Chapter 35: Three Months Later

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"Akira…why didn't you save me?" Pan whispered as blood flowed out of the wound in her stomach and dripped from the remains of her crushed hand. "You were supposed to be here for me, but you failed…just like you did when we fought Ammit."

Akira backed away from her as he tried to think of something to say, some excuse, some explanation for his failure, but there was no excuse and he knew it. He simply let her down every time it really mattered and this time it had cost Pan her life.

Pan's eyes hardened slightly as her gaze bore into his soul. "I hate you," she whispered, blood spewing out of her mouth. "I hate you," she said in a louder voice. "I hate you!" she was screaming now as she stood and advanced on him.

Akira's eyes widened as he continued backing away, still trying to think of something to tell her. He wanted to let her know that he was sorry, that it wasn't really his fault, that he was going to make it better as soon as he could, but his excuses refused to form on his lips.

Her one good hand shoved him in the chest, causing him to stumble and fall. "You're the one that should be dead!" she screamed. "You didn't deserve to live while my family and I were killed." Her hand glowed slightly as energy surrounded it. "I hope you burn in hell!"

The beam leapt from her hand and raced towards the young man.

Akira awoke with a start, sweat flowing down his face as his chest heaved with labored breathing. His hands hurt, but he wasn't sure why until he looked down and found that he had clenched them so tightly that his finger nails had dug into his palms, reopening wounds that had formed the first time he had the dream. In fact, he had yet to sleep without being visited by some vision of Pan or his other friends who had lost their lives at the hands of his clone; this dream had been almost tame compared to some of the other ones he'd had.

As his breathing returned to normal, Akira stood and headed for the gravity room. Along the way he stopped and checked the navicomputer. The ship was only a few hours away from its next destination, a planet that Giru had said was fairly technologically advanced.

Akira had initially planned on dumping the little robot as soon as he had the chance, but Giru knew of several planets that might be able to produce a fuel that would meet the time machine's power needs. Giru also knew a lot more about the ship than Akira and, while Bulma's space ship could almost fly itself, the young man didn't want to take the chance that he could be stranded in space if there was some sort of malfunction. So, while the little, round robot was something of an annoyance, at least it had learned to stay silent around Akira unless directly spoken to and managed to make itself useful from time to time.

Just before he resumed his course to the gravity room, Akira noticed the date on the computer.

'Three months,' he thought, 'I've been at this for three months already and still aren't any closer to bringing them back than I was on day one.'

The thought was disheartening. He remembered Pan and Vegeta telling him in more than one story that the dragonballs could only revive someone if they were wished back within a year of their death. Akira wasn't sure whose year it was that was counted; after all, a year for someone on Pluto was nearly 250 years on Earth. Another part of the rule that he was unclear on was how that would work if he ended up making the wish in another timeline. He suspected that the rule would be held as a year on the planet the wish was made from or a year on the planet that the deaths had occurred no matter what time line the wish was made from and he doubted he could argue his way into an extension. That meant that he had less than nine months if he wanted to bring back Vegeta and Bulma as well. With the time between destinations growing as the ship traveled further and further into space, Akira knew that if he didn't find someone or something that could help him soon, he would be too late to do any good.

The young man sighed and forced himself to concentrate on the present, it wasn't like he could will the ship to move any faster by worrying. He set the gravity to 600G and began his workout, doing his best not to think of the raven haired girl whose broken body haunted his dreams.

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'Three months,' Pan thought as she stared out the window of the airplane that was taking her to Paradise to visit her mother and grandmother again. 'Three months without a single hint of what he's doing or where he is. Does he still plan on bringing me back? Does he want to see me again after what I said to him?' The thought was frightening, but something told her that Akira would not give up on her over some harsh words spoken out of shameful ignorance.

The young saiyan sighed as pink shapeless clouds floated by. Unlike the few previous trips she'd taken to Paradise, this time Pan was traveling alone. She'd been banished from the Z Fighters' training until she was a little more on the sane side.

In all fairness, she supposed that she did deserve it. After all, she had been pestering King Kai day and night for any information on Akira's whereabouts and actions even though she knew that she would be the first to find out if and when the kai heard anything. Apparently this morning he'd finally reached his breaking point and had told her that if she wasn't going to train anything but her tongue she should go visit her mother.

Actually, he hadn't used the word 'visit,' his exact words had been a little more colorful, as had her retort.

