The Sorrow Of Love:
Everything Can Go So Wrong--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Four-Reflections and Roots
Eighteen watched from above, hoping neither would die, but knowing who would. She looked at the boy—No, man. He was determined to win, and he would. She looked at her hysterical brother. She couldn't fight after him. Not because of the power she had, but because she still felt that insistent pulling. She couldn't tell what the pulling was. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't place it. Her brother was dieing, and she couldn't avenge him. She started tearing for two reasons. Her brother, the only companion she had, and the man...
'Weakness. I'm showing weakness. I can't go down there. Why? Why?! I must know why?!' she thought, and gasped vehemently. She looked down again. The body fell. As it hit the dirt, she flew off. She couldn't stand it. The wind stung her eyes as the tears stopped.
"Why do I feel this way? Who is he?"
'His name is Trunks. He lives in Capsule Corp. Headquarters. His Power Level is 4,000,000 last measured' an automatic voice in her head responded.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! I don't want to know that! I want to know him!" She said, hysterically. Her hair flew as she kept on shaking her head, holding it in her hands, as if the pressure alone could extinguish the pain. She was getting frustrated. She was having a psychosomatic headache, unable to process all this at once.
'His name is Tr-'
"Shut up! I know! Stop... I know... I know..." She was almost calming down, but was becoming more desperate.
'Cannot comply. Briefing Mission Statement. Primary Mission: Kill Goku. Cannot be completed. Reverting to Secondary Mode. Annihilation.'
Eighteen screamed. "STOP STOP STOP!" In a desperate last attempt to get the voices out of her head, she stuck her fingers in her ear and pulled out a small chip. She threw it into the air, and blasted it with energy. Her breathing was labored. She knew she really didn't breath, but it was automatic. Sucking air in, and forcing it out. Her hair was askew and dirty. Her hands slowly lowered themselves from her head.
Shivering, she landed on the ground. She started feeling all new things, unknown to her... memories. Memories of times past flooded her. The funny, the sad, the happy, the tragic coursed throughout her system. And she felt love. She felt love for her brother and her father. A new wave of tears engulfed her at her brother's fate. She didn't have time to reflect on this alone.
'Hello, Eighteen. How are you doing?' A voice in her head had said. Only this time, it wasn't the database. It was Dr. Gero.
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"What is it? What have I done? Why am I torturing my self?" The man said, yelling at himself, " I've done well, I know. Those people... they don't cheer for nothing. But, what do they know? Not what I do. But what do I know?"
Trunks had long left the base, flying aimlessly. He had the vague sensation of being headed towards home, but he didn't take care to notice.
A malicious voice answered for him, inside is very own head. 'You know nothing'
"What?" He stoppedin mid-flight, fearing he was going slightly insane, which wouldn't have been surprising.
'I meant just what I said. You know nothing.'
"What are you—I talking, thinking... What's going on?" He cut himself off. He lowered himself, so he would have some sort of a field to stand on, which was the only thing he could trust that would support him.
'Thick boy. To think I fathered you. YOU KNOW NOTHING.' The voice pounded inside his head. Trunks sank to his knees, making his knees ache along with the throbbing pain in his head. Trunks finally gathered that the voice inside his head was not his own.
"Father..."
'Yes, finally catching on. Have you no pride? Get up. NOW!'
"Yes... Father" He said as he got up reverently, gazing this way and that for the source of the voice.
'You won't see me. This is no time to be sentimental. Don't you see what's happening?'
"What's happening?" Trunks asked, confused. He felt a whack at the back of his head, which for once was able to push his head forward. He turned around baffled. There was nothing there.
'Stop looking. Just listen. And answer. Do you know what's happening?'
Trunks hesitated. "No, I don't" Trunks finally stated after a brief moment of confusion.
'I shouldn't even tell you. Any normal Saiyan would've figured it out, but you... thick baka.'
Trunks felt another smack to his head and he felt a presence leave. After a brief check over himself, Trunks felt he was going insane. Voices in his head, Eighteen, remorse over a death of... an android... This pent up frustration tore at him in many ways, trying to get out.
