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The Black Glass Necklace Chapter2: Alone, Disconnected and Unattached
I walk a lonely road
The only one I that have ever known
Don't know were it goes
But its home and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Blvd. of broken dreams
Were the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk alone
My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find
Till then I'll walk alone
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line of the edge
And were I walk alone
Read between the lines of what's
Fucked up and every things all right
Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive
And I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I'll walk aloneI walk this empty street
On the Blvd. of broken dreams
Were the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a..
My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I'll walk alone
"RIKUNI!!!!" the voice that screamed the girl's name was fearful and blood curdling, and every moment after it seemed to last an eternity, the near-silent whispering of the wind through the windows turned into a lingering blur of rushed noises, screaming past her ears.
It had come from downstairs, following the sound of the front door slamming open, piercing through the silence of the nighttime. As fast as she could, Rikuni charged down the staircase, to find her mother retching blood onto the white carpet, turning it black with Korlish blood. It would turn purple in several hours, as it dried, and then fade away entirely, no longer there at all.
Rikuni was young, a Saiyan-Korlish hybrid with a slick pink tail and a patch of silken, pale gold coloured fur on the back of her neck beneath the masses of pink and gold hair. There were four thick streaks of brown amongst the pink and gold, marking her Saiyan heritage. Like any Saiyan hair, the brown was rough and spiky; she often kept them in small braids, woven with colourful ribbons and tied with spirals of a gold precious metal. Her years of childhood were now behind her, but womanhood had not quite reached her physique yet, years of training had prolonged the growth of her breasts and hips. She was dressed in a long-sleeved leotard, pink to match her tail and hair, her feet were bare, and the carpet was cool against her skin.
"Mama?" she whispered in a quivering voice, her body trembling uncontrollably. "Have they come for us?"
Her mother let out a heaving sob, blood dribbling from her mouth before she spat it onto the carpet. And then she nodded. "I only just got home. They were not far behind me; they will be here any moment. Go and collect food, put it in the space pod. Then we shall go."
Rikuni reached down to help her mother up. "GO!" screamed her mother. "GO! GO! GO!" Tears were streaming down the woman's face, glistening in the dim light that her ki provided and streaking her fur a darker colour. Rikuni's own eyes were hot with tears, and it scared her to see her mother cry. But she ran into the kitchen, her small hands and her tail hastily grabbing food from the shelves and then racing into the space pod. Panic and haste had ridden Rikuni so much that she threw the food into the pod before running back to get more. She had finished the fourth – and last – trip when she ran back into the foyer.
"Mama," she said softly, "I am done."
She knelt down to help her wounded mother up, her hands firm against the woman's silken fur as she wrapped her fingers around her wrists to pull her up.
"Tha-," before she could finish thanking her daughter, the door burst open with a flood of red light. There was a gaping hole left where the door was, the edges were scorched and smoking eternally.
The scent of smoke caused Rikuni's nostrils to flare, bringing more hot tears to her eyes. She blinked, her thick eyelashes catching the tears between them. Three of Frieza's soldiers stood in the opening, stepping forward with ki-glowing hands outstretched. Frieza was long assumed dead, just as his father, but his son had taken over. Frieza II ruled half of the galaxy Carion's planets, and had destroyed four in the last year.
One of the men stepped forward, the shadows parting around him and growing in the hollows of his eyes, and he appeared more skeletal and scary than he had moments before.
"Merateya 10428, you are to be detained for the offense of fleeing your master. As a slave's child, your daughter, Rikuni 31720 is to also be detained. You will serve seventeen years hard labour in the mines of Nyann for your absence of eight years. Rikuni 31720, aged nine and a half Tiuth years, or fourteen Korlish years, shall face eight Tiuth years serving Frieza the Second in the palace in Aronai, as she cannot be charged with any other service due to being aged under ten years."
His voice was monotonous, accented slightly as though he had only learnt to speak Tiuth recently. He snapped his fingers in a sharp click, and the other two men stepped forwards. Rikuni gasped. They were huge. She had been thinking about attacking them in defence, but they had to be at least twice her size. Never in her life had she imagined someone to have shoulders of that size. The pure strength and masculinity that radiated from them made her sick, and dizzy with fear, hot, sickly bile rose in her throat and she stepped back, cowering against the wall.
Merateya stepped forwards, flinging an arm out to shield her daughter. "You cannot take Rikuni. She is the child of Prince Vegeta. She is the princess of the Saiyans."
The soldiers snorted. "Even if it were true, it wouldn't matter. The Prince is dead. The Saiyans are almost gone entirely. She is the daughter of a slave and she is to serve Frieza the Second."
"She is the daughter of Vegeta. His father bought me at a trading when I was thirteen and until Frieza the First overthrew King Vegeta, I was treated as a member of the royal family."
