Author's Note: This chapter will be about Hikaro's struggles after what happened in the previous chapter. AND TRIGGER WARNING: There will be hallucinations, delusions, and PTSD in this chapter. I'm not sure how this chapter is going to go exactly. I do have a basic idea in mind, but I'll figure it out as I go. I usually do that anyways, hehe. ~ Dana

It is very hard for me to talk about what happened after the Alterers invaded my planet. But, I will talk about it because this needs to be written down for history. And, because I have found that writing these things down helps me cope with it all.

I remember hearing a female voice say, "Wake up! Wake up! I know that he's alive, but he won't wake up." And another female voice add, "Oh look! He's waking up!" I opened my eyes very slowly, my vision going from blurry to clear. I saw two girls on their knees looking down at me. One was wearing a pinky purple crop top and purple baggy pants, the other a lot of red and gold colors and with her hair tied up in a ponytail. They both had black hair and black eyes. I'm not sure what was wrong with me, I immediately sat up and began backing away from them. "Don't touch me! DON'T TOUCH ME!" The girl in the crop top tried to calm me down and said, "Hey, hey! We're not gonna hurt you! We just wanted to make sure that you're ok." The other girl didn't say anything and looked worried. I was panting and began to sweat, but then I felt a really bad pain in my chest. "Aaaaagh! It hurts!" I was clutching my chest and the girl with the crop top spoke again, "We know that you're injured, so we just wanna take you to the hospital to get taken care of."

I snapped at her and said, "And how do I know that you're not lying!? How do I know that you're not one of them!?" She looked confused and said, "What? What do you mean by 'one of them'?" I could see the genuine confusion on their faces, and didn't know what to say. I started to calm down, and said quietly, "I'm sorry for snapping at you, and for freaking out. But, you don't know about the Alterers?" The girl with a ponytail said afraid, "Alterers? They sound scary!" The other girl reached her hand out to the ponytail girl and said, "It's okay, Kale. We're going to figure this out." The girl responded, "Okay, Caulifla." Caulifla then looked at me and said, "We're going to take you to the hospital first, then once you've recovered a bit you can tell us more." I quickly nodded my head and they took me to the hospital.

The hospital, or rather, hospital that was turned into a safe house, was filled with Saiyans affected by the invasion. We were at the end of the line. The line was so long that it extended out of the hospital and on the sidewalk. Caulila complained, "Are you kidding me!? Ugh, sorry man, but we're going to be here for awhile until we can get some help." I saw all the other people that were waiting in line. It was terrible, seeing Saiyans of all ages waiting in line to be treated. But then I had an idea. I said to Caulifla, "I can heal these people." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said, "What? You can heal people?" I raised my voice loud and clear and announced, "Excuse me, everyone! I have the ability to heal. Please get into a-waaah!"

Everyone that heard me rushed over to me and were begging me to heal them. I then said nervously, "Please, everyone! Just get in line and I'll be able to help all of you..." People were shouting at me, saying things like, "My wound is bad! Take me!" And a mother with her child said, "My baby is dying! She needs help right now! Think about the children!" An old man said bitterly to the mother, "I need help first! I want to make it out of this alive! I'm an old man!" Everyone began arguing with each other, until Caulifla lost it and yelled, "HEY! You all should be thankful that he even offered! So why don't you all get line, wait your turn, and SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Her energy was so strong it pushed everyone off balance, including me. Everyone stopped arguing and reluctantly got into a line. Kale was biting her nails the entire time, not saying a word - she wasn't handling all this stress well.

I sighed and began to heal people with my waterbending. And then it clicked. I was waterbending. In the afternoon, not during a full moon. I was healing everyone very quickly and my healing was faster than the care given by the safehouse. In only a few hours, everyone at the safehouse was healed. Some people said thank you. Others didn't. But, everyone in the area was healed. When the three of us finally had some time alone, Caulifla asked me, "How were you able to do that? You were like, bending water or something! Do you have magical powers?" I smiled faintly and said, "You're right, I was bending the water. But it wasn't magic. A wise teacher of mine taught me how to do it." Kale finally said something and stuttered, "U-um, I thought that - that your waterbending was really cool." I looked at her, smiled and said, "Thanks. I-agh!" I clutched my chest, and then Caulifla said, "Oh man. This whole time you were healing people, we forgot about healing you! Let's take you into the safehouse. They have healing pods in there." "Healing pods?" She said, "Uh, yeah! Are you saying you don't know what a healing pod is? Man, you sure are a weird one. Come on! Let's get you inside."

I was put inside a healing pod for the first time in my life. I have to say, it was a very uncomfortable experience at first. They attached these wires with sticky ends to me all over my body. The pod was filled with some sort of clear fluid, and then I suddenly became sleepy and relaxed. I closed my eyes and felt the tension in my body going away. I could hear Caulifla and Kale talking but couldn't make out their words. I eventually gave in to the pod's fluids and fell asleep.

