Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball (Z/Super/GT) or its characters.

- Chapter 19 -

Holding a mug of hot tea in hands, Cabba is currently watching with attentive eyes as his wife is pacing from one side of the house to the other. In this mild amusement, he wonders what has come to the woman that barely gives any mind to the house's decoration and is now dragging all kinds of furniture from room to room.

Pulling a heavy padded-chair on her tail, Caulifla just noticed the stares she is getting from her husband. "Something on my face?" She asked with a slightly annoyed tone, promptly stopping in place, letting the furniture clinging sideways to her leg.

His eyes secretly wander towards her left ear, drawn by the subtle light coming from the sole Potara earring.

Even after they had defused back to being two separated people, Caulifla and Kale were not able to take the earrings off. They tried to rid themselves of the godly jewelry in a lot of different ways, but none came close to making the Potara budge.

Casually hiding his face behind the side of his mug, Cabba grunts a soft reply. "Just wondering what you're doing all of a sudden."

Caulifla looked deeply offended by that, for what, not even she knows. Now scowling for no reason, her eyes dance from one part of the living room to the other, secretly pondering what was the point of all this hassle she has been doing for over an hour now.

Quietly taking her eyes back to Cabba, Caulifla weights a few words over her mind. "I was just… Didn't the living room feel odd?" She asked him with uncertainty writing all over her face. "It is like something is wrong, out of place."

"Everything is just as it was the day you decided to fuse with Kale." Cabba replied with an accusatory tone, one that sounded way harsher than what he intended. "No one even came to the house, Caulifla. I left Cora with your parents and I… I slept in the office every night."

"No one?" Caulifla asked him, her eyes sparkling with sincere curiosity.

A stern frown robbed Cabba of his calm expressions. "Want to talk about it?" He proposed with a soft sigh. Seeing Caulifla shuffling her fingers in between each other, Cabba placed his mug on the small table in front of him and moved to the side, making enough space for Caulifla to take a seat at his large and comfy armchair.

At first, Caulifla just snorted at him and waved one hand in dismissal. Normally she would just toss a lazy pun at Cabba and go on with whatever business she had in mind. Today, however, she held little ground against the serious gaze her husband is giving her. Exhaling out in defeat, she slowly stepped over to him, sitting quietly by his side.

With the way the always loud and assertive Caulifla is acting, anyone would raise an eyebrow in suspicion, to Cabba this behavior is like a screaming alarm that is ringing loudly; something is wrong.

"Caulifla…" He whispered her name in a sweet tone, then acting with care around her odd mood, Cabba took her hand on his own, interlocking their fingers together. "Remember the day we went to that weird green planet, full of giant trees that went as high as the clouds in the sky?"

A playful chuckle escaped her, easing her nerves enough to push Caulifla to look at Cabba and smile. "Difficult to forget something like that. That was the day I learned that my sweet and innocent Cabba was not so innocent anymore." She tapped at his side with the tip of her elbow, giggling at the rush of red that instantly blushed her husband's cheek.

"Stop twisting history, Caulifla!" He cried out embarrassed. "I took you to that planet to train on a different landscape. The change in our schedule is entirely on you."

She laughed again, now poking his chest with one finger. "Taking a shy and impressionable girl to a barely lit cave, making our bodies get wet and hot in place so isolated… That doesn't sound like a training trip for me."

"Hah! Shy and impressionable girl?! Didn't know we took another girl with us to that planet." He squirmed to the left as she poked him on the side again. "That profile fits you as a shoe fits into a hand."

"Admit it. That's why you love me." She purred on his ear, her breath sending jolts all across his body.

"Wrong…" He whispered back, and even if his words made Caulifla look at him with a strange look, his tone still managed to soothe her worries away even before he continued. "There is so much more as to why I love you. So many words to describe how you make me feel. Caulifla, you are the only one for me. I truly can't see myself sharing my life with anyone other than you."

