Adult-FanFiction.org : Gundam, Beyblade, DBZ, FMA

Soldier Boy	By : Robyn Category: Dragon Ball Z > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 6894 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don’t own DB/Z/GT or any of the characters found in this fic. They are the property of TOEI ANIMATION in Japan and FUNimation in the U.S.A. I make no money from this. I am making no money from this work of fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Disclaimer: I don’t own DB/Z/GT or any of the characters found in this fic. They are the property of TOEI ANIMATION in Japan and FUNimation in the U.S.A.

Title: Soldier Boy (abridged) – In place of DBGT

Chapter word count: 7111

Type: Yaoi (aka slash), mentions of het

Warnings: M/M (sex, oral, kissing), incest, language, domestic violence, tails, blood, violent sex. (It’s taken me over a year to write this. I’m certain I’m forgetting some warnings. I apologize.) OCs.

Genre: Drama

Pairings: Goku/OCs, Goku/Gohan, Gohan/Goku

Past pairings: Vegeta/Goku, Gohan/OC’s

History pairings: Vegeta/Bulma, Goku/Chichi, Gohan/Videl

Rating: NC-17, not suited for minors

Beta: none yet.

Chapter Summary: ~o0o~The only thing that went according to Vegeta’s plan was Gohan boarding SSJ Vengeance. Things had become unpredictable disarray after though.

Chapter 9



Vegeta sat in front of the com-screen in his quarters. He’d been expecting this conversation, but now he was dreading it as well.

“Tell Gohan to come back.” Kakarott’s image showed barely controlled rage – or was that desperation?

“I can’t.” Vegeta sighed. “That decision has been taken from anyone’s hands; including his own.”

“What do you mean?” Kakarott growled.

“Look, you’re on your way here. You can I.T. to my location once you’re in range.”

“I can I.T. to his location…” Kakarott began to counter.

“You won’t be able to pinpoint him.” Vegeta informed Kakarott.

Goku stopped pacing and sat down as a possibility he didn’t think his son would ever do came to him. “Is – is Gohan dead?” he asked Vegeta, even though he dreaded hearing the answer. He’d had his doubts while in space, and if he were having doubts, then maybe Gohan had them as well. Goku didn’t want to believe Gohan would take such a drastic measure as suicide – not over something like their relationship.

“No, but he’s not the same person he was.” Vegeta intentionally neglected to say it would only be a matter of time before Kakarott’s offspring was dead. He didn’t know if he could stop Kakarott once he found out, but Vegeta was the only person in the universe who even stood a chance of managing Kakarott – now that Gohan was immobile. “You’ll be in range within minutes. I’ll meet you at his location.” The prince hoped Kakarott would understand, once he was aboard Vegeta’s ship, that if he went supernova he would kill his own son. Hopefully it would be enough incentive for the saiyan not to do so.

Vegeta reflected on Gohan’s latest arrival – Gohan had been an emotional mess when he’d come aboard SSJ Vengeance. The younger man had been right; Trunks and Goten had been planning on coming out to space. However, that had been months ago, and Vegeta had stopped it long before Gohan actually received the message from Chichi. The prince had told Gohan he’d take care of it as though he hadn’t already. Then Gohan had suggested taking shielding duties – as Vegeta had known he would.

“I’ll see you in a moment.” Goku terminated his end of the communication and began trying to locate Vegeta’s ki.

Vegeta headed to the bridge of his ship in order to inform Gohan of Goku’s arrival. Again he was struck with how Gohan’s accident affected the saiyans working on the bridge; it was eerily quite in the command center. “Your Father is on his way here.” He informed Gohan while ignoring the rest of the crew.

“I know.”

“You know?”

“It was inevitable.” The animation of Gohan speaking was off. The mouth moved a second after a word had already been said. At least the image on the screen had eyes.

It was easier to look at the animation rather than the warrior stuck in that stupid tube of plastic, vacuums and metal. “What happened?” Vegeta asked again, desperately hoping Gohan would have a new answer. The prince wasn’t going to be held responsible – this wasn’t what he’d had in mind.

“I don’t know. An accident.” Gohan truthfully couldn’t remember what had taken place. Yes, he’d been willing to try a long-term stint as a shielder for the saiyan ship – a way to assure his focus was on something other than his emotions – but it hadn’t been his intention for it to become permanent. “Something shorted out at the wrong time.” He remembered not being able to see any more. It had taken him a few moments to stop panicking and start looking with his other sight. Those first few moments after the accident hadn’t exactly been calm on the bridge. Now the people in the room with him were like glowing, holographic images in his mind.

The hum of activity Gohan was used to on the bridge of any spaceship had gone unnaturally quiet – almost as though everyone were walking around with a secret. He’d grown accustomed to it, somewhat; it did enable him to concentrate better on his job when there weren’t sudden bursts of emotion. His attention turned away from his memories. “Dad’s coming. I felt him pass through me.” He reminded himself again that he had decided, even before the accident, that he was going to address his dad as ‘Father’ – a way to try and distance their familiarity somewhat.

