X Chapter 22 X
Warning: Language, Dark themes, Heavy Violence
A/N: I return.
The brilliant, amber eyes of Gnost flared up as he granted Squas' wish...
Before the saiyans, a long line of tables materialized with over a hundred chairs accompanying them. They stretched from one end of the camp to the other. Great platters piled high with venison sat on the tables, while huge bowls of onion and game soup filled what little space was left on them. The savory and succulent scent of it all, wafted over to the saiyans, instantly making their mouths water on contact.
The dragon growled deeply and declared "Three wishes have been granted. And with that... my obligation to you all comes to an end. Farewell!"
Gnost then disappeared in a violent flash of crimson light.
The lustering orbs of the dragon balls rose high in the sky, which was changing from black to a vibrant blue-purple. They then fell to the ground in a circular formation, halfway burying themselves in the dirt as if they had fallen from space. Squas and the others momentarily looked away from the spread of food and saw that the balls had lost their orange gleam. Seven plain stone spheres, identical to one another, rested in their place.
While everyone else quickly lost interest and scrambled over one another for the banquet, Squas kept staring at the orbs and then at the alien horizon. He had some nagging feeling that he had just made a terrible mistake.
Seconds later, he heard two sets of feet touch the ground behind him. Squas turned to see Ginge and Conch carrying Iseber and Komatsuna. He first glanced at Conch, who gave him a nod of approval. Then he looked at Ginge, whose fury was written all over her face. She dropped Iseber with absolutely no regard for his health, letting his body crash into the dirt. Then she sprinted up to Squas and picked him up by the collar with both hands.
Ginge took a deep breath, tightening her grip. Veins rose beneath her bangs. "WHAT did you numbskulls DO?!" she shrieked.
Squas could do nothing but peer right into her eyes; they seemed to teem with fire and brimstone. He shot a quick glance at Conch. The tall namekian had already scurried away, using the distraction to grab Iseber. Not skipping a beat, nor looking back, Conch ducked under the door frame of Iseber's house and disappeared inside with Iseber and Komatsuna under his arms.
The wild-haired boy flicked his eyes back to Ginge, whose breathing was steadily getting more erratic by the second. This was the angriest he had seen her in a very long time. Her lips slowly parted, revealing a pearly-white set of fangs. She let go of him with one hand, but held him with the other. Her free hand balled up into a fist and cocked back behind her head. Squas closed his eyes, anticipating the strike.
Time passed, and nothing happened. The boy cracked an eye open. He saw that Ginge's head was turned away. Squas opened his other eye and followed her gaze. Far to the side, completely oblivious to them, the rest of the saiyans chowed down on the spread of venison and soup that Squas had wished for.
The two watched them for a couple seconds before her focus came back to Squas, who again clamped his eyes shut in fear. But instead of flattening him like he had feared, the young matriarch harshly released him, rather tossing him to the dirt.
"You morons wasted the last wish on food?!" Ginge screeched. She clawed at her face, being unable to accept reality. Out of her mouth came a loud groan.
Squas fearfully kept still and mute on the ground. He expected her to go ballistic at any moment.
"I just CANNOT believe it- Of all things! What were you guys thinking?!" cried a distressed Ginge.
Just then, Conch emerged from Iseber's house. Squas sighed with relief as he saw the tall namekian approach; nobody else was going to come to his defense against Ginge, especially with a truck-load of food distracting them.
Ginge noticed Conch from the corner of her eye. She lashed her tail in fury as she turned to face him.
"Don't think for one fucking second that this annuls our deal!" she snarled. "I want my wish!"
With a sober expression, Conch told her "Of course. But I'm afraid that's gonna take time now."
"How much time?! I'm not playing these games with you!" shot back the young saiyaness. Though there was no apparent evidence, she already suspected some type of deception. The way things transpired was just too convenient to be coincidence.
"A year. Possibly more." answered Conch.
"You're lying." she spat.
"I most definitely am not." he countered.
"Yes you are! This shit is just too perfect, especially after all that cowardly tripe you gave me about fighting that jerk!"
Conch rolled his eyes and retorted "Whatever. I was just trying to warn you what a fool's errand it would be to fight a god of destruction's servant. You have no idea what kind of danger you would bring upon us all."