"Ohh… that's so sweet." To say that his words melted Caulifla into a puddle of giddiness at his side would not be an exaggeration. With the biggest grin ever showing on her lips she jumped onto him, grabbing his arm to let her pull him closer and plant a peck on his cheek. "Cabba… I also…"

There it comes again, the 'shy' side of the fearsome Caulifla. To a brazen woman like her who can talk dirty and spit the most outrageous insinuations under the prying ears of others, Caulifla always gets into a stuttering fit when Cabba pours his heart to her most in the sincerely and lovingly way possible.

And when this scenario comes about, Caulifla has only two routes to follow. One is to give in, bear the soft chuckles of her husband as she stutters a proper response with her cheeks burning red all the while. The second route she takes, and unfortunately for Cabba the one she has decided to take, is to turn the tables on him by making Cabba the one to fret with embarrassment.

"Anyone you say…" Caulifla's mood changed in one-eighty, the playful glint that flashed in her eyes made Cabba sweat drop in apprehension. "Funny thing you said there… what about those kissy-kiss you shared with some other strong and badass girl, huh?"

Instantly Cabba's right hand came flying to his face. "Why I knew you would bring this up?"

"Those were pretty hot kisses, weren't they?" Caulifla continued, twisting his arms even further on this. "Are you sure you didn't like that? I remember you looking super into it."

"Caulifla, please…" Cabba sighed heavily on this one. "That was… different and you know it. I did kiss Kefla and I wanted to do it. But I only did it because I saw you in her. Each time I held her in my arms, I was only thinking of you."

Raising his arms, Cabba turned to look at his wife. He turned to look at her straight in the eyes and convey his sincerity in all the ways he could. What he didn't expect was to see her smiling back at him, a sweet smile full of nothing but love.

"I know…" Caulifla replied. "I remember those kisses. How they felt, how I felt, and the way you looked at me." She leaned closer to Cabba and wrapped her arms around him.

"Caulifla…" A warm smile took over Cabba's expression. With his right hand, he began to stroke her hair. This moment right here feels like heaven to him, basking in her warmth, feeling his loved one so close to him.

"You know…" Cabba felt her voice echoing on his chest. "I remember kissing Asparus too."

And Cabba's sweet smile faded back into a thin line.

"What? You jealous?!" Caulifla chirped way too happy for Cabba's taste.

"Not really what I wanted to hear coming from your lips after you set the mood like that…." He grumbled his response back to her, his hand still working on the soft strokes in her hair.

"My Cabba is jealous, haha. So cute." Giggling away in her silliness, Caulifla began to tickle and poke Cabba at his belly, making his squirm around in the armchair.

"Cut it out… this is not that funny." He grumpily tried to stop the merciless wave of tickles, only to push his wife to go even harder at it.

After having enough fun by having him dancing around her fingers, quite literally, Caulifla stopped to give him a bright grin. "You know… I didn't say that with ill intent. I really remember kissing you and him." She said more seriously. "It's so weird. As Kefla I could see everything she saw. I could feel everything and every thought she had; it was like I was watching someone's life from their eyes."

"Then you're not completely Kefla?" Cabba asked. "I mean, when you are her, you still exist inside of her?"

"Yeah. I am there, but I am also her. So weird." She sighed calmly, pressing her cheeks against his firm and muscled belly. "Kale too…" Caulifla whispered that without much thought. "I could feel Kale too. Her thoughts and all."

"Like you could read her mind?" Cabba said.

"Hn…" Caulifla shook her head. "Like I could feel her thoughts like they were my own. I felt her worries about Asparus. I could see how odd he was behaving, even though I don't know him all that well. It was like I've known him for years… in an intimate way."

"In the way that Kale knows him." He pondered out loud, to which Caulifla nodded in reply.

"Cabba… I feel so sad for her, for them both." Rolling around the armchair, Caulifla laid sideways on his lap, giving Cabba a corned look. "I saw… her memories… I don't know if that is the right way to put it. But anyway, they are so far apart from each other even though they want nothing more than to be together. Every day they are busy with something else, at each night there is something in the way."

