Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Ransom Due ❯ Negotiations ( Chapter 15 )

Ransom Due - Chapter 14 - Negotiations

 

Disclaimer: I claim no intellectual ownership of the characters portrayed within, Dragonball or DBZ. Written for entertainment value only, not profit.

 

 

Lunch followed the white cape into the woods despite every fiber of her being telling her she should be running in the opposite direction. After a short walk they reached a place where a tree had fallen, its bark rotting and long overgrown with vines. The Demon King gestured to it.

 

 

"Sit," he commanded.

 

 

She did so without a second thought let alone mention of the possibility of poison ivy or biting insects. Any such complaints that would impede instant compliance to direct orders trained from her reactions long ago.

 

 

Piccolo remained standing, his stance indicating that he had no intention of doing otherwise. He produced a bottle from the folds of his tunic and took a long draught from it, then tossed it at her. She lifted her hand and easily caught it, wondering, not for the first time since coming home, at how the air offered no resistance to her movements in comparison to the standard gravity settings on Missionary.

 

 

"Drink." Another command. She lifted the bottle to her lips automatically, then paused. If she couldn't even do anything but stare stupidly up at him and follow orders, even if she was terribly thirsty, how would she ever convince him to agree to a bargain on her terms? The feeling of impending doom threatened to swallow her yet again, the realization that she was playing with the fire of madness, sure to be burned.

 

 

"It's only water," he said sternly, noting her hesitation. She glanced suspiciously at the bottle's opening, deliberately lowering and wiping it on her sleeve before taking a swig.

 

 

"That doesn't mean there's not Demon cooties on it or something," she declared, forcing herself to hold eye contact with him as she handed the bottle back, embracing the madness for all it was worth. He raised an eye-ridge slightly at her small rebellion, then resumed peering down at her as though she were a germ in a petrie dish. An awkward silence settled between them for a few moments in which he looked her over at arm's length, his antennae occasionally twitching and his green lips pursed in concentration. She finally found no point in delaying her inevitable demise and broke the silence.

 

 

"Sooo... I guess you're wondering why I came out here..." she ventured, her voice faltering slightly before taking on a resolute strength she hadn't heard in her own speech very often.

 

 

"No. I care nothing for your motivation." Again, his tone of voice was surprisingly calm, more quizzical than angry. "I sense... I have seen demon-spawn within you. I want to know how this is possible."

 

 

She wanted to protest that she had no idea what he was talking about, deny the thing she'd spent half a lifetime burying within herself, but the mental image of blood drenched palms and the terrified wails of children flashed through her mind. It irrevocably reminded her of the fact that even if there were a way to save the whole world from the destruction Raditzu or the rest of Freiza's army would surely unleash upon it, somehow she'd lost a battle she foolishly thought was already long won and forgotten. Her defeat in that fight could bring consequences more dire than any Saiyan purge, and not just for her world. She opened her mouth to try and explain the unexplainable, something that she could hardly make sense of herself. Instead, lies streamed forth as easily as a seasoned actor would recall and perform what was written in a script.

 

 

"It must be because of this," she declared, lifting the jade statue from the bag as if on cue then tossing it slightly so that if flipped over making an inscription carved on the base more readable. "It says here that the Great Demon King, your papa, I guess, hid a little bit of his soul inside this artifact. Maybe it's catching?" She bounced the thing on her palm one more time before it exploded, showering her with green shards. She gasped, as much from the shock of the words leaving her mouth practically unbidden as having to guard against the shrapnel.

 

 

Piccolo laughed; a low, threatening chuckle that amplified into a full-on maniacal cackle. Charged air danced and sparked around his upraised palm. "You don't think I actually believe the folklore humans have attached to my existence in order to justify their fears? I would sense if some piece of myself were stored away somewhere. One more chance before I end this conversation. Permanently."

 

 

Ranchi stared, transfixed at the power he held at the ready, certain she'd be unable to continue, but again, the words left her lips as naturally as if she'd thought the whole plan out ahead herself. "Are you sure? Can you sense something tucked far, far from your reach, say... on another planet?"

 

 

"What are...?"

