Chapter Ninety-Nine: Showdown With Dodoria
"Ready to give up yet, wench? You can quit at any time!"
"Nev…er…"
"Suit yourself. I'm getting tired of playing with you. Surrender or die!"
"Not…in…your…dreams…"
A hovering Dodoria frowned heavily as he held Tayla in the air by her throat. Tayla was panting for air now, and her face was heavily bruised. Her right eye was blackened and swollen, and her button nose was bleeding; she could taste the coppery taste of her indigo blood dribbling into her throat. Her ribs ached painfully, and her arm had been twisted so hard it was nearly sprained. Her light blue pants were burned away completely below her knees. She had finally been forced to take off her boots, for Dodoria's last surprise hand blast had completely burned away her left boot, so she just threw away her right boot as well.
*Nama won't have to worry about disintegrating my boots now* she thought, allowing herself a small chuckle, despite her injuries. She didn't laugh for too long, for the laughter made her ribs hurt worse. She finally groaned loudly, as she looked over Dodoria.
The only comfort that she could take from this battle at this point was that Dodoria had not fared much better than she had. Dodoria had fought exceptionally well for a beast with one hand; he had put his remaining hand to good use. But he had not escaped unscathed, for Tayla had managed to inflict some damage upon him herself before Dodoria's last powerful hand blast had caught her off guard before she could use Mirror Shield to deflect it. Dodoria's nose was also bleeding, and several of his spikes had been blasted away. His shoulder was dislocated, and he had a broken collarbone. Half of his face had been burned severely, with a nasty red-and-white blister combined with scorched skin covering his right cheek. Six of his front teeth were missing, and his lower lip was bleeding along with his nose. His left eye was almost swollen shut, and his thigh flanks had been broken off.
Tayla might have been able to hold up her end of the fight longer, if it had not been for Dodoria's surprise hand blast that had nearly sent her crashing into the ground. She had managed to keep herself from falling, but Dodoria had captured her before she could gain her bearings. Tayla was now dangling by her neck in Dodoria's meaty fist, and she knew that she had to think of an escape plan quickly before Dodoria had a chance to think of anything else.
Dodoria then suddenly slammed his fist into Tayla's stomach hard, making her cry out. She retaliated by kicking Dodoria in his stomach, but Dodoria's fat, plus his armor protected her enemy nicely, so all her foot managed to do was dent his stomach flank. Dodoria shoved his fist into her side with the impact of a mallet, and he delighted in Tayla's screams.
She would have electrocuted him, but she had tried that earlier with no success. Dodoria had long ago become immune to Electric Touch. He finally decided to torture the girl more, so he took her by her throat and swung her around in the air. After he had done that several times, he threw her into a nearby cliff, and Tayla's slim body crashed into the side of the cliff, creating a hole in the side about five feet deep and six feet wide.
With dust enveloping her, a severely wounded Tayla lay in the hole that her body had created for several minutes, trying not to pass out. How much longer could she go on like this? Her final battle with Diamonique, as short as it had been, had taken its toll on her young body. She was tired, very tired, and all she really wanted to do was faint and give into the welcoming blackness that calling to her mind. She closed her eyes briefly, but her rest would be short, for Dodoria had caught up with her. He was outside of her hole, calling out:
"Now are you going to surrender, girlie? I have better things to do than waste time with a scrawny thing like you? You're lucky that I'm not allowed to kill you, but I will beat you to a bloody pulp. Come out now and give up, brat!"
No response, except for girlish groans.
"Come out, girlie! Or I'll blast you out! Which would you rather have happen?"
Tayla tried to struggle to her feet, but with little success. All she could manage to do was rise to her knees. She stood on her knees, wobbling, trying to rise further.
"I'll have to admit, brat, you put up a longer fight than I expected; I have to admit you're definitely Elite material. I can see now why Lord Frieza wants you so badly; why in a few years you might be as good as me! Hah! Well, maybe as good as the monkey prince that you defeated anyway! Hell, maybe you'll have his position one day! But now it's time to go, brat; we still have a planet to clear, and you and your meddling family have interrupted us for long enough! COME OUT NOW!"
Tayla only moaned. Her entire body ached, as she slowly and shakily rose to her feet and turned around painfully. She knew now that she would have to summon up her life force, which she had been saving as an absolutely last resort, in order to finish her fight with Dodoria. She closed her eyes for a few moments, as she felt her life force bolster her feeble ki.
Dodoria called, "Well, girlie, are you gonna surrender to me now, or what?"
Finally, after five minutes of listening to Dodoria bellow threats and commands, she felt energized again. She then began to steadily walk through the hole, as she gathered her ki together once more. Finally, feeling ready, she emitted a stream of silvery light from her left palm straight out of the cave at her opponent. She was rewarded with an angry scream from her fat nemesis.
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU LITTLE BITC-"
"Does that answer your question, Dodo?" Tayla cried out with more confidence than she previously had earlier. She then shot another ki blast at him before she flew out of the cave. While Dodoria was recovering from that second attack, Tayla wasted no time in flying past him into the air. She hovered over him, as she prepared for a Double Janus Bolt attack, as Dodoria flew up into the air after her.
She wasted no more time in launching her Double Janus Bolt, but to her shock and horror, Dodoria managed to dodge it, and Tayla's powerful attack crashed into a small hill, completely obliterating it. After several moments, Dodoria stared down at the muddied rubble in horror, as the huge cloud of dust and debris and light began to dissipate.
*Amazing. This little girlie isn't playing anymore. I definitely better stay on my guard. *
Dodoria charged after Tayla again, but Tayla started to fire a series of small ki packets at him, as if she were shooting a machine gun. The ki packets weren't very damaging, but there were more than enough of them to keep Dodoria at bay.
"Little wench! Stop this immediately!"
Tayla smirked, as she continued to shoot more ki balls at her enemy.
Not too far away…
"Tayla is fighting against Dodoria by herself?" Shalila screamed. "What in Orchida's name is that child thinking? We ourselves had a hard time those many years ago against that monster, and she's fighting him alone! We've got to hurry!" She, Dirkan, Bajal, Raakon, and Bendros had heard a giant ki blast crash into a hill and cause it to collapse. They did not know that it had been Tayla's unsuccessful Double Janus Bolt, but they did know that Tayla was facing off against Dodoria now, and things were ugly between them. They were in the air now, flying towards the area where Dodoria and Tayla were fighting.
And Shalila, Dirkan, Raakon, and Bajal knew how deadly and merciless Dodoria could be; he would have no consideration or care for Tayla's small size or young age. In fact, none of them would put it past the spiky-headed monster to disregard Frieza's orders and kill the girl as soon as possible.
