Won't Ever Understand Me- Part Six
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: I WAS SO CLOSE TO OWNING DBZ!!!! SOOOOOOO CLOSE!!!!! Wah!! ::sob, sob:: Then that stupid pig had to go and wish for a pair of underwear and USE UP MY WISH!!!!!! DAMMIT!!! I don't own DBZ, leave me alone!!!! (However, I do own this plotline, so don't copy me!) Just wait until the dragonballs are active again…I'll show that pig…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Scat, you!" the big cat swatted Yajirobe with his broom. "Don't you even *attempt* to cook! I don't have a death wish!"
"Aw, come on, Korin, I'm not that bad!" the fat, cowardly swordsman complained.
Korin scowled. "You wouldn't say that if you'd ever actually *tasted* your own cooking! Now get out of here, and don't go near the senzu bean garden, either! I just know you'll come up with some way to kill everything in it, it'd be just like you…"
"Whatever… Yajirobe went off, sulking. Korin sighed. He sensed much agitation from the Z senshi, and it was making him tense. He could also feel that Goku, Gohan, and Videl were at the Lookout at the moment, and others were heading there. He hoped that they wouldn't have a need for senzu beans any time soon.
"WHOOOSH!"
"Whoa!" Korin went to the railing and looked up, his eyes following the blurs that had just passed. _Hmmmm, that was Trunks, Goten, Bra, and Marron,_ the old cat thought, stroking his chin. _Looks like something is up._ He sighed again. _I'm getting too old for this._
Distantly, he saw a tubby figure among the stalks of senzu beans, and bristled. "YAJIROBE!!! What did I tell you?! GET OUT OF THE GARDEN!!!!!"
**********
"Zhhhm!" Mr. Popo looked up in surprise at the three figures who had suddenly appeared on the lookout. His wide face broke out into a grin as he set down his watering pot and went to greet them. "Goku, Gohan, Videl, what a pleasant surprise!"
Gohan shook his head grimly, heading straight for the building on the Lookout. "This isn't a leisure visit, Mr. Popo, sorry to say. Did either of you see Pan come up here last night?"
"Pan? No, I don't think so," Mr. Popo replied, following them. He cocked his head, puzzled. "Why?"
Gohan didn't answer.
Dende finally noticed that they were there, and came running after them from his spot on the edge of the Lookout, where he had been watching events on the Earth. "Gohan!" he smiled, before he noticed the look on Gohan's face. "What's the problem?"
"Pan's run away for some reason," Videl explained to him/
"That's horrible," Dende frowned. "Do you want me to look for her from the Lookout? I can see anything on the planet from up here, you know."
Videl shook her head. "No, that's not necessary. You see, we have reason to believe that Pan went into the Room of Spirit and Time yesterday. That's why we're here, to see if she is."
"Oh, but you can't…" Dende trailed off as they reached the big, intricately carved door that lead to the Room of Spirit and Time. A digital timer was set to the left of it, the advanced technology looking very out of place next to the antique door.
Gohan glanced at it and his eye twitched. "Five days?! She set that thing for five days?! I can't let her do that!" He put his hand on the handle of the door, but Goku stopped him. Gohan looked up into his father's face, startled.
"I don't think that's such a good idea, Gohan." Goku appeared very serious for once.
"Uhm, Gohan, you can't…" Dende was ignored.
"Why not?"
"Pan has her own reasons for doing this, and she's obviously not going to appreciate it if you come barging in like the overprotective father you are," he stopped Gohan with a wave of his hand when it looked like he would protest, "and undermine all of her hard work. For whatever reasons, she needs to get away for a while, and I for one think that the Room of Spirit and Time is a good place for that."
"Gohan," Dende said a little more urgently. "There's something…"
"I'm not about to let her waste five years of her life!" Gohan argued, not even hearing Dende.
"Who said it was going to be a waste?" Goku inquired. "She'll be training, and studying, no doubt. She may even become a super saiyajin in time."
"She could become a super saiyajin here, in the regular dimension."
"*Gohan*…"
"Not quickly enough for her," Goku stated. "She needs this. She's wanted it for a long time. All of the other saiyajin can, except for her and Bra, who doesn't care about fighting. I remember a time when she was *five years old* when she asked me how to become a super saiyajin. It's very important to her."
