This chapter is a late birthday dedication to SSJ Mirai Trunks
Chapter 43
When Right is equal to Wrong
Wednesday, June 25th around 7:00 pm
Roshi watched Tee carry Ichigo toward where he could feel the others waiting. 'Hurry Tee, get her to Dende. Then get the hell out of here. I have a Changeling to kill. I almost went to far once, I can't let that happen again, I can't let you guys get hurt because of me.'
Snow took advantage of his momentary distraction to fling a large nuclear green ball of ki at him. Roshi sensed it coming and easily knocked it into space. He then turned to face her.
"You know, for all your big talk you don't have much to back it up." Roshi snidely taunted Snow while thinking, 'IDIOT what was that? An attempt to make her mad and get her to actually fight?!?'
Snow turned to glare at him and her blood red eyes flashed as she gnashed her teeth. "You insolent little ape how dare you mock me. No one has ever done such and lived."
"First time for everything." Roshi grunted as she grabbed him and threw him into the ground.
Roshi bounced off of an obsidian boulder and shot back at her. Just before he reached her, he drew back his arm and charged his fist with ki.
"Ki Punch!" He screamed as he drove his right hook into Snow's cheek.
The punch connected. Yellow-green ki surged around and into Snow's face. Within a moment's time Snow was thrown back several meters and sent into a falling spin.
Roshi followed through with a one handed Masenko. The yellow energy ball missed but forced Snow further from Roshi's family and friends.
Snow slowly regained control over her fall and righted herself. Wispy threads of smoke separated her and Roshi, distorting Roshi's ability to see her. However, he could still see the blood trickling out of her left ear.
* * *
Teddy's fingers were bleeding. She had gnawed on her fingernails enough to cause them to bleed. The coppery taste of blood in her mouth brought her back to reality, but did nothing to calm her nerves. The world continued to shake every so often and the GKSS was not painting a very reassuring picture.
Changeling, Forth stage, Current = 30,000,500.
Roshi, Super Saiyan, Current = 29,900,000, Max Super Saiyan = 30,500,000, Max
Normal = Unknown.
Roshi's power level had not gone down any in the last several minutes of constant combat, but it had not gone up either and Snow was still stronger than he was. One wrong move and everyone would be dead.
Teddy stood up and looked around her control room. Her employees were no longer directing or relaying information, but rather were now just as terrified as she was of the current battle that was going on.
Teddy reached up and quickly turned off the GKSS feed causing an uproar of fear and worried voices.
"Listen up. There is nothing more we can do to help in this battle. However, there are many people around the world who have suffered on this day. We can help them. We have our security forces scattered around the world. We need to start directing them so that they can help the people who have been hurt." Teddy said calmly.
She then brought up a crisis map showing problems they knew of. While the screens were already quite full, icons and warning signs continued to appear on the maps at a rapid pace as the many satellites and systems of the massive information network Capsule Corp. controlled worked.
"First priority is getting power and phone services back up. Contact as many employees as we need and send them to where they will do the most good. If they won't help find out why and log it." She said as she realized she had sent most of her employees home. She doubted many would want to leave their families in a time like this, but she had to hope enough would.
She looked down at her screen, which still showed Roshi fighting, just in time to see him get thrown back by several bright red energy blasts. 'Please don't fail Roshi. The weight of the world rests on your young shoulders. Don't let that weight fall.'
* * *
Ichigo's wounds slowly closed and her bleeding stopped. Her breathing became more normal and finally her eyes opened. Dende gave a small sigh. "Rest dear child. You have fought valiantly. However, your fight today is over."
Ichigo quickly sat up. "I'm still sore. Why didn't you completely heal me?" She asked sounding annoyed.
Dende sadly shook his head and leaned heavily on his staff. "Calm yourself child. I have several reasons, not the least of which is that I am an old man. I dare not waste my energy healing you completely until I know Roshi will not need my help later. Also, I do not want you to exert yourself too much. Your body needs to heal normally and right now you have not the strength to continue to fight effectively."
