Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Beneath the Surface ❯ Too Late? ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9: Too Late?

She lay on her tiny, sparsely decorated bed staring at the ceiling after spending hours trying to complete her homework. Math was the most difficult subject for her. She had to put a lot more effort into it than any other class, and still she was scraping by with a B- average, which was ruining her nearly perfect GPA. Her head hurt, her brain was tired, and she was drifting off into a dreamless sleep when her mother called out to her.

"Tenkei, sweetie, can you run to the store for me right quick?" Tenkei opened her eyes abruptly, and turned her body in the direction of her alarm clock, trying to focus in on the time. Seven-thirty, she sighed to herself. She had drifted off for about 45 minutes. What could she possibly need right this minute?

"What do you want me to get Mama?" Tenkei answered reluctantly, knowing that she really had no choice.

"I have a headache and I can't find any aspirin, could you run out and get some for me," Jibo, Tenkei's mother asked.

"You mean we don't have any aspirin or Tylenol in the bathroom," Tenkei sighed, as she pulled herself up and began to slip on her shoes.

"I've looked everywhere honey, I think you took the last of it last night."

Tenkei wrinkled her eyebrow. She didn't remember taking any medication the night before, she knew she had had one of her nightmares but she didn't recall taking anything for it. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember very much at all, except the details of the pain she experienced in her nightmare, and that her back hurt when she awoke this morning in her mother's bed. She couldn't really remember how she even got to her mother room.

Tenkei slipped on a large, long red windbreaker that fit easily over her white tee shirt and tan shorts and headed out of her bedroom. A quick to the market was really everything but quick. Tenkei and her mother resided on the out skirts of Area Bridge, and the walk to the market was a good half hour. She quickly stopped in the bathroom and grabbed a small white item, dropping it in her jacket pocket, then continued on to the living room. When she entered her living room, she couldn't help but be reminded of the dream she had been plagued with the night before. It still scared her, and remembering it almost made her apprehensive about leaving her mother alone. What if something were to happen while she was gone?

"Oh honey your hair is still wet," Jibo said in a motherly tone, as she positioned herself in front of her daughter. "You might catch a chill out there." Tenkei bent her head down and let her damp, bright auburn hair flow over to the floor in its long length. She had washed it a few hours ago, despite the fact that she had stood under the shower and wet it the night before. It was a strange hue indeed, especially against her dark skin. Since it was wet, it began to curl up some, but Jibo had no trouble twisting it up and pinning it into a bun on top of her daughter's head like she had done so many times before.

A lot of things about Tenkei didn't match really. She was a beautiful girl yes, but in such a strange way. She had relatively dark skin, yet eyes as blue as the sky on a clear day, and people that were from the same heritage didn't generally have light colored eyes. Light colored eyes were a recessive gene yet it seemed very dominant in Tenkei's make-up. She was also much taller than her mother, and lighter in terms of skin color, plus she really looked nothing like her, so everyone assumed that Tenkei took after her father, whoever he was. In other words, Tenkei was mixed, which seemed common enough nowadays. But she had come out so exotic looking that it made it more noticeable what she was, and even today, some people did not accept it. Nevertheless, Tenkei was what she was, and she ran into hostile attitudes very rarely. When she did meet up with someone that looked down on her or her mother for what she was, she hardly let it bother her. What was done was done, and that's what they get for living in a small town. Small town, small minds is what was said…

After Jibo pinned up her daughter's hair, Tenkei headed for the front door. "Be sure to lock the door securely behind me Mama," Tenkei said as she left. She didn't want to take any chances on her mother being in danger while she was gone.

"Yes ma'am," Jibo replied playfully. "Oh yeah, could you also pick up some milk, we are out of that and you will need some in the morning." Jibo handed her daughter 20 zeni as she was leaving. Once Tenkei closed the front door, she stayed and made sure she heard all the locks turning before she continued on her 30 minute journey to the market. It was a shame they couldn't afford a vehicle. It wasn't necessarily the cost of the car, the new capsule line of cars were decently priced, but the cost of fueling it as well. Jibo did plan on purchasing a new car soon, but it was going to be difficult since her meager paycheck had to pay the rent, the bills, and feed her small family of two.

The trip to the market was uneventful. The sun had long since bid the day farewell as the sky was constantly darkening and the stars were appearing in patches across the evening sky. Tenkei was glad she took her windbreaker to keep her arms warm, a slight wind was blowing, chilling her bare legs. The moon was also showing off its beauty as it began to appear over the horizon to take the sun's place in the heavens for the night. It was times like these that made Tenkei wish she had a walk man or a mini disc player to alleviate the boredom.

