CHAPTER 64:
Reset

The large metal doors opened with a high-pitched creak, leading Gohan into a wide, musty chamber in which the stale cool air numbed his expressionless cheeks. At first glance, the large meeting room appeared rustic, but thethick marble columns made it seem almost timeless – an ancient ritualistic meeting ground, darkened by the dim lighting without any windows. The air seemed a little heavier in the chamber, as if compressed by the weight of the entire ship above them, or perhaps it was the anxiety pressing down on Gohan's shoulders.

The room was apparently originally designed to be a ballroom, before Lord Baby had redesigned the interior, so the pale marble floors seemed to reflect the ceiling, giving the impression that the room was twice the size. The large mirrors placed on either side of the room seemed to additionally magnify its aura.

Although large brown furs, skins, and war paintings decorated the walls, one prominent feature of the chamber was the gigantic dinosaur head mounted above the throne. The most prominent figure of the room, however, was the man who sat in the throne, leaning back with narrowed red eyes and white hair. To his side was a purple-clad man with matching hair. At seeing Trunks in the room, Gohan immediately tensed. He would have preferred his meeting with Lord Baby to be private, though it was currently out of his hands.

His Lord and Master then stood, as Gohan approached slowly with intrepid steps. There was something about Lord Baby that always pulled at Gohan, and no matter how much he either loved or loathed the man, he was filled with awe, determination, and utmost loyaltyupon seeinghis creator.Watching him rise made Gohan's knees go weak in a sudden wave of euphoria, and without a moment's hesitation, Gohan dropped on his hands and knees, overfilled and swarming with love and passion for the Tuffle. His entire being pulled at him, and tore all senses away until he became a worshipping shell, filled to the brim with emphatic loyalty.

Gohan would do anything for this man. Anything. He would give his life ten times over if it would make him happy, and yet being with him, around him, he felt almost frustrated, because he wanted to give him even more. There was no way for him to express how devout he was to his Lord, and it made his eyes sting and fists clench because the feeling continued to rise in him and made his blood boil, and he felt like he could explode from the passion of these feelings, which were stronger and more conflicting than he had ever felt before in his master's presence.

Lord Baby's footsteps echoed lightly on the marble. Gohan could see his lord's reflection through the stone, and tore his eyes away, as far down as they could go, for even looking upon the reflection of one so God-like as his master was too inappropriate for such a lowly mundane Tuffle such as he.

Lord Baby's steps stopped mere inches from Gohan, as his body continued to prostrate in a tremble of joy, and euphoric delusion. A moment passed in total silence, as if time itself held its breath in anticipation. Gohan's eyes widened as sweat formed on his brow. The opportunity to be with Lord Baby like this seemed almost to strain every muscle in his body. He could never breathe right around the man. All it ever took was just his presence, and suddenly Gohan felt he was reset to a default, before even free will.

"You… imbecile!"

Gohan continued to tremble in a euphoria, laden with proud images of Lord Baby dealing him proper justice.

"Moron!"

A sudden WHAM slammed into Gohan's side, knocking him over, and sending him skidding a few feet on the tile. Although the kick was not aimed to hurt, and by no means did it take Gohan by surprise, Gohan was still unsure of how to react – whether to be happy to be dealt such a blow by his master, or to once again grovel before his feet. So in his moment of confusion, he just lay there, looking down just before Lord Baby's feet, still sweating up a storm.

"Your brother was right."

Gohan blinked a moment in confusion then, caught off guard. He tried his best to quizzically focus on the marble instead of looking up to his master; he wanted to clear his mind of all thoughts other than his love for his Lord Baby, but it suddenly was hard to think over the turmoil that erupted in his mind.

"And here I thought… that I could trust you."

Gohan wanted to hard to speak, but he just couldn't get the breath support to manage a sound. His fingers trembled as they gasped the cool stone floor. Gohan knew was this was about, or at least he thought he knew. He had anticipated this, but yet, living it in action was still so hard to do. And he was still so confused about how any of this had to do with his brother.

