Bent: Part 1
Warnings: This could develop into a long, bloody fic. Just a fair warning and eventually, I'll probably have to step up the rating to R.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or Dragon Ball GT. That includes the characters, their belongings, unique ideas like senzu beans, and the settings. I don't make any money off of what I write.
Notes: This is the idea I was talking about long ago when I wrote If I Could Change Time (which was back around the end of May. So it's had a while to roll around in my head.) Oh yes, you'll find out who Deo is soon.
^_^ No messy prologue here. This is the beginning, so sit back, and take a trip through a alternate world after the Buu saga (nope, I don't believe in GT). Trunks and Goten are considerably older though as in 21 and 20.
----------
Mirror, mirror, thou art bent,
It's clear as your unshapely form reflects,
A happy, little peaceful world,
One with absolutely no defects.
I looked for myself within your shadows,
For the hurt boy with no one close nor near,
What I saw was a twisted soul,
Wrought from hate, torment, and fear.
Yet when the raindrops turn to blood,
And the world is worse than hell,
Will you not regret taunting me,
Instead of helping when I fell?
Play with fire and surely get burned,
Thy evil deeds shall meet retribution,
Mark my words, I'll get my revenge,
And genocide seems the perfect solution.
-Deo
***
Flames flickered within the man's eyes mixing with glowing tears that had yet to be shed. An intensity that had been dormant all too long slowly crept through his body. At the same time a chill ran through his spine. So many feelings, all weighing the warrior down. Regret, loss, anger, hate, emotions beyond the description of words. Half of him burning alive in anger, half of him drowning in the deepest corners of his mind amid the pools of sorrow.
Behind him and in the distance the flames burned higher and higher reaching out towards the blackened sky. It was as though the destroying fire was seeking shelter from it's own wrath. Buildings crumbled and towers which had once been magnificent works of art, that had silently boasted man's creativeness and power now lay in ruins, mere memories of what had been.
"Why." Was the only word that escaped the young mans lips as he fell to his hands and knees. "Why." He whispered as one lone tear managed to roll down his cheek and fall to the tainted soil. Again the man turned his eyes upon his once beloved city. The flames reflected in his eyes, the orange and red colors entwining with yellow in a deadly dance. "Why can't I die too," he whispered. "this is worse than ten hells combined." He shut his eyes tightly and tried with all his might to block the agony. "Worse than death." He mumbled. He seemed to choke when he whispered. "All those people I loved, gone..." his eyes opened once more to look again at the blazing flames which fueled his growing rage. "Gone..." He clenched one fist his anger ever rising. "So kill me!" he screamed to the destroyer that lurked in the shadows smirking malevolently. "So I won't suffer any longer!"
Goten sat bolt upright in his bed breathing hard and in a cold sweat. Though his forehead was covered in perspiration his mouth was as dry as a desert. "It was just a dream." He reassured himself. "Just a dream." Shakily he grabbed the nearby clock. 4:09 in the morning. "Too early to get up." He said and carefully set it back down. He settled back down in his bed, wiped the sweat off his forehead, tried to push the dream from his mind, and closed his eyes. But sleep wouldn't reclaim him. Whether he was still bothered by the nightmare, or he was too alert, or whether he was a bit afraid to go back to sleep for fear that the dream would return, Goten didn't know. So he just lay there trying desperately to push the memory out of his mind which would not leave.
***
It was like any other normal day. The birds chirped outside and sun light trickled in through the widow landing on the half Sayian's eyes. He opened them slowly as if it were painful, the dark pupils still unfocused with sleep slowly adjusted to the light. He blinked once before he sat up and stretched reaching his arms up high above his head and uttering a load yawn. Then he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He then got up and started to head for the bathroom. Or at least he tried to. He was stopped by Videl grabbing him around the torso.
"Where are you going?" she asked sleepily.
Gohan paused for a moment before replying. "I'm just going to get up and take a shower."
"No, don't get up, not yet anyway." Videl paused and Gohan sat down again. He started to think she had gone back to sleep, or at least until she continued after taking a deep breath, "Not yet, it's Saturday." She sighed, then furrowed her eyebrows. "Gee, your really uncomfortable to snuggle up against."
Gohan snorted in effort to keep from laughing. Videl obviously hadn't opened her eyes yet. "That's because your snuggling against my back."
Videl yawned, "I knew something was wrong."
Gohan shifted around in her arms a bit till he was facing her and took in a deep breath then grinned, "Silly." he paused and focused on Videl. "I'm so lucky to have you and Pan in my life." He reached one hand up and played with a few short strands of Videl's hair. "I don't know where I'd be without you."
Videl sighed, "What brought that up?" she asked. "I'd rather not talk like that." She too paused before going on. "But I don't know what I'd do without you either."
Just as the two adults were dozing off again in each other's arms, there was a loud knock on the front door. Gohan groaned and sat up once more. "Wonder who that could be..." he muttered but quickly went and changed.
***
"Vegeta! Get up!" Bulma shouted. "If you don't I'm sure some small third world country would be more than happy to have enough food to go around twice!"
"Woman, you do and I'll be more than happy to break some of that fine machinery in your lab!" he yelled from bed. Vegeta smirked at the snort that came from outside the door. "I'm not getting up till I'm ready." Then Vegeta turned over in the bed. Before he could go back to sleep though, Bulma threw the door open rather forcefully nearly causing the Sayian to jump in surprise.
"You do and you can count on your gravity machine being down for a good month!"
Vegeta sat there for the longest while contemplating his choices before he groaned and flipped over. "I'll get up, but only for the sake of training and eating."
"So glad you put your family in front of your interests." Bulma retorted sarcastically.
Vegeta didn't say anything, he just smirked and started to dress. Occasionally he let out a little snort.
Bulma put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side. "And what's so funny?" she asked.
Vegeta, done dressing, walked over to Bulma and stopped on his way out of the door. Then the Prince of the Sayians pressed his index finger to her lips. Bulma's response was one of surprise, but she didn't say anything, she just opened her eyes wider. He smirked. "Nothing, just thinking." Then he removed his finger and wrapped his arms around her waist. Bulma in turn wrapped her arms around Vegeta's neck and smiled. "Should I be in shock? Your actually being nice today." She said.
"Too nice." Vegeta agreed and removed his arms as well as her's. "I'll see you at lunch." He snickered then walked off towards the kitchen to his awaiting, cold, breakfast.
Bulma sighed. "Oh Vegeta." Then she turned and went to her lab. "You can be so arrogant. Why'd I ever fall in love with you?" A faint smile appeared on her lips before she smacked herself in the forehead. "Don't think like that, you might accidentally say something out loud."
