Time Distorted

BY MARA ROBERTS

Beta'd by Silence's Siren

Chapter 3

Forest Trail

Year 686

Bardock headed steadily west, trekking across endless wood and undergrowth, alert for any danger. These woods hid him, yes, but they hid many threats as well. But they were hard-pressed to hold silence, as evidenced by that rustle not ten paces behind him. Bardock turned, warily. It could just as easily be a deer or some other animal. He sniffed the wind and picked out the distinctive scent of humans. He picked his way carefully and silently. If there was to be a confrontation it would be on his grounds, where from the shadows of the forest he could take out his foe on by one. As he suspected, the humans followed him.

He sniffed again. One smelled male. But the female, her scent, was strange. He would say it was more an absence of scent than anything else. Bardock frowned. He had thought there were three of them. One of which, was almost… Saiyjin. He almost laughed. He must have smelled himself! He supposed he could use a bath.

The two people made their way through the thick growth. Bardock smiled. He would have the drop on them for sure. Then the woman looked directly at him, almost startling him from his perch. No, not a woman… a young girl. But her scent had held such age… And why did she look familiar?

"If you're planning to attack them, may I suggest you don't?" a young boy said icily. Bardock looked behind him, and gasped. He had not smelled him because he was downwind, and he had not heard him at all. Bardock took a good look. He was so much like a Saiyjin! But that was impossible. This planet was littered with humans, a backwater with no space technology to speak of.

Bardock dropped his stance, but was no less ready to fight. "Who are you?"

It was the young man who answered. "My name is Gohan. These are my companions, Mie, and Kakorott."

Bardock turned to face the boy.

"Kakorott?" he demanded, wariness crept into his voice.

"I am named after a Kakorott, as I am of his line," he said carefully, managing to tell the truth and yet lie at the same time.

Bardock's eyes widened ever so slightly. "I…see…"

"I'm sure you do," Mie said evenly. "As I can see you too, are a Saiyjin."

Bardock fell back into a ready position that would allow him to attack in any direction, without actually entering a martial arts stance.

"My friends tell me you seek a challenge…" Gohan spoke, cautiously.

"And you would supply this challenge?"

"Yes. But not in the way you would think."

"Then what are you trying to say? I don't have all day."

"We are after a powerful being, a wizard. Interested?" Mie asked.

"Perhaps. What is it you want of me?"

"We would like you to join us, to fight with us."

"Against this wizard?"

"Yes."

Bardock eyed Kakorott carefully. He was a Saiyjin, and yet did not seem excited to see another, to say the least. He was a mystery. Why was he here, and reluctant to meet with another of his own kind? Had he run away, maybe? Scorn filled his heart. Saiyjins never ran, and Kakorott almost seemed to want to fight him. No, this boy would not run. This mystery intrigued Bardock, and he had nothing better to do. This wizard sounded like a good fight, at least. And he wanted to study Kakorott more, the boy who claimed to be of his brother's line.

"I will fight with you," he decided.

"Good," Mie nodded. "We must move north."

The others followed her without hesitation. It seemed she was the leader of the group. It made little sense, but few things did anymore. Bardock shrugged it off and played along. It would be easier to see their motivations if they were the ones in control.

"Since we are all here, with two Saiyjins, perhaps it would be safe to use the roads? We can handle any bandits that come our way, and make better time," Kakorott said.

"Alright, the road is this way." Mie led them in a slightly different direction. "And we will teach Gohan how to fly tomorrow, when his energy is at his peak after resting."

Gohan looked up, surprised, with a twinge of disbelief. But he did not question it. Bardock reasoned the human either he had great faith in the girl, as humans in general did not believe in such things, or was waiting until morning to find out whether it was possible or not.

By the time twilight had fallen they had pushed through several more miles until they reached an old, battered road that had seen little use these last centuries. It was barely distinguishable yet was poisoned with enough octane and burnt rubber so that wild life had yet to reclaim it.

"Let's not bother setting up a proper camp. I have canned food, and I doubt on a night so clear and warm as this that we will need to bother with firewood."

