Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Barracks ❯ Part 25 ( Chapter 25 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: chayron 
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai / Sci-fi / Angst | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 05.14.2011 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.1K | Visits: 282 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai / Sci-fi / Angst | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 05.14.2011 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.1K | Visits: 282 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z – it belongs to its respective owners. This fan fiction is not a commercial project, and I am not making any money from writing it.
Warnings: Alternate Universe. Yaoi (male x male). Goten x Trunks and vice versa. Other pairings.
<b>Barracks</b>
by chayron (lttomb@yahoo.com), beta-read by quatreofdoom
Part 25
Something thumped and rolled away from Goten’s foot when he accidentally trod on it. The third-class watched something oblong and orange rolling over the heated asphalt. He peered at it closer. It was a carrot. Goten raised his head and looked around. Farther ahead, just next to a body of a mutilated Ice-jin, was a cabbage. On Goten’s left, a chicken was lying in a puddle of water, defrosting itself quickly. Automatically, the third-class turned to look at the canteen and saw that half of it was missing. The wing Goten was facing, where the dining room used to be, was only a mountain of concrete rubble. The kitchen itself had survived the attack though.
Goten moved forward at a snail’s pace. They had beaten off the Ice-jin attack although it had cost them dearly; on his way, Goten was checking the faces of his dead comrades who lay on the cracked asphalt. It was dark already and he could hardly recognize their faces. Not them, though. There was something in particular he was looking for and he instinctively knew he was not going to find it here. He knew he should stop and help treat injuries or make sure that no one was under the rubble. He could also start gathering food; the third-class could instinctively tell that anything edible was going to become sparse when the war escalated. Or he could do something about the corpses strewn around. There were many things he could and should be doing at the moment.
There were more lone carrots scattered on the asphalt. The sight of them was making Goten frantic and he broke into a run. He didn’t know what, but there was something very wrong about those carrots. Something malevolent.
When the third-class reached the destroyed canteen, he stopped so suddenly that he nearly fell over. His eyes riffled through the slightly smoking rubble. He didn’t know what he had expected to see, but there was nothing to be seen except the smithereens of the concrete blocks. There was probably no one caught underneath either; the alarm had gone off before the Ice-jins attacked, thus everybody must have run outside.
Anxious, Goten turned away from the canteen and looked around. Still nothing, nothing similar to what he was trying to find.
The officers’ club. There must also be a walk-in freezer in <i>Matilda</i>. And Goten suddenly knew he was right – that was what he had been looking for. The third-class shot into the air. Airborne, he could see that the barbers’ had survived the attack. However, the rest of the building was one big burning hole with pieces wrenched out of it and scattered all around with a vengeance. Half of the roof was missing, the fire still raging inside.
Goten’s eyes focused on a few savars behind <i>Matilda</i>. One savar was lurching in the general direction of the med-bay. Goten found him of no interest; as long as a Saiyan could stand, it meant he was going to be alright. Another savar was facing away from Goten. He was squatting down, holding a third one on his lap, so that Goten was only able to see his lower body. There was something painfully familiar about that back and those broad shoulders.
His gaze still fixed on the back of the savar, the third-class landed. He flinched as his right foot squashed something. He raised it to see an orange mess that had previously been a carrot. Goten felt nausea coming on. There were plenty of them strewn around. Goten lowered his foot and slowly sidled up to the savar. On the asphalt, there was a rod of steel, one end of which was covered in blood.
After seeing the man’s face on the savar’s lap, Goten’s whole body shook and he closed his eyes. Slowly, he sank to his knees. The third-class kept his eyes closed, but he could perfectly see the remains of the mutilated face in his mind. The image had burned itself there forever; it had been there for a while now, only he had never known, never remembered. Goten swallowed the bile. He felt numb, not really managing to think about anything.
Ario turned when he heard Goten gag and saw him crawling farther away, vomiting his dinner up. Quietly, Ario averted his eyes and looked at Toharu’s body in his lap. His lover was missing half of his head. Ario cradled what was left of it and pressed it to his chest. Not feeling the stickiness, he stared at the asphalt in front of him. Ario was not certain what had happened. He was not even certain what was happening. He could vaguely hear Goten curse, then felt something touch his shoulder.
Goten jerked back as Ario lashed out at his hand viciously. Goten stared at Ario’s nape for a few seconds, then flopped down next to him on the asphalt. He could not bear looking at them, thus he turned his back to them. The third-class sat and stared at the burning <i>Matilda</i>. From time to time, something would pop inside from the heat.
Goten felt numb, just as he had felt when he had heard about his brother’s death. There was that deep emptiness inside him, where all the emotions seemed to just float around without making any sense. He simply sat and thought about himself sitting there and staring at <i>Matilda</i>, at how the black smoke coiled upwards into the bright blue sky. He didn’t know how long he sat like that.
“Ario.”
The second-class didn’t react and Goten called again. Ario turned to him slowly. And Goten didn’t know what to say to the grief-stricken man. There was also something resolute about Ario. And there was nothing Goten could say to make it better. The third-class covered his face and his body started to shake. Now he felt emotions bombard him, all of them, at once.
“I know,” Ario whispered, turning away. “Just go away. Let me…”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Gods, I’m so sorry,” the third-class spilled. He removed his hands from his face and stared at the burning <i>Matilda</i>. Goten could not look at Ario. Had there been a chance to change this, just as he had changed the fate of the prince? Was this his fault? Oh gods, was this his fault? “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he repeated, rocking.
Ario didn’t answer. He simply sat there, cradling Toharu’s body, protecting Toharu from the dangers he didn’t need to be protected from anymore.
“Bardock? Goten Bardock?”
Goten turned to the officer who was standing in front of him. Absentmindedly, the third-class thought that it was strange that, apart from him, Toharu, and Ario, other people existed as well. Right now, he wanted for them not to exist. But they did, and he had to deal with them.
“You are Goten, aren’t you?” the man said when Goten just stared up at him, neither confirming nor denying. There was something wrong about those dark eyes gazing at him with all the patience in the world, as if waiting for him to go away and knowing that he wouldn’t.
The officer shifted uneasily. “You are to come to the headquarters at once,” he said. “There’s an aircraft coming for you.”
“Go fuck yourself, sir,” Goten answered moodily. “And then go fuck that aircraft.”
The officer’s eyebrows rose, but he restrained himself from reacting. He wasn’t blind to the dead savar whose loss Goten and the bulky one were mourning. The look the youth was giving him was still the epitome of patience. The savar was simply waiting for him to go away, though he knew that he wouldn’t. The youth didn’t appear to be in his right mind.
“Goten Bardock, as your senior officer, I command you to go to the headquarters at once.”
Goten paid him no attention. Now he was inspecting the ground around the officer’s boots. The third-class had a feeling that the man was treading on the scattered remains of Toharu’s brains.
“Do you hear me?”
“Yeah, I heard you loud and clear!” Goten snapped at him, his irritation skyrocketing suddenly.
“Then follow the orders and…”
The rest of the sentence stuck in the officer’s throat because Goten stood up and shoved at his chest. Not hard, but it was enough to make him stumble. The officer straightened, then, in two strides, he was grabbing Goten by the scruff of his uniform, dragging him towards the headquarters.
“Do something like that again and I will have you court-martialed!” he hissed on the way. “Now le-”
Goten’s elbow caught the officer in the stomach. He let go of Goten’s collar and doubled over. The third-class whirled around, the seams of his uniform creaking with effort. The officer’s back hit the wall of the sixth barracks. He immediately powered up, trying to throw Goten off him. This resulted in Goten summoning his ki as well, grabbing the officer by his neck and slamming him into the wall with such power that the plaster chipped and started falling around them. The officer tried to pry Goten’s fingers off his throat. He tried to power up more, but then his blurry eyes caught sight of the shaii who shook his head quickly.
