A Destroyer's Heart: Chapter 1
#2 of A Destroyer's Heart
This is chapter one of the series A Destroyer's Heart. Nene has just had a premonition about Lord Beerus the Destroyer. Are their destinies tied? Is this a cruel fate? Find out as their paths now converge to an inevitable confrontation!
"Nene! Wake up!"
"...Huh...?" Nene slowly woke up to the vibration of the hovercar's engine that rattled the window the right side of his face was plastered to. He yawned and stretched his arms as high as he could over his head to work out the tiredness from his numb limbs. After he rubbed at his eyes he turned to look at his mother who was driving them towards his aunt's birthday party.
His mother was a remarble woman known as Tights, a well accomplished writer of science fiction novels, the daughter of the famous scientist Dr. Briefs, and older sister of Bulma. Today was a special occasion, so Tights wore a rather simple, but flowy pink dress, a lavender sunhat, and a necklace of white pearls. Nene blinked for a moment as he came back to himself after the weird dream he just had.
"Is everything alright, Nene?" Asked his concerned mother as the sunlight shone off her blond hair, that she had passed down to her son, that was cut down to a nice bob. Her dark brown eyes filled with a look of concern. Those dark eyes he himself had not inherited, but instead the violet eyes of a father he had never known and who had ran out on his pregnant wife before Nene was even born almost two decades ago.
He smiled sadly at his beloved mother while wiping the cold sweat off his brow that must have formed while he had his dream. Or was it a premonition...?
"I'm fine, Mom. It was just a bad dream."
Tights frowned at Nene softly before turning her attention back toward the road. "That wasn't a regular dream was it? Please tell me if you had a premonition." It was known between the inner circle of close friends and family that Nene had the ability of premonition that mostly came true. He had seen much that had come to pass: Frieza, the Androids, Cell, and Majin Buu. And now...he feared a new enemy has now surfaced who may be more powerful than anything Goku and friends have faced yet.
"I had...a premonition. It...it showed me this alien structure with a massive tree on it. It appeared to be the dwelling of this purple, hairless, cat-like alien. Far away out in space. Someone whose power I cannot even comprehend." Nene sweated lightly just remembering those piercing yellow cat eyes. The way they held malice. The way they looked into his very soul.
Tights nodded at his concerned explanation while pulling up to Bulma's birthday party. "Okay, hon. When we get settled at the party we will talk this out with them after the party, okay? No need to worry the others. Especially your aunt on her special day."
"Alright, Mom..." Nene sighed out with a nervous energy as he tried to remain calm in body and mind so as not to put anyone off or give them an inkling that something dire was about to happen. But just what that was was yet to be seen.
A time bomb went off from the top of the stairs that Whis was climbing up. His steps echoed through the expansive space of the spiraling staircase he had walked up to his Lord's bedroom. As he waved away at the dark, billowing smoke that aired out the bedroom he came upon the God of Destruction himself, Lord Beerus.
The feline diety slept soundly curled up in his bed while wearing his ruined nightgown. Whis shook his blue-skinned, white-haired head as he called up to his lord to awaken from his slumber. "Please do wake up Lord Beerus before another Time Bomb goes off. It was your idea to wake up eleven years earlier than usual. Lord Beerus!"
Lord Beerus woke up with his eyes opening immediately just as another Time Bomb went off. He coughed and fanned away the smoke from his face as he stretched his arms high into the air with a loud yawn escaping his maw. Scratching at his back before jumping down on his feet perfectly to meet Whis below him.
"Really Whis? Couldn't you just let me sleep for five more years?" The Destroyer Deity licked his left paw and cleaned the left side of his head with it around his large ear there.
"Lord Beerus, need I remind you once more that it was your idea to wake up early to begin with." Whis kept his arms crossed behind his robes.
