The sequel to Lavender and Pink...

Sapphire and Gold

By Toku Tenshi

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, especially since dragon ball is most likely older than me.

A/N: So sorry for being mean to you guys - I gave you a short cliffhanger and then update late? My creative juices haven't been flowing lately and I've been getting really bad headaches so computer work can be somewhat painful. BUT enough with the pity-party, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 9: Sickness

Trunks smacked his cheeks in an attempt to focus on his work. It's not that he was tired - how could he even think of sleep? - no, the teen was just a bit overwhelmed. Bulma had made an important and startling discovery about the creatures Trunks had been slaying left and right.

They were human.

Yes, they WERE human, but the creatures had been mutated somehow and could no longer be defined as such. Still... Trunks felt a certain level of guilt for killing so many of them- there might have been a way to change them back and return them to their families. Trunk looked back to the computer with his fire re-kindled. He might not have been able to help before, but now if the Briefs could isolate the source of the mutation they could find a way to reverse and prevent it.

Dashi stumbled into the room then, sweating and looking like she hadn't slept a wink. Trunks stood up, drawing Bulma's attention, and hurried over to the girl. He led her to one of the cots in the room and helped her onto it. "Dashi, do-?"

"-Do you have a fever?" Bulma shoved past her son and placed the back of her hand to Dashi's forehead. She withdrew it quickly, as if she had touched a burner. Bulma's started to give a comforting pat on the hand and promise the best of care, but she found Dashi's hand just as hot - if not more so - then her head. "I-I guess you do." The mother rubbed her own hand and thought of the best way to help. "You need to break the fever, right?" She muttered to herself, trying to recollect from her own school days. Trunks hardly got sick - injured, you bet but sick, no. It was odd how Bulma remembered the difficult, technical, aspects of medicine and biology but forgot the simpler ones. "Yes, yes deffinetly. Fight fire with fire, right?" She smiled and instructed Trunks to get more blankets from the storage room. Because of all the late hours Bulma worked she often found it hard to make it up those stairs at night, so she had some beds set up in her work room.

Dashi rubbed the back of her neck and looked up apologetically. "...I'm okay," she whispered through a tight throat, "You two can go back to working. It looked important..." Bulma took a thick blanket from Trunks and dropped it unceremoniously onto Dashi. The girl struggled against the comforter and found her arms too weak to move it. It was dark as a sudden wave of claustrophobia hit Dashi and she struggled even more. Suddenly, a flash of light and cool air hit the girl face as Trunks lifted the fabric up, glaring at his mother.

"Care to repeat that?" Bulma asked coyly as she straightened the blanket and tucked it around the girl. "I can multi-task, just watch me." Trunks was about to add something when the phone rang. He answered it quickly, nodded, and turned to Bulma. "Another one? It can't be helped..." Bulma looked at the computers and then smiled at her son. "Like I said, I can multi-task. Don't let your guard down because of what we found out. They are still dangerous." Her expression was stern and Trunks nodded while hanging up the phone. Bulma walked back to her work and cracked her knuckles. It was a bad habit, one she picked up from her late husband.

"Dashi, get better, okay?" Trunks brushed the wet hair from Dashi's face and frowned in concern at how hot she was. "I'll check with the doctors in town before I head back, alright?" He started to bend down but Dashi lifted the blanket over her face.

"..Don't, I might get you sick too..." She reasoned. Trunks nodded slowly and left for another extermination.

+

"I've got it!" Bulma cheered and jumped from her chair, sending it crashing to the floor and jostling Dashi from her short nap. "The high level of white blood cells... the anti-bodies fighting each other... it makes sense! It's a disease, a virus!" Bulma jumped and clapped, feeling giddy as a school girl. "I've just about isolated the virus itself, just a bit more... a bit more then I can work on the cure. After the cure I could make an immunization, the infected area still isn't that large, considering the whole planet." Bulma continued her chatter and didn't notice the figure behind her.

Thin fingers found their way around Bulma's throat and squeezed tightly. Bulma grabbed at the hands, tugging desperately in a futile attempt to free herself. Her knees were weakening and she found no air in her lungs. She could feel the inevitable pass-out closing in. But suddenly the air came rushing in and the hands fell away. Bulma fell to her knees and coughed, rubbing her neck.

Sutlach stood beside her, panting and glaring at the figure he had thrown against the wall. The figure rose slowly, its white crowned hair over its face, but Bulma recognized her attacker. Sutlach flung himself at the figure and reached for a weapon from his tool belt. 'Hammer, okay.' he thought and gripped the handle tightly.

