hello all and sundry, new chapter, small wait (reason: maths test. Arg) Replies...
HI DAISY!! *waves* Glad you decided to join us, yes, I was reading what you thought I was *has terribly funny mental picture of 4 year old Trunks in a pretty dress looking up at an adult "I'm not pretty, I'm intelligent, and brave" *snort* *falls on floor in hysterics*
Anyway. If SMG makes an appearance I think...oh dear...*laugh/sob* I can't even think about that! AH!
Hey Alexis! I'm happy you're still here! Go me! I promise I won't abandon this fic either ^_^
*Guiltily watches Penchy-chan twitching* Heh, well, I HAD to end it there ^_^ It was...narratively satisfying...which is fancy talk to say I felt like being evil.
And we say Mi Dios in spanish at school. You're probaby right about 'la conozca' *glares at Conocer" What an awful verb. Anyway. He comprado un pavo real radiactivo. Nyah.
You reming me of Daisy when you said "Now I'm officially clueless." Hehe. Sena was saying what she thought she knew, people may or may not (or may) think things that are correct, does that help?
And hi Rosethorn who hasn't got up to ch 15 yet but hi anyway ^_^
Assena...gap is slowly being filled...^__^
Chapter 16: Doing and Brooding.
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Trunks slept for a long time after his escapade. After not sleeping for at least twenty four hours he had broken into his bedroom window -easier than the door, Trunks hardly though of the other reason he didn't want to use the proper entrance- and had time enough to bury himself in blankets before falling into a contented -and very warm- sleep. Under Parsnal's orders he was excused from the Second Night competitions, and he slept right through the celebrations to wake at dawn on the third tournament day. Blinking in the early sun Trunks sat up, shedding blankets and yawning, no longer tired but extremely hungry. "That's what you get for missing a day of meals." Trunks told himself, thinking it was probably what Bulma would say. He remembered something else his mother had said, "we're coming." Trunks grinned to picture Bulma -and Gohan- here.
There was a cold dinner at the table on the end of the bed which Trunks eyed hungrily then ate without caring that nothing was it's proper temperature. He wiped some gravy off his mouth with the back of his hand and burped, satisfied.
With a purpose, Trunks got dressed. Today he wanted to find the Council and get Sena's mother back. Then he wanted to find Sena and ask what the hell was going on. And...find Lushka and see if she was still thinking sending her those guards had been a stupid thing, because he wanted someone he could be himself around; Princing wasn't the easiest job. First, though, he had to find Parsnal, because he would know where everyone was.
Even if he wasn't to willing to participate. "As I said before, Prince Vegita, calling the Council together in the Tournament sennight is just too complicated, everyone is busy." Trunks had found Parsnal in the large training room, where Parsnal had been vigorously sparring with Kumar.
"This is important." Trunks said, crossing his arms and frowning. Kumar looked at Parsnal then Trunks, bowed and exited. Trunks was briefly grateful, then turned his attention back to Parsnal "I can call the whole tournament to a halt..." He threatened, hoping he could.
Parsnal almost glared at him, but stopped himself in time. He threw a few punches in the air. "I can arrange a meeting after the Third Night banquet with the Head," He said without emotion. Trunks smiled triumphantly, Parsnal looked down at him. "I heard there was another assassination attempt. Or to be more specific, just a murder of a couple of guards, although why he stopped at the guards is a mystery sweeping the Palace." Parsnal raised an eyebrow, "and I also heard one of the computer labs was broken into..." He lets the sentence hang in the air. Trunks kept his face carefully neutral.
"The whole Palace knows who it was, Prince." Parsnal said, amusement now touching his voice. "But with both tales the motive is, well, foggy. Care to enlighten us, on your escapade at least?"
Pause. "I called home." He said. He didn't see Parsnal's knuckles whiten.
"Why?"
"Because no one would let me." Trunks said, indignantly. "Because I needed to know how everyone was, because I haven't spoken to them for too long!"
