Mameko: Mother of Goku
A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah
Part Three : The Last Thing Left To Lose
Four months had passed since the blue haired Saiyajin's arrival on Earth and things had settled into a fairly regular routine. Mameko would wake with the dawn and train with Vegeta for a few hours. She was the only other person in the Capsule household who woke naturally with the sun, and liked the time she could spend alone with her monarch. Vegeta also seemed to like it. It was his chance to have an informal lesson in Saiyajin history. He was too proud to ask her to teach him outright. Every morning he would manage to sneak in a question or two, and every morning he became more relaxed around her.
To Mameko's surprise, Bulma became curious and perhaps a little jealous of the younger woman. One afternoon, Bulma confronted Mameko and asked whether she was trying to muscle in on her man. When Mameko managed to get back on her feet, she told her what she and the Prince did every morning. She explained that she found the early morning workout to be fairly light and easy to keep up with. On a typical morning they would start off with katas and tai-chi and worked up to a light spar before breakfast. She offered an invitation Bulma to sit in on this ritual, but she never seemed to be able to get out of bed on time.
After this routine, Mameko would make the Briefs family a morning meal. This usually consisted of normal Earth recipes they were all used to, but often, she made a Saiya-dish for herself, Koshi and Vegeta. Then the teenagers would go to school, Bulma to work, and Vegeta to heavy training or his meandering, leaving Mameko to her own pursuits.
Most days, she studied at home in her room at Capsule, learning to read and write by watching DVDs and studying old children's books that had belonged to the Briefs. Three afternoons a week she taught Trunks and Koshi Saiyago and Saiyajin culture and history. Occasionally, on her days off, she would pay a visit to her son, Goku.
At first, Mameko dreaded such a visit, having only heard about Chi-chi from others. Finally, she grudgingly made the journey, alone, and had a very pleasant stay after winning her daughter-in-law's respect with her culinary skills.
Then there were days when she found herself drawn out into the forest.
The first day she returned to him, Mameko felt a chill go through her. His eyes glistened with happiness and his lip curled up in an amused smile.
"Well well, back for more?" he sang.
Mameko put her hands on her hips. "Pervert!"
Juunanagou cocked his head to the side and raised a brow. "What's in the basket, Little Blue Saiya Tail?"
Mameko blinked a few times, but recalled a similarly-titled story in one of the children's books. She extended her arms and held out the brown paper bag she had brought with her. "Grandma!" She smirked. "You look like a wolf to me!"
"Better believe it!" He play-growled, reached out and embraced her. "So whadja bring me?"
"Oh, just some muffins I made."
"Muffins, eh?" He peeked in the bag and took a sniff.
"I know you don't eat that much, but..."
"Mm..." he drooled. "Mameko Muffins."
"Perv!" she laughed and pushed his chest.
"Heh, sorry." Juunanagou bowed and allowed her to enter the little cabin.
To her surprise, Juunanagou did not make any overt moves to suggest they sleep together again. They sat in the kitchen and talked about Mameko's adaptation to Earth. He even ate a muffin and commented that they were very good.
As the sun was setting, Juunanagou suggested that she should get back home before people worried about where she was.
Mameko blinked at him a few times, but decided that he was being courteous.
"I really liked having you here," he said as he walked with her outside.
"I like being here, with you."
Juunanagou stared into her eyes.
"Is something wrong?"
"I'm sorry," he said and shook his head. "Yes, I guess I'm just not accustomed to... other people."
"I see." Mameko put her arms around him. "It won't be long now, you'll be sick of me."
"Never," he came back quickly, but almost in a whisper. Mameko got a chill. She kissed him passionately and prayed that he would demand that she stay the night. To her disdain, he simply kissed her back, hugged her and sighed before letting her go.
"Come back soon, ok?"
"I will."
Mameko wondered at his strange behavior, but decided that she hardly knew this artificial man whom she had spent a week with. Perhaps this was just the way he was.
"Whatever!" she thought out loud as she flew away. "I don't care how weird he maybe. He makes me feel so wonderful!" she cheered and took her time getting back home.
That evening, Mameko feel asleep with Juunanagou on her mind, but it was someone else who haunted her dreams.
'No, please!' she shouted at faceless bodies with long, white, antiseptic arms. 'Where are you taking him?!'
A baby wailed almost continuously, somewhere. She struggled to turn to see where he was.
'No! I want to see him! He's mine! You can't do this!!'
The hands were all she could see and the crying was fading away. 'You bastards! He's mine!!'
Suddenly, the scene had changed. She looked out through her own hands at her surroundings. It was a small room, a little dingy and brown. There was no furniture in the space save a rickety metal-frame bed which she was sitting on. Sheets were strewn everywhere, and the window, with its single, yellowing curtain was open and let in a strangely fresh breeze.
Mameko stood up. "This can't be that room..."
"It is," a soft, man's voice replied.
Mameko spun and looked to the door where it had come from. There he was as whole and real as could be but filthy and battered. His armor was cracked in half and a blood soaked bandanna laced his forehead. He was standing there in the little hotel room in which they had met for months when she was pregnant. He had never used the door before. For safety's sake he had always had to come in through the window.
"Bardock!!" she cried and ran to him. He caught her and hugged her tightly.
"I can't stay long."
Mameko pulled back and looked into his black eyes. "Then...?"
"I'm dead as a doornail, kiddo." He held her face and wiped her tears away with his thumb. "The hair looks good."
"W-What?"
"The blue hair. It's cute."
"Oh!"
she cried and touched a lock. "But I don't understand..."
"You
don't have to." Bardock lead her back to the bed and they both
sat down. He held her hands. "I came here because you're about to
go through some rough stuff and I want you to be prepared."
"About to!? Damn it! Haven't I been through enough already?!" she screamed. "I lost you, I lost Kakarotto, I lost my home, my people, my hair color, my time!"
"You have one more thing to lose."
"What?!"
"I can't say, but I can warn you."
Mameko slumped her shoulders. "Bardock, I miss you so much, but, I found another."
"I know. And he cares about you very much."
She lost her composure and fell against his chest. Bardock stroked her hair and held her close.
"Kakarotto turned out pretty great, didn't he?" he smiled.
"Oh, he's wonderful," she sobbed. "Did you watch him, Bardock?"
"Yes, all the way."
She smiled and sighed, but he gently pulled her off of him, picked her up and tucked her into the bed. "And I'm watching you too, Mameko. I love you."
"Bardock!" she cried out as he started to fade. "I will always love you!"
"Keep heart, Mameko. Everything will be all right."
She blinked and the room was dark. Her heart raced and she sat bolt upright. The sun was just rising.
Her morning routine with Vegeta was brief.Her prince did not question her silence.
.x.
Before long, Mameko was spending more and more time away from the Capsule House. She learned of her sovereign's dislike for androids and decided to keep her relationship a secret. The wary woman even went so far as to get her son to cover for her. Should the Briefs family ever call the Son House wondering where Mameko was, Goku promised to try to mislead them to protect her secret.
It was a bright, heavily humid day. Mameko touched down and jogged into the cabin.
"Hello?" she called. "Juunana?" Not finding him home from work yet, she opened the refrigerator and began making dinner. She snacked as she did so, wolfing down apples and snack-cakes as if they were bite-sized.
"Whoa. Guess I was hungry!" she said as she cleaned up the mess she had made.
"Mameko?" Juunanagou walked in the front door. His clothes were dirty, as usual. His face bore a dark smudge and his hair was pulled up away from his face in a pony tail. A few strands had escaped and fallen out to frame his face. He pushed a few of these out of his eyes, creating another smudge.
"I'm making dinner!" she chimed.
"Looks like you've already had three!"
She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. "Go get cleaned up, will ya?"
He smiled, but that strange look crept into his eyes again. He went to take a shower.
When Juunanagou returned, the table was set and three steaming dishes awaited him: string beans in garlic sauce, Peking shredded pork with scallions and one of those funky cold, raw-game Saiyajin dishes he knew she had made because she knew he wouldn't touch it with a ten foot cattle prod. He had told her once that he didn't eat anything that was 'still mooing.' Mameko had giggled for hours that night over the word 'moo.' That dish was all hers.
They had a nice, long dinner and sat down in the living room afterwards to listen to a classical concert on the television. Mameko lay her head in his lap and dangled her feet over the arm of the couch.
"Juunana?"
"Mm?"
"Do you think I'm getting fat?"
"You're actually asking me that?" he asked, flabbergasted. He thought people only talked like that in stand-up comedy routines.
"I'm serious!" she remarked. "Look at this!" Mameko lifted her shirt, revealing her belly.
"Well you can pack it away, and you haven't been exercising that much..." Juunanagou gently put his hand on her belly and rubbed it, lovingly.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just getting lazy." Juunanagou's hand stopped abruptly. "Nana?"
"Can't be..." he muttered in disbelief.
"What is it?" Mameko asked, alarmed.
"Mameko, when I first met you, you had a certain scent, feel, energy that was you. Then when you came back to me, it had changed."
Mameko remembered the strange way he had behaved around her then, and the occasional twist in his eye. "Changed?"
"Your chemistry is different and now I know why."
Mameko looked up into his eyes. They were wide and sparkled with delight.
"I don't know how it's possible but I can feel another heart beat. You're pregnant."
She blinked and slowly put her own hands on her abdomen. "You're right!" Mameko threw her arms around Juunanagou and laughed through her tears.
.x.
That morning, Juunanagou nudged her shoulder before he left for work.
"Hey sleepy-head. I gotta go."
"Mm?" she mumbled, surprised that she had slept in.
"It's ok, just hang out. You're sleeping for two now." He smiled and kissed her.
"Mm hm." She grinned and curled into a ball.
Juunanagou walked to work every morning. He enjoyed the peace of the woods before operations commenced. The faint sound of machinery filtered through the trees. He came up over a hill and his work-place appeared.
Five men were setting up for the day's work. They called out to him as they saw him arrive. He greeted each of them and asked them to gather for instruction.
"Ok guys. I'm out next month for a few days' doing some logging and reforestation. Tunnel C-8 is just about maxed out. We're gonna have to spend the next couple days securing it for close-down. I don't want you slacking and someone getting hurt in a cave-in. This is really important. Then and only then we can begin digging in C-9. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir," they answered him.
"Also, I have reason to believe that one of us is making off with a little on the side. Knock it off, or pay the consequences."
"Yes, sir."
Juunanagou went into the foreman's shed and overlooked the mine's plan.
In the last ten years he and a dozen men had dug in almost thirty locations on the mountain and had made millions of dollars I diamonds. He had taken care of his workers. All of his employees had been able to keep their children clothed, healthy and educated and live a comfortable life for their trouble. He had not lost a single man to accident or dispute. A few had made enough money to retire early. This group was different. There were a few men who were new and he was afraid that he had made a poor choice in hiring someone. Some of the load had been misplaced.
'Misplaced,' he thought angrily. 'In some one's pocket.' Out of all the faults humans possessed, disrespect and greed were two he could not stand.
"Excuse me, Mr. Seventeen?" a voice pulled him out of his musing.
"Yeah, Tetsuo, come on in."
"I just wanted to say thanks for letting me have all that time off when my Kei was sick."
Juunanagou shrugged and waved his hand, smiling.
"And uh... Me and the boys were just thinkin' that if anyone's well, makin' off with some rocks, it'd be Fuyama."
Juunanagou nodded. "Thanks, Tetsuo. I'll look into it."
.x.
That night, Juunanagou crept out of bed without waking Mameko and sneaked out of the house. He took to the sky and flew off toward the city.
