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Hope Leaves	By : pegarsus9 Category: Dragon Ball Z > General Views: 2544 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or its characters and make no money from this story. Blah.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
So, after finally managing to borrow a friend’s laptop after mine passed away ages ago, I’m back. Hopefully going to write the last parts of this story in shorter, more frequent chapters whenever I can borrow this computer. Sorry it’s been so long, but it couldn’t really be helped!

THIS CHAPTER: Bulma tries to execute her unusual plan in a last ditch effort to save herself and Vegeta. Will it be just crazy enough to work? In the meanwhile, Trunks and the prince continue in what will surely be a fight to the death.

"Right Where it Belongs"

...See the animal in his cage that you built

Are you sure what side you're on?

Better not look him too closely in the eye

Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?

See the safety of the life you have built

Everything where it belongs

Feel the hollowness inside of your heart

And it's all...

Right where it belongs...

-Nine Inch Nails

***

Trunks and the Prince continued to fight, their movements a relentless stream of blows and kicks. As far as Trunks could tell from their battle so far, the double was neither as strong as his father, nor was he as skilled a fighter. Either that or the old man who had possessed Brie was tipping the odds in the younger saiyan's favour somehow. To the untrained eye it looked as if the guy was just standing there, his pale, glowing eyes fixed on the fight, gaze shifting occasionally to where Lennon and Myrrh were standing to make sure they didn’t try anything. And yet Trunks felt like he was missing something, something that was possibly interfering with the double's ability to fight, which neither opponent could put their finger on. The only evidence of something being amiss was the hint of confusion in the prince's eyes and the sense of hesitation behind his moves. Was the old guy messing with the double's energy, or what? Personally, Trunks preferred to fight this battle without any help. This was his revenge, and his alone.

'Holding back huh?' Trunks shouted as he hurled a small blast at the prince's face. 'Don't do me any favours, it's insulting!'

'We'll see if you're knocking back favours when I've broken every last bone in your body,' the prince snarled, deflecting the blast back at Trunks.

In the meanwhile, Vegeta and Goten were watching the fight intently, their invisible forms hovering in the shadows of the cave close by to Lennon's computer system. Bulma on the other hand stood directly in front of the machine, trying to put her plan into action.

'What do you think his chances are?' Goten questioned as he watched the fight, trying to hide the fear that was growing inside and festering away in the pit of his stomach.

'It's hard to say at this point,' Vegeta replied slowly, concentrating heavily on trying to work out exactly what was going on. 'Something isn't quite right. That freak who looks like me is holding back but I don't think he's doing it intentionally.'

'But that's a good thing isn't it?' Came the confused reply.

Vegeta gave Goten a brief sideways glance before looking away again and furrowing his brow. 'I don't know,' he finally replied, sounding worried at first, but getting angrier as he continued. ‘I can’t figure out what’s going on. I don’t know what they’re playing at!’

‘Just calm down Vegeta,’ Bulma scolded, eyeing him from where she stood. ‘This is going to work, I swear.’

Vegeta growled in response. ‘It’s the craziest idea you’ve ever had.’

‘Nonsense, I’ve had far crazier ideas than this, and you know what? They’ve all worked, because I’m just brilliant like that. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.’

‘But what are exactly are you gunna to do?’ Goten asked, having not really understood the first time she’d tried to explain it earlier on when he’d met up with her and Vegeta.

‘It’s like I was saying before. A few years ago I had this idea come to me when I was thinking of your dad, and all the crazy things that have happened with him over the years. Anyway, it occurred to me that we’ve all had so many encounters with the spirits of the dead. We’ve had them speak to us, visit us here on earth, even try to hurt us, and it made me think. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could understand more about the spirit world, as in, what kind of force or energy allows them to communicate with us and to cross over into our world? I just had to know, so I started researching it as a bit of a side project if you will. Right now, I’m trying to use some of what I learned through my research. I don’t have the advantage of using my physical body to tap into this computer in front of me, but perhaps that could work to my advantage, if my means of operating this machine are something other than physical.’

‘Soooo it’s like some kind of paranormal activity thing?’

‘If that helps you understand it better, then sure Goten. It’s paranormal activity,’ she chuckled. Neither of them could see the other member of their group rolling his eyes.

‘It’s lunacy, that’s what it is,’ Vegeta grumbled. ‘We’re doomed.’

‘Oh hush you. Just wait and see; Bulma is going to save the day once again!’ She didn’t sound the slightest bit discouraged about it either, and yet Goten obviously couldn’t help being sceptical. Turning his eyes back to the fight, a mixture of fear and helplessness filled him when he stared at the imposter’s face, not missing the wild, murderous look in the mad man’s eyes as he delivered a brutal kick to Trunks’ stomach.

