Battle Plans


Raditz did very little over the next couple of days, spending most of his time sleeping. He hadn't wanted to admit it, but the emotional strain he had been under while he was in confinement had exhausted him. Sleeping without her had become an impossibility for him as well it seemed, and even when she wasn't tired, she kept close to him.

Any physical separation was painful for her, and if he tried to turn off the light, he felt an instant spike of terror in her mind. She didn't want to go back to that empty silence, even if Raditz had been there the entire time. The only time she gave him any space was if he took a shower, but she remained in the room, her back turned away from him. He did the same, but it took a lot more effort not to turn around and watch her than it did for her.

She also had another habit that he had to deal with... Unless he forced her to eat or drink, she made no effort to ask for it. He knew she felt like she was a burden to him, but he stubbornly kept her close. To allow her any time alone would only further heighten that feeling of insecurity inside of her. Once everyone was gathered back at Capsule Corporation, the survivors from Fire Mountain inside of West City, he waited in the designated war room for everyone. Tucked in a corner, Pepper kept to the shadows, and Raditz blocked her, leaning against the wall so to keep focus on him rather than her. She was struggling not to panic; while Raditz might have forgiven what she had done; there was no guarantee the others would.

Bulma and the reporter were exchanging information... Raditz was amazed at the level of information the human had; from one battle front to the next, the reporter had courageously notated everything, helping survivors, evacuating them while providing information to the world. Physically, he couldn't fight. However, he made up for it by keeping calm, using his head, and running back and forth from the front lines to those that would need his information to counter attack the Red Ribbon Army. His camera man was no different. He could have tucked tail and left the reporter on his own, but he was just as determined to see the war through.

"This is amazing!" Bulma shouted, inputting everything into her mapping and analyzer system.

Kakarot tried to get close to Pepper, but Raditz snarled at him to back off every time. She was almost invisible, and she made no move to defy or ignore Raditz's overprotective behavior. At first he thought it was because of what had happened, but she wasn't looking at anything other than his back. Her fingers were pressed against his battle armor, and he had a firm grip around her arm with his tail.

"Raditz, I'm not trying to take her from you. She's my friend and I want to see her!"

"Kakarot, stop," Bardock growled, stepping between the brothers. "I've had a feeling about her, but I wasn't certain until now. Raditz, she's not the way she was; is she?"

"No."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Raditz glanced at the reporter; "I've allowed you in here because the information you have is critical to us. However, if you have any intention of telling anyone about what I need to tell them, you can go. I cannot afford the enemy to have access to this information, and reporters by their very nature thrive on stories like hers."

"This isn't a time for entertainment or news ratings. If you need this to remain classified, then nothing you say gets written down."

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea; depending on what Bulma thinks, we can go from there. I just want to make sure you don't air what I say on every news channel the minute you hear it."

"Shouldn't we have Vegeta and Turles here," Yamcha asked.

"Bardock can relay all of this to Turles; they have their own unique bond that exists between twins. Am I wrong?" he asked his father. Bardock nodded, choosing to say nothing as Raditz continued. "Due to the fact that Vegeta is dealing with the Red Ribbon Army; until he's back, he's not to know about what's going on with Pepper. Anything else is fine."

"I've read everything that Bulma found about the Guardians and Protectors; however, what I didn't find was how if the links were severed, how we were to restore them; if that was even possible. When the Ice-jin empire destroyed the last Guardian and her moon, it was during an extremely rare eclipse. She wouldn't have been able to tap into the links she had with her remaining supporters. That leads to the heart of our current problem. Her link wasn't severed, but blocked. It would have returned after the eclipse was over, but, because she didn't have a protector, that gave her no shield or secondary link to the other Saiya-jins."

"A shield?" Bulma asked.

"I'm starting to understand what she is, but it's only because of my current link to her and how she sees things. Every Saiya-jin had a soul link to her, each one of a different color. I wanted to ask everyone in the room; even though you feel a link, did you feel a change in it?"

"I noticed it immediately," Bardock said. "Before she vanished, I could see everything that she did. However, our link was starting to weaken and I couldn't understand why I wasn't able to see the Red Ribbon Army. Up until that point, I assumed we were the same, however, that's not the case. The Karnassans wanted me to know how our race would die, just like theirs. Frieza was the cause and until he's eliminated, I will always have visions that lead up to that confrontation. When we felt the links reforge themselves, I should have been able to see those visions again, but I haven't. The links are there, but they're not to her; we're connected directly to you, and indirectly to her."

