Well, I'm back from holiday. :)
This was a one shot done while I was away, forged from that of a reoccurring nightmare.. I would say enjoy, but I don't know how you'd react. So read on.
His eyes were cold as ice, even when he seemed calm and content. His demeanor relaxed, cooled and absolutely collected. But nothing could've prepared anyone for what happened that day, or how it changed life as it was known.
The name he went by was Neko. All in all he was a decent person to be around, academically at least. But the seventeen year old was kind of a jerk. His eyes were what scared people the most. The purple coloring struck others as odd, creepy even. I saw that look in his eyes, and it didn't seem human.
But I couldn't complain, looking in the mirror every single morning there was that look. I, as well as my family, were alien.
xXxXxXx
It was like any other Tuesday, at least at the start. "So who's skipping next class with me?" Neko stood in the middle of the classes' social circle. Everyone hung out in what they dubbed 'The Corner' before class began. Not all of the students were up to par with Neko, but they did whatever he did, more or less for the fear of their high school lives.
The bell rang and class went on. The teacher ended her lecturing quite a while ago with a packet of work for the more than annoyed group of students. The teens eyes bore down on Pan, as if he knew vital information that could be used against her. Looking over at him, she saw a smile emanating from his lips, sending shivers down her spine. His dark brown hair, complementing the mocha color of his complection, was a more than stark contrast to his freaky grin, and even freakier eye color.
The dark haired young woman turned back, shooting Trunks a side glance. The subliminal message was caught quickly, Pan all but shouting "Help me!" Her hair was getting in the way, so she again tucked it behind her ears. And just as work commenced, a small ball of paper hit Pan's shoulder.
Opening it almost soundlessly, she read it. 'Come here,' it said. 'I need your help.' Obviously the note came from him, but why did she need to help him? He was a genius compared to her, and that's saying a lot... after all, Son ChiChi didn't raise idiots.
Rolling her onyx eyes, she rose from her seat, and strode to the desk at which he sat. Much to the dismay of both her older brother, and best friends. Goten and Bra were always the first to find fault in the arrogant teen.
And as of late, Trunks began to feed into the suspicion.
xXxXxXx
From the lavender haired youths vantage point, not much could be seen from the corner desk. Pan tried tirelessly to stay away from Neko, but it was useless. Trunks walked up next to her as Neko attempted to put an arm around her, trying relentlessly to pull her into a hug.
Trunks grabbed his wrist, narrowing his blue eyes at him, as if threatening him within a inch of his life.
"Hands off." He growled lowly.
But the damage had already been dealt. The half-Saiyan teen flashed her boyfriend a reassuring smile as she walked away. Her petite frame seemed to move in slow motion. Moving toward the conjoining door, a wild spurt of laughter erupted and she stopped. For a reason unknown to Pan, she paused, then kept going... right through that door.
"Oh my Kami!" The teacher next door exclaimed, pointing at her torso. The scream was heard by the students next door, though not one of them reacted. Except her friends. Gohan had been in the room, asking the teacher questions regarding meetings and such, and never noticed what had occurred.
Pan's curtain of consciousness had closed. Passed out face down in an ever growing pool of her blood. Bra and Goten quickly ran to the nearly dying woman, turning over her limp body to her back. "T-that's too m-much blood. A-are we going to lose her?" Bra stuttered. One hand keeping pressure on the wound in her lung, and the other keeping track of her vitals.
"I don't know, it'll be close though." He whispered back. How could people not see it, the wound was gaping. Even in the signature red shirt his sister always wore.
Bra saw red as she saw a ki suppressor on her wrist and looked in the wound, she saw a true nightmare. The blood on her hands were wiped sloppily on her white t-shirt as her stride quickened in anger.
Gripping his shirt collar, "you can add baby killer to your fuckin list, you freak." Her words stung deep with venom.
The teens smug, laughter hung in the air like a vile stench. "That's one less of your monkey race to deal with later." He hissed, in a voice not that of a human.
Gohan's body went rigid as his colleague stopped her chatter, looking at his form. His features twisted into that of horror as he looked over to the smirking Neko.
