Gure sighed. Her plans to escape had only made things worse. Before she had just been stuck in a room wearing rags for cloths, but now she was in Cooler's private chamber with this thing on her wrist and clothing that she wouldn't be caught wearing in public. She cursed the bracelet. It was keeping her from returning to her smaller form, and now she was forced to look at her breasts almost all of the time. They were somewhat covered, but the outfit Cooler wanted her to wear provided him with plenty of cleavage.
She walked around his quarters. The only thing that was good about this was that it was larger than the room she used to be in. There were multiple rooms, and she didn't have to look at Cooler all day. The man was away much of the time.
Right now she was in what looked like a greenhouse. They were close enough to a nearby star that it was warm enough, but not too warm.
She looked up at space. She would give anything to be in a pod heading towards Planet Vegeta. Towards her Tarble. She wondered how he was doing. Did he think about her, or did he believe that she was dead? So much time had passed. She really couldn't be certain anymore.
"You seem to really like this place." Cooler's voice said from the shadows, making her jump. He came out from the darkness of the hallway and into the garden. "You really do belong in a place like this."
She backed away. She didn't want him anywhere near her. "You mean as your prisoner." She growled.
He chuckled. "You fit well among the flowers." His hand came up and dragged through her long hair. She flinched away from his touch. "I was quite surprised by you."
"What do you mean?" She said on edge.
He smirked. "You killed Yogut and planned an escape. I didn't expect something from someone with such a small stature to be capable of such things. But looking at you now…" She turned away from him. She didn't like the way he was looking at her made her feel very uncomfortable, but that turned out to be a mistake. Seconds later, he had wrapped his arms around her from behind. She felt sick to her stomach as she felt something hard against her backside. "You really are beautiful. I really don't think I can control myself." The Frostian sniffed at her neck.
Tears started to come from her eyes as his hands began to move over her body. She hated this. His touch felt like it was burning her.
One of his hands made to move between her legs, but she had had enough. She stomped down hard on his foot, making him cringe away from her as he let out a cry of pain.
She tore away from him and faced him. She was scared. What was he going to do with her now? She knew what he wanted, but how long could she stop him? In this form, she was a sitting duck. He could easily do with her as he pleased.
Cooler chuckled as he looked over. "You have some spunk. I like that."
"I don't care if you like that." She snapped.
Cooler only smirked. "You will. In time, you will adore me. You'll forget about that monkey and focus on me."
She glared at him. "In your dreams!"
Cooler moved closer to her. "My dreams? More like my reality. A monkey doesn't deserve to ruin something as beautiful as you."
She found that he was backing her into a wall. "And you don't get to judge the man I choose."
Cooler only chuckled as he pinned her against the wall. "Of course I do. If you're going to be mine, I have to judge any man you think is better than me." His eyes were staring into hers, and she was terrified. She didn't like the way he was looking at her. She wasn't his property, but he was treating her like she was. His tail had moved and now it was gliding its way down her leg.
Gure couldn't help but wish that was smaller; with fur. The way it was now, it felt like dried out scales dragging against her skin. Out of all of the people in the galaxy, she swore that the saiyans had to have the softest tails. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift. She let the saiyan prince enter her mind: the look in his eyes when he was working on something; that spark he had when he was planning; his calm demeanor; his love.
Cooler didn't like her lack of reaction. "He's not worthy of you." Cooler growled into her ear.
Gure opened her eyes, but all she could see was Tarble. She had to be insane. She knew that it was Cooler that was standing in front of her, but she was dazed. She missed Tarble terribly. Her dreams of seeing him again had not only been crushed, but they had crushed her.
Cooler smirked and leaned forward. She didn't think as he began to kiss her. Her mind was still stuck on her beloved. So much so that she didn't even question kissing Cooler back. Her mind was only thinking of Tarble. How much she wanted him right now. How much she needed him at this moment. But he wasn't here. For all she knew, he thought that she was dead and had already moved on.
She felt force against her lips and fell limp. She knew better than that. What had she just done? She couldn't believe that she had just kissed Cooler.
He pulled away from her and was breathing hard. His fingers were running through her hair. She couldn't believe it but she was also breathing hard. How long had she been kissing him? She berated herself. She had just betrayed Tarble. He would never forgive her for this. Even if she was thinking it was him. Pretending that it was her beloved saiyan prince would be the only way that she could survive this.
"I told you." Cooler leaned down and whispered in her ear. "You will love me."
She pushed on his chest, trying to get him away from her. "Never!"
Cooler only laughed. "Then what was that just now?" She smacked him across the face, sending him back a little. When he looked back at her, he spit out some blood and smirked at her. "Did I just strike a nerve, my love?"
She glared at him. "Don't call me that!"
Cooler grinned at her. "But that's what you are."
"You wouldn't know what love looked like if it hit you in the face!" She snapped.
Cooler only laughed. "But it just did."
Tarble snarled. For some reason, he was particularly pissed this morning. As he messed around in the gravity room, he had brought out the void again. He was getting closer to discovering what this void was. The darkness seemed to be connected to his own personal darkness. He just didn't know why it was so dark.
Sure, he had seen some pretty horrendous shit, but that didn't mean that he really knew the darkness that well.
