Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Time's Folly; A Bittersweet Symphony ❯ Invading Images ( Chapter 4 )

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*Chap 4*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“Stupid bitch!” Asia murmured with annoyance. Dressed leisurely, she moved from her middle-split position to sitting Indian-style on the floor facing Autumn's bed. “Now, why couldn't the popular girls be our enemies? At least that way, we know we can kick their asses!”

 

Autumn, similarly dressed, sat on the edge of her bed and gave a small smile. “Well, in a way, we are kinda popular ourselves; we do play sports for the school. Unfortunately, so does Venus.”

 

“Oh, shut up! That didn't help at all, Autumn!” Asia said somewhat exasperatedly.

 

Autumn shrugged. “Well, Technically, Venus is not our enemy. But she is Azure's. As we are around Azure just enough, the two of us kinda get pulled into their shit,” Autumn pointed out.

 

“I guess that's supposed to be a sigh of relief?” Asia asked, raising her eyebrows in slight annoyance.

 

“Well, you know now that it's not you she's after; it's Azure.”

 

Asia rolled her eyes. “Autumn, just stop! You're not helping at all!” Her friend gave a half-smile and shrugged again. “I'm definitely getting bad vibes about tomorrow.” Asia pointed out. “It'll be up to us to make sure that she doesn't kill Venus.”

 

Autumn looked at Asia then said thoughtfully, “You know, I think that she really could.”

 

“But she wouldn't, right?” Something about Autumn's tone of voice told Asia that there was something that she was keeping from her. “What do you know? Tell me! Do you really think that they will fight to the point that they could try to kill each other?! They aren't possibly that crazy!”

 

Autumn just nodded slowly. “Remember when you and I were little and you would always say to me that you thought that Azure was from outer space and that she wasn't supposed to be here?” Asia nodded. “Well, you may actually be right about that.”

 

Asia blinked and looked at her as if she was crazy. “Okay, you're starting to sound like me...are you sick??”

 

Autumn briefly closed her eyes, smiling a bit. “No, and I'm serious.”

 

“You are sick!” Asia nodded in confirmation. “You poor girl! Venus must have hit you in the head with that basketball harder than we all thought!”

 

Autumn chuckled a bit then shook her head. “Think about it. Remember when we three were at the City Walk last year and she recognized that guy you were crushing over while we were there?”

 

“Oh, yeah…” Asia replied with a wistful smile. “He was super-hot!”

 

“If you really think about it, he was quite a ways away from us.”

 

“Well, we were walking around, and there were lots of people and buildings and stuff around. You couldn't exactly have a clear view of anyone for long.”

 

“That's what we figured, because he did actually change the direction as he was coming towards us, but that's not the point! The point is that when she first claimed that she saw him, he was a long-ass way from us. It was a few minutes `til the rest of us saw him again. Azure has way good vision. And we both know that she has superb hearing.”

 

“Well, that's not totally uncommon. Some people are just blessed with really superior vision and hearing.” Asia “And some people are also blessed with a heightened `sixth sense'…ugh, now I'm starting to sound like you! This is creepy!”

 

Autumn calmly shook her head. “Creepy or not, I seriously believe that she came from somewhere else. It's not like we really know where she came from in the first place.”

 

“What?”

 

“I told you that my mom found Azure in the woods when she hiking several years ago. She discovered her huddled in a small cave, where she was already suffering from extreme hypothermia. She could've easily died from exposure. In fact, she should've died; but she didn't. On top of all that, the doctors determined that Azure was somewhere around three years old and she also had amnesia. After the authorities tried for the longest time to find some sign of her parents or relatives and failed to locate anyone, my mom brought her into our family as a foster child and later formally adopted her. We still, to this day, don't know anything about her past or her parents. Not a clue. And what makes the whole thing even weirder is that Azure has never been bothered by that fact in the least. So what does that say?”

 

“That she has no memory of her real parents and doesn't care to find them?”

 

“Well, that, but also the way she came to live with us. As far as we know, she could've just dropped out of the sky!”

