Disclaimer: I don't own jack

Dude Where's My World:

Revised

Chapter 51: Dream in the Dark

An exhausted Valerie sat a few feet away from the edge of the Lookout, looking out at the clear blue sky distractedly. She'd originally wanted to sit at the edge itself, letting her feet dangle off it, because she knew that would be so much cooler, but she wasn't brave enough; instead she sat with her legs crossed under her, a comfortable ten feet away, leaning back onto her palms behind her body, mind thousands of miles away on the conversation she and the others shared earlier came back to her mind for the millionth time.

*Flashback*

"What do you mean 'she hurt'?" Valerie asked strongly, taking a step forward, panic in her eyes.

Puchi watched her carefully, taking a step behind Dende who put a protective hand on his head and mentally reassured him. Valerie grimacing at her slips, forced herself to crouch back down to reassure him. "Puchi, what did you see?"

"Cullo." Was all Puchi dared say, burying his face into Dende's pant leg, miserably, not wanting to remember anything he'd suffered or had to witness while imprisoned.

*End Flash back*

They hadn't been able to get more from the boy other than that and —much to the boy's relief — Pan and Giru had shown up soon again after to lighten the mood. The little Namekian and Robot had taken too each other quicker than any two people she'd ever known. She smiled as she recalled Giru doing tricks for Puchi who eagerly sat on the ground and clapped at any little thing the robot did as long as he said, "Tada!" after.

Krillin came up quietly and sat down next to her. "I'm really sorry about your friend." Krillin said. "I meant what I said earlier, Val." She turned to look at him. "Remember? My best friend is possibly the strongest man in the universe, so I am pretty used to constantly worrying."

Valerie smiled, looking back ahead with a small shake of her head. "I cannot imagine anything like that," She said quietly. "How do you do it?"

Krillin looked forward as well as he put real thought into the question, rubbing his chin lightly. "I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before." He admitted, embarrassed, his hand coming behind his head as he scratched it thoughtfully. "I honestly try not to dwell on it much. I know Goku will do the right thing always, so I keep faith in that."

"What if your friend isn't like that at all?" Valerie asked, turning almost fully to him now, taking him back with the intensity of that question. "What if your friend is selfish and bull headed and impulsive and kind of naive?"

"Well..." He blinked. "...Uh, Goku's never been known to be the brighte...well..." He laughed, "You know what I mean, right?" Valerie nodded. "But that wasn't your question." He admitted. "You're telling me that Goku's motives are generally pure and to help others and Josie...isn't fully that way?"

"She isn't that way at all!" Valerie said, waving her arms in exasperation. "I'm quiet—she's loud, I'm neat—she's messy, I'm considerate—she's not so much, I think things through and she's just... a train wreck."

"Could Babidi take her over?" Krillin asked the question he was sure Dende had been wondering himself.

She nodded quietly. "All you need is a speck of evil, right? Then yes, I don't really know anyone in my world who has none."

Krillin nodded in response. He'd already considered attempting to contact Goku to tell him, but this late in the game, what was the point? The others had left hours ago, the outcome of the battle was likely already determined. "He's my best friend," He finally answered after a minute of silence. "We were both as different as any two people could ever be." He reminded. "He changed me completely, Valerie. The way I felt about people, the way he cared — he saw things in me that not many did then, and he trusted me the way I trust him, sometimes part of it is that he goes away," He said with a light shrug. "But I know he'll come back." He added. "Do you trust Josie?"

She considered the question before finally nodding. "I do."

"You know she'd do right by you in the end?" He asked, receiving another nod. "Maybe that's what she's always needed," He told her with a smile. "A best friend like you! Someone to worry about her, the way I worry about Goku, someone to show her a better way and to support her and be there for her, because I'm not going to lie to you, it requires a lot of patience." He said, his smile amused now. "Just because he has good intentions, doesn't mean I always agree with or like what Goku does, but I do trust him, and he always does come back." He assured. "I'm sure she will too."

