Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Perfection ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
I hadn't stopped to explain myself or even ask questions. I had taken to the sky, keeping my power level at its maximum lowest, hoping against hope he wouldn't sense me coming.
How?
I just kept repeating the word in my head, like somehow, it was going to change the inevitable fact that EVERYTHING had virtually gone wrong. Now, I realize that I could have been a BIT more specific in my dragon request and all but this was ridiculous. How?! How the fuck could everything have gone so wrong? I wanted to wake up now.
I just soared at break neck speed towards the disturbance, the sky now completely dark save for the moon that stared down at me almost accusingly. It was like it was just scolding at me or something. "Oh, how cute.. look at you. You thought you had it all figured out."
I'd never felt so pathetically human in all my life. This is what it must feel like everyday, I mused. Confused, scared, helpless.
This just sucked.
The power level was awful. It wasn't the fact that it was strong, though, yeah, it was. It was the evil I felt positively radiating from it. Darkness. It was like being able to sense shadows when you walked around them. Only, this was a huge shadow that pooled and expanded throughout a corner of the earth. To be honest, it frightened me.
I touched down about a mile from where I sensed it, surprised that I'd made it here within two hours. My mind was so whirled and twisted with scenarios and ideas that I'd basically just shut it off for the time being. I couldn't dwell in confusion when I knew the answer was within walking distance and mulling over senseless scenarios never did me any good anyways.
So I just walked, ignoring the never-ending "how's" and "why's" and "huh's" that consistently poked at my subconscious. This wasn't getting me anywhere. I picked up my pace, crawling at some points through thick forest, vines snagging my clothes. Branches of trees dipped low, dragging their blades across my face as I winced my way onwards.
The power level was fluctuating, something that struck me as rather odd in its rapid, spontaneous spits of energy. It was close now, yet I sensed nothing within it that didn't scream evil. Even Vegeta wasn't this messed up. And that was a perfect phrase for it: "Messed up." Something about the power just wasn't natural in its placid depths. The constant rise and fall would have told me in earlier times that the user was unfamiliar with the process of controlling energy. My son had always made the same mistake, when honing his skills as a young boy. His power had always struck me as unsure, limited in his natural state and yet soaring beyond anything natural when he was provoked.
The power I felt now was.... I couldn't say that it was ultimately unsure of itself so much as spurned by emotion. Like the rage in the user constantly threw the level upwards and then when sanity returned momentarily, came back down to normal.
So odd.
I could hear voices eventually, the sound of one overbearing tone telling me that was the culprit of the energy. My face twisted as a dangling branch got my arm, slicing deep into my skin as I kept my ki level so low. I was no more than human now, my inner Saiyan cringing at the idea. I didn't like being so weak or even being able to relate to this low level of power. Maybe I was a control freak after all!
I smirked a little at the idea, pitying myself for finding humor at a time like this. It was a poor compensation for the bewilderment I was suffering.
"Hey, you!" I cringed, turning towards the man that stared at me. I lowered my head, keeping my face concealed from him, afraid his reaction to me would be just as terrible as everyone else's had been.
"Where's your work uniform?" He spat, eyes wide as I stared meekly up at him, using the shadows to keep whatever features I could hidden. His face was contorted with disbelief, his plain, brown hair swaying in the slight breeze. "Are you crazy? Hasn't anyone told you? He's HERE!"
I just blinked at him.
"Do you know what will happen if he catches you not working? To all of us?!" He shook his head, tossing a brownish-stained cloak at me. "Put it on! Hurry!"
Bewildered, I tossed it over my clothing, wrapping the hood around my face. This was like a bad Twilight Zone episode.
An idea came to me quickly, relief washing over my whole body. Very slowly, and controlling my energy as well as only I could, I felt my hair slowly transform, my eyes stinging slightly and feeling pressurized as they became pale blue. Silver white locks of hair fell over my eyes and I grinned, knowing that I'd be virtually unrecognizable now--however confused I was about the fact that up until now, I was apparently viewed as public-enemy number one.
