Captive Souls

Chapter 13

Days passed since Goku's forced return to the others. He still kept his distance and whenever Chi-chi was busy, Goku would find something to do to pre-occupy himself while his body recovered from the point where he was close to starving to death. He had tried once to escape only to be caught by Vegeta who half-dragged, half-carried Goku back to the room.

"Honesty, I said you wouldn't be able to leave," Vegeta growled warningly at the younger warrior and set him down on the bed. How Vegeta had managed in doing so without bruising any part of the Earth-raised Saiya-jin's body was beyond anyone's guess. Normally, Vegeta was the type of person that would be forced to take the extreme route in order to get his way.

"Why don't you just kill me already?" Goku blurted out. He instantly regretted even saying these words when he saw the Saiya-jin Prince's face fixed upon his own with confusion on his face. It was though the thought of taking the third-class warrior's life did not even cross his mind.

"Kill you?" Vegeta spoke of this almost though it was a foreign concept. "If those were in my intentions, then you wouldn't have been brought back to this room. Honestly, you think I didn't feel a shred of guilt taking the lives of those who couldn't even fight back? I still carry that guilt Kakarrot and you shouldn't blame yourself for what you did when you lacked your memories."

"How do you know how I feel?" Goku shouted angrily at Vegeta. "I could have done something differently, but I was forced to do it!"

"Forced? In what way were you forced? Were you forced to do it to protect your comrades? Were you forced to do it in order to avoid starvation?"

"I… I was threatened with the end of my life… never to return with the use of the dragon balls… beaten to the very inch of death each time I disobeyed…"

"You think you were the only one who's suffered a punishment where death is an escape from your captor. If that were true, then you would have never been able to escape your captor even long after his own life expired."

"I…"

"Kakarrot, stay here and finish recovering." Vegeta commanded, turning his back to the younger warrior. "When you're back to full strength, I want you to help rebuild what you destroyed. We will not cheat and use the dragon balls to wish everything back to the way it was before this happened. If you want to repent for anything you've done, then help these people fix the problem you created."

"Vegeta…" Goku softly spoke. This stopped the Saiya-jin Prince from leaving. "Thank you."

"You're fortunate to have a forgiving mate. If she were a Saiya-jin, she would have taken your life without hesitation for betrayal." Without another word, Vegeta walked out of the room; the door sliding shut. It was after the door shut that Goku was alone with his own thoughts.

'He won't kill me because his past is similar to mine…'

"Only he wasn't a coward that hid after being free from Frieza's hand."

'He didn't have people depending on him like I do.'

"That's only an excuse. You protect those selfish heathens so you wouldn't feel undesirable guilt for letting yourself down."

'They're not heathens. They're…'

"Weakling humans that deserved nothing more than to die. Including that one you call your mate…"

'She's not weak!'

"Tell me then why she went out of her way to protect those weaklings. That proves she's one also."

'…'

"You don't deserve their forgiveness when you could easily crush them with your power."

'ENOUGH!' Goku forced himself to banish all the ill-thoughts that filled his mind. He did not want to listen to them anymore whenever there was no one around. Slowly rising to his feet, he decided that a shower was in order. It would be better than having to not hear anything besides the voices screaming at him to obtain vengeance.

Unaware of her husband's mental battle, Chi-chi continued to sew new clothes. Ever since she found a safe haven of cloth left over despite the destruction of the city, she had spent the last few hours creating new clothes for herself and her family. Other people took after her and began making clothes with whatever cloth that they could find; some going as far as just stringing it together with various parts of cloth and cutting it apart. Unlike them, Chi-chi spent more time making sure that the cloth held firmly rather than fray and fall apart in time.

"Hey mommy! Is it done yet?" A child questioned to another mother. This caused Chi-chi to look up at the little boy and the mother. Instead of a pair of clothes, she was making a make-shift stuffed bear for the child.

"I'm almost done sweetie," the mother replied warmly to her little boy. Picking up what buttons they had, she sewed them onto the bear's face in the form of eyes and a nose before filling it with one of the shirts that Chi-chi had spent time making. This made Chi-chi grow rather irritated at the woman's selfishness. After this move, she sewed the back of the bear up and cut the thread after securing it firmly. The boy moved by this finished product presented to him hugged his mother before grinning in pure delight.

"Thanks mommy!" The boy smiled before running off.

"Hey you!" Chi-chi yelled at the woman.

"What? I was only making my son a stuffed bear," the woman replied.

"That shirt was for my son!"

"Who cares if it was for your son? My little boy's been crying since his puppy died and I'm not going to take another minute of it."

"That doesn't give you the right to take my son's shirt to use for your damn child's plaything!"

"You're just angry that I did it because your son's wearing nothing but rags like the rest of us!" That did it. Without any restraint, Chi-chi slapped the woman with utter rage. She was barely able to keep her strength in check to ensure that the woman survived that slap to have a bruise afterwards.