"There's no need to get angry."
"Well if I'm angry it's your fault." Muttered Trunks, pointing his finger. "You started all this, kidnapping me, and I'll have you know, once Gohan gets here you'll be sorry you ever set foot on Earth." Trunks' eyes narrowed and his fists clenched. "I'm leaving the planet with them when they come. And I'm leaving here now." He turned quickly, footsteps echoing in the empty space of the gym, and pulled open the door. "I'll meet the Head in the throne room after the banquet." He snapped, slamming the door behind him.
Trunks didn't feel like finding Lushka anymore, he felt like sparring, and wished Gohan was here now. He stomped off down the hall and wondered if he could catch up with Kumar, who was a good sparring partner and wouldn't ask any questions.
Parsnal was speechless for moments after Trunks left, and his last order echoed round the gym. He shook his head and brushed some imaginary dust off his right forearm, then left the gym via the door that lead to a staircase, which in turn lead up to the higher levels of the Palace and the Head's public (well, the better portion of the public) chamber.
"Lord Radditz!" He called as his fist banged on the door, and kept banging until the door was opened. The scent of roasted meat and dark wine wafted out of the chamber as Radditz allowed him entry. "What is it?" He asked, annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of a late breakfast.
"What is it not?" Muttered Parsnal under his breath, pushing past Radditz into the room. Radditz shut the door and sat back down at his table. "Well go on, speak." He said, taking a bite out of a large meat chunk.
"It was the Prince who broke into the main office last night." Parsnal said, and Radditz nodded-go on. "He managed to call his Ea-arthian family, and says they're coming, soon."
Radditz looked up. "Coming where? Here?" He chewed on a large radish, thoughtfully. "Ea-arthian's don't pose us a threat." He dismissed it.
"Maybe not, but our Prince would be more willing to go with them, than stay here. And there was another significant power on the planet, one that could be a threat." Parsnal remembered from his short stay on Earth. "Send out scouts, my lord, find the aliens before they arrive."
"Yeees." Radditz said. "Destroy them before they have a chance to land." He grinned. "Big guns."
"You forget about our weapon supply." Parsnal said. "We barely have the power to shoot anyone from the sky, you'll need to cultivate something with the Arkosians, promise them something in return for destroying the ship."
"I'll work on that."
"Besides..." Said Parsnal, as another thought came into his head. "If the blasts come from the Palace, the Prince is sure to believe it was under your orders his friends were killed, let the Arkosians have them, and let the Prince believe it was dirty Rebel work that destroyed them. Nurture in him a hatred for the Rebel bastards that will have him exactly where we need him."
"I do like the way you think." Radditz commented. "I'll let them have the blue planet, too, that should buy us enough favour for the destruction of one ship, don't you think?"
Parsnal nodded "But it's not even been cleared, we never had word back from the kid who was sent-" Parsnal stopped, just in case the subject was getting too close to that dangerous topic of the Head's father, which nobody was supposed to know about but everyone did. That his father was the Rat was the worst kept secret on the planet, but Radditz was never rivalled in his position of Head, his hate for the Rebel's was strong. And that was what the Council needed.
"So we clear it." Radditz said, his voice carefully level. "I'll see to that, too, after I speak with the Arkosains. Yes, I'm glad I thought of that. What else did you want?"
"Mm, also the Prince wants a meeting with you after the banquet, he's got his own idea's on ruling, so you'll need to set him straight." Parsnal said, beginning to pace across the floor of the room.
"Do you think I need you to tell me how to do my job?" Radditz asked, almost dangerously. "I'll deal with him when he comes...What kind of ideas?"
"Oh, about not getting married, I'm assuming." Parsnal said casually, watching Radditz face.
He tensed, and swallowed a piece of meat "I thought Maroda had that all under control." Radditz growled at his Second in Command.. "You said there wouldn't be a problem."
