Save the Day
Nope, still don't own Dragonball Z. I do own my characters though.
I'm 1/3rd into the next chapter of THoK so I'll post this to tide you guys over.
Chapter Two
Her lungs were on fire. She fought viciously to catch her breath. Through it all however, full blooded Saiyan maintained gracefully the outward appearance of barely being affected. Kilik turned her head to the side and spit out a sickening amount of blood and winced at the abrupt action. The left side of her face was obviously bruised.
"Need a Senzu?" A voice called out from off to the side of the battle scared field.
"No, not yet." She responded.
Kilik's older sister, Bra shook her pretty blue head. But Kilik ignored her. She couldn't let their bastard brother know that she was hurting too badly. It would only serve to inflate his already soaring ego. Besides, he'd made her scuff her boots. White boots. You just didn't find white steel toed boots everyday.
Kabu was sitting off a ways in front of her, in an identical sitting position. He wasn't so good at hiding his need for oxygen. His chest was heaving and that damned smirk of his had yet to diminish.
"So." He said breathlessly. "You ready or what?!" he called to her.
"I'm always ready, brother dear." She said dryly.
Kilik proved this by spring back up to her feet and crouching back into a fighting stance prompting her brother to do the same.
"You guys are going to kill yourselves one of these days!" Pan shouted.
The boy lightly shook his odd flame of hair (brown in some places, black in others), rattling loose the dirt and other debris that had accumulated there. His bangs were plastered to his forehead by a sheen of sweat and blood. His jeans were ripped in numerous places and one of the sleeves on his T-shirt was missing. But he was still confident, he refused to back down.
This was always the best part of the fight anyway. When his half sister was exhausted, she was prone to do some daring things. Anything to win the fight. He turned to his lighter haired sibling and his niece and smiled mischievously.
"Aww, lighten up, Panny." Kabu called back. "It's so much more fun when she's barely standing!"
Barely standing, huh? Kilik was going to show him barely standing. A burst of static electricity and the young woman was now sporting an impressive Super Saiyan 2.
"Uh, Pan." Bra said standing up and backing away some. "I think we're just a little too close."
Kilik's once dark brown chin length tendrils were now a blinding crown of gold and in only a thought Kabu's wild flame was exactly the same.
"See, Panny." He called up to his niece. "I was being nice. But see how Kilik here insists on playing dirty."
"Shut up and fight, you ass!" The raging Princess screamed.
And before he could blink, the full blooded Saiyan female was flying toward him with a fist with his name on it.
Pan and Bra watched from the sidelines. They both scoffed and shook their heads in concert.
"Your uncle is an idiot." The blue haired young woman finally said. "He knows what happens when he gets her railed up."
"I don't know." Pan replied hesitantly. "He looks like he might have it this time."
It certainly did look like Kabu had control of the fight. The energy the two siblings were emitting was enough to make the quarter Saiyan shiver. Kilik had the strangest energy. Pan figured that this was most likey due to the enhancements she been given when she was a small child. Doctor Tyler had been known for her genetic modifications. That freak of nature Cell was a prime example. He had been Dr. Tyler's pride and joy and young Kilik had once been her little protégé.
The Saiyan Princess's Ki signature was tainted because of this. Giving it a darker feel compared to her brother's. Whose, buy the way wasn't all sunshine and rainbows either. It came with being the child of the Prince. Everyone knew that Vegeta had had his darker side as well.
Kabu must have been training harder than any of the others had realized, because for once in his young life he was actually giving his older sister a run for her money. In an instant Kilik was grounded by a particularly ferocious roundhouse and created a brand new crater in the already ravaged earth below.
Her hair reverted back to a muddy brown and her eyes back to a matching hue. She got up on her hands and knees and submitted to a coughing fit splattering the ground with her life's fluid.
Pan grimaced from her spot on the rocks. She hated when the two of them fought like this. They always took it too far. It was like they had death wishes or something. However they insisted on it. 'What doesn't kill a Saiyan makes them stronger.' She hated that saying. Bra merely shook her head and rose from her seat. She rummaged in her pants' pocket for her pouch of Senzu.
"So, Sis?" Kabu asked. His normally angelic face twisted with a brutal smirk. "Ya give?"
Kilik sat up resting on her shins. The russet complexion of her face was stained with mud and various other fluids. She growled in defiance and tried to stand up.
"Just give up already!" The two tone haired boy laughed. "You lost!"
"Fuck you!" Her raspy voice snarled, springing to her feet. Her golden aura whipping around her.
"Knock it off!" Bra screamed as she jumped between them.
She instantly felt what it was like to be microwaved. Kabu's cold coal black orbs had left her feeling frozen inside. However, her skin became numbingly hot as Kilik's blazing ones locked on her.
"Stop this." She said through gritted teeth, her blue tail whipping angrily behind her. "Are you really planning on killing each other?"
"Ask him." Kilik's chestnut colored tail had unraveled from around her waist and was fluffing and shrinking in time her heavy breathing.
Son Kabu's face instantly reverted back to his usual blank expression. He looked so much like his mother. But he never grinned like Goku used to. Bra found her self trying to image what a smile would look like on her brother's face. He was only a boy. Fifteen years old. Someone so young should not be so dark.
But Kilik had made an art form of that, now hadn't she. She was the spitting image on their father. A female version of the Saiyan Prince and had the attitude and sinister nature to match. All she needed was the flame shaped hair, but Kabu had inherited that.
The blue eyed young woman was shaken out of her reverie by the ever worried Pan running up to her side.
"You guys are done, right?" The charcoal haired girl asked.
"Yeah…for now I suppose." Kabu said, turned and began to walk off.
