Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or its characters.
Notes: Hi! ::waves to everyone:: Well, after about five billion years I finally managed to get chapter 18 written and posted. ^_^;; Gomen, minna-san, for the long wait. I hope this chapter tides you over until chapter 19.
Chapter Eighteen: The Dark Knight
"As much fun it would be to incinerate you now, it would be very boring and anticlimactic." - Seether
2:58 à 32 minutes until the eclipse
"Seether," Relena breathed, the words barely audible as they left her lips.
The fatally beautiful woman's expression did not change, frozen in the ridiculing smirk of her raven lips and the speculative look in her gray eyes. While her face did not alter, her form moved a bit, as she placed her elbow on the barely visible arm of her throne, pressing her fist against her cheek, as if she were bored even though nothing to cause her tedium had occurred. It was clear by her attitude that she did not think of the five as much of a threat, if any kind of threat at all.
A tense moment passed before Bra decided to speak up. "Where is my Papa?" she demanded, ire controlling her voice.
Seether lifted an eyebrow, obviously still amused. "Oh," she said teasingly, "you're a fiery one, aren't you, girl?"
Bra only responded with a glare that could've sent chills down anyone's spine. Anyone but Seether that is. For the evil temptress already had ice in her veins and was very fond of low temperatures.
Seether once again cast a glance at the group. "Doesn't anyone else have anything to say? Heh. Or is this girl the only one brave enough to raise her voice to me?" She snickered again at the startled expressions of Goku, Goten, and Trunks.
"W-we're not scared of you," Goten stammered incredulously, still miffed at the remark.
"No way," Trunks agreed. "In fact, you have no idea who you're dealing with!"
Goku nodded. "So we suggest you hand Vegeta over before-"
"Before what?" Seether interrupted. "Before you fire a Kamehameha at me? Or perhaps give me a taste of your Genki Dama? I wouldn't even try the latter. You might blow up the planet by accident, which would definitely be ironic since you're trying to save it." Seether fixed her eyes on Trunks. "And you're wrong, boy. I know exactly who I'm dealing with. You all may be highly skilled and very powerful, but even your combined Saiyajin powers can't stop me."
The room got eerily quiet.
"How..." Goku began. "How did you know about the Kamehameha? Or the Genki Dama? How did you know we were Saiyajins?"
Seether sat up straight, rolling her eyes. "I've lived inside the crust of this planet for two thousand years. I pretty much know the whole history of this mudball and everyone who's ever lived on it from then up to now."
"That's impossible!" Trunks argued. "There's no way you could know everything that's happened! You could only see one part of the earth at a time!"
"After all you've been through, you declare that you know what's possible and what isn't?" Seether laughed, the sound echoing in the stone room. "Nothing is impossible, boy." She stopped her chortles, but her eyes still laughed as she stared at him. "Didn't your mother teach you that?"
Trunks' eyes widened in shock before his face contorted in anger and he exploded into Super Saiyajin, lunging at Seether. "You bitch!" he screamed, letting loose a barrage of fist-sized ki blasts.
"Trunks!" Goku tried to warn him. "Stop!"
Seether merely cast her hand towards the balls of energy and they stopped in mid air. She furrowed her brow as she concentrated, and the orbs slowly floated back to Trunks, surrounding him. She grinned, and the spheres began to pulsate as she began to overload them with her own energy. "Three... Two..."
Trunks' eyes widened. "Kuso..."
"One."
The glowing balls exploded, releasing blinding light, and Trunks was caught in the large blast. The burning energy ripped through his clothing and singed his skin, creating immediate wounds. The pain was more intense than Trunks had ever experienced, and he couldn't stop the screams that tore through his throat. The force from the explosion flung his body back over to Goku and the others as the room returned to its extremely darkened state.
"Trunks!" Bra screamed as he hit the ground face-first. She ran over to her brother and turned him over. "Oh, my Dende! Trunks! Are you alive?" she cried, shaking him.
Trunks hissed from the pain of her moving him. "Ah! Don't, Bra!" he replied, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Poor baby," Seether mocked.
"Fuck you," Trunks replied, getting up despite the tortuous pain the slightest movement caused. A good amount of skin had been seared off, and the cold air that brushed by those bleeding areas wracked agony through his body.
"I guess your mother didn't teach you common sense either, boy."
"I'm going to kill you..." Trunks threatened, limping toward her.
"Trunks! No!" Bra ran in front of him. "Look at yourself! You can't fight like this!"
