Dragonball Super Z
http://hometown.aol.com/juuhachigouda/dbszfic.html
By: MiraiBulma
Dragonball Z

Interlude One: The Moment Within -

~*~

	Dark, and cold, and echoing, a feeling of a great void that was 
somehow closing in as he drifted, barely able to see hmself except as a 
pale outline, a lesser blackness against the black. This wasn't the 
clean touch of Death; this was the final crushing hold of Not-Being, of 
winking out like a candle that reaches its end and will never be lit 
again. It was enough to teach even a Saiyajin to fear.
	It wasn't the kind of lesson he wanted.
	The anger rose up in him, and he held onto it, let it drive back 
the shadows that were trying to creep in and stifle him. He was the 
best of the best, the shining one, raised from childhood to look down 
on all others, to be the source of their envy and respect. No one, no 
one could match him, let alone hope to surpass him.
	Except one.

	That made him all the angrier, and the rage drove him onwards, 
made him lift his voice in a soundless shout:

	*Kakarott!*

--Nothing.

	*KAKAROTT!*

--Nothing.

	*ANSWER ME! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!*

--Something; something so weak and faint it might've been his 
imagination, but he knew better. In this enigmatic place there wasn't 
any room for imagination, or dreams, or delusions. The place itself 
crushed them out as it wanted to crush out everything else. Not even a 
word, really; not even a name; only the sense of something--someone--
trying to respond. He grabbed for the sense, lost it, cursed himself, 
and found it again, letting it lead him.

	Pale in the ocean of night, almost invisible, thinner even than 
his own form... if it was a form.. if this was somewhere, anywhere at 
all... *Kakarott?*
	**V...gt...a. **
	
	His chest tightened at the response. It was-- no, not weak, as 
he'd thought earlier. Tired. Tired beyond the meaning of the word, 
almost. He'd never heard Kakarott's voice sound that way, not in 
defeat, not in sorrow, not even at the edge of Heaven or Hell. All the 
life, all the emotion, all the willpower, drained out of it. Of their 
own volition his arms encircled the other man's shoulders and drew him 
in, supporting him so he could look down into the familiar features. 
	
	*Kakarott..?*
	**You... shouldn't have come here.** A little something more in 
the voice now; that damnable cheer, if only a ghost of it.
	*Don't tell me what to do. Haven't you learned that by now? Who 
are you to tell me anything! I'm Vegeta, the Prince of the Saiyajin! I 
am the greatest of the Elite and your superior by a hundred generations 
and more.*
	**Sou...** a faint, faint laugh, too soon over. **Did... it 
work?**
	*You mean that idiot's idea of yours, the Fusion? Yes, it worked. 
The Dragon Killer is gone. And you--if you think you're escaping my 
vengeance this way--*
	**Vegeta. Don't.... not here. There's no room.. no time.**
	*And what's that supposed to mean, imbecile?*
	**I'll sleep pretty soon now. Sleep forever. No dreams, no 
memories... no me.**
	*SHUT UP! Don't talk that way!*
	**Why? It's true. You know that.**
	*I know noth--* he choked, stopped, unable to finish. Of course 
he knew. He knew. *Baka... *
	A slow, tender smile this time, then a little sigh. **It was good 
to fight with you... say goodbye to you one more time. Demo, you should 
go now. If you stay too close, you go with me. **
	*Go where?*
	**I dunno. Wherever is you go when you stop being.**
	*You are NOT going ANYwhere!* Again that tightness in his chest, 
and he wanted to shake Kakarott, hit him, beat him till his hands 
ached, just to drive that feeling away, to make IT not be. Because it 
brought with it talons of fear that were raking through him like 
razors, despite the armor of his fury. This was the end; the last 
goodbye; there would be nothing left of this man in a moment or two.