He suppressed them, hoping to get away. His head split. He screamed. Rays of light seemed to penetrate his body as he held his head in his hands. He sank to his knees again and his hair flared up. Suddenly his eyes fired a steady laser. A red glow encompassed his hands and expanded to the size of Trunks himself. The two red globes discharged and battered Trunks along with the surrounding scenery. As he finally fell to the ground, his eyes stopped firing and the light stopped coming out of his body. His hair turned slowly purple and laid flat. A large yellow, no golden orb surrounded him. It too, slowly got larger until it could encompass a large house. Then it started pulsating for a few seconds until it also exploded, knocking out Trunks and everything within a ten mile radius in the blast. Everything within two miles of the epicenter was unrecognizable and wouldn't be able to grow anything for a decade. And in the middle of it all was a small, purple haired, bloodied, bruised and altogether hurt man.
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'Well I suspect you're doing just fine... If you were able to take out that chip just like a big girl!' Gero's voice mocked her. 'I assume you must be experiencing memory now. That chip was also a suppression along with its information. Ironic, isn't it? Ha! You don't know what I rescued you from do you? No! Don't take this recording out. It's attached to your... core supply' He said this just as Eighteen was reaching into her ear again. She looked shocked.
'Oh no, I'm not alive and watching you. This is a recording so that I may safeguard you. I assume I'm dead of course. Tsk Tsk. You shouldn't have killed me. Maybe I should tell you what I rescued you from. Your mother. Eh? You remember now? She was... the witch. That's what you called her, yes? You always wanted that "magic" to show her what for, didn't you? I gave it to you. Unfortunately I also knocked out your memory. You probably already killed her. You wouldn't know. Well, I may refresh your memory of her. She was the one that abused you. The malicious beatings. Now that you, shall we say, woke up, the beatings may be fresh in your mind. You are probably wondering why this recording is even here. I've installed this as a safeguard. You're wondering how this voice can be a safeguard. I can tell you that I'm very skilled with explosives. As soon as this voice stops talking to you, a timed bomb will start ticking down the hours. It'll go off in... hmm... a random time. As soon as it does go off, both you and your only companion will find yourselves less than dust. Yes, he suffers because of you. So we shall see when it happens. I don't know, you don't know. Eighteen, you should've really listened to me. You really should have.'
As if to punctuate his voice, a large bang was heard not too far away...
Hours later, Trunks woke up with a groan. His mind was stressed. So much so, that he had a headache. It took him a while to find out why. He couldn't help but groan again when he figured it out. His body was beaten, his mind was broken, his bones were on fire, and worst of all, is heart was bruised. He had never felt a pain like this before, mentally or physically. He needed something... a place to stay. He needed a sanctuary.
Automatically, he headed for home. Again, halfway there, he realized it was gone, and with a jolt, he realized that everything was gone. Before today, Bulma was his safe spot. Untouched, uncorrupted. She held no sign of the approaching darkness. She was the embodiment of hope itself. 'I can't go back there. They destroyed my home. They...' And with another wild beat of his heart he realized that he was the one. 'I destroyed it. I was careless. It was my goddamn Transformation! Even that wasn't much help. I'm an idiot!' He yelled to his mind, berating himself over and over. He hadn't realized that he finally arrived at his destination until he landed. He looked around. There wasn't much... but a flash of blue caught his eye.
"Mom!" He yelled, as he ran over to the blue sight. But it was just hair, lying flat on the ground. He looked up, dreading he's see a fried corpse. He was surprised. His mom was preserved. Bu her eyes were still open, glazed over. She was deathly silent. Trunks was crushed. This wasn't his mom. There wasn't that flicker in her eye. There wasn't that sense of love that was ever-present around her. No feeling of upcoming chatter, no surprise in her voice, no... nothing. Trunks looked at his hands, trembling. It was these hands that caused her death. And inadvertently, Gohan's too. If he hadn't tried to join that fight... he wouldn't have been so set on protecting Trunks. He pulled them up to his face. His eyes leaked tears. For the first time since Gohan died, he cried. Cry like he never had before. He cried for the entity of Goku of whom he never met. He cried for the for the soul of Gohan, of whom he was a kindred spirit. He cried for the mothering Bulma, his only steady point. He cried for Vegeta, for it was he that Trunks drew his strength from, though not meeting in this lifetime. But mostly he cried for himself. He cried for himself and the world.
