Her Return

Chapter Twenty-Eight

As Aya squinted her eyes, she walked forward slightly. She lowered her hand from her face to see someone kneeling on their knees in the soot on the pavement. As she got closer, she saw that this person was a man, no older then the age of eighteen. His brown hair looked stiff and rugged. His yellow shirt looked dirty, and his dark blue jeans were ripped and torn.

Aya got close enough where she could place her hand onto the boy's shoulder. "Hello?"

The boy jumped and turned around getting into a fighting stance. Aya knew that this boy couldn't fight her, but something about his stance looked familiar to her. Once the boy saw that Aya came without the means of hurting him, he stopped his stance and stood upright.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, running his hand through his stiff hair.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Aya started. "It's dangerous."

"You don't know the half of it." The boy said to her, "are we the only survivors?"

Aya shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. It seems like it." Aya answered. She watched as the boy glanced around a little bit, looking concerned, as if someone that he cared about was missing. "My name's Aya."

"Pyro." The boy answered as he held out his hand. Aya shook it as she asked another question.

"What happened here?" Aya asked. Pyro gave Aya a weird look.

"Are you from out of town or something?"

"Uh…" Aya glanced to her right. "You could say that." She answered looking around once more. Everything was completely destroyed; it looked like West City when Kira destroyed the place.

"Can you help me look for someone?" Pyro asked her. Aya turned her head towards him as he continued. "Her name is Trigger," he said, "she about this tall, she has a shirt that says: 'Give hugs, Not drugs' on it. Her hair is black, she's sixteen, and she has a purple star tattoo right here on her face."

Pyro pointed to the side of his face right underneath his eye. Aya blinked realized that that was the same place where Areiko had her tattoo, except that it was on the left side instead of the right. Pyro continued to describe Trigger to Aya and they then set off together in search for her. Both of them realized that it was much too dangerous to separate.

"So," Pyro started moving things around, "where are you from if you're not from New York."

"New York?" Aya repeated. Pyro stood upright and looked at her nodding his head.

"Yeah…" Pyro blinked for a minute. "Hey… do you know Lekira?"

Aya froze for a minute. She just got figured out. She stood upright looking at Pyro a little serious. "How do you know her?"

"Trigger and I found her in the woods." Pyro answered trying to move a piece of rubble. "she looked really weak; actually she was since she couldn't walk."

"When…" Aya walked over to Pyro. "When you found her, did her skin look really pale? As if she had a new layer of skin?"

Pyro looked at Aya. "Yeah… how did y—"

"I know her." Aya said bending down and taking the side of the rubble into her hands. "I came here to look for her." Aya then picked up the piece of rubble and threw it to the side, putting Pyro in shock. "It's a long story as to why I can do that, and how I know Areiko."

"That's not her name," Pyro said glaring.

"She's… she's telling the truth P-Pyro." Someone's voice came from the left of them. Aya and Pyro looked over to see the woman that Pyro had described to Aya. That purple tattoo that was at the corner of her eye was glowing brightly. "S-She's Lekira's best friend."

Suddenly she collapsed. Pyro called out her name and charged toward her. Aya quickly turned around flicking a ki blast away. It hit some rubble in the distance, causing it to explode. The sheer shock of the explosion of the attack shook the ground, sending Pyro to his stomach.

He lifted his head and turned to look at Aya. She stood there seriously as someone came from the sky levitating to the ground. "Lekira!"

Aya turned her eyes to the corner. "This isn't her." Aya said looking back at the figure as it landed. "It only looks like her."

"You have good eyes."

"I know my best friend's ki signal."