"Is that even possible?" Bulma wanted to know. "There's nothing like that in the legends on file."

"There's never been a cause for it to happen. You've read the same files that I did, Bulma. The moon guardian's sole purpose is to serve as a guide and shield for the Saiya-jins; however, she isn't invincible. That's where the Protector came into play. When she couldn't provide them with her power, he did. He wasn't affected by the moon like she was."

"There were a lot of reasons why the Ice-jins managed to destroy her. One, there were only a handful of Saiya-jins left that represented what she was... A Moon Guardian respects life, regardless if it's Saiya-jin or not. When we destroy, hurt, and kill without reason; it weakens her. The Moon Guardian no longer had the strength to stop what was going to happen, and she probably decided it was best to let it happen. Once she was gone, the Saiya-jins no longer had the connection to her to avoid enslavement. First, they took our right to mate away... Second, they forced us to train under Ice-jin law and influences rather than our own. It wasn't until we were old enough to fill their ranks as perfect Soldiers that we could return our home planet. Third, if what I read is true... all of our males were drugged, to force them into a mating frenzy without allowing them to mark the female. The cycle, for a thousand years, repeated itself, and if any female was born with a silver-tail, she was executed immediately."

The humans in the room were horrified at what they were hearing... They had heard of similar practices in some countries, and governments tried to end such atrocities. This was on an entirely different level. It had been an entire planet, not just a culture, trapped in such hopeless violence and cruelty.

"The Ice-jins must have learned that on our own, we would never harm our own females... It was an impossibility; somehow they found a way around that instinct. It started with taking every male at one year from their mothers. Everything else was simple conditioning of the mind and body. If there was no will to think or feel; it was just an extra step to apply the drug and unleash him on a female that couldn't resist or fight back."

"Why are you guys different?" Johnathon asked.

"The drugs doesn't work on black-tailed Saiya-jins the same," Bardock explained. "We felt them, but it didn't take our reasoning away; however, I knew if I didn't do what they wanted, they'd give the girl i was assigned to impregnate to someone else. Because we had a week to do what we needed to, I spent that time calming her down, telling her the stories that centered around the black tails, and why I was able to treat her differently than the other males. It was the only time anyone treated her with kindness, and it was because of it that she made a request that I couldn't ignore. For whatever reason, she wasn't able to get pregnant with anyone else, and the medical staff had plans to ensure it happened or they'd execute her if they failed. I didn't want her hurt like that, so I gave her what she wanted, and instead of allowing them to take the baby when it was old enough to process in a medical tube, she died giving natural birth."

"Saiya-jin babies," Raditz continued, "Aren't like human ones. Even at a day old, we're intelligent and dangerous. Before I was forced to leave my mother, she spent that year telling me about what happened to them, to do what I needed, and to somehow avoid becoming like the other males. She started with teaching me how to hide the color of my tail. Second, she said that only distinguished soldiers were assigned a female to impregnate. When they ripped me away from her, I couldn't do anything as they escorted her back to the labs to start the entire cycle over again. I hated the Ice-jin Empire after that, and I used that hatred to become the perfect soldier. I never lost a fight, but if it came down to letting my team die versus becoming a war hero; I always allowed them to die. They could account my surviving as pure luck, but if I saved everyone around me, they'd start to take notice and I wasn't going to let that happen."

"I never shed a single tear over the destruction of my planet. As far as I was concerned, if they were too weak to resist hurting our females, then I was fine with them being obliterated. If my mother hadn't said anything about Bardock, I would have done anything and everything to kill him the minute I arrived on Earth. Turles had stories that had me respecting Bardock instead of hating him, but that changed. He wasn't like he had been; after my mother died and his team was assassinated, he didn't do anything to help Pepper and Kakarot. He simply watched, allowing their actions or choices to decide their future. Pepper knew how all of us felt, and she knew that we had no choice but to eventually face Frieza. However, she also knew a lot of other things that could end up killing her, and her survival happened because Bardock would make a random choice that changed the result that she was after."

