Revised and redone by Camaro and Veggiefied906.
____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
He was twenty four when he died. I know that now, even as I am nearly reaching that age. I feel so young still. So inexperienced, like there so much more to this life that he never got to know. Cut short. So many prospects for a future slain with the fall of one man. Namely, my own mother's.
"Draco! This is it, your reign is done!" I hear Gohan say. He looks fearless and strong and I envy that. I have to bite down hard just to stop my teeth from chattering. My knees feel like jelly, unstable and ready to break if I walk.
I know this is the end. I know that someone will die on this day and that that death will mark a change for both sides, either for good or for bad. It's a harsh reality to accept, to know that with a soul's escape from a body the universe as we know it will be altered. I just have to ensure that victory. I have to kill Draco.
He's laughing now. I hear how sick the sound is and how certain he is that he'll triumph on this day. But he doesn't know how strong Gohan is. He doesn't know how strong I am either, despite how he can smell my fear.
I've heard he looks like my father, though I'm never to know. How would I know? Draco killed his younger brother with a dose of poison long long ago, before I was born.
Sometimes I think that I remember him in my dreams. Like I can see him from the shadows of my mind, still there, always there with me. Mom never talks about him much. I know it hurts. What kind of idiot wouldn't recognize that far off look in her eyes as the pain of loss?
But why can't she talk about it? Doesn't she know it would mean more than any gift this world has to offer me? No jewels, no treasure, no beautiful princess from the farthest reaches of Heaven could ever sedate the need I have for knowledge. I used to think it would go away with time, but now? Now I know that with age comes my desire to be like him. To be like that man that single handedly brought a balance to the universe by creating me.
It is a long story to tell and I'll never know the real effects it had on all parties involved. I know this.
His name was Vegeta. I hate that name. I hate the memories, or should I say lack of memories, it brings up. I've heard he was beautiful and sleek, muscular build and large wings. I know nothing else. Oh I've seen paintings. But really, what can a painting do? I stare at the lifeless, blank eyes dulled with old lacquer and I realize only more and more that I'll never know him. I'll never know what a great man he was or the amazing things he could have done.
But I know that he loved my mother despite being who and what he was. He was a demon. A demon just like Gohan who now stands by my side, wings thrust out and eyes fuming with malice towards the creature that had taken his friend. Draco only stands with his arms crossed and a self righteous smirk pasted on his flawless face. His eyes slid towards me and I can see how they dance with delight in recognizing who I am.
"Vegeta's brat ne?" he smiles, cocking his head to the side. "I might have guessed that his mutt would be just as stubborn as he always was."
I try to glare back at him with as much hatred as I feel, knowing all along that I'm coming up short. He has such power and I can feel it penetrating the air around him. It's pushing towards me like a huge force field of pressure. It's his power that kept him on the throne this long, but his cunning that got him there.
"I may be stubborn, but at least I'm no shameless coward Draco!" I spit out, trying so hard to keep my voice steady.
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean boy?" He says darkly.
"I don't need poison to kill you like you did my father!"
He comes towards me quickly, fists ready to begin pummeling and a gleam in his eye that promises revenge for openly acknowledging his fault in that area. I close my eyes, covering my arms over my face to be ready, only to hear the swift crack of knuckles hitting flesh but not touching me.
I see Gohan working Draco with his fist, his long black nails diving in and out of the pretty face as he slashes and tears whatever he can. I've seen him angry before. I've seen him kill before but this is amazing. His speed and agility are his advantage, the definition of his muscles a plus.
He told me once that he loved Vegeta like a father. It was weird to hear him say that. Was that the reason I never strayed far from his side? Was that the tie that bound us together despite the differences in race that tried to separate us? He was like a brother to me, always with my mother even when it was hard for him to come to Heaven. There was a ban on any Demons coming through the dark woods as there always had been despite my mother's request that it be removed.
She was like that though, always trying to be fair. Always seeing the best in people even if their best was an Angel's worst. I love that about her.
Gohan's on the ground, Draco standing over him. I've watched long enough.
I throw myself at him, lunging towards his back and connecting with him. We tumble to the dry desert ground, sand sticking to my face as it is soaked with sweat. I quickly climb to my feet only then seeing that he was already waiting for me. I dodge a fist as it comes flying within an inch of my cheek. I dodge another and another and another.
He's gaining speed as I'm loosing it, tumbling away from him as the blows continue to fly. I can't keep this up much longer due to my Angelic weaknesses and we both know it.
Gohan is back as bravely as ever putting Draco on the defensive once more. I compose myself momentarily and come back with as much venom as I can muster. I'm scared but I'm also brave.
