(AN: I'm sure all of you wanted to kill me after the last chapter. *grins* Let's see if Rayne lives or dies, shall we? Oh, and Jacks, don't worry about it. I'll answer any question anyone asks me, except for ones that give away the plot. And Faye? Thanks for all the pretty reviews. Three in a row, what fun! Well, ja ne! ~AC)
Chapter Eight: A Moment Like This
Gohan stared down at the limp body in his hands. With a growl, he ripped the hood from the person's head as he powered down from SSJ2. Damn. Rayne was a mess, with bruises and blood all over her.
"Rayne, wake up, you baka," he ordered, shaking her lightly. Rayne coughed up blood, and opened her eyes. She stared into Gohan's eyes for a long moment, looking slightly bemused.
"That wasn't very fun," she mumbled, then her head rolled back as she lost consciousness once again. Gohan sighed and resettled her in his arms to hold like a baby. She really was an idiot. His arm holding Rayne's head up, he turned to glare at Morris.
"That was a really stupid thing to do," he warned, beginning to smile, an evil glint in his dark eyes. Morris gulped, then smirked as the sound of a gun being cocked echoed in the room.
"Good work, soldier," he commented to one of the guards behind Gohan. "Well, General, I'd advise you to stay still unless you wish to be shot." Gohan smirked and turned around to face the three guards. He grinned at the guard who had the gun aimed at him. The general eyed the guard, and began to grin at the private marks on his shirt.
"A private, O'Dell?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "I see you haven't moved up in the rankings very fast." The guard, to the other two's shock, began to grin sheepishly.
"You can't get anywhere in this army," he said, shrugging. "I liked it better being a lieutenant in yours." One of the other guards stared at him, and then his face twisted into a scowl.
"Traitor!" he yelled, and started to draw his gun. Richard O'Dell turned to him calmly.
"I'm not a traitor," he commented cheerfully, and placed the gun against his throat. "Now stop fighting and I won't have to kill you. Got it?" The guard glared at him, but stayed silent. O'Dell smirked at his red face, oblivious to the other guard about to grab him around the neck. A small ki blast from Gohan stopped that, and O'Dell looked surprised, his hazel brown eyes wide in astonishment.
"Oh," he said sheepishly, looking quickly to the body of the guard, then back to his captive as the man fidgeted. "I forgot about him." Gohan sighed.
"Where would you be without me, Lieutenant?" he questioned, before setting the still unconscious girl down and turning to Morris. Morris had inched over to push the other hooded person off. But this time Gohan was ready.
"Oh no you don't," Gohan growled, and yanked the rope from the person's neck before Morris could push him off. He helped the person down to safe ground, and glared up at the now-shaking Morris. "Okay, now you've just pissed me off." Morris gulped and bolted towards the exit. Gohan grinned and powered to SSJ2 again. This was going to be easy.
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Bulma started to open the door to Goku's room, and paused. She turned to look the four over. Goten was slightly ashen, and beads of sweat trickled down his troubled face. To her surprise, Trunks was speaking reassuringly to a terrified Pan, holding one of her hands in his. She raised an eyebrow. Was something happening that she didn't know of? Bra was still sulking behind the rest, angry about her argument with Goten. Bulma sighed. She'd have to talk to that one about how some people handle stress.
"Are you all ready?" she questioned. Goten shuddered slightly, but nodded.
"Like hell I'm ready," Bulma heard Pan mutter, followed by a double take by Trunks while she added, "but let's get this over with." Bulma turned, and slowly opened the door.
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Gohan held the half-dead body of Morris in his hand, staring at him with disgust.
"What do you think? Should I kill him?" he asked O'Dell. O'Dell grinned viciously.
"Most definitely." Gohan nodded in agreement, and formed a ki blast in his free hand. Morris's half closed eyes widened in shock as the white light shone on his terrified face.
"D-Don't-" he began weakly, then the ki blast knocked all his breath from him. Gohan released his twitching body, and the traitor, half-supported by the gallows, slumped to ground.
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As Dean Morris took his last breaths, all he could see was the slowly stirring form behind the rebel general's back. He tried to glare at the form, but instead simply coughed up more blood as his vital oxygen escaped him rapidly. The form opened her dark eyes and stared weakly into his blue ones. With blood trickling from her own lips, Rayne Sirec smirked at him.
"Well, Morris, guess I live longer than you after all," she croaked. As the dying man stared at her, he felt all of his rage mount until his dying coughs were merely another sound to his ears. He wanted to kill her. He wanted to put his hands around her bruised neck and squeeze and squeeze and never let go-
A spasm of agony stopped his dark thoughts, and he groaned.
