fate 20

His thoughts were muddled. Gohan's mind was clouded with questions as he paced back and forth in his room, his hair ruffled and his clothes wrinkled from sleeping. Gohan had come home emotionally exhausted; as a result of being forced to watch a video of the Cell Games and breaking down in front of Videl, he was emotionally spent.

The moment he came home, he collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep. While he slept, his mind unconsciously raced through the events of the past couple months, in particular the appearance of a new threat and what Vegeta said about them. The events manifested themselves into dreams, dreams of places that Gohan had never seen before.

In one of his dreams, he saw what looked to be a member of the Saiya-jin royalty shaking the hand of a woman, a woman with long blonde hair with a joyful smile on her face. They seemed to be agreeing to something but before Gohan could figure it out, he woke up, his mind puzzling over the events of the dream. That's when he started pacing; he needed to figure it out or else he'd go insane.

He was thinking about Vegeta's explanation about the people they were up against, running over his words carefully, seeing if there was anything to give him a clue as to what was going on. As his mind mulled over it, questions came up. There were holes in Vegeta's explanation, things that needed further explanation.

< Vegeta didn't tell us everything, I know he didn't. I'll go and ask him. I need to know, > Gohan thought as he wordlessly put on his shoes, opened the window, and flew out of it, heading towards Capsule Corp. with incredible speed. His questions were burning inside his mind, forcing him to go faster. It wasn't long before Gohan was landing down in front of the large building, his feet gently coming down to rest on the ground.

Determined, Gohan walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell, waiting for someone to come to the door. Thinking that one of Bulma's parents would answer the door, Gohan was surprised to see Bulma standing on the other side of the threshold. She blinked in surprise.

"All right, he's in the kitchen, making a snack. By the way, just wondering, why is it that a little snack for you Saiya-jins is enough food to feed a family of 5?" Bulma asked. It was Gohan's turn to shrug.

"I don't know. High metabolisms, I guess." Gohan made his way through to the kitchen, stopping in the doorway to see Vegeta, as Bulma said, fixing up a snack for himself. Without even turning around, Vegeta addressed him.

"Well, I need to talk to you about the Cresilians. You know, the enemy that showed up several weeks ago? There are some holes in your explanation that I want explained." Vegeta nodded, walking over to the kitchen table and sitting down. Vegeta eyed the chair across from him, grunting his order for Gohan to sit down. Once Gohan sat down, Vegeta spoke.

"Well, you said that most of these queen's 15 High Priests are more powerful than you, that they have the power to take over the universe. Well, if they possess all of this power, what's stopping them from ruling the universe?" Gohan asked.

"Hmph," Vegeta grunted, "I guess I forgot to explain everything fully. I wasn't thinking clearly that day. I had just gotten my mate back from the dead; I wasn't focused totally on the enemy at the time. I guess there are some things that I should tell you." Gohan nodded.

"Well, when I said that Milena's High Priests are more powerful than I, I forgot to mention how. In the areas of pure magic, nobody is their rival. But, they are weak when it comes to fighting. And, they have no chance over Saiya-jins who have their guard up. It's part of the treaty. You see, they are stronger against an enemy then we are.

"But, against each other, we are almost equal in power; it all depends on the specific strength of the two sides. Sometimes it's a Saiya-jin who's stronger and other times, it's a High Priest who's stronger. The High Priests have the power to control people's minds, but they cannot control a Saiya-jin's mind. And, since they cannot control our minds, it makes it difficult for us to attack them. Just as we are able to block their magic, they are able to block our attacks."

"Thousands of years ago," Vegeta spoke, "One of my ancestors made a treaty with the Queen at the time. The Cresilians are generally a peace-loving race and didn't like what the Saiya-jins were doing to the universe. So, the Saiya-jins and the Cresilians came to an agreement. We agreed not to attack and take over Cresilia if they promised not to try and stop us.

"We knew that they were the only beings in the universe with the power to stop us, so we agreed. Part of that agreement was that the magic of their High Priests and our power would nullify each other in combat. This treaty has existed for over 35,000 years and, as far as I know, was still valid up until Vegetasei was destroyed."

