A/N: This is a DBZ story I wrote back in my senior year of high school (in 2003) and I remember that because I finished right before finals and spent the day after before graduation drawing my first pictures of Joey. Anyway, I had this up here before but I took it down. I found it on my computer and decided to put it up complete. This is the first part of what became a trilogy series, the second and third are shorter and I wrote them with my brother and our best friend during the summer afterwards before I started college. So read, enjoy, and, review... please, for me? Well if not for me, then how about for brownies? Yum, yum!
BRING ME TO LIFE
Joey is an 18-year-old boy who lives in the desert. Like every young teen, this boy loves heavy punk rock metal music and is in a band that he and his friends formed back in high school (they all graduated about three months ago). They were in a late night club playing a gig as the people came and went to eat, drink and have a good time. A big gang of desert bandits was the main customers. They got too drunk and became violent, viciously attacking Joey, causing his band and the others to flee. The teenager was strong, from training in martial arts and playing sports like baseball, but his power wasn't enough. But when all looked bleak for the young boy, his dad burst onto the scene. Yamcha to the rescue! The two warded off the group easily, scaring the notorious tiger bandit gang away. Yamcha collapsed, he'd received a concussion and injuries in battle. Joey took his dad to the hospital and there was put in critical condition in the ICU. Somehow, for some reason, he's terminally ill with a lethal heart virus. Yamcha sends his son to look for Bulma, knowing she could help him and diagnose and cure the disease he was sick with. Bulma was Yamcha's ex-wife, thus making her Joey's mom. Hesitant, Joey must embark on a journey to find the mom he never knew, his past childhood a blur. Little did he know though, his whole life as he'd known it was lived in the desert with their cat Puar, Bulma had long since re-married and had a son a few years younger than himself, and a small daughter as well. With Yamcha's death leaving his son to walk alone in the world, will he accept this new family and their friends? This story is set about five years after the evil Buu is killed.
Bring Me To Life by Evanescence
Joey was all but sleeping peacefully that night, the decisions and events of the day racing through his brain. Puar was curled up on his little blanket bed on the cabinet above on Joey's headboard. The desert was cold at night. But Joey was breathing heavily, tossing and turning tensely, covered in a hot sweat. Something was flashing in his mind.
How can you see into my eyes like open doors
Leading you down into my core
When I've become so numb
He was trapped in a nightmare, and he couldn't get out…
Without a soul
There was a vast field filled with a huge battle during a thunderstorm.
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
As Joey looks around in horror amid all the bloody vicious fighting,
Until you find it there and lead it back home.
He stops looking and sets his eyes onto a tree off in the distance, and tied to it is Bulma.
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
He desperately tries to run towards her but he is running in place.
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
He continues to struggle, almost as if an invisible force field was holding him back.
Bulma: Save me!
Call my name and save me from the dark.
Bulma cries out to Joey, he hears and tries to answer to her pleas, still unable to move.
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
Joey begins to pull forward and jerk free, he can't take the cries and calls of help from Bulma anymore.
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
He finally breaks out and starts to run as he stumbles forward, catching his breath.
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
He skids to a halt as the ground rumbles and a giant wall of mountainous rock shoots from the ground to block his way.
Now that I know what I'm without
You can't just leave me
He frowns with grim determination as he pulls his hand up on a rock, starting to climb, determined to reach and help Bulma, calling to him. Higher and higher, up and up farther he goes.
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring Me To Life
Bulma looks up as Joey reaches to the top and stands against the breeze, looking down the steep ravine, Bulma tied to the tree in the base of the canyon below.
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
Joey starts to run down the hill, his steps slow and careful amid the loose jagged stones.
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
Explosions of energy falling and exploding around him to slow him down and ruin his footing
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
He jumps high into the air and glides back down to the ground.
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
Joey lands and angles himself to slide down the hill.
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
With his feet positioning as if he was a snowboarder going down a hill, he skids down the mountain much quicker.
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become.
A rock sticks out like a sore thumb ahead, Joey gasps, going to fast to react and avoid it.
Bring Me To Life
I've been living a lie
Bulma gaps and slightly turns her head away. Joey flies up and into the air, his arms flailing helplessly.
There's nothing inside
Bring Me To Life
He falls down the death defiantly steep hill in slow motion as Bulma watches in horror.
Frozen inside without your touch without your love
Darling only you are the life among the dead
Bulma screams and closes her eyes as Joey lands chest first on the ground with a thud.
Joey: All this time I can't believe I couldn't see, kept in the dark but you were there in front of me.
Joey gets up onto all fours weakly and tries to move forward painfully.
Bulma: I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems, got to open my eyes to everything.
Bulma reaches out desperately for Joey with her free hand.
Joey: Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul.
Joey continues to advance slowly, crawling towards her, reaching out his hand to hers.
Bulma: Don't let me die here.
Joey: There must be something more!
Bulma continues to struggle for Joey's hand, still calling out for him.
Bring Me To Life
Joey suddenly stops frozen in his tracks, sensing something too late as a hand grabbing his left shoulder.
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
He gives a sudden gasp as he whirls around to see a shadow in the foreboding darkness.
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
Joey tries to jerk free from its grip desperately, but it is holdfast, Bulma is just staring at them in shock, her body still as she stands tied helpless.
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bulma had stopped screaming and Joey hesitates for but a moment, pausing to watch.
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
The tree stats to ripple as if it's going under a metamorphosis.
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
All Joey can do is watch, confused, Bulma frozen in an oblivious state.
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
The tree turns into Vegeta, trapping Bulma between his rope arms. She looks up and gasps in shock.
Bring Me To Life
Joey gaps as he sees this, the numbness leaves his body as he tries to reach out to her as he tries to pull away in no avail.
Joey: I've been living a lie.
Vegeta beings to pull Bulma back into the swirling darkness, her voice a quiet plea.
Joey: There's nothing inside!
Joey screams out for Bulma, his eyes welling up with tears as she vanishes.
Bring Me To Life
He turns around, growling angrily to the shadow and gasps back in shock to find it to be Trunks, smiling and laughing evilly as he shoots a lethal blast of energy at Joey.
Joey cries out and gasps as he wakes up in bed, panting hard… it was all just a dream. He falls back onto his bed, his arm on his sweaty forehead and damp bangs. He turns his head and looks up at Puar, still asleep, unaware of Joey's vividly real nightmare.