Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Mirror Darkly ❯ Toshi's Gut Feeling ( Chapter 14 )

"Oh, that's right!" Toshi said, slapping her forehead, "You came out of that pod-like thing a few days ago! Whew! I could feel your energy clear over from Vegeta and Bulma's place! How could I have forgotten?!"

Aubria nodded, munching on a tomato slice. Toshi looked down at her and shook her head in bemusement. "Your so little…but there is something special about you. Why else would we all be feeling such power from you?"

Aubria didn't answer, she merely looked at the older girl, her large hazel eyes blinking every few moments. Toshi found it a little unnerving to be stared at this way. She shifted her weight onto one foot and then the other, waiting for the child to say something, anything.

"Toshi!" She heard Chi Chi call from the other room and Bra began to cry, "Could you come and help me, please, dear?"

"Be right there!" She called and then said to the little winged child, "I'm not done with you, Butterfly, I'm going to find out what you're all about."

Aubria shivered inwardly, not at Toshi's words but at her tone of voice. She knew that one would not stop until she gained exactly what she was after, no matter what the cost. She turned back to her salad and ate in silence. This strange world and it's even stranger people made her nervous and homesick all at the same time. She swallowed back tears with another slice of tomato.

~*~*~

Toshi found Chi Chi in her and Goku's bedroom, little Bra was laying on the bed, sans diaper and Chi Chi was struggling to place a new one on the wriggling child. She had baby powder in her dark hair and smelled of baby lotion and feces. Toshi wrinkled her nose and began to help Chi Chi with the baby.

"Ugh!" She cried as she saw the dirty diaper before Chi Chi had rolled it up, "I never knew they crapped that much! Remind me never to have kids!"

Chi Chi laughed and tossed the soiled diaper into the trash bin to be taken out at the end of the day when she went through the house and took out all the garabage, "It's not so bad, Toshi, the pros of having children far outweigh the cons."

She chucked little Bra under her chin and the child giggled. She placed her on the floor and like a shot she was off crawling and exploring. Chi Chi didn't worry, her house was still baby-proofed from when Goten was little. Besides, being part Saiyan, she knew the child was more sturdy than a normal human infant. She could take her lumps and laugh about it, that was a certainty.

"I wonder where the little girl with the wings came from." Toshi asked the air as they cleaned up the mess, "There is something odd about her…"

"You mean besides the hair and wings?" Chi Chi looked at ther askance and Toshi shook her head, not even hearing the uncharacteristic sarcasm.

"No, I mean, something more." Toshi chewed on her bottom lip, deep in thought, "I think there's a reason she came here…"

"How can that be?" Chi Chi asked, "Goku told me that her escape pod pretty much crashed here by accident…we were just the closest planet to her family's ship when it…"

"I don't know." Toshi said, "Maybe your right. I just have a feeling is all…"

Chi Chi grew silent, thinking for a while as Toshi finished putting stuff away and then looked up, smiled and said that she needed to go to the store to pick up something for dinner. "We eat very large meals here." She said by way of explaination, "Nothing can compare to a Saiyan's apitite!"

Toshi chuckled and offered to stay with the little ones until she returned. "Thank you, dear. I won't be gone long."

~*~*~

"Hey, Butterfly!" Toshi found the girl in the spare bedroom struggling to make up the fold-out hide-a-bed as nicely as Chi Chi would have done, "What's up?"

Aubria looked at her and then towards the ceiling, clearly puzzled by such a question. "The ceiling is up…I guess…and outside, the sky and some clouds. I saw a few birds flying by earlier when I looked out the…"

Toshi laughed and shook her head, "No, silly! I mean `what's going on?' `How are you?'"

"Oh, Fine, I guess." Aubria said, shoving her silvery-blue hair out of her too-large eyes, She continued in a small voice; "I don't know…I miss my own bed…"

Toshi didn't bother with any coddling. She moved the child out of her way and finished making up the bed then she sat down on the end and said; "Why are you here? Really?"

"I…I…crashed here…" Aubria looked frightened, like a cornered rabbit and Toshi felt a little ashamed of her behaviour. She's just a stupid kid, for crying out loud! She scolded herself, but just glared at Aubria, waiting for her to say more.

"I don't know why I'm here!" She cried at last, tears struggling to stay beneath her lids, she blinked and one coursed a path down her cheek and off her chin, "It was an accident!"

"Sure, Butterfly." Toshi folded her arms and stared at her, "My gut tells me you're not lying but…"

"I'm not!" She cried, "Why won't you believe me!"

"Shh!" Toshi said to her, "Calm down, okay? I never said I didn't believe you. It's just…I think…"

"Yes?" Aubria swiped at her tears, Stupid to cry, She said to herself, Stupid! Stupid!

"I think there was a reason you crashed here on this particular planet," Toshi said, "In this particular area."

"Maybe it has something to do with the prophecy?" Aubria whispered, not looking at Toshi, just at her folded hands in her lap as she sat next to her, "Do you think?"

"What is this prophecy business?" Toshi asked, "Can you explain it to me so I'll understand."

"Umm…There's a rhyme…like this," She said, "Child whose hair is silver-blue

Child whose innocence is trusting and true

Child whose wings are blue and gold

Child whose heart is strong and bold

She who was birthed outside in the grass

She who is the one to last

She who's mother bled and tore

She who shall lead us onto war"

Toshi listened but shook her head. Aubria seemed to realize that she wasn't clear enough with Toshi so she asked; "Can I show you…I mean…so that you can see what it means?"

Toshi nodded and the little girl knelt on the bed beside her, flinging her small arms around her neck and pressed her forehead against Toshi's. Toshi gasped and fought not to pull away as the first touch of the alien mind to her's. She felt somewhat like the first time she and Vegeta became mentally connected only this was more pure, more…innocent.

The images to flood into her mind were far from innocent, however and they made Toshi feel things she'd never felt before. Especially the images of beings like Aubria armored and weaponed and heading out to battle and then, the aftershock, the fighting, the dying…the wounded…but most of all…the glory. She felt her blood sing within her and she wanted to be a part of that victory…however imaginary it was now, being lodged into a child's mind.

She breathed deeply as Aubria let go of her, took her face from her's and sat back, waiting.

"Y-you…were meant to…"

" `To lead onto war'" Aubria nodded, reciting part of the prophecy, "But I don't even know how to fight!" She shuddered, "Just the thought of anyone inflicting deliberate harm…"

"Hmm…" Toshi said, "I think we need to ask someone wiser than us for advice…"

She thought about using the mirror to talk to her grandmothers…but she knew that would have taken a lot of the older women to speak with her that way and didn't want to risk their health.

"Who?"

"I don't know…" Toshi said, "Maybe Chi Chi knows someone who could help. We have to wait for her to get back from the store though."

Toshi saw the baby from the corner of her eye crawling into the room and stood up, walked over to her and scooped her up. "Well, how about you come and watch t.v. with Bra and me until Chi Chi comes back?"

"What's a t.v.?" Aubria asked, and Toshi laughed, Bra giggled because she thought grown ups looked funny when they laughed, "And why do we have to watch it?"

"You'll see," Toshi said, and then to the baby, "Isn't she a silly little Butterfly, Bra?"