CHAPTER 63:
Arrival

The ship was remarkably soundless during the docking process. There were a few creaks and rumbles throughout the ship as the engine had to kick into gear again, after coming out from their inertial trajectory through space, but they were brief and muffled, leading to a silent landing over the red desert planet. Gohan had been invited to accompany Her Majesty during the docking process, but, due to recent circumstances, he had preferred to sit alone in his chambers, strapped to his observation chair as if he were in self-induced solitary confinement.

The only thought on his mind, as his eyes blankly watched the desert capitol city, was that he was a failure.

He failed to carry out Lord Baby's mission; he failed to kill the Saiyan when he had the chance, and he failed to locate her. She was a pest, still hiding behind the walls of the ship, and he didn't know how he could even begin to break the news to his Lord Baby that he allowed such contamination to even land the Tuffles' own planet.

He didn't hear the knock on the door as he rubbed his temple.

He wasn't in a bad mood. On the contrary, he was feeling a sort of numbed shock at the moment, perhaps a vague sense of depression, as he contemplated how he was not worthy enough to call himself Lord Baby's right-hand man. What was he going to say? Even with the most euphemistic phrasing, he would surely lose his life. That was the least of his concerns, though. He was prepared to die, if it appeased his Lord Baby. No… What Gohan had failed to do, and one mission he failed to accomplish, left him without honor. He would have led his short Tuffle life without purpose in the world. He couldn't even kill on measly Saiyan.

"At least I got the Namek," Gohan forced a snicker as he rubbed his numbed cheeks.

"Sir!"

Gohan suddenly wheeled around, his power spiking in both startlement and instinctive defense. During the split second it took for him to whirl, his table flew back, exploding against the window with a thousand metal and wood fragments, cracking the glass almost halfway down the window. Gohan then stood there with his chair toppled aside and his right hand extended out to the intruder, already heated and glowing toward the intruding Tuffle canine man.

"Sir!" The gray canine dropped all the papers he was carrying and was quick to prostrate himself before Gohan, dropping on all hands and knees. "Sir, I beg your mercy, sir! Sir!"

Gohan's glare could have pierced the canine with a thousand icicles. He didn't even bother to ask the full question. It was more of a rhetorical interrogation as he kept his jaw from grinding his teeth. "What."

"S-s-sir," the canine official quickly tried to ruffle up the papers with one hand, as he continued to stare at the ground, his legs refusing to move, "Lord Baby has come aboard to see you! Sir, he told me he doesn't like to be kept waiting, Sir! I'm so sorry, I didn't know where you were. You were not with the Queen, so I tried your room and you didn't answer your door, so I didn't know if you were in here asleep or maybe if you were in the shower or who knows where you could have bee–!"

"Oh shut UP." Gohan kicked the dog in the shoulders, sending him sprawling back against the bed frame. "Your mouth is going to be the end of you, unless you learn to control it."

"S-Sir!"

"…You son of a bitch!…"

"Sir?"

"Oh SHUT UP, I wasn't talking about you." Gohan kicked the chair aside and hovered a moment above the canine before grabbing him by the collar and hoisting him up to shoulder-level. "Where is he."

"S-sir, I'm supposed to lead you to–"

"Then LEAD," Gohan shoved the official forward so hard that the dog almost tripped trying to maintain his balance. Gohan bent over and picked up the chair, placing it where the nail alignments should have been. "You stupid mutt" Gohan snorted under his breath as he turned on his heel to follow the canine. "They'd better be able to repair the damage you made me do, or you're going to personally suffer for every day this ship remains grounded for the cracked window."

"Sir, but–"

The official was suddenly met with Gohan's right hand within a hair's breadth to his face once again, and in that brief moment, found himself lacking for words.

"If I were you, right now," Gohan hissed, "I'd just shut up and walk."

"Sir," the dog replied with wide, panicked eyes, as he led the way.

–––––––––

"Something's happening," Pan whispered as she peered through one of the vents in the ceiling, looking down upon a crowd of people, "They're all riled up for some reason."

