Another A/N: Ok, I didn't get this one out before because I was working with my friend Grimsister on our new fic. Also this chapter is better than last one since it has no action whatsoever, yay! The only other thing I have to say is that I was threatening Raksha to not write anymore on this fic if she doesn't write anymore on hers and she won't write anymore on Secret Past unless people start reviewing. It should be duly noted that I was not kidding very much. This presents a bit of a problem that is easily solved by you guys at least giving her DBZ fic a chance, which is all I'm asking since once you start reading it, I'm confident it'll stand on it's own.(Wow, I am sooo pushy huh?) Ok, that's it this time, on with the fic!
Chapter 21-The Decision
"Hold on, we'll back in just a second Aunt Cassandra!"
"Don't…call me… that!" the red haired witch exclaimed softly, gasping for breath as Bulma slowly raised her to where she was leaning against the altar.
"Fine, just be still! You've lost a lot of blood. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep you from fading into the Darkness. Here take some of mine. It should keep you with me, at least until I can get you back to the Keep." Bulma held up her right hand. Slowly the fingernails lengthened, sharpened. She nicked the tender flesh of her left wrist and held it to the lips of the witch who continued to lie on the cold stone floor. Cassandra took the blood offering, taking as much as she needed, as much as she safely could from Bulma without harming her. Soon she pushed her wrist away. She needed to conserve her physical strength though, because even shielded by Bulma the trip to the Keep was going to be unpleasant to say the least.
*I understand… Lady? *
"Yes?"
*I know we haven't always gotten along because of our family disagreement… but if I die completely… will you destroy him for me? *
"I promise you I will, whether you fade away or not!" Bulma gritted out fiercely, blinking away the tears threatening her eyes.
*Good… I… Thank you. *
As soon as Bulma held her aunt upright, they vanished from the dark stone Altar in Terreille. They reappeared in a bedroom in the Keep. In fact it was one right next to the room that Bulma used to mix healing potions whenever she was home. She helped her aunt into a soft bed and then hurried to the next room to start mixing a tonic that would help keep her alive until she began the healing webs.
Vegeta stormed in, leaving the other males to follow as they would. His icy eyes locked unseeingly on a maid who tried to ask him if he wanted her to send for a healer for his shoulder.
"Bulma. Where is she?" he growled, not seeing how the girl paled and how all of the other servants in the hall carefully froze as they noticed his eyes; he was riding the killing edge. His ki flowed around him, but he didn't notice the flicks of yellow that danced into existence along his muscled frame.
"I'm not sure Lord. I thought she was with the High Lord and Prince Daemonar in the drawing room." Vegeta stalked away, ignoring the obviously witless girl's statement. The Eyrien warlord prince had showed them around a bit earlier and the drawing room wasn't where Bulma was. The staff members stared at the spot that the Lady's consort once stood after he used super speed to hurry toward the place where he felt his mate's distress.
He finally found her in a sunken garden. Raised flowerbeds bordered on all four sides except where the stone steps led down into the garden. Two statues dominated the space. A few feet in front of them were a raised stone slab and a wooden seat. It registered only vaguely in the back of his mind that it was a place like this that he had himself used to go to when he was a child on Vegeta-sai and he was upset. Then he turned his complete attention to focusing on his woman.
He sensed a dark, yet comforting, power filling the air, making it almost too thick to breathe envelope him as he stepped onto the soft grass. Bulma was sitting on the ground beside the statue of the beast. Bulma was kneeling in front of the statue rocking gently back and forth, as if she were trying to find comfort in the mindless motion. He knew she sensed his presence so he waited, and turned his attention to the statue to give her the time she needed to gather herself.
As he looked at the crouched, blatantly male body that was a blend of human and animal he felt an animalistic sense of recognition deep in his gut. His breath caught sharply. He knew without being told that this was what Bulma saw in him, that this was the nature that lay beneath his skin.
Massively muscled shoulders supported the feline head that had its teeth bared in a snarl of rage. One paw/hand was braced on the ground near the head of a small sleeping woman. The other was raised, the claws unsheathed. He also knew that this was what some of the others saw. They would see the beast's claws about to rend the sleeping woman to shreds. They would see the snarl of rage and believe it was about to crush and tear the female, that the only way to control that physical strength and rage would be to keep it chained.
