Dragon Ball Spirits

Chapter 2

Raw power. The essence revealed.

Tanya opened her eyes after several moments, the impending pain hadn't hit yet and she began to wonder if she was delirious. What Tanya then saw assured her, she was crazy, and standing not three feet in front of her was another girl. This other girl has a strange feel about her, a terrifying yet friendly feel. Tanya didn't know what to do, this other girl was standing there with one arm outstretched holding the hound by the neck and her grip seemed to be getting tighter by the sounds the hound was emitting. The hound was trying frantically to free itself from the strange girls vice like grip but to no avail. The hound tore at her flesh with its claws, it flung itself around frantically but the girl persisted in crushing the hound's throat with one hand. The sounds of the hounds neck breaking were louder than normal, the hound let out a shriek of agony and sheer unbridled pain as its' neck simply snapped in the girl's hand. Tanya screamed and turned away as the hound's shrieks of pain slowly turned to gurgles and then it stopped making any sound altogether. The girl simply threw the hound to the floor with one hand and wiped her hair from her face with her other hand. Tanya opened her eyes as the other hounds continued to growl and snarl but they were slowly backing off from this strange girl. Without warning Tanya ran away, frightened beyond all belief she ran as fast as she could back through the forest, the tree braches slapping her In the face and stinging her immensely. The stinging nettle on the ground was stinging her feet as she ran along in sandals. She ran along, ignoring the pain, she ran for what seemed like an eternity and came to an abrupt stop when she tripped over a large object lying in the middle of the ground. The object she tripped over was Loki, his right hand covered in blood, his clothes torn and ripped and his body all scratched up and blood seeping from the wounds on his face. Tanya sat up to see what she fell on and realized it was her friend.

"Oh my god, Loki!" Tanya cried out in relief, "Loki, we have to get out of here!"

"What?" Loki groaned, only partially able to speak, Derrick broke his jaw and his face was a mess.

"Loki you poor thing, can you get up?" Tanya asked, her voice went from panic to soft, as she leant down to examine his face, "What happened to you, Derrick did this didn't he?"

Loki nodded, his head was held in Tanya's gentle hands. Tanya gently glided her hand through Loki's hair.

"I'll get you back Loki, you can count on me" Tanya said gently with a warm smile, she looked into eyes and he tried to smile, even though it pained him mercilessly, he managed to form a small smile. In an instant, Loki's eyes shot open wide, and he groaned in pain.

"Loki?" Tanya asked, her state of panic resurfacing, "Loki what's wrong?"

A voice whispers in Loki's mind, the image of a young woman appears in his thoughts and she speaks to him.

"Loki, it is time, cast of the shackles and unleash the spirit laying dormant within you, it's time", The girl speaking to him in his mind vanished from his thoughts and all that was left was pain. The pain throbbed throughout his entire body and he began to scream out in pain.

"Loki!" Tanya screamed out again, backing off slightly as Loki's body began to flail violently.

Loki's chest begins to glow orange again, this time the orange glow is a lot dimmer and darker than before. His eyes begin to burn once again and Loki reaches for his face and grasps at the side of his head as tight as he can, the burning sensation so overwhelmingly painful he continues to cry out in pain. His hair began to tingle and his scalp itched fiercely. His hair grew slightly and a wave of energy shot through his veins, his eyes slowly began to change, the whites in his eyes slowly changed to black and the darkness crept along his eyes and covered them completely black, all of his wounds on his face and arms rapidly closed up and his jaw and nose were no longer broken. The pain lingered on and throbbed throughout his body slightly, but died down. Loki's eyes were now pitch black and his hair looked spiked and changed to a darker brown colour. Loki got to his feet and looked around, his vision had changed, he could no longer see colours properly, he could only see in black and white and shades of grey. He turned and faced Tanya who was shaking in fear against a tree.

"Loki?" Tanya asked, "Are you ok?"

Loki just looked at her, it was as if he had never seen her before in his life, but he knew deep down that he knew her. Tanya began to take a few steps towards Loki, slowly and very cautiously but Loki just stood there, looking at her, examining her from head to toe.

"Loki…" Tanya whispered, as she drew in close to him, she reached out her hand and placed it gently on Loki's face, gently stroking his face, "I don't care what's going on, just tell me you're you…"

"Who else would I be Tanya?" Loki asked casually

A tear rolled down Tanya's face and she wrapped her arms around him in a passionate embrace.

"Tanya…I…I'm sorry…" Loki said with regret

"For what?" Tanya asked

"For this…" Loki said, as he leaned in and kissed Tanya on the lips. The two of them kissed for several minutes until Loki took back his right hand and clenched his fist.

