Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z.
Author's Notes: Here comes the bride… No one has died…
Yes, it's me, back after a month and a half of matrimonial bliss with my fiftieth installment of The Soul. I can't believe I haven't finished this story yet. I just hope I haven't lost all of my readership yet.
I make no promises of quick updates. Just know that I intend to finish this story, so keep looking for updates every few months.
Chapter 50: Boy Back
Goten blinked. The sky was suddenly dark, and he had landed with a thud on some sort of granite.
And then, the sky was pink.
"Boy's back! Boy's back! Yay yay ya!"
Goten smiled in spite of himself. "Hello, Buu."
The pink sky suddenly opened in a row of white teeth as the bouncy monster grinned. Buu reached a hand out, which Goten gratefully took. Hercule had been at great pains to teach Buu that consideration in a fight means helping people up after you've beaten them. Since then, Buu helped everyone up, even if they didn't want it. The servants at the Satan mansion couldn't get a good night's sleep for Buu "helping" them out of bed.
Goten stretched, momentarily enjoying the feel of his heart beating. He hadn't realized how wonderful a sensation that could be until he was deprived of it for a year.
He looked around and, sure enough, Hercule was with Buu.
"Goten, my boy! Long time no see! Why did it take them so long to wish you back this time?"
"Oh, because I had to train for the end of the world again. You know how that is."
Hercule suddenly drew back, his face contorting in horror. "The world is ending? When did this happen?" He gulped and tried to summon what courage he had. "Well, I guess I should…"
Goten laughed and waved his hand. "Don't worry. If anyone finds out about it, I'll just give you the credit again. It's not like I want it."
As for the famed announcer, he was trying to get his therapist on speed-dial. "Not again. Please tell me someone didn't come back to life again."
He ignored both Hercule and Tinted Rayban. Goten was more concerned with the fight that was going on miles from there. Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillen, and Gohan were all fighting the leech, and not doing a very successful job of it. His son was with them as well.
Come on, Goten. Gotta think.
Goten knew that he was still at a bit of a disadvantage. The leech had sucked a lot of power, though less than he had feared. Yet he could easily catch up by draining Vegeta or someone. Goten had to find help somewhere.
"Boy back! Boy fight! Join in fight! Yay yay ya!"
A slow grin lit up Goten's face as he remembered his history.
"Hey, Buu!" he said suddenly.
Buu halted his dancing around to stare at him in a seemingly sight-less gaze. "Boy?"
"You wanna help me fight? It'll be fun!"
Buu's face lit up like Christmas. "Fun fight! Me join in fun fight!"
Goten laughed. "Race you over there!"
That was all the incentive the pink creature needed. Buu was going to have fun.
Vegeta was not having fun at all.
He pulled himself off the ground for seemingly the hundredth time. He was frustrated to see that Jiten was still on the cliff face, and no one could pull away long enough to get him out of here.
On the other hand, the sky was dark and Goten's ki was blazing. Things were looking up… finally.
Summoning some reserve power and gritting his teeth, Vegeta plunged into the leech head-on, knocking him away for possibly miles. It wasn't an honorable tactic. The leech had been too involved in his fight with Gohan to notice Vegeta. But it had worked.
Vegeta stopped and made some quick mental calculations. At top speed, it would still take Goten about fifteen minutes to get there. They only had a minute to the leech to regain his senses and fly back to the battle. They had to get Jiten out of there, if only to take away a distraction from Goten while he was fighting. The leech could easily use the boy against Goten.
But, in the meantime, Vegeta had to stall.
"Take the boy and get out of here! All of you!" he shouted.
Krillen was pulling himself out of a new rock formation. Gohan was gasping for breath, still not entirely recovered from his energy drain. Piccolo was regenerating an arm.
Gohan was the first to speak. "We can't… just leave you here… Vegeta," he said between breaths.
Vegeta snarled, hating his word to be questioned during battle. "Are you insane! I told you to get out of here and protect Jiten! Now do as I say!"
Even Piccolo couldn't refuse that order.