'Damn you!' Morris wanted to scream at his hated enemy. He should have just broken her neck during the fight. Then, to his shock, Rayne slowly began to smile a sad smile.
"Foolish Morris," she rasped. "Why couldn't you have stayed on our side?" With every word another agony, Morris choked the words out. They seemed to come from someone other than himself, and he felt darkness closing in even as he gagged out the words.
"See you soon, She Who Cries. Stupid Chosen....." As the words left his lips, Dean Morris smiled as his most hated enemy looked shocked.
'I showed you, Sirec. Just like the androids showed you when they killed your parents. Little fool, you're doomed. All of the Sirecs are doomed. Just like this world. Just like........ me.' As his final words mockingly rang out once in his mind, the darkness closed his eyes and everything was silent.
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Gohan stared impassively as Morris's eyelids reopened slightly, showing sightless orbs behind them. He left the traitor's lifeless body there, and turned to find that Rayne had fainted again. Cursing under his breath, he knelt and picked her limp body up from the floor.
"What do you want me to do with this 'un?" questioned O'Dell, nodding at the captured guard. Gohan shrugged.
"Whatever you want to do with him," he said. He exited the room the normal way, and was barely listening when O'Dell pulled the trigger.
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Goten stepped into the room, and stared at the scene that lay before him. It was a hospital room, a familiar scene. But the man laying on the bed barely resembled his father when he had last seen him twenty years ago.
Goku's Saiya-jinn face actually showed signs of wear, with faint creases marking his eyes and mouth. His face wasn't any different, except for the long scar that ran down the left side of his face from his forehead to his jawbone. They had managed to save the eye, Goten noticed with an odd lack of emotion. His neck and the skin he could see that wasn't covered by blankets was covered with silver scars, long since healed. His hair remained unchanged, since full Saiya-jinn's hair never changes. But his face was so thin that Goten could see every bone in his father's face. A small frown played on Goku's face as he dreamed, but otherwise he was still. An IV was attached to his left arm, and Goten heard the steady beeps of a machine as it keep track of Goku's heartbeat.
Goten was so busy staring at his father that he hadn't realized he had stopped moving until someone bumped into him from behind. He stumbled forward slightly, and then turned, still dazed, towards the bumper. An slightly unfamiliar face peered back at him, looking worried.
"Goten?" the person asked in concern. "Are you all right?" Who was it? Oh yes, Goten's mind remembered slowly, it was Trunks.
"What?" he said, still concentrating on the fact that the face belonged to Trunks and not the words the lavender-haired man had spoken.
"Are you okay?" Trunks repeated. Goten puzzled over this question. Why would he not be okay? Then he remembered. His father was in a coma, and Goten had come to visit him. That's why he wasn't okay.
"Goten," Trunks yelled in his face, and he jumped, startled back into reality.
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Trunks sighed silently in relief as his friend's glazed look disappeared, replaced by annoyance.
"What?" he snapped, his dark eyes flashing.
"You were kind of out of it," Trunks explained, and extended his free hand, the other still firmly clasping Pan's. Goten took it, and Trunks directed his best friend to a chair. Goten obeyed, and returned to staring at his father, but this time without that frightening, glazed look. That finished, Trunks turned back to Pan to find her looking ashen. Trunks frowned, and squeezed her hand.
"Pan-chan, are you okay?" he questioned. Pan nodded faintly, her dark eyes locked onto her grandfather's comatose body. Trunks rolled his eyes. Sure, she was perfectly fine. As fine as a cat in a bag in a river.
"I'm going to take her out into the hall," he mouthed to his mother, who nodded. Then he calmly led the still spellbound girl outside the room. He brushed past Bra, who was looking worriedly at Goten once more. Once in the hallway, he turned to face Pan. She was blinking, obviously surprised that her grandfather was gone from her view.
"Pan," he said loudly, and her dark eyes snapped up to meet his blue ones.
"What?" she asked, slightly bemused. He tightened his grip on her hand, at a loss for words. What should he say in a moment like this?
"Pan," he repeated again, his mind frantically searching for anything to say. Then the words were off his tongue before he could stop himself. "Did you know that your eyes are the color of obsidian?" Pan stared at him, and he could tell his question had jerked her back to reality.
"Nani?" she repeated, staring at him in disbelief. To his annoyance, Trunks found he was blushing slightly.
"Obsidian is a black, hard volcanic glass that displays shiny, curved surfaces when fractured and is formed by rapid cooling of lava," he explained, remembering that exact definition from the dictionary. Pan raised an eyebrow.
