Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Little Slave Girl ❯ Tricks and Taunts ( Chapter 25 )

(AN: Sorry, I have to say this. Please, please, please go read my friend's fan-ficton! She goes by the name Ryven Sorane on here and you can find out more about her character Ryven if you do! Not to mention her writing makes most fan-fic writer's look like kindergarten drivel.

She's one of the best authors I have ever met and I don't mind occasionally plugging her efforts because I think her stories are worth reading (especially if you like Piccolo!) and...for kami's sake...review!! *panting* Okay, *steps off her soapbox* I'm done now. Please, make yourselves comfortable and enjoy!

~Ami)

"There's nothing to be now," Dende spoke up with authority, addressing the group, "Go home, all of you, I'll keep Rowyn here and watch over her. Perhaps...perhaps I can bring her out of it..."

Slowly, they drifted from the room, knowing that Dende's word was law here, and prepared to have Goku teleport them all to the ground. Ryven felt torn, she wanted to leave with Piccolo and others but she didn't want to go without Rowyn. At first, when she'd met her, she'd found the girl to be slightly amusing, then annoying. Now, she felt more than a tinge of protectiveness over her. Such as one might feel towards a very small sister.

Rowyn thrashed back and forth on the bed, crying out and clawing at the air. "Foooood..." She growled in a voice that wasn't her own, "Can smell it...taaaaaste it...sooooon....soooo much to taaaake...."

Panting, Rowyn fell back and nearly slammed her head against the headboard. Piccolo turned to Ryven, who just stared, wide-eyed, as Rowyn's face continued to contort in pain. "Go with them, Ryven."

"But, Papa...I..."

"Now!" Piccolo could feel Rowyn's strength growing, like a ball of yarn being wrapped with more and more yarn as it grew and grew.

Starting a bit, but recognizing the tone, Ryven knew that there were be no quarreling. She slipped past him and felt Snowblind's nose at her side.

"Come on," She said absently to the wolf, "We have to go."

Piccolo turned back to the small elf child still breathing hard on the bed. He could hear the sounds of Goku talking to the others, telling them how to link up so that he could mass-teleport them all safely to the ground. Yarrah started to broke an argument over being told what to do, but there was a loud slapping sound and some whimpering and he knew that Vegeta had finally had enough.

"I don't understand what's happened to you, little one," Piccolo sighed, "I'm sorry I have to do this."

Forming bonds of durable leather from the air, the namek approached the girl, who was watching him with wary eyes. Eyes that did not belong to her. He reached for her wrist, but she was faster. She jerked away and rolled over to the other side of the bed, tucking her feet under her as she crouched low on her haunches. Growling, Piccolo blinked out of sight and reapeared behind her. Before she could do anything he tackled her about the waist and forced her back down.

"Let go of me!" She cried, and Piccolo realized with a start that he was hearing Rowyn's own voice! "What are you doing?!"

"Rowyn?" Piccolo asked, uncertain, ropes still held in one hand above her head, "Are you...?"

"I...I'm sorry!" Rowyn cried, tears in her eyes, "Please don't tie me up, Piccolo-san! Please! I promise to be good! Please!"

She sniffled and Piccolo hesitated a moment longer. It was all the time she needed. Reacting swiftly, the small girl pulled her knees up fast and kicked out with both feet, catching him in the chest and sending him flying into the wall opposite the bed. She stood up on the bed, floating a little ways above it and seemed to crackle and burn with an inner power. A power that Piccolo knew she normally did not possess.

"We are not amused by your attempts to harness us," She spoke in a multitude of voices, her hands at her sides, "We will not stay longer amid this ill treatment."

His first instinct was to lash out violently, but he knew that no matter how far she may be from herself, Rowyn still needed her outer shell, her body, to be kept fairly in tact. That doesn't mean I can't knock her out, he thought grimly as he got to his feet. But, if I have to choice her over the rest of the world...

He felt Kami wince inside his head and choice to ignore it. Moving with the speed of thought, Piccolo was in front of her, floating to match her height and aimed a powerful punch to the side of her head, hoping to knock her off balance long enough to at least get her hands secure. Rowyn fell from her elevated level and Piccolo jumped on top of her, grabbing her wrists and holding them together with one strong green hand.