Ginge scoffed and sneered "You're really that scared of that prissy bastard?"
"It's not him you should be scared of..." muttered the guardian, shuddering at the prospect of coming face to face with the destroyer-cat himself.
Having no more patience with their conversation, Ginge went on the attack once again. "You know, I'm betting that you had something to do with this. Even this knucklehead isn't dumb enough to have wasted that wish on food."
She glared hotly down at an intimidated Squas, who hadn't moved an inch. It was obvious from the beginning that it had been him to make the wish.
Conch inhaled deeply and muttered to himself. "So belligerent..."
As much of a pain in the ass it would be, Conch couldn't let the boy take all the fallout for his actions. "...Alright, fine. I told him to make the wish so that you couldn't make yours. You would have endangered everyone if I had let you."
Hearing that, Ginge said with cold contempt "Then you've broken our deal. Go get that piece of vulture-food and haul her sorry ass far away from here. I'm not putting up with your bullshit!"
"I did what I had to do to protect everyone, including you. It's not fair to Iseber that you're using her as leverage to get a selfish wish from the dragon."
His choice of words inflamed Ginge's temper even more. "Fair?! Really?! Was she fair to Arlic when she hit him for just walking up to her? How about all the innocent people she's killed? Are we really just gonna pretend those things never happened?! I should drag her out here and finish what her psycho comrade started! That would be fair!"
The namekian was silent. A deadly seriousness came about him.
"Well?! Go get her! Hurry up, before I decide to make things 'fair'!" she ordered.
"...No."
Conch's answer rattled her. "What do you mean 'no'? I'm not playing around! I want her gone! Now!"
"Let's see you do it." he softly replied.
Ginge blinked in confusion. She wasn't sure if her hearing was working or if the green man had gone completely nuts.
"I want to see you do it. By all means, drag her out here and put her down like an animal. It'll be easy since she can't defend herself." said Conch in a demeaning tone.
The girl grinded her teeth in anger as she realized what he was trying to do. "Don't you fucking dare…"
He continued to admonish her "Yes, kill her and get it out of your system. But I just want you to know: When the dragon is ready, I'm using the first wish to bring her back. And you'll need the second wish to make everyone, especially Iseber, forget what you did... Lucky for you, that leaves the last wish to be used for your selfish whims."
Ginge glared at him with furious intensity. Her mind was boiling tempestuously. "How dare he make me the bad guy here! She's a literal mass-murderer!"
Conch entered her mind using telepathy. "And if Planet Vegeta had not been destroyed? You would have been no different." he said, penetrating into her thoughts.
The saiyan girl shook with rage at that remark. He was absolutely right, and she could say nothing to rebuke him. In that moment, she loathed the namekian with all her heart.
Conch, feeling her growing hatred, brought their discourse back into the open air and unleashed a scathing tirade of chiding "She's done some terrible things. But unlike you, she was never given the chance to be anything else. For her entire life, she has lived under the thumb of the Cold empire, and the Vegeta dynasty before that, knowing nothing except to follow orders or be cast into fire...
...You would have been no better than her, and you know it. With a power level of 200, you were marked as a mid-class warrior at birth. The saiyans kept you around longer than the vast majority of children at your age because they wanted to groom you to be an elite commando of genocide. If the planet had not been destroyed, they would have eventually taken you from your parents and beaten their genocidal doctrine into you. Your parents would not have even objected either! Not for fear of King Vegeta and his men, but because they believed in it too!"
He relented so that his words might sink in. Ginge felt a knot forming in her throat. Though she tried hard to put on a face of apathy, her quivering fists gave her true feelings away. The lull in his speech allowed the low roar of everyone else feasting to fill the air around them; the others were too busy with food to care about their dialogue going on just 20 yards away.
The towering namekian saw that his words had struck a nerve, and he felt a little bad for ripping into her. But, he knew this needed to happen for her to become a better person.
