Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Red Baron ❯ Red and White Part 3 ( Chapter 38 )

The Red Baron

 

Red and White Part 3

 

It was a few days after the intense battle. All was calm now. Everything was coming back to normal. Things were looking good once again and the heroes were given their chance to rest, their chance to reflect, their chance to rethink everything they though they knew.

 

Devyn and Dawn relearned everything that had happened in the last few months only with the truth now. They were told the real reasons for everything that had happened from the dojo's destruction, Andy's disappearance, and the changes that Carlos was undergoing. Being the good friends they were, they swore themselves to secrecy concerning the Red Baron's existence and all involved.

 

Josh went back to training, only now he was on his own. He was the one that suffered the greater burden with the death of Master Janus. It was a very special bond between master and apprentice that made it both harder and easier for Josh to deal with his grief. He trained everyday from that moment on, that way he will be as strong as his master and perhaps be a little competition for the Red Baron himself. Considering the many of the Earth's former saviors were merely human, he kept hold of that hope.

 

Master Janus was buried in a special place in the cemetery. It was hard to be back there once again. It was a lot to take in. The Red Baron had to now face the facts of the pervious months. He had seen so much blood shed. He had been responsible for so many deaths on both sides and twice he let down those closest to him.

 

The Red Baron's long time master and guide was now dead. In the final battle against the Dark Baron and his forces, he was struck down and the Red Baron, who witnessed it, could do nothing but watch as his master was destroyed. It haunted him to relive the moment when Suzin struck him down.

 

Furthermore, he now faced the facts of his brother's death and rebirth. Now knowing that the Dark Baron cast into his body an evil that killed his soul and adapted his body was horrifyingly disgusting and intolerable, it made him shiver. Though Shadow was the darkest and cruelest soul he had ever seen next to the Dark Baron, it didn't ease the fact that he had to kill his brother, whether it really was him or not.

 

Of course, he would not tell his parents. So far, he had told them nothing. When he came home battered and bruised, he had to make up that he had been involved in a fight. Thankfully, they were unable to make the connection between the time he was in the fight and the time that the battle had taken place.

 

By now, everyone knew of the battle. There had been witnesses close enough to see what was happening, though none of them could tell who was fighting. Everywhere in the news there were testimonies and footage form afar of the Red Baron's battle. With luck, and it seemed to be on their side, no one would be able to render the tapes enough to make out the Red Baron and the rest of his friends.

 

Yet, all that he accomplished was still very little when weighed against what he had lost. He felt no way to justify losing Master Janus and Andy to the darkness like they were. It only grabbed and squeezed at his heart to make himself believe that he could have done more, though it was realistically unlikely that he could have done any more then he already did.

 

But it was not his dwelling in his thoughts that finally pulled him out of his misery. Being back at home, the Red Baron, with his suit still on form the funeral, sat n his bed and was staring off into space.

 

The funeral was short and sweet. To everyone else, it was just a stroke of bad luck to be in the area where the battle has erupted. But he was to be remember with honor nonetheless, considering that he was an important member of the local community.

 

But after it was all over, the Red Baron felt no satisfaction, no joy. He was no longer capable of feeling happy. The weight had been lifted off of him but it had left his mark. That is when Vanessa walked into the room. She was standing next to the door and she looked to him.

 

“Hey, Carlos. Mind if I say down?”

 

Carlos looked up form his bed and tried to shake off him mood. He nodded and smiled a little.

 

“Sure, come on in.”

 

Vanessa sat next to him and they looked at the wall together. After a few quiet moments, Vanessa just started going at it.

 

“Are you going to be okay?”

 

Carlos looked down a little and sighed.

 

“I could have done more, Vanessa. I could have been there for them. I could have been there for Master Janus, for the people who were killed, and for Andy. I should have been there for them and I wasn't. And now they're all dead.”

 

Vanessa didn't look at him, still facing the wall, but spoke to him.

 

“Carlos, when I went to go fight, fight the Dark Baron, I thought I was doing all I could to protect you from him, so that you would fall to him. I thought I was being there for you, but I wasn't.”

