Time is running out, and the assassins are on the loose and looking for
Bulma. Remember, "Nothing is more dangerous than someone who has nothing
left to lose," and "A man who doesn't fear death can do anything."
DBZ belongs to me! NOT!!! It belongs to Akira Toriyama, FUNimation, and others in Japan and America, NONE of whom is ME. *sniff* but i want it. . .
New characters are mine.
**************************************************************************** ** Things Best Forgotten Part 2 by NansJns
Running from the future, (Running from the future) Running from the past (Running from the past)
"Still Alive" by Leslie Fish
Ch.5: A Cure? Battle at the Lookout
Bulma sat in the hot water, encircled by steam. Her eyes drooped with fatigue, and she held her head in one hand, the elbow of which pressed into the edge of the large tub. She hadn't known Kami's place had such an impressive bathroom, large and spacious, with a big tub, white tile, and gold fixtures. One hand trailed through the water listlessly. She didn't normally bathe in the morning, but she woke up feeling coated in grime and wanted to wash off. She had finished scrubbing a few minutes ago, and just wanted to sit for a bit. Her unborn baby moved, then kicked, and she sighed and lifted her free hand to touch her belly. She knew Vegeta had gotten worse; his soul felt so far away now, and the candle flame of his power had shrunk to a small, but still bright, point.
"I promise you, baby," Bulma whispered to her extended abdomen. "You will know your father and brother, and they'll know you. They'll survive this, and we'll all be togther. I promise. I swear it." The baby kicked again, as if to agree.
"Bulma?" Mr. Popo's voice called through the door.
"Yes?" Bulma answered.
"I have some clean clothes for you; they'll be on the bed waiting for you when you're ready," he said.
"All right," Bulma replied, and then sighed deeply again. She had never been so miserable in her whole life. After a few more minutes in the soothing water, she carefully stood up and got a towel. She quietly cursed the assassins again while she dried off and hoped the hunt for the Dragonballs was going well.
Discovering that the rest of the Z-Fighters were around the world gathering Dragonballs didn't make Tien's life any easier. He sagged a bit and cast all three of his eyes downward. Chiao-Tzu stood beside him, his little face full of concern.
"Tien, why are you even here? Aren't you supposed to be guarding those three assassins?" Videl asked, her voice hard and edgy. Tien didn't look up, and seemed to sag a little more.
"They escaped a little while ago. I'm sorry, I fell asleep, and Chiao-Tzu looked away for a few moments to make breakfast, and they somehow cut a hole through their prison," Tien admitted.
"Oh, shit," Chi-chi cursed quietly. "Well, these guys don't actually have much power, anyway. . .you guys can stay here and help us guard everyone," she said as strongly as she could.
"Where's Bulma? We need to protect her, too! She's the one they'll really be after, 'cause they're after the baby!" Chiao-Tzu piped up.
"She's safe; she's at Kami's Lookout," Chi-chi answered. Tien looked up.
"That's good. They won't find her there," he said, relieved. Chiao- Tzu furrowed his little brow as he thought about the way Halter had been staring skyward the previous day, obviously distracted. ((No, it's not possible. He can't have seen something that far away, it's not physically possible.)) he thought to himself a moment later.
18 wriggled down the tight stone cave and cursed the men above her again and again. She was getting scrapes on her scrapes trying to fit down this hole, but there was a Dragonball down there somewhere. They would have opened the cave up some, but were afraid of burying the ball and thus lengthening their search. Every minute counted.
"Are you SURE it's down here?!" she yelled back up.
"That's what the radar says. We're really sorry, 18!" Yamcha yelled back. "But you're the only one with shoulders narrow enough to fit down there!"
"I would have gone, but you said you'd do it," Krillin reminded her.
"Fine, fine, I know that! But why didn't anyone think to have Piccolo just stretch his arm down here to find it?" 18 answered as she got herself down a few more inches.
"Do you know how much energy that costs me, not to mention how much it hurts?" Piccolo said coldly.
"HURTS?! You wanna talk about _hurting_?!" 18 snapped back as she kept crawling down. Her mind was swirling. She hadn't known the Saiyans, any of them, all that well for very long. Krillin talked about Goku and Gohan enough that she felt like she knew them, Goten and Trunks were only children and she saw them as possible playmates for Marron but little more, and she had gotten to know Vegeta only on a surface level. Kari, well, she knew as much about Kari as any of them did. Kari was still something of an outsider, really, and 18 suddenly wondered if the Saiyan woman was lonely. The thought was pushed aside quickly. Shortly after marrying Krillin and learning, really learning, about the man she had once been programmed to kill, she had come to hate Dr. Gero even more, and curse her programming. She had been ordered to kill a good man, a family man, because that stupid old coot was angry at him. She held no desire to see Goku or his sons die, least of all in as painful and pathetic a way as this. But it was Krillin's fear and concern, more than anything, that made her help them hunt for the Dragonballs. She didn't want to see her husband have to grieve for the loss of so many friends, she knew it would hurt him greatly; and she didn't want to grieve for them either. Her heart wasn't built to take it. She wondered, briefly, if that was selfish. The light of the flashlight she held bounced off the rocks dully, until it hit something that flashed and almost blinded her.
