Versus 3: Eclipse
--All That Is Gone--
She lay in the lukewarm water that used to be her bath and stared at the ceiling. That couldn't have been what happened. Not that nightmare of a memory she'd just had. Maybe she'd over-exaggerated the whole occurance. Had she really said that to him? Had she really told him that he would suffer until his life hang in the balance?
Even with that memory, she couldn't be sure what exactly had happened to him. Was he alright? Or had she truly left him near death?
Suddenly she jumped out of the water. It wasn't until she'd tried to get out of the tub that she realized how sore her muscles were. She grunted from the pain of trying to move. Maybe she'd overdone it today. Maybe she should have spent a little time in her dad's regen tank.
She quickly dried off and got dressed. She had to see if Goten was okay. She wouldn't know what to do if he went shuffling out of life just to hide in death a while. Her heart raced as she wondered what had become of her poor injured Goten. She never should have left him down in a hole. She should have brought him home with her. She should have put HIM in her father's regen tank until his wounds healed.
It seemed guilt would win out in the end afterall.
The phone in her bedroom rang, startling Bra to no end. Had her mother already taken the security lock off her phone? She must have been really excited about that test score.
But Bra didn't move. Scared stiff really. Even if she could at the time, she wasn't sure if she should. She only waited to hear what the answering machine had to say. She waited to see if somehow Goten had made his way back to his apartment and decided to give her a call.
"Bra, I swear if you're not at home, I'm going to gut you like a trout the next time I see you! Pick up the phone! This is important!" she heard Pan's voice say through the machine. She paused for a long time before she went on. "Well, I guess you're not at home. Whenever you do get back, give me a call, okay? It's really important--"
"Hello. Pan?" Bra answered. She knew it was news about Goten. It had to be.
"Oh. You're home. What took you so long?" Pan asked.
Bra took a deep breath and sat on her bed. "I... It's a long story."
"Everything with you is either a long story or you don't want to talk about it," Pan said. "That's no big surprise." She changed the subject. "I know you and Uncle Goten sparred today. I'm guessing that you won."
Oh no. Pan must have been the one who found Goten laying there in the middle of nowhere with unattended injuries.
Pan continued. "I mean, I felt his power go up for a long time, but then it suddenly started falling. And yours. I really don't know what to say about it. It fluctuated dramatically all afternoon."
What? Was that all she had to say? No, 'Bra, how could you leave my uncle out there like that'? No, 'Bra, you had no right to do what you did to my uncle'? Pan would have been pretty upset if she'd known what Bra had done to Goten.
So, Bra decided she should take over this conversation before things go out of hand. "My training really paid off," was all she said about it. "So, why'd you call?" She felt bad that she didn't explain what had happened. Or the fact that Goten was hurt. Or the fact that her uncle was quite possibly still lying out there somewhere with injuries she hadn't even bothered to study.
"Oh!" Pan chirped. "I wanted to talk to you about something."
Pan's mind was obviously too preoccupied with whatever she had to tell her to worry about her uncle's well-being.
"Marron and I kinda had this double date thing in mind for tonight," Pan started. "But then we thought that since you're most likely off punishment, you'd like to come too."
"Double date?" Bra asked. She didn't have time for this. There were more important things for her to worry about right now. She just couldn't let Pan know that she was worried about something. She had to keep a cool head until she was done with her. And then she could move on to more pressing matters. Like hopefully saving Goten's life.
"Yeah. A double date. Well, we're making it a triple date. You can't say no. I'll come over personally and drag you out," Pan stated. "And you and your date will have a great time. I'll make you have fun."
Pan was threatening her! Again!
"It's gonna be Marron and Wes. Marron talked me into seeing Hunter. Maybe you and Goten could come along," Pan continued.
Goten... What had become of him...?
"It'd be a good chance to spark that relationship that you can't seem to get together," Pan went on saying. "What do you think?"
Bra ground her teeth. All this worrying was sure to kill her. "I don't think so. I mean, Goten and I are friends. If I ask him to go on this triple date, well..." She thought for a while. There had to be some kind of way to get out of this whole Goten thing. She couldn't even be sure whether the man was dead or alive, let alone whether he'd accompany her on a double date. "Why don't I bring Nick instead? I mean, two of his friends will already be there."
