Legacy of Chaos
Chapter 12
An engine roared to life. The motor of an airship started up and the airship carefully lifted from the ground, carrying at least 12 people. The sleek aircraft glided through the air, as if it were cutting through the sky, quietly. It wasn't a bulky model, like Bulma usually usual used for transportation. This ship was made with the same material stealth bombers were made with, dark as night to camouflage, and it was silent, the sounds of the engine and motor muffled out. Perfect for sneaking up on an unsuspecting evil.
Inside, the occupants shifted uneasily as one young teen in specific paced back and forth. His thoughts were on a particular girl, by the name of Videl.
His love interest, in fact.
"Gohan, take a seat and relax," Sharpner ordered his friend softly. "Take it easy, guy."
"Gomen," Gohan replied sheepishly. If the others couldn't figure out he was worried about Videl, chances are they were blind. Gohan took the nearest seat next to his father. He was wearing his regular Saiyaman outfit.
Off on the other side of the airship, Sukoshin and Kaioshin were discussing strategy and tactics they could use in the event that Apocolypse was released. They conversation was cut short when a little blond girl with pigtails approached them curiously.
She blinked a few times before saying, "What's a 'hostess essence'?" Krillin was on his feet in a split second.
"Marron," he scolded. "Leave the Supreme Kais alone. You should be sleeping right now."
"It's alright," Kaioshin said softly with a smile. "Marron, the hostess' essence is basically a replica of Videl's life force." Marron gave him a puzzled look.
"Let me try," Sukoshin suggested. "You like computers, right Marron?" Marron nodded enthusiastically. "Well look at it this way. Everyone has life essence. Well someone made a back-up copy of Videl's. And it's taken the shape of a sphere. This is for when they want to bring back their big sister and the back-up copy is going to give the big sister life."
"Oh…" Marron said thoughtfully. "I get it! But can you still use the ball after big sister used it? And where is it?"
"Curious little girl," Sukoshin laughed. "I believe you can use it afterwards, and it should be in the pyramid, west wall or something like that."
"Okay!" Marron grinned before trotting off. Sukoshin gave Kaioshin a smug grin.
"What?" he sighed.
"You gotta know how to talk to children," she replied.
Back with Gohan, he was on his feet again and pacing.
"Gohan, please stop," Erasa moaned. "You're giving me a headache!"
"Relax, kiddo!" Yamcha agreed. "Nothing's gonna stop us from stopping them!"
"Look, you'd be worried too if your best friend is god-knows where!" Gohan literally burst out, but quickly covered his mouth and lowered his voice. "Gomen," he apologized for the second time that night.
"You're getting high-strung," Goku commented. "Take a nap. Trunks and Goten are already fast asleep." Instead of taking his father's advice, Gohan approached the Kais.
"I got a question," he started up. "Let's say we get there and the Sisters are waiting inside. What then?"
"No one says we have to destroy the shafts immediately," Sukoshin explained. "If we can distract them until the alignment is over, it would be enough and then we can deal with the sisters."
"And another thing! I need to know right now, and I want the truth…is… is she in pain?"
"No, the victims of Armageddon suffer no pain unless it's of mortal causes. Why do you ask that?"
"Because…" Gohan hesitated. "I think when the spell was cast…that was the day she told me she hated me…right?" Sukoshin reluctantly nodded. "Didn't you see what happened?…She was screaming so much, like she was in serious pain. I…I didn't know what to do…" Sukoshin looked down at her hands, as if trying to figure something out.
"She was resisting…" she breathed. "Videl was trying to resist the spell!" Gohan brightened.
"Really?"
"Yes, I'm sure of it! Only few have ever tried to resist the spells. It's very difficult for people with weak minds that are easily manipulative. Videl…must have one strong mind. In that case…"
"We can't kill her! She's still in there!"
"Gohan, you told me you were prepared to do anything to stop this summoning. It doesn't matter at this point…" Sukoshin bit her bottom lip, hoping she hadn't come off rude. "I'm sorry…"
"It's okay," Gohan whispered. He sighed. "Last question. Why did they try so hard to turn Videl against me?"
"Beats me." Gohan looked up, as if rolling his eyes. "My guess is they need a focal point, someone who could bring out her anger. I guess that someone was you. Nothing we should dwell on." She stopped. "And Gohan…" She paused once again, placing her hand on the demi-saiya-jin's cheek. "Try to relax. Fretting over nothing will not make us reach our destination any sooner." Gohan nodded reluctantly and took a seat once again, this time staying put.
"We're almost there," Bulma announced from the pilot's seat. "Hold on!"
"Okay, maybe it does."
*~*~*~*
"I'm bored!" Peril complained. "How much longer?"
