Well, hello again my friends.
Okay, I know I haven't written in a spell. No need to remind me. But it ends today!
I must thank all of you who reviewed and told me to get me off my a$$ and update.
As I was advertising this on a message board I got my spurt of creativity and figured out the ending and how this ties to my other story, Castle Walls. Trust me it does. But here it is, the end to Find Your Castle in the Sky…
Chapter Five: Round and Round it Goes, Where it Stops Nobody Knows.
Dieu me pardonnera. C'est son métier. (God will forgive me. It's his job)
-Heinrich Heine , Last words
They sat reading entry after entry through the night and into the morning each passage becoming more graphic and sorrowful. Gohan was growing very weak, but he would not give way to his need for sleep and his need to get away from his little brother's nightmarish life. Trunks' had closed off his face to all emotion long ago as Goten told of his first battle with the Dream-eaters.
"Why didn't he call for help? Why didn't we figure out he needed us?" asked Gohan to himself aloud. Trunks clicked to the next page of text. The once neat Chi Chi taught script had turned into hasty stokes and anxious angles. Pictures of gore filled the margins and both knew that their instincts were going wild. Anger and bloodlust were not as buried as Gohan wished.
He could feel his ki swelling as Goten described his imprisonment and the tortures done to others. It was his dreams that had gotten the Sayajin caught and his dreams that had allowed him the barest bit of strength to escape the bio-jail of the Dream-eaters.
The night has fallen in the forest of Arden. It is the only place I still feel safe. The last of the Sanctuaries has fallen in a great battle that I was too late for. I might have saved it but I could not fly or control any of my ki. I am afraid the drugs that allow me to keep from dreaming have a price. If only I had listened to that D.A.R.E officer- "Just Say No!" but that is of little consequence. I suppose it is for the best, I fear that the Dream-Eaters have the ability to sniff out ki now. It is my fault.
The old wizard I told you about, has asked me a cryptic question, Why did I come here? The strange part is, I can't recall. I really cannot tell you why I even wanted to come to this hellhole in the first place. He has offered me a way to end it and get home by the end of the night the day after tomorrow. He told me though it may sound good, in order to do it I will have to do some massive thing that I will hate. He didn't tell me what though. Very curious. I will take his offer, no matter the price.
He has told me the work. I must destroy this world and everyone upon it. I have agreed though I know this will land me in hell. I suppose Vegeta can introduce me around.
I will be healed by the Kami of this world and given the legacy of the Keepers of The Star. The Star is the heart of this planet and since the planet will soon be no more The Star will become my heart and even when my body fades and leaves this realm my soul will be tied to it and all my chi will become part of The Star and it will pass on to another who can wield it. I pray that this is not a foreshadow of my fate.
Less than a year ago.
Goten's hair was longer and ragged, his clothes alien and blood-soaked, only now the blood was old and brown and black. Scars and wounds dotted and crisscrossed his tanned skin that was hardened by the wear upon it. The once bright and pure twin pools of black water were now clouded and stormy orbs in a sea of red. He had aged far more than his father ever had.
"Why did you come to me to destroy your home?" asked Goten of the old wizard, another old man came into the clearing of the forest.
"We have to think of the safety of the whole not just our home. We need to stop the Dream-Eaters before they try to escape this world and invade another planet like they did to us." Said the wizard. Goten nodded and turned to the newcomer.
"I am the Kami of this forsaken world. I am sorry you were drawn into this purgatory. It is all my fault. Years ago a star fell onto my world and I let it be. I thought the good of my pure world would wash all evil away. Look and see how wrong I was. As a humble failure I stand before you Tainted Hero, son of the Pure Hero of Earth and New Namek-sai." The old looking man stood in ragged robes and a gnarled oaken staff supported his weight.
"Kami, the wizard has told me of your task. I will do so." Said Goten simply in his hoarse and scratchy voice. He had never fully recovered from his sojourn in the bio-prisons of the Dream-Eaters. Whip marks, burns, and stab wounds were still there, reminders of the dangers of a simple wish to see Trunks and Gohan once more before he died.
The Kami nodded and a bright light consumed the old man like fire does to dry brush. The light then expanded rapidly and Goten passed out of awareness and into one last dream.
When Goten came too he was alone on the ground of the Forest of Arden, his last hope. His clothes were now his father's Kame School gi and a ring was upon his hand with a brilliant stone of an amber color, like a Dragonball. He recalled his promise and knew that as soon as he unleashed his attack he would be taken to the place his heart wanted to go by the stone, The Star. Standing up he levitated and soon was well above the planet's troubled surface. From so high up it looked picturesque and pure as the old Kami had wished it to be.
Sighing in resignation, he cupped his hands at his side and started to gather ki. It was the attack that had saved lives so many times. "Kame, hame, hame, hame," Goten flared straight into Ascended Super Sayajin, gathering his ki and pushing it into star system destruction proportions, "HAAAA!!!" Goten could feel the millions of lives wink out and The Star's reaction. It was horrified yet it was already bonding to Goten's heart. In an instant he was on the doorstep to the apartment he shared with Trunks, he was magically aged not a day since he had left. Inside he felt his two favorite people, his brother and his lover.
Trunks was speechless as he read the last words of his former lover.
"'And I now head home to finally see the ones I have longed for and lost for, Trunks and Gohan.'" Read Trunks. Gohan was crying openly. The sun was setting and they ended up spending the rest of the night in each other's arms, praying that Goten had found his well deserved rest.
"Well, now they know." Goten was watching from a magical pool in the lower level of hell. His grandfather nodded. They walked into the abysmal darkness and vanished from sight.
Goten and Bardock had a mission. They needed to save the balance of the hells. The new Grand Kai, a young sword wielding warrior god, had told them of a Chaos-rift that was opening and how it would end all of order's creations.
Later. And read Castle Walls, a complement to this.
P.L.S.