Power, Deception, Lies

Part III

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Eighteen? What's wrong?"

"I don't know, Krillin…" Eighteen replied, looking terribly cold and frozen although she had beads of sweat on her forehead. "I think something bad is about to happen…"

"Something bad?" Gohan asked, concern in his eyes. "Something… like what?"

"What do you feel, Eighteen?" Videl laid a hand on her shoulder in anxiety.

Eighteen turned to Gohan and Videl and placed a hand on their shoulders. "I don't know. But right now, I feel like… I need to protect the two of you… and myself…"

"Oh, not me, huh," Krillin wrinkled his nose irritably. "I'm never part of anything. I'm the only one who wasn't actually staring open-mouthed at that Marty kid. Now, nobody feels any need to protect me. Boy, I feel loved."

On any other day, Eighteen would've taken that as a joke and laughed, but today she had taken that sentence seriously, which really surprised Krillin. "No! No! It's not that, Krillin. When I'm with you, I feel… ordinary, and yet, when I'm with these two… I feel a tiny stirring inside of my heart, making me feel the need to fight for them, to protect them."

"Now that I think of it… I kinda feel it too," Videl said, shuddering involuntarily. To Krillin's shock, Videl turned almost blue, as if she had been placed in a freezer for twenty-four hours. She looked almost zombie-like, and now a lot like Eighteen, who looked completely chilled to the bone.

Gohan turned his eyes onto her. A shiver ran through his body, as at that moment, he could intuitively feel a creeping fear blanket him. "So do I," he murmured.

Meanwhile, in Chi chi's house… "What's wrong, Goku?"

"I'm not sure," Goku answered his wife. "I have this funny feeling running inside of me. I can sense something is terribly wrong… but I don't know what it is… I can't tell right now. Though I also don't really know how I feel… somewhat half scared, half…"

A soft hand landed on his shoulder, and Goku whirled around in shock. To his relief his eyes met Marty's, who for some reason had no expression in his eyes, although they continued to glisten beautifully as they always had. Marty's eyebrows, to Goku's horror, suddenly curved in a slant, as if he were really sad, and yet his lips also curved into a very small smile that was hardly visible, which ended up as a combination of expressions that were undeterminable. All the same, his perfect face, which had healed over from the few cuts and bruises, remained flawlessly beautiful.

"Don't worry, Goku," he whispered in a silky voice. "It will, I assure you, pass."

* * * * *

"So here's the plan," Cell announced to Pilaf, Garlic and Frieza. "You see this?"

"Of course not," Frieza jested. "I haven't got any eyes, especially none that I have that are looking at what you are holding this very moment."

"That's 'coz when your Daddy rebuilt you, he forgot that eyes are an important part to be restored. Then again, he must've forgotten about brains as well, since he doesn't even have his own," Pilaf shot back, rolling on the ground with Garlic in laughter.

Cell laughed a bit, and suddenly remembered about the serious matters that had to be dealt with as Frieza glared at him disapprovingly. "Ok, break it up! These extremely small green capsules, purposely made to be the size of a housefly, will be very important in our plans."

"They're capsules? Oh. I thought it was a useless rock that you picked up because it looked so pretty. And rocks could be important in our plans too, if you know how to fling one."

Cell ignored Frieza. "When we fight, all we have to do is hold one, force our foe's jaw open with our useful little fingers, and shove it in their little puny mouths. It may sound hard, but if you don't let them bite, you'll be fine," Cell laughed at his own joke pathetically.

"And what'll that do? Bring an end to flu for mankind?"

Cell slapped Frieza hard, annoyed at his jests. Frieza just touched his cheek, and glared at Cell, while Garlic and Pilaf continued to laugh amongst themselves and mock him. Cell even felt rather proud that he had made someone laugh. "As I was saying… it will immediately dissolve in the mouth, run smoothly down their throats and into their digestive system, and turn anyone who swallows it into stone."

"Stone? You're kidding right?" Pilaf laughed, until he saw the serious expression on Cell's face. "…But… that's humanly impossible."

"Well, we're not humans. And neither is Goku, if you really use that peanut in your head to think."

"Forever?" Garlic asked with widening eyes. Cell turned away from their gazes. The shoulder of his armor glinted slightly as he did, his face and vocal expression dripping with evil wisdom.

"No. If they come into any contact with liquid within the first few days they will turn back. But after those first few days, it will be alright."

"What if one of the non-stone ones spit on the stone ones?"

"CEASE YOUR JESTS, FRIEZA!" Cell bellowed. Frieza's face turned into an expression of protest.

"I wasn't!" he complained, making Garlic and Pilaf burst into fits of laughter.

Cell sighed at his companion's extreme stupidity, then sighed and looked at Frieza calmly in the eyes as if he were speaking to a small child who was too young to understand anything. "That will be sheer coincidence, if they were actually as stupid and dishonorable as you to spit on a companion."

"Aww, c'mon. I'll spit on Frieza if you won't," Pilaf grinned.

