Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Somnium enim Fortuna ❯ Terra Defluo Mirus ( Chapter 2 )

Somnium enim Fortuna

Capitulus Duo

Terra Defluo Mirus

A/N: Ok, so I lied, I haven't worked on TCDB at all. Shame shame shame on me. Oh well, here's another chapter of SeF for your viewing (dis?)pleasure.

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I was sitting in the kitchen sipping at my third cup of coffee when my mother flounced into the room. There was really no better way to describe her flamboyant way of moving. She was almost never unhappy and so everywhere she went she went with that same excess of spirit. Most days I found it amusing and cheerful. Today I wished that at least a small part of the cloud over my head could have found its way to her. But no such luck, I was doomed to pretend interest in her prattling happy nonsense.

“Bulma dear, how long have you been awake?”

“A couple of hours. Mom, is Dad up yet?”

“Yes honey, he's packing up the car. I thought I'd make him a good breakfast before we set off today. Why were you up so early dear?”

I stared dumbly at my mother for a full minute before I realized what she was talking about. Tomorrow was their anniversary and they were going on a trip to the Mediterranean to celebrate. Shit! There wouldn't be any time to talk to my father before they left. Well, they would only be gone for two weeks; it wasn't likely I would have another dream of him before they came home. I would just have to try and figure it out on my own until then.

I mumbled an excuse, which she didn't hear, and she turned back to what she was doing on the stove. I looked over at the clock on the wall. They would have to leave for the airport in a few minutes if they expected to get through customs and security in time. There was definitely no chance of talking to my father. But still, I pushed myself off my barstool and went outside. I had the small hope that being around him for a few minutes would help to settle my nerves so that I could approach this problem in a more scientific way.

“Hi honey, you're up early. Couldn't sleep?”

I smiled at my father. As much as I loved my mother, there was no denying that I was a daddy's girl.

“Hey Dad, just about ready to go?” I decided to ignore his question for the time being.

“Yes, we'll leave just as soon as your mother gets out here. What is she doing anyway?”

“Making you a breakfast.”

We continued to chitchat for a few minutes. Our talk soon drifted to science, as it always did, and my father's latest experiments. He had recently become fascinated with space exploration and had slowly been building his own space ship. Not that he ever intended to go into space. He felt he was too old for that kind of adventuring. I had had the secret ambition to take the ship myself. But now…

I was just toying with the idea of showing the bruises to my father when my mother came out the door. My father immediately set about hustling her into the car. After several teary good-bye hugs and kisses they took off. I watched them drive through the gates of CC with a deep sense of foreboding permeating my body.

I spent the next several days tinkering around in my lab. I, so far, hadn't figured out my dream dilemma so I turned my mind towards my other projects in the hopes that some mental distance would bring me some new insight. I had never before realized how big and lonely the house was. And without my mother there to cook I quickly realized how little of her talent I had inherited. After two days of my failed attempts, my `cooking' became speed dialing for take-out.

It was at midnight near the end of the two weeks and I was counting down till the day my parents came home. I was sitting up eating leftover pizza and watching a romantic movie on the TV. I never even felt myself drift to sleep. One second I was watching Sandra Bullock talking to some cute American actor, the next second I was standing on a deserted hill in the middle of a wasteland.

I stared around me, not quite awake enough yet to realize what had happened. It wasn't the kind of wasteland that looks as if it's taken nature millenniums to create. It looked like something catastrophic had happened here, and very recently. Having nothing better to do (I had no idea at that time how to bring myself back from these dreams) I started down the hill. At the bottom of the hill I stopped to look around me again. From the heights the whole land had looked like a burned out desert. From down here, I could still see a few plants here and there struggling in the scorched earth. Overall, everything in this land had been destroyed, and it seemed to go on for miles in all directions.

Perhaps a fire had raged through, or a comet had hit the planet and this was part of the radius. Whatever had happened, I wasn't likely to find out standing there. Unfortunately for me, my innate scientific curiosity overrode any and all caution I should have shown. Picking a random direction, I started walking, collecting specimens of the destruction as I went along and placing them safely in my capsules. After half an hour of walking along in this fashion I came to a large river. The water was running swiftly, but it was spoilt with mud and debris. I turned and followed the river, hoping that farther up there would be a stream or at least a portion of the river unsullied by the detritus of this devastation, for now that I had been actively exerting myself I was becoming very thirsty very quickly.

