Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Mirror Darkly ❯ A New Arrival ( Chapter 11 )

I'm cold, She thought as she shoved silvery-blue hair from her delicate nearly transulent face. She shivered in her egg-like vessel, having been hurled though space and landing non-too-pleanantly on the soil of the planet which had, from the view from her ship moments…or had been days?…seemed a distance ball of blues and whites.

She closed her eyes and saw the faces of those she loved moments before someone had picked her up and tossed her into the escape pod. She had hardly enough room to shift her weight, however light that was, and was feeling a bit sick due to the gravity on this world after spending most of her life shipbound hurtling from star to star with her space-faring parents and grandparents.

She knew her family was dead. The explosion which she'd felt enough through the protective layers of metal about her little pod rocked her and sent to spiralling downwards towards the planet below. She had closed her eyes tight after that to avoid seeing anything like body parts floating in the black vaccum. She'd not wanted to see the end. She blinked back tears and paused, feeling something…

"I felt it from over here strongest…" Piccolo said, but Mara placed a finger to lips and shook her head at him.

Send! Do not speak! We can still take it by surprise…

Look! Having spotted the egg-like vessel, Piccolo and Mara carefully approached.

She pushed the button over her head which should have opened the door. It should have. The problem was…much of her escape pod had been damaged in the crash landing it had obtained. She gritted her small teeth together and pulled her legs back until her knees were just under her chin.

She started to kick with all her strength. Her shimmering blue and gold butterfly wings were folded against her back. They looked fragile, but were tougher than regular insect wings. Her thin, sensitive antannae moved as she tried to figure out where, exactly, she was.

Piccolo and Mara watched wide-eyed as the pod began to buck and rock from side to side, as if it were an egg about to hatch. Mara took a step forward, towards it but Piccolo rested one hand on her shoulder and stayed her approach. They watched as a small human-seeming creature finally tumbled out after getting the obviously stuck door to unlatch and open.

What is it? Mara asked herself, accidently sending her query to Piccolo, who shrugged and walked over to it.

It's a little girl! Mara gasped, stepping up next to Piccolo, to the child she said; "Who are you, child?"

The girl was small, small-boned and fine of feature. She looked to be about six years old though when she raised her eyes to Mara's, she looked much, much older. Mara gazed into her hazel eyes and saw flecks of green and blue swimming within those orbs.

She was dressed in an odd garment that seemed to shimmer like stardust, matching the sparkling blue makeup around her eyes and covering both of her long, delicately tapered ears.

Before either Mara or Piccolo could do or say anything, Goku appeared next to Piccolo, looking at the small butterfly winged child and the escape pod she'd just emerged from.

Vegeta and Toshi arrived a few moments later, seemingly as stunned as the others were.

Goku did a humorous double-take at the sight of Mara but before he could ask any questions her felt an odd tugging that demanded his attention.

"I felt a…" Goku began and then shook his head, "It can't be from this little girl…can it?"

"I don't know…" Goku stepped over to the girl, who had stood up and was now glaring at them all with even mixtures of fear and confusion. "It's okay…I'm Goku…who are you?"

She muttered something in an alien tongue, one that none of the others had ever before heard. Then she shook her head and smiled, replying in their own langauge; "I am called Aubria…"

"Aubria…" Goku went on, as the others behind him listened intently, or at the very least Piccolo and Mara did. Vegeta and Toshi just looked bored. "Where are you from? Where's your ship?"

"We were attacked," Aubria said slowly, "They were much stronger than my family's ship could handle. I remember my mother and father shoving me into an escape pod and launching it out moments before the ship exploded. I wish I could have saved them…"

Aubria became silent, brooding. She knew why her mother and father had seen to her welfare first and foremost. She's known all her young life that she was destined for greatness. She had all the markings and signed from the old prophecy. Even now she could recite it, unbidden, in her mind. But she did not think that now was the time to get into such a discussion.

"Your power is immense!" Vegeta said, walking up to her and looking down into her eyes, "I find it hard to believe that someone with your capabilities could not have saved your family from being blown all over space!"

"I could do nothing!" She cried, tears in her eyes, "They who attacked us were far stronger in power than I! If I could have stopped them, don't you think I would have?!"

"Shh…" Mara placed her arms around the girl, sheilding her from Vegeta's scowling face, she stroked her soft silvery hair and did her best to calm the child, "It's okay now, Aubria. You're among friends. Shh…"

"Y-you don't understand!" The child sniffled, her face buried in Mara's shoulder, "I-if I couldn't even save my own family, how can I be the one the prophecy has foretold!?"

"Prophecy?" Mara pulled her away gently and held her by her shoulders, she had knelt down to embrace the child and now crouched on one knee looking at her, "What are you talking about?"

"Y-you mean…" She sniffed, swiping a hand across her eyes, "You don't know?"

Mara looked at the others, who merely shrugged or shook their heads in confusion, she turned back to the girl, "No. We don't."

~*~*~

Meanwhile, back home, Bulma was furious. At her husband. Which shouldn't make anyone all that much surpised. She was feeding little Bra in her highchair while holding her cell phone balanced between her shoulder and ear. A bit of oatmeal dripped from her blue bangs and she tried shoveling more of it into her daughter's mouth, only a small bit of it ending up in the child's stomach. The rest decorated the tray of her highchair, the child and the other. Bulma sighed as she continued to rant and rave into the phone.