"You!" He boomed. "Get up and out, now." Grabbing his arm and pulling his roughly out of the room. The voice holding authority.
xXxXxXx
By that point in time, Pan's lungs had begun to fill with the amount of blood that she was losing. The pain of breathing became more than she could bear, even in an unconsious state.
"She's trying to breathe." Trunks mumbled, holding his hand to her bleeding lungs, to cauterize the gaping holes once again. When Neko attempted the daring move, his energy was just high enough to stop the rush of blood.
The blue haired teen let out a breath, "I think its time." Looking over at Goten. Her eyes told those who read her, that she was breaking down. Normally showing a strong, resilient young Saiyaness, then showed just a frightened child. The Son called for an ambulance, then made the hardest call of all...
"Son residence, Goku speaking." Shit. The cheerful Sayian picked up the phone, completely unaware of the fact his daughter was dying on the floor of her high school.
While Goten was on the phone with his father, Bra ask quietly, "did you know?" Her brother shook his head, swallowing the lump in his throat before speaking.
"Did you? She tells you everything." Yeah, right. Bra Briefs knew only ten percent of what happened to her best friend. It wasn't that Pan didn't want to tell her, but she just didn't. So in the end, Bra only shook her head.
She pushed harder to stop the bleeding in her midsection, only for the towels to have been soaked through. "If she was hit like this, there was a good possibility it is was a girl." Sayian pregnancies were accelerated to an extent, so actually Pan was farther than originally thought. Then, as if it was a gift from Kami himself, the paramedics made their arrival. His eyes still remained wide, she was pregnant, and with a daughter. A little girl whom never had the chance.
xXxXxXx
While they took Pan to the hospital, Gohan had another situation to deal with entirely.
"Whatever you know, say it now, Neko." He said his name darkly, knowing full well that the young man wasn't human at all. The two sat in a room with no windows and a solid door. Neko's eyes shone an even brighter purple as his body changed from that of a human to Icejin.
"Cooler!" His voice shook, a fear awakening for the first time since he found Cell had returned from Otherworld, eighteen years earlier. Both Goku and Vegeta had killed cooler before, had they not? So why was he here? Unless...
He laughed at the idiot remark. "You mistake me for my father." The nameless Icejin's voice was as cold as the depths of hell, but smooth like liquid fire. Sending a shiver down Gohan's fear filled spine.
"What in Kami's name are you doing here? What's your plan?" Gohan jumped on guard, not sure what "Neko" was going to do.
Neko stood up and tinkered with the items on the desk with his tail. "You silly monkey, I've done what I've come here to do... rid this world of another of you." Then, it was as if a lightbulb went off inside of his head.
Anger exploded from the half Saiyan as his eyes turned teal, and his hair flashed golden. With so much energy condensed into one small room, the door was torn from its hinges. The fight carried into the hallway at amazing speeds.
Ki blasts were shot from both sides of the fight. Although the kicks and punches exchanged were still the most effective. Gohan received a blow to his jaw, knocking him backward. With the speed Gohan possessed, he phased behind the Icejin, grabbing his tail, and throwing him into a wall.
The bell rang, indicating students that third rotation was to begin. 'This will only complicate things.' He thought. As students left for class, teachers resumed duty outside of their door, time seemed to freeze.
Everyone looked around to see the fight between a still transformed Neko, and the physics teacher. "What the fuck is that thing?" One kid yelled.
"Is that Son Sensei?" Another exclaimed. Even then a Super Saiyan Gohan was still easy to spot. 'Great.' He thought darkly as he dodged a ki blast. As that freak of an Icejin prepared the mother of all energy blasts, Gohan put up an energy shield for all of those onlookers around him.
"Ka... Me... Ha... Me... Haaaa!" Releasing all of the pent up energy, it shifted to Neko as he was pushed back, screaming in agony. Reverting back to his normal state, the teacher collapsed onto his knees. He let out a huff of air as that was nothing but a nuisance.
With less than a snap of fingers, the ki shield was dropped, allowing people around him to move more freely. But not one moved, even when the late bell rang. Minutes passed as pens dropped, signaling just how quiet it was. "Get to class, or you all have a weeks worth of detention!"
