Sapphire and Gold
By Toku Tenshi
Disclaimer: Nope. No legal ownership rights here, sorry to disappoint.
A/N: Ah! Sorry, sorry about the late update. I hit a writer's block (again) which put a firm halt on all of my fics. I'm over that now, hopefully. knocks on table
two reviews, that's better. (smiles happily)
Rob, thanks for the support of my seemingly struggling story. It's hard to have a Trunks/NOT-Pan story here, let alone a sequel to one.
And Lucifer001, I'm sorry I made you throw up… Mul is just a creepy guy, no way around it. (shrugs)
Chapter 13: The First Order
"Morning sleepy-head," Dashi smiled from above Trunks, her pink hair slipping over her shoulders and her pale face beaming happily.
Trunks shot up quickly from the couch and pulled the girl into a tight embrace. "Thank Kami, it was only a dream," he sighed and hugged Dashi tighter.
"What was?" Dashi asked innocently with her arms pinned to her sides. Trunks pulled back and studied Dashi closely. "Wh-what is it?" She stuttered with a heavy blush on her face.
Trunks laughed slightly and waved his hand. "Nothing. Just double checking, I guess." Dashi blinked confusedly at him and he laughed again. "Never mind."
"Was your dream that bad?" Dashi asked with concern, taking the boy's hand into her own and looking down.
"It was," Trunks relented and sat down on the couch, Dashi quickly sitting next to him. "I kept losing you," he said quietly. "Every time I thought I could get you back, something happened and you became farther away than before."
Dashi turned his head to face her and gave him a serious look. "You will never lose me if you keep trying – if you keep hope alive." She smiled and closed her eyes, touching her forehead to his. "Wasn't it 'Hope' that brought you to me in the first place?" She pulled back and smiled sadly.
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Trunks sat up and looked around the room as the bright beams of sunrise slipped in through the window. He found Bulma sleeping in a chair but no one else. He had thought she was really back, he had really thought nothing had happened to her. What he hoped was a dream was real and what wasn't real was the dream.
'Wasn't it 'Hope' that brought you to me in the first place?'
The teen shook his head and walked over to the area map. Dashi didn't know that the time capsule was named 'Hope', but in his dream that was exactly what Dashi was referring to. He stared at the circle on the map and smiled. He had to keep hope alive.
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"For what purpose am I to wear this again?" Dashi lifted her arms outwards and locked one knee, titling her posture to the side.
"There are, um, special nano-chips inside that will, uh, monitor your biological signs, yeah." Mul Kimchi fumbled. "So if anything bizarre starts to happen we can pinpoint and reverse it quickly."
The girl shrugged. "If you say so, Master." Mul smiled. He loved it when she said that word, especially in that outfit. The man had convinced Dashi to change into a tight fitting leather top which laced in front and a pair of shorts which barely counted as such. He gave her black boots for her bare feet and a pair of fighting gloves. Mul didn't care to disclose how or why he had such an outfit in his dirty lab so Dashi shrugged again and pulled her long hair into a high ponytail. The man held out another item for Dashi, but the girl turned her head sharply away. "I told you before, Master, I have no need for weapons – that thing will only slow me down."
"Bu-but!" Mul tried to explain that it had special features but Dashi wouldn't listen. He sighed in defeat and set down the whip. 'It was too much to hope for anyways,' he silently decided and moved away to turn on a projector. A geographical map lit up on one of the walls as Mul cleared his throat. "Let's move along to more important matters then. My creations are quite spread out right now; there are a few groups here, here, and here," Mul explained while pointing out different areas on the projected map. "Every last one of them are acting on their own – each dumber than the last," Mul sighed and rubbed at his eyes, "a flaw that, thankfully, is not manifested in you, my Dashi. I can not reach them as I did you no matter how many times I've tried. But you-" Mul looked at Dashi with a crooked smile, "They should respond to your orders as you are, more or less, one of them. What I want you to do now is gather them here and then direct them as I direct you. Is that understood?"
Dashi returned the smile with a confident smirk. "Consider it done, Master." The teen turned to leave but stopped and studied the whip on the table once again. She slipped the item into her belt loop and continued out of the room calling after that a whip might come in handy while herding animals.
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Just as Mul had said, a group of the Others was found near the amusement park. The rides no longer ran and people didn't go there anymore but that was understandable. Who had time for fun when there were monsters roaming around and people being attacked, never to be seen again? The pack, you could say, was huddled around a cherub fountain where they struck their heads into the pool to drink instead of using an instrument or even their hands. Dashi landed with a clack of her boots on the head of one of the stone angels, directing all attention onto her as the creatures surrounding her looked up at the intruder. Some began to growl deep in their throats while others bared teeth and claws.
