Piccolo had flown as fast as he could to the Briefs' house. The sun was now already completely over the horizon and bathed the large house in a pink light. He landed in the garden next to a large spaceship. It looked like the ship Goku had used to fly to Namek.
Piccolo wondered whether he should ring the bell or use one of the windows to gain entry, when he heard a rumble from the spaceship. Cautiously, he peered through one of the round windows. Inside was Vegeta, doing push-ups. The inside of the spaceship was illuminated by a dark red light. Vegeta's push-ups were almost in slow motion. Piccolo suspected that he was training under increased gravity.
Quickly, Piccolo knocked on the window. Only at the second knock did Vegeta turn and fix him. He wondered if it was worth interrupting his training. Piccolo waved him out. Slowly Vegeta rose and went to the control panel in the middle of the spaceship. After he had pressed several buttons, the light in the spaceship turned white. He had turned off the increased gravity. After pressing another button, the boarding hatch opened to the left of Piccolo. Vegeta stood in the opening and eyed Piccolo up and down.
"What do you want, Namekian?" His words could not have sounded more derogatory.
Piccolo ignored Vegeta's tone. "Do you know where Kera is?"
Vegeta's eyebrows shot up. "Why isn't she with you?" Was that just wonderment talking out of him or concern for Kera? Piccolo couldn't quite make it out.
"There's been a misunderstanding."
Threateningly, Vegeta took two steps towards Piccolo. Since he was still standing on the ramp of the spaceship, he could look Piccolo straight in the eye. "I hope for your sake you didn't hurt her!"
"No, don't worry. She had flown away after that guy from the future left. I haven't seen her since and I thought maybe she was here."
Vegeta took another step back. "That's right. She's supposed to be by my side, like she should be, but she's not. If you find her, tell her she has an oath." With those words, he turned and closed the boarding hatch behind him. Piccolo wanted to hammer angrily against the spaceship, but then thought better of it and rose into the air.
He flew aimlessly around. Where could she be? Again he stretched out all his senses to feel her aura, but he perceived nothing. Frustrated, he flew on.
At some point, he looked down, lost in thought, at his shadow cast on the grassy plain below. Next to his shadow, a wide river meandered across the plain. Abruptly he stopped in mid-air and looked at the surroundings.
Unconsciously, he had flown towards the forest where he and Kera had lived before Vegeta and Nappa's attack. They had only been here since then for the short time after Garlic Jr's attack until the arrival of the boy from the future.
A small hope spread through his body. As fast as he could, he flew to the edge of the plain and then dropped down the cliff beside the waterfall. He landed in front of the hut and tried to feel its energy again. Again nothing. Piccolo called her name. No answer.
Piccolo pressed against the door of the hut. It was only ajar. His hope that she was here rose. But mingled with the hope was a fear. Something was wrong.
As he entered, he kept calling her name. A quick glance around the living room showed him that she was not there. He ignored the door to the bathroom and opened the door to the bedroom.
An icy chill hit him. Small clouds formed in front of his mouth as he exhaled. His gaze roamed the room and stopped at the bed. There lay Kera, curled up like a child in the womb. She had her arms wrapped around her legs and her back turned to the door. She was still wearing the purple training suit.
Carefully, so as not to frighten her, Piccolo came closer. He spoke to her quietly. She did not react. As he approached, his gaze briefly fixed on her hair. It seemed to him that it had a greenish tinge. He shook his head. He was probably imagining it.
Slowly he reached out a hand and touched her on the upper arm. No reaction, no twitch, no sound. Instead he noticed that her skin felt cold. And more. What he had only glimpsed when he entered the room was now confirmed.
There was something like black smoke around her body. She was completely enveloped in it, like a second skin. It formed no resistance when he touched her, but as soon as the smoke reached his skin, a cold shiver ran down his spine.
A new feeling rose up inside him. A negative energy. Evil energy that seemed to emanate directly from Kera. Or was it this dark mist that enveloped her? Did he know this energy? He thought for a moment, pondered. Then reminded himself that this was probably not the most pressing problem.
Gently at first, then more forcefully, he shook Kera's shoulder, addressing her. Still she showed no reaction. Carefully, he turned her onto her back. Her eyes were open. It seemed as if someone had put a veil over her eyes, for they lacked any luster. They stared into space. It was as if there was no soul left in her body.
Panic-stricken, Piccolo wondered what he could do now. How long had she been lying there like that? What if she was lost?
