I hate electrical problems.... charging

alright, i think ive gotten a little farther on it. I retested the voltage at idle and this time its cranking out a solid 15 volts. after doing some more poking around i found that i am getting 12.5 volts to the fuses that are straight from the battery, but only 10.5 to the fuse that is controlled by the ignition switch. i did a little bit more poking and found that the starter relay only got 10.5 volts, i tried charging the battery, but it was charged in less than five minutes. so, i came to the conclusion that something is causing me to only get 10.5 volts, and it just appears to have a dead battery, now, how am i only getting 10.5 volts? could it be that i disconnected the gauge cluster or woldnt that affect it?