“Goten, let go of him.”
Goten turned to him and the prince knew that this was not going to be easy. The third-class’s face was ashen, his dark eyes glowing with rage and desperation. All of that gave Goten a feral look. The third-class was emanating such a strong field of ki that the prince was able to feel it even without a scouter.
“I. Am. Not. Going. Anywhere,” Goten said, emphasizing every word.
The shaii moved forward, but stopped as a warning growl erupted from the back of the third-class’s throat. The prince’s eyes narrowed at the threat.
“He can’t force you to go anywhere,” he said. “He doesn’t have enough power. Let go of him. He’s not a threat to you.”
“But you are,” Goten said, his calculating eyes watching the prince's every move.
Goten had taken a hostage. Disbelieving, the shaii stared at the third-class. He had known Goten was in shock, but he hadn’t thought the third-class would resort to this. Goten wasn’t in his right mind.
“Goten, let him go,” the shaii ordered in a calm voice. He felt naked and had an urge to power up in response to Goten’s powerful ki. However, it was obvious that, as Goten was mostly functioning on autopilot, that would probably lead to the third-class attacking him.
The unfortunate officer listened helplessly as the shaii tried to talk Goten into letting him go. He had previously tried to wriggle out of Goten's grasp and kick the savar, but the prince had been right – the youth didn’t even take heed of his actions, his protective shield on. It didn’t seem like the savar was affected by his ki at all, acting like he had none of it.
“What fucking aircraft?!” Goten hissed furiously. “How can you ask me to leave him?! I’m not going to any fucking aircraft!”
“Alright, calm down, Goten. One thing at a time. First, release the man.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere! I can’t leave him!” Goten repeated. “I can’t leave them!”
“He’s dead, Goten! Toharu is dead!” the prince growled. “And there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, you can do about it! There isn’t anything you can do to help Ario either! And you know it!”
Goten was staring at him with hate and fury evident on his face.
“There’s nothing you can do, Goten,” the prince repeated. “It’s war. He died, Goten, and even more of us are going to die. The only thing you can do is to go and fight the bastards who killed him and want to kill us.”
Goten was still staring at the prince as if he were his worst enemy, but he didn’t growl or show his displeasure in any other way when he approached.
“Let go of your officer.”
“No.”
The force of the slap bounced Goten’s head to his shoulder. Blinking in disbelief, he looked at the shaii, whose hand was still raised in the air. It hadn’t stung a bit. The man hadn’t even powered up; it had been pointless to slap him.
“I think you forget who you are talking to,” the prince said. “Want me to remind you again?”
Goten stared at him for a few seconds. He looked as if he was on the verge of striking back, but then his gaze softened and he dropped his ki. “No,” he said finally, his fingers unclamping from the officer’s throat. “I remember, Your Highness.”
Rubbing his throat, the officer quickly moved away. Goten hadn’t done much damage – he had been simply holding him without crushing his windpipe. He had hurt himself more while trying to wriggle out of the savar’s grasp.
When the officer turned around, he saw Goten squatting down and, for a moment, he thought that the shaii had punched him in the stomach. However, he soon saw that it wasn’t so, as Goten was covering his face with his hands. His shoulders were shaking. When his and the prince’s eyes met, he deciphered ‘Go get someone with sedatives’ from his lips.
The shaii watched the man head towards the medical bay. While listening to Goten’s soft hiccups, he thought that there probably wouldn’t be anyone free to come here, and he would have to be the one to inject Goten with the sedatives. The prince turned to look at Ario. The savar hadn’t shown any reaction to what had been transpiring and hadn’t moved from his place at all. He just sat there holding the body on his lap.
Someone had to take that body with half a head off Ario or the boy was going to have nightmares for the rest of his life. If Goten were more perceptive about these things, he would have done that at once.
The shaii hadn’t been close to any of Goten’s friends. To him, they were only Goten’s extensions, but even now he could remember that Toharu had probably been the force that bound all of them together. It probably hadn’t been Goten.
The prince averted his eyes from them. He watched a few savars putting out the fire in Matilda, or what was left of it. He stroked Goten’s shoulder absentmindedly. He wondered to himself if Goten’s innocence was going to dissipate like the smoke of the burning <i>Matilda</i>. Then he wondered if he had ever known an innocent Goten at all.
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
Goten woke up to an unusual vibration and hum. Groggily, still affected by the medicine, he raised his head and looked around. He was lying on a bunk in some kind of very small cell. There weren’t any windows, but there was a burning lamp on the ceiling. Goten turned onto his right side and tried to sit up. His limbs were so flabby that he got entangled in the sheet he was covered with and then nearly rolled off the bunk. Giving up on that idea, Goten turned over onto his back and stayed in the bed.
His head felt as if it had been stuffed full of cotton. His thoughts felt light, fluffy, and disjointed. They floated leisurely in his head while reflecting on what he could see in the tiny cell. They would fade away, then would return to tell him he was looking at a bulb which was too bright to look at or at a white metallic door or a wardrobe with a suitcase on it.
There was something beyond this, but Goten’s thoughts didn’t form any connections. He just stared blankly at the room. His pillow and cover smelled stale. The cell, though, smelled of metal and oil. Goten’s eyes started closing and he felt himself drifting away into sleep.
A loud creak made the third-class open his eyes again. Like in slow motion, he saw the door open and the shaii floated in. He was wearing a Vega 213 over his right eye.
“Oh, you’re up.”
The prince’s voice boomed like from deep under water, and Goten gave him a confused look, wondering what was wrong with his voice.
“Are you alright?” the prince asked as, instead of answering, Goten kept giving him a sluggish gaze. He noticed that Goten had wrapped himself into the cover like a cocoon. It didn’t seem that he would be able to move either his arms or legs.
“Mmm?” Goten hummed questioningly as the other male touched his forehead, then brushed over his temple.
“You don’t seem to be fully awake yet,” the prince muttered softly after having reassured himself that the third-class wasn’t fevered. He tugged at the cover, starting to unwrap Goten. “They did warn me that it would take about six hours for it to completely wear off. You are a bit more susceptible to medicines than usual, though, aren’t you?”
“Mmm?”
The shaii finally managed to unwrap Goten from his cocoon, freeing his limbs. He draped the cover around the third-class loosely. The youth had slept for six hours straight without even moving a muscle. He was still half-asleep, absolutely helpless in his sluggishness. The prince wondered if the third-class remembered the recent events. He probably did, but it was very likely that, right now, he was not able to understand or make anything of his memories.
The shaii noticed that Goten’s eyes kept closing and opening; he was trying to force himself to stay awake. The prince chuckled softly. “It’s alright, you can sleep. There are still seven hours until we reach Velora.” Goten fought the drowsiness for several more minutes, then his eyes stayed closed and the prince watched his breathing even out and slow down.
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
Goten woke up with a jolt. He sat up at once with his eyes wide. He noticed the prince giving him a startled look from his chair. He had some piece of paper in his fingers which he had obviously been reading. Goten took in the room. What his mind had previously taken for a cell was, in fact, a tiny cabin on a plane. He could feel the vibrations and hear the slight buzz.
“Where are we, sir?”
The prince folded the paper and stuffed it into his pocket. “And to think I was worried that your dementia was permanent…”
Goten gave him a reproachful look.
“We are on a plane, on the way to the capital.”
“Umm… Why, sir?”
“There were orders for you to present yourself to the headquarters of National Air Force.”
Goten’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Err… But why? What am I going to do there, sir? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Goten’s perplexity was so honest that the prince felt genuinely sorry him. “Frankly speaking, I have no idea,” he said. “I will try to find out as soon as we land, though; the fact that you were the only one summoned there is, to put it mildly, suspicious.”
“I see…” Goten muttered. He became worried as a thought occurred to him. “But my things and credit ca-”
“Everything’s in that suitcase.” The shaii pointed at the top of the small wardrobe. “Kyon has been most helpful.”