"Ah hah!" she hissed and crawled up to the shiny, orange object. She took a good grip on the ball and jerked it out. "Got it!" she called up, and began crawling back out. Thanks to the tightness of the hole, she couldn't turn around, so she had to back up. Once her feet were visible, the guys reached out and helped her get out. She gave them her find and they added it to the collection. With the radar and their super speed, they had managed to get four balls already, but the other three still eluded them, and time was quickly running out. They wondered if the doctors were having any luck.
The four doctors that were working feverishly on the poison that had struck down the Saiyans had come up with various results. It wasn't all that complex a poison, they had realized; it was designed to burn out the internal organs by causing immense increases in the surrounding temperature, thus the pain and heat the Saiyans felt. They felt sure a cure was within their grasp, but they didn't know if they could make it in time. Mr. Vegeta had, at most, twelve hours left. His son had about twenty-four thanks to his human blood. Mr. Son and Ms. Furauu had another forty-eight hours by the most recent tests, and Mr. Son's two sons had another ninety-six hours at best. So little time! So very little time! None of them would say so, but they held little hope for saving the full bloods, and nearly none at all for Vegeta and his son. They whispered prayers to Kami that their skill could still win the day, but they all knew that Kami didn't answer all prayers with a "yes".
The radar beeped away, pointing to the next Dragonball, and the only sound to muffle it was the wind. None of the Z-Fighters felt like talking, and they all were left to their own thoughts. Somehow, none of them ever thought that the past could strike back like this. They all knew what the Saiyans had done, what Vegeta had done, but that was a long time ago and they were willing to let the past die and be buried. It had never occurred to them, for some reason, that not everyone would feel the same way. It came to them, belatedly, that they were able to let go of that past because they knew the surviving Saiyans, knew how they acted and felt, and knew they (with the exception of Vegeta) had never participated in the planetary piracy their race had done. But even Vegeta was making up for his past, and qualified as a good soul; the battle with Buu had proven that. He had changed greatly over time. They could understand that some might not believe that, but they couldn't fathom someone believing that Goku and his sons could do anything evil; and the memory of the assassins attacking Bulma to kill her and Vegeta's unborn child made their blood boil and their stomachs turn. How could anyone be so cold and cruel? They were acting as bad as the Saiyans they feared. ((At least they're locked up, safely away from Bulma.)) Krillin thought, and though he didn't know it, the others shared the thought. The radar began beeping louder and faster, declaring for all to hear that they were on top of another Dragonball.
Halter, Bosen, and Vac ran through the forest, their breathing coming heavily after running for almost three hours. None of them had enough ki to fly, and besides, flying would have guaranteed their re-capture. They considered it more and more fortunate that all three of their races could maintain high ground speed for long periods of time. Once they got to their ship, they would have a faster way of getting to the floating palace the pregnant wife of the Saiyan Prince had been taken to. None of them wasted air or energy trying to speak, they just ran on, back to their ship, led by their tracking device. They stopped briefly to eat and drink, and then continued on. They reached their ship late in the afternoon, and collected what they needed. Once they had the needed supplies in a bag, they slid three hover-bikes, silver, red, and green, out from the storage bay and pulled the keys from their pockets.
"Okay, are we ready?" Halter asked as they activated their hover- bikes. The three machines hummed to life as they lifted up a foot over the ground, and their buttons began to dimly glow. Halter, Vac, and Bosen mounted the sleek metal rides and gunned their engines.
"We have everything we'll need, we just need you to guide us now," Bosen answered from atop the silver bike.
"I can hardly believe it's almost over," Vac-Uum observed as he punched a few buttons on his red bike.
"But it is. Once we. . .handle the unborn child. . .the plague known as Saiyans will be wiped out forever," Halter said firmly, and his compatriots nodded. "For the Survival of All Life!" he yelled, and Bosen and Vac echoed the sentiment as they blasted into the air.
"For the Survival of All Life!"
Korin paced around his little building nervously. He hadn't heard anything from anyone since the previous day. He wondered how the Saiyans were doing, if the assassins had been found, if the senzu beans had done any good. "All of this worrying is going to turn my fur white," he muttered. He paused as he looked at his naturally snowy coat. "Or gray." Yajirobe was his usual helpful self, though he was actually quite worried too. They were snapped from their thoughts by the roar of engines. They ran to the edge of their sky-high home in time to see three hover bikes blaze past them to the lookout.
"What was that?!" Korin cried out in shock.
"Bad news, that's for sure!" Yajirobe answered. After several moments of hesitation, he cursed beneath his breath and went up to the Lookout himself. There were many things he wouldn't do, and one of them was leave a pregnant woman against unknown foes.
Mr. Popo was watering his flowers when he heard the approaching engines. He paused for only a second before running to warn Dende and Bulma. Except for Yajirobe, Bulma, and Chi-chi, none of their friends needed machines to get up to the Lookout anymore.
"Dende! Someone is coming!" he called as he ran into the building.
"Not a friend, I take it?" Dende answered, small pearls of sweat rolling down his green forehead. Bulma stood far back from them.
"I doubt it!" Mr. Popo shook his head. "Bulma, I suggest you find a room and lock yourself inside until we know," he turned to the blue-haired woman. She nodded, and moved down the hall as fast as her pregnant body could go. A sharp horn-blast blared from outside, and Dende and Mr. Popo moved over to the doorway. Dende stood as tall as he could make himself and made his eyes stern and serious.
"Who are you and what do you want here?" the young Namek demanded as he stared at the three aliens on hover bikes that were now parked on his lookout.