The trip to the market wasn't what was really bothering Tenkei. It was the trip back, for by the time Tenkei left the store, the night would be in full swing, darkness would be the dominant feature on her journey back to her home. Even at the age of 15, Tenkei was still very much afraid of the dark. She was terrified of what she couldn't see, and her plaguing nightmares did not help the situation in any way. She could mostly handle the darkness in her home so long as she hadn't had a nightmare in a while. She knew just about every shadow, and what was in every corner so there it wasn't much of a problem unless she had recently had a bad dream. Outdoors was a much different story. Tenkei could never trust the shadows of the night, she never did make it her business to become familiar with them either. Things were not what they appeared to be in the darkness, and this realization was enough to terrify the teen. She dreaded the return trip.

Once Tenkei had completed her purchases at the market, she was confronted with an indigo sky and a big, bright moon, what she had been fearing, pure night. The first half of the trip back, Tenkei wasn't really frightened, she was traveling through a rather nice neighborhood, and this made her feel relatively safe. But half way between the store and her home, an old factory was located. Tenkei had no trouble passing through it during the day, or even the early evening, so long as a little light was left. But in the depths of the night, the situation changed. The moon cast a large illuminating chunk of light onto the factory grounds, creating large patches of light here and there, enough to calm a quivering soul. But, the factory had a few towers that caught the light, and in turn cast gigantic, menacing shadows, which was enough to make a grown man shiver a little before he proceeded.

Tenkei finally reached the entrance gates to the palace of groping shadows. She stood a while, staring off into the land of fear, trying in vain to decipher whether anything was in there, waiting for her. She noticed that for the first half of the trip or so through the factory property, there was a fair amount of light to guide her. But the last third or so of the journey was in complete darkness. She could see the light of the exit, but everything around it was nearly pitch black. Tenkei gulped, then took a deep breath. Just walk ahead, don't look at the shadows, stay in the light, you'll be ok, Tenkei assured herself. Clutching the brown paper bag of milk and pain medication, Tenkei proceeded across the factory property.

The young girl started out at a slow pace, her heart pounding, her ears ringing, her body trembling. Once she was in the light that the moon was graciously casting, her body began to relax a little, but her pace quickened in the process. She wanted out, and fast. In her faster pace, she still tried to conceal her presence by attempting to move as noiselessly as possible, but the sloshing of the milk, and the crinkling noises the paper bag created made Tenkei's efforts futile. Even the crunching of the dirt beneath her shoes seemed to magnify in sound.

All of these noises made Tenkei feel very conspicuous now. She knew she was sticking out like a sore thumb in the midst of old rusted buildings that she was so different from. She broke her promise to look straight ahead and began darting her eyes back and forth, across the shadows ahead, knowing she didn't want to see anything waiting for her there, not knowing what she would do if she did see something out of the ordinary. Tenkei scanned her worried eyes down the left side of the factory grounds, but seeing nothing, though it was dark and would be nearly impossible to see anything strange if she had wanted to. A scratching noise rose to her ears from the right, sending a bolt of nervous energy down her rigid spine. The frightened girl involuntarily looked to the right, in the direction of the foreign sound. But she saw nothing, only darkness.

Tenkei continued on forward, into the shadows that awaited her at the dark end of the factory grounds. Her heart was racing, it was pounding so loud she was sure anyone located nearby could actually hear it. She fought the urge to try and focus her eyes on the abyss as she entered, instead trying to keep her eyes on her destination, the exit. Beyond the gates about 500 feet ahead her, she could see the moonlight encouraging her to enter the shadows, only to be rewarded with the protection of the moonlight once she exited the dreadful factory property.

The sound of footsteps behind her stopped Tenkei dead in her tracks. She stood stark still, not breathing, not moving, in the midst of a shadow. She dared not turn around, but her ears where perked up, catching every little echo that whispered by. She could still hear the footsteps behind her, she concentrated to decipher whether the steps were approaching her or moving away. But she never had the time to tell either way, Tenkei lost her nerve and took off at a blinding speed towards the exit of the factory grounds. She didn't realize how fast she was running, but she didn't care, she just wanted out, away from the shadows, away from the darkness, and most definitely, way from whatever was behind her. Maybe it will go away once I get outside, Tenkei thought to herself as she ran for her life.