For a few seconds, it was completely silent in the cabin. “But I didn’t have a suitcase, sir,” Goten muttered finally. “I had a backpack.”
The conversation had gone into the absolute wrong direction, and the prince suddenly found he could say nothing to that. He should have handled the dialogue better: Goten’s face had changed at the mere mention of his roommate. Now it was also obvious that Goten had solved the mystery of the suitcase – there were many suitcases on the base that were not needed anymore.
“Have you ever been to the capital?” the shaii asked jovially and felt like an idiot.
Goten gave him a weird look. “No, sir, I haven’t,” he said, shaking his head. “I heard it’s big and green though.” After a short pause, he added, “And dangerous for hicks like me.”
The shaii watched Goten lay down and snuggle into the covers so that only his face was visible. “Well…” the prince drawled. “I suppose one does need to have his head firmly screwed onto his shoulders so as not to get swindled.” He rubbed the back of his neck while thinking that he didn’t want to stick to Goten’s trail of thought.
“The population density is something you will notice as soon as we land,” the shaii said, steering the conversation away. “We should be there in four hours. Actually, I haven’t spent much time in the city itself. I mostly grew up in the palace without getting around too much. This was mostly due to security reasons and, while I understood that, I thought it was very annoying. I remember there was a celebration but I was not allowed to…”
The prince lifted his eyes at a soft gasping sound. Goten had turned away from him at some point during his recollections and was now facing the wall. His shoulders were shaking with suppressed sobs. Unnerved and overtaken by a feeling of a failure, the shaii stared at Goten’s back, then stood up. He wasn’t certain what he was going to do, but then it seemed absolutely natural for him to walk to Goten’s bunk and sit down next to him. He stroked the third-class’s back lightly. This caused some of Goten’s sobs to burst to the surface. Unsure, the shaii retracted his hand. He had no idea what to say. Quietly, he watched the side of Goten’s face he was able to see, then reached out and stroked his back again.
“I think I was in love with him,” Goten sobbed out.
The shaii's hand, on Goten’s back, stopped moving.
“I think all of us were a little bit in love with him,” the third-class mumbled, choking on his sobs.
The prince’s hand continued stroking the shaking back. Then he ruffled Goten’s hair lightly while savoring the possibility of these casual touches and, at the same time, he could not help but feel guilty. He could sense and understand Goten’s pain, but couldn’t pretend to himself that he was much affected by Toharu’s death. He had hardly known Toharu. The one fact he did know was that Toharu and Ario had been working for the taisa, spying on Goten. However, Goten would probably never know that. Neither did he need to know.
The prince kept awkwardly stroking Goten’s hair while the younger male cried. He wished he could say or do something to alleviate Goten’s misery, but he was no good at these kinds of things. While growing up, he never had friends his age. All the people around him had been grown men or women who would never think of coming with their problems to a child. He himself had also been strictly taught since infancy that weaknesses were not to be tolerated. Certainly Ealdira had never been so categorical, but the man had already been over seventy when he was appointed to be his mentor. To Ealdira, the problems of a five or eight-year-old… Ealdira had always found it hard to see the world through a child’s eyes. He was not exactly nanny material. Ealdira had given him much more later. When he grew a little bit older and started turning into a man, they found more things in common.
After some time, Goten calmed down. His body was still shaken by the occasional hiccup, but now he mostly felt sleepy. He still hadn’t turned around to face the shaii, leaving the older male to stare at his right ear and a small part of his cheek.
“I shouldn’t have left Ario alone,” Goten mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow.
“You didn’t have a choice.”
The third-class sniffled. “Yeah, thanks to you, sir. I wish I at least could have bidden my farewells.”
The shaii listened closely, but it didn’t seem that the younger male was harboring anger or thinking of mutiny. That was good. He did have a spare syringe of sedatives, but the medicine was not going to last forever. Sooner or later, Goten would have to face the rest of the world. And the rest of the world might not much care for Goten’s current ‘<i>screw-you</i>’ attitude.
“Orders are orders, Goten.”
“Yeah, orders are orders,” Goten repeated. The tone of his voice was somewhat mocking, but it was more disappointed. He yawned. “So what’s been happening, sir?”
“Well, the obvious. The Ice-jins declared war on the Saiyan Empire and its colonies and the Supreme General announced the mobilization of the troops. Seven hours ago, the Ice-jins took over the Shandera section they had wanted so much. We have sent our troops there. There hasn’t been any attack on Vegeta-sei yet, other than the assault on our base.”
“And the Leiadors, sir?”
“The Leiadors haven’t picked their side yet. I think they are waiting to see who has a better chance of winning this.”
Goten was silent for a few seconds, then shifted to get into a more comfortable position on the bunk. “I gather sir has been summoned to the court?”
“Yes. Thus I figured I would keep you company to Velora. Listen, it would be more convenient for both of us if you turned around.”
Goten pouted into the pillow. “Don’t want to.”
“Fine,” the shaii said, standing up from the bunk; he could see that Goten was near-asleep again.
The shaii fished his Vega 213 out of his pocket, unfolded it, and fitted over his right eye. From Goten’s bunk, it took him two steps to reach the door. There was hardly any space in the cabin: the wardrobe, the bunk, the chair, and the lamp on the ceiling were the only things here. There wasn’t even a desk or a table. His own cabin was much more spacious.
A sudden impact made Goten slam into the wall face-first. Wide-eyed, he pushed himself off it with his hands and feet, then inspected his sore nose. It wasn’t bleeding and didn’t seem to be broken. The plane slowly returned to its previous position and, still mistrustfully, Goten let go off the wall.
“What in the world was that, sir?” he muttered, rubbing his nose. There was no answer and Goten turned around. “Sir?” There was no one standing. Goten looked at the floor. The shaii had folded over into a curious position on the floor and didn’t seem to be moving. There was his suitcase on top of the prince. It must have fallen off the wardrobe because of the impact. At least the furniture was wired to the walls and floor.
“Sir?” Goten repeated, climbing out of his bunk. He lifted his suitcase off the shaii and set it next to the bunk. He could hear a faint crackling sound coming from the prince’s scouter. Goten stiffened at the sight of a crimson trail spreading over the lavender hair and further down the ponytail. Panic suddenly exploded like a glass thrown at the floor. He grabbed the prince by his shoulders.
“Sir? Sir!”
Goten’s mind overlaid the shaii’s head with Toharu’s and, hyperventilating, he wanted to shake the living hell out of the prince. He caught himself just before doing that.
“Ah fuck,” the third-class cursed shakily when he finally forced himself to harness his panic. There wasn’t much blood and, at first sight, it didn’t appear that the wound was deep. He could see the prince breathing. Goten patted him lightly on his face. “Sir, are you alright?”
Obviously, the prince was not alright. The plane shook again and, without much thinking, Goten took the scouter off the unconscious man. It was silent now. Goten turned on the microphone.
“What’s going on out there?” he asked, lifting the shaii off the floor carefully.
“Sir, we are under attack! Two of our fighter aircrafts are down. The last one is hardly keeping up. There are intruders onboard. Where are you, sir?”
Goten looked around. “Hm. Somewhere here,” he said while laying the prince down onto the bunk, not bothering to take his boots off. Was the man on the other end of the line an idiot? He had just said there were intruders on board and now he expected him to tell him their location? Not that Goten had the faintest idea where they were.
Something crackled in Goten’s scouter. The readings on the Vega 213 shot up suddenly, startling him. They showed a number of ki signatures spiking up and then going down again. There was a pause, then the man spoke again, “Sir, they have just killed three of our crew and wrenched the door to your cabin off. Wherever you are, sir, stay there!”
