Main Drama: A Hero's Fall

[Legacy Orchestrator]

a hero's fall

Son Goku lies struggling inside a dashing ambulance. Clutching his heart in pain, the Saiyan warrior groans, twisting and turning around the bed. On either side of him sit Gohan and Bulma, two of the most important people in his life. Worried expressions displayed on their shocked faces, they glance downwards towards the man that had once been so strong, so brave.

Their savior. Their hero.
Ah, how the mighty have fallen so the old saying goes.

By phone, Bulma had already informed Chi Chi and the Kame House residence. They were most likely already at the hospital, waiting for their fallen hero's arrival. This was a grim day. One second, father and son were laughing, smiles wide on their faces, and the next, the hero lies broken, still fighting the cold grasp of death.

A warrior even in the face of death itself.

[Goku]

what should i do?

Writhing in pain, the legendary Super Saiyan turned over several times over on the bed. The pain was unbearable, and all stemmed from the heart. The last time that he had experienced a pain such as this was... Never. No. Not even when Piccolo's beam cannon pierced a hole in his stomach. No. Not even when he was seared in the blazing hot lava of Planet Namek. Not even when King Piccolo numbed three of his limbs.

This was different. This was a pain that he had never felt before. It hurt. Alot.

The pain did something: It made Goku think.

Why? What did I do? I've been a good guy haven't I? Did I do something wrong? What?

"Agh!"

It was the only thing Goku could do to ignore the pain. This sucked. This really sucked. His heart throbbed again, as blood squirted out his gasping mouth onto his trademark orange gi. He held onto the cries of Gohan and Bulma as the ambulance continued to rush towards the hospital building.

[Austin]

Vegeta stood out in the open, a frown on his face. He could sense Kakarots energy, fading. His eyes widened slightly. Where was the energy coming from? He could sense Gohan's, he could sense.... Bulma's? His suprised expression turned to anger. The energies were dashing about. Obviously a moving vehicle. Vegeta could not beleive it. Was Kakarot..... dying? He hadn't sensed any evil energy, that was for sure. Could the Super Saiyan be dying of natural causes? Impossible! Vegeta slowly drifted at first, then went ahead faster.

The energy was going away almost as fast. It was rushing. Vegeta powered up and went full speed ahead, and he saw the ambulance, could sense the energies clear as day. His mouth fell open slightly. Ambulance meant hospital. Kakarot was hurt alright, but there was no way he was injured. He had to be hurt from the inside. Vegeta knew that this disease, whatever it may be, was killing the Saiyan. Vegeta couldn't stop it; it would mean wasted time. Kakarot had to be alive in order for Vegeta to kill him. There was no way a disease could hurt Kakarot. How had the goody two shoes ended up like this?

Vegeta sighed, and slowed down, following the ambulance.

[Gohan]

Don't go, I can't do this on my own
Don't go, I can't do this on my own

Save me from the ones that haunt me in the night

"Dad?"

The rather high-pitched, childish voice rang throughout the room, emanating from the trembling lips of the son, the shaking eyes cautiously peering out from behind the long dark drapes of his mullet-styled hair. His pupils moved rapidly as they traced the edges of the form resting itself on the strolling bed. The wheels even now carried the continuously shifting mattress back and forth as Gohan attempted in vain to support its standstill with his weakened fingers.

The first sight of blood was all that was required to fit the criteria of childhood shock, a potentially everlasting image that would be implanted in his rather unnecessarily well-memorizing brain for eternity. A short scream escaped his lips as he was stunned by the scene that he had witnessed so many times before on the involvement of others...

Just not his father.

The sirens continued to blaze, the ear-piercing cry of the amplified speakers tearing through the steel roof of the speeding ambulance. And yet Gohan sat in utter ignorance as the sound seemed to simply rip through his eardrums, unknown to his dumbfounded senses.

"Dad..."

[Goku]

there's nothing you can do...[/i]

The crimson blood of the Legendary Super Saiyan continued to sporadically sputter out of his redly-stained mouth. On any regular occasion, this mouth would express joy, express innocence, express love. But this was no regular occasion, now was it?

In his head, Goku was running. Running in pitch black darkness. It was Snake Way all over again. But this time: There was no end. He hadn't experienced anything like this. It felt like a dream, but that pain he felt on the outside was all too real.

"Dad..."

The melancholy tone in a familiar voice played back repeatedly in the horrific pandemonium that was the Saiyan's mind. Grasping his head as he ran on the dreamlike path, the Saiyan cried back out his son's name.

A more powerful spurt of blood shot out of the struggling Saiyan's mouth as he tossed and turned on the stretcher, splothces of blood smothering its' white material.

For a moment, he could see.

The shocked face of Bulma looming over his head, and the back of his son's head. Wrapped in anguish. Wrapped in confusion. Wrapped in trauma.

He could feel their panic. He could feel their pain.

"Go-han."

Darkness triumphed. He was still. Cold.