***
Gohan walked towards the front door only to find his younger brother and Trunks waiting for him at the door. ~Either they want to play a joke, or they've come here with something urgent.~ he concluded in his mind. "And I doubt it's the latter."
"Hi Gohan." Goten said with a huge smile.
"Yep, it's the latter."
"Hi." Trunks said grinning.
Gohan groaned. "Okay, what are you planning on doing?"
"Nothing!" both friends said defensively.
"Oh?" Gohan smirked.
Both Goten and Trunks looked at each other and grinned. "Nothing!"
"Why do I not believe you?" Gohan asked yawning for about the millionth time that morning.
Goten sighed with a smirk on his face as he stretched his arms. "Do you think we ought to let the cat out of the bag?" he asked.
"Yeah, I guess so. It's not nice to keep secrets." Trunks laughed.
Before Gohan could stop them both Goten and Trunks had jumped him and proceeded to drag the oldest half Sayian away. "Hey, let me go!" he protested. But he didn't power up. Best let them have their fun at his expense and have them move on to torment Vegeta then dwell upon him.
But as they took to the air high above Satan City something began to bother Goten. He'd seen this view somewhere else. But where? He took the scene in slowly. "I feel like I've been here before." He whispered.
"Huh?" Trunks asked hearing his friend whisper to himself. "Something wrong?"
No." Goten replied. Slowly the gears in his mind started turning back to the dream. "My nightmare!" he cried surprised. He pictured the skyline with flames. Something that made him shiver. It was exactly the same.
"What?" both Trunks and Gohan asked sensing a change in Goten's happy-go-lucky mood.
"N..nothing." Goten stuttered.
"C'mon." Trunks pried. "We no you better than that, what's bothering you Goten?"
Gohan was soon feed and began to float as Goten let go and shook his head. "Nothing."
"Are you..." Gohan was cut off as Goten took off leaving a vapor trail behind him.
"It was just one dream. Just a dream!" Goten screamed for all to hear. But he didn't really believe it. It may have been deja vous, but add flames to the skyline and everything was too familiar, too unexplainably strange.
"There is something really wrong here." Gohan mumbled.
***
God, not Gohan. Not him too. Maybe he could forget the blank staring eyes, if there were eyes at all and not just bloody bodies, after all they were other people who were merely strangers to him. But not Gohan. Not his older brother. Goten slowly knelt before the dead body. "Gohan." He whispered choking back tears. "No." The younger half Sayian winced and shut his eyes as they fell upon his brother's battered body. Unfortunately, when he did this the terrible memory came back of his brother's death. How that...monster had plunged his hand into Gohan's gut and twisted his grim covered fingers about. Then yanked out the eldest half Sayian's intestines and played with Gohan's organs as if they were a puzzle only he could put together.
Then he turned towards Goten. There might have been a lust for blood behind those crimson eyes. But what Goten saw was a ruthless killing machine who cared not about his work, or the lives he ruined, nor about anything else.
"W..why?" he managed to stammer. He'd seen the havoc wrecked my the monster who looked like a human.
He wore what could be called the upper part of the Sayian uniform, an armored plate, only there was a blood red symbol on it's right side. The bottom half of his attire was much like the pants of a gray gi, further below that he wore brown boots. One of his hands brushed away shoulder length blond hair exposing his eyes, blood red, just like the blood on his hands.
"Because I'm going to inflict misery to every god damn fucking thing in the universe." The figure spat.
Goten took a step back utterly shocked. "But why?" he asked. "What have we done?"
The figure sneered. "Plenty." He advanced pulling the sword from it's sheath on his back causing the light to momentarily blind the Sayian highbred. "You've all led happy little lives. That's more than enough don't you think?"
"No." Goten retorted finding the blade suddenly at his neck, but he continued, "No one every leads a completely happy life."
"And I suppose no one lives in utter hell their whole life, do they?" The figure asked angrily to which Goten didn't know how to reply. "Well, I have." The mysterious stranger spat. "You have the pleasure of knowing loved ones. And that's why I'm going to take everything away, including your life and everyone else's." He laughed sinisterly. Then removed the sword from Goten's neck and snickered. "But where would the fun be killing you now?" he asked more or less to himself. "No, I think I'll let you suffer before I finish you off."
And Goten had ran. He'd run for is life. The half Sayian looked back once to see if the man was still on his heels, but when he glanced over his shoulder he didn't see him. And the fact that he didn't know where the monster in the form of human was at the moment scared the shit out of him.
***
The next night Goten didn't dream of the horrific nightmare. A blessing, and yet a curse, instead it was of Pan. She was by the side of some pool, she was laughing, until she fell in. Goten didn't think Pan knew how to swim, after all she was still pretty young. And his fear was confirmed when she began frantically calling for help and trying to keep herself afloat. Again Goten woke up before the dream was completely over. In a way he was glad, in others he was fearful. He didn't know of what to make of it, not that any dream had made sense lately. So he called his brother.
"Goten?" Gohan asked groggily. "It's the middle of the night! What are you calling for?" Gohan's eyes widened when Goten started telling him about his dream. "But that's impossible, you couldn't have known." He muttered, "That happened just yesterday and Videl, Pan, and I haven't told anyone."
"Oh god." Goten whispered, his thoughts turned back to the first dream. "Just because one came true doesn't mean the other one will." He whispered. "Just please don't let it be a foretelling of the future..."
***
It rained harder that night than Goten ever believed possible. It just kept coming down like there was no end to it. The leaves on the tree outside the window held countless raindrops and as a result drooped, spilling the water onto the ground below. Maybe the rain was a warning of impending doom. Maybe it wasn't, but it sure set an eerie mood, Goten could hear nothing but the endless rain and thunder as he sat in his room. In a way, the rain was peaceful. But when he had looked out his window and saw only endless gray clouds, never letting in the starlight, it had dampened his spirits. So he chose to just sit there on his bed and watch as the occasional lightning bolt struck strange images across the ceiling and wall. Add the fact that he was still scared to death of even going to sleep for fear of the nightmares, and well, Goten was not having a pleasant night.
And then he got an idea.
He snuck out of his room and looked around at the dark house. He was sure that his father wouldn't wake up, even if Goten caused the roof to cave in. His mother on the other hand he wasn't quite so sure about, she'd probably wake up if he even coughed. So he tiptoed to the kitchen, looked around once, and opened the drawer...
Only to have it squeak as he pulled it open.
"Damn drawer!" he cursed under his breath. Goten waited. Maybe his mother hadn't heard, maybe she was still asleep. The young half Sayian tiptoed over to his parents' bedroom door. Slowly and carefully he put his ear to the wooden door and listened. Nothing... Just his father's snore and his mother's quiet breathing. No screams of, "Goku get up! There's a burglar in the house!"
