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DARK ANGEL
Chapter Three – A Promise to keep

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"A man is dreaming that he is a butterfly... How can you know, when he wakes up, that it's not the butterfly who is dreaming that he is a man ?" (R.M.)


"Some things are too beautiful to de destroyed... until the point of no return..." (Juunanagou)

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Trunks started to slow down as he approached a Police Station. He had driven the motorbike he had "borrowed" as fast as he could, without jeopardizing the two kids traveling with him, Kotori in his lap and Fuma sitting behind him, grabbing his coat. The look on the boy's face showed he was still terrified by their savior, yet Trunks actually didn't blame him.

Ben's execution had been quite bloody for these young minds. In his own world, in the future, this kind of violence was everyday life. But here, this world was still preserved. For how long? He didn't know... Perhaps was it just a matter of months, or even days...

"Go there, kids...", he started, slowing the engine of the motorbike. He hated his actual physical condition. He couldn't die, but he couldn't fly nor use any other "ki application". "You'll have nothing to fear with them... They'll protect you...". It was a lie. If the cyborgs were to destroy all the actual human resistance, nothing would stop them from launching the "Judgment War" - as people called it in the future he was coming from. And nothing would save those kids.

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In mid-air, Goku was still, and observing the situation downwards. He could perceive Trunks' inner thoughts about the security of people and his fear about the upcoming war. But something had changed about the youth. He had witnessed it in the tunnel. Goku was chagrined by the fact no one could see or hear him. He had tried to reason Trunks, to prevent him from torturing the man in there, but Trunks had been deaf to him, and neither the kids nor the man seemed to have heard him.

So for the moment, he accepted the fact he could only observe. Perhaps he would find an explanation to all this later on. He was of a patient kind. Except that he was hungry...

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Fuuma jumped at once from the motorbike, happy to move away from the strange and scary man. He frowned as he realized Kotori wasn't moving but watching the Police Station with vacant eyes.

"Kotori-chan?", Fuuma tempted, trying not to catch too much Trunks' attention. Kotori didn't seem to hear him, so he went on, his voice more urging now as he wasn't sure their savior wouldn't explode suddenly without warning and pull a gun towards them, yelling "say what again, kid! I double-dare you!". Yet somehow, a darker part of him was grateful of what Trunks had done to their parent's murderers. They had deserved it!

"Kotori-chan? Can you climb down the bike, please?", Fuuma's voice was unease. He was the older brother, always giving instructions and always confident of his decisions (eventhou sometimes those decisions had led them both into troubles), but now he sounded like what he truly was: a frighten child, recent orphan, and lost in a dark place he didn't know.

"It is all my fault...", Kotori started with her tiny and soft voice, her eyes still vacant. Trunks frowned and turned his attention to her. "Kotori? What do you mean?". Unconsciously Fuuma got an idea of what Kotori was going to talk, he retorted automatically "No, Kotori-chan! Forget about that! It was not your fault!".

Kotori's eyes widened as tears almost formed. "It's me who insisted to go to the amusement park... They said they had no time but I kept pleading and crying... If I hadn't...". She couldn't continue as she suddenly burst into tears.

Fuuma made a step forward but Kotori inched away from him, into Trunks' lap. "I wish I'd die! So that they would be back again!". She clenched her eyes shut, trying to contain the tears that were flowing freely. And suddenly, she gasped and stopped crying. The absence of wails frightened Fuuma even more than the previous tears. He saw his sister raising slowly her face towards their scary savior, breathing deeply, her eyes expression like if she was in a dream.

"You are not responsible for your parents' death", was what Trunks had whispered to her, yet her words had poked him painfully. She reminded him of his own feelings. Back in the wooden house, he had been the only one who could have a chance against the cyborgs. He was the one, sent to protect Goku and his friends. Yet he had failed, too weak to be worthy of the effort made on him. Everybody had been killed.

Even himself…

He had failed.

And now, as he was laying his eyes on his dark companion, the crow had brought him back to amend for his weakness… To put the wrong things right.

Revenge was his purpose. To avenge his friends' death, and accomplish was he had been sent for: the destruction of the cyborgs.

He wasn't so different from the cyborgs after all. He had no ki, had a body which could regenerate from the wounds… the only difference was that there was a ghost in this shell of a body… unlike the cyborgs, who were only microchips; wires and electric impulses.

The only thing which was standing between the actual peaceful world and the judgment day, was a ghost, in a parody of a body, with revenge as his only purpose. As his only programming…

He realized then the look in Kotori's eyes. It was as if she could read all his thoughts, as if it was written all over his face.

"You lived something like this…", she whispered in a broken voice. Trunks froze. How far had she read in him? "In the tunnel, I felt it already", she went on, her eyes still locked on Trunks'. Fuuma was feeling the hair on his neck standing on his own. Sometimes, his sister had a weird way of talking to people. And when she was telling her dreams, it was in a strange, and sometimes even scary, way.

And now, he had the feeling she was doing it again, speaking dream-like to that dangerous-looking savior of theirs.

