Busu swipes some lyrics from the dub version of Photon Proton Sychrotron and Cronos steals one of movie version Allen Schezar's lines

I'm using the term "the prince" too much and I can't really find a way to refer to Shenlong other than "Shenlong."

I'm uploading this almost immediately after finishing it. It's not a good idea, but.

I'm desperate for reviews.

I saw people who never left reviews for MidMole leave reviews for Kiss From a Rose! Well, I guess length has something to do with it, but

I write faster when I get more reviews. It's that simple.

"And no one knows it — Where she came from; where she's going and once you meet her, you will find that something inside is changing."

Chapter 12 — The Resident Ghost and The Goddess

~~~~~~~~~

In his clan's indoor garden, a large humanoid mole was on his knees, going through the flower bed with his claws. The Young Dragon was instinctively drawn to the earth, as a mole, but he knew very well he could only do a little gardening at most. A tunnel close to the surface, would uproot the grass and make the sanctuary look unkempt. Also, he had to be in a state of readiness, so ditching his gi and fulfilling that urge as an average small mole was not a good idea. It was very fortunate his mole mentality was not too strong, or just being out of the soil and in the light too long would have made him insecure and suicidal. The gleaming ivory claws tilled and aerated the soil and made it ready for new flowers, which lay in their own little squares of potting soil in a tray next to him. He dug out little ditches in the empty bed for the new residents and carefully arranged the flowers so the patch looked just right.

He sat back and admired his work. They were, indeed, pleasing to the eye. Letting out a breath, he reverted to his human form and held his hands to his face and let a few particles of soil rub off on his cheek. He closed his eyes and inhaled the smell of fertile earth. It was so pleasing to his senses. When he opened his eyes, the heir caught a glimpse of something wriggling in the soil. When he saw it was an earthworm brought to the surface by his stirring of the soil, he licked his lips and snatched it up. Holding it up above his head in one hand, his gold eyes quickly glanced around and listened to make sure nobody was watching him. When he found the coast was clear, he opened his mouth and began to transform back into the beast who would enjoy this little treat more than he would.

"Kyaaaaaaaa-!"

He dropped the creature and spun his head to let his ear lock in on the sound. "M-Miss Uriko?"

"Let go of me! Get offa me!" he heard her voice shriek.

"Look, kid, I dunno what Doc wants with you, but quit squirming," a bored voice of a mature man told her, "I want my damn waffles already."

"No! Let go! I said get off! Help!"

The Young Dragon nearly got to his feet, but then he remembered there were two people involved whom he was to avoid, one he was to avoid without a doubt and the other one the resident whom it was only probably a good idea to avoid. With an uneasy look, he gave a frustrated sigh and hoped for the best.

He was going to be good. He was going to stay put and be good.

"Kenji! Help me! Kenjiiiii!"

His insides curdled and a sudden pang made his chest ache and brought back an old fear. He clenched his fists on the grass and remembered someone, or was it something? Was it just The Doctor of whom he was thinking? Hints of fear and pain were lurking in his mind and adding to his worry, but It was the resident legend of the labs and those who lived and worked in this particular building that had come back to him. Uriko was a rebellious character. What if the doctor was going to do that to her?

The acolyte shook his head and tried to block out the screams until they faded away.

He was going to be good. He was going to stay put and be good.

"Uriko..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shenlong had the squirming subject in a tight grip, out of which she found a way to wriggle somehow. She struggled and screamed, but he managed to keep her in his grasp. He had her by her arms so she could face the doctor by the time Shenlong got to where he was.

"Is this the one?" he asked, holding her up.

The doctor wore a huge grin when he saw her. He held up his palms and approached her, which only made the situation worse.

"Eek! A pervert! Get away from me!"

"Now, little girl," he told her while placing one large hand on her arm, causing her to stiffen in repulsion, "This is all in the name of Science, so..."

"Huepa!" she roared to strengthen the leg that flew straight up to hit Busuzima in the chin. He flew back and Uriko continued to struggle. Her captor, still keeping his tight grip on her, commented with a small smirk, "That wasn't a bad kick for an experiment."

"Nobody appreciates my scientific genius," he sighed, rubbing his nose, "But can't you see.... Science is better than love will ever be. Falling in love is based on chaotic theory!"