"Get out of my way, Bra," Trunks said, trying to walk around her. He only succeeded in stumbling and falling onto the ground. He let out a loud cry when the raw skin of his legs scraped against the stone.
Goku walked over as Trunks once again got to his feet. "You know she's stronger than you, Trunks. Let me fight her."
Trunks stared at him, then nodded, staggering back over to Goten and Relena. Bra stayed close to his side in case he fell again. Once they made it over to the wall, Trunks slowly sat down, wincing at every ache, and leaned against it. Bra, Relena, and Goten crowded around him to see what they could do about his injuries. With no supplies, however, all they could come up with is using scraps of their clothing to wrap around any severely wounded areas.
"Are you ready to fight, Seether?" Goku smirked. "I won't make it easy on you because you're a girl."
"You actually think you can beat me?" Seether's grin dulled into a more serious expression. Goku didn't respond, so she continued. "You should know, that if I wanted to I could kill you all right now with ease."
"So you actually think you can beat us," Goku countered, "when we survived those traps in the tunnels?"
Seether smiled. "Ah, yes... I must say, it was fun playing with you all like that."
Goku's smirk faded. "Playing?"
"As I said, I could kill you now if I wanted to."
"You're bluffing."
"Oh really? Well, I can see how you would think that, since I've blocked you from being able to sense power levels," Seether raised a hand, pointing her claws at Goten, "but I'll give you a demonstration."
Five purple blasts emerged from her fingers, the needle-like attacks streaking towards Goten, homing in on his heart. There was no time for Goku to divert the blasts, and Goten had been so busy helping Relena and Bra tend to Trunks that by the time he looked up to see the blasts he had no time to move out of the way.
Goten prepared for a sharp pain in his chest, but instead felt himself being tackled as Relena jumped on him to shove him out of the way. By the sheer chance she had glanced up just in time and reacted with just enough speed to push Goten out of danger's way. Alas, she was not fast enough to dodge the needles of energy herself, and three of them seared through her right arm. The two other blasts went right through the wall, creating small holes in the stone.
"Ahh!" Relena clutched her three wounds in pain as blood began to seep from them.
"Relena!" Bra crawled over to the other girl and looked at her arm. She hissed and winced. "Apply pressure on it."
"That's what I'm doing..."
Bra ripped off most of the waist of her shirt and began tightly wrapping it around Relena's upper arm. She glanced up at Goten for a second. "You okay, Goten?"
He nodded wordlessly, still a little shocked from almost meeting death. "T- thanks, Relena..."
"Forget about it," the American responded.
"You're fast for a human," Seether commented. She met Goku's angry gaze and chuckled. "Do you still doubt me?"
Goku didn't respond at first; he only clenched his fists tighter, closing his eyes. "Let's fight." Suddenly he flamed into Super Saiyajin, his hair turning gold and reaching toward the ceiling. When he opened his eyes Seether could see they were blue.
"As much fun it would be to incinerate you now," Seether said, sitting up straight and leaning back against her stone throne, her arms falling downwards into the shadows of the darkness that still flowed throughout the room, "it would be very boring and anticlimactic."
Goku raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying?"
Seether closed her eyes and began to glow brighter, filling the room once again with a blinding light. The five cried out in alarm as they covered their eyes from the brightness. The glow died down a bit until the entire room was moderately lit with the ghostly light from the woman's body. Once their eyes adjusted, Goku, Trunks, Goten, Bra, and Relena looked at Seether and gasped.
Vegeta kneeled at the incubus' feet, his upper body sprawled across her lap and his eyes closed. He was dressed in inky black medieval armor; a black cape covered his back and a sheathed sword was strapped around his waist. He looked so peaceful that he appeared almost dead, but his slow shallow breathing said different to the relief of the group.
Bra scrambled to her feet and began to run toward her father. "Papa!"
Goku reached out as she ran past and caught her arm, pulling her backwards. She glanced at him desperately, but he only shook his head and moved her behind him.
"Papa..." Bra scowled at Seether. "What did you do to him?"
"Your father is perfectly fine, child." Seether placed one hand on Vegeta's cheek and stroked his hair with the other. "He's only sleeping."
Bra got chills at the sight of this incorrigible woman's claws on her father. "Get your hands off him!" she demanded as she tried to get past Goku, who easily held her back.
