Chapter 56 (revised)
Truth and Promises
Day One in the Month of Strength, 18:25
"Ichigo is right, you had your chance, now it seems this fight will only end in your death." Roshi replied moments before Ichigo felt his ki start to build.
Ichigo watched Blizzard carefully. 'He is desperate. An animal is most dangerous when they are desperate. I must not fail now.' Ichigo calmed her mind.
"You filthy little Saiyans disgust me!" Blizzard yelled down at them. "You are nothing compared to me. I am a destroyer of worlds. Billions have died at my feet! You are no different. I'll destroy this planet and laugh at your ashes!"
Roshi started to open his mouth to speak, but Ichigo held up her hand, and he stopped.
"No Blizzard, it is you and your kind who are nothing. You are nothing and you do not even understand how it happened. I saw the message you sent my father. You attacked us out of fear. You were afraid even before you came here."
Blizzard shook with fury and looked as though he were about to throw his massive ball of ki down on Ichigo. "Shut up! Shut up! I fear no one and nothing! You insignificant bitch!"
Ichigo just shook her head. "Insignificant? No Blizzard, if I were insignificant you would not be frightened. You would not have come here if we Saiyans were insignificant. You would not have sent Banana and Snow after me if you thought I was insignificant."
Ichigo paused to glare up at Blizzard. "I am Ichigo Kudamono. I was born Crown Princess, but you made me Queen. You fear me and you fear my people. Shout and swagger all you like. I can see you trembling."
Ichigo looked at Roshi and saw him nodding in agreement. "Your time is over Blizzard. Whether you throw that ki blast or not you are not hurting another soul." Roshi yelled up to him.
"Yeah, 'cause Roshi's going to kick your ass and wipe the floor with you. And when he's done we'll finish you off!" Boxee added while he too started to charge a ki blast.
Blizzard just laughed. "You don't get it. Your stupid insignificant monkey brains cannot grasp the truth. You can't stop me! Nothing can stop me! Nothing!" Blizzard screamed as he floated directly over Roshi.
"Nothing huh?" Roshi called up to him. "Well it's about time I introduce you to nothing! KA... ME... HA..."
Ichigo never took her eyes off of Blizzard, but she felt Roshi pull his hands back and start to charge the attack. As the energy he was building grew, he spread his arms wider apart, yet continued to charge the brilliant blue beam. The Kamehameha was not a perfect attack. It was not useful in all situations, and all attacks have drawbacks. But the Kamehameha was very powerful in that it allowed a person to focus their ki into the attack.
Roshi was focusing everything he had into his Kamehameha.
The sheer amount of energy she was sensing forced Ichigo to glance at him for a moment. Roshi's hands were a bit more than half a meter apart with a ball of scintillating blue light shimmering between them. The charge of his aura and the surrounding air caused lightning bolts to arc from the sky to play over him as rays of light shot though his fingers casting odd shadows on his face.
"Ah!" Ichigo exclaimed as she was forced to yank her eyes away and move. Ice had chosen the exact moment Ichigo had looked away to throw her massive ki ball at the planet.
'SHIT I cannot let myself get distracted. The slightest distraction now could destroy everything.' Ichigo chastised herself as she literally cut a swath through the air to reach the massive ki blast before it could reach the ground.
The sonic boom caught up with her a few seconds later, causing the ground to shake and snow to fly up in her wake. Some of the snow splashed onto the surface of the ki ball. The snow instantly vaporized and then re-froze in the frigid air. This surrounded Ichigo in a veil of frosty white fog.
The fog blocked her eyes, and Ice's tremendous unwieldy ball of ki blocked out her senses as she struggled to push the monumental amount of ki back. For the first time in what seemed like a very long time to her at the moment, Ichigo was cut off and blind to what was happening around her.
'Please Roshi, Please stop Blizzard. I'm counting on you.'
* * *
"...MEEEE..." Roshi held the Kamehameha while continuing to charge more energy into it, and watched Blizzard as he hovered above and a bit to the south of him.
To his left, Ichigo was slowly but steadily pushing Ice's large purple-white ball of ki away. Likewise, Boxee was busy with the gigantic ball of blue energy Chill had thrown.
Roshi noted what was going on and then glared up at Blizzard. It was time to finish this battle. He had had enough. There was a time for talking and then there was a time for action. While he would have preferred for a battle of words to be the only battle he would have to fight, he knew that words without action to back them up were meaningless. He was sick of Blizzard's arrogance. He was sick of Blizzard's mocking tone. He was sick of the words. He was sick of Blizzard and now was the time for action. There was absolutely no way he was going to be letting that ki blast get anywhere near Saiya's surface.
"Whether you throw that or not, you're time is up Blizzard. HAAA!!!!" Roshi shouted up at Blizzard as he released the energy he had built up for the Kamehameha in one magnificent blast of azure blue energy.
At the same moment as Roshi shouted his threat up at Blizzard, the large red Changeling released the excessive ball of shimmering purple and green energy.
Blizzard threw his hands up and sent the sphere of energy heading to a higher altitude. It slowly picked up speed as it traveled upward and away from Roshi.
