It had taken only five minutes to assemble the balls in the lawn just outside of the house, once the alarm had been given. In that time, Roshi, Tien, and the others returned from their improvised training ground just in time to see the balls glow a bright yellow and give rise to a great plume of yellow light. As the sky turned black as night and the light began to take a defined form, the gang looked up in astonishment as the Eternal Dragon Shenron came forth-a green scaled dragon with blue whiskers and red eyes, and whose full length could have enveloped the entire island twice over.
"I AM THE ETERNAL DRAGON," the creature began. "STATE YOUR WISH, AND I SHALL GRANT IT."
The group looked to each other in astonishment before composing themselves.
"I, uh...I don't suppose it'd be too much to ask that you destroy the two Saiyans heading for Earth? Or just, you know, send a meteor in their direction?" Oolong asked timidly.
"THAT WISH IS BEYOND MY POWER," the dragon replied. "I CANNOT DESTROY ANY BEING STRONGER THAN MY OWN CREATOR."
"F-figured," Oolong replied.
"Our best shot at winning this thing is bringing Goku back," Roshi said, to the agreement of the others, before continuing, "Dragon! We ask that you bring the one known as Son Goku back to life!"
The dragon's red eyes glowed as it called upon its power to fulfill the task presented to it.
"YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED. FARE THEE WELL," the dragon concluded before dispersing into yellow light once more, the 7 balls shooting off into the sky before splitting up and heading for seven different locations.
As the sky returned to normal, the group looked up for a minute before the warriors turned to look at each other. Roshi and Tien could see the fear in the others' eyes, and they both moved to mask their own nervousness.
"We have twenty four hours until these Saiyans arrive," Tien remarked simply. "We had better use them."
Thousands of miles away, in a remote wasteland far from civilization, Piccolo Jr., more commonly known as just "Piccolo," was meditating at the top of a nearby cliff, his senses attuned to the ki of the half-Saiyan child he had taken as his "pupil" for this last year; Son Gohan, the son of Goku and Chi Chi. A slight change in the ambient temperature of the region broke his concentration, and he looked up to see that the sky had turned black. After a moment or two, the cold air and dark sky departed as quickly as they had arrived.
"So...he has been restored to life," Piccolo remarked.
He then mulled over this development. It was almost certain that his nemesis had grown stronger somehow, even as he did not know precisely how he managed it. Becoming stronger after overcoming death itself had become common for the Saiyan warrior, something that his own father had become aware of too late, until he wound up with a gaping hole in his chest. Even so, Piccolo smirked at the thought.
You may have gotten somewhat stronger, Goku, but whatever training you received surely pales in comparison to my own! And the best part-without the six months of sparring with your own son, I would never have become as powerful. But now, with this power, I'll destroy your kinsmen myself! And then...ohoho, and then...you will fall by my hand, as I rule over the entire world!
But even as the spirit of his father encouraged these thoughts to flow through his mind, his own spirit turned to thoughts of concern for the boy he had taken; whether he had grown strong enough under his tutelage to survive the coming battle, and whether he would be brave enough to face the enemies they were to face tomorrow without fear.
These thoughts were angrily suppressed by what was left of his vengeful father's soul, but it was becoming clear to both of them that what had once been a single, unified consciousness between father and son was quickly diminishing. Now, a new consciousness emerged-his own, and its strength was bound to overwhelm that of his father's sooner or later. Piccolo had been aware of this for months, aware of it since the first moment he assisted the young child by giving him those apples when he stranded himself on this very cliff. The King Piccolo of old would never show such kindness, and Piccolo had tried to rationalize it by telling himself that he needed the boy alive and strong if his plans were to succeed. But deep down, he knew that there was something greater behind this and many other actions, an emotion a being like Piccolo, son of a king of demons, had never felt before; affection. He felt genuine affection for the child. True, he had traits that were aggravating to him-his lack of fighting spirit, his spoiled nature-symptoms of the life of a young princeling. Even so, there was something in Gohan's innocence, his compassion even towards a being such as himself, that engendered Piccolo's appreciation and, in a sense, respect.
