Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Amazon & Saiyan: Consequences ❯ Whispers in the Night ( Chapter 6 )

Yes, I know it's taken me ages, but I've finally gotten around to writing the next chapter! Hope you find it worth your wait! (First signs of plot poke their heads through the character interactions)

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Amazon & Saiyan

Chapter 6: Whispers in the Night

Vegeta shifted in the chair yet another time, unable to sit still any longer. He'd been watching his mate sleep since the King had carried her up here, and with no outlet for his massive energy, he was quickly growing frustrated. He was used to training all day long-or familiarizing himself with the features on this blasted planet that he had so conveniently become stuck upon. Never before in his life had he stayed in one place for so long-not even his home planet.

Restless eyes settled down on the figure dwarfed by the massive bed that she still slept in. There were a few things on this planet that redeemed its downfalls. Two actually. The first was what had brought him here-those blasted Dragonballs. And the second, more redeeming feature, was that it had produced her.

The Saiyan Prince rose and stood over his mate, studying her features. There was a bruise on her cheek that was yellowing nicely-and he'd left the imprint of his fingers on her arms in the form of a vivid blue bruise. Vegeta carefully examined the rest of the skin he could see-most of these bruises had appeared overnight, making his mate look like a battered woman.

He gently traced a line of unmarked skin across her clavicle, pausing to prod delicately at his bite mark, which had almost entirely healed. While his fingers hovered over the other mark, which had not diminished, something caught his attention.

There was something…some sort of mark, upon her breast. One that he'd never seen before. He pulled at the neckline of her nightgown to examine it closer. A tiny red flame was imprinted above her heart-neither scar nor tattoo. It looked like some sort of birthmark, almost…but Vegeta knew that it couldn't be. Birthmarks, at least Saiyan ones, faded at maturity-and as far as he knew so did most humans'.

The stocky Saiyan Prince leaned over his mate and brought his eyes down closer to the intriguing mark, examining it in minute detail. Too perfect to be a birthmark, it looked like someone had taken a tiny hot poker and carefully drawn a handful of flames over her heart. He knew he hadn't seen it before, and that humans didn't have marks that just appeared and disappeared.

He wondered if the red-haired woman knew what was going on. She understood why his mate had simply passed out, but she hadn't explained it to him, only said that there was nothing they could do but wait for her to wake up. Vegeta tried to find her ki, but found that hers was just as non-existent as his mate's was. The King was somewhere across the castle, but he had learned long ago to never disturb a ruler when they were busy.

Resigning himself to wait until his mate could explain things to him, his gaze wandered around the set of rooms that she called her chambers. There was the bedchamber, which they were in now and a bathroom the size of her kitchen at Mt. Paotzu. There was one more door connected to the other side of her bedroom that Vegeta had not been through yet.

Curious, Vegeta strode over to it intending to see what was inside, but was stopped by someone coming through the main door. The Queen stood in the doorless opening, plaiting the ends of her long hair. She nodded to him. "Going in there without permission is a good way to make your mate angry at you, Vegeta."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "She is my mate-she will do what I wish."

"If you say so," Merebai chuckled. "The first time you make her really mad you may change your mind." She cocked her head and stared at him for a moment before sighing slightly and straightening up in the armchair she had just sat down in, looking down at him in a royal manner. "Would you sit down? I need to ask you something."

Vegeta glared at her. "What would I know that you need," he shot back, disgruntled with being left out of the loop.

"You, my dearest nephew," Vegeta bristled, "have been one place I've never been and will never be able to go," Merebai said calmly, folding her hands in her lap. "Off this planet."

Vegeta grunted. "Fine. What do you want?"

The woman known among her people as the Silver Wolf, watched him solemnly, eyes dark with a reluctant sympathy. "Tell me about Frieza."

The change that came over the tense Saiyan was fast and drastic. His eyes narrowed in anger, and with a flash of light and a lightning quick ki-spike, he had gone Super-Saiyan, shattering the door he was still holding onto.

"Frieza is an abomination," he spat roughly, eyes burning with rage, "a tyrant without honor."

Merebai continued to sit in her chair, not even reacting to the man's transformation; or his anger. She merely nodded and supported her chin with one thumb, fingers folded across her lips in thought. "Warriors without honor," she mused quietly, "are generally either absurdly predictable or wickedly impossible to deal with." She glanced up at him, her eyes bottomless depths of worried pewter. "This Frieza; he is a cunning man?"

Vegeta paced across the thick carpet like a caged lion, each and every step tracked by the keen eyes of the Queen. "He takes great pleasure in creating pain," he finally growled. "The pain of others, too powerful to waste, but to weak to resist. If he has no use for something it is simply destroyed and never spoken of again."

The Queen was silent for a long moment. "And does he have a weakness?"

"Why would you want to know?" Vegeta retorted. "This planet and its weakling inhabitants mean nothing to him. He had Kakarot sent here to destroy it. If anything, he would send someone to finish the job-but he has far too many other important things to deal with. Your planet is of little consequence in the ways of galactic politics."