"How should I know?" Crisis growled.
"Well one of us should have brought a watch, smarty pants!"
"I didn't see you bring a watch, wise ass."
"Gee, I wonder how Devil's holding out." Both girls turned to look at Devil. She was sitting on the pedestal, eyes closed, and completely motionless.
"Is she alive in there?" Crisis whispered.
"Doesn't look like it…" Peril whispered back. The two edged forward cautiously, and with a careful finger, Peril reached out to poke Devil. Suddenly, Devil turned her head and nearly bit Peril's finger, causing both girls to squeal and jump back a few feet. Devil smirked and went back to motionless sitting.
"Guess that answers our question…" Peril gasped, still trying to gain control of her breathing and heart rate.
"Will you two juveniles please shut up and leave Devil alone?!" Doom growled. "We don't know what time it is, so she's gotta stay perfectly still, in case sunrise is happening as we speak."
"Oh…" Peril and Crisis said in unison, finally understanding.
"Besides, that meddling Kai hasn't intervened yet, so I'm worried. We must be prepared for anything." Doom sighed heavily and fiddled with the end of her skirt. The sisters were no longer wearing their human clothing. They had slipped into something more…Armageddon styled. Doom was wearing a black halter top, black skirt, and black knee-high boots. Crisis was wearing a dark green tank top, camo jeans, and skater sneakers. Peril was wearing a light blue tube top, dark blue shorts, and navy blue sandals. All of them had a rocker look to them.
"Patience," Doom kept muttering to herself. "Just be patient… The defences are up… They can't get though… Patience…"
"You know what I don't understand," Devil finally spoke. "Why didn't you kill that Saiya-boy when you had the chance."
"So glad you asked," Doom muttered. "First, we haven't killed anyone in 10 000 years, every since Apocolypse was sealed away. We've been trying to stay off all the Supreme Kais' radars. The last thing we need is to get caught and suffer the same fate as father. Killing that brat would have triggered a lot of people's alarms and we'd be caught within a minute."
"But you're strong than any of theses pitiful humans. Why worry?"
"Look, it's something called 'covert operation' It means stay low and be incognito. There would be so many enemies swarming over our heads too soon that we wouldn't be prepared. Not only would this planet's defenders come to the rescue, we'd have to deal with the Council of the Kais. They're the last people I want to deal with."
"You have a second reason?"
"I needed someone you could focus your anger at, so I could perform the spell. What better way to make sure the Golden Light is out of the picture than to make him your focal point?" Devil rolled her eyes and closed them, returning to her semi-meditation. Suddenly, there was a distance clang noise, as if something heavy was just dropped outside.
"What was that?!" Crisis panicked. Peril flipped open her handing palm-pilot.
"Computer," she commanded. "Bring up the main viewing screen of the front of the ship." A small image appeared on the mini-computer's screen. Nothing out of the ordinary was there. "Left side." Nothing. "Back." Still nothing. "Right side!" A small airship came into viewing. "Oh no…"
"What is it?" Doom demanded. Peril paled considerably and hesitated. "What?! C'mon!!"
"It's her…Sukoshin!" Peril gulped. Doom's face dropped.
"No…NO!! Not now! Not when we're so close!" Sitting on the pedestal, Devil took no notice to their panicking and urgency. "We're not ready! We can't risk getting caught so soon!…We'll hide!"
"Listen to yourself," Devil finally intervened. "You sound like a cowardly human. Don't worry so much. You have too much faith that those Saiya-jins and gods will actually get past the defences."
"You'd be worried too if you knew what we knew!" Peril whined. "You weren't there when that bitch turn Apocolypse to stone! She'll do it to us! I knew this was a bad idea from the start!" Doom instant slapped Peril across the face, causing the blue-haired girl to go flying back and Crisis flinch.
"Not another word," Doom hissed. "We're going through with this if it kills us." Peril pouted as she rubbed her injured cheek.
"Even if there's a fate worse than death…" she mumbled under her breath.
*~*~*~*
The Z warriors exited the airship and looked around the deserts of Egypt.
"Cool!" Trunks exclaimed. The children looked excited, but the adults had solemn looks on their faces. Ahead of them, the cause of all their troubles, was the Pyramids of Giza. And just a few short miles away, an evil that had been sitting on Earth for over 10 000 years, the Great Sphinx. Gohan understood his dreams now. 'Apocolypse was always here, waiting and gazing east.' The Great Sphinx was always here too, also looking east. He winced. Then the other part of his dream was true also. He killed her. Videl's innocence. He let Videl die. This was all his fault. Just like how he let his father d…
'It's not your fault,' whispered Sukoshin's soothing voice in his thoughts. 'That's what they want you to believe. They want you to think this whole mess is your mistake. They've poisoned your mind. Don't let them get to you.' Gohan smiled and nodded.
