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If there was one thing Echo had learned to do, it was to survive on her own. She also had to learn the fine art of mechanics--since the spaceship often broke down. It seemed that everyone knew of her now, her saiyan tail, her long
black hair, and her.. "condition" gave everything away. Another thing she learned was how to sense power levels. It sometimes became annoying though, feeling millions on millions of absolutely puny power levels. She sometimes touched down on planets, sometimes meeting rather nice inhabitants, and sometimes having to fight for a few minutes of peace. This was how she spent her time. She hated traveling so much, but on the bright side, she was learning many different languages, and adapting to having to eat new food all the time. There was a downside to the latter, she would get horrible cravings for foods she had grown used to--however bad they had been, she had begun to expect that everything she ate would be burnt. For ten years, she was constantly on the move, never staying more than a week on one planet, always thinking that she was close to being captured. Then she happened upon Earth. She sensed several strong power levels there, and she thought one of them seemed especially familiar. She decided to risk being followed and she hit the landing gear. Meanwhile, down on Earth, Bulma's annual get-together was underway--with Goku there, of course. Everything was going normally, Goku was pigging out..well, you get the idea. The calm was suddenly shattered when they heard a loud BOOM noise. "What was that?" said Bulma, clearly afraid. "Dunno..hey, Vegeta, go and see what it was!" answered Goku. Vegeta muttered something about cowards, then walked outside. He gasped. A crater--but there was a spaceship at the bottom of it, and from it he sensed--no, he thought, surely not... He proceeded to fly to the bottom of the crater, but thought better of it--and anyway, someone was getting out of it. Nothing could have prepared him for seeing his sister get out of that spaceship. She was still a beauty, but something had happened to her--something bad, he knew. He spotted scars around her neck, and what looked like a burn from a ki blast on her arm. "Echo, you look terrrible, what happened to you?" Echo did not answer right away, she was quiet for a minute, then she replied, "You're a right ray of sunshine, aren't you? Is that how you greet your sister after all of this time?" Unfortunately, everyone else had by now gathered the courage to see what was up, and they all heard her. Trunks looked surprised, "Dad, you never said you had a sister." Vegeta did not answer him. He was busy staring at Echo's stomach. "Who's..?" Echo's expression changed from joyous to angry. "I have a clue for you, and if you can't guess, I won't tell you. Who's the only person who could have put these bruises on me?" Now it was Vegeta's turn to look angry. "How could HE?!!?" His anger boiled over and he changed into a super saiyan in almost the blink of an eye. "How?! And why?!" Echo replied calmly, "I suppose you wouldn't have done it just for a son, would you? You wouldn't go off and..just because you didn't want me as queen, would you? Let's just say Frieza and his brother never really got along..and I happened to be his ticket to become king." Vegeta looked around. Everyone was staring. "Let's get you inside, Echo, and patch up those bruises.." After Echo's wounds had been healed, Bulma seemed to be concerned about the baby. "Maybe you should have some blood tests or something--to be sure that it's healthy. How far along..?" Echo replied, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. You really wouldn't." "Tell me anyway." "Twelve years." "IMPOSSIBLE!" "I told you that you wouldn't believe me, but did you listen?" Vegeta looked as though he didn't believe her either. "So..twelve years ago..Echo, when..?" Echo replied, "My eighteenth birthday. He.." But Vegeta's eyes had fallen on the ornament Echo was wearing around her forehead, and he didn't hear what Echo began to say. "Where," he said, perhaps a bit too harshly, "did you get that thing?" "Oh..when I ran away on planet Namek, the first planet I landed on to refuel the spaceship was Zarbon's home planet. They gave me this--I think he wrote to his parents and said that this was to go to me in case of his death. They were also eager to say that he spoke fondly of me." Vegeta suddenly looked nervous. "Uhh..Echo..I killed Zarbon." "You--why?!" "Uhh..if you want me to be honest..I don't really remember any particular reason other than he beat me up the first time we fought, and..well, revenge." Echo looked extremely offended, but she chose not to become angry. "What's done is done," she said quietly. "Anyway," she continued, "do you guys burn food?" Vegeta tried to humor her and said, "Yeah, Bulma does!" He got slapped and he heard, "At least when I cook, at least I can identify it as food! Whenever you cook, it just looks like a mutated blob.." A week passed. Echo stayed inside of Capsule Corp., ("I get too many stares..") never once stepping foot outside. Then, one morning as she was waking up, she sensed something. A strong power, so high a power level that she was afraid--no, she thought, I can't think that he would come back. How could he? It became apparent that everyone else noticed the power as well, because they were whispering things like, "A new enemy..?" and "It can't be.." Echo feared the worst, that maybe Frieza had come back to get her. But how could he have been wished back? Vegeta had told her that his son who came from the future killed Frieza. What other power could be as, if not more, horrible than his? She began to not even dare to come out of her room. When she finally did, for a walk outside, what she saw in Capsule Corporation's backyard surprised, confused and frightened her. |