Shalila and Dirkan had both mutually agreed to retrieve Tayla from the fight with Dodoria and face off with the giant minion themselves. They were worried that Dodoria's great strength and Tayla's earlier immense grief for Ridikar would inhibit her fighting ability. Bendros disagreed with them, believing that even now Tayla still had it within her to stand up to a bully like Dodoria. Dirkan had argued with him for several minutes on that point, saying that Bendros had never fought against Dodoria before, and therefore, had no idea of what the mighty monstrosity was like. Bendros still held to his position, but in the end, he conceded with the Superior Gran and Granden. He did not agree with them about pulling Tayla out of the fight if she could hold her own, but they were in charge of her safety and welfare, not him. As much as he disagreed with them, he respected their authority over Tayla.
Bajal had sided with Shalila and Dirkan while Raakon had remained undecided. Bajal believed in Tayla, but he was realistic about her chances with Dodoria. Dodoria had defeated Bajal a long time ago in the Battle of Chloe, and if the first Bajal, Shalila's husband, and Dirkan had not intervened soon after, the second Bajal would have perished. If he, a large, husky man who was one of the strongest in the Clan of Chloe, had not been able to take down Dodoria, what were Tayla's chances? Tayla was less than half of Bajal's size, and she was still a child in his eyes.
Raakon had wanted to take a-wait-and-see approach, and Bendros had agreed with him, but they had both been outvoted three to two. They were all pulling Tayla out of the fight with Dodoria; she would not be happy with that, but even she would have to submit to Shalila and Dirkan's orders.
They all just hoped that Tayla would submit to them calmly. Knowing her temperament, she could be like Lektron or Bajal at times when someone was dragging them away from a fight. Shalila shrugged that last worry off; she'd rather have a disappointed and frustrated Tayla than a dead Tayla.
Back with Tayla and Dodoria…
Tayla was now flying away from Dodoria, who was in hot pursuit of his opponent. She had surmised that her best chances of defeating the fat, pink monster would be in her ki attacks, not her brute strength; she had to use the same tactics earlier with Vegeta because his brute strength had greatly exceeded her own. If she had had to rely only on hits and kicks with the Saiyan prince earlier, Vegeta would have eventually defeated her, and she knew it. Her brute strength had been one of the major areas that she had been trying to improve in, and while her brute strength outshone that of many of her relatives her age and above, she still had a long way to go. If and when she returned to Astoria, she would resume her weekly sessions at Kami Orchida's to train further and improve; she had been doing those sessions ever since she had returned home to the Palace of Chloe.
But first, she had to help win this war before making future plans-if there was a future left to make plans in.
She hovered in the air above Dodoria, preparing for a Blitzer attack. Unfortunately, Dodoria was not giving her the time that she needed; he repeatedly fired mouth blasts at her, which she had to continuously deflect with Mirror Shield attacks. Finally Tayla had to go back to using her rapid-fire ki packets to hold Dodoria off. And then she decided that it was time for a new tactic, one that she had only used twice in her lifetime, and no, it was not Electric Quake.
After shooting one of her ki packets into Dodoria's eyes, temporarily blinding him, she drew her hands back, as if she were using both hands to bowl in an Earth bowling match. A small, pinkish-orange ball manifested itself into her small hands and began to increase in size rapidly, until it was the size of a basketball. She then used one of her hands to toss it into the air above her head, and the ball continued to grow in size until it was twice as large as she was. Tayla wasted no time into leaping up into the giant, glowing ball that sucked her in. Now she was encased in a protective ball of ki that would cause potentially deadly damage to anyone or anything that it hit.
She panted, trying her best to conserve her ki as much as possible, for this ki attack was a last resort move, such as Electric Quake. This attack that Kami Orchida had taught her (and only allowed her to try twice) was called Power Globe. Power Globe was as deadly as Electric Quake, but the downside of this attack was that it could quickly drain the ki of the user. Power Globe would only last as long as the user was able to maintain, and so far, Tayla had been the first to try it. Kami Orchida had developed the attack herself, and so far before Tayla, she had only taught Shalila and Dirkan how to use the attack. Both warriors had each only used it several times in their lives because of the dangerousness of the attack. Both rulers of Astoria had been able to restrain themselves from using Power Globe during the entire war on Calmag, neither having found the necessity to do so.
If an opponent were hit with a Power Globe, the globe would hit him or her with the impact of a small, speedy comet that electrocuted, guaranteed to either kill the opponent instantly, or at the very best, send him or her crashing out of the sky or into the ground. While the caster was in the Power Globe, he or she was invincible, and no ki attacks could affect him or her, but the Power Globe would quickly sap the attacker of his or her energy. Tayla would only be able to use Power Globe for ten minutes at the very most before she would have to make it vanish. If she used the Power Globe attack for too long, it would drain her of all of her ki, plus her life force (some life force manipulation was involved) and wear her out, rendering her useless for any further fighting. Every time the Power Globe would hit a person or object, it would sap her ki and strength much faster than if the globe did not touch anything at all, so Tayla would have to be extra careful.
Tayla was inside her Power Globe, and she dashed towards Dodoria while inside her ball of ki, like a comet. Dodoria could not escape her in time, and Tayla's Power Globe crashed into his body, electrocuting him severely, and then sending his body smashing into a cliff! Tayla sent the globe that she was in to attack Dodoria again, and before Dodoria could flee, the Power Globe smashed into him with Tayla inside.
Dodoria screamed, as he was being electrocuted; he thought that he was going to die, as Tayla's Power Globe crashed into him again and again. By the fourth time the Power Globe hit, Dodoria was severely damaged and burned, his entire armor having melted away. He was greatly weakened now-but then so was Tayla.
Tayla could feel herself weakening rapidly, and she knew that she was going to have to drop her protective ball of ki much sooner than expected. The Power Globe had taken an unusually high toll on her young body, due to Tayla's too-frequent use of it and her size and age. She saw an enraged Dodoria charge after her with a mouth blast, and she decided to use the Power Globe for one last time before dropping it.
She sent her Power Globe smashing into Dodoria again, cutting off his mouth blast and breaking his jaw and cheekbones. The Power Globe shoved the corpulent fighter into the ground again, and he was disabled now for several minutes, more damaged than ever.
Unfortunately for Tayla, that last Power Globe attack drained what little bit of ki that she had left, and not even her faltering life force was enough to reenergize it. Within minutes of her last attack on Dodoria, the Power Globe faded away completely, and she felt faint, completely drained and light-headed.