A smirk appeared on the woman's face. Two rings formed around her midsection and separated, one going downward and the other going upward. The skin of the figure paled, extremely. Long lavender hair came out of the ponytail that it was in and dropped to her waist. Her bangs were white and came spiking out in between her eyes. The eye color shifted from a gray color to a deep purple, her pupils also took a different shape, and they narrowed down like cat eyes that were focusing on prey. A white shirt came into Aya's view that came down at this woman's hips in a V shape. Spaghetti straps swung themselves over her shoulders and crisscrossed behind her on her shoulder blades. The jewels on her black jeans glittered and shined in the light of the flames. Her claws were revealed to Aya as she curled some of her hair behind her ear. From the left side of her face, at the very end of her cheek, this black vine looking tattoo ran down all the way down her arm and stopped at her fingertips. Her fangs hung and touched her bottom lip.

"Aya Briefs," the woman said, "I know who you are."

"And how do you know that?" Aya asked getting serious. "Been stacking Areiko?"

"You can say that." The woman said.

"Well, it should be fair to tell you that I know who you are as well, Kira." Aya said with a smirk. Both Kira and Pyro were taken aback by this.

"Well, I see you know me, and how do you?" Kira asked crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her claws on her arms.

"Let's just say that in another time, we've met." Aya answered. "Where's Areiko?"

"You mean my sister?" Kira asked, her pointed ear twitching a bit. "She's in a safe place for the time being."

Pyro got to his feet looking at Kira. "I know what happened here…" he started. "You're… you're a shape shifter… it was you that destroyed the city! Not Lekira!"

A smirk appeared on Kira's face. "I see that I left some survivors." A moan came from Trigger, as Kira then quickly shape shifted back into Areiko. Her jean jacket fluttering in the wind as it blew by once more. Her lavender hair retracted up back into a ponytail and turned a soft brown color. Her pupils dilated as her dark purple iris shifted to an icy gray.

Aya instantly knew what was going to happen. She turned to head towards Pyro to save him, but it was too late, Trigger was sitting up, and fully alert now. A ki beam hit Aya's back sending her into the ground. She hit a loose piece of rubble and fell inward into a hole, causing her to disappear from the surface. Aya hit the ground, well actually hit a support beam that snapped in half, causing Aya to fall further.

She landed on her stomach, she was about to get out when she suddenly heard someone scream on the top of their lungs. Next thing that Aya heard was this gushing sound, as if something had pierced someone's flesh and blood splattered everywhere.

Aya watched as a little bit of rocks fell down indicating to her that someone was walking away. Aya teleported out of the hole that she was in and took to the sky.

"Pyro! Pyro! Wake up!"

Aya looked down at the ground. Trigger was hugging Pyro to her body, a gigantic hole in his chest with blood escaping. His eyes have faded from all life force and his face was starting to pale. The tattoo on Trigger's face was starting to glow brightly.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Aya heard the speed of someone running as if they had high heels on. She turned around and spotted Areiko running down the road. Blood had stained the left side of her jacket. Areiko got Trigger, and from there it was a nasty sight.

Aya decided not to listen or watch, she took off in a direction that she sensed Kira's ki coming from.

She landed on the roof top of the only building that was standing in the area. "Kira!" Aya shouted. "Come out! I know you're here!"

Suddenly Kira appeared in front of Aya, as her true self and not as Areiko. Kira punched Aya right in her face sending her through the concrete of the roof building. Aya plummeted through a few floors before coming a stop on someone's desk. Aya sat upright letting pain rush through her body. She looked around her to see that there were more dead bodies surrounding her. Aya freaked and went to move when suddenly someone's foot appeared on her chest pushing her back down.

Aya grabbed onto Kira's ankle glaring up at her. Kira leaned forward resting on her knee looking down into Aya's face.

"Who are you really?" Kira asked. "If you got here the way I think you did, there's no way that you'd be here this quickly. Plus, I can still sense you energy back at West City."

Aya glared, now she was actually busted. But this time she wasn't going to give herself away. She was going to keep her mouth shut. Aya knew that staying silent was going to piss Kira off even more.

"Go to hell." Aya spat.

Kira smirked, "my dear, we're already here!"

