CHAPTER 18-Training
ME-"Sorry, too busy monkey hunting to talk. Bye."
TRUNKS-"Yeah, DISCLAIMER-Zombiechick422 does not own Dragonball/Z/GT. She only owns Kentana, Kent, and Ai."
Kentana kissed Trunks on the cheek as he made his way to the door. He was going to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and would be training for a year. She of course wouldn't be going. She held up her children so that they could hug their father and give him a memory to live off of for the next year. She placed them back down on the couch and walked outside to him. He stood leaning against the wall of the large Capsule Corp. building. He stood up and approached her.
"I don't know how I'm going to survive another year without you," he confessed to her. He brushed his hands through his shortened lavender hair. Despite how much she like his long hair, he had to cut it so that it wouldn't grow too long and get in the way while in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
"I don't know how you survived the first time without me. It's a shocker you didn't accidently kill yourself without me there to keep you alive. How did you manage the first time?"
"Not sure. That place was Hell without you. Care to give me something to remember?" She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He placed his hands on her hips and she pulled back. "I don't think that's going to cut it. I mean a whole year, I might kill myself." She kissed him again, this time longer.
"You know, you're a mother now, shouldn't there be some more dignity and public discretion?"
"Maybe. I wish I could go with you. You're so much stronger, but you have a long way to go if you're going to catch up to me."
"I know." Like hell I'm going to let her go in that Hell hole time chamber! That is torture I won't let her bare. "I have to go. I'll see you when I'm out."
"You do that." She let him go, but before he could take off she sent him a mental message. With her tail wrapped snuggly around her waist she told him, go train and I'll give you something to remember when you get out. He took off for the Lookout, really wishing he could stay and find out if she meant it.
She walked back inside looking solemn at the leaving of her husband. "Just one day," she told herself. "You can handle that." She sat down on the couch next to Bulma and cradled her two newborns. Bulma was holding her infant son as well.
Bulma eyed her tail. "How do you manage with your tail when it comes to the full moon?"
"I don't have to. In my time line I believe Piccolo blew it up because of Gohan when he was training him. Even If there was a moon I wouldn't destroy anything. I can control my Oozaru form."
"You can?" This astounded the older woman. If the saiyans could learn to control their forms then there would be less of a need for them to have their tails removed.
She nodded. "I learned that when I was six. Vegeeta taught me." She suddenly regretted the last part, remembering how jealous the older woman had been when she thought her and Vegeeta had been more than just close friends. An unbelievable thought, but it still made her jealous.
Bulma didn't show any signs of that bugging her and instead asked ", why don't you go with them?" she asked.
"I can't. I have babies I can't abandon." She looked down at her sleeping son. He looked so much like her mate.
"I'm sure they'll survive a day without you. It would make it easier for Trunks to go in there if he had you with him. I hear it's supposed to be near unbearable in there." I wish Vegeeta could miss me or feel some remorse for not being able to see me for a year, thought the older woman with a sigh.
"It's not that. If I go in there for a year my body won't be able to produce milk when I come out. If so, the babies could suffer from it," she informed. "Besides, I don't think I could leave my babies for a whole year," she said in a baby talk voice as she rubbed noses with her sleepy eyed daughter." They were really quiet. Saiyan babies were like that, at least most of them are. "Bulma, do you have a plane or something I can borrow. I want to go to my Uncle Kakarrot's for some training. I need someone to spar with in case I need to fight during the Cell Games."
"Yeah, sure." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a capsule plane. She handed it to the new mother.
"You carry these around in your pocket?" Bulma shrugged. "Well, thanks. Do you mind watching Kent and Ai for the day?"
"No problem." Kentana stood up and made her way to the door. As she opened it she turned back to Bulma and said ", if Kent tries to attack Trunks again just threaten him with no dessert. He can't eat any yet, but it still works."
Kentana uncapsulized the plain outside and stepped inside. The controls were easy for her and before long she was landing by the mountain home of Goku Son. She exited the vehicle and capsulized it with a click of a button. The house was a small dome like a very miniature version of the Capsule Corp. building with a small one room building by it. The area was thick with life and bright green grass. Their was a thick forest nearby.