A blood red eyebrow lifted in an arch towards her hairline. "If this planet means so little, then how did you end up here?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "It is none of your business, woman. I am here because I choose to be."

The Queen drew herself to her full height in the chair, radiating not a physical power, but a mental one eerily reminiscent of his own father's. "If your presence here endangers this planet or its inhabitants in any way, Prince of Saiyans, it is my business." She glanced at the dark-haired woman still asleep in the bed. "I know why you stay-but what brought you here in the first place?"

Vegeta stared at his mate as she lay still, eyes tracing the now-familiar contours of her face, similar to the woman who sat in the chair a few feet away, the tiniest hints of a smile at the corners of her mouth as she watched him. "Power," he admitted. "I sought the power to defeat Frieza; and the Dragonballs were the easiest way to do that. With immortality, I could train until I had become the legendary Super-Saiyan without worrying about dying."

"Some things," Merebai assured him with a knowing smile, "come best without the aid of forces we cannot grasp."

Vegeta crossed his arms across her chest. "When the time is right," he vowed, "Frieza will pay for his crimes against my people."

"There is a time and a place for everything under the heavens," the red-haired woman quoted some popular Earthling phrase the Saiyan had heard many times. Then she looked back at Chichi. "Your people's revenge will come in time, Vegeta, but you must let it come to you." Before he could comment, she continued. "Frieza. His weakness?"

"Power," Vegeta snorted. "Legend has it that a Super-Saiyan would defeat him, and he has spent his entire life becoming stronger in hopes that he would be strong enough when the time came. Why he destroyed my people-why he wanted the Namekian Dragonballs."

Merebai nodded. "The Dragonballs can do amazing things; but even they have limits. Now that he thinks you are dead, will he continue on his quest for their wishes?"

"They can increase his power without any effort on his part. He will only stop when he has his wish, or is dead," Vegeta reasoned. And Vegeta's reasoning said clearly that Frieza wasn't dead. Kakarot couldn't have killed the man who had killed all of his people. That right was reserved for Vegeta alone; besides, the Ice-jin was far too stubborn to die and stay dead. Vegeta's chance would come soon-he was sure of it.

The Queen sighed. "I had thought as much, but I needed to hear it from someone who knew more of him than what you hear along the Godly grapevine." She rubbed her eyes wearily. "This Frieza sounds like a formidable opponent."

Vegeta glared at her. "What do you know?"

Merebai shrugged. "Nothing that you do not know yourself; whispers in the night, too tenuous to be rumors. Just instincts that I must follow or discard as the evidence shows. When it comes to physical safety from outside sources the lives of every creature on this planet, including that of the Kami, rest upon my shoulders, and my shoulders alone. I must be prepared for every possibility that may occur. There are many different sets of dragonballs scattered around the galaxy; it is very likely that Frieza will find one of them."

"And if he comes anyway?"

She studied him for a moment, judging. "There are greater treasures on this planet than the Dragonballs, most of them kept secret from me. It is my duty to protect them-to keep them, whatever they may be, from falling into the wrong hands. If I have to destroy the Dragonballs to keep my planet safe, I will do so without hesitation." She closed her eyes for a moment. "If he comes, we will be ready for him."

Vegeta snorted. "You will never be ready for Frieza. Not even the Saiyans were, and look what happened to them."

Merebai glanced at his mate again, then looked him straight in the eye. "They're not as gone as you might think, Vegeta," she murmured quietly. "I will be back when Chilashi wakes; I have other matters to see to." She rose from her chair in a fluid movement and glided back out the door, leaving Vegeta where he had been in the first place; alone with his mate, with nothing to do but sit and think. Except this time, he had something to think about.

* * * * * * *

She was in a world of darkness and light, two extremes, fighting for domination. The sky and landscape around her was blacker than the depths of Vegeta's eyes, randomly transformed into a world of pure light by vicious lightning clashes.

There was no thunder.

The Amazon Princess picked herself up off the ground and rubbed an ache in the webbing between her thumb and forefingers. Her fingers came away crimson from the blood that drizzled from a bite mark that had appeared there.

Chichi lifted her hand to the base of her throat, checking to see if either of the marks there was bleeding. Her hand found only smooth, unmarred flesh; the two wounds that had sealed her to two different men were gone, as if they had never existed.

Withdrawing her hand as if burnt, the young woman looked around her, taking stock of her surroundings in the strobe light effects created by the clashing of extreme light and darkness. With a sickening lurch, she realized exactly where she was; a place sacred to all Amazons, but most especially its royal family-the heavy stones so carefully placed around her had seen many dynasties of rulers come and go.

Walking slowly through the heavy black mist that permeated the air around her, she made her way to where the entrance to the cave should be, and it was-except the guards always posted there were gone. Not gone, she corrected herself grimly as her world became white again for a few seconds. Dead. There were two figures crumpled on the ground a few feet away, bodies locked in the unnatural stiffness of death.