The jug of milk in the bag Tenkei was carrying was shaking violently, bouncing up and down, threatening to bounce right out of the bag, but Tenkei kept her arms folded firmly around it, trying to control it as she ran, but to no avail. She did not slow down to alleviate the shaking though, she kept running at break neck speed, too frightened to slow down. The entrance was so close, so close…something white blurred by Tenkei, smacking her in the forehead then bouncing off somewhere behind her. Tenkei stopped abruptly, dropping the bag and bending over in pain, holding the spot on her forehead where the foreign object struck her. It had come so fast she hadn't had time to duck, so the impact stung her a little, and stunned her a lot. What was it?

Once Tenkei gathered her bearings a few seconds later, she began to recognize the sound of the faint echo left behind when the object that struck her hit the ground and bounced off. It sounded dangerously like a medicine bottle filled with pills. Tenkei's heart skipped a beat when the realization consumed her. She frantically felt around in the paper bag hoping desperately that her fingers would find the bottle of aspirin she bought for her mother. But her fingers failed her. Tenkei ripped the jug of milk out of the bag and peered inside. Empty.

Tenkei kicked at the paper bag angrily, tearing a hole in it, but she didn't care. What was she supposed to do about her mother's medicine? Jibo would be very upset if Tenkei returned without the aspirin, even if Tenkei explained what happened. But Tenkei knew her mother wouldn't send her out again, not at this hour. Still, Tenkei hated to disappoint her mother, it was the worst feeling in the world, so she knew she couldn't return without the medicine. Besides, her mother did have a headache, and it would turn into a migraine if she didn't take anything for it. Tenkei knew all about migraines, she had inherited them from her mother, and they were no fun at all. Tenkei couldn't bear to put her mother through that. So she had two choices: one, look for the lost bottle; or two, go back to the market and buy a new bottle. Either way, she would have to turn around, and face the owner of the footsteps, but the latter way she would have to go all the way back through the factory grounds to reach the store, then come back through again. Tenkei didn't have the gall to return and go through all this again, so she picked the first choice. It took all the strength Tenkei had to turn around. She was shaking ferociously, one could hear her teeth chattering from fear. Nothing was there. Tenkei was a little surprised, but even more relieved. Maybe she had imagined the footsteps. Tenkei began scanning the ground in front her, then further out, looking for the bottle of pills. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was sure she would be able to pick out the white amongst the black. But the longer she stood there, the more frightened she became. She wanted nothing more than to leave right then and there, but knew she had an obligation to fulfill. She knew deep down that she hadn't imagined those footsteps and whatever it was that had made them might be lurking about, waiting to jump on her. What was she to do then?

Tenkei caught a glimpse of a bit of white about 100 feet ahead. She stared hard, trying to focus in on it and saw that it resembled the shape of the medicine bottle. Tenkei then turned back around to pick up the milk and set it back inside the torn bag. She balled the bag up tightly to keep the tear from growing bigger, then she quickly turned around to make sure nothing had taken the place of the emptiness while she had her back turned. Again, nothing was there, so Tenkei quickly walked the 100 feet in front of her to retrieve the aspirin.

Once she had the aspirin and secured it into the torn paper bag to accompany the milk, Tenkei's fears returned. She knew something had been following her, or at least walked across the factory grounds behind her earlier. She knew it was still there, some where, waiting. Tenkei backed up frantically, too afraid to turn her back one the grounds, that would be the perfect opportunity for whatever was in there to grab her, or attack. She kept looking from side to side, spinning around to make sure it hadn't snuck around to block the exit, and spinning back again to make sure it hadn't come back out from the shadows. Tenkei was so frightened, her lungs began to tighten up on her. The exit was so near, she didn't know why she hadn't broken into a quick run, but she just couldn't turn her back on the factory just yet, she needed the safety of the moonlight. But it was getting increasingly harder for Tenkei to breathe, she felt like she was hyperventilating, There was a stick in Tenkei's path but she didn't see it as she was backing up. She awkwardly stepped on it and fell backwards. She was up a few seconds later and ran the last 100 feet out of the factory, breathing heavily.

Once Tenkei was out in the open, and out of the seemingly haunted factory, she sank tiredly to her knees. She was still have some difficulty breathing, and she started coughing violently, so she dropped the bag of goods, unzipped her jacket pocket and reached into it for her inhaler to help her out some. Tenkei had been diagnosed with asthma one year ago when she had an attack after a nightmare. This perturbed the doctors. They told her mother that most asthma cases developed in young children and a lot grew out of it by the time they reached adulthood, instead of growing into it like Tenkei had. Once she calmed down, Tenkei slowly got to her feet, picked up the bag, and resumed the rest of her journey home, without glancing back at the factory. She just didn't have the nerve.