>

The next morning came quickly for the travelers, and true to her word, Mie started teaching Gohan to fly. He already knew how to manipulate Ki, and even Psi, so getting him to concentrate energy downward was not very difficult. But he would not be able to go very far or very fast until his energy reserves were built up. Mie intended to do just that. Because there was no sign of Bibidi after a week of aimless travel, it was decided that Mie and Gohan would stay in one place training Gohan to his potential, while Kakorott and Bardock would fly around searching for clues to Bibidi's whereabouts.

It was Bardock who realized that Bibidi would require strong fighters to do his bidding, and so the two Saiyjins sought out any and all rumors of terrifying warriors, occasionally coming back to check on Gohan's progress.

It was on one such trip back that Gohan asked Kakorott if this was how he had learned to fly.

"No," Kakorott said with a smile. "My sensei kept throwing me off cliffs, so learning to fly was a preservation technique more than anything else. I acted on instinct. Besides which, my father had taken me flying many times, even though I had never flown myself."

Gohan was improving. While it would take him too long to build endurance and gain enough inner-strength, he learned to draw on the life around him when he needed to, to replenish himself, and his energy. He hoped one day to put the energy directly into a Ki attack. Mie assured him this was possible, and had been done before, though with great difficulty and equally great consequences.

Two weeks into this routine, Bardock and Kakorott were out once more. They had heard of a warrior called Gendu, who was pillaging the local villages. They had arrived three days before but had found no trace of the warrior.

They set down in the remains of a town, the ruin at least a week old. Wind rustled the grass and laundry that still hung on the clothesline. Whatever happened here happened so quickly, there hadn't been any warning.

A noise from the trees pushed Kakorott into a fighting stance, but nothing attacked. Deciding to investigate, he headed carefully over to the bushes, extending his senses as he did so. He could tell someone was there, probably human, from their low energy. When he was six feet away, the bushes parted, and out ran a very scared man, of about thirty.

"Hold on, there!" the demi-Saiyjin called out. "We're not going to hurt you. Please, just tell us what's going on."

He flew out in front of the man, only succeeding in scaring him more.

"You – you're just like them! You can fly just like th- they can!" the man sputtered. He fell to the grass. Bardock flew up behind him and landed gently. The man quickly turned so he could keep an eye on both of them.

"Who are 'they'?" Bardock demanded.

"They came and took everyone away! Not a soul… if I hadn't been out of the house from visiting, I would have been caught too! Please, please don't take me. I'll do anything, anything you ask!"

"Who are they?" Kakorott repeated. "What did they look like?"

"Um… there was a group of them…they wore white, some sort of uniform. And they all had a mark on their forehead."

"What kind of mark?" Bardock wanted to know.

"I don't know. I was too far away."

"How long ago did this happen?" Bardock cocked his head to the side, just a fraction.

Kakorott looked at Bardock strangely. They could already tell from the clothes on the laundry line, and other telltale signs. Bardock ignored him.

"Yes- yesterday."

That was a lie. So how had Bardock known? Kakorott very carefully listened as intently as Bardock seemed to. If he strained his senses he could almost hear the man's heartbeat. It was irregular, as though he were nervous. As though he were lying, Kakorott thought to himself with a sigh.

"Then why are you still here?" Bardock took a menacing step forward. "If you do not give me the answers I desire, I will torture you until I do. And the answers I want, are the true ones."

The man quivered on the floor. Bardock took another step, hand raised as though to strike. Kakorott grabbed his arm while it was still in the air.

"No," he said firmly. "We do not torture. Ever."

"You might not. But I can, and I will." But he couldn't break Kakorott's vise-like grip. The boy was impossibly strong. Finally, Bardock attacked with his first two fingers on his right hand, right at the root of where a Saiyjin's tail would be, jamming them into the highly sensitive area. Kakorott fell limp to the ground.

Bardock nodded. He had thought this kid not might really be a Saiyjin, as there shouldn't be any others on this backwater, but this confirmed the truth. The root was a sensitive spot in all Saiyjin children that would disappear around their tenth year. It was there so parents could control their children when they became too rambunctious, without the parents having to go into a time-consuming fight. Of course, parents passed their hands lightly over the root (by Saiyjin standards), and the child would only be paralyzed a moment.

