"Oh Kami…I can't be…"
Even teleporting at her swiftest speed, it was too late. By the time she had reached Bulma, her assailant had been done with her, leaving the woman lying on the forest floor, the deep gash in her throat spurting out blood at a rate that would have sickened even the most refined of surgeons. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Bulma, you can't die right now! You just can't!" Sashima's cries rang throughout the trees, echoing around her. "I promised your parents I would return with you safely and now what? You've just got to hang on!"
Gently raising Bulma's head to rest on her knee, she did a quick evaluation on her condition. She was by no means a doctor, but from the amount of blood she was losing and the draining color from her face, there was little time to spare. Either get her to the nearest place, or let her life slowly ebb away among the desolate trees.
"You've got to remain strong, Bulma--don't give up!" She did not know how the words of encouragement would do Bulma any good, as she was certain she would not be able to hear them. What Bulma needed was an extension on her life--enough time until something more powerful could be administered to revive her.
But what? Bulma had mentioned that while Sashima herself had been on the brink of death, they had used some sort of magical bean--what was it called?? A senzu bean! Yes, that was what it had been called! Though where she would find one, she had no idea, but she knew a person that most definitely would.
At that moment, a dark cloud passed over the moon, obscuring the little light that had managed to pierce its way into the heart of the forest. The wind began to pick up, sending the chill breeze to ruffle her clothes and splatter Bulma's blood against her own face. If she had strained her ears, Sashima would have heard a distant roar of thunder.
"More time…she needs more time…" One last glance at Bulma told her she only had about a minute more of life left, at most. Looking back onto herself, it was then that Sashima could no longer hold back her last doubts.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly inched her hand onto Bulma's neck, the warm blood against her fingers making her feel extremely sick to the stomach. Channeling a portion of her remaining energy through her palm and into Bulma, the wound slowly began to heal itself, the color returning gradually until her face was no longer the sheet-colored white. Still, Bulma's eyelids did not flutter open as Sashima expected they would.
The sudden flash that illuminated the forest scattered a few monkeys into sprinting higher among the branches of their tree homes. Presently, the low growl of thunder pounded itself overhead, large flocks of birds taking to the sky. Soon, the rains would come.
Sashima slumped back against the trunk of the enormous tree, catching her breath. The rise and fall of her chest slowly decreased in speed as her brain came out of the mist. Ki energy would have done no good to Bulma's life, and in turn, she had had to use the energy that no warrior on Earth possessed--energy that only the immortals held. In truth, beginning stuck in a human's body gave her the advantage of both stores.
"You have about an hour more, Bulma…hopefully that's enough time…" Getting to her feet, she laid a hand on Bulma's shoulder and shut her eyelids tight.
* * * * *
"GOHAN! It's time to get ready for bed!" Chi-Chi called into the living room, where both father and son sat, eyes glued to the t.v. screen.
"But Mom, ten more minutes? Please? He's about to--" Gohan stared up at his mother, pleading with his eyes.
"No! It is almost 10:30 and your bedtime! You get ready for bed right this instance--"
"Aw, come on Chi-Chi, Gohan doesn't have school or anything tomorrow, so an extra ten minutes won't really…" Goku trailed off as Chi-Chi's ice-cold glare pierced him, shutting him up.
"Now Gohan…you heard what your mother said…"
"But Dad, I--OOMPH!"
The combined weight of Sashima and Bulma came crashing down all at once on young Gohan, atop his back and rear. If it weren't for the fact that Gohan was a half-Saiyan, he most surely would have been crushed.
Face flat on the wooden floor, he slowly raised it, bright red, and mumbled, "Please get off of me…it's very uncomfortable you know."
"Oh! Bulma!" Chi-Chi exclaimed, hurrying forward and grasping Bulma by the hand, yet pulling back startled at the amount of blood that had already escaped from the wound. "Bulma! What happened? Bulma, please answer me! This is Chi-Chi!"
"She won't be able to hear you--she's lost a lot of blood." Sashima spoke quietly, carrying Bulma from off of Gohan and laying her straight on the wooden floor. "Someone go get a washcloth and clean her up."
"Wait a second." Goku put a hand on Sashima's shoulder, not exactly forceful, but nevertheless wary. "I think you should tell us what happened first?" In the other room, they could hear the sounds of Chi-Chi drawing water into a basin.