"And why didn't the mark get removed," inquired the soldier, his voice cold and mocking, as he indicated to the tattoo on her arm with a nod.
"We were about to get it removed when the war started. King Vegeta was too preoccupied to worry about a mark on my skin…" as Merateya rattled on to the soldiers Rikuni watched on, hearing her mother's voice but unable to discern any words the stream of syllables broke into. Fear had ridden her too far.
Rikuni, her mother's ki flared inside of her, and a voice passed through her mind like a blast of icy wind, making her spine tingle. I am going to transform. Then, run. Go as far from here as you can.
Rikuni's throat closed, and her breath was caught in her chest. With all the strength she had, she fought the urge to look in the direction of her mother, focusing her vision on a shadow-filled corner behind on of the soldiers' shoulders. And leave you here? Mama… I can't…
You have to. Come back afterwards, take the money in the safe, and then go to Reukusub. Find the Bookkeeper in the Library. There was a slight pause and Rikuni could feel her pulse throbbing in her temple, each beat like a painful pounding in the head. Can you? Rikuni?
Parting her lips slightly, Rikuni took a numbing breath of cold, smoke-filled air. It burned her throat as it rushed through to her lungs, and she spluttered momentarily, tears springing to her eyes. Yes Mama, she replied with an emotional sort of numbness.
There was a large eruption of light and Rateya's ki skyrocketed, the power radiating from her was of a phenomenal strength. Rikuni froze, unable to move, gaping at her mother's transforming figure in awe. There was too much light for her too see her mother as the white had simply engulfed her, but she stared right into it, unable to look away, and did not squint - Korlish eyes could never be blinded from light. Through the corner of her eyes she saw the soldiers fall into their fighting stances each one watching the mass of white-hot light before them with unblinking eyes, and before she saw her mother's transformation begin, she had fled. On foot.
Rikuni was not a fool; the skies were a dangerous place to hide in. She did not know the place her feet brought her to. It was cold, dank and dark and in the middle of a near-desolate wasteland speckled with rocks and trees, covered in grass thick enough to cut skin. A little crevice between two rocks caught her eyes as she tore them away from the sky, watching the skies blacken unnaturally, bolts of lightning caused by an energy imbalance flashing through the heavens. Numbly, she lowered herself into the fissure, holding her breath as she sucked in her stomach and ducked her head under. It was dry inside there, dusty and cold, but dry. Through the gap, she watched the ethereal tempest brewing in the sky, every bolt of lightning lashing through the air and thunder growling above her, drawn to her mother's power. Rikuni did not blink for two hours; her eyes were fixated on the sky. But her watch buzzed at her with a low hum, it was four hours until the midnight, eleven until dawn. Near to the stillness of silence, her lips softly murmured a prayer for her mother, reciting the words of hope that had been engraved within her soul and memory by the teachings of Korlish monks. When she finished she realised the burn in the tip of her nose, and she sniffed softly out of irritation. Even with the slick coat of fur to protect her from the lower depths of temperature, her body could not adjust to cold. She could feel her pulse slowing gradually as it beat thickly beneath her skin, and the cold was seeping through the thickness of her cloak, sinking into her bones and sending chills down her spine. Rikuni inhaled deeply, the back of her throat dry as her breath rattled in her lungs, burning them with the rasping dry cold. It soon became hard for her eyes to stay open, and they gradually flutter closed. Within moments, she succumbed to the tiredness of her body and mind. She slept.
The child awoke twelve hours later; the sky was a colourless kind of grey, it was not dark but the sky was absent of sunlight and as pale as the few clouds that lingered above the cities with no promises of rain, but none either of fine weather. Rikuni opened her eyes slowly, careful not to make any other movement. Her senses were alert, and she could hear nothing but the low buzzing of insects as she listened. They suddenly went hushed, and Rikuni shivered in the noiselessness. It was the type of eerie silence that made her feel that she was not the only thing listening at that moment. Sending out a trickle of her ki, she searched for any others within the area. She found none, and she slowly crawled out of the gap between the rocks, one of them grazing her elbow, tearing the skin but drawing no blood.
She seated herself on a rock, wrapping her tail around her waist and allowed her ki to let her lift off the rock, still in her cross-legged position, and float in the air. Rikuni shut her eyes, inhaling softly to the count of seven, and then holding and exhaling for the same count. It wasn't long before she no longer needed to count, she could manage it subconsciously, and her mind was empty of thoughts, clear and completely alert to everything around her. When she opened her eyes again, the sky was scarlet with streaks of marigold and orange blending seamlessly together. The clouds absorbed the colours of the rising sun, turning pink and silhouetted in an outline of illuminating gold. The sun was half-risen, like a glowing semi-circle of ember above the flat horizon in the east, beautiful and heaven sent, so blankly unaware of the fearful night it had ended with the bringing of daytime.
