Dragon Ball Alternate Dimension - Generation Z

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

Chapter Three

Thursday

Korosette walked into the AP physics lab fully confident that she would ace her project. It was simple enough for her although much too advanced for the other students.

She thought her parents were so weird about the whole high school thing. She could be in college by now. Being surrounded by teenage morons drove her so crazy. Every year, she begged to be allowed to attend an institution of higher learning, but her parents were adamant. They said she needed to experience life in all its appropriate stages. Put so scientifically, she had no other recourse but to do as they said.

"Well, the challenging stuff will just have to wait," she muttered as she pondered this dilemma. "Let's get down to business."

While the other students built models and worked on hypothetical situations, Korosette opened her lab locker and removed an entire table's worth of equipment. When she had set up she took a pin and pricked her finger. A single drop of dark red blood dripped into an Erlenmeyer flask. Korosette added a solution to this and poured the mixture into a test tube which she then placed into a centrifuge. "Here we go."

At the end of the period her classmates had all given up on their projects and were intently watching her work. Korosette punched up the image on a monitor and in a split second her entire genetic profile was there for all so see. She grinned from ear to ear.

"Very good, Ms. DuNord!" her teacher beamed at the brightly color-coded DNA sequences.

"Mmm," Korosette mused. "Trouble is how do I know I got it right? I need to do it again to see if all the coding is correct and I don't have enough time." She looked up at the clock on the wall. The students moaned, disappointed.

"Oh!" The teacher beamed. "The school and the government both keep a DNA record on everyone. You can just pull your record and check against that!"

The class cheered. Korosette bolted out of her seat. "To the administration office!"

She fed the data she obtained from her school record into the computer and ordered it to cross reference the sequences. Everyone held their breath as the machine worked until an alert dialog box made them all gasp.

'No match found.'

"What?!" Korosette leaned toward the monitor and blinked in astonishment. "But I'm sure I did this right!"

The students peeled away back to their own projects in disappointment and Korosette shuffled papers and re-checked the computer three more times.

When the bell rang Korosette was still triple checking the data.

"Ms. DuNord, I'm afraid time's up," the teacher said meekly.

"No!" Korosette gritted her teeth. "I know I must have done this right. Please give me some more time!"

Her teacher looked both ways before answering. "All right. I will this once because you've never failed anything before. You have until class tomorrow to correct your findings."

"Thank you so much!" The teacher smiled and left the room. Korosette stared at the screen some more. "Maybe my file got mixed up with someone else's?"

"Korosette?"

She cried out and sprawled on her stool. "Soma, don't do that."

"Sorry," Soma apologized. "You seemed busy."

"Not really." She pursed her lips. "You ready to go home?"

Soma nodded. "Adonai left after his last class almost an hour ago."

"He knows better than to fly around in broad daylight."

"He promised me that he would walk until he was out of sight."

"Soma," Korosette sighed as she put on her back pack. "You are way to trusting." Soma shrugged. "Mind if we swing by town hall quick before we go home?" Korosette asked as she pulled the disc with her project on it out of the computer.

"Sure, why?"

"I need to do some research."

.x.

The sound of the front door caught Goten's attention. Kashtan usually headed straight for the fridge after practice but today he trudged to the stairs.

"Hey, Kash. How was school today?" Goten asked his son.

"Pretty good," Kashtan monotoned and started up the stairs.

Goten knew that something was amiss but struggled to think about how to ask him. "Everything ok, Kiddo?"

Kashtan stopped his ascent and hung his head. "No," he moaned. Turning to his father he sucked in a breath and let it all out. "I'm failing most of my classes and if I fail not only will they keep me back but they wont let me play football and I have a huge crush on Korosette."

Goten blinked at him. "Oh. So what are you gonna do about it?" He went to the fridge and took out several Tupperware containers full of leftovers which coaxed his son back into the kitchen.

"I was thinking, well, Okano was thinking," Kashtan said between mouthfuls. "That we could get Koro to tutor me."

"That sounds like a plan!" Goten smiled.

"Yeah, if she didn't think I was a total zero!"

"Kash, you're not a zero!"

"I know that! Trouble is she doesn't! She said no."

"So what will you do now?"

Kashtan stopped feeding his face and pouted. "I dunno. I gotta... er... hafta think of something!"

.x.

Adonai touched down on the lawn in his back yard and walked into the large, yellow house. He dumped his books in his room and got changed for his afternoon workout.