He continued to explain, "Listen: through his experiments, Heisenberg concluded that the accurate measurement of one of two related observable quantities, such as position and momentum, produce uncertainties in the measurement of the other. He figured that the product of the uncertainties of position, and the uncertainties of momentum, equal to or greater than h over 2º, where h= planks constant. It means that observations in quantum mechanics always lead to uncertainty. You understand this, don't you?"

"No. Not at all (Isn't that, like, out of your field or something?)," the man grunted.

"I don't get it..." squeaked a confused Uriko.

Busuzima quickly proclaimed, "Exactly. So it's no use explaining what we'll be doing to you. So just keep quiet."

"No! I won't!" She squealed, but the doctor was ready with an injection of a sedative that stopped her stirring. The green haired man quickly carried her limp body to where they would be working.

The braided girl later lay strapped into a chair inside a small room with a rather large one-way mirror. She had been injected with a number of drugs and her arms and neck were hooked up to sources of other drugs yet to enter her body. A number of electrodes were attached to her forehead and her chest to monitor her. One of the various instruments attached to her looked somewhat like an electrode, save for a few details which were probably there to tell it apart from the others. She had been trying to panic and hyperventilate, but the sedative kept her body at a considerably calmer state.

"So what's all this about?" Shenlong yawned.

The doctor chuckled. "You could say... I'm making a goddess."

Something, for once, had caught his interest and he voiced it in a brief questioning sound without opening his mouth.

"Ah, so now you're interested. I've been waiting for another one of her kind for so long... Let's hope I don't ruin my chance, like with-"

"Mmmm? Like with whom, grass man?"

He shook his head and went back to his work, "Just thinking out loud."

As Shenlong did not exactly give a damn about what the doctor did, he accepted that response and looked back through the barrier and mumbled, "Why couldn't you find a damn woman and not some little kid?"

"What's that?"

He told him he was merely thinking aloud as well. After all, he would be far superior to her anyway, even if she did become some sort of "goddess," so she would still be of a caliber not high enough for him to bother with.

"Whatever. Starting procedure," Hajime sighed, making notes before moving his hands to the controls.

Inside the room, Uriko's mind became fogged when more drugs flowed into her bloodstream. Sweat poured from her face and her heart became excited despite the sedative and it began beat harder and more rapidly. The world turned blurry and started to move and her insides stirred uncomfortably.

She could barely even ask herself what was happening when her body started to shake and her muscles spasmed along with her gasping breaths.

Then, Busuzima turned on the energy input, and a small flow of electricity was run through her to reach deeper inside her.

Uriko was scared beyond belief and the pulse was only becoming faster and faster, as if something was trying to burst out from within her...

As Shenlong watched, he could sense something oddly familiar about what was happening. Somewhere inside, he could almost feel a hint of fear pertaining to this event.

"Doc..." he asked to take the uneasiness off his mind, "What's with the enclosed room?"

"Containment," he quickly told him before turning up the input, making her condition speed up more.

As planned, the energy connected with something inside her core and fed it. It responded, and Uriko's thoughts faded away as a wave of energy rose up to the surface from the depths.

"Containment? For what?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Prince Cronos strolled through the hallways, on another one of his walks through the building of torture at which he resided.

"Ho hum... How tragic it all is, really..." he sighed to the ceiling, "My only pleasure is making that man's life miserable with childish antics because I am unable to do anything else. I cannot kill him and he cannot kill me. If only there was a way out of this foul stalemate... one that favors my side, of course. Ah... Alas, it seems I am merely a puppet to do just what dear father does when he dies, and there seems to be no room for actual ruling myself in such a condition. Ah, and let us not forget my being an unofficial experiment. Knowing all this... Why do I even dream?"

He shook his head and went about his business, having spouted his bout of poetry for the afternoon. He delicately touched his fingertips to his forehead and turned around just in time to see a flash of purple light from the end of the hall, followed by a sound like that of shattering glass and a voice yelling, "She's lose!" There were the sounds of explosions and wreckage, and the cries of Busuzima mourning his equipment following. Then, what looked like a ghost sped up the hall in his direction. On closer inspection, it appeared to be a young lady dressed in the human test subject's garb and collar. The sprit-like appearance came not only from her fluttering gown but from the space between her feet and the floor. She hovered over the tiles, while the mere mortals far behind her had to run on their feet. Her eyes were wide open and contained an empty, almost possessed look. Shadows darkened her grim expression and invisible power flowed around her, keeping her dress and hair in constant midair motion.