Before she could prevent herself, she fainted, and her slim body began to fall rapidly towards the ground. Luckily for her, she had a soft landing, landing into a small pond where the cold water revived her immediately. Tayla managed to keep herself from drowning, as she struggled to the surface, but she was very disoriented, and she allowed herself to float on the surface of the water. She just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep; she was just too tired to try to get up to fly again. Her ki was now much weaker than a newborn Human infant's.
"Must get up…" she murmured to herself, but her body was unwilling to move. She could not even levitate herself off of the water's surface. She felt like a balloon that had been deflated, but not popped; she felt light-headed, disoriented, and weak.
Unfortunately, Dodoria had recovered slightly, much faster than Tayla. He was still extremely injured, but he could now easily take down the little girl resting on the pond's glassy surface. His huge body was now hovering in the air over her, as he was gasping for air. Tayla's attacks had taken their toll on him, and his jawbone was cracked, more of his teeth were missing, two more of his spikes were gone, and now both sides of his face were scorched black. He could no longer see out of his left eye.
He was furious, and he was ready to destroy Tayla Chloe now. He no longer cared at this point about Frieza's reward; he wanted Tayla dead. Lord Frieza was better off without the dangerous brat; he already had Vegeta to deal with, and Dodoria's beloved sire did not need two potentially deadly brats to handle. His face was scrunched him, and his remaining fist was balled. He took a deep breath and threw his head back, preparing to roast Tayla and the pond away with a mouth blast.
*Die, brat, die! I'm givin' you what you deserve! Have fun in the next dimension, wench! *
And he opened his jaw and fire blasted out of his wide mouth. The blast of deadly fire shot down towards the pond and Tayla, who now was completely disoriented. She saw Dodoria's attack coming, but she could not even summon the energy to scream. Slow tears streamed down her exhausted, scarred face, as the blast came at her; she could not even convince her drained body to swim away.
*I'm sorry, Nama, Dirkan, Bendros…Ridikar…wish I could have won this one…now it's too late…*
Tayla closed her eyes and gave into the blackness that swallowed her exhausted mind up and engulfed it, making her pass out before the blast hit.
It would soon be over…
…Or would it?
Dodoria's mouth blast hit the pond, vaporizing all of the water inside and creating a huge, empty crater where a bowl of life-filled water had once been. Smoke rose from the crater, and small fires began to emerge in and around the huge hole.
Dodoria closed his eyes and laughed and laughed. "Goodbye, wench! Lord Frieza may beat the crap out of me later for killin' you off, but it's gonna be worth it! He'll see eventually that he was better off without ya! Oh, knowing my attack, there's probably nothing of your body remaining-"
His triumphant words were cut off by Dirkan's fist in his fat mouth. Before Dodoria knew it, Dirkan was beating him up with his huge fists, and kicking him with his powerful, swift feet. Dirkan was mercilessly pummeling and kicking the fat soldier, and he broke Dodoria's jaw further.
"You fat bastard!" Dirkan roared, as he continued his deadly assaults on Dodoria. "I'll never forgive you for what you did to that child! She couldn't fight you back at that point, you sick beast! You're going to die, and I'm going to make it hurt! Oh, you'll wish that I killed you all those years ago instead of now! Once I'm through with you, fatso, there won't be so much as a shred of lard of you left!"
Dodoria was hard-pressed to hold himself off against a strong, angry Namek who was determined to murder him. He managed to meet Dirkan blow for blow and kick for kick, but his best efforts were taking what energy that he had out of him. An enraged Dirkan repeatedly punched Dodoria in his jaw and mouth, and Dirkan's feet repetitively crashed into Dodoria's now unprotected stomach. Dodoria now only had his chest plate left, and Dirkan used his eye lasers to burn it off; it was about to fall apart anyway.
Dodoria managed to keep up his battle with Dirkan for another twenty minutes, but his stamina was fading fast. Finally, Dirkan sent one hard punch to Dodoria's fat face, a punch that would render him useless. Dodoria could have held up his end of the battle against the Namek warrior, but Tayla's previous attacks on him had taken a severe toll on him, and he was no longer able to hold his own. Dirkan punched Dodoria in his face again, and then once more in the side of his head for good measure. Dodoria could not stop himself from falling headfirst into the crater that his last mouth blast had created, and when he crashed, Dirkan used his Tri-Force attack against him, and that coup de grace finished the fight between him and Dodoria once and for all.
Dodoria was still barely alive, but he was defeated for good now, and he was smart enough to know it. He lay facedown in the mud and muck that he had created. Rubble and debris was covering his entire body, and his ki could no longer be felt. He wisely decided to lie there and play like he was dead; if he even attempted to rise again, he knew that Dirkan would kill him once and for all. So he reluctantly gave up and dragged his heavy body deeper into the ground, hiding until he passed out.
More rubble and debris fell upon his body, engulfing him in darkness, but Dodoria could not see, feel, nor hear the pieces hit him and the mess covering him now.
Dirkan floated away from the site where Dodoria was now buried under, and he slowly flew over several miles from the crater that Dodoria had created. He finally landed on the ground in a small meadow, where Shalila was kneeling on the ground, holding Tayla's body in her arms. She was nudging Tayla and rubbing the girl's hands.
"Tayla, please, please be alive," she whispered frantically. Shalila had retrieved Tayla's body from the lake just seconds before Dodoria's mouth blast had destroyed the body of water. Tayla's body was completely inert, and she did not respond to Shalila's desperate cries.
"Tayla, WAKE UP! Please!" she cried aloud. Bajal, Raakon, and Bendros were sitting all around the girl's body.
"Tayla, wake up!" Bajal ordered her. "Don't die on us!"
"Tayla, can you hear us?" Raakon cried. "Please, do something, say something."
"Yes!" Bajal declared. "Say something, even if it's to tell me to shut up and go to hell!"
Bendros took Tayla's hand and squeezed it. "Tayla, if you are still alive, you don't have to talk. Just squeeze my hand back, and we'll know that you can still hear us."
No response.
"Tayla!" Shalila cried, patting Tayla's cheeks. "Please respond to us! Blink your eyes; squeeze Bendros's hand or mine, do anything. Give us a sign of life!"
Dirkan had joined them by this time, and he pushed himself next to Shalila, sitting besides his wife. He took Tayla's arm and began to rub it. "Tayla, we need you, sweetheart, please don't leave us."
"Dandelion, it's Nama. I love you; we love you! Please don't leave us; we need you, we love you!"
Tayla remained unresponsive.
"Tayla!"
"Tayla, please wake up!" Bendros declared. "Too many people love you and need you, me included."
"We can't do without you, little sister," Raakon said worriedly.
"We're counting on you to live, sis," Bajal cajoled. "Don't give up now!"
