A/N: After a long and much needed hiatus, I'm back! To keep a long story short: I haven't been feeling so hot the past few months, but I'm doing much better now and my inspiration is slowly starting to return. Updates will still be irregular, but at least the story is back on track again (and so am I). Thank you all for your support and staying with me all this time. Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Family Reunion
Bunny opened her eyes, but immediately closed them again as pain exploded through her head. She tried to slip back into unconsciousness, but to no avail. Where was she anyway?
"Hey, you finally awake? Drink this, it will help," a voice told her. Bunny felt a warm liquid against her lips and took a sip, her pain instantly numbing. A few more sips and she could feel her strength slowly returning.
"It's not a Senzu bean, we only have a few left and we're saving those for life threatening cases. Tea brew from the leaves of the Senzu plant can still perk you up quite nicely though."
Bunny gratefully finished the cup, each drop restoring more of her energy and helping her body heal. The pain subsided and she could finally open her eyes. The man who had helped her smiled warmly. It was strange… with his black hair that defied all laws of gravity and onyx eyes that gleamed with an almost playful mischievousness, he looked absolutely nothing like her dad. And yet there was something about him… something about that strong, but friendly aura that reminded Bunny of her father.
But wait… they saved the beans for life threatening cases? She had been on the brink of death! After two subsequent Kaioken attacks, one of which had been a double, it was a miracle she was even breathing! Or had her mangled insides managed to heal themselves somehow? Was that even possible?
"Where… what… how long…?" she uttered, her mind still reeling. The man looked at her and though his energy wasn't hostile, Bunny felt increasingly uncomfortable under his gaze.
"You were out for almost twelve hours, kiddo. You have no idea how you got here, do you?"
Bunny shook her head, then suddenly her eyes widened.
"Tsuru!" she panicked, scrambling to get out of bed. "Oh Kami, we have to save him! I mean he's my archrival and a real dick and all, but if Cell vacuums him up his tail, he's gonna have his memories about me and…"
"Slow down there, kiddo!" the man interrupted her. "If you're talking about your buddy, he's okay. Or… well… alive, at least. We was already acting extremely hostile from the moment he woke up, but when Tien and Chiaotzu entered the room with a cup of Senzu tea, the guy suddenly snapped and attacked them for no reason. We had to knock him out again before thing got ugly. Maybe he'll be in a better mood later."
"Tien?" Bunny blinked. "Chiaotzu?"
Suddenly she remembered where she heard those names before. Chiaotzu, Tien; two former crane school students who had denounced their master's evil ways and joined the Z-fighers. No wonder her rival had been pissed; disciples of the crane school did not take kindly to 'traitors', especially if said traitors tried to help them. For a proud crane student like Tsuru, few things could be more humiliating.
"You're still a bit out of it, huh?" the man asked, smiling friendly, placing a hand on head. "Don't worry, my race is telepathic. I'll just read your thoughts and…"
As if stung by a hornet, Bunny swatted his hand away and leaped out of bed.
"Hey! Those are private, bucko!" she snapped. "You think you can just waltz in here and go through my memories? I don't even know your name!"
"Oops… hehe, I guess that would be a bit rude, huh?" the man laughed sheepishly. "My name is Goku, nice to meet you."
Bunny's eyes widened and her lips parted in a small 'o'. This… this was the legendary Son Goku? Best friend of her grandmother and savior of the world?
"But you're supposed to be dead…" Bunny uttered, confused. "The virus… or is this the alternate timeline Trunks created? That would explain why Tsuru's history book didn't say anything about that monster, because he wasn't in the original one. Not for another 24 years or so, at least. Kami, this is getting complicated…"
"Whoa, slow down," Goku interrupted her. "You're losing me, kiddo."
"I'm losing myself," she moaned. "And I still don't know where I am or how I got here!"
"Then let's put our heads together," he smiled warmly, putting a hand on the side of her face. This time, Bunny allowed it. Even if she only knew him for a couple of minutes, one look in Goku's eyes was enough to know she could trust him with her life.
As Bunny felt the Saiyan read her memories, she was granted a glimpse through his eyes. How he fell sick during the battle with a puffy android called Nineteen, and the evil Doctor Gero himself. How Seventeen and Eighteen had decided to play a game of 'hunt the Saiyan', forcing the gang to move him to Kame House. How her mother, uncle Oolong and a young girl name Videl came to them seeking protection from Cell. How they realized that not even Kame House was safe and decided to hide in Bulma's secret underground shelter. And finally, how a certain green-haired girl had suddenly teleported into the living room, her eyes wide with fear and panic, her left hand tightly clutching an unconscious, dark-haired boy with blood running down his temple…
"I don't remember any of that," Bunny mumbled distraught. "I remember my body shutting down after that double kaioken… Cell charging at me… and then suddenly I was here."
"I wouldn't know what happened, I can't look at a memory if it isn't there," Goku shrugged, then suddenly broke into a wide grin. "So, you're Kameko's daughter, huh?"
