Chapter One-Hundred-And Two: Zarbon Returns

At the royal castle…

Lektron and Alora couldn't find or sense the ki signatures of any of their family members anywhere, nor those of their friends. Alora was cursing and devising a thousand ways to torture Seductia, when she and Lektron finally reached a certain floor of the castle, and they noticed a slim body lying under a red and gold tapestry. Bright carroty-orange blood soaked the floor around the body, and Lektron and Alora crept closer to the corpse to investigate.

After bending down, Lektron gently lifted the ornate tapestry and openly gagged. "Well, 'Lora, looks like someone beat you to Seductia. She's been stabbed or blasted to death, can't tell which." He kept the tapestry flap up, so Alora could see the results, and Alora nearly retched, even though she had seen dead people before.

"I could have done without seeing that," she commented. "But at least the wench is dead, lucky for her."

She turned her dark head away from the sight of Seductia's dead body, and she noticed another body covered by a blue and black velvety tapestry. Alora didn't want to know who was under that cloth, but she felt compelled to go find out. At least it couldn't be Bajal; the body wasn't large enough. She treaded away from Lektron and the deceased Seductia to check who was lying under the black and blue tapestry. She slowly knelt down near the body, hoping that it wouldn't be anyone that she knew.

Determined to get this grisly task over with, she quickly threw back the cover, and she gasped in horror at finding Ridikar dead. Alora had never cared much for Ridikar, and she had fully agreed with Shalila and Dirkan that Tayla shouldn't have had anything more to do with him as a suitor, but she had not wished for the boy's death. She sighed sadly, as she surveyed Ridikar's slashed body.

"Poor Tayla," she whispered. "Poor kid; how she's going to take this? Even this boy didn't deserve to die this way, no matter what he did in the past."

Lektron came up behind her, and he nearly choked when he saw Ridikar's body for the first time. "Sweet Orchida, how did Ridikar die?" he asked, stunned.

Alora sighed, "From the looks of it, someone cut him open. I just hope the end was quick for him." And she quietly laid the tapestry back over Ridikar's body, muttering a silent prayer for his soul.

"What a waste," Lektron said. "The kid was finally starting to redeem himself, and it had to end like this for him. It's going to be hard for Tayla and Caline when they find out, poor girls."

"Who should tell them?" Alora asked.

"I will," Lektron told her. "I'll break it to them when we find them; I just hope that they're still okay."

Alora looked back over at Seductia's body, which was once again covered up. "Now that that whore's dead, what has happened to Bajal and Dirkan? I can't sense them anywhere, or anyone else. Where did everyone go?"

"We'll find out soon enough," Lektron said. "'Lora, I think that we ought to leave now; I have a feeling that everyone's left, except for a few folks, none of them we seem to know."

"I'm with that," Alora agreed. She walked over to the window at the end of the hall, and she noticed that the entire city of Magan was unlit. The stars and two of Calmag's crescent moons were the only light that the city had. Not even a streetlight or torch could be seen in the engulfing darkness that seemed to envelop the forest around Magan, as well as the city. The castle was still lit, thanks to its own private generators, but the rest of Magan was dark.

Alora shivered involuntarily; she did not like the dark in the outdoors, although only a handful of people knew of her secret fear of complete darkness. She had just managed to keep her calm in the labyrinths, and that had only been because of the ki balls that she and some of her comrades had made to light the way. She was also a little claustrophobic; she preferred open spaces at all times, and she definitely had not liked the labyrinths. Alora had never understood how Caline could have gone to play in them all the time, but then with a father like Amitar, Caline had to have some place to escape him.

She looked at the darkened city again and wondered worriedly what in Orchida's name was going on there…













At Magan's main power plant…

"Turnin' off all of Maggie's lights was pure genius, Baata," Guido told him, watching a grinning Baata turn off the last of Magan's switches at the power plant. "Cap'n's sure going to be proud of you!"

"He should be," Baata boasted. "It's a good thing that this power plant was just around the corner from the sweetshop. The city of Maggie is going to be dark tonight!"

