"Wicked Game" Ch. 17
By Shawna
"Katsu, honey, you have to go." The woman with the long blonde hair said gently, holding the young Katsu in her arms. "I've put it off too long; if you don't get your training now you could become dangerous. Katsu, do you want that? Do you want to be a danger to your father, brother, and I?"
"No, Momma, no," Katsu sobbed. "But I don't want to be trained. I hate what we are! I hate it!"
Katsu's mother gripped the young girl's chin firmly, raising her head to look into her eyes. "Never say that, Katsu," she said, gently but firmly. "This is who you are, and you have to love and accept that. We are exceptional, Katsu. Not many races can change form. You only hate it because you fear it, and you only fear it because you don't yet understand it or know how to control it. That's why you have to be trained."
Tears glimmered in the young Katsu's eyes, but she understood the truth behind her mother's words. She must learn to control the power of transformation that everyone in her race possessed. The training must happen, so she could change at will and remain in control while in her other form. This was the way the Nekoyan were and the way they protected themselves from outsiders. In their normal state, the Nekoyan were short but stoutly built, weak in their daily business but powerful when angry and even more powerful when enraged. During their rages, they had the power to transform into a more primal form of themselves; a beast that was more cat-like than humanoid. However, if the power of transformation was not properly controlled, it could happen spontaneously and be very dangerous. Thus, today Katsu was being sent to the training school. She was almost nine years old, more than old enough to begin training.
The memory of that day abruptly wavered out of Katsu's mind, losing focus. Another memory, of a day some years later, came up to take the other's place.
"We've tried fighting them with increased power levels," Katsu's father said to her mother, teeth gritted. "Many have already been killed. The only way we can beat them is when we're in our transformed state, and so they're now calling for anyone who has been trained in transformation and fighting techniques. I'm going, and I'm taking Katsu and Shori with me."
"No!" Katsu's mother cried, clinging to Katsu protectively. "Bad enough that you should take my son, but don't take my baby girl from me!"
Katsu's father eyed the mother evenly. "I have to," he said firmly. "She's well-trained, she's one of the best young fighters at the academy. She must go."
"No!" Katsu's mother repeated, holding Katsu tightly. "I'll not send her to die!"
"We'll all die if these bastard Saiyans are not defeated!" Her father yelled, exploding in anger. Shori, Katsu's elder brother, stood by his father.
"He's right," Shori said firmly. "Katsu, don't you want to fight? You love fighting, and now you'll get to do it for real. You'll get to kill!"
"Don't put such thoughts into her head!" Katsu's mother said angrily.
"Momma," Katsu said calmly. "Shori and Papa are right. I should go."
Katsu's mother was silent. She looked from Katsu, to her father, to Shori, and back to Katsu.
"Fine," she said tersely, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Fine."
"We leave in the morning," Katsu's father said.
Katsu slept deeply and well that night, despite her nervousness about what the next day would bring. It was still early, however, when she was awakened.
Her mother was seated on the edge of Katsu's bed, sobbing, clutching a cooking pan in her hand. "Oh, Katsu," she said. "I've just heard... they say tonight, on the full moon, the Saiyans will become something horrible. We can't possibly defeat them all by then. I can't let you be here tonight, when that happens. We'll all be killed..."
"Momma," Katsu said, sitting up. "I have to go."
Her mother eyed her evenly. "I can't let you." With this, she raised the pan, and Katsu gasped, caught off guard, and tried to raise her hands to defend herself. The pan came down on the top of her head with a solid thunk and she collapsed back onto the bed. Her vision turned yellow.
"I'm so sorry, baby," she heard her mother say. "But this is for your own good. I have to get you off the planet." Then, there was nothing but blackness. The last thing she heard was "I'm sorry, Katsu... Katsu..."
"Katsu."
Katsu opened her eyes, half-expecting to be back in her own bed at home, looking up at her mother's tear streaked face. Instead, she was greeted by the sight of the high ceiling of Vegeta's room.
"Katsu," the voice choked. "Are you okay?"
She turned her head towards the voice. It was Shiro, lying on his back, covered in blood. "Shiro!" She cried, jumping to her feet and running to him, dropping to her knees beside him. "Shiro," she repeated, gently, wanting to touch him but afraid to do so. "I thought you were dead."