She leaned over the closer one, tentatively brushing back a strand of the woman's light red hair to see if she recognized her. Hands clamped over her mouth in horror, she sprang back from the body, silent tears streaming down her face. The light amber eyes staring blankly up at the sky belonged to her mother.

Chichi didn't understand. Her mother had been dead for almost two decades now, and she hadn't died in battle, as the wounds across the body suggested. Octavia Mao had died at home in her bed from the effects of the poison-not like this.

Biting down on her lip, she approached the second body, and after a glimpse of that face, the woman backed off. The second guard was her Aunt Merebai; she had a shattered Dragonball in one hand, her sword in the other, and some sort of stake through her heart.

"Mom!" A very familiar boy's scream shattered the silence.

Chichi whirled towards it, forgetting the gruesome sight at her feet. "Gohan," she called back, praying he would answer her. "Gohan!"

"NO!" The voice shrieked, echoing throughout the opening that the two dead women had died protecting. "No-DON'T!"

Without pausing to think, Chichi strode to the body of her mother plucked the sword from where it had fallen when she'd died. The glint of a small crossbow caught her attention-she untied the quiver belt from Octavia's waist and wrapped it around her own. Pausing only long enough to collect her Aunt's sword and dagger, she darted into the cave that stretched into the very bowels of the earth.

The stairs seemed to go on forever, but she didn't slow down or pause to catch her breath, just continued to run-sometimes jumping down twenty or thirty steps at once. After what seemed like an eternity, she'd finally traversed the entire length of the staircase and come out into the caverns below-and into another mass of bodies.

She spared them only a single glance-they were obviously dead and there was nothing she could do about it. If she had bothered to look closer, she would have seen a few familiar figures among them; a man with three eyes, another one with a set of scars on his face, and a third with no hair. But the Princess didn't look close enough for her attention was entirely on the little boy at the end of the cavern, peering into the next with a horrified expression.

Chichi nearly choked when she saw him. Her baby was nothing but skin and bones-paler than alabaster, and the skin that his gi wouldn't cover was dotted by tiny paired scabs; old wounds not yet healed. She nearly sobbed; he'd never looked this bad, not even after battles that had left him in need of hospitalization. Kneeling next to him, she reached out a hand to stroke back the unkempt hair, but he didn't notice her. "Gohan?" She questioned softly. "Gohan?"

The boy didn't even blink, continuing to stare at something out in the main cavern. Chichi looked to see what was going on and instinctively planted one hand over Gohan's eyes. There, in the shallows of the Fountain pool, a woman with long black hair lay flat on her back within the waters, locked in passion with a short man with flamelike hair and a long brown tail.

She bit down on her lip and averted her eyes as the soft moans echoed throughout the cavern, recognizing the woman to be herself, and the Saiyan as Vegeta, mimicking the events of a few nights ago. What was going on? Why was Gohan here? Why were they all here in general? This was a sacred place; to mate here was blasphemous!

The sounds coming from the Fountain chamber increased in intensity, and Chichi wished she had a third hand to cover Gohan's ears with. This was private-no sight for a little boy; although she had to admit the view she had of Vegeta here was rather nice. She stopped that train of thought abruptly and flushed. You're in the middle of a vision, she scolded herself, and all you can do is think like a hormonal schoolgirl?

She glanced up in time to see Vegeta's mouth find her other-self's neck, and hear her hoarse cry as he bit down and left his mark. She turned even redder if that was possible, and physically inserted her body between Gohan and the sight, although she realized that she couldn't interact with anything living here.

The next scream she heard was not one of pleasure; it was one of pain, fear, and anger.

She let go of Gohan and whirled, and what she saw sickened her. The woman (it was much easier to think of her as a stranger than herself), who Chichi could see was now in the formal robes of an Amazon Queen, had just pushed the Saiyan off of her and risen, rocking unsteadily on her feet. The Saiyan was staring at her, his eyes glinting red in the darkness. "What was that for, wench?"

"You know exactly what that was for," the woman's voice was colder than a dead star. "You bit me!"

"Of course I did," the Saiyan purred in a low voice, stepping close to her, rubbing his thumb across the wound that was bleeding openly at her throat-staining the blue silk of her outfit with scarlet pools. "We needed a reunion."

The woman glared at him. "Not like this, Vegeta. Not like this." She sighed and closed her eyes, visibly weakening. "We had something once; but never again."

Vegeta prowled closer to the woman, whispering something so tainted with foreboding that Chichi felt her blood freeze in her heart. "We could be great together, you know," he whispered seductively. "With your powers and my strength no-one could stand before us. Not even them."

The woman's face hardened as she stared unflinchingly at the Prince. "And what happens once there is none to stop us?" She shook her head, the glittering waters of the Fountain shimmering in her long black tresses. "I will sell my soul to save my planet, but I will not become what I have fought so long against."

Vegeta's laugh was mocking. "And what will you do once your precious planet is safe? We have become monsters-they will kill us anyway. All of us. He has made you and the others a danger to your own planet." He leaned closer, tracing the line of her cheek in a curiously gentle gesture, tail lashing almost lazily behind him. "It doesn't have to be this way. There are places where you would still be the Queen of Earth. Join me."

