The most action-packed chapter yet! Trunks saves the day!!! And another great big hug and great big chapter for my reviewers!
Chapter 13: Taking a Stand
It was now 1:30. They only had half an hour left. Where was Trunks? Pan was getting very worried. She was anxiously wandering the halls when she met up with Paris carrying the nameless baby prince.
"Oh, Princess Pan! How are you today?"
"Not so good, Paris. I was hoping Trunks would be back by now, but he isn't. I'm worried."
"Don't worry, milady. I'm sure Prince Trunks will be here soon. After all, why would he want to miss this day?"
"I don't know why I'm so uptight. I know Trunks will come through for us, and he promised me he would be back soon. But we only have thirty minutes left until the ceremony is scheduled to begin, and there's still no sign of him anywhere!" Pan turned to a nearby window, and looked longingly up at the sky, as if expecting Trunks to just come soaring through them at any second. But he didn't come. Instead, another maid came in the room to usher Paris and the baby into another room to dress him, while Pan was left at that windowsill, staring out into the clouded sky. As she stuck her head out of the window, she felt a raindrop fall on her nose.
The maids had gone back to their network of hallways behind the main staircase. Paris stood with the baby in the ceremonial room. King Vegeta entered, closely followed by Vegeta Jr., Pan, and then Bra. Rain could now be heard pounding on the rooftop, and against the stained glass windows. Vegeta led his children to a red padded bench, where they were to sit down and remain in total silence. Pan did her best to hold back her tears. She had failed, and there was nothing she or anyone else could do about it now.
Trunks had to hurry. His watch read approximately 2:00. He had taken far too long explaining to Yamucha how to get to the designated cave. They were moving very slowly too, because such a large amount of people had joined them. He had instructed his backup to remain hidden in the bushes, and wait for his signal. He had wanted to stop the ceremony himself. Trunks flew at top speed through the pouring rain. He was soaked through and through, but the one and only thing that was on his mind right now was to get to that ceremony, and stop it. No matter what it took.
The baby had now been placed in a small padded throne chair by Paris, and King Vegeta carefully opened the beautiful gold box that held the small gold crown. He slowly walked over to his son, holding the crown above his head. Vegeta stood over his son proudly. "With this crown, thou shall bear the Vegeta family name for the rest of thy days." The crown was now directly over the squabbling little prince's head. Bra closed her eyes tightly, and turned away. Pan could only stare and hope for a miracle. The crown began to descend.
(Almost there! I can see the room they're in!) Trunks thought, as he aimed for the closest stained glass window, and braced himself for impact.
"With this crown I present thee with thy name, Na..."
CRASH!!!
The stained glass window shattered into a million pieces as the body of a 23-year-old man crashed through, and landed gracefully on the floor, soaking wet, smirking at his father.
The crown in King Vegeta's hands clattered to the floor. He turned, and stared wildly at his son.
"YOU!"
"Trunks! You're back!" Pan stood up, and shouted.
Bra uncovered her eyes, and gazed in great admiration at her older brother. "Onii-san..."
Vegeta Jr. merely scowled at Trunks.
"Yes, Otou-san. It's me. I'm back to stop this ceremony." Trunks stared defiantly, and walked slowly toward the baby.
"No! You stay away from him or else!" King Vegeta ordered.
Trunks stopped, and turned his head toward his father. A light blue aura formed around him. His piercing gaze tore right through his father's pathetic bluff. King Vegeta froze, his fists trembling in a mix of fear and rage.
"This child deserves better. I'm going to take him someplace where he can live his life the way he wants to." Trunks smirked in satisfaction, the eerie aura dying down a little, but remained ever present. He turned to face the baby once again, and picked the crown up off the floor. He dusted it off a bit, and raised it once again above the child's head, and slowly began to lower it.
"With this crown I present thee with thy name, Goku." The crown neatly slid on to the baby's head. Prince Goku giggled as Trunks took the crown back off and set it back in its box. He then picked the baby up, turned, and motioned for Pan and Paris to follow him as he walked slowly out the door. As soon as they rounded the corner, Trunks' aura disappeared, and they all began to run for their lives.
Slipping out of his state of utter shock, King Vegeta yelled, "Guards! Stop them!"
Trunks handed the baby to Paris, and he led the way while Pan brought up the rear.
"Trunks, it looks like we've got a lot of company!" Pan yelled from behind. About fifty armed guards were chasing them.
"Pan, take Paris and Goku, and go ahead of me! Your father and some others are out hiding in the bushes waiting for you! Don't worry about me!" Trunks shouted as he turned to start shooting massive ki blasts at their pursuers. Pan nodded, and led Paris to the main entrance. Unfortunately, there were about five guards blocking the door.