I stumbled through a rocky defile, the river no longer in my sight but certainly within my hearing. Out the other side I tripped and fell, cutting one of my knees open on a jagged rock. I barely noticed. Standing in front of me, between the river and myself, was that same cocky jackass that had plagued me twice already. He held in his hands a man that, from the looks of it, no longer resided in the land of the living. However, Vegeta was still verbally taunting and threatening the man. To the side of him stood a small boy, watching this whole exchange with no expression on his face.

This was the first time that Vegeta had failed to notice my presence within any appreciable amount of time. It was actually the boy who noticed me first. I saw his focus shift and knew he was looking at me. His eyes widened but that was all. It was enough. Vegeta's eyes followed the boys' line of sight and when his eyes focused on me I felt a chill run through my body. That self-same evil smirk crossed his face; I was beginning to wonder if that was the only expression that he was capable of holding for long periods of time. He dropped the man on the ground and walked towards me.

A guilty look crossed the boys face as if he alone had been responsible for the situation I know found myself in…again. Vegeta stopped in front of me and grabbed my arm, picking me up off of the rocks and dragging me forward into the clearing. He ignored the boy and I found I had no time to spare him any more attention at that moment.

“So, my little mystery stocker has shown herself again has she? This is getting to be quite a habit with you. I want to know who you are and how you keep disappearing like that.”

I looked up into his eyes, trying to read the emotions that should have been present in his eyes. Vegeta had none. I shook myself, choosing to look at his armor rather than risk losing myself in those dark eyes. I'd always liked the bad boys, but he was probably a lot more than I could ever hope to handle.

I felt his grip tighten on my arm and realized that I hadn't yet answered his questions. Or said anything, for that matter.

“Well, Vegeta, I don't know how I keep getting here with you. It's like some cosmic force wants me to keep running into you, though for the life of me I don't know why.”

I could just see his mouth in the corner of my eyes, now it tightened into a derisive smile.

“You expect me to believe that you have followed me on three separate occasions and have no idea how you got here? We'll put aside your cosmic force nonsense. There is no all-powerful force that rules the universe…other than Frieza. And I intend to deal with him just as soon as I have the power to do so. So now, what are you really doing here?”

“Maybe she's telling the truth Prince Vegeta. Maybe she doesn't know.”

“You dare speak to me without permission?!” He released my arm and turned immediately on the boy.

I had a brief thought about trying to run, but didn't think I'd get very far if I did. Besides, the boy had tried to defend me; I couldn't just leave him alone to face the consequences. Clearly Vegeta didn't like this small child. He stalked to him angrily and I realized that if I didn't do something quick Vegeta might kill this poor kid, the only one I'd seen who was brave enough to stand up to Vegeta.

“Vegeta! Don't you dare touch him!” I shrieked, forcing as much of my normal asceticism into my tone as possible. I wanted his attention back on me, no matter how relieved I was to have had it shift away. But after all, if things went the way they normally went in my encounters with Vegeta, I would be waking up at home sometime soon.

Vegeta stopped as I yelled at him and ever so slowly turned towards me. The almost playfully evil smirk that normally graced his features when he looked at me was gone. He was absolutely furious. I knew now what it meant to have the full force of his anger pointed at you. I wanted very much to disappear. I'd like to say it was bravery that kept me standing there, staring him defiantly in the face. The truth is, I was completely frozen in fear. Before Vegeta could take even a step towards me the boy darted around him and grabbed my hand, yanking my attention away from Vegeta.

Breaking free of that terrifying gaze was like being slammed forcefully into my body. I shuddered for a moment but the tableau seemed to be broken. Vegeta leveled his glare at the child but spoke to me.

“No one, NO ONE orders me around!”

The child was subtly trying to push me behind him, millimeter by millimeter, such small increments I hardly would have noticed if I hadn't felt him shifting in front of me. I was terrified that this would break into an all-out brawl and I knew what the outcome would be. I shut my eyes, trying to blot out my visions of this horrible landscape and equally horrible encounter. When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting back on my couch at home. The TV had long since passed the romantic movie and moved on into B rated horror. I was not in the mood for that, so I moved to get the remote. As I did I noticed the shape highlighted by the fitful light of the TV. The little boy had come home with me.

