Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ do ut des ❯ blood and mud ( Chapter 11 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Tien's POV:
then it was quiet all around me.

I knew that they had been searching for me, they always had, but I just never expected them to actually find me. I only had time enough to hide Chiaotzu before they dragged me away. Before he dragged me away.

I had always thought that we were friends. Forbidden friends. But friends none-the-less. Goku was so easy to trust, that his betrayal did not only anger me, but shock me as well. It hurt it, maybe even more as I was hurting now. A different way of pain, a more permanent way, a one-side-way.

My head was bouncing and my scin stinged as my wounds flinched at the contact with the dark soppy mud beneath me.

I had the urge to curl up, clutching my stomach, but my twisted legs made any movement impossible.

I felt drained, both physical as psychical.

Everything was spinning around me...

Blood and mud.

And mud and blood.

Their voiced died out, everything died out. Blurring and fading into a numb, non-existing conscious.

And for a moment it was so lovely to be nothing.

- - -

"... up scum, the prince is coming."

I gasped for air as I was kicked awake in my stomach. How long did I pass out? I tried to regulate my breath and to hold my body still... Nausea waved over me as soon as I dared to move a muscle.

It was then that the words reached my mind.

The prince was coming... Vegeta was coming. That must mean Goku would come too...

I spitted out some blood, frustrated that it wasn't his face I was spitting on. How dared he betray me? I had given him my full trust...

I didn't know what would happen if he was in front of me now... I didn't know if I would be able to control my anger... how I wanted to kill him... how I wanted to hurt him... to hurt him even more than he had hurted me. I wanted to see him beg... to see him scream... to see him the way he had seen me. If he was in front of me now...

"T-Tien?" I looked up, and my expression softened immediately. In front of me was the vestal virgin I brought home this morning.

Her deep blue eyes were filled with sorrow, she was holding back, her disgust, tears and fear... all for me.

What was she doing here?

And then I remembered her flashing by, her stumble over me, her eyes filled with horror... till she was dragged away by Vegeta. I must have lost conscious not far after.

Next to her were two other Vestal Virgins, the prince and him. Goku was there.

I leaned up a bit, leaning on my elbows. The movement made every muscle in my body complain, the dizzyness waving back in my head...

But I didn't complain.

I coughed up some blood and spit it out on the raped ground before me.

I would never complain to him again.

The prince took a step forward. "It has been a long time, ranger, hasn't it?" He spoke with venom, and then I knew that his hatred for me had not fade in those two years.

I looked away and coughed up some blood, my jaw seemed to be broken... When I tried to move it, pain shot through me again. Definitely broken. The little test made my cough up some more, and, a bit frustrated, I spitted it out on his black leather shoe.

His reaction was far from inpredictable, but it wasn't Vegeta's reaction I was lurking on... it was his, Goku's. I wanted, no needed, to know if he really had changed so much.

"You coward," the saiyan prince hissed. "If only I had killed you..." his voice trailed of and his fist clenched. "I can still kill you now!" He started powering up, in shocks waves of energie multiplied. He powered up with anger.

My eyes were set on Goku. Would he intervene? Would he be loyal to his prince? My thoughts said he would, he had always been loyal before. Sometimes even when he should not...

"Vegeta, no!" It was one of the Vestal Virgins who had grabbed his arm in order to pull it back. It was not her, no, she was still staring at me, at the verge of crying. It was the one with the much lighter hair. Bulma, I believe she is called.

Vegeta shrugged the woman off roughly. "Now you finally get what you deserve!"

I still felt drained... and I knew it wouldn't be long before I would lose conscious again. My head was spinning, and my eyes were threatening to roll back into the darkness. But I could not allow it.

"Vegeta!" It was Goku's voice. I could recognise his voice out of a million, his voice of trust and betrayal. "Remember your promise!" he spoke. Promise... he would not keep any. How dared he to talk about promises when he was the biggest breaker of them of all! "Remember Vegeta, let this not be your third!"