Vegeta shuddered at the thought just as Kakarott appeared next to him. Gohan’s words made the prince wonder if Gohan felt them all – like bugs crawling over, or perhaps under, his skin.

Goku learned what Vegeta meant by he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint Gohan. All the ki shielding SSJ Vengeance felt like his son’s. “Where is he?”

“Hello, Father.”

Goku turned at the weird, mechanized way his son’s words were said. Only to finally see what Vegeta had been unwilling to explain. “Get him out of there.” Goku absolutely hated needles – and his son’s body seemed as though it was riddled with them. It reminded him of Vegeta and his capture by Metal Kooler.

“We’re trying. It’s taking some time mapping all the damage.” Vegeta sighed. “Gohan thinks something short circuited and now…now there’s bits that can’t be removed without permanent brain damage or…”

“Or?” Goku growled.

“Death, Father.”

Goku couldn’t decide if he should look at the image of his son on the screen, or the damaged body in the shield unit. “Why are his eyes covered?”

“They’re gone.” Vegeta answered for Gohan. At least Gohan’s hair had started to grow back on both his head and tail. Trying to get clothing around the mess of tubes and wires had been difficult. In the end they might still decide it was easier to take care of Gohan without the material in the way.

Goku’s tail lashed once before he wrapped it back around his waist. “I need to talk to you alone, Vegeta.” Goku was able to figure out that even if Gohan’s eyes had been damaged, his ears were still functioning. What about his vocal cords? Why was Gohan using a version of the ki speaker he’d made for Roma? He wanted to ask questions, but he didn’t want to ask them in front of Gohan – as though he weren’t even there.

“Father, Vegeta didn’t do this.”

Goku ignored Gohan’s explanation. “Can I touch him?” he asked Vegeta instead, easily distracted from his course.

Gohan answered with his own voice – echoed by the ki speaker. “No.” That was absolutely the last thing Gohan wanted Goku to do – he’d gotten into this mess trying to get away from that portion of their relationship. “No more….” He tamped down his emotions as some of what he was thinking leaked into his ki and started translating on the monitor.

Even though he was frustrated, Goku resisted the urge to grab Vegeta’s arm and try to push him out of the bridge; Vegeta wouldn’t be cooperative if he felt as though he’d just been belittled in front of other people. “I’ll be back, Gohan,” Goku said reassuringly even as he jerked his head in the direction of the nearest door leading off the bridge.

The hallway was empty and Goku didn’t mind assaulting Vegeta there, pressing the saiyan prince up against the wall.    “If I find out you had anything to do with this….” There were too many reasons Goku could think of for Vegeta to have done this on purpose – chiefly as a poor way to get rid of the opposition. Goku had thought Vegeta understood they were through, but then, Goku realized he’d also thought Gohan knew how he felt. Goku realized that maybe he wasn’t as good at expressing himself as he thought he was.

Vegeta swatted Kakarott’s hands off him. “The only thing I wanted was to see if it would be possible for a person to have an extended stay in a shielding unit. Whatever modifications Gohan made in order to get the ki speaker and animation screen linked up had consequences none of us expected.” Vegeta could only believe that was where the malfunction had originated. His experiments with two of the would-be rapists had gone stunningly well as far as extended stints in the shielding units; catheters, saline and nutritional i.v.’s managed to keep their bodies functioning while they shielded the ship. He’d taken them offline as soon as he found out Gohan was coming aboard.

Arguing with Vegeta wasn’t going to get him anywhere, and Goku changed course. “I’ll see you in your quarters later,” he said before he turned away from the prince and reentered the bridge. “Set the bridge on auto-pilot and get out.” He ordered. Everyone looked at him and then looked at each other in uncertainty. “I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!” The reaction of the crew the second time was much more satisfying. It only took a few moments before he was finally alone with Gohan.

Thought became motion without Goku realizing he was doing so, until he hit a wall of ki before he was within touching distance of Gohan. “Gohan?”

“Please, don’t,” Gohan’s animated image requested. “Don’t make this harder than it already is.”

“It hurts me to see you like this,” Goku admitted quietly. He didn’t know if it was his imagination that Gohan’s lips turned up in a faint smile.

“I’ll be okay. It’s liberating in a way – my body isn’t limiting me anymore.” Gohan tried to show there were plusses to what had happened.

Goku wasn’t certain what Gohan meant by that comment, so he ignored it. “Why haven’t they gotten a healer in here for your eyes? You can’t go on like that forever.”

“I never had any delusions I could. At least I don’t have to make the decision any more.” Their relationship could never be as it had been, and he certainly didn’t have time to try and fix it now, even if that became his desire. Gohan wondered if perhaps there was some small part of him that had been careless on purpose while he’d been making the shield unit modifications.

