Chapter 10: Why?

A/N: A bit of a short chapter just to fill the obvious question were all wondering between the two of them. But I will say little and spoil as I'm sure you all want to get down to it.

She felt wet, but impossibly warm as if she were being covered in steam. It was so hard to not let her mind drift back off to sleep as her body only wished to go back to the quiet dreamless sleep that it had been graced with. Her fingers curled feeling a soft stone all around, it was so smooth like a gem or diamond that was cradling her body. It was certainly no bed or mattress, a brown eye slowly opened as she was greeted a sea of glistening white pearls and crystal blue water that had steam forming across its top slowly drifting up and around. "where… Where am I?" Her voice soft and faint as she asked slowly leaning her head up from where she had laid down until a heavy breath came from behind her almost slow and pained like something struggling to breathe.

Her head slowly moved about as goosebumps ran up and down her skin as the heavy labored breath came again. Her eyes and body becoming wide, wide awake as just feet from her slept a massive monster. Giant black wings were pressed together touching the ceiling above them as a massive body many times her size lay completely still save the slow rise and fall of his chest. Looking more at its body she noticed its giant head, easily the size of her body with eyes closed the heavy labored breaths coming from nostrils big enough for her hands to fit in. The boney outline of the jaw along with glittered yellow and brown scales. "Its… A dragon?" her voice barely a whisper as she moved to sit up.

A dragon!? No… that wasn't serious enough. A DRAGON-!? Her heart began to beat faster, why was she here in some watery lair with a sleeping dragon. Just what had gone on, she remembered she was about to be killed and then nothing except a voice calling out to her in her dreams begging for her. It was Goku! Goku was alive! Was this where Goku had brought her to a lair with a dragon? While incredibly dumb she couldn't put it past him with how much he talked about how amazing dragons were. Especially golden ones… which were very rare. Her eyes drifted back over as she looked at the color of the scales which as her sorcerer had told her many times golden dragons were not really gold but yellow. This one was yellow… yes sleeping away from her was one of the world's rarest creatures a living albeit heavily breathing golden dragon.

Just what had gone on? What had happened!? Her thoughts were interrupted by a feminine laugh that echoed from the other side of the room beyond where the massive dragon slept. The words were almost harmonic as the high pitch came and went from such a voice was there a troubadour in this place as well? She felt a headache coming on as the female voice got closer, followed by a splash of water and a sliding of something across the rocks. Where she was, in a sea of small carved divots that were pure white in color. With a roof of rock that was filled all sorts of beautiful colors. Streak of purple, yellow and green danced and flickered with a shine that came from glowing rocks all around her that gave off a light like a candle as there were hundreds of them all around her. It was all too much as she laid back down her head pounding, the water's steamy waters enveloping her as she felt herself relaxing into the smooth stone bottom.

Singing to herself as she laughed as she was all but ecstatic to be safe from harm, the evil flesh dead and being devoured by their fishy friends outside. The green light had stopped thanks to Kakarot and he was here recovering with their dear sister who had come back to them. It was a glorious time for her and she couldn't be happier as she set about cleaning the massive behemoth. So lost in her world, the redheaded Mermaid swayed herself to the tune she began to sing. So moving were her words the creatures from all around stopped to take notice and paused. Crabs, fish, dolphins and even the nanny crocodile lay motionless listening to the voice that radiated with all of them. Even lifting the heart and the spirits of the girl who lay back in the heating pools though.

Celiss merely sang and sang as her fingers trailed over the delicate scales covering up many of the lingering cuts and scrapes all over his body. He had been asleep for several days straight while 'Bianca' had stirred slightly before falling back asleep. How good things were! She smiled radiantly even with her sister having lost her tail she could grow it back. They always could, once the family returned from the deep oceans after the coming winter they could bring a potion to let her grow back her fins. "Elaine… Elaine." She hummed 'beautiful, beautiful' her fingers tapping alongside his eyes as she fixed the loose scales and placed a salve against the cracks letting them heal faster. He had been healing over time, slowly but healing, a massive dragon would take time but they had plenty down in their lair with no threats to bother them. Although the humans had returned to the coast and dig and pluck clams and shells from the coral they were no threat with their goggles and sharp sticks and incapable of getting inside this lair without her sisters help.

Inshae had gone back to 'talk' with that ugly man. She had a small thing for him, after all she had told her sisters about the little hatchling that had fallen into the waters and how sweet he had been. She had taken him back to the shore let him go but as he had embraced her she felt so comforted almost welcomed it was a strange feeling for her. Then many years she had passed and she had noticed the little boy turning into a man who came down and sat by the waters edge and then she decided to see why this bigger boy had done this for so long.

