Disclaimer: I own neither HELL, nor HFIL. However, just in case I'm sent to either, it's explicitly stated in my will to pack the makings for s'mores in my coffin. Look me up if you join me there. I'll be the one cackling over the fires about how Hell cannot be torture if you insist on having fun anyway.

OMGWDIWT?: Hopefully my lack of excessive detail will work throughout the story. Sometimes I wonder if that's a problem to just fluff over things and allow it to be assumed that training is boring and tedious and involves lots of punching and kicking. I'm glad you like Melon because he's one of my favorite character types to write. Although it's hard not to cross the line into emo sometimes—especially when he's a demon. A non-emo demon is a rarity I think.

Chapter 10 – Here For the one I Love

"Something on your mind, little one?" Melon asked as they began their route back down Snake Way. They'd been instructed by King Kai to ask King Yemma for directions.

"Don't call me that."

"But you are little," he argued.

"Not by Saiyan standards," she growled.

"Your memories are getting better," Melon noted before adding, "Little one."

"I warned you once already," Tessa snapped as she turned to narrow her eyes at Melon who immediately threw his hands up defensively.

"Alright. Ground rules laid out now. What's troubling you?"

"Nothing," she sighed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. Ever since leaving King Kai's planet she'd been plagued with trying to understand why she'd been sent to the future. Why would she have been fated to be separated by such a vast difference in time? More frustrating though was why until recently she'd had no memory whatsoever of her own past. From the sounds of it, her past had been far less traumatizing than what her brother had been forced to live through the rest of his life. Why had she been granted the bliss of amnesia?

"You can't lie to me."

She turned narrowing her eyes at him again and he forced a grim smile before wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She primly removed it before quickening her pace. "I just can't figure out why all of a sudden I'm stronger. I mean, how could I go from being a five year old with super strength to being a five year old who could barely walk and talk?"

"You blocked it all out," he said trailing behind her a few steps.

"But wouldn't my strength remain?"

"You had your tail pulled off," he replied logically with a small shrug of the shoulders.

"But that's not the sole source of my strength. It only makes me turn into a giant monkey or some such nonsense."

"It's not nonsense. It's quite terrifying actually."

Tessa turned to walk backwards at Melon's comment and shook her head at his expression of mock sheer terror. "Okay, whatever," she sighed, "My point is: why did I suddenly gain super human strength at age fifteen?"

"Well, Saiyans have this tendency to become much, much stronger once they are put close to death. If I would have known you were a Saiyan before, trust me, I wouldn't have dreamed of touching you out of fear. I thought you were merely a super human."

"Merely?" Tessa scoffed.

Melon shot her a sideways glance before rolling his eyes. It was amazing how she only ever managed to pick up on the slightest, meaningless details in order to make a big deal out of them. Talk about being able to make a mountain out of a mole hill. "So, what bus did you walk out in front of as a teenager?" Melon teased lightly choosing to ignore her last comment.

"You know what, I think I'd rather stop this conversation," Tessa muttered as she again quickened her pace but Melon jogged to catch up with her.

"I guess that was pushing a button," he offered. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel like I'm pumping you for info."

"It's ok. My adoptive father was abusive," she said without looking up. Melon suddenly came to a grinding halt and stared at her as she continued walking ahead a few paces. She finally stopped gazing back at him in surprise and blinked. "What?"

"I just…I'm sorry." A complex of emotions swept across his face too fast for either of them to catalogue before he lowered his gaze to the brick road.

"Why?"

"Because it's demons like me that are sent to Earth in order to sway humans into evil acts like that. In a way, I feel responsible," Melon said softly. After several long moments of silence he glanced back up again to see that she was more surprised than upset. She took a few tentative steps back towards him, her head tilting so that she could catch a better angle of his face. She was still struggling to make out his facial expressions and at a moment like this she wasn't thinking about using any of her new mind tricks. It just seemed so strange for him to apologize for something he'd had nothing to do with. She didn't even know him back then so it wasn't even like he'd missed the signs or stood by and let it happen. Why should he feel responsible?

"You shouldn't blame yourself," she said finally and he shoved his hands deep into his jeans pocket before he started walking, scuffing his feet along the path. She followed him shaking her head. For once, she really did want a response out of him only to not ever get it. Wasn't it his job to be overly chatty and forthcoming with information? She sighed, hugging herself across the chest, her arms slowly tightening as she remembered the circumstances that had led to her going from the average athletic teen to super-girl. "Nearly every bone in my body was broken," she said aloud, "and I was eating and breathing through tubes for two weeks."