"Stay behind me, Paris! And cover your eyes!" Paris shut her own eyes obediently, and covered baby Goku's eyes quickly. Pan waved her arms in a complex circular pattern, and then thrusted her palms forward, emitting a blinding gold flash of light. The guards yelped, and moaned as they blinked stupidly around, and began feeling their way around. Pan tapped Paris on the shoulder, and she opened her eyes. Admiring the job she had done, Pan smiled and easily pushed the blinded guards aside, opened the doors, and ran out into the rain.
"Otou-san? Grandpa? Are you out here?" Pan called. There was a soft rustling sound, followed by several tall figures emerging from the nearby bushes covered in leaves and mud. Pan laughed at the sight of them, while Paris' gaze was fixed upon one dirty tall figure in particular.
And he was looking back at her with the same entranced gaze.
"Go... ten...?" Paris stuttered. It was hard to tell the difference between the tears and raindrops running down her cheeks. Goten nodded, his mouth hanging slightly open.
"Uh... Paris? There's no time for emotional moments now. We have to go!" Pan pushed Paris forward and off the stone steps. Pan could hear the fighting from inside the castle growing nearer by the second.
"Pan, Paris, let's go!" Trunks had emerged from the smoke he had created from the blasting. "We'll keep them busy! Kuririn, take Pan and Paris to the mountain with the others!"
Kuririn nodded, and picked up Paris. Pan took baby Goku from her arms, and both of them took off, soared over the wall, and over the barrier of clouds. But before disappearing from sight, Pan looked back to see the Z fighters surrounded by hundreds of armed guards. They stood back to back in a small circle in the center, all of them; Goku, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Tenshinhan, Piccolo, and Juuhachi-gou. The group suddenly began shooting ki blasts in all different directions. Pan knew they would be all right. None of the guards were very bright, and each of the fighters was as strong as ten of them put together. Pan was not worried, so she turned and followed Kuririn.
"Yamucha is in charge of the group of villagers in the mountains, Pan." Kuririn called.
"But why are we going to the mountains, Kuririn-san?" Pan yelled over the cold whistling air blowing by. The baby began to whine of the cold, so she wrapped her arms tighter around him.
"It was all Trunks' idea! We're starting a rebellion! Yamucha is leading a large group of villagers through a secret passage in the mountains that will lead us to a huge valley where we can start our own kingdom!"
Pan smiled at the thought of Trunks organizing a whole revolution. He, her idol, had done it again.
Kuririn suddenly dipped below the clouds, and Pan followed. She felt the cold rain dripping down her face once again. Strands of her black hair whipped her face after being liberated from the tight bun the maids had done that morning. She followed him down to a large group of people traveling up the side of the mountains. It was getting ever steeper as they went along incredibly slowly.
Pan landed behind Kuririn, and gave Goku back to Paris. Then she made her way to the front of the crowd, where she expected to find her mother or Yamucha.
"Okaa-san? Yamucha-san?" Pan yelled as she pushed her way through the chaotic crowd. After making it to the front of the group, she spotted Yamucha standing at the entrance to a large cave. "Yamucha-san!!!" Pan called. He turned.
"Oh, Pan! I'm so glad to see you made it here all right. Did everyone else?"
"No, Yamucha-san. Most of them are still stalling for time back in the village. Kuririn led me here, and he's at the back of the group with Paris and Goku."
"Goku is here too? Great! We could really use his help with trying to figure out..."
"No, I don't think you understand." Pan laughed. "I meant the baby Goku who just had a really messed up naming ceremony."
"Oh... Wait a minute, you kidnapped a baby prince?!?" Yamucha stared with his mouth wide open. Pan laughed.
"Trunks obviously thought it was for his own good." She said. Yamucha nodded, closed his mouth, and turned back to the cave.
"I'm trying to figure out which way we should go." He said, staring into the darkness. As Pan's eyes became focused, she noticed the cave divided three ways about fifty feet in. "Trunks never mentioned a fork in the road. He must have forgotten..."
"Pan, you made it!" A familiar voice called to Pan from behind. She whirled around to see her twin brother running out of the crowd toward her, closely followed by their mother.
"Hey Zamuri!" Pan yelled back. Zamuri ran to her and gave her a quick and friendly hug. He looked hilarious with his wet hair hanging down in his face over that red cloth headband.
"Glad to see you made it safely. Is Otou-san here too?"
"No, he's still helping Trunks stall the entire army." Pan sighed, and looked back in the direction from which she had come. The castle was smoking violently. It almost looked as if it was on fire, but she could see no flames...
