Ooh, each chapter has gotten progressively longer! At this rate, I might soon come out with a decent-sized one! Yay! I have a deep respect for all those authors who manage to come out with something witty for their disclaimer every chapter. I apparently suck at it, imagine... two chapters in and I can't think of anything non-cliché to write. Well, it seems I am not perfect. I have found something I cannot do. I'm sure a bunch of people at school would love to know that, but... they won't have the pleasure... because no one knows my real identity, MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Okay then, moving on: Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm not sure minors can own anything anyways.

Geminus

by: youkaiprincess

Chapter 2

Lightning Comes Before the Thunder

She's up there again. I can feel her. Hell, anyone who can barely even feel any ki can sense her right now. Even normal people can realize that there is something very unnatural about a thunderstorm that goes on for hours on end covering a whole continent. Although this has been happening more and more often lately. Meteorologists are completely baffled by it; but of course it doesn't make sense, at least not from their point of view, after all, the true reason behind it can't be seen by their tunnel vision. The storm is not caused by Mother Nature, but rather is the result of my sister's energy being unleashed upon the unsuspecting outer layers of Earth's atmosphere.

As I walk into the living room, I find my brother sitting next to Mom, listening absentmindedly to her complaints about thunderstorms that don't let her go into her lab and make her get behind on her projects. He's actually worrying about Katana and paying attention to the slight fluctuations in her energy, though. I cross the room unnoticed until I come to a stop next to my father. I look out the window, too. My sister really is amazing.

"It's beautiful," I breathe.

That gets me a look from Dad.

"What was it this time?" he responds in a controlled and somewhat tired voice.

"Another fight with Mom," is my simple answer.

His frown deepens as he turns to look at the only person in the room that has no idea of what is causing this storm. "Come, princess."

I follow my father into a guestroom on the other side of the house.

"The last one was more than eight hours long," he says, staring at, or more like through, the ceiling. "It didn't stop until she was completely exhausted. As much as I hate to admit it, if Kakarott hadn't moved that fast..."

"Katana would have plunged to her death..." I finish for him, tears welling in my eyes.

I throw myself into my father, moisture running freely down my cheeks.

"It hurts, Daddy... She's in so much pain most of the time now..." I sob into his chest.

I feel the protection and comfort of my daddy's arms around me just as they have done countless times before, when Katana and I cried. Not that he's let anyone else, including Mom and Trunks, know about it. Most people, especially outside our family, would find the idea of the Saiyan no Ouji being a source of comfort ridiculous, but we have always known that Dad adores us, his two princesses. Sometimes I wonder if sis remembers that...

"No one in this family can help her," he says, so low, that if I hadn't had the enhanced hearing my saiyan blood gifted me with, I wouldn't have heard, "and when the person that can comes, she must be willing to accept that help."

I sniff, and, wiping the tears from my face (I know how much Dad hates to see me cry), look up at him. She will overcome this. She has the blood of hundreds of generations of Saiyan royalty running through her veins, just as I do. The look on my face must have communicated my thoughts to Dad, because he gives a half-smile and nods.

Suddenly, my stomach grumbles quite loudly. That's right, heh; I haven't eaten anything since the storm started about nine hours ago.

"Very anti-climactic," my progenitor comments.

"Not my fault I was cursed with this overactive saiyan appetite," I retort after giving him a mock glare.

He shrugs with a smirk and heads toward the door. Whatever. I follow him as he makes his way through he house and back into the living room, where Mom has fallen calmly asleep next to Trunks.

She thinks Katana is sulking in our room. After their argument, which obviously hurt my dear twin more than she cares to admit, Katana literally flew to our room, slamming the door in the process. Good thing that she had the presence of mind to not do it with her normal strength. Hnn... she's been isolating herself in our room so much lately that she's even developed a technique to slam the door without decimating it... Then again, she is the only person I know, including the two males in our household, that will come up with a new technique at least every month; after experimenting for up to days on end. She's a weird one, even I have to accept th...

AAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I felt a pang...now it's just a slight undercurrent of pain, but... I know what it means.

"She's depleting her energy reserves, FAST."

My brother and father seem equally surprised to hear this. Trunks is the first to speak.

"But... she... how... she's expelling her ki at the same constant rate...It can't... she doesn't... her ki doesn't feel any weaker." Very eloquently put dear brother of mine.

"I know! The baka is being stubborn!"

"She's going to kill herself!" Dad adds with an angry growl. "TRUNKS!"

No need to snap at him. He's already next to Dad.

"Hey! Wait! I'm going, too!"

Their only answer is the bright ness of their ki as they fly off. I silently curse as I write a note telling Mom that we went for pizza.

Dammit! Now I have to follow them. They were going pretty fast, I doubt I can catch up with them until they either slow down or stop altogether.

After a couple of minutes' flight, I sense the ki signature of my sister suddenly drop to dangerously low levels at the same time I feel her faint. I'm still a minute or two away from her. I can only hope that Dad and Trunks get there in time.

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

*announcer's voice* On the next chapter of Geminus:
In Katana's unconscious state, she has flashbacks of a past where
she happy. But meanwhile, will Vegeta and Trunks get to her in
time to save her from imminent death due to her weakened state?
All of this, next chapter on Geminus.

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

Eeeks! I just remembered! I forgot to say that this story follows the original storyline (except for the obvious difference that Katana, my creation, exists), up to the last episode of DBZ, that is. Even though this is supposed to happen a couple of years after the end of Dragon Ball Z (Bra and Katana are supposed to be 15-16), it may end up expanding into GT's timeline. I decided not to mess with GT's story because: 1) it would make it too complicated and would get in the way of my story (plus Katana's simple existence would mess w/pretty much everything in that storyline) and 2) I don't really like GT that much. Appart from the fact that the beginning is, in a very un-tvdragonball manner (and too much like many of the movies for my taste), incredibly slow, I just hated the ending. Why did they have to go and make Goku be absorbed by Shen-Long? (sorry to anyone who didn't know that already) And the story in itself wasn't that good, either, except for the baby saga. (I liked the animation, though) Soooo, I decided to go with Akira Toriyama's child...(he barely even supervised GT, which explains the lack of DB quality, if you ask me) PS There's a thunderstorm raging outside at the moment. I love lightning. Guess where I got my inspiration for the chapter?

_ -- _ -- _ -- _

Author's pick: *super chirpy voice* This week... manga artist of the week
The Oscar goes to Yu Watase, for her incredible work in
Fushigi Yugi, Ayashi no Ceres, and Alice 19th. The last of
which is her newest finished work. Most excellent, all of
them. Well, Fushigi Yugi is a tad long (and sappy), and in
Ayashi no Ceres the heroine doesn't end up with the one I
wanted her to, but Alice 19th is one of my favorite manga at
the moment.