Chapter 24
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Mia sat straight up, coming out of a deep sleep. She groaned a bit internally as she was still very sore, though thankfully out of most of the plasters that had been holding her bones in place so they would knit properly. She was very glad that she healed much more quickly than a human did, as after five weeks she was already gingerly back on her feet, but her mind was elsewhere. She could tell that something had changed and she wasn't sure if that meant something was wrong or not. She breathed deeply for a second, reaching out and searching... Trunks and the children were in their apartment; so were Vegeta and Bulma, and Bra. Sekkai was moving about within her own apartment, perhaps woken by the same things Mia had been; Goten was still across the hallway, and Ume was moving. He was moving around his apartment, as if he was pacing. Perhaps he had felt it too? She'd been speaking with Serori earlier, who told her he was immensely sensitive to changes in Ki since he'd learned how to detect it. Serori had been beaming about the boy, obviously very proud of him. Mia had thought it odd that Serori, of all people, was Ume's biggest supporter. If was almost as if Serori wished Ume was her child...Mia shook her head, pushing deterring thoughts from her head, and continued searching the area with her Ki. Gohan and his family were still, so was Goten's. She reached out even further to find Serori, Tomma and Kinomi...to find nothing. Her heart began to race, she kept searching, as far as she could go, looking for that familiar Ki... Nothing. She startled as the window slid open from the outside. She relaxed slightly when Ume slid in like a liquid. She realized why he'd been moving - he was wearing his gloves, boots, and armour over his bodysuit. "You can't find them either, can you?" He asked softly. "No," she replied, feeling instantly uncomfortable, not only due to the absence of the two Saiyans whom she considered family, but because she still was not completely at ease with her son. Something nagged at her, deep down, about him which kept her wary. Trunks had even reported that the two had a mutual understanding, a suspicion still lingered. Before Ume could reply, Sekkai poked her head into the room and hissed when she saw him. She clambered inside while the air charged with animosity between herself and the younger Saiyan boy. Sekkai grit her teeth, snarling at him - she was convinced that he had something to do with this. "What did you do?" She spat, the hairs on her tail bristling. Ume growled back, "Nothing at all." Mia scowled. "Stop, both of you. We have more pressing matters. Where are Serori and Tomma?" They were all silent for a second, in thought. Ume spoke next, "I'll go check their home." Sekkai growled immediately in protest. Ume looked at her flatly and said, "I'm faster than you are, and more strong. If anything has gone wrong, I'm better equipped." Sekkai turned to Mia, "Hakuto, letting him go on his own when he cannot be trusted...for all we know he has a hand in this..." Ume snarled loudly, and in two quick strides was face-to-face with the older woman, staring her down. They both bristled, and he spat out, "I haven't done a thing to betray any trust. You assumption is null." Mia sighed, rolling her eyes as the two continued to stare at each other. She adjusted herself, "You two are worse than my other two children," she said as she tucked in her legs and swung them over the bed. Ume broke gaze with Sekkai to move over to his mother, who waved him off as she put weight on her feet. Her body ached. "We will all go." Sekkai spluttered and protested; Mia argued back. Ume took that moment to move towards the closet in the small room. He deftly turned off the sound on his scouter as he was picking out clothes for Mia. If he got a message from Ix'bet he didn't want the warning bleep alerting the two older females. But he had a certain suspicion...but it would only be solved by going to the house. He handed Mia clothing, and turned to face the window as she changed. She and Sekkai still argued as she pulled on her outfit; however Mia was set on all three of them going. Ume crawled out the window first, offering his hand to Mia as she came out, followed by Sekkai. All three set out at a moderate pace: Mia leading, Sekkai in the middle and Ume in the back. As they were flying, a message popped up on Ume's scouter. He breathed deeply. He was afraid of the message. He was concerned that this situation was a part of his consequence for not taking the children. He reached up and pressed a button. A quick message from Ix'bet appeared, saying only that he would be sending along a new mission shortly. Nothing else. They landed in front of the house, and Mia strode forward and turned the knob. They door opened silently, and the three Saiyans entered the room. Without speaking, they split: Sekkai towards the master bedroom, Mia towards the kitchen, and Ume towards Kinomi's room. Moments later, Sekkai and Ume went to Mia in the kitchen, reporting that the rooms were empty. Mia was holding the note. She offered it to Sekkai and said, "They've left." Sekkai narrowed her eyes, and looked at the note. She read over the words clumsily, as she had never really had any sort of formal training in the language. Sekkai knew that Serori could read and write, and it looked like the style of writing Serori would use. After she looked at it for what she felt was an appropriate time, she passed it back to Mia, who passed it over to Ume. The note was remarkably simple. They felt that they needed to look for the last colony again. They could barely stand knowing that there were Talisians out there still able to commit atrocities to the Saiyan race. They brought Kinomi with them to further their training. They were going farther than they'd gone before, so don't be concerned