Following closely behind, crawling through the vents at a tight squeeze, Uub scrunched his face, trying to ignore the sweat accumulating on his brow, "That's great…"

"No it's not. They're not leaving. We need to..." Pan trailed off as she inched along slowly as to not give away their position. "Wait, there!" Seeing a drop-off, she pointed again in the cramped space, but her entire body kept Uub from seeing anything beyond a certain area he felt it improper to look upon, "That might lead us somewhere."

"What do you mean?" Uub frowned as he continued to look down at his hands, "I thought you were trying to get us out of here, not somewhere new."

"I know, I know, but maybe this leads somewhere safer… You know, away from the main floor."

"What do you mean away from the main floor? Isn't that where the exit is?"

"Silly," Pan grinned naughtily, "Of course it is, but we need a good place to change."

"Isn't Gohan still looking for us?"

"Oh who cares about him," Pan tried not to frown, "I'm looking forward to fighting him. He's going to have to fight me sooner or later. Here." Pan reached the drop-off, and squeezed herself to the side as far as possible. It was a little wider here, so Uub could see what she was talking about. "An air shaft."

The shaft was narrow, and stretched both upward and downward in dim-to-almost-zero lighting. Pan's eyes had become accustomed to the dark, and Uub had never had electricity to begin with, so both were able to make out the small details of the shaft well, but even though Uub saw the same route as Pan, he was not quite on the same page.

"So you want to go up or down?" Uub looked to her quickly, but seeing her flushed face made his eyes quickly jerk away, a hint of dark pink threatening to tint his cheeks.

Pan didn't look at him as her eyes covered the length of the vertical vent, "Here, let's go up. You go first. I'll help you up."

"No really, I insist, I can help you."

"I'm stronger than you," Pan glanced to him, "I can help you upi."

"No you're not," Uub suddenly felt a traditional moral value about to be challenged, "I can help you."

Pan's eyes narrowed as she felt a temple throb in stubbornness, "Get. Up. There."

"No."

"Fine!" Pan threw her legs to the vent, "I can go up on my own."

Uub frowned, "Hey wait a minute, I don't…"

Pan braced her body against the walls of the chute by pressing her arms and legs hard enough against the walls to create friction holding her in place as she edged down, "It's easier when done this way, anyway."

"I don't get you," Uub continued his frown as he watched the girl inch her way upward. "You're really hard to understand, you know that?"

"Hey, I'm not really out to…" Pan's voice faltered as her gaze went blank, and she vaguely sensed herself slip.

Uub leaned into the vent with a slightly confused brow, "Hey, Pan?"

A sudden feeling of euphoria suddenly enraptured Pan. It seemingly came out of nowhere – a moment of bliss, like a homecoming… Her skin suddenly tingled as if she were by a fire, even though the cool breeze was blowing her hair into her eyes.

"I promise…" A voice she had only remembered in her dreams, or at least imagined she remembered, seemed to whisper in her mind for a brief moment. She never even realized what hit her, as she suddenly flashed back to her dream, except this time she was reaching out… reaching, but unable to touch…

"Darnit, Pan, watch out!"

Somehow in her hallucination, she began to focus on her arm being gripped by Uub's left hand. It made no sense. How come she was back here? What happened?

"It's him." Pan's mouth opened slightly as she recognized someone's ki, though her mind was racing so fast, she couldn't place his name, even though she knew it so well. "He's close."

"You're freaking me out, Pan." Uub continued his strong hold on her arm. "Snap out of it."

"I…" Suddenly, another cool breeze whipped past her hair, and Pan immediately realized she was dangling freely from Uub's grasp and totally lost all train of previous thought. "Hey!"

"You slipped and fell! Don't do that again!"

"Shhh," Pan hissed as she braced herself against the vent, wiggling her arm free from Uub's grasp, "Do you want everyone to know we're here?"

"What do you mean! You're the one who was screaming you promised!"

"Promised what?"

"Who knows! Just don't do that. Just… don't."

Pan snorted and rolled her eyes as she pushed her weight against the vent and started to make her way upward "You know what, Uub, you're just weird."