But they wouldn't look beyond their assumptions to notice the small details, like her the sleeping woman's hand reaching out, her fingertips just brushing the hand/paw near her head. They wouldn't see the way the crouching body sheltered the peacefully sleeping form, or that glittering, green stone eyes stared at anyone approaching. They also wouldn't see that the snarling rage came from the desire, the need to protect.
Krillin had been shocked at finding him and Bulma together. He had also been concerned for her. Vegeta had sensed that and it had made him angry until Krillin watched them move together and finally caught on. Piccolo had understood right off. Kakarott… that baka wouldn't catch the significance of the statue, but he would understand if he did. Yamcha, Vegeta smiled cruelly, would never understand and if when they returned even thought of trying to chain this beast he would get a sharp lesson in just what a saiyan was willing to do to defend his mate. Vegeta pulled back sharply from those thoughts. They were out of place in this garden and wouldn't help Bulma. Besides it was just pushing him back toward that edge, and he wasn't sure he would be able to control what would happen when he slipped over it.
Bulma finally rose and turned to face him distracting him from all of his thoughts. There were tears swimming in her ancient haunted maelstrom eyes. She stepped into his arms and braced her head against his wide shoulder, clinging to him, accepting the quiet comfort he offered. He stroked her hair, and started to purr softly, soothingly deep in his chest. She started to weep, deep wrenching sobs that shook her whole frame. The arrogant prince of all saiyans just held her, understanding as she opened her inner barriers to him and wept for all of the people that she had lost in such a short time. He kept his growing rage carefully in check, hiding it as he let his mate grieve.
Slowly she started to quiet and she leaned back to look into his face. "I'm sorry."
"You should be," he growled, causing her eyes to widen in surprise. "I felt you get upset and then suddenly cut me off from you. I couldn't feel anything so I… reacted badly. I nearly attacked the Supreme Kai when he tried to calm me down. He didn't appreciate it," Vegeta added dryly. Her eyes grew even wider and she bit her lip in concern.
"Oh dear! Is that what happened to your shoulder?" she asked finally noticing the tear in his spandex training suit.
"What? No, I got this fighting one of those monsters in the Hell Run."
"Monsters? Vegeta, there aren't any dangerous monsters in the Run. Well there are the Jhinkas that occasionally sneak in to try to get the Eyriens killed by making a mistake, but at least there aren't any monsters that should have been able to do that to you even if you were distracted. I don't understand."
"What do you mean there normally aren't monsters like that there?"
"I meant exactly that. Eyriens are excellent fighters but they aren't saiyans. They don't have the advantages that you, or even Krillin since he was trained to fight in the same way as you guys, would against the creatures in the Khaldharon Run. So what would normally be a fair fight for them would be nothing to you. Besides, the hardest thing about the Run is fighting while the air pulls at you. Didn't you notice the sudden shifts in winds while you were there? For a winged race, that's very challenging, especially when you add in the close spaces they're expected to maneuver around and the small monsters there. Of course the Hell Run is much worse, but it still shouldn't have caused you that much trouble. I think I need to speak with Shen."
"Perhaps you should but first, are you… feeling better?"
"Yes. Thank you Vegeta. I'm sorry I shut you out and that it made you so upset. But Cassandra died and then I had to comfort Grandpapa. You see her mother, the original Cassandra was his first Queen and he served her faithfully. Then he made the Offering and he walked away with the Black. That had never happened to a male before. He was also the first male Black Widow, so she was afraid of him even though she should have known he wouldn't hurt her. She continued to teach him. It was a sort of exchange of services, her skills in craft for his skills in bed, which is a really cold bed for a man to come to especially when even the pretences of affection weren't there anymore. Eventually she got pregnant, but she never told him. Instead she faked her own death and went away and had her daughter, the Cassandra you met at the Altar. The Queen Cassandra actually did die giving birth to her, but she made the transition to demon-dead and became a guardian. She raised my aunt alone. Cassandra, the queen, didn't want him to know that she hadn't actually died."
"He never knew," Vegeta stated, carefully neutral. Bulma nodded sadly, understanding the carefully controlled dissaproval in his voice.
"And Aunt Cassandra was never registered at any of the Keeps. The original Cassandra was able walk her through the Birthright ceremony and the Offering process without ever going to Dark Altar of Ebon Askavi. I didn't figure out that he didn't know he had a daughter until he reacted so badly when I told him she was dying. I guess I should have realized it, but I always assumed she didn't want to meet him or return to Hell because she resented him, and that he never mentioned her because it was too painful for him. Saetan takes family very seriously, but he won't step in where he's not wanted."
