Harvest of the Soulless
By Poe
Chapter 3: Deception and Misconception
"Your politics have made me weak,
Dulling the world and leaving scars so bleak,
Thoughts have come of some other day,
Where memories are detached and stray.
Yes, I have misconceived your mischief,
Such folly has left me quiet in this rift,
Fasting from love and love's kin,
Pleading to God, 'Make me happy again.'"
"Your daughter? My father and your daughter?" I exclaimed, my head spinning. This was too much. My dad, the innocent, lovable Gohan, having a secret, midnight romance with my obsession's daughter? How could this be true? And if it were true, what irony that my friend would be suffering such a similar infatuation. Did she love my father as I loved hers?
Impossible! None of it was true. It was just some grand misunderstanding that would all be cleared up as soon as we found my father. With all the lunacy that involved our family, it was no wonder a simple misjudgment would arise like this one. Perhaps they really were together, but for innocent reasons. There could be plenty of explanations, ones that didn't involve furtive affairs between a married man and a mere child.
Though, honestly, if the situation were true, I could not offer much complaint other than the wedlock issue. If my father chose to divorce my mother, than I could not protest to any relationship between Bra and him. It would be hypocritical of me considering the sick, perpetual desire I had to be with Vegeta.
No, I was thinking too far ahead. All of this was a misunderstanding and there was nothing more to it to that. My parents would not divorce, I would not have any half-siblings with my friend as the parent, and no one would ever speak of it again. Wait, half-siblings with Bra as the mother? I really was thinking ahead!
"Why else do you think I would be here? To teach your coward of a father a lesson on dishonoring my bloodline!" Vegeta spoke, interrupting my thoughts. I snapped to consciousness at his foul words and a rather irrelevant thought crossed my mind.
"Look, let's get this straight, I do not believe my father is having an affair with your daughter. Do you have any real evidence, or anything?"
"Does the fact that your father and my daughter are missing at the same time strike you as suspicious?" he stated, impatiently.
"Is there anyone else missing?"
"Do you think I bothered to check?"
"Well maybe, if Trunks were missing too, it wouldn't seem as strange. You know, a higher chance of a logical explanation." A glare swallowed his features.
"All of this is still useless until we find them together, which they obviously are."
"True, but maybe they aren't having an affair."
"And what else would they be doing? Finger-painting?"
"Hey, she's not that young!" I said, taking it personally.
"Don't change the subject! I didn't come here so I could exercise my detective skills when I could be out killing the man who dishonored me-"
"I think I know where he is," I interrupted, ignoring his threats on my father's life.
"Well?"
"I'll take you to him," I said, powering up.
"What makes you so sure they're there?"
"I know my father, trust me. He's there." I said this with supreme confidence. Vegeta gave a princely scoff and powered up as well, an aura of power surrounding us both. It was rather romantic, feeling my room tremble from our combine ki.
"Let's go."
Immediately, I blasted forward. I jetted through the window frame, avoiding the shards of glass around the edge, with Vegeta close behind.
"You'd better know what you're doing, brat," he snarled, humiliated for having to follow behind me.
"I know where he is, you can be sure of that." I knew my father well enough, but this had a background.
When I was a child, my father took me to a special place near the beach to play. Just us, warm sands, and rolling waves. He had told me about how lovely it was at night, when you could see the moon glimmering off the slow tides and the stars casting themselves over the water. I loved the sun, so we never returned there at night. Nonetheless, it had a special meaning for my father.
It probably made him feel more normal, going to the beach with his family instead of fighting alien intruders threatening the safety of Chikyuu. He probably wished for a tame life like I did then. Only then my wish was for a tame life away from Vegeta. I wondered if he ever hated loving Bra, knowing that he was a married man with a child. Did he even love her at all? How did I know that anything was going on?
