Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or the characters (other than Relena).
Notes: Someone told me to "hurry and finish" this, but when writing fanfics, you have to take your time, or else your story won't turn out the way you want it to...
Chapter Eleven: Danger Underground
"We'll see how much love can save you when it no longer exists." - Seether
April 5, Thursday à 6 days until the eclipse
"Let's get moving people!" Relena shouted through a bullhorn. "When I said I needed this done soon, I didn't mean next century!"
"Hey!" a man yelled, trying to grab the bullhorn back. "You don't have the authority to order my men-"
Relena shoved the horn back into his hands. "They are my men, Grayson," she hissed so the workmen couldn't hear. "HQ explained to you that I was in charge. I said I want them to work fast, and they're sitting on their asses. You get them to work, or I will."
Relena stalked away. Grayson was a member of the society, also the operator of a construction company. The society contacted him and ordered him to disregard any other jobs for the day and dig up the back yard of the Brief household.
Of course, every one of his employees was a complete sloth.
"Bulma," she said as she entered the house, "Are you guys almost ready to go?"
"Yes," Bulma answered from her seat on the kitchen chair. She looked exhausted, dark rings surrounding her eyes. "We've packed all the necessities."
Relena knelt down in front of her. "I must warn you that this mission is going to be very difficult. And dangerous. We may need you, but I won't force you to go if you're not up to it. I understand this has been very stressful-"
Bulma stopped her. "I'm going. I have to."
Trunks wandered in with his cell phone while having an argument with his secretary. "I told you, I'm going on a trip...You don't need to know where... Then cancel...Yes, everything...I don't know when I'll be back...Don't contact me on the cell phone. I won't have it with me...No, I can't bring it...Because I'm not going to. Why do you have to ask-...Look, I can't deal with you right now!" Trunks hung up on her. It rang again, and he crushed it in his hand in frustration.
"Remind me you need a new one of those," Bulma said as he tossed it in the garbage can. "Are you and your sister ready?"
Trunks nodded. "Is it time to go? Goten and Goku aren't even here."
"Not yet," Relena muttered, glancing out the window. The men had stopped again. "Aargh! That's it..."
She stomped outside and over to Grayson again, grabbing his arm.
"Ow! That hurts!" he cried out.
"Look, I don't know how the hell you got into the society, but if you don't get those men digging faster, I'm going to rip your arm off!"
Grayson nodded and held the bullhorn to his lips. "You all have two seconds to get to work, or you're all fired!"
The men looked up in surprise, and then hurried into the fairly deep ditch they had dug. They got to work, plunging their shovels into the moist soil.
"Make sure they keep it up," Relena said to Grayson. "We're on a tight schedule, understand?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He kneels before me, somewhat unconscious, eyes closed, his arms limp at his sides. My hand on his forehead the only thing holding his head up. I bombard his mind with negative energy, erasing any memory he has. I need complete control over him. Just having his will may not be enough. Turning him to my will shall be quite simple.
There, it is done. I lift my hand from his head.
"Wake up," I order.
His eyes open and he lifts his head. He stares at me, silent and emotionless.
Now for the test. "Let's see how obedient you are, Vegeta-chan." I pause to think of a good question. "Who are you loyal to?"
He looks me straight into the eyes and replies, "Bulma."
A shock runs through me. "What?"
"My mate."
Now I am angry. How could it have not worked? He was helpless, powerless in the trance. I erased all of his memories... Didn't I? "How can you remember her?"
"I love her."
He falls to the side after I strike him across the face with my fist. Having no control over his body, he does not get back up.
I must calm down. Think this through. My mind erasing didn't work. And it didn't work because he didn't forget his wife. And he didn't forget her because he loves her.
I smile to myself. Well, I'll just have to do something about her...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We've broken into a cavern!" one of the workmen yelled.
"Good," Relena said to herself. She turned to the group of people before her: Bulma, Trunks, Bra, Goku, and Goten. "Are we all ready?"
They all nodded. Like Relena, they were all in suitable hiking clothes: long sleeved shirts, warm pants, and hiking boots; it could get pretty chilly below the earth's surface. Also, they each had a backpack filled with extra clothes, food, and other necessities.
"Alright, but before we go you all need one of these." Relena reached into her bag and pulled out six walkie-talkies. "In case we get separated, we can contact each other on these. They are also equipped with receivers that locate the signal from each other's transmitters."
"My transmitter," Relena continued, "is right here." She pulled back the left sleeve of her T-shirt. A microchip was half embedded in her shoulder. "So you'll always be able to find me even if I don't have a walkie-talkie."
Five gawks.
"Every agent has one of these so the society is aware of their location."
Five gawks accompanied by nodding.
Relena pulled her sleeve back down and put on her backpack. "This will be a long trek, but hopefully less than six days. They could be anywhere under the city. Ready?"
"Yes," they replied in unison, even though they sounded unsure.
Relena was a little worried herself.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I put my hands out in front of me, palms facing the dark soil of the walls. I concentrate some of my negative energy on the dirt, and five mounds of earth emerge from the mud and shape into dark creatures with no distinguishing features except two dark pits that serve as eyes.
"Go," I order. "Destroy her in the most agonizing way possible."
They stretch to the ceiling and disappear into the soil above, quickly making their way to their target.
