___Chapter 9___

As Piccolo's body collapsed to the ground, Oboe dropped to her knees to catch it as it fell.

Kartak was ecstatic. He had truly made his first kill. He sat there, staring at the hysterical woman sobbing over the body. Then she stood up, crying, laughing, and screaming all at once. She had bloodshot eyes, hatred beamed from their light blue irises. Kartak was shocked when she sliced at him with her claws and a deep gash appeared on his face.

She kept attacking.

Kartak was confused and startled. He had not expected a counterattack. And she did not care about the pain she was causing herself, her hands were being torn to ribbons.

Kartak merely stumbled back as Oboe cried and raged and laughed, weakening him with each blow. Kartak only had one fault: he almost never thought, but when he did, his mind went over it again, and again, and again.

Because of this one flaw, he only stared as Oboe attacked. Even as he lay dying, Oboe still clawed him, and he only could wonder "why".

---

Even after Kartak was dead, Oboe still wept and sliced at it's remains, until Lute came over and asked her to stop. Then she crawled over to Piccolo's body and began to weep anew.

"Mom, you're hurt." Lute whispered as he saw her torn and bloodied limbs. Then, he put his hands on her arm and...

"That kid's a healer?" wondered Gohan aloud. Vegeta wasn't listening.

He was crying.

His best friend was dead. He had never told him. He had, for the last twelve years, always planned, always thought about how and when to tell Piccolo he was his best friend. But he had always held back, and now it was too late. Piccolo was dead. And Vegeta could not stop crying. He did not want to stop either. He had to let it out.

He didn't care what anyone else said. The hell with his image, his heritage, his ego, his pride... all these ideals seemed to die with Piccolo. And it was OK to cry. Vegeta looked up when someone stood over him, but he started sobbing again when he saw Lute. When he felt Lute's aura. The boy's aura felt disturbingly like his father's.

Father.

Vegeta still couldn't believe that this boy was Piccolo's son. But there Lute was, healing him.

Gohan was next to be healed. {{Our bodies may be whole, but not our spirits.}} thought Gohan as he looked at Vegeta, crying silently now. Gohan was not rather loud outside, but inside he was shedding rivers.

Oboe hadn't moved farther than a foot away from Piccolo since she had healed. She sat, holding his body and stroking his still face gently.

Lute then sat down and cried. He wished he hadn't been so mean to his anoco, his father, the last time they spoke together...

When the three shapes were in he sky, only hours ago (though it seemed like years) his father had told him to go down to the ground so he'd be safe. But Lute insisted upon helping fight. The two argued to the point where Piccolo lost his temper and had to scream and curse at the boy to get him to listen.

The last thing Lute said to his father was "I hate you!".

Now he wished he could take it back, say he was sorry, anything to make those last words go away. But there was no way to do that now.

Lute wiped away some of the tears, turned to his mother, and said "Anocha, I only have enough energy to heal one more person."

Oboe looked at him, and answered almost in a whisper "Heal Dendea. He can take over for you." Then she began to cry again as she held her beloved's body closer. She could not really let him go. To loosen her hold and let his body fall to the ground, cold and lifeless, was to truly accept he was dead.

Piccolo had given up his own life so she and Lute could live. He had somehow, deep inside, felt the danger and ran on a broken body to be impaled on a poisoned blade...

All for his family.

{{Family. They are a family.}} thought Vegeta. A sad smile crossed his face as he thought of that night when he first saw Piccolo and Oboe together. Of course, Vegeta had also ruined the night for those two by unexpectedly popping in and scaring the living hell out of Oboe, which made Piccolo want to kill Vegeta for some time, but the sayian still cherished that memory. And when Piccolo had told Vegeta Oboe had accepted his proposal... he couldn't help but laugh when he remembered that. He had been soo glad for his friend.

In that year before he met Oboe, Piccolo had been progressively more and more melancholy. He could only focus on the fact that Gohan was spending more and more time with Videl, and less with him. He really hadn't formed much of an attachment to anyone back then- yeah, he was loose friends with Vegeta and Krillan and Yumcha... but Gohan was his only real friend that Piccolo would actually AKGNOLEDGE to himself in words as a friend. Vegeta truly believed that the only thing that had kept him hanging on that long had been the knowledge that if he died, Kami died as well, and that meant the dragonballs would disappear.

But one night that all changed...

---

Vegeta was just flying around bored that fateful night, when he saw Piccolo and someone else. As he got closer, the other shape dashed away. But when Vegeta went up to Piccolo to try and ask who had been there, Piccolo didn't answer. He just sat there, staring at the cliff where the shape had disappeared. The sayian repeated his question, and finally ran up and slapped Piccolo upside the head in hope of getting a reaction. But instead of jerking or retaliating, Piccolo just turned his face to Vegeta and said "Wha..." in a rather calm, dreamy voice with a rather calm, dreamy look to his face and an even stranger silly little smile on his lips.

That night Vegeta had known something was amiss. But this he never expected.

{{Too bad I never got to see them all together. This must have been what he was talking about when he said we would be surprised. I hate to say it, but it looks like Piccolo was RIGHT for once.}} Vegeta laughed silently at himself.

And then another memory crossed his mind. For a fraction of a second, he HAD seen them together. Right before he died...

"Ok, You're getting sappy Vegeta. Stop the deep thinking." he mumbled aloud. Vegeta turned around when he felt someone come up from ground level. Then Yen landed. The only people she could see were Gohan and Vegeta, she was at the wrong angle to see Oboe.

Yen looked at the two, a blend of confusion and fear in her eyes as she said "What happened up here. Kami's gone. I wish I could have come up sooner. But a short while ago, he collapsed to his knees and.. and died. He just disappeared. And he said something right before that that interested me. Where's Oboe?"

Gohan only displayed a sad, grim face and Vegeta pointed behind Yen, indicating for her to turn around. When she did, her eyes widened in shock and she rushed to her friend's side.

"Oh god Oboe!! What... happened?" she said loudly, then quietly as Oboe turned her head around to look at Yen, who was crouched next to her.

Oboe leant her head on her lifelong companion's shoulder, but she did not cry this time. She knew she had to be strong now. And she answered in not a weeping voice, but only a sorrowful one, "He saved me. And Lute."

"Lute?"

Lute heard his name, and walked over and asked if he had been called. Yen smiled, and said quietly "You must be what Kami was talking about."

Oboe looked back at her, confused. "What about Kami-sama?"

"Well, in the last few seconds, he smiled and said something."

"What did he say?"

"He said, 'I'm a grandfather.'"