Well, I'm sure that you guys are soooooooo happy to see that this is updated, right! I know I would be if I were in your shoes. But it seems like I wanted a real vacation from everything and barely worked on this the whole summer, so to everyone who reads this, I'm sorry. But yeah, waking up at 2:30 pm and going to bed at 4:00 am is fun! ^_^ Enjoy!
~Lady Branwen
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Disclaimer: I'm only a fanfic writer, if I owned DBZ, I wouldn't be writing this stuff, right?
Girl of My Dreams
Chapter 23
Pan listened listlessly as the police continued to talk Charles out of the situation. Her hope rested on them of course, but she found herself thinking that Trunks could do a better job of helping her. Hadn't he always been there? Hadn't he been worried about her well being? What else had made him go about looking for her when he first started having his dreams? Curiosity, yes, but he had a good heart and Pan knew that; she had sensed that a long time ago. He was helpful to anyone who deserved help and Kami knows she needed- still needs his help. If Trunks couldn't help her, then she couldn't trust anyone else to do so.
Her thoughts wandered to her father and mother and baby brother. Where were they? Why wasn't her father here? Had she scared him off when she told him that she didn't want him around her after all that had happened? She seriously doubted it. After all of that time, after her screaming fits, he would always tell her that he understood that she had been raped and did not want anyone around, but he would be damned if anyone laid a finger on her again. He loved her then and he must love her now. Where was he at this very moment?
She was thankful, though, that her brother hadn't ever known the life that she had faced. It was terrible remembering her own childhood. Imagine having barely any good memories to turn to because they were so rare in her life. Most of them had some tinge of hate and cruelty to them. She never wanted to remember things. She knew that it would be worse if she knew that her brother had suffered the same fate as she had. Pan wanted to be able to know that her little brother had led a good life on his short time on Earth. He had few bad memories, if any. Tears slid silently down her face.
Trunks looked pained when he saw the tears. He knew her thoughts and communicated to her: "Pan, it'll be okay. I'll get you out of here. Kami! I wish these stupid policemen weren't here. They will only get in my way. I haven't thought of any way to help you yet without making myself seem supernatural or something." He smirked slightly, trying to make a small joke to keep her spirits up. "I wouldn't want them to burn me at a stake."
For Trunks' sake, she smiled. He seemed to realize this and ducked his head down slightly in thought.
"Let her go!" A woman officer called out to Charles. "We can work this all out, you don't have to do this."
"Oh no," Charles answered. "you're not fooling me, lady. Do you actually want me to believe that I'll get away with this? I'm obviously not going to win the case, so why should I bother listening to you? I'm not going to get out of going to jail. I don't care anymore! She's mine! Not that bitch's daughter."
Pan's eyebrows drew together and lips came down in a frown at hearing her mom called that name. "My mom's not a bitch. She's a great lady. I know she won't mistreat me," she thought furiously.
"Mr. Miller," Trunks broke in. "Maybe we can't fool you, but maybe we can reason with you. Do you want what's best for Pan? Or are you willing to ruin her life? If you really care about her like you claimed throughout the entire trial, then you would do the right thing and let her go."
"Oh please. Don't give me that bullshit. You know I'm a selfish bastard," he sneered. "That is what you think, isn't it?"
Trunks' face was unreadable. "Well, if that is what you want to think of yourself, Mr. Miller, I can't stop you, but it would be the best for everyone here if you just let her go. If you let her go of your own accord, if police do not have to take her from you by force, it will look better. It would look like you actually have some sort of conscience and can be redeemed. Maybe then you will be put in prison for maybe twenty years instead a life sentence in prison."
Charles only smirked.
Pan struggled uselessly. If reason wasn't going to talk Charles out of all this, then probably noting will. He thought of himself as a great intellectual, not some evil monster that needed to be taken down. His grip tightened around her and Pan began to feel enclosed, even claustrophobic. She smelled his sweat and his general scent and memories flooded back of other times when she had had close enough contact with him to smell him. Pan struggled more fiercely.