Pan squealed with delight, causing Bra to nearly drop the phone. "That's a great idea! We can talk about band stuff. It'll be great. I mean, their gig is tomorrow night. We may even have a chance to make some requests. Bra, you really are a genius."
Was she really?
"It's settled, then. Since we have three couples, we can take the band van now. How much better could things go?" Pan asked. "I'll get Marron to call Wes and tell him to bring the van. We'll pick you guys up in an hour."
Pan didn't even wait for a comment or objection. She just hung up the phone.
Little did Pan know, Bra had several problems: 1) She didn't want to go out; 2) Nick just might turn her down because of the way she'd treated him earlier; and 3) the person she was really interested in seeing right now most likely lay stretched out in a coma-like state in the middle of nowhere. The last of which was the biggest problem of all. How could she correct the errors that had been made?
She had one hour in which to solve these problems. She really didn't care about the whole date thing. That was the least of her worries now. Currently what bugged her the most was Goten's well-being.
Or, then again. Maybe she should ask Nick about this triple date. Asking someone out at the last minute was probably not a sign of good etiquette.
Oh, everything was happening too fast! She needed time to think!
She groaned and stared at the floor. She had to think logically. She had to think CHRONOlogically. Considering the circumstances, what would be the best thing to take care of first? That was the question. NOT: which one did she care most about? Her head felt like it was spinning an all directions at once.
She had to breathe.
She had everything under control.
Just breathe. Calm down.
Bra closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Then she opened her eyes again. She felt a little less stressed out and a little more clear headed now.
The first thing she had to take care of was making sure no one found out that she was under any kind of stress. She couldn't let everyone around her know that something was wrong. And that was why she was going on the triple date. So first, she had to talk to Nick.
The second item on her to-do list would be finding Goten. Making sure he was okay. If she went out there and found him still lying there, she'd have to be very crafty about the way she would get him back to the regeneration tank. If he wasn't still there...well, she'd just have to search for him. First at his apartment. Then at the Sons'. And lastly at the hospital.
Everything that would happen after that would be determined once she took care of the first two. And she had under an hour now to do it.
She slowly headed toward the guest room in which Nick was staying. She stood before it and frowned. Misdirected dating had to be one of her biggest faults. Every time her relationship with Goten wasn't working out, she turned to some poor, innocent, unsuspecting guy. Randall, who she'd taken to Marron's fashion show, was an innocent bystander. And now Nick was another innocent in all of this.
She knocked on the door. This had to be one of the dumbest ideas she'd ever had...
Now where could he be? Bra made her way to the kitchen and spotted Nick sitting at the table. Unfortunately, her mother was seated with him, chatting away as she so often did.
No...
Bra just stood in the shadow of the hallway for a while trying to figure out what she should do.
Bulma was tinkering with her latest device as she spoke to Nick. "I know you have a life outside of just tutoring my daughter. I mean, you're a nice, handsome young man. I want you to feel free to bring your girlfriend over anytime you'd like. You don't always have to go out and see her."
Girlfriend? Well, this was a very convenient conversation for them to be having. This was something Bra needed to know about before she asked Nick about this triple date thing. Now that she knew he had a girlfriend, this would make things a little more complicated.
Nick smiled at Bulma. "Actually, Mrs.--"
Bulma smiled back at him. "Please, call me Bulma."
"Bulma it is, then. It's really flattering to hear you say those things, but actually, I don't have a girlfriend," Nick said. "It's really kind of you to open your home to me in such a way, though."
Oh...? No girlfriend...? Maybe Bra had come in on the very beginning of the conversation.
Bulma looked at her little machine. "I see. Well, why wouldn't someone like you have a girlfriend?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm picky. Maybe girls are picky," Nick told her.
This was so embarrassing. Why would her mother ask all these questions? There was no time to waste here. Bra had to find Goten before Pan and Marron came over looking for her.
Bulma's little machine beeped twice. She looked at it, then looked back up at Nick. "There's something more to what you're saying. What kinds of girls do you usually find yourself attracted to?"
Bra wanted to scream. She wanted to interrupt them, but there was something very interesting going on here. What was this aparatus her mother had on the table? And why was it that when it beeped, her mother seemed to become even more curious.