The remaining Ginyu Force members were now inside the near-abandoned power plant, which had now been run by only a few electricians. Reccoom had knocked the few people there unconscious, and Jeice and Guido had stuffed them into a closet while Baata, who had a little technical knowledge, had found the main control room and began shutting down the power throughout the city of Magan.

"But how are we going to fight the Astories, if Maggie's pitch black?" Reccoom wanted to know.

"You can destroy Astories in the dark, Rec," Jeice pointed out to him. "Anyway, this plan of Baata's is great. We can flush out the Astories this way and take 'em down, only everyone remember that we have to spare-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know, spare the two blond Astorie women that you tried to make the moves on," Guido interrupted.

"Um, Jeice," Baata pointed out. "There's no way that Lord Frieza's going to allow you to keep those Astorie women alive for yourself. He specifically said every last Astorie on this planet was to be destroyed, except for Princess Tayla."

"He let Balair keep that Astorie woman for himself!" Jeice protested. "I don't see why he wouldn't let me do the same."

"Astorie women are dangerous," Baata told him. "In fact, all Astories are. It'd be too risky to keep an Astorie slave; the Astories can be as deadly as the monkeys."

"And we're stronger than Vegeta and his bunch," Jeice told him. "And monkeys are stronger than Astories, so I could easily handle two Astorie women."

"Whatever, Jeice," Baata sighed. Apparently Jeice had forgotten that little Princess Tayla Chloe had taken down Prince Vegeta, and the other Astorians had defeated the other "monkeys".

Now that Baata was certain that he had shut down off all of Magan's power, the Ginyu Force members decided to leave to find the Astorians. Unfortunately, none of the Ginyu Force members had figured that shutting off Magan's power would make it harder to find the Astorians anywhere, and unlike the Astorians, none of the Ginyu Force members could sense ki naturally. And the scouters couldn't necessarily tell whether a ki signature was Astorian or not…







At the Angori Hotel…

The occupants of the hotel, both Astorian and Calmagian, panicked when the lights went out throughout the entire hotel. Hazel and Natala had arrived two hours ago, and both women grew worried when their family told them they had no news of their husbands. Natala cradled her swelling stomach protectively, as she and Hazel walked about the hotel lobby, trying to calm down the frightened guests.

Many of the Astorians had created small balls of ki to use as lanterns, and the Calmagians had turned on flashlights and battery-powered lanterns. The mixture of frightened and worried sounds of people could be heard, as many hotel guests began to pour into the lobby from upstairs. And still, more people were trying to descend the stairs to reach the hotel lobby below. The bellhops and maids were ushering guests out of their rooms and floors.

The two electricians in the hotel were cursing because the main generator that would have given the hotel light again had malfunctioned and blown out. They were working fervently to fix it, with the help of a repairman, but so far there was no success.

Natala find her daughter, Arlina, kneeling in a corner, meditating and holding a small ball of ki in her small hands. Natala sat down beside her daughter, who stopped meditating the moment that she felt her mother's presence.

"Mamma," Arlina whispered, embracing her mother.

"Are you alright, my dear?" Natala asked her, holding her, as she sat near her daughter in the corner of the fancy hotel lobby.

"Yes, Mamma," Arlina told her softly. "I am glad about the baby. You will have a beautiful little girl…I can't wait to meet Maylia, the first warrior in our family."

"You saw that much?" Natala asked, amazed.

"Oh, yes, Mamma, and she will be very strong, very lively. She will look just like you, with your beauty and good heart, and Father's strength and wisdom." Then Arlina suddenly frowned, and her young forehead creased in worry. "Mamma, Kekron and the others are in trouble."

Trying to remain calm, Natala asked, "Who are the others?"

"Caline, Rojal, Dedron, and Tayla, who is under Great-Aunt Toria's healing spell. I can see them now, Mamma, and the elevator had just stopped shaking. Tayla is still asleep…"

As Arlina continued on, Natala tried to conceive a plan on how to rescue her son and the others. She hoped that the elevator would be able to hold out for a while.









