Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Breath of Sorrow ❯ Welcome Home, Kakarot! ( Chapter 15 )

This chapter is based on several songs that I just couldn't stop listening to. Mudvayne's Fall Into Sleep, Staind's MudShovel, and Crossfade's Colors.

 

Warning: Extreme blood and gore and dark themes. Please don't read this chapter if you don't have a strong stomach.

 

In the sky's blue blanket over the peak, Goten looked out over the barren, empty valley, replaying memories in his mind like a reel of film that he just couldn't seem to burn away from his vault of thoughts. His chocolate eyes were rested and quiet, and even as he closed his eyes against the pounding sun, he could feel it in his hands, and he could taste the energy that had tainted him like a single soured apple would taint a whole barrel. He would never want anything else more than he wanted that one experience to replay over and over again in his mind.

 

He thought it had faded. He thought that it had left him in the quiet slumber of the aftermath, but seeing the beautiful body twist and writhe with the throws of passion in the arms of his prince, Goten found himself pulled back into a world of morbid dreams and desires. He dropped his head into his hands and felt the familiar bile roll up into his throat before making him clutch his stomach in shame.

 

The ethereal beauty of his own father had caught his obsession, and he felt lost in a swirling world of laws, morals, and humane ethics that told him his fixation was wrong, sick, and demented. He began to rationalize his feelings to himself, wanting to remove at least some of the sickening guilt that had settled in his stomach, but the only validation that he could come to was that it was natural to want someone that beautiful.

 

He knew that Goku was behind him, perched on the rock that was the zenith of his safe haven. He could feel the questions on the air between them, but he didn't turn his head to face him. The sweet scent that the fur around Goku's waist emitted wafted through the air and touched Goten's senses like a explosion to his libido, and he growled softly to himself. Goku really had no idea what puberty had done to his young Saiya-jin body. That much was obvious.

 

“Pan…Where is she, Goten?” The voice was flat and quiet. If it was one thing that Goten could say for his father, no matter how innocently naïve he was, Goku was not stupid. The chocolate brown eyes blinked at the sun as if though trying to clear non existent tears from his eyes, and he spoke, his young voice carrying over his shoulder like a nightmare to Goku's sleeping sense of reality.

 

“She's dead.” Goten answered back just as flatly. It was odd. He'd said it so many times that it resounded in his head like a deafening echo that he couldn't block out. Every waking moment he walked, talked or even slept, the words were there. She's dead. “…She was murdered.” Goten added blithely. “…but it's not just that. There's more. I'm surprised Vegeta hasn't told you.”

 

Goku didn't answer to it. He was too busy staring into space with a strangely shocked look on his face. He had expected something terrible, but not the death of his beloved granddaughter. Anything but that. Suddenly, his eyes darkened and he stood, his fists clenched in righteous anger that rolled off of him in waves of ki that made Goten's stomach even more distressed. “Why didn't you use the Dragon Balls to bring HER back instead of ME?” He demanded angrily. “Why, Goten!”

 

God, he was so beautiful like that. Goten's eyes wandered up his father's familiar form clad in the orange gui that had become a staple to his past and his life. Where Gohan carried the cape of his beloved sensei, Goten carried his father's colors proudly on his back when he fought, and he would never be driven to his knees as long as he bore them. He owed his father more respect than a weak finish to a vicious fight. The chocolate eyes locked with deep onyx, and he didn't look away, even as obvious discomfort crossed his father's beautiful face.

 

“Because you can protect earth. Pan didn't have the power or the ability to do that. We did what was best for everyone. Not just us.” Goten broke the gaze and looked away over the valley, the memories screaming in his brain. If he told Goku about Diana, he'd probably kill her or try to turn her to the good side with carefully worded monologues and good deeds, but Goten knew that the bitch was far beyond any good that Goku could show her.

 

“How…” The question was asked even before Goten could finish his thought, but another barrage of words attacked Goten's senses as the anger from Goku only escalated into a fever pitched rage. “How can you just sit there and not CARE?!” Goten's eyes had been empty and emotionless, and the sheer rage that he'd remembered from times past was gone, only replaced with an apathy that Goku was ashamed to see in the eyes of his youngest son.

