Chapter 11: Absolution
A/N: I'm aware that the silent majority aren't very excited about our little detour. I can tell, i've done this long enough to tell. However, this was necessary to create what I wanted. But don't worry this is all for a reason, and we can use this arc to build up the scene you all are wanting. Please bear with me, keep reviewing, keep telling me that you want to see more. It means more to me than you realize.
Though on a less pleading note, Happygochi from tumblr put up another set of custom fanart for House of Bardock, if you wanted to see what Chi-Chi looked like in chapter 10 and in this chapter to follow by all that is pure gochi fandom. PLEASE, PLEASE, go to her site on tumblr and give her a like, buy her a coffee, tell her she's awesome. If you aren't the type to review fanfiction please give this lovely lady some much needed love for the work she puts in to making fanart for this story. She deserves it, and the cover art for this fanfiction will change with the many different pieces shes made. Again go to Happygochi on tumblr and tell her she's freaking awesome! That's your one job for Christmas, I made the story you read and review and tell this wonderful artist they are awesome.
It hadn't taken Kakarot long to follow the trail, the bodies that littered the highway were evidence enough and both, fortunately and unfortunately he found the location where his caretaker was being held.
It was practically a damn fortress, a twenty kilometer wide city that not only housed tens of millions of people but also the military forces, and if that wasn't just fun enough it was completely lined with massive artillery shells. While getting hit by one wouldn't kill him or seriously injure him, there were literally hundreds of massive heavy caliber weaponry. And if they managed to pin him down, no matter how unlikely, he could die.
While normally the goal would be to just flat out nuke the city because of the irritation and delay it would cause a purge team. He was obviously not going to now. Though as he scouted around the entire complex for roughly an hour his focus primarily on trying to see if there were anymore clues about Chi-Chi's whereabouts, his scouter was being jammed from picking up readings by the sheer volume of power readings, even if they were miniscule there were millions of people stuffed into a small area and there were simply far too many of the bastards for him to even hope to get a reading on.
"We're still cleaning up the far outlying areas, Kakarot, we've at least decimated twenty percent right now, if we're just talking population centers. How is your hunt for your caretaker going?" The ringing voice of Tora came through his scouter as Kakarot swept over the area.
"She's in a hive fortification and it's almost impossible to pinpoint her." Kakarot was standing on a mountain outcropping several miles away.
"So what's your plan then, runt?"
"Find an entrance and attempt to locate her without causing a commotion. There are droves of heavy artillery lining the walls and the structures inside, with heavy formations of weaklings armed with their plasma burning weapons. I am limited on what I can actually do without causing panic and possibly getting her killed."
"So a subtle approach? I'd like to see this. Well good luck with that one, runt, though I'd wager your best bets are going to be through the cities supply lines, water, natural gas, and electrical additions that fuel it. Otherwise you'll have to go in from above, and i'm certain they will be watching from every angle by now and that's too great of a risk."
Kakarot clicked off his scouter, knowing this information already. Limited options and time was still not on his side. There were far too many unknowns, lacking any real concrete evidence as to where Chi-Chi would be inside that massive city wasn't going to be any help to his current mission of rescuing her. But that didn't tell him what her condition would be. Was she held captive and possibly isolated in a bunker? Or maybe she had been pushed in with the masses and stuck between tens of thousands of screaming weaklings?
"Fuck," that was all he could say to summarize this situation. Taking a moment to jump down from his perch and follow the mountain ridgeline. Any city had to have some level of energy intake, there power couldn't be sufficiently maintained inside, along with every single other major life sustaining function.
Carefully scouring the lands Kakarot did seven full laps around the city in an hour, his scouter mapping the entire layout and scanning for some measure of hidden entrances.
For all of his work, which wasn't hard as the section he was in was mostly barren, Kakarot had the oh so glorious joy of finding the only real 'secret' entrance into the massive city. An exposed vent cover and the only reason he had been able to find it was because of the extreme smell. His hyper sensitive nose led him right to an entire network of literal shit. He had smelled rotting corpses left to bake on the suns of Vegetasei's desserts more appealing than the foul rankness of death that oozed from this metal tube.
Hell, he was sure the lizardmen who cleaned latrines back on his home world hadn't seen anything as foul as this! "Fucking SHIT!" He cursed loudly. The latter describing his situation almost perfectly.
"I find the fucking cities goddamn sewage line… Though I could just tunnel under the fucking city and come up who knows where…"
Kakarot didn't want to dive headlong into a sea of crap and attempt to make as quiet an approach in order to find Chi-Chi, but also in the same aspect he could just hope that he'd end up in the right spot if he dug underneath the city and if there weren't any countermeasures to that, being buried alive under the ground didn't exactly sit well with him. Even if he could blast his way out of earth and rock he didn't know what elements or tasty treats would be underneath should he take the course of action.