He coughed, sucking in breath. "No," he said. "It takes more than a little energy beam to be rid of me."
She laughed despite herself. Shiro joined her briefly, before he fell back into coughing.
"Oh, Shiro," she said. "We have to get you some help. How long has it been since this happened? I can't remember..."
"A few hours," Shiro replied. "What were you doing? You kept moaning, and talking... You were saying names."
"My family," she breathed. "My friends... I remember everything, Shiro. Everything about my life."
Shiro stared at her for a moment. "I remember your race," he said slowly. "Nekoyan. You... You remember what happened to your planet, then? How did you escape?"
"My mother... She knocked me out and put me in the escape pod I crashed here in. She put me in it to escape the Saiyans..." A look of rage crossed Katsu's face. "The Saiyans," she repeated contemptuously. "They attacked my planet. Shiro, you must tell me what you know. Did... Did anyone survive? Did the Saiyans take over my planet?"
Shiro did not answer for a moment, his face pained. "Yes," he said at length. "I remember hearing about it, only a few weeks before you arrived. The Nekoyans put up a long fight, but once the full moon came, even they couldn't stop the Saiyans. Your planet was taken over, Katsu. Everyone was killed."
For a moment, Katsu only stared at Shiro in shocked disbelief. The news sank in slowly, and then a sob of anguish wailed from her throat. All of the people she could now remember, every last one of them, was dead. Her brother, father, mother, friends... Dead. All of them. Her way of life, gone. The Saiyans had done it all. The Saiyans. Vegeta.
"Shiro," Katsu said very seriously. "Do you know anything about who was there? Was Vegeta there? Was he one of the ones who killed my people?"
Shiro thought for a moment, sucking in ragged breath as he did so. "No," he said finally. "I remember that he had just gotten back from another assignment the day before we heard that the Nekoyans had finally been defeated."
Katsu clenched her fists. It did not matter that he had not been there. It was his people who had done it, and he had been off destroying another planet's civilization. It was the same thing. She had been sleeping with a man who belonged to the race who had killed her family, a man who had killed nameless thousands of other families.
"Katsu," Shiro ground out. "I know you're having an emotional moment right now, but I'm in a lot of pain. Do you think... do you think maybe you could get me out of here to get some help, especially before Vegeta comes back to finish the job or something?"
"I've no intention of 'finishing the job,' nor did I ever intend to kill you."
Katsu and Shiro both turned at the sound of Vegeta's voice from the doorway. Aside from the way he was rubbing his wrist as though it were sore, and a few faint lines across his cheeks, one would never know that he had been seriously wounded only a few hours before.
Katsu tensed, gritting her teeth. "You," she said angrily. "Get Shiro help. Right now."
"Already done," Vegeta said, moving aside. Two guards rushed in, grabbed Shiro and hoisted him to his feet, dragging him towards the door.
"Hey!" Katsu said, following them. "Gently!"
Vegeta gripped her wrist and pulled her back into his room as the guards left with Shiro. "They won't kill him," he said. "He'll be fine in a few hours. I'm only letting him live because you like him, okay? If he tells anyone about what he saw, you'll both be killed."
Katsu jerked her wrist out of his grip. "You would kill me so easily," she said tersely.
"Not I," Vegeta said. "My father. He would likely not believe it was true, but you would be put to death anyway."
Katsu said nothing, turning her head away from Vegeta as he continued. "Another servant was put to death for claiming that a Saiyan guard had gotten her pregnant. I, for one, know it was true, but of course the guard denied it. Whether or not it was true, no one else cared. My father just got rid of her. That's his way of dealing with any of these sort of problems that may arise with the servants. Shiro already knows that; he was here when the other servant was killed."
"Then you've been risking my life," Katsu said angrily. "Risking my life so you'll have something to get yourself off with. I shouldn't be surprised. You have no real regard for life, mine or anyone else's."
Vegeta cocked an eyebrow at her. "I remember everything," she told him through gritted teeth. "It was you who killed my family, all of my people."
"I wasn't on your planet," Vegeta said quickly.
