Disclaimer: Yeah, I own DBZ…..NOT!
A/N: Ok I finally have a new chapter up, I understand if you all want to flame me from here to the middle of next week for the lateness of this, but I have really put a lot of time and effort into this chapter to try and make it good. I only have 12 school days left until I'm on a 10 week holiday, so hopefully I'll be able to get a lot more writing done then! ~D.B
This chapter is dedicated to xXEvil OneXx. Thanks for being such a great buddy to me! Hope you enjoy your special chappie.
And Then You'll Know
Chapter 23
It was late, or was it early. Out in the vast nothingness of space it was too hard to tell. Sure, the clocks on the walls and the watches on their wrists told them it was almost 6 in the morning, but how reliable were they. Who was to know if someone had tampered with the clock, of the magnetic fields of space had messed with the mechanisms in their watches while they were trying to catch up on their precious sleep.
They were warriors, and as warriors, they had been trained to often go for days without sleep. But this was different, this lack of sleep wasn't battle induced. This was because their were no cues of light and dark out here, no way to tell whether it was day or night, to wake up or go to sleep.
And when they only had a matter of hours until they would be touching down on a strange new planet, sleep was something they all so desperately needed.
But of course, there would always be some, who no matter how skewed their sleep patterns were, they would always be able to drift off. Kakkarot was one of those people. Since they day they had left Vegeta-sei, nothing about Kakkarot had changed, not in the slightest, and it was strange. He had been thrown into an isolated environment, with 32 other men, it was an environment where one could not do as they please whenever and however they wanted. You ate when you were told, slept when you were told, bathed when you were told, it was something that anyone would clearly need to adapt to, and that involved changing yourself. Yet, Kakkarot hadn't, they had been in space for almost 3 days now, and Kakkarot was still exactly the same man he had been when they boarded the ship.
It really was quite astounding.
Tearing his gaze away from the little porthole that someone had the audacity to call a window, Krillen slowly blinked and rubbed at his sleep-deprived eyes. He was tired beyond all belief, yet it was pointless trying to get to bed now, when in half an hour the lights would switch on, Nappa's voice – which shouldn't have to be listened to so early in the morning, would boom over the intercom announcing that breakfast was ready. It was about then that the chaos would begin. All of a sudden, 32 Sayians who had been sleeping only minutes earlier, would all suddenly shoot out of bed and scramble over each other in a near desperate attempt to get to the dining hall for a meal that was so poorly cooked that it wasn't worth eating anyway.
Blinking again, Krillen shifted his weight in the chair and gazed down at the rather thick booklet in his cold hands.
The only things on the front cover were the words Mission 46541, typed in big black letters at the top, and Krillens name written in blue ink at the bottom.
Could it really be true, that in all the years, the Sayians had really carried out over 46 thousand missions? Conquered and destroyed more than 46 thousand planets. Goodness, the death toll would be in the billions! All those lives for Frieza, well not anymore. Krillen shuddered, he knew it was supposed to be the Sayian way to live for blood and gore. To relish in the fact they could take many hundreds of lives with nothing more than a slight fluctuation of their natural living energy, which over a time span they had learnt to manipulate. But Krillen wasn't like that, he had lost count of how many stories there had been on him in tabloids and newspapers about his dispassion for what the Sayian race was known for. God knows how many rumors or 'theories' there had been claiming that 'this is way Price Krillen doesn't fight', that in the end Krillen had just given up denying them and he just ignored them all together. The fact of the matter was, plain and simple, that Krillen just didn't like fighting, his mother had been the same way and no one ever chastised her for it.
Suddenly, Krillen could hear footsteps on the cool metal floor behind him, quickly turning around, he smiled when he saw his best friend in the whole world – save 18 of course, and he was holding a box wrapped in gold paper. Krillen knew what it was, it was the present from Chi-chi.
"Krillen," Kakkarot said in a tone of voice Krillen had never heard before, he sounded on the verge of tears "Mind if I sit with you?"
