Disclaimer: I don't know Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball/Z/GT. Wait… a pair of panties with Goku's face doesn't exactly count, or does it?
Chapter Eleven: Vines, Poison and Hallucinations
Last time:
The Mercury Super Computer's screen was showing a quickly forming subterranean pool of darkness.
When Sailor Pallas saw it, she gasped. It was growing right under the Saiyan fighter.
"SON-SAN WATCH OUT!" her warning was the last thing Goku heard as thick vines and tentacles of mud sprouted from the ground under his feet, shotting up and wrapping tigthly as they coiled around the body of the great warrior.
Far away from there, an unprepared Luna jumped when a sudden loud anguished cry tore itself unexpectedly from the sleeping Usagi's throat.
"GOKU!"
Goku cursed profusely in his mind when he gradually realized nothing he did wassucceedingin freeing himself from the disgusting touch of the slimy tentacles that seemingly out of nowhere had attached to his skin like leeches, any attempt at swatting them away only making matter worse as the things' hold on his body only became more constricted and more vines immediately crawled on top of him from the ground and climbed up to end wrapping around his elbows, wrists, knees and ankles, keeping him tightly in place as a bigger, thicker tentacle wrapped itself around his throat, attempting to cut his air supply.
This particular vine had many spikes and thorns, and Goku thought he'd distinctly felt too pricks at both sides of his neck, right where the pulse points should have been, like needles.
Needles…
…I hate needles!
Goku fought to free his elbows and wrists so he could rip that tentacle off his neck, and it was then that he noticed with surprise that the strange 'things' were sucking on his energy. The Saiyan bent down so that his hands still impeded by the vines enveloping his wrists could reach up to the one around his windpipe, all the time wondering whether this was another strategic attack from the Hollow Hunters or from another unknown enemy entirely. The cloud of dust had finally settled and none of their previous opponents was in sight any longer…
Had he truly succeeded in destroying them?
As for these new ones, some mutated form of leeches they must have been for sure, considering they had no Ki signature worthy of mentioning yet here they were currently sucking all of his energy faster than what he remembered of Android Number 19, Number 20 and Cell put together. The more he fought to rid himself from their grasp, the weaker he felt, and oddly enough, he also felt a greater feeling of nausea.
Apparently any attempt at gathering his energy for any form of counter-attack only served to make it easier for these leeches to feast on his life force, so Goku ceased all movement altogether to try to think of what other course of action should be taken instead.
"Son-san!" he heard the frightened gasps of Sailor Ceres and Juno as they called out to him.
"STAY BACK! I think these things feed on Ki, the energy of living beings… if you come any closer they might go after you!" he screamed weakly at them not to put them selves in danger.
"Oh no…" Sailor Pallas squeaked, and once again set to work on the Mercury Super Computer, in hopes that it might bring clues on the true nature of these… whatever they were and how to get them to get off of him.
Goku, on the other hand, was quite familiar with this kind of situation from his past experiences with other similar energy-sucking foes like the aforementioned androids, and the last thing he wanted was for one of the girls to also fall into their grasp. He had an inkling feeling they had targeted him first for being the one having the highest Ki signature among their group, since all the others fought with a different type of energy, magic-based attacks, but he suspected the tentacles wouldn't hesitate to get them too if they came any close and, if that were to happen, Goku worried these things wouldn't give them enough time and suck all their life force before they could even try and perform their magical attacks.
"If they're draining you of your energy, then they're like the Hollow Hunters, surely they're also creatures of Chaos. So please stay put, Son-san" he heard the voice of Ceres calling to him again "I'm gonna get those vines away in a moment" she informed as she brought her hands to her right and positioned her palms facing one another preparing herself to launch her own magical maneuver.
"Cere-Cere!" the others turned to her questioningly.
"You could hurt Goku-san!" Sailor Juno couldn't help but exclaim a bit angrily, failing to get a hold of her fear for her new trainer and Sensei.
Ceres turned to her about to say something but Pallas bet her to it, making both the Senshi of Commitment and Nature's Renewal turn at her sudden definite tone.
"Not if he has a pure-heart. Sailor senshi's attacks can't hurt pure and good hearted people… remember?"
Sailor Vesta quickly nodded in agreement.
"Not unless they harbor any ill will against us, and this is definitely not the case" she put in deep emphasis.
At those words Sailor Juno and Ceres nodded to one another, the four girls' conversation having made the on-looking Goku smile in mild amusement, even despite his fast increasing weakened state.
Ceres joined her palms when another once again interrupted.
"Do you guys need any help?" they heard the shout of Peruru as he flew by.
"Don't get any closer, Peruru!" Vesta yelled up in warning "Goku-san's been caught by some strange parasite vines! We're sure they've got something to do with the Hollow Hunters, so tell the Fairies to continue keeping Fish-Eye's net raised to protect Hope City! Tell them not to lower their guard, there might still be youma left around here, okay?"
