| Communication Breakdown Chapter 18 |
| Author: Valeyard Rating: R Disclaimer: She doesn't own, so don't even bother. |
| "Correct! Vegeta’s tail it is!" Dr. Gero exclaimed in victory. Dr. Gero spread his arms wide before the tube as if science was his religion, and the contents of the tube, its greatest sacrament. Bulma couldn’t take it in. The thing lying in that glass tube was totally alien to her. She remembered Goku having a tail, but she had never seen Vegeta with a tail. Vegeta had lost his tail, before she met him. It brought back into focus for her that Vegeta was as alien to her, as she to him. She was staring at a part of that alien body that had been bloodily, and violently cut away. She wanted to get sick, and then she did, throwing up, without hesitation, all over the floor. Vegeta crashed into another mountainside, sliding limply down its rock face into the crevice made by his fall. He slumped among the rubble, before painfully moving an arm to check if it was broken. He forced himself to his knees, his eyes burning with hatred for the calmly approaching Cell. "What’s the matter, Vegeta?" Cell asked contemptuously. "I am keeping my bargain. I’m giving you the fight you wanted. Are you quitting already?" Vegeta hauled himself to his feet, almost falling as his knees threatened to buckle. He was almost blind in one eye, from the constant flow of blood, and his entire body screamed with pain. Gritting his teeth, he held himself up by his own stubborn will. ‘Pain is not my enemy. Battle my only friend.’ Vegeta silently recited the oft repeated mantra reverenced by his vanished race, taught to him so long ago. ‘Blood fuels the fires of vengeance, my pride is all that will exist in the end.’ Vegeta’s need for vengeance, brought on the aura of a Super Saiya-jin, as he launched another attack Cell. Vegeta vainly attacked Cell, punching and kicking heedless of the inevitable. Cell, stood as if made of stone, arms crossed. He calmly opened an arm, backhanding Vegeta. Vegeta went flying, slamming across the ground, landing into another pile of rubble. "This is pathetic, Vegeta." Cell twisted the words as cruelly as possible. "I promised you a battle, and you can’t even give me a challenge. You are a total disappointment." Vegeta picked himself up, painfully, out of the rubble. "I made you a promise, Cell, and I intend to keep it." He clenched his fists and threw the light of a Super Saiya-jin ascended around him, again. "I am going to annihilate you!" Vegeta screamed this out with the full force of his power, as he launched another fruitless attack against Cell. "It was cut off in his battle with Goku." Dr. Gero continued undeterred by the gagging threat Bulma might get sick again. "That was when your darling lover, came to earth to destroy you all. I took great pains to collect it. It was a triumph for me of the highest magnitude." Dr. Gero smiled looking back at the dead looking thing. Bulma was completely disgusted. "That is the greatest trophy of my searching and collecting. All of the cells of the greatest warriors on earth, could not be as valuable to me as that one-discarded member. I’ve kept it alive, preserving it since, that time until now. Culling cells from it, growing them and using them in my experiments. So far, they have all been unsuccessful." Dr. Gero dragged her over to a desk. Opening a notebook for her, he showed her photographs of the unfortunate results of his earlier experiments. Bulma blanched in horror at the results, each of which had clearly, died horribly. "You are not doing anything like that to me!" Bulma shrieked, attempting to run, but it was a useless attempt against the strength of Dr. Gero. "Calm yourself, my dear." Dr. Gero smiled evilly. "You aren’t in any danger. At least, not in the danger as these subjects. They rejected the alien cells of the Saiya-jin, because they were human. But you, I already feel the ki of a Saiya-jin in your womb. You have already proven you might be able to tolerate them!" Dr. Gero dragged Bulma to a cruel looking, metal table. Bulma screamed, struggling helplessly against him. "I have every hope you will live." Dr. Gero coldly assured her. Dr. Gero forced Bulma, face down, on the table, strapping her down securely, with the help of some very wicked looking, metal restraints. Dr. Gero, went over to the glass tube, breaking the glass. He reached in, grasping the tail firmly, as if it were alive and he expected a fight. Bulma was shocked as the masterless tail coiled and whipped around Dr. Gero’s hand like a serpent wildly struggling against its captor. "It’s alive!" Bulma screamed. "You see!" Dr. Gero looked at Bulma triumphantly gesturing with the struggling tail. "My mutagen is a success! It has not only kept the tail alive, but has stimulated the nerve endings. It’s like it’s still attached! I am a genius!" Dr. Gero walked over to Bulma holding the writhing tail. "This is where you come in." Bulma screamed as Dr. Gero reached up, ripping her pants off, exposing her from the waist down. "Calm yourself, my dear." Dr. Gero falsely soothed. "I am not going to violate you. We artificial humans are beyond that. But, I have to expose the area where I will attach this." Bulma stopped shrieking to force her head around to look at Gero. "You are going to put that hideous thing on me?" Dr. Gero smiled maniacally. "Oh, it’s quite easy, and you need have no fear. I will not make a single incision. The mutagen I have developed will do all the work for me. When it is done, it will be like that tail was always there. You