Sashima sighed, taking a seat by Bulma. "There was a break-in at Capsule Corporation early this morning. I suppose you heard about it on the news?"
Goku and Gohan were attentive in listening as they slowly nodded. It had been breaking news early that morning. Chi-Chi hurried in from the bathroom, lugging a wooden basin and several washcloths. With gentleness she rarely showed, she began to bath Bulma's wounds. "Bulma…please wake up…"
"Well, Bulma and I dug up a lead to the break-in…"
"But what exactly did happen?" Goku broke in. "All we heard was that several men had attempted to break into Bulma's home to obtain information and were arrested by the police later on."
"It turned out they wanted ownership documents for Capsule Corporation. They threatened to kill the Briefs if they would not hand them over."
"WHAT?!" The entire Son family gasped in unison.
It was now Sashima's turn to nod. "They were instructed by a man by the name of Paul Willis, a doctor at C.C. This afternoon, Bulma found out that the real Willis had died two years back, and the one working at C.C. had been a fake. When I was going to go after the fake this evening…Bulma insisted on coming…"
"We flew into the forest from Capsule Corp. I suggested that we split up since we would have covered more ground, but…that was foolish of me, now I realize. Bulma…she's just a human…she's…she's not like me…there was a dangerous man loose in the forest, and I just had to suggest that we'd have to split up! It's…it's…I'm sorry Bulma…" Turning her face away to hide the tears, Chi-Chi quietly gave her a tissue, which she used to dab her eyes with.
"Before I could stop her, she had already gone…I couldn't find her in the forest. By the time I did find her…her neck was slashed open, and she was almost dead. The person--I'm assuming it was the Willis impersonator himself--was nowhere to be seen."
"Oh Kami!" Chi-Chi shrieked, all faces turning to her abruptly. "The wound's already closed!"
"It should be. I gave her about 75% of my energy--enough to last for an hour. If not, she would have died by now."
"How…how…I never knew ki can be used that way…" Goku stammered, bewildered. Again he tried to gauge the woman's ki: a steady 500. So she had not lost any from before…
"It's not ki I used." Sashima's blunt answer startled Goku greatly, but before he could react, her eyes narrowed and she faced him, almost scowling. "We're wasting too much time here. We need to get her a senzu bean or whatever you call them!"
"Right." His face all seriousness, Goku laid two fingers onto his forehead. "I'll be back in a few minutes." With that, he teleported off to Korin Tower in search of Karin.
"I'd better be going too, Chi-Chi." She turned to leave.
"Wait! Sashima! Where are you going?"
"To get payback on Willis. Don't worry, I'll be back in less than an hour." With fists clenched tightly at her sides, she teleported out of the Son's living room.
"Sashima…" Chi-Chi whispered, clutching Gohan tightly.
"Mom, would Miss Sashima be alright?" Gohan peered up at his mother, deeply understanding the situation at hand, even though he was only a child. Looking down at the still figure of Bulma, he added, "Is Bulma going to be alright?"
"I hope so, Gohan…I sincerely hope so…"
A flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder; they were brighter, louder, closer now. Several minutes later, it had begun to pour.
* * * * *
Luckily, she found the entrance to the cave before the rain started. She was almost glowing with anger as she pushed aside the hanging vines and stepped into the damp entrance. It seemed like a dank corridor hewn from stone, but there was a shiny and metallic quality to the walls and ceilings. He was here--that was for sure.
As she made her way slowly down the metallic hallway, all of her senses were turned onto highest alert. One could not tell if the place was not rigged with booby traps or anything of the like. About halfway down the hallway, she noticed there were more and more square openings into the wall--getting denser and denser as she traveled.
All of a sudden there was a flash of light, blinding her temporarily. A hot flash of pain seared across her left shoulder before she knew what had hit her.
Presently, there were many lasers being fired from the holes in the wall, rapidly, all at once, until it was impossible to dodge them without getting hit. The ones that hadn't managed to strike their target ricocheted off the steel walls, so there was a constant round of fire. It was all she could do to conjure up a quick ki shield, and even then she had to concentrate on holding it steady.
As quickly as it had started, the lasers ceased their fire and all was quiet once again. "Damn! What kind of maniac is this?!" She bit her lip as tiny rivulets of blood streamed down from her arms, back and legs, where the laser blasts had punctured through her black leather and created minor injuries.
