CHAPTER 61:
Monster

As he stood there there, he could see it all perfectly.

He was there again. He could feel his blood rush, his clothes soaked in sweat and mud. He could taste the blood and relished in its flavor. The liquid that composed life so easily brought death. And he could smell it. And it made his pants tighten with excitement.

The power felt so good. He had that power. He was the power, and he knew it; and she knew it; and he was going to defeat. He was going to overpower her. And he could clearly see the fear in her eyes, the desperate gasps of her pathetic...weak...body.

A feeling of pleasure tingled up his spine as he closed his eyes and imagined her screaming in terror and pain, his body thrusting inside her, as he'd laugh and release. He could smell her blood then. And he wanted it. He wanted her blood.

He was jerked out of his daydream as he nicked his cheek.

"Damnit." Gohan dropped the razor and leaned closer to the mirror as he examined the wound. He frowned as a small red droplet formed at the scratch, and he watched it intently, his eyes widening with lust. He brought his right hand to his cheek and wiped the blood from the wound. He looked at his finger a moment in the mirror and then focused his eyes directly on the sight. Another chill ran up his bones as he closed his eyes and ran his finger along his tongue, savoring the sweet substance that granted him such power over life.

He stood there a minute then, before the bathroom sink, observing his body in the mirror. He was clad only in white briefs, though at the moment, they didn't seem to be hiding very much. Perhaps it would be good to take a sho–

A knock on his door interrupted his thoughts.

At first he wasn't sure if he just imagined it, but he set toward the closet instinctively before he even thought to probe for ki. He grabbed the first shirt he could find – a usual white button-down – and threw it around his shoulders as he buttoned the top few quickly. He didn't bother to find his pants, however, as he put on slippers, and went to the front door of his suite. Getting fully dressed would have taken too much effort.

As he opened the door, bright artificial light poured in from the hallway, blinding him slightly as his eyes adjusted from the dim room. He looked down and saw a short young Tuffle man – barely out of his teens – standing before him with something in his hands.

"Sir! Lieutenant General Son, sir!" The young man bowed deeply and straightened with his eyes focused on the ground, "Your daily coffee! Sir!"

Gohan growled at him as his eyes quickly averted to the white mug in the man's pale hands.

"Give me that." Gohan roughly tore the mug from the man, glaring in impatience as he took a whiff, tested it, and then took a large sip, pulling the mug away and inspecting it closely. When he turned his gaze back to the man, however, he saw the delivery boy had not budged.

Gohan felt slight anger rise in him as he narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice to be a cold menacing blade, "You're still here." It was more a statement than a question, though Gohan was feeling his patience wear thin.

"Sir," the young man trembled slightly.

Gohan could feel it then – the man's fear. It emanated from him in a faint aura that fluctuated with the man's increasing heartbeat. An instinctive lust rose within Gohan again as his scowl turned slightly upward to resemble a sneer. He could already imagine the feel of the man's neck, the music of bones snapping, the harmony of screams and the sound of thrashing limbs. The man was weak. He had every reason to be trembling. Especially front of Gohan's presence.

"Sir…" the young man began again and bowed again. "Sir, I have a message..."

"Oh?" Gohan nonchalantly took another sip of his coffee, putting on a cold exterior as his mind raced with pleasant sadistic thoughts. He outwardly leaned against the doorframe to look casual, but he was tearing himself apart inside. This was just one big waste of his time. The man should just be grateful that Gohan was in a good mood today.

"Sir," the man began again as brought his hands behind his back and stood up straight, looking just above Gohan, avoiding eye contact, "Something has been happening to Tuffles all over the ship…"

"Something always happens." Gohan took another sip.

"Sir, Tuffles have been vanishing, sir." The man's eyes quickly glanced to Gohan's then danced away just as fast, "There has been talk of some monster on board the ship."

"A what?" Gohan's eyes narrowed.

"A m-m-mo–"

"–Listen," Gohan glared, "you tell your supervisor I don't have time for your little fairy tales!"

"It's not a fairy tale, sir! People have been disappearing, sir!"

"Then why don't you face it YOURSELF!" Gohan spit and bared his fangs, "And get the f—k out my sight!"

Gohan stepped into his room and then slammed the door on the young man with a giant BAM that shook the tabletops and caused several things to fly in the light gravity and crash upon the bathroom tiles and the room's carpet. He could hear the hangers in his clothes rack creak as everything settled down, and walked over to the bed and after setting the coffee on the nightstand, he grabbed his pants from the floor, muttering to himself under his breath, "Imbecile."