 

Carlos eyed her for a moment but then focused on the wall just as fast, but listening even more intently than before.

 

“I thought that by going on my own and fighting him and possibly winning that I could save you from him, even if it meant killing myself. I didn't care what it meant but I knew I couldn't let you die by his hands, I knew that I had to stop him. But I was wrong in what I did. All I did out there was just show just how scared and cowardly and selfish I am. I should have none better.”

 

Now the Red Baron looked at her and she looked at him. She had a smile on her.

 

“I now know that in order to protect you to the best of my ability was to be with you. I should have been afraid to lose you, I should have been so cowardly as to face him with you, and I should have been so selfish to think I was the only one who had the burden. You may have the biggest burden, Carlos, but not all of it and when Master Janus, Andy, and everyone else suffered under the Dark Baron, it was there burden to carry. You could have done anything else in your places that would have made a difference. Everything happened for a reason and you have to accept that reason.”

 

She leaned against him and put her arm around his back.

 

“You did everything you could, Carlos. You have to remember that. I know that if everything had happened differently, I would have gotten to know you and I would have been set free form my own prison. When you and I wee not hat battlefield, I realized then, after all the fights and after all the shots of energy that drilled through me, that I had to be with you to protect you the best way I could. I learned that I wasn't alone, I wasn't the only one burdened, and I wasn't the only one who had to do something. All along, I had a partner who could do it.”

 

Carlos smiled and put his arms around her as well and they held each other tightly.

 

“You are right, Vanessa. I can't believe I didn't see it before. And all this time I was selfish, too. But like I showed you, you showed me. You showed me to accept who I am, as the Red Baron, and accept the consequences of that, good and bad. I was immature to think otherwise, to think that I could easily just throw this all away. And it was because of all this that they almost won me over, that they almost made me become dark myself. And if it wasn't for you, I could never have defeated the Dark Baron.”

 

Vanessa pulled herself up a little and looked at his Baron Necklace.

 

“Do you think that will hold him?”

 

“It should. There's no way he's getting out of there. We can put him to rest. Besides, all I need to do is break this and its over for him.”

 

“Will you destroy your powers?”

“Yes, I will have to so I can truly defeat the Dark Baron.”

 

“You are right, but I wouldn't do it too soon. You never know when we're going to need it.”

 

“I'll keep it a while longer just to make sure that everything's cleared.”

 

Again, they held each other in arms tightly and they sat there, looking at each other and looking at the wall. The Red Baron spoke to her.

 

“So, we did it together. What else are we going to do together?”

 

Vanessa nudged him.

 

“What's that's supposed to mean?”

 

“Hey, I didn't mean anything perverted.”

 

They laughed. Then they stopped laughing. They turned to each other and kissed for a moment. She pulled back and smiled at him.

 

“What ever we do, I plan to make it happen forever.”

 

She gave him a quick kiss. He smiled back at her.

 

“Then forever shall it be. I love you.”

 

Vanessa stopped and had to think about it a little. She wasn't sure if he heard him right. But she knew that was just a lie to herself. She knew exactly what he said and she had only one response for it.

 

“I love you, too.”

 

But, even as they kissed and grew in their love for each other, there was darkness lurking in the background of this love story. Though the Dark Baron maybe dead, there was still a dark presence left on this world. And as the moment passed by, The Red Baron and the White Warrior, Earth's defenders, didn't know what was coming.

 

What was coming was to be more horrifying that they could believe possible. As this evil came closer to happening, it promised to change everything the Red Baron knew and lived by. What was coming would change everything as it was known. Every rule was to be broken and crushed. And as its time drew nearer, the heroes didn't expect it. Though, the time was to come much later, and not at that moment.

 

And as we close this saga, this story of the Red Baron, we know that it is far form all being over and that there is more yet to come for him and his friends. But as promised, the Red Baron will be challenged like never before and everything he holds dear will be tested and with a promise that it will be torn from him forever. But now they relax as they unknowingly await for the new evil to rise up and make its stand against the Earth and it's protectors.