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Metamorphosis Alpha	By : gokugirl Category: Dragon Ball Z > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 5075 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own DragonballZ, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Chapter 8: The Limits of Human
Technology

"Helping people out is kind of what we do." -
Trunks

Early the next morning Trunks returned. He let himself in the house and was
pouring himself a glass of juice when Chelsia noticed that he was there. She
froze in the doorway between the kitchen and living room and stared at him in
shock, but she didn't scream and was very proud of herself for not doing so.

"Do you always do this?" she asked curiously as she also got something
to drink.

"Hai. Goten and I have known each other since we were little kids. Usually
he's always at my house, but lately my mother's been pretty pissed off so we
decided that I'd better come over here." He sat down across the table from
her. "It must be pretty rough knowing that so many people are counting on
you."

"Well, me and three others, actually. We all went off in different
directions and I hope one of them found someone and will be back before I get
there. I think I traveled out the farthest." She stared down at the table,
hoping that the young man nearby didn't notice the tears forming in her eyes.
"I also hope that there will be people still left when I return."

"On the bright side, I have an idea. We might just be able to get you back
home in fewer than eight weeks if I take a few of the ideas people have been
tossing around lately and make them reality. There will be a few trials, of
course, just to make sure that everything's safe, but the entire process should
take no more than a week. In no time at all you can see your home again."

She was happy, and she tried to smile, but it trembled around the edges. "I
don't know how to repay you. This is far more than most people do for
strangers."

"Helping people out is kind of what we do," he assured her. Patting
her shoulder gently, he left the room.

Chelsia sat in the dark kitchen, sipping her juice, happy that everyone seemed
to be sincere, but also half afraid that everything would come tumbling down.

***

"I loaded several blueprints into the computer and I modified a few of them
to suit our needs. So far, Ship C seems to be the best, but Ship B would do in a
pinch..."

While Trunks, Chelsia, and Vegeta stared avidly at the monitor, Goten and Goku
were bored beyond belief. They couldn't understand most of what Trunks was
saying, so they'd tuned him out somewhat early on. Now, the two of them sat at a
small table in the corner and chatted idly.

"Was Vegeta right?" Goku asked in the middle of a conversation about
pizza toppings.

Goten blinked at him while his brain switched gears. "Huh?"

"About Chelsia. Do you like her?"

Blushing, he muttered, "I think she's attractive, yeah, but that might be
because she's so androgynous." He was proud of himself for remembering the
word. "Didn't you say that you and Vegeta-san thought she was a boy at
first?"

"So, if Chelsia really was a boy, would you want to date her?" His
cheeks flamed. "Ah ha. Goten, there's nothing wrong with dating boys. I
used to think that it was strange that someone would want to be with someone
else of the same sex, but you can't help who you like. I feel more strongly
about Vegeta than I ever felt about your mother. For the most part, we're
equals. He's learned not to underestimate me."

"Okay, so maybe I don't mind the thought of liking another male. But this
is sort of complicated."

"How so?"

"It's Trunks, Tousan. We've always been close and I don't want to ruin our
relationship if he doesn't like me the way that I like him."

He smiled, but it confused his son. Goku knew that he would have no problem
taking their relationship a step further. In fact, he'd always thought that
Vegeta's son and his youngest were a perfect match. "Well, you have a few
options. One: you could do nothing. This way you wouldn't lose him as a friend,
but you might lose the chance to have him as a lover. Two: you could show or
explain to him how you feel. You might lose a friend but, then again, your
relationship with him might grow even deeper. Three: you can have someone else
test the waters and see what his reaction is before you talk to
him."

Goten nodded and thought about it. He couldn't imagine life without Trunks by
his side and had felt horrible those few times his friend had gone out on dates
with other people. He himself had never been able to do so because he felt like
he was betraying a young man who had no idea how he really felt about him.
"I can't just pretend that I'm alright with just being friends, Tousan, I
just can't."

"Then pick the time you think is best and let him know. I had an excuse; if
Vegeta hadn't gone into heat I might not have ever told him how I felt about
him."

He couldn't help it, he blushed again. "Please don't mention that
again."

"What? The Second Change?" He chuckled. "You do know that it's
only a few years until I go through that, right?"

"Tousan!" He buried his head into his arms, unable to look at him any
longer.

"Well, it's the truth. Luckily we have more information to go on and my
mate is already right by my side. I don't know what would have happened to
Vegeta if he and I had never met, and I'm afraid to think about it."

Vegeta's voice startled Goten (whose back was to the others). "Oi! What are
you doing to the boy over there, Kakarotto?"

