Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Seasons ❯ Regret ( Chapter 8 )

"Alaura?" Tae called, his voice hardly rising above a whisper, "Mother…?" He could still feel trace bits of her energy, like drippings from an ice cream cone, and followed them, hoping to find her in one piece. What in the world was she doing out here anyway? He thought, Why didn't she just call a cab to take her home? He shook the questions from his head, his antannae trembling with the motion, and focused on at least finding her. It was, after all, the most important thing right now.

Slipping into an alley he squeezed his eyes nearly shut, trying to determine shadow from shadow in the darkened corridor between two run-down buildings. He heard a faint rustling of paper and his heart nearly stopped, moving towards the sound, but paused when he heard the sharp yowl of a cat and saw a streak of black race from the back of the alley passed his feet and around the corner.

The light from a passing vehical curved and caught something familiar to his dark eyes. He realized it was the delicate structure of a small, bone-white feminine hand flung out from a heap of odds and ends and trash, laying there like an injured bird. Tae ran to it, afraid that he may have come too late, and his eyes followed the listless hand up it's wrist and bare arm towards the head hanging at an uncomfortable angle on the shoulders.

"Alaura…no!" Tae gasped as he pulled the woman from the rubble, her head flopping like a dead fish on her shoulders, her eyes closed and all ready beginning to bruise. What happened to her? He thought, frantically, desperatly feeling for a pulse. He held her to his chest, pulling her onto his lap as his hands felt the sticky-cold of drying blood clinging to her to normally lusterious silvery blonde hair and forced calmness into himself so that he could find the healing power within himself for the task at hand. "Who did this to you, Mother?" He whispered as he carefully arranged her lifeless body on the cement before him. He wondered if he'd even get an answer, ever, to that question.

As the warmth of the healing energy flowed from deep within himself towards and around and inside of her, they lit up the darkness around them with a golden, pulsating glow. Beneath his fingers, Tae felt inside injuries mend, broken bones knit back together and surface wounds close up and disapear. He poured all of himself into his power and forced the healing to take on a faster rate than it normally would. He did not feel at all safe, alone in the alley where he'd found her beaten and half-dead. In his healing state he was as vulnerable as a newborn kitten and did not enjoy the feeling. The faster this was done, the better.

Alaura opened her eyes, they felt heavy to her, almost too heavy, as if she'd just drunk more than her share of some intoxicating beverage. Her eyes focused slowly and she saw the young namek staring down at her with worried eyes. She recognized him and cried out; "Oh, Tae! You came! It was awful…" She winced as her hand flew to her head, feeling it's pounding ache.

"Your still in pain?" Tae asked, raising his hands to her head, "Let me…"

"N-no," She pulled back, suddenly feeling unworthy of such attentions, she deserved everything she got, she thought bitterly, biting back the tears, she should suffer in pain. It was only just. "I'll be okay, Tae. It's probably just a concussion, anyway, I remember hitting my head on the ground."

"Do you know who could have done this to you, Alaura?" He asked, respecting her wishes not to touched at the moment, he assumed if her head hurt too much she would either seek a pill of some sort or his healing again. He decided not to worry about it, "Can you remember?"

"I don't know, Tae." She said, pulling her bare knees up to her chin and circling her arms around them. He saw her shivering, though from post trauma or cold, he was certain, "It's all such a blur. There were shadows, about four men from the looks of their shapes and the sounds of their laughter, then all of a sudden, one of them hit me on the back of my head and everything went black. I remember waking up breifly to them kicking and punching me and it hurt so bad that I must have fallen uncoscience again."

"Come on," He said, angry more than anything at such vile creatures who would do such a thing to someone obviously weaker and outnumbered, "I'll fly you home."

Alaura heard the barely hidden rage in his voice as he lifted her up and took off with her into the air, her arms around his neck as she prayed he wouldn't suddenly drop her to her death, not that he would, but such thoughts tend to fly into one's mind while faced with the possibility. She thought to herself; No need to aim your anger at them, Tae, I'm the one you should be hating. It was probably fate that had a hand in what happened to me tonight. It was my punishment. It had to have been. She forced that belief into herself, refusing to harbor any such idea that it wasn't her fault at all, that she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Are you sure your going to be okay, Mother?" Tae asked after seeing her safe inside the beachhouse, she'd wanted to return to it, claiming the sound of the oceon roar in her ears was soothing, "I can have my understudy cover for me in the next preformace and…"

She shook her head, curled up on the sofa, an afgan of many hues around her and a steaming cup of green tea in her hands. She brought the cup to her face and inhaled the gentle scent as stream rose up in tendrils about her face and hair, "I'll be fine, Tae. You must not miss your preformace. I'm so proud of you. Tae? You know I love you, don't you?"

"I know." He said, wishing he could stay there with her. Something about her tone of voice, it was too calm, too…something…that made his blood run cold with some unnamed terror. He saw a strange look in her shadowed blue eyes and asked her once more, if she was certain she would be all right alone here. She laughed, the sound forced and faked and nodded, "Go, Tae. Don't waste your time worrying about me. I'll be fine, I all ready told you."

Still not convinced, Tae took his leave then, but the worry that had taken up residence inside his head would not leave, not matter how he tried to shove it out. Perhaps when Piccolo and Neko returned, she would be better, everything would be better, he thought, he hoped.