Videl looked on helplessly as her husband and father-in-law argued. She knew that she should be a part of this discussion, Pan was her daughter too, after all, but….Pan wanted to become a super saiyajin, and the fighting instincts of her ancestors ran through her veins. Videl couldn't really understand that, the need to fight that so many people she now knew had. She wasn't about to make her daughter give up her dream just because she thought it wasn't necessary. However, she doubted Gohan would take that view, so she stayed quiet.
"Hey, we're here!" Trunks panted as he leaned over to catch his breath. Goten, Bra, and Marron ran up next to him, doing the same. "Did we miss anything? Is Pan back?"
Everyone but Gohan turned to look at the newcomers, and Gohan jerked open the door the Room when they did. Dende whipped his head around when he heard the creak.
"Gohan, NO!" he shouted, horrified. "YOU CAN'T OPEN THE DOOR FROM OUTSIDE WHEN SOMEONE'S IN THERE!!!!"
Gohan turned to look at him, then his eyes widened in surprise when Trunks fell to his knees, clutching his head. "What the…?"
He turned to the door and saw that, instead of the temple and the white landscape he was used to, it was a twisting chaos of fire and wind, twisting all out of proportion into a downward spiral.
"Falling…falling….ahhhhhhh," Trunks moaned, curling into a fetal position on the floor.
"Pan!" Gohan started to reach through the door, but Videl slammed her body against it. It closed with a whoosh. The timer panel next to it was going crazy, all the buttons beeping and colors flashing.
"What just happened?" Videl asked, voice shaking as she leaned against the door, as if she thought it would open of its own volition.
"I was trying to tell you!" Dende cried.
"Tell us what?" Goku asked anxiously.
"What happened?" Gohan said, repeating his wife. "Is Pan okay? What did I do?" He looked over to where Goten, Marron, and Bra were trying to snap Trunks out of whatever he was doing. "And what's wrong with Trunks?"
"You can't ever open the door from the outside before the person inside's time is up," Dende explained, rubbing his temples. "The Room of Spirit and Time is in another dimension- You can't just tear open the time- space continuum like that."
"What happened to Pan?" Videl reiterated, worry showing clearly on her face as she went to stand next to Gohan. She put her hand on his arm, trying to comfort him. He looked deathly pale.
"Well, I don't know what's wrong with Trunks, but…" he hesitated, looking away from the glares he was receiving. "The most probable thing is….Dammit, she was thrown into another dimension!"
THUMP. Videl hit the floor as Gohan, Goku, Goten, Bra, and Marron stared at Dende in shock. Maybe because God had cursed or Pan's predicament, but most likely the latter. Trunks was still curled into a ball on the floor, his face screwed up tightly.
"Do you know where- which one? Do you know how to get there?" Gohan asked him once he got his throat to work.
Dende sighed, rubbing his temples again. He was getting a migraine. "Well, because the door wasn't open for that long and no one actually went in, I'd say she's in a relatively close dimension, but there are still thousands of those, since there are an infinite number of possible realities. I have no idea how to get there, it could take years just to pinpoint her location."
THUMP. Gohan joined Videl, prone on the floor.
**********
Pan punched the air a few more times, then stopped uneasily, rubbing her hands together in a nervous habit she had developed. She couldn't seem to settle into her training today. The sense of foreboding was too strong, she just couldn't concentrate enough to get a good workout.
"What's wrong with me?" she sighed, frustrated, throwing some kicks at an invisible enemy for good measure. No good. Every hair on her body, save the ones on her head, was prickling at some instinctual warning signs that she didn't understand. Her senses were tingling and she kept whipping around to look behind her, as if looking, waiting for something important to happen.
_I can't practice all tense like this. The first rule in ki fighting is to relax, to feel your center._ She growled to herself. _My goddamn center has to be a million miles away, for all I can relax._
Pan sat down on the curb at the edge of the temple, resting her head in her hands. _Is it because of him? This uneasiness?_ she wondered. _Even now, as far as I've run away, is he still in my thoughts, throwing off my balance? No way. I've worked too hard at keeping him out. He doesn't care about you, Pan, none of them do, remember that. Build up that wall, strengthen you defenses, don't let any of them get to you._
Gonna hide behind that mask all your life? Try to forget?? A nasty, taunting voice, her own voice, sniped at her.