Krillen was already carefully pulling Jiten off the cliff wall. Vegeta couldn't remember if he'd given the boy any broken bones. Probably a few broken ribs – easily fixed up by senzu beans. In the meantime, a fighter just wasn't a fighter until he'd broken something in his life.
"What are you going to do?" the meddling Namek asked.
Vegeta grunted, wishing they would just go away. "The boy's alive, but he's not here yet. We need to get Jiten out of here – too much distraction. Just go."
Piccolo smirked. "Right, Vegeta. You stall." He gave a respectful nod and took off after Krillen and Gohan.
Vegeta growled. "Damn Namek thinks he knows so much."
Vegeta turned to the direction he'd sent the leech flying. Either he'd hit him harder than he thought, or the leech was stalling. Either way…
The leech suddenly appeared, taking Vegeta completely by surprise. Yet… he hadn't used teleportation (one of the more annoying ki abilities). Teleportation had a distinctive feel to it.
The leech certainly looked calmer. He was no longer raving in rage. Yet Vegeta wondered just how calm the leech was beneath the surface.
"So, the others have left with my acolyte?"
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. Could the leech have possibly been waiting for them to take Jiten? That didn't make sense. But that was certainly the vibe Vegeta was getting from his enemy.
"Probably for the best anyway," the leech went on casually. "I wasn't planning on using Jiten extensively in any fighting. It just turned out that way."
"Since you abandoned him," Vegeta retorted.
The leech rolled his eyes. "Um, excuse me, I was mortally wounded at the time. What would you have done? Oh, right, you would have keeled over and died and let your friend Goku do the fighting for you."
Why was it that every villain thought that baiting Vegeta into doing something stupid by insulting his pride would work?
"I guess now that your savior Goku is out of the picture, you have to wait for one of his sons to save your ass… again."
It's because that it always works.
Vegeta charged blindly. Somewhere in the back of his head, he knew what he was doing was completely stupid. He knew that he'd done the same thing before – countless times before. He knew that Goten had done the same thing a year ago, and had died in the process.
As usual, he told that little weasley voice to shut up.
The leech went with the attack calmly, starting the close fistfight that Vegeta had hoped to avoid. But Vegeta didn't care at the time. He was more interested in ripping the leech a new one, wherever he could.
But, through the fury, Vegeta didn't register that the leech was getting stronger and faster. Or that he was getting weaker.
Suddenly, in a maneuver that Vegeta would never be able to figure out, the leech knocked him around and grabbed him by the neck and started squeezing.
Flashes of the many memories Vegeta had when he'd been in this very situation flashed before his eyes, along with the stars that usually accompanied lack of oxygen. He clawed at the leech's hands and flailed his legs, but to no avail. The leech was too fast, anticipating each move and moving just enough out of the way to avoid each weak blow. For the ten millionth time in his life, Vegeta wished that he had longer arms and legs.
Vegeta couldn't even scream – not that he wanted to. But some kind of release would have been nice. Especially when he felt the subtle weakening intensify.
Dammit! He's… draining my power.
Vegeta closed out all thoughts of strategy as he began to panic. He would take care of himself and remain calm as long as someone didn't have him by the throat. Before, whenever someone would be choking him (a rather annoying common practice in Frieza's Army), Frieza would intervene or, if he were the one doing the choking, would stop well before killing him. Being saved by Frieza had been humiliating, but it had helped survival.
Now there was no one to save him.
Vegeta cursed himself, knowing he'd gotten himself into this mess by giving into his anger. He knew better. Years and years of experience had taught him better. He'd thought he had changed. But, when the chips were down, Vegeta hadn't changed a bit.
And now that was going to kill him.
Vegeta, now too weak with lack of oxygen to do anything, tried to ignore the leech. He'd rather not be looking in the leech's eyes while he died. He didn't want that to be his last image of the living world.
The sky was pretty. It was black, of course, with a pink and blue rainbow splitting the darkness.
…what?…
Vegeta blacked out for a second, and then slowly things began returning to normal. Now that he could breathe, though his throat felt like one big bruise, he could tell that the ordeal hadn't lasted long, and that the leech hadn't taken much power. Just enough to take Vegeta out of the fight for a while.
