Chapter twelve

Raptus Virgini

"Twig, why are you still up?"

Startled Videl tore her gaze away from the starry sky and looked into the eyes of her captain Marius. His voice wasn't demanding. It was soft and kind. Nor was his expression stern as it usually was, but warm though still questioning. Videl smiled shyly, although he couldn't see it through the kerchief she was covering her face with.

"I couldn't sleep."She spoke quietly, as if not to disturb the peace of the night.

The captain sat down beside her in the moist grass. "Are you afraid?"

Videl shook her head. "Fear is not the right word. Just… restless."

"Is it because of the battle tomorrow?"

She looked at Marius as she pondered whether she should tell the truth or not. Marius was waiting patiently for her to respond. His eyes were friendly, reassuring.

She and the captain had grown close in the past few months. Many battles had been fought, many companions were lost to them. There was hardship, there was pain, there was grief and it was always shared. It created some sort of bond, the most special anyone could ever come across. They saw each other cry at the death of a friend, they saw each other laugh over a triumph. They shared everything, from tears to smiles, from food to enemy. They respected each other, accepted each other and they were loyal to each other. They were brothers, although she was not even a man. And she thought of the saying: war destroys everything. How false that assumption was. It did destroy, but it unquestionably united people more than peace ever could.

As she looked at the stars she thought of that. But brotherhood didn't give her so much optimism that she believed everything would be alright in the end. On the contrary.

"It's like something's going to happen tomorrow." She muttered darkly, expressing her disturbing premonition. "It's like everything will go wrong and the plan won't succeed."

Marius looked at her confused. "Have you ever felt this before?"

She shook her head. "No. That's just it. I've always felt calm at the eve of battle. Ready to accept my death, if it must take me. Never have I felt such an unsettling feeling for the day to come. What does it mean?"

"It could mean nothing." Marius assured. "The plan is risky and at this point you must trust other people for it to succeed. Maybe that's it. In every battle, you are in control of your own destiny. But now you are forced to place fate in the hands of others. It gives you a restless, powerless feeling, to know that everything, including your live, hangs and falls with the plan."

I shook my head. "No, that's not it. I trust the others. I believe they will succeed. But there's just something I can't put my finger on. It's in the water I drink, the air I breathe. Even in the eyes of the animals I hunt."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean a dark force. It lingers everywhere. Something's going to happen tomorrow, I can feel it."

The captain watched her with doubtful eyes. They both knew how crazy she sounded, but Videl could not ignore her feelings. All day she watched animals flee for something she could not see. She heard the silence in the wind. She felt the threat in the air. She didn't understand it, but knew – somehow – that there was danger.

The captain rose from the ground. "You should get some sleep, it's going to be a long day tomorrow and you need your rest. And about that dark force…"

He looked at Videl with an unreadable expression. Videl shivered under his eyes.

"…don't tell the men about it. It may be upsetting for some and it's best for them not to know anything of a bad omen or something of that kind. We'll see what happens tomorrow, if anything happens at all."

And with that, he turned around and strode to his tent, distracted and plagued by worry.

Videl woke up from her dream in the middle of the night. The moon was covered in clouds, revealing only faint light that barely lit up the room. Cold sweat on her forehead, Videl pushed her sheets asside and threw her veil on the cold floor. She breathed the winter air to calm down and thought of her dream.

It had happaned the night before she was captured by the Saiyans, the darkest page in her history. The plan was to attack a small division of Saiyan warriors on two fronts. Her own division had split up, one half traveling across the shoreline to attack the Saiyans, the other half staying behind and waiting for the enemy to strike. It was a risky plan as time was of the essence. Attacking them too soon and the other half of the division might not be ready yet, attacking them too late and the Saiyans could have found out about the plan. And the costs were high if they lost. The entire western continent would fall into enemy hands.

Eventually it wasn't the plan that failed, or even the entire attack. It was very successful, until disaster struck. There was a flood. The biggest flood in centuries. The water reached to five miles landinwards, setting everything under water and destroying everything on its path. Videl's division was wiped from the face of the Earth, with only few survivors, including her. Only because of the ability to fly could the Saiyans use disaster to their advantage. They became the victors of that fateful battle, but it was not a victory over their human enemies. After all, the forces of nature had unmistakably triumphed that day.

Videl rose from her bed and walked over to the large window. Her white nightgown was swishing between her legs, almost as if it danced with the wind as she watched the dark night through the glass of the window. She thought about the horrible battle. About the faces of her brothers as they were fighting and eventually losing from the power of the water. She thought of waking up a few hours later, chained in a dark room with two smirking Saiyans in front of her. But she was thinking most of an image that was etched in her memory forever.

It was the sight of Marius, trying to save their companions and lead them to safe ground, until even he could not master the waves of water anymore. He fought heroically but even he had to recognise his superior in the forces of nature. He drowned, a death far less honourable than he deserved.

He was more than a friend, even more than family. He was everything between a friend and family and nothing less than either or them. The truest friend, the closest thing to a brother. It was the most mature, unconditional relationship she had ever had.

And she cried. Not only because of losing him, but also because of the lies she told, the truth she never revealed. The truth, that she wasn't the short, scrawny boy called Twiggy, but the very Princess he had sworn to protect when he took his oath. He deserved the truth, but he would never know.

He would never know.

The very thought made her sick with guilt. She loathed herself. She hated herself. She cried silently in the night.

In the corner of the room, someone was watching. Someone's heart was breaking at the sight of the brokenhearted girl. Someone was fighting himself, wanting to soothe the pain he didn't know or understand, and realising that if he did he would undo everything he's been done in the last weeks to detach himself from the girl he longed for now so badly. He wanted to hear her story, to know why she cried, to kiss her tears away. But with great pain, he remained in the darkness, watching her as his own heart was crying with her.