"What was she after?"

"Her own death; that fear was even higher when she thought about the other Saiya-jins that would die trying to save or help her. That's why she resisted Yamcha when he saved her, but his will was stronger than hers, so she gave up and let him do as he wanted. The tournament was no different; she almost died then as well, but Bardock stepped in and saved everyone, not just her."

"I have no idea if she knew that I was the one destined to become the Protector; what I do know is that I hated her for a long time after the Tournament. The Oozuru wouldn't allow me to refuse her challenge, and she wasn't going to relent until I almost killed her. That's why the fight ended in a stale mate; I couldn't give her what she wanted, and she didn't have the strength to stand back up and take the victory. It was that small victory, regardless if it was a human rule or not, that kept her from leaving all of us permanently. However, it was also the reason that I didn't want anything to do with her; other than the promise I made to keep her safe and alive, every time she ran off, I hunted her down, brought her back, and left."

The more they heard, the humans couldn't hold back the tears... Her story was beyond tragic, and it seemed it didn't end there. "She took how we were feeling and turned them against us. Pepper stopped being afraid of dying; she was searching for it. To prevent us from fighting Frieza, she wanted us to hate or distance ourselves from her, so that when the time came, she'd stand alone."

"I started to sense a change in her just before the Battle of West City. The last time I went after her, she was just sitting on a tree branch; having just freed several prisoners of war. Every time I went after her before that, she made it next to impossible to find her. There were several times I had to use our link to ferret her out, and she was rather good at finding spots that no one else could get to or fit in."

"She wasn't even surprised that I had found her; her emotions were subdued and without a word, she let me take her back to Vegeta. The next day she was gone, and the rest was stuff that you guys already know."

"How does that have to do with the links snapping?" Yamcha asked.

"How long were you staying gone, especially before the Battle of West City?" Raditz asked. Yamcha paled... Before the Battle of West City, he had lost track of time, having grown accustomed to her running off and not needing their help. She always came back alive, and he felt more comfortable away from the city and the other Saiya-jins. "What about you?" Raditz was looking at his younger brother, and he looked away, pale and hurting.

"I didn't want to fight Frieza anymore. Everything felt peaceful and safe here; I didn't understand why we had to go looking for a fight; and she said to do as I wanted, that I didn't have to live that kind of life. That's when she took me to West City to meet Bulma, and when she said cruel things, I snapped and lashed out at her. As a result, I didn't think about why she had done it, or that she had purposely caused that fight so that she wouldn't have to worry about anyone other than the Army approaching the city."

Raditz didn't try to make his brother feel any worse; they had all been taken in by the lie she had created, the false illusion that everything was fine when it was just the opposite. "She got what she wanted, and that's when I realized something had changed in her. I was wondering why Pepper wasn't running the last time I went after her... My guess is, whatever was wrong with her, had already taken root. She had just enough power left to fight off that invasion, but she hadn't planned on a reporter broadcasting it, and she hadn't counted on us to split up and conquer both forces. That never stopped her from issuing one last challenge, and not understanding what she was doing, I did exactly what she wanted and took the bait. Your anger was justified that day," Raditz said to his father, "but for the wrong reasons. She deliberately destroyed those links... With them gone, we no longer had any reason to go after Frieza, but it broke her at the same time. From the moment she arrived on Earth, perhaps even as she was travelling here, she made the choices to push us away, and as she grew up, she didn't know how to change what she had done. In the end, she followed through with her decision, and I can't even imagine how painful it had been for her, feeling them snap one-by-one."

"I don't think she expected my challenge that day. Whether or not she knew what was going to happen to her, I'm not certain. I felt the links severing, and I felt her pain when her body and mind shattered. While I felt the one link that all of us shared with her severe, I grabbed onto the separate one that I had with her and followed her into the darkness."

"However, she miscalculated. She thought by severing the link, we'd have a chance at a life that we weren't allowed to have under the Ice-jin laws. That didn't happen. The Saiya-jins needed a guardian, and without her, there was a lack of unity and purpose. Turles changed that; the minute he arrived, the threads found another focal point, and that was the sole purpose of the protector. One-by-one, all of you tried to help Turles find her, dead or alive, it was an effort to find a way to save my life. Bulma, as crazy as she was, unlocked the files on the Guardian, took a risk and let me go."

