A/n: Sorry for the long time between updates for this story. I had lots of homework and some major writer's block on this story. (Well at least one of them is gone now) My bro also got Final fantasy XI that has proved to be extremely distracting and overall fun. Albeit way too expensive.

Plus I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday (missing school) and wrote most of this chapter while still under the influence of painkillers. (Wait a sec, I m still under the influence of painkillers . . .) Now that it's finished I hope that you will enjoy it. I even made it a little longer than usual!

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Disclaimer done by myself because I'm feeling toog lazy to write out a nice long dialogue.

Min: I don't own anything but some swollen cheeks and a day off school that I'm starting to think wasn't worth it. Thank you.

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Chapter 11: Influence

There.

Ahead, there was his goal. He could see it now misty in the clouds, that half sphere that formed Kame's lookout. Gohan wiped the sweat from his brow and narrowed his eyes, his goal almost within his reach.

Long ago he had given up on logical and coherent thought. The only thing left that he could concentrate on was getting there.

" Gohan!"

He blinked and shook his head. He couldn't take her again, not her voice. She was the hardest of them all to bear.

"Gohan!!"

He clutched his head in an effort to block her voice out.

" No! I can't take it any more Videl," He almost cried. The demons behind him showed little interest in his hallucinations

" Are we there yet? This little hybrid bores me" Yawned Hopeless

" Nearly. The kid has a little teensy spark of hope in him some where. Why haven't you squashed that yet?" Depression added in his lazy way.

" 'Figured I'd let it grow a bit. 'S more traumatic" She added

" Hey, do you feel that?" asked depression as suddenly as he was capable of, " Not that you would care of course."

" I guess I do. It's got Lust's signature all over it." She sighed, " She's here now. We won't get any attention and be left all alone again, while she steals the show. Isn't that always the way. I shouldn't think that this time'll be any different" Hopeless sniffled and blew her nose on the dirty rags that she called her clothing.

" What ever" Said depression staring down at the ground, thousands of feet below them. "Wonder if I should kill myself again" he thought moodily.

" Cheer Up"

" Yah right. That's the stupidest thing that I think I've ever heard you say."

" Oh. . . Never mind" Said hopeless, giving up rather than starting an argument.

" Were Here"

****

Why wont Gohan talk to me? Is there something wrong with him? Videl wondered, completely oblivious to the demonic ties nestled deep in her heart. She squinted against the setting sun, trying to discern Gohan in the clouds. She could feel his Ki signature around here somewhere, but she couldn't find him.

" Gohan!!" She yelled again, still searching the area for him. Then she saw them, flying towards the lookout. Gohan kept shaking his head and clutching at it, as if to ward off some unheard accusation. The demon's following him appeared to be having some kind of argument. She flew closer

"Cheer Up" said the female.

" Yah right, that's the stupidest thing I think I've ever heard you say."

They closed the remaining distance between them and the lookout, and Gohan landed, stumbled and collapsed in an almost liquid puddle on the white tile floor. Videl resisted every urge to go and cradle his head in her lap, to make sure that he was okay.

She quietly landed on the lookout and hid behind a pillar, think that she was out of sight of the demons. Her ki was suppressed down to that of a housecat. They knew she was there, but didn't bother with actually caring.

" Well this is a bust!" Videl heard the female one say aloud. " The kid lied to us! There are no happy people here!"

" What ever" Said the male, who promptly collapsed on the floor and began to draw mindless patterns with his fingers on the white surface. The female did the same, only taking her favored position upside down

Un noticed by the demons, who were too depressed to care, Kibito had crept up behind them. In his hands lay a shimmering net, blue, and slightly transparent. Videl realized that this must be the shield that the supreme Kai had devised.

Suddenly depression looked up and Kibito stopped dead in his tracks.

****

Gohan moaned on the pristine white tiles of the lookout, wanting to clutch his head to keep the voices of his peers and friends out of his head. He rolled over and saw dimly Kibito, sneaking up on the creatures that had caused him so much pain.

Then he stopped.

Gohan could see the cloud of sadness wash over his eyes. His jaw went slack. The net sagged in his now trembling hands. Gohan could tell that he was trying to fight it off, but was clearly losing the mental battle. He could also see the supreme Kai, hidden by a door, wince as his servant stopped. They all just stood there, unable to move to his aid, knowing full well that they would be caught in the trap of depression as well. Gohan swept his gaze to the left and saw her.

Videl was hidden behind one of the beautiful palms of the courtyard, obviously oblivious to the plan worked out by the others. He could see that she longed to help him, but her common sense stopped her from any action. That's when, with desperation, she let out a single tear.

