Chapter 24

The strings unfold

One Week Later...

"We are pressing forward" cried a solider; that hurried throughout the camp. "Pack your things and get to attention, we are moving."

ChiChi yawned, rubbing her tired eyes. It took a minute before she finally realized the cry coming from outside her tent, and she panicked. Why were they leaving? It was too soon. It wouldn't give Bulma enough time to get to them.

She pulled over her mask, grabbing her toothbrush and a few other essentials and hurried out of the tent. Soldiers were hurrying by, and many of the tents were already taken down. A few men were loading their horses and carriages. What had happen?

"Why are we being rushed out of here?" asked ChiChi, to a solider busy loading water into a carriage.

"A traitor has been found, the king's most elite solider has come with the news" replied the solider as he hurried away. It looked like chaos, and knots were forming in the pits of ChiChi's stomach.

She hurried to a water barrel and poured a cup full, and brushed her teeth. Spitting out paste mingled with the water, she pulled her mask down covering her entire face.

The tall figure of a handsome man stepped into her frame of view, and fear vibrated through her entire being. It had been four years since she last seen the very intimidating man before her. Her saliva became thick in the back of her throat, and talking seemed nearly impossible.

"Caleb" she whispered, dazed.

"Commander Caleb to you solider" was the last words that ChiChi heard, as his fist connected with her jaw knocking her out.

"Caleb!" shouted David as he hurried over to the fallen princess, but Caleb pushed him back by the chest.

"It won't do you any good trying to side with a traitor" spat Caleb, as he glanced over to Goku and Radditz. "Toss her into the cage; we'll make an example out this traitor for any other who dare defy Ox Kingdom."

"You don't know what you're doing" growled David, fire in his eyes.

"Oh I do, and that is exactly why you will be the one to behead her" he informed. A crowd had gathered now, and every solider was completely shocked at the revelation and the coldness of the Commander.

Goku step forward first scooping up Raven in his arms. Caleb's admission of a traitor among them hadn't surprised Goku, but when he said it was Raven that brought doubt. From the short time of knowing her, he never once thought she was plotting against them. True, she was mysterious but he never thought there was an evil motive behind her.

He didn't feel she deserved to die, but who was he to defy the commander? The crowd parted as Goku sulkily walked towards the empty cage that sat near the shouting blonde prisoner. Something about witness the death of Raven displeased him.

"We need to move out! It will be our element of surprise" informed Caleb. "David you and Goku will go and kill her, and post her head at the gate of Teriok. We want it for a reproach for them to let them know we are wiser then they think" boasted Caleb.

Goku looked down at the tiny frame in his arms one last time as he arrived at the cage. He could hear the blonde shouting, to what she said he wasn't clear- but for a moment he thought he saw pleading in her blue eyes. He placed Raven down gently on the hard wooden floor, and closed its door locking it. Why was it bothering him so greatly to see her confine to this cage?

"Ox Kingdom shall stand always" shouted Caleb, and all the soldiers began to chant. "We have found our spy, and they will find her head. Let' move out, David we expect to see you ahead of us."

David nodded, his jaw clenched in frustration. All the soldiers fell into line after everything had been packed away, and as they moved forward David, Goku, and ChiChi lingered behind. The army vanished from their sight before David finally retrieved his horse.

"Let's head out" he informed, as he connected the transportable cage to his horse. Goku silently helped secure the carriage, before saddling his stallion, and riding after David.

Respect kept Goku quiet, as he followed behind David. However, bewilderment raged inside of him for the unconscious Raven. He didn't feel comfortable with the idea of killing her; he never thought she was a threat. All that Raven ever made him feel was fear at the uncomfortable pull he felt from her.

The entire day nearly went by and no words were exchanged between the two men. Goku was too preoccupied with overwhelming guilt and need to help Raven. However, he knew little of who Raven really was to muster any good defense.

A moan drew Goku's attention to the cage. Raven awoke. Her hands sprung to the aide of her face, and her quicken breath gave away her fear. She sprung up, hands gripping the metal bars, and her head trashing about in hopes of realizing her surrounds.

"Goku!" she shouted, fearfully.

The familiarity of her voice made Goku's entire body freeze, how it reminded him of ChiChi. Quickly David pulled the reigns of the horse halting it in his tracks, and leap down. He was quick to the cage, and it was only seconds before Goku followed suite stopping his horse. "Calm down, you will give away your identity" he urged, softly.

ChiChi's head was pounding, and she was certain her lip may be split. All she could remember was seeing the face of a man she had once fancied and then darkness. What had happen? Deep breaths of air inhaled and exhale, she final suppressed her fear. Goku now stood next to David with a worried expression written on his face.

"Caleb…what was he doing? He could have killed me!" She yelled tears stinging at the corner of her eyes. "Why?"

"Calm down" pleaded David, but it fell on deaf ears.

ChiChi tugged at the bars, crying. "How could he? What is going on? Did my father send him? Did he? Huh?"

"Raven" bellowed the thunderous voice of David, and she drew back.

Goku was completely amazed at how vulnerable the once impenetrable woman looked. "Goku, please tell me what is going on? Why am I in here? Did they tell you? Did my father come?"

"I….I um" Goku glanced over to David nervously. How would he tell her that Caleb had demanded her death? Or that she was identified as the spy?

David pulled Goku away a short distant from the distraught ChiChi. "Speak with her, Goku. I believe you may be our only hope of calming her down. We need her at her best" whispered David.