Ichigo's loose hair seemed to flair out a bit as her anger grew. "Who are you to judge my ability to fight? It is not in my nature to sit out and let others do my duty. Now heal me so I can help Roshi. Or can't you feel that he is still weaker than Snow?"
Lightning lit the sky before anyone could reply and rain began to fall. Boxers quickly found large up-thrust segment of rock, which he could stand under to stay out of the storm.
"Looks like Roshi's brought the rain again!" He shouted over the wind. While they all knew Roshi had little or no control over the weather, the simple amount of heat and energy being released by no only the fight but the damaged caused by the fight caused havoc with the natural weather patterns.
While the others followed Boxer's to shelter, Tee grabbed Ichigo's wrist and tried to pull her toward the shelter.
"She jerked her hand back and glared at him. "Don't touch me!" She yelled before quickly walking to cover.
"Ya know you really have a problem relaxing." Tee said defensively once he joined the rest of the group under the overhang.
Ichigo ignored him and glared at Dende and Goshu. "I demand you finish healing me so I can fight." The ground shook and several of them winced as Roshi's ki fell momentarily. "If you all want to be cowards and hide here is your choice but I'm not done fighting."
Goshu casually took two steps forward and swept Ichigo's feet from beneath her. She fell onto her back with a solid impact.
"What the HELL was that for!" She screamed as she jumped to her feet.
Goshu calmly grabbed her fist and held it as she struggled to knock him back. "That was to make you see reason. You are weakened from your fighting. Your stomach has not stopped rumbling since even before Dende brought you back from the brink of death for the second time tonight. If you had half the brains as you have will to kill yourself you would realize that you can do no help and might even hinder Roshi if you went out and fought!"
"I will not sit by while other's fight my battles for me!" Ichigo yelled back. Her ki flared a bright blue accenting her emotions.
"Well you're not." Boxers said from where he stood. "This is our world. The people who will live or die today are not your people. They are our friends and family. When Roshi convinced us to fight rather then send you away this became our fight. It may have started as your fight and Snow may have thought she was coming only for you, but we chose to fight her. Don't slander us or Roshi by claiming we are only mercenaries or otherwise only in this cause of you."
Ichigo glared at him for a moment and then stared off into the storm.
"Roshi is much calmer now. He is more in control of himself." Nail commented from the back.
Goshu nodded. "Ichigo, you need to relax. This is Roshi's fight now. At times it takes more bravery and courage to admit you cannot fight than it does to throw your life away in a hopeless fight. There is nothing wrong with not being able to continue the fight."
Ichigo turned to scowl at him. "Perhaps on your world this is so. But I am the Princess. I cannot show weakness. Any weakness. I have to keep fighting!"
Dende sighed. "Dear child, whatever you did for Roshi did more for this fight than any one of us. He was lost in his rage until you intervened. Now he is fighting with his whole mind, body, and soul. You have fought. You have not shown weakness. Roshi is holding his own now because you helped him. Do not throw that all away."
Ichigo relaxed. "This is Roshi's fight at the moment but please heal me fully just in case he fails. I need to know I can fight at my best if I need to."
Dende managed to control his surprise better than the rest of them, however his shock was still evident. "Oh dear child, that I can agree to. But first, tell us how you knew how to help Roshi."
Ichigo blinked a few times and stared off into the storm. For several long moments the only sounds were the howling of the wind, the crash of thunder and the explosions and impacts of the now quite distant fighting.
"I don't know how I knew. I just... felt it. When he became a Super Saiyan I felt something die within him. I guess I could sense the pain of his soul. He needed to remember who he was and what he fought for."
Dende and Goshu exchanged knowing looks. They had both sensed something wrong with Roshi, but obviously not to the extent Ichigo had. Dende more then anyone else had suspicions as to what this meant. Boxers and Nail on the other hand just looked puzzled.
"But what did you sense? I knew he wasn't fighting normal, but I missed something." Boxers asked.
"Um, excuse me," Tee interrupted. "I was sorta knocked out during all this what the heck are you guys talking about?" Tee asked once it became apparent to him that there was more than meets the eye going on.