Celiss couldn't imagine any good coming from it, he had nearly killed their Elainie one. How close had it come as he was ready to kill him? Of all creatures why those ugly finless beings dared harm such a thing. It had been good that they had been sitting around the surface waiting impatiently for him to come back but they had grown so worried as the light had all but stopped in a flash Turning the entire world deathly silent. The exchanged glances of worry between each of them as they heard nothing, they waited for some time later but as still nothing.

Bitterly they turned and returned to the waters depths in despair fearing that Elainie had gone off to die but then they Celiss who had remained heard his cry of pain. She had screamed to her sisters and they had come from the depths with such haste as she swam forwards but none faster than Inshae as she had flown herself from the water and landing upon the rocks just before the mortal blow had been struck down upon the golden dragon. Had he been in the water they might not have been so forgiving but on land they were vulnerable as Mermaids they could not move fast or nimbly as they could in the water but too save him they had too.

It was all fortunate and they had collected them with the help of the ugly leg walkers to push their Elainie into the waters from there they had gathered the animals of the water to take him below the surface but only after he had wrapped up Bianca in his wings protecting her from the water as he said she could not breath it. A strange thought but they were not interested in making an argument and since they had arrived there had been nothing but blissful quiet of course when the dragon got into a snoring spat it was a bit noisy but a small price to pay for having him here and alive.

"Ready to wake?" She asked as she rubbed his cheek with a smile, gods he was truly beautiful such a shame when he hid away in the ugly body but they knew what he was.

"Maybe…" Grumbled a voice surprising her as a golden eye lifted open. "I was quite enjoying your song. Would you mind continuing?" He asked making the mermaid blush as his eye lowered again as he kept breathing.

"Of course. I would be honored." Such praise was so amazing, it was common place to sing it was the she and her people but never was she asked to continue because it was like breathing for her. She raised her voice higher as she gentle caressed his nose and laid her head down atop his head and sang him into sleep with her lullaby like voice.

"Could you check up on her. I want to know if she's alright?"

Chi-Chi's eyes slowly opened as heard that deep throaty tone although she could not understand what it said she wanted to know something. What could have said that? Of course she should have known better as she looked upon the face of dragon looking at her and just to the other side of him was a naked woman with blazing red hair like a blazing fire, so thick and vibrant its color. A voice that she could not understand came as the dragon looked at her still breathily slowly and heavily. So transfixed upon that face she was looking at, she failed to notice the woman or fish lady who popped up next to her. The obvious half of her top a woman and her long teal tail coiled underneath her body.

The smile was wide as the woman reached down to touch her face gently saying something but there was no way she could understand what it was. She only looked at her and nodded her head hoping that was what this apparent mermaid was looking for. She clapped her hands together but drew back to then look over the rest of her body which acutely came to Chi-Chi's senses that she was completely nude, but hadn't really felt anything in the hot steamy waters or noticed because of everything else was all around. The mermaid's fingers went over her, lifting up a hand and then moving her arm around as if checking for something and repeating with the other a simple smile on her lips. Of course as her hands went to her body Chi-Chi stiffened as she was being felt up by a Mermaid!

"Celiss… stop she does not like that." Kakarot said looking at her.

"I am merely checking. I am not harming her." She said giving the dragon a confused stare. She was only checking her wounds to make sure she was okay what did she do wrong.

The dragon sighed as he slowly pushed himself from the ground, his muscles felt like they were cramped for how long he had been strewn out as he lumbered towards Celiss who remained where she sat not at all noticing the growing worry on the girl's face just beside her. He cast a look down at Chi-Chi who was obviously scared, she had never seen a dragon or him like this. Especially after what had gone on previously he very much doubted she was going to be very enthusiastic about being dragged down to an underwater lair by her golden dragon shape shifter. "May you leave us alone for a moment. I need to talk with her privately."

"If you wish Elainie, I'll come back with food in a while. I shall also tell my sisters about you! Happy they will be." She patted his large talon foot, giving him a wink before diving into the water and swam away leaving an awkward silence now in the room.