	Blown out, the candle of his soul spent.
	And then he, Vegeta, would be the last, the very last of their 
kind, the very last Saiyajin born to Vegetasei and not to that butter-
soft blue world. The last to know the true joy of battle, to run before 
it and ride it till pain and hunger and thirst became less than a 
single drop of rain, till every moment was hammered out in a white wild 
frenzy of blows taken and given, and nothing more important than the 
desire to go on, to so fight with perfect and beautiful rage till you 
dropped.

	*You cannot leave me*, the words tore out of him. *Not like this. 
We should die in battle, with the taste of our own blood in our mouths 
and a hundred enemies to be our honor guards in Hell. *
	**We don't always get what we want, ne, Vegeta?**
	*I DO! *
	**Not here. Not now. **
	*This isn't like you. What, have you become a coward, Kakarott, 
to g-- to give--*
	**You can't say it. Cause you know's not true. No room for 
anything but truth here now, Vegeta. Soon, not room for even that. 
Onegai... go now. You got so much to live for.**
	*And you don't?!?! What gives you the right to let go and stop 
trying?! I should leave you to your fate here for the idea of it!*
	**It's not, you know, want to... It's such beautiful world, 
Chikyuu.**
	*Who will defend it, then, when you're gone?*
	**You. And Gohan. And Trunks too. You all have the power.**
	*You're a fine one to talk about power, when you don't even have 
the strength of will to fight for your wretched life.*
	**Hai... I don't.**
	*...Nani?*
	**All gone... everything... ah, Vegeta, I'm so tired. So tired.**

	And he was, so weary, so thin and light to hold, almost gone... 
fainter than mist, a dandelion seed on an autumn wind. How it was Gokou 
was even managing to make himself 'heard' Vegeta didn't know. *Another 
thing you best me at*, he thought purely to himself, sourly. But the 
feeling passed. That much Kakarott was right about, there was no room 
for anything here now but truth that cut like steel and some strange, 
heavy feeling that made his soul like lead.
	No; not so strange after all. He knew what it was. He was a 
Saiyajin, fiercest of warriors, cruel and unrelenting, proud and 
vengeful. He should have no other feelings than these, and yet, now, 
something rose up, as unrelenting as anything else he'd ever felt, 
driving him before it with no quarter and no patience for a Prince's 
rank or a Prince's pride.
	Something very like it had brought him to his knees before, for 
the sake of one woman whom he'd taken as mate. Never mind that she was 
only a weak human, only fit for a moment's distraction; he'd been 
unable to rest, unable to resist, till she was his... and he was hers. 
This held none of the attendant associations of desire or passion, but 
it was cousin to that feeling, and it would not let him stay silent.

	*Kakarott... Kakarott, hold onto me.*
	**Nani..?**
	*Hold onto me. I'll be your strength. I will have you out of 
here... or neither of us will leave.*
	**Vegeta--**
	*Don't. Don't speak. Don't waste whatever strength you have left. 
Only hold onto me. T...Trust me. BELIEVE in me.*
	**Aaaa, Vegeta... you're such a baka.**
	*Nani?!*
	**Always there to catch me when I fall... always saying, you're 
gonna kill me, you're gonna beat me...might've really started out that 
way, I know... isn't that way no more. Hasn't been for a long time. You 
don't gotta ask me to believe in you or trust you. I already do. I 
always have. You're my friend.**
	*Friend...* One word, a hammerblow, shattering the armor of will 
and fury, cracking him open and leaving him defenseless. *Ah, damn you, 
DAMN you Kakarott, it's you, you should've stood at my side, not Nappa, 
not Raditz, not any other Saiyajin that ever was or would've been. What 
an empire I might've carved, WE might've carved, we WOULD have carved, 
you and I--*

	No answer in words this time. Only a great lifting happiness that 
his eyes were open, open at last; and in echo of it, Gokou's hand 
lifted, open, waiting, as perhaps it'd been held out a thousand times 
before; overlooked, unrecognized, unwanted.
	This time, without a second thought, Vegeta took it.
	And came up out of the shadows, shaking, to hear-- to feel-- 
Kakarott catch a breath, and another. To feel the darkness beaten.
	
	To live.

	Both of them.

End Interlude One