My Last Breath
Chapter Six: Can You Feel Me in Your Arms?
~*~
Blood, she could taste it, her mouth was bleeding. She tried to open her eyes. She couldn't, they were covered with a cloth. She opened her mouth slightly, and felt herself breathing a bit easier. She moved her fingers around. She was on something smooth and cold, she guessed it was metal. 'Dammit, that was so careless of me.' She thought to herself, she shook the cloth off her eyes opening them. It was dark. She could see in the far end of the room, a man was sitting in front of a computer, typing away quickly. It wasn't the man from before. He was different.
He was older. That was what stood out most to her. He was older, and was wearing a lab coat. But then again, any man can change his clothes. He also had long white hair. That was another thing she noticed right away. His head was shining. Reflecting the light from his desk lamp. He had a strange dome atop his head.
She swallowed some blood, and began to gag. The man turned around to her.
"So you've woken. wonderful."
She continued to cough and gag. She knew by the sound of this man's voice she was in danger. She had to think fast and get out of there.
He walked up to her, and tightened the bounds on her hands. "You know. a person can only swallow so much blood before they make themselves sick."
That was right, if she weren't in such a panicked she would try to remember. 'I have to stop the bleeding in my mouth, or I'll throw up and the chip will belong to them.'
"You're mouth has been bleeding for an hour now. Your wisdom teeth needed to be pulled out." He smirked slightly, and pulled up a metal pair of tweezers. "There's still one more that needs to go.."
ChibiUsa whimpered slightly, she had always been afraid of getting teeth pulled, now was no different. She clamped her mouth shut tightly. The man moved her lips around with his finger, "Looks as if these teeth are in the way. Why don't we pull them out as well." He stuck a piece of rubber in both sides of her mouth, to keep her lips out of the way. He pulled her teeth apart. She bit him. He yelled angrily. His finger, through his now ripped glove, began to bleed. "Curse you, you dirty-"
"Gero, we were followed." Came the voice from in the room, up a flight of steps.
"You careless fools!" Gero shouted, he threw the equipment down and ran up the stairs.
~*~
"Gohan, they know we're here. The cloaking device just stopped working. They must have a code to stop it." the young girl shouted to Gohan as she typed quickly on the computer. "I see Usa's signal. It's dying. It was set off a long time ago. Probably when she was still in the cave."
Gohan nodded. "Damn Usa's always pulling on her ear. She should know better by now. Thank god though, otherwise we'd never find her."
The girl nodded. "Gohan, we'll be over them in a second."
Gohan nodded and began to lower the helicopter. "Ok, I'm gonna let you down on the roof. I'll meet up with you in the basement that's where Usa's signal is coming from.
"Right." The girl waited until they were over the building, then she jumped out, and she pulled the string on her parachute a minute later, and landed.
~*~
She squeezed her fingers tightly together, sticking the thumb to the palm of her hand, and pulled. A moment later, her left wrist was out. She grabbed the tweezers, and picked the lock on the other, she was out, She moved her hands to her ears, and her earrings were gone. 'Dammit, their never gonna find me now.'
The room was quiet; she finished freeing herself, then stood shakily. She grabbed a cotton ball from a jar in the corner, smelling it first. It wasn't an alcohol swab. She stuck it in her mouth, and grabbed another and stuck it on the other side. She was in so much pain, she couldn't believe she slept through it. She quietly walked around, towards the computer.
"Mip, Mip, Mip." Came a soft noise from on the desk, she slowly sat in the chair and saw it was her earrings. The covering was off, and it was just the tracking device.
"They know I'm here." She smiled to herself. She heard a clatter in the back of the room. She looked around and saw a small surgery knife on the counter. She grabbed it. If the person had a gun, she was just about helpless. But if they were only ready for hand to hand combat, she could stab them in the neck, then between the ribs, or cut the muscles in the back of the leg. many possibilities. She gripped it tightly.
"Dammit." She heard a voice curse.
'Gohan?' she eased her way over, watching and listening carefully. She moved behind a shelf. "Gohan?" she called out.
"ChibiUsa?" Gohan came into view. "Kami-sama, I thought they were hurting you! Raping you, I donno, something."
ChibiUsa shook her head, "They pulled out three of my wisdom teeth. But was asleep." She said, the cotton muffled her voice.
"Hotaru is coming to help as well. Do you have the chip?"
ChibiUsa blushed slightly, "We'll deal with that later. Let's find Firefly and get the hell out of here."
There was a clatter and the door above the staircase flew open. A small woman held a gun out in front of her, "Usa?"
"Firefly?" Gohan shouted. "I've got her." The girl jumped down the staircase.
"You got her? Then let's get out of here. unless. Do they have the chip?"
Firefly, Hotaru, was a completely separate person than the person before. She was strong, powerful, and forceful. There was no way she could be broken. She wasn't nearly as pale as she was before, though she was still pale. And her eyes, her eyes held a strong glint.
Gohan smiled at the girl. "Usa says she's got it."
"Let's get out of here then."
"Blue Star, we've got Pink Raven and the chip. We're going to come in now."
Gohan helped ChibiUsa into the back door. "We walk down this hall, and we'll be in the parking lot of an abandoned shore. The helicopter is there with Yamcha on guard. This building is located in an old town; not many people live here any more. All of them live on the other side of town as well."
~*~
Goten walked into the Hospital Wing of CC. "ChibiUsa?" The nurse pointed down the hall to a room. He nodded and walked towards it. He opened the door. Inside sat a man, his forehead resting on his hands, his elbows resting on the foot of the bed where ChibiUsa slept. The man looked up. "You're Goten, right?"
Goten nodded, nervously. "I'm Son Goten, are you Usa's father?"
The man nodded. "You want to watch her, I need to call her mom real quick." Goten nodded and he got up and left.
"Hey, Usa, I just want to say, I'm sorry. I was too scared to shoot." He smiled to himself. "You're probably thankful for that. But I could have saved you a bit of pain." He sighed, and became content with watching her.
~*~
"Usa," he called out as he ran through the halls of the building. Shooting various people as he ran by. "Usa! Dammit," he muttered, he through open a door, a bullet was fired just past his head. He ducked, "Usa." he spotted her in the room, her eyes were covered with a black cloth.
"Helios! Help me!" she cried out. A man in the room punched her. Her head drooped to her chest. Her shirt was ripped open. Her skirt was torn, but still on.
Helios shot the gun at the man that hit her. "You'll all pay for this!" he shouted. He fired a few more times, shooting the other men in the room, and killing them. He ran into the room and untied her eyes. He kissed her as he untied her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm-I'll be fine." She kissed him again. "Oh god, Helios." After he finished untying her, they embraced tightly. She kissed him, crying.
"Usa, we've got to get out of here." He said, putting his forehead to hers and holding her face. She nodded, sniffling. He kissed her again, grabbed her face away from him and pulled her hand into his, dragging her behind him down the hall. He grabbed a gun from a downed man and gave it to her. "Meet me at the break point." He kissed her once more then ran down the hall to the left. She nodded and ran down the hall to the right.
'Focus,' he shouted mentally to himself. 'Usa will be fine. She can take care of herself..' Another part of him told him he was wrong, that's what got her into trouble in the first place. He thought she could take care of herself. He shot a man as he walked into a room. It was in here, the paper they were looking for. He began shooting random jars around the room. Finally he hit it; the paper fell to the ground. He grabbed it. "Latin, I should have guessed." He shoved it into his pocket and ran out of the room, to the break point.
When he got there, Usa wasn't waiting for him. He waited 5 more minutes then took off down the hall she was in. He stopped in a corner to reload the gun. "There's the gold." A voice came from down the hall, thick with a European accent.
A scream echoed into the air, followed by a bullet being fired at Helios. He saw ChibiUsa kicking a man as he held her in a bar choke. Years of training couldn't prepare her for the first time she was caught. Years of training couldn't take the weights that had been put on her shoulders away. Years of training couldn't prepare her for what they almost did to her. And years after, she still wouldn't understand.
"Helios!"
His vision blurred as the bullet flew into his flesh, as blood flew into the air, as ChibiUsa bit the man and ran towards him, leaving her ripped shirt behind. She kissed him, muttering things to herself. "You don't understand." he murmured softly as she held him in her arms
"What?" She begged him through sniffles.
".life." She grabbed his gun and began to shoot the men, using her own and his.
"Bulma, Bulma I need help. Helios is down. BULMA! SEND HELP!" she shouted. "I need help." she cried into his chest. "HELP ME!"
~*~
"Beep, beep, beep, beep." the pattern was constant, a beep every second, all the beeps were the same, never one short, never one long. Always the same pattern.
"You'll never understand." came her voice, which seemed detached from her body. ".Life."
Goten and Mamoru both looked up. Goten moved closer to her. "What? Usa?"
Her eyes slowly opened. "Helios." she muttered.
"No, no, Usa, it's me, Goten. your father's here too."
"Goten." she shook her head slightly. "That's what I said. Goten."
"No you said.." Goten looked over at her father. "Yes, you said Goten." He took a step back.
"Chibi." her father muttered softly leaning close to her. "It's not nearly as bad as last time." He smoothed her bangs back with his hand. "It's not nearly as bad."
