Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Time's Folly; A Bittersweet Symphony ❯ Surfacing Symptoms ( Chapter 24 )

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- That night -

 

Trunks took a deep breath as the pain coursing through his body finally subsided. He closed his eyes, savoring the extra energy flowing within and around him as he stood in his lowest Super Saiay-jin state, relishing the sensation as if it was an all-new feeling.

 

Í really stretched myself these past three days in that chamber. Better take it easy for a while, he thought while surveying his glowing body. Some lightly bleeding cuts here and there made him looked as if he had been through a lengthy fight.

 

Then he felt the presence of someone approaching some ways behind him.

 

She walked until she reached a small, three-foot rise in the ground. There she stood silently, foreign to the land around her, foreign to herself. Two misty blue eyes scanned the terrain, seemingly not noticing the Super Saiya-jin some yards off in front of her.

 

“Vegita,” she whispered.

 

She walked forward, only stopping once until she was within a few feet of him. Rising up into the air, she angled her two arms toward his position on the ground. With one hand placed over the other, ki quickly materialized within her cupped palms.

 

Trunks heightened senses felt her movements with ease, but he stayed as he was, keeping his unmoving stance. When he felt she let go, Trunks turned around, responding with a countershot that casually knocked away the beam aimed at him.

 

Then he launched himself at her.

 

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- Next day; early morning -

 

Vegita walked into his mostly repaired gravity chamber. For several minutes he stood there, enveloped in his own thoughts; one of them was of the curious scene he had come across a few hours ago. He had noticed Azure standing on one of the balconies of the Capsule Corp. building, leaning against the railing. What caught his attention was that her attention seemed to be focused inwards and her breathing sounded a little more labored than normal, as if exhausted, though with a strange calmness.

 

It wasn't until he heard the closing of the gravity room's door that he noticed someone had entered.

 

Before Trunks could call out to his father he found himself pinned up against the wall with Vegita's one hand at his throat squeezing tightly and the other pressing on his chest to keep him from moving.

 

Trunks stifled a yell and some grunts; his two hands tightly grasping Vegita's right forearm. Vegita held on for a few more seconds before releasing his grip. Father and son glared at each other vehemently for several seconds.

 

It makes no sense! None of this is making any sense! This is taking too long to figure it all out! And this boy…

 

Trunks felt incredibly uncomfortable, almost terrified under the heavy gaze of the dark black eyes of his father. His body went rigid.

 

Almost in response, Vegita moved closer to his son, placing his face mere inches away from his neck, before breathing in slowly and deeply. Trunks' facial expression melted into one of complete confusion, which Vegita caught as he pulled back to regard his son. Without warning, he forcefully slapped Trunks' face twice, first backhanded then forehanded.

 

An astonished and perplexed Trunks stared at his father, as Vegita shifted back so that they were now about an arm's length apart.

 

“I smell her on you,” Vegita accused in a weirdly neutral tone.

 

“No, you don't.” Trunks scowled darkly.

 

Vegita could clearly detect the frustration and annoyance, and even a hint of confusion radiating from his son. It was a strange response. Something within you is definitely off. Why? What?

 

“No? So are you questioning my full-blooded, Saiya-jin instincts, boy?” he challenged sharply, curious as to how his son would react.

 

Trunks stared at his father for a long while. “No,” he said hotly in response.

 

“You are testing my patience! Get out!” Vegita commanded, looking his son dead in the eye.

 

A few moments later, Mirai briskly turned from his father and left the chamber.

 

Frowning deeply, Vegita turned to the side and crossed his arms over his chest in contemplation. In those scant few moments with Trunks, he had felt a strangeness come over him, as if something suddenly made it almost unbearable for him to look at his own son - Vegita's confidence in his anger towards Trunks suddenly vanished as he also considered the curious look in his son's eye that had briefly made its presence; it was as if Trunks was, for a moment, suddenly… too weak to face him.

 

His mind racing with questions about what just happened, Vegita's attention slowly shifted again to the entrance of the room, his eyes landing on the new visitor. Instinctual craving… is it?

 

A second passed before he spoke. “So the survivalist returns.”

 

Azure gave a clipped nod before looking him almost questioningly. She then slowly brought her right arm up and around, pointing her palm in Vegita's direction.

