Chapter 9: Saiyajin revamped

When Spike eventually woke up the next morning, the room was already filled with light. He squinted with his eyes, getting used to the harsh sunlight. His hand wandered over the blanket and found the other side of the bed empty and cold. Confused he sat up, only to see Buffy sitting on a chair on the other side of the room, carving stakes. A quick glance at the clock told him that it was already noon and he wondered, why they had let him sleep that long.

As if sensing what was going on in his mind, Buffy turned to him. "Vampires usually don't attack during daytime and since we all didn't get much sleep in the last few days, I let you sleep in."

Spike couldn't suppress a chuckle, as he got up and walked up to his girlfriend. He gave her a small peck on the lips and then asked, "How long you've been up already?"

"A couple of hours… I had to do something…"

He smiled at her and went changing his clothes. "And how are you feeling? Have you already talked to Dawn?"

"Just peachy and no. Pan took her shopping for us earlier this morning. I will talk to her once we're home again. There are now more important things to do, like finding Drusilla," she told him and though Spike had turned his back to her, he could hear in her voice that she had turned her attention already back to the piece of wood in her hand. If there was one thing about her that was disturbing him, one small flaw, it was her habit of finding refuge in the land of denial. Just pretend that the bad things didn't happen, just like she never talked about her training, or stay in general, at the Council of Watchers in those six months they had believed her dead.

She almost acted as if she had never been there. He knew that she must have learned some new things there or at least have gotten stronger. Hell, though he had gotten stronger himself after being turned human, he still hadn't stood a chance against her and now, when she was patrolling or sparring with him, he could tell that she was holding back. She was denying everything, all the things she could use to her advantage in her fight against the forces of darkness and maybe also prolong her life – and this worried him deeply.

"Well then," he said at length, after having dressed himself in a pair of black jeans and a black T-shirt, "I'll go grab some breakfast." He went again up to her and pulled her into a deep and soft kiss. "I'll see you later." He was just about to leave the room, when he turned back again, his hand resting on the doorframe. "Luv, Buffy, you know, when you need someone to talk to… I'll be there…"

The Slayer looked again up from her almost finished stake and smiled at him, though he could tell that it was faked. "Sure."

He removed his hand from the doorframe and forced himself to return her smile. Maybe she just needed some time, some time to get over the sudden revelation, over her problems with Dawn, get over the other things that were troubling her, or at least learned how to deal with them. He only wished that she would let him in, that she would let him help her. A relationship should be built on trust, but if she didn't trust him enough to confide in him, then how much did their relationship mean to her?

There it was again, the fear that was plaguing him ever since they had gotten together, the fear he had kept from everyone. What if she didn't really love him? What if she only used him, because he was a convenience, something to let her forget what she had experienced with the Council, a refuge? He inwardly shook his head. Buffy would never think like that of him, never. She loved him – she just had to.

"Okay… uhm… if you need me somehow, I'll be in the kitchen," he told her eventually and left the room.

Connor sat in one corner of the living room of the large building that seemed to be known as Capsule Corporation. After Dawn and this other girl, Pan, had come back from their shopping trip, everyone had come together in the living room. There were now even more people than the evening before. Spike had told him who those people were, but he still had a hard time to understand everything. As far as he understood this new black haired man was the older brother of this Goten-guy and Pan's father and the woman at his side his wife. But there were just too many people gathered in the room for him to remember each and every single name.

But fact was that he felt like he didn't belong there. Most people seemed to know each other; even most of the so-called Scoobies were acquainted to the people of this dimension. So, there he was, sitting all alone with no one to talk to. They were all too busy talking about this crazy Drusilla-woman, how to find her and what to do about her, to notice him.

But at least he wasn't the only person without anyone to talk to. On the other side of the room was this blue haired woman – he thought he remembered her name to be Bulma. She seemed to be somewhere else with her thoughts and he also didn't think that her face had been this pale the night before. But again, the others didn't seem to notice. They didn't notice that the woman looked almost… dead.

He was lying on his back. The ground underneath his body was hard like rock, damp and cold – and yet it wasn't as uncomfortable as it usually felt to be, at least not the coolness of the stones. To be precise, he felt like he couldn't care less if his environment was boiling or icy, since his body didn't show any physical reaction towards it.