Then the biggest problem was time, the more he spent just wasting it he risked Chi-Chi's safety and his own in the process.
However, this was going to require some… creative thinking. He set his armor back into a capsulated container, finding the little invention to be quite handy as he pulled out a medical bag from another. Looking for the large bandage wraps and sealing plastic gauze.
The goal, as he stripped down to avoid literally coating his clothes with excrement, was to cover his more important features. Namely his crotch, his hands and feet primarily to avoid it getting under his nails, then wrapping his head and face in bandages, sealing all but a tiny sliver for his eyes to peer through.
He had also stuffed his nose with medical cream knowing that he was going to have to breathe through his mouth if he wanted to survive this hell he was about to suffer through.
Ripping off the top of the ventilation cover Kakarot took a breath of fresh air. Looked up into the air, "Don't let me die down here covered in shit, or I swear I'll come back to kill you, old man." Sucking up his pride and swallowing his soon to be humiliation Kakarot jumped in.
Inside of the lower levels of the major city the few workers were stationed inside of the waste treatment facility which was practically overflowing. The influx of civilian and military refugees were pushing how much human fecal matter outside without it back logging and jamming causing even more problems.
They had brought down extra hands to help with the backlog, some having to push the refuse into massive compactors to save space as they pushed the rest through a dozen smaller ventilation chambers to clear it out.
Backhoes and steam rolling devices were employed en mass, their grinding treads doing what they could to help divert the situation while the administration pushed to shutting down some of the cities functions for a few hours to avoid the plant going into a melt down from a tidal wave of filth.
Men covered head to toe in scrub suits, while others just in plain clothes who were practically forced into their position. Because, well, some large guards armed with shotguns and stun batons gave them little choice and if they wanted to keep both legs functioning they didn't have any real choice to argue with them.
Red lights flared as a warning to those working in the mess that another flood held back by reinforced doors was about to let into the main chamber, giving them all five minutes to clear out of the way or be swallowed by a sea of green and brown.
Boots suctioning to the waste like quick sand most made a rapid wobble back to the ladders that they could climb up while those in the heavy equipment pulled up their heavy buckets and rollers to not be damaged lest they have to go down and do it by hand.
But as the red light continued flashing one of the lower vents on the side of the chamber seized up.
"Not now!" A voice shouted, "Someone hit the pressure valve for number four before the thing explodes and gives us a shower."
One of the workers dismounted his machine and headed over, his head covered by a hard hat, eyes with thick fogged up goggles with a sweaty towel hanging from his neck walked over to the wall holding several massive levers. Each one an emergency switch and the one marked with a large 4 was flashing yellow.
Grabbing the top of the pull down lever the man with a strained grunt yanked straight downwards, the switch flickering the light from green to yellow for a moment. As he tried again, "Damn thing is broke, it's not resetting!"
Calling back out as he hit the lever one more time only to have the same response. The green light flashing for a moment and then turning back to yellow. It was as if the fix wasn't simply resetting the pressure and starting back up again fresh.
"Damnit, this is going to shut down the whole-!"
Vent number four exploded, the massive blades spiraling outwards and imbedding themselves into the walls in the chamber. An eruption occurred as brown filth spilled outwards and a nearly stark naked man covered in all manner of grotesque excrement stood in the vent's opening.
The sight was horrifying to see a man who had crawled through a torrential downpour of shit was quickly turned on its head as both brown hands which were covered in sludge raised up and then began to glow. If any of the men shit themselves… no one would've known as as an enraged scream tore outwards.
Blood showered the insides of the facility as bursts of ki ripped through man after man, there wasn't any tactfulness. Just a pure release of unbridled rage of a man who had taken just far too much shit.
No one made it more than ten feet until they lay all dead upon the floor as the beast who had emerged from the vent made his way towards a drinking fountain.
There was some level of water and not hesitating he ripped the entire device from the wall and turning the water spicket into a small hose. Blasting himself with cold water he barely even flinched as the heavy clumps fell off of his skin and onto the ground. Unwinding the mess from his hands as his body returned from a mix of brown, green, and yellow into its more natural tan caramel color. Then he unwound his 'feet' and repeated the process. The messy bandages just left where they fell as his legs were sprayed down with water. Then tossing away his makeshift headwrap Kakarot's hair felt every bit as he did, it drooped and seemed to be suffering from the stench as it wilted and fell around his shoulders.