Then, at nearly the last moment Blizzard dodged Roshi's Kamehameha.
Though Roshi could not see what was going on above the comet-like front end of his Kamehameha, he could still feel it and thus with his senses he knew what Blizzard was doing. He had a moment to choose to attack the ki blast or Blizzard.
'If he moves that thing to a higher orbit I might not be able to stop it when he throws it back down.' Roshi realized in an instant. Blizzard was spent. The only true threat was the leviathan-sized sphere of ki.
Rather than expend the effort to redirect his Kamehameha at Blizzard he just let it slam into the underside of Blizzard's massive orb of ki. When the Kamehameha hit the sphere it rolled forming a large half sphere shaped cone of energy, which beat against the solidified outer shell of ki that made up Blizzard's attack.
A Kamehameha wave was one of the faster moving massive beam attacks. While a Big Bang or Final Flash could put out more energy in less time, the Kamehameha moved far faster and was stronger at longer distances.
As such the impact with Blizzard's attack pushed the massive ball of ki faster and farther out of the atmosphere. As it rushed through the clouds an expanding circle of clear sky opened up in the blast's wake.
Blizzard's attack picked up speed while it slowly absorbed the energy from the Kamehameha and grew. It appeared to grow smaller as it soured higher and higher up into the mid-day sky. 'There, that's not coming back.' Roshi smirked as he turned his full attention on Blizzard and his goons.
"Admit it Blizzard, you're finished. Your reign of tyranny and death is at an end."
* * *
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet.
The Explosion of the Ghost Image when it slammed into the Chartashan and his attacks only to then be hit moments later by the two Tsuihikidans was quite spectacular. So spectacular in fact, that it blinded Goshu for a moment. Aside from that small problem everything went just about as Goshu had planned as the explosion nearly destroyed the Chartashan. As it was, the large warrior was knocked back and then thrown through the air as though he were a rag doll tossed by a hurricane.
After only a moment's hesitation to blink his eyes clear, Goshu twisted to his right and spun down through the air to maintain his momentum as he zeroed in on the large hunter green warrior. The Chartashan had just regained control of his flight through the air and was struggling to focus his ki and find his opponent when Goshu flipped himself around and drove his right heel deep into the large thick hided warrior's back.
The Chartashan had been steadily losing power since their fight had begun so it was of very little surprise to Goshu when he felt several of the vertebras in the green warrior's back pop and break under the sudden impact.
The Chartashan folded backwards over Goshu's leg as his spine simply broke in two. The impact from the force of the kick sent the green warrior plummeting into the ground, where he lay folded backwards. Goshu cautiously flew down and landed before him.
"Kill me." The Chartashan pleaded though bloody lips as he gasped in pain barely able to breathe.
Goshu stared down at him silently and slowly shook his head.
"Damn you Saiyan! You won. You beat me. Now finish the deed. Don't leave me to suffer like this!" He begged before he was racked with a fit of bloody coughs.
Goshu shook his head, "No, I think not. I gave you mercy and you did not take it earlier. You will bleed to death quickly enough as it is. I see no need to ease your passing by killing the defenseless." Goshu said as he absentmindedly pulled his tattered gi vest off to toss it on the ground next to the fallen warrior. "Take the time to reflect on you life. It is all you have left."
* * *
As soon as the words were out of her mouth Kit wished she could take them back. Raimu's eyes bulged in apprehension for a moment as he first backed a few steps away and then boldly walked forward to grab her by the front of her gravsuit. "What do you mean by that? Why will you be dead in five minutes? Why are you beeping?" He demanded while looking both frightened and furious at the same time.
"I... my... suit… this suit is all that's keeping the gravity on this planet from crushing me." Kit said as she bobbed her head so she could poke her chin into the shoulder strap of the gravsuit. "That beeping is the warning telling me that the battery is low. Like I said, I have about four and a half minutes now."
Raimu looked at her skeptically. "And so you think we should let you go? Not likely."
Kit let out a defeated whimper. 'I brought it on myself. I made Roshi promise but then I went against my own promise. Why do I never listen to reason?' Taking a deep breath she looked directly into Raimu's eyes. "No, I don't expect you would do that. I would however hope that you would stop being afraid of your own shadows and take a step out of the womb. Even though Saiyans are some of the most powerful people in the universe that does not mean you as a race are and can continue to simply distrust the rest of the universe. I have not lied to you once. Remember that."
"Oh, just shut up!" Orenji scolded snidely from the back. "In my opinion you have lived several minutes longer than you needed too in the first place so your pathetic plea falls on deaf ears."
Kit slowly rolled her head up to look directly into Orenji's eyes. "Deaf, or just dumb?"
Kit was certain she was about to die as the now incensed Saiyan woman pulled back her arm to strike.
POOF!!
Orenji spun around in an instant as Kit's eyes darted past her to see Ramon sitting on his butt looking at the processed ham and cheddar cheese that had been in the capsule he had opened.
"Oh!" Ramon cheered as he reached out to grab a large piece of ham.