Josie's eyes registered a brief flash of concern on Trunks face before her body slammed down onto the opening, as she tried in vain to claw for a second, before she came right down, hitting the ground below quickly. Her eyes crossed for a second before she was able to shake her head into clearing, blinking at the angry face of Vegeta above her. "We had a deal." He snarled. "Not that I'd expect you to be truthful about anything at this point." She immediately looked up at the hole she'd come through, noticing the sounds of fighting going on above her. "The orange one got away, but he's weakened." Vegeta said dismissively. "Trunks should have no problem finishing him off, now take me to where you last saw Babidi." She hesitated for a moment before nodding and starting to pick herself up, immediately gasping as Vegeta's hand came around her throat and lifted her up off the ground.

"Your natural origin is of no interest to me any longer," He stated coldly. "Nor is this power that Babidi has imbued you with...but you will NOT use this power you do not know how to control on my son, do you understand me?" He demanded, infuriated. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" She tried to swallow, flinching.

"N-no." He studied her carefully for deceit, finding nothing but panic, he rolled his eyes and released her, nudging her to her feet. She struggled to stand up but did so without another word, hand cradling her throat as she quietly led him away. She took him close and stopped at a large hole in the wall that led to the throne room.

Vegeta ignored her, flying straight in where Cullo blocked their path to the fight happening. Josie's back straightened, and the anger came back swiftly. "Go ahead," She said to Vegeta, eyes trained on Cullo. Vegeta glanced between the two, hesitating for brief moments before his annoyance won out; she'd been imbued with powers beyond her pathetically wildest dreams now, if she lost a fight to this Namek, then she deserved to die, and he certainly had more important things to deal with. He jumped into the fray leaving her behind.

Goku was screaming, body pinned beneath the enormous starfish like hand of a gigantic mass of a purple creature that looked like a monster octopus with short tentacles, its twenty feet wide body sloshing with any step it took. Josie recoiled, grimacing at its appearance, making Cullo turn to look. "That's the monster the Master recovered from the Raisin Planet of sorcerers." Josie's arms crossed as she forced herself to keep her attention on the others instead of Cullo, afraid that she'd give herself up too quickly if she tried to hurt him now. Vegeta flew straight through the Jello-like skin of the monster coming out of the other side, frustrated. "His flesh only hardens when he wants it too, but when it does, its mass and strength surpass anything I've ever heard of" Cullo explained, smiling in amusement as Goku continued to scream. "I'm surprised your friends insides haven't burst out."

"Where's the Master?" Josie questioned with irritation, "I thought he was here." When she looked around, she only saw the three fighters in the large throne room, noting the glass window from before was completely gone, and that Babidi had been prepared for this fight.

"Watching downstairs" He assured. "Arapaima?" He asked her.

"Dying upstairs," She assured in turn, smiling as his eyes bugged out.

Cullo grabbed her arms and turned her to him, looking at her suspiciously. "What did you say…"

She simply stared at him and his hands began to burn intolerably, and he reeled back, growling. "Don't ever touch me again." She warned, body starting to shake again with fear, anticipation and pain from the darkness inside of her. Growling, Cullo shot out of the room to stop himself from getting in trouble with the master over his new pet and went in search of Arapaima.

Josie watched him go before she turned back to the others, taking a few stumbling steps towards the hole, falling to her knees there, and trying in vain to make her body stop convulsing. That lava in her veins was burning again, the way it had been in her cell, but much stronger now and it hurt so bad. She reached out a hand to the ground and planted it amongst the rubble to keep herself upright but seemed to think better and let the hand guide her slowly to lay on the ground onto her back. She exhaled shakily and slowly amidst a grimaced, reaching a hand up to slowly stroke her left side of her collarbone and shushing her erratic heart-beat that sounded just as loud as the sound of battle she was lying next to, "It's okay…" She comforted herself, pursuing her lips against the pain shooting into her extremities; ignoring it, she dug into her pockets and found that her capsule case was missing, and the reality of that devastated her.

"…I-i-it's going to be okay…" She tried again, her mouth dry and her voice thick. She tried closing her eyes to stop the room from spinning, but the sensation was worse when she closed them, so she opened them, tilting her head to the side to look at the action as the ground shook all around her. She could occasionally see blurs of movement, but the battle to her mostly consisted of sound as the titans clashed so brutally against one another and screamed as the ground continued to rumble.