"Look at me when I talk to you."

Gohan strained to bring his eyes up to meet his Master's, but could only bring them far enough to catch Lord Baby's gaze in his peripheral vision. He almost felt sick, having to look his master in the eye. He was not worthy.

After Gohan did not perform the task he had commanded, Baby grabbed Gohan's uniform collar and hoisted him up on his knees, forcing Gohan to look up to his eyes. At first, Gohan's eyes widened against his will. It seemed almost instinctive, the fear of looking upon his creator, and yet suddenly he found he could not look away. His eyes were locked – his pupils narrowing in both awe, and a mildly perplexed stare.

Baby's face scrunched with a scowl as he looked disapprovingly over his Tuffle underling. When he formed his words, his lips moved sharply and dramatically, spitting a bit with every other consonant, "You've been… tainted."

Whatever Gohan had been assuming to be the issue before was totally swiped from his mind as he was taken aback and caught off guard. "Tainted?"

"Look at you!" With a powerful thrust, Baby threw Gohan to the ground and towered over him in disdain, "You think you've got a mind of your own. She's corrupted you."

Blindly searching for words to say, Gohan's eyes widened further in confusion, "I... I don't understand!"

"Look at you," Baby repeated as he snarled down to Gohan's form, "Your eyes show fear."

"Lord Baby!" Gohan brought himself to his knees, his face strained in bewilderment, "I have no fear."

Baby then strode slowly toward Gohan, his eyes flashing in a constrained rage. "You went alone. You went out on your own!" Baby proceeded to kick Gohan in the side again, though Gohan took the blow, keeping himself grounded, "I told you to eliminate the Saiyan! I never told you to be a f-king vigilante!"

"But! I still don't…!"

Baby grabbed his chin and looked him hard in the eyes, "And this is what comes of it."

"Lord Baby!"

SMACK! Baby's fist met Gohan's cheek with such force, Gohan went flying several feet before landing on the tile with a thwack, both of which sounds echoed in the chamber. Before Gohan could sit up, Baby was upon him, and WHACKed his back, slamming Gohan down into the marble, causing debris and cracks to fly and form around his body. And then, as just as suddenly, Baby kicked him in the side, throwing Gohan's form with a an explosive force straight through one of the marble columns. The entire portion of the ceiling, and all its plaster then fell down in a cloud of dust upon Gohan's battered form, but Gohan still struggled to sit up, breathing heavily while his left hand tenderly probed his left cheek where he had been slapped.

"Lord Baby, I don't… understand. I thought this was abou–…"

Within a flash unperceivable by a human eye, Baby was upon Gohan again, in front of his chalked face, snarling in hatred and betrayal. Baby cut him off with his right index finger, which came almost to Gohan's nose, before he retracted it in a gliding motion. Gohan sat there, hypnotized by his master, emotions swirling in him like he had never felt them before.

Lord Baby then took this time to speak, as he almost tenderly brought his pale cold hand to Gohan's bruised left cheek, "You were my prized possession." His eyes almost turned to stone, themselves as they pierced Gohan's black orbs, "My strongest second-in-command. You even managed to make a hit on that Namek. I was so prou–"

"–How did y–!"

The SMACK against his stinging cheek again got Gohan to silence himself as Baby seethed, "Don't you DARE interrupt me again!"

It didn't even take another moment's hesitation, with Gohan's widened eyes, for Lord Baby to continue his speech, "I was so proud of you. I knew all about it, all along. I felt him die, I saw him die through your eyes. And then there was that Saiyan… And you were doing so well, weren't you? You were fighting at your prime. You almost proved yourself worthy of my pride! ALMOST!"

"I would have killed her, Sir! I would hav–!"

Another SMACK to his other cheek left Gohan spitting blood. Baby grasped his chin and thrust Gohan's bruised face up to meet his hard gaze once more as he snarled at his prey, "You think this is about the SAIYAN?"

