Disclaimer; Yeah, I own DBZ…whatever….

A/N; Sorry for the wait guys. I just started a new job and I've been doing lots of school work – as most people who are in school often do. But here is the new chapter for you all now, so I hope you all enjoy it!

-D.B

Mind Games

Chapter Seven

"Hey man, what's up?"

Krillen sighed deeply and rubbed his temples, "nothing much" he replied, trying to sound cheery when in actual fact he couldn't be any further from 'cheery.'

"Come on man, it's been what, 3 weeks since I've heard from you. Surely you must have done something worth talking about"

Three weeks of hell flashed before Krillens eyes before he replied, "No, nothing. How about you, all the way over there in the big city. I'm sure you've done something"

"I'm always up to something. You know me"

"Yeah," Krillen rolled his eyes as 18 walked through the room. He made no effort to make eye contact with her, "I know you Yumcha"

"There's this girl. Her names Arisa. She's amazing Krillen. Brunette, chocolate brown eyes, personality as sweet as honey…" he trailed off.

Krillen smiled – one of his first in weeks, "that's great news. You deserve to find yourself a nice lady"

"Yeah, anyway I was thinking. Since it's been way to long, why don't you bring the family up here for dinner on Friday night? You can meet Arisa and we'll catch up"

18 walked back through the room and Krillen gently smiled at her, she smiled back, Krillen could tell it was forced though. God how he wanted this whole horrible mess to clean its self up and go away, "Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun"

"Alright then. See you on Friday"

"Cya"

Krillen listened to the click of Yumcha's phone before he hung up his own. He had always been a terrible lire and he got the feeling that Yumcha knew damn well that Krillen had been keeping something from him. Shaking his head, he looked toward the stair well, someone was coming down and when they walked into the living room, he shuddered. 17 – who Krillen had decided was worse than the devil himself.

Krillen promptly walked out the house and onto the sand. He refused to be in the same room as that man. Roshi was outside, watching Marron play with a hermit crab.

"Master" Krillen sighed as he pried the crustacean from Marrons small hands and released it only a palm tree, "don't let her play with the animals. She'll crush them"

"Sorry boy, I thought it was just a shell"

"Yeah," Krillen raised an eyebrow, "sure you did" he replied as he lied down on his stomach in the warm sand and began a game of peak-a-boo with his daughter.

"Have you resolved anything yet Krillen?" Roshi asked after several minutes of silence.

Shaking his head, Krillen replied sadly, "No Master, and it's killing me. I hate seeing her like this, especially when it's my fault"

"Krillen my boy, you know that this has not happened due to any fault of yours" Roshi tried to persuade Krillen, who only sighed deeply. "No Master, if I were a better husband then we wouldn't be in this mess. I hate it so much; I hate myself for putting the one person I love more than anything in the entire world through this kind of suffering. I'm trying my best Master, I really am, but I feel like I'm at the end of my rope, and I don't know how to fix it" Krillen moved to a sitting position and blinked back tears as he spoke.

"I'm sorry Krillen," Roshi stood up, "but I don't know what to say. I really don't think I'm the one you need to be talking to though" with that, he walked back inside to the pink island home

Sitting on the couch in the living room, sat the pretty blonde woman that Krillen had the joy of calling his wife. Taking a quick glance around the room, Roshi realised she was alone, and so sat down beside her.

"What do you want?" she asked in an icy tone.

"I want you to go easy on Krillen. He's like a son to me, you have to understand that that he is doing the best he can right now"

"I know," 18 tilted her head and looked back at the roof, not even realising she was opening up to Roshi, "but his best isn't good enough. I need to help my brother, and Krillen cant see that"

"Krillen can see that 18. But you need to understand where he is coming from. He doesn't know what to do; he needs you to help him. He needs his wife. He loves you 18, he's scared he is going to lose you"

18 turned to look at the wise old man. "I'm not going any where" she spoke as if Roshi's statement had come as a shock to her.

