The Bond

A figure appeared above them, and it hovered there, as if waiting to be noticed. Katima looked up at it, eyes narrowed. She gently pushed Vegeta's hand away, stepping forward.

"And who do you think you are crashing my wedding?" she asked.

All the others were looking up as well. Krillin hovered by 18's side, his teeth grit. Gohan looked highly serious, fists clenched. Rilan had his arms folded.

There was a chuckle, and slowly, the figure landed in the middle of all of them,

This figure looked human enough, but he had snowy white hair in a spiky fashion, and long robes billowing around him, them in a deep blue color that matched his eyes. He had a sort of creepish smile on his face as he looked at each of them in turn.

"They call me… Eagla…" he said. His voice was strangely soft and monotone, and his eyes sheened as he finally looked at Katima.

"Okay, Eagla," said Rilan sharply, "Why are you here?"

Eagla's eyes shot to Rilan, fast and almost snake like… he smirked, and Katima noticed that his canines in his teeth were slightly elongated, like fangs… "I came to take back what is rightfully mine," he said, still in that weird voice.

Rilan raised a brow, "Oh? And what would that be?"

Eagla turned his eyes back to Katima, "I come from a planet far from here, it's called Xeknos… My people… are few now. There are only a few colonies of us left. But we have lost something far more important than our once large population… we lost what made our people legendary…"

Katima frowned at him. She had a terrible feeling about this man. He was an alien, but looked surprising human other than the snow white hair and the fangs. The way he was speaking made her spine tingle, and the way he looked at her…

"Spit it out," snarled Vegeta, taking a threatening step forward, "What do you want?"

Eagla looked at him, "The Protected… yes. I want what you have," he looked at Katima, "The Bond."

Katima blinked, shocked. She thought that only Lily knew the Bond, and that it was a special technique that she learned and passed on to Katima, but now… this alien is saying that it's his?

"What are you talking about?" asked Katima warily.

"The Bond, a legendary technique that my people created," Eagla said in his strange soft voice, "It is what made us one of the strongest in our galaxy… We were ready to conquer all of our solar system, ready to take our rightful seat of power…" his voice turned dark and he smiled creepily again, "We would have eventually taken all of the universe, and our people would be feared and respected…"

Rilan's face twisted in anger, "So you're just another Frieza," he snarled, "Power hungry and have no respect for the weak."

"But I don't understand," said Katima, frowning, "How would the Bond help you do this?"

"That's obvious, isn't it?" Vegeta cut in, his eyes narrowed, "It's happened twice now, when my life is strongly threatened, something happens to you. Remember when Cell had me? You blasted him away like a rag doll. And then the Cell Junior that nearly killed me, some sort of field appeared around me, you killed that thing and a shield went around me and completely healed me… There must be some kind of way that his race knows how to control it."

Katima looked at Eagla, "Is that true?"

Eagla smiled, fangs gleaming, "You don't have the faintest clue of the potential that two of you are capable of together. If you come with me to my world and share how to plant the Bond, we will teach you how to control it, and together… we will take back the glory that is Xeknos…"

Vegeta seemed intrigued. He raised brow. "Power? You mean you can teach Katima how to control that?"

"Not only her," said Eagla, "If you are trained, you too can get exceptional power."

Vegeta had his old power hungry ways coming to surface. Katima looked at him, "Vegeta, no," she said, "If we show them how to do the Bond, his race will try to take control of everything! We can't, it would be like helping Frieza or Cell!"

Vegeta looked at her, "But Katima, imagine the possibilities! If we could learn to control this, we could be unstoppable!" his eyes gleamed.

"At what cost?" Katima yelled, grabbing his arms, "We release another Frieza on the world? We just finished Cell, we just found peace, and you want to compromise that?"

Vegeta opened his mouth, obviously ready to argue, but Katima pressed on.

"You left that life behind you, Vegeta. You aren't that monster anymore, you're a husband now, and you have a family here! And friends! A new life, and me! You want to throw all that away?"

"But we could protect this!" Vegeta said, "We could protect Earth-"

"That isn't why you want this Vegeta, I know!" Katima shouted, "You want the power, you just want to be stronger than Goku, even though he's dead!"

Silence hit.

Gohan looked shocked, his face slightly upset at the mention of his passed father. Krillin and 18 were staring at the two of them, eyes flickering to Eagla every so often. Rilan was looking at the ground.

Vegeta was looking at Katima, mouth open, eyes wide.