"Hey!" Bra called.
Kabu turned around just in time to catch a Senzu. He gave a half hearted wave and keep on his way. An eerie silence settled between the three young women. Kilik accepted her bean and chewed it with a sort of pained silence. None of them knew exactly what to say. This bothered Pan greatly. Bra just seemed not to care.
"So," Kilik raspy voice broke the silence after the bean had finished its work. "You guys know what's for lunch?"
Pan gapped and stomped off. The Princess of Darkness shrugged and gave a feeble smile. Bra rolled her eyes and followed her friend.
The step stool swayed beneath her small feet as she stretched a little more. Goten knew that this mixing bowl was her favorite. Why would he put it way up here? In her single minded determination, Chichi was oblivious to her current predicament. That was until, of course, she fell.
She grasped desperately for a hand hold but came up with nothing. She was too old for this. Her reflexes were definitely not what they used to be. She immediately resigned herself to her fate and braced for the impact…that never came.
She opened her eyes experimentally and suddenly realized the she was hovering…above the ground. Wait. She couldn't fly. She glanced around frantically and finally let out a scream.
"Calm down, woman!" A familiar voice groaned. "You're fine. I've got you."
Chichi snapped her mouth shut and frowned. It was Cell. How embarrassing.
With a slight movement of his hand she was sent back right again on the steady kitchen floor. Oh, she had forgotten. He didn't have to touch her. He had that nifty telekinesis of his.
She betted he used that for all kinds of things. Like…
She shook her head lightly, avoiding eye contact. She wasn't supposed to think about those things. She was supposed to be trying to let the past go. She turned back around to the counter and muttered her thanks. He didn't say anything in return. He just came up behind her slowly, causing her to go completely rigid. She noticed him sigh softly.
She suddenly felt some thing cool pressed against her arm. She looked over and found that he was holding her mixing bowl in his odd black clawed hand.
"I take it that this is what you were after?" He said quietly.
"Oh, yes." The dark haired woman stuttered. "Thank you."
"You should be more careful." Cell said walking away.
Turned around and found him rummaging through one of the kitchen's many fridges. Chichi hugged the bowl close to her chest and looked up to find the tall young man standing in the middle of the kitchen clutching a Pepsi can in his large hand. He was staring at the floor, at his feet. His bare feet. He never wore shoes. How…unsanitary. The tip of his large green tail swept lightly across the kitchen floor.
"I made lunch." She said quietly. "There is some left if you're hungry. I swear," she continued, her tone rising slightly. "I don't know why you insist on eating out there all the time. You should have at least one home cooked meal every now and then."
He still didn't look up. Didn't even grunt in response like he usually did.
Chichi just shook her head and went over to the stove and started fixing a Saiyan sized plate of food.
"I know you like to eat, right?" The woman said with a small grin as she sat it on the table. "So eat." And she led him to a seat at it.
He sat down easily enough. Cell would never admit that it had been the smell of the food that had lead him into the kitchen in the first place. It was rare that he ate any of Chichi's cooking. He usually just found something out in the forest. He had never really felt right accepting anything from anyone here. It had taken a lot to even get him to come to Capsule Corp. After destroying the original building in West City he wasn't sure if he would even be welcome here.
He stared at the plate in front of him and then at the woman who'd fixed it.
"Oh, for Dende's sake." Chichi groaned and picked up a meat bun and before he could even think to protest she stuffed it in the odd Saiyan's mouth.
Cell chewed it experimentally. It was good. Really good. He should have known. Son Goku had had found memories of Chichi's cooking. He pushed the plate away and leaned back heavily in the chair. He had suddenly completely lost his appetite. Chichi noticed the abrupt shift in the young man's demeanor.
"What is it about me you dislike so much?" She asked. "You laugh and joke with the kids. You and Bulma even talk some times. But you are always so short with me."
Cell's eyes were as wide as saucers. He looked up at the older woman in speechless shock. Did she really think…that he hated her? He sighed tiredly and dropped his eyes back to the table. It wasn't that at all…
"Cell?" Chichi said tucking a piece of graying hair behind her ear.
"Why would you think that I don't like you?" He finally said, long unruly bangs observing half his face. "I only wanted to keep out of your way. I didn't think that you would even want me speaking to you, let alone eating your food."
"Oh…" The brown eyed woman said slowly falling into the next seat. "So you did hear what I said, huh?"
He nodded.
"I'm very sorry about that." She said quietly. "I shouldn't have. We decided to start from a clean slate, right? And I really did believe you…I just…sometimes…"
He winced slightly. This wasn't right. Son Chichi should not be apologizing to him. She had noticed his initial reaction. She hated the fact that she couldn't let go. Everyone else had. Why couldn't she? Just when she thought that she had finally made some progress. She went and said that stupid thing.
"Cell?" She barely whispered his name.
He suddenly felt the woman's hand clasp over his and he it jerked back abruptly. He was up on his feet within seconds. Chichi was stunned to utter silence. She stared up into a confused lavender gaze. Amazingly, the android turned Saiyan's eyes were incredibly expressive. However, the emotions swimming behind them were unreadable.
"I…" Cell's usually confident voice cracked. He growled softly in frustration.
His vision glazed over and his mouth hung open a little with his unspoken words.
Why was she always pretending that she cared what happened to him? He'd heard what she said. And now she was saying she was sorry? Sorry for what? She of all people had every right in the world to hate him. With a frustrated grunt the young man ruthlessly kicked the back door open and was gone.
Chichi sat there totally stunned. Saying sorry it seemed just hadn't been enough.
(2, 368 words….sigh…thanks for all the kind reviews)