Piccolo knew that what remained of his father's spirit was aware of this change in him, and how his efforts against this change caused him to push Gohan ever harder in his training, striking him hard enough to leave bruises that took hours to heal. The effort caused the opposite of its intended effect, further driving a wedge between their two minds. And yet, Piccolo had to wonder if something else was the cause of this separation, something that he had been sensing vaguely for the last two months:
Kami was about to die.
Piccolo had been feeling his own body begin to decline slightly for weeks. He estimated that at this point, Kami had maybe a month to live, two if he was fortunate. And as was the case with his father, Piccolo and Kami shared a life link; if one should die, the other would as well. Such was the nature of their existence as two halves of a whole entity whose very name has been lost to time. Perhaps, Piccolo mused, this new, separate consciousness that was forming in his mind desired to drive his father's spirit into the deepest recesses of his brain; to live even one single, fleeting instant as his own person, free to think his own thoughts and pursue his own desires without being constantly steered towards his father's plans for revenge, before the death of an old, aging fool ripped him away from the world forever. He knew that as a demon, his soul would find no sanctuary in the Other World; instead, he would suffer the same fate as all of those killed by his father and brothers, cursed to drift in limbo for all eternity. And yet, even that seemed preferable to what his life had been up until that fateful moment; eight years living as the living pawn of a father who was long dead, unable to think of anything else other than the last wish of an arrogant monster too proud to allow himself to succumb to the inevitable.
Piccolo raised an eyebrow at the course his thoughts had taken. It would seem that I have gained more ground than I realized, he thought. The voice of his father was never truly absent during all of this, instead merely stewing in response to Piccolo's comments. Thus, for the moment at least, Piccolo was free to think thoughts which were almost his own. Almost, but not quite. And the chief thought among them was an adamant resolution:
If I am to die in this coming battle, I shall do so on my terms.
With that, he closed his eyes and did his best to silence both of the voices in his mind, the only sensation he experienced the calm, steady ki of a sleeping child, one for the moment unaware that the first and fiercest battle of his young life was due to arrive in a matter of hours.
The next twelve hours might as well have been twelve days for the residents of Kame House, and especially for the warriors who had taken up residence there. With the eve of battle approaching, every fighter among them had done their hardest to refine their techniques in preparation for the coming conflict. By the time night had arrived, the warriors were exhausted, and eagerly welcomed sleep. However, Tien found himself lying awake for some time. Eventually, he decided to get some fresh air, and walked out of the house and onto the beach. He sighed and attempted to gather his thoughts when a hand lightly touched his right shoulder. He recognized both the touch and the ki immediately, and turned to the right to see Good Launch standing there silently.
"Launch?" Tien remarked. "What are you doing up?"
"I...I couldn't sleep," Launch replied.
"Ah. Yes. Seems to be, uh, going around," Tien said with a nervous chuckle.
The two glanced at either the ocean or the ground for a moment before Tien attempted to break the silence.
"So, uh...is this what you normally do when you, uh, can't sleep?"
Launch nodded. "Ever since I was a kid, I've liked looking out at the ocean. It was strangely calming, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, sea lions barking, boats passing by, the mermaids leaping in and out of the water..."
Tien nodded. "I can see that. Nature holds many small instances of beauty within itself when you take the time to look."
"Yeah. ...Yeah," Launch replied.
Tien raised an eyebrow. "Is there...any particular reason you can't sleep?" After a few seconds he added, "B-beyond the obvious?"
Launch shrugged. "I guess I'm just...worried, is all."
"I see," Tien eventually replied. "Well, I wouldn't worry too much. That Raditz guy may have given Goku a hard time, but we've all gotten stronger than he was over the last year. How much tougher can these partners of his be?"
"Tien..." she began, evidently unsure of what to say. Tien was likewise uncertain as to how to assuage her obvious anxiety.
"With all of us fighting together, we'll beat those guys, no problem." He chuckled, although anyone listening could tell his heart wasn't in it.
Good Launch frowned. "Don't talk to me like that," she said resolutely.
"W-what?"
"Don't talk to me like that," she repeated with greater emphasis.