Looking down at Chi-Chi he was unsure of what to say, he had wished for her to not know about him like this. Humans were irrational creatures at times prone to outbursts when they were unable to understand things that did not fit into their regular lives. Was there even a way to explain this all to her or if she would even accept it? So many problems were now unfurling all around him! Damn why did all of this have to happen now? Do you tell a girl that she's a child of a powerful blood line capable of powers beyond her comprehension and that you were trying to steal her away to another land so that she might be kept under your care until a time was right where she could be ready for the world to be able to accept her? That everything he was had been a lie, a glorious fabrication to only entice her further to be with him to lure her to his side. That the man whom she had fallen for so deeply was nothing but a fake persona created by him? Of course not, but if lying once was bad another lie wouldn't hurt her worse. She could know some but only so much, he would have to go with a Plan B for Chi-Chi to keep her protected from the foolish humans in a way that only other humans could keep others safe from harm. He would have to place her where she would be safe, untouched for the forces around her would not allow her to be taken for fear of reprisal. Would she go along with it? Would she understand the severity of why she would have to give up everything again? It was all so wrong.

"Chi-Chi… listen to me."

She bit back a gasp as the dragon spoke her name? How did it know her and why was it talking and looking at her like that? She wanted that mermaid back at least, if there was a chance she was going to be eaten maybe she could save her!

"I know this will be a lot to understand but it's me. Goku your sorcerer unveiled before you." He bowed his head towards her noting her stifle out of fear as his she clearly was looking over his more dangerous features of his mouth and jaw. "Chi, it is me." He said again noting the wideness of her eyes as he used his pet name for her, the truth was coming to light and now he had to bare himself to her. "I am not a mage from a distant country. I am a Golden Dragon."

No! A thousand times no! This could not be happening! Chi-Chi grabbed her mouth with her hands as she watched the talking behemoth above her. "Your lying!" She yelled as she moved from the pool her body still weak as she tried to pull herself away but a large foot planted just ahead of her. She rolled to the side ignoring the bites of pain as she tried to escape but a large wing blocked her path again moving like a net it swept her up rolling her as if she were a bed sheet inside it. "Let me go! Let me go!" She cried as her eyes filled with tears, this wasn't happening to her!

"Chi-Chi it is me. I know it's a lot to take in, but it is me, I am Goku but this is what I really look like." He pulled her body wrapped up despite her struggles to his face.

"Stop lying! You're just a dragon you're not a human!" She screamed making event he leviathan flinch. "Let me go you monster!" She kicked and struggled as she managed to worm herself just enough space to spring free from the wing web that she had been caught in. Falling from just a few feet she stumbled and made another pass at escape but again a massive paw blocked her way. He was so fast even for his size and the narrow space that he was confined in.

"Calm down and let me explain Chi please let me show you." He should have known! She was just a simple girl with a simple mind when he found her. How could she understand and act rationally about all of this?

"Shut up! Just shut up!" She grabbed her head squeezing it tight as she sunk to the floor, what world was she in? A talking dragon convincing her that he was the sorcerer she had fallen for. Who knew what forces were being played upon her? But she gasped as his paw pulled her up from the ground. "Dammit let me go!" Futile as her arms were barely the size of his talon's that caught her flush but the sharp devices picked her up without even a cut despite her struggles.

"Shh calm down." Kakarot said doing his best as he pulled her off the ground sitting back on his hind legs as he held her in his right paw and brought her to his chest. "Do you feel it Chi-Chi, this is the body you slept so close to. This is why I always so warm, the thing that made you sigh and smile every night when we slept under the stars despite the cold." His tone shifting as he lowered his neck his head resting on her back as her struggles stopped. "You loved my heat so much, it was because of the fire inside of me because at my heart I am a dragon." The rhythm of his heart continued, the gentle beating and strumming its reaction to when she shifted close to him. If there was ever a way to show her that in this leathery hide was the real thing.

"It can't be." She whimpered against his hot chest, that warming feeling rolled over her along with words that only Goku would know. Her eyes began to water as she couldn't believe it, "You just can't, please!" Hot stinging tears rolled down from her face and onto the scaly body she was pressed against. She couldn't imagine it; she knew this feeling better than any other. There was no illusion to be played upon as she heard his heavy heartbeat all the same. It surprised her at times to hear how loud it was but never thought to question him on it. Now, now she truly wished she had.

"I am my Chi… it was these lips were the first you kissed two nights ago. I wasn't ready for you do that which is why you felt the real me, it was why you were upset because you thought I was playing a trick upon you. I wasn't ready for that night. It was the first time a woman like you ever kissed me without my illusion covering up everything. I can bend my shape and size and texture but even I am not infallible." His chest rumbling the words as the cool tears rolled down his chest her sobs coming as he knew she was beginning to realize, he pulled her back and brought up his other paw to cradle her body which slowly curled up in his hands. She was so small and helpless right now, the second life she had come to except now gone as the truth was being revealed it hurt him inside to make her feel like this but she had to know some of his secrets.