"Oh, nothing..." He smiled serenely while explaining to his mate
mentally what they'd talked about. Vegeta snorted and said something to the
effect that both their sons were wasting valuable time and Goku agreed
wholeheartedly.

Around one o'clock, Trunks and Chelsia took a break. In the time they spent
studying plans and making alterations, no one else had entered the lab. Trunks
explained that they were in one of the smaller, older labs that no one save him
used anymore. Buruma had long since graduated to a larger space and the official
Capsule Corporation labs were on the other side of the building. So he'd
appropriated it for his own use and people seemed to respect that.

As a group, they decided to head downtown and find a nice restaurant. It was
risky dining in the Capsule Corp. with the possibility of Buruma finding Goku
and Vegeta in her home. She was still just as angry as she'd been a few days
before -- in fact, she seemed to be three times as angry. It was as if she
blamed them for gaining the sympathy of most of their friends and family and
turning her into the Wicked Bitch of the East. Of course, the fact that she
hated to be wrong about anything played a large role in her anger.

So when the group bumped into her on their way out the door, an inevitable
argument ensued.

"Why are you in my house?" she asked heatedly, a scowl on her face.
"I don't want you here! Trunks, get away from them."

Everyone stared at her, most of them thinking that she'd lost her mind. Chelsia
simply thought that she was a very angry woman who should be avoided at all
costs. "Kaasan, what are you talking about? This is Goku-san and Papa for
Kami's sake!"

"Your 'papa' is a man not to be trusted. And Goku proved to me recently
that he shouldn't be trusted, either." She turned her back to them and
started off in the opposite direction. "I want you both out of my house in
five minutes or I'm calling the police."

The small group watched her retreat. Goten and Trunks exchanged looks and simply
shook their heads in incredulity; Chelsia, having been a little frightened, was
quite happy when Buruma went away; Vegeta growled in anger, wishing that he
could teach the "onna" a lesson and get away with it; and Goku looked
as if his heart was breaking for a second time. All his mate could do to comfort
him was wrap an arm around his waist and hold on.

"There's not much you can do," he said softly. "The onna is as
stubborn as a mule."

"I don't care, 'geta, she's my friend. How many more people am I going to
lose?" Vegeta could feel him intake a quick, rapid breath, and was
astonished to see a lone tear carve a path down his cheek. Goku did a lot of
things, but crying had never been one of them.

So he just held him as long as was necessary, communicating through murmured
words and soothing touches that he would always be there right by his side.

***

Things progressed slowly as Trunks went to work on the fusion reactor. Chelsia
led the others in the actual construction of the ship in the meantime so that no
time was wasted and they were able to complete majority of it in half a week by
working nearly non-stop. Goku and Vegeta didn't run into Buruma again, but, then
again, they made sure to teleport in and out of the lab instead of walking
through the house. Her hostility was something Goku could not endure without
completely falling apart for a long time afterwards, which then caused him to
question the nature of his relationship with Vegeta. That, in turn, made his
overprotective mate angry to the point that he wanted nothing more to kill the
mother of his children, not that it would have solved any of their problems. So,
it was best for everyone involved if the two Saiya-jin went out of their way to
avoid all contact with her.

Trunks' trials were both a success as well as a failure. While it was good that
he was able to construct an engine faster that anyone on Chikyuu had ever used
before with a little help from a few scientists from Capsule Corp., it wasn't
fast enough to get Chelsia home in under a month. As they all quietly let this
sink in, Goten was struck with an idea.

"What about her ship? Didn't Buruma-san and her otousan modify both
Kami-sama's ship as well as Tousan's space pod into usable ships? They both had
advanced technology that the people here hadn't seen before."

His friend slapped him happily on the back. "Chibi, you're a genius! We'll
just have to find where it crashed and haul it back here. Goku-san, do you know
where you were when you saved her?"

He shrugged. "Uh, iie. Gomen."

"Papa?"

"What do I look like, a global positioning system? I was just along for the
ride. Kakarotto could have teleported to the North Pole and I wouldn't have ever
realized it."

The three youngsters deflated. "Oh," Chelsia whispered.

"Do you know what you were over?" Trunks asked her gently.

She shook her head. "I know it was a large body of water, but beyond that I
have no clue. My systems were going haywire from the attack that hit me in the
atmosphere." She stared at the floor for a few seconds before her head
jerked up in fear. "Are they still out there? Did they land down here to
search for me?"

"Not that I know of," Goku said, "and my senses are pretty
attuned to that sort of thing. If they weren't, I probably wouldn't have gotten
to you in time."