"I-I'm afraid I don't understand-"
"You know what I mean!" She countered, silencing him. "Don't talk to me like I don't understand what's going on!" Before Tien could form a retort, she continued, "Because I do know what's going on, you know. I know exactly what's at stake here, and I have a good enough idea of what you're up against to be worried sick." At this point, her voice began to crack, and Tien could see that her right hand was balled up into a fist, one which trembled as she continued to speak. "I know damn well that not all of you are going to make it back home tomorrow. That no matter how hard you all prepared for this, you and everyone else on that Lookout knew full well that you were playing against some pretty sharp odds. That even after everything you've been through, no matter how confident you are that you'll beat these guys to a pulp, a small part of you knows that if you're wrong about how tough these guys are, you and everyone you care about could die if Goku doesn't show up on time! So, I would appreciate it if you didn't stand there and try to calm me down like I'm some-some frightened child, who doesn't know anything! Okay?!"
By the end of this tirade, Launch had to summon all of her willpower to keep from breaking down crying right there, and all Tien could think to do was hold her and let her face sink into his chest as she let it all out. Having never encountered a situation like this before, Tien felt completely out of his element as he simply patted her gently on the back every so often.
After a few minutes of his attempt at consoling her, Launch pulled herself away from Tien's chest, yet still had his arms around her shoulders as she sniffled a few times. Tien steeled himself as he prepared to speak.
"This...this is about more than just the Saiyans, isn't it?" He asked, both as a question and as a statement. Launch nodded. "What's wrong?"
After a few seconds, Launch took a deep breath and said, "I don't want to lose this." Tien responded with a puzzled expression, a signal for her to elaborate, and thus she continued, "This feeling of...stability. Like I can just be myself and live my life without constantly worrying about whatever I was doing after I..."
Tien noticed her hesitation and asked, "After you sneezed?" in an attempt to guess her statement.
Launch nodded. She looked down, evidently troubled by past memories. Tien hesitated for a second before putting his hand on her shoulder, the unexpected touch causing her to look up at him as he gazed into her eyes.
"Tell me," he stated simply. She took another breath and continued.
"I first started to really notice it when I was five. I'd play with everybody on the playground, sneeze, then wake up standing in the doorway wondering why one of the boys was crying to the teacher and looking at me like I was some kind of demon. Next thing I know, I'm in the principal's office being suspended from school for three days, for breaking his nose. No matter how many times I said I didn't do it, nobody believed me."
Launch took a breath as one of her earliest memories popped back into her head-crying into her pillow the night she was suspended, still wondering what she had done wrong. She shook her head slightly, as if the memory would simply fall out through her ears if she jostled it around enough, and continued. "It had probably happened before, but after that day, it kept getting more and more frequent. I kept trying to be a normal kid, and yet whenever I sneezed, I'd find myself awake again hours later in some kind of trouble. It felt like I was being swept up by a river and carried along the current no matter how hard I swam against it, only feeling like myself when I grabbed onto the occasional rock to stop myself."
"Where were your parents during all of this?" Tien asked.
"I...don't know. I had been living in foster homes all across the continent for as long as I could remember. I imagine they just...gave me up, once the symptoms started appearing. And as for the foster parents, I tried to connect with them and the other kids, but one by one they all just...gave up. No matter how friendly and polite I tried to be, something always happened that ruined everything. The kids I tried to be friends with didn't want to be anywhere near me, and the kids that said they were my friends were not the kinds of people you should be friends with. And they were...less than friendly to me."
Tien raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she continued. "Eventually, I'd find myself miles away, alone and confused, and when I called my foster parents, they'd be absolutely incensed that I had apparently run away, even though I never remembered doing such a thing!" She shuddered. "Can you imagine what that's like? To spend one moment in the safety of a warm room reading a good book before bed, and the next moment finding yourself sleeping on a park bench in another city, or sitting in the back of some stranger's van, having hitchhiked for hours?"
Tien was silent, hoping that his expression conveyed his sympathy and hid his own inner turmoil.