Goten turned the listless prince onto his side so that the wound on his head would stop bleeding faster. “Yeah,” the third-class said, tearing at the cover, “I don’t think there will be any problems with that.” He intended to try and clean the wound. He looked at the unconscious man, then at the cloth. It didn’t smell very clean, just like the pillow. He threw the cloth onto the floor. To hell with that.
“We’ve contacted Garedan Air Force, sir. Coincidentally, six of their air fighters were on practice maneuvers and they should be here at any given moment.”
“Good. Keep me informed,” Goten ordered, switching the microphone off. He grabbed his boots from the floor and pulled them on.
The readings of the various ki signals on the plane were useless. Goten could see the number of people, but could not tell them apart and know which of them belonged to his comrades and which to his enemies. The data couldn’t tell him their actual location on the plane either.
The third-class left the shaii’s side to stand at the door. He could hear distant thumps and voices. There wasn’t any lock or bar on the door. It was as good as open. If the enemies were Ice-jins, though, locks and bars were useless anyway.
Goten cursed softly. He didn’t even know what was outside the door, and couldn’t risk opening it and giving them away in case there was an enemy behind it. He clicked a tiny button on the side of the scouter. First click got him night vision mode. He pressed again and now received what he wanted – thermo sensors. The door and part of the wall became transparent to his right eye. There was no one outside. Just to make sure, Goten looked at himself. His legs turned green, yellow and red, part of the floor disappearing; it worked just fine.
Goten wished he knew what the plane looked like. Frowning, he blinked slowly. He suddenly realized he actually knew the interior of the aircraft. It was just like that time at the first armory and then again with Toharu. He knew. He had been here before.
The third-class tensed as two colorful creatures appeared in his vision. By the shapes of their bodies, Goten easily recognized them as Ice-jins. The figures were slowly advancing. Obviously, they were looking for something. Crashes and creaks of metal that followed the spikes of their ki and the movements of their arms and legs suggested broken doors.
The shaii was lying on the bunk which was right in front of the door. This fact made Goten move away from it and stand in front of the bunk protectively. The distance was only two steps though, and Goten didn’t think there would be much difference.
There was an explosion somewhere and the plane shook. Goten’s scouter crackled to life. “Sir, Garedan Air Force destroyed the last of the enemy aircrafts. They are sending in a few of their troops to eliminate the last of the intruders.”
Parallel to the man’s words, there was a short feeling of weightlessness. Goten felt the plane slow down. Goten wanted to answer, but now the varicolored creatures outside the door were so close that he was afraid they would hear him.
“Sir? Sir, are you there?”
Goten cut the connection off. He braced himself as the creatures stopped right outside the door. It suddenly flew off its hinges and whooshed inside. Goten had summoned his ki and put on a protective shield at the same time as one of the Ice-jins’ feet had touched the door. The third-class’s foot connected with the door, sending it backwards and into the corridor. The Ice-jin who had kicked the door didn’t even have time to retract his foot as the door slammed into him, nailing him into the opposite wall.
The second Ice-jin raised his eyes from his dead comrade. The metallic wall he had slammed into with a bone-breaking crash was contorted and bent. In fact, the door had half-passed through the wall and into the other cabin behind it. The Ice-jin powered to his maximum and motioned for Goten to come at him.
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
Three elite Saiyans froze on the spot as an Ice-jin flew past them and his body slammed itself into a wall next to them. Bleeding, his arm bent at an impossible angle, he slumped onto the floor to lie there motionlessly. The Saiyans looked up at a petite, short-haired second-class kid who had appeared in the corridor. He gave them a quick look, nodded, and walked over to the Ice-jin.
“What the…” started one of the elites.
“Are there any more of them, sir?” Goten asked, prodding the Ice-jin with his foot. However, the man stayed down. Goten moved away from him and back into the corridor.
The elites were giving him suspicious looks. “There was one more, farther down this corridor.”
“Then this should be all of them,” Goten said.
“Where’s the prince?”
Goten didn’t answer anything, but it quickly became obvious to the elites why he was blocking the corridor.
The third-class noticed the elites staring at something behind his back and turned his head slightly to see the shaii staggering into the corridor. He was advancing slowly, supporting himself on the walls. Goten, still turned sideways in order to keep his eyes on both the prince and the elites, raised his ki higher.
“Fuck,” the shaii muttered as his fingers grasped coagulated blood in his hair. He touched his head gingerly. “Fuck,” he repeated.
He reached Goten and half-leaned, half-fell on the third-class. Goten made a good pole to lean against. The prince took in the damage: walls in the corridor were bent out of shape, doors to the cabins were missing, he had also passed a squashed Ice-jin, now another one was lying in front of him. His gaze stopped on the three elite Saiyans before him. They were alert, just like Goten, whose body felt like it was shooting sparks. Streams of energy seemed to coil around and inside him. He was turned sideways, his eyes narrowed. The prince realized Goten was protecting him.
“It’s alright, Goten. They are trustworthy,” he said, patting Goten on his chest with his left hand. His right was still clamped on Goten’s arm to steady himself. “I have known Berada for a long time.”
The Saiyan called Berada pressed his fist over his heart and bowed his head. “Your Highness.”
Goten’s eyes studied him for a few moments, then his ki dropped to normal. “Is there a doctor on board, sir?” he asked, looking at the prince’s head. “This doesn’t seem to be serious, but sir might need a few stitches.”
“I will see one in Velora,” the shaii answered, aware of the cold look that Berada gave the third-class. Apparently, the elite officer thought Goten’s attitude was improper for a second-class – Goten had held their gaze and had hesitated before trusting his prince’s judgment, never mind that the prince had a large lump on his head. Certainly, Berada thought it was also inappropriate for a second-class to touch him as well. However, he didn’t seem to be keen on coming closer and replacing Goten; he had seen what the youth was capable of.
“What happened here?”
Unsure, the three Saiyans stared at the prince. “When, sir?” Berada asked finally.
“Well, before now. Why there are Ice-jins strewn around?”
Berada gave the prince a blank look. “Err… But sir, I talked to you wh-”
“It was me, sir, you talked to. His Highness was unconscious at the time,” Goten told Berada, taking the scouter off his right eye. He proffered it to the prince. “Thank you, sir, for letting me use it.”
The shaii looked at the scouter, then at Goten. Deciding that there was absolutely no point in commenting on Goten’s words, he took and pocketed it. “So what happened?” he asked again.
Goten listened to the elite explaining the situation to the prince. Berada confirmed what Goten had suspected from the very beginning – the objective of the enemy had been to capture the Saiyan prince. They would have tried to blackmail the Saiyan Empire, and most importantly, the Royal Family.
“Sir, you need to rest,” Goten pointed out when he noticed the prince leaning against him more and more until he was almost hanging. The shaii didn’t argue with him, and this made Goten think that the man felt even worse than he looked. He wrapped his arm around the prince’s shoulder for support and started leading him back to his cabin.
“Sir, I can see you to your cabin,” Berada offered.
Goten and the prince stopped. From the corner of his eye, the prince glanced at the third-class. Goten’s face was blank, leaving the decision to him and, from the look of it, he would not mind either conclusion. Goten probably even expected him to stick to the milieu of elites. The shaii hesitated, uncertain.
Goten was aware of the tension that started materializing in the air. He knew why it was difficult for the prince to decide. Going with Berada would confirm the expectations and policy of the elite society. However, in so far as Goten knew the shaii (and Goten was of opinion that he knew him pretty well), he believed that the prince wanted to refuse Berada’s offer. That was either because of his different views or Goten himself, but his refusal would result in the elites becoming interested in Goten. The shaii was looking out for him.
Screw that.
“Your cabin, sir,” Goten breached the silence resolutely, “doesn’t have a door either.”
The prince surprised Goten by laughing softly. He squeezed Goten’s arm lightly to show appreciation for his fortitude. “Yeah, and yours is closer.”