Feeling like she might throw up, she turned onto her right side, watching—dazed—as Uub was thrown against a wall close to her. He landed in a pile of rubble but that didn't slow him down and he prepared a blast close to his chest, before screaming as he released it, out of Josie's line of sight.

But the noise was so loud that it made her reach a hand up to her ear to try to muffle it, but she was distracted by both how hard her hand trembled and how strange it looked through her tunneled vision to complete the action, wondering for the first time with wonder and trepidation if she was dying. She laid flat back on the ground, staring up at the ceiling, as the ground shook even more forcefully than below, making her smile sardonically, grateful to be a calm and cool collected California girl that navigated earthquake waters calmly, wondering if this would be the moment she would wake up and find herself warm in bed at home with her family. They'd tease her for staying in bed so late and lure her out with promise of taking her out to get some hot Cheetos with cheese later…instead of this nightmare filled with explosions, screams, blood and so, so much pain. She had dreamt of weird things before, but surely the dream had gone on long enough? She had to wake up soon because this dream stopped being fun for her a long time ago, and it simply hurt too much.

Her eyes opened painfully slow and found a blurry Vegeta in front of her, a deep frown on his face. Her heart picked up again and she briefly wondered how long for—and when—she'd closed her eyes, turning her face to look past him at the battle, where Goku was powering up with Piccolo, Gohan, Eighteen and Uub throwing blasts at the Raisin Monster in attempts to distract him from his target.

"W..hat."

"You're not okay." Vegeta pointed out, confused by the sight of her sweat slicked hair and perspiration drenched face.

"I'm fine." She assured dismissively, tongue thick, turning slowly and pushing herself back up, using boulder shaped debris for support until she shakily got to her two feet. "Come-on, I have to show you where Babidi is…getting him may be the only way to kill t-that." She moved sluggishly down the hall and finding a cornered set of stairs and beginning to descend. Vegeta lost his patience and jogged down ahead without her. "Wait," She called, holding onto the wall at her side for support. "Vegeta," He rolled his eyes and turned back. "Remember the sphere with him I told you about, he said it was his ball and chain." She repeated strongly, her voice hoarse. "I k-know you don't believe in me…but he was keeping it pretty tight beside him, try to find it, I'm sure that's the way." He nodded and went on ahead, leaving her to try to catch her breath with her clammy forehead against the wall beside her. "I'll be right b-behind you." She mumbled tiredly, hoping her irregularly beating heart wouldn't give out on her now.

...

Upstairs Arapaima was losing a hopeless battle with Trunks who floated above him, as he legitimately considered letting him go, seeing-as he posed no threat in his state. Arapaima looked around frantically, sweat pouring down his face, blood running down his cheek, an eye swollen shut. He spotted Cullo entering the room and Arapaima shot up to his two feet, running at him full speed, his body merging with the Namekians upon impact.

Trunks recoiled back in shock at the strange merge. "What the…"

Cullo shrieked from the ground as his body transformed into something completely different. The changing figure glowed, as it gnashed its teeth at the pain and laughed with twisted glee at the same time.

Trunks growled. "I told you to go away, I would have given you a chance!" He shouted in frustration at Arapaima.

"That was a mistake!" Arapaima/Cullo [Hereafter known as: Aracu]. "Because I'll have no qualm about killing you!" With that final threat said, Aracu's body glowed even brighter as it continued its transformation, screaming; his energy pushing Trunks back, and forcing him back to power up to Super Saiyan to keep from getting blown away.

"He's a lot stronger." Trunks noted through gritted teeth, shielding his eyes from the power up for a brief moment, surprised when his best friend flew up beside him and gave him a quick grin before shielding his own eyes from the bright light. When the screaming finally stopped, they began to take their hands away, staring at the strange disproportionately mutated creature in front of them, having Cullo's head and mostly Arapaima's body with an additional arm, the body armor almost destroyed from the waist up.