"But, if they can't harm us, then why was I controlled by that man?" Gohan asked, remembering the day when he came upon High Priest Rademar.

"Well, you're mind wasn't guarded. All Saiya-jins were taught how to access the power inside of them that would prevent them from being controlled by the Cresilians. Since you didn't grow up on Vegetasei, you weren't taught how to access that power like I was." Gohan nodded and continued his questions.

"He wasn't expecting me," Vegeta said, taking a bite of what Gohan counted to be his 6th sandwich, "Had he known I was there, he could have guarded against my attack. I was also stronger than he was. He was one of Milena's weaker High Priests. It was the element of surprise that was working in my favor." Gohan nodded.

"He hadn't gotten that far yet. Cresilia is way over on the other side of the universe from where Frieza is from. It would have taken him years to get over there. Besides, Queen Milena wouldn't have stood for letting them take over her planet. She would have done something about it and she probably would have won. Frieza had some magic men with him as well with incredible power, but I never saw them in action. I don't know how strong they would have been against Milena's High Priests."

"I can sense ki, yes, but magic uses a different kind of energy that is out of a Saiya-jin's senses to perceive. Other magic men can sense each other, but they can't sense Saiya-jins, just like we can't sense them. I have no idea why it works like that; it's just part of how the universe works, I guess." Gohan sat back in his chair while Vegeta continued to eat, thinking about what the older man had said.

"Ok," Gohan spoke, "you said that the Cresilians are a peace-loving people. Why would they brutally slaughter my mother and Bulma?" Gohan asked. Vegeta's face took on a look of anger.

"That's what makes no sense," Vegeta said, his voice rising in volume, "The Cresilians always ask a planet before taking their sacrifice. They have to be the most considerate species in the universe. I..." Vegeta trailed off as something hit him.

"Well, two things. The first thing to address is why the High Priest and those two men came and attacked Earth without any warning and why they were so cruel about it. The Queen controls the High Priests. Depending on the Queen, the High Priests will either act for peace, or for anarchy. Throughout history, the High Priests have always acted for peace because the Queen willed it so.

"The only time the High Priests would use their magic would be for defensive purposes only and the Cresilian would kill the two who would tell them who the sacrifice was gently, not like Bulma and Chi-Chi were killed. Since they were killed in a brutal manner, we can safely assume that Queen Milena will not use her powers for defensive, peaceful purposes. The Cresilians are a people that value their privacy. They don't like to be bothered, but it looks like Queen Milena is going to change all of that."

"Well, the other thing we have to address is the gender of the sacrifice. I told you that the Cresilians were peace-loving people, did I not?" Vegeta said. Gohan nodded, so Vegeta continued.

"Well, that's because of the power they were given by the sacrifice they do every 1000 years. The two genders grant different powers. If the sacrifice is male, then, as the prophecy says, the power the Queen receives will be used for peaceful, purposes. They will have the power to bring peace and happiness to their kingdom; they will have no wish to harm anybody.

"If the sacrifice is female, then the opposite will happen. The Queen will have the power of the underworld and will be filled with the desire to rule the universe, if she didn't have it already. Queen Milena, from what little I remember being told, is as ruthless as rulers come. She's different. Which makes this bad. Because the sacrifices have been male for the last 50,000 years, Cresilia has been a peaceful planet for that length of time. Since two women, Chi-Chi and Bulma, were killed to reveal the sacrifice, the sacrifice itself will be female. Queen Milena will have the dark power to rule the universe." Gohan didn't like the sound of that.

"Well, since we Saiya-jins can't fight her High Priests, we can't win, but we can't be killed by them either. We have two options: we can either kill Queen Milena, or protect the sacrifice from her until her time is up. If she doesn't get her sacrifice in time, she will die. The only problem with the first option is that we don't know who the sacrifice is." Gohan gulped.

"Well, Videl is stronger than my mother. That makes her the strongest female on the planet. And, this Queen kills two people and takes the sacrifice from the same planet, right?" Vegeta nodded and Gohan continued.

"Well, Videl is the strongest female on this planet overall. In strength, will, courage, spirit, and everything else. She's the perfect target for Queen Milena," Gohan said with a regretful. Vegeta's eyes brightened.