 

Asia sat silently for a second, just thinking. True, to some extent, it was she who had actually pointed out these things to Autumn back when they were younger, and sometimes she actually did think that Azure was from “another world”, but that was more figuratively than literally..

 

”Alright, how, then, did she possibly get here, and where do you think she came from?” Asia finally asked.

 

Autumn shrugged. “I couldn't possibly know how she got here. But the where... well, maybe a different time, a different realm. You know, like Mortal Kombat? Lou Kang, Sonya, and Johnny Cage go off to fight in world, which is set in a different realm than ours, to save the Earth Realm. Or maybe she's from the future or something.”

 

“So, in the future, humans develop extreme vision and hearing?”

 

Autumn frowned. “Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. But what I do know is that Azure is not the person we think she is.” Asia just looked at her friend, at a loss to what to think.

 

<><><><>

 

:: Gohan: “Isn't there any way we can help him?!”

 

Supreme Kai: “He struggles because his heart isn't pure; he has to choose for himself. Don't let him take you, Vegita! Let go! The past is the past! Don't think of it! Be innocent and pure!!”

 

Vegita: “How can you say that?! I'm not innocent!!” ::

 

 

Azure, dressed in black sweats and a white spaghetti strap shirt, sat cross-legged on her bed, her hands resting in her lap, with eyes closed. Her bedroom was pretty basic: a desk equipped with a computer adjacent to one side of her bed, which was dressed in different shades of blue trimmings and sheets. In the corner across from the bed sat an entertainment center, two dressers, a small bookcase, and a long closet. All her furnishings were situated so that there was enough open space in the middle of the room for her to stretch or use as she wanted.

 

She continued to sit unmoving, deep in meditation.

 

“And neither are you, my little monkey!”

 

From some foreign corner of her mind, she heard a hoarse voice, flavored with feminine overtones, uttering that last line.

 

 

::Vegita: “Spend your life ruled by another, watch your race dwindle to a mere handful, and then, tell me what is more meaningful than your own strength?!” ::

 

 

Then she then heard a rough, deep voice similar to her own saying, “Here, your strength means everything; remember that, little one, and you will survive, and someday, may you truly become that legendary Super Saiya-jin, and you will surely live to be the greatest Saiya-jin, and someday avenge our prideful race!”

 

Then a vision crossed her mind: a mental picture of a tank filled with a liquid substance. Someone was inside; a little boy, his eyes closed, with tubes and wires sticking out from his body, and a mask covering the nose and mouth. Deep black hair kept trying to assume its rightful, gravity-defining style, but it was continually stirred about due to the great force of the liquid swirling inside the tank.

 

This picture was replaced by a brief image of a blood-red planet, followed by a burst of bright light; reds and oranges of every shade imaginable, with rubble flowing wildly everywhere. The cataclysmic explosion was accompanied by a maniacal laugh coming from that same hoarse feminine voice she'd heard before: “Oh, my! This is stupendous!! Wow! What a great show! Unbelievable! Look at that!!”

 

Azure was unconsciously sad at the sight of the planet's sudden destruction and how it disappeared altogether. No sooner had that vision appeared, it was gone, replaced by a different voice, one that was rough and deep:

 

 

:: Vegita : “At my fingertips I hold the power to destroy entire worlds! Whole civilizations once trembled at the sound of my name!” ::

 

 

A clouded image of a female someone, who appeared to have mid-back-length, spiky black hair, and wore shoulder-less Saiya-jin armor over a long-legged and sleeveless spandex undergarment. Standing erect, with her tail swinging lazily behind her, she was atop a hill, wearing a lazy smirk on her face.

 

She was looking downwards, presumably upon a town on some planet. Light orange energy blasts of some kind were being fired in her direction, all attempts missing her. Her eyes were blacked out, but through the fog that covered Azure's mental picture, she could see that the female in her vision was looking down at her attackers with the purest of disdainful enjoyment. She was exquisitely athletic, dark in color, and she stood with one hand on her hip and the other lazily hanging at her side. In her rough but soft tone, her voice slowly taunted her enemies:

 

“You…Are…Pathetic! Get out of my face!”

