DISCLAIMER:
Judge: (Adjusts glasses as reads important set of documents) The defendants, Rath, and her accomplice, Vetyga, have hereby been accused with attempting to kill off a Fanfiction story by means of neglect! How do the defendants plead?
Vetyga: (Crying shamefully as begs pitifully on her knees) I'm innocent I tell you! INNOCENT! (Continues sobbing)
Rath: (Trying not to facepalm as she watches her assistant groveling on the floor) We plead….. Not guilty, sir!
Judge: And what do you have to support this as proof?
Rath: Why, not only do we NOT OWN DBZ, but we also have a sparkling brand new chapter for the story in question! (snaps her fingers and holds out a hand palm face up)
Vetyga: (Suddenly perks up with relief) Oh right! Yah! See, we really ARE innocent! (Takes smeared crumpled up stack of papers out of her pocket and places them on Rath's palm)
Rath: (Sweatdrops at the sorry state of her latest TTWV chapter) Uhhhh, forget the sparkling part in that description I said a moment ago…
Judge: (Again adjusts glasses) Very well! The defendants have provided sufficient proof to prove they are innocent! Case dismissed!
Rath: (Bows deeply) Thank you, sir! What an honor this… (Suddenly judge snatches chapter and makes a run for it!)
Judge: (Laughing like a maniac) Ahahaha! Finally! The latest chapter of TTWV is in my hands! This is like a dream come true! Hahahahahaaaaa!
Vetyga: (Takes out another copy of the chapter from her pocket and gives to Rath) Good thing we keep extras! (Looks to the reader) Enjoy the story!
WITHIN THE PAST WORLD:
Vegge was staring with deep onyx eyes through one of the windows of the Ghoul Saber as it traveled slowly through space. He couldn't recognize any of the star formations from here, but something seemed different about them: the stars all glimmered in a deep red hue—every last one of them for as far as the eye could see….
'Somewhere out there are the remains of Vegeta-sei,' Vegge thought longingly. 'The only place I wasn't hated just for existing…. The only place where I didn't have to wish I was anywhere else… The place where I was still my Father's son and I was still Prince of Saiyans…..'
Vegge scoffed as he narrowed his eyes. What was the point in dwelling on the past anyways? Vegeta-sei was gone…. He would always be hated and ill-treated and he would always be forced to live another day—if only to be made suffer repeatedly for the amusement and sadistic whims of those far more powerful than him. Even his father no longer wanted anything to do with him, despite of all he had suffered on a daily basis—or maybe it was because of what he suffered on a daily basis….
Terrible sadness washed over the small Saiyan at the thought of his 'Father', but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. What father could possibly want a son like him? He remembered the battered and neglected boy he had seen in the mirror back on his Master's ship. Why would any Saiyan father—especially the King—claim 'that' for a son? He certainly did not look the part for being a prince in his current state. Perhaps that is why the King had disowned him?
What could he have done though? Fighting back usually resulted in little more than amusing Frieza and it almost always resulted in more extreme punishments and longer periods of food deprivation or if not that then smaller and smaller rations when he was given food… Attempting to run away was one of the worse things he could possibly have tried…. Back then, he hadn't realized his space pod had had a tracker on it when he purposely changed its course for some far-off random planet in place of the one he had been ordered to purge. He had thought that in doing so, he could hide from his cruel master, but when he didn't return, Frieza personally came to retrieve him…...
Vegge closed his eyes tightly at the thought. He didn't want to remember it anymore. Frieza had seemed unusually calm at first about the whole situation, but Vegge had known better. Vegge's instincts were proven correct. Oh how he regretted ever trying to run away! Perhaps the punishment he was in the middle of receiving when Goku saved him was almost comparable…. Perhaps, though perhaps not even close…
"Vegge?" a familiar voice called from behind him.
"What, Trunks?" Vegge snapped angrily as he opened his eyes again, but he did not bother turning around to make eye-contact. Trunks always had a way of interrupting him when he was in deep thought.
Trunks sighed as he came to stand by his younger father. Vegge was such an angry child. Granted, he had every right to be that way, but it made it hard to know what to say to him.
"About your dad….." Trunks started.
"He's not my father!" Vegge interrupted a bit louder than he intended. "You heard the man—the King 'has no son'!"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Trunks continued. "Look, there's something I think you need to know about this ship….."
"There's nothing I need to know," Vegge replied defiantly. "Frieza always told me the King disowned me. I was just too stupid to understand he was right." Vegge suddenly looked around with apprehension as he quickly corrected himself, "I mean to say 'Master Frieza' always said…."
"Anyways," Trunks decided to change the subject. "We still need to figure a way to get back to the others."
"I—I can't," Vegge whispered.
"What do you mean 'you can't', Vegge?" Trunks asked.
"I just can't, okay!" Vegge snapped.
"What? Because of Frieza? Is that it?" Trunks questioned. "You afraid Frieza will punish you or something over leaving?"
"You already get it, so why ask?" Vegge replied in annoyance. What was the point of asking the obvious?