There were so many more things he wished to convey to her but it would only drive a stake through her already damaged heart and soul. He had betrayed her trust completely, maybe if she had known he was a dragon from the begging it might have been different. Though openly telling her that might had destroyed any chance of protecting her, saving her from a different fate. Whether that would be better or worse was up for debate but he could not undo the past, unwind time from the hour glass and make her see him again without the illusion.

Chi-Chi felt herself crying but she couldn't understand why. Was it sadness? Frustration? Or just the stress of the entire world changing, the man whom she had come to love and cherish wasn't a man but a monster, one that just happened to resemble a dragon and could talk but in the end it was just a monster. All of the memories of Goku were just a lie. Perhaps that was what hurt the most, that she had been tricked by this thing! How much of everything he had told her was just a lie. How could she have been so stupid! She hit her hands against the scales as she cried harder. "I'm just a dumb girl who fell in love and you just walked off with my heart! Why! Why did this have to happen?" She hit the scales harder as she began to sob, labored pained breaths escaping as she couldn't take it.

He tensed at those words, never had he known she had loved him, he was sure the girl was attracted to him but how could she just love him. He took a breath of air closing his eyes, "You were following your heart there is nothing wrong with you, it was with me."

He's making a joke out of me! "That's just great!" She yelled as tears ran down her cheeks looking up at the dragon with no sense of fear just a mixture of anger and betrayal. "Is this a sick game to you?" her fury building as she hit the scaly hide with all her strength, her sadness baring way to anger not only at him for herself for being gullible. She had been reading Dandelion's ballads and it had filled her with such sweet dreams only to have someone tear them apart. It was like a knife sticking in her stomach that burned, she couldn't feel the pain but the throbbing that built from the pit of her stomach.

Were there any words he could say? "No, it never was a game. Chi-Chi there are things that you are that I am wary of telling you, that you will not believe because-"

"Because Why!? Because I'm just a stupid little girl that fell in love an overgrown lizard! That because I ran a little backwater inn in the middle of nowhere that somehow there would be no way possible that I could ever comprehend things? How dare you say that to me! Your nothing but an asshole!" She felt him tense as she rested on her knees slowly feeling herself being lowered to the ground, "Why did you do this to me? Did you pity me? Or just looking to amuse yourself!" She snapped her head to a dragon that looked away from her.

"You are a special girl." His golden eye looked into her brown eyes. "You are capable of being a sorceress. You've had potential from the moment we met and I couldn't stop myself from taking you. Hoping that once we had traveled around you would trust me enough to let me teach you." He had chosen his lie, she couldn't be told about her blood that was far too dangerous. If she went to the wrong people with that knowledge it would be disastrous. He would have to placate her long enough to get her into the hands who could perhaps prepare her.

"How many lies are you going to throw at me? I'm not any mage, you can't trick me with believing that! I can't ever do what you do! So just leave me alone I'm sick of hearing your voice acting as if your trying to comfort me pretending that I'll just let it all go!" She stood up on her feet and moved from his large hands looking as his guilty expression. "You have hurt me, far worse than anyone else before in my entire life." Her tone shifting as she walked towards him, "You twisted everything around me, pretending to be something that is just a complete lie. You acted like a caring man, someone who I could open up too because you probably knew I would. You held me close knowing I would enjoy your company and told me all of the things I wanted to hear leading me along like a love struck puppy and I went along with it for several months. Traveling, laughing, making me feel something that no one had ever made me feel before and in a few short nights you were the first man I let close to me. You were my first and in that night you were my world, I could have been happy to wake up with you at my side for years and never have batted an eye." She stopped as she looked at him her eyes expressing everything which she could see the pain in the dragon's face, guilt was written all over it.

"Then do you know what I thought the next morning? I woke up imaging a happy life with you, being your wife imaging all the things I would get to feel because you know what I thought you loved me too but I'm sure that was just you pretending, acting as if you gave a damn." She bit at those words and she turned away from him she didn't want to look at his lying mug. "Then I thought about everything else about what you would be, you obviously have slept with other women because you made me feel so good. You would still travel about the world doing everything to help and save others leaving me behind at home to eagerly await your return home to me. But then you could travel for years, finding other girls like me to amuse yourself and come home when you were bored and I would be waiting there for you none the wiser. Then it could be that you would never come home making me wait and wait for years with the false hope as I could see you dying out in that world because you were desperate to put others before yourself. I was in that instant ready to step away from you, to ask you to let me go because I knew you would never be all just for me. Then do you know what I saw?" She walked further from him towards the water's edge looking down at herself, the image of herself as a fool a target for those who could prey upon. The wolves of the world could set upon her as if she were just a sheep in the wild, to tear apart the frail heart she had. "I saw my clothes. The ones you gave to me. They were pristine and new with all of the things I had wanted changed done for just what I wanted, when I wore them again I felt like a princess." Oh how she had loved those clothes and yet again they were gone, perhaps forever. "I felt like your princess and you were just like always thinking of me and I was so happy because I believed in you Goku. That you would not betray me that you would be looking out for me, all of it was just I had imagined when I was growing up."