“What – what are you talking about?” Goku asked in self-duping confusion.

Gohan changed the direction of the conversation. Not so much that the topic wouldn’t eventually lead to the same conclusion, but it would give his dad something else to think about; if only a momentary distraction. “Have you ever asked Vegeta where the saiyans go? The ones who are gone a day after their evaluation? Why there are no female saiyans on this ship?”

“I – no, I guess I didn’t.” At one point he’d thought about doing so – but then he’d become involved with Vegeta, and with all the drama that brought into his life, he’d forgotten he’d ever meant to find out.

“I think you should, Father. Good-bye.” Gohan made sure the animation screen went blank until his father left the bridge.

~o0o~Goku sought out Vegeta immediately, as Gohan had suggested.

“Gohan said I should ask you what happens to the saiyans that aren’t on the ship the day after their evaluation.” Goku paced in Vegeta’s quarters –asking Vegeta about the females didn’t matter much if the answer was the same for both.

“I have a plan,” Vegeta changed his wording immediately. “Had. I had a plan. Things will obviously have to change now that the doctors say they can’t move him.”

“It’s permanent?” Goku was easily thrown from his original topic. “Why would you want someone stuck in a shielding unit for longer than a normal shift?”

Vegeta sighed, “It was part of the plan.” The prince’s eyes grew distant.

“Oh, yes – the saiyans?” Goku asked, rounding back to his original question.

“I guess if he monitors everyone’s ki inside his shield, then he would figure out they weren’t staying here.”

“You – you aren’t killing them…”

“Don’t be ridiculous Kakarott, just know that they’re safe and leave it at that. I can’t tell you any more without jeopardizing what remains of the plan.”

Goku could tell by Vegeta’s resolve the prince wasn’t going to say anything more about what he had in mind. “Fine, if you aren’t going to let me in on your preparations,” he didn’t bother to say that Vegeta not letting him in had been a big part of his decision not to be with the prince. Long before Gohan came along. “Then I can’t stay here, Vegeta. Knowing he’s right there, and I can’t be with him.” Goku gathered his frazzled concentration and I.T.’d to his room on the Gandlan, thankful Captain Jadus had been understanding enough to agree to stick close to Vegeta’s ship until he contacted him, one way or another.

Immediately after Kakarott disappeared Vegeta slammed his hand down into his desk, cracking it. “Fucking, Kakarott.”

Goku recognized as soon as he was in their room and realized Gohan wasn’t ever coming back he’d made a poor decision; too many memories lingered here. “Why?” He didn’t cry often – there was no reason to cry when he knew there was hope.

Hope seemed a long way away in outer space, sitting on the floor of a spaceship with his head bowed to the mattress he and his lover had slept on, while rumpled sheets soaked up his tears. It had been the last place they’d kissed, touched – been together. What had happened?

If he were on Earth, he could use the dragonballs to wish Gohan removed from that shield unit safely and then, with the second wish, his son’s memories of their relationship away. Goku knew he couldn’t wish his own away; they might end up making the same decisions ending with the same type of conclusion.

“Is there any scenario which we could be together and it wouldn’t end up hurting someone?” Goku didn’t know why he asked the question out loud, as though that would suddenly reveal an answer, somehow. He did feel self-conscious the question had come out as a pleading whine. “Gohan shouldn’t have been the one to sacrifice.” Goku took a big breath to steady his ki, he could feel the room vibrating with his power and a ship like Gandlan wouldn’t hold up to such internal abuse. The image of Gohan stuck in that shielding unit, wires welded to his skin – it made Goku mad. “Is there anything I can do?” He knew he would do anything. “I wish – I wish I could take his place.” It wasn’t the real solution – Goku realized he’d be causing Gohan the same amount of pain Gohan had caused him. Only it would be a purposeful decision on Goku’s part, whereas it had been unintentional on Gohan’s.

Unexpectedly there was a response to his one-sided brainstorm. “It’s not much, not for everything you’ve done for us,” Goku felt the mattress next to his left elbow shift; and he knew that voice, “But it’s the most we can interfere.”

“Kibitoshin?” Goku felt ashamed as he sniffled and looked up. Someone had been listening. The kai smiled at him sadly, pointed to the tiny box on the mattress.

Rou Dai had been convinced Gohan’s ‘accident’ wasn’t really such. For the magazine to have stopped right when it did and then the time lost looking for their crystal ball – at the bottom of a lake of all places – had to of been coordinated.

Someone had made sure this ‘accident’ had happened – someone who had figured out Gohan had been the elder’s chosen champion. Rou Dai was certain the magic used to fuse Gohan to the shielding unit was the same kind as what had bound him inside the body of the sword.

So he had allowed – more like ordered – Kibitonshin to come here and give this much aid. “Use them wisely, Son Goku.” After giving his admonishment the lavender-skinned god waved and was gone.

