Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Crossroads ❯ Questions and Answers ( Chapter 3 )

Well, hello again :-)

Did someone of you go to the Animagic convention last weekend in Koblenz, Germany?

A little advice for everyone who want to visit a convention mainly for merchandise: make sure you get your tickets early. I only got one for the last day, and all the things I wanted to get were sold out. Since then I'm a bit allergic to the sentence "Oh, if you had been here on Friday… we had TONS of that then."…. *growls*

A big thanks goes to Lady Hella for beta-ing the chapter, and for her support :-))

Okay,on with the story.

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"Answers." she said, her voice demanding.

Zura blinked. She wanted answers? Hell, she should be the one answering his questions. After all, as far as he could sense, she was the only living being on this planet, besides himself. Hell, his ship had crashed here, completely unresponsive to his commands, and in the exact place she had been. Coincidence? Hardly.

So she had something to do with it, there was no other explanation. Or at least she had to know something, even though she didn't give that impression right now.

Zura gave her a quick once-over, taking in her bedraggled appearance. Black shoulder-length hair, hanging limply in matted strands, a tired dirt-streaked face, irregular smears on the cheeks where she had wiped them, giving her a weird camouflage effect. Torn and ripped dark clothes, one especially big tear in a shirt sleeve showing dried blood on the exposed skin. Her whole posture was tense, appearing ready to bolt any moment.

Zura shifted his weight a little to the side opposite of his damaged tail, trying to find a position that put as little pressure as possible on it. Svenja involuntarily twitched, an instinctive movement to flee.

"Well", she snapped, angry at herself for showing obvious panic in front of someone who clearly wasn't able to stand up without help, the feeling being only enhanced by the slightly amused flash in the man's eyes at her movement. "Start talking!" She glared at him for a moment until she realized she hadn't actually asked anything, but caught herself quickly. "Who are you? Why are you here? Where is here anyway? And why did you try to kill me with your… spaceship-thing? And…"

"Stop it!" Zura interrupted her harshly, getting angry himself. "Trying to kill you? I was crashing here, if you didn't notice. That's crashing, as in not voluntarily landing somewhere, usually resulting in…"

"I know what crashing is!" Svenja yelled, getting to the end of her proverbial rope. "Just answer my questions, goddammit!"

Zura stared at the enraged female kneeling on the ground, her arms supporting her upper body that was leaning forward in his direction in an aggressive manner. "Alright." he said calmly, too calmly. He was furious. Whatever questions he had expected, those stupid ones certainly weren't it. Was that a kind of trick, to get him talking? He decided to answer her for the moment. It wasn't as if he gave away any information that wasn't obvious. "I crashed here. Without wanting to, obviously. This is Lokran."

Annoyance and confusion were showing on her face. "What?! What is Lokran? And why did you crash here? You almost crushed me with your spaceship or whatever it is, you know? Who are you, dammit?! And… How….?" Thousands of questions were now whirling around in her head at the same time, preventing her from formulating one without others popping up at once.

She was met with a disbelieving and suspicious look. "Are you bullshitting me?? We're in an uninhabited part of space, everybody hiding out here know where here is. So stop giving me that shit about not knowing the name of this planet. Quit your stupid game! I crashed here against my will, and I'll leave as soon as possible. Satisfied?" Honestly, how stupid did she think he was? Zura growled inwardly.

Svenja squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "Planet…" she murmured faintly, "This is so insane." Snapping her eyes open she looked at the clearly pissed off man squarely. "No, I'm not satisfied. I need answers. Real answers." She took a deep breath, struggling to stay calm but failing miserably. "For example I want to know who I'm talking to. What's with the name anyway? This isn't Elfquest, you know?! You lack the pointy ears!" she exploded, ignoring the blank look she received at that statement. "You drop out of the sky, almost on top of me, I was nearly killed, got bombarded by debris, I'm in some weird place I don't know and have no idea how I came here, and you tell me I'm playing games?" By now she was panting, the last shreds of her composure gone.

Zura blinked. Either she was a very good actor of she was telling the truth. Either way, she looked as if she'd lose it any moment, and he couldn't have that. After all he needed answers himself. "Zura," he said.

That got her attention, as he had intended. Her breathing slowed a little, and at her questioning look he added, "my name. Zura."

