Versus 3: Eclipse
--All That Is Now--
Of course, she had no intention of hurting him the way she had weeks ago. All those days ago when she wouldn't--nay, when she COULDN'T tell him that she loved him. But now he suffered from physical pain as well. The bad part was that she couldn't remember exactly how this had happened.
Bra stood over Goten. He was bleeding, battered and burned as he lay in a huge crater, apparently unconscious. And of course it only made sense that that crater had been created by her. What had she done? What attack had she unleashed to birth this gaping hole that they were both in now?
Her head began to hurt. She remembered being upset with him. Something about not having him spar at full power with her. That was it. It really wasn't fair. She'd always thought she stood a chance against him. She'd always put everything she had into their sparring matches. And what had she gotten in return? The insult of her opponent holding back. Even when he said he wouldn't. Even when she'd always asked him not to. There was no recovering from that. There was no excuse for him to have done this to her. It hurt her pride more than anything. Just when she was so certain she had become strong enough, he was even stronger still.
...And yet he lay in this crater unconscious. That could have easily been a stroke of luck on her part. But she may never know.
She should just leave him here. He was obviously strong enough to withstand any attack she could possibly dish out. She WOULD leave him. Yes. That would teach him not to hold back on her. Besides, leaving was something her father would have done.
She powered up and shot off quickly over the trees. She could hear them whipping wildly in her wake. Guilt rapidly began to eat at her heart. She almost couldn't believe she'd left him there in that condition. Anything could happen to him out there.
No! She could not bring herself to worry about him. That would be a sign of weakness. And she was not weak. She was Bra. Daughter of the great Vegeta.
She looked at her clothes. Aside from a few scratches, some dirt and a few burns, she was fine. Except for the fact that now, for some reason, she felt very strange. Her insides felt empty. But she decided to ignore it. The feeling would pass in time.
She landed back at home and took a deep breath. When she went inside she saw that neither her mother nor her father was around. It was for the best.
She was about to quickly make her way to her room, when she ran into Nick.
"Whoa! What's the hurry?" Nick asked. He smiled ever so warmly at her. "Your mom told me what a great job you did on your history test. I'm really happy for you."
Bra sighed. She had no time for this now. There was too much on her mind. She didn't care about history. She didn't care about how happy he was for her. She just wanted to be left alone.
So she pushed past him and headed toward her bedroom. The last thing she heard before she slammed her door was Nick's final inquiry: "Bra, what's wrong?"
She leaned against the door and frowned, immediately feeling guilty about the way she'd treated Nick. Just because she was suffering from inner turmoil didn't mean she had the right to treat poor Nick that way. She could have at least attempted to be kind for once. He'd done nothing to deserve such treatment.
But guilt hadn't been enough to make her go back to check on Goten, and it surely wasn't enough to make her go out and apologize to Nick.
The feeling, the emptiness she'd felt before had not yet passed. She looked around her room with a blank stare. Bathing would help her get her mind back together. She should do that first.
Bra ran a hot bath, put some salts in it and got in. The water might have scalded a normal person, but she wasn't worried. The hot water would help her relax...
Goten punched Bra in the abs forcefully, knocking the wind right out of her. And she staggered in mid air for a split second. Then she phased behind him and tried to kick him in the back. But before her attack could land, he phased behind her, clasped his hands together and was about to send her plummeting toward the ground. Bra phased out of sight, but reappeared in front of him, still facing him.
"This is getting old," she said as she punched him square in the chest. She did a front flip and came down on his shoulder with her heel.
It had obviously been unexpected. He was stunned for a moment, but before she could move her foot out of the way, he grabbed it.
"You really outsmarted me that time," Goten said. "But don't plan on something like that happening again. He let go of her foot and kicked her off to the side, sending her flying off into the distance.
Her attacks didn't really seem to be effecting him. Even when she put all her strength into a move, she saw no benefit. There was little break in his defense. He was getting slippery hits in on her. It was like she was stuck inside a plastic bag with no way out. As a matter of fact, she was beginning to feel clastrophobic even now. What could she do to get out of the situation in which she found herself?
Once she steadied herself from Goten's last attack, he was right on top of her again with a barrage of rapid kicks and punches. She tried her best to dodge the attacks, but blocking them became more convenient. She growled and forced breaks in his attacks by knocking his punches and kicks out of the way as she blocked. She sent one of his arms off to the side one time and powered up for not even a nanosecond. Then she finally started delivering some kicks and punches of her own. Kicks were coming much faster than she'd rememebered being able to kick. Her punches were swifter and harder than she'd ever thought they could be.
As she began turning the tide in her favor, Goten began trying to dodge the attacks. But for every dodge, Bra had a counter offensive. Every time he got out of the way of one punch, another followed it up. For every kick he dodged, he paid by taking two knees.
She could feel her own power steadily rising. It was a strange feeling. It felt as if she were sucking the life energy straight out of Goten. Every time she landed a kick or a punch his power seemd to go down and hers seemed to surge.
Goten stopped dodging altogether and tried blocking instead. But this just made things worse for him. She began pummeling him. She couldn't be sure if she had possession of her body anymore. She felt like a spectator in all of this. She couldn't seem to stop herself. She could see the damage she was doing, but something wouldn't allow her to cease her attacks.
The last thing she heard before she lost herself completely was her own voice say: "Suffer until your life hangs in the balance."
Bra's eyes popped open and she almost screamed. Was it all a dream? Or had she relived parts of that fight?
From the feeling she was getting, she had a pretty good idea that this was not just some dream.
--End All That is Now--
--Short episode. Yes indeed. And a strange episode at that. And since this episode was so short and strange, you get to have it early, free of charge. It may have a bunch of errors in it, but I didn't really have time to go through and nit-pick. Hopefully I'll be able to get the remaining 4 chapters out soon. Thanks for reading it. Let me know what you think. Please review.
--Here Bra goes again with the inability to control herself. And how could she have left Goten like that? That's so unlike her... Yeah... Yeah, that's so unlike her.
--Thanks so much for your reviews. They really mean a lot to me. Keep them coming.