Kira kicked Aya out right from underneath her feet. Aya went through the building's wall directly out into the sky once more. She then plummeted to the ground. Aya hit hard, sending up rubble into the embers around her. The flames bursted upwards, engulfing most of the area around her. The short eighteen year old started to get up when she saw a form from the flames coming towards her. The embers then split in half revealing Kira.

Kira lifted up her hand as she came to a stop a few feet away from Aya. "I don't know who you are, but I know that you're not supposed to be here."

Aya growled loudly clenching her fists.

"So," Kira smirked as large amounts of ki started to form in her hand. "I'll make sure that you don't go back where you came from, alive at least."

xxx

Vegeta sat there silently as Mr. Popo tended to his wound. But Mr. Popo did more then that. To actually stop Vegeta's bleeding, the black genie decided that he was going to home stitch his stomach and back wound closed. After the stitching was finished, Mr Popo wrapped up the prince's wound.

"Why didn't you take the senzu bean?" The black genie asked putting everything away. Vegeta sat on the side of his bed looking at the job that Mr. Popo did. Besides the pain that Vegeta had to take about his skin being pulled together, he knew he was going to be fine.

"Because I have a feeling that we're going to be needing it later." Vegeta answered as he got off of the bed. He got down onto his knees once Mr. Popo moved out of his way. Vegeta once again stuck his hand in between the two mattresses. He pulled out the senzu bean and held it out towards Mr. Popo. "Take it," Vegeta said dropping it in the genie's hands. "Keep it until it's needed."

Vegeta headed for the door, leaving Mr. Popo to look at the senzu bean in his hand. When the genie heard the door open, he turned around and faced Vegeta.

"Where are you going?" Mr. Popo asked, "You have to rest."

"My wound won't bleed anymore now that it's stitched." He answered looking back at the genie. "I'll be fine; Aya can't scream and pitch a fit. Her body is covered in stitches."

After that, Vegeta left. Mr. Popo sighed hanging his head. "They're both so stubborn."

Vegeta shut the door behind him and then headed towards the Pendulum Room. He pushed the door open and looked inside. There he found Aya laying on her stomach with her arms folded and her cheek resting on the top of her hands. She looked as if she was sleeping but Vegeta knew very well that Aya was only in another place.

He approached her and stepped up onto the platform. He seated himself down next to her and looked at her face. Aya's eyes were clenched a little bit; a few small moans and groans were heard as if she was going through some sort of pain. Vegeta decided to help her out.

He let out a small sigh and closed his eyes.

xxx

Vegeta opened his eyes, the only thing he came face to face with was total darkness with a few spots of light shining through. He shifted a bit, feeling around before he realized that he was under a bunch of rubble. With a ki flare of his energy, the rubble flew off of him as he levitated himself to the air.

Vegeta stopped when he was a few feet above the city. He looked around, the place was gone. There was nothing left but dead bodies and rubble, not including the flames that bursted from everywhere. He looked around a bit more before he levitated back to the ground putting his feet down.

"It'll take forever to find Aya in this place." Vegeta said to himself as he looked around again. He then proceeded forward following a high signal that he thought that belonged to Aya.

Vegeta then stopped at the end of the street brushing his arms off from the ashes. He lifted his head and instantly a purple glow caught his eye. He squinted his eyes to get a better look, but he was standing to far away. He then approached to see that it was a little girl. Well technically not little, but young enough.

She was standing on her feet with her back turned to Vegeta. Her face was buried in her hands as she cried. Vegeta glanced down at the boy behind her at her feet. It looked like most of his blood has spilled onto the tar. His face was really pale and his eyes stared up into the sky.

The purple light grew brighter, and suddenly the girl stopped crying. She wiped herself around and drew a small little knife and held it outwards towards Vegeta.

"Who are you?!" She shouted, her hand shaking from her fear. Vegeta lifted his hands up into the air showing her that he meant no harm to her. "All of you random people keep showing up!" the girl shouted, "first it was that short girl!"