"Well then, if we have a pretty good idea as to who the sacrifice is, then we can protect her from being taken." Gohan looked at Vegeta, a skeptical look on his face.

"Well, what do you want us to do? If we protect her openly, we'll have to tell her about us being Saiya-jins. We can't tell her of the existence of the Saiya-jins."

"Well," Vegeta said, "if we explain to her what's going on, including who we really are, then she might be more likely to go along with us and allow us to protect her." Gohan sighed at Vegeta's words. He knew Vegeta was right, but he just didn't want to tell Videl about his Saiya-jin heritage.

"We'll figure it out later. For the moment, I'll watch her without her knowing. I'll be her unofficial bodyguard until we come up with a more definite plan," Gohan stated. Vegeta shrugged.

"Oh no you're not," Vegeta said, "As payment for interrupting my day, you are going to spar with me and there's nothing you can go about it. Now let's go." Gohan sighed, knowing that resistance was futile.

< Oh, I just know I'm going to get a workout from Vegeta. I'm so tired that I won't be able to fight at my best, but I can't back out. I might as well just spar with him and get it over with, > Gohan thought, getting ready to get pounded by a weaker man.

The next day at school, Gohan sauntered into History class, sporting a new, shining black eye, courtesy of Vegeta. He grumbled at some of the stares he was getting from his classmates.

< I knew I should have tried to back down. But no, I still had to spar with him when I was tired. I got my butt royally beaten by the prince of all Saiya-jins. Now he's going to be arrogant whenever I see him...until I beat him in a sparring match, that is, > Gohan thought as he moved to take his seat next to Videl.

"Good morning Gohan. How are you doing? I mean, after yesterday with the anniversary of the Cell Games and all." Gohan's face took on a thoughtful look as he contemplated Videl's question for a moment.

"I'm actually doing ok. I mean, I still miss my dad, but his death is a lot easier to deal with when it's not the day of his anniversary, his birthday, or my parents' wedding anniversary," Gohan said, turning to look at Videl. As she took in his answer, she spotted his black eye and grimaced in pain.

"Yeah, something like that. I was sparring with Vegeta yesterday and he got me. Needless to say, he beat me. Now he'll be unbearable to be around," Gohan said with a sigh.

"Well, the fact that I almost always beat him in sparring matches keeps his ego in check. When he beats me, which rarely happens, he goes on this whole ego trip, stating that he's better than me, which is bad. Nobody wants to be around him when he's like that," Gohan said right as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class.

"I'm not so sure many people want to be around him anyway," Videl whispered, causing Gohan to chuckle again before both of them settled down to pay attention to the teacher's lecture of the day.


