After he returned home from his last visit from Capsule Corp., Yamucha packed up all of his belongings and with his longtime friend, set out on this long journey. Deciding to take as much time as they wanted, Yamucha walked much of the way, with Puar floating at his side. They were currently deep within the wilderness neighboring the village of Celeron. "I just couldn't stand sitting there doing nothing, Puar. I know if I did, I'd dwell on Bulma and Vegeta..." Puar didn't notice, but as he mentioned their name, his left eye twitched slightly. "I figured with my mind occupied, I wouldn't think about...them too much."
Puar thought about it. "Hmm...I suppose it's a good idea after what you told me about your last visit...but where exactly are we going?"
"Well, right now, we're going to pay Tenshinhan a little visit. Haven't seen him in a while and I just thought I'd say hi. After that..." Yamucha shrugged.
Puar wasn't sure how to take the trailing sentence. She liked the almost constant presence of their friends and wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to it just being the two of them, especially with how Yamucha had been over the last few months. They going to that tournament and seeing Goku for the first time in almost 10 years was a good thing. She hadn't seen Yamucha genuinely smile like that in a long time. She knew, though, that the way he was acting while sitting in the stands with Bulma and the others was just that...an act.
She knew Yamucha wasn't happy with the way that whole mess turned out. It must have been murder for him to have to stand by and look at Bulma cry and worry when Vegeta turned on them and killed all of those people at the stadium...then after that whole mess was over, Vegeta was just accepted back among the group with no real explanation given.
So when she found out what happened to Yamucha when he disappeared, she knew when he attacked Bulma and Vegeta, it wasn't totally against his will. "Hmm...I guess when I think about it, it's the right thing to do. I know you still care about Bulma and you don't want to do anything to harm her. I just got used to living in a comfortable house, I guess. I don't know if I could go back to living as a bandit, though."
The last portion of Puar's statement never reached Yamucha's ears. She was right...he did still care for Bulma...why? She obviously didn't care anything about him, or she wouldn't have allowed herself to have been bedded by that...by Vegeta. So why was it he still held a place in his heart for her all these years?
Suddenly, Yamucha stopped walking. Puar came to a halt as well and turned back to her friend. "Yamucha? What's the matter?"
"I've been a fool..."
"Yamucha?"
"I've been a damned fool this whole time...why haven't I seen this before?"
"Yamucha???"
There was a loud bang off in the distance that immediately caught the pair's attention, cutting off any further conversation. After the echo of the explosion faded, a whistling sound began...low at first, then slowly increasing in intensity. Before it got to the point of being unbearable, something crashed through the branches in the trees above and crashed into the ground in front of the duo.
Apparently, the object was caught in the explosion and hurtled through the air, causing the whistling, much like a rocket. The object was smoldering, but the smoke coming off of it wasn't enough to hide the fact that the object in question was, in fact, a person...a person Yamucha and Puar knew well.
"CHAOZU!!!"
Dragonball Z:
Third Eye
Part one
The diminutive mime looked down into his water, "It...it was Tenshinhan."
"That can't be right," blurted Puar. "Tenshinhan would never hurt you!"
"Yeah, the two of you are closer than most brothers," added Yamucha.
"Well...it was Tenshinhan...but...it wasn't."
"Huh?" went Yamucha. "Okay, you lost me."
"Well...let me start at the beginning..."
It was still very early in the morning when Chaozu blearily awoke from his sleep. The skies were still dark and the towering trees obscured the first rays of sunlight. Letting his eyes get used to the darkness, Chaozu craned his neck, looking for his travel mate. He found him standing a few feet away, apparently staring off into space.
"Hey...is something the matter?" Chaozu asked, still wiping the sleep from his eyes.
"Can you feel that?" asked Tenshinhan.
Chaozu stopped for a moment and opened his senses wide. He was half expecting to feel another extraordinarily strong presence that posed some sort of threat to the Earth...one, no doubt, that Goku and the other Saiyans were engaged with in battle.
It was always terrible to see Tenshinhan when they knew there was some sort of battle going. Ever since the Cell incident, Tenshinhan hadn't had the same will to fight as he had in the past. His goal since hooking up with Goku was to surpass him. Now that Goku had progressed to such an unreachable level and getting stronger all the time, Tenshinhan didn't see any reason to continue.
His run in with Cell proved that. After all the training he received from Kami, Kaio, and after all the preparation for the Androids, he wasn't a match for any of them...Cell especially. Tenshinhan attacked Cell more power than Chaozu thought he was capable of generating. Even then, the best he was able to do was slow him down.
His recent bout with Majin Buu didn't help matters any. Before, Tenshinhan stopped associating with the group, vowing not to return until he was, at least, on the same level as a Super Saiyan. Now that even that level of strength wasn't good enough, he gave up completely. Sure, he still trained, but Chaozu could tell there was something missing now...that there was something Tenshinhan lost.