"What next?" She muttered, keeping her ki shield firmly in place if any more traps were to come. The more she walked, the dampness increased greatly, until it seemed as if the rain from outside was pouring directly into the cavern. For about fifteen minutes she traveled on, encountering little to hinder her way, until she came to a three-way fork in the passage.
"A fork…which one to take…all three lead to the same destination, but what might be IN those tunnels is the problem…"
She glanced at her wristwatch. Unless Goku had returned by then and administered the senzu bean, there was only a bit more than half an hour for Bulma. Taking a deep breath, she plunged straight through the middle passage.
At once, a steel door slammed shut from behind her, and farther ahead, the grating sounds of something remarkably like a chainsaw…
"What is it NOW? Damnit…oh Kami, what the hell is that?!" Along the corridor ahead was a rumbling sound, and as it got increasingly louder, what produced it came into view: a set of rotating blades set only inches apart from one another, coming towards her with rapid speed.
"When I get my hands on that freak, I swear I'm never gonna let him near a control panel ever again!"
The blades were moving closer--twenty feet, fifteen, ten, five, until at long last, they creaked to a groaning stop in front of the steel doors, four feet back from the place where Sashima had stood.
"You have to do better than that." Sashima snickered, as she appeared farther down the hall, unharmed this time by the blades. "This is too much like an Indiana Jones--Ahh!"
She was cut off in mid-sentence as the floor panel beneath her feet gave way, and before she could catch herself, began plummeting head first deeper and deeper within the earth.
Sashima hit the thick, liquidly substance with a tremendous SPLOSH that reverberated eerily within the steel chamber.
* * * * *
"What?! What do you mean the senzu beans are not done growing yet?" Goku was panicking--Bulma only had about twenty minutes left.
Karin leaned casually against his staff, moving along his precious bean plants. "I'm sorry Goku, but you took the last one I had the other day, and it takes awhile until these babies are grown and ready to be harvested."
"Well, how much longer?" cried Goku.
"Hmm…" Stopping from his work momentarily, Karin stroked his chin, calculating the remaining time. "I say about half a day should do it…"
"What?! But we can't wait half a day! Bulma has less than an hour to live!"
"Have you tried the hospital yet?" Karin said simply.
"What? The hospital…"
The white cat fell over on both his legs.
"YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T BROUGHT HER TO A HOSPITAL YET?!"
"Er…no…"
* * * * *
Back at the Son residence, Chi-Chi anxiously paced back and forth, glancing at the clock every ten seconds.
"Mom! You're gonna wear the floor right through if you don't remain calm!" Gohan shouted to his mother, taking her by the hand and sitting her in a chair by the table. "You've got to have faith that Miss Sashima would return on time!"
"I know, Gohan…but what if she doesn't? It's been forty minutes, and there hasn't been a sign from either her or Goku. If Goku had gotten the senzu bean, he would've been back long before now!"
"Mom…do you think there is something strange about Miss Sashima?" Gohan asked softly.
"No…not particularly. I have no idea how she just got into our home with Bulma, but other than that…"
"I think Dad suspects something about her, too. Her ki is way lower than Dad and I, but she said she used some other kind of energy to give life back to Bulma."
A flash of concern crossed Chi-Chi's face. "What are you suggesting, Gohan?"
There was a grim look about his face as he answered her. "Her other store of energy is more powerful than ki. Meaning--if she was to fight against us, we probably would not stand much of a chance."
* * * * *
A crackle greeted her as she surfaced from the lime green liquid, making her way to the edge of the pool and dragging herself out. The liquid had gotten into her eyes, making them sting like bloody hell, and the fumes from it--they were enough to make a normal person pass out. The substance must have been acidic as well, as her black bandanna had burned clean away, as with parts of her leather jacket and pants, where portions of the flesh glowed a bright pink and were painful to the touch.
"Welcome Miss Sashima--" A voice called from somewhere high up within the chamber, as she struggled to open her eyes, hacking up clogged blood back from whence the laser beams had struck her. "--to my lair--"
"--and your final resting place."