"No, I didn't," she said, sounding slightly amused. "If my eyes are obsidian, then your eyes must be......." She frowned, then brightened. "Sapphires." Trunks grinned at the name of the stone.
"My stone is prettier than yours," he teased, trying to keep her mind off the fact that her grandfather lay in a coma in the other room. Pan rolled her eyes.
"Whatever," she replied, smiling.
"Why are you two talking about stones?" a voice curiously asked, and they both turned to see Bra peering at them curiously. A small smirk formed on his sister's face, and it was then Trunks remembered he was still holding Pan's hand. Evidently Pan realized that too, and she blushed, gently tugging her hand away from his. Trunks turned red and let his hand drop to his side.
"No reason," he said to his sister, ignoring the feeling that his hand was giving him. His hand seemed to feel empty and cold without the one-fourth Saiya-jinn's in it. He shoved the thought away. He was just being nice to Pan because she was going through an even worse time than him.
'And it helps that she's hot,' a tiny voice whispered in the back of his head, but he ignored it.
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O'Dell sneered at the lifeless body that lay crumpled at his feet, then realized General Gohan had left.
"Shoot," General Gohan's top spy muttered, and started for the door. Then he spotted the other person General Gohan had rescued. He was inching blindly towards the opposite side of the room where the door was, still hooded and his hands tied behind his back.
"Good grief," muttered O'Dell, and knelt to help the poor fellow.
"Thanks," the short man said, once his head had been unhooded. "That hood was not fun at all." His dark eyes surveyed the room, taking in Morris's dead body and the open door. "Rayne went that way?" O'Dell nodded.
"With General Gohan," he added, and was surprised at the way the man's eyes lit up.
"Gohan," the short man breathed, beginning to grin. "I haven't seen him in years. He'd better be happy to see me." Puzzled, the spy watched as the strange man walked out of the room, limping slightly. Finally he shrugged. The strange man had nothing to do with him.
"Whatever," he muttered under his breath, and walked out of the white room, leaving Morris's body all alone beneath the gallows.
(AN: Okie dokie, all done with this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! *claps hands* Wow, Jacks, you were my 70th reviewer! *bows in his direction* Bravo! Okay, now that I'm slightly hyper, any wishes you want me to fulfill? *meaningful glance in Jevana's direction* We get to see more of Goku in the next chapter, don't worry. And everybody may get to meet next chapter! Or the one after that. *frowns* All I know is that Gohan's really P.O.ed at Rayne right now. Well, gotta go! Ja ne! ~AC)
Chapter Eight: A Moment Like This
Gohan stared down at the limp body in his hands. With a growl, he ripped the hood from the person's head as he powered down from SSJ2. Damn. Rayne was a mess, with bruises and blood all over her.
"Rayne, wake up, you baka," he ordered, shaking her lightly. Rayne coughed up blood, and opened her eyes. She stared into Gohan's eyes for a long moment, looking slightly bemused.
"That wasn't very fun," she mumbled, then her head rolled back as she lost consciousness once again. Gohan sighed and resettled her in his arms to hold like a baby. She really was an idiot. His arm holding Rayne's head up, he turned to glare at Morris.
"That was a really stupid thing to do," he warned, beginning to smile, an evil glint in his dark eyes. Morris gulped, then smirked as the sound of a gun being cocked echoed in the room.
"Good work, soldier," he commented to one of the guards behind Gohan. "Well, General, I'd advise you to stay still unless you wish to be shot." Gohan smirked and turned around to face the three guards. He grinned at the guard who had the gun aimed at him. The general eyed the guard, and began to grin at the private marks on his shirt.
"A private, O'Dell?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "I see you haven't moved up in the rankings very fast." The guard, to the other two's shock, began to grin sheepishly.
"You can't get anywhere in this army," he said, shrugging. "I liked it better being a lieutenant in yours." One of the other guards stared at him, and then his face twisted into a scowl.
"Traitor!" he yelled, and started to draw his gun. Richard O'Dell turned to him calmly.
"I'm not a traitor," he commented cheerfully, and placed the gun against his throat. "Now stop fighting and I won't have to kill you. Got it?" The guard glared at him, but stayed silent. O'Dell smirked at his red face, oblivious to the other guard about to grab him around the neck. A small ki blast from Gohan stopped that, and O'Dell looked surprised, his hazel brown eyes wide in astonishment.
"Oh," he said sheepishly, looking quickly to the body of the guard, then back to his captive as the man fidgeted. "I forgot about him." Gohan sighed.
"Where would you be without me, Lieutenant?" he questioned, before setting the still unconscious girl down and turning to Morris. Morris had inched over to push the other hooded person off. But this time Gohan was ready.