"You helped defeat Dodoria," Dirkan prodded her. "I couldn't have finished him off so quickly, had it not been for you. You finished most of that battle with him before we even arrived. Dodoria's out of it now, and he can't hurt any of us anymore. Wake up, Tayla, please!"
Still no response or reply from the little Astorian princess.
"Tayla, we all love you," Shalila pressed. "What am I going to do without my little dandelion?"
Bendros tried a different tactic. "Tayla, listen, what about your promises to Ridikar? You promised to help get rid of all those who have harmed us, and you promised him that you'd look after Caline. What's Caline going to do without you?"
"What will we do without you?" Dirkan demanded to know.
Finally, Bajal added, "If you die, Tayla, who's going to keep Dedron in his place? Dedron tried to get rid of you and make you life miserable! Do you want him gloating because you're gone? Why should that prick get to have the pleasure of you being gone? At least stay alive long enough to get back at the bastard for having you kidnapped!"
"Bajal!" Shalila exclaimed, embarrassed and horrified. Dirkan chuckled until his wife nudged him in his ribs, and he managed to restrain himself. Raakon and Bendros smothered their own chuckles at Bajal's words, even though Raakon also felt that they shouldn't be finding Bajal's put-downs about Dedron funny.
But suddenly, a tiny smile formed onto Tayla's bruised and scarred face, and a small chortle escaped her lips. Her body squirmed slowly, and her eyelids struggled to open. Shalila cried out in relief.
"She's awakening!" she screamed excitedly.
"C'mon, Tayla, wake up, you can do it," Raakon urged gently.
"Wake up, sis," Bajal encouraged.
"You can do this, Tayla," Dirkan told her, leaning over to kiss her forehead.
"We're right here with you," Bendros told her, squeezing her hand.
"So…tired…" Tayla finally murmured. Her eyes finally opened, and she was astonished to see her brothers, along with Nama, Dirkan, and Bendros. She first looked at Dirkan. "D-Dirkan? You're normal again…no more mushy lines…right?"
Dirkan blushed before he could prevent himself. "R-right…Tayla," he said, embarrassed. "No more mushy lines."
"Seductia's no longer his queen of the sunsets," Shalila told her granddaughter, smiling.
"She's been destroyed for good."
"Yeah, Ben here did it," Bajal told his sister, indicating Bendros. "Good thing too, 'cause I'm going to have a hard time explaining to my wife why I was panting after another woman."
"Well, she was your 'dab of pink pearl cream' for some time," Raakon teased.
"Yeah, well it was better than her being your sweetest of all candy canes!" Bajal retorted, but he was grinning. "Seems, bro, that you're going to have some explaining to do to Natala later." An embarrassed Raakon looked down on the ground.
Tayla smiled at all of her family and friends, and then her happy expression turned to a worried one. "D-Dodoria…where is he?"
"Dead, we hope," Dirkan told her fiercely. "I finished off the bastard…for a few minutes there, I thought that he had finished you for good. It seems though that you inflicted plenty of damage on him yourself before your grandmother retrieved you from that pond."
"I remember now…Dodoria sent a mouth blast at me…thought I was going to die," Tayla whispered after briefly thanking her grandmother. "I-I used…that Power Globe attack that Kami Orchida taught me on him about five times, but…I must have used it too much…'cause it took everything…I had…out of me."
"Five times in how minutes?" Shalila asked, alarmed. "That is a very dangerous, last-resort attack, dandelion. Even Dirkan and I try not to use that attack unless absolutely necessary. You could have killed yourself, child! Kami Orchida even discouraged Dirkan and I from using it too often. My heavens, child, you are very lucky to be alive right now! That was a huge risk you took! I didn't even know that Kami Orchida taught you that move…why didn't you tell us that she showed you that attack?"
"I'm sorry, Nama," Tayla whispered. "Thought that I needed to use it. Kami Orchida taught me that Power Globe attack three weeks 'fore we left for here. Dodoria was so strong…thought I had no other choice."
"Well, you did hurt Dodoria badly enough for me to finish him off quickly," Dirkan told her encouragingly. "You held up against him longer than any of us thought you could. Dodoria was a dangerous foe…much more deadly than even a Saiyan."
"Is he dead?" Tayla asked him.
"I doubt we'll get that lucky, but I don't think he'll be bothering any of us anymore for a while," Dirkan replied. He brushed the hair from Tayla's face and said firmly, "Tayla, we're going to have Bendros take you back to the city; you need to rest now. We'll take things from here."
"I can't just leave all of you like that," Tayla said. "Won't you need me?"
"Dandelion, you've worn yourself out," Shalila told her. "You've done more than your part. Now that Dodoria's out of the way, we can deal with Zarbon and the remaining Ginyu Force members. Where is Diamonique? Do you have any idea, Tayla?"
"She's…been taken care of," Tayla explained briefly. "I hope that I made her pay for Ridikar's death." And several tears slid from her eyes. Shalila kissed them away.
"We are sorry about Ridikar, dandelion," she whispered to her granddaughter.
"I wish that I had been able to save him," Tayla said hoarsely, unable to keep her tears from coming again. "He tried to be good near the end, Nama, he really did. I know that nobody here liked him much, but he changed, he did."
"We believe you, darling," Shalila told her softly. "Bendros told us how bravely he fought Diamonique to protect you. We are sorry that things turned out the way they did."
"And I'm sorry that we couldn't have been more of help when we were under that witch, Seductia's spell," Dirkan said with a growl. "Curse that wench!"
"At least she and Diamonique are gone now," Tayla said quietly. "Diamonique hopefully won't be coming back…I hope that I stopped her."
"We can't sense her anywhere, so we believe that you did," Shalila told her, kissing her face again. She then gently lifted Tayla off of the ground and handed her to Bendros, who had arisen. "Bendros, will you take Tayla back to that hotel in Magan and stay with her? We need to go finish off Zarbon and his bunch."
"She'll be in good hands," Bendros assured Shalila.
"I wish I could come with you and help," Tayla told her. "If only I hadn't used up my ki earlier…could have done more."
"Don't worry about it now, dandelion," Shalila told her, kissing her again. "Now it's time for you to go with Bendros. Gooden boden fro noy, my dear."
"Gooden boden, Nama," Tayla said softly, and the others told her and Bendros their goodbyes. Bendros lifted Tayla up further into his arms, so that they both would be more comfortable. She wrapped her slender arms around his neck, as Bendros whisked her away into the sky. When they had left, Shalila and the others left a few minutes later to confront Zarbon and the rest of the Ginyu Force.
As Tayla watched them leave into the air and fading further away, she held tight to Bendros and prayed that they would be able to take care of Zarbon and the others without her. She tried to comfort herself with the fact that they all had defeated them before long before she had been born.
