Versus 4: Temporal Distortion
--The Last True Saiyan?--
She used to see in color, now it's only black and white. The numbers on her clock which used to be blue were now glowing grey. It read 4:41am. It was a good thing that she didn't have school that morning. She would have slept right through it.
She stared at the numbers on her clock, wishing that sleep would come. Wishing that her mind could rest after what had just happened. But she'd just driven away her two best friends--her two ONLY friends--in the whole world. What could be worse?
Well, there was something that could be worse. If someone you loved tried to kill you.
Bra sighed. How awful must Goten feel after this whole ordeal. It hurt her just to think she'd done something so terrible to him. It was almost unbelievable what she'd done to him.
And then there was the conversation with her father right before she pulled Goten from the chamber:
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"I kinda went overboard when we were sparring, that's all," she'd said to her father.
"That's what I thought. You've come a long way, child. It seems you've become a true Saiyan."
"But that's not something I'm supposed to do. I'm not supposed to try to kill someone I love," Bra had told him.
"Oh, but it is. One fighter to another. It is the way of the Saiyan warrior. Today you will be acknowledged as the last true Saiyan."
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Did her father hold the key to what was going on with her as of late? She hadn't really spoken to him much recently. Maybe he could tell her what her problem was.
She didn't remember venturing into the kitchen, but she was there nonetheless. The clock on the stove read 5:48am. And things were still grey around her. It made her wonder whether it was just her eyes or whether the world had somehow lost all of its color. In either case, it didn't matter. Existance may as well have been obliterated after she lost Goten for good because nothing else mattered to her. How could she go on living when there was nothing left to live for?
Vegeta seemed to appear on the other side of the kitchen table out of nowhere. Had he been there all along?
Bra closed her eyes and reopened them to make sure she hadn't just imagined him there, but the grey image of her father remained.
He looked at her for a long time before he spoke. "You look awful," was the first thing he told her.
Bra gave no response to the comment. There was no reason to contest something that was true. She had cried all night instead of sleeping. And she paid the price for it right now. Of course, she wasn't really concerned about the way she looked anyway.
"Well, now that Kakarot's oldest brat's kid isn't here, maybe you'd like to tell me what happened yesterday," Vegeta said.
So, Vegeta wanted to milk her for information. That was unusual. That was normally her mother's department.
She wasn't sure if she should talk to her father about this. But it wasn't often he questioned her about anything. Besides, he was probably the only person who would see this whole situation from her standpoint.
She tried to say something, but her voice didn't seem to be functioning properly. She cleared her throat and tried again. "I lost it." It sounded strange coming from her. Like it wasn't even her own vocal cords relaying the message. She cleared her throat once again and went on. "It all started after I aced that history test. Goten and I had been waiting to spar for weeks. And I'd been training extra hard just to fight with him again. I wanted to show him that I was strong. That maybe I was even stronger than him." She sighed and looked up at her father. "I'd been training in my gravitron for over a week. My power jumped up a lot. Goten said so. Even Pan had said so." She stared at the table. "But when we went out there to spar, I noticed that Goten's power was still even with mine. Every other time we fought it was always pretty much even with mine..."
He had listened to her story wordlessly thus far, paying attention to everything she said. Every detail. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn't just entertaining her by asking her this. He was actually interested in finding out what was going on. "He held back," he finally said.
Bra nodded. "He's always held back. How am I supposed to get stronger like that? I needed him to push me. He told me that he would go all out. He always said he would go all out. And I really believed I was strong when I fought with him and we were on the same level. I know it's stupid." She wanted to cry, but her tears had all dried up. But even if she could have, she wouldn't have. Not in front of her father.
"It's not stupid. You're a Saiyan. You live to fight. You fight to become strong," Vegeta stated with a smirk. "Unlike the other mixed Saiyans around here, you've kept an instinct from the Saiyajin of old."
What was he talking about? Goten, Pan, and her brother all loved to fight whenever they had the chance. This was nothing new. Her head seemed to be spinning from all this talking. Was it the talking? Or was it the fact that she'd been up all night? She was beginning to feel a bit tired now. Maybe sleep was finally kicking in. But she couldn't catch Z's just now. She felt as if her father might be about to tell her something really important.
