Dangerous Bond

Chapter 36 : The Last Battle

Kiyashi reeled back from her attacker, the world spinning in her head. She looked down at her arm and saw a tiny trickle of blood seep from the hole made by a needle...

'...If you think whatever that is will kill me, you may find yourself mistaken... Go ahead, see if I care...'

Another needle was embedded deep into her flesh, this time just below her breastbone. The Saiya-jin no Hime's eyes bugged and blood came up into her mouth as the double overdose of the poisen worked together with the stuff already present in her body.

'...Don't be. Geta and I'll get you out of this mess, whatever it is....'

Her knees buckled and Kiyashi fell to the floor, the laughing face of the Harathokin leader consuming her view entirely. She gagged, blood spattering over the pristine white floor. Where was Vegeta? She felt the ship rumble. Ah, taking off...

Almost every Harathokin spilled into the docking bay, the blades used for dismantling ships in their small purple hands.

'...Thank you, friend...'

The first ship blade slammed into the hull of their craft, sparks flying as it glanced off. There was no way they were going to be that lucky every time.

' ...Anything to stop this...'

'Anything?'

'Anything.'

"NEVER!" Kiyashi cried.

Gaining her feet and powering up the golden ki of her Super Saiya-jin level she threw herself at the nearest Harathokin, breaking its ship blade weapon with one well-aimed smack. She lost it completely, her tail flying free of her waist and slamming Harathokin after Harathokin into the ground. The silky apendage wrapped itself around a neck, snapping it cleanly. A barrage of ki blasts put even more of them down, the following rain of punches and kicks wiping them almost completely out. The leader turned to the golden haired super warrior.

"Damn you." He hissed, "You are as bad as the murderer!"

Before Kiyashi had even switched her attention from strangling a lower class officer more pain shot up her spine. She let out a shreik and spun around, her beautifull silky tail sporting seven tubes. The leader was decapitated in seconds. But not without scoring a major blow against his opposition. Kiyashi stumbled, the poisen too much for her to take. A mostly recovered Yamcha hopped out of the ship and lifted her from the ground as he had been ordered to do.

"Gods you're heavy..." He grunted at the princess.

"Sorry..." She said before blacking out.

Bulma sat next to Vegeta, watching the veiwscreen.

"What're you doing?" She inquired as he hit a number of buttons she had yet to figure out the use of.

"Destroying the evidence." He replied simply, checking that they were far enough away.

"You mean killing them all?"

"Bulma, you know I have to. If they stay alive then..."

"I know. It just doesn't seem right..."

Yamcha chose that moment to stagger into the room and lower Kiyashi onto a chair, gaining the attention of both Bulma and Vegeta. The Saiya-jin no Hime twitched and writhed in the chair, her forehead shining with sweat.

"What the Hell..." Vegeta exclaimed when he saw his sister. Bulma had asked Yamcha to make sure Kiyashi was inside after she realised he was almost completely better already, not told him to drag the younger woman in.

Yamcha pointed to the needles that were wedged firmly in her tail. "The poisen I was telling you about was in those. I think she got 9 shots of the stuff..."

"How long?"

He shrugged, "I dunno. The watered down version that was given to y..." He trailed off, "The watered down version takes about a month before any effects show up, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't watered down..."

It finaly clicked in Vegeta's head. He knew why his younger sister had been unwilling to go into that room, why he had found her unconcious on the floor all those nights ago. "She's had it in her for a while..." He muttered, "That's what she was hiding."

But Bulma wasn't listening to him. "The watered down version given to who?" She asked suspicously.

"I already told the person." Yamcha said simply, "But he didn't beleive me."

Bulma felt herself go weak as Kiyashi doubled over in pain, a moan escaping her agonised lips. "No... Kami, please. Tell me you're lying..."

"I can't. Woah!"

A judder rocked the ship, sending Yamcha falling to the floor and Kiyashi out of her chair. Vegeta caught Bulma before she could hit the ground, his strong arms taking her weight easily. When he looked down at her he saw that her face was deathly pale and that she was hanging on to him as if he'd go if she didn't.

"Onna," He said quietly as he lifted her onto her feet, "What's wrong with you?" He hadn't been listening to her conversation with Yamcha, his thoughts completely on his suffering sister.

"G-Geta-san." She whispered, "It wasn't just a headache you got after the fight, was it? It was worse." He opened his mouth to protest but she shook her head to silence his words. "I felt a bit dizzy a little while before you got home. I didn't say anything cause I thought it was just me feeling down after all the crying I did. But it wasn't me, was it?" Her sapphire eyes met his obsidian, their depths pleading with him, "It was you."

He let go of her and scooped Kiyashi off the ground with minor effort. "I don't know what you're talking about, onna." He snapped and left the deck in search of the sick bay.

When he got there Vegeta laid his sister on the single bed, wiping the seat from her forehead with a moist towel. Leaving it there he sat beside the bed and put his head back. The onna was had stopped following him, he could sense her. Did he want her here? And, more importantly, was she right? Had it been more than a headache?

'But why think that?' He wondered, 'I had powerburn from that level. The dizziness and the pain was an after-effect,' He glanced over at his moaning sister, 'Not like her. And anyway, I would have noticed if someone had filled me up with that crap.'

Back on the bridge Bulma was fighting the urge to cry while Yamcha stared at the space dust that had been the Harathokin ship. The judder had been the recoil from the plasma beam weapons on the side of the ship as they fired and now there was nothing left of the little purple creeps. He was damn happy for that, but he feared for Bulma. It was his fault that her life was getting torn apart, if he hadn't made himself known to the Harathokins by hurting her like that they wouldn't have captured him and used his body to inject Vegeta with that stuff.

He shivered, knowing full well the last effects of the poisen before it killed. First what Kiyashi was doing, then a seemingly painless, but also conciousless, stage when parts of the brain were attacked and destroyed. Then the victim woke up again, only to find themselves almost completely crippled... He shuddered again. Yamcha wasn't exactly Vegeta's biggest fan, but the Saiya-jin didn't deserve to suffer like THAT. Especially since seeing him in such a state would hurt Bulma that badly.

"Yamcha?" Bulma's voice called from behind him.

"Yeah ba... Uh, Bulma?"

"What are the chances that Vegeta and Kiyashi'll live?" She had to fight to keep her voice from cracking.

"I dunno." He replied uselessly, "The Harathokins said it was a prototype. They never worked on a cure and, even if they did..." He gestured to the incinerated mess on the veiw screen, not needing to say anything else.

'There has to be a way...' Bulma thought furiously, 'Everything's too perfect for this to happen...'

And then she remembered. The vial in her lab.

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