Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ With A Jagged Edge ❯ Fly Away ( Chapter 4 )

(A/N: To answer a question posed by one of my reviewers; Tayven is 17 years old.)

Tayven turned her face towards the blue haired woman and looked her at with the exact same question that was forming upon the lips of those around her. "Bulma...do you know anything about this...?"

Instead of answering, she spun in a slow circle, her fingers on her chin, deep in thought. What she was contempulating was ludicrous, wasn't it? She was a scientist for Kami's sake! And yet, and yet if she hadn't remembered those old newspaper articals she'd ran across on the 'net during one of her research projects...

"There is something foul about that place." Piccolo said, almost to himself. He stood a little ways apart from them, emotionally as well as physically. Gohan, Bulma and Tayven turned to regard him expectantly, "Didn't you guys feel the...negative...energy in that place?"

Gohan looked down at his shoes, shuffling his feet as his cheeks turned red. "I...wasn't paying attention, I just wanted to have some fun and I dared her to go touch the house and..."

Tayven stood up now that her legs seemed able to hold her. She crossed her arms over her small chest and listened the exchange between the namek and the half-saiyan with no little amount of interest.

Piccolo snapped; "Gohan! How could you not be paying attention!? The enegry from that place was so great it may as well have been made of fire!"

"Piccolo-san, I'm sorry, I..."

"Enough!" Bulma spun around, hands on her hips, her blue eyes looking more than a little frightened, "That house is still standing and as long as it stands whatever is inside is a danger to all of us! I need to get back to Capsule Corp and try to find out more about those...whatever they were...entities..."

They watched Bulma walk back to her bike, pick it up and start it. Amidst of cloud of dust, she took off, heading back towards her house to get started on figuring out how to handle this. Tayven was just about to turn around and start walking the way Bulma had gone when she felt a hand upon her shoulder, stopping her. Turning around, she found herself staring at the lighter blue of the sash about Piccolo's waist. That was where her eyes were level. Backing up a step, in as much to look up at his face as to put some distance between them, she waited.

"Who are you?" He asked her, his voice low, rumbling like thunder, "Where did you come from?"

Tayven narrowed her eyes. She hated being put on the spot like this. "I don't have to answer to you!" She turned and started to walk away, her dark hair flying in the breeeze of her wake. She'd gotten no more that three yards when he was in front of her again. She nearly ran smack into him and stumbled backwards suddenly.

"I asked you a question." He said, his arms folded across his chest, looking down on her, "Answer me."

"Why should I?" She knew she was being a brat, but she didn't care. She'd just been though an ordeal and was in no mood to be polite. All she wanted was a warm shower and bed. In that order. She was too tired to even considering eating. "Are you going to make me?"

"If it comes to that."

"Her name is Tayven," Gohan said, interrupting the altercation, "She's staying at Capsule Corp. I think Vegeta's training her."

"Hmm," Piccolo said, "That would explain the additude..."

"Bite me, Green Bean!"

"But I find it odd," Piccolo said, his eyes flickering, the only sign that he'd heard, and didn't appreciate, Tayven's outburst, "That this just decided to happen when she shows up."

"Hey!" Tayven cried, hands on her hips, "I didn't do anything! I've never seen that stupid house in all my life!"

"I don't think she had anything to do with this," Gohan said, "She seemed just as surprised as I was to find it there."

Suddenly exhausted, she turned and started to walk away. Only, her legs were acting up again. With a sigh she felt her knees buckle and found the ground suddenly closer to her face than she'd remembered it being. She looked up to see Piccolo and Gohan standing over her, looking down at her. She hated feeling so weak and struggled to rise again. She got half-way up, her strength left her and she crumbled once more to the ground.

"Don't try to stand up, Tayven." Piccolo said, kneeling down and placing a hand upon her brow, his palm felt warm and leathery, "Those...creatures...drained a ton of engery from you. You need timet to rest and recover."

"T-then...why isn't he tired?" She asked in a half-whisper, her eyes starting to droop, damn it! Can't sleep now! How pathetic is that!? She struggled with herself but her vision was blurring. She barely heard Piccolo's reply; something about Gohan being to recover faster due to his training and being part saiyan and whatnot. Darkness claimed her as swiftly as throwing a wet blanket over a flickering candle, casting her world into blackness.

~*~*~

She woke up sometime later to someone tugging off all the covers from her body. In the chill of the room Tayven shivered and tried to bury into the mattress. How'd I get here? She thought, confusion like a muddy handprint over her mind. She opened her eyes a crack and noticed she wore the same see-through blue nightshift she'd worn the other night. Laying on her side, her knees up to her chin, she groaned and tried to reach, blindly, for the blankets she knew much be nearby. I probably just kicked them off...

"Get up."

She opened her eyes again and, as they came into focus, saw Vegeta standing at the foot of her bed, holding the bunched up blankets and sheets in one fist, glaring down at her. "You've slept long enough. We have work to do. You have five minutes."

Tayven sat up and watched him leave. Five minutes? Is he nuts?! She jumped up and took a quick, very quick, shower. Upon walking back into the main bedroom she noticed a capsule laying alone on the empty dressertop. Curious, she picked it up and tossed it down, after the initial 'poofing' she saw that it had contained clothing. Training clothing to be exact. Much like what she'd seen Goku wearing, only they were dark blue instead of orange.