‘Damn it,’ he hissed. ‘If I didn’t practically get myself killed by that bastard I could have been helping Trunks right now. If I wasn’t such an idiot, we could’ve beat him together easily.’

‘Well it’s too late for regrets now boy. Trunks will have to win this one on his own… perhaps,’ Vegeta trailed off, staring at the doctor with suspicion. It was still hard to trust him, to know for sure if the secretive spirit-being was truly on their side.

‘Guys, come over here,’ Bulma chirped excitedly. ‘I need your help for this bit. Now just look at the screen and watch me work my magic.’

Dragging his eyes away from the fight, Goten wondered over to the computer, still feeling very sceptical until he saw the screen. Somehow, numbers and letters were very slowly changing, as though she were operating the machine despite the fact she wasn’t touching it.

‘How…’

‘It’ll be hard to put it in terms you’d understand. Right now we’ve got other things to worry about,’ she explained whilst Vegeta was reluctantly walking over to them.

‘What are you doing now you crazy woman?’ he grumbled.

‘I’m commandeering this computer, and I’m trying to do it discretely. I need you guys to create a distraction.’

Goten giggled before he could stop himself. ‘Do we need white sheets to put over our heads?’

‘Very funny. No I do not want you to pretend to be a ghost. Well, maybe a little bit. What you need to do is go over to those two guys by the door and just walk around them in circles, while focusing on them very carefully and paying attention to what happens or any reaction they might display.’

‘But how-‘

‘No questions right now. Just do it. Vegeta, your role in this is going to be a bit more complicated. You’re going to have to possess that clone of yourself and allow Trunks to defeat you.’

‘What?!’ Vegeta questioned in disbelief, his eyes widening. ‘Even if I could do that, what would it achieve?’

‘If you possess the double and let Trunks defeat you, then we may be able to switch you and the double around. Look, the physical body you normally occupy is over there tied down to that bed, right? And that bed exists in the entrance to the rift we just came out of, a space that’s halfway between our world and that one. What we need is to get the clone hooked up to the bed and this machine so we can send him back to where he came from. Then, just before he disappears, you leave his body and reoccupy your own.’ A triumphant smile crossed Bulma’s lips, but she could see that her husband wasn’t convinced.

‘I figured that’s what you were thinking, but you seem to have completely forgotten Lennon,’ he argued. ‘How do you expect to make him cooperate with your plan? You’d need him to switch the two of us around, but you know he’d never do that. Even if Trunks were to threaten his life, Lennon would probably just pretend to go along with the demand and then seal off the rift permanently. Don’t you remember what Goten told us before, about how the doctor warned him that Lennon would seal off any and all open rifts as soon as it looked like he might fail at whatever it is he’s trying to achieve? He isn’t going to trust Trunks to let him walk free once the switch had been made. As you can probably see, he’s no fool and if he goes down, he’s taking us all with him.’

‘I know that Vegeta. And that’s why *I’m* going to do the switch. I’ll let the doctor deal with Lennon. That seems to be all he’s really interested in anyway.’ Her voice was calm and confident, as though she firmly believed she could achieve the extremely difficult task she’d set for herself.

‘But that’s impossible, you can’t have figured out his technology already! You can’t even physically touch the machine, how could you hope to-‘

A small hand was held up in front of his face to silence him, and his eyes drifted slowly to Bulma’s face, which was set firmly in a look of determination. She gave him that comical wink and smile, the way she always did when she was swearing black and blue that one of her bizarre intuitions was going to come true. ‘Just try me,’ she challenged. ‘Everything and everyone I care about is on the line here. I can’t fail, and I won’t. We’ve done the impossible together before, and we’ll do it again.’

As Vegeta listened to her, a genuine smile touched his lips. For quite some time before all this trouble had started, things had been both tense and distant between them, and it became difficult to remember exactly why he’d stayed alongside Bulma for so many years. Now he remembered. A little madness could be refreshing at times.

‘You told me that look-a-like is a part of you, so much so that he actually emerged from your body. I could feel it all that time he was with me,’ Bulma continued, trying to hide the sadness rushing into her eyes. ‘Go over to him now. I don’t think it will be hard for you to reunite with him. You’ll need to focus on him very carefully, and imagine that you’re of one mind, like you used to be. It should happen naturally. Hopefully you’ll be able to separate from him afterwards…’ she trailed off, the sadness now creeping into her voice.