"Well Krillen thinks otherwise. He is terrified of losing you, and with the way you've been acting these past three weeks, I can't say that I totally blame him" he tried to break the news to 18 as gently as possible.

A look that somewhere resembled shocked horror became visible in 18's eyes as she put her hands to her mouth, "oh my god" she muttered, "you're right. I've been so focused on helping 17 that I've totally forgotten about Krillen. He must hate me"

"He could never hate you 18. You need to go talk to him though"

---------------

The wind blew restlessly through 17's hair as he sped across the lush land. He was on a small island that was situated about a 10 minutes flight away from the Kame Island. He had started coming here during the day to train, he had neglected his fighting since he had tried to end his life, and now he could see that 18 wasn't breaking as easily as he had first anticipated that she would. In a way it was good, but in so many other ways, it was bad.

17 wanted 18 to be broken, tormented, useless to anyone. Wanted her to know the pain he had lived through, for her to feel his pain. For the past three weeks now, he had been mentally attacking her with warnings, threats, anything that would crush her self esteem. She however though, was far too stubborn to cave in. She was so desperate to help him to return to his normal 'sain' state of mind that she was to blind to see that she was everything he hated and he would kill her before he ever excepted help from her.

Her relationship with her husband however, had taken a severe beating, and it brought somewhat of a sadistic smile to 17's face. For the first week of 17's stay, it had seemed that he wasn't going to be able to tear 18 away from her husband; that the bond they shared as both husband and wife, and as parents – was just far to strong. Every time he came close to even touching what they had, they patched it right back up again.

It was during the second week of his stay, that things had really exploded.

17 had been sitting on the roof of the family's home, above the bedroom that Krillen and 18 shared. He had gotten in luck and they had left the window open, allowing him to hear perfectly every single word they had shared.

18 had accidentally let slip that 17 had chocked her up against the side of the house the week before, and 17 swore that Krillen had come with in an inch of exploding. He was furious. Not only at 17, but also at 18 for not telling him sooner. He yelled and screamed at 18, who was crying and pleading for forgiveness, which he didn't give her that night. 17 found it hilarious to see his sister's relationship take such a massive blow.

Ever since then, the couple had been on edge, exchanging harsh words and cold glares. 17 got the feeling that the only thing still holding them together was their daughter – his disgusting little niece.

Smirking, 17 powered up and energy ball and hurled it at a near by rock, effectively blowing it into oblivion. He loved seeing 18 like this, so upset. But it wasn't enough – upset just wasn't enough. He needed her to be broken, and he needed to be the one to do it. Krillen just getting angry with her wasn't good enough – every married couple went through that. No, he needed to crush her with his own hands and his own mind. He had no problems with beating his sister senseless, if it would mean she knew how he felt. He didn't care if he inflicted such a tremendous amount of psychological abuse on her that she was never of any use to anyone again. She meant nothing to him anymore. She was merely his play toy, and when toys got so destroyed that they couldn't be played with anymore, they got thrown away and forgotten about, and that was exactly what he had in store for 18.

---------------

"Hold still Marron" 18 looked down at her slippery daughter and sighed. While Marron loved nothing in the world more than bath time, and 18 loved the time she got to spend with her daughter, she did wish that Marron would learn that the water was supposed to stay in the tub and not get all over her mother.

Reaching for the soap, 18 lathered up her hands before rubbing them over the small girl. Marron, thinking this was a ticklish game, squirmed, giggled and splashed her small hands, spraying water everywhere. 18 had to smile at the look of pure glee on her daughters face.

"Looks like we're having fun in here ladies" said Krillen as he walked into the bathroom pushing the sleeves of his jumper up to his elbows and getting down on to his knees in front of the tub, next to his wife.

"Yes, bucket loads" 18 sarcastically replied.

"Aw, lighten up babe," Krillen pecked his wife on the cheek, "bath time is fun. Ain't that right Marron?" he asked as he ran his hand over the small girls wet hair, causing her to smile and giggle. She was such a happy child; it was virtually impossible to get her into a bad mood unless she was over tired.

