Author's Note: Sorry to keep you waiting, guys, but I'm finally back! I'm really sorry but I've been busy with schoolwork as well as our theatre group activities, like the musical play we had just last February. Anyway, I haven't written anything since December, so this chapter may seem a bit weird, style and all. Nonetheless, I hope you'll like it… somehow.
I would like to dedicate this chapter to Miss Lous. It's nothing special, but I just wanna thank you for helping me find my fluffy plot bunny of doom and conquer Darth Writer's Block. Like you always do. -hugs-
Act Two, Chapter Eleven
The Secrets of the Exalted Order of the Cosmos! Kasumi's Startling Revelation!
Kasumi regained consciousness only to find herself in what humans called a hospital.
Staring at the white-hued ceiling that was nowhere near attractive or mesmerizing, she wondered for a brief moment how she ended up in such a place, lying amidst sheets of white cloth and with things attached to her body at random points. However, it didn't take long for her to remember that she had barged into Ryuuki's flagship, the Dragonwing, to exalt revenge on the Ryuujin fleet that struck her down that night her master died, and everything else that followed from the said feat. That she fought against Ryuuki but injured herself severely in the process. That she ended up being rescued by the man she so wanted to kill, the warrior who bore the cursed name of Goten Son. That she, in the brats' ship Kismet, had fainted due to excessive loss of blood, and would've been dead if Briefs-Vegeta had wished it so.
She loathed the fact that while she was powerful enough to destroy an entire armada of Ryuujins, she was a slave of the Guuuuq, a mysterious seed that had been implanted in her. She could never get close enough to any of the Overlords, let alone Ryuurai, who ranked the highest of them all. While Ryuurai loved to play around with her, he could always choose to play dirty and exert influence on the Guuuuq, and thus, make her unable to move a muscle as he would torture her with his power.
And to think they were once allies. That part infuriated her the most. She had served Hyouko and the Exalted Order faithfully, but the Supreme Overlord had been planning her torture and death from the very beginning. Ryuurai and his feet-kissing alien warriors had only been using her for their plans of universal domination, and that she could not accept. It wounded her pride.
Thus, killing Son would have to wait. She had to deal with Ryuurai first.
Having made up her mind to vanquish the tailed freaks once and for all, she sat up to remove the devices that had been attached to her. She felt pain shoot through her back, but she was already used to such a sensation, so she simply ignored it. As she was about to start plucking off the tubes and all the other things that had been stuck to her body, she stopped short, realizing for the first time that she was being watched. Unable to sense ki – her fatal flaw in the deadly game of martial arts – she failed to tell that a certain purple-haired demi-saiyajin was sitting on a chair near the door of the room she was confined in, with his arms crossed over his chest in his usual arrogant fashion.
Knowing that he had captured her attention, Briefs-Vegeta taunted as he regarded the female warrior with his ice-blue eyes, "You're lucky it was Goten who found you, Kasumi. If I had been the one to stumble into your battle with Ryuuki, I so would've loved to watch him kill you. And if needed, I would've lent him a hand in tearing you apart."
She ignored the jest and proceeded to cleaning herself from the technological gadgets that had been affixed on her. But not because she did not want to retaliate. She had come to realize that, powerful as she was, she couldn't defeat the populace of Ryuusei on her own, and thus she would need the assistance of the saiyajin brat, his psychic girlfriend and the man she wanted to kill, even if she detested the idea with all of her heart. She and the three wannabe heroes of Chikyuu had a common enemy, and while the people she would have to work with would surely irritate her to the core, with their ideals and philosophies and lack of discipline, they had strengths and abilities she could only dream of.
Convincing them to join forces with her, however, would be a most difficult task. She had been their heartless foe from the beginning. In their first encounter, she had almost succeeded in extinguishing Briefs-Vegeta from the face of the planet, and while she no longer had the obligation to dispose of the brat, she was certain that they thought she was still at it. Her relationship with Kaname had never been smooth, either. She had worked alongside the girl's father in spreading his cruel and violent ways, and at one point, was even rumored to become her stepmother. Definitely not a lovely notion.
She would have to play nice.
"Then why didn't you kill me?" she asked in challenging tone as she finished her task, averting her gaze to the demi-saiyajin. Yes, they needed her. She knew as much, from the look in the other fighter's eyes. And, that, she thought, would be a very good reason for her to use in convincing them to let her fight by their side.