The woman shook her head, setting her blood red lips into a firm line, black eyes snapping. "No. Earth is my home. I will not abandon it."

The forceful statement triggered a change so forceful in the Saiyan it was like passing from pure sunlight into the deepest darkness. With a low growl, he transformed into what Chichi knew was called Super-Saiyan, lifting a hand to develop a ki blast. "So be it, woman. You have decided your own fate."

The woman stepped backwards calmly, continuing to retreat despite the fact that she was now waist deep in the Fountain's waters. "Do your best," she answered firmly. "There will be another to take my place. You can't wipe us all out."

Vegeta snarled. "I can exterminate you one at a time."

"NO!" A boy's voice shrieked, and Gohan slid around Chichi to insert himself between his mother and Vegeta. "Don't!"

The Saiyan Prince scoffed. "Get out of the way, boy. Your mother has had her chance."

"No." The boy repeated stubbornly. "You can't kill her! She's all I have left!"

The woman showed no visible expression, although she kept glancing at the boy. "Gohan," she ordered quietly. "Please stay out of this." She turned her attention to the Prince. "Hurts, doesn't it? To know how it feels to have your own turned against you?" She sent him a cold smirk. "Now you know how I have lived these last few years." She approached him, the waters coating her skirts and making them shine like mercury. "Quite the quandary, eh, my Prince? It is your duty to kill your traitorous mate, but will you do so at the alienation of your only subject?"

Vegeta snarled. "I have my orders." The ki blast was pulsating in his hand, the woman flinching with each bright flash. Faster than Chichi could follow, he directed it towards the woman, but the boy stepped between the blast and its target. It hit him squarely in the chest, killing him instantaneously.

"No!" The woman and Chichi shrieked in one breath. Before Chichi could react, the woman had summoned a black-handled blade to her hand, charging at the Saiyan Prince with inhuman speed. As a tiny bit of Gohan's blood trickled into the Fountain's waters, the pool began to churn, the silvery substance vibrating with the energy of Earth. The planet was angry-angrier than Chichi had ever felt it. Pure raw energy began to collect and gather above the waters, a miniature storm brewing deep within a cave.

Chichi rushed forward to her son's body, gathering him in his arms, checking vainly in any hope that he could have possibly survived that blast. He hadn't.

The woman's anguished scream pulled Chichi's grief-filled gaze back to the twisted battle before her. This woman who wore Chichi's face moved with deadly grace, channeling scarlet ki down the length of her blade. Vegeta didn't even have a chance to react, such was the strength of her anger. His head was separated from his body with a single stroke of the swinging blade, both falling to the ground in a dull thud.

Sobbing softly, the woman turned back to her son's body, ignoring Chichi's presence. She held him against her bloodied chest, continuing to wail. As Chichi watched, the woman's grief was cut off when her breath left her. Startled, she lifted a hand to her throat, which was still bleeding ribbons down onto both her ice-and-navy clothes and the body of her son. She was bleeding to death.

In slow motion, the fiery eyes widened, the last vestiges of strength draining rapidly from her body. With one quiet last gasp she looked up straight into Chichi's eyes and smiled. Then, still clutching the body of her son, she fell gracefully back into the Fountain, which immediately began to roil.

Numb, Chichi watched as the Queen and her child were consigned into that which every earthling came from. She had just watched her son's death-and her own. Shock coursed through her veins like icy water, rendering even the simplest thoughts impossible.

But she wasn't done yet. The sound of footsteps sounded behind her, and a spiky-haired man in an orange gi bounded into the room, stopping at the sight of the bodies resting beneath the wavy surface of the Fountain. Many expressions flitted across his face, confusion, followed by anger, grief, and finally, sadness.

Goku turned to look at her-and he actually saw her, something indefinable in his eyes. "You could have stopped this!" He cried out, looking angrier than she had ever seen him. "Why didn't you?"

Before Chichi could answer, the storm roared to life. Lightning struck across the cave, filling it with such brightness that Chichi was forced to close her eyes, still hearing the man's question echo in her mind.

When she opened them again, she was staring at the four entwined dragon-tails that made up the canopy of her bed at Mt. Frypan. The warm blankets that had been pulled up to her shoulders did nothing to ward away the chill encompassing her body. She turned her head without lifting it from the pillows, sensing her mate's presence in the room with her.

Vegeta was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, chin resting in one hand. His feet were bare-his boots sat next to his elbow, gloves stuffed in them so the fingers stuck out the top. Eyes closed, his entire posture screamed deep thought to her; he wasn't aware that she had woken. There was a tiny little crease between his brows, indicating he was thinking. It was begging to be touched.

Gathering her strength, she slipped out of the high bed, wincing as sore muscles reminded her of the stress she had put her body through in the last few days and the room spun slightly. Moving gingerly, she crossed the few steps to where her mate sat and settled herself in the carpet across from him. She reached out and caressed the soft line that had formed above his nose.