"So we'll be needing to enter through the main entrance," Kaioshin explained. Gohan breathed slightly heavier when he caught a glimpse of how small the entrance was. Then he received a nudge from behind.
"Gohan?" Erasa whispered. "You okay?" Gohan nodded carefully.
"Anxiety," he mumbled as he trudged along with the others.
Sukoshin stood before the west wall of the smallest pyramid, looking for the entrance.
"It's sealed," she announced to the others.
"This one too," Mr. Satan called from the middle pyramid. "What now?"
"The entrance to this one is intact," Vegeta shouted from the Great Pyramid. "We'll just have to go though here!"
"They'll be waiting for us there," Krillin whined. Sukoshin examined the doorway to the main corridor except…the hallway was missing. It was supposed to go straight, but instead, it turned left immediately past the door.
"They've put up the defences," she murmured.
"Looks like we were expected," Piccolo grunted.
"I don't know the correct path, or even it there is a correct path," Sukoshin speculated. "The walls could be bugged, or there could be an endless maze of chambers and corridors." Goten's ears perked when he heard the word 'maze'.
"I can help!" he squealed.
"Not this time, chibi me," Goku half-heartedly replied. "It might be too dangerous."
"No, trust me!" Goten insisted. "I've been playing Ico for nearly three weeks straight! I'm the master when it comes to mazes and puzzles!"
"He does have a point," Sharpner agreed, who had been to Gohan's house and seen Goten completely mesmerized by the TV screen, playing Ico non-stop.
"His skills could be useful," Kaioshin also added.
"Alright," Sukoshin accepted. "Vegeta, Piccolo, Goku, Gohan, and Goten, you're with us. The rest of you wait out here for our signal. Goku will call Bulma if anything happens." She checked her watched, which said 5:34am. "We don't have much time, so let's make the best of it."
"Later Trunks!" Goten sneered playfully as he followed the grown-ups into the Temple of Orin, while Trunks gave Goten the finger. Gohan was the last to enter, very unwillingly for some odd reason.
The inside corridor was dark, and the air stale. It wasn't meant for people to be casually walking through it, since the halls were very cramped and narrow. A part of the hall became wider and Goten quickly stopped them.
"It might be a trap," he stated simply. He scanned the walls with his eyes and spotted something on the roof, something like an indent straight across the width of the hall. He took off one shoe, tossed it in the middle of the wide hall and suddenly, a guillotine dropped from where the indent was and slammed into the floor. The others stood, wide-eyed as Goten walked into the room and retrieved his shoe.
"Told ya," he said with a Son smile. It took the adults a few second to snap back to reality as Goten climbed over the guillotine and onward.
"Goten, I'm sorry I ever doubted you," Gohan called to his younger brother.
*~*~*~*
Bulma tapped her foot impatiently. She had already set up the equipment and was timing the sunrise and the stars' alignment, so there wasn't much else for her to do.
The other women were 'bonding' somewhat. Erasa was telling Chi-chi that her life goal was to become some prestigious lawyer, while Marron was building sandcastles with Trunks' help.
Sharpner and Mr. Satan were hanging out with Krillin and Yamcha, learning about what it took to be come strong fighters like them. 18 was sitting a bit far from everyone else.
She preferred solitude rather than company.
Bulma had nothing to keep herself distracted. She kept looking back to the horizon, where she could see the three stars along Orion's belt. It suddenly occurred to her that they could have simply blown up the stars, like they had destroyed the moon, but then she remembered that there were other life-forms living near those stars. Bulma sighed and took a seat beside her laptop, displaying the countdown.
It read, "1 hour 12 minutes until stellar alignment."
*~*~*~*
"I'm sensing we're getting closer," Kaioshin announced. He took a turn left down a small, cramped hall. After getting lost, running into dead ends, and running into 14 more traps since they had entered the pyramid, they were getting clearly annoyed, and 14 times, Goten had to bail them out, making them thankful for bringing the little tyke.
"I never knew the pyramids were so confusing and full of mazes," Goku said aloud.
"They weren't," Sukoshin explained. "The Armageddon Sisters created these tunnels to confuse people and keep them away. They're also used as a defence mode, as you can tell from the traps. Obviously they're working. If we don't find them soon, they'll release Apocolypse." They stopped when it started getting darker. "Goku, could you make a ki light?"
"Hold on, I thought I heard something." Everyone remained quiet, listening. The sound Goku heard began to get slightly louder. It sounded like...heavy breathing. They turned in the direction the sound was coming from, all turning to see Gohan sitting on the floor, breathing deeply. "Gohan, what's wrong?"