Tenkei was only about 200 feet away from the factory when she felt like she was being watched. She felt totally exposed, as if there was no place to hide if she did want to hide from it. She kept walking, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that it was watching, waiting, whatever it was. Tenkei fought the urge to look behind her, slightly glancing but then bringing her eyes quickly back around. After a minute or so, the feeling wouldn't go away, and the suspense was killing her. The feeling will probably go away if I just have a look to make sure nothing is there. Tenkei turned around to have a look in the direction of the factory, expecting to see nothing as she had so many times before. She was right, nothing was there….or was there? Tenkei stopped breathing. She made out a shape in the shadows of the exit to the factory, a shape that definitely wasn't there. It had a human form, but it was just a shadow, melting in with the other shadows…right? No, it was more than that. It appeared to be wearing a trench coat, with its hands held firmly behind its back. It didn't have a hat on, so she could make out from the shadow that it had short hair, so probably a man. He stood so still, she almost thought it was just a statue she had run by without noticing, but no, she knew she hadn't missed it.

He just stood there, watching. Tenkei was scared and confused. What was he watching? Why didn't he move? Maybe he wasn't gonna hurt her, just watch her. Or maybe he wanted something, maybe he was friendly and not an enemy. Who was to know? Tenkei stood for a few minutes, as still as the man in the factory, staring him down as he was her. Then Tenkei dropped her bag of goods, all the contents spilling out in front of her. A second shadow appeared behind the first one. It too appeared to be decked out in a trench coat, its legs spread shoulder length apart, its hands clasped firmly behind its back. But this shadow did have a hat on, so she couldn't tell whether it was male or female. At any rate, Tenkei was suddenly out numbered two to one.

The first thought that ran through Tenkei's mind was to run. They were probably faster than her, but she had a good 250 foot lead, she could run pretty far, maybe even find a place to hide before they caught up. She knew that if they were hostile, running and being caught was a lot better than standing there and letting them just approach her. If they weren't hostile, then they wouldn't follow her and she would be safe. So Tenkei decided to run.

She turned around and took off, leaving the milk and aspirin behind. If she made it home safely, she would just go to the neighbor and ask him if he had any, she knew it would be weird but she wasn't about to compromise her escape by being bogged down with milk and medicine. Tenkei only made it about 50 feet before something hit her in the nose and sent her flying back about 100 feet in the air. Tenkei lost sense of where she was, but noticed when she began to fall, her stomach caught in her throat like she was on a roller coaster ride. She landed on her back with a sickening thud, pain overtaking her like the darkness she saw when she realized she was looking at the sky. What the hell had just happened?

Tenkei sat up, and felt of her nose. It had begun to bleed, and it stung very badly. Tears were already spilling over her eyes and running down her cheeks. But her fear had her adrenaline pumping in overdrive, so the pain she felt quickly dissipated. She looked ahead of her and saw that one of the people that was in the factory was about 100 feet ahead of her. How the hell did he get there, she asked herself. Wait, where's the other guy? No sooner had she thought it before she heard someone running at her from behind. Tenkei quickly rose to her feet and turn to be bombarded with flying fists and kicks. Stunningly, Tenkei blocked quite a few of them. She had no idea where the strength or the speed was coming from, but she also knew that now was not the time to question it.

Tenkei may have been fast, but the speed was all she had. Because she wasn't a trained fighter, and knew nothing about it really, she didn't hit back, or attempt to. Plus, lack of training caused her to tire out and her assailant started some ferocious blows. Tenkei's opponent landed a kick that sent her flying off yet again, skidding across the ground once she landed, scratching up her bare legs in the process. Tenkei writhed in pain, the blow had been almost more than she could bear.

"She's a lot tougher than we anticipated," the tired voice a woman said. "She blocked nearly everything I had. I almost had to use an energy beam on her. If she was in any shape, I might have had to. Now I see what Lord Iriyoku was talking about, imagine what she'll be like once we train her."

"Yeah I know what you mean," a male voice answered. "I saw you having a tough time with her. Either she is stronger than we thought, or you have been slacking off," he said menacingly.

"What," the woman replied evenly. "Why don't you have a go at her then, see how much better you can do, asshole."

"Fine," he answered confidently, as he started making his way toward Tenkei as she was recovering from the blows.

