Chapter Eleven
"The world ain't fair, eat you if you let it."
-Korn, Twisted Transistor
Bardock lead them to a shallow stream to the rear of the crop of large boulders that made up the mini mountain where their cave was. Here, he paused and filled two soft skinned flasks with the quickly rushing water. Gohan leaned down near him and used his hands to scoop the water up and splash is face and rinse the grime and blood from his hands before he drank deeply. The water was chilly and crisp, and refreshed him. He hadn't realized how thirsty he was.
"Why are you here and not with the others on the ship?" He asked. Bardock jabbed the topper back into the second flask before he plunged his own hands into the water and scrubbed the grime away. He was quiet for a few moments as he watched the water wash away all of the nasty on his hands.
"Because I disagree with them," he said simply. He splashed the water on his face and drank his fill before he continued, shaking the water from his face and hair and from the tips of his fingers.
"We were sent to find the stone, that much is true, and I am fine with finding the stone, but I believe we were sent under false pretenses." Gohan tilted his head to the side.
"What do you mean?" Bardock shook his head again, sending a shower of the cold water in all directions before he glanced at the teenager again.
"Maybe I should finish my story from earlier," he said thoughtfully. He beckoned for Gohan and lead them away from the stream and toward a clearing.
Gohan felt a sudden tug on his subconscious and stopped, responding to the familiar tug with everything he had. He looked off to their right, across a vast landscape, and searched for the familiar figure of his mentor.
"No." As suddenly as it began, the tug was gone and Gohan was on his hands and knees, gasping at the sudden, violent wrenching away. With his whole body trembling, Gohan raised his head to look up at the Saiyajin warrior. Bardock met his eyes unemotionally.
"You can't let them find you," he said forcefully. His expression was fierce and for a moment he stood over Gohan before he offered him a hand up.
"That was Piccolo," Gohan said, embarrassed when his voice cracked. Bardock pulled him to his feet, and Gohan quickly moved away from him, feeling raw for some reason.
"What did you do?" He asked.
"Blocked him," Bardock replied. "I do not have time for this, but if you will let me, I can help you deal with this." Gohan shook his head violently.
"No!" He shouted, slashing his right hand through the air. "I do not want your help!"
"Then get yourself under control; we need to leave here." Gohan straightened to his full height and took a full, deep breath, trying to find his center. When he opened his eyes, he felt much more grounded and prepared to face the situation.
"We need to get out of here; Piccolo will find me," he said flatly.
"No, he won't," Bardock replied. But he gestured to the distant forest and leaped down from the rocks, landing firmly on the ground a couple feet below.
"How do you know that?"
"I have you blocked right now," was the reply. Gohan frowned, but followed after his kidnapper obediently.
"So, what happened after the ship rescued you," Gohan asked. Bardock tugged on the pack and settled it higher on his shoulder. The air where they were was cooler, similar to what it was like on his mountain home. It was really invigorating to walk in it.
"I was nearly dead, but she healed me." Gohan blinked.
"Who?"
"Le Fetcha," he replied. "It means 'The Murdered.'"
"What? Speak my language, maybe?" Bardock reached out and smacked the back of Gohan's head. Gohan yelped and rubbed the spot, flashing an ugly face at the man.
"In the Saiyajin language, Le Fetcha means 'the murdered.'" Gohan made a face.
"So, you were saved by the murdered?" He asked, incredulous. He could not help the feeling that maybe he had tripped over his imaginary friend and plunged head first into the bunny hole and was currently on his way to see the angry red Queen of Hearts. "Makes lots of sense."
"Would you stop it? I will tell you what I do know and help you to understand, but you have to shut up and listen first!" Bardock had turned suddenly and jabbed his first two fingers of his right hand into Gohan's sternum.
"Okay, okay," he said. "I will suspend my disbelief long enough for you to tell your story." Bardock gave him a look that screamed violence, but he swung round and returned to quickly walking in the direction of the forest.
"She is called that, but no one truly knows what her name is; she has changed so much since her beginnings. She is nearly immortal, like others of her kind, but as she is the last of her kind, this knowledge has passed into legend." Bardock stopped suddenly and look up at the sky, his stance putting Gohan on guard.
