Bloodlines

Bloodlines

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama, Sailor Moon belongs to someone I don't remember how to spell, but is most definitely not me. I make no money from this at all.

            Bardock sneered, watching the devastation to the fighters of the Dark Kingdom fall at the hands of the Moon Queen. In his arms he carried the all but dead princess, waiting to take her back to his crew's ship and their healing tanks. Yet…

            He slowly descended to the ground, cradling his burden, and walked over to the valiant, dying Queen. Bardock's sensitive ears let him hear the soft rattle in her chest, the decreasing of her heartbeat.

            Her crystal blue eyes opened painfully, and she reached out to her daughter.

            "Serenity?" she breathed, and looked into the merciless eyes of her daughter's captor. Bardock felt a chill as those eyes hardened.

            "Your mistress won't win," she rasped, and started to cough up blood. "Death will come for your kind like it came for mine. But unlike you, we face rebirth, while you will know only damnation."

            "We don't really care about that," Bardock heard himself say back. "Just so long as we get paid."

            She sneered, her chest heaving as she tried to laugh.

            "And what price…" she coughed again," is that of your souls?"

            "Your daughter. She'll be taken care of," he couldn't help but add. "No harm will come to her."

            Her eyes blazed, even as the fire began to go out…

            "I'll take care of her," he said, not knowing why… but something of the spirit of this brave person infected him. He couldn't let her die thinking that her daughter would be… abandoned.

            "Sword," he barely heard. "Take it…"

            Those eyes drove him to take the sword he'd found impaling the girl in his arms. It was like nothing he'd ever seen.

            Turning back to the Queen, her eyes shown in triumph, before closing forever. Bardock stood there, watching in shock as her body faded away, disappearing as though it never existed. The once beautiful, now decimated, landscape seemed to wither even as he looked on- the soul that sustained it was gone.

            The air leaked off the planet- and he rushed back to the vessel his team had been assigned, and to the healing tanks that would save their prize.

~*~*~*~*~*~

        Serenity awoke, suspended in clear fluid, with a breathing mask covering the lower part of her face. 
               Why wasn't she dead?
               She had taken the sword of Silver Imperiam Crystal and run it through her own heart, after seeing her beloved take the blow meant for her... and she chose
to join him in death.
               How had she gotten there? Where was she? 
               Was this hell?
               "I see the little princess has come to," said a gruff voice, and Serenity's eyes widened as the liquid started to drain from the tank. Looking down, she saw the scar on her chest from the wound she had inflicted upon herself... and that she wasn't wearing any clothes. 
               The outside world was blurry from the glass in the tank, but that didn't stop her from hearing.
               "I don't see what the Ou wants with her. Look at her- she's a twig. There is no way she could be strong enough to have his brats," said a female voice.
               A snort.
               "Does it matter? She is a pretty little thing, maybe he just wants her for a toy."
               "Nah, did you see what her mother did to our employer? She wiped them out without trying. They got something we don't, that's for sure."
               "Yeah, but she's DEAD now, right?"
               "Give the brat Saiya-jin strength, and who knows what that kid could do."
               Her mother was dead... and she remembered what happened. A strange, spike haired brute sweeping in and taking the sword from her body as she lay dying.
               Her kingdom was gone.
               Tears stung her eyes, but that didn't stop her from straightening her shoulders, and clothing herself in all she had left; her dignity.
               "Who are you? What do you want with me?" she demanded as the tank she was in lifted above her head, leaving her standing there in front of them.
               "Feisty, ain't she?" said one, smirking at her. He was the one that had taken her!
               Glaring, her crescent moon flashed brightly as she met his gaze, and she could almost see him falter before it. Then he gathered himself to glare back.

            "My name is Bardock," he answered. "We are Saiya-jins. We were hired to help that person, what's her name, Metallia, destroy your Kingdom. Our King's price was a strong mate for him. That's you, kid. He just lost his."

Serenity's face went purple with rage as he said that. Only one thing clicked in her mind at that point- she needed to die, and join her friends and family. So she ran at him, using what little skill she had learned, begged from Endymion. She threw herself at the spike haired monster that had destroyed all she loved, clawing like an enraged cat, spitting and hissing.

"STUPID BITCH!" a feminine voice said from behind her, but Bardock only caught her and laughed.

"Don't her fool you," he said to the dark haired female, who had nearly pounced Serenity herself. "That was a suicide charge. She knows she can't win."

             "Bastard," Serenity snarled, struggling against him, wiggling out of his grip like she was oiled and ran, trying to find some way out.

"What the?" was the last thing she heard, before darkness claimed her again.

The next time she awoke, she was stretched out on a cot.

"My... head? Mother, have I been sick?" she asked softly, whimpering at the pain that sent white daggers behind her eyes as she reached up to touch her skull. A bump met her questing fingers.

"Well, it looks like the hell kitten has come back again," snorted a voice, and Serenity turned, wishing her memories were nothing but a dream...

But they weren't.

The female she had seen earlier was looking at her with new respect.

"Never thought you'd have it in you, kitten," she said, absently trimming her nails with a dagger, an eyebrow raised. "Attacking Commander Bardock like that. Stupid, of course. He's the best fighter here, even if he is third class."

Serenity whimpered in lieu of answering, clutching her aching head.

"Here's food an' clothes, cat," the female said, tossing a blue bodysuit to her. "That pretty gown of yours is ruined. You might as well get used to Saiya-jin clothes anyways- they're all you are going to be wearing from now on."

"Why did you do this to us?" Serenity asked, finally getting her nerve together to sit up. Her stomach twisted unpleasantly, but she was able to get to the food and bodysuit.

"Girl, it was nothing personal. Metallia needed your kingdom destroyed; our king needed a Royal mate, one with strong enough blood that his brats will be able to destroy the guy who owns us. Like I said- it had to get done. We don't hate you, kid. Although I don't see what would make his majesty interested in you…" she snorted, saying without words what she thought of the Princess.

"Who owns you?" Serenity said, frowning, between bites as she wolfed down the food. It tasted differently than what she was used to, and some of the meat was raw, but she'd had stranger 'gourmet' cuisines.

"Yeah… I guess you should know- it concerns you now. If you want to live, that is. Nasty ass bastard called Furiza, but the strongest guy around. He uses us to do his dirty work, we get paid, and he doesn't wipe us out. He wants the Prince, who's only three right now, to train." Her grimaced, again letting Serenity know her opinion on the matter.

"So- I'm a broodmare?" Serenity stated, trying to be calm. The woman shrugged.

"That's as good a way to put as any other," she answered. "I'm Seripa by the way. The others you'll meet later on. We have some mapping of uninhabited systems coming up- so it'll be about a month until we get back. Although Bardock wanted to go faster- his mate is expecting, and she doesn't bear well."

Serenity watched in bemusement as Seripa left the room…

To be continued!