Tenkei had caught snippets of the dialogue between her attackers. Lord Iriyoku, who was that? And what did they mean about her being trained? Who were they? Tenkei noticed that one was making his way toward her. She didn't want to go through getting hit again, so she got up and attempted to run away again, hoping that he wouldn't magically appear in front of her like he had before. As she took off, she felt the hood of her jacket yanked back. Amazingly, the force Tenkei had when she took off caused the hood of her jacket to rip off instead of stopping her in her tracks. This surprised the male assailant a little, but he just teleported in front of her again. "Going somewhere sweetheart?" he asked in a dark, deep voice.

Since Tenkei was still running, something inside her wouldn't let her stop. Some dormant gene, some dormant instinct, began to take over. It was a feeling she had never experienced before, but it felt totally natural. She decided to plow right through the man standing in her path, she only wanted to get home. She still had no will to fight, but she would do whatever it took to protect herself. She also realized that she couldn't just go home, and lead the attackers to her house. That would put her mother in danger, so she would have take care of them first. Tenkei was then surprised that these thoughts were running through her mind so smoothly. But they were, and she knew what she had to do.

Tenkei knew that if she just ran at the man standing in front of her, he would either move, or make an attempt to hit her or kick her off in the opposite direction like he had before. So Tenkei just decide she would block whatever he did, and make an attempt herself, to land a blow. The attacker was surprised that she didn't stop when she saw him in front of her, instead she actually sped up. What in the world is she doing, he thought to himself. He faltered at her sudden burst of confidence, and she took this opportunity to throw her first punch. She hit him square in the jaw and this time he flew off into the distance.

Tenkei could hear snickering behind her, as the woman that had attacked her earlier burst into a fit of laughter at her friend. He, on the other hand, found the situation far from funny. He stopped himself from flying off in mid air, still a bit stunned at the force Tenkei was able to hit him with. He stood there, floating above the two women, and much to Tenkei's surprise. Oh my god, he can fly, she thought fearfully. What kind of people were they?

Tenkei's heart sank when she realized the hopelessness of this situation. If he could fly, he must have superhuman strength, something she was pretty sure she couldn't compete with. But she was not about to just give up. She would just wait for him to come back down. And that he did, full force, almost to fast for Tenkei to see. He was obviously upset, and embarrassed in front of his partner, and he was going to make Tenkei pay. Tenkei hardly had time to blink before she felt the blow in her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her, and knocking her body back several feet into a near by abandoned house located outside the factory grounds. She burst straight though the rotten wood and nearly through the whole house. The last wall was a little more sturdy and it stopped her momentum.

Now, Tenkei was a wreck. Her hair had come undone from its bun and was flowing everywhere, it was nearly as long as she was tall. Plus it was still damp, and now it was curling up, sticking to her legs and her clothes. Her back was in agony, her abdomen felt like it was just going to fall out. Her jacket was torn and she had various cuts on her arms and her back from flying through the house. And now, she had a headache. Tenkei tried to open her eyes, but there was a hole in the roof and the moonlight was shining right through it and onto her face, blinding her slightly. She feebly raised her hand to feel of her nose, it was now throbbing un-controllably and she felt a mass of blood following from it. She hadn't noticed that it was still bleeding until now. She was very thankful the man hadn't decided to hit her in the face again, she was sure her nose would have been crushed. She wasn't sure it wasn't already crushed, since she couldn't see it.

Tenkei raised her broken up body to its upright posture. She could hardly stand, her legs felt weak, but it was wearing off, some of her strength was returning from no where really. Strange. Tenkei balled up the cuff of her windbreaker and pressed it to her nose to block the flow of blood she was tasting on her lips. She looked down and saw her white shirt splattered with drops she hadn't known were dropping until now. She wiped her other hand across her chin to find it too was caked in the red goo. Disgusted, Tenkei used her other sleeve to clean her face off as best she could without being able to see. Once she was finished, Tenkei didn't know what to do next. Should she go outside and face them, or wait for them to come looking for her in the house? She decided to take it outside, there wasn't much room to work with inside.

When Tenkei emerged from the old house, it seemed the man and the woman were totally surprised. The man had expected for the blow to knock her out. "What, is she made of fucking steel?" he asked, flabbergasted at her endurance.

"She's a saiyajin, what do you expect?" the woman answered. "The lord said something like this might happen, so don't act so surprised."

"Well yeah, but she's a female," the male answered. "Iriyoku said the boy would probably be the most trouble. She's proving him wrong. I put everything I had into that hit."