Dark eyes snapped open and a hand reached up to catch her with the speed of a striking cobra. He held her hand a few millimeters away from their intended target, regarding her crossly. "You're awake." His voice was gruff.

"No," she replied, a bit of an edge to her voice, "I'm still asleep in bed. What are you doing on the floor?"

"What are you doing on the floor," he retorted, easing the steel grip he had on her wrist. "You should be in bed."

She lifted a shoulder, ignoring the strap of her nightgown as it slid down one arm. "I'm fine; you looked like you have enough to worry about."

He shook his head. "It is nothing that concerns you."

Chichi lifted her brows and squished her behind more firmly into the thick carpeting and studied her mate's face. He was wearing an expression that she had seen many times during her few stays in Amazonia, and worn it just as often herself. "Aunt Bai said something to you, didn't she?"

His fingers twitched slightly on her wrist, which was now in his lap, and she knew she had struck the nail squarely on the head-with a sledgehammer. "Don't worry about it too much," she advised, rubbing delicate circles on his arm with her captive fingers. "Aunt Bai has a talent for making the people around her…question themselves. She was trained to do that ever since she was a little girl."

The Saiyan shrugged his broad shoulders. "Her methods are very effective."

Chichi sighed and pulled her wrist free from his grip but kept her hand in his. "Don't let her bother you. She just takes her duties very seriously." She was silent for a long moment. "I need to go find her…she and Papa are down in the family room." She pulled her hand free from his and rose to her feet, willing the cottony feeling in her mouth and the dizziness to flee.

A hand grabbed her elbow, steadying her as the room continued to whirl. Vegeta was standing behind her, keeping her grounded as she swayed. Before she could protest he had lifted her against his chest, cradling her like a small child. "You should be in bed," he informed, intending to put her back there.

Chichi shook her hand and grabbed the front of his spandex shirt. She'd spent a lifetime in that bed-she didn't want to go back. She had to talk to her Aunt. "No, I'll be fine." He stopped, holding her a few inches above the feather mattress. "Put me down; please?"

He dropped her gently onto the mattress.

She glared at him, and he stared back, daring her to say anything. She took his challenge. "This isn't what I had in mind."

He grunted. "You said you wanted down."

She rolled her eyes and pushed herself to a sitting position before swinging out of bed. This time, however, she didn't even so much as put weight on her feet before the dizziness overwhelmed her. She sat on the bed, clutching the nearest post for dear life while waiting for the world to reorient itself. When it finally did, Vegeta's eyes were only a few inches away from hers. "There is something wrong with you," he grunted, eyes flashing in anger. "They said you would be fine."

"I should have been," she admitted, rubbing at her aching brow. "But something's happened and I'm not sure what it is." She yawned and leaned her head against the scarred post. "Aunt Bai should have some idea…she's been dealing with this kind of thing years longer than I have."

Vegeta frowned. "Where is this family room they are in?"

His mate considered his question. "They're in the one by the kitchens, but it's raining…so you can't go through the courtyard." She looked to the window, where lightning streaked across the sky. "Down the hall on this level is a staircase-on the next floor down there will be a door painted red. On the other side of that door is another staircase. You have to go down two flights of stairs there-and there is a hallway that will take you down past the statue of Herne the Strong. You take the passage to the right, and…" she sighed and abruptly changed her mind. "It will be easier to show you myself."

Before she could try to get up again, Vegeta reached down and picked her up again, this time arranging the woman who was tall as he was in a position that he could carry her easily in, while still giving her the ability to observe her surroundings. While this place wasn't quite as expansive as Capsule Corps, it was a labyrinth of tiny rooms, half-hidden passages, and corridors that looked too much alike for him to keep his bearings.

His mate, predictably, struggled in protest. He shifted his balance as she did, slightly amused that she had been practically forced into his arms three times today. If he didn't know any better he would have thought he was softening-but she was his mate. Any pain on her behalf would eventually trickle over to him. Vegeta had enough to worry about without hurting himself with his mate's pain. "Hold still," he ordered. "Struggling will not make me put you down."

"But I'm heavy."

Vegeta snorted. "Your son weighs more than you do, ema, and he still has years to go before he reaches his adult proportions." He tightened his hand on her posterior, squeezing gently. "You weigh little more than a infant." It was the truth; he could have carried her easily with one hand, had she not been so damned tall. He suspected that when it came down to it, she would stand taller than he in bare feet, although he'd never admit it.

Her face darkened, and she partially relaxed against him, although she was still strung out like an angsty teenager. "He's…he's been hurt," she began wistfully. "I don't know what happened to him, and I don't know where he is, either. Just that he's in pain."

Vegeta grunted, not knowing exactly what to say. Her brat wasn't his problem. Instead of trying to say anything that would always be wrong no matter what it was, he merely walked towards the door. "Which way are we going?"

"Left," Chichi ordered, leaning back against his chest. "All the way down to the end of the hall."