After a moment, Trunks just nodded to the little girl.

"But you don't cry". It sounded more like a question from the little blonde girl. Trunks' eyes darkened for a moment as he looked away, then back to that strange and bold little girl. "It happened a long time ago…"

He wasn't sure how long ago it had happened. How long was it since the cyborgs had come into the house in the wood, killing everyone, and torturing him until his soul almost shattered. Was it hours? Days? Months? He hoped for hours… He hated to think that the more the cyborgs spent time into this world, the closer the judgment day was…

"And because of it, it is not sad anymore?". The little girl's voice brought him back to here-and-now. She was probably wondering if one day she would feel the same about her parents' death.

Maybe. In a far future. If he could prevent the war…

Of there wouldn't be any future for anyone.

"It is still sad", Trunks replied after awhile. "But it makes my strength, now. I remember it, but my grief feed my hatred."

Fuuma tensed when he heard those words. He still couldn't trust that man, especially when his own sister, the only surviving member of his family after the evening's events, was still sitting on his motorbike.

The man could decide to turn it on again, and disappear with her.

And he would truly be alone…

Trunks felt the unease wave from the young boy, but kept his attention on Kotori, as he could read confusion on her face. He put a hand on the side of her head, surprising even himself in that gesture, and tried to reassure her. "One day, you'll feel the same. When the time will have flown by… But for now, you can cry".

As if the permission opened some gate, the tears came again into Kotori's eyes, and she buried her little face into Trunks' dark coat. A coat that could smell both wood, ash and blood. Yet, for now, the smell was somehow reassuring.

"Dad and Mum must hate me", she managed to sob after awhile. Fuuma wanted to go to her, to reassure her, but it was as if Trunks' presence forbid her to do so. At that moment, he hated Trunks. He felt jealous that this stranger had just arrived, and was sharing already something with his sister, something he felt alien with. He slapped mentally himself for such thoughts. This was the guy who had saved their lives, and avenged their parents' death.

Yet…

"They don't", Trunks replied with a frown, and a smile to the little girl, and for a moment, he also looked at Fuuma, trying to convince the boy of the same message. Fuuma felt some blood reaching his cheeks, but managed to remained expressionless. "They surely love you", the strange man went on. "And they are already watching you, happy to see you are alive…"

"You must keep up for them", Trunks went on, after a few moment.

There was a silence. The purple haired man was looking at the two kids, one ofter the other, but he was also paying some attention to the noise coming from the police station. At this late hour of the evening, there weren't a lot of commotion, but one patrol car could still some by the corner. And what the policemen would see would be weird enough for them, to be suspicious to their eyes.

"I will keep up for them", Kotori whispered after awhile. Then she rose her eyes again to meet Trunks'. "And you? Will you?"

Trunks' eyes widened slightly, then some cloud passed on them as he whispered: "I live only for a promise I must fulfill."

Kotori looked at him from aside. "Will you be happy when you'll have fulfilled your promise?"

Trunks frowned. He had never thought that far. Destroying the cyborgs, getting his revenge, was his own goal. What would happened next? What would happen of him, next? Wherever he would go, would he be at peace?"

"Perhaps...", he mostly answered to himself. But the little girl didn't realize this. She leant towards him. "Can you make another promise with me?"

Trunks' eyes grew wide again. This child was surprising. She had lost her parents in an horrible way, had almost been tortured and killed with her brother… and yet, she was sometimes crying as she had the right to do… and sometimes, extremely calm. Were all the kids in this time-era like that? Perhaps, he thought… Perhaps that when a kid is not obliged to think about how he must travel at night to avoid the cyborgs, in order to find some food in the dooms, perhaps a kid is behaving that way.

He nodded to the little girl, wondering what would be that "promise" she wanted him to do to her.

"When you'll be finish with your first promise, can you come back to me to tell me it's done?"

Her eyes were expecting, like the eyes of a young pup or kitten, begging for attention and care. For awhile Trunks was almost forgetting why he was there, and especially where he had risen from recently…

These two kids, especially the little girl, had taken a bigger importance for him in the latest hours, that he had ever espected, and he wasn't sure it was good. It was perhaps better for him not to get attached to anybody, in order not to be taken away from his purpose. From the purpose of his return.

But other words came to his memories: 'It is said that once you saved a life, you become responsible for that life'. Yes, he could do that promise. He could come back once everything would be over, just to make sure the kids were all right.

He could do it… If he succeeded, this time.

He leant his head a little. "All right… I will make this promise to you: I will come back to you, to tell you goodbye."

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TO BE CONTINUED...

Yep, the story isn't over ;)

All right, it tooks some big amount of time for me to update it, but it's all done in my head, so it's not like I'm inventing chapter after chapter. I only need to find some rare and precious things: motivation AND time to write ;-)

This chapter was in other tune, compared to the two previous ones. But if you like blood, stay tuned for next chapter ;-)

Have a great day, meanwhile ;D

Hugs

:Roselyne: