AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't know where in the heck this story came from. Like all my stories, the muse for this just smacked me so hard in the head that this story bled itself onto the page........... Ew. I better rephrase that. ^^; Anyway, like I said, this story came to me out of the blue in a dream I was having, and I wrote it. Enjoy!
"Balance of Power"
By: Dariyen Ryuseikyaku
"Makankosappo!"
"Ugh…" Thud. Two totally identical figures sparred in a deserted forest. Both were Namekians--green, with pink patches on their arms. Both wore a purple and white turban, and both wore identical weighted capes, also of white. For a moment or two more, the figures sparred, as they had been doing all day, and then one called a halt. The other nodded, then, without a word, the two figures fused into one person--Piccolo.
Elsewhere, someone--a young girl--was watching Piccolo and marveling at his abilities, carefully noting Piccolo's behavior. "What grace and fluidity! And his power is nothing short of incredible…." She turned her back on the screen. "Tezhra!" she called.
Another young woman walked into the room. "Yes, Mistress Lekiizin?" she asked humbly. "You summoned me?"
Lekiizin pointed towards the screen. "Look at the screen. Do you see him?"
Tezhra obediently turned her eyes to the screen. "Yes, Mistress, I do."
"Send the Zaeshai to fetch him," Lekiizin ordered.
Tezhra gasped. "The Zaeshai?! He will be killed!"
Lekiizin shook her head. "No, he will not die. He is too strong for that--strong enough to keep us alive forever. Now go."
"Yes, Mistress," Tezhra said, bowing respectfully and exiting the chamber. On her way to send the Zaeshai, she thought, Perhaps there is a way to warn him first before they find him? Oh, Lekiizin, why must you be so covetous of power? Why must you use brute force to attain that which you seek?
On a cliff, Piccolo sat doing his meditation exercises. His ears were alert,
however, and he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. What? Who is this?
He flew silently into the air to wait for the intruder. The person in question
came out soon enough, looking around with a baffled expression. Before the intruder
could blink, Piccolo had attacked, sending the person flying into the wall of
a cliff. A feminine scream greeted his ears, then a pathetic, pained sound as
she slid to the ground. Piccolo flew down to investigate and found the intruder,
lying there nearly unconscious. "Who are you?" he demanded.
At this, the girl woke up a bit, then looked up and cowered at Piccolo's harsh tone, putting her arms over her head as if to ward him off. "Please," she begged, "do not attack me again! I mean you no harm!"
Piccolo was silent for a moment, watching the black-haired girl tremble in fear against the wall of the cliff. "Get up," he ordered. She did, still trembling like a frightened doe. Her hair was midnight black and she was rather dark. She looked to be no older then a teenager. But what Piccolo actually noticed first were her eyes. They were a brilliant shade of gold with silver flecks in them, and the pupils were slit-like, making her eyes the hypnotic eyes of a feral cat. She wore all-black, like her hair, from her high-necked, long-sleeved shirt to her leather pants and flat-soled suede boots. "I asked you a question, now answer me," he demanded, clenching his fists as if to attack again. The girl flattened herself against the side of the cliff in fright for a moment before she could recover her voice enough to answer him.
Finally, she found her tongue. "M-My name is Tezhra," she stammered. "I came to warn you. The Zaeshai is coming to kidnap you! I suggest you hide if you do not wish to go with them where they will take you. But whatever you do, please do not try to resist and fight them. They will kill you!"
"Piccolo hides from no one," he replied firmly. "I will face them."
Tezhra was taken aback. "I marvel at your courage, good sir." She stopped a moment, then gasped. "They are near! I must go. If I am found here, I will be promptly executed for treason! Goodbye!" With that, she ran back into the forest from whence she came.
At this, Piccolo thought a moment. Executed for treason? Then that means she is with whomever will be attacking me. She said the Zaeshai. Who are the Zaeshai?
