Disclaimer: We do not own DBZ, Gundam Wing, or any of its characters.
However, Rika, Miryo, Pota, and Kenja are ours.
Author's Notes: So very very sorry for the slow update! Very sorry! *bows* This chapter includes a small chat that involves child abuse...not horribly detailed though, I hope it's not disturbing to any readers...And we apologize for Heero acting slightly out of character and not being the stone-cold perfect soldier and Trowa seems to talk more o.o"
"Blah" = talking
[Blah] = telepathic speaking
'Blah' = thoughts
Dimensional Destiny Chapter 16: Trouble Returns
A week had passed, and the Gundam pilots were now used to living with the Z gang and the four teens. Pota and Kenja were always outside sparring with the Z gang, while Miryo watched and sometimes joined in. Rika, however, was out of sight most of the time. Only Quatre knew where she was.
The blond Gundam pilot strolled towards the secluded area he had shown Rika the week before. She was always sitting there under the shade of the trees, deep in thought. Quatre frowned as he caught sight of the huddled figure from faraway. Rika had seemed troubled lately. She acted normally in front of others, but whenever Quatre saw her alone, she would be solemn and depressed.
Quatre sat down beside the girl, and smiled. "Hi Rika."
"Hi," she responded quietly, returning the smile. But Quatre could tell it was forced.
"Is there something bothering you?" he asked.
"No," Rika replied. She had turned away from him when she answered.
"Rika..." Quatre looked at her, wanting to meet her eyes. "You can tell me what's wrong."
She hugged her knees to her chest, and leaned her back against the tree. "I...I haven't told anyone this before."
Quatre remained silent, listening intently.
Rika took a deep breath and began to explain. "When I was little, about 3 years old, I was still living with my family. We were poor, and my mom had to work constantly to get enough money for a meal."
"What about your dad?" Quatre questioned.
"Uh..." Rika scratched her head absently. "He always blamed me for our lack of money, saying that if I were never born they would still have money." She gulped. "One time, our situation got really bad, and he tried to kill me."
Quatre gasped. "What?!"
Rika turned sharply to face him. "Whenever he got mad he beat me up. That time, we barely had five dollars, and he grabbed an old kitchen knife and..." She trailed off. "...My back..."
Quatre stared, shocked. "What...what did he..."
Rika turned around and lifted up her tank top a little. A scar peeped out from the edge of her top. Quatre gently lifted the back of the tank top a little more, and he saw that the scar ran diagonally up her back.
"Rika, I..."
"Then later he shot my mom and committed suicide, I only got away because my mom was running from him and in the end he only had enough bullets for her and himself," Rika said in a rush. Quatre reached out and held her close to him. She was shaking, and her breaths were uneven gasps. However, there were no tears in her eyes. "I haven't thought about it in so long, but I was thinking about something that had happened in the orphanage."
"What happened?"
"One of the adults yelled at me, she said 'no wonder you're parents dumped you here, they never loved you!'...And that reminded me about my parents, and it's hard to explain, but for some reason it hurts so bad," Rika explained, one hand unconsciously hovering over her heart. "I don't get it."
"It's okay, Rika, it's okay to cry..." Quatre whispered.
"I-I-I never cry...I haven't since the incident with the knife..." she said, and leaned her head on Quatre's shoulder. "Please don't tell anyone, the others don't know, only the adults at the orphanage know. Please don't tell them, I don't want them to know..."
"Ok, I won't tell them, promise," Quatre said soothingly, gently rubbing her back. "You know, maybe the reason it hurts so much is because you never told anyone and you're keeping everything inside. It must've been terrible!"
Rika sniffled in response and kept her arms tight around Quatre. Eventually, her breathing evened out, and she was taking deep breaths. He turned slowly, and saw that her cheeks were dry; she hadn't cried, and she was asleep. 'What a horrific experience it must've been...poor Rika...'
Carefully, Quatre leaned back, and let Rika sleep in his arms.
*
Pota blocked Kenja's punches, and fired a ki blast. The shorter boy was sent flying and he hit the ground.
"Aww, nice shot, Pota." Kenja picked himself up.
"Fear me," Pota said with a grin, landing on the ground.