Cabba hummed quietly. "They are different than us. A King and a Queen are held to a lot of responsibilities that we don't have."

"I still don't like it!" She barked back in reprisal. "You don't get it Cabba. Even when they work out a day to spend it together, there is that crazy mother-in-law of hers that always gets in the way." Now Caulifla was practically punching the air in indignation. "Is like that woman gets a kick in tormenting Asparus. She always pulls Kale around and makes weird-ass schemes to pranks him. What's wrong with her?"

"I feel you Caulifla, but this has nothing to do with us."

"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THEY HAVE BEEN WITHOUT SEX?!" She jumped out from his lap, giving him a stern glare.

"T-That is really not our business." Cabba grew a bit red in the cheeks, as he drifted his gaze to the side trying to avert his thoughts away from such a topic.

"That is my business! Kale is my best friend." Caulifla puffed her chest out, pushing her point of view quite fervently towards her husband. "Want to hear something that will rock your world and shatter your expectation?" She asked with a teasing tone.

That invitation felt way too much of a trap, even more so when Caulifla gives him that taunting gaze of hers. But as Cabba has learned years ago, there is not circling around his wife when she gets like this. "Sure… why not?"

"Remember how thirsty and handsy Kefla was with you and Asparus?" Her hands going to her waist as she waited for Cabba to process her words. "That was all Kale. It was Kale's pent up desires that ended up pushing us to go all out on you two."

Mouth wide open and eyes startled as they can get. Cabba is looking at his wife as if she has grown a second head. "Hah! Now you're just pulling my leg."

"No, honey. I am not." She smiled at him and when Cabba's hand went to his face again, Caulifla just laughed away. "See why I am this pissed off with that? I want to do something about it… I can't even imagine my life if we had to go that long without any action."

"You want to do something about it?" A soft chuckle escaped Cabba, and while he had no intention of mocking her noble intentions, it didn't help to keep her from glaring at him. "Hey, I am on your side on this." He raised both hands in the air trying to calm her down a bit. "What's the big plan?"

"What you think?!" She spat her response with a wicked grin. "As soon as we get him back, we lock them inside a room and then just let the passion flow. I call it the love heist!"

"Bhahahaha! A love heist?" After his first bombastic reaction, Cabba fell into a fit of laughter again. His way too energic reaction making Caulifla pout and punch him in the arm. "By the gods, how I love your imagination."

"Hey! Stop laughing at me." She pouted even harder. "I am super serious about this."

"Haha… I know, love… I know. When the time comes, I will help you snatch Asparus away from his mother and lock him up whatever you want them to be."

The Cabba from his younger days would just stop here and stare at Caulifla, to be able to just look at that beautiful girl was enough to make his day perfect. Now the more mature Cabba, the one that has spent so many great experiences with this wonderful woman, knows that this moment is just the start for him. The start for something better.

"However… we will have to leave that for later." He leaned closer to her, bruising his lips over the soft skin of her neck. "Still… there's one thing that I can do now." Taking her with one arm, Cabba pulled Caulifla closer to him, letting him plant kiss after kiss in a long line towards her earlobe. "One thing that you will like… I will make sure of it." Pressing his lips against her ear, he moved carefully around the Potara earring, giving her a careful and loving bite.

With her husband kissing her silly with his provocations, Caulifla was left a giggling mess. "Will you steal me away?" She purred back at him, her eyes now passionate and super focused on his strong facial features.

"That's my plan." With a quick movement, Cabba grabbed Caulifla in his arms, taking her in bridal style. "Our very own love heist." He grinned at her.

Caulifla was left with nothing but a seductive smirk on her lips. Seeing as how much she likes being the one in control, the one reigning over Cabba with her alluring skills, she finds appealing the idea of having Cabba fully in control for this one time.

Like a defenseless damsel being robbed away, she laid back against his strong arms, letting Cabba carry her upstairs towards their room. And in the way to their love suite, her eyes stumbled upon the numerous changes she did to the hallway, the many things she moved around in the angst rampage she was having just earlier.

