Aranean: A race of spider-like creatures that live in swarms.

Felidean: A race of slender humanoids with slight feline characteristics.

The Hardest Thing

Chapter 1

It started as a low rumble from somewhere below. Futatsu stirred from her meditation and focused on the din. At first, she could not make out the sound; but, as it grew in volume, she knew it to be the sound of shouting. There was some sort of fight happening in the lower levels. She dismissed it and tried to return to her meditation; however, a deafening explosion threw her against a wall of her cell. Ears ringing, she pulled herself up and looked around. The light fizzled thrice before fading away completely leaving her momentarily stranded in the black. She counted to twenty before the auxiliary lights flickered on to reveal the extent of the damage.

The door to her cell was lacking the familiar sheen of its energy barrier. Careful, lest her hypothesis was wrong, Futatsu reached up and touched the place where the barrier had once been. Nothing! The other two prisoners on her level had already discovered the same thing and some were even going so far as to step out. They stared at each other in shocked silence as the realization fully sank in. "We free?" the male Aranean clicked questioningly through his mandibles.

"We are…" the female Felidean confirmed.

The floor shook again and the shouts below turned into screams. Futatsu knew that if they did not leave that they too would soon be screaming. "Hurry," she told them, "now is our chance."

"We have nowhere to go!"

"There are escape pods on every level." Futatsu explained.

"For soldier. Not us." The Aranean clattered despondently.

"We'll soon change that." Futatsu paused at the hallway entrance. The lights pulsed a crimson red in silent alarm. She listened and could hear running, but it was moving away from their position. "This way," she ordered, leading the group further.

"Do you even know where the escape pods are?" The Felidean asked.

"Please be quiet." Futatsu whispered back, "We don't want to call attention to ourselves." Behind her, a door whisked open and out stepped a pair of Felidean soldiers, separating the three escapees. The female Felidean screamed, her shrill voice echoing down the hall.

"Fool!" Futatsu snarled and quickly dispatched of one of the soldiers as the Aranean ripped into the other. Now they could hear the shouts and running of more guards on the way. "Go. Run!"

"I stay. I Fight!" The Aranean clicked, placing himself between the other two and the oncoming assault.

"We stick together, four-legs, let's go."

"Without swarm. I nothing." His mandibles snapped resolve, "You go, now." With no time to argue, Futatsu grabbed the Felidean and ran.

"We can't just leave him!"

"We can," Futatsu shoved her forwards, "we must."

They reached another turn and Futatsu paused again to listen. Another two guards were nearly upon them. She motioned for the Felidean to stay back and waited. The first guard did not stand a chance. He crumpled to the floor before the second could finish firing off a Ki blast. She deflected it and returned with one of her own which grazed his ear. He leapt back and hissed as his eyes began to glow. "I'll take pleasure in killing you, Arkida!"

There was no time for a retort, or even to react. A beam of energy shot from behind her and struck the guard. It pierced his armor and left a gaping wound in his chest. Futatsu looked over her shoulder to her companion and saw the other soldier's weapon in her hands. "I had the setting too high," she said sheepishly.

"You did well," Futatsu replied patiently and motioned for her to follow.

They reached the escape pod bay in silence and Futatsu could not believe their good luck. Not only had they faced very little opposition, but the bay was completely deserted. Perhaps the guards had been called away to the fight? Futatsu wasn't going to over analyze it now, not when they were this close to escaping. She locked the door, knowing that it would only hold off the guards for so long and turned to the control panel. "We are out pretty far…"

"That soldier called you Arkida."

"Yes, he did," Futatsu replied, typing in a few commands. "I can program your pod to take you wherever you need."

The female Felidian's voice became strained, "Empress Una was murdered by someone named Arkida."

Futatsu didn't like where this was going. "A falsehood," she replied, typing in another command. "I will send you to Cymic Two, you can call for sanctuary…"

"It was you," the female Felidian was beginning to hyperventilate. "You killed her."

Futatsu turned to see the guard's weapon trained on her and raised her hands. "Please calm down."

"You killed her!" Futatsu dove away from the console, narrowly avoiding the weapon's deadly blast. The console exploded in a shower of sparks and flames.

"Mindless child!" Futatsu cried, "have you any idea what you have done?" The female fired off another shot but Futatsu had been ready this time around. She dodged to the right before tackling the Felidian to the ground and ripping the weapon from her hand. She hissed and struggled against Futatsu's grasp. "Luckily for you I have already entered your co-ordinates."

"Let me go!"

"Certainly," Futatsu complied and shoved the female into the waiting pod. "Good journey!" She exclaimed as the door melted into place and punched the launch button, "and good riddance." The launch hatch closed down and she watched from the window as the pod shot into space.

There was a pounding at the door and Futatsu quickly slipped into the next available pod, "and luckily for me, these pods have holo-consoles." She entered in a few basic commands and the last thing she saw before she was launched into space were several guards bursting through the bay doors. Then, the stasis gas took her.