Bump-bump

His eyes fluttered open.

Bump-bump

He sat up, slowly, taking in his surroundings. He was in something that resembled a cave, lit by candles. Somewhere to his right he could hear water dripping, but there was one sound that drowned this noise out.

Bump-bump

He got up and looked around and there he saw her, huddled together in a corner behind him. A blond girl, not older than twenty. He took a step forward and a stone cracked under his booted foot. The girl looked up upon hearing this noise and he couldn't help but stare at her with hungry eyes. Out of a small cut just above her eyebrow trickled some blood and he had to lick his lips at this sight.

Bump-bump. Bump-bump.

This thumping noise increased and he could smell fear in the air. This combination of blood, fear and this noise made him even hungrier. With the stride of a predator he walked up to the girl and lifted her up at her arm, pinning her against the wall. The smell of fear became stronger; she started to weep silently. A low growl emitted from his throat and he felt how the bones in his face shifted.

Bump-bump. Bump-bump. Bump-bump.

The girl screamed and he instinctively sank his newly-grown fangs into her neck. He moaned against her skin, when he felt the warm liquid invading his mouth. He sucked deeper, faster, not wanting to stop, until girl went limp in his arms and the screaming stopped, along with the thumping noise. She was dead.

He let go of her, when he heard steps behind him and turned around. He recognized her as the dark haired woman from the previous – was it previous? – night. She was walking up to him with swaying hips and a small, if not somewhat crazy, smile on her face.

"I see you found my small gift." The voice was soft, melodic, just like the other night. "How do you feel?"

His gaze wandered to the dead girl on the floor. "Hungry."

"You'll soon get more… As soon as the sun is down, we go hunting," she told him and gently stroked over the ridges on his face, but he turned it away and walked past her to the direction she had come from.

He could hear her footsteps following him, as he wandered through a small hallway at which end he came into another cave. It was also almost completely dark in there, except for the light that was thrown in from around the corner. He pointedly ignored the looks the other occupants, the other vampires in this small cave, were giving him and followed the light, until he stood in the cave's entrance.

He could feel fresh warm air reaching his face, though it meant nothing to him. Neither did he need to be warmed nor did he need to inhale this air. The entrance was lying in the shadows, hidden in trees, but one small sunray reached it and it stopped directly in front of him. His face shifted back to normal, as he watched the play of light and shadow on the green grass, his golden eyes returning to their usual coal black color.

"This is not your world anymore," the soft voice behind him said. "Your world is now the darkness; is me."

His hand reached out into the ray of light, but he didn't even flinch, when steam rose up and a sizzling sound came from his skin. He turned it from one side to the other, regarding it with a certain curiosity, fascinated by the simple fact that his skin was literally burned by the sun. He clenched his fists and pulled it back into the shadows, watching how the steam subsided and the only thing left were some slight burns. He let his fist fall to his side and clenched the other as well.

Closing his eyes he took an unneeded breath and concentrated, until his body was surrounded by a golden aura and even this golden aura exploded around him, whirling up dust and other debris of rocks. The vampires in the cave jumped up at this sudden explosion and stared in shock at the newcomer, of which their 'Princess' seemed to be so fond of.

His mouth curled up in a smirk, as he felt the familiar power run through his body and saw the sparkling energy crackling around his fist. It felt even stronger than before and he knew that now, he was truly the strongest being in the universe and for the first time in a really long time felt truly free – free of fear, free of this softness that had been built up over all the years, free of guilt. Just one small thing was still missing.

He let loose of the energy, letting the golden aura subside, turned around and walked past the stunned vampires back to his own cave. "When the sun is down," he told them, "I'll go out."

Night had fallen over the Western Capital and its surrounding area and most of the Scoobies, along with the Saiyajins, were out on patrol to find this crazy woman, Drusilla. Bulma rubbed her temples as she looked into the mirror in her room. The only light in the room was coming from the lamp on her nightstand, but it was enough for her to see how she looked like – burned out; dead. This feeling of emptiness hadn't left her and she didn't know what she should make out of it. She was scared, yes, that something might have happened to her mate, something terrible. But could she tell the others? No, there was enough trouble right now with the appearance of the vampires and the Scoobies.

