Chapter 5 ~ Nightmares
By: Shi
Summary of story so far: Garlic Jr. is in the Sailor dimension with help from a demon named Talc. He spread his new Blackwater Mist and infected all of Serena's friends except for Mamoru and the outer senshi. Pluto sends Serena to the DBZ dimension. The DBZ gang agrees to help train Serena. Garlic Jr. sends Talc to get Serena. Last chapter: Serena learned how to fly and then meditated with Piccolo to find her inner power. And on to chapter 5!
********************************
Training with Piccolo was no walk in the park. Every morning they woke up before the sun came out and trained nonstop until Serena was so tired she almost passed out. Then, she would collapse in the little grass bed Piccolo had given her, and sleep until dawn when they started training again.
When they fought, Piccolo criticized every move she made and always said she wasn't trying her best, even though she felt her body would give out on her if she pushed any harder. He worked her until she cried then he criticized her weakness for crying. Even though she knew from her vision that she had a great amount of power inside her, and she had begun to learn how to tap into the power, she couldn't reach the level she had felt when she had her vision of the war between the Lunarian warriors and Solarites.
This tight and tiring schedule went on for about a month; Serena learned a lot about how to fight and about herself.
At first Serena was ready to give up. She put out so much effort and without fail Piccolo would say she wasn't trying hard enough. He told her endless times that she would never be able to help her friends.
She couldn't stand him and she couldn't understand why nice people like Goku and Gohan thought so highly of him. After a week, however, she found out that he really did care about her and it made her understand why he was pushing her so hard.
"Why are you treating me this way? You said you wanted to help me but you're only trying to hurt me," Serena accused of Piccolo after a particularly excruciating day of sparing. As usual she was in deep pain and completely drained of all energy, while he acted like he had just gone for a walk in the park.
Piccolo only stared at her for a few minutes, not saying anything. He was sure that only with the full use of the power, she had shown when she was meditating, could she defeat Garlic Jr. and his minions, if even then. He knew she needed complete discipline over her actions and emotions, otherwise she would lose and she would never save her world.
Serena had almost begun to believe that he hadn't heard her and that he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. "I push only as hard as I know you can handle. That's the only way for you to get to your power. You may think you're using all your power and trying your best but I know that you are capable of more. You need to reach your full power. You can barely even throw a decent ki blast! You need more to save your world."
Serena was nearly shocked. She had begun to think that he was getting some sick pleasure form watching her suffer through these training sessions. Now she new he was only trying to prepare her for what he knew lay in the future for her. "Do you really think I can?" she asked him thoughtfully, "I've been trying so hard, I don't think I'll ever be strong enough. It just isn't in my nature to fight this way..."
Piccolo appeared to consider what she had just said; he was reminded of earlier when Serena had just arrived. He had sensed that Kami was hiding something about her, something that was relevant in Serena's case. Then there was Serena herself. She was not a normal person. Being raised on earth, Piccolo never really took interest in earthlings, he considered them all the same, selfish and fake; all except Goku that is. Goku changed his life, with his innocence and love for life and others; Piccolo was able to see a new side to earthlings, which was when he found a new side to himself.
Serena was a lot like Goku. She was innocent of the worldly things around her yet she was determined to save others and would go against all odds to help anyone.
Serena had a small idea about how strong Garlic Jr. was, partly from her experience in her world before she came to this dimension, and part of it was all she had heard of Garlic Jr and his plans once she was here. With her knowledge of her enemy she worked her hardest to be able to meet those odds, Piccolo could see her effort in everything she did. He didn't make his training easy and not once did she threaten to give up, complain though she did.
He also got a sense of her pure heart. One day while they were sparing, soon after she had discovered how to use ki blasts, she had refused to do a counter attack against Piccolo because she saw a baby bunny sitting on the ground below him. If she had countered his attack to throw it off of her, then she might have hit the bunny, so she took the blow face on. This was not a virtue Piccolo recommended of warriors; especially with what she had coming to her with Garlic Jr., but it mystified him all the same.
Then there was the uneasiness Piccolo had sensed with Kami when Serena had arrived. Piccolo had always been aware to a point of the workings of Kami's mind; and he could tell that Kami had been hiding something about her. He decided to find out more about her, as he had to train her.
"According to Vegeta, Lunarians are very strong warriors," Piccolo said.
Serena was taken back, how did Vegeta know anything about Lunarians? "That may be true, but it's more of a 'fight only when you have to,' kind of thing."
"Some might call that a waste of power," Piccolo said trying to bait her still.
"Not at all," Serena said defensively, "we protect the innocent and try to keep peace and happiness, and love."
Piccolo had to grunt a laugh. "And so one little Lunarian defends earth for love, peace and happiness? What gives you the authority to do this?"
"I'm not doing it all by myself, my friends are there," she said starting to get emotional thinking about the ones she loved and missed so much, "they're from other planets too, like you...except they don't look like you. Besides, I was born to protect the innocent, it's my birth right and responsibility."
"Simply because you're Lunarian?"
"No, because I'm my mother's daughter, Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom," she said proudly, before she had thought about what she was saying.
Piccolo stared at her shocked, and he wasn't shocked very often. 'This girl? A princess?' he thought as he looked at her bruised arms, legs and face, her hair was all over the place and her eyes were tired...she didn't look much like a princess, and she wasn't rude and full of herself like the only other royalty he knew, (Vegeta).
She had always made it a point not to tell people who she was but since she had already let the cat out of the bag she decided to tell him all about herself and her world. She told him about the Moon Kingdom and how it was destroyed, leaving out certain sore spots concerning a certain prince of the earth. She told him how her friends and her were reborn in the future and grew as warriors to defeat such evilness as Beryl, Prince Diamond, Pharaoh 90, Queen Nethalania (horribly spelled wrong), and Galaxia/Chaos, and then about her future as Neo Queen Serenity.