"Pepper mentioned that a single thread existed a long side her while she was unconscious. It was that thread that allowed her to reach out to us, and by forging a new link with her, I was able to connect you to her, through myself. That's why you were able to maintain your sanity under the full moon."

"You said that she isn't the same," Bulma asked. "Why?"

"She has no memories of who we are, what her mission was, or why she tried to severe the links. It was only because of a question she asked that she figured out what she had done, but only because her visions still have some influence over her. She didn't understand why she would cause that kind of pain on everyone, and that's when we both realized it... she had done it to protect everyone."

She felt rage and pain... Bulma hissed in agony as she clutched at her chest... Kakarot was trembling, and she could see that the other Saiya-jins were suffering as well. They were struggling to grasp the severity of what she done, trying not to lash out, and not a single human could say any words of comfort to them. What Pepper had done, while foolish and childish, was nothing short of heroic, selfless, and heart breaking. For sixteen years, as she allowed the links to weaken and severe, she kept her suffering quiet. If she was in pain, she stayed silent. If she needed her help, she went alone.

"Raditz," Bardock snarled. "Stop hiding her."

When he didn't move, Bardock unleashed a terrifying burst of energy that slammed him across the other side of the room. Pepper didn't try to run as he approached her, and every time Raditz tried to get up and move, he felt more power crushing down on top of him. She stood, waiting, her fingers clenched together... "Look at me," he ordered, his voice a whisper of the Commander he had been. "You owe us this much; so look at me!"

Their gazes locked, and he saw the vulnerable confusion and regret in her eyes... While she knew what she had done, she didn't have the memories to understand it. Even now she was in terrible pain... "You stupid, stupid girl!" he growled, and as she braced herself, Bardock surprised them all when he gathered her close, crushing her in a tight embrace. "Don't think Turles will let you off this easy, kid, and I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to go through this..."

Pepper didn't know him... She wanted to, and her fingers touched the armor that reminded her of Raditz. Even with her shattered memories, she learned as he held her that part of her plan had revolved around him. He had been the easiest to manipulate, but critical. She caught images of refusing to go back with him over and over again, and because of Gina's death, he had let her get away with it. The fight with some kind of cat had furthered the rift between them, making it easier and easier to permanently severe the links between the Saiya-jins and herself. Turles hadn't been there to knock the sense into her. Probably more than Raditz, Bardock would have been the one to stop her. Combine pushing Bardock away along with causing Raditz to hate her... she succeeded and broke. It was what she had wanted, but when she had it, she realized that she had wanted them to realize what she had been doing. She had wanted them to fight regardless, and for the second time, she cried.

No one pulled her away... she had needed him... and because he had spent the first half of her life rejecting her, she didn't know any other way to save everyone and chose the path that she had. While she cried, the Saiya-jins and humans could only stand by in helpless anger and shame as they let her. As easy as it was to blame her, they should have realized what she had been doing.

Nearly an hour later, Raditz held her as she slept, worn down from crying. He still hurt from his father's attack; for a long time, Bardock had kept all of his emotions bottled up and when he realized what Pepper had done, he snapped. It had been humiliating to discover that a little girl had had a need to save or protect him the way she had.

"So what now?" Bulma asked, breaking the silence.

"We finish what she started," Kakarot said. His eyes were glowing, filled with resolve and determination. "We're no longer going to take the easy way out. If we have to fight, then we fight. Peace isn't a luxury that we have handed to us; it's something we have to obtain and earn for ourselves. Yeah, I wanted to avoid fighting Frieza. However, what about the future? While we might avoid having to fight him, our future generations would and they won't have the lessons of our past and suffering to know why it was so important to eliminate him in our time. If we can't atone for our sins and retake our roles as the universe's protectors, then we had no right to have her as our guardian to begin with. This war with the Red Ribbon Army was just a taste of what we're going to deal with later."

"I'll keep gathering intel; you'd be surprised at how easy it is to sneak into enemy territory. I'm just a human that blends in, hiding in the shadows, listening, watching, and vanishing as if I had never been there."