“The pillow is smelly, though, sir,” Goten added in a whisper, causing another bout of laughter. There was tiredness, relief, and gratitude in that laughter. This troubled Goten, but at the same time he could not help but respond with a bright smile of his own.
TBC
Warnings: Alternate Universe. Yaoi (male x male). Goten x Trunks and vice versa. Other pairings.
<b>Barracks</b>
by chayron (lttomb@yahoo.com), beta-read by quatreofdoom
Part 25
Something thumped and rolled away from Goten’s foot when he accidentally trod on it. The third-class watched something oblong and orange rolling over the heated asphalt. He peered at it closer. It was a carrot. Goten raised his head and looked around. Farther ahead, just next to a body of a mutilated Ice-jin, was a cabbage. On Goten’s left, a chicken was lying in a puddle of water, defrosting itself quickly. Automatically, the third-class turned to look at the canteen and saw that half of it was missing. The wing Goten was facing, where the dining room used to be, was only a mountain of concrete rubble. The kitchen itself had survived the attack though.
Goten moved forward at a snail’s pace. They had beaten off the Ice-jin attack although it had cost them dearly; on his way, Goten was checking the faces of his dead comrades who lay on the cracked asphalt. It was dark already and he could hardly recognize their faces. Not them, though. There was something in particular he was looking for and he instinctively knew he was not going to find it here. He knew he should stop and help treat injuries or make sure that no one was under the rubble. He could also start gathering food; the third-class could instinctively tell that anything edible was going to become sparse when the war escalated. Or he could do something about the corpses strewn around. There were many things he could and should be doing at the moment.
There were more lone carrots scattered on the asphalt. The sight of them was making Goten frantic and he broke into a run. He didn’t know what, but there was something very wrong about those carrots. Something malevolent.
When the third-class reached the destroyed canteen, he stopped so suddenly that he nearly fell over. His eyes riffled through the slightly smoking rubble. He didn’t know what he had expected to see, but there was nothing to be seen except the smithereens of the concrete blocks. There was probably no one caught underneath either; the alarm had gone off before the Ice-jins attacked, thus everybody must have run outside.
Anxious, Goten turned away from the canteen and looked around. Still nothing, nothing similar to what he was trying to find.
The officers’ club. There must also be a walk-in freezer in <i>Matilda</i>. And Goten suddenly knew he was right – that was what he had been looking for. The third-class shot into the air. Airborne, he could see that the barbers’ had survived the attack. However, the rest of the building was one big burning hole with pieces wrenched out of it and scattered all around with a vengeance. Half of the roof was missing, the fire still raging inside.
Goten’s eyes focused on a few savars behind <i>Matilda</i>. One savar was lurching in the general direction of the med-bay. Goten found him of no interest; as long as a Saiyan could stand, it meant he was going to be alright. Another savar was facing away from Goten. He was squatting down, holding a third one on his lap, so that Goten was only able to see his lower body. There was something painfully familiar about that back and those broad shoulders.
His gaze still fixed on the back of the savar, the third-class landed. He flinched as his right foot squashed something. He raised it to see an orange mess that had previously been a carrot. Goten felt nausea coming on. There were plenty of them strewn around. Goten lowered his foot and slowly sidled up to the savar. On the asphalt, there was a rod of steel, one end of which was covered in blood.
After seeing the man’s face on the savar’s lap, Goten’s whole body shook and he closed his eyes. Slowly, he sank to his knees. The third-class kept his eyes closed, but he could perfectly see the remains of the mutilated face in his mind. The image had burned itself there forever; it had been there for a while now, only he had never known, never remembered. Goten swallowed the bile. He felt numb, not really managing to think about anything.
Ario turned when he heard Goten gag and saw him crawling farther away, vomiting his dinner up. Quietly, Ario averted his eyes and looked at Toharu’s body in his lap. His lover was missing half of his head. Ario cradled what was left of it and pressed it to his chest. Not feeling the stickiness, he stared at the asphalt in front of him. Ario was not certain what had happened. He was not even certain what was happening. He could vaguely hear Goten curse, then felt something touch his shoulder.
Goten jerked back as Ario lashed out at his hand viciously. Goten stared at Ario’s nape for a few seconds, then flopped down next to him on the asphalt. He could not bear looking at them, thus he turned his back to them. The third-class sat and stared at the burning <i>Matilda</i>. From time to time, something would pop inside from the heat.
Goten felt numb, just as he had felt when he had heard about his brother’s death. There was that deep emptiness inside him, where all the emotions seemed to just float around without making any sense. He simply sat and thought about himself sitting there and staring at <i>Matilda</i>, at how the black smoke coiled upwards into the bright blue sky. He didn’t know how long he sat like that.
“Ario.”
The second-class didn’t react and Goten called again. Ario turned to him slowly. And Goten didn’t know what to say to the grief-stricken man. There was also something resolute about Ario. And there was nothing Goten could say to make it better. The third-class covered his face and his body started to shake. Now he felt emotions bombard him, all of them, at once.
“I know,” Ario whispered, turning away. “Just go away. Let me…”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Gods, I’m so sorry,” the third-class spilled. He removed his hands from his face and stared at the burning <i>Matilda</i>. Goten could not look at Ario. Had there been a chance to change this, just as he had changed the fate of the prince? Was this his fault? Oh gods, was this his fault? “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he repeated, rocking.
Ario didn’t answer. He simply sat there, cradling Toharu’s body, protecting Toharu from the dangers he didn’t need to be protected from anymore.
“Bardock? Goten Bardock?”
Goten turned to the officer who was standing in front of him. Absentmindedly, the third-class thought that it was strange that, apart from him, Toharu, and Ario, other people existed as well. Right now, he wanted for them not to exist. But they did, and he had to deal with them.
“You are Goten, aren’t you?” the man said when Goten just stared up at him, neither confirming nor denying. There was something wrong about those dark eyes gazing at him with all the patience in the world, as if waiting for him to go away and knowing that he wouldn’t.
The officer shifted uneasily. “You are to come to the headquarters at once,” he said. “There’s an aircraft coming for you.”
“Go fuck yourself, sir,” Goten answered moodily. “And then go fuck that aircraft.”
The officer’s eyebrows rose, but he restrained himself from reacting. He wasn’t blind to the dead savar whose loss Goten and the bulky one were mourning. The look the youth was giving him was still the epitome of patience. The savar was simply waiting for him to go away, though he knew that he wouldn’t. The youth didn’t appear to be in his right mind.
“Goten Bardock, as your senior officer, I command you to go to the headquarters at once.”
Goten paid him no attention. Now he was inspecting the ground around the officer’s boots. The third-class had a feeling that the man was treading on the scattered remains of Toharu’s brains.
“Do you hear me?”
“Yeah, I heard you loud and clear!” Goten snapped at him, his irritation skyrocketing suddenly.
“Then follow the orders and…”
The rest of the sentence stuck in the officer’s throat because Goten stood up and shoved at his chest. Not hard, but it was enough to make him stumble. The officer straightened, then, in two strides, he was grabbing Goten by the scruff of his uniform, dragging him towards the headquarters.
“Do something like that again and I will have you court-martialed!” he hissed on the way. “Now le-”
Goten’s elbow caught the officer in the stomach. He let go of Goten’s collar and doubled over. The third-class whirled around, the seams of his uniform creaking with effort. The officer’s back hit the wall of the sixth barracks. He immediately powered up, trying to throw Goten off him. This resulted in Goten summoning his ki as well, grabbing the officer by his neck and slamming him into the wall with such power that the plaster chipped and started falling around them. The officer tried to pry Goten’s fingers off his throat. He tried to power up more, but then his blurry eyes caught sight of the shaii who shook his head quickly.
“Goten, let go of him.”
Goten turned to him and the prince knew that this was not going to be easy. The third-class’s face was ashen, his dark eyes glowing with rage and desperation. All of that gave Goten a feral look. The third-class was emanating such a strong field of ki that the prince was able to feel it even without a scouter.
