Crono's
Story
Chapter
36
Karnai
I was once taught
by Elder Muri that at one point or another in every beings life, there is a
distinct moment of realization, an epiphany unlike any other that, if only for
a brief moment, brings an unequalled level of clarity to that beings mind. This moment, I believe, occurred to me a
week after Nikita's incident.
My transformation into a "Super Namek" (for lack of a
better word) was something I had been nearly craving for over a few
months. As only the second Namek to
ever grow powerful enough to reach the stage, I felt a sort of pride in what
I'd accomplished; so much so that actually reaching the stage seemed almost
secondary to me.
But about a month after I understood that I was nearing
this newfound level of power, I began to doubt as to whether I would reach this
level at all. Simple Namekian biology
dictated that when a Namek reached a certain height of power, their body would
metamorphoses into a different version, a different model, one more able to
handle large amounts of muscle and ki energy. During this process, a huge boost in power would be given to the Namek,
like Piccolo was given when he fused with Nail on planet Namek; but no such
increase in power seemed to even be coming on the horizon.
So when Yush and the other Caprians landed early, I found
myself without the ability to battle with them as I wished too. If I had transformed before Yush's arrival,
there would've been no need for Crono to be wished into creation, and by all
accounts, Cris would still be a single being. Not only that though, but we would also have another pure-blooded saiyan
left alive in Triono.
But for some reason, I had not transformed by their
arrival, and so I was left in the cold; unable to be of any help against even
Blanka, Yush's highest-ranking assistant. Though almost none of my fellow Z Warriors knew of my failed
transformation, or of the power it yielded, I felt as though it had been my
fault for our poor showing against Yush and his men; and also felt that I had
to make up for it, to right a mistake I'd made at one of the Earth's most
important periods of time.
Accordingly, I trained the absolute hardest I ever would
in my life in the month following Yush's arrival. For almost four weeks, I pushed myself to my limits and beyond,
using a gravity level almost twice that which I'd been utilizing before Yush's
arrival, all the while just praying that I would break through a barrier that
had held me back for far too long. So
with a blind vigilance befitting of a warrior, my life was arbitrarily
transformed into a living hell until I reached my "Super Namek" form.
The actual revolution of my body took place almost
without my knowledge. One early
morning, I was practicing my ki attacks by firing them into the sky from a
small balcony of rock near my training zone, when a sudden and irrational
tingling came up within my stomach, almost like I was anxious or
something. I paused in my exercising
for a moment, and pondered what could be causing the feeling. The sensation slowly passed, and I went back
to training. Before a dozen seconds had
passed however, the emotion returned, stronger and much farther-reaching,
almost nearing my head and the contents within it. Almost as soon as the feeling reached me though, it had passed,
and I felt as normal as ever. A bit
mystified, I continued on with my training, unbeknown of the change that I had
just undergone.
It wasn't until much later that day that I realized just
what had happened. I stood in the open,
and utterly crushed field that served as my training grounds, and slowly
prepared myself to perform my Split Form technique. The technique itself usually wasn't that hard to do, since
Namekians naturally had a penchant for splitting apart bodies and minds, but on
that day, I found it difficult to perform, almost like something within me
wanted to hold myself together. With a
small amount of effort, I pulled off the manuever, and felt with a mix of
terror and pain as my body ripped itself into two.
To portray the sensation of looking into one's own eyes,
knowing that across from you is… you, is not a thing that can be described, nor
even consciously thought, but to say the least, it is strange. I gazed across through my own eyes, into
my own eyes, and my match of selves began in earnest.
Since both versions of me thought so much alike, the
opening assault was evenly matched. Both bodies rushed headfirst at the other, a nearly invisible exchange
of fists occurring as both neared each other. Almost immediately after that first exchange, I noticed a distinct and
noticeable difference in the rate of my attacks, in fact, both of me did.