Vegeta looked further up to see Goten and… Buu?… standing before the leech. Buu was dancing around like an idiot, while Goten… was looking rather dangerous.
"Vegeta, you all right?" Goten yelled down, not taking his eyes off his enemy.
It was a considerate question, but Vegeta felt such a hostile vibe coming from Goten… one that he'd never felt before. In fact, it was taking up part of Goten's energy.
When Vegeta remembered what Goten was probably so pissed off about, he chuckled ironically. He guessed he deserved that.
But it was taking up too much of Goten's concentration. Even after a year of Otherworld training, Goten still lacked the focus that he needed. He was much like his father in some of the earlier fights Vegeta had witnessed.
"I'm all right, boy! And so's Jiten! Just kill the bastard!" Vegeta yelled hoarsely, feeling like his throat would split open as he did.
With that, Vegeta took off.
Goten watched his brother-in-law go. Which bastard are you talking about, Vegeta?
It was strange for Vegeta to be running away from a fight, even if he was fairly beat up and weak. He usually stayed around and tried to get back in the fight, if at all possible.
As Goten's eyes focused on the leech, he stopped contemplating Vegeta. He just didn't care anymore. Besides, he'd deal with the prince soon enough.
At least Jiten was safe for the moment. That would make things a whole lot easier.
He realized the leech wasn't speaking. Instead, the enemy was trembling in fear. Goten grinned. So he'd been right.
"Wh-what… is that THING doing here?" the leech stammered.
Goten grinned wider, wringing the moment for all its worth. "Oh, so you've met Majin Buu. Yeah, he heard that a leech was around, and he couldn't help but join in."
Buu had no idea what Goten was talking about. He really didn't even know what a leech was, his memories of the past being not all that important or clear to him. But he knew the fine art of playing along with a joke. Buu grinned, guessing Goten's intent. "Buu smash!"
For the leech's credit, he was beginning to collect himself. "So, boy, you think you can just rise from the dead and bring a monster from the past… and that will be all it takes to defeat me."
Goten shrugged. "Sounded pretty convincing to me." Goten wanted to explode in anger. This was the man who'd kidnapped and corrupted his son. This was the man who'd sent his wife to hell. This was the very man who'd stabbed him in the heart.
But Goten had learned from that death experience, as well as Pikkon's endless training. He knew that he had to keep patience and control. Otherwise, he'd just die again.
But the leech seemed to be getting a little of his swagger back. "So you want to fight me, boy. You want to claim vengeance over me. Don't think I don't see it in your eyes. You may be calmly mocking me, but inside you're raging. You want to tear me into as many shreds as possible, and then blast those shreds into oblivion."
Goten just glared at him.
"But you can't," the leech smirked. "If you knew that bringing that monster would spook me – throw me off balance for just a second – you would probably know about my kind… and what happens to acolytes after the death of a leech."
Goten laughed softly, knowing that the leech was really nervous, and trying to build himself up by outlining his advantages. "And you're actually wondering where my confidence came from, after I know all about your kind. You're wondering if I'm really as heartless to be willing to kill both you and my son after that, or if I think that I can save Jiten from your grasp."
"Where did your confidence come from? Foolhardiness."
Goten shook his head slowly and smirked. "Preparedness."
With that he pulled out the leech's knife and attacked.
"What is your second wish?"
That had been the fifth time the dragon had intoned that expression ominously from the sky. Somehow, he seemed to be losing his intimidation factor, as the humans beneath him were not even paying attention to him.
In fact, Trunks and the Spider students were paying attention to the battle that raged far from them. Vegeta had been fighting the leech – and losing – and suddenly the long-dead ki of Goten had taken over.
Darjili had wondered what she would feel when Goten's ki appeared, and they knew that he was alive and well. Surely she would have felt elated. After all, it was the first time she'd experienced the ability to cheat death. That in itself should have been exhilarating. And the revival of her long-dead teacher, who she missed sorely every day and mourned for every night…
She should have been twirling in the air with joy.
But the feeling wasn't there. So Goten-sensei had been revived. There was still a fight going on – one that seemed nearly impossible to win. And there was Jita… never to return to the living world.