"Oh really? Yes...that's right! I had a premonition thirty-nine years ago about someone who would come along to be my arch-rival. Their name escapes me at the moment..." Beerus had one hand on his hip and the other scratching the back of his head. "It doesn't help I had another dream you woke me up from where this blond-haired, violet-eyed humanoid mortal dared to come into my home and touch my cheek. The audacity! I could've sworn it felt quite real. Perhaps it was another premonition of someone who is tied to my other vision? He certainly seemed much clearer to remember than the one destined to be my arch-"
"Lord Beerus, please!" Beerus stopped his chatter to give his attendant Whis a sharp glare. Whis held up his left hand to stop Beerus' attitude right there before it went further as he materialized his staff in his right hand. "Perhaps all these visions you speak of are merely mundane dreams. Your premonitions have not been known to have a high success rate of coming true. Need I remind you about the popstar?"
Beerus merely crossed his arms over his chest while narrowing his gaze at Whis who sighed with his head held down in defeat. "Alright... If you must insist on pursuing these visions then let's have a word with the Oracle. They will certainly know something about your premonitions and then we'll go from there?"
Lord Beerus smirked as he nodded his approval. "Excellent decision, Whis!"
Whis nudged the top of his staff against Beerus' belly while pinching his nose. "But first you must take a bath and then we'll eat something to replenish your strength a little more. We can't have Beerus the Destroyer traveling on an empty belly and smelling like last century's leftovers in the fridge."
Nene and Tights walked into the backyard of Bulma's large mansion, each carrying a gift for her. It had a big pool with tables off to the side of it covered in white linens and surrounded by chairs, food trucks and food stands, a stage on the other side of the tables and all the friends and family Nene remembers so fondly of through all the good and bad times. They had been through so much together.
"Tights! Nene!" Bulma walked up to her sister and nephew with open arms. She gave each of them a tight hug before taking their gifts to add them with the rest of the gifts she had received on a nearby table. She came back to Nene to give him another fond squeeze before holding him at arms length to get a good look at him. "It's been too long since I last saw both of you. And Nene, dare I say, you have grown into such a handsome young man. I bet the ladies are beating down your front door to get the chance to be with you!"
Nene laughed nervously as he scratched at his right, blushing cheek with a tip of his finger and looking over at his mom Tights embarrassingly. Nene had just turned eighteen a few months ago where everyone came for his big birthday bash, but he was still getting used to the idea of being an adult. But what really made him nervous was the fact that he enjoyed the company of men than women when it came to romance. He had realized this about himself ever since he was a young boy with a big crush on the older Gohan. Yet, he never had the courage to tell anyone about his sexuality since he thought it was better off to be kept secret for now.
As Bulma and Tights got into a conversation after his aunt had turned her attention to her sister, Nene overlooked the party to see all of the familiar faces he had come to care for deeply over the years. Seeing them all so happy to be reunited once more made a pain in his chest blossom as he turned to his aunt to confess his worries about his most recent premonitions.
"Aunt Bulma...I have something I need to tell you." Both Bulma and Tights turned to Nene. Tights wore a pleading face, but Nene continued on with his concerns that would soon get everyone at the party coming over to listen to his tale. Even Vegeta from his training room would be ousted by what Nene had to say.
Beerus put the final touch to his ensemble as he slipped on a gold bracer onto his right wrist. A perfect match to the one on his left wrist. He turned to Whis who had just finished packing lunch and had sent it away into the aether from where he would magically retrieve it out of thin air with his staff at a later time.
"Ready to go my Lord? I have tracked down the Saiyan Goku to King Kai's planet where he appears to be training." Whis said with an air of composure that was the norm for him.
"And how far away is that?" Beerus looked at his claws impatiently.
"It will take at least thirty minutes to reach our destination." Whis smiled wistfully as he said this.
"Thirty minutes! Argh!" Beerus rubbed at his temples with his left hand while letting out some frustrated grumbles. "That's the average running time for an anime episode... It can't be helped. Let's just be on our way."
"As you wish my Lord." Beerus placed a hand on Whis' back as they soon left their abode in a blinding ray of light that shot out into the vastness of the cosmos.