Silently Goten went back to the kitchen...only to trip on his way back.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" he cursed quietly. So he listened. He couldn't hear anything different coming from his parents' door. So he tiptoed back to the drawer which was still sticking out and grabbed an object. Then he tiptoed back to his room leaving the drawer still jutting out from the counter.
"Mom'll probably just shut it absentmindedly." He figured.
Back in his room, Goten shut the door again and pulled out the object. It happened to be a flashlight. He glanced once at the clock, 1:00 in the morning, it was uncharacteristic of his to be up this late, but the last thing he wanted was to have more nightmares, especially after last night. Then he flicked the small light on and grinned.
"Perfect." he whispered. Goten set the little flashlight down on his bed so that it was pointing upwards at the wall. Then he lowered on hand in front of the light and began making shadow puppets. "I am Trunks." He whispered out of the side of his mouth doing a really bad impression of his best friend. "And I shall bow down in front of the great Goten!" Goten put another hand in front of the light. "Oh no you don't!" he imitated Vegeta, "You are my brat and I will tell you what you can and can not do! For I am a royal pain in the ass!" Goten chuckled, or at least he did until he ran across a problem, how was he going to do a third person, after all he only had two hands, and he wanted to get in on the action. So he positioned himself so that one of his feet were in the light. "Well I am Goten," he chuckled, "And I say you all had better bow down before me before I get really angry."
The puppet play went on for several more minutes until Goten got tired and shut the light out. Then he laid back in his bed and tried to get some nightmare free sleep. But as he lay there one thing began to really bother him. It was the fact that every time the lightning flashed, illuminating up his walls, there was always a strange humanoid figure. That wouldn't have normally bothered him, after all, with all the trees around, there could be some pretty spooky figures cast. What bothered him was that the figure kept growing larger and larger, which could only mean it was growing closer.
Goten stayed rooted to the spot trembling. "What am I so scared of?" he berated himself after a few moments. If it is some psycho killer like they portray in those movies, I could easily snap his neck before he knew what hit him." He mumbled. There was a tap on the glass and Goten nearly jumped through the ceiling. "Stay calm. Your more powerful than a psycho killer." he assured himself and crept towards the window.
Slowly he started to pull the curtain sideways before jerking it open and screamed. What he saw was a guy dressed in a yellow raincoat, wearing a huge grin, with a couple stray purple hairs falling out of the hood, drenched of course by now.
"Are you going to let me in now?" Trunks asked, his voice slightly muffled by the glass. "Or are you going to let me catch pneumonia first?"
"I ought to!" Goten replied making a face. "You nearly made me have a heart attack."
Trunks just grinned, rubbed his arms. "Maybe I could give your dad one."
Goten gave him a 'that is not funny' look.
"C'mon, I'm freezing!" Trunks complained rubbing his arms faster.
Goten unlatched the window and opened it letting in a torrent of rain and wind. The dark curtains billowed out and whipped at the walls. Trunks just jumped in through the window. When he'd moved to the corner of the room, Goten hastily shut the large window and pulled the curtains closed. Then the younger of the two turned and asked, "What are you doing up at this hour?"
Trunks shrugged slightly. "I could ask you the same question."
Goten cocked an eyebrow, "Well, I asked first."
"Okay, geez, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to come over." Trunks grinned.
Goten coughed. "Uh, yeah, at 1:00 something in the morning?"
"Well, you were up weren't you?" Trunks replied. "I saw the light in your window while I was out walking."
"Through the curtains?" Goten asked skeptically.
"Your curtains are pretty easy to see light through." Trunks laughed. "What? You never knew?"
"No." Goten grumbled. "So, did you decide to drop in for any particular reason?"
"No." Trunks replied casually walking over to the window and peeked out the curtians. "Looks like it's gonna rain all tomorrow though." He commented out of the blue.
Goten nodded. "Yeah, there won't be much to do."
"I was thinking," Trunks said, "you know that room where your dad trained, and some of the others did too preparing for my dad's arrival?"
Goten thought about it for a few moments. "Yeah, I can't remember the name, but I remember it."
"Let's ask if we can go train in there tomorrow, it might be interesting."
Goten nodded with a sly grin thinking of the look on Mr. Popo's face. Then yawned.
"Sleepy?" Trunks asked.
"Yeah." Goten replied shuddering at the thought of diving back into the dark world of unconsciousness and nightmares. Who knew what awaited him on the other side of reality. Most likely a grisly scene of mutilated bodies. Some without faces, just cold, bloody tissue, torn to shreds. And behind it all a raging inferno of fire consuming the city. It had grown worse every night. The same nightmare which just lasting longer and longer, repeating the first part and then adding more where it had left off the night before.
"Well," Trunks said breaking Goten's dark thoughts and snapping him back to reality, "Do you mind if I sleep over here tonight?" he asked looking back towards the window as the wind thrashed a branch continuously at the window making an eerie scraping sound.
"No." Goten replied shaking his head. "It's alright if you stay here."
Goten swore that Trunks cracked the biggest grin he'd ever seen at that moment, "Well then," the older, purple haired boy chuckled, "dibs on the bed!"
"Oh no you don't!" Goten laughed. "You'll get the couch and like it!"
"Oh yeah?" Trunks asked.
"Yeah."
"Then I challenge you to...to a duel!" he grabbed a floor lamp and quickly unplugged it from the outlet.
In return, Goten grabbed a yard stick.
Trunks was the first to lung with his makeshift sword. "Haha, you'll never beat me Goten."
Thrust, parry, thrust, parry , lung, lung.
"Oh yeah?" Goten sneered, blocking with the yard stick.
Thrust, parry, lung.
"Oh, and I suppose you took lessons from Yajirobi?" Trunks asked with a perfectly straight face.
Goten couldn't stop laughing and fell to the ground, rolling around in laughter as Trunks moved the lamp in for the kill. He touched it to Goten's heart and the purple Sayian smirked. "It looks like the fair damsel, The Bed, shall be mine." He laughed. And then he couldn't help himself and fell down laughing too.
Both guys had a hearty chuckle, or at least till Chi Chi threw the door open moments later clad in her nightgown and a hastily thrown on bathrobe. "Goten! Trunks!" she cried.
A few minutes later Goten found himself grumbling on the floor in his sleeping bag, griping about how things never went his way. With his ears still ringing from his mother's 'brief' lecture, and Trunks' snoring from above.
***
"No watch out!" Goten screamed frantically.
The purple haired boy turned his face towards his best friend. He just smiled. Smiled like there was nothing to worry about. The beaming smile just stayed etched on his face only momentarily.
