Contradicting Mission

Part 15

After revealing nearly half an hour of gory footage and summing up Gohan and Bojack's raid on the Tahch-jin fortress, the monitor went blank, casting the room into temporary darkness. Joru turned on the lights and looked to his brother, who had remained silent and still through-out the viewing.

"Brother?"

Henning didn't reply as he rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. He gave a quiet sigh, scratched at his jaw, inspected his fingernails, then asked, "Is there anything you want to add to what we've just seen?"

Joru crossed his arms and looked helplessly at the ground, "There's something strange about that kid. I can't place it, but if you were to meet him in person.....there's just something very odd."

Henning could only watch as his normally articulate brother struggled with words. Few things could frighten a Tahch-jin, and though Joru was handling himself well he was still shaking and wringing his hands together with anxiety, "What do you mean, odd?"

The other looked up at the cealing, staring at the shining halogen light above them in thought. "His eyes. They didn't look like someone who had just killed six people, like a person who killed people at all. If I were to meet him outside a fighting situation I just....wouldn't....see it."

"Would you see it in me?"

"You're a Tahch-jin. None of us look evil, but.....that kid just didn't look like he should be fighting."

Henning looked back at the blank monitor, "How can you say that after witnessing even half of what he did? He certainly seemed capable of damage."

"No, I mean his eyes--"

"Stop right there," Henning ordered. Joru became silent as his brother circled him, looking at him from all angles, "You've always had a knack for seeing things in people that I can't. It's been infuriating at times, especially when you end up being right. At the moment, however, even you know you're wrong. You say he doesn't look like a cold-blooded killer, but he's obviously killed many times before. You say he looks like he shouldn't be fighting, but I won't lie when I say I he's probably one of the best fighters I've ever seen......except for that other blue guy with him. Brother, what do you see in this boy's eyes? Use only one word."

Joru took this into mind deeply. He hated misusing a word, and when it came down to describing something with but one, it was a task not to be taken lightly. Finally, it came.

"Life. I saw life."

Henning nodded, "I want to find this boy."

The room was huge, ornate, and gleaming. It was accually the first Aeesu-jin complex Gohan had seen that had any notable frills to it, so the first sight of it left him stunned. The cealing must have been at least fifty feet above their heads and domed in the center; every inch of it decced in intricate moldings, sculptures, dental work, and carvings. The light was a soft yellow, coming from hard to see low-watt bulbs hidden strategically behind certain statues to make incredible emphasis and dramatic shadows. The statues and carvings themselves each depicted sleek, long-limbed Aeesu-jin; fighting, or sitting, or running or simpling standing quietly as they looked down into the room.

The walls of the room were lined with thick, impressive pillars that erupted from huge, marble bases, spanning all the way up to the cealing where they curved and slanted along it's dome until they all met in the very center of the cealing. Even the very floor Gohan walked on was impressive. A soft, milky mother of peal; so well polished one could make out the shapes of the statues in the cealing if they were to look down.

The warm, yellow lighting was extremely deceptive; the temperatues must have been somewhere in the negative teens. By now, however, Gohan was pretty much used to the cold. It wasn't nearly as bad as the Room of Spirit and Time, after all.

What was troubling Gohan, however, was the living things in the room.

Standing in the center of the far wall has a preposteriously sized throne, nearly twenty feet tall, carved from some finely graned, dark-tinted wood. Everything about it was extravagantly detailed, trails of leaves and plants, some kind of small round fruit, hintings at different body parts and sleek, flying birds were depicted in such a realistic detail that Gohan could swear he would be able to pluck the very leaves right from it and they would be soft as rose petals.

And sitting in the throne was Heng.

He was huge, ridiculiously huge. Large and plump and round, he was nearly the size of an oozaru, and somehow, though he looked like nothing but rolls of skin, he persauna felt just as fierce. Even if he couldn't feel chi, Gohan knew he would be just as intimidated. And the Aeesu-jin Heng certainly had a substantial chi. Too large. In his present, untransformable state, Gohan didn't think he would win in a fight. It was a very disturbing realization to the boy.