"But look at me," 18 lifted her arms up to reinforce her point "I'm all wet"

"You're cute when you're wet"

18 only rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're an idiot, Krillen"

"Yeah, but you love me"

18 didn't reply to that one, and Krillen felt like a total idiot. Sure, he knew 18 loved him, but up until that afternoon they had barely been speaking to each other for almost a week. It had been a terrible, tense time for everyone in the house, and Krillen knew who to blame. He knew that 17 had loved every second of Krillens pain, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the worst was yet to come.

"I… I'm sorry" he muttered, looking to the ground.

"What for?" 18 asked, blinking, as she lifted her daughter out the water and wrapped a warm towel around her wet body. "I do love you Krillen." She smiled at him, "You know that"

Krillen was about to throw his arms around his wife and kiss her, but the loud bang of the front door made him think again. Handing Marron over to Krillen, 18 looked at him apologetically and walked out of the bathroom.

Sighing, Krillen hugged Marron close and kissed her head, "Looks like we've been ditched again, huh, firefly?"

---

"Are you hungry? I left your dinner in the oven" 18 asked her brother as she walked into the kitchen where she knew 17 was.

"No" came his curt and cold reply.

"17," 18 took a step towards her brother, "You're all cut up. What happened?" She reached out for his bloodied arms, but 17 wouldn't have it, and he lashed out at his sister, smacking her jaw with his balled up fist. She stumbled backward from the impact, reaching behind her, she placed her hands on the bench to support herself, not realising that she had landed on a knife and cut open the palm of her hand.

"Don't touch me 18," 17 threatened. "I've warned you about touching me, but you just don't learn do you?"

"17, I can help you. You just have to let me"

17 took a long deep breath and shut his eyes, it did little too calm his anger though, and he exploded. Throwing his hands up in the air he screamed; "You just don't get it do you? I don't want or need your fucking help! I am here for one reason and one reason only, and it's not to have you preach to me!"

"I'm not going to take this from you 17." 18 tried to keep her voice down as not to alarm her husband. "But I am going to make you well again. I know you don't want it, but you need it. You're going to accept my help whether you want it or not. You're dinner is on the oven, I'm going to bed."

"I don't think so" 17 spoke coldly as 18 pushed open the kitchen door. She stoped and turned to face him. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"No. You are not walking away from this so easily 18" he smirked as he noticed the blood dripping from her hand, but tried not to attract attention to the wound.

"And what are you going to do to stop me?" she asked. Her jaw was throbbing from where 17 had hit her. It hurt, but she refused to let 17 see that. She had too much pride for that.

"I'll do what ever it takes to stop you going up there. To him" he spoke the last word of his sentence with an absolute loathing.

"Don't you dare talk about Krillen like that. I put a roof over you head and took you in when you needed help even after all you did to my family, you have no right to treat the people I love this way 17. No right at all"

"I couldn't give a shit about my rights here 18. I will do what I want when I want, and what I want right now, it's to beat you senseless"

"No" 18 sternly told her brother, though she raised her guard anyway. She didn't trust her psychotic brother as far as she could throw him, and that was pretty darn far. "You will not touch me 17." She clenched her fists by her side, and straight away noticed the sticky oozing mess all over her left hand. Blinking, she yanked the bloodied hand right up in front of her face, then glared harshly at 17.

"What?" 17 asked, shrugging his shoulders "I had nothing to do with that" he continued, trying not to laugh.

Growing, 18 turned, "Whatever" she yelled as she walked out of the room.

---------------

His heavy footsteps echoing down the hall mixed with the sound of his ragged breath were all the sounds Krillen was able to hear – and it terrified him.

Dark, everything was so dark, he could hardly make out walls and objects in front of him, and when it was to late, he tripped and fell. It did little to deter him though and he got up and kept on running.

His hands and arms were totally covered in blood, it was to dark to see it, but he could smell it all right, and feel it. Suddenly, a murderous laughter filled the air and Krillen stopped dead in his tracks.

