It Never Ends
C-19 -- Finding Soyna
"Are you okay?"
Junior looked tired and worried as he sat down at his desk. He was wearing his darker glasses. He mustn't have had much sleep. He looked grimmer than usual.
He pulled out the tournament pamphlet and handed it to him. "Why is this things so important to her? Can you tell me?"
"What?"
"Soyna took off yesterday, before the big blow out between Trunks and Gohan, and she said that she would be back in the morning." He sighed and looked the shiny piece of paper. "I argued with her over this tournament and she took off. She wasn't back this morning. Then, to top things off, Legen says that she will be back soon. Don't worry about it uncle. She just has gone to her thinking place."
"She has gone there a few times, huh?" Goten said, not knowing how to comfort him in this. He wondered himself where she went.
"She took Legen there once!" He said. "She won't even tell me where she is going and she took Legen there!"
Boy, was he ever upset. "I am sure she has her reasons."
"Why can't she tell me them?" he said and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "I lost everything too. She shouldn't have to go through this alone. She has everyone here now. She doesn't even to seem to realize it."
"Hey, she is just a loner. She has a lot to think about. She has the boys to worry about. She..." He stopped as Junior looked away from him.
"I know that! I lived through it too. I was there when Dad died. I was there when her husband died. I was there when Krad betrayed us. I was there!" he whispered. "And she can't even talk to me about it."
Goten just looked at his upset friends. "Well, if she is not back by the time school is out, we will go hunting for her."
Junior shook his head. "I have tried looking for her before. She is very adept and hiding from Vegeta and me. When she doesn't want to be found, you can't find her. If you try to follow her, she will loose you."
"She can't be that good at it," Goten said.
"She is," he said as the buzzard went for class to start.
..........
Gym class was interesting. He had never seen Junior so aggressive. He even plowed into the new kid while they were playing floor hockey and sent him flying into the wall.
"I know you're mad at your sister, but man, you don't have to kill the new kid," Goten said as he grabbed his friends arm.
"Sorry," Junior said and went to help the new kid get to his feet. He was a little shaky in doing so. "I am having a bad day. You aren't my target."
He just looked at him and shook his head. "It's alright. You just shocked me."
He was holding his arm as he said this. He looked very uncomfortable talking to him.
They hadn't paid much attention to the new kid, just another person with a family that moves around a lot. No big deal. The girls sure liked him, for he was a rather handsome looking boy with hair so blonde that it was almost white and very dark eyes, slender and tall.
The girls that used to ask him out and he would refuse, were now hovering around the new kid, which was fine by him. He had to find a girl his own age, someone that could relate to him, not a kid.
He had to admit that he did miss that attention a little bit but didn't hold a grudge against the new kid.
"Is your arm okay?" Goten asked. "It looks a little swollen."
Junior grimaced. "I hope I didn't break it. I am really sorry. I just was thinking of something else when I hit you."
"No. It's fine," the kid said and flexed it. "Just a little bruised that's all." He gave a big smile. "Nothing to worry about. I'll just make sure that I don't get in the way of your next check."
They laughed at this and the new kid walked away.
"You really got to be careful. If you want to get some tension out, we'll go spar after school," Goten said. "You could have really hurt him."
"I just need to find my sister and make sure that she doesn't try to destroy herself." He said.
The teacher blew the whistle to announce that it was time to hit the showers.
............
Vegeta tried looking for her throughout the day. She was hiding and hiding well. He hated it when she did this. He really did. Why couldn't he find her? He really hated it when she did this. He should be able to track her down so easily, but she knew how to evade him all too well for his liking.
............
It had been an hour that he had been looking for her. They were supposed to be sparing tonight anyway. Junior was too worried about her, as he was, they weren't getting anywhere in their studies.
Junior was searching North. He was searching South. He really didn't think he would find her, but it made Junior feel better.
He was about to give up when he thought he felt her.
He stopped and looked around at the forest and stream that was below him.
The feeling was gone. It had been brief but it was definitely Soyna. The hours that they spent sparing together, he was used to her fluctuations in her ki. He sometimes used them to feel what attack she was going to do next. Sometimes that was the only way he could 'see' her.
He started to move slowly and then he felt it again.
Yep. It was definitely her. He lowered himself into the forest. He had lost that feeling again. He found himself a path and walked along it slowly hoping to feel that twinge again.
But soon, he found himself lost in thought that he had not allowed himself to think of for a little while, thoughts of his father. He used to love spending time in the woods, hunting and fishing. He didn't get to do that much with his father. Gohan got to spend more time with dad than he ever did, but then, things were different with Gohan.
Dad.