His thoughts were interrupted by a shout from above him. Piccolo looked up, to be greeted by a shocking sight. Above him, at least fifty winged men flew above him, all wearing silver armor. One man, who appeared to be the leader, wore gold armor. This man yelled down to him, "We are here to take you to Lekiizin! Come with us peacefully, and you live. Resist and you die where you stand."
"Is that so…?" Piccolo clenched his fists. "Then attack me, if you are not afraid."
The leader of this troop laughed. "We are not afraid of you."
Piccolo challenged, "Bring it on!"
"Take him!" Ten of the silver-armored men flew down to capture him, only to be char-grilled by Piccolo's eye lasers. They fell, and the next wave took their place. In a while, only the leader was left still in the air.
The leader landed some distance away from Piccolo and said, "You are a strong fighter; Mistress Lekiizin will be very pleased with us for capturing you. But you will be no match for us." With that he raised his hand and a ball of fire appeared.
Piccolo was shocked. His opponent was using real flame, not ki! The leader took advantage of Piccolo's shock to hurl the ball at him. Piccolo grunted in pain as he felt the heat of the fireball as it impacted with his chest, burning a hole though his shirt. All the turbaned fighter could say was "What...? How...?"
The gold-armored man laughed. "This will truly 'burn you up' if that angered you." He laughed evilly, then raised his hands into the sky, much the same way Goku creates his Spirit Bomb, and shouted, "FireBurst!" A flaming circle of fire spread from underneath Piccolo's feet then shot its flames up into the sky before he could fly to safety in the air. Piccolo screamed in pain as the flame shot higher into the clear sky then went out. This was even too strong an attack for the caped fighter to take the full brunt of, and he collapsed with a grunt of pain. The gold-armored man gathered the unconscious Piccolo up and flew into the sky with him.
But what he didn't know is that there was someone watching. A young boy with black hair and wide, innocent eyes. Son Gohan--child of Son Goku--had been watching the fight and had seen his teacher and mentor Piccolo fall to the fire attack. "Oh, no!" he gasped. "I gotta follow him!" With that, the young boy took off into the air, following the winged man away from the scorched battle site.
Following the winged man led Gohan to a very strange building in the deepest part of the desert. It was the same color as the sand, and had four large turbine engines, one on each corner of the building. It was made of metal, and had a high, flat roof. The winged man landed on the roof then a trapdoor opened to allow him in. As soon as the winged man was safely inside, the trapdoor shut with a loud bang. A hissing was heard, as if the door was pressurizing.
Suddenly, the turbine engines started to turn. They picked up speed until they nearly pulled the young boy into them. But he managed to hold his place in the air. He looked at the building, witnessing it sink into the sand as if someone was pushing it down. In reality, the turbine engines were pulling the sand out from under the structure and blowing it out on top of the structure. In a few moments, nothing remained of the strange building. The young boy flew away to his parents' house to tell his father about it.
Meanwhile, Piccolo was just now waking up from his forced nap. "Ugh...." How did he manage to beat me so quickly? Piccolo took note of his surroundings, to discover that he was in a metal room of some sort. A prison cell? What crime am I guilty of? He got to his feet, looking for possible exits from the small room. A moment later, the door came hissing open. Piccolo readied his stance for fighting.
Through the door walked four men. Each of them was armed with some strange type of energy weapon. "Come with us," one said. "It is time."
"Time for what? And if I refuse…?" Piccolo asked. The men wasted no words on him, but fired their energy weapons at him. Bolts of lightning came out of them, and Piccolo gasped, then screamed in pain as the bolts hit him and paralyzed him for a moment.
"As you can see," the leader said, "you have no choice. Now come with us." Piccolo growled in anger, but obediently went with the troop, not wanting to be electrocuted again by those strange weapons. They led him to a chamber that looked like a laboratory. "Now, do you see that?" The leader pointed to a flat wall with small nodes on it. Piccolo nodded. "Go to that panel." Piccolo was for refusing, but a weapon with a light charge was slammed into the arch of his back, causing him to grunt in pain. He grudgingly walked to the wall. "Turn around." He did so. In a flash, metal cords had grabbed his wrists, ankles, and waist and had pulled his back in contact with the nodes.
