DISCLAIMER:
Vetyga: (Points up at a giant blank sign floating in the sky) "Like my latest disclaimer, Rath?"
Rath: (Scratches head) "Ummm... There's nothing on it..."
Vetyga: "You aren't looking hard enough! I call it the INVINCIBLE DISCLAIMER!"
Rath: "You mean 'invisible' disclaimer, right? There are no words on it."
Vetyga: "No! You already did an invisible disclaimer once a long time ago. This one is far superior. It's INVINCIBLE!"
Rath: "If you say so... People are going to think that we think that we own DBZ, you know."
(Neon red glowing letters suddenly flash across the Disclaimer Sign. Samurai swords immediatly materialize out of nowhere, floating precariously above Rath's head.)
Disclaimer Sign: "So you falsely think you own DBZ, do you? I... WILL... END YOU!"
Rath: (Sweatdrops)
Disclaimer Sign: (Flashes now with blue letters) "RATH AND VETYGA DO NOT ACTUALLY OWN DBZ!"
Vetyga: (Winks at the readers) "Enjoy the latest chapter!"
WITHIN THE PAST WORLD, WITHIN THE GENERATOR CHAMBER:
The screams of Goten and Bulma echoed through the maintenance chamber just moments before being drowned out by the sounds of sizzling electricity engulfing them. Goku screamed Goten's name as the generator once again completed its cycle, directing its terribly frightening blue energy upwards.
Time seemed to slow down for Goku as he fell to his knees. The energy took an eternity to dissipate. The chamber became eerily silent. He could not sense their energy anywhere. Goten and Bulma did not make it in time.
"Goten... Bulma..." Goku cried out in remorse. He clinched his right fist so tightly that it drew blood. He punched it into the nearest wall. "It wasn't supposed to be like this! None of this was supposed to happen. When did it all go so wrong? We were only supposed to catch a glimpse of the Past. Not like... Not like this! Goten... Bulma... Chi... Everyone... I promise you I will make this right!"
He carefully set Sarahda's unconscious form down onto the floor.
'I risked everything for this girl,' Goku thought to himself. 'I risked everything I know, yet she's already dead- A mere figment of the Past cursed to repeat these wretched events for all of eternity. Still I risked it all. Was it truly worth this? Was it truly worth the lives of the living? Will their spirits become stuck in the Ghoul Saber as well?'
Goku was so busy lamenting on the loss of his son and best friend that he did not notice their crumpled forms laying still on the far side of the chamber. They began to stir.
"Oooowwww!" Goten groaned loudly as he finally got over the initial shock from he and Bulma impacting into the wall. He had landed in an awkward position with his feet folded over his head. Besides his clothes being slightly singed and his hair sticking straight up Vegeta-style, he was fine. He had managed to make it safely into the chamber at the very last second.
Bulma still laid there twitching. She looked like a disaster. Her normally perfect hair was super frizzy and she now had areas of her skin that were blotched from serious burns. The electricity had not touched them directly, but both she and Goten felt the effects of the intense heat it had emitted while being in such close proximity.
Goku suddenly turned his attention towards them- his expression a mixture of relief, disbelief, and utter shock. A split second later he was scooping them both into his arms and giving them both a tight hug. He had not been able to sense them at all, but he had forgotten that the 'Ghoul Saber' distorted the senses. Perhaps it was due to their proximity to the generator?
"I thought... I thought I lost you!" Goku could barely say the words as he held them close.
"We did it, Dad!" Goten exclaimed the first thing that crossed his mind.
"You sure did, son!" Goku rustled Goten's hair. "You sure did! I can't say enough how proud I am of you. I mean that."
Goten smiled from ear-to-ear at the praise. This was the first time he had done something completely on his own where another's life depended on it. Usually he always followed Trunks's lead, but this time he showed his own capabilities.
'Trunks won't believe me when I tell him,' Goten thought with pride. 'I can't wait to see his face. He's going to flip out! I can't wait. I can be just as good as he is.'
"Goku..." Bulma said as she finally came to her full senses. "After this is all over, I'm going to kill you." She stated this as a matter-of-fact scenario.
Goku gave a nervous laugh as he released his hug.
"I think you're going to have to get in line for that," Goku replied, rubbing the back of his head at the thought. "Assuming Vegeta and Chichi don't kill me first that is."
"Hey Dad, look!" Goten gestured to the side of the chamber.