"Who we are is of no consequence to you, Namek. We want the wife of the Saiyan Prince," Bosen said evenly.
"She's not here," Mr. Popo answered calmly.
"Like Hell she's not. I saw the older Namek bring her here yesterday," Halter said. They stared at him for a moment, and Yajirobe suddenly arrived and stood to the side.
"Give her to us and we'll leave here peacefully. You people have nothing to do with this, and you can keep it that way," Vac-Uum said reasonably.
"We have no interest at all in you. We just want the woman," Halter added.
"How could you have seen Piccolo bring her here? This tower isn't visible from the ground unless you're directly underneath it on a cloudless day," Dende asked suspiciously.
"My kind have telescopic vision - we can see things hundreds of miles away quite clearly when we want to," Halter replied coolly. "Now, hand over the Saiyan Prince's wife!" his voice became strained with the effort to control his anger at the woman.
"You have got to be kidding," Yajirobe answered. "Come on, we all know you guys are basically wimps, or you wouldn't have snuck around and used something as cowardly as poison to kill the Saiyans." They glared at him in a way that froze his blood, and Vac-Uum dismounted his bike. Yajirobe arched an eyebrow and hoped the alien couldn't see the sweat on his cheeks. Vac walked up to the short, ugly human and scowled.
"We're no match for the Saiyans, we admit that. Humans, on the other hand-" he said, and then belted Yajirobe across the Lookout. Yajirobe got back up sputtering. "-are another matter," Vac finished. Yajirobe drew his sword and attacked him, but Vac simply sidestepped him quickly, and struck him across the back. Yajirobe cursed to himself again; this guy was making him look like a total fool! He did a fast flip and actually managed to cut Vac across the shoulder with his sword. Vac hissed as he grabbed at his shoulder, and then looked at the blood on his hands. He pressed his hand down again, and grimaced in great pain as he cauterized his wound. He then scowled at Yajirobe again, who grinned triumphantly for a moment until he saw that Vac had closed the wound. Vac grabbed Yajirobe by the front of his shirt and began concentrating heat into both of his hands. Yajirobe let out a cry of horror as his clothes began to burn. Vac then decked him hard and he crumpled to the ground. Mr. Popo, in a panic, threw the contents of his watering can onto the unconscious Yajirobe, and put out the fire.
"We're running a little low on patience, Namek. Just give us the woman!" Vac barked at Dende.
"Never!" Dende snapped. A soft sigh seemed to escape the threesome, and then Halter and Bosen dismounted their own bikes.
Bulma sat on the floor in the small room she had locked herself into with her ear pressed against the wall that faced the front of the overall building. She couldn't hear much, but what she could pick up sounded like a fight. She began trembling all over, and her mouth went dry as she listened to distant thuds and something breaking. What would she do if the assassins came looking for her? She was just pregnant enough to make all the fighting skills Vegeta had taught her worthless, and there was little in the entire Lookout, much less this one room, to use as a weapon. She clenched one hand into a fist as she pushed herself up onto her feet. A quick look around offered a few objects, such as chairs, a small statue, and a heavy-looking glass bottle full of water and capped that she might use as a blunt object weapon. She quickly decided that the chairs would be too unwieldy in her current condition, but the statue was just small enough, and the bottle could become a stabbing weapon. She started to go get them when there was a resounding crash somewhere outside, and then complete silence. Bulma gasped, and ran over to the table that held the bottle. She grabbed the bottle by its neck and ducked out of sight into a small closest on the left side of the room as footsteps approached. Her lungs couldn't seem to hold enough oxygen and she had to fight to keep her breathing quiet, and worse, the baby, affected by her emotions, began moving and kicking to display its own discomfort. Several long minutes passed, and she could hear doors being opened and slammed shut. Popo and Dende would never do that, which meant the assassins were there and looking for her. She winced as the baby's kicking became harder and somewhat painful. Her eyes flew open again as the doorknob began shaking. After a few moments, the metal knob began to glow white hot, and then it melted away and the door swung open.
"Is she in there?" Halter asked from across the hall.
"I don't see her. . .but I think I hear something," Vac answered as he stepped into the room. Bulma tightened her grip on her erstwhile weapon, and when Vac came up to the closet, she smashed the bottle down on his head. The glass shattered in a brilliant, sparkling explosion, the water flying everywhere. Vac screamed something in his native tongue that Bulma was willing to bet wasn't very polite as he fell to his knees holding his head. She ran past him as best she could, still holding the remaining third of the broken bottle in her hand. Bosen blocked the doorway, and Bulma drove the broken glass into his stomach. He gagged and doubled over, and she pushed past him as well. She had no time to worry about things as trivial as mercy, she only knew she had to protect her baby and get out of there. She hadn't expected Halter to hit her across the face. She hit the floor and gripped her bruising cheek as she curled into a ball around her belly. Vac and Bosen came over and glared at her.
"Damn, she's tough!" Bosen hissed as he pressed his hands to the gashes in his belly to keep his blood in.
"Oh, yeah, she's married to a Saiyan, all right. Bitch!" Vac snarled as he gripped his throbbing head. Halter put a hand on both of his comrades and healed the worst of their injuries. Bulma started to try and get away again, but Bosen and Vac grabbed both of her arms and hauled her outside, Halter walking ahead of them. Bulma looked to see Dende in a heap to one side, Mr. Popo lying by his flowers, and Yajirobe on the deck. Halter went to his bike and pulled out a needle and a small bottle of liquid. Bulma stared at the bottle and needle and began screaming and writhing.