Conch lowered his voice. "The young need someone to teach them about the past, good and bad. Between you and her: Komatsuna is the most qualified to teach the young ones about their people's history. While I know she's not the easiest person to be around and that she has a long list of sins, she's taken big steps these past few days toward atonement for them-"
Ginge's gaze rose to the sky while Conch kept lecturing. The thoughts within her mind whirled violently. Everything seemed to come up from the abyss at once; fear for her family, grief over the loss of Arti and Pinach, her anger, even hatred. Much had happened in the span of days, but these moments were only the catalyst for the surfacing of years of pent up trauma. The stress of it all was finally catching up to her; body, mind, and soul went to war. She became dazed and started to lose balance. Ginge fell backwards.
Conch rushed forward as she faltered, scooping her up before she could hit the dirt. Squas still had not moved that entire time, having watched everything unfold with bug-eyes. Nobody ever dared to talk to Ginge the way Conch did. Nobody.
Conch slung her limp body over his shoulder and immediately started over to her house. He beckoned Squas to follow him. The boy shook off his disbelief and obeyed. He passed by the others on his way; they were busy chowing down on the food, completely oblivious to what had happened.
Squas walked into Ginge's room as Conch was gently placing Ginge on her bed.
"W-what's happened to her?" he stuttered.
The guardian turned to face him. His expression was vaguely melancholic.
"She's been overcome by grief and stress. It's made her very sick." he replied, then turning back to study her.
Squas came to Ginge's bedside and gazed upon her. The saiyan girl shivered in her sleep. Color drained from her face as fever set in.
"Is she gonna be alright?" asked the worried child.
"Yes. She just needs rest and care-" responded Conch as he took the blanket from another bed and draped it over Ginge. He motioned over to baby Quash who was sleeping peacefully in the bed opposite from Ginge. "-like him."
Squas smiled when he remembered the miracle that had been performed for his long-dead brother and his fallen packmates.
Conch's voice rang in the boy's ears through his gleeful stupor. "Can I trust you to take charge while I'm away?"
The kid hesitantly nodded. Conch gave him a curt nod back and started off towards the door. Just before the green alien stepped through the threshold, Squas called after him. "Where are you going?"
Conch turned back to him and replied "I'm going home to rest a while... I'll be back to check on you all in a few days or so."
The middle-aged namekian now displayed obvious signs of fatigue. He had dark circles under his eyes and his breaths were shallow and erratic. Continuing forward, he hobbled out the door and out of view. Conch took to the skies once outside.
Left alone, the boy glanced around at the dusty room. It was cluttered, filled from wall to wall with empty beds and other furnishings. Aside from Ginge's light snoring, all was quiet. He sat down on the bed next to Ginge's and watched her snooze for a while. Quash was fast asleep on the bed across from them; a little snot bubble expanded and contracted from his nose with each breath.
Squas grinned and leaned back across the bed he was sitting on, leaving his feet to dangle. He got lost in thought, thinking about what had gone down in the past few days. It wasn't long before he himself drifted off into sleep.
He remained that way until a scuffle shattered the peace from outside. The boy with wild hair knew instantly what the commotion was, hearing the muffled voices of bickering saiyan children. He begrudgingly got up, sighing as he shuffled out of the bedroom.
Squas stepped out to find a dogpile made up of dozens of saiyans who were feuding over the last scraps of venison. He eyed the writhing mass disdainfully and scoffed. "Ravenous maggots."
Suddenly, a little girl, one of the youngest, broke out from under the pile carrying a platter almost spilling with venison. She tip-toed away from the others amid the chaos and disappeared behind one of the houses. Squas grinned craftily while watching her.
The little girl sat with her back leaned against the wall of the house. She salivated while looking down at the last morsels of succulent venison. Her tiny hands brought a massive chunk up to her mouth. But just before she could bite down, the youngling noticed a shadow cloaking her, a shadow shaped like a person.
Her head snapped up. Squas peered down at her from the roof of the house. She hesitated from fear, but then tried to scramble away with the food. Squas came down like a meteor and snatched the platter from her little mitts before she could take off.
She pouted and crossed her arms while her older tribemate took the plate and marched back into the open from behind the house.
"Ahem!" he sounded.
The rambunctious children stopped clamouring and wrestling. All attention became centered on him, or so it appeared. In reality, it was the thing he was holding that made him so interesting.
"Were you guys really gonna eat a week's worth of food without leaving any for Ginge or myself?"
There was silence.
"Wasn't it I in the first place that delivered you this feast? You could have at least left some for me…"
Crickets.