 

The moment Goten's control snapped, Goku felt it. It was stretched tight like a rubber band over too many papers, and as one paper fell out of place, the tiny thread of control slipped and broke, and empty brown eyes stared back at Goku, lit by hatred and disgust. “The same way I haven't cared for eight fucking years since YOU left, Dad! Don't act all high and mighty now that you're back! YOU left US! If you hadn't have left, Pan would still be alive! You could have protected her! No. You NEVER cared in the first place, so I don't EVER want to hear your fucking stupid monologues on why I don't give a rat's ass. If I don't care, it's only because I take after my father!”

 

“We wished you back to protect Earth, but don't assume to be the hero for me or anyone else on the team. You stopped being that for me when you left me. I spent the first four years of my life only hearing about you from Gohan and Mom, and then, when I thought I'd have a chance to be your son after you were back, you left again! Only, that time, you left on your own free will, and you have no idea what that did to us! You didn't care. It's all about you, isn't it, Dad?”

 

Goku's eyes widened and his mouth parted to explain himself, but the severe gaze in Goten's eyes shut it just as quickly. He scratched the back of his head with his hand and took a deep breath before looking away. “Do you really hate me that much, Goten?” The question was loaded with a silent plea that Goten recognized and despised. Do you still love me? Am I still your hero? Don't you still care?

 

“You don't get it. It's not that I hate you, Dad.” Goten answered as he stood and faced his father. “It's just that now, I really don't give a fuck about you. No one bothered to comfort me when you died. It was all about Gohan, Vegeta, and Mom. I was just the third fucking wheel that no one needed. Soon, I figured out that it was useless to care. Why care when all it does is fuck up my life? That's not me bitching. That's the honest to God fucking truth.”

 

Goku's eyes took on a heated look, and his lips tightened to a thin line before he spoke, his voice stretched and controlled. “It's not my fault that everyone fell apart when I left. I never asked to be anyone's hero! I just wanted to do what was right! All my life I gave and gave, and at the end, I wanted something for myself. I'm nearly sixty years old, Goten. Do you realize that? I was wished into a child, and I couldn't even be a husband to ChiChi when that happened! I wanted something for me!”

 

The simplicity of that statement coming from Goku would have sounded selfish in the eyes of anyone else, but Goten's rage was satiated for a bit when he realized the logic in Goku's declaration, and instead of gracing his father with a biting remark, he remained silent until he couldn't stand the silence between them any longer.

 

“Look, Dad, I want you to know that I love you no matter what, but I don't see you the way that I used to. You came back, and when you expected to find a little boy , you found a man instead, and I have to wonder if that's what's bothering you. Things have changed since you left. We're not the same anymore. I'm not the same anymore. People look at us and talk about how we're so close, but that couldn't be any further from the truth. We've turned against each other and forgotten how we used to be.”

 

Goku's eyes softened, and he looked away from his son, the wind whipping through the ebony spikes that framed his face so angelically. Goten couldn't help but stare at the scene that was presented before him. He'd lied. It wasn't true. Of course he still cared about his father. Every day, and every night, Goku was all he'd thought about for eight years, and now, the object of his obsession was sitting before him on the peak that had become his home away from home, and he couldn't do anything about it. Goku belonged to Vegeta, and that was how it would end.

 

Goten began to debate again about telling his father of the existence of the beautiful blue eyed Saiya-jin in the cell at CC. If he told him, what would Goku do? The last time an enemy killed someone that Goku loved, he had given everything just to see that revenge had been exacted in the way that he believed was appropriate. It had been a full out war that had resulted in the deaths of many, but Goku had achieved what he'd set out to do. Hatred welled up in Goten's chest, and it was then that he realized death was too kind, and so, he opened his mouth and began to tell Goku of the strange creature that had wandered into their scarred lives and destroyed them.

 

****

 

Vegeta had laughed, not even ruffled, but Diana's chest had been heaving from exertion, and the man seemed to find some sort of wry amusement in the fact that he could rile her so easily. She hung from the wall by the vicious ki bands, and she let her eyes slip closed in hopes that blessed sleep would come and remove her boredom. There was nothing like being bored and cornered. It was a poison. Especially being bored. She opened her eyes again to face the prince, her lips parting to exhale some random insult that would undoubtedly roll off of him as the previous insults had.

