Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ What You Got ❯ Car crash, whiplash ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 3: Car crash, whiplash

"Oi, 'Jita-chan, I hear water!"

So disrespectful; certainly not the way a loss-class senshi should address his ouji. Vejita continued to grumble quietly about the way things should be and the way it would have been as he followed the infant… err… man through the thick foliage of the forest.

"It's a waterfall! Let's go fishing, Vejita!"

He would have been on his knees, begging for mercy, swearing his undying love and loyalty, praying to any and all gods that existed that Vejita would accept. He would have proved his loyalty both in battle and in the prince's bed, chained to the wall, begging…

Vejita sighed stubbornly as he stepped over a fallen branch, watching the childish Saiyajin fall to the river's edge with his firm rear waving in the air. Without a tail, there wasn't any possible way to know just how Gokou considered him, and with the idiotic façade that constantly cloaked his personality and thoughts Vejita was lost. He grunted in annoyance, leaning back against the tree as he watched Gokou stick his arm within the awkward-colored water, struggling to grasp something in its depths. He wasn't even sure what he wanted - submission, sex, or a bond-mate. All three were extremely possible. Vejita had never mated with a female Saiyajin, and had only had one male in bed - Raditzu - who had been just as clueless as him about sex at the time.

"Whispers of what could have been," came a faint sigh. Vejita and Gokou's eyes both darted down towards the waterfall that lay at the head of the river, causing the rapid current. With the sudden surprise, Gokou lost his balance, stumbling head first into the river with a violent splash, causing the animal that he had gripped in the brief moment to get away. Vejita was to preoccupied with the Saiyajin beauty who lay atop a large rock in the center of the river to notice his companion's idiotic yet average behavior.

"Who are you?" Vejita snarled as he stepped closer to the river's edge, eyes falling over the beauty. Her long hair somewhat resembled Raditzu's, though it was far fairer and thinner, and much more tamed. A long tail carelessly ran through the water, causing the dark brown fur to darken to a near black. Her clothing consisted of a long and simple red gown, knees crossed as she waved a slender bare foot in the warmth of the afternoon. Her eyes were closed as she rested on the large gray rock, bathing in the sun's rays. Her skin was far too pale, nearly a white which was abnormal for any Saiyajin.

"Kami's play toy?" she questioned with a faint sigh and smile. "Do you know, my Ouji, how many years it has been since I transformed? I miss the free feeling. Do you?"

"Are you insane, onna?" Vejita snarled as he moved closer to the water's edge. His boots trailed dangerously close. Gokou had managed to regain some control over himself and was ungracefully struggling to escape the water's grip. "Give me a straight answer!"

"Insane - quite," she responded. Her eyes fluttered opened, revealing large white eyes that caused Vejita to shiver. She did not have the beautiful black-fire eyes that were traditional to all Saiyajin, but the inverse of them. "Have thee ever awoken, screaming because thee were afraid of thyself?" she whispered. It was so faint beneath the roar of the river that Vejita barely heard the words, but they seemed to echo not only in the air, but in his mind as well.

"Ossu! I'm Son Gokou!" exclaimed the foolhardy Saiyajin as he managed a brilliant escape. He tore of his damp shirt and attempted to ring out the water, but only managed in soaking his boots as the water pooled in the ground. With a frown he shrugged and stared at the Saiyajin who observed him with a faint smile. "Hai, I am aware of whom thou art - the envisioned Kakarrotto reborn. I am the Prophetess."

Completely confounded by her words, Gokou only stared with a look of confused plastered on his face. Vejita frowned. "You don't have a name, onna?"

"Name?" she whispered, eyes turning back to the off-blue color of the planet's sky. "Years ago I had a name, but what it was escapes me. It's been so many years since I was an individual." She slowly climbed to her feet and stepped into the water, soaking the gown as she moved, unaffected by the strong current. As if she were a part of the river she moved until she reached the edge. Gokou quickly circled Vejita and assisted the female Saiyajin from the water. The Prophetess smiled at Gokou, thanking him for his assistance, before looking to Vejita with the large whit eyes. "Thou came because of a distress call that was never sent."

Vejita frowned. "If it was never sent…"

"Strange, isn't it, how time plays with our minds?" the Prophetess chuckled as she stepped before her king. "The layers of reality are endless, stacking like a pile of papers, one atop the other until the individual sheets are no longer merely considered one."