It took a second for Squas to catch on to his mistake. He looked at the plate of savory meat in his hands, then back at the others. They all had wild looks in their eyes, like lions staring down a gazelle before the chase.
"S-stay back!" he stammered as he slowly backed away.
A little girl stalked closely behind him; the same girl who had sniped the plate from the others.
"Get him!" she cried.
The chase was on. He tucked the plate of food close to his chest and took off like a bullet out of camp. The others followed in hot pursuit. He flew for a great distance before looking back to see a horde of hungry saiyan children swarming like yellow-jackets behind him. Seeing this encouraged him to double his efforts, flooring it as hard as he could. "Oh no."
They chased him for miles on end. Each time Squas glanced back, his pursuers were fewer in number, but those that persisted were gaining on him. "Damn it all!" he thought. "These mouth-breathers just won't give up!"
It wasn't long before the edge of the swamp came into view. The red leaves of its plants created the likeness of a sea of blood that stretched forever onward.
Squas cursed to himself once more "Shit! What now?!"
He looked down at the coveted plate of food in his arms. Suddenly, a very clever idea came to him. His mouth stretched into a sneaky grin.
The saiyan child stretched out the collar of his elastic armor and shoved the contents of the platter into his chestplate. He was careful not to let the others see him do it. With the plate then empty, he dove down towards the ground. As planned, they followed him.
He stuck a hard landing on a muddy hill and took the plate, winding his arm behind his head to throw it. He then chucked it as hard as he could towards the sun. The air around the plate clapped as it broke the sound barrier, like a jet-powered frisbee.
His pursuers saw the disc-like object sailing into the distance and took off after it, much to the delight of Squas.
"What a bunch of saps!" he crowed, laughing at the cohort of saiyans giving chase to his diversion. Squas watched them disappear over the horizon before he started back towards camp.
He eventually arrived there to find it apparently deserted; there wasn't a single soul in sight. The place was deathly quiet, which was very unusual given the people that lived there.
"Everyone must still be out looking for me..." Squas thought to himself. "...Oh, what the hell? Why am I even questioning it?"
The boy was just about to enter Ginge's house when another thought occurred to him. "I should give some of this to Iseber."
He grabbed a bowl from the kitchen of Ginge's house and split the fleshy contents of his armor, putting half in the bowl. He tossed the rest into a large black kettle and pushed the massive thing out of sight, into the back storage room, of which all the camp houses had.
Iseber slumbered in his bed, while Komatsuna slept in the one adjacent to his...
Squas quietly stepped into Iseber's bedroom and saw them. The kid walked over and placed the bowl of venison on a dresser next to Iseber's bed.
"Iseber..." he whispered. "Iseber, wake up!"
The big saiyan didn't so much as budge under the blanket.
"Iseber!" said Squas, this time louder. He prodded and nudged his elder tribemate in an effort to get him to awaken. Iseber's eyelids tensed and he exuded a faint groan, but he did not wake.
Squas, becoming frustrated, leaned in close to the snoring giant's ear and roared "ISEBER! WAKE UP!"
Iseber awoke, launching himself into the ceiling head first. His head crashed into the sod with a thunderous bang. He fell back hard onto the bed.
"What the hell?!" groaned a more-than-annoyed Iseber, rubbing the rapidly swelling knot on his head.
Squas ignored his rage, gesturing towards the bowl of torn meat "You need to eat this. Right now."
"You woke me like that for food?! You shithead!" hissed Iseber.
The kid rolled his eyes at him and replied "Look, you have no idea what I went through to get it. And if you don't eat it now, the morons I took it from will come looking for it."
Iseber looked down at the bowl in Squas' hands. The scent of roasted deer wafted up to his potent saiyan nose. The young man reached over with his severely scarred right arm and picked up a generous piece. He put the massive chunk in his mouth. It was then that he understood exactly what the boy meant; the stuff was irresistible. His eyes shot wide open.
Faster than lightning, the bowl was snatched from the boy's hands. Iseber shoveled venison into his mouth by the handful. Squas watched him gobble it down with a subtle feeling of revulsion.
Iseber finished the whole thing before Squas could fully process what had happened, releasing a mighty belch that rattled the windows.
