Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Trials Of Techorin ❯ Bulma's Crush and Kathi's Trials of Pain ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: Blah, I don't own DBZ, blah, I wish I did, blah…I have nothing more to say for my disclaimer.

Author's Notes: I never did ask you guys to give me an idea of what kind of familiar I should give everyone…it just never crossed my mind. Oh well, you'll get it in a page long author's notes. And a great round of thanks to Shade Knight…thank you for the description of Canta, I hope my rewrite of your description is up to standards…err…good enough for the readers of course.



Chapter Six: Bulma's crush and Kathi's trials of pain…



"It's hard to breathe, memories overtaking me…"

Screaming even louder, Bulma smacked the stranger again, causing her hand to bruise even more than it already had and her screams to die down into soft whimpers. "You fucking bastard, what the hell is your problem?"

Shaking his head to clear the ringing in his ears, Canta frowned then grabbed her neck and lifted her, none to gently, off of the ground. "Listen to me wench, I was only protecting your back, you had no reason to slap me around like I was some toy."

"Well excuse me for living." Lashing out with her foot, she caught him in his upper thigh, causing him to drop her on her butt with an indignant squeak.

Scowling, he folded his arms over his chest then turned to the other two girls, who were both staring at him incredulously. "What?"

Shaking her head, Kathi shrugged then walked over to Bulma and helped the blue-haired girl to her feet. "I never knew you could be quite that violent."

"Only when provoked." Sniffing, she dusted off her rear then studied the newcomer from the corner of her eyes.

He was dressed in what appeared to be very light armor that had been made out of pitch black leather and silk but had felt much stronger on contact. His dark eyes were cold and distant, very different from the other saiya-jin they had already met. A few strands of his dark hair fell forward on his face, giving him a rakish appearance but doing nothing to distract from his deadly grace and angry scowl that marred his handsome face. He was about six feet tall…maybe taller, and had an aura of supernatural power that surrounded him like a loose cloak. Everything about him screamed that he was better than anyone else and that he wasn't going to take second place in anything.

Noticing that she was staring at him, he smirked, a disturbingly familiar smirk, then shifted imperceptively. "I didn't come here to have you ogle me."

Blushing, she looked away then bit her lip and moved closer to the other girls for protection, even though she doubted the would do much good against him…no matter how crazy they were.

Finally getting over her initial shock and lack of care about the stranger, Kathi pulled the other girls into walking behind her and made her way to the next part of the level, intent to make it through it alive. She stopped, however, when he landed in front of them and glared at them before cracking his knuckles. "Do you have a reason to follow us around or is it just for your health?"

Laughing softly, he decided why it was this girl intrigued the prince so much. "No, I'm following you because you need to live through this level and I doubt you're going to make it on your own."

"We made it through the first level on our own and I was alone for the first half of that level."

"Truly you jest."

"I jest not sir, instead I bite my thumb at you."

Laughing aloud this time, he nodded in appreciation for her use of words and stolen phrases from Shakespearian plays. "You are truly worthy of any saiya-jin if you can poke fun at one without fear."

"Fear is in the eye of the beholder…or is that beauty? Anyway, fear is what you make it out to be and I fear nothing."

"I really doubt that."

"What I fear I have to conquer on my own."

"Yes…conquer your fears and you will be strong enough to defeat anything that is thrown in your path."

"Of course."

"And you?" Looking at Becky, he hid a grin when the third girl growled softly under her breath. "Have you conquered your fears?"

Shrugging, Becky stopped filing her nails and met the tall saiya- jin's eyes directly. "I embrace death."

"Was that your fear?"

"No, my fear was meeting someone just as insane and crazy as myself."

"And?"

"I haven't faced my fear yet so I'm not worried about anything."

"Good." Turning to, the now seething, Bulma, he smiled and watched her eyes flash with jealousy. "You are too easy to read. I now what your fear is."

"I doubt it."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"You fear being ignored and alone for the rest of your life with no one who wants you because of your quick temper and loud mouth."

"YOU BASTARD!" Launching herself at him, she started beating on his chest plate then broke down crying when he merely grunted and nudged her with his power, causing her to fall on her butt again.

"Reading her was too easy." Nodding to the other two, he lifted into the air and prepared to fly away when he felt the level start to shift around them. "Shit!" Falling back to the ground, he grabbed all three girls and started running towards the next doorway, not even making it and getting sucked into a dark void of nothingness with three petrified and screaming passengers on board.

Vegeta looked up in shock, hearing screams of fear and feeling Canta's power level drop drastically. Preparing to shoot towards the area he had felt and heard them in last, he was sucked into the void as well, his remaining teammate left alone on the other side of the doorway.

Kathi woke slowly, feeling like her head was gripped in a powerful vice that didn't want to let go. Groaning softly, she stood up then looked around for her companions before realizing that she was completely alone…well…not completely.

"Welcome child of man who once lived and those that still do."

Looking around for the owner of the sickeningly raspy voice she heard, she couldn't find anyone then took a step forward before coming face to face with one of the most horrific things she'd even seen in her life.