"Down!" The older man hissed at him, yanking him into the dirt and shaking out a thin silver blanket before tossing it over them both. Gohan froze where he was, slumped over and huddled beside the other Saiyajin. Through the fabric above him, he could see the odd dislodged shape of the ship in the sky, slowly edging back into view from the crop of boulders.
"They're not giving up, are they?" Gohan whispered. But as quickly as the ship appeared, it shot straight up into the sky and took off toward the east. Bardock sat for an extra two minutes before he would allow Gohan to move.
"So what does the blanket do?" he asked.
"Camouflage," was the clipped response.
"It's time to get out of here," Bardock said firmly, concern edging his expression. His eyebrows were drawn together in the center, low over calculating dark eyes. Something had him unsettled.
Curious, Gohan watched the man as he shoved the sheeting material back into his pack, snatched his left wrist, and flew them for the relative safety of the trees.
DBZ
"That is not going to happen," he teenager griped, his expression filled with disdain. He crossed his arms and gave the elder Saiyajin his best 'think again' look.
It had been two days since his kidnapping—he fondly referred to it as the Great Vacation in Wonderland—and so far, things had not improved by much. They had not encountered the ship since that day, and had seen nothing else out of the ordinary, although there had been several times when Piccolo had been close enough that Bardock had been reduced to physical restraint. Once—that morning—his father had flown down close enough to their hidden jungle cave that Bardock had sat on him and pinned his mouth closed with both hands.
The current fuss was begun innocently enough, by Bardock leading him to a short waterfall that collected into a deep green pond.
"It is," Bardock retorted quickly, eyeing the teenager dangerously. He sat on a large rock, pulling off his under shirt. With a dull thunk, he added it to the pile of other cast off clothing and armour and stood in nothing but the equivalent of Saiyajin boxer shorts. Gohan looked sickly at the pond and shook his head.
"Not on your life," he snapped. Bardock rolled his eyes.
"Don't be a child," he growled, advancing on the teenager. "You stink and I refuse to smell you any longer." Gohan dodged.
"I am a child!" He threw over his shoulder as he danced to the other side of the pond. "And that water is riddled with parasites—do you know what they can do to people?"
"Only if you drink it!" The older man snapped, disappearing and snagging Gohan in a bear hold. The teenager struggled, elbowing his captor in the ribs and stomping on his toes. With a vicious growl, the Saiyajin warrior lifted them both into the air and hurled the teenager at the water. Gohan had time to close his mouth and pinch his nose closed before he was submerged.
He came up sputtering and cursing, using language that his mother would have flayed him alive for using. Booming laughter drew his attention to the rock and the tall man standing there, holding his sides and bending over to illustrate his glee at the teenager in the water.
"I hope you don't kiss your mother with that mouth, boy!" He shouted, hopping into the water and swimming to the waterfall and allowing the crisp water to rain down on his head. Gohan swiped droplets from his face and huffed, his mind racing toward revenge as he tugged off his shoes under water and lobbed them at the shore.
He submerged and swam toward the waterfall, the draw of vengeance pulling him along. He lunged toward the legs barely concealed in the darkened waters, only to miss and smack his fingers against the rock wall behind the waterfall. He drifted to the surface, shaking the sting from his hand.
"Ow," he complained. "You know, to really make this fair, you should take off the Energy Block." Bardock gave him a look, raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief, and sent a wave of water at the teenager.
"'Momma didn't raise no fool,' I believe is how some from this planet express that sentiment." Gohan rolled his eyes and returned fire until Bardock tired of the play and moved back to the shore. Gohan tilted his face back into the waterfall, ignoring the other man. In the loud silence of the roar of the waterfall, Gohan allowed himself to relax, and his mind to wander.