She approached the door and before she could even knock it was thrown open as Goku and Gohan exited with Chichi yelling up a storm about them not coming back until tonight. Chichi slammed the door shut.
"Hey Uncle Kakarott," she greeted, gathering their attention. He turned around and noticed her.
He smiled as he said ", hey Kentana! How are the kids?"
"They're good. I know I'm not the best of parents, but I doubt anything could have happened since they were born less than twenty-four hours ago." She narrowed her eyes as she said that, then opened them into the big Son like eyes they usually were. "I came over here hoping to train." She scratched behind her head nervously. "I was hoping you could give me some training and spar with me. You know, in case I need to fight in the Cell Games, though I highly doubt Trunks would let me fight.
"I love him, but he's really over protective with me. For the last nine months I had to force him to spar with me," she said that a little angrily that he didn't trust her, the stronger of the two, to manage in a fight.
"That's just because he loves you that he worries," reasoned Goku. "If you want to train then sure we can!"
"Great!" She smirked almost sadistically. Goku had a small flashback of when his older brother, Radditz showed up on Earth. He had used that same smirk quite a lot.
"Just no Ki moves, I'd hate for Chichi to get angry at us for blowing up our house." She nodded. None Ki fighting wasn't her preferred way to fight, but you didn't always get to be in your comfort zone when you're in a fight.
Goku started with sending a quick jab to her stomach that she blocked with her left hand. He followed that with several more punches and jabs in quick procession one after the other barely giving her time to react after blocking one. She sent a punch in to his stomach that he took head on. It didn't hurt too much so he managed to punch her in the chest hard. She was sent back several yards, but landed on her feet with poise and wrapped her tail protectively around her waist. No need to let herself be beaten when he takes advantage of the saiyan weakness. Or at least hers, none of the other living saiyans she knew about had to worry about their tail being grabbed anymore.
Goku flew up into the air and noticed that instead of following him she folded her arms and tapped her foot annoyed with a vain bulging in her temple. Goku landed on the ground. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"That was mean Goku. Very mean," she said, doing her best to control her anger. It was one thing to mention her disability, another to mock it.
He thought for a moment before getting a look of remorse. "Sorry, I forgot you couldn't fly."
She let out a breath of air, her vain going back to normal. "It's okay. It's not your fault I cant."
"If you want, I can teach you to fly," he offered with an earnest smile. Her tail fell limp behind her.
"I know how to fly Goku, but for some reason I can't do it anymore." She shook her head as she spoke. It truly was sad, a saiyan who was stuck to fighting on the ground. Had she been on Planet Vegeeta she would have been reduced to working in labs rather than purging because of that fatal flaw. She looked at the grass blowing back and forth in shame frowning.
"Maybe you just need to relearn how, but until then I could teach you to instant transition so you can get around." She looked up, eyes bright and her frown vanishing. Her tail swung gleefully of its own accord behind her.
"You're not serious! You're kidding me! You would do that for me?" she couldn't help but grin broadly.
"I am! Of course I'd teach you. It shouldn't be too hard for you to learn in a short time anyway. You are a Son after all." He smiled at her.
"A Son?" she gave him a quizzical look and tilted her head to the side. "Oh yeah, that's your last name. Oh, thank you Uncle Kakarott!" She lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his torso and squeezing him tight.
"You're welcome Kentana. What's family for?" he said, unable to hug her back with his upper arms pinned to his sides by her arms. He spoke with a slight grunt ", now can you let go? You're crushing my lungs." She released him and stepped back.
"Sorry. When should we start?"
"We can start now."
"Ok." She sat down in front of him cross legged. He sat down cross legged across from her.