"N...nothing..." he said in between gasps. "J-just keep...keep going...We have...to find V-videl..." The others stared at him with worried expressions, except Vegeta.
"Gohan, what's wrong with you?" Goku asked his son again. "Why are you breathing like that?" Gohan didn't say anything as he continued to hyperventilate. He looked up at his dad.
"It's...too...hot in here," he said, starting to panic. "I need to get out here." Goku gave a worried look.
"Kaioshin, do you think it's the Armageddon Sisters?"
"No, I'm not sensing any magic use," Kaioshin replied. He attempted to help Gohan up, but Gohan shoved him away.
"I need...to get outside!" he yelled, starting to really panic. "It's...it's too hot!"
"Gohan, you have to tell me what's wrong!" Goku ordered his son. Gohan looked like he was on the verge of tears.
"I never told anyone..." he whispered. "I didn't want people to think I was weak..." He paused to take a breath. "I'm...a little claustrophobic."
"Come again?" Goku asked, scratching his head.
"It means he has a fear of small, confined areas, stupid," Vegeta barked.
"You are?!" Goku yelped. The teen nodded bashfully. "I...how did...you...uh...?"
"You remember when I was 4 and Radditz showed up?" he asked his dumbfound father. Goku nodded. "When Radditz locked me up in that saiya-jin pod...it had some long term permanent effects. Now I get terrified of being stuck in small areas."
"All because you were stuck in a saiya-jin pod?" Goku asked.
"I was 4 years old!! It was traumatizing! Not to mention I could hear horrible screams from outside."
"My bad." Goku grinned. Vegeta growled and smacked the younger full-saiya-jin on the back of his head. "That would explain why you hate being in your room all the time and why you were always getting edgy back on Babidi's ship."
"I'm...sorry to...drag you...guys b-behind...I just…" He paused. "I think I'm okay now."
"Are you sure?" Sukoshin asked, making sure. "I don't want you collapsing, alright?" Gohan smiled weakly.
"I'll live." They continued on until they reached what looked like the final hallway. The hall was wider than the rest, and at the end of it was a closed doorway.
"Hold up," Goten announced. He did his usual scan. "There's a camera over in that corner…but other than that, everything seems clear." Vegeta sniffed the air.
"It seems to easy," he grumbled. Goten was not done his scan quite yet, but his announcement that everything was clear made Goku take a step forward.
"Dad, wait!!" Goten yelled. But it was too late. Goten had spotted a trip-wire laser along the ground and Goku had just walked right though it. There was a low, creaking noise, and then, the walls seemed to shutter. Suddenly, hall they had just come out of was sealed off by a steel door and the walls began moving, closing in on each other…with the Z warriors caught in the middle.
"Shit!" Vegeta cursed, trying to brace the walls with his bodyweight. "Don't just stand there! Try to hold off the walls!" Everyone got on either side and began pushing, but it proved useless. Then Goku's cell phone rang.
"Yello?" Goku answered, acting like nothing was wrong. "Nope, everything's fine…Yep…Uh huh…right, got it…half an hour? Ya don't say."
"A little less talking, little more pushing please!" Vegeta ordered.
"Listen, I gotta go…why? Because I'm about to be squashed. Later Bulma!" Goku hung up the phone and continued his fruitless attempt to force the walls back. Gohan's breathing got terribly ragged, his sense of claustrophobia getting worse and worse by the second.
"No…" he whispered. "I've…I've gotta get out of here! I've gotta find Videl! I don't have time for this!" He took a quick glance behind and spotted how close the wall was to him, causing him to panic-power up. His sudden shockwave of energy caused the doors at the end of the hallway to fly open.
Not wasting a single second, he shouted, "Quick! The doors!" The warriors and two gods squeezed through the closing walls until they were all safely through the last hall and into what appeared to be the Chamber of Power. Just as they entered the room, the walls of the corridor slammed shut together.
It took a few seconds for them to clearly see their surroundings, but the room was a regular square with an extremely high roof. On the walls were lit torches, illuminating the small room. In the middle, sitting alone on a pedestal was…
"Videl!!" Gohan yelled. He wasn't sure if he should have been happy or worried about her. There was complete silence as the dark figure remained quiet. Then, as if she had found the words, she rose her head.
"You should have never come…" She slowly turned around. "I'm sorry Gohan…but you brought this on yourself." Gohan gasped slightly. "It's too late to run now, and you'll never be able to hide."
*~*~*~*
I'm such a tease! Evil cliff-hanger!! I'll get back to this very soon!!