‘There’s no time to think about that. I’ll find a way. Now do what you have to do. If you say you can do it, then I’m sure you can.’ With that, Vegeta turned away from her and drifted over towards the double, trying to still his thoughts enough to remember every detail of the part of himself that was manifested in this creature.

I used to live for the thrill of the hunt and feed off the pain of others, he recalled. Power was all that mattered to me then. That at least hasn’t completely changed. Hunger for power is the thing that the two sides of myself have most in common, but many other things make us different. Seeing and hearing about this clone is like seeing my past self. His actions are driven by rage, lacking in any rational motive other than to cause suffering or gain revenge. If there’s one thing getting older has taught me, it’s to remain calm in battle and not allow my anger to get the better of me, rather than making moves that are hasty and poorly thought out. So, he thought, grinning to himself, if I’m to be one with my other self again, I should just ignore all reason and logic.

To further aid his efforts to reunite with the double, Vegeta observed each movement he made and positioned himself in the same space, mimicking the attacks in a sense. It felt like something was changing, something in the atmosphere or in himself that he couldn’t pinpoint. Perhaps the merge was beginning to happen. Although there was no way of telling what the final outcome of Bulma’s plan would be, a sense of anticipation was building at the thought of having a physical body again. He was sick and tired of not being able to control a single thing that happened to him, however the anticipation ended when a fist connected directly with his face. Once he’d gotten his bearings, Vegeta looked over to see that it was Trunks who’d punched him.

‘Well, on the bright side, it looks like the possession was successful. In fact, it was easy,’ he muttered to himself, rubbing his jaw and grinning. Trunks’ attacks had been quite impressive so far, particularly that one. He was always improving, and although he didn't train nearly as much as Vegeta would have liked, the natural strength and ability that seemed to result from the mixing of saiyan and human blood compensated for that.

‘Gees, smiling and talking to yourself? Don’t tell me you’ve flipped you’re lid already when the fight’s just started.’

Vegeta began to laugh. Things were finally beginning to look up. ‘You’ve got a bit of an attitude, haven’t you boy? I wonder who you picked that up from.’

‘Didn’t you hear what I said before? Shut up and fight!’ Trunks shouted, charging him again. Vegeta feigned a defensive move but allowed his son to hit him at the last moment, sending him flying backwards into the wall right beside Lennon and Myrrh. Gazing off to the side, he could vaguely see that Goten was doing was something bizarre to get the attention of the two alien men, circling them and tapping their shoulders. Obviously they couldn’t feel it physically, but Bulma must have instructed him to do it. Hopefully it was working, if the confused looks on their faces were anything to go by.

A sharp pain in his head distracted Vegeta from making his next move. Cursing and gripping his skull, he concluded that there was no way Trunks’ attacks could have damaged him this much, no, the double must have been fighting back to regain control of his body. Sure enough, a voice sounded very faintly somewhere in the back of his mind, so faintly that the words were impossible to make out, but the malice in them was clear. The voice quickly went silent, and was replaced by vivid images being flashed behind his eyes. Memories, they were definitely memories, and yet Vegeta had never seen any of them before in his life. First there were things he must have done but not remembered doing when he was young, horrific things that he wouldn’t have thought even he was capable of. Then there were memories that looked to be more recent, and these were far worse than the ones that came before.

Everything that the double had done in the last few months while Vegeta was trapped in the rift was now being revealed. The way he’d treated Bra, what he’d done to Goten. How he’d violated the frumpy woman who lived next door… then done the same thing to Bulma a few days later. His vision began to go grey at the sight of this last memory. To think that there was something inside him that would attack Bulma of all people in such a savage, deplorable way; it raised the question of whether it was truly right for him to return to his life on earth after this was over. If all he’d left her and their children with in the end was sorrow and suffering, then perhaps it was best if he made sure of their safety this one last time, and then… then what? Now he could make out what the voice in the back of his head was saying, whispering with menace in the native language of his home world, ‘Do you see what you’ve done?’

***

...What if everything around you

Isn't quite as it seems?

What if all the world you think you know

Is an elaborate dream?

And if you look at your reflection

Is it all you want it to be?

What if you could look right through the cracks?

Would you find yourself...

Find yourself afraid to see...?

NEXT CHAPTER: Bulma's plan starts to come together, but it won't succeed if her family starts to fall apart. No matter how high the odds are stacked against him, Lennon refuses to give up without a fight, and he might have one last trump card up his sleeve.
- 15
- 16
- 17
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Hope Leaves