"Shh!" Bunny hissed wide-eyed. "Keep it to yourself, will ya! It's bad enough Tsuru knows, but I don't want anyone else here to find out, especially not my mom!"
"Right, got ya," the Saiyan nodded, then snickered. "I can't believe Tao had a kid. Bwahaha!"
"Quiet!" Bunny urged him. "If you rat him out, he'll blow my cover for sure! We're not exactly on the best of terms you know."
"Don't worry, if I can keep Trunks' parentage a secret for three years, I should manage you two kids," Goku said, then frowned. "Kameko doesn't have to know, but I think its better to tell the others. We have to get you and Tsuru back to your own timeline as soon as possible. In the mean time, I think it's better if you stay here and lay low. Cell knows about your power now, and from what I've learned about him so far, he'll stop at nothing to obtain it."
Bunny nodded bleakly, realizing that the Saiyan was right. Cell was a predator, and he would not so easily allow his prey to slip from his grasp.
"Hey," she started hesitantly. "If you do tell your friends about me and Tsuru, would you mind asking them to watch their mouths around Cell? If he finds out Kameko is my mom, he'll kill her for sure!"
"He'll probably try to kill her anyway, but…"
"You're not helping," Bunny sweatdropped.
"Don't worry about it, I'll make sure they keep quiet. In the meantime, why don't you wash up and put on some clean clothes? You'll feel better," Goku smiled. "You can join us in the living room when you're ready and we'll have a bite to eat."
The prospect of food made Bunny's worried face brighten up like a light bulb. Next thing he knew, the Saiyan found himself in the hallway with the door slammed shut in his face, while he could hear the girl turn on the shower and decapsulating her luggage. The friendly smile left his face as his thoughts returned to the things he had seen in her head. When he said he could not see all her memories, he had not been completely honest. Though hazy and fragmented, Goku had seen how Bunny had escaped the menacing monster and ended up at Capsule Corporation's secret base.
Instant transmission, the Saiyan worried. The girl somehow used my instant transmission technique and she doesn't even know it!
That wasn't even the biggest of his concerns though. There was another memory of the youngster's battle against Cell, one that had been buried deep in the darkest bowels of her subconscious. The android attacked… struck her arm… and she blew him away with an almost monstrous display of power, leveling half of Nicky Town in the process. He had seen that attack before… and heard the cold, alien tongue that she hissed before firing.
Frieza…
Goku could sense the girl wasn't evil and honestly didn't remember any of her own remarkable actions. But still, the Saiyan was worried was about her. Perhaps even more than about the androids themselves. And so for the time being, he decided that the less the confused girl knew about her hidden powers, the better.
The gang sat in the living room in an uncomfortable silence. Partly because Bunny had been stupid enough to get into a fight with Vegeta over the last ham sandwich (and lost), partly because Tsuru had not touched any of the food and did nothing but brood in a corner, staring darkly at Chiaotzu and Tien. He knew now that they could both easily defeat him, but that didn't stop the boy from shooting them his coldest, most hateful glare.
"Hey Goku, I bet Bulma is going to be so excited to see you've woken up once she and Kameko return from their shopping trip," Krillin said in an attempt to break the silence. "After all, didn't her future self work for years on her time machine to save you?"
"Make no mistake, we're not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot," Trunks said grimly. "Goku may have survived the heart virus, but Seventeen and Eighteen are much stronger than their counterparts in my timeline, and even if Goku beats them, that still leaves Sixteen and Cell to deal with."
"Awesome. We're screwed," Bunny sweatdropped. "Well, at least you're still alive, Trunks. In my timeline, you weren't so lucky."
"Yes, Goku told us," the boy nodded, but he eyed her warily.
"…What?" Bunny asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"It's just that… Look, I believe mother told you that I died of a mutated version of the virus that killed Goku, but…"
"But what?" the girl pressed.
"It's impossible," Trunks shook his head. "When Goku got sick, mom spend day and night researching the virus and looking for a cure. You see, there were plenty of humans that got sick from it, but not nearly as bad as Goku. None of them died, and Chi Chi who had the closest contact with him, only fell ill for about a week and got better on her own. The symptoms were no worse than a serious cold." He fell silence and his face darkened. "It turns out that the virus is relatively harmless to Earthlings and Goku only died because he didn't possess a natural human immunity to it."
"But then… oh no…" Bunny said, her face paling.
"Yes," Trunks nodded. "I might not be fully human, but enough to have inherited my mother's human immune system. Even if the virus did mutate, I shouldn't have died. A normal human would have gotten sick for a few days before adapting to the new strain, and I myself would surely have been out of the running or at least three months due to my Saiyan genes, but dying from the infection? I seriously doubt it."
"Grandma Bulma lied then… and so did my parents," Bunny mumbled, more to herself than to the Saiyan.
"Hey, your mom is cool, I'm sure she did it for a reason," Videl said. "Speaking about your folks, who did she hook up with?"
