Disclaimer: Sadly, I am in no way responsible for the creation of the characters (or anything else for that matter) of DBZ or the Dark Jewels Worlds. Please don't sue because you'd only get pocket lint.

A/N: First off I would like to apologize for not getting this chapter out sooner, there was prom, then I had a major assignment due, and an induction ceremony that I didn't even find out about till like Sunday I think it was. However I hope the length of the chapter will make up for the wait. It's still kind of explaining things (sorry the action is coming later). Also the ending isn't a cliffhanger but there was a reason for that too. And by the way, yes everyone's getting a ranking, and NO VEGETA'S JEWEL RANK IS NOT GOING TO BE BLACK!!!!!!!

Another A/N: Oh yeah, I guess this would be kind of important for those of you unfamiliar with the jewel rankings. It works like this, after the birthright ceremony the person has their birthright jewel, from there they can descend only 3 jewel rankings during their Offering (traditionally speaking ^_^, there are of course exceptions, *cough*fanfic characters *cough *). At any rate here is a list of the jewels so you can be even more confused than ever.
White
Yellow
Tiger's Eye
Rose
Summer-sky
Purple Dusk
Opal (which is the dividing jewel between light and dark jewels)
Green
Sapphire
Red
Gray
Ebon-gray
Black
So all that descending stuff means is that if a person has say an Opal jewel they could only get a Red jewel beyond that. They might get a green or sapphire, or stay the same rank but they can't go past red. Okay? Okay. Now back to our regularly scheduled story…

Priceless Jewels
Chapter 12-The Ranking

The woman glided toward them with her hands folded in the sleeves of her robe. As she approached she removed her pale hands with her long black fingernails and pushed the hood back to reveal a slightly older woman with lustrous red hair and emerald green eyes.

"Do you seek Answers or Assistance?"

"Assistance, Cassandra." Bulma turned her attention away from the ball in her hand. "I would ask for safe passage for all of my companions into Kaeleer."

"There is a price, and while I can grant you my assistance and to the other witches, perhaps the boy since I detect potential for success with a Birthright ceremony, I cannot allow non-Bloods to trespass into Kaeleer, even on the word of Queen. Especially one who has not established court."

"And if I were to explain that they were husbands and consorts?" 18 asked softly, dangerously, drawing her self up to look at the older witch through narrowed eyes.

The strange woman known as Cassandra merely curled her lips slightly as if amused by the audacity of the younger woman. "Not even then. They are not Blood and they shall not pass."

"You have no right to make that decision. Only Jaenelle has the power to decide that," ChiChi informed her coldly in a voice that wasn't her normal voice, her Queen voice. The males, uneasy at seeing this new side to the ladies, shifted uncomfortably as the air began to cool.

"Yes, and Jaenelle is dead. You can't expect me to invite total strangers into Kaeleer on the grounds that you think they are safe!"

"Cassandra." The robed woman caught the globe before it struck her in the face.

"What's this Bulma?" she asked, glaring at the young aqua haired woman.

"Probe it, Priestess. I think you'll find the results quite interesting." The frowning woman complied, sending a cautious probe of power through the shield. Her eyes widened slowly as she realized just what it was about the flickering flame that Bulma wanted her to sense. The yellow began to slowly dim as she held it, starting to finally fail in spite of the shield. The arrogant look in her eyes gradually drained, replaced by a growing fear.

"Where did you get this? This is a male's strength!"

"Hm. Yes, so it is. Now tell me Cassandra, were you really planning on defying me in this?" Bulma asked in her frozen midnight voice as the air around them began to chill. The older witch dropped her hands to the side as she studied all of the males more carefully. When she finally spoke it was cautiously.

"I'll have to register them, their present strength and potential jewel strength before they can be permitted into Kaeleer. And there's still the matter of the price for my Assistance."

"Name the price, Sister," Bulma stated formally, in a manner that clearly said to be careful in choosing in spite of the courtesy with which the words were spoken. Cassandra licked her lips, eyeing the young queen before her nervously, hungrily.

"You plan to have children?" At Bulma's slow nod she named the price she had desired for years.

"I would train it, boy or girl, with no interference. In return you can take the whole of the Terreillian country you call Japan for all I care." She held her breath, as Bulma stood before her, unmoving, showing no outward sign of how she was reacting to the demand made by the older witch.

"Name another price," the reply was flat and unfriendly when it came, with a venomous undercurrent that shocked everyone listening, with the sole exception of Vegeta who had sensed Bulma's growing anger, although he couldn't determine the source.

"You refuse the price of Assistance?"

"You refuse a reasonable price to a Queen?" This caught even Vegeta's attention.

"Bulma I would never mistreat a child of yours. I could keep it safe, and-"

"Name another price."

Cassandra drew a sharp breath, "Why do you refuse me? I have never been anything but kind to you! You know you can trust me to give proper training to any child you have!" Ice appeared in a ring around the feet of Bulma.