"Uegh." Goten made a face beside him, saying Trunks very own sentiment aloud. "...Doesn't that just make you feel that much better about Gotenks?" Goten asked his best friend jokingly.

"No kidding," Trunks mumbled.

"Gotenks?" Aracu's scratchy voice asked, glazed eyes narrowed, as he panted to catch his breath.

"Yeah." Trunks said, scowl on his face unwavering. "We'll introduce you to him."

Goten grinned with a nod. "Yeah, he transforms a lot like you do." He explained. "Except he is so better looking than you are." He added with amusement, jumping a few feet from his best friend as the ground beneath them began to shake.

...

"Ah," Babidi said joyfully as he sat in a chair with twenty soldiers behind him wearing Golden armor. "Vegeta, how pleasant to see you…and—" Babidi grinned as he looked past Vegeta. "I should have known; my new pet brings my old pet." He said through laughter. "It's poetic, isn't it?" Vegeta turned around and saw Josie a few feet behind him at the bottom of the stairs, looking very out of breath. "Come, pet." He encouraged, gesturing her closer.

She visibly hesitated for a moment before moving forward, making a large circle around Vegeta for Babid's sake. Babidi studied her as she approached him and finally stood at his side, ignoring his gaze, before Babidi laughed aloud again. "Oh, this is just too much!" He said merrily. "You really are weak, aren't you?" He asked her rhetorically. "I guess I unlocked too many doors, and I put more power into you than what you could handle. The latter part was an experiment," He grinned. "With splendidly interesting AND amusing results, might I add…I almost wish that backstabbing doctor were beside me to see this, but no matter! How are you feeling, pet? A little too warm yet?" Josie glared hard at the ground, still catching her breath, knowing that there was no use in pretending he was wrong when her hair was plastered to her face with sweat. "Let's hope you last at least the rest of the day."

Babidi continued to chuckle to himself as he studied Vegeta's tense body with glee. "And Vegeta, it's been so long!" He cooed, grinning. "I don't suppose you've come to me to become the Majin Vegeta you once were?" Vegeta only snarled. "Yes, I didn't imagine you did." He said with a shrug. "I have to say, I'm surprised you're not upstairs enjoying the delightfully unmove-able creature I left for you all — no matter," He said with a light shrug. "I kept some warriors with me in hopes that you may come." At that, the twenty beings behind Babidi moved forward and attacked him, just as Josie was settling beside Babidi.

"No, Babidi," Vegeta assured with ease. "I'm here for something else," Vegeta explained, taking slow deliberate steps towards the quickly approaching fighters, swatting two out of the way and straight into a wall. "Something," He continued, "That you probably need," He grunted with the effort to grab another one by the face and slam the back of his head hard onto the concrete ground, making Josie gasp and look away. Vegeta shook the blood off his hand, ducking the punch of another, powering up quickly to send a bone crushing elbow straight onto the enemy's spine, killing him instantly as well. "To keep—" He continued, grinning maliciously at Babidi who looked on in absolute rage. "—Your worthless carcass alive."

Babidi's eyes widened in understanding as he quickly reached for the orb beside him, only to find the spot empty. He screamed, looking all around for it, eyes quickly landing on Josie who stood a few feet beside him holding her hands behind her back, sweat dripping down her brow but a wide smile on her face, as she attempted to look as innocent as possible. "YOU WORTHLESS BRAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING HOLDING ONTO THAT!" He screeched, spittle flying out of his mouth as he stood now on his chair, looking all about ready to breathe fire.

"Shut...up." She requested with a grimace from the pounding headache that was only made worse by the screams around her; despite that, she continued to smile as a small crunching noise began to sound from behind her, that made Babidi's eyes widen and a gasp come out of his mouth. "So, what happens exactly, if I destroy this?" She asked him, winded. "Do you die right away? O-or will it take a few minutes?" She asked curiously. "Do all…your creatures go with you? Or would they just become weaker? …I'm…a little smarter than ya thought, huh?" She teased him, hoping that Vegeta was watching; that he finally realized she wasn't evil.