When I woke up, the fluids in the pod began to wash down the drain. A nurse took the wires off of me and I walked out of the pod. Caulifla and Kale weren't there. I asked the nurse if she's seen them, and she said no. Did they leave me? When I began walking, I immediately noticed how strong I felt. I put my hand on my chest and could feel that my rib cage was completely healed. Everything was healed. I wandered around the safehouse for awhile, trying to find them, but then I found them when I entered a huge room. There were many people eating and a lot waiting in line for their portion of food. I saw them getting food and Caulifla yelling at a worker serving the food. I heard her say, "How many times do I have to tell you!? This other plate is for my friend who's in one of the healing pods right now! I am NOT trying to get extra food!" The man snapped at her and said. "Then go bring me this "friend" of you-" "Here." The man was caught off guard when I teleported next to Caulifla. She put her hands on her hips and smiled smugly. The worker grunted and gave me my food.

We sat down at a table. Caulifla was eating like your typical Saiyan girl. Kale was eating at a moderate pace, but I just didn't feel like eating. I stared down at my plate and felt a deep sadness come over me. Suddenly I heard someone whisper in my right ear, *They're here!* I gasped and immediately turned around in my chair, but no one was there. Caulifla swallowed the food she had in her mouth and said with concern, "Woah, you okay? Why'd you turn around like that?" I looked back at her and slowly said, "I thought I had heard someone." She sipped her drink then replied, "Well, there are a lot of people talking here in this room, so go figure!" I then responded, "No, I mean that I thought I heard someone whisper in my ear. But…..." She raised a quizzical eyebrow and then turned to Kale. "Kale, what do you think about this?" Kale looked at me and then Caulifla and murmured, "I think he's hearing things. Because I didn't see anyone whisper anything to him."

My eyes widened when I then saw an Alterer behind both Kale and Caulifla. The Alterer was going to slice their heads off with his sword like hand. "DON'T TOUCH THEM! HAAA!" I fired a ki blast at the Alterer, but as soon as the ki blast was going to hit, the Alterer changed shape so that the ki blast would go through. The ki blast ended up hitting a wall and making a hole. Then the Alterer flew out the nearest open window. I was about to fly after the Alterer when Caulifla held me down and yelled, "Where do you think you're going!? What the hell is wrong with you!?" I pleaded, "No, let me go! I need to go after the Alterer!" Kale looked very frightened and said, "I think he's seeing things too. Because no one was there." I felt confused, and then realized that everyone was looking. Caulifla said seriously, "We need to talk. Now."

We were inside a lounge room sitting on couches in the safe house with just the three of us in the room. Caulifla had her arms crossed and she said, "Ok, so you've been acting strange ever since we first met you. And, you keep on mentioning these 'Alterers'. Can you tell us what's going on? We don't even know who you are, so telling us your name would help." Kale was biting her nails and looked nervous. I wanted to tell them everything. So I started with the basics. "My name is Hikaro Ruko, and I'm half-human, half-Saiyan. I was born on this planet and grew up here. Yesterday morning, the planet was invaded by Alterers. You guys didn't know this? And another thing, you guys don't look beaten up or anything. Did Alterers not attack you two?" Caulifla and Kale exchanged glances and then Caulifla answered, "Well, we were not here on the planet yesterday. We both were traveling around the universe just having a good time, and then we come home today and see the aftermath of the destruction. But we didn't hear anything about an invasion, we saw on TV that there was some new virus that caused Saiyans to go mad and attack each other. It started with one Saiyan and spread like wildfire."

I was completely perplexed and said with shock, "Wait, what?! A new virus? That's a complete lie!" Kale said quietly, "It's probably showing on TV right now. That's all they are showing...I think." Caulifla sighed and turned on the TV. And to my shock, it was true. The news channel showed footage of Saiyans attacking each other yesterday, but I knew that some of those 'Saiyans' were really Alterers. They looked exactly like Saiyans, but I could see it in their eyes. And then I remembered the Alterer ships that I saw leave yesterday. I spoke up and told them, "But yesterday, I saw huge Alterer spaceships leaving the planet! Did anyone else not see that!?" Caulifla answered, "I don't think anyone did because if someone saw, it would definitely be on the news. And what exactly are Alterers?"

I explained to them, "Alterers are an alien race that can shapeshift and steal the ability of any other race, and I know that they invaded the planet yesterday. I saw a little Saiyan girl lost in the middle of a street while Saiyans were fighting the Alterers - but they didn't know that they were fighting Alterers. I didn't even know, until I saw the little girl hug a Saiyan woman and call her mommy, and the woman killed her. Then I saw the real mother come out of an alley and died from being beaten up by the Alterer that was pretending to the the mom." Caulifla asked, "And then what happened?"

