Chapter 41. Aina

The darkness had ended and instead Akane found herself surrounded by a strange mist. There was light also. All around it shone, brighter in the places where the mist was thinnest and scattered where the haze was thick. She had no idea what this place was. It was neither cold, nor warm. There was no wind on her naked skin, no sound in her ears, no surroundings but for the mist, nothing to disturb the quietness of this odd plain. The pain in her body did not return with her coming here and the sense of bliss was still strong within her. She didn't even feel sad, though she suspected that she had died and that this place had to be what they called the Undying Fields.

A path formed itself as she began to walk through the mist, distant shadows of shapes forming and dissolving as she passed them without being able to discern what they were. After some time, it was hard to tell whether it was a long time or just seconds in this place, she came to something of a chamber that had appeared out of nowhere in this misty land. A roof formed itself above her head while she looked at it and walls arose on all sides to close her in.

Here the mist was less prominent, allowing her to make out more of her surroundings. Nostalgia took her when she found herself in a room that was very familiar to her. She was in her old bed chamber inside the castle of Bethar. The chamber was spacey and light with tall windows that looked out over a field of flowers. Akane was unable to see that field now, the mist was too thick at the windows, yet she knew it had to be there because she could smell the fragrance of those flowers.

There were sounds now. The gentle rustle of wind outside the windows, the far cry of a bird and something that sounded like purring coming from within the room. This too was familiar to her. She couldn't tell why or how, only that it was sweet to her and that she wanted to mimic the sound. And she wasn't the only one. Someone else was in here with her. A rather short and very feminine figure stood leaning over a wooden cot, making rumbling sounds in answer to the soft purring that came from inside it. Curious, Akane stepped closer and the figure, alerted by the sound of her footsteps, turned with fierce grace to face her. Hard dark eyes looked at her out of a harsh and handsome sun tanned face and Akane recognised this woman immediately, even if her expression was somehow softer than she remembered it to be.

"Mother?"

Her mother smiled her famous wicked smile, yet it was so much warmer than usual that it almost made Akane nervous. She stood, apprehensive of an outburst, a sneer, anything. Nothing came. Her mother just stood there. They stared at each other in silence for a long time.

After a while her mother looked up beside her to something Akane couldn't see at first. Then her father came into being out of the mist. The pleasantly good-looking man stood there at her mother's side, a strong hand on the short woman's shoulder. His pale golden eyes, the same colour as Akane's, took in her face eagerly, happy wrinkles coming to the corners when he smiled at her.

"Ay-up, poppet."

"Father!" Akane couldn't restrain herself and she ran to him, tears blurring her view. She threw herself in his arms like she had done when she was a little girl and buried herself in his strong embrace with a muffled sob. Her father laughed as he cradled her.

"She still skrikes like a little babe." sounded her mother's disdained voice.

However when Akane cut her father loose, she found that the woman was still smiling that strange, almost warm smile. Next she did something she had never done before and Akane was too taken aback to resist when her mother slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close in a somewhat clumsy hug. She touched her forehead to Akane's roughly to exchange scents.

"Are you ill, mother?" Akane joked when her mother cut her loose, unbable to find another way of dealing with the awkwardness of the situation.

"That is very clever, kitten." her mother said with a little snort of laughter and she reached out to jab a touch at the scar on Akane's temple. "Such a handsome scar. It pleases me. It matches that smile your brother gave you."

Akane snickered at how easily her mother regained her usual savage self. "As much as you like to believe he did, Biran did not give me that scar. I smacked my mouth on a rock."

Her mother ignored that and took Akane's arm to pull her around so that they faced the cot together, motioning her to look inside it.

Tears again got the better of Akane when she did because inside lay both her whelps, wild-haired, big-eyed and still purring, one munching on his little fist and the other tugging spiritedly at his brother's short ruddy tail. They were breathing and very much alive, unlike in the memories Akane possessed of them and they were as young as they had been on the day she lost them. She reached out to rub their bloated bellies. Their purring grew more enthusiastic, making it harder for her to swallow the unrelenting lump in her throat.

"They look so happy." Akane whispered and was awed by this. She had been haunted by their smothered faces for all these years, that one horrible image the only recall left to her as it was forever edged in her mind. She never came to think that they could be happy in their afterlives, believing them to have frozen in the moment of their deaths for eternity.

"You did well, kitten." her mother said, patting her on the shoulder.

"We are very proud of you." her father agreed, speaking softly behind her.

"But I died." Akane said, for the first time since coming to this place feeling sad about it. "I didn't do well at all. Vegeta will never forgive me."

Her parents just kept smiling peacefully at her, even if tears started spilling from her eyes in earnest now. She would never see Vegeta again. She would not once get to hold their kitten. She would not be there to see Vegetasei restored, would not see Vegeta made King or her kitten grow up. The full realisation of her own death was devastating. It was all she could do to keep herself from collapsing.

She still felt the steady, easy rumble that was her mate at the farthest edges of her consciousness. Their link was still in tact, yet is felt stretched and thin and when she nudged at it mentally, she found it impossible to send her thoughts to him, the boundary of death standing in between them a wall of darkness.