"Adonai!" Vegeta shouted his grandson's name from down the hall. "Let's get moving, eh?" Since he was a baby, Vegeta had always spoken in Saiyago to him.

"Yes, Grandfather!" Adonai barked back in militaristic fashion. He tied up his long hair and squinted at his image in the mirror briefly before jogging out to train.

.x.

Soma followed Korosette as she jogged to the lab with another computer disc in hand.

"Ok, let's see here." Korosette plopped down in a task chair and typed wildly at the keyboard. All three DNA files opened at once and layered over each other. Two were a match. One was not.

"Look! They match!" cheered Soma.

"Yeah. They do," Korosette murmured and clenched her teeth. "Why?"

"Huh?" Soma wrung her hands. "I thought you wanted them to match."

"Not these two!" she yelled at the screen. Soma backed up a step. "Oh, I'm sorry Soma, it's just really frustrating. The file from school and the file with the government are the same. Either I screwed this one up," she motioned to the code she broke herself, "Or the government file was messed up and the school got this file from them."

"Oh." Soma raised her brows but didn't understanding a word she said. "Well, I'll leave you with your work, Cousin."

"'Ok." Korosette waved as Soma left the lab. "Damn it. What the hell's going on?"

.x.

Roland directed the last of the latest shipment of raw materials into bay three and called it a day. He hung his huge hard hat on a rack and took a leisurely stroll down the block and a half to his home. The large yellow dome on private family property was impressive but very comforting for him to see. Inside, Bra had probably already finished her work and was most likely waiting for a foot massage. He smiled and breathed in the warm spring air.

Bra dumped a bag of microwave popcorn into an industrial looking round metal bowl and settled in front of the television. It appeared to be a slow news day; most of the stories were about fires and muggings. She sighed and flipped channels.

Her daughter dragged herself into the room and fell on a couch. Bra raised her brows. "What's the matter, Sweetie?"

"Nothing," was the standard sixteen-year-old girl response.

The television news distracted Bra. "This just in, a strange meteor has been found in the..." She turned it off to deal with more pressing issues. "You sure you don't want to talk about it?" Bra worried, 'Oh, what is it? Boys? Drugs?!'

"I'm going to fail something for the first time in my life!"

"What?!" Bra almost leapt out of her seat, half relieved and half astounded. "What is it?"

"My physics project!"

"B-b-but..." she stuttered. "How?! Is the teacher an imbecile? Because we can deal with that..." Bra said and cracked her knuckles.

Roland walked in and looked from woman to woman. "What's wrong, Mes Cheres?"

"No, Mom, it's me. I messed up. Daddy, I tried to break my own genome and I failed. The school and government records both don't match my findings! I'm gonna get an F."

Silence from her parents made Korosette look up. They looked more scared than disappointed. "I'm sorry!" she wailed.

"No, honey, it's ok! It happens, it's just that I wish you had told us that's what you were planning to do." Bra hugged her and rubbed her back as she cried.

"Wh-whaddaya mean?" she sobbed.

Roland sat down and held his right fist in his left hand. He leaned his chin on these and looked to Bra for what to say next. "Well, Petite Chere," he began. "There is something we need to tell you about that."

Korosette straightened and wiped her tears. "About what, my DNA?"

He nodded.

"Korosette." Bra swallowed hard. "This is probably going to come as a shock to you but the school record is wrong."

"A shock?! No, that's great! That means I did it!" She beamed, but saw the somber looks on their faces hadn't changed. "Wait a sec, how do you know that?"

"We falsified them," Roland stated.

"We had to," Bra added. "Because otherwise, if anyone found out that..."

"That what?" Korosette's heart flew up into her throat.

"Korosette," Bra took a deep breath. "Your father is sterile and has been since his accident more than twenty years ago. We wanted a child so when we found out we couldn't have one we decided that we could try to create one out of our combined DNA."

"But we were unsure we could succeed, and not wanting to create a life which could potentially be an incredibly hard one, we cloned me." Bra bit her lip and took a breath. "And as you know, the cloning of humans is illegal, so we had to falsify your records to protect the secret. If it ever got out that the Capsule Corporation was guilty of what is viewed as such a heinous crime..."

Korosette looked at her feet. "This is a joke, right?"

Bra took her hand and turned it over. She then put her own hand next to it. The 'M' shaped lines on the palm were identical. She flipped it over and the showed her the three matching birthmarks on the back of their hands. Korosette yanked hers away. "But we don't have the same eye color!" she shouted. Her violet eyes flashed as she stared at her mother's concerned baby blues.