'Get her back,' a voice whispered in his head. It was Nail. He never usually spoke up, so it took Piccolo a moment to be sure who had spoken.
'How do I do this?" he asked in his mind without saying the words aloud.
'It seems as if her soul has almost left her body. You must show her the way back. I will help you.'
Piccolo knelt in front of her bed and took her hands in his. He closed his eyes and went into a deep meditation.
He looked at his body from the outside. Piccolo had left his body, as he had done so often during deep meditation. But in the next moment his surroundings changed. Everything went black around him. He no longer saw the room he had just been in, but nothing but darkness. He looked down at himself. His hands, arms and legs were still where he thought they were, but they no longer had any colour. His body was represented by white lines, as if someone had sketched its outline with a white pen on black paper. The white lines stood out sharply against the darkness. Turning his head to the right, he saw Nail, who looked just like him.
'We're in an in-between plane.' Nail's voice again in Piccolo's head.
'What is this? An in-between plane? And why one?' Piccolo did not know which question he would most urgently like to have answered now.
'It's not life, but it's not heaven or hell either. That's all I know,' Nail answered.
Piccolo did not find this answer very satisfying. How did Nail even know these things? Before he could ask further, Nail pointed forward.
Piccolo's gaze followed his pointing finger. Far ahead of them he saw a faint light. Was Kera there? As if Nail had read his thoughts, he nodded and moved forward.
It was like flying and yet different. There was no resistance in the blackness, no down, no up. Infinite blackness in all directions. The only orientation was the faint glow.
Time did not matter in this environment. A few minutes could have passed or even hours. Piccolo could not have said. He wasn't even sure if they were getting closer to the glow.
'Yes, we are getting closer,' Nail told him in his mind.
This relieved Piccolo somewhat and he continued to move through the darkness with Nail at his side. After a while he noticed that the light was getting bigger and brighter and at some point he recognised what it was.
It was Kera. Her white outline stood out clearly against the darkness. She seemed to glow from within. When Nail and Piccolo were finally beside her, they saw why Kera did not move.
'Someone has bound her soul, that's why she can't come back,' Nail said.
Piccolo immediately thought of several questions: Who had done this and why? How had it happened? How did Nail know all these things? And the most important question: How could he free Kera?
Since the answer to the last question was most urgent, he carefully touched her face. He could feel her cheek, although only her contours were visible. He looked at her face more closely. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, her eyebrows drawn together as if she were in pain.
Piccolo's gaze travelled down her body. Her wrists were bound together at the level of her navel with some kind of rope. Her upper arms were tied tightly to her torso and the rope was tied several times around her legs, then ending in thick knots at her ankles.
He touched the rope around her upper arm and jerked back. It felt hot. Kera was obviously in pain because of it. He looked over at Nail, who was still hovering in the void beside him on his right.
'Will you help me?'
Nail nodded. 'I feel for her as much as you do.'
Nail began to untie the bonds around her ankles while Piccolo untied the knots around her hands. They both gasped in pain. Piccolo kept looking at his hands in between. He saw no change, but if he felt that pain in his physical form, he would surely blister. Piccolo wished he could have used energy to break the shackles, but on the one hand he wasn't sure he even had the ability to do so in this environment, and on the other hand he didn't dare, for fear that he might hurt Kera even more with it.
The more the shackles loosened, the more he heard Kera whimper. It caused him additional agony to hear her suffer so. Nail and he worked as fast as they could, but the knots were tight and the rope was wrapped around her body many times.
It seemed like an eternity to Piccolo, but then they finally did it. Kera floated in front of them without any restraints. Her eyes were still closed, but no longer as pinched as before.
Piccolo gave a relieved sigh.
'We should get the hell out of here.' Nail's voice in his head had a rushed undertone. Was there something in this in-between plane that could be dangerous to them?
Piccolo didn't want to think about it any further and wanted to comply with Nail's urging as quickly as possible. The question remained how to get back from this in-between plane.
'Take her soul and concentrate on your body in the real world,' Nail instructed him.
Piccolo reached out to Kera and placed her soul on his arms. He felt that he was touching her, it was like stroking a feather on his arms. He closed his eyes and imagined his body in Kera's bedroom, kneeling in front of her bed and holding her hands. A suction took hold of him. The blackness around him seemed to recede as if through a funnel and then he was back in his body.
Gratefully, he breathed in the air, aware of his body. He glanced briefly to his right, expecting to see Nail.
'I am here,' Nail spoke to him in his head. He was still there.