Babidi angrily waved his hand in front of his face once and growled. "You dare to try to over-power me?" He asked dangerously. "I knew I should have killed you as soon as your practically dead body was laid before me, you ungrateful and worthless brat." She felt him start to move her arms forward and she fought hard to keep them behind herself, her arms quaking with the effort to stop herself, heartbeat pounding in her head furiously.

"N-no." She gritted her teeth against the pain, every muscle in her body taut; the air around her body feeling like tangible needle pricks jabbing continually over her skin. "No one calls me a…—AH" She cried out as her right hand snapped, and her left flying in front of her with the orb still in it. She pressed the shaking hand hard against the orb, keeping it against her stomach, as her body began to hover in the air, and the ground began to shake beneath her.

Josie's jaw clenched, as she tightly held on with one hand. "Let go, you o-oo...mpa loom..pa reject—" She screamed, her scream shrill when she fell straight down to her knees harshly, the sound of something cracking upon impact. "…" Her mouth remained open and her face scrunched up in pain but all she could do now was whimper, her head dropping for a moment as her body forced her to absorb intolerable pain. She shakily drew a breath, "S-s-stay still, Babidi—" Gasping at the sharp pain, Josie's eyes filling with tears as she attempted to crush the ball with her severely weakened forearm and remaining hand, to no avail.

What else could she do?

She had tried so hard to help and fix her mounting pile of mistakes, but she was in so much pain now…and feeling like she was burning alive from the inside, that she couldn't even think straight anymore.

Feeling helpless and at her limit, she lifted her head and shouted. "VEGETA!"

Vegeta turned towards the voice as he removed his fist from another's chest. His power was making her hair wave erratically behind her, and her right eye was red from vessels that popped, smears fo blood on her tank top, as she looked at him with that damn look she'd given him from the very day that he'd met her obnoxious and incessant personality:

hopeful.

As if he alone could make everything in her life okay

As if he would save her

When he wanted to do nothing more than dump her on an empty planet and forget that she had ever existed. Why the hell couldn't she get through her head that he did not like her? Why was she so persistent? Why didn't she give up on him when he repeatedly showed her that he wouldn't change for her? That he wouldn't accept her. He growled as he ripped his arm away from another soldier that grabbed at him, grunting with the weight of four of them, who threw themselves on him again, holding him tight. Vegeta could see Babidi was livid, smoke was literally coming out of his ears and his entire body swelled with the attempt to free himself from whatever was happening, whilst the girl's body protectively clutched the orb she had been telling him about earlier—the ball she was apparently willing to kill herself over — Vegeta realized grimly.

Josie's arm wavered profusely as she shakily brought the orb to the ground in front of her and gave it a shaky push towards Vegeta, "Please…" She begged the orb, before she clenched her jaw tight, and pushed viciously against the ground to stand on her two feet, stifling the scream that formed in her throat from injured knees. She nearly cried out when she swayed and had to put a foot forward to keep herself upright, but despite it, Josie looked at the struggling Babidi who was too busy trying to escape the invisible hold on him to notice what she'd done. She ignored the loose hair that whipped around her face, smiling at how distracted and puffed up he was becoming from simply being unable to move. She wiped the stray tear that went down her cheek with the back of her still good hand, knowing she was out of options because she couldn't move her legs. She'd barely been able to force herself to stand, despite the blinding white pain, but even that wouldn't last much longer, and she couldn't throw herself away from him because even if she was successful, it would only draw attention to the moving orb. She was stuck with a psychopathic mass murderer.

"—ENOUGH!" Babidi screamed, little hairs standing, body shaking with hatred when he finally got free. He breathed heavily for a few moments and forced himself to chuckle at the little edge she had gotten over him for a nano second. "You are going to pay for that, brat." He said with finality, hearing the increased violence to his right, but ignoring it as he put his complete attention on the insolent girl who had dared to cross him when HE was in control; when HE was Her Master. She cowered, keeping her head bowed and her arms clutched dramatically at a pretend ball she was keeping against her stomach. "You are NOTHING." Babidi shouted, enraged.