Nick frowned a little. "Mrs.--I mean, Bulma. I don't feel very comfortable talking to you about things like this."
"Come now, Mr. Carnage. It's just an innocent question," Bulma asked with a smile.
Nick sighed.
He was really going to answer this question, wasn't he? He wasn't obligated to do so. Why would he answer her?
"Everybody likes pretty women," Nick began. "That goes without saying, really. But I'm really attracted to a woman who is smart. Not necessarily a scholar, but someone who has her own train of thought. Someone with a dominant presence. Someone who's persistant. Someone who's not perfect and doesn't WANT to be. Someone who has something to say, but isn't just constantly saying something just for the sake of speaking. Someone who's not afraid to say what's on her mind." He put his head down a little.
Bra looked a little confused. Hearing these kinds of things from a man's point of view could prove to be most useful.
The little machine Bulma had beeped twice again. "And?" Bulma asked.
Why was her mother hounding this poor young man?
Nick shook his head. "It's so inappropriate. But you and I have grown close over these past few weeks. I feel like I should be able to tell you anything..."
Bra's eyes got huge. There was no way this was leading to where she thought it might be leading. She looked at her mother.
Bulma looked surprised. "Nick, I..."
"I know. I know it can never be. But I have to tell you that I find myself attracted to you, Bulma," Nick said. "You're everything I've ever dreamed of."
Now that WAS inappropriate. How did Bra NOT see this? How did she completely miss the fact that her tutor was attracted to her mother? His employer? The Prince's wife?
Bulma stared at Nick for a long time, still flabbergasted.
"Please, don't take it the wrong way. I would never--" Nick began.
"Shh!" Bulma looked around. "Listen, you can never mention this again. If my husband were to find out, you'd be a dead man. Let us never bring this up again. Ever." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I just wanted to... I want to see everyone around me happy. But I think I just made your life a whole lot worse."
Bra couldn't move. It seemed she and Nick shared a common situation. Actually, Nick's situation was worse than her own.
Nick smiled. "Don't be sorry. I'm glad I got it off my chest. It's a little disappointing that...well... But I knew you were married when I moved in. It didn't stop me from feeling the way I feel now, but I can't say that I didn't know. I just know that when I do find the right one, she'll most likely be just like you."
Bulma smiled a small smile. "We shouldn't talk about this anymore. It's too dangerous." She looked around again. "So, what do you think about this little baby?" She presented the machine she was studying. "It's a little advancement on a lie detector. It's really neat. It tells you when people are leaving things out when they talk to you."
"Is that what all of this was about...?" Nick asked with a laugh.
The two continued to chat.
That WAS a neat device. It made Bra wonder exactly how it worked. Especially without actually being hooked into the person you're talking to.
But Bra didn't have time to ponder that. Her time was winding down. She'd have to find a better way to go about asking Nick out now that she knew this bit of information. She would have to wait till later.
She quietly made her way back to her room. She would have to go out the window if she didn't want to be stopped by her mother.
...soon...
Bra flew at the speed of sound over the trees. She had to find Goten and she had to find him soon. It was eating away at her now. She never should have left him there.
Once she arrived in the vast deserted land in which they always fought, she eyed the crater Goten had been laying in when she left. She took a deep breath and ran over to it.
But there was no sign of him anywhere.
Goten was gone.
--End All That Is Gone--
--Abrupt ending again. This was SOME chapter. Even stranger than that last, I believe. I don't know what to say. To be honest with you, a lot of the stuff that happened in it, I didn't even see coming. I've really gotta stop letting these characters shock me like this. These episodes have been writing themselves lately.
--Anyway, thank you for reading Versus 3. And thank you everyone for the reviews. I knew I meant to make a comment about something I saw in a review before. This was a while back, though. I regret to inform you, I do not do lemons. I like reading lemons, but something just tells me I would suck at writing them. (Get it? Suck lemons...? Oh, well.) Anyway, I may get around to trying them sometime, but it won't be in this series.
--We're closer and closer to the end. Three more episodes to go. And the more I look at it, the more I think that there will be a Versus 4. We'll just have to see how this ends. So, see ya next time.