For a while Piccolo didn't say any thing as he considered what she had said, then he voiced his thoughts to Serena. "Now I see why Kami kept this from the group."
Serena looked at him curiously.
He didn't feel like speaking of his favorite Saiyan prince so he just shook his head and moved on. "Well then, that was an interesting story, but don't think I'll go easier on you just because you're a princess. Actually, since you have to rule an entire planet, I suggest we work even harder."
She looked at him with fear in her eyes. She didn't think she could handle any more of their training. He burst out laughing at the look on her face. His uncharacteristic action made her even more worried; it wasn't often that he smiled. Then without warning Piccolo's eyes narrowed at her, and before she knew what he was doing, he gathered up a huge ki ball and threw it right at her.
Despite her tired muscles she rolled out of the way and landed in a fighting stance next to the rock she'd been sitting on. Right away Piccolo was on her throwing kick after kick, punch after punch. Serena tried her best to meet his advances and protect herself. After their discussion she no longer held a grudge for him and his harsh tactics, but this was pushing it rather far, she was about to collapse with exhaustion from their long day of training.
She was once again reminded of her friends and how they needed her, and then she thought about how Piccolo felt she would never be able to help them if she didn't push herself harder. Serena felt a new strength surging through her veins; it felt sort of like her friends were behind her, that they had faith in her. They were so far away and it didn't make sense.
No matter where the new hope came from, Serena used it to it's fullest. Soon Piccolo's attacks seemed to be coming slower and slower, for the first time in the week they had been training together she was able to get her own hits in, without him letting her.
As they continued attacking each other Piccolo started to smirk. Finally she was learning. Soon, Serena's punches and kicks were going faster and faster, and Piccolo was forced to move up to the next level just to keep up with her.
Serena sensed his power growing to keep ahead of her. And again she found more power somewhere inside herself and pushed herself to get stronger and stronger.
Piccolo sensed her continuing power level rising with glee. As it kept growing, while their fight was getting even more in-depth, Piccolo felt she was ready for the big time. He shot up into the air at amazing pace; Serena was not far behind him. As he flew up he charged up a huge ki blast to throw at her, and hopefully surprise her.
As his blast reached it's full potential he turned to let it loose on her. 'This one's going to hurt,' he thought proudly to himself as he unleashed the huge burning ball of light on the young princess.
Right as the blast was about to make contact with Serena, she fazed out and fazed back in on the other side of the energy ball, and right in front of Piccolo to hit him hard in the face.
Piccolo was surprised by the blow and when he turned back to her he saw that Serena was equally surprised by her own actions. It was the first time she'd done that.
***************************************************************
After their month together, Piccolo and Serena returned to Capsule Corps. Serena had made huge ground in her skills as a fighter, and though Piccolo said he was barely satisfied with her progress, he could hardly keep up with her anymore.
Neither of them admitted it but they'd become good friends while they were training. Piccolo would never admit how proud he was of his pupil; once she started to learn a new technique, she'd mastered it before he even finished teaching it to her. He decided to stop training her when she was soon enjoying their sparing sessions more than he was, and she was fairing better than he was. He knew that he could no longer offer her any help...it was up to the stronger fighters than him to train her now: Gohan, Vegeta, and Goku.
Piccolo made Serena promise that she would train as much as possible with the others to sharpen her skills. She planned to do this even if she had to drag competitors kicking and screaming. Now that she had learned how to fight, she loved doing it.
With her return, Bulma called everyone over to CC to have lunch and discuss the next step of the plan, and just to welcome Serena back. Everyone was there, Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Chi-chi, Chaozu, and Serena.
Serena was so happy to see real food again. The berries nuts and grass Piccolo had been feeding her the past month was just not enough. She'd almost out shined Goku when the food came. Everyone was sitting around the table, laughing and talking. Serena shared many stories of the training between her and Piccolo. The others wouldn't have believed all that she told them concerning her abilities, if it weren't for the fact that they had been feeling her power level for the past month.
At first, during the time she had her vision, they were all worried that some new enemy was closing in on earth, but Goku had contacted Piccolo through telekinesis and asked him what was going on. So they knew it was her. Piccolo often looked on proudly as she told some of the stories, when she learned to us her ki blasts, when she learned to faze in and out, when she learned to power up to the next level, and the next and the next...
During the time when they were talking, Vegeta walked in; Serena had been told that he was busy training so he couldn't come to the luncheon. When he entered the room, the atmosphere turned tense. A lot of the people stopped laughing and having fun and just started whispering. Serena was confused by what was going on, she didn't understand why his entrance caused such a change.
She saw a strange expression cross his face then it returned to his usual scowl. As he started to turn to leave, she noticed that there weren't any extra seats at the table.
Serena quickly got up out of her seat, "Vegeta, here you go, I'm done eating now, you can have my seat."
He just glanced over at her and left the room without saying one word to her. She sat back down deflated.
"It's ok, Serena. You'll just have to get used to Vegeta," Goku said reassuringly.
"That pinecone head's real sourpuss," Yamcha, said jokingly.
"He still scares me, no matter how good you guys say he is," Chaozu said in his high-pitched voice.
"He's just a stuck up jerk, don't worry about him," Tien said seriously.
Serena instantly felt sorry for Vegeta. But, what had he done that was so bad that made all the people that welcomed her warmly treat him so harshly? As she was pondering this issue, the people around her grew silent.
"Serena?" someone said, knocking her out of her little world.