I wonder if dad was as brave as I am. Or if he was more. It is a strange feeling to fight with such anger for something you never knew. Draco is a terrible tyrant of a ruler, wicked and cruel to the fullest capabilities. But I'm not fighting for those God forsaken victims in his dungeon, or the thousands upon thousands of my kind that he'd ruthlessly slaughtered without a second thought. I not even fighting for my mother, or the shadow that she's become as the realization of immortality begins to dawn on her.
"There's something appalling about eternity Trunks." I hear her say in my mind, dodging a kick that flies passed my vision, sand from his boot spraying into my eyes.
"But eternity alone? That's quite possibly the most repulsive curse that God could bestow upon his children."
And yet, even in my despair and failure, I know, I KNOW that I don't fight for her, but for the beautiful monster that I've never known. The monster that lay beside me at night, on the most accursed of times, always there when I needed him to be the most, even if he couldn't be seen through my eyes. I've told this to others and been thought a mad man, earning those looks that scream misunderstanding to me. But I believe it all the same. He has never left me. I feel it now as the worshiper feeds upon his faith, knowing without seeing what he feels within his heart.
"Sometimes its better to forget the clichés, the logic and the reasoning, and just rely on blind faith."
I throw each punch for that creature that has always been with me. I dodged every mind blowing kick for the future I can possess. For the prospect of being such a man. Brave and strong, giving his heart, something he never even knew he possessed to the one who craved it the most. I want to be that man. I want to have that future, to have that possibility of love. I can't die like this.
A fist connects with my eyes, the world knocked backwards as I find myself staring up at pure darkness, touching my eyes quickly as if checking for blindness. I feel stone beneath me, my head crouching upon a rock as I groan, trying to lift my body, only to realize I'm pinned beneath a boulder. I know I must free myself quickly, judging by the anguished cries that break forth from Gohan outside of the cave I have landed in.
Over and over I hear the screams, the sobs and the moans of a dying man slash through the quiet of the cave, coming from outside as he's beaten to death. I can barely recognize it now. My Gohan. My brother, my friend, my father. My love. I struggle, digging my nails into the stone and pushing as hard as I can, feeling nothing in response.
I hear him cry out, the God forsaken cry shattering the tranquility that had once resided in this tavern. Then silence. Silence like at a funeral. Silence like after the last body has fallen on the battle field. I sob out in my desperation, my failure and my hate, the energy within me sparkling before my eyes, silver and almost gold.
I hear the footsteps, knowing without actually forming a thought that they belong to my enemy, the epitome of all my hate. Draco.
I see his smiling face, so flawless and wicked as he laughs at his self pronounced victory, the last of his victims an easy kill, awaiting an untimely death beneath the confines of a boulder.
I close my eyes, not wishing for my last sight to be the murderer of my father. And then I open them, feeling his presence like I never have before, the pure intensity of it pressurizing my body as a blast appears out of nowhere, bursting through Draco's chest and blowing out the other side.
He stumbles backwards, stupefied with awe and disbelief, clutching his hand over his bleeding chest.
"No.... No it... It can't be." He breathes.
With every amount of energy I can muster, I blow the boulder to pieces, freeing myself and throwing a fist into his dumbstruck face. He staggers drunkenly to the ground, collapsing upon his back and staring up at me.
"You insect." He spits out of his bloody mouth. "How'd..... How'd you do it boy? Where'd that blast come from?" He whispers through clenched teeth.
I can't even answer him as the tan flesh of his face begins to pale, his deep red lips going pink with blood loss. I have no explanation, no answer that can calm his dying spirit. And yet, through my anger, through my rage, through my hatred burns the tiny flicker of sadness within the buried and long ago forgotten depths of my soul.
I see beneath me the essence of all my father had been. Cold and ruthless, a murderer of children. The black eyes seem to burst with rage, seeping with hatred for who I am. But could he have been more at one time? Wasn't he a young man as I am one day long ago? Doesn't he have the prospects of becoming a better man?
And yet the warrior, the Demon within me pushes aside such promise, forcing me to make the choice I made long ago within the broken heart of a fatherless boy. In those tears I cried, that loss I felt, not even normal in its magnitude, I promised myself long ago to end the suffering this monster had caused.
And so I look down at the beautiful creature beneath me, so proud and strong he refuses to even acknowledge my possible mercy. He would never ask for it, never beg. But something within me wants to give it. Is it the Angel?
