Much Like Suffocating

“Nappa?” Like it was the most amazing thing in the
world to be seeing this huge Saiyan that could kill them with one foot. And looked like he was just about to do it
too. Then he looked at Bulma. “That was my personal guard.” Climbed to his feet.

She
kept the comment of ‘he didn’t do a great job, did he’ to herself and decided to
go with: “Bardock’s probably got his mind warped.” Motioned to the rings of metal around their necks. “That’s why we’ve got these things,
remember, to keep from becoming Bardock zombies.” She looked at Nappa and saw that he wasn’t exactly pleased to have
them running into them, and he was moving slowly, but he was moving to attack
them. “Oh, we need to leave him alone
now.”

Vegeta
ignored her, pulled the thing off his neck and avoided the sweeping arms that
tried to grab him (Vegeta’s whole body was like the size of this guys hand) and
dropped the dampener on the large one’s oversized bald head, and as simple as
that, as stupidly as that (stupid Prince for taking off his dampener) Nappa
stopped trying to grab Vegeta, actually did get his hand wrapped around him and
said:

“Prince
Vegeta?” Then a look of sheer
disbelief. “Bardock said you were
dead.”

Vegeta
glared, shoved the fingers off him and smacked Nappa—but he did it friendly
like—“Obviously he exaggerates.” Then
he descended back to the floor and pressed a hand to his temple. “Lets go, Cat.” Turned to look at Nappa, “Stop any Saiyan that comes this
way. Let the mix breeds and the spider
through.” Then he grabbed Bulma by the
elbow and propelled her forward.

“Idiot!”
she snapped, “What’s going to protect your mind now?”

“Don’t
worry about it.”

~~~***

They
all had to die.

Trunks
realized it. Could tell because when his
eyes went black, and the auras overlaid the physical sight he saw how stained
they were. How disgusting they were caked
with filth from their lives and being in the service of the traitor. Vegeta would have ordered them all dead,
just as soon as their crimes were brought to the attention of the public,
because as barbaric as Saiyans could be, they did not approve of crimes against
their own kind. Then all these poor
bastards would have died in shame, would have been executed. So he did them a favor, let them die in
honor, in the service of their lost King.

Felt
the sword slicing through their frozen flesh.
They kept coming, more and mor the them, younger and younger. Until their auras weren’t burning bright
with filth. Felt Goten digging into his
mind for a handhold, and panted, gripped the sword tighter and tried to be that
pillar of strength or stability or whatever bullshit.

(…Vegeta’s
minds unguarded. Krillin’s almost got
the Gods called. …shit,) there was
pain in that voice and the hand dug harder into his mind. (Fuck.
Don’t kill them, Trunks. They’re
babies.) The hand slid, then
tightened again. He turned around; saw
Goten, his hair white standing straight and the shield around him and Krillin
was shimmering, growing thinner and weaker.
(I hate Bardock. I hate that
bastard. We’re going to kill him and
make him scream and when he does, I’m going to laugh.)

Trunks
raised his hand, felt the spider that loomed over his shoulder lean forward and
raise its legs. Focused on building a
web of ice, focused on that only and it formed before him, white at first, like
spider-web and then it thickened, shimmered dark silver and his eyes blinked
normal as the spider withdrew back into him, disappointed at the loss of
blood.

~~~***

(Why
don’t you just scream: Come and get me Bardock, you fucking moronic asshole.)
he snapped at Vegeta. Extended another
mental hand, so he was hanging on for life to Trunks’ mind, covering Bardock
and watching him esslessly return to that sight of his son’s last gasping
breath. Tears and blood and it was
beautiful for that bastard. He loved
it. Would have loved it more if his son
had blond hair when he died, but that would have been too good to be true, so
Goten left it be. Then there was his
hand in Vegeta’s mind, wrapped around that part of the Prince that defined him
and dictated his actions. To keep out
the control that emanated and burned from deep inside the palace where those
lost Juro were crouched and chanting.
Repeating the same things over and over in their mind.

But
the Prince didn’t seem to care very much.
Kept moving, kept going for the goal with a single-minded disregard for
his life that wasn’t so much commendable as idiotic and it made Goten smirk and
he was starting to think he might have just fallen a wee bit in love with the
Prince.

(Why is it taking so
long?) That was Trunks’ voice in
his mind, and when he turned his head to look with his physical eyes, he saw
his lover wiping the blade of his sword free of ice and blood. Standing before a wall that was as thick as
the length of their arm. Saw his hair
stay black and his eyes stayed blue and he was looking directly at him, at the
Jurs sts still stood and chanted.

Arms raised in supplication,
mind subservient and begging. Chanting
for his Gods. Chanting so long and with
such great focus that it was very possible he missed the carnage and chaos
around him. Because when Goten turned
the other way, there was Chichi licking blood off her fingers and her lips,
waiting for the next throat to rise to the slaughter. Goku stood, impressive with his power, and the shadows he had
burned into the wall were a horrible parody of a crowd praising him. The floor at his feet was red, and Goten
knew—as well as Goku himself—that the floor would be red forever now.

(The Gods are lazy bums,)
he replied. Looked back at Trunks and
gave him a bare little smile. Knew what
a sight he was, because he felt his skin cracking open, but couldn’t feel the
pain. Just the slip of parted skin and
the flow of warmth over him. His
blood. But he wasn’t cold.

He
closed his eyes again, found himself back in the monstrous vision, back looking
at Kakarot’s broken little body. At his
father’s face, but instead of smirking this time, the bastard had tears. Looked at his bloody hands and felt remorse
that made Goten gag. Asshole. He didn’t deserve to feel bad for what he
had done. He deserved to feel the pain
of it, the shame of it forever and ever until he got so sick from it he couldn’t
br. He should be laughing, and
Bardock fell to his knees in his little vision and sobbed. Sobbed and sobbed, and Goten would have
kicked him, but he was just a shadow in this world.

He
was a shadow in all the worlds. And
just to make Bardock stop his screaming tears, he raised his hand, got the specter
of Kakarot back on his feet, made him giggle, walk over to his father and look
at him. Look at him with such kind
little eyes, with such depth of sorrow and emotion, and only in his mind, only
in a world that never existed, Bardock wrapped his arms around his child and
begged to be forgiven.

Goten
could have puked.

Goku:
Sheesh. Could this battle get
longer?

Goten: My
name is Krillin. What’s yours?

Krillin:
That can’t be good.an>

Goten: Of
course its great. I’m the Prince of the
JURO!

Goku:
Trunks, get over here and fix this.

Trunks:
Okay. *marches over to fix the
problem. *

Macha:

Lol. Glad to hear it. Just wait tell we get to Bardock.

Mechanical Butterfly:

I
never thought of Goten that way.
Huh. But that’s an interesting
point. He does seem upbeat for a guy
being punished all the time.

Glad
you’re excited. Yeah! Yay!
*jumps around frantically. *