But could they do it again?
"Ready to give up yet, wench? You can quit at any time!"
"Nev…er…"
"Suit yourself. I'm getting tired of playing with you. Surrender or die!"
"Not…in…your…dreams…"
A hovering Dodoria frowned heavily as he held Tayla in the air by her throat. Tayla was panting for air now, and her face was heavily bruised. Her right eye was blackened and swollen, and her button nose was bleeding; she could taste the coppery taste of her indigo blood dribbling into her throat. Her ribs ached painfully, and her arm had been twisted so hard it was nearly sprained. Her light blue pants were burned away completely below her knees. She had finally been forced to take off her boots, for Dodoria's last surprise hand blast had completely burned away her left boot, so she just threw away her right boot as well.
*Nama won't have to worry about disintegrating my boots now* she thought, allowing herself a small chuckle, despite her injuries. She didn't laugh for too long, for the laughter made her ribs hurt worse. She finally groaned loudly, as she looked over Dodoria.
The only comfort that she could take from this battle at this point was that Dodoria had not fared much better than she had. Dodoria had fought exceptionally well for a beast with one hand; he had put his remaining hand to good use. But he had not escaped unscathed, for Tayla had managed to inflict some damage upon him herself before Dodoria's last powerful hand blast had caught her off guard before she could use Mirror Shield to deflect it. Dodoria's nose was also bleeding, and several of his spikes had been blasted away. His shoulder was dislocated, and he had a broken collarbone. Half of his face had been burned severely, with a nasty red-and-white blister combined with scorched skin covering his right cheek. Six of his front teeth were missing, and his lower lip was bleeding along with his nose. His left eye was almost swollen shut, and his thigh flanks had been broken off.
Tayla might have been able to hold up her end of the fight longer, if it had not been for Dodoria's surprise hand blast that had nearly sent her crashing into the ground. She had managed to keep herself from falling, but Dodoria had captured her before she could gain her bearings. Tayla was now dangling by her neck in Dodoria's meaty fist, and she knew that she had to think of an escape plan quickly before Dodoria had a chance to think of anything else.
Dodoria then suddenly slammed his fist into Tayla's stomach hard, making her cry out. She retaliated by kicking Dodoria in his stomach, but Dodoria's fat, plus his armor protected her enemy nicely, so all her foot managed to do was dent his stomach flank. Dodoria shoved his fist into her side with the impact of a mallet, and he delighted in Tayla's screams.
She would have electrocuted him, but she had tried that earlier with no success. Dodoria had long ago become immune to Electric Touch. He finally decided to torture the girl more, so he took her by her throat and swung her around in the air. After he had done that several times, he threw her into a nearby cliff, and Tayla's slim body crashed into the side of the cliff, creating a hole in the side about five feet deep and six feet wide.
With dust enveloping her, a severely wounded Tayla lay in the hole that her body had created for several minutes, trying not to pass out. How much longer could she go on like this? Her final battle with Diamonique, as short as it had been, had taken its toll on her young body. She was tired, very tired, and all she really wanted to do was faint and give into the welcoming blackness that calling to her mind. She closed her eyes briefly, but her rest would be short, for Dodoria had caught up with her. He was outside of her hole, calling out:
"Now are you going to surrender, girlie? I have better things to do than waste time with a scrawny thing like you? You're lucky that I'm not allowed to kill you, but I will beat you to a bloody pulp. Come out now and give up, brat!"
No response, except for girlish groans.
"Come out, girlie! Or I'll blast you out! Which would you rather have happen?"
Tayla tried to struggle to her feet, but with little success. All she could manage to do was rise to her knees. She stood on her knees, wobbling, trying to rise further.
"I'll have to admit, brat, you put up a longer fight than I expected; I have to admit you're definitely Elite material. I can see now why Lord Frieza wants you so badly; why in a few years you might be as good as me! Hah! Well, maybe as good as the monkey prince that you defeated anyway! Hell, maybe you'll have his position one day! But now it's time to go, brat; we still have a planet to clear, and you and your meddling family have interrupted us for long enough! COME OUT NOW!"
Tayla only moaned. Her entire body ached, as she slowly and shakily rose to her feet and turned around painfully. She knew now that she would have to summon up her life force, which she had been saving as an absolutely last resort, in order to finish her fight with Dodoria. She closed her eyes for a few moments, as she felt her life force bolster her feeble ki.
Dodoria called, "Well, girlie, are you gonna surrender to me now, or what?"
Finally, after five minutes of listening to Dodoria bellow threats and commands, she felt energized again. She then began to steadily walk through the hole, as she gathered her ki together once more. Finally, feeling ready, she emitted a stream of silvery light from her left palm straight out of the cave at her opponent. She was rewarded with an angry scream from her fat nemesis.
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU LITTLE BITC-"
"Does that answer your question, Dodo?" Tayla cried out with more confidence than she previously had earlier. She then shot another ki blast at him before she flew out of the cave. While Dodoria was recovering from that second attack, Tayla wasted no time in flying past him into the air. She hovered over him, as she prepared for a Double Janus Bolt attack, as Dodoria flew up into the air after her.
She wasted no more time in launching her Double Janus Bolt, but to her shock and horror, Dodoria managed to dodge it, and Tayla's powerful attack crashed into a small hill, completely obliterating it. After several moments, Dodoria stared down at the muddied rubble in horror, as the huge cloud of dust and debris and light began to dissipate.
*Amazing. This little girlie isn't playing anymore. I definitely better stay on my guard. *
Dodoria charged after Tayla again, but Tayla started to fire a series of small ki packets at him, as if she were shooting a machine gun. The ki packets weren't very damaging, but there were more than enough of them to keep Dodoria at bay.
"Little wench! Stop this immediately!"
Tayla smirked, as she continued to shoot more ki balls at her enemy.
Not too far away…
"Tayla is fighting against Dodoria by herself?" Shalila screamed. "What in Orchida's name is that child thinking? We ourselves had a hard time those many years ago against that monster, and she's fighting him alone! We've got to hurry!" She, Dirkan, Bajal, Raakon, and Bendros had heard a giant ki blast crash into a hill and cause it to collapse. They did not know that it had been Tayla's unsuccessful Double Janus Bolt, but they did know that Tayla was facing off against Dodoria now, and things were ugly between them. They were in the air now, flying towards the area where Dodoria and Tayla were fighting.
And Shalila, Dirkan, Raakon, and Bajal knew how deadly and merciless Dodoria could be; he would have no consideration or care for Tayla's small size or young age. In fact, none of them would put it past the spiky-headed monster to disregard Frieza's orders and kill the girl as soon as possible.