"Th-that-" he choked.

"You know that's the truth," Katima whispered, "And even if it wasn't, in the long run we wouldn't be protecting Earth, we'd be condemning it! You heard him… if all of his race, even if it's only a few colonies, knew the Bond and it's full potential… they would be a bigger threat than even Cell was!"

Vegeta looked at the ground, brow furrowed. Katima felt rage coming from him. He jerked himself out of her grip and crossed his arms. She felt a nudge, telling her that he would do whatever she did. She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Thank you," she whispered.

She turned to Eagla, "You can forget it, Eagla," she said sharply, making Rilan look back up and Gohan get his resolve back, "We're not going. I won't teach you the Bond- I refuse to let you be a threat to the universe!"

Eagla sighed and then chuckled again. Katima clenched her fists. She was ready for a fight, and she could tell the others were too. Gohan was in battle stance, Rilan let his hands fall to his side. Krillin took a step closer, a little ahead of 18. Vegeta continued to stare at Eagla, arms still folded.

"I feared this would happen, and I had hoped that Vegeta's thirst for power would be enough to convince you to come. But I have a plan B," Eagla smiled, fangs gleaming in the moonlight.

Katima was ready to go Super Saiyan, she wasn't sure how well she was going to fight in a wedding dress, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to let another Cell happen.

But then, the unexpected happened. Eagla held out a hand, and a strange whip of energy snaked out of it. Blue in color it swirled out at a surprising rate of speed and wrapped itself around Krillin, who was the closest. Krillin yelped and then screamed as what appeared to be an electric current went through him as she was yanked back to Eagla's chest before anyone could make a move.

"Krillin!" 18 screamed, rushing forward, but Eagla took out a unique looking dagger that was jagged at the blade with a strange glowing hilt, and pressed it to Krillin's throat, which stopped 18 in her tracks.

"Put him down!" Gohan yelled, holding out a hand.

The strange whip of energy was still around Krillin, who had lost consciousness from the electric shock. Eagla had an arm around the little man's middle, holding him up off the ground, and the dagger to his throat.

"You will come to planet Xeknos," said Eagla, smirking with his fangs, "You will be there in sixty Earth days, it takes forty to get there from here. Or he, and Earth… will die."

Katima and Vegeta powered up to Super Saiyan, and began to charge, but Eagla just… vanished. He, Krillin, dagger and all just disappeared.

"What?" Katima hissed, searching for his or Krillin's power level, but it was gone too.

"That was instant transmission," said Rilan, his face twisted in anger.

"KRILLIN!" 18 screamed, looking at the spot he vanished with horrified eyes, "No! What- why? Why him?"

"He was the weakest and therefore an excellent target," said Vegeta sharply.

18 fell to her knees and punched the ground, leaving a mini crater. Katima powered down, her heart falling into her gut. Krillin… he took Krillin because of her! If anything happened to him, it would be all her fault…

Gohan looked furious, "We should get to the lookout, Dende will know where he went! He must have a ship here- maybe we can-"

Just then, in the far, far distance, they saw what looked like a shooting star going up into the sky from the ground. Then, it blinked into nothing.

"No…" Gohan looked traumatized, "He has Krillin! What are we going to do?"

Katima closed her eyes, "The only thing we can do. We go to this planet Xeknos and save him," she opened her eyes again, looking up at the sky, "And then we punish Eagla permanently!"

"I'm coming!" 18 cried, looked up, "I'll rip off that bastard's head!"

"So am I!" said Gohan.

"No," said Rilan, "Gohan, you need to stay here, didn't you hear what he said about Earth? It could very well be that there are more on the planet, and are going to destroy it if Katima and Vegeta don't comply, we need our strongest one here, and the rest of us will go and save Krillin, that includes me."

"But Rilan-" Gohan began.

"No!" Rilan snapped, looking back at him, "We can't leave Earth without protection. Us four together are a little less than equal to one of you, and Vegeta and Katima have to go. Which means 18 and I need to go with them so that there are even playing odds on both sides. Besides I need someone to watch over my family, and you need to watch over yours."

At that moment, Yamcha, Tien, Chaoutzu, and Roshi came rushing out.

"We felt the power level disappear and Krillin's too, what happened?" Yamcha asked. He stopped when he saw 18 on her knees still and all the angry looks on everyone's face.

"What happened?" Tien repeated.

"There's another war," Katima said, glaring at the ground, "We're going to need a ship."