"Can you believe the nerve of him, Chi Chi?!" She cried, as Bra banged her plastic spoon on the tray and demanded her mother's attention, Bulma reached over and swiped at Bra's face with a washcloth, not doing much good and slopped some applesauce from a jar onto the little plate with the seprated areas for different foods. "He just waltzes right in with that girl who could be his long lost twin sister or something and expects me to just roll over and take it like an obedient little lap dog!"

Bra giggled and flipped the bowl over, watching in delight as applesauce and oatmeal splattered her mother and the floor and looked down from her highchair to see her breakfast dish laying upside-down on the floor. She began to cry. Bulma was about to pull her hair out at the roots she was so frustrated.

"I don't have anything against the girl, Chi Chi, don't get me wrong. Vegeta was a jackass before she came along and he'll be one after she's gone, I sure. I'm just angry that…that….well, that he didn't tell me about her beforehand! We're suppose to be partners! Married people would tell each other these kinds of things, right? Right?"

Chi Chi was silent for a moment. "Maybe…" She began, listening to Bulma's heavy breathing as she tried to calm down, she also heard Bra screaming in the background, "He didn't know about her beforehand."

"Yeah, right." Bulma said, sounding hurt, "If he can't even trust his own wife with the knowledge of his twin-self…or soul…or whatever she is to him, how can our marriage even survive?"

"It will, though." Chi Chi said, "You and Vegeta love each other more than both of you even realize. You know that nothing can part you two…so why are you jealous?"

"J-Jealous?" Bulma laughed, at least she tried to but it came out more like a hiccuping sob, "Why should I be…"

"Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!" Bra yelled pounding on her highchair with her spoon. Bulma snatched it from her and, when her abrupt movement caused her little daughter to first look shocked and then to wail, she plucked a piece of chocolate from a candy bar she'd been munching on earlier from the counter and into the child's open mouth.

Bra's eyes got wide as she tasted the sweet candy and she clomped her mouth shut and became silent as she sucked on the swiftly melting chocolate, content at last.

Bulma breathed a sigh of relief and in the back of her mind she thought; Almost any problem can be solved by chocolate…

"I wish my feelings for this girl could be solved by candy." She muttered and Chi Chi asked her what she'd said. She told her not to worry and soon hung the phone up. She turned to her daughter, shaking her head, "You're a mess, kid." Then she looked down at herself, "And so is your Mother. Come on, let's get cleaned up…"

~*~*~

"You can stay with us for now, Aubria." Goku was saying as the girl turned away from the female who looked namekian…even though Goku knew that couldn't be right…she had to be something else, right? Something that just resembled the nameks…right? "I'm sure Chi Chi won't mind an extra houseguest."

Aubria hiccuped and nodded, "T-thank you, Goku."

"Aww, it's no problem!" Goku blushed, looking at his feet. Vegeta thought that he would punch him if he suddenly burst out with a Gee, Shucks! He rolled his eyes and prepared to leave.

"I see you've got things under control here, Kakkorat." He said, and to the child, "I look forward to testing you in combat one day."

"I don't wanna fight anyone!" Aubria cried out, her wings unfolded gracefully and she fluttered them, seeming to test them on this new planet. She carefully lifted herself from the ground and then fell back to her knees with a thud. "Gravity…it's much heavier here…"

"Your used to it being much lighter, aren't you?" Piccolo asked, helping the little girl to her feet once more, "It's going to be hard for you to learn to fly here."

She nodded, pouting cutely, her eyes nearly as large around as saucers, "On my own world, we hardly needed our wings to fly. We could catch an air current and drift…like…" She looked around, spotted a dandilion seed floating gracefully in the air, "That flower-seed there!"

"Well," Goku said, his hands on his hips, "You'll just have to practice. But, come on! I have to get home anyway…I'm missing breakfast!" As though awaiting it's cue, Goku's stomach rumbled and complained. He lifted the small, winged child up and took to the air with more grace and agility that she'd ever seen…even among her own kind.

"Catch ya later, Mara!" Goku waved, holding Aubria with the other arm, "Piccolo!"

Mara shook her head, bemused and said; "I'm already beging to like it here…never a dull moment, is there?"

"You'd be surprised." Piccolo said, "But it does get to be tedious after a while…"

"Heh." Mara covered her mouth to stifle her laughter, "Wonder what's next? Perhaps some horridly strong evil menence will come to slaughter innocents and be nearly impossible to kill…"

Piccolo gasped, and looked at her, his eyes wide; "Don't even think such a thing…!"

She shook her head. "I'm just kidding, Piccolo…geez…do you think I'd want something like that to happen? Besides, didn't you hear me say `nearly impossible to kill' that means it could be killed, right?"

"What?" Piccolo asked, "Your imaginary evil friend?"

"Well…you never know…"

"Really."

"Yeah, really."

"Be quiet and let me meditate in peace." Piccolo said, folding his long legs beneath himself and floating in mid-air, he closed his eyes and began the steady breathing which would sink himself deep within his own mind. Mara sighed and matched his moves, soon the peacefulness of feeling nothing and everything all at once washed over her.

Just before she slipped into darkness, she wondered what Toshi was up to.