Well, She thought as she pulled them on, Probably easier to move than in a tee-shirt and jeans...

He was waiting for her outside with no little amount of impatience. Without a word, her rounded on her and grabbed her roughly, pulling her towards him before taking off into the sky. It all happened so fast she didn't have time to be nervous. She'd flown before, with Goku and a short distance with Gohan up the stairs in that house they'd stumbled across, but the speed at wich Vegeta now flew with her took her breathe away. Before she had time to ask where he was taking her, they'd landed.

Looking around, she saw that they were standing on a stretch of flatland, a small bush here and there but for the most part there was nothing in sight for what seemed like miles. A type of bird cawed and flew past overhead and lazy white puffs of cloud moved at no great rush across the azure morning sky. She thought she could glimpse rock formations in the distance, shadowing the horizon. It was very peaceful, to say the least.

That was, until Vegeta decided that she'd had enough time to gawk at the sencery and began the day's lesson in full.

"Your still not trying hard enough," He said, after knocking her down for the uptenth time that morning, "Your not using all your senses, Tayven..."

"I can't get at you to attack you," She cried, brushing dirt off her chest and wiping her face on her arm, "Your too strong for me..."

"So, your smaller and lighter," He said, "Use what you've got."

"It's too hard!" She cried, panting, "I.."

"What?" He paused, standing slightly above her, "A little difficulty and you want to throw in the towel? Is that it?"

Anger flashed across her features once more and she jumped to her feet, fists clenched, falling back into the stance he'd taught her the other day. "I'm not giving up!"

"And I'm not going to go easy on you." He said, smirking, "Now, come at me again."

It was late afternoon when they'd finally stopped. Her breath coming out fast, Tayven felt her hair sticking to her forehead and the skin beneath the training gi she wore felt hot and damp. She knew without having a mirror to see herself that her face was a mess, grim-covered with a bloody lip. She had bruises forming on her arms and legs and other parts of her body as well.

Vegeta looked none the worse for wear, just a few traces of dirt in his hair and a smudge across his left cheek. He raised a gloved hand and wiped the dirt away, turning to look at her.

"You did better than yesterday," He said, and lifted himself into the air, "I'll be at Capsule Corp when you get back."

"Wait!" She cried, realizing he was about to leave her...Kami knows where...all alone, "You can't just leave me here in the middle of nowhere! How am I suppose to get back?!"

From his new vantage point, he looked down at her, cocked an eyebrow and said, "Learn to fly."

With those words, her teacher left her, flying back the way they had first came. Tayven fumed for a few moments, looking around her desperatly, needing something to rage against. Finding nothing but a sticker plant she stood there, clenching and unclenching her fists by her sides, her face blotchy from temper. Finally, realizing how foolish she probably looked, her anger died down and deflated altogether.

Learn to fly? She thought, How the hell am I soppose to do that?

She sat down, cross-legged on the ground, the sun was hot and beat down upon her unmercifully. Being dark-haired, she felt the warmth more intently as darker colors drew in and captured the heat. She smoothed her hair off her forehead and reached around to lift it from her sticky neck, the soft breeze caressing her flesh and cooling her down somewhat. She toyed with the idea of just getting up and walking, just leaving everything and heading back to the city. She could find a new place to live, start over.

Yeah, and with what money? Her betraying thoughts asked, Or are you ready to start hookin', Tay?

Shuddering at the thought, she sighed and turned her attention to the task at hand.

He said it had to do with ki... She thought, playing with an idea that was slowly forming it's way around her mind, I wonder...

Standing up, Tayven began to do what she'd done ealier, when Vegeta'd first show her how to bring her own ki up to the forefront of her mind and body. She imagined a ball of light, (last time she thought of clay being as she was an artist and raw materials needed to create things came most easy to her mind during visualizations), starting at the center of her chest and spreading outward, to fill her entire body, down her legs and upwards through her arms to her fingertips.

Concentrating, she visualized herself being lifted, carried, yet still within her control.

A sensation like a jet of air wooshed across her body as she felt her feet no longer touching the hardness of the ground beneath them. She focused on keeping herself afloat in the air, feeling the strength of her ki as it braced and held her, circling her body like an invisible bubble of sorts. Smiling, she looked down and saw that she was a few feet off the ground.

Proud, she let her mind wander for a moment, thinking of the look of astonishment on the face of her teacher when she returned to show him she'd learned this trick so fast. However, almost as soon as she became to daydream, she lost control and felt the ki flowing backwards into her center and fell with a cry to back to the ground, smacking her knees against the earth painfully.

Moaning in ire, Tayven stood up and tried again. Several long minutes passed. They could have been hours for all she knew. Hot, sweaty, dirty, her anger had been replaced by the need to complete something and that, in turn, had changed to frustration and finally, when she found that she could not only stay afloat but actually find direction, grudging satifation at her accomplishment. Taking off towards where she'd seen Vegeta fly, she pictured a stocked fridge and Bunny Briefs' homecooking.