Back Tracking in Time, Chapter #07
Summary: Videl divorces and get the sole custody of Pan. But this isn’t enough, she decides to break the saiyan psychic bond uniting her with Gohan bringing him on the verge of death. Will Trunks manage to save Gohan with the imprinting ritual Vegeta mentioned?…
Author’s Notes: This story is freely inspired from the movie “Back to the Future”.
Pan tried to think of a good excuse so that she could escape from the watching group standing around her as Yajarobie’s words rang through her head. She knew that she wasn’t the greatest talent at lying, a trait she had gained from her father. “Um well you see I was just hanging out for a bit to get away from all the craziness at home that’s all.” she spoke slowly. She hoped that the brightening red in her cheeks wouldn’t tip off the fact that she was only telling half of the truth.
“Uhuh, and since when are you allowed to go into the park near nightfall without anyone grown up with you Pan?” Yajarobie asked sounding sceptical to her youthful ears.
“I don’t normally do this sir. I just couldn’t cope with my mother so I decided to go for a short trip away to get my thoughts together without her screaming and crying and going hysterical and all. She’s like that after a day in court. I just wanted to have a little bit of quiet for a change.” Pan rushed onwards trying desperately to make the heavyset, older man believe her through the force of her will if nothing else.
“Peace Uncle Yaji.” Aurora stopped the dark haired swordsman from replying, with an upraised hand signalling for his silence, as she spoke emphatically to insure he didn’t try to jump any harder on the young girl in front of him. Pan was trying hard to hide just how distraught she was at being caught here in the park, without a chaperone, and Aurora smelled serious trouble in the younger girl’s actions. “I take it things have gotten much worse in your young life then of late young lady?” The question was more of a commentary that needed no answer.
“Um, well my parents are getting divorced, so, yeah, it’s pretty ugly some days.” Pan admitted lowering her eyes to try and hide the sudden flood of tears that tried to escape against her wishes. She was trying to be strong like her father had advised her to be at the picnic birthday party for grandpa Gokou. She just wasn’t up to the full measure of the demand that her father had unwittingly placed on her thin shoulders at that moment.
“Sounds like you need someone who you can talk to, without feeling as if you are being judged, to me.” the older girl answered sympathetically.
“Oh, I have people to talk to. I get to talk to Bra at school, and a counsellor there has been trying to help me to figure things out as best as I can.” Pan tried to sound more cheerful than she felt, with the two outlets for her significant hurt. She recognized how flat she sounded and winced at the look the older teenager gave her.
“Well seems to me, that sometimes, the best people to talk to, are those who have been where you are now standing. Is your friend Bra, a child from a broken marriage, then?” Aurora asked softly.
“No. Her family is secure, even if her dad can be a real bear at times.” Pan answered with candour.
“Counsellors don’t count for a fig in a basket, that was left out too long in the sun to rot, if you ask me, which means you haven’t had anyone to talk to that counts as a real helpful guide then.” her dark haired mane fluttered into her face, causing her to bat it away by reflex as she continued to hold Pan’s gaze.
“Well, I don’t know anyone else who I could talk to, so I guess it doesn’t matter.” Pan answered with obvious reluctance.
“Of course it matters! Everyone deserves to have someone to confide in, that is wise enough to be capable of giving true aid to you, when you need it.” the taller of two older women who had been walking with Yajarobie spoke up without preamble. Pan looked over at the orange haired, heavy set, raw boned woman, uncertain of who she was, or why the woman had spoken.
Beside her stood a delicate black haired lady, who’s doe brown eyes spoke volumes of the sympathy that she felt for the youthful teenager that Yajarobie and Aurora were trying to talk to.
Reading Pan’s mind, Aurora spoke up, intent on making introductions. “The carrot topped lady, who has just addressed you, is my blade mother, Astarte. The much smaller woman beside her, is my birth mother, Kim.” Both women inclined their heads, as they were formerly introduced to the overtly wary youth, who Yajarobie had chosen to question.