He moved forward in the void, looking around for any evidence. There had to be something to this place. All he knew was that this place wasn't the kindest to outsiders. Vegeta had a rough time in here the last time he came, but it didn't try to attack him. His subconscious had to be leery of his brother's presence, but didn't see him as a threat.
Tarble continued to look around. It was a black void, so there really wasn't much to see. He wondered how he could see in the darkness. Was it because this was truly his mind? Or was there another reason? He wished that there was a way that he could find the answers.
Tarble disabled the void and took a deep breath as everything returned to normal. What was he going to do? If only there was a way to research the void.
A lightbulb went off in his head. The book his father had tormented him with. How had he forgotten something so crucial?
He pushed the button on his gravity room and it shrunk and returned to his wrist. He practically dashed out of his room and down the hall. He had to find that book. He didn't remember where they had put it though. He was going to have to ask Vegeta, but at the moment, his brother was busy talking to the commission again. He was going to have to find it on his own.
He headed for the palace library. It was a huge place, but surely it had to be here. He nodded at the librarian. Betra was a small girl with very short black hair. She only looked up at him with a smile and a blush. "Do you need help with anything, Prince Tarble?"
He only gave her a nod. "I'm looking for a very old book. Is there anything catalogued in here that's older than the Westla dynasty?"
The girl seemed to think it over. The Westla dynasty was the first recorded history of the commission, which was pretty old, at least 7,000 to 9,000 years ago. "I'm not sure." She picked up a really old looking key. "Follow me."
He followed after her and she walked over to a couple of bookshelves. He still wondered what the key was for. He had never seen this before in his life. Were there more secrets to the palace that he didn't know? They had rebuilt most of the palace, mainly because Vegeta still liked the idea of the tunnels.
Betra pulled the key up and Tarble got a better look at it. It had three prongs coming off of it. She stuck it into the wall were it looked like three holes in the wood. He heard a bunch of creaks as gears started to turn, then there was a popping sound.
Betra walked away from the wall and back over to her desk. He was about to ask, when they had returned to the desk, but noticed that there was a hidden staircase there now. "Follow me."
"What is all of this?" He asked. How the hell didn't he know about this? "And how do you know about it?
She giggled. "I'm usually in here all day by myself. I get bored. Your brother hired me to care for the books and I stumbled across the key a couple of years ago when I was restoring a book for Raditz-sama." The girl's eyes seemed to light up at his best friend's name.
"And why didn't you say anything about it?" He asked.
She looked down at the floor sheepishly. "I…I saw a mystery and…and I wanted to figure it out for myself."
He really couldn't fault her for that. "Okay. So what do you know about it?"
She seemed to light up again. "Well, I've learned how to read some of it; just not all of it. It's very complicated."
Tarble wanted to laugh. She did look really cute when she was excited. "Then why not show me this?"
She nodded and walked over to the stairwell. "It's kind of narrow. So we're going to have to go down one at a time. You can follow me, but you just can't walk beside me."
She headed down first and he started after her. It was dark, even darker than the void. He had to wonder how she could see, but she wasn't complaining. He could hear her footsteps, but he had no indication of her speed.
She stopped and he almost ran into her. His was still blind in the darkness.
"Take my hand." She said.
He moved his hand down and he felt her shoulder, moving his hand down slowly until he got to her hand. She was warm. He wasn't expecting that. It was colder in the tunnel than he expected. "Is there no way to light the tunnel?" He asked.
"There's a gas in the air. I don't know why, but it's highly flammable. It was probably set up to keep out intruders." She said.
He was kind of impressed. His ancestors had worked to keep this information under wraps. Someone had to know the importance of this information and wanted to keep it safe.
The tunnel went for some time and soon they were met with a metal door. He heard Betra punching something into the side. "How can you see?" He asked.
She giggled. "That's what my power is. Seeing in the dark is pretty useful, don't you agree?"
"I'll say. What are you even putting in?" He asked.
"There's a panel with some glyphs on it. You just have to push them in the right order." Tarble heard a lock come undone and she pulled him into the room. Lights flickered on around them and he came face to face with a large library in front of him.
"How many are…?" He started.
"There are over 2000 books in here…I think." She said, looking embarrassed.
Tarble found himself staring and mentally slapped himself. He was a taken man. He didn't need to be looking at anyone else. "So I guess I should get started then."
He made forward and pulled a book off of the shelf. This would take a while. He sat down in a chair that had a table in front of it and looked down at the pages. He should have known that there would be more glyphs. This was going to take forever, but Gure didn't have that long.
Betra moved over towards him, she had to see his frustration. "Do you need some help?"
He looked up at her. Her knowledge would help him get through this fast. He really had nothing to lose and everything to gain. "If you don't mind…"
She smiled at him and then pulled up chair. "First let's go over a couple of the more common ones." She said turning the pages.
Tarble sat there and listened. Hanging on every word she said. It was the only way that he could get answers to the void and get Gure back. At least that's what he was telling himself.
To Be Continued…
Author's Note
I wanted to get this posted earlier, but I had to wait for it from my beta reader. As I said, things are taking a much darker turn and I hope everyone likes it. Poor Gure, she just can't shake off Cooler. The man in delusional. And what about this Betra? I guess you'll have to read to find out more. Hehe.
Anyway. I am wondering again what your thoughts on this are. I'm not going to sound as mean as I did last time. Trust me, it was a bad week then. I just want to know if you like the direction of the sorry and the characters.