Bardock had refused to finish his story the previous night, and the night before that exhaustion had finally caught up with Gohan, but the teenager couldn't help but wonder what it was about the man that made him, well…him. There were times in the last two days that Gohan had seen something flicker across his face that worried the teenager, and while he was stuck and forced to trust the man, Gohan couldn't help but worry about the mass of psychological issues his situation was calling to mind. The least of which was Stockholm syndrome. He pushed these feelings away, unsure of what to do with them anyways.
Next up in his line of thoughts was home. He wondered what his mother was doing, and if his disappearance was causing her any issues with the pregnancy. He hoped not. And then his father flashed into his mind and he painfully allowed the man's image to linger before he shoved it away; that situation was just another in a long line of situations that continued to confuse and frustrate him.
His senses came alive directly before a ball of energy reached him, leaving him just enough time to duck beneath the water and avoid it. He pushed away from the waterfall and broke the surface just enough to peek at the shore line where the Saiyajin warrior stood, fully dressed with his arms crossed.
"If you're done playing, it's time to get going again," he called. Gohan rolled his eyes.
"You said you wanted me in the water," he argued, not wanting the man to think he was willing to forget just who had kidnapped who; and then dumped them into a germ infested pond in the middle of a jungle.
Even from his spot in the water, he could see the dark smirk that crawled across his visage directly before he rose into the air and slammed enough ki down into the pond to scatter the water from the center, lapping up over the sides of the pond. The suction from the force of the water being pushed away drug Gohan down nearly to the bottom of the pond despite his kicking, but within a few second, he again broke the surface, his lungs screaming with the need for air.
"You know," he coughed. "This would be a little bit more of a fair fight if you removed my Energy Block!" He reminded again. Bardock laughed as the teenager crawled from the water, gravity pulling uncomfortably on his sopping clothes.
"Who said anything about a fair fight? We are Saiyajin, boy, fair has nothing to do with it!"
"Obviously," Gohan muttered, shaking his head and sending water in every direction. Bardock harrumphed.
"Hurry up and change," he ordered, chunking a bag of clothes at the teenager. "We need to get out of here before my method of getting you out of the water draws too much attention." Gohan tilted his head to the side and smiled, but Bardock ended his plan before it had even half formed.
"If I must dress you, I will," he threatened seriously. Gohan rolled his eyes to the sky over head and began stripping off his soaked clothes. Bardock turned his back to the teen and stepped a few paces away, eyeing the metal plate again.
"Hurry up," Bardock ordered, swiftly spinning around. Gohan was hopping as he shoved his left foot into a boot; he was still shirtless. Bardock stepped closer to him, swiped up all of the wet clothes and shoved them into the empty bag; before he yanked the half-naked kid along behind him, and hurried them into the jungle, back toward the cave.
"What?" Gohan panted, once they reached the safety of the cool cave. "Did someone catch on to you?" Bardock did not spare him a look as he shoved the teenager inside. He didn't answer. Gohan sighed and scrubbed his hair dry with a spare shirt.
"This is getting old," he mumbled. A strong feeling of homesickness slammed into him as he yanked the skin tight shirt on and peeled it down his body. He missed his family. He slumped down the cave wall, closed his eyes, and settled his thoughts on home.
The way the mountain trees filtered the light into the windows at home; swayed the trees from their roots. He missed the song birds who had become a funny, distant family.
He missed his brother.
His gut cramped and he curled in on himself tighter. He missed Bird.
A sudden feeling attacked him, stealing his breath away and drying his mouth out. His heart pounded in his chest, and made his hands tremble and his thoughts scatter as a roaring filled his head, driving him to a blood lust so strong he thought he would pass out.
He slammed his head backwards into the jagged wall, and moaned. He tried to swallow, but his mouth felt as if it were filled with sand. Somewhere out there, beyond his own tortured world, a voice spoke to him, but he was too lost to hear it. All he could hear, all he could feel was the vicious ache in his thoughts begging to be released.
Fire burst into his vision and blazed across his mind, searing through the haze that the bloodlust had created to awaken him to the angry visage before him.
"What the hell?" Bardock demanded, drawing back and backhanding him again. Gohan groaned and brought his arms up to block further attacks as he blinked his eyes, trying to bring himself back and jumpstart his thoughts again. But the haze was gone, singed away by the abrupt, physical assault.