"Zura" she repeated, trying the unknown name. "Okay, Zura. How…" she started, trying to find a beginning that would provide her with answers without confusing her even more. Her eyes darted around and came to a stop when they met the twisted and furry… thing growing out of his back. "What is that?" she asked, pointing at it. Zura looked around puzzled, for a moment not knowing what she meant. "What, this? My tail, of course." he said incredulously, touching it gingerly. Okay, tails weren't that common in the known universe. But on the other hand, so weren't horns. Or tentacles. Or multiple noses. Uncommon, but nothing special. Even if she hadn't seen a tail before, it was glaringly obvious.

"Tail…right." she muttered faintly. "Serves me right, stupid question."

"Exactly." he answered, suppressing a snicker at the angry glare her shot him, getting serious again. "Now it's my turn. No, no more questions right now, I need something." He cut off whatever she had wanted to say. "First of all, where is my stuff? I know I had it with me when I came out of the ship."

Svenja looked puzzled for a moment until she caught up with what he meant. "Oh, right. You also had it when you came stumbling in here like a zombie. Here." she reached behind her back and pulled his pack around, shoving it in his direction.

Zura grabbed it, opened it and started to rummage around. "You know", he said casually, "whoever you are and whatever your intentions are, that was a bit stupid. After all, I could have a weapon in there. And you won't get it back from me now."

"Nope, no weapons."

He raised his eyes angrily. "You looked through my things?"

"Yes, I looked at your stuff. After I pried it from your fingers, that is. And there wasn't any weapon. You mean I'd give it to you then, huh? I'm not stupid."

He chuckled inwardly. She had no idea what pain he could inflict with some of the things she obviously had deemed harmless. He smirked at her and pulled out a small syringe containing a colourless liquid.

He had a much more advanced medical device in his pack, something that would trigger and enhance his healing abilities. Unfortunately that procedure would take some time, and he needed some mobility right now. So he fell back to a more basic treatment, crude but effective. The medication was injected directly into the bloodstream providing him with the ability to move around for a short span of time and at the same time muting the neural activities, numbing his pain to a bearable extent. The downside of it was that after it wore off he'd have to sleep a little and would be dazed for some hours and slow in his reactions. That's why it was used so seldom, only in real emergencies. Possible enemies could take advantage of his state, and he had only used it once and had survived only by luck. Though this time, the possible danger seemed to be minimal. That Svenja didn't have any considerable power level and seemed to be no threat he couldn't deal with if it came to that. He'd still be faster than her if she tried anything.

His hand holding the syringe stopped inches before his arm that he had flexed to get easier access to the vein when she asked a small voice: "What are you doing?" He looked up and saw her wearing a slightly panicked look, her complexion a little paler than before, though it wasn't clearly discernable through the layers of dirt covering her face. Her eyes were fixed on the needle poised above his flesh.

Zura didn't answer, directing his eyes again on the protruding vein in his arm, jabbing the needle into it and injecting the contents of the syringe. He pulled the needle out and took some deep breaths, waiting for the medication to work. He didn't have to wait long, the effects kicked in almost immediately. The decreasing throbbing in his lower spine and appendage seemed like a blessing, and he cautiously proceeded to stand upright, testing his muscles. It still hurt but he could live with it right now.

He carefully took his tail into his hand and looked at the woman that at his movements had scrambled back and now stood some meters away from, regarding him warily.

"I'll be back shortly." Zura said, grabbed his pack, slung it over his shoulder and walked cautiously to the opening in the wall. Taking measured steps as he didn't really trust his balance, he proceeded in the direction of his broken spaceship. He didn't have as much time as he wanted, he itched to find the status of his ship, what parts were repairable and what had to be replaced. It was an unconscious process he had adapted over the time. If your means of transport wasn't in good shape you usually ended up in deep shit. But what if the damage it had taken was so severe he couldn't get off this planet? He firmly shoved the thought away; he had other priorities right now. He staggered unsteadily up the ramp to be met with darkness and cradled his tail with one arm. Feeling his way blindly through the familiar surroundings he fumbled along the walls with his free hand, occasionally bumping with his feet against something lying on the floor. He let out a triumphant sound when he found the first compartment of the ones containing provisions accessible and grabbed the bags inside. Stepping out again into the diffuse light he sighed with relief and slowly walked back to the ruined building. A Saiyans metabolism depended heavily on food to heal. Now that he had retrieved some bags of the provisions high in nutrients that he usually took with him on a flight, and in addition to the Healing Enhancer in his pack he had everything he could work with under the given circumstances to improve his situation. It wasn't much. But it was a beginning.