"Trunks!" Goten screamed in dismay as the smile was shattered, and a look of surprise and pain passed the youth's features. From Trunks' middle, a sword protruded then it sliced up then down, almost too fast for the Goten to see. The result was Trunks being split in half. Goten shuttered. He wanted to close his eyes tightly, no, he wanted to tear his eyes out. They'd seen too much. Too many horrible things.
And then that vile creature, that looked like a man walked up to him. "Just the beginning." He whispered, hate, jealousy, and satisfaction thickly coating his words. "Just the beginning."
Then everything faded to black.
"Goten. Goten! Goten!"
The half Sayian heard someone calling his name frantically. First he opened one eye slowly and the other soon followed. He looked up to see Trunks shaking him. "Geez, don't scare me like that." Trunks said a bit shocked.
"Huh?" Goten asked still a bit dazed from waking up.
"You kept yelling in your sleep." Trunks shuddered remembering how desperate and forlorn his friend had sounded.
"Yelling in my sleep?" Goten repeated a bit puzzled. "Did anyone else hear me other than you?"
"Not that I know." Trunks replied calming down his electrified nerves. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Goten shook his head quickly. "No." Before Trunks could question him further he changed the subject. "So is it still raining?"
Trunks nodded.
"Still want to see if we can get to the lookout?" Goten grinned or as best as he could considering hat he had just seen his best friend diced up like a vegetable.
"Yeah." Trunks replied grinning, that mornings events forgotten, or at least temporarily. Flying would ease things up too. The feeling of the wind rushing around one's body always seemed to make the day look brighter, even if it was raining.
***
"Now shut your eyes." Mr. Popo said. "When you open them again, you will no longer be here. I should warn you that even though you can't actually be killed in the alternate world you will be visiting, you should still be careful."
Both young men nodded their heads, closed their eyes and prepared for their little adventure.
When Trunks opened his eyes again and looked around he was a little bit shocked. "Wow." He said. Then he noticed Goten still had his eyes closed. "Hey dummy, you can wake up now." He poked Goten in the ribs.
Goten's eyes fluttered open. "Huh? Oh..." he began. "There must really have been a battle around here." He commented on the scenery filled with skeletons. It brought back terrible memories of his nightmares
Both friends looked around at their surroundings. From what it looked like, they were standing amid ancient ruins, below their feet it looked like they were standing on sort of a cobble road.
"Hmmm." Trunks muttered touching his hand to a nearby wall covered in dust. "Interesting place, but it looks like it's deserted."
"Maybe." Goten agreed. "I'm going to get a look from the air."
Trunks nodded in agreement and watched as his friend hovered upwards.
After looking around for a bit Goten called out from the air, "Nothing. It looks like we're in a huge labyrinth that once served as a city." He looked towards his right only to see a huge crater. "Wonder what happened there." He commented on the large scar.
"Huh?" Trunks asked floating up beside him. "What do you...Oh..." he trailed off noticing it too.
The two both knew what the other was thinking and slowly flew towards the large hole. If they were killed and sent back now, Mr. Popo probably wouldn't agree to sending them right back. So they approached cautiously and landed when they were a few feet from the crater's perimeter. Both slowly looked over the edge only to find a black puddle.
"Whew." Goten sighed. "That was a little too melodramatic for me."
"Yeah." Trunks agreed. "Wonder what that stuff is though."
"Well, you can wonder what it is, I'm not going to." Goten replied.
"Aw, c'mon, it'll be fun." Trunks said.
"Nuh uh." Goten said firmly.
"What's wrong, are you chicken?" Trunks probed.
"Nope, I just don't want to get sent back so soon." The younger half Sayian replied.
Seeing the point Trunks sighed. "But what are we going to do that's exciting?"
The black puddle moved.
"Huh?" Goten asked doing a double take, his eyes opening wider.
"What?" Trunks asked.
"The...the puddle, it moved!" Goten cried.
Trunks looked at his friend skeptically, "Are you sure you didn't just imagine it?"
This time Trunks saw it move to.
"Holy!" Trunks cried as Goten clamped a hand down on his mouth.
"Shhhh." He whispered. "Maybe it won't notice us."
Slowly, the puddle shifted, bit by bit. First, it formed a round object near the top of it's figureless ooze. Next came two appendages and what appeared to be a torso, then two legs. It stretched once, then looked up and saw the two friends. It made some sort of strange noise, that sounded familiarly like a chuckle and started to climb up towards the two Sayians.
"It's...humanoid..." Goten whispered unbelieving what his eyes had just seen. At this point both friends started to inch back as the figure got closer and closer.
"Hell with this." Trunks said removing Goten's hand, "I'm flying." And he got up and did just that. Goten soon followed his example. Unfortunately for the two, the humanoid figure took to the air too. And the slow climber, now turned into a fast flyer. In fact, it even started to gain on the two.
"Trunks." Goten commented looking back at the rapidly incoming thing. "There are two of us, one of it, I don't sense a very strong chi, one just strong enough to fly, why don't we just beat the pulp out of it? Or at least see if it's friendly or not."
Trunks chuckled. "Hehe, why not?"
The two friends each set down on the ground. Ready to attack, but also ready to use peaceful means. And they felt themselves tense as the figure landed and drew near. But the worst shock was yet to come, because as the figure drew near, what could be called the black 'pond scum' started to be replaced with color, as if someone were peeling an exoskeleton off of the person beneath.
Slowly, blonde hair, hair emerged, a visor covering it's eyes, followed by an armored top with a strange blood red symbol, gray pants and large brown boots. "Hello." It, or rather he said in a low voice. "Have you come to play?" he smirked and withdrew his sword.
"Who, and what are you?" Trunks asked narrowing his eyes.
Goten just fell back, his eyes as wide as the could possibly go as he started hyperventilating. "That guy...no..." he shut his eyes and tried to shake the image from his head. "It isn't possible." He cried weakly. "He shouldn't exist, this is all a nightmare!"
"Goten, there's nothing to worry about." Trunks reassured his friend. "He has a much lower ki level than us." Goten looked up at his friend and Trunks was quite taken aback by the haunted look in his eyes. Trunks looked back at the stranger.
"Who and what am I?" the young man, not much older than the other two said thoughtfully. His lips twisted into a cruel smile. "I am living hell, the name's Deo."
TO BE CONTINUED...
You can find a picture of Deo on at http://www.geocities.com/mirai_rice/art.htm he's under the badly drawn chibi Goku. (this is in text format so I doubt the link will work) Oh, and for any of you who are wondering, yes, I'm just getting warmed up. Anyway, what do you think? I'm curious. So any feedback welcomed. (Including flames, yes, I've gone so low as to beg for even those.)