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AN: Relatively short chapter…and this is what? Chapter 21? *thinks* Next chapter is…hmm, this is a pretty nice pace I'm going at…
Even teleporting at her swiftest speed, it was too late. By the time she had reached Bulma, her assailant had been done with her, leaving the woman lying on the forest floor, the deep gash in her throat spurting out blood at a rate that would have sickened even the most refined of surgeons. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Bulma, you can't die right now! You just can't!" Sashima's cries rang throughout the trees, echoing around her. "I promised your parents I would return with you safely and now what? You've just got to hang on!"
Gently raising Bulma's head to rest on her knee, she did a quick evaluation on her condition. She was by no means a doctor, but from the amount of blood she was losing and the draining color from her face, there was little time to spare. Either get her to the nearest place, or let her life slowly ebb away among the desolate trees.
"You've got to remain strong, Bulma--don't give up!" She did not know how the words of encouragement would do Bulma any good, as she was certain she would not be able to hear them. What Bulma needed was an extension on her life--enough time until something more powerful could be administered to revive her.
But what? Bulma had mentioned that while Sashima herself had been on the brink of death, they had used some sort of magical bean--what was it called?? A senzu bean! Yes, that was what it had been called! Though where she would find one, she had no idea, but she knew a person that most definitely would.
At that moment, a dark cloud passed over the moon, obscuring the little light that had managed to pierce its way into the heart of the forest. The wind began to pick up, sending the chill breeze to ruffle her clothes and splatter Bulma's blood against her own face. If she had strained her ears, Sashima would have heard a distant roar of thunder.
"More time…she needs more time…" One last glance at Bulma told her she only had about a minute more of life left, at most. Looking back onto herself, it was then that Sashima could no longer hold back her last doubts.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly inched her hand onto Bulma's neck, the warm blood against her fingers making her feel extremely sick to the stomach. Channeling a portion of her remaining energy through her palm and into Bulma, the wound slowly began to heal itself, the color returning gradually until her face was no longer the sheet-colored white. Still, Bulma's eyelids did not flutter open as Sashima expected they would.
The sudden flash that illuminated the forest scattered a few monkeys into sprinting higher among the branches of their tree homes. Presently, the low growl of thunder pounded itself overhead, large flocks of birds taking to the sky. Soon, the rains would come.
Sashima slumped back against the trunk of the enormous tree, catching her breath. The rise and fall of her chest slowly decreased in speed as her brain came out of the mist. Ki energy would have done no good to Bulma's life, and in turn, she had had to use the energy that no warrior on Earth possessed--energy that only the immortals held. In truth, beginning stuck in a human's body gave her the advantage of both stores.
"You have about an hour more, Bulma…hopefully that's enough time…" Getting to her feet, she laid a hand on Bulma's shoulder and shut her eyelids tight.
* * * * *
"GOHAN! It's time to get ready for bed!" Chi-Chi called into the living room, where both father and son sat, eyes glued to the t.v. screen.
"But Mom, ten more minutes? Please? He's about to--" Gohan stared up at his mother, pleading with his eyes.
"No! It is almost 10:30 and your bedtime! You get ready for bed right this instance--"
"Aw, come on Chi-Chi, Gohan doesn't have school or anything tomorrow, so an extra ten minutes won't really…" Goku trailed off as Chi-Chi's ice-cold glare pierced him, shutting him up.
"Now Gohan…you heard what your mother said…"
"But Dad, I--OOMPH!"
The combined weight of Sashima and Bulma came crashing down all at once on young Gohan, atop his back and rear. If it weren't for the fact that Gohan was a half-Saiyan, he most surely would have been crushed.
Face flat on the wooden floor, he slowly raised it, bright red, and mumbled, "Please get off of me…it's very uncomfortable you know."
"Oh! Bulma!" Chi-Chi exclaimed, hurrying forward and grasping Bulma by the hand, yet pulling back startled at the amount of blood that had already escaped from the wound. "Bulma! What happened? Bulma, please answer me! This is Chi-Chi!"
"She won't be able to hear you--she's lost a lot of blood." Sashima spoke quietly, carrying Bulma from off of Gohan and laying her straight on the wooden floor. "Someone go get a washcloth and clean her up."
"Wait a second." Goku put a hand on Sashima's shoulder, not exactly forceful, but nevertheless wary. "I think you should tell us what happened first?" In the other room, they could hear the sounds of Chi-Chi drawing water into a basin.
