Mount Paozu, Age 791. It was during the morning, when it all began to happen. It was the return of something deadly that was to be never seen again. It was something that could’ve affected time itself, and the peace of the world.

Two heroes were training for the Cell Games Memorial Tournament, the event where the two first met. They were Son Pan and Stephen Hatchilock, and were exchanging blows to each other and blasting ki blasts to their heart’s content. But one’s heart couldn’t stay happy for long. As they jumped back from one point after stopping each others’ hits. Stephen teased his girlfriend, “C’mon, Pan! I know you can do better than that!”

“Is that so, Stephen? Let me see you try an attack that lets me know how strong you want me to be,” she replied accepting the little ruse her partner had in mind. Then Stephen began to charge a blast in the palm of his hand. It caught Pan’s attention after it slowly grew and began to discharge electricity. She put up her defenses afterwards, until suddenly, the ball got smaller and started to disappear. She put her arms down to get a better look at this, and her eyes began to see a change in Stephen’s expression. What once was a smiling jokester’s countenance was now filled with tired looking features.

Stephen was panting like crazy, and he couldn’t control it. Just then, a wave of pain hit his body, causing him to collapse onto the rough soil in the ground. “Stephen? A-are you okay?” Pan asked in concern for her fallen friend.

“AH! AAAAARGH! OW, MY CHEST! AAAAAH! IT STINGS!” was all he could shout in response. Pan knew something was wrong at this moment, and went closer to her ally to help him out. As she got to him, she to ask him amongst his yelling, “Stephen, where does it hurt? Please try and tell me where it hurts!”

As he tried to control his need to scream in pain, all he could answer was, “I….. I THINK IT’S MY H-HEART!!!” Pan shrunk back in fear as she now realized what had just hit him. It was none other than the terrible heart virus her grandfather had gotten a long time ago. In what could’ve been the future of today, Goku had died from this exact virus, but Trunks’ counterpart had warped back in time to give him an antidote for this nasty disease. As many thought the spread permanently ended after his recovery, they were horribly wrong. Pan then shot back into reality as another shout of discomfort left the mouth of her sick boyfriend. He could die soon and she couldn’t let that happen.

She immediately began left the field and dashed back to her house to get some help. As she did so, she called out to Stephen, “I’ll be back, Steve! Don’t die on me just yet!”

“ARGH! WAIT, PAN! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!” he responded. He didn’t understand what was going on or why Pan would take off to her house without carrying him with her. The reason was that every second mattered, and she couldn’t let extra weight slow her down. As she flew as fast as she could, she finally opened the door to her residence, entering breathless and with seriousness. “Pan,” her mother, Videl called out to her, “Is that you? Is everything okay?”

“MAMA! STEPHEN NEEDS HELP!” Pan yelled.

Videl came down the stairs with Pan’s dad, Gohan, who asked his daughter, “What do you mean, ‘needs help?’ I thought you two were training?”

“It’s the virus! Grandpa’s virus!” she replied. A gasp came out from Videl, and shock filled Gohan’s face. “Wh-what!?” he said in disbelief, “That can’t be right!” Pan signed her parents to come with her immediately, until they got to Stephen at long last. His whole body was crumpled on the grass now, as he still was registering his pain, unaware of what was going on at the moment. “Help……… me……,” was all he could say before blacking out.

Later on at the hospital, Stephen was treated with the same medicine Goku was given a long time ago. Thankfully, Bulma had made more in case of an emergency like this was to show up. It was hypothesized that Goku’s blood may have been prone to this virus a long time ago, therefore Stephen, who had this blood injected into him a long time ago, even though having this blood taken out and re-injected into his stream without Goku’s qualities, had fallen ill as well.

Thankfully, his recovery went well, and survived the virus. He was resting in bed at the West City Hospital until he completely regained his strength. In the meantime, Pan volunteered to help nurse him back to full health, and to apologize for one thing she felt guilty for. Stephen had finally woken up later on to see that Pan was sleeping right next to him, but with her head on a nearby desk. ‘How long have we been here?’ he thought to himself. Just then, the door opened, and Videl came in. Pan had woken up to the sound of the knob turning.

“Stephen, you’re awake!” Pan said after turning her attention to her friend. He smiled upon the joyous look of his partner’s face. But seconds later, that face of happiness turned into a visage of guilt. “Pan, what’s wrong?” Videl asked her daughter.

Tears began to stream down Pan’s soft cheeks, and she then said, “I’m so sorry Stephen, I didn’t mean to leave you there like that. I know you didn’t want me to, but I wanted to get Mama and Papa as fast as I could.” Stephen felt bad for Pan having to cry over this, as he didn’t understand the situation at first, but after Pan’s apology, Videl told him of the disease that sent him into his state of terrible discomfort. Stephen could understand that every second mattered, and that all Pan was trying to do was get help without any delay. Although Steve was unable to speak at the moment, he decided to reach his arm out onto Pan’s arm that was closest to his. She looked up after feeling his warm and tender touch, and knew that what she saw meant that she was forgiven. She smiled back afterwards and said to him, “I love you, and I’ll never leave you again.”