A/N: Sorry it's been so long, but my mind has been focusing on other things like school...friends...family...the Matrix. Yes, I have become re-addicted to an old favorite movie of mine, so I have been going off DBZ for a bit (Shock! Horror! Disaster!) But I have a motto: I finish what I start. So I am going to finish this mini series and prove it to you by finishing off this story and putting up the first three chapters of the sequel which is called Summer Rain and focuses around Pan and Trunks. That will have been posted up by the time you've finished reading this, so check it out if you want to! But for now, read, review and (Hopefully) enjoy the last to chapters of Truth be Told!
(o)
"Is something wrong, Bra?" Asked Bulma as I plunged my hands into the warm water in the sink. "Why are you doing the washing up by hand? We have a perfectly good dishwasher you could use."
"Mum," I asked, not looking away from the soppy water sloshing about my wrists. "Do you ever feel like you're worthless? Like you can't do anything worthwhile?"
"All the time." Bulma nodded, standing beside me and leaning on the counter. "Whenever your father goes off fighting and leaves me behind. I feel guilty because I know he's doing something to help everyone on earth while I'm stuck here alone. I hate it."
"No, not like that." I shook my head. "What I meant to say was, when you see others suffering, do you ever feel terrible because you know there's nothing you can do?"
"I-I've never really thought about it." Said a bewildered Bulma. "Why do you ask, dear?"
"I visited Uub yesterday." I said with a sigh, scrubbing a plate with a wet towel. "He and his people live in hovels and are starving to death. The only reason he can go to school is because of the money he won fighting. These people literally have to fight if they want to survive. And Uub's little sister, Lorna, is a very intelligent child. But without an education....I just wish...I wish there was something I could do."
"Bra," Bulma outstretched her arms and pulled me into a hug. "Maybe there is a way to help them. We could pay to send all the village children to school. We have enough money."
"It's a start." I shrugged. "But it's not enough. These people need more than just that, Mum. They desperately need our help. And I'm not going to rest until they're living the lives they deserve."
Bulma smiled kindly, releasing me from the stiff hug. "Why don't you just try and get through high school first, ok? Don't you start end of year exams tomorrow?"
"Yeah." I grinned. "I guess I better start studying."
(o)
"You ready for exams?" Asked Mez as she caught up with me and we made our way down the school corridor. "I can't tell you how long I spent studying this weekend. I'm completely exhausted."
"What have we got first?" I asked, checking the timetable on our year group's bulletin board.
"History and math exams, then lunch, then geography and science." Mez scowled. "Hard to believe it's actually going to take a whole week to get through every single subject."
"Hmm..." I said absent mindedly, hardly focusing on anything going on around me. This was strange, considering I should be worried and fussing about the exams, yet my mind was mainly focused on what had happened the pervious weekend.
(o)
I didn't see Uub until we arrived and prepared for our first exam: history. But seeing as the teacher insisted upon us all behaving in a manner fit for a 'Test Situation' I could hardly bellow out his name across the room. Instead, I took a seat at one of the singular tables and ran some quick revision through my head whilst the teacher handed out our exam paper.
"Alright, class." The teacher instructed. "You may begin."
I turned over the page of my test paper and read the first question. Immediately, the answer sprung into my head and I hurriedly scribbled it down. Finishing in a remarkably quick amount of time, I read and reread my answers before taking the completed paper to the teacher's desk.
"Read through it again." She ordered in a voice that reminded me of a droning robot.
"I've already read through it six times!" I retorted, forgetting to lower my voice to a whisper and causing heads to jolt away from paper and focus on me instead.
"That's impossible!" The teacher exclaimed. "There's still half an hour left until the exam finishes!"
"Believe it or not, I could hardly care." I shrugged. "But I have finished and I'm ready to hand it in, and I will regardless of what you think."
With that, I pushed the paper in front of her and marched back to my desk, reaching over the side of my table to my bag and opening it to fetch a book to read. Smirking to myself as I felt several pairs of eyes still lingering on the back of my neck, I sunk into a dreary and unfocused period of relaxation.
