Chapter 12

Author's Note: Dragon UK, you can either patiently wait until the next chapter, or hate me, flame me and blame me. Heh. I e-mailed you, yes, but it apparently never got through. Review and tell me what day and time to meet you! (your time, not mine) Anyway, to the rest of my lovely readers who have been EVER so patient and kind so as to not get mad at me….I'm sowwy. Fanfiction went down, and then it wouldn't let me log in. Stupid, huh? Anywayz, here's the twelth chappie, peeps. Enjoy!

                With the sudden disappearance of Amarant, and the even more sudden appearance of the bounty hunter Lani, the group now found themselves in a mix of annoyance and irritation.

                In other words, all hell was on the brink of existence.

                Eiko looked bewildered. Vivi was confused. Zidane was having the time of his life.

                "This is…this is too much…" he managed to gasp between bursts of laughter. "What…and I thought the day couldn't have gotten any better. Amarant, so defeated…and Lani….impeccable timing, Lani!"

                "Zidane, grow up!" Surprisingly, the order came from the not-so-amused queen of Alexandria. Folding her arms in front of her, she stared at Zidane as if she couldn't believe the way he was behaving. It didn't take long for her to voice her angry opinion, and shut the thief up like a chance of snow in July. "Amarant nearly got killed and probably will be now that he's on his own, there's a man over there that's trying to blow up anyone that doesn't listen to him, and we're stuck on a world that wasn't supposed to exist in the first place! I'm leaving, because I have a kingdom to rule that doesn't need to lose another queen."

                "Wha-" Zidane stood up, a little too quickly. He bent over again as his stomach cramped up, and he winced. Trying again, more slowly this time, he lifted his head. Finding success, he raced after Dagger and seized her arm. "Wait, Dagger, I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry!"

                "It's nice to see you guys, really." Lani sat sulkily on a nearby rock.

                "How on Gaia did you get here?" Steiner grumped, glaring heinously at the bounty hunter, apparently not approving of everything he'd heard about her.

                "I jumped in at the same time as you guys," Lani shot back. "I guess I took that moron Corroc's place before he got sent here with the rest of you. I kind of….landed over there." She gestured towards the direction she had come from. "Didn't hear you guys until I woke up."

                At this time, the Z-fighters and fighters not so qualified as Z, but still on the same side, kept silent. They listened to the rest of the "Gaians" quarrel, and even Vegeta was content enough to stay interested for at least five minutes. When Lani finished talking, however, the prince smirked. "Gather what you can that might be of use. We're leaving right now."

                While the saiyans, humans and other various aliens muttered a solemn agreement, it was the Gaian inhabitants that found themselves at a loss of words. "Wha-" Zidane began.

                "You'd better listen to him," Gohan said, very serenely. "The more you argue, the more he'll hurt people to get his way. It's his pride he cares about, not Bulma, and certainly not Trunks."

                Vegeta looked threatened by this, but held back whatever emotion he was ready to unleash.

                "Well, we're ready to go." Zidane shrugged with his arms and leaned against the rocky wall. "Anytime you are."

                Vegeta simply 'hmphed', and took off in a streak of light. As the people who were presently uneducated about saiya-jins and 'ki' energy could not become wny more surprised, no one made a comment about this 'ability to fly'.  All in all, the remainder of both Earthlings and Gaians felt a tremendous amount of relief when the dangerous saiya-jin was gone.

                "He'll be back, though it might as well be two or nine hours." Krillin explained, slightly more crossed about his previous Amarant-being-alive scare than the others. "But we'd better get going before this place falls apart."

                "It reminds me of Namek…" Gohan lifted his eyes to the sky as he stood up. A cold chill crept down his spine as he gazed in a circle at the piles of wreckage and still-hot embers of the torn-up world. "Just before it exploded. I don't want to go through anything like that again."

                "Then by all means!" Lani snapped abruptly. "Let's get out of this place before that thing falls on us."

                One by one, the rest of surrounding off-worlders aimed their eyes towards the sky. As the realization came to each one of them that there was a giant, decapitated top of a giant spar resting a mile or so in the air above them, the decision became extremely simple.

                "We're going,, " said Zidane. He turned his back on his new acquaintances and began to head in the direction Amarant had taken. When he had the feeling that he was not being followed, he whirled to face them with an obstinate look on his face. "Well? I'm going this way because I trust Amarant knows where to go when there's a possible danger looming….wherever! Let's just go, ok? All of us."

                "That's right!" Eiko leapt to her feet and raced after the retreating genome. "Amarant knows exactly where to run!"

                "Um, Eiko," Zidane looked to the seven-year-old, and then changed his mind. "Never mind. He deserved it anyway."

                "Goten, put on your jacket before we go or you'll catch cold!" Chi-Chi approached her youngest son, extending a little brown jacket that had seemingly appeared out of thin air. Much to the boy's distaste and resentment, she stuffed his arms through and buttoned it down his front.

                "Where did you find a jacket?" Gohan inquired, scratching the back of his neck.

                "I brought along a few things that Goten might need in case he got bored, or hungry, or hurt," the unsuspecting mom explained, digging through her leather backpack that had also appeared out of thin air. "Music, bandages, cookies, juice, a book, and his homework, of course!"

                "Chi-Chi, didn't it occur to you at all that Goten might not need those things while on an extended visit to an alien planet?" Piccolo opened his eyes from whatever he had been concentrating on to give Goku's wife a discerning glare.

                "What?" Chi-Chi faced the Namek, tone a note above the description 'stressed'. "Are you saying that I don't know what's good for my little boy? I'd like to know how you know what he needs and doesn't need Mr. High-and-mighty-"

                "Um, guys?" Zidane interrupted.  "And, um, miss," he hastily corrected when Chi-Chi shot him a look similar of that a bull gave to a red cloth. "This isn't…I mean, we should be leaving now. That Vegeta guy is standing over there, and he doesn't look too happy."

                From a distance, the saiya-jin prince stood just before the horizon. Snorting his disgust towards nothing, he turned again and disappeared behind the boulder he had been standing on.                
                Gohan stared at the spot Vegeta had left for a moment longer, even after Chi-Chi, Goten, Piccolo, Krillin, Zidane, Dagger, Eiko, Vivi, Quina, Steiner, Freya, and Lani had gathered in the center of the plateau. While the rest were discussing, getting ready to leave and exchanging names again, the first son of Goku pondering something he hadn't before. If Vegeta's so insistant to leave, why does he act like it's because of Goku? Even though he wants dad to fight and all, he didn't even know Goku was going to be there before he came here. He wanted to come because of…

                "Hey! C'mon Gohan, let's go!" Goten chirped from the midst of the group. Shaking himself from his daze, Gohan stood up and joined them.

                He wanted to come because of Bulma. Dad's ki is the other way. Gohan turned his head to look off into the direction he presumed was 'east'. Either he was the only one that had noticed Goku's presence in the far-off distance, or the others had simply not bothered to care. But if I am the only one that can feel him….then maybe Vegeta doesn't know. What if Goku's with Bulma? Or is Bulma and Trunks half-way around the planet?

                Which way would Vegeta choose?

                ((Heeeee….now the fun part begins. If anyone, by chance, is wondering why Amarant did leave, then I hope you got guts and patience of steel. You never know what'll happened next, or whatever I have in perfect store. Hehe…this kinda sucks for me, though. I know exactly what's gonna happen! What about me? I don't get any enigma out of this at all! No fair! ^____^))