"Hm." Said Parsnal, eyeing up a drumstick of some large fowl, and deciding against it. "Have you got anywhere on the murder of the guards? Or the Rat? I understand you sent out trackers."
Radditz sat back in the large, high backed chair and put his feet on the table. "Nothing with the guards, no one quite understands why guards were killed but no attempt was made for the Prince's life. What did the writing say this time?"
" 'Big mistake.' " Said Parsnal. Radditz though about it for a very short time then shrugged.
"Well it's no big deal. The Rat though..." His face took on a far more dangerous look. "Pah, he's close, he's so close I can smell the bastard. No word back yet from any trackers, but they're my six best and they were only sent out two days ago. They'll find something, and when we get our report back, " Radditz drew back his lips in a smile that showed all of his teeth. "We'll have him like a rat in a dogs mouth, and snap his spine in two."
"Bravo." Parsnal said, not sarcastically enough for Radditz to notice, and clapped his hands together twice.
"Now let me finish my breakfast, and work out this gun deal." Radditz said. "Go find Maroda and get her to do something about this 'not wanting to marry' problem." Radditz dropped his feet back to the floor and picked up a drumstick. Parsnal took his leave and left.
Lushka brooded. She was sitting on her bed with her arms round her knees and frowning at the opposite wall, which was a good distance away from the raised bed; Palace bedchambers were large and well decorated. She stared at a blank space and thought about how it was all going wrong, her tail twitching furiously.
For as long as she could remember her mother had spoken of how she'd one day be a Princess, once Prince Vegita was found and Maroda could marry him, and Lushka had liked the dreams she'd had of those coming days. Just a simple, luxurious life of parties and friends and boys fawning all over her as Maroda said they would, so long as her mother was Queen. But no, then Trunks showed up, and shattered her mother's seemingly perfect plans until she had turned her head and looked down at her daughter, smiling as the plan for Queenship rearranged itself in her head.
And even then Lushka hadn't had a problem. If she was Queen she could show that arrogant Parsnal that she wasn't just a kid to be ignored, she could tell everyone what to do and she wouldn't even have to think about it, because, Maroda had promised, she would do the thinking and the politics for her, Lushka would handle the public affairs while Maroda got on with ruling. All she had to do was marry the Prince, and how hard could that be? Because with one so young he'd be taking all instructions from the Council, and the two of them would be just a Public couple. More parties and more friends and less responsibility, thought Lushka. Besides, he was really cute.
But then someone had to show up and try to kill him. Twice! Lushka pulled at her hair in frustration. And then that stupid note, which led to him actually sending half his guards away. Sometimes boys were so stupid.
He cared though, which was more than Lushka had expected, and it made her smile so long as she didn't think of the danger it had put him in.
She'd been right to warn him with the death of his guards. She had no doubts about that. Just like her mother had been right to see that Marunkre woman imprisoned, or executed, of whatever they did to those accused of attempted poison. Where had she got the krular from? Lushka wondered, then pulled her hair harder. That didn't matter, that had nothing to do with the problem, the big complication.
He was planning to leave, and she'd sworn not to tell, and...and she didn't know what she thought about it. If he left, life would go back to the way it was, but Maroda would blame everything on her, and life would be miserable, so it wouldn't be like it was at all.
He couldn't leave, he simply couldn't. She'd have to persuade him to stay.
There was a loud noise as another door in the apartment was banged on and opened. Lushka heard her mother's voice, then Parsnal's. She dropped of her bed and went to her door to listen.
Half a city away, Sena was also brooding. She was sitting in the little room she used to sleep in before she had moved into the Palace, more than six years ago, and she was stretching. Long ago she had discovered that she thought better when she had something else to do, so at this moment she sat with her legs in the splits position, her elbows on the floor and her head in her hands, occasionally leaning from left to right to stretch the muscles in her sides and shoulders. She was- and had been, ever since she'd found out- thinking about what Bardock had told her about her father, her blood father anyway; no other father would replace Bardock in her heart, although she wouldn't tell him that; she was too proud to share deep feelings; or too young; or perhaps just too much a Princess.
