Disclaimer: *Drinks Barq's Root Beer* Gulp. gulp. ahh! Hey, guys. Right
now this is all I own. *Points at can* Which means that. woe to me.
Dragonball Z is not mine. -__-
*~~~*
As Fate Would Have It Chapter 2
The air car landed shakily, kicking up dust and dirt into clouds around it. As the mechanical door slowly opened, Chi Chi didn't even wait for the ramp to lower. She ran out into the open area, searching frantically for her son. Turning her head quickly from side to side, she spotted a tuft of black hair waving around in the wind behind a large rock.
"Gohan!" she exclaimed, running to her son. With a determined look on her face, she leaped over any obstacles placed before her. There wasn't anything in this world that was going to keep her from her poor little baby anymore. Unfortunately, she didn't exactly find what she was looking for. Blanching in horror, she raised her hand to her mouth, quickly turning away. It was definitely not Gohan. Instead, she found the head of Yajirobe, separated from his body by about a meter. Voices came nearer, but she heard none of them.
"Chi Chi! What is it? Is it Gohan?" The small group approached the speechless woman as she slowly shook her head. Her eyes closed and she collapsed to her knees, holding herself tightly. The others turned to look at what affected her so, and gasped in unison.
"Ya. . . Yajirobe. . ." Korin gasped out. The small white cat grasped his wooden staff more tightly in his paw, looking solemnly down at his fallen "roommate". What a horrible way to end. "Not even you deserved this. May you rest in peace, old friend." Hopefully you didn't suffer too much, he told himself. He directed his gaze to the ground as Master Roshi placed a hand on his tiny furry shoulder.
"I'm going to go see if I can find any of the others," he said. As he began to walk away, he turned to Bulma. "We could really use you and that little gadget right now. Why don't you use it and try to find any signs of life?" He pointed towards the scouter over Bulma's eye. She snapped out of her reverie and focused her eyes away from Yajirobe's dead body. Swallowing back the bile, she nodded and pressed the button on the side of the scouter.
Click. Click.
Nothing detected so far. She slowly turned in a full circle, trying to find any signs of life, hoping beyond anything that there was someone still alive. She stepped away from the group, thinking that if there was someone out there, the scouter might detect them at a closer range. Wandering a good distance away from the group, she was finally out of their line of hearing. Still in a daze over what she had just seen, she didn't notice it when the group went completely out of sight.
Boulder. Rock. Rubble. That's all anything meant to her anymore. Just a name. She passed by more ruins. Rock. Crater. Piece of cloth. She stopped there and bent down for a closer inspection. A piece of once- orange gi, burned to a crisp. She dropped it back to the ground. After all, about half of the people fighting were wearing that color. She continued once again, remembering to point the scouter in different directions.
Pi.
She quickly zoned in on the source of the slight reading. Taking a few cautious steps towards a rather large rock, she gently placed her hand on it, leaning her weight to the side as she slowly made her way around. She jumped back as a lizard scurried out of a crack. With a hand over her rapidly beating heart, she continued on her way. What she finally saw answered any question she might have had about her missing friends.
"Goku!!" Bulma ran for the motionless body, tears spilling from her eyes. Crashing to the ground next to him, she gently placed her hand on his face, wiping some of the blood away. "Goku. Can you hear me?" she whispered. "Please wake up." she sniffed. "Come on, kiddo. You always pulled through for us before." she said, remembering the days when they were children and they embarked on their many adventures. Goku remained motionless. Dropping her hand to her side, Bulma wept openly.
"Damn it! Why the hell hasn't anything been going right?!" She pounded her fists on the ground. "He was never supposed to die in the first place! Goku can't be beaten. He just can't!" Her crying continued for a while as she wept for her lifelong friend.