"You see, a long time ago, even before my father's time, fighting was used for everything. It made bonds between family members stronger. Especially near death sparring. It's even used as a form of courtship. A bit of a mating ritual, if that's what you want to call it. Only the strongest of Saiyans left their potential mates near death," Vegeta said. "It was only a matter of time before you ended up doing it. Your human side probably just had to come up with a reason to go through with it."
Bra blushed deeply. Mating? This was not something she wanted to talk to her father about. So, this meant that he was trying to tell her that it was okay for her to try to kill Goten? Well, it wasn't okay. This wasn't the old days on Planet Vegeta. She wasn't a part of this ancient race anymore. She was on Earth. And it was time for her to accept her human side. She just had to be brave enough to say that to him.
"Why me?" Bra asked. "Why couldn't it be Goten?"
"Yeah right," Vegeta sighed. "No one knew this was going to happen to you. And I don't know why it didn't happen with any of the others. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised it's happening to anyone at all. But I had my suspicions when you volunteered to fight me a while back instead of letting the brat fight. Humanity has taken over the hearts and minds of these other half-breeds. We, Bra--you and I--are the last remaining Saiyans."
Bra looked at her father strangely.
"And to think everyone thought I would be the last. How wrong they were," Vegeta said. He laughed a little. "I must admit, I didn't think that a half-blooded Saiyan could possess that trait, but here you are."
She shook her head. "But what does it mean? Does it mean I'm some kind of monster?"
Vegeta frowned. "Am I a monster?"
"No, but a lot of people think you are," Bra stated.
Vegeta smirked. "Are there any people who don't think I'm a monster."
Bra thought for a moment. "Well, me, Mom, Trunks--"
"And isn't that all that matters in the end?" Vegeta asked her before she could even finish her list. "The people who matter accept me for the way I am. They know that I am a Saiyan. And you are a Saiyan too."
"Papa, I... If I want Goten back, I have to be human. I have to be human for a change," Bra found herself saying.
Vegeta laughed a little. "I've seen humans do worse things than Saiyans can even imagine."
And there he went. He'd ended the conversation by leaving the room. Probably off to train.
Bra felt more confused now than she had when she'd first heard the statement her father made. None of what he had told her would bring Goten back to her. None of it would make him forgive her for what she'd done to him. She would have to do something extremely grand or extremely clever to even get him to pay attention to her again. So until she came up with that something, she would have to live her life without him.
How ridiculous. Being a Saiyan on Earth was hard work.
Suddenly, she remembered an argument her parents had after she fought her father all those weeks ago:
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"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING! FIGHTING YOUR OWN DAUGHTER!" Bra had heard Bulma's voice echo through her brain.
"I wouldn't expect YOU to understand!" Vegeta had commented rather loudly.
"I understand perfectly! You're an insane father who won't let his daughter be with someone she loves. My father didn't want me to be with you, but he never punched me in the face over it!" Bra remembered her mother shouting.
"You have no idea what happened out there today!" Vegeta had said.
"Just because I fainted doesn't mean I don't know what went on! And seeing the result made it pretty clear what happened!" Bulma had stated. "You--could--have--KILLED--her! THIS IS RIDICULOUS, VEGETA! Let her live her life! She's 16! She's all grown up! She's not our little girl anymore!" Bulma had argued from the other room.
"That's not the point!" she recalled Vegeta bellowing. "You're so clueless! I can't believe you don't see what's happening! And YOU'RE supposed to be the genius here! Hardly." And that was when her father left.
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So that's what that whole argument was about. The whole 'last true Saiyan' thing. Boy, her father could be really weird sometimes. If he was just trying to bond with her, he could have just said so.
Then again, was that the reason she so wanted a rematch? Did she want to return the favor of this Saiyan family ritual? This was all too confusing. The Last True Saiyan? Why couldn't she just be a regular girl?
--End The Last True Saiyan?--
--Welcome to Versus 4: Temporal Distortion. This is SludgeMetal666. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of the 4th part of Versus. What do you think? Please review. Let me know what you liked or hated about this first chapter. Your reviews will help determine some of the turns this series takes.