"I can't…what will I say? I mean how do you expect me to tell her that we are going to kill her?" he demanded. Goku was never one to lie, and he wouldn't start.

"You don't have too; we aren't going to kill her. Caleb used her as a ploy to draw out the real traitors, it was all an act. Only we aren't well arm, with few numbers, and out in enemy territory. If we don't get her calmed down, we won't make it long."

Goku was ecstatic at the news, Raven was safe. "I don't understand how I could calm her down, though? I'm not that good with stuff like that."

"Just say I have a hunch that you are the best guy for this job, and being as confident in you as I am I will sweep the area. Talk with her, maybe think of what you may have said to ChiChi."

ChiChi, his heart wept at the mere mention of her name. He longed to smell if even the hint of the perfume of her skin, and hear her hum. When had he fallen in love with her? And would he ever lose the love he had for her?

A nudge forward by David torn him from thought, and suddenly he could hear Raven weeping. A few steps forward and he was at her cage; and he kneeled down before it. Raven held her legs tight to her chest, and her head buried in it.

"Do you mind if I sit here with you?" Did she? Yes! Life was a complete mess and having Goku so close, with the complete support she longed for was overwhelming. How did she always manage to get herself into such binds? "I think I may know how you feel" he added.

"Do you?" How could he possible know how it felt to lie to the man she loved? Or how it felt to be considered a traitor to her nation?

"Ever since I can remember I've always felt like everything I known could be strip." Goku's word peeked ChiChi's attention enough to put aside her current worries in hopes of knowing the reason behind his statement. Why would Goku feel that way?

"Go on" she murmured, never moving from her curled position.

Goku half laughed "I was hoping that would have been enough." He shifted his position, his back now pressed against the cage. He stared out at the vast open field before them. The sun vanishing beyond the horizon, and the small cluster of trees around them would be their only security. "I don't think it will be a good idea, because it could jeopardize my family."

What kind of family secret could Goku have that would jeopardize his family? Did it have to do with that book she took of his? She needed to know. "Please, tell me. I won't utter a word you say to anyone else."

Goku sighed and looked up at the black sky speckled with stars, how his heart ached for ChiChi. It did so much in fact that he nearly imagined that it was ChiChi curled up in the cage behind him, and he would answer any question she'd ask.

"My father and mother died when I was a baby, I don't know much of them. I use to think only my brothers and I was the last left of our people, until we met Vegeta. We constantly lived in fear that someone would find out our heritage and we'd be murdered too as traitors. We constantly had to lie, and hide who we were until the Ox King sanctioned the kingdom as safe territory for any nation." Goku couldn't believe how easy it was to confess the secret, but he hoped he didn't tell it to the wrong person.

ChiChi glanced up from her hiding place to meet Goku's back. "Oh, I never knew that" she whispered. In fact she knew very little about Goku's past and family. "So how did you tell the people who trusted you all those years the truth? Did they forgive you?...Would you forgive them if the tables were turned?"

"I was never close to anyone outside of my 'grandparents' and brothers so it wasn't difficult to me. My brothers lost a lot of friends, but I don't think I'd be mad. I'd understand."

"You make me feel so much better" she voiced, her back now leaning against the bars behind her. "You said you knew the princess? Tell me what she meant to you."

Minutes seemed to drift by and Goku hadn't said a word, and ChiChi nearly thought he fallen asleep. "She was the first girl to catch my attention in anyway. She is the most kind and caring woman I ever met. She told me the story of our lives, but it was one of the first things that felt so real."

Tears pricked at the corner of ChiChi's eyes at the comforting words. Goku was truly one of a kind, but how come she never noticed till now? He seen in her things no one ever did before- not even she. There was a peaceful silence that lingered as she straight ahead at the back of the man that she loved, and she ached to feel the comfort of his arms.

"Goku?" she finally mustered strength to push aside the thickness that lodged in the back of her throat; silencing her.

"Hm?" was the drowsy reply.

"I know this sounds really crazy, but do you think you can hold me for a moment?" Fear crept through her entire being as she received no answer. How could she be so stupid to ask that? "I'm completely so-"

He turned around and unlocked the small cage, opening the door for her to crawl out. ChiChi stood to stretch out of the kinks acquired from nearly a full day's journey in the small cage. Goku sat again with his back against the cage, and she sat next to him. She wouldn't push him to hold her anymore.

"Who are you, Raven?" The request came more as a plead, and though she wanted to answer his question she had given David her word.

She glanced over at him seeing only his profile from the dim lights of the moon. "I…I want to tell you, but I can't…not now. When this war is over I will show you who I am."

Goku shifted his weight, and hesitantly he reached out for the small warrior next to him. He placed his arm around her shoulder, and drew her closer startling her. He could feel her shoulders shaking, and he knew she was crying again. Yet, he couldn't do anything more to comfort her. Goku feared the feelings rising in him at response to the woman next to him. It was completely unusual how nearly everything about her reminded him of ChiChi- even the way she tugged at his heart.

"Thank you" whispered ChiChi, as she buried her face into his side. She never felt more secure than when she was in his arms.

A/N:

So it took a while to finish this, I scrapped a few ways I wrote this chapter is why. Also I've been out of the country, to a very fabulous place. Anyways, hoped you enjoyed it there was a lot of ChiChi & Goku moments in this…in fact they were the only ones.