"First I think I should show you the proper hand position. Close your hand up into a fist except the index and middle finger." She did that. "Good, just like that. Now, place your thumb over your pinky and ring finger and touch it to your forehead. Now, on to the more complicated part…"
Time elapse…
The sun was setting, casting an orange glow across the fields as they made their way back to the little mountain home. Goku clapped her on the back in congratulations. "You sure caught on fast! It took me way longer than that to learn how to instant transmission properly. All you need is a little more practice and you'll have it down." He smiled the signature Son grin and she smiled her own. They were really related. "I wonder where Gohan is, he's going to want to be home on time or Chichi is going to be very angry."
"I'll find him." She placed her fingers in the proper positions and placed her index and middle finger to her forehead. She searched for Gohan's Ki. When she found it she concentrated and directed her energy in the same way Goku had taught her and before she knew it she was landing on her butt next to Gohan standing next to a cliff's edge. A waterfall roared not far off. "Whoa, what a rush."
Gohan turned to her. "Hey Kentana, how did you get here?"
"Instant transmission. Your dad just taught me since I can't fly." She stood up and dusted herself off. She walked up next to him and observed the sunset with him. The fading rays of the sun gave her golden locks a gleam and highlighted her features. Gohan became aware of the serious resemblance between her and him.
With him in super saiyan mode they had similar golden hair and big turquoise eyes. Her skin was tanned lightly like Vegeeta's but had a creamier complexion like his and his mom's. Many of her features looked like his dad's, but were adapted into a far more feminine appearance. She occasionally folded her arms behind her head like him and he was sure that her hair would pike up like theirs if she let the braids out of their heavy hair ties. He was also sure that if she allowed herself to she could easily, naturally produce that sheepish goofy Son grin.
"You can't? Want some help learning?"
"Sure, what should I do?" She didn't honestly think he could do much, but it was worth a thought and she thought she might as well humor him.
"Nothing, just try and live." He produced that signature goofy Son grin. Then his hand shot out and pushed her off the cliff.
"Whoa, ahhhh!" He noticed her plummet down and decided Trunks would be pretty upset if he didn't catch her. He flew down to the bottom at full speed. When he looked up he noticed her falling slowly cross legged with her arms folded. Her eyes were closed and a vain bulged in her temple. Was everyone out to piss her off today? When she reached the ground her legs unfolded and she landed gently on her feet.
"Yay! You did it!" he cheered. He grinned triumphantly and threw his arms up into the air.
"No Gohan," she corrected. It took every ounce of will in her not to shout and blow up in a saiyan cursing fit at the kid. She had to remember he was only a kid. "I can slow down my fall, not fly." Then her hold on her saiyaness temper slackened for a moment. "What possessed you to push me off a cliff?"
"I was teaching you how to fly."
"BY THROWING ME OFF A CLIFF?" Gohan sweatdropped.
"That's how my first sensei, Piccolo, taught me. I think it was a motivation strategy, you fly or die. Like when he threw me at a cliff to reveal my hidden power or when he made me survive in the wild for six months before training me."
"Piccolo sounds like a nice man. The more and more I hear about him the stronger my opinion of him seems to get." She smirked that near sadistic smirk at him and rustled his golden hair. "Come on, we better get you back before your mom gets angry."
"Oh, right, the party!" he placed a hand to his forehead as he remembered.
"Party? Do earthlings throw parties when someone gets stronger?" Human customs were so confusing.
"No silly, it's my birthday."
She slapped herself on the forehead this time. "It's your birthday! I didn't know. Happy birthday."
"Would you like to come?"
"I'd love to cuz." She looked down at him happily. It was fun to hang out with him and act like a kid for once. All her life she spent acting as mature as possible since she was little. There was no time to have fun besides the only enjoyment she had ever known, fighting and the occasional laugh with Vegeeta. She trained and fought her whole life and lived in a world of discipline for failure, stern talks, and looking over your shoulder every two seconds when he wasn't there to protect her. Her life was filled with fear of Frieza, every soldier that was too strong for her to handle and what would happen if Radditz, and eventually with concern for Vegeeta, didn't manage to come back from his missions.
She had lived her life without a childhood and was happy to witness Gohan enjoy his.
She placed a hand to his shoulder and the other to her forehead as she concentrated hard on Chichi's Ki. They appeared outside of the door leading into the kitchen of the Son home. "Almost got it that time."