Obsidian eyes were strained and holding back so much of the anger and rage, bringing up two fingers to remove the clogged mess of cream from his nostrils than snorting out all of the rest. While eager to go and save Chi-Chi he just needed to keep running water upon him until he felt this feeling gone from him.
[***]
There was a quiet commotion as Chi-Chi walked around, faces whispering and murmuring behind her back. Glossy eyed civilians and desperate refugees looking to a sister for aid. It hadn't taken much to turn this cities leadership almost on its head with the tales of a powerful raven haired warrior who had stopped an entire battalion by herself, and it was a mechanized group.
Many backed away from Chi-Chi, some bowing or falling to their knees as she walked by in the power armor. Some even bolder ones attempted to touch her flowing drapes as if it were graced by the same 'miracle'. Fewer still tried to touch her armor, as if would impart that holy touch upon their own bodies.
It turned the once dark and dreariness of the world into a small glimmer of hope, and all it required was a small spark to have everyone quickly turning this act of courage and Chi-Chi up onto a pedestal.
Like fire to a dry water deprived field. It fanned a flame that she had never seen before. The mass of citizens rounded into roving gangs following her everywhere. Dozens upon dozens of people armed with nothing more than clubs and metal piping declared themselves her guardians and would stop any from approaching the blessed Mother Matron.
Then if people weren't enough, the gangs that inhabited all sectors of the lower class came to push out the fanatics by force. Another fight was going to erupt between the people she had just tried to protect all because one side believed they were the ones to truly be protecting Chi-Chi. It was insane to her, she had tried to quell this before it escalated herself, but neither side would step down. If blood was to be spilled in her name than so be it.
An irony that a woman who had come to save them apparently gifted people the right to slaughter each other like they were at the market because of what they believed. It was hard to quash these thoughts as everywhere she went people cried out in voices to her.
'The spirits have blessed us with a savior, they have heard us, praise the sister.'
'Long live the sisterhood.'
'Mother Matron.'
It wasn't actually what Chi-Chi was expecting at all. Becoming a defacto saint by virtue of stopping an entire mechanized unit by herself and coming out practically unscathed. Leaving Chi-Chi with a very precarious situation, 'I'm being idolized as a saint on a planet filled with religious zealots, it'll be up to the Gods to save me should they turn on me now.'
But in short order, Juro had brought several squads to be her guards. The military Steel Reserves had the honor of protecting sister Ochi or Mother/Matron Ochi. It was hard to argue with the guards, sticks, and knives were nothing against large plasma rifles and grenades. Fanaticism could only take one so far and starting a revolt inside the city was what Chi-Chi quickly cast down immediately. She wanted no bloodshed, only peace right now.
Her false name becoming a rallying cry for those who were ready to give up. If she could stand up to an entire battalion by herself, then they could do the same if they followed in her guidance. So the population was obeying for the moment. Of course many still attempted to get close to their beloved matron only to be struck back by the but or swiped at by a bayonet to clear a path.
"I didn't ask for the military escort, besides I thought you guys were all about protecting yourselves, why bother coming to help me?" Chi-Chi's snide tone to the officer made some of her escort look away from her.
"I had a few favors, and it's not exactly like I wanted to just leave the people there, Ochi, I have my orders and if I don't follow them then I'll have a bullet put into my forehead or maybe thrown off the city walls because I disobey my superiors. Imozu already is still fuming about the warp device I used and perhaps the only reason I'm not dead now is because I found you in the process." Juro admitted, "Also, to maintain some level of honesty between us I was sent here to observe you."
Black armored boots stopped in their tracks. An arresting glare looked squarely into Juro's green eyes. The not so subtle question being asked of him as to why? Why would he be here to observe her and more importantly why would he tell her?
For a man who served the military first it seemed quite strange for him to clearly disobey and order to observe by telling the observee that they were being watched. It seemed contradictory. Wouldn't that make her more suspicious of his actions and not want him near her? Her features turned into a hard stare expecting an answer.
"Come, I'll tell you. But we can't talk out here." Juro motioned for her to follow as the escort around them formed up into columns and marched.
Chi-Chi looked as so many people came out to look at her. Climbing up on buildings, roofs, and standing on anything to just catch a glimpse. Their cries for their savior echoing but, no one dared approach her armed escort.
The masses following her as she moved through heavily packed areas. The words and cries for her increasing in fervor as she walked through one of the sector's gateways. The other side housing a small military and police force. It was completely sealed off from the civilians as no military could be quite so trusting of common folk.
As the steel gates closed tightly behind her she was directed by Juro to one of the buildings to the side, three stories tall and devoid of any windows or fanfare. It was as bland as bland could be, as they were now situated in a military barracks. Juro raised his hand to the group and gave them a wave. "Dismissed," Was all the redhead said to those of their escort.