Piccolo's next glance was at Kera. Her eyes were now closed. The black clouds of smoke had disappeared, but her body still felt cold. Her hands were in his.
He straightened a little and spoke to her softly. Her eyebrows drew together briefly and relaxed again. Then she opened her eyes, fluttering. She first looked at the ceiling, then her eyes wandered to him.
"Piccolo?" She looked at him questioningly. He smiled. "What happened?"
"That's a good question." He straightened up, pulling her into a sitting position as he did so. She released her hands from his and wrapped her arms around her body. She was freezing. Piccolo took the blanket off her bed and put it around her shoulders. He sat down beside her on the bed.
He told her in brief words what had just happened. All the time she stared at the ground. At the end of his narration, he asked, "What happened before that?"
Kera gulped before answering, "I don't know exactly. I flew away when that guy from the future was gone. After that I was here and there for some time and didn't know where to go. At some point I flew here because I had the hope that you were here too. But you weren't. I don't know what happened next."
Piccolo looked at Kera from the side. She looked so sad, so empty. He had to think back to the Kera, or Sitara, as she was a few years ago. So cheerful, so strong. Where was this Kera?
He slid off the bed and knelt in front of her. She looked at him in surprise. He took her right forearm with his left hand and clasped it just below the elbow. His right hand he slid under her left arm and clasped the elbow so that her arm rested on his.
"Kera, look at me, please." Hesitantly, she followed his request. "I'm sorry for what I said last month. You are no danger to others. You just need to find yourself again, trust yourself. I do, anyway. I have faith in you. Remember that you are a fighter. Remember how strong you are."
Kera closed her eyes and gripped Piccolo's arms tighter. Picolo closed his eyes now too, recalling images of their training battles.
'Do you know what you are doing? Nail. His voice sounded suspicious. Warning. Piccolo didn't know what he meant. He ignored Nail and continued to concentrate. Her hands on his arms now felt wonderfully warm. He chalked that up as the first success.
In his mind's eye he could still see various scenes of her training. Then other images crept in that showed only him. Shortly after he had hatched and killed the first humans. His fight against Goku at the big tournament. The fight against Nappa and his death. He hadn't thought about any of those things in a long time. Why was he seeing them now? More images slid in front of his inner eye and it took him a moment to realise what he was seeing. A young Kera fighting with a young Vegeta, torturing other beings and subjugating nations. Images followed of her training with Piccolo, this time from her point of view.
The images changed faster and faster, repeated themselves, played in a different order. He felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead and suspected that Kera felt the same as she gripped his arms tighter and tighter.
When the images and scenes changed so quickly that no more individual figures were recognisable, Kera cried out and threw up her arms. She fell backwards onto the bed. Piccolo sank down and gasped.
'Congratulations, you have entered into a warrior bond,' Nehl remarked with an undertone of sarcasm.
'What does that mean?
'That you are bound together for the rest of your lives.'
Piccolo did not find this statement particularly helpful. He had no idea what it all meant. He would deal with it later. He straightened up with difficulty, only to fall backwards on the bed next to Kera with little elegance. When he looked at her features, he noticed that it was dark in the room. Had they spent several hours in this strange state until nightfall?
Kera had put an arm over her face. When she felt him next to her, she put her arm down and turned to the side. A faint smile played around her lips. He saw her tiredness. She came closer and rested her head on his chest. He put an arm around her and felt her fall asleep after only a few moments.
He himself found no peace. He talked in his mind with Nail about this strange event. Whenever they both came to rest, he wondered if he was even allowed to lie here like this with Kera now. What if Vegeta saw her? But then he breathed in her scent and felt her warmth and he mentally sent Vegeta to hell.
Kera woke to the sound of birds chirping. She kept her eyes still closed and scanned the surroundings with all her other senses. The ground was clearly harder than her soft pillow. The smell that rose to her nostrils reminded her of Piccolo. Had she not dreamed all that after all? Had he really turned up here yesterday and rescued her from whatever?
Hesitantly, she opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was the purple combat suit on which her head rested. Slowly her eyes moved up and down, then she cautiously lifted her head. Piccolo looked at her.
"Good morning," he said with a smile.
"Hi." Kera straightened into a sitting position. Piccolo followed her example and leaned against the headboard of the bed.
"So, did all that really happen yesterday." She spoke more to herself to confirm that she was back in reality.
"Yes, it did. Which I still don't know what 'that' was, though."
Kera shook her head and wrapped her arms around her upper body as if the thought of it sent icy shivers down her body. "It was all dark. Black. All I could see was my own body. I could move less and less and it all hurt so much."