 

Diana's cerulean eyes were exhausted. After a small game of cat and mouse with Vegeta, he had neatly locked her to the wall again with ki bands, and she allowed him to have his power trip. He had come to ask her questions, and it was escalated in a full out battle and war of words that Diana kept up with easily. She didn't quite understand her malice and disgust towards the prince, but she decided that there must have been a reason for her instincts rejecting him violently, and so, she gave into the malice that plagued her thoughts and threw insult after insult at him in the form of answers to his annoying questions.

 

“Bastard.” She smirked at him. “Do you even know who your mother was? Or do you even care? For all you know, your mother could have been a simple whore.” She suddenly barked an empty, chilling laugh, and Vegeta's eyes narrowed. “Oh, that would be sweet. The mighty prince of the so-called Saiya-jins…the son of a whore! That's fucking rich!” She continued her vicious jibe of him, but the only sign that Vegeta had even been affected was the slight narrowing of his deep charcoal eyes.

 

“What do you remember?” He asked quietly. She was testing his patience with her illogical insanity and dangerous strength, and even as the ki bands restricted her power, she struggled against them so violently that they cut into the tender skin of her wrists yet again, causing blood to ooze down her long arms and drip onto the white tile floor of the holding cell. She spat her disgust at Vegeta, and he only wiped it away and smirked. “I take it you remember who your king is.”

 

“Fuck you, you tailless ape.” She snapped back at him gruffly. “The only thing you are king of is your decrepit, aging, disgustingly ugly wife, and a bastard rapist son who likes to take advantage of restrained women.” The moment she finished her insult, her face exploded into pain as Vegeta sent his fist neatly into her cheek bone, causing the delicate skin to break open and splatter blood across the spotlessly white wall behind her.

 

He grabbed a handful of the shirt that Gohan had so graciously given her, and Vegeta pulled her forward, so that they were nose to nose, and his lip curled as he spoke, his eyes burning with rage. “You can insult my son. He can take care of his own affairs, obviously.” He paused, onyx eyes roaming over her face in a predatory manner before continuing in a deep, furious voice. “But if you EVER insult my wife again, I will kill you slowly, and you will be screaming my forgiveness before I'm done with you.”

 

“You don't even care about Bulma. I don't see why you're running your trap, ape boy.” She answered back sharply. Vegeta's eyes widened for a moment before slamming her back against the wall, her head cracking against the tile roughly. She laughed at him, making even more furious. He raised his hand to hit her again, but it was stopped by long, deft fingers that brushed across his pulse before releasing him.

 

“What are you doing?” The voice poured from those full, pouting lips like a song, and it hung in the air with the pretense of a life changing, angelic whisper, spreading out over the room like fate and despair on brooding evil. The evil blue eyes raised and locked with deep onyx, and Vegeta could feel the energy leave the room and then sink into the slender, delicate body hanging from the wall. The energy swirled and tore through the veins that ran so artfully under her silken, bloody skin, and her eyes flashed an almost imaginary green before settling back to storming, ugly ice blue that was empty and filled with an insane hatred for life.

 

Goku felt the change. The room before had been vibrant and challenging. The energy wasn't unlike his own with the obvious robust power from life that he carried with him, but he could feel elements of Vegeta in it as well. It was a furious energy that filled the building with the stench of vicious battle, and it attracted Goku like a moth to a raging fire. Goten had been right. She was certainly a sight to behold with her pale blue eyes and long ebony hair that danced like a silk curtain across her shoulders as she struggled against the ki bands. She was magnificent…and deadly.

 

Diana seemed to stop thinking as she raised her eyes to the big man soothing the temper of the shorter prince in front of her. He was beautiful, that was no secret. Unruly ebony spikes framed an angelic face, and kind, midnight black eyes graced her face with a nearly piteous look. Those lips parted, and she watched as energy seeped from his breath in a vapor, rejecting her malicious output. In her mind, a strange, uncontrollable hatred welled up, and life blacked out from her reality as she threw herself wildly against the ki bands, even surprising Vegeta with her fury.