And sitting three to the left, and three to the right of Heng, were six of the largest Aeesu-jin Gohan had ever seen, only small in comparison to Heng himself, ranging from twice to three times the size of Bojack. As his heart gave a slight exceleration, Gohan started to feel a pinch of pain in his side. His ribs weren't going to get better anytime soon. Broken and cracked bones took up to a few days to a few weeks to heal, thanks be to his Saiya-jin heritage. But none of his healing abilities were going to help him now.

"Good evening, gentlemen. I must say I'm grateful you all took the time to meet with me today," the doctor said, "I assure you it's of the utmost importance."

He paused to clear his mind, planning out and sorting his words to best present the crisis at hand. Heng and his six secretaries waited, their eyes narrowed, looking for all the world like a row of giant vultures watching a dying animal. Not an encouraging audiance for the doctor, who was already nervious. Unable to finding a more appropriate coarse of action, he thought perhaps it would be best to simply out and say it.

Taking a breath, he continued, "It has come to my attention that this very planet is in immidiate danger of destruction."

He paused again, looked around for his listener's reaction. And then, a dark yellow Aeesu-jin spoke.

"Are you insane?"

Of all the reactions he was expecting, this was not one the doctor had forseen, "What?"

A second giant Aeesu-jin spoke, "This must be some sort of joke, Doctor Koda must be testing out how much he can get away with. Testing his boundries or something."

"No, you're not-"

"Doctor Koda, for nearly two decades now we have trusted you alone with the responsibility of seeing to our own medical needs," the yellow Aeesu-jin said.

"To abuse your position in this manner-" a green Aeesu-jin said, but was interupted by the yellow again.

"We didn't even question you when you entered into his holy ground with an off-planet and two aliens!"

"You're not listening to me." The doctor used his most authoritive voice, "This is no joke. I am completely serious."

The Aeesu-jin all looked at him in silence for a moment, and though most of their faces were unreadable, at least two of them looked genuinly shocked.

One of the largest Aeesu-jin--a blue and green one with a deep, calculated voice--said, "You accually believe what you're saying, don't you?"

More than three other Aeesu-jin drew their breath to add their own oppinion in, but the blue Aeesu-jin spoke again.

"Where did you get this information from?"

Gohan opened his mouth to answer the question--it had, after all, involved him on a first hand basis. His words caught in his throat, however, when the doctor's entire body suddenly began to signal wildly to him. Though he hardly tilted his head, Gohan caught the doctor's eye, and ceased his attempt to speak. For whatever reason, the other obviously seemed to think it would be best if Gohan stayed quiet for the moment.

"Yesterday morning, three aliens were sent to me for standard inspection before they were admited into public Aeesu-jin facilities....."

It took nearly half an hour, but the doctor recapped everything. From taking DNA and RNA samples from all three of them, to finding a certain interest in a 'particularly clever young boy.' He then went on to sum up the discovery of Gohan's perculiar cells, and calling Gohan back to discuss them. He went into detail about Gohan's explaination for why his cells were as they were. Even to Gohan they sounded far-out; not only improbable, but more-likely impossible. By the time the doctor got into explaining Gohan's expiriance with Kami Larkas--leaving nothing out that Gohan didn't leave out of his version--the smell of doubt was absolutely pungent.

Once again silence filled the room, finally broken by the blue Aeesu-jin, "You really are insane, aren't you?"

Everyone started talking at once, verbally attacking the doctor, arguing amounst themselves, snapping and snarling like starving wolves, only occationally interupted by the doctor's calm, but authoritive voice.

"To think that you were once a-"

"-possibly believe that-"

"-a sick joke for-"

"-you just listen for a single second?!"

"-after everything we've done-"

And through it all, Gohan didn't say a word. He was too busy expiriancing the chi in the room. It was indeed inpressive. Intimidating for Gohan without his ability to transform. But it certainly wasn't the strongest he had ever felt. A single Super Saiya-jin would probably generate more. But it was very interesting in a different way. The Aeesu-jin couldn't control their chi. All the other times he had felt such incredible power, had been coming from allies or enemies, it had been well controlled and maintained and set at an appropriate amount for the battle at hand.