It took a moment for Goku to gather his wits together and reach for the box in order to open it. He discovered the hope he’d been looking for inside.

~o0o~Being stuck in the shield unit gave Gohan a lot of time to reflect.

Gohan realized it would be impossible to explain to anyone who hadn’t felt it what it was like to have this much room to spread his ki out. Sure, as a half a saiyan his body had been, by design, capable of withstanding the power, but it had been contained.

Now? The freedom he felt and the way he was able to design – the shield didn’t have to be spherical – he could actually reach out arms of it. He’d discovered the new technique when he’d instinctively put up the shield inside the ship to keep his father away physically.

The physically trapped demi-saiyan began to wonder, sans lack of fuel, if there were any other limitations. How far could he reach? Given enough time, could he reach Earth?

His musings were unexpectedly interrupted.

- Gohan -

- ? - He hadn’t realized Vegeta knew ki-code.

- How much of my plan have you figured out? -

- Vegeta? - At first Gohan had been certain it had been the prince, but Vegeta didn’t go around asking if you knew his plans, unless he was going to kill you, or involve you.

- Yes, Brat -

- Not much - Gohan admitted after the confirmation of whom he was speaking to. Thankfully the place they were communicating was distanced enough from the animation screen he could separate his responses so the saiyans on the bridge wouldn’t overhear his half of this conversation.

- Then let me start from the beginning, because I will need your help to pull it off. - Vegeta lay in one of the shield units in the training arena, in order to have this conversation with Gohan. Tarble was guarding the door to the arena so no one would enter at this time.

- I am listening - Ah – so his second conclusion had been correct. Vegeta was going to involve him.

~o0o~Shortly after disclosing his plan to Gohan, Vegeta sets the rest of it in motion.

“You’re stalling is pissing me off,” Vegeta advised the tokek in charge of the Gandlan. “I’m not here to negotiate with the likes of you.”

Captain Jadus was stalling as best he could while hoping the aide sent to retrieve Kakarott understood the urgency of the situation. Why couldn’t Kakarott have been wearing his scouter? “You know as well as I how difficult it is to order Kakarott around.” There was a disturbance at one of the entrances to the bridge of the Gandlan and then Kakarott was at his side.

“What do you want, Vegeta?” Kakarott was apparently not pleased by SSJ Vengeance’s hostile move.

“I want you aboard my ship,” Vegeta announced.

“So, you’re going to blow up the Gandlan if I don’t cooperate?” Goku laughed. “What kind of sense does that make?”

The prince’s smirk sent shivers down everyone on Gandlan’s bridge who saw it. “Not much, but I think I’ll start with the non-saiyans on my ship and see how long you can stand listening to them scream – feel their ki perish one soul at a time.”

Goku knew Vegeta was acting, but Vegeta’s threat gave Goku pause. There was something Vegeta wasn’t saying, because no matter how diabolical Vegeta was capable of being, he hadn’t behaved like this since being majin. The saiyan prince was using his reputation to manipulate the situation. Goku knew he’d have to cooperate in order to find out if this was part of Vegeta’s original plan. “You wouldn’t.” Not only that, but no matter how far gone Gohan was, his son wasn’t capable of allowing such a massacre within his shield.

“Care to test me, Kakarott?” Vegeta’s stance spoke volumes of how much the prince would really enjoy it if Kakarott did test him.

Goku did his best to act as though Vegeta had won the argument, but didn’t like the fact he’d lost to the prince so easily. “No.”

“Then you will I.T. over here and I’ll send the non-saiyans to the Gandlan.”

“We can’t handle that many more passengers for more than a day!” Captain Jadus hissed to Kakarott, hoping it was low enough Vegeta wouldn’t hear. “We don’t have the resources.”

“You’ll send the passengers over first and then I’ll I.T. to your ship,” Goku countered, before addressing the captain’s concern. “We can’t leave them there either,” he informed Captain Jadus.

The screen-image of the saiyan prince folded his arms over his chest. “I hope you understand what is at stake if you don’t follow through, Kakarott.”

Goku’s tail bristled; even if he calculated Vegeta would never do anything to Gohan, the fake threat pissed him off. “If you touch him, I will kill you.”

“Tch, tch. Too easy. I meant the footage I have of you two – I could very easily send it to your mate,” Vegeta gave the most bloodthirsty grin he could come up with.

Regardless of whether or not Vegeta actually had tapes or whatnot, Goku in no way, shape or form wanted Chichi to see what the prince might actually have – even if it were tapes of Vegeta and him together. “Okay,” Goku acknowledge he understood the threat.

“The first vessels from SSJ Vegeance are on their way,” one of the crew announced.

“Call for backup ships to help pick up the refugees,” Captain Jadus ordered. It was as the Alliance had feared – the saiyans had found the leverage they needed and were showing their true colors. With Gohan stuck on SSJ Vegeance Kakarott was under threat and couldn’t remain objective or bipartisan any longer.