"NO! NO! LET GO OF ME! NOOO!" she shrieked as Halter filled the needle. He gave the plunger a tiny push to get rid of any air that was left in it, and turned to face Bulma.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt you. It'll just kill the monster growing inside of you," Halter said quietly as he walked to her. None of them had noticed when the sky suddenly turned black and lightening began leaping to the ground during their fight with the human woman's last defenders.
While the battle at the Lookout had been going on, the Z-Fighters had found all of the Dragonballs and had summoned Shenlon. The massive dragon hovered in the air, his long, scaly body in loose coils across much of the immediate sky.
"What is your first wish?" the dragon asked.
"We wish for a cure to the poison that's killing the Saiyans!" Krillin said quickly, and Shenlon was quiet for only a second.
"Your wish has been granted," he said. "What is your second wish?"
"Where's the cure?!" Krillin demanded loudly. Nothing had appeared before them.
"It is at the hospital, with the Saiyans," the dragon answered.
"Hey, Krillin, why didn't you just wish for the Saiyans to be well?" Yamcha asked low by the shorter man's ear.
"Uh, well, for one thing, having a cure will protect them from this ever happening again. . .and I didn't think of that until you mentioned it," Krillin admitted in slight embarrassment. In the hospital, the doctors cheered at the discovery of a cure.
"How?!" one demanded.
"I don't know! But there it is!! We did it!!" a second answered, and they quickly started prepping needles of it. They had no time to spare. Back with the Z-Fighters, Shenlon was still awaiting the second wish. The Z-Fighters had fallen to minor talk amongst themselves.
"Well?" the dragon demanded.
"We could wish the Saiyans completely well. . ." Piccolo observed.
"I just wish I knew how Bulma was doing," Yamcha said off-handedly. However, he said it a bit too loudly.
"Your wish is granted," Shenlon answered, and the others turned on Yamcha, ready to smack him upside the head. The desire died quickly when they were presented with an image of the three assassins arriving at Kami's Lookout, then knocking Dende, Mr. Popo, and Yajirobe violently aside, and then going after Bulma. Around the time when Vac broke into the room where Bulma hid, they all took to the air, flying to Kami's Lookout at top speed.
Shenlon, forgotten, quietly returned to the Dragonballs, which promptly turned to stone and scattered across the globe once more.
The doctors burst into the room and without a word started administering the antidote to the Saiyans. Vegeta's heart monitor had slowed to such a crawl that Chi-chi and Videl were certain that he was going to die anytime now, but the doctors simply gave him a slightly larger dose and moved on. A few minutes later their faces began to smooth, and after another few minutes their eyes began to flutter open and they began moaning.
"Goku!" Chi-chi cried as she flung herself across him.
"Chi-chi. . .? Ohh, Chi-chi, I had this horrible dream. . ." Goku's voice was hoarse and weak, but sounded better than it had.
"Videl? Mom? Dad? Goten?" Gohan mumbled.
"Mom? Dad? Gohan?" Goten sighed quietly. Chi-chi turned to her sons for a moment to show she was still there and soothe them.
"Oh, man. . .that was something else. I still have lots to learn about Saiyans," Kari murmured with a tiny smile. She felt so much cooler inside now.
"Kaammi, I still feel shitty," Vegeta grumbled. "But better." He rubbed his head and tried to sit up.
"You shouldn't try to get up yet. It'll take a day or two for the poison to be completely cleansed from your system, but you're well on your way," Dr. Botic told them with a beaming smile. "As for the damage it did, well, we're still working on that." Chi-chi, Videl, Tien, and Chiao-Tzu all smiled and nodded in relief and joy. Vegeta suddenly jerked as he heard a telepathic scream from Bulma.
"No, no, no! Please don't!!" Bulma shrieked again, still fighting, as Halter knelt down by her and made ready to inject her abdomen with the Saiyan-killing poison.
"What about her?" Bosen abruptly asked as he squeezed Bulma's right arm painfully. "She gave shelter to that animal, and has been helping to spawn new ones!"
"Bosen's right. She and the other Earth-bitches should be punished too!" Vac agreed. Halter looked at them, and then studied Bulma for a second.
"She looks fragile enough, as did the other two. It shouldn't be difficult," he nodded.
"But we haven't done anything _wrong_!" Bulma pleaded, but the three aliens didn't listen. She realized, to her horror, that nothing could reach them - they were too completely controlled by fear and hate. She watched Halter aim for her stomach again and her fear exploded. "DON'T HURT MY BABY!!!" Bulma screamed at the top of her voice, and let off an explosion of ki that would have made any Saiyan proud. The entire Lookout was covered in white-blue light, but the main force of the blast was focused on Bosen, Vac, and Halter, who were all sent flying over the Lookout's edge, broken, bleeding, and screaming. Bulma gasped deeply and sagged forward onto her hands as she tried to figure out what happened. Dende, Mr. Popo, and Yajirobe got up and stared at her in shock. The assassins were gone. The hover bikes then beeped and flew off.
**************************************************************************** ** It's not over yet. . .Next time, the conclusion: Ch.6: Battle's End - A Happy Birth and a Sad Prediction.
