Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Child of Light ❯ Ritual ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Disclaimer: I promise not to make any money off of this. Besides, who would buy it?

Gohan struggled against the vampires as best as he could. With or without his Saiyan strength, Piccolo and his father had trained him well, and he was a formidable opponent, but against so many, he really stood no chance. He was dragged to the center of the room and his feet were shackled to a staked chain in the middle of the room. His loose, long- sleeved shirt had been removed, so he stood naked to the waist, his hands cuffed behind his back and his feet hobbled and staked.

Delis walked to the edge of the circle that represented the greatest possible extent of Gohan’s reach. The sorcerer grinned evilly at his captive. “I have something to show you, pet.” He walked back to the side wall, pushed a large switch, and looked up. Gohan followed his gaze and started. The switch had activated the sky panel, which moved steadily out of the way, revealing open sky and a full moon. He hadn’t ever seen it before without dangerous consequences. For a brief moment, Gohan wished that his tail would grow back, but it had been gone long enough that it never would, and anyway, innocent people would get hurt if he transformed into that ape monster in the middle of a city. So Gohan just looked at it for a moment, feeling its power in his mind, tasting it, wondering why his captor had wanted him to see it.

Delis looked himself for a while. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Seemingly peaceful, yet full of untapped energy. How could one like myself stand such power being beyond his reach, coming into sight every month just to taunt him?” Then he looked at the young man tied before him. “But what if he had within his power one who was genetically programmed to touch that power, one with great power of his own?”

Delis took out the statue from her little case and sat her on the small table in front of Gohan. The power of the full moon running through his mind produced a signature that the Vessel reacted to. He watched in apprehension as her eyes opened, blinked and her frame relaxed from its ancient perpetual stance. She stretched her wings and her body, extending all six of her limbs as a sleeper who has just awakened and yawned. She was actually rather pretty.

But as she finished her stretch and stepped off her little podium to the surface of the table, she looked at Gohan and an expression of evil anticipation crossed her face. There was no question as to who’s side she was on. Her face changed, developing fangs, heavy brow ridges and a heavy hunger akin to lust blatant in its expression.

Gohan took up as much of a defensive posture as he could manage, bending his knees and crouching slightly, watching the Vessel intently for her first move. She seemed amused by this, and a sound like tinkling crystal erupted from her, her version of a sardonic chuckle. Her voice was soft, dulcet, and dripping with irony as she said, “The little boy thinks he can fight me with his hands, feet, and power all hobbled! How droll! Shall we see how long he lasts?” And she spread her wings, launching at the captive Saiyan.

Gohan dodged pass after pass, fighting for his life as never before. He couldn’t hope to win, but he couldn’t give up either. He had come close to doing so when fighting Cell, and he wasn’t going to make that mistake again. If he was going to die, then he was going down fighting!

All the Vessel needed was one scratch, but the boy really was a good fighter. He had amazing speed for a human (which was all he was at the moment)and he was successfully avoiding all of her attacks. But in the end, his speed couldn’t be enough. She collapsed her wings in a dive and landed on the boy’s shoulder, quickly sinking her teeth into the soft flesh of his neck. Gohan screamed in pain, not the pain of the bite itself, but the pain of being forcefully drained, a deep, mind-numbing pain that traveled throughout his body. It reached into his core for even the deepest of his reserves, pulling the energy out through the bite. For an eternal moment, the pain wracked his body as the Vessel drained him with incredible speed. But then the pain shifted to the purely physical as his body no longer had even the energy needed to keep his heart pumping. It faltered, then arrested, sending pain throughout his chest and all down his left side until he passed into unconsciousness and could no longer feel it.
x x x

As Piccolo came through the portal, landing on a concrete floor, he felt Gohan’s energy signature. He saw him on the floor, without a shirt on, his hands and feet both immobilized. His energy was at full power, but somehow, flickering, and his life force had ebbed to below sustainable levels. and worst of all, though he was still breathing, barely, Piccolo couldn’t hear his heart!
x x x

Buffy burst in on the scene, having taken out seven vamps already who had been guarding the Ritual. She saw three things at once; a kid about her own age in chains and collapsed on the floor of the gazebo, a seven-foot, green-skinned demon who had just popped through a glowing ball of light, and a human dressed in black robes holding a knife. Then she saw the golden thing sucking on the kid’s neck and the fifty or so vamps that came through the opposite door.
x x x

The vampires thought that the green one was a demon, and therefore on their side, but they all knew that the girl was the Slayer. They all attacked her at once, not wanting to leave this to chance. Buffy, a stake in each hand, waded into the group, dusting them left and right as they got in eachother’s way.
x x x

Piccolo watched the girl work for a moment and realized that the things she was fighting weren’t people. They were Vampires! How did you go about killing a vampire? The part of him that was Kami quickly supplied the answers. Sunlight, huh? Well he could do that, especially since the girl was obviously trying to help Gohan. The Namek gathered his energy and closed his eyes, preparing one of the attacks he had learned from Goku
x x x

As Buffy watched around the fighting, the green demon looked her way and shouted for her to duck and close her eyes. For some reason, at the very next opportunity, she obeyed his directive, not quite knowing why, but knowing it was the right thing to do. She heard him shout “Solar Flare!” and felt his energy, not exactly small to begin with, spike off the charts. She saw a light, even through her hands and eye lids, that was so brilliant she was nearly blinded. She heard the vamps around her scream an then felt the air move as Every One of them was turned to dust. She waited for the light to subside, then opened her eyes and stood up.

