Title – Determination

Author – Toreina-Mei a.k.a. Jenna

Chapter Five

:

A Fateful Battle: The Helpless Conclusion

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High up in the sky, Piccolo and Trunks worked well together against the nameless caped man. I saw them when I tilted my head back, screaming skyward as my energy soared to its limit. Briefly I wondered where that insane guy had disappeared to, but he had probably gotten scared and scampered off. Battle was a scary thing, just not to me.

No matter how I tried, or how much I wanted it, the Super Saiyan form alluded me. The screaming ended, energy was cackling around me, kicking up loose dirt and rocks, blowing my hair up. My bandana came untied and slipped off; I could really care less at that point.

I purposely contorted my face into a look of pure madness, glowering at Nunya. Behind his bushy moustache he was smirking, practically taunting me. That made me want to kick in his teeth even more. So I charged. No, I went on a rampage. My fists flew at a speed that made it feel like they were out of control. They pounded into his nose, jaw, cheeks, eye and neck, procuring a muddy yellow blood that dripped down into his moustache. I clasped my hands together, turned to the side and then swung back around, clobbering him and propelling him back several feet. He lay there entirely still. No doubt he was incapacitated and I flew over to him anyway, hovering with my feet hanging so close above him that his clothes were rustling from the energy that was pushed out through my feet to keep me airborne.

My breathing was labored, mostly from the combination of rage and physical exertion; keeping my energy at its peek was no easy feat either. It was getting a little hard to breathe; it was just some constriction in the chest that could have easily been there because I had neglected regulating my breathing.

I nudged Nunya in the ribs, cautiously at first as I remembered the pain from kneeing whatever solid plating was underneath his outfit. It was hard like melted plastic, but it had to be something much tougher than that. I kicked his upper arm with the ball of my foot with enough force to rouse a sleeping person and that was hard too.

What the fuck?

Since I failed to find a soft spot on his upper torso, I kicked his head lightly with the toe of my training boots. His head lolled over to face in the other direction. I wanted him to stir, so that I would have a reason to fight him more, but I was dragged away by the arms before I could give him another nudge.

"Papa!" I shouted irritably.

"He's unconscious. Stop it," he said strictly.

"He wants to kill me and Trunks!" I said loudly, exasperated

"Trunks and I," he corrected.

"Oh, yeah, this is the perfect time to correct my grammar, papa!"

There was a loud noise somewhere behind me as something heavy hit the ground. I knew before I even turned that it was a body, Nunya's partner who had fallen. Piccolo and Trunks landed next to the body while I tried to figure out if he was dead or not; I became solemn when I finally decided he was dead. A fall from that high up with no energy shield would kill a person, easily breaking their back and many other bones in the body. Piccolo swiftly walked towards my father and I.

"There are more on their way. Where is Vegeta? And Goten? We need them now!"

He was looking to me, his permanent scowl making it hard to tell if he was being his usual self or if he was actually getting angry, maybe even desperate.

"Vegeta was in the gravity machine and he didn't answer. It would have taken too long to get Goten so I came here…" I explained meekly, trying to make it sound good.

"We need them, Pan!" Trunks exploded as he stalked over to us. "There are a good thirteen-fourteen more of those aliens on their way here now. It might be easy to fight them two on one, but our chances three on one aren't good. In case you didn't notice, they're using highly advanced technology that I couldn't even come up with! We need Vegeta and Goten!"

"Well then why don't you go get them!" I yelled back.

"It's a little late for that!"

"I'm sorry, okay?" Not really, but I was so fed up with listening to Trunks, of all people, reprimand me that I would have said anything to make him shut up.

"Go get them, Pan," Trunks commanded.

"What?" I asked in sharp disbelief.

"Go get them," he repeated.

"No."

"Now," he said forcefully.

"No," I folded my arms and looked away, refusing to meet my father's gaze as well.

"Damnit, they need me here. You have to go get them."

"All you do is call me weak. I've been training ever since we came back and you haven't lifted a finger except to grab a pen! I'm not going anywhere!" I shouted defiantly.

"Pan," Trunks growled, aggravated.

He shot off, still growling. I remained as I was, with my head turned up slightly and ignoring the stares from Piccolo and my father. They said nothing and we waited in a tension-filled silence for the other aliens.

My breathing was still heavy from yelling and I wanted to open my mouth, to make it an easier task, but I would have ended up wheezing, which I refused to let Piccolo and my father hear. I could still fight. As several dark blotches appeared across the desolate land, patches of dead grass all around, my stomach began to cramp. I pursed my lips and squinted my eyes, waiting for the pain to subside. It continued to twist, which made me want to double over and massage it. I resisted the temptation and remained where I was, hoping that I was doing nothing out of the ordinary to make my father think there was something wrong with me.