"What is this?" Piccolo demanded. "Let me go at once!" Before he could protest further, the nodes on the wall began to glow, and he felt himself getting inexplicably tired. "What…are you…doing…to...me...?" Another figure entered the room slowly, cloaked in darkness, the person's heels clicking on the polished floor. "Who...are...you...?" he demanded weakly.
The figure stepped into the light to reveal a girl no older than Tezhra, but this girl was as fair as Tezhra was dark. Her hair was platinum blonde, her skin was fair, and her eyes were a dazzling green with the same slit-like pupils that Tezhra's had. But her eyes held more malice than Piccolo had ever seen in one's eyes, even in Frieza's eyes. Where Tezhra wore all black, and very plain clothes, this girl wore a flamboyant white and lavender costume. The white shirt (if you want to call it one) had intricate lavender embroidery on it. It was cropped almost too short, and was very tight on her figure, leaving a large expanse of her toned abdomen visible. The pants were wide-legged, and almost completely covered her flat-soled boots of white leather. The pants had lavender embroidery on them. "I am Queen Lekiizin. I rule the Interma."
"Who are...the Interma...?" Piccolo asked, fighting to keep himself awake.
Lekiizin shook her head and clucked her tongue. "Tut, tut! But it is we who have taken you into our home. Perhaps you should introduce yourself first."
But Piccolo could no longer keep himself from going to sleep. With a growl of frustration, he lost his battle with the Sandman and passed out. Just before he did, though, he realized that he'd been strapped a device for gathering power from its victims. The Interma were just as power-hungry as Frieza and his boys.
Unknown to anyone in the room, Tezhra watched from a corner. She gasped silently as she saw Piccolo's head fall forward. Lekiizin! What are you doing? He is supposed to remain conscious! It was then that she made up her mind. I cannot let my sister get away with this! She has gone completely power-mad! But what can I do? She waited until everyone had left the room and woke Piccolo. "Sir?" she whispered.
He woke with a groan. "T-Tezhra...?"
"Shh!" she hushed him. "Do you know anyone who can help you?"
Piccolo was on the verge of sleep, balancing delicately on the thin, fragile line between sleep and sleeplessness. "G-Go...han...." Then he succumbed to the sleep once again. Tezhra searched Piccolo's memories for this "Gohan," and, upon finding his energy signature, she quickly and silently left the chamber, intent on finding him. Before she did, though, she softly caressed Piccolo's face with her fingertips. She spoke to his mind. "I will help you. This I swear."
But what she didn't know is that Lekiizin had stayed in the chamber, and had been watching. Lekiizin left the chamber, smiling darkly. "So, Tezhra, you have decided to turn traitor, have you?" she murmured. "Then you will be dealt with accordingly." Lekiizin laughed evilly at the prospect.
"Dad!" the young black-haired boy ran inside his house calling. "I need to talk to you, and it's really important!"
His father looked up. "Gohan? What is it?" Goku saw that his son was out of breath. "What's wrong?"
"Dad! It's Mr. Piccolo! He's been…. Someone kidnapped him!" Gohan panted.
Goku's eyes widened. "What?" At that moment, a knock was heard at the door. Goku ran for the door with Gohan hot at his heels. Goku opened the door to find Tezhra at the door. "Who are you?" Goku asked.
Gohan gasped. "That's the lady I saw with Mr. Piccolo!" The boy noticed that this time, she was wearing a black cape, the sides of which connected with the middle finger of each hand.
His father's eyes narrowed, and he grabbed Tezhra by the collar. "Get in here," he commanded, pulling her into the house to the tune of her indignant squeak. "Where's Piccolo?" he growled, not letting go of her collar, and lifting her up into the air until her feet dangled in the air. "What have you done with him?"
"P-Please don't h-hurt me...." the girl whimpered. "I-I came to tell you where he is. My sister has gone power mad!"