He found the address he was looking for: a downtown apartment. Juunanagou flew up along the fire escape and hovered outside the window. Fuyama was on the phone. His employer listened.
"Yeah. No problem. The jerk doesn't have any security. He actually trusts his workers! I know! Hahahah! Now, why would I tell you where the mine is? I gotta protect my investment. Yeah? Well, you want what I got, right? Fifty thou. No. Fifty. That's what I thought. I'll be there tomorrow."
He had heard enough.
"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear..." Juunanagou began. He stood in the corner of the room with his arms folded. He wore black and his head was covered by a black bandanna and his eyes by a black mask.
"Who the hell are you!?" Fuyama cried.
"I'm no one to be trifled with. Now, where are the stones?"
Instinctively, Fuyama looked to the hiding place. He looked back to confront the man in black, but he was gone.
"Simpleton," Juunanagou muttered. Fuyama whipped his head to the left and saw him tossing the bag of contraband from hand to hand. "Now, I'm not one to involve the local authorities, so consider this your punishment."
Fuyama reached for a concealed weapon. He pointed a 57 Magnum at the intruder. Juunanagou blinked.
"My, isn't that a big gun." He walked calmly towards him. "You know, they say men who buy large equipment are trying to compensate for their own physical inadequacies."
"Wha?!" he barked, obviously becoming terrified.
"I said, you probably have a small penis."
"That's it!" he screamed, the gun shaking in his hands. "I'm gonna let you have it!!"
"Really? Why, thank you." Juunanagou's hand darted out and snatched the gun out of Fuyama's hands. With no effort, he pinched the barrel closed and twisted it. Tossing it aside, the android sneered and stepped closer.
.x.
Mameko woke suddenly and felt out for her partner.
"Juunana...?" She winced and sat up. "Juunana!?" she asked again, praying he was just getting a glass of water. "Juunan… oh, I don't feel so good."
She got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. Mameko hugged the porcelain and cried out for him as waves of pain coursed through her body.
It seemed like an eternity later when she finally heard footsteps race through the house. Mameko panted and looked up at the doorway. "Nana... help me," she whispered. The feet stopped dead.
"Mom!"
Goku looked down on his mother. She was sitting in a fairly large pool of her own blood beside the toilet. "Kakarotto," she whispered. "Help me..."
.x.
A few minutes later Fuyama ran screaming out of the apartment building. Juunanagou watched him for a while, satisfied that he was frightened enough that he would no longer steal from his mine nor tell any of his criminal connections of its whereabouts. He turned and flew back home.
.x.
Goku sat at Mameko's bedside in the hospital and held her hand. She was still anesthetized and breathing shallow breaths.
The android burst into the room clutching a note Goku had the presence of mind to write before flying his mother out of the cabin.
"Mameko! Goku, what happened?!"
"I don't know." He stood and let Juunanagou take over. "They wouldn't believe I was her son, so they wouldn't tell me."
"Nana?" Mameko muttered and opened her eyes.
"I'm here."
"I'm sorry..."
"For what? Are you all right?"
"I lost the baby."
Goku gasped and stared at her.
Juunanagou hugged her and stroked her hair as she bawled into his shoulder, repeating her apology.
"No, no, it's not your fault. Mameko, look at me." He gently held her face. "Are you all right?" There were tears in his flawless eyes.
She nodded. "They said I'll be fine."
He and Goku both sighed with relief. "Mameko, I love you so much when I saw this note I..."
The corners of her mouth curled up a little. "You do?"
"Huh?"
"You love me?"
Juunanagou smiled. "Of course I do!"
"Oh, Nana, I love you too..."
Goku smiled and moved to leave.
"Kakarotto..."
"Don't worry, Mom. Everything will be all right."
Mameko blinked a few times. 'You have one more thing to lose... Everything will be all right.' Goku's father's words echoed in her head. She beamed at him. "I know, My Son. I know." Mameko gripped Juunanagou's hands tightly. He stayed with her through the night in the hospital and every night thereafter.
To be continued…