'Is this death?' Sashima wondered as she walked blankly ahead. In the far distance, a light shone dimly, illuminating the shapes of two figures. When she got closer, she realized with a start that those two were none other than herself.

She groaned aloud. If she saw herself, then that must've meant…

"Don't be too happy girl, you're not dead yet." The first of her, the one to the right, spoke. Although she was undoubtedly her, Sashima could scarcely recognize the figure dressed in black from head to toe. Her hair was not red in color, but midnight black, and there were strange markings upon her face. She smirked, reminding Sashima of her own self as well.

"Don't listen to her, Sashima." The second one counseled, a glow radiating from her as soft and smoothing as the finest silk. Although the look on her pale face was streaked with undeniable remorse, her smiled shone through, highlighting every delicate detail on her pearl-colored robe.

She spoke again, "Do not lose faith in us, Sashima--remember that even though you want to fail, we are still here, supporting you…do not forget we are eternal spirits. You WILL pull through this!" She whirled to the darkness beside her. "Do you not support her as well??"

"Well to be honest, she needs to learn to depend on herself…so I don't see why we should bother taking her from the real realm and dragging her all the way out here…" She stared off in space, idly twiddling her dark hair.

Her counterpart sighed. "You were never supportive, were you?"

"Damn right I wasn't…we're wasting our time here! How come we don't just let her die and we can try again in some future life? Ne? Sound good? Okay, I'm outta here…" Muttering off to herself, she turned onto her heels and stalked off into the distance, her speck becoming ever more faint.

"I'm sorry, Sashima…you know how she is…" Meekly, she tried to apologize, looking slightly agitated. Shifting uncomfortably, she too, began to back away. "It's about time for me to leave as well."

"Wait!" She cried out suddenly, reaching forward. "Can't you tell me how to defeat this evil guy??" Desperately, it was as if she were in slow motion that she made her way towards the evanescent glow.

"Sorry, but only you yourself are supposed to find the truth. We are just here to talk to you whenever necessary. We try and give encouragement, but unfortunately, there is more than one of us here…"

"Oh Kami--you two aren't the voices I've heard in my head, are you?"

"Sadly--yes." With a whirl of her pale hand, she dissolved from the feet up, leaving a sweet scent of freshly cut flowers.

Sashima paused, turning around briefly. Just where was she? If those two were her conscience…or something…then that must've meant she was stuck inside her own head. Leaning down, she pressed an ear against the dark floor, listening for any sounds that might lead her out of the place. Hearing none, she slammed her open palms against darkness, bruising them badly--it seemed the floor were constructed by an especially durable substance.

"Shit…how the hell am I supposed to get outta this weird place? It's must be a dream, it must! C'mon, you have to wake up!" Over and over she repeated these words to herself, until they became monotonous, drawling longer and longer until her head began to swirl with intense force.

* * * * *

"Well look here…if it isn't the great Sashima, unconscious for the past half hour and just lying there, ready to be taken care of…" Dressed in a white lab coat, the Dr. Willis impersonator had his back turned onto her, measuring out a red substance into a pteri dish.

Slowly, she forced her eyes open, which were still tender from the previous round. She never got past opening them to slits until the overhead light was directly above her, shining its glow into those brilliant red eyes. Maybe not the kindest of men, but the man which had his back turned to her at the moment undeniably had some brains.

Clink! Chink! Clink! Her arms flailed wildly as she tried to jerk herself out from the chains that bound her wrists and feet. It was no good. No matter how much effort she exerted, the chains had an almost magic-like current running through them--an electro-magnetic force strong enough to counteract a normal ki. To make matters worse, the energy that Sashima had lost while supplying Bulma had been a decisive factor. In simple words, there was absolutely no way that she was to attempt any escape stunts.

Dejected, she lay on the cold metal chair, keeping her eyes shut. Her arms and legs ached from the restraints, but especially her left arm. "What the hell did you do to me??" Gingerly, she moved the arm, wincing in pain.