"Man, you weren't kidding! That stuff is to die for! Was that all of it?" said Iseber, licking his chops.
Squas remembered the other half of the spoils he had stashed in Ginge's house. But having just witnessed Iseber's gorging session, he decided to play it safe and lie. "Yep. That was all of it..."
Iseber looked suspiciously upon the dark-haired boy, scanning his squeamish face for a couple seconds. But instead of prying, he overlapped his hands behind his head and leaned back on the bed, smiling knowingly.
"That's too bad."
Silence again dominated the room for a short time until Komatsuna began to stir in her sleep. Iseber looked over worriedly at her. The mercenary-saiyaness was having a nightmare. Her fists squeezed the covers with great force and she tossed and trembled like a leaf in a storm.
"Komatsuna…" grunted Iseber as he stiffly climbed out of bed towards her. He was still sore from his injuries. The tall saiyan towered at her bedside, while softly nudging her arm.
"Komatsuna. Wake up."
She would not awaken. Instead, her breathing sped up and became erratic. It was as though something unseen was attacking her.
"Komatsuna!" shouted Iseber, being a hypocrite.
Still, she would not awaken. Her unconscious panic kept getting worse and worse, so he pinched her wrist. The jolt of pain shocked her back into the real world with a gasp. Komatsuna's black eyes had an utter look of terror about them; they were bloodshot. She hyperventilated while ice cold sweat ran down her forehead.
Iseber called again "Komatsuna! It's alright. You were just having a nightmare."
Her eyes flicked from the ceiling to him, meeting his gaze. A calmness washed over the panicked saiyaness. Her first instinct was to leap up at him, to embrace him. But when she tried, her legs refused to obey her command. She missed her target by a wide margin and crashed to the floor with a thud.
Squas ran over and helped Iseber pick her up. Komatsuna was distraught. She was unable to feel her legs whatsoever. Her boots limply grazed the clay floor as she was hoisted up by the two.
"Something's wrong! I can't feel my legs!" she cried, as they laid her back onto the bed.
Iseber looked down sorrowfully at her lying in the bed. He knew because of his restored arm that Conch had healed their injuries. "Was this injury of her's beyond his power?" he thought.
"I don't understand. Conch has healed all of my injuries in the past..." complained Iseber.
Komatsuna remembered Conch and the abilities of healing that he possessed. It had been him to mend the hole shot through her chest by the ice tyrant, Cooler. It was miraculous to her that she survived that night.
"So that big, green ass-hat can patch a fist sized hole in my chest, but can't make it so I can walk again... " she muttered darkly.
They went silent. Komatsuna's face was devoid of any kind of emotion. Iseber knew there was nothing that could be done and that Conch did everything he could. The right words didn't come easy to him.
"Komatsuna…" said Iseber, while softly reaching over and grasping her hand. Her eyes migrated over to him, heavy with melancholy. "...It might take some time to get used to this, but-"
Komatsuna jerked her hand out of his grip and shouted in his face. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing with the filth on them to make 'muddy' trails that contoured her face. "Get away from me! I'm worthless!"
Iseber recoiled. He gave her a mixed look of confusion and lamentation. "...Worthless? How are you worthless?"
"You're just a special kind of person, aren't you?!" snapped the broken woman. "I can't walk anymore! ...It means I can't fight! I can't fly! I can't do anything! I'm worthless to you!"
Iseber's expression of confusion didn't falter, eliciting even greater ire from her. "Just fuck off, Iseber! I'm a useless disgrace!"
The young man stared thoughtfully at her, while she gave him a steely glare. Eventually, he smiled, saying "You are not a disgrace and you're not useless. Nothing bad is gonna happen to you. Why do you think I would discard you like a broken tool? You're more than that."
Komatsuna's teeth gritted. "Just what kind of a saiyan is he?!" she thought, taken aback by such soft sentiment from one of her blood.
The veteran mercenary recalled her very first mission assigned under the saiyan army...
She was ten years old when her squad was given orders to invade and 'appropriate' the local lizard-folk on a faraway desert world, pressing them into servitude and 'liquidating' those unfit for service. However, things didn't go as planned, and the locals ended up putting up stiff resistance, despite the saiyans' intel saying they had battle powers of less than 100.