The aliens checked on their fallen comrades and Nunya's partner was, indeed, dead. They pulled something out of his hand and moved over to Nunya, who had sat up and was whispering to them. They were too far away to hear, but I saw a flash of bright light from his palm go to the man that was tending to him. Nunya, who was disoriented still, said something more and pointed over to us. Suddenly there were thirteen angry faces on us. I can do good work when I want to, I acknowledged with a proud, mental nod.

Behind me, Piccolo and my papa began to hover in the air. Papa called my name, somewhat urgently, and told me to get up there with them. These men seemed incapable of flying, so we were going for any kind of advantage we could get. They were unable to use energy, but they absorbed it easy enough, which rankled me.

"Are we going to blast them?" I asked.

"No," Piccolo said, "we're going to attack them one at a time and then get back in the air. We have to buy time until Trunks returns with Vegeta and Goten."

I curled my lip in displeased disgust, but I nodded my consent. All we had to do was rocket down, kick one of the aliens, then fly out of reach. That was simple enough.

My father went first, dropping straight down toward the alien in front. He flipped suddenly and planted both feet on the man's chest and pushed him backward into scattered group, knocking down two others. In the next second he was up here again with us. I was ready to go next and since Piccolo was already heading down I went with him. He kicked his target easy enough, who was too slow to move out of the way. The guy I picked out fell on his rear end before I was even in range to kick, so I looked to pick someone else. I selected one of the men that were rushing toward me. They were close and my stomach felt like it was twisted in knots, making my movement slower than usual, so I had to kick another away. Soon they were all swarming around me and I didn't have enough feet or speed with my gut cramping to keep them all at bay. My papa swooped down, took out several of the men with a single kick, grabbed me and carried me into the air. I wiggled out of his arms, telling him that I could fly myself.

"Gohan!" Piccolo cried.

Even from a distance, I could see anxiety and fear in his wide eyes and half-open mouth: two emotions I had never seen from him before. He had gathered and released a beam of energy in less than a nanosecond. I turned around, worried but mostly curious as to what had Piccolo fretting, to a sight that I would have rather not seen. Two jets of energy streamed by and another crashed into them to deflect them, of which I paid no heed, and I could only stare with a nauseous stomach. My father floated in the air: his eyes wide, mouth open and face contorted into agony. There were two holes in his body, one in the left side of his chest and the other lower towards the kidneys. I stared at him as he tried to look down, then he fell out of the sky as if his brain finally registered that he should be dead. It seemed wrong to let him fall, so I ignored my own discomfort and caught him before he hit the ground. I laid him down gingerly, not really knowing what to do or how to react.

The aliens were running at me, all in a disorganized group. I stood and wiped my papa's blood from my hands onto my pants. I hiccupped helplessly in my efforts to prevent myself from crying like a pathetic little baby. Piccolo joined my side and, as the men came closer, I regained my ability to think and suddenly knew what to do. I powered up, again, screaming through the lump in my throat. They would pay for what they did to my father. I would kill them!

I burst forward, tackling one man to the ground and I began punching him, desperately wanting to kill him yet not hitting him hard enough to do so. I couldn't bring myself to kill. Someone kicked me in the face, snapping my head back, but I was entirely numb it seemed. He kicked me again and, irritated, I stood and smashed my fist into his cheek. Piccolo knocked away two more men and backed up against me. I felt like I was about to go berserk, that I had to do something to get every one of them. My thinking was far from rational and I channeled most of my energy into a wide blast, forgetting that they could absorb the energy until it had been sucked into the nearest aliens palms. I launched myself at him and pummeled him before the others could attack me themselves. He lifted his hand and shot the energy out blindly. I leapt out of the way and kicked him to knock him out.

It got quiet after that. Some noise was missing and it took me a moment to figure out that there was no shuffling behind me that would indicate a fight. I turned and Piccolo collapsed to the ground, his gi burned off as well as various areas of skin. My stomach lurched and I was ready to puke. Even if I hated the guy it was awful to see him like that.

Pain suddenly flared throughout my body and I dropped to my knees, unable to bare it. My head throbbed, my vision spun, I could hardly breathe and I curled up into a ball and waited for the aching to stop. Another body, a human body, appeared in my line of vision and lashed out at the aliens. I closed my eyes then and relied on my senses to tell me that Trunks had returned. Vegeta and Goten were with him.