And so they went, the Prince carrying the Princess he had chosen to make his mate, inhaling her scent. Beneath the bath oils she smelled like the deep woods-and a tangy shadow of wood smoke hung over her like a cloud. His mate was well-acquainted with the fires of life-and she had not been diminished.

Eventually they came out into a small rough-hewn room, the walls covered with thick hangings of grotesque figures wielding ancient weapons against even more gruesome monsters. There was heavy furniture scattered all over the place, and the woman's father was reclining in a chair obviously made to fit his large frame. The too-slender figure of the Queen was arrayed on one of the couches. Their eyes were fixed blearily on an ancient television propped against one wall.

Both of the older adults jerked wearily to attention back when Vegeta toted the supposedly sleeping woman in and put her down on one of the couches before throwing himself onto the cushions next to her. He glared at the two curious faces staring at them. "There is something wrong with her," he announced sternly. "And I want to know what it is."

The change that his words brought over the adults was astonishing. Merebai was off the couch and beside his mate in a flash, the King of Ox not far behind. Chichi flinched back from them as they both leaned over her, murmuring worries. "Chi-chan," the big man gushed in anxiety, "What is wrong? Do I need to go for Doctor Hoek?"

Merebai looked no less worried, and even put her hand on Chichi's brow. "What's wrong dear? You were sleeping fine when I checked on you last time."

Chichi flinched away from their attention, weakly pushing her body back into the leather couch. Vegeta growled. "She needs to breathe," he snapped at the adults.

Ox and Merebai both pinned him with disgruntled stares, but they did both back off. Just a bit. Merebai plopped down on the couch beside her and touched her arm lightly. "Can you tell us what happened, hatchling?"

Chichi nodded, taking extreme care not to move her head too far, as if she might get dizzy again. "I felt Gohan," she murmured. "He was angry. He has every right to be…and Piccolo was following him. Their kis were close. But then something happened. Gohan was in pain; and then he just winked out!" She blinked furiously for a moment. "And then," she paused, remembering the vision, one that she didn't want to bother them with, "then I woke up."

"She was so dizzy she couldn't stand," Vegeta informed tersely, wrapping his arms beneath his chest.

The Queen's eyebrows lowered to the point where they nearly met at the bridge of her nose. "Dizzy?"

Chichi nodded again. "The whole room just…whirled. I couldn't keep my balance." She glanced up at her Aunt. "Is it a side effect of what happened to Gohan and our bond?"

Merebai pursed her lips and grazed her eyes up and down Chichi, examining her for something…Vegeta was startled to feel a sliver of cool ki float around the room, but it retracted quickly, leaving only the sense of himself and the big man. He shook his head, wondering which woman it had come from. They were both like walking black holes-they had no ki at all.

Merebai glanced back up at Ox in some kind of unspoken question. Ox nodded. "Hatchling," Merebai began, "you're very tired; and what has happened to Gohan, and no, we don't know where he is, we're still looking," she inserted as Chichi opened her mouth, "but what happened to him could cause some of what you're feeling, especially since your energy is so low."

Vegeta was struck with the impulse that he would not like what was coming next. Was she ill? Had he mated a woman who had some sort of illness that would slowly take her away from him?

Chichi locked gazes with her Aunt. "I know you know what's going on." Her voice was flat and hard and her pulse quickened on her neck. "Tell me," she demanded with all the bluntness of a battering ram.

The red-haired woman bit down on her lip for just a moment, then shrugged. "Your ki is being drained," she said simply. "And at the moment you don't have enough to go around."

Vegeta frowned. He had heard of creatures whom lived off the life energy of others, but he knew there were no such things on Earth. They would have found him by now-or the Namek or the brat, so them being attracted to his comparatively weak mate and not himself was ridiculous.

Chichi, however, had frowned. "Drain my ki," she repeated, cocking her head minutely to one side as she thought. "But what could drain my ki?"

Her Aunt lifted an eyebrow. "What did it last time?"

His mate paused, confused. "Last time? Nothing's ever eaten my ki before. The only time that it was ever depleted aside from battle or the training grounds was when I was carrying." Realization struck, and the force of her shock pushed against Vegeta like a Big Bang Attack.

Hands flew to cover her mouth and her eyes grew wide. "Dear Kami," she murmured hoarsely. "I-I can't be!"

Vegeta heard Ox draw his breath in and hold it, staring at the two women with a half-ecstatic-half-horrified expression. He had no clue what was going on; but it looked like he was the only one.

"I can't be," she repeated softly. "It's too soon." She glanced despairingly at Vegeta. "It hasn't even been a week!"

Merebai reached out and grasped one of her hands, squeezing it in comfort. "You are," she began gently. "I could tell as soon as I laid eyes on you this morning-well, yesterday morning now. Your ki flickers."

Chichi shook her head, a few locks of her long hair caught across her face. "But a baby?"

Vegeta froze.