She hadn't really meant to annoy the kai; she just wanted to hear that Akira was okay. In the brief time between King Kai showing her Akira's memory and her visit to HFIL to see the clone, she'd let herself entertain the happy thought that Akira would wish them all back and then the two of them would go back to college, graduate, get married, buy a house, have 2.5 kids, and live happily ever after. After seeing the clone and briefly talking with him, she wasn't so sure that her happily ever after could happen. Not that she didn't want a happily ever after, but the words the clone had spoken had chilled her to the bone and caused her to wonder what sort of person the man she loved was becoming.

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Trunks and Goten were having trouble getting used to the loss of their Super Saiyan 4 transformation. They had known that it was bound to happen sooner or later, just as it did with Vegeta, but the feeling of weakness was still difficult to adjust to, as was the now constant beating the two men received at the hands of a very gleeful Vegeta. However, the loss of the transformation had given King Kai the idea of 'returning' the five saiyan warriors' tails to them, though they cringed when they were informed of exactly how Goku's tail was regrown.

'Maybe it won't be as bad as I'm imagining,' Goten thought as he watched Vegeta sidestep a kick from Trunks who was promptly sent flying by an uppercut from Gohan. 'I'm sure having my tail stretched out by a pair of pliers will be LOTS of fun...'

The saiyan cringed for a moment and then headed towards the spot where he could feel Piccolo and Tien sparring, hoping to get a decent workout that didn't involve Vegeta's constant taunting.

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"Why did you do this?" Pan demanded. "What did we ever do to you?"

"You were born," the clone replied with a look of contempt. "Your race destroyed the Arleans, you're butchers, but for some reason the universe decided that you should live on, find peace and multiply. We were simply making things right."

Pan looked at the twisted picture of her boyfriend with a hint of sadness, "I can't believe that I thought you were Akira, you're disgusting. You could never compare with something as pure and good as him. No wonder he was able to kill you with ease."

The clone laughed and leaned his head back against the wall of his cell, "Pure and good, huh? I guess you don't know your little boyfriend as well as you think."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" the saiyan woman snapped.

"No, no, go on thinking he's a good guy...you don't want to know what he's capable of, what he did during our fight."

A hint of uncertainty and curiosity floated across Pan's face. She opened her mouth to ask what the clone was talking about, but Gohan placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on Pan, you don't need to hear anything this thing has to say, it will only be a bunch of lies anyway."

The clone smiled again, "Actually, in this case, the truth is much better than lying. I could never have come up with a lie that topped what goody-two-shoes Akira did...and it's not like you couldn't ask that kai friend of yours if I'm telling the truth or not, I'm sure he knows everything."

Pan swallowed hard and bit her lip as she tried to decide what she wanted. Would it really be so bad just to hear it? She would know that he was lying or at least embellishing the story to cast Akira in a bad light, and then she could ask King Kai for the real story. She knew the Kai was not omniscient, but she suspected that he knew more from Akira's memories than he had shared with her so far and she felt a pulling deep within her to hear everything that had happened to her boyfriend after her death.

"Alright, tell me," she said in a voice that shook slightly with uncertainty.

"Pan, no. Don't do this," Gohan begged her. He could see in the clone's eyes that the vile creature was only looking to hurt his daughter; true or not, this was not something that Pan should hear.

"No, I want to hear what he has to say." She turned to the clone and grinned, "Tell me about your fight with Akira; let me hear how he made you suffer for what you did."

The clone's eyes were shining triumphantly. "Oh, he made me suffer alright..."

And then he proceeded to relate every gory detail of his fight and subsequent torture at the hands of Akira. At first Pan had reviled in the thought of the clone finally getting what he deserved, but as the story went on and on, her face fell and her heart sank. If half of what the clone said was true, then Akira had been consumed by his anger and grief. He had become a monster, at least for a brief period of time.

"...and then he thrust the sword into my chest and ripped me open with his bare hands, just so he could be covered in my gore," the clone said as he finished the story.

Pan was silent for a moment and then she said, "Good. You deserved it." She would not let the clone drive a wedge between her and Akira again. If her love had done something evil like this, it was only because of the suffering the clone had unleashed on all of his friends. Akira wouldn't have been in his right mind when he fought the clone, the things he did were excusable.

"You think he did these things out of justice?" the clone asked, "That he was just getting revenge for what I did to you and your family." He roared with laughter, "You really are devoted to him, I'll give you that. However, he didn't do it for you. Not in the end. In the end he tore me apart and covered himself in blood because he liked it. Because he is nothing but a barbaric monkey and that's what sick, fucked up saiyans do!"

"You're wrong," Pan spat back.