The soldiers clicked their heels and then without another word dispersed back inside the area. "The less people hear the better, I have some small quarters set up where you can have some space, but more importantly we can talk without too many eyes."
Following Juro who walked her up to the third floor and opened up- 'I had a closet bigger than this when I was a little girl.'. It was about twenty square meters and all of the necessities crammed into the room. It was bland, metal floors and basic necessities were as just as barren and limited as possible. Chi-Chi would say even the portable capsule house she had been expecting to stay in before had far more going for it than this place. Space was minimal, there was a small shower stall and small cooking area that was a single small burner. The bed was a hanging cot that was tucked against the wall. Not even a pillow. Chi-Chi thought as she looked to Juro.
"A full suite to myself? I should be honored." Chi-Chi's tone slightly sarcastic as she observed such luxury around her.
Juro actually smiled, "I'm happy you like it, with the space available otherwise we'd have to use the eight square meter sleeping chambers and I'd assume you being one of the few women here would like some privacy."
Chi-Chi's mouth fell open slightly in shock. 'They are smaller than this? They must really live in a closet then at that point.' But she couldn't focus on that now, "So start explaining then. What the hell is going on?" Chi-Chi taking a moment to do another thing and actually strip down from the power armor. Unlocking the side pieces she pulled up and over the heavy plate and set it beside the wall. Wearing nothing more than a black shirt that covered her top underneath. She didn't care that Juro was here, she'd never been that bashful about being in her underwear. If she was stripping down, then she'd have a problem.
Though conscious of her state he turned around, perhaps out of respect or not to incur her wrath. Chi-Chi wasn't sure. "I'll be blunt as I don't have a great deal of time, basically you created, unintentionally of course." His words very careful as he spoke, not trying to sound accusing or unappreciative of what she had done. "You've painted yourself as a beacon, people are looking more to you and the few sisters that walk on this world as the true saviors. People aren't offering prayers to our forces or looking to our command staff for answers, they go to shrines, preachers who claim to speak in your great name all over the city claiming that you are a blessed figure and have come to save us from the great threat that looms over us. In a sense people would at your command probably turn on us and cause more problems."
"Why would I do that?" Chi-Chi asked confused, "I don't want those people to try and start some uprising, I just wanted to show you and your military to do what they are actually supposed to do. I thought the message was fairly clear, to you at least."
Juro nodded his head as Chi-Chi dropped her pants and wore the smallest pair of black panties she'd ever seen. It covered her front, and the smallest part of her rear, leaving little to the imagination or to the unseen eye. Trying to wear extra clothes in that armor would probably drench her in sweat and overheat her. "I don't disagree but then again only a handful of people were there, and all it takes is a few wild rumors and your visage to turn speculation into gospel among the masses. While I don't believe you would do that, those at the top are worried that you'd commit a coup d'etat for your own gain."
"Of course they would," Chi-Chi snorted. "So what now?"
"That's the majority of it, our forces are going to hold out until we are attacked by aliens," Though his face turned into a frown as his teeth pushed into his bottom lip. " More than likely saiyans. Which means they aren't here for a war for submission but to-"
"Purge this planet, I know…." She sighed taking a seat on the folded down cot. Chi-Chi knew the end goal and had no real way to stop it, she'd be about as likely to stop a star from exploding as she would prevent the saiyans from purging this planet.
Although, her mind had plenty of time to think over the past day, with just walking mostly. If there was a way to save these people. Then what would it be?
Looking at the lieutenant who still kept his back to her. "Could you just not flee? Board a transport ship and try to escape and focus on survival and not be subjected to genocide?"
"High command would never agree to that and there's no way people would up and abandon this world either. Despite how bad their lives are, they would fear the unknown of space far more than living as they are." Juro was aware that life wasn't at all pleasant, hell he barely enjoyed his own life. But what else was for them? Starting over on another world? That was insane, where would they begin? How would they find a world to call their new home. There were far too many unknowns and it's not like he had that knowledge to do anything.
"So suffer entire annihilation rather than risk running away and living, that's really it?"
Juro's mouth began to speak but as he did the door was knocked on. "Sir, message from command." The voice of a soldier coming through the thin metal easily.
"I hear you, i'll be down immediately." The soldier's boots could be heard moving away from the door as Juro sighed. "We'll talk later. Try and rest and stay alert, I can say with some certainty that someone from high command might treat you as a threat and try to remove you."
He knew he shouldn't say these things, but there was a real possibility. Even the smallest possible chance of becoming a threat to the establishment was dealt with in a most brutal or silent fashion.
Chi-Chi's head fell back against the wall with a slight clang. She'd had enough of this for now. "Just… get out."