Gohan didn't even say anything, as his mind was totally lost in confusion. Suddenly everything he thought he knew about the situation was torn from under him, as he realized he was totally blind to the situation. He honestly had no idea as to what his Lord Baby was referring.

"You went ahead and destroyed the WHOLE TOWN! YOU tell me what happened to that Tuffle village! You shut me out, and then you went on a KILLING SPREE. You've been killing EVERYONE BUT THE F-CKING SAIYAN!"

"But Sir, I–!"

"Look what emotions do to you! THIS is why I eliminated your emotions. And then that SAIYAN came along, and made you FEEL again, and suddenly, you've become so obsessed, you've made a MOCKERY of ME and my ENTIRE RACE." Baby smacked him hard on the face again before grabbing his collar and hoisting him up, "If everything were left to YOU, EVERY TUFFLE would be WIPED OUT in a matter of MONTHS!"

The panic arising in Gohan was almost overwhelming. He had been so blinded by his pursuit of the Saiyan, he had lost all sanity. He was able to see that now. Lord Baby was right; it was his fault! It was his fault that the Saiyan was still free, and everything else Baby said!

What was happening to him? What was going on?

"And now I have to purify you all over again." Baby clutched his throat so Gohan couldn't move his head, and in a forceful thrust, Baby sealed their lips together, almost with biting intensity.

The suddenness of the situation was nothing compared what caused Gohan's eyes to widen in both pain and shock. Before he was able to register what was happening, a freezing cold metallic liquid began to force its way down his throat. It made his entire head sting, like a thousand icicles piercing his pharynx, as his throat contracted and his body almost instinctively wanted to reject it.

But then the moment passed, and Gohan's body grew limp with fatigue. Lord Baby let go of his throat, and let Gohan's body collapse on the debris and marble floor.

Everything went cold again for him. It was so hard for him to remember there being warmth. It was hard to remember anything at all, other than the fact that Lord Baby was there, and he was Gohan's master, and it was clear that that was the only thing that mattered.

"There. I hope you can organize your thoughts a little better now, you fool."

What happened? What…? No… It didn't matter what happened. Nothing ever mattered, except for Lord Baby. There never was anything else. Lord Baby… Just… Lord Baby…

Gohan swallowed as if for the first time, tasting his own blood, and it seemed to almost stir another round of devotion to his master. His blood was for Lord Baby. His life was for his master. Having already been on his knees, he dropped to his hands again and bowed profusely, desperate and monotonous in his devout worship, "I live only to serve you, Lord Baby."

There was nothing else. No emotions. Nothing… except himself, Lord Baby, the room, and the man who still stood by the throne and never moved from his post.

"Good." Baby sneered slightly as he once again found Gohan's behavior up to par with his expectations. "Now…" He cocked his head slightly as he folded his arms, "As to your punishment…"

"Sir…" Gohan bowed even further. It was not even that he was willing to give his life. It was not even his to give, anymore. It belonged to Baby, and he was just a shell. There never was any other way. This was how it was, and was always meant to b.

"Good," Baby glanced to his inferior officer by the throne, and nodded once to Trunks, "Then call in Lieutenant Son."

Trunks pressed a buzzer by the throne, with an empty stare, which rang outside in the corridor. Within the next moment, the large metal doors were opened and Goten entered the room with a deep bow, "My master calls?"

"Come here," Lord Baby beckoned with a mild smile, which was uncharacteristic and if one were wholly sane, might have identified as a bad sign.

Goten strode confidently toward his master, stopping several feet away with a second, even more confident bow. "My Lord."

"Lieutenant Son," Baby said almost a little too smoothly, "I've wanted to tell you something for a long time. It makes me almost proud to tell you this now, because it's getting something off my chest, and I feel it is appropriate for these circumstances."

"Sir?"

Lord Baby beckoned with his right finger, ominously, "Come closer…"

Goten frowned a bit, and moved slightly closer, feeling it a little awkward to be so close, since he was at a much taller standing height than his master.