These Aeesu-jin's chi, however, was totally speratic. Even an individual with no ability to control their chi have their ups and downs with power. When relaxed, their power settles down like a layer of dust, and when agitated or called for, it rises to it's highest peak in what is commonly called 'powering up.' And as the Aeesu-jin spoke/argued/debated, their chi's soared to higher peaks, then flitted down a few notches as they waited for a second opportunity to speak.

It was like watching a lazer-light show of chi, feeling the different pitches of each person, occationally catching the familiar chi of the doctor or the chilling chi of Heng.

Bojack looked down at the kid. His coal-colored eyes were wide as he quietly observed the giant Aeesu-jin, unaware the blue giant was watching him. His pupils had shrunk to pin-dots and it seemed that every hair on his body was rigid from concentration. What he was concentrating on, however was beyond the Biraju-jin.

"What's your problem?" Bojack whispered in a low frequency voice; Biraju-jin's hearing through their sensitive, pointed ears was often used to speak on levels other creatures couldn't hear. The Aeesu-jin in the room couldn't pick up the sound with their lacking ears, even if they weren't arguing.

Gohan's Saiya-jin-enhanced, however, heard it just fine. He looked back up at the Biraju-jin to make sure they he had accually said something, then looked back across the room at the Aeesu-jin as they continued their argument with the doctor; he spoke in as low of a voice as he could "These guy's chi's are....incredible. They're strong."

"...so are we to suddenly take the word of some skinny little alien boy...." One of the Aeesu-jin's voices rose and broke it's way into their inaudible conversation. Bojack didn't say anything as he looked down at the boy, watching his profile.

Finally he asked, "How strong? Stronger than you? Me? I doubt it."

The boy gave him a surprisingly weary look of warning, as though he were thinking of a hard-learned lesson, "Don't automatically assume no one's stronger than you. If I could transform I don't think I would be as cautious, but at the moment.... I don't know. Combined, their power might be higher than yours."

"...what if this boy is telling the truth? Don't you think..." The doctor's pleading voice flitted in and out again, breafly catching Gohan's attention.

Bojack quietly snorted, "These Aeesu-jin are nothing to me."

Gohan gave a smile with no joy in it, "That's what you thought about me..." Bojack narrowed his eyes and Gohan half expected him to lash out and hit him for saying it. He added, "All I'm saying is--it's not smart to underestimate any opponent. I've learned that the hard way, and you should have by now, too."

Both didn't say anything as they half-listened to the Aeesu-jin's argument.

"...no proof that..."

"...it so inconcievable that..."

"...irrational behavior compromises..."

Bojack finally said to the boy, "But as things are, you would be killed if a fight were to break out?"

Gohan took a deep breath. As modest as he was, he still didn't like having to admit he probably wouldn't survive a direct fight with the enemy at hand. He had nearly killed himself training too many times to get out the 'weaker' category of fighters to have to sink back to it, now. "It's a possibility."

Bojack huffed to end the conversation and crossed his arms over his broad chest. He was in a foul mood. Gohan turned his full attention to the Aeesu-jins just as one of the largest of Heng's secretaries raised his voice.

"So you're accusing us of being ignorant?"

"No, no," the doctor said, "I'm just saying it could be to our advantage to listen to a warning. Better to error on the side of caution--"

"Doctor Koda," Heng said, and the very deepness of his voice rang in Gohan's guts. Everyone became silent, and Gohan realized that he hadn't spoken once during the whole argument.

"Sir," the doctor said, looking surprisingly humble and small.

"Do you have any tangible proof that anything this boy told you is true?"

"I have some samples I took from him when he first came in, and they definatly suggest he was healed in some supernatural way--"

"You're kidding, right?" another Aeesu-jin interjected, "Look at the kid! There is no way he could have been healed by some blasted Kami!"

Everyone in the room turned to look at Gohan, critically taking in every cut and flaw on him.

"What happened, anyway?" A second Aeesu-jin asked, "Looks like he's been fighting....is that a tail-whip mark?"

Gohan's hand automatically went to the cut on his cheek.

"Looks like it. But if he had been fighting an Aeesu-jin, wouldn't he be dead?"

The room suddenly became deathly quiet.

"Where did you get that scratch on your face, boy?" Heng rumbled, "Don't you dare lie."

Gohan began to realize that his next words could mean life or death. He fingered the cut on his cheek and hooked his tail around his knee to keep it from whipping about behind him; he still didn't have much control over it.

