Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Slumber Party! ❯ Cyclone and Terra ( Chapter 20 )

Though she had been too distraught over the past few weeks to even think about going back to school, Chi Chi frowned at her and insisted that she miss no more days, now that she was well enough to start going again. Tori had sighed and opened her mouth to argue, but in the end had given in to the motherly figure.

Chi Chi had even taken her shopping for new clothes and books and other school supplies since all of what she'd owned had burned in the fire. Chi Chi had seemed to enjoy the shopping more than she did.

"I've always wanted a daughter." She said, when Tori asked her why she was so gung-ho about buying school clothes for her, "Now, this skirt would look just lovely on you, dear…"

She hadn't wanted to go back to school. She wanted to go find the dragonballs with Bulma and the rest. Now it seemed she wasn't even going to get to that much.

"Don't worry, Tori." Bulma had assurred her, typing away on her laptop, "We'll fetch the nearest dragonball and be back before you know it!"

She had wanted to come along, but instead found herself seated at a desk listening to some middle-aged woman drone on about the industrual revelution. Something she, Tori, had absolutly no interest in. All she could think about were what was happening back at the house and of that strange woman; Terra and of Piccolo and the dragonballs which would bring her family back to her.

"Miss Lawson?" She was startled out of her reverie by the teacher's voice, sharp and loud, cutting into her head, "Are you daydreaming again?"

"No!" She cried, and her cheeks flushed at the giggles all around her, "Of course not, Mrs. Beesom! I was…uuhh…"

"Hmm." Mrs. Beesom said, tapping her wooden ruler on the side of Tori's desk, "Then you will have no problem answering my question, now will you, Miss Lawson?"

"Ummm…well, what was it?" She laid her head down on her desk as laughter erupted from the other students and the teacher merely sighed, walked back to the blackboard and muttered; "I thought so."

She couldn't wait for the last bell to ring! And to think she had to go back every day save for weekends and holidays for the rest of the year! She hadn't even made any friends yet, since she was still technically a new student. She was nearly the first one out the door after the bell rung and, with her knapsack over her shoulder and cell phone in her pocket, she'd trudged the way back to Bulma's.

She knew the house would be nearly empty. Bulma and Chi Chi, along with Marron, Goku, Krillen and little Gohan, had all gone in search of the nearest dragonball and they said they'd probably be returning within a week or two, depending on what they ran into.

The stranger who'd come to their aid not too long ago, had been asked by Chi Chi to stay for a few days and she had accepted the invitation.

"…So, I use the orb upon my staff to focus and direct my power…" Tori heard the voice as she slammed the door behind her, throwing her back on a chair and saw Terra holding her staff up and Piccolo nodding at her, seemingly interested in what she was saying, they both turned as Tori walked in.

"Tori!" She cried, rushing over to her, "I was just explaining the use of my staff and orb to your friend here. He listens quite well."

Tori nodded and smiled at Piccolo. Vegeta walked in just then, shirtless and wearing a pair of stripped blue and white pajama bottoms, which he looked cute in, of course and snorted in Terra's general direction; "So, this is the great Terra who saved the day a few days ago?"

Terra bowed towards Vegeta and smiled on her way back up, "This is correct. May I assume you are the much revered Vegeta, Prince of Saiyans?"

Tori saw something more pass over her face as she address Vegeta but which the green-locked beauty swiftly hid beneath her soft half-smile, something akin to anger. But it was gone as soon as Tori noticed it so she wasn't sure if it had been her imagination or not.

Vegeta raised his eyebrows, but his pride was more so that he did not question where she got her information. Besides, perhaps one of the Earthlings had informed her, as it was, he assumed that people should just know about him all ready.

Terra narrowed her cat-like green eyes at him, Vegeta took note of the golden center of those mesmerizing orbs and had to look away before he was sucked into them. She touched his arm with a cool hand and felt tingles of energry rising from him in much the same manner as she had once felt Tori's power when the girl had laid her hand upon Terra's shoulder.

"You are very strong." She mused, "Do all you people have great power?"

"Hardly." Vegeta smirked, removing her hand from his shoulder, "Where's Bulma? I'm starving."

"She went after the dragonball, Vegeta." Tori said, as Terra handed her the staff so that she could examine it closer, she was in awe of the beautiful glowing green sphere and watched it pulsate at her touch, "There's bacon and eggs in the fridge, just cook them yourself…"

"I am The Prince of Saiyans!" Vegeta growled, "I do not cook!"

"Go hungry then." Piccolo said, secretly amused at Vegeta's darkening in color; "It's no concern of ours."

"I should kill you right now, Namek." Vegeta said, "For your insolence…!"