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At the end of the message, she looked far for the procurement of the bang, and if she heard right, a scream with it. She could see nothing from her vantage in the air, but she felt a slight wind from where she heard the bang. Only one thing left was strong enough to do that...
"Trunks..? Trunks! Oh god... Trunks" She said almost despairingly as she racked her mechanical nerves to sense Trunks' Ki. There wasn't anything close to Trunks' Ki in that general direction, or any direction for that matter. Her eyes widened. "Trunks... You're gone. I don't know... dead? No... He can't be! H can't b—" her mutter turned into a yell before she abruptly stopped. What was this? A few days ago, she would've laughed at the prospect of a dead Trunks, even missed seeing it. There was nothing in that damned database to define it. Useful as a soup sandwich, it was. Her memory was put to use for the first time in fifty years. Her head hurt a little, but she ignored it. What was this strange feeling? The pulling? Sacrifice?
Then she found it. High school popped into her head. How foolish she was then. But there had been two people. Her Brother and a girl she couldn't quite place. Launch? No... Lunch. He liked... no... wrong word. L... l-u... not quite right. Close. Wing it from there. L-u-... b? Lub... not right either. L-u-... V! Luv! Quite close. LOVE! As soon as she thought that word the weight of the declaration hit her like a brick, or rather it hit her like a brick would hit a normal person. A madness came over her.
"It's a weakness! It's a flaw! It's an imperfection! My Achilles' Heel!" She stopped her ranting and thought of what possessed her to say that. Achilles' Heel? What was that? She filed over her memory again. That's what her brother said. About Lunch. He tried to destroy the weakness, but he couldn't, and wouldn't have the heart to kill her at the time. If he had been an android then...
It annoyed him that he turned out to love such a ditz. What had he done? Ah yes, he hired a Japanese magician to curse her so that he wouldn't have to fall for innocence like that. The magician cast the corruption curse or something and at the exact same time, she sneezed. The curse was interrupted and Lunch was cursed with a never-ending head cold. Every time she sneezed she changed from a innocent little klutz to a hardened criminal, or at least the personality of one. In days she was on the run from the police. They never saw her again. Most likely because weeks after, Dr. Gero was on the move with the Red Ribbon Army, and they were captured as test subjects. Not until Goku defeated them had Gero actually used them both. Achilles. Invincible. Everywhere, except in his heel. Very inconspicuous place. Died when a poisoned arrow hit him there. Like Trunks' death. A poisoned arrow.
Eighteen's mind was ravaged. It hurt so much, with her sudden realization of what happened along with the death of Trunks. 'Pain isn't the only way to hurt someone'. This shocked her mind, and rocked the principles that had been set down fifty years ago. Everything is falling apart. Everything went so wrong. Everything.
Eighteen flew to the last place she felt comfort. She flew Home. To the town she was born in.
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A/N: OK, this chapter wasn't as good as the last one, but I try. At least I think the last chapter was better. Up to you really. This chapter so far was hardest one to write. I started writing last Tuesday, but I kept on having my attention diverted. I barely got it in Today (Saturday) If I didn't' finish it today I don't think I would've managed by Wednesday... Oh yeah, expect the chapters after 9/3 to be somewhat rushed unless I write them soon. That's when School starts. I don't mind really. I just got bored out of my mind. I thought about posting this fic sometime in June, but I had to go to Bangladesh. Then I reread the fic (wrote it last year for a contest... missed out on it) and I couldn't believe how horrible it was. So I just use the paper I printed out last year as an outline and a place to find some cool adjectives. I think maybe the ones posted on Sunday will be better than the ones on Wednesday. That's enough Gab from me now. Review!