She didn't know how long she had been kneeling there on the ground when she finally heard them. They sounded like. footsteps. Her head shot up and she looked frantically around for the source of the sound. She was almost ready to call out to it until she thought twice. What if it was the Saiyan? She knew he was still alive. Hell, he sounded perfectly fine when she heard him speak over the scouter. She remembered that frightening moment, when she tore the scouter off of her face and immediately turned it off. She prayed to Kami that the alien hadn't heard her, or else they might all be in even more danger.
Snapping back to reality, Bulma scrambled to hide behind another nearby boulder, shielding her body from whoever was heading in her direction. Better be safe than sorry, she thought. Holding her breath, she peeked around the edge of the rock - and her heart nearly stopped.
*~~~*
Vegeta approached the clearing where his scouter was detecting something. His pod had not yet arrived, so he figured he might as well find something to occupy his time with. Stepping around a particularly large boulder, he was shocked to find the crippled body of Kakarot lying motionless on the ground. Was this where the reading was coming from? He wouldn't believe that the weakling was still alive.
"Don't tell me you haven't died yet. Haven't you had enough, you fool?" Vegeta cautiously stepped around the body, tapping it with his foot. There was no reaction. The blood on his face, however, was visibly smeared, as if someone had recently caressed it. With a confused look plastered on his face, he glanced around, wondering if it really was Kakkarot's ki that the scouter had sensed. Turning his head in different directions, the gadget once again began reacting when it passed over a particular rock. Smirking, Vegeta stepped over Kakarot and towards the source of the reading, tossing back a thin beam of energy straight through the other Saiyan's heart. Better to be safe than sorry, he figured. The body convulsed under the attack and was still once again.
"Who's hiding back there? Come out, now!" Vegeta called. Forming a small orb of energy, he began his trek around the obscuring boulder. Step by ever-ominous step, he was planning on giving whoever it was a very wet pair of pants by the time he was done. Making his way around, he turned to look face to face into the eyes of . . .
a very large lizard.
"Gah!" Stumbling backwards, the ki in his hand disappeared from his shock. Nearly falling onto his rear, he quickly recomposed himself, thanking whatever god was watching over this planet that there was no one there to see his encounter. The dinosaur opened its enormous jaws, exposing a row of dagger-like teeth and roaring out its fury onto the Saiyan prince. Vegeta didn't even flinch, however, as he sighed irritably and blasted the thing into oblivion. "Stupid planet," he muttered under his breath.
Suddenly, a loud noise came from overhead, causing Vegeta to turn and face the sky. "It's about damn time!" he exclaimed as his space pod came into view. Landing with an enormous impact, the pod made a small crater in the dusty ground, kicking up debris. The Saiyan slowly headed towards his ship, his eyes on the inviting seat within as the door hissed open. As he reached the pod, he placed a shaky hand on the doorway, lifting his leg into the vehicle. Seating himself with a "plop!" he put in the coordinates for the nearest Freiza planet and entered a command to shut the door. As it slowly lowered itself, however, his eyes darted to something moving quickly in the distance, not to far from where he was originally standing.
Squinting his eyes in hope of getting a better view, he finally spotted whatever it was just as the door sealed shut. Rising a little from his seat, he peeped through the small window to catch a glimpse of it again. His eyes widened once he realized what he was seeing.
Blue hair.
"Wait! There's one. that smart chick. the one with the blue hair! She's the one that they always went to when they needed to find the Dragonballs!"
It had to be her! Kami only knew that color wasn't normal! Vegeta scowled as the ship began the ten-second countdown. There was no way he'd be able to stop it now, damn it. He continued looking up, nose touching the glass as his breath fogged up the window. His eyes narrowed as they were met with the wide and frightened cerulean-colored ones of the woman. He didn't know whether or not she could see him, but he could tell she knew exactly who he was inside the ship. He smirked at her obvious fear of him and turned his attention to the gizmo attached to the side of her face. Was that a scouter?
Vegeta harrumphed as he leaned back into his seat. So, she was obviously some kind of technician or scientist by the familiar way she dealt with the scouter. The lens was colored green, which probably meant that it was the one that used to belong to Raditz. The prince sighed and closed his eyes as the ship began its take-off. Oh, well. With or without the woman, he'd find those Dragonballs if he had to search across the universe for them. Crossing his arms, he braced himself for the takeoff.