His thoughts were cut short, however, when there came another knock to the door.

"WHAT!" Gohan could feel his previously good mood drop dramatically as anger flourished with him. His vision turned red in his fury as he finished buckling the belt on his pants, patted his pockets to make sure everything was still there from yesterday, and then grabbed his coffee mug again, "This had better be good."

Gohan stepped up to the door again and swung it open with a crash. His eyes glowed red as his nose crinkled in a snarl. When he saw who was still there at the door, his glare intensified tenfold, "YOU!"

"Sir!" The man dropped to his knees and prostrated before Gohan, "Sir! I have one more message, sir!"

Gohan felt his temple throb as he snarled down to the man, "You have ten seconds."

"L-L-L…"

"Nine! Eig–!…"

"–L-Lord Baby commands a meeting with you, Sir!"

There was a long pause then, as Gohan's eyes bugged and he almost dropped his coffee.

Gohan looked down at the man with widened eyes and an open mouth. After a few moments, he collected himself and put on a cool mask again as he narrowed his eyes, "What meeting?"

"… After we touch down, Sir. Lord Baby says he will meet you in the c-conference ch-chamber…"

"Oh really?" Gohan nervously sipped on the coffee, doing his best to stabilize his wrist. He had an inkling he knew what Lord Baby intended. He knew Lord Baby was intelligent, and could have easily figured out why Gohan stayed back during their move to the Tuffle planet. But what was Lord Baby going to say when he found out Gohan failed his mission? The consequences were never good.

This was bad news. VERY bad news.

Gohan felt his anger soar, his wrath reaching unprecedented heights. All he saw was blood now. All he wanted was blood. He needed it. He wanted to feel it, bask in it, and deliver it like an angel of death.

His bloodlust suddenly took over him. He felt it in his body, the need, the drive to make blood and screams. He wanted to hear screams. He needed it more than anything. He could feel that instinct flow in him, the need to kill. He wanted it. He breathed it.

And looking at the man on his knees before him, he could once again feel that bone-shatter, the neck cracking, the veins ripping. It was as if new life were brought forth from him… a phoenix of destruction rising from the heated inferno of hate and Hell.

He grabbed the man's hair suddenly and yanked the man's head up to look him in the eye. He then pierces the man's gaze with his glare and sneered as a low cackle rose from his chest. He then spoke slowly, as if the man may have a hard time understanding his clear, crisp, ominous words.

"This coffee…" Gohan sneered, "Is cold."

And then Gohan poured the hot steaming coffee down the man's shirt. The young man shrieked in terror and agony, but mostly in surprise as the smell of burning flesh rose to their nostrils. The scent was intoxicating to Gohan as he lifted the man by his hair.

And then he could feel the hairs being ripped from the man's head under the artificial gravity. The man sobbed in fear and pain, mumbling through his tears, "S-sir! Sir…!"

Gohan held him up sternly, keeping direct eye contact as he brought his left hand up and gently squeezed on the man's neck. He then spoke clearly and slowly, "You call me 'Sir' one… more… time… and I'll hold no restraint killing you."

Through his sobs, the man tried to shake his head to no avail and closed his eyes instead as his body shook in fear, "Y-Yes… Yes S-Sir!"

"Idiot." Gohan held no remorse as he snapped the man's neck and felt the body go limp in his hands. It wasn't enough for him, though. His body was boiling with intense heat as he concentrated his ki within a split second, channeling it into his palm. Within a heartbeat, an explosion occurred outside Gohan's door, his ki blast ripping straight through the man's neck.

Gohan then dropped the body to the floor and kicked it to make sure it was dead.

"Don't tell me you didn't ask for it." Gohan spit at the body and stood there a moment, contemplating.

With a slight huff and narrowed eyes, he then reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He then singled out a 50 Zenie bill and threw it to the body in disgust, pausing a moment before he growled, "For the coffee."

And then he stepped into his room and shut the door.

A moment passed as the hallway was silent. Not a single soul wandered by the site.

And then the door opened one more time as Gohan stepped out and quickly grabbed the bill from the body.

"You're not worth it."

And he slammed the door one last time.

–––––––

"What was it like?" Pan sat down in her chair and looked to him. "Back there… You said you'd tell me one day. What was it like?"

"It… it wasn't me." He looked down to the black wheel and frowned slightly – or at least, it looked like a frown, though it could have been a sad smile, "I still don't know if I'm ready to..."

