the hall to the infirmary. "Are you hurt? What's going on? I--"

She stopped dead in her tracks just inside the room. Gokou stood there, cradling a limp and battered form in his arms.

Bulma gasped; she felt her knees go weak, but she managed to keep her feet. "Ve...Vegeta...!" She swallowed hard. "Nande-koto-wa...?! Never mind! Bring him!"

Minutes later, Vegeta lay in the regeneration tank, which hummed softly to itself as it restored his tortured body. Bulma rested a hand on the transparent surface for a moment, looking at the too-still face of the man she loved. Then she turned to Gokou. "Son-kun...tell me."

Gokou was grim-faced as she'd seldom seen him. The sparkle of mischief and merriment that always shone just behind his eyes even in battle seemed to have completely deserted him now. "Hunter," he said.

She blinked. "Huh?"

"That's what he calls himself. He's some kind of intergalactic policeman or something. He says he's been hired carry out justice against Vegeta for all the bad things he did before he came here."

This time Bulma had to grab the handle of the regen tank to keep from sitting down hard on the floor. "Osoroshii yo..." She looked back over her shoulder to Vegeta's still face. Even in repose, his face was set in a more or less permanent scowl. She knew what kind of monster Vegeta had been when he first arrived on Earth--how he'd laid waste to the warriors who'd dared oppose his plans to destroy the planet...all except Gokou. How he'd only given them aid against Freeza to serve his own interests. How he'd only stayed on Earth afterwards because he was determined to one day best 'Kakarott', and besides, he felt no inclination to move on.

"But he's changed," she said softly. "He has, whether he admits it or not."

"Sou," Gokou said softly. "But somehow I don't think Hunter's going to listen if we try to tell him. He don't seem too bright, you know?"

****

Videl noticed the gathered crowd first. The sight brought back memories of her first encounter with the restored Juuhachi-gou; despite the twinges that brought to her stomach, she found herself trotting over to see what the commotion was about.

When she got her first good look at the imposing armor-clad form, she stopped wide-eyed. It had to be an alien; what else could it be? Yet it clearly wasn't a Saiyajin, their armor didn't look like that.

While she was still wondering, the armored figure showed its hand, palm up, and a tiny image flickered into view, doll-sized, but very lifelike. Videl had to lean forward, craning her head over those in front of her to get a good look. She gasped when she recognized the face of the tiny image. That's Trunks' father! What--?

The little shopkeeper, Kozou, nodded once and pointed towards Capsule Corporation.

"No!!" Videl shouted, but it was too late. The armored alien turned and took off, kicking up dust and leaving a crowd of coughing people in its wake.

"Baka!!!" Videl knew instinctively that the huge dark figure wasn't here to pay a social call. She raced for the borrowed skycar, jumped in and took off. She floored the accelerator, but the stranger had already dwindled to a black speck against the stormy sky. She'd never get there ahead of--of whoever it was.

She fumbled on the dashboard for her cell phone and punched the memory button. "Please," she whispered, "please, Gohan-san, please have kept the phone with you..."

****

Hmeep! Hmeep!

All eyes turned to Gohan. He stood there for a moment with a look of blank surprise on his face, making him so resemble his father that someone might have laughed had the situation not been so grim. Then he reached into his sash and pulled out a tiny box. He flipped open the receiver and raised it to his ear. "Ah...moshi-moshi?"

"Since when do you carry a beeper, kid?" Piccolo muttered.

Gohan's eyes went wide. "Videl-san! You--nani?! You saw--? When--? Yes, I--he what?! No, no, Videl, don't go near that place. Go home. I'll--I'll call you later. Yakusoku. I promise. Jaa."

Gohan closed the cell phone with a click and surveyed the group with grim, troubled eyes.

"The Hunter," he intoned. "He's on his way to Capsule Corporation."

****