"Ramon no! That's probably drugged!" Orenji yelled before she kicked the food away from the toddler.
Ramon looked as though he were about to burst into tears for half a moment before he grabbed another capsule and slammed it into the ground.
POOF!!
Before the smoke had even cleared, the small boy had grabbed what was in the capsule and started shoving it into his mouth.
"Pttzah! Yucky!" He cried as he tried to spit a medicated gauss pad back out of his mouth.
Orenji looked from the medical supplies to the food and then back to Kit with an expression bordering on shocked disbelief.
"Yes, looky there what do you have? Oh I think we have some food and medical supplies. JUST LIKE I TOLD YOU WAS IN THOSE THINGS!!!" Kit screamed at the top of her lungs no longer really caring whether she lived or not. Even in the end, she just wanted to prove she was right.
"It has to be a trick. It has to be some kind of trick." Orenji said mostly to herself as she bent down to look at the supplies and then smell the cheese as if trying to detect some form of poison.
"Oh lay off it lady! You are so frickin' paranoid that if Ichigo herself were to show up and tell you to eat the damn food and untie me you would claim it was someone in a costume or an android or possibly even some sort of fucking damn mirage or hallucination! I haven't been lying and I'm down right sick of you people treating me like the enemy when I tried to help you so for the sake of whatever the hell you people find holy! Would you please untie me and follow me to my ship so we can get the hell out of here?"
Raimu looked at her inquisitively before turning to his wife. "I do not know what kind of meat this is, but it is salty and right now it tastes better than Sartan." He stated before taking another large bite of some ham and quickly swallowing it. "We have been hiding like frightened prey for days now. Her story is too farfetched to be anything but true. You stay here with Ramon while I follow the girl to her ship. If it is a trap we will know soon enough. Either way it is better than hiding any longer."
Orenji glared at Raimu and then at Kit. "I hate it when you are right. Untie her and go, but so help me if anything happens it will take a Changeling to keep me from skinning her alive."
'I take it all back. Whatever strange twist of fate this is I like it. I take it all back.' Kit thought to herself silently as Raimu untied her. "Heh heh, funny thing, Ichigo threatened to do the same thing. Actually she said she'd turn me into a pair of fuzzy slippers." Kit joked in an effort to lighten the mood some.
It did not work.
* * *
The wind was starting to pick up. It greedily grabbed up snow and dust from the ground. The flakes of snow impeded vision and occasionally during the gusts, there was even enough of it to cut through Roshi's aura and bite at his skin. Roshi rubbed his hands together to warm them for a moment before he turned his full attention back to the fight.
Roshi watched with a satisfied smirk as first Ichigo and then Boxee pushed the two massive planet busting attacks back and then threw them up and away from the planet.
"Your time is over Blizzard. We've beaten you. The only thing that awaits you here is death. Leave and never return." Roshi demanded stately though the now raging snowstorm.
"Ah, let 'em stay, I say it's time for some slice and dice!" Boxee added as he pulled out Trunks' sword.
Ichigo brushed her hands off on her thighs and floated up between Roshi and Boxee. "He will not leave. Changelings are even more pride bound than we Saiyans. He will stay and fight to his last. Leave him to me. The very least I can do to bring the vengeance the dead demand and the justice he so rightly deserves is to kill him."
Ichigo then started to fly higher as she shouted, "Fight me Blizzard! We both know you will never leave. Come to me to die now."
"Hmm hmm hmm hmm, glorious isn't it?" Blizzard shouted out to them. "I was named for weather such as this. The wind pulls the heat right from you. It will freeze you to your core."
Roshi followed Ichigo as she flew up closer towards where Blizzard floated in the winter gale. Visibility was scarce with the dense snow blowing so fast that it blocked all sight in a white blur.
Ichigo held her hands up as though she were holding a basketball and a pink glow of energy began to build between her hands. "Oh do not fret Blizzard, you'll be plenty warm in a moment."
Blizzard burst into deep full fledged laughter. "Ah yes, I will be. But I can survive the heat. Can you?"
"What the fuck are you laughing about? We beat you. You're dead you crazy lizard!" Boxee shouted out.
"What am I laughing at? Oh nothing! Nothing at all!"
Roshi knew something was afoot, and it bothered him. He cleared his mind trying to sense his way into understanding. Blizzard was floating not more than 20 meters in front of Ichigo. Chill and Ice floated directly beside him. None of them were building any form of attack. 'What are they trying to do? Why are they stalling?'
"Talk is easy Blizzard. I will not listen to more of this drivel while you continue to exist!" Ichigo yelled moments before she let loose with a large Plasma Beam. The pink-red beam of energy washed over Blizzard before he had even started to move.
"Ichigo stop!" Roshi called out as he began to move forward, "This has got to be some sort of trick. He isn't even trying to dodge."
The Plasma Beam died instantly. "I know. I do not like this."
Blizzard was laughing like a jackal again. "You call that warm? That was nothing!"
Boxee took off directly towards Blizzard, only to be stopped by both Ice and Chill. "Going someplace? I think you aught to listen to Lord Blizzard." Chill sneered.
"Yes, yes do listen to me. I was just about to tell you all something which I find to be the height of humor." Blizzard laughed again. "You see Saiyan, you are stronger than I. But you are gullible and stupid. In the end stupidity will always lose to cunning." Blizzard said looking directly at Roshi though the howling snow.
"What are you talking about? Roshi's one of the smartest people on our world." Boxee shouted.
"AH delightful!" Blizzard laughed, "Then your world is every bit as doomed as this one is."
"Oh lay off you cantankerous ass. We blocked your attacks. Even if you kept trying you don't have what it takes to destroy this world!" Boxee shouted.
Roshi wasn't quite so certain of Boxee's statement. It was apparent that Ichigo was holding her tongue waiting to see what Blizzard would say, she was however not just floating around, as she appeared to be building an even larger Plasma Beam than she had fired off the first time. With the three of them there was no way Blizzard could beat them. There was no reason for him to be stalling.
Roshi's head suddenly jerked to the left as his eyes found Boxee. 'Unless he's waiting for the fusion to end that is. How long do they have? And does being a Super Saiyan shorten that time?"
"Enough stalling, it's time to end this. Boxee was right you don't have the power to destroy us, or this world. This ends now!"
Blizzard burst out laughing again. "Oh yes, you are right, but you do. Or should I say did, or maybe perhaps have."
Roshi's Kamehameha flickered away between his hands, dying before it had even fully formed.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Both he and Ichigo demanded virtually at the same time.
"He hmm hem hmm, it is quite simple really. Alone, when my attack reached your system's star it would have been but a small disruption. It would have made a solar eruption that might have been enough to burn this planet into cosmic gas. But with the speed and power of your attack... Let me just say that it will be an explosive event!"
The wind and snow suddenly cut and slashed at Roshi with the ferocity only nature can bring to bear.
"Roshi!" Boxee shouted as he pointed to Roshi and then his own hair and then to Roshi again. "Um Super Saiyan. Might be good idea to, you know, not be otherwise right now!"
Roshi blinked a few times before he realized he had dropped out of Super Saiyan.
"Besides it's not true. What Blizzard is saying isn't true right?"
Ichigo looked at him with a numb expression. "It cannot be true. Blizzard would not still be here if the Sun were about to explode. Not even he can live through that much heat and destruction."
"Oh, I am leaving, just after I make sure you and every last Saiyan dies with your pathetic world. I will be long gone when the shockwave gets here. And just ask him." Blizzard laughed again, "He knows. Just look at him. He knows I do not lie now."
Roshi looked up and almost died. Ichigo was looking directly at him. Just the ways she floated there he knew she knew, but at the same time needed him to say otherwise. If only it could be otherwise.
"It's... it's true. I can feel it. It's almost to the sun now." Roshi looked down. "There is nothing I can do to stop it now."
Roshi couldn't bear to look at Ichigo. A year previous he had seen Nighty watch as her puppy ran out onto the street and was run over. The look on Ichigo's face was far too similar, only far worse. 'You just blew up her planet you fucking moron what the hell do you expect her to look like?' He scolded himself before looking back up at her.
Ichigo seemed to be lost in thought but quickly regained her lost focus. "Roshi, Boxee, go home." Ichigo directed as she turned back to face Blizzard.
* * *
Those few warriors who had been fighting Nail had long sense fled when Goshu landed near the large concrete compound where the Saiyan prisoners were being held. Slip rushed past him carrying three unconscious women. She quickly deposited them in one of the capsule-ships and started the autopilot before she jumped out and flew up to him.
"A few of them are starting to wake up now, but they are not cooperating at all so Nail is basically just knocking them out again. We've been loading a hundred or so of them on each ship and sending them up to the Phoenix, but their aren't enough docking collars on the Phoenix to dock all the ships, that and Kit isn't up there like she was supposed to be. She's over to the west with a different group."
Goshu nodded and then looked to the west, "She hasn't moved for around twenty minutes. I think something is wrong. Go fly over there and see if you can help her. Then get to the Phoenix. The fight down here is done, but I have a bad feeling about what's happening up north."
Slip looked off north for a moment. "Yeah, I was sure Roshi was dead, but he's back. And... well… there's something up. I'll hurry, once we get up into space there will be more time to sort things out." She called over her back as she took off to the west.
Goshu shook his head sadly and walked into the Quonset-like bunker Blizzard had turned into a concentration camp.
* * *
"Oh fuck that idea!" Boxee blurted, "We're not about to just leave in the middle of a fight!"
"No kidding!" Roshi chimed in. "Besides, you can't just throw away your life here, your people need you."
Ichigo spun around and gave him a look that could melt titanium-carbide. "My people need to get off this planet! I cannot do that and fight Blizzard at the same time. The two of you however can go force them all to leave."
"Hmph, and what makes you think that any of you are getting off this planet alive?" Blizzard asked mockingly, "I'm not done with the lot of you yet."
Ichigo answered Blizzard with a Drill Beam to the forehead. The beam did not cut through his skull as designed but it did knock him back and cut a wedge out of his forehead armor. Purple-red blood oozed out of the gash.