I hold his hand, not at all surprised by the startled look he gives me. His eyes fill with confusion and anger, mistrust and disbelief. I touch my bare fingers to the side of his face, sobbing as the first of my tears begin. He can't understand. He can't know why his death pains me so.
I want to call him my father, this being who is said to be nearly his twin, this last link to the man I can only know in my most beautiful dreams. I want to hold him close and whisper that he'd be proud of me, of the man I'd become, of the feelings I hold for him. To only tell him my secrets, of my mother's faithful love towards the monster she'd made a man. But he's not my father and my dwindling sanity tells me this.
The tears fall upon his soft flesh, and he listens quietly to my weeping, holding no harsh emotions in his eyes as he simply watches. I wish I knew what he's thinking. Doesn't even the most evil of men regret his life in the end?
Suddenly his eyes go wide with unspeakable fright, staring not at me but at the blackness over my shoulder. His lips begin to quiver even as I watch the already white skin of his face pale to a deathly color.
"Vegeta...." I hear him whisper, throwing my head back and desperately searching for what his eyes promise is there. But I see nothing. Nothing but the emptiness that has always remained when I search for him. Nothing but the heart ache that reminds me of the man I'll never meet.
I turn back to him, holding my breath as I thrust my clenched fist into his chest cavity, opening my fingers just enough to grab hold of the still beating heart and yank it from its arteries and veins, feeling them snap with the pull. Blood soaks my white knuckles as I hold the thick, meaty member in my grasp for him to see, crying and sobbing as I see the life flow from his eyes.
"For my father." I whisper, feeling the hot tears drip from my chin.
Through my heartache and my pain I know he is there. He's there as he always has been, beside me through the hurt, through the anguish and the sadness. There by my side though foolish eyes refuse to acknowledge it. But sometimes it isn't always what we see that we believe in. I believe in my heart and the love it will always hold for the man I never knew. For the man I believe stands beside me when I need him most.
Decide for yourself whether or not to believe in what you can or cannot see. I..... I choose to embrace that faith.
I stand up, dropping his heart to the ground and halting my tears. I am through shedding them. I am a man now. I'll be the man he never got to be.
As I turn to leave, I smile through my drying tears, my cheeks feeling stretched with the effort.
"For my father." I whisper once more.
Hopefully you all liked that version better since it was beta read by Camaro and Veggiefied906!! Thanks guys, this is forever dedicated to you!
Don't forget to read and review! No more flames please.
____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
He was twenty four when he died. I know that now, even as I am nearly reaching that age. I feel so young still. So inexperienced, like there so much more to this life that he never got to know. Cut short. So many prospects for a future slain with the fall of one man. Namely, my own mother's.
"Draco! This is it, your reign is done!" I hear Gohan say. He looks fearless and strong and I envy that. I have to bite down hard just to stop my teeth from chattering. My knees feel like jelly, unstable and ready to break if I walk.
I know this is the end. I know that someone will die on this day and that that death will mark a change for both sides, either for good or for bad. It's a harsh reality to accept, to know that with a soul's escape from a body the universe as we know it will be altered. I just have to ensure that victory. I have to kill Draco.
He's laughing now. I hear how sick the sound is and how certain he is that he'll triumph on this day. But he doesn't know how strong Gohan is. He doesn't know how strong I am either, despite how he can smell my fear.
I've heard he looks like my father, though I'm never to know. How would I know? Draco killed his younger brother with a dose of poison long long ago, before I was born.
Sometimes I think that I remember him in my dreams. Like I can see him from the shadows of my mind, still there, always there with me. Mom never talks about him much. I know it hurts. What kind of idiot wouldn't recognize that far off look in her eyes as the pain of loss?
But why can't she talk about it? Doesn't she know it would mean more than any gift this world has to offer me? No jewels, no treasure, no beautiful princess from the farthest reaches of Heaven could ever sedate the need I have for knowledge. I used to think it would go away with time, but now? Now I know that with age comes my desire to be like him. To be like that man that single handedly brought a balance to the universe by creating me.
It is a long story to tell and I'll never know the real effects it had on all parties involved. I know this.
His name was Vegeta. I hate that name. I hate the memories, or should I say lack of memories, it brings up. I've heard he was beautiful and sleek, muscular build and large wings. I know nothing else. Oh I've seen paintings. But really, what can a painting do? I stare at the lifeless, blank eyes dulled with old lacquer and I realize only more and more that I'll never know him. I'll never know what a great man he was or the amazing things he could have done.
But I know that he loved my mother despite being who and what he was. He was a demon. A demon just like Gohan who now stands by my side, wings thrust out and eyes fuming with malice towards the creature that had taken his friend. Draco only stands with his arms crossed and a self righteous smirk pasted on his flawless face. His eyes slid towards me and I can see how they dance with delight in recognizing who I am.