The battle lasted for days, beginning as soon as the saiyans' attack balls touched down. Half of her squad was wiped out; four comrades in total, all meeting valiant deaths at the hands and blasts of the defenders. In the last hour of the fighting, Komatsuna and one of her allies were back to back, taking on an entire battalion of defenders. They fought tirelessly and flawlessly, rapidly whittling the enemy ranks away. The duo reveled in the slaughter. Their souls burned with passion for combat as they ruthlessly crushed their foes.
Eventually, the enemy was down to just two fighters, elites of the native army. Komatsuna and her teammate, a bigger and older guy with short but wild hair, were slightly winded but still eager as ever to plunge their fists into lizard skulls. The two pairs of warriors clashed, and the lizard-folk decisively gained the upper hand. Komatsuna was pile driven from the air to the ground, while her comrade put up a desperate fight in the sky.
Her opponent slammed her into a sandy boulder, smashing the massive rock into pieces and stunning her. The great lizard-man took a huge fragment of the stone and bludgeoned her in the face countless times until she was black and blue. As she lost consciousness, she heard the screams from her teammate as he was losing his duel with the other lizard. It grabbed the man's head and groin, snapping his spine over its head. Komatsuna then blacked out.
She awoke sometime later to the sound of her commander's voice. "Komatsuna! ...Komatsuna! Wake up, newbie!" Her eyes flickered open to see his harsh, scarred face. He had long, unkempt hair not unlike her's.
"Can you stand?" demanded the older, high ranked saiyan.
"I-I think so." coughed a very young Komatsuna. Being quite sore from the thrashing, she stumbled to her feet. The girl-soldier noticed the body of the very enemy that did this to her. It lay off to the side, in two bloody pieces. Its comrade rested close by, in similar shape. Charred and otherwise mangled corpses littered the craterous landscape around them.
The commander grinned at his young charge, grabbing her attention back. "Got in over our heads did we? That should teach you not to break formation! Now, where's Scal?"
Komatsuna dipped her head respectfully, then scanned the arid surroundings. She saw a saiyan's brown-black boot sticking up from a nearby crater.
"Over there I think, sir" she wheezed, having suffered several broken ribs.
Her commander did not acknowledge her further. He simply marched over to the crater and glared down in it. She pitifully hobbled after him, curious to see the state of her teammate.
She limped up to the side of the crater, peering over the edge next to the commander. The bloodied girl gasped when she saw Scal. He lay utterly crushed in the bottom of the sandy crater. Every bone in his body had been broken.
Komatsuna's commander impatiently leapt into the depression and kneeled next to Scal. "Scal... Can you get up, friend?" asked the man reluctantly, dreading the answer from his old comrade and drinking buddy. It was by the recent decree of King Vegeta III that crippled saiyans be terminated on the spot; a policy strongly 'incentivised' by Lord Freeza. Saiyans who could not fight were of no use to the empire.
Scal hacked up a big mess of blood before answering weakly "...Don't think so."
The commander bowed his head in anguish.
"I-I had a good run, Zorn. Don't go and get s-soft on me." scolded Scal, barely able to pass air through his lips.
Zorn raised his chin and wiped the single, tiniest tear from the corner of his eye. He grinned down at his old comrade, chuckling. "Yeah. Right."
The saiyan commander rose to his feet. His hand formed a 'pistol' and pointed directly at Scal's head.
Komatsuna chimed from her place at the top of the ledge "What are you doing, Zorn?!"
It was disrespectful for such a young pup to address a commander by their real name, but Zorn paid her no mind. He was too busy reminiscing on the good times.
Zorn prepared to fire his attack, but Scal interrupted him, rasping "W-wait. Have Komatsuna do it…"
Zorn looked puzzled at him before turning back to look at Komatsuna. The girl had turned away to keep from seeing what was about to unfold.
"...She must learn to p-put aside her softness. It's holding her back! ...She'll get herself or even her teammates killed..." choked the crippled saiyan.
Zorn eyed him with a smirk. "Always the caring one, you were. Now who's going soft?"
"Wise-ass. Just bring her over." retorted Scal.
Scal's friend and leader laughed a little, happy that they got to banter one last time in the end. He turned back to Komatsuna, barking "Komatsuna! Get down here!"
