Wow, over 3000 words this time. Time for me to do a happy dance. Well, this is the last update until I'm back from my holiday next week. But I can still read your reviews, so keep them coming!
Chapter 8: Homecoming (the wait part 1)
What seemed like hours later, Son Pan sprung free of her bed in a fright. The young girl couldn't believe what she saw, she couldn't! It was a private matter, something she felt she didn't need to see. Her nightgown drenched through with sweat.
Pan's feet went swiftly across the floor before she staggered. "Damn." She hissed. Maybe it was nerves, or maybe it was the fact that she just up and re-grew a tail. Wait, WHAT!
She grabbed the brown, furry appendage in disbelief. 'Oh my Kami. When did I, how-. Oh boy.'
Crawling to her bathroom with a new nightshirt, she paused from dizziness. 'How long have I been out?'
Washing her face and changing, the clear view of he reflection made her burst into tears. The world around her began to scare her, because she saw something that should've never... that purple and white, scaly Ice-jin as her father's home origin was obliterated. And laughing til the very end.
As she left her room, Goten screamed, "she's up, she's finally up!" He looked happier than ever to see his sister. Which kind of frightened her, he was never so ecstatic to see her. While she quirked a thin brow in question, eyes still puffy and stained with tears.
"How long was I asleep, a couple of hours?"
Her brother, stared at her in absolute disbelief. As he said with eyes wide and quiet, "Pan-chan, its been four days." Her skin took on a deathly pale tone as she gulped, her newfound tail fidgeting.
xXxXxXx
"ChiChi, can I talk to you?" Mai questioned, walking into the kitchen holding a bag with said person.
"Why not?"
"Cool, because what I have to tell you is important, and I need to make sure Pan isn't here." She said surveying every nook and cranny of her surroundings.
Then as she sat her bag down on the counter, "you won't find her in here." Her grandmother called.
'Of course not, but one mustn't be too careless.' Mai thought, adjusting her shirt. Pulling something from the recently unzipped bag, a picture appeared.
The girl handed the picture to ChiChi as she said, "many years ago, my father and mother came here. They gave this picture to show what they fought for." The older woman continued to look over the picture with looming familiarity. It was a simple little picture of Mai at the age of three with, "The reason we fight" written on the back.
"I feel as if I've seen this before." Confusion loomed upon her aging features.
That was when the young woman pulled another picture from the beat up, little bag. This time, it was bigger, and had three people smiling happily. She handed it to her grandmother, hoping to jog her memory once again.
"Oh my!" She gasped, holding her hand clamped over her mouth. The picture was taken at a festival of some sort, with a little girl about the age of five, in the middle holding the hands of both her mother and father.
Realization hit the Son woman hard, as words attempted to form. She took another crack at it before she was cut off by Mai, "that little girl," she pointed. "Is me, along with my mother and father."
All that could be done, was hug tightly to the young woman as tears began to stream down ChiChi's face. "You're her, Kami you're her." She whispered in shock. Pulling out of the hug, she yelled for her husband, trying to steady her voice.
"What happened, Chi?" He asked her, while she dried her tears on a dish rag. His attention was directed to the young girl leaning up against the counter opposite of them.
She turned to Mai and snapped, "tell him!" All Mai did was hold up the second picture, and all of Goku's suspicions were confirmed.
"So I take it, that all of it is true then... they're all dead?" As she nodded, ChiChi passed out. She was swiftly caught by her husband on the way down.
When ChiChi awoke from her spell, Mai had news she didn't quite know how to break. Looking down again, "Grandma Chi, are you going to be okay?" Only a nod came from her, for no words could've been formed. Wind seemed to have been knocked from her lungs. That little miracle her daughter and son-in-law doted on was all grown up! And standing in her kitchen no less!
"Something bad is happening back home Grandma, and I need to go back there quickly." Mai's fingers unable to hold the tips of her hair, they shook too much.
Goku asked one thing of his granddaughter. "Come back safely, and soon. We don't know how much time we have." He seemed to have known more than everyone. "Oh," he added a short time later, "give Bulma and your little brother our love."
Once again, ChiChi passed out, causing the two to let out a chuckle.
xXxXxXx
Now, this is where you find out why it is I really came back in time. The letter began. It was by far the hardest things she ever had to write. I had a childhood filled with peace, but five years ago, all of that changed. The last shipment of the C.C heart medication was sent out. But it was stolen one year before, so not one person received it.
It was turned into a deadly neuro-toxin and released into the atmosphere. Not one of those directly effected, ever had a single chance. At first we all thought it was rotten eggs, because that's exactly what it smelled like. But only a few weeks later, people were getting sick. Lung damage, and nerve breakdowns... these otherwise healthy people, were rotting from the inside out.
Most died in the two to three weeks after mass exposure, but my mother died two and a half years after. There was no way she could continue this, having to revisit one of the most painful moments of her life.