Raditz tried to figure out what to do. He wanted to help her, but he didn't know how. She was searching for a way to reconnect to what she had shoved away, but she didn't feel as if she had a right. He let one of his hands linger in her hair, settled on her back as she slept. Raditz thought of taking her to their room, but she wouldn't stay asleep, and he needed to stay and decide what they needed to do.

"You should train her," Bardock suggested.

"She's shown no indications that she wants to fight."

"It's the one thing that she's wanted from you."

"She wanted a battle between us, not..." Bardock glared at him, another spark of energy flaring up around him.

"Raditz, at this point, it's safe to assume that anything we thought she wanted, was the exact opposite."

"Come to think about it; she did mention something along those lines on the Lookout. She wanted to know why I trained and sparred with everyone else, but she had very little interaction with my life. She was genuinely confused that I would exclude her. When I have time to think about everything, if she hadn't had to worry about Frieza, she wouldn't have tried to distance herself from us and I most likely would have trained her."

"She did more than that, Raditz," Bulma pointed out, inputing information into her computer. "How did you feel about wanting a mate?"

"I didn't."

"So not only did she force you to fight her, but she used that same emotion to enforce not wanting to mate with her. She wanted to give you what she thought you wanted. The link that the Guardian and Protector were there... It's there from the very beginning that she's born. It was only because of the battle on Fire Mountain that she reached out to you... She didn't have the memories to stop her and she did what the guardian should have been doing from the start. What was your first instinct when you met her? Don't think about the answer; just say what comes to mind."

"To comfort her. She was a lot like she was during the Battle of West City, but I stopped her from severing the link then. In fact, it temporarily strengthened, and she had to re-work on weakening it again."

"After the fight at the Tournament, what was the one emotion that you felt?"

"Shock and hatred. I didn't understand why I felt a strong connection to her and the Oozuru was reacting to her. I didn't want a girl that would challenge the very belief system that I promised to never violate. However, as she got older, I had to remind myself why I couldn't accept her. She was strong enough... She never complained. I think at some point, I was just being stubborn. The battle at West City infuriated me... I can't believe she challenged me to a duel of destroy the robots."

"And did you win?'

"No, and that just agitated me further. However, just when I was about to walk away, I looked at her, sitting on the rubble... Every one of us saw the expression on her face... I don't even think she knew we were staring at her. I think seeing her like that, a part of me started to want her, not just the Oozuru. Getting close to her shouldn't have been possible, and then she was making mistakes during the hunt that she shouldn't have been making."

"I have to agree with Bardock; training her is good for you both."

"Why?"

"I'll let you figure that out on your own; stop fighting the Oozuru and let it decide how to help her. You share the same mind and body and it's never once wanted to hurt her."

"She does have a point," Johnathon said. "You didn't have control over the others when they transformed, not until you picked her up and howled. It was your pain that they responded to."

"How would you know about what the Oozuru will or won't do, Bulma?"

"She's coaxed him out of me on more than one occasion, that's how," Kakarot growled in annoyance. "She has a bad habit of taking risks; dangerous ones, but she's usually spot on. Crazy woman bit me in the Time Chamber, not even knowing what it would do. She just assumed that's what most pack animals do when they wanted to mate, but didn't realize that for us, it's permanent, not temporary."

Raditz stared at her, opened his mouth and shut it. "I'm not sure how to respond to that."

"It's just easier to accept that she's not always a genius," Bardock commented.

"Hey! I'm not that bad..."

"No... I seem to recall you stopping Turles from beating me half to death."

"Letting Raditz go wasn't that smart either," Kakarot added. "If Pepper had been dead, he would have ripped her apart before turning on the rest of us."

"Yeah well... animal cruelty never sat well with me."

"Animal what-?"

"Don't ask!" Bardock and Kakarot said at the same time.

"They do say that the smartest people lack any common sense," Johnathon mentioned. "I guess she's proof of that."

"Did you just call me stupid?!" Bulma shouted, jumping to her feet.

"We can end this for today," Raditz said. "Bulma, can you analyze our battle power and reconstruct a defense system that equals the fire power of the Red Ribbon Army. If they have an ability to record it and make robots; as smart as you are, you should be able to do the same thing."

"I suppose I can, but I'd have to have a way to do that first." Tapping her chin, "I think I can install devices in the time chamber and process it when you guys are fighting or training."

"Why should we go there?" Kakarot asked her.

