A New Path
Raditz couldn't believe he was doing this, his elbow slamming into her. He knew it had hurt her, and he howled in rage and agony. This went against everything he believed in... Can you project your thoughts like her?
I can.
I need to see them... If I don't understand what she's dealing with; then I won't have the ability to finish this fight. I know I can end it... I can crush her... What I don't understand is why I have to?! Why do I have to risk killing her?
I don't want to fight her when she finds out about this, Bardock growled.
I'll deal with her; just show them to me already!
Raditz had no idea what he was going to see... He had just figured because she was a child that her fears were exaggerated. Bardock started with the earlier visions, and each choice, each decision would either improve or worsen what was going to happen. It was the ones while she was with Yamcha that had been the worst. He flinched when he saw what had happened to everyone, starting with the children, then her...
His hair flickered, golden highlights starting to show. Pepper jumped back... Something was happening to him, and when she glanced at Bardock she knew... "Bardock stop!"
"He has a right to see it; they all do." Her eyes widened when Bardock used the link that she had with them; she saw the fear and horror on their faces. It seemed Master Roshi was the only one that remained unwavering. He had already seen them, and they all watched as she glanced away, her expression pained.
"I never wanted them to know, Bardock. Why would you let them see those?"
"To make them understand why you're so determined to risk your life for them. Raditz cannot give you what you want if he believes that he's hurting you on a whim."
"This fight is over," she whispered, but as she started to announce her withdrawal, Raditz charged and slammed her against the ground, his hand pulsing with energy.
The ground continued to sink beneath her, and she whimpered. "You're going to admit the winner, Pepper," he snarled. "Until you do, this fight won't end." His eyes had turned completely green... and with more pressure, she was starting to lose consciousness. "Are you satisfied," he growled. "Is this enough to convince you?" It should have been, but it wasn't, and she gathered her remaining strength and wrapped her tail around his and pulled him away from her. Paling, he tried to stand, but she had him, and he collapsed as she stood, wiping the blood from her lip. "Pepper... This is beneath you!"
"I had my tail crushed once... Do you know how hard it is to rip it out? It took two days... It hurt that bad. I kept thinking that if I could get used to the pain, it would prepare me for what Frieza had planned."
Raditz had never felt anything like this... all of his energy was gone; held by her tail as she climbed out of the hole he had put her in. "Did you honestly think a cracked rib would change my mind about Frieza?" He saw the energy forming in the palm of her hand... Kneeling, he watched her hand settle on his arm... He had to move... if she released that attack, it was going to cause a lot of damage. A single tear slid down her face; "I'm sorry," she whispered, and just as she started to release the attack, he managed to trip her with his hand, her tail releasing him. Rolling away from her, he gasped, pale and shaken that he had come so close to losing.
The tears, to his surprise, kept falling. She was the one that had wanted this fight, so why... "You're still holding back... Just let me walk away, Raditz. Fighting you at this point is a waste of time."
He had no idea what was worse... The images of Frieza and his team ripping her and the others apart... Or the disappointment in her face as she once again tried to withdraw. Standing, he cleared his mind. He just hoped when this was over, that she wasn't dead. I have a senzu bean left... If she tells them that she quits, this fight will end and we won't get her back. Damn it Raditz, stop her!
Pepper opened her mouth, but a blow to her side sent her rolling and sliding towards the edge of the arena. Just when she was about to cross, Raditz stopped her, his tail lifting her off the ground and holding her up. "Say it, Pepper."
The audience was standing on their feet, waiting, holding their breaths as neither fighter allowed the other to quit. Several times they thought it was about to end, and then the other would make a surprising recovery. Raditz's hesitation to hurt her had cost him, but it seemed he was finally treating her like he would any other enemy. This was the Soldier... the killer that decimated anything in his path. Placing his hand against her stomach, he released pulse after pulse of energy. She had no way of avoiding it, and he started to sense that something was off when she didn't deflect or shield against it.
"Say it," he snarled. She was barely conscious, her hands wrapped around his wrists. Her strength was rapidly fading, and with a surge of raw power, she sent it into him. Raditz felt like every nerve and muscle in his body was on fire, and she didn't stop until all of her power had been released and they were falling to the ground. Collapsing, the two fighters didn't move, struggling to breathe, the countdown going. He tried to push himself back up, but that last attack had done a lot of damage. She wasn't doing any better, her eyes opening and shutting. Pepper wasn't getting back up.
"One... Two... Three..." The announcer continued until he hit 10, but neither fighter was standing. "Folks, due to the rules, the winner will be decided if and when one of the fighters gets back up and admits that they're the winner. Neither one is willing to forfeit... I'm not even sure that they're able to at this point."
"Raditz get up!" Vegeta roared. "This fight won't mean a damn thing if you end in a draw! Stand back up!"
Easier said than done, he wanted to say. She wasn't even trying to stand... Pepper wanted to see if he could do it, to prove that he had what it took to keep the promise he made. He had no choice... Several times he pushed himself to a kneeling position, collapsing and gasping for air. He was close to losing... She started to close her eyes, the tears falling, and with a scream he got to his feet. "Say the words damn it!"
"You win," she whispered.
