Chapter 17

Mt. Pyre, the last remains of a volcano on El Nido, which erupted years ago, and became inactive ever since. All that was left of the volcano, were large mountains that blocked the view on the wondrous Fort Dragonia, the last fortress still standing of the Dragonians. Dragonians were half-human, half-Dragon, and extremely lethal. They hungered for fights, and often sought each other out to fight. These fights got too radical, and the Dragonians were slaughtered.

Only the seven Dragons still alive remained. It was said that there were still sub-Dragon-clans alive, but that was never proven, so it was said to be false. Strange how people say that things are false if there's no or not enough proof for something. They say those things far too quickly.

Bulma found the stories of the Dragonians extremely fascinating, and asked Elvor, Ancha and Goku about different stories and views on them. Vegeta, who was starting to act like the guy she'd known back in North City, had been rather silent to her for some reason, and Elvor kept looking at Vegeta, as if urging him to do something, but Bulma didn't know what. She didn't have much time to think about it, for they soon anchored their boat the Pyre Shore, after which they headed into Mt. Pyre itself.

"Whew!!" Elvor said, pulling at the collar of his shirt and waving some cool air in his face. "This place is still as hot as I remember."

Ancha sighed and said: "Moi hope we'll be out of 'ere soon."

"I just hope our weapons won't melt by the heat!" Goku said, trying to lighten the mood.

Vegeta was silent about it, unlike the others, who were either chuckling, or muffling their laughter. His feet simply carried him where he had to be, until they reached the first magma stream. Bulma watched as the magma flowed by, confused on how they were supposed to freeze all of that.

"Uh… how do we freeze all of that?" she asked as Vegeta got Douse' Ice Breath out. The small clouds were spiraling around, and Vegeta carefully pulled the teat off of the vial.

A sudden wind whipped past them, and Vegeta hurriedly placed the teat back on the vial, making the wind cease immediately. However, when they looked at the magma flow, they were quite surprised to see that the magma had completely frozen over.

"Mon dieu!" Ancha said, tapping on the ice with her shoe carefully. "Zat's fast!"

"Real fast," Elvor mumbled, as he stepped on the ice. "And it's thick too."

Elvor carefully stepped across, and Ancha tried too, but she slipped and landed on her rear.

"Ohhh!!!" Bulma winced as if it had been her falling.

Elvor looked back and said: "Uh… I guess it's a little late to say that's it's slippery?"

Ancha looked like she was ready to kill, and Elvor took a few glides back, just incase.

After they each got the hang of gliding across the ice, the five of them made their way across to the other side. It took them longer than they expected, but, they finally came to the other sides, only to be confronted with a rather hot monster.

Whatever it was, it was twice Vegeta's height, and three times his width, seemed to be covered in lava, and had a set of wings on its back. And its brother had gone along as well. Wherever it stepped, it left burning hot footprints, which still smoked afterwards. It seemed as though they were guarding something, but what?

Vegeta growled and raced at one of them, white sparks surrounding him.

Elvor did the same, and together, they screamed: "X-STRIKE!!!"

A large X was slashed across one of the monsters, which screamed out in pain. The second one, gasped in shock, and growled angrily. It seemed to breathe in a lot of air as red sparks surrounded it. Its chest swelled up, and suddenly, it barfed out a large amount of molten lava! The five friends shrieked in surprise, and jumped aside. Bulma however, tripped, and landed on the ground. She looked up, unable to do anything but watch in horror as the lava was starting to get real close. Before she knew it, an arm grabbed her waist, and she was pulled away.

The lava just past her, and whomever rescued her as they fell onto the ground with a sickening cracking of bones. Bulma looked up, a little shocked, but it didn't show.

"Vegeta?" she asked, and Vegeta looked down at her.

His face showed that he was hurt, but he wouldn't allow that pain to diminish. He placed Bulma back on the ground, and stood up, his leg painfully broken from the fall just a second ago. When he had pulled Bulma away, he had fallen on his leg, and to make it worse, Bulma fell on top of it as well.

He had troubles standing up, and could probably only use Elements that didn't include running or any close range or something. God! His leg hurt!! He looked at it, and noticed the freakishly blue-purple color it was getting, but he put that aside, and readied an Element. One of the Lavaboys, as Vegeta decided to call them, headed his way, but he was ready.