A few moments later the nurse walked in. She had long blue hair, blue eyes, and wore an orange headband around her forehead. "Hello, Mamoru, ChibiUsa." she walked up to the girl. "How is your mouth feeling."
"I'm. not sure."
"Still numb, that's good." She smiled and wiped some drool from her mouth. She looked to Goten. "Are you family?"
Goten shook his head. "I'm only her partner."
She nodded. "If you need to talk to someone about this. my office is just down the hall."
He nodded. He knew what she meant. Often times the partners of people who were tortured, caught, or injured during a mission felt guilty, and had to go to some sort of therapy. "I might stop by."
She smiled at him, then walked over to Mamoru, "I'm Kiyone Makibi, I'm going to be ChibiUsa's nurse until she is better."
Mamoru nodded. "When will she be out?"
"They expect her to be out by tomorrow morning, still on some pain relievers. Bulma said she's needed the day after tomorrow for a mission, and she needs to be interviewed by Gohan tomorrow morning. There's information Bulma needs. And the chip."
Both men looked at her expectantly. "The chip was removed from her throat perfectly. Her throat is a bit swollen, but other than that she'll be fine. Her wisdom teeth." she sat on the edge of ChibiUsa's bed. "We pulled out her last one, and she'll be fine in a day or two." She smiled and moved over to her charts. "If you need anything," she looked down and wrote something. "Ask for Kiyone. I'll come right away." She smiled and left.
Goten sighed. 'Do I feel guilty? Or is this some other feeling?' He moved over next to ChibiUsa and smiled. "Do you want anything?"
ChibiUsa looked past him towards her father, who nodded. "Could you go get me a shake? I'm starving! I haven't eaten anything since." she paused for a moment.
Mamoru smiled. "A strawberry shake?" Goten jumped, he had forgotten he was in there.
ChibiUsa nodded. "A strawberry shake, please Goten."
He nodded and turned around to her father. "Would you like anything?"
The man shook his head. "I'm fine, thank you."
Goten smiled, "Alright, I'll be back in 15 minutes with your shake!" he bowed to her father, then ran out of the room.
~*~
"I dreamt about him. again."
"It'll be hard for us to get over the loss of him."
"He was. I'll admit it, I think I loved him. He was gentle. He was considerate, and he always looked out for me. But that's what got him into trouble." She looked down. "Papa, He's the only one. I've really felt anything for in a long time. Ever since Helios was shot."
"What are you talking about? ChibiUsa, you aren't making any sense. Are you talking about Goten?"
She nodded slowly. "I think. I'm not sure, I'm getting them confused. I can't keep them separate in my mind. To me they're the same. They're not different people. They're the same."
Mamoru nodded. "You miss Helios. there's nothing wrong with that. But don't jump at Goten. he doesn't understand things yet."
~*~
"Gohan," Goten knocked on the door. "Gohan, are you in there?"
Again, the pink hair woman, Washu, opened the door. "Oh, Goten, what are you doing here?"
He sighed, agitated. "Washu, please let me speak to Gohan."
"Your brother?"
"No, Gohan."
"Your brother."
Goten glared at her angrily. "Washu, just let me in." The woman scooted to the side and opened the door wider.
"Gohan, your brother's here."
"WASHU!" Gohan ran up to the door, he smiled and pushed her aside. "Come in Goten."
Goten glanced at Washu as he walked in, but dismissed what she was saying, and walked to the back of the apartment with Gohan. Washu went into the small kitchen.
"What's she doing here?" Goten whispered.
Gohan laughed slightly. "She's real smart about this stuff. Bulma doesn't know it, but Washu's the one who put a stop to her research on androids, and humans like us. whose lives are extended, almost made immortal."
"Oh. did you want to finish telling me about. everything?"
Gohan nodded. "You put the disk back. right?"
Goten nodded. "From what I'm aware, she never even noticed."
"Good," Gohan began shuffling through some papers, while sitting on the edge of his desk. "So how's Usa?"
"She's fine." Goten muttered softly.
"That's not what I meant. Though it's good to hear. I mean. what's going on between you two? I heard from my." he looked towards the kitchen. "Sources that she spent the night the other day. and-" he looked down at the papers again. "You two went on a date."
Goten bit his lip. "I'm not sure what your talking about."
"Washu says she spent the night, is that true?" Gohan pulled out a paper, and put the other's down.
Goten nodded slowly. "She had stayed late at work. then Helios. she didn't know where to go."
Gohan nodded. "Bulma can take the worst out of something like that though. You shouldn't just let her in. It'll get both of you in big trouble with Bulma. and CC."
Goten nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
"And your lovely outing last weekend?"
Goten looked down. "We just went out for a shake and a movie. nothing happened, she fell asleep and I drove her home. nothing happened."