It was another pathway. They would still have to crawl to make their way through, but it was worth a shot.
"It can't get any worse!" Goku joked.
Bulma glared daggers at him in response.
Despite his earlier regret about keeping the illusion of hope up for Rah, Goku went back to retrieve her before they continued on their way. A promise was a promise.
IN THE PAST WORLD, ELSEWHERE ABOARD THE 'GHOUL SABER':
King Vegeta, Trunks, and Vegge found themselves in a perilous situation against the Yuulian elder.
The Yuuli man knew he was no match for the Saiyans using pure strength, so he opted to outsmart them. All Saiyans were the same to him. As far as he was concerned, this would be an easy victory. The Saiyans relied on brawn and pride alone and this was their weakness. They still thought he was attacking them directly, but no, he was aiming for the aringentis plant chamber nearest them. The orange-glowing aringentis had been attuned to assault the minds of Saiyans, but the results were unique to each individual. The elder was morbidly curious to see how these particular Saiyans would react.
"Good riddance, Saiyans," the elder called out as he placed his hand on the nearby chamber. "The universe will be a much better place without you. Consider this justice."
The Yuuli-attuned aringentis plant glowed with an increasingly intense green hue. This particular aringentis had been attuned specifically to Yuuli ki signatures. It was a defensive attunement, however. So long as he was near it, he could channel its energy to aid him. Without warning, the aringentis shot out several successive beams of green energy.
Trunks acted quickly and managed to deflect most of the energy beams from hitting the targeted chamber, but he missed one. With a crack already forming along the side, one was all it took...
Glass shattered, allowing the threatening orange mist emitted by the Saiyan-attuned plant to swirl violently throughout the room.
The King suddenly collapsed to the floor, clawing furiously at his head. "What have you done to me?" he shouted out repeatedly as he rolled back and forth on the floor. He began to cough up blood.
Trunks watched in horror as the King thrashed wildly on the floor, but his first instinct was to protect his younger father. He looked around frantically only to find his father curled up on the floor twitching violently in a bad seizure. It seemed the mind poison was intensifying the symptoms he had displayed earlier. Had it been formulated to attack the weakest points in the minds of its victims?
Trunks himself remained unaffected. The plant had not been attuned to account for the existence of half-Saiyans. He didn't have time to think about this fact, however. All he could see was his younger father once again suffering needlessly as punishment for something he had nothing to do with. It angered Trunks greatly. Sure, his father may not have been the most behaved or kind Saiyan in the universe, but this was so unfair. His father didn't stand a chance!
The purple-haired demi-Saiyan lifted his younger father into his arms. Vegge felt overly cold and clammy to touch.
"It's not becoming to kneel for trash," the elder stated calmly from the far side of the room. "But you will die along with them. You fight with Saiyans, you die like one! You chose the wrong side."
"That's where you're wrong," Trunks glared with hatred at the man. "Until this moment, I was willing to fight help defend the Yuuli from this needless slaughter." Trunks slowly stood up- his father still in his arms. "Now you've forced my hand. You will either give me the antidote for this and live or else refuse and die for it."
The elder was a bit taken aback by the confidence displayed by the teenager. It was also unnerving just how intense the boy's glare was. If he didn't know better, he'd almost think the boy was a Saiyan. Of course that was not possible, considering the aringentis had not effected him. The elder slowly placed a shaky hand back onto the Yuuli-attuned aringentis chamber.
"I do not believe you are in the position to grant threats to me," the elder stated. "Had our positions been reversed perhaps, but alas..." Without warning the elder fired another attack at Trunks.
Trunks ducked behind a different chamber. Trunks was not bluffing. He intended to kill the man now unless he reversed the poison, however, there was no way he could do a proper offensive while still holding onto Vegge in the child's current state.
'Think, Trunks, think...' Trunks mentally urged himself. 'If only I can get him away from that attack plant of his... But how?'
The chamber Trunks was hiding behind trembled from the brute force of successive energy strikes. It shattered from the constant attacks, forcing Trunks to run for cover behind the next nearest chamber. He was going to run out of hiding spots at this rate if he kept playing so defensive.
"You delay the inevitable," the elder's voice was now laced with boredom. "If you give a threat at least make it believable that you can back it up. Are you planning to run away all day? I can keep this up indefinitely."