“This is my father, Argus. You were watching our tilt yard workout, when uncle Yaji and my mothers, returned from their shopping, and interrupted the fun.” Aurora continued, unfazed by Pan’s dark eyed perusal of her family, and the transparent confusion that Pan couldn’t hide at being told that Aurora had two mothers.
“Pan! What do you think you’re doing running away from home?” an all too familiar and furious masculine voice thundered from the sky above the small group. Pan cringed in near panic. She couldn’t cope with grandpa Gokou’s disappointment, and ready wrath at her having left in the manner she had.
Instinctively she stepped back towards the invisible bulk of the dragon that she knew was still behind her, as if seeking protection. She looked up to see her grandfather and uncle Goten hovering in midair, with near identical looks of anger and relief.
“Grandpa, I just hate everything at mom’s house. I thought if I left, maybe momma would stop being so mean to dad all the time.” she spoke in subdued tones, knowing she would be wishing that it was her mother who had found her instead. Only her father would have understood why she was acting like this. Gohan knew that she wasn’t one to readily balk at a problem unless it was more than she could endure.
“Pan, running away isn’t the answer. You know that. Gohan didn’t teach you to be a coward.” Gokou’s tone was an icy growl as he dropped to the ground, Goten close behind.
“I am not being a coward, Grandpa. I’m trying to stop being the problem. There’s a big difference!” Pan yelled in frustration at her grandfather. “You just don’t get it, and you never will grandpa! Mom says things that are horrible about dad all the time!”
“Stop it, Buster. I don’t know where you get off screwing this kid’s head up, any more than it already is, but screaming, and accusing her of being a coward, isn’t gonna cut it around me! So, shut up, before I shut you up, the hard way!” Aurora snapped, moving between Gokou and Pan, with a steely glint in her eyes.
“Look, Lady, I don’t know you, but this is a family matter, and not for you to decide.” Gokou was furious at being told to shut up, and wasn’t going to accept being told to stop, either.
“For your information, I was with my uncle Yaji, at your Birthday bash, when this shit all hit the fan. I know this teenager well enough to be able to tell that she’s so stressed out, another few pushes and she’ll snap like a rubber band. So you had just better cool it, before you become the breaking line!” Aurora didn’t back down from the dark haired man who stood glaring with teeth bared.
Pan’s muffled tears were more than enough incentive to goad Aurora into a fight if need be. “If you can’t get it through your thick skull that you need to calm down, instead of growl at her, then she sure as hell doesn’t need to be with you, or anyone else who’s gonna chew her out right now.” Aurora’s tone dropped to a dusky savagery that caught both men’s attention with it’s quiet venom. Pan watched the unfolding scene with dread in her eyes as she tried to stifle the tears which insisted on flowing down her cheeks. No matter how hard she fought to curb them.
Aurora glanced at the younger teenager, fresh wrath giving her tone double edged sharpness as she continued her tirade in the younger girl’s defense. “If her mom’s screaming hate to the sky twenty-four, seven, along with whatever other crap is going on right now, the last thing she needs is to hear it from the rest of her family.”
Aurora shimmered with that same strange iridescence that Pan had noticed earlier, only now it had a more ominous tone to it’s hue. Aurora’s eyes flashed pure fire, that seemed to reach outwards, towards the two newcomers as if it would consume them if they came closer.
“Hey, Dad, maybe she has a point. Yelling at Pan might not be a great idea right now.” Goten tried to convince his father with a small smile and peace sign towards the dark haired young woman who stood in a perfect battle stance, awaiting Gokou’s next move.
“Gokou, calm down. Aurora doesn’t mean any harm, or disrespect. I think she’s just really worried about Pan here.” Yajarobie trundled up to the angry Saiyajin with a well meaning outstretched hand that encompassed both teens equally. “After all Aurora has seen some pretty nasty things in her lifetime already. She’d be pretty quick to see things like she’s talking about. She’s one of them Rescuer type people herself.” He continued in an amicable tone trying to ensnare Gokou’s attention for a moment.
“I don’t care right now, Yajarobie, and if you know what’s good for your niece, you’ll get her to move, so I can take Pan home. Now!” Gokou growled at his long time friend and ally.