E-mail me at NansJns@aol.com! I'd love to hear from you!
DBZ belongs to me! NOT!!! It belongs to Akira Toriyama, FUNimation, and others in Japan and America, NONE of whom is ME. *sniff* but i want it. . .
New characters are mine.
**************************************************************************** ** Things Best Forgotten Part 2 by NansJns
Running from the future, (Running from the future) Running from the past (Running from the past)
"Still Alive" by Leslie Fish
Ch.5: A Cure? Battle at the Lookout
Bulma sat in the hot water, encircled by steam. Her eyes drooped with fatigue, and she held her head in one hand, the elbow of which pressed into the edge of the large tub. She hadn't known Kami's place had such an impressive bathroom, large and spacious, with a big tub, white tile, and gold fixtures. One hand trailed through the water listlessly. She didn't normally bathe in the morning, but she woke up feeling coated in grime and wanted to wash off. She had finished scrubbing a few minutes ago, and just wanted to sit for a bit. Her unborn baby moved, then kicked, and she sighed and lifted her free hand to touch her belly. She knew Vegeta had gotten worse; his soul felt so far away now, and the candle flame of his power had shrunk to a small, but still bright, point.
"I promise you, baby," Bulma whispered to her extended abdomen. "You will know your father and brother, and they'll know you. They'll survive this, and we'll all be togther. I promise. I swear it." The baby kicked again, as if to agree.
"Bulma?" Mr. Popo's voice called through the door.
"Yes?" Bulma answered.
"I have some clean clothes for you; they'll be on the bed waiting for you when you're ready," he said.
"All right," Bulma replied, and then sighed deeply again. She had never been so miserable in her whole life. After a few more minutes in the soothing water, she carefully stood up and got a towel. She quietly cursed the assassins again while she dried off and hoped the hunt for the Dragonballs was going well.
Discovering that the rest of the Z-Fighters were around the world gathering Dragonballs didn't make Tien's life any easier. He sagged a bit and cast all three of his eyes downward. Chiao-Tzu stood beside him, his little face full of concern.
"Tien, why are you even here? Aren't you supposed to be guarding those three assassins?" Videl asked, her voice hard and edgy. Tien didn't look up, and seemed to sag a little more.
"They escaped a little while ago. I'm sorry, I fell asleep, and Chiao-Tzu looked away for a few moments to make breakfast, and they somehow cut a hole through their prison," Tien admitted.
"Oh, shit," Chi-chi cursed quietly. "Well, these guys don't actually have much power, anyway. . .you guys can stay here and help us guard everyone," she said as strongly as she could.
"Where's Bulma? We need to protect her, too! She's the one they'll really be after, 'cause they're after the baby!" Chiao-Tzu piped up.
"She's safe; she's at Kami's Lookout," Chi-chi answered. Tien looked up.
"That's good. They won't find her there," he said, relieved. Chiao- Tzu furrowed his little brow as he thought about the way Halter had been staring skyward the previous day, obviously distracted. ((No, it's not possible. He can't have seen something that far away, it's not physically possible.)) he thought to himself a moment later.
18 wriggled down the tight stone cave and cursed the men above her again and again. She was getting scrapes on her scrapes trying to fit down this hole, but there was a Dragonball down there somewhere. They would have opened the cave up some, but were afraid of burying the ball and thus lengthening their search. Every minute counted.
"Are you SURE it's down here?!" she yelled back up.
"That's what the radar says. We're really sorry, 18!" Yamcha yelled back. "But you're the only one with shoulders narrow enough to fit down there!"
"I would have gone, but you said you'd do it," Krillin reminded her.
"Fine, fine, I know that! But why didn't anyone think to have Piccolo just stretch his arm down here to find it?" 18 answered as she got herself down a few more inches.
"Do you know how much energy that costs me, not to mention how much it hurts?" Piccolo said coldly.
"HURTS?! You wanna talk about _hurting_?!" 18 snapped back as she kept crawling down. Her mind was swirling. She hadn't known the Saiyans, any of them, all that well for very long. Krillin talked about Goku and Gohan enough that she felt like she knew them, Goten and Trunks were only children and she saw them as possible playmates for Marron but little more, and she had gotten to know Vegeta only on a surface level. Kari, well, she knew as much about Kari as any of them did. Kari was still something of an outsider, really, and 18 suddenly wondered if the Saiyan woman was lonely. The thought was pushed aside quickly. Shortly after marrying Krillin and learning, really learning, about the man she had once been programmed to kill, she had come to hate Dr. Gero even more, and curse her programming. She had been ordered to kill a good man, a family man, because that stupid old coot was angry at him. She held no desire to see Goku or his sons die, least of all in as painful and pathetic a way as this. But it was Krillin's fear and concern, more than anything, that made her help them hunt for the Dragonballs. She didn't want to see her husband have to grieve for the loss of so many friends, she knew it would hurt him greatly; and she didn't want to grieve for them either. Her heart wasn't built to take it. She wondered, briefly, if that was selfish. The light of the flashlight she held bounced off the rocks dully, until it hit something that flashed and almost blinded her.
"Ah hah!" she hissed and crawled up to the shiny, orange object. She took a good grip on the ball and jerked it out. "Got it!" she called up, and began crawling back out. Thanks to the tightness of the hole, she couldn't turn around, so she had to back up. Once her feet were visible, the guys reached out and helped her get out. She gave them her find and they added it to the collection. With the radar and their super speed, they had managed to get four balls already, but the other three still eluded them, and time was quickly running out. They wondered if the doctors were having any luck.
