Disclaimer:  see prologue

Days of the Future's Son

Chapter 3

     Raye woke in the morning feeling groggy.  She had had an incredibly 
vivid dream but could not remember any of it.  That had been happening a 
lot lately and it worried her.  On top of that, there was that weird 
experience at the library.  'Maybe,' she thought, 'I dreamed that too.'
     Getting out of bed, she started to leave the room then noticed she 
was only wearing her T-shirt and underwear.  Thinking better of it, she 
picked up some shorts off of the floor and put them on. 
     'Gotta clean this place up... later.  Right now, breakfast.'
     With that, she headed down stairs.
     In the kitchen she found Bulma and Trunks already eating.  She 
served herself some rice and mumbled something close to good morning.  
The others at the table grunted back.  Raye looked at them and saw that 
they looked about as happy to be awake as she did.  She figured that 
someone needed to say something and her table mates did not seem likely 
to so she started.
     "Rough night?"
     Trunks nodded without looking up and Bulma continued to look at her 
breakfast eating it slowly.
     Raye nodded back and ate more of her meal.  She could not really 
think of anything else to say (the first comment had taken a large 
amount of her current thought power) so worked at something that did not 
take much thought, eating.
     Trunks spoke next, clearing his throat before starting.  When Bulma 
and Raye looked at him, he seemed as if he were concentrating very hard.
     "Did you guys see anything... I don't know... strange... 
yesterday?"
     "Why?" Bulma responded before Raye could.  "Did you?"
     "Well, I'm not sure... I mean, I had just woken up when I saw it so 
I could have dreamt it but I sensed his ki and..."  He paused and took a 
deep breath.
     Bulma looked ready to pounce.  "Who did you see?"
     "I... I... saw Gohan."
     Raye looked at Bulma who seemed to deflate a little.  She chose 
this time to speak.
     "Who's Gohan?"
     "Gohan was my friend... kind of like an older brother...  he 
trained me when I was younger.  He... died... a few years ago fighting 
the Jinzouningen.  But I swear that I saw him yesterday.  He woke me up 
from a nap told me that I had to catch him before we could go training.  
I know he was there.  I know he was..."
     Trunks looked really confused and sounded like he was trying to 
convince himself that it had happened.
     Raye furrowed her brow and thought for a moment.
     "I did see something strange yesterday."
     "What did you see?" asked Bulma.
     "Well... I was in the library shelving books and I looked up and 
saw a girl dressed in blue.  She seemed to know me.  She didn't say 
anything but motioned me to follow her.  I did and we got to a wall of 
the library.  Then she walked through the wall.  I ran out side but I 
couldn't find her.  I don't know what happened."
     "Hmm... could feel his ki..." mumbled Bulma.  "Hmmm... I might be 
able to make a device that tracks high level ki.  I mean, you're the 
only one with a lot of ki left in the world so anyone else displaying 
that kind of power should be pretty easy to track."  She paused.  "You 
guys are going scavenging today right?"  Trunks and Raye nodded.  "I'll 
see what I can come up with while you are gone.  Tell me if you see 
anyone else, okay?"
     They nodded and finished eating.
     Raye went upstairs and changed her clothes... the T-shirt and 
shorts she had been wearing were fine for sleeping in but were not 
really made for searching around dirty, ruined buildings.  Deciding on 
jeans and a Capsule Corp. sweatshirt, she dressed quickly and met Trunks 
out at the air car.  He was sitting in the drivers seat.  She got in on 
the passenger side and Trunks started it up.
     "You mean you're not going to let me drive this time?"  She feigned 
pouting.
     Trunks rolled his eyes.  "After the last time you proved that you 
don't know how to drive one.  I'm not quite ready to die yet."
     "Spoil sport... so where are we going today?" she asked feeling 
slightly more perky.
     "Don't know the name of the place but it's to the south.  It had 
some factories that looked promising.  Hopefully they haven't already 
been picked clean."
     Raye stared out the window for most of the ride towards the 
factories.  The landscape always made her feel strange when she looked 
at it.  An observer could usually tell where there had been a town or 
city from the air... these were the areas of the most destruction.  Most 
of the wildlands had largely been left alone.  Apparently, wild animals 
were not as fun to terrorize as humans.  The old towns and cities were 
mostly uninhabited ruins but sometimes the old factories and warehouses 
could provide materials essential to some one like Bulma.
     That was why she and Trunks were out today.  You could never tell 
what Bulma needed next so they would go out and try to find anything 
that might be useful to her in her machines.
     As she was sitting staring out the window, Raye saw something that 
startled her.  She blinked her eyes, rubbed them and blinked again.  It 
was still there.
     Elbowing Trunks lightly in the ribs, she asked, "Trunks, are there 
any people around here, other than you I mean, that can fly?"
     Trunks continued to look ahead of him and answered, "Not that I 
know of... why?"
     "Look out my window and tell me I'm not crazy then."
     Trunks did and saw the same thing that Raye did.  Outside her 
window, about a hundred meters away, were four people flying... 
actually, only two were flying, the other two were being carried.  There 
were two women and two men.  The fliers were a blonde woman in a 
long-sleeved, green jumpsuit who's hair left a trail a great distance 
behind her and a large, muscular man in a skin-tight red, white and blue 
uniform with a helmet that covered his head and most of his face.  He 
was carrying a man that could only be described as devilishly 
handsome... literally.  He had dark blue skin, yellow eyes that from the 
distance they were at seemed to have no pupils, and a forked tail that 
hung down below him.  His outfit was red and black with white 
highlights.
     Raye looked to the woman who was being carried.  She had brown hair 
and a blue uniform... just like Raye had seen on her before.
     "Trunks!" she exclaimed.  "That's the girl from the library!"
     Trunks snapped out of his shock and said, "I'm going out there."
     He hit the hover button on the car controls and was about to open 
the door to get out when the four looked at them, waved and shot away.
     Trunks hesitated for a moment, then got out of the car and shot 
after them.
     Raye sat in the car an thought, 'Oh my.'