will feel absolutely no pain." Bulma stiffened when she felt the wet, cold furry thing placed on her back, at the tail bone, and then she screamed in revulsion, as she felt some kind of oozing liquid being poured over her. "You fucking liar!" Bulma screamed. "It hurts!" The area where he placed the tail, was absolutely on fire. She felt it burning as it penetrated her skin. The sensation of pins and needles spread out from the area, crawling like ants made of flame. Dr. Gero laughed cruelly. "Oh, I guess I do tend to understate. It’s working! The mutagen is causing the cells of the tail to fuse with your own. I told you! Your Saiya-jin pregnancy is protecting you. There’s no cellular rejection so far! This one will be a success!" "This is insane!" Bulma screamed. "Why are you doing this?" "Because, now that Son Goku is out of the way, the world is mine! Artificial Humans are powerful, but even I know you can’t, easily, beat the power of the Saiya-jin. When those cells fuse with yours, they will spread out and predominate, and I will have my own artificial Saiya-jin!" Dr. Gero grunted as if worried about something. "Only I wasn’t counting on that damn Cell getting loose so soon. Damn! How did he do that? I have no hope Vegeta will kill him. That’s where you come in. After the cells from this tail have done their work, I will convert you, like I did No. 18. With the power I will give you, Cell will be no match for you. Then you will be my instrument to bring the world to its knees!" Bulma could only shriek and struggle against the burning pain she felt spreading into her very bones. Trunks flew to the place where he could feel his father’s ki weakening moment by agonizing moment. He suppressed a thrill of fear, feeling his father in battle. The fever of his blood kinship with his father, fueled his own lust for battle. Yet, his hunger for destruction was tempered with the hopelessness of knowing his fiercely proud father was in a battle he could not win. Trunks knew it had to be the monster they fought, earlier. Only now, Trunks could feel the ki of the monster had grown fearfully high. Trunks gritted his teeth in bitter despair. He knew his father, would keep coming back for more no matter how hopeless the fight. This was how Trunks’ lost his father in his time line. Trunks put his head in his hands suppressing the scream that burned in his mind. ‘It’s happening all over, again! All my attempts to avert the future have failed. We lost, Son Goku, despite all my efforts, and now will we lose you, Tousan?’ A fatal determination set in Trunks expression, hardening in the glint of his eye. ‘No! I will not lose you, Tousan. I will not let you die! If you die, there is no future I wish to live for. I will die with you!’ The faces of Son Goku and his father lying dead swam before his eyes. The rage growing in his limbs, finally forced its way out of his lungs. "It’s all my fault!" Trunks screamed out to an unhearing, and seemingly, uncaring world. Trunks brushed away burning tears of his despair. As the tears freely fell, the rest of his face was etched in grief. Trunks’ eyes held a firm, fixed rage, that he could not know made him look, all too much, like his dying father. Piccolo flinched as if in pain. Gohan looked up at him, eyes still brimming with tears. Piccolo wheeled around, looking out the window of the Son hut. "Vegeta!" Piccolo gasped as if in pain. "His ki is rapidly falling. Damn that bastard! What’s he doing? He gets killed now, we’re all really fucked!" Gohan turned to grab his battle gear, but Piccolo took him firmly by the shoulder, sternly shaking his head, no. "You have to stay here, Gohan." "But, Piccolo!" Gohan weakly protested. "I know it will be hard for you. You are a warrior, just like your father." Piccolo looked, sternly over at the couch, at the still hysterically weeping Chi Chi. "You can’t leave her alone like this, Gohan." Piccolo walked toward the Son’s bedroom looking back at Gohan as he did so. "Your place is with your mother." Piccolo returned with a sheet, which he reverently laid over the broken body of Son, Goku. Piccolo gnashed his teeth in anger, as he finally covered up Goku’s battered, but peacefully white face. "Your father, would have wanted you to stay with her." Piccolo said gravely staring at the now covered body of Goku. Without another word he ran out of the Son hut and took off into the sky. He heard Gohan call after him, but he knew by his ki, he didn’t follow. Piccolo was glad. Whatever, was happening, he wanted at least one of them to survive, if there was to be any future at all. Suno had felt unusually sleepy that evening, despite the fact her birthday party was supposed to begin at dusk. Sitting in her favorite rocking chair by the fire, a drowsiness she couldn’t control came over her. Her head nodded, falling upon her chest, as the real world slipped away. Suno found herself in the dark, literally. It was an entire world to herself, shrouded in wisps of shadow and fog. She shivered, but not from cold. She had the uncanny feeling there was someone there, moving between the shadows. Some force she couldn’t see sighing with some memory of life and breath, moving in the shrouded mists of eternal night, searching for her soul. Suno, could no longer bear the terror of her unseen companion. "Who are you?" Suno screamed into the fog. "Suno!" The voice cried. "There you are! I was hoping I would find you!" Suno’s terror turned to joy at the sound of that voice. It couldn’t be true, but she found she had to call out his name with all her