Shaking her head she watched as Juro left her room gifting her with some peace and quiet. Though before she had even tried to stand up and find any food there was another knock on her door. "What?" She said annoyed looking at the door before a low growl could be heard.
"Open the fucking door before I blow this place to hell Chi-Chi…"
She shot up from her cot and came over to the door, opening it up expecting to see the saiyans voice to whom she knew it belonged to. Instead she was blasted with the foulest odor that she had ever breathed in. "Oh god-!" She coughed, one hand covering her mouth and nose only to have the door thrown open.
A dark long eyed stare was on the saiyans face. He looked as if he had aged by years with how sullen his eyes were. The lines of stress were there, but Chi-Chi was overwhelmed by his stench! "Oh god, what the hell Kakarot you absolutely reek!" Practically gagging at the smell.
The saiyan quickly trapped Chi-Chi against the wall making her eyes water as she covered her nose and mouth with both hands. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused me?" He dropped his hand to look directly into her eyes. "I feared that you were dead, captured by this planet's population spending the last two days without a moment's rest looking for you." His words were a restrained growl, "In order to make sure you weren't hurt I just waded through a sea of this planet's shit to get to you."
He was so close to her now, she could see the visible reflection of herself in those trembling obsidian gems of his. "Then what do I come and find when I enter this city?"
Inhaling deeply through his nose, Kakarot's fingers curling against the metal of her thin walls. "I find that not only are you, just absolutely fine… but in fact you have become some sort of living idol. A holy person, so I will ask you one time. Just what the fuck is going on, and secondly do you have some way to remove this foul odor because i'm going to lose my mind and just slaughter this entire city if I can't breathe again!"
His voice becoming a raspy as he struggled to maintain his own methodical pace of breathing. Trying to breathe through his nose was torture and the offensive air around him was making his throat sore. He had cleaned himself twice, using whatever he could find.
Scrubbing, scrubbing, it never ended! He just continued to smell and every single moment he was to remain basking in the scent of other beings shit was driving him insane.
Chi-Chi moved one of her hands and pointed to the shower. "Go and give me the capsules. I know you have them."
Whatever semblance of relief she might've had at seeing Kakarot again was quickly drowned in that smell of his.
[***]
An hour later, Chi-Chi was working her hands in with a thick industrial grade soap. It was the stuff she used to clean battle armor, but she needed to use something help her. Kakarot was sitting on a small stool facing the wall as Chi-Chi still wearing her little clothing was cleaning him. Doing her due diligence to make him bearable.
But she did deep down feel good to have Kakarot here with her, no matter how much of a crass jerk he was. He was here and had come to save her, perhaps out of fear of his father, yet she couldn't say much to the level he had gone through to make sure she was alright. She could tell based on the lines on his chest how high he had been wading through that filth.
Her mouth covered by a rebreather actually helped as she slowly trickled water onto his head and down his body. Running the soap up and over his body with a sponge. While she could have Kakarot do it himself he might risk flinging the soap everywhere and she wanted none of that on her or near her.
She was currently scrubbing his back down and as she kneeled behind him she had been able to see how much he had calmed own. "Take this and clean your own waist, scrub thoroughly but gently," Chi-Chi's voice muffled by the mask she was wearing as she poured a handful of soap into Kakarot's palm. Which surprisingly he took without question and began to clean himself.
Kakarot released a sigh, "You have no idea how relieved I am to have found you." His head turning slightly back towards her and for a moment he gave her a relaxed look. "I'm sure you think I only wanted to find you because of what my father would do to me if I didn't come back with you." She nodded back at him and he returned the gesture before continuing, "It was one of the reasons, but I also admit I do like having you around Chi-Chi, you're different and nothing like Nevah, Viv, or even Hellah."
"Just me? Or my cooking?" Chi-Chi added sarcastically as she finished cleaning up his back.
He chuckled and let his shoulders shrug, "I suppose that was also in there, but that's just another reason why I wouldn't want to lose you. But you have spirit and you continue to just surprise me, I mean after that little sight of your battle I wasn't sure to make of it. I mean granted these are weak beings but you fought alone against almost a thousand and came out unhurt and inspired these fools into believing you are a divine being." Kakarot almost laughed, "That's something that I have to respect, hell i'm sure if I told my father he'd be surprised… I mean I didn't know you had that kind of real warrior spirit inside of you? Where has that been?" The saiyan watched Chi-Chi's covered fast look away, he was confused as she seemed displeased by his words. There was nothing for her to be upset about, he approved completely. "Are you upset about that or ashamed by your actions?"