	LOVES TRIALS 20 Same day, after school- His thoughts were muddled. Gohan's mind was clouded with questions as he paced back and forth in his room, his hair ruffled and his clothes wrinkled from sleeping. Gohan had come home emotionally exhausted; as a result of being forced to watch a video of the Cell Games and breaking down in front of Videl, he was emotionally spent. The moment he came home, he collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep. While he slept, his mind unconsciously raced through the events of the past couple months, in particular the appearance of a new threat and what Vegeta said about them. The events manifested themselves into dreams, dreams of places that Gohan had never seen before. In one of his dreams, he saw what looked to be a member of the Saiya-jin royalty shaking the hand of a woman, a woman with long blonde hair with a joyful smile on her face. They seemed to be agreeing to something but before Gohan could figure it out, he woke up, his mind puzzling over the events of the dream. That's when he started pacing; he needed to figure it out or else he'd go insane. He was thinking about Vegeta's explanation about the people they were up against, running over his words carefully, seeing if there was anything to give him a clue as to what was going on. As his mind mulled over it, questions came up. There were holes in Vegeta's explanation, things that needed further explanation. < Vegeta didn't tell us everything, I know he didn't. I'll go and ask him. I need to know, > Gohan thought as he wordlessly put on his shoes, opened the window, and flew out of it, heading towards Capsule Corp. with incredible speed. His questions were burning inside his mind, forcing him to go faster. It wasn't long before Gohan was landing down in front of the large building, his feet gently coming down to rest on the ground. Determined, Gohan walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell, waiting for someone to come to the door. Thinking that one of Bulma's parents would answer the door, Gohan was surprised to see Bulma standing on the other side of the threshold. She blinked in surprise. "Gohan, what a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?" Bulma asked, a smile on her face. "I've come to talk to Vegeta. It's important. May I come in?" Gohan asked. "Yeah, sure, but I don't understand why you'd want to talk to Vegeta." "Well," Gohan said, "When I explain to him what I need to talk about, he'll understand." Bulma shrugged. "All right, he's in the kitchen, making a snack. By the way, just wondering, why is it that a little snack for you Saiya-jins is enough food to feed a family of 5?" Bulma asked. It was Gohan's turn to shrug. "I don't know. High metabolisms, I guess." Gohan made his way through to the kitchen, stopping in the doorway to see Vegeta, as Bulma said, fixing up a snack for himself. Without even turning around, Vegeta addressed him. "Well, hello brat. Is there anything that you want?" "I need to talk to you Vegeta," Gohan said. "Oh? And what about?" Vegeta asked, turning around, holding a sandwich in one hand. "Well, I need to talk to you about the Cresilians. You know, the enemy that showed up several weeks ago? There are some holes in your explanation that I want explained." Vegeta nodded, walking over to the kitchen table and sitting down. Vegeta eyed the chair across from him, grunting his order for Gohan to sit down. Once Gohan sat down, Vegeta spoke. "Ask your questions, Gohan," Vegeta commanded. "Well, you said that most of these queen's 15 High Priests are more powerful than you, that they have the power to take over the universe. Well, if they possess all of this power, what's stopping them from ruling the universe?" Gohan asked. "Hmph," Vegeta grunted, "I guess I forgot to explain everything fully. I wasn't thinking clearly that day. I had just gotten my mate back from the dead; I wasn't focused totally on the enemy at the time. I guess there are some things that I should tell you." Gohan nodded. "Yeah, I should think there are," Gohan said. Vegeta looked Gohan straight in the eye, coal black meeting coal black. "Well, when I said that Milena's High Priests are more powerful than I, I forgot to mention how. In the areas of pure magic, nobody is their rival. But, they are weak when it comes to fighting. And, they have no chance over Saiya-jins who have their guard up. It's part of the treaty. You see, they are stronger against an enemy then we are. "But, against each other, we are almost equal in power; it all depends on the specific strength of the two sides. Sometimes it's a Saiya-jin who's stronger and other times, it's a High Priest who's stronger. The High Priests have the power to control people's minds, but they cannot control a Saiya-jin's mind. And, since they cannot control our minds, it makes it difficult for us to attack them. Just as we are able to block their magic, they are able to block our attacks." "Why is that?" Gohan asked, quickly becoming fascinated with what Vegeta was saying. "Thousands of years ago," Vegeta spoke, "One of my ancestors made a treaty with the Queen at the time. The Cresilians are generally a peace-loving race and didn't like what the Saiya-jins were doing to the universe. So, the Saiya-jins and the Cresilians came to an agreement. We