might. "Goku! Goku! Is it really you?" Suno looked around the impenetrable fog, for any sign of Goku, but all she could see was a small pin point of light. The light grew and grew. It blurred into a fuzzy sky of sun, stars and planets, revolving around a burgeoning universe in the throes of its infancy. Suno squinted her eyes, as the lights sharpened into one large fixed point. The light grew larger, and larger before it shrank in on itself, finally becoming the little boy with a tail, she so fondly remembered. "Goku!" Suno cried in joy. "Is it really you?" "Ah!" Goku replied. "Yeah it’s me. Only, you are seeing me as you remember me. I’m really a man now, of course." "How," Suno hesitated doubting it was all real, "how are you, Goku." "Oh!" Goku exclaimed, putting his hand behind his head, looking a little embarrassed. "I’m dead! I died today after a battle." He chuckled, as if it was a harmless joke. "Then this is a dream." Suno said sadly. "You are the strongest man alive. I don’t believe there is anyone who can kill you." Goku, turned openly red. "Ah no!" Goku chuckled nervously. "I died of a heart virus. Chi Chi was right. I shouldn’t have got out of bed. I guess I should have learned to listen to her more often." Goku laughed heartily. Suno, could only look at him sadly. "Then you really are dead?" Suno started to cry. "Suno!" Goku gently chided. "Don’t cry! I couldn’t be happier. I’m sorry, I died. But I’ve died before, and it’s great where I am. Believe me! I couldn’t be happier!" "Why is this happening, Goku?" Suno brushed away tears. "I don’t understand." Goku’s face turned serious. "Because, I need your help. Everyone is going to die if you don’t help me. Everyone Suno! Your husband, your children, your whole village, if you don’t help me!" Suno gasped in disbelief. "I’m not strong like you. How can I help?" Goku smiled knowingly. "Your husband loves you very much. I don’t know how he managed it. But, maybe Dr. Flappe helped him." Goku laughed, and looked slyly at Suno. "Remember when I let him see Bulma’s dragonball radar? He must have copied the designs somehow, and finally made one of his own. I wonder how long it took him!" Goku turned serious again. "Your husband has managed to collect all the dragonballs." "The dragonballs!" Suno exclaimed happily. "Of course, you want me to wish you back to life!" "No!" Goku shook his head firmly. "You can’t do that. The dragonballs won’t work on someone who has died of old age, or was meant to die of a sickness. Besides, they won’t bring back someone who has been brought back before by them, and I already have. They won’t work for me, I’m afraid." Suno shook her head sadly. "Then what can I do, Goku?" Goku smiled. "Listen to me very carefully. You must ask this right, because you are only allowed one wish with the dragonballs and we want two things." "We?" Suno looked around for someone else. "Oh yeah!" Goku looked abashed. "I didn’t tell you. King Kai is standing right here. He is the one letting me talk to you." "Hello!" She heard a strange voice echo. Goku laughed. "Oh yeah! King Kai says Hi!" Goku laughed, some more. Goku looked serious, again. "I can’t emphasize how important this is. Vegeta is already losing and losing badly. He is the only one left who can kill Cell. He needs my help and I can’t help him. When it is time to make your wish, say this, ‘Let a full moon strong enough to bring back the tails of the Saiya-jin appear. A full moon strong enough for everyone in the world to see.’" Suno repeated it. "Let a full moon strong enough to bring back the tails of the Saiya-jin appear. A full moon strong enough for everyone in the world to see." "Yeah!" Goku exclaimed. "That’s really two wishes but King Kai is hoping if we put it that way, Shen Long may let it slip by." Goku laughed openly. "Well, I have to go, Suno. I really shouldn’t be doing this. The dead are not supposed to talk to the living, but desperate times call for desperate measures." The fog began to return as Goku disappeared. Suno bowed her head, starting to grieve for the happy boy who seemed as careless as he always did. Suddenly, his head popped back through the fog, like a disembodied ghoul. "Oh, by the way!" Goku exclaimed. "If anyone ever comes looking for who used the dragonballs, tell them it was my idea. That I miss them all, but I’m very happy and will see them all in a little while. Well, maybe I will see Vegeta, too. He’s not bad all the time. You never know!" With that, he was gone. Suno, suddenly awoke to the sound of her husband calling to her. "Hey sleepyhead! You that excited about your party?" Suno heard the sound of pleasant laughter behind her. "Come on!" Her husband gently chided. "Everyone is waiting for you!" Suno quickly brushed away tears and grabbed her parka so she could walk out into the frigid temperatures. She gasped at what she saw outside. There under the twinkling light of Tiki torches was a table laid with a gigantic cake, and lots of food. That is not what made her gasp. It was what was in front of the table. For there on the ground, on a long velvet cloth, were the seven dragonballs. Suno fought to keep tears out of her eyes. ‘It wasn’t a dream.’ She thought. ‘Goku told me this would happen. He really is dead. Oh, Goku!’ She couldn’t control herself as she looked at Goku’s once coveted four-star dragonball, he had lovingly called his grandpa. She started to cry, relieved that everyone took it for tears of joy. "Tousan!" Trunks screamed his father’s name as he hit Cell, knocking Cell away from his prostrate father. Cell landed several feet away, looking only a little irritated, before he rose, dangerously, smirking with arrogance. He started walking back to the place where Trunks kneeled by his badly injured father, as if nothing had happened to him. "Tousan." Trunks pulled on his arms. "Enough. Leave! I’ll take care of this abomination. You can take no more." "NO!" Vegeta pushed Trunks away, struggling to stand, refusing any help. "This mother fucker is mine. I made a promise to him, and I am keeping it!" Vegeta suddenly lurched over coughing up blood. Forcing himself up, he rasped the next out, blood still trailing from his mouth. Vegeta savagely looked toward Cell, but he lowered his voice, so only Trunks could hear. "Go to your mother. Your place is with her. That fucking artificial human has her. That No. 20. He is really Dr. Gero. There is no telling what that mother fucker might do to her!" "No! I won’t let that happen!" Trunks screamed in anger as the aura of an ascended Saiya-jin came over him. "Yes!" Vegeta screamed triumphantly. "Get angry. That’s a true Saiya-jin. They are in a laboratory not far from here. Find her! Feel for her ki, and kill that mother fucker that holds her!" "Don’t go soft on me, like Kakarotto." Vegeta clenched his fists letting his aura of rage spill over onto his son. "You are my son. You have my blood in your veins. Feel my rage. Be my instrument of revenge. Kill him. Have absolutely no mercy on him. If I die, I die as I have lived. By my pride!" "My pride!" Vegeta suddenly screamed as his aura exploded into electrical storms that raged around him in explosions of fire. Without looking back, Vegeta turned from Trunks to launch himself again against Cell. Trunks felt tears flow from his eyes, as he watched his father launching another hopeless attack, knowing his father was going, willingly, to his death. Cell kicked Vegeta faster than Vegeta could see. Vegeta flew into the air, an uncontrollable missile that would have gone right into space. Cell appeared over Vegeta’s helplessly hurtling body, smashing him with a merciless fist, as Vegeta plunged, toward the unforgiving ground. "Vegeta!" Cell sounded, mockingly, pleasant as he landed and watched Vegeta pull himself painfully out of another crater. "Shall we end this charade? You know I never needed you to secure my perfect form." Vegeta was breathing hard, refusing to fall into consciousness. "That much was obvious. I am not a fool, you are the fool. This is the last day your eyes will ever see." Cell laughed, put a finger under his nose, looking so much like the mincing Furiza, Vegeta wanted to scream. "To tell the truth. I just really wanted to get my revenge on you for getting in my way earlier. That really was quite unforgivable. I could have just become my perfect form without you, and then found you out later." Cell walked toward Vegeta in that same steady gate that never varied. "But after seeing you two lovebirds in the volcano, I thought of a better way to hurt you first, before I killed you. It was really blind luck. I just happened to come on her as I was absorbing the population of that island. Things have been quite fortunate for me." Cell stopped his deadly approach for a second, and looked mockingly thoughtful. "And after all with Son Goku, dead, I needed a good workout after attaining my perfect form. That also made it attractive to lure you. But, you really are a disappointment, Vegeta. I hope your son, will give me a better fight before I kill him, again." Cell laughed cruelly, throwing back his head to show he was enjoying himself. Night was falling. Vegeta’s face was thrown into shadow, only emphasizing the auras and shadows of his own black hate. "I made you a promise, Cell and I am going to keep it. I am going to annihilate every last particle of you!" Suno stood before the dragonballs. Everyone stood expectantly around her. She raised her arms, calling out to the eternal dragon, Shen Long. A few people screamed as the dragonballs blazed like lightening and the dragon sprung from the light. The dragon grew before their eyes, forming a gigantic monster that looked as if it could swallow the whole world. "I am the eternal dragon, Shen Long." The dragon intoned in a bestially low voice. "Speak thy wish, and it shall be granted." Suno took a deep breath. She didn’t know how she would explain this wish to everyone, but she knew she couldn’t let Goku down. She closed her eyes hoping she could remember exactly what Goku told her to say. She drew in a breath, let it out, and then began to speak. "Let there be a full moon, strong enough to bring back the tails of the Saiya-jin. Let the moon be strong enough to be seen by everyone in the entire world!" Everyone around Suno, looked at each other curiously for a moment. Then one by one they started to clap in delight. "A moon, again!" The Grand Elder of the village exclaimed. "Suno, what a wonderful idea!" Everyone looked at the dragon expectantly, but the dragon only growled looking displeased. It lowered its fierce countenance, staring hard at Suno, growling as if he disapproved of the wish. "Trickery I perceive in this wish." The dragon growled unapprovingly. The dragon narrowed his eyes looking at Suno, who felt like she would shrink with every moment she existed under the hard stare of the dragon. "Yet, I also perceive the hand of Son, Goku in this." The dragon said gravely, "and his wishes have never been selfish, among all the greedy voices that have come to me in the past." Shen Long growled again, and Suno heard gasps of fear around her, as