"A wuss," came a snickering voice from the shadows. "What guy lets his wife do all the fighting when their kid is in danger?"
"Oh, like your dad is such a hotshot at the battlefield!" Bunny snapped at her rival. "Maybe my parents just more emancipated than that dumbass father of yours."
"At least my father took the time to train me!"
"And at least my dad doesn't look like a cheap R2D2 rip-off someone dug up at the junkyard!"
"Die, turtle girl!"
"Bring it on, crane boy!"
The two teens lunged at each other and rolled over the floor, pulling hairs and exchanging a flurry of punches.
"Hey, take it easy, you two!" Yamcha tried, but he got knocked over by the fighting rivals, along with Bulma's coffee table. Finally, a certain Namek could no longer take the noise and decided to step in.
"Alright, that's enough, break it up!" he barked, grabbing Tsuru's neck with one green skinned hand and Bunny's ankle with the other, stretching his arms to keep them apart. Startled by Piccolo's display of strength, they stopped fighting for about two whole seconds. Then they resumed flinging curse words at each other and frantically squirmed to get out of the Namek's hold.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTHS OR I'LL WRING BOTH YOUR SCRAWNY NECKS!" Piccolo yelled, startling everyone.
"Dude! Turn it down a notch, will ya?" Tsuru sweatdropped.
"Yeah, what if the androids hear you?" Bunny said.
"And then your folks said we were being careless, turtle girl…"
"No kidding, crane boy. No wonder everyone kicked the bucket back home."
A vein was now throbbing on Piccolo's temple and the Namek looked like he was about to have a seizure from sheer rage.
"Listen you two," he growled. "If you want to have any hope of surviving, you need to put your childish bickering aside and start working together against the greater foe."
"You?"
"Cell!"
"He's not the one holding me upside down by the ankle!"
"For the love of…!"
"Like hell will I ever join forces with someone from the Turtle School," Tsuru scoffed, narrowing his eyes. "I made that mistake once and it nearly got me killed."
"Hey, I saved your sorry ass, crane boy!" Bunny protested, but her rival shook his head.
"I'm done hanging around with you and the rest of 'Chez Loser' down here. I'm going to find my dad and uncle Tsuru and we'll show the world how true warriors handle things."
Without warning, the crane disciple took a smoke bomb from his pocket and threw it on the floor, using the confusion that followed to his advantage.
"Augh! What the hell?"
"Dammit, I can't see!"
"Someone open a window!"
"There aren't any!"
"Roshi, get your hands of my chest or I'll do it for you!"
"It was an accident, Chi Chi! Honest! ARGH! NOT THE FACE! NOT THE FACE!"
"That little brat!" Tien coughed, rubbing his eyes. "He made a run for it!"
"Let the boy go. We can't force him to stay here against his will, even if it would be for his own good," Goku sighed.
"Well, I'm not bailing him out of trouble, and neither is Chiaotzu," Tien scoffed, annoyed.
Suddenly they heard sounds on the surface, the sound of someone opening the secret hatch and making their way down the underground shelter.
"Hah, he's crawling back already," Bunny smirked. "I knew that wimp wouldn't…"
Her smirk faded instantly when the door to the living room flung open and Bulma came stumbling inside. The woman looked horrible, her clothes were torn, her normally so pristine hairdo was a mess, blood ran from a puncture wound in her neck and her eyes were wide with fear.
"Bulma!" Goku exclaimed. "Oh Kami, what happened? Where's Kameko?"
"C-Cell," his lifelong friend uttered. "H-he… and then I… and then she… Goku, you have to save her! Cell's going to k-kill…!"
Suddenly her eyes rolled back in her head and Bulma fainted in his arms.
"Vegeta, take care of Bulma. I'm going to get Kameko."
"Right," the Prince said, for once not protesting. He took his unconscious wife from the younger Saiyan's hands as the latter rushed through the doors and into the outside world, where he could better sense the girl's power. She was still alive, but her energy was fading rapidly. There wasn't much time.
"Goku, what are you doing?" Chi Chi panicked. "You can't go fight that thing, you just got out of bed!"
"Goku, don't listen! You can't let Cell kill my mom!" Bunny protested after following the Saiyan and his wife to the surface.
"If he goes now, they'll both get killed!"
"If he doesn't go, Cell will absorb mom's memories about our hideout, come here and kill us ALL!"
"She does make a good point there, honey," Goku smiled sheepishly. "Besides that… what if it was Gohan out there? Would you still want me to stay?"
"Dammit… just be careful, okay?" Chi Chi sighed. Goku smiled at her and then suddenly vanished in thin air. It didn't take him long to return with the unconscious woman in his arms. There wasn't a part of her that wasn't covered in bruises and there was a large hole in her back that dripped blood through the Saiyan's fingers.
"We have to get her inside, Chi Chi get…"
"Get a Senzu, way ahead of you," the woman nodded grimly, rushing back down the shelter. Bunny didn't follow him: at the first sight of her mother, she had fainted on the spot.
