Chapter seven: The Writing on the Wall

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You know what I keep forgetting? A Disclaimer, I think I put one in the first chapter but not the last few, well, you know I don't own dbz, otherwise I'd call myself Akira Toriyama and get lots and lots of review because people read famous people's work. I, however, and not famous yet (though when I'm a famous author I'm gonna come back here and see what fanfictoins people are writing with my characters, but that probably wont be for a long while yet (like, one year, at least)

What I'm trying to say: If I had a million dollars. I'd be rich.

No that's not it al all…I've taken up too much space here, read!

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The room was filled with darkness, and a silence that thickened the dark. Trunks slowed his breathing, trying not to make a sound, and shifted one foot backwards, moving into a fighting stance. It wasn't Gohan's fighting stance, which was the only one Trunks knew, and the one he imitated most often. His own was more front on than side on. He felt stronger, the stance felt better, more...more saiyan. More like Vegita's.

The room was silent for so long Trunks began wondering if he had been asleep and dreamed it. But no, there was the faint presence of someone else in the room, but where?

Hidden in the absence of light, the young woman bearing the knife waited for the moment when the Prince would drop his guard. Her chest moved up and down in a near soundless pant, she almost felt she was breathing through her skin. But this was the way her father had taught her to move, unheard, unnoticed. She closed her eyes and thought a small prayer in the direction of her father, so far away. Father, Daddy, give me the courage to do what has to be done. Then, trying to convince herself not to back out at this crucial moment, If I can't do this Daddy, they'll tell the Council who you are. They'll find you. Find, was not the only thing they'd do, and she knew it. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small glass trinket stolen precisely for this moment, with a flick of her wrist she sent it to the other side of the room.

Something crashed onto the ground behind Trunks. He spun around.

She leapt forward, aiming to pin him to the ground first. But Trunks was quicker than that. He had caught the sound of her soft footsteps, and had continued spinning round until he almost faced her. Using arms for balance he bought up his right leg to kick her, aiming for her stomach. He hit ribs, and heard one crack. She's small. He thought, as she hit the large wardrobe.

Trunks knew he shouldn't be panting for breath, he'd hardly done anything, but the fear of the unknown was making cold sweat break out on his forehead. He paused only for a moment after he heard her collide with the wall, what he needed was light. But he knew that if he powered up he wouldn't be able to feel her at all. He backed up slowly, hoping he was backing in the direction of the door, one hand behind him.

He heard her get up, something hard hit the ground as she pushed the wardrobe door off her and stood.

Trunks reached the main door and yanked it open, sliding out the smallest gap possible then slamming the door as hard as he could. The door was heavy, he had to dig his feet into the floor to get it shut, but the floor wasn't cooperating. It slipped out from under him, and he hit the ground chest first. All the air in his chest exited promptly before his hands had time to stop him.

Normal floor does not slip away like that, unless it was a Slippery When Wet type of floor. And yes, the floor was definitely wet.

Trunks looked down; blood. A lot of it. Covering the hall from wall to wall. It thickened round the two guards that had been guarding his room. Their throats had been slit open, the shorter one's head was completely severed from his body. Bile rose again in Trunks's throat, and he scrambled to his feet to get out of the blood puddle.

Something caught his eye before he could obey his first human instincts to run. Words in saiyan scrawled across the wall, written in dripping blood. Trunks shuddered involuntarily, about to be sick. The smell was awful, making the air thick with the stench of death. He'd seen such things before, living with the androids running free, but he had never had to see it up close, smell it, roll in it.

Taking a deep breath through his mouth, Trunks pushed himself up, and with a quick motion opened the door, letting light spill into the room. Cautiously Trunks peered into the room. Fear gone, though disgust remained. Trunks wanted answers.

His room showed obvious signs of a fight, but on first inspection he could see no one. There was only one place she could be hiding, under or behind the bed. Trunks took a step forward, into the room, and someone made a noise behind him, a little intake of breath in shock.

Trunks spun round quickly, again, and faced Lushka who was standing over the bodies, skin pale against her black hair and eyes as she read the writing on the wall. Trunks looked back into the room, not wanting to turn his back on either of them. Still no sign.

"Prince Vegita?" Asked Lushka, who had also seen such things before, and had a tougher stomach than Trunks. "What-?"

A ball of ki, the size of a pregnant beachball, shattered his door from the inside and smashed into the wall with the writing on it. Turning the words into thousands of blood covered, wooden shards.

Without missing a beat Lushka grabbed Trunks's wrist and pulled him quickly down the corridor. She swerved round the first corner, and kept spinning round until she hit the wall, which wobbled. She kicked the joint where the wall met the floor and it swung into itself.

"Go." She urged.

"Where-?"

"Please! Go!"

"But I want-" Began Trunks.

"Trust me! Go!"

Trunks dropped into the gap between the wall and the floor, fell two feet, then hit sloping metal in some kind of slide.

The tube tilted downwards with enough room on each side for another person to fit down. It was something like a laundry shoot, but smelt worse. On second thoughts, though Trunks, that's probably all the blood on me.

Lushka folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into the cold metal of the slide, Trunks was holding out his hands against the walls, trying to slow himself down. It was like trying to slow down a speeding train with a rubber band.

The tunnel stopped abruptly, Lushka hit the ground at a roll, as if she had practised this before. Trunks hit the ground on his tailbone, and screwed up his face in pain.

"Ow." He said, rubbing his backside. "Thanks." He still felt winded, and sick, but Bulma's lessons on manners shone through.