He really missed him. He had kept himself so busy that he did not allow himself to think of him. It hurt knowing that the left them. He knew the reasons were good, but it still hurt. He never had his dad for very long.
Then he felt her again. He walked towards the stream and started to follow it.
Dad loved to swim and fish more than anything. He had enjoyed the few times that he had gone with his father. Gohan talked about how they would do it almost every day when they were living in the woods, before they moved into the city, so Gohan could go to a proper school.
Damn, everything was so long ago. Why did it feel like yesterday?
He then stopped. There was a little clearing that was really quite beautiful and it seemed to be filled with the sweet smell of flowers that were coming from the blooms of the apple tree above him. The way the sun filtered through the leaves, it was a very lovely little clearing.
He was startled to see Soyna huddled under one of the big apple trees. He forgot how small she was. Her hair was undone and fell over her face and her forehead was resting on her knees. She looked, well, fragile. He felt odd thinking that. After all, he still had not been able to beat her in a single sparing match, or even get the upper hand.
"Soyna?"
She looked up startled. He could see that there were tears on her cheeks. She quickly turned away from him and wiped them off. "How did you find me here?" He heard her sniffle.
He shrugged. "Just did," he said and walked towards her. "Are you crying?"
She kept her back to him. "No." She said coldly. "I want to be alone. Leave."
He couldn't do that. "Junior is worried about you," he said.
"Tell him that I am fine. Leave already!" she snapped. She turned towards him now. She wasn't looking so small and fragile anymore, but he could see the tearstains that had fallen down her cheeks. He didn't think she was capable of tears.
"You were crying," he said and walked towards her.
"I said GO AWAY!" She yelled. The trees shook and some of the blossoms started to fall from the trees.
"Nope, not that easy to scare off. I am not Trunks or Vegeta who walk away from you. You have Junior worried all day about you. He nearly killed the new kid in floor hockey because he was so angry," he said.
She looked like she was getting angry.
He wasn't going to back down. He didn't have anything to loose.
She stood there, looking at him angrily. She wiped her sleeves across her cheeks trying to get rid of the evidence that she has feelings other than contempt and anger.
He knew better.
"I should take you home. I am sure your boys are worried about you too," he said.
"How did you find me here?" She said, restraining the anger in her voice.
Boy, did she have a one-track mind. "I just felt you." He shrugged and moved closer to her. The white pedals that were falling in her hair made her look, well, like a woman. She hardly ever really looked all that feminine before or maybe he just didn't think of her that way. After all, she was still wearing her baggy training clothes but somehow, in this little bit of the forest, it looked really good on her. Maybe it was just the play of the shadows from the leaves.
She stood her ground and her eyes narrowed. "I want to be alone!"
"Why? What good does brooding by yourself do?" he said.
She stood silent. Her eyes were sparkling as if she was about to cry again. She clenched her teeth and hands and was trying to look angry but her eyes didn't look mad. She didn't have the control that she had before. The control that she had when she was back in the house with all her family around.
"It is okay to cry," he said and then added. "Even for us warrior types. We all have suffered losses, and before you start yelling at me, I know you have lost more than I have. I just lost my father. You lost your husband and father and your home, but at least you do have your brother and you have a two great boys."
Her hands unclenched.
"Well," he said as her remembered how much of a troublemaker Benot could be, "You have one great boy and one hell of a trouble maker."
Her lips twitched briefly in a smile and then she went back to her stern look as before. "I still want to be alone."
"I won't let you," he said.
She didn't like that alternative.
"I don't want you near me!" she yelled causing more of the blooms to fall.
"If you keep yelling like that all the blossoms are going to come off the trees." He said sternly. "Plus. We are supposed to train today. I am not letting you off that easy. I am catching up to you and I am not going to fall behind before this tournament comes."
She gave out a low growl, as her eyes seemed to fill up with water again. He approached her. "Why are you crying?" He said in a gentle voice. He wondered what could be bothering her so much that she was crying. "Does it have to do with Trunks and Pan finding each other?"
"No. I could care less about that," she hissed and took a step back from him. "Why would I care about their love lives?"
"Well, you know, with Trunks, sort of, being, you know, like, your father and all... and Pan, not being your mother...I thought that maybe, you could be a little upset over that," he said. He felt real uncomfortable saying that. He knew that talking of her past, was a really touchy subject with her, especially anything to do with her father.
She shook her head. "Why would I be? My mother is all of 10 years old in this time. My mother didn't meet my father until she was nearly 30. I very much doubt that the relationship would work in this time."
He blinked at that revelation. That was even a bigger age gap that Trunks and Pan have.