She didn't answer. She wouldn't even look at him.
"That's an order! Get your ass down here, little girl!" he snarled.
Komatsuna glared furiously at him, briefly forgetting the tragedy transpiring before her. She hated being talked to that way. However, Zorn was not someone she dared to defy. His icy stare let her know he meant business.
The runt-soldier skidded on her bum to the bottom of the crater. She shied away, trying to stand as far from them as she could, but Zorn grabbed her dainty arm with his large, calloused hand and yanked her close. He wrapped his arm around her head and grasped the underside of her chin, forcing her to look at Scal.
Zorn grabbed the young Komatsuna's wrist and brought her arm out towards the broken man before them. "We're gonna handle your attachment issues today, kiddo!" he said while struggling with her. When she wouldn't stay still, he let go of her wrist and punched her in the kidney. The force caused Komatsuna to spit up all over the ground.
Her less-than-pleased commander then grabbed her tail and yanked hard, compelling her to freeze. He hissed in her ear. "Stop fucking moving and listen to me!" But Komatsuna continued trying to squirm out of his grip. Zorn yanked harder on her tail and grabbed her face, pulling it towards him. "I swear to the Kais that I will send you to otherworld if you don't stop fighting me!"
Komatsuna looked resentfully into the rough saiyan's eyes. She ceased struggling. Zorn's mouth twisted into a smirk. "That's better." he said, loosening his grip on her tail a bit. He then forced her to look down at Scal on the ground.
"See him?" asked Zorn.
The girl didn't answer.
Zorn shook her violently, shouting "Answer me, little girl!"
"Yes." squeaked Komatsuna, quiet as a mouse. Tears were starting to fall down her cheeks.
"Good... That's good... Now: I want you to give him a proper send off, fitting of a warrior. I want you to blast him in the head!"
Zorn took his hand from her face and grasped her wrist, manually aiming her arm towards Scal.
"Do it. Now!" he said, screaming in her ear.
A few seconds went by of neither Zorn or Komatsuna doing anything. Scal rasped from the ground, saying "Komatsuna… Maybe you are a worthless piece of shit afterall."
Zorn turned his attention from Komatsuna to Scal. His face gave off an expression of confusion. Scal wasn't the type of person to say these kinds of things, even to his enemies or rivals. It took a second for him to realize what Scal was going for. Zorn's mouth morphed into a wolfish smirk. Komatsuna just looked at Scal with surprise.
"You're a disgrace of a warrior, Komatsuna. We all would have been better off if they had sent you away as an infiltration baby." growled Scal, in a flat tone.
Komatsuna's surprised face was quick to turn to fury. And in her rage, she forgot all about what had happened to them.
Scal continued provoking her. "Zorn deserves better for subordinates than you. The army deserves better than you... Even your God-forsaken parents des-"
He wasn't allowed to finish his sentence. Komatsuna's blood boiled over. "Shut UP!" she screamed, blasting him in the head with all her might. An enormous explosion followed. The sand cloud it created obscured everything.
When the dust settled, both Zorn and Komatsuna saw that Scal was no more. His entire upper half, from his hips and upward, was gone.
"In the next life, old friend…" Thought Zorn.
Meanwhile, Komatsuna collapsed to her knees, fully realizing what she had done. She realized then why Scal said all those things: It was to goad her into finishing him off. Tears again spilled down her face.
Her commander glared uncaringly down at her. "And she's considered a mid-class?! How pathetic! Look at her, crying like an infant!" The apathetic Zorn continued to watch her bawl into the sand next to Scal's remains. "Maybe there was a grain of truth to what Scal said after all... She's pitiful! What kind of saiyan cries like this?!"
Zorn kept eying her on the ground next to Scal. Every second that passed watching just made him more disgusted. He was about to grab her by the hair and haul her away, but something stopped him. It was a base feeling in his gut. The grizzled saiyan backed off.
"What is this feeling?!" he said inwardly to himself.
Whatever it was, it wasn't a pleasant one.
"Is this... melancholy?"
The saiyan man took another look at the girl crying her eyes out over Scal's lower half. The feeling in his gut intensified. Zorn was about to be overtaken by it, when he shook it off, growling to himself. "Bah! I can't stand it any longer! This sentimental shit is gonna rub off on me!"
He turned away and started walking off. "Be back at the pods in an hour... In an hour we leave without you." gruffed Zorn, over his shoulder. She didn't acknowledge him. The hardened saiyan commander kept walking. When he was several meters away, he took to the air, leaving Komatsuna alone to mourn with Scal's remains.
The memory slipped away...
"Komatsuna?"
Iseber's calling shook Komatsuna from her daze. The young man was peering anxiously at her. She had long been staring at the sod wall, staring as if trying to see something far off on the horizon. Her catatonic stupor had frightened him for her sake.
Komatsuna's eyes blinked as they refocused on the reality around her. She was in a soft, comfy bed, surrounded by sturdy, familiar walls that reminded her of home. It was peaceful and quiet. There was no Zorn and no Tarro around to demand she get up and slaughter more aliens. Just Iseber, who was a far cry from either of them.
Her licorice-black eyes studied him up and down as he glared back with his own pair of black holes. He was so different from any saiyan she'd ever met. He was kind, not self-serving. Nor was he ruthless, but merciful. Nor did it bother him in the slightest to share such sentiment openly. His softness drove her up the wall, yet at times, conjured a feeling of endearment within her tarnished soul.
She inspected his face. Barring a nicked ear, his was pristine; completely clear of scars which would have been common for a saiyan his age. His was an honest face. Innocent, even. The longer Komatsuna stared at it, the more she didn't want to look away. Her attention wandered, from his strong chin, to his straight nose and warm eyes.
Then she remembered what he said a little while ago: "You are not a disgrace and you're not useless. Nothing bad is gonna happen to you. Why do you think I would discard you like a broken tool? You're more than that."
"You're more than that."
Komatsuna turned her head away towards the opposite end of the room. That last line of his floated around in her thoughts endlessly. Her face swiftly became beet-red.
"Are... you feeling alright?" asked Iseber, getting ever more worried about her mental state.
The saiyaness swiveled back around and roared with a cherry-crimson face.
"Leave! Me! ALONE!"
Iseber fell backwards onto the floor, startled by her obscenely loud shouting. Squas, who had been standing by quietly, narrowed his eyes at her. "So, that's the thanks he gets for being the only one who gives a shit?" he thought.
The vindictive boy opened his mouth to speak his mind, but Iseber got up and smiled at him as if to wave him off. The saiyan stiffly dusted himself off, saying to the boy "Well. Come on, Squas. Let's go over to Ginge's for a bit and see your brother. I never got the chance to meet him!"
Squas looked baffled at him as he walked towards the door. "How the hell did he know my brother was back?! I never told him!"
"A-alright." stuttered the kid, shuffling after his older packmate.
They left Komatsuna alone in the bedroom. She heard them step out and walk away from the house. Their muffled voices trailed off as they left.
The young woman stewed silently in her 'juices'. She glared lazily at her now useless legs, cursing herself. "How could I be so careless?! So weak?! Damn it!"
It ruthlessly tore at her to think she would be stuck this way forever, forever divorced from independence. She just couldn't accept it. "No! This isn't happening! I can't be stuck in this fucking bed for the rest of my life! I have to move! I have to!"
Picking her legs up manually with her arms, she awkwardly positioned herself on the side of the bed with her legs hanging off. She then scooted closer and closer to the edge, until her feet touched the floor. "There we go! Now, baby steps! Just press and lift up!"
With the help of her arms, Komatsuna managed to lift herself a few inches off of the bed. However, it was a hollow act. None of the weight was being hoisted by her legs, and she knew it. Still, her delusions of self-determination clouded her judgement. She took the final leap of faith and thrusted herself from the bed.
Her legs folded like straws under her weight. She plunged to the floor and banged her head on the wood of the bed frame. The crippled, and now bruised saiyaness curled up in a ball from the pain. Reality washed over Komatsuna as the headache dulled. "I'm crippled... I'm... useless."
A tear ran down from her eye and she punched the floor with her vast strength, shaking the whole house.
"Fuuuuck!" she cried, blaring her voice throughout the building.
A/N: I will try to release something once a month. Staying engaged is very challenging.