"That's the only thing we manipulated. There had to be something different and that was the safest, easiest thing to change."

Korosette pouted deeply and her mind reeled. She jumped up and bolted out of the room.

"Korosette!" her father called after her.

"Let her go. She'll come back when she's cooled off."

Roland didn't look reassured. He stood.

"Roland." His five-foot-tall wife took his comparatively massive hand. "She's just like me at that age. It took me a while sometimes to deal with all the weirdness my family threw at me. She'll be all right."

"Je sais, Ma Chere. Je sais."

Later That Night

Adonai went back out to train some more with Vegeta and Trunks. Akiko, Bra and Bulma cleaned up as usual and Soma followed Korosette outside.

The sun had set and the sky was royal blue and fast approaching black. The first few stars popped out and winked at the girls as one tailed the other. Korosette turned and glared at her cousin.

"Stop following me!"

Soma let out a short squeak and stopped in her tracks. She looked hurt. "I'm sorry, Cousin. I thought you might need someone to talk to."

"Huh?" Korosette scrunched up her face. Could she know her secret already? "Why?" she demanded.

"Something's wrong. I can feel it. All through dinner Aunt Bra, Uncle Roland and you were, I don't know, giving off such a negative vibe." Soma looked straight into Korosette's eyes. "If you don't want to talk to me about it, that's ok, but I think you need to talk to someone. You seem so sad."

Korosette's lip twitched. She turned her back, but didn't storm off. "Promise not to tell anyone?"

"You know me, Cousin. My word is sacred."

She sighed and looked down at the cool grass which was already gathering dew. "Can we go somewhere far away from here?"

Soma nodded and lifted off the ground. She put her arms around the smaller girl's waist. Korosette laced her fingers together behind Soma's neck and they flew up to the East. When they reached an uninhabited penthouse garden Soma touched down and they sat at a table on the roof. She let Korosette do all the talking.

.x.

"I found out today that I'm not who I think I am. You know that DNA project I was working on? Well, I got it right. I should ace it but I have to go back tomorrow and concede defeat. And it's all my parents' fault! I'm going to fail. And as if that weren't bad enough, the reason this is all messed up is because, get this," she laughed sarcastically. "I'm a clone!"

Soma raised a brow. "Isn't that illegal?"

"Sure is! That's why we can't tell anyone. Imagine if the world discovered that Capsule, the world leader in bio-technology, had defied one of the laws it helped create?" She continued to laugh, mocking the seriousness of the subject. She looked to Soma for another nod. It was a mistake she instantly regretted. The soft, caring, 'come-on-Koro-it's-ok-to-cry' look she gave her broke her in half. Korosette shuddered and wailed. "Damn it! All this time you think they coulda told me!" she sobbed and fell into Soma's lap. Her cousin stroked her hair and waited for her to calm down before speaking.

"Why does knowing this bother you? Because they kept it from you or because you're something other than what you always thought you were?"

Korosette sniffed. "A little of both, I guess."

"All right. They kept it from you because it was against the law, right?"

She nodded.

"Then they didn't mean to hurt you. Why does it make you mad?" Korosette pondered this but kept quiet. She really didn't have an answer. Soma didn't expect one. "So actually being a clone is what's upsetting you?"

"Yes! Why the hell did they do this if they were practically the authors of the law against it!?"

Soma pouted, but remembered something. "In History Class, we studied that law a little bit, and I sort of remember the whole reason behind it was that they didn't want people cloning humans just to use them for parts because they thought that everyone is born with a soul." She waited a second to see if this would sink in. Korosette relaxed a little and Soma continued. "If you think about it, they wanted you so badly they were willing to break that law to have you." Korosette frowned. That explanation was unsatisfying. Soma tried another angle. "Cousin Korosette, your parents made you to be their daughter, not an experiment. So it really doesn't go against the ideal they still uphold."

Korosette sighed. "It's still creepy."

"I don't think so. They made you the same way that everyone else who wants children makes babies - with love!"

Korosette gasped. That word struck her. Love, of course! "Oh, I'm such an idiot!" she wailed. "I may be a genius, but I can sure act stupid, huh?"

Soma smiled. "No, you act like a teenager."

Korosette sat up and laughed. "You don't and you're only two years older than me."

Soma shrugged. "Let's get back home. It's getting kind of chilly."

They stood and Korosette hugged her cousin. "Thanks."

Soma smiled again and they took off for home.

Saturday

Marron blinked over the colorful pamphlet Goten had brought home with him. "You mean it, really?" she asked.