Without speaking, only giving a warm smile, Krillen swung his arm out in front of him motioning to the empty chair next to him. Kakkarot smiled a smile of relief, as if he had been thinking that for some reason Krillen wouldn't want him around, and he sat down.
"Morning" Krillen greeted, even his voice sounded strained and fatigued.
Kakkarot didn't reply, he was totally absorbed in the small gift in his hands, playing with the red bow, and fingering the soft, slippery, shiny gold paper. "Should I open it?" he asked
"Of course you should, my sister gave it to you for a reason" said Krillen through a yawn as he turned his gaze, once again, to the ever present blackness of space.
***
It had been a weird night to say the least. Tarie had fallen asleep where she lay, in Nison's bed, and no one had dared to wake her. When Nison had come back with a calmed down 17, he had found he had nowhere to sleep. After quiet a lot of arguing between Nison and the twins over who was going to sleep where, it was decided that 17 would sleep in his own bed – and he refused to share with a man. Which left 18 to share with Nison, and it was an experience to say the least.
18 had shared the bed with Krillen a few times, but Nison was definitely not Krillen – and sleeping next to him wasn't something she had particularly enjoyed. He snored, hogged the blanket, took up over half of the bed and worst off all spent half the night mumbling things to himself. For about the first time ever, 18 was glad when the sun began to rise. She made a vow to herself right then and there as she lay on the tiny portion of the already small single bed that Nison was taking over.
She was never, ever going to spend another night in bed next to Nison – ever!
Next to her, 17 slowly became aware of things around him, he was waking up. Grumbling and pulling the blanket up over his head he rolled over, now he was facing towards 18.
"17, are you awake?" 18 asked, as she reached out and poked him in the arm.
"What do you want 18?" he groaned
"Nothing" she replied vaguely, knowing full well it would annoy him.
Clenching his eyes shut tighter for a second, he sat straight up in his bed. 18 was smiling up at him innocently, 17 smirked at her at threw his pillow at his sisters head. But just at the last moment, 18 sat up to, and the pillow collided right with Nison's head. Both twins burst into a fit of laughter, which woke Nison up.
"Morning sunshine" 17 greeted him.
"Yeah, whatever" replied Nison sleepily as he stood up and wandered out the room.
Finally 18 had her bed back, and she took full advantage of it. She wrapped the blanket right around herself, laid in the dead center of the bed and let out a content sigh. But the use of her bed was short lived, because a few minutes later, Tarie walked into the room, and she looked shocking. She was pale, had bags under her eyes and she looked like she had just thrown up.
17 took one look at her and opened his arms up wide, a look of relief washed over her features and she proceeded right to him, where he wrapped her in a big hug.
18 suddenly felt very uncomfortable; she rolled away from the embracing couple. Then it hit her.
She missed Krillen.
She sat up and tried not to look in the direction of her brother, but it was hard and suddenly she felt herself fighting against tears. Inside, she cursed herself, she hated tears, despised them, loathed them. Tears brought pain, and pain was not something 18 dealt with well.
"18 are you ok?" she heard 17 call from beside her.
"Yeah," replied 18 weakly as she stood up, dabbing at the corner of her eyes "yeah, I'm fine", and with that, she left the room.
When she arrived upstairs, it was only 8.45. Far too early to begin work, Chi-chi hated it when she did anything before at least 9. To 18, there seemed only one obvious place to go.
Unlocking the door to Krillen's room, she stepped inside and sighed deeply. It was the first time she had come in here unaccompanied and to her, it was like stepping in here for the first time. She took a real look at everything, absorbing every little detail of this room. Inhaling deeply she took in the scent of him. She remembered the gifts she had seen, but at the moment, she had no real desire to open them, right now she wanted to be remembering Krillen – her Krillen.
Everything in the room reminded her of him, and it brought a smile to her lips and tears to her eyes. It was hard to believe that they had spent all of their teenage years together in this palace – yet never had they met. But that was something for which 18 was grateful, she had grown up in the harem, and if Krillen had of been the type of man to visit the harem, then he wasn't the type of man she wanted to know.