Her head popped up and looked at everyone, they were all staring at her, "Uh...sorry bout' that. What happened?"
They all laughed at her expense. "I asked you if you wanted to spar..." Goku said to her.
"Oh... Um, I'm sort of tired today, I was hoping to just rest a bit... How about tomorrow?" she answered him trying not to hurt his feelings.
He looked kind of disappointed for a few seconds but then his face lighted up. "Sure! That sounds great. Gohan and I will be her bright and early." Goku said happily, as he stood up.
"After breakfast of course," Chi-chi reminded him, "and after Gohan finishes his homework." She looked at Goku with threatening eyes, then turned to Serena and smiled sweetly. Serena had to giggle at this display. Here was the strongest man in the universe, according to Piccolo, and his wife was bossing him around. Yeah Chi-chi!
Gohan looked unhappy with this bit of news, he really wanted to see how Serena was getting along, not to mention his mother was embarrassing him. "But Mom..." he whined.
"No 'buts.' We can go and get it started now so that you can be done on time," Chi-chi suggested.
Gohan and Goku jumped up, grabbed Chi-chi, and waved quick thanks as they blasted out the window.
Serena laughed half-heartedly, she still couldn't get Vegeta's look out of her mind. It almost seemed as if he was hurt by they way the others received him; though he didn't seem the type to get hurt easily.
Soon the rest of the fighters followed, saying they too would be back the next day. Piccolo smirked at her when he left to which she happily smiled in return. When everyone else was gone, it was only Serena and Bulma. Bulma stood up and mumbled something about needing to work on a project.
"Wait...Bulma, can I ask you something?" Serena asked her quietly, almost as if she didn't want to be asking.
"Sure, no problem. What's up?" Bulma asked cheerfully.
"How come no one likes Vegeta?"
Bulma's face went through a mixture of emotions, angry, regretful, sad, and annoyed as she thought how she could explain Vegeta to Serena. Finally, she sighed and said, "When he arrived on earth he did a lot of bad things, killed a lot of people. Then he left and came back after they defeated Frieza and all of a sudden he's 'good.' But, he's still bad, or at least he acts that way sometime. I can see the good in him sometimes and he's helped us out of some scrapes but he's so darn arrogant I get frustrated and don't even want to try and see the good in him any more. I think it's the same with the others. I'm sure most of us aren't sure if he'll stay good or if he'll double-cross us when he has an opportunity. I think that's what you mean by not liking him, we really just don't trust him."
Serena nodded. Even if he was arrogant, she wasn't going to give up on him. She saw the disappointment in his eyes and knew that he wasn't bad, maybe just misunderstood. Perhaps he gave up a long time ago...it was just something she felt from him. Even though he did purposely scare her to death when ever she was around him.
"Thanks, Bulma. That makes sense."
Bulma nodded and smiled, then said a quick, "I'll see you at dinner," and walked out the door.
Left alone, Serena thought of what she should do. Resolutely, she got up and left the room to seek out Vegeta. As she walked down the halls of Capsule Corps trying to find him she tried to think of how she would approach him. She shouldn't get mad at him, no matter how he acts, she knew that; she would only be like everyone else. She should also try her hardest not to show any fear...but isn't that what you're supposed to do when you come face to face with a tiger?
She went to the room she knew to be his from the first night she was in the DBZ dimension. She pasted on her most cheerful face and turned the handle to the door.
It was locked.
She frowned, and then knocked.
No answer.
She frowned again, and then knocked again, harder this time.
No answer.
Her face turned into a frustrated look of hatred for the door that wouldn't answer her. She balled her hands into tight fists and drummed them as hard as she could. If the door weren't such a high quality door, it would have been torn to pieces by then.
"Ah...Serena, right?" a voice said from behind her.
Serena turned around, red faced and panting, to the man who had somehow snuck up behind her. It was Bluma's dad with his cat over his shoulder. The cat reminded her of Luna. She felt a pang of pain in her chest when she thought of her mentor and best friend, and she quickly pushed the moon cat out of her mind.
"Oh hello, Sir!" she said bowing with a sweat drop, "I didn't hear you coming."
Bulma's dad just laughed a happy laugh causing his eyes to disappear under his rosy cheeks. "No problem, dear," he said kindly. "Are you looking for Vegeta?"
"Oh yes, I am. I thought he might be in his room."
"No, no dear. He's in the gravity room. I heard him banging and clanking as I passed by. You know he spends at least seven hours a day in there."
"Oh thank you. I had no idea!" Serena said happily. "Can you please tell me how to get there?"
"Sure, my dear. Just take a left at the end of the hall, then a right, then immediately another right, then a left, and then go straight out of the building. You can't miss it!"
"Uh, thanks!" Serena said, as he started walking away, mumbling that she was 'a nice girl'.
She wanted to call after him to repeat the directions so she could write them down but he was moving too fast for her. Sighing, she rubbed her sore hands and started out in search of the gravity chamber.
***
Kick, punch, roll, ki blast, kick again...
It was all rather boring. Serena sat at the window of the gravity room watching as Vegeta attacked the invisible opponent. One thing's for sure, she was glad she wasn't on the receiving end of his attacks. She watched amazed as he moved fast enough to intercept his own energy blasts. He was truly amazing to watch.
But, over an hour was pushing it. She had tried at first to get his attention from the window, and that didn't work, then she considered trying to go in there after him, but 600 times the earth's gravity didn't sound to appealing to her. Finally, she just sat down and waited for him to be done.
She had to admit, the man did look good in spandex. She tried to stop herself from thinking that, it just lead to think of how Mamoru looked in spandex, she didn't want to think anymore about that subject because it was so painful.