Students soon scrambled as Gohan walked out, to catch his breath, his peers shocked at what they had seen.
xXxXxXx
Surgery was over, and so was Pan's body. Tubes erupted from her mouth as they kept her lungs from collapsing on themselves, as she was not even breathing on her own. Trunks stayed at her bedside, even though the doctors attempted to send him home, multiple times.
The monitors exploded to life as her heart rate increased with her sudden consciousness. The Son girl began to choke on the tubes, as her body went into panic.
With no one to help pull them out, she physically stopped breathing, enclosing her hand around the apparatus, and pulled straight up and out from her throat. The next step was to take out the I.V. drip, but Pan decided against that... she was in too much pain.
"Trunks." She coughed, hitting his arm. The black bangs upon her forehead were plastered with sweat. The air was thicker, or was it her drug induced imagination? Pan couldn't tell. She tried a few more times to get his attention, flinging her arm over the constricting hospital bed.
'He's asleep, I don't believe it.' She scowled. Though she couldn't blame him, her surgery must have been extensive, on many levels. It was a little while later that the lavender haired man finally awoke. He groaned and stretched, joints popping in the process.
"Careful, you might dislocated something." She smiled.
The bright blue eyes she had come to know and love, had become dull, and saddened. He thought that everything that happened to her, was all his fault. He rose from the chair, resting at the bedside, and kissed her forehead, brushing her hair away.
"Panna, I'm so sorry." Nose to nose, voice barely above a whisper.
Her words died right there on her tongue. She tried a few times more to form words, but the last time, two doctors and a nurse walked into her room.
"Son Pan?" The older looking doctor asked, as Videl checked her vital signs and "fluffed" her pillow.
"Obviously." The young woman mumbled lowly. She pulled the I.V. out of her arm and grabbed the robe from the side. With one deep breath, she begun her ascent from the bed, before Videl pushed her back down.
"You're not in any shape." She hissed.
She let out a soft, but pained growl. 'Like hell I'm not.' She made one last leap of faith and made it out of the bed, trying to escape the claustrophobic atmosphere that was beginning to form.
"We have the results of tests and surgery." The other doctor said. Pan stopped dead center of the room. Her legs keeping her afloat by only a thread. Trunks stood closely behind her in case she passed out. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as the doctors told her the news.
"Did you know you were eighteen weeks pregnant?" Were? As in used to be? Pan's lithe frame turned around to look at Trunks. 'How could I be so stupid?' She thought. 'Our unborn child is gone, all because I couldn't protect myself.' That very moment, looking at Trunks, then looking inside of her soul, she learned true pain. Not physical, but emotional.
She ran from the room, but tripped just on the other side of the threshold. Searing pain reverberated through her entire body. She thought she busted a few stitches, but she didn't care, 'I deserve it.'
"Whoever, or whatever did this to you, cut directly through your reproductive organs, hitting your lungs as well. When we operated, we found everything more or less shredded. There's absolutely no chance for reproduction, I'm sorry."
Her heart stopped beating. 'Im sorry? That's all they could do?' Sitting on the floor of the sterile hall, clad in a hospital gown and robe, she cried. The dam of raw emotion finally broke.
"Why?" She screamed, crying in hysterics. She looked up to see Trunks kneeling to her level, and wrapping her in his warm embrace.
Videl went on back to the nurses station, speechless and blinking away tears herself.
She felt his tears as he silently fell apart into her shoulder. "I don't know Panna." He choked. "But it hurts so badly." The two stayed like that for some time, before they were directed back into the small room.
Tears were wiped away as both Goku and ChiChi emerged through the door. The older Son woman walked closely to Pan's bedside, and kissed her cheek, her long hair falling forward with her. "Could we talk to Pan alone?" Goku asked.
In response, the couple's hands intertwined and squeezed... Trunks was going no where, and they knew it. "How are you doing dear?" She felt traumatized, tired and pained. But she wasn't to tell her that.
So, without breaking down for the second time Pan said, "I'll be alright, it's just a flesh wound." She flashed a smile for added effect.
Goku shut the door quietly, staring Trunks down, just as if this was his fault. The medication Videl had given her was beginning to take effect, so she had to act fast. "Leave him alone papa. This wasn't his fault."
