Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction ❯ Remembrance ❯ Part V ( Chapter 5 )

Fun Disclaimer:  I do not own the rights to any of the DBZ characters contained within.  The Greek Myth of Helen of Troy is public domain, so yay.  I have made no money in the making of this story, well actually that's not true.  I was at work when I wrote part of it but I made no money off of this story, it just kept me occupied for long hours.  This story also contains scenes of sex and death.  Please be mature in reading this.

A Big thank you goes out to Mia Skywalker for beta'ing this.

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::Text here.:: = Character's direct thoughts
*Text here.* = thoughts that are not coming directly from the character themselves.

Remembrance

PART V

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She was one of the few who saw it happen.  An arrow, shot over the high walls of the city, pierced the Trojan prince's chest, felling him.

At that same instant, a sharp pain stabbed her heart, making it difficult for her to breathe.

"PARIS!!!" she screamed.  "NO!  Oh Gods, No!"  She tore her eyes from Paris' crumpled form and ran heedlessly up the stairs, shoving soldiers out of her way.  She reached the top and quickly threaded her way across the narrow stone walkway to where her husband lay wounded.

She knelt beside him, her hands held uncertainly in the air.  She wanted to gather him in her arms, but feared injuring him even further.  His hand had closed around the arrow and with a sudden motion he ripped it from his body.  Blood spurted from the wound, flowing out from under his armor to stain the stones beneath him.

Unable to restrain herself any longer, she threw herself atop him, clutching him fiercely.  Tears flowed heedlessly down her cheeks as she lifted her head to look into his eyes.  Her heart lurched when she saw the raw emotions mirrored there.  He loved her, she could see that clearly, but he also feared for her.

Raising himself up onto one arm, Paris lifted his hand weakly to her face.  Slowly, tenderly, he brushed the tears away, crooning all the while under his breath. "Shhhhh . . . my little love . . . shhhh."

She sat up and clutched his hand to her face.  She couldn't control the flow of tears streaming from her eyes, a part of her was dying and she couldn't stop it.  "Why?" she asked with a broken catch in her voice.

He continued to smooth the tears away.  "Hush, my love.  Hush."

"You tell me that all the time!" she sniffed indignantly through her sobs.

"And do you ever listen?  No, you do not," he replied with a small chuckle.  He then flinched and grimaced, looking down at his body.

She followed his gaze, noticing the blood pooling under him, before she turned back her eyes to him, stricken.   "Paris . . ." she started.

"I know," he said leaning back once again on the walkway of the battlements.  Abruptly, he turned his head and coughed into his hand.  When he pulled his arm away, his palm was covered in blood and the thick liquid stained his lips. 

She lifted the hem of her chiton and wiped away the blood from his face, noting absently that much of the fabric was already covered with the substance. “I need to get you a healer.” She moved to go fetch one with his hand stopped her.

“A healer will not help me now.”

“You don't know that! You can't know that!” she cried hysterically.

He sadly shook his head. “A true warrior knows when he has been mortally wounded. I have always been a true warrior, my heart.”

She nodded, know that what he was telling her was true. "But why do you have to leave me?" she asked plaintively.

"I . . . I do not wish to.  It . . . is the will of the Gods." It was getting harder for him to speak.

"Damn the Gods!" she cried heedlessly, throwing her body against his chest.  "I need you."

"Hush . . . I will see you again," he soothed her, lifting his arms to stroke her back.

"When?" she whispered, burrowing further into his embrace.

"I do not know, my little one.  But I swear on the Goddess Aphrodite that my soul will find yours once again.  Just . . . just wait for me."

She felt something strum through her as if his words had been a spell. She lifted her head to appraise him.  His obsidian eyes glittered fiercely with determination.  "I believe you, my prince," she said slowly, digesting his words. "I will have to wait for you.  I am incomplete without you," she said simply.

He began coughing heavily as his lungs tried vainly to expel the liquid filling them, pushing her away from him.  She thought she heard him say something, but she couldn't make out the words.  When the fit subsided, he turned back to face her.  His eyes filled with tears and he tried to whisper something.  But his voice failed him. 

For the first time, she hushed him.  Slowly she bent over and pressed her lips to his.  When she pulled back to look into his face once more, he gave her a half smirk and breathed out raggedly.  As the breath left his body, his eyes closed. 

And he was gone.

His final moment was so peaceful, that it took her a minute before she realized that her husband was dead.  When she did, her body started to shake uncontrollably.  With a trembling hand she traced the sharp contours of his face, feeling the baby soft skin beneath.  Silently, she leaned forward once more and kissed the still warm yet unresponsive lips.

She felt strong hands clasp her shoulders and turned to look into the sad face of the bald captain of the guards.  Brusquely brushing his hands from her, she stood.  She looked up at the bright blue sky and whispered, "I will find you my love, my heart, my soul, again someday."

