The sequel to Lavender and Pink...
Sapphire and Gold
By Toku Tenshi
Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, but I did just hang a DBZ poster on my anime wall. It's under my signed Amano wall scroll and next to my Inuyasha poster, so that helps it blend in to the over all shoujoshity of my anime wall.
A/N: Yum! Cookies! gobbles gleefully Ah! Is that yanyans I spy? I would prefer Pocky, but beggars can't be choosers!
If this is late, I'm sorry. I finally got over that writer's block for my other DBZ fic and was so happy with the reviews that I updated it a second time within 14 hours. Soooo, maybe if I get lots of pleasing reviews I will do the same with this fic. -,6 maybe.
Chapter 10: Breakthrough
All the simulations were successful. A piece of the initial sample had been cured. Now was time for the field study. Trunks waited impatiently for a call. Yes, there was a victim to the infection just across the room, but neither of the Breifs wanted to risk worsening the girl's condition by giving her an incomplete antidote. They didn't know exactly what would happen after the injection, hence the reason that Trunks was rocking back in a chair under the phone. 'It figures,' Trunks mentally griped, 'when you don't want something it's everywhere, but the second you need it-' His thoughts were cut off by the ringing he had been waiting for. Trunks quickly answered and got the location - it wasn't too far. "I'll be right there." The boy hung up and turned to the sedated Dashi hopefully.
"Is it-"
"Yeah, Mom. Give me the vaccine." Trunks rushed up to Bulma and slid the small case containing a dose of the vaccine and the device to administer it into his jacket pocket. He stopped and carefully pulled out something that Bulma had seen several times before, but never knew what it was. Trunks walked back to Dashi and carefully placed the ribbon in her hand before turning back and rushing to the target before it had a chance to escape.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Trunks had successfully lured the creature away from any witnesses and was now in the process of restraining it without hurting it or being hit himself. It took some time, but soon the victim was pinned to the ground. Holding it steady, Trunks pulled out the case with one hand and slid the vial into some sort of gun. Waiting only long enough to take a steadying breath, Trunks placed the nozzle of the gun against the victim's jugular and squeezed the trigger. A hissing sound shot from the gun and the creature jerked violently. Trunks continued to hold it down as the muscles twitched and contorted, the skin stretching and shrinking; the figure returned to its human form once more and lay unconscious on the ground.
It worked.
Trunks stood up and shakingly placed the gun and case back into his pocket.
It worked.
He smiled and placed his hand on his forehead. He felt relieved and anxious all at once and speed off to go help Dashi, leaving the sleeping man on the outskirts of town where he should be found in a few hours.
"You're serious!" Bulma cried happily as she fumbled to get a new vial into the gun. It had taken almost a week to get to this point, during that time Dashi's condition changed little - her hair grew whiter and skin darkened, but that was about it. The girl would often wake in a fit of rage, pulling hatefully at the bed's restraints, but always quickly sedated... which seemed to be less and less effective.
Bulma handed the gun to Trunks who nodded and walked over to Dashi. He gently brushed the bleached strains from the girl's neck and timidly placed the gun against her large vein. "It's okay, you'll be better soon," Trunks assured the sleeping figure and injected the fluid into her bloodstream. Dashi's eyes shot open at the sensation and started screaming, twisting her head and trying to grab at her neck as the fire shot through her body. Trunks looked at her worriedly and backed away. "Its.. its different. She isn't changing like the other... she's just in pain." Trunks spun around and faced his mother, anger and confusion forming tears in his eyes. "Why is it different!"
Bulma shook her head. She had no idea why the reaction would be different. "It's the same vaccine attacking the same virus in the same spe-" She stopped in mid sentence and looked at Trunks before turning and running back to the lab. Trunks rushed after, hating to leave Dashi in pain, but wanting to know how to fix it. "I'm stupid, so stupid!" Bulma pulled up the file on the sample and Dashi, both looked similar. The woman glared at the data and went back to the blood slides. She checked the sample Trunks had gotten her, and then slid in the sample she had taken from Dashi the week before. Bulma paused and looked at the data, them back to the slide.
"What, what is it?" Trunks practically yelled.
"It just accrued to me that the vaccine might not be working because Dashi is Saiya-jin, not human." Bulma said quietly as she stepped back from the microscope.
"Well, we can find the vaccine for Saiya-jin's then, right? It shouldn't be hard after we made the human one, right?" Trunks knew that if it were that simple then Bulma would already be at work. There was something else.
"The.. the sample I took from Dashi... it's changed. Over just a week, it has mutated so much." Bulma motioned for Trunks to take a look and he did. "I thought it was odd that it was taking Dashi so long to become one of the creatures, it seems that her Saiya-jin immune system has forced the virus to mutate to survive. I'm not sure if I can work fast enough to make a vaccine for this current stage!" There, she said it.
Bulma watched her son's shoulder's drop and the room fell silent. They could still hear Dashi's screams from down the hall. "Are you just giving up on her then?" Bulma was taken back by the uncharacteristically meek voice of her son.
"Of course not,"Bulma straightened and crossed her arms. "You know I love a challenge, how could I let a simple thing like this stop me? Besides, if I let Dashi go then I'll never have any grandkids." She peaked an eye at her son who was now smiling sheepishly with a small blush on his face. Bulma knew she was right and knew she had to be strong - for her son, and for herself, but most of all for Dashi. She rolled up a sleeve and headed out the door. "I'll go put her under again and take a new sample."
Trunks dropped into a chair and leaned forward, hanging his head helplessly. "I've wasted so much time. I should have told her earlier, I should have spent more time with her..." He shook his head and stood up. A voice in the back of his mind whispered worriedly and he tried to push it back, but the chirping won't cease.
What if you can never get her back?
Bulma padded back into the lab and nearly walked right into her son. Both were out of it. The woman, praised as a genius by so many, doubted her own abilities. This was going to be more than she could handle, she knew that. She had her epiphanies and strokes of luck and knew her way around a hospital, but she was still no where near the level of expertise she would need to be to at.
"You know," Trunks said, pulling his mother back to reality, "There's no guardian of this world anymore. No magic wishes. None of the breaks and easy-outs that there used to be." The teen looked up, fiercely determined. "We can only rely on ourselves; we have to make our own magic now. Mom, lets do this."
The room was still for all but five seconds before it erupted in the beeps and clicks of determination.
'I'll show you, you stupid voice,' Trunks smirked to himself. 'I'll get ride of you soon and prove you wrong. The only voice I want in my head besides my own is Dashi's.' Little did he know, that was his voice - his voice of reason.
End chapter.
SA: How's that, hows that? Daisuki ne?
------ -- my head hurts... 11:45pm, I gotta be at work by 1030am. 99; hrmmmm... okay, I'll uplaod THEn go RIGHT to bed. really, I swear. Scouts honor. (Though, I was only a Daisy for one year, and then we moved...)
okay, so the PC shut down on me as I tried to upload last night. Now I'm squeezing it in before I have to get ready for work. sigh Why won't they switch me to part-time? groan