Once Nene was done recounting every little detail he could recall from his dream, everyone at the party was left in silence. Vegeta who had his arms crossed on his chest and his trademark scowl on his face was the first to speak up since what Nene said stirred up a memory deep within him that he couldn't recall at the moment. This memory that was hidden deep in Vegeta's memories was waking up after Nene's mention of the purple, humanoid cat.
"Are you absolutely certain this was not a childish nightmare?!" Vegeta had an edge to his voice that made him scarier than usual as beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
"I'm positive Uncle Vegeta. This felt like all the other premonitions that came true before we had to a face a dangerous adversary." Nene looked to all his friends and family's troubled faces. He really wished he was wrong, but there was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he wasn't.
"And that's all you can recount to us my boy?" Master Roshi who had trained Nene every summer ever since he was a little tyke asked him sincerely. Nene nodded and Master Roshi stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"Hey Nene, don't you worry about it right now." Bulma spoke out as she walked over to her nephew to ruffle the top of his blond head lovingly. "Let the adults-"
"I am an adult!" Nene spoke it out too soon and loudly as he backed away from his aunt's touch. It came out in a way a child would speak against a parent saying they knew just as much as they did on an important matter. He cringed and balled up his hands into fists on either side.
"We know you are an adult, but you are still young and have a whole lot more to live for." Tights said as she grabbed at his right arm to give it a reassuring squeeze to abate his short tantrum.
"Listen Nene, all we're saying is let us older folk handle this news for now while you go sit over there with Trunks, Goten, and anyone else who wants to relax and enjoy the party." Krillin said this while carrying his little girl in his arms and leading Nene away by the hand before he could protest.
Vegeta felt a small pang of guilt for his nephew as he understood what Nene had felt to be left out of important adult business once upon a time long ago in his youth. He never said it much, but he enjoyed having Nene around as much as his own son Trunks as they had developed a familial bond after he changed into a "good" guy, married Bulma, and a younger Nene started looking up to him as a father figure.
The Saiyan prince was about to continue speaking with the other's about Nene's visions and what they meant when he suddenly received a psychic message from King Kai warning him of Lord Beerus' imminent arrival to Earth in a matter of minutes after having defeated Goku in just two blows! He was coming to speak to the surviving Saiyans and Nene...
"Well that was disappointing. If Goku is not the Super Saiyan God, then hopefully one of the other Saiyan survivors on Earth might be." Beerus mused this on a slightly full belly after having eaten lunch on the way to King Kai's planet where he met and "fought" the interesting Saiyan known as Goku.
"And did we not learn the name of the young man you saw in your dreams Beerus?" Whis said this in a way that was slightly teasing and hinting at something Beerus was not about to court with in his mind as they continued traveling through the tunnel of light that was leading them to their next destination, Earth, that was only three minutes away by Whis' mode of transportation from King Kai's planet.
"Yes yes. I believe the name was Nene. Though why would anyone call a boy by such an obvious girl's name I have no clue. As to his relation to my arch-rival...well we'll find that out soon enough, won't we?" Whis did not need to answer back to that rhetorical question as he remembered how a defeated Goku strained in repeating the boy's name repeatedly as if saying it could be a spell to keep Beerus away from Nene. They were now closing in on what was surely their final destination.
With a heavy sigh Nene sat down by himself at an empty table that was the farthest away from the rest of the party as possible. It was set right by the edge of the pool where he could stare at his rippling reflection that was caused by a gentle breeze rolling gentle waves on the pool's surface. He contemplated on his dreams and what they meant when he heard an unfamiliar voice call out his name right behind him.
"You must be Nene. I think I might recognize you anywhere in the universe now that you dared to invade my dreams with your mortal face." Nene startled as he turned in his seat to be face-to-face with an all too familiar cat alien once more, but this time in the flesh.
A cold sweat ran down Nene's back as his wide violet eyes met Beerus' narrowed, feline yellow eyes. His terrifying dreams now come to life...