The sun had fully risen when Rikuni had returned to her home, and the sight of it made her stomach lurch. She turned aside and fell to her knees, vomiting in the bushes. Shakily, she stood again, her skin ghostly pale and cold beads of sweat forming on her brow, catching in her fur and the wisps of golden hair that framed her horrified face. There were three walls still standing, one of them was half crumbled away, streaked in black soot and covered in brown dust. Several doorframes still stood, their doors burnt away and the walls they were once attached to fallen. The space pod stood half buried in wreckage, its white paint glaring vibrantly in the sun. Rikuni trudged through the exposed hallway, her legs heavy as lead as splintered furniture crunched beneath her feet. The stairway had collapsed, and absently the girl counted six steps leading to nowhere. Part of the second floor was still there in the corner, attached to two of the remaining walls, and a gaping hole that revealed the emerald green sky had formed where the ceiling and floor had collapsed or completely disintegrated.
"Mum?" Rikuni's small voice called out shakily. Her heart was pounding rapidly again, her breathing becoming shorter and shallower with every gasp and her hands were trembling as she tore debris away from the ground, searching for anything that could turn into a glimmer of hope.
Something sharp grazed against her skin, tearing her hand open in a swift, clean slice. Letting out a hiss of pain, Rikuni brought her hand up to her eyes, watching as blood slowly began to seep to her wound turning the slash dark, droplets of black beginning to form along the slice across her palm. Her golden eyes darted towards the ground, searching for the offender. It was their safe, dented and broken; one of the corners had ruptured and caused her wound. Rikuni watched as the wound on her hand healed over, her Saiyan blood coming into effect and the black shimmer of liquid beginning to turn purple. She reached down to the vault, careful not to scratch herself again, and snapped the door off it with a swift tug. It clattered loudly against the rubble when she discarded it, tossing it aside without looking at it once. There were several thousand credits in there, some jewels and some documents of Merateya's. She took it all, stuffing it into her pockets and turning towards the space pod.
Her expression was hard, her eyes an unholy gold, cold and focused, and her lips pressed together firmly to form a thin line. Merateya's words came to her …
"- go to Reukusub. Find the Bookkeeper in the Library-,"
Rikuni exhaled sharply, pushing her left hand against the entrance of the space pod, feeding her ki into it until it opened. Before long, she had initiated the launching system and prepared the power source of the pod.
"Destination: Reukusub…" chimed the mechanical voice of the system. The lights inside the bridge began to grow brighter, indicating the building up of force, Rikuni buckled herself into her seat, and her eyes shutting as she muttered a quick prayer. She inhaled through her nose, and sniffed…
Something was burning. Something prosthetic, plasticy, was burning and the smell made her dizzy.Her nose crinkled and her eyes shot open, she could feel the air against her skin grow hot. Something in her mind awoke and screamed at her, some sort of primal instinct. Danger! It screamed at her, as her senses suddenly burst into life and her mind instantly cleared itself of thoughts. Rikuni ripped the seatbelt off, and smashed through the closed door of the pod, her eyes hazed over and her pulse slow and steady. She spun around midair, a hundred yards from the pod and watched in stunned horror as it exploded, her hands flinging up to shield her face, the fiery heat licking against her skin as the blast died away. Rikuni opened her eyes and looked down to see that more than half of the wreckage had been completely disintegrated, and she knew immediately that if her mother had of been there before, she most certainly wasn't any more. There was a glob of melted metal – what had moments before been a top-of-the-range space pod – engulfed in lilac and blue flames, a circular perimeter around it of brown dirt blanketed in a silken cover of black soot.
Well, that went well. Rikuni spat out a mouthful of dust, her eyes following it fall to the remaining debris. Through the corner of her eyes she saw something glitter in the sunlight, and she darted down towards it, her hand reaching beneath what looked like a charred piece of the kitchen tabletop, her fingers brushing against something cool and glassy. They wrapped around it, smooth little lumps pressing into her skin. It was her mother's necklace, the black glass one, the one she had worn since before Rikuni could remember. Bunching it up in her hand, Rikuni pressed her lips against the beads, the glass cold against her silken skin, and slipped it over her head feeling the same coolness like a band around her neck. Her hands dropped to her side, and she stood there, amongst the rubble, her head turned towards the sky, and her eyes golden like stars yet dull and lifeless, disconnected and unattached. At that moment, she had never felt more alone. At that moment, she was no longer a naïve little child. She was a woman, a princess and all by herself.
Alone.
Disconnected.
Unattached.
And that is the end of chappie no.2! Hopefully I can get the next chapter done quicker than this one! Will be adding the familiar characters in the fourth chappie, btw. R/R!