"Dad always liked the younger girls," she said. "It was not that much of a surprise to me, when Benot told me the news."
Goten rubbed his head. "You aren't bothered that Trunks won't meet your mother?"
"No. She wouldn't be the same woman that I used to know. That would be much harder to accept than him with Pan." She said. "Now, will you go away!"
"Nope. I am going to bug you until you tell my why you were crying?" he said and took another step towards her.
The threat of tears was gone from her eyes now. She wasn't too mad yet. He knew that look, but she was not happy, that was for certain. "Why the hell should I tell you!"
"Because I asked," he said.
"That is not a good enough reason! Will you just leave me alone! Everyone else leaves me alone, why can't you!" she snapped. She was standing her ground now. Looking as if she were ready to lunge at him at any second.
He knew that she was faster than he was when she wanted to be. He knew that she was a tricky fighter, but he was not going to let her run out of this one. He knew that if he got the right hold on her, he could hold her for awhile before she wriggled out on him. He hoped that this would not come to that.
He stood there and looked at her for awhile as the birds started to chirp in the trees again and the wind gently blew the fallen blossoms on to the water of the slow moving stream.
Her stance loosened a bit.
"I can be as stubborn as you are," he said and then seated himself and looked up at her. "I don't have any plans and my homework can wait. It is not like Junior can help me understand it when he is so worried about you."
She blinked a few times and gave him a confused look. "Why do you care?"
"I just do," he said.
She unclenched her hand and sat back down also.
"Are you going to tell me why you come here?" He said. "It is a very beautiful spot."
She looked down at her lap. Her hair hid her face, he couldn't tell if she had tears in her eyes or not. She sat in silence as he waited for an answer. He was actually kind of surprised that she just didn't turn tail and leave. She always did that when Junior was mad at her and especially when Vegeta was.
Speaking of her tail, he could see that it was not unraveled from her waist and was swaying gently behind her. The sight of her tail always amazed him. She hardly ever showed it. It was always so well hidden.
"This reminds me of home," she said in a soft whisper. "I come here to think of the good things and forget the nightmares that keep me up at night."
Soyna has nightmares? He didn't think anything could phase her. She was such a confident person.
Her fingers started to draw pictures in the dirt. "I know it is gone, but I still miss it. I still wish to return to it, even though it is nothing like it once was or the wonders of this place. It is my home. I never feel as if I belong here. I always feel as if I am an outcast."
He looked at her as she drew a bunch of intricate circles in the soft soil, around some fallen blossoms.
"Why this place?"
She looked up briefly and in a small soft voice that he had never heard from her before, "My mother and father were buried in this spot in the other time. I can feel a little bit of them when I am here. I feel as if I can talk to them and they can guide me."
He was shocked at the revelation. Soyna was missing her parents!
"Don't give me that stupid look of yours!" she said with her usual disdain. "You asked why I came to this place. You asked why and that is the reason for it. Now you know!"
"Why don't you tell Junior that you come here?"
"He didn't have the same connection that I had with our parents. He didn't understand why I had to bury my father here when he died. He didn't... I was there when he breathed his last breath and it nearly killed me. I think that was the only reason that he went along with me burying him here!"
He heard her voice crack and he saw that she was hiding her face again.
He shuffled close to her. "It's okay to miss them." He said. "I know how hard it is to loose a parent. I don't know what I would do, if I lost my mother too."
She still didn't look up.
"I probably would be as lost as you are. We all need our anchors and yours is gone," he said. He wanted to reach out to her, but he didn't think that she would accept it. She didn't look like she wanted to be hugged.
"It's getting late," he said.
"I know. She looked at the setting sun. I guess I should go feed my boys." She said with a sigh. "They really don't like their Oma's cooking."
"Why don't we go home." He was getting hungry himself. "I will even take you, Legen and Benot out for ice cream," he said. He emphasized the Benot. It was going to be hard to be nice to him, but then, if he wanted to learn how to fly, he was going to have to be nice to him.
She raised her head, she shook it slightly and gave him a small smile.
"I think I can afford to get some extra chocolate syrup on yours," he said. "Chocolate is supposed to make girls feel better, isn't it?"
Her eyes turned dark for a second and he thought she was going to get mad at him. Then she just shook her head. He knew he shouldn't have added the last part. It was one of those wrong things to say.
She stood and looked at him. "Well, are you going to sit in the dirt or are you coming?"
He grinned as they flew off back to the Capsule Corporation compound.
...........
A/N
Sticky sweet ending huh? Sappy? Well, I had to get it going. Soyna isn't that easy of a person to get to open up you know.
Now you have read me, review me. Let me know that I have fans and that you are enjoying it.
Soyna.