She couldn't hear him then as she tried to remember his face. She could smell his hair; perhaps… though it was so faint, she could have been imagining it.

Pan sighed, trying to ignore the pang of curiosity that came with a previous question, though she was forgetting what she said, "I understand." And she -did- understand, but she couldn't grasp the complexity of it. The scene was so familiar, though it seemed out of reach.

"Are you scared?" Pan realized she was dreaming as she looked around and found everything to be out of focus, as if it were behind a lens that was slightly too convex.

A slightly cold fog drifted between them as they looked out over the stars.

"It isn't me." He said again, looking to the wheel, "I am…"

A moment passed. The scene cut. She blinked – or thought she blinked – and the world shifted and turned black.

"Where… what?" Pan wandered in the darkness, overcome by grief at her loss.

"He's gone." A voice suddenly appeared behind her, rumbling with its bass. The voice then began to cackle, its decibels getting louder and louder as the light suddenly phased in and she turned to see her father behind her back, hysterical as he brought his head back in laughter, "Everyone you loved is gone." He cackled to her and sneered, "And they will continue to go."

"You don't exist." Pan stepped back, trying to convince herself this was still a dream, "This isn't real."

"And Baby will take everyone from you." The Tuffle elite fighter sneered down at her, "And I will make you suffer."

"Papa…" Pan summoned up courage to face her fear and stepped closer then, looking him in the eyes. She reached out to touch him, to feel his face.

He stood there as she felt his left cheek, smooth shaven and clean, even though the rest of his body was muddy and bloodied. He reached up his left hand and took hers gently, his gaze softening somewhat.

And she looked him in the eyes, intently, searching for the one that was lost so long ago… searching…

And then his hand jerked and SNAP-ped her wrist, shattering her bones into a thousand fragments. Pan screamed in terror and pain as he twisted her broken hand into an odd angle and cackled demonically as Pan continued to scream.

And she screamed, and screamed, her wrist bleeding, her hand hanging limply, dead to her.

Pan shot up in bed, panting, sweating, trembling beneath the sheets as her heart raced.

The dreams never went away. They were always the same. She kept seeing the scenes in her mind, over and over – a broken record, forever haunted with those nightmares of her past. Although they started differently, it always ended with him. And every time, he made her suffer. She'd never get a good night's sleep again.

She needed something to comfort her. And she needed something fast.

She sprung out of bed and ran to the capsule dressed, digging through some drawers, and when she found what she was looking for, she unpacked it and immediately dug her hand into the bag, pulling out a handful of nuts, shoveling them into her mouth, eating them as fast as she could.

It was funny; she hated nuts. Even nowadays, while eating them, she could never stand them, but at the same time, she learned to enjoy them, in a twisted way; they actually comforted her. Especially nowadays, she associated them with good memories… memories of a friendship that would never die, in one world or the next.

She would avenge Piccolo. She would avenge Grandpa Goku. She was going to make sure Baby died for putting her friends and family through his enslavement. He would pay for taking everything and everyone dear from her.

That thought was the only thing that was driving her nowadays. There really was not much else to live for.

She shoveled another handful into her mouth and then put the bag away, only feeling slightly better about herself, though not much.

A nice warm shower might cheer her up, though.

She looked to the beds to see if anyone else was awake, and saw Hercule tossing slightly and Uub's legs jutting out from behind the bed, unmoving. She figured they still had a while to sleep. A look at the clock said it was 7 in the morning, though it felt a bit later. She wasn't quite sure how to convert Earth time to Tuffle-time, however. They lived by 50-hour days, or something like that, though the minutes were all thrown off. She didn't really care about their system anyway.

She walked into the bathroom and looked at her face in the mirror. It still surprised her to see herself like this – older, hardened, but mostly… sad. It scared her to see herself look that way, and so she tried to smile to her reflection, though nothing could remove the depression that hung as a veil before her face.

She took a long breath and leaned closer to the mirror to look at her hair. In the few weeks that had passed since she cut it, it had grown rather rapidly. She realized with mild amusement that, at this point, she looked a bit like her mother many years ago before she grew out her hair.

It was actually pretty spiky, which surprised Pan as she felt for her natural cowlicks. When it was longer, it tended to hang more freely, but being this short, it tended to clump, which reminded her of her Grandpa Goku, back when he was alive.

It was hard for her to imagine, though, how he would have looked now. Pan must have grown several centimeters at the least. Goku would have to grow slightly, too, especially since he'd be what? Fourteen now? He'd be going through a growth spurt of his own.