"What the, hell?" His captor swore once again. Gohan was slumped back against the wall again, his fingers pushed up into his hair, the soft palms of his hands covering his eyes; but even in his self-imposed darkness, the teenager heard and felt the older man back up some. He could, however, still feel the blatant stare and frown he was sending toward Gohan.
But Gohan did not want to talk, or try to explain his odd behavior. His head throbbed from both the self-inflicted smack against the wall and the backhands, and he was still feeling the last tinges of homesickness.
"Go away," he murmured, his voice lacking any heat. His captor snorted.
"That's likely." He heard Bardock shift his position, but remain the same distance away. "You being alive is of some importance," he retorted. Gohan took a deep breath and held it, still trying to calm the trembling of his insides.
"That something you do often? Or are you just trying to get my attention?" The man said, his voice soft and mocking. Gohan flexed his jaw and dropped his hands to glare hatefully at his kidnapper.
"What do you want with me? Is this stupid stone something that you can just take? Go! Take it! And then leave me the hell alone!" He stumbled to his feet, anger burning in his chest. Bardock jumped to his feet as well, an odd light in his eyes.
"Not that simple," he replied dryly, crossing his arms and daring the teenager to act. "Because believe me, if I could, I would take it and be gone, leaving you to your pathetic little fits of self-indulgence." Gohan narrowed his eyes.
"You don't know anything," he snapped. He turned to the right and took one step away from Bardock, before the man pressed a hand to his chest,
"Do not speak as if you are the only one to suffer in this life, boy," he warned. Gohan shook his head and pushed against the hand on his chest.
"Leave me alone," he demanded. "I don't want to talk anymore." Bardock snorted again, not removing his hand.
"Good. Because you need to shut up and just listen." He pressed against Gohan's chest until the teenager had his back against the wall of the cave, glaring angry daggers at the older warrior.
"Shit happens in life, kid, and you either win or you lose. Sometimes winning means the chance to fight again; and sometimes it means not needing to, but either way, it's all in how you see it." Gohan frowned and rolled his eyes.
"I don't really care for your words of wisdom or whatever this is," he snapped. Bardock brought his other hand up and slapped him just hard enough to be annoying, and irritate the younger Saiyajin even more.
"This is what being a Saiyajin was like when I was young," he retorted. "Back when we were a proud race, and a good, strong race. Now we are scattered and nearing extinction and the last of our kind does not even know what being Saiyajin is!
"You are a part of something bigger than yourself, boy, and that matters a whole lot more than these scars that you are hanging onto."
"You don't know crap!" The teenager hotly replied, allowing his anger to blossom. Bardock's expression was thunderous, and before Gohan could get off another word, he felt himself falling to the floor while being mentally suffocated.
A burning brightness pushed against him, drowning him until he could sense the place where he had mentally incarcerated his emotions, binding them and storing them until they had grown too strong for him to control and had exploded out, leaving him feeling broken and dangerously torn apart.
I know so much more than you would like me to know, Bardock's voice spoke into his mind.
He pushed against the rawness of the newly healed space in Gohan's mind, sending pained warnings radiating throughout the teenager's being. Suddenly the space changed, and became a memory.
Gohan was squatted down in an alleyway, allowing himself to bleed away his emotions on the edge of a razor.
Gohan again, lying in bed, unable to sleep, and unable to find the peace that he sought.
Another vision, an older one, that Gohan cringed to see; one soon after the Cell games. He had just returned to his mother and informer her of his father's death. He was still tattered and worn, and barely awake, and his mother had fallen to her knees before him. Her mournful wail the most horrid sound he had ever heard in his short time on earth.
Viciously, he fought against the presence in his mind, fighting against the burning host with all that he had, completely unwilling to see any more.
LEAVE! He demanded. But still more visions paraded passed him. His deepest, darkest memories—the ones that haunted him no matter what he did—continued in a sick moving picture show.
Goten, bloodied and dying in his father's arms.
Piccolo lying in the dirt with blood pulsing from his wounds with every beat of his heart, and telling him goodbye.