The green thing (she wasn’t certain any more that he was a demon) was kneeling next to the boy and was about to try and take the Vessel off his neck, but it proved unnecessary as she flew up off the boy herself. Buffy saw that she had the same form as the statue in the drawing in Giles’s book, but her face had transformed just like any other vampire. She laughed at them and said, “You’re too late fools! He’s drained and his heart has stopped. The silly human isn’t even going to need his knife to sever the link; he’s going to die right here of a heart attack!”
x x x

Piccolo’s eyes widened in fear for his friend. This little thing had taken all of Gohan’s energy? He reacted quickly, passing enough of his own energy to Gohan for him to survive on through his own hand. It wasn’t working!
x x x

Buffy saw the green guy’s hand glowing and felt a bit of evergy passing from him into the kid. She ignored the Vessel for the moment, checking his pulse. It wasn’t working. She said to him, “Can you shock his heart?”

He looked up at her. “What?”

“If you jolt his heart you can jump-start it. In hospitals they use electricity.”
x x x

Piccolo thought quickly. Yeah, he could do that. He moved his hand to Gohan’s chest and sent a short, powerful burst directly into the cardiac muscle. It caused him to jump, but piccolo still couldn’t hear a heart beat. He did it again. Still nothing. He made the burst a little more powerful the third time and it finally worked. The Saiyan coughed and sputtered as his body came to life again. Piccolo was relieved, but he didn’t waste any time on it. He turned to the girl, hoping she knew how to fix this. “What can we do to get Gohan’s energy back to him?”

She said, “We have to break the Vessel,” pointing to the little golden bitch, “but the book didn’t say how to do that.”

Piccolo grinned angrilly. “Is that all?” He stood up and trained his senses on the vampire. She had all of Gohan’s power, byt it still had Gohan’s signature. That meant she couldn’t use it. “No problem.”

Buffy looked at the green man as he stood up and noticed that what was human of his anatomy was a fighter’s build, and he had energy like what had been stolen from the boy. So she stayed out of it, keeping her finger on Gohan’s pulse. She wondered just how this other guy had gotten here, and for that matter, how had Gohan?

Piccolo wasn’t messing around. He knew she couldn’t approach his speed, so he flashed and got behind her, and while she was still trying to figure out where he had gone, he grabbed her by the legs and smashed her into the floor. She exploded with a shriek and a cloud of energy expanded up from her. The cloud drifted toward Gohan and sedately settled onto his body, melting back into it. His eyes flew open with a gasp as his power was returned to him.

Buffy stood back as Gohan got to his feet. He looked around and saw the sorcerer behind her heading for the exit. He broke the chains on his feet and hands with no effort and flashed after him, landing in front of him before he could get out the door. He said, “Where do you think You’re going?”

Delis stepped back only to find Piccolo right behind him. He started quaking in fear. “Please! Don’t hurt me!”

Gohan sneered, “Like you didn’t hurt me?” he spat. “I ought to take you apart right here!” Gohan’s energy exploded into golden fire, bleaching his hair to blonde and his eyes to green, transforming him into a Super Saiyan. “What do you think, Piccolo?”

Buffy stared at the change in the boy. *Wow!* she thought. *I wonder what kind of power he has.*

Piccolo pretended to concider the question. He knew that Gohan really wanted to scare this guy, so he played it up, putting the deepest scowl on his face. “I don’t see any reason why not.”

Buffy thought, *Hold it. They’re going to slaughter this guy!* She understood their feelings, but this wasn’t right. He was helpless. She moved forward to intercept their actions, but while the sorcerer was facing the other direction, Gohan winked at her with one green eye. She had to stifle a giggle. They were just haming it up. Well this guy deserved it if anyone did.

Piccolo continued. “Of course, if he were to make certain that this could never happen again, I might concider letting him live. Maybe.”

Gohan acted like he thought that was a bad idea and grabbed he man by his collar.

Buffy said, “Come on, little man. Give over all your books, notebooks, and anything else you might need to do this again. I can’t stop this guy from turning you into hamburger. He’s a Lot stronger than I am.”

Delis was blubbering now. He would have done anything to prevent a horribly gruesome death at the hands of his former victim. He got everything together while the three warriors talked. Buffy told the Z fighters about her world, and Slaying, and all that had led her to this place in time to help, and Piccolo told her and Gohan how he had gotten there, leaving out the part about the boys holding the portal open. Gohan told the other two all that had happened to him.

Buffy said, “How did you two get this kind of power?” She thought she might like to increase her own abilities if it was just a matter of training. They talked about it for a while, of their natural abilities and the training they had each had and the battles they had fought against Frieza and Cell. It was about that time that Delis finished collecting all of his equipment and brought it into the room. Buffy took all the spellbooks and notes out of the pile and Piccolo torched the rest with a small blast of energy. She said “I’ll have Giles look these things over, If they’re too dangerous we’ll destroy them.”

Piccolo and Gohan nodded, then they all turned toward Delis, uniform scowls on their faces. “Get lost, pip squeek!” said Buffy. “Before I decide to forget that little rule about the Slayer not killing humans.”

Delis blanched and took off, his robe flapping in the wind of his passage. The three warriors shared a good laugh as he left. But they were out of time. Piccolo said, “We have to get back before the portal closes. It was good to meet you, Buffy. You fight well.” He turned back to the portal, and as hewas about to step through, he turned his head back to face her, a grin on his face. “For a Human.”

Buffy giggled at the Namek’s disappearing back. Gohan chuckled and followed his former teacher, turning back to wave and say goodbye as he walked through.

After they left the portal closed down, leaving the room dark and silent. Buffy took her load of books and headed back up to the surface. She walked out of the park , her mind running at full speed. She blanched to think of facing enemies like Frieza and the androids and Cell, glad beyond measure that she would never have to. Something told her that she wouldn’t have stood a chance.
x x x