"What short girl?" Vegeta suddenly asked. "What was her name?"

"Aya Briefs." The girl said to him. "And I know who you are." She added. "You're Vegeta."

Vegeta looked at her funny. The girl pointed to the star tattoo on her face as she still held the knife pointed out to him. "This tattoo is a symbol of my powers," she said, "I can read your mind."

"Then you know that I'm not here to hurt you," Vegeta said approaching. The girl backed up.

"I can't trust you!" she shouted. "I thought that I could trust Lekira! But she proved me wrong today!"

"Wait what?" Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "Did you say Lekira?"

The girl looked at him. "Y-yeah… you know her just like Aya huh?"

Vegeta nodded.

The knife began to lower in her hand. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Aya said that she was here to look for Areiko. I don't think you guys are telling the whole truth."

Vegeta suddenly disappeared and reappeared at her side. He quickly grabbed onto her arm causing her to drop the knife. "First let's get rid of that." The girl looked into Vegeta's face, "since you know who I am I think that it's only fair that you tell me your name."

"T-Trigger." The girl replied completely shocked at his sudden speed. Vegeta let go of her arm and picked up the knife. He closed it then handed it back to Trigger.

"Keep that close by," Vegeta said, "and don't follow me." He took the air. Trigger looked up at him. The tattoo at the corner of her eye began to glow again, but this time it was a brighter then ever.

"I… illusion?" she asked herself raising an eyebrow watching Vegeta fly away.

Vegeta looked around when he suddenly heard Aya's scream. "Aya!" He lunged himself down towards the ground to see Kira beating on Aya completely.

Aya fell to the ground on her right side, her left leg completely immobile. She tried crawling away from her, but Kira kept kicking at the souls of her feet with a large smirk on her face.

"Tell me where you come from."

"Gatlick Gun!"

Kira turned around to come face to face with Vegeta's blast.

Areiko appeared in the woods. She lifted her head and sniffed the air a bit before she caught the scent of an animal close by her. She smirked licking her fangs in the process. She then got down onto all fours and ran silently towards the scent that she had picked up.

She found her prey, it was a group of rabbits running into their hole. Areiko had to get them before they all jumped back into it. So she pounced and caught one of the smaller rabbits. She snapped it's neck instantly then dragged it off somewhere.

Areiko seated herself onto a rock and placed the rabbit in her lap. She began to feast on her dinner. It wasn't much, but it was something to fill her up for a good hour. After she was done eating, she sat there for a minute or two liking the blood off of her. It's been years since she's had full control like this, and she was going to enjoy every minute of it.

Areiko's dark half was really going to enjoy this; she had the whole body to herself. Her lighter half was lost somewhere in her memories. Her evil side liked that idea, because really she had control of what memory that Areiko would see, right now, she's letting her lighter half enjoy all of the good times that she had before her evilness returned into her life.

Areiko's darker half got bored of sitting around on a rock, so she leapt off and took off running somewhere. She was going to enjoy herself on a nice little run.

Kira sat in the dirt staring into the distance. She was bored as hell. It's not like she could kill Chichi, Bulma, and Videl for fun. That'll be to quick since they don't really fight back. She tapped her claws on her chin glancing around for a moment. She then sighed and stood up.

The three women watched her closely. They watched as Kira started pacing.

"How long do we have left?" Videl asked looking over at Bulma and Chichi.

Bulma shrugged her shoulders as much as she could. "I don't know, do you know Chichi?"

Chichi shook her head. Kira smirked since she could hear their conversation quite clearly. She turned around and looked up at them.

"You have one more day to wait." Kira answered, "And I think you should enjoy this time."

"Why?" Chichi glared.

"Because you're going to watch everyone you love suffer." Kira said smirking. "You're going to see their blood splatter."

"Shut up." Bulma ordered closing her eyes tightly.

"You're going to watch them get their limbs torn off."