Gohan shook his head slightly and handed Goten a paper. "Just be careful about what you do. Bulma has people everywhere. And even good people have to do bad things sometimes."
Goten nodded, he looked over the paper. It was a figure of a man, standing naked, arrows were pointing everywhere on his body. To his wrist, his face, ankles, knees, etc. There was a back view, and a side view. "I don't get it." He muttered slightly.
Gohan pointed to the arrows. "You're not reading." Next to the arrows were small Japanese characters.
'Behind the left ear, place a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker is used to erase the new AH's (advance-humanoid) memory, or to restart the program.' Goten read silently. Slowly he moved his fingers up to his left ear. He felt around, there it was, the scar from the car accident three years before. "It wasn't a car accident. was it? That was just a cover for the malfunctions I was having, and they needed to restart me."
"You found out too much last time too. Maybe if you do more reading, you can find out more, and start to remember."
'Because of the complexity of the program installed, the AH's memory can never be completely erased, unless the AH is completely shut off.'
"I know it sounds really weird." Gohan muttered, "But we're really human."
"I know." Goten muttered as he continued reading about how to shut off the circuit breaker.
"So that means you have to have a family. right?"
Goten nodded. "My mother lives in a forest in southern Japan with my father."
"What about your brother?"
"From what I've been told, I have none."
There was a crash from the kitchen, Washu was sprawled out on the ground, half on the counter. A nervous smile playing on her lips.
Both boys sighed. "I'll clean it, don't worry!" She laughed and began to busy herself with the mess she made. She stood quickly and walked into the room they were standing in. "I think I'll make this simple and sweet for you Goten. Gohan is your brother."
"But-"
"Now, now, I know it's hard to take in, and hard to believe at that so, I've got my handy." she began to dig through her hair. "Handy dandy. DNA blood tester!" she smiled enthusiastically as she pulled it up out of her hair. "All you do is put your finger here." she grabbed his hand. "It'll get a drop of blood, and Gohan." she grabbed Gohan's finger. "We'll get your blood here." Both boys yelped as the needle pricked them. She handed them both band-ade's. "Now all we have to do is wait 7 short minutes, and you will have all the DNA proof you could possibly want!"
Goten pouted, rubbing his finger. "I know, I read about it in Bulma's files." he muttered silently curses to Washu and her blood-sucking-DNA- proof-in-7-minutes-machine.
She sighed angrily to herself. "Why didn't you say that in the beginning? Do you know how many batteries I have to use for that portable DNA tester? Ten! Ten AA batteries! And those don't come cheap these days!"
Both boys looked at her questioningly. ".. What?"
"Never mind." She walked off. "I'm going to clean up, then go back to work."
"ChiChi," Gohan continued, "Our mother, and Goku decided because Bulma-san was their friend, they would help her in her research. ChiChi was put to charge over Goku, and Goku was transformed into an AH. But things didn't work as well as Bulma had hoped. Goku was too kind hearted to focus and help her with the data she needed to collect."
"Then there was us. Children, of course, about the ages of 14 and 3. We were put into the program. It worked well for us, but when Washu and the A&HPS forced Bulma to stop her research, she was forced to stop the studies, and to put us into the protection program that keeps us from knowing anything about this."
"But we're not the only ones." Goten put in.
"Of course not. How could Bulma ever get all the data she needed from a happy-go-lucky man and two children. No, Bulma had others. Her husband, Vejjita, one of her partners, Ami-san, and her son, Trunks-kun."
"I thought Ami helped in the research, as a doctor in the procedure."
"She was, but when the program was shut down, Bulma killed Dr Gero and Dr Tomeo, she was also supposed to kill Ami, but had taken a fancy for her and turned her into an AH, Ami has no idea about it yet."
"But I thought Hotaru said you were in Gero's HQ."
"We were, which means Gero either didn't die, or is now an AH like us."
"But Bulma killed him, and Gero, and Ami works for her, who would turn Gero into an AH?"
Gohan shrugged. "I'm not sure. Bulma will know, hopefully she'll write about it in her log, and we can figure it out. If that doesn't work, then I don't know what will."
Goten nodded. "Can I take this paper with me? I told Mamoru I would stay in the room with Usa for the night, and he'd be back in the morning. He's got to go on a quick mission for Bulma-san."
"Sure," Gohan said with a quick look into the kitchen. "But don't let her see it." He pulled up a bag from the floor. "And could you give these to Usa? Just a few books Hotaru thought she might like."
Goten nodded, seeing all the titles were found in the Sherlock Homles series. "I'll stop by tomorrow." He walked to the door, Washu followed and locked it behind him as he left.
"Odd." he muttered as he walked away.
~*~
End Chapter Six: Can You Feel My In Your Arms?