Goku put the girl down on her feet, but quickly blocked her path to the door. "Okay, kid, spill it. Why did they take him?"
She began, "I am Tezhra, of the Interma. The Saiyans destroyed our planet, and we had no other place to go. Only my sister and I survived. But we soon found out that this world was not suitable, either. Our very existence here makes this planet angry, and it saps our power. But we have recently discovered that we may live on a Namekian's power. I was for leaving this planet and traveling to the Namekian planet, hoping to live there in peace. But Lekiizin, my sister, devised another way. She…saps the Namekian's energy to use it for her own selfish purposes.... I'm afraid that she's going to…kill him…."
Gohan gasped. "No! Dad! We have to help him."
"Yeah," Goku agreed. He turned to Tezhra. "Well, lead the way, Tezhra."
She nodded. "All right." Just as she was about to leave, Chichi came in the living room, and looked at the newcomer.
Chichi asked, "Goku, who's this?"
"This is Tezhra. She's an Interma. Her sister kidnapped Piccolo, and we're going to save him," Goku replied.
Gohan made for the door, and Chichi said, "Gohan! Where do you think you're going?"
Before the boy could make up an excuse, Tezhra said, "Please, ma'am. I would ask you to let the boy come, too. He may be needed."
"No!" Chichi said. "He could get hurt."
Tezhra placed her right hand over her heart, then her left on Chichi's shoulder, the classic Interma position when an oath is about to be made. Tezhra looked the other directly in the eyes and vowed, "I swear…upon the starry graves where my people rest in eternal sleep, and upon my own life… He will come to no harm while I draw breath." With her right hand, Tezhra made a sign in the air.
Chichi was impressed that the girl would so freely give her life to protect another. "Why do you need him?"
Tezhra replied, "Piccolo was only able to say one thing when I left him. He said, 'Gohan.'" Chichi looked stunned. "As you see, your son may be the only one who can save him from this. A life rests in your son's hands. Will you let Gohan save this fragile existence?"
Chichi chewed her lip for a moment. "A-All right. Gohan can go with you." Her expression firmed. "But if so much as a hair on his head his harmed, so help me, I'll...."
"He will not be harmed while I live, I promise you," Tezhra interrupted. "Now, Goku, Gohan, let's go. Follow me." She ran out of the house and stopped a short distance away from it.
Goku and Gohan, who were in the air, looked at her. "What are you doing?" Goku inquired. "Aren't we a little pressed for time?"
"Yes," Tezhra replied, "but I cannot fly as you do." Tezhra then spread her arms wide and stood with her feet shoulder length apart, calling out "Four winds that rule over all, I beseech thee, take me upon your back, at the roots of your wings!" A gust of wind blew, and Tezhra was lifted off of the ground.
"Whoa!" Gohan commented. "Cool!"
"Come on," Tezhra said, and flew away, with the Saiyan and his son following. Riding the gust of wind, the three made good time, and got to the building in less than five minutes. But the building was nowhere to be seen.
Goku looked around. "Are you sure we're in the right place? I don't see anything."
"Yes, this is it. Watch." Tezhra landed on the ground then raised her palms to the sky, concentrating fiercely. She called, "Let the way be shown to those who truly pray for freedom and life! Let not the merciless pass this way!"
For a moment, nothing happened, and then the ground began to rumble. A turbine engine made its way to the top, hissing, whirring, and blowing out steam and sand. On this engine, there was a door. Tezhra ran over and got inside, and Goku and Gohan followed suit. Tezhra shut the door tightly, and the turbine engine started again, this time taking them back down to the depths from whence it came.
"This is an elevator. It is the only way to get down to your friend," Tezhra replied.
Goku nodded. "I get it. Is this thing safe?"
"Perfectly."
Meanwhile, Piccolo was having his own troubles. He was struggling just to keep himself breathing. Lekiizin had since turned the power up on the machine he was hooked to, draining more of his power now than before. And it had been too much earlier. His thoughts rambled, as one's thoughts usually do before one passes out. Had he imagined Tezhra coming to help him a second time? Had he imagined her soft touch on his face? Had he imagined hearing her voice in his mind, promising to save him?
