Risk

Chapter 1

'I don't want him to leave again!' Chi-chi thought. She had seen her husband fly away upon Kinto-un from on top of the building where she had been hanging the laundry. 'He's already left me for well over a year and I can't stand him going out there alone.' She ran down the stairwell as fast as her legs could carry her and rushed out the doors to her air car. Taking off, she drove after her husband; not caring if any police officers pursued her or if she ran through any traffic lights.

Soon, Chi-chi reached where Goku had landed and she capsuled her car. Without a second's delay, she ran through the front yard of Capsule Corporation towards the back. She hid behind a building and watched Mrs. Briefs walked by with Goku towards the backyard. The way the blonde female clung to her husband made Chi-chi utterly jealous and she was almost tempted to come out of hiding to smack the woman for clinging to the warrior.

However, curiosity on where she was leading her husband had won her interest since the blonde hair woman was not heading into a building; rather the back yard. Running to another place to hide, Chi-chi saw something that surprised her as she nearly gasped out loud in surprise…

…a spaceship.

'If I don't get on there, then I'm going to lose Goku!' Chi-chi though. She made a run for it onto the spaceship when no one else was around. Seeing Goku and Dr. Briefs talking, she quickly crossed the room and hid behind the gravity control panel while listening to them both talk about the ship. She shifted whenever one would move one way or another in order to keep herself hidden. Last thing she wanted was to be discovered before the spaceship was to be launched.

"I really need to save my friends!" Goku pleaded to Bulma's father; hoping he would get the chance to journey out in space..

Unaware to Chi-chi's knowledge, Dr. Briefs had spent weeks on the ship after Goku requested a way to get to Namek following the ones that made the journey before him to obtain the dragon balls. They had left only to find themselves stranded upon the planet due to an evil force more powerful than Vegeta terrorizing the citizens of Namek. His concern about them overrode everything else. For once, Chi-chi was fed up with the idea of him leaving her behind on these hazardous missions and treating her like she was some sort of trophy.

"Alright, but are you sure you can go without the speakers?" Dr. Briefs questioned to a rather worried Goku. He nodded his head as Dr. Briefs began to explain about the controls to the ship.

Suddenly, Dr. Brief's voice dulled far out into the background due to a familiar voice she heard penetrating her ears: "Chi-chi…"

'Huh?' Chi-chi was a bit startled by this and looked around. The ship was vanishing into the shadows and she felt utterly alone just then. What was going on now?

"Chi-chi, wake up…" The voice said again with more worry. Was this all a dream?

The Earthen woman began to awaken in Goku's arms and she noticed the look upon her husband's face. It was a mixture of anger and worry; something she never seen upon his face before. Not even before they were married did he show this side around her. This look was very intense and she felt almost though she might have done something wrong to make him this way. In either case, she was a bit taken back by this intense gaze and knew one word could ruin the mood instantly.

"Chi-chi, you're alright," Goku felt relief as it reflected clearly in his voice. The next moment though, it sounded rather hurt, "Why are you here?"

"I don't want you leaving me behind again." Chi-chi answered.

"You have no idea…" Goku started to say before he was interrupted.

"Goku, you abandoned me on Earth for a little over a year," Chi-chi growled in an attempt to defend herself from her husband. After all, she was hurt from his abandonment when he died and felt utterly alone; especially when the Saiya-jin had invaded Earth, she had spent most of her time worrying about her son's safety over her husband's. After all, Gohan was only a young child compared to the husband that she could swear was a second child to her. "While you were dead, I was worried about my son's safety while you were up there training without a care in the world about him or me."

"Chi-chi, that's not true," Goku countered; trying in vain to calm the angry wife that decided to stowaway the spaceship he was on. "I was thinking about you both daily, but I was more concerned about the Earth's safety."

"Is the Earth more important than me?" Chi-chi fumed. She obviously had taken this the wrong way. Instead of waiting for an answer, she began to ramble on, "You always tend to leave me behind…"

"Chi-chi…"

"…find a fight…"

"Chi-chi…"

"…make me worry…"

"Chi-chi…"

"…return home all broken and…"

"Chi-chi!" Goku snapped, irritated by his wife's ranting. The Earthen woman became silent instantly; not once has he used that raised tone of voice with her. Tears came to her eyes as Goku nearly regretted interrupting her complaining.

He continued with a softer voice instead of yelling at her again. "Look, I need to get to Namek and make sure that world's safe as well as Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma. We can't turn back now. Whether you like it or not, you're involved now and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Then that means I'm going to have to fight?" Chi-chi questioned.

"Yes." Goku answered; his eyes holding seriousness in them. "I can't afford for you to get hurt if I'm not there."

"I… I can't fight!" Chi-chi felt like this was way out of her league. True she could hold her own from time-to-time when she sparred with her husband; however, she had not even sparred within a single year to see how he's improved. "I haven't been fighting in five years! I probably would slow down your training!"

"You will at first, but trust me. I rather you be able to hold your own than get hurt or worse." Goku reassured.

Tense minutes passed between the couple as though the silence of space made itself present upon the ship. Finally, after much thinking, Chi-chi sighed. She would hate this decision either way, but if she did nothing, she would die.

"Fine. But after all of this is over though, you will have to become more responsible." Chi-chi snapped.

"What? How am I not responsible?" Goku complained. Sure, he wasn't responsible when it came to fighting, but he still supported his wife.

"You run off without telling me where you go!" Chi-chi berated. "You could at least tell me when you're going to fight you know!"

"Fine. I'll become more responsible. Right now, we should start training." Goku helped Chi-chi onto her feet before walking to the gravity machine. "We'll start at ten times normal gravity and work our way up from there."