if they feared some reprisal from the dragon for displeasing this airborne leviathan. The dragon lowered its head in contemplation, then looked upon Suno with red, glaring, angry eyes. "This is an attempt to slip by two wishes for one, but be it as you say. A full moon strong enough to bring back the tails of the Saiya-jin. A full moon bright enough for everyone to see." "Oh thank you!" Suno bowed before the dragon appreciatively. "But, be warned!" The dragon fiercely. "Never think to try something like this in my presence, again!" "That is a promise!" Suno breathed out with relief. Everyone clapped in appreciation as the dragon closed its eyes, seemingly concentrating on the task of fulfilling her wish. The entire landscape was suddenly, bathed in an insanely bright glow. The villagers screamed in fear, covering their eyes in the brightness. "What happening!" Suno screamed. "It’s your wish!" Her husband screamed over the gasps and screams from the birthday party. "I guess that’s how bright it need be for everyone in the world to see it. Who’s Goku, Suno?" "He’s a little boy I knew when I was a child. I saw him in a dream, right now. He told me he was dead, and told me you had collected the dragonballs, and asked me to make that wish." Suno lowered her head and blushed, in the blazing brightness. "I know you won’t believe me." "You’re wrong, Suno." Her husband said, shielding his eyes in the unforgiving light of the full moon. "Your mother told me about a little boy with the tail, a long time ago. He sounded like an extraordinary boy. I don’t think anything is beyond him." Suno gasped. She had always thought Goku a secret from her husband. She felt suddenly wonderful, even after learning Goku was dead. She no longer had to keep the secret in her heart, locked away from the man she loved. Everything, she told herself, was going to be all right. Gohan had stood by his mother as the second darkness in that terrible day, after losing his father, fell on his world. No lights were kindled in the Son Hut. All was shrouded in grief, darkness, and quiet, as Goku’s body slipped into shadows. The only the sounds to be heard were the quiet sobbing of his mother, and his own controlled breathing. Both he and his mother seemed too paralyzed to deal with Goku’s death. He was still lying on the floor, under his makeshift shroud, now unseen in the grief and black of that terrible night. "Gohan!" Gohan looked over to where the body of his father lay and did everything he could not to yell out his father’s name. There was no sign of movement. Gohan sunk into greater grief, knowing he was now imagining things. "Gohan! This isn’t your imagination. It’s me!" "Tousan!" Gohan cried out in the darkness. Chi Chi cried out loudly, running from the couch to embrace Gohan. "I know baby. He’s gone! My poor baby!" How could Gohan explain this to her? He searched for ki, or any sign of his father, but could feel nothing. "Gohan." The voice of his father returned, again. "It’s me. King Kai is letting me talk to you. This is important. You must leave. You must leave now!" ‘How can I leave mother like this?’ Gohan thought out to the voice in his head, helplessly. ‘Piccolo-san, said I shouldn’t leave her.’ "Piccolo doesn’t know what is about to happen." Goku’s disembodied voice returned. "If you don’t leave the house right now, Chi Chi could be badly hurt or killed. Obey me. Leave now!" ‘Tousan!’ Gohan searched for the voice, but it didn’t return. ‘Tousan!’ Tears burned his eyes, when he realized his father’s voice was gone. "Mother!" Gohan said suddenly pushing his mother away. "I have to leave. I have to leave now. Whatever you do. Don’t follow me. Stay here." "What are you talking about?" Chi Chi said confused. "You can’t leave me now. Gohan, don’t you dare go anywhere." "I have to go." Gohan said desperately. "I just heard Tousan’s voice and he said you would be killed if I didn’t go. Don’t try to follow me!" With that, Gohan ran out the door. He heard his mother scream after him. It hurt him to leave her at a time like this, but he knew he must do as his father commanded. "That’s it!" Goku’s voice came to Gohan again. "Run Gohan. Run away as far as you can from people. Do it now!" Gohan had run for several minutes out into the wilderness, when a sudden light blazed overhead and Gohan looked up at it fearfully. A pain shot through him, as he felt a burning sensation from the scar that used to be his tail. "Now I understand." Gohan smiled as he felt a wild strength course through his veins. "Thank you, Tousan. Thank you for warning me. Mother would have been killed if you hadn’t warned me." As a new tail shot out from the old scar on Gohan’s back, he raised his head, screaming out a savage animal roar. "Now, Vegeta." Cell said pleasantly, holding Vegeta by the throat, slowly strangling his struggling body. "This contest has become altogether boring, and hardly the fight I needed to test my new strength. I think it is time to kill you. Farewell." Vegeta tried to rasp out a scream against the stranglehold of Cell, as Cell slowly tightened his grip, prolonging the torture of Vegeta’s demise. Cell smiled cruelly as his grip became like a vice. Vegeta stiffened. Oxygen starved veins popped out on his neck, all fighting desperately against the total lack of air. Suddenly, brightness blazed overhead, stabbing the eyes of Cell. He was so stunned, he let go of Vegeta, attempting to rub the pain out of his eyes. Vegeta almost involuntarily looked up, ignoring the agony of his throat, expecting one of the bakas like Kurillin