He lifted a finger and her head came up in time with it, shuddering with fear, and far too weak to fight him now, making him genuinely grin now. Babidi lifted his hand, bringing her high up into the air and made his own arms open up, feeling no resistance left as her own arms unwillingly copied the movement. He opened his own hands and hers automatically opened too with a cry of pain and... he saw nothing there.

No Orb.

An animalistic sound erupted from his throat as he turned to look at Vegeta who discarded the last dead soldier easily to the side, covered in blood himself, boot sitting comfortable right above the cracking orb, his attention on Babidi now with a relaxed smirk on his face. "Your move." He challenged.

From Josie's point of view:

Josie blinked as she hovered in the air, attempting to swallow moisture into her cracked and dry mouth and throat. She could make out a blurring Babidi and Vegeta talking but it made her head hurt so sharply to look at them, that she decided to rest her eyes and allow them to blur for a minute instead. She realized a few moments ago that she could no longer hear Babidi or Vegeta anymore, but after a few moments her conclusion changed through a grimace of pain, thinking that it wasn't so much that she couldn't hear, but the high-pitched noise in her ears overpowered their voices. Why was that so loud? And where was it coming from? She swallowed again with increasing difficulty, feeling powerfully nauseous. Her sleepy gaze looked down at the ground below and wondered vaguely how angry Babidi would be if she threw up on him…

She smiled faintly at that.

Josie looked down and studied her swelling limbs with a heavy blink of her eyes, unable to connect that they were her own, looking past them to see that her legs were very much in the same state and growing alarmingly every moment. Her hands looked the same and she couldn't move them to her face to see if that was big too, but she could feel it. Her skin felt taut, stretched to impossible proportions, and she wasn't able to get more than a small slip of air at a time now. And that was what broke through the haze of confusion to give her the surreal understanding—for just a moment—that Babidi was killing her.

Unable to focus on any single thought for more than a moment, she moved her head with some difficulty to look at Vegeta, whose sole attention was on Babidi; and she found herself suddenly desperately wishing that he would look at her — for just a minute — so that he could see that she was flying. She had always wanted to fly on her own, without the boys having to carry her around, and now no one was paying attention to her while she was flying for her very first time.

She looked up at the ceiling for a moment with a frown, as her arms continued to swell, wondering briefly where the boys were. She wondered where Valerie was? And her mom and dad? Her older brother? And Bulma. She wished so desperately that they were all here with her, because she didn't want to be scared and alone anymore…

Her frown deepened when she brought her head back down and caught sight of somebody rushing Vegeta from behind, and she wanted to yell and warn him, but she was barely able to open her dry mouth before it was already too late; whoever that was had had already pushed him forward and faintly she could make out Babidi screaming. Josie turned to look at the creature that had started them all down this path and found him glaring at her again, furiously. He screamed something unintelligible as his arms waved in the air, and the air around her began to shift and crack open her skin.

A familiar gleam of power shone through his eyes and before she could do anything more than scream, she felt herself pushed toward and then viciously away from the ground and high into the air. She passed right though and above the ship, past the birds and the sky itself, faster than she had ever moved before, up, into and through the planet's atmosphere, until she was looking down at the retreating planet in confusion.

She couldn't feel anything anymore.

And that sound...

The ear-piercing sound of silence only continued to surge as her line of sight slipped into colors that were quickly fading. All the colors in the world went away one by one, until they were reduced to only three, before each of those slowly went out; like the last few seconds of an old television screen where the noise fades, and there is one shortening line of grey color in sight in the center of the screen that lingers for just a wisp of a moment, before it ceases to exist.

Josie felt the terrifying self-awareness of that deafening silence and suffocating darkness for only seconds, before she too, passed away.

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The dull black noise began to come back, a little bit at a time; the white began to bring color back into her line of sight. She inhaled a lung full of air as she felt her body become whole again, underneath a white linen sheet. Josie slowly to open her eyes, grimacing at the brightness of daylight.

She sat up on a simple table top, mouth dropping open once her eyes landed on the spectacular — yet familiar — fluffy yellow clouds of other-world. Her eyes only stopping their exploration, when she noticed an amused Babba sitting atop her crystal ball with her arms crossed.

"…Well?" The old woman asked with a secretive smile, "Are you ready?"