Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Second Soul ❯ Chapter 5

In his mind's eye the reader saw a beautiful day. The sun painting the landscape golden with its thick brush making the river's blue-green depths so see-through that one could see the silvery fish below, dancing joyfully through the water. From the green trees on the banks came the musical song of a single bird, a sort of laughter echoing through the air.

On the river itself was a log raft lazily drifting along with its two occupants lying on their backs, taking naps in the mid-day heat. A boy called Tom whom even in his sleep seemed to radiate an aura of mischief, and his companion a black ex-slave named Jim whose hopes of true freedom were coming closer by the day.

In distance the reader was aware of three kis, two of them about the same strength while the third was much stronger. The third power flared and one of other two became dangerously low, while its companion's ki trembled not doing anything and the strongest power approached the weakened one.

"Goten?"

Son Gohan let out a shout and sat up. He had been sprawled over the a comfy chair in the recreation room and lying on his chest was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book that he had been enjoying until he had dozed off.

He looked around the chamber. His part of the area was lit by a tall lamp giving just enough light to make out the shapes of Krillin and Vegeta standing next to the door. Looking at their faces, in an instant Gohan knew something was wrong. Vegeta eyes were with his hand on the door, his face full of concentration, while Krillin was biting his lip until it seemed it should be drawing blood at any moment.

With some regret, Gohan put his book onto a small table beside his chair and stretched out with his mind to see if he could sense the kis he had been feeling in his dream. There were two of them. One was in the weight room, another was coming this way, but where was the third one?

Suddenly he felt a incredibly low power level. The owner of the second ki seemed to be carrying the other one and considering that the weakest ki was fluctuating is showed that it was probably hurt.

"Do you what's going on here?" Gohan asked and standing up, he walked over to where the others were.

At first there was no answer and the silence seemed to very prominent in the room and the demi-saiyan's voice echoed for what seemed like quite a while.

"Well?" Gohan said. Finally Vegeta acknowledged him by meeting his gaze.

"You felt that, right?" the saiyan prince said.

"Yes." That probably was the closest the saiyan prince could get to saying I don't know.

"Maybe Trunks and Goten are getting into trouble again," suggested Krillin.

Yeah, that did seem like a likely explanation: that the terrible two were just goofing off. Still…

"What about that third power?" Gohan said. "It became huge and then one of the other two dropped like crazy."

"Could that be Goku?" asked Krillin.

"No," declared Vegeta and knitting his dark eyebrows together, he shook his head, "That didn't feel like Kakarot. The power level was about same, but it had a different sense to it."

Gohan had to admit that he was right. That ki had seemed different from his otousan. More dark and murky, rather than bright and clear power that his father always emitted. It bothered him, like he had felt it before. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind and focus on the situation. It was annoying him. He knew it was there somewhere, but where? It seemed like it was itching at someplace in his mind.

Suddenly, the door burst open and in ran a Trunks with a limp Goten in his arms. The young Briefs looked from Krillin to Vegeta to Gohan to Krillin to Gohan to his father again his eyes wide and mouth hanging open not sure what words he could form. Finally he just fell onto to his knees, still holding Goten tightly.

"He's unconscious again," Trunks managed. "It seemed for a while like he was getting better…."

"Goten!" Gohan cried and ran to his little brother. He tried to take him, but young Trunks was to in shock to let go of the other boy.

Krillin walked over to the youth and put his hands on the demi-saiyan's shoulders. "Come on, let him go Trunks. Don't worry he's safe. You're both safe now."

Trunks let his grip loosen so Gohan carefully picked up Goten and took him across the room put him in the arm chair where he had been sitting earlier.

Coming back to the others, Gohan gently questioned Trunks. "What happened? Did he somehow hurt himself when you were playing?" Gohan doubted that had happened. It took a lot to hurt anyone of them especially that badly.

"No," Trunks said weakly, "he was hit hard by…."

"By who? Is there an intruder?"

To this there was a long silence and Trunks was biting his lip so hard that he it was a miracle that it wasn't bleeding.

"Speak up, brat," demanded Vegeta walking over to his son.

"Maybe one of us should get Goku," said Krillin.

"NO!" yelled Trunks, so forcefully that even Vegeta stepped back. He had jumped up now and was shaking all over. "Don't! You can't get him! You don't understand what's going on. If you get him… He'll… HE'LL…"

"He'll what, Trunks? This intruder will do what?" Gohan asked.

"You don't understand there isn't a…"

"Krillin! Gohan!" said Vegeta. "I am not sensing Kakarot's ki." Vegeta was right and the other ki, the murky one was gone as well.

This drew looks from everyone and poor Trunks just looked down at the floor letting his despair rolling over him. "He's suppressing it. Oh Kami, he's suppressing it. If we can't sense him, he could be anywhere on the ship."

Gohan looked at the other half-breed. The boy was breathing heavily and now his lip had a small red line of blood dripping down his chin. "Tell me what's going on," he said. They were doing the best with the information they had, but only Trunks really knew and they needed to understand the situation.

Trunks stopped biting his lip and hesitating for a moment opened his mouth. "Well me and Goten were playing in the weight room when your Tousan came in, Gohan. He acted a little odd at first, but we just thought he was fooling around, but then…"

As the tale unfolded, Trunks grew calmer, while the others got more nervous by the second.

"Then before he was about to touch Goten with that electricity all over his hand, he said something. I don't what it meant but it sounded strange. It was probably another language or something because I only understood two words."

"What were they?" Gohan asked, inwardly trying to make sense of this entire thing. Either Trunks was lying and he had by accident hurt Goten, or his otousan had completely lost it. Could someone like Babadi been on the ship and cast some sort of a spell on his father to make him act this way? Probably Trunks was lying, yet he wasn't acting like that.

"He said 'oozaru saiyan'. Oozaru means that ape form we get in the full moon and we're saiyans, right?"

Vegeta walked up to his son and looked into the child's blue eyes as if trying to find some indication that this was all just a fib. "Trunks," he said, "Repeat everything that Kakarot said."

Trunks brow furrowed deeply and concentrated hard as he could. "He said something like 'Werit da Frel Gadu met Oozaru Saiyan' I think I messed it up a lot."

But Vegeta wasn't listening to this. "Wereti das Freoil Geadu req juy Zereuf otjin met Oozaru Saiyan," he muttered. "How could Kakarot know about that? He said he lost his memory of being a saiyan. How could he remember that?"

"What does it mean?" questioned Gohan. The expression on Vegeta's face was bothering him immensely. The saiyan prince's expression was very thoughtful, but if Gohan wasn't mistaken, there was some nervousness there, even fear.

"It is ancient kearn, the native language of those on Vegeta-sei. Zeruf is the saiyan afterlife and to say Oozaru Saiyan is to mean true saiyan or a true warrior. Kakarot was saying that he was going to send to his other son to death as a true saiyan through the traditional way."

"But Goku lost his memory," piped in Krillin. "How can he know about this let alone speak in another language?"

"I don't know," simply said Vegeta, who had a vein throbbing on his forehead.

Gohan notice that Vegeta was making some uneasy glances his way and felt that something was being held back. For a moment he considered if he should say anything or press for more information but decided against it. He got the impression that Vegeta would rather be left alone on the subject and if needed he could ask later.