"So why didn't this Cassandra do this transition thing you mentioned?" Vegeta asked, going over the story she had told him in her mind.
She did, a little under 30,000 years ago. Hayllians are a very long-lived race and she was half."
"I see."
"I doubt it Vegeta, but you will. At any rate, we should go back to the others. It's getting late, almost time for supper. I can't wait for another couple of days to finish regaining my strength so I should eat and regain what I can. And we can all discuss it and decide what to do."
"Alright," he agreed, but he wasn't able to hide the quick flash of concern he felt for her. "Let's go find the others. But don't do that to me ever again!"
"And then Piccolo got hit by one of those thing's attacks. He turned around and blasted that thing I mean it totally exploded! Krillin was holding off three of the things over in his area. And then the Supreme Kai did this really powerful attack that took out ten of them all at once. Now that was impressive. You should have been there to see it Gohan! But it got really interesting when suddenly Vegeta went all psycho on us. He nearly went super, he was that close!" Goku held his index finger and thumb about a quarter of an inch apart to show how close the prince had been to achieving his goal.
"Shut up Kakarott! I don't need the reminder!" Vegeta growled, stalking into the room behind Bulma who had raised a brow as she caught Goku's last statement. Everyone but the Supreme Kai looked up at his entrance.
"But that's not right!" ChiChi protested from where she was sitting on the other side of Goku, "There aren't any monsters that are powerful enough to be a big challenge to you guys!"
"They weren't a big challenge Chi," Goku protested, hurt that she could think such insignificant creatures could seriously be a danger to them.
"They were temporal astral constructs," Shen announced from the corner where he was standing. His eyes remained closed as he spoke as if he were deep in thought. "They normally don't exist period, let alone in the Run."
"So it's Him. He's the one that sent those things into the Abyss after he drained Cassandra."
"I'm sorry she died. I didn't know her, but I understand the High Lord took the entire situation badly, and understandably so. He's very tired."
"Well then we'll let him rest," 18 announced, purposely misunderstanding the purple man's statement. "In the meantime I'm going to go scouting. I've already had an encounter with him so maybe if I descend far enough into the Abyss then maybe I can remember some of the things I forgot when he killed me."
"What?! Absolutely NOT!!" Daemonar shouted at her. "The only thing more dangerous than any of you going into the Abyss would be Bulma making the Offering before she was fully recovered!"
"Well I'm, sorry you feel that way Daemonar, since I'm going to make the Offering tomorrow. At dawn."
A/N: Well this chapter was better than last, no action, yay! Oh yeah for anyone who cares, the fic I'm co-writing with Grimsister is a DJT fic called Dark Fools. If you have trouble finding it just look under Books, The Dark Jewels, and humor, it's like the only one there, lol. Special thanks to everyone who tried to console me for the crappiness of last chapter, you guys are so sweet. Thanks!
Grimsister: I've never read your action, I'm going to have to remedy that. Thanks for reviewing and Lucivar is NOT a satan possessed demonic feline, you're just prejudiced! Laters!
Raksha: Lol, don't worry about it. You have a point, I have read worse action scenes, but not many. Don't kill your siblings, 'cause then your parents will be upset, besides you might find a use for them later. Lol, the cat commands it! Thanks as always for reviewing Dark Sister.
silmir: Thanks ^_^. I'm glad you liked the flow. Sorry I would have made it longer but I was getting desperate, there were only so many 'slams' and 'punches' and such I could use before it started getting boring so I cut it short. Besides I kind of had company and I have trouble focusing when I'm trying to save my possessions from the 'Sun Ripened Raspberry' *hangs head in shame* But on the up side, well you'll see in the next chapter or so huh?
Roya: Don't worry about it, lol. Thanks for being so enthusiatic, I hope that last chapter didn't scare you away. Thanks for all the reviews!
Sailor Purgatory: Well, this chapter didn't have Geoffrey. Sorry he's keeping Saetan company for a bit. Perchance another visit from him later will be in order. At any rate, thanks for being honest about the quality, it makes me think you aren't just trying to make me feel better about it and that perhaps there's a chance that I'll write better for the upcoming action if I practice!