"I died…" Akane repeated to her parents, not understanding how they could look so happy. They did nothing to comfort her and their smiles actually grew wider while she wept. "How… can you… just stand there…and smile…" she gulped and hid her face in her trembling hands unable to longer stand looking at them.

A strange sensation took her suddenly and her sobs stifled. It felt like a warm substance enveloped her, making her shiver and her hair seemed to rise up above her head as though she was submerged in water. She gasped and half expected her lungs to fill themselves with fluid. This didn't happen, she still breathed air, but the act of inhaling was straining, as if she drew breath through a narrow tube. Her ears were plugged, the only sound she heard being the heavy drum of her own heart which was rapid and fluttering due to the panic that had taken hold of her.

Her parents, ever smiling at her through the strange blur that had suddenly covered her eyes, remained unmoved still and in the distance she heard her mother's cool voice: "We will be waiting for you here when it is your time."

"Be well." was her father's goodbye.

Akane opened her mouth to ask what they meant and what was happening to her, but only bubbles came from her parted lips. With a great pull she was drawn away from the scene in front of her. Her surroundings changed so abruptly that she struck out left and right in fright of the murky world that had sucked her in. The warm water on her skin had become real now and fearing she might drown, she held her breath instinctively. She blinked, startled by a fresh string of bubbles that rose up in front of her eyes. She noticed that there was a mask over her mouth and nose that supplied her with air. Reassured that she wouldn't drown, she settled down a bit and tried to make out her new surroundings.

It soon became apparent that she was in a WTO-built recovery tank, one of the few good things the Saiyajins had gained from their past alliance to the technologically advanced empire of Cold. The machine bleeped and buzzed softly, almost as if it was humming a tune, and buttons flashed about on the control-panel as it monitored her healing process.

Akane found the medic outside the tank tracking her progress on a screen. She rapped her knuckles on the glass wall to attract his attention. When the man looked up, he seemed surprised to find her awake. Akane gestured that he should let her out, but he gave a resolute shake of his head.

"You can't come out yet, my Princess. You are not healed." the medic bellowed in an attempt to be heard through the glass wall and the water in between them.

Akane could hear him well enough and she wasn't pleased with his answer. She made ready to pull off her mask nonetheless, yet stopped tugging at the device when another voice spoke up somewhere to her left. Her heart swelled with joy. Handsome, his body powerful and nimble and the insufferable smirk plain on his noble face, Vegeta stepped around the tank into view. He was beaming with pride as he supported a small bundle in the crook of his arm and through their link, that felt solid again now, she felt his boastful satisfaction. His elegant fingers almost absently continued petting the rosy cheek of their kitten while his eyes left the tiny life on his arm to fix on Akane inside the tank.

"You better let her out." Vegeta suggested, his low voice sounding strange and distant through the glass which encased Akane. "She is like to blast the tank to bits if you don't."

"Surely she wouldn't…" but the medic's voice died when Akane summoned a red ki-ball in the palm of her hand to strengthen her mate's words.

The man yielded, looking rather harried, and while he set out to prepare the recovery tank for draining, Akane was plastered to the glass so she could better see her kitten.

The whelp was very tiny. Even wrapped up in the bundle of blankets she was smaller than the length of Vegeta's lower arm. All Akane could really distinguish was the part of her downy face that wasn't covered with the blanket, her cute little nose, closed eyes and an amazing shock of fiery red hair. Growing frustrated, Akane snarled and slammed her hand against the glass wall in fierce impatience as the tank only slowly began to drain itself. She wanted out to see the rest of her beautiful kitten. Vegeta laughed at this and Akane only stopped looking at her daughter long enough to throw him a deadly stare. Then she gazed at the kitten again so intently that it looked like she attempted to remove the blanket enwrapping her daughter with her eyes.

"Let me see her!" Akane demanded hoarsely after ripping away the mask when the fluid had been drained to below her face.

Vegeta obliged, still snickering at her impatience, by peeling away more of the blanket. It wasn't enough for Akane. She wanted to feel, to smell, to hold that tiny creature in her hands.

It seemed to take hours before the glass wall of the tank finally lifted to let Akane out. She slipped onto the tiles after a rather desperate dash for freedom that was accompanied by a call of outrage from the medic.

"Give her to me." Akane half growled under her breath, skidding to a halt in front of her amused looking mate.

Vegeta reached over to her with his free hand and grabbed the back of her head to give her the hardest, most appreciative kiss she had ever received from him. His lips were pressed to hers so firmly that she was surprised to not have lost a couple of teeth when he set her loose again. She gave a winded chortle, battling tears once again, and tugged at a fist full of his black hair in affection.

All the while this took place, the medic was vocalising his objections, though he was careful not to raise his voice too much to his Prince and Princess. It didn't matter at any rate, he could have just as easily been talking to a wall because Akane en Vegeta only had eyes for each other.

"You had me in a right state." Vegeta said as she let go of his hair. He sounded far more exasperated than he looked because he was still beaming with pride.