 

“KAKAROT!” The scream was filled with an inexplicable wrath that burst through the room in a heated shock wave. Vegeta stared in shock as the ki bands dissolved from around her wrists, and within seconds, she was on the floor, crouched like a giant cat, her blue eyes blazing with unadulterated hatred. The prince stepped back, and in the slow movement of his soft tennis shoes squeaking the floor, the powerful creature that stirred before him moved, and the air froze as tile met the back of his head a spilt second before a rain of powerful hits bloodied his face and split a precious, royal lip.

 

“Stop it!” Goku's voice rang out through the room, but the moment that the demand touched the battle, the raging woman's attention was turned on him, and a wave of unutterable rage hit Goku's heart as pale, empty blue eyes gazed up at him. He know that look. He'd seen it in the mind of a man who had been the victim of circumstances even out of his control, and the intense insanity that shown out in her eyes mirrored his hatred, fear, and pain. As she paused above Vegeta like a wild animal mauling its prey, blood dripped from her fingertips and mouth where she'd bitten into the tender flesh of Vegeta's neck.

 

In her mind, life had ceased to exist, and in her heart, the scenes of a million people, melting in fire, innards pouring out onto a bloodied battlefield fed her intense, brooding desire to maim the creature in front of her. In her split second of realizing who this man exactly was, an evil, empty smile covered her lips, and she stood gracefully from Vegeta's unconscious body, the power seeping from her in small tremors that sent Goku's intellect reeling. A whisper escaped from Goku that made the smile disappear from her face, and her eyes turned furious and deadly.

 

“Brolly…” Anger filled his mind when he realized that this… this monster was Pan's rapist and killer, and he would be damned if she would go unpunished. As he stepped forward, the power that he had so carefully locked within his life force seeped out at his feet and slowly, he ascended, his hard, steeled emerald eyes graced her face with fury. “…you killed Pan.”

 

“I am not my old man, and I never will be, you insolent twit!” Diana snapped. Her breeding shone through her insanity as she straightened her back and stood tall, her blue eyes flashing indignity. Her fingers clenched into fists, the blood running down into the palms of her hands and then dripping onto the now slippery floor that was covered with the prince's blood as it poured onto the tile from his broken nose, bleeding lips, and cracked skull. Diana looked down on the still beautiful face, and a slow smirk covered her face. “So you are the one that he so desperately searched for. What a disappointment. And here I thought that Pan's greatest hero would be more than just a squalling cat with a tail.”

 

Goku's eyes flashed, and his tail snapped from around his waist and waved through the energy. “I don't understand how you can be so cruel, but it's going to end right now!” He raised his hand to gather energy, but even as Goku had stopped Vegeta, a long fingered, powerful hand wrapped around his wrist, and he looked to his shoulder, and Gohan, who stood behind him, his dark eyes shining in warning, glared at Diana. It was a payback. She saved him, and now he would save her, and the circle would be finished.

 

“Stop your stupid games, Diana. Now isn't the time. If I tell anyone the truth, it will be him.” Gohan had contemplated lying to Goku about what had happened, but that would give Diana the power to rule over them as if though they were loyal dogs, and Gohan was much to strong for that. Or so he decided. He had to believe that there was good inside of her, and he wished for it with everything that he was. Not just because of his tender heart, but just the simple fact that the team had never faced an insanity like this. Unleashed, she would reek havoc.

 

“Tell him the truth, Gohan, you idiot. And he will look at you with as much hatred as he looks on me with!” Diana suddenly barked a powerful, insane laugh that made the hair on the back of Goku's neck stand up, even as Gohan released him. “In fact, I'll make you a deal. If you tell your father…” She looked up through her lashes, the pale blue eyes dancing with hatred and a sheer desire to destroy. “…I'll tell your wife.”

 

With that, the air moved, and Diana was gone, only leaving a shattered window, a breeze, and a bloody prince on the floor. Gohan's eyes widened for a moment as he released his father completely, and Goku turned, his face full of rage. “Why in the hell did you let her go? Now, she's free, and God knows what she's going to do to our neighborhood when she gets there…”

 

The neighborhood…”Oh my fucking god…” Gohan's dark eyes filled with worry. “Videl.”