"Bye Tanya…" Loki whispered into Tanya's ear, but she didn't seem to care. Loki Drew back his fist and punched Tanya in the stomach. The hit was with such force it penetrated her flesh and Loki's fist came out the other side of her, covered with fresh blood. The blood dripped off of Loki's hand slowly, the warmth of Tanya's body began to fade as her eyes were wide open, looking directly into the black eyes of Loki. In those moments she saw the true sides to this boy that held her in his arms, she saw first, the unforgiving demon standing in front of her with its merciless and cold black eyes. Then an image went through her mind of the creature she saw earlier, but the creature wasn't just a mindless beast anymore, it had taken true form. In her mind she saw Loki as he truly was, fighting off demons surrounded by an aura of light. As Tanya's heart slowed down and eventually stopped beating she slumped backwards and fell onto the ground. As she looked up into he cold black eyes of the Loki standing before her she didn't see a monster, all she could see was the boy she grew up with, a tear formed in the wells of her eyes and a smile graced her face, blood trickling down the side of her mouth. She reached up one hand, trying to touch the image of Loki. She stopped breathing, her eyes closed slowly and her arm went limp and dropped to the ground.

Loki stood over her lifeless body and looked at his hands. One was covered in blood; the other held Tanya moments before she died. In his mind he knew what he had done was the most awful thing imaginable, but another part of him, enjoyed it. The fact that his hand alone took several lives gave him a sense of power he'd never felt before.

Standing a distance away was the girl Tanya ran into moments before she found Loki. Her eyes were completely white and she was cleaning blood off of her hands with a small cloth.

"So, he's awake at last…" the girl said confidently, "Lets see how good this kid really is then" The girl started walking towards Loki, with no hesitation or remorse for the girl she just witnessed lose her life. "You there, boy" the girl called out to Loki. Loki's head jerked up and looked directly at her, his black eyes seemed to pierce her very soul and for the first time that she can remember she felt a cold shiver run down her back.

"What do you want?" Loki asked

"What's your name?" The girl asked

"Loki" Loki replied, "Now if that's all you want with me then be gone from my sight, I'm not in the mood to chat"

"Good, neither am I, Loki was it?" the girl said quite confidently, "My name is Celeste, Lets make something clear, you might feel powerful now but you know nothing of true power…"

Loki stepped back a bit, taken back by the fact that she knew about his surge of power, the feeling that it gave him, not to mention the fact her eyes were like his. Loki made up his mind; he needed to have the feeling of absolute power yet again. So Loki clenched his fists and charged at Celeste, drawing one fist back and using the other to guard. Loki threw a powerful punch at Celeste, using all the force he could muster; he thought that if half that power could kill a person than his full strength would be unbelievable and that this fight was already over. He was wrong. Celeste caught his fist in mid air with one hand. She tightened her grip on his hand and grabbed the same arm with her free hand, shifted her body and tossed Loki over her shoulder and into a tree, as Loki hit the tree a large thud was heard and also a loud crack as Loki screamed out in pain.

"This is all wrong" Loki thought, "How did she do that? I have raw power, I can't lose!"

"This isn't good" Celeste thought, "It seems as if, there are two spirits within this boy, but how can that be, he seems to have awoken both, one after the other, I just managed to face his darker side"

"OK…" Loki sighed, "Time for me to get serious". Loki climbed to his feet, his back completely aching and some fresh cuts appearing on his back and arms. Loki charged at Celeste yet again and punched her in the stomach with enormous force. She coughed up blood and fell to her knees, but she was only stunned momentarily. Her counter attack was simple but effective, she punched Loki in the groin and as he doubled over in pain she head butted him and blood shot out of Loki's nose and trickled out of his mouth. Celeste stood up and walked over, standing over Loki, at his head.

"What are you going to do?" Loki asked, cringing in pain. He couldn't really move anymore, he was exhausted and his whole body throbbed.