 

 

She continued, interrupting him despite herself. "My guess is the old man's been taking you for a ride since the beginning. He left a little piece of himself behind on his way here, just in case. Why else would he be willing to let Goku splatter you in the Budokai? Maybe it wasn't in that particular piece," she shrugged indicating the green slivers littering the undergrowth, "but I just got back from a very long trip. I might've stumbled across the place you actually came from, picked up a little something on the way through..."

 

 

"Hmph." He put out the charging ki abruptly and crossed his arms over his chest, smirking. "So I'm an alien? I suppose it makes sense..." He put on an obviously exaggerated thoughtful expression to punctuate his sarcasm.

 

 

"Ha! Don't tell me you actually considered yourself one of us?" She blurted uncontrollably and then clamped both hands over her mouth in an attempt to at least gain some kind of reign over herself.

 

 

"No. I would never stoop so low," he jeered as he closed in on her slowly, deliberately blocking out the available sunlight in the shadow of his cape. She could feel her eyes practically popping out of her head in terror as she nearly fell backwards from her perch. "So what is this? You propose a trade? This supposed long lost piece of myself for what?"

 

 

She tentatively lowered her hands, hoping that whatever she said next would do something aside from inviting him to blast her to smithereens where she sat. This time, nothing came automatically. Left to her own devices, she offered the only words readily available, the ones overriding everything else since her escape. "Help us."

 

 

He laughed again. “Not even the intrigue you offer by the mere suggestion of this would prompt me to grant you sniveling vermin such a boon. I…” He stopped suddenly and turned away from her, scanning the woods in the direction they'd come. “…didn't put out a welcome mat this morning.”

 

 

With that, he powered up and shot into the trees before she could formulate a response. She heard the sound of snapping timber in his path interspersed by a series of beeps and realized the scouter had honed in on not just Piccolo's power, but an approaching ki as well. She pushed at the control key to get a numerical reading and started running when the display gave it to her.

 

 

“Tenshinhan. Oh no!”

 

 

She stumbled over the tangle of broken branches Piccolo left in his wake and fell, thankfully feeling a familiar itch rise in the back of her nose. She tried her best to produce the sneeze but it didn't come, so instead she fought the instinct to sit where she was and let things unfold on their own. She crawled, leaf litter sticking to her palms and mud coating her still smarting shins, then tripped along, finally breaking into a full run, vaulting obstacles as she came to them. Branches whipped at her unnoticed for the sudden awareness of willpower that surged through her. She broke out of the woods just in time to see Piccolo and Ten facing off.

 

 

She had to stop them. The Earth needed every available fighter for the coming battle, and Goku had to be ready. He needed to be ready because in the end another Saiya-jin was the human race's best chance at salvation. He needed to be ready because…

 

 

“Let go! Can't you see I'm already dead?!”

 

 

The words echoed around the walls of her memory just as they had bounced back at her from the cold stone of the Andolonusian cavern along with the clatter of the canteen Raditzu had violently knocked from her grasp as she'd tried to get him to drink. Her mind threw up an image to go with it, the telltale signs of Andelonian Flu infection beginning to etch his skin and his sunken eyes so full of absolute despair…

 

 

“Believe me when I tell you that finding yourself as the very last of your race brings with it a burden of loneliness that is nearly unbearable.”

 

 

She stood at the edge of the tree line and huffed the damp morning air, the burst of energy and certainty leaving her as quickly as it had overtaken her. The scouter shrilly whined in her ear as the two combatants' power levels spiked sharply.

 

 

“H-hey!” Winded and hoarse from running, her voice didn't carry far enough to reach the fighters, let alone be heard over the heated air rushing towards them as they gathered power. She hadn't even remembered to bring the concussion blaster with her this time. Having no other means with which to get their attention, save for getting closer to the impending battle (and she certainly had enough experience to know that could be a fatal mistake) she took a deep breath to try again. The sneeze she couldn't produce earlier unexpectedly burst forth.