"Sutlach, stop!" Bulma cried, her throat still sore.

"What for?" The construction worker retorted and slammed his hammer, missing the target and knocking a hole in the wall. "No prob, just drywall." He told himself and swung at the figure again. The figure lifted its head and glared at the large man with black eyes. Sutlach was pleased that his opponent was not as strong or quick as he originally thought and before long had the thing pinned to the ground and his hammer reared back, ready to strike.

"Sutlach, its Dashi! Stop!" Bulma shouted, much louder this time, causing her to cough once more.

The man stopped and turned to the woman. "You can't be serious... its not..." He turned back to the pinned female figure and studied it. The long hair, though pure white on top, was indeed the same pink as the teenager he had met earlier that week. The body seemed the same, perhaps a bit tanner, but not as dark as the eyes. The white of the eye was now black and the golden pupils had grown to a dull pale yellow with no iris at all.

Trunks came back heavy hearted. He had killed another person who, if only a few weeks later, he might have been able to save. The doctors also had no idea what could possibly be wrong with Dashi - it was too extreme a fever to be anything they heard of. The teen went back to the lab and found it strangely empty, and strangely messy. His keen ears picked up voices from the medical room- had Dashi's condition gotten worse? Trunks rushed to the other room and burst in to find the construction group and Bulma around a gurney.

Bulma stepped back, needle in hand, and sighed. "I think that should do it, she should be out for a good while." the woman turned to the door and her son. "Trunks..." The group turned around as well.

"Mom, what happened? Where's Dashi? Is she okay?" Trunks had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Even when Dashi was asleep, he could still hear some of her subconscious thoughts, but for the past hour or so he heard nothing, no matter how hard he tried.

"Well..." Bulma and the group stepped aside, revealing the gurney and the girl strapped down to it. "I took a blood sample and-"

"Dashi!" Trunks was at the bed in a second and looked the Saiya-jin over. "Mom what happened?" He turned to Bulma quickly, "why is Dashi strapped down!"

"We... we had to," Bulma's hand touched her neck and she looked away, "She was out of control."

Trunks studied the scratches and still visible hand prints on his mother's neck. "You don't mean that Dashi..." The teen suddenly became angry," Dashi would never hurt you; it had to have been someone else!" Trunks shouted, outraged that anyone would accuse Dashi of being so violent.

"I saw it, it was her." Sutlach said in a low voice. "If I didn't show up when I did, your stupid girlfriend would have killed you mother."

"You're wrong!" Trunks snapped and used all of his strength to NOT slug the older man.

"Normally, yes, I agree with you," Bulma started and placed a hand on her son's shaking fist, "I haven't known her for long, but Dashi does seem very kind. I..." Bulma looked down and took a breath, "I took a blood sample and compared it to the one you brought me the other day from 'you-know-what' and... it would seem that... Dashi, she's been infected."

Trunks starred at his mother. It wasn't true, it couldn't be!

Trunks turned to the sleeping girl with a devastated look on his face. When could she have gotten infected? Not from the sample, she never went near that... she had been with Trunks practically the whole time since he found her- Trunks froze and his eyes widened. "It's my fault..." he whispered to no one, but was still heard by the room."If I had gotten to her sooner, if I found her before she was attacked that night..." Trunks slumped against the wall. 'I should have sensed her presence. I should have realized she was back... ' The room grew quiet and the men looked at each other, unsure of what to do. They had declared themselves big brothers of this demi-saiyajin, but they were at a loss of any action or words to give the boy.

"I have isolated the virus in the sample you gave me, so maybe, if we work hard, we can get Dashi back to normal." Bulma smiled hopefully at her son. "She doesn't seem to be at all like the others, so maybe this is still an early stage of the virus, which would mean 'more susceptible to a vaccine'." Trunks looked up at his mother, thankful that through everything he had to endure in his life, Bulma was there to help him through it. The teen smiled timidly as a fire sparked behind his clear eyes.

Yes, he was very grateful.

End chap 9

SA: So, how was that? Worth the wait? I'd just like you all to know that this chapter took 1 Avril Lavigne, 1 blink 182, and 2 Mediaeval Baebes cds to write. Actually, I still have 6 tracks left on the second MB cd... anyways... um... what was I doing again? gosh, my headaches block my memory sometimes.

why am I listening to music?

Hey, its 107 in the a.m.