"Uh-Oh" the dream elf grimaced as he eyed the repulsive tentacles trapping the courageous fighter from his position in the air right above him, from where he had a better view than anyone else's of surprisingly very pale and plentifully sweating Saiyan as he struggled to prevent the vine around his windpipe from strangling him to death. Peruru could see then that there was a bit of blood spilling from under that particular vine at both sides of Goku's neck, probably due to the spikes on its surface pricking wounds open on the skin of Goku's throat.
At this sight, Peruru involuntarily shivered. What kind of vines were those that they'd been powerful enough to bring such strong warrior to his knees? But his thoughts were interrupted again by the repeated frantic cries of Sailor Vesta.
"Peruru! I told you those tentacles are dangerous! Don't approach Goku-san! Get your ass the heck away from there and go tell the Fairies to keep the net up!"
"Okay! Okay!" he shouted at Vesta "But you better hang on, Goku-sama!" he turned to his new hero "Those insignificant worms are nothing against you, I just know it!"
He raised one fist high above his head at the end of the sentence … and if Goku hadn't been feeling so weak and sickly from the drastic loss of energy, with a growing headache and another ache in his chest that reminded him painfully of the time long before when he had the heart virus, he would have grinned in return, thanked him outwardly for the votes of confidence and laughed inwardly at the teen elf's antics.
As it was, though, the only response he could gift him with was a short nod of his head and a slow strained smile.
On the dream-elf's part, as he flew back towards the other fairies Peruru narrowed his eyes in deep thought…
'Parasite vines… parasite vines…'
'…Where is it that I've heard that before?'
Meanwhile, back with Vesta and the others, Ceres joined her palms once more and shouted "Proserpine Flower Spring Symphony Dust!"
This variation of the usual wording was for whenever Ceres needed her attack to act more on its purifying properties than its destructive ones, which was the case presented, more so to help ease JunJun's worries.
They all watched as the huge hurricane of pollen swirled in the direction of the imprisoned Saiyan, only to collide with a purple barrier.
"WHAT in the name of Hera! A Sailor Senshi's shield!" Juno cried in complete disbelief.
PallaPalla, who had wanted to cry out in frustration cause the purple barrier was somehow interfering with the Mercury Super Computer, preventing it from finishing its analysis on the vines, felt her eyes widen when she gave a quick glance at the analysis thrown by the Computer about that very barrier instead.
PallaPalla soon found herself echoing JunJun's words and shocking everyone else into oblivion.
"Impossible! ...It's Saturn-san's magical shield… the Silent Wall!"
An astonished silence was the only thing that followed her statement, until Vesta recovered enough to stutter.
"What? But … but… how? There's no one here! …Who cast it!" she suppressed a shiver.
The Saturnian Silent Wall, like any other Sailor attack, needed the presence of the caster there to perform it… It couldn't just… appear there out of nowhere.
It was unheard of.
It was unnatural…
Yet there it was.
For the next longest agonizing seconds the Sailor Quartet and Amazon Trio could only stand there and witness in complete shock how the Silent Wall raised itself protectively while hundreds of more vines, tentacles and roots shot from the ground to wrap themselves constrictingly around the once more struggling Goku, who couldn't hold back a cry of pain as a few of his ribs cracked under the pressure.
"Ahhhhhh!"
'How can this be happening?' he thought in astonishment 'How can these mere vines be crushing me with the same force of Gohan's grip in Oozaru form! How can they possibly be making my chest ache as much as it did that time with the heart virus?'
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHH!"
Like a distant echo he heard the girls' renewed cries of despair at the sight of his pain.
"… how can those be doing that to him!"
"Goku-san!"
"…that yellow liquid! ……oozing from those tentacles around his throat…"
"It's got to be poison! They're pouring poison into his main arteries!"
"Oh no!"
"You have to resist… Son-san!"
Poison?
The vine was pouring poison inside his neck and into his bloodstream? He understood everything now… the headache, the heart-ache, the nausea, the dizziness…
He couldn't even attempt to transform into a Super Saiyan, for the vines continued to greedily feast on his energy from every part of his body now: his arms, his legs, his stomach, his head, his chest… It was like a living nightmare…
How could he have lowered his guard so much as to let things reach this point?
They were laughing… The vines were laughing at him…
…He could hear their mocking voices… in his head… as they chanted their song over and over and over and over…
'Poor, poor Lord of the Aesirs…have come all this way to claim your Mani, only to for the second time face a rejection…'
Goku could see the image of a white chariot taking off to the heavens and could not understand why the odd image filled his heart with such sadness and anguish. He stretched an arm out as he screamed…
"Ikke, Mani! Komme tilbake!"
("No, Mani! Come back!")
