Broken Souls, Mending Hearts
(Fanfic by Juu-chan. Song-Because You Love Me-by Jo Dee Messina.)
Standard disclaimer: DBZ is NOT mine, don't sue, Blah, Blah, Blah…
AN: This is my fic, it sucks, and I don't know why anyone would want to take it, but if you do want to take it, ask me first and do not claim that it is yours. I will try to answer all reviews weekly. The answers to the reviews will probably be posted at the end of this fic. If you need help with a title, ask me in a review or something. I have tons, and I seriously doubt I will use them all!
Juuahachigou lie with her back to the wall, struggling to remain conscious. Finally, after what seemed like hours but, in reality, was a few short minutes, she regained her senses and began to stand so as to help her twin. She was unprepared for the sight she would witness.
Trunks sent a powerful blast in the direction of the disoriented Juunanagou. Unable to block in time, the android let out a cry of anguish before disintegrating.
Juuhachigou gasped. How could that…that…that monkey…destroy her brother like that? How could he? She found herself unable to find a suitable answer. Fine. If he had destroyed her brother, he could destroy her too. This struggle for survival would mean nothing without her brother there to share it with. She hung her head in defeat as hot tears began to stream unchecked down her cheeks.
Trunks stopped, just inches away from striking the killing blow to the android. Were those tears that he saw in her eyes? Nonsense. Androids don't cry, he told himself, but still, her eyes shone with the tears that streamed freely down her cheeks and he saw in those eyes such a sense of emptiness-of defeat-that it shook him to the very core of his being. Defeat such as he himself had felt when the androids had first come. From the day that they had awoken and begun to destroy his world, his had been told that the androids were emotionless monsters. Yet now he was witnessing one of those 'monsters' break down in front of him. It was unnerving, to say the least. His hatred, the one thing besides his mother he had thought he could still rely on in this world, was slowly beginning to disintegrate just as surely as Juunanagou had. Finally, a soft, bell-like whisper broke his train of thought.
"Kill me," Juuhachigou said despairingly, her voice barely audible through her sobs.
"What?!" Trunks said, extremely startled.
"Kill me," she repeated. "I have no more reasons to live. Kill me. Please." The last word was more of a plead, interrupted by yet another soft sob.
Trunks stood still, stunned. He could see it in her eyes-the part of her programming that had made her evil was beginning to disappear. Still…could he trust her? Did he want to? Should he risk it? Suddenly, he felt his mother coming towards him. Quickly. He didn't want her to see him simply standing over this android, unable to strike the killing blow. He leaned over and whispered in the android's ear, "Run! Now!" He gave no explanations, just urged her to leave as quickly as she could.
Juuhachigou lifted her head slightly, startled. She had done so much to him, yet he was asking her to leave so that he wouldn't have to kill her? Still, something deep inside of her told to leave; told her that there was some reason that she should continue to live, though she didn't know what that reason could be.
"Now!" Trunks urged her again.
She ran. She didn't feel strong enough to fly, so she ran. She didn't know where she was going. She simply ran. Her heart was pounding in her ears. Her mind was screaming so many things at one time that she didn't know which of those voices she should listen to. She didn't even know why she didn't let Trunks kill her like she had wanted him to. But his eyes. All she could see were those eyes. It was as if those clear blue eyes could see straight through her. AAGGHHH!!! Why was she thinking like this?! Finally, when she felt that she couldn't run any more lest she fall, she found a small crevice, little more than a break in the rock. She dashed inside and collapsed onto the ground, her body wracking with those silent sobs.
Bulma flew her air car into the city and landed where she saw her son standing, though his was the only figure she saw. "Are they destroyed?" she asked, breathless from nerves.
"One of them is. 18 got away." Trunks answered, staring off into the distance in the direction the android had taken.
"How did it get away?!" Bulma yelled in disbelief. "I calculated both their power levels perfectly! You should have been much stronger and faster than both of them!"