Miryo giggled, and as the boys took a rest, her eyes wandered. 'The sky's so clear, it's such a nice day.' The mid afternoon sun was blazing above them, and as Miryo blocked the sun from her eyes with her semi-gloved hand, she noticed something; a few black dots in the distance. The dots were moving quickly and were in a group. As she squinted and the dots became closer, she saw that they weren't dots...
...But mobile suits.
"You guys, look!" she yelled, pointing upwards. All eyes turned to her, then looked up to the sky. It took a while for them to spot the mobile suits.
"Oh man, how did they find us?" Krillen wondered.
"I'll go tell Heero and the others," Kenja said and flew off.
Within mere minutes, Heero, Duo, Trowa, and Wufei were out in their Gundams.
"Where's Quatre?" Duo asked.
"I don't know," Heero answered simply, watching as the mobile suits made their descent. A Gundam, a replica of Epyon, landed between the mobile suits and the Gundams. None were surprised when Raziel's voice spoke.
"Ah, dear Gundam pilots. So glad to have found you, I must get revenge for my destroyed headquarters."
"Cut the crap, Raziel! Let's end this!" Wufei yelled.
"05...I'll have you know, you have no chances of winning this time, not even with your superhuman freaks," he said, referring to the Z Gang and the four teens. Raziel paused, and then spoke again. "You seem to be a few people short..."
Wufei prepared himself. 'We can stand here and exchange comments all day or we can quickly end this!' Nataku flung its arm forward, and the dragonhead swirled around, attacking several mobile suits. Raziel, in the Epyon replica, flew into the air and dodged it. All of them charged forward to attack. The mobile suits were being blasted away with ease, but Raziel wasn't concerned.
"Stupid kids, you fell for my plan!"
"What?" Heero watched, shocked before the "perfect-soldier" mask covered his emotion, as Raziel drew out a buster cannon. "How did you get that?!"
Raziel laughed wickedly and fired the cannon. When the beam of light stopped, they all looked around, fearing that a life might've been taken.
'What the...he shot the ground? Oh no! They're trying to get to our base!' Duo realized.
"Is anybody still in there?" Trunks asked as he continued blasting away mobile suits.
"No, I don't...KENJA!" Trowa shouted as he blocked an attack from the enemy.
"What's he doing down there?!" Pota hollered as a sick feeling washed over him. 'They haven't completely broken through the ground to the base yet, but another shot would at least cause the ceiling to fall...'
"He was looking for Quatre," Heero replied bluntly.
Raziel prepared to fire a second shot.
*
Quatre gasped. 'Was that the sound of explosions?'
Rika stirred, slowly opened her eyes and blinked. A bright beam of light shone in the distance through the afternoon sunlight, and a thundering boom was heard.
"Uh, what was that?" Rika questioned, rubbing her eyes slightly, and added sarcastically, "It can't be a storm in the afternoon,"
"An explosion, coming from the underground base...I think we should check on it." Both getting up, they raced back to the base.
"Rika, leave me and fly to the base, I'll get there as quickly as I can," Quatre said, sprinting as fast as he could.
"Okay!" Rika took flight and reluctantly left him. Seconds later, she was hovering over a large crater where the underground base was, and an all-out battle was raging before her. Amidst the confusion, she spotted the Epyon replica, holding a buster cannon. 'Oh boy, that can't be good.'
*
After Kenja told Heero, Trowa, Wufei, and Duo about the mobile suits, he ran off in search of Quatre. 'Geez, where is he?' The pilot of Sandrock Custom was nowhere to be found.
"Quatre? Quatre!" he called, running deeper into the structure. A few minutes later, when he was about to turn back, there was a low rumble that shook the whole place. "Whoa!" Kenja steadied himself using the wall. He gasped; suddenly, the lights had gone out.
"Whoa..." he waited a few seconds, expecting them to come back on, but the place remained pitch dark. 'I could light this place up by holding a small ki blast in my hand, but I'll have to be careful not to drop it or send it flying anywhere. And hope it won't explode in my hands.' Kenja concentrated, formed the tiniest ki blast possible, and held it in his left palm. Now he could see everything within a ten-meter radius. 'Hmm, Quatre's probably not here, I might as well go back out...'