“I. Am. Not. Going. Anywhere,” Goten said, emphasizing every word.
The shaii moved forward, but stopped as a warning growl erupted from the back of the third-class’s throat. The prince’s eyes narrowed at the threat.
“He can’t force you to go anywhere,” he said. “He doesn’t have enough power. Let go of him. He’s not a threat to you.”
“But you are,” Goten said, his calculating eyes watching the prince's every move.
Goten had taken a hostage. Disbelieving, the shaii stared at the third-class. He had known Goten was in shock, but he hadn’t thought the third-class would resort to this. Goten wasn’t in his right mind.
“Goten, let him go,” the shaii ordered in a calm voice. He felt naked and had an urge to power up in response to Goten’s powerful ki. However, it was obvious that, as Goten was mostly functioning on autopilot, that would probably lead to the third-class attacking him.
The unfortunate officer listened helplessly as the shaii tried to talk Goten into letting him go. He had previously tried to wriggle out of Goten's grasp and kick the savar, but the prince had been right – the youth didn’t even take heed of his actions, his protective shield on. It didn’t seem like the savar was affected by his ki at all, acting like he had none of it.
“What fucking aircraft?!” Goten hissed furiously. “How can you ask me to leave him?! I’m not going to any fucking aircraft!”
“Alright, calm down, Goten. One thing at a time. First, release the man.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere! I can’t leave him!” Goten repeated. “I can’t leave them!”
“He’s dead, Goten! Toharu is dead!” the prince growled. “And there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, you can do about it! There isn’t anything you can do to help Ario either! And you know it!”
Goten was staring at him with hate and fury evident on his face.
“There’s nothing you can do, Goten,” the prince repeated. “It’s war. He died, Goten, and even more of us are going to die. The only thing you can do is to go and fight the bastards who killed him and want to kill us.”
Goten was still staring at the prince as if he were his worst enemy, but he didn’t growl or show his displeasure in any other way when he approached.
“Let go of your officer.”
“No.”
The force of the slap bounced Goten’s head to his shoulder. Blinking in disbelief, he looked at the shaii, whose hand was still raised in the air. It hadn’t stung a bit. The man hadn’t even powered up; it had been pointless to slap him.
“I think you forget who you are talking to,” the prince said. “Want me to remind you again?”
Goten stared at him for a few seconds. He looked as if he was on the verge of striking back, but then his gaze softened and he dropped his ki. “No,” he said finally, his fingers unclamping from the officer’s throat. “I remember, Your Highness.”
Rubbing his throat, the officer quickly moved away. Goten hadn’t done much damage – he had been simply holding him without crushing his windpipe. He had hurt himself more while trying to wriggle out of the savar’s grasp.
When the officer turned around, he saw Goten squatting down and, for a moment, he thought that the shaii had punched him in the stomach. However, he soon saw that it wasn’t so, as Goten was covering his face with his hands. His shoulders were shaking. When his and the prince’s eyes met, he deciphered ‘Go get someone with sedatives’ from his lips.
The shaii watched the man head towards the medical bay. While listening to Goten’s soft hiccups, he thought that there probably wouldn’t be anyone free to come here, and he would have to be the one to inject Goten with the sedatives. The prince turned to look at Ario. The savar hadn’t shown any reaction to what had been transpiring and hadn’t moved from his place at all. He just sat there holding the body on his lap.
Someone had to take that body with half a head off Ario or the boy was going to have nightmares for the rest of his life. If Goten were more perceptive about these things, he would have done that at once.
The shaii hadn’t been close to any of Goten’s friends. To him, they were only Goten’s extensions, but even now he could remember that Toharu had probably been the force that bound all of them together. It probably hadn’t been Goten.
The prince averted his eyes from them. He watched a few savars putting out the fire in Matilda, or what was left of it. He stroked Goten’s shoulder absentmindedly. He wondered to himself if Goten’s innocence was going to dissipate like the smoke of the burning <i>Matilda</i>. Then he wondered if he had ever known an innocent Goten at all.
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
Goten woke up to an unusual vibration and hum. Groggily, still affected by the medicine, he raised his head and looked around. He was lying on a bunk in some kind of very small cell. There weren’t any windows, but there was a burning lamp on the ceiling. Goten turned onto his right side and tried to sit up. His limbs were so flabby that he got entangled in the sheet he was covered with and then nearly rolled off the bunk. Giving up on that idea, Goten turned over onto his back and stayed in the bed.
His head felt as if it had been stuffed full of cotton. His thoughts felt light, fluffy, and disjointed. They floated leisurely in his head while reflecting on what he could see in the tiny cell. They would fade away, then would return to tell him he was looking at a bulb which was too bright to look at or at a white metallic door or a wardrobe with a suitcase on it.
There was something beyond this, but Goten’s thoughts didn’t form any connections. He just stared blankly at the room. His pillow and cover smelled stale. The cell, though, smelled of metal and oil. Goten’s eyes started closing and he felt himself drifting away into sleep.
A loud creak made the third-class open his eyes again. Like in slow motion, he saw the door open and the shaii floated in. He was wearing a Vega 213 over his right eye.
“Oh, you’re up.”
The prince’s voice boomed like from deep under water, and Goten gave him a confused look, wondering what was wrong with his voice.
“Are you alright?” the prince asked as, instead of answering, Goten kept giving him a sluggish gaze. He noticed that Goten had wrapped himself into the cover like a cocoon. It didn’t seem that he would be able to move either his arms or legs.
“Mmm?” Goten hummed questioningly as the other male touched his forehead, then brushed over his temple.
“You don’t seem to be fully awake yet,” the prince muttered softly after having reassured himself that the third-class wasn’t fevered. He tugged at the cover, starting to unwrap Goten. “They did warn me that it would take about six hours for it to completely wear off. You are a bit more susceptible to medicines than usual, though, aren’t you?”
“Mmm?”
The shaii finally managed to unwrap Goten from his cocoon, freeing his limbs. He draped the cover around the third-class loosely. The youth had slept for six hours straight without even moving a muscle. He was still half-asleep, absolutely helpless in his sluggishness. The prince wondered if the third-class remembered the recent events. He probably did, but it was very likely that, right now, he was not able to understand or make anything of his memories.
The shaii noticed that Goten’s eyes kept closing and opening; he was trying to force himself to stay awake. The prince chuckled softly. “It’s alright, you can sleep. There are still seven hours until we reach Velora.” Goten fought the drowsiness for several more minutes, then his eyes stayed closed and the prince watched his breathing even out and slow down.
<center>ooOoOoOoo</center>
Goten woke up with a jolt. He sat up at once with his eyes wide. He noticed the prince giving him a startled look from his chair. He had some piece of paper in his fingers which he had obviously been reading. Goten took in the room. What his mind had previously taken for a cell was, in fact, a tiny cabin on a plane. He could feel the vibrations and hear the slight buzz.
“Where are we, sir?”
The prince folded the paper and stuffed it into his pocket. “And to think I was worried that your dementia was permanent…”
Goten gave him a reproachful look.
“We are on a plane, on the way to the capital.”
“Umm… Why, sir?”
“There were orders for you to present yourself to the headquarters of National Air Force.”
Goten’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Err… But why? What am I going to do there, sir? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Goten’s perplexity was so honest that the prince felt genuinely sorry him. “Frankly speaking, I have no idea,” he said. “I will try to find out as soon as we land, though; the fact that you were the only one summoned there is, to put it mildly, suspicious.”
“I see…” Goten muttered. He became worried as a thought occurred to him. “But my things and credit ca-”
“Everything’s in that suitcase.” The shaii pointed at the top of the small wardrobe. “Kyon has been most helpful.”
For a few seconds, it was completely silent in the cabin. “But I didn’t have a suitcase, sir,” Goten muttered finally. “I had a backpack.”
