Disclaimer; Still don't own DBZ…only a few days till Christmas though
A/N; Yay, another update already. Wow I'm just pumping them out at the moment. Are you all proud of me? Hope you all enjoy this chappie, if all goes well, hopefully I'll have another chapter out by the weekend
And Lavender The Drama Girl, I live in Australia and it is the middle of summer right now, the heat wave broke last night though and it's gone back a normal temperature. You know, I've never seen a white Christmas before; here in Aus we celebrate Christmas in summer!
Well, no more delays, here you go everyone the next chap of And Then You'll Know
And Then You'll Know
Chapter 28
The night sky was littered with stars, hundreds, thousands, probably even millions of them covering the ground below in an odd sliver shimmer. It was very late at night – or very early in the morning, whichever way you chose to look at it. It was almost 3am, and Chi-chi just couldn't sleep. She stood out on the balcony, despite the cold weather, dressed in her pajamas and wearing a big baggy jumper over the top, and of course her favorite pink slippers.
She looked up at the sky, wondering which one of them was actually Namek, though she doubted it was anyone of them; Namek was over 70,000 kilometers away after all.
Holding her stomach, Chi-chi groaned, she had been feeling sick for hours now, ever since about 3 that afternoon, she just couldn't rid herself of this sinking feeling in her stomach that something was wrong all the way up there on Namek. Was Frieza there? Was Kakkarot hurt? Had he finally gotten ill from eating to many candy bars? She didn't know, but she did know that whatever was going on up there, she didn't like.
It was then that Chi-chi decided that she was going to do something she hadn't done for a long long time. Walking back into her bedroom, she shut the glass balcony doors, pulled her jumper off and threw it on the ground then she headed down the hall. A short time later Chi-chi came to the end of the hall, to a set of double wooden doors. She had expected her father to be well and truly asleep, but there was a yellow glow shining under the door, signifying that her father was either sleeping with the light on, which was unlikely, or he wasn't asleep at all. She knocked on the door but didn't wait for a reply; she just pushed one of the doors open and crept inside.
The King was sitting at his big desk, his arms rested on it and his head buried in them. His tail hung limply behind him, his troubled posture instantly told Chi-chi something was wrong.
"Papa?" she quietly called him, using her pet name for him, which she hadn't used for almost a year now. "Are you alright?"
The Kings head snapped up and he quickly wiped tears off his face "Chi-chi," he sounded startled by his daughters sudden appearance "What are you doing here?"
Chi-chi walked over to her father and stood beside him "I couldn't get to sleep. Papa why are you crying? What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong dear, everything is fine. Now why don't you head back to bed?"
"I already told you, I couldn't sleep. Something has happened to the boys hasn't it? Is it Kakkarot?" Chi-chi asked, feeling her own eyes begin to fill with tears.
The King nodded somberly, "I have just received word that Frieza arrived on Namek about 9 hours ago, it was about 2 am Namekian time. Nappa was only just able to get in contact with me now.
"And?" asked Chi-chi
The King knew what she wanted to know "Nappa was blunt, 5 men have already died and countless more have been injured. The Namekian people have offered their assistance and allied with our troops but even with them on our side, I'm afraid things are looking grim"
Chi-Chi felt the tears running down her cheeks, and stretched out her arms, her father stood up and wrapped her in his embrace. "It's ok Chi-chi, I know how you must be feeling. But our men have been trained well, I honestly believe we will come out of this battle victorious and then think Chi-chi, our people will be free of Freiza's chains forever"
"Is it really worth it papa?" Chi-chi sobbed, she could feel the wet patch she had created on her father's shirt "is it really worth risking Kakkarot's life, Vegeta's life, just to be free?"
The King pushed Chi-chi off him then and held her an arms lengths away, his eyes had become hard and focused and Chi-chi instantly knew she had said the wrong thing "Chi-chi, how could you possibly say that about a…a….a monster, that nearly wiped out our entire population, took away everything we had worked so hard to achieve and killed you mother" his voice dropped for the latter part of the sentence.
