Chapter 11

She was in there. Moroshka could sense her malignant presence. Fool girl. You should have run when you had the chance.

The doors to Babette's apartment gave little resistance to an angry god. Splinters scattered about the room, and Babbette jumped up off the floor, staring at Moroshka as if she were an apparition.

"I…I thought I got rid of you!" She cried out, all her pretty features twisted in denial.

Moroshka crossed the room and grabbed her neck. "Where's the cure, witch!"

"There is…none!" she choked out. Moroshka imagined that her face would have turned purple from lack of oxygen had it been her actual face. Suddenly, the ugly brooch that the blonde had been wearing earlier flared and one of its ornamental snakes crawled off of it and struck at Moroshka.

Moroshka dodged it, dropping Babette in the process. The snake also hit the floor, and she immediately crushed its head.

"No!" Babette cried.

"Cure!" Moroshka screamed at her. "Now! Or die!"

"Then I'll die," Babette spat. "I came to finish the job that you could not, Moroshkian! That boy's father slaughtered an entire planet of my kind! I lost my female, and children…everyone! He had no mercy in sending them to the next dimension and I'll show even less!" Her voice had begun to drop, and she ripped off the brooch, revealing her true form. Moroshka stepped back and choked. A Swathesrap…

The creature looked like a fur-covered octopus, with large black-oiled eyes. She'd only seen glimpses of them in the Kai's Seeing Basin. From what she remembered, their species had mastered the art of magic, and used it efficiently and comfortably.

Moroshka looked around the room and saw another bewitched trinket-a Seeing Orb. Sister to the Seeing Basin. It revealed the past and present. That must be how you found Vegeta's family, and learned of me. And then something else hit her. That's how Trunks discovered that I killed his father.

"You stupid creature," Moroshka hissed. "Vegeta is dead…beyond hurt! Nothing you do to his family will pain him because his soul has already been recycled!!" She bent down and curled her fingers into the thing's fur coat. It squealed a horrible, ear-piercing scream. "Do you hear me?! This does nothing to him! You. Are. Harming. The. Innocent!" she shook it violently with each word.

Its eyes glossed over and then refocused, and the knowledge came to her then that the Swathesrap had indeed been pushed to insanity from its inflictions. She would have felt sorry for it, had she the time.

"The cure, Swathesrap. The cure!"

It screamed again, somehow producing a long blade. It swiped at Moroshka, and she jumped back, only in time to watch the blade come full swing and imbed itself deep in the creature's eye.

"No!" Moroshka leapt on it, screaming over its dying wails. "You have to tell me! You can't let him die like this!" She slapped the creature, trying to shock it into awareness-trying to shock it back to life, and when it finally went limp she still shook it as if doing so would somehow magically produce the reversal that would save Trunks.

Finally she collapsed on the floor, sobbing. Despair, worse than that which had created her, saturated her soul, for it was her own. She slammed her fists into the floor repetitively. It was ironic. Vegeta had chosen her for her immense strength, and here it was completely useless. "I…can't…fight this!" she cried out to no one in particular. "I can't fight the Swathesrap's magic!"

She said Trunks' name over and over, as if the sound of it could somehow soothe her loss. And in the midst of her mourning, she noticed a dim, blue glow emanating from the Seeing Orb.

She froze, and blinked. She blinked again.

Moroshka jumped up and ran to the orb, placing her hands on it. "Show me, orb. If there is a way to reverse this poison, show me where it is!"

The picture swirled, clouded, and cleared. She knew the place. She was in it. She knew the object. Its snake had tried to bite her when she arrived.

Moroshka swooped down and scooped up the brooch. Though her speed in returning to where Trunks lay was unprecedented, Moroshka felt that it was the longest flight of her entire life.

* * *

Trunks was barely there. His body had less mass than an apparition, and it terrified her. She fumbled with the brooch, trying to find a latch, a vial of liquid, or something. "I don't know what to do with it!" She screamed.

Dende took it from her and studied it out in his hand. After several excruciatingly long seconds, he could only shake his head. Gohan took it from him and tried to lay it on Trunks' body, but it fell straight through.

"Oh, Trunks…" she whispered, as she watched his form fade to nothingness. "NO!" She grabbed the brooch and crushed it in her hand. Its magic released in a large, crackling explosion, and Moroshka threw the debris in the dirt. "This is surreal. He can't be gone…"

All the fight and rage left her, having nothing left to focus on. She fell to the ground and buried her head in her hands, nourishing the grass with her tears. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear Gohan sniffing, and Dende's labored breathing.

Trunks! She had failed to protect him, and as a result he was gone. His cocky smile, jesting nature, mischievous eyes… She felt a hand on her back-Gohan, no doubt. She ignored it. All the comfort in the world wasn't going to bring him back.

The hand spread across her shoulders, and tried to lift her up. Mechanically, she leaned into him, resting her head against his chest and then she opened her eyes-only to see Gohan and Dende standing several feet in front of her, both wiping their eyes and donning the most ridiculous smiles she had ever seen.

She gasped and pulled back. Trunks sat there, his warm eyes narrowing affectionately as he smiled down at her. "Now will you come home, Roshka?"

A small cry escaped her lips and she outright tackled him. He wrapped her up in his arms and let her recover from both the shock of his death AND recovery. Smashing the brooch had done the trick. Finally, with her composure halfway regained, they started to discuss what had happened.

Trunks briefed them on how he'd been infected, and that it indeed had been the Dead Zone that was sucking him out of this dimension-the thought sent Moroshka's blood boiling anew-and Gohan mentioned the Supreme Kai's intervention and their frenzied rescue attempt.

"Man," Trunks blew his breath out in a long whistle. "Goten kept telling me that Babette gave him the creeps, and mom outright hated her-" he paused, interrupted by Moroshka's uncontrollable fit of giggling. He quirked an eyebrow at her, as did Gohan and Dende. Her laughing shortly subsided, but not her grin, and she grabbed Trunks' shoulders, getting in his face.

"Uh, Trunks? About Babette…" she said, licking her lips for emphasis, "It turns out you've been kissing a squid with a penis for the past few months."