"I refuse you because I don't trust you. I have made my choice, Cassandra, I will not be your puppet nor allow you access to anything that would give you even an illusion of control over me. And no you could not train any child I have properly. I have chosen my mate and even if you remotely had the capacity to deal with any child of mine then you have obviously not taken anything he brings to our match into consideration. Not only are you being manipulative in your desire to shape the strength of an unborn life in your image, but by ignoring my consort with your offer you insult him as well," The quiet words were offered with all of the warmth of the winter winds that traveled between the peaks of the KaeAskavi Mountains.

Cassandra slowly bowed her head, acknowledging the truth of her words. She held out her hands palms up and wrists exposed to show her submission to a stronger Black Widow. Then the red haired witch looked directly at Vegeta, through him, and spoke stiffly as if the words left a sour taste in her mouth, "I am sorry. I did not mean to ignore the right you would have your say in the life of any child you might have with Lady Bulma. I was but very hopeful that I would at last have the opportunity to train a child as talented as any that are likely to be born by Witch," she turned her attention back to Bulma, dismissing Vegeta as if he were nothing. He sensed another flash of anger from Bulma that matched the one he felt at the strange woman's treatment, although she quickly concealed it. "Another price then," the woman stated.

"Name your price," Bulma repeated once again, although this time the warning was closer to the surface.

"Fine. The spell for the shadow web as you make it, and 10,000 gold marks per person." ChiChi let out a noise like a kettle letting off steam and was about to say something short and to the point when Bulma raised her hand, a black flame of blue energy quickly flowed out from her palm and disappeared, leaving a large pouch with a card. She opened the leather pouch and placed the card inside before retying it and extending it to the older witch. Cassandra tucked the pouch into her sleeve and turned to quickly walk toward the altar. Bulma turned back toward the watching group.

"I can't believe you let her get away with that!" ChiChi hissed in outrage. "80,000 gold marks! I can feed Goku for a decade on half of what that would give me with the Kaeleer to Terreille exchange rate!"

"I'm sorry darling, but I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment. You do recall that while anyone can travel anywhere through the gates within the realms there is only a certain time of the day that people are allowed to pass through the gates between the Realms don't you?"

"Yes," ChiChi let the subject drop, although not before she gave a disgusted sigh that 18 echoed.

"Good, now just give a minute while I take care of this so she can't renege on her part of the deal."

"Um, what are you doing Bulma?" Krillin asked nervously when she held a hand over his heart and it began to glow white. She didn't answer as the color changed to yellow, slowly deepening to a darker yellow the color of a tiger's eyes, shifting into a pale rose color that was somehow darker, darkening into the color of a summer sky, becoming the purple of dusk before turning an opaque opal, slowly the color changed a final time to green darkening…darkening… freezing as the very edges began to take on a slight blue tinge.

"Green. The very deepest a green's strength can go at the moment. He has a potential strength of red, the deepest end of the red as well, possibly gray but not quite I think. I could be wrong though, since it's harder to scale their powers on our level.18 remember that." The blonde woman nodded, looking at her husband as a smile began to hover around her mouth.

"Whoa! Hold up! What's going on?!" Krillin burst out.

"Hey he's right. Aren't you guys going to tell us what all this is about?" Goku added as Bulma walked up to Gohan and started to do the exact same thing.

"What?" she asked absently, her eyes narrowing a she held her hand in position in front of his heart.

"What's going on around here?" Goku prompted her.

"Oh. Yes I suppose you are feeling a bit confused. Well… you know how when you first tried to get master Roshi to train you and he demanded that you go save the Sleeping Princess?" At Goku's nod Bulma continued. "If you hadn't been Blood you would have died."

"WHAT?!" he demanded.

"It's really simple you guys. I'm surprised I didn't figure it out before last night," she said blushing, although no one except Vegeta, ChiChi, and 18 understood the reason. "The thing is you guys are Blood, full Blood at that. However, because you weren't raised in Kaeleer your powers manifested themselves completely physically, which is unheard of in Kaeleer, but then we are also taught craft at an early age and we know about the jewels. When you guys gather your energy for one of your projectile attacks, it's not that different from us gathering our strength to cast a spell. You're strength registers differently because of the way it reveals itself, but if I were to probe your powers it would register as unlike, but like. Kin but not kindred if you will."

"You mean I could've actually died when I went on that quest for Master Roshi?"

"Goku! Pay attention!" ChiChi scolded him.

"Sorry Chi," he rubbed a hand over the back of his hair, giving her his famous grin.

"Okay Bulma, so what you're saying is that we're like you except our powers are different? But doesn't that make us not Blood?"

"No, you're still Blood because your power is actually derived from the same source, it's just it sort of took a different avenue, if you will. Red, ChiChi. Potential for Black, I'm unsure of the range since it's still early in regards to his developing power."

"Great! Thanks Bulma!" ChiChi exclaimed looking at her son with proudly shining eyes.

"You're getting off track here," Piccolo observed from where he was still floating, "finish your explanation."

"You're next so get down here. Now where was I?"