Or any world.
"Goten-sensei is strong," Pecon whispered.
Trunks snorted. "Of course he is. I would expect no less."
"What is your second wish?"
Trunks suddenly snapped back into reality, realizing that they had a very impatient Eternal Dragon hanging literally over their heads. "Damn… I hadn't even thought about a second wish. I guess we should tell Shenlong to go and save that wish to resurrect everyone the leech and Jiten killed."
As if that would truly happen, Darjili thought bitterly. Jita was just out of reach, and the dragon could never bring her back.
Or could he?
There the dragon was, dominating the sky of the entire world, having broken the laws of nature and done the impossible. He exuded power of the eons. He was the Eternal Dragon – Shenlong.
And if he couldn't handle a little resurrection from the depths of Hell, what good was he.
Before Trunks could even get a word in, Darjili felt herself act on impulse.
"Eternal Dragon, I wish that everyone the leech and Jiten killed to be resurrected!"
"Darjili, no! Not yet!" Trunks screamed… all too late.
Lieutenant Tomlinson had had a hard night. An officer in homicide, he'd been brought to the scene of the… crime?…, along with a bunch of other departments when they couldn't seem to label what happened.
"If I didn't know better," Tomlinson muttered, "I'd say that Cell was back in town."
No one responded. It was considered bad luck to even mention Cell unless you were referring to Hercule having defeated him. Cell had come to represent terror, and uncontrollable disaster.
Tomlinson snorted. They'd had enough bad luck around here.
A younger officer came trotting up to the lieutenant, using the youthful energy that Tomlinson couldn't even begin to call forth from his body. Yet he was faring better than the new-looking officer, who was looking green around the gills.
"Results back from the lab, sir," he reported in a shaky voice. "All points indicate some sort of bomb that exploded in the center of the building."
Tomlinson stared the boy down. " 'Some sort?' Can they get a little clearer on that?"
The young man gulped. "No, sir. Although…"
Tomlinson cocked his head. "Report."
The young officer pushed forward. "The lab people mentioned seeing something like the pattern before. In the Cell attacks. And before in the alien attack to East Capital City."
Tomlinson nodded. He would have guessed as much.
"Forensics hasn't done any post-mortems, have they?"
"No sir," the young officer replied. "As per your orders. But… sir… Why did you order that?"
Tomlinson, despite the wreckage around him, chuckled. "Because the sky's dark. I don't want anyone coming alive while someone's cutting into them."
Right on cue, he could hear shrieks and confused cries. The young officer turned pale and fainted dead away.
Tomlinson turned around and calmly unzipped a body bag. Inside was a young woman who'd been struggling to get out. She looked a little shaken, but none the worse for wear.
"First resurrection?" Tomlinson asked casually.
The young woman looked around dazed. "Yeah." Her speech was dazed and slurred. "Big pagoda. Gay demons. Tiny, tiny yellow ghosts."
Tomlinson grinned before he went off to restore order. "Glad to hear the afterlife hasn't changed."
It had happened within a second.
If there was one thing that the Supreme Kai hated about mortals, it was that they were impulsive. They never stopped and thought about what they were doing. They always rushed in, half-cocked, not caring if they ended up dead on the other side. Earth people were especially good at that annoying habit.
So it shouldn't really have surprised him when Darjili made that foolhardy wish.
With reflexes that even the supreme being didn't know he had, Shin surrounded Jita's aura with his own. Jita appeared to have gone into a trance. That wasn't going to last long.
"Wh-what is this?" Rou Dai-Kaioshin screeched as he grabbed his crystal ball.
Shin gritted his teeth and pressed the words through the strain. "My barrier! The force of the wish is trying to break the barrier… Jita! Help me out here!"
There was no response. Shin managed to twist his head around to get a better look at the Saiyan.
It wasn't a trance. She was working against him.
She wanted to go home.
The Supreme Kai's mind went white with terror. Jita's desire, along with the power of the dragon, was strong enough to eventually break the quarantine barrier that surrounded the planet. Hell, it was strong enough to break the planet itself.