(o)
The rest of the exams were spent in the same way as the history one. By the end of the week, I was boiling with an anxiety to receive my results. However, the teachers informed us that the results would be sent to us via email sometime during the summer holidays. Naturally, I was infuriated, but chose to see it in a good frame of mind.
At least I had something to look forward to these holidays.
The final week before the end of the year passed as a blur. With hardly any class work to do, I found myself with plenty of leisure time. Most of the teachers set us holiday homework, but nothing that was due during the week, and I spent the afternoons and lunch breaks in the library with Mez, Lucas and Uub.
"Anna phoned me last night." Said Mez brightly on the last day of school. I broke away from my chess match against Lucas to listen with interest, having not seen or heard of Anna or Eliza since Mez had told Eliza's mother about the drug scandal.
"And...?" I asked, urging her to continue.
"She called to apologize about the way she treated me, and said she was wrong to listen to Eliza." Mez scowled. "Apparently, Eliza's parents called Anna's and told them about what they'd been doing. Eliza and Anna have both been going to doctors and counseling and neither are coming back to school until next year. But Anna has been banned from spending any time with Eliza from now on. She called me to 'make friends'." Mez held her hands up in quotation marks.
"And what did you say?" I asked with a smirk.
"Well obviously she was only wanting to remake our friendship because now that she can't hang out with Eliza, she's become a complete loner. No doubt she'd want to draw me back into popularity and start copying me. So I told her to piss off."
"A bit harsh, don't you think?" Lucas said timidly, but Mez merely shook her head.
"She deserved it." I mumbled bitterly. "But Eliza deserved worse in my opinion."
I settled back into the chess game with Lucas, leaving Uub and Mez to continue the conversation. Lucas won the match easily, as I had hardly been paying attention after Mez's revolution.
So Eliza wouldn't be coming back until next year...at least she couldn't ruin the last week of grade ten. But no doubt she will return next year, with much more reason to hate me other than a simple drama production. I supposed she'd use the summer to think up more ways to make my life hell, and put these theories into practice as early as first term.
And frankly, I couldn't wait for the challenge!
(o)
"Bra! Get your ass down here!" Trunks shouted as I reached the school's front gate on the last day of school. I grinned, noticing the obvious annoyance in my elder brother's face with both my tardiness and the 'display' two of his best friends were putting on behind him. "I actually want to get home on time, for once!"
"Oh relax." I frowned. "I'll only be another minute."
I turned back to Lucas, Mez and Uub who had followed me out of the school. I hugged both Lucas and Mez, bidding them farewell for the summer holidays and promising that we would find some time to meet up. When the time came to say goodbye to Uub, I pulled him into a rib-crushing hug, clinging to his back slightly. He had shown me so much in the last six months...and I couldn't thank him enough.
"Listen, I need to thank you." Uub whispered as I reluctantly pulled away. "You've helped me so much this year. You've taught me so many things and helped me to discover the person I truly am. I guess what I'm trying to say is....it meant a lot to me."
"No, Uub." I shook my head. "You've shown me so much more."
I leaned forward and kissed him briefly on the cheek. Unlike Marron and Goten, Uub and I weren't the sort of people who liked to display affection when in sight of a crowd. Bidding him a final goodbye, I let Trunks snatch my arm and drag me onto the bus. Taking a seat beside him, I leaned out the window to wave goodbye to Uub before the bus carried me away.
(o)
I sat alone in Capsule corp.'s giant backyard with my arms wrapped around my legs, which were tucked into my chest. The step bellow me felt frozen against my thighs, despite the jeans I wore to cover them. As the sun slipped behind the surrounding houses like a rose pink eagle sinking into the distance, I recalled a time when I had done this same thing after completing my first year of high school and smiled secretly to myself.
I had never imagined that my life would have changed so much since that day.
Hearing heavy footsteps behind me, I turned with surprise to see Vegeta approach me, beads of sweat clinging to his dark hair and training outfit, his gloved hands folded across his chest and his dark eyes glinting in the fading sun.
Astoundingly, he moved aside me and lowered himself onto the step, adjusting his body into a more comfortable position. I stared at him in bewilderment until he met my gaze firmly, his eyes holding in any sense of emotion.