*~~~*
Bulma watched as the pod went shooting out of the atmosphere, its thin white trail winding up into the sky. Her shaking knees finally gave out beneath her and she sank to the ground. That was by far the most frightening moment of her life yet. He had seen her. She remembered his face, up against the window, fogging up the glass with his shallow breathing. Well, at least she knew he didn't leave here unscathed.
Looking back up into the sky after him, she remembered that look he had given her. That sinister looking smirk and his narrowed eyes wouldn't get out of her head. He had sensed her fear, and he obviously thrived on it. She would never forget that face, but she hoped that she'd never see it again. She made a mental note that if she wasn't careful once she got to this Namek place, then she might end up running into him again. She shuddered. It was time to grow up and stop being so reckless.
Bulma Briefs unsteadily rose up from her kneeling position and walked over to Goku's body. She glanced at her blood-covered hand. It was the blood of her best friend. She shifted her eyes to Goku's body. Staring at it long and hard, she promised to Goku and herself one thing.
"I will bring you and the others back, kiddo. I swear it."
*~~~*
You like me!! You really LIKE me!! ^___^ Thanks to everyone for the great reviews, they REALLY helped me. I didn't know if anyone would like my story too much, but I guess you did!
Well, there's chapter 2. I really hope you all liked it as much as the first chapter. You know, a few reviews to tell me if you did would really give me a confidence boost! Once again, many thanks to Stef-chan for editing the chapter and supporting me with it. Lol, you don't know HOW many times I went back and re-edited the thing before I gave it to her. o__o I just didn't like it that much... but oh, well. All that I really care about at this point is if YOU guys liked it or not. ^__^
Also, er. . . special thanks to the reviewer "Kilala". I don't know why. I guess I'll just give out random shout-outs every chapter. ^__^ DON'T "SIT" ME!! PLEASE, NO "SITS"!
*Necklace glows as she plows face-first into the ground*
x___x
Don't forget to review!!
*~~~*
As Fate Would Have It Chapter 2
The air car landed shakily, kicking up dust and dirt into clouds around it. As the mechanical door slowly opened, Chi Chi didn't even wait for the ramp to lower. She ran out into the open area, searching frantically for her son. Turning her head quickly from side to side, she spotted a tuft of black hair waving around in the wind behind a large rock.
"Gohan!" she exclaimed, running to her son. With a determined look on her face, she leaped over any obstacles placed before her. There wasn't anything in this world that was going to keep her from her poor little baby anymore. Unfortunately, she didn't exactly find what she was looking for. Blanching in horror, she raised her hand to her mouth, quickly turning away. It was definitely not Gohan. Instead, she found the head of Yajirobe, separated from his body by about a meter. Voices came nearer, but she heard none of them.
"Chi Chi! What is it? Is it Gohan?" The small group approached the speechless woman as she slowly shook her head. Her eyes closed and she collapsed to her knees, holding herself tightly. The others turned to look at what affected her so, and gasped in unison.
"Ya. . . Yajirobe. . ." Korin gasped out. The small white cat grasped his wooden staff more tightly in his paw, looking solemnly down at his fallen "roommate". What a horrible way to end. "Not even you deserved this. May you rest in peace, old friend." Hopefully you didn't suffer too much, he told himself. He directed his gaze to the ground as Master Roshi placed a hand on his tiny furry shoulder.
"I'm going to go see if I can find any of the others," he said. As he began to walk away, he turned to Bulma. "We could really use you and that little gadget right now. Why don't you use it and try to find any signs of life?" He pointed towards the scouter over Bulma's eye. She snapped out of her reverie and focused her eyes away from Yajirobe's dead body. Swallowing back the bile, she nodded and pressed the button on the side of the scouter.
Click. Click.