"Roshi do not argue with me now, go. You can do more there than I can. Blizzard is nothing, I can stop him and get off with plenty of time. Go save my people!"
Roshi had never seen Ichigo truly plead for anything before. He didn't know what to do. He had promised her that he would do everything he could to save her people. He had also promised himself and Goku that he wouldn't let her sacrifice herself. "Ichigo..."
Roshi was cut off, as if Blizzard himself were controlling the weather the storm suddenly seemed to abate for a few moments. "Nothing? Nothing? You stupid monkeys don't know anything! This battle is far from over!" Blizzard shouted as he reached out to grab both Chill and Ice around their necks. A bright red aura seemed to grow around the three of them for a moment before it slowly flowed so that it was completely around only Blizzard.
There was a bright flash and then Blizzard started to grunt and howl as his natural armor bulged and cracked.
"He's transforming again!" Roshi shouted in horror.
"Go! I can handle this!" Ichigo yelled at the two of them before she threw a Star Ripper into the conflagration of energy around Blizzard. The scintillating orb of ki shattered against a wave of ki long before it even got anywhere near Blizzard.
"No you can't. I'm not going to let you just throw your life away." Roshi yelled back at Ichigo before he turned to Boxee, "Boxee get the hell out of here. Get to a radio and warn my dad. You have to get them out of here..." Roshi paused as he remembered the map of the system Slip had shown them back in the Phoenix. Roshi silently thanked his memory and then calculated the distance to the sun and the time since the attack was launched. "Three minutes! You have to get everyone off in three minutes! The shockwave will be here in eight. If you aren't lifting off in three you won't clear the shockwave in time! No go! I have a capsule ship, don't wait for us."
Boxee's jaw dropped. "Three minutes! Fucking hell!"
"Boxee MOVE YOUR ASS!" Roshi yelled before he flew up to where Ichigo had just finished sending a spinning Kamehameha into the bubble of energy around Blizzard.
"Damn it! Attacking him while he's transforming is useless! There is too much energy for the attack to get through!" She vented in frustration before turning to Roshi. "You should not be here. This is not your fight."
"Nor is it your place to just give up and die."
Ichigo glared at him. "That is from both your culture and mine, the captain goes down with the ship."
Roshi watched as Blizzard's body convulsed within the shell of energy. "Maybe he'll kill himself trying to transform and we won't have to worry about him." He turned to Ichigo, "Ichigo... your people need you. This isn't your fault. You can't do this."
"It is my life you hypocritical ass. This is not your fault either so why are you still here?"
Roshi glared at her. "I should have known better. I should have never fallen for that trick. It is my fault."
Ichigo looked away. "Oh no, you do not get to claim blame! I blew up your moon. You blew up my sun. As far as I am concerned in eight minutes one way or another we will be even."
"Good, but I'm staying."
Ichigo turned and gave a half smile, "Good, as I cannot go this alone."
Roshi smiled and then silently set his new watch's alarm for three minutes.
* * *
Kit glanced down at the watch face timer on the wrist of her gravsuit. Thirty seconds of power were left. "Can we possibly go now? The ship is right there and there is no one else here." She said impatiently to Raimu, who was for his part looking at the city square as though it were a war zone. Technically, it probably was, but Kit didn't have time for him to be cautious right at the moment.
"Not just yet. There is someone coming." Raimu said as he waved his horribly inaccurate handheld scanner through the air again.
"I KNOW there is someone coming. I told you already that it is one of my friends!" Kit exasperated as she looked at the scouter readout on the other wrist, which indicated Slip would be there in exactly twenty seconds.
"Gah! I literally do not have time for this!" Kit said as she twisted past Raimu and started to run for the ship.
Raimu made no attempt to follow her and she was just about in the ship when Slip suddenly landed directly in front of her on the ramp.
"Hey, need some help?"
Kit suddenly felt nauseous as the gravsuit rapidly began to shut down. "Get outta my way!" She screamed as she barreled directly into Slip.
Kit had run into brick walls with more give than Slip seemed to have at the moment. She bounced back with the wind knocked out of her and her fight with gravity hopelessly under-matched within the failing suit.
"Oh! The battery is dead!" Slip gasped. Kit felt an instant of vertigo as she was out on the street and then moments later found herself in the ship being set down by Slip. "You know you sure did cut that a bit close!" Slip scolded her.
"You don't say! I had NO idea." Kit rolled her eyes and flopped her head back against a bulkhead. "Look, there are three Saiyans who are about as paranoid as the word can define. Could you go get them and hold them still so I can beat on them with a lead pipe?"
Slip laughed and shook her head. "Lead? That's way too soft. I'll get you a polycomposite bat. That might at least do something before it breaks over their heads!"
"HEY IS SLIP THERE? OR KIT? ANYONE!?!?! THE COMPUTER SAYS YOU GUYS ARE THERE!! YOU HAVE TO GET OFF THE PLANET. TELL EVERYONE TO GET OFF THE PLANET! THE SUN IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE!" A dual voice suddenly shouted over the ship's intercom.