The four doctors that were working feverishly on the poison that had struck down the Saiyans had come up with various results. It wasn't all that complex a poison, they had realized; it was designed to burn out the internal organs by causing immense increases in the surrounding temperature, thus the pain and heat the Saiyans felt. They felt sure a cure was within their grasp, but they didn't know if they could make it in time. Mr. Vegeta had, at most, twelve hours left. His son had about twenty-four thanks to his human blood. Mr. Son and Ms. Furauu had another forty-eight hours by the most recent tests, and Mr. Son's two sons had another ninety-six hours at best. So little time! So very little time! None of them would say so, but they held little hope for saving the full bloods, and nearly none at all for Vegeta and his son. They whispered prayers to Kami that their skill could still win the day, but they all knew that Kami didn't answer all prayers with a "yes".
The radar beeped away, pointing to the next Dragonball, and the only sound to muffle it was the wind. None of the Z-Fighters felt like talking, and they all were left to their own thoughts. Somehow, none of them ever thought that the past could strike back like this. They all knew what the Saiyans had done, what Vegeta had done, but that was a long time ago and they were willing to let the past die and be buried. It had never occurred to them, for some reason, that not everyone would feel the same way. It came to them, belatedly, that they were able to let go of that past because they knew the surviving Saiyans, knew how they acted and felt, and knew they (with the exception of Vegeta) had never participated in the planetary piracy their race had done. But even Vegeta was making up for his past, and qualified as a good soul; the battle with Buu had proven that. He had changed greatly over time. They could understand that some might not believe that, but they couldn't fathom someone believing that Goku and his sons could do anything evil; and the memory of the assassins attacking Bulma to kill her and Vegeta's unborn child made their blood boil and their stomachs turn. How could anyone be so cold and cruel? They were acting as bad as the Saiyans they feared. ((At least they're locked up, safely away from Bulma.)) Krillin thought, and though he didn't know it, the others shared the thought. The radar began beeping louder and faster, declaring for all to hear that they were on top of another Dragonball.
Halter, Bosen, and Vac ran through the forest, their breathing coming heavily after running for almost three hours. None of them had enough ki to fly, and besides, flying would have guaranteed their re-capture. They considered it more and more fortunate that all three of their races could maintain high ground speed for long periods of time. Once they got to their ship, they would have a faster way of getting to the floating palace the pregnant wife of the Saiyan Prince had been taken to. None of them wasted air or energy trying to speak, they just ran on, back to their ship, led by their tracking device. They stopped briefly to eat and drink, and then continued on. They reached their ship late in the afternoon, and collected what they needed. Once they had the needed supplies in a bag, they slid three hover-bikes, silver, red, and green, out from the storage bay and pulled the keys from their pockets.
"Okay, are we ready?" Halter asked as they activated their hover- bikes. The three machines hummed to life as they lifted up a foot over the ground, and their buttons began to dimly glow. Halter, Vac, and Bosen mounted the sleek metal rides and gunned their engines.
"We have everything we'll need, we just need you to guide us now," Bosen answered from atop the silver bike.
"I can hardly believe it's almost over," Vac-Uum observed as he punched a few buttons on his red bike.
"But it is. Once we. . .handle the unborn child. . .the plague known as Saiyans will be wiped out forever," Halter said firmly, and his compatriots nodded. "For the Survival of All Life!" he yelled, and Bosen and Vac echoed the sentiment as they blasted into the air.
"For the Survival of All Life!"
Korin paced around his little building nervously. He hadn't heard anything from anyone since the previous day. He wondered how the Saiyans were doing, if the assassins had been found, if the senzu beans had done any good. "All of this worrying is going to turn my fur white," he muttered. He paused as he looked at his naturally snowy coat. "Or gray." Yajirobe was his usual helpful self, though he was actually quite worried too. They were snapped from their thoughts by the roar of engines. They ran to the edge of their sky-high home in time to see three hover bikes blaze past them to the lookout.
"What was that?!" Korin cried out in shock.
"Bad news, that's for sure!" Yajirobe answered. After several moments of hesitation, he cursed beneath his breath and went up to the Lookout himself. There were many things he wouldn't do, and one of them was leave a pregnant woman against unknown foes.
Mr. Popo was watering his flowers when he heard the approaching engines. He paused for only a second before running to warn Dende and Bulma. Except for Yajirobe, Bulma, and Chi-chi, none of their friends needed machines to get up to the Lookout anymore.
"Dende! Someone is coming!" he called as he ran into the building.
"Not a friend, I take it?" Dende answered, small pearls of sweat rolling down his green forehead. Bulma stood far back from them.
"I doubt it!" Mr. Popo shook his head. "Bulma, I suggest you find a room and lock yourself inside until we know," he turned to the blue-haired woman. She nodded, and moved down the hall as fast as her pregnant body could go. A sharp horn-blast blared from outside, and Dende and Mr. Popo moved over to the doorway. Dende stood as tall as he could make himself and made his eyes stern and serious.
"Who are you and what do you want here?" the young Namek demanded as he stared at the three aliens on hover bikes that were now parked on his lookout.
