Well here's chapter four, I'm really enjoying writing this story for some reason. I don't know why..hmm. Strange. Oh well thanks to those who reviewed chapter three and the others before it. This chapters a bit more angsty than the last one..heh. Powder Puffs..Muahahaa..man, where are those pills..



Chapter Four: Dragon Balls







Loral awoke to see the high vaulted plaster ceiling of the old abandoned mansion she had taken residence in. Its high white walls were streaked with green mould and slime caused by the mildew which plagued this place. With a sigh she sat up and shoved the moth eaten woollen blanket off her shoulders. She stood stretching up on her toes, her arms reaching towards the ceiling and her tail stretching out straight behind her until with a slight twist it curled about her waist as she relaxed again. She wandered over to the neglected table and sat down with a slump and buried her head in her hands. Loral groaned and ran her hands back through her hair. She tilted her head to lean it on the table top.

"It should be a crime to be awake this early.." She grumbled as she searched with bleary eyes for a wall clock. Sure enough there was a white plastic one with a cracked panel hanging from a piece of light green plastic string attached to a rusty bent nail by the window. To her surprise it read 11.12am.

"Oh hell.." she rubbed the back of her neck. She didn't usually sleep in this late. She cracked her neck to the side with a yawn.

"Coffee?"

Loral's head shot up along with the rest of her as she flipped on to the table in a crouching fighting stance.

"Well aren't you jumpy to day?" Said Zim as he walked over to her with a pot of hot water. Loral blinked. ~Loral? Who is..oh right I am..~ Loral slowly shook her head as she jumped delicately to the floor.

"Ah, no you just.nothing. You know I don't like coffee." She said coldly. Zim frowned slightly and sat down at the table as Loral returned to her chair.

"Yeah I know, but it's worth another shot." He shrugged and poured him self a mug of the hot black liquid. "Ah the Devil's brew." He said with a grin. Loral glanced at him. "Hn." She muttered as she looked about the kitchen. "Any food?" Zim looked over to her with a withering glance. "No more than yesterday." Loral frowned. Great no food.. For some unexplainable reason Loral had hoped food might appear in the cupboards over night. But sadly, that was not to be so it seemed. Loral laid her head back on the table with a thud. "But I'm soooo hungry." She grumbled as her stomach agreed loudly. Zim stared at her in a horrified fashion.

"OK so your stomach talks now?!"

Loral blushed. "No of course not." She said standing. Zim nodded with a roll of his eyes as he stood and walked over to his battery operated television set. He adjusted the aerial and turned the knob on the front.

"Let's see what's on shall we." He muttered as he banged the side of the mint green cassette to get rid of the static. Loral walked over to where her gi belt was hung over the couch she had slept on.

"Well, thanks for letting me stay here. I'm going to find me some food.." she said with a grin. Zim nodded with a distracted "hmm" as he watched the T.V carefully. Loral shrugged and walked over to the door, the T.V now out of her view. She looked back and saw Zim just standing there looking at the screen she couldn't see. She opened her mouth to speak but then shrugged and left through the open door out into a slate grey street with muddy puddles in the pot holes. She didn't witness Zim's shocked face as he watched her picture cross the T.V screen. The news reporter said with a serious expression.

"This girl is dangerous, do not approach her. Her light tricks and bombs decimated one side of Tanith City hospital, injuring several people and police men. It is suggested that she may be armed but that is not definite. No one can give a clear account of how she left the scene of the incident though it is believed that she fled to the near by capital Linkin City.." The reporters voice faded away to a hum as Zim turned his head to stare at the door the girl on the T.V just walked out of.

****

Loral had been staying at the old run down town house for three days. Practically eating Zim out of house and home. ~Not that it is his house technically.~ Thought Loral as she jumped over a puddle.

"Why don't I just fly to McDonalds." She thought out loud. She shook her head with a smile. "Because stupid, people would point, scream and gather flames and pitch forks." She danced over another puddle glimpsing her reflection in the thin surface. She stopped and turned back to peer at her self in surprise.