Launch resumed, "I'd probably been to about eleven foster homes in total before I woke up in a motel in East City, 13 and apparently carrying nothing but 500 zeni and a baseball bat," She shuddered when she recalled the slight splinter in the wood at the end of the bat-an image with an implication that still gave her nightmares. "By that time, the foster system had given up, and my name was taken off of the agency's list of available kids. It was like I didn't exist. And the 'incidents' seemed to be getting even worse. Without a stable home, I was in limbo, just kind of milling about and sleeping wherever I could find. It got so bad that at one point I found myself in the hospital with a broken arm. The nice police officer there accused me of attempting to rob a bank, and said they had taken me there for an examination on their way to the prison after I had displayed 'highly unusual symptoms' during my arrest. While I was there, even hearing all of that, the only thought in my mind was 'Somebody, please, find out what's wrong with me.'"
Launch gulped and paused for a moment before beginning once more. "Well, obviously they didn't find anything, and when I woke up next, I was in the next county. From that day forward, I couldn't ignore what was happening, yet I understood it even less. I saw posters in every city and town I walked through; 'Launch. Age: 13. Wanted for third degree theft: 20,000 zeni.'" She paused as she recalled the experience. "It was terrifying how similar she looked-the same clothes, the same hair in blonde instead of blue, the same build. Like...some kind of bizarro twin."
Tien, once again, said nothing.
"Every week they released a new one. The charges kept piling up, the reward kept growing, and eventually this doppelganger was one of the most wanted criminals around. Even though I couldn't possibly be this person, I couldn't shake the feeling that the cops would mistake me for her. And all the while, I kept getting into situations with no idea what had happened previously, for hours or even days at a time. I tried moving somewhere rural just to get away from all, but even that didn't work. I'd open my eyes and find myself with a bottle of beer in my hand and talking to some mean looking bikers who said that they were my friends. Or I'd end up in the middle of a bar fight with my arms around a man's throat. Or...I'd wind up in the back of some boy's car."
Tien had no idea how to respond as she trembled slightly, all of the bad memories rising back up to the surface. Eventually his hands held her shoulders a little tighter to get her attention. "You...you don't have to do this if it's too much for you."
"No, no," she replied, sniffling slightly. "You...you deserve to know everything."
Tien wasn't sure what that meant, but after a few deep breaths, Launch finally spoke again. "One day, I closed my eyes about to sneeze, and the next thing I know...Goku was there, stopping the cops from coming after me. Then he and Krillin took me up on that cloud of his and off towards Kame House. Truthfully, I didn't quite know what to make of the whole thing, but before I knew it, I just...started living here. Just like that. Then I became friends with Krillin and Yamcha and you and Chiaotzu and Bulma and Oolong and...Roshi..." she said hesitatingly. "For the first time in my life, being with all of you guys made me feel like...I belonged somewhere. I had made so many friends, friends who didn't seem to care much about whatever I was doing during my...lapses. Everyone seemed to just...get used to it. Nobody was afraid of me anymore. I wasn't afraid of me anymore. I finally felt...whole."
Tien sighed, suddenly understanding a lot more of her perspective. "And now you're worried that it's going to fall apart."
Launch nodded. "When Krillin, Chiaotzu, and Roshi died the first time, for all of my misgivings about Roshi in particular, I found myself missing them a lot. They had played a part in changing my life for the better. And then, with Goku being dead..."
Tien nodded. "I remember." He had only barely managed to catch the plate before it fell to the floor after Krillin broke the news.
"Now they're all going out to fight these Saiyans, and Goku's come back to life to fight these Saiyans, and, from what everyone tells me about the Dragon Balls, if they die again...that's it. They're just...gone. Forever."
Tien nodded solemnly. "I told Chiaotzu that no one would think less of him for sitting this one out, but...he insisted that he needed to be there. To keep me safe. To keep...us safe."
It was then that his eyes met Launch's, and the two hesitated for a moment before Launch finally leaned up onto her toes and kissed him. Tien, caught off guard, attempted to reciprocate to the best of his ability before Launch pulled away after a couple of seconds. They looked at each other again, both of them extremely flustered, until Launch broke the silence.