Eventually after about an hour and a half she fell asleep, snoring ever so gently. She must have been really knocked out because she didn't even hear when Vegeta opened the door to the gravity room.
Panting ever so slightly, he grabbed a towel off the rack by the door to wipe the blinding sweat off his face. When he had done this he froze in mid step when he saw Serena asleep by the window.
'What does she want?' he asked himself bitterly, when he took a step closer to her sleeping form. 'She probably got lost or something.'
He took one last look at her and started out of the room. Just then Serena woke up and saw Vegeta leaving.
"Wait!" Serena said, stopping him in his tracks.
"What do you want?" he spat at her.
"I...I just wanted to use the gravity room..." she lied, trying her best to calm herself down.
"Go ahead," he said with a twinge of amusement in his voice. He turned to leave again but Serena stopped him again.
"Uh, wait! I was hoping you could train me or something...you know. You just looked so fast and powerful, and I need to be able to fight like that. I know you could help me." She hoped the flattery would soften him up a bit, it was true though, she was really impressed by his moves and abilities.
He glared suspiciously for a second. "I'm not interested in teaching a little cry baby like you."
Serena felt like crying or yelling at him, but she knew that neither would help her situation any. He started to walk away again and she fazed out and fazed back in front him to try and stop his leaving. As she did this he punched her in the stomach hard, thoroughly knocking the wind out of her.
She was shocked, but otherwise ok. Vegeta hadn't meant to hurt her, but he saw the pain in her eyes...her eyes were so easy to read...he could see right into her soul. He realized, and hated himself, when he saw that she was hurt only because she had wanted to help him so badly.
Serena stepped out of his way, never moving her sorrowful gaze from his face. He tried to forget it, seeing as how she deserved it for getting in his way, and walked away toward the showers.
As she watched him leave, still holding her stomach, not from physical pain, but from mental pain, she began to think that maybe this was going to be harder than she thought.
******************************************************************
That night Serena got into bed and went to sleep with troubled thoughts. Since she had arrived in the DBZ dimension she hadn't had much time to think about her troubles, and with her training with Piccolo, she was too tired to do anything besides go into a deep sleep those nights. Now that she was more rested her dreams came to her; nightmares of her home and her friends and the one she loved.
She tossed and turned. Many times she would cry out or whimper. She glowed with sweat; her bedclothes were all tangled about her body.
Serena jolted up awake in her bed with a cry.
She started sobbing uncontrollably. It was true, all of it. "Why is this happening? Why can't I be at home with my friends? With Mamo-chan?" she sobbed, almost in hysterics.
Mamo-chan. "Why can't I feel you anymore? Is it because you're so far away, or because you're really gone?" again she resounded in hysterical sobs. "We were supposed to be together forever. Why did you leave me? Why couldn't I help you?"
"Mamo-chan! I need to be with you. I can't live without you. I lived for you, and now I, I just can't live anymore...not without you. Why was it not I, Mamo-chan? Why not me instead of you?"
"I'm so cold," she said cradling herself in her arms. "I don't want to go on any more, you're my life and you're not here anymore...my live has no meaning..."
She couldn't speak anymore her thought seemed to cave in as she cried. She just didn't want to go on any more...not with out him.
He had seen enough, heard enough.
He crept silently out of the shadows of her room, where he had been watching since he first heard her cries in her sleep. He didn't seem to be in control of his own actions, but her pain had reached deep inside of him to a part of himself that he had tried to forget. He wanted to hold her, console her...the way he had wanted when he had felt the same.
Not knowing why or how or what he was doing he sat down next to her sobbing form and wrapped his strong arms around her. Her entire body convoluted with her cries. She didn't try to move out of his grasp...she didn't even look up at him, she just kept crying the tears she'd been holding back for what seemed like ages.
He started petting her head in a consoling manner, doing anything he could to calm her down. After awhile of him mumbling comforting things to her, she calmed down and soon her hysterical crying was reduced to only a few hiccups of crying now and again.
She finally looked up to Vegeta, her eyes the definition of sadness, lost hope, and pain; they were red and becoming dry with the lack of any tears left in her. Tear lines ran down her face making it look like a huge, flood had come over her and little trickles of streams were all that remained. He couldn't stand the suffering he saw. The caring part of him, no matter how small it was, was taking control of him.
"You have to go on," he said in a caring, uncharacteristic voice. "You can't let the uncaring, unfeeling monster defeat you. There is still a lot to live for. You still have your friends, people that care about you, waiting for you. They need you. You know this. People here care about you too, even though they've only known you for such a short while; they won't let you give up like this. Is that what he would want?" he stressed the word 'he' causing her to start tearing again, but she was calm. "It'll be ok, you'll see. You can avenge him, even though it won't bring him back." Her eyes grew wide again.
He kept on holding her, comforting her until her eyes grew heavy and she was falling back into the lands of slumber. He gently laid her back on her pillow and brushed he hair out of her eyes. She wouldn't dream any more tonight.
He saw in her what he had felt many years ago, he hadn't thought he could feel in this way anymore. Perhaps he didn't want her to turn out like him.
As he turned to go his ears picked up her quiet mumbling in her half-asleep mode. "Thank you, Vegeta; here I thought I would help you and you're the one helping me. I promise I won't tell anyone."
He smirked and walked out of the room to his own room, attempting to forget the weakness and sissyness he had just shown.
****************************************************************
There. Does that sound at all like Vegeta?
*Big resounding "NO"*
That's what I thought, oh well.
Don't be shy now! Tell me how you feel about any part of my story. Thank you so much. I made sure to make it long to make up for missing it last week. I started work and I've been busy. I work at Petco "where the pets go"
K, goodnight!
~ Shi - Shigal5@aol.com (please email.)