to have come to his aid, performing Taioken to help Vegeta get away. Vegeta was about to scream in his rage to his presumed, and unwelcome rescuer. What met his burning eyes, however, was something he had never seen on the Planet Earth before. "What the fuck!" Vegeta gasped out, knowing it was just too good to be true. For there in the sky, where before he had to make his own artificial one, was a moon. The most insanely bright moon he had ever seen in his life. He felt strength returning to his bones. A strength he didn’t understand, until he understood its source. He felt an itch, then a burn, then a stabbing pain from the scar that used to be his tail. Before he could scream at the sudden intensity of the pain, his tail shot out from the old scar. Tearing right through the shreds left of his clothes, the new tail met the insane brightness of the moon, slick and shining with the smell of new blood. "What the hell is going on?" Cell demanded of Vegeta. "Is this some kind of last attempt to survive against me?" Vegeta laughed insanely, welcoming feelings he thought long gone, as his growing canines pricked against his tongue. "Survive?" Vegeta laughed feeling the tickle of fur growing on his body. Vegeta’s voice lowered to a monstrous growl. "Survive! I don’t know how he did it, but I know Kakarotto is behind this!" Vegeta slammed a monstrous fist near Cell, knocking Cell to the ground and sending rocks flying everywhere. "What I do know, is I am not Kakarotto, and you fucked with the wrong Saiya-jin!" Vegeta reveled in the dismay growing in Cell’s eyes as Vegeta grew to monstrous heights. Vegeta threw back his head howling in triumph. Bestial joy filled his growing body as it shot up into the sky. Vegeta looked down on Cell like an ant, for which he had just as much contempt, roaring the next in his rage. "You fucked with the wrong Saiya-jin!" Vegeta grinned, monstrously long canines at Cell. "What’s a matter Cell?" Vegeta let out a long monstrous roar, raising his head to revel in the burning moonlight. "I thought your precious Dr. Gero knew all about the Saiya-jin. After all, he gave you our cells. Didn’t he tell you we could become giant monsters?" Vegeta let his whole weight come down to impact the ground as he walked a few steps toward the now terrified Cell. Vegeta smiled, letting his weight cause small tremors as he walked. "Oh, he didn’t tell you? What a shame! Maybe if he had equipped you with the proper kind of tail instead of that useless vacuum cleaner hose he gave you, you wouldn’t be in trouble right now!" With that Vegeta swiped a hand, attempting to scoop up Cell, but Cell dodged and attempted to fly away. Vegeta swatted him out of the air like a fly. "Woman!" Vegeta screamed into the sky. "Can you hear me? I know what he did! Be my instrument of revenge. You are my mate. You now share my blood. Kill him! Destroy, destroy, destroy!" With that Vegeta turned joyfully, insanely, bestial eyes on Cell. Bulma screamed and screamed as the sensation from her back burned into very being. Dr. Gero only laughed sadistically at her pain, gloating in triumph. "You see!" Dr. Gero, pointed at the tail. "The mutagen works!" "Look!" He exulted in triumph, the tail is already moving under your direction!" Bulma brought the tail to her eye level, and stared at it in dismay. She gasped in disbelief as she willed it to waggle slightly, and the tail complied with her every whim. It was totally alien, yet reacted to her every direction, almost unconscious of her thought. "This is impossible!" Bulma gasped. "What have you done to me? That thing is hideous!" "Hideous?" Dr. Gero laughed. "It’s beautiful! A totally alien appendage and I have succeeded in transplanting it onto a human! If you survive and don’t go into cellular rejection, I will convert you into an artificial human, and have the power of the Saiya-jin at my beck and call. The rest of the Saiya-jin will be hunted down and killed one by one, and you will be the instrument of my revenge upon them!" Dr. Gero threw back his head laughing, when a burning light streamed into the laboratory, causing him to shield his eyes. "What is this?" Dr. Gero, demanded as he looked around confused and afraid. "A nuclear blast. What light can penetrate this far underground?" Bulma blinked in the blinding light, as she heard a voice inside her head. ‘Woman!’ "Vegeta?" Bulma looked around blindly for the source of the voice, before remembering it was coming from her head. "He put a tail on me!" ‘And for that he will pay. Look at the light. Don’t worry about it blinding you. Look directly into the light. Your life depends on it!’ Bulma forced herself to turn her head, looking into the light. She felt pain from the tail, but also rage course through her veins. The light seemed to burn into her very being, as she felt power and rage surround her. She was astounded as the restraints snapped like flax and she was suddenly free. "No!" Dr. Gero screamed. "You will obey me and return to that table!" Dr. Gero, screamed at her like an impotent tyrant, and it suddenly filled Bulma with uncontrollable rage. She felt her teeth lengthening, and fur growing all over her. Ordinarily she would have been horrified, but at the moment she reveled in the pleasure. She felt herself growing with the rage that now screamed in her veins. She felt herself crash through the ceiling of the lab. Glass, plaster, and rock shattered all around her. She threw back her head, howling in rage. She watched in disbelief as her now monstrous hands pulled apart the hole she just made to look upon, the now tiny, but terrified, Dr. Gero. The next thing Vegeta said was undeniable. ‘Woman! Can you hear me? I know what he did! Be my instrument of revenge. You are my mate. You now share my blood. Kill him! Destroy, destroy, destroy!’ It rang over and over in here head, in time with her newfound bestial rage, ‘destroy, destroy, destroy!’ The beast, which used to be a beautiful woman, turned on her former captor. Now it was Dr. Gero’s turn to scream, and scream and scream. She brought up his battered, but still live body, to her burning, red eyes. She growled the next between ferocious roars. "You just kidnaped your last person and conducted your last experiment, you unfeeling bastard! This is for the two people I saw in those tubes, you said were throwaways!" She crushed him between ape like thumbs, before he could say a single word. She licked the liquid left behind by his crushed shell, amazed and delighted to find it was blood. She howled in victory, as she heard Vegeta’s commandment ring over and over in her head, ‘Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!’ She turned her fury on the lab. She turned her fury on the bays that held the beautiful, but as good as dead, people; the restraints; the glass tubes; and the abominations that welcomed their release into death. Cell picked himself out of the rubble, looking up at Vegeta. It was Vegeta’s turn to look down on his quarry with pitiless cruelty. "You are fortunate Cell." Vegeta said advancing again on Cell. "No one in 1000 years has been privileged enough to witness this." "What are you talking about?" Cell demanded, looking around for some hasty escape or some advantage in which to attack. "Oh, didn’t Dr. Gero tell you?" Vegeta mocked. "I thought your genius creator knew all about the Saiya-jin. One thousand years ago there was a Super Saiya-jin who could only become Super Saiya-jin in his oozuru form." The monster Vegeta bowed mockingly to Cell, then suddenly shot out an arm, taking Cell in one monstrous hand. Lifting the struggling, Cell up to his demonically gleaming red eyes, Vegeta lowered his voice to an ominous growl. "One day his rage was so great that he burned up in his own power. I may die in the same attempt but, if I do, you will go with me Cell. Here goes!" Vegeta raised his monstrous fists, Cell helplessly enclosed in one of them, as he arched his back, throwing his head back, letting out a screaming howl to the moon. Cell screamed as Vegeta’s fist tightened around him, and the burning aura of a Super Saiya-jin burned all around him. "I am the legendary Super Saiya-jin!" Vegeta screamed out joyfully. "The prophecies were all true. It’s me! Not Kakarotto! Me!" Vegeta brought his fist down to look, gloatingly, at the imprisoned Cell. "Which reminds me. You promised me a fight with Kakarotto. Let’s see. The last time I was in this form and had Kakarotto, what did I do?" The monster that was Vegeta cocked his head, pretending to think about it. "You know something just occurred to me. You fucks, you artificial humans were all created to kill Kakarotto. Looks like he was avenged of you all before you were created." "What are you talking about?" Cell said desperately, struggling against Vegeta’s monstrous grip. "Oh, just this!" The monstrous Vegeta chuckled. "If that baka hadn’t stopped Baldy from killing me years ago, I wouldn’t be alive right now to squeeze the very life out of you. How ironic that I trained all these years to destroy Kakarotto, and now I am the instrument of his vengeance." "Now, let me see what I remember of that fight with Kakarotto. You did say this would be like a battle with him. Ah, yes now I remember. First, I crushed his legs!" With that the giant ape, placed Cell between both hands and proceeded to squeeze. Cell helplessly struggled, letting out an agonized howl. The giant beast grinned, baring his very sharp canines. "Yes!" Vegeta mockingly agreed. "He did make a sound very close to that. You may keep your promise yet, Cell." "Now what did I do next?" The monstrous Vegeta mockingly asked Cell. "Ah, yes! I remember! I crushed his arms into pulp!" Cell let out another shriek in time with the snapping of bones. "You can’t do this to me, Vegeta!" Cell screamed desperately. "I’ve strived too long to be perfect!" "Oh too bad!" Vegeta said unsympathetically. "Now where were we. Oh! I remember, then I dropped him on the ground, and would have crushed him under foot but someone interrupted and cut my tail off. Too bad! If you weren’t such a bastard, maybe there would be someone around to save you, like they saved Kakarotto. Your loss, I guess!" With that Vegeta dropped Cell’s crushed form on the ground and stamped on him before he could scream. He stamped again and again, then scrubbed his foot into the ground. Vegeta walked away, monstrous bulk causing tremors with each gigantic step, as he turned to look at the crushed Cell, as if admiring his handiwork. He opened his mouth, as a ball of fire shot out of his mouth, obliterating the residue. When the explosion and fire died down, where the body of Cell had lain, now was nothing but smoke. Vegeta screamed out his joy in worship of the burning moon that fueled his power, in a one long, animal howl. Trunks had flown as fast as he could to where he felt his mother’s ki, when the explosion of light seared his eyes. He screamed, covering his eyes. Trunks gave into the fear his father was already dead and Cell had come after him, starting off with Taiyo-ken. Trunks, quickly, shielded his eyes as best he could, and flew to