Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ That'll Do, Son. ❯ Someone Beautiful... ( Chapter 9 )

A/n: Look! I LIVE! Mwa ha.. Sorry for the complete lack of updatingmeister.. I was waiting until school was over so that I could devote my time to the story. ^^; Anyweedles, here ya go.. chapter 9. Finally. *bows*

Chapter 9 - Someone beautiful...

Goku adjusted the pack around his shoulders and sighed for what had to be the millionth time that hour. They had begun with a hike, which Goku didn't mind at all - he DID enjoy a little bit of calisthenics here and there - save for the fact that the ground was burning through the bottoms of his boots, saiyan armor or no. He found it far harder to breathe now that he was out and about through the atmosphere, though Bardock and Radditz appeared to be having no difficulty.

The trio was approaching a border of darkness, which Goku eyed with open confusion. The red light that seemed to be constantly shed on the landscape abruptly ended in a straight line, being swallowed up by pure blackness. He looked over to Radditz, who, predictably, shrugged and looked to Bardock. The father of Goku took out a capsule from his pack, opened it, and handed them both an odd looking watch of sorts. Goku strapped his on his wrist. "What's this?"

"These devices have special lights on them that will allow us to see in the Grove of Despair."

Goku, not wanting to appear a fool but curious anyway, asked, "What's that?"

Bardock cleared his throat. "The Grove of Despair was created after the war between the Ogres and the Ghouls, when the Ghouls put a blanket over the sky and blocked out the nitrifying sun to kill the Ogres. Hence, the land was bathed in eternal darkness and allows no light other than the special UV modified light that can be generated with these." He held up his own watch to punctuate the statement.

Goku paled at the thought, but didn't comment. He looked up at his blood sire, waiting for instructions on how to work the watch. Bardock pressed a button on the upper right of the square face, indicating which it was so that Goku could copy his action. Goku did so, and started when the face of the watch emanated a powerful violet glow. He immediately squinted and looked away, blinking several times to rid his eyes of the sudden onslaught of tears that rushed forward to compensate for being temporarily blinded. In the meantime, he heard Bardock chuckle. "It's a bit hard to look at, kid. Try not to stare directly."

"I'll have to remember that," said Goku, his tone surprisingly bitter. They started into the darkness and the earth saiyan was immediately overcome by a wave of... of... of misery. Seething, writhing, complete and utter hopelessness... So much so that he reeled back in mid air, coughing at the bitter taste in his mouth and clutching at his temples. The souls in this section were angry. Completely pissed off and... miserable. Aggressive. Defensive. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't keep them out of his mind. They clawed at his soul, trying to steal the light from his being, trying to rob him of his happy nature. He cried out in mental shock and defense, reeling back once again. Nausea overcame his system, causing the taste in his mouth (what WAS that?) to increase tenfold. There were hands on his shoulders and thighs; warm, strong hands that tried to restrain him. He squirmed and struggled fiercely, trying to get away from the... the wrongness, the blackness, had to get away from-

"Kakarot!"

...warm, strong... familiar.

"Chris' sakes, boy, get a hold of yourself!" Bardock grabbed some of the water from his ever-useful pack, dampened a towel, and wiped across Goku's suddenly sweaty forehead. Radditz bit his lip, trying not to show concern and failing utterly. Goku, having realized that he was in brother's arms and not some mind-crippling demon, calmed slightly and swallowed a sigh. Bardock paused in the toweling and allowed Goku to open his eyes. "What the hell happened to you?"

Goku started to speak, but the bitter taste was still in his mouth and he coughed. He saw his father's eyes widen, felt Radditz' grip tighten, and suddenly the taste was as recognizable as Vegeta's face.

It was blood. His blood. In his mouth, down his chin, on the back of his tongue... His blood.

A towel was swiped over his mouth and he drank the water offered to him. Sagging into his brother's arms, he closed his eyes and willed the headache developing to go away. He looked his father in the eye (noting with some twisted sense of childish humor that the scouter on his face made almost everything look like a deep purple) and decided to try the whole speaking thing again. "This place is awful," he started, realizing that it was very well one of the biggest understatements he had ever made, "there's so much suffering and anger in there... They're defensive, whoever `they' are. They don't want us there. They don't want ME there."

"That's nonsense, Kakarot. Radditz and I have been going through the Grove of Despair since we've gotten our guard rankings. And that's a LONG time."

"I don't care how long you guys have been traveling over Hell's half acre, they don't want me to be there. I can't, I'm sorry. We're either going to have to find a way around, or split up, or find someone else or SOMEthing."

Radditz sighed and hugged his brother behind in an attempt to comfort him. "I'm not splitting up with Kakarot," he said slowly, as if each word had to pass inspection before it could be said, "but if you go through the Grove and meet whoever it is you're thinking of and bring them back, in the meantime, little bro and I can go try and talk to King Vegeta again to see if he may reconsider."

Bardock didn't appear to have heard any of what Radditz had said, and said son was just about to call his name when the martyr lifted his head and nodded. "Fine. Radditz, take your two packs back on the way to the palace and recruit Zorn, even if you have to drag him by the tail to get him to go with you." He paused, humor glazing his eyes as he thought about what difficulties it would cause for Radditz if it actually CAME to that. "In the meantime, I'll go and get Toma. It should only take me about a day, if things go smoothly. I'll meet you two back at the house tomorrow, if I can." With that, he flew off and disappeared into the blackness.