In any case, that beach was where they had to be. I knew it, my dream has somehow, in its own strange way, confirmed it. Summer, tranquility, love, a home by the water, it had to do with my father and Bra. Maybe it wasn't really me in the dream, but merely a metaphor for my father. Still, it wasn't time to jump to conclusions. I had to get there, to the beach, and find out what was going on.
Vegeta and I didn't speak anymore on the way there. We just flew, diving through the night air and calmly approaching what could be a disastrous situation. I almost forgot that he had just broken into my room, woken me from my sleep, claimed that my father was engaging in a very strange affair, and forced me to fly all the way out to a beach far away.
I came to realize the bizarre turn of events that happened only moments ago when I started to feel cold. I looked at myself and realized I was wearing just a typical pair of pajamas, now rustling furiously in the wind. It was so strange, was I in bed, sleeping peacefully just a few minutes ago?
Now I was airborne with Vegeta, hunting down my father who, supposedly, was having an affair with Bra. Life was strange indeed, but the question was, what was to come? Would more events make this night even more shocking?
Regardless of which, I was happy to be near Vegeta. Sure, it could've meant coming face to face with the ugliest infidelity I could imagine happening to my close friends/family, but at least it was some sort of demented opportunity to be with him. Besides, nothing had happened yet, how did I know anything was going on at all?
Maybe they were, as Vegeta had so gingerly stated, just finger-painting.
I quelled the urge to laugh; I would've looked like a madwoman, laughing in the middle of a flight to see if her father was cheating on her mother.
A sudden realization interrupted my thoughts. Could it be? I felt the flash of three ki signatures. They were closer than I thought.
"Is that them?" I questioned, halting in mid flight to hover in the skies. Vegeta stopped near me.
I felt my father's ki right away, then Bra's, but the other was weaker. Was it… Bulma?
"What is Bulma doing there?"
A felt a twitch from the Saiyan prince. Vegeta's angered flared and he shot forward. I heard him growl through his teeth, "I've been deceived."
What was he implying, I wasn't quite sure. I shot forward after him, seeing in the distance the long stretch of the beach nearing. Soon, I could make out three specs, two near each other and one a little farther away. Who was who?
We neared and all I could make out was some black hair, and two blue-headed people. Not that it did me any good, it would take a much closer distance to determine which was Bulma and which was Bra.
Meanwhile, Vegeta dived forward much faster than me. If only he could tell me which was which so I could discover sooner. All this hectic confusion had made me so anxious to find out the truth. I was told all these astonishing statements and I had no idea which were true. Who was my father with, what were they doing, and why were they doing it in the first place?
Vegeta made it to the sands, and he landed, his ki soaring dangerously high. If the ki went any higher, he might've gone Super Saiyan without any effort. He stopped once his feet touched the ground and said or did nothing. I was more eager to land now that he had seen who was who.
The figures grew closer and closer and I started to make out the faces. Bulma and Bra looked so much alike, it was hard to tell. I squinted for Bra's large forehead and shorter hair and I spotted it right away.
Bra wasn't with my father.
My eyes shot open against the incoming wind and I felt a wave of relief wash over me. My dad wasn't cheating on my mother with my friend, at least as far as I knew. I couldn't help but feel as if a weight had been lifted from me, even though I didn't have confirmation.
When I landed, I saw Bulma near my father. Thankfully, they didn't have their hands held or anything, so at least the initial shock would subside soon. At least he wasn't a pedophile, I reminded myself. That just wasn't the father I knew.
They were looking at us now, they had anticipated our arrival. Bra's face was twisted with worry, Bulma looked cool and collected, and my father was stern like his father in a serious moment. A rare moment, in other words, but sort of a look of Saiyan honor and dignity.
"Dad, what's going on?" I heard myself say, aggressively. Vegeta had his arms crossed, as usual, but said nothing.
"Pan, I knew you would come. And I think it's time you knew." My heart began to pound and thunder like the waves behind us crashing into the moonlit sand. No, I didn't want to know. I expected this like he had expected me, and I just wished there was nothing to be said. I hated surprises.