Warnings: This could develop into a long, bloody fic. Just a fair warning and eventually, I'll probably have to step up the rating to R.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or Dragon Ball GT. That includes the characters, their belongings, unique ideas like senzu beans, and the settings. I don't make any money off of what I write.
Notes: This is the idea I was talking about long ago when I wrote If I Could Change Time (which was back around the end of May. So it's had a while to roll around in my head.) Oh yes, you'll find out who Deo is soon.
^_^ No messy prologue here. This is the beginning, so sit back, and take a trip through a alternate world after the Buu saga (nope, I don't believe in GT). Trunks and Goten are considerably older though as in 21 and 20.
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Mirror, mirror, thou art bent,
It's clear as your unshapely form reflects,
A happy, little peaceful world,
One with absolutely no defects.
I looked for myself within your shadows,
For the hurt boy with no one close nor near,
What I saw was a twisted soul,
Wrought from hate, torment, and fear.
Yet when the raindrops turn to blood,
And the world is worse than hell,
Will you not regret taunting me,
Instead of helping when I fell?
Play with fire and surely get burned,
Thy evil deeds shall meet retribution,
Mark my words, I'll get my revenge,
And genocide seems the perfect solution.
-Deo
***
Flames flickered within the man's eyes mixing with glowing tears that had yet to be shed. An intensity that had been dormant all too long slowly crept through his body. At the same time a chill ran through his spine. So many feelings, all weighing the warrior down. Regret, loss, anger, hate, emotions beyond the description of words. Half of him burning alive in anger, half of him drowning in the deepest corners of his mind amid the pools of sorrow.
Behind him and in the distance the flames burned higher and higher reaching out towards the blackened sky. It was as though the destroying fire was seeking shelter from it's own wrath. Buildings crumbled and towers which had once been magnificent works of art, that had silently boasted man's creativeness and power now lay in ruins, mere memories of what had been.
"Why." Was the only word that escaped the young mans lips as he fell to his hands and knees. "Why." He whispered as one lone tear managed to roll down his cheek and fall to the tainted soil. Again the man turned his eyes upon his once beloved city. The flames reflected in his eyes, the orange and red colors entwining with yellow in a deadly dance. "Why can't I die too," he whispered. "this is worse than ten hells combined." He shut his eyes tightly and tried with all his might to block the agony. "Worse than death." He mumbled. He seemed to choke when he whispered. "All those people I loved, gone..." his eyes opened once more to look again at the blazing flames which fueled his growing rage. "Gone..." He clenched one fist his anger ever rising. "So kill me!" he screamed to the destroyer that lurked in the shadows smirking malevolently. "So I won't suffer any longer!"
Goten sat bolt upright in his bed breathing hard and in a cold sweat. Though his forehead was covered in perspiration his mouth was as dry as a desert. "It was just a dream." He reassured himself. "Just a dream." Shakily he grabbed the nearby clock. 4:09 in the morning. "Too early to get up." He said and carefully set it back down. He settled back down in his bed, wiped the sweat off his forehead, tried to push the dream from his mind, and closed his eyes. But sleep wouldn't reclaim him. Whether he was still bothered by the nightmare, or he was too alert, or whether he was a bit afraid to go back to sleep for fear that the dream would return, Goten didn't know. So he just lay there trying desperately to push the memory out of his mind which would not leave.
***
It was like any other normal day. The birds chirped outside and sun light trickled in through the widow landing on the half Sayian's eyes. He opened them slowly as if it were painful, the dark pupils still unfocused with sleep slowly adjusted to the light. He blinked once before he sat up and stretched reaching his arms up high above his head and uttering a load yawn. Then he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He then got up and started to head for the bathroom. Or at least he tried to. He was stopped by Videl grabbing him around the torso.
"Where are you going?" she asked sleepily.
Gohan paused for a moment before replying. "I'm just going to get up and take a shower."
"No, don't get up, not yet anyway." Videl paused and Gohan sat down again. He started to think she had gone back to sleep, or at least until she continued after taking a deep breath, "Not yet, it's Saturday." She sighed, then furrowed her eyebrows. "Gee, your really uncomfortable to snuggle up against."
Gohan snorted in effort to keep from laughing. Videl obviously hadn't opened her eyes yet. "That's because your snuggling against my back."
Videl yawned, "I knew something was wrong."
Gohan shifted around in her arms a bit till he was facing her and took in a deep breath then grinned, "Silly." he paused and focused on Videl. "I'm so lucky to have you and Pan in my life." He reached one hand up and played with a few short strands of Videl's hair. "I don't know where I'd be without you."
Videl sighed, "What brought that up?" she asked. "I'd rather not talk like that." She too paused before going on. "But I don't know what I'd do without you either."
Just as the two adults were dozing off again in each other's arms, there was a loud knock on the front door. Gohan groaned and sat up once more. "Wonder who that could be..." he muttered but quickly went and changed.
***
"Vegeta! Get up!" Bulma shouted. "If you don't I'm sure some small third world country would be more than happy to have enough food to go around twice!"
"Woman, you do and I'll be more than happy to break some of that fine machinery in your lab!" he yelled from bed. Vegeta smirked at the snort that came from outside the door. "I'm not getting up till I'm ready." Then Vegeta turned over in the bed. Before he could go back to sleep though, Bulma threw the door open rather forcefully nearly causing the Sayian to jump in surprise.
"You do and you can count on your gravity machine being down for a good month!"
Vegeta sat there for the longest while contemplating his choices before he groaned and flipped over. "I'll get up, but only for the sake of training and eating."
"So glad you put your family in front of your interests." Bulma retorted sarcastically.
Vegeta didn't say anything, he just smirked and started to dress. Occasionally he let out a little snort.
Bulma put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side. "And what's so funny?" she asked.
Vegeta, done dressing, walked over to Bulma and stopped on his way out of the door. Then the Prince of the Sayians pressed his index finger to her lips. Bulma's response was one of surprise, but she didn't say anything, she just opened her eyes wider. He smirked. "Nothing, just thinking." Then he removed his finger and wrapped his arms around her waist. Bulma in turn wrapped her arms around Vegeta's neck and smiled. "Should I be in shock? Your actually being nice today." She said.
"Too nice." Vegeta agreed and removed his arms as well as her's. "I'll see you at lunch." He snickered then walked off towards the kitchen to his awaiting, cold, breakfast.
Bulma sighed. "Oh Vegeta." Then she turned and went to her lab. "You can be so arrogant. Why'd I ever fall in love with you?" A faint smile appeared on her lips before she smacked herself in the forehead. "Don't think like that, you might accidentally say something out loud."