"Am I? You weren't there; you didn't see the look on his face as he stuck his finger in my eyes and burned them out. You're little boyfriend is a killer, plain and simple, and he enjoys it. I might have killed a lot of people, even took some pleasure in it, but I've got nothing on your precious Akira."

Pan wanted to run, to flee from the words of the clone, but she stayed rooted in her spot. She wouldn't give him the pleasure of seeing the effect his words had on her. She wished she hadn't asked, but it was too late to take it back now. She still loved Akira; she would stand up for him and wait for him to either wish her back or join her in the after life. She just hoped that when they finally met again, she would be getting her Akira back and not the monster the clone had described him as.

There was also the hope that the clone had been lying, that the story was just another attempt to hurt her, but somehow she knew that most of it was true. She'd seen the dead look in Akira's eyes when he'd come to get King Kai, it was the look of a man who'd given up on life, the look of a man who could do everything the clone described and more.

"Anything he did to you is on your own head," she told the clone, "you took everything from him. I hope you rot in this cage for all of eternity." And then she walked away, heading towards King Kai; most of the Z Fighters that had silently watched the whole exchange following behind her.

Pan snapped out of the memory with a sick feeling in her stomach. She hoped spending some time with her family in Paradise would ease the anxiety she felt for Akira.

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After a few hours of smacking Gohan and Trunks around, Vegeta had grown tired of training and had decided to take a break. As he watched his first born begin to spar one on one with the Kakarot's oldest child, the Saiyan Prince's mind gradually turned towards the struggles his adopted son was going through.

Vegeta doubted that anyone else could understand what Akira was going through. He remembered his own time spent in the darkness of despair. He remembered living every day with the single goal of becoming strong enough to crush that worthless lizard Frieza, to make him feel the pain of all the years the young Prince had been tormented. To get that power he would have done anything, he'd wiped out dozens of planets and killed millions of people during his quest. He'd even killed one of his fellow saiyans and tried to kill another. Nothing and no one had mattered except the power he sought, he suspected Akira was going through that same hell today.

It was frightening for Vegeta to think of what he would have done with powers similar to Akira's back when he was struggling under Frieza. At the time, though he had thought himself quite strong, he'd been a weakling; Trunks had been born with a power level that nearly surpassed what Vegeta's before he came to Earth. If Vegeta had been as strong as Akira or even as strong as he himself was now, he had no doubt the universe would be a very different place, filled with a lot less people.

The Saiyan Prince hoped that Akira would find peace or at least accomplish his goal before he did something he would regret.

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The computer beeped at Akira alerting him that the ship would be arriving at its latest destination in less than an hour. The saiyan turned off the gravity machine and headed for the shower. Chances were there wouldn't be anyone here that could help him; after all, there hadn't been anyone at any of the other planets, why should this one be different? Still if he was going to be disappointed, he might as well smell nice while being disappointed.

He would be disappointed, but not as much as he had originally assumed.

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A/N: I'm pretty sure this chapter or the next one will make this story longer than the Ammit Saga and the Ammit Saga was 21 chapters longer than this one is so far. I guess this means that I'm either getting better at writing or just rambling more. Sorry this chapter took a while and had almost no action what so ever. Sadly I wasn't able to work on this story while on vacation, but perhaps the break did me some good as I came back with a renewed sense of where this story was going and what was going to happen along the way. There will be at least one or two more time jumps (like the one in this chapter) depending on how the next chapter comes out. Unfortunately I think the next two chapters will be rather focused on Akira so I can complete his transformation into the person he needs to be; also, the other Z Fighters aren't doing a whole lot (what with being dead and all) so they're kind of boring. Anyway, please review and let me know what you thought.

Courtney: Wow, I think that last chapter was up for about 10 minutes and you had already reviewed it! I was pretty impressed. As for your thoughts on whether or not Akira can change things in his time by doing anything in the past, you're right, he can't. However, there isn't anything that says he can't make a wish in the past that affects his timeline or at the very least bring a namek back to his time and politely ask him/force him under threat of bodily harm to make a new set of dragonballs.

Draco the Destroyer: Hehe, I kind of chuckled when I read your review about Akira repenting for his sins. I suppose he has kind of been a bit of a bastard, but he hasn't done anything too terrible…yet.

Nasuren: I'm pretty sure that dbz made it clear that nothing done in the past can affect a time traveler's timeline. So Akira won't have anyone staying on the planet and hiding. At the moment the plan is either to bring one to the future and ask (or force) him to make a new set of dragonballs or make the wish from the past.

Everyone Else: Thanks as always for your reviews hopefully this chapter wasn't disappointing after the long wait, but if it was…well, sorry, not much I can do about it now.