Legacy of Chaos
Chapter 13 (Bad Luck)
"I hope you know…You're going to die."
Videl was turned around completely so they could see her face. There were definitely noticeable changes. Her eyes were dark and cruel, completely void of the ocean blue they once were. She had two piercings on her left eyebrow and piercing on both upper parts of her ears. What was worst was her smile, cold and fearless, like she had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Gohan could not help but gasp and stare, lost in her endlessly black eyes. She had such an unnatural aura around her, black as the outfit she was wearing. From what he could see, she was wearing a black sleeveless vest-like shirt underneath a black, translucent sweater, and a black pair of baggy jeans that covered military boots. To top it all off, she had a tattoo on her right upper arm, she was wearing a dog collar, a spiked armband bracelet, and a belt with a dagger stashed in its sheath.
Her grin faded away into a sad look, a look of despair.
"Help me, Gohan!" she whimpered. "Please…" Gohan nearly choked, unable to resist her calls. He was stopped by Sukoshin's hand on his shoulder.
"We can't take any chances…" she whispered quietly to him. "Knock her off and I'll destroy the pedestal. Got it?" Gohan nodded. He looked to Videl, who was beckoning him with one finger, a pained expression on her face.
Just as he stepped forward, Goten suddenly shouted, "Above you!" Gohan's head shot up just in time to see Doom, Crisis, and Peril swoop down from the high roof and grab him in a head lock, while Crisis snatched Goten for squealing on them and Peril bravely stepped in front of Videl.
"Goten!" Goku yelled. "Gohan! Hold on!"
"Not another step, mortal," Doom threatened. "Or I'll kill him right now."
"Pity your brother has such a loud mouth," Videl sarcastically moped. "A few steps closer, and I could have killed you myself, Saiya-boy." Doom smirked as she tightened her hold on Gohan's neck, pressing her nails dangerously against his throat.
"No one moves an inch until Apocolypse is safely out of her statue, understand?" she ordered. She turned her attention to Sukoshin. "Well if it isn't Sukoshin-sama." She spat out the god's name like it was poison. Sukoshin did not waver against her taunts. "I never thought I'd see you again. What hole had you been hiding in for the past 10 000 years?"
"I should ask the same thing about you," Sukoshin growled. "You three got out pretty fast after I disposed of your big sister. Nervous?" Doom snarled under her breath and averted her gaze. Gohan struggled for a brief second while she wasn't paying attention, but stopped when Videl put her dagger to his throat.
"No, no, no," she purred in his ear. "Perhaps you didn't hear Doom's warning, but if you escape her hold, not only will she kill your brother, she'll kill your father too." Gohan instantly held his breath. "That's better." Videl removed her dagger.
"Videl," he hissed at her. "You know this isn't you. You're not evil. We can end all this right now…Videl…listen to me."
"My name's not Videl!" she roared. "My name is Devil Armageddon! Hostess of the Grand Sister, Apocolypse. Not you, or anyone else for that matter, are going to stop me from fulfilling my mission. And after it's all said and done, I'm going to kill you with my bare hands." Gohan couldn't believe his ears. Her little lecture left him speechless and stunned. This just didn't sound like Videl at all. Or rather Devil, now.
All was at a quiet, tense stalemate, no one daring to make a move… then…
RING!!
"Shit!" Goku yelped as the cell phone went off again. Gohan used this surprise as a chance to escape. He elbowed Doom in the stomach, got out of her hold and jabbed her in the back. Goten did likewise to Crisis and joined the others by the doorway. As if a wrestling had suddenly started up, a free-for-all royal rumble began between everyone. Goku, on the other hand, avoided stray fists and bodies as he answered the phone.
"Yello?" he said to the cell phone.
"Goku, what's going on in there?" Bulma asked.
"Nothing much…" Goku ducked as Vegeta flew over his head. "We found the Chamber. We're inside right now!"
"Goku…time… stell…1…"
"Bulma, you're break up. Repeat yourself!" Goku sideways stepped as Devil was knocked to the ground beside him.
"I said 'YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!! THE STELLAR ALIGNMENT IN IS 1 MINUTE!!" Bulma screamed into the phone, making sure Goku had heard her this time. Unfortunately for him, since Devil was right next to him when Bulma delivered her message, she heard every last word.
"1 minute?" she repeated. She smirked and quickly jumped to her feet. Catching Goku off guard, she kneed him in the stomach and his cell phone went flying into the air. Devil caught it in mid-flight and yelled, "Thanks for the tip," before throwing it into a nearby wall, smashing the phone upon impact.