He looked to the human cowering in front of him. The man's eyes widened in fear. He scurried away by a few feet. Bardock turned his attention back to Kakorott. It would take two hours for the boy to recover. He had struck him hard, and wondered if he should leave him there. Deciding that nothing would be able to hurt him, he planned on just abandoning him to find his own way back to camp.

He once more turned his attention to the human fodder. Kakorott's hand reached out slightly, but quickly returned to fetal position. Bardock didn't notice. He picked the human up by the lapel of his shirt and shook him, hard. "Who are you and who do you work for?"

The man said nothing, too afraid even to speak. Unfortunately, Bardock thought he was just being obstinate. He threw the man, very lightly, for a Saiyjin, at least. He didn't want to kill their only lead. He walked over to the crumpled heap, at a measured, stately pace, designed to increase fear and to loosen the tongue. He reached the man and arched an eyebrow. The man just quivered and huddled deeper into a ball. So Bardock kicked him, and he landed twenty yards away into a pool of water.

The shock seemed to jerk him from his fear and he ran as fast as he could, while Bardock maintained his careful gait. And even so, he was catching up when the man fell down and rebounded. In front of him stood a giant of a man. He wore a white robe, and an M was encrusted on his forehead.

The man crawled away from him as quickly as he had run from Bardock, who had stopped to watch the proceedings. So, he thought. This must be Gendu.

Gendu raised his palm, and after a few blips of energy as it gathered, a Ki ball shot out and hit the nameless human square in the chest. He was dead before he even hit the ground.

"Who are you?" Bardock was certain he knew the answer, but it was best to check. And it was best not to give a name, lest the man pretend to be Gendu while the real one skulked about somewhere.

"I am Gendu, weakling."

Bardock bristled at the comment but he could deal with his pride later. Information was important right now. "Where is your leader?"

"As a being so superior to yourself, you don't even have the right to know."

"And there is no way you would tell me?" he asked lightly, getting ready to position himself in a stance, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet.

"If you defeat me, I can tell you the name and whereabouts of my superior."

"And is he the head of your organization?"

"How clever. He is not. But he can lead you to him."

"Fair enough. I'm done with chit-chatting," he said as he did a few stretches and scanned the battlefield. All hills. "How about you?"

"Alright." And without further ado, Gendu attacked.

>

Kakorott could feel Bardock's energy beginning to pale, while whomever he was fighting changed not one whit. He tried to move, but whatever his grandfather had done to him left him as good as paralyzed. Whenever he tried to move, pain would shoot through his muscles like electricity through a conduit. But his grandfather's life force was fading fast, and if it disappeared, there would be no hope for his own existence. For the Universe itself, even. Paradox and time travel did not mix.

Kakorott groaned with the effort of pushing himself to his elbows, then to his knees. Waves of dizziness passed over him and it took all his effort not to pass out for good.

>

Bardock did all he could to block the onslaught of blows. At the beginning of the battle, they had been evenly matched, but where Gendu's punches did damage, Bardock's did not. He fought the dizziness that came over him, refusing to lose to a mere human, no matter how extraordinary that human might be. He stiffened his knees, and though he could barely see, he went in with a hard left. His vision cleared as he felt his fist strike flesh, and indeed, he had caught Gendu's cheek. The man turned back to him and smiled. There wasn't so much as a welt.

Gendu clasped his hands together for a sideswipe, that pushed Bardock into a hill, and he stayed there. He struggled to get to his feet, but his legs wouldn't obey his mind. Gendu readied energy in his hand again. He had had enough fun.

"Gendu Gun!" he yelled, and Bardock saw shining white energy race toward him. Despite himself, he closed his eyes and looked away, unable to look death in the face for a second time.

Death took a long time in coming. Bardock opened his eyes, and they widened in shock. Kakorott stood in front of him, arms crossed to block the attack. He had shielded Bardock with his own body! But he should still be out for another hour and forty-five minutes. Bardock was filled with a sense of guilt. Here he had attacked the boy, and despite the pain he had to be in, had risked his own life for the Saiyjin's. He owed this boy; he owed him a great deal.

Kakorott lowered his arms to his side and entered into a fighting stance. While waiting for the smoke to clear, Gendu relaxed his guard. The human had no warning, and Kakorott used that to his advantage by a quick attack.