Nothing detected so far. She slowly turned in a full circle, trying to find any signs of life, hoping beyond anything that there was someone still alive. She stepped away from the group, thinking that if there was someone out there, the scouter might detect them at a closer range. Wandering a good distance away from the group, she was finally out of their line of hearing. Still in a daze over what she had just seen, she didn't notice it when the group went completely out of sight.
Boulder. Rock. Rubble. That's all anything meant to her anymore. Just a name. She passed by more ruins. Rock. Crater. Piece of cloth. She stopped there and bent down for a closer inspection. A piece of once- orange gi, burned to a crisp. She dropped it back to the ground. After all, about half of the people fighting were wearing that color. She continued once again, remembering to point the scouter in different directions.
Pi.
She quickly zoned in on the source of the slight reading. Taking a few cautious steps towards a rather large rock, she gently placed her hand on it, leaning her weight to the side as she slowly made her way around. She jumped back as a lizard scurried out of a crack. With a hand over her rapidly beating heart, she continued on her way. What she finally saw answered any question she might have had about her missing friends.
"Goku!!" Bulma ran for the motionless body, tears spilling from her eyes. Crashing to the ground next to him, she gently placed her hand on his face, wiping some of the blood away. "Goku. Can you hear me?" she whispered. "Please wake up." she sniffed. "Come on, kiddo. You always pulled through for us before." she said, remembering the days when they were children and they embarked on their many adventures. Goku remained motionless. Dropping her hand to her side, Bulma wept openly.
"Damn it! Why the hell hasn't anything been going right?!" She pounded her fists on the ground. "He was never supposed to die in the first place! Goku can't be beaten. He just can't!" Her crying continued for a while as she wept for her lifelong friend.
She didn't know how long she had been kneeling there on the ground when she finally heard them. They sounded like. footsteps. Her head shot up and she looked frantically around for the source of the sound. She was almost ready to call out to it until she thought twice. What if it was the Saiyan? She knew he was still alive. Hell, he sounded perfectly fine when she heard him speak over the scouter. She remembered that frightening moment, when she tore the scouter off of her face and immediately turned it off. She prayed to Kami that the alien hadn't heard her, or else they might all be in even more danger.
Snapping back to reality, Bulma scrambled to hide behind another nearby boulder, shielding her body from whoever was heading in her direction. Better be safe than sorry, she thought. Holding her breath, she peeked around the edge of the rock - and her heart nearly stopped.
*~~~*
Vegeta approached the clearing where his scouter was detecting something. His pod had not yet arrived, so he figured he might as well find something to occupy his time with. Stepping around a particularly large boulder, he was shocked to find the crippled body of Kakarot lying motionless on the ground. Was this where the reading was coming from? He wouldn't believe that the weakling was still alive.
"Don't tell me you haven't died yet. Haven't you had enough, you fool?" Vegeta cautiously stepped around the body, tapping it with his foot. There was no reaction. The blood on his face, however, was visibly smeared, as if someone had recently caressed it. With a confused look plastered on his face, he glanced around, wondering if it really was Kakkarot's ki that the scouter had sensed. Turning his head in different directions, the gadget once again began reacting when it passed over a particular rock. Smirking, Vegeta stepped over Kakarot and towards the source of the reading, tossing back a thin beam of energy straight through the other Saiyan's heart. Better to be safe than sorry, he figured. The body convulsed under the attack and was still once again.
"Who's hiding back there? Come out, now!" Vegeta called. Forming a small orb of energy, he began his trek around the obscuring boulder. Step by ever-ominous step, he was planning on giving whoever it was a very wet pair of pants by the time he was done. Making his way around, he turned to look face to face into the eyes of . . .
a very large lizard.
"Gah!" Stumbling backwards, the ki in his hand disappeared from his shock. Nearly falling onto his rear, he quickly recomposed himself, thanking whatever god was watching over this planet that there was no one there to see his encounter. The dinosaur opened its enormous jaws, exposing a row of dagger-like teeth and roaring out its fury onto the Saiyan prince. Vegeta didn't even flinch, however, as he sighed irritably and blasted the thing into oblivion. "Stupid planet," he muttered under his breath.