Staring up into the darkness beyond his window, homesick for his father; his mother's distant, muffled sobs the only sound.
Ascending to the second level of the Super Saiyajin, feeling his power just barely under control, and knowing that he could end the world.
STOP! The teenager shrieked again, fighting against the presence in his mind with everything he had. Suddenly, new memories appeared. Memories that Gohan did not recognize.
The woman with the deep black hair, a wicked smile on her face as she looked back at him. A child stood tall beside her, his hair black and wild, blowing in some unknown wind.
A person with orange skin and the strangest green, cat-like eyes looked up at him, a thin line of blood streaming from the corner of his mouth. Matching puddles of blood soaked the front of his brown clothes.
Another scene, somewhere on a planet with three moons, and a deep, dark sky, another man lay dying, his face creased with age and wear, his body shrouded in the Saiyajin armor. Dark eyes blinked up at him, and Gohan realized this man was in his arms.
"Don't forget this," he said, grasping at the teenager's clothing. "Do not forget."
A sick, hollow sound exited the man's throat, followed by a horrifying gurgle, and his face went slack and his body lost all functioning.
With a scream, Gohan lost his control and slammed into the presence in his mind, forcing it out.
Gasping, the teenager came back to himself, nausea rolling through his belly. He sat up slowly, eyeing the man kneeling beside him with caution. Bardock's eyes were still closed, his shoulders rising and falling in barely restrained breathing. Gohan's own chest ached with the strain of trying to keep up with his heart rate and temperature. He lifted a trembling hand and touched his cheek, surprised when his fingers came away feeling damp.
He glanced back to the man beside him and jumped upon seeing his dark eyes open and gazing through him. Fear waged a livid battle with anger as supreme emotion, but anger won out. Before he could speak, Bardock raised his hand, silencing him.
"You are not the only one who has struggled," he said quietly. His voice was no less severe for the volume. "I am not your friend, boy. I am a warrior; a soldier fighting against something you still can't even fathom in your infantile view of the world." Bardock stood, but Gohan remained on the ground, feeling sick and stricken.
"Learn to control yourself—your tongue specifically—or I will teach you to do so in the most unpleasant manner I can imagine." With these as his parting words, Bardock turned and strode to the other side of the cave, still keeping the teenager within his sight, but putting some distance in between them.
Shakily, Gohan rose to his knees, feeling dizzy and unwell as the world tilted hatefully in his eyesight. He remembered feeling like this before—sometime during his training with Piccolo, before the Demon King had learned to like him, and would frequently beat him into unconsciousness. He would wake up with the same detached feeling of vertigo then, too.
Carefully, he gave in to his most base desire and sank to the cool dirt floor, pressing his right cheek against the musty smelling earth. In this position, with his stomach laid out flat against the ground, the nausea lessened with the settling of the spinning earth.
When he had been young—before Everything had happened—he could remember spinning round and around until he was so dizzy that he would collapse to the ground in a fit of giggles as the sky continued on spinning without him.
It was not as fun now, he decided.
Some part of him hated the man who had taken him from his home in the dead center of night, but another part—some part Gohan wanted to pretend did not exist—did not hate him. No, this part of Gohan told him that this man was a key player in this wretched game that he had been forced into.
The teenager turned his eyes toward the other side of their small cave and watched the man. Bardock was leaned back against the cave wall with his eyes closed, his right leg bent at the knee and resting in front of him, the other stretched out. Gohan studied his face, noting the scars that were branded into his skin; he wondered—not for the first time—where those scars came from.
"Many, many battles." The warrior's gruff voice drifted to him, surprising him. Dark eyes met dark eyes from across the cave, and the strange expression in the man's eyes made Gohan wince.
"I have been in many battles," the man explained. He reached up and ran his left index finger along one on his left cheek—the most prominent. "This I received when my son was taken from me, and my wife destroyed before my eyes; my new born twin boys were taken from me." Gohan felt a pain that was not his twist into his thoughts.
"This one," Bardock continued, touching a thin one above his right eyebrow, "was from a spaceship landing on me." Gohan raised an eye brow. Bardock released a breath and stood, walking over to Gohan's still form.