Taking a deep breath he said, "A friend of mine was being attacked. I was trying to help him..."

"Who was attacking him?"

There was a tightness in Gohan's chest that was making it hard to breath, reminding him of the diagnosis the good doctor had given him earlier. Cracked rib, perhaps more. The ache in his side was becoming an acute, piercing pain that seemed to send signals up and down his ribs, making the skin under his gi twitch uncontrolably. Clamping his teeth, he said, "I don't know who was attacking him. I didn't catch a name."

Truth. He really was telling the truth. He never had been good at lying, but he had grown to be a master at giving the truth in misconstruded ways.

"Was it an Aeesu-jin?" Another Aeesu-jin asked.

Gohan had to put his hand against his side as the stress began to make it throb, "Yes."

B-bum, b-bum, b-bum. He could feel his heartbeating in his side, every thump sending new waves of pain over the myriad old pains.

"How did you survive? You're a Saiya-jin aren't you? No Saiya-jin could beat an Aeesu-jin."

B-bum, b-bum. "Luck. It was just luck. I don't know exactly how I did it. They just didn't see me coming until I was already attacking."

An Aeesu-jin stood up, "'They'? There was more than one?"

Oh, kami... Though it was horrifically cold in the room, Gohan was hot. His entire rib cage felt like it was on fire.

"So did you kill them? Did you kill these Aeesu-jin?" Another asked, almost mocking.

Gohan didn't say anything as he began to see little dark spots coming in from the corners of his sight; he had a white-knuckled grip on his gi. He squeezed his eyes shut. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" A large, purple Aeesu-jin asked, "How can you not know?"

Grasping at words the wouldn't convict him and trying to think with an uncooperative brain he said, "I barely escaped with my life. I don't think I killed any of them..." Now he was edging into a lie. They saw him as a tiny Saiya-jin boy. A weak, tiny Saiya-jin boy. Gohan thought it might be smart to keep them thinking that; better they underestimate him than overestimate him. He wished more than ever that he could be able to transform. Just to know he could if things got bad....

"This is ridiculous. A mockery," another Aeesu-jin said, he turned to Heng, "Sir, this is insane."

A deep rumble of thought came from Heng as his small, shiny red eyes scrutinized Gohan, "I tend to agree. This Saiya-jin brat is probably mad, lost his sanity somewhere along his filthy life and doesn't know the difference between reality and fantasy."

"No," Gohan said.

"Now the little rat thinks he can argue-" an Aeesu-jin began to say.

"Can't any of you put your own ethnocentricities aside long enough to listen to a warning?" Gohan asked, frustrated, agonized continued, "Could it possibly be so hard to ignore your pride for a single second to even consider that you could die? Is your pride more important than your life?"

"I have heard enough," a green Aeesu-jin said, "You should leave now, kid-"

"You're being senseless! Stupid! You're compromising the lives of every Aeesu-jin on this planet simply because you--"

"That is enough," Heng said, his thundering voice blasting Gohan's quiet one to pieces, "Doctor Koda, who is responsible for this alien?"

"Ah...," the good doctor said, "The Aeesu-jin Sunow. I assure you this boy is here legally, represented, and located correctly."

"That's not why I was asking."

The doctor suddenly went pale, "You're not..."

Heng turned his large head to an Aeesu-jin next to him, "Locate this Sunow person and have him executed."

"What?!" Gohan raised his voice, "You can't--"

"He didn't educate the off-planet alien he was responsible for in the proper conduct used when speaking to an on-planet Aeesu-jin," the green Aeesu-jin said.

A blue one added, "We only have one punishment for such a failure."

"Wait, wait!" Gohan said, suddenly feeling frantic, "But he has two kids! What about them?"

"Hm?" Heng said, "Well, I suppose they'll have to be killed, too."

The blue Aeesu-jin added, "We can't have any little orphaned Aeesu-jin running around, after all."

"No." Gohan said. "That's not fair."

Two large Aeesu-jin rose from their seats to follow through with their orders.

"And of coarse," Heng said, "You will all have to be killed as well."