Goku sighed, staring off after him. Or where he thought he was, anyway. This was all going wrong, and it was pretty much his fault. If he had never asked Radditz to help, they could have gone on with their...afterlives?... and he could just stumble along like he usually did. He wouldn't have pissed off the king, he wouldn't have become something to be taken care of, he wouldn't have intruded upon their home-

Radditz hugged him tighter and placed reassuring kisses on the top of his head. "Don't worry about it, little brother. Everything's cool; we just have to take things by a detour, ne?"

He wouldn't have rekindled the long lost relationship with his big brother...

Suddenly, Goku was picked up and cradled against a steel-solid chest. He looked up and saw Radditz smirking down at him. The earth saiyan laughed; it felt good and sounded foreign in such a strange land. Slapping at the armor on his big brother's torso, he grinned and laid his head onto a warm pectoral muscle. As Radditz took off, Goku smiled at the familiar tingle of ki around him and took in the scent of his kin. Now that he thought about it, he didn't regret anything that had taken place so far. He was irked that he couldn't figure out what went wrong in the.. what was it? Grove of Gloom? Ah, well.

At any rate, it had taken far less time to get home by way or air rather than foot, and far too soon for his liking, Goku was set down to stand. Radditz grabbed his pack for him and went inside. Looking at his feet, Goku sighed and coughed a bit, spitting out the residual blood onto the ground. Today had been odd; he wondered what else there was in store for him. Following Radditz into the house, he walked up the stairs into "his" room and saw Radditz sitting on the bed. Raising his eyebrows, Goku asked, "What's up?"

His brother patted the bedside, motioning for him to sit. Goku sat. Radditz looked him in the eye, and the earth saiyan thought that he looked suddenly...shy? No, certainly not Radditz... "Look, Kakarot... I can tell that you think this is all a big mess and that you shouldn't have gotten us involved," (it was here that Goku nodded. Damn, he was good...), "but you have to understand that this is exactly what we needed. Someone new. Someone fresh. Someone...beautiful. Like you." Radditz sucked in a deep breath and Goku cut him off, brushing a thumb against his brother's high cheekbone. Radditz looked at him.

"Don't force it, Radditz." He leaned in and delicately brought his lips to Radditz's, as if it were the first time they had kissed. Pulling back, he smiled warmly. "I understand."

Upon saying it, Goku realized that he really DID understand. The shadows on Radditz's face faded, and they were brought together again; this time for much longer. However, before it could be taken any further, there was a deep male voice being cleared from the doorway. The two brothers abruptly separated and looked around innocently, as if their faces weren't flushed, their body suits weren't tented, and there wasn't sweat dripping down both of their backs. Zorn grinned. "I DO hope I'm not...interrupting...anything..."

Radditz smirked. "What makes you say that?"

Zorn shook his head and chuckled. "You always were a flirt, Radditz. Anyway, I came up to see why 2 of the three amigos were back so soon."

"We ran into some difficulties along the way and had to turn back. Father's gone ahead. By the way, Zorn, we were gonna go back to the King and ask him to rethink his opinion of us... maybe make some bargains and compromises and get some information. You're to come with us."

The former captain adopted an amused, arrogant grin and sat between the two men, much to Goku's annoyance. "Am I, now? And just how are you going to get me to do that?"

Radditz exchanged a glance with his brother, and Zorn could tell that there was mental communication occurring. Finally, the hairiest of the three turned to him. "Fine. First and third days of the week, and control over the remote on the last."

"Deal."

Goku blinked. "Wow, that went painlessly. Thanks!"

Zorn chuckled and laid back on the bed. "It's no problem, really... It'll be nice to see an old friend. And who knows? Maybe we can-" here, he grinned widely and laughed at his approaching comment, "-raise hell."

Goku didn't get what he was implying, and wasn't sure he wanted to. He did, however, feel his brother's mind brushing against his. Opening up to allow Radditz to "speak", he heard the comment, "He's not what he appears to be. Dangerous, Kakarot. He's a very dangerous man. Keep your wits about you." Radditz had a serious glint in his eyes that Goku hadn't seen since their bout back on Earth so long ago, and he nodded. Zorn had stopped grinning, but his eyes were still closed, so Radditz flipped his long tail over Zorn's legs to caress his brother's shoulder. He then looked down at Zorn. "We're gonna hit the sack now, Zorn."

"And how is this my problem?"

"You're in our bed."

"So?"

Radditz gave a heave of a sigh. "Just...get out."

"Oh, fine," he chuckled darkly, sending an uncomfortable shiver up the youngest's spine, "but don't have TOO much fun without me. I'll be disappointed." He got up and left, not seeing the distasteful glance thrown at his back by Goku.

Radditz shook his head and turned to his brother with a frown. Goku threw him a confused look, but let it fade as Radditz took the scouter away from his face and removed his torso armor. The earthen saiyan was now only clad in the black battle suit, and was suddenly very aware of how tight it was as he remembered their little kissing session from earlier. His brother merely chuckled and removed his own accessories, revealing his still partially-aroused state to whomever happened to be watching. In this case, just Goku. "Y'know, I am kinda tired after today," Goku looked at him and squeaked as he was suddenly pinned back onto the bed, "but don't think that's gonna protect you."

Goku grinned predatorily. Perhaps being saiyan...wasn't so bad. "Gimmie all you've got, Radditz. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."