Now, carried on the arms of the man she loves, Caulifla can only chuckle at her silliness from before.

He loves her, he will always love her. And nothing will ever change that. No one can steal his heart away, not even a different version of her.

A few hours ago, Cabba thought he knew how much he missed his wife, how he longed for her touch and warmth.

How wrong he was about that.

Taking Caulifla in his arms again, having his hands caressing her body in every intimate touch possible. It felt like a whole new experience again, as if they were drinking from each other's presence for the first time.

The more they loved each other, the more they thirsted for this love. They went overboard, going again and again. Even as the fatigue was starting to set in, they were still exploring each other, taking every bit of pleasure that they could.

After such a passionate exchange between the young couple, they lay on top of each other, Caulifla resting with her head against his chest. Both sleeping calmly and dreaming about their love session that drained them away of their energies.

With Caulifla's names at the tip of his tongue, the young Saiyan hero is resting with the biggest smile on his lips.

That was until a gush of wind erupted inside the quiet bedroom. The sound of it alone startling Cabba awake, forcing him to open his eyes wide open and raise his fists in self-defense.

His vision clouded by the blurriness of sleep; he scanned his bedroom with attentive eyes. Yet nothing came to view, only the dancing shadows of the trees basking under the moonlight on the other side of the window.

Then, his gaze drifted to the side. Blurred as his eyes may be, his sight perfectly settled on the form of the sleeping woman at his side.

It was hard for Cabba to contain his smile. He had more than an hour of Caulifla, more than an hour of making love, yet his body aches in wanton. Sliding quietly to the side, he approached his wife with one hand going over to her.

This daring hand went to her arm, then it slides down to her waist. Pulling himself closer to the woman at his side, Cabba pressed his nose to her hair, the flowery scent overwhelming his senses, making him even more aroused for her.

"What did I do to deserve you?" He asked himself in a whisper.

His lips quickly moving forward, grazing the soft skin of her neck. One long kiss and them a soft quick one. This was his way of waking her up without risking her ire, trying to sweet her up with caresses and kisses so she would turn to him and continue on her own volition.

"I love you…" He whispered against her ear, his lips touching the shining earring. "Gods, how I love you."

Left unguarded, his rogue hand continued down on its path. Its moving fingers making deep lines in their touch, marking the sun-kissed skin as they moved down and down. Getting somewhat impatient as his wife refuses to wake up with his touch, Cabba tried a more assertive approach.

With a powerful grip, he took her left buttock in a hungry grasp.

"Hm…" She moaned quietly, the sound of the sweet voice flowing out with pleasure making Cabba even more heated. "Asparus…"

The hand stopped moving, its fingers still deeply pressed against her skin. Hearing his friend's name in this situation brought a very sour taste to his mouth, one that killed Cabba's mood practically instantly.

"Why are you calling his na—" His mouth froze into an ice-form, his tongue stuck mid-sentence.

"Cabba…?" She said his name in great confusion. "What are you doing in my room?"

"Ka-Ka-KALE?!" Cabba went flying from the bed to the wall in the matter of a second. His heart almost jumping out his chest, his breathing getting as fast as it could be. "What?! When? What are you doing in my bed?!" He cried out in panic.

Rubbing her eyes with the grogginess of sleep, Kale sat down on the bed, getting right under the bright moonlight coming from the window. This only served to further Cabba's panic, for his friend is not only sitting on his bed, but she is also wearing her very thin layered sleepwear.

A very detailed and mature-looking black nightgown adorns her firm and lean body, its silky fabric hugs her skin tightly, firming even more her dazzling curves.

This right in front of him is Kale, his longtime friend, and his queen. Where once he only saw the shy and timid girl, Cabba is now seeing a new side of her and the only question screaming inside his head is; when did Kale become so goddamn sexy.

'Bad Cabba, Bad Cabba!' He shook his head fervently, desperately trying to push his gaze away from her. 'She is your best friend's wife. She is your wife's best friend. Where are you looking at?!'