Her father let out a huff, knowing that he wasn't going to get to say his piece. But ChiChi did just that. "We already knew you were pregnant, but why didn't you tell us?" She asked the last part softly, sadly.
Squeezing Trunks' hand again, just seemed to make him more nervous. "Don't get nervous on me," she said through their bond. "you're making me sick." His emotions having a dizzying effect on her. And once he took a a deep breath, the tension was released, making both feel more at ease.
The world became dark as her breathing steadied.
xXxXxXx
When she awoke, she saw the pale color of the paint on the walls, and the pictures that hung upon them. "I swore never to leave your side, unless that's what you want."
"How long have I been out of the hospital?" Pan asked, trying to avoid the direction his statement was leading them.
Laying back in the chair he answered, "five days, you have been in and out of consciousness." By the look she saw in his blue eyes, he wanted, no needed to say more, but couldn't get it out.
For what felt like eternity, the two demi-Saiyans, just sat there, in the small bedroom, soundlessly. The chair shifted loudly across the wood floor, as Trunks walked out.
Pan was alone, and for the first time in her life, she was okay with that. Her parents were angered, for her becoming pregnant at sixteen. And her friends and brothers, for being so stupid. But most of all, Trunks... he must have hated her, for everything. She thought that fateful night shown every bit of passion and love they held. Maybe it did, but did he even feel that way anymore?
A knock on the door tore the cripple from her thoughts. "Who is it?" She asked, pulling the quilt carefully over her.
"Am I gonna knock down the door, or just walk in like always?" Bra asked with a smile in her voice. She walked in anyway, demanding Pan lift up her shirt.
'Why the hell-' Bra held up a bag that she never noticed before. 'Bandages no doubt.' The thick quilt fell to pool at her hips, as the shirt was lifted up.
A square gauze pad ran directly over her entire abdomen, taped all around and secured by a tan wrapping bandage. She sat up carefully with Bras help to get the wrapping undone.
At that moment, time seemed to freeze. She finally got to see the true destruction. "Don't worry about it." Her best friend said, mimicking what ChiChi heard five days before. As the tape was being pulled back, a string of noise came from the direction of the door.
"Open up, we need to talk." Pans eyes became the size of saucers. She couldn't let him in here now, not while she looked like this! Over and over, Trunks would ask for entrance into the room.
Bra heard with her keen Saiyan hearing, "he can't be here, he can't be here." The injured Pan was genuinely scared. So the re-bandaging process sped up, wrapping the six and a half inch wound, with thirty stitches rather quickly.
The bag was packed as the youngest Brief whispered, "I'll fill you in on school later." Pan just nodded in agreement. Bringing the quilt back up her mid section.
Then, he opened the door, his eyes lingered at his feet, hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Don't bother." She said. "You're just going to blame yourself, and I don't want to hear it." She sat up, keeping the quilt still, as she pulled a magazine. He walked over to the pin board that hung over the desk, looking at a picture.
It was their first date, and the same night, to which no words were to ever be forged. "I heard what you thought, about that night." He said sitting at the desk. Pan couldn't tell what was worse, the fact that he heard everything, or the fact he would not face her. So she settled for the first option.
Again they stayed quiet, it was almost too awkward to speak. But he turned around in the chair and just waited patiently, for anything. "You know, you didn't need to keep it a secret from me."
She stopped reading and looked up. All she wanted to do was hide under the blankets. 'It was my burden, and mine alone.'
"How many times since then?" He whispered.
"Since when? That night? Three." She said in the same tone, rubbing her arm. Three miscarriages. "I had never been farther than two months. When I found this one to be longer, I didn't want to get any hopes up, especially yours, because it happened before. So I just waited and waited, and then last week, it all stopped, now that number has grown by one and I-I..." her words trailed as the lump in her throat arose.
In the time she explained everything, Trunks had moved next to her on the bed. His arm came around her small form, bringing her into a hug. She placed her head on his chest, attempting to calm to emotional turmoil that she was enduring. "Don't ever think that I hate you, and that everything was a waste. We could always use the dragonballs if you want to."
'No way!' Her mind screamed to itself. 'There's no need to waste a wish on me.'
xXxXxXx
A few weeks later, when the group entered the bus, a chorus of cheers from the students and bus driver rang. Pan didn't need the attention, nor did she want it. She kept to herself, as she sat down and sunk into her seat next to Goten. Her jacket zipped out of her own self esteem.