Kakorott punched Gendu in the face, sending him flying, before phasing out behind him and leveling a kick at Gendu's lower backside, sending him in another direction and flipping him so his stomach was facing down. Kakorott once more phased out and in right under Gendu, delivering a heavy punch to the gut. Gendu bent double and fell to the ground.

Kakorott turned and jogged over to where Bardock lay.

"Still alive?" he asked, his voice cold.

"Yeah. Still kicking." Bardock's eyes widened, and that was all the warning Kakorott had as he whipped his head around in time to see that Gendu had somehow gotten up and was rushing him with a powerful right hook. Gendu punched Kakorott hard in the face, working the boy's jaw around.

Before he hit a hillside he righted himself and hit the ground feet first, skidding a few yards before his momentum bled out. Idiot, he thought to himself. I should have sensed his energy rise. He checked Gendu's Ki, and it was up to full strength, though his body still bore the fruits of Kakorott's attacks. It must be Bibidi, replenishing his warriors with a great deal of energy. But that also means he's using energy meant for Majin Buu. He's banking on my losing and making up for the loss with the energy I expend on this battle. I need to end this, fast. If I keep this up, Gendu will become more wasteful than useful, and Bibidi will be forced to stop supplying him with energy.

Gendu attacked with a series of kicks, all of which Kakorott blocked with his left arm before trapping Gendu's left leg with both arms and twisting. Gendu used his Ki to orient himself with his leg, keeping it in its socket. He went to kick Kakorott's head with his free right leg, but Kakorott threw Gendu's still-trapped leg in the air and unbalanced him, allowing Kakorott to elbow Gendu on the side of his ribcage.

Gendu just managed to block, and while he held Kakorott's elbow with his left hand he punched with his right. It connected with Kakorott's face, but he countered with a kick to Gendu's legs, using Gendu's hold on him to pound the man's head into the hill.

The two separated for a quick breather. Kakorott would have glared at Bardock except it would have meant taking his eyes off Gendu. If he hadn't attacked me like that, I'd be able to move about more freely, more quickly. Gendu would have been defeated within my first two attacks. He shook off the thought. What ifs did no good and didn't change the situation.

They ran towards each other and traded blows once more, but Kakorott forced himself to gain the upper hand. Fighting evenly, Bibidi would see no reason to cut Gendu loose from his energy supply. As much as it hurt, Kakorott raised his Ki and dealt a series of powerful, Ki enhanced blows that left Gendu broken and bleeding. Kakorott readied a Ki attack, but there was no need. Gendu's energy was dropping.

"Where is your master?" Kakorott demanded. A groan escaped from Gendu's lips as he laid his head on the ground. Kakorott sensed an energy wash over Gendu, stealing the last of his life. It was almost identical to what he had felt at the Tenkai Boudakai. If that was Babidi, this must be Bibidi. Kakorott reached out to try to sense what direction the energy was coming from. It was a wide band, but he made out the general direction and fixed it in his mind. He felt his body slump to the ground now that the battle was over, but he forced himself up again just as quickly. He walked over to Bardock and spoke quietly.

"If you ever do that to me again, I will kill you." Never mind he was Kakorott's grandfather. After all, Bardock didn't need to know that, and threats were all that would work with a Saiyjin. Bardock nodded weakly.

"You have the right to kill me now, if you wish," he said, submitting himself to Kakorott's judgment. Kakorott raised a palm and gathered Ki. This time Bardock did not look away as a ball of energy crossed the distance between them. Imagine his surprise when he felt strength return to his limbs and found himself able to stand and even to fly.

"What did you do?" he asked, startled.

"I gave you some of my own energy. You're needed, or we would never have recruited you."

"Thank you."

Kakorott turned his head as though he couldn't stand the sight of the Saiyjin. And, Bardock thought, perhaps he can't. Bardock wouldn't blame him, certainly not after his own treachery. But then he glanced towards Gendu's swiftly cooling corpse and was filled with pride at Kakorott's strength and will. This boy was of his brother's line. And he had done that. He smiled as Kakorott rose in the air and headed back towards camp, and followed after.