She flung open the doors to his wardrobe and gazed lovingly upon every last item in there, not leaving one little thing unseen by her ever observant, crystal blue eyes. Reaching out, she ran her fingers down the velvety exterior of a deep red cloak, then down the silky soft lining that covered the other side. She noted that the cloak was covered in dust, it clung to the thick velvet, it obviously hadn't been worn for a very long time – and besides, it looked like it would only fit a small child anyway.
18 shut the closet door and sat down on Krillens bed, she was surrounded by gifts for her, both large and small. Picking one up she studied it. The box was about as big as her hand and wrapped in pale yellow paper. Gently tugging and the tape, she pulled the paper from the box. Underneath the paper, was an ordinary cardboard box, nothing special of fancy about it. 18 was a little nervous about opening the box – who knew what might be inside. She put the box down, she wasn't ready to open it just yet.
Looking across, 18's eyes laid rest on the alarm clock, it was 8.55.
Sighing and standing up, 18 left Krillens room and headed towards his sisters. A horrible sense of despair washing over her as she did.
***
Chi-chi sat alone in the dining hall waiting for the Queen and her father. She tapped her perfectly manicured nails on the dark table. Looking across the room she eyed the 3 women surrounding the silver tray on wheels, for some strange reason she felt uncomfortable around them
'Where is my father?' she thought to herself as she shifted her gaze from the women to the door.
She sat in silence for a few more minutes. Eventually her father and the Queen did arrive.
"Good morning daddy, Kahlia. How are you this morning?" she asked
"Fine thank-you darling, and you?"
"Good".
Breakfast was quickly served, and the room was filled with the sounds of silverware clattering with china and the happy chitchat of the 3 royals at the table. It was the last meal the King and Chi-chi would be sharing with the Queen, for she was leaving for her home planet at 10am, and it was already 9. Chi-chi looked up at the Queen and smiled, she was sitting where Krillen usually sat. Why did she have to sit there of all places? But she did look exceptionally beautiful. Her back was facing the big window, and the morning sunlight was creating a golden aurora around her. Her pale pink hair was reflecting in the light and her long silky purple dress shone beautifully
"Have you enjoyed your time with us?" asked Chi-chi as she stabbed at her food with the fork
"Oh yes, I already plan on coming back for a more social visit sometime towards the end of the year. That is of course, if it's ok with your father"
The King looked up and smiled broadly, "we would love to have you back again. Wouldn't we Chi-chi". Chi-chi nodded eagerly and promptly swallowed the food that was in her mouth so she could reply "I think I speak on behalf of both my brothers and myself when I say you are more than welcome on our planet anytime" she said
The Queen nodded humbly "Thank-you" she said
***
Some time later that day, around lunchtime, 18 was still hard at work in Chi-chi's room, she had been left with a particularly long and grueling list today. It would take hours to finish, and she was so tired, much much more so than usual.
Chi-chi and Bulma sat on Chi-chi's bed talking and laughing very loudly, they had to be loud because 18 could still hear them even through the excruciatingly loud music blaring from the speakers. Yet she dare not to look up at them or even accidentally cast her eyes in their general direction. She'd done that, accidentally of course, and Chi-chi had swiftly kicked her clear to the other side of the room.
Bulma looked down at her watch and sighed, her lunch hour was almost over, it was time to be heading back towards the lab, stretching her arms right up towards the ceiling, she wriggled her fingers and made a loud yawning sound. "I've gotta get back to work Chi" she said as she ran her hands through her long blue hair. Then suddenly a look of faint alarm crossed her face
"What's the matter?" asked Chi-chi as she turned down the volume of the music.
"I just remembered I need to find a volunteer to try my new formula on" Bulma explained as she rubbed at her temples.