Sailor Vesta and Juno looked at one another blankly in total confusion.
Vesta turned to Ceres.
"Um… what is he saying?"
The pink haired senshi didn't take her eyes of Goku as she muttered "I don't know… It sounds… like a foreign language?"
She turned towards Pallas for confirmation, though the Senshi of Wisdom shrugged to show she was as clueless as she in that respect.
"It must be the poison already taking its effects" she reflected with a hand to her chin.
The vines were quickly and surely covering the Saiyan whole and hiding hisview entirely from the the onlookers, till all that was left before their horror-filled eyes was some morbid species of cocoon still writhing from the thrashing movements of its swallowed victim trapped inside.
Not a second afterwards, something like flower buds sprout from some of the vines, and they could all see a light purple gas start to pour out from them surrounding the cocoon and probably sedating the struggling form of the Saiyan inside, who stopped moving again completely.
"Oh my God" Palla-Palla exclaimed, covering her mouth with a hand "Guys… I think that gas was a tranquilizer"
"NOOO! Son Goku-san!" Sailor Juno's cry echoed through the air as she threw herself in the direction of her Sensei, desperately trying to run to his aid.
"DON'T!" she heard Hawk-Eye's warning in her ear as he rushed to pull her back, his arms quickly enveloping her in a tight embrace from behind, to prevent her from going any further. She still struggled savagely against his hold.
"NO! LET GO!" she yelled angrily at him as she thrashed about "He came to help us! It' our fault they got him!"
"You heard what he said, those things are like the Hollow Hunters, even worse ´cause they don't seem to let go once they catch on a prey"
"I don't care, Hawk-Eye! Let me go help him or I'll jab my elbow in your stomach!" she fought against him fiercely like a wildcat, to no avail.
"Don't be daft, and listen to someone for once, Sailor Juno!" Tiger-Eye told her irate "You won't be able to get those tentacles off him using your physical strength; besides, the Silent Wall surely won't let you through!"
JunJun cast her eyes to the ground as she felt them grow with hidden unshed tears. …Why… why is it I can't protect anyone…? I thought I was stronger than this!
"They're right, Jun… Please… I don't wanna see you get hurt too" Palla-Palla pleaded with her stubborn friend.
"This doesn't look good" Vesta whispered, shaking her head "If Ceres' attack was blocked with the Saturn Shield, Chaos must be taking advantage of its hold on the Sailor Crystals of Tomoe-san and the others to manipulate their Senshi powers!"
"Guys, this is not the time to think about it, we have to break that shield!" Ceres reasoned "Palla-Palla, is the Saturn Shield at its full strength? Or can we overpower it with our combined attacks?"
The blue haired Senshi of Wisdom was once again typing furiously on the poor mistreated Super Computer. "Mhm, good point there, CereCere! The shield is currently two times weaker than normal when Hotaru-san casts it, must be because she isn't here herself. However, I suggest only the three of you try it, and not me and the guys, otherwise I'm not sure that we mightn't be risking hurting Goku-san if we pour too much power into that single attack"
CereCere nodded, turning towards green and the red haired girls.
"Okay, you heard her! Vesta! Juno! On the count of three!"
At the same time in the Elysian Royal Palace, a very solemn Helios was kneeling before the Golden Crystal with both of his hands clasped tightly in a silent supplication.
'Please Golden Crystal…hear my prayer! Elysion and Earth are in danger! I humble myself before you not to plead for my own safety, but for the lives and souls of the people of Earth, whom Endymion-sama gave his life to protect. I beg of you! Golden Crystal! Hear the clamor of the besieged City of Hope, don't let Endymion-sama's Golden Kingdom fall into the bottomless pits of chaos and be forever lost!'
With those thoughts, the High Priest of Elysion lifted his eyes to set them on the Sacred Stone, only to find that no response was coming from it whatsoever.
Helios felt the despair that was eating at him finally reach its wrecking point as his head bowed down, his palms flat on the black marble floor before out of fury he started hitting it repeatedly with his fists, till his knuckles became coated with his blood.
"Why! …Why won't you help? Why won't you save them! …Answer me! …Golden Crystal!"
So immersed he was in his sour solitary demands that he hadn't heard the steps of the person approaching him till a tall shadow was cast over Helios' own crouched body.
The martial artist once known as Son Goku woke up in a very familiar field he recognized as the one near his house on Mount Paotzu. This field was covered with flowers since the current season was still that of spring… Goku could tell by the birds' cheerful singing and the warm breeze that was placidly sweeping at the thick black spikes of his hair.
His stomach rumbled, which in turn brought a smile to his lips, and he was suddenly overwhelmed by the compulsion to go and see what his spouse was cooking… So it was that he bolted up, yawning, and stretched his sleepy muscles a few times before taking towards his home and his beloved family.