Ichigo realized Dende and Goshu were looking at her with an odd mixture of respect and apprehension, and it bothered her. "Nothing, you missed absolutely nothing."
* * *
Rain pelted down cooling the lava and extinguishing the fires of the battlefield. Billowing waves of steam and fog rose from the ground obscuring vision as the storm soaked everything, except for Snow and Roshi. The waves of ki emanating from each of them was more than enough to evaporate any water long before it got close to their skin.
Lightning flashed around them as Roshi stalked Snow. 'She can't sense ki! This storm and all the fog is giving me a huge advantage!' Roshi thought to himself as he threw two ki blasts from each hand. He had launched the blasts sideways and they circled around to hit Snow from both her left and her right.
"Raaahhh damn you coward! Stop hiding in this ridiculous fog and fight me you stupid monkey!" Snow bellowed before unleashing a torrent of small ki blasts.
Roshi only had to block a few of them, while he let the rest just pass right by him. "You are getting sloppy. Even if those blasts had hit me they wouldn't have done any damage." Roshi taunted back to her.
Snow suddenly took off back towards the initial battlefield. 'Where the heck does she think she is going?' Roshi thought as he dove down closer to the ground and the dense fog, before taking off to follow her.
In the distance he felt her land on something. Something big. 'What on Earth? Oh it's her ship! How did she know her ship was right there?'
The large saucer ship's engines suddenly burst to life and the ship started to ascend.
"Oh no you don't you bitch. You've killed way way to many people for me to let you retreat!" Roshi yelled as he dove for Snow, who was still standing on the roof of her ship.
"YEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Snow yelled, brilliant red ki burst from her hands and shot toward Roshi.
Roshi pulled up and twisted to the side allowing the beam to shoot harmlessly past him. He then swept down and slammed into Snow knocking her from the top of her ship and into a ruined tank.
Roshi jumped off and drove his knee into her head when he landed. "Looks like your ship is leaving without you."
"You'll pay for that you ugly monkey!" Snow screamed moments before slamming both hands together on either side of Roshi's knee.
Roshi screamed in pain as something in his knee popped. Still grasping his leg at the knee, Snow lunged forward and swung him around. She sliced through the plate armor of the tank with Roshi's head, and followed that up with a hammer throw. Roshi was flung directly onto newly hardened lava. The impact shattered the lava flow as though it were made of glass and sulfurous vapors hissed from the cracks.
"No monkey is going to beat me. I won't allow it you stupid insignificant wretch!" Snow screamed as she brought her hands down in a slicing motion towards Roshi. Two purple bladelike wedges of ki shot from her hands and had Roshi not rolled out of the way would have eviscerated him.
Roshi rolled to the side at the last moment and swept his left foot up. A crescent moon shaped blade of ki shot out at Snow and nicked her right arm as she dodged to the side. More purple-pink blood seeped though her thick armored hide.
Roshi hopped to his feet and winced as his right knee popped and groaned as he put weight on it. 'That was careless and stupid Roshi. She is still physically stronger and more massive than you are. Don't let her use it to her advantage.'
Realizing he was weakest while fighting near the ground where the heat of the former lava field kept the fog from forming, Roshi leapt into the air.
Snow followed him with a plethora of ki blasts, none of which hit him, and a ceaseless stream of insults.
"Would you just shut up?" Roshi yelled as he threw several blue-white orbs of ki past her.
Lightning lit the prematurely darkened evening sky illuminating Snow's enraged face. Her blood red eyes were now somewhat pinkish as her eyes bled from wounds received in the battle. Cuts on her ear and cheeks seeped, and a swollen lip trailed blood as well. But even with the damage Roshi had dealt, Snow had barely slowed.
"You are not getting away from me you stupid MONKEY!!!" She screamed with black-red ki bursting from her body. She opened her mouth wide and a vicious purple-black beam of energy snaked from it.
The beam of ki struck and enveloped Roshi within it. Black energy crackled and burned as it squeezed him.
