Cosmic Crisis 3 - A New Enemy

Chapter 40 - Breaking the News

Natalie woke up in the rejuvenation tank just as the water was being drained. As her memories returned to her, she remembered the reason for her being here. The first pair of eyes she met were not blue. They were black.

Gohan helped the wet, shaken girl out of the tank and supported her shaky body as she struggled to stand.

"Natalie..." he began, his eyes filled with guilt.

"No, Gohan." She interrupted. She stood away from him, showing that she was not weak after all. "Don't apologize."

"I almost killed you." He said. "I shouldn't have used that attack."

"I feel stronger already." She commented, flexing her muscles. It was explained that she had been brought back to Capsule Corp. and given an alternative form of the senzu bean, administered through an IV. She was then placed into the rejuvenation tank to finish the healing process and clean her up. Naturally, since she had been through worse, there had been no doubt that she would survive. And, since none of her major organs or nerve systems had been damaged in the fight, there was no evidence that she had even come close to death.

As soon as she dried off, she returned to the living quarters with Gohan to change into some drier clothes. As she headed upstairs, she saw Trunks standing at the end of the hallway with concern written all over his face.

"Nat!" he cried. Natalie looked up at him. "You're okay."

"Yes, I am." She replied simply.

"You had me worried sick." He said. He walked over to her and slipped his arm around her waist, holding her close to his body. "Next time you run off, make sure you're in a better frame of mind."

"Will do." She said. "I need to change clothes, Trunks, would you excuse me?"

Trunks looked at her and then released his grip. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and then disappeared into her room, leaving him standing outside the door with mixed emotions.

"Hey Trunks..." Goten said, walking up to his friend. "You okay?"

"What? Oh...yeah I'm fine." Trunks answered quickly. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well I did see what Nat did just now." He said, looking over at the closed door. "What's going on between you two?"

"I don't know, Goten!" Trunks cried. "She got mad at me and left, nearly got herself killed, then comes back and ignores me. Something is up."

"Now that you mention it, Natalie has been more introverted lately."

Trunks and Goten turned around to see Bulma pulling her blue hair into a ponytail, wearing a lab coat overtop of her t-shirt and jeans.

"Kaasan are you already going back to work?" Trunks asked. "We just got home from vacation."

"I have a specimen to examine." Bulma explained. "You could call it a pregnancy test."

Trunks gulped. "R-really..." he began.

"Trunks calm down, I haven't made a diagnosis yet." Bulma said, finishing her ponytail and pushing her bangs out of her face.

"She really thinks that she is, kaasan." Trunks said shakily. "And you once told me never to question a woman's intuition."

"That's not intuition, it's paranoia." Bulma said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a sample to inspect." The blue-haired woman walked down the stairs and disappeared into the medical wing of the building. When she was gone, Trunks sighed.

"I heard once that Saiya-jins can smell a pregnant female." Goten commented. "I don't smell anything."

"Well I hope that's a sign." Trunks said. He didn't want to raise Orion's child. He really didn't.

"Don't you think that if she was pregnant, we would be able to sense the new ki by now?" Goten asked.

"Not necessarily." Sirius said as he walked up and joined them, fresh from gravity room training.

"Oh here we go..." Trunks said, rolling his eyes. "The god of all knowledge has spoken."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Sirius said, and then turned his back to Trunks, facing Goten. "If she is pregnant, and she is too early on that she isn't showing any signs, then the child is not developed enough to sense anything."

"O-oh..." Goten stammered.

"Sirius maybe you should become a sex ed teacher, since you have so much...knowledge on the subject." Trunks jeered. Sirius turned around and shot the boy a lethal glare.

"I would stop if I were you." He hissed. "I have an advantage, and I'm not going to waste the opportunity to use it."

"Use your stupid mind tricks on me, I don't give a damn!" Trunks barked. "You already read my thoughts and put blocks on my ki, what else can you possibly do?

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Don't start." Trunks threatened. "Don't you dare."

"STOP IT! Both of you!"

Trunks and Sirius spun around to see Natalie standing in the door to her room, freshly changed, with a furious expression on her face.

"You're acting like little babies! You two had better learn to get along soon if you plan on living in the same building." She snapped. "You guys are supposed to be mature seventeen year-olds? I think Pan has more of a maturity level than you both put together!"

"Ouch." Goten said, wincing.

"Sirius, you should reconsider. I think she is pregnant." Trunks commented. Natalie, already infuriated, glared at him.

"You think that's funny, do you?" she asked. Trunks looked at her and sweatdropped as he laughed nervously.

"N-no." he began. Natalie, for a minute, looked like she was going to cry, but blinked, forcing out the emotion and walking past him on her way downstairs. "Nat, wait." He said, reaching out to grab her arm. She tore away and ran into the medical wing, obviously to see Bulma.

"Good job, Trunks." Goten said, looking at his friend. Trunks growled in frustration and looked at the ground.