Shalila and Dirkan had both mutually agreed to retrieve Tayla from the fight with Dodoria and face off with the giant minion themselves. They were worried that Dodoria's great strength and Tayla's earlier immense grief for Ridikar would inhibit her fighting ability. Bendros disagreed with them, believing that even now Tayla still had it within her to stand up to a bully like Dodoria. Dirkan had argued with him for several minutes on that point, saying that Bendros had never fought against Dodoria before, and therefore, had no idea of what the mighty monstrosity was like. Bendros still held to his position, but in the end, he conceded with the Superior Gran and Granden. He did not agree with them about pulling Tayla out of the fight if she could hold her own, but they were in charge of her safety and welfare, not him. As much as he disagreed with them, he respected their authority over Tayla.
Bajal had sided with Shalila and Dirkan while Raakon had remained undecided. Bajal believed in Tayla, but he was realistic about her chances with Dodoria. Dodoria had defeated Bajal a long time ago in the Battle of Chloe, and if the first Bajal, Shalila's husband, and Dirkan had not intervened soon after, the second Bajal would have perished. If he, a large, husky man who was one of the strongest in the Clan of Chloe, had not been able to take down Dodoria, what were Tayla's chances? Tayla was less than half of Bajal's size, and she was still a child in his eyes.
Raakon had wanted to take a-wait-and-see approach, and Bendros had agreed with him, but they had both been outvoted three to two. They were all pulling Tayla out of the fight with Dodoria; she would not be happy with that, but even she would have to submit to Shalila and Dirkan's orders.
They all just hoped that Tayla would submit to them calmly. Knowing her temperament, she could be like Lektron or Bajal at times when someone was dragging them away from a fight. Shalila shrugged that last worry off; she'd rather have a disappointed and frustrated Tayla than a dead Tayla.
Back with Tayla and Dodoria…
Tayla was now flying away from Dodoria, who was in hot pursuit of his opponent. She had surmised that her best chances of defeating the fat, pink monster would be in her ki attacks, not her brute strength; she had to use the same tactics earlier with Vegeta because his brute strength had greatly exceeded her own. If she had had to rely only on hits and kicks with the Saiyan prince earlier, Vegeta would have eventually defeated her, and she knew it. Her brute strength had been one of the major areas that she had been trying to improve in, and while her brute strength outshone that of many of her relatives her age and above, she still had a long way to go. If and when she returned to Astoria, she would resume her weekly sessions at Kami Orchida's to train further and improve; she had been doing those sessions ever since she had returned home to the Palace of Chloe.
But first, she had to help win this war before making future plans-if there was a future left to make plans in.
She hovered in the air above Dodoria, preparing for a Blitzer attack. Unfortunately, Dodoria was not giving her the time that she needed; he repeatedly fired mouth blasts at her, which she had to continuously deflect with Mirror Shield attacks. Finally Tayla had to go back to using her rapid-fire ki packets to hold Dodoria off. And then she decided that it was time for a new tactic, one that she had only used twice in her lifetime, and no, it was not Electric Quake.
After shooting one of her ki packets into Dodoria's eyes, temporarily blinding him, she drew her hands back, as if she were using both hands to bowl in an Earth bowling match. A small, pinkish-orange ball manifested itself into her small hands and began to increase in size rapidly, until it was the size of a basketball. She then used one of her hands to toss it into the air above her head, and the ball continued to grow in size until it was twice as large as she was. Tayla wasted no time into leaping up into the giant, glowing ball that sucked her in. Now she was encased in a protective ball of ki that would cause potentially deadly damage to anyone or anything that it hit.
She panted, trying her best to conserve her ki as much as possible, for this ki attack was a last resort move, such as Electric Quake. This attack that Kami Orchida had taught her (and only allowed her to try twice) was called Power Globe. Power Globe was as deadly as Electric Quake, but the downside of this attack was that it could quickly drain the ki of the user. Power Globe would only last as long as the user was able to maintain, and so far, Tayla had been the first to try it. Kami Orchida had developed the attack herself, and so far before Tayla, she had only taught Shalila and Dirkan how to use the attack. Both warriors had each only used it several times in their lives because of the dangerousness of the attack. Both rulers of Astoria had been able to restrain themselves from using Power Globe during the entire war on Calmag, neither having found the necessity to do so.
If an opponent were hit with a Power Globe, the globe would hit him or her with the impact of a small, speedy comet that electrocuted, guaranteed to either kill the opponent instantly, or at the very best, send him or her crashing out of the sky or into the ground. While the caster was in the Power Globe, he or she was invincible, and no ki attacks could affect him or her, but the Power Globe would quickly sap the attacker of his or her energy. Tayla would only be able to use Power Globe for ten minutes at the very most before she would have to make it vanish. If she used the Power Globe attack for too long, it would drain her of all of her ki, plus her life force (some life force manipulation was involved) and wear her out, rendering her useless for any further fighting. Every time the Power Globe would hit a person or object, it would sap her ki and strength much faster than if the globe did not touch anything at all, so Tayla would have to be extra careful.
Tayla was inside her Power Globe, and she dashed towards Dodoria while inside her ball of ki, like a comet. Dodoria could not escape her in time, and Tayla's Power Globe crashed into his body, electrocuting him severely, and then sending his body smashing into a cliff! Tayla sent the globe that she was in to attack Dodoria again, and before Dodoria could flee, the Power Globe smashed into him with Tayla inside.
Dodoria screamed, as he was being electrocuted; he thought that he was going to die, as Tayla's Power Globe crashed into him again and again. By the fourth time the Power Globe hit, Dodoria was severely damaged and burned, his entire armor having melted away. He was greatly weakened now-but then so was Tayla.
Tayla could feel herself weakening rapidly, and she knew that she was going to have to drop her protective ball of ki much sooner than expected. The Power Globe had taken an unusually high toll on her young body, due to Tayla's too-frequent use of it and her size and age. She saw an enraged Dodoria charge after her with a mouth blast, and she decided to use the Power Globe for one last time before dropping it.
She sent her Power Globe smashing into Dodoria again, cutting off his mouth blast and breaking his jaw and cheekbones. The Power Globe shoved the corpulent fighter into the ground again, and he was disabled now for several minutes, more damaged than ever.
Unfortunately for Tayla, that last Power Globe attack drained what little bit of ki that she had left, and not even her faltering life force was enough to reenergize it. Within minutes of her last attack on Dodoria, the Power Globe faded away completely, and she felt faint, completely drained and light-headed.
