Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Fallen for the Kill ❯ The Memory Room ( Chapter 18 )

Fallen for the Kill

By: Hope_Poe26

She stood in front of her supposed to be fathers' house blinking. How had they'd all been roped into meeting with Kim's father? She could never understand, but there they were. Kim's father was always a sweetheart to them, but he'd never understand Kim's situation now or hers for that matter. Kim was pregnant and under Earth laws, unmarried.

She knew her mate was standing behind her, but she didn't dare look back at him. Kakarott and Bulma had stayed back at the house to make sure Jake wouldn't be able to escape. But Pan was sure it was because, Kakarott hadn't wanted to leave Chi alone. It was weird. The fact that Kakarott had a mate, but was being courted by the neko, it was really weird. She blinked her thoughts away, when she felt Kim beside her.

"Daddy is going to be alright with us, right?" "Pan?" - she shook her head and smiled.

"I don't think he'd be very happy at first, but he'd be alright after he sees how protective Radditz is of you." - Kim was instantly happy. Pan sighed. If it were that easy for her, she'd be as happy as Kim was. And for the first time, she was deeply jealous of Kim.

Kim's father was loaded. Radditz could see that, but he wasn't the least intimidated by that. He was going to make the old man understand, even if it hurt him. They were surprised when Kim's father, a bigger and taller man than Radditz suddenly grabbed his petite daughter and his `niece' to hug them fiercely.

Both Vegeta and Radditz sweat dropped as they saw a giant hugging their mates as if they were both dolls. The funny thing was that, though he was at least two feet taller than Radditz, he was being extremely gentle with the females.

"I am so glad to see you my girls!" - he said in a deep manly voice and Vegeta turned his head away from the mushiness in front of him.

"I missed you father. But I came for another reason…" - he set them down softly, and Pan huffed out indignant that she had been treated like a brat when she was obviously older.

"Which is?" - it was then that Kim's father realized that there were two men in the room too.

"Hello." - he said and Radditz was instantly reminded of his late uncle Turles. It scared him shitless, because the look in that man's eyes was exactly the same as his uncles. Dark fathomless eyes had looked at him when he was only five and trying to become a fighter while sparring with Bardock, his father.

>Flashback<

"Hello." - Turles wild hair that looked a lot like his father framed Turles' face in an enchanting way that made Radditz - at age 5 - blush in embarrassment for thinking that. His father had been training since early in the morning trying to keep in shape for the sake of his teammates, he had said to little Radditz.

"Hi." - he gushed out shy suddenly not really knowing why.

Turles knelt down to see him straight in the eye and then he laughed. It wasn't an evil laugh, though. It was a nice safe laugh.

"You don't look that much like my brother Radditz, but you are certainly his son." - then he petted him and taught him a few tricks before saying he had to leave him because he had to go back to his crew.

>End of Flashback<

When he came back to himself, Kim was seated on his lap and Pan was sitting away from Vegeta, but next to the other man.

"So that's it daddy. I'm mated to Radditz and I think it'd be best if I quit school for now." - he thought that the man would go hysterical; he would if his daughter ever came to him saying that. But the roles were not reversed; instead it was he who was evil in a way.

"I am sorry to hear that you got `mated' so quickly child. But if it makes you happy, I will abide by it. You are welcome to stay here with him whenever you want." - Kim grinned at that. "However, I want you to become his wife, so I can put him in charge of the business, because I'm frankly tired of working." - to this Kim squealed in delight.

She jumped into her father's out stretched arms and hugged him fiercely. Pan merely turned away from the deep emotion emanating from them, and grunted. Radditz looked curiously at her. He then turned to look at his prince, and found him with the same reaction. They were alike in every single way. He shook his head in amusement. Vegeta had chosen the right mate.

Pan remembered briefly about how she'd come here the first time after Kim's mother had died. The reason she had turned was not because she was disgusted by the open display of affection between father and daughter, but because she was once again reminded that her life was never going to end like that: a fairytale come true.

>Flashback<

Her mother had dark red hair and black eyes. She was the most sought after inu-youkai in the whole land, or so she had told Pan when she was young. She often told Pan of her beaus. She never mentioned her father, but Pan knew it was hard for her because he was gone. A tyrant had killed him that her mother often whispered at night that one day she'd avenge his death.