When she passed by the prince, her head snapped towards him and she extended one hand in his direction. Violet lightning burst from her fingertips and struck the Prince, lifting him into the air briefly. During those short moments, time stood still and everything either disappeared from view or simply did not matter anymore. All who existed were the two, connected by the attack. His heart recognized this energy somehow and when he looked upon his attacker, or at least tried to, he saw someone very different instead of that young girl. When he hit the ground, she continued fleeing and destroying. Cronos, panting, got himself into a sitting position and watched her as Hajime Busuzima and Shenlong arrived.

"Dear doctor," he cooed, still looking down the hall.

"You saw her?"

He faced him and completely tensed himself with an insane expression and his open hands' palms faced the ceiling, their fingers stiffened into positions as if they bore claws ready to attack.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

"Erm, that would be my new goddess..."

"And just why the hell are we making attack goddesses?"

"Just shut up and help me catch her. We have to get her before she transforms," Hajime ordered before continuing to run after her. The Prince decided to follow, not just out of morbid curiosity, but because of those few seconds of being caught in her attack.

Who was that girl? What was that feeling I felt just then?

The experiment was headed for a room with only one way in or out. When she cast her eyes on the equipment that filled it, she immediately set about destroying it with the light from her hands. The three chasing her hid behind a desk and watched her ruin Busuzima's tools.

"So how the hell are we supposed to stop a rampaging power-happy goddess?" Cronos whispered.

"Actually," the doctor informed him, "That state is very dangerous and wild, but incredibly easy to control."

"Is it?"

He nodded and explained with a proud smile, "With the right restraints, which I created, you can control them completely without any problems at all!"

"And why don't we have those restraints?" the dark-haired man asked in a voice that sounded as bored as one could allow given the situation.

"We do! I have them right here!"

Busuzima seemed to pull a set of shackles connected to thick chains from out of nowhere. They looked like an unusually Medieval way of restraining someone of such power, but the thick clamps bore little screens and monitoring devices. Shenlong and Cronos looked at the chains in his hands and then glared at Busuzima for a few seconds. The turned around and Cronos said dully, "You are..."

Shenlong continued, "...Really stupid..."

"...Aren't you?" Cronos finished.

"I-I forgot, okay?" he stammered. Just then, the purple lightning struck the desk and revealed their position. "Heads up!" the prince yelped. The three dove in opposite directions to avoid another onslaught of her powers.

"You're just stuck on energy attacks, aren't you," Shenlong growled, "Two can play at that game!" "Here's how you use an energy attack!" he yelled before concentrating sanguine energy in his palms. He quickly ducked under a lightning enhanced kick and came up, thrusting his palms at her torso. The ki sphere expanded a moment against her and then burst, sending her flying back, where the prince was waiting, one bronze arm extended to catch her by the waist.

"Pardon me," he politely requested, leaning the girl back. He brought his left hand over her heart and a ball of gold light formed in his palm and spread up his arm as the same yellow light surrounded her body and went into his hand. The pull of her energy being torn from her drew her upwards while Cronos extended his other arm behind him. He brought his right arm back to catch her when he had his fill of her powers. He kneeled, cradling her and lightly placing his left hand on her chest. Her eyes fluttered open and a panicked teenager glanced around and then up at the prince smiling at her. She desperately thrust her hand on front of his face, and he could have sworn he saw a small puff of smoke come from her fingers.

"Don't tell me you just..." Busuzima stammered.

Cronos lightly held her extended hand and put it down ever so gently. "You must be tired after your journey from the heavens," he purred with a warm smile and glittering emerald eyes. The fallen angel desperately looked at her hands and then tried to bring out power she now knew she was inside her, summoning a bright flash of light.

The doctor dove behind wreckage screaming, "She's transforming!" Shenlong braced himself against whatever would follow the bright flash of light. When he was able to look, he made a face and yelled, "Is this what you were freaking out over?" In Cronos' arms was the maiden, still about the same size as before. Now, striped orange fur covered her skin and her warm brown eyes had turned a bright green, which surrounded long slits for pupils. Her hands and feet were now large round paws and pointed ears poked up from her hair while a furry tail peeked out from the bottom of her gown. "She isn't even completely transformed," he complained.

