Versus 4: Temporal Distortion

--He Said, She Said--

Pan knocked on Bra's window and waved to her.

Bra looked at her clock. 10:39am. Now was the time of truth. Now she'd see whether Pan wanted to give her information or destroy her. And even with the amount of time she'd known her friend, she had no idea what Pan might be capable of. Especially if she was angry. It just wasn't often that she'd seen Pan that way.

She walked over and let Pan in.

"What's with that look?" Pan asked as she hopped into the room.

Bra's expression gave her away. She wanted to ask why Pan was being so friendly, but maybe she'd gotten her answer over the phone. Besides, she had bigger things to worry about now. Like what Goten had been saying. "Nothing. Nothing. So what's up?"

Pan smiled at Bra confidently. One of those smiles that whispered, 'I know something you don't know'. "Do you really wanna know?" she asked.

The suspense was killing her. She'd already been waiting for what seemed like hours for Pan to show up and tell her what Goten had said. She'd even skipped the small talk so Pan would have no choice but to get straight to the point.

"Of course I want to know. I don't care how bad it is," Bra said. She sat on her bed and sighed.

Pan took a seat in Bra's desk chair. "Well..." She looked a little more serious than she had before. "Goten and I were talking..." She paused for a long time.

"And?" Bra asked. "What did he say? What is it?"

"Calm down. I'm getting to that. Be patient," Pan said. "We talked about what you were saying about his holding back and all. He said that you had a point. I don't know. He's really confused. For some reason, he thinks this whole thing is his fault now." She frowned.

Bra felt really guilty now. She was going to end up being one of those people who abused their loved ones and left them thinking it's their own fault. "But it's not."

"Well, I know that and you know that. I even told him it was your fault," Pan went on.

Bra frowned. Now she didn't have to go telling him that. She could have said that they shared the blame.

"But that's not what I wanted to bring up first," Pan continued. "I think Goten kinda lost his mind when you told your dad that he was someone you loved. And you actually used the word 'love'. He got all weird about that. Most likely because we both thought that your father would be the LAST person you said something like that to. I'm talking about even after Goten. Goten would have been the second to the last, then your dad would have been the very, very last."

Bra tried to fight the blush that crept up on her cheeks. "What do you mean? He was 'weird' about it?"

Pan shrugged. "He was just... I don't know. I think you broke his brain with that one."

Bra looked confused.

"Yeah, stuff like that. He was giving me those kinds of looks," Pan told her.

Bra looked even more confused.

"And that one too," Pan said. "I mean, it's nothing too out of the ordinary for him to look like that, but I think he's really lost right now. He was really upset last night. And I don't think he's going to be any less upset today."

Bra looked at the ceiling. "Well, how in the world am I supposed to get him back? I don't want him to be mad at me. I want him to like me. At least as a friend. I want things to be the way they were, even if I can't have him as..., well, a boyfriend."

Pan smiled. "I had a feeling you'd ask how you could get him back. I've got a plan." She giggled a little. "I know this is really last minute, but we need to see if we can talk Nick and the guys into it."

Nick and the guys? What was this little ebony-haired tyrant thinking?

"Here's my idea. I can talk Goten into coming to the show with me and Marron tonight. If you pick a song that you'd want to sing to Goten, you could get Eroder to play it at their show. And you can sing it to him. What do you think?" Pan asked with a smile.

Her friend sounded so excited about the whole thing, but Bra wasn't too sure about this. She'd never sung in front of people before. And Eroder may not want to do something like this. It could mess up their whole set. Besides, Goten wasn't as big a music fan as she was.

But who wouldn't want a serenade? It was romantic. And to make it even better, Bra would be doing this in front of a huge crowd of people, confessing her love for him openly in a way she never would have otherwise. It wasn't a bad idea. But there was a 50/50 chance it wouldn't work. She really had nothing to lose by trying it.

"Pan, you just might be a genius," Bra told her. "I'll do it."

"Great. This is gonna be perfect. Make sure to pick a really good song. He'll be so flattered that he'll have to at least smile about it," Pan said. She raised her eyebrows. "I'm not gonna lie. I thought you were gonna be like, 'That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard'. I guess you really will go to almost any extreme to get him back. That's so cute."

Cute? It wasn't cute. It wasn't cute at all. It was a potential catastrophe. But it was an idea. And that was something Bra just didn't have at the time.

"Alright. That's enough of that," Pan interrupted Bra's thoughts. "Now there's something I want to know. What was your dad saying about being a Saiyan last night?"

Bra paused for a moment. She wasn't quite sure where to start. Especially since she'd gotten some new information on the matter from her father earlier that morning. So she gave Pan all the details she could. Maybe Pan could decipher something from it that Bra couldn't. It was already hard enough for her to think when she was operating on such an inadequate amount of sleep.

"And so, to make a long story short, the reason you tried to kill Goten was because you want to...procreate with him?" Pan asked, trying not to laugh.

Bra narrowed her eyes at Pan, but blushed all the same.

After a couple of seconds, Pan laughed out loud. "I'm sorry. That just sounds kinda funny when you think about it." She stifled the rest of her laughing fit. "You know if he would have died, you wouldn't have been able to be with him, right?"

"I know that. Listen, I don't really understand all of what my father was talking about. And I really don't care. All I care about is Goten," Bra said.

"Oh, come on, Bra. You can't just go on not knowing what this whole last true Saiyan thing means. What if it causes some other weird stuff to happen?" Pan asked. She frowned. "What if you try to do something like that again?"

"Well, my dad's one. And he hasn't done anything weird," Bra said. She thought for a while. "Well, except when he fought me. But that's only because I challenged him. So obviously there's a way to control whatever this is. Maybe I should talk to him about this some more."

"Maybe you should," Pan said. "And while you do that, I'll go talk Goten into seeing Eroder play. I don't think I'll tell him exactly where we're going, though. It'll be a surprise." She stood up. "Find out what you are. Find a song to sing. And talk to Nick about singing at their show. Those are your assignments. Do you think you're up for it?" she said like she was in some kind of James Bond movie.

Bra laughed a little and nodded. "I think I can handle that."

"Good. You have until 8:30pm. I'll contact you later with further details," Pan told her with a giggle. She hopped back out the window.

Bra folded her arms across her chest. Pan was really a lot like Goku. Nothing seemed to phase her for long. Bra had tried to kill her family member, but still she forgave her. She went back to being her friend like nothing ever happened. Oh, how she wished Goten would do the same. But it was a little harder to forgive someone for something when you were the one it happened to.

--End He Said, She Said--

--Welcome to another episode of Temporal Distortion. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. I know it was a little short. Sorry about that. It seems Pan has the plan. How is it going to turn out? Find out next time.

--Thank you for all the reviews. Sometimes I forget that there are several people reading this story. It kind of shocks me to see more than 3 reviews of a chapter. I thank you so very much for those reviews. Please keep them coming. It's the only way I know whether I'm doing something right or wrong. And feel free to tell me if there's something that you don't like.