They entered the kitchen to the wonderful smells of Chichi's delicious cooking. Kentana could tell from the smell alone that any saiyan male on Planet Vegeeta would have sought her out as a mate for her amazing culinary skills. Her sternness and dominant attitude was saiyan enough with her looks that she could have easily passed for one. "Greetings Aunt Chichi," she said as she saw Chichi by the stove.
"Hey mom," greeted Gohan before walking off to get washed up.
Chichi looked up at them. "Oh Kentana, it's you. I didn't expect you to come."
"And miss the birthday of my only cousin? How could I?" Even though I didn't know about it until a moment ago. "I hope I'm not intruding."
"Of course not. Come in and take a seat at the table. As soon as Gohan is done getting washed up he's going to blow out the candles on the cake."
"Thank you," she thanked for the permission to stay. "It sure smells good." I wish Bulma could cook like this.
"Where's Trunks and the kids?" asked Chichi from the stove. Kentana knew that she'd only ruin the amazing food if she offered assistance.
"The kids are with their grandmother and Trunks ran off into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to train." Chichi noticed that tang of hurt in her voice as she spoke of Trunks ditching her for training, but knew it was expected. What she did not know was that it wasn't him leaving her, it was the fact he wouldn't let her go with him even if the kids weren't in need of her.
"Well, boys will be boys and he is no exception. Goku is always going off to train."
"I know that. He trains all the time and I'm happy for him that he's found another way to train that could make him even stronger, but I love to train too and sometimes I don't think he realizes that. He knows how much I train and urge him to spar with me, but he doesn't realize how much I truly love to fight. I really like fighting, it's in my blood, yet he prevents me from doing it because he's worried about me. I don't think he trusts me to be able to survive or deal with the pain and pressure. I've been through far worse in life than anything a spar or fight could do to me." She recalled all the times she had hidden somewhere in the big Capsule Corp. building so that she could cry about it without him knowing.
Chichi recalled what she learned from her tail of her past and knew no doubt that she could deal with anything in life if she could live through everything she has and still come out as sane as she was. Chichi turned off the stove and poured the contents of the pan onto a plate that she brought to the table already set with a feast worthy of kings. She pulled out a chair and sat down next to her. "If you like to fight so much and he prevents you then tell him. Relationships are built out of mutual understanding and trust. They need communication for both parties to be happy."
"I know, but I've tried that before and everyone tells me he only does it because he's worried and cares about me. He always tells me it's because he cares about me too much to let anything happen or to let anyone hurt me." She sighed. "The only thing that can truly hurt me was if I lost him or he told me he didn't want me anymore." She traced a circle with her finger on the table. "I wish he would listen. We share our thoughts, dreams, and he always has an open ear for anything that I have to say, but sometimes I feel like he doesn't truly hear what I'm trying to say.
"Sure he hears it, but does he truly understand what's going on and how I really feel about things? Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Dear, I see what you are going through. Maybe it takes more than you telling him you want to fight for him to fully realize what you're going through. Sometimes you need a picture to get the full view of the situation. It takes time. I've been trying to get Goku to understand why I want Gohan to study rather than fight and that I don't want him to get hurt because I care about him. If anything happened to Gohan I don't know what I'd do. Goku listens though when I talk to him so all you have to do is sit Trunks down and have a good talk with him."
"Your right, but it is just so weird pouring your heart out to a guy like that."
"You were friends with Vegeeta weren't you?"
"Yeah, almost my whole life." Kentana focused her sights on a particularly good smelling fish a little off on the other side of the table.
"Didn't you ever have a good talk with him? If you knew him for so long I'm sure you must have."
"That's different."
"How so?" Chichi leaned in to urge an answer out of Kentana.
Kentana shrugged fingered her left braid. "We were close, but we never talked about emotions really. The only time that ever happened was after a few years when I told him how I hated the stupid job or when one of us would get pissed and go on a rant to the other about how pathetic life was and how we hated Frieza. In that case the other would try and calm them down, in most cases that is when he'd sling me over his shoulder and drag me to the sparring room and force me to do something useful and train in hopes of ascending to super saiyan. Truth be told, he was the only one of us that believed in that old tale. We never had to have any of those personal talks really."
