___Chapter 13___

At midnight, everyone had fallen asleep.

Except for one lonely widow who sat up and held the body of her love in her arms.

But then, Oboe felt an energy in the air, and a cool breeze passed her lips. Something touched her head, and her hand touched a face when she reached out into the seemingly empty air. Although she could not see anything, she knew who it was.

A ghostly voice whispered softly, but with just the right tint of sarcasm "Stop fussing over me, Oboe. You need your rest. The sooner you sleep, the sooner it's tomorrow, the sooner you get me the hell outa here."

Then Oboe was lifted up, and suddenly she could see him. She flew forward, hugged him, and cried out "Piccolo! How did you get here?"

Strangely enough, he WAS there, dead though. His body and spirit were both in the room, but separate from each other.

"You know, I have no idea why I'm here. I'm dead, but not. One second, I'm trudging down snake way, getting ready to be bored to hell as I sit around Kaio-sama's, wishing I could see you, the next I'm here. And I saw you crying. Why were you crying?" Oboe gave his ghostly face a kiss. He still looked like Piccolo, but he was totally a ghostly blue. And his eyes shone white...

"You look so... weird! Did you know you look good in blue? The outfit I mean, not the blue skin. And I was crying because I miss you." she said as she gave him another kiss.

"God Oboe you're weird." he laughed out softly.

---

Downstairs, Vegeta awoke with a jump as he heard a yell. Somehow, noone else woke up, not even Bulma after Vegeta 'accidentally' kicked her in the face. Looking around confused, he cursed and whispered "Alright, who the hell just said my name? And do I know that voice?" as he crept slowly up the stairs.

Then he heard Oboe start laughing. "Has she gone mad?" he said aloud. Vegeta rolled his eyes, and rubbed his face with his hand muttering to himself about crazy nameks. When he removed his hand, he saw Gohan at the top of the stairs, staring at the room Vegeta had left Oboe in.

Gohan's face was a pale white as he turned around and whispered "I'm hallucinating, Vegeta. It hasn't been that long, a couple hours at most, and I'm hallucinating. I didn't do this as a kid, why now... crap." the boy proceeded to fall to the floor, crying and laughing in hysterical intervals.

Vegeta just stood there shocked. {{The kid's lost it!}} he thought to himself as he walked over to Gohan, who babbled out "I'm hearing voices. It hasn't even been a day, damnit, and I'm loosing my damn mind." Vegeta tried to calm Gohan down because the kid was scaring him, but since he had no experience in that area, it came to no avail. Then he noticed the door was cracked open the slightest bit, and he left the psychotic boy and peeked through the crack.

All he saw was a pure white eye, which seemed to be staring back at him.

"AAAHHHH!!!!" two voices screamed in unison.

"There goes that damn voice again! I really have gone nuts, haven't I?" Gohan laughed out as he shook. He was laughing so hard he was crying. Or vice versa.

Since jumping back from the door, Vegeta had landed next to Gohan and was sitting down. He looked over at the boy and said "If you're crazy because you're hearing things, then so am I, I guess. How about we both go up there together and open the door?"

Gohan nodded and added "Might as well..." as the two stood up and headed for the door.

---

Oboe giggled briefly when Piccolo yelled and fell back. "What got into you? I didn't know dead people got scared! Let alone you!" she smiled out as he gave her an annoyed look and said

"Well, when one second I see nothing and the next all I can see is somebody's eye in my face, I get surprised. And where did you get the notion I was scared! I am never scared! I was just startled, that's all."

He stood up, and then they heard the door open, and a thump, followed by a second. "Hey, look who's here!" laughed out Piccolo.

---

Vegeta and Gohan had walked up to the door and opened it together. Upon seeing his friend, Gohan mumbled out "Told 'ya I was hallucinating." and fell unconscious to the ground. Vegeta just stood there for a second. {{He's not the only one! That's what the kid was talking about.}} thought Vegeta as he collapsed to the floor as well.

When he woke up a few minuets later, the first thing he saw was Oboe's hand slapping his face to get him up. He rubbed it, sat up, and said "That was a helluva dream. I dreamt that..." and as Vegeta turned to see Oboe, he saw her sitting next to... "P.. Piccolo!" he squeaked out, a tint of fear in his shocked voice.

"Told you we're loosing our minds. Now we're both hallucinating." cackled out the sayian/human behind the sayian prince.

The spirit that was Piccolo raised an eyebrow, and said "Hallucination? Oh.. me! You think I'm a hallucination! I'll show you a hallucination!" Piccolo walked over to Vegeta and picked up his sayian friend. "Can a hallucination do this?" the warrior smirked as he slapped Vegeta across the face and kicked his ass straight into the roof with a "ha!". Then Veg thumped to the ground, his pride hurt more than anything else on him, and Piccolo frowned and said "Now tell me why in hell you touched my guitar?"