It must have been my imagination, Piccolo decided. After all, what have I ever done for anyone else that someone should help me, especially if that someone is working for those who put me in this place?
"You think too, much, Piccolo," he heard in his mind. He looked up to see Tezhra, Goku, and Gohan standing in front of him. Tezhra inquired, "Did I not tell you that I would help you? I never break promises."
"…Just like you never lie. Isn't that right, sister?" Everyone in the room turned to see the origin of the voice. It was Lekiizin, whose back was turned to everyone. "Dear sister, you wound me. And you lie." Lekiizin quickly spun, shouting, "Tezhra! You said you'd stand by my decisions, come what may! How can you betray me like this?" Lekiizin raised her arms, and a large fireball appeared. "DIE!" she screamed as she hurled it at her sister.
"NO!" Tezhra gasped. Before anyone knew what was happening, Tezhra had thrown a ball of arctic energy at the fireball. The two attacks met and disintegrated. "Lekiizin, stop this now! There is another way than killing. I told you I would help you as long as your decisions did not make me break my code. Killing is against my code!"
"Yet you are willing enough to kill animals!" Lekiizin challenged.
"Because we need them to survive!"
Lekiizin shouted, "And so too do we need the Namekians to survive! It is just like the wilderness! Kill or be killed. Are you the hunter or the hunted? When you are the hunter, you must always be wary, lest someone come and make you the hunted!"
"You've stayed too long in this place, Lekiizin! All you care about is power and making yourself supreme over the rest of us!" Tezhra accused. "Is your fear that great? Are you truly afraid that you will not be let back into these halls if you ever left? Are you afraid you would grow old, wither, and die?! All living things must die!"
At that moment, Lekiizin looked to Piccolo, whom Goku and his son were trying to free. "So...." Her eyes narrowed to slits. "That was your plan. To engage me in a battle of wits while those two took him from here? I will kill you all, starting with--" she looked at Gohan-- "you" Lekiizin raised her arms higher into the air than before, and created a fireball above her hands larger than Goku's best Kamehameha. With a shout of rage, Lekiizin threw the fireball not at Tezhra, but at Gohan.
Still strapped to the device, Piccolo could do nothing to save him. "G-Gohan…." he rasped, tearing at the straps with all the strength left in his weakened body. But he could not get free, and Gohan was going to die because he could not get free from this--What?!
At the last moment, Tezhra shoved Gohan none-too-gently out of the way of the fireball and took it herself. Piccolo, Goku, and Gohan knew that they would remember that terrifying scream for the rest of their lives. When the fireball dissipated, Tezhra lay on the ground, her breath coming in short, gasps. Gohan ran over to the fallen Interma. "Tezhra! No! Are you okay?" he said, trying to wake her.
Tezhra sat up, aided by Goku and Piccolo, whom Goku had finally managed to extricate from the trap. Piccolo supported her with one arm under her back. Tezhra looked at her sister and said, "Lekiizin…. This is what you have been doing all your life…exterminating those who get in your way. You…are not fit to call yourself an Interma. When…you…learn what peace is..., and learn to co-exist...you…will…then be able…to call…yourself such…." After these words were said, Tezhra's head fell back, and she stopped moving.
Piccolo let her body lie flat, and then looked up at Lekiizin. "How could you do this to your own sister? Don't you feel anything?"
"Of course I do. It is a sad loss, but I must go on. She was a traitor. It is not fair the way the world works, but who ever said we had to play fair?" Lekiizin sighed. "At any rate, I suggest you leave the Namekian here if you want to live. I was going to share the power with my sister, and she did not want you killed, so I used the device that you found your friend hooked to."
"We're not leaving Mr. Piccolo here!" Gohan cried.