"The others are from the fight with Freiza." He knelt and reached out to touch the teenager's brow.
"Don't," Gohan said, his voice firm; his eyes were dark, but he had not moved.
"I will not hurt you," Bardock murmured, his hand poised a few inches from Gohan's skin. No actual words were spoken, but the Demi-Saiyajin felt the other's remorse for losing his temper. Bardock had not meant to hurt him…which was odd. The teenager's shoulder's relaxed, and he allowed his eyes to drift closed.
The touch, when it came, was barely there, but it immediately sucked away the detached, ill feeling in his head. He opened his eyes when he heard movement and saw Bardock step away from him.
"You need to rest tonight, Gohan," he said quietly, an unnamed emotion in his voice. He dug through his pack, pulling out the containers that held his food, and began to concoct. Gohan felt that cook was too strong of a word for what the man threw together. While normally edible, it was also very texturally interesting.
"How did you survive Freiza?" The teenager asked; his voice was low as he tentatively rose from his prostrate position. He sat up once again with his back pressed into the rock. He drew up his knees and curled his arms around them. "You said she saved you."
"Yes," the man replied. He opened a thin box and sniffed it before he dumped it into a ceramic pot that had an odd thin plate beneath it. There was already water in the pot. Bardock sighed and dropped his eyes to the ground, thinking, before he spoke.
"Her ship was nearby," he began quietly. "She was drawn by the influx of emotion when Freiza destroyed us. I don't remember anything; I only know this from what has been revealed to me." Bardock rubbed a hand over his face, the scruffing sound of day old whiskers echoed around the chamber.
"I have been with her ever since," he allowed, meeting Gohan's eyes. The teenager sighed.
"That's it?" he asked. Bardock slipped a spoon into the pot and stirred the contents, his lips tightening in annoyance.
"What were you expecting?" Gohan snorted.
"You tell me," he retorted. Bardock paused to glare the teenager back into silence.
"You—" the phantom music that had attacked Gohan before came back full force, cutting off whatever Bardock was going to say. As opposed to the semi-relaxed state of the previous encounter, this encounter brought about a new reaction in his captor.
Bardock's eyes drew down immediately, joining the rest of his expression in a frown. As for himself, Gohan's heart beat thudded starkly in his chest, an unnamed fear edging up into his throat.
Bardock said something under his breath: Gohan thought it sounded like 'okay.' But he never got the chance to ask what was going on before the ground beneath them began to rumble.
"Time to go," his captor said, standing and crossing the chamber to where Gohan sat. He wrapped bruising fingers around Gohan's bicep and yanked him up.
"What—" Gohan began, but he was interrupted as a thunderous roar blasted into the chamber, stealing his breath. He coughed several times, and as the dust cleared, he realized that Bardock had raised his hand and blown the hole in the side of their cave. Before he could get a proper expletive out, his kidnapper shoved him through the new opening, into the slowly waning sunlight.
What greeted him, was something that had stalked his waking dreams for days: the ship from his first kidnapping, complete with a vast array of people scattered about. Each warrior was different in appearance from the next, but the similar black uniforms branded them as comrades, and tucked up into each warrior's elbow was a metallic weapon, trained exclusively on him.
Gohan felt dread pooling in his chest as a figure moved forward, and there, stepping towards them, was the woman with the hidden face. She wore a black, skin tight under suit with a gold breast plate across her chest and matching golden hip and thigh armor. Black boots encased her legs to just over her knees, while leather gloves covered her hands. Her head and face were covered entirely by a blood red material that draped over her shoulders, dark green eyes shot out from the crease allowed for her eyes.
Gohan's mouth popped open in surprise as he was dragged forward and thrown roughly to the ground at the woman's feet, panic beginning to blossom in his gut.
"My Lady," Bardock's gruff voice was low, but Gohan still felt every inch of betrayal as the man knelt beside him, bowing his head to the mysterious woman.
"Bardock," the woman murmured, her voice muffled by the layers of material. "You came through for me."