Kit's ears perked up. "Is that Tee and Boxers?"
Slip looked surprised. "Yeah, just a second." She said as she walked to the computer. "Boxee? Ah what's up? Did you just say the sun was about to explode?"
"SLIP!! YES!! WE'VE GOT ABOUT..."
"STOP SHOUTING!!!" Slip screamed into the microphone. Take a breath and just tell me what's happening."
"RO... Roshi and Ichigo are still fighting but the sun is about to explode and we have about two and a half minutes to get everyone off or their all going to burn in the shockwave! I can't reach Goshu or anyone else and I need to tell them. We need to go!"
Kit didn't think she had ever seen Slip so white before. That was about the last thought before she fainted dead away.
* * *
Wump!
Slip turned to see Kit laying on her back with her tongue hanging out of her mouth as she breathed in abnormally slowly. "KIT! This is no time for a nap wake your ass back up!" She yelled in frustration before she turned back to the computer. "Boxee just get the people up there off. I'll warn Goshu and the rest. See you on the Phoenix."
Slip waited about half a second for a reply and when none came she spun around on her heal and bent to slap Kit in the cheek. "Wake up!"
Kit startled awake and looked up at her through dreary eyes. "Ah AH AH!"
"This isn't time to panic girl. Get this bucket of bolts powered up and get out back to the Phoenix."
Kit blinked and sat up. She shook her head in a way very reminiscent of a dog that had just woken up and then looked out the door. "What about them?" She asked as she pointed to a building across the square from where the ship was.
"I'll get them."
Slip darted out of the ship and went directly to where the three Saiyans were cautiously watching from inside one of the department stores.
"Hi, I'm Slip I don't have time to talk as the sun is about to explode so would you please get on that ship so Kit can take you to safety?"
"You're not a Saiyan. The furry one said that her friends were Saiyans."
Slip rolled her turquoise eyes. "Nope, can't do things the easy way can we? I assure you that I am in fact a Saiyan and that the next time one of you asks or states another presumptuous racial quip about my hair I'm going to rip heads off of necks and use them for kick-balls." She said with little trace of humor. "Now get on that ship!"
The woman started to back away.
'Why can't anything ever be easy?' Slip asked herself as she jumped forward to catch the woman.
* * *
Roshi could sense the wave of panic flair up first in the ruins of the Capitol Hayashi, and then a few moments later far to the south. The news was out and people were reacting.
Roshi bounced another Kamehameha off the storm of ki that was raging about Blizzard. "You're sucking on your lip again."
Ichigo's hand when to her mouth and she gave a half surprised gasp. "And you're fidgeting with your fingers again. I'm not the only one who has a nervous habit."
Roshi looked down and forced his fingers to stop moving about. "So I was."
"Roshi..." Ichigo's voice cracked. "I might not get a chance to say this so I think I need to now.
Roshi turned to face her fully. "Yes?"
She blinked and looked into his eyes for a moment before she looked away and seemed to blush. With the cold and the wind, her face was already flushed and red, so it was hard to tell.
"Roshi... I..."
Ichigo flipped back and spun away as a black Kienzian almost took her head off.
Roshi spun and threw a few Energy Dan pulses at the disk and it shattered.
"Oh so you are actually going to fight?" Roshi asked as he spun to watch Blizzard drop Ice directly on top of where he had already dropped Chill.
Both of the weaker Changelings were unconscious and close to death. Their bodies looked anemic and withered. On the contrary, Blizzard radiated power. Blizzard was now a polished black. The only breaks in color were his eyes, horns, and claws, which were the red of fresh blood. He easily stood over two meters tall and was lean and muscular.
His entire body had the look of a savage weapon to it. Long hooked scalpel-looking claws tipped his fingers and toes. Spikes grew off of his knuckles and arms so that even with his fist closed he could easily lacerate someone. His face had flattened and lengthened to look more serpentine. Large jagged serrated teeth lined his mouth. Though the most impressive change was his horns. Starting about where his eyebrows should be, his face and head merged into two large red horns that curved back and to the side before tapering to a long point.
"I'm not going to waste a fifth transformation if I did not plan on using it to kill you." Blizzard replied in a suddenly deep timbre.
"Then you wasted your time!" Ichigo literally snarled as she dropped down from above to slam both feet into Blizzard's nose.
Blizzard's head rocked back, but only Ichigo's reflexes and dexterity saved her as she back-flipped away from the sweep of Blizzard's claws as he reacted to her.
"You are nothing girl." Blizzard said as he tossed a black blast in her direction. He then turned his attention to Roshi. "You however, will prove to be entertaining. Show me your true power Saiyan."
Ichigo dodged the sickly evil looking attack and used a Zanzouken to avoid it while instantaneously appearing next to Roshi while laughing. "Call me what you want. You cannot hurt me with words." She then turned to Roshi. "I was wrong. I can only distract him, not finish him. Good thing you are here huh?"
Roshi just nodded before Ichigo continued. "Under normal circumstances I would say stall for time. He used a Chartashan technique to gain energy. The transfer of ki will not last long."