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Gohan was still sitting down in the house. His hands were gripping his hair tightly and his eyes were glued to the TV, watching every move that was made. Goku was now sitting to his left on the couch, Videl to his right. Goten and Chi Chi sat in separate chairs on either side of him, their eyes also plastered to the screen and the events unfolding before them.
"How could this have happened?" He questioned. "Why did I let it happen?"
"You didn't," Videl answered through their bond. "It was my fault right from the start. I know it, and while I hate to accept that truth, I do. Gohan, you couldn't have prevented all this. You certainly couldn't have when she was born, I wouldn't have let you. You couldn't have stopped it now anyway. Maybe if we weren't so noticeable, I mean, if I weren't Hercule's daughter, then maybe we would have had some chance to do something. As everything stands though, we are way too far into the spotlight. Everything we do is on camera. Trunks is keeping his cool out there. He isn't rushing headlong into a fight. You would. I understand that you love Pan, but you wouldn't be able to help her at this very second."
"Videl, you've seen me move from one point to another without you being able to see me. I can move quicker than any human can see. I can appear in front of him, take Pan and be out of there before anyone knows what happened."
Videl shook her head. "That's exactly what I mean, Gohan. That's not what we want to happen."
"How do you know that's not what 'we' want to happen?" Gohan said out loud, rising up out of his seat angrily and staring down at her contemptuously. "I want to see her safe, Videl. I want her out of there. Why isn't Trunks doing something?"
"He is Gohan," Goten said. He too stood up. "Can't you hear him? He's trying to reason with him."
"Yeah, sure, that'll work. Goten, I know he's your best friend, but Pan is your niece. Look at the fucking situation, Goten! Think about it! Charles is planning on hurting Pan!"
"Trunks isn't going to let that happen. He loves Pan. He's done nothing but try to help her all this time. I seriously doubt that he's going to let anything bad happen to her. He can move almost as fast as you can. Humans wouldn't be able to see him either. So if he absolutely has to, then he will wrench her from Charles' grasp… But I want you to think about it, Gohan. Do you think that that will help Pan? Being handled so roughly? Don't you think that maybe it would remind her of everything else he has done to her? If any of us do that, then we'll lose her trust. That's the last thing you want."
Gohan sighed and looked helplessly at the TV screen. "I want to help my daughter," he murmured.
Videl stood up and hugged him close to her, telling him everything would be all right.
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"There has to be something I can do. She trusts me. I'm the only one she trusts, so I have to make whatever I do count. If only I could think of something!"
Trunks wracked his brain trying to create a plan that would satisfy all the factors involved in the situation: the press and also the world shouldn't see his powers because it would bring too much attention to him and his family, he couldn't do anything that would unduly frighten Pan thus making her afraid of him, and he couldn't kill Charles because then he would be sent to jail. This left him to doing something a regular human would do. He would have to use his brain instead of his strength.
"I have all the brain power I need, I'm my mom's son for Kami's sake…but I'm also my father's son…I guess that's why I want to use my muscles instead of logic. I have to do this for Pan, she means everything to Gohan and Videl…to me."
Trunks became uneasy as he fought his emotions to tear Charles limb from limb. That would most definitely scare Pan, wouldn't it? If she saw the kind of hate and terrible strength that he was capable of, she would become uneasy around him at the very least. She had been beaten down for too long to just wave something like that away.
"Charles," he called out, "wouldn't you rather just let things be? You're not going to accomplish anything by doing this."
Charles snorted. "So what?"
"So…maybe you should think of Pan? Letting her go is your best option. You'd be showing remorse!"
"You've said that already!"
"I know, but think about it… You could just stay in jail for a long time. You wouldn't die…and maybe if you show good behavior, they will let you out sooner than you're supposed to be let out."
"Yeah, but why go to jail at all," Charles argued as if what he was saying was the only right answer. "Why should I have to rot away in a stupid cell when I could just be dead? Why should I lose MY daughter to someone else? Why not just take her for myself?"
