Chapter 3 – It's trying to come back

In the next morning everyone woke up at almost the same time thanks to a loud noise coming from the living room.

"What the heck is that?" Haruka asked with a wide yawn, opening her bedroom's door. "Sounds like a giant insane bee."

"You didn't miss much," Trunks agreed, wandering past her towards the toilet. "It's Saturday morning. Mom always cleans up on Saturday mornings."

Michiru, who had appeared on her room's door too, covered a yawn with her hand. "At 7 AM?"

Trunks shrugged. "She's late enough…"

The two girls came to the living room where Bulma was dashing around with a huge thing that looked (and sounded) like some prehistoric beast. And singing "I'm a Believer" on top of her lungs.

"Good morning!" Haruka yelled over the beast's roaring and Bulma's singing. The woman blinked, shut up and turned the vacuum cleaner off.

"Ahh, good morning, you two," she said with a smile. "Up so early?"

"I don't think they had much choice." Vegeta entered the room and glared at the monstrous vacuum cleaner. "I'm hungry."

Bulma laughed. "There's a shock. Where's Hotaru?"

Haruka and Michiru looked around and then gave each other a surprised glance. "Must be still in her room… although I can't imagine that this noise hasn't woken her up yet," Michiru said.

"Hotaru?" Haruka knocked on the door. "I know it's early and I know that you're tired but the breakfast is ready and the day is going to be long. Would you get up now?"

"She has always had the sleep of a bird and the room should be full of sunshine already," Michiru remarked with a concerned frown. "Maybe something has happened to her?"

"Let's take a look inside," Bulma suggested.

Haruka put her hand on the doorknob, hesitated for a second and pushed the door open. Bulma gasped. Trunks gave a quiet "wow".

The room that had been bright yellow, sunny and happy in the previous day was hardly recognizable. The big window was covered with a thick blue curtain that blocked most of the sunlight and so the room was filled with very soft blue light. Thanks to that curtain and the light, everything in the room was in blue shades. And on those blue walls something dark, wavy and ominous was crawling. Mere shadows, but they came from nowhere and were caused by nothing. At least it seemed so.

"What are these?" Bulma asked very quietly, pointing at the shadows. Her hand was shaking a little.

"Shadows from other dimensions," Haruka replied. "Harmless, as long as Hotaru still has her powers to hold them back. She's a link between our world and many others."

"Goodness, it's quiet in here…" Trunks muttered.

The others looked at him with surprise and then stared at the room. Trunks was right. The house was located near many highways and even at night the sounds of traffic were clearly to be heard. The door to the room next to Hotaru's was opened and as they were standing there, they could hear the sound of a big truck passing by coming from that other room. But Hotaru's room was quiet. So very quiet…

"She has isolated this place," Vegeta remarked. He had shown up behind the others. "Nice trick… although sleeping in here most likely feels like sleeping in a grave. But then again, she may even like it. By the way, her breakfast's getting cold."

Michiru went to the bed. Hotaru was in deep sleep, breathing calmly with her black hair spread out on the pillow – completely dead to the world. The shadows were keeping away from her. She looked so harmless and innocent, so vulnerable… but they all knew that she was the power source of those shadows.

"Hotaru," Michiru said quietly. The girl opened her huge eyes that instant. The shadows faded away, the room turned a bit brighter and all of a sudden all the sounds were back. The isolation was gone.

"Good morning." Hotaru sat up and yawned. "What time is it?"

Michiru smiled slightly. "Early. But we're going on a long trip today and the sooner we leave the better. Come on, your breakfast is ready."

"Okay, so shall we go guys?" Trunks asked after the breakfast. "Mom promised to give us a plane, right Mom?"

Bulma nodded. "It's in the living room, in the top drawer. You'll find it. I'll go to the lab now, much work to do… Vegeta, are you going with them?"

The prince of the Saiyans seemed thoughtful. "Don't mind if I do. Sitting here all day long isn't exactly thrilling… besides, what would they do if they'd meet some strong enemy on the way?"

Haruka snorted. "Most likely "Death Reborn Revolution" before anyone can say anything and bye-bye goes the galaxy." Michiru tried to hide a smile. Hotaru grinned widely.

"That settles it. Trunks, go get the plane. I'm coming too." Vegeta got up and left the kitchen.

"Yes Sir… meet you outside, girls!" Trunks galloped away.

In ten minutes the plane was out of the capsule, up in the air and high above the Western Capital. Haruka was sitting on the driver's seat and Trunks had gotten the honor of being the navigator. At the moment he was trying to read a huge map that was twice as wide as the boy himself.

"Let's see now... where should we go first?" he asked. "We could go to Satan City to see how Gohan's doing, we could go to the Papaya Islands, or Dende's palace, or..."

"Trunks," Haruka frowned, "breathe."

"I'd love to see all of those interesting places on your planet," Hotaru said calmly. She had been awfully quiet and serene for the whole morning and seemed a bit concerned about something. "Which one of those places you mentioned is the nearest?"

Trunks examined the map. "Actually, how 'bout going to Goku's place first? I'm sure that Goten would love to come with us. And then we can see about where to go."