"O-Oi… If this is one of your pranks, this is not funny. Caulifla!" Bouncing his gaze from one side to the other, Cabba is looking everywhere for his wife. He can already picture her hiding somewhere while snuffing a fit of giggles with her hands.

"Sis…?" Kale followed his eyes, getting more confused by the minute. "Huh? Where are we?" She asked in a mild panic, her sight finally shaking the blurriness from sleep and failing to recognize the walls around her. "Cabba… you're scaring me here."

"Wait… you're not in some sort of joke with Caulifla?" His puffing nostrils became a lot calmer, his expression getting a bit more worried and pensive.

Growing very wary of the lack of clothes covering her skin, Kale raised her arms to shield her breasts and pulled her legs together to hide her panties.

Seeing her uneasiness made Cabba shift his gaze to the side, feeling even more guilty for ogling her just now. "Anyway… how did you get here? Where is Caulifla?"

"I-I was sleeping in my bed until now... I don't know what happened." As Kale lowered her head in embarrassment, the small orb of her earring coming in contact with the dim moonlight, reflecting a tiny shine of light across the room.

This small ray of light caught Cabba's attention, forcing his eyes back to Kale. Even if he was very aware of their position now, it was a good thing that his eyes traveled back towards her.

"Kale!" He exclaimed loudly. "How did you move your Potara?" He pointed to the godly earring that once was sitting on her right ear and it is now on the same side as the one with Caulifla.

A soft gasp escaped the young queen, her left hand shooting up to check her right ear. As her fingers touched the base of her earlobe, finding nothing hanging down in the air, a second gasp escaped her lips. "I didn't!" She burbled out. "It was here when I went to sleep. It was right—" Then her right hand went to her left ear and it touched the cold piece of jewelry. "How…?"

Staring intently onto the Potara, Cabba's expression grew a lot colder and serious. For someone as sharp as him, took little pondering to come up with an idea to all of this, for why Kale is sitting right here in his bed with her earring sitting on the opposite ear. "It didn't end, did it?" He calmly said, getting Kale's attention back onto him. "The Potara fusion it's still working somehow, that's the only way to explain this. Even with you two separated, they are still affecting you."

"You think… that Kefla is trying to come back?" Kale's voice came out tremulous. The light in her eyes carrying the same conflicted look to it as Caulifla had in hers earlier today.

"Dunno…" He replied in the sincerest way he could. There is no way anyone could know; all of this is so out of their imagination. "I will give a guess and say that right now Caulifla is probably sleeping in your bed." A long sigh slipped by his lips. "Our guest room is clean and ready for use. You can stay there for the night" Cabba offered one hand to his friend. "Let us at least sleep until the morning. Tomorrow we can try and properly solve this mess."

A wild scenario ran through Cabba's mind. He imagined if he tried to return Kale to the royal palace, with the Saiyan queen in her nightgown and him right at her side while her husband is missing. A cold shiver ran across his body in a violent outburst. If he could survive the people at the palace, he would probably get lynched by the entire planet's population for daring to lay his hands on their beloved Lady Kale.

"In a way… I am happy for being here now." Kale said in a shy way, the same way she used to speak with Cabba years ago. "I wanted to talk alone with you."

Poor Cabba had to swallow very hard down his throat. Punching a constant reminding in his head that this is HIS FRIEND, he wore a poker-face and smiled friendly to Kale.

"We are here now." He said simply. "Anything weighing on your mind?"

Then Kale's shy behavior died out. Her expression changed to the confident and sure person that she has become over the years. "I will overrule Asparus' orders tomorrow." She stated as a matter of fact. "I will send every ship and every squad across the universe. From tomorrow onwards, we will hunt them down."

The neutral features on the Saiyan hero's face changed to a more severe one. In an automatic reaction, he frowned down at Kale. "Oi, oi… do you understand what you're saying there, Kale?" He replied with a reprimanding tone. "That is an act of aggression."