 

 

Kushami reached behind her and grabbed at the two hoi-poi capsules she'd stuffed into the seam connecting the skirted part of her armor to the breastplate. She thumbed them open as she brought her hands around to fire the two 9mm pistols she'd stashed there, regretting that she hadn't brought home a couple of standard issue blasters. Yeah, they were pretty weak in comparison to what even a low level warrior could do throwing ki around, but they sure made a hell of a noise. Her weapons came into view as she pulled the triggers, and there they were - the blasters she'd just thought about. Two beams of white light erupted from the barrels and converged over the fighters' heads, sending an ear shattering whip-crack echoing off the nearby cliffs.

 

 

All the energy mounting between the two warriors abruptly dissipated as though someone had flipped a switch. A small flock of birds that somehow hadn't vacated the premises previously flew screeching in fear out of the woods, their cries and flapping wings suddenly the only sound overlaying the waterfall's rush. Piccolo wheeled around, his face contorted into a grimace combining the worst of pain and piss-off. Kushami brushed off any doubt over what her counterpart had managed in her absence, made a split decision to ignore the appearance of the blasters, and mostly shrugged off the blood curdling fear that any rational being should have while held in such a gaze by the world's self professed Demon King. She puffed out her chest and brandished her weapons, declaring, “Your negotiations are with me, and part of the bargain is that you leave the other strong fighters of this world unharmed.”

 

 

Piccolo glared. “Really? Your terms are too steep then.” He whipped back around as though to rush Ten, who remained locked into a fighting stance looking perfectly unyielding and focused on his opponent despite her interruption. Her heart swelled unbidden at his dedication and pure heroism. She nearly let herself be distracted.

 

 

“Except for one,” she called out and started approaching regardless of the danger.

 

 

“Oh?” Piccolo must have put all his momentum into turning around and meeting her halfway, because he unexpectedly hovered just a foot of the ground right in front of her, his glare bearing down like a ton of bricks.

 

 

She brushed it off and shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest and letting the blasters hang loose in her grip as though she found any threat he posed innocuous. Having survived Raditzu's use of the same tactic over the course of a couple of years almost made it easy. She blew a stray lock of hair out of her eyes and locked his gaze. “Yeah. Son Goku's just hanging around, mindin' his own business up on Mount Paozu. Isn't it time ya' did somethin' about it?”

 

 

Piccolo raised an eye ridge and lowered himself to the ground. “These are your terms? I'm beginning to doubt your sense of rationality, much less your claims to knowledge of my past.” He leaned in, almost nose to nose with her.

 

 

“Yes. Those are the terms. All I ask is you leave the rest of these guys out of it,” she gestured toward Ten, “and you leave Goku alive. Other than that, just don't pull your punches.”

 

 

“I see. How convenient. All of this fits in nicely with my own plans for this world, but for letting Son live, never mind that it makes little sense and is therefore suspect along with the rest of your claims. Why should I agree to this?”

 

 

“Something is coming, and after that, nothing you ever thought of will even matter…” Her gaze drifted back over to Ten, yet at the ready in case something should go wrong, but still letting her handle this. She resisted the urge to just shove the Demon King aside and go to him. She knew her focus had begun to wane dangerously, and suddenly didn't care. “It'll be better for everyone…”

 

 

A moment went by in which she thought she'd surely meet her end, that she'd played the psych-out card one time too many and the Demon King would call her bluff and finish it all right there. She began reassuring herself with the fact that at least it wasn't Raditzu when Piccolo simply said “Done.” and began walking back toward the waterfall.

 

 

“Now, remove yourselves from my abode before I change my mind, and remember,” he threw back over his shoulder, “I expect a worthy return on my investment.”

 

 

It felt like everything let out a sigh of relief. Even the waterfall sounded somewhat louder. “Wow, that was close,” said a small voice over her shoulder. She looked up to see Chaozu floating there, his eyes locked on the retreating Piccolo.

 

 

“You been there the whole time, little man?”

 

 

“Yes. I'm not sure that I could help against Piccolo, but it would have been worth a try.”

 

 

“How'd you…”

 

 

“Just a little trick of the mind I learned to make it less likely people notice me. Most of the time it's not very hard at all.” He looked away and she followed his gaze to Ten exchanging warning looks with Piccolo as he passed. “I guess we better go?”

 

 

“Yeah.” She stopped herself again from running to Ten and throwing herself into his arms and instead started walking back into the woods. “Just lemmie get my gun.”