BLACK MOON
A DRAGONBALL Z Story
MOIRAI SAGA
BOOK ONE
by
J.M.A.
Based on the story and characters created by Akira Toriyama
RATED M for moderate language, violence, mature themes & elements involving teens that may be sensitive for some readers
Part One
"We are kindred spirits, forged in different fires."
- Aaron Polson
Gohan
Death. The stench of it was everywhere. It was in my nose, caked in every pore, dominating every nerve in my body.
Because of me, all of my friends were going to die.
Because of me, the whole planet was going to be eradicated from existence.
And I just stood there. Too scared to do anything, and just as terrified of doing nothing.
I didn't know what else I had expected, how I thought I was going to win this war. No enemy, in the long history of my father's legacy, had ever let good win by bowing out, admitting defeat. It was always a fight to the death.
I didn't know how or why I had expected Cell to be any different.
What a pathetic excuse of a warrior I was; what a disappointing, unworthy son I was. I wanted to be just like my dad; I wanted to do good, to help people, help the world.
My heart just had a different idea of doing it than he did.
Perhaps that was why the words of an Android, a sentient being of wire and steel, stifled my reluctance and fear—a being whose sole purpose of existence was to murder my father, only to choose different, and become an ally.
He'd chosen peace. He'd chosen love and compassion. And he'd chosen to fight for all of it, even though he knew it would lead to his death.
This, he was asking me to do, now; this, he tried to help me realize, that I shouldn't be afraid of my power—no matter how violent and horrible it could be—for I could use it to fight for what I loved, what I treasured and wanted to protect. That to bow out of fighting for all I held dear simply because of my fear would be far worse than the violence I would unleash.
That gentle, understanding smile would forever be stamped behind my eyelids, as Cell's foot came down and crushed the android's disembodied skull.
He'd known he would die. But he made sure he found his way to me anyways.
I could have stopped it, could have stopped all of this—
If I hadn't been such a coward.
That caged monster inside me stormed and clawed, a demon rising from the depths of some hell buried deep in my soul. I felt it everywhere; from my gut to my ears to the tips of my fingers…
LET ME OUT, it demanded.
LET ME OUT, it cried.
I had always been terrified of this monster inside me—of the rage and violence and savage instincts—terrified that one day, once it was unleashed, I could never trap it again; that it would swallow me whole and I would lose all that had made me good, all that made me, me.
But if I didn't let it out now, if I didn't succumb to this power I'd been born with, everyone I loved was going to die.
No more.
No more pain, no more death. No longer was I going to stand aside and do nothing. My soul would be damned just as well to be a bystander as my father and friends were murdered in front of me; what difference would it make, giving in to this beast that had been born within me, stalking my life like the shadow at my feet?
I didn't ask for this. I was just a kid.
But to save my family, to save the planet—the universe—I would sell my soul, I would give myself to that demon, to do what I—it—needed to do, and I would find a way to live with the blood on my hands after.
If I ever came back at all.
I closed my eyes against Cell, against the desert painted with blood, against the pleading eyes of my father and friends, succumbing to darkness.
I finally let that tether snap.
You're free.
That monster in my skin snarled with triumph, and then erupted in its unbridled fury.