She scoffed at his reasoning, her features growing colder in reaction. "They started a war against us… this is retaliation!" Her explanation did little to diminish the frown at her friend's face. "I had enough of cowering in our planet while they do everything they want out there."

"Kale is not like we did nothing this entire time." Cabba tried to reason. "Both Asparus and I, we have been working day in and day out to figure out a way to resolve this."

"You are my friend, Cabba… You are Asparus' best friend... I want you to lead our forces against them." She forced back. "If they have him… Cabba, if they got Asparus…"

"Then we will get him back. Have a little faith in him." A friendly grin flashed on his lips, but it had little impact on the worried woman. "You know how strong he is, don't you?"

"Cabba…" Kale gave him a small smile. "You know nothing about him… not like I do. He still has scars from those days." Hugging her legs close to her chest, Kale averted her gaze to the side, getting a distant look to her eyes. "There are days that Asparus wakes up sweating, breathing so hard… he has nightmares of the day he was tortured, his mind being twisted by those villains."

"Kale…"

"What would you do if Caulifla was the one in his place, huh?" She spat the words at him almost in an accusatory way. "If they do that to him again, I don't even want to imagine it." A few droplets came running down Kale's cheeks, her eyes glistening with tears. "Please, Cabba… If not for me. Please do this for him. I want him back. I want my husband baaaack."

Kale broke down in tears, her voice echoing inside the room, her pained cries filling the space between her and Cabba. With the strings of his heart pulling heavily on him, Cabba could only walk forward and pull Kale into a firm embrace.

"I get it, Kale…" He whispered to her, his chin resting against her head. "For now… just go to sleep. We will sort everything tomorrow. I promise you; we will fix everything."

With his friend clinging to him in a desperate struggle to find one light of hope in this turmoil that is her life right now, Cabba allowed himself to be all the support that Kale needs. Letting her tears roll down his chest, Cabba took to him every crying sound coming from her. It felt like punishment for failing again, but more than anything, he is taking her pain as his own to remind him of his duty, of what needs to be done.

No matter what, he will see this through. At this point, if these Tuffles want to wage war against the universe.

They will have a war.

Within a cold and bottomless dark, Asparus slowly stirs up from his slumber. His body feels so heavy, like its chained to a giant boulder. Tightly pressed onto the hardest surfaces, with his arms and legs tied in an unbreakable bond. Just the act of breathing is so hard and punishing as if his chest was split open and then stitched back together in a poor attempt to make him whole again.

Forcing his eyes open, Asparus tried to escape from the suffocating feeling that is trying to take his consciousness away, this was a bigger mistake than he could ever anticipate. Laid bare in front of his eyes is nothing but an endless expansive background painted in light blue. The ground is made of water and the air is filled by a dense white fog.

"Whe—" As his lips parted away to try and speak, the scar in his cheek flared up in searing pain. The marked skin getting bright red just like in the day it was burned on his flesh. Trying desperately to push the mind-numbing sensation away with his hands, Asparus tried to reach out and touch it, just to find his arms firmly stuck in place by ridiculously large metal chains, these evil bindings tying him up against a giant stone right behind him.

"Anyone there… Gaarhh!" Once more his scar flared up wildly with its red color, and every time he tries to speak up the pain gets worse and worse.

By this point Asparus is growing dangerous erratic, his breathing getting out of form and his heart beating out of control. Just the landscape itself is enough to push his mind to the limit of comprehension, it feels wrong and alien to his every senses.

"Tch… back in chains again, huh?" A still voice ringed from up ahead, its source concealed behind the dense curtain of fog.

"Who is ther—Aaaarggh!" He cried out loudly in pain as his scar reminded him of the unspoken rule of this place.

A pair of red eyes flashed from behind the dense white, its piercing gaze firmly fixated on the young king's form. "There is something funny about fate, isn't there?" The voice said with a taunting glee. "For someone that struggled so much with bonds and the metaphorical chains that hold you back… you always find a way to get yourself imprisoned with actual cuffs."