"Vegeta's brat ne?" he smiles, cocking his head to the side. "I might have guessed that his mutt would be just as stubborn as he always was."
I try to glare back at him with as much hatred as I feel, knowing all along that I'm coming up short. He has such power and I can feel it penetrating the air around him. It's pushing towards me like a huge force field of pressure. It's his power that kept him on the throne this long, but his cunning that got him there.
"I may be stubborn, but at least I'm no shameless coward Draco!" I spit out, trying so hard to keep my voice steady.
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean boy?" He says darkly.
"I don't need poison to kill you like you did my father!"
He comes towards me quickly, fists ready to begin pummeling and a gleam in his eye that promises revenge for openly acknowledging his fault in that area. I close my eyes, covering my arms over my face to be ready, only to hear the swift crack of knuckles hitting flesh but not touching me.
I see Gohan working Draco with his fist, his long black nails diving in and out of the pretty face as he slashes and tears whatever he can. I've seen him angry before. I've seen him kill before but this is amazing. His speed and agility are his advantage, the definition of his muscles a plus.
He told me once that he loved Vegeta like a father. It was weird to hear him say that. Was that the reason I never strayed far from his side? Was that the tie that bound us together despite the differences in race that tried to separate us? He was like a brother to me, always with my mother even when it was hard for him to come to Heaven. There was a ban on any Demons coming through the dark woods as there always had been despite my mother's request that it be removed.
She was like that though, always trying to be fair. Always seeing the best in people even if their best was an Angel's worst. I love that about her.
Gohan's on the ground, Draco standing over him. I've watched long enough.
I throw myself at him, lunging towards his back and connecting with him. We tumble to the dry desert ground, sand sticking to my face as it is soaked with sweat. I quickly climb to my feet only then seeing that he was already waiting for me. I dodge a fist as it comes flying within an inch of my cheek. I dodge another and another and another.
He's gaining speed as I'm loosing it, tumbling away from him as the blows continue to fly. I can't keep this up much longer due to my Angelic weaknesses and we both know it.
Gohan is back as bravely as ever putting Draco on the defensive once more. I compose myself momentarily and come back with as much venom as I can muster. I'm scared but I'm also brave.
I wonder if dad was as brave as I am. Or if he was more. It is a strange feeling to fight with such anger for something you never knew. Draco is a terrible tyrant of a ruler, wicked and cruel to the fullest capabilities. But I'm not fighting for those God forsaken victims in his dungeon, or the thousands upon thousands of my kind that he'd ruthlessly slaughtered without a second thought. I not even fighting for my mother, or the shadow that she's become as the realization of immortality begins to dawn on her.
"There's something appalling about eternity Trunks." I hear her say in my mind, dodging a kick that flies passed my vision, sand from his boot spraying into my eyes.
"But eternity alone? That's quite possibly the most repulsive curse that God could bestow upon his children."
And yet, even in my despair and failure, I know, I KNOW that I don't fight for her, but for the beautiful monster that I've never known. The monster that lay beside me at night, on the most accursed of times, always there when I needed him to be the most, even if he couldn't be seen through my eyes. I've told this to others and been thought a mad man, earning those looks that scream misunderstanding to me. But I believe it all the same. He has never left me. I feel it now as the worshiper feeds upon his faith, knowing without seeing what he feels within his heart.
"Sometimes its better to forget the clichés, the logic and the reasoning, and just rely on blind faith."
I throw each punch for that creature that has always been with me. I dodged every mind blowing kick for the future I can possess. For the prospect of being such a man. Brave and strong, giving his heart, something he never even knew he possessed to the one who craved it the most. I want to be that man. I want to have that future, to have that possibility of love. I can't die like this.
A fist connects with my eyes, the world knocked backwards as I find myself staring up at pure darkness, touching my eyes quickly as if checking for blindness. I feel stone beneath me, my head crouching upon a rock as I groan, trying to lift my body, only to realize I'm pinned beneath a boulder. I know I must free myself quickly, judging by the anguished cries that break forth from Gohan outside of the cave I have landed in.
Over and over I hear the screams, the sobs and the moans of a dying man slash through the quiet of the cave, coming from outside as he's beaten to death. I can barely recognize it now. My Gohan. My brother, my friend, my father. My love. I struggle, digging my nails into the stone and pushing as hard as I can, feeling nothing in response.