"Of course, My Lady," Bardock murmured, closing his eyes. Gohan felt extreme hatred build within him. In a moment of absolute hatred fueled by betrayal, he flung himself at the older warrior and slammed one fist into his face and the other into his stomach before Bardock could turn it around on him, slamming him in the abdomen so hard that the teenager doubled over, clutching his stomach. Bardock wrapped him in a rough embrace for a moment, his cheek brushing against the demi-Saiyajin's ear as he gruffly whispered something.
"Be careful who you give your trust to, little Saiyajin." As a chill went down his spine, Bardock shoved him back to the woman's feet, and before he could move again, a blinding pain shot across his eyes and sucked the world away from him.
DBZ
The world around him was cold. And bright. And his wrists and hands were hurting. Blearily, Gohan struggled to open his eyes, vaguely recalling the cause of the ache right behind his left ear. Bright, starched light bombarded his eyes and with a groan he closed his eyes again.
"Wake up," someone commanded. A lightning sharp pain zapped through his body, bringing him fully awake and snapping his eyes open with a scream that left him panting. His vision shifted and shimmered as if in a sudden heat wave, but slowly, after several blinking attempts, his surroundings began to swim into focus.
A thick, suffocating horror crept up his spine and took up residence in his chest as his predicament came into focus. Across from him, encased in several large, clear bubbles, were his father, Piccolo, Krillin, and in the last two, were his little brother—who sat despondent on the floor of the bubble, tears coursing down his plump cheeks—and then his mother—who was alternating screaming—what must be—obscenities and crying uproariously, although there was no sound. Gohan swallowed.
"Please," he whimpered, he shifted his arms, and his attention was drawn to the thin wire bands wrapped several times around his wrists, and then to the odd floating feeling due to being strung up, his toes just barely touching the floor. His hands throbbed from the blood pressing up into his fingertips, but still, thin trails of blood spiraled down his wrists and plopped onto the shiny floor.
Directly in front of him, was the woman who had captured him, her arms crossed and still clad in armor and the red material that shielded her face from view. To her right was Bardock, freshly dressed in clean, sharp armor that was similar to the woman's. His expression was blank, and no emotion could be seen from his calculating dark eyes. Beyond them, surrounding the rest of them and creating a thick ring with Gohan at the center, were several dozen warriors; Gohan recognized them as the same bunch from right before he blacked out.
"Fya," the woman's gravelly voice called across the room and Gohan sensed someone behind him shift, just as the name nudged his consciousness.
"Yes, Mistress?" A high voice from behind Gohan replied.
"Master Bardock will take over from here," she said.
"Of course, My Lady," the sniveling man replied. Into Gohan's line of sight stepped a man who appeared to be more rat than man, complete with tail. His face was gray with large, round eyes that narrowed distastefully over a pointed, long rat nose. Complete with whiskers that twitched nervously.
"Where is our Lady?" the woman shrieked suddenly, startling Gohan. He sucked in a breath suddenly at the searing pain tearing into his wrists. Bardock stepped forward as gleaming steel doors behind them swished open and a ten foot tall cylindrical container drifted into the room. The container was topped in the same steel that ringed the bottom, ending in a hover mechanism that lifted it just a few inches off of the floor. Between the two steel rings was a thick glass that offered a clear, unobstructed view of a figure floating inside of it. Pale gold material encased the figure, with long, thick strands of the most brilliant red hair that Gohan had ever seen spilling over its shoulders. As it was guided into the room by two men in the same uniforms as the rest, it was spun gently around until Gohan could make out a very human-looking woman was in the container. Her eyes were closed, but her cheek bones were sharp as if she had been wasting away.
A man strode beside the container—Gohan assumed he was male—with thick, blond hair framing a well-defined face. Sharp blue eyes glared around the room, and Gohan could not help but notice that several of the warriors surrounding them gave the new comer thinly veiled hatred concealed in looks. He was also dressed differently with thick blue robes that billowed whenever he took a step.
"Any change, Nomad?" The mysterious woman asked, her voice harsh. The blond man gave the woman an indifferent look.