The conversation had gone into the absolute wrong direction, and the prince suddenly found he could say nothing to that. He should have handled the dialogue better: Goten’s face had changed at the mere mention of his roommate. Now it was also obvious that Goten had solved the mystery of the suitcase – there were many suitcases on the base that were not needed anymore.
“Have you ever been to the capital?” the shaii asked jovially and felt like an idiot.
Goten gave him a weird look. “No, sir, I haven’t,” he said, shaking his head. “I heard it’s big and green though.” After a short pause, he added, “And dangerous for hicks like me.”
The shaii watched Goten lay down and snuggle into the covers so that only his face was visible. “Well…” the prince drawled. “I suppose one does need to have his head firmly screwed onto his shoulders so as not to get swindled.” He rubbed the back of his neck while thinking that he didn’t want to stick to Goten’s trail of thought.
“The population density is something you will notice as soon as we land,” the shaii said, steering the conversation away. “We should be there in four hours. Actually, I haven’t spent much time in the city itself. I mostly grew up in the palace without getting around too much. This was mostly due to security reasons and, while I understood that, I thought it was very annoying. I remember there was a celebration but I was not allowed to…”
The prince lifted his eyes at a soft gasping sound. Goten had turned away from him at some point during his recollections and was now facing the wall. His shoulders were shaking with suppressed sobs. Unnerved and overtaken by a feeling of a failure, the shaii stared at Goten’s back, then stood up. He wasn’t certain what he was going to do, but then it seemed absolutely natural for him to walk to Goten’s bunk and sit down next to him. He stroked the third-class’s back lightly. This caused some of Goten’s sobs to burst to the surface. Unsure, the shaii retracted his hand. He had no idea what to say. Quietly, he watched the side of Goten’s face he was able to see, then reached out and stroked his back again.
“I think I was in love with him,” Goten sobbed out.
The shaii's hand, on Goten’s back, stopped moving.
“I think all of us were a little bit in love with him,” the third-class mumbled, choking on his sobs.
The prince’s hand continued stroking the shaking back. Then he ruffled Goten’s hair lightly while savoring the possibility of these casual touches and, at the same time, he could not help but feel guilty. He could sense and understand Goten’s pain, but couldn’t pretend to himself that he was much affected by Toharu’s death. He had hardly known Toharu. The one fact he did know was that Toharu and Ario had been working for the taisa, spying on Goten. However, Goten would probably never know that. Neither did he need to know.
The prince kept awkwardly stroking Goten’s hair while the younger male cried. He wished he could say or do something to alleviate Goten’s misery, but he was no good at these kinds of things. While growing up, he never had friends his age. All the people around him had been grown men or women who would never think of coming with their problems to a child. He himself had also been strictly taught since infancy that weaknesses were not to be tolerated. Certainly Ealdira had never been so categorical, but the man had already been over seventy when he was appointed to be his mentor. To Ealdira, the problems of a five or eight-year-old… Ealdira had always found it hard to see the world through a child’s eyes. He was not exactly nanny material. Ealdira had given him much more later. When he grew a little bit older and started turning into a man, they found more things in common.
After some time, Goten calmed down. His body was still shaken by the occasional hiccup, but now he mostly felt sleepy. He still hadn’t turned around to face the shaii, leaving the older male to stare at his right ear and a small part of his cheek.
“I shouldn’t have left Ario alone,” Goten mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow.
“You didn’t have a choice.”
The third-class sniffled. “Yeah, thanks to you, sir. I wish I at least could have bidden my farewells.”
The shaii listened closely, but it didn’t seem that the younger male was harboring anger or thinking of mutiny. That was good. He did have a spare syringe of sedatives, but the medicine was not going to last forever. Sooner or later, Goten would have to face the rest of the world. And the rest of the world might not much care for Goten’s current ‘<i>screw-you</i>’ attitude.
“Orders are orders, Goten.”
“Yeah, orders are orders,” Goten repeated. The tone of his voice was somewhat mocking, but it was more disappointed. He yawned. “So what’s been happening, sir?”
“Well, the obvious. The Ice-jins declared war on the Saiyan Empire and its colonies and the Supreme General announced the mobilization of the troops. Seven hours ago, the Ice-jins took over the Shandera section they had wanted so much. We have sent our troops there. There hasn’t been any attack on Vegeta-sei yet, other than the assault on our base.”
“And the Leiadors, sir?”
“The Leiadors haven’t picked their side yet. I think they are waiting to see who has a better chance of winning this.”
Goten was silent for a few seconds, then shifted to get into a more comfortable position on the bunk. “I gather sir has been summoned to the court?”
“Yes. Thus I figured I would keep you company to Velora. Listen, it would be more convenient for both of us if you turned around.”
Goten pouted into the pillow. “Don’t want to.”
“Fine,” the shaii said, standing up from the bunk; he could see that Goten was near-asleep again.
The shaii fished his Vega 213 out of his pocket, unfolded it, and fitted over his right eye. From Goten’s bunk, it took him two steps to reach the door. There was hardly any space in the cabin: the wardrobe, the bunk, the chair, and the lamp on the ceiling were the only things here. There wasn’t even a desk or a table. His own cabin was much more spacious.
A sudden impact made Goten slam into the wall face-first. Wide-eyed, he pushed himself off it with his hands and feet, then inspected his sore nose. It wasn’t bleeding and didn’t seem to be broken. The plane slowly returned to its previous position and, still mistrustfully, Goten let go off the wall.
“What in the world was that, sir?” he muttered, rubbing his nose. There was no answer and Goten turned around. “Sir?” There was no one standing. Goten looked at the floor. The shaii had folded over into a curious position on the floor and didn’t seem to be moving. There was his suitcase on top of the prince. It must have fallen off the wardrobe because of the impact. At least the furniture was wired to the walls and floor.
“Sir?” Goten repeated, climbing out of his bunk. He lifted his suitcase off the shaii and set it next to the bunk. He could hear a faint crackling sound coming from the prince’s scouter. Goten stiffened at the sight of a crimson trail spreading over the lavender hair and further down the ponytail. Panic suddenly exploded like a glass thrown at the floor. He grabbed the prince by his shoulders.
“Sir? Sir!”
Goten’s mind overlaid the shaii’s head with Toharu’s and, hyperventilating, he wanted to shake the living hell out of the prince. He caught himself just before doing that.
“Ah fuck,” the third-class cursed shakily when he finally forced himself to harness his panic. There wasn’t much blood and, at first sight, it didn’t appear that the wound was deep. He could see the prince breathing. Goten patted him lightly on his face. “Sir, are you alright?”
Obviously, the prince was not alright. The plane shook again and, without much thinking, Goten took the scouter off the unconscious man. It was silent now. Goten turned on the microphone.
“What’s going on out there?” he asked, lifting the shaii off the floor carefully.
“Sir, we are under attack! Two of our fighter aircrafts are down. The last one is hardly keeping up. There are intruders onboard. Where are you, sir?”
Goten looked around. “Hm. Somewhere here,” he said while laying the prince down onto the bunk, not bothering to take his boots off. Was the man on the other end of the line an idiot? He had just said there were intruders on board and now he expected him to tell him their location? Not that Goten had the faintest idea where they were.
Something crackled in Goten’s scouter. The readings on the Vega 213 shot up suddenly, startling him. They showed a number of ki signatures spiking up and then going down again. There was a pause, then the man spoke again, “Sir, they have just killed three of our crew and wrenched the door to your cabin off. Wherever you are, sir, stay there!”
Goten turned the listless prince onto his side so that the wound on his head would stop bleeding faster. “Yeah,” the third-class said, tearing at the cover, “I don’t think there will be any problems with that.” He intended to try and clean the wound. He looked at the unconscious man, then at the cloth. It didn’t smell very clean, just like the pillow. He threw the cloth onto the floor. To hell with that.