"Wow.. I really do look different.." She touched her face, her dark eyes round with surprise. Her blue eyes had darkened to some thing resembling midnight. They were still blue but so dark they could almost be black. "Gees.." she whispered as she patted down spikes of ruddy black hair. A shiver went down her spine. It was unnerving to see some one stare back at her who looked so different. Her tail swayed behind her slightly. "Hmm.."

She continued to walk down the grubby street with a more reserved look on her face. "What am I going to do.." She thought back to her friend Jay who would still be laying in a hospital bed in Tanith City. She hoped her friend had managed to keep her tail hidden. Who knew what the doctors would do about that. She winced at the thought of it getting cut off. Her face drained of colour at the thought, it was horrifying to think about. She really loved her tail. She couldn't stand being with out it. Unconsciously it twitched up to wrap around her right forearm almost possessively like it had a mind of its own. She stopped, startled for a moment at the warm silky thing as it twitched slightly. "Ha..would you look at that.." She grinned, unwrapping it and letting it curl back around her waist.

Loral was walking past an ally way when suddenly it happened. She froze as her mind exploded in white lightning making her fall to her knees, grasping her head in her bone white hands, as a cry of pain was wrenched from her lips. "What..?!" Was all she managed to spit out as she was thrust into a life time of painful memories.

Darkness reached up out of the pit which she fell screaming to, to tug her down in to the mind of one who had been through so much pain it was a wonder the mind was not insane. Red and black clashed and she opened her eyes to a planet no human had ever seen. Long red halls, velvet carpets, royal purple banners fluttered from high marble turrets in a crimson sky, a long dark throne room, cold obsidian blocks which made up the floor her young self walked upon up to the tall magnificent form of her father. His ever scowling brows breaking their forever fixed glare as a wave of love flashed over them so fast it was as if it had never been.

Then came fate, a serpent sent to poison her life. The short white being so cold and powerful her father was nothing beside it. The horror was, the moment she had seen him she knew this to be true and it sent a chill to her bones. The tyrant, the evil which she knew would forever plague her life stood there with a crystal glass in his left hand swirling blood red wine, a small smile quirked at his plum lips and his angular red eyes stared at her with a look with made her want to run, but she was Saiyan, it just was not done and definitely not by royalty.

Then the blackness flashed, and her world had become a prison, a room with only the rats for company. But she was strong she could handle it, it was only a little darkness after all. No monsters lurking in the shadows, oh no. The monster was up there, above the ship of which she knew only this room. It was strange, she knew the moment her world died and didn't even realise it at first. It wasn't until she was informed later that her planet and people were gone that she realised that moment had been it. Then more long halls filled her minds eye, no red ones any more, only the innocent white walls. Those walls betrayed her. They lied about the horrors she would soon witness and have done to her. They were only walls after all. Simple and innocent. A smirk came to her lips. Innocence was a word she had never known the meaning of.

"No! This isn't me!" She screamed to the void but it swallowed her up again. Then came the years, long pain filled years. It was hell. This place of white walls, ruled over by a white demon Lord. Frieza. The word sent shivers down her spine. But it wasn't just a word, it was the name of that devil. The one that brought countless pain.

But darkness is never with out a ray of hope. When she finally found that hope it sent her into a hunger that only the starved would understand, a hunger for freedom. To defeat, conquer, rule, win, beat, succeed over the one who had scraped her life from her. Torn her spirit but never broken it. Oh no, never broken it. The smirk became a smile, a nasty cold smile. One which said 'I will win. And now there's nothing you can do about it.' The price of this hope had been Raditz's life but it was some thing only briefly mourned if at all. Now she had a chance. Now she would regain that lost pride, and scatter Frieza to the winds. Hope came in the form of the Dragon balls of Earth.

"This.." A work choked from her lips. The blackness of murder, countless killed, blood which stained her hands so red, so red. Pain which only he knew.and she paid witness to.

"..Is.." But it was all denied! Taken, stolen by one of her own kind! How could he not understand! But Kakarot had fought against her, his PRINCE. She/he was the Saiyan no Ouji! But it meant nothing to the Earth grown Saiyan, so then Kakarot had crushed his hope. Freedom in his grasp and then. NO! It was taken again! Screams of rage, pure and red filled these memories, flooded them, threatening to drown Loral as she fell further, unable to rise above the tides of a spirit so powerful and strong.

"..Not.." Then there had been Namek, his doomed fate had followed him there. And there he finally broke. This life was shredded under those cold white talons. He had tried to explain his pain to the Earth Saiyan, he never knew weather Kakarot had ever really understood because then his heart had been blasted from his body and his spirit had finally cracked. The pain, the sadness behind those memories choked Loral as she fell further.

"..Me!!!!" Then light had come, light had opened his eyes again under the earth, and he had pushed himself through the rock. He witnessed with a silent joy as that white monster was defeated at the hands of a golden Kakarot. Then a new bitterness came, the power. that golden power should have been his. He trained and thrived for it but still.it stayed elusive. That power was in his blood! Why could he not have it! Then came the months, and more years of pain, self inflicted to become finally, a golden Saiyan as he was meant to be. But the sweet triumph did not last long as a greater threat arose like a black sun..

Suddenly Loral rocked forward to lay kneeling against the pavement. Her breath coming in short gasps like from a drowning man.

"Wha..wha.." Came out the stuttering attempts of speech. For a moment she couldn't find herself. The storm of memories had been swept away for now but Loral was having trouble remembering her self. Shock coursed though her body .

"What.." She cried, the word almost becoming a choking cough. She ran her hands around her neck. It was bruised and raw as though some one had been choking her.

"It was a Mind Storm." Came a calm pleasant sounding voice which tickled her memory. She rocked back on her hunches and looked up into a face. The face was leaning over her with a worried light to his eyes. "I broke you out of it but.." He frowned. "Are you feeling all right?"

Loral blinked. ~Is that the Supreme Kai? Nooo..wow yeah it is.~ Loral pushed herself to her feet and caught herself immediately as she was slammed with a wave of nausea. "Hnh.." She growled out rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. A monstrous headache flowed over her. She spat out a line of curses that would have made a nun blush as she opened her eyes to glare blearily at Shin.

"What..A Mind Storm?" She walked a couple of steps forward, brushing past the Supreme Kai, as if he wasn't there with an expression half dazed and half irritated. ~Is this all in my head? This whole thing?! It just seems like ..madness. Or maybe some bizarre dream.~ Wait.. What about Jay and her mother and sister? That had really happened. She definitely knew what had happened to Jay. Well.. Jay was a vegetable now, lying comatose in that hospital bed..

And her mother and sister, they hated her. She had seen it..in their eyes. She shivered slightly, not feeling completely right. Loral turned about and stared at the three people who had been watching her from behind. She blinked. It was the Supreme Kai all right. Not many other purple skinned boys about. Neither were their many Goku's and Vegeta's. But two perfect examples of the Saiyans stood in front of her.

"Oh god!" She cried and stared up at the sky with a vexed look as she pulled her hands into fists. "I am going insane!" She growled and pinched her self before looking back. "Nope your all still there.." She turned about and started walking away. "I was so sure you were another part of that.mind thing that happened to me." She felt a hand grab her shoulder and spin her about. "Hey! Whoa! What the hell!"

Vegeta glared down at her. "Damn it girl! I'm not here for my health you know! Get you ass back here and sort this shit out!" Loral glared daggers at him.

"Don't touch me!" She hissed shoving his hand off her shoulder. "Don't you ever dare touch me or you'll live to regret it.. if you live at all after the experience." She growled the words out sharpening each syllable like a razor blade.

Vegeta blinked and then smirked.

"Hn." Was his reply before he crossed his arms over his chest. "Have it your way." He said with a dark sneer. Loral snarled at him and shoved past to walk up to Supreme Kai.