"Ten times?" Chi-chi nearly fell over as the gravity pressed down upon her. Straining to remain up on her feet, her legs wobbled as though they were jell-o. It was though she was being pressed down by an invisible weight that could threaten to flatten her into the ground if she wasn't careful. "I… I can't do this!"

"You have to!" Goku encouraged his wife; knowing that she had sealed her fate the moment she was discovered on the ship. "As I said, you're in this whether you want to be or not."

Meanwhile back on Earth, Dr. Briefs was in his lab as he saw something on the screen that shocked him. The shock was so bad that the cigarette he was smoking fell upon the ground as the ashes from it went flying off upon impact.

"Why is Goku's wife on the ship with him?" Dr. Briefs questioned out loud before realizing what challenge this would be on the Earth-raised Saiya-jin. 'Now I really wish I had installed those stereo speakers. It wouldn't be a good thing if they wished to dance.'

"It's heavy! Can't you turn it down some?" Chi-chi struggled within ten times normal gravity before falling to the ground.

"I can't. It's up to you to find your chi." That caused Chi-chi to look up at him.

"My chi?" Goku nodded. "But what if I don't find it?"

"Then you'll fall to the ground. Chi comes from within you. Just feel it."

"I'll try." Chi-chi closed her eyes as she concentrated. A faint, warm feeling fluttered as it felt like her body was asleep. She pushed herself up and wobbled a bit before righting herself before falling backwards. Standing again, she smiled before she began to fall. This time, Goku caught her. "Thanks."

"Don't expect me to catch you every time. Next, you need to learn how to create a blast."

Meanwhile on Namek, Bulma was sitting on the couch painting her toenails when she heard the phone ring. Putting down the brush, she picked up the vid-phone.

"Hello, Bulma here." The female spoke in an enthusiastic voice.

"Bulma, this is your father." Dr. Briefs replied over the phone light-years away.

"Oh, hi dad! What's up?"

"Goku's on his way to Namek and he'll be here in six days."

"Six days? Really? No way! I can't wait to tell the others the news!"

"Yes dear, but I'm afraid that there is a slight problem."

"What do you mean a problem? Goku's on his way here! Is it the ship?"

"No, no. The ship's fine. It's just that he's got company on board."

"Company?" Bulma was taken back. Why would Goku have someone else on board the ship? Did something come up?

"It seems that Chi-chi managed to get on the ship just before it lifted off and now she and Goku are on the ship on their way to Namek."

"What? How did she manage to get on? I mean you were going to install stereo speakers on the ship, weren't you?"

"That was the plan, but the dear boy was in a hurry to get to Namek to join you all there."

"Typical Goku. I just hope Chi-chi's doing alright with him. Is he training?"

"At the moment, he's training Chi-chi."

"What? Why is he training her?"

"The boy's probably got the right idea training her."

"I suppose so. Well, I better go. Talk to you later dad."

"Bye my little angel."

"Bye." Bulma hung up the phone. "Oh Goku! Why did Chi-chi get on your ship to Namek? It's going to slow down your training!"

Back in space, Goku sneezed as Chi-chi lost her concentration on flying. She fell to the ground with a thud as the Earth-raised Saiya-jin sheepishly helped his wife up.

"Sorry about that." Goku apologized before he heard his stomach complain.

"We should get something to eat." Chi-chi muttered while finding her footing.

"Yeah, we should." Goku walked back to the control panel and turned it off. Almost instantly, Chi-chi felt the weight upon her body fade as she found herself able to stand perfectly fine. For an odd reason, she felt a slight bit different after the exercises that she was introduced to.

"After dinner, you should probably get some training in." Chi-chi started climbing down the ladder with Goku following behind her.

"I'll worry about my own training later. Right now, you need to be ready in case we run into trouble there."

"What if Gohan's already in trouble? I don't want him to get hurt." They started walking down the hallway towards the kitchen.

"He's strong Chi-chi. I've seen that first hand and he won't die easily."

"How do you know if he's alright, Goku? He's only a little boy!"

"Yet he already has more power than I do when I was his age. Just have some faith in me."

"I don't know why you always seem so optimistic when things are bleak." Chi-chi now was in front of the refrigerator and she opened it to pull out whatever food she could eat on an empty stomach. "Well, it seems I won't have to cook."

"I rather you did anyway." Goku chuckled.

"Did you marry me just because I can cook?" Chi-chi asked.

"At first, I thought that was all there was to marriage; however, you taught me more about it." Goku helped Chi-chi get some of the food that was stored up too high out of her reach and carried it over to the counter. "There's more to marriage than food and I see that now."

"If that's the case, then promise me that if anything bad happens on Namek, you won't abandon me again." With the tone Chi-chi pleaded to her husband, Goku nearly choked.

"I…" Goku felt something twist in his heart. It was bad enough he abandoned her for a year; but what if he couldn't keep this promise to her? Almost though something pre-destined was sent in place, he almost wanted her to forget the idea of making a promise he knew he would end up breaking against his own will.

"Promise me!" Chi-chi pleaded to her husband.

"Fine, I promise." Goku answered with a heavy heart. She embraced him with a sudden hug; almost though she had been reassured by those words.

"Was that too hard of a thing to say?" Chi-chi questioned.

"It was. What if I die? Would you risk leaving Gohan alone?" The question nearly tore Chi-chi into taking back what she made her husband promise; however, she knew her young boy had Goku's friends.

"Gohan will have the others if that happened. I won't leave you." Chi-chi leaned against him; food forgotten for the moment. Still, that feeling of betrayal did not leave Goku and he felt almost though it was warning him of a tragedy that might happen. He felt a sense of guilt and drew his arms around her tiny frame; almost fearful that his newly acquired strength may crush her if he was not in the least bit careful.

To Be Continued…