"If you guys trained at full power here, then I wouldn't have a place to build a defense system."

"How long would that take to make?" Raditz asked her.

"A couple of weeks; another day or two to work out any errors. I could make an initial prototype based on what was already built into your space ship computer systems, but enable it so that I can upgrade them as I go."


Vegeta glanced at the roaming patrol. While they looked simple enough to smash; they were robotic, and he couldn't risk destroying them. It didn't help that Chi-chi's friend was human; even though he had the ability to detect another person's energy, he didn't know what hers was, and there were a number of them, both who served with the Red Ribbon Army, and those that were prisoners. They were in the center of camp, so it was almost impossible to sneak in from the sides or rear to get them out.

"If I were the enemy," a familiar voice whispered beside him; "You'd be dead right now."

Vegeta whirled around, his fist caught easily within Turles's grasp. "Where's your human companion?"

"Sneaking around," he jerked his thumb behind him.

"I'm surprised you would let her."

"We didn't have a lot of options to get close to that prisoner tent. My power level is too high for a human and she can act like one of them if she was caught. Plus, she's very effective at gathering information when she goes in like this."

"How were you planning on getting her out of there? A lone wolf has the ability to go in and out anywhere, but if she plans on rescuing the prisoners, that's not going to happen."

"I was just trying to figure that out before you got here," Vegeta snapped. "You don't have to always bail me out!"

"Actually, I was planning on joining the two of you."

Vegeta seemed startled. "Why?"

"Believe it or not, I like you kid. You're nothing like your father; if you were, you'd have ignored this problem."

"Why does everyone insist that I'm still a child? I'm 28 now!"

"Look at it this way; I'm not pulling you back and you can consider it my approval of the operation to proceed further. Let's take opposite sides and give her a distraction. If we can, let's avoid destroying any of their robots, and we'll leave once she has the prisoners clear."

"Thanks. It's gotten extremely difficult to go any further without drawing unnecessary attention to us."

"Are you guys avoiding the video surveillance cameras?"

"We try, but that doesn't mean there are hidden cameras. I wouldn't be surprised if a trap won't be set eventually."

"At least you've thought about it."


Chi-chi looked at the first prisoner. They seemed okay... probably too okay considering they were in the middle of an army camp. Shouldn't they have bruises or torn clothing? Something wasn't right, and she kept quiet as she inspected each one, ensuring they weren't her best friend. One of the first things she had learned ever since she had escaped was to trust her instincts, and nothing about these people added up. Sneaking back out of the tent, she retreated. Looking around, she spotted Vegeta and Turles whispering together.

Neither one were aware that she was back, and she waited until they were done planning, tapping her foot behind them when they started to move. Turning their heads, they blinked, turned back towards the camp, and then her. "I thought you guys had superior hearing and smell; do you have a cold or something?"

"Did you really sneak to the tent and back?" Vegeta asked. "How'd you do that so fast, and why didn't you rescue any of them?"

"I didn't like the situation. None of them were injured, and their clothes weren't torn. That's not something this Army is known for. All the survivors that I've ever come across are injured enough that it takes all of their strength just to limp away."

"You have good battle instincts," Turles complimented, "Who taught you?"

"My father initially; the rest is something I picked up as I crawled and clawed my way towards survival. I will find my friend, and if she's dead, I'll do whatever I need to avenge her!"

Turles noticed Vegeta's tail bristle, glaring at him with undisguised hostility. "Something wrong, Vegeta?"

"No," he snapped, snatching Chi-chi's wrist and withdrawing from the camp. They had no reason to engage them now that they were satisfied that there were no enemy prisoners or her friend to rescue.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, tugging and failing to break free.

"Making sure that something doesn't separate us."

"I thought we discussed that, if we were attacked, that I would duck out of the way if we had to fight; there's no need for us to get separated if I'm not going to run." Turles snickered...

"I'm almost about to tell you to go home," Vegeta growled.

"Forget it; from here on out we no longer operate independently, and she doesn't count."

"Are you saying I can't fight," she protested.

"I have no doubt about your abilities against other humans; robots on the other hand would prove rather difficult considering the kind of strength and durability they now possess. Besides, I need entertainment, and I believe the two of you are going to provide plenty of it."