*
Duo tried to attack Raziel, as he was the biggest threat to them, but the mobile suits jumped in the way and blocked his attacks. 'These guys were ordered to keep him alive!' The braided pilot realized. He glanced around and saw mobile suits throwing themselves into attacks just to keep Raziel safe.
Heero, in Wing Zero, aimed his buster cannon at Raziel. When he stopped moving around, Heero fired. He watched in dismay as Raziel dodged the beam (but it took out at least ten mobile suits). Raziel weaved around the battlefield with amazing speed, and was in front of Wing Zero within seconds.
"Foolish 01!!" he taunted as he attacked. Wing Zero's arm (with the buster cannon) fell to the ground with an echoing thud.
Heero's Gundam jerked slightly as he growled in frustration, and jumped away from Raziel, and then dived forward to retrieve the cannon. After successfully picking it off the ground, he turned around to fire, but saw that he was too late.
Raziel was already firing a beam at the underground base.
*
Rika gasped. 'Their blocking the others from Raziel.another shot and the underground base will collapse!' She watched from the crater as Wing Zero picked up the buster cannon and turned around to fire, but Raziel was already pulling the trigger on his own cannon. Powering up with a yell, Rika charged forward.
"Phoenix Flare!" The mighty firebird met with the beam of the buster cannon, and cancelled it out. 'Yes!'
"Brat!" Raziel shouted in frustration, and immediately fired again, aiming it right at Rika. At the same time, Wing Zero fired at Raziel. There was a great explosion of light that blinded Rika as the beam hit her, and sent her flying into the underground base.
*
"Wahh!" Kenja cried out in surprise as the whole place shook again, though much harder this time. He lost his grip on his ki blast and it went flying ahead of him. As it hit the wall, the explosion lighted up the room and he saw the ceiling collapsing on him. 'What the hell?!' Kenja was slammed to the ground as a piece of ceiling fell on his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs. The last thing he saw was a figure, outlined by the afternoon sunlight, falling into the base.
*
Heero watched in satisfaction as the ray of energy from his buster cannon blasted the Epyon replica into oblivion. The satisfaction didn't last long, however.
"Heero! Rika was hit, and the base too!" Trowa informed him.
"And there's more mobile suits coming!" Wufei yelled from up ahead.
The Z Gang flew up ahead to ambush the enemy suits from behind, leaving the Gundam pilots, Pota, and Miryo to defend the remains of the base.
"Silence Dragon!"
"Heaven's Eagle!"
The combined attack ran through twelve mobile suits, but more kept coming.
'This can't be good...and where's Quatre?' Pota wondered.
*
Pain...
Nothing but pain...
Rika grunted as more rubble went crashing onto her back. It felt as if elephants were tap dancing on her back. She gasped for breath, feeling her rib cage push against the hard ground. She was suffocating, slowly, and painfully, but surely.
Lifting her head, Rika saw a hand from under another pile of rubble. She tried to move, but succeeded in doing nothing but hurting herself further. With a squeak of pain her head dropped limp onto the ground.
'Help...'
*
Quatre stared at the scene before him in shock. The underground base was nothing but a huge hole, and everyone was fighting enemy mobile suits.
At least, almost everyone.
"Quatre!" Miryo landed beside the Gundam pilot, whipping off her bandana and tying it up quickly over a long gash on her arm in the process. "Kenja was in the base when they destroyed it, and Rika got caught in the attack. They haven't come out yet, I think they need help!"
"Do you know if they're alive?!"
"I don't know, but we need to go find them, the others have their hands full," Miryo said, referring to the battle. "Come on!"
Carefully but quickly, she flew (supporting Quatre) into the hole filled with rubble. They were grateful for the sunlight, though it was still very dim in there. They separated, searching for Rika and Kenja.
*
"KA...ME...HA.ME...HAAA!" Gohan yelled as a great blue ray of energy that blasted through the mobile suits. As he took flight, something hit him hard in the back of his head. He grunted, turning around as his vision blurred for a moment before he focused again. A mobile suit had knocked him on the head, and was about to do it again. The young half-saiyan shot a small ki blast, destroying the enemy and he moved out of the way as it fell. His head throbbed in frustration and slight pain from the blow to the head. 'Wow, I didn't think mere machines could do this much.' He sharply turned his head, before he felt metal slam into his body.