"Wait--" the doctor said as three more Aeesu-jin rose from their seats. Gohan could feel them raising their battle chi as they slowly approached. And one by one, the other Aeesu-jin rose from their seats until none save Heng were sitting. The preposteriously sized Aeesu-jin remained seated. He pulled back his imense lips and grinned, showing two rows of giant, white teeth while his bloated tail thumbed agaist the arm of his chair.

The entire situation was almost too much for Gohan to bear. The sharp pain in his side pushed back his more rational side and things almost seemed insane as he felt everyone around him begin to raise their chi. His coal-black hair caugh on invisible waves of chi as his natural instincts tried to send him cascading into his Super Saiya-jin form, failed, and started rising his chi anyway. Instincts didn't reason out that Super Saiya-jin transformations were impossible, they only knew that one was necessary; deep down inside, something was tearing violently to break free but failing.

It was his rage. After his innitial Super Saiya-jin transformation, his body naturally channeled the power his anger gave to him into that specific form, it was safer, stronger, and more aquipted to control it. But now the very option of transformation was gone, but his body didn't care, so it loaded the power it thought it was supposed to into a form that didn't exist. Something was expanding but refusing to explode. Something deep in Gohan's body and mind, and he didn't know what it was, or what to do with it.

He only knew that it felt like it would burst him open and destroy him if he didn't do something.

But it was Bojack who acted first.

The offensive Aeesu-jin group, so huge and intimidating, suddenly went from a slow walk to an all-out charge, coming forward at an incredible pace. It was the doctor who was unfortunate enough to be standing in the forefront, and it was the doctor alone who was struck. Once, twice, three times, once in the face and twice in the chest, he sunk to his knees, too stunned by the raw power in a mere three blows from his attackers.

A deep, rumbling sound echoed from somewhere deep in Gohan's throat as he gathered his chi and abandoned his defensive fighting stance to prepare to lunge forward--

--and Bojack raised his hand, gathered a large, phosphorecent ball of chi, and blasted the Aeesu-jin nearest him. In an instant, everything seemed to pause as the blast enveloped the Aeesu-jin too fast for him to react, blackening and charring his body before it imploded. An inky cloud of ash that circled the air twice then vanished was all that remained.

The Aeesu-jin stood, frozen in shock for half a second, their eyes riveted on the darkend spear where their comrad had once stood. It seemed to take them an hour to trace the path the chi blast had originated from, and all of them stared at Bojack in open shock. And finally comprehention sunk it. Shock turned to anger. Ander to rage. And all five remaining Aeesu-jin rushed at Bojack instantaniously.

"Stop!"

Heng's voice broke through their rage-clouded minds like a knife, and the five froze in mid-step.

"I don't want this holy place damaged with battle," Heng said, his eyes glaring into Bojack's. The Biraju-jin returned the gaze unwavering.

"Get out. Get out, now, and you might be able to run fast enough to excape my wrath, " Heng's very facial color began to darken, and as he spoke his cheeks jiggled with rage and his white-knuckles trembled, "I don't want this holy place damaged, but I will do whatever it takes to kill you, all of you. I'll send every warrior I have, every Aeesu-jin that even half-knows how to fight, everyone. I'll send them after you, and you will all be killed, and you will feel the wrath of the Aeesu-jin. And when they find you, your screams to be put out of your misery will fall apon deaf ears."

Bojack smirked, lifting half the scar on his face, his golden eyes narrowed knowingly. Heng was scared. And both Bojack and Heng knew it.

Gohan hadn't been aware of these last occurances, however. He had frozen the instant Bojack's blazing attack had wizzed by his ear, so close he felt the heat of it, and from that moment on, his mind was white. Completely white. The rage and anger were bubbling and foaming deep down like molten rock, searching for a fissure from which they could explode. And then his body began to remember what it had done before Super Saiya-jin was an option. And slowly, then picking up speed, the scortching-hot rage began to fill every nook and crevice of his mind, searching for even the tiniest of cracks to escape through.

And while the five Aeesu-jin froze at Heng's orders, while Heng threatened and cursed them, a small crack did appear. For when the Aeesu-jin froze, he could see behind them. Laying on the ground, on his side, was the doctor. He wasn't moving, and even as Gohan watched the puddle of blood pooling out from his nose and mouth grew larger. A dark, violet colored blood. Gohan could smell it. He knew the smell of blood. His fists were so tight his fingernails were sinking into his palms, but he didn't feel it. He didn't feel anything; his ribs no longer hurt, he couldn't feel the gash on his cheek. The only thing he felt was searing-hot, uncontrolable, irrepressable rage.