Melon glanced sideways at her surprised that she was still touching the topic of conversation. He hadn't meant to pry into such a painful memory and he certainly hadn't expected her to continue. But continue she did.

"Believe it or not, I wasn't the aggressive type before. I didn't fight back," she said walking beside him. "And when my mom died in a car accident, he took to beating me instead. I took it because I didn't know any better. I didn't know that it shouldn't be that way. I didn't know I was allowed to fight back. One day, I tried to run away, so he got in his truck…" Tessa's voice faded out on her and she choked on the words. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't speak, but she wasn't really crying either. She just couldn't force the words out. It was strange. No one had ever asked her about before with the exception of the police, who after realizing she wouldn't speak on the issue quickly dropped their line of questioning and the case. She had been too scared to tell them the truth. Her adoptive father had already told the police it was a hit and run and she feared that if she contradicted him that he'd do it again, or worse. Even now, knowing that she could more than defend herself against him should the need arise, she found herself paralyzed by fear.

"It's okay. I…I think I get the picture." Tessa nodded and before she could react, Melon had her wrapped in his arms and hugging her tightly. "No one will ever hurt you like that again. No one will even be able to come close."

Tessa had been brought to a stop by his gesture and she stood awkwardly, her arms pinned to her side and her face pressed tightly into his chest. She wasn't entirely sure who the hug was supposed to be comforting more. But the longer she remained in his embrace the more she realized it was helping her at least. She raised her arms doing her best to hug him back around the waist, but her movements were somewhat constrained and at her attempt, he only hugged her tighter. "I'm sure there are other's stronger than me. People like Frieza, no doubt."

"Well, I can't guarantee that there won't be a few of those guys running around the universe. But certainly no one who is supposed to love you or care for you will ever hurt you like that again. I won't allow it."

"I thought you were created to spread darkness," she teased, but it came out muffled against his chest.

"I'm quitting my day job and I'm going to start moonlighting as a do-gooder."

It got a small laugh out of Tessa as she closed her eyes and buried her head into Melon's chest. "Please, don't let me go." Melon sighed as he pressed his face down into her hair before kissing the top of her head gently. "I don't have a family or people to love me. So right now, I need you, because otherwise, I'm all alone. I don't want to be alone anymore, Melon."

His embrace shifted, moving higher up so that it was closer to her shoulders and allowed her to have more freedom of movement for her arms. He glanced down past her head at his gloved hands and sighed. Unfortunately, my loving you makes me a danger to you, little one. She was hugging him back now, tightly, and he let out a small oomph as his lungs felt ready to collapse as his ribs pressed in. "Can't breathe," he murmured and she loosened her grip, but didn't release it.

Tessa walked along Snake Way with her arms folded loosely across her stomach, gazing blankly into the yellow clouds. "Why does the road back seem so much longer?" she whined. Already they'd been walking along Snake Way more than five times longer than it had taken them to get to King Kai's planet in the first place. 'Agitated', 'annoyed', and 'bored' were just words at the top of her alphabetically organized laundry list of complaints at the moment.

"I told you, the road's length is apt to change," Melon said shrugging. "Maybe you're supposed to be mulling something over."

"What? There's nothing more to mull…I've mulled it all before." Melon laughed at her for what sounded like a verb tenses practice and cleared his throat when he recognized her sideways glare. "Don't you know a short cut or anything?" He tapped his chin with a long finger thoughtfully and after a moment took a running start before jumping off the road. Tessa froze as she watched him disappear down through the yellow clouds and then rushed to the spot where he'd disappeared. "Melon! Melon, come back!" She dropped to her hands and knees waiting for something, but all she got was dead silence. "I thought that was a bad idea. I thought I didn't want to fall into Hell and meet Goz and Mez. The least you could have done was say something before jumping," she hissed to the clouds before falling back onto her butt as she sat cross legged on the road, her arms crossed over her chest.

She glanced around to see if Melon had somehow miraculously reappeared to tell her it was just a bad joke but she was alone and with a heavy sigh she stood back up. Stepping up to the edge of the road, she pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breathe before jumping as she tucked her knees up to her chest. Her eyes squeezed shut as she passed through the yellow clouds and after several long moments of falling she reopened them to see that she was about to finally come down to ground. Well, not ground so much as some kind of dark red lake.

Her ki flared up as she brought herself to a near halt in the air and shifted over about ten feet so that she landed gently beside the pond. She glanced back over her shoulder to see the pond more closely and realized that little spirits were floating around in it on row boats as if it were nothing worse than a Sunday picnic. Without warning, she was suddenly pushed into the pond and she gasped as she flapped her arms and floundered to find her footing along the slick bottom of the pond. Finally standing she made a leering face at the thick red fluid that dripped slowly from her limbs, face, and hair. "Oh gross! What is this stuff?"

