Chapter 21 – Mirror Images
Both Saiyan representatives of the two universes stepped forward onto the arena, squaring off against the other while patiently waiting for the gong to signal the start.
"The next contestant to challenge Universe Seven's contestant Vegeta is Universe Six's Contestant Cabba!" The referee hollered down his microphone, revving up the tension unnecessarily. The crowds of Universes Six and Seven all had their eyes peeled on the two smaller dots upon the ring, waiting with bated breath to hear the sound of the gong, waiting for the match to officially start.
"I wonder what the Saiyans of the other universe will be like?" Tenshinhan mumbled quietly.
"Only one way to find out," Krillin responded with a gulp. "… He doesn't look very strong but knowing our luck…"
"Do you think your dad will be ok?" Videl asked Corset quietly, getting a shrug of the shoulders as a response. Truthfully Corset wasn't sure how her father would handle this, being the representative prince of the race from their universe and not having many other Saiyans around him. Sure there was Tarble (her uncle) and there was Goku but that was it. All the other Saiyans were dead. In Universe Six, it seemed that the Saiyan race was going from strength to strength, or at least no mention had been made that their race had suffered the same fate as those of her universe.
"It's strange but… that Saiyan reminds me of Goku as a kid," Yamcha smiled. "Something about the stance and the air he gives… but then he doesn't have a tail like Goku did."
"Maybe he got it removed?" Puar suggested.
"Maybe."
Cabba lowered himself into a very familiar stance, one that passed a shiver across Corset's body. 'He stands just like Dad…' He had it spot-on, disturbingly accurate considering their chance encounter.
The gong reverberated across the dome. Cabba went on the offensive. His moves felt familiar, each strike was predictable even if she couldn't tell exactly what he'd lead with all the time. It felt as if she were watching a battle she'd seen and been in millions of times before. Her father seemed to be dealing well with parrying and dodging Cabba's moves, albeit Vegeta's own attacks were also being countered. One strike successfully caught Vegeta by surprise as Cabba lodged his fist into the prince's stomach.
"He got him!" Trunks gasped.
"Don't get carried away!" Vegeta snapped, catching Cabba's hands and throwing them out wide, leaving the Universe Six Saiyan wide open to a false drop-kick, Vegeta's other leg rising instead to force the Saiyan back several feet. Cabba didn't lose balance, merely skidded back on his heels before regaining control, dropping to one knee.
"He's tired already?" Yamcha raised an eyebrow. "I realise who he's up against but after just one successful hit…?"
"I wouldn't be so sure," Master Roshi responded. "Let's just watch and see."
"Out of stamina already?" Vegeta asked, a smile having crept across his face.
Cabba brought both hands to his left, cupping them in such a way that made Corset's jaw drop in shock. Cabba's hands were in exactly the same position as her father's hands whenever he was using the Galick Gun – and obviously that hadn't escaped her father's notice!
"Go!" Cabba hollered out, firing the familiar purple beam of light towards his target. It struck – it surprisingly stuck Vegeta! But the Prince wasn't struggling. On the contrary, he countered with his own energy blast, the two now duelling it out trying to overpower the other.
"Their attacks look the same to me!" Soba hollered over the noise.
"That's because they really are the same!" Corset cried back towards him, part of her infuriated with his unnecessary comments. Everyone could see it was the same thing, why was he choosing to be vocal about it – and why was her bladder being assaulted from the inside? "Damn it, of all the times to need to pee!" She didn't care how crude she came across, she was far too preoccupied waiting for the moment where her father won the struggle. Annoyingly both Saiyans seemed to instead choose to cancel their attacks simultaneously.
"Let's get serious," Vegeta declared. "We're evenly matched in our regular forms."
'Liar,' Corset snapped internally. 'You just don't want to show off your actual power yet!'
"Hurry up and transform into a Super Saiyan!" Vegeta barked.
The demand seemed to cause some surprise to Cabba. "… That's the transformation you and the other one did before, isn't it?"
"Good, then you understand," Vegeta nodded, crossing his arms across his chest. "Now hurry up and transform."
'Can he transform?' Corset wondered.
"… I can't," Cabba responded regretfully.
What?" Vegeta's face dropped. "You aren't able to transform?"
"No, I'm afraid I can't…" Cabba shook his head. Suddenly his stance stiffened. "Please, will you teach me how?"
'Fat chance,' Corset's lower lip jutted out. 'He wouldn't even teach me how to do it and I'm his kid! He didn't even help Trunks! Like he's going to teach some random stranger…' She paused and rested her hand on her stomach, wondering if her baby would one day be able to make the transformation. It wasn't going to be an easy thing to teach, especially with the emotional turmoil that came with accessing it for the first time. Would she be able to withstand seeing her child be put under such horrific pressure like that… and was she prepared to be the cause of it?
"For the sake of my family who is waiting for me back on Planet Salad," Cabba continued, "I need to get stronger and bring peace to the universe."
Her father seemed to either have a headache or was trying hard not to smack this other Saiyan clean between the eyes. "… We are in the middle of a battle right now…"
"Oh hell no, is he seriously going to teach him?" Corset's words had spewed from her mouth before she'd even registered them. "You… You! You absolute, unbelievable, evil, moronic asshole! You left Trunks and I to figure it out for ourselves and now you're going to help this guy? I will smack you in the face!"