He didn't have to wait long, though, before a fist came and SMACKed him square in the jaw, sending him flying in the air, though before he was able to hit the ground, Baby phased above him and smacked him straight down, causing an explosion of tile and marble that made a large crack through half the floor, causing a shock wave that sent one of the marble columns toppling on its own, landing only a meter away from Gohan before it rolled to the center of the meeting chamber. The entire ship trembled with the blast, and yet Baby never gave the ship a chance to settle, for the moment Goten groaned in the tile, Baby fired an entire round of ki blasts into his back, causing him to scream in confusion and pain. Halfway through the attack, Baby spit down on him and said in a low, threatening voice, "Keep your power DOWN. I want you to feel the full force of my attack."

Goten never even thought to ask why Baby was doing this to him, and Gohan never once thought to intervene. This was Baby's own matter, and Gohan had been reset, and refreshed, so he didn't even have to wonder why Baby did any of what he did. He was Gohan's Lord, and he was Goten's Lord. That was all that mattered.

After Baby fired more shots, he landed by Goten and kicked him in the side several times before punching him in the gut; and then he punched him again, and again, smacking his head against the floor as Goten took the pain with a hard face, but not a single word of protest.

Baby stopped for a moment and looked up to Gohan, to see his reaction. Keeping his eyes on him, and, spitting out some of Goten's blood that accidentally made it into his mouth, he narrowed his eyes and said with a low, demeaning voice, directed straight to Gohan, "This your punishment."

And with that he smacked Goten's face again, gashing the skin right under his mandible. Goten couldn't hold in the pain anymore, and let out a scream of agony. However, his breath was kicked out of him when Baby kneed him in the stomach and slapped his face on the cleaner side.

"You know what your problem is?" Baby said in a low voice to Goten, just loud enough for him to hear through the blood in his ears, "You look just like HIM. Every time I see your filthy Saiyan face, I am reminded of HIM… of… GOKU…"

"L-L-Lo…" Goten struggled to breathe, to get any words out, as his body ached so terribly.

Baby slammed Goten's head down, hard, on the broken tile, and rubbed it into the cracks, sneering as his blood soaked the floor from his deliciously delivered gash at the base of Goten's jaw. It gave Baby pleasure to see his underling suffer. He had it coming for a long time. He deserved this just as much as his brother. It felt so good to have a reason to finally get even with that bastard Saiyan's younger clone, merely for existing and reminding Baby every day how much he hated the Saiyans.

"I want you to know, Lieutenant," Baby yanked Goten's head up by his hair, and brought his mouth down to speak clearly and deliberately into his ear, "That I've found an interesting flaw in my Tuffle creations... The minute you develop emotions is the minute you begin to fight my control."

"S..Sir, I would," Goten coughed up some blood that made its way into his larynx, "I would never, Sir. You're my master, Lord Baby, I would never…!"

"Tell that to your brother," Baby guided his face to look up at the older Tuffle, "Who has betrayed me. And because he's betrayed me, he's betrayed us all… and even you."

"Lord Baby…" Goten tried to move, but his head was still held firmly in place by Baby's locked grip.

"He's… betrayed you…" Baby hissed in his ear as he led one of his cold hands down Goten's back, "And because of him, you are going to suffer."

Goten looked confused for the brief moment as his eyes seemed to focus on his elder sibling, standing several meters away, "Gohan?"

"It's all his fault," Lord Baby leaned over Goten and pulled his head back to an unnatural tension, winning a painful cry from his disposable pawn before he raised his hand and backhanded Goten with another whack on the same cheek as his injury.

Goten tried to hold in the pain, though found it hard to keep a straight face as Lord Baby dug his nails into his shoulder, scratching him so hard, it tore a hole in his uniform and left a trail of fresh blood staining the cloth.

"How do you feel, Gohan? How do you feel when you see me do this to your baby brother?"

Gohan's eyes never faltered as stared, emotionless, as if somehow drained of all cognitive function, "I feel nothing."

It's his fault.