"What?" Akane asked playfully oblivious. "You didn't think I could manage it?"

"No I didn't." Vegeta said earnestly. "I thought you were dead when we found you lying in the cupboard…" He stopped talking as if he hadn't given this much thought and now that he said it out loud, it made him realise how strange finding her in there actually was.

"It was quieter in there." Akane interjected in reaction to his puzzled expression. "But you might have been right. I think I actually did die for a bit. I saw my parents and all." she said this casually, as though talking about the weather and she quickly broke him off when he started questioning her about it. "Pick my brain for it. Let me see my kitten."

Vegeta yielded at her decisive expression and carefully handed her the bundle of blankets. Akane took the warm package from him and peered inside. The tiny creature had now completely submerged herself in the folds of the blanket and only a tuft of fiery hair was seen peeping out over the rim. Akane quickly dug her up, discarding the blanket on the floor without much care as she held the kitten out in front of her to subject her to a thorough scrutiny. Everything was there. Healthy pudgy limbs with hands and feet complete with ten miniscule toes and fingers, the cutest little belly and a short, fuzzy, vividly red tail. Big eyes opened and the familiar impossible black depths her mate possessed now glittered up at her out of her kitten's rosy-cheeked, pale face.

"She is perfect." Akane concluded proudly and her mate agreed with her whole-heartedly through their bond.

"She was in super form when we found you." Vegeta said and for once he sounded awe-struck and sincerely impressed rather than haughty or as though he had expected nothing less.

Akane hardly gave his humble disposition any attention and also the fact that her daughter had ascended even before birth she disregarded because it really wasn't that much of a surprise to her. What did make her gasp in shock was the thing she suddenly remembered.

"I ascended." she breathed. "Just before I passed out. I reached my super form."

Vegeta didn't seem humbled by this at all. He now actually did look like he hadn't expected anything else. Still he shone with pride that bit more.

"I know. I felt it." and he added in his familiar arrogant manner: "Perhaps from now on you can start giving me a challenge."

"You just wait." was Akane's confident reply.

The kitten yawned noisily and shut her eyes with a big theatrical sigh that Akane thought didn't predict much good for the future. It was quite plain that the kitten would grow up to be just as, if not more, overbearing than her father.

"Aina." Akane decided, the name coming to her without her knowing from where or why.

"Yes." Vegeta said.

"It was your mother's name." Akane understood. "It's perfect." she refocussed on the kitten and crooned: "Aina."

Her daughter's eyes remained shut and she gave a little jerk with her head as if shrugging off the sound of her mother's voice as something unimportant. She looked quite untroubled by having to resume her sleep while being suspended in the air by the armpits. Akane didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or feel offended by this obvious lack of interest.

She looked at Vegeta pointedly. "It didn't take you long to ruin her, did it? How long have you been alone with her. An hour?"

"She likes her kips." Vegeta simply said. He snickered at Akane's glum face and pulled her in his arms. "Don't be like that, little one. It's a good thing that she takes after you."

"She takes after you, you overbearing prick." Akane muttered.

Unable to help but feel a bit cross, she gave up on waking Aina and drew the little form against her chest to let her sleep. Aina started a nearly inaudible pur of content that Akane could feel against her bare skin and she resounded it, flooding with love for Vegeta when he did the same. The gentle chorus the three of them produced pacified her and her sullen mood was immediately forgotten.

"I reckon I am going to love her anyway. I ended up loving you, didn't I?" she teased.

And Vegeta said smartly: "Don't worry, you'll be fine. You love yourself plenty."

Akane laughed and poked him in the ribs with her elbow. She gave a sudden gasp when Aina found a nipple and started suckling enthusiastically, her pur growing very loud as she fed.

"Ai kitten, go easy." Akane snarled. "Kack, I forgot how much that smarts."

Vegeta was observing all this with nothing but adoration and he fondly pressed them closer to him.

Akane finally addressed the thing that had been demanding attention ever since she came out of the tank. "Cheers, doc." she threw over her shoulder to the still fussing medic who had finally found enough courage to raise his voice at the royal couple to make himself heard. "I will go rest now."

"I strongly suggest…" the medic broke off with a scattered expression. He had been so caught up in having his say to them no matter what the consequences and was so anxious about doing this that he hadn't registered her reply at first. "Yes. Rest. Indeed." he said now hurrying to recollect himself. "I will check on you in a couple of hours."

Akane thanked him again and took the clothes Vegeta handed her. In return she gave him Aina to hold while she got dressed. The kitten was mewling objections, clearly not done drinking her fill yet. As Akane bent down to pull on her spandex shorts she was glad to notice that she could do this without trouble and she was absolutely delighted to discover that she was able see her own toes again now that her belly had settled back to a more reasonable size.

"Today I start training again." Akane said after pulling on her boots.

Vegeta gave her a look that said this really wasn't going to happen and the medic broke out in a renewed train of objections.

Akane ignored them both. She took Aina back from Vegeta, pulled up her Captain Marvel shirt to reveal one breast so that she could replace her nipple in the kitten's mouth and strode out of the medical ward without a word, an indecently big smile on her face.