But she couldn't! It would destroy everything.
"Jita, no!" Shin cried vainly. He could sense the barrier start to break. The planet itself was deceptively calm around them. The real storm was going on in the minds of Jita and Shin.
Shin broke a little of his concentration go to grab Jita's arms and shake her. He didn't know why; perhaps anger at him would break her out of this. "Jita, you know you can't! It hasn't been a full year yet. It may just be one more hour, but it's enough. You can't do this to the universe!"
Jita focused her eyes on Shin, obviously still trying to break the barrier. "You don't understand," she whispered hoarsely. "My family needs me. My husband is about to die down there. He's going to die," she finished in a sob. "I'm the only one who knows how to fight the leech."
"Jita…"
"GO TO HELL!" Jita shrieked.
"WHY DON'T YOU!" Shin roared.
Jita fell back, her eyes open wide. The Supreme Kai made it a practice never to lose his temper, even when the universe was on the line. But now that he had, it was a horrible sight to see.
Shin's eyes slitted dangerously. "Along with the rest of the universe. That's what you want, isn't it? You've got the "I'm not a hero" vibe. Well, like it or not, you are. When you sacrificed yourself to the Lord of the Lower Realms of Hell, you gave up on being a normal, selfish person. You now have a responsibility to the universe, and if you leave now, you betray that responsibility. And everyone, including me, will judge you as harshly as that."
Jita looked down. "That's not fair," she whispered.
The force against the barrier was gone as suddenly as it came. Shin tried to gain control of his breathing as he suddenly felt like he'd lost a tug of war. "Where'd the dragon go?"
Jita closed her eyes and chuckled tiredly. "I told him to go to hell."
"Your wish has been granted," Shenlong intoned. "Now allow me to rest."
"Wait!" Darjili screamed. "Where's Jita!"
Shenlong paused. "It was impossible to grant that part of the wish. Now leave me alone."
With that the dragon was gone. The sky turned an unfittingly cheery shade of blue dotted with white clouds.
Trunks turn to Darjili in a rage. "How could you DO that! After all we worked for… You jeapordized…" Trunks stopped, taking a breath, and calmed. "I'm just so glad you tried."
Krianan looked from one person to another, all seemed to be in the drama of the moment. Far away from them, the battle for Earth raged on. "OK, if everyone's through being schizo around here, why don't we go fight us a leech."
No one had an argument for that.
The battle was actually going quite well for Goten. The leech hadn't expected the boy to figure out some of the base properties of the knife. He'd obviously learned some leech-fighter secrets in his training.
Hoja hissed as the blade sliced into his shoulder a bit… right nearby a psychic pressure point. Yes, the boy knew his stuff. It was taking everything he had to evade the boy.
"You know," the leech gasped, "even if you succeed in breaking the connection, that doesn't mean that the boy's yours. Jiten's been storing up a lot of frustration and hatred. He may have no loyalty for you left."
The leech gritted his teeth in pain as he felt a cut on his calf muscle. "I suggest you concentrate on fighting instead of talking," Hoja heard Goten say.
The leech took one look in Goten's eyes and knew that if things kept going the way they were, he was going to lose.
Summoning his strength, Hoja threw a particularly nasty ki-blast at Goten, knocking him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him as well. It didn't buy much time…
…just enough to effectively turn the tide of battle.
Goten landed hard and furiously tried to shake the cobwebs from his head. The leech was obviously getting desperate. Goten grinned. Good.
"Can Buu fight now?"
"It's ok, Buu," Goten said lightly. "I've got him."
Buu looked uncertain. "But bad man's power gonna get big."
"Wha…?"
Before Goten could finish his thought, the leech started glowing.
Bulma and Bra finally touched down in the front yard of the Son House. Chichi was already in the doorway, motioning them in. "Have you heard any news?" she shouted.
"Only that they raised the dragon," Bulma said as she plopped in a chair. She felt like she hadn't slept in days. "And everyone knows tha… Hey Videl… and Pan."
Pan was lying on the couch. "Hey."
Videl was sitting on a couch arm. "I think she means, 'Hello, Bulma-san. How are you?'"