"GEAAAAHHH" Roshi screamed out in pure agony as the energy wrenched him back as though he were on some sort of mid-evil rack.
"Oh you like that do you? Here have some more!" Snow taunted. She threw several black balls of energy into the grasping spiraling matrix of ki Roshi had become trapped in. The new energy increased the strain placed on his body and burned his skin as it sizzled about him.
"How does it feel to be strangled to death by the crushing might of a Changeling?" Snow teased. "I'm going to enjoy this. I'm going to make you suffer for every scratch, and every bruise you have given me. By the time I am done with you, you will wish you were never born!"
"GGGAAAAAAHHHH, Thaaattt iss sssoooo olllld!" Roshi gasped as he clenched his arms close to his chest and struggled against the ki.
"Go ahead and fight it. It will only get tighter. You can't win. You might as well just give up."
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH yooooouuu wwwwiiillll nnnot winn thhhhiiiiissssss waayyyy!" Roshi grunted though clenched teeth.
Roshi continued to struggle against the black bands of ki. Brilliant rays of yellow ki shot through the gaps, but the bands of black continued to grow ever tighter.
"EEEEEEIIIAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Roshi broke the hold on him with an explosive wave of ki. The black bands of ki dissipated on the leading edge of the yellow ki shockwave, which emanated from Roshi.
"NO!! That's impossible. No one can break my constricting attack!" Snow bellowed in rage as she threw several massive ki blasts towards Roshi.
Roshi dodged them and launched a dozen or so more blue-white orbs of ki out past Snow.
"You are not going to mock me again you stupid MONKEY!" Snow screamed before throwing the same black-red beam of ki at him again.
"KAMEHAMEHA!!!" Roshi shouted as he shot a blast back towards Snow. The kamehameha struck and deflected Snow's attack before continuing on to slam into her. The Kamehameha drove her back and gave Roshi a few more moments to recover.
Then Snow shot upwards and rain ki blasts down on the planet almost randomly. 'If I stay hidden within these clouds she will destroy the Earth to get to me. If I close and fight where she can see me, she has the advantage. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.' Roshi realized.
He tossed several more blue-white orbs over his back and then shot after her.
"MASENKO!!!" He screamed the moment he burst from the clouds, sending a large yellow comet streaking towards Snow.
Not expecting him to come from that direction, Snow didn't react in time and was struck in the right shoulder by the blast. She was thrown to the side and barely had time to block the follow up kick.
The two exchanged blows for a few minutes, both giving and receiving a fair number of blows. In the end, Snow dove into the clouds below them.
'She is getting tired. Her ki is dropping away!' Roshi realized as he dove to follow her. "Which means it is time for my surprise."
Slowly small bolts of electricity built around Roshi as he dove through the storm tossed clouds. Soon lightning crackled and arced all around him. He spread his arms and summoned back the ki balls he had left to float around in the storm. They returned and began to circle around him at great speed energy shooting and crackling between them.
The storm began to die down as Roshi gathered in all the static current it had built up in the past hour of fighting and condensed it between his hands. Lightning bolts shot through the sky only to add energy to his attack.
Snow heard him and charged in to attack. Roshi waited until she could see what she was flying blindly towards before he threw his massive blue ball of electric energy at her.
ZZZZAAAATTTTT!! The energy arced between him and her. Had she had hair it would have stood on end for the rest of her days, but as it was the only remarkable result was a shuddering convulsion that stopped her dead in the air as the energy played over her.
"I can play dirty to bitch." Roshi said as he swept his hands back and started to charge a Kamehameha.
The Kamehameha slammed into the center of her chest and knocked her up and out of the clouds.
He shot after her and reached her just as she was starting to regain control over herself. He slammed into her feet first and drove her even higher into the air.
"You miserable miscreant freak of a monkey. You've hurt me. No one has ever hurt me before!" Snow screamed, "For that I am going to kill you. I'm going to destroy this miserable little shit hole of a planet and everything on it!" She shouted as she threw up her hands and started to charge a huge crackling red energy ball.