"You really need to stop letting Frieza rule over you," Trunks declared.
'Letting Frieza rule over me?' Vegge thought loathingly to himself. Yes, he 'let' Frieza do a lot of things to hurt him, but again he questioned, 'What the hell do people expect me to do about it? Trunks and the King—they expect too much of me! I can't stop him! I try, but I can't!'
"Frieza isn't the same as you remember him," Trunks continued.
"You will never understand," Vegge's eyes became void of emotion. "Master Frieza will never change. If I disobey, he will always punish me. If I run away, he will always find me and I will always suffer for it. Master Frieza never changes."
"Well, this ship makes people forget things," Trunks decided to lie. "For now, Frieza won't even remember who you are, unless you remind him! If you run away before he remembers you again, he will never come after you! That's why your dad doesn't remember you either. It's 'cuz he's affected by this ship and doesn't remember he had a son."
"Doesn't remember?" Vegge's eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Yah," Trunks confirmed. "We need to figure out how to leave this ship before we forget everything too!"
"I don't mind forgetting things," Vegge thought out loud. The thought of forgetting about this hard life of suffering and not having to be afraid anymore was pleasing to Vegge!
'Crap!' Trunks thought. He wasn't expecting Vegge to respond like that…..
"Um, well…" Trunks thought of another lie. "If you stay on the ship with Frieza here, he'll start to remember you again and that would be bad for you!"
"Would the King start to remember me again too?" Vegge asked hopefully.
"Ummm….." Trunks tried to think of how to answer that, when thankfully (or unfortunately depending how you look at it) a voice interrupted him.
"My my," Frieza said. "Don't we look deep in thought?"
"J-Just admiring the stars," Trunks replied with a quick bow. "Isn't that right, Vegge?"
Trunks was hoping Vegge would follow along, but Vegge was way ahead of him— already kneeling down with his head lowered submissively. Vegge quickly nodded his head in agreement, but did not utter a word. Frieza had not given him permission to speak. Perhaps this ship truly was making Frieza forget about things, but a part of him remained unconvinced. He tried to control his shivering under his Master's curious gaze.
"I assume the monkey king did not give you any instructions, did he?" Frieza questioned after finally taking his eyes off of Vegge.
"He did," Trunks lied.
"Good!" Frieza said as clapped his hands together. The sound made Vegge flinch slightly, but besides that, the child made no other motion. "At least the monkey isn't completely useless."
Vegge wasn't sure which 'monkey' Frieza was referring to, but it didn't seem like Frieza was angry with him. The thought calmed him a little, but he was still extremely anxious in Frieza's presence.
"Splendid! With the three of you monkeys working together, I expect this ship to be cleared out in no time," Frieza said. "Don't disappoint…." With that, Frieza slowly walked off to continue about whatever business he was previously conducting.
Trunks breathed a sigh of relief. With free reign of the ship, it made finding Goku that much easier!
"Get up, Vegge," Trunks said as he noticed Vegge still kneeling. "He's gone. Now, we can go find Goku!"
Vegge stared into Trunks's eyes as he shakily stood up. "But Master Frieza wants us to purge this ship….."
"Ya, this gives us the perfect chance to find the others!" Trunks replied. "We won't have to worry about Frieza for a while…."
"But you will have to worry about me!" another voice replied from the opposite hall. It was King Vegeta….!
ELSEWHERE ABOARD THE GHOUL SABER:
Goku, Bulma, Goten, and the Saiyan girl, Rah, were slowly crawling their way through the air duct passageways winding throughout the ship. Due to her severe injuries, Rah eventually had to be carried on Goku's back. She was losing a lot of blood.
They knew she was already dead, seeing as she was stuck within the time loop of the Ghoul Saber, but they could not bring themselves to abandon her—especially after Rah had revealed that no one back then had cared enough to save her and the other lower-class Saiyan children from the cruel experimentations of the Yuuli….
"Keep….heading towards….. The sound of the power source," Rah said weakly. Her strength was greatly deteriorating. "It leads to the center of the ship….. Y-You can use it to gain access to the….." She coughed violently before continuing, "You can access the rest of the sh-ship from there….."
Goku nodded, before remembering that Rah was blind. "Alright, but try to save your strength, Rah," he said aloud.
"Yeah…." Rah said quietly. It was like she knew her death was imminent…..
Goku looked to Bulma, whose eyes were watering. To Bulma's credit, she did not vocalize her sadness. They would let Rah continue to believe that they had come aboard the Ghoul Saber specifically to save her and the other Saiyan children that had been kidnapped aboard the ship oh so long ago. Rah would pass on believing in this new-found hope, even though it was a flat-out lie….
WITHIN THE PRESENT WORLD:
On top of Dende's Lookout, Dende and Piccolo continued to monitor the sudden weather shifts occurring worldwide around the Earth, while Gohan, Chichi, Videl, and Pan were resting in one of the back rooms.
"It seems to be getting worse doesn't it, Piccolo," Dende commented. It was a statement more than a question.
Piccolo merely grunted in the affirmative.