"It doesn't matter!" Katsu screamed. "Your people were there, and you were off doing it to someone else! It's all the same! You have no idea how dirty I feel now. I kissed you goodbye, so you could go off and massacre the defenseless. I slept with you when you came back, rewarded you for your senseless killing. And you've never cared about me at all. I've been so stupid."
Vegeta would not meet her eyes. He looked down, not saying anything. His silence only enraged her further.
"You don't even feel bad! I didn't expect you to, but still! How can you have no regret? Maybe before its all been faceless to you, but look at me now. My whole family is dead, my planet gone. And you do this to people. Look at me! You see what you do?"
His eyes flicked to her, briefly, and then they were on the floor again. There was no emotion on his face.
Katsu screamed, loudly, her hands gripping her hair in her frustration, anger, and pain. Vegeta still said nothing.
"I don't want to see you anymore," she sobbed. "I'll do what you command me, I'll do what I have to, but I'll never let you touch me again. And I swear to you, I swear that I'll escape. I will not stay here and be your pet." With this, she tore past him, out the door, down the hall. Tears streamed from her eyes, but she ignored them. She wanted only to be alone. The servants' quarters were abandoned at this time, and when she was there, she collapsed onto her cot, crying hysterically against the dingy blanket.
Hours ticked by. Eventually, Katsu cried herself dry, but she remained facedown on her cot, unable to even find the will to turn over. All she could picture was her mother's face, and wonder exactly how she had died. Which Saiyans had been on her planet? Who, on this planet right now, had had a hand in the destruction of everything she had ever loved? The idea that she was so close to those who had done tore her apart, and the irony of the situation was not lost on her. Her mother had tried to save her from the Saiyans, and she had ended up sending Katsu right into the very belly of the Saiyans' existence. Katsu would much rather have stayed on her planet, and died fighting alongside her father and brother. Instead, she would die here on this miserable planet, alone.
In the back of her mind, she was wondering what exactly the Saiyans became on full moons. It had only been on the full moon that they had been able to defeat the transformed Nekoyans.
Her mind was just getting around to mulling this fact, when she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. She jumped, flipping over and digging her nails into the hand that touched her. Shiro yelped in pain.
"Shiro!" She said in surprise, releasing him. "I-I didn't think it was you."
He grinned sadly. "Who else would it be?"
"You're okay now," she said awkwardly, eyeing him over.
"Yeah," he said, sitting down next to Katsu on her cot. "I'm okay now. What about you?"
"What do you think?" She asked bitterly. "I've just realized that my entire family was killed by a bunch of brutes who only wanted our planet, and that I've been sleeping with a person from the same race as those that destroyed everything my life was. How should I feel?"
Shiro said nothing. "I do know how you feel, Katsu," he said slowly. "The Saiyans killed my family and took over my planet, too..."
In her own agony, Katsu had completely forgotten this fact. "Shiro," she said, feeling as though she could cry again, but unable to. "I'm sorry..."
Shiro abruptly threw his arms around her, crushing her to his chest, and then they both broke into sobs. They held each other and cried, even as night fell and the other servants filed into the room. No one bothered them, they were ignored, and they cried and held each other as everyone else went to sleep.
Eventually, they wore themselves out, and lay down on Katsu's cot, somehow unable to disengage from each other's comforting embrace.
"I'm so sorry for all the times I've hurt you, Shiro," Katsu told him gently.
"It's okay," Shiro said. "I know this whole thing has been hard on you, and now its only worse. But we're going to get through this. I swear to you, I will help you through this."
"I have to get away," Katsu said. "That's the only way for me to be at peace with what happened. I have to escape. That will be my revenge."
Shiro nodded. "We'll think of something, then. We'll think of something that can't fail. Katsu, I want you to be happy. I want you to be able to live a normal life on a free planet. I'm going to do whatever it takes to give that to you."
Katsu did not respond, but held Shiro tighter as exhaustion finally began to overcome her.
"Thank you, Shiro," she did say, at length. "Thank you for everything you have done for me."
Now it was Shiro who did not respond, but he listened as Katsu's breath became even and she fell asleep. He stayed awake for several hours after she had nodded off, thinking of how he could give her what he had promised her. Nothing came to mind, but he was determined. He would get Katsu off this planet, or they would both die trying.
**To Be Continued...**