Instantly Depression snapped his grey head in her direction, drawn to the unhappiness inherent in her. He knew that it was not caused by him, and one thing that a demon hates more than anything is suffering that is not their fault. Slowly he moved his pathetic and weak limbs, and pushed his gangly form up off of the ground. Videl was frozen in place, unable to move from the demon's glare.

He took a step.

Gohan couldn't let him get Videl, His Videl. He pushed himself off of the ground with one arm, trying desperately to get the strength back into his tired limbs, trying to rid himself of self-depreciating thoughts. Sweat formed on his brow as he tried to get his body to cooperate with him.

Step, Step

He grunted in pain as he got to his knees. Trembling he staggered to his own feet, ignoring the voices of his treacherous mind.

Step, Step

She was still stuck to her place, shaking like a leaf, fighting off the sadness of the demon's gaze.

Step, Step

He couldn't think. He stumbled over to Kibito and took the net from his large arms. The guardian looked at him with eyes full of sadness.

" Grasp each corner before throwing the net. You get one chance." Kibito whispered.

" I will"

Step, step

" Such a pretty thing. Why do you give tears for him" Depression crooned, caught in the thrall of her salty tears. They both fascinated and disturbed him. He cocked his grey head at an angle, and took another step towards her.

He reached out a gray and molted hand, and leaned forward to caress her cheek, tracing the tracks of the tears on her face.

****

His hand was dry and rough, almost smooth, it felt almost like the bark of a willow. He traced the lines that the tears had made on her face, fascinated by the strange patterns that they formed on her skin. Videl's stomach contracted in a knot of fear and sadness, as the grey eyes wandered all over her own visage, trying to find the source of her pain, so that he could further magnify it and send her in a dangerous spiral of depression.

She trembled when she realized that her feet were stuck fast to the floor. She was trapped.

" Such a pretty thing. To be touched by all us demons. Why do you hope? There is no use. I know this. I've known this since the moment of my existence. Why do you now cling to it?"

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out, just another volley of silent tears.

****

He was touching her.

Gohan tried to summon up the anger he needed for strength, anger at the demon, anger at anything he could find, but it was a hidden by and wrapped up in a blanket of sadness, and hopelessness.

He could see the female demon look at him like he was some kind of strange specimen to be carefully horded and placed in a glass jar.

" Why try?" She asked curiously " Humans have no right to help. They are doomed, just like the rest of us, to an eternity of chaos and death, fire and destruction. Nothing you do will change that." He vice had taken on the solid tone of absolute reason and conviction. Gohan trembled with the effort of not listening to her voice, to her words of logic.

He tried to speak to reply to her but no sound came out. Dimly he wondered why she didn't try to stop him. Then He realized, that she was, in her own manipulative way. His resolve stiffened when he saw depression touch the exposed skin of Videl's arm.

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Shin desperately wished that gods had someone to pray to as he watched in horror as his servant had stopped, and the net taken from his hands by an emotionally unstable Gohan. He saw depression walk to Videl and try to coerce her in to subduing to his depressive powers.

He had pooled all of his excess power of the moment into that net. He would regain it over a matter of days, but that was still to slow to be of any use now.

This was their one shot.

If Gohan blew this now, all hope would be lost.

Gohan stumbled up to the demon, suppressed rage in his eyes, his steps devoid of the martial Artist's grace that he normally portrayed. He grasped the corners of the net in his hands, when depression turned, and threw the full force of his gaze on him.

****

He was almost there, almost ready to strike. He grasped the corners of the net in his hands and prepared to throw it over the offending demon, the trajectories carefully calculated to encompass both demons, and avoid Videl.

But then the demon turned around.

Gohan threw up his hands in the terror of coming under the demon's spell again. The net went in a convoluted course, headed straight for videl. His eyes widened and so did hers, as they saw the net go straight towards her. Gohan summoned the strength and Leapt for her pushing her out of the way of the net. He saw a flash of purple and blue blow by him, aware only slightly of the yells that had ensued from his actions.

They rolled for several feet; Gohan automatically turned her so that his back shielded her from anything that might come their way. He abruptly realized that he was several inches from her face. He could feel her hot breath on his cheek. In order to stop himself from doing something inappropriate, he clutched her to his chest, thankful that she was safe and in his arms, that he had not failed her again. The thought made him shiver.

She was safe. He had not failed.

***

Shin watched as the shimmering net twisted in the air and began to fall on empty earth. He pushed all the thought of risk out of his head and sprinted for the falling contraption. He dived and caught one edge just in time to change its path of flight to collide with the demon of depression. It stumbled backwards and tripped over it's companion sprawled over her. The hopelessness distilled in both of them by their contact caused them to collapse. The net settled over them anticlimactically, like leaves settling on a path.