She hadn't been herself all day. She hadn't even been able to follow the entire conversation and planning this afternoon. She had been there, but only in body and not in mind. She only vaguely remembered a fight between the Slayer and her sister about patrolling, which had ended up with the younger girl storming into her room, followed by Pan, who had then declared that she would stay at home with Dawn. Everyone else was out, gone in small groups to have a better chance to locate the vampires.

She jerked up when she heard a small knock at the glass door of her balcony. Warily turning around, she saw a shadow being thrown into the room through the curtains. Her hands started to shake, when she slowly opened the drawer and pulled out a knife, which she kept there only to be on the safe side when she was alone. The chair made no sound as she moved it and got up, taking careful steps towards the window front. Bulma took one deep breath, before she pulled the curtains aside and immediately dropped the knife, when her hand flew to her mouth.

Trembling fingers fidgeted with the lock at the door and as soon as it was open she stormed out and threw her arms around the man's neck. "Oh god, Vegeta… You're okay… I was so worried… I thought that…" She looked at him, giving him an once-over, when she noticed how dirty he was. "Oh my… Come inside… Just look at yourself… Where the hell have you been?"

Vegeta ignored the woman's further ramblings after hearing the invitation, his lips curling up into a smirk. Bulma however didn't notice this, because she was already on the way back inside, her spirits lightened upon seeing her mate standing there, seemingly being okay. He followed her inside.

Bulma went over to the closet and opened a drawer, taking out new clothes for the Saiyajin – his favorite clothes next to the armor: black leather pants, top, vest and boots. While doing this she continued telling him about the appearance of the Scoobies and that they were now all out hunting the vampires. One time she looked up, expecting to see him when looking into the mirror, but turned around confused, when the mirror hadn't shown him. But he was there, standing next to the bed and looking around. Only just stopped, her hands started shaking again. Vegeta was there, but she couldn't see him in the mirror. She knew what this phenomenon meant. But…

No, that couldn't be true. How would they be able to… Vegeta was a Saiyajin, so it was impossible… It couldn't be…

Shaking her head to free her mind of those thoughts, she picked up the clothes and put them on the bed. She forced a smile on her lips. "Here you are… Uhm, why don't you take a shower and after that eat something? There's still some dinner left…" Though she knew better somewhere deep inside, her mind and heart refused to believe the obvious fact that her mate didn't have a reflection and turned her back to him, walking to the door. "Knowing you, I'm sure you are hungry."

The smirk on his lips widened and his face shifted, ridges appearing on the forehead, eyes turning golden and his canines becoming sharper. "You have no idea…"

Bulma tensed when she felt a strong and cold grip on her shoulder directly after Vegeta had answered. She briefly closed her eyes and turned around. Though she actually should have been prepared for what she was going to see, she wasn't and her scream echoed through the whole building.

The two girls looked up immediately after having heard this scream, both having horrified expressions on their faces. "Bulma," Pan exclaimed and jumped up. Dawn followed her older friend, but not before grabbing a crossbow that Mirai had brought them shortly before he and the others had left, just 'in case'. And it seemed like they actually might need it.

The girls ran along the corridors until Pan stopped and kicked the door to the master bedroom open. She saw Bulma pushed against a wall by a dark figure. "Get away from her!" she yelled and formed a small ki ball in the palm of her hand. Golden eyes of a distorted face looked at her, but she would recognize this face everywhere. The ki ball died down and tears shot into her eyes. "No…"

The vampire growled at them, but let go of Bulma. Dawn, who hadn't recognized the vampire, reacted fast, raised the crossbow and fired – he would have been dust, if the arrow hadn't bounced off the vampire's chest as if it were nothing. None of them had time to react, when the vampire grabbed the clothes on the bed too fast for a human eye to see and fled the room, taking off into the sky.

Pan wanted to follow him, but only got as far as the balcony when Dawn's voice called her back. The younger girl was kneeling next to a shaking and sobbing Bulma, who was now huddled on the floor. She looked once again at the sky with a desperate look on her face and sent a message at her mate. 'Mirai! Come home, now!'