Uub flushed slightly as he began to edge his way up the vent after Pan, "Well you're…" His voice trailed off, though, as he found himself lacking for comebacks, "just.. weirder."

Pan suddenly laughed uneasily as she edged her way upward faster, into a darker region of the vent. Somehow, Uub always seemed to make her smile. It was a nice deviation from her current mood. If she had to get stuck in a vent with someone, she was glad it was someone she could come to trust. "You know what, Uub? I like you."

"You… what?" Uub almost lost his grip as his entire face flushed red.

"No, stupid!" Pan hissed with a grin, "Not in that way."

"Oh…" Uub suddenly felt a pang of rejection, but would never admit it.

"You men are all alike," Pan sniffed with a dignified air as she turned a corner of the air shaft, "All jumping to conclusions."

"Hey," Uub frowned in disagreement as he followed her in the tight space.

"This way." Pan began to crawl along the only way the vent seemed to lead. "I sense him over here."

"Who?"

Pan didn't respond, seeming to be lured by something Uub could never understand. "Follow me."

And Uub followed, though, in all honestly, there really was nowhere else they could go…

–––––––––

"But… but…"

The young kai rolled his eyes again, "Just hold still."

Goku's changing voice seemed to crack a little more than usual, as he backed up a few steps, still trying to run through the Kai's former statement in his mind. "But I don't understand! How do I just grow back my tail?"

"You're not." Kibito snapped the large pliers Suguro had transformed into, "We're going to pull it out."

"P-p-PULL?.!." Goku suddenly felt dizzy as his backward steps seemed to lose their grounding, "You can't pull my tail!"

"And why not?" Ancient Kai seemed to close the distance.

"I feel nauseous even if someone holds it. You can't pull it. I won't let you pull it!"

"Oh stop being such a baby!" Kibito continued to stroll forward, clicking the instrument in anticipation, "You don't even have a tail yet, may I remind you."

"Piccolo… Piccolo you tell them! You tell them that they can't pull my tail!"

The Namek who was sitting under the sole tree of the perimeter only huffed once and didn't even care to respond.

"You can't do it! I'd rather have it grow! Give me a drink for it, or even a shot. I'll even take a sho -okay maybe not a shot – but anything else! Anything!"

"I thought you wanted to help Pan?"

"I will! With all this training you gave me, I'm sure to have gotten stronger!"

"Ouuu, you dolt." Ancient Kai stopped walking and crossed his emaciated arms, "That training alone will never get you to defeat that Tuffle."

"But I don't understand!"

"What he means to say, Goku," Kibito sighed as he stopped progressing as well, "is that we were waiting for your tail to grow, but it looks like Pan has made some moves that are speeding up the timeline, and we need to prepare a backup plan for something inevitable."

"Yes, yes! If it weren't for your granddaughter down there, you wouldn't have to have your tail pulled."

Goku frowned at Ancient Kai's statement, suddenly growing confused and concerned, "What timeline? What's going to happen?"

Piccolo then took his moment to speak, as if he were the only one wise enough to know what was really going on in the situation, "She's about to get herself into some deep trouble."

"Yes, yes! Piccolo is right. And if all other options exhausted, we believe your tail may be a good fallback plan for what's to come."

"What do you mean what's to come?! How do you know? She can hold out, can't she?" Goku looked to Piccolo as if the Namek knew the answer.

"Goku," Kibito frowned as he rested the giant oversized pliers on the ground, "Be reasonable here. Pan's in serious trouble. She's just entered the heart of the Tuffle planet, where she is going to have to take on the same team that almost killed you."

"But she has Uub, right? I trust in Uub. Uub is on my level. I trained him for ten years!"

"Trust me, Goku," Kibito looked off, suddenly stoic as if he sensed the future. "We will all have a part to play in this, including you."

"I know that, but my tail… I…"

And then everyone seemed to stand still and silent for the time being, as Goku trailed off and took a moment to look at everyone –or everything, as chance had it, since Suguro already transformed into a tool for torture. Goku contemplated, for a relatively long time, the consequences of every situation that could potentially occur, whether he grew his tail or not. Strategy was never his forte, and it was especially difficult for him to make such an important decision in his current state of mind, but after pondering it, and knowing how desperate everyone was in the current situation, he tried to convince himself that it would be worth the torture to help his granddaughter if need be. Pan was worth them pulling his tail. He knew that, but… When actually faced with it, it was still something that caught him off guard. They had no idea of the pain involved with pulling one's tail. They obviously had never grown one before.