***
Gohan walked towards the front door only to find his younger brother and Trunks waiting for him at the door. ~Either they want to play a joke, or they've come here with something urgent.~ he concluded in his mind. "And I doubt it's the latter."
"Hi Gohan." Goten said with a huge smile.
"Yep, it's the latter."
"Hi." Trunks said grinning.
Gohan groaned. "Okay, what are you planning on doing?"
"Nothing!" both friends said defensively.
"Oh?" Gohan smirked.
Both Goten and Trunks looked at each other and grinned. "Nothing!"
"Why do I not believe you?" Gohan asked yawning for about the millionth time that morning.
Goten sighed with a smirk on his face as he stretched his arms. "Do you think we ought to let the cat out of the bag?" he asked.
"Yeah, I guess so. It's not nice to keep secrets." Trunks laughed.
Before Gohan could stop them both Goten and Trunks had jumped him and proceeded to drag the oldest half Sayian away. "Hey, let me go!" he protested. But he didn't power up. Best let them have their fun at his expense and have them move on to torment Vegeta then dwell upon him.
But as they took to the air high above Satan City something began to bother Goten. He'd seen this view somewhere else. But where? He took the scene in slowly. "I feel like I've been here before." He whispered.
"Huh?" Trunks asked hearing his friend whisper to himself. "Something wrong?"
No." Goten replied. Slowly the gears in his mind started turning back to the dream. "My nightmare!" he cried surprised. He pictured the skyline with flames. Something that made him shiver. It was exactly the same.
"What?" both Trunks and Gohan asked sensing a change in Goten's happy-go-lucky mood.
"N..nothing." Goten stuttered.
"C'mon." Trunks pried. "We no you better than that, what's bothering you Goten?"
Gohan was soon feed and began to float as Goten let go and shook his head. "Nothing."
"Are you..." Gohan was cut off as Goten took off leaving a vapor trail behind him.
"It was just one dream. Just a dream!" Goten screamed for all to hear. But he didn't really believe it. It may have been deja vous, but add flames to the skyline and everything was too familiar, too unexplainably strange.
"There is something really wrong here." Gohan mumbled.
***
God, not Gohan. Not him too. Maybe he could forget the blank staring eyes, if there were eyes at all and not just bloody bodies, after all they were other people who were merely strangers to him. But not Gohan. Not his older brother. Goten slowly knelt before the dead body. "Gohan." He whispered choking back tears. "No." The younger half Sayian winced and shut his eyes as they fell upon his brother's battered body. Unfortunately, when he did this the terrible memory came back of his brother's death. How that...monster had plunged his hand into Gohan's gut and twisted his grim covered fingers about. Then yanked out the eldest half Sayian's intestines and played with Gohan's organs as if they were a puzzle only he could put together.
Then he turned towards Goten. There might have been a lust for blood behind those crimson eyes. But what Goten saw was a ruthless killing machine who cared not about his work, or the lives he ruined, nor about anything else.
"W..why?" he managed to stammer. He'd seen the havoc wrecked my the monster who looked like a human.
He wore what could be called the upper part of the Sayian uniform, an armored plate, only there was a blood red symbol on it's right side. The bottom half of his attire was much like the pants of a gray gi, further below that he wore brown boots. One of his hands brushed away shoulder length blond hair exposing his eyes, blood red, just like the blood on his hands.
"Because I'm going to inflict misery to every god damn fucking thing in the universe." The figure spat.
Goten took a step back utterly shocked. "But why?" he asked. "What have we done?"
The figure sneered. "Plenty." He advanced pulling the sword from it's sheath on his back causing the light to momentarily blind the Sayian highbred. "You've all led happy little lives. That's more than enough don't you think?"
"No." Goten retorted finding the blade suddenly at his neck, but he continued, "No one every leads a completely happy life."
"And I suppose no one lives in utter hell their whole life, do they?" The figure asked angrily to which Goten didn't know how to reply. "Well, I have." The mysterious stranger spat. "You have the pleasure of knowing loved ones. And that's why I'm going to take everything away, including your life and everyone else's." He laughed sinisterly. Then removed the sword from Goten's neck and snickered. "But where would the fun be killing you now?" he asked more or less to himself. "No, I think I'll let you suffer before I finish you off."
And Goten had ran. He'd run for is life. The half Sayian looked back once to see if the man was still on his heels, but when he glanced over his shoulder he didn't see him. And the fact that he didn't know where the monster in the form of human was at the moment scared the shit out of him.
***
The next night Goten didn't dream of the horrific nightmare. A blessing, and yet a curse, instead it was of Pan. She was by the side of some pool, she was laughing, until she fell in. Goten didn't think Pan knew how to swim, after all she was still pretty young. And his fear was confirmed when she began frantically calling for help and trying to keep herself afloat. Again Goten woke up before the dream was completely over. In a way he was glad, in others he was fearful. He didn't know of what to make of it, not that any dream had made sense lately. So he called his brother.
"Goten?" Gohan asked groggily. "It's the middle of the night! What are you calling for?" Gohan's eyes widened when Goten started telling him about his dream. "But that's impossible, you couldn't have known." He muttered, "That happened just yesterday and Videl, Pan, and I haven't told anyone."
"Oh god." Goten whispered, his thoughts turned back to the first dream. "Just because one came true doesn't mean the other one will." He whispered. "Just please don't let it be a foretelling of the future..."
***
It rained harder that night than Goten ever believed possible. It just kept coming down like there was no end to it. The leaves on the tree outside the window held countless raindrops and as a result drooped, spilling the water onto the ground below. Maybe the rain was a warning of impending doom. Maybe it wasn't, but it sure set an eerie mood, Goten could hear nothing but the endless rain and thunder as he sat in his room. In a way, the rain was peaceful. But when he had looked out his window and saw only endless gray clouds, never letting in the starlight, it had dampened his spirits. So he chose to just sit there on his bed and watch as the occasional lightning bolt struck strange images across the ceiling and wall. Add the fact that he was still scared to death of even going to sleep for fear of the nightmares, and well, Goten was not having a pleasant night.
And then he got an idea.
He snuck out of his room and looked around at the dark house. He was sure that his father wouldn't wake up, even if Goten caused the roof to cave in. His mother on the other hand he wasn't quite so sure about, she'd probably wake up if he even coughed. So he tiptoed to the kitchen, looked around once, and opened the drawer...
Only to have it squeak as he pulled it open.
"Damn drawer!" he cursed under his breath. Goten waited. Maybe his mother hadn't heard, maybe she was still asleep. The young half Sayian tiptoed over to his parents' bedroom door. Slowly and carefully he put his ear to the wooden door and listened. Nothing... Just his father's snore and his mother's quiet breathing. No screams of, "Goku get up! There's a burglar in the house!"