“Won’t do any good for me to do that, Gokou. Briloshen might get cranky, and I’m not sure, even a guy as tough as you, would want to tangle with Aurora’s pets. They aren’t normal by anyone’s standards, not even yours, Gokou.” Yajarobie tried to reason with the blatantly furious man, who he’d known for so long.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Yajarobie?” Gokou asked, turning his narrow eyed glare on the hapless man, who was trying to deter him from his chosen mission, of retrieving Pan, to return her to the Satan family manor house.
“It means that Briloshen is some kind of immortal, Gokou. You can’t kill something like that creature. They call themselves ‘the Star people’. They look a lot like dragons to me, though.”
Goten jumped into the conversation, excited by the idea of another dragon lover, “It’s a dragon? Wow, you mean like Ichorous is a dragon?” His childlike demeanour caused Yajarobie to chuckle.
“Kid, I wish this could be considered anything like Ichorous’s league. Unfortunately He’s more of Shenlon’s class, if you ask me. Probably would make Shenlon look like a mouse when it comes down to brute power, and what he can do, though. Briloshen can talk like Shenlon too, at least when he wants to. From what I can understand about him, he’s thousands of years old, and then some. He’s been all over the universe.” the swordsman scratched his long curly mane in concentration.
“What are you saying, Yajarobie?” Gokou growled at the stocky, older man, looking as if he though Yajarobie was telling a very big lie, or at the very least, attempting to threaten him.
“Well, if you don’t believe me, then do something dumb, Gokou. I’m not stupid enough to get in your way. I just hope Goten won’t try and join you when you get your butt whipped. Briloshen can make himself invisible, and all kinds of other strange things. But I do know he’s around here. I also know that he’s watching us right now, because when Pan tried to fly off earlier, he nabbed her in his tail and stopped her.” He tossed up his hands as he moved away from the determined looking Gokou, with a heavy sigh of regret.
“Will Briloshen…, attack these.., men, if they try to leave…, with Miss Pan…? Aurora?” her birth mother, Kim, asked, halting to gesture towards the various individuals of whom she spoke.
“Probably. I can feel his tension. It won’t be pretty ’cause this guy isn’t a slouch. He doesn’t have star song, but he does have a hell of a lot of personal energy radiating, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, from what I pick up.”
“Don’t do nothing rash, Blade’s Child. I am not goin’ to be a mournin’ for ye’ on the ‘morrow if ye’ get caught ‘tween Bril and whom ever, this one is.” Astarte spoke sternly to Aurora, with command in her heavily accented, sing song contralto.
Aurora smirked at the comment. “I wouldn’a worry ’bout that. If it gets nasty, get Miss Pan outa the middle of things. Bril will shine out a’for he strikes and you well know that. It’s one of their codes of conduct, which they hold from the day they hatch, ’till they fade themselves out through a star’s death.” Aurora’s smoke-laced, alto sang back with an equal accent, as if her obstreperous companion’s complaint had infuriated her to the point that speaking without an accent was forgotten as she held her ground, narrow eyed and seething.
“Even so, ’tis not a good day to die, by my way o’ thinkin’!” The larger woman spat with venom.
“Aye Blade Mother,” Aurora tipped her head in acknowledgment, “I hear ye’! She submitted her acquiescence with less than patient, heavily laced sarcasm.
Gokou appeared un-fazed by their conversation, considering his firm stance, glaring at the dark haired woman who blocked his path to his grand child. He stood with the assurance of a man who had faced many villains in his lifetime that were supposed to be beyond his power to defeat, and had walked away the victor, time and again. He wasn’t worried about a dragon, even if it could hide itself. He’d simply push it out of the way and take his wayward grand-daughter home where she belonged.