Lushka accepted his thanks with a small nod, not used to manners. They were sitting in a small room, windows let a small amount of light in from the top corners of the room. The floor was cold concrete, the walls covered in pictures of dark haired men, and a few women, in royal garb. There were crates cluttering up the walls too, Lushka stood up and perched on one of these, Trunks followed suit, it was more comfortable than the concrete. It was a store room, of sorts, and Trunks kept looking at the shoot, waiting for someone to appear.

"Prince Vegita, what happened?" She asked, looking confused.

"Someone's trying to kill me." Even saying the words felt strange, unreal. "I was trying to find out who, but then you showed up. She's probably gone now."

"I don't doubt the Council will hunt them down." Lushka said. "Wait-she?"

"I think so." Trunks stared into space, coming to grips with reality. He was a Prince now, and, as Bulma had once said, a long time ago, Well that's what happens when you get famous, you get shot. He was going to have to be extra careful. He didn't want the Council hunting her down, he wanted to find her himself, ask her questions before they got to her.

"Only one?" Lushka asked.

"I think so." Said Trunks again.

Lushka mused over that. Assassins only got hired if they had a good reputation, they were mostly male, although female assassins were not unheard of. Unless she was acting of her own accord, she was probably very good, and in the world of the underground assassins 'good' meant, 'never misses'. That meant Prince Vegita must be better, a ten year old not-raised-as-a-saiyan boy outwitting a trained assassin. That was unheard of. Lushka came to the conclusion that the assassin was probably trying to kill him for her own reasons, unless...

But that thought was ridiculous. Who would hire an untrained person to do the job of a fully trained assassin? It was stupid.

"Prince Vegita," she began.

"Lushka?"

"Yes?"

"Call me Trunks."

She tilted her head and looked at him curiously for a moment, then smiled. "Certainly. Now, Trunks, you don't know anybody that wants you dead?"

"No." Said Trunks slowly. "I've only been here a couple of days."

"Mmm." She said. "I have been thinking, and I've come to the conclusion that whoever wants you dead wants as much for either of two reasons. First, is because they want the throne, but I don't see why they're making their move now, when they had all of fifteen years to do so while we were heirless. Besides, anyone wanting you dead for that reason would hire a fully trained assassin, not someone like her, whoever she was. 'Anyone can go after a royals life, only the best of the best can take it'. Old saying."

"I'm not defenceless, you know." Trunks said in an I-can-take-it voice rather like his fathers. He recognised this because he'd used the voice before, and Bulma had pointed out how like his father he sounded. Trunks smiled, not quite having the will for an ironic laugh. Lushka smiled back.

"Alright. What's the second reason?" He asked.

"That this is the work of the Rat, trying to kill you. With the crown Prince dead the Council will be in an uproar trying to work everything out. The Rat and his followers, from what mother has heard at Court, think that with the Prince on the throne their revolution will be put to an end."

Trunks frowned in thought, something didn't compute, didn't fit properly. "What do the rebels want? Really want, why are they rioting?"

"They don't like the Council ruling the planet." Lushka said automatically.

"But they don't rule, I do." Said Trunks, half forgetting he was getting off the planet at the first available chance. "So if I was dead," -It still sounded strange- "the Council would rule again. They can't want me dead, it doesn't make sense."

Lushka, about to say something, paused in thought. What Pri- Trunks said was true. She hadn't thought about that.

"Has no one spoken to their leader? Does no one know the reason for their riots?" Trunks asked.

"Why would we talk to them? Each and every rebel is wanted dead."

Trunks sighed. Lushka sounded genuinely confused about speaking to the rebels. Talking wasn't the saiyan way, Trunks made a mental note to remember that, and another to find out more about the rebels. There was a long, thoughtful silence, broken by Lushka.

"There might be another reason she tried to kill you." Trunks looked up from his swinging feet, which he'd been watching intensely as if they held all the answers. "She could have just wanted you dead, for reason's of her own." Lushka continued. "Who knows what they might be."

"I want to." Said Trunks. "I want to know who she is, and why."

"Then you better tell everyone you want her bought to you alive." Said Lushka. "Else there will be nothing left of her."

"Hm." Said Trunks, then another thought struck him. "Lushka, what did the writing on the wall say?"

Lushka had obviously forgotten to add that into her Who's Trying To Kill The Prince equation. It didn't make any sense, and she told him so.

"Why doesn't it make sense? What did it say?" Trunks asked.

"It doesn't fit into any of the scenarios."

"What did it say!" Trunks ordered, surprised at his own voice.

Lush looked up at him. "Long live the Prince." She said.

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Hmmm, curious...

Anyway, thanks Penchy-chan for the review ^_^ About the SSJ thing...well...that would be giving things away if I told you, wouldn't it? *evil snigger* I'll just say that saiyans go super when they're very angry (yes yes, we all know that)... Or when someone close to them dies... So it's going to take something big for Trunks to turn SSJ, he's not one yet...

I like the idea of the saiyans gawking at the prince's mum too, I've already incorporated so many things into the plot that weren't going to be there in the first place (this is the first fic ever when the plot has hit me all in one go) so I reckon i could do that too, since you reviewed so nicely ^_^

I think that this will probably be the last chapter I'll be able to crank out before we go away on holiday, I might get one more written, (we leave on the 24th) theres a small chance of than, but if I don't then I'll be back mid January with many nice new chapters planned out ^_^ do you want me to email you when I get back?

And if you run out of things to read, theres always my other fics *grin* Sorry, shameless self promotion there...

Merry Christmas all! And a Spilffiliducous New Year!