Hey guys, I'm sorry for the extended delay. Truth is, I had planned to end this story in this chapter. But, I had never been satisfied with anything I wrote. So, after many months and lots of versions, I decided to extend this a couple more chapters, to make it flow better. I may actually end up rewriting it, but I will finish it. Again, I apologize and I hope you like the chapters that are to come.
Thanks,
Sosoru
Chapter 20
Pan's bedroom, usually bright and welcoming with rays of sunshine peeking through the blinds and birds chirping at the windowsill was now a cool, dark place. The shade was lowered and the blinds closed so that a minimal amount of light escaped around the outer edges. No longer did Alternative Rock or R&B echo from the stereo, or MTV on the television. The only sound that came from the room was muffled crying and agonized tears dropping to the floor. Occasionally, Pan shifted around in the corner she huddled herself in, for her swollen belly made it nearly impossible to be comfortable for any length of time. She absently placed a hand on her stomach and began to cry even louder, remembering the day she was going to tell her boyfriend the news. She so desperately wished she could forget.
Oh, that she could have killed Bra.
Pan's dark eyes narrowed and her sniffles stopped as she focused her hatred on her sworn life enemy. That wench took everything away that was dear to her. Goten, her uncle, moped about more than she did, though he couldn't understand why. Maybe it was because the friend he thought was trying to help him was stabbing him in the back...or the fact his niece got played in the whole messy process. No, that couldn't be it. Goten never came to see her, never called. He never tried to, in any way, make her feel better...not that he would have succeeded if he had tried.
Bra.
It would have been lovely to snap that long, beautiful neck of hers those months ago. She was so helpless to her anger, as well as MT. To kill them both would have almost made up for the pain they cause her. Almost. There was no way to make this up to the baby. He didn't do anything except be conceived. He didn't know his daddy didn't love mommy and was only screwing her to forget about screwing in sister and messed up her life with his deception and lies.
Pan's balled up fist hit the wall, causing the room to shake. She sobbed louder than before, hoping that somehow the pain would just stop. But it didn't. Every day, the baby grew. For a while, she had stopped eating. Not because she was trying to hurt the baby, but because she never felt hungry. The sight of food made her physically ill. She drank health shakes just so something of substance was in her system. Then, a few weeks ago, the baby started moving. The sensation both interested and disgusted her. Sometimes, she was able to forget she was pregnant and the hurt wasn't so bad. Now, there was no escaping the fact she was soon to have MT's child. What was worse, was that the Sayian fetus kicked her whenever he was hungry and wouldn't stop until she ate real food.
"Please stop," Pan whispered to her stomach, but she was replied with a foot or elbow to her bladder.
She moaned and slowly pulled herself off the floor, saying small curses under her breath. She wobbled to the door and went down the stairs one by one. It probably would have been easier for her to fly, but that was energy Pan did not want to exert. Finally in the kitchen, Pan prepared some Ramen Noodles as the baby kicked her more and more.
"You impatient little Sayian," Pan laughed.
That was the first time she had laughed in a while, and it felt good to her. Suddenly, the gymnast in her belly stopped flipping and relaxed as she slurped up the salty food. She even drank the warm liquid left over after all the noodles were gone. For some reason, she was feeling better, strong than she had in a long time. Her depression, while not gone, didn't seem like the ball and chain it had been only moments ago. Instead of trying to understand it, Pan rolled with it. She opened the kitchen door and for the first time in a long time, sunlight hit her now pale skin. She looked like a porcelain doll, her raven hair in stark contrast to flesh the color of milk Her dark-circled eyes closed as the warmth of day rejuvenated her. Then, as quickly as the calm spell began...she felt butterflies in her stomach and the return of the string tugging at her heart.
"When will it stop?" she cried, collapsing in the doorway, crying.
"You disappoint me, Brat," a voice loomed, causing Pan's head to snap up and look for the source.
Pan saw Vegeta with her parents, Gohan and Videl, standing in the kitchen. She scowled, wondering why the hell the sperm donor to those vile, disgusting beings was in her house. Her energy flared with hatred as Vegeta just folded his arms and smirked his smirk.
"Don't speak to me like I'm one of your bastards," Pan spat, turning her head back towards the sunlight.
"Pan!" Videl gasped. "Don't speak to Vegeta that way!"
She was up so fast it even surprised herself.
"Look at what his bastards did to me, mother! And you want me to be nice to him? Have you forgotten about your own daughter...your grandchild that will be born soon?" she yelled, finally releasing the anger that had been festering inside of her for so long.
"Calm yourself, Brat," Vegeta said, intervening. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Nani?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
Pan cocked her overgrown brow and examined the older Sayian man in front of her. You could tell he was older than her father, but not that much older. The Sayian blood considerably slows down the aging process. The handsome prince hadn't so much as a gray hair. His dark eyes bore down on her, and they were filled with neither understanding nor pity. Why would he want to speak with her? After so long?
"Could you leave us alone?" she asked her parents without looking at them.
Gohan and Videl reluctantly exited the kitchen, hoping they had done the right thing by bringing the prince here. They were too worried about Pan to try not to intervene. All attempts to talk to either Bra or MT were fruitless. Neither wanted to show their face to the woman that would gladly kill them. What little cowards, they thought. At least they were smart in fearing for their safety, for no one supported the pair. When Bulma found out that MT was fixing the time machine in order to escape for this timeline, she destroyed the machine. They wanted to run away with their tails between their legs instead of facing the music. Yes, they were revealed and Pan beat the snot out of them, but it wasn't enough. Letting them go to a different timeline was just too easy.