"I don't know how she got away, she just did. I'm going to go follow her," Trunks answered before flying away at top speed in search of the android, leaving his mother standing alone, more than a little confused by her son's actions.
Several hours later…
Trunks had spent several hours wandering around in circles looking for Juuhachigou. Finally, he spotted a break in the rock and dashed inside, thinking that he would be ready for her if she was inside. What he saw, however, surprised him. Juuhachigou was sitting in the center of the miniature cave, sobbing her heart out. She looked so…broken. As if when she had watched her brother die, her soul had broken into a million pieces. Now she knows how it feels, he thought bitterly. Still, he felt sorry for her. He knew how it felt to watch the ones you loved die. It hurt. Badly. He walked up to her, attempting not to startle her. It didn't work. Juuhachigou looked up quickly as she felt the familiar ki approaching. Trunks. Had he come to finish what she had asked him to do to begin with? "Why are you here?" she asked between sobs.
Trunks tore his eyes from her face before answering. Kame, how is her face so beautiful even when it's streaked with tears? To her, he said reluctantly, "I was…worried."
"You've been trying to kill me ever since I came here and when you have
the chance you tell me to run for my life? I don't think so. Why would you worry about me, anyway?"
"I don't know. I just saw something in your eyes, right after…" He let
his voice trail off.
She tried to answer, but was interrupted by another sob just from the memory. She bent her head as sob after sob again wracked her small form.
Trunks walked over to her, knelt, and held her sobbing form in his arms. She stood in his embrace limply; it was nearly impossible for her to keep herself upright at that particular moment. Her body was shaking so hard with her sobs that it was hard for Trunks to even keep his hold on her and prevent them both from toppling over. Finally, her sobs softened to quiet tears, and she whispered again, "Kill me. Please kill me. I have nowhere left to go. Kill me."
Trunks gently pulled her away from him and made her look in his eyes. "I will never kill you, Juuhachigou. Never. I'll find you a place to stay myself if I have to. I promise," he answered firmly.
"Thank you. But why?"
He carefully avoided that question. "Do you need a place to stay? I'm sure that I can find some place where you won't be found and tortured by…" His voice trailed off again and tilted his head to the sky. Someone was coming.
Juuhachigou looked up into the sky. "I sense ki signatures heading this way."
"So do I, but that's impossible. I'm the only person left on Earth with
detectable ki."
Just then Dende's voice sounded in Trunks' head. 'Trunks?'
'Dende?'
'Trunks, I'm sending Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan back to earth. For good. They're on special pardon from Heaven. I managed to put in a few good words with King Yama and get them pardoned, since they have done, or tried to do in Vegta's case, so many good things for earth, but I only got pardons for those three. Sorry, but that's all I could manage.'
'Thanks, Dende!'
'You're welcome. I know it's short notice. I have to go now. Goodbye, Trunks!'
"What happened?" Juuhachigou asked quietly.
"My dad, Goku, and Gohan have been…Oh, shit! Not good! I don't want them to kill you!"
"Have been what?"
"They've been pardoned from heaven. It's great and all, but the minute they see you, they'll try to kill you. I don't want that to happen. I think you should…" He stopped that thought as three figures landed in the clearing.
The three figures began to look around the clearing. They smiled as they saw Trunks, then looked shocked as they saw who it was that he had been talking to.
The shortest figure began to power up, and was shortly followed by the other two.
Trunks ran between them and Juuhachigou. "Stop!!" he shouted as loud as he could. The two tall figures, Gohan and Goku, stopped powering up and looked at Trunks with inquiring looks on their faces. The shorter figure, Vegeta, continued powering up, outraged that his son would even think of talking to the 'creature' in front of him. Trunks yelled again for Vegeta to stop, but instead of stopping powering up, Vegeta finished and attempted to fly around his son towards the android, who had let her guard down slightly, but far from all the way.
Trunks adjusted himself so that he was still in his father's way of getting to the android. "Father, stop! We can trust her now!"