Going to her classes, all she heard was chatter of what happened in the school only weeks before.
"I heard what he fought was an alien." One guy said.
"Wasn't it Mr. S-" The other person was cut off by shushing as the empty shell that was Pan walked by to her locker.
"Yes, and yes, it was." She said before curtly -and painfully- slamming her locker, walking away. All she wanted to do was survive the day without taking any pain medication, and return back home to sleep. Walking into her physics class, she was greeted by her brother behind the desk.
"Hi Pan-chan." He said as she sat down.
"Hello, Nii-san." She responded quietly.
Gohan didn't seem too angered with her, but as her older brother, it was his job to protect her. So he'd eventually get the stick from his ass. As the other students sat down and class began, Pan zoned out, and into a nightmare from within her own mind.
Marron dropped a note on the desk. She snapped from the dream just long enough to read it. 'You okay? You look out of it... we don't get you, maybe because we aren't in your shoes. But we're here for you.'
She wasn't that distant, was she? Her thoughts were jarred by a huge jolt of pain that erupted from her stomach. The ebony haired teen sucked in a breath and froze all movement. This would pass, all of the twinges do eventually.
Several minuets passed before she let out a shaky breath. Little did she know, everyone paused, looking at her. Gohan had stopped teaching, looking for signs she was going into shock.
After her arrival at home that day, she wept into her pillow for the first time since hearing what happened to her body. Weeks turned to months as daily life was made a blur. Its as if one stood there, as the world sped right passed you. Pan's association with everyone, was silently dying. No longer did she care of anything.
It wasn't until that next fall did she snap out of her self-destructive mentality. The weather grew cooler, as people wore long sleeves and jackets.
"Happy birthday, my Panna." The card read, it was a simple card, but a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Eleven red roses, and one lavender directly in the middle. "Typical Trunks." She smiled, because he knew they were her favorite. October fifteenth, the one day she vowed to be happy. Her seventeenth birthday.
Pulling on a three quarter sleeve shirt, she got a good look at it, like every other day, that scar haunted her. Even seven months later, it was a stark reminder that she was weak. That Son Pan couldn't protect herself, or her daughter. It was also a lesson, never take what you have for granted.
'Thats funny, I never locked the door.' The knob jiggled once more before she jumped in surprise by what was behind her. Arms wrapped around her lithe frame, as her body sunk back. "Typical Trunks." She joked.
He chuckled in response, pulling her back tighter against his chest. "So, what's on the agenda?" Pan asked.
"More like who." He said barely above a husky whisper, kissing her neck gently at her bite. She froze, and he noticed. "L-lets go to dinner and a movie o-or something." He stammered a short time later.
xXxXxXx
Dinner was peaceful, the scenery quaint. They sat on the patio, looking out to the lavished garden. Small lights were strung on a line, going from one side of the pergola to the other, just like little fireflies.
Two hours passed as they then walked to the movie theater. The happy couple sat close, hands intertwined as they sat watching what was to be a horror movie. Though Trunks wasn't sure laughing was how it was meant to be seen. Up to that point, their lives have been a horror movie, or maybe a string of them.
"So how was our date night, Panna?" The nineteen year old asked, walking her up the sidewalk.
She stopped, and embraced him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I loved it, and I love you. Thank you." She whispered nose to nose with him, before they kissed.
It was electrifying, like a never ending adrenaline rush. 'I never want it to end.'
Pulling away breathlessly, he smiled, "and I love you. Happy birthday."
xXxXxXx
Over the months since Neko's attempted killing. I have died, and been born anew. I am at peace in mind, body and soul. What occurred was a lesson taught to me in the cruelest of ways, but it was all for a reason. Maybe one day I will make that wish, to change my life once more. But for the moment, I think me and Trunks will get our lives put together before that is done. None of my family and friends understand how much I really appreciate everything.
Fini. R&R, I much appreciate it. im not the greatest at fight scenes, but i try. :)
For my Visionary readers, that'll be up in a week or two, school is starting up soon, so im not sure on the time I have after that begins.