"Who we are is of no consequence to you, Namek. We want the wife of the Saiyan Prince," Bosen said evenly.
"She's not here," Mr. Popo answered calmly.
"Like Hell she's not. I saw the older Namek bring her here yesterday," Halter said. They stared at him for a moment, and Yajirobe suddenly arrived and stood to the side.
"Give her to us and we'll leave here peacefully. You people have nothing to do with this, and you can keep it that way," Vac-Uum said reasonably.
"We have no interest at all in you. We just want the woman," Halter added.
"How could you have seen Piccolo bring her here? This tower isn't visible from the ground unless you're directly underneath it on a cloudless day," Dende asked suspiciously.
"My kind have telescopic vision - we can see things hundreds of miles away quite clearly when we want to," Halter replied coolly. "Now, hand over the Saiyan Prince's wife!" his voice became strained with the effort to control his anger at the woman.
"You have got to be kidding," Yajirobe answered. "Come on, we all know you guys are basically wimps, or you wouldn't have snuck around and used something as cowardly as poison to kill the Saiyans." They glared at him in a way that froze his blood, and Vac-Uum dismounted his bike. Yajirobe arched an eyebrow and hoped the alien couldn't see the sweat on his cheeks. Vac walked up to the short, ugly human and scowled.
"We're no match for the Saiyans, we admit that. Humans, on the other hand-" he said, and then belted Yajirobe across the Lookout. Yajirobe got back up sputtering. "-are another matter," Vac finished. Yajirobe drew his sword and attacked him, but Vac simply sidestepped him quickly, and struck him across the back. Yajirobe cursed to himself again; this guy was making him look like a total fool! He did a fast flip and actually managed to cut Vac across the shoulder with his sword. Vac hissed as he grabbed at his shoulder, and then looked at the blood on his hands. He pressed his hand down again, and grimaced in great pain as he cauterized his wound. He then scowled at Yajirobe again, who grinned triumphantly for a moment until he saw that Vac had closed the wound. Vac grabbed Yajirobe by the front of his shirt and began concentrating heat into both of his hands. Yajirobe let out a cry of horror as his clothes began to burn. Vac then decked him hard and he crumpled to the ground. Mr. Popo, in a panic, threw the contents of his watering can onto the unconscious Yajirobe, and put out the fire.
"We're running a little low on patience, Namek. Just give us the woman!" Vac barked at Dende.
"Never!" Dende snapped. A soft sigh seemed to escape the threesome, and then Halter and Bosen dismounted their own bikes.
Bulma sat on the floor in the small room she had locked herself into with her ear pressed against the wall that faced the front of the overall building. She couldn't hear much, but what she could pick up sounded like a fight. She began trembling all over, and her mouth went dry as she listened to distant thuds and something breaking. What would she do if the assassins came looking for her? She was just pregnant enough to make all the fighting skills Vegeta had taught her worthless, and there was little in the entire Lookout, much less this one room, to use as a weapon. She clenched one hand into a fist as she pushed herself up onto her feet. A quick look around offered a few objects, such as chairs, a small statue, and a heavy-looking glass bottle full of water and capped that she might use as a blunt object weapon. She quickly decided that the chairs would be too unwieldy in her current condition, but the statue was just small enough, and the bottle could become a stabbing weapon. She started to go get them when there was a resounding crash somewhere outside, and then complete silence. Bulma gasped, and ran over to the table that held the bottle. She grabbed the bottle by its neck and ducked out of sight into a small closest on the left side of the room as footsteps approached. Her lungs couldn't seem to hold enough oxygen and she had to fight to keep her breathing quiet, and worse, the baby, affected by her emotions, began moving and kicking to display its own discomfort. Several long minutes passed, and she could hear doors being opened and slammed shut. Popo and Dende would never do that, which meant the assassins were there and looking for her. She winced as the baby's kicking became harder and somewhat painful. Her eyes flew open again as the doorknob began shaking. After a few moments, the metal knob began to glow white hot, and then it melted away and the door swung open.
"Is she in there?" Halter asked from across the hall.
"I don't see her. . .but I think I hear something," Vac answered as he stepped into the room. Bulma tightened her grip on her erstwhile weapon, and when Vac came up to the closet, she smashed the bottle down on his head. The glass shattered in a brilliant, sparkling explosion, the water flying everywhere. Vac screamed something in his native tongue that Bulma was willing to bet wasn't very polite as he fell to his knees holding his head. She ran past him as best she could, still holding the remaining third of the broken bottle in her hand. Bosen blocked the doorway, and Bulma drove the broken glass into his stomach. He gagged and doubled over, and she pushed past him as well. She had no time to worry about things as trivial as mercy, she only knew she had to protect her baby and get out of there. She hadn't expected Halter to hit her across the face. She hit the floor and gripped her bruising cheek as she curled into a ball around her belly. Vac and Bosen came over and glared at her.
"Damn, she's tough!" Bosen hissed as he pressed his hands to the gashes in his belly to keep his blood in.
"Oh, yeah, she's married to a Saiyan, all right. Bitch!" Vac snarled as he gripped his throbbing head. Halter put a hand on both of his comrades and healed the worst of their injuries. Bulma started to try and get away again, but Bosen and Vac grabbed both of her arms and hauled her outside, Halter walking ahead of them. Bulma looked to see Dende in a heap to one side, Mr. Popo lying by his flowers, and Yajirobe on the deck. Halter went to his bike and pulled out a needle and a small bottle of liquid. Bulma stared at the bottle and needle and began screaming and writhing.