Tossing a shovel into my hand, the man turned away, thankfully having been oblivious to the massive change of my features. I grinned to myself once more, proud of my quick thinking. Yes, Vegeta, in all his hateable qualities, had taught me something.
I moved slowly towards the voice and the source of the fluctuating energy level, keeping my own at what was normal for any human. The grass crinkled as I touched over it, the heat of my transformation wilting it. I held the cloak wrapped beneath my chin, the whiteness of my hair spilling over my haunting eyes. The transformation, as always, a blessing and curse.
While I'd be unrecognizable, I was still noticeably different at close range and so I dipped my head lower, keeping my eyes on the ground. Even in this light, they'd be shockingly bright, 'piercing' as Bulma had once informed me. Inhuman in the coldness they displayed. Sometimes, they could almost appear to be two dull burning flashlights, even through the dark, energized by the inferno of power behind them. So I held my lids low, more or less walking aimlessly towards what now sounded like a verbal sparring fest.
"This group is a day and a half behind the quoted schedule." A cruel voice spat, the tone hoarse and raspy. "What's the point of me making quotas if they're only going to be so blatantly ignored?"
I kept my head down, seeing only the feet of those in front of me. A small crowd had seemingly gathered around the source of vibrating power, still working furiously over the ground and planting seeds.
I saw a rather large tree, staying as incognito as possible as I maneuvered myself towards it. Feeling the bark beneath my fingertips, I moved behind, concealed now by branches and darkness. Gathering my strength, I chanced a glance upward, horrified that I would see precisely who I already knew it would be.
And then grasping onto the bow of the tree for simple strength when I realized, I was wrong.
I was so fucking wrong.
My whole body became a mesh of boneless, quivering flesh, every part of my brain screaming. I couldn't even coherently make out a word of what my brain WAS screaming, only knowing that it was. My fingertips felt bruised as I peeled them over strong bark, grabbing onto the tree to hold my body upwards.
There was just no way. I was dreaming. I was seeing things. I was going blind.
There was just no way that the man I was seeing, the source of such a dark force....
Looked exactly like me.
"You there!" He screamed, his voice sounding like a raspier version of mine as he pointed towards a white haired old man, standing towards the side. "Did I say you could stop working?"
I shook my head, watching as the man that looked precisely like me walked, with cat-like grace, towards the now shivering elderly man, the cup of water he'd recently taken from a barrel, falling to the ground.
"W-water, Sir," He mumbled almost inaudibly, his eyes low on the ground. "I just .... I just needed some water."
"We have scheduled water breaks for that," The clone of myself said coldly, crunching the cup with his foot. "Or are you special? Do the rules not apply to you?"
The old man shook his head fiercely, becoming visibly panicked.
"You're not special then?" The tyrant cocked his head to the side, standing a little too close towards the cowering human. "Then... prey tell." He blinked rapidly. "Just why-oh-why do you get a special water break?"
Before the man could answer, or even see the movement, he'd been planted into the ground, his chin digging into the cold soil. The tyrant placed a foot on the back of the old man's neck, staring with furious, penetrating eyes.
I took a second to just gaze at this unbelievable sight, the man who looked so much like myself just posing like a statue over the cowering man. Black, shinny combat boots glimmered in the moonlight, the pantleg of impressively tailored black, Teflon pants hanging over the thick laces. Jagged loops went up the pant legs, large knives tied around the thighs and hanging tightly to the sides. A tight black, wife-beater (as they're referred to last I heard) held snuggly to every ripped feature of his chest, a gun holster around his shoulders; two gold encrusted guns hanging on his lower back.
"Or is it because you're old?" He was spitting venomously. "And tired and weak and too aged to be of any use to this world?"