"I'm afraid there will soon be casualties if this gains any more momentum," Dende said as he paced back and forth. "If only I knew how well they were progressing towards the Rift…."
Piccolo was about to tell Dende to stop worrying about things that were completely out of his control, when he sensed 2 power-levels approaching from the distance. The strong one he recognized as Vegeta's and the other was…. Tien? No, Yamcha was with him!
"It would seem Vegeta and Yamcha are on their way here," Piccolo commented. "Together even... It must be important for them to be showing no sign of hostilities."
Dende looked questioningly at Piccolo. "Really? I wonder what they want…."
The Nameks would find out soon enough as Vegeta and Yamcha would arrive not even thirty minutes later.
"Dende! Piccolo!" Yamcha called out as he and Vegeta with Bra in his arms landed.
"Hey, Yamcha, Vegeta," Dende greeted. "Is there something wrong?"
One grave look from Vegeta confirmed it must be serious. "What is it?" Dende questioned.
"What do you know about a 'riddle'?" Vegeta questioned.
"Riddle?" Dende's eyes rose in confusion.
"Yes, some riddle of the past that I feel must be important to my mate and son's return," Vegeta replied impatiently. "What is it?"
"How do you know of this?" Piccolo asked. Both the Kami and Nail inside him were surprised as well that Vegeta would bring this up out of nowhere.
"Clearly, you know what I'm talking about," Vegeta growled. "So what the hell is it?"
Yamcha then interjected, "It seems Vegeta is linked somehow to his past self. His younger self mentioned something about some riddle…. Or something…." Yamcha looked to Vegeta for confirmation, but the brash Saiyan was too busy demanding answers to pay him any attention.
Vegeta had explained some of the situation in more detail to Yamcha while they were on their way to Dende's Lookout. The whole thing seemed rather incredulous, but then again, so seemed a lot of things that were going on at present….
"You can communicate with the Past?" Dende was shocked. This was an amazing turn of events! Through Vegeta, perhaps Dende could give Bulma and the others more instructions!
"Unfortunately, I have no control over when or how often it happens," Vegeta admitted. "It would seem my younger self, Vegge, has more say in it than I do, but I suspect even he doesn't fully understand how or why."
"But you've talked to them? Well…. To Vegge?" Dende questioned.
Vegeta nodded. "A few times, but only briefly….. It seems they are separated into two groups right now. Vegge is with my son; the others are somewhere else…. The 'interference' that occurred to trap them in the Past in the first place was Kakarrot killing Frieza."
"Goku killed Frieza?" Dende exasperated. "Goku, of all people, should have known better….." Dende sighed. "Anyways, you being able to communicate to the Past will prove very useful in their return."
"Eh…. That assumes the cooperation of my younger self," Vegeta said as he glanced away. "I assure you, he's probably the last person you want to depend on right now."
"Well, unfortunately, until we come up with some other plan, it's the only way," Dende replied.
"What was the riddle, Dende?" Vegeta demanded once again, this time a feral look of extreme intensity gleamed throughout his dark eyes.
"It was 'as counted in is counted out'," Dende finally answered after slight hesitation.
'My younger self somehow heard of this riddle and I believe he figured out the solution, too,' Vegeta mused silently to himself. 'If a brat like him can figure it out, then it should be easy for…' Suddenly, Vegeta's eyebrows rose in stark realization. He finally understood what it was that his younger self had hinted towards.
"Do they even know how to return?" Vegeta had once asked his younger self in one of their shared visions.
"Yes, I believe the girl knows," Vegge had answered cautiously. "But things may not turn out as perfectly as she thinks they will…"
Vegge's voice seemed to echo throughout Vegeta's head with those words.
"Dende!" Vegeta suddenly said. "How many people originally entered the chamber to go to the Past? Four, right?"
"Yes, just Goku, Bulma, Trunks, and Goten," Dende answered.
"Except that they now have a fifth with them….Vegge, my younger self," Vegeta continued.
"What are you saying?" Dende slowly started realizing what Vegeta was getting at.
"It means," Vegeta said solemnly. "According to the riddle, only four of the five will make it back to the Present World; meaning, one will be left behind in the Past World. My younger self knows this and is planning to be one of the four…"
Red lightning struck violently throughout the sky and thunder rattled the Lookout with its deafening roar. Oh yes, surely it was a sign of things to come!
Rath: (Looks up at chapter) Ah! I'm pleased with how this chapter went, I think! Finally, some of the twists and turns I had been planning a long time ago are starting to reveal themselves!
I'd like to give out special thanks to those that still showed such interest in this story being continued, even after such a long time! I'm honored people still even read this and sometimes even still favorite it in spite of things! I hope this chapter was enjoyable for you all!
Until Next Time! Sawatdee!
Reminders for this Story:
Ages: Vegge (8), Trunks (14), Goten (13), Marron (11), Pan (3), and Bra (2)
Pronunciation of "Vegge" : Like "Vh—JEEE" (not like "VEH-Ji" aka "Veggie") ^_^
For general story summary: Read the "Disclaimer" of Chapter 23