Chi-chi covered her mouth with her hand and took a slow deep breath. Her father was right, they were dealing with the creature that had killed her mother. She was thrust back into the horrible day she had been informed of her mother's death and how never had she ever experienced anything that had hurt more than that. She had never really fully recovered from loosing her mother and being raised by a single father, not that it was really him who had raised them back in those early years; they had had nannies, teachers, personal trainers, people who were hired just to play with them. It really wasn't until they had become old enough to look after themselves that the King had decided he wanted to be a part of their lives.
"You're right papa, we'll be free" she whispered
"That's my girl," the King spoke softly now and wiped away some of Chi-chi's tears "now what do you say you try and get some sleep. You're going to need all the energy you can get to prepare that party for when the boys get home"
Chi-chi smiled through her tears, stood up on her tiptoes and kissed her father on the cheek, "Alright, I'll try," she said softly "goodnight papa"
"Goodnight sweetheart"
***
"Kakkarot!" Krillen whirled around, shooting a blinding blue energy beam from his hand and incinerating one of Freiza's hundreds of henchmen "Kakkarot!, Where are you?" his face was smeared with blood and he wasn't sure if it was his own or not…and where the hell was Kakkarot? He had been fighting for almost 5 hours straight and Krillen felt like he was about to die from sheer exhaustion rather than being pummeled by Freiza's personal army. How Frieza had known that they were going to be there waiting for him was really beyond him, and where he had managed to get an entire army from baffled Krillen. Usually when Frieza needed some work done, he turned to the universes extinguishes the Sayians, were he had dug up this bunch was a mystery.
"Kakkarot!" Finally Kakkarot appeared behind Krillen and together they blasted the circle that was gathering around them to H.F.I.L
"Krillen, what happened to you leg?" Krillen could hardly hear Kakkarot over the horrifying sounds of war, but he sounded alarmed, and he could see where he was pointing. Looking down at his leg, Krillen swore, he hadn't even until now he had been so sidetracked that he hadn't even noticed the huge blast wound on his leg and the blood that was gushing out of it like a river. Krillen suddenly felt faint and a wave of pain rushed through him
"Quick get to the med hut now! I'll hold things down here until you get back!"
Krillen nodded through the pain and flew off towards the house that had been dubbed the 'med hut'
Inside it was hot, smelly and loud. People were crying out in agonizing pain and Namekian healers were running around like crazy, much to much work for them to handle. They had been working with out a break for 7 hours now, using the amazing ability to heal the warriors, but even then, there were some they just couldn't save, they had been hurt to badly to be saved, missing arms or legs or even both, it was a gruesome sight to behold.
Krillen stood just inside the doorway he was hot, thirsty, sweaty and in a gross amount pf pain. It was only a matter of seconds before one of the Nameks noticed him and rushed over.
"I need some help over here" she shouted and one of her comrades rushed over.
"Get this guy on a bed and bring him a glass of water"
The women nodded and with little effort at all, picked Krillen up and gently deposited him one of the only empty beds. He was only faintly aware of what was going on around him, but he could hear the explosions outside as clear as day. Then, there was a hot, almost burning sensation on his leg, his initial reaction was to jump, he thought he had been hit again, but he saw that it was the women from before, a soft yellow light was being emitted from her outstretched hands and it was healing his leg, then the second woman was at his side. "Here you go young man, you look like you could use this"
"Thank you" Krillen said, his voice full of gratitude, he took the glass off the woman and drank down all the cold liquid in one gulp
"Would you like another, sir?" the woman asked
"It's Krillen," he said "yes please". Collapsing back onto the pillow, Krillen panted for breath, his leg still hurt and he was feeling dizzy from blood loss.