Silently Goten went back to the kitchen...only to trip on his way back.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" he cursed quietly. So he listened. He couldn't hear anything different coming from his parents' door. So he tiptoed back to the drawer which was still sticking out and grabbed an object. Then he tiptoed back to his room leaving the drawer still jutting out from the counter.
"Mom'll probably just shut it absentmindedly." He figured.
Back in his room, Goten shut the door again and pulled out the object. It happened to be a flashlight. He glanced once at the clock, 1:00 in the morning, it was uncharacteristic of his to be up this late, but the last thing he wanted was to have more nightmares, especially after last night. Then he flicked the small light on and grinned.
"Perfect." he whispered. Goten set the little flashlight down on his bed so that it was pointing upwards at the wall. Then he lowered on hand in front of the light and began making shadow puppets. "I am Trunks." He whispered out of the side of his mouth doing a really bad impression of his best friend. "And I shall bow down in front of the great Goten!" Goten put another hand in front of the light. "Oh no you don't!" he imitated Vegeta, "You are my brat and I will tell you what you can and can not do! For I am a royal pain in the ass!" Goten chuckled, or at least he did until he ran across a problem, how was he going to do a third person, after all he only had two hands, and he wanted to get in on the action. So he positioned himself so that one of his feet were in the light. "Well I am Goten," he chuckled, "And I say you all had better bow down before me before I get really angry."
The puppet play went on for several more minutes until Goten got tired and shut the light out. Then he laid back in his bed and tried to get some nightmare free sleep. But as he lay there one thing began to really bother him. It was the fact that every time the lightning flashed, illuminating up his walls, there was always a strange humanoid figure. That wouldn't have normally bothered him, after all, with all the trees around, there could be some pretty spooky figures cast. What bothered him was that the figure kept growing larger and larger, which could only mean it was growing closer.
Goten stayed rooted to the spot trembling. "What am I so scared of?" he berated himself after a few moments. If it is some psycho killer like they portray in those movies, I could easily snap his neck before he knew what hit him." He mumbled. There was a tap on the glass and Goten nearly jumped through the ceiling. "Stay calm. Your more powerful than a psycho killer." he assured himself and crept towards the window.
Slowly he started to pull the curtain sideways before jerking it open and screamed. What he saw was a guy dressed in a yellow raincoat, wearing a huge grin, with a couple stray purple hairs falling out of the hood, drenched of course by now.
"Are you going to let me in now?" Trunks asked, his voice slightly muffled by the glass. "Or are you going to let me catch pneumonia first?"
"I ought to!" Goten replied making a face. "You nearly made me have a heart attack."
Trunks just grinned, rubbed his arms. "Maybe I could give your dad one."
Goten gave him a 'that is not funny' look.
"C'mon, I'm freezing!" Trunks complained rubbing his arms faster.
Goten unlatched the window and opened it letting in a torrent of rain and wind. The dark curtains billowed out and whipped at the walls. Trunks just jumped in through the window. When he'd moved to the corner of the room, Goten hastily shut the large window and pulled the curtains closed. Then the younger of the two turned and asked, "What are you doing up at this hour?"
Trunks shrugged slightly. "I could ask you the same question."
Goten cocked an eyebrow, "Well, I asked first."
"Okay, geez, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to come over." Trunks grinned.
Goten coughed. "Uh, yeah, at 1:00 something in the morning?"
"Well, you were up weren't you?" Trunks replied. "I saw the light in your window while I was out walking."
"Through the curtains?" Goten asked skeptically.
"Your curtains are pretty easy to see light through." Trunks laughed. "What? You never knew?"
"No." Goten grumbled. "So, did you decide to drop in for any particular reason?"
"No." Trunks replied casually walking over to the window and peeked out the curtians. "Looks like it's gonna rain all tomorrow though." He commented out of the blue.
Goten nodded. "Yeah, there won't be much to do."
"I was thinking," Trunks said, "you know that room where your dad trained, and some of the others did too preparing for my dad's arrival?"
Goten thought about it for a few moments. "Yeah, I can't remember the name, but I remember it."
"Let's ask if we can go train in there tomorrow, it might be interesting."
Goten nodded with a sly grin thinking of the look on Mr. Popo's face. Then yawned.
"Sleepy?" Trunks asked.
"Yeah." Goten replied shuddering at the thought of diving back into the dark world of unconsciousness and nightmares. Who knew what awaited him on the other side of reality. Most likely a grisly scene of mutilated bodies. Some without faces, just cold, bloody tissue, torn to shreds. And behind it all a raging inferno of fire consuming the city. It had grown worse every night. The same nightmare which just lasting longer and longer, repeating the first part and then adding more where it had left off the night before.
"Well," Trunks said breaking Goten's dark thoughts and snapping him back to reality, "Do you mind if I sleep over here tonight?" he asked looking back towards the window as the wind thrashed a branch continuously at the window making an eerie scraping sound.
"No." Goten replied shaking his head. "It's alright if you stay here."
Goten swore that Trunks cracked the biggest grin he'd ever seen at that moment, "Well then," the older, purple haired boy chuckled, "dibs on the bed!"
"Oh no you don't!" Goten laughed. "You'll get the couch and like it!"
"Oh yeah?" Trunks asked.
"Yeah."
"Then I challenge you to...to a duel!" he grabbed a floor lamp and quickly unplugged it from the outlet.
In return, Goten grabbed a yard stick.
Trunks was the first to lung with his makeshift sword. "Haha, you'll never beat me Goten."
Thrust, parry, thrust, parry , lung, lung.
"Oh yeah?" Goten sneered, blocking with the yard stick.
Thrust, parry, lung.
"Oh, and I suppose you took lessons from Yajirobi?" Trunks asked with a perfectly straight face.
Goten couldn't stop laughing and fell to the ground, rolling around in laughter as Trunks moved the lamp in for the kill. He touched it to Goten's heart and the purple Sayian smirked. "It looks like the fair damsel, The Bed, shall be mine." He laughed. And then he couldn't help himself and fell down laughing too.
Both guys had a hearty chuckle, or at least till Chi Chi threw the door open moments later clad in her nightgown and a hastily thrown on bathrobe. "Goten! Trunks!" she cried.
A few minutes later Goten found himself grumbling on the floor in his sleeping bag, griping about how things never went his way. With his ears still ringing from his mother's 'brief' lecture, and Trunks' snoring from above.
***
"No watch out!" Goten screamed frantically.
The purple haired boy turned his face towards his best friend. He just smiled. Smiled like there was nothing to worry about. The beaming smile just stayed etched on his face only momentarily.
