Cool air nipped at Bulla's skin. She came to, surrounded by stainless steel walls. The air was sharp on her sinuses and sterile, leaving her nose itching. Bulla raked her forearm across her nose and grazed her elbow on the grate to her right. The memories filled her head like unwanted voices, reminding her of her misery. Her blurred eyes focused, finally seeing beyond the grate. Kalus' familiar voice filled her ears. The back of his head and shoulders rested on a cushy swivel chair. Bulla heard the other man's subtle voice, but his name evaded her. She tried to go back and sift through Kalus' calling voice as she tore through the forest. Bulla licked her dry cracked lips. She scraped the sludgy residue from her tongue with her teeth.

"Please," she coughed, "Can I have- I need water."

Kalus raised his chin over his shoulder. He dragged his propped boots from the flashing control panel. He strutted up to Bulla's cage with his stiff neck and shoulders. Bulla watched his heart pound in the jumping veins bulging in his neck. He squatted down in front of her.

"You thirsty?," he asked after biting his lip.

Bulla couldn't decide to answer or keep her mouth shut. She lost her snippy tongue in his heavy shadow.

"Cloak, do me a solid. Can you get me a cup-"

His name is Cloak?, Bulla thought as Cloak cut Kalus off.

"Whatever, my bad, I forgot," Kalus replied, disappearing from Bulla's window of vision.

He returned with a grey cup in his hand.

"Now, where were we. Oh yeah. You're thirsty aren't ya darlin? You're real dry sounding," He rattled, "Let me help a girl out."

Kalus kneeled again and popped open a small slot below the grated door. He poured the liquid onto the reflective metal, letting it pool and seep into the cracks.

"There ya go," he began softly, "Now drink it."

Bulla thought she could cut the tension in his voice with a knife. Rage littered his face and neck with a fierce red rash. Sweat glistened on his hairline. Bulla waited, watching his chest barrel out with heavy breathing.

"I can't get it like-"

"I SAID drink it. Drink. It.," he cut her off.

"What are you doing, Kal-", Cloak asked.

"Shut up," Kalus chided him.

"You," Kalus began and leaned closer to the grate, "Are absolutely filthy."

"I-," Bulla stammered.

"You bled on me," he seethed with grinding teeth, "You common whore-bitch! You fucking bled on me. Neither of us touched you. We could have killed you and split your cunt from end to end. How do you repay me?," he roared with spit misting Bulla's arm.

His black gloved finger shook in front of the cage and his nose wrinkled with disgust. He leaned closer and pulled the collar of his burgundy jumpsuit away from his flesh. Pink mottled tissue blotched his neck, like raised scar tissue.

My blood did that?, Bulla questioned. Her mouth hung agape in disbelief.

"I didn't mean to," Bulla gasped, "I didn't have control over-"

"Ah-ha," he cynically snickered, "Control. There it is. Did I give you consent, you nasty little twat," Kalus said.

"It's your fault, "Bulla said, "You deserve worse, you kidnapping piece of shit."

"So, I deserve to have to be tested for every filth under the suns! My Yolandi will have to look at this for the rest of her life and wonder if I'm telling the truth about how it got there."

"What?," Bulla whimpered with wet blood-shot eyes.

"What?," Kalus mocked her doe- eyes and all, "I've been saving my skin for 8 years, just to have it ruined by a no good mongrel. I didn't want your stain on me, to wear this the rest of my life. I've been drug across every far-flung galaxy and marched through the piss and shit and the mud for her, and it was all for nothing. I worked so hard-," he wheezed, "Just for her to think that I was unfaithful. My Yolandi-," he paused shaking his head allowing half formed tears to wick from his eyes.

Kalus' rattling belt scrunched Bulla's face. Homely, knowing tears streamed down her cheeks.

"What are you doing?," she sobbed, already knowing the answer.

"Hey," Kalus said, driving his steel toe boot into the side of her cage, "Don't close your eyes girly."

Bulla squeezed her eyes shut. Crows' feet grooved her young skin. She counted slowly with each passing breath. Her tense muscles relented. She tuned out Kalus' coarse hysterics. She bit her bottom lip and their voices began to fade from the forefront of her mind.

"Kalus-Kalus!," Cloak cried, "Stop, if they pull visual, you're fired!"

Bulla listened to the struggle of wills. Despite the commotion, a noise burrowed into her head like nails being hammered into her brain. It was a wet squelch, like someone licking their lips over and over and over. A loud exhale popped her eyes open. The struggle ceased. Bulla relished the moment of silence. Kalus' black gloves sat on the floor in a careless wad. Kalus dropped to his knees.

"Kalus, you stupid pup!," Cloak's voice echoes from the corner of the room. Bulla threw her arms up to block the impending blows. His grabbing arms forced her elbows into her ribs. He squashed her hands against her chest. He pinned her head against the cold metal, with his hands squeezing her face. He used her cheek bones as handles for his fingertips.

Bulla's screech of pain made her own ears ring. He raked his tacky hands down her face, taking her hide beneath his fingernails, like someone peeling off the rind of an orange.

"Now were even," he said with a firm shake over her hollering.

He ducked out of the cage and slammed the door shut. Bulla held her hands in front of her face bewildered and disgusted. The mucous was like a sticky cobweb. The more she wiped, the more it spread until the friction dried it into stringy curds.

Tears rolled down her face. Disgust wriggled beneath her skin like earthworms in dung. She buried her face into the bend of her elbows, desperate to cover herself- covering her shame. Although still in her clothes, she had never felt more bare.

"I'm sorry."

Cloak's voice snapped her out of her trance. Luke warm water splashed her face and body. Stubborn clingy droplets slowly dripped from the grate. Bulla wiped the water from her eyes and flicked it off her fingers.

"Best I can do for now," Cloak continued, "You'll get a shower after medical."

Bulla gawked at him, unmoving on the metal slab. She had to take a double take to be sure. The voice was undoubtedly the same as the man in the grey suit, but he was something other than a man altogether.

Wait, does it even have a gender?, she questioned.

"What- what the hell are you?," she managed to the fizzing shadow in front of her cage. It had a clumsy humanoid silhouette. The edges were like dancing gunpowder, like the zipping edges of a sparkler, except it sucked in light rather than giving it. Glassy pale eyes peered down at her expectantly- patiently, even. His eyes were like cataracts sewed onto his mouthless face. Her eyes yearned to see lips or a nose-something, anything to give flesh to this storm cloud with a voice.

Cloak sighed and clasped his hands behind his back.

"Go to sleep, pup," he said to her as if it was only a suggestion, "Another day is waiting."

Bulla waited until he slinked around the corner. She forced herself to roll toward the wall. She couldn't even look her distorted reflection in the eye. The smell was a reminder of what happened. Sweat and ammonia lofted to her nostrils. Bulla wanted to scrape off her own skin to rid herself of the egg white-like remnants drying on her face.

Bulla rung her hands in Goten's orange shirt she used as a gown. She buried her nose in its collar to get a fait whiff of the lavender borax detergent that Chi-Chi always used. For a moment, a smile whittled away her frown as she thought of her life long sparing partner. A grin peeped through her pain. Goku's words rang through her mind like a favorite goofy video to watch when sad.

"Goten's gonna spar with you. Just think of him as a brother you can punch in the face without your mom yelling!," he told her when she was just knee high.

Then her memory was blemished like a black head popping up on clean skin. Her father's voice reverbed through her spirit.

"A common whore… you've disgraced me."