'I'm not a Princess.' She told herself angrily, stretching herself until her muscles protested against the strain. 'Blue blooded, pure blooded. If the Palace knew, you could be anything you wanted to be, so much power...' A small part of her mind said. Sena shook her head with all the force she could muster and shoved the thought out of her head completely. 'Strapped to a chair giving orders all day. Yes. What fun.' She thought despairingly, hating the former Prince Vegita for being her father, hating her mother for not escaping sooner, and hating herself for even thinking about being the Princess.
She straightened her back, shook out her shoulders and began to stretch backwards until her shoulder length hair brushed the ground, then further till her head rested on it and she could look up at the ceiling. 'So the light haired Prince is my brother,' she thought, 'If there was proof, there's a great opportunity for emotional blackmail with that fact. Considering his Ea-arthian, sentimental side.' She stretched her arms above her head. 'And when did I start thinking like Toma?' She wondered. Toma was into blackmail, it would be like him to bring it up at the gathering that was still going on in the meeting room, but he wouldn't, she knew that too. They were all too ingrossed in the plans for the Seventh Night, which Sena had half a mind to go and listen -she hadn't known anything was planned until Pasha had bought her home- but she'd find out from someone -Pasha, probably- later.
'There's one good thing about not being related to Bardock.' Sena thought grimly. 'It mean's I'm not kin to that Council-loving bastard offspring of his...'
The voices of Maroda and Parsnal were somewhat muffled by the door between them and Lushka's ear, but she could make out words easily enough.
"Lord Radditz was wondering what happened to the Prince's marriage." That was Parsnal, and he was tempting a slap to the face with that tone of voice.
"Nothing happened to it." Maroda said. "Everything's going according to plan."
'No it's not.' Thought Lushka. Parsnal continued, "not according to the Prince, he refuses."
"You seriously think the will of a ten-year-old Prince can contend with mine, there are none who can." Maroda said icily. Lushka smiled wryly, wasn't that the truth. Parsnal didn't say anything for a while, and Lushka started to get bored.
"So what are you planning to do?" Parsnal's voice, though further away, the two must have entered the sitting room. "Lord Radditz is meeting with the Prince to discuss the wedding after the banquet. Rather, the abortion of the wedding."
There was a small crash, possibly make by an angry kick. "He's supposed to have fallen for her." Maroda muttered. "She must be doing something wrong." Lushka frowned, almost she felt the same way. With the sound of footsteps coming closer to her door, Lushka pulled back and dived back onto the high bed, pretending to still be asleep.
Gohan was struggling to breath. It wasn't an involuntary reaction anymore, he had to think about each breath, and it was always easier letting the breath out than to painfully draw it back in. Gohan wasn't sure if his eyes were open or not. He blinked, and found that they were, but he'd never had so much trouble working out what objects in front of his face were, everything was so blurred. For a long while, he just concentrated on breathing until his lungs remembered how, then he blinked again and tried to organise his eyes. Even more slowly, his vision cleared, and he could see a few feet in front of his eyes, but his head hurt if he tried to focus on anything, so he closed them again.
His back hurt the worst of anything, but his right leg had a long gash down it, and his shoulder seemed on fire. He'd felt 18's blast in all it's intensity, and then his own blast crash down on him. The Genkidama wasn't supposed to hurt it's maker, but the small amount of energy it had absorbed from the androids had been it's undoing. Gohan was sure he wouldn't hurt so badly just from 18's attack. Hopefully though, it had also been the undoing of the androids. There may have just been enough good, pure energy in it to destroy them, but Gohan felt in his bruised and broken bones the evil in the ball may have meant the destruction of him, too.