"No, My Lady," he replied, bowing to her. Bardock shifted, drawing Gohan's attention. The young man locked eyes with the older warrior, hatred building in his chest which quickly twisted into utter confusion as Bardock shook his head once, discreetly from side to side.
"Saiyajin!" The woman said, her tone dripping with hatred, he green gaze meeting his. "You will have one chance to tell me where the Blaque Stone is."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Gohan replied, trying to keep his tone even and devoid of fear. Bardock gave Gohan another stern, intense glare before he turned back to the woman.
"Mistress Seriff," Nomad began. "We have seen that this boy does not respond to most modes of persuasion; Fya's treatment did nothing to break this shield the child has erected."
"You're point, Nomad?" She demanded. Bardock shifted again.
"I feel, after perusing his mind last time and again this time that we must push him harder; he has the stone, he just needs to realize it."
"I don't have the stone! I would give it to you and throw you a farewell party if I could! If it would mean you would go and leave us in peace! Please! Let my family go!" Gohan's eyes shot to his father's. Goku stood, silently watching from his bubble beside Piccolo. Seeing them there truly scared Gohan beyond reason.
"Be quiet," the woman—Seriff—ordered. She strode over to the container and placed her hand on the clear glass, gazing at the woman inside.
"What do you suggest, Nomad?" She asked.
"You have several options for leverage here," the man began, stepping forward and gesturing toward the bubbles that held Gohan's family. "But, I don't think that alone will be enough to bring about our desired outcome."
Seriff turned and pinned the man with her ambiguous gaze.
"What do you suggest, Nomad?" She repeated, her voice sharp, enunciating each word.
"I suggest we convince the boy to allow us access to the Stone while using his family to convince him." Seriff turned to face him sharply. Again, Bardock shifted.
After several long moments, the woman replied.
"The woman and child will not be touched," she murmured, surprising Gohan. His heart fluttered oddly in his chest.
"But Mistress—"
"They will not be touched!" The woman repeated, her voice dangerously sharp. Nomad nodded and bowed.
"Of course. As you wish. Bardock!" The man who kidnapped him straightened and met the man's eyes. "You will be honored." The man had stepped farther into the room, and turned suddenly to flick his hand at one of the warriors, who strode quickly away. He met Gohan's eyes.
"Unless you feel like giving us what you have," he said, tilting his blond head to the side. Gohan's whole body shook from a deep, spine gripping fear.
"I told you, I don't have it," Gohan insisted, his voice breaking, weakly he swallowed.
The man returned, carrying a thick silver rope, which he handed to Bardock. Silently, the warrior dropped all of the rope but one end of it, revealing it to be a seriously wicked looking whip. Gohan swallowed back a cry. Bardock stepped around him and the teenager's lungs began to inflate and deflate rapidly—the same time several of the warriors stepped forward, in their hands were what looked like remotes. With a small movement of their wrists, all of the bubbles, minus his mother's and brother's, lit up with violent arcs of electricity.
His father's scream echoed inside Gohan's head, mixing eerily with Krillin's and Piccolo's screams. His heart rate sped up and his hyperventilating ratcheted up, but before he could utter a sound, white hot fire burned a searing line across his back, pulling a scream from him. For a moment, Gohan saw nothing but blinding white.
The teenager heard something vaguely, but he was struggling too much with trying to draw in air into a chest that was intent on collapsing to be able to focus on it. The icing on the cake was the wire that was cutting into the flesh on his wrists.
As his friend's and father's screams filled the air, another lash landed on Gohan, eliciting a scream that hurt his throat. Something thick was building in the back of Gohan's mind, but the teenager was too stressed to examine it farther.
A moment later, he opened his eyes to see Krillin crumple to the floor of his bubble. Moisture flooded Gohan's eyes and streamed down his cheeks. Piccolo fell next, his purple gi and green skin a disheveled mess on the floor of his bubble. Another livid stripe seared across his back, turning his surroundings utterly white. The pressure in his head peeked, and just as his father crumpled to the bottom of his bubble, Gohan's world faded away with a feral scream.