“Where are you going, Kakarott?” Vegeta asked with suspicion as he watched his ex-lover start to leave the bridge.

“I have belongings I want to board with.” Goku still hadn’t figured out what he was going to do with his gift from the gods, but he knew he’d think of something.

“Pft – whatever,” but Vegeta did wonder what Kakarott wanted to bring aboard – his ex-lover had never been one to collect material things.

~o0o~ Gandlan clears off with the refugees, leaving only the saiyans aboard SSJ Vengeance.

Vegeta took a moment and eyed the gray luggage case Kakarott brought aboard with him with curiosity. He turned his attention back to the full-sized screen showing a harried Captain Jadus. “Pleasure doing business with you,” he said in his most insulting tone before he nodded once to the operator who terminated the connection – the screen went black.

“Ensign – did you place the route already?”

“Yes Sir!”

“Put the ship on course and then on autopilot. I want everyone off the bridge.” He addressed the crew. “With the exceptions of Kakarott and Tarble,” Vegeta explained.

It wasn’t until then Goku noticed Tarble standing off in a corner. The crew not immediately tasked with getting SSJ Vengeance set on course started leaving quickly. Soon even the junior officer had left as well.

By then Tarble had made his way to Vegeta’s side.

“Gohan, are you paying attention?” Vegeta asked.

The animated screen to the side of Gohan came to life. “Yes, Vegeta.”

Vegeta sighed and looked at Kakarott. “Now is when we make our move.”

Goku nodded. “I gathered that – I’m still wondering what exactly your move is.”

Now Vegeta grinned. “To make the saiyans disappear, of course.”

The puzzled look Kakarott gave him made Vegeta chuckle. “Come now – you knew a long time ago I’d stopped wanting to takeover the universe. I’ve grown to realize ruling that many people would be more of a hassle than what it is worth!”

Goku rolled his eyes. “You could have been a bit less dramatic about getting me on board.”

Vegeta’s gaze shifted towards Gohan and then back to Kakarott. “I think anything less than that performance would have given us away. You didn’t want to be here, last I recall.”

Goku sighed, having to do a bit more acting. He couldn’t give Vegeta reason to think he’d changed his mind so easily. “Are you finally to a point you’re able to tell me what has happened to the saiyans that are no longer here?”

Vegeta nodded. “They are on Earth.”

“Anyone who can track spaceships would know you were sending them all to one planet, which means people would be able to find them. So you’re not sending them on spaceships,” Goku surmised.

“Right. I’ve been sending them – encapsulated – through a portal, built into this ship,” Vegeta walked to a concealed door on the bridge. It looked like any of the other massive structure columns stretching from floor to ceiling. Vegeta pressed a set of codes on a panel on the back of the column and a doorway opened.

Goku would never – in his thousand years – have guessed the answer he was given. “That’s – that’s really amazing, Vegeta! Where does it go?” he wondered to himself as he peeked down the short hallway-looking interior. There was a door on the other side.

Vegeta had to guess Kakarott meant a specific place on Earth. “The Lookout. Our sons – Trunks and Goten – have been introducing the saiyans sent to Earth, once they get there, and training them on Earth-like social structures.”

Goku moved over as Tarble wedged in close to him to get a peek, too. Tarble shrugged, “Thanks. I’ve only ever received and sent cargo capsules. Although I knew it was here, I’ve never seen this.”

“Dende and Mr. Popo were able to create it based off the same magic as the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.” Tarble backed away and Vegeta clicked the door shut. “We were going to incite the ice-jin to a ‘last standing’ battle and let them blow up SSJ Vengeance in order to get the rest of the universe to believe saiyans are gone.”

“Why?” Goku couldn’t help but wonder.

“Who do you think the Alliance would instinctually select as the next bad guy once the ice-jin were eliminated, Kakarott?” Vegeta asked, as though the answer was obvious.

Goku frowned – he didn’t like thinking that way, but Vegeta was correct; it didn’t mean other people wouldn’t think that way. “Yeah – okay…you said ‘were’. So what’s changed?”

Again Vegeta glanced over at Gohan. “Tarble was going to coordinate getting all non-involved personnel off the ship, leaving only a bridge crew left to evacuate. The shielder, in this case Gohan, was going to ‘fail’ in a believable way – as though he was running out of energy. I was going to have you IT the shielder into the portal tunnel at the very last moment. Everyone was supposed to be able to leave the ship and reach Earth safely.”

“And now I can’t,” Gohan’s animation concluded.

Tarble and Vegeta were silent – their attention automatically going to Kakarott.

“You can’t capsulize the whole shielding unit?” After Vegeta shook his head, Goku continued. “I can’t leave him here…” Goku whispered, barely able to make himself look away from the animation screen and at Gohan’s physical body.