Sashima sighed, taking a seat by Bulma. "There was a break-in at Capsule Corporation early this morning. I suppose you heard about it on the news?"
Goku and Gohan were attentive in listening as they slowly nodded. It had been breaking news early that morning. Chi-Chi hurried in from the bathroom, lugging a wooden basin and several washcloths. With gentleness she rarely showed, she began to bath Bulma's wounds. "Bulma…please wake up…"
"Well, Bulma and I dug up a lead to the break-in…"
"But what exactly did happen?" Goku broke in. "All we heard was that several men had attempted to break into Bulma's home to obtain information and were arrested by the police later on."
"It turned out they wanted ownership documents for Capsule Corporation. They threatened to kill the Briefs if they would not hand them over."
"WHAT?!" The entire Son family gasped in unison.
It was now Sashima's turn to nod. "They were instructed by a man by the name of Paul Willis, a doctor at C.C. This afternoon, Bulma found out that the real Willis had died two years back, and the one working at C.C. had been a fake. When I was going to go after the fake this evening…Bulma insisted on coming…"
"We flew into the forest from Capsule Corp. I suggested that we split up since we would have covered more ground, but…that was foolish of me, now I realize. Bulma…she's just a human…she's…she's not like me…there was a dangerous man loose in the forest, and I just had to suggest that we'd have to split up! It's…it's…I'm sorry Bulma…" Turning her face away to hide the tears, Chi-Chi quietly gave her a tissue, which she used to dab her eyes with.
"Before I could stop her, she had already gone…I couldn't find her in the forest. By the time I did find her…her neck was slashed open, and she was almost dead. The person--I'm assuming it was the Willis impersonator himself--was nowhere to be seen."
"Oh Kami!" Chi-Chi shrieked, all faces turning to her abruptly. "The wound's already closed!"
"It should be. I gave her about 75% of my energy--enough to last for an hour. If not, she would have died by now."
"How…how…I never knew ki can be used that way…" Goku stammered, bewildered. Again he tried to gauge the woman's ki: a steady 500. So she had not lost any from before…
"It's not ki I used." Sashima's blunt answer startled Goku greatly, but before he could react, her eyes narrowed and she faced him, almost scowling. "We're wasting too much time here. We need to get her a senzu bean or whatever you call them!"
"Right." His face all seriousness, Goku laid two fingers onto his forehead. "I'll be back in a few minutes." With that, he teleported off to Korin Tower in search of Karin.
"I'd better be going too, Chi-Chi." She turned to leave.
"Wait! Sashima! Where are you going?"
"To get payback on Willis. Don't worry, I'll be back in less than an hour." With fists clenched tightly at her sides, she teleported out of the Son's living room.
"Sashima…" Chi-Chi whispered, clutching Gohan tightly.
"Mom, would Miss Sashima be alright?" Gohan peered up at his mother, deeply understanding the situation at hand, even though he was only a child. Looking down at the still figure of Bulma, he added, "Is Bulma going to be alright?"
"I hope so, Gohan…I sincerely hope so…"
A flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder; they were brighter, louder, closer now. Several minutes later, it had begun to pour.
* * * * *
Luckily, she found the entrance to the cave before the rain started. She was almost glowing with anger as she pushed aside the hanging vines and stepped into the damp entrance. It seemed like a dank corridor hewn from stone, but there was a shiny and metallic quality to the walls and ceilings. He was here--that was for sure.
As she made her way slowly down the metallic hallway, all of her senses were turned onto highest alert. One could not tell if the place was not rigged with booby traps or anything of the like. About halfway down the hallway, she noticed there were more and more square openings into the wall--getting denser and denser as she traveled.
All of a sudden there was a flash of light, blinding her temporarily. A hot flash of pain seared across her left shoulder before she knew what had hit her.
Presently, there were many lasers being fired from the holes in the wall, rapidly, all at once, until it was impossible to dodge them without getting hit. The ones that hadn't managed to strike their target ricocheted off the steel walls, so there was a constant round of fire. It was all she could do to conjure up a quick ki shield, and even then she had to concentrate on holding it steady.
As quickly as it had started, the lasers ceased their fire and all was quiet once again. "Damn! What kind of maniac is this?!" She bit her lip as tiny rivulets of blood streamed down from her arms, back and legs, where the laser blasts had punctured through her black leather and created minor injuries.