_I don't run from my problems!_ Pan denied. _I'm not a coward!_
Never said you were, m'dear…Even the best of us hide from what we just can't face, but you *did* run. Look, you went so far as to come to the Room of Spirit and Time…to hide.
_I'm not hiding!_ Pan protested helplessly. _What do I have to hide from?!_
That voice chuckled, and all of a sudden images, memories, assaulted her, one after the other. She cried out mentally and pushed them away, brought the walls up higher.
Still think you're not hiding…..??? The voice sounded entirely too smug.
_All right, dammit! I'm hiding! Go away! It doesn't matter any more! He never cared. If he cared at all, he wouldn't have…_ Wincing, Pan pushed that thought away, wondering at how much pain it brought with it, even after all that time. Surprisingly, the voice was silent, and she was alone, jittery, waiting, once again.
BOOOOOM!!!!
"What the hell?!" That was all Pan got out before she was blown back from an enormous shock wave, unprepared for the sudden attack. Or was it an attack? Pan finally skidded to a stop, then looked up and saw, to her surprise, that the door to the Room of Spirit and Time was open, and her father- _What is he doing here?!_ -was standing there.
It was getting hot, unbearably hot, but at the same time, violent winds unlike anything she'd ever experienced were kicking up. Tornadoes were everywhere and she was caught in one, then passed to another, then another. It was even worse when the gravity kicked it. Pan felt like she was being torn apart- her every limb weighed a hundred tons, but the wind was strong enough to still pick her up and toss her around like she was nothing. The combined effect was feeling like every time she was jerked, the pressure of mountains shifted on her, pain upon pain upon pain.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Her throat was raw from the force of her screams, and the gravity was so high that her lungs were withering, she couldn't get enough air.
She was sweating like crazy in the heat from the heart of a sun, but the perspiration was evaporating before it even fell from her. There was an incredible flash of light and she cried out, trying to shield her eyes, but her arms were too heavy, so she just closed them. Then someone shouted her name and she had to pry her eyes open again.
The entire landscape was unfamiliar. The temple, the whiteness, the tornadoes- all of it had gone awry, twisting into a hideous spiral of fire and light that she was only saved from falling into by the winds that were making her very, very dizzy. Everything was draining into a single point of light so far down and so beautiful that she wanted to laugh at its brightness, if she could get enough air for it. But she didn't want to fall into it, NO! Because going into the light was bad, the light was usually heaven.
Pan was aware that she wasn't thinking straight but she couldn't help it. Her mind was scrambled and she was in too much pain. In the back of her thoughts, she vaguely noted that she'd be going into shock soon, and she wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.
Before that happened, however, before the blessed emptiness, the winds were suddenly, inexplicably gone. She was able to register the thought _holy *shit*_, then she fell, faster and faster, weighted down by all the convenient gravity apparently dragging her to her doom. The light got bigger as she got closer, but she was never aware of reaching it.
In a way similar to how she always woke up before hitting the ground in her falling dreams, she blacked out before she fell into the light. A fuzzy darkness started from the corner of her eyes, and she knew nothing more.
**************************************************************************** ******
RaliNeoBlade: Well, there you have it!!!!! The sixth chapter of Won't Ever Understand Me!!! YAY! I'm so proud of myself. Anyway, where is Pan going to end up?? (I think you should know.) Will Gohan go totally berserk? Will Pan even survive to find out where she's going? Will she be able to get back home? Will I ever get some more romance in there? Will I ever shut up and get on to the next chapter?!?! Keep watching for the seventh chapter of Won't Ever Understand Me!
Rali: Okay, so I'm hyper. Sue me. Well, I finally got this chapter out, I hope you all enjoy it. I know I enjoyed writing it. It's a bit longer than most, so you should all be happy. REVIEW and tell me what you think, 'K? Kindly RATE this story from 1-10, (10 being the best,) and check out my other stories if you can. Ja ne!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: I WAS SO CLOSE TO OWNING DBZ!!!! SOOOOOOO CLOSE!!!!! Wah!! ::sob, sob:: Then that stupid pig had to go and wish for a pair of underwear and USE UP MY WISH!!!!!! DAMMIT!!! I don't own DBZ, leave me alone!!!! (However, I do own this plotline, so don't copy me!) Just wait until the dragonballs are active again…I'll show that pig…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Scat, you!" the big cat swatted Yajirobe with his broom. "Don't you even *attempt* to cook! I don't have a death wish!"
"Aw, come on, Korin, I'm not that bad!" the fat, cowardly swordsman complained.
Korin scowled. "You wouldn't say that if you'd ever actually *tasted* your own cooking! Now get out of here, and don't go near the senzu bean garden, either! I just know you'll come up with some way to kill everything in it, it'd be just like you…"
"Whatever… Yajirobe went off, sulking. Korin sighed. He sensed much agitation from the Z senshi, and it was making him tense. He could also feel that Goku, Gohan, and Videl were at the Lookout at the moment, and others were heading there. He hoped that they wouldn't have a need for senzu beans any time soon.
"WHOOOSH!"
"Whoa!" Korin went to the railing and looked up, his eyes following the blurs that had just passed. _Hmmmm, that was Trunks, Goten, Bra, and Marron,_ the old cat thought, stroking his chin. _Looks like something is up._ He sighed again. _I'm getting too old for this._
Distantly, he saw a tubby figure among the stalks of senzu beans, and bristled. "YAJIROBE!!! What did I tell you?! GET OUT OF THE GARDEN!!!!!"
**********
"Zhhhm!" Mr. Popo looked up in surprise at the three figures who had suddenly appeared on the lookout. His wide face broke out into a grin as he set down his watering pot and went to greet them. "Goku, Gohan, Videl, what a pleasant surprise!"
Gohan shook his head grimly, heading straight for the building on the Lookout. "This isn't a leisure visit, Mr. Popo, sorry to say. Did either of you see Pan come up here last night?"
"Pan? No, I don't think so," Mr. Popo replied, following them. He cocked his head, puzzled. "Why?"
Gohan didn't answer.
Dende finally noticed that they were there, and came running after them from his spot on the edge of the Lookout, where he had been watching events on the Earth. "Gohan!" he smiled, before he noticed the look on Gohan's face. "What's the problem?"
"Pan's run away for some reason," Videl explained to him/
"That's horrible," Dende frowned. "Do you want me to look for her from the Lookout? I can see anything on the planet from up here, you know."
Videl shook her head. "No, that's not necessary. You see, we have reason to believe that Pan went into the Room of Spirit and Time yesterday. That's why we're here, to see if she is."
"Oh, but you can't…" Dende trailed off as they reached the big, intricately carved door that lead to the Room of Spirit and Time. A digital timer was set to the left of it, the advanced technology looking very out of place next to the antique door.
Gohan glanced at it and his eye twitched. "Five days?! She set that thing for five days?! I can't let her do that!" He put his hand on the handle of the door, but Goku stopped him. Gohan looked up into his father's face, startled.
"I don't think that's such a good idea, Gohan." Goku appeared very serious for once.
"Uhm, Gohan, you can't…" Dende was ignored.
"Why not?"
"Pan has her own reasons for doing this, and she's obviously not going to appreciate it if you come barging in like the overprotective father you are," he stopped Gohan with a wave of his hand when it looked like he would protest, "and undermine all of her hard work. For whatever reasons, she needs to get away for a while, and I for one think that the Room of Spirit and Time is a good place for that."
"Gohan," Dende said a little more urgently. "There's something…"
"I'm not about to let her waste five years of her life!" Gohan argued, not even hearing Dende.
"Who said it was going to be a waste?" Goku inquired. "She'll be training, and studying, no doubt. She may even become a super saiyajin in time."
"She could become a super saiyajin here, in the regular dimension."
"*Gohan*…"
"Not quickly enough for her," Goku stated. "She needs this. She's wanted it for a long time. All of the other saiyajin can, except for her and Bra, who doesn't care about fighting. I remember a time when she was *five years old* when she asked me how to become a super saiyajin. It's very important to her."