"Y-you should probably get some sleep," she said softly, barely above a whisper.
"Y-yeah. Yeah. G-good idea," Tien replied, his third eye still widened in surprise as he hurriedly regained his composure and walked up the steps to the porch.
"Tien?" she called after him with her back turned, still speaking somewhat softly. Tien paused at the door before she finally said what was on her mind. "Promise that you'll all keep each other safe?"
Tien nodded. "I promise."
With that, he closed the door and walked back up to his room sleeping alongside Krillin, as Launch continued to gaze out at the ocean, moonlight reflecting off of its gently rolling waves.
When dawn finally broke, the warriors rose early and were treated to a large breakfast prepared by Launch, Oolong, and Chi Chi, the former still somewhat morose after her earlier conversation with Tien. After they were done eating and had dressed into their various gis, Roshi placed a small capsule into his gi before meeting with the others to discuss tactics.
"Alright, so if these two Saiyans have the same gizmo as Raditz did, they'll probably gravitate towards the highest power reading," Roshi stated.
"Well, obviously we don't want to be standing here. What's a good location?" Yamcha asked.
"There should be plenty of wastelands where we could make our stand," Tien replied. "Although..." he paused before nodding his head, "I don't think they'll be searching for us first and foremost."
"Hm?" Krillin asked before the realization dawned on him. "Y-you mean Piccolo is even stronger than us?!"
"Indeed. From my last impression, I sense that he is a fair bit stronger than myself at maximum power."
"Jeez!" Yamcha said in disbelief. "How the hell did he manage that?"
Krillin chuckled nervously. "L-let's just hope he's discarded 'King of the World' as a viable career path."
Tien chuckled in response. "If all of us work together, we should be able to stop him if it becomes necessary."
"So, where exactly is he?" Bulma remarked out of curiosity, still not quite knowing how the whole energy sensing thing worked.
Tien turned to her and replied simply, "I felt his ki approximately 2,356 kilometers north from here. And, knowing him, that's probably in the middle of an isolated desert or something of that nature."
"Well, then we'd best not hesitate another second," Roshi responded, to the collective assent of the crowd.
With that, the warriors milled about with Bulma, Chi Chi, Launch, and the others, before opening the door and looking out at the ocean as it touched the horizon. After casting one last glance at the residents of Kame House, the warriors quickly touched off, flying full speed towards Piccolo's location. Tien and Chiaotzu were the last to leave, each of them looking at Launch one last time before departing.
As the two hurried to catch up with the others, Roshi cast a glance behind him before turning back, conflicted. On the one hand, he was happy that Launch had seemed to break the young warrior out of his shell. But, on the other hand…
He was kind of jealous.
Alright, so...remember when I said that the next chapter would be fighting the Saiyans? Well...
Okay, so I was writing that chapter, and without really thinking about it, I started writing these really elaborate scenes with Piccolo, Tien, and Launch, and when I got to writing the actual introduction and combat with the Saiyans, the resulting chapter(before I brought it to what I considered a decent stopping point) was longer than all of my prior chapters combined. So, needless to say, there needed to be some trimming. I decided to cut it off to right before the Saiyans land, and have that be the start of the fourth chapter. Now, I wanted to release it on the same day, but I figured that would probably be a bit too much to do all at once. Plus, if it turned out there were major issues with how I wrote the third one, a lot of those issues might not be resolved in the fourth, resulting in an inferior product. As such, I'm going to give it a few days, maybe a week, before that gets released to work out any issues that arise.
As far as notes on the story go, there aren't too many, as this chapter's fairly short. This chapter on its own also underwent a fair bit of revision regarding the scene with Launch, as I wasn't sure of how self-aware I wanted Launch to be of her affliction. My original draft had her aware of her split personality as being the cause of her various problems, but I decided that that would be a bit too extreme. So, as far as she knows, she just has these weird, unexplained memory lapses, although I did at least try and elaborate on their effects on her life a bit more, to try and take a bit of the comedic edge off, as it were.
As always, I would greatly appreciate it if you leave your reviews on this latest chapter below.