 

With a low and proud snicker, the female slowly rose several feet up into the sky, a “ki” ball forming in one hand. Then her arm rose lazily, angled to point downwards towards the ground while her other hand crossed the other arm at the wrist, slowly, as if to build momentum for the coming destruction. Soon, another “ki” ball was formed in the other hand. With a feral smile, she released the blast, shouting:

 

“BI- COSMIC BLAZE!!!!!”

 

Two beams shot out of each hand, eventually combining into one thick beam shooting towards the ground; all the while growing bigger in size until it made contact, penetrating layer after layer of soil and destroying every alien that was close enough to the blast. The ground shook, numerous cracks spread throughout the ground, and the planet's atmosphere changed from what ever color it originally was to a dark grey/black color…

 

Suddenly, that image was gone, replaced again by a flash of Vegita powering up. As he spoke, she again heard that voice, similar to her own, now in sync with his and speaking the same words:

 

 

“I was the perfect warrior - cold and ruthless. I lived by my strength alone...”

 

 

The image of the female Saiya-jin returned. She again stood with that lazy smirk, but this time another flash of brilliant ki came towards her, followed by a loud bang, and the mental picture was replaced by blackness. What followed were a series of incoherent images; messy blurs of colors, which, in the next few moments, held a glimpse of something silver, then a sense of searing pain.

 

Voices, unintelligible ones, were heard as air started to become heated around her. Everything blurred out again, as the varying of extreme cold and heat hit her skin in violent episodes…

 

The blurriness turned to bright streaks of red, as dark skin started to tighten, then was slit slowly and painfully open, allowing warm, silky blood to flow. From behind, the feeling of being pulled, of being sucked into something, as she strained to breathe and a feeling of suffocation seeped its way around her body…

 

VEGITA… the last thought and the last image (as he looked in the Saiya-jin saga) right before her labored breathing became no more…

 

<>~~<>

 

Azure's eyes snapped open as she drew in a huge breath. Abruptly, she felt herself falling. She let out a short, astonished yell as she fell hard onto the floor. She sat there in shock for a few moments, catching her breath. Then she realized that she was hot when she touched her face and felt dampness. Looking down at herself, she realized that she was sweating profusely.

 

“What …is this…?” she murmured in bewilderment. She then heard a knock at the door. Startled, she made a one-eighty degree turn, and involuntarily stuck out an open palm towards the door.

 

<><><><>

 

A loud “mumph” pounded at the door, making Autumn and Asia jump back away from it. They both looked at each other, confused.

 

“Azure?” Autumn called out cautiously, stepping towards the closed door.

 

<><><><>

 

Azure just stared at the door, her hand still held out. “Air?” she whispered curiously. Something happened…

 

Then she heard her name being called out. It took her a minute to figure out that it was Autumn's voice. She looked around at the familiar sky-blue walls of her room, lightly decorated with seashells and fake coral reefs. Looking up at the dark blue ceiling was like gazing up into outer space.

 

Examining her room brought her back to where she was. When she heard Autumn starting to knock on her door, she shouted back:

 

“What the hell do you want?!”

 

“Azure? What happened?”

 

“Come in already!”

 

Autumn and Asia walked into the room to find Azure on the floor, leaning lazily with her back against the foot of her bed.

 

“Yes?” she asked, with a hint of annoyance.

 

“We thought we heard you yell out,” Autumn stated as she took a quick glance around. Nothing seemed out of place in Azure's room, but something nagged at Autumn about the situation.

 

“Then you're hearing shit,” Azure stated, glancing over at the cable box to make note of the time. “Don't you watch that show of yours around now?”

 

“We weren't watching it, though,” Asia replied, then took a glance at Azure's cable box “But it is about that time”

 

Azure looked at them curiously as Asia turned to leave, but turned back around when she realized that Autumn hadn't moved. Rather, she was studying Azure with a strange look on her face.

 

“What?” Azure snapped impatiently. “Autumn, keep staring at me and I will smack you!” she warned the other girl, who kept unintentionally staring at her. A concerned Asia nudged Autumn slightly, which finally brought her attention back to the present.