He gave up flying and opted for walking instead, since it was such a nice day and he was thoroughly tempted to enjoy the peace and serenity of the nature around him. Being the cosnummate warrior that he was, guardian and defender of the Earth, life had taught Son Goku that peaceful moments like this were to be cherished asone of the mostgereous of Kami's blessings.
When he finally arrived at his doorstep he didn't feel the need to knock to let his hard-working wife know he was back, but he pushed the door open as silently as he could, with the intention of giving her surprise…
…Chichi was standing with her back towards him, tending to some dirty dishes lying in the kitchen sink. The Saiyan tip-toed towards her slowly, planning on wrapping his arms around her in a hug once he was directly behind her… he never expected his wife to have noticed his presence already, or for her to turn towards him in a sudden and show him a face that should have been shining with a bright smile asher way of agreeting…
…if it hadn't been shadowed by the very vivid emotion of betrayal.
"Goku… how could you…"
Her now dumbfounded husband froze as he watched the tears trailing down her cheeks in bafflement.
A strong wind rose unexpectedly inside their little house, twiddling with Chichi's straight long locks of ebony hair. Suddenly the house disappeared and all that was left surrounding the two of them was a deep darkness.
"Chichi…? What's wrong?"
Her oddly fathomless eyes were trained on him unrelentingly for the longest minutes before she spoke again.
"You forgot me, Goku… You let go of my memory… because of her… ...How could you?"
He merelylooked at her in puzzlement, not understanding what, or rather who he was talking about.
"I didn't —"
"And it wasn't only me that you forgot" she interrupted, continuing her tirade of bitter reproaches "but also our sons, or granddaughter, our family and our entire life together… …So tell me, Goku…… is she really so worth it as you seem to put it?"
Goku's mouth opened and then closed, yet he didn't care how much he resembled a gaping fish at the moment. He really wanted to know what was seriously so wrong with his wife…For the life of him he couldn't decipher what she was referring to.
"If I did something wrong, Chi, I'm sorry…but… I—I don't know who you're talking about…" he said to her hesitantly in a whisper.
She all but snarled at him in incredulity.
"Don't play dumb on me, and pretend not understanding, because I know you better than anyone! Don't! Not when all I see, as I look in your eyes right now, is how glad you are that you found her!" she drawled sarcastically "I can see it, even now, how much you already yearn for her, and love her… and I will NEVER EVER forgive you, you hear me!"
"Chi…! I told you I don't…— Please!"
"Quit trying to make up excuses!" the ghostly form of Chichi shouted as she started fading farer and farer away from him, despite his attempts to run after her rapidly retreating form "I may be already dead, but if you get any closer to that woman a great curse will befall onto the two of you both!"
"No! Wait! Please!" still running, he struggled as he realized she wouldn't even let him speak.
"MARK MY WORDS, Goku, when I say that fate won't let hers and your unfaithfulness go unpunished! Both of you will know true hell…Do you understand me! Her King and I will have our revenge when fate makes sure the both of you are miserable FOREVER! Like the dirty little sinners that you are!"
At those terrifying last predictions Goku closed his eyes and stopped running to grab his head tightly as if in pain.
"NO! You're NOT Chichi! You CAN'T be her! She would never say such hatred filled words… she wouldn't! I know it! She WOULDN'T!"
Laughter was the only response that met his anguished statements…as Chichi's ghost had finally disappeared altogether.
"You are not her… you aren't…" he repeated to himself as he was left all alone in the darkness, drowning in a despair he couldn't completely comprehend…
…Till a ray of white light, so bright and full of hope, descended over his form, completely bathing him and letting him bask in its infinite warm.
"…It was just a nightmare, Ku-Koi…It wasn't real. You have to wake up now"
As he stood up and shielded his eyes with a hand, trying to make out the source of the light, he heard again the echoes of that pacifying, wonderfully sweet and ethereal voice.
"Wake up now, Ku-Koi… Wake up…"
"Wake up, Goku… Wake up"
Following the advice of the more substantial voice, though almost identical to that of his dream, Goku opened his eyes to meet the deep ocean blue of Serenity's...
END TO THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER
A/N: The true nature of the infamous 'vines' and the outcome of the battle will most likely be explained in the next chapter. If you want to know what "Ku-Koi" means and stands for, you're welcome to visit chapter 4 of my other fic, "What Lies Ahead", where the term is explained in the author's notes at the bottom of the page.
This has been my weirdest chapter up to date, and I'm feeling oddly proud. Remember when Goku couldn't fight Android 19 cause he'd fallen ill due to the heart virus, and was taken home by Yamcha, where Goku had a nightmare about the androids showing at his house and killing Gohan and Chichi? Think of this as a very similar kind of situation…
Anyway, please tell me again what you think.
Yours,
Jay.