"Sir, I'm sorry this is taking so long. It's just I'm so worn out, please accept my apology"
Krillen half sat up and smiled at the young women "Thank you," he said "for healing my leg, without you we surely wouldn't stand a chance in this battle, you are the real hero's here"
The woman smiled and turned back to the task at hand
~
Kakkarot landed on his rear end with a thud, he was getting really mad, why wouldn't these freaks die? They were purple! Purple for god's sake, and they were so small, yet for small things, they sure packed a mean punch, and there were so many of them, right now, while Kakkarot was sitting on the ground rubbing his rump a circle of them was forming around him. He groaned, stood up and pulled his hands to his side, clasping them there
"KA-ME-HA," he maneuvered his hand around to the front, preparing to use a technique his grandfather had taught him when he was just a boy "ME-HA!" he shouted and a fierce blue beam shot forth from his hands, disintegrating everything in it's path, within mere seconds Kakkarot's assailants were nothing more than memories.
Wiping a trail of blood from his mouth he looked around at the devastating scene. Everything had been so beautiful before, so peaceful, so green, so homely. But now, looking around in this rare moment of peace, he felt tears well up in his eyes. The river, which had once been flowing with clear drinking water, was now floating with carcasses and the water was a dark reddish colour from all the blood. Then small little huts were now nothing more than piles of rubble, and the few that were left standing were all smashed, and on fire. So many families had lost everything they owned, all their possessions and to many of their lives had been taken, for Kakkarot one innocent life lost was to many, and here looking around him, he could see lifeless green bodies everywhere, and even worse, most of them were children, their little bodies to weak to withstand the initial blast. It brought some relief to Kakkarot to know that they hadn't even felt it, they had all been sleeping, so it had been a quick and painless transition for them, but still, that only offered him the smallest consolation.
***
Chi-chi was sitting at a table watching Bulma slowly move down the line in the cafeteria. They could of gone to the kitchen and had Chi-chi's cooks whip them up something, but Bulma claimed she didn't have enough time for that, so they had decided to come to the employees lunch room, so Bulma – an employee of the palace, could get some lunch, and since Chi-chi had no intentions of just watching her friend eat, Bulma was filling up two trays.
It wasn't long before Bulma was back at the table and sitting down, it was a big room, 3 off the walls faced outside with and were made of glass, giving a lovely view of the palace ground, with it's lush green grass, beautiful flowerbeds with flowers that bloomed all year round and a big crystal blue lake. The sky was blue today, and big fluffy white clouds rolled lazily across their line of sight.
Bulma rested her head in her hand and smiled, looking out the window, while it may have looked warm and inviting out there, it really was quite cold, in fact right now, Chi-chi was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, a white tee-shirt, a wooly pink sweater and a long white scarf. Winter had officially ended 2 days ago, but it was still cold.
"So," said Bulma as she poked at her lunch with the plastic fork she had been given by the cafeteria staff. She had heard the news about the boys, not only had it been on the front cover of every newspaper that morning, but it had been all over the T.V and radio as well, and of course Chi-chi had informed her of the situation, it was a very grim and nervous time for the people of Vegeta-sei. "How are you feeling?"
Chi-chi only shrugged her shoulder, "Fine I suppose" she said as she pushed her food around her plate, feeling anything but hungry right now.
"Yeah, what do you mean by fine?"
"I mean I feel like shit"
"Me too. I'm not hungry. What do you say we go outside for a little while? The fresh air might do us good"
Chi-chi was already half way out of her seat before Bulma even finished speaking "Let's go"
Outside, Chi-chi and Bulma sat on a wooden bench under the shade of a big oak tree. Bulma was right, being outdoors and breathing in the fresh crisp air was helping to calm her nerves already. Now all she needed was a distraction.
Bulma was going to ask Chi-chi how the preparations for the party were going, but she didn't think that now would really be the most appropriate time to bring up Kakkarot. Looking at her best friend, she noticed that she already looked liked she was about to cry, that last thing she wanted was to make it worse for her. She missed Vegeta, and they were only friends…well she assumed they were only friends. So she couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for Chi-chi, having her first true love torn away from her like that, with no idea if he would ever return or not. It must have been devastating for her.
She glanced down at her watch and blinked, was it really that late. How long had they been sitting out here exactly.