Briefs-Vegeta's response was one she didn't expect, however. "Believe me, I really wanted to. But I trust Goten, and even though I don't understand what made him save someone like you from the clutches of death in the first place, I choose to trust in his judgment." He rose from his seat, not taking his eyes off her. "That doesn't mean, however, that I trust you. In fact, I'm expecting you to prove me wrong in trusting my friend's decision."
She was unable to say anything in reply. What, truly, was up with Son? She wanted to believe that the reason why he saved her was because he wanted to see her suffer, having lost a person she cared for deeply – but somehow it didn't seem right. It couldn't have been pity either. Pity was one of the emotions she could never draw from anyone. Contempt, perhaps, and all the other feelings that lay in its continuum. Passion and desire, even. But pity?
Fortunately for her, it was at that moment when the two other members of their infamous trio slid into her room, and thus she was saved from the burden of having to think of a response. Kaname, the only other female in the group aside from her, was startled to find that the assassin was already to leave the establishment even without the doctor's consent, having pried the medical gadgets off her. But if she was unable to voice out her thoughts, Son was quick to.
"You shouldn't do that," he chided, earning a fierce glare from her. Smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head, he backed up against the wall. His reproach was not intended to be offensive in any sort; however, she didn't seem to take it very well, and he knew it was better to just keep quiet and stay out of her zone of anger.
"How long have I been here?"
"Five days."
Her eyes flew wide open in shock. "Five days!"
Briefs-Vegeta nodded, amused at the look of disbelief on the assassin's pale features. He knew it would be a hard blow to her ego for her to discover that she had been out cold for nearly a week, and he was also well aware that it was another opportunity for him to taunt her a little more. "You're not all-powerful, you know. You lost too much blood, and overfatigue had taken its toll on your body. You were even showing signs of extreme dehydration–" He trailed off as the female fighter got to her feet and proceeded to leaving the room; quickly, he blocked her path of exit, stepping in front of the door. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To kill Ryuurai." Even she was surprised by how fierce her tone had become.
Seeing their confused but interested expressions, she smiled inwardly at her small victory. If she would be able to pull her act off successfully, she wouldn't have to convince them to let her join their cause, they would be asking her to accompany them in their quest to eliminate the Supreme Overlord.
"On the night Master Hyouko died," she paused to swallow the painful lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat, careful not to look at Son's way, "I was on my way to Elysia to attend a meeting in which Ryuurai called for, in place of my master, who was set to attend the World Unification Conference. However, those I believed to be my allies shot me down, and they dragged me back to their homeplanet, Ryuusei. There, they performed tests on me, tortured me… but eventually I managed to escape. As I was fleeing Ryuusei in a stolen starfighter, I intercepted two messages. One of them was a confirmation that Ryuuki was going to attack this planet by midnight and claim it for the Exalted Order."
"Exalted Order?"
Kasumi nodded. "The 'Exalted Order of the Cosmos'. It's mainly a faction of Ryuujins, but there are also other species, those who have pledged allegiance to Ryuurai, who is the 'Supreme Overlord'." It was too late when she realized that she had given an introduction that required further elaboration. Left without a choice – and thinking that it would be a good way to gain the trio's trust – she went on. "He has the support of seven head cronies, those called 'Overlords', as well as the entire Ryuujin populace and the people of those planet leaders who decided to work alongside him. Their goal is conquest on a universal scale, and they've been at it for many years now. Ryuujins live long, you see, and so Ryuurai has been taking his time in taking over the universe. And he has a distinct style of doing so, too. He silently wrecks havoc in the background with his Overlords while the big-shot non-Ryuujin tyrants make all the noise in the front lines."
It was strange, but somehow Briefs-Vegeta managed to spot the connection between everything that had happened to the planet he had grown up in and loved, in the context of the Z-Senshi's history, and the so-called Exalted Order. "Freeza was one of those 'big-shot tyrants', wasn't he? And I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Gero and the Red Ribbon Army were actually part of that Exalted Order."