Celeste knelt down and rolled Loki onto his side, she raised her hand and delivered a powerful chop to the back of Loki's neck. As the hit landed, Loki's eyes shot wide open and his eyes instantly returned to normal, his hair and his energy all returned to normal. He cried out in pain for a moment but then slumped down and was unconscious. As Celeste lay Loki's head back down, her eyes changed back to normal and the aura around her faded. The cold feeling she had from Loki vanished and she picked Loki up in her arms and slumped him over her shoulder. She was only a small girl but she was strong for her size, though she did struggle with it. She smelt the overwhelming odour of the hounds approaching and decided it would be wiser to get out of the area where she and Loki would become the entrée. As Celeste trudged through the forest with Loki slumped over her shoulder, she could hear the hounds not too far away, ravaging at a fresh piece of meat, tearing at it, snarling at one another for the majority of the feed. The trek through the forest was tough, Celeste was tired and injured as well as carrying Loki through the woods, and it wasn't easy that much was certain. Before long Celeste had to stop and rest, so she put Loki down and leant him against a tree and she sat down next to him and leant against the tree, both of them had blood all over them, Loki for the most part, but Celeste also had some nasty gashes along her arms. Celeste rested her head against the tree and slowly closed her eyes, she was just going to relax for a minute, she was exhausted and out of strength. Before too long she was asleep. Too fatigued to continue on. After a few hours Celeste begins to wake, all she can smell is the heinous, foul odour of the hounds upon her. As she slowly opened her eyes she was now face to face with a hound, it appeared to be alone and strayed from its pack to chase after her and Loki. Its breath was terrible, it was fouler than the beasts hide and it made Celeste want to vomit, but she was too taken back with fear to even think about being sick. As the beast snarled and flared its teeth, ready to pounce, a gun shot echoed from through the trees, a bullet collided with the hounds head, shattering its skull on impact and blowing a hole right through its skull. With blood spraying everywhere and Celeste now covered in the hounds blood, the hound simply went limp and collapsed. Celeste looked at the blood covering her in disgust and slowly got to her feet.

"Are you OK?" A voice called out, it was an elderly man from the town; he was wearing a hunter's uniform and carried a big rifle.

"We're much better now that you've shown up" Celeste called back

"Are you injured?" The man called out

"Only slightly, my friend here is unconscious though and needs medical treatment"

The elderly man runs over and puts his phone back in his pocket. "Help is on its way" the man said, "Thank goodness you're ok, we found two other kids who weren't so lucky"

"They were friends of his…" Celeste said grimly

"Damn hounds" The man said angrily, "we should have culled them when we had the chance, now all we can do is keep them away from the town"

Not long after, a medical team appears and places Loki on a stretcher and they carry him off to an ambulance parked not far off, on the main road. Celeste hops in the ambulance with Loki and they're taken away to the hospital.

As Loki's eyes open and adjust to the light, it feels like he's been out cold for days. He recognizes the roof, the lights and the surrounding area, it's all very familiar to him now, and he realised where he was, he was in the hospital again. He sat up and looked around, he didn't understand why he was here or why he was in so much pain. His entire body throbbed in pain but it wasn't too serious. There were other beds in this room, all of them had their curtains drawn and there was a figure standing at the door holding two cups. She only had a small build; she had shoulder length light brown hair, which was tired back into a ponytail. She also wore glasses. Loki noticed that she was wearing a white coat like all the doctors around the hospital.

"Ah Loki" Celeste said as she walked in and placed the two cups down on the table next to his bed, "Glad to see you're finally awake, I'm doctor Newhart, I've been treating your wounds since you were brought in"

"You?" Loki asked, quite taken back, because this girl looked not much older than him, "You look too young to be a doctor" Loki said with some conviction.

"Don't let that fool you, I'm only an intern but I have my medical degree" Celeste replied, "anyway, you seem to be recovering, so we'll keep you in for a few more days, if your condition has improved by then, you'll be able to go home, any questions?"

"How did I get here?" Loki asked, "One moment I was walking along the road with my friend and then it's all hazy, I seem to have blacked out" Loki looked around and then his eyes opened wide, "Where's Tanya, Is she OK?"
Celeste sighed and lowered her head slightly; "She didn't make it" Celeste said remorsefully, "You and Tanya, along with your friend Derrick, were attacked by a pack of Uruz Dahes on your way to the lake. Derrick and Tanya were gone before anything could be done; you barely survived with your life"

Loki looked stunned after hearing this news, it would explain the agonising pain he has been going through. Tears began to form in his eyes and they trickled down his face as he just looked in disbelief at this doctor telling him the worst news imaginable. Loki slumped his head down and just looked at his bed, his hands. He was looking at them but his mind was now far-gone, consumed near instantly by grief he just sat and wept. Celeste thought it best to leave him for now and she left him to finish her rounds of the hospital, she told him she would be back to check up on him in a few hours.

"He doesn't remember a thing" Celeste thought to herself, "Just like when I first awoke the essence, but he awoke two different spirits. His body should have been ripped apart, but somehow he endured it, once he has had time to grieve I'll talk to him again, this time I should tell him everything about what we are"