Chapter Twenty- Eight
Climax; Set in stone.
Empty. No sight of anyone, or camp saved for the few scattered footprints in the dirt that vanish after a few miles from where ChiChi instructed Bulma to go. Bulma spent days lost, and now that she finally found the tree and mark that ChiChi informed her of- it was deserted. Bulma's trembling fingers cup her face awaiting the tears to come; only none came.
"I can never get anything right" cried Bulma as she slumped to the floor. She had little water left in her canister and after two days lost and alone, she lost all but two of her arrows. Life seemed to always take from her the very things she wanted.
"Ok! I give up" she yelled out into the dry summer air. "I completely give up, and call it quits. Kill me why don't you? Whoever is playing this sick twisted game- I don't understand! Why me? Why me!"
Gone was her hope to salvage the life she had on this terrible land. The silence of the day and the cheer of the sun added to her frustrations. She grabbed fists' full of sand not caring that it burned her palms, or that the particles intertwined with it scratched her. In a mad rage she tossed the sand in the air as if she were fighting some unseen force.
"I'm tired of these games, and I'm tired of trying to piece together my life! I'm better off dead, so do it- have you been waiting for this moment? Is this the entire purpose of my life, some sick game for your amusement?" Bulma's fist now pounded the ground until they bleed yet the pain didn't sting. Everything in her being was numb and the sight of the rich crimson fluid mingled with the white sand coxed her to continue her pursuit.
She felt so dead inside, that the mere thought of pain excited her. She needed to know whether this had all been a dream she concocted, or merely a game engineer by some unknown person. She slumped over when the heat of the sun pounded away at her strength, and the pain finally reminded her of reality. For hours she sat pounding away at the sand for her sorrows until she hadn't the strength to anymore.
Bulma's quiver, bows, and canister had been discarded a few feet away. The sun had reached its peak of the day, and the intensity of its ray stirred fear in the hysterical Bulma. An ear rattling crow from a now hovering raven foreshadow the death she had only minutes before longed for. Now as she sat slouched over in the burning sand, her lips chapped, eyes hooded, and all her will nearly depleted she finally seen her life for what it was. Empty.
She had no fight left in her to take on the unknown force she was certain to be the cause of all her dismay. She would whisper her last good byes, because the buzzer overhead seemed anxious to have her for dinner.
18 watched Caleb intently from her cell. Two days of constant travel, and barely any time to stop. She hadn't eaten a morsel of food, but was given a small portion of water here and there when they stopped. She assumed they wanted to keep her barely alive to see the moment that they came to the walls of Teriok.
Nearly all her strength was spent, but the hardest thing of all at the moment was that she hadn't seen Krillen once. What happened to him? She was burning inside to know where he was, and most importantly was he well.
Two days she fought with herself to overcome her apprehension and question the stern commander. Yet fear always reminded her of the torture that would follow.
"Break man, we have a two days journey left. I want everyone to be at their best, there is a river to our right. We will station here for one day, and then we marched forward to take siege of Teriok" shouted Amid.
Amid was the crier that communicated the messages of Caleb to the soldiers, as he'd dash through the crowd on horse. A victory for Ox Kingdom was no certain joy for 18 as it meant she too would die. Although victory for Teriok would lead to the selfsame outcome, and with Krillen's absence her hope was troubled.
18 leaned her head against the bars, closed her eyes and tried to drift her mind away. Where had all her confidence gone? She was one of the few women that entered the army thriving with men- and congratulated personally by the king of Teriok.
"You have been groomed for this very moment all your life dear" informed Gero as he looked over 18. Recognized by the king to be an honor solider, and much of their success was due to his inventions.
Gero spent years working diligently in the king's castle to make certain that he'd find favor with the king. Hours turned into days that he spent without visiting his wife, and when he learned that she had an affair- his days turned into years. Within that time span he had come in contact with a witch who aided him in his invention and from there he found success.
Years were no longer a waste, and when he returned to his wife he found her with children. Anissa and Jared had been their names at the time and both were only fifteen, he took them. Anissa and Jared were his first test subjects to survive his test, but their memories had been wiped clear. So he had given them a new name and purpose: 17 and 18. When his estranged wife had seen them again they hadn't the slightest clue who she was, and Gero indulged in her sorrows. Gero shortly after burned down the house he once build for his estrange wife with her inside.
17 and 18 fame spread after her death, for they acquired a skill little ever obtain. They had a thirst to kill, and no desire for love. It took little for them to learn thanks to the potion obtain from the witch. He had them trained in all skilled crafts, and in all they exceeded greatly. Their strength was found in the lack of the human emotion- love. And he soon received his place in the King's elite, and in that process he destroyed the children birth to his deceased wife from an affair. He won.
"I want to make you proud father" said 18 her gaze as flint.
"You shall" he answered. "17 and 18 you are soldiers now- an asset for Teriok army. Your main purpose is to kill every enemy at any cost. You are unstoppable."
Unstoppable? Lie! It had been a lie fed to both her and her brother by their father. For if it was true her brother would still be alive, and she wouldn't be trapped in a cage. Krillen wouldn't have been in danger…no…Krillen would have been dead, maybe at her very hand. Why did she care? Why did things un-
"You've been conspiring with Krillen this entire time" barked Caleb dragging 18 from thoughts.