I turn to my paralyzed conduit, who is kneeling in the dirt, arms at sides, eyes fixed on the wall before him.
"We'll see how much love can save you when it no longer exists," I say.
He shows no reaction, but I can sense his distress.
I chuckle. "Do not worry. Everything will be fine once you remember nothing and become obedient to me."
He is now bitter, resenting me.
"Oh, Vegeta-chan," I say, pouting. I kneel down in front of him and trace my nail along the indents of his muscular chest. I stare him in the eyes. "You're hurting my feelings. I bring you all the way down here so I can make you my king and you are ungrateful."
He is wishing he could kill me.
"You couldn't hurt me if you tried," I respond, licking his cheek with my tongue. "Even you know that by now. What is the problem anyway? You get to become king of this entire planet. I would think the idea would be attractive to you." I kiss his neck, moving my lips up to his ear. I snicker. "All you have to do is kill your two children, your colleague and his son, and then help me take over the minds of every person on this planet."
He hates me.
Fine.
He won't for long.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The workmen have left," Relena said, glancing at her watch. Finally, it was about seven o'clock. Almost a whole day gone. "It's time for us to get going. Do you all have your transceivers?"
They nodded, holding up their walkie-talkies.
"All right."
Goku hesitated. "Are you sure we shouldn't call Gohan or Krillin or anyone to help us out?"
Relena nodded. "The less people involved, the better. That's priority in the society. We don't need to get too many people involved. Less lives to risk. Plus, that way there are fewer people who know about us. Which is why when this is over I'd appreciate it if you all didn't tell anyone about my organization or me. Not Gohan, not Krillin, not anyone. Understand?"
The five nodded.
They made their way over to the vertical tunnel the workmen had dug, and Relena was the first on the ladder. One by one the adventurers made their way into the dark cavern.
Goten flicked on his flashlight first. "Man." He shivered. "It's freezing down here."
"And empty," Trunks added.
"What do you expect to be down here?" Goku asked.
"I dunno. Stalactites, stalagmites, and things like that you know?"
"Stalacmites?"
"Well, all I see are a rock floor and stone ceiling," Bra said. She flashed the light around. "And a dirt wall, a wall, a wall, a monster, a wall- AHHH!"
The dirt creature leapt towards her. Bra dodged and it splattered across the ground.
"What the hell was that?" Bulma yelled.
"What the hell is that?" Goten asked as the creature quickly reformed itself.
"I don't know," Goku said. "But there are more of them."
Everyone huddled together as five mud creatures closed in on them.
"Seether must be anxious to dispose of us," Relena said.
"With dirt people?" Trunks muttered. "This will be easy."
Trunks shot a blast at one of the monsters. It fell to pieces on impact, mud plopping on the ground.
"See?" Trunks smirked proudly, looking a lot like his otousan at the moment.
Then it pulled itself back together.
"Uh, oh..." Trunks said, smile vanishing.
"That's not good," Goten agreed.
"Shouldn't the blast have disintegrated it?" Bulma asked.
"Seether's magic is too strong for you to destroy them," Relena said.
"So what do we do?" Goku asked. A creature ran towards him, and he splattered it with a blast. The mud slid off the wall and the monster recompiled itself.
"There's only one thing to do."
"What's that?" Bra asked.
Relena grabbed Bulma's arm. "RUN!!!"
She pulled Bulma down a tunnel, moving so fast that Bulma could hardly keep up with the girl's pace. But that didn't matter, because in moments their four fellow travelers were with them, Goku picking up Bulma and Goten carrying Relena so they could move at a faster rate, Trunks and Bra running behind them.
As they ran, their only guides in their escape were the flashlights, revealing forks in the tunnels, narrowing and widening walls and ceilings. They raced through tunnel after tunnel, hunching over in narrow spaces and making random turns, but the creatures were just as swift, even gaining on the group. They flew after them, sliding along the floor, which had eventually turned from stone to dirt.
Suddenly, two more creatures popped up in front of the six at an intersection. The adventurers stopped in their tracks, the frictionless mud causing them to fall onto the ground. Goku dropped Bulma, who landed beside him, and Goten dropped Relena, who collapsed onto his lap.
Three of the creatures engulfed Goku, avoiding being shot to pieces by forming holes in themselves for the energy to pass through. The other four went after Trunks, Bra, and Goten, following the same method of blast dodging. Relena ran over to Bulma, helping her up.
"They're not coming for us," Bulma said.
"That's probably because we pose less of a threat-"
Relena was cut off by a cry from Bulma as another monster emerged from the soil, looming up behind them. It grabbed Bulma around the waist and sunk back into the ground, pulling her with it.
"No!" Relena shrieked, trying to pull the woman from the creature's grip. "Let her go!" She clawed at its dirt flesh, but it had no effect.
"Bulma!" Goku saw what was happening and shot a beam of energy, bringing it across the torsos of his three assailants. He ran over to Relena, who was trying to pull Bulma out of the dirt by the woman's hands, the only part of her body sticking out of the earth. Relena's hands slid out of Bulma's and she fell backwards. Goku slid over on his knees and swiped at his friend's vanishing fingertips. He missed, and could no longer see her hand.
Bulma was gone.
________________________________________________________________________________
A reader: WHAT DID YOU DO TO BULMA???????????
^_^; Hey, you guys didn't think saving Veggie was gonna be easy, did you?