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A/N: Ok, here's a second chapter. I'm surprised that I finished this…I guess the metro link really will give me more time for writing. Let's hope this keeps up. ^_^ I'm going to give you guys a sneak preview of the newest story I began writing today…it was slow at work and I had nothing to do. Heh. I know, you're wondering why I didn't work on some of the stories I've already got in the frying pan…well, the simple answer to that is that, those stories aren't on my work computer, nor can I turn my laptop on at work. So, there you go, I started yet another new one. Let me know what you think.

 

fyrechylde: Thanks! ^_^ Well, if you see any mistakes in this chapter let me know.

 

Vegeta's Mate: Wowie 0.0 Thanks a lot. ^_^ I love enthusiasm. Well, my fiancé was bugging me to update…of course, he wanted me to update One Stormy Day…but, beggars can't be choosers after all. ^_^ lol

 

Getas-PanChan: Thank you very much. Well, I usually don't proof read my stuff too often. Whenever I have to reread it to remind myself of story elements is when I catch those little things. But if you see any, feel free to let me know.

 

Washugreen18: Thanks. I hope I can live up to all these expectations…mostly mine. I hope I can keep the idea of this story flowing…^_^

 

Here's the sneak preview of my newest story! ^_^ Currently untitled.

 

 

The trial was still ongoing, but she couldn't stand to hear anymore of it. They were going to convict him; she knew it. There was nothing she could do about it. She walked out of the courthouse into the blinding white light of a snow-covered day.

 

Tugging her jacket closer about her face she turned into the wind and headed north, towards the only solace she could expect to find on a bitter day such as this. The saloon was almost empty as she sidled up to the bar. The bartender gave her a disgusted look but proceeded to pour her favorite drink anyway. Women like her didn't frequent these parts, and it was plain to see that the folks around here preferred it that way. Still, the bartender was hard up enough not to refuse her money and that's all that mattered to her. She intended to get herself very thoroughly drunk before noon. If she spent the rest of the day passed out in her room she wouldn't see the end. He would understand, he wouldn't have wanted her there anyway.

 

About halfway through her fifth shot of whisky the door suddenly slammed open. The freezing air that raced down the neck of her jacket almost brought her out of the drunken stupor she was just beginning to achieve. Pissed as all hell she gestured to the bartender to pour her another one huddled closer in her jacket. The barstool next to her slid on the floor as the newcomer pulled it away from the counter. She peered at him blearily for a minute but she couldn't focus enough on him to make it worth the effort. Besides, the bartender had just lined up her sixth and seventh drink. She was about ready to call it quits for the morning but it didn't matter. She downed the last two, stumbled out of her chair and up the stairs to the second floor.

 

The next thing she remembered was waking up in an unfamiliar place. It looked much the same as her room, except that her clothes weren't thrown all about the place. Nope those pants dangling from the top of the chandelier definitely weren't hers. She sat up cautiously in the bed, but a quick pat down showed her that all of her clothing was still covering her.

 

“Oh, so you're awake now are you?”

 

Her gaze darted quickly to the far corner where the voice had come from. A young man with spiky black hair raised himself up from a seat and stood to look at her.

 

“You don't look too worse for the wear. You damn near crashed down those stairs though. Might have smashed your head open.”

 

She sighed and wished for a moment that he hadn't saved her. However, he wasn't worth her dying. Not really. Oh, she'd loved him all right, but through the haze of her pain and the alcohol she knew that it wasn't a life shattering kind of love. She'd move on in time.

 

“Who are you?' She managed to croak out through her chapped lips.

 

“My name's Goku. You're welcome to stay here as long as you want. You don't look too ready to be out on your own yet.”

 

She studied him thoughtfully. He seemed one of those really nice but not too terribly bright types. He was handsome, sure, but he certainly wasn't her type. No, her type usually ended her in a lot of trouble. He looked the type that never crossed even a toe over the line.

 

“What time is it?” She asked, wondering if it was still early enough that she might just stay in bed or if it was late enough to venture out.

 

“Almost sundown. You slept for quite some hours.”

 

Damn! It wasn't quite late enough yet. Well, she'd simply have to go to her own room and nurse her hangover. Or maybe she'd go downstairs and get a bottle of scotch…yeah, that sounded good.

 

She lowered her legs over the side of the bed and carefully stood up, testing her weight. She didn't seem to be too dizzy. Well, the scotch would fix that.

 

“Thanks for your help Goku…I'm much obliged.”

 

“He doesn't have to die today. We could help him.”

 

She stopped with her hand gripping the doorknob. Did she hear him right? How the hell did he know anyway?