The Safest Place
by Obsidian Blade
"Impossible," a powerfully built man gripped the edge of the table, his knees sagging weakly at this terrible news, "They can't be… It can't possibly…"
The other male, little more than a boy, shifted his slight weight from one booted foot to the other, his dark eyes flitting around the room uncomfortably.
"It's true, Qucambaru," he responded quietly, his voice firm even though his body language was entirely submissive.
"The king seems to be in denial," he continued, wandering gaze finally coming to a stop on the far wall of the darkened chamber, "But the others know… Know that Prince Vegeta was little more than a sacrifice to slow the inevitable. They want to keep it a secret, give us some sort of hope that he'll just leave us alone…"
"I don't want hope," Qucambaru growled, his mahogany tail thrashing, "And I don't see why they think any Saiyajin would be happy to sacrifice their own knowledge for some stupid lie."
Frowning at his friend's instant rejections of what he had heard, the short haired Saiyajin Potano tried not to think about the root of all this: the Icejin Frieza.
"To be honest, not all the Saiyajin people are as bright as you think," he told the other, "Quite a few of them aren't even properly trained as warriors, thanks to the chaos…"
"It doesn't matter!" Qucambaru roared, slamming his thick-fingered hands down onto the tabletop with an almighty crash, "Every Saiyajin has honour and a warrior's pride in him from birth! It's instinct!"
Potano flinched back at his stronger friend's wrath and, for a minute, the only sound was that of Qucambaru's heavy breathing.
"Why's it instinct, daddy?" a young voice enquired from the doorway and Qucambaru's dark head snapped up, her expression of fury fading into one of parental compassion as he caught sight of the uncertain little figure.
Dressed in a hand-me-down shirt that used to belong to her oldest brother, the Saiyajin female was dwarfed by the dark green clothing. Her dark eyes blinked in curiosity out from beneath a jagged fringe of obsidian hair and her tail was coiled anxiously around her waist.
"Celeri, you should be in bed," he father chided firmly, one thick brow raised.
"But you were shouting, daddy," Celeri pointed out with childish innocence.
Qucambaru sighed before shrugging at Potano, who quickly departed through the back door with a knowing look twinkling in his black eyes.
"Well, I've stopped now," he said, starting forwards and easily scooping her up into his arms, "So let's get you back to bed, eh?"
Wrapping her arms around her father's armoured shoulder, Celeri nodded, "I'm tired, daddy."
The halls echoed with the sound of footsteps, the orange light that flooded through the windows splitting the featureless white corridor into bright blazing squares. Two Saiyajin strode purposefully down the middle; one tall and well-built with wide shoulders, a head of wild, spiky hair. He was dressed in armour slightly battered from their recent training session, the wide golden shoulder and hip pads scuffed along the back from where his heavy body had skidded across the floor, and his long, powerful tail was coiled tightly around his waist. The other barely came up to his hip, half-jogging to keep up, and let her oddly white tail swish around freely. Her hair, an unnatural blue-tinted white, jutted out over her forehead in a few disorderly points and fell to mid-back in a waterfall of pale spikes. Like the man, she wore newly beaten armour, only it had even more dents, scrapes and scuffs. With the large shoulder pad extending only over her right arm and hip pads non-existent she barely resembled the other Saiyajin.
"Dad," the ten year old inquired, her expression serious as she hop-skipped comically to keep up, "Do I have to take that yucky gunk tonight? Only it's horrible and-"
She was cut off as her father shook his head wearily.
Pouting, she demanded, "Why not? It's making my hair and my eyes and my tail go funny!"
"Celeri," he sighed, "I told you that it's necessary. And it is, subject closed."
"But no one else's hair is all horrible and whi-"
"Subject closed, Celeri."
They continued to walk on in silence, turning seemingly random corners in the maze that made up the barracks with practiced ease. Celeri's frustration at her father's evasion of the subject that plagued her showed clearly through her narrowed navy eyes, clenched fists and whipping tail but she kept any further comments or objections to herself, knowing that Qucambaru had no intention of telling her anything. She and her father got on well, but whenever they reached this particular subject…
"Qucambaru!" a voice cried out from ahead, just as a Saiyajin Celeri recognised as Potano burst onto the scene.
Slight but quick footed, the first class's sable hair erupted from his head in a burst of narrow spikes that were particularly short for a Saiyajin and his tail was long enough to actually trail on the ground. He slid to a stop beside the older Saiyajin, grabbing his friend's shoulder and drawing Qucambaru into an empty side-room before Celeri could so much as blink.