Chichi placed a comforting hand over the one Kentana had been tracing shapes in the wood with. "I know this can be hard. You're young and starting a family. At least you have Bulma at home to back you up and if I'm still around in your time line you know you can always come to me. I'm sure that me could use the comfort of someone who can share the pain that me must be feeling. You need to follow your heart and do what you feel is best when dealing with men. Sometimes what you'll need sis a trusty frying pan."
Kentana enjoyed the chance to laugh. "Thanks Aunt Chichi. I guess I really needed a girl to talk to."
"What about Bulma?" She's been living with Bulma for years. Bulma could have given her this talk.
"Bulma's been like a mom to me and all, but she just wasn't the person I felt I could talk to about this. I haven't had someone I could talk about stuff like this with since my mom died and even then I couldn't talk to her about this stuff because I was only five. I don't know, I guess you kind of reminded me of her so I feel more comfortable talking to you about this than I would with Bulma." Kentana traced multiple shapes in the wood with her finger.
"Well, if you ever need to talk about anything you can come to me."
"Thanks."
"No problem. Oh, hi hunny." Kentana turned around to see Goku enter the room.
"Hey Chichi, you two done having your girl talk?" Chichi got up and kissed him on the cheek.
Kentana blushed crimson and frowned. Had he been listening the whole time?
"Yes hunny, we're done. Can you get Gohan? It's time to light the candles. Oh, where'd my father get to?" She looked around the room making sure all of the decorations had been set properly.
There was a creek as the door opened and a large man with horns on his hat and glasses stepped in. "I'm here Chichi. I was just getting a camera."
Just then Gohan ran down the steps looking cleaned up. He came to a stop at one side of the table across from where everyone else had positioned themselves. Gohan took a deep breath to blow out the candles and Kentana smiled the curving of her lips filled with the utmost love and caring for the preservation of the image in front of her. The scene seemed to freeze around her.
She wanted to be able to have moments like this with her own kids. She saw the happiness and innocence, the innocence only a child could have. She had long since lost that in the mess of her past and she wanted with her deepest feelings in her heart to preserve that innocence in him, not let it get washed away in the blood of those he loved. It was a warm feeling that made her heart beat with a new life to feel like this. She wanted him happy, all of them happy and would gladly give her life for it.
She had often pondered how her third class uncle could have become so powerful as to reach super saiyan and be the first person to ever defeat Frieza, may that sick twisted bastard burn in the deepest pit of Hell, and now she knew. He had this, all of this. Her friends, family, and love to motivate him, and the loss of it, of any of it, was what pushed him over the edge and urged him to continue and keep growing in strength, to never back down. She had never had that love as she grew. She felt care from Radditz as the caring father figure uncle he was to her, but never like what these people, her family, held for each other. It was a kind of love different from what she shared with Trunks. That love was a love of two people who would give their lives for one each other in preservation of the love that made her heart soar, but this was one that was a family bond that she would always cherish like she cherished her love with Trunks.
Goku kept growing in power because of the people around him, those he cared for whether they cared for him back or not. He had reached that breaking point, the point of snapping into the net level through them. She had never had a reason that pushed her into super saiyan. She had been born that way, but she wished she would have had that reason to reach it. Someone who could have pushed her to it, to grow stronger her whole life. Vegeeta had urged her to get even more powerful from child years to those of her late teens when he locked her in the pod yes, but that wasn't the same as what the family and friends of her amazing Uncle Kakarott had done for him. It was something she yearned to have and now realized had always wanted, but never fully realized it.