"But they need to know, I need to give them the chance we weren't given." She mumbled as her writing continued.
If you don't know who my parents are, excuse me, were... then you're better off, trust me. Maybe it was the blood of her warrior race that pumped through her veins, because she defied all aspects of logic. A strong fighter like her, withered away to nothing. By the time I was eighteen, she was bedridden for the most part. Just as my younger brother, Toshiro, was finally starting to understand the world.
She died just after my high school graduation, and it hurt like hell. The doctors wouldn't even let her attend the ceremony.
Okay, que the waterworks. Mai's pen fell to the paper shakily as tears escaped in streams. Several minuets, then several more passed as the woman regained her composure enough to write once more. My father died a year later, but not from the toxic air. It was heartbreak I think. He was so strongly bound to his mate, that her death, slowly triggered his own. I was an orphan at nineteen, left to raise an eleven year old alone in that house. The house that we called our home.
None of us truly understood why the toxin was as 'hit and miss' as it was. Underground tunnels and subways connected big cities and small towns. So those who survived, just moved down below, continuing life as normal as humanly possible. That's the time me and my Grandmother built the air-lock system.
The air-lock system is a vacuum of sorts. It sucks the polluted air from above ground, pulling it into a rigorous recycle and purification cycle before it is re-released to us under the ground. When someone has to go above, the air-lock has 'ports', rooms to seal in the air inside. Sending you, and the air above.
Life isn't even close to being easy, and that's why I'm here... or was. I have a gut feeling, that our worlds will diverge on one another. My fate, will become yours if we don't work to fix it.
xXxXxXx
She needed to get home. Mai hurriedly threw on her sweatshirt, and packed
away her belongings. Since Bulma found out her secret, the time machine had been charging for another trip.
Walking downstairs, Mai heard the clanking of metal on metal. The pit of her stomach tying itself on knots. What would she say? The envelope seemed to stick to her fingers, as if they didn't want to reveal the truth.
"Hello, dear." Bulma greeted from behind a knew invention. Mai nodded in response, cutting to the heart of her untimely visit.
"Grams, I need to use the time machine, something has happened." All the young traveler could possibly do, was look toward the tile floor. There was no way she could face her, no... not like this.
It was as if she were a young child, caught red handed with her hand in a cookie jar. "Hold your chin up, kiddo." But she refused, or even answer her grandmother.
"Mai Chi B-." Bulma was cut off by the lab door opening to reveal her first born son on the other side. He looked first as his mother, then at a depressed Mai.
Questions ran through Trunks, but settled for one that wouldn't piss off his mother. "How bad did she screw up?" He smirked, triggering quite an annoyed look from the young woman in question.
"Trunks Brief, will you shut up?" Bulma hissed, hours upon hours in the heated lab had taken a toll on her. Her short hair was dampened in sweat, and she looked dehydrated.
The teenager just rolled his eyes, turning around as he said, "whatever, but dad needs to see you when you 'surface'." Leaving the two women to their conversation.
Hands clammy, Mai's envelope began to falling from her fingers.
"What's with the letter?" Mai hurriedly tried to hide the envelope from Bulma, only for her to curtly from her hands. The younger Brief's dark hair in her face, eyes hidden, feeling afraid of whether her grams would read it or not.
Heart pounding from within her chest, all caution thrown to the wind. "No Grams! You can't open that!" The woman stopped opening the envelope immediately, shooting the twenty-one year old a shocked expression. "That letter is meant to be read once I have left this time. So please, when I'm gone, gather Piccolo, Krillen and all of the other Z fighters. They need to know what happened."
Once again a shocked look overtook Bulma's features. Mouth agape, she looked at Mai, "is it really as bad as you say?" A nod of the young woman's head confirmed her grandmothers fears. "Then what are you waiting for? Be safe though."
"I promise, but only if you promise. You mustn't read it, until all are together." She swept her bangs to the side, as she thumbed the capsule inside of her over sized sweatshirt pocket. The blue haired genius nodded her head as the time traveler jumped into the time machine. She waved as her fingers glided over the keys, punching in dates and coordinates.
With a zap and bright light, she disappeared. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she turned to the door, to find Vegeta walking directly behind her. "Vegeta?"
Oh he knew that look well. That was a look that screamed, 'I will get what I want, you be damned'. "Oh, Vegeta." She said now nose to nose with her mate.
"Spit it out, Bulma." The Sayian Prince bit out. The level of annoyance toward his wife began to escalate, and they didn't have all day.
"We need to call a huge group meeting." She answered curtly, still holding the unopened letter.
Though Vegeta stayed stoic throughout the entire situation. He couldn't help his curiosity toward what I was she had planned.
xXxXxXx
The place was a disaster, nothing was in its place, and not a soul was around. "Shiro!?" Mai yelled for her brother. Grabbing a pocket knife left hastily on the ground. Mai stood her ground for any potential danger. She pulled her bandana from her pocket and wrapped it upon her face.