Chi-chi's glace swept the room and landed on 18 "take her," she said "if you kill her it doesn't matter anyway, it's not like I really need her" she said it as if she were casually talking about an old shoe or something or pretty much no value.
Bulma raised an eyebrow and looked at the scraggly looking young girl on the floor "you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. You're going to be late"
Bulma shrugged her shoulders, it sure made her day easier. "Ok"
Chi-chi grinned slyly at Bulma then she strode over to 18.
'Great' 18 thought to herself as Chi-chi's boots fell into her line of vision. She was going to be a test dummy.
"18 get up, I assume you know where you're going?"
"Yes Ma'am" she replied as she stood up and wiped her wet hands on her skirt.
18 trailed Bulma by a few steps, she didn't really know where Bulma was taking her or if she was going to make it out alive – her heart was pounding in her chest. They arrived at the research wing of the palace, 18 had spent a very limited amount of time here. Bulma stopped out the front of a door and produced a key from the pocket of her jeans.
Stepping inside, Bulma flicked on the light, illuminating the big high tech room with a kind of fluorescent white light. She set about doing her usual thing, turning on the radio, straightening her desk. Then she noticed that 18 was still standing out in the hall
"It's ok," she called, "you can come in. I don't bite"
She watched as 18 cautiously took a small step into the room. Bulma shook her head and laughed, "I'm not Chi-chi you know, I'm not going to hurt you" she said as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.
18 blinked, then blinked again, was it possible Bulma was being nice to her. She took a few more steps into the room and sat down in a chair on the other side of Bulma's big desk. Bulma positioned herself at the desk and pulled open one of the many draws. She produced a small beaker that contained about a cup full of pale green liquid.
"I don't suppose you know what this is?" she asked as she carefully removed the lid.
"No"
"That's ok" said Bulma. She pulled an ordinary drinking glass out from under her desk and tipped the green mixture into it, then she pushed it across the desk towards 18. "If it works, it should boost your immune system, plus help you body to heal any existing cuts or scrapes you might have. 18 looked down at her hands, then at her arms and finally her exposed bare legs, she was covered in cuts and sores.
"Does it have any side effects?" she asked warily
"That's what we're trying to find out," replied Bulma "before you drink that, I need you to come over here".
Bulma walked over to a type of hospital bed and told 18 to lay down on it, she did as she was told. Next Bulma turned on several machines, filling the room with a gentle humming sound. "Now, I just need to take a quick blood sample ok" said Bulma, and she gently poked the needle into 18's arm before she even had a chance to reply.
18 shut her eyes and tried to avert her thoughts, she hoped that Bulma hadn't noticed how much she was shaking – 18 hated this, she didn't trust Bulma and she wanted to get out of here.
"There we go, all done," said Bulma "Now, can you please drink the medicine?"
***
"Could all personnel report to the briefing room immediately" called Nappa over the intercom. Krillen pulled his armor over his head and made sure it was held in place firmly against his chest.
"C'mon Krillen, Nappa's waiting" called Kakkarot from across the room. Krillen laughed and sat down on his bed so he could pull his boots on "Relax Kakkarot, I'm done" replied Krillen and the two of them headed down the hall.
As it so happened they weren't late, in fact, they we some of the first people in the room. They sat down and watched as more and more men filed into the room.
"Silence!". That was all it took for any existing noise to cease, the room became void of any noise at all, except for the voice of Nappa of course.
"All right men, in approximately 15 minutes we will be touching down on Bindoon, we will be stationed there for about 3 hours, in which you will be free to walk around the city and take in something other than the ship. However, if you are not back within the allocated time frame there will be hell to pay!" he warned
When the ship landed Kakkarot and Krillen were some of the first off the ship, they were both desperate to get outside, breathe in some fresh air and look at something other than cold metallic walls.