if there's little communication. Ume studied the writing carefully. It mimicked Serori's scratchy writing very well, but certain letters gave away the fact that it was written by someone whose writing style was much different. The Talisian language had long, flowing letters...and underlying traces were evident in the note. Ume snarled softly as his anger flared, his scouter measuring the drastic change. He now knew what had happened. This indeed was his consequence. He knew that the Generals at Refuge had no need for the two Originals – they would have been killed. That's what he had felt, what had woken him up in the middle of the night. He didn't know what they had done to Kinomi, but he assumed they would have also snuffed out her life, as she was too close to Serori and Tomma. She would be too difficult. Mia turned her head upwards and towards him, sensing his anger. Ume crumpled the note in his palm, and dropped it before setting his hands in fists and walking through the kitchen, out to the main room and through the door. He had to act like he didn't know. He couldn't give Ix'bet and Yu'tai away, no matter how much it hurt to lose Serori and Tomma. Serori had been the first to trust him, to treat him kindly. Tomma was more reserved, but Ume had won his approval. His fingers dug into the flesh of his palms as he struggled to maintain some form of composure. Mia had quickly followed him. She stepped behind him, and hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder. Ume was shaking. "Are you alright?" She asked. "No," Ume snapped, pulling away from her hand and turning around slightly. "They're going after my home! Of course I'm not alright," he lied as he roughly swiped the back of his hand across his eyes, smearing away tears threatening to overflow. "I need to warn them, I need to -" "Unacceptable," Sekkai cut in, her voice low. "You'll not be going anywhere." Ume narrowed his eyes at Sekkai. "And how would you stop me?" "Enough." Mia stated. "As if we don't have enough to worry about," she brought her hands up, "I also have to babysit two little brats." She turned to Sekkai, "We will discuss it tomorrow, with Vegeta." She turned to Ume, "We will all decide the best course of action." She scowled at both of them. "Mother, would you get the note? Vegeta will want to see it." As soon as Sekkai retrieved the note, they took to the sky. Mia lead again, with Sekkai to her right and Ume slightly behind. They all slid back into the hospital room, and Mia quickly shooed Ume out, saying she was going to change and get back to bed. After Ume left, Mia sighed deeply and her whole body seemed to sag. Sekkai came over, and gently helped Mia change back into more comfortable hospital clothes. Mia sat on the edge of her bed and swung her legs under the covers, lying back into the pillows. "I don't trust him." Sekkai said flatly as she sat beside her daughter. "I know, Mother." Mia smiled weakly, "But he really has not done anything untrustworthy. He has been as forthcoming as he can without betraying his people, which is admirable. And he has almost taught Trunks his Sumiyaka technique." "Hakuto, he was raised by them. In his mind, we are still the enemy," Sekkai began, "How do we know that this entire time has just been a ruse? Gathering information? Or is planning to trick us somehow, to attack us? What if he was the one who made Serori and Tomma leave?" "If he had, we would have felt something. A massive Ki fluctuation would have woken us," Mia responded. "Besides, Ume was in his room when I awoke. There would have been no way he could have arrived from their house to here that quickly." Sekkai was silent a moment. "I still don't trust him." Mia sighed softly as a small smile played on her lips. "I never said you had to." She squeezed Sekkai’s hand and covered up a yawn with another one. "We'll talk more with Vegeta tomorrow." Sekkai stayed in the hospital room as Mia slept.
Ume had drifted away from the hospital room, and touched down on his balcony. He went inside, closed the sliding door and pulled the curtains. Here he could hide - nobody had to see him. Nobody had to know he was upset, and nobody had to believe him weak for peeling out of his clothing, turning on the shower, only to sit on the tiled floor with the water falling down on him as he wept. Eventually he turned off the water, and wrapped a towel around himself. He grabbed a smaller one, and sat on the side of his bed, absentmindedly drying the fur on his tail. He felt odd. His entire self felt battered and exhausted. After he deemed his tail dry, he simply sat motionless, leaning forwards with his elbows resting on his knees. It was some time later that he noticed his scouter flashing. He had forgotten to bring it out of silent mode. He stood, and picked up the small machine. He held it in his hands, just looking, deciding. He was unhappy, yet unsure where he belonged. He was never fully accepted at Refuge; other Talisians either treated him with fear, or as an abomination. He was also not fully accepted here: while he had some form of trust, they were either still instinctively wary, or they rejected him outright, or were simply apathetic. They'd figure out his lies soon enough. Something would happen where he'd have to reveal everything: that he'd been meaning to betray them all along, that he lied, and that he was a thing to be abhorred. He clicked the scanner on over his ear, and pressed a button. His new mission had arrived. It was something relatively simple: Ix'bet had observed a stationary Ki source while running through the scanner log. He wanted Ume to figure what it was, as it was an oddity. It promised to be uneventful. He pulled the scanner from his head and placed it on the night table, then crawled into his bed, stealing a couple hours of sleep until the morning broke. |
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