Haruka nodded in agreement. "Gimme the coordinates." The plane accelerated and boosted towards the mountain ranges.

It was quiet in the plane. Mainly because Hotaru was quiet... too quiet, even for her. Eventually Michiru looked straight at her and asked in a sharp voice: "Hotaru, what's wrong?"

Hotaru startled and blinked. "Nothing... nothing, honestly."

"Don't even think you can fool me. I've known you long enough to understand when something is disturbing you..." Michiru's voice turned a bit softer. "You know you can trust me... and all of us. Tell me. What's going on?"

Hotaru sighed quietly. "It's trying to come back."

The plane fell for nearly twenty feet, then regained its control and boosted on. Haruka was gazing at Hotaru. Everyone else was glaring at her.

"A little respect for our lives here, if you please?" Trunks grunted.

Haruka didn't mind him. "It's trying to come back... you mean that shadowy dream-eating thing we fought back on Earth? The same one we blasted into the Dead Zone with your Silence Wall thing and our powers?"

Hotaru nodded. "It's very angry because of that loss and it has been increasing its powers in order to break out from the Dead Zone and get its revenge. And take over the Universe, of course."

Vegeta, who had been looking out of the window for most of the time, turned his head and looked at Hotaru. "Do you really think that it's able to increase its powers so much in only two weeks?"

The girl shrugged. "Honestly, I wouldn't be very surprised if that thing would actually originate from the Dead Zone... but even if not, you surely remember that it got its powers from other people's dreams. Now try to imagine how many creatures may be there in the Dead Zone. All those beings that have been sent there or gotten there by accident... I'm sure that they also dream. Dream of getting out. That dream must be their strongest desire, therefore the perfect health food for our shadow demon."

"Makes sense," Haruka nodded, narrowing her eyes, "and who exactly had this bright idea of sending it to the Dead Zone??"

Hotaru sighed again. "I know, and I'm sorry, but that was the only good idea I had at the moment. It was predictable that it would try to come back but when we were fighting there, that was the only reasonable thing to do; we just weren't strong enough to destroy in once and for all. Except for the Death Reborn Revolution, that is," she added with a sarcastic frown.

Haruka took a deep breath. "Okay, we'll discuss it when we get to Goku's place. Two more hours to fly... and then we'll see."

"This is serious," Goku agreed. They were all sitting in the backyard of Goku's house, drinking lemonade and interrogating Hotaru.

"The last time it came, it used some sort of a portal to get here," Hotaru said quietly. "It built a portal of its own powers, using my mind as a link. Well, this time it can't do that again since now I know what I'm up against and can protect my mind. Therefore it's increasing its powers, day by day, and eventually it'll break out. Through my mind. Whether I like it or not."

"Would you survive that?" Trunks asked. Hotaru shook her head.

"I doubt it…"

Vegeta's eyes narrowed. "You must hold this thing back. Once you let it out of the Dead Zone, it may very well open a way for all those creatures in there. That would be the end of, well, everything."

The girl sighed with frustration. "I know that, but there isn't much I can do. Meditating, yes, closing my mind, yes, but I'm simply a door. There isn't a single door in this Universe that can't be destroyed, not a single lock that can't be unlocked if you know the correct way. You're a Saiyan, you should know…"

Vegeta nodded thoughtfully. "There's a good point… so as I understand it, we can't prevent its coming and we can't prevent your death, right?"

"You got it," Hotaru agreed.

"At least there are the Dragonballs so we can bring you back to life," Goku said. "But we need to defeat this thing once and for all. Dead Zone won't help us any more. We must annihilate it."

Haruka and Michiru looked at him with slight surprise. The naive, ultra-optimistic joker had turned into a serious Saiyan warrior. His eyes were concerned and determined as he was trying to figure a way out of the situation.

Haruka snorted quietly. "We're dealing with a supernatural creature here. It's not even solid. All that good old-fashioned butt-kicking is not gonna do the trick this time."

Goten chortled. "Yeah, because it doesn't have a butt."

Goku scratched his head. "I'd say that we need more brains to work on this thing… Chichi, Goten and I are gonna fly away for a couple of days!" He turned to the others. "We'll go to Dende's palace. He's the Guardian of Earth and Piccolo's there too, I'm sure that they can think of something."

Chichi dashed out of the house at the same second. "Oh no you won't! Goten has to study and you have to mow the lawn and besides, you just got back from that horrible planet and…"

Haruka frowned. "Horrible planet?"

"…you're not going anywhere!" the woman declared.

"But Chichi," the Saiyan warrior had turned into the naive joker again, "we need to save the Universe!"

Chichi placed her hands on the hips. "Just like always. Saving this, saving that… don't you think that I deserve a life too, huh?"

"That's exactly what we're trying to save here," Hotaru remarked with sarcasm – not a very common feature for her.

Goku scratched his head again and then turned to look at the others.

"Are we going or not?" he suddenly asked with a wide grin. Chichi gasped. Haruka stood up, grinning as well.

"I'll drive."