He fumed, red in anger. Hissing and cursing at the words that Goku had spoken. It made him stop dead in his tracks, loosening his fists, and lowering his energy stadidly. Until he was in control again.

"We want to make a deal!" The prince spoke when he had calmed down. "We want you to come with us to the Atrium Vestae!"

Deal? I was surprised that he even dared to pronounce that word in front of me.

The prince and I had deals before... My memory shot back to our last deal... our very last deal more than two years ago...

- - -

I was a gladiator back then, fighting in the colloseum for my freedom. I was told that I could be free, when I finished off all my opponents. And I did... every last one of them.

I was a fighter, and I could feel no remorse for the things I had to do. It was to kill or being killed. And I wanted to survive.

I did not regret sending souls to Pluto, except for one fighter... The Amazone she was called. It was the last one I killed... The last one the king killed.

The amazone had not fit in the list of my victims. First of all because she did not fight to the dead, she held back, she provoked and defenced. She was not cruel as all the others had been, she hadn't been poisoned by the game she could not refuse to play. And that she sometimes did refuse. She didn't care whether the King approved her killing or not. Thumbs up or thumbs down, it did not matter to her. She judged herself. She was a rebellion, and what the audience loved more than two man fight against eachother, is a fighter ignoring the king. It made her higher than a king... like she just crowned herself as queen and the people accepted...

And then I came along and killed her, though I was sure she wouldn't have killed me... It was nothing personal though, nothing is ever personal when you are a gladiator.

When she was pinned down underneath me, and my javelin touched her neck, I could not smell her fear. I could not smell the prince's fear either. All I could smell was freedom.

Because when I had finished her, the tournament was over... I would be the victor, and I would be able to get out of this mess. And after a short glance at the king who approved, I pinned my javelin down in her...

And I, as only one could hear her last, desperated words.

"No... Veget-a..." Her eyes glazed over. "Stay mine.." After a few choked sounds her soul waved over to the underworld.

And the people cheered.

The king had left for a battle in the east of the romain empire not long after. It was now up to the prince to grand me freedom.

But he didn't. And I had just enough time to escape with Chiaotzu before his soldiers, including Goku, captured me. The prince wanted me dead.

The prince broke his second promise...

- - -

And now when he stood before me again my anger for him came back. I had killed more than 15 people to get free... 15 lives wasted. All because of him.

"We want you to come with us to the Atrium Vestae! To guide a Vestal Virgin in her training."

I glansed at the vestal virgins in front of me... why did they have to learn how to fight?

"When she can fight, you are free to go." He spoke honorable. "Not a small price."

Even though I did not trust the prince, the word 'free' still made my heart jump as it always had. Free, real free, not hide away free.

"Chiaotzu will be free as well..." Goku added, and for a moment our eyes locked. "... As you two deserve. If you're in for it, hold up your right hand." The soldier spoke with no emotion, but his eyes betrayed him. His eyes longed and begged for forgiveness. For the impossible.

I refused to fall into on of their traps again... but I also realized that I didn't have much of a choise. My wounds were not fatal, but when they wouldn't be bandaged soon anything could happen.

And such things can't happen, I owe Chiaotzu too much. He can't be left alone on his own, he would survive no doubt about it, but he's not independent enough. He needs somebody to talk to. Maybe I need him even more than he needs me...

Vegeta was still standing in front of me, the anger in his eyes had vanished, he gave a little nod of approval. The light blue and raven black haired vestal virgins behind him looked both lost in this situation.

And she was still there too.

Her hands were intwined, she was biting down on her bottom lip. And when her eyes met mine, a tear rolled over her cheek. My clenched fist loosened. She closed her eyes and nodded.

I brought up my right hand.

I will do it... for Chiaotzu.

And then she smiled, a smile that told me I had made the right decision. And only when I saw that smile, I could find peace in the darkness that followed.