Ten minutes later…

Hazel was standing near the bar, which amazingly enough, was still operating. The bartenders could not use their special mixing machines to make their mixed alcoholic drinks, but they were serving liquors and other unmixed drinks. Hazel's end of the bar was empty and deserted, with most of the patrons that weren't at the bar gone.

A tall, husky hotel security guard strolled up to Hazel, who had been watching Natala and Arlina for the last ten minutes. The guard had a battery-powered lantern with him, and even in the darkness, he noticed Hazel's beauty. He looked down upon her and decided to make conversation.

"Hey beautiful," he slurred, for he was highly intoxicated, and Hazel drew away from him immediately. The smell of liquor on his breath repelled her.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he asked her, slurring again. "Never see a sweet dark-skinned girlie like you before…how 'bout you an' me get a coupla o' drinks an' go down da hall…a maid just cleaned this room, an' me an' ya can make good use of it…"

"No thank you, leave me alone," Hazel told him curtly. "I'm married. Go away."

The huge guard was not about to be deterred, and he slung a thick arm around Hazel's trim waist. Hazel shoved herself away from him, but the guard just pulled her closer to him. Hazel tried to shove him away, but he seized one of her small, brown wrists.

"Gimme a kiss…" he crooned, as he put his face and foul breath in her face. Hazel nearly retched at the smell.

"Let me go!" Hazel screamed, struggling against him, as he put his lips to her neck and pulled her closer.

The drunken guard didn't have a chance to finish his advances on her, for at that moment, he was roughly pulled away from Hazel and thrown to the floor with a hard thud. The guard leaped up to confront his attacker, but the attacker punched him hard in his face and threw him to the ground again.

"Get out of here!" Hazel's rescuer ordered in a loud, commanding voice. "Don't you ever come near her again!"

The guard crawled away, and then he scuttled to his feet. Even in his drunken stupor, he knew that he was outmatched, and so, he hurried away as quick as he could.

Hazel's eyes filled with tears at the sight of her rescuer, a large, yet lean and muscular man with black hair and brown eyes. She threw herself upon him, sobbing into his shoulder.

"Gohan!" she cried out. "Gohan, I've missed you so much!"

Gohan drew his wife into his embrace and held her close, rubbing her back. "I'm back, sweetheart, and I won't be leaving you again anytime soon."

"Gohan," Hazel whispered. "Gohan, Gohan…"

And the Chief of Intergalacticpol and his wife held each other for a long time and cried between kisses and embraces at the deserted end of the bar.









Upstairs...

Lelina and Petalia had been on the seventeenth floor when the electricity went out, and both girls were afraid, as they wended their way down the stairs in the dark, with only their ki balls as light. The two girls held hands for safety and comfort, as they used their ki balls in their other hands to light their way down the many flights of steps. Petalia was visibly shaking, as she and Lelina made it to the twelfth floor, and they felt the ki signatures of Rojal, Dedron, Tayla, Caline, and Kekron nearby. It was then that they realized that they were near the elevator shaft on the twelfth floor.

The two princesses decided to leave the stairways for now, and Lelina opened the door leading to the twelfth floor hallways. She and Petalia entered the hallway and crept along the hall, using their ki globes for light. The shadows danced on their lovely faces, as they walked slowly along the hall.

The only people on the floor were a Calmagian businessman and his mistress kissing and fondling each other openly out in the hallway, making loud moaning noises. Petalia gagged in disgust, witnessing this display, and Lelina's face colored in embarrassment, as the girls decided to hurry away from the couple.

Finally, they reached the twelfth floor elevator shaft, where the ki signatures of their family members were strong. Lelina shouted through the crack of the closed elevator doors, "Rojal, are you in there?"

"Lee? Lee, is that you?"

"It's me-and Petalia. Can you get out?"

"Do you think that if we could, we would have by now?" Dedron's icy voice replied.

"Don't talk to my sister like that!" Rojal snapped at his best friend. He called to Lelina again, "Lee, we can get out ourselves, but we have a problem-Caline and her brother, Naykiar are with us, and they can't fly. And Tayla is here with us, but she's in her bed and under Great-Aunt Toria's spell. Can you and Petalia go get help on this floor?"