"I'm not upset at what I did, it's just in that moment I didn't care. I wanted to stop those people from dying. I put myself in the position of those people not to long ago when my parents made that charge into a group of aliens butchering innocent people. I just go so angry with the military and just watching such pointless suffering I snapped, whether I lived or died I just had to do what needed to be done. Even though I killed a lot of soldiers and I'm against killing. Probably going to tell me about the hypocrisy right," She rolled her eyes towards him. "Tell me how foolish I was for trying to save some people only to end up killing them myself." There was no Kakarot smirk though, no quirky laugh in response. Kakarot just gave her the same calm reply.
"Considering I pretty much put myself through similar shoes for your sake Chi-Chi, I don't think I have room to talk right now, and I don't care. I just want to clean up, rest and then finish this damn job and go home. I've had enough of this for one lifetime already." Admitting honestly that it had been quite the ordeal for him. Because of his own naive and lax nature had caused all of this, blaming Chi-Chi wasn't right because he was the one in charge, it was his choices and decisions that had led to all of this from the beginning.
Chi-Chi hid her small smile as she rinsed off his back. The silence filling the room as the saiyan cleaned his private areas and she finished cleaning his legs though she had to shift position and sit beside him. While she had cleaned Kakarot up much like this after his fight with Broly, this was a bit different to be actively washing him.
Her hands were on his thighs, though she wasn't looking at his face she could feel him looking at her. But if she had tried to ignore it, Kakarot placed a hand over her own. She stopped as his hand curled over her fingers just holding her hand.
His wet fingers squeezing her palm as his face filled with relief and then he did the damnedest thing. His lips pulled up and he smiled at her, he moved from the stool to kneel in front of her. Bringing an arm around her back and holding her around the back of her waist.
Chi-Chi ws stuck, a blush streaking across her face as she felt the wet and slightly chilly fingers wrap around her bare back. The action not seemingly intimate as much as relief to him. "I… I just am glad to know that you're alright," Kakarot said tiredly as he just held her close, his mind had been stressed unlike any other time before for him. The fear, shame, and uncertainty of his future would finally be able to be put to rest.
This woman was something else, "I know I've been a jerk to you Chi-Chi in the past, so let me actually apologize for that."
Okay, wow he's apologizing and not in a sarcastic manner? I guess he truly was worried about me. Though taken back by the gesture, it didn't stop her from appreciating it. "Hey, it's alright. I'm happy to see you as well," She patted his back, feeling him just almost go limp. "How about you just rest and we can figure something out." Not that she couldn't use the rest herself, but if Kakarot was acting like this she could imagine he hadn't slept in probably two straight days and running full bore probably wasn't the best for both of them.
Kakarot shook his head, "we can rest another time." They were still in a precarious position, risk wouldn't be eliminated until they were off this rock. "I'll call the squad here, they can provide a distraction and we'll just blow a hole right up and out this section before they can react and get us out of here. I'm sure they will be more than ready to get us out of here."
He tried to stand but Chi-Chi held him for a moment, "Wait…" Recognizing that tone, that voice, she was going to ask him to do something that he could not do.
"Please don't kill all of these people. Just… just let them take a ship and leave. Then you won't have to slaughter them, most of them are just low class workers, people who don't have any free will or choice. They aren't any risk to you and they won't come back."
Kakarot took a full breath in, I knew she would ask. "Chi-Chi, this is something I simply can't do and I am not going to ask them to simply leave because they could possibly use that as an opportunity to do something more foolish and go to orbit and wait for us to leave in our pods. Then when we are up in space they would be able to destroy us when we leave. There is just to much risk for everyone involved and this military is fanatical, they could say they are loading up civilians and then board up with all of their own personnel and we would still end up at the same situation except there would a fairly weak, but potential threat."
She let her hand wrap around his back, "Please, give me a chance to save them. Just a single chance to do this for myself. If they don't listen then I won't stop you."
Just a single opportunity, to save thousands of lives. Lives that mattered more to the regular everyday person as opposed to the upper echelons of this world. She might've been raised to be a princess, a leader, and a fighter, but she had never surrendered her humanity…
'Chi-Chi, this world tells you that we are superior, because we have many things, but that is all that they are, they are merely things. Your father and I have power, and that because of this we are the ones who deserve things. That is not the truth, because your father and I were not rich before we met, we did not inherit our status. Like every other single person out there, we became who we were because others gave us a chance. They believed in us, and it is why i want you try and believe in everyone you meet. Try and see the good in everyone. Okay my darling?'
It was a lesson she remembered well, it was only a month before Earth was attacked and she lost everything because her parents went back to save others, because they believed that every life had value and that someone like them could grow if only given the slightest of chances.