Pan removed her clothes, then, observing her body in the mirror briefly, before she turned to the shower and adjusted the knobs to start a nice warm shower. Testing the water for a proper heat setting, she smiled, as it became the perfect temperature and then stepped in, taking a deep breath as she felt the water drench her skin.

She brought her hands up to her short hair and tussled it a bit in the water flow, trying not to think too much, because all thinking ever did nowadays was bring back painful memories she wished she could forget.

Instead, she concentrated more on her body, looking down and observing herself, how her features had changed. Before her coma, she had been incredibly muscular; Piccolo had trained her body enough to make it rock solid and heavier than normal. But after sleeping for over two weeks, her body atrophied a great deal, and although she still had a lot of muscle, she was a great deal skinnier and lost a lot of strength; at least, compared to before.

But there was something she had now that she never grasped before. And, closing her eyes as the water poured down on her, she concentrated on her inner ki and focused on the energy that had been released the day Piccolo had died. It was amazing… It was there the whole time, but she never noticed it because it was almost like a static that had been there since she was born. Whenever she tapped into her ki, she overlooked it, never even noticing it was there, though it was inside her the whole time.

She grasped it then, but made careful note not to tap into it. It was a power she had never felt before. Was this was a Super Saiyan power was? It may not have turned her hair gold, but it definitely seemed as it if were some sort of connection to higher power. It was a shame she was living in hiding for the moment. She couldn't wait to tap into the power again and experience its flow.

This time, with that power, and without a gaping hole in her abdomen, she could do some severe damage. At least enough to take down Gohan, hopefully, if she never made it to Baby.

Perhaps Buu could help out, too. She knew he took a vow to never hurt anyone again, but there had to be some exception. Something would have to trigger him to fight against Baby…

Buu…

Pan rubbed her hands through her short hair again, then stopped short.

Buu!

"Oh my god." Pan washed the shampoo from her hair with a quick rinse and slipped on the bathtub, CRASHING down as she tried to scamper out of the shower, "Buu!"

"Huh?" A groggy voice came from the other room, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"BUU!" Pan ran into the room, still dripping wet, the shower still running in the bathroom, "Where is Buu?" Her eyes scanned the room again, "And…" Another fear panged her chest, "Where is Gramps!"

"Huh?" Uub shot up and looked to the empty bed, "He's not with you?"

"Not with ME?" Pan fumed as she snarled, "Where do you think I've been!"

"Did you see him leave?"

"No, I didn't see him leave! Obviously if I saw him leave, I'd know where he went!" Pan stormed back into the bathroom, "Shit!" before turning off the running shower. "We have to get dressed."

Uub yawned as he stood and then sat upon Pan's bed, groggily running his fingers through the messy day-old dreadlocks. "Oh man…" Uub tried his best to unbraid one strand that hung from his head, "My hair is so messy…"

"Get UP!" Pan threw her towel at him as it whacked against his head. He didn't even bother to turn around now, learning from his past mistake.

Uub yawned again and stretched as he stood up, staring out the observatory window, looking at the stars beyond. The pitch-blackness of space threw off his body clock, "What time is it?"

"Maybe you don't understand!" Pan threw on her purple gi and tightened the red belt, "I told him not to separate from us! And first Buu left, and now my Gramps!"

Pan stepped over to Uub to reach the bed, and grabbed the damn towel from the bed, rubbing it against her hair to try to quickly dry it. She tossed it down and picked up the Nyoi-Bo from the bed, fastening it around her.

Uub took the risk of looking to her before frowning and cocking his head, "How long as he been gone?"

"I don't know! I was in the shower. He could have left at any time. My shower might have awakened him! What was he thinking, leaving! What was Buu thinking!"

"Maybe he went to go find something to eat?" Uub stood and walked over to the dresser, "Or maybe he was feeling a little cramped?"

"I don't know." Pan made her way to the door and grabbed the key card before grabbing the handle. As she opened the door, she spun around to glare at and point her right index finger to him, "Stay here."

"What?" Uub frowned as he unfolded his gi, "Where are you going?"

"Stay here!" Pan left and the door closed behind her.

"WAIT!" Uub ran to the door and tried to figure out how to get it open, "Where are you going! You said we can't split up!" Figuring out how to turn the handle, he opened the door and saw her standing before him.

Pan pointed to him with a death glare, her eyes narrowing, "You. Stay. Here."

"But–"

"Pack everything up." She kept her voice low, "We have to prepare for the worst."

And then, just like that, she was gone.

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–7/24/05–