agreed not to attack and take over Cresilia if they promised not to try and stop us. "We knew that they were the only beings in the universe with the power to stop us, so we agreed. Part of that agreement was that the magic of their High Priests and our power would nullify each other in combat. This treaty has existed for over 35,000 years and, as far as I know, was still valid up until Vegetasei was destroyed." "But, if they can't harm us, then why was I controlled by that man?" Gohan asked, remembering the day when he came upon High Priest Rademar. "Well, you're mind wasn't guarded. All Saiya-jins were taught how to access the power inside of them that would prevent them from being controlled by the Cresilians. Since you didn't grow up on Vegetasei, you weren't taught how to access that power like I was." Gohan nodded and continued his questions. "And, if your attacks aren't supposed to work against these people, how did your attack kill that guy?" "He wasn't expecting me," Vegeta said, taking a bite of what Gohan counted to be his 6th sandwich, "Had he known I was there, he could have guarded against my attack. I was also stronger than he was. He was one of Milena's weaker High Priests. It was the element of surprise that was working in my favor." Gohan nodded. "Oh, I get it. So, wait how come Frieza didn't try to take them over." Vegeta smirked. "He hadn't gotten that far yet. Cresilia is way over on the other side of the universe from where Frieza is from. It would have taken him years to get over there. Besides, Queen Milena wouldn't have stood for letting them take over her planet. She would have done something about it and she probably would have won. Frieza had some magic men with him as well with incredible power, but I never saw them in action. I don't know how strong they would have been against Milena's High Priests." "You mean you weren't able to tell? I thought you could sense ki!" Gohan exclaimed. "I can sense ki, yes, but magic uses a different kind of energy that is out of a Saiya-jin's senses to perceive. Other magic men can sense each other, but they can't sense Saiya-jins, just like we can't sense them. I have no idea why it works like that; it's just part of how the universe works, I guess." Gohan sat back in his chair while Vegeta continued to eat, thinking about what the older man had said. "Ok," Gohan spoke, "you said that the Cresilians are a peace-loving people. Why would they brutally slaughter my mother and Bulma?" Gohan asked. Vegeta's face took on a look of anger. "That's what makes no sense," Vegeta said, his voice rising in volume, "The Cresilians always ask a planet before taking their sacrifice. They have to be the most considerate species in the universe. I..." Vegeta trailed off as something hit him. "Oh, I'm an idiot!" Vegeta cried out, "Why didn't I remember it sooner." "What? What?" Gohan asked, his heart pounding in anticipation of what Vegeta had to say. "Well, two things. The first thing to address is why the High Priest and those two men came and attacked Earth without any warning and why they were so cruel about it. The Queen controls the High Priests. Depending on the Queen, the High Priests will either act for peace, or for anarchy. Throughout history, the High Priests have always acted for peace because the Queen willed it so. "The only time the High Priests would use their magic would be for defensive purposes only and the Cresilian would kill the two who would tell them who the sacrifice was gently, not like Bulma and Chi-Chi were killed. Since they were killed in a brutal manner, we can safely assume that Queen Milena will not use her powers for defensive, peaceful purposes. The Cresilians are a people that value their privacy. They don't like to be bothered, but it looks like Queen Milena is going to change all of that." "What's the other thing we have to address?" Gohan asked. "Well, the other thing we have to address is the gender of the sacrifice. I told you that the Cresilians were peace-loving people, did I not?" Vegeta said. Gohan nodded, so Vegeta continued. "Well, that's because of the power they were given by the sacrifice they do every 1000 years. The two genders grant different powers. If the sacrifice is male, then, as the prophecy says, the power the Queen receives will be used for peaceful, purposes. They will have the power to bring peace and happiness to their kingdom; they will have no wish to harm anybody. "If the sacrifice is female, then the opposite will happen. The Queen will have the power of the underworld and will be filled with the desire to rule the universe, if she didn't have it already. Queen Milena, from what little I remember being told, is as ruthless as rulers come. She's different. Which makes this bad. Because the sacrifices have been male for the last 50,000 years, Cresilia has been a peaceful planet for that length of time. Since two women, Chi-Chi and Bulma, were killed to reveal the sacrifice, the sacrifice itself will be female. Queen Milena will have the dark power to rule the universe." Gohan didn't like the sound of that. "Is there any way to stop her? She's not invincible, right?" Vegeta shrugged. "Well, since we Saiya-jins can't fight her High Priests, we can't win, but we can't be killed by them either. We have two options: we can either kill