Melon stood at the edge of the pond, his hands planted on his hips laughing heartily at her. "It's exactly what it looks like. Welcome to Hell."

"Is this—Is this blood?!" she shrieked running towards the edge of the pond only for her footing to slip and she nearly face planted back into the liquid. Instead, she caught Melon by the sleeve and the force of her fall dragged both of them into the pond. She recovered somewhat quickly, her hand groping for the small railing that went around the pond as she hauled herself up sputtering and doing her best not to take any of the liquid into her mouth. She leaned over the railing, glancing back over her shoulder to see that Melon was now splashing about trying to regain his footing as well without much luck. He shot her a nasty glare but she just stuck out her tongue in response as she finally crawled out of the pond to sit on the gravel path that went around it. After a few moments she realized that she was sitting in a large shadow and using her hand to shade her eyes gazed up at the two enormous figures before her. "Hi?"

"Looks like we've got someone new to play with," the one said looking to the other as he grinned goofily. He was huge, and blue, with horns coming out of his head. The one he spoke to was about the same except red and he wore glasses. Tessa just blinked up at them noting their identical shirts which read 'HELL' across the front. They both turned their attention back down to her as they grinned.

"Welcome to the Home for Infinite Losers," the red one said grinning wickedly and Tessa furrowed her brows thoughtfully.

"Wouldn't the anagram be H-F-I-L instead of H-E-L-L?"

"It is."

"We wear those shirts on Tuesdays."

"Right. That makes sense. But this is Hell, right?" She glanced at each of them. She was getting a little used to their two part system of speaking.

"A part of it."

"Hell's a big place."

Melon finally managed to pull himself out and stood behind Tessa, reaching down to hook his hands under her armpits to lift her back to her feet as she had seemed quite content to sit on the ground, leaning way back to look up at the ogres before her. "We're here for the stairs," Melon said sternly.

"Melon? Didn't you just get out?"

"Yeah. How'd you wind up here again so fast?"

"Goz, Mez, as much as I'd like to waste the time to play games with you two again, I'd rather be on my way."

"But you have to play the games."

"Or else you won't find the stairs."

"Do you really expect me to believe they've just magically moved?" Melon deadpanned crossing his arms over his chest.

"It is Hell."

"Anything's possible."

Melon groaned smacking his hand off his forehead. "I swear if you're just jerking my chain…"

"What games? What do I have to do for you to tell me?" Tessa interrupted and Goz and Mez exchanged excited looks. They then began to play a rapid round of rock, paper, scissors as Melon and Tessa watched on. "What are they doing?" she hissed.

"You'll have to beat both of them in a challenge before they'll tell us. A battle of strength against Goz, and a race of speed against Mez."

"And you beat them?"

"Yeah. Barely. And I did it in my demon form."

Tessa nodded as her gaze became more concentrated. She'd barely beaten him in the tournament. And to be honest, she wasn't sure if she could beat him now in his demon form. Not in a fight without rules such as boundaries. And she doubted that ogres from hell would have any such rules to play by.

Goz won the match against Mez, and he grunted with satisfaction as Mez pouted and stomped off having to wait his turn. "Just remember to save some for me, okay? You never remember to leave them in one piece," Mez bemoaned causing Tessa to swallow hard as she looked up at Goz.

He led her around the pond to where there was a decently sized circle drawn on the ground. Goz stepped inside and started tamping his feet like a sumo wrestler which caused Tessa to cock an eyebrow. Really? She glanced to the side to see that Melon had found a park bench and was stretched out on it lazily, his eyes closed and his head leaning back so that the gentle breeze tousled his hair. A corner of her mouth twitched. Must be nice to just lean back and not have to worry.

In her moment of distraction, she found two huge arms crashing down around her, lifting and pushing her out of the ring. She snapped her full attention back to Goz as she planted her feet against his chest, tucking the knees nearly up to her chin to manage the feat as he had the upper part of her body tightly confined. With a heave, and a flare of her ki, she shoved against him causing him to stumble backwards and with her ki, she was able to maintain her position in the air, just at the border.

Goz frowned as he landed on his back outside of the ring. It'd been a while since he'd found anyone to toy with and to be defeated so easily and so quickly was a vast disappointment. The Kais only knew when someone new would trip and fall his way.