"Oh no you don't," Gohan growled, and yanked the rope from the person's neck before Morris could push him off. He helped the person down to safe ground, and glared up at the now-shaking Morris. "Okay, now you've just pissed me off." Morris gulped and bolted towards the exit. Gohan grinned and powered to SSJ2 again. This was going to be easy.
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Bulma started to open the door to Goku's room, and paused. She turned to look the four over. Goten was slightly ashen, and beads of sweat trickled down his troubled face. To her surprise, Trunks was speaking reassuringly to a terrified Pan, holding one of her hands in his. She raised an eyebrow. Was something happening that she didn't know of? Bra was still sulking behind the rest, angry about her argument with Goten. Bulma sighed. She'd have to talk to that one about how some people handle stress.
"Are you all ready?" she questioned. Goten shuddered slightly, but nodded.
"Like hell I'm ready," Bulma heard Pan mutter, followed by a double take by Trunks while she added, "but let's get this over with." Bulma turned, and slowly opened the door.
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Gohan held the half-dead body of Morris in his hand, staring at him with disgust.
"What do you think? Should I kill him?" he asked O'Dell. O'Dell grinned viciously.
"Most definitely." Gohan nodded in agreement, and formed a ki blast in his free hand. Morris's half closed eyes widened in shock as the white light shone on his terrified face.
"D-Don't-" he began weakly, then the ki blast knocked all his breath from him. Gohan released his twitching body, and the traitor, half-supported by the gallows, slumped to ground.
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As Dean Morris took his last breaths, all he could see was the slowly stirring form behind the rebel general's back. He tried to glare at the form, but instead simply coughed up more blood as his vital oxygen escaped him rapidly. The form opened her dark eyes and stared weakly into his blue ones. With blood trickling from her own lips, Rayne Sirec smirked at him.
"Well, Morris, guess I live longer than you after all," she croaked. As the dying man stared at her, he felt all of his rage mount until his dying coughs were merely another sound to his ears. He wanted to kill her. He wanted to put his hands around her bruised neck and squeeze and squeeze and never let go-
A spasm of agony stopped his dark thoughts, and he groaned.
'Damn you!' Morris wanted to scream at his hated enemy. He should have just broken her neck during the fight. Then, to his shock, Rayne slowly began to smile a sad smile.
"Foolish Morris," she rasped. "Why couldn't you have stayed on our side?" With every word another agony, Morris choked the words out. They seemed to come from someone other than himself, and he felt darkness closing in even as he gagged out the words.
"See you soon, She Who Cries. Stupid Chosen....." As the words left his lips, Dean Morris smiled as his most hated enemy looked shocked.
'I showed you, Sirec. Just like the androids showed you when they killed your parents. Little fool, you're doomed. All of the Sirecs are doomed. Just like this world. Just like........ me.' As his final words mockingly rang out once in his mind, the darkness closed his eyes and everything was silent.
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Gohan stared impassively as Morris's eyelids reopened slightly, showing sightless orbs behind them. He left the traitor's lifeless body there, and turned to find that Rayne had fainted again. Cursing under his breath, he knelt and picked her limp body up from the floor.
"What do you want me to do with this 'un?" questioned O'Dell, nodding at the captured guard. Gohan shrugged.
"Whatever you want to do with him," he said. He exited the room the normal way, and was barely listening when O'Dell pulled the trigger.
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Goten stepped into the room, and stared at the scene that lay before him. It was a hospital room, a familiar scene. But the man laying on the bed barely resembled his father when he had last seen him twenty years ago.
Goku's Saiya-jinn face actually showed signs of wear, with faint creases marking his eyes and mouth. His face wasn't any different, except for the long scar that ran down the left side of his face from his forehead to his jawbone. They had managed to save the eye, Goten noticed with an odd lack of emotion. His neck and the skin he could see that wasn't covered by blankets was covered with silver scars, long since healed. His hair remained unchanged, since full Saiya-jinn's hair never changes. But his face was so thin that Goten could see every bone in his father's face. A small frown played on Goku's face as he dreamed, but otherwise he was still. An IV was attached to his left arm, and Goten heard the steady beeps of a machine as it keep track of Goku's heartbeat.
Goten was so busy staring at his father that he hadn't realized he had stopped moving until someone bumped into him from behind. He stumbled forward slightly, and then turned, still dazed, towards the bumper. An slightly unfamiliar face peered back at him, looking worried.
"Goten?" the person asked in concern. "Are you all right?" Who was it? Oh yes, Goten's mind remembered slowly, it was Trunks.
