Once Upon a Dream - 17
Part Seventeen
There were a dozen things one could say in
such a situation, depending on the person of course. A more
serious person may have just accepted it, but Kat was far from
being one. By nature she was playful and curious so she said the
first thing that came to mind.
"You've got to be kidding!"
Bursting into hysterical laughter, she wiped away the tears that
slid down her cheeks. Then she noticed that her parents were
*not* laughing at all. Sobering she said, "You're not
kidding."
"Sorry honey," her mother said
gently, "We're not."
Raising her eyes and looking at herself in
the mirror, she did notice that she looked a little different.
Actually, 'a little' was an understatement
Instead of the bright red hair that she
wore to the middle of her back and her ocean blue eyes, her hair
was a deep black and her eyes a brilliant, emerald green. Her
hands touched her neck tentatively where a silver pendant lay. Of
course, all of this was only in the mirror.
"We call this the Mirror of True
Seeing," Katherine said. "It shows people their true
forms, depending on who, and what, you are of course."
"I'm the Creator," Kat whispered
to her reflection. "This is unbelievable."
"It seems that way at first,"
Appuru spoke, "but after a while it will get better."
"I can't wait for a while!" She
looked around frantically for a way out of the void. "I have
to get back and kill Astor once and for all!"
"Calm down Katrinka," her mother
soothed, "you don't even know how to kill him. Not right now
anyway."
"What's the big deal? I'm good and
he's evil! It should be as simple as that!"
Appuru turned to his lover. "Was the
Creator ever this insane?"
She shook her head. "This is all
Katrinka's nature."
Kat frowned. "I am going to just fight
him, that's all. If it works it works. If it doesn't.... well
lets hope that it does."
"The Soul Blade does not kill
him," Kathy said softly. "What does?"
"I have an idea!" Appuru grinned.
"How about you take a little bit of energy from everyone in
the universe and fuse it into the Blade. If you somehow convey
how much you need it, their hopes should be enough positive
energy to take him down once and for all!"
Kat thought it over. "That *is* a good
idea. This is turning out to be something out of a bad fantasy
novel."
"That idea won't work!" Kathy
exclaimed. "You are the Creator, remember? Everyone comes
from you! This battle is yours alone."
"What she's trying to say is this:
Believe in yourself only. I know that sounds like the most
cliché thing to say in the world but it's true."
"Gee thanks," Kat said
sarcastically. "You two are a *big* help!"
Kathy rolled her eyes. "Well you *are*
the Creator after all! Your power should completely and utterly
annihilate that evil demon. Now that you know about it,
anyway."
"I need more training." Kat
sighed. "Can you two teach me?"
Kathy agreed. "You do need more and
we'll be happy to do it. As a matter of fact, you start
now!" Kathy blurred out of sight and hit her daughter with
an attack she had never seen before. It was more of a wave than a
beam and it completely knocked her from her feet.
"Wh-what was that?" Kat asked,
shocked. Her mother reappeared.
"The first move is called
Invisibility. The second is called the Shadow Wave. You need
those two and a lot more to be up to Astor's par."
"You couldn't overpower him, could
you?" Appuru asked. "That wasn't even his true power.
It is much greater."
"I will now teach you something that
only a few select people know. It's so effective that it's almost
outlawed!"
Kat's eyes grew large. "Really? It's
that bad?"
Her mother nodded. "Yep. It's that
bad. It's called the Mahi Kousen."
She raised an eyebrow. "Paralysis
Beam?"
"Sure! It's obvious by its name what
it does. It stuns your opponent long enough for you to kill
him."
"But Kaasan, what if it doesn't
work?"
"Then," Kathy said completely
deadpan. "we pray for our souls."
Her daughter frowned. "That's not at
all funny."
Appuru coughed. "What your mother
means is that if it fails, you will have to tap into your
Creatorial powers. Hmm, Creatorial? Is that even a word?"
"Why don't you get a dictionary and
look it up?" Kat said sourly. This whole battle was getting
to her.
"Since you seem to be incredibly
irritable, you can just go and find Astor right now." Kathy
opened a doorway in the shadows. "That's the way out."
"If you think you're ready of
course."
Kat snorted. "I'm ready! Of course I'm
ready!" Then she thought about the power that she felt and
sat down hard on the misty ground. Sighing she said, "What's
the next lesson?"
All in all it took hours upon hours of
preparation, practice, and bruises. Eventually Katrinka learned
every single move her parents did and she was even better at it.
"Astor won't stand a chance now!
You're going to kick his ass!" Kathy grinned as she hugged
her. "When you're done, bring all of your friends to see me.
I'll be where Enma-sama is because they can't come here."
"Domo arigatou Kaasan and Tousan! I
love you both!" She hugged her father as well.
Now it was time to face her ultimate enemy.
***
"Is she going do something?"