Author's Note: Again, very very sorry for the slow updates. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Author's Notes: So very very sorry for the slow update! Very sorry! *bows* This chapter includes a small chat that involves child abuse...not horribly detailed though, I hope it's not disturbing to any readers...And we apologize for Heero acting slightly out of character and not being the stone-cold perfect soldier and Trowa seems to talk more o.o"
"Blah" = talking
[Blah] = telepathic speaking
'Blah' = thoughts
Dimensional Destiny Chapter 16: Trouble Returns
A week had passed, and the Gundam pilots were now used to living with the Z gang and the four teens. Pota and Kenja were always outside sparring with the Z gang, while Miryo watched and sometimes joined in. Rika, however, was out of sight most of the time. Only Quatre knew where she was.
The blond Gundam pilot strolled towards the secluded area he had shown Rika the week before. She was always sitting there under the shade of the trees, deep in thought. Quatre frowned as he caught sight of the huddled figure from faraway. Rika had seemed troubled lately. She acted normally in front of others, but whenever Quatre saw her alone, she would be solemn and depressed.
Quatre sat down beside the girl, and smiled. "Hi Rika."
"Hi," she responded quietly, returning the smile. But Quatre could tell it was forced.
"Is there something bothering you?" he asked.
"No," Rika replied. She had turned away from him when she answered.
"Rika..." Quatre looked at her, wanting to meet her eyes. "You can tell me what's wrong."
She hugged her knees to her chest, and leaned her back against the tree. "I...I haven't told anyone this before."
Quatre remained silent, listening intently.
Rika took a deep breath and began to explain. "When I was little, about 3 years old, I was still living with my family. We were poor, and my mom had to work constantly to get enough money for a meal."
"What about your dad?" Quatre questioned.
"Uh..." Rika scratched her head absently. "He always blamed me for our lack of money, saying that if I were never born they would still have money." She gulped. "One time, our situation got really bad, and he tried to kill me."
Quatre gasped. "What?!"
Rika turned sharply to face him. "Whenever he got mad he beat me up. That time, we barely had five dollars, and he grabbed an old kitchen knife and..." She trailed off. "...My back..."
Quatre stared, shocked. "What...what did he..."
Rika turned around and lifted up her tank top a little. A scar peeped out from the edge of her top. Quatre gently lifted the back of the tank top a little more, and he saw that the scar ran diagonally up her back.
"Rika, I..."
"Then later he shot my mom and committed suicide, I only got away because my mom was running from him and in the end he only had enough bullets for her and himself," Rika said in a rush. Quatre reached out and held her close to him. She was shaking, and her breaths were uneven gasps. However, there were no tears in her eyes. "I haven't thought about it in so long, but I was thinking about something that had happened in the orphanage."
"What happened?"
"One of the adults yelled at me, she said 'no wonder you're parents dumped you here, they never loved you!'...And that reminded me about my parents, and it's hard to explain, but for some reason it hurts so bad," Rika explained, one hand unconsciously hovering over her heart. "I don't get it."
"It's okay, Rika, it's okay to cry..." Quatre whispered.
"I-I-I never cry...I haven't since the incident with the knife..." she said, and leaned her head on Quatre's shoulder. "Please don't tell anyone, the others don't know, only the adults at the orphanage know. Please don't tell them, I don't want them to know..."
"Ok, I won't tell them, promise," Quatre said soothingly, gently rubbing her back. "You know, maybe the reason it hurts so much is because you never told anyone and you're keeping everything inside. It must've been terrible!"
Rika sniffled in response and kept her arms tight around Quatre. Eventually, her breathing evened out, and she was taking deep breaths. He turned slowly, and saw that her cheeks were dry; she hadn't cried, and she was asleep. 'What a horrific experience it must've been...poor Rika...'
Carefully, Quatre leaned back, and let Rika sleep in his arms.
*
Pota blocked Kenja's punches, and fired a ki blast. The shorter boy was sent flying and he hit the ground.
"Aww, nice shot, Pota." Kenja picked himself up.
"Fear me," Pota said with a grin, landing on the ground.