"But no more," Lekiizin continued as if Gohan hadn't spoken. "I will drain this Namekian--Piccolo--of his energy the easy way." She walked to a control panel, and pressed a button. A panel opened in the wall, and out slithered a metal tendril, like a snake in search of prey. It headed straight for Piccolo, who dodged its efforts to ensnare him. Within moments, Piccolo was engaged in a death match with the slithering tendril. Piccolo fired a Renzoku Senkoudan at the tendril. The ki blasts surrounded it, then exploded all at once. But from the smoke, the tendril slithered again. Piccolo's eyes widened, and this loss of concentration allowed the tendril to wrap several times around him, pinning his arms to his sides and effectively immobilizing him. Suddenly, the tendril--and Piccolo--started glowing. Piccolo felt his energy draining from him at an alarming rate.
"Dammit!" Goku growled. Repeated attacks against the creature by Goku and Gohan together proved fruitless. All of a sudden, an enormous lightning bolt came from out of nowhere, hitting the tendril and causing it to drop Piccolo. Goku and Gohan looked to where the lightning bolt had come from, seeing Tezhra standing, albeit shakily.
The tendril arced up into the air like the body of a dying serpent, and was about to fall--directly on Piccolo. Gohan saw the danger that Piccolo was in. "No! Mr. Piccolo!" the boy shouted.
Tezhra growled, then shouted something in her native language. A volley of lightning bolts shot across the room, hitting the tendril and causing it to disintegrate.
Gohan turned back to Tezhra and called happily, "Tezhra! You're alive!" Tezhra didn't answer him, but made her way slowly over to where Piccolo was lying almost unconscious on the ground.
"Tezhra?" Goku asked in alarm. "What's wrong?"
She collapsed heavily to her knees beside the fallen Namekian, supporting his upper body, cradling him in her arms. "Piccolo…. I give to you a piece of the Interma consciousness, so that I will not be forgotten. Receive this in good health, and may no man take this from you. Preserve the delicate balance of power within you and without you," she whispered. Tezhra shut her eyes tightly and concentrated on the fading life forces of herself and Piccolo. Tezhra concentrated on bringing the two together, then twining them around each other in her mind, like two melodies that harmonize. Then she let her own life force flow into Piccolo along with his own, healing him. His eyes fluttered open, and hers fluttered closed. He sat up, catching her as she fell to the ground.
"What--What happened?" Piccolo looked at the Interma. Tezhra's form began to blur, and her body crumbled into dust. He looked at the dust in his hands and suddenly knew she had saved his life. "But why?" he asked, as if the dust would answer him. He carefully poured the dust from his hands, with the rest of the remains of Tezhra's body. Rest, well, Tezhra...
Gohan started to cry. Goku screwed his face up in a scowl. Lekiizin screamed in pure rage, "Tezhra! You chose a Vessel not of Interma! I was supposed to have your life essence, and you gave it to that Namekian! Tezhra! You traitor!"
"You don't deserve her life essence. You would have used it for your evil purposes. She knew I would keep it safe for her," Piccolo spat.
Lekiizin screamed again. "I'll take her life essence from you, dead or alive!" With an Interma war shout, she charged at the fighters, throwing multiple fireballs. Her foolishness quickly became her end as she fell to a combined Kamehameha from Goku and his son.
Goku sighed. "That means all of the Interma have died…."
"Yeah," Gohan agreed sadly.
"No, you are wrong," a male voice disagreed. The three Z fighters looked around.
Piccolo demanded, "Who? What?"
A man appeared suddenly, startling the three. Goku shouted, "Who are you?"
"My name is Tetrei. I am the father to Tezhra and Lekiizin," the man replied. He looked at Piccolo and said, "You, who holds my daughter's life essence, will you keep it safe, using it only for good?"
"Yes, I will," Piccolo promised.
Tetrei nodded. "Then I will let you all go. There are still yet more Interma alive, but very few of us. We will find another world to colonize." He smiled sadly. "Wish us luck." With that, he called out something in a foreign language, and five more people--three women and two more men--came out of a small door. "These are the only survivors of the destruction of our world."