"What?" he said, still concentrating on the fact that the face belonged to Trunks and not the words the lavender-haired man had spoken.
"Are you okay?" Trunks repeated. Goten puzzled over this question. Why would he not be okay? Then he remembered. His father was in a coma, and Goten had come to visit him. That's why he wasn't okay.
"Goten," Trunks yelled in his face, and he jumped, startled back into reality.
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Trunks sighed silently in relief as his friend's glazed look disappeared, replaced by annoyance.
"What?" he snapped, his dark eyes flashing.
"You were kind of out of it," Trunks explained, and extended his free hand, the other still firmly clasping Pan's. Goten took it, and Trunks directed his best friend to a chair. Goten obeyed, and returned to staring at his father, but this time without that frightening, glazed look. That finished, Trunks turned back to Pan to find her looking ashen. Trunks frowned, and squeezed her hand.
"Pan-chan, are you okay?" he questioned. Pan nodded faintly, her dark eyes locked onto her grandfather's comatose body. Trunks rolled his eyes. Sure, she was perfectly fine. As fine as a cat in a bag in a river.
"I'm going to take her out into the hall," he mouthed to his mother, who nodded. Then he calmly led the still spellbound girl outside the room. He brushed past Bra, who was looking worriedly at Goten once more. Once in the hallway, he turned to face Pan. She was blinking, obviously surprised that her grandfather was gone from her view.
"Pan," he said loudly, and her dark eyes snapped up to meet his blue ones.
"What?" she asked, slightly bemused. He tightened his grip on her hand, at a loss for words. What should he say in a moment like this?
"Pan," he repeated again, his mind frantically searching for anything to say. Then the words were off his tongue before he could stop himself. "Did you know that your eyes are the color of obsidian?" Pan stared at him, and he could tell his question had jerked her back to reality.
"Nani?" she repeated, staring at him in disbelief. To his annoyance, Trunks found he was blushing slightly.
"Obsidian is a black, hard volcanic glass that displays shiny, curved surfaces when fractured and is formed by rapid cooling of lava," he explained, remembering that exact definition from the dictionary. Pan raised an eyebrow.
"No, I didn't," she said, sounding slightly amused. "If my eyes are obsidian, then your eyes must be......." She frowned, then brightened. "Sapphires." Trunks grinned at the name of the stone.
"My stone is prettier than yours," he teased, trying to keep her mind off the fact that her grandfather lay in a coma in the other room. Pan rolled her eyes.
"Whatever," she replied, smiling.
"Why are you two talking about stones?" a voice curiously asked, and they both turned to see Bra peering at them curiously. A small smirk formed on his sister's face, and it was then Trunks remembered he was still holding Pan's hand. Evidently Pan realized that too, and she blushed, gently tugging her hand away from his. Trunks turned red and let his hand drop to his side.
"No reason," he said to his sister, ignoring the feeling that his hand was giving him. His hand seemed to feel empty and cold without the one-fourth Saiya-jinn's in it. He shoved the thought away. He was just being nice to Pan because she was going through an even worse time than him.
'And it helps that she's hot,' a tiny voice whispered in the back of his head, but he ignored it.
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O'Dell sneered at the lifeless body that lay crumpled at his feet, then realized General Gohan had left.
"Shoot," General Gohan's top spy muttered, and started for the door. Then he spotted the other person General Gohan had rescued. He was inching blindly towards the opposite side of the room where the door was, still hooded and his hands tied behind his back.
"Good grief," muttered O'Dell, and knelt to help the poor fellow.
"Thanks," the short man said, once his head had been unhooded. "That hood was not fun at all." His dark eyes surveyed the room, taking in Morris's dead body and the open door. "Rayne went that way?" O'Dell nodded.
"With General Gohan," he added, and was surprised at the way the man's eyes lit up.
"Gohan," the short man breathed, beginning to grin. "I haven't seen him in years. He'd better be happy to see me." Puzzled, the spy watched as the strange man walked out of the room, limping slightly. Finally he shrugged. The strange man had nothing to do with him.
"Whatever," he muttered under his breath, and walked out of the white room, leaving Morris's body all alone beneath the gallows.
(AN: Okie dokie, all done with this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! *claps hands* Wow, Jacks, you were my 70th reviewer! *bows in his direction* Bravo! Okay, now that I'm slightly hyper, any wishes you want me to fulfill? *meaningful glance in Jevana's direction* We get to see more of Goku in the next chapter, don't worry. And everybody may get to meet next chapter! Or the one after that. *frowns* All I know is that Gohan's really P.O.ed at Rayne right now. Well, gotta go! Ja ne! ~AC)