Cell ignored these jests. "If they found out the remedy then we'll have to think of a plan quick. So I recommend we set a nice dry place to fight." And with saying this, he unrolled a scroll map and picked up a pen. He set a dry place, drawing a large X on a certain spot on the map. Apparently to the other three, he had chosen a relatively large clearing which was bordered with a forest of trees from the north-west to the south-east, a mountain range to the north and north-east, and had a very large cave in a single mountain standing to the east.

"Here, at Dragon Fields," he suggested. "There is no water around for miles. We'll train for the few remaining days that we spend on this ship before we reach Earth- then we'll take them one by one. If this Medusa plan goes well, we might not even have to fight, but we should play it safe and train anyway."

"Let's start with poor, weak Vegita. It might be good for us," Frieza said immediately, remembering all the times Vegita had insulted, defied and deceived him.

"No, no, no!" Cell disagreed. "I think we should start with Yam Cha. He's one of the weakest there, and we should be fine if we start with him, and possibly after him jump straight to one of the strong ones."

"HAH!" Garlic boasted. "That boy? I can kill that weakling twice three seconds before the battle even starts," then, looking at Cell's expression, cleared his throat and said, "fine, I guess the ability to shove ten pills into his mouth would be a lot easier than destroying them manually… which wouldn't do much good 'coz I'd rather kill him anyway…"

Cell finally nodded, gaining a grin from Pilaf, and reached for his black communicative device. "Okay Marty, can you hear me? Here's the plan…"

* * * * *

After a nice hot morning shower, Yam Cha wrapped a large blue towel around himself and headed for his bedroom. He locked the door and began to dress while humming a few bars of Beethoven under his breath. After slipping on his comfortable boots, he walked over to his work table and reached for a brush to comb his short yet soft and clean hair.

But as he reached for the comb he noticed an envelope on his table. The front of the envelope had his name written on it with a black calligraphy pen, in the most beautiful writing he had ever seen. As he turned the envelope he noticed that it had been sealed with wax, a foreign symbol of a triangle, a curved line and two dots marked into it. In curiosity, he opened the note, and it sounded as he had read it:

Dear Yam Cha,

Meet me at Dragon Fields today. I have gotten to know you by one of your fellow villagers who happens to be my friend, and I'm a girl about your age who's very interested in you. I'm dying to meet you, so if you could spare half an hour's ride to meet me you can be sure to have gained an extra friend for life. –A secret admirer.

"Woah…!" he exclaimed. After that, he was speechless, for he had liked nothing more than girls. Immediately he ran to the door, started up his cruiser bike and sped towards Dragon Fields without telling anyone from the village that he was leaving.

About half an hour later, Yam Cha came to a nice dry clearing. There were trees all around him, and as he turned he saw a group of mountains which might as well have been giant sand dunes, they were so hot and dry. As he turned once more his eyes came across a single mountain, and a cave with an enormous opening that would have fit a baleen whale loomed darkly, carved into a mountain much larger than the group of mountains that he had eyed before. The sight of the large, dark cave chilled him to the bone.

"Here we are, Dragon Fields," he said to himself, knowing the place off by heart as he and the others had been here many times. He swung his head around, expecting to find a tall beautiful blond woman wearing an explosive top and pants, or a beautiful brunette wearing a pretty, sweet dress. But all his eyes saw was the mountains, the trees and the horrible cave.

Suddenly, to Yam Cha's extreme horror, a powerful hand grabbed him from behind and wound itself around his neck. He felt his back against something hard, something very muscly. The arm bent his head back, and Yam Cha saw himself staring into the face of the hideously transformed Garlic.

"Sorry kid," Garlic laughed. "These are the last words you'll ever hear."

Yam Cha yelled and struggled, as the hand belonging to the arm around his neck forced his jaw open. Then, to his shock, Garlic had placed something in his mouth using his other hand, and using that same hand to close that mouth up tight. Before Yam Cha could register into his mind what exactly was happening, Garlic flicked up his arm which had been around Yam Cha's neck, making Yam Cha turn his face upwards.

Yam Cha was extremely scared and he had no clue about what was happening that very moment. He was dangling by an arm around his neck, lifting his chin, his face towards the sky. And Garlic's other hand was clasped tightly around his closed mouth, so he was unable to even let out a muffled scream. In fear he breathed deeply and swallowed, and was even more shocked to find himself going extremely cold, as Garlic finally released him, and he fell in a squatting position. He could no longer move his arms as he used the last few of his strength to stand, shivering now and becoming so pale that he was almost transparent. He turned his head down with a soft final jerk, and, seeing to his horror that his feet were now made of stone, could no longer even move his eyes.

Garlic wiped his forehead with his arm and began to complain under his breath. "One down, and still many to go," he mumbled, lifting up his new statue and heading for the dry eroding cave.

Meanwhile, back in the Z organization's village…

Dear Tien and Chaozu,

Meet me at Dragon Fields today. I am a good friend of one of your fellow villagers and am interested in getting to know the two of you, after seeing you so few times. I'm dying to meet you, so if you could spare half an hour's ride to meet me you can be sure to have gained an extra friend for life.

Love always… a secret admirer.

To be continued…