Tessa stood over him gazing down at the clumsy ogre and frowned. It wasn't as though it'd been easy. She'd had to use all of her strength to budge that mountain of muscle and she'd been afraid he'd rip her arms off with the force of their separation. But looking down at him now she felt a strange pity bubble up in her stomach. A similar pity she felt when she talked to Melon and realized that at any moment they could be forced to separate if a Kai didn't like him. Her gaze shifted now to the demon that was still reclined in the bench comfortably, an arm now draped over his eyes and she realized he was asleep. It was strange to see him sleep. He didn't seem to ever sleep. And if he did, he did so when she was too busy to look for him. He too must have assumed this fight would take longer than it had.

Ignoring Goz, she walked over to the bench and knelt down beside it gazing down at his sleeping form from up close. He no longer looked like the Hell-worn demon but just a boy her own age and she smiled at the thought. She had grown used to thinking of Melon as being older than her that it was amusing now to think they really were a similar age. As much fun as it would be to rip the demon from his slumber by any numerous evil ways that came to mind, she decided to let him sleep until she'd gotten the information she needed from Goz and Mez. Maybe then she could use wake up ploy delta to disturb his rest and the thought caused her to grin wickedly for a moment as she stood up and faced Goz again.

"That seemed a little short lived to me, I'm sorry," she said, childish innocence oozing from her voice as she batted her eyelashes at the ogre who was getting back up to his feet.

He grunted rubbing his back where he'd landed on it as he looked down at the small girl. She had certainly taken him by surprise with the amount of strength she'd exhibited. He then smirked as an idea came to him. "You want to leave, right?"

"Of course, I do. I certainly don't want to stay here."

"Follow me then." She followed the ogre around the pond and when he led her up to a giant seesaw she crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at him. He noticed her look and gave her an oafish grin. "You stand on that end, and I'll jump onto this end. You'll be back on Snake Way in no time!"

"I am doing no such thing," she glowered before turning on her heel. "Besides, I don't want back on Snake Way. I want to be at King Yemma's. Where's Mez? Maybe he'll tell me where the stairs are."

"Don't be mad!" the ogre cried out as he ran around her to cut her off. "It's just we don't…"

"…get many people to play with? Not my problem. Maybe people would visit more often if you didn't try to trick them."

He gave her a somewhat thoughtful look that disappeared almost the instant it had appeared before he shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, you won fair and square. I'll go get Mez." He slumped off and Tessa grinned a little seeing that she'd gotten her way. She then glanced back over her shoulder trying to figure out what the hell the ogre thought he was going to do with a giant seesaw. She gave Melon one last glance before jogging after Goz. Maybe wake up ploy gamma would be better. It was such a rare opportunity that she needed to savor it.

Tessa looked up at Mez expectantly as the ogre sized her up and after a few moments seemed to have come to his conclusion. "You're going to have to catch me. And if I get back here without you having done so, I'll win."

"That's all? I've been chasing a crazy fast monkey for nearly a year now at ten times gravity. Speed is one of my specialites now."

Mez did a good job of masking his concern as he turned and got into a starting block position as if he was going to start a 100-meter dash rather than a marathon. Tessa tilted her head for a moment before mimicking him, setting her right foot back for a good push off. Before she could blink Mez was gone. She took after him as soon as it registered in her brain and as she sprinted onward she realized that her work may be cut out for her after all. Besides, she'd gotten lucky with Goz. What if she wasn't quite so lucky with Mez?

They raced all over HFIL, and Tessa realized that this area must have been Hell-lite because it looked more like a boring resort than what she'd expected Hell to look like. It was also far less than what Melon had described in the very least.

Everytime that she got close to catching up with Mez, he would suddenly find a new burst of energy and take off again as if someone had hit a nitrous boost. She was forced to keep up as best she could. While she wasn't feeling tired, she knew that it was her best hope that perhaps Mez would start to tire towards the end of the race. If he did, then it would give her an opportunity to apply all of her remaining ki into one last burst of speed. So, she paced herself as best she could as they ran along through what vaguely resembled a forest of dead and dying trees.

She could now see Goz standing beneath a large fruit tree on top of a hill. They were reaching the end of the race. It was now or never as she allowed her ki to flare up and took off at top speed. Running up the side of the hill, she made a flying tackle and caught Mez around his left calf, her face pressing into his thigh as he slowed to a jog, the girl clinging to his leg awkwardly. She looked up at him and gave a sheepish smile in response to his absolute shock. She released her grip on his leg and plopped to the ground sitting as she continued to smile. "Gotcha," she said finally breaking the silence as both ogres stared at her.

"What are you?" Mez asked adjusting his glasses.

"Are you a demon?"

