Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball, Dragonball Z, or Dragonball GT. Those and the characters were created by Akira Toriyama, so please do not sue.


Chapter 14 - An Angel's Message



It was her again.

In the distance. For the second time she could remember since she had first appeared in Sashima's dream eight years ago.

"Why are you here?" Sashima hesitantly asked, daring to venture with the slightly offending question. She did not want to sound arrogant, as the events of the previous day had been enough cause for the respect of this angel.

The high angel's pure-crystalline wings fluttered in an invisible breeze, her dawn like gown radiating a high sense of power about its wearer, who stood in utter nothingness. She opened her eyes and stared directly at the red-haired woman, the silence descending before them prior to her speaking.

"Sashima, do you remember how you survived that fire yesterday--the one which devoured the whole of Capsule Corporation Hospital." Her voiced echoed in the nothingness, a quality beautiful, yet obscure all the same.

"You told me that already, I remembered, that same night, and I knew it too. Was it not that I was already dead, but the gods had wanted me to live as a mortal human for an even longer amount of time?" She could hardly keep the scorn out of her voice as she faced the high angel, even though she knew fairly well its power would exceed hers greatly.

"No need for bitterness," it replied, the same hollowness in her voice. "It is extremely true that the gods had wanted you alive for at least a bit more time."

But Sashima neither listened, nor understood. "Why? Why do I live this life as a human? Can I not return to the heavens and live in peace?"

"I'm sorry, but that is not possible at the moment. The fact that you are a cross between us angels and our enemy, the demons, arises many complications. Unless you have proven yourself pure, you have no right to be in the heavens."

"Pure? How can I accomplish that? I now live in the human world, as a mortal, and as the rule goes, no mortal is pure enough to ascend to our level!"

"I see…the demon is still within you, Sashima. I've said it before, I'll say it again. There is no way you will be able to get into Heaven with the demon within you. I was watching you earlier. You saw how the demon was, how it impaired your judgment. When you were on that island, what did you feel? Remorse? Sorrow? Bitterness? Or nothing at all?" There was an almost sadness to her voice, as if she had felt pity at her own words, Sashima thought. But no, that couldn't be…

"I don't know how I felt…" she replied, trying to sound as honest as possible. "I felt sorrow at the death of my sister, but there was another voice in my head…then after that, I lost it. I don't know how I feel now, but it seems…my sister doesn't matter right now. Nothing about her seems to matter now…I don't know why…"

"Ah…so that is how it is…" the angel mused, pursing her lips slightly. "I was afraid of that. You threatened to kill today, did you not?"

Sashima heaved a deep breath and sighed, hanging her hair in shame. "Yes, it is true…I'm sorry. I've done it before…to others, I mean. It's just…that uncontrollable drive to kill, whenever I think it is necessary. If it wasn't for the police arriving, I would have exterminated every single one of them right then and there."

"I am not surprised, Sashima. This was expected of you, as the angel and demon blood inside of you would continue to battle it all out. I must warn you, at times your nature could be severely impaired by this, and you may feel completely out of hand, as like today. There is no way to control this." Steadily, the celestial being rose from the nothingness and began ascending, calling out her last words.

"Remember what I said, Sashima, and always be careful of yourself." With that, she began to fade into the blinding whiteness.

"Wait! Why am I in this dimension?!" shouted Sashima from the ground below, but it was too late; the angel had already floated too high to be seen. "Wait!" On impulse, she took flight, only to feel a force so great that it tossed her right back to the ground, and she felt herself falling, swirling, deeper and deeper…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She jerked bolt upright in the bed, the sheets scattered around in a tangled pile. Looking around, she spied the clock on the dresser, which read 11:53 P.M. Outside the open windows, the clear night's sky revealed an abundance of brightly lit stars, and even what she could almost distinguish as a planet among them as well.

"Was all that a dream?" she mused, flopping back down onto the comfortable pillows and staring at the ceiling above her. "It was another message from the angel. I wonder why she never comes to just see me in real person…it certainly would be easy enough, and there's nothing to fear about me, right? I'm only a demi-angel, and they aren't as powerful as the high angels…so that's not possible…and what did she mean by the gods wanting me to live longer? The hell…I should've been dead by now! I would've been dead and my soul would be reborn as a baby once again and I would've lived another life as a human, so WHY?! Why in the world did the gods want me to live? Am I supposed to do something important in this wretched life??" Out of frustration, she slammed her right fist into the wall behind her, a crack branching out from the spot where hand and wall had connected.

She sighed, turning to examine the wall. "I'll fix that tomorrow," she grumbled, and turned onto her side, attempting to fall back asleep once more.

After a couple of minutes, Sashima laid under the covers, reflecting on her thoughts--she wasn't able to sleep. There was a faint ringing from the depths of her head, pounding it until it was almost unbearable.

