Nowhere: thirty-six
All activity halts as a noise resonates across the Lookout: a scream so intense it sends the hairs on the back of my neck up. No one can move as it echoes and reverberates, though we all know who is the cause of it.
Suddenly, I find myself again. In an instant, I try to pinpoint the location and follow the twists and turns of the various hallways. The others are directly behind me, and thankfully our attempts to trace the sound back to the source are successful. Yet, we stop short of fulfilling our curiosity completely as apprehension sweeps over us.
Vegeta writhes, curled into a ball, trembling with apparent fear. I know that if he still had his tail it would be between his legs. As the others hold their positions at the doorway, I rush to his side in hopes that I can alleviate some of his trauma. I kneel down and shake him gently while calling out his name, "Vegeta?"
He screams again, a masculine sort of blood-curdling scream, then he pushes me away with such force I topple over. He scrambles backwards till his body slams against the wall causing his breath to knock out of him from surprise. Fleetingly, he claws at the tile like a caged animal before halting when I call out again, but in a much firmer tone, "Vegeta!"
He blinks his wide, dilated eyes in disbelief. His palms rest flat against the wall which he chooses to lean against in order to regain his lost air. He looks so vulnerable right now. A look that does not befit him. Confusion etches itself over his face as his gaze rises to look upon me, then shifts to the rest of the gang, then back to me.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
Instead of replying, he puts more effort into catching his breath. Or so I think until he swallows audibly and allows us to hear his thoughts by vocalizing them, "N-No, I'm not. I-I..I..." He suddenly starts to shake as anguished words spill forth from his mouth, "I left Kakkarot! Oh god! I left him!" If he was restraining them before, he lost his control and submitted to releasing his tears. I almost lose my resolve, but what's the point of having two people miserable and emotional? Sobbing, he collapses while crying out in vain, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! ..I was wrong!" Vegeta wraps his arms around his knees and buries his head to hide his sorrow.
I swallow my panic and walk slowly toward him. "Vegeta, what do you mean?" I ask while hesitantly reaching out to him. He growls low in his throat, an inhuman sound that stifles my movements.
"Vegeta-Vegeta," he says like a taunt or a jeer, "you have to go. He'll be fine, I say, but he knows and I left him all alone!"
"What? Goku's okay," I say, not understanding the meaning behind his words.
He stops crying with this and raises his head to look me in the eyes. "What did you call him?" Vegeta whispers with incredibly dark eyes, regardless that a moment ago he had been crying. I felt that, somehow, I had crossed a line I shouldn't have - a line I didn't know existed until Vegeta's voice rumbled that particular way towards me.
I say nothing. With his face cast in shadows it causes his appearance to be all the more frightening.
"Never call him that again," he says with such fury that I'm afraid of whatever wraith he wishes to inflict upon me, "Kakarot is Kakarot."
"S-Sorry.." the apology comes out not much louder than a whisper. I don't know how I managed to respond at all. Thereafter, he slumps back into his state of depression. For the first time since I came into this room, I look back at the others, but they offer no help, no guidance, nor consolation. "Vegeta, let's get you into the bath, it'll help you relax," I suggest while once again extending my hand to him.
He laughs bitterly and ignored my offer, "Relax? How can I relax when I know Kakarot is by himself? That it's all my fault?" He shakes his head, "No."
He repeats himself, growing quiet, "No..."
And I now comprehend that this is worse than I imagined. I cannot shake this feeling of foreboding.
I want Goku to come back.
I want him to come back now.
Goku.. the liar.