By: Shi
Summary of story so far: Garlic Jr. is in the Sailor dimension with help from a demon named Talc. He spread his new Blackwater Mist and infected all of Serena's friends except for Mamoru and the outer senshi. Pluto sends Serena to the DBZ dimension. The DBZ gang agrees to help train Serena. Garlic Jr. sends Talc to get Serena. Last chapter: Serena learned how to fly and then meditated with Piccolo to find her inner power. And on to chapter 5!
********************************
Training with Piccolo was no walk in the park. Every morning they woke up before the sun came out and trained nonstop until Serena was so tired she almost passed out. Then, she would collapse in the little grass bed Piccolo had given her, and sleep until dawn when they started training again.
When they fought, Piccolo criticized every move she made and always said she wasn't trying her best, even though she felt her body would give out on her if she pushed any harder. He worked her until she cried then he criticized her weakness for crying. Even though she knew from her vision that she had a great amount of power inside her, and she had begun to learn how to tap into the power, she couldn't reach the level she had felt when she had her vision of the war between the Lunarian warriors and Solarites.
This tight and tiring schedule went on for about a month; Serena learned a lot about how to fight and about herself.
At first Serena was ready to give up. She put out so much effort and without fail Piccolo would say she wasn't trying hard enough. He told her endless times that she would never be able to help her friends.
She couldn't stand him and she couldn't understand why nice people like Goku and Gohan thought so highly of him. After a week, however, she found out that he really did care about her and it made her understand why he was pushing her so hard.
"Why are you treating me this way? You said you wanted to help me but you're only trying to hurt me," Serena accused of Piccolo after a particularly excruciating day of sparing. As usual she was in deep pain and completely drained of all energy, while he acted like he had just gone for a walk in the park.
Piccolo only stared at her for a few minutes, not saying anything. He was sure that only with the full use of the power, she had shown when she was meditating, could she defeat Garlic Jr. and his minions, if even then. He knew she needed complete discipline over her actions and emotions, otherwise she would lose and she would never save her world.
Serena had almost begun to believe that he hadn't heard her and that he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. "I push only as hard as I know you can handle. That's the only way for you to get to your power. You may think you're using all your power and trying your best but I know that you are capable of more. You need to reach your full power. You can barely even throw a decent ki blast! You need more to save your world."
Serena was nearly shocked. She had begun to think that he was getting some sick pleasure form watching her suffer through these training sessions. Now she new he was only trying to prepare her for what he knew lay in the future for her. "Do you really think I can?" she asked him thoughtfully, "I've been trying so hard, I don't think I'll ever be strong enough. It just isn't in my nature to fight this way..."
Piccolo appeared to consider what she had just said; he was reminded of earlier when Serena had just arrived. He had sensed that Kami was hiding something about her, something that was relevant in Serena's case. Then there was Serena herself. She was not a normal person. Being raised on earth, Piccolo never really took interest in earthlings, he considered them all the same, selfish and fake; all except Goku that is. Goku changed his life, with his innocence and love for life and others; Piccolo was able to see a new side to earthlings, which was when he found a new side to himself.
Serena was a lot like Goku. She was innocent of the worldly things around her yet she was determined to save others and would go against all odds to help anyone.
Serena had a small idea about how strong Garlic Jr. was, partly from her experience in her world before she came to this dimension, and part of it was all she had heard of Garlic Jr and his plans once she was here. With her knowledge of her enemy she worked her hardest to be able to meet those odds, Piccolo could see her effort in everything she did. He didn't make his training easy and not once did she threaten to give up, complain though she did.
He also got a sense of her pure heart. One day while they were sparing, soon after she had discovered how to use ki blasts, she had refused to do a counter attack against Piccolo because she saw a baby bunny sitting on the ground below him. If she had countered his attack to throw it off of her, then she might have hit the bunny, so she took the blow face on. This was not a virtue Piccolo recommended of warriors; especially with what she had coming to her with Garlic Jr., but it mystified him all the same.
Then there was the uneasiness Piccolo had sensed with Kami when Serena had arrived. Piccolo had always been aware to a point of the workings of Kami's mind; and he could tell that Kami had been hiding something about her. He decided to find out more about her, as he had to train her.
"According to Vegeta, Lunarians are very strong warriors," Piccolo said.
Serena was taken back, how did Vegeta know anything about Lunarians? "That may be true, but it's more of a 'fight only when you have to,' kind of thing."
"Some might call that a waste of power," Piccolo said trying to bait her still.
"Not at all," Serena said defensively, "we protect the innocent and try to keep peace and happiness, and love."
Piccolo had to grunt a laugh. "And so one little Lunarian defends earth for love, peace and happiness? What gives you the authority to do this?"
"I'm not doing it all by myself, my friends are there," she said starting to get emotional thinking about the ones she loved and missed so much, "they're from other planets too, like you...except they don't look like you. Besides, I was born to protect the innocent, it's my birth right and responsibility."
"Simply because you're Lunarian?"
"No, because I'm my mother's daughter, Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom," she said proudly, before she had thought about what she was saying.
Piccolo stared at her shocked, and he wasn't shocked very often. 'This girl? A princess?' he thought as he looked at her bruised arms, legs and face, her hair was all over the place and her eyes were tired...she didn't look much like a princess, and she wasn't rude and full of herself like the only other royalty he knew, (Vegeta).
She had always made it a point not to tell people who she was but since she had already let the cat out of the bag she decided to tell him all about herself and her world. She told him about the Moon Kingdom and how it was destroyed, leaving out certain sore spots concerning a certain prince of the earth. She told him how her friends and her were reborn in the future and grew as warriors to defeat such evilness as Beryl, Prince Diamond, Pharaoh 90, Queen Nethalania (horribly spelled wrong), and Galaxia/Chaos, and then about her future as Neo Queen Serenity.