"You know why....why I wouldn't let you be with that Uub boy before?" Vegeta began slowly, watching me intently. I nodded curiously, wondering where this conversation would lead.
"I-I don't want you to get hurt." Vegeta continued, breaking the eye contact between us and staring into the sunset. "You are, after all, my only daughter."
"If you came here to apologize-" I started.
"No, I didn't." He interrupted savagely, revealing a flicker of the old Vegeta I had come to know and love. "The prince of all Sayians apologizes to none, even when he knows he is wrong."
"So you admit you were wrong about Uub!" I grinned triumphantly.
"I never said that." Vegeta scathed, causing me to grin yet again. This conversation was going to take a while.
The was a long and stony silence in which both my father and I sat, stewing in our own thoughts. Eventually, I decided to brake the quiet by asking him a question that had plagued my mind since I visited Uub.
"Dad, I have to ask." I began, meeting him directly in the eyes. "This planet is already polluted with disease and suffering. When you go out to fight, you literally damage our planet and its people by tearing the land apart. I must know, how can you sleep at night when you know that your battles are the cause for people's suffering?"
Vegeta exhaled softly, sadness tinting the darkness in his steady gaze. "Bra, if I don't fight, how can I protect the innocent from certain death? Although, do not think for one moment that this is why I fight."
"Some things are worse than death." I muttered in reply. The sun had almost completely set beyond the city, leaving nothing but a faded pink tinge on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings. "I would rather die than live a life of poverty. I don't know how Uub can do it."
"Oh, so this is about your boyfriend then, is it?" Vegeta smirked. "I can see what an impact he's had on you."
"A very big impact. When I visited him, and saw his village for myself, I truly knew what the word poverty meant. The people who live there fight to survive, and still manage to uphold a smile on their faces. Everyone deserves the basic privileges of life....like food, shelter, clothing and education....I just wish....I wish there was something I can do....I feel so helpless."
The topic we discussed was most certainly a depressing one. Therefore my father succeeded in shocking me yet again when he smiled at my last comment.
"You know, Bra, I envy Kakkarot for many reasons." He said. "But I can take pride in knowing that I have one quality he seems not to possess. Humans and Sayians alike always think around their own lives, and worry about the smallest things by nature. We all do it, Bra, even I admit to it. We think only of ourselves and what is happening in our own situations. But what we need to remember is, that there is a whole universe of people out there, and really, if you think about it, we worry about the most pointless things. We shouldn't focus souly on ourselves....we are just a single individual living in a universe of troubles and despair. If we can stop thinking about us, and think about everyone else..." He trailed away, staring avidly into space. "Then we might be able to make this universe a much better place."
Without saying another word, he stood and strode back to the door and slammed it shut behind him. I sat alone on the step, blinking idiotically and attempting to recap the conversation I had just had. It was hard for me to believe that someone like Vegeta could speak words of such wisdom and power, words that struck my soul and touched me deeply.
I understood something about him that night. I understood why my mother had wanted to marry him. Vegeta wasn't the cold hearted killing machine I had always seen and admired him as. Perhaps he appeared this way to those who did not know him, but beneath his poised appearance he too, had a heart...a soul...a mind. He didn't take pride in his senseless destruction, but probably found it to his distaste as much as I did. He cared about this world....he really did. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to speak with the passion and feeling he spoke with prior to this moment. I was lucky to have witnessed a small snapshot of what truly lay behind Vegeta's cold exterior and take a glimpse at his heart. I knew the opportunity would never arise again, but at least now I knew that hidden underneath the barrier he had built around himself, lay this compassionate warrior who I had barely had a chance to know.
Not only had Vegeta taught me about himself, but about the wider community. He was right, if we stopped thinking about ourselves and focused on others, the universe could be a better place to live. That night, I discovered my purpose in life...I knew what I had to do to help Uub and his village. I had to stop thinking about myself and what I wanted and put them before me. I had to step out of the comforts of my own home and bring them to justice.
I now had a mission in life. And even though the sun had long since set beyond the city, the sky had never looked so bright.