"Corset!" Bulma protested, rising from her sitting position. "Don't put your father off from the match and do not use such language in front of the kids!"
"It's ok; I've got Pan's ears covered," Videl chimed in.
"Corset's mad," Marron mused. "She used a bad word. Will she have no food before bedtime?"
"Yes," Eighteen nodded, glaring over towards the heavily pregnant woman. "If she's unlucky enough, her baby will come out and tell her off too."
"Ouchie!" Marron giggled.
"Goten knows better than to bring those words into this family," Chichi scolded, one eye passing towards her youngest son who was doing a good job of avoiding it.
"I really don't care about letting a few minor words out right now, is this actually happening or not?" Corset snapped back, eyes pinned to the ring. "How else am I going to know how angry I need to be at this man?"
"How disappointing this is to see a Saiyan begging to be taught how to transform in the midst of battle…" Vegeta grumbled, his aura picking up. "You… you still dare to call yourself a Saiyan?" With a howl, he transformed into a Super Saiyan, the look of anger on his face forcing Cabba to take a step back.
'… You bastard,' Corset gritted her teeth. 'How predictable do you have to get?'
Vegeta launched into an offensive, completely dominating over the regular Saiyan, launching a fist into his solar plexus. In a flash Vegeta was behind him, smacking a fist into Cabba's cheek, sending him shooting towards the other side of the arena. Within another moment, Vegeta had caught up in flight and overtaken him, pounding him with a barrage of attacks too fast for Cabba to deal with.
"Why's Vegeta suddenly acting like this?" Bulma was growing concerned.
"Because he's trying to push Cabba into transforming," Corset answered unfazed by her father's sudden display of aggression. "It's a basic method he's using but it'll probably work… if the Saiyans of Universe Six can transform."
"So beating the living daylights out of him is going to make him transform?" Soba raised an eyebrow. "Torture makes you transform? That's pretty grim."
"It's… it's more than that," Corset shook her head. "It's not just physical torture… the transformation is triggered by emotional stress more than anything. It's created by a need to transform, not a desire to do so. You have to need it, you have to be that far into a corner where nothing else will work – and even then, there's no guarantee you'll be able to access it. It's not a reliable source of getting out of tight spaces, think of the thousands upon thousands of Saiyans who have died in battle without ever being able to transform. It's only now in the last decade and a half or so that any Saiyan has been able to achieve it in the numbers we have… If Dad doesn't play this right, he could end up killing Cabba and getting himself disqualified."
"What?" Bulma looked more horrified than before. "Vegeta can't do that! We need him to keep on fighting! He's only got one more person after this guy!"
"… I never knew how dark that transformation was," Soba took a large gulp, eyes still on his pregnant girlfriend. "I can't believe you went through something like that."
"It was simulated, it's fine," Corset flat panned. "If anything I was probably more fortunate that it was Goku and not my dad… Goku's nicer."
Vegeta was still continuing his assault, striking Cabba into the air with a single kick. "With that level of fighting, how could you even think about participating in this tournament?"
Cabba's mouth opened, muttering something as he fell towards the tiles. Corset couldn't make it out but could take an educated guess. Her father snatched the Saiyan out of the air, holding him by his shirt. The chilling message he uttered next told her all she needed to know:
"If you even think about surrendering then I will kill you."
"Papa!" Trunks gasped. "You can't! Come on, snap out of it!"
"He's not serious, Trunks," Corset butted in. "He's trying to find whatever he needs to say to make Cabba transform."
"Whilst what you're saying makes sense, I can't help but feel a little apprehensive over this," Krillin wasn't as confident. "… He may not be evil now but I still wouldn't put it past Vegeta to slip up every now and then. We are due another midlife crisis killing from him."
The latter comment earned him a fist to the skull from Bulma. "Don't even joke about this!" She snapped. "My husband is not going to kill anyone! He's past that! He's better than that!"
A yellow ball of energy started to form in Vegeta's free hand, Corset feeling her heart thumping harder than before, ignoring the increasing pressure in her abdomen. The Saiyan Prince was getting ready to fire it at his captive, Cabba looking as if he were a defeated man. This was the moment, it was now or never. "I will finish this now. When I'm done with you, I'll go to Planet Salad and I will blow it up! Your family will also be slaughtered!"
The energy attack was slapped to the side, knocked clean from Vegeta's hands. Surprised, the Saiyan Prince of Universe Seven released his opponent. Cabba's body had the familiar golden hue surrounding it, the final straw having been struck within his mind. Corset could see the logic in her father's actions, knew exactly where he'd planned to go with it. She'd concluded that the reason Saiyans had historically struggled to get themselves out of mortal danger was because of how oppressed their emotions and ties to one another typically were. If her father's attitude in her early life was anything to go by, their lack of care for others' lives and therefore the missing reasons to keep on going were what hindered their powers. Sure, her father's transformation had been triggered by rage towards himself but more often than not, the way their group had managed to access their Super Saiyan forms was through fear of loss.