     Bulma was sitting in her workshop at a workbench working on a 
device that would soon be a ki detector.  At least she hoped that it 
would be... it was being rather disagreeable on that subject at the 
moment.  Sighing, she got up and went to refill her cup at the coffee 
pot across the room.  It was located near the door which was, strangely, 
slightly ajar.
     'That's odd,' she though.  'I thought I closed that.'
     As she walked nearer to it, she began to heat voices coming from 
outside.  She creased her brow, grabbed a large wrench off of a nearby 
table and quietly edged out the door.  As she crept down the hall 
towards the front of the house, the voices got louder.
     "Are you sure that this will help me get stronger Dr. Briefs?" said 
the first.
     "Oh, yes, yes... it'll work.  Just use it when you train..."
     "Thanks a lot then... see you later!"
     Bulma looked around the corner soon enough to see Yamucha leave out 
the front door.  She gasped.
     Her father turned and looked at her.
     "Papa?" she said with her eyes watering.
     "Oh... I didn't see you there Bulma-dear.  Ah well, I'm going to 
see what your mother is cooking up in the kitchen."
     With that, he walked into another hall.
     Bulma sprinted after him, but when she got to the kitchen, he was 
gone.

     Trunks was speeding in the direction that the foursome had gone.  
Unfortunately, he had lost sight of then and could not feel their ki.  
He was about to turn back for the car when he felt two people's ki 
coming toward him.  He looked off in the direction they were coming from 
and saw two figures approaching him.  As he was readying to power up he 
recognized the ki.
     'That's impossible!'
     "Yo!  Trunks!" the first on yelled.
     "What are you doing out here!?!" yelled the second.
     "Gohan!  Kuririn!" exclaimed Trunks as they flew up beside him.  
They looked exactly like they had when he left them in the past.  "What 
are you doing here!?!"
     "We're going home.  Okaasan let me spend the morning with Kuririn 
if I promised to come home and study afterwards," answered Gohan.
     "How did you get here?"  Trunks was confused and excited at the 
same time.  He could feel there ki, so he knew they were really there 
but there wasn't any way for them to be there.  They should be in the 
past!
     Gohan looked at Trunks strangely.  "We flew here Trunks.  We really 
have to go or 'kaasan will get mad... See you!"
     Kuririn waved and they flew off.
     Trunks tried to follow them but could not get his body to move.  He 
felt their ki wink out as he lost sight of them in the distance.

     After Trunks left, Raye just sat in the car.  There was not much to 
do so she watched out the windows looking for him.  It was a decidedly 
odd feeling to be floating above the ground like she was.  She checked 
the dash to check how high the car was hovering.  Yep, three hundred 
meters, just like it was supposed to be.
     'I hope Trunks doesn't get into any trouble out there,' she 
thought.  'All of these things that are happening seem really weird.  I 
wonder what's causing them?'
     Raye looked back at the dash to see how long Trunks had been gone.  
Ten minutes. 
     'It's really boring just floating here in the middle of nowhere,' 
she checked the altitude again, 'two hundred meters up in the air...'
     She blinked.
     "Wha...?"
     She looked again.  One hundred ninty.
     "Oh crap!"
     Raye looked out the window to the ground and confirmed that, yes, 
she was sinking.  Not very quickly, but she was sinking.  Down to one 
hundred forty.
     Moving over to the driver's seat, she began pushing buttons.  
Contrary to what Trunks had said earlier, she did know how to fly this 
thing... somewhat.  She took it out of hover, tried gunning the engine, 
tried steering, tried breaking, and finally tried pushing random 
buttons.  None of it worked.  Fifty meters.
     'Okay,' she thought as calmly as she could, 'It's not descending to  
fast... I could just strap myself in and hope that it lands okay...'
     Raye reached for the seatbelt and began to buckle herself in.  
Twenty meters.
     <Settle yourself in child.  You defied my power once but you shall 
not do so again!>
     The material of the seat began to mold around Raye's arms while the 
metal floor enveloped her legs.  She struggled against the bindings but 
they gave no slack.  Then, she began to panic.
     "Noooooo......"
     The car hovered in the air near a cliff's edge.  On the cliff stood 
a woman with raven black hair dressed in black lingerie, thigh high 
black boot and a black cape.
     <Cease in your struggles for, this time, you shall not overcome 
Selene, the Dark Huntress!>
     "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
     With that scream of defiance, something gave way in Raye's mind.  
The car around her exploded and when she opened her eyes, she found 
herself floating in the air where the car had been surrounded by a pink 
haze.
     "Impressive child... I did not expect you to regain any of your 
power so quickly.  But that will not change the fact that you will be 
mine, body and..."
     <SOUL!!!!>
     Selene's mind seared into Raye's forcing Raye's own thoughts out.  
It burned its way in and Raye had no defense.  Her mind screamed for 
help.
     And help came.  Something forced out the burning hot pokers of 
Selene's mind and gently soothed Raye's injured psyche.  She could 
barely hear Selene screaming out revenge on some one named... Grey?  Was 
that it?  It didn't really matter.  
     Raye opened her eyes and squinted at the person who was now holding 
her in her arms.
     "Who...?" she managed to squeak out before she was shushed.
     "It doesn't matter," said the red-head holding her.  "All that 
matters is that you should rest."
     That sounded like great advice to Raye.  Keen advice.  The best 
she'd heard...

end chapter 3

Sariah DeGidio
ddegidio@ix.netcom.com
sariah_d@hotmail.com

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