*~*~*~*
Bulma flinched when she got an annoying screeching noise, followed by static and a dial tone. She groaned and dropped her cell to the ground, disappointed that her only means of communication to the inside had just been cut off. But that female voice she had heard…she knew she had heard it somewhere else. It sounded a bit like…Videl, except…darker perhaps. Either way, she didn't plan on telling Chi-chi about the news. It would only worry the poor woman into greys. Bulma just hoped that something good would come of this.
"Trunks!" Marron wailed from off to the side. "Mommy! Trunks blew up my sand castle!" Bulma groaned at her son's behaviour. May as well let 18 take care of it. She was the only other woman besides herself and Chi-chi that Trunks was terrified off.
"I was just playing around, honest!" Trunks yelped in his defence. "Really, I'll help you build another, okay?" Marron sniffed a bit.
"Let's go to the Nile instead!" she suggested.
"Don't stray too far," 18 warned.
"Okay mommy!" Marron cheered as she dragged Trunks to the river of the Nile.
"Why me?" he moped. Bulma sighed again. She looked back to the pyramids, constantly trying to convince herself that everything was going to be fine. She quickly glanced at the countdown laptop. It read, "45 seconds until stellar alignment."
*~*~*~*
Inside the Chamber of Power was complete mayhem. The Sisters were holding their own against everyone, while Devil was shoving her way past fighting figures, trying to get to the pedestal. Gohan spotted this from the other side of the room and began shoving his way through as well. Devil was doing a mental countdown of her own, so she would know when to be in place. According to her, there was 30 seconds left.
Goku drowsily recovered from Devil's sneak attack and shook his head clear. Then he remembered Bulma's urgent message. He was too far to get to Devil or warn Sukoshin, but instead, he saw Gohan rushing through the small, crowded room, trying to get to the pedestal first. Both Devil and Gohan kept getting stalled by opponents in their way.
'Almost there!" Gohan thought. 'Damn it! Get out of the way, Crisis! C'mon, almost reached it!'
'Just a little farther,' Devil said silently to herself. 'Nearly got it!'
10 seconds
'Damn, gotta hurry!'
'Can't let her reach it! Gotta stop her!'
5 seconds
'YES!! Got it!'
'No! I have to get her off!'
Devil had made a final lunge for the pedestal and reached just a split second before Gohan had. With lightening-fast reflexes, she pulled her dagger out and slashed it across Gohan's face just before he reached her. The demi-saiya-jin yelped out in pain and fell backwards.
1 second
"It's time!" Devil called out.
*~*~*~*
Erasa's happy grin disappeared when she heard Bulma cry out with fright. Everyone rushed up to her to see what she was staring at. Her eyes were glued on the laptop's screen, displaying the words "O seconds until stellar alignment."
The blood in Erasa's veins froze, as did her entire body. All were too stunned to do anything, all expecting the end of the world to happen.
Just when the fear was starting to wear off, Erasa's eyes scanned the horizon…and she shrieked at what she saw.
A wave of pure white energy was racing towards the planet at an alarming rate, unstoppable by any means available. Erasa covered her eyes, praying it would go away…and Dende seemed to hear her prayers, for the light had died down and turned into three beams, directed at the pyramids. They disappeared into the temples, out of sight and all became silent once more.
"What in the world was that?!" Krillin yelled, still trembling.
"Was…" Bulma began slowly. "Was that the energy pulses Sukoshin told us about?" Everyone shrugged. Bulma growled as she turned east and saw the sun rising slowly. "I wish I knew what was going on!"
*~*~*~*
The Armageddon Sisters and the Z warriors had froze at Devil's outburst, while Gohan sat on the ground just in front of her, holding his injured face.
Only seconds after complete silence, just when they thought nothing would happen, there was a shriek from outside, then the eastern shaft began to glow white. All of a sudden, a white beam of light came rushing out, through the elemental cube and straight at Devil. She let out a scream of what sounded like pain as the white light engulfed her entire body.
The sphere of the hostess essence began to glow and react to the nearby energy and shot a red beam of its own at Devil. The sisters, gods, and earth warriors were flung backwards against the awesome power radiating from Devil. Her ki sky-rocketed literally through the roof, blowing away the entire top half of the pyramid. All were temporarily blinded by her shear raw energy. For a brief instance, it appeared as though Devil had red, translucent wings. Then, the energy beam did a total reverse as if it was being drawn back to the stars from whence it came. All this took place in a matter of seconds, and just as quickly as it occurred, it was all over, without anyone having a chance to react.
The smoke cleared and revealed Devil, unconscious, lying on the ground, but still, no one moved. Finally, Gohan dropped down beside Devil and supported her weak body.
"Is…that it?" Peril whispered. "Where's Apocolypse?"
"Do you think it worked?" Goku asked in a hushed voice. "I'm…not sensing anything…"
"Let's hope not," Goten murmured.
*~*~*~*
"Did you see that?!" Mr. Satan exclaimed. "That brilliant light…and the pyramid!…I hope Videl's alright!" The people assembled outside the pyramids had just watched three beams of light leave the temples, one blue, one green, and one white mixed with red. The beam of energy disappeared into the stars, then…nothing.
"We're saved!" Erasa cheered. "It didn't work!"
"Wait!" Chi-chi called. "Look! Can you guys see that?" Her eyes were fixated on something in the sky, around the same spot where Orion…had once been. There was nothing left of Orion's belt. Bulma gasped.
"That's horrible!" she cried. "Everything there is gone, according to the star charts on the laptop." She stopped when something else in the sky caught her attention. Another beam of light was making its way towards Chikyuu. Bulma panicked.
"Another one?" Yamcha sighed. "It never ends…" Instead of this beam of red energy heading towards the temples, it crashed right into the Great Sphinx. "Damn…" The monument glowed red briefly before shattering into thousands of pieces.
The Gods, Goten, Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, and the Armageddon sisters flew up into the air for a better look. The light from the Sphinx died down and revealed a woman, standing where it once was. She had dark red hair, pulled back into a ponytail, black bat-like wings, small black horns, and a small, fire-like symbol on her forehead. This could only be assumed to be Apocolypse. Sukoshin gasped the sight of her, but did not back down or run.
No one moved, they barely breathed, let alone screamed, like so many wanted to. Gohan didn't even know what the woman look like, considering he was still inside what was left of the Temple of Orin, yet he knew that something bad was lurking just outside. Devil remained unconscious, still worn out from what she had just undergone.
Apocolypse opened her eyes slowly, for it was the first time in 10 000 years she had used them, and gathered her surroundings. The first people she saw were a few mere humans, cowering on the ground. She looked up somewhat and saw a few more humanoid creature…and her sisters. Then, of to the side, was a man dressed as a Kai…and Sukoshin. Apocolypse knew her well. Sukoshin was the one who sealed her up in the first place.
"Apocolypse!" Doom shouted from the sky. "You're back! After so long! We have missed you!" Apocolypse smirked and levitated off the ground, her wings flapping. She couldn't help grinning. Seeing so many terrified faces was far too much for her.
"I see they know me well, Doom," she purred, her first words in along time. "You must fill me in on the details I've missed."
"Later," Doom replied. "First, we must deal with these pests. And especially Sukoshin. I'm sure you'll be wanting revenge, so we'll leave her to you."
"Very good," Apocolypse said, licking her lips. "Trivial questions can wait. I want to tear that wretched Kai's head off!" Sukoshin flinched. Her worst nightmare had come true. And it was all her fault.
"No…" she whispered. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. This can't be happening!"
"Got an plans now, genius?" Vegeta hissed.
"I'm afraid I don't."
"Then let me come up with one now. I'm used to Supreme Kais underestimating our strength," he shot Kaioshin a look. "so I suggest we fight. Maybe we'll fair better than you think."
"I may not know how strong you are, but I'm almost positive she can't be beat. She's complete evil and evil cannot be defeated! Only contained. Don't you think if she could be killed, I would have done it 10 000 years ago! But she's literally invincible!"
"This wasn't in the fine-print!" Goten complained. "What do we do now?"
"Stick your head between your knees and pray," Piccolo growled. "But I don't think Dende has time to listen to us today."
*~*~*~*
Marron poked her head up from the sand she was half buried under. When the Sphinx had shattered, her and Trunks had been sitting by the Nile, and had become buried in sand.
"Trunks!" Marron called. "Get up, quick!" Trunks poked out of the sand as well and shook his head a bit, shaking the sand from his hair.
"What was that explosion all about?" he wondered aloud.
"I think it's the mean big sister everyone keeps talking about." She crawled out of her sandy tomb and dusted herself off.
"How would you know?" Trunks did the same, shaking off sand like he was a dog.
"I listen to people."
"Oh…well we better get back to everyone! They'll wonder where we are!" Marron shook her head furiously.
"No, we can't!" she protested. "Mommy told me if things get dangerous, she wanted me to stay hidden."
"Yeah, well hiding's not my thing," Trunks retaliated. "Besides, Goten and my dad might need my help!" Trunks looked over to where in the distance, four strange women were floating in front of his friends and family. "You stay here, got it?" He moved to get up, but felt something latch to his arm. Turning, he saw Marron in tears.
"Don't go, Trunks!" she pleaded. "I'm scared! I dun wanna be alone." Trunks was about to protest, but her tears stopped him dead in his tracks. He gave in. After all, she was only 6 years old.
"Alright," he whispered, settling down beside her. "I'll stay."
*~*~*~*
Gohan clenched his eyes shut. He knew something bad was just outside. Something dark, but unreadable by ki. Even though he knew it was Apocolypse, he still wanted to go and see for sure, but he couldn't just leave Videl all alone. As he held her fragile form, he began to wonder if the spell had worn off now that Apocolypse was resurrected and the hostess' duty was fulfilled.
Videl began to stir, startling Gohan slightly.
"Videl?" he said frantically. "Are you okay?" Suddenly, her eyes flicked open, and in a fraction of a second, she was on the other side of the room, while Gohan had a new scar on his face from her dagger.
"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?!" she demanded, her dagger still brandished. "I meant what I said, Saiya-boy! I will kill you before noon!" She lunged at him, wildly swiping her knife at him, Gohan dodging madly.
"Matte! Stop!" he cried, trying to get her to slow down. "Videl! Stop!"
Up in the sky, Apocolypse cracked her knuckles menacingly as she advanced on the Z fighters.
"You don't know how much torment you put me through," she growled, her statement directed to Sukoshin. "I had to sit back and watch life pass me by. I had to watch this pitiful mud ball of a planet crawl through existence, defile my precious tomb, worship me for all the wrong reasons and call me an object that was owned by a dead king. " With each word, she cracked a different part of her body or stretched a different limb, causing the less braver warriors to shudder with fear. "Do you think I enjoyed my time here? Do you know how cramped it was in there? Do you know how much I suffered? When the followers of Armageddon showed up 100 years after my imprisonment and offered a solution out of that hell-hole, I silently accepted. I listened to them go over the plans they had for nearly 50 years, and I honestly thought my time to wreak havoc once more was soon at hand." She stopped, taking a moment to test her powers by charging up slightly. "I was so wrong. I had to wait another 9 900 years for my sisters to show up! So in the end, I'm not the bad guy in this whole misunderstanding. You are, Sukoshin."
"You killed thousands of innocent people!" Sukoshin yelled, her voice shaking slightly. "You're the murderer, not me!"
"See that's what gets me," Apocolypse said, clasping her hands together in deep thought. "How do you define the word 'innocent'? I was under the impression that murdering my father was a sin, and a sin on your slate makes you evil. You and the Council of the Gods murdered my parents! You forced my mother to commit suicide!"
"Someone's got a lot of issues," Krillin whispered to Goku.
"Enough of this stalemate," Apocolypse bellowed, having had enough of telling her life story. In an instant, she was in Sukoshin's face. "Boo." Sukoshin could not contain her fears any longer.
She screamed.
That jolted every fighter present into an all-out brawl. Vegeta, Piccolo, Goku, and Krillin rushed at the sisters while Sukoshin and Kaioshin fought against Apocolypse, leaving Goten to take the non-fighters to a safe distance away and Gohan defending himself against Devil's blind attacks.
With fists raised, Vegeta attacked Doom first, knocking her back with a punch. She recovered rather quickly and retaliated with a kick of her own, making Vegeta wonder how she could fight in such a short skirt. They exchanged kicks and punches, but Vegeta was being forced back. Distracting Doom with a ki beam to the left, he used this moment of breathing space to kick it up to super. Transforming in less than a second, he went back into the fray.
Goku grabbed Peril by her arm and swung her into the ground, following it up with a swift knee to her back while she was blinded momentarily by sand. In a quick movement, she was lying on her back, with Goku's knee in her grasp. She forced her energy into her hands and began burning away at the material of his pants. Goku yelped and backed off, patting the fire out with his hands. Commenting that it was a dirty trick, he produced a fire of his own and set it to Peril's hair, to her dismay. She ran around, trying to muffle the flames with her hands and finally extinguishing the fire. An extremely pissed look crossed her face and she was in Goku's face not a second later, scratching it up with her nails, yelling something about ruining her beautiful hair.
Piccolo and Krillin tag-teamed against Crisis, who was holding her own against both fighters. She caught both legs aimed at her head and lifted them both off the ground with amazing strength, them slamming them into each other. Piccolo was up first and whispered to Krillin to use the split-form technique. Nodding the ex-monk chanted a little phrase, as did the namek, and three more copies of Krillin and Piccolo were formed. Eight fighters in all, they began attacking Crisis at once. She seemed mildly impressed at first, but at the battle continued, she grew more and more bored. As a final attack, she grabbed one Piccolo's arm and threw him into the air, finishing him off with a dark ki attack. She snatched another Piccolo's foot as it was flying at her, and tossed him into a third Piccolo. Spinning around gracefully, she did a spin kick at one Krillin, sending him flying into another Krillin, and to finish them off, she rammed her fist through two at once. In a matter of minutes, only one Piccolo and Krillin remained.
Sukoshin, battered and bruised, fired a weak energy blast at Apocolypse, who didn't even make an attempt to block it. The god was much too weak from her slumber that she had no reserves left in her. Kaioshin, right by her side, was defending her as much as he defended himself. Apocolypse grinned cruelly and slammed her fist into Kaioshin, then faked to the right, catching him off guard, and fired a blast at Sukoshin.
"You can't protect her forever!" she sneered. "Give it up and I might let you live." Kaioshin then did something very un-god-like.
"Screw you!" he snarled. "I'd rather die trying than take a coward's way of life." And he finished it up by spitting on Apocolypse. Sukoshin gasped. Apocolypse stared. Kaioshin paled as he realized what he just did. Instead of beating on the little god like he expected, Apocolypse began laughing, like that was the funniest thing in the world.
"Cute," she sniffed, wiping her eyes. "You must really love her, huh?" Kaioshin blushed, as Sukoshin turned red, even with the universe's greatest threat standing in front of her. "Look at it this way. At least you'll die together!" Sukoshin's eyes widened as Apocolypse began gathering energy.
"NO!" she cried. She collected what little energy she had and fired an impossibly strong ki sphere right at the demon's middle, sending the hell spawn flying backwards towards the river.
*~*~*~*
Goten ungracefully dumped Mr. Satan to the ground when he heard a child scream.
"That was Marron!" he yelled. Immediately, he took off, leaving Mr. Satan about a mile away from Cairo.
"Oh well," Hercule muttered. "Come to think of it, I'd better warn the people of Cairo!" Getting to his feet, Mr. Satan ran as fast as he could to the heart of Cairo. "People of Egypt!" he announced loudly. "This is the world saviour, Mr. Satan!" Residents opened their windows and doors at the sound of his voice. "Please listen very carefully! There's a dangerous situation occurring at the Giza Plateau! I need everyone to gather your necessary items and evacuate the area! I repeat, you need to evacuate the area immediately!" Disorder and panic broke out among the populace of Cairo. People, scrambling to get their things and leave, scattered the streets. In five minutes, the whole city was deserted. Mr. Satan sighed and rushed over to where the other non-fighters were.
"What was that all about?" Bulma asked, referring to the mayhem in the city.
"I had them evacuate," Satan explained. "That way the boys have a bigger fighting arena." Bulma nodded and turned her attention to the battle in the sky.
"I hope everything works out," she murmured.
"What are we supposed to do?" Erasa asked anxiously. "The first plan failed! We don't have a back-up!"
"Calm down, we'll think of something!"
"I don't want sound depressing or anything, but one planet can only have so many miracles. Then the luck runs out and something really bad happens, like now!"
"Stop! I said we'll think of something and we will!"
*~*~*~*
Marron shrieked loudly when a body hit the ground next to her and Trunks. The demi-saiya-jin leapt to his feet and into a defence position. The woman who had landed near them groggily got her feet, then glared at Trunks when she noted that he was in a fighting stance.
"Planning on fighting me, Boy?" she demanded. Behind her, Goten landed, along with Sukoshin and Kaioshin.
"Leave them alone, Apocolypse!!" Sukoshin yelled menacingly. "They're only children!"
"You think I don't know that?" Apocolypse demanded. "The younger, the better." She smirked maliciously at Marron, who trembled at the sight of such an evil-looking woman, and hid behind Trunks. Minus the wings, the horns, and the symbol on her head, she could have passed for a regular teen girl.
"Leave them be!" Kaioshin ordered. "Trunks, take Marron and run!" Trunks nodded and signalled Goten to follow.
"Not so fast!" Apocolypse growled. She fired a dark ki beam at Trunks, who wasn't prepared for such an attack, was hit by the full extent of the blast, knocking him to the ground. Marron went white as a sheet.
"TRUNKS!!" she screamed loudly.
*~*~*~*
Gohan flinched when he heard a terrible shriek from outside, the scream of a child. He could feel ki's fluctuating outside, but he truly had no idea what was going on.
He had spent the past ten minutes dodging Devil's attacked, who had succeeded in shredding a bit of his Saiyaman outfit. Devil, using his temporary distraction to her advantage, hit Gohan over the head with the hilt of her dagger, knocking him unconscious.
*~*~*~*
Another evil cliff-hanger! Don't worry, there're maybe three more chapters after this.