music9

~Chapter 9: Dead or alive? ~

'You're mine now!'

Goku had left early in the morning to search for the dragonballs. He was way too exited to sleep, happy that there was finally something to do. Waiting for some androids to show up wasn't very interesting and summoning dragons was just what he needed to cheer up these 3 years. After he woke up Gohan and sneaked out of the house with him to not wake Chi-chi they had flown of to begin their hunt.

Ms. Briefs had told Bulma, Vegeta had left Earth with one of the space-capsules. He had taken a small stash of food and the armour that Mr. Briefs was testing. It was a remoulded form of Vegeta's old one. The one she ordered to be replaced by a nice colourful pink shirt. She couldn't laugh about it this time. After lying in bed till 12 AM she had fallen out of bed, on purpose, to wake herself up and dragged herself down the stairs. Now she was trying to eat breakfast. It wasn't such a big deal; he was just gone for a couple of months. He would come back. At least that was what she hoped he would do. But somehow she felt he wasn't going to show his face to her ever again.
When she finished eating breakfast, she pulled herself up from the chair and went to take a shower. She got herself soaked and thought things over. There was no time for sulking. She had to be strong, that was what Vegeta would do. She suddenly burst out into sobs.
'It's not fair!' Slowly Bulma fell to the bathroom floor and cried. Her tears washed away by the water. 'It's not fair'.

It wasn't hard to find all of the dragonballs. Except for a regrettable confrontation with a large bird, all went very well.
'Say, dad, why do we need the dragonballs anyway? What happened when you were in the city? Did you crush someone? And now you have to bring him back?' Goku laughed.
'No Gohan, that isn't what happened.' He grinned at his son, who was carrying three of the seven dragonballs. 'I ran into certain... people. I had quite an adventure. Saw Vegeta, Bulma and her father too, by the way.'
'Bulma! How was she?'
'She's okay now.' His son looked at him with confusion, but didn't ask more.

'Mum, call me if Goku shows up. Okay?' Mrs Briefs nodded and worryingly asked if something was wrong. Bulma just said 'nothing' and hid herself in the iv-techroom. Tinkering with some new invention would do her good. She wasn't really sad that Vegeta left, she was just... depressed. She kept saying to herself that it was a side affect of being inside the music box. She hunted a few shelves and finally found a screwdriver. With that she randomly started poking an object that lay on the workbench.
'Honey?' Mr Briefs entered the room. He walked over to Bulma and looked at what she was doing. She looked up from her 'work' and sighed.
'Why are you destroying that modulator? I need it as an addition for the gravity pod.'
'Why? He isn't here to command you now. Why build on a better pod?' She stabbed it, leaving the screwdriver stuck in its casing. With anger she pulled hard to get the tool back, but with no luck so she sighed and looked at her father. 'I need some rest from all of it, kay? Can you just let me do what I need to?' Her father nodded.
'Okay dear, but I just came to tell you that Goku is here.' He walked away petting the black cat on his shoulder. 'Come kitty, let's leave Bulma alone shall we.' Goku? So soon? That was quick. She stood up from the chair and ran towards the door.

'Goku! You're getting fast in finding them. Did you find all of them?' Goku showed Bulma the four he was holding and pointed at his son, who was standing behind Bulma. She turned around and looked at the happy child.
'Hey Bulma, What's up!' She smiled and said she was fine.
'Well, what are we waiting for?' Goku said, impatiently waiting to summon the dragon. 'Let's wish 'em back!' Bulma turned around again.
'Shouldn't we go to Kami's lookout and summon the dragon there? Kami knows a bit more about dragons than we do and that way no one knows about what we are doing here.'
'Great idea Bulma.' Goku said and gave Bulma two dragonballs. 'Okay everyone, lay your hand on me. I'll get you there.' He gave the other two to Mr. and Mrs. Briefs and put his hand on Gohan's head. When everyone had grabbed a hold of Goku, they all began to flicker and vanished into thin air.

'The garden looks lovely mister Popo.'
'Oh, thank you Kami.' It was one of those lovely, relaxed days on the lookout. Popo was watering the plants and Kami was doing, what he was always doing, watching over earth by staring into the clouds underneath the lookout. Kami had sensed a little distress among his friends and the leaving of several Kis. Many normal deaths, two of them had to do something with Goku, which was saddening, since it could be a friend. He had felt that Vegeta had left Earth and sensed no more of him; he was out of his reach. He also felt a dreadful presence growing on earth. Kami thought this was the cause of the androids, whom were now in the making. But other than that everything was fine. He knew Goku was searching for the dragonballs and now he waited for the sky to turn black and the dragon to fill his senses.
Suddenly he felt that Goku, his son and three other people were very close by. He turned around to face the spot where the sense came from and saw them stand close to the entrance of the hyperbolic-time-chamber.
'You wish to summon the dragon here?' He asked them and they all nodded. After Goku had said hello to Kami and Mr. Popo he gathered the dragonballs and laid them on an open spot, close to the edge of the lookout. Then he asked Kami to call for the dragon and wish for Jack Landers and Celine Jinia Landers to return to life.
'I would but I know not of whom you speak. Who are they?' Bulma looked at him with shock.
'How can you not know that? You are the guardian of earth for Kami's sake!' He gave a strange look on her use of words and continued.
'I have only felt your distress and the leaving of two certain souls. Are you implying those two were this Celine and Jack?' Goku said yes and told him of the things that happened. Kami was quite surprised by all of this. But then he got a serious look on his face again.
'I believe, if what you are saying is true, that the dragon wouldn't be able to bring them back. They come from a different timeline, and should have been dead ages ago. That is probably why I do not know about them. You can try to bring them back, but I'm afraid that it won't do much good.' The entire group was saddened by this news.
'No!' Goku shouted. 'There is hope. If there is a chance to get them back we should take it!' Kami gave an agreeing look, walked towards the 7 shining, yellow balls and raised his hands above them. After speaking some words that couldn't be heard, because Gohan was jumping up and down out of excitement and Goku was ranting on how great it was to do this again. Even through all of this Kami could keep his concentration well and succeeded in having the dragon up in the air. With a low voice he began to speak.
'You have awakened me from my sleep. You have three wishes.' The dragon saw Bulma and sweat dropped. She just smiled at him.
'Dragon, we wish to bring back Celine and Jack Landers, is that possible?' The big green monstrosity forked his eyebrows as if he was thinking really hard. After a few painfully silent seconds he answered.
'According to my memory, they passed away two centuries ago. The way they died is still unknown.' Bulma got a little agitated by this.
'What is it with you people? Does everyone NOT know what is going on?' The dragon ignored her comment and kept on talking.
'I cannot bring them back, they have died too long ago.'
'Thank you dragon. You may spread out now, we are not in need of you services any longer.' The dragon said what Kami told him to: He shrank back in the balls, they flew up in the air and all seven of them took of to a different direction. Bulma sighed.
'We couldn't keep our promise.'

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