Pan watched with dread on her face as she interpreted the flicker of emotions that flashed like lightning across her grandfather’s face. She knew him very well since they had chased after the black star dragon balls such a short time ago. Gokou stance implied that he didn’t feel that he had time to play around with Yajarobie’s family, nor did he have the patience at the moment. He was obviously in no mood for her perceived pranks, and he probably had to calm grandma Chi-Chi down so that he could get his dinner that night also. Pan knew, without being told, that it was the thought that Chi-Chi was beside herself with worry, and still furious at her eldest son’s apparent defection from his common sense, in having begun to date Trunks Briefs, that had Gokou the most concerned, and the most likely to leap into a battle without looking at all the elements that were missing.
Pan knew that their tight knit family had originally been thankful that Trunks had somehow miraculously saved Gohan from a certain death, it was the supposed, recent change, in Gohan’s behaviour, that had been the unbearable straw of iniquity to ChiChi. She was unforgiving of her older son’s seeming unconcern with what others would think, of his suddenly ‘turning gay,’ as she had put it a few days before, when she hadn’t realized that Pan was within hearing range.
Pan knew that her father was desperately unhappy, and that grandpa Gokou sensed that also. Gokou knew that Pan was a very big part of his son’s deep depression, unhappiness and fear, which he couldn’t hide from anyone any longer. She knew that Grandpa Gokou didn’t know what to do to make things better, and that he had been boiling for weeks over the situation. He was ripe for a battle and Pan knew it. His expression told her that he fought hard against the urge to strike the dark haired girl, who stood her ground, solidly between himself, and his objective.
“Look I know that you think you’re trying to look after my granddaughter’s well being, but I am going to take her home, Now!” Gokou ground out without preamble, causing Pan to wince, and Aurora to chuckle insolently.
“Oh are ya now?” that soft spoken, smokey, sing song tone mocked, as she cocked her head to the side, an unfocused look in her eyes.
Gokou’s eyes were reduced to slits of anger at being disregarded by the young woman. “Look, I don’t want to hurt anyone, but if you won’t give me back my grand daughter, I’ll have no choice but to take you down, to get to her. Her father is going crazy trying to find her, as is every police officer in this town!” Gokou’s snarl had risen to a full throated roar by the time he’d finished his comment.
Goten stood behind him, and to the side, eyes wide in shock. Gokou rarely yelled. When he did yell, he was extremely angry, Goten had noted more than once, in the last three years he’d had to get to know the man, that so many said he so closely favoured. He wasn’t sure why his father was being so unreasonable, as it appeared to him that Aurora was worried over Pan’s well being, and was trying to settle things down, before turning Pan loose, to return home. “Um, dad maybe you should calm down a bit, huh..?” He tried to reason with his irate sire, only to have that malevolent glare levelled upon himself. “Ok. Maybe not.” He raised his hands in surrender to the older man’s conspicuous irritation.
Goten tried another tact. “Um, Aurora isn’t it?” he scratched his head as she nodded once in silent affirmation, never taking her eyes off of his furious father. “What if I took Pan home? I mean, she does need to go there, and well maybe if I took her, then you wouldn’t have to get so uptight over my dad’s being so angry, and all.” his tone fell flat, as an icy mask engulfed her features. “Ok. So you don’t like the sound of that either, it looks like.” He scratched his head in contrition, looking desperate for some kind of answer to the rapidly rising storm the two stubborn individuals were hell bent on creating needlessly.
“What if I took Pan home, Gokou? You know me so there wouldn’t be any reason to doubt that I’d get her home safe, now is there?” Yajarobie spoke up, picking up the thread of Goten’s failed mission of keeping the peace between the two rumble ready individuals who stood in perfect fighting postures, daring each other to make the first move.
“Forget it, Yajarobie. I know you mean well, but I intend on seeing my grand-daughter home. Nobody needs to do that for me.” Gokou growled in frustration, energy radiating around him like a holocaust of flame. “Pan get over here now!” He bellowed at his frightened grand-daughter and moved forward to grab onto her arm. “We’re Leaving and nobody had better try to stop us.”
Pan was swept up on air currents, and from her sudden startled squeak of fear, it wasn’t by her own volition. She whipped upwards and vanished including her Ki Signature, from the two Saiyajin men’s awareness.