"The only ones on this floor," Lelina called back, "are a man and his lady making out. I doubt that they'd be able to help. Maybe I could blast a hole in the door to see where the elevator is stuck at."

"No, Lee!" Rojal cried through the elevator wall. "You could accidentally cut the cables holding the elevator shaft doing that!"

In the elevator, Kekron called then, "Maybe one of us in here could make a hole in the roof the elevator with a ki blast, but we'd have to be careful where we shoot."

"If we have to do that," Rojal added, "Lee, you and Petalia will have to back away for your own safety."

"I wish that I could open these doors," Lelina called to her brother. Then suddenly she became quiet, and her entire body tensed up, for she could feel a familiar ki signature behind her and Petalia-a ki signature that was strong and powerful.

And dangerous.

"No," Lelina whispered. "It can't be-"

She was cut off by Petalia's scream. "Someone help me!"

Lelina whipped around, her long brown hair flowing with her like a rushing river. She cried out in horror, when she saw Petalia had become Zarbon's captive. Zarbon had crawled into the window that had been at the end of the hall and near the elevator shaft. He now had his hand over Petalia's heart and his large hand was glowing.

"L-Let her go," Lelina ordered him, her voice shaking.

"Help me!" Petalia screamed. "Please help me."

"Be quiet," Zarbon snapped at her. "Not another word out of you, and I mean it!" He seized Petalia's throat to emphasize his point.

"Let her go!" Lelina ordered.

Zarbon smiled, still holding Petalia's throat, as he spoke, "I want Princess Tayla. Where is she?"

"You won't find her here," Lelina told him fearfully. "We can't help you."

"Oh, I think that you two can," Zarbon told her. He spoke to a frightened Petalia, as he released her throat, "Well, you can anyway. I didn't expect to see you again so soon, but you can help me. I'm going to keep you as a bargaining chip, my dear, until Princess Tayla is brought to me. If she's brought to me quickly, I will release you."

"Please don't hurt me," Petalia whispered. "You and Commander Jaden and Commander Chestra released Caline and I before. You don't want to hurt me, do you? Surely, Commander Chestra wouldn't like that; would she be happy with you, if she thought that you had harmed me in any way?"

"This is war, young lady," Zarbon told her. "And in war, you win any way that you can. You will never see Commander Chestra again, I can assure you, and in time, she will forget about you and the girl you call Caline. And Commander Jaden has better things to do than to worry about children. Now where is Princess Tayla?"

"She told you that you wouldn't find her here," Petalia stammered. "Perhaps you should go downtown-surely, she'd be fighting with the others."

"I know that she's here; I saw her earlier," Zarbon told her edgily. "Is she still sleeping under that blue dome? How do I get her out of it once I find her?"

"Blue dome?" Lelina asked, puzzled. "What blue dome-"

"LELINA! PETALIA!" Dedron's voice roared angrily through the elevator doors. "Why are you two still near the doors? Do you two want to get fried? Get the hell out of the way!"

"You don't need to talk to them that way," Kekron's steady voice told Dedron firmly.

"Stay out of this, Kekron!" Dedron ordered him.

Lelina was about to cry for help, but Zarbon told her, as if he read her thoughts, "I wouldn't recommend warning them about me, not if you and your friend here don't wish to get hurt."

"Please just let us go," Petalia pleaded.

"Tell me where Princess Tayla is now," Zarbon commanded.

A flash of light was seen between the cracks of the elevator doors, and then a loud, whirring noise was heard behind the elevator doors, and then a sudden "BOOM!" followed. The elevator shaft shook violently, and Caline's scream echoed throughout the shaft.







In the elevator…

"Dedron, it was supposed to be a small blast!" Kekron scolded Dedron. "That was too much power! You could have blown up the entire elevator shaft!"

"I know what I'm doing!" Dedron roared. "I've been doing ki blasts since I was three!"

Kekron snapped at him, "You could have killed us all just now!"