Drawing the door closed in one fluid action, Potano didn't pause to catch his breath before ploughing on with his new slough of information.
"Heard the third-classes talking… laughing at a man… Bardock… said Frieza is coming…" he gasped, using the wall to hold himself up after sprinting the length of the third-class and then most of the second-class barracks.
Qucambaru didn't ask his younger friend exactly why he was snooping about in the lower class scum's barracks - Potano seemed to be wherever there was information without fail.
"How likely is it that he's telling the truth?" the Saiyajin asked gruffly.
"I don't know," Potano admitted, "but… we've been expecting this… for a while, hmm? I doubt… that it's worth hanging around… to find out. You'll loose your chance."
Qucambaru nodded resignedly, his dark eyes sad as he glanced at the closed door, past which his only daughter was no doubt trying to snoop. The thought of sending her to that planet, that frozen hellhole, was enough to turn his stomach. Just sending her away would be bad enough, he had managed to get this far without loosing her, but her survival had to take priority. Her survival… not his fear of impending loneliness.
"Then this is it," was all he said before opening the door.
Celeri, who had been pressing her ear against the surface in a useless attempt to eavesdrop, nearly fell flat on her face as the door opened with a jerk and staggered into her father's leg. Looking up guiltily, ready for whatever scolding she was about to receive, she found herself bewildered into freezing on the spot as she caught sight of the mix of emotions in the Saiyajin's eyes. He looked so…sad.
"Dad, what is it?" she asked worriedly.
"You have to come with me, and quickly," Potano replied for the larger Saiyajin, having finally caught his breath.
Before she could open her mouth to say anything she found her father's arms wrapped around her in a bear hug. Lifted clear off the ground by the Saiyajin as he found himself gripped by violent emotion, it was all she could do to just hold on as a feeling off cold dread settled over her at the sight of tears gathering unabashedly in the corners of Qucambaru's eyes.
"You'll be alright, Celeri," he choked out as he set her back down, "Just go with Potano and… be strong."
Her face folded into panicked confusion at his words and her eyes flicked from Potano to Qucambaru.
"What? Why? Why do I have to be strong? Why aren't you coming with me? Alright about what!"
"It's complicated," Potano responded quietly, "But you really have to hurry, we don't know what sort of time frame we're talking about here…"
"But… no! Why?" she cried once again, glad that the corridors were deserted as her vision blurred with hot tears.
Qucambaru just shook his head as his friend took his daughter by the arm and gave a slight tug to indicate that they had to move. The oldest Saiyajin of the three of them let his shoulders sag as he leant against the wall, refusing to even look at Celeri as she was dragged, kicking and screaming, towards a designated space in the first-class sector.
As her departing cries of "no no noooooo! What's happeniiiing!" finally faded from the corridor, Qucambaru let the first of many tears start to trickle down his grief-twisted face.
Potano grunted, using both hands now to keep his grip on his charge as she struggled like a wildcat, hissing, spitting, yowling and lashing out. He winced as a flailing foot glanced off the codpiece he was glad he was wearing and tried to ignore the stares of a few passing middle-class Saiyajin. Internally he begged that nobody question him, the last thing he needed to do was to have to come up with an excuse on the spot while still keeping a hold on his friend's panicking offspring.
"Celeri," he said, keeping his voice as gentle and steady as he could under the circumstances, "Please calm down, I assure you that nothing bad is going to happen to you."
Her cheeks flushed with exertion and embarrassment as so many people saw her crying and helpless, she simply spat on his boot and continued to struggle. Potano's eyes darkened - Saiyajin were not know for their patience - before he gave into temptation and knocked the girl's feet out from under her. Yelping at this sudden change in action, Celeri could only squeak in outrage as she found herself caught up under the older Saiyajin's arm and carted along like a sack of potatoes. She could lash out all she liked; Potano had positioned her so that her arms and legs simply weren't long enough to hit him.
Saiyajin fury built up in her as she was carried out of the barracks and into the busy streets but her resistance was doing nothing but tiring her out. Crying was giving her a headache, something not helped by the whirl of confusion that was currently dominating her thoughts, so she burst into another tirade as Potano suddenly leapt into a run that made her poor mind spin.
He dashed through the crowd, his natural agility showing through as the other Saiyajin saw him coming and stepped back to let him past. Most of them were lower and middle class people, none of whom were going to block an upper-class's path as he moved forwards with such ferocity. What they assumed he was doing with a struggling youngster Potano didn't now, but frankly he didn't much care. There was but one goal now, and he was grateful when the crowds finally dispersed into first-class residential streets.