I stood up and continued, "I exclaimed out loud that Alterers were attacking, and then Alterers all came after me. I flew off and they started attacking me, so I fought them while flying. I eventually beat them and then realized that there was no way I could stop the mass destruction. So I flew all the way to my parents house and found my mother dying. Then I hear my dad's voice and see him, or so I thought it was him. It was actually an Alterer that I met before disguised as my dad. He attacked me in the chest with an energy sword and told me why the Alterers were attacking."

I looked down at the floor and said with a heavy heart, "It was my fault. You see, I first met this Alterer named Komatsu months ago, and he told me that he was an Alterer. But he also told me not to tell anyone. Things happened, and I end up telling this old man named Iroh in the woods about Komatsu. Komatsu was watching me the whole time. Iroh became my teacher and when he left this world, that's when the Alterers invaded. I get the feeling that Komatsu wanted his race to invade after Iroh left, so that he could kill my parents and kill me without Iroh interfering."

Caulifla looked at Kale and Kale looked at me. Kale spoke up and asked me, "If Komatsu tried to kill you, how are you still alive? Caulifla and I found you badly wounded." Caulifla added, "Yeah, before we found you, we had arrived on the planet a few hours earlier. We decided to help out by bringing people to the hospital so they could get help. But you're the first person we helped that mentioned Alterers." I answered them with sadness in my voice, "I used my waterbending to heal myself….I also tried to heal my dying mother, but it was too late. I couldn't save her. And Komatsu killed my father too. So, all I have is Iroh, but he's back in his dimension. I have nothing else left on this planet…."

Tears began flowing down my face and I felt broken. Caulifla walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. She expressed her condolences, "That's really rough, Hikaro. I'm sorry you lost your parents. But hey, you've got us now! We're here for you!" I looked at her in the eyes and uttered, "Y-you are?" Caulifla said cheerfully, "Yeah! Right, Kale?" Kale nodded her head and spoke louder than her usual quiet self, "Yeah. We're here for you." I felt a sense of family from them and smiled. "Thank you."

For the next year, Caulifla, Kale and I helped out with rebuilding the cities and bringing together lost families. We finally were able to make a home for ourselves, where the three of us lived together. By then, I had already explained to them about the great evil that Iroh told me about. They agreed to help me defeat this great evil when the time would come. After that year, we began training. We had to be on the alert in case there was another attack from Alterers, or any other threat. I knew that the whole virus thing was a cover up, set up by the Alterers who sneaked their way into power in the government. I still had my fears, and hallucinations, but they were lessened over time thanks to talking about it with Kale and Caulifla. On the days they couldn't handle my illness, I decided to release my feelings by training or writing them down.

This illness I had made it very difficult to distinguish hallucination from reality. There were some nights that I couldn't sleep at all, and suffered greatly from it. The mornings after not getting any sleep were always the worst, because both my body and mind was off balance. And then when I was able to get sleep, I would have nightmares of Komatsu killing me, Kale or Caulifla. Or all three of us. It was a time of great suffering and Kale and Caulifla were all I had to help me feel not alone. I believe that I needed some other kind of help, but this type of illness was not really addressed on the planet without stigmatizing it as people being crazy. I felt alone in that aspect. I believe that medication would have helped, but medication for this did not exist here. This caused my recovery to be very slow, and painful.

Another year past, and we had one more year until it was time to travel to Iroh's dimension to stop the great evil. I was working with a team of engineers and scientists to create a ship that could take us there to his world. The ship was created in 9 months and was ready for use. We had three months left until it was time to leave. I decided to take these three months to rest, really rest. I wasn't sure how to feel about everything. But, the time was coming, and I rested as much as I could before the year was over. Kale and Caulifla on the other hand, continued to train until the very end. I guess we all have our own ways of preparing for challenges.

Even if this challenge costed everything.

Author's Note: As I was writing this chapter, I decided not to dive too much into the PTSD as much as I thought I would. The next chapter will reveal the great evil that Iroh has been telling Hikaro about. Also, I originally was going to have Hikaro alone during his time of dealing with PTSD. But, I changed my mind and decided that he should have some support systems, which I chose to be Caulifla and Kale. I don't know much about them, so I just went along with it! I hope I didn't butcher their personalities. I also didn't want to go in depth about the training the three of them did. I figured you guys have seen enough of training with Iroh and want to pace the story at a balanced rate. After this chapter is uploaded on Instagram, I'm going to be taking a break from creating new chapters and start uploading them to FanFiction and YouTube. Once all the finished chapters are uploaded to those sites, I'll continue writing the story. Thank you for reading and hope to see you in the next chapter! ~ Dana