A/n: I'm at a loss for words, but this chapter certainly isn't! Oh and ARG! I really need to read my chapters over more times. I can't believe that I gave the Keepers two different names. At one point there keepers, but some how when I was writing they turned into 'Protectors' this is now fixed. They are just called keepers now :P
For some reason I keep deciding to make the plot of this story more and more complicated! Because even now I've added yet one more plot line than I expected I was going to. However, a lot of them meet up at weird places and then split up again later.
If the Italics don't work in this chapter, than for reference lines 1-5 are in Italics, then, it skips one, and the next is Italic, then skips one again, and the next 2 are italic. Skip the paragraph, and the next thing in quotes is supposed to be italic. Skip the next paragraph, and the next line is Italic, then it alternates until " It's not true ….." after that there aren't any. This paragraph will be rendered completely useless if the italics miraculously work. If this is too confusing, I'll change it later to something else…..
Might as well get it all done now…..
Congratulations to Nightelf for correctly guessing that the Oracle comes from the Matrix. * Secretly whispers in her ear on how to avoid the agents. * Enjoy your 'freedom'!
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Disclaimer today done by Gimpy (Cartoon Character)
Gimpy: Where did you get the permission to do this?
Min: Umm I didn't…..
Gimpy: well then you don't have the rights to make me do this disclaimer. Besides I have better things to do.
Min: Like creating an X-files screen saver?
Gimpy : Exactly. If you'll excuse me…..
Min: I'll give you an original, unedited script for Star wars…
Gimpy: * Gasp * I am now your eternal slave!
Min: good. Do my disclaimer.
Gimpy: Min doesn't own any of the DBZ franchise. She does own an old laptop, and my eternal gratitude if she gives me that script.
Min: Good boy * Tosses script * On to the Fic!
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Chapter 9: Hidden Confrontation
Failure
"…He's dead…"
"…11 It's all my fault…"
" Could have made it…"
"…See your true power"
"No!"
"2 more cites destroyed…."
" Stop it!"
" They'll all die, and it will be your fault…"
" I'm going to stay dead this time…"
Voices pressed in at every angle, searching for that crack, that crevice that would let them pry their way into his head. Like walking through a cloud of insects, one of them could be infected with Malaria; you just have to wait and hope it doesn't bite you.
" Don't you trust me Gohan?"That voice stung. He knew it could be his downfall. He had to keep her voice out, for he didn't know why she was harder to face than the others.
"You lied to me…"
" No"
"How could you let me die?""I'm sorry Videl," He whispered, barely keeping the tears at bay.
" I thought that you could protect me" Her voice sounded again, a ghostly whisper.
"It's not true, it can't be! She never blamed me!" He said aloud. "She never said anything at all….." Gohan continued to argue with the voices that assailed him. He thought that he was ready for anything that they could throw at him, but not this. Never this.
" I think that were starting to get him down," Commented hopeless.
"'S to bad I suppose" replied Depression. " I always get everyone down"
" A little two down if you ask me." Hopeless watched as the boy {1} in front of her began to sag in the air, as if losing a battle with himself. " We'll never get there!" She wailed
Suddenly he reaffirmed his position in the air and shook his head as if denying what the voices said. Depression turned his attention to two pitiful airborne creatures
" Well would you look at that." Said Depression, " The Keepers fly again" He stared down at the two pitiful ugly creatures, which looked up with their ugly misshapen faces.
Suddenly the deep red one of the pair peeled off and started heading towards them. It however, lacked the speed to keep up, and was quickly left behind. The other kept to its course, battered as it was.
" Wonder what he did" Hopeless said, gazing in the direction of the black haired demi sayian that they followed
" Does it matter? They all die in the end"
" I suppose not"
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Back in the crime-ridden streets of Satan City, A black haired blue-eyed petite girl sat in the center of the street, in a patch carefully cleared of all garbage and other unplensentries. The occasional breeze ruffled her clothes and hair, but she ignored it. Also she ignored, or was not aware of the growing crowd of curious people. They may have been downtrodden and abused, but the people of Satan city were always willing to stand in large crowds and say "gosh" at strange or unusual things.
" Maybe she's sleeping!"
" Maybe she's using her amazing telepathic powers to seek out and destroy all of the wrong doers in the city." One said. The crowd took a nervous step back.
" But Miss Videl doesn't have telepathic powers, does she?" said the voice of reason in the crowd. They took a step back in, however reluctant
" Maybe she does! How does she get to all of those crimes in the nick of time?" There was a general murmur of agreement
" I thought that she has a special police watch that the chief contacts her with when they need her help."
" He does have a point. Besides, if any one has Psychic powers it would be that Sayia Man eh? Cuz how does he know where the crimes are!"
" Well he can fly, Duh. He can just see them"
" Will all of you please shut up and go away. I'm trying to find someone and all of your excess Ki isn't helping," Voiced the temporarily immobile Videl. The crowd scattered and broke off into little groups, veritable islands of gossip. Videl sighed and went back to her meditation.
She was so close to finding the thing that she was looking for! If those stupid citizens hadn't distracted her from her task, then she would have already found it by now.
Videl sent her mind's eye wandering about the streets of her city. She started in a grid pattern, searching out each Ki and trying to find one that was very different from the rest. The hospital was a mass of hurt/depressed signals. The streets weren't much better. But wait….. here was one that was Mischievous?
There, another, not 10 m away from the first. And another! As she followed the path of the Ki she found that as she got further on, the more trouble maker's ki's she found, until, they were so thick that every person had this signal. Then they started to grow less frequent again.
Videl frowned and returned her senses to the center of the group, and began to shift through the Ki that she found there. Human, human, cat, human, dog, human, human, human, Pigeon, demon, human….. Wait Demon?
She had to stop her self from leaping into the air with joy (Not a good idea after 3 hours of sitting still). It was an odd Ki, defiantly not human, infinitely old, and strangely naughty?
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" What do you mean that they were all taken down?"
" They were all disabled sir, all but plane #56"
" Inconceivable! Those were crack pilots! Top of the force! How could they be taken down by," He paused to read the report once more, " Two men, who shot light out of their hands, and flew in the sky without mechanical aid? This sounds like some kind of twisted fairy tale to me!"
" I'm afraid not sir. We have an eyewitness account from the pilot of plane 56. He's always proven reliable in the past"
" I don't care how reliable he was! I wanted him tested for drugs and hallucinogens right now!" A vein started to pulse in the sergeant's temple. The petty officer giving the report began to back away slowly, as far as he could without hitting the bank of computers behind him.
"y-y-yes sir!" With an awkward solute that nearly took off the head of a passing private with his metal clipboard, he scampered off to get the tests done.
" And you!" Said the crazed sergeants temple. He stared directly at the shaking private "get me Washington. I want that DEFCON to go from 2 to 1 you got it?" He watched with a kind of sadistic pleasure as all of the color drained from the private's face
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" The Supreme Kai wishes to see you. Gather your families and meet him at the lookout. Hurry. Oh, and next time, try not to crash so many planes into my meditation waterfall"
" Sorry Piccolo!"
But it was two late. He had already flown beyond the range of his voice. Piccolo reveled in the simplicity of the pattern of cloud sky and ground before him. There was something that he liked about this planet, not that he would ever tell anyone, but he would be sorry to see it blown up again. He rushed onward, to gather the rest of the z fighters, hoping against time that he could find them before…..
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Seductive
Tantalizing
Persuasive
She knew that she was everything that any man or any woman for that matter could want. She knew that she could make any man want any woman, or vice versa. She knew how to kindle the flames of passion into an obsessive desire, until all that person would want was what she told them they wanted, until all they could do was obsess over him/her to the point of madness. To the point where rational brain function was almost impossible, where all they knew was desire. A vice that would grow off of the tiniest feeling and destroy the inhibitions of the unwary.
Danger
Lust.
Yet she just sat, somewhere between here and there, waiting for her chance. She knew that she could work with any mind, bend it to her will. Yet now she wanted a challenge, someone who knew no such thing as Lust, who had never felt so. She wanted to break such a mind, force it into the mad throes of desire.
She knew one such mind was coming.
Grooming her long golden hair with her fingers she observed this creature as it flew by. He was a namek, by the look of his green skin, and pink muscles. Now that would be a challenging mind to take. She scanned his mind, and found that he was on a quest to find other of a secretive group of warriors known as 'Z fighters' She cocked her head to one side. Warriors were always fun to break; they were usually so honor bound, or if not, they usually gave her a good show. She smirked, her red rosebud lips twisting into an evil Vegeta-like smile. She carefully arranged her red dress across her hips. It fell to the ground, but had a slit all the way up to her hip on one side, and as Chichi would so delightfully put it had a neckline " Halfway to her knees". Her skin was the color of fresh cream, with a rose petal stain gracing her cheeks. Her eyes were large , smoky and seductive.