The finely crafted buildings were little more than a blur to the tired Saiyajin child as she fought to keep up her tantrum. She was vaguely aware that Potano was slowing down, but nothing could have prepared her for the jolt as he stopped suddenly to open a door. Her body ached from the jerking halt and for a second she stopped resisting just long enough for Potano to get her through his front door without any damage to the frame.
'Like it'll matter if Bardock is right,' he mused bitterly, carrying his burden down the stairs and into the basement.
Unlike the rest of the house, which was elegant yet effective, the room down here was dull and grey. No light filtered down here and for a second he groped for the string before the ancient old light bulb came on with a ping. The basement was entirely empty apart from an odd sphere that sat in one corner, right next to a circular metal panel set into the wall. Striding over to it, Potano glanced back once to make sure he had closed and locked the door before setting Celeri back on her feet.
"Hai!"
In a second she had shoved off the ground to lash out at him with a powerful kick that missed by mere centimetres. A flurry of punches followed, all of which Potano blocked on the back of his forearms before catching both her fists in his slender hands.
"What's going on!" she yelled in his face, trying desperately to free her fists, "Why am I here? Why's dad upset? Why!"
"You have to go away," came the hushed reply from Potano, "There's a creature… Frieza… who's coming here. If you stay you'll no doubt die."
Instantly she went limp in his grip so he let her go, watching as the young creature stood with confusion still etched into her face, the emotion now accompanied by out and out fear.
"What about you, and dad?" she questioned, her voice suddenly wavering as one glance back confirmed that there was only one space pod in the corner.
"It's you who Qucambaru is worried about, Celeri," he responded ambiguously, dodging her question before continuing, "As I said, you'll no doubt die. I don't remember saying anything about the rest of us."
"But me, why me? I don't get it…"
"I don't expect you to, but you'd best get into the pod," he encouraged, "There are supplies in there too, for when you first wake up."
Despite her hesitance, Celeri knew that she had no choice. There was a line over which resistance became stupid, and she knew she had just reached it. Giving Potano one last worried look, to which he smiled weakly, she walked slowly over to the pod and opened the door with its red glass window. Her father's oldest friend helped her with the straps, latching them over her shoulders, between her short legs and around her waist. His battle-hardened heart twisted at the sight of her face through the glass as the door was closed, but he move to the circle in the wall and withdrew a simple device from a crevice in the otherwise featureless surface. At the press of a button the circle split in two, sliding into the space within the wall to reveal a long, metal plated tunnel.
Potano sighed, for a second hesitating as he eyed the second button, before disregarding his reservations and pressing it with his thumb before further contemplation could slow him down. There was a flare of heat to his left, and before he could even think another word the pod shot through the hole, carrying Qucambaru's child away from the planet and towards a place where she would be relatively safe.
'I hope you're right, Qucambaru,' Potano thought to himself, staring up through the tunnel at the sky beyond, 'I hope there really is a blind spot when you get too close.'
Potano thought to himself, staring up through the tunnel at the sky beyond,Up in the sky, fairly unaffected by the G-forces pressing down on her, Celeri risked a glance at the pile of clothing she could see in her peripheral vision. Confusion reigned as she caught sight of some sort of heavy coat. Reaching out she pushed it away, only to come across a pair of gloves, boots, torso-protecting armour in a similar style as her own and a bodysuit, all of them in pale colours not normal for a Saiyajin. But what scared her most was the size… together the individual components made up a uniform for a fully grown Saiyajin woman. Her eyes widening with realisation, Celeri was about to scream and blast her way out of the pod when her mind suddenly slowed, numbed by the sedatives that were coming into action as her pod punctured the atmosphere. Before she could so much as focus her ki into a proper blast, Celeri was out cold.
For that she should have been grateful, as mere minutes later the planet she called home burst into chunks of super-heated rock. Thousands of Saiyajin dead… Planet Vegeta eradicated… And a scared little girl unaware to the fact that she was now more alone than she could ever have imagined.
Mweener, this idea just got lodged into my head and I can't get rid of it. 'Twill be entirely OC, 'm fraid, so if you don't like that you probably won't want to read it (obvious point there, but whatever). I shall be posting pics of the characters on deviantart (where I'm known as Sevielle) soon, so keep an eye out for them it you wanna see what theCeleri and folkare meant to look like. I hope you liked it, but if you didn't that's okay. 'Tis your opinion. Care to leave a comment, though? ((cheesy grin))