"She's so moody!" he complained. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle this."

Natalie tiptoed down the hallways of the medical wing in search of Bulma. It was so quiet, she could hear the steps she took as she walked. The only other sound was the sound of her own pulse, and the low hum of a generator somewhere in the distance.

"Natalie!" came a voice. Natalie was so surprised she shrieked and jumped back against the wall, eyes wide in fear. She blinked a few times and recognized Bulma's figure in the doorway to one of the rooms.

"Nani, Bulma-san?" Natalie asked, recovering from her initial shock. It was hard not to jump after hearing a shrill cry, when before you had been accustomed to silence.

"Come in." Bulma said, walking back into the room, her lab coat swishing behind her. Natalie walked in cautiously and sat down on one of the counters, her feet dangling over the side.

"How did it go?" Natalie asked, gulping. She had a bad feeling, and the sharp pain in her stomach didn't help much. She was beginning to feel sick again.

"Based on the tests I performed on the specimen gathered while you were in the rejuvenation tank-"

"Just say it already!" Natalie spat. Bulma took no offense to Natalie's anxiety, for it was to be expected.

"The results came out positive."

"P...positive." Natalie stammered.

"Yes, Nat-chan. You are officially, more or less, two months pregnant."

Natalie, seemingly in a state of hypnosis, nodded and hopped off of the counter and walked out of the room, mumbling softly to herself. Bulma watched her depart with a look of concern on her face.

"I think I said it a little too bluntly." She said to herself, watching the tip of Natalie's tail disappear around the corner.

Trunks and Goten were talking in the hallway, standing against the wall in the open room that connected the medical wing and the living quarters. They were having a quiet conversation, when they both saw Natalie's figure emerge from the wing and walk past, unblinking and unfazed. She took slow, steady steps as she headed for her room on the second floor.

"You...don't think..." Goten trailed off, watching Natalie's movements. Her tail hung lifelessly between her legs as she trudged upward, her eyes staring straight ahead.

"She looks like she's lost her mind." Trunks said, taking a step forward. "I should go talk to her."

Meanwhile, Sirius was just departing from Reena and Ceres' room and had just shut the door when Natalie brushed by him, walking straight into her own room and swinging the door closed with her tail. He looked at the door for a few seconds before turning around.

"Sirius." Trunks said, running up the stairs. When he reached the top, he stopped. "Did you see her?"

"What did you do?" Sirius asked threateningly.

"Nothing, I swear!" Trunks said, putting his hands in the air defensively. "I was just on my way to try and talk to her."

Sirius looked at him critically.

"Look, I honestly didn't do a thing." Trunks said. "She was in the medical wing the entire time."

Sirius walked away, shooting Trunks a final, icy glare as he passed. Trunks shrugged his shoulders in defeat and walked to Natalie's door, knocking on it cautiously. There was no reply. Again, he knocked, this time a little more forcefully. No reply.

"Maybe she's in the bathroom." Trunks said to himself. He waited a few minutes, and knocked again. He received no reply, and decided to try the handle. Sure enough, it was unlocked. As he opened the door slowly, he made out Natalie's form on the other side of the room, curled into a ball in the corner. Seeing this, he entered quickly and shut the door behind him.

"Nat?" he asked, approaching the girl with apprehension stained onto his face. She turned her head slightly and he noticed a line of tears streaming down the side of her face as she forced her eyes closed, as if trying to shut out reality. "What happened?"

A sob escaped Natalie's throat and she looked away ashamedly. Trunks sat down on the floor next to her and placed his fingers under her chin, lifting her head so that their gazes met. He noted that her eyes were red and glazed with saline water. As she blinked, another tear escaped and dropped onto his wrist.

"Natalie...talk to me." He said, looking at her with his eyes narrowed in concern.

"I...can't..." she said, her voice heavy with bitter emotion. Trunks scooted even closer and placed his arm around her.

"Yes you can." He coaxed. "Why are you crying?"

"Because..." she choked out. "My life...is ruined..."

"Why is it ruined?"

"You...don't want to know." She said, her body heaving as she was racked with another sob. "It's...-"

Trunks drew in a shaky breath and cursed himself mentally.

"Did you...see kaasan..." he inquired guardedly. Natalie nodded her head. "You're..."

"Pregnant." Natalie interrupted, her voice laced with ice as she spoke through clenched teeth. The statement hit Trunks like a brick wall. "You don't have to stay in here." She said softly, still too ashamed to look him in the eyes.

Trunks, bewildered, sat back against the wall and looked at the ceiling. He had no idea of how to comfort her, or how to react. He wanted to turn back time and prevent it, even though he knew that he couldn't. What was going to happen now? What about Kira? Would she cease to exist? How was he going to raise a child? All of the questions raced through his mind and left him dazed and confused as Natalie's soft cries filled the background.