... Her dream...
Pan quickly turned back to the cave, and tried to remember the dream she had had last night. Yes, she had entered a cave, and come to a pool of water. She had dived in, and was swimming for the light on the other side, when she had woken up.
She couldn't remember which way she had taken, but that wasn't about to stop her.
"Follow me, Zam." Zamuri looked back at Yamucha, who was now trying to calm some complaining villagers in the crowd. Seeing that they weren't going to be noticed, he ran after Pan into the darkness.
Upon the three way fork, Pan looked down each passage, and declared they would take the path to the right. They walked for about three minutes before seeing another fork. This time there were only two passages. Pan continued to the left without stopping. Her dream was coming back to her in more detail. She could remember where the forks were, and which path to take. About ten minutes later after about five forks in their path, Pan and Zamuri came upon a pool of water about five feet deep.
"Did we go the wrong way, Pan? We hit a dead end."
"No, Zam... We're in the right spot... I remember this place..."
"What?!? You mean you've been here before?" Zamuri stared from her to the pool of water.
"In a dream, yes. In my dream I walked through this cave, and ended up here, at this pool. I dived in, and there was a large tunnel through the cave. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, so I swam toward it. I woke up before I could reach it." Pan gazed at the pool, eyes wide, like she was in a trance.
"Maybe... maybe we should go back and tell Yamucha-san." Zamuri tried tapping Pan on the back. She blinked out of her trance, turned to him and nodded. The two walked back to the entrance of the cave, where Videl was anxiously waiting.
"There you two are! Yamucha-san, here they are! What on Vegeta-sei were you doing in there? We're going to wait until Trunks comes to lead us through!" Videl scolded. Then she hugged them, not able to stay mad at her twin babies, finally together after all these years.
"Okaa-san, Pan knows the way through the caves. She showed me. We don't have to wait for Trunks-san." Zamuri declared.
Videl looked back at Pan. "Is this true? Pan... do you know where to go?" Pan nodded. "Yamucha-san! Pan knows how to get through the cave!"
Yamucha immediately announced to the crowd of impatient and frightened villagers that they were all going to follow Pan through the caves. Pan half expected them to start questioning why it was that they were going to put their lives in the hands of a fourteen-year-old girl, but instead they all became silent and turned to her.
Not knowing what else to say, Pan simply hollered, "Follow me, everyone!" She then turned, and walked calmly down the passage to the right. Her mother and brother followed her, followed by the entire group of villagers. Yamucha had told Uub to wait outside for Trunks' group, and tell him where they were.
About twenty minutes later, Pan spotted the pool of water. She ran toward it, and looked closely at it, trying to see the tunnel. The throng of people behind her looked around at the dead end in front of them, then curiously at the small girl looking into a pool of water in front of them.
"Now what, sis?" Zamuri whispered.
"Now I think we have to go through the water... That will take us to the valley." Pan continued staring through the clear water. Then without warning, she allowed herself to fall in.
The water was freezing. It felt like sharp knives were pricking every part of her body. She squeezed her eyes shut, and endured it. After a few seconds, she got used to the temperature, and surfaced again.
"Pan, what do you think you're doing?!?" Videl screamed in her ear as she gasped for air. Pan shivered, and dived back down without a word. She looked down the tunnel, and thought she could see a faint light at the very end of it. Her suspicion confirmed, Pan surfaced again.
"Listen up, everyone!" Pan shouted as she caught her breath. "We have to swim through this big tunnel under the water! It's not far; I'm confident we can all make it!"
The crowd whispered anxiously.
"Are you sure, Pan?" Zamuri asked.
Pan nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. I saw the light coming from the other side."
Videl stuck her hand in the water, and then quickly pulled it back out. "But Pan! This water is freezing! About a third of our group is composed of elderly people and infants. They'll never survive in this temperature!"
Pan thought about this. Her mother was right. She couldn't risk the lives of these people who only wanted to taste freedom. Then she had an idea.
Pan thrusted her right palm forward, and emitted a bright red beam right into the water. After a few seconds, she cut off the beam. Then she stuck her hand in the pool again.
"Okay, that should do it!" The water was now lukewarm. Zamuri and Videl felt it for approval, and agreed.
Yamucha turned back to the crowd. "Alright, now anyone who is a fairly strong swimmer, and is capable of assisting others, please step forward!" About twenty middle-aged men stepped toward him. "Good! Now anyone who requires assistance in getting to the other side, please form a single-file line!" The crowd obeyed quickly. They had to, for King Vegeta's army was fast approaching.