"We've got a hole now!" Dedron shouted. "So let's get out of here!"

"How are we going to get Tayla out?" Caline asked worriedly, still holding onto Kekron, as they both rose.

The boys still didn't know. "There has to be a way to get her out of that blue dome," Kekron said. "There just has to be."

"Well, you're supposed to be the genius out of all of us," Dedron sneered. "I say personally that we just worry about ourselves. That hole I made is not going to be big enough to get Tayla's bed through. Maybe this elevator will hold up until the electricity comes back on, so we'll just have to leave her here for now-"

"We're not leaving her!" Caline screamed before she thought. "We have to take her with us!"

Dedron snapped at her, "Well, you tell me just how we're going to do that!" He stared down at her menacingly, but Caline was not about to be dissuaded.

"I-I don't know," Caline admitted, and then her voice grew firm again. "But I'm not leaving her behind."

"Don't be stupid," Dedron growled. "We can't get her out of that dome, and we can't get her bed through that hole I made, so we'll have to leave her here until we get the elevator fixed."

"What if one of Frieza's soldiers takes her away while we're gone? What if another quake happens, and the elevator falls down? She's helpless; she can't move! We have to figure out a way; we have to!" Caline wailed. She turned to Kekron and pleaded, "Couldn't we find Great-Aunt Toria and get her to remove the spell? One of us could leave to find her."

"That would work," Rojal agreed. He cupped his mouth and called upwards, "LELINA! PETALIA! ONE OF YOU GO GET GREAT-AUNT TORIA-WE NEED HER TO REMOVE THE SPELL OFF OF TAYLA, SO SHE CAN WAKE UP! IT'S THE ONLY WAY WE CAN GET HER OUT OF HERE!"








On the twelfth floor…

"ONE OF YOU GO GET GREAT-AUNT TORIA-WE NEED HER TO REMOVE THE SPELL OFF OF TAYLA, SO SHE CAN WAKE UP! IT'S THE ONLY WAY WE CAN GET HER OUT OF HERE!"

Zarbon grinned then, and Lelina's face fell in despair. Petalia paled, and then she shrieked, as Zarbon suddenly threw her to the floor and leaped over her fallen body. He pushed past Lelina, and before she could stop him, he sent a small ki blast that blew a man-sized hole in the elevator door. Within minutes, the metal doors had a huge, molten, steaming hole in the center. He jumped through the hole before Lelina could intervene.

"Stop!" Lelina cried.

"Leave them alone!" Petalia screamed.










In the labyrinths…

Bendros had survived-barely.

But Bendros was feeling more refreshed and alive than ever, although no one would have believed it had they seen Zarbon blast him into the parking lot ground. Bendros had lain still, playing dead, hiding his ki, until he was absolutely certain that Zarbon had disappeared. Then he had climbed out of the hole that he had bee in under all the rubble to find a certain shrub.

He was happy to see that this tough little bush had survived Zarbon's brutal attack.

Apparently Caline's roses were as tough as an Astorian or a Saiyan or a Sastorian.

It had taken Bendros for what it seemed to be an eternity to crawl along the broken parking lot to its edge to retrieve two of Caline's precious Bright Healer roses. Slowly and painfully, he used the oil from the petals to treat his wounds and refresh himself. He had regained most of his strength back and most of his precious ki, and he hoped that these things would be enough.

Now he was hiding his ki, searching the labyrinth corridors, sensing for familiar ki signatures, hoping to reach Zarbon and the others before it was too late.

He could feel himself coming closer and closer to the hotel again.

"Hold on, Tayla," he said fiercely. "I'm coming; I won't let Zarbon or anyone else take you away."









Back in the elevator…

"One of us should stay with Tayla," Kekron said. "And the other two can take Caline and Naykiar out of here to safety."

"You stay here then," Dedron ordered him brusquely. He looked intensely at Caline. "I'll take her." Caline flinched at Dedron's intense stare; he reminded her too much of Filcor in some ways.

"I can stay with Kekron and Tayla," she volunteered quickly, still huddling near Kekron.