"Shiro! Grams, anybody there?" Her voice echoed across the abandoned plot of land. Not at all a good sign. The wind blew swiftly across her body as she enclosed the time machine into its capsule.
'If they aren't above ground, maybe they are under.' Mai found the nearest port, at the entrance of the old shopping center. As she began her decent through the tunnels, thoughts to the caliber of, 'where is everyone?' crossed her mind.
Even the purified air seemed stale and dead, but not dangerous. The fourty miles of connecting tunnels were being searched, anyone and everyone had to be her somewhere.
Minuets later, a dark haired teen jumped from amongst the shadows, giving the young woman a rather good scare. "Big sister." He muffled into her sweatshirt. Mai returned the hug whole-heartedly, frightened, but laughing it off.
"What the hell's going on around here?" She asked as she released from the hug. Toshiro, looked exhausted, the under of his eyes sported bag, that only seemed to get darker by the day. He looked into the distance, zoning out from the world.
As Toshiro was brought back to reality by a shake of his shoulder, the two's grandmother came running. "Is everything alright, Toshi? We can't be over thi-." Bulma stopped mid-sentence at the sudden appearance of the half Sayian. Hair cut shorter, as if to relive her younger days and eyes wide with shock and surprise. "Mai, did everything go well? And why are you wearing your bandana, and not your gas mask? Weren't you just above ground?" Questions flew rapidly as Mai attempted to process them.
"Gas mask?" She chuckled, "what for?"
Toshi swallowed the imaginary lump in his throat, as his sister stopped laughing. "For round two." The silence between the three was deafening. At this moment, they were the only three people who knew the truth of what was going to happen.
xXxXxXx
Bulma opened the letter in front of all of the Z fighters, a little nervous at what her future counterparts granddaughter had to live through. "Now, this is where you all find out why it is I really came back in time." She read the words on the page, looking around the room at her friends and family. "I had a wonderful childhood filled with peace, but five years ago all of that changed."
As Bulma read on, the expressions on the peoples faces changed. Gohan sat on the couch next to Videl as she held her swelling stomach. While his parents stood in one corner of the room holding hands, trying to process this newfound information. The four teens, as well as Marron and Uub, sat upon the plush carpet of the living room in a semi circle. The static looks, speckled amongst the crowd of all of the people in the room.
"Most died in two to three weeks after mass exposure, but my mother..." the genius trailed off, not another soul knew why until she spoke the next words. "But my mother died two and a half years later."
She took one solid look at her childhood friend before taking a deep breath. Seeing ChiChi standing there, with her hand hung low, just made it all that much worse. All of those years before, Pan had gone back into time, finally getting to know the mother she lost so young.
Looking back to the letter sized paper, and blinking away tears, she swallowed hard as she continued to read. Only some parts were more audible than others. "By the time I was eighteen, she was bedridden for the most part. Just as my younger brother, Toshiro, was finally starting to understand the world." Another pause, another deep br-
"I never knew she had a brother." Said one.
"It seems as if this Mai-Chi character had some demons to deal." Answered Master Roshi.
As the room grew louder with the chatter, a bit more reading was done before the true breakdown occurred. Bulma turned toward her mate, standing closer to her. "Vegeta, I don't think I can do this." She whispered on the verge of tears, handing the paper to him. She saw his eyes spark with an emotion. One she hadn't seen since the children weren't but babies.
Pain. Vegeta knew all along that the 'brats' as he affectionately called them, were dead. But not knowing the true cause made it more real. He thought they would go down like the Sayian warriors they were, not like defenseless, fragile beings. "Meetings over, go home." He said gruffly.
Krillen stood up, as if for the entire group. "Now you listen here." He began. "We're not leaving until you two have finished that letter. We have as much right to know what we are up against as you." Those around him nodded in agreement.
Yamcha stood up, about to say something before Vegeta cut him off. "Shut up, scar face."
The temperature in the room began to rise, or so Bulma thought. No way was she going to be able to read of her sons untimely death. Or how the very time line he came back to save, was only desecrated in the end.
Over half an hour had come and gone, reading and contemplating future plans. "Do we know who is behind this?" Oolong questioned, munching on the chips that lay on the table.
Goten peaked the interest of the room as he said, "I thought the heart virus doesn't exist in this time?"
Bulma shook her head. "Oh but it does. Every year there's only an average of 60 cases. So we make the medication, but not in mass quantities."
Silence. Then, "so what's the plan?" He asked with his mouth full of food.
"Do what Mai's parents did. Build a file on these guys, and train." Pan sat up from her spot on the carpet.
When I get back, this story won't be updated immediately. But have no fear, a new story is in store! Keep checking back for Death By Ice. during the next few weeks. :)