And the violet pool of blood around the doctor's head got bigger and the smell of blood got stronger and Gohan's vision was shaking too much to see if he was breathing.

And while Freeza and Bojack turned to leave with their lives, the crack finally gave way under the pressure of the blinding hot rage and something in Gohan snapped once, then exploded.

He didn't even remember moving, but suddenly he was in the air, burning his white aura as bright as the sun, moving faster than his body should have been able to, faster than anyone in the room could possibly follow.

Except Bojack.

Though Gohan felt like he was moving faster than he ever had before, he was only ten feet in the air, his fist only half lifted in attack, when Bojack caught up with him, yelling, "Stop, dammit! Do you want to die?!" The giant hadn't even flown, for in two swift paces, his large blue hand had flown out after Gohan--

--and his large, muscular fingers grabbed ahold of the last half foot of the boy's long, slender tail, sinking into the springy brown fur.

Gohan jerked to a stop in midair, involuntarily sucking air through his teeth. Everything rushed out of him, wiping his mind of even the once dominant rage. And right on the heels of rage went reason. Pain took their place.

It wasn't pain like one would think pain to be. It didn't burn or throb or set his teeth on edge or send shoots of white dancing across his eyes. It was a kind of numbing pain. A cold pain, cold as death, and besides the cold no other feeling existed. And for Gohan, it was shooting up and down his spine in wicked, swirling arcs. He felt only a phantom of pain in his legs, as though he knew they should be there but for some reason they weren't. Then they were gone, and the phantom moved up his spine, down his arms, into each finger, then up to his brain.

Slowly at first but picking up speed, he fell to the ground. Only on a vague sense did he feel his head hitting the marble tiles. His blinding-hot, irrepressible, uncontrolable rage vanished, leaving him feel empty and hollow. The only emotion he was aware of now was absolute fear, underlayed with gut-wrenching shame. Embarassment. Humiliation. Frustration. He couldn't move, but it was so much more than paralysis. He was a wounded animal, awaiting death. Where had all his power gone?

Deep in the back of his throat, he let out a whimper that was an attempt to speak, to convey a message, but his lips only parted half-way then refused to respond, leaving his mouth open. He eyes were slitted, heavy, but they refused to either fully close or open. The blue giant was gripping his tail too tighly; he couldn't feel anything. Nothing from his neck down, or the cold tiles under his cheek. He wasn't even sure if he was breathing.

Bojack was more surprised by the boy's reaction than Gohan was. He had only been flailing after the boy, grabbing at anything he could to keep the damn bozu from getting himself killed; and taking Bojack himself down with him. He knew nothing about Saiya-jins or their anatomy. Nothing about them at all. It had just been another example of pure, bitter, unremorseful bad luck.

Bojack stood above the boy, laying unmoving on the floor, and his eyes turned to Freeza for an answer.

The off-planet Aeesu-jin half-grinned, though having Heng watching his every move kept him nervious, "Well, seems you've found out the weakness of the Saiya-jin."

And it was all the explaination Freeza gave. With a final mental shrug, Bojack reached down and, still keeping a tight grip on the boy's tail, picked him up by the back of his gi. Lifting him off the ground until the toes of his boots dangled above the ground, Bojack called to Freeza, "Oi. We should bring that doctor fellow, too. The kid might want to come charging back in to save him if we don't."

A small, hardly audible noise came from Gohan's throat. An agreement?

Freeza smirked, "Suu da." And, though he was the smallest Aeesu-jin in the room, it took little effort to lift the top half of the unconscious doctor's body up onto his back, and in such a manner half-drag, half-carry him out of the ornate, beautiful room and into the hallway without. Bojack followed him, carring the dangling, limp Gohan in front of him, keeping his tail twisted around his wrist once, and held firmly in his hand.

He paused at the door and looked back at Heng.

"You will die for this." The giant Aeesu-jin said.

Bojack chuckled, "No, I won't."

To be continued........