"I knew they were your favorite you told me many times, I changed the color and affixed a magical needle to sew in the designs you wanted. I liked seeing you happy Chi-Chi, that is no lie." The dragon said walking forwards his huge frame stopping just to her side but she refused to look at him as she just looked down at herself in the water. "I nearly died while I fought the Zuegl, I couldn't beat it as a man. I wasn't strong enough." He sighed as he looked down at the water mirroring her reflection. "It stabbed me injecting me with a poison that numbed me completely and in those final moments before I thought I was to drown and be eaten my last thought was of you and how sorry I was that had lied to you. That I kept this secret from you because I feared it would ending being cruel to do it too you." The dragon scratched along his side his massive claws pulling something from his scales as he brought it up to Chi-Chi. "Even after I was saved by the Mermaids you have seen, I still wanted something to give to you. To have you remember me by, because if it were to be the last time I would be with you that this would be something you could always have."

Chi-Chi didn't look at him but her eyes drifted to the water looking at the reflection that was not of a dragon. No it was Goku's hand reaching out to her, his nude body there rippling off the blue still water. She turned her head looking into the golden eyes of the dragon but cast a glance down to the reflection where she saw the man she loved. Her gaze fell to his massive claw and what was being offered, "Why?" She asked as her voice slipped a brilliant shining pearl sat resting between them.

"I care about you, even now I still do. You were never a tryst or passing fancy Chi-Chi, I'm monogamous when it comes to women. I have been for nearly two hundred years and only a few times have I found comfort in others but never did they make me feel like you did. You liked me because of me, not just because I was a sorcerer. It was why I wanted you to come with me, not only because you had potential but because you were the first human in so long that I-" He swallowed, as she set the black pearl into her hand with such gentleness, "That I liked."

"You are lying"

"No-!" He snapped his emotion showing life as he saw her cower back as his face and jaws snapped at her. "I am not lying." It hurt him to hear her say that but, perhaps it was for the best though. If she didn't trust him that would be unfortunate but he had broken any trust between her and him completely.

"I know you." Chi-Chi said smiling sadly as her hand reached up and with slight trepidation touched the massive nose of the golden dragon who seemed to relax. The hard scaly nose was not the soft tan skin and flawless face that she knew. "You don't want to hurt me more. You are doing a good job but I see it in your eyes, those eyes of yours tell me the truth even if your mouth does not." She walked forward more moving to embrace his head which lowered to the ground. "I like that your trying but do not make this worse than it has to be." She took a step back from him watching as his eyes flickered with such emotion. "Because…" She bit back the tears in her eyes as she gave back the pearl. " I don't love you." The small black stone falling from her grip bouncing off the coral rocks and rolled off into the water the ripples making the image of Goku fade leaving only that of the Golden dragon. The silence making her chest burn and her eyes fill with tears wishing to be shed but she couldn't. She wouldn't feel for this lie anymore.

Kakarot closed his eyes and looked away, "I see, that is your choice. Very well, tomorrow I shall make a portal to Aruetza tomorrow. It is a school for young sorceresses like you. I shall have you placed there and you will become a powerful mage. That is not up for debate, for you will see in a short time that you are capable of wielding the arts like I am. Get some rest, I shall have to prepare." With that the massive behemoth walked away not looking back. It is better this way, don't look back and give the girl more pain. If you do she will only hate the monster that you are more. For in that moment he was not a graceful dragon but a true monster to have hurt her so. Even still why did his heart feel like it was weak. Even as he heard her soft cries as her legs slid to the floor and her emotions fell from her eyes. She didn't cry for him, no she couldn't. She wanted Goku not Kakarot, which was something he could not give her. Even so... it hurt so bad why?

Oh boy... yep I did it. Oh the PM inbox is going to be exploding.

I can picture it now, Isha with a pitchfork, Bosi with a stake, and dbgochi with a large stick on fire.

Yep I'm in for it now! But you can't kill me because you won't know how it ends! Muahahahah! ehh not funny I know.

R&R MB