Queen Milena, or protect the sacrifice from her until her time is up. If she doesn't get her sacrifice in time, she will die. The only problem with the first option is that we don't know who the sacrifice is." Gohan gulped. "Um, that may not be true." Vegeta eyed Gohan carefully. "What do you know?" Vegeta asked, "Tell me now!" "Well, I think I may know who the sacrifice is," Gohan said, "I think it might be Videl." "That girl?" Vegeta said, "That little brat who called me an arrogant pig?" Gohan nodded. "Yeah, that's the one." Vegeta's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Gohan. "And how do you know she might be the one?" Vegeta asked. "Well, Videl is stronger than my mother. That makes her the strongest female on the planet. And, this Queen kills two people and takes the sacrifice from the same planet, right?" Vegeta nodded and Gohan continued. "Well, Videl is the strongest female on this planet overall. In strength, will, courage, spirit, and everything else. She's the perfect target for Queen Milena," Gohan said with a regretful. Vegeta's eyes brightened. "Well then, if we have a pretty good idea as to who the sacrifice is, then we can protect her from being taken." Gohan looked at Vegeta, a skeptical look on his face. "How are we going to protect her?" Gohan asked. Vegeta scowled. "I don't know. She's your friend; why don't you figure it out?" "Well, what do you want us to do? If we protect her openly, we'll have to tell her about us being Saiya-jins. We can't tell her of the existence of the Saiya-jins." "And why not? With her being your friend, she's bound to find out eventually," Vegeta pointed out. "Look, I just don't want her to know, ok? That would make things more complicated then they already are between the two of us." "Well," Vegeta said, "if we explain to her what's going on, including who we really are, then she might be more likely to go along with us and allow us to protect her." Gohan sighed at Vegeta's words. He knew Vegeta was right, but he just didn't want to tell Videl about his Saiya-jin heritage. "We'll figure it out later. For the moment, I'll watch her without her knowing. I'll be her unofficial bodyguard until we come up with a more definite plan," Gohan stated. Vegeta shrugged. "Well, have it your way. We both know that my way is the best way, but if you want to do it differently, I won't stop you." "Thanks Vegeta," Gohan said with a smile, standing up and walking out of the kitchen, ready to go home. "And where do you think you're going?" Vegeta asked, his voice slightly distempered. Gohan froze mid-step. "I'm going home," Gohan said simply. "Oh no you're not," Vegeta said, "As payment for interrupting my day, you are going to spar with me and there's nothing you can go about it. Now let's go." Gohan sighed, knowing that resistance was futile. "Alright. Just let me borrow something to train it," Gohan said dejectedly. Vegeta laughed. "No problem, brat. Just follow me." Vegeta stood up and walked out of the kitchen with Gohan following behind, his head hanging. < Oh, I just know I'm going to get a workout from Vegeta. I'm so tired that I won't be able to fight at my best, but I can't back out. I might as well just spar with him and get it over with, > Gohan thought, getting ready to get pounded by a weaker man. * The next day at school, Gohan sauntered into History class, sporting a new, shining black eye, courtesy of Vegeta. He grumbled at some of the stares he was getting from his classmates. < I knew I should have tried to back down. But no, I still had to spar with him when I was tired. I got my butt royally beaten by the prince of all Saiya-jins. Now he's going to be arrogant whenever I see him...until I beat him in a sparring match, that is, > Gohan thought as he moved to take his seat next to Videl. "Hey Videl," Gohan said, setting his stuff down on the ground, pulling out what he needed for class from his bag. "Good morning Gohan. How are you doing? I mean, after yesterday with the anniversary of the Cell Games and all." Gohan's face took on a thoughtful look as he contemplated Videl's question for a moment. "I'm actually doing ok. I mean, I still miss my dad, but his death is a lot easier to deal with when it's not the day of his anniversary, his birthday, or my parents' wedding anniversary," Gohan said, turning to look at Videl. As she took in his answer, she spotted his black eye and grimaced in pain. "Ouch, that one has to hurt," Videl said, "How'd you get that one? You get into a fight or something?" Gohan chuckled. "Yeah, something like that. I was sparring with Vegeta yesterday and he got me. Needless to say, he beat me. Now he'll be unbearable to be around," Gohan said with a sigh. "What do you mean?" Videl asked, waiting for class to start. "Well, the fact that I almost always beat him in sparring matches keeps his ego in check. When he beats me, which rarely happens, he goes on this whole ego trip, stating that he's better than me, which is bad. Nobody wants to be around him when he's like that," Gohan said right as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. "I'm not so sure many people want to be around him anyway," Videl whispered, causing Gohan to chuckle again before both of them settled down to pay attention to the teacher's lecture of the day. NEXT CHAPTER**