Futatsu was pulled awake by the sound of a low, incessant beeping. She tapped on her view screen, searching for the reason of the alarm. The pod's energy was dangerously low. "What? How have long I been in stasis?" She punched through the console's various commands, looking for a solution. If the pod's energy ran out, she would be left to drift through space until she died. In her despair, she found nothing and resorted to the only option she had left.

Still, he wondered whether or not if it was now safe to wish the moon back into existence. He raised his head, looking up at the stars in contemplation. How many more Saiyans could there be in the universe? If one were to take Vegeta's claims to heart there were only the two, (and a half), and all were without their tails. It was a thought, but one that could not be realized for at least another month.

The glimmer of a star caught Piccolo's attention. It was a new one, he noted, and decidedly brighter than the ones around it. He watched it for a moment longer before returning to his mediation. A few minutes passed before the realization struck him and he looked up again. "That's no star!" He shouted as the flaming object soared overhead and crashed several miles away.

The object was easy enough for Piccolo to track down. It had collided into one of the many plateaus and had ricocheted into the ground, creating a noticeable crater on the southernmost part of the area, near the beach. The metallic thing looked to be halfway buried in the rubble; and from, what he could see, Piccolo imagined it to be oblong in shape with long groves running along its length. Detecting no apparent hostile energies, he landed for a closer look.

The metal was surprisingly cool to the touch and Piccolo was able to pull it out of the earth with ease. He set the object on the ground and discovered that his assumption on its shape had been nearly correct. While the 'top' end had been curved, the 'bottom' ended in a point, like an almond. Piccolo felt a growing sense of concern. He placed his hand on its surface and concentrated. There was a very faint Ki signature deep within. The object was no mere piece of space junk. Its design was far too precise for that, it was something else entirely. It was a pod!

"First it was the Saiyans, and now what?" Piccolo growled and glared accusingly at the seed-shaped pod. He had half a mind to just leave it be and wait to see what came out; however, the Ki he had felt inside was beginning to fade. If the creature in the pod didn't get out soon, it was possible that it may never do so. His thoughts drifted to the young Son Gohan and knew that the young boy would have chosen to save the one inside despite the risk involved. Piccolo sighed, realizing with disdain what he had already resolved to do: he was going to do the 'right' thing, and open the pod.

He quickly discovered a problem with his plan to free the one inside. He could find no apparent door or window. Piccolo considered just blasting it open but there was a chance that he could harm, or even kill the pod's sole passenger. Not one to be so easily discouraged, Piccolo carefully flipped the pod over to have a look at the other side and saw, (a little to his embarrassment for not having noticed it before), an orb-like metal object jutting out of its middle. It had to be the pod's access point. "You'd better not make me regret this," he warned although he doubted that the one inside could hear him and placed his hand on the orb.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. The orb began to glow a bright red as it sank into the cored the pod. He watched as the edges of the resulting hole looked to melt away and created a suitable exit. Piccolo smirked, knowing of a certain blue haired woman who would kill to cannibalize such technology. The lone Namek took one look at the person inside and reeled back in horror, "No way!"

The alien's resemblance to a Namek was uncanny, but it was the differences that had shocked him. The most prevalent of these was the alien's body which was similar to that of a human female. She sat motionless to an uncomfortable looking chair with her hair, (another major difference to that of a real Namek), cascading down like water across her thread-bare clothing. Piccolo tilted her chin upwards to get a better look at her face. She had the same ears, the same antennae and patches as any real Namek but her brow was not as prominent and her skin tone looked to be a softer green than his own; but, the paleness of her skin could easily be attributed to her weakening Ki.

Piccolo's attention turned to her hands which were wrapped in several strands of hair-thin metal. His eyes followed the length of the strands to both sides of the pod's interior where the panels had been pulled—no, ripped—away. His only conclusion was that the threads now wrapped about her hands had once been a part of the pod's circuitry. He grabbed the strands still wrapped about her hands and felt a sudden surge run down his arm. Piccolo let out a sharp curse and pulled his hand away. The strands, or whatever they really were, had tried to zap away his own Ki.

"No wonder you're so weak," he muttered to the unconscious pseudo-Namek. Touching the strands was now out of the questions, but there were other ways that Piccolo could sever them. Two quick and precise shots of energy from his eyes and the metallic follicles fell away. He reached in and pulled the now freed woman out. "Now what am I supposed to do with you?"

Sometime later, Piccolo stood next to Kami and watched Mr. Popo tend to the Lookout's newest guest. The ancient genie's knowledge in medicine had helped to stabilize the blue-haired woman's energy and bandage the wounds on her hands; but, she was still weak and he doubted that she would wake up any time soon. After hearing Piccolo's story on how he had found her, Mr. Popo nodded. "Then that must be the cause of her condition."

"And she intentionally allowed it." Piccolo replied, turning to leave, "let me know when she wakes up. I have a few questions for her."

"Yes," Kami watched his younger half leave and turned his attention back to the bed, "As do I."