An Erie silence settled over the lookout. Shin let out a breath that he didn't know that he was holding. Videl and Gohan shakily got to their feet. Dende poked his head out from his hiding place near the door, and Mr. Popo emerged from his own hiding place.

" Is it over?" Dende asked tentatively.

Suddenly a keening wail emerged from the vicinity of the net, which was now shifting and forming into a dome similar to the one that held Discourtesy. It was sharp and fluctuating, causing all of those present to cover their ears.

Videl buried her face in Gohan's broad chest and held her hands over her ears, not liking the strange feelings that the sound invoked in her. It began in her belly, a burning fire that almost made her sick. Her head was spinning like a top, and her limbs were shaking uncontrollably. Her throat began to burn with the bile that was rising, and she had to cling to Gohan in order to stay upright.

" Videl are you alright?" he asked her quietly"

"`Go . . ." she managed to mumble out before falling into a dead faint.

****

" That's the number 4" Goku exclaimed, conscientiously putting the fallen log back in its place. He looked up the mountain valley and thought that he had caught a glimpse of something red on the ledge. The forest was suddenly very, very hot. Chichi wandered around the forest, occasionally bending over to examine a flower or bunch of wild herbs. He had an unparalleled view of her bottom. Goku began to sweat.

" Chi . . . I think that may be we should get Goten to gather the rest" He said, swallowing forcibly as she turned around, her Chinese dress in disarray.

" Yes," She breathed, " I think that would be a good idea"

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" No!" Suian screamed. " No, No, No!" She broke off contact observation with King Kai, tears barely escaping her black blue eyes. She took a few steps away. " My plans are all ruined!" She half sobbed.

King Kai Looked uncertain, and reached out a pudgy hand to her shoulder, hesitant. She shrugged him off.

" I don't need your pity." She said, a steadiness returned to her voice. " I've know for years that they would escape one day. Yet always they torment me, stopping me from Achieving my goals" She looked off into the distance, a pensive look coming over her face.

" Do you know how long it took me to achieve my office?" She asked quietly.

" Um no?" Asked king Kai. He had never seen her like this, a quiet determination on her face.

" 300 years. Every time I was look over in favor of men with more experience. The last three Ruled for less than 50 years each, too frail to hold the stress of office. They finally appointed me rather than face another incompetent old dotard with drool on his chin." She snorted. " It was still a stretch vote. I got one over the majority required, and almost not even that. It was in my second year in office when I learned about them." An involuntary shudder ran through her. " Every thing went wrong then. I caught them though. Every last one. It was the final sealing of the door that took my life."

King Kai was speechless. It seemed that if he broke the crystalline silence, then her story would stop, and drastic things would happen. He kept his mouth shut and let her vent. His eyes were soon drawn to the Halo that graced the top of her head.

" Before the last one was caught, I believe that it was one of the keepers that still ran rampant at the time, I took young Kaioshin to the door to let him see. I'm slightly pre cognitive. I knew that he had to go, but not why. So I took him. That's when the demonic Prophecy was made."

He had to talk. Quiet was just not an intrinsic part of his nature. Beads of sweat ran off his brow with the very effort of it.

' What was it!" He blurted out. The spell was shattered. She turned and smiled weakly at him.

" Oh something about breaking free in the young Kiao's reign, nothing important. But now it's come true, and I never go the chance to teach him." She sighed heavily. " Never got the chance . . ." She whirled around to face him, " Until now." She grinned wickedly. " Your going to get me to the land of the living, If you due trying " She observed is own halo. " Metaphorically speaking of course."

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Hey no foot notes today!

End A/n: I've said most of what I wanted to say in my top A/n. The winners of last chapters contest will receive explanatory emails within about 4 days or less. Sorry for making you wait!

WARNING: Shameless self-promotion imminent! Material may not be suitable to highly moral readers, who believe that shameless self-promotion is bad wrong, or an abomination of nature. This note will prove to be highly anti climactic in 5 4 3 2 1…

Go read A Dragon Ball Odyssey by. Min farshaw. A story of love and devotion, of determination and journeys. If you like Greek poetry/stories, you may get a kick out of this classic tale shown with a new twist!

Sorry about that. Okay review if you want to because I have no control over your thoughts actions and feelings, in addition to your willingness to write these out in pertinence to this story or humblest of authors (Okay that's a lie. Please excuse the habit Humble would probably not be the best word of all to describe me. Writing talents may be, but not personality. Did I just contradict myself?). The saddest part of all is that I got more reviews in 4 days than ever before after telling you not to. Ironic huh?

Last thoughts: really hard to write this chapter. Expect more G/V goodness in the next few chapters in favor of neglecting some of my side plots. Final fantasy XI is very distracting.