 

“Well, then, goodnight, Azure,” Asia said as she turned and left the room. Autumn lingered a little longer, looking at Azure. “You - ”

 

“- fell into the door. Lost my footing,” Azure cut in, interrupting her. “Now, leave. I need to rest. I have a challenge to win.”

 

Autumn didn't fully believe her, but she honored the request. “Okay, then, goodnight.” She turned to leave, then hesitated for a second, wanting to ask a question, but decided against it. Autumn shook her head as she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

 

<><><><>

 

“That was strange. I could've sworn that I heard some kind of yell coming from her room,” Asia said from the computer as Autumn entered the room.

 

“Yeah, so did I,” she agreed. Autumn moved to sit on the edge of the bed. She was briefly aware that her TV was on, but her attention was on her own thoughts. What the hell happened just now?

 

<><><><><><><><>& lt;><><><><><><><><>< ><><><><><><><><><> ;<><><>

 

“Here, your strength means everything; remember that, little one, and you will survive, and someday, may you truly become that legend of Super Saiya-jin, and you will surely live to be the greatest Saiya-jin, and someday avenge our prideful race!”

 

Her voice echoed in his head, starting soft and low at first, but growing in intensity as it became more and more clear in his mind. No, no! He thought to himself. I will not think about this... this, this cannot happen!!!

 

The memory - these memories - were sealed up tightly somewhere in the deep depths of his mind. They had been sealed so tightly that for years he actually forgot that that part of his mind; the part in which these memories still existed.

 

He knew that it was necessary to face these memories if he wanted to go on with his life and live. There was a time when he desperately lived to avenge his race, to destroy Frieza. Of course, he had not been able to. Kakarrot could have done it on Nameck, but chose not to. It was Trunks, his future son, who dealt that final, avenging blow for the entire Saiya-jin race. Well, if not him, then his son was the next best honorable person to do it. Vegita had more or less come to terms with this fact a while ago.

 

So, why was this coming to surface now? Was the mental seal loosening?

 

But, why? Why the fuck? There is no reason for this at all!!!

 

He listened once more as his own voice echoed inside his head: “At my fingertips I held the power to destroy entire worlds! Whole civilizations once trembled at the sound of my name!”

 

Damn right, they did! And with good fuckin' reason!!! He mentally replied to himself. But then…stop it, STOP IT!! Vegita! What the fuck is your problem?! You are stronger than this... this is worthless!!

 

Mental growls vibrated throughout his head.

 

Supreme Kai: “The past is the past! Don't think of it!”

 

I know that!! he snapped at the echo of that voice, of that memory, of briefly returning to the Saiya-jin he once was, but stronger…in a time, long ago. For a while that day, he once again felt whole, how he was truly meant to feel, finally working his own agenda, and incredibly powerful…

 

An image of golden-brown, oak-colored skin gracing a beautifully athletic Saiya-jin female suddenly came into his mind. She stood silently; long, spiky black hair hung down her back. Two thick bangs framed her face, and a few short, random spikes of hair came from the top of her head. She wore a look of indifference upon her face, but her eyes, so very dark that they were tinted with blue, were focused somewhere far off from where she stood. Her arms rested at her sides, her tail wrapped lazily around her waist, and she was dressed in Saiya-jin armor, with a black, long-legged and sleeveless spandex underneath.

 

This isolated image soon started to reveal more. A familiar pink, scaly tail came into view right beside her, slowing panning upwards to show to whom that tail belonged...Frieza. She was standing next to him as he sat upon his throne chair. It was only Frieza and the Saiya-jin girl in this image; the background was completely black. Frieza's voice could be heard speaking, but there was no coherence to his words. The image lingered for a moment then faded into total blackness.

 

He heard yet another feminine voice, rough yet soft, call out to him softly:

 

“Vegita!”

 

At first, the sound was soft, but it started to grow louder, and with each repetition of his name, the louder it became, the more it started to deepen, more and more until it sounded like it came from a male…

 

Vague outlines began to appear, in a form of a person; too bulky in shape to be a female, and then hair...in the shape of wild, un-tamed spikes...

 

<><><><>

 

Goku had lowered Vegita gently to the ground, laying him on his back after he had fainted. He was very confused and more than a bit curious as to why Vegita had done such a pointless move. Could these be just another odd piece of behavior that Vegita had been exhibiting in the past week? Of course, when Goku had first asked Vegita if there was anything wrong, he automatically responded by getting angry. Then his infamous “angry” veins popped out in all the right places, right before he charged at Goku, and thus beginning a series of long and drawn-out spars.

 

Goku had eventually noticed in that very first spar that Vegita's fighting form was not as sharp as it usually was. And with each sparring session that followed, this fact became increasingly obvious to Goku, who witnessed Vegita's deterioration occurring earlier during every spar, until today, when it started off bad and quickly progressed to worse.

 

“Don't you dare, KAKARROT!!!” was the angry response Goku had gotten when he had tried in vain to reach the older Saiya-jin. So much for that, he said to himself, a little agitatedly. Before he could figure out how to distract Vegita and get him to stop, his sparring partner's ki level dropped like a two-ton brick.

 

Damn!

 

Now, Vegita was lying passed out on the ground, completely exhausted. Goku was certain that Vegita would eventually wake up once he was sufficiently rested. He also gave a passing thought to taking Vegita back to Capsule Corp. to recover. But something told him that the ever-stubborn Vegita would just turn around, seek him out again and spar until he'd gotten his fill for the day. So, Goku decided to just lie down peacefully on the ground, on his back, next to the elder Saiya-jin. Almost immediately, he drifted off into a light sleep.

 

Four hours later, he felt movement coming from Vegita. Goku sat up and turned to look at him. He noticed that Vegita was still lying in the same position he had been when he had fainted, but now, his arm and face muscles were twitching.

 

“Vegita?” Goku called out softly.

 

The other only stirred. Goku tried calling out his name out again. “Vegita! Hey, Vegita!” After a few more calls of his name, the older Saiya-jin eyes start to open slowly.

 

Vegita blinked his eyes a couple times, adjusting to the sunlight. He then became aware of where he was. He was still in the clearing, but lying on his back. Grunting, he pushed himself up too quickly into a sitting position. The abrupt motion caused him some dizziness and he grabbed his head with both hands.

 

“Vegita, are you -“

 

“Of course, I am! I don't need your great graces, dimwit!” he snapped back without looking at him.

 

Goku, paused for a second, before giving a slight frown. “Vegita -”

 

“Don't start, Kakarrot!” he snapped again, as he stood up a little slowly. Vegita struggled to get to his feet, but the younger Saiyan-jin just stayed seated on the ground, watching him.

 

“You're going to kill yourself if you try to keep this up,” he observed quietly, fully expecting some kind of rough retort for voicing his comment. But, to his great surprise, Vegita just stood there, as if he hadn't heard Goku's remark at all. Instead, he continued to stand there, unmoving, as if he was deep in thought. For the several minutes that followed, Goku stared curiously up at Vegita, wondering at his puzzling behavior and lack of response.

 

Vegita pulled his thoughts back, noticing from the corner of his eye that Goku was staring up at him. Idiot! Vegita thought disdainfully. Someone like you could never know… would not have the capacity to understand. You may be a Saiya-jin, but you will never truly understand!

 

“Kakarrot,” Vegita stated firmly, turning to face him directly. Goku blinked a couple times to come out of his stare, but his expression remained befuddled as he looked up at Vegita.

 

“Go home, Kakarrot.” With that, Vegita lifted himself into the air and flew off towards Capsule Corp.

 

Goku lingered a little bit longer, then resolutely got up and sighed, somewhat in contentment. Maybe these obsessive marathon spars with Vegita were now finally over.

 

He sensed something different…strange about Vegita in those last few minutes. As it usually did, his stomach started to rumble quite loudly and his wonderings about Vegita quickly switched to his hunger pains. It was then that he had noticed the evening sky starting to make its presence known to the world.

 

Ah, dinner will be soon! Excitedly, he lifted off into the sky to return home, but not quite forgetting what had happened.

 

*~*~*~*