Cabba was currently in that world, fearing the loss of all those he cared about, fearing the loss of those he was striving to protect. His body was reacting.
"Keep Planet Salad out of this!" The Saiyan sneered, the glint in his eyes there. Still he wasn't quite hitting the mark; the hue was there but the physical transformation still hadn't taken place. He needed more of a push. "If you do anything to Planet Salad… If you do anything to my family…"
'Almost there,' Corset shifted forward in anticipation.
"I will…. NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Cabba's aura burst free, his life force racing higher and higher. The ground below his feet cracked and crumbled as his aura rose, the golden hue of his hair forming within an instant. The crack of the shockwave struck the spectators, forcing a couple of them to protect themselves from the force being emitted.
"I don't believe it!" Krillin cried. "He did it!"
"I will never forgive you," Cabba repeated, glaring at his apparently calm opponent. "I will absolutely never forgive you!" He was off, launching a punch clean into Vegeta's waiting palms. The shock of the hit sent the Saiyan Prince shooting back across the tiles on his heels, electricity dancing above them, further charged by the atmosphere. Cabba continued his offensive, racing towards his foe and continuing to launch out his fists. The impact and speed of his attacks had risen, as expected. What Corset hadn't expected to see was just how much her father was on the defensive and wasn't attacking back.
"He's being pushed back," Yamcha sounded worried. "He's actually being pushed back!"
"Come on, Vegeta!" Bulma hollered loudly. "You show that scrawny little kid what you're made of!"
"You can do it, Papa!" Trunks cheered.
Vegeta ducked under Cabba's fists, tripping him with a clean sweep – Cabba's boots connected simultaneously with Vegeta's spine, kicking him several feet up into the air.
'Ride it out,' Corset glanced up, following her father's trajectory. 'The initial burst will wear off. Ride it out, Dad.'
Her eyes widened at the awe of Cabba's speed. The Saiyan was suddenly waiting for Vegeta, slamming his fists into the older Saiyan's back. With a holler, Cabba started to rapidly fire energy blasts down after the falling Saiyan. The first struck, engulfing the ring floor with thick, acrid smoke and dust. Each explosion knocked Vegeta's stamina, each strike knocking him back from retaliating.
"This is insane!" Master Roshi cried. "That Saiyan's actually overwhelming Vegeta!"
"He reminds me of a certain someone when he used to get angry!" Krillin spluttered.
"Yeah," Corset nodded in agreement, "Too bad that certain someone isn't here to see how much of a pain he can be!"
Cabba's stamina seemed to know no bounds as he continued his rapid fire attack, not faltering or slowing down. Unfortunately for him, this was where his domination ended, as Vegeta finally lashed out with a swipe of his hand, forcing all incoming energy blasts to explode mid-air. The ring and arena were lit up with a blinding flash of light, Corset having to shield her eyes. The explosion of energy momentarily made it difficult to sense out her father or Cabba's life forces; she had no way of knowing what was going on.
When her vision did return, she was surprised to find Cabba's fist had connected clean with her father's forehead… but whether the attack hadn't affected him or if Cabba had been stopped in his tracks, her father was standing with a smile on his face.
"That's good," Vegeta grinned. "Don't forget that feeling."
The move seemed to have knocked Cabba into submission because the Super Saiyan transformation vanished, leaving him back in his regular form. He removed his fist from Vegeta's forehead, taking a step back onto the ring.
"Super Saiyan becomes possible through anger," Vegeta went on. "Don't forget that feeling."
Cabba took a while to respond. "… Right, of course."
"Try and transform again," Vegeta instructed. Cabba seemed uncertain, which only earned him an earache as Vegeta snapped, "I said transform! Don't make me repeat myself!"
"Y-Yes!" Cabba spluttered back. His ki shifted as he began to focus, energy rising. With a howl he transformed once more, surprising the spectators of either Universes.
"That was well controlled…" Corset muttered.
"You appear to have some talent," Vegeta smiled.
"You were being cruel to make me transform, weren't you?" Cabba asked.
Vegeta nodded. Without uttering a word, his body suddenly went under another transformation, his life force unaltered despite the dramatic change in appearance. His hair had gone from golden to the familiar blue shade of the Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan state. "This is the latest Saiyan transformation. It's called Super Saiyan Blue. If you continue training, you'll be able to unlock your hidden potential and come this far, too."
"I can transform into that, too?" Cabba was in awe.
Cabba's defences were non-existant as Vegeta drove his fist into the smaller Saiyan's stomach. The single hit knocked the Super Saiyan out of him, Cabba falling to the ground in a ball.
"Don't ever forget this pain," Vegeta warned.
The referee rushed over to check Cabba over. Corset sighed and rose, knowing exactly how this match had ended. "I have to go to the loo again. Little missus in here is deciding to use my bladder as a punching bag."
"Right now?" Bulma asked incredulously.
"Dad's won," Corset replied cooly, turning on her heels and leaving the soft furnishings below. As she made her way over to the toilet block, she heard the announcer declare that Cabba had been defeated by knock-out, awarding Vegeta with another win.
She'd have to be quick.