Suddenly, a loud noise came from overhead, causing Vegeta to turn and face the sky. "It's about damn time!" he exclaimed as his space pod came into view. Landing with an enormous impact, the pod made a small crater in the dusty ground, kicking up debris. The Saiyan slowly headed towards his ship, his eyes on the inviting seat within as the door hissed open. As he reached the pod, he placed a shaky hand on the doorway, lifting his leg into the vehicle. Seating himself with a "plop!" he put in the coordinates for the nearest Freiza planet and entered a command to shut the door. As it slowly lowered itself, however, his eyes darted to something moving quickly in the distance, not to far from where he was originally standing.
Squinting his eyes in hope of getting a better view, he finally spotted whatever it was just as the door sealed shut. Rising a little from his seat, he peeped through the small window to catch a glimpse of it again. His eyes widened once he realized what he was seeing.
Blue hair.
"Wait! There's one. that smart chick. the one with the blue hair! She's the one that they always went to when they needed to find the Dragonballs!"
It had to be her! Kami only knew that color wasn't normal! Vegeta scowled as the ship began the ten-second countdown. There was no way he'd be able to stop it now, damn it. He continued looking up, nose touching the glass as his breath fogged up the window. His eyes narrowed as they were met with the wide and frightened cerulean-colored ones of the woman. He didn't know whether or not she could see him, but he could tell she knew exactly who he was inside the ship. He smirked at her obvious fear of him and turned his attention to the gizmo attached to the side of her face. Was that a scouter?
Vegeta harrumphed as he leaned back into his seat. So, she was obviously some kind of technician or scientist by the familiar way she dealt with the scouter. The lens was colored green, which probably meant that it was the one that used to belong to Raditz. The prince sighed and closed his eyes as the ship began its take-off. Oh, well. With or without the woman, he'd find those Dragonballs if he had to search across the universe for them. Crossing his arms, he braced himself for the takeoff.
*~~~*
Bulma watched as the pod went shooting out of the atmosphere, its thin white trail winding up into the sky. Her shaking knees finally gave out beneath her and she sank to the ground. That was by far the most frightening moment of her life yet. He had seen her. She remembered his face, up against the window, fogging up the glass with his shallow breathing. Well, at least she knew he didn't leave here unscathed.
Looking back up into the sky after him, she remembered that look he had given her. That sinister looking smirk and his narrowed eyes wouldn't get out of her head. He had sensed her fear, and he obviously thrived on it. She would never forget that face, but she hoped that she'd never see it again. She made a mental note that if she wasn't careful once she got to this Namek place, then she might end up running into him again. She shuddered. It was time to grow up and stop being so reckless.
Bulma Briefs unsteadily rose up from her kneeling position and walked over to Goku's body. She glanced at her blood-covered hand. It was the blood of her best friend. She shifted her eyes to Goku's body. Staring at it long and hard, she promised to Goku and herself one thing.
"I will bring you and the others back, kiddo. I swear it."
*~~~*
You like me!! You really LIKE me!! ^___^ Thanks to everyone for the great reviews, they REALLY helped me. I didn't know if anyone would like my story too much, but I guess you did!
Well, there's chapter 2. I really hope you all liked it as much as the first chapter. You know, a few reviews to tell me if you did would really give me a confidence boost! Once again, many thanks to Stef-chan for editing the chapter and supporting me with it. Lol, you don't know HOW many times I went back and re-edited the thing before I gave it to her. o__o I just didn't like it that much... but oh, well. All that I really care about at this point is if YOU guys liked it or not. ^__^
Also, er. . . special thanks to the reviewer "Kilala". I don't know why. I guess I'll just give out random shout-outs every chapter. ^__^ DON'T "SIT" ME!! PLEASE, NO "SITS"!
*Necklace glows as she plows face-first into the ground*
x___x
Don't forget to review!!