The Day Dreams Died
Disclaimers: I do not own Dbz cause then if I did then the world would not be safe…
I had originally planned to update Going Down next but at the moment I'm stuck. So here I am- back with this story again. I am sure all you guys are thrilled.
This is even sooner than I planned it- so no complaining people. It didn't take THAT long this time. :smile:
Anyway- on with the story...
-LAST TIME ON TRIPLE D-
The other reached out hands- bloody hands.
"You're a sayian. No. Go away!" cried it.
Gohan removed himself from the lake, deeming himself far too great a encumbrance.
"He doesn't want to be saved."
"That doesn't matter. I'll find him. I will."
"Daddy. Daddy. My daddy."
"Who do you love?"
Gohan managed a weak smile, "I love you both."
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Chapter 12:
The Stray Child
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"I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is."
-Vladimir Nabokov
—
"You're back," came Bulma's simple inane response to Goku's landing.
It was slow and gradual one- showing the definite fatigue in his body and spirit. He cast only a look to Vegeta who did not return the gaze.
"You were right," Goku said simply.
Vegeta did not respond.
And noone else dared to.
---
The body lay in a crumbled heap upon the floor- staining its disgusting red fluids everywhere. It was a child curled in a tight ball- its strange bleeding appendages holding its face.
Suede noticed this when he was sent to retrieve the body. It was hard to get him to notice much; the dim-witted creature only being of limited IQ. So it must have been an equally grand and horrific sight, to turn his head.
Suede was taught to know he was stupid. So he knew that all he was meant for was clean up. He was meant not to notice things. Only meant to do his job and only his job.
But he couldn't help but notice the strange child. He had seen it before wandering the halls of the main space centre. It was strange then too. Because then it was alive and moving- speaking in its strange way... and smiling all the time. Who under Freezia's rule ever smiled?
Well, he won't be smiling anymore. Suede thought darkly careful to keep his job up while he thought.
Most of his kind, although he had long forgotten his race's name, could not multi-task. Never in a million years. He was told, a long time ago, that this was because their IQ's were too low to handle it. Which made them perfect for mundane chores upon the space station. Their minds could never wander. They didn't have the IQ's to do so.
But Suede was different. And different under Freezia was greatly disapproved. So he made sure that his difference went unnoticed. Suede, although still not incredibly bright, could multi-task. And boy, could he multi-task. Day dreaming, eating, and working all at once without skipping a beat. It was his gift.
It was his life changing gift.
For you see, if Suede had not had this gift- he would have swept Gohan's corpse away without pausing to look at the boy. And without looking he would have disposed of a body that was still alive.
Suede could not tell by breathing or by the flesh color still in his cheeks. He was no doctor nor did he have the common sense to tell. Suede knew by a much deeper way. A much more intuitive and unused portion of the humanoid brain.
He felt Gohan's chi. The thumping and dying heartbeat of the child laying before him- crying for his help.
If Suede was smart he would have called for assistance- or at least done his job, and finished the boy off. But Suede knew he wasn't smart, so he didn't do either of the two.
Instead Suede finished cleaning up, wrapped the small boy into one of his supply carts- and called for transport back to the station.
He went completely unquestioned. Everyone knew he was far too stupid to cause trouble.
And yet, Suede had caused something far worse than trouble.
Suede had cleaned up after Freezia countless times before. A some what revolting but well paid job. And he knew that Freezia always made his kills clean and throual no matter how gruesome it had to be to get there.
But this scene was different. It was sloppy and done through obvious rage. If Freezia had been serious about killing the child- he would not have bloodied up the room so.
Suede was stupid but not stupid enough.
He knew Freezia had purposely spared the child's life. All Suede didn't know, was why.
But to Suede, the fact that he had a body hidden in his cargo bay, that he was disobeying and breaking at least a hundred rules in one heist, and that he was questioning Freezia's nerve didn't seem to bother him.
His stomach rumbled and Suede answered with a licking of his dark lips.
"Suede's in the mood for seafood." Suede grinned to himself pulling back on the pilot's controls- and taking his ratty-looking ship to the skies.
---
Bulma cast yet another suspicious glance to her bald headed companion. Nothing had been explained to her. And if they all expected her to sit quietly and take it, they were all sadly mistaken.
Although Goku and Vegeta had gone off on their own quests, Goku mostly to watch over Vegeta, Krillen had been voted to stay behind with 'the woman'. And the woman was being quite chatty about things she shouldn't ask.
