I do not own Dragonball Z.
Fear Inside – Chapter 6
Goten woke early the next morning. It seemed he was getting into the habit of doing that lately. Washing quickly, he bounded down the stairs to find his mother working hard at breakfast. Taking a deep whiff of the delicious smelling food, he sat down.
"Good morning, Goten," Chi-Chi said brightly as she set the food down on the table. "You're looking well today. Sleep well?"
"Yep," he responded happily. He didn't really remember what he dreamed about the night before. All he could really recall was Bra's soft voice whispering something in his ear. It was all he needed for his day to start out right. He felt that it was a good omen.
"What are your plans for today?" His mother asked him as she sat down at the table.
"I'm planning on visiting Trunks today. I have a few things I want to go over with him."
"That's nice." Chi-Chi replied distractedly. She didn't really seem to be paying attention to him, which was weird. His mother was always interested in what he did and usually asked a million different questions. "Well," she began, "I'm going to go to the market today for some shopping."
Goten gave her a weird look. "I thought you went shopping yesterday," he said with a raised brow.
"Oh no," she said not looking directly at him. "I did the laundry yesterday."
Goten frowned. Was his mother losing it? She was acting very strange. She didn't look sick or as if she was under any stress. He gave a mental shrug and stored it away for future evaluation. She was a grown woman and knew how to take care of herself. He had other things to worry about and when he was through the woman before him would be completely different anyway.
Finishing his breakfast, he jumped up from the table and put his dishes in the sink. "I'll see you later," he said as he gave her a light kiss on the cheek and ran out the door.
Jumping into the sky, he flew as fast as he could, even going super to gain more speed. He wanted to catch Trunks before he went into work this morning. His friend was a key player in his little scheme. It took him no time to reach the city limits. Powering down, he landed inside the Capsule Corporations back yard and ran inside.
He found Trunks in the kitchen reading the morning paper, dressed in a classy black suit, his briefcase sitting next to him. Goten had to suppress a grin. He always found it amusing that Trunks was a businessman. He was so much like his mother.
"Trunks, my man, glad I could catch you. We need to talk." Goten said, pulling up a chair across from him.
Trunks set down his paper and smiled at his friend. "You seem to be in better spirits today. I heard about what happened yesterday. How are you really doing?"
Goten scowled and looked away. "Well, yesterday was bad, no doubt, but I have an idea. I think I've come up with a way to set things straight."
Trunks leaned forward. "What do you have in mind," he asked suspiciously. "You don't plan on killing Uubu, do you?"
Goten laughed. "Well, I won't tell you that the idea didn't cross my mind a few times, but no that isn't it."
"Pan gave me that idea," Trunks said, joining in with Goten's laughter.
"Pan?" Goten asked still grinning madly. "Come on now. You know there isn't a murderous bone in my body."
"Right. Well, after the other day I wasn't so sure. You looked ready to do something drastic."
"I am ready to do something drastic. This place just isn't right. I can feel it all the way to the core. This came to me while meditating yesterday. Somehow, by my disappearing and reappearing years later, it has upset some unseen balance. Don't you feel it?" Goten said leaning toward Trunks with a mad glint in his eye.
Trunks sat back and frowned. "Things do seem a little off since you've shown up . . . " he said slowly, "I don't see what that has to do with anything, though."
"That's just it. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not just in the wrong time. I'm in the wrong dimension all together. When I was meditating, it didn't even feel like I was really here."
"You're losing me." Trunks cut in.
Goten groaned and tried to explain it better. "Like right now. You're sitting right across from me, but it feels like you're miles away. Last night while meditating, it felt as if I was right where I belonged. That if I only kept my mind clear for a little while longer, I'd wake up and things would be right again."
Trunks shook his head. "You aren't making any sense, Goten. And so what if you're right and this isn't the place you're suppose to be. What does that make this place then and how do you plan to get back to where you 'belong'," Trunks said making quotation marks with his fingers, "are you going to meditate yourself there?"
Goten shook his head not phased by Trunks' sarcastic attitude. "Not exactly. I need you to find that gun-thing Bra built that day and zap me with it again. If I'm right then it should take me to the right time. You see, I think the problem was using that time machine to get back. I have this theory that you aren't able to use two different forms of time travel because each one is different from the other and will take you to different points in time and to different dimensions."
Trunks let his jaw slowly become unhinged as he listened to Goten's ranting. "That really doesn't make any sense, what-so-ever. Also, it won't work."
"Huh?" Goten uttered.
"Bra destroyed that thing a long time ago, so there is no way of even trying to prove your theory. And even if she hadn't, how do you know it will work again? How do you know it won't send you back to the dimension you just came from?"
Goten's face fell. The gun was gone, now what was he supposed to do? "I don't know," he said crestfallen. He sat there for a few moments thinking of some other way to make his plan work. "I know!" he cried almost jumping out of his chair. "How about you build me a time machine?"
Trunks blanched. "I hate to rain on your parade, Goten, but I don't know how to build a time machine. I've never even studied the theory of time travel. Besides, that could take years."
"What about Bulma? She was the original inventor of the machine. I'm sure she's studied it before." Goten said hopefully.
Trunks shook his head. "Sorry. Mom hasn't built anything in a while. She spends most of her time hounding me at the office and telling me how bad I'm fucking up her company. Speaking of which, I have a board meeting to attend soon and if I'm late, I'll never hear the end of it. Sorry, Goten, it looks as if you're going to have to find a way to live in this world," he said as he stood, grabbing his brief case. "I'll talk to you later, ok?"
Goten sat back heavily in his chair. "You're not even going to try?" he said with a slight whine to his voice.