"Uh-huh. Next week we're going to Hawaii!" Goten hugged his wife.

"This is so nice of Trunks and Akiko, inviting us all along like that! We could never afford it on our own!"

"Pan and Rojan and Bra and Roland are coming too," Goten sat down at the table and swallowed down a large glass of iced tea she had poured for him. "Should be fun!"

His wife cried out in alarm and jumped out of her seat.

"What?!"
"What'll I wear?!" Marron screeched and ran up to the bedroom to raid her closet. Goten laughed as she disappeared up the stairs.

.x.

Pan furrowed her brows. "What? Do they think we're a charity case or something?!" She yelled at her husband.

"No, Pan, they're just being nice." Rojan was unfazed by her anger as usual.

"Well, I think they're up to something."

"I think you're reading a little too much into this. It's a free vacation." Rojan pulled the pamphlet out of his pocket and hung his jacket over the back of a chair. Their son clamored down the stairs and raised an eyebrow.

The air in the kitchen was tense. "What's up Mom?"

Pan turned, but her features were still bitter. "Your aunt and uncle are 'inviting' us on a vacation," she mocked.

"Sweet!" Okano cheered, saw the pamphlet and grabbed it from his father. "Where to? Aw man, this is a couples resort. That means I can't go, right?"

"I'm afraid so, Okano. You and everyone else's kids will be staying at Capsule with Vegeta and Bulma."

"That's not fair! I'd love to go to Hawaii..."

"Hawaii?!" Pan cried and snatched the brochure from Okano. "Oh my god, Rojan why didn't you say that in the first place! I'll call Akiko right away and tell her we'd love to go!"

The blue-haired men gave each other exasperated looks.

.x.

The telephone in Okano's room rang three times before the answering machine picked up. "Hey, this is Emperor Okano, I'm not here at the moment, or I just don't wanna talk to ya, so leave a message and I'll think about calling ya back."

The caller's voice barked out of the device and demanded attention. "Okano, this is Queen Korosette. Pick up the damn phone."

Okano threw the game controller of the 3d fighting game he was playing down and bolted for the phone. "Yo! Koro, what's shakin'?"

"We'll be shakin' in a while, right Soma?" she called to her cousin who was going through her closet. Soma nodded absently. "Wanna come out with us tonight?"

"Us?" Okano asked.

"Yeah, I'm taking Soma out for the first time and I think she'd feel better about it if she had a body guard."

"Well," Okano cleared his throat. "What about Adonai?"

"If he knew I was planning to expose his precious little sister to the evils of the outside world, he'd freak."

"Oh, I see." An image of himself standing next to Soma and then Adonai beating the living hell out of him flashed through his mind. "I dunno, Koro..."

As he was talking the door opened and his cousin Kashtan let himself in. He waved and plopped himself down in front of the video game.

Okano cupped the phone. "Kash, it's Korosette!" he hissed.

"Really?" he whispered back and stood up. Okano nodded. "Uh, actually, sure! I'd love to, but, er… I was going to hang out with Kashtan tonight."

"Oh please, and do what, play video games all night?"

"Well..." He looked sheepishly from Kashtan to the huge TV screen. Two virtual fighters bobbed in anticipation. "Can he come along?"

.x.

Korosette cupped the phone this time. "He wants to bring Kashtan."

"So?"

"So? He's such a goofball! Can you imagine those two at the club? Ugh!"

Soma pulled a dress out of the closet. "Maybe we can dress them up, too."

Korosette pondered this and decided that it was a sufficiently entertaining idea. She took her hand off the mouthpiece. "Ok, he can come."

"Cool... Oh yeah? I don't see why not. Ok. Sure. See you then." Okano hung up.

Kashtan grinned "You are The Man."

"You may want to retract that statement. They want us to dress."

"Dress?"

"Yeah. We're going to a club and apparently there's a dress code."

"Aw crap, thanks a lot." Kashtan flopped back down at the game.

"Hey, I got you a chance to hang out with Korosette. Deal with it."

Kashtan grumbled and resumed the game Okano had started.

.x.

Korosette took the two huge bags of clothes she had bought out of the back of her car. "Ok, I think we have enough options for the boys."

Soma rolled her eyes a little. "Korosette, I've been meaning to talk to you about my outfit." She was cut off as Korosette dumped one of the bags into her arms.

"Come on, they'll be here soon!" she chimed and jogged up the stairs.

Soma sighed and followed her.