"No, Caline," Kekron told her firmly. "I will remain here, but I don't think that it's safe for you to do so. You go with Dedron and Rojal for now." He didn't like letting her go with Dedron but under the circumstances he didn't have much of a choice; it was Tayla who needed him now. At least Rojal would be with her, and Rojal would not let Dedron bother Caline. And Naykiar would be with them.

Caline nodded hesitantly; she was uneasy around Rojal and Dedron, but they had not done her any harm so far, so she decided that she would have to take her chances with them. Noticing her anxiety, Kekron cradled her head in his hand, and then he leaned over and kissed her on her alabaster forehead. Caline blushed slightly; normally a kiss from any male would have been considered a threat, no matter where it had been placed. But Kekron's gentle kiss had only eased her anxiety instead of increasing it. He smoothed back a few wispy strands of pale gold hair.

"You're very brave, Caline," he told her proudly. "Far braver than you think you are. Tayla will be okay, and so will I. We all will be."

"You be careful, you hear me?" Caline insisted sternly. Kekron allowed himself a small grin, for it had been the first time he had ever known her to be daring enough to order anyone like that. He liked this part of her actually, as well as her shy, demure side that was more common. "Promise me that you and Tayla won't get in any trouble," she continued firmly.

"I will," he promised her, holding up seven fingers. "Seven Moons Oath."

"I'm afraid that Seven Moons Oath you won't be able to keep, young man," a steely manly voice said from above.

Kekron cried out in horror when he heard that voice from above. Caline shook and trembled and huddled closer to Kekron. Naykiar balled up his fists, and Rojal and Dedron drew out their swords when they saw the speaker's face peering through the hole in the elevator roof.

"Who the hell are you?" Dedron demanded to know. He couldn't remember the stranger's name, but he knew that the intruder was one of Frieza's soldiers because of the armor that they always wore.

"It's-it's Zarbon, Dedron-from the pictures that Dirkan showed us a long time ago," Rojal stammered. Rojal had always considered himself to be brave and heroic, but the sight of one of the deadliest warriors of Frieza's Top Elite figuratively brought him to his knees. Sweat rained down his face.

"Very good, young man; I see that you've done your research," Zarbon said smoothly. "Now that I've been introduced, I suggest that you and your friends give me Princess Tayla immediately. I can carry her out of here myself; now hand her over to me. If you obey me quickly, I may spare your worthless lives."

Kekron growled under his breath and balled up his free fist. He could only shake one fist at Zarbon, for he was holding Caline and rubbing her back to keep her calm. Kekron was scared and furious at the same time; he hated being so helpless, so unable to fight the enemy.

Caline feared Zarbon; he had not harmed her during the two times that he had been one of her captors, but she knew how dangerous he was. He wouldn't hesitate to kill her or any of her friends to accomplish his goals.

Rojal said to Dedron, "Dedron, we're going to have to fight him; we don't have a choice. We can't let him take Tayla; we need her."

Dedron wisely kept his thoughts to himself about just how much he thought that they really needed Tayla. He still despised Tayla with a passion, but he knew that Rojal was right. For now they would need the troublesome girl that Dedron had tried to get rid of earlier. There would be plenty of time to dispose of Tayla later after the war was over. Dedron had no intention of allowing Tayla to be around to be superior to him in every way.

"Fine," he grumbled. "Let's get him."

Zarbon turned on his scouters and tested their power levels. The scouters beeped, and he smirked.

"Both of you barely have ki levels of over fifteen-thousand apiece; not very high, but high enough for somewhat of a challenge. Who wants to face me first?"

Dedron was the first to fly up to him, and Zarbon grinned.

"First to fight me, first to die."

And Zarbon raised his hand for a powerful ki blast.

Kekron seized Caline and threw her to the elevator floor, shielding her body with his own. Naykiar fell to the ground and covered his head, as Rojal stood his ground behind Dedron.

Zarbon's blast came at Dedron, a flash of blinding white light.

Dedron placed his wrists in Mirror Shield position, hoping against hope that it would be enough.