Miryo giggled, and as the boys took a rest, her eyes wandered. 'The sky's so clear, it's such a nice day.' The mid afternoon sun was blazing above them, and as Miryo blocked the sun from her eyes with her semi-gloved hand, she noticed something; a few black dots in the distance. The dots were moving quickly and were in a group. As she squinted and the dots became closer, she saw that they weren't dots...
...But mobile suits.
"You guys, look!" she yelled, pointing upwards. All eyes turned to her, then looked up to the sky. It took a while for them to spot the mobile suits.
"Oh man, how did they find us?" Krillen wondered.
"I'll go tell Heero and the others," Kenja said and flew off.
Within mere minutes, Heero, Duo, Trowa, and Wufei were out in their Gundams.
"Where's Quatre?" Duo asked.
"I don't know," Heero answered simply, watching as the mobile suits made their descent. A Gundam, a replica of Epyon, landed between the mobile suits and the Gundams. None were surprised when Raziel's voice spoke.
"Ah, dear Gundam pilots. So glad to have found you, I must get revenge for my destroyed headquarters."
"Cut the crap, Raziel! Let's end this!" Wufei yelled.
"05...I'll have you know, you have no chances of winning this time, not even with your superhuman freaks," he said, referring to the Z Gang and the four teens. Raziel paused, and then spoke again. "You seem to be a few people short..."
Wufei prepared himself. 'We can stand here and exchange comments all day or we can quickly end this!' Nataku flung its arm forward, and the dragonhead swirled around, attacking several mobile suits. Raziel, in the Epyon replica, flew into the air and dodged it. All of them charged forward to attack. The mobile suits were being blasted away with ease, but Raziel wasn't concerned.
"Stupid kids, you fell for my plan!"
"What?" Heero watched, shocked before the "perfect-soldier" mask covered his emotion, as Raziel drew out a buster cannon. "How did you get that?!"
Raziel laughed wickedly and fired the cannon. When the beam of light stopped, they all looked around, fearing that a life might've been taken.
'What the...he shot the ground? Oh no! They're trying to get to our base!' Duo realized.
"Is anybody still in there?" Trunks asked as he continued blasting away mobile suits.
"No, I don't...KENJA!" Trowa shouted as he blocked an attack from the enemy.
"What's he doing down there?!" Pota hollered as a sick feeling washed over him. 'They haven't completely broken through the ground to the base yet, but another shot would at least cause the ceiling to fall...'
"He was looking for Quatre," Heero replied bluntly.
Raziel prepared to fire a second shot.
*
Quatre gasped. 'Was that the sound of explosions?'
Rika stirred, slowly opened her eyes and blinked. A bright beam of light shone in the distance through the afternoon sunlight, and a thundering boom was heard.
"Uh, what was that?" Rika questioned, rubbing her eyes slightly, and added sarcastically, "It can't be a storm in the afternoon,"
"An explosion, coming from the underground base...I think we should check on it." Both getting up, they raced back to the base.
"Rika, leave me and fly to the base, I'll get there as quickly as I can," Quatre said, sprinting as fast as he could.
"Okay!" Rika took flight and reluctantly left him. Seconds later, she was hovering over a large crater where the underground base was, and an all-out battle was raging before her. Amidst the confusion, she spotted the Epyon replica, holding a buster cannon. 'Oh boy, that can't be good.'
*
After Kenja told Heero, Trowa, Wufei, and Duo about the mobile suits, he ran off in search of Quatre. 'Geez, where is he?' The pilot of Sandrock Custom was nowhere to be found.
"Quatre? Quatre!" he called, running deeper into the structure. A few minutes later, when he was about to turn back, there was a low rumble that shook the whole place. "Whoa!" Kenja steadied himself using the wall. He gasped; suddenly, the lights had gone out.
"Whoa..." he waited a few seconds, expecting them to come back on, but the place remained pitch dark. 'I could light this place up by holding a small ki blast in my hand, but I'll have to be careful not to drop it or send it flying anywhere. And hope it won't explode in my hands.' Kenja concentrated, formed the tiniest ki blast possible, and held it in his left palm. Now he could see everything within a ten-meter radius. 'Hmm, Quatre's probably not here, I might as well go back out...'
*
Duo tried to attack Raziel, as he was the biggest threat to them, but the mobile suits jumped in the way and blocked his attacks. 'These guys were ordered to keep him alive!' The braided pilot realized. He glanced around and saw mobile suits throwing themselves into attacks just to keep Raziel safe.