The feline teenager made a confused, "Nyaaaaa?!" while Cronos let out a small chuckle. She saw her retractable claws come out of her paws and she sat up to attack while letting out a fierce hiss. The Prince held up his left arm just in time to take the repeated blows for his face. When she was done filling his arm with oozing red lines, she pounced on his head and leapt off it, sending the silver haired prince to the floor while she went up to a large ventilation shaft that hung from the ceiling. Meowing, she ran along it on all fours and made a break for it above their heads, leaving a very upset Busuzima.

"No! Nonononono! You ruined it! You ruined it! Such an easy code! I thought I'd never find another one and you ruined it!"

"Ouch ouch ouch ouch..." Cronos chanted while clutching his arm and then complained, "Well, how was I supposed to know anything about this 'goddess' business? I was just stopping her before she killed us all!"

"She's no good anymore!" he continued to rant without thinking of what those listening to him would figure out from what he was saying, "That kind is easy to activate but you only get one chance and now she's a wimpy not-even-proper zoanthrope!"

Shenlong grunted, "This is what you wasted your time over? You wrecked the place just to make a wimpy half-beast?"

"A 'half-beast?'" the prince echoed.

"Didn't you see her? Her transformation was too human to be a proper zoanthrope."

Her chance at being a 'goddess' was ruined and now her transformation into a beast person is too much in one direction... Interesting.

What? What's this?

Cronos felt his heart beating and the flames rising around him. His body surged with the power he had stolen from her. He cringed and tried to hold it in and shove the fire into a small ball and the reaction disappeared, to his relief.

I'm reacting to her energy. How are we connected to each other? I wonder...

He hissed in pain and left to his quarters, pondering these events and that girl. He pushed open the door to his luxurious area of the building and called out to his bodyguard, "Ganesha! Get the peroxide; I think I'm in love!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Busu-freak," the scarred man snarled through the food in his mouth.

"What is it," sighed a broken-hearted scientist.

"These waffles suck."

"That's great."

"No," He stated with wide-eyed commanding expression as a wall of flame shot up behind him, "I don't think you understand. These waffles suck. They suck ass."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the middle of the night when the lights were out, a lone figure crept into the labs, holding a ladder. He nervously glanced around, and then swallowed a breath and decided to keep going. It was bad luck to say he did not exist, but then again... It had been so many years since anything had happened, so perhaps it was safe go around in the dark like this.

What about that freak explosion last month?

There was always something that kept the stories alive when people began to doubt. Even now, after all these years, people rarely stepped foot in the labs in the dead of the night when the lights were out. Even Busuzima, though he denied it, was a believer.

He passed by a bottle left on the corner of the said doctor's desk and almost chuckled at how the he as well still believed after all these years.

Was he one of them? Of course he was! He, of all people, should have been a believer.

That's right. It was not long after I first met him... and it was just before we found Bitey.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The small flashlight's beam pierced through the dark as the young boy clad in fine pajamas and fuzzy slippers tiptoed around the place well after bedtime. His nanny never let him go very far into the labs, especially after what had happened only about a few months before. Nobody wanted to disobey the doctor after hearing the rumors that had spread. It had taken a while and a few damages and deaths, but the rumors had expanded to something of a ghost story.

All of the victims were wandering around at night. They were found the next day, completely void of blood. Notes were left, which the doctor immediately snatched up and showed nobody. The scientists started coming up with "rules" of what would please this resident ghost, and the doctor found himself obeying these rules as well. One of these was not going around in the dark at night.

A sudden noise brought him to spin around only to point the light at no moving thing.

It's nothing. There's nothing here. But what's that high pitched noise?

He gathered up his courage and ventured forth towards the sound. On the steps of the entrance to where the ninja resided, a furry creature about his height was curled up. It seemed to be half-asleep, and its shoulders shook every now and then as it let out another set of quiet squeaking.

When the boy stepped closer, he could see a little tail lying flat on the floor through the fabric of the experiments' gown he was wearing.

"Oi!" he yelled, slamming his foot down on the barely visible tail. The creature immediately up with a loud squeak. It turned around and saw him and transformed into a human boy, one a few years younger than the other.

"Prince Cronos!" He yelped before giving a quick bow.

"Ryu!"

"You shouldn't be out here," the younger boy whispered, "It's almost midnight."

"Well, you're out, aren't you?" the young Cronos reasoned. The younger boy looked to one side, ashamed, and barely uttered, "I don't want to talk about that."

A twinge of guilt passed through the older child when the ex-heir said this and he tried to not make it obvious that he was at fault in a way.

