Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Mirror Darkly ❯ Mirror, Mirror... ( Chapter 1 )

She spent most of her time gazing through the mirror into that familiar yet odd world which lay just beyond. If only she could find a way though, she knew she could be happy, finally, and not the half-awake pitiful creature she'd always been.

She gazed at herself, shoving her shock of pale, nearly white hair from her face, hair which she'd always been teased about. It tended to stand up in the most…unflattering way no matter how she tried to tame it back down.

Her favorite book was in her lap. Alice Through The Looking Glass. She'd read and re-read it over and over so many times the pages were yellowed with age and cracked, the corners dog-earred lovingly. She sighed, if only she could be like Alice and find a way through…!

Most of her friends and family had all ready found their way. They had all ready been called to their light sisters and brothers in the world beyond the mirror. She, with her odd hair and even odder tail, which she was swishing back and forth cat-like as she crouched in front of the glass, palms to the coolness, her dark eyes pleading. Please! Call me! I know you can hear me! Why haven't you called me yet?

There were tears in her eyes as she laid her forehead to the glass and felt them seep down her cheeks.

~*~*~

The mist had cleared some and now he could see the surface of the lake. It's silvery waters shimmered and distorted his savage reflection, sending his own scowl back at him. He had just finished another spar with Goku and nursed his injuries with salt as he sat beside the water, fuming to himself.

The idiot! He raged, his hands balled into fists, trembling at his sides, He thinks just because I let him beat me today that he can win every time! Kakkarot's getting too big for his breeches! As he raged he heard the object of his ire laughing good-naturedly from somewhere above and behind him.

He was about to turn and answer that laughter with his fists and anger when something, like a tickle at the back of his mind, paused his actions. He stopped, his senses tingling…reaching…for something. Then he heard it…faintly.

Call me!

Vegeta scratched his head, running his hand through his dark locks, confused. Call me? He repeated, Call who? Bulma? He wasn't about to lower himself and call that she-devil of a woman. If she wanted him she would call him not the other way around! But, he had the distinct feeling that is was not Bulma whom he was being asked to call.

He glanced down at his reflection and saw it waver, just for a moment, and he saw something…he wasn't sure what…someone who resembled him but who was not him. Before he could peer closer and unravel whatever it was he saw, it shimmered and became himself, scowling in puzzlement and anger, once more.

He shrugged and flew off towards Goku's laughter, screaming; "Shut up before I shut you up, Kakkarot!"

~*~*~

She let out the breath she'd been holding, holding the book tightly in both hands so hard the pages began to cut into her skin. She was gazing through the mirror, misty and distance she could see a lake. The figure seated beside the water, gazing into it's depths, had only moments ago stood and flown off.

But he'd heard me! He cried in her mind, overjoyed beyond belief, she'd been trying for years, ever since she'd grown to the right age, but nothing…untill now…tonight…She dropped the book and jumped to her feet, hugging herself. Soon! She cried to herself, soon…

~*~*~

"What is with you today, Veg-head?" Goku asked, after winning yet another match, "You seemed…distracted. It wasn't even a fair fight that time!"

Vegeta sneered, it was true, his mind had been elsewhere, unable to fully focus on the fight. It was that blasted voice in his head! Where had it come from? He'd heard it several times since that night by the lake. Always it pleaded with him to call. Call? Who? How? He didn't bother with the telephone all that much.

"I'm just concerned with your fighting tactics, Kakkarot." Vegeta answered, as the voice in his head forced it's way through once more, unbidden, This time with a new message.

Reflection!

He paused, the voice was so strong! Much stronger than it had been. He cried out and held his head in his hands. Kakkarot stopped too and looked at him in confusion and fear. "Vegeta? What's wrong?"

"N-nothing!" Vegeta snapped, "Just go on back to the house…"

"Vegeta?"

Reflection! Call me! Now!

"Aargh!" Vegeta cried, the words, the strange voice like knives peircing his thoughts mercilessly, "Stop it! Please! Just stop…!"