Before she could prevent herself, she fainted, and her slim body began to fall rapidly towards the ground. Luckily for her, she had a soft landing, landing into a small pond where the cold water revived her immediately. Tayla managed to keep herself from drowning, as she struggled to the surface, but she was very disoriented, and she allowed herself to float on the surface of the water. She just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep; she was just too tired to try to get up to fly again. Her ki was now much weaker than a newborn Human infant's.
"Must get up…" she murmured to herself, but her body was unwilling to move. She could not even levitate herself off of the water's surface. She felt like a balloon that had been deflated, but not popped; she felt light-headed, disoriented, and weak.
Unfortunately, Dodoria had recovered slightly, much faster than Tayla. He was still extremely injured, but he could now easily take down the little girl resting on the pond's glassy surface. His huge body was now hovering in the air over her, as he was gasping for air. Tayla's attacks had taken their toll on him, and his jawbone was cracked, more of his teeth were missing, two more of his spikes were gone, and now both sides of his face were scorched black. He could no longer see out of his left eye.
He was furious, and he was ready to destroy Tayla Chloe now. He no longer cared at this point about Frieza's reward; he wanted Tayla dead. Lord Frieza was better off without the dangerous brat; he already had Vegeta to deal with, and Dodoria's beloved sire did not need two potentially deadly brats to handle. His face was scrunched him, and his remaining fist was balled. He took a deep breath and threw his head back, preparing to roast Tayla and the pond away with a mouth blast.
*Die, brat, die! I'm givin' you what you deserve! Have fun in the next dimension, wench! *
And he opened his jaw and fire blasted out of his wide mouth. The blast of deadly fire shot down towards the pond and Tayla, who now was completely disoriented. She saw Dodoria's attack coming, but she could not even summon the energy to scream. Slow tears streamed down her exhausted, scarred face, as the blast came at her; she could not even convince her drained body to swim away.
*I'm sorry, Nama, Dirkan, Bendros…Ridikar…wish I could have won this one…now it's too late…*
Tayla closed her eyes and gave into the blackness that swallowed her exhausted mind up and engulfed it, making her pass out before the blast hit.
It would soon be over…
…Or would it?
Dodoria's mouth blast hit the pond, vaporizing all of the water inside and creating a huge, empty crater where a bowl of life-filled water had once been. Smoke rose from the crater, and small fires began to emerge in and around the huge hole.
Dodoria closed his eyes and laughed and laughed. "Goodbye, wench! Lord Frieza may beat the crap out of me later for killin' you off, but it's gonna be worth it! He'll see eventually that he was better off without ya! Oh, knowing my attack, there's probably nothing of your body remaining-"
His triumphant words were cut off by Dirkan's fist in his fat mouth. Before Dodoria knew it, Dirkan was beating him up with his huge fists, and kicking him with his powerful, swift feet. Dirkan was mercilessly pummeling and kicking the fat soldier, and he broke Dodoria's jaw further.
"You fat bastard!" Dirkan roared, as he continued his deadly assaults on Dodoria. "I'll never forgive you for what you did to that child! She couldn't fight you back at that point, you sick beast! You're going to die, and I'm going to make it hurt! Oh, you'll wish that I killed you all those years ago instead of now! Once I'm through with you, fatso, there won't be so much as a shred of lard of you left!"
Dodoria was hard-pressed to hold himself off against a strong, angry Namek who was determined to murder him. He managed to meet Dirkan blow for blow and kick for kick, but his best efforts were taking what energy that he had out of him. An enraged Dirkan repeatedly punched Dodoria in his jaw and mouth, and Dirkan's feet repetitively crashed into Dodoria's now unprotected stomach. Dodoria now only had his chest plate left, and Dirkan used his eye lasers to burn it off; it was about to fall apart anyway.
Dodoria managed to keep up his battle with Dirkan for another twenty minutes, but his stamina was fading fast. Finally, Dirkan sent one hard punch to Dodoria's fat face, a punch that would render him useless. Dodoria could have held up his end of the battle against the Namek warrior, but Tayla's previous attacks on him had taken a severe toll on him, and he was no longer able to hold his own. Dirkan punched Dodoria in his face again, and then once more in the side of his head for good measure. Dodoria could not stop himself from falling headfirst into the crater that his last mouth blast had created, and when he crashed, Dirkan used his Tri-Force attack against him, and that coup de grace finished the fight between him and Dodoria once and for all.
Dodoria was still barely alive, but he was defeated for good now, and he was smart enough to know it. He lay facedown in the mud and muck that he had created. Rubble and debris was covering his entire body, and his ki could no longer be felt. He wisely decided to lie there and play like he was dead; if he even attempted to rise again, he knew that Dirkan would kill him once and for all. So he reluctantly gave up and dragged his heavy body deeper into the ground, hiding until he passed out.
More rubble and debris fell upon his body, engulfing him in darkness, but Dodoria could not see, feel, nor hear the pieces hit him and the mess covering him now.
Dirkan floated away from the site where Dodoria was now buried under, and he slowly flew over several miles from the crater that Dodoria had created. He finally landed on the ground in a small meadow, where Shalila was kneeling on the ground, holding Tayla's body in her arms. She was nudging Tayla and rubbing the girl's hands.
"Tayla, please, please be alive," she whispered frantically. Shalila had retrieved Tayla's body from the lake just seconds before Dodoria's mouth blast had destroyed the body of water. Tayla's body was completely inert, and she did not respond to Shalila's desperate cries.
"Tayla, WAKE UP! Please!" she cried aloud. Bajal, Raakon, and Bendros were sitting all around the girl's body.
"Tayla, wake up!" Bajal ordered her. "Don't die on us!"
"Tayla, can you hear us?" Raakon cried. "Please, do something, say something."
"Yes!" Bajal declared. "Say something, even if it's to tell me to shut up and go to hell!"
Bendros took Tayla's hand and squeezed it. "Tayla, if you are still alive, you don't have to talk. Just squeeze my hand back, and we'll know that you can still hear us."
No response.
"Tayla!" Shalila cried, patting Tayla's cheeks. "Please respond to us! Blink your eyes; squeeze Bendros's hand or mine, do anything. Give us a sign of life!"
Dirkan had joined them by this time, and he pushed himself next to Shalila, sitting besides his wife. He took Tayla's arm and began to rub it. "Tayla, we need you, sweetheart, please don't leave us."
"Dandelion, it's Nama. I love you; we love you! Please don't leave us; we need you, we love you!"
Tayla remained unresponsive.
"Tayla!"
"Tayla, please wake up!" Bendros declared. "Too many people love you and need you, me included."
"We can't do without you, little sister," Raakon said worriedly.
"We're counting on you to live, sis," Bajal cajoled. "Don't give up now!"