She was in one of the numerous halls of the castle, absently admiring the different sculptures and not really seeing them as well as she should have.

Her head hurt. Like it could only hurt after emotionally very heavy times. The last night was such an emotionally heavy time. Every sad human emotion had went through her being. Grief, guilt, regret, shame, bitterness, despair. She guessed it wasn't just this night, this dream that had made her burst to tears so easily. It was all the dreams, all the nights. Every emotion had a deeper ground and with every tear she shed she stripped off the layers of hardness until she was nothing more than this desolate wreck, wanting so badly to be soothed but on the other hand to be alone in her misery. Because she realised it was not just misery others caused her, but primarily misery she caused herself. She felt ashamed of herself, and wanted no one else to see her shame.

But she knew he had been there. The Praetorian. Like he was there every night that she was struggling with her feelings. She wondered what he thought of her now, after having seen her in all her heartache. Would he think she was a pathetic child? Depressed and crazy as well?

Something told her that he wouldn't. That he didn't. It was strange, but him being in the darkness of her room, although she could not see him, although she could not hear him, felt… right. More important than seeing or hearing him was that she felt him, she felt his presence. And something in his presence was soothing. Unprejudiced and unquestioning, he let her be. Although she would have liked it to be hold in his strong, warm arms, it was enough and more than she could ask for in this moment of distant attitudes and cold shoulders.

"Hello Ivory Lady." A low voice behind her said. Videl tore her eyes from the sculpture she was watching and turned around. A cold shiver crept through her spine as she recognised the owner of the voice.

Behind a pillar Halden the horse killer appeared, smirking smugly at her. Immediately Videl was in a state of alarm and unconsciously she took a step back. His smirk only widened at her reaction.

"You've been staring at that rock for a very long time." He remarked as he never tore his dark eyes away from her. Videl swallowed while he stepped closer to her.

"But then, it is a beautiful rock. I'm always amazed at what humans can do with such inferior tools. With practically nothing you can make stone humans. And the resemblance is startling. They're one step away from actually moving."

He bared his uneven teeth in a hideous smile. Genuine fear took over Videl's body. He was not more than a foot away from her now. She could smell the sweat and dirt on his skin.

"What's it called, pumpkin?" He asked, mocking.

She opened her mouth but nothing came out of it. She lost her voice at the sight of his hard muscles. He was much stronger than her. She wouldn't even compete. And so much faster. There was no chance of escaping. He knew it too. He was revelling in her fear, a fear that was so evident in her whole being that no one could have missed it.

When she didn't reply he laughed haughtily. "Guess I should see for myself then. Let's see here, ehhh…" He walked over to the sculpture and looked at the small golden strip that was pinned to the socle. "Laocoön and His Sons. Ahh. It must be famous, or it wouldn't been robbed from Earth."

She didn't respond. She thought of ways to escape but her mind was blank. Completely blank. Her lower lip trembled and although she was veiled, at was as if he could still see it. He approached her and to her greatest fear she saw raw lust in his hungry eyes. She couldn't move.

He gently removed the veil from her face. She stood there, frozen as he watched her face and touched it with his fingers.

"So beautiful. So… magnificent." He whispered, almost enchanted. He smelled her neck and her collarbone. His long, deep black hair itched her skin. His smell filled her nostrils in a way she wasn't sure she was going to forget.

"Look at the rock. Look at their faces." He demanded. Trembling she looked at the sculpture and the faces of the man and his two sons. They had expressions of excruciating pain. Of dreadful horror. Of terrible fear.

He brought his mouth to her ear. His fast breathing tickled it. "Have you ever been that afraid, Princess? Because that is nothing compared to what you're about to experience."

He released a guttural growl. Her stomach turned. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to cry. She wanted to fight him off. But nothing happened. As he wrapped his strong arms around her in a suffocating embrace, she stood there. Paralysed. Limp. Thinking this wasn't happening. Praying this wasn't happening. Watching everything as if she was not even in her body. She threw her head back and wanted to scream, but every sound was stuck in her throat. His hands felt her body through the thin fabric of her dress. She felt something tear. This was the end for her. This was it.

It happened so fast she didn't even see it. All of a sudden, his embrace loosened. Halden stopped groping her. His eyes were wide with pain and his voice was caught in his throat. He fell to his knees, holding on to her legs for support, until a large hand grabbed him by his neck. Halden released a scream of pain until he let go of her legs. He collapsed onto the ground, lifeless. Dead.

Videl trembled as she looked at Halden's expression. It was the same as the sculpture's.

She stood there, completely motionless. Everything had happened in such a blur. She thought she was dreaming. She thought and hoped she would wake up soon. The corpse in front of her couldn't be real.

She was going to faint. She felt herself falling.

She hardly noticed that someone lifted her off the ground and wrapped her in strong arms. She looked at her saviour. Gentle eyes met her. Deep, onyx eyes. A smile was reassuring her that everything was going to be alright. A face, so familiar, so friendly. A warm feeling of security washed over her as he carried her through the halls. She didn't know where he was taking her, she didn't care either, as long as she was with him. She was safe now. She smelled his neck. It was lovely. She would remember his scent, fresh and masculine, forever. She looked at his face and sighed. Strong arms wrapped themselves tighter around her. His face, gloriously handsome, was mere inches from hers. She smiled and closed her eyes. It was him. And he saved her, like he would always save her.

She passed out, but before she did she moaned his name. Clearly. Affectionately.

Praetorian