"Chi," she said standing up "I've gotta get back to work"
"Can I come to? I don't really want to be alone"
Bulma flashed Chi-chi a comforting smile and reached out her hand to help Chi-chi off the seat, "sure you can," she said, "let's go"
***
18 opened her eyes and looked around, she sat up and noticed that she was in Krillens bed. It smelt like 17 now though, and for some reason, that depressed 18.
"Oh hey, you're up" she heard 17's voice from the other side of the room. "I was wondering how much longer you would be out for"
"My head hurts" she groaned.
"I'll bet it does," 17 agreed "but Bulma checked you out, you'll be fine if you just rest"
18 tried to sit up, but the pain shot from her head all the way down her spine so she had no choice but to lay back down "I have work to do, I need to get to work, Chi-chi will kill me"
17 walked in off the balcony and shut the doors behind him, then he came and sat on the edge of the bed beside 18 "Done." He said, "Me and Tar took care of it first thing this morning"
"Really?" 18 asked with a sigh of relief "Thanks"
"Anytime sis, it was the least we could do" he said with a smile. He knew in a few minutes he was going to have to tell 18 about the men up on Namek, and he knew it would hurt her, but she couldn't go on not knowing.
"18" he said seriously, "I have to tell you something"
18 first reaction was to assume that something was wrong with Taries baby, but 17 wouldn't be so calm about that, no it had to be something else, logical thinking eliminated that possibility "what?" she asked
"Yesterday at about 4 o'clock out time, Frieza got to Namek, it's all over the papers. There have already been casualties, no identifications of who yet though"
18 suddenly felt like she was going to throw up. What if it was Krillen, it couldn't be him, not her Krillen. "You're kidding me right?" she asked, hoping against everything in her entire being that he was kidding.
"I'm not kidding. I can show you the paper if you want"
"No thanks. I don't feel so good"
17 looked at his sister, she suddenly gone so pale, she looked like a ghost "are you going to be ok?" he asked
18 nodded, she was on the verge of tears, but she didn't want 17 to see her cry, but he didn't because a welcome distraction walked into the room, holding a duster. Tarie. She instantly noticed 18's condition and rushed over to the bed, switching into her sympathetic friend mode.
"Out 17, we need a girls moment"
"What, but why?" asked 17 extremely confused.
"Because I said so," she said thrusting the duster into his hands "now go and clean something and come back later". 17 didn't need to be told twice, he didn't want to get in trouble so he left.
"18," Tarie whispered as she crawled onto the bed, "I'm so sorry you had to wake up to that. Come here"
18 sat up and blinked back tears, she felt the warmth spread through her as Tarie wrapped her in a friendly hug, which was just what she needed. Within seconds she was crying on Tarie shoulder, letting all the pent up hurt out.
"Why him?" she asked through her sobs "he's the first good thing to happen to me in my entire life, why did they have to take him away from me?"
Tarie had been expecting an outbreak like this from 18 sooner or later, ever since she had arrived to them, almost a year ago she had had a cold hard exterior, never letting anyone see her true emotions and always trying to be braver than she needed to be. She led a hard life full of pain, misery and suffering, but it all had to come out sometime.
"Don't worry," she soothed "everything will be ok. You just have to believe it will"
"But I can't, everything bad happens to me, so why not this?"
"Because this is different. Trust me, if love is meant to be, then nothing can come between it, and I know that you and Krillen are meant to be. He'll be home soon 18, really soon"
***
"Here, put these on and you can help me over here" said Bulma and she threw a pair of safety goggles and a lab coat at Chi-chi.
"They'll mess up my hair" she complained, but pulled them over her eyes and slipped into the jacket anyway.
Bulma was in the middle of testing one of her new concoctions; Chi-chi didn't dare ask what it did, because last time she had done that, she had gotten a half hour lecture on the molding capabilities of compound X, and Bulma trying to explain that to Chi-chi was just a waste of both of their time.