Without waiting for a reply, the Saiyan Prince added; "It's just lucky for you that I'm too hungry to kill anyone right now…"

"Are you sure your brother won't come back, Terra?" Tori asked, ignoring Vegeta's words and scowl, but noting his departure from the corner of her eye, "He needs more help than you can give him…"

Terra sighed, taking back her staff from Tori and swirling it one-handed, absently. She shoved a lock of her dark green hair from her face and said, "I know. I've sent him to numerous doctors on our world, but…accidents always seem to befall them, eventually."

"Don't tell us," Piccolo said, standing next to Tori, his nearness was a comfort to the young woman, "They all meet with some kind of water related death?"

"Unfortunatly." Terra said, "Though no one's been able to prove they were anything but accidents. So far. Though I fear for the day he is caught causing some sort of accident."

"If he comes looking for Tori again," Piccolo said, his eyes narrowed, his voice low with meaning, "He's the one who will suffer an accident."

"I must apologize once more for him." Terra said, "Please don't think too harshly of him. He is sick, that's all. Inside, my brother is good. I know it."

"How did you lose your parents, Terra?" Tori asked, feeling the woman's pain and the uncomfortable silence surrounding her statement about her brother, "What is your planet called? Is it far from Earth?"

Terra sat down on the floor, cross-legged and gathered her skirts and flowing green cape about her narrowed, bare-shoulders. Tori admired the dark brown off-the-shoulder gauzy blouse she wore with the playful laces up the front. Tori and Piccolo sat down with her, ignoring Chi Chi's spotless mauve sofa and loveseat, and waited for the woman to speak.

"There was an invasion…" She said, her eyes taking on a far-off look as she played with the sphere upon the end of her oakan staff, "Many people died. We…we were a peaceful race. We were unprepared for the onslaught of the warriors who came to claim our world as their own."

Tori placed her hand upon Terra's, ceasing the mindless twirling of the staff. She saw the unshed tears in Terra's eyes as she told about the ordeal she'd been through. "We tried to fight, most of my people did, but we were outmatched in so many ways. The last thing our parents did, before they were taken as captives and eventaully killed, was to put my brother and I in a pod bound for a nearby world. We were taken in by an elderly couple and lived with them until our powers began to manifest."

"Then what?" Tori asked, her chin resting on her palm as she listened, intently, to Terra's story.

"Then, Cyclone started getting into trouble at our school," Terra went on, "And the little earthquakes and dust-devils and other things I thought were so fun and playful as a little girl frightened our gaurdians. They cast us out one day and told us never to return. The woman, however, took pity on us and gave us the family space vehicle, after changing the identification codes so that it looks as if she sold it to us, of course. We've been using it as our home ever since."

"What brings you to Earth?" Tori asked, still wanting to know more about her sudden rescuer, "Or are you just passing by?"

Terra shook her head, "No, Cyclone and I," She said, "Are seeking a place to live. Space travel is fine for awhile, but…"

"But a home is what you seek." Piccolo finished for her, recalling that his own planet, Namek, for all that he never lived there, was still a part of him and it's loss was felt deeply, "I understand."

"Yes, we were soppose to only be here for a little while," Terra went on, "For me to scan the area and see if we would be welcome here…then, my brother, he felt Tori's power that seemed to echo our own but in a different manner. Before I could stop him he had transported himself directly to your location."

"I remember." Tori said, recalling those painful blasts of scalding water orbs he'd thrown at her, "That's not something I want to repeat!"

"I fear we shall never be welcome, any place we go…" Terra looked sad and made Tori wish to comfort her, "This isn't the first time he's tried to do this. Always, I am having to get him out of one scrap or another…and I grow tired of all…"

She stood up, and graceful as a willow bending in the breeze, walked to the windows and looked out upon the still duck pond, a slight drizzle had begun to fall and the droplets, as they streaked down the sliding glass door, reminded her of the tears she had yet to shed. She could not weep. Not ever. She'd always been the strong one. It wasn't only that she was older than Cyclone, but that she had had to be both a sister and a mother to him for so long.

Without warning a wave of vertigo overcame her and she swayed on her feet, encased as they were in sandles which laced up her calves, and caught herself by holding out her hands to the glass, marring the surface with her prints. In a moment the feeling left her and her stomach ceased it's roiling. She did not wish these kind people to worry over her.

Yet, both Tori and Piccolo were on either side of her, their arms around her and leading her away towards the sofa. She looked into Tori's eyes and saw that she could not hide from her anything. "Are you all right, Terra?"

"No, she isn't all right." Tori and Piccolo both gasped as the young blue-haired man appeared before them seemingly from thin-air. Piccolo thought it similar to the techinque he's been known to use.

He ignored the looks of both Piccolo and Tori and approached his sister, who was sitting on the sofa now, her head in her hands, looking down. He took her hand in his and knelt before her, the silvery blue tunic and leggings he wore seemed out of place in the modern little house.

He looked up at Tori, tears swimming in his ice blue eyes, "She's dying."