Sapphire and Gold
By Toku Tenshi
Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, but if I did then Trunks would so be mine, all mine! MWAHAHAHAHA!
A/N: I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY I'M SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY! It has been an entire semester since I last updated. Work and school took far too much of my time – but now I'm part-time and have three days off a week – one of which has no school! Waiii! This would be so much easier to type in if I hadn't lost the notebook with my hand-written chapters… I am afraid that I can not find a good excuse for my lack of updates over winter intermission; I'm just a bad author. weeps in the corner
Chapter 11: Escape
It had taken time, time they couldn't waste, to figure out both how often the virus mutated and to what degree. The changes were always just so slight that they could hardly be determined from one phase to another, but the difference was enough to render any aid useless if for the wrong stage. The mutations, however, seemed to be speeding up exponentially, getting closer and closer to each other which made the window to create and administer the cure smaller and smaller.
Trunks and Bulma were now waiting for the change to occur. The woman had constructed a simulation of the virus and made an educated guess as to how it should be after the next mutation. Confident in herself as always, Bulma had already put together the next vaccine. She stared at the small glass vials clarifying in the cabinet as her son watched the timer on one of the monitors diligently. The pair was silent in their observations – not wanting to look away for an instant for fear something would go wrong.
Trunks suddenly leaned forward in his chair, gripping both the armrest and an empty needle in his hands. The computer beeped and started the timer again, but for a shorter time, and Trunks bolted out of the room. Bulma turned as he left but quickly spun back around to the cabinet. Now it was her turn to lean forward. The liquid had gone from the vivid red, to a dull pink, and was starting to lose all color as a sign that it had finally been heated to the correct temperature and ready for use. Her teal eyes watched the vials intently and slowly made her way over, reaching out for the handle and the special prize inside. The cabinet pinged the moment Trunks returned and started to set the blood sample on a slid. His mother worked just as quickly to extract one of the vials and place some of the liquid onto the same slid.
The intelligent and world-renowned Breifs watched the slid on a monitor, waiting for something – anything – to happen. The clear liquid of the vaccine mixed into the blood almost instantly, coating and flowing across the sample. Suddenly, the cells they had predetermined as being the infected ones started to quiver and shrivel, collapsing in on itself and disappearing into nothing, just as the first vaccine had done to the original sample.
"I-It worked…" Trunks murmured while staring at the screen before him. "Mom, it works! You did it!" The teen embraced his mother tightly, all the frustration and doubt flowing out of him in that one instant. He released Bulma and smiled widely, earning a smile just as wide from the woman.
"Was there ever any doubt?" Bulma asked with a smirk – another habit she had learned from the great prince of the Saiya-jins. "Now, are you going to praise me all day or go cure your girlfriend?" Bulma loaded a vial into the gun-like administrator and handed it to her son who ran to the other room. Bulma followed with just as much excitement.
They entered the medical room and walked over to Dashi's side. Trunks looked the girl over and frowned at the welts and bruises around the restraints on her wrists and ankles. "It's going to be alright now, Dashi," he whispered softly while brushing the almost pure white hair off the girls tanned face. Trunks lifted the gun and pressed against Dashi's jugular vein, ready to pull the trigger and save the girl he loved, but a hand shot out and slapped the gun out of his hand. Dashi was awake.
The girl had somehow worked the bolts holding her arm restraints to the bed lose and she jumped into a crouch on the bed, desperately trying to remove the straps from her ankles before Trunks got over the initial shock and tied her back down. Dashi smiled once free and prepared to make a run for the door when Trunks grabbed her about the waist and pulled her backward onto the bed once again. Bulma picked up the gun and stood by the door. Dashi's yellow eyes widened at the sight of the gun, recalling the pain it had caused her last time and struggled violently, breaking from Trunks and rolling off the far side of the bed unrepentantly to meet the floor painfully. She growled and picked herself up quickly, seeing the window as a much better escape route than the dangerously guarded door.
"Dashi!" Trunks called and grabbed her hand from the window frame, jerking her closer to him.
"She has to be still or I'll miss the vein!" Bulma cried from the doorway. Trunks looked at his mother, then back to Dashi. He clenched his teeth. He would have to be a little rough with Dashi. The teen swiftly kicked Dashi's feet out from under her and she crashed to the floor once again. This time, however, Trunks was on top of her before she could get up.
"I'm sorry, but I had to do this." Trunks whispered to the girl under him. He held bother of her arms above her head with one hand and her head still with the other. Trunks was more of less sitting on Dashi's stomach and glanced over to his mother. "Come on, hurry up!" Bulma jumped slightly but nodded and rushed over just as a strange wind started to drift around the room. The window had not been opened, so where was it coming from? Where ever the origin of the invisible force its destination seemed clear as it began to encircle the two teens. "Hurry up, Mom!" Trunks called again, wondering if this wind was what he thought it was…
The wind went faster and faster, spinning in tighter and tighter circles, mesmerizing Bulma as she watched. It was flowing into Dashi's pinned form. "Mom!" Trunks called again, more forcefully this time as the rest of the wind entered Dashi's body.
Dashi closed her eyes and opened them slowly, looking at Trunks blankly before smiling and snapping her hands free. She quickly, and easily, shoved the surprised Trunks off and across the room. Dashi floated up and looked at Bulma. She pointed a finger at the woman and shot off a small ball of energy. The woman cried out and fell over. Dashi laughed and pointed the same finger at the window, blasting it apart and soaring through it into the night sky.
"Dashi!" Trunks called after the figure, then turned to Bulma. "Mom!" He hurried over and helped his mother into a sitting position.
"I… I'm alright." Bulma said, still a bit shaken. "It wasn't me she was after…" Trunks followed his mother's gaze to the smoking remains of the gun. "I think we have another one, so don't worry about me and just go bring her back." Bulma commanded but was taken back by the look on her son's face. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure if I can do that," Trunks meekly replied.
"Why not? I don't understand," Bulma stood up and looked at her still sitting son.
"Because… Because Dashi seems to have gotten her ki back and she was much stronger than me in the past." Trunks lowered his head. "I don't think I could force her to do anything and I don't like to either…"
Bulma looked at her depressed son sitting on the floor and frowned. "So? So you're just giving up?" Trunks looked up slowly. "Who said she got all of her strength back? If you're letting something as small as this stop you, then I guess you never truly loved her." Bulma finished with a sigh and shook her head disappointedly.
Trunks punched a whole in the floor, through the tile, the wood, and the concrete. "I'm not giving up; I'll never give up on her." He growled in a low voice. Trunks stood up quickly and glared at his mother with tears in his eyes. "I'm going to bring her back, so you be sure to have things ready." Bulma smiled and nodded as her son shot off after the sick girl he cared for so much.
"I knew that would work." Bulma said softly before leaving in search of another pressurized gun.
end chap
Toku tenshi: There we go, a chapter. I hope it's length makes up for its lateness… though maybe not.
Bulma: Of course not.
TT: Wah! Bulma's mean! TTTT
Bulma: Bad author, bad!
TT: Waaaah! sniffle