Entwining his bloody fingers into his dark hair, he pulled on the roots just about as hard as he could. Anything to drive that monster out of his head. "What do you want from me?" he demanded to know as he fell to his knees. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you gone" the voice hissed, "Get out of this place. If you ever want to see her again"

Krillen hauled himself to his feet and kept running, his legs throbbed and his ankle was burning, but he had to keep going, had to save her.

"Marron!" tears streaked his cheeks as he ran, "Marron where are you!" He ran as fast as he could, his eyes never adjusting to the dark conditions of the room. Until suddenly all the lights burst on at once, filling the corridor with a harsh white light that hurt Krillens eyes. He stopped dead. Looking down at his hands, he felt light headed but he refused to sit down, even as dizziness and nausea wracked his body, he pushed himself to keep walking, until he eventually broke out into a run again.

"Marron!" his voice broke with fear as he called his daughters name and looked down at his hands. His whole body was covered in blood, he could see it clearly now – and he could tell that it was blood of someone other than himself. "Please be ok. Marron can you hear me?"

He rounded a corner, his lungs burned from lack of oxygen and his heart pounded in his ears. This was fear in the rawest form he had ever felt. Out of every fight he had ever fought, and every time he had looked death in the eyes, no fear he had felt at that moment, could of compared to what he was feeling right now. The fear that only a parent would ever know.

He was confronted with a steal door, one that wouldn't budge no matter how hard he pushed against it. After several minutes of futilely trying to open the door, he resorted to resting his head against it and crying. He didn't know what else to do, and then out of nowhere, the door slid open, and he was confronted with the most horrifying sight he had ever seen.

---

Krillen jerked upright in the bed, he desperately felt around the bed for his something, anything that felt familiar, a huge sigh of relief escaped his lips when he found 18. She stirred, then sat up. It only took her a second to realise that something was not right.

"Krillen, what's wrong with you?" she asked as she flicked on the lamp, coating the room in a soft warm glow. "Are you alright? You're shaking"

Krillen took several long deep breaths and turned to look at his wife. The first thing she noticed was how white he was, he reminded her of paper.

"It was…" he stumbled with his words, fear still coursing through his veins, "It was Marron"

"Marron!" 18 sounded alarmed, "Is she alright?" If any thing had happened to Marron, 18 swore someone would pay.

"Yeah" Krillens breath began to return to normal as he realised that it was just a dream, a horrible dream. "18, he has to go. He can't stay here any more"

"Krillen." 18 rolled her eyes and let out an agitated sigh, "we've been over this"

"I know we have. But 18 – that dream, he was in it. He was the one responsible for the terrible things were happening to our daughter. Can you really put 17's life before your own child's?"

"Marron is safe. 17 wont touch her. I know he seems insane, but I truly believe that all he wants deep down is a little help"

"No 18. He doesn't seem insane. He is insane. You know what I think the problem is here?"

"What Krillen?" 18 snapped, "What is the problem?"

"I think you know damn well that 17 is beyond help 18! You're just too stubborn to admit that you were wrong for once in you life, and now you have put your family at risk, because you don't want to admit that you made a mistake"

18 didn't know what to say. Krillen had never confronted her like that before. Never. She was stunned into absolute silence.

"See, just as I thought. You have nothing to defend yourself with" Krillen spat, he was actually quite disgusted with his wife's behaviour over the past few weeks, but this was the final straw. He was not going to listen to her defend that mad man 17. Climbing out the bed, Krillen picked up his pillow and tucked it under his arm. An action that totally shocked 18, and made her stomach flip – she felt like she was going vomit.

"I'm going to sleep in Marrons room. I'll see you in the morning"

With that, Krillen left the room, leaving 18 to contemplate the horrible mess she had made out of their perfect little life, and just how she planned on fixing it.

---------------

A/N; Well there you have it, yet another chapter of Mind Games all done and finished, be sure to lemme know what you think in a review ok, and I'll get the next chapter posted ASAP!

-Deadly Beauty