"Who are you referring to?" He replied coolly, shaking the test tube containing the liquid.

"You! Who else is here?!" She screamed, biting back the pain from her arm. It felt as if a thousand scorpions had stuck their stingers all at once into her.

"I have a name, you know," he said, a tad bit irritated. "DuMon."

"Why are you telling me this? You idiot, don't you realize that by telling me your name, everything is over for you??!" DuMon suddenly became silent.

"No…" He began slowly…taking the vile of liquid as he moved over to where she lay. "There is no chance of that." With a calloused hand, he reached up and flicked off the overhead light, until only a heating lamp to the far side illuminated the room.

Sensing the light off from her eyelids, Sashima blinked once, twice, three times to make sure she was not seeing things. The room she was in was most definitely the control room where DuMon had operated in, and it seemed to be a laboratory as well. Equipped with beakers, vials, measuring devices, liquid and gaseous substances, and much other scientific particles, it reminded her very much of a mad scientist's own lair.

For the first time she looked down at herself, realizing blood stains covered a good portion of her clothes. They had torn off in some areas, such as the gash-like holes in her pants. On her left arm attached a transparent tube, slowly draining the blood from her.

Her eyes grew wide from surprise, to confusion, then fear. "Wh-what are you doing with me? What are you using my blood for?"

DuMon merely removed the tube from within her, the cut spilling out the remainder of blood onto the stone floor. She grit her teeth from crying out in pain, and watched helplessly as he filled a beaker, then added the substance from the vial that he had been mixing.

For moments she watched him like this, unsure and apprehensive, and neither she nor him spoke. Gradually, a vile odor was emitted from the beaker, and it was thus when the scientist decided to speak.

"Bulma Briefs has probably told you this before, so you must know that when you were first admitted to the Satan City Hospital, the person who had treated you was me."

"I regret that you did, but at the time I had no power to stop you, unfortunately."

"Yes, and such a sad thing it is, because it was I who found out all about your blood--the qualities, the potential power of its cells. See, unlike normal blood, you neither have an A, B, AB, or O blood type. There are proteins in your blood, but they are not specific to the common blood types, and the antibodies they create provide a barrier between you and anyone else. This makes it impossible to have a normal blood transfusion. I don't know what the hell you are, but you seem to be some sort of mutant to me…"

'You have no idea just WHAT I am…'

"…if you are some kind of freak, that's alright, because it is your blood that I need. The substance I have created eliminated all the deficiencies in your blood, allowing me to add proteins of my own blood choice. Therefore…"

It finally struck home. The blood DuMon had been mixing--he was going to get HER blood.

"…if it goes as expected, I will obtain your potential powers."

"Not if I can stop you first!" The chains creaked violently as she formed an orange glow in her right palm. Aiming carefully, she fired this minute amount of energy straight towards DuMon's heart, but before it had gone two feet, it ricocheting against an invisible elector-magnetic field that had apparently been surrounding her and struck her full force in the stomach.

"You are powerless against me!" Laughing maniacally, he drew the blood into a needle, posing to inject it into himself. Hesitating, he studied the figure on the chair, who breathed heavily and fresh coats of blood beginning to form from her stomach. "But I will kill you first!"

Helpless, she watched as DuMon snatched a butcher's knife from his counter, and made his advance towards her. She had neither ki nor excess energy left to spare, and it was all she could to keep her eyes from closing shut. Her breathing was becoming strained; her airways constricted, and if she should pass out again, the end would be inevitable. Being confined to a chair, she had nowhere to run, except watch as the man lowed the electro-magnetic shield, raising the knife high above her.

"You will never get away with this," she snarled, her breath freezing in her throat. "I swear I will hunt you down once I am dead and do away with your body!!!"

He stopped, considering his last options. With one swift and precise motion, he brought the knife down--clean onto the center of her heart.
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AN: Chapters 22 and 23 were actually one big chapter, but there was a total of about 3,600 words and it was getting kinda long, so I broke it into two separate pieces…