Another flash later, the rocking of a moving hospital bed forced out more of the plasma substance from his body. Masked heads loomed overhead, like Bulma's had.

Dear God...

And with that last thought, another black out. A dreamlike trance. Where he was oblivious to those in the waiting room. Those he had cared for. Those he had changed. Those he loved. Those worried, and scared.

And yet the question still remained...

...why?

[note: all of goku's friends are at the waiting room as well. go ahead and godmod them if you need to.]

[Austin]

Vegeta stood in the waiting room, his arms crossed, his legs crossed, against the wall. On the outside, he seemed calm; but on the inside, a variety of feelings were pulsating randomly. Memories. Kakarot had been fuming against Freiza when Vegeta died; Either Kakarot was angry that Freiza had killed again, or he could see the good in Vegeta..... maybe even both. And then they wished him back. He felt appreciation, almost deeply. But he had knocked the feelings away; after all, he was the Prince of Saiyans.... .emotions against them was almost illegal. And yet he remained with them.

Now, all he wanted to do was be the one to finally defeat Kakarot; access the Super Saiyan level, stand proudly of the broken body, in a ruined orange gi, bleeding; but the Super Saiyan was dying from the inside. An inchworm of respect crawled through Vegeta's mind sometimes; He had to respect, even a little, the Saiyan who drew blood from a highly powerful Prince such as himself. The freinds of Kakorot stood in the waiting room, shedding tears, paraying for the falling freind.
Vegeta felt , for a second, a feeling he never thought he would think of for Kakarot; pity. He growled slightly at himself. Kakarot must survive; Vegeta had to kill him.
It had to happen, there wasn't any way it couldn't.

[Gohan]

Don't go, I can't do this on my own
Don't go, I can't do this on my own

Save me from the ones that haunt me in the night

Unloaded from the ambulance voluntarily as he hastily trailed behind the hustled form of the wheeling bed, the form of his father seemingly growing farther and farther away by the moment as Gohan's short legs carried him only so fast, comparative to those trained exactly for situations like this. The two white doors of the operation hallways swung open, and as he sprinted through the corridors of the hospital and at last burst into the silence that reigned the waiting room, all logic prevented him from following any further.

It was the point of no advance, a dead end before which he sat, hoping for a miracle for one to tear down the walls.

A tear rolled down the side of his face, a long streak of bodily fluid tracing itself along the edge of his left cheek. He quickly brushed it away with the palm of his small hand, only to further the mess as the intensity of the circumstance allowed access to practical flooding of his sweat glands. But why was he crying? His father was still alive.

But something, something deep down in his heart, piercing through all reason and logic, he just knew, just felt, that this relationship would never be the same. It would never... never be again.

He soon enough recognized the soft hand resting on his shoulder, wrapped around him and drawing him close. Bulma had been a friend of his father from the very beginning of the adventures that had brought them thus far, sympathizing with this gradual loss as family, not as simple comrade. But Gohan felt no comfort. He refused to be warmed by simple actions of man, not in this way. They were doing nothing. Nothing. Nothing to help, to assist.

And, as if out of nowhere, it sparked into his mind.

"THE SENZU BEANS!"

[Goku]

Darkness. How long had Goku been at it? Ever since he was a child, the Saiyan had upheld the moral values of justice and righteousness. He had fought against the very idea of darkness for as long as he had lived-even after he had died and was brought back to life.

But never had he encountered a darkness such as this.

This was no metaphor of darkness. This was the real thing. Literally.

The pain had died down a little bit. Goku wasn't feeling debilitating pain stemming from his chest region anymore. In its' place was something far more horrific. There was a feeling of numbness. A slow, numbing bulge in the area. It wasn't pain, more like discomfort.

Yes. Discomfort.

Uneasy whispers of encouragement seemed his last connection to reality.

Stay with us...
Stay with us..
Stay with us.

Clawing the imaginary black ground that acted as the surface in his head, Goku held on to the whispers. He held on to life. His entire being was drifting away into nothingness, and yet it seemed there was nothing that he could do.

He was the greatest warrior in the universe. And there was nothing he could do.

There's no reasoning with death.

But what had changed? Goku had been dead only a few years back.

Just this time, he wasn't coming back. As it should be. Naturally.

Was this all that Goku was? A regular part of nature. A simple product of the natural cycle. Nothing more than a fish in the sea.

So this was how it would all end. The Legendary Super Saiyan born once every millenium would die in the face of an enemy that he couldn't fight.

Projecting within his head an image of his only son, Goku stared upon it. The powerful drag that had been pulling him towards the blackness froze. Time itself had froze. He stared upon the image.

"Don't let them forget. Gohan. My legacy is yours."

The time had come. There was no fighting the heart disease. It had already won the battle. This was the end.

The end of a being.
The end of a Saiyan.
The end of a legend.