Videl looked on helplessly as her husband and father-in-law argued. She knew that she should be a part of this discussion, Pan was her daughter too, after all, but….Pan wanted to become a super saiyajin, and the fighting instincts of her ancestors ran through her veins. Videl couldn't really understand that, the need to fight that so many people she now knew had. She wasn't about to make her daughter give up her dream just because she thought it wasn't necessary. However, she doubted Gohan would take that view, so she stayed quiet.
"Hey, we're here!" Trunks panted as he leaned over to catch his breath. Goten, Bra, and Marron ran up next to him, doing the same. "Did we miss anything? Is Pan back?"
Everyone but Gohan turned to look at the newcomers, and Gohan jerked open the door the Room when they did. Dende whipped his head around when he heard the creak.
"Gohan, NO!" he shouted, horrified. "YOU CAN'T OPEN THE DOOR FROM OUTSIDE WHEN SOMEONE'S IN THERE!!!!"
Gohan turned to look at him, then his eyes widened in surprise when Trunks fell to his knees, clutching his head. "What the…?"
He turned to the door and saw that, instead of the temple and the white landscape he was used to, it was a twisting chaos of fire and wind, twisting all out of proportion into a downward spiral.
"Falling…falling….ahhhhhhh," Trunks moaned, curling into a fetal position on the floor.
"Pan!" Gohan started to reach through the door, but Videl slammed her body against it. It closed with a whoosh. The timer panel next to it was going crazy, all the buttons beeping and colors flashing.
"What just happened?" Videl asked, voice shaking as she leaned against the door, as if she thought it would open of its own volition.
"I was trying to tell you!" Dende cried.
"Tell us what?" Goku asked anxiously.
"What happened?" Gohan said, repeating his wife. "Is Pan okay? What did I do?" He looked over to where Goten, Marron, and Bra were trying to snap Trunks out of whatever he was doing. "And what's wrong with Trunks?"
"You can't ever open the door from the outside before the person inside's time is up," Dende explained, rubbing his temples. "The Room of Spirit and Time is in another dimension- You can't just tear open the time- space continuum like that."
"What happened to Pan?" Videl reiterated, worry showing clearly on her face as she went to stand next to Gohan. She put her hand on his arm, trying to comfort him. He looked deathly pale.
"Well, I don't know what's wrong with Trunks, but…" he hesitated, looking away from the glares he was receiving. "The most probable thing is….Dammit, she was thrown into another dimension!"
THUMP. Videl hit the floor as Gohan, Goku, Goten, Bra, and Marron stared at Dende in shock. Maybe because God had cursed or Pan's predicament, but most likely the latter. Trunks was still curled into a ball on the floor, his face screwed up tightly.
"Do you know where- which one? Do you know how to get there?" Gohan asked him once he got his throat to work.
Dende sighed, rubbing his temples again. He was getting a migraine. "Well, because the door wasn't open for that long and no one actually went in, I'd say she's in a relatively close dimension, but there are still thousands of those, since there are an infinite number of possible realities. I have no idea how to get there, it could take years just to pinpoint her location."
THUMP. Gohan joined Videl, prone on the floor.
**********
Pan punched the air a few more times, then stopped uneasily, rubbing her hands together in a nervous habit she had developed. She couldn't seem to settle into her training today. The sense of foreboding was too strong, she just couldn't concentrate enough to get a good workout.
"What's wrong with me?" she sighed, frustrated, throwing some kicks at an invisible enemy for good measure. No good. Every hair on her body, save the ones on her head, was prickling at some instinctual warning signs that she didn't understand. Her senses were tingling and she kept whipping around to look behind her, as if looking, waiting for something important to happen.
_I can't practice all tense like this. The first rule in ki fighting is to relax, to feel your center._ She growled to herself. _My goddamn center has to be a million miles away, for all I can relax._
Pan sat down on the curb at the edge of the temple, resting her head in her hands. _Is it because of him? This uneasiness?_ she wondered. _Even now, as far as I've run away, is he still in my thoughts, throwing off my balance? No way. I've worked too hard at keeping him out. He doesn't care about you, Pan, none of them do, remember that. Build up that wall, strengthen you defenses, don't let any of them get to you._
Gonna hide behind that mask all your life? Try to forget?? A nasty, taunting voice, her own voice, sniped at her.