Goku had seemed greatly disturbed after coming back from Kami knows where. He had kept most of his emotions withdrawn from the rest of them, but to Vegeta he had extended a hand.
That thing he said- "You were right." There was something sincerely eerie about that phrase. Like a hidden meaning she wasn't supposed to know. What had Vegeta inquired that made Goku respond so?
Where had Goku gone? Who had he been chasing? There were just too many questions to ask, so many answers she wanted to hear, and only one person to answer them.
And this person was being particularly stubborn about it.
"For the thousandth time, no, Bulma. I don't know- nor do I understand Goku's behavior," Krillen snapped rashly. "I am just as much in the dark as you are."
"Ohhh. You liar," Bulma snapped, waving a taunting finger in the man's face. "I know you know something. You just don't want to tell me."
"Yes. It's none of your business," retorted Krillen, who quickly tried to cover himself. "...even if I did know what was wrong with him."
"It damn well is my business," Bulma protested. "I am just as much as Goku's friend as you are! I was his friend longer even! And I'm sure the only reason you know is by chance!"
"If you were his friend, you'd drop it."
"If you were my friend, you'd tell me what's going on?!"
Their eyes combated each other in silent fury. Krillen pulled away first, his face dark with reclusiveness.
"We're done here."
He turned just for the woman to catch his shoulder in her grasp. She had an amazingly tight grip for a woman- for a human. Krillen flinched at her touch. Mostly the flinch was influenced by what he knew was coming.
She turned the bald companion around and smacked him full in the face.
"To hell we aren't." Bulma hissed dangerously.
The pain was momentary but the emotion driven behind it lingered heavily in the air. Bulma, surprisingly, was the one to bear the guilty face first.
Her entire demeanor changed. The hellfire fury that once reigned in her eyes flickered and died away- making room for an nostalgic entity. One he hadn't seen in Bulma since Yamacha died.
Her shoulder sagged and she receded from their confrontation. Almost as if she hadn't intended it to happen in the first place. Irony, seeing how she started it.
Her face was hard to read when she hid it like so. Krillen curiously tried to meet her eyes- but she had withdrawn herself from him. Almost like she had gone back quietly into that shell like a weary tortoise.
"Did you know," She said suddenly, startling her monk friend. "I once loved Goku?"
"Of course! We all did..." Krillen replied before suddenly catching a whiff of her aura. It had dimmed considerably, almost pitifully existing there, curled inside the woman before him. Bulma was suppressing it, like one would hold their breath.
Unintentionally, of course. Humans often did that. In times of stress or confusion their auras would take these brief periods of gulps in which it would rise or lower without warning. But the colors of these auras were often the most complying and readable signs of mood. Krillen could read Bulma, although he was sure she couldn't read him.
Her aura shown black.
"Not- Not that kind of love," Bulma whispered softly, fidgeting nervously with her nicely trimmed nails.
Krillen understood. But he gave no consolation.
"When I saw him at the tournament, I felt those feelings arise. He was handsome and- I don't know why but I told myself to never act upon them...
"Goku was supposed to be a friend," Bulma smiled softly, tears shining in her eyes. "I couldn't ever act upon those feelings. They were cruel... and unfair to Goku."
She gave her head a little shake and laughed half-heartily to herself, "Besides, I already knew Chichi had her eyes on him."
"So... You had feelings for Goku," Krillen muttered. "So what?"
Bulma took a deep shuttering breath- the fake smile almost crashing off her face.
"Not had. Have."
Krillen's eyes finally reacted. And Bulma knew she still held her audience.
"When I saw Gohan for the first time- I think a piece of me died. Cause then I knew, it was over. And I wished... I wished bad things. But," Bulma wiped away some of her more adventurous tears. "When Gohan was- I just- I didn't know what to think."
"You were glad."
Bulma made a sort of gasp in her throat that she quickly stifled with a cleverly placed cough. Her gaze didn't return to Krillen's, though. Instead she focused on a rock down by their feet. Guilty as charged.
"Not glad. Never glad. But," Bulma sighed. "Relieved. Because then I saw then what might have happened to my child if I- if I let myself get carried away."
She looked back upon Krillen. Now her aura was green; vibrant with a fierce light.
"Chichi is my best friend, as is Goku. I betrayed them with my feelings that day. I want to make up for that. I will make up for that."
And Krillen knew it was inevitable. He was subdued by a slap and words. Muten Roshi would be ashamed- not that he could do much better.
"Alright, Bulma. Stop crying, will ya?"
---
The ship sputtered to a hesitant stop. Its engine humming incessantly as if fearing a rest would surely kill her.
It was called the Orbit, and she had seen far too many days. Rather now though, its peeling paint job named her Obt. And in joke, Suede called her that too. There was no other ship in all of Freezia's fleet that he could trust more.
There came a blipping from his command screen. Suede looked at one of the smaller diagrams in interest- only to lose interest.
Inspection crew. Third time in his flight they had stopped him. They were just about touching his nerve.
A window popped open on his visuals revealing a very big and threatening looking yellow creature staring at him with all seven eyes. They flicked back and forth, at different time and pace, memorizing Suede's appearance before he even got the chance to defend himself.
That's what made them such great inspectors.
"Pilot of the System S23 Obt. Under the authority of Lord Freezia, we demand access to your cargo dock for immediate inspection."
"Ah. Go ahead. Help yourselves." Suede responded back to the tightlipped Nauct-jin on his visual screen, "Just let Suede know when you're done so Suede can get this hunker back home, right?"
The screen window fizzed out.
Suede had to admit, they were the most intimidating inspectors under Frezia's empire. But, Suede smiled while removing the tarp from his ill companion behind him, they were also the most blind.
Gohan slept on peacefully from his bed of tarp and netting. Most of his injuries were healing, thanks to Suede's expert care, but the boy was still in definite need of medical care.
Suede pulled himself off his perch, and onto the floor next to the humanoid child. His hair was black- not much unlike Suede's own. But his face was a strange cream color and his body was much smaller and heavier than that of his own race.
Suede had never seen a sayian-jin up close before. It was clearly an intriguing experience for him.
He had always been told that the sayian-jin would be ugly and freakish looking. But this boy had never appeared so. Perhaps because he was a hybrid. In fact, the boy was almost beautiful- quiet in his hibernation.
Suede moved his hand forward and let his fingertips slide over the boy's face. The skin was flawless until they got caught on the jagged wound cut deep into the boy's face. Three painful slash marks had congealed their blood perfectly. With what should have been the worst wound healed in only a matter of hours.
And this arose even more curiosity in the young alien.
"So who are you, eh?"
In almost compliance to the creature's words, the boy's eyes fluttered. Suede would have retreated had it not for those eyes. The boy's eyes were so sad- searching around more and more desperately as his consciousness fought for return. And in the sadness was a void- blacker than either of the being's eyes. Suede couldn't help but be held captive in those eyes.
The child looked up at him, focusing on his face and being. But unlike the Nauct-jin, the boy's eyes were softer. He wasn't searching for fault but instead for trust.
"W-who are you?" The boy asked in a raspy voice.
"No worries. Suede has you now. You're safe," Suede felt an incredible need to say that. To say that the boy was safe. It was important.
The hybrid eyed his surroundings again, not making any attempt of getting off his tarp. Suede didn't know if it was because it knew it couldn't move or if it just forgot how to. The eyes fell back upon Suede once again, filling him with more sympathy.
"You're Suede?"
"Suede. Yes. Suede is here."
This seemed to comfort the boy, for he relaxed and decided to leave his eyes upon his savior, "Do I know you?"
"No. No you don't. But I know you. You're Freezia's boy."
The child's brow lowered- his face contorting with pain. Suede hushed him, placing a calm hand on the boy's forehead. The child hushed, his eyes slowly closing.
"Freezia... I know him, I think."
To Be Continued...
Please RR!
Yay! I finally finished! That took some time, ne?
In any case, now that it's done there are a few things I have to touch base on. First off- the different events occurring here, on obt and on Namek, are happening at different times. On Namek all the events occur in a matter of hours- while as on obt it's already been a week or so.
I just want to make that clear so that when the story returns to Namek time- you'll all realize how much time has passed. I tried to think of better ways to write it but sticking in a 2 weeks later mark, seemed really immature to me. So I didn't. I just hope everyone gets it.
That and Triple D's time line will not, in any shape or form follow the original series. I realized this a couple chapters back that if I followed the guidelines set by Toriyama-sensei I wouldn't be able to fit in everything I wanted to fit in. So instead- I'll let this be known. Freezia's only captured so much of Namek. There are still several other tribes that have not yet been touched. Freezia is not nearly as intent as he was in the series to recapture Vegeta. And there will be a scrummage of dragon ball battles over the time Gohan is absent. So in other words- not much will have been accomplished because of Freezia lack of initiative and Goku's caution.
So with that said, I end this chapter.
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