So here we are, short though perhaps not so sweet. I told some of you after the last chapter I was going to have the finale out within a week. Then I blinked and almost two weeks passed ️:| this isolation business is really messing with my sense of time.

Thank you for making it this far and sharing your encouragement. As always, it's super appreciated.

Extra thanks to Sunshine Spray for going over this fic during it's rough draft last year and helping with my blindspots so I could shape this story into something I was eventually satisfied enough with to post 💜

Stay safe, everyone.

EDIT: so it looks like there's some confusion over what's happened, and to some it may seem I've left a few gaping holes. Unlike Collide, this one isn't open-ended. I promise you, 90% of the answers you're looking for are within the story. You don't need to reread if you don't feel like it, I already appreciate that you gave it a chance in the first place. The intention was to present a story where all the pieces are provided to you, but I don't hold anyone's hand while you put it together. It's experimental, I've definitely done an imperfect job, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless. Thank you again for giving this fic a look

Goten was waiting in a temporary holding cell when the guard returned, telling him his lawyer had arrived. He was led to a private meeting room and ushered through when he saw Mack sitting in a chair with his back to the entrance. The guard left them alone and shut the door.

Naturally, Goten had been hoping he was here with good news, but the grim look on Quincy's face did not leave him optimistic.

"What's happened?" Goten kicked things off, placing his cuffed hands on the table.

"Look," the lawyer said, clearing his throat and straightening his jacket. "I've tried to help you as best I can, but I can only do so much when you refuse to tell me the whole story."

Goten shook his head, perplexed.

"I have two words for you." Mack raised his thumb, then his index. "Aggrevated. Assault."

Heat drained as Goten sank into his chair, and Mack leaned forward, lowering his voice. "I'm your lawyer, you idiot. Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

"I'm sorry." Goten ran his hand down his face. "I didn't mean to keep it from you. I just…"

"Forgot?" Mack inched closer. "Forgot that you beat someone hard enough that he needed physical therapy for two years and now walks with a cane?"

Is that what really ended up happening? Goten reared at the update. Last he'd heard, the guy had made a full recovery within three months. Trunks had covered all the medical expenses himself as well as provided a financial donation healthy enough that no one would ever learn of the incident or, more importantly, what really happened that night. In hindsight, of course Trunks knew just the right thing to tell him to get it off his tortured conscience.

"That wasn't m-" Goten interrupted himself, taking a moment. "Trunks said he'd take care of it," he corrected course. "Make it all go away."

"Well, Trunks was mistaken," Mack hissed through his teeth. "And this little mark on your record is enough to throw our entire defense down the gurgler." The lawyer reached for his briefcase and dropped it onto the table with a thud. "And let's not forget-"

From inside, he pulled out a handful of A4 photographs.

"CCTV footage of you and the girl palling all around the city," he said, pressing his fingers to three of the images and sliding them towards the half-Saiyan. "Her uniform in a garbage bag stashed at the bottom of your spare room cupboard." He presented another. "A secret phone belonging to Ms Briefs wedged between the seats of your living room sofa."

Goten hadn't thought about the clothes, shoved amongst his stored junk in a moment of anger with the intention of trashing it all eventually, though never actually following through. The phone thing was news to him, though she did have a habit of keeping it muted. It's possible it slipped down the side of his couch during her last visit and she had been too upset to come back for it.

"That's all circumstantial though," Goten said. "What does it even prove?"

"They've just found her body."

Goten's eyes bulged, blood freezing in his veins as his heart stopped beating altogether.

That had to be a mistake. Bulla Briefs was alive.

"Where?" Goten asked.

"A few kilometres from your old place in Mount Paozu."

What?

The lawyer kept talking but Goten didn't hear what came after. All outside noise faded as the half-Saiyan's mind skipped like a faulty record, withdrawing him from the compact side-room and into his fracturing subconscious.

I don't... understand.

"... time of death around four weeks ago," Quincy continued, reading off his notes, apparently unaware of the progressively unraveling man in front of him. "... places your apartment as one of the last places she's likely to have visited before she died."

Goten could barely form a coherent thought, let alone a response.

"Someone was out wandering the hills with their dog. The heat must have allowed the scent to travel through the soil…"

Goten drifted out again as the external chatter persisted, his eyes starting to sting and knees beginning to shake. They've got it wrong.

"Corroborating accounts claim you pay regular visits to your mother out that way." Mack looked up, peering at him over his glasses while Goten stared at the metal door behind his chair, numb. "Goten."

"... Yes," he said, voice a throaty rumble.

"They've been in touch with your employer." Mack carefully lowered his papers and interlocked his fingers on the table. "The Monday after Bulla disappeared, you didn't go in to work."

Slowly, Goten closed his eyes.

I was right there.

"Your leave request states visiting your ailing mother as the reason." The lawyer looked up, as though waiting for a response. When he was met with none, he added, "They've analysed the sample under the girl's fingernails. Do I need to tell you whose DNA came back as a positive match?"

From when she scratched me. Goten couldn't trust his voice, instead tightening his first in his lap as he was forced to remember the night he'd long tried to forget. He couldn't see it at the time but she'd needed him, desperately, and he'd sent her away in a selfish rage.

"How?" Goten finally said, sounding hollow even to himself.

"Excuse me?"

"How did she…" Visible tears were beginning to pool against the half-Saiyan's lower lids.

Mack watched him for a few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh. "I'll put this in the words of the pathologist: Whoever did this to her." He paused, seemingly watching for Goten's reaction. "They were mad. Furious is probably the better term."

The hybrid's face slowly twisted as his pulse throbbed painfully in his ears.

"There was another body in there," Mack added. "With her."

Goten looked up, barely having a chance to register the comment before the lawyer continued.

"Also young. Also female."

No. He squeezed his eyes, fingers clenching in his palm until the metal of his cuffs groaned. "Don't say it."

Please.

"Forensic testing confirms it was your missing niece."

The low light hanging above their heads exploded, causing Mack to duck, though Goten didn't flinch.

Immediately, their guard opened the door but the lawyer's hand was up, gesturing that all was fine. "Electrical fault. Everything's under control." Once the door was closed, Mack kept going. "Judging by the level of decay, they believe she's been there for somewhere between three and five years."

He continued for a few more minutes, but Goten had already heard everything he needed to. While his lawyer talked logistics and defense strategies for the weeks to come, the half-Saiyan's focus refined.

During the course of their meeting, Goten had bitten down on the inside of his cheek in an attempt to stop his jaw from chattering. The taste of iron was harsh on his tongue and the bitterness only further fueled the single vision in his mind's eye.

All he could see was red, his hands painted with it while a viscous pool grew at his feet.

"... we'll need to lean on her to help your defense." Mack prattled on.

Goten breathed in slowly, then out, his thoughts overtaken with the face of one man.

He urged himself to remain calm as raw heat cried at his fingertips, begging to be called forth while he kept his head turned and eyes guarded from view as they threatened to flicker unnatural shades of telling teal.

I have to bring them back.

Sweat slipped passed his temple and down his clenched jaw, hanging off the tip of his chin and trembling with each restrained energy surge.

Whatever it took, he would see both girls again. But first, there was something Goten needed to take care of and he would not be satisfied with anything less than blood.