For a while Piccolo didn't say any thing as he considered what she had said, then he voiced his thoughts to Serena. "Now I see why Kami kept this from the group."
Serena looked at him curiously.
He didn't feel like speaking of his favorite Saiyan prince so he just shook his head and moved on. "Well then, that was an interesting story, but don't think I'll go easier on you just because you're a princess. Actually, since you have to rule an entire planet, I suggest we work even harder."
She looked at him with fear in her eyes. She didn't think she could handle any more of their training. He burst out laughing at the look on her face. His uncharacteristic action made her even more worried; it wasn't often that he smiled. Then without warning Piccolo's eyes narrowed at her, and before she knew what he was doing, he gathered up a huge ki ball and threw it right at her.
Despite her tired muscles she rolled out of the way and landed in a fighting stance next to the rock she'd been sitting on. Right away Piccolo was on her throwing kick after kick, punch after punch. Serena tried her best to meet his advances and protect herself. After their discussion she no longer held a grudge for him and his harsh tactics, but this was pushing it rather far, she was about to collapse with exhaustion from their long day of training.
She was once again reminded of her friends and how they needed her, and then she thought about how Piccolo felt she would never be able to help them if she didn't push herself harder. Serena felt a new strength surging through her veins; it felt sort of like her friends were behind her, that they had faith in her. They were so far away and it didn't make sense.
No matter where the new hope came from, Serena used it to it's fullest. Soon Piccolo's attacks seemed to be coming slower and slower, for the first time in the week they had been training together she was able to get her own hits in, without him letting her.
As they continued attacking each other Piccolo started to smirk. Finally she was learning. Soon, Serena's punches and kicks were going faster and faster, and Piccolo was forced to move up to the next level just to keep up with her.
Serena sensed his power growing to keep ahead of her. And again she found more power somewhere inside herself and pushed herself to get stronger and stronger.
Piccolo sensed her continuing power level rising with glee. As it kept growing, while their fight was getting even more in-depth, Piccolo felt she was ready for the big time. He shot up into the air at amazing pace; Serena was not far behind him. As he flew up he charged up a huge ki blast to throw at her, and hopefully surprise her.
As his blast reached it's full potential he turned to let it loose on her. 'This one's going to hurt,' he thought proudly to himself as he unleashed the huge burning ball of light on the young princess.
Right as the blast was about to make contact with Serena, she fazed out and fazed back in on the other side of the energy ball, and right in front of Piccolo to hit him hard in the face.
Piccolo was surprised by the blow and when he turned back to her he saw that Serena was equally surprised by her own actions. It was the first time she'd done that.
***************************************************************
After their month together, Piccolo and Serena returned to Capsule Corps. Serena had made huge ground in her skills as a fighter, and though Piccolo said he was barely satisfied with her progress, he could hardly keep up with her anymore.
Neither of them admitted it but they'd become good friends while they were training. Piccolo would never admit how proud he was of his pupil; once she started to learn a new technique, she'd mastered it before he even finished teaching it to her. He decided to stop training her when she was soon enjoying their sparing sessions more than he was, and she was fairing better than he was. He knew that he could no longer offer her any help...it was up to the stronger fighters than him to train her now: Gohan, Vegeta, and Goku.
Piccolo made Serena promise that she would train as much as possible with the others to sharpen her skills. She planned to do this even if she had to drag competitors kicking and screaming. Now that she had learned how to fight, she loved doing it.
With her return, Bulma called everyone over to CC to have lunch and discuss the next step of the plan, and just to welcome Serena back. Everyone was there, Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Chi-chi, Chaozu, and Serena.
Serena was so happy to see real food again. The berries nuts and grass Piccolo had been feeding her the past month was just not enough. She'd almost out shined Goku when the food came. Everyone was sitting around the table, laughing and talking. Serena shared many stories of the training between her and Piccolo. The others wouldn't have believed all that she told them concerning her abilities, if it weren't for the fact that they had been feeling her power level for the past month.
At first, during the time she had her vision, they were all worried that some new enemy was closing in on earth, but Goku had contacted Piccolo through telekinesis and asked him what was going on. So they knew it was her. Piccolo often looked on proudly as she told some of the stories, when she learned to us her ki blasts, when she learned to faze in and out, when she learned to power up to the next level, and the next and the next...
During the time when they were talking, Vegeta walked in; Serena had been told that he was busy training so he couldn't come to the luncheon. When he entered the room, the atmosphere turned tense. A lot of the people stopped laughing and having fun and just started whispering. Serena was confused by what was going on, she didn't understand why his entrance caused such a change.
She saw a strange expression cross his face then it returned to his usual scowl. As he started to turn to leave, she noticed that there weren't any extra seats at the table.
Serena quickly got up out of her seat, "Vegeta, here you go, I'm done eating now, you can have my seat."
He just glanced over at her and left the room without saying one word to her. She sat back down deflated.
"It's ok, Serena. You'll just have to get used to Vegeta," Goku said reassuringly.
"That pinecone head's real sourpuss," Yamcha, said jokingly.
"He still scares me, no matter how good you guys say he is," Chaozu said in his high-pitched voice.
"He's just a stuck up jerk, don't worry about him," Tien said seriously.
Serena instantly felt sorry for Vegeta. But, what had he done that was so bad that made all the people that welcomed her warmly treat him so harshly? As she was pondering this issue, the people around her grew silent.
"Serena?" someone said, knocking her out of her little world.
Her head popped up and looked at everyone, they were all staring at her, "Uh...sorry bout' that. What happened?"