"N-no! No sir!" the man sobbed, waving his arms around in an odd fashion. The crowds around were working twice as hard, their eyes widened with horror as they chanced glances at the scene. I didn't know how they could do it. For my life, I couldn't tear my eyes away! The intensity of this entire INSANE situation was too much to ignore.
"No?!" The clone hissed, eyebrows tilted at a cruel angle. "Then you're just lazy?"
The old man collapsed in his anguish, crying in fear and horror. My heart went out towards him, though, for obvious reasons, I stayed hiding. I was just an observer of a world that had gone entirely wrong in a matter of about two hours.
Seeming to right himself, the man that looked exactly like me, lifted his foot from the old man's neck, staring at the crowds around him. A look of what might have resembled embarrassment went over his features, though, knowing every inch of my own face, I almost got the impression that it was false. He touched the back of his head, a gesture that looked JUST like mine, laughing in an embarrassed tone.
I grimaced, seeing what looked like dark, thin bruises all down his arms. Track-lines similar to those I'd seen on human addicts. Well, I thought to myself, that would explain the fluctuating power level and darkness around his eyes.
"I'm sorry," He apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. "I get so worked up."
The workers slowed down for a second, relief sweeping over them as he grinned, chuckling a little.
"This time of night you know?" He asked them, the intensity in his body leaving as he flopped his arms to his side. He moved towards the old man who still kept his face to the ground, laying on his stomach and shivering at the approach of the tyrant.
"Are you ok?" He asked the old man, sincerely wanting to know. The elder just gazed up at him as the clone knelt down, offering his hand. "I've behaved horribly, I hope you're ok."
The shaky, aged fingers wrapped hesitantly into the palm of the younger man, hopeful eyes looking upwards. The clone smiled softly, placing his fingertips beneath the old man's jaw and running them gently across the soft flesh beneath. I was suddenly struck with the oddest sensation towards this man that looked like me. I realized, he was absolutely one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen in my entire life, and that realization, nearly knocked me to the ground.
Numbly, the old man nodded, a sweet smile coming to his lips. The same expression was followed by the beautiful tyrant, his eyebrows high and his face resembling mine so completely that I felt almost nauseous suddenly.
With a hitched breath, the old man's entire jawbone and head was torn from its body, the spine snapping and blood shooting into the air! I screamed in horror, a thousand other slaves following suit as crimson was splattered through the air and the spine, still dangling from the head, seemed to dance as he held it up.
"This is what laziness gets you!" He screamed, blood dripping down his face, clouding his eyes with red. "Age is not a factor in MY world!"
He gazed demonically around at the terror-stricken faces, his eyes darting over and then passed me.
"You WILL work and you WILL work hard!" He told them, eyes beaming satanically over the people.
A post near him was only too quickly smacked with a wet sound as he pushed the bloody head over it, a sadistic statue with an old man's screaming face staring wide-eyed at those around him.
"Seven more," He told the men in armor around him. "Seven more posts in a line, right here." He gestured.
The men nodded blankly, eyes on the ground.
"Find seven members of his family," He ordered, his voice raised for everyone to hear. "and put their heads here."
A fresh batch of terrified screams went through the people, gasps and sobs echoing around me. I was too horrified to move, realizing that in my shock, I'd walked away from my hiding place and now stood amongst the workers.
"This!" the monster screamed. "This is the penalty for laziness! You WILL die and I WILL take the lives of those closest to you as penance for it."
As if all on cue, the people threw themselves into their work once more, their pace painful to watch.
"There is NO room in my new world for old age and laziness!" He hollered above the sounds of rapidly moving bodies and the clanks of metal digging into hard soil.
"You there! Albino!"
My breathing hitched as I glanced up, realizing his horrifying gaze was on me. I don't think my heart beat for about 10 seconds as I held his gaze, praying that my disguise and this darkness was enough to conceal the fact that I was more or less his mirror-image.
"Bury him," He spoke, pointing towards what was left of the old man, a gory puddle on the ground. "A piece of shit like that will make some fine FUCKING fertilizer."