Even so, I merely put the tidbit of information in the
back of my mind, and quickly returned my attention to my sparring match. This time one of my bodies took the role of
aggressor and rushed the other with a small dynamite-kick, along with a small
ball of ki energy that was badly aimed, and merely exploded on the ground
behind the defending body. Once the
short offensive proved fruitless, the other body of mine attempted to take
control over the other, by zanzokening behind it, and then powering up a
double-handed ki beam. This tactic also
established itself as useless after the shielding body easily thwarted the
attack with a well-timed reverse kick to my body.
With that kick, I was hurled much farther than I'd
anticipated, going nearly five hundred metres through the air before crashing
into the ground; almost beyond the gravity field. Somewhat amazed at my own strength, neither body did much other
than collect themselves for a few seconds, as both dropped into fighting
stances and squared off against one another.
Both bodies quickly shot towards the other, attempting to
nail one another with a flurry of Renzoku energy blasts. Both of me coped with the attacks, weaving
their way through the flood of ki energy, all the while managing to keep their
own stream of the attacks going, and nearing the other in an attempt to more
easily nail the other body. Each missed
ki blast struck the ground near the battling warriors, exploding with an impact
far more powerful than that of any man-made bomb. Before long, the two became so close to one another that dodging
the blasts were all but impossible, and soon one unlucky form was struck twice,
and was sent soaring into the air.
Before that body even had a chance to orient itself, the
other had zanzokened in front of it, and begun punching it mercilessly with
fist after fist, impaling the body with green-skinned muscle and bone. Within a few seconds, over fifty punches had
been dealt to the weakened body, which was by then out of breath and extremely
disadvantaged. The attacking body was
relentless, punching with extreme brutality, and almost wishing to kill the
body with which it was psychically attuned.
The ferocity with which I attacked was almost
frightening; I had never before wished harm upon myself when sparring through
my Split Form technique, yet this time I felt an almost unquenchable need
to draw purple blood from this body, which was in essence my own. Yet even as I recognized this strange change
of desire within myself, and realized just how sickening it was, the bloodlust
within me grew stronger, calling upon me to punch with even more vigour, to
cause as much pain as I could to this being which held the same heart as I.
The beauty of the Split Form manuever though, was that no
matter what thoughts, emotions or strategies arose within the mind of one body,
were almost certain to arise in the other. So it wasn't long before the body that had been taking the beating for
most of the bout suddenly acquired the same yearning for pain as the other
one. In one fluid motion, the defending
body swept away a pair of punches from the attacking one, and then pounded its
opponent towards the ground with a double-handed axe-hammer smash. I struck with such power and anger that my
other body crashed into the ground with enough force to shatter the entire
training ground into one huge impact crater.
The floored body lay in agony, its desire for pain
suddenly overshadowed by its own agony. But while one of me had lost its sudden craving to inflict pain, the
other had its only magnified ten-fold. My uppermost body powered up slightly, calling forth powers from deep
within itself, and then fired its way straight towards the grounded body.
The now wounded Namekian form barely managed a defence
against the onslaught of its twin, narrowly zanzokening away from its speedy
counterpart, just as I was moving in for the kill. It reappeared where its opponent had previously resided, high in
the air. With the two's positions
switched, both turned hastily towards the other, and powered up.
The air began to crackle under the immense power of the
two bodies, as white-yellow wisps of ki energy spread forth from both bodies,
illuminating the morning sky in dull wan light. Suddenly the two whipped a single hand out, and shot a huge beam
of ki energy at the other. The two rays
met in the epicentre of the battle, and set the skies ablaze as each body
pushed with all its might.
Both of my bodies began to feel the strain of the ki
clash, as my muscles began to tense up, and then grow tired as energy reserves
were depleted and the conflict intensified. I flew towards myself, pushing both upwards and downwards, two opposite
forces both pushing towards the same goal. My arms began to burn, and I knew that holding onto this ki interaction
would be impossible, without the loss of a large chunk of the Earth. With a huge explosion of energy, both ki
beams were halted, and almost instantly both bodies flew towards one another,
and began an intense bout of hand-to-hand combat.