"Now?" She sighed. "The timing could have been better." She had gone even paler, if that was possible. "Gohan's out there, somewhere, close to dying and we don't even know where he is! He's upset about my bonding Vegeta," she tossed him a tight but genuine smile, "and now…" her voice trailed off. "I'm going to hurt him again."

She tried to push herself up to pace in anger, but Merebai pulled her back down to the couch. "You need to calm down," she ordered. "With your energy stretched as thin as it is, your body won't take much more."

Ox-king, who had remained silent all through this, finally cleared his throat. "I think," he began gruffly, "that we all could use some tea. I'll go and make some." Vegeta found the wise black eyes regarding him. "Would you give me a hand, Vegeta?"

Vegeta opened his mouth to reply that he was the Prince of all Saiyans and did not need to make tea, but something in the man's eyes stopped him. It warned him that protesting would only make his life much more difficult. With a shrug, he picked himself up off the couch and numbly followed the King.

Maybe he would tell him what the hell was going on here.

As soon as the two men had disappeared, Merebai turned back to her niece, pulling her into a gentle embrace. "It will be all right," she soothed. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but it was for the best. You would have hurt yourself and the little one if you hadn't known."

Chichi sat still, too stunned to resist. "But…"

Merebai shushed her. "Last time around we thought you were so ill because you were so young. This time we know better. There is something about carrying a Saiyan baby that weakens your ki, probably because the baby feeds off your life energy as well as your physical energy."

Chichi opened her mouth. "But we don't know that."

"No," Merebai agreed, "we don't. It's just a theory. You were very young when you had Gohan, but given how you're reacting now, I think the weakness is a part of carrying a Saiyan baby." She shook her head. "I would ask Vegeta about the particulars, but I seriously doubt he would speak to me at the moment."

Chichi sighed, tentatively reaching within her for the part of her that was Vegeta and was met only by a writhing mass of deep thought. She redirected her attention to the tiny sliver that was her connection with Gohan and skirted around it. It was too quiet and saturated with pain and touching it would be like touching a hot branding iron. She hadn't the strength to get lost in it, but she needed to know.

She closed her eyes, carefully extending tiny little tendrils of awareness down that bond, pushing them towards the other end with the ease of long familiarity. This was her baby, a tiny little bit of herself that she had nurtured within her and brought into the world. He was her heart, walking around in a body beside her own. Her probes found only pain. Pain and despair. Marshalling what little strength she figured she could spare, she coated it with her love and offered it to him, hoping she could figure out where he was.

Unfortunately, the bond didn't work that way. She could only track kis, not phantom presences she felt in her soul. Although she felt his presence respond to her own and accept what she could offer him, there was no sense of how he'd been hurt or where he was-only that the effort to stay alive took every bit of his energy. The Princess clung to her son until she couldn't possibly stay any longer then pulled away, finding tears of sympathy dripping down her nose.

She gulped air into her lungs, flopping back against the lumpy couch as her spine seemed to melt away. Her Aunt's hands clamped down on hers, squeezing comfortingly as she fought the urge to break down into sobs. "He's hurt so bad," she whispered brokenly to her Aunt. "It's like…the demon…all over again."

Merebai sighed and glanced in the general direction of the kitchen, praying Ox had the sense to brew the right kind of tea. If they didn't get Chichi calmed down and asleep there would be dire consequences for all of them. The girl was strung out worse than a tightrope; any more pressure and she'd unravel. She needed sleep, and preferably a few days of it.

Hopefully by then they could find Gohan.

"Your Father and I both have men out looking for him," she offered gently. "And Mr. Popo said he would ask Kami to look for him when he got back to the Lookout."

Chichi hiccupped and dashed the tears away. "You-you talked to Mr. Popo?"

Merebai nodded. "Yes; he came to tell me that something dangerous had gone missing from one of Kami's vaults here on the surface. I dispatched the Guard to look into it, but not before asking Mr. Popo to ask Kami to look for Gohan. He promised as soon as he heard anything he'd be back."

Chichi nodded and relaxed a bit more, still no less distressed about her son, but unable to find the strength she needed to support her anger. After a moment she collected herself and glanced at Merebai. "Something was stolen from the vaults," she repeated, prying for information. "Is earth in any danger?"

Merebai shook her head. "No. Not from the surface. I haven't heard any whispers about danger from within."

If Chishali turned any paler she'd be transparent. Merebai sat up and regarded her, silver eyes snapping. Had the girl actually been warned about something happening to the planet? "What? Did you see something?"

Chichi shook her head. "No-it was just my subconscious playing tricks on me; it wasn't a whisper. They're…different….from what you've told me," she allowed. "I'm just not sure of anything right now. All I want is my Gohan back."

"We'll find him," Merebai soothed again, wrapping her arms around the exhausted woman. "But until you're feeling better there's nothing you can do, hatchling. You can't' help him when you can't take care of yourself."

"I know," the woman admitted, leaning against her Aunt. "But he's my son, I have to do something."