Vegeta had been concerned this would be Kakarott’s decision.

“Dad – we both know I’m dieing. It would be selfish of me to ask you to stay.”

Even if Gohan’s statement was true – Goku could see the muscle deterioration already – that didn’t mean he liked it. “You could go on living for weeks – alone…” Goku fingered the small box in his pocket, wondering if now was the time to use them.

“It won’t be that way. Once everyone is safely off the ship…I’ll take care if it,” Gohan’s animation stated tactfully. “You’ve made a similar sacrifices before, Dad. Now it is my turn.”

Normally Goku wouldn’t agree to this portion of the plan, but a plan of his own was starting to take form in his mind. “Okay, Gohan.” It would take a whole lot of perfect timing, but Goku thought he could pull it off.

“Then once we’re at our destination we’ll begin luring the ice-jin to us,” Vegeta stated, leery of Kakarott’s sudden cave-in, but willing to accept it at face value for now. He turned to his brother. “Tarble, you can begin sending saiyans to Earth. Please inform the bridge crew to return to duty.”

Tarble nodded, and left the bridge, uncomfortable with the way things had turned out.

He had been hoping for a miracle.

~o0o~ Mean while back in otherworld.

“That’s an unauthorized portal!” Rou Dai stated, incensed. “Did you authorize that?” he rounded on Kibitoshin.

“No, Sir! I had no idea of its existence.” The younger god adamantly denied knowing anything about the portal. However he was fascinated – a portal from a stationary object to a moveable one. He wouldn’t mind contacting Dende and asking how it had been accomplished.

“This could be a problem,” the elder changed subjects swiftly, “Why hasn’t he used them sooner? He’s had all this time and…”

“It could be it’s a last option for him,” Kibitoshin offered a possible explanation for Goku’s hesitation to use the Potara earrings. “Maybe I should have explained a bit more, but not even you or I know how the fusion will turn out – if the earrings will filter the fused metal, or if the fusion would be just as stuck as Gohan is now.”

“Mortals! GAH!” Rou Dai settled down almost at once. “Life wouldn’t be as entertaining without them.”

“No, Elder, it certainly wouldn’t.”

“We’ll have a talk with the Guardian of that planet about portals and their proper uses as soon as this crisis is over.”

“Of course, ancestor.”

~o0o~Having arrived at their predetermined choice for their last stand, Vegeta sets his plan in motion.

This was it. The last threats Vegeta had given to the ice-jin surrounding the SSJ Vengeance – presumably any and all who could have made it in the last two days – had done their job. Whatever physical bombs the ice-jin had, they’d lobbed them uselessly against Gohan’s ki shield. Many saiyans on the ship weren’t as optimistic as Kakarott and Prince Vegeta how long Gohan could keep the shield going, but so far he had.

In the mean time, Tarble had overseen the capsulizing of every individual saiyan who wasn’t necessary for the last bit of the plan and sent them on their merry way to Earth through the portal Vegeta had finally told Goku about. Unlike the previous travelers, these saiyans knew where their destination was – Bulma had convinced Vegeta that with saiyans as powerful as were going to be arriving, leaving them clueless to wake up on Earth was a bad plan.

Again the most recent attacking ice-jin ships ran out of physical weapons switched to energy weapons. By the looks of it some of their ships were running out of fuel to maintain those weapons. Which meant they hadn’t stopped on their way here for refueling of any sort.

A familiar cycle was happening on those ships that ran out of fuel. They switched to ki weapons – which meant often they ended up outside of their ships for more concentrated shots. The first close-ups of the individuals gave everyone on SSJ Vengeance pause. Not all of them were ice-jin, but every one of them had a similar feature. The eyes – those who had seen ice-jin and many of the other alien species with them knew there was something wrong with their eyes.

Heck, even those who had never seen ice-jin knew there was something wrong with their eyes. The red, glowing eyes of oorazu on the faces of ice-jin were just wrong.

“Are they diseased?” The ensign at the helm asked.

“I don’t know,” a lieutenant admitted. “Maybe they’re drugged?” he suggested. Everyone could see dozens of those who had started firing ki blasts were quickly wearing themselves down – to the point some of them were losing consciousness. Those who weren’t fainting and becoming floating space corpses, but had obviously lost the ability to form formidable ki blasts, began assaulting Gohan’s shield physically; causing them to become so much space debris and ash in moments.

“Picking up a dozen more ships heading our direction,” the radar technician announced.

Goku knew this meant a new barrage of physical weapons. He worried how Gohan was holding up, even though he could feel his son’s ki and knew it hadn’t flagged through all of the assault over the last two days. There had been several changes of the medical staff monitoring his son’s bodily functions and yet Gohan kept going.

“Another fifty ships,” someone monitoring another station, focused on a different direction in space, announced.