Videl turned her head away closing her eyes, she wished that Kira would just shut up.

"You'll see them get their lives taken by Lekira."

"Shut the fuck up!" Chichi suddenly bellowed, her voice echoing. "Nothing's going to happen to them!"

"You think that." Kira said crossing her arms over her chest. "They might not die from Lekira, but they will be killed by yours truly. I will not let them survive."

Kira was hit and thrown back. Aya looked up from her place on the ground to see Vegeta flying down towards her. He landed a few feet away rushing over to her getting to his knees by Aya's side.

"What are you d-doing here?" Aya asked as Vegeta slowly lifted her up.

"I'm here to help you punk," Vegeta answered wrapping her arm around his shoulders.

"Y-you're supposed to be resting…" Aya said, her head dropping. Vegeta looked her over. Her wounds were deep and bleeding badly. It was only a matter of time till she slips and dies in this illusion.

"Just be quiet." Vegeta ordered turning his head to look over his shoulder. Kira was gone. He took this as a great chance to escape. He took off into the air, flying away from the city.

As Vegeta got farther away from the area, he spotted Areiko flying away from it too. Since he wasn't sure if that was really her or her whacko side, he shifted his direction towards the ground.

He landed in the grass near a highway with flipped over cars. He looked around setting Aya into the grass. He walked up the hill losing his balance. Vegeta put his hand out lightly touching the ground with his finger tips gaining his balance again. When he got to the top of the hill he stepped onto the pavement of the street.

The saiyan prince glanced around, looking at all of the cars that were either flipped over or in flames. Bodies also lay across the pavement as he walked around a little more. Vegeta approached a body, he was about to check if the person was alive when suddenly…

"VEGETA!"

He heard Aya's scream. Instantly he turned around and called for her, heading back in the direction in which he came. "Aya!" He tripped running down the hill, he tumbled and soon bumped into something. When he lifted his head up off of the ground and shook it, he looked over to see Aya laying there, covered in blood.

Aya's eyes opened. She lifted her head looking around the Pendulum Room. She sighed slowly sitting herself up. She glanced to her right to see Vegeta sitting there next to her. She propped herself onto her heels and sighed.

"He never listens…" Aya said to herself throwing herself onto her butt and sitting Indian style. "I'll wait for him to come out of this thing." Aya checked herself over just in case that she was really in that illusion world. She sighed thinking about Areiko as she sat there waiting for Vegeta.

"I wonder if that actually happened to her…" Aya said again to herself.

She heard a slight gasp, looking up she saw Vegeta's eyes opening looking around for a moment. He then turned to Aya about to say something to her when Aya cut in front of him.

"Why aren't you in bed?" Aya asked him. Vegeta looked at her for a minute as she stood to her feet. "You're badly injured."

"So aren't you," Vegeta said to her. "I'm not the only one that should be resting."

"Well I can't rest." Aya countered. "I'm the only one with enough power to defend us."

Vegeta shook his head. "No you're not." He replied. "I have just enough power to be helping you."

Aya looked at Vegeta. She knew that she wasn't going to win this argument. She sighed hanging her head and her arms by her sides. "Fine, whatever."

Vegeta looked at Aya, she was really hell bent on him resting, he could tell. He crossed his arms over his chest lightly not to put himself through pain.

"A few more times in this stupid Pendulum Room and I'll rest," he said to her, gaining her attention.

Aya smiled, "good."

"But," Vegeta said holding up one finger. "Only if you rest as well."

"I can't…" Aya looked at Vegeta's face knowing that he was completely serious about this. She knew that in order to get him to rest, she would have to rest herself. "Fine."

"Good." Vegeta seated himself back down. "It would be a good idea if we woke up next to each other unlike last time." He said looking at her waiting for her to sit.

Aya nodded as she sat down slowly. She then turned her back to Vegeta leaning against his right side. The saiyan prince smirked as the two of them then closed their eyes at the same time.