She had been free for more than ten years, but her mother never got around to wanting or finding another mate. She said that one kid was enough. So she taught Pan to fight. To harness her strengths and heighten her weaknesses telling her that if there was one thing she could trust was in herself and her power to defend herself from others. This was what she taught Pan. To trust herself.

But there was something she hadn't taught Pan. And that was to love. She never heard an endearment from her. True, her mother never told her she was weak or insulted her, but she made sure that she did not cuddle Pan at night. When she needed her the most, her mother turned away from giving her tenderness, from showing some love for her, because her mother deemed it useless and painful. She never mentioned it to her, but Pan was sure she meant that she had been hurt by love when she lost Pan's father.

So, Pan deduced that her mother thought that if she didn't display any sort of emotion around her, she'd be free of getting hurt by it. She was wrong. Yet, as she stood in her mother's grave when she found she wasn't strong to defeat the saiyan murderer, she murmured her love for her mother and she didn't cry.

Now she stood in front of Kim's father thinking it odd that she should remember this now of all times. She looked at the man and wondered. Then she remembered, that she was remembering again. This was she before Vegeta, before meeting Kakarott, before even meeting Jake.

"I am willing to compensate you for your effort." - he had said.

Back at a pirate's ship…

She had snuck onto the ship knowing that in order to find the tyrant who had killed her mother and consequently her father's murderer, it was easier to travel with bad men. It was there she met Yates. She didn't totally trust him, but she felt some sort of respect for the old geezer. She had been then fourteen, but today the captain was torturing some innocent bystanders inside the ship they had stopped to rob.

"LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU MONSTER!" - She screamed and went for the kill.

And it was then she took Kim under her wing. To be like some sort of surrogate mother for the young girl. She remembered briefly how the hell did they ended up back on Earth, but there she was standing in front of Kim's father desk not the least frightened of him even if he was taller or stronger. Though she wasn't frightened of him, hn. Rewards? No. She hadn't done it for a reward. She hadn't done it for the goodness of feeling better, she had done it because she knew how it felt to loose something so quickly and so suddenly, that she felt responsible for her safety. She was ready to leave her past behind and move on. But just after he had said that, Kim burst into the office and said…

"No father. Don't make her leave me. I love her, can't she be my older sister? I'm sure she can take care of me." - that had been an unspoken allegiance to her.

Something she hadn't quite expected as her visage was usually cold, unemotional and dark with hatred ruling most of her being. Hatred for the world around her. She was vicious. Underneath that façade of not caring, she cared. But this was her nature, to live on her own without depending on others.

>End of Flashback<

Pan blinked twice and then she sighed. Memories long forgotten rushed to her head before meeting the man who had helped her a lot straight on.

"Well… is this young man your boyfriend Pan?" - Pan blinked once then she laughed.

"Mr. Son, You are so funny. You know I would never have a boyfriend, he's my mate." - silence followed. Then:

"Like my Kim here?" - the man in front of them asked…

"Uh.. I guess so. He is the Prince of …" - unable to say it for fear this man who knew nothing of her - not that much to know anyway, even if he did adopted her as his niece, he didn't know who she was really hunting for. So he wouldn't know, wouldn't reproach her and she wouldn't feel deflated as if she had suddenly been tricked-rather insulted her mother's wish to defeat the tyrant that had enslaved and consequently killed her father or the saiyan that killed her mother. She didn't avenge their deaths and this was what was bothering her all the time. She had fallen in love and she felt guilty for it.

They were talking. Vegeta and Kim's Father were talking of a… wedding?! She realized with frozen relish that they were both talking. Vegeta, Radditz and Mr. Son were talking of Kim and her wedding.

This was a lot to take in. The Prince of Saiyans was actually willing to forego a wedding?! Kim could not believe it and as she stole a glance to Pan, neither could she. This room… her mother had once told her that this room was called the memory room. She had giggled then. But she understood why it was called like that now. She had been deep in thought while thinking of a good response to her fathers' wedding call, but the truth was that she was content to be as she was before with Radditz. Getting married under the laws of Earth was a sign that she was an adult now and that she wouldn't really need Pan's protecting or her fathers' money because Radditz could work now for it.

She didn't know what to think of it, until she realized that both her and Pan needed a break from the men.

"Pan?" - Pan looked back at her questioning and when Kim signaled towards the door, Pan nodded silently.

They left the Memory Room with heavy thoughts in their minds. Kim turned to Pan to say something, but Pan stopped her…

"Don't. I need some time alone to think this through. I'll see you at dinner." - then she left Kim alone.