The physical and mental exhaustion had taken its toll as the saiyan thought about it for a moment. There was too much stress for one mission so he did something even more unexpected. "Alright, I'll give you an hour. But you won't be more than an arm's reach from me."
Chi-Chi felt herself smile, feeling a sense of joy that she might be able to really make a difference. "Thank you." Squeezing him tightly before letting go of him and he released her. "That's all I should probably need. Just let me get dressed. Although… what are you going to wear? They'll know your a saiyan."
"You worry about your end. I'll handle my own. Alright?"
[***]
"She's already calling on large groups of lower class refugee's to board the Nostramo, it's going into a frenzy as people are abandoning their homes and possessions and gather at the starport." The newest information brought back by one of the runners was alarming. The young officer standing in front of several captains, one of them Imzou and a general of the city. "She's not calling for any violence but says if anyone tries to stop her from taking people from the world she will not hesitate to repeat what she did back on the arid highway."
"This is absurd, why in the hell are they listening to her!?" They had expected some fantics to follow her, it was just the way of the weak to follow the strong but, "She's a sister of course, though what kind of fucking shit is she pulling to convince such a large group of people to do what she is asking?" One of the captains balked at the mere influence she had.
"Well, sir, The Matron is claiming the spirits have spoken to her and anyone who wishes to live will board and follow her to a new life. People are so enraptured by her presence as she's capable of flight without any sort of vehicle… and the agent we sent to silence her was caught by one of her fanatics only fueling the mob to follow her and push away from our command."
"How the hell did they catch him? He had been following her like so many of those despits out there, how could anyone have known! Did Juro leak that information to her?" Imozu's voice was almost shouting, this had been a dangerous gamble to let her start walking around and getting the rabble up in arms.
"I don't believe so, Juro was at the starport apparently trying to calm everyone down. He wasn't even near her, it was some man in a large blue cloak. He just caught him as he tried to approach Ochi and then threw him into the masses which tore him to pieces."
"Damn! Damn! We can't lose that many people, it'll cripple the city. It's already bad enough the fucking sanitation wing fucking imploded from influx. We have to end this…" his tone dropping into a heavy realization. "Finish this before she leaves this world with what we need to start rebuilding once we deal with these damn aliens!"
The general just lit a fresh cigar he pulled from his pocket. "Use an orbital cannon on her, I don't care about the outrage. If she convinces that many people to board a ship it'll undermine all of our fucking authority. We'll have to run the risk of a damn civil revolt in our own city though. I want to suppress whatever is left after. However, I want this situation dealt with now!"
Chi-Chi had her hands raised up into the air, calling out to the masses of people who looked up at her as if she were truly divine. Though the act of flight was simple, it wasn't easy wearing all this heavy power armor.
People were awestruck, their eyes wide and mouths open. Hands raising upwards towards the holy matron mother who called to them.
Except one of the massive cannon towers that was normally pointed upwards had slowly rotated around towards their direction. The ends of the weapon were designed to bring down spacecraft that were outside of the planet's orbit, using against ships caused devastating results. The raw power alone could level an entire city block, buildings and terrain flattened within a matter of seconds.
The operator of the massive cannon zeroed in on his sights as ordered by his commander he targeted the woman in the air, her words calling out to another group of desperate people a small walk from the industrial space port that people were flooding in to and the guards were uncharacteristically not following the orders of their higher superiors but of a single officer who had gathered loyal followers to the holy mother and secured the launch station as there would be a sign for him to evacuate soon.
"Target acquired," The gunner said looking through the huge computer sight picture. It barely showed Chi-Chi in the reticle as the targeting circle was almost fifty meters. Sliding his hand to the fire controls which slowly wrapped around a large lever and pulled downwards.
Huge coils churned to life as a burst of power was sent pouring through the massive cannon. It's short barrel was like a radar dish with a four meter wide snub nose, it's energies turning the outer edges of the weapon a light purple as a massive surge of power was being readied.
"Fire the weapon immediately and send in a suppression squad. We'll claim fanatics in our organization attempted to suppress the masses but inadvertently killed the matron mother." The general watching the video feed from the weapon as the bars alongside the screen rose upwards like a stereo system. All of them climbing up to the top and releasing a loud ringing sound, audible stating they were fully charged.
"Firing, now!" The gunner clicked the trigger and a massive burst of energy ripped outwards from the cannon heading directly towards the soon to be obliterated holy mother and her foolish masses.
The entire crowd erupted into a terrified shriek as the discharging weapon was fired practically point blank range. No amount of power armor would be enough to save Chi-Chi from this blast, and she couldn't summon any ki energy to hope of even even slowing it.