A volley of fists and kicks were quickly thrown by each
body, with neither landing a single blow. Despite the apparent futility of the combat though, both continued to
swing at one another. Both of my ki's
flared out at full strength, both increasing with an apparently unending source
of power.
With both bodies attacking all-out, a stalemate soon grew
apparent, and both minds began to search for a way to outmatch the other; both
finding that doing so was impossible. When it seemed like I would inevitably become tired and the pace of the
battle would slow down, only the exact opposite occurred; both bodies began to
increase the tempo of their attacks, drawing upon forces I didn't even know I
had within me. Finally after what
seemed like an infinity of useless attacks, one body took a chance, and
attempted to fire a small ki blast at the other.
The shot barely nicked the torso of the other body, but
it had enough power within it to cause an explosion and send the body hurling
down towards the ground. It connected
with the floor, emitting a soft "thud" that rang through the air. Not content to merely wound myself, my
uppermost body rocketed down towards the grounded Namek, my lustrous aura of
white energy sending itself out in all directions.
Mere thousandths of a second before my bodies were to
meet, the floored one sprung away with a surge of ki energy, causing the
attacking body to collide with the ground, and disperse large portions of grass
and dirt out in all directions, again creating an impact crater in the ground.
The apparent failure of my attack didn't even reach my
mind before the urge to spring again was lit within me. I shot after myself, again coming within an
inch of making contact, only to have my defending self shoot away in a blaze of
ki, and leaving me to make a sizeable hole in the earth.
My two bodies continued to play the game of cat and
mouse, chasing from one spot to the next, each time leaving one more hole in
the earth, one more fissure of devastation for the planet to heal upon
itself. The match continued for mere
minutes, but in that time the already decimated battleground was torn even more
asunder, leaving only the scarred remains of a field that had seen things far
beyond its time.
Finally, both bodies stopped, their energy hopelessly
sapped from a test of endurance unlike any they'd previously experienced. I stared at myself, across the barren
wasteland I had created, and I was suddenly embowered in the realization of
what I had done. Pits of dirt lay in
flaming heaps, nary a speck of grass remaining within ten kilometres of my two
positions, all signs of wildlife non-existent, as any unfortunate being that
was within the vicinity was undoubtedly destroyed by wayward attacks of
mine. I could feel newfound ki rising
up within both of me, as an aura of white energy was expelling itself from my
body; yet even as I felt this pristine energy emerge, I felt no need for its
use, saw no point in its utilization. It suddenly seemed to me as if all I had done in that day had been for
not, since instead of using my newfound strength to protect the planet that I
so dearly loved, I had in fact only neared it closer to destruction.
My two pairs of eyes gaped down at the ruined floor
beneath me, and I suddenly felt a very strong longing to remerge with myself,
to again become whole and feel complete. All four eyes gradually drifted upwards, until they met in a sea of
shimmering white light. I looked into
my own eyes, and for the first time, realized just how vacant, just how apart
they were, and as I pushed both bodies towards one another with my mind, even
more power came rushing from within me, unlocking itself from some hidden cave
in my body. My two bodies collided, and
I was instantly reformed into a whole being; and that's when I realized it.
The knowledge that I had finally achieved my "Super Namek"
form was only secondary to the epiphany that came to me at the same time. I apprehended that within the completeness I
felt upon my two bodies becoming one, lay Earth's only chance for victory
against the Caprians. Absolute and
complete unity between all those fighting for the Universe's salvation would be
our only hope in just under seventeen months. Without some sort of seamless bond between those of us who called
ourselves "Z Warriors", the Caprians would win, and we would die.
I had fear in my heart not that this bond didn't exist
yet, but that it may never exist, and that we would only grow farther apart as
the time between now and the Caprians arrival passed by. These last months would be a time of change,
a time of transformation, and my only prayer was that our revolution as a group
would not produce as many disastrous results as mine did as an individual that
day.
With a scream to shake the heavens, I cried out to my
friends, and hoped that within my yell of completion, that they could find
something within themselves to unite with, and something within each other as
well.