Piccolo bent down and gently stroked her upper arm. She put her hand on his and squeezed it.
"How did you get me out of that?"
"My spirit left my body and I was with Nail in that in-between plane."
"In-between plane? Nail?" she interrupted him.
"I could see Nail. As an outline. He referred to it as an in-between plane. It's not heaven, it's not hell, but it's not earthly life either. It's kind of in-between." Somewhat helplessly, Piccolo shrugged.
"A spirit plane?"
"You could call it that. We saw a light and flew towards it. That was you. Your body ..." He shook his head. "... Your spirit, your soul, was bound. That's why you couldn't move or leave the plane."
"Tied up with what? By who?"
"It looked like a thick rope, but when I touched it, it burned. It took ages for Nail and I to untie it." Kera looked at her arms as if searching for traces of the shackles, but her skin was intact. Piccolo also looked briefly at his hands as if expecting injuries there. But there was nothing there. "Who tied you up, we don't know. Nail sensed something and we left the spirit plane as quickly as possible. That's all he knew, though."
Kera was silent. Then she whispered, "Thank you." Piccolo, who had kept his hand resting on her upper arm the whole time, gave another quick squeeze and was about to take his hand away, but Kera held him tight. "Are you going to say thank you to Nail too? Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't come." Her voice rasped in her throat. She needed to drink something.
"Nail says he was happy to do it."
Kera turned her head to Piccolo and smiled. Then she lowered her head to his shoulder. Piccolo raised his free hand and created a cup of water out of thin air, which he handed to her. Gratefully she accepted it and emptied it with greedy gulps.
"Shall we test your powers?" Kera jerkily turned her head up to look at him in shock.
"But surely I can't bundle them. That's dangerous." She was aware that she had put a snide undertone in her words, but all at once she remembered why she had been alone in the hut in the first place. Because Piccolo had seen her as a danger to the others and didn't want to train with them. She was a danger to others and a burden to him. The old frustration came up again.
With a jerk, Piccolo got up from the bed and stood in front of her. "Listen, I'm sorry. You had really bad control of your powers at that time. I wanted to give you the chance to have confidence in your own energy again before you trained with others."
She was taken aback by his sincere words. "Oh, okay."
He held out a hand to her. She took it, stood up and together they stepped outside the hut. He pointed to a roundish rock about a yard in diameter that lay just on the bank of the river.
"Pulverise it."
Determined, Kera nodded. She breathed in and out deeply. Searched the energy in her body, then pointed the index finger of her right hand at the rock. A narrow beam of yellowish energy shot from her finger towards the rock. The rock exploded. When the smoke lifted, it was clear that there was nothing left of the rock. A hole now gaped in its place.
Kera, who had remained frozen in her position with her arm extended forward, leapt into the air and cheered. "It's working again!"
"Told you."
Landing back beside him, she threw herself around his neck. "Thank you, my green one," she whispered. Deeply she sucked in his scent and felt his arms wrap around her. She wished this moment would never end. She had just so much confidence that everything would be all right again.
But then Piccolo stiffened, broke away from her and put distance between them. He cleared his throat and looked down at the ground. "Vegeta asked for you."
Kera sighed. "What did he want?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"He said it was your duty to be with him."
"That's just like him!" she raged off and started pacing back and forth in front of Piccolo. "The fine gentleman thinks he can just run off like that without any regard for me, and then he still assumes that I'm chasing after him." She let out an angry cry, letting her energy flare up. Breathing heavily, she turned to Piccolo. "Where is he?"
"With Bulma."
"Okay. I'll fly straight there. Where will I find you after that?"
"At-Goku's. We're training near his house."
"Good, I'll see you later then." Kera gave him another wave as she turned and flew off. Piccolo flew in the opposite direction.
He arrived at Goku's house. Piccolo looked through one of the windows and saw Chi-Chi working in the kitchen. She noticed him and came outside.
"Goku and Gohan are in the mountains." Piccolo nodded and turned away from the house. "Did you find Kera?"
Piccolo looked at her again. "Yes, I did." And added after a pause. "Thank you." Chi-Chi smiled knowingly.
He flew into the mountains and quickly found Goku and Gohan. He joined in the training. Neither of them asked where he had been.
In mid-motion, he paused. Was that her aura approaching? Slowly Vegeta rose from the push-up position and walked to the control column. The three-hundred-fold gravity made him slow-motion every movement.