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The dream tonight completely decided her.  She had awakened from her sleep with tears in her eyes.  Even now, she could feel the incompleteness fueled by Paris' death.

Slipping from her bed, she made her way over to Vegeta's room, prepared mentally as well as physically to end these dreams. She slipped into Vegeta's room and shut the door behind her with a soft click. Slowly, she made her way over to his bed.

He lay sprawled on the bed, his brow drenched in sweat.  He tossed and turned restlessly, occasionally crying out in his sleep.  She paused, regarding him intently.  She drew in a deep breath and touched his face with one trembling hand.  Instantly, he quieted at her touch but did not waken.  Slowly she stroked the sharp planes of his face.  He shifted and awakened slowly.

His eyes widened when he saw her and he sat up in bed.  “What are you doing here, woman?” he demanded harshly.

“I'm here to reclaim my soul,” she said softly.

His eyes widened further at the half-forgotten memory, then narrowed at her.  “What does that have to do with me?”

She paused, debating with herself.  How much should she tell him?  She decided to tell him the truth.  “Everything.  I lost a part of my soul when you died during the Trojan War.  I'm here to get it back,” she murmured firmly, moving closer to him.

He gasped at her mention of Troy, but he said nothing.  He inhaled her soft scent and looked piercingly at her, raising an eyebrow.

“I love you, Vegeta.  I think I always have.  That's why I invited you to stay here.  That's why I think you're able to make me so angry,” she explained half to herself and half to him.

“Woman . . .” he growled at her.

“I need you, Vegeta,” she murmured, moving in to kiss him.  Suddenly, everything was right.  Everything felt whole again.  He must have experienced the same feeling of completeness, because he wrapped her tightly in his arms, pulling her closer.

They pulled away and looked into each other's eyes, feeling their souls unite and become one.

Vegeta blinked and she saw tears fill his eyes and she knew he felt the same thing. “My queen, I have found you,” he whispered hoarsely.

 “And I've found you,” she murmured in return. She kissed him once briefly.

“That was too brief of a kiss, my little love.”

She rejoiced at the endearment and breathed. “What do you plan to do about that?”

He showed her just what he planned to do about it.

~~~~****~~~~

A smile touched the immortal's face as she looked down at the two entwined lovers and she turned to look at her companion.

“Thank you, Lord Enma.  I owed those two souls.  They should not suffer for my mistake,” she murmured, brushing a tear away from her eye.

“You were a good goddess, Aphrodite.  It's too bad that no one believes in you anymore,” the large demon that judged souls said sadly.

The beautiful Greek goddess smiled enigmatically and replied, “So long as there are lovers, I have worshipers.”

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Authors Notes and Explanations.

This is it, the final part to my story. I hope you enjoyed it.

The very rough form of this story appeared as a part of Adimra's Fanfiction contest.  But I didn't like how incomplete it felt.  So I added a few parts and fleshed out several scenes, mostly in the present day timeline.  I still feel that more could be added, but I like how it flows right now so I doubt that I will edit this more soon.

I really want to thank Mia Skywalker for Beta'ing this for me.  I know I've said it before, but she is an excellent writer and good influence on me.  This is my first attempt at writing a lemon.  I will honestly admit that I learned part of how to write a sex scene from both reading and beta'ing some of her fics.

Now on to some of the more mundane explanations.

I deliberately did not identify which characters were which in the past-life regressions.  But for those of you still confused here is the list.

Helen of Troy - Bulma
Paris - Vegeta
Meneleaus - Yamcha

I know I left out several key points from the original Greek Myth.  One, Helen has a daughter by Meneleaus and the other key issue I left out was Helen is an immortal.  She is the daughter of Zeus and Leda and her twin brothers are Castor and Pollux. So for those of you who are Greek Mythology afficianados I apologize. But neither point worked well with my story and Helen being immortal was just going to be a huge stumbling block.

This idea for the story came to me after reading three completely unrelated stories on very short succession.  The first is Mythic Descent by Dragoness Eclectic.  This story reminded me of the whole idea of reincarnation, which happens in DBZ when a soul has not led a good enough of a life to warrant heaven but isn't bad enough to deserve hell.  The second story is Remembrance by Jude Devereaux.  A very sweet story about a romance writer who is looking for her true love and has to go back in time to right the wrongs done in one of her past lives (Yes, I stole my title from hers, but could you think of a better one?).  The final story is The Golden Drum by an author whose name I forget (it's in a book of short stories).  It is also the story of reincarnation and finding your true love after fate cruelly separates you.

I also decided to try something a little different an Exploration of non-linear and linear story telling combined.  The Modern day timeline is linear and the Trojan War is non-linear.  Since the Greek Myth is more well-known, I felt that I could break it up like I did and not confuse my readers too much.

Please let me know what you think of this.