To all of my old readers, I must tell you that by the time that this chapter is posted the last two chapters received rather substantial rewrites. For anyone new, you may just ignore this bolded part and just skip down to the actual content past the line break. I wanted to do something short to go along with this notification, so I decided to delve exclusively into the past segments of this story. I hope you like what you see.
As for my existing audience, I'd like to start by saying that the reason for these rewrites was due to my dissatisfaction with how the story was previously turning out. I felt that I rushed the main conflict too far in two chapters. I feel that starting off slow is for the best, so I decided to focus more time towards shining a light on Gine's current world. To that end, I decided to begin the present day sections in a place called Hardcore Station, an actual place in the comics that I re-imagined to be a multiversal space station that serves as both a haven for beings from all over the multiverse and a pit stop for adventurous dimension jumpers with a seedy underbelly that services to Gine's type (i.e. mercenaries and the like). A fun and obscure DC character also makes a brief cameo in that part of the first chapter, so take a look if you're a fan of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Aside from some dialogue and grammar changes, the only other revision I made was removing the fight with Lord Havok. Instead, I replaced it with a simpler affair that involves Gine hunting a metahuman criminal in Central City. Said fight would bring in CCPD and Kid Flash as before, but now Steel replaces Vibe for that fight because his and Wally's relationship during the time skip interests me. I'll try to do more with Steel's interaction with Team Flash in the future.
During those rewrites, I also delved in deeper into Gine's mind in order to hammer in how broken and unstable she is in the beginning of the story. This will obviously change as she goes through character development in the future, but I hope you like what you see so far. I'd hate for my writing to come off as overly-edgy. This stuff also gets a little intense at times, so I hope I don't offend anyone. However, considering how exhausted I am after all this, I won't have the energy to go through another one of these. I'll just have to push on ahead with what I got going forward. I really hope my perfectionism doesn't kick in then, because I'm limiting this to one rewrite per story.
That's about it for the rewrites. If you're an old viewer, please take a look at them if you will. Share your thoughts in the review section if you can. It really helps me with my motivation.
Now on the chapter proper.
"... condition is stabilizing," Gine heard a feminine and rather emotionless voice say as she felt a small flick of consciousness.
"So she's okay?", a male voice asked with clear concern in his voice. At the moment, Gine felt that it belonged to someone she knew, even loved, but in her diminished state, the Saiyan woman couldn't tell who.
"Her body temperature has returned to healthy levels," she said clinically, "Her extraction from the damaged pod has been successful for the most part. Any outstanding ailments are currently being attended to."
"You could just say that she'll be fine, you damn bot."
The second voice seemed to respond to that insult with an irritated grunt.
Eventually, Gine managed to regain enough of her consciousness to open her eyes. The Saiyan woman could see that she was inside some tank, which was submerging her in some kind of turquoise liquid. Although she was obscured by the bubbles in the liquid, Gine could see the figures of the two voices beyond the glass.
One was some kind of luminescent white and green female alien, and the other was a... Saiyan. Gine could tell by the tail wrapped around his waist. From what Gine could tell, the Saiyan was lean but tall, and he wore a mostly black outfit. Although the tank's liquid was blurring the Saiyan's face, Gine could swear that she knew this man from somewhere.
But then it dawned on Gine. She was forcibly taken from her pod and was now stuffed inside a tank. There was some kind of breathing apparatus stuck in her face, and her wrists bound tightly to the back of the tank.
Scared and confused, Gine's eyes opened wide as she began to shift around violently inside the pod, splashing around the liquid within as she does. Her wrists began to redden as Gine blistered them across the leather restraints in a desperate attempt to break free. She paid no heed to the apparatus strapped to her mouth as her instincts compelled her to break out of her claustrophobic prison.
"What the hell?!", the Saiyan exclaimed.
The green alien projected a holographic screen on her wrist. After taking half a second to analyze the information, she told the Saiyan, "The subject's brain activity is spiking! She has awoken from her coma and is panicking! She's bending the oxygen tube!"
"Well, do something damn it!", he yelled angrily.
The alien ignored him as she made a few hand motions across the holographic screen. The medical tank then unhinged another apparatus from its side, which contained a syringe. As Gine was squirming around and slowly suffocating herself, the apparatus shot into the Saiyan's arm while she wasn't looking. Once the needle inserted itself into Gine's flesh, it injected a strong sedative into her bloodstream.