They all laughed at her expense. "I asked you if you wanted to spar..." Goku said to her.
"Oh... Um, I'm sort of tired today, I was hoping to just rest a bit... How about tomorrow?" she answered him trying not to hurt his feelings.
He looked kind of disappointed for a few seconds but then his face lighted up. "Sure! That sounds great. Gohan and I will be her bright and early." Goku said happily, as he stood up.
"After breakfast of course," Chi-chi reminded him, "and after Gohan finishes his homework." She looked at Goku with threatening eyes, then turned to Serena and smiled sweetly. Serena had to giggle at this display. Here was the strongest man in the universe, according to Piccolo, and his wife was bossing him around. Yeah Chi-chi!
Gohan looked unhappy with this bit of news, he really wanted to see how Serena was getting along, not to mention his mother was embarrassing him. "But Mom..." he whined.
"No 'buts.' We can go and get it started now so that you can be done on time," Chi-chi suggested.
Gohan and Goku jumped up, grabbed Chi-chi, and waved quick thanks as they blasted out the window.
Serena laughed half-heartedly, she still couldn't get Vegeta's look out of her mind. It almost seemed as if he was hurt by they way the others received him; though he didn't seem the type to get hurt easily.
Soon the rest of the fighters followed, saying they too would be back the next day. Piccolo smirked at her when he left to which she happily smiled in return. When everyone else was gone, it was only Serena and Bulma. Bulma stood up and mumbled something about needing to work on a project.
"Wait...Bulma, can I ask you something?" Serena asked her quietly, almost as if she didn't want to be asking.
"Sure, no problem. What's up?" Bulma asked cheerfully.
"How come no one likes Vegeta?"
Bulma's face went through a mixture of emotions, angry, regretful, sad, and annoyed as she thought how she could explain Vegeta to Serena. Finally, she sighed and said, "When he arrived on earth he did a lot of bad things, killed a lot of people. Then he left and came back after they defeated Frieza and all of a sudden he's 'good.' But, he's still bad, or at least he acts that way sometime. I can see the good in him sometimes and he's helped us out of some scrapes but he's so darn arrogant I get frustrated and don't even want to try and see the good in him any more. I think it's the same with the others. I'm sure most of us aren't sure if he'll stay good or if he'll double-cross us when he has an opportunity. I think that's what you mean by not liking him, we really just don't trust him."
Serena nodded. Even if he was arrogant, she wasn't going to give up on him. She saw the disappointment in his eyes and knew that he wasn't bad, maybe just misunderstood. Perhaps he gave up a long time ago...it was just something she felt from him. Even though he did purposely scare her to death when ever she was around him.
"Thanks, Bulma. That makes sense."
Bulma nodded and smiled, then said a quick, "I'll see you at dinner," and walked out the door.
Left alone, Serena thought of what she should do. Resolutely, she got up and left the room to seek out Vegeta. As she walked down the halls of Capsule Corps trying to find him she tried to think of how she would approach him. She shouldn't get mad at him, no matter how he acts, she knew that; she would only be like everyone else. She should also try her hardest not to show any fear...but isn't that what you're supposed to do when you come face to face with a tiger?
She went to the room she knew to be his from the first night she was in the DBZ dimension. She pasted on her most cheerful face and turned the handle to the door.
It was locked.
She frowned, and then knocked.
No answer.
She frowned again, and then knocked again, harder this time.
No answer.
Her face turned into a frustrated look of hatred for the door that wouldn't answer her. She balled her hands into tight fists and drummed them as hard as she could. If the door weren't such a high quality door, it would have been torn to pieces by then.
"Ah...Serena, right?" a voice said from behind her.
Serena turned around, red faced and panting, to the man who had somehow snuck up behind her. It was Bluma's dad with his cat over his shoulder. The cat reminded her of Luna. She felt a pang of pain in her chest when she thought of her mentor and best friend, and she quickly pushed the moon cat out of her mind.
"Oh hello, Sir!" she said bowing with a sweat drop, "I didn't hear you coming."
Bulma's dad just laughed a happy laugh causing his eyes to disappear under his rosy cheeks. "No problem, dear," he said kindly. "Are you looking for Vegeta?"
"Oh yes, I am. I thought he might be in his room."
"No, no dear. He's in the gravity room. I heard him banging and clanking as I passed by. You know he spends at least seven hours a day in there."
"Oh thank you. I had no idea!" Serena said happily. "Can you please tell me how to get there?"
"Sure, my dear. Just take a left at the end of the hall, then a right, then immediately another right, then a left, and then go straight out of the building. You can't miss it!"
"Uh, thanks!" Serena said, as he started walking away, mumbling that she was 'a nice girl'.
She wanted to call after him to repeat the directions so she could write them down but he was moving too fast for her. Sighing, she rubbed her sore hands and started out in search of the gravity chamber.
***
Kick, punch, roll, ki blast, kick again...
It was all rather boring. Serena sat at the window of the gravity room watching as Vegeta attacked the invisible opponent. One thing's for sure, she was glad she wasn't on the receiving end of his attacks. She watched amazed as he moved fast enough to intercept his own energy blasts. He was truly amazing to watch.
But, over an hour was pushing it. She had tried at first to get his attention from the window, and that didn't work, then she considered trying to go in there after him, but 600 times the earth's gravity didn't sound to appealing to her. Finally, she just sat down and waited for him to be done.
She had to admit, the man did look good in spandex. She tried to stop herself from thinking that, it just lead to think of how Mamoru looked in spandex, she didn't want to think anymore about that subject because it was so painful.
