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Chapter 6: Letting Go

It had been two weeks since Pan had visited the outside world. Since then, she had dreamed about all her new friends almost every night. But the strange thing was that in every dream, she saw Zamuri running toward her, waving and calling her name. She would start running toward him as well, but then two monstrous dark figures grabbed him by the arms, and dragged him away. Pan would scream his name, and try to run after him, but then she would start falling, and wake up in a cold sweat.

Trunks had become very concerned about his mother. She hadn't gotten better at all. Instead, she grew worse. King Vegeta was depressed by the doctor's calculations that she would not live to see her youngest son's naming ceremony. So depressed, that he stopped visiting her just to try and spare himself the pain. But Trunks would go every day, as if hoping for some impossible miracle that would make his mother well again. Pan visited frequently, but not as often.

One night, Pan came into her mother's room to find Trunks staring out the open window, while his mother slept.

"Trunks? How is she?"

"When is it any different?" Trunks responded softly, without looking away from the window. "Every day, Pan. Every day when you come in here, you ask how Okaa-san is. And every day I give you the same answer. She's slowly getting worse. I must be honest when I tell you that even I am losing hope now."

"No, Trunks! You can't! If you lose hope, then she will never get better!"

"She wouldn't get better even if we had all the hope in the world, Pan."

"No... you're lying... no..." Pan sank to the floor in despair. That was it, then. If no one hoped her mother would live, then she certainly wouldn't.

"... Pan?" Her mother croaked softly from her bed. Pan stood up, and rushed to her mother's side.

"Yes, Okaa-san? What do you need?" Pan blinked back her tears that came upon the sight of her poor frail mother.

"T... Trunks, you too..." Trunks walked over to the same side of the bed. He gently lifted his mother's upper body, propped a few pillows up behind her, and laid her back down. It was easier for her to talk when sitting up.

"I... I have one final request..."

"Anything, Okaa-san..." Pan choked, tears silently streaming down her cheeks. (She couldn't die. She just couldn't.)

"... The baby... I know what I want to name him... please... make sure he carries this name... no matter what your father says..." Bulma could barely keep her eyes open. She closed them halfway, and fought to deliver her final request.

"I... I want you to name him after an old friend of mine... I want you... to name him... Go...ku..." With that, her eyes closed forever.

Goku...?

Two months had passed. The naming ceremony was only a week away. However, that day was Bulma's funeral. King Vegeta had wanted it to be small and remain inside the castle. He wanted no one to know about it, however, news traveled faster than the king had expected. Within two days, the whole kingdom knew.

As for the naming ceremony, King Vegeta had come up with a name of his own. He wanted to name his son after his most loyal servant, who had sacrificed his life for his king. He wanted to name him Nappa.

Trunks had told Pan to leave their mother's request to him. The night after the funeral, Trunks went to his father's room to try and persuade him yet again, to honor the request. About an hour later, Pan heard Trunks open the door to their father's room. She quickly sprang out of bed, and greeted him as he passed.

He turned around to reveal a swollen black eye. Pan gasped.

However, he smiled, and made the thumbs up sign to her.

"Everything is going to work out fine now, Pan." He turned back around, and walked into his room to tend to his eye. She knew he was lying, but she also knew he was only trying to comfort her.

The next morning, Pan entered Trunks' room with a request of her own.

"Trunks? Are you awake?"

"Yeah, come on in, Pan." Pan slowly opened the door. Trunks was in the bathroom washing his face, and tending to his swollen eye. "What did you need?"

"I... I want to know... Can you fly?"

A little surprised, Trunks dried his face off, and then turned to her. "Where did you hear that?"

"I didn't hear it; I met some people who could." And with that came the whole story of Pan's day outside the castle walls.

"... and so I climbed back over the wall, and that's when you found me." Pan ended. "And that leads up to my question; can you fly? And if so, can you teach me?"

Trunks stood still for a minute, letting the story sink in. "Yes, Pan. I can fly, and I'd be happy to teach you. But it's not an easy thing to learn. Not many Saiyans can do it at such a young age. Can you handle it?"

"YES! Arigatô, Onii-san!"

About ten minutes later, Pan and Trunks found themselves once again in the large white training room.

"Okay, Pan. For this, we'd better just leave the gravity machine off." Pan nodded, and shut the door to the room behind them. Then she walked over to the middle of the room next to Trunks.

"Okay, Onii-san! I'm ready!"

"Alright, I think I'll start with a full demonstration." Trunks powered up a little, and then pushed off from the ground. He soared to the top of the room, flipped upside down, and pushed himself off the ceiling with his feet. He went into a nosedive, pulled up inches from the ground, and flew a few high speed circles around the room. Then he landed right in front of Pan, who applauded wildly.

"Wow! That was amazing, Onii-san! Can you really teach me to do all that?"

"That, and much more. Now, you first need to power up a bit. The idea is to focus your ki below you to lift yourself off the ground. Oh, and one more thing; you need to focus on a happy thought."

Pan did as she was told. She powered up, and when she didn't get it, she just powered up more.

"No, Pan! Don't power up too much! You have enough ki; you're just not focused."

Pan took a few deep breaths, and lowered her ki. She closed her eyes, and imagined herself flying. She imagined herself running away from her terrible reality... with her real family. She imagined them and how wonderful it would be to find them again. That was all she had ever wanted...

Pan felt light on her feet. She concentrated on her real parents, on focusing her ki below her, on impressing Trunks...

... and she suddenly couldn't feel the floor anymore. Pan opened her eyes to see she was hovering about ten feet above Trunks.

"Just like that, Pan. Now try to steer yourself around. Try flying in a circle."

Pan did, a little shakily at first, but then got the hang of it.

"Good! Now try going up and down again. Do it by raising and lowering your ki." This stunt was a bit harder, but Pan managed. She was flying down for the third time, and then she lost concentration. Trunks quickly acted, and caught her.

"And I was just about to teach you how to land, too. It seems you have that part down already!" He joked. Pan laughed a little, and then took off again.

The training continued for another three hours. Pan not only learned how to land, but also how to maneuver quickly when shot at, how to shoot small ki blasts while flying, and even how to use her adopted father's signature move, the Final Flash.

"Okay, we've been at this for nearly four hours now, Pan. Do you want to call it quits for today?" Both were totally exhausted, and dripping with sweat.

"No, you can go ahead, but I want to keep going!" Trunks looked perplexed by her answer, but he agreed, and walked upstairs to take a shower.

Pan stayed in the room, and practiced flying a little more. Then she tried to remember a move Trunks had showed her a long time ago. It was called the Burning Attack. It was used to stun enemies temporarily, as well as do a significant amount of damage. She waved her hands in a specific circular pattern, and then spread both palms out in front of her with her index fingers and thumbs touching. She quickly focused her ki energy on her hands, and a bright yellow light shot out of them. She herself was temporarily blinded, but kept trying after she recovered.

Not fifteen minutes later, Pan felt she had mastered Trunks' Burning Attack. She also felt all of her ki had been totally used up. Pan trudged out of the room, and dragged herself upstairs, showered, and went straight to bed.

That night she dreamed once again of Zamuri, except there were no guards to take him away. Instead, he turned into Son Goku. Pan was confused, but she then was somehow transported to a familiar bedroom. Pan saw Trunks next to the bed, where a weak-looking figure was lying. The woman had short blue hair, and matching blue eyes. It looked as if she were fighting to stay alive. The woman was trying to speak.

"I... I want you to name him after an old friend of mine... I want you... to name him... Go... ku..."

Goku...?