"Wow" Kakkarot looked around wide eyes, taking everything in. It was all so vastly different from Vegeta-sei. There were more people and everything was so much bigger, busier, brighter. It was a beautiful day, the sky was bright blue and there was not a cloud in sight. People were bustling around everywhere, enjoying their day and Krillen thought he could faintly hear music off in the distance
Kakkarot's ultra sensitive nose picked up on something "Krillen, I smell food. C'mon lets go"
"Prince Vegeta, aren't you going to step outside, take in the sights?" Nappa asked as he approached Vegeta. He was sitting slumped in his seat in the briefing room. In response to Vegeta's question, he only shrugged his shoulder.
Nappa, sensing that the prince might like to be alone asked, "Would you like some time to yourself"
Vegeta nodded in reply "yes"
He heard Nappa leave the room, but paid no heed to it. His mind was full of thoughts right now – thoughts of what was going on around him, what he was about to face and how it was going to effect him. But most of all, he was thinking about the prospect of him not returning to his home planet. He had only been gone for 3 days and already it seemed like a lifetime had passed. This morning it had finally dawned on him – he might never see Vegeta-sei again, and if he never returned home, then he would never see the woman.
Stupid woman, she was taking over his every thought. But why? He had no feeling for her, he wasn't like his sister, he didn't fall in love. Did he? No, he had more important things to worry about, things that needed his concentration more than the woman, and her soft blue hair, supple creamy skin, and intoxicatingly pleasant smell. Wait! He was doing it again, he was doing exactly what he didn't want to.
Standing up, he raked his hands through his hair, maybe he did need to go outside for a while.
***
"All right 18, it's been 10 minutes since you took the medicine, tell me, how do you feel?" asked Bulma as she pressed pen to paper, ready to write.
18 let her head sink into the pillow as she thought. Bulma had refused to let her get off the bed in case something in the medicine had disagreed with something in 18. "I feel fine"
"No nausea, fatigue, dizziness or lack or memory?"
"None"
"Any headaches, itchiness, muscle aches or spasms?"
"No"
"And can you tell me what you thought of the taste of the medicine?"
"It tasted like crap" 18 was blunt and to the point.
Bulma laughed, "well I'm gonna have to work on that then". She put the clipboard down on the table beside her and crossed one leg over the other. "Tell me 18, you seem nice enough, how'd you end up working for Chi-chi?"
"Just bad luck I suppose" 18 replied, she surprised herself by doing so, she wasn't really the type of girl to open up to people easily. She could feel the cold metal of Krillens key resting against her skin under her shirt and she smiled.
Bulma gave 18 a sympathetic smile and noticed that if she had a little more meat on her she would be an extremely beautiful girl, Bulma could tell she was sick and from where she lived, she was surprised the poor girl wasn't dead already. She felt sorry for 18, she knew how bad Chi-chi treated her. But there was something else about this girl that struck her, something other than her sickening thinness and her shimmering crystal blue eyes, this girl had no tail.
"18, why don't you have a tail?" she asked.
18 blinked, then let her head roll to one side so she could look at Bulma "Why is your tail blue" she asked, with a sort of unpleasantness in her voice.
It was obvious to Bulma that 18 didn't want to talk about this particular topic, so she tried something else "How old are you?"
"I'm 19" she answered.
"I'm 21"
Bulma continued her friendly chit-chat with 18 for about another half an hour, although it was mostly a one sided conversation since 18 wasn't to willing to talk. But Bulma was a smart woman, and she quickly came to realize that 18 wasn't just a slave, she was someone who needed help and a few good friends. Throughout their talk, 18 accidentally dropped a few hints, and by adding them together, Bulma came to understand that there was someone special in 18's life and that he meant an awful lot to her.
"Well, I don't think that medicine is going to affect you. You can leave if you want" said Bulma as she stood up, "if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask".
Something clicked inside 18's brain, there was something she needed. "Actually," she began "We think one of my friends might be.... you know...expecting and I was wondering if there was anyway you could find out for sure?" she asked as she rubbed sleepily at her eyes.
"Yeah, of course I can find out. Just bring your friend right on up and..."