"You can never trust an android," Vegeta growled back, and disappeared, reappearing directly behind Juuhachigou. "Now it's time for you to go to hell!" he shouted, and delivered a hard blow to the back of Juuhachigou's head, then repeated blows to her back and neck, followed by a large ki blast aimed towards her back. At the last minute, Trunks threw another ki blast that partially countered Vegeta's, but because Trunks hadn't taken the time to power up, his blast was weaker and a still fairly large and powerful portion of Vegeta's blast connected with Juuhachigou's body, sending her flying several feet away.
"JUUHACHIGOU!!!" Trunks screamed, and ran towards her badly beaten body.
Juuhachigou lie on the ground, barely breathing. Trunks went to her side, made sure that she was still alive and would remain so for at least another few minutes, and turned back to his father, who was standing with a half self-satisfied, half shocked look.
Trunks stood angrily, disappeared, reappeared directly in front of his father, and threw a punch so powerful that it sent Vegeta flying halfway through the very solid cliff wall. Gohan and Goku stood staring at the amazingly large hole Vegeta had made in the rock. Trunks returned to Juuhachigou's side. He was still unsure how he felt about her, but he knew that if he allowed her to die, he would hate himself for eternity. He gathered her in his arms and flew off to find his mother.
Vegeta, now partially recovered from the punch his son had delivered, stood staring after them, not believing what he saw. His son loved that monster! No, more than loved, he had bonded with it. The android had done so much to the world and Vegeta couldn't kill it because his son would be miserable for the rest of his life if he did! This was unheard of! Absolutely ridiculous! Trunks didn't even know he had bonded! Oh well. At least Vegeta could fix the last thing. He still wasn't happy about his son being bonded with the android-more like absolutely furious-but at least he could do something about one of his complaints. With that settled, Vegeta flew off to find his son.
A few minutes later…
Trunks landed outside Capsule Corporation with Juuhachigou still in his arms. Barely pausing to open the door, he ran inside, frantically searching for his mother. "Kaa-san!" he called, desperately wishing for her to be home. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she came down the stairs. He showed her the injured android and pleaded for her to try to help. To his surprise and great relief, she agreed, but he didn't miss the look of shock and surprise on her face before she turned and motioned for him to follow her to the lab. He followed silently, not removing his eyes from Juuhachigou until his mother insisted that he leave so that she could fix the formerly evil android.
Several hours later…
Trunks had been nervously pacing outside the lab for hours. The question "Is she all right?" had run through his mind at least a million times, and every time he had come up with at least a million answers, most of them bad news. Vegeta had already arrived, explained to Trunks about the bonding, and left, not allowing Bulma to see him. He had also made Trunks promise not to tell his mother; that he would tell her himself soon enough. Finally, Bulma came out of the lab, looking exhausted but satisfied. "Is she all right?" Trunks asked, holding his breath and expecting the worst. At least he had managed to get that question out into the open.
"She's fine, and before you even ask, no, you can't see her. She's resting. You can go in in about an hour. Now I'm going to get some sleep, and I suggest you try to do the same. It's two o'clock in the morning, for Kame's sake!"
"You can go to bed if you want, Kaa-san, but I think I'll stay, at least until I can go in and make sure she's okay." Trunks answered.
"Fine, Trunks, but only for a short visit. She should be awake by the time you're allowed in, but don't excite her too much. If she doesn't talk, don't worry. She'll be tired when she wakes up. Now good night." With that said, Bulma turned to walk up the stairs.
"Oh, yeah. Kaa-san, something weird happened today…" Trunks proceeded to fill his mother in on the happenings of that day, which took about half an hour. When he finished, Bulma, shocked but glad that Gohan, and Goku were back, but still not knowing about Vegeta, went upstairs to get ready for bed and he sat down to wait.
When his waiting time was finally over, Trunks cautiously opened the door to his mother's lab/infirmary and walked to where she had said Juuhachigou would be. He heard a soft moan and quickened his already fast pace to a near run. When he reached her, he was surprised and distressed to see her struggling to sit up. He hurried to her bedside. "Juuhachigou, lie down! You're not strong enough to sit up yet," Trunks told her, gently pushing her weak body back onto the pillows.