~*~*~

"Child!" The stern voice broke her concentration and she looked up guiltily at her grandmother and her dark twin, they had chosen to stay in thisworld after they'd found each other. Sometimes such was the case. Her grandmother shook her head and her twin mirrored the action, as always, "Have you been trying to force your twin again, dear one?"

"I am beyond ready to be called, Grandma!" She cried, choking back sobs, "Why can't he hear me?"

"He does hear you, Granddaughter." The dark twin said, placing a hand upon the girl's shoulder, her twin repeating with her own hand on the girl's opposite shoulder, "A bit too much, I think. You must be careful. Remember, what is soft to us is unbearable to them. You must pace yourself else you could damage him and then where would you be?"

"The same place I am now." The girl pouted, dejected, "Uncalled and lingering…"

"It will happen, dear one." She stroked her granddaughter's hair, "Don't force it. When it's to happen, it shall."

~*~*~

"What the hell is your problem?!" Bulma cried as she slammed the plate down in front of him, food spilling off it onto the floor, "Assuming, of course, that it's any different from normal!"

Vegeta picked at the food, but he really had no apitite, hadn't, it seemed for several days now. He'd been even more testy with Bulma than normal. He glared at her and told her to mind her own business and went back to pushing the food around on his plate. He'd not heard the voice anymore demanding his attention and the hollow echo it had left in it's place felt…oddly…wrong. As if he missed it.

"Let me know," Bulma was saying, her arms akimbo as she glared back at him, "When you finally manage to remove your head from your ass!"

With that, she stormed away up to her room. Probably to work on her laptop or call someone on her cell and bitch about him, Vegeta thought. It seemed no matter what he did, he couldn't please her, so he might as well not even try at all. At least that moron Kakkarot hasn't been around lately to badger him about his fighting skills…or lack thereof.

He'd really been in a funk lately.

He got up, didn't bother taking the plate to the sink and headed up the stairs towards the bathroom. A shower sounded perfect about now. He felt grimy from his day of intense training and just the thought of the cleansing cool water on aching muscles and bones sounded beyond wonderful.

Closing the door and locking it behind him, he quickly stripped off his clothes and shoved the shower curtain back. After testing the water to get the right tempature, he stepped in and the cool shock of water against his parched skin felt like a million tiny wet fingers caressing his tanned, beautifully muscled body.

Reflection!

He cried out and staggered, nearly slipping on the wet porcalin, catching himself against the soft-dish as the voice he though gone weeks ago pounded at his brain.

"What do you mean?" He said aloud, softly, hardly unstanding his own words, "Who are you? What do you want?!"

Call me!

"Who are you?!" He cried, holding his head in one hand, the shower's water tattooing across his back and the other hand bracing himself against the wall, "What do you want with me?!"

The mirror!

The mirror? He echoed in his own mind-voice, what mirror? What does that mean? The bathroom mirror? He half turned and saw his reflection through the fog in the mirror over the sink. A sudden image of the stranger with his eyes gazing back up at him from the lake's surface flashed into his head.

A sudden, brisk knock at the door interrupted his musings and his eyes left his face, however framed in the fog from the shower, towards the door.

"Vegeta?" It was Bulma, of course, "What are you yelling about? Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" He called back, "I'm fine…I just…slipped."

How lame! He thought, rolling his eyes. But she must have bought because she didn't say anything and he heard her footfalls as she walked away a moment later.

~*~*~

"Damn!" She cried, pounding her fists on the floor, the mirror she faced showed her lack of sleep in hollowed eyes and gaunt cheeks, "Damn! Damn! Damn!" A moment longer…just one more moment and he would have known! She's seen the flicker of understanding flash in his eyes as he gazed at his own self through the misty bathroom mirror. If only…!

If only that bitch hadn't inturrupted! She would have been there by now! She squeezed her eyes shut tight and forced back the tears. Her grandmother and her twin had told her not to force herself upon his will…but she couldn't just sit and wait and waste away while he did nothing! She had to make herself known to him! Somehow! Didn't she?

It wasn't her fault if he was too dense to realize it was his own twin calling, was it? She had to make him see her…somehow…didn't she?

She hoped she didn't accidently drive him insane before she could be with him…That would definitly put a damper on her plans…

Her tail, wrapped about her waist, twitched.