 

****

 

Chunks of flesh flew across the room, and bloodied screams were almost muffled from exhaustion as Diana ripped and tore the fleshy tissue from Videl's body. “You don't know what you have, you cunt!” Again, the blue eyes flashed with empty hatred, and another splatter of blood sprinkled across the kitchen as the black haired beauty ran a serrated knife through the thigh muscle of the screaming woman tied to the kitchen table.

 

Videl's hair was gone, removed scalp and all, revealing the slimy muscle and bloody tissue that surrounded her skull, and her nose hung by a thread of tiny skin to the right of her face, allowing blood to pour over her beautiful neck and drip down onto the table in a sickening puddle of warm, sticky liquid. “But yes, it just so happens that I watched Gohan kill Pan. He did it without remorse. The moment he let that blast go, it rocketed into her body, and I felt her warm blood ooze down my body.”

 

Diana leaned down over the dying woman, gasping for breath, and she chuckled lowly in her ear. “I almost came when I heard that sound of her heart being fried. It was the sound of bacon in the morning. Oh, it was sweet.” With a rough movement, Diana ripped off the tender outer shell of Videl's ear, making the woman elicit a horrific scream into the house that echoed off the walls. “And you know what? I fucked your daughter, and she was good. All that sweet virgin's blood on my fingers…I licked it off and wondered to myself what it would have been like to lick it off of Gohan's dick as he pounded his daughter's sweet pussy…”

 

The images rushed through Videl's head. The images of Gohan raping his own daughter filled her thoughts and she shut them out just as quickly. He would never do anything like that. Not ever. She remembered the first time Pan had kissed a boy in that bloody moment, and remembered the boy running for his life when a furious Gohan drove him away. Yes, that was the husband she loved and remembered, and even now, in shreds, in mindless, agonizing pain, his kind, handsome face brought Videl a strange kind of peace, and she knew she could die without remorse.

 

“P-please…just end this.” Videl's voice was sickeningly strained and covered in blood, but Diana only continued her taunts. The sheer evil that had been sewn away by so few threads had now broken free of its confines, and it radiated off her body in a dark ki that turned her gazes empty, and the only emotion that registered her empty heart was hatred. She hated everything. Life. Love. Happiness. It didn't exist in her world, and that would be the hero's downfall. If she didn't love, she didn't fear. That's what made her ultimately dangerous.

 

“I have a present for your dear sweet husband, Videl…would you like to see?” The only sound filling the air were the screams of a dying woman and the sound of ripping flesh and blood splattering across the floors as Diana carved her mark in eternity with the most hatred she could offer Videl. Soon, the screams stopped, and a laugh began…Low, dangerous, and filled with loathing. It filled the house with a brooding hatred, and it made the walls shiver in fear. .

 

****

His life…his breath…his whole reason for being alive stopped. Blood soaked the walls and splattered, and the sickening stench of death met his nose, and flies migrated to the deeper pools of deep red liquid. “Oh Jesus…” The words escaped his mouth unbidden, and before he could catch his breath, he vomited on the floor, the putrid smell of half digested food mixing with the scent of raw meat and death rotting in the hot weather. The worst part was something he had not seen. Hanging from Videl's precious chandelier, were ropes of slimy flesh. “Oh fuck…” Intestinal fluid and bile poured out onto the floor beneath it, dripping like a disgusting waterfall of feces and blood.

 

Scrawled on a white wall in blood, was a message that made the life drain from him. “Welcome home, honey. Dinner's in the fridge.” His feet couldn't carry him through the blood soaked house fast enough. Chunks of muscles, pieces of bone, and puddles of blood adorned the walls, floors, and shelves, and as he reached the kitchen, he screamed. What was left of Videl's mangled body hung from the ceiling by a rope attached to her ankle, the bones in her thighs showing through. Her ribs were visible and poked out of her mangled body gruesomely, and her head…was missing.

 

Gohan stared at the fridge, blood splattered all over the door, and with a sick, heavy heart, he opened the door, and his screams suddenly became terrified and pain filled. On the shelf, was a bloody mass of hair, face, crushed skull with violet eyes staring out blankly. As Gohan screamed, life spun away from him, and consciousness lost it's purchase in his mind as the floor rushed up to meet him. After that, the only sound in the house was a deep, feminine laugh that emanated from the shadows and then disappeared out into the night with a single declaration. “Welcome home…Kakarot.”