"AQUABALL!!!" he screamed as blue sparks shot up from the ground.

A large boll of water appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the Lavaboy. That was one, now for the oth---hey wait a second!!

Elvor, Ancha and Goku were looking around as well, searching for the other Lavaboy, but no one found it.

"Think it ran away?" Goku asked.

"Could've flown away too you know!" Elvor murmured, still clinging to his rapier.

Ancha looked at Bulma and Vegeta to ask them something, when her eyes widened.

"VEGETA!! BULMA!!! BE'IND!!!" she screamed, pointing.

The duo turned.

With a loud scream, the Lavaboy shot down at the two. Vegeta hurriedly pushed Bulma aside, and took the hit head-on. He didn't even have the time to scream…

Bulma shook her head as she woke up from unconsciousness and looked up. Something red was coming her way, something sticky. She carefully touched it to see if it was magma. It wasn't. She sniffed at it, and tasted a bit on her tongue.

'Blood?' she wondered and sat up, rubbing the lump on her head. 'I'm gonna kill that guy!!' Bulma thought angrily.

However, as she looked up, and noticed where the blood was coming from, that thought was quickly banished. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw Vegeta lying there, his once white clothes stained red in blood, eyes white and half-lidded, mouth open in a small gasp of pain. The front of his shirt had been ripped, showing the countless wounds and bruises there. He had a lot of ribs broken, some fractured bones in his right arm, and his left arm and leg broken. The rest was either bruised or twisted into an unnatural angle.

She hastily crawled over to him, and searched his neck for a pulse. After some time, she found one, weak, but she found it. She sighed in relief, and suddenly remembered the others. She turned her head, and gasped in horror.

Elvor was lying on the ground, poised into a cross by the use of pins, his face laying on its right side and looking like he was asleep, instead of dead. His clothes had been ripped to shreds, showing the third degree burn wounds on his every limb. A large gash was found across the left side of his cheek, with blood seeping out of it. His rapier lay beside his head like an ordinary stick, only it was on fire.

Goku's suit was ripped, as he lay on his face with his upperbody, while the rest of his body faced the ceiling. Ancha's pins had been used to kill him, for there were several pins sticking out all over his body, even some that were upside down. His once so cute face was smeared with blood.

Ancha had been pinned to a rock with Goku's blade, Vegeta's axe and her own pins, as blood was seeping down countless wound on her body. You couldn't recognize her once so innocent face, now cut and bruised, and smeared with blood. One of the pins was stabbed right between her eyes, and four had stabbed her neck.

Bulma shook her head in denial, but it was no use.

"C… Ci…ria…" a weak, timid voice called out, and Bulma turned to Vegeta.

He was looking at her with eyes that pleaded her to help him. She lifted him up, slowly, until he was in her lap. That's when she realized what he had said.

"Vegeta, you're hallucinating, I'm Bulma. Bulma! Remember? Ultragon Highschool?" she said, trying to make him remember.

"Wha… what are you saying? Who's Bulma…? And… you're Ciria… don't you remember… you… almost died……"

Bulma's eyes widened, and she looked at herself.

She wasn't wearing the clothes Laze had given her. Instead, she wore a long dress of green, yellow and silver, with snake-like patterns on it, and she sensed a tiara around her forehead. When she touched it, she felt a snake's head.

Bulma didn't know what to say to Vegeta… she was Bulma! Wasn't she? She grabbed her hair, and gasped. Silver!! Her hair was silver!!!

"No!" she whispered to Vegeta. "I-I-I'm not Ciria! I'm Bulma! I know I am…" she started, then faltered. "Aren't I?"

Vegeta looked at her sadly, and when his eyes began to close, he asked her: "You forgot me?"

There was sadness underlining his voice.

"No! No, I never---" she started.

"You forgot me… but I… I never forgot about you… because I… I lo…"

Bulma felt as though she was dying herself.

He had died.

Bulma sniffed, and carefully moved over to him, and kissed his cold lips, tasting blood, though she couldn't care. Then, she screamed to all who wanted hear:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

"NOOO!!!" Bulma screamed, and shot up, making Ancha fall back in surprise.

"Mon dieu! What waz zat for?!" she asked, rubbing her sore behind.