"Actually," 18 cut in "Could you come down to us, a little later on?" she asked.
Bulma thought for a few minutes. Did she really want to go down to the slave quarters? Not really, but she thought she owed it to 18 to do the right thing, "Ok, I'll be down a little later on"
***
"Ok troops, for many of you, if not all of you, this will be your first experience on a Sayian spaceship, and let me tell you now, just because you haven't gotten used to the Sayian way of doing things doesn't mean I, or any of the other commanding officers of this ship are going to be going easy on you." Nappa boomed to the room full of unfamiliar faces. While the Sayian half of the squad had been granted permission to roam the streets of this strange and unfamiliar city, the troops who were native to this planet had been expected to attend an in depth briefing of the mission and all the rules, regulations and information regarding it.
Towards the end of the meeting, when Nappa was outlining the rules of the ship, Sayians began to file in and pass the briefing room, to which the door was wide open. Some of them stopped ad peered in the door, to catch a glimpse of their new peers, while others didn't even give them a second thought, not even turning their heads to look at them.
When Krillen and Kakkarot returned from their little outing, both had several shopping bags with them, and Kakkarot was holding a large candy bar. They both stopped mid conversation to look into the room, but they only got a glimpse of the new guys before they were ushered along by one of their commanders.
"Guess we'll have to wait a bit to meet them then" said Kakkarot as he and Krillen rounded the corner and walked into their bedroom. They sat down on Krillens bed and Kakkarot empties the entire contents of one of his bags, half of it spilled onto the floor, but Kakkarot didn't mind, he just scooped the candy up into his hands and shoveled it back into the bag, it was wrapped after all.
"Kakkarot, if my brother or Nappa sees that candy, you do realize what they'll do to you right?" Krillen asked as he lay back against the pillow and looked at the bottom of the bunk on top of him, which belonged to Kakkarot.
"No," replied Kakkarot through a mouthful of half chewed candy "what?"
Krillen rolled his eyes and shook his head "They'll take it all off you, and probably leave you on Namek to rot". The last part of his statement obviously wasn't true, but Kakkarot could be a bit thick in the head at times. His eyes grew wide and a look of pure shock washed over his face "You really think they'll leave me on Namek?" he asked
Krillen had to laugh "No, but they will take all that chocolate off you if you don't hide it from them".
About 10 minutes later, Kakkarot was stuffing the last of his supply of candy in his duffel bag and Krillen was watching on in great amusement. He could hear voices faintly echoing off the walls and he knew that in a matter of seconds he would be meeting some of the new guys. There were 3 lots of sleeping quarters, each equipped with beds showers and toilets. Krillen looked towards the open door, and just as he did so, about 10 men walked through. They all looked like good friends and were laughing boisterously.
The group took a few steps into the room and realized that they needed some help. One of them appointed themselves as a spokesperson and rubbed nervously at the back of his head as he stepped toward Kakkarot and Krillen.
"Um, we're the new guys," he said, stating the obvious "I don't suppose you can tell us which bed are still available can you?"
Krillen smiled brightly at the men and stood up smiled brightly at the men. "Hi, I'm Krillen," he introduced himself, his tail flicking back and fourth happily as he spoke "You can take any of these bed" he pointed to 6 sets of bunks in various part of the room.
"Nice to meet you Krillen. The names Ari" A man with light blue hair introduced himself.
"I'm Kakkarot" Kakkarot piped up as he stuffed a piece of chocolate into his mouth. Ari looked at Kakkarot and raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure it's a good thing to eat candy right now?" he asked.
Krillen laughed again "Don't mind Kakkarot, he's a lean mean eating machine"
Ari laughed out loud and gave Krillen a big bright smile.
Krillen liked this Ari character; he had a bright personality and a great sense of humor. He could tell straight away they were going to get along famously, and in an environment like this. Who couldn't use a few more friends?
***
A/N: Well what did you think, Good, bad? Tell me in a review! Hopefully an update will be soon ~D.B