Something about this voice is eerie familiar to him. It rings in an evil tune just like the twisted voice that torments his memories. It's cheer malice bringing about the worst reaction from the young king, traumas he had once thought forgotten.

Sinking his teeth deep on the skin of his lower lip, Asparus glared with a burning ire towards those eyes. "REVEAL YOURSELF!" He managed to roar past the pain. "Show your face, coward. Are you so brave to mock me behind that fog? To taunt me with these chains holding me back? Why won't you try and do it to my face."

Asparus' voice echoed endlessly within the silence that followed his outburst. The thing behind the fog looking impassive and collect, for then to it to burst into a maniacal fit of laughter. "That is the look befitting a king!" The voice commended, a strange pride ringing between its mockery. "You want to see my face, oh brave king? Hah, so be it!"

The sound of steps came to life from behind those curtains. Heavy boots crashing on the watery surface, making waves across the strange floor, bringing in a piece of rhythmic music that sounds both soothing and terrifying.

Then from behind the fog, those red eyes took shape, a face came forward and a wicked grin greeted the young king in an impossible view.

"Handsome, isn't it?" The voice said. "The face, that is."

Asparus' voice died in his throat. His onyx-colored eyes are quivering in confusion, his mouth opening and closing without a purpose.

The voice, those red eyes… They belong to someone looking exactly like him. From the hair, to the scar, and even to his mannerism of crossing both arms against his chest. A single glance is enough for him to attest that this person standing in front of him is Asparus himself. But that is impossible unless he has lost grasp of his mind already.

"What… are you?" He asked with a stuttering voice, shocked to the core with the sight in front of him.

"Eh? Can't you tell?" His doppelganger replied with a crooked smirk. "Ah… whatever then." Taking form-perfect steps forward, this red-eyed version of him marched closer to him. Getting close enough to stand mere inches away from Asparus. Raising his right arm, this stranger brought his hand to Asparus, poking at his chest with one finger. "I am you."

"R-Ridiculous!" Asparus spat angrily again. "Henkanegi! That is you again, isn't it?! I don't know how the hell you survived, but I will—"

"Stop right there, champ." The red-eyed Asparus raised his fingers and pressed them against his other self's lips. "Don't compare me to that insignificant goon. I take quite a huge offense to that; I have you know."

"Then what—HGGGNNAAAH!" His voice exploded out in a deafening scream, the pain that was once contained to his scar is now spreading all over his body like living fire.

"Stop wasting words with stupid questions, idiot." Moving his hand further in, the doppelganger wrapped his arms around Asparus' neck, clinging on to him with complete intimacy as if they were close friends. "Told ya already. I am you and no amount of grunts and complaints will change that." Another smirk crossed the red-eyed man's lips. "Brooding all those feelings inside yourself. Locking your full potential behind useless moralism and a stupid sense of justice. Bah! What did you expect to happen? Those urges you have, those burning desires to lash out and conquer everything… Do you really think that bottling it all up inside your chest would get rid of it?"

"I… have no such desires…" Asparus replied with a trembling voice, his breathing getting worse with each wave of pain trying to crush his senses.

"Hm… I guess that's true." A smacking sound echoed in the blue horizon. The doppelganger gave Asparus a playful slap at his back. "Those dreams are mine now."

Reacting to the malicious tone of his voice, this strange world began to shake and twist. What was first the lingering sound of his last word, is slowly changing into a thunderous clap. This chain of events unleashed the end of this place as it were to Asparus' eyes.

But to put more accurately, the darkness lurking at the side of his sight is the thing overwhelming his vision. The pain numbing away to be a little more than an annoyance at the back of his head, the tight chains holding him in place changing to a lighter pull at his wrists. Slowly the world started to be unmade, consumed be the void that was sucking Asparus away.

Just as he was fading away from this ominous place, a firm hand grabbed him by the neck, almost taking all the air away from him.