Trunks did not give the Yuuli the pleasure of a response. He carefully set the shivering child down behind his current chamber. It was now or never. Trunks stepped from behind the chamber. He lowered himself into an attack position and launched himself towards the elder. It was his turn to go on the offensive!
WITHIN THE CHAOS OF VEGGE'S MIND:
As the poison entered his system, Vegge's vision swirled with splotchy black shadows. It wasn't long after that he found himself within the deepest depths of his mind. Once again his older self was there to greet him, but this time the locale was not a clearing in the middle of the woods. The two found themselves amidst tall jagged cliffs with massive floating rocks and a blood red sky.
The older Vegeta was not expecting to be connected to his younger self again so abruptly. Something was different this time. His younger self seemed extremely unstable. The boy's eyes darted back and forth as he tried to recognize his surroundings.
"Vegge?" Vegeta called out gently as he slowly approached the boy.
If Vegge wasn't aware of Vegeta's presence before, he was now. Vegge looked at his older self with intense distrust. Without warning Vegge fired several ki blasts at Vegeta and then took off into the sky.
Vegeta was taken aback by the child's behavior. The boy had never reacted to him in this manner. Vegeta did not even bother to dodge the attacks. His own energy dissipated them with ease. He flew up with blinding speed to block the boy's escape path. To Vegge, it looked like his older self had teleported in front of him.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Vegge shouted before attempting to fly off in the opposite direction.
Once again, Vegeta appeared in front of him, causing Vegge to retaliate with more ki attacks.
"What the hell is wrong with you, boy?" Vegeta was getting annoyed at the charade.
Vegge continued to try to attack and escape and Vegeta continued to block his paths.
"Enough is enough," Vegeta said calmly as he grabbed hold of his Vegge's upper arm and forced him to stay put. "Explain now."
Instead of calming down, Vegge fought wildly against his older self. He was committed to the offensive now.
Vegeta tightened his grip. "You are pushing my patience now," he said. When Vegge did not heed his warning, Vegeta hit the boy into the ground with a controlled blow.
Vegge slowly crawled out of the small crater that had formed in the ground. He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
"If you're serious about fighting me, we can do so, brat," Vegeta said calmly as he landed near the impact point. "You won't like the outcome though. Are you ready to talk now?"
Vegge's wild fury contained itself for the time being. He nodded slightly.
"I know what you're planning by the way," Vegeta started.
At the sight of Vegge's panicked expression, he hesitated to continue with the lie. "It won't work, you know. If you come to this timeline, you should be aware that Frieza is... still alive... here, stronger than you can imagine. If you come here, you should know he would stop at nothing to reclaim you."
Vegge paled at the realization. He looked up at Vegeta with deadened eyes. "If you killed me here, would I die for real? Or is this truly just a dream?"
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "What? You're giving up? Your life is shit and now you're trying to call it quits? You would so easily let them win, would you?"
Vegge's expression was void of emotion as he shrugged and turned away. "Easy for you to say," he mumbled.
"Easy?" Vegeta laughed. "I hate to break it to you, brat, but I lived and survived the same hellhole you did. I was there longer than you've even been alive. What didn't kill me only made me stronger. Few rival my power anymore."
"Are Raditz and Nappa alive in your world?" Vegge asked.
Vegeta was caught off guard by the question. "No, why?"
"Did you kill them?" Vegge asked.
"Raditz, that weakling, got himself killed. Nappa's death was, indeed, on my hands." Vegeta answered truthfully, but he was not sure what led his younger self to ask this in the first place.
"Oh, I see..." Vegge was disappointed. "Frieza made you kill him too?"
"No... Vegge, what happened to them in your timeline?" he questioned. He was already starting to have his own suspicions. It put a kink in his own plans to guarantee the boy's safety if they were true.
"Frieza made me kill them as part of my punishment... for helping your friends," Vegge barely spoke above a whisper.
Since their mental connection was mostly linked through Vegge's mind, unpleasant memories of that day manifested themselves like ghosts along the face of a nearby cliff. Vegge looked down with shame as he noticed his slip-up, but he could not recall them back. Would his older self judge him as a weakling too once he knew?
Vegeta's jaw tightened as he saw his family chained up in the distantly familiar Prisoner Room aboard Frieza's ship. The memory was silent as if Vegge was actively trying to block it out, but seeing the actions was enough for Vegeta to understand.