Svenja blinked and watched the dark haired man shuffling back from the ship. His last words, had they been a kind of warning? Or reassurance? Nah. It had probably been only a statement. She discarded the thought about his possible reasons, it was enough he'd come back so she could question him a bit more. He certainly hadn't helped clear thing up. Or maybe she just hadn't asked the right questions. Gods, her head hurt.

She backed away from the opening when he came near and watched him silently as he made his way to the remaining intact corner of the ruin and sat down slowly, laying his appendage carefully next to him. He placed the bags he had retrieved from the ship on his other side, slid his pack from his shoulder and rummaged around in it.

For a second Svenja felt a smile tugging at her mouth at his choice of a seat. It reminded her a bit of a friend, a rather paranoid one, who unconsciously always chose the most defendable position wherever she was. She became serious again and walked over to sit a short distance away. She watched him taking out a strange-looking device, looking a little like a broad wristband with some buttons and a small rectangular flat surface. She had already seen it when she had searched his pack but had been clueless to what its purpose was, though it hadn't looked dangerous to her. After he pressed some buttons the device came to life, small coloured lights and strange symbols blinking on the flat surface she now realized was a kind of display. He pressed some more buttons and watched satisfied as the flashing lights changed their pattern.

Zura lifted one arm and shoved back the remains of the sleeve with his free hand. After he placed the device on his underarm he adjusted it until the integrated pads were pressed against his skin where they were supposed to go. He snapped the small metallic buckles shut and exhaled slowly, sinking further back into the corner and giving the woman looking at him with badly concealed curiosity a measuring look.

"What?" he asked, already feeling the side effects of the medication kicking in.

"What did you do out there?" she asked. "What's in those bags? What kind of device is that? What does it do?"

"I brought food, yours is gone. And that's a Healing Enhancer. You have three guesses what it's supposed to do." Zura smirked slightly at her irritated look, blinking slowly when his eyes unfocussed a bit. "I'm going to rest now. Don't do something stupid, you wouldn't be successful anyway, so don't bother trying anything. Any more questions right now?" She stared mutely at him with an unreadable expression, emotions flashing across her eyes he couldn't decipher and didn't care about right now. He felt his eyelids closing and was on the brink of drifting away when her voice brought him back.

"Yes." She said in a strange voice. "Why am I here?" Zura's half-lidded eyes widened. What? She wore a strained expression, her eyes pleading for an answer. An answer he couldn't give her.

"I don't know," he murmured, fighting the urge to close his eyes. He couldn't find signs of deceptions in her look. Could it really be? Was it possible that she told the truth? He started to become intrigued.

When she visibly slumped at his answer he found himself saying, "wait a while. We'll talk later."

"How long?" she asked, her eyes troubled. "A few hours, probably," he answered and prepared himself to be taken over by sleep. A small part of him would still be alert on a level in case something unusual happened. It was a mechanism he had developed over the time, and it didn't take much energy. In fact it was only the detection of a change in the energy surrounding him. It only failed him when he was completely knocked out, as he had been before… Never mind. He'd think about it later.

Svenja watched Zura's eyelids flutter shut, and after a few moments his breaths deepened and steadied.

What a strange guy… Her face twisted into an angry grimace. She still didn't have answers. Not really, anyway. She got the sinking feeling that whatever she asked she wouldn't get them. And not necessarily because the one providing answers was unwilling. All efforts to think things through logically were doomed to failure, because what had happened wasn't logical.

"Adapt", she whispered to herself, "just adapt. There's nothing else left."

Speaking it aloud helped a lot. She had noticed throughout her life that if she actually pronounced things that troubled her or wrote them down, it helped a lot to make them more definite, giving them a shape. They were no longer unformed and vague ideas or fears, they were defined, and thus giving her the leverage to deal with them.

She sighed and forced her legs to stretch, shoving herself back until she was leaning against the wall. Now she could only wait.

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So what do you think? Comments, suggestions, anything?

Um… I wonder, did anyone understand what I meant with Elfquest? I'm not sure if it's still widely known.