"I want you to remember this, me." The doppelganger, now back to being only a pair of red-eyes within the darkness, snarled at him. "No matter how much you try to deny me. For how long you try to flee. I will always be inside of you. Waiting, counting the days until I will break free and take everything into my hands."

"N-Never…" Asparus tried to fight back, only to have those evil fingers press even further into his neck, forcing him to gasp in pain.

"You can't run away from what you are… Soon, the entire universe will learn that." Slowly the hand lifted the unbearable pressure away from his neck, leaving only the lingering burning sensation of its imprint. "They will fear us or they will die."

An echoing stream of laughter exploded in the air, overwhelming and full of insanity in its form. It continued to ring and ring until it finally disappeared into nothing, together with everything that made that strange world.

Jolting forward in a panic attack, Asparus screamed himself awake. His heart beating so fast that it echoes inside his eardrums. In a frantic terror, his eyes scan his surroundings, trying to find any trace of the experience he just had but only finding a dark room with a few electronics beeping at the side.

"Gah… where… where I am?" With a slight movement of his arm, Asparus noticed two sets of cuffs holding him against the strange bed he is lying on. Instantly his instincts kicked in, an uncontrollable rush of fear pushing him to the edge.

Pulling his arms with all his strength, he tried to break free of his chains, but it didn't budge. Getting more and more erratic, he gathered all the ki he could, only to find out that his ki was not responding to him, leaving him as weak as an infant.

"Not again…. I WILL NOT BE CHAINED AGAIN!" Roaring like a mad man, Asparus searched inside of him for his power. He called out to it in full desperation, clinging to any bit of ki he could find. Then a storm of silver light exploded from him, painting his hair in white color, burning the room with its violent energy.

However, just as violent as this outburst came to life, it then faded back to nothing.

"You better chill out there, buddy!" A shaky voice called to him from the side, making Asparus shoot his eyes towards it.

There he found a teenage boy with lavender hair, glaring at him with both hands pointing to his direction.

"Release me…" Asparus growled, and it was not a suggestion.

"Hah, Yeah. Like I would set you free just for you to wreak havoc everywhere." The boy replied in defiance, despite the shaky look he has.

"RELEASE ME AT ONCE, BOY!" The Saiyan king barked in rage, his silver ki exploding in a blaze again then dying out to nothing once more. Pushing his arms in a frenzy, Asparus tried with all his might to snap the cuffs open, and even as they refused to give away he continued to pull.

In his desperate struggle, lines of blood began to run down from his wrists, the metallic cuffs pushing against his flesh, cutting onto him as a response to his forceful pulls.

"Dude, seriously. You better calm down or I will knock you out." The boy's hands began to glow with a yellow light. Whoever he is, he can draw and use ki as any other experienced fighter.

From behind the open door came the sound of rushing heels, someone sprinting inside the room after the sudden commotion. "Trunks!" The voice of a woman called out for the teenager. "Take the cuffs out from him."

"Mom?! Don't even joke about that!" Trunks replied with a worried voice. "If you only could feel how much ki this guy has… he is definitely bad news."

"Stop arguing and do as I tell you to." Slapping her son in the back of the head, Bulma hissed at him and pushed him forward. "He is not evil; I know that." She said with a friendly smile, then turning her eyes to Asparus her expression turned into a remorseful one, probably for having him chained against a bed. "This is probably not the best introduction. But welcome to Earth."

Asparus studied with a calmer expression as Trunks walked over to him, the boy watching him with wary eyes as he came over to take off the cuffs. "Earth…" The young king whispered to himself. Taking a closer look at the woman in front of him, his confusion died out even if a little. Then a surge of frustration came about him. "How in the gods' name I got here?"

- Chapter End -

Reviews:

VcArchangel chapter 18 . Jul 8 – Thank you very much for the review. In a way, this chapter only exists because I read your comment. I would have skipped away for another point of the story, but I got reminded of the importance of the small moments.

Normally I reply very directly to reviews, but you can say that this chapter is my entire response to yours.