Heero, in Wing Zero, aimed his buster cannon at Raziel. When he stopped moving around, Heero fired. He watched in dismay as Raziel dodged the beam (but it took out at least ten mobile suits). Raziel weaved around the battlefield with amazing speed, and was in front of Wing Zero within seconds.
"Foolish 01!!" he taunted as he attacked. Wing Zero's arm (with the buster cannon) fell to the ground with an echoing thud.
Heero's Gundam jerked slightly as he growled in frustration, and jumped away from Raziel, and then dived forward to retrieve the cannon. After successfully picking it off the ground, he turned around to fire, but saw that he was too late.
Raziel was already firing a beam at the underground base.
*
Rika gasped. 'Their blocking the others from Raziel.another shot and the underground base will collapse!' She watched from the crater as Wing Zero picked up the buster cannon and turned around to fire, but Raziel was already pulling the trigger on his own cannon. Powering up with a yell, Rika charged forward.
"Phoenix Flare!" The mighty firebird met with the beam of the buster cannon, and cancelled it out. 'Yes!'
"Brat!" Raziel shouted in frustration, and immediately fired again, aiming it right at Rika. At the same time, Wing Zero fired at Raziel. There was a great explosion of light that blinded Rika as the beam hit her, and sent her flying into the underground base.
*
"Wahh!" Kenja cried out in surprise as the whole place shook again, though much harder this time. He lost his grip on his ki blast and it went flying ahead of him. As it hit the wall, the explosion lighted up the room and he saw the ceiling collapsing on him. 'What the hell?!' Kenja was slammed to the ground as a piece of ceiling fell on his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs. The last thing he saw was a figure, outlined by the afternoon sunlight, falling into the base.
*
Heero watched in satisfaction as the ray of energy from his buster cannon blasted the Epyon replica into oblivion. The satisfaction didn't last long, however.
"Heero! Rika was hit, and the base too!" Trowa informed him.
"And there's more mobile suits coming!" Wufei yelled from up ahead.
The Z Gang flew up ahead to ambush the enemy suits from behind, leaving the Gundam pilots, Pota, and Miryo to defend the remains of the base.
"Silence Dragon!"
"Heaven's Eagle!"
The combined attack ran through twelve mobile suits, but more kept coming.
'This can't be good...and where's Quatre?' Pota wondered.
*
Pain...
Nothing but pain...
Rika grunted as more rubble went crashing onto her back. It felt as if elephants were tap dancing on her back. She gasped for breath, feeling her rib cage push against the hard ground. She was suffocating, slowly, and painfully, but surely.
Lifting her head, Rika saw a hand from under another pile of rubble. She tried to move, but succeeded in doing nothing but hurting herself further. With a squeak of pain her head dropped limp onto the ground.
'Help...'
*
Quatre stared at the scene before him in shock. The underground base was nothing but a huge hole, and everyone was fighting enemy mobile suits.
At least, almost everyone.
"Quatre!" Miryo landed beside the Gundam pilot, whipping off her bandana and tying it up quickly over a long gash on her arm in the process. "Kenja was in the base when they destroyed it, and Rika got caught in the attack. They haven't come out yet, I think they need help!"
"Do you know if they're alive?!"
"I don't know, but we need to go find them, the others have their hands full," Miryo said, referring to the battle. "Come on!"
Carefully but quickly, she flew (supporting Quatre) into the hole filled with rubble. They were grateful for the sunlight, though it was still very dim in there. They separated, searching for Rika and Kenja.
*
"KA...ME...HA.ME...HAAA!" Gohan yelled as a great blue ray of energy that blasted through the mobile suits. As he took flight, something hit him hard in the back of his head. He grunted, turning around as his vision blurred for a moment before he focused again. A mobile suit had knocked him on the head, and was about to do it again. The young half-saiyan shot a small ki blast, destroying the enemy and he moved out of the way as it fell. His head throbbed in frustration and slight pain from the blow to the head. 'Wow, I didn't think mere machines could do this much.' He sharply turned his head, before he felt metal slam into his body.
Author's Note: Again, very very sorry for the slow updates. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!