Sixty-two more ships – and how many were sitting out there beyond Gohan’s ki shield as empty shells now? Goku had lost count. The newest enemy arrivals were having to blow the wall of vacated ships out of their way, incidentally killing some of their own people. “It’s madness,” he said aloud. Like insects to a flame – they’d be destroyed, had watched their fellows be destroyed, and yet they kept coming, as though there might be a different conclusion this time. He wondered what or who was driving the ice-jin – and then thought he might not want to know, because understanding the reasoning, or lack thereof, might make him just as crazy.

“I agree, Kakarott,” Vegeta stated – even the data he’d collected from the two saiyans he’d let escape hadn’t given him a scope of what was to come. He had thought there might actually be a battle – something involving tactics – not this constant barrage of varying weapons. The prince wondered if Gohan would be able to hold out until he was the only living thing on SSJ Vengeance.

A day over a week and the demi’s body was showing more of the physical evidence of lack of use. The aides reported they’d had to inflate the cushions several times to make up for weight loss – a loss that couldn’t be stayed by simple nutritional fluids with the amount of energy expenditure Gohan was using. It was disturbing to see a body deteriorate so easily. They had begun to administer analgesics to ease some pain, but they couldn’t give enough to dull all of it, because Gohan needed to be clear-minded. Vegeta would never admit it out loud, but he was glad Gohan’s ki didn’t stem from what shape his body was in.

Even the most belligerent of saiyans who had wanted to fight with their own efforts had quickly realized the scope of what was taking place. Now they understood what they had thought of as a cowardly decision on their prince’s part was actually wisdom. Wisdom none of them would have had the foresight to understand.

It didn’t sit right with many of them – they were a warrior race – but this? Thousands to one ratio? This wasn’t war, or combat that appealed to any of their senses of pride or honor. For some of them old enough to have firsthand knowledge of how Vegeta-sei had been destroyed, this did serve as a sort of ironic justice.

“How long do you think they’ll keep doing this?” A particularly large saiyan at a monitoring station asked. He knelt at the station, rather than using a chair. Tarble wondered if they were going to have to capsulize him just so he could get through the portal.

“Until they’re gone…” someone responded with all seriousness.

“I know, but I meant – how many are left?” the saiyan at the monitoring station clarified his concern.

A saiyan who was incredibly good at statistics, whom Vegeta had intentionally kept on the ship even though his ki wasn’t all that great, answered. “By the amounts of ice-jin in those varying ships and the estimated amount of ice-jin most of the Alliance had agreed upon? Days – no more than a week. They’ll get thicker the longer they have to gather,” he predicted solemnly.

Goku peeked over his shoulder at Gohan. Listening to the facts meant realizing his son had less than a week to live. It put a sour taste in his mouth and he left the bridge abruptly.

Vegeta frowned as he watched Kakarott leave the bridge. He sighed, remembering Kakarott’s threat to go out in space and deal with the ice-jin on his own. Thankfully Kakarott had been silly enough to do so within earshot of Gohan, and Gohan’s animated imaged had told his father there was no way he would allow Kakarott to do so.

Later, back in his chambers, Vegeta had tried to explain, to the distraught father and lover, interference of that sort wouldn’t be a kindness to Gohan. It would only extend the demi’s life longer – and he knew, even if Kakarott didn’t want to admit to it, that neither of them thought of Gohan’s continued existence as ‘living’.

Goku felt in his pocket for the tiny box the gods had given him. It was all about timing. He knew they would be leaving the bridge via the door to the portal Vegeta had shown them. They would exit the ship at the last possible moment – so the ice-jin, if they were rational enough to continue taking life sign readings - wouldn’t know the ship was empty until it was too late for them to back off.

For now he would try to get some rest so he would be clear headed when he got his chance.

Three days later, and very little lack of actual rest on Goku’s part, his moment arrived.

There were still dozens of ice-jin ships firing upon SSJ Vengeance, but there hadn’t been any sightings of new ships joining them for at least ten hours. Gohan had been faking fatigue, giving the ice-jin the motivation to stay and continue to fire upon the lone saiyan ship. The rocking of the ship didn’t actually do damage, but it gave a reasonable reason for ki readings to have started becoming fewer. It was time for the remaining saiyans to make their exit while it would still look as though the ice-jin were the ones to have destroyed them.

As the door closed the sounds of the alarms on the bridge of the ship dimmed with it. Incredibly the last view from the door was of Gohan, and Goku used this to his advantage as long as he could knowing Vegeta would understand that he would want to stay there until he could no longer see his son.

The prince was standing impatiently halfway through the portal, next to the communication crystal on its pillar; he carried the one from his room with him and would be taking this one from its place shortly. He wanted to be certain there were no way to trace this back to Earth.

Goku knew Vegeta was begrudgingly waiting on him and his vigil. He’d already told Vegeta he would follow, but apparently his ex-lover could tell something was happening.