"So," chi-chi eagerly rubbed her hands together, "What can I do to help"
"Um," Bulma paused as she carefully inserted a single drop of some clear liquid into the pale green stuff in the beaker. "You can pass me some paper towel, a microscope and a fire extinguisher"
"A fire extinguisher?" Chi-chi asked raising an eyebrow
"Yes"
"Okay" Chi-chi drew the word slowly and lifted the small device off the wall.
"All right, stand back" warned Bulma, Chi-chi did as she was told and took a rather large step backwards. Bulma pulled her goggles down and also stepped back, then a few seconds later, smoke started to arise from the beaker and a loud explosion sounded, much to loud for the tiny beaker it had come from. Bulma coughed and waved the smoke away from her face, and then she began to laugh. "Wow, she said, I didn't expect it to react like that"
"Like what?"
"I didn't know the explosion would be so big"
Chi-chi smiled and lifted her goggles; Bulma had big dark smudges on her cheeks. She stated to laugh
"What? What's funny Chi?" She asked
"Oh…um nothing" she said with a giggle.
Bulma rested her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side "I know that's not true".
Chi-chi opened her mouth to say something, but an announcement was called over the P.A system.
"A message to Miss. Bulma Briefs of research. Could you please head to the reception of the science and technologies wing, you have a package to collect. Repeat, Miss Briefs to the science and technologies reception. Thank you"
"Ah, my package. I was wondering when that would arrive" Bulma said to herself as she removed the safety glasses, sending Chi-chi into hysterics. It was now obvious to Bulma what was so funny.
"Oh I see, I have black all over my face. That's so funny" she said sarcastically. In the science fields, getting dirty was almost an hourly occurrence. She walked over to the basin, and washed her face clean then with Chi-chi in tow, they headed towards reception.
~
Yumcha smirked to himself, trying not to laugh; he couldn't believe how easy it had been to get inside the building. All he had to do was beat up the courier, put his clothes on and walk inside, as easy as that. Now he stood in the lobby, waiting for Bulma to arrive. He looked through the glass doors and down the corridor he could see through them, no sign of her yet.
He clutched the package in his hands a little tighter, not at all nervous about seeing her, just a little anxious. Would she even recognize him?
Soon he could hear two peppy female voices, they were faint at first, then they got louder until finally both Bulma and Chi-chi walked around the corner. Bulma swiped her employee I.D card and the glass door slid open and the two women walked through.
As soon as Bulma walked into the room she knew something wasn't right, and it only took her another second after that to work out what. She gulped and her heartbeat quickened. What was he doing here? She stole a quick glace at his work shirt, and it didn't have Yumcha written on it, so he wasn't here legitimately.
Taking a deep breath, she walked over to him, took the clip board and signed her name on it "What are you doing here?" she hissed
He sniggered at her, his hot breath tickling her ear. "Get rid of the princess, take me back to the lab, and I won't hurt you" he threatened her. Bulma nodded and obliged, she was to scared to do anything else.
Walking over to Chi-chi, she said, "Uh Chi, I'll see you later ok. I have something I need to do"
Chi-chi was confused, but she nodded her head, said goodbye and headed out the main door nonetheless.
***
"Hey 17," Tarie stood side on in front of the dressing table, with the huge mirror, inspecting herself "am I starting to get fat?"
17, who had been sitting on the bed reading a newspaper and eating a bowl of rice, stood up and walked over to Tarie, he bent down and rested on his ankles, so his head was about equal with Taries waist. Before he gave his answer, he had to look at her stomach from several different angles, and poke it many times, causing Tarie to giggle and squirm. Once he had finished, 17 stood up and wrapped his arms around her.
"Well?" she asked
17 nodded "It's starting to show, a few more weeks and we'll definitely be able to tell"
Tarie smiled, Bulma had given her a rough estimate, and right now she was about 4 months pregnant. "Just think, only 6 more months and we're going to be parents".
17 brought his lips to hers and they shared a long passionate kiss, "it's pretty cool, isn't it?" he said when they pulled away
"Yeah. A tiny little life that we created, all of our very own. I hope we can be good parents."