Once inside, Gine felt drowsy again right away. She tried to fight the drug's effects, but the Saiyan woman didn't even have the energy to keep her own eyes open. Her squirming ceased as she slowly faded into unconsciousness once again.
She could hear the two talking outside her tank in her last moments of consciousness. Apparently, the Saiyan wasn't pleased with the green alien's work. However, Gine didn't have time to decipher what was actually being said before going under again.
Gine didn't know how long she was under.
Hours?
Days?
Weeks?
And that's not even accounting the time Gine lost while she was in space.
But eventually, Gine's consciousness kicked in again. Hopefully no one puts her under again, because her body probably couldn't handle another coma.
Gine lifted her heavy eyelids once again to see that she was laying on a soft bed. Gine lifted her back, exerting herself with a grunt, as she at up on her bed. The Saiyan felt nauseated, a side effect of all the drugs pumped into her body, and her vision was blurry. She actually saw some stars for a moment, but Gine managed to regain enough clarity of mind to look down on her hands and see the outline her legs made under her blanket.
Gine noticed that she wasn't being restrained this time, which was a relief, but she could see a couple of red rings forming around her wrists and one of her index fingers was strapped to a device attached to a heart rate monitor. The Saiyan woman noticed that her clothes were different as well. She looked down her torso to see that her armor was missing. Replacing it was a simple black shirt with short sleeves. Slipping her hands down the blanket, Gine also noticed that she was now wearing shorts, and after wriggling her toes around, she could feel that her shoes are also missing.
"What the hell?", Gine murmured before forcing herself to take a look around. Still feeling very dizzy, Gine squinted her eyes as more light began invading her senses, much to her dismay. However, Gine continued to scan her surroundings, placing her hand above her eyes while doing so.
It seems that Gine was in some kind of med-bay, one inside of a ship if the gunmetal grey interior was any indication. Despite its rustic appearance, Gine could see that this room was rather advanced with enough equipment, monitors, and beds to accommodate a dozen patients should the need arise. Gine felt lucky that her captors were gracious enough to treat their prisoners properly like this, not that it made the situation that much better.
She was still kidnapped, and it scared Gine that she still doesn't know why these pirates took her from her pod. So many questions were filling her head.
Where was she?
Who's taken her?
What do they want with some low-class Saiyan? Do her captors want to eat her? Make her a slave? A sex slave?!
As Gine's thoughts became darker and darker, the timid Saiyan began to hyperventilate. Why was this happening? What did she do to deserve this, she thought. As Gine crawled up into a ball and panicked, she tried to do what her brother had taught her when they were little.
When panic sets in... act like a Saiyan and get over it!
Gine inhaled a large gulp of air and held it in her mouth. She put on her best "mean face" and tried to concentrate on that as long as possible. And, it worked... for ten seconds.
Gine's face turned red, and she collapsed into her bed, exhaling half her lungs after remembering that breathing was important. Once her breathing went back to normal, Gine's anxiety began to return.
She whined. "Oh gods! Just kill me already!"
"That would be convenient," a robotic voice said dryly. Gine turned her head to the side to see the same green alien that was standing outside her tank. After taking a more clear look at her, Gine could tell that the alien was a humanoid and rather feminine AI. She continued, "However, the Boss has forbidden your termination."
"Gah!", Gine jumped in her bed, startled by the sudden appearance of the dead-eyed bot. "What the... where did you come from?!"
"I was standing here the entire time," the AI stated before completely ignoring Gine and tending to the holographic screen on her wrist.
After calming down for a minute, Gine took a closer look at her apparent doctor. Her metal body was mostly white with luminescent green "skin" around the thighs, arms, and midriff. The robot was bald with the front of her human looking face being green, although her eyes were blue oddly enough. The most distinct part of her appearance, however, was the green circle on her chest with a symbol resembling a stylized lantern.
She wasn't like any medical bot that Gine had ever seen. They are usually not built to look so... sexy.
Gine blushed for a moment before shaking her head wildly in embarrassment. She asked the robot, "Excuse me. But, I have to ask. Where am I? How did I get here? My memory is kinda... fuzzy."
The robot cut her off saying, "You are currently aboard the medical bay of the Hammerhead, a former Cold Force cruiser that was forcibly seized by our company. As for your other query, we found your pod in a damaged state in... location redacted. I speculate that it was struck by a meteor during transit. Regardless, it was running low on power. Your demise was a near certainty, so the Boss felt it necessary to intervene. For what, I do not know."
So it was pirates, Gine thought. Or renegades. Or deserters. Something like that.
These rogues must be either really brave or really stupid to steal something as big as a starship from King Cold's army. Gine just hoped that when this crime inevitably blew up in their faces, she could escape before Frieza's father lumps her in with these guys.
However, Gine was still held captive aboard this vessel, and she doubted that her captors would let her go that easily. Considering these guys were strong enough to get rid of the ship's former crew, she best not challenge them directly. Besides, she had no idea if her pod made it with her.
And so, Gine decided it was most prudent to ask the robot for more information. It couldn't hurt. "So... who is this 'boss' of yours?"
"He is a Saiyan, just like yourself only male and more built for combat. He is a notorious pirate and leader of this company. His name is... classified."
So Gine was being held captive by a Saiyan deserter and his band of murderous pirates. "This can not get any worse...", Gine said under her breath, "What does he want from me?"
"Classified."
"I've been taken against my will!", Gine shouted, "I'm pretty sure I have the right to know why!"
"Negative."
"Are you guys going to at least release me at some point?"
"Unlikely."
Gine began to feel scared. "Look, I'm just a cook. I'm really no one special. I just want to go home. Please, I'm freaking out here! My husband... he would be devastated if something were happen to me. I can't remember why I was in that pod, but I have to go back to him! I have children for gods' sake! Please... just ask your boss to let me go. I'm begging you here."
The robot paused for a moment, seemingly to take in Gine's desperate pleas. She closed her eyes and gave Gine her final answer.
"No."
"Agh!", Gine grunted in frustration before collapsing back into her bed. Of course this wasn't going to work, she thought. Her 'doctor' was just a machine, an emotionless automaton bound to the will of her master. The Saiyan looked over to see that the robot resumed whatever task she was doing on that damn screen. "One more question, and I beg you to at least give me a straight answer. Do you have a name? If I'm gonna be held here against my will, I rather pretend to have an actual person around to talk to rather than some machine."
"This unit's designation is...", Gine saw that the medical bot had flashes of actual hesitation in her eyes as she paused, "My name is Aya."
"Huh," Gine was pleasantly surprised at that bit of life she saw in the robot's eyes. She tried to get this Aya to shake her hand by extending her arm towards her. The Saiyan woman smiled. "My name is Gine. Nice to meet you."
Aya looked at Gine's hand for a moment before looking back to her screen.
Noticing that the robot is leaving her hanging, Gine receded her arm and pouted sadly. "It's nice to meet you too, Aya."
For the next few minutes, the two were idling in awkward silence. Gine was occupying herself by huddling up and rubbing her fingers on her blanket. Aya, on the other hand, continued to be drawn in by whatever task she was performing on that holographic screen. The only sound that prevented the silence from becoming outright deafening was the mechanical pinging from the heart rate monitor. But eventually, the inane idleness was too much for the Saiyan woman's nerves. She may not be allowed to leave, but there shouldn't be any problem with getting out of bed to stretch, right?
Even if there was, it's not like Aya could do anything about it. Gine may be a weakling, but she is still a Saiyan and Aya is just a medical bot. If she objects, Gine could just knock her around. And who knows, maybe that will intimidate her captors enough to let her go. Maybe.
However, Gine's insecurities began to flare up. "But what if they get mad... no!", Gine told herself with a serious frown, "I am a Saiyan! I survived wars for gods' sake! I'm not going to be intimidated by some medical robot! I'm going to stand up! But what if I'm not strong enough to... damn it, Gine! Just get off your ass!"
There was no turning back now. Gine took a deep breath, gathering her resolve, as she removed the device from a finger. She pushed the blanket off her body, placed her feet on the floor, and started to stand up.
But before she could even straighten her knees, Gine felt her body suddenly stop in her tracks. She tried to command her body to take another step, but some force is holding her in place like a magnet.
"What the hell?!", Gine cursed before noticing that a thin layer of green light was covering her entire body, "What is this... ack!"
Gine was then pushed back into her bed without warning. The heart rate device then floated and clamped back into her finger, restarting the monitor. The Saiyan groaned as she looked over to Aya, who was apparently still occupied by that damn screen as she assaulted Gine with telekinesis.
"I am ordered not to let you out of bed," Aya coldly informed her charge.
Gine glared at the AI before sighing and slumping into her bed. "And here I thought we were going to be the best of friends."
"That probability is low."
"No kidding."
Aya's emotionless expression was the interrupted when she began to wince in pain. An oddly colored grey implant on the back of her neck suddenly turned hot red. Aya clutched her head with her free hand, and she let out a pained whimper.