As his finger lowered onto the button to turn off the increased gravity, the light abruptly turned white and the pressure lifted from his body. He took a deep breath, flexing his muscles. Today he had only trained for a couple of hours. The rush he felt after a full day's training had not yet set in.
A knock sounded on the window of the spaceship. He didn't have to look to know who it was. Kera had indeed returned. He flicked another switch, opening the entry hatch of the spaceship. "Come in!" he called towards the opening.
He waited until she was inside and closed the hatch again. Only then did he turn to face her.
She was standing with her arms folded about two steps away from him. Her eyes sparkled angrily at him. Involuntarily he had to swallow. This could be a difficult conversation.
"I heard that I was to come to you." Her voice seemed to vibrate with suppressed anger.
"After all, it's your duty ..." That was as far as he got. Threateningly she took a step towards him and clenched her fists.
"My duty is to protect a prince. If you want to run away all the time and do your own thing, please! I'm tired of running after you all the time. Just before Frieza landed here on Earth, I renewed my oath to you and just a few hours later you shit on it by just running off again."
Her anger was almost palpable. He was really sorry. Once again, he hadn't been thinking. The prospect that he could fight strong opponents again and that Kakarrot would fight too had dominated his entire thinking. It was only when he had started training at the Briefs' estate that he had thought about Kera again. "I didn't know where you were," he murmured, hoping to appease her a little.
"You could have come looking for me! But your training was more important to you."
Now he felt anger rising within himself. "Then why didn't you fly straight after me?"
"Because ..." She faltered and seemed to consider. "Because I was interested in training with Piccolo."
"So you prefer this Namekian to me?" No sooner had he finished the sentence than he knew it had been the wrong words.
Kera made a dash for him, grabbing him by the collar of his suit and pulling his face very close to hers. "At least Piccolo asks me how I am and helps me. You only have your ego trip in mind."
He wanted to break free of her grasp, wanted to push her away, but a voice in his head told him that would probably only make things worse. Firmly, he looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry," he said slowly without averting his eyes. Hesitantly, she released her grip, took half a step backwards and lowered her gaze. She was breathing heavily, as if she had been walking for hours. He put a hand under her chin to make her look at him again. "What happened last month?"
Vegeta couldn't believe what she was telling him. First about that little demon - Garlic Jr - that had appeared just before he returned to Earth, and that she had defeated him with Piccolo and Kakarrot's son. That she had trained with Piccolo to be able to concentrate her powers again. Then that she was trapped on a spirit plane. It all sounded so unreal.
"Can you control your energy again now?" In response, she raised one hand and seemingly effortlessly created a ball of energy. "Good, then we can start training."
Kera's energy ball disappeared and she looked at him in surprise. "You want to train with me?"
"Just like old times." He twisted his mouth into a smile, closed the gaps between them and pulled her to him. Kera stiffened for a moment, then she too put her arms around him.
They remained in the embrace for a moment, then she broke away from him again. "I want to train with Piccolo and Kakarrot."
Vegeta felt his features slip away before he got himself back under control. "It's ..."
"My duty, I know. But I want to train for protecting Earth and its inhabitants. And not just to get stronger."
"Why do you think I'm still here?" Kera's good side was beginning to get on his nerves. Did she always have to question everything?
"Why?"
"Maybe I don't think this planet is so bad either."
He stumbled backwards two steps when Kera suddenly threw herself around his neck. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," she breathed and squeezed him even tighter.
Uncertainly, he patted her back. Her embrace did him good. In the years without her, he had had no warmth, no tenderness. Only now did he realise how much he had missed her. How could he have been so stupid as to push her away? She was the only good constant in his life.
Vegeta put his arms around Kera and pulled her tighter. Her lean muscular body pressed against his. For a moment he wished that this moment would last forever.
All too soon she broke away from him again. "What do you think about us training together once a month for a weekend? That way we can directly compare our training progress."
"Deal." He held out his hand for her to strike. She did, but instead of letting go of her hand again, he pulled her towards him and hugged her again. "Please, take care, Kaya." He used her nickname. It passed his lips easily and he felt her smile.
"You take care too, my prince." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked to the boarding hatch. "I'll see you the first weekend next month then."
He opened the hatch and raised his hand in greeting. "I can't wait to see if you'll have a new technique on it then."
"Let me surprise you." With a final wave, she disappeared from his sight. Vegeta closed the hatch and followed the trail of her aura in his mind. He was so glad they had met again on a foreign planet. He couldn't lose her again.