She followed the namek in her minds eye, plotting devious things in her head, waiting for the chance to bring them to fruition. She laughed, a rich full throaty laugh that resounded off of the mountains. Anyone who heard it ran for cover, but they still didn't feel safe. {2}
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There was one of the strangely deformed demons now know, for some strange reason, as the protectors. Its purpose was quite clear, and its creator derived this clarity of thought.
For unlike most of the Keepers, this one was different. It knew that it was, because it had met some of the keepers, those that were created by Mortal beings, and had found it's self to be superior to them. Because, it had been created by an expert. One who knew the rules governing these, creations, these beasts, and these monstrosities. It concerned a promise made by demons, broken by demons. It concerned a betrayal, forgotten by Demons, but not by the betrayed.
Demons have long memories.
They don't forgive
And they never forget.
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" You'll pay for leaving me alone, yes. You, discourtesy will be first. Next, yes then next will come Envy; I will enjoy watching you die, watching you suffer. Suffer as I have suffered, when you left me here, all by my self, when you stole my power. Liars. Thieves! Deception will die a particularly gruesome death, yes. I wish I could take your innards in my hands and crush them, squeeze every breath from your immortal body and then do it again. Leave me here in the dark, you shall all die. You shall all be sorry you ever left me here, Pestilence they said we'd come back for you they said. They break the promise and they broke it the second they sealed it over again. You will suffer for leaving me here. You thought I forgot about the Keepers don't you? Your bad luck…"
Deep in the dark, a hunched figure continued its ramblings, twitching and gabbling, watching in a silver pool the progress of it's Keeper, Storm grey and sickly yellow, with bulging eyes with the words 'pestilence' written in them in fire. It was now only a matter of time. Only a matter of time
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He didn't like the way she was grinning at him.
Correction. He really didn't like the way she was grinning at him.
" Shall we talk over a cup of tea" Her voice was pleasant, almost innocent. King Kai knew better. This was a kai who had a lifelong reputation for her firm rule and of course, for bringing down all of the demons in the living realms.
"Um sure. What ever you say" For once in his life he couldn't think of a single cheesy joke. He swallowed in a vain attempt to get the lump out of his throat. He sat as if walking to his own execution.
" Now, Northy, You must know that, in the Kai world, you have, a shall we say, Reputation, among us kais. It seems, that you, my small blue friend, have had more fighters that have trained under you come back from the dead than any other Kai. Would you care to explain to me why this is?"
King Kai swallowed forcibly.
" well that's not quite what you think, I mean, most of the fighters that have come back from the dead that I trained were from Earth, and they have these magical things called the Dragon Balls and they kind of have the power to bring people back to life and you see.." he began to ramble quite incoherently at this point in time while Suian 'Patiently' looked on.
" I Under stand you perfectly King Kai" She said, the predatory grin coming back to her face.
King Kai gulped. :: I should have kept with counting grass. No angry dead Kaio would come at me then ::
" Oh and King Kai"
" Yes?"
" You should have kept with the grass."
" Oh."
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{1} These demons are thousands upon thousands of years old. Of course anyone younger than 500 is a baby to them.
{2} This doesn't quite sound the way I wanted it to. You have no Idea how evil I was feeling while this was being written…..
End A/n : Okay, I realize now that I was wrong and after some research have discovered that King Kai is indeed the north Kai. A little shorter than I wanted it but I did get three reviews. I wonder if asking for four this chapter is setting my hopes to high….. I hope that I made up for the lack of Gohan and Videl ness in this chapter. I plan to have them back together soon * grins Evilly * hehehe I love all manner of cliff hangers... I'm going to also fix up some of the mistakes in my last chapters, so don't freak out if it says I've updated and there's nothing new…..
You know what I'm going to say by now but I'll say it anyway. Guess, which show Gimpy, comes from and you win 3 large pizzas (toppings of your choice!). Refuse to review this seriously review deprived story and you'll make me cry. ^_^