Gine looked at this sudden change with concern. She tried to comfort the AI by holding her shoulder and asking, "Are you okay?"
The implant then reverted to its original grey. The pain afflicting Aya disappeared as she lets out a sigh of relief. She noticed Gine's hand on her shoulder and responded by glaring at the Saiyan. The AI actually looked angry, causing Gine to smile nervously and withdrawing her unwanted hand.
Aya closed her eyes and exhaled before opening them back up again, restoring her emotionless facade. She addressed her patient, "I have been ordered to leave. The Boss is going to see you now."
With that, Aya turned to walk out the door. The moment she was gone, Gine could hear heavy footsteps outside. When a massive shadow loomed over the opened over the hallway, Gine felt her throat going dry. The captain's power seem to resonate out of his body and exert a grim pressure on the terrified Saiyan. This caused Gine to futilely huddle to the corner of her bed and pull up her blanket up to her chin like a scared child.
As the shadow spilled into the room, the pressure seemed to grow and cast an ominous air of dread as the captain's very steps rang louder and more intense like a clang of bullets. Bullets that Gine felt were only narrowing missing her head. In what felt like forever, the captain's silhouette started to peek out of the opening, the lighting allowing the shadows to mask his body like a monster stalking its prey.
"So this is how I'm gonna die, huh? Quivering into a corner like a bi..."
"When I was first told that it was you that we caught, I almost laughed," he spoke with a deep, yet cordial tone, "Out of all the Saiyans I could've bumped into, I never thought it would be you, Gine."
Gine recognized that voice. She relaxed her position and muttered, "It can't be..."
The figure finally stepped into the light. He had a lean, muscular figure not unlike Gine's husband. He looked like any other Saiyan with a long and spikey mane of black hair that reached his shoulders along with dark colored eyes and a tail wrapped around his waist. However, unlike most Saiyans, the captain had skin was a shade of light grey. He wore a black and dark blue Saiyan battlesuit with near rectangular shoulder pads, black trousers, a pair of fingerless gauntlets, and boots.
Gine's eyes widened once she realized the identity of the Hammerhead's captain. It was her long-lost brother.
"Turles?"
The man flashed a sly smile. "Hey little sis. Long time, no see."
"Turles!", Gine said happily before rushing out of bed, not caring about the device that was ripped off her finger, before she practically tackled her brother and gave him a big hug. The dam behind her eyes broke as the weathered Saiyan's cheeks were covered by trails of happy tears. "Is this real? I thought I'd never see you again..."
Turles hugged back. "I'm here, sis. It's good to have you back."
The two siblings don't talk any further for a good minute. They didn't need to. After everything that had happened, all the time that the two lost, all the siblings wanted to do at the moment was to hold on to each other as if they were trying to keep this cruel universe from separating each other again.
They better savor this reunion as much as they can, however, because the worst was yet to come.
And with that, I can officially put this rewrite behind me (barring minor revisions in the future, of course).
So yeah, Turles is going to be in this story and as Gine's brother no less. And that would make him Goku's uncle too. I also changed his hairstyle to resemble Gine's in order to circumvent any... unfortunate implications since he would look too much like Bardock otherwise. Also, I updated his outfit to resemble some of the recent battlesuit models in Super and made him wear actual pants. It's unfortunate that I don't have any pictures for you all, because the design looks pretty cool in my head. But such is the nature of the medium. Also, this interpretation of Turles is also going to be a bit nicer than he is in his movie only because he actually loves Gine as a sister. However, he's not exactly an upstanding guy, and his recruitment and subsequent treatment of Aya is... less than ethical.
Additionally, I originally intended Aya to not meet Gine until after she left her native universe. However, considering that point won't come up for a long time, we need to flesh out the two's relationship sooner by showing how it began. As you saw, they didn't exactly start off at the best of terms but they obviously get over it by the present day. But for right now in these past sections, Aya doesn't exactly have the best opinion of organics, more specifically Saiyans. Despite her character development by the end of her series, what Turles did to her would reignite her some the darker aspects of her personality. Speaking of the series finale, I will provide an explanation to how Aya jumped to Universe 7. Let's just say it ties into how she survived GL:TAS' series finale.
So yeah, that's all for now. As these rewrites took a lot out of me, I'll be taking a break from this fic for bit to work on my other projects or just relax. But rest assured, I will return with more content. Until then, thanks for the read and have a nice day.