Roshi glanced at his watch. "I don't think we can stall for time."
"Unfortunately no."
Blizzard laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hear you expect my power to drop soon? I used the pathetic Chartashan ability to get the power needed to transform. Now that I am in this stage nothing can stop me!"
Roshi closed his eyes and emptied his mind to clear his thoughts and then caught Blizzard's leg as it descended at him. Roshi slowly opened his eyes again to look at Blizzard before he caught Blizzard's left leg in his other hand as Blizzard tried to rake him with that leg as well.
"Allow me to introduce you to two nothings that are about to kick your ass." He said as he slammed Blizzard's ankles together with enough force to crush the armor plates on the insides of both of the Changelings legs. "I'm Son Roshi."
Blizzard screamed in pain and tried to launch a ki blast at Roshi. Which Roshi, realizing he couldn't overpower Blizzard enough to swing him around while getting himself out of the way, just let go and ducked away. The ki blast shot off over Roshi's head just as Ichigo slammed her knee into the small of Blizzard's back directly above where his tail was connected. "And you fear me so I need no introduction."
Blizzard yowled in pain as he spun away from Ichigo to flex his feet and toes before spinning down to attack Roshi again. "I fear no one! You will die here fools!"
Roshi launched a Kamehameha, which Blizzard deflected moments before he drove his spiked fist into Roshi's chest.
The impact cracked one of Roshi's ribs and sent him careening down to land on the back of his head next to where Ice and Chill had fallen.
Roshi rolled to stand up and gasped as the broken rib popped against itself and sent spikes of pain though his chest. He coughed and spat blood from his bitten lip. "Yeah, and what about these two? You going to leave them to die here as well?"
"They were next to useless to me. They don't deserve to live. I will find better after you are dead!"
Roshi picked at the gash in his gi and smeared dark stain of the blood from the three bleeding puncture wounds down the navy over-shirt.
"I've seen heartless before, but your actions are soulless." Roshi yelled back as loudly as he could though the pain as his yellow aura built in power and intensity. 'Careful now, if I bulk up too much I won't be able to even hit the bastard.'
* * *
Blizzard had passed from the realm of effable far into the unexplainable realm of the ineffable. Words could not express the ire within him as he glared at the two yellow haired monkeys.
Blizzard relished the sight of the fright found within both of the monkey's eyes, yet at the same time their continued presses infuriated him. He was the lord of all things. No one and nothing dared challenge him. Yet these pathetic insignificant peons had done just that.
They were going to die.
Blizzard had assured that with his PlanetBuster. He had made it just large enough to cause a solar flare, which would turn the miserable frozen waste of a planet he was now fighting on into molten slag.
Then that idiot Saiyan Monkey had hit the PlanetBuster with his ridiculously powerful beam attack. Not even he knew if he could live though the resulting stellar explosion that was now underway.
'Stupid idiot' Blizzard cursed as he dodged one of those inexcusably powerful blue beam attacks. "Is that the best you can do Monkey?" He called out mockingly.
Even more infuriating was the Princess. The stunted runty little disgustingly slight and unsubstantially small female bitch was still too fast for him to effectively attack. The only decent thing about the whole situation was that her disgustingly small body also did not have enough mass or strength to effectively harm him.
Or so he thought as one of her spiny Star Ripper blasts cut into his back and caught him by surprise. "You'll pay for that bitch!"
The stupid bitch spun to a stop in mid-air before raising her right arm and flashing him the universal symbol of the bird complete with a glowing flare of yellow ki flame. "The only one who will be paying here is you Blizzard. And you will pay with interest."
Blizzard was about to respond, when he was suddenly kicked in the face by the brute of a Saiyan male.
"Cheap shot."
The bastard actually smiled. "No, this is a cheap shot… Thunderflash!!"
The last thing Blizzard saw before the world went white and his ears practically burst with ringing was the Saiyan's knee jetting for his jaw.
* * *
"Stop your stalling and get moving!" Goshu yelled at a group of now awakened yet lingering Saiyans. The fact that his anger shook the ground and cracked the concrete wall near him added to the fact that, with the exception of the lacking tail, he was the very embodiment of what they had expected a Super Saiyan to look like. Which helped Goshu's persuasion abilities immensely.
"No"
Goshu looked up and was surprised to see a group of about forty-five people standing with their arms crossed defensively. "We ain't leaving." Spoke an elderly looking man.
'So much for Ichigo's proper grammar.' Goshu laughed at the humor of the moment despite everything that was going on. "I do not think you understand. Your sun has exploded. We have about a minute left to get off this dust ball before it becomes molten plasma. You are going to leave."
"No sir. I don't think you get it. You might be a legend but you ain't no Saiyan I know. We don't surrender. This is my home, and I ain't leavin'."
Goshu looked at the rest of them. "You all feel the same way?"
"Yes." Most of them chimed while the rest nodded in agreement.
"Wait, where are you going? The ships are that way!" Max yelled as she ran back into the Quonset and looked on as her group joined those standing there.
"We choose to stay as well." A woman spoke up while holding onto the shoulders of her daughter.