Goku nodded, then stepped forward and shook the old man's hand. "Good luck to you and your people, Tetrei. I hope you find a place to call home soon."
"As do I," Tetrei replied. "We will go with our original idea." He turned to Piccolo. "Do you think your people would welcome us?"
Piccolo replied, "As long as you don't try this--" he indicated the machine that he'd been strapped to "--on anyone, I'm sure that they'll be glad to give you a hand. You will have to speak to the Elder, though."
Goku let Tetrei and Piccolo talk for a minute. Gohan walked over to where Tezhra's ashes were. Something small and silver caught his eye. It was a small silver locket with a bird of an unknown species carved on the front. Gohan picked it up and walked over to Tetrei and Piccolo. "Mr. Tetrei, I found this over there," he said timidly.
Tetrei smiled. "Then Tezhra wants you to have it. It's a Spirit Locket. It can only be seen by one until that one picks it up." Tetrei bent down to the young boy. "Spirit Lockets are very special. They contain the feelings of the person it belonged to. Tezhra wanted to tell you that no matter how far away she is, she will always be with you here." Tetrei touched the boy's chest where his heart was.
Gohan looked baffled. "She's in my chest?"
Tetrei laughed. "No, young one. Her presence is with you in your heart. She wanted to remain close to you after she died. The Spirit Lockets bind souls together. If your connection is strong enough, you may be able to summon her spirit from the locket for a short while."
"How?" Gohan asked.
Tetrei answered, "These lockets cannot be opened with your hands. You open them with your mind. Go ahead and give it a mental nudge. See it opening in your mind."
Gohan did just that, and to Goku and Piccolo's surprise, the locket opened, revealing a beautiful beach. The beach scene was absolutely wondrous, and they all stared at it until the locket closed itself again.
Goku said, "Whoa…."
"Tezhra's Spirit Locket contains mental images of her favorite things, her childhood and adult dreams, and her music," Tetrei replied. "If you dream of your favorite things, you too will put them into this locket. But you will never see your own dreams in it, only the dreams of others. And whoever you pass the locket to will see only your hopes and dreams, but never his own." Tetrei hung the locket around the boy's neck, and the carved bird on the front glowed before replacing itself with a design more suited to Gohan.
"Thank you, Mr. Tetrei," Gohan said.
Tetrei smiled. "You should thank Tezhra." He turned to Piccolo and Goku. "I am sorry that Lekiizin caused so much pain to you all. I wish there was something I could do to make up for it, but I do not know what that might be. All I can do is promise that no Interma will harm another without cause while I live." Tetrei placed his left hand on Goku's shoulder and made the same sign in the air that Tezhra had made when she promised Chichi she would protect Gohan.
Goku replied, "Well, that's all I was going to ask for. That and that you try real hard to find somewhere you and your people can live."
Tetrei nodded. "I thank you all."
Later, as the Interma spacecraft took off, Goku and Gohan watched it until it was just a speck in the sky. Piccolo was nowhere to be found.
All's well that ends well, I suppose, Piccolo thought as he flew back to where he'd been when all this started. But why did you pass your life essence to me?
"You were the most likely candidate. You and I have more in common than you might initially think, Piccolo."
He nodded. Well, I suppose we have the rest of my life to figure each other out, ne?
"Quite true." For some reason--he didn't know why--this thought seemed to please him more than he thought. "One of the many things we share. Neither of us will admit when we are lonely. I recognized the essence of solitude in you, and felt how similar it was to my own solitude. I promised to help you."
Yes, that you did.
"And I never break promises…."
[Fin]
Date Completed: Tuesday, January 23, 2001.
"Balance of Power" copyright 2000 by "Dariyen Ryuseikyaku." The characters "Tezhra," "Lekiizin," "Tetrei," the "Interma," and all other original concepts are the property of the webmaster. Please do not reproduce this story in any form without written permission.
DBZ characters copyright Toei Animation and Akira Toriyama. Used without permission, no rights reserved. And I'm NOT making money off of this. ^_^