Chapter 42: As Evils Plays…
Third Person Point of View of Chapters 40-41
Goku saw Katherine watching as Buu fought him and Vegeta. He still couldn't figure out what had happened to change Katie to Katherine the Slaughterer so easily. If they saved Katie then he would ask.
Vegeta was pissed with Katie for letting herself be controlled by Babi-Dee. She was being hypocritical by the very act. She helped Vegeta focus so he wouldn't fall victim to the Majin spell, but she had given up on herself. What did he promise her?
Vegeta and Goku fought hard against Buu, but Buu seemed to only gain power as they fought. He was having fun, and that was something a Sayjin could admire in a warrior.
Buu sent a large Ki blast at Goku, and Goku's only choice was to use his Kamehameha to deflect it. But by doing so the two blasts combined and headed straight for Katherine.
"Katie, look out!" Goku called. But Katherine was paralyzed in fear or shock and couldn't move. She knew she was about to die and couldn't block or dodge the attack now.
Katherine screamed, not sounding so evil, but like the scared kid she really was. Goku couldn't do a thing to help her.
Vegeta had to save her, he'd never forgive himself if he didn't. He knew all too well the joy of being evil, but there was immense guilt and regret to follow that. He knew Mirai No Trunks would be devastated if his mate was killed. He'd be even more upset if he found out Katie was evil when she died. So Vegeta jumped in the way of the blast. He looked at Katherine to see if she understood, but by her reaction it was hard to tell if she had.
"Vegeta, no!" Goku screamed, but it was too late, Vegeta was dead. Katherine stood there for a moment like she was having an internal battle. Goku couldn't hear her speaking between Katie and Katherine, but one thing stood out.
"He didn't have to do that!" she cried out. She started holding her head and screaming out things that were incoherent. Finally she blasted her arm and collapsed from the self-inflicted injury.
Katie didn't move, but Goku knew she had beaten her evil side. That blast destroyed the Majin symbol. But at what price did she win? Would her life be taken as payment? He did the only thing he could think of.
Goku walked over and knelt by Katie. He went to pick her up but something warm, sticky, and wet covered his hand. It was a red liquid; Katie's blood. There was so much blood from her wound on her arm; it was no wonder why she collapsed. It was oozing out, spreading across the ground into a puddle and onto her Gi, and as Goku picked her up it oozed onto his Gi as well.
"We'll finish this another time." Goku said as Babi-Dee screamed at him. Goku teleported to the Lookout and had Mr. Po-Po and Dende tend to his fallen friend. It was times like these Goku wondered what Katie's purpose was here. From what he knew she had a normal and completely safe life back in her dimension. Now she was here, in another dimension, possibly in another time or on another planet, and she wasn't even the same species anymore. She had suffered so much.
But she had also gained a lot. She knew all of the events taking place, and the others had agreed that it was too much responsibility on one person, especially a young girl that didn't even belong here. She fit in more here than at home, he figured, since she had seemed so happy, but then what drove her to join Babi-Dee? Was it the nightmares he sensed coming from her late at night?
And Vegeta died to save her. Goku couldn't believe he did that. Vegeta was the last person to admit that he had emotions. But Vegeta had changed since the Cell Games, Goku knew. Vegeta had a family and Katie was part of it. Was it Sayjin loyalty to ones family, or just the fact that Vegeta respected Katie in a way Goku couldn't understand? Goku didn't know.
He had to get the others up here so they'd be safe from Buu. He contacted Piccolo via telekinesis and told him to get the boys up to the Lookout safely, then he teleported back down to earth to retrieve his friends and family that remained.
All Goku told the others was that Katie had been injured fighting Buu, and that was good enough for them. Goku would let Katie tell it, and he knew she'd make it to tell them. She was a Sayjin, after all.
Mirai No Trunks immediately wanted to see Katie. Goku tried to reason with him, but it was no good. Mirai wanted to be with his mate, so Goku took him to see Katie.
"She isn't in good shape. She lost a lot of blood and energy." Goku said as he opened the door to Katie's temporary room.
"I don't care, I want to be with her." Mirai walked in showing no emotion. Goku left him alone, and that's when Mirai let the emotion show as he saw her. Most of her upper-left arm was gone, he could tell by the bandages. She had lost her arm to the androids, but that was different. Very different. Her arm was in a sling and she looked pale, nearly as white as the sheets she lay on. Though magic had helped repair most of the damage to her arm, she may never get to use it again.
Mirai remembered once about the Zinzu beans 'restrictions'. No self-inflicted wounds, loss of blood, and no illness. Only fighting obtained wounds. Dende's powers relied on the same set of rules, and the Dragonballs wouldn't bring back someone who committed suicide. Sacrificing yourself to save another was different. That's how Dende put it when Mirai asked about using them. She was alone in her struggle for life.
Mirai thought of the future, technically now the past, he had grown up in. Gero took Katie away and replaced her with 22. But she didn't follow Gero, she escaped and came home. He was only a baby, so he always knew her that way. When his dad died by 18's hand, Katie transformed. But three Super Sayjins just weren't enough.
Mirai sat near Katie's bed and held her good hand. Her clothes were covered in her own blood, but it was all she'd wear in a fight. There was a set of clean clothes, her original Gi from Namek and the battle with Vegeta, next to the bed for her when, or if, she woke up.
"Come on, Katie. I… I love you. You're not alone, so don't leave me! Don't leave me again!" he squeezed her hand, so much wanting to have her squeeze back. But she didn't. She just lay there, looking so much like a life-size porcelain doll. "We all need you, and if you die now, the Dragonballs won't save you. We still need you… I still need you…"
The Bond Mirai shared with Katie was real. Vegeta had said a Bond made the two mates as one, so Mirai had felt Katie's struggle with her evil side. The fight between the good and evil sides had stopped, and Katie beat Katherine the Slaughterer, but not even Mirai knew what prompted her to let herself become Majin. She was stronger than that. He had felt the evil in her when it took over, and he saw her blow up part of the stadium. Her warning about his dad didn't make sense. He would ask her later. She would come back.