Blood red eyes stared, unblinkingly, at the short girl then shifted downwards as thin lips pulled back from grotesquely formed teeth. Long thin claws clenched and unclenched, causing sinewy muscle to slither beneath fire blackened flesh. The eyes shifted upwards again in expectation of the scream that should have come. They widened in surprise when the girl just stared back at it in silence before shifting on her feet and looking off in another direction. "Man child…you dare not ignore me now."

"I shall do as I wish." Turning to walk away, she found that her feet were trapped by some disgusting tentacle looking vines that kept rubbing her calves with inhuman hunger.

Snorting, the creature moved closer to her, its twisted and gnarled legs carrying it with a lopsided shuffle. Lifting one contorted hand to her face, it forced her to look at it, scoring a shallow cut along her cheek. "I have a riddle for you, if you believe you can figure it out."

Trembling faintly under the creature's touch, she flinched when it followed the curve of her jaw with one razor sharp talon then swallowed the nervous lump that had caught in her throat. "Ask the riddle then."

Grinning horribly in satisfaction, the creature settled back against its calves and snapped its claws together, causing Becky, Canta, and Bulma to appear behind it; trapped in what appeared to be crystals made of spider silk. "For every riddle you can answer one friend will be freed. But, for each that you get wrong, they will lose some of their life to my darling pets. I will cause you pain that you could never imagine."

Her eyes widened in horror when she realized that the webbing was actually millions of thread-thin legs and the edges of `crystals' were the bodies of fat spiders. "Oh god…"

"Do you accept these conditions man child?"

Still staring at her friends…and Canta…she nodded then tore her gaze away from them in an attempt to concentrate on the task at hand. "I am ready for your first riddle."

"I am gold but cannot be touched and cannot be looked upon. My face burns like the deepest pits of hell and blinds those who are not ready to see me in all of my glory."

Thinking back on everything she had learned in her life, she remembered a brief moment with her mother, when the older woman had been alive. "The sun burns…and blinds those that stare at it for too long." Her eyes closed as she spoke, hiding the pain her memories brought back with them.

Hissing quietly under its breath, the creature freed Bulma, allowing the, now conscious, girl to run to her friend's side and wait for the next riddle. "Sunlight melts into blackness, leaving darkness into night."

Eyes snapping open, she glared at the monstrosity before her in anger. "That is not a riddle."

"Yes child of man, that is very much a riddle. Do you know the answer or do you give?"

"I…" Looking up at the two still embraced by the ethereal spiders, she shuddered then bit her lip in thought, trying to come up with the answer for the strange riddle. "Sunlight melts into blackness…space, the sun sinks into space?"

Mouth quirking upwards in a malicious grin, the creature shook its head then snapped its fingers twice, causing one spider on both trapped individuals to lower its body to their skin and start drinking. "No man child, it is plain as your nose on your own face. Day turns to night."

"Shit…" Swearing softly at herself, she didn't notice that the creature had moved until she felt those claws rake through the skin on her upper arm, leaving bloody trails in their wake. "What the hell…why did you do that? You said if I got an answer wrong then…"

"I told you that you would have pain…and I always live up to my promises."

"Oh…"

Paling in fear, Bulma hugged closer to her short friend and tried to ignore the hissing voice that answered everytime the other girl spoke. She was afraid of what would happen if she opened her eyes.

"I sparkle like blue sapphires but I live and breathe. My body is sleek but not made for the air."

She knew this one, from a stupid joke her Uncle Mike had told her about his favorite fish before she left her Aunt's house. "A Jack Dempsey…it swims in the water and has brilliant sapphire colored scales on its side that sparkle when it's in the sunlight."

Hissing with displeasure again, the creature freed Canta, letting the saiya-jin drop to the ground in a heap of useless and paralyzed flesh. "You know things that man should have only begun to understand…but still…I have more for you."

"Bring it on then." Grinning with false enthusiasm, she watched Bulma drag the heavy saiya-jin towards her then settled comfortably against the two before waiting for the next riddle. It wasn't long in coming.

"When is there a life within a life that feeds on the body without killing it?"

"Easy, when you get a cold and the bacteria feed off of you before dying off on their own."

Laughing harshly, the creature shook its head and another spider lowered its body down to Becky's skin. "No."

"But…"

"A disease can kill you…and a sickness…but an unborn child…just newly formed…feeds off of you without killing you."

"That's impossible…how can…"

"I ask the questions or the riddles around here man child, not you."

Barely registering the movement from the corner of her eye, she tried to dodge the next blow but failed, causing her shoulder and all across her upper chest to be raked by those deadly claws. "You…sick monster."

"Oh…is that the best you can come up with man child?"

"No…" Smiling, she grabbed the creature by its tattered shirt and jerked its face close to hers. "You fucked up piece of shit creature, I don't know where the hell you get off asking these stupid riddles but I am now tired of them and you." Pushing the creature back, she smirked and stood up, wiping off her hands on her pants. "I have answered your final question and riddle, now free my friend."

"No." Snapping its fingers quickly, the creature signaled for the rest of the spiders to feed then disappeared in a whirl of dark energy and disturbing laughter; leaving the two conscious girls, and one unconscious saiya-jin, to watch in disbelief and horror as their friend was reduced to nothing but a withered pile of flesh and bones in very few seconds.

The two girls didn't move for a long time, not even when the spiders left and Canta started stirring. They couldn't tear their eyes away from Becky's corpse.