"Well we haven't even gotten to him yet," the woman replied. "She might only be giving us a taste of what we are in for. But that is what the reinforcements are for. Now lets end this so we can collect the others." The man nodded to his partner, and they both charged towards the girl. Tenkei got back into a defensive stance, just preparing to block blows. She really didn't know what to do. That fighting instinct that had awoken earlier seemed to go back to sleep when she got knocked into the house, leaving her without a plan.

The two attackers hit Tenkei full force, punches and kicks, acrobatic moves was all she saw. Tenkei was just backing up, using her speed to block what she could, knowing she wasn't going to last too much longer since she was getting tired. Everyone once in a while, a hit landed, but Tenkei held her ground. The missed blocks were frequently growing though, and soon pain was all Tenkei knew as her two assailants began to rip her apart. She felt a kick to the ribs, and punch on the chin, a knee to her thigh, then she stopped recognizing which points of her body were getting hit. Tenkei wondered if she would ever see her mother again. She wondered if she would even see the next day, they way they were going at her, she was afraid they were trying to kill her instead of take her away to "train," whatever that meant.

Finally, Tenkei knew she could block no more, so she tried fighting back, she wasn't going down without at least trying to defend herself in the end. She used what strength she had left to swing out, in no direction in particular. She landed a hit on someone's cheek, temporarily lowering her enemies to one. The fighters had been careless and hadn't expected Tenkei to fight back, that is why it was so easy for her to get a hit in. She saw that she had hit the guy again, so she was left with the girl. The woman lunged at her, seemingly more upset than usual, and Tenkei held the palm of her hand up at the last minute, causing the woman to ram her nose into it. The woman was stunned and instinctively grabbed her nose, bringing her defenses down. Tenkei used this opportunity to grab the woman by her hair and bash her face against her knee, which she did with ease. It seemed when Tenkei thought she was drained, a small boost of confidence was all she needed to get a little energy back.

Meanwhile, the male attacker had quickly recovered from the surprised hit, but he was fuming. He seemed to lose some control over himself, and he screamed in rage. Tenkei was taken aback, but then in turn, returned his screaming with her own, but her screams were filled with fear. The man showed his face to her, only for her to see he had no face! Just like the men in her dream the knight before, shoving her helpless body into the hole. His head was just white, almost plastic like, with a few ridges here and there, but virtually no facial features, except a small slit for a mouth for him to scream through. His voice was changing too, it was no longer human. He sounded like a beast, a bear or something wild, and dangerous.

The woman Tenkei had just taken out also began to transform. She didn't seem to be able to help it, but she began to look and sound like her partner. Tenkei was ready to faint, this just couldn't be happening. It was them, it was them in her dream last night, it was them here and now. As much as Tenkei hoped that this was just a nightmare, she knew it was every bit real. The male, after he finished his wailing, changed back to his human form, then over took the stunned Tenkei. He kicked her with all his might, as he had before, and she flew off into the distance, as she had done before. Once she hit the ground, Tenkei slid across the earth like a rag doll, on her belly, scraping up her hands as she tried to stop herself. Once she finally did stop, she noticed that she was in a rut, and was even more surprised when she turned and discovered that she had made it.

Tenkei was out of breath, bleeding badly from some of the cuts she acquired earlier, and her body feeling like nothing more than a sack of throbbing bones. This time, she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to get up if he kept coming at her. She looked up and saw the two beasts floating high above her, both back in their human shapes.

"What are you?" Tenkei managed to sputter, knowing that it might be the last thing she got to say as she tried desperately to sit up.

"All you need to know young one," the man answered from the heavens, "is that your life is about to change, for the better." He then began to form an energy beam in the palm of his outstretched hand. At first it was just a flicker of light, then it began to grow into a huge ball of power.

"What are you doing?" the woman asked as she watched her partner prepare to attack. "The lord said to bring her back alive you know…"

"I'm not going to kill her," the man snapped back. "Just put her out so we can get the fuck out of here. After this, we need to release the reinforcements on the next one, and forget about going through this again."

"Well you better make sure she stay alive," the woman said.

Tenkei couldn't make any sense out of what they were saying, or any sense of what was going on for that matter. All she could really focus on was the glowing ball of light in front of her. How did he do that, she thought, placing a finger in the middle of her cheek, then running it down her face, something she always did when she was in deep thought. She was to the point of delirium, when she noticed the glowing ball was growing even bigger, and fast. Not until the last second did Tenkei realize the ball was growing because it was coming after her. She didn't even get a chance to scream…