The thought of sinking into the depths of an ocean, her body never to be found,
made Chelsia shiver. "I'm open to suggestions, guys. If it takes me three
years to get back home, I still want to go. There might still be something left
to save even then, you know?"

"I'll do what I can," Trunks promised.

***

Things didn't get better. Trunks continued to work almost non-stop on the ship's
engines, but still could not get the technology up to the same level as
Chelsia's old ship. Finding her spacecraft without a better starting point
(instead of one that could be anywhere in roughly 78% of Chikyuu's total surface
area) would be next to impossible. Goku tentatively proposed an idea of his own
when he saw the devastated look on his new acquaintance's face. He could
probably probe Chelsia's mind and find a place to teleport them to, but doing so
might be dangerous enough that she refused to let him try. She wasn't too
thrilled by the idea, but admitted that she would do it if there were no other
options. The thought of being so vulnerable to someone, no matter how kind they
were, scared her almost as much as the thought of losing her homeworld to the
Naghani.

Eventually, however, it became apparent that Goku's mental probe was the best
chance they had to make it in time. Trunks was both physically and mentally
exhausted from his research and labor only to realize that what they needed
wouldn't be invented quickly enough. There was a limit to his knowledge and
ability and he had finally reached it.

"Thank you for all that you've done, Trunks. Just thinking about how much
you were willing to help me cheers me up." Chelsia smiled at him, but it
was filled with heart-wrenching sadness. She hugged him and stepped back quickly
before the comforting feel of his arms around her caused the dam holding back a
flood of tears to burst.

"Please don't cry," Goku said somewhat desperately, seriously hoping
that she didn't. He hated the helplessness and panic he always felt when someone
was overwhelmed by emotion. "I'm going to see what I can do. Unfortunately,
I've never teleported as far as your planet seems to be, but there's always a
first time for everything." He grinned encouragingly and motioned her to
sit down on the sofa in his living room. "She might be more comfortable if
you guys weren't here while I do this."

She looked hopefully at them. "Please?"

As Vegeta, Trunks, and Goten filed into the kitchen, Goku kneeled in front of
Chelsia and explained exactly how the process would work. "I've done this
before so don't worry. Although, I was trying to extract memories instead of
locking onto a specific place. But this should be a lot easier since you're
going to help me."

"What do I have to do?"

"Focus on a place that you know is safe, or at least was safe when
you left home. Think of how it looked in detail, how it felt to be there, how it
smelled. The better you're able to recreate your experience there, the better
the chance I have of getting us to the right place. Don't allow your mind to
stray from it at all. I'm going to take us there by using the image in your mind
and we'll see if everything's okay before taking the others along with us. Are
you ready, Chelsia?"

The young woman nodded, biting her lip slightly in nervousness. "Will I
feel it?" She blushed and tried to voice her concern in a better way.
"I mean, will it hurt?"

"You shouldn't feel a thing. Just lean back and relax as much as you can.
Remember to only think of the place you want us to visit or I might get
confused."

Goku went around to the back of the sofa and placed both his hands gently on her
head. "Do you have a place in mind?"

"Yes."

"Okay, here we go." He closed his eyes and reached deeply for an
ability he hadn't needed to use since Furiza was still alive.

The instant his mind touched Chelsia's own, he was engulfed in all manner of
sensations. He saw a large room encased in darkness except for soft orange light
coming from a large fireplace that he knew sent warmth across his skin wherever
it touched. An impressive desk of dark wood sat parallel to one wall covered in
bookshelves that went all the way to the high ceiling. Two comfortable chairs
with low backs and thin leather-covered wooden arms sat opposite a single
high-backed chair of black leather while two more leather chairs sat before the
fire, a furry rug covering the floor between.

Above the mantel hung a large painting of a family of three: mother, father, and
child. The woman, who sat in a chair, had long blonde hair that flowed around
her face in soft waves, bright blue eyes, and a gentle smile. Behind her stood a
tall man dressed in a green turban and matching tunic complete with a cape
fastened around his shoulders with two golden buttons. The hair that descended
below the head covering was black and he possessed startling purple eyes. He
rested a hand on the woman's shoulder and gazed down at her and his child with a
subtle adoring look.

On the woman's lap sat a child of about three or four years with her mother's
hair in two pigtails on either side of her head and her father's eyes. She wore
a grin so large it threatened to split her face in two and a little blue dress
with short puffy sleeves. The more Goku focused on the family portrait, the
easier he could see Chelsia in the little girl.

The words "My father's study" echoed through her mind and Goku
mentally gave his approval. Removing one hand from Chelsia's head, he placed his
index and middle fingers against his forehead. A moment later they were gone.
- 7
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- 9
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Metamorphosis Alpha