There was a slow coldness creeping up his legs, and up his arms from his fingertips. The fiery pain in his right leg was quenched with icy numbness, it took his back as he lay there, powerless, drained off all strength.
It had been a mission just to breath, but the task was all but impossible when he couldn't feel his chest.
Gohan knew that if he wanted to live, he had to move, and had to move quickly. But the muscles in his arms wouldn't oblige him, his body was beyond his control.
...Maybe a fighter's life was a fair price to pay for Earth's freedom. Gohan closed his eyes and sunk into numb darkness.
But it wasn't utterly dark, on the edge of his vision danced a small sliver light, stretching out into the darkness like a thread joining him to something unseen. The thread quivered, and Gohan heard a voice echo down the...bond?
"You can't leave."
Gohan stirred. "I'm more dead than alive," he whispered, knowing it to be true. "Why can't I rest?"
"Because you haven't found me yet..." Came the distant reply.
A long time later, after struggling back to life for hours or days, Gohan opened his eyes, and found they would both focus on the same thing without any pain in his head. That thing was his mother, who flung her arms around his neck in relief. "Oh Gohan!" Chichi cried. "Oh my son, you're alive!"
"I guess." Said Gohan, noticing the pain in his back had faded into a dull ache, and his leg was bound in bandages. There was white all around him, Gohan concluded he was in hospital. He pushed himself up on his elbows, and found he could sit up. "The androids?" He asked anxiously. "What happened to them?"
"Oh them. They're gone. What matters is you're alive." Chichi hugged him again. Gohan could scarcely believe it. Gone. Gone...Like he had been gone, but he had been called back...Gohan frowned thoughtfully and tried to remember the voice that had done the calling, but couldn't place it.
"You're a hero, Gohan." Bulma said, standing up from behind Chichi. "You're just like your father." She still looked anxious, and Gohan couldn't tell why.
"What's wrong, Bulma?" He asked, as he accepted the cup of water Chichi offered and drank it. No, it wasn't water, he realised, it was energy drink, and was very much welcomed.
Bulma smiled wryly. "It's the ship, it's ready to go."
"And as soon as you get your strength back-" Chichi began.
"Whihc won't be long. Here, Gohan." Bulma held out her hand, settled in the palm was a senzu bean.
"No." Insisted Gohan, shaking his head. "I know how many of them there are left, don't waste one on me, save it." Bulma looked down at her hand, and Chichi frowned. "I can get my strength back on-board, we should leave as soon as possible." Gohan said.
Bulma was visibly relived, waiting for Gohan to recover here...it would take too much time. Time she didn't want to spend waiting around. "Chichi wouldn't leave without you, and wouldn't let me leave without her." She said, as if she had to explain, or perhaps was just excusing herself for waiting. "Everything is now ready but you. I've packed everything you might need."
Chichi looked fierce. "He's not well enough."
"Mother, don't argue. For once in your life, please don't argue." Gohan said, slowly working his way to the edge of the bed.
"Careful." Chichi cautioned. "They said you wouldn't be walking for weeks. You were asleep four days as it is."
"I'm half saiyan." Gohan said with dignity. "I can walk." He stood up and took a few wary steps, but his legs were still wobbly and he stumbled. Chichi put her arm round his waist. His energy was still very drained. "You should probably sleep another four days." Chichi said. "But you are Goku's son..."
"I am." Said Gohan. "Come on, let's go into space."
Bulma's face brightened. "I'll sort out the doctors." She said, racing into the hall and Kami help anyone who stood in her way.
They left Earth later that day, in the evening as the blue sky began to darken. Gohan slept through takeoff, which just shows how much energy he had used; and Bulma couldn't sleep at all, and for the first twenty hours of the journey she was racing round the ship checking everything, desperate for time to go faster, until Chichi ordered her to go to bed on pain of death. Bulma lay there lying at the ceiling of the ship and listening to her two companions breath in the soft rhythm of sleep.
"We're coming Trunks." She whispered in the dark.