"You and Bulma?" A moment of silence.
"We're in love."
No, no, no. I would ask him about him and then he would tell me that I was wrong and that it was all just a big mistake. No infidelity, no lies, just the way things were before…
"And what about my mother? Then what? Are you in love enough to hurt someone who likes you so much, and to hurt me? No, this isn't true, this is just some sick joke!"
"It's true, Pan, I'm so sorry. I didn't tell your mother because I didn't want to hurt her. That's why I didn't tell you."
I felt my stomach turn and my throat tighten. "You kept a secret from me and my mother and you did all this just for Bulma?"
Bulma didn't say something and neither did my father. I didn't expect Bra or Vegeta to say anything. "You wouldn't do that, no," I said, mostly to myself, "This isn't real. I'll just wake up and everything will be normal again. No midnight visits, no trips to beaches, no discoveries that your father's a fraud-"
"Pan, please go easy on me. This isn't easy on anyone."
"Then why is it happening? Why!"
"Your mother is a wonderful friend, but we don't belong together. Not like man and wife."
"Are you trying to make me a bastard?" I exclaimed, "Oh, wait, I forgot, this isn't about me. I'm just some girl in the background."
"Don't say that Pan! I love you very much, and I love your mother. But I also love Bulma-"
"No! No! This drama just doesn't happen in the middle of the night on some stupid romantic beach! That's fiction! Not my dad and my boyfriend's mother."
More silence.
"Why did you bring her here, Dad? This was supposed to be our place! I knew you'd bring her here! Well, not her, but Bra-"
"You thought I was with Bra?"
"Oh what does it matter!" I said in frustration, "The point is, well, you betrayed me too! I'm your daughter, you aren't supposed to just forget about me because of some girl!"
My words must've had an impact because there was more silence for quite some time. There was the sound of the waves, the unspoken messages in the air, but still it was silent. Things around me grew heavy and I didn't dare accept what I had just heard. I was just some child standing on the beach in her pajamas at 2:00 am and nothing was happening. I was the only person in the world and I loved it. No confusion, no drama, just me and an empty Chikyuu.
"I've wasted my time," Vegeta proclaimed, more bitter than snidely. Bra's jaw dropped.
"You wasted your time?" she proclaimed, saying something for the first time in the evening.
"You heard me."
"Don't you even care that you wife is having an affair with Pan's father?"
He turned to my father, and in so many words that just weren't there, he said, "You can keep the whore."
I would've been shocked but I knew Vegeta all too well. He turned away coldly, eager to face the other way, and I could sense Bra's eyes welling with tears already.
"That's my mother you're talking about! You can't just let this go on! You have to stop this!"
"Jealous of your own mother? Pathetic!"
Now this shocked me. Vegeta had just proposed that Bra had a crush on my father, which made sense. It did explain a lot and Vegeta had said it in such a serious tone, could it be true? Honestly, I didn't care anymore. All I cared about was being someone else, somewhere else.
Bra shared my shocked. "Jealous? This is Gohan we're talking about, he's old enough to be my father!"
He gave an aristocratic scoff. "You speak of morals, but that certainly hasn't stopped your mother."
Bulma's eyes widened. "Morals? Well how about you, never loving me and just abandoning me to your training? I may be guilty of an affair, but I have good reason no thanks to you!"
My temper flared, but no one seemed to notice. "Warriors don't love," Vegeta snarled through his teeth, "and you knew that damn well. If you didn't like that, then you shouldn't have been with me in the first place. But of course, you had an affair instead. You had better be thankful that we didn't have an actual relationship or I would've snapped your delicate human neck for betraying me."
My father put his arm protectively in front of Bulma. "Don't bring violence into this."