“Pan?!” Gokou shouted, powering up, levelling deadpan eyes upon Aurora. “Bring my grand daughter back!” His energy fluctuated wildly, increasing dramatically, to meet in a forceful clash, with an eerie, star studded flare of rainbows that rippled out from Aurora’s own slight form.
“Stop ordering me around, you idiot, and I may be able to get Briloshen to cooperate. If you don’t chill out, then you can kiss you’re own ass goodbye, before you’ll ever see your grand daughter again! Briloshen has decided to take her into his care, and not you, nor anyone else, will be able to force him to cough up the girl, if he deems that she is in any kind of danger! So, shut the hell up, and stand down, if you want to see her any time soon.” The dark haired woman spat in a furious, clipped fashion, as she renewed her square-off with the glowing man in front of her, looking unfazed by this new development.
Gokou was obviously on the verge of panic due to Pan’s disappearance, and though she didn’t blame him, she wasn’t about to cow toe to his wishes, while he was in a rage. It would not serve anyone to allow this kind of arrogance to go unchecked, in her opinion.
Aurora wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of walking away the victor without making sure that he understood the full price of his overly proud belief in his own abilities.
“Why you….!” Gokou was strangling on his anger. He lunged for her without thinking, intent on putting the source of Pan’s disappearance to the test, and trying to force her to return the younger girl, who he had said he would bring home safely. His fist was cocked and ready, but never made contact, as a huge power slashed through the air, blinding in it’s minty-green tinted brilliance, and as heated as any sun.
The impact of the energy that radiated outwards, slashed at his body, knocking him off his course. Where a few minutes before had been empty air, now a huge monolith of a beast, huge wings upswept to close out the sky, rendered the surrounding area as black as night. Huge glowing orbs of blue fire snapped above the massive set of gleaming yellow- white fangs, the largest that Gokou had seen in his lifetime.
The dragon, Yajarobie had been speaking of, had decided to show itself. It was almost as large as Shenlon, had the eternal dragon coiled itself up loosely, and landed upon solid ground. As the beast’s wings continued to arc upwards, and the huge mammoth crouched lower, with it’s thick neck pulled back, head poised at an angle, to the massive wings, coiled in a serpentine fashion to strike at will, long spear like claws, on a prehensile set of hands, shot out from within the star studded metallic hide, like long double edged swords, poised and held at ready, to decapitate the enemy.
A hissed battle scream issued from the monster’s throat, making the ground and buildings for several miles shudder, some collapsing under the influx of power, twisting and buckling under the weight of the huge creature’s awakening wrath, like toothpicks snapping in a hurricane.
Goten was laying on his back, staring up at the monstrous apparition that had suddenly appeared out of a ball of super heated power, wide eyed with horrified fascination as the beast moved it’s sinuous neck in a hypnotic fashion, fangs dripping an orange-coloured substance that ate into the ground, leaving small craters in seconds.
“You call that thing a Dragon?” he managed to croak as he looked up at the creature that was set upon destroying them both.
“Briloshen, stand down!” Aurora screamed, ignoring Goten’s frantic scream of query, as she tried to gain the Star Might Dragon’s attention, in hopes of keeping him from destroying the whole city in this outburst of ire. She knew that the dragon could decimate the whole area in seconds, if he felt inclined. Since he was a sentient, rational being, she was certain that she could reason with him before he converted any more power flowing from the sun above, to his own agendas.
He could destroy this world without trying to muster any more power, but the stubborn man who had foolishly lunged at her, had himself changed, turning into a towering beacon of golden fire, making her already difficult task, all but an useless endeavour.
Aurora was furious with Gokou, and she wasn’t about to back down now that the whole planet could be destroyed, if Briloshen, in his prime of life, and a leader of the Kines chose to attack the golden warrior in an attempt to protect his newest friend, Pan.
By K-chan, January 23, 2009 @ 2:40 am
>.< Geez…Now the Earth is gonna be destroyed!! Can Gohan’s day get any better? HAHAHAAA!! Cool chapter! And Pan poofing like that? O.O Major panic attack for the Son family.