"I just don't see how it's possible," Trunks said with a shake of his head. "I've got to go now anyway. Instead of trying to figure out a way to get my sister back, why don't you find someone else? There are plenty of other women out there." With that, he walked from the room.
Goten sat in the kitchen fuming at his best friend. It didn't seem like Trunks to turn down a challenge like this. It was one more reason that justified his theory. Things were not right in this place. How could he even think of finding someone else when his perfect match was right here? He stood, deciding to go kill time and energy beating the crap out of himself in the gravity room. If nothing else, he could increase his fighting potential.
He walked across the back lawn to the gravity room finding it already in use. His eyes narrowed. There could only be one person working out this early in the morning: Vegeta. That was fine by him. He had a few things he needed to get off his chest to the Saiyan Prince anyway.
He pulled open the door, causing the safety switch to come on and turn off the high gravity. Just as he expected there stood Vegeta, looking none too happy at having his work interrupted.
"What do you want, brat?" The Saiyan Prince growled out.
Goten snorted and stepped into the room. "Oh, you're bothering to ask me that now? Why couldn't you have asked that when I was proposing to your daughter instead of ruining my life?"
Vegeta turned to him sharply. "What do I care about your life? It has nothing to do with me or my family."
"No thanks to you." Goten shot back.
"Did you come here just to talk about things that cannot be changed?" Vegeta said with a smug smirk.
Goten could tell that he was secretly proud of himself. It infuriated him that this man, who was like a father to him for so many years, would go through such trouble to keep him away from his daughter. "No," Goten said matching his smirk with one of his own, "I think we have some unfinished business."
Bra stopped her aircar in front of her former home and got out. It was about noon and she was supposed to meet her mother for lunch here. She walked up to the front door and let herself in, heading straight for the living room. She found her mother there, watching some soap opera on television.
"Hey, mom, I'm here," she announced sitting down next to her.
Bulma shushed her as she sat engrossed in the shallow plot of the show. Bra rolled her eyes and made herself comfortable, knowing she'd be there for a while. A commercial came on after five long minutes of watching the worse acting ever put on TV.
"Ugh, how can you watch that stuff?" Bra said in a clearly disgusted voice.
Bulma smiled at her youngest child. "It's an acquired taste, sweetheart. How are you today?"
"Good and hungry. Where are we having lunch?" Bra asked, her stomach growling at the thought of food.
Bulma laughed. "I'm not sure. We could go to Antonio's, I hear they have very good food."
Bra crinkled her nose. "I'm not really in the mood for Italian. It gives me heartburn. How about we go to Rosetta? I could really go for sea food right now."
"Rosetta sounds good. They have a wonderful dessert selection." Bulma agreed.
Bra grinned. "Then it's settled. Rosetta's it is!"
The two women stood to leave when suddenly there was a loud explosion that rocked the house. They both dropped to the floor on instinct, covering their heads as the windows around them shattered.
"Oh no, Vegeta!" Bulma cried as things began to settle down.
Jumping up, they ran out of the house to find the rubble of what was once the gravity machine strewn across the lawn.
"Oh my god! Daddy!" Bra shouted. Being the stronger of the two, Bra ran to the largest rubble pile and began tossing aside the heavy slabs of metal. After frantic minutes of searching, she finally found her father. With all her strength and her mother's help, she began pulling his half-conscious body from the debris.
"What's going on?" Trunks yelled as he ran into the back yard.
"Trunks help!" Bra sobbed tears running down her face.
He ran over and took their father from her with ease. Vegeta became lucid at that point and shoved away from his son. Standing on wobbly legs, he looked around. "Where is Goten?" He asked, his voice wavering.
"Goten was in there?" Trunks asked as he looked over to the massive pile of twisted metal.
Vegeta said nothing as he fought to stay conscious. His legs began to give out, but Bulma caught him and ease him to the ground as best she could, knowing he would only accept her support right now.
The two young Demi-Saiyans ran back to the scrap heap and began looking for their friend. "Bra get away," Trunks grunted as he picked up a large part of what was once a wall, "you shouldn't be lifting this stuff. It's not safe."
"But Trunks," Bra protested, but he cut her off.
"Get out of the way!"
She backed up and let him work. She knew that she would only get in his way right now. He was lifting the larger, more intact pieces and she didn't really have the strength to do that. Trunks worked desperately. He could only imagine what shape Goten would be in if his father was so badly hurt. He could only hope that he wasn't already dead.
Half hour went by and there was no sign of him. Trunks had already gone through all the rubble, but still hadn't found him. Now they were searching the yard and neighboring yards thinking that maybe his body had been tossed during the explosion.
Time passed and hours went by as they looked, but there was nothing left of him. Finally, sweaty, tired and exhausted, the kids went back to Capsule Corp. Inside the service bots were already cleaning up the broken glass and repairmen had been called to fix the windows.
"Did he return?" Bra asked her mother hopefully when she found her in the kitchen.
Bulma shook her head sadly. "No, dear, we don't know what happened to him."
"How's daddy?" She asked as she sat down next to her.
"Your father will be fine. It's nothing he hasn't handle before," Bulma said softly.
Bra felt the tears well up in her eyes. She didn't bother trying to stop them. They rolled freely down her face. "How could this have happened again? Why? I don't understand, mom. He just got back. I..." she trailed off, a lump forming in her throat.
Bulma put an arm around her daughter's shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. "I don't know, sweetie. I just don't know."
Trunks stood in the doorway watching the heartbreaking scene. It was just like the last time and he knew that this time Goten would not be coming back.