Pan rolled her eyes tiredly. "Yeah. What she said."
Bra sat on the floor. "Shouldn't you be out fighting, Pan?"
Pan smiled. "I think having all the energy sucked out of you qualifies you to sit out the rest of the battle. 'Sides… Mom won't let me go."
Videl shrugged. "Since Goten's alive, the fight shouldn't last much longer."
Bulma looked up sharply. "Goten's alive… And you didn't think that was news to tell me!"
"Dragon called," Pan said tiredly. "It was self-evident."
"Honey, are you okay?" Videl asked through a yawn.
"Yeah… just sleepy," Pan said, drifting off.
The others watched in horror as Videl slumped over Pan's sleeping body.
Jiten fought against the green arms that held him like a vise. He didn't know how he was going to get away. He didn't even know really where they were going, although he felt like they had been flying a long time before he had attained consciousness.
"You might want to wait for a senzu bean before trying to escape," his captor's deep voice intoned.
Pain ripped through Jiten's torso, as if in reply to Piccolo's comment. He stopped struggling, knowing that he would be absolutely no help to his master if he wasn't healed. He wasn't even sure why he was alive.
You've sold yourself to a master. The only life under a master you can have is pain and death.
Vegeta's words came unbidden to him. Whether he liked it or not… whether he would follow it or not, Jiten certainly remembered Vegeta's lesson.
His master was fighting at the moment. Fighting…
"WHAT!"
The word tore from Jiten's throat before he knew it. Piccolo's grip tightened around him as the Namek misinterpreted a violent twitch of surprise for a bid for escape.
Dad… My dad… He's… alive? But where's Mom?
Jiten focused his energy on finding his mother. He wasn't sure why he was doing it. Nothing was making sense – he wasn't sure about any of his loyalties…
He felt a flicker of his mother's presence… swiftly gone. It probably hadn't been there in the first place. His mother was dead, and his father was fighting his master, and nothing made sense, and he didn't know who to trust, and…
The grip around him slackened.
Confused, Jiten looked up slightly at Piccolo. He couldn't see the Namek's face, but he knew that their pace was slowing considerably, and Piccolo's energy was plummeting.
In the meantime, Jiten's injuries seemed to be knitting.
"GOHAN!"
Jiten recognized the cry from the human Krillen. Apparently both Gohan and Piccolo were getting the energy sucked right from them. But… that didn't make sense.
Did I do that? Did I suck the energy from them without realizing? I feel… stronger. My injuries are gone and I'm strong again.
No, he hadn't done that. Already he was feeling his master grow more and more powerful. He remembered now what Hoja was doing. He had taken the energy again of all the people he and Jiten had taken before. His master was winning.
With all doubts completely set aside, and leaving Krillen to catch his master's victims before they fell to the ground, Jiten set off for the battle, grinning madly. If his master was going to win, he was going to watch.
Reviewer thanks:
dbzneon: I realize the lure of Naruto, although I never really cared for the series myself, but please don't give up on me. I am extremely flattered that you consider me one of the last greats in DBZ fanfiction. : ) See there, I smiled.
zara m: I gotta stop leaving at these cliffhangers if I'm not going to update for freakin' ever. Don't worry, we'll see more action with Vegeta soon enough. I'm not giving up on my favorite character.
AnimeLuv4evr: Yes, this person will not read this, as the person made it very clear that he or she didn't like my story, but I didn't want to leave out anyone that had the consideration to review.
Dark Wolf: I'm so glad I could emulate a DBZ-type cliffhanger. That gives me a warm feeling, as your reviews always give me.
Engar: Don't give up on Goku yet. I wouldn't forget him, and I'm not the type to leave him out just because I occasionally find him annoying. I guess in my story I'm doing a parody of the usual "Goku sits out most of the battle because he's running down Snake Way/healing up/in a coma/dead" scenario. Only now, he's not the hero.
ilex9: Your review made me feel the best. Fics did take a back seat to my life right now, and I was glad to get a word of encouragement in that.
crazed fanatic anime fan: I love that people feel sorry for Hoja.
Flying Arcanine: Thank you so much!