"You helped defeat Dodoria," Dirkan prodded her. "I couldn't have finished him off so quickly, had it not been for you. You finished most of that battle with him before we even arrived. Dodoria's out of it now, and he can't hurt any of us anymore. Wake up, Tayla, please!"
Still no response or reply from the little Astorian princess.
"Tayla, we all love you," Shalila pressed. "What am I going to do without my little dandelion?"
Bendros tried a different tactic. "Tayla, listen, what about your promises to Ridikar? You promised to help get rid of all those who have harmed us, and you promised him that you'd look after Caline. What's Caline going to do without you?"
"What will we do without you?" Dirkan demanded to know.
Finally, Bajal added, "If you die, Tayla, who's going to keep Dedron in his place? Dedron tried to get rid of you and make you life miserable! Do you want him gloating because you're gone? Why should that prick get to have the pleasure of you being gone? At least stay alive long enough to get back at the bastard for having you kidnapped!"
"Bajal!" Shalila exclaimed, embarrassed and horrified. Dirkan chuckled until his wife nudged him in his ribs, and he managed to restrain himself. Raakon and Bendros smothered their own chuckles at Bajal's words, even though Raakon also felt that they shouldn't be finding Bajal's put-downs about Dedron funny.
But suddenly, a tiny smile formed onto Tayla's bruised and scarred face, and a small chortle escaped her lips. Her body squirmed slowly, and her eyelids struggled to open. Shalila cried out in relief.
"She's awakening!" she screamed excitedly.
"C'mon, Tayla, wake up, you can do it," Raakon urged gently.
"Wake up, sis," Bajal encouraged.
"You can do this, Tayla," Dirkan told her, leaning over to kiss her forehead.
"We're right here with you," Bendros told her, squeezing her hand.
"So…tired…" Tayla finally murmured. Her eyes finally opened, and she was astonished to see her brothers, along with Nama, Dirkan, and Bendros. She first looked at Dirkan. "D-Dirkan? You're normal again…no more mushy lines…right?"
Dirkan blushed before he could prevent himself. "R-right…Tayla," he said, embarrassed. "No more mushy lines."
"Seductia's no longer his queen of the sunsets," Shalila told her granddaughter, smiling.
"She's been destroyed for good."
"Yeah, Ben here did it," Bajal told his sister, indicating Bendros. "Good thing too, 'cause I'm going to have a hard time explaining to my wife why I was panting after another woman."
"Well, she was your 'dab of pink pearl cream' for some time," Raakon teased.
"Yeah, well it was better than her being your sweetest of all candy canes!" Bajal retorted, but he was grinning. "Seems, bro, that you're going to have some explaining to do to Natala later." An embarrassed Raakon looked down on the ground.
Tayla smiled at all of her family and friends, and then her happy expression turned to a worried one. "D-Dodoria…where is he?"
"Dead, we hope," Dirkan told her fiercely. "I finished off the bastard…for a few minutes there, I thought that he had finished you for good. It seems though that you inflicted plenty of damage on him yourself before your grandmother retrieved you from that pond."
"I remember now…Dodoria sent a mouth blast at me…thought I was going to die," Tayla whispered after briefly thanking her grandmother. "I-I used…that Power Globe attack that Kami Orchida taught me on him about five times, but…I must have used it too much…'cause it took everything…I had…out of me."
"Five times in how minutes?" Shalila asked, alarmed. "That is a very dangerous, last-resort attack, dandelion. Even Dirkan and I try not to use that attack unless absolutely necessary. You could have killed yourself, child! Kami Orchida even discouraged Dirkan and I from using it too often. My heavens, child, you are very lucky to be alive right now! That was a huge risk you took! I didn't even know that Kami Orchida taught you that move…why didn't you tell us that she showed you that attack?"
"I'm sorry, Nama," Tayla whispered. "Thought that I needed to use it. Kami Orchida taught me that Power Globe attack three weeks 'fore we left for here. Dodoria was so strong…thought I had no other choice."
"Well, you did hurt Dodoria badly enough for me to finish him off quickly," Dirkan told her encouragingly. "You held up against him longer than any of us thought you could. Dodoria was a dangerous foe…much more deadly than even a Saiyan."
"Is he dead?" Tayla asked him.
"I doubt we'll get that lucky, but I don't think he'll be bothering any of us anymore for a while," Dirkan replied. He brushed the hair from Tayla's face and said firmly, "Tayla, we're going to have Bendros take you back to the city; you need to rest now. We'll take things from here."
"I can't just leave all of you like that," Tayla said. "Won't you need me?"
"Dandelion, you've worn yourself out," Shalila told her. "You've done more than your part. Now that Dodoria's out of the way, we can deal with Zarbon and the remaining Ginyu Force members. Where is Diamonique? Do you have any idea, Tayla?"
"She's…been taken care of," Tayla explained briefly. "I hope that I made her pay for Ridikar's death." And several tears slid from her eyes. Shalila kissed them away.
"We are sorry about Ridikar, dandelion," she whispered to her granddaughter.
"I wish that I had been able to save him," Tayla said hoarsely, unable to keep her tears from coming again. "He tried to be good near the end, Nama, he really did. I know that nobody here liked him much, but he changed, he did."
"We believe you, darling," Shalila told her softly. "Bendros told us how bravely he fought Diamonique to protect you. We are sorry that things turned out the way they did."
"And I'm sorry that we couldn't have been more of help when we were under that witch, Seductia's spell," Dirkan said with a growl. "Curse that wench!"
"At least she and Diamonique are gone now," Tayla said quietly. "Diamonique hopefully won't be coming back…I hope that I stopped her."
"We can't sense her anywhere, so we believe that you did," Shalila told her, kissing her face again. She then gently lifted Tayla off of the ground and handed her to Bendros, who had arisen. "Bendros, will you take Tayla back to that hotel in Magan and stay with her? We need to go finish off Zarbon and his bunch."
"She'll be in good hands," Bendros assured Shalila.
"I wish I could come with you and help," Tayla told her. "If only I hadn't used up my ki earlier…could have done more."
"Don't worry about it now, dandelion," Shalila told her, kissing her again. "Now it's time for you to go with Bendros. Gooden boden fro noy, my dear."
"Gooden boden, Nama," Tayla said softly, and the others told her and Bendros their goodbyes. Bendros lifted Tayla up further into his arms, so that they both would be more comfortable. She wrapped her slender arms around his neck, as Bendros whisked her away into the sky. When they had left, Shalila and the others left a few minutes later to confront Zarbon and the rest of the Ginyu Force.
As Tayla watched them leave into the air and fading further away, she held tight to Bendros and prayed that they would be able to take care of Zarbon and the others without her. She tried to comfort herself with the fact that they all had defeated them before long before she had been born.
But could they do it again?