 

Vegita laughed dismissively. “It's too early to be entertained by your immature nonsense, little girl. Come back when you can actually stand and can at least give me a semblance of a fight.”

 

In response, a strange dull glint rose in her eyes. She smirked as ki erupted from her hand and careened towards him. He watched with interest as she followed the ki shot with her own charge towards him.

 

She twisted her body around in an attempt throw a kick, which Vegita avoided with a side-step. Azure followed with another shot of ki that would had hit his face had he not phased out. Appearing behind her, he gave a swift kick into the middle of her back that hurled her forward. After rolling forward a couple of times, she leapt into the air and shot a two-handed ki blast that Vegita easily doused. That attack was followed by a wave of small, sharp-ended ki beams.

 

Vegita frowned as a good number of them imbedded themselves into his arms. He was rather surprised; not by the fact that they actually hurt, just from the very idea that she had the audacity to launch them at him. What is this? he asked himself curiously.

 

She moved over to her side a little and released another wave of the same type of ki attack. While halfway to their target, she landed and sent yet another wave before charging towards him in the air again.

 

The second wave Vegita merely swatted away, but oddly the third he let hit him. With arms and legs moving about in quick succession, he blocked Azure's small series of kicks. Just as she was about to deliver a follow-up punch, Vegita grabbed her wrist before it made contact, barely an inch away from his face.

 

“What is this, some kind of joke? Such petty attacks don't work on a fighter of my intelligence.”

 

Azure gazed at him steadily before smirking again. “No, they don't.”

 

Hearing that, Vegita's eyebrows arched in a curious manner for a split-second.

 

In that fleeting moment, Azure opened her palm right in front of his face and quickly shot out a single, razor-sharp ki disk. At the same exact time, ki also erupted from Vegita that flung Azure backwards clear across the chamber and roughly into the far wall. She slid to the floor, her body sporting new marks and light bleeding from the wrist that had been in Vegita's grasp.

 

As soon as her feet touched the floor, she charged again towards Vegita. He stopped her midway through another attempt to repeat the razor-edged, ki disk attack by phasing out and in again at her side, before greeting her with a knee to her stomach. Her body draped forward over his outstretched arm while he reverted to a standing position. An unsettling feeling few through his senses as he looked down at her slouched form, making him crease his eyebrows once again.

 

Azure suddenly sprang to life, using one hand to dig her nails into the flesh of Vegita's upper arm via an underhanded grab. In annoyed response, he grabbed her by the back of her neck and flung her away from him again onto the ground, upon which she bounced violently twice before hitting the wall of the chamber.

 

After a few moments, he walked over to her motionless body and took a knee, studying her attire. Since her return, she had taken to wearing a tight black tank-top, worn with forearm sleeves, her hands covered with open-fingered gloves. Completing her look was a pair of slightly loose pants and boots, similar to the one his sons' wore, all black in color except for a red sash tied around her waist.

 

A feeling of nagging discomfort kept running through him; a shadow of someone falling graced his mind, followed by a flash of the earlier confrontation he just had with his older son. Vegita sucked his teeth in irritation.

 

She had landed somewhat to the side; one arm outstretched, with her head lying upon it, her other arm laying flat down a few inches from her head. Leaning forward a bit, something underneath her outstretched arm caught his attention. He reached out to pick up her arm so that he could see it more clearly. It was a crescent-shaped mark.

 

After briefly wondering if it could mean anything, he dropped the arm before standing up again.

 

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- Daytime -

 

After Mrs. Briefs brought them all refreshing refills on their lemonades, Bulma, Autumn, and Asia continued their chat over lunch. They were seated around circular patio table, shielded from the bright midday sun by the oversized canvas umbrella rising out from the middle of the table.

 

“You girls sure have been training an awful lot since you've gotten here. You've hardly had a real full day to yourselves,” Bulma exclaimed, true-to-point.

 

Asia leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Yea, we haven't,” she agreed.

 

Autumn shot her a little reproving glance. “It's not really all that bad. The visits from Videl are helpful, and being around Krillin and Yamcha can be pretty entertaining,” she further explained. Asia caught her eye and dutifully nodded in agreement.

 

Bulma chuckled, more to herself than to them. “But how are you holding up with all this training? I have to say that I'm a more than little concerned. I know you're big girls and all, but I can't help but notice that you're beginning to get burned out from it all. They can't possibly believe you two can keep up with their training regimen, as crazy as it is,” Bulma stated firmly.

 

“It is a little tiring,” Asia began to admit then paused as she darted her eyes at Autumn's face before continuing. “But we do manage to take it easy and relax at least a couple times everyday. Gohan is pretty mindful about that kind of thing.”

 

Bulma nodded in approval. “I'm certainly glad to hear that. As long as you're getting plenty of rest, I suppose I can't protest too much. But I'm still a little worried about your friend. I can't tell you how many times I've told Vegita to cool it with his insane training sessions! Why Goku even lets him do such a thing is beyond me! And all he tells me is that `Vegita knows what he's doing. She'll be fine.' Do you know she's still knocked out from earlier today?”

 

The twin expressions of puzzlement on their faces told her that they didn't know what she was talking about.

 

“Well, this morning my little Trunks went looking for his father and found her lying flat out on the floor of the gravity chamber, knocked out cold,” Bulma fumed aloud. “It's already the middle of the day and that poor girl hasn't come to yet. Not to mention the inside of the chamber now looks like a bomb went off in there! And, no doubt he'll want that fixed up pronto, too,” she finished with a roll of her eyes. “Damn that Vegita!”

 

The two girls didn't respond but did exchange silent, inquiring looks with each other.

 

A voice from inside the house called Bulma away, so she excused herself, but before leaving she said one last thing to the girls: “You know I'm watching out for you guys. And I won't be shy about speaking with Gohan if I think this training thing is getting too out of hand.”

 

The two girls nodded in silent response. Satisfied, Bulma headed indoors.

 

You bet I'll be keeping a closer watch on those two. I can tell there's been a change in them. It doesn't take a genius to see that they are visibly starting to wear out. I don't know how much more they think they can take, but at least I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I do know about humans and how much they can endure.

 

<><><><><><>

 

Gohan flew through the sky towards Capsule Corp. wrapped in his thoughts.

 

It must be a type of mystical energy or magic upon which they are drawing, since it's not ki-dependent and Piccolo noticed it's used separately. That has to be why they are able to hide it to the degree that they can.

 

A new thought then struck him. I guess Krillin hasn't noticed much since he hasn't mentioned seeing anything overly strange about what they've been able to do. No wait - that time he said he was overpowered unexpectedly - could that have been a moment where it accidentally leaked through? Maybe all those little things he's noticed is what will add up to some kind of discovery we can use to get definite answers - and maybe even shed some more light on the Augin-jin powers… ultimately, it all has to trace back to them.

 

It does feel a little dishonest to keep this new information from them. But I suppose their keeping their discovery from us evens things out. I have to say I understand their actions. I guess that means when they first showed up they weren't scared of it? Boy, if I was in their places, I think I'd be nervous of any power I had and knew nothing about that basically came out of nowhere. Especially if they've come from a place where nothing like this exists like it does here.

 

Gohan then crossed his arms in front of his chest and turned to fly on his side, and suddenly became frustrated.

 

And as far as Azure goes… After all, she came from the same place they did, even if she is from our dimension originally, so the presence should also be doing something to her, indirectly… obscurely…But what? Other than what we've pretty much already figured out…that is, what Vegita figured out. And my own dad is acting a little weird, if I do say so myself. At least Trunks is still sane.

 

Gohan took a breath.

 

It's also frustrating to train for an enemy you know nothing about. Then again, it's not like I haven't done that before. But this time feels different and somehow unsettling. On top of everything, we could be harboring one of the enemy right here in our midst! Dad'd have to notice something like that…But even he wouldn't let that get out of hand… Whatever Vegita is ultimately hiding… if Dad knows as much as Vegita, then…well, it can't be something more beneficial to Vegita than to the situation at hand…But does Dad know all of what Vegita knows?... Why can't I figure out my own father?

 

Gohan reverted back to his normal flying position when he noticed that he was in the vicinity of Capsule Corp.

 

Well, it's high time to see what you two can really do.

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