"And how do you feel about this," Baby slammed Goten's battered head back into the marble, shattering what was left of the tile as he broke Goten's nose and set even more of his blood free on the floor, gathering in a dark crimson mass.

Gohan never said a word, though, as he began to walk toward them.

Goten spit out blood as he snarled, a fury burning in him as he watched his brother approaching. Suddenly, a new wave of hatred and anger made him forget the pain as he focused on his older sibling, spurred by his Lord Baby's words, "F-ck you, Gohan."

Baby relished in the discord, sneering a twisted grin as he supported Goten's chin, as Goten made a distorted face of rage. "Yes… Tell him, Goten. Tell him how you really feel."

"I hate you," Goten tensed his arms and tried to lunge forward, "I HATE YOU!" He fell back to his knees as Baby's grip tightened on his shoulders, and against his volition, his body began to tremble.

Baby whispered in his ear almost seductively, as he removed a sharp blade from his shirt pocket, "And you love me."

"Lord Baby," Goten grimaced from the pain, holding in the agony that seemed to paralyze and shake his entire body, "I… I…would die… for you."

"Good," Baby grinned maliciously as he gently slid the blade along Goten's right cheek, careful not to break his skin, "Because today… you're going to die."

Baby held the knife on Goten's cheek one moment longer before looking to Gohan, who had stopped only a meter away to observe the scene. Baby grinned darkly at the sight of his second-in-command, a twisted sense of pride returning as he recognized the cold heart within his favorite's eyes. This was all the sweeter for him, to torture his soul. There was no greater rush for Baby than to know he could wreak his revenge on every last one of those ugly, stinking, dirty Saiyans. Baby's eyes flashed red for a moment as revenge and deceit played tricks on his lips.

"This is your punishment," Baby repeated his former statement to Gohan, his voice grown as cold as the stone floor. "For every time you fail me, I'm going to STRIP you of someone you love."

The next moment passed in a silence as Gohan studied his brother for a moment, his eyes hard and lifeless, his jaw tense and firm. He scanned his younger sibling as if trying to recall something that may have triggered some sort of emotion, but nothing came to mind. There was nothing there. Goten was just as ugly as Lord Baby perceived him to be.

Gohan's glazed eyes made a slow graded motion over to his Lord Baby, at whom he blankly looked for a good moment before his eyes narrowed and be snorted in mild contempt, "I do not love him."

Baby smiled darkly, "Then all the better." He then wrapped his left arm around Goten and squeezed his face, stabilizing him on both knees. With an upward motion, he curled Goten's head back to reveal a bloodied, and vulnerable, neck, and with his right hand, he offered the blade to Gohan. "I want you to draw his blood."

"G…Go–" Goten's fatigued voice seemed to die as he looked to his older brother, and then to Trunks, in the back of the room, who had turned his head away.

"–Remember Goten," Baby whispered in his ear, "It's all his fault. It's his fault this happened to you."

His fault…

Without delay, Gohan readied the blade in his right hand and propped it cleanly against Goten's neck. His eyes, as always, were cold, though now they seemed both dark and vacant. With Baby having purified him again, he was a hollow shell – an angel of death. This was his only goal. This was his final mission.

A moment passed – perhaps for one last breath as time itself seemed to linger.

However, all of a sudden, and from out of nowhere, the silence was shattered as Trunks seemed to spark to life from the back of the room. In a giant leap, he seemed to sail forward with a desperation in his voice, "NO! STOP!"…

…Right as Gohan sliced the blade.

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–3/7/06–

A.N.: This is the CENSORED version of Chapter 64. The original has a particularly disturbing scene which I decided to omit from my submission to Ffnet. Only two people in this world hold a copy of my original plan (well, technically only myself since I updated it since sending it to Graelynchan), and for now, I've decided to let it stay that way.

A.N #2: (Personal Note) For Micaela… LOL it's another "4" chapter. They always seem to occur like this. 34, 44, 54, and now 64. The sky is falling, I tell you! With Trunks on top! XD…