"Trunks!" Goten screamed in dismay as the smile was shattered, and a look of surprise and pain passed the youth's features. From Trunks' middle, a sword protruded then it sliced up then down, almost too fast for the Goten to see. The result was Trunks being split in half. Goten shuttered. He wanted to close his eyes tightly, no, he wanted to tear his eyes out. They'd seen too much. Too many horrible things.
And then that vile creature, that looked like a man walked up to him. "Just the beginning." He whispered, hate, jealousy, and satisfaction thickly coating his words. "Just the beginning."
Then everything faded to black.
"Goten. Goten! Goten!"
The half Sayian heard someone calling his name frantically. First he opened one eye slowly and the other soon followed. He looked up to see Trunks shaking him. "Geez, don't scare me like that." Trunks said a bit shocked.
"Huh?" Goten asked still a bit dazed from waking up.
"You kept yelling in your sleep." Trunks shuddered remembering how desperate and forlorn his friend had sounded.
"Yelling in my sleep?" Goten repeated a bit puzzled. "Did anyone else hear me other than you?"
"Not that I know." Trunks replied calming down his electrified nerves. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Goten shook his head quickly. "No." Before Trunks could question him further he changed the subject. "So is it still raining?"
Trunks nodded.
"Still want to see if we can get to the lookout?" Goten grinned or as best as he could considering hat he had just seen his best friend diced up like a vegetable.
"Yeah." Trunks replied grinning, that mornings events forgotten, or at least temporarily. Flying would ease things up too. The feeling of the wind rushing around one's body always seemed to make the day look brighter, even if it was raining.
***
"Now shut your eyes." Mr. Popo said. "When you open them again, you will no longer be here. I should warn you that even though you can't actually be killed in the alternate world you will be visiting, you should still be careful."
Both young men nodded their heads, closed their eyes and prepared for their little adventure.
When Trunks opened his eyes again and looked around he was a little bit shocked. "Wow." He said. Then he noticed Goten still had his eyes closed. "Hey dummy, you can wake up now." He poked Goten in the ribs.
Goten's eyes fluttered open. "Huh? Oh..." he began. "There must really have been a battle around here." He commented on the scenery filled with skeletons. It brought back terrible memories of his nightmares
Both friends looked around at their surroundings. From what it looked like, they were standing amid ancient ruins, below their feet it looked like they were standing on sort of a cobble road.
"Hmmm." Trunks muttered touching his hand to a nearby wall covered in dust. "Interesting place, but it looks like it's deserted."
"Maybe." Goten agreed. "I'm going to get a look from the air."
Trunks nodded in agreement and watched as his friend hovered upwards.
After looking around for a bit Goten called out from the air, "Nothing. It looks like we're in a huge labyrinth that once served as a city." He looked towards his right only to see a huge crater. "Wonder what happened there." He commented on the large scar.
"Huh?" Trunks asked floating up beside him. "What do you...Oh..." he trailed off noticing it too.
The two both knew what the other was thinking and slowly flew towards the large hole. If they were killed and sent back now, Mr. Popo probably wouldn't agree to sending them right back. So they approached cautiously and landed when they were a few feet from the crater's perimeter. Both slowly looked over the edge only to find a black puddle.
"Whew." Goten sighed. "That was a little too melodramatic for me."
"Yeah." Trunks agreed. "Wonder what that stuff is though."
"Well, you can wonder what it is, I'm not going to." Goten replied.
"Aw, c'mon, it'll be fun." Trunks said.
"Nuh uh." Goten said firmly.
"What's wrong, are you chicken?" Trunks probed.
"Nope, I just don't want to get sent back so soon." The younger half Sayian replied.
Seeing the point Trunks sighed. "But what are we going to do that's exciting?"
The black puddle moved.
"Huh?" Goten asked doing a double take, his eyes opening wider.
"What?" Trunks asked.
"The...the puddle, it moved!" Goten cried.
Trunks looked at his friend skeptically, "Are you sure you didn't just imagine it?"
This time Trunks saw it move to.
"Holy!" Trunks cried as Goten clamped a hand down on his mouth.
"Shhhh." He whispered. "Maybe it won't notice us."
Slowly, the puddle shifted, bit by bit. First, it formed a round object near the top of it's figureless ooze. Next came two appendages and what appeared to be a torso, then two legs. It stretched once, then looked up and saw the two friends. It made some sort of strange noise, that sounded familiarly like a chuckle and started to climb up towards the two Sayians.
"It's...humanoid..." Goten whispered unbelieving what his eyes had just seen. At this point both friends started to inch back as the figure got closer and closer.
"Hell with this." Trunks said removing Goten's hand, "I'm flying." And he got up and did just that. Goten soon followed his example. Unfortunately for the two, the humanoid figure took to the air too. And the slow climber, now turned into a fast flyer. In fact, it even started to gain on the two.
"Trunks." Goten commented looking back at the rapidly incoming thing. "There are two of us, one of it, I don't sense a very strong chi, one just strong enough to fly, why don't we just beat the pulp out of it? Or at least see if it's friendly or not."
Trunks chuckled. "Hehe, why not?"
The two friends each set down on the ground. Ready to attack, but also ready to use peaceful means. And they felt themselves tense as the figure landed and drew near. But the worst shock was yet to come, because as the figure drew near, what could be called the black 'pond scum' started to be replaced with color, as if someone were peeling an exoskeleton off of the person beneath.
Slowly, blonde hair, hair emerged, a visor covering it's eyes, followed by an armored top with a strange blood red symbol, gray pants and large brown boots. "Hello." It, or rather he said in a low voice. "Have you come to play?" he smirked and withdrew his sword.
"Who, and what are you?" Trunks asked narrowing his eyes.
Goten just fell back, his eyes as wide as the could possibly go as he started hyperventilating. "That guy...no..." he shut his eyes and tried to shake the image from his head. "It isn't possible." He cried weakly. "He shouldn't exist, this is all a nightmare!"
"Goten, there's nothing to worry about." Trunks reassured his friend. "He has a much lower ki level than us." Goten looked up at his friend and Trunks was quite taken aback by the haunted look in his eyes. Trunks looked back at the stranger.
"Who and what am I?" the young man, not much older than the other two said thoughtfully. His lips twisted into a cruel smile. "I am living hell, the name's Deo."
TO BE CONTINUED...
You can find a picture of Deo on at http://www.geocities.com/mirai_rice/art.htm he's under the badly drawn chibi Goku. (this is in text format so I doubt the link will work) Oh, and for any of you who are wondering, yes, I'm just getting warmed up. Anyway, what do you think? I'm curious. So any feedback welcomed. (Including flames, yes, I've gone so low as to beg for even those.)