Hi everyone! I'm kinda' late, I know. Oups! Sorry! I just had a lot to do lately.

Thank you very much Xoverguy and CamillaMB for reviewing my last chapter. You are the greatest!

Disclaimer: The usual one.

The path to death

Chapter 8: Vendetta

Dr. X stormed out of the DarkStar Council's HQ. He was furious and he didn't bother to hide it. And he had reasons to be too. He might have lost his strongest weapon. And this wasn't something he would accept so easily.

One day! She had been missing for only one bloody day and this happened! The Dr. felt like going insane. What could've killed her? What kind of creature could ever have the power of killing the White Puff!? Of what he knew she was one of the most powerful things in the whole Universe.

He walked even faster, the thoughts about the white haired girl filling his mind. He couldn't understand. How would something like this be possible? On T.V. they had said that the girl was found in a cafe's bathroom. "A cafe's bathroom!" he thought exasperated. The last place that he would have expected to hear that Bell died in was a bathroom. That didn't sound possible to him. The girl was very strong. She wouldn't have been killed without a tough fight.

He felt his blood boiling. He had tones of questions and he wanted answers. He stopped for a second remembering what had been said on television. Now he knew where to get his answers from. He headed towards Megaville.

Blossom looked up from her notes. It was 8 a.m. and she had finished the autopsy an hour ago. Now she was writing down what she had found. She had been right with most of her suppositions about her friend's death and she had found out a lot of useful details about the crime.

She wrote her final observation and placed the little notebook back into her pocket. It was horrible to think that in there lied everything she knew about the crime. It felt scary. While doing the autopsy she had thought about the whole story, from the beginning to the end.

She remembered the way she met Bell, their fight, the way they became friends and all the things they used to do. She never forgot the night Bell managed to get Blossom admit that she actually had a small crush on Dexter. The same night she met him in front of her house and he told her that he liked her and hugged her. She had felt so happy then. When she had said good bye to him she had gone back to her room and told her friend everything about it. They had talked about it all night.

She sighed and decided to go outside and get some fresh air. She cleaned up a little, putting some order between the instruments. Before she went out the lab, she turned and kissed the white haired girl's forehead. The body had finally begun to cool down and it didn't scare the red head so much any more.

She began walking towards to exit of the lab. In her way she saw Dexter sleeping at a working desk with one of his inventions in his hands. "He must've fallen asleep while working." She thought, exiting the lab. She calmly walked outside and sat in the swing that had remained since DeeDee was alive.

She began to absently swing while her mind was drifting into the past. She remembered the stories that she used to tell the other girl. In the beginning there were only fairytales. Bell's favorite had been "The little mermaid". She was always asking to hear it and she always came up with something new to ask about it. The red head couldn't understand where she got all those questions from.

But she hadn't remained only with the fairytales. She had begun reading more and she did it with so much pleasure. The pink eyed girl remembered how Bell always asked something about what she had read, and she would always answer her. Sometimes Bell would tell her how Dr. X answered. She noticed how different the two answers were.

She sighed and looked at the sky. It was so clear. Nothing of it showed what had happened just a day before. "Even the weather is against me." She thought. Her eyes searched the horizon for just one cloud, but didn't find it. Instead she noticed something heading her way. She recognized it a few seconds later. The figure landed in front of her, a few feet away.

"Dr. X." she said as calmly as she could.

"Is it true?" he asked without any other introductions.

"What?" she asked raising a brow.

"What they said on the news!" he almost yelled.

The girl looked at him for a few moments. Should she continue asking what he was talking about? She already knew. And he looked really angry. She remembered that Dr. X wasn't a very calm person when it came down to things like these. So she decided to answer.

"Yes, it is." She said looking in his eyes. She wanted to see his reaction.

In his eyes, there were a lot of things going on at the same time. But the most powerful one of them was anger. His face became even redder and the fire that was burning on top of his head became bigger. He was reaching critical stage. Bell had told her friend about these moments and the things that happened when they occurred. Fortunately she had told her how to deal with them too.

"WHAT!" he screamed thins time, shooting death rays at the girl in front of him. She did her best to keep herself calm. He would calm down eventually if the person in front of him ignored his anger.

"Bell is dead." She repeated in an emotionless tone that required all her self control. Saying those words felt so wrong. Analyses said that she was dead; tests said that she was dead; machines said that she was dead, but actually saying that phrase felt like she was surrendering all her hope.

Dr. X looked at her like she was crazy. How could that have happened?! The most powerful creature in the world... dead. He felt his anger rising even more.

"How?" he almost yelled.

"She was killed." The girl answered. This time she couldn't keep her tone emotionless. Her voice was shaking, but only a little bit. But the man didn't notice. He was too angry to notice anything.