"No!" she cried laughing. "I'm a Saiyan."

The ogres exchanged glances before looking back down at her.

"Well, fair is fair."

"We'll show you the stairs."

"Okay, just give me a minute to go get Melon," she said pushing herself up to stand and raced back towards the blood lake to find Melon still fast asleep on his park bench. Tessa sat down on the edge of the bench and smirked down at his sleeping form. She slowly lowered her head down so that their noses were nearly touching and breathed out slowly creating a constant stream of air right across his nose. He twitched in his sleep, swiping at his nose before settling down again. She held her hands over his abdomen hesitantly watching his face to see if he was feigning before she began to mercilessly tickle him.

He bolted up straight, cracking his forehead off hers causing them to both sit back groaning. "What was that for?" he asked rubbing the ruby colored spot on his forehead from where he'd come into contact with the iron skull of the Saiyan girl.

She pressed a single finger to where his head had collided with hers, the pressure causing the skin to whiten again despite the red. Her lips had tightened inquisitively as her gaze was as far up as she physically could trying to see her forehead. She let a small sigh as she lowered her hand and gazed down at him and smiled. "I was waking you up. I didn't think you'd appreciate it if I just left without you. It'd be mean of me to leave you here in Hell."

He blinked at her, surprised by her consideration. He'd already escaped once, it wasn't out of the question for him to manage it a second time. Then again, he hadn't even given it a thought as to whether or not she'd leave with or without him. He had only been concerned with catching a few moments of shut eye. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. We're going right to King Yemma. Who's to say he won't just send you right back?" she asked smiling. She was clearly amused by this idea.

Melon could feel a facial tick forming over his right eye. He'd forgotten that small detail in this grand adventure. What if King Yemma did send him right back? This time, he'd be sent further down into Hell where it would be much more difficult to escape this time.

Tessa laughed at his expression and grabbed his hands pulling him to his feet. "Don't worry. I'm sure it'll work out just fine. You'll see."

Tessa laughed as she jogged up the stairs and threw her arms around Melon's neck from behind, jumping onto his back for a piggy back ride. Melon was still irritated with Goz and Mez for lying and trying his best not to direct that frustration at Tessa. The stairs had been exactly where they'd been a few years earlier. Magically moving stairs, bah! He continued trudging up the stairs despite the added weight. "You're in a good mood."

"Of course I am. Why shouldn't I be?"

"Well, how do I put this? You're dead, Tess."

"True…" she responded slowly. "That reminds me. Why do we have bodies? All those spirits back there were just…spirits."

Melon hooked his arms under her knees and readjusted her weight as he thought. "I've never really questioned it before. But if I had to venture a guess, I'd say that you were meant to fulfill some role."

"What kind of role? Like, become a demon?" she asked and Melon couldn't help but note the shudder that ran down her spine. It reminded him once more of just how unworthy he was to be near her. At some point she would come to her senses about him and he dreaded that day.

"No, not a demon. There is an equivalent to demons in the upperworld. You were probably meant to be one of them. The kais take note of particularly strong individuals and when they die, they usually get some kind of job in the bureaucracy of death. You are nothing short of peculiarly strong."

"So, I'd become an angel? I don't really see myself playing the harp," she said scrunching up her nose. Actually she couldn't see herself wearing white robes and gossamer at all.

"You've never occaisioned to have actually read the bible, have you? Angels are supposed to be God's warriors. But that's just the Judeo-Christian belief's take on Heaven. I believe they're actually called tennin. Supposedly, they're very similar in appearance to the angels described by Christians. But I can't say I've ever been there myself to know."

She hugged his neck loosely as she leaned back slightly and considered it. "I'm still not sure I'm angel material. Isn't there a place for those of us who are neither good, nor bad?"

"It's what you're doing now. But eventually you will be sorted."

"But not until I'm ready, right?"

Melon glanced back over his shoulder to see that Tessa was waiting expectantly for an answer. He didn't even need to question why. They were about to pop up in the office of King Yemma, the sorter himself. "No, not until you decide you're ready. But I assure you, you will go to upperworld. There's not a doubt in my mind as to that."

"Well, I don't want to go without you. Can you get a transfer or something? Stop being a demon and become a tennin instead?"

Melon chuckled at this idea. He couldn't quite picture himself as one of the beautiful tennin. "Tennin are exclusively female, Tess. I'm not sure I'd qualify."

"Oh. That's silly—sexist too," she sighed resting her chin on his shoulder. "We'll think of something. We've got lots of time because I'm not going to be sorted for a long time. I'm not ready to quit living. Hell, I've barely begun."