"What happened?" she asked him, looking at her surroundings in confusion.
"After my dad hurt you, I took you back to Kaa-san's lab and she helped you. You've been unconscious for hours," Trunks answered. "I'm going to move you to the regular infirmary. Do you think you're strong enough to be moved?"
"I'm fine. Just help me up."
"No way. I'm not going to let you walk yet. You're still too weak. Hold on." With that, he lifted her off of the bed, trying as hard as he could not to hurt her, and took her to the infirmary, her struggling in his arms as hard as she could without hurting herself, which was hardly at all. When they got to the regular infirmary, he set her down on a bed and took the chair next to her.
"Why did your mom agree to help me?" Juuhachigou asked, knowing very well who Trunks' mom was.
"Because I asked her to. It wasn't really open to discussion. After she had taken care of you, I told her what happened today. She wasn't mad. Startled and shocked maybe, but not mad."
"Do you think she'll forgive me if I apologize?"
"I think she's already forgiven you. It wasn't even really you. It was Dr. Gero's evil programming. She knows that now, and she also knows that…" He let his voice trail off for the third time that day. He stared at her face, unable to tear his eyes from the tears he saw once again gathering in hers.
She saw his intent gaze on her eyes and, with a struggle, managed to lift herself up, wincing slightly even with the minor effort. Her lips touched his, tentatively at first, the kiss becoming deeper as he returned it. Trunks lowered her body back onto the pillows, not removing his lips from hers. The kiss lasted for a solid two minutes until, from either exhaustion or pain, he wasn't sure which, Juuhachigou fell into unconsciousness. She wouldn't wake up.
Two hours later…
Bulma emerged from the room, obviously tired but with a smile on her face. "She's fine!" she said with a relieved sigh, though she wasn't the only one who was relieved. "She was just tired. She was also in a lot of pain from you moving her and from the effort of sitting up. She should wake up again sometime tomorrow. I'm going back to bed, Trunks. I set up a bed beside Juuhachigou's for you, so you can sleep there if you want to. I suggest you sleep somewhere. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Kaa-san," Trunks called. He watched his mother disappear up the stairs and heard a startled scream, followed by a happy exclamation. His father had apparently come to visit. Trunks smiled to himself before disappearing into Juuhachigou's room to take his mother up on her offer. He got himself set up on the bed his mother had prepared for him and promptly fell asleep.
7 a.m. the next morning…
The moment Trunks woke up that morning, he stood and walked over to Juuhachigou's bedside, settling himself on a chair to wait for her to wake up. He didn't have long to wait.
She woke with a groan and rolled onto her side, an action she immediately regretted. Trunks quickly took hold of her shoulders and held her still until he could lie her on her back again. She let out another groan as she opened her eyes. They immediately focused on Trunks. "Why did you stay?" she asked him, groggy and, from what he could tell, in a moderate amount of pain.
"I wanted to be sure that you were all right," he answered. "I'll go get you some painkillers," he offered, and left the room, reappearing a few minutes later with a small bottle and a glass of water. He removed two pills from the bottle and handed them to her, along with the glass. "Take these," he told her. She looked at him skeptically. "They'll help reduce the pain," he explained. She took the pills, though, he noticed, hesitantly. He laughed to himself, then realized that she had every right to distrust him. He had, after all, been trying to kill her for an extremely long time. That point settled, he returned his attention to her.
"Thank you, but why do you care? I've never really had anyone that actually cared about me."
"I guess…it's because you're going through the same thing that I went through, and I know how hard that can be. I suppose I forgive you. More than that. Dad said that we had bonded. It's like love, but when a Sajin bonds, Dad said it was forever."
"I hope so," she whispered.
"So do I."