Which meant Goku had to wait, until there was no possibility of Vegeta being able to come after him. Covertly, Goku placed one of the earrings on the ear away from Vegeta’s view – which was difficult to pull off, he had to pretend he was crying since it took two hands to wedge it onto his earlobe. He hadn’t taken into account the amount of time it would take to get the other on his son’s ear – hopefully Gohan would be too surprised to push him back before he’d accomplished his intentions.

“Okay, Kakarott, come on!” Vegeta grabbed the second crystal from the pillar and moved towards the door to Earth.

“Good-bye, Vegeta,” Goku said, without looking back as he brought two fingers to his forehead and I.T.’d so close to Gohan they were touching. Gohan’s lips were dry from disuse as he kissed them, hoping the physical shock would be enough to distract Gohan from what his real intentions were and his son wouldn’t push him way. Despite the fact Gohan jerked in surprise, Goku managed to place the other earring of the pair on Gohan’s ear more quickly than he’d thought he would be able to manage.

Once again he experienced the weird, helpless feeling as his body was maneuvered by magic forces he couldn’t resist. They’d die or live as one.

The strange, blue/white flash of magic as their bodies were forced into the same space was the last thing he remembered.

The door shut before Vegeta was able to glimpse Kakarott one last time. He had no intention of finding out what kind of explosion a saiyan equivalent to a super saiyan three could create when aided by a ships shielding unit.

There was no way he could guess he should be more concerned of Potara magic combining with shielding technology.

“DAMN IT, KAKAROTT!” Vegeta cursed himself mentally as well, for not going with his instincts and keeping a hand on the other saiyan throughout the seemingly short distance through the portal. With a disgusted sigh he ran for the door to Earth.

Bulma looked at her husband and then expectantly behind him, as Vegeta came through the portal. “Close the door,” Vegeta growled as he set the two crystals down. He stood and looked straight into his wife’s eyes as Dende and Mr. Popo did as he instructed. “Kakarott is not coming.” Mr. Popo nodded and began removing the magic which had kept the door seam open.

Trunks slipped a sympathetic hand on Goten’s shoulder. He sighed as it was shrugged off and then younger walked towards his grandfather.

Bulma wasn’t happy at the news her husband gave her. Part of her rationalizing for having the saiyans on Earth had been the assurance that Son-kun would be there to supervise. Yes, her husband and Trunks and Goten would all be able to monitor them, but Son-kun was pure at heart and could always be counted on to have Earth’s best interest in mind. Gohan was the brains of the duo, and although it had been years since she had seen him, Bulma was pretty certain she had been relying on his maturity. It would counteract Trunks and Goten, who both had a playful spirit and weren’t always able to calculate the consequences of their actions until it was too late. As for her husband – she loved him, but there had been times in the past where he hadn’t been trustworthy.

“Gohan?” Vegeta could have screamed when he realized Kakarott’s mate had made it to The Lookout; instead he shook his head. Most folks were torn between watching his answer or watching the spot the door had been as the wall expanded ominously, and then collapsed back into place.

“MY BOYS!” Chichi cried while running for the portion of the wall the portal used to be. Vegeta was pleased that however she had managed to know to come to The Lookout on this particular day, the portal had been kept secret from her until now.

Mr. Popo stepped in front of Chichi, blocking her target. “The door no longer opens,” he said.

Chichi turned about and faced Vegeta. “You! You did this!”

Vegeta frowned, but he couldn’t deny that he had had some portion of the blame for what happened. Just not with the same intentions he would have had a decade prior. “Kakarott chose to stay,” was the only thing he would admit to the banshee.

Suddenly Chichi became frighteningly calm. “That bastard,” was the only thing she said before she marched through the saiyans and remaining Z gang milling around, towards the capsule car her father and Goten stood by. Once there, she stood still for a moment and then marched back to Bulma. “Get me the dragon radar,” she demanded.

Bulma gulped and nodded; even with her husband standing a few feet away she wasn’t going to challenge Chichi.

Vegeta watched Kakarott’s mate go. When she was finally off The Lookout he let himself look at the saiyans standing with him. He smiled; not all of them were at the Lookout, but six hundred and twenty-seven saiyans now called this planet home. It wasn’t a lot, but they were on Earth.

They would build a new warrior race – one that might even rival saiyans.

~o0o~

Two galaxies away from the saiyan ship, Captain Jadus and the crew aboard the Gandlan received the news.

SSJ Vengeance had been destroyed by the ice-jin onslaught. By association, so had the saiyans.

However, in the process, the ice-jin had decimated their numbers.

It was a huge, no-contest victory for the Alliance.

Symbolically the huge black hole left behind the destruction of the saiyan ship sucked up any ice-jin ship arriving late to the confrontation. There was a possibility the ice-jin would wise up and realize there were no more saiyans to destroy and try to leave. If that were the case, the Alliance would clean them up then.
- 9
- 10
- 11
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Soldier Boy