"Like water!" Gokou exclaimed, trying fruitlessly to translate the conversation into terms that he could understand. The Prophetess chuckled faintly with a nod. "In a way, young Kakarrotto. Beneath the waves lay endless layers of things that exist without our knowledge - the mud at the bottom, the kingdom of fish and sea life, and the surface where the sunlight plays upon the water, warming everything beneath. Time is much like that, including the crashing waves during a storm. That is what happened here."

"What?" Vejita snarled, quickly growing impatient. "Are you, or are you not, the Saiyajin who called for help?"

"Yes and no, Vejita-sama," the Prophetess responded with a chuckle. Vejita growled deeply within the back of his throat, but the female Saiyajin was undaunted by his rage. Gokou looked to the woman with a frown. "I'm confused. What happened, then?"

"Of course," Vejita muttered in annoyance, sitting down on the grass. "Make her tell us her life story. I so want to hear it…"

The Prophetess frowned deeply, her white orbs narrowing with her rage. "I should think thou would be interested, Vejita-sama. Lord Frieza put thee through the same torment that I suffered."

Vejita's eyes widened at the name of the man who had enslaved him for so many years. The Prophetess kept her look of annoyance as she glared down at the royal Saiyajin before she spun around, looking towards the peaceful ocean water, refusing to speak. Vejita grunted in annoyance, looking away. It was then he noticed, against the trunk of a tree, a small purring black and gray cat sleeping in the shade. "Gomen," he muttered half-heartedly, although somewhere deep inside his soul he meant the apology with all of his heart. He felt empathy for anyone who had slaved beneath the iron white fist of that creature form hell. "I didn't know."

"I know thee didn't, my beloved ouji," she responded gravely, her voice quivering with the memories of whatever had happened to her. "Lord Frieza is the least of my worries during the tale, however, although it is all because of him.

"Like Kakarrotto," she continued faintly, "I was sent away as a small child to conquer a planet many light years from my beloved Vejita-sei, but I was not an infant. On the contrary, I was slowly approaching my preteens when it happened. The planet was one of mystical powers and energies, a planet that could not be fought with strength of the fist. The Saiyajins desired to claim the planet, for what reason I do not know. Perhaps, it was the mere fact Lord Frieza had ordered it." She paused with a sigh, her head dropping. "Gomen nasai. To this day I continue to call him that."

"I know," Vejita muttered, refusing to meet the burning gaze of Gokou. On many occasions he'd caught himself referring to the demon as Lord Frieza. It wasn't because of respect for the creature - of that there was none. After so many years, and so many sessions of torture for failing to do so, it was only natural to refer to the demon as 'Lord Frieza', if mainly because of fear for what would happen when one failed to do so. "Continue?"

"My powers of the mind and of sight were discovered early. I share a power that Kakarrotto's father shortly possessed."

"Tousan was a prophet?" Gokou gasped with shock. The Prophetess shook her head. "No, young Kakarrotto. Your father was temporarily cursed with the power of sight, forced to watch helplessly as Vejita-sei was destroyed. An appropriate punishment in the eyes of the physic people he destroyed.

"My power was different, and much worse. Constantly, throughout my life, I have been plagued with visions, overwhelmed and engulfed in them to the point where, at times, I live within them. It is rare when I can tell reality from fantasy." She turned, eyes looking to Vejita. "I see, not only realities outside time and space, but within the minds and souls of all beings, past and present, and I can rip through that veil at times, but each time my power takes effect, insanity slowly consumes me."

Vejita nodded faintly. "The call, though…"

"The distress call was from me, but not so. In another reality I exist, and during my tortures beneath the hand of Frieza I cried for thee - my Vejita." A faint purr left her lips as she knelt down beneath her king, running her hand gently across his cheekbone. "It is a reality alternate of this one. So many things are different, and so many are the same." She paused, looking to Gokou. "It is… a layer of water that has been merged with the real normal water between the surface and the floor. It cannot be seen, or heard, but it is there, intermingled with the others, making the ocean deeper than it should. Does thee understand, Kakarrotto?"

"Sort of," Gokou muttered, scratching his head.

The Prophetess nodded with a smile. "In that reality, where the distress call was sent, I am there… another me, more innocent and kind… another me that remembers her name.

"Frieza, one day, arrived on that mystical planet that I was slowly conquering. I had been sent there to learn about the powers of the race on that planet and possibly conquer them if I could. I'd only been there a few days, quietly observing. Frieza came shortly and destroyed the entire planet with one swift blow. Those people on that planet were brilliant and loving, a race that shouldn't have died. Only a handful survived. Those with stronger mental powers were made into Frieza's personal slaves, their powers directed in helping Frieza conquer the known world, but those who survived did so because they were physically strong, not mystically. My powers were the strongest of them all…"

"So you became Frieza's favorite play toy," Vejita muttered.