Later That Night

The boys emerged from the Capsule house in their new duds. Okano wore a long, dark blue overcoat, black cargo pants, a tight, grey tee shirt and a large pair of boots with the words 'New Rock' on metal discs on either side. "Come on, Kash, it's not that bad,"

Kashtan stepped out behind him wearing a fishnet, short-sleeved shirt, a pair of combat boots, black pants with each leg strapped to the other in the back and his black hair spiked up. "Not that bad?! Look at me!"

"Kash, shh..." Okano grinned. "The girls will be down any minute. Besides, this sounds like it should be fun!"

"Gimme a break! How'm I supposed to pick up chicks when I look so totally gay!"

Okano laughed out loud. "Aw, Kash, these goth girls like that!"

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Weird."

Okano laughed again, but stopped abruptly as he saw Korosette and Soma emerge. Korosette, who was usually hardly five feet tall, was wearing ridiculously high platform shoes. Her waist was trussed down to a mere eighteen inches by the purple corset she wore on the outside of a tiny, vinyl dress. Her garter belt was in full view for all to see and her hair was up in two teased out pig tails. "Ready guys?"

Okano blinked at Soma. Her pink hair was down, her nails were painted. She wore a pair of tall, feminine boots, fishnet stockings and a black, tight fitting tank-top. The biggest attraction was the bright, red, flouncey crinoline skirt and the fact that Soma was wearing make-up. She looked much older than her seventeen years.

"Wow, Soma, look at you!" Kashtan smiled.

"See! I told you, you look so cute!"

"I'm still worried about what Adonai will think when he sees this."

Korosette scoffed. "Come on, there's no way we'll run into that anti-socialite!"

.x.

"I don't believe it." Korosette's mouth hung open as she stared at the dance floor of Club Cog. There Adonai was, stomping away in a pair of dark red PVC pants and a black PVC shirt. His long hair swished around as his body moved to the music which pounded out of dozens of speakers.

"Would you like some soy sauce with your foot?" Okano asked.

Kashtan could already see the inevitable fight in his mind's-eye. "We'd better get Soma out of here."

"No." Korosette turned and faced them all. "Soma, you've been hidden away long enough. Come on." She grabbed her by her hand and took her to the dance floor.

"Korosette I really don't think this is a good idea!!" Soma tried to protest, but Korosette's mind was made up.

"Oh man, I think it's our turn to be hidden away!" Kashtan suggested. "Let's get outta here while the gettin's good! He's gonna explode when he sees her here like this!"

Okano could not be moved.

Adonai mostly danced with his eyes closed. He didn't like the stares he got, even if it was from every woman in the room. Occasionally he'd look up to see if the scene had changed and to know who was around him. He came up for one such check and stopped dead. "What the...?" Adonai stormed across the floor and got in the now fairly tall Korosette's face. "She goes home. Now."

"No!"

"What do you mean, no?! She's my sister and I say she leaves! And what have you done to her?!" Adonai gawked at the red pouting lips and thick black eyeliner. "Soma is not some kind of goth slut!"

Korosette turned and asked the girl in question. "Soma, do you want to go home?"

"Well, I, if Adonai thinks..."

"No, Soma. What do you think?"

Soma looked to Adonai who looked like he was going to tear Korosette's head off. She lowered her own head and mumbled something.

"What?" Adonai gently took her chin in his hand and lifted her face so he could look into her eyes. "Soma, do you want to be here?"

She nodded slightly. "I want to have fun like you do."

Adonai's brows softened. "All right. Whatever you want, Soma. But I'll be watching out for you." She smiled and hugged him tightly.

Korosette put her hands on her hips. "Why can't I have a normal family?!"

.x.

Okano and Kashtan hugged the bar for an hour or so and watched both scantily and overly clad men and women dance to the thumping, gloomy music.

"Man, some of this stuff's really gettin' on my nerves," Kashtan admitted.

Okano took a sip from his pint glass of water. "Well, it's already midnight. We can't be here too much longer."

Soma and Korosette joined them after several songs.

"You havin' a good time, Soma?" Kashtan asked.

"Oh yes! I really like to dance!" she chimed. Her eyes sparkled. "How about you, Cousins?"

"Eh, we're not big on dancing, right Okano?" Kashtan jabbed him in the ribs as another painfully hot girl walked by.

"You know." Korosette smirked. "You two have been hanging out side by side here for so long you're probably giving the ladies the wrong impression." They looked at each other quickly and took two steps apart. Korosette burst out laughing.