"When are you idiots going to learn that if you warn us of what you are going to do it doesn't work?" Roshi asked as he calmly go between her and the planet.
* * *
"Oh shit! Oh Shit OH SHIT!" Teddy said to no one in particular but everyone in the room. Snow's power level had dropped to 24 million, but now it was skyrocketing as she charged what looked to be an enormous ki blast.
Changeling, Forth stage, Current =
33,560,000+.
Roshi, Super Saiyan, Current = 31,000,000, Max Super Saiyan = 31,000,000, Max
Normal = Unknown.
The computer had informed her that Roshi had focused himself and that was how he had found the extra energy, but that wasn't going to matter much if the Changeling kept increasing in power.
* * *
Roshi swallowed apprehensively as Snow's body bulged. Her already ripped and bulky looking muscles grew even larger and she became beefier looking. Her ki also shot up.
'This may not be good.' He thought to himself. "Ka...Me...Ha...Me..."
"YEAAAAAA!!!" Snow threw the huge ki ball downward and accelerated its descent by adding to it from the rear with a huge beam of ki.
"HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" He released his kamehameha and sent it up to meet the oncoming ball of death.
The Kamehameha slammed into the huge red ball of ki and slowed it for a few moments. Then it overwhelmed Roshi's beam and started forcing it's way back down again.
"AAAAHHHHHHH" Roshi braced himself in the air and pushed more energy into the Kamehameha, but to no avail.
The red ball of ki swept the blue energy wave backwards and soon slammed into Roshi's hands. Roshi grimaced in the backwash of his own energy but kept pushing.
He crashed into the ground and there he braced himself and held off the ki ball for several seconds. Then the ground beneath his feet melted under the heat and pressure of the onslaught and he began to sink into the molten ground.
As he sank the ground around him became liquid and then plasma. It burned at him only adding to his struggle. Worse, there was no air to breathe.
'I can't give up! I have to stop this! I have to stop this! I have to stop this!' He thought as he was pushed deeper and deeper into the earth.
* * *
"LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARDS!" Ichigo screamed as she strained against Boxers, Tee, and Nail. "This isn't the time to be standing around!"
"Duh!" Tee replied, "That's why Goshu left to go help. He's in better shape than any of the rest of us anyway!"
"GAAH" Ichigo grunted as she wrenched her arm around throwing Tee and Nail into the stony outcropping they had hidden from the rain under.
"For a bunch of morons that preached about teamwork you idiots sure have a funny way of working together!" She yelled back at the two of them before turning to look directly at Boxers, who still held her left arm. "If you know what's best for you, you will let go of my arm now."
Boxers let go and backed up several steps holding his hands up in submission.
Ichigo didn't even reply as she shot into the air.
"Ah dang it, we can't let her have all the fun! I'm going after her." Tee said before taking to the air and following.
Boxers and Nail looked at each other and then jumped into the air to follow.
When they got to Snow, they found both Goshu and Ichigo beating on her with everything they had.
"Damn you MONKEYS! Why can't you just die like everything else you stupid pests!" Snow ranted as she floated firmly locked in position as immovable as a planet against their assaults.
Ichigo didn't know what to do. Nothing seemed to work. It was like they were fleas trying to stop a bear. She could feel Roshi struggling. His ki was starting to drop. He was slipping. 'What can I do?'
* * *
Roshi's weakened right knee popped and gave out. He fell to his side and almost let the giant red ki ball slide off of his Kamehameha. 'Shit! I can't keep this up much longer. I need air!' He thought as he was pushed even lower.
'NO! I'm not giving up. Everyone needs me, I am not giving up!' Roshi thought of all the people he was fighting for. For, his family, and his friends. For Ichigo, and Mariah, and Kit, and Carge, and Niko, and... The list was endless. Then he realized he was fighting for another person as well. He was fighting for himself. He needed to do this for himself. 'I always feared what would happen if I let loose. Now I have no choice.'
Roshi calmed his racing heart and reached into himself. Meditating on those things that made him who he was, he focused his resolve.
* * *
Ichigo was about to throw herself into Snow's massive beam when Goshu spoke up and stopped her.
"Everyone come over here. If we all throw a Kamehameha at the same time right at her hands, we might interrupt the beam long enough for Roshi to throw that ki ball off of himself!"
"Good idea!" Boxers chirped before he flew over to float next to Goshu.
Ichigo had to admit it was a good idea and she joined them. Soon Nail and Tee were beside them as well.
"Ok on three." Goshu said, "Ka...me...Ha...me...HAAAA!" All of them shouted in tandem.
Five Kamehamehas shot out and swirled around joining into one massive beam moments before it slammed into Snow's hands.
* * *
"GGGGEEEEEAAAAHHHH" Roshi forced himself to stand back up. He pushed against the blast and slowly began to work it back up towards the sky.
* * *
The conjoined Kamehameha worked. It slammed into Snow and knocked her to the side. She fell off of her own beam and then completely stopped it. "You Monkeys have interfered for the last time!" She screamed at them.
* * *
Suddenly there was nothing pushing against the ki ball and with Roshi putting his entire might behind his Kamehameha, it quickly pushed it out of the earth and into the sky. Roshi sensed it would miss Snow, so he moved his Kamehameha and put some spin on her massive ki ball. It swerved to the side and slammed into her only moments after she realized the threat.
The ki blasts she had been starting to charge missed entirely as she became pinned against the massive ball of her own ki.
"NOOOOOoooooooo she screamed in pain as she slowly fell into the ki ball she had been unprepared to block.
The ki ball suddenly exploded. The shockwave shook the air and drove the rain clouds away. Air rushed into the suddenly vacant pocket of air and the concussive force of the thunderclap flattened the earth for kilometers.
Through it all Roshi kept his Kamehameha streaking for the heavens. When Snow's ki ball exploded, she became trapped on the top of Roshi's Kamehameha.
He kept firing until he was certain Snow had been fully disintegrated by the force of the beam. Then, and only then did he stop and lower his hands.
Already far above the planet shooting ever deeper into space a sparkling plume of ash spread out. It caught the sunlight and sparkled. The glittering swirling mass would have looked to any observer to be something resembling early morning snowflakes catching the first rays of the sun while they were blown about in the wind.
* * *
Roshi's hands flopped to his sides and he tossed his head back. He sighed an exhausted sigh of relief and allowed himself to fall back towards the ground as he relaxed.
By the time he landed on the wind blown ground, his hair was black once again.
Soon everyone had gathered around where he lay on his back resting with arms behind his head. He looked at them and said, "would it be ok if I said I never want to do that ever again?"
"WHAT!! You jerk you said you would help me!" Ichigo screamed before kicking him in the ribs and stalking off.
"Gah ouch! Dang it all! I think she just broke more of my bones than Snow did." Roshi coughed as Dende quickly kneeled to heal him.
"Dude you really need to remember she takes everything you say literally!" Tee chided from the side.
"So says the one who continuously comes within millimeters of loosing his boys every time he makes the wrong kind of joke around her." Roshi replied to a good amount of laughter.
Ichigo stalked back and glared at them all. "I don't see anything funny about this. I'm leaving, I want a ship NOW!"
Roshi stood up and shook his head at her. "Ichigo I said I didn't want to fight a Changeling again. No sane person would want to. Not that I wouldn't. As far as I know we are still going to Saiya to get rid of the rest of those nasty lizards. Right guys?"
Tee and Boxers feigned innocence and looked off to the sides while Goshu just shook his head.
"Yes, we will, and soon, but first there are a lot of people that still need our help tonight. The earthquakes and storms this fight caused will ravage the planet alone. And those solders Snow brought with her probably didn't help anything. I'm sorry Roshi, but this is no time to celebrate. We have work to do."
* * *
10am Thursday
Roshi had worked through the night rescuing people and clearing debris from the streets of West Capitol and then Satan City. He had stopped only twice to eat and was now exhausted beyond anything he had ever felt in his life.
But his heart was finally beating at a more normal rate.