"Why? Afraid I'll snap your neck as well? And with reason, all these months of loving someone else you shouldn't have made you soft…"
Hearing the tormenting tone in Vegeta's voice made my anger snap. I couldn't take it anymore; blame being shifted when it was clear whose fault it was. Violence was being threatened, but not by the innocent hurt, but by the guilty to each other. It was ridiculous, wrong, and a clear avoidance of the real issue. Bulma and my father.
"Everyone, just shut up!" I yelled, and everyone turned towards me in shock, "The only people who have a right to complain or ague here are Bra and me. All the rest of you started this mess in some way or another, and I don't give a damn who did it more. All that matters is that everything is going straight to hell because two people decided that everything else was unimportant but them being together. And as romantic as that sounds, it's nothing but two people turning their backs on their families."
"She's right," Bra coincided, glaring at her mother. A silence settled over the forbidden couple.
"Ah yes," Vegeta said sarcastically, "and I'm at fault for not coddling your mother like a human."
"If you had it in your heart to show her affection, she wouldn't have cheated on you," I said, "not that it excuses everyone's behavior here. There really aren't any excuses here."
"Any woman would've done it in my place," Bulma argued, "Do you know what it's like being married to that man?"
My eyes narrowed dangerously. "You took part in ruining my parent's marriage. Do you really think I care about why you did it?"
"Pan, don't blame her. This is really my fault for going through with it, but that doesn't change the fact that we love each other."
"I wish it did," Bra muttered, "I wish anything did."
"This coming from the little girl who has feelings for her father's enemy," Vegeta declared.
Bra's face melted into shock. "I do not like Gohan! You're just going crazy!"
"Bra, dear, you don't have to deny it. Even I know it's true," Bulma said.
"Pan, please help me out here," Bra said, appalled.
"I think people are purposely changing the subject. And you know what, I'm glad. I'm sick of this already and I wish with all of me that none of this happened, but I guess I can't change things. I'm disgusted, and there's no reason for me to stay here and listen to this constant blame." I turned around, infuriated. I had been waiting to leave once I found out my father loved Bulma.
Bra looked frantically around and huffed in frustration. "You're leaving already?" she exclaimed.
"Pan, if you're leaving, you know you can't run away from this."
I glared at him. He took away what happiness I had left. How could he do this to me? Didn't he love his daughter? "Watch me," I retorted.
Immediately, I powered up, an aura flaring around me. My father shook his head.
"Pan, don't do this, we aren't finished."
"Yes, we are. You know why? Because this should've never begun in the first place. I shouldn't have come here just to see two adults abandoning everything else and, by the way, being very childish."
"Childish?" Bulma snapped, "You're the one running away from things!"
"I'm just going some place where things make sense! Not here, nothing is understandable here." My ki soared, I clenched my fists, and soon it started to build up. The anger, the helplessness, everything crashing inside of me. I had to get away. I had to go somewhere where pain wasn't a daily occurrences, somewhere where I could heal.
My ki rose to a point where I took off, my feet yanked from the ground and with great precision. I was suddenly airborne; with Saiyans flight was usually an instant thing. I felt the others watch me as I took off, rapidly leaving. Soon, I would be nothing but a spec in the horizon, my flight was that fact.
I barreled into the air higher and higher, and no one followed me. They let me go, but were probably shaking their heads in disgust as I flew off. I ran off in the middle of an argument, it probably seemed cowardly. Things were growing so painful I just didn't care whether or not I was a coward; I just wanted my problems to seem less real.
I looked down to where they were and now, they too were just specs. I would fly farther and farther away until they blended in with the Earth and were no more. Them and all my unresolved issues would blur away, too distant to be seen. No affairs, no deceptions, and no misconceptions. Only in a place so far away that things were almost unrecognizable.
I took off in the middle of the argument, flew off and tried to forget. I noticed the wind, the sky, the problems trailing behind me and the people down below. I noticed where I was taking myself, and I noticed that I was lonely and cold.
What I didn't notice was that Vegeta followed me.
Even at that point I would've cared.