So it was that when the mysterious battles raged before, particularly that one with Vegeta and the person with the gigantic power that felt, for a moment like Yamucha, Tenshinhan made a passing mention of it, nothing more.
Chaozu expected this to be one of those passing mentions, but, "...I don't feel anything."
"You don't?" Tenshinhan asked. Chaozu shook his head. "Hmm...that's strange...There's something weird out there...it's...it's like it's calling for me. I'm going to find out what it is. What do you say? You feel like doing some exploring?"
"Sure!" With everything that was happening, Tenshinhan had been feeling very down for the past few days. Chaozu thought the distraction would do him some good.
After passing the village they camped near, they came upon an ancient castle positioned in front of a lake. Inexplicably, Chaozu began shivering. What he couldn't feel before while in the wilderness, he could feel now and it unnerved him greatly.
"I don't like this place...it gives me the creeps..."
Paying no heed to Chaozu's warning, Tenshinhan forced the old door open and cautiously stepped inside. Not wanting to be separated, Chaozu followed him in.
The inside of the castle was just as expected...the walls were covered in moss from decades of neglect. The furniture that survived age was covered in thick layers of dust and spider webs. The spooky atmosphere unnerved Chaozu. He expected a ghost or the like to pop out of nowhere and chase after them. He flew in front of Tenshinhan to try to convince him to leave, but the look in Tenshinhan's face scared Chaozu further. It was almost as if he were in a trance of some kind.
Methodically, Tenshinhan made his way deeper into the castle, walking down many flights of stairs reaching its catacombs. At the bottom of the last flight of stairs, they were faced with a long, dark hallway. The small amount of light that filtered into the castle from the cracks in the outside walls and through the dingy windows were distant memories. What faced them appeared to be a passage leading to an endless night.
"I don't like it here...let's get out of here..."
"We're close, Chaozu...whatever drew me here...it's close now."
That's what Chaozu was afraid of. Suddenly, as if my magic, torches, nailed to the walls lit up, lighting the long hallway. While the dark unnerved Chaozu, the sudden light terrified him. "Let's get out of here Tenshinhan!"
"Not until I get to the bottom of this!"
Undaunted by the strange happenings, Tenshinhan pressed forward, with Chaozu loyally behind. It wasn't long until the duo came to another door, this one in a bit better shape than the one on the outside. Tenshinhan slowly opened the door and both of their jaws dropped to the floor at the sight that greeted them on the other side.
It was a treasure room, filled from one side to the other with sparkling gold coins, jewels, chests overflowing with more gold and diamonds.
"Wow...I don't believe it..." Chaozu said, lost in awe.
"Incredible...this stuff must've been left down here for years..." went Tenshinhan. "With the scary castle above, I'd bet everyone else was too scared to explore the place." As Tenshinhan scanned the large room, something caught his attention. It was a relatively unassuming item, compared to the splendor of the treasure surrounding it. It looked kind of like a tiara, with a large green jewel in the center of it that looked sort of like an eye with what appeared to be golden horns protruding upwards from both sides.
"I guess I was wrong about...this was an amazing find! I bet with this, we'd be richer than Bulma's family!" As he commented, he turned around just in time to see Tenshinhan put the jewel onto his head. Immediately, he was engulfed in a bright green light. A shrill wind flared up, knocking Chaozu to the back of the room, burying him in some of the treasure.
When the light and wind died, Tenshinhan had changed. He was in a green armor Chaozu imagined an ancient samurai would dress in. Shoulder guards draped down to his elbows, thigh guards down to the side of his knees, a chest plate with a fine red silk tie around his waist. The only things that appeared to be missing were armbands. And there was a hole in his chest plate that looked like it could hold another jewel.
"...It worked...I'm back..."
"T...Tenshinhan?" called Chaozu, cautiously.
Slowly, the man turned to him, with an evil smirk on his face. "The name's Xeon. And that's my treasure you’re buried in." Terror filled Chaozu's eyes as the person he once knew as Tenshinhan slowly raised his hand in his direction, gathered his considerable ki, and fired...
"...the next thing I remember, I was here with you," Chaozu finished. Yamucha and Puar had set up camp for the day, to allow Chaozu to rest. All three were sitting around a campfire, with Chaozu drinking from a canteen of water.
"That's just awful," said Puar.
"So Tenshinhan has been possessed by this thing that calls himself Xeon?" asked Yamucha, mainly to himself. "If that was what he did to you, we can bet that he'll do worse to others. We have to find him."
"But we don't know where Tenshinhan went. He could be long gone by now," said Puar.
Just then, explosions erupted nearby. It was followed by faint, blood curdling screams. Yamucha and Chaozu especially took notice, recognizing the energy signature of the one responsible. "It's him! It's Tenshinhan! He's at that village!" went Chaozu.
Yamucha stood up. "Yamucha! What are you going to do?" With all that had previously transpired, Puar wasn't sure about Yamucha's current state of mind.
"What must be done. Don't worry, Chaozu. We will beat this Xeon guy and get Tenshinhan back. That's a promise."
Part two
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