Ryu, the Young Dragon, was a very quiet child who bore an almost sad expression. He was the heir to the Clan of the Soil, whom Cronos had first encountered not long after he arrived from his homeland. He was polite and he often only spoke when spoken to. He now stood as if he were already dead, with his eyelids half-lowered and with his arms dangling lifelessly from his shoulders.

"Well, I'm not afraid! Do you believe what they say? You know it's just to keep people from snooping around!"

Ryu slowly shook his head and said quietly, "No. Doctor let the word of what happened go around to do that. But... he did not think this would happen."

The prince laughed, "You're acting like you've seen him!"

Just as dully, the ghostly child told him, "I have." The prince immediately stopped laughing and stared at him.

"Eh?"

"I've seen him," he uttered, still as lifeless as before, "We've all seen him."

"You're not"

He slowly brought one hand up to his collar and lightly held it in his fingers. "One of us... He might want you. You should leave." His eyes and face looked so empty and his high voice uncomfortably tickled the soul when it daintily played with the words coming from him.

Cronos stepped back and audibly shuddered. That kid could be so damn... creepy sometimes! He was so strange, especially since after...

"What, you mean" Cronos looked around, "Stephen Goldberg?

The child gently put one hand up to the elder's mouth and warned, "You shouldn't say that name."

"Well anyway I'm looking for something," the Prince half-lied, "And it's really, really important."

The heir was visibly saddened by the reminder of the cause of his own misery. Cronos gulped with another zap from his conscience and told him to come with him. As he was royalty, Ryu, of course, obeyed. The two set off in the dark, the dark-skinned child leading the way with his flashlight.

"So Is it true what they say? Did they really make him into a monster?"

"We shouldn't talk about that out loud," was the response.

"Oh, come on! What ha-"

A loud crash, followed by the splash of a large amount of water, interrupted him. "What was that?!" The two immediately clutched each other and faced from where the noise seemed to come. After a few seconds of fear and mostly silence save for the slight sounds of movement, the royal child regained his dignity and pushed himself away from the ninja and regained his posture.

"Let's see what it is!" he dared himself and his companion and charged onward.

"You shouldn't," the Young Dragon pleaded, following him, "You didn't hear anything! It's your imagination, prince!"

"What are you saying," he joked. He ran until his foot made a large splash in a far-reaching puddle. His arm jerked when his foot became soaked all of a sudden, and the yellow spotlight briefly flashed over a very strange sight. What was it? He could only make out very strange looking discolored arms and legs, tattered clothes, bandages, and gleaming yellow eyes. He jumped with a squeal and aimed his flashlight back into the room, where there was now nobody.

"I saw him! I saw him!"

The ninja caught up with him. "You didn't! You didn't!"

"Are you nuts? It was-!"

Just then, he felt a presence behind him, like it was breathing down the back of his neck. The subtle disturbance of a few of the outmost hairs informed him of something sharp and grasping positioned over his head. Ryu seemed to feel the looming presence as well and his body tensed up and he obediently locked his gaze forward and refused to look behind him. Cronos now got the hint.

"Then again I think I was just seeing things."

"You probably were. The dark can make your imagination go wild."

The two, cringing, squeezed their eyes shut and stood still for what felt like hours. Finally, Cronos whispered, "Is he gone yet?"

"I think so."

The both let out a simultaneous sigh of relief. The Young Dragon made motions to turn around, but the prince, intrigued by the noise and the water on the floor, told him their exploration was not over yet.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And it seems to be either the fear of sharing that man's fate or sharing the fate of his victims that fills us all

He spotted the round form on top of an air shaft and set up the ladder. He quietly tiptoed up the steps. There she was, curled up like the cat she had become.

"Pussy," He beckoned, making a little motion with his fingers, "Here, puss puss puss"

She was asleep, it seemed. He stepped down to move the ladder closer to her and then climbed back up so he could gently take her down. The prince gathered her up in his arms and carried her back to where he resided. The way she was curled up in his arms was so cute to him. The way her paws were daintily crossed over each other made him smile. He brushed back a lock of her brown hair and scratched her behind her large furry ear, bringing out a light purr as she unconsciously leaned into his hand.

You're like me. Mysterious maiden, fate has brought us to cross paths. Our lives and destinies are intertwined.

And you're awfully, cute, too