Soma covered her mouth and giggled quietly, but stopped as someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice that you were hugging Adonai earlier. Who are you?" The short, black woman asked in an authoritative tone.

"Oh!" Soma smiled. "I'm his twin sister, Soma!"

"Yeah, right."

"No, really." She pointed to her star. "See?"

The woman narrowed her eyes but decided that this was true. "Ok. Just makin' sure."

Soma held her hands together. "You must be Tasha!"

Korosette poked her head over her shoulder. "Who's Tasha?"

"He told you about me? He didn't tell me about you..."

"Really?" Soma looked hurt.

"Relax, he hardly talks at all."

Soma giggled. "That's true."

Korosette was getting mad that she wasn't in-the-know. "So, is she...?"

"Tasha his Brother's girlfriend!"

Kashtan and Okano both heard this and jumped in. "ADONAI HAS A GIRLFRIEND?!"

A glare from the young Prince closed their gaping mouths as he approached them. "Come on, Tasha." Adonai invited her back out onto the dance floor. The boys watched the buxom girl twist and twirl to the music, occasionally giving the evil eye to other girls who got too close to her man.

.x.

After another half hour of dancing, Tasha gave Adonai a squeeze and excused herself. She waved at Soma and Korosette as she made for the bathroom. The tiny room had only three stalls and both boys and girls fixed their makeup in the filthy mirror. Tasha folded her arms and waited impatiently.

When she finally finished taking her turn and emerged from the stall she came face to face with a much taller girl.

She wasn't wearing any make up and her clothes, although they were black, were not the fancy sort of garment that everyone else wore. Tasha gave her the patented evil eye, but she didn't budge. Instead, the girl reached out so quickly that no one saw and gave Tasha a quick chop to the neck.

Tasha looked surprised for a second before losing consciousness and slumping into the taller girl's arms. Without missing a step, the stranger took her outside.

"Hey," a bouncer asked and got in her way. "What's going on here?"

"My friend has had too much to drink. I'm sending her home in a cab."

"Oh, ok." He nodded and let her pass.

The girl turned into an alley and effortlessly threw Tasha into an open dumpster. "Sorry," she said sarcastically. "But that boy is mine, now."

.x.

"Where'd Tasha go?" Korosette asked her cousin as he came to the bar to get a glass of water.

He shrugged and downed it. "Probably went home."

Soma looked concerned, but her face soon changed as she saw the young woman in simple black approach. The hairs on her neck stood at attention.

"You," the tall girl said to Adonai. "Dance with me."

Adonai turned and raised a brow. She was attractive in a rough sort of way. Her wild, plum-colored hair, her smirk and the way she stood with her hands on her hips sparked something feral in him. He put the glass down and led her out to the dance floor.

"One day you'll realize that you were wrong...

You'll regret that all this happened..."

They stomped into the early morning hours. Soma started to waver as exhaustion overtook her. Okano steadied her on more than one occasion as she threatened to fall down.

"I think it's time we headed home, Korosette."

"Yeah, I guess." The girl pouted. She looked to Adonai and rolled her eyes. "Who would have guessed he's a mack daddy?"

Kashtan bowed and waved Korosette ahead of him, but she didn't seem to notice as they walked away. Soma's eyes were only half open and she yawned deeply.

"Cousin, could you carry me?" she asked Okano sweetly. "My feet hurt."

"I, uh, that is, er… Sure?"

She laced her arms around his neck and he gingerly picked her up as they wound their way out of the still very packed Club Cog.

"Did you have a good time, Soma?" Kashtan asked.

She nodded sleepily and snuggled into Okano's chest. The boy blushed furiously.

Korosette pulled her car out of her hoi-poi case, exploded the vehicle and took her friends home.

.x.

Just before dawn Adonai followed the strange girl out onto the streets. The city was quiet in that eerie time just before dawn.

"So," she said and stretched her arms above her head. "What are you going to do now?"

"Dunno." Adonai put his hands in his jacket pockets. "What are you going to do?"

The girl smirked and laced her arm through his. "Take you home with me."

The young Prince looked surprised, but intrigued. He allowed her to lead him home. "You know, I could be a psycho."

"You're not," she cut him off.

"You could be a psycho."

"I'm not."

"Who are you?" Adonai stopped in his tracks and raised a brow at her.

She laughed lightly. "I'm Yaffa."

"I'm Adonai."

"Nice to meet you. Now, come on."

He blinked a few times, but again allowed her to lead.

To be continued…