I hear him cry out, the God forsaken cry shattering the tranquility that had once resided in this tavern. Then silence. Silence like at a funeral. Silence like after the last body has fallen on the battle field. I sob out in my desperation, my failure and my hate, the energy within me sparkling before my eyes, silver and almost gold.
I hear the footsteps, knowing without actually forming a thought that they belong to my enemy, the epitome of all my hate. Draco.
I see his smiling face, so flawless and wicked as he laughs at his self pronounced victory, the last of his victims an easy kill, awaiting an untimely death beneath the confines of a boulder.
I close my eyes, not wishing for my last sight to be the murderer of my father. And then I open them, feeling his presence like I never have before, the pure intensity of it pressurizing my body as a blast appears out of nowhere, bursting through Draco's chest and blowing out the other side.
He stumbles backwards, stupefied with awe and disbelief, clutching his hand over his bleeding chest.
"No.... No it... It can't be." He breathes.
With every amount of energy I can muster, I blow the boulder to pieces, freeing myself and throwing a fist into his dumbstruck face. He staggers drunkenly to the ground, collapsing upon his back and staring up at me.
"You insect." He spits out of his bloody mouth. "How'd..... How'd you do it boy? Where'd that blast come from?" He whispers through clenched teeth.
I can't even answer him as the tan flesh of his face begins to pale, his deep red lips going pink with blood loss. I have no explanation, no answer that can calm his dying spirit. And yet, through my anger, through my rage, through my hatred burns the tiny flicker of sadness within the buried and long ago forgotten depths of my soul.
I see beneath me the essence of all my father had been. Cold and ruthless, a murderer of children. The black eyes seem to burst with rage, seeping with hatred for who I am. But could he have been more at one time? Wasn't he a young man as I am one day long ago? Doesn't he have the prospects of becoming a better man?
And yet the warrior, the Demon within me pushes aside such promise, forcing me to make the choice I made long ago within the broken heart of a fatherless boy. In those tears I cried, that loss I felt, not even normal in its magnitude, I promised myself long ago to end the suffering this monster had caused.
And so I look down at the beautiful creature beneath me, so proud and strong he refuses to even acknowledge my possible mercy. He would never ask for it, never beg. But something within me wants to give it. Is it the Angel?
I hold his hand, not at all surprised by the startled look he gives me. His eyes fill with confusion and anger, mistrust and disbelief. I touch my bare fingers to the side of his face, sobbing as the first of my tears begin. He can't understand. He can't know why his death pains me so.
I want to call him my father, this being who is said to be nearly his twin, this last link to the man I can only know in my most beautiful dreams. I want to hold him close and whisper that he'd be proud of me, of the man I'd become, of the feelings I hold for him. To only tell him my secrets, of my mother's faithful love towards the monster she'd made a man. But he's not my father and my dwindling sanity tells me this.
The tears fall upon his soft flesh, and he listens quietly to my weeping, holding no harsh emotions in his eyes as he simply watches. I wish I knew what he's thinking. Doesn't even the most evil of men regret his life in the end?
Suddenly his eyes go wide with unspeakable fright, staring not at me but at the blackness over my shoulder. His lips begin to quiver even as I watch the already white skin of his face pale to a deathly color.
"Vegeta...." I hear him whisper, throwing my head back and desperately searching for what his eyes promise is there. But I see nothing. Nothing but the emptiness that has always remained when I search for him. Nothing but the heart ache that reminds me of the man I'll never meet.
I turn back to him, holding my breath as I thrust my clenched fist into his chest cavity, opening my fingers just enough to grab hold of the still beating heart and yank it from its arteries and veins, feeling them snap with the pull. Blood soaks my white knuckles as I hold the thick, meaty member in my grasp for him to see, crying and sobbing as I see the life flow from his eyes.
"For my father." I whisper, feeling the hot tears drip from my chin.
Through my heartache and my pain I know he is there. He's there as he always has been, beside me through the hurt, through the anguish and the sadness. There by my side though foolish eyes refuse to acknowledge it. But sometimes it isn't always what we see that we believe in. I believe in my heart and the love it will always hold for the man I never knew. For the man I believe stands beside me when I need him most.
Decide for yourself whether or not to believe in what you can or cannot see. I..... I choose to embrace that faith.
I stand up, dropping his heart to the ground and halting my tears. I am through shedding them. I am a man now. I'll be the man he never got to be.
As I turn to leave, I smile through my drying tears, my cheeks feeling stretched with the effort.
"For my father." I whisper once more.
Hopefully you all liked that version better since it was beta read by Camaro and Veggiefied906!! Thanks guys, this is forever dedicated to you!
Don't forget to read and review! No more flames please.