"You were telling us why we were Blood instead of being something else," Gohan piped up helpfully.

"Right. Well the point is, you gain the strength you would have gained by wearing jewels by training and evolving your skills and strength, unlike the traditional Blood who gain their full strength all at once and then spend years mastering their craft."

"But that doesn't explain why you're testing the Namek or how you found all this out from my energy," Vegeta pointed out, glaring at her back.

"Well, I don't exactly stand right next to you guys when you're shooting off energy attacks so I never thought to study it before. Last night I felt something…" she blushed again before quickly finishing, "so I decided that the next chance I got I would analyze your ki. Then this morning you were powering up and I thought to grab some of your power and when I did it confirmed a suspicion that I had. As to why I'm testing Piccolo it's because the dragons didn't just exist on Earth. A long time ago the Dragon Warlord Princes and their Queens existed all across the universe. That's why there are Blood all over the place because that's the origin of our power. The jewels that we receive that are indicative of our strength are actually dragon scales. Actually that's probably why you and Goku are Blood also since you weren't exactly raised in Kaeleer either buddy boy."

Vegeta just grunted as he held an internal debate with himself about all of the reasons that he should and should not spank his blue haired woman. One of the reasons made him stop to consider something. I wonder why she didn't stay in her other form? Bulma caught the thread of his thoughts and answered with a suggestive voice on a distaff to spear thread.

*Ooohh, a spanking! A spanking! I'm going to hold you to that. As to my other form, let's not give them more than they can handle, love. Besides, I was rather thinking of keeping that just for you since you seem to like it so much. * She tossed a saucy look over her shoulder at him, turning away when he began to sputter in shock.

"You had a sapphire strength, but you've already gained your full strength, Piccolo. Low range Ebon-Gray. Which leaves Goku. Come here Goku, I'm, really curious about what you're full strength is." She placed her hand over his heart and repeated the gesture she had used on all of the others. The light changed until it was a pale black then slowly darkened until it was completely black.

Bulma stared in surprise. Then she yanked her hand away and tried again. The same thing happened again. "That's strange, I could've sworn…" she trailed off bestowing a frown on both him and Vegeta.

"What's the matter Bulma?" ChiChi asked in concern.

"Well, nothing it's just I could've sworn with the way they always come out that Goku would be high range at whatever jewel level he was at."

"But?" 18 prompted. The others were watching her closely.

"But he's only a midrange. I mean Black, which is unreal for a birthright jewel since Jaenelle and I are the only two Blood I've ever heard of to have one as a birthright, is impressive. I mean it's probably a result of his being a saiyan, but it's impressive. Still…" she trailed off again, this time her expression was bemused as her thoughts absorbed her.

"Still what?!" ChiChi and Krillin demanded at the same time. Bulma, who had been lost in thought, huffed out an exasperated breath before responding.

"But still, from the way they always interact I can't figure out why he always wins their matches when Vegeta's ki registered as pushing into the Ebony range."

ChiChi fainted.



A/N: As I was saying, this was a long chapter. And I even abstained from my usual cliffie because I promised manga that Vegeta's ranking would be revealed in this chapter, so that was for you since you were so patient ^_^. KBR is still getting updated and Iceis has some really good stories, the first chapter of The Difference Between Gods and Dorks is up. So that's just pretty darn cool.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Thanks for Reviews~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daniela: Thanks for reviewing. The poor guys are going to remain in a state of shock for quite some time I'm afraid.

Shadowfire: Glad you liked it. I'm sorry Lucivar is dead too, he'd be alive if it weren't necessary for my plotline. I named my kitty after him. But look on the bright side, if you're dying from suspense then you can't die until the end of the story at least. ^_^

kapies: Thas' okay. Actually this is Cassandra, but not the Cassandra from the story since she died. I'll explain later, but I can't tell you anything else yet.

Roya; Sorry I didn't get the chapter out as soon as I had planned. I hope that I will now be able to get back to approximately my regular updating scehdule unless they bring up even more crap before the end of the week.

IneiTenshi: I hope this clarified that point for you. No Bulma isn't in her other form, that one is kind of special.

Empress Sarah-sama: I'm glad you like the plot so far, but this one's not a cliffy so if that's any consolation... Anyways, thanks for reviewing.

Silverstar: Thanks!! Glad you liked it. Don't worry, you will. lol

shingami's twin: Poor Gohan hasn't even figured out how he wants to react to all these revelations, lol! I'm glad you approve. That was kind of what I had in mind when I started this fic.

Iceis: I was glad my explanation helped and that you liked the first chapter of my fic. Please keep writing as well.

saiyangirl16: um, okay! thanks, lol

Raksha: I'm sorry cliffhangers in the middle of something you want finished offend you. j/k Thanks for your reviews as always dark sister.

manga: Yes if you beg one more time I'll get to it ^_^. Sorry it took so long, you've been very patient, only asking for it every other chapter j/k, but I hope you liked it, lol! Did I scare you with my beginning author's note? Sorry, I was feeling playful. ^_^