Goshu rubbed his temples and then pointed at the girl. "What about her. She has her entire life before her. You would rather die and let her die than live that life?"
"This is our home. It is where we belong."
Goshu punched a hole in the wall. "Then make a new home. You say Saiyans never surrender. Well this certainly looks like you are surrendering here. Life is the battle. Life! Not some set of ideals or property or land or even a whole planet is worth the hope and challenge of living a life. How is there ever victory in your own deaths?"
"Don't judge us... coward." The old man said as he walked past and then flew away.
Nail looked to Goshu, "Should I go get him?"
"No, he made his own choice to die. We can't force them to live." Goshu looked over the rest of them. "You all think the same way? All of you choose to stay and die?"
The crowd of nearly one hundred shook their heads and murmured agreement.
"Fine, then lets go. There is nothing else we can do here."
Max started to turn away and then turned back to the woman. "Please ma'am, come with us. Not for your sake, but for hers."
She shook her head. "My mate died trying to stop the Changelings. To run now... no."
"Your husband died trying to save your lives. To not come now would make his sacrifice in vain."
The woman slapped Max full across the face. "How dare you."
"Mostly because I almost died for the same reasons your husband did. I also dare because this isn't my home and I did everything I could to save it. But basically I do because you are a mother and to me your actions are the height of selfishness."
"Max, we have to go." Slip yelled from where she was getting into one of the ships.
"Then take her. My life is here."
"And leave her an orphan?"
The mother looked down at her daughter and the girl wiped her eyes. "Please mommy I don' wanna die."
The woman sighed. "Do not want to." She then looked up at Max. "Fine, we're coming."
* * *
Kit led her former captures though the airlock and stopped dead. Chaos ruled on the Phoenix. Children were bawling as many of the adults from the southern region seemed to be rushing about to find lost family members or anyone else they knew from the survivors from Hayashi.
"Who are you?" A short haired girl of about Kit's age suddenly asked from where she was trying to get a small girl to stop wailing.
"Someone who needs earmuffs very badly." Kit replied as she blinked some tears away and silently prayed to the fates that she wouldn't go deaf before they got back to Earth. "I'm Kit. Who is in charge here?"
The girl shrugged. "Right now? No one is really in charge. I am Sakura by the way. I take it you are here with Ichigo?"
"Ah yeah, but she's still down fighting with Roshi."
Sakura smirked in a suggestive manner. "He's the Super Saiyan? He's hot."
"He's taken" Kit replied humorlessly. "Look I hate to break this up but we really need to get people into the cabins. There are about eighty or so more ships that need to unload and not nearly enough time to unload them if there are all these people standing around on the decks."
"Right, where do you want to put them?"
"The main galley is two decks above us. Take people there for some food and then from there find them cabins. I guess we can carry about twenty thousand people on board with the new systems without there being problems, and unfortunately there are less than expected."
"Right, where are the stairs?"
Kit blinked a few times. "Ah this way."
"Ok," Sakura said as she picked up two of the children. "Everyone follow us!" She turned back to Kit, "So, what about the one with the limp blonde hair? He taken too?"
'Great, a Saiyan version of Niko, just what Earth needs.' Kit thought to herself as she rolled her eyes and lead them toward the galley.
* * *
Ichigo gasped as Blizzard slashed Roshi across the thigh and tore into his skin over his right quadriceps while just missing the main artery.
"How much more of this can you take Saiyan? You're blood cannot flow forever."
Roshi used his Jade Talon attack to slash back at Blizzard shredding more of his armor over his chest before he drove the middle of the three brilliant green energy blades directly through Blizzard's left shoulder.
"More than you can take."
Blizzard's right-cross caught Roshi in the face and sent him reeling.
'Damn it! I feel so useless!' Ichigo screamed to herself as she threw several Star Rippers at Blizzard.
Blizzard saw them coming and attempted to knock Roshi into one of them, but Roshi nimbly spun out of the way as the two scintillating attacks sped off harmlessly.
"You're going to have to do better than..."
Blizzard's tirade was cut off when Ichigo shoved a ki charged foot into his mouth and broke off several of his teeth.
"Aaaahhh!" Ichigo winced as she bent down to pull several of the sharp teeth out of the sole of her boot and bottom of her foot.
Blizzard spit purple-pink blood and a few tooth fragments before he focused on Ichigo. "Annoyin' pess! Noh yo die!" He spat though his inflamed lips as his entire right arm was suddenly surrounded in red-black energy.
Roshi landed on top of Blizzard's horns wrenching the Changeling's head back and flipping him over. "Forget about someone?"
"Rawwww!!! Carrion Beam!!" Blizzard shouted as he redirected his attack at Roshi.
The red-black beam swelled so that it was larger around than Blizzard was tall and shot at Roshi with incredible speed.
"Roshi!"
The beam slammed into Roshi and swelled as it engulfed him.
"HA!!!!" Roshi screamed as a blue orb suddenly burst from within the red-black beam. Roshi slowly pushed Blizzard's attack back with his Kamehameha.
"Plasma