"NO! NO! LET GO OF ME! NOOO!" she shrieked as Halter filled the needle. He gave the plunger a tiny push to get rid of any air that was left in it, and turned to face Bulma.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt you. It'll just kill the monster growing inside of you," Halter said quietly as he walked to her. None of them had noticed when the sky suddenly turned black and lightening began leaping to the ground during their fight with the human woman's last defenders.
While the battle at the Lookout had been going on, the Z-Fighters had found all of the Dragonballs and had summoned Shenlon. The massive dragon hovered in the air, his long, scaly body in loose coils across much of the immediate sky.
"What is your first wish?" the dragon asked.
"We wish for a cure to the poison that's killing the Saiyans!" Krillin said quickly, and Shenlon was quiet for only a second.
"Your wish has been granted," he said. "What is your second wish?"
"Where's the cure?!" Krillin demanded loudly. Nothing had appeared before them.
"It is at the hospital, with the Saiyans," the dragon answered.
"Hey, Krillin, why didn't you just wish for the Saiyans to be well?" Yamcha asked low by the shorter man's ear.
"Uh, well, for one thing, having a cure will protect them from this ever happening again. . .and I didn't think of that until you mentioned it," Krillin admitted in slight embarrassment. In the hospital, the doctors cheered at the discovery of a cure.
"How?!" one demanded.
"I don't know! But there it is!! We did it!!" a second answered, and they quickly started prepping needles of it. They had no time to spare. Back with the Z-Fighters, Shenlon was still awaiting the second wish. The Z-Fighters had fallen to minor talk amongst themselves.
"Well?" the dragon demanded.
"We could wish the Saiyans completely well. . ." Piccolo observed.
"I just wish I knew how Bulma was doing," Yamcha said off-handedly. However, he said it a bit too loudly.
"Your wish is granted," Shenlon answered, and the others turned on Yamcha, ready to smack him upside the head. The desire died quickly when they were presented with an image of the three assassins arriving at Kami's Lookout, then knocking Dende, Mr. Popo, and Yajirobe violently aside, and then going after Bulma. Around the time when Vac broke into the room where Bulma hid, they all took to the air, flying to Kami's Lookout at top speed.
Shenlon, forgotten, quietly returned to the Dragonballs, which promptly turned to stone and scattered across the globe once more.
The doctors burst into the room and without a word started administering the antidote to the Saiyans. Vegeta's heart monitor had slowed to such a crawl that Chi-chi and Videl were certain that he was going to die anytime now, but the doctors simply gave him a slightly larger dose and moved on. A few minutes later their faces began to smooth, and after another few minutes their eyes began to flutter open and they began moaning.
"Goku!" Chi-chi cried as she flung herself across him.
"Chi-chi. . .? Ohh, Chi-chi, I had this horrible dream. . ." Goku's voice was hoarse and weak, but sounded better than it had.
"Videl? Mom? Dad? Goten?" Gohan mumbled.
"Mom? Dad? Gohan?" Goten sighed quietly. Chi-chi turned to her sons for a moment to show she was still there and soothe them.
"Oh, man. . .that was something else. I still have lots to learn about Saiyans," Kari murmured with a tiny smile. She felt so much cooler inside now.
"Kaammi, I still feel shitty," Vegeta grumbled. "But better." He rubbed his head and tried to sit up.
"You shouldn't try to get up yet. It'll take a day or two for the poison to be completely cleansed from your system, but you're well on your way," Dr. Botic told them with a beaming smile. "As for the damage it did, well, we're still working on that." Chi-chi, Videl, Tien, and Chiao-Tzu all smiled and nodded in relief and joy. Vegeta suddenly jerked as he heard a telepathic scream from Bulma.
"No, no, no! Please don't!!" Bulma shrieked again, still fighting, as Halter knelt down by her and made ready to inject her abdomen with the Saiyan-killing poison.
"What about her?" Bosen abruptly asked as he squeezed Bulma's right arm painfully. "She gave shelter to that animal, and has been helping to spawn new ones!"
"Bosen's right. She and the other Earth-bitches should be punished too!" Vac agreed. Halter looked at them, and then studied Bulma for a second.
"She looks fragile enough, as did the other two. It shouldn't be difficult," he nodded.
"But we haven't done anything _wrong_!" Bulma pleaded, but the three aliens didn't listen. She realized, to her horror, that nothing could reach them - they were too completely controlled by fear and hate. She watched Halter aim for her stomach again and her fear exploded. "DON'T HURT MY BABY!!!" Bulma screamed at the top of her voice, and let off an explosion of ki that would have made any Saiyan proud. The entire Lookout was covered in white-blue light, but the main force of the blast was focused on Bosen, Vac, and Halter, who were all sent flying over the Lookout's edge, broken, bleeding, and screaming. Bulma gasped deeply and sagged forward onto her hands as she tried to figure out what happened. Dende, Mr. Popo, and Yajirobe got up and stared at her in shock. The assassins were gone. The hover bikes then beeped and flew off.
**************************************************************************** ** It's not over yet. . .Next time, the conclusion: Ch.6: Battle's End - A Happy Birth and a Sad Prediction.
E-mail me at NansJns@aol.com! I'd love to hear from you!