Chapter Six: Can You Feel Me in Your Arms?
~*~
Blood, she could taste it, her mouth was bleeding. She tried to open her eyes. She couldn't, they were covered with a cloth. She opened her mouth slightly, and felt herself breathing a bit easier. She moved her fingers around. She was on something smooth and cold, she guessed it was metal. 'Dammit, that was so careless of me.' She thought to herself, she shook the cloth off her eyes opening them. It was dark. She could see in the far end of the room, a man was sitting in front of a computer, typing away quickly. It wasn't the man from before. He was different.
He was older. That was what stood out most to her. He was older, and was wearing a lab coat. But then again, any man can change his clothes. He also had long white hair. That was another thing she noticed right away. His head was shining. Reflecting the light from his desk lamp. He had a strange dome atop his head.
She swallowed some blood, and began to gag. The man turned around to her.
"So you've woken. wonderful."
She continued to cough and gag. She knew by the sound of this man's voice she was in danger. She had to think fast and get out of there.
He walked up to her, and tightened the bounds on her hands. "You know. a person can only swallow so much blood before they make themselves sick."
That was right, if she weren't in such a panicked she would try to remember. 'I have to stop the bleeding in my mouth, or I'll throw up and the chip will belong to them.'
"You're mouth has been bleeding for an hour now. Your wisdom teeth needed to be pulled out." He smirked slightly, and pulled up a metal pair of tweezers. "There's still one more that needs to go.."
ChibiUsa whimpered slightly, she had always been afraid of getting teeth pulled, now was no different. She clamped her mouth shut tightly. The man moved her lips around with his finger, "Looks as if these teeth are in the way. Why don't we pull them out as well." He stuck a piece of rubber in both sides of her mouth, to keep her lips out of the way. He pulled her teeth apart. She bit him. He yelled angrily. His finger, through his now ripped glove, began to bleed. "Curse you, you dirty-"
"Gero, we were followed." Came the voice from in the room, up a flight of steps.
"You careless fools!" Gero shouted, he threw the equipment down and ran up the stairs.
~*~
"Gohan, they know we're here. The cloaking device just stopped working. They must have a code to stop it." the young girl shouted to Gohan as she typed quickly on the computer. "I see Usa's signal. It's dying. It was set off a long time ago. Probably when she was still in the cave."
Gohan nodded. "Damn Usa's always pulling on her ear. She should know better by now. Thank god though, otherwise we'd never find her."
The girl nodded. "Gohan, we'll be over them in a second."
Gohan nodded and began to lower the helicopter. "Ok, I'm gonna let you down on the roof. I'll meet up with you in the basement that's where Usa's signal is coming from.
"Right." The girl waited until they were over the building, then she jumped out, and she pulled the string on her parachute a minute later, and landed.
~*~
She squeezed her fingers tightly together, sticking the thumb to the palm of her hand, and pulled. A moment later, her left wrist was out. She grabbed the tweezers, and picked the lock on the other, she was out, She moved her hands to her ears, and her earrings were gone. 'Dammit, their never gonna find me now.'
The room was quiet; she finished freeing herself, then stood shakily. She grabbed a cotton ball from a jar in the corner, smelling it first. It wasn't an alcohol swab. She stuck it in her mouth, and grabbed another and stuck it on the other side. She was in so much pain, she couldn't believe she slept through it. She quietly walked around, towards the computer.
"Mip, Mip, Mip." Came a soft noise from on the desk, she slowly sat in the chair and saw it was her earrings. The covering was off, and it was just the tracking device.
"They know I'm here." She smiled to herself. She heard a clatter in the back of the room. She looked around and saw a small surgery knife on the counter. She grabbed it. If the person had a gun, she was just about helpless. But if they were only ready for hand to hand combat, she could stab them in the neck, then between the ribs, or cut the muscles in the back of the leg. many possibilities. She gripped it tightly.
"Dammit." She heard a voice curse.
'Gohan?' she eased her way over, watching and listening carefully. She moved behind a shelf. "Gohan?" she called out.
"ChibiUsa?" Gohan came into view. "Kami-sama, I thought they were hurting you! Raping you, I donno, something."
ChibiUsa shook her head, "They pulled out three of my wisdom teeth. But was asleep." She said, the cotton muffled her voice.
"Hotaru is coming to help as well. Do you have the chip?"
ChibiUsa blushed slightly, "We'll deal with that later. Let's find Firefly and get the hell out of here."
There was a clatter and the door above the staircase flew open. A small woman held a gun out in front of her, "Usa?"
"Firefly?" Gohan shouted. "I've got her." The girl jumped down the staircase.
"You got her? Then let's get out of here. unless. Do they have the chip?"