"What?" He couldn't help himself from screaming. He couldn't believe it. Bell... killed. He had trained her, he had done everything to make her unstoppable and now this girl was telling him that the White Puff had been killed. This had to be a sick joke.

"You heard me: she was killed." The red head repeated. This time she kept her cool. The words hurt her, but this time she was more prepared to voice them. She had done it before.

"She was the most powerful thing in this world! No one could've ever killed her!" the man shouted.

"And yet someone did it." The Pink Puff said looking in his eyes. He looked back at her. She seemed so calm. He understood that she wasn't impressed by his outburst. He took a deep breath and clamed down.

"How could she be killed without a fight? She was very strong and I doubt she just let herself be killed." He said, now a lot calmer.

"There is more than one way to kill someone." Blossom said, relived that he had stopped screaming. The man looked at her with questioning eyes. How could Bell be killed, if not in a battle? Like reading his thoughts, the girl decided to shed a little light in the man's head.

"Have you ever heard of poison?" She asked looking at him. The question had stunned him. The thought of poison had never occurred to him. He had worked so much to ready the girl for any attacks that were aimed on the outside that he forgot about the ones that were aimed on the inside.

"She died because of poison?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"No, she didn't." the red head answered. The man looked up at her. "Poison was used just to make her unable to react." She continued, not moving her eyes off him.

"Then what killed her?" he asked trying hard not to shout.

The red head closed her eyes for a few moments as if trying to remember something. She wasn't very sure if she should tell him. But then again it wouldn't hurt if he knew some things. In fact it could really help her.

"A sharp object. At first sight, it would look like a dagger. However, after further analyses it can be seen that it would be impossible. The shape and the depth of the wound aren't the ones made by a dagger." The girl answered in a cold tone.

"Then what was it?" Dr. X asked. He didn't like the way that the conversation was advancing. She had all the answers and he only had questions.

"A sword." The pink eyed girl answered not looking at him.

"A sword..." he thought. Who could've used a sword to kill? Who would poison in order to be able to kill with the sword? It seemed absurd. He wanted to know more. And he knew how to do it.

"I want to see her." He said. The girl raised her eyes to look at him. "I want to see Bell." He repeated.

She looked at him with empty eyes for several minutes. It sacred him. It was like she was searching into his soul.

"Didn't you hear me? I said I wanted to see..." he began but the girl cut him off.

"No." She simply said, without even blinking.

"What?" he asked confused and yet a little angry.

"I will not let you see her. Not to mention touch her." Blossom said, this time a look of determination appearing in her eyes.

"Wha- you have no right to..." he began, but, just like last time, he didn't have the chance to finish.

"As a matter of fact I do have every right to stop you." She said in a confident tone. "You see, she was my best friend and I was the same to her. She didn't care for anyone else. And if you don't like this explanation then what do you say of: I am the one that taught her to think and to live. I know that you don't like it and I know that you hate me for this, but it was going to happen sooner or later. And I have more very good reasons to keep you away from her, but I know that patience isn't one of your strong points so I'll just leave you be with these two." She said glaring at him.

He stared at her. How could this girl forbid him something? What in the world made her believe that he would actually listen to her?

"Listen, I raised her..." but he didn't have the time to finish.

"You raised her, huh? You raised her to be what? Your little mindless doll? Your weapon? What?" the girl's glare became more intense. "Too bad that you weren't able to do that. And you know what? I'm not the reason why she became independent. Your neglect is. You thought that Girr wasn't going to change anything in her but you were wrong. Girr showed her that there could be a world where you don't rule. The same happened with Mandark. And with him she learnt how it was to loose someone. She was feeling and you didn't even notice. When I appeared it was all there: she had the power to live on her own; she just needed to know how. I showed her how to do it, but don't you worry: if I hadn't been here, she would've learnt from someone else and she still would've done it." She said calmly.

Dr. X glared at her, feeling anger rising in his veins. He looked into her eyes and saw the calm determination that always rested in Bell's eyes when they were arguing, in the past months. He took a deep breath and decided to ask one more question.

"What about the one that killed her? What are you going to do about him?" he asked looking at her, a slight glare still in his eyes.

"I'll search for him, or her. You can do it too if you want to." She said.

"Her?" he asked raising a brow.

"It could be a girl, you know. Everyone's a suspect." She answered.

"Really? Well, do you think that you'll find the killer?" he asked.

"I will." She responded with a confident look on her face. Her eyes met his and he was frightened by what he saw in them. "And I have only one word for the criminal: vendetta." The girl said. Then she turned around and flew away.

He watched her fly. "Vendetta..." he thought. "Revenge... a crime for a crime..." the thoughts and memories filled his mind as he returned to the DarkStar Council.

So, that was it! I hope you liked it! And sorry if I misspelled anything!

See ya in Chapter 9!