"I must've gone crazy; I'm hearing bells and alarms now." Scoffing, the covers were thrown off, only to be met by a high-pitched alarm.

"What the hell is going--" she began, but never had the chance to finish.

KERBLAM!

"Something is definitely not right here!" Sprinting from the bed and hurriedly stepping into a pair of cotton slippers, Sashima swung the wooden door wide open and dashed into the corridor, clad only in pajama bottoms and a loose top. From the end of the hall, another door slammed open, the sound reverberating throughout the house, Vegeta standing in the doorway. Dressed only in drawstring pajama bottoms and his top half completely shirtless, he had on a look of utter annoyance and rage from being disturbed from a peaceful sleep.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" he demanded, stalking over to Sashima and glaring straight at her, as if she was the cause of the problem. He stood a meager inch taller than she did.

"Look, I don't have time to talk to you, but it looks like someone broke into this house--"

"Who set off the burglar alarm?" a voice cried out from around the corner. A second later, Dr. Briefs and Mrs. Briefs appeared, looking highly distressed. "Er…you're Sashima?" Dr. Briefs inquired, examining her face through thick spectacles.

"Yes," she replied hastily. "Dr. Briefs, right? Do you know what is going on here? Why did the alarm go off?"

"The only possibility is that someone or something broke in, although that's virtually impossible, as we have the highest security in the region," answered Dr. Briefs, striding towards the stairs leading down to the first floor. "I'm going down to check it out." He had reached the first step when Mrs. Briefs grabbed a hold of his arm, and pulled him from going any farther.

"Don't go! You don't know what might be down there!" Mrs. Briefs screeched, "You might get hurt!"

"Let us go down there," Sashima spoke up. "Dr. Briefs, Mrs. Briefs, if you can wake up Bulma and get out of the house as quickly as possible. Vegeta, you're coming with me."

"And why should I listen to you?" he scowled, crossing his muscular arms across his bare chest.

"Because I don't think you'll like the alarm ringing the whole night!" With that, she reached the polished banister and vaulted agilely over it, landing silently on the floor of the dark living room twenty feet below. "Come on!" she hissed above to Vegeta, who reluctantly leaped over the railing, landing next to her.

"Let's get this clear--I am not doing this for anyone's benefit--" Vegeta glared, as they made their way silently towards the source of the alarm, in the direction of the kitchen. "--this is merely--"

"Just shut up, will you? I don't see why Bulma ever bothered to let you stay here in the first place when the least you can do is help her out a little when there's trouble!" Sashima shot back, slinking steadily forward.

"Who are you to be talking to the Prince of Saiyans like that?! You are a mere human--"

She gritted her teeth to force the anger from coming out along with her words. This Vegeta was certainly a pain in the ass, and it took the absolute amount of determination and will power for her to resist swinging a kick or throwing a punch at the filthy mouth he had.

As they reached the darkened kitchen, both Vegeta and Sashima increased their senses of alert. At their positions pressed against either sides of the doorway, the alarm was deafening, almost piercing their sensitive eardrums. The woman motioned for Vegeta to come forward, and then she too, entered the kitchen, flipping the switch and throwing a blinding light on everything within sight.

"Ugh," she muttered, moving an arm to shield her eyes. It wasn't too bright, but the suddenness of it wasn't at all exactly pleasant.

"What? You can't see?" Vegeta smirked, making his way to the fridge and taking out some leftovers in preparedness to make himself a midnight snack.

Glaring at him through reddened eyes, she reached the lever for the manual alarm and turned it off. An eerie silence descended over them, a much drastic comparison to the mayhem of the alarm a few seconds before.

"Who said I couldn't see?" she retorted, marching over and snatching the bread from Vegeta's hand. "This is no time to be eating! There is someone in the house, can't you sense it?"

He narrowed his eyes, frowning. "You can sense ki?" he growled, laying down the rest of the food and slamming the fridge until the hinges shook violently.

It was Sashima's turn to frown. "I'm able to, but that's not important right now. Where is this person?!"

"Apparently I sense a different ki in this house, but it's relatively weak--a human's ki."

"I do too, but I can't pinpoint where it is! He must've heard us when we got downstairs or something, then ran upstairs or…" she froze, the words catching in her throat. If he was not downstairs and his ki was still able to be sensed…

"What is it? Hurry up and finish talking!" Vegeta ordered.

"I sense four kis upstairs."

Vegeta tensed, turning his head sharply to the direction of which they came from. His scowl just moments before transformed into a darkened look.

Their eyes met. They knew what was running through each other's mind, but before they had even made two steps forward--

"Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee!!!!"

CRACK!

Sashima paled. "Bulma…" she whispered, her mind suddenly imagining the worse.



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AN: Nothing much to say here…just luckily, the chapters are a little shorter now. I should make an effort to proofread and edit more carefully as well. There's a chance that this story may exceed 30 chapters.