Her eyes went wide as the blast moved in slow motion towards her, the blinding flash of energy that was ten times the size of her own body. Chi-Chi couldn't even scream as she felt the heat ready to wash over her.
A thunderous explosion blew the entire area into rubble, all of the people gathered around her were wiped clean, buildings and structures were flattened for a quarter of a mile of the impact leaving a crater just as deep as an entire section of the starport was decimated as well, sparing those that were already on the ships. Those still trying to gather themselves up inside were thrown from the hurricane force winds into the air like they were ragdolls. Killing some when they connected back with the ground.
City blocks vanished from the devastating strike, the casualties were in the tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives lost. But in a city near tens of millions, it wasn't even a real dent in the population.
"Holy shit! Did you see that Borsos!?" Sugesh had been flying in the area waiting for Kakarot's orders to dive down and obliterate this fortified city with the entire squad.
"What the fuck? Why did they blow up their own city, the damn fanatical bastards."
Tora and Fasha who were overhead monitoring as well looked at each other. There wasn't room to question what might've happened. "Go in, blow the damn defenses to hell, Fasha will look for Kakarot and the caretaker. Hard and fast, send them into chaos."
"Roger." "Copy"
The four saiyan purge team descended down upon the city, its defenders and guards all thrown into confusion by the self extermination unknowingly created by the upper echelon of command had no one looking out for the true threat.
"That was a hit sir, she's dead." The gunner stated as the scanning gear wasn't picking up any readings, though it would be difficult he could tell that he had struck her with the powerful cannon. Though they couldn't confirm as the cameras and surveillance was mostly destroyed with the blast. They would have to send a unit out be sure.
"Well, it worked out. Send in two regiments to quell the chaos and get that lieutenant from Imozu to start kicking people off of those damn ships and send them back to their-"
A tremendous shockwave nearly collapsed the entire building as everyone inside was thrown about. Windows exploded and the lights exploded, the systems computers shutting down as the entire command staff was rocked.
"What the hell was that!? Did you fire the damn weapon again?" The general's confused tone turning to anger as he tried to rationalize what had just happened.
Several more explosions tore through the building as the entire column quickly began to lean to one side.
"What the hell is going on!?" Another voice screamed in panic. It quickly descended into everyman for himself, control was lost as the building continued to lean until gravity took over and it fell crushing all of those inside in a tomb of rubble.
Tora the saiyan who had just destroyed the command staff unknowingly held his hand up to his scouter to radio Fasha. "Did you find them?"
He'd sent her to the last known location of Kakarot, since he had confirmed that he had Chi-Chi in his possession and was planning a diversion so that they could get out of the city without drawing the attention to the massed anti air defenses of the city that were completely thrown into disarray with the partial destruction caused internally.
The saiyan purger went to the impact site and found easily what she was looking for. Though it wasn't in any shape to be doing a sort of rescue.
Kakarot was on the ground, his hands wrapped tightly around something like a ball. But his back was almost blown open, the skin was burned severely down to almost nothing but the muscle.
"Kakarot? Hey wake up you damn runt!" Fasha shouted as she made her way over towards him, her hands avoiding the blood soaked back and touched his arm. Which was firmly locked around something. A bulky mess of metal armor tipped with silver arrow accents was gripped in his arms as Fasha looked and saw a female head pressed against Kakarot's chest.
Both of them were unconscious as Fasha could tell based on their current position that Kakarot had jumped in the way of the blast to apparently save Chi-Chi. "He's out cold, badly injured… but he'll make it."
"And Bardock's Caretaker. "Fine, she's out cold but no worse for wear."
"Well fuck it aint perfect but it'll do." Tora replied with some relief though as he did, several massive bulky transport ships took off from the space station.
The saiyans looking at them for a moment but idly shrugged, "We'll clear this area up first then go after those lumbering things… they won't get far."
Though from the bridge of the one the ships a young red headed officer stood looking down at slowly shrinking city. His hand pressed upon the glass as he could only imagine what had happened down there, although remorseful that the holy matron Ochi probably had died. She had been right, everyone would've died had they remained as the city was put under attack by the alien invaders.
Clenching a fist over his heart, the young man bowed his head and gave praise to the woman who had given everything for the people and him as well. "Thank you Holy Mother… Thank you… I promise we'll live for you. Just like you wanted us to do. I was blessed to have met you and everyone else. We will make sure not to waste this opportunity you have given us."
…
The saiyans never did get around to blowing up those ships as the tattered Steel reserves filtered out of their destroyed city to engage in a final pitched battle that was futile. Their attention diverted, no one except Kakarot and Chi-Chi were aware of the millions of lives that were spared by Chi-Chi's pure heart.
R&R
Kerghan
(Don't forget about Happygochi)