Trunks asked anyone who was within hearing range, but the answer
was still the same. No one had any idea.
Then he was answered unexpectedly when
Katrinka sort of popped into existence near him.
After he got over being started, Trunks
asked another question. "You have a plan?" Everyone
strained to hear her response.
She shook her head. "I don't have a
plan. I have a cure. You see, Astor is like a parasite. He sucks
the very life from universes leaving them barren and desolate. I
have to destroy his core." She quickly made her weapon
materialize. "I don't have very much time."
Vegeta shook his head. "That weapon
didn't work the last time you used it. Some god-blessed thing
it's supposed to be."
"No wait!" She held up her hand.
"The weapon is just a tool that you use to kill someone
evil, but I relied too much on the weapon and not on myself. I
used it in completely the wrong way.
"You see, I discovered something while
in the afterlife visiting my parents. I didn't have to look far
for the Creator because she's standing right here."
For a moment there was only stunned silence
then a low buzzing of conversation broke out banishing the quiet.
"Wait!" She smiled and shook her
head. "You don't understand. The past doesn't matter. It's
only here and now. We can only live for the moment and not sit
around long enough to worry about the past or the present. There
is a little bit of the Creator in each and every one of us,"
she smiled again and attempted to lighten the mood. "Some
just have more than others."
"When I fight Astor, I have to believe
in my own abilities and not rely only on the Soul Blade. It's the
only way to truly kill him. Then we will all be free."
***
She walked with confidence to her final
battle with the demon. There was no fear within her, she had come
to terms with the situation. To kill meant a lifetime of
happiness, to fail meant death to everyone.
The latter was not an option.
The darkness was deep as if the shadows
themselves had come to watch the show. She saw no light in this
room, this place. Here physical bodies did not matter. Here was
only the souls of the few who had dared trod there. Katrinka
could not feel her fingers, but they were there. She could not
feel her toes, but they were there. It would do no good to stop
and think about it.
You merely existed and nothing more.
"So this is it?" Astor whispered
darkly from the corners, from her mind. From everywhere.
"Yes. You cannot be allowed to torment
us any longer. You cannot be allowed to destroy what I have
created."
"You have discovered your
destiny." A stray shadow flitted across her vision and with
it came the demon himself.
"We all do, eventually." She held
the blade out straight in front of her, aiming to where she knew
his black heart would be. His dark, malicious heart. The core of
his being.
Astor bowed low to the ground, the darkness
that shaped his form swirling about him like a mist. "I
cannot hope to stop the one who created me. Go ahead, end my
existence."
It was only then that Kat hesitated,
holding the katana mere inches from his chest. She bent down to
his level and kissed him on his forehead.
"I am sorry."
Then, with one swift move, she plunged the
sword deep into his heart.
His death was silent and swift, his body
vanishing completely to only leave behind his heart which was
still impaled on her blade, the black blood gleaming wetly.
Then the organ dissolved into dust and at
last the terror was over.
The artifact that Michael had spoke of on
the day so long ago was also destroyed. Astor's heart, the thing
that had corrupted a civilization.
Epilogue:
Things calmed down considerably from the
day Katrinka saved the universe. The woman herself had fallen
into a coma from the moment she returned from Hell and stayed
that way for two weeks. During that time her friends -- Vegeta
included -- watched over her in hopes that there would be some
sign of movement. Once she had awoken she would not speak of what
happened there. It would be something that she took to her grave.
Vegeta was anxious to get back to his own
time, fearful that the ancient saiyans' peaceful ways would
eventually rub off on him rendering the strong prince weak.
Almost as soon as he thought that, however, Michael approached
them with the Decision.
"You have only two choices. You may
merge this timeline with your own to forever change everything
that has happened in your own reality or you may keep it separate
and live with the choices that were already made in your
past."
The decision was unanimous. "Keep it
separate."
But when it came time to leave the next
day, Kat had made another important decision.
"I'm going to stay here," she
said softly. "I like my business, I like Gavin, and I like
this civilization better that the other. It also helps that my
Tousan was Kami."
"You're serious?" Bra asked, a
stray tear sliding down her cheek.
She kneeled down and hugged the girl
tightly. "Don't worry! I'm the Time Warrior and the Creator,
remember? I can bend the rules and visit you anytime." She
glanced at her guide. "Can't I?"
He chuckled. "Of course. You created
me as well, who am I to stop you?"
A small smile appeared on the red-haired
woman's face. "I can get to like this."
As they all laughed, Katrinka began to
think about the future. What ever was to come, at least she got a
chance to see it. All at evil Astor's expense.
God bless his soul.
Well, I'm finally finished with this
fanfic. It took me long enough. Unfortunately, I thought the last
three or four chapters could have been better. Now, you know what
comes next. Another thing, is it just my files or does
Fanfiction.net take out the hr tags? I keep having to put
an extra space between sections now.