Bulma looked confused, and started mumbling to herself.

"But… you were… and everyone… I mean… Vegeta was… and then Elvor… I uh… I mean uh…"

"That gall sure knows how to mumble rubbish," an unfamiliar voice said.

Bulma looked up, and was face-to-face with the Fire Dragon.

The Fire Dragon was also female, only completely dressed in red. Her eyes were red, her hair curly and ruby red, she had horns too, only a few inches longer than Douse, and at the side of her head. She wore a cowboy's hat on top of her head. This girl could be considered a true cowgirl, besides the fact that she wore male's clothing and it was all different shades of red.

"Bulma!!" a more familiar voice said. "Vegeta!! She's awake!!" Elvor shouted to his friend, then ran over. "By the Gods, girl! Don't scare us like that!!" he lectured, looking a little angry, though Bulma could see he had been worried sick. "You had all of us worried sick!! I swear, I thought you were killed!! If Vegeta hadn't saved your hide out there, you probably would've been!!!"

Bulma nodded, hoping he would calm down.

Bulma then noticed that they were in some sort of cavern, more than a room. She felt a mattress beneath her, and cushions behind her. She knew she was going to like it here. Vegeta walked into the room, looking better than ever. His leg had been healed by the looks of it. He smiled briefly, before it was gone, and he looked a little gloom.

With a sigh, Elvor headed out of the room, mumbling something about foolish females, and Ancha ran after him, a little more than ticked. The Fire Dragon watched them, then rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Better make sure they won't kill each other," she mumbled, leaving Bulma and Vegeta alone.

Bulma watched Vegeta, and noticed how tense he was.

"Vegeta?" she said, and Vegeta seemed to flinch at the sudden sound, before recovering.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Same place as before, Mt. Pyre, only it's almost a whole day further."

Bulma looked shocked, and suddenly noticed that Vegeta wouldn't look at her.

"Vegeta," she whispered.

He looked up. She smiled, and patted the bed for him to sit down, pulling up her legs beneath her. Vegeta hesitated, but after he gulped, twice, he finally found the courage to move his feet and sit down on the bed, but he still wasn't facing her. He simply sat there, fiddling a little with his fingers every now and then.

"Vegeta… just a question… but…"

Vegeta gulped again. He hoped she wasn't going to ask him anything about why he was so nervous. He'd been trying to figure out what to say to her when she woke up from the start, and now he couldn't even remember. The words had simply slipped his mind.

"Who… who's Ciria?"

Vegeta mentally sighed, and tried to think of a way to describe Ciria without revealing anything.

"She… was… the former Inn keeper in Arni. She gave us all shelter when we needed it."

Bulma swung her legs over the bed, but Vegeta didn't notice.

"She sounds like a nice girl," Bulma said, noticing the tension on Vegeta, whom still didn't look at her.

"S-s-she was, she… she even…" Vegeta stopped right there, and completely turned away.

Bulma came closer to him.

"She what?" she asked softly in his ear, and it made Vegeta flinch, but he wouldn't look at her.

He knew he couldn't. Just couldn't. Vegeta wouldn't finish, and he still wouldn't turn around. Bulma began to find this annoying.

"Vegeta, look at me," she pleaded of him.

He wouldn't. Bulma crawled over, and reached for his face, but he looked away. She scowled angrily, and decided to do something that would make him look at her!

She hurriedly grasped his chin, whirled his head around… and kissed him!

Bulma, what have you gotten yourself into? Alright, next Dragon Fight in the next chapter! Whoa!

Reviews:

platinum angel: Alright, thanks for the compliment.

Ciria: Happy, definitely.

Bulma BriefsYue Lover: Hey, thanks!

Tenshi: Okay.

Mistressofblue: Well, I don't know. There are but seven Dragons left, and I can't have anymore, sorry.

trunks babe: He never married Ciria. But anyway, Ciria will reappear in the world of the living, after Laze is healed. That's going to give some troubles, don't you think?

Hope: Yeah.

DarkAngelB: She could be, but look at what I wrote at trunks babe's review.

Alright, schedule change time!

1. Terra, the Earth Dragon

2. Douse, the Water Dragon

3. Pyro, the Fire Dragon

4. ????????

5. ????????

6. ????????

7. ????????

8. ????????