Eventually after about an hour and a half she fell asleep, snoring ever so gently. She must have been really knocked out because she didn't even hear when Vegeta opened the door to the gravity room.
Panting ever so slightly, he grabbed a towel off the rack by the door to wipe the blinding sweat off his face. When he had done this he froze in mid step when he saw Serena asleep by the window.
'What does she want?' he asked himself bitterly, when he took a step closer to her sleeping form. 'She probably got lost or something.'
He took one last look at her and started out of the room. Just then Serena woke up and saw Vegeta leaving.
"Wait!" Serena said, stopping him in his tracks.
"What do you want?" he spat at her.
"I...I just wanted to use the gravity room..." she lied, trying her best to calm herself down.
"Go ahead," he said with a twinge of amusement in his voice. He turned to leave again but Serena stopped him again.
"Uh, wait! I was hoping you could train me or something...you know. You just looked so fast and powerful, and I need to be able to fight like that. I know you could help me." She hoped the flattery would soften him up a bit, it was true though, she was really impressed by his moves and abilities.
He glared suspiciously for a second. "I'm not interested in teaching a little cry baby like you."
Serena felt like crying or yelling at him, but she knew that neither would help her situation any. He started to walk away again and she fazed out and fazed back in front him to try and stop his leaving. As she did this he punched her in the stomach hard, thoroughly knocking the wind out of her.
She was shocked, but otherwise ok. Vegeta hadn't meant to hurt her, but he saw the pain in her eyes...her eyes were so easy to read...he could see right into her soul. He realized, and hated himself, when he saw that she was hurt only because she had wanted to help him so badly.
Serena stepped out of his way, never moving her sorrowful gaze from his face. He tried to forget it, seeing as how she deserved it for getting in his way, and walked away toward the showers.
As she watched him leave, still holding her stomach, not from physical pain, but from mental pain, she began to think that maybe this was going to be harder than she thought.
******************************************************************
That night Serena got into bed and went to sleep with troubled thoughts. Since she had arrived in the DBZ dimension she hadn't had much time to think about her troubles, and with her training with Piccolo, she was too tired to do anything besides go into a deep sleep those nights. Now that she was more rested her dreams came to her; nightmares of her home and her friends and the one she loved.
She tossed and turned. Many times she would cry out or whimper. She glowed with sweat; her bedclothes were all tangled about her body.
Serena jolted up awake in her bed with a cry.
She started sobbing uncontrollably. It was true, all of it. "Why is this happening? Why can't I be at home with my friends? With Mamo-chan?" she sobbed, almost in hysterics.
Mamo-chan. "Why can't I feel you anymore? Is it because you're so far away, or because you're really gone?" again she resounded in hysterical sobs. "We were supposed to be together forever. Why did you leave me? Why couldn't I help you?"
"Mamo-chan! I need to be with you. I can't live without you. I lived for you, and now I, I just can't live anymore...not without you. Why was it not I, Mamo-chan? Why not me instead of you?"
"I'm so cold," she said cradling herself in her arms. "I don't want to go on any more, you're my life and you're not here anymore...my live has no meaning..."
She couldn't speak anymore her thought seemed to cave in as she cried. She just didn't want to go on any more...not with out him.
He had seen enough, heard enough.
He crept silently out of the shadows of her room, where he had been watching since he first heard her cries in her sleep. He didn't seem to be in control of his own actions, but her pain had reached deep inside of him to a part of himself that he had tried to forget. He wanted to hold her, console her...the way he had wanted when he had felt the same.
Not knowing why or how or what he was doing he sat down next to her sobbing form and wrapped his strong arms around her. Her entire body convoluted with her cries. She didn't try to move out of his grasp...she didn't even look up at him, she just kept crying the tears she'd been holding back for what seemed like ages.
He started petting her head in a consoling manner, doing anything he could to calm her down. After awhile of him mumbling comforting things to her, she calmed down and soon her hysterical crying was reduced to only a few hiccups of crying now and again.
She finally looked up to Vegeta, her eyes the definition of sadness, lost hope, and pain; they were red and becoming dry with the lack of any tears left in her. Tear lines ran down her face making it look like a huge, flood had come over her and little trickles of streams were all that remained. He couldn't stand the suffering he saw. The caring part of him, no matter how small it was, was taking control of him.
"You have to go on," he said in a caring, uncharacteristic voice. "You can't let the uncaring, unfeeling monster defeat you. There is still a lot to live for. You still have your friends, people that care about you, waiting for you. They need you. You know this. People here care about you too, even though they've only known you for such a short while; they won't let you give up like this. Is that what he would want?" he stressed the word 'he' causing her to start tearing again, but she was calm. "It'll be ok, you'll see. You can avenge him, even though it won't bring him back." Her eyes grew wide again.
He kept on holding her, comforting her until her eyes grew heavy and she was falling back into the lands of slumber. He gently laid her back on her pillow and brushed he hair out of her eyes. She wouldn't dream any more tonight.
He saw in her what he had felt many years ago, he hadn't thought he could feel in this way anymore. Perhaps he didn't want her to turn out like him.
As he turned to go his ears picked up her quiet mumbling in her half-asleep mode. "Thank you, Vegeta; here I thought I would help you and you're the one helping me. I promise I won't tell anyone."
He smirked and walked out of the room to his own room, attempting to forget the weakness and sissyness he had just shown.
****************************************************************
There. Does that sound at all like Vegeta?
*Big resounding "NO"*
That's what I thought, oh well.
Don't be shy now! Tell me how you feel about any part of my story. Thank you so much. I made sure to make it long to make up for missing it last week. I started work and I've been busy. I work at Petco "where the pets go"
K, goodnight!
~ Shi - Shigal5@aol.com (please email.)