the ground. He scrambled to duck into the rocks to shield himself from attack, until the burning brightness was gone and he could see his attacker. When the brightness didn’t go away and no attack was forthcoming, Trunks realized, the brightness came from another source. He held a hand up to protect his eyes, looking up at the burning orb in the sky, realizing it was an insanely bright moon. Trunks blinked in confusion at the burning moon, and wondered in fearful awe at what it could all mean. Bulma trampled under foot the last vestiges of Dr. Gero’s mountain lab in joyful animal rage. Yet, the animal lust to destroy was not satiated in her. The order to destroy still rang in her head in time with the pulsating power that flowed through her limbs. Destroy! She must destroy! The animal urge demanded her obedience. She opened her mouth and a blast of fire blew up the entire mountain that had housed the lab. This still wasn’t enough to satisfy her need to destroy. She looked around and saw another animal, like her, off in the distance. She started walking toward him, the need to annihilate the only thing on her mind. Trunks blinked in greater and greater disbelief as a titanic ape walked by him, seeming not to notice him at all. His eyes followed after the titanic beast and he saw the ape walking toward another great rampaging beast, roaring his challenge in the distance. Piccolo caught up with Trunks, and Trunks could see his teeth gnashing and a look of disbelief in his eyes. "Oh shit!" Piccolo rasped out. "You’ve never seen this before have you?" "You have?" Trunks turned to look at Piccolo amazed. "Unfortunately, I have. This is what a Saiya-jin turns into under the full moon. Saw Gohan become one of those when he was much younger. And Goku. Shit! I don’t even want to talk about that." "Saiya-jin?" Trunks screamed over the thunder of great beasts screams and howls. "Who?" "Feel their ki, kid." Piccolo grinned. "That’s your mother and your father." "Mom and Dad?" Trunks looked totally dismayed at the two giant grunting beasts. "Shit!" Trunks looked himself over, perplexed. "I wonder why it didn’t happen to me." Piccolo looked at him askance, as if he expected him to turn into a raving beast at any moment. "You probably weren’t born with a tail like Gohan, so you didn’t have a tail that could grow back. But how this happened to your mother. I have no idea." Suddenly Piccolo turned around, in the direction of the Son Hut, a look of panic on his face. "Gohan!" Piccolo clenched his fists in dismay. "He was born with a tail. Oh fuck!" Piccolo wheeled, preparing to fly away. "I don’t like Chi Chi, but she doesn’t deserve that. She’ll be killed. I have to stop him!" Piccolo would have flown away, but was suddenly stopped by a voice inside his head. ‘Piccolo!’ Piccolo grabbed his head, looking at Trunks. "Did you hear that? It sounded like Son!" Trunks looked around disbelievingly, looking back at Piccolo. "I heard nothing!" ‘Piccolo!’ The voice returned to Piccolo’s head. ‘This isn’t your imagination. It’s me, Son Goku. King Kai is letting me talk to you. Chi Chi is safe. I told Gohan to go out into the wilderness, before the moon was wished back.’ ‘Son!’ Piccolo exclaimed in his mind. ‘How the fuck did you manage this?’ ‘I don’t have the time to tell you.’ The voice of Son Goku replied. ‘All I can say is, it was a drastic solution, but it was the only one that I could think of that could help Vegeta and Bulma at the same time. It worked! Cell and Dr. Gero are dead!’ ‘Piccolo!’ Goku sounded urgent. ‘I’m only allowed a little time to talk to the living and my time is almost up! That moon. It has served its purpose. Blow it up! Blow it up quickly, before they start killing the innocent. Even Gohan! They are uncontrollable in that state. Blow it up quickly!’ ‘No fucking kidding!’ Piccolo thought to Goku, seeing the rampaging beasts in the distance. ‘That thing has got to go.’ Vegeta howled his bestial rage and joy to the moon that fueled his power. He turned to look for new challenges to conquer when he saw a beast like him approaching. Vegeta bared long canines, growling in a new emotion as he felt the ki of the approaching monster. He flexed his muscles at her approach in deliberate displays of rage inspired sexuality, and pure animal lust. "So, it’s true. I felt it through the bond. Dr. Gero gave you my old tail." The beast Vegeta laughed. "This is the kind of challenge I wanted!" The female beast that filled him with desire, only gnashed angry canines at him, growling menacingly. Vegeta’s ape form only laughed in a sound that sounded more like a monstrous growl. "Oh, I see the power has driven you mad. Well, it is new to you, and only the strongest, most experienced warriors can manage to keep their sanity in this form." The giant male beast leaned into a defensive posture. "That’s all right. I don’t mind you going mad. I told you I wanted a challenge. Go ahead and try to kill me. When I finally force your surrender, I’ll take you like I should have taken you, on that night." With that Bulma’s bestial form leaped on Vegeta, sinking large canines into his throat. The monster in Vegeta screamed in rage and pain, pushing her off, knocking her to the ground with a huge fist. The animal that was Bulma slowly rose, growling in fury, as she sank into an aggressive posture. She had tasted his blood, and it was obvious by her slavering growls she wanted more. She leapt with a howl of rage to attack her animal lover, again. "Do something!" Trunks screamed at Piccolo. "They’ll kill each other!" |