She had searched for true deep friendship in Vegeeta because he was like her in a way and they could hold some compassion for each other's situation and looked up to Radditz because he had always been there for her like the father she never had and those two men in her life had been at times like a friend and father and at others like brothers to her. She had even at one time tried to be friends with Nappa though that attempt quickly stopped. What she had searched for all those years to fill that strange gap in her heart was right I front of her. She had Bulma and Vegeeta, the other crazy fighters she could call her friends, then she had the people that she held dearer to her heart than her own life. She had Trunks and Kent and Ai, she had her aunt and uncle and Gohan. They were her reasons to fight and her reasons to live. Through them she could achieve greatness and through them she could achieve love and happiness.
There was a reason saiyan woman were known for being more dangerous than men. Woman generally were, are, and always shall be more dangerous than men, but when a saiyan woman has children and starts her family is when the old belief comes into effect. If you messed with the family of a female saiyan she would kill you, she would show you no mercy. Saiyan mothers were the truest killers of the saiyan race and that was never something to forget. If Cell wanted to ruin this perfect moment in the lived her closest friends and family, her dearest loved ones that would always hold an irremovable place in her heart, he would have to go through her first. She vowed on every saiyan god she knew and those of every race she could think of that she would never let anyone stop her from keeping this pure innocent moment and as innocent and happy as it was even if she died in the process.
The scene before her replayed at the end of her epiphany. Gohan blew out the candles as well as blew cake all over them and ruined it in the process. Kentana had cake covering her hair and coating her face. She wiped off a bit on the tip of her nose and ate it. "Mmm, that's good cake. You make it yourself Chichi?"
"You know Gohan," said a pissed looking Chichi in an angry tone.
Yup, she could definitely pass as a female saiyan any time, thought Kentana.
"Normal boys would have been grounded for ruining their birthday cake on their birthday,' then she added in a sweeter more understanding tone ", but you're not a normal boy. You can't help how strong you are.
They all laughed and Kentana walked over to the sink to wash up. He pulled the ties out of her hair and the saiyan locks sprang out of the braids of their own accord. With her hair spiked and rising slightly she looked very similar to Radditz with her almost sadistic smirk. Her hair was long like his and the way it spiked all over like his made them almost identical, except hers was shorter, golden, levitated slightly, and she didn't have that same widow's peak as him. She washed out the icing from her hair before it could harden and become a serious mess before her face. Even when wet, her hair was spiked like it would if dry. She contemplated putting it back up, but thought better of it.
She looked at the moon high in the sky, it wasn't full thankfully. She told them she had better leave and wished them all a good evening with a heavy heart before instant transitioning back to Capsule Corp. She appeared in the nursery that Bulma had added to extra cribs into for her children. She reached into them and gingerly as if touching glass picked up the sleeping forms of the baby twins, Kent and Ai. She cradled them in her arms and looked at them fondly, her heart warming in a new way as she looked at them this time. She had always had a warm heart for them and loved them more than enough to kill for them, but now she truly understood love and how much they were worth to her.
A few hours ago she would have died for them, now she would take out anyone and everyone if it meant their lives would be kept from harm. This is what it meant to be a mother, to be the saiyan mother like her mother was with her. To love beyond reason. To give up everything for the small sleeping bundles she held in her arms. To have something she would hold no fear to die for besides the man she loved. A reason to live in the darkest of hours when there is no hope but the fire burning in your heart, the fire they kept glowing. To be the merciless woman of wrath and fear who should be feared by many and all who cause harm to her young.
The feeling of being a mother.
If Cell wanted to kill her babies, take that feeling away from her, he'd have to go through her first and if he did, there would be no stopping her, no mercy, no regrets as she tore him limb from limb. She was Kentana and she would not let harm come to her babies.
"Kent, Ai," she whispered with the sweet acid poison that only a loving mother could speak with. "I promise you that I will never let anything happen to you and that I'll always be there for you."
ME-"Okay, what do you think? This was the longest thing I've ever written being well over 5,600 words. I would just like to say yay to me for having a wonderful birthday two days ago(4/22). This is probably the most heartfelt piece of work I ever did and I almost cried, serious. I had to wait until I was on my emotional part of the month to do this properly. I hope you like this and any chapters I have to write next. Please review my lovely reviewers who have for some reason stopped reviewing. It's 1:24 am so I am going to stop writing now and just !"