---------------------------------------------

A nurse dressed in white entered the deathly silent waiting room; her head bowed low, and her face bearing an expression of great sadness. She slowly approached Bulma, head still bowed. The Z. Fighters seemed to watch in utter shock. They couldn't believe it. The hero they all knew and loved. Like this.

Broken.

The nurse exchanged silent words with Bulma, shaking her head several times slowly. After a certain exchange, Bulma seemed to point at Gohan as the nurse nodded in what looked like agreement. Swiftly, Bulma approached the Demi-Saiyan, kneeling quickly so that they were at eye level.

"Gohan, your father is in a deep coma. He can be seen now. Do you want to go into the room?"

...for when the door closes; another one opens...

[Austin]

Vegeta could hear what happened from the blue haired one.
But he couldn't beleive it.
Kakarot was in a coma, even closer to eath. Vegeta could sense the fading power level. His eyes widened.
'Kakarot ........ you exceeded me. Beat me to the ultimate level of power. But now, when I have trained so hard, you get sick? Its impossible..... no.... I must be the one to kill you.....
Vegeta stiffened slightly. He was getting soft. It almost seemed as though he were caring about the goody goody fool. Of course, the little baby Gohan would go to that tower, get those beans..... and then, when Kakarot was good an ready, Vegeta would unleash hell on him. Vegeta assumed a grin on his face.


You always were more powerful........ Vegeta cleared the thought from his mind. He was a saiyan prince, the superior in class, and , soon to be, power.
Why not just explode the hospital? It will be easier, and I could get them all.... No; that would not be prudent for the Prince. He had to torture the Super Saiyan; then kill his freinds directly in front of him....... and then finish him with the Final Flash or Galick Gun; that would be far more prudent for Prince Vegeta.Although, Vegeta had mixed feelings on the human girl; though feisty she was, she seemed to somewhat care for the Prince. But no, Vegeta wanted full Saiyan children, that would surpass him like he his father. Not half saiyan children with blue hair.
Vegeta was hit with a bolt of pain in his head; was it annoying weeping coming from Kakarots wife? She was the loudest. Vegeta sighed, and closed his eyes.

[Gohan]

Don't go, I can't do this on my own
Don't go, I can't do this on my own

Save me from the ones that haunt me in the night

"C... coma?"

The young half-Saiyan was educated well enough to fully understand the logic of the deep slumber. Yet the implication that it hid, the words that foreshadowed imminent death, even Gohan could not detect. The aspect of a father's loss, the circumstance of Goku closing his eyes for eternity, was a concept that one could only imagine to the farthest extent to try and sympathize.

"But Bulma! The beans!"

There came no reply.

The nurse was bewildered, seemingly even worried of the child's state, about ready to look forward to a mental breakdown of the young one. But Bulma intervened once more, taking the child in her arms and pulling him closer while the biological mother of the boy seemed to fade away from the light of the waiting room as the sound of her weeping grew ever distant.

"Gohan, I... I don't think any bean can heal your dad now."

And then it struck him.

My legacy is yours...

Dad?

The moment had come when the spirit was slipping. It was fading, sliding off the tips of his fingers as he struggled to hold on till the end. Son Goku was collapsing, fainting, dying. He realized that it had been too late. The blame was on the child now, the mind too slow and the ability too weak to call upon the only hope that they had had in the tower.

The tears at last came flooding through his eyes, watering his face and drenching his cheeks in a solution of salt and sorrow. Unspeakable despair, desolation, the world crumbled before him as the oblivious completely overtook him in a blank world. No thought, no reasoning, no recognition of the feeling. Just pure emotion, a nuke of emotion, explosions.

He didn't notice the doors swinging open, the wide, large-bellied man bursting into the room with katana and pouch, the beans scattered over the floor as he collapsed in a heap of sweat and exhaustion. He didn't notice the Z Warriors rising from their seats and bow their heads as they turned to the doors of the room beyond.

He just cried.

[Austin]

Vegeta stood, still, as Kakarots energy went to an all time low. His mouth fell open, and thne his face turned into a sneer.
"FAT MAN! How dare you! You come here this late!" Vegeta stomped on a stray bean, growling. Kakarots death was inevitable. The little child was crying. Vegeta thought of blasting him away to silence him forever; but that wouldn't be enough. Vegeta would have to kill everyone on this wretched planet to vent his feelings. But he controlled himself.
But now, there was no point; all of the training, all of pain, just to try and best Kakarot....... for nothing.

Vegeta walked out of the building with strained footsteps. There it was, an empty car, and he blasted it. He flew away, up into the sky, and yelled with all of his might. It was a sad sight; a once great warrior, finally broken down at what never could be. He felt like destroying the planet. He felt like nothing; like a weakling. His part as a Saiyan prince was forgotten. Kakarot would die as the strongest; Vegeta would die a weakling. This was what he got. Branded as a weakling. He could be killed by the bald one; he almost was.
why? Was it because of his past doings?
A twinge of a feeling. A small one, but noticeable nonetheless.
Regret.