Seether smirked at Bra's hostility. She looked down at the sleeping Vegeta, moving the hand on his cheek to his throat. Bending her fingers so her sharp black nails lightly brushed against his throat, Seether lifted her eyes back up to Bra. "What are they called again?" Seether paused a moment, then continued. "Ah, yes. The carotid arteries. Now from my knowledge, if I were to, say, slash one of them open," she emphasized her statement by pressing her nails to Vegeta's throat, "how long would it be before Vegeta-chan died?"
Bra froze in horror, her eyes widening. "Please don't," she whispered.
Seether smirked, and pressed her claws further into Vegeta's skin.
"DON'T!" Trunks yelled from by the wall, struggling to get up and do something, but not succeeding.
Seether snickered, glancing around the room. Her nails continued to press, even though the added pressure was slight.
"Seether..." Goku began. "Don't..."
Seether looked at the Super Saiyajin, still grinning tauntingly. Then she slowly moved her nails away from Vegeta's throat and placed her hand back on his cheek. "You didn't really think I would hurt my little pet, did you?"
"You bitch!" Bra cried.
"I tire of this," Seether said. "It's time to stop playing around and get to the point." She looked back down at Vegeta once again, moving the hand in his hair onto the arm of her stone throne and placing the other on his forehead. "Wake up, Vegeta-chan," she said softly. Her voice would have almost been tender if it weren't for the viciousness behind it.
The five watched as Vegeta slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head to behold his mistress.
"Papa?" Bra called to him. "Papa??" she cried out in a more distressed manner when he didn't answer or even turn his head to look at her.
Seether's gray eyes flickered to Bra's before returning to gaze back at Vegeta. "Stand, my dark knight, and face our guests."
Vegeta complied, getting to his feet and turning around to face the bewildered group. His hazy eyes, clouded with magic, showed no sign of recognizing Bra, Trunks, or Goten, but when his gaze rested on Goku, his eyes narrowed.
Goku shuddered as Vegeta continued to stare at him with hate-filled eyes. He could tell that at the moment the other Saiyajin wanted nothing more than to decapitate him with the sword at his side, but the prince made no move to do so.
Seether came up behind Vegeta, draping her pale arms over his shoulders and pressing her hands against his armor-covered chest in a possessive embrace. "Instead of me fighting you," she said to Goku over Vegeta's shoulder, "Vegeta-chan will do it for me. It will be so much more dramatic and entertaining, don't you think? I've given him plenty of my own energy to be able to defeat you." She pressed her cheek against Vegeta's. "Besides, he has a score to settle with you."
"Score?" Goku responded. "What score?"
Seether moved her lips close to Vegeta's ear, saying, "Why, because it's your fault that Bulma is dead, of course." The words made Vegeta's eye twitch and his fists clench.
"WHAT?" Goku's mouth dropped open. "What the hell are you talking about? Vegeta! You can't believe this!"
"Why should he believe you?" Seether said, staring mockingly at Goku. "You certainly didn't stop her from coming down here, and now she's dead."
"But she wanted to come down!" Goku argued. He spoke to Vegeta once again. "She wanted to save you!"
"He doesn't need saving," Seether replied. "You will, though, after he's through with you." Her left hand slid down Vegeta's chest and side, until she reached his hip. Her fingers wrapped around the ebony hilt of his sword, and she pulled it out of the sheath. She moved out from behind Vegeta and stood at his side instead, holding up the gleaming sword, the point raised toward the ceiling.
Her gray eyes glittered as she beheld the blade. "Beautiful isn't it?" she said softly, but loud enough for all in the underground cavern to hear. "I created it myself; it's filled with more dark energy than the amount I gave to Vegeta-chan." Her eyes fell on Goku. "Don't falter in your steps. I certainly wouldn't want this blade nicking me." She handed the sword to Vegeta, who took it.
Seether stepped before Vegeta and took his face in her hands, pressing her inky lips to his, drawing immediate sounds of protest from the room. She pulled back after a few moments and looked Vegeta in the eyes. "You shall do your best for me," she stated.
Vegeta nodded. "Hai, Mistress."
Seether smirked and returned to her throne behind Vegeta. She sat down, crossing her legs and resting her hands on the armrests as she leaned back. "You may begin."
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You like? It took... like... months to do, I think, but it's here! Chapter 19 will have a battle in it, but I've never written a fight scene before, so I don't know how long that will take. But if you good, kind people are patient, I'll try to write as best and as fast as I can!
Anywho, now that you've read, please review! Constructive criticism and praise are happily accepted (while flames are ignored). Please tell me which parts you liked the best, since I am curious about that...
Once again, sorry for the long wait. You forgive me?? o_o;