He had found Kit at 2 in the morning frantically searching through the rubble of the Beachside Mall. Mariah hadn't made it home during the night. The entire region around the mall had been decimated. Bodies and debris laid everywhere.
He had searched for hours looking for signs that Mariah had lived through the attack.
When he found her purse several blocks into the city from where the worst devastation had been he had relaxed some. That was, until he saw the overturned cars and horridly damaged buildings. In the haystack that was downtown Satan City he was looking for a very small needle.
Then they found out Slip had been found in a crater in the middle of town and rushed to the Hurcule Satan Memorial Hospital for treatment.
So he had gone to see how badly hurt she was.
Mariah had been admitted for a crushed ankle and several other scrapes and bruises.
The hospital was horridly beyond its capacity and since Mariah was in no danger of dying they had not kept track of exactly where she was. The nurses and doctors instead were worried about saving the critical patients.
So Roshi hunted the halls stepping over people and walking around the injured. The sight of all the people in such miserable conditions filled him with an inner rage he fought to control. 'There is so much to do here, but if we are to save anyone on Saiya we need to go there soon. Very very soon.'
Roshi stepped into a room and saw Mariah sitting in a chair next to a young man who had one of his arms and his head wrapped in bandages.
"Mariah! Thank Kami you're alive!" Roshi said as he walked into the room.
Mariah jerked her head up and looked at him. Her mouth dropped open and relief flooded her face. The relief was quickly followed by anger.
"Go away Roshi. I don't want to talk to you right now."
Roshi stopped dead. "Mariah are you ok?"
Mariah angrily grabbed her crutches and hobbled over to him. "You're not even hurt! You don't have a scratch on you!"
Roshi was at a loss for words. "I... I can explain."
"Where were you last night? I was so worried about you, but you never showed up. You never showed up all night and now when you do you're not even hurt!"
"Mariah please calm down, I can explain."
"Calm down? You want me to calm down? The world blew up last night and you want me to calm down? You asked if I was ok do I look ok? I'm blind without my glasses, I can't see a thing, but I can hear! Can you hear all the people in this place? Could you hear all the buildings falling down last night? Could you? WHERE were you!?!"
Roshi looked around the room to see almost everyone in the room, which was packed watching them. He leaned closer to Mariah and whispered. "I was fighting the Changeling that brought all this terror."
"You were fighting? You were fighting? The news says the military was completely wiped out, but you were fighting? You don't have a single scratch on you and you claim you were fighting?"
Roshi quickly looked around the room again and then looked at Mariah. "Could you keep your voice down? Or could we talk about this later in private?"
"What? So you can keep your stupid secrets? You lied to me Roshi. I thought you loved me but you couldn't even tell me who you really are. I don't care where you were or what you were doing last night but I do care that you lied to me. Do you have any clue how much that hurts to know that your best friend the person you thought you were in love with can't even trust you with a stupid pointless secret?"
Mariah didn't give him time to reply. "I thought you loved me. I thought I loved you, but I never knew you. I still don't know you. But you can keep you stupid secrets. You can keep you damn lies!" Roshi had never heard Mariah swear before. "You can go to hell for all I care! Look around. Look at what your stupid secrets did. You KNEW something was coming and you didn't warn people. You didn't do anything because that would mean telling them the truth and you've hidden behind your lies for so long you don't even know what the truth is anymore! Look around you! Look at John!" She said pointing to the young man with his head wrapped. "He go that way by saving my life last night, which is ten times whatever you did. So to answer your question, no I'm not ok! I'm about as far from ok as I can get. Now go away. I don't want to talk to you anymore. I don't want to hear anymore of your lies!" She yelled before hitting him in the chest.
He felt a bone in her hand pop and she quickly reached up to cradle her hand while tears seeped through her eyes. "Just go away. I don't want you here right now."
Roshi stood there dumbstruck. He didn't know what to do. He had nothing he could say to her. Nothing. For the second time in a day it felt like his soul was being ripped apart. Never in his life had he been so very very alone.
* * *
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