"Don't worry about that Tar. We'll be the best parents there ever were" he said, thinking back to his own childhood. His mother, the most kind, beautiful gentle woman in the world. She was a delicate flower that had been crushed killed and destroyed by the evil that had been his father. The twins had narrowly escaped him, but their escape from him had only brought on their imprisonment here. Where they were undoubtedly doomed to spend the rest of their days.
"The best parents ever?" she asked skeptically.
17 nodded and flashed Tarie a bright smile, "That's what I said"
***
"What do you want Yumcha?" Bulma demanded to know as she stalked across the lab towards her desk, which he was sitting on, getting his grubby, incriminating fingerprints all over. Had Yumcha taken a closer look, he would of seen Bulma trembling. They were alone in the big lab; he could easily overpower her in here. But she wouldn't let him see that she was scared, her voice was strong and demanding, making it seem like she was in control of the situation. There were not many things that Bulma was scared of, but she was scared of him.
He began to laugh, "I want to thank-you Bulma"
She raised an eyebrow "A card would have been plenty"
"But where's the gratitude in that?"
"I don't want your gratitude Yumcha. Or your thanks. I want you to leave" she sneered, pointing to the door.
"I don't think so B. you see, it's gonna go like this, I'm going to thank you, and you're going to be thankful" he jumped off the desk and walked a close circle around Bulma, so close she could feel him breathing on her.
Then without warning, he gave her a hard shove in the stomach, and she stumbled then fell onto her desk, smacking her head on the computer monitor on the way down. She didn't have time to recover though, because Yumcha grabbed hold of her chin and yanked her entire body up.
"Thankful yet?" he asked as he kissed her neck
"Fuck off Yumcha" she hissed.
Yumcha scowled, raised his hand and slapped her, "wrong answer"
Bulma could taste blood in her mouth, her lip was bleeding. She needed to do something before things got out of control; her heart was pounding in her chest. But was it pounding from fear, or from the exhilaration of having her bad boy ex back, even if she didn't want him?
"Yumcha" she met his cold black eyes with her own shimmering aqua blue orbs.
The next thing she knew, his mouth was covering hers in a fiery kiss, and Bulma took that as her opportunity. She thrust her knee up and rammed it straight into his groin. She knew it was a low blow, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She climbed over the top of Yumcha and headed for the door, it would only be so long before the pain subsided enough for him to move out of the fetal position and stand up, and when he did, he would be mad.
She put her hand on the doorknob to twist it and open it, but Yumcha had locked the door, and her key was on the desk.
'Damn it' she thought to herself. Then she saw something that caught her attention and struck fear through her entire being. A bright light reflecting in the glass of the door, a Ki orb.
And she couldn't escape…
***
A/N; dun dun dun…what's going to happen to Bulma? Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. And also I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a happy new year and that Santa brings all of you lots of great stuff.
*Eeep* I only need one more review to get to 200 hundred…wow!
Next chapter up as soon as possible. And because it is close to Christmas and I am in a Christmassy (is that a real word) kinda mood tonight here is a little gift for you all…a preview of the next chapter
And Then You Know. 29
"Ari" he called to the blue haired giant, who was currently in the process of beating up an enemy, and he was doing a pretty good job of it to.
"Uh I'm kind busy over here mate" he cried back.
"Allow me" said Kakkarot and he blasted the purple devil into oblivion; he then quickly darted over to Ari before another one of them pounced on him.
"Ari listen to me. We aren't achieving anything here. We need to work as a team" Ari nodded in agreement. "Listen," Kakkarot continued, he had to shout over the sounds of battle to be heard though "I think if we go straight for Frieza, the rest of these freaks will just go back to wherever they came from"
"Whys that?"
"Because my people have been in the same situation as theirs. They are only working for Frieza because they are to scared not to. Think about it, if Frieza is gone, why do these guys need to keep fighting us?"
Ari indicated that he understood Kakkarot by nodding his head and giving Kakkarot the 'thumbs up' "I get it" he said, "Now what do you want me to do?"