“We’ve contacted Garedan Air Force, sir. Coincidentally, six of their air fighters were on practice maneuvers and they should be here at any given moment.”
“Good. Keep me informed,” Goten ordered, switching the microphone off. He grabbed his boots from the floor and pulled them on.
The readings of the various ki signals on the plane were useless. Goten could see the number of people, but could not tell them apart and know which of them belonged to his comrades and which to his enemies. The data couldn’t tell him their actual location on the plane either.
The third-class left the shaii’s side to stand at the door. He could hear distant thumps and voices. There wasn’t any lock or bar on the door. It was as good as open. If the enemies were Ice-jins, though, locks and bars were useless anyway.
Goten cursed softly. He didn’t even know what was outside the door, and couldn’t risk opening it and giving them away in case there was an enemy behind it. He clicked a tiny button on the side of the scouter. First click got him night vision mode. He pressed again and now received what he wanted – thermo sensors. The door and part of the wall became transparent to his right eye. There was no one outside. Just to make sure, Goten looked at himself. His legs turned green, yellow and red, part of the floor disappearing; it worked just fine.
Goten wished he knew what the plane looked like. Frowning, he blinked slowly. He suddenly realized he actually knew the interior of the aircraft. It was just like that time at the first armory and then again with Toharu. He knew. He had been here before.
The third-class tensed as two colorful creatures appeared in his vision. By the shapes of their bodies, Goten easily recognized them as Ice-jins. The figures were slowly advancing. Obviously, they were looking for something. Crashes and creaks of metal that followed the spikes of their ki and the movements of their arms and legs suggested broken doors.
The shaii was lying on the bunk which was right in front of the door. This fact made Goten move away from it and stand in front of the bunk protectively. The distance was only two steps though, and Goten didn’t think there would be much difference.
There was an explosion somewhere and the plane shook. Goten’s scouter crackled to life. “Sir, Garedan Air Force destroyed the last of the enemy aircrafts. They are sending in a few of their troops to eliminate the last of the intruders.”
Parallel to the man’s words, there was a short feeling of weightlessness. Goten felt the plane slow down. Goten wanted to answer, but now the varicolored creatures outside the door were so close that he was afraid they would hear him.
“Sir? Sir, are you there?”
Goten cut the connection off. He braced himself as the creatures stopped right outside the door. It suddenly flew off its hinges and whooshed inside. Goten had summoned his ki and put on a protective shield at the same time as one of the Ice-jins’ feet had touched the door. The third-class’s foot connected with the door, sending it backwards and into the corridor. The Ice-jin who had kicked the door didn’t even have time to retract his foot as the door slammed into him, nailing him into the opposite wall.
The second Ice-jin raised his eyes from his dead comrade. The metallic wall he had slammed into with a bone-breaking crash was contorted and bent. In fact, the door had half-passed through the wall and into the other cabin behind it. The Ice-jin powered to his maximum and motioned for Goten to come at him.
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Three elite Saiyans froze on the spot as an Ice-jin flew past them and his body slammed itself into a wall next to them. Bleeding, his arm bent at an impossible angle, he slumped onto the floor to lie there motionlessly. The Saiyans looked up at a petite, short-haired second-class kid who had appeared in the corridor. He gave them a quick look, nodded, and walked over to the Ice-jin.
“What the…” started one of the elites.
“Are there any more of them, sir?” Goten asked, prodding the Ice-jin with his foot. However, the man stayed down. Goten moved away from him and back into the corridor.
The elites were giving him suspicious looks. “There was one more, farther down this corridor.”
“Then this should be all of them,” Goten said.
“Where’s the prince?”
Goten didn’t answer anything, but it quickly became obvious to the elites why he was blocking the corridor.
The third-class noticed the elites staring at something behind his back and turned his head slightly to see the shaii staggering into the corridor. He was advancing slowly, supporting himself on the walls. Goten, still turned sideways in order to keep his eyes on both the prince and the elites, raised his ki higher.
“Fuck,” the shaii muttered as his fingers grasped coagulated blood in his hair. He touched his head gingerly. “Fuck,” he repeated.
He reached Goten and half-leaned, half-fell on the third-class. Goten made a good pole to lean against. The prince took in the damage: walls in the corridor were bent out of shape, doors to the cabins were missing, he had also passed a squashed Ice-jin, now another one was lying in front of him. His gaze stopped on the three elite Saiyans before him. They were alert, just like Goten, whose body felt like it was shooting sparks. Streams of energy seemed to coil around and inside him. He was turned sideways, his eyes narrowed. The prince realized Goten was protecting him.
“It’s alright, Goten. They are trustworthy,” he said, patting Goten on his chest with his left hand. His right was still clamped on Goten’s arm to steady himself. “I have known Berada for a long time.”
The Saiyan called Berada pressed his fist over his heart and bowed his head. “Your Highness.”
Goten’s eyes studied him for a few moments, then his ki dropped to normal. “Is there a doctor on board, sir?” he asked, looking at the prince’s head. “This doesn’t seem to be serious, but sir might need a few stitches.”
“I will see one in Velora,” the shaii answered, aware of the cold look that Berada gave the third-class. Apparently, the elite officer thought Goten’s attitude was improper for a second-class – Goten had held their gaze and had hesitated before trusting his prince’s judgment, never mind that the prince had a large lump on his head. Certainly, Berada thought it was also inappropriate for a second-class to touch him as well. However, he didn’t seem to be keen on coming closer and replacing Goten; he had seen what the youth was capable of.
“What happened here?”
Unsure, the three Saiyans stared at the prince. “When, sir?” Berada asked finally.
“Well, before now. Why there are Ice-jins strewn around?”
Berada gave the prince a blank look. “Err… But sir, I talked to you wh-”
“It was me, sir, you talked to. His Highness was unconscious at the time,” Goten told Berada, taking the scouter off his right eye. He proffered it to the prince. “Thank you, sir, for letting me use it.”
The shaii looked at the scouter, then at Goten. Deciding that there was absolutely no point in commenting on Goten’s words, he took and pocketed it. “So what happened?” he asked again.
Goten listened to the elite explaining the situation to the prince. Berada confirmed what Goten had suspected from the very beginning – the objective of the enemy had been to capture the Saiyan prince. They would have tried to blackmail the Saiyan Empire, and most importantly, the Royal Family.
“Sir, you need to rest,” Goten pointed out when he noticed the prince leaning against him more and more until he was almost hanging. The shaii didn’t argue with him, and this made Goten think that the man felt even worse than he looked. He wrapped his arm around the prince’s shoulder for support and started leading him back to his cabin.
“Sir, I can see you to your cabin,” Berada offered.
Goten and the prince stopped. From the corner of his eye, the prince glanced at the third-class. Goten’s face was blank, leaving the decision to him and, from the look of it, he would not mind either conclusion. Goten probably even expected him to stick to the milieu of elites. The shaii hesitated, uncertain.
Goten was aware of the tension that started materializing in the air. He knew why it was difficult for the prince to decide. Going with Berada would confirm the expectations and policy of the elite society. However, in so far as Goten knew the shaii (and Goten was of opinion that he knew him pretty well), he believed that the prince wanted to refuse Berada’s offer. That was either because of his different views or Goten himself, but his refusal would result in the elites becoming interested in Goten. The shaii was looking out for him.
Screw that.
“Your cabin, sir,” Goten breached the silence resolutely, “doesn’t have a door either.”
The prince surprised Goten by laughing softly. He squeezed Goten’s arm lightly to show appreciation for his fortitude. “Yeah, and yours is closer.”
“The pillow is smelly, though, sir,” Goten added in a whisper, causing another bout of laughter. There was tiredness, relief, and gratitude in that laughter. This troubled Goten, but at the same time he could not help but respond with a bright smile of his own.
TBC