Her eyes clouded with pain, blood already drying on her lip, Rowyn glared up at him. Then her eyes welled up with tears and she began to whimper. Piccolo ignored her and continued to tie her up, fasting her bonds securely, yet giving her just enough room to be fairly comfortable, to the bed's posts.

"Why are you doing this to me, Piccolo-san?" She asked in a little girl's voice, "Wasn't I a good girl? I tried to be a good girl..."

"I'm not falling for your tricks, Slythwasp!" Piccolo growled, standing back and folding his arms over his chest now that she was tied in place, "You are not Rowyn!"

"We are please with your intellegence." Rowyn said, her voice once more becoming many, "We have felt your ki, Namek, have tasted tiny portions of it." He watched as Rowyn licked the blood from her mouth, "We antisipate draining you."

"You may anticipate all you want." Piccolo said, not moving, "Tell your friends that they better be prepared to fight if they want me!"

A low chuckle erupted from Rowyn's throat. "A fight? Of what use would that be? We shall sup from you as you stand!"

"Piccolo?" Dende appeared in the doorway, gasping at the look he saw in Rowyn's eyes, "Is everything...?"

"Oooh!" Rowyn gasped, delight in her tone, "We grow hungry....another namek...powerful...you will taste good too, little green one!"

Piccolo's fists balled at his sides, his antannae quivering beneath his turban, but Dende laid a hand on his arm. "Let's go. She...I mean the slythwaspes...are only trying to make you angry..."

"Yes!" Rowyn cried, bouncing a little in her bonds, "They always taste so much richer when they are in a heated emotional state!"

"Piccolo..."

Piccolo turned to leave, following the younger namekian to the door.

"She could have died you know," Rowyn stated as if observing the weather, "You weren't there to protect her. She could have been killed on that ship. Is that how much you love your daughter?"

"Shut up!" Piccolo growled, but did not turn around. In Dende's eyes he could see her smirking face.

"I suppose it won't really matter anyway," She said, cruelly, enjoying herself, or at the slythwasps were, "After we drain her energy and kill her!"

With a sudden cry Piccolo launched himself at Rowyn, clawed hand gripping her about the throat, squeezing the bones under his grip as he seethed above her, wanting so badly to crush her windpipe and end her life. "Shut up!" He snarled, "If you don't wish to die."

"Piccolo! No!" Dende tugged at his gi, he could feel him there, but he was feeling weaker, strange, vertigo seized him and loosened his grip around Rowyn's slender neck. Too late, he realized what was happening. He could hear laughter, choked but laughter none-the-less, below him. "They were goading you on!"

Dende placed his hands upon Piccolo's shoulders, meaning to try and pull him away, but instead an odd sensation coursed through him. After a beat, he realized that it was his natural healing power working to contridict the weakness and dizziness caused by a slythwasp feeding. Growng stronger, Piccolo snatched his hand from Rowyn's throat and backed away, his breathing coming slower now as he calmed down.

"Thanks, Dende," He nodded at the shorter namek and brushed past him, his white cape billowing out behind him as he went, "I need to be alone."

Dende didn't say anything, he merely turned to look at the shell of Rowyn that their new enemy was now using at it's unofficial headquartors. He approached her slowly, but with purpose, knowing that he had to at leat try to help her, try to force the slythwasps to leave her. She realized what he was doing when he laid one hand upon her brow, the other over her heart and struggled to move away from him.

"No!" She cried, "You will not force us to leave our host!"

"Quiet!" Dende snapped, feeling the power forming within, "Leave her!"

"No!" Rowyn's head jerked to the side as the sythwasp minds inside of her fought to stay in control, "We will eat you alive, boy!"

Dende ignored the taunts and continued, his power slowly forcing the slythwasp minds further and further away, battling off their attempts at feeding from him, untill only Rowyn was left gazing up at him with confused, fear-striken dark eyes.

"D-Dende?" She began, her mouth felt too dry and her throat hurt, "What's happening to me? Why are there all these voices in my head...?"

Dende didn't want to frighten the child. "Shh." He said instead, gaining his feet, "Go to sleep. I'll explain everything later, okay?"

"Okay..." Exhausted, the elf slipped into the blackness of sleep. Dende could only hope it was a sleep not hampered by nightmares of darkness...