"How dare you say such a thing?" Chi-chi glared angrily. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself for what you did selfishly when I spent a year's time protecting all of you from Raizen!"

"You let us die anyway, so what's the point?" Before Chi-chi could dare smack the woman again, two arms wrapped around the female warrior's shoulders and was dragged off.

"Let go of me!" Chi-chi wailed angrily at her captor that held her from behind. "She doesn't deserve mercy for what she's done!"

"Calm down!" Piccolo countered. "She may have been in the wrong place to say those things, but you shouldn't sink down to her level and assume that it's okay to cause a riot."

"Still, she…" Chi-chi attempted to defend herself in vain. If she had been calm, she would have realized that it was pointless to fight against one of the humans that had survived the chaos that had taken place. The words took a bit longer to reach Chi-chi before she went slack in Piccolo's arms in frustration.

"Still nothing. Now gather what you have and go back to the ship where your husband's at. I'll see if I can find more of this 'fabric' you humans use to create clothes." Piccolo ended the argument. He released the calming Chi-chi back onto her feet near the doors of the ship. Glaring angrily at the Namekian that broke the cat fight, Chi-chi grabbed the basket containing the articles of clothing she spent time creating and walked onto the ship rather irritated.

Lying in bed dressed in the plain clothing that he found in one of the barracks, Goku laid there staring at the ceiling. Despite how clean he felt, he smelled the acidic blood almost though it clung to his skin's pores. It made his stomach nauseous to the odor; almost to the point where he could consider himself anorexic.

The door's opening distracted Goku of those thoughts and he did not need to see who it was that walked into the room. His distinct hearing had memorized the footsteps that Chi-chi made on the floor. He sensed irritation from her though this time around; almost though she was angry at him. Almost unconsciously, he wanted to shy away to avoid her wrath. Whether she was angry at him or not made him fear her and he wanted to get away in his weakened state.

"Goku?" Chi-chi questioned upon noticing him shaking violently. The anger about the woman's selfish deeds flew out the door and worry replaced the anger scrawled on her face moments earlier.

"G-go away…" Goku barely was able to get out of his mouth.

"Goku, what's wrong?" This wasn't like her husband to say this. She reached out to touch his shoulder only to have him pull away.

"LEAVE!" Goku shouted this time around; not caring at the moment if he were to harm her feelings or not. Chi-chi stared at him another moment before walking out of the room, her heart broken by this sudden verbal attack. Her world was shaken and it was getting out of control.

Outside in the hallway, she leaned against the wall before she slid down to a sitting position. The unwanted tears that she held within herself during her visits with her husband began to trickle down her cheeks. Burying her head in her lap, she softly cried alone out in the hallway away from his sight so she wouldn't burden him anymore heartache.

Once again, Goku found himself facing against Dusk and he seemed worn out oddly enough compared to how he was before. This confused Goku for the last time he fought against this odd doppelganger, he had the upper hand. The mask had cracks in it; however, it refused to break apart.

"Will you continue to deny her?" Dusk's voice asked.

"Deny who?" Goku questioned.

"Her." Goku followed Dusk's gaze and saw Chi-chi laying there almost in the same position she was in after Raizen had left her in with his mind-paralyzing maneuver. The same desperation attack had left her with no memories of him and nearly cost both of them their lives.

"W-what's going on?"

"Like her, you had the same thing done and were forced to harm people with no recollection of why it was wrong. Do you want to continue living with the sadness in your heart, knowing it's hurting her too?"

"I… I can't live like this…" Goku started to rise back onto his feet despite the weakness in his body. He wanted to be the husband he was prior to the events that kept him from those he loved with all of his heart. If he didn't reclaim that redeeming quality, he would continue to fail to be the man that his wife and mate wanted.

"Then stop running away and face the truth…"

Almost though the dream shifted to the world of waking, Goku found himself on his feet near the door where he saw Chi-chi curled up against the wall looking utterly defeated. He gently picked her up in his arms and carried her limp body into his room where he laid her in the bed he had slept in for days. Her eyes slowly opened completely void of hope before he purred reassuringly.

"I'm sorry… It's all my fault…" Goku muttered before burying his face in the crook of her neck.

"No… no it's not…" Chi-chi weakly whispered in his ear. "Raizen made you do those things and you shouldn't carry that guilt anymore…"

"I'll try not to Chi-chi, but it'll be hard." Goku admitted.

"Don't say you'll 'try' not to. Say you will." Chi-chi corrected.

"I… I will…" Goku stuttered, not used to saying 'will' when his own will was broken thanks to Raizen's taint. He felt Chi-chi's hand twine with hers; almost though it was an unspoken promise being made between them. His tail wrapped around her waist and drew her closer to him so he wouldn't feel alone in his struggle to overcome the nightmare. He couldn't take it all alone. Not anymore.

To Be Continued…