I listened to fighting, trying to tell them not to use any of their energy against them, but my throat was tight and unable to produce sound. So I just lay there, listening and hoping that no one stepped on me. Several minutes later it was all over and even my pain was subsiding. Goten came over to me, checking me over and talking to me. Tears had leaked from my eyes, making a trail through the dirt I never realized was there. I tuned him out, thinking only of the scenes that I had been unfortunate enough to witness. The images were permanently embedded in my head and I was forced to relive the moments no matter how desperately I tried to rid myself of them.

Eventually I got up, suffering through my body's pain. I endured it just to get away from the place where Piccolo and my father had been killed. I'm sure Trunks and Goten were watching me, but I was distraught and I had no idea what to do.

I couldn't tell mother what happened. She needed to know and the responsibility of telling her was undesired. Goten would tell her, but I just couldn't do it. I really wanted to stay as far from home and from my mama as was possible.

I began to feel empty, not really wanting to continue walking, but not wanting to stop either. I was confused and concentrated purely on my footsteps, effectively blocking out the other thoughts that threatened to engulf me, but the images weren't easily gotten rid of.

A large shadow was in front of me and I glanced up. It was the alien's space ship, floating silently only inches off the ground. There was a ramp resting on the ground that led up to a squared opening. I walked up the ramp and into the ship. There was a doorway before me and the hall continued on either side of me; I went straight so that I wouldn't get lost. I stopped at a black door and knocked on it with my knuckle to see what it was made of. It felt like hard plastic, but it sounded metal. There was a panel on the side with ten buttons. I started pressing them randomly in hopes of opening the door and when that failed I began to beat on the door. Surprisingly, it slid open.

"Dumu!"

I shoved him back and he lost his balance and fell on his rump, catching himself with his hands. He quickly scooted away. I grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and pulled him up. He didn't look scared and he didn't try to get away either. There was a large screen and several raised platforms with various controls. It was all confusing to me, so I looked to Dumu, putting on my best angry face, which really wasn't hard to do.

"Can you fly this?"

He stared at me.

"Well, can you?" I said louder.

Dumu remained frozen, then nodded.

"Then make it take off. Get it in space," I demanded roughly.

"But-"

"But what?"

I waited for a response and he hesitated. Since I didn't have the patience to wait, and I thought I knew what he wanted to ask, I already had an answer for him.

"You can leave your buddies here! Now unless you want me to kill you you'll get this thing flying!" I screamed, very close to losing it.

He looked around nervously. I wasn't serious about killing him, but hopefully I sounded serious enough. He reluctantly began fiddling with the controls and the screen separated into three parts, showing what was in front, behind and beside us, although I wasn't sure which showed what. I grew nervous as we left the atmosphere, but I shoved the feeling away. I began thinking of my father's death again, replaying the scene until I was on the verge of vomiting.

I needed Dumu to watch the controls in case something happened, so I couldn't chain him up somewhere. Nor could I leave to investigate the ship because he could do something with the ship, redirect our course or contact his people, so I had to watch him carefully.

There were several chairs in the room and I tugged him over to one, sitting him down in it. I sat down next to him and folded my hands in my lap. My head was bowed and my hair fell forward without my bandana. I would now have to cope with the memory of my father's death. Piccolo's as well. I knew I would be haunted by the memories and I just kept on reliving them no matter how hard I tried not to. I couldn't help myself, I really didn't want to relive them, but I did. Dumu watched the controls, which made me think that he would try something, therefore my attention was directed toward him. I stared at him dully until I became lost in my own world of tormenting thoughts. Already I regretted coming into space with Dumu, who I was certain was crazy. I sorted helplessly through my emotions, feeling sorrow and grievance. And then I felt completely empty inside.

The End

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Semi-Important Note – The mystery of Pan's "pain-attacks" remained unanswered in the story. They will be answered in the sequel, so fret not. ^_^

Author's Note – Yes, already we have come to the end as sad as that is. However, there will be a sequel. I could easily go on with this story, but I feel that it is best to keep them separate because I have still have things to add after the ending of this story. A Prologue, an Alternate Ending (because this story creates an Alternate Universe) and after that will be the Piccolo story: No Good Deed Goes Unappreciated. I could change my mind at the last minute and post it as a one-shot, but we'll see.

Thank You's – To Ly. *huggles* You're an excellent beta-reader and this story wouldn't be as good without you.

And to my reviewers, who give me welcome appraisal and encouragement to continue with this story. I am very touched to know that I created a story that could be admired. XD With that, I say thank you to: XZanayu and Mindy, the reviewers of my fourth chapter. ^_^