His words seemed to come in slow motion, as Goku seemed to doom himself. "Okay, I'll do it." Though, he had a terrible suspicion that this was just another ploy of the kais to stall, and nothing good could come from this.

The two kais nodded to each other, as they communicated a thought.

"Great," Kibito brought up his right hand in agreement. "I'll start on a bigger batch of the tea."

–––––––––

Reds… Reds, mostly.

Gohan found himself gazing at the tapestries lining the walls of the lower level of the travel cruiser. Although the Tuffle II ship itself was relatively small in comparison to the great space station Lord Baby had constructed as the royal cruise line, this ship still had its secrets in its enormities – the lower level being an off-limits zone specifically redesigned to house only the most elite of Tuffles. It was on this level, the great royal meeting chamber had been constructed, for occasions like these, when Lord Baby would have to schedule an emergency meeting before his palace construction was to be finished in the center of the Tuffle capitol city.

Reds… though some purples, too. Purple was a royal color, and there was no doubt that Lord Baby personally ordered the halls to be decorated in his honor. He tended to be narcissistic like that… and it only made Gohan smirk wider, in pride for his race and heritage, despite the fact he knew, or suspected he knew, the reasons behind this conference.

The hallway was well lit, though the dark tapestries tended to dim the corridor. Things seemed even dimmer, as Gohan walked steadily behind the canine officer. The more he had to stare at the idiot's back, the more he was itching to turn him into dog food, but he restrained himself, merely for the sake of his image… and perhaps the disturbing image of even a spot of blood on his uniform while presenting himself before his Lord and Master. Besides, he'd have plenty of opportunity later for getting revenge on the dog… after he would seek out and destroy the last Saiyan, of course… That is, if he lived to see that day.

As he approached the door that led to the main conference room, two of the guards were dressed in dark violet, denoting their uniforms as official bodyguards, though a third figure in navy blue stood among them, talking in a low growl to them before looking up and recognizing the superior officer.

Goten seemed to smile a moment before it turned into a dark sneer. "Gohan…" He brought his right hand up to casually scratch his left elbow; his cigarette still lit in his left hand, "You know, you're somewhat getting a reputation of being called a 'tyrant'."

Gohan nodded nonchalantly to him, addressing him formally as his eyes remained cold, "Lieutenant Son."

"Good to see you, too." Goten smirked with a dark glint in his eye as he brought the cigarette to his lips, "And, I thought Green Bean might have given you a tough time."

"He's long history."

"Tell that to Lord Baby; you might score some points."

Gohan turned to push open the doors, but was stopped short, and became suddenly enraged and defensive when Goten grabbed his left arm to stop him, "And I sure hope you killed the Saiyan," Goten's hand retracted as Gohan jerked his arm away, "Lord Baby seems to be pretty pissed off a.t.m., if you get my drift."

"Don't you ever touch me," Gohan glared.

"Whatever. If you come out dead, it isn't my problem."

"None of what I do is your problem."

"Whatever." Goten dropped the cigarette and crushed it with his sole. "But I ain't comin' to your funeral."

"Drop dead," Gohan smirked to him and opened the doors.

"You, too – break a neck. Just don't piss off Lord Baby even more; you know he takes it out on all our heads."

"Listen, Goten," Gohan released the doors for a moment as he looked at his younger brother for what he realized might be the final time, "Whatever Lord Baby decides for our fate, I am proud to deliver. My life belongs to him. I am at his mercy."

"Just go," Goten rolled his eyes, "He's been waiting long enough as it is."

"See you in Hell."

"Right. Get outta here."

Gohan nodded once to Goten, a brief sneer playing on his lips for old time's sake, as he entered through the double doors, and submitted himself to the mercy of his Great Lord Baby.

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–3/6/06–