"OK..tell me this once all right? Am I going out of my mind?! Do you know what I've been through these last few days! Hell and back if you ask me! My family will never talk to me again you know!" Then she growled and rounded back on Vegeta. "You! You bastard! You just had to go and beat the hell out of my friend! Now every one thinks I'm some kinda maniac!" She punch him hard in the arm which made him take a step back to his surprise. Now it was his turn to snarl. "How dare you think to question my decisions?! I don't even know what I'm doing here! I wouldn't be wasting my breath with you if I didn't want to find some way to get these confounded memories out of my head!" He growled tapping his forehead with his right index finger.

Loral stared at him. "What? You have..?" She looked back at Shin with a questioning look. Vegeta huffed and looked away in irritation. ~Infuriating girl!~ He growled inside his head. ~And to think she has _my_ memories inside her head!~ He gritted his teeth. ~She'll know every thing..~ His face went white as he turned to stare at her back with a look nothing short of horrified.

Goku watched Vegeta with a worried look. If this girl had just had an attack could Vegeta get one soon too? What good would a sparing partner be if he collapsed every time those memories assaulted him? Goku sighed. ~Not a very good one..~ It almost sounded like a whine. ~Hmm. That's odd, Vegeta looked frightened by something.naw Vegeta doesn't get frightened..by much.~ He frowned.

"Does he have my memories?!" Cried Loral at Shin who was looking like he was coming down with the worst migraine a god could get. Shin sighed and looked to the heavens.

"Yes. I'm afraid he does." He said simply. Loral froze to turn around at stare at Vegeta with an expression that mirrored his own. ~Oh shit! NO WAY! He ..he better not tell any one I MEAN ANYONE about my secrets!~ She bit her lip and walked up to Vegeta and tugged on his arm as she whispered into his ear. "OK lets make a deal. I won't tell any one your secrets if you don't tell mine got it?" Vegeta looked at her with a man-is-she-weird look and said.

"Of course I'm not going to tell any one baka!" He bit back at her. "Who the hell do you take me for? Kakarot?!" Goku looked sharply at Vegeta. "Hey!" he said with an offended tone. Goku crossed his arms and looked pissed as he glared at the ground in a sulk. "At least I'm not a powder puff.." He muttered under his breath.

The Supreme Kai ran his hand down his face in irritation. This was taking too long for his liking. "That's it! Every one listen to me!" All eyes turned to the Kai. "All right now," he looked to Loral. "We're here to get you the Dragon Balls of your Earth so you can wish yourself back to being human and both you and Vegeta clear of each others memories, got it?" He said sternly. Loral stared at him for a moment

"But..WE HAVE DRAGON BALLS?!" She cried and fell over in typical anime style. "Oh..why didn't you tell me earlier.." She groaned. But every thing was interrupted when an angry cry was shouted down the street.

"THERE SHE IS! GET HER!" Cried a man in a purple checked shirt. Loral stared with wide eyes at the mob which was running towards her. Vegeta, Goku and Shin stared at the mob and then turned to look at Loral who had already taken off down the street. "I'll see you guys later!" She cried out over her shoulder.

Vegeta shook his head. As he levitated up into the air, closely followed by Goku and Shin. "WHY DON'T YOU JUST FLY BAKA!" He yelled out to Loral who stopped, turned around and blushed with embarrassment before lifting up into the air to join them. "I uh..forgot." She muttered as she floated beside them. The angry mob had stopped for a moment in amazement and then got over it to start throwing things at her and yelling 'nasty words'.

"Gees take a pill.." She muttered at the mob before flying off with Shin, Vegeta and Goku. "Hey Guys! Wait up! WAIT UP WILL YOU! You know, I haven't even had breakfast yet!!!!"

****

Ok.. that was chapter four..I know I said I would write something about Jay but by then I had already got caught up in this stuff..sooo she's in the next chapter..OK.. In the next exciting chapter of SAIYAN SPIRIT! Jay finally gets her say, finding a guardian for Earth turns out to harder than Shin originally thought and Goku and Vegeta are introduced to Zim and his coffee..*scary thought* Saiyans and coffee coming up on SAIYAN SPIRIT! Chow ^_^!

~Dyni~