They both just sat there in comfortable silence, knowing that if either one of them said anything, it would probably end up sounding awkward and out of place after that brief exchange of feelings. Finally, Trunks gathered up his courage, leaned over, and pressed his lips to hers. She responded willingly. Finally, though reluctantly, he pulled away and lifted himself from the chair. "I'll be right back," he said, and smirked, looking very Vegeta-like in that moment. "We'll continue this in a minute." When he returned a few minutes later, he was holding a senzu bean. "Here. It's a senzu bean. It'll heal you a lot faster than any medicine. I had forgotten that I had a couple left. I'm not sure if it'll have the same effect on…you know…but you can try it if you want to."
"Thank you," she whispered, and managed to sit up long enough to put the bean in her mouth. A minute later and she began to work on removing the bandages. When she had finished that and had dressed herself in her own clothes, she watched as Trunks came up to her and kissed her again. She felt his hands move slowly down her sides until he reached the bottom of her shirt. He seemed to linger there, as if waiting for some kind of hint of approval from her. In response, she slowly lifted both of them off of the ground and out the window, heading towards the clearing. A few minutes later, she landed. "I didn't want your mom to walk in on us. Or your dad, for that matter," she explained. She heard Trunks chuckle and felt him pull her shirt over her head, then remove his own jacket and shirt. They moved down to each other's pants, then Trunks moved up again. He reached behind her and unclasped her bra, letting it fall to the ground. He pressed her body against his own, and they watched the sun go down, interrupting the peace of the moment with moans of pleasure from both of them.
4 a.m. the next morning…
Trunks woke up alone on the floor of the clearing. He had no idea at first of why he had woken, seeing as how it was still early, and was even more clueless of why he was alone. What confused him the most, however, was why he had a blanket wrapped around him. He hadn't gotten one, at least not that he remembered. The answers to these questions came a moment later, after he had finished dressing, when he heard the sound of someone singing, or at least it sounded like singing to him. He couldn't tell for sure from this distance. He strained his ears and walked, or rather, flew, seeing as how the voice seemed to be coming from quite a ways up one of the cliffs, to what sounded to be the source of the voice. He made sure to position himself behind the voice, both not to startle whoever it was and to get into a position where he held the advantage of surprise in case the owner of the voice was dangerous, though this he very much doubted. He hid himself carefully and finally allowed himself a look at whomever the voice was coming from. When he saw who it was, he stifled what would have come out as a very loud gasp. It was Juuhachigou! Instead of intruding, he sat and listened to her sweet, strong, clear soprano sing the words to the wonderful but sad song, broken only occasionally by a silent, despairing sob.
I don't know
How I survived
In this cold and empty world for all this time
She paused as she heard Trunks walk up behind her. She turned to him and smiled as she saw tears in his eyes that mirrored those in her own. He took her hand in his and didn't miss the sad smile on her face as she continued.
I only know
That I'm alive
Because you love me
When I recall
What I've been through
There's some things that I wish I didn't do
But now I do
The things I do
Because you love me
And now that you're in my life
I'm so glad I'm alive.
Because you've shown me the world
And I know now how good it can be
Because you love me
She paused again to let tears that she couldn't hold in any longer stream down her cheeks. Trunks pulled her close and comforted her. As she continued again, she remained in Trunks embrace, staring up at the eyes that she knew-perhaps had known since the day her brother had died and she had spared the time to look-that she could stare into for days on end, as he seemed to be able to stare into hers.
And now that you're in my life
I'm so glad I'm alive.
Because you've shown me the world
And I know now how good it can be
Because you love me
I believe
In things unseen
I believe in the message of a dream
And I believe
In what you are
Because you love me
With all my heart
And all my soul
I'm loving you and I never will let go
And every day
I'll let it show
Because you love me
Because you love me
She finished the song and buried her face in his chest, sobbing. As Trunks comforted her, he looked back into the past that now seemed so far away. His last thought as he looked into her tear-filled eyes was:
Broken souls, mending hearts
AN: Thank you for all the good reviews. I am thinking about doing a sequel about either Juuhachigou getting pregnant with Trunks' baby or their following relationship, but I'm not sure. Please tell me in a review whether or not you think I should continue, and if so, which one I should do.