Vegeta could only rub his sore gingerly, turn his head around, and exclaim "That's what you were screaming about when I got woken up! By the gods, you are the real one! Only you would remember something from that long ago! I injured your 'sacred' guitar about nine years ago and you're still annoying me about some tiny scratch!"

Piccolo shot him an amused/pissed off look and said "That was no scratch! You broke it in half you moron!"

They continued like that for a while, arguing like the old friends they were, discussing everything from what's happen in the last few hours, to old times and battles, the house, and a host of other ideas.

But then Gohan broke in and said "I'm not crazy after all. You are real. Kind of, you know what I mean." Piccolo could only sigh with a slight smile as he slapped Gohan's face jokingly.

Gohan continued, saying "Oh yeah, I just remembered, earlier last night, one of the other kids accidentally mentioned you, and Lute started crying. Not too long after that he told us about what happened between you two just before the fighting started. He feels really horrible. You should say something to him."

Piccolo nodded grimly, and Oboe stood up and whispered "I'll get him."

"I'm already here." a small voice said, and Lute appeared, crawling partway out of his hiding spot behind the door.

---

"I heard some noise and came over. What's with you anyway dad? You look weird." Lute said quietly. It was obvious on his face that the boy had been crying, and had tried to hide all signs of it before coming in the room.

{{Tryna be like his 'badass' father I'd guess.}} Vegeta thought silently in his head when he saw how Lute was attempting to look 'brave'.

Piccolo smiled gently as he picked up his young son. "Hey kid. Heard you guys had a hard time since I left."

Lute hugged him tight and let tears flow from his little eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't hate you. Honest I don't. I was just mad, that's all."

Piccolo let a look of concerned affection wash over his face as he lifted up Lute's head and said softly "Hey, I know. I was mad too. But I shouldn't have cursed at you. I was just concerned. You're the only son I've got, and I love you, Lute. I don't want anything to happen to you." then, smiling, he added "And you're not the only one to blow up at people. That's one thing you didn't get from your mother." Piccolo stopped temporally, just long enough to give Oboe (who was stifling a laugh) a mock annoyed look, then continued "And you're crying. Why are you crying?"

Lute looked up, eyes in tears, and said "Because I thought you would never speak to me after that, but you did. I... really missed you."

Piccolo hugged Lute tight, the faintest sigh of a tear in his eye. Then he whispered something to him, and sent the young child back to bed. Lute fell asleep shortly after that.

"Really cute kid you got there Piccolo. Sure he's related to you?" said Vegeta. Everyone except the sayian laughed at that, even Piccolo, and that was the reason he didn't laugh. Vegeta was too shocked to laugh.

Gohan yawned, and said "I'm too tired to stand. Gonna go now guys. Night Oboe, Piccolo, Vegeta. See you two in the morning." And with that he went downstairs and fell asleep.

---

"What does he mean, 'you two'? There are three of us here!" Vegeta wondered aloud.

Piccolo turned to his friend and said "I can't stay here much longer. I don't know how I got here, but I do know that I can only stay for another seven minutes or so. I can feel it."

"WHAT!?!? You can't leave! You just got back!!" Vegeta yelled in a tone not far from anguish.

"I'm still not back. I'm dead. I just got here somehow." he answered as Vegeta slumped into a chair.

Oboe walked over to Piccolo. "Do you mind, Vegeta?" she said softly, indicating the sayian should leave.

"He may not mind, but neither do I." Piccolo smiled as he swept Oboe up in his arms and kissed her, just as he had on that faraway night seven years ago. "Hey Vegeta, you take care of Oboe while I'm gone, ok?" said Piccolo as he turned after two minutes had passed. "Take care of yourself too, bottelbrush!" he laughed out at the end of his statement.

The two friends engaged in a fight as the last five minutes ended. That short amount of time seemed to go too fast, the silly peace of a mock battle between friends was to be suddenly stopped when Piccolo noticed himself becoming faint.

He sighed softly, and closed his hand into a fist position, staring at it sadly as the color faded more and more.

Vegeta merely stared, wide eyed in shock as he said with a faint shriek in his voice "W...what the... what's happening to you?!?"

"I'm fading" Piccolo said quietly without emotion.

Oboe, unable to just sit and watch anymore, ran up to Piccolo, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed his lips softly. Then she laid her head on his shoulder and cried.

Piccolo stroked the back of his hand softly over her face, wiping her tears away as he gave her a small smile, and kissed her cheek. Then he looked up at Vegeta and said "See you later, my friend. And I love you Oboe."

Then he was gone.