Goten fought MT once after, hoping to finish the job his niece started. Though it seemed lame, he had to protect her honor. He also gave another try at Bra, who took a long time to recover from her injuries. He thought that MT had to poison her against him, but she insisted she fell out of love the night of the concert when he saw him and Paris together. Goten was floored by that statement. He hadn't even done anything wrong, but he was being treated as if he had kissed her willingly. She went as far as to call him a coward when it came to her father. It was at that Goten turned around and never looked back.
Bra was the one that looked back often. At the misunderstandings and the people she had hurt. Now that Pan was pregnant, everything seemed to be so small. She never meant for things to go this far. She was selfish and she knew it. She was selfish with Goten and selfish with MT, when he was not hers to have. She alienated her best friend. She opened up the door for her to be hurt. Bra confided this to her father, who listened with a not-so understanding ear. Bra was too selfish for too long to warrant any kind of sympathy from anyone other than MT. Vegeta suggested if she was so hurt by the situation, why not talk to Pan about it? Her refusal made him angry and ashamed of the human blood that poisoned her and made her so weak.
Vegeta stood in front of they heavily pregnant Sayian female. Other than her frightfully pale complexion, she looked well. Her breasts were full and sat on top of her rounded stomach that was supported by her ample hips. Her long, dark hair looked choppy and spiky due to a lack of combing, which made her look more like a pure Sayian woman. Vegeta opened his arms and to Pan's surprise, drew her into an embrace. He felt closer to her than to any of his children. Kakorot had always surpassed him at everything. Even now, he succeeding in producing the strongest half-breed offspring...even his granddaughter, who barely had any Sayian blood, was more powerful than his half-human son or daughter. Pan didn't know what to do. She had never seen Vegeta show any true sign of affection, except for calling Bra "His Princess" and pecking her on top of the head from time to time. His embrace both frightened and calmed her. It felt good to be in someone's arms again, even if they were unfamiliar.
"You look well," he said in a tone uncharacteristic to his persona.
"I don't feel well," Pan replied.
Vegeta released Pan and took a couple of steps back. The much older man turned his face away from the mother of his soon-to-be-born grandson, contemplating his next move. Being here on Earth, with human, he had to learn to express his feelings in a way they would understand. As Sayian as Pan looked, he knew he had to give her the same courtesy. It was just lost to most people that he possessed the ability to do so, looking at his relationship with Bulma.
"This is no time to be weak. You proved you are a strong warrior, yet you let my 'bastards' wear you down?" Vegeta said, his tone much closer to his usual harshness.
"Fighting is one thing. It comes easy for our kind. We were once bred to fight, right Vegeta? Emotions are another animal," Pan admitted.
Vegeta was taken back by her use of "our kind". She was very easy to understand, she thought of herself as a full-blood. Thinking back to when she was but a small child, she always thought of herself as such. Still, he had no idea she would grow to be so power, almost as powerful as her father in his prime.
"No excuses. You are stronger than you let on, Brat, yet you sit up in your room in the dark like ignoring the world will make everything go away. It's not going to go away. You, like my unfortunate brats, have to face what's happened," Vegeta yelled.
"Then tell your brats to come here and face me!" she yelled in return, he energy flaring so much that the whole house shook.
"I did. They are not like you, Pan," he retorted.
"And what am I like, Vegeta? To Bra, I am a stepping stone. To MT, I am nothing more than a burden and a mistake," she cried, tears rolling down her face.
Vegeta walked to her briskly and cupped her cheek into his rough, calloused hand. Her large, mahogany eyes peered up at him with bewilderment. Why was he here? To torture her? And why was he speaking so cruel, yet behaving to...tenderly. Pan ceased crying, waiting for Vegeta to say something, say anything. Most of all, she didn't want him to ever stop touching her face and looking into her eyes the way he was at that moment.
"You, Pan, are the last true Sayian female. You have not let your human blood corrupt you, maybe because your mother and grandmother are almost Sayian in their own way," his gruff voice said, his dark eyes never leaving hers.
Pan swallowed hard and exhaled deeply, swimming in the words he said to her. She was a true Sayian? Was she really just wallowing in her own self pity?
"Why did you come here, Vegeta?" she asked.
It was a very simple question. He had never shown any exceptional liking to her. She was Bra's best friend and later, MT's lover. In his mind, she was always the inferior offspring of Kakorot's spawn. But, as she matured, he stopped seeing her as inferior. Silently, he watched her bloom from an awkward offspring, until she exploded into a Super Sayian. He had grown an appreciation the last Sayian prince could give to the last Sayian woman. Bulma had noticed the change in her husband. He had never liked her tantrums, but since the incident, he had developed a hatred for them. Instead of being understanding in the midst of find out about her children's incestuous affair, he was distant. When she cried at night and reached out for him, he shrugged her off and went into a gravity chamber to sleep. He didn't touch her anymore and the rare playful moments that shared became a distant memory. Though she wasn't a mind reader, she knew it was because he blamed her for what happened. How he could, she wasn't sure. But, it was also because he couldn't get the female Super Sayian out of his mind.
"Nevermind that, Brat," he said, releasing her face, leaving her more confused than when he held her. "Just do what you need to do."
Pan watched as Vegeta put his hands into his pockets and walked away without saying another word. She waited for her parents to come into the kitchen, but they never came. Perhaps they went upstairs, she thought to herself. But, why had her parents let him come to her? Where they that afraid for her? Videl tried desperately to help her daughter, but nothing she said or did helped at all. Gohan just stormed about all day and night, upset that he couldn't kill MT for compromising his daughter's health, both emotional and physical. But, why Vegeta? Why did he come to her? Why did she welcome his presence...his touch? Pan let her fingers trace where Vegeta's hand had been, and sighed.