"What next?" She muttered, keeping her ki shield firmly in place if any more traps were to come. The more she walked, the dampness increased greatly, until it seemed as if the rain from outside was pouring directly into the cavern. For about fifteen minutes she traveled on, encountering little to hinder her way, until she came to a three-way fork in the passage.
"A fork…which one to take…all three lead to the same destination, but what might be IN those tunnels is the problem…"
She glanced at her wristwatch. Unless Goku had returned by then and administered the senzu bean, there was only a bit more than half an hour for Bulma. Taking a deep breath, she plunged straight through the middle passage.
At once, a steel door slammed shut from behind her, and farther ahead, the grating sounds of something remarkably like a chainsaw…
"What is it NOW? Damnit…oh Kami, what the hell is that?!" Along the corridor ahead was a rumbling sound, and as it got increasingly louder, what produced it came into view: a set of rotating blades set only inches apart from one another, coming towards her with rapid speed.
"When I get my hands on that freak, I swear I'm never gonna let him near a control panel ever again!"
The blades were moving closer--twenty feet, fifteen, ten, five, until at long last, they creaked to a groaning stop in front of the steel doors, four feet back from the place where Sashima had stood.
"You have to do better than that." Sashima snickered, as she appeared farther down the hall, unharmed this time by the blades. "This is too much like an Indiana Jones--Ahh!"
She was cut off in mid-sentence as the floor panel beneath her feet gave way, and before she could catch herself, began plummeting head first deeper and deeper within the earth.
Sashima hit the thick, liquidly substance with a tremendous SPLOSH that reverberated eerily within the steel chamber.
* * * * *
"What?! What do you mean the senzu beans are not done growing yet?" Goku was panicking--Bulma only had about twenty minutes left.
Karin leaned casually against his staff, moving along his precious bean plants. "I'm sorry Goku, but you took the last one I had the other day, and it takes awhile until these babies are grown and ready to be harvested."
"Well, how much longer?" cried Goku.
"Hmm…" Stopping from his work momentarily, Karin stroked his chin, calculating the remaining time. "I say about half a day should do it…"
"What?! But we can't wait half a day! Bulma has less than an hour to live!"
"Have you tried the hospital yet?" Karin said simply.
"What? The hospital…"
The white cat fell over on both his legs.
"YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T BROUGHT HER TO A HOSPITAL YET?!"
"Er…no…"
* * * * *
Back at the Son residence, Chi-Chi anxiously paced back and forth, glancing at the clock every ten seconds.
"Mom! You're gonna wear the floor right through if you don't remain calm!" Gohan shouted to his mother, taking her by the hand and sitting her in a chair by the table. "You've got to have faith that Miss Sashima would return on time!"
"I know, Gohan…but what if she doesn't? It's been forty minutes, and there hasn't been a sign from either her or Goku. If Goku had gotten the senzu bean, he would've been back long before now!"
"Mom…do you think there is something strange about Miss Sashima?" Gohan asked softly.
"No…not particularly. I have no idea how she just got into our home with Bulma, but other than that…"
"I think Dad suspects something about her, too. Her ki is way lower than Dad and I, but she said she used some other kind of energy to give life back to Bulma."
A flash of concern crossed Chi-Chi's face. "What are you suggesting, Gohan?"
There was a grim look about his face as he answered her. "Her other store of energy is more powerful than ki. Meaning--if she was to fight against us, we probably would not stand much of a chance."
* * * * *
A crackle greeted her as she surfaced from the lime green liquid, making her way to the edge of the pool and dragging herself out. The liquid had gotten into her eyes, making them sting like bloody hell, and the fumes from it--they were enough to make a normal person pass out. The substance must have been acidic as well, as her black bandanna had burned clean away, as with parts of her leather jacket and pants, where portions of the flesh glowed a bright pink and were painful to the touch.
"Welcome Miss Sashima--" A voice called from somewhere high up within the chamber, as she struggled to open her eyes, hacking up clogged blood back from whence the laser beams had struck her. "--to my lair--"
"--and your final resting place."
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AN: Relatively short chapter…and this is what? Chapter 21? *thinks* Next chapter is…hmm, this is a pretty nice pace I'm going at…