Again, the assassin nodded, and she allowed her gaze to linger on the purple-haired fighter for a few more moments. He caught up fast. "Freeza was given the autonomy he desired, yet even with such independence and freedom he remained under Ryuurai's rule. And yes, the Red Ribbon Army and Dr. Gero also belonged of the Order, although indirectly. The Red Ribbon Army worked for Master Hyouko's predecessor as the mastermind of Project Chikyuu, and they weren't aware that they were being put to use for a much greater cause. Dr. Gero, however…"
She hesitated. Would she dare invoke Briefs-Vegeta's wrath? She knew that talking about Dr. Gero would later lead to the androids, the mechanical beings the demi-saiyajin so hated. Not that she was worried about being the object of his fury; she was already aware, even from the first time they battled, that he was no match for her. What she was concerned about was the result of her confession about the secrets of the Exalted Order, in which she hoped she wouldn't have to worry about convincing them to trust her. Sending the purple-haired warrior in a raving fit would make the formation of their alliance impossible for her.
But he pressed on, his cobalt-colored eyes narrowing significantly. "What about Dr. Gero?"
Well, if bad goes to worse, I'll just have to 'gain' their trust some other way. It shouldn't be too hard, she thought silently, before she reverted her gaze to her still-interested audience, and resumed speaking. "Dr. Gero worked for the first commander of Project Chikyuu as well. However, his creation of the androids was directly under Master Hyouko's jurisdiction."
Kaname gasped, horrified. "No…"
They were all unable to believe what they had heard, that the assassin could tell. And as she predicted, Briefs-Vegeta was enraged, although he was doing his best to suppress the anger and hatred that erupted from the depths of his heart all of a sudden. Both his hands were clamped into fists, and he was shaking. She knew what he was thinking: Hyouko Kaname was not only responsible for making his life after the androids miserable; he was the reason why he and everyone else who suffered under the androids' reign of terror were miserable in the first place. It was unforgivable.
Son, on the other hand, was also shaken by the revelation, but he didn't seem to be quite as affected as the other two. She wondered why. Did he actually have a good time while the androids wrecked havoc? Or was he just a master of his emotions, able to hide the pain and the anger well?
"That Ryuurai. All this is his doing," Briefs-Vegeta whispered, seething.
Kasumi stared at him with surprised orbs of sapphire blue, taken aback by his pronouncement. She had thought wrong about the brat, as much as she believed she knew him. She had expected him to blame it on Hyouko, and her as well, as she was his second-in-command during his reign as Project Chikyuu's commander. And yet the demi-saiyajin wasn't doing such a thing. Though they were definitely part of circle of characters he so loathed, he chose to direct his anger and hatred to the alien warlord who had been enjoying himself in his quest for universal domination instead. Just as she had.
Two pairs of blue eyes with almost the same shade met, and as they stared into each others' eyes, looking beyond the externalities and the events that have transpired between them, they silently forged a deal. They would work together to bring the alien tyrant down, whether they liked each other or not. The fact that they shared the same degree of anger and hatred toward Ryuurai was enough to bridge the gap. Then, the male warrior asked, "So what was that other message you mentioned earlier? Did that give you a lead as to where Ryuurai could be now?"
"Not just a lead, but it pinpointed his exact location. The transmission called for the Overlords and their second-in-commands; Ryuurai wished to meet them at the planet of Kuzure'odai in a week."
No wonder she was hasty. "We only have two days."
"We!" Kaname interrupted in a hysterical tone as she turned to look at her purple-haired friend incredulously. Once again, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, or what she was seeing. There must be a misunderstanding, or something he had forgotten. "Are you out of your mind! She tried to kill you, Trunks! You'll just be giving her another opportunity to! And we don't know where her loyalties truly lie! You can't trust her!"
"I don't. And I don't like her either. She knows that much."
"And you don't have a choice," Kasumi stated a-matter-of-factly, as if it wasn't obvious. Inside, she was cheering. She had done it. And with her being the most knowledgeable about the Exalted Order, she would definitely be the one who would be bossing them around. After all, they would have to acknowledge her superiority. However, she had an act to continue playing at. To conclude it with a flourish, she sighed. "Well, neither do I."
He reverted his gaze to the young woman who stood in front of him, allowing himself to eye her critically before he would make his formal statement of alliance. She was an assassin, yes, but an honorable one at that. He hated to admit that she had a positive trait despite her apparent malevolence and monstrosity in the battlefield, but it was true. "Let's put aside our differences for now," he said, holding out his hand. "Let's kill each other later."
She took his hand and shook it, not even flinching at how firm he had executed the handshake. Her deep blue eyes regarded him in warning. "Just pray, Briefs-Vegeta," she advised, grinning in her cruel, twisted way, "that I don't forget."