18's eyes fluttered open to find Caleb standing before her cage eyeing her stoically. Fear paralyzed her under his gaze, as she tried to register what he said. His lips were still moving but the sound had vanished. Her mind was too transfixed on the first statement he made to her.
Caleb looked upset, and his broad shoulder raised high. All his angry directed at the tiny figure of 18, and if they were alone she was certain he would torn her limb by limb. 18 nervously glanced away from his gaze in hopes of aid, but as usually her cage was position a far ways from the rest of the camp- not that any would help her anyways. The sun was slowly falling behind the horizon.
"You think you are so smart, that you two have given Teriok the victory. Well I tell you this the moment that Krillen makes it into the Teriok walls we will be there, and I shall kill him myself. You two have but one hold over me, and that tiny element of surprise will hold nothing over the slaughter of your people. Krillen will die by my hands" said Caleb vehemently "For conspiring with you."
18's eyes went widen at the accusation made by Caleb, and the knowledge that finally came. Krillen had been used as a pawn by the true traitor in the camp. Krillen the man that defied all the other heartless lot of soldiers for her was framed. That realization was the break of the last string that once held her so tightly knitted with Teriok.
18 opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came. Caleb had his back turned to her now, and she knew he was leaving. It was now or never, she could return the very favor that Krillen bestowed on her. She could untarnish his name even if he'd never know the courage it took on her part to do it. Even if he were dead… she could die in peace knowing, she revived his honor.
"Stop" bellowed 18, and instantly Caleb halt in his tracks.18's heart was racing, and all she had ever known, before the day she came in contact with Ox Kingdom, came crashing down around her.
"Well if this isn't the cutest thing."
Raven's eyes fluttered open to find a tall slender dark skin woman with amber eyes standing mere feet away. Raven's heart pounded, where had the woman come from? And how did she sleep through the woman's intrusion.
"Yoruichi, what are you doing here?"
Raven noticed for the first time that she was snuggled closely to the something- no someone that spoke to the woman. Quickly she pulled away her eyes traveling to the smiling Goku; who now nervously cupped the back of his neck. "Goku…ah, you know her?"
"Of course he does" said Yoruichi with a wink.
Raven's blood boiled at the comment, but she held her tongue. "What do you want?"
"From you two- nothing, it seems you two happen to have simply crossed my path. Only now I have to make certain that you don't make it to Teriok" added Yoruichi.
"Who said we were going there?" interjected Raven as she hurried to stand. Raven's gut was at odds at the peculiar Yoruichi not only by the obvious flirtatious glances she sent Goku's way, but her demeanor in whole.
"Oh a little birdy we can say- only I wasn't the loyal solider he presumed I was" informed Yoruichi with a wry smile. She turned her gaze to the still sitting Goku, whom at her cynical gaze finally took noticed to her true intentions. "Now I'm one for doing things the easy way, but at times I find others like things the hard way. You look to like it the latter, hopeful though you'll realize what's best. To make it easy sit back down, place your hands behind your back and allow me to tie both of you up."
"I suppose you've thought of me correctly- and also underestimated me. There is no way that I'm going to do that, nor will you make me" tiff ChiChi as she crouch in fighter stance.
"Surely than I'll have to persuade you" retorted Yoruichi falling into fighter's stance as well. "Don't worry Goku as soon as I'm finished with your mask friend, I'll be certain to make you into my little toy" she cackled her tongue darting across her lips.
Raven growl, her feet took off before she even taken time to think of how to attack. Propelling forward, feet lifting from the ground and bent tight to her chest releasing, she bicycle kicked the surprised Yoruichi. It took two hard jabs at Yoruichi's chest for her to block another kick with a hard fist to Raven's foot. Ignoring the pain, Raven summersault backwards landing on her feet. Again Raven advanced on Yoruichi, stopping mere inches from the dark skin woman, parting her legs; gracefully she fell into a split, and begun to assault Yoruichi with jabs to the knees.
Goku stood quietly examining Raven's agile attacks on Yoruichi. Her movements were strikingly familiar but he couldn't place his finger on why. However, the one thing he was very certain- she was a very skilled fighter.
After a round house kick to Yoruichi sent the warrior falling backwards, Raven ceased her attacks. "That is exactly why you shouldn't underestimate anyone" said Raven a matter-fact-ly her hands on her hip, an unseen smirk on her lips.
Yoruichi cackled, jumping to her feet. A small trickle of blood lined her chin; swiftly she wiped it away still laughing. "Whoever said I underestimate you? Dear I did say that I like to do things the easy way, but usually others don't want to. I merely wanted to see all that you had to offer."
ChiChi cocked a brow at the woman's absurd behavior, wondering if she was simply bluffing. She glanced over her shoulder for a mere second at Goku, who seemed to be just as bewildered as her. "You're bluffing" spat ChiChi.
"Am I? See you don't exactly know who I am- because if you did you know I never bluff. I'm one of the elites of Teriok, they say I'm like a cat" said Yoruichi with a cocky smile. "I play with my prey…let them think they have a chance, and then… I pounce."
"Enough of your foolish talk; show me what you got" announced the irritated ChiChi as she fell again into fighter's stance.
"Don't say I didn't warn you" Yoruichi assertively replied, before jetting forward at the mask solider.
A/N: OH, CLIFFY! Well tell me what you think so for, this is the climax- where everything is unraveling. Please review, and let me know what you think. Is there anything I can improve on…anything too predictable? Thanks for all the reviews previous!