_I don't run from my problems!_ Pan denied. _I'm not a coward!_
Never said you were, m'dear…Even the best of us hide from what we just can't face, but you *did* run. Look, you went so far as to come to the Room of Spirit and Time…to hide.
_I'm not hiding!_ Pan protested helplessly. _What do I have to hide from?!_
That voice chuckled, and all of a sudden images, memories, assaulted her, one after the other. She cried out mentally and pushed them away, brought the walls up higher.
Still think you're not hiding…..??? The voice sounded entirely too smug.
_All right, dammit! I'm hiding! Go away! It doesn't matter any more! He never cared. If he cared at all, he wouldn't have…_ Wincing, Pan pushed that thought away, wondering at how much pain it brought with it, even after all that time. Surprisingly, the voice was silent, and she was alone, jittery, waiting, once again.
BOOOOOM!!!!
"What the hell?!" That was all Pan got out before she was blown back from an enormous shock wave, unprepared for the sudden attack. Or was it an attack? Pan finally skidded to a stop, then looked up and saw, to her surprise, that the door to the Room of Spirit and Time was open, and her father- _What is he doing here?!_ -was standing there.
It was getting hot, unbearably hot, but at the same time, violent winds unlike anything she'd ever experienced were kicking up. Tornadoes were everywhere and she was caught in one, then passed to another, then another. It was even worse when the gravity kicked it. Pan felt like she was being torn apart- her every limb weighed a hundred tons, but the wind was strong enough to still pick her up and toss her around like she was nothing. The combined effect was feeling like every time she was jerked, the pressure of mountains shifted on her, pain upon pain upon pain.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Her throat was raw from the force of her screams, and the gravity was so high that her lungs were withering, she couldn't get enough air.
She was sweating like crazy in the heat from the heart of a sun, but the perspiration was evaporating before it even fell from her. There was an incredible flash of light and she cried out, trying to shield her eyes, but her arms were too heavy, so she just closed them. Then someone shouted her name and she had to pry her eyes open again.
The entire landscape was unfamiliar. The temple, the whiteness, the tornadoes- all of it had gone awry, twisting into a hideous spiral of fire and light that she was only saved from falling into by the winds that were making her very, very dizzy. Everything was draining into a single point of light so far down and so beautiful that she wanted to laugh at its brightness, if she could get enough air for it. But she didn't want to fall into it, NO! Because going into the light was bad, the light was usually heaven.
Pan was aware that she wasn't thinking straight but she couldn't help it. Her mind was scrambled and she was in too much pain. In the back of her thoughts, she vaguely noted that she'd be going into shock soon, and she wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.
Before that happened, however, before the blessed emptiness, the winds were suddenly, inexplicably gone. She was able to register the thought _holy *shit*_, then she fell, faster and faster, weighted down by all the convenient gravity apparently dragging her to her doom. The light got bigger as she got closer, but she was never aware of reaching it.
In a way similar to how she always woke up before hitting the ground in her falling dreams, she blacked out before she fell into the light. A fuzzy darkness started from the corner of her eyes, and she knew nothing more.
**************************************************************************** ******
RaliNeoBlade: Well, there you have it!!!!! The sixth chapter of Won't Ever Understand Me!!! YAY! I'm so proud of myself. Anyway, where is Pan going to end up?? (I think you should know.) Will Gohan go totally berserk? Will Pan even survive to find out where she's going? Will she be able to get back home? Will I ever get some more romance in there? Will I ever shut up and get on to the next chapter?!?! Keep watching for the seventh chapter of Won't Ever Understand Me!
Rali: Okay, so I'm hyper. Sue me. Well, I finally got this chapter out, I hope you all enjoy it. I know I enjoyed writing it. It's a bit longer than most, so you should all be happy. REVIEW and tell me what you think, 'K? Kindly RATE this story from 1-10, (10 being the best,) and check out my other stories if you can. Ja ne!