"Oh please." Dashi smirked and looked around the group. Her pale eyes scanned for the alpha male and quickly picked out the larger beast. With a flick of her wrist, Dashi withdrew the whip and wrapped it around the creature's neck. She tugged effortlessly on the handle, yanking the beast into the fountain completely. Another flick and the whip folded back into the girl's waiting hand, but not before snapping the thick neck of the former leader.
The creatures stared at the limp body in the fountain and jumped back when Dashi leapt from the fountain ornament to the back of the corpse. "I'm in charge here, understood?" Remarkably, they did and backed away respectfully. "Good. Now then, follow me." Dashi started back to Mul's lab as she put the whip away. A smaller creature seized the opportunity and tackled Dashi. The girl sighed angrily and used the beast's momentum to flip him over onto its hairy back. "Idiot. Don't think that my whip is all you have to fear." Dashi crushed its throat with her boot and quickly shot a small energy bolt into the corpse, causing it to explode slightly. The teenager turned to the group behind her and smiled dangerously as the gore dripped off her face and torso. "Master's waiting, no more delays, alright?"
The creatures hurried after the dangerous girl like a stampede, tripping and stumbling over one another in an attempt to be in the head of the group. Dashi turned around from her point position in the air and sighed irritated at the sight before her. She slipped out her whip and cracked it in the air to get the groups attention, which she affectively did. "I want you all in two single-file lines. Now hurry it up before I get angry." She ordered with what looked to be a sweet smile on her gore spotted face.
The group scrambled once again but this time they filed into the lines as directed with no fights breaking out as the figure in the air watched them closely. Once in line, Dashi nodded her approval and lead the way to Mul's lab. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered what Mul was going to do once he had all of his creations but that thought didn't linger long as the Saiya-jin quickly came to the realization that she didn't care.
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Trunks silently searched the first pie-piece of the suspected area for both hide outs and creatures. The area consisted mainly of an amusement park with a few abandoned businesses on the outskirts. He had heard that this park was home to a fairly large group of the creatures, but for all his sneaking and silent creeping he might as well have stomped around breaking things. The park was completely and utterly deserted of any life.
The teen came upon a cherub fountain at the back entrance of the park and froze for a moment. He looked around quickly to confirm that he was the only living being around before moving to the fountain to inspect the first corpse. One of the largest creatures he had even seen lay in the pool of the fountain unmoving. Its eyes and mouth hung open under the water with its neck in a position that clearly read broken. Trunks walked around the fountain and found a second body, or what was left of it.
"Was there a fight in the group?" Trunks wondered out loud as he leaned closer to study the human sized creature. "Maybe this one tried to take over the group by attacking the larger one… but then why is the large one dead too?" The teen squinted at the shredded torso and pulled back quickly as he figured it out.
"This wound came from the inside – something exploded inside of it. I don't think that they're as stupid as to swallow live, lit, explosives so that means this was a ki attack." He jumped into the air and frantically searched the area from his position over the fountain. Not many people in this era knew how to use their ki, so that had to mean that it was, "Dashi." Trunks clenched his teeth after finding no trace of the missing girl of any indication of where she went and sat down heavily on the fountain's edge. He glanced at the corpses out of the corner of his eye before looking ahead. Trunks straightened instantly and looked at the dead again. "There are only two here and this is supposed to be a large group. If Dashi really went to the person who started all of this, if she is following his orders… are they gathering up the creatures? Why didn't that person do that before?" Trunks ran a hand through his hair and sighed irritated.
Trunks jumped at the sound of his watch beeping and nearly fell into the fountain. The teen soon calmed and turned off the alarm as he stood up. He was about to sigh again but the air caught in his throat as he remembered what his alarm was set for. "Dashi!" He called out worriedly as loud as he could in hopes that the girl would respond from where ever she was. The demi-saiya-jin raced home as fast as he could to discuss what he'd learned and switch out the item in his jacket pocket. Dashi was going through another change and if she was indeed leading a group of the creatures while that happened, who knows what the creatures would do to her?
End chapter 13
SA- Ah, once again, sorry for the late update! I hit a part in this chapter and then completely blanked. But, it's done now, though maybe a tad on the short side. Sorry about that, but I needed to end the chapter there because I'm evil and like to cliff hang (repelling is fun!). I promise to update another chapter before Otakon weekend, which I am DEFINITELY going to this year. I'm registered, have hotel room planned, and have my plane ticket. I asked off from work a month ago but my Assistant Manager over my area still hasn't approved it yet. He's going on vacation soon, so he better do it quickly!