Firefly, Hotaru, was a completely separate person than the person before. She was strong, powerful, and forceful. There was no way she could be broken. She wasn't nearly as pale as she was before, though she was still pale. And her eyes, her eyes held a strong glint.
Gohan smiled at the girl. "Usa says she's got it."
"Let's get out of here then."
"Blue Star, we've got Pink Raven and the chip. We're going to come in now."
Gohan helped ChibiUsa into the back door. "We walk down this hall, and we'll be in the parking lot of an abandoned shore. The helicopter is there with Yamcha on guard. This building is located in an old town; not many people live here any more. All of them live on the other side of town as well."
~*~
Goten walked into the Hospital Wing of CC. "ChibiUsa?" The nurse pointed down the hall to a room. He nodded and walked towards it. He opened the door. Inside sat a man, his forehead resting on his hands, his elbows resting on the foot of the bed where ChibiUsa slept. The man looked up. "You're Goten, right?"
Goten nodded, nervously. "I'm Son Goten, are you Usa's father?"
The man nodded. "You want to watch her, I need to call her mom real quick." Goten nodded and he got up and left.
"Hey, Usa, I just want to say, I'm sorry. I was too scared to shoot." He smiled to himself. "You're probably thankful for that. But I could have saved you a bit of pain." He sighed, and became content with watching her.
~*~
"Usa," he called out as he ran through the halls of the building. Shooting various people as he ran by. "Usa! Dammit," he muttered, he through open a door, a bullet was fired just past his head. He ducked, "Usa." he spotted her in the room, her eyes were covered with a black cloth.
"Helios! Help me!" she cried out. A man in the room punched her. Her head drooped to her chest. Her shirt was ripped open. Her skirt was torn, but still on.
Helios shot the gun at the man that hit her. "You'll all pay for this!" he shouted. He fired a few more times, shooting the other men in the room, and killing them. He ran into the room and untied her eyes. He kissed her as he untied her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm-I'll be fine." She kissed him again. "Oh god, Helios." After he finished untying her, they embraced tightly. She kissed him, crying.
"Usa, we've got to get out of here." He said, putting his forehead to hers and holding her face. She nodded, sniffling. He kissed her again, grabbed her face away from him and pulled her hand into his, dragging her behind him down the hall. He grabbed a gun from a downed man and gave it to her. "Meet me at the break point." He kissed her once more then ran down the hall to the left. She nodded and ran down the hall to the right.
'Focus,' he shouted mentally to himself. 'Usa will be fine. She can take care of herself..' Another part of him told him he was wrong, that's what got her into trouble in the first place. He thought she could take care of herself. He shot a man as he walked into a room. It was in here, the paper they were looking for. He began shooting random jars around the room. Finally he hit it; the paper fell to the ground. He grabbed it. "Latin, I should have guessed." He shoved it into his pocket and ran out of the room, to the break point.
When he got there, Usa wasn't waiting for him. He waited 5 more minutes then took off down the hall she was in. He stopped in a corner to reload the gun. "There's the gold." A voice came from down the hall, thick with a European accent.
A scream echoed into the air, followed by a bullet being fired at Helios. He saw ChibiUsa kicking a man as he held her in a bar choke. Years of training couldn't prepare her for the first time she was caught. Years of training couldn't take the weights that had been put on her shoulders away. Years of training couldn't prepare her for what they almost did to her. And years after, she still wouldn't understand.
"Helios!"
His vision blurred as the bullet flew into his flesh, as blood flew into the air, as ChibiUsa bit the man and ran towards him, leaving her ripped shirt behind. She kissed him, muttering things to herself. "You don't understand." he murmured softly as she held him in her arms
"What?" She begged him through sniffles.
".life." She grabbed his gun and began to shoot the men, using her own and his.
"Bulma, Bulma I need help. Helios is down. BULMA! SEND HELP!" she shouted. "I need help." she cried into his chest. "HELP ME!"
~*~
"Beep, beep, beep, beep." the pattern was constant, a beep every second, all the beeps were the same, never one short, never one long. Always the same pattern.
"You'll never understand." came her voice, which seemed detached from her body. ".Life."
Goten and Mamoru both looked up. Goten moved closer to her. "What? Usa?"
Her eyes slowly opened. "Helios." she muttered.
"No, no, Usa, it's me, Goten. your father's here too."
"Goten." she shook her head slightly. "That's what I said. Goten."
"No you said.." Goten looked over at her father. "Yes, you said Goten." He took a step back.
"Chibi." her father muttered softly leaning close to her. "It's not nearly as bad as last time." He smoothed her bangs back with his hand. "It's not nearly as bad."
A few moments later the nurse walked in. She had long blue hair, blue eyes, and wore an orange headband around her forehead. "Hello, Mamoru, ChibiUsa." she walked up to the girl. "How is your mouth feeling."
"I'm. not sure."
"Still numb, that's good." She smiled and wiped some drool from her mouth. She looked to Goten. "Are you family?"
Goten shook his head. "I'm only her partner."
She nodded. "If you need to talk to someone about this. my office is just down the hall."
He nodded. He knew what she meant. Often times the partners of people who were tortured, caught, or injured during a mission felt guilty, and had to go to some sort of therapy. "I might stop by."
She smiled at him, then walked over to Mamoru, "I'm Kiyone Makibi, I'm going to be ChibiUsa's nurse until she is better."
Mamoru nodded. "When will she be out?"
"They expect her to be out by tomorrow morning, still on some pain relievers. Bulma said she's needed the day after tomorrow for a mission, and she needs to be interviewed by Gohan tomorrow morning. There's information Bulma needs. And the chip."
Both men looked at her expectantly. "The chip was removed from her throat perfectly. Her throat is a bit swollen, but other than that she'll be fine. Her wisdom teeth." she sat on the edge of ChibiUsa's bed. "We pulled out her last one, and she'll be fine in a day or two." She smiled and moved over to her charts. "If you need anything," she looked down and wrote something. "Ask for Kiyone. I'll come right away." She smiled and left.
Goten sighed. 'Do I feel guilty? Or is this some other feeling?' He moved over next to ChibiUsa and smiled. "Do you want anything?"
ChibiUsa looked past him towards her father, who nodded. "Could you go get me a shake? I'm starving! I haven't eaten anything since." she paused for a moment.
Mamoru smiled. "A strawberry shake?" Goten jumped, he had forgotten he was in there.
ChibiUsa nodded. "A strawberry shake, please Goten."
He nodded and turned around to her father. "Would you like anything?"
The man shook his head. "I'm fine, thank you."
Goten smiled, "Alright, I'll be back in 15 minutes with your shake!" he bowed to her father, then ran out of the room.
~*~
"I dreamt about him. again."
"It'll be hard for us to get over the loss of him."
"He was. I'll admit it, I think I loved him. He was gentle. He was considerate, and he always looked out for me. But that's what got him into trouble." She looked down. "Papa, He's the only one. I've really felt anything for in a long time. Ever since Helios was shot."
"What are you talking about? ChibiUsa, you aren't making any sense. Are you talking about Goten?"
She nodded slowly. "I think. I'm not sure, I'm getting them confused. I can't keep them separate in my mind. To me they're the same. They're not different people. They're the same."
Mamoru nodded. "You miss Helios. there's nothing wrong with that. But don't jump at Goten. he doesn't understand things yet."
~*~
"Gohan," Goten knocked on the door. "Gohan, are you in there?"
Again, the pink hair woman, Washu, opened the door. "Oh, Goten, what are you doing here?"
He sighed, agitated. "Washu, please let me speak to Gohan."
"Your brother?"
"No, Gohan."
"Your brother."
Goten glared at her angrily. "Washu, just let me in." The woman scooted to the side and opened the door wider.
"Gohan, your brother's here."
"WASHU!" Gohan ran up to the door, he smiled and pushed her aside. "Come in Goten."
Goten glanced at Washu as he walked in, but dismissed what she was saying, and walked to the back of the apartment with Gohan. Washu went into the small kitchen.
"What's she doing here?" Goten whispered.
Gohan laughed slightly. "She's real smart about this stuff. Bulma doesn't know it, but Washu's the one who put a stop to her research on androids, and humans like us. whose lives are extended, almost made immortal."
"Oh. did you want to finish telling me about. everything?"
Gohan nodded. "You put the disk back. right?"
Goten nodded. "From what I'm aware, she never even noticed."
"Good," Gohan began shuffling through some papers, while sitting on the edge of his desk. "So how's Usa?"
"She's fine." Goten muttered softly.
"That's not what I meant. Though it's good to hear. I mean. what's going on between you two? I heard from my." he looked towards the kitchen. "Sources that she spent the night the other day. and-" he looked down at the papers again. "You two went on a date."
Goten bit his lip. "I'm not sure what your talking about."
"Washu says she spent the night, is that true?" Gohan pulled out a paper, and put the other's down.
Goten nodded slowly. "She had stayed late at work. then Helios. she didn't know where to go."
Gohan nodded. "Bulma can take the worst out of something like that though. You shouldn't just let her in. It'll get both of you in big trouble with Bulma. and CC."
Goten nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
"And your lovely outing last weekend?"
Goten looked down. "We just went out for a shake and a movie. nothing happened, she fell asleep and I drove her home. nothing happened."
Gohan shook his head slightly and handed Goten a paper. "Just be careful about what you do. Bulma has people everywhere. And even good people have to do bad things sometimes."
Goten nodded, he looked over the paper. It was a figure of a man, standing naked, arrows were pointing everywhere on his body. To his wrist, his face, ankles, knees, etc. There was a back view, and a side view. "I don't get it." He muttered slightly.
Gohan pointed to the arrows. "You're not reading." Next to the arrows were small Japanese characters.
'Behind the left ear, place a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker is used to erase the new AH's (advance-humanoid) memory, or to restart the program.' Goten read silently. Slowly he moved his fingers up to his left ear. He felt around, there it was, the scar from the car accident three years before. "It wasn't a car accident. was it? That was just a cover for the malfunctions I was having, and they needed to restart me."
"You found out too much last time too. Maybe if you do more reading, you can find out more, and start to remember."
'Because of the complexity of the program installed, the AH's memory can never be completely erased, unless the AH is completely shut off.'
"I know it sounds really weird." Gohan muttered, "But we're really human."
"I know." Goten muttered as he continued reading about how to shut off the circuit breaker.
"So that means you have to have a family. right?"
Goten nodded. "My mother lives in a forest in southern Japan with my father."
"What about your brother?"
"From what I've been told, I have none."
There was a crash from the kitchen, Washu was sprawled out on the ground, half on the counter. A nervous smile playing on her lips.
Both boys sighed. "I'll clean it, don't worry!" She laughed and began to busy herself with the mess she made. She stood quickly and walked into the room they were standing in. "I think I'll make this simple and sweet for you Goten. Gohan is your brother."
"But-"
"Now, now, I know it's hard to take in, and hard to believe at that so, I've got my handy." she began to dig through her hair. "Handy dandy. DNA blood tester!" she smiled enthusiastically as she pulled it up out of her hair. "All you do is put your finger here." she grabbed his hand. "It'll get a drop of blood, and Gohan." she grabbed Gohan's finger. "We'll get your blood here." Both boys yelped as the needle pricked them. She handed them both band-ade's. "Now all we have to do is wait 7 short minutes, and you will have all the DNA proof you could possibly want!"
Goten pouted, rubbing his finger. "I know, I read about it in Bulma's files." he muttered silently curses to Washu and her blood-sucking-DNA- proof-in-7-minutes-machine.
She sighed angrily to herself. "Why didn't you say that in the beginning? Do you know how many batteries I have to use for that portable DNA tester? Ten! Ten AA batteries! And those don't come cheap these days!"
Both boys looked at her questioningly. ".. What?"
"Never mind." She walked off. "I'm going to clean up, then go back to work."
"ChiChi," Gohan continued, "Our mother, and Goku decided because Bulma-san was their friend, they would help her in her research. ChiChi was put to charge over Goku, and Goku was transformed into an AH. But things didn't work as well as Bulma had hoped. Goku was too kind hearted to focus and help her with the data she needed to collect."
"Then there was us. Children, of course, about the ages of 14 and 3. We were put into the program. It worked well for us, but when Washu and the A&HPS forced Bulma to stop her research, she was forced to stop the studies, and to put us into the protection program that keeps us from knowing anything about this."
"But we're not the only ones." Goten put in.
"Of course not. How could Bulma ever get all the data she needed from a happy-go-lucky man and two children. No, Bulma had others. Her husband, Vejjita, one of her partners, Ami-san, and her son, Trunks-kun."
"I thought Ami helped in the research, as a doctor in the procedure."
"She was, but when the program was shut down, Bulma killed Dr Gero and Dr Tomeo, she was also supposed to kill Ami, but had taken a fancy for her and turned her into an AH, Ami has no idea about it yet."
"But I thought Hotaru said you were in Gero's HQ."
"We were, which means Gero either didn't die, or is now an AH like us."
"But Bulma killed him, and Gero, and Ami works for her, who would turn Gero into an AH?"
Gohan shrugged. "I'm not sure. Bulma will know, hopefully she'll write about it in her log, and we can figure it out. If that doesn't work, then I don't know what will."
Goten nodded. "Can I take this paper with me? I told Mamoru I would stay in the room with Usa for the night, and he'd be back in the morning. He's got to go on a quick mission for Bulma-san."
"Sure," Gohan said with a quick look into the kitchen. "But don't let her see it." He pulled up a bag from the floor. "And could you give these to Usa? Just a few books Hotaru thought she might like."
Goten nodded, seeing all the titles were found in the Sherlock Homles series. "I'll stop by tomorrow." He walked to the door, Washu followed and locked it behind him as he left.
"Odd." he muttered as he walked away.
~*~
End Chapter Six: Can You Feel My In Your Arms?