"She's not really yours to begin with, Mr. Miller." Trunks was beginning to get frustrated. He really wished that Charles would just shoot himself and leave Pan alone.
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Pan felt Charles' grip loosen slightly. Her brows furrowed. "He's not giving in is he? It's not like him… Maybe he's get tired or something."
Pan continued to this on this as Trunks talked to Charles.
"Should I try to run away? If I just lowered myself really quick from underneath his arms, then I can get away. Of course, he'll probably notice while I'm doing dropping and even if I initially get out from his grasp, I won't get very far. He'll be sure to reach out and grab me. If that happens, then he's not going to make the mistake to let his grip loosen again…or he might just kill me and everything that Trunks is trying to do to help me would be for nothing. Would I actually be hurting the situation if I tried to get away?" She sighed inwardly. "But this might be the only chance I have to escape? What if Trunks says something to aggravate Charles or if one of the policeman start shooting or come too close? Then Charles will kill me for sure!"
Pan faced a difficult decision. Both had their consequences and both, if they worked the way they were supposed to, would allow her to be free. She could wait for Trunks and the police to sort things out on their own, without Pan doing anything, or she could make a run for it.
Her pulse quickened as she made her decision. She looked at Trunks, trying to communicate with him, but something stood in her way. Either he was concentrating too hard on trying to help her, or she was just too nervous to make any kind of connection, but Pan found that she couldn't reach him. Neither their bond nor her own powers were helping at all. So, Pan tried to look at Trunks in a meaningful way to let him know that she was about to do something very brave but very stupid, in her opinion. Nothing worked though, Trunks was just concentrating too much on sweet-talking Charles into letting her go.
Pan made sure that Charles wasn't paying too much attention to her, at least not enough to be prepared for her escape. She kept the same amount of tension that she already had; if she became tenser or more relaxed, that would bring too much attention to herself. Again Pan tried to make some sort of contact with Trunks, but still did not manage to attract his attention.
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"Gohan, everything is going to be okay. Just calm yourself. You're not helping anyone by doing this."
Videl was sitting beside Gohan on the couch, trying her best to comfort her worried mate.
"I can't believe any of this happened," he said, his voice muffled due to the fact that he was covering his face with his hands.
Videl patted his back consolingly and rested her head on his shoulder.
Suddenly the quiet of the room was disturbed by a shriek heard from Chi Chi. She had been sitting quietly watching the news, but now Chi Chi was standing up with her hands held to her mouth in shock. Everyone in the room was looking at her in wonder. Why had she screamed? Then it dawned on them that she was looking unwaveringly at the television and slowly their eyes looked from her to the television screen.
The cameraman was making the camera shake around making it difficult to see what was going on, but the Son family knew what was happening. They saw a familiar head of straight black hair running away from the cameraman, but he or she was close behind. Apparently, Pan had broken free of him, but Charles was unwilling to give up on capturing her for he was following her. Several policemen were in pursuit of them, the cameraman close behind.
"Stay back," one officer called back to the cameraman.
He or she stood there for a second as two more cops ran past.
"No! Keep following!" Videl yelled at the TV.
It was as if the cameraman had heard her because they started running again. Pan came into view again, yards ahead with Charles nearly upon her. They saw Trunks run past the cameraman, just slightly above a regular human's running speed, quickly catching up to Charles and Pan.
"Run, Pan, run!" Videl whispered to the TV. Gohan stood resolutely, confident that HIS daughter would outrun a mere human. How could she not? And even if she couldn't, Trunks was there… But there was still the paternal side of him that couldn't help but worry about his only daughter.
Pan was still running as fast as she could. Suddenly, her form disappeared from the screen as she turned a corner and Charles and Trunks disappeared after her.
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All right, so that's the end of this chapter. The next chapter you see will be the last chapter. :'( There isn't any sort of a guarantee when I will get it out, but it's planned out, so hopefully my laziness won't affect it too much…hehehe. See ya!
~Lady Branwen
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