Age 536, Planet Sadala, Universe 7

Peparia stood in the fighting stance she'd been using for the greater part of the last 20 years across from Rutin, also in her fighting stance, ready for their next pass. He was breathing heavy and looked exhausted, but he was ready for battle. The young man had been training in House Dakkon's martial art since he was 7 in the hopes of becoming a Knight of the house one day.

Being a Knight of a noble house was the closest thing a commoner could get to being a noble without being raised to nobility themselves. And Rutin wasn't a scientist of a philosopher or anything that could advance society. But he knew how to fight, and he knew how to control his power. In fact, his control of his power was so advanced that he did something that no other Saiyan could do at the moment; he could talk in the Great Ape form.

Yes, Rutin had come a long way from the scared little boy he had been when Peparia first met him. He was a young man who never lost his cool, confident in himself and his training. And he was smart too; his marks in school were the highest in his year, and he was likely going to receive the highest honors at his graduation ceremony, but only if he kept up his current performance for the next two years.

Peparia was proud of Rutin. Everything she had taught him had allowed him to succeed, to grant him the greatest possible future for a Saiyan of such low birth.

Peparia was snapped back to reality when Rutin rushed at Peparia, tossing an elbow at her direction. Peparia blocked it and countered with a right hook to Rutin's face. It connected, and Peparia countered by grabbing his head and flipping him over Peparia and across the room.

Rutin recovered and managed to flip over and bounce off the wall, again charging with a hard right. Peparia dodged this time and came down with a hard elbow between Rutin's shoulder blades. Once Rutin was on the ground, she kicked him hard in the stomach, causing him to slide across the room and into the wall.

Rutin was good, Peparia thought, but he lacked experience. His common birth meant he lacked the opportunities to enter noble tournaments that granted experience in live combat, something that Peparia done before her battle with Lottus. She had live combat experience before her "unauthorized fight" with Lottus happened, something that Rutin never had a chance at.

Which is why Peparia, despite using the same style she had been using all her life, had changed up her tactics with this sparring match so Rutin could gain some new experiences in battle.

Rutin took to the air, and he began charging up a Gallic Gun, but instead of letting him fire it off and performed a beam struggle like she had done so on many occasions before, Peparia used her greater speed to rush into the air, and nailed Rutin in the back of the neck. Rutin began to fall, and Peparia took advantage of that to come down hard with a fist to his back. She kept pummeling him, rights and lefts, all the way down until Rutin slammed hard on the floor. Peparia then performed a backflip and landed softly on the ground, awaiting Rutin's next move.

Rutin, however, had been forced to admit defeat. He struggled to stand this time, the pain in his back being incredible, and he had numbness in his feet and a tingling sensation in his fingers. He'd need some time in the medical machine after this, he was sure.

The way he struggled to move made Peparia concerned that she might have broken something in his spine, and it wasn't something that a medical machine could handle. She was afraid she'd done something permanent to him. However, her worries about that were put to rest as he slowly made his way to his feet.

"I've still got a long way to go, don't I?" Rutin said as he limped his way over to Peparia. She noticed that he was holding his left shoulder, a common injury for right-handed individuals who guarded with their left hand.

"And I wasn't even close to my full strength, either. And that's without me transforming into a Super Saiyan," Peparia said, helping the young man into the locker room. "I beat you through efficiency of movement and battlefield awareness. This was a pure tactical victory."

Rutin nodded, understanding this lesson. You can't overpower somebody stronger than you, and you couldn't always rely on transformations to lead you to victory. Sometimes, you need to out smart and out maneuver your foe.

Peparia watched the young man enter the locker room, and once the door closed behind him, she used her Full Moon Patrol communicator to contact her family's medical machine room. Rutin didn't need to go to the hospital for something that could be taken care of in a few minutes. The medical machines were a secondary treatment in hospitals; they were used after bones were set and surgical procedures were completed. Medical machines were used to speed up recovery, and that's all Rutin needed right now.

After Rutin had finished cleaning up and was led to the medical machine room, Peparia received a call from Lottus. She wanted to talk to her old girlfriend, and Peparia was always happy to hear from her, even though their romance was long dead at this point.

After flying over to House Ayote, Peparia was met by a guard, who led to the garden that Lottus was in, playing with her son, Kakalo. This 9-year-old boy had grown up as strong and as wise as his mother, though unlike Peparia and her family, the Ayotes were spawned of mother's egg and a sperm donator from a strong father.

"Ah, Peparia, good to see you," Lottus said in a friendly tone. "How are things?"

"Been keeping myself busy," Peparia said. Her life was most definitely different than when she and Lottus had broken up; her mandatory years of teaching children how to control the Great Ape form had ended several years ago, which made the Full Moon Patrol and Rutin's training her only real concerns now. Well, that and her evolving her Super Saiyan form, but that was her secret; she could tell there was something beyond her mastered state, and she wanted to get something good out of the mark of Yamoshi, something that she could claim as her own.

"Good," Lottus said. "And Rutin? How's he doing?"

"Coming along quite nicely," Peparia said. "I'd dare say he's stronger than Tarble now."

Lottus laughed. "A low-class teenager achieving power rivaling that of a noble. Fascinating."

"Anything's possible if you have the will to achieve it," Peparia said. "Something I learned from the old monk."

Lottus nodded, realizing her laughter was in bad taste. "Kakalo, can you excuse us for a minute? I need some privacy with Peparia."

"Okay, but you promised that you'd train me today," Kakalo said, glaring slightly at his mother.

"I will as soon as we're done here, I promise," Lottus said. She watched her son run away, and then looked at Peparia.

"I know this is a dumb question, but do you have any regrets in life?" Lottus said.

"Other than with Celes?" Peparia said nonchalantly. "Part of me regrets breaking up with you. But it would have been selfish to maintain a relationship that I wasn't completely into."

Lottus smiled sadly. Peparia had cut to the heart of the matter. "I still love you, you know," she said.

"And I still care about you too," Peparia said. "But…not the same way."

Lottus sighed, knowing from the start how this conversation would have gone, but still needing to have heard it all the same.

"I'm sorry I can't give you what we had back then," Peparia said. "But I'm not sure I can give anyone that every again."

Lottus nodded. "Well, I need to tend to my son," she said. "You take care of yourself."

"You too," Peparia said, taking to the air. "We'll talk again, I promise."