Merebai ran her fingers through the mussed black hair and pulled her head down to settle on her shoulder. They sat like that in silence for several minutes, aunt and niece, content to be in each other's presence despite the grim circumstances and raging storm. Here within the castle walls they were safer than they would be than almost anywhere else, and it was comforting to know that.

The murmur of the TV in the background was comforting, and Chichi listened to it, trying her hardest to stay awake. Apparently this storm was some sort of freak weather front that had just popped up over most of the planet, and the experts had yet to determine the whys or hows of the matter. They only knew that it was fiercer in some places than in others, ranging from tsunami-sized gales to light rain-but it was there.

She jumped in surprise when Vegeta burst into the room, arms full of logs and looking more than a tad disgusted. Her father followed him, pushing a serving cart laden with delicate china and a small pile of assorted goodies that she knew he would have baked that afternoon, and she had to admit they smelled marvelous.

Ox smiled at her, and looked at Vegeta. "Just put them next to the fireplace," he said lightly before settling the contents of the cart to the small coffee table, the delicate chinawear looking like mere toys in his large hands.

Chichi found herself holding a cup full of a very dark, murky tea and a plate with a chocolate éclair and a square of baclava on it. "Tea first," her father urged. "Vegeta made it."

Chichi glanced at Vegeta, who had just sat down beside her. He grumbled and looked away. She smiled and took a sip of the drink, fighting the urge not to spit it out. It tasted horrible! Like….like muddy water that had been mixed with sludge and boiled with old coffee grounds. She forced herself to swallow it and managed a smile at Vegeta. "Thanks," she said, "It's a little…strong." Not wanting to insult him, she closed her eyes and downed the rest of the cup in a few quick swallows, not noticing the wink her father and aunt shared.

Sitting the cup down firmly, she crammed an end of the éclair into her mouth, hoping to get some of that taste out of her mouth. Not even half of the sweet chocolate-filled pastry could eliminate the foul taste the tea left-if it was even tea. She winced and shoved some of the baclava into her mouth, resisting the urge to shudder. That stuff was nasty!

Both the éclair and the baclava disappeared quickly, as did a few other of the baked treats on the platter. By the time the others had finished their tea (or rather, inhaling it in Vegeta's case), Chichi was yawning, fighting to keep her eyes open.

She had nearly nodded off when the phone rang, and, in vain hopes that it might be about Gohan, managed to stay awake while her father lumbered off to answer it. When he didn't come back for a long time, she started to worry. What if Gohan had died? By the time her father had come back into the room, she had worked herself into a fine state of worry again.

Ox-King came back in, looking like he was the bearer of bad news. Chichi sat up straight, hand instinctively going for her Aunt's, not knowing if she wanted to hear what they had to say. "Chi-chan," he began gently, "that was Master Roshi."

The old pervert? What did he want?

"He was just calling to tell me that they found Gohan." Before Chichi could demand an answer, he continued. "Gohan's alive-he's breathing, and both Dr. Briefs and Bulma are there to tend to him."

Merebai winced as her niece somehow found the strength in her body to grip her hand so hard she thought it would break.

"Well, Chi-chan….they think he's been hit by lightning."

Chichi could only stare at her father. "Lightning?" She repeated blankly. "My baby was hit by lightning?"

Ox-king nodded and Merebai threw an arm around her shoulders to steady her. "But…but he's going to be ok, isn't he?"

Vegeta, who had until this point still been silent, spoke up. "He is Saiyan. It will take more than a little lightning to kill him."

Chichi took deep shuddering breaths, trying not to panic. Her son was strong, she knew he was alive, and the one person who knew the most about Saiyan physiology was there with him. She knew that all three of them were watching her, and was startled to feel her lids slowly start to droop again, despite what she had just heard. Her strength had finally run out, and her body had resorted to defending itself by shutting down into sleep.

As soon as her eyes shut and her head lolled back, Vegeta was on his feet, gathering her up to carry her back to the bedroom. Merebai reached out and picked up Chichi's empty tea cup, bringing it to her nose to sniff the tiny remainder in the bottom of the cup. She grimaced and set it back down. "I didn't realize you still had some of that stuff," she told the King, who was collecting dishes from the table and piling them back on the cart. "And we didn't even have to pour it down her throat this time."

Ox smiled weakly. "That's why I told her Vegeta made it. She never would have suspected him."

Merebai made sure that the surly Prince was out of earshot before she turned back to Ox. "Now…what did the old goon who wormed his way into my mother's good graces really say? You still haven't learned to lie to your family yet."

Ox looked at her sadly, his face solemn. "Unless there's some sort of miracle, they don't expect Gohan to survive."

Merebai sighed and glanced towards the heavens, clenching her hands into fists as she silently demanded what the Powers That Were had against her family. Ox watched quietly as her face settled into the determined lines that said she had an idea. "If it's a miracle he needs," she vowed quietly, "then we'll just have to find him one."

As she detailed her plan to her brother-in-law, the storms continued to rage around Mt. Frypan, and on an island in the far-off distance, a little boy struggled to hang onto life.

Something would have to give-and soon.

To Be Continued.

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