The memory flash-forwarded to Bulma pleading with Vegge. The child had reacted angrily, but by the look on her face afterwards, it seemed Bulma had gotten her way. Vegeta couldn't help but smirk at her persistency, but his amusement quickly faded when he saw his younger self sneaking into his master's bedroom to steal the keys.
Vegeta stared in disbelief at his younger self. He was angry. He wasn't mad at the boy per se, though it may have come off that way. He was furious at Kakarrot and the others forcing Vegge into that situation. It was bad enough they had interfered with his Past, but even worse when their actions cause his younger self even more turmoil- as if he didn't have enough problems.
"You went into Frieza's room and took the prisoner keys to free them, didn't you? But you were careless and got caught," Vegeta's voice was filled with annoyance. "Why the fuck would you do such a thing, Vegge? What did they tell you that you would risk everything for them?"
Vegge was silent for a long moment, his eyes downcast to the ground. At long last he uttered softly, "My freedom."
The manifestation of the past occurrences flash-forwarded once again to the point where Vegge got caught and awakened in Frieza's throne room. It skipped to Frieza demanding answers and then beating him for playing innocent. Vegeta saw the outrage at what must have been Frieza's command to kill off the older Saiyans and then the undeniably cruel physical punishment dished out to the child afterwards. The memory abruptly ended.
Vegeta wasn't sure what to say. Even though they shared the same level of cruelty directed against them, the older Vegeta had never once been ordered to kill off his Saiyan guardians. Sure, maybe he'd want to kill them himself when he had to suffer for their mistakes, but never was a command given like he witnessed just now.
This greatly complicated things.
"What about now?" Vegeta asked after a while. "What do you remember just before you entered this 'dream'?" He wasn't even sure this could be considered a dream anymore. It was far too real, but he lacked a better term for this connection they shared.
"My father... No... Not my father... The King..." Vegge could not finish his trains of thought. His eyes grew wild with feral-like intensity. "M-Master Frieza... Trunks... They..."
"Calm down, brat," Vegeta interrupted. "What about Trunks?"
"Th-The King... Master Fr-Frieza..." Vegge repeated. His voice was shaky.
"You're not making any sense, boy," Vegeta rubbed his temples in an attempt to keep his composure, else he'd yell at the child. "You and I both know your father is dead and you yourself told me Kakarrot had killed off Frieza when he took you along with him. I'm not asking about them."
"They lied!" Vegge shouted. His tail lashed angrily behind him and his eyes darted wildly side-to-side.
"Calm down!" Vegeta raised his voice in warning.
"No, YOU calm down!" Vegge retorted. Suddenly, he launched himself at his older self. The feral look in his eyes made it clear he aimed to fight to the death-perhaps his own.
Vegeta allowed his younger self to vent out his pent-up frustrations. The older Saiyan blocked each attack the child threw at him, but he did not bother to strike back. The boy's earlier words echoed in his mind:
"If you kill me here, would I die for real?"
Rath: (Looks up at chapter) And thus concludes this chapter for TTWV! I tried to make this one a bit longer than usual. The end is in sight now.
At WildVegeta: Your amazing story "Dark Past" has been an inspiration to me recently. I adore that story so much. I re-read the entire thing the other day. It actually prompted the burst of motivation for this chapter. I'm glad you still enjoy this story!
At Masenko56: I'm glad you have been thinking about how it might end. I think it's great if you did indeed figure it out. You should know that there is one event that I've been planning a while to have happen, but it's what occurs after this event that is still undecided. There are a few versions I've been leaning towards. You will know it when it happens (eventually!) and when it does, I think you will still be surprised at the twist of it.
At Guest: Guilty as charged. Interesting to think that I started this back when I was a teenager. In my original rendition of this story's plotline, I was about 13. Then I wrote different versions of it a few years later and it eventually created this. I wane badly between being motivated and unmotivated (along with the occasional writers-block). I tried to make it clear how irregular I was in early past chapters, so that those who prefer more consistent authors were made aware.
At pannybaby123: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next one will hopefully come "Soon(TM)".
At those who didn't review, but continue to read the story: Thanks for reading!
Until next time, Sawatdee!
Reminders for this story:
Ages: Vegge (8), Trunks (14), Goten (13), Marron (11), Pan (3), Bra (2)
Pronunciation of "Vegge": Like "Vh-JEE" (not like "VEH-ji" aka "Veggie")
Full story recap (for CH 1-22): Read "Disclaimer" of Chapter 23.