He sank to his knees and covered his face. That one victory... He didn't know why it was making him so emotional, but when she finally acknowledged his strength, it meant far more than anything his father or uncle could have said. Lifting her off the ground, he carried her off the fighting stage, ignoring the chant calling his name... Stopping in front of his father... "You said you could fix her; do it."
Tossing him a bean, Raditz snatched it in mid-air, his father turning and walking away. "I believe that's your job, kid." And in a flash, he was gone. Feeding her the bean, Master Roshi handed him the last one he had in his bag. It was as if Bardock had known how many they would need, not a single one going to waste.
"Do you think they're a linked pair?" Vegeta asked, sitting in his spaceship. He had needed time to think... Pepper, at eight years old, was far stronger than most adults. That hadn't been an easy win for Raditz... if they could call it that, but they would take it. Currently the two were sleeping off their fight, but that fight would affect Raditz for a long time.
"I wouldn't rule it out, but Raditz doesn't seem aware of it, nor does he care about that right now. He's focused on keeping her alive, and it's going to take him a long time to get over what he just did. While it was necessary, he did the one thing that he promised to never do. His entire way of thinking is about to change."
"How?"
"If they ever fight again... He wants to find a way to do it without trying to kill her."
"Is that even possible? That fight... I've seen a lot of official tournaments on Vegeta-sai, but to go to the extremes that I saw today... He had to force himself to forget that she wasn't a child or under our protection..."
"He's a lot stronger than you give him credit for; however, if she had had access to her telepathic abilities, he wouldn't have won."
"She didn't use them!"
"No. Apparently the new moon blocks them out; a long time ago, the Ice-jin Empire figured out that she had to have moonlight to tap into her full powers. As such, they waited until a rare eclipse of all three of our moons and destroyed the current Moon Saiya-jin that watched over us."
Later that evening, he found Raditz sitting in the kitchen, staring out the window. "You were lucky," Vegeta spoke.
He glanced at him, but remained silent as Vegeta repeated the discussion with Turles. "I see... So essentially, that fight was a hint of what we're up against. Even though I won, unless I can do it while she has full access to her telepathic abilities... It's only a partial victory."
"Raditz... I don't think you understand what you managed to accomplish today. Twice she tried to end that fight... We knew how hard it was for you, but Turles admitted that you were the only person that had a chance of convincing her that we're not chasing after a foolish fairy tale. Until the threat of Frieza is behind her, she'll never have the chance to live and enjoy her life like the rest of us. Pepper is aware that you're a ruthless killer, but that's exactly what she needs. If you weren't able to defeat the strongest person that stood between us and Frieza, then she had no way of knowing that you were strong enough to stop him anyway."
"I refuse to do that again..." He growled.
"Then find another way to neutralize her. Aren't you the one that says to plan ahead and make sure to win?"
"That was a long time ago, Vegeta. I'm surprised you were listening anyway. For a while, I thought she was as bad as you were. I changed my mind. You would have just continued to ignore me until I said something that snapped you out of whatever mood you were in. She's worse."
Kakarot, Yamcha and Krillan sat around her bed, quietly waiting until she opened her eyes. Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, gasping when the three of them hugged her at the same time. "We're sorry," they said in unison.
"For what?"
Kakarot wiped his eyes, ashamed that he had been crying. "We're the reason that you had to fight him like that. If we had taken the tournament seriously, Raditz wouldn't have had to clean up after us. He's really upset right now, and it's our fault." Kakarot was talking about Yamcha and himself. She couldn't deny it, and she had no real words of comfort for them as they tried to come to terms with what they had done.
When she entered the kitchen, Vegeta and Raditz stopped talking. With the new moon still in effect for two more days, she still had no way of knowing what they were thinking. It was awkward, and she tried to figure out if Raditz hated her or not. While she had braced herself for that possibility, it didn't sit well with her. Sliding a plate in her direction, she saw a rare steak and eggs on it. "Are you done trying to run off ?" Raditz asked.
"For now." Snatching her plate away, Pepper protested and tried to get it back. He had done it on purpose... If she had been in his head, she would have known what he was planning, but she was acting like a normal kid at the moment, jumping and reaching for the plate he kept extended over his head. "As long as I never win a fight against you; I won't run away. Can I have my food back, please?"
"I'll think about it."
Pouting, she sat in her chair and turned away from him. When her food re-appeared, she smiled and dug in. Raditz and Vegeta wished that she didn't have to see the future anymore. Even if they did have to fight Frieza, was it too much to ask that she have as normal of a life until then? The smile on her face was worth everything they had gone through; and it was while they sat in their hotel room, resting from their fight, that she laughed for the first time. To Raditz... that was priceless and he would do whatever it took to help her laugh and smile as much as she wanted. The sooner he found a way to kill Frieza, the sooner he could make that happen.
Bardock sat on the roof, amazed at how one fight could make such an impact. With her visions temporarily being blocked, she wasn't aware of the vision that was shining so brightly in his mind. Yes... she was still going to die, but there was a way to save her despite that and it had to do with the humans that were gathering to help in their war against Frieza. While Raditz was still dealing with the emotional impact of their fight, he had learned that to protect something, he had to understand what it was like to lose them. Pepper had hope... and that was all that she needed to walk away from the path that she had traveled along for eight years.
End of Part One