"Hai," she whispered, wrapping her arms around her chest as if an inner coldness had consumed her. "Destroyed mentally and physically, erased of my self, identity, pride. There was a time that passed when I could not tell you what species I was."

"So what happened?" Gokou exclaimed.

The Prophetess frowned somberly, looking to the grass. "That even I do not know. A time of years passed as my visions consumed me, and within them I escaped, lived, until I awoke to find Frieza no more," her eyes faintly turned to Vejita. "Until I heard thee crying with death."

Vejita rose from where he sat, turning his back to the two other Saiyajins. His cry of death… when Frieza had finally broken him, when tears had fallen from his eyes as he had asked… begged Gokou to do what he could not: become the Densetsu no Super Saiyajin, and defeat Frieza once and for all.

"My Ouji," the Prophetess whispered, stepping behind him. Vejita didn't move. His pride wouldn't allow it. "For centuries I thought I was alone. I listened within the eyes and ears of my visions as Frieza was finally defeated."

"I did that!" Gokou chirped and went ignored.

"My visions led me to that other place, alternate and of the past. One of the many differences is who the people are there. Kakarrotto is not this human-like child, but a senshi Vejita-sei would have been proud of and called their on."

Vejita turned finally, eyes wide with shock. "How so?"

"Like thee, he was claimed by Frieza's grasp in his youth. Chikyuu never was in existence that that fabric of time. There, in that timeline, I observed like the eyes of the gods within the sky, watching myself live daily. There, like I did here in the past, I escaped through my visions, listening to the world cry and scream beneath Frieza's black eyes. There I listened to thee, as thou moved across the planets, I listened to Kakarrotto's mad cackle as planet after planet burned beneath his power in Frieza's name, listened to Raditzu move blindly, trying to find some purpose in life."

"They are all alive, there?"

"There, my powers have made them alive. Through the veils of time I have ripped them from the past of this place and pulled them there. They live now, awaiting your arrival."

"You've plotted all this," Vejita muttered in annoyance, glaring at her. The Prophetess returned the glare with a faint smile. "The present there is the past of now. There, Frieza continues destroying all life - my life, your life, the lives of all the remaining Saiyajins. The demon continues to destroy me. I don't want to die again. I don't want to watch myself break."

"Why can't you do it?" Vejita snarled. The Prophetess remained emotionless, but a sad look entered her eyes. "I cannot tug myself through the veils of reality. I've tried. It's not possible, and if I somehow manage to succeed my sanity, whatever is left, would be complete shattered."

"So you want to send us to this place and stop Frieza, right?" Gokou exclaimed, rather cheery of the fact. The Prophetess nodded with a smile. "Hai, Kakarrotto. Will you save that time from the demon?"

"Yeah! Let's go!"

"Wonderful, Kakarrotto! Now, go fetch my kitten or me, would you, love?"

"Sure!" Gokou exclaimed, darting off to gather the violent cat. The Prophetess chuckled lightly as the animal shrieked as Gokou reached for it and darted away. Her eyes became somber as she looked to Vejita. He returned the look. "Something's not going to work, isn't it?"

"Only half a mind can be kept in tact when being pressed through the veils."

"Half?" Vejita muttered.

The Prophetess nodded. "If I send two minds, I have an option. One mind will go completely insane, becoming the inverse of the person they once were, while the other remains intact."

"So, if Kakarrotto and I travel through this veil of reality, he will go insane and become demonic, whereas I will remain normal?"

"Hai," the Prophetess whispered.

"Can he be returned to normal?"

"Only partly," she responded. "Only the minds travel through the dimensions. The bodies will fade away into nothingness, returned if they return to their natural plane of existence. There is a chance that I, in the reality that you will travel to, can combine the dormant mind of the Kakarrotto in that dimension with ours, who arrives and loses his sanity. The only problem with that is the Kakarrotto of that dimension…"

"Is already evil," Vejita muttered, turning to look at the Saiyajin who was desperately trying to capture the frightened cat. "Is defeating Frieza worth losing Kakarrotto?"

"He will still be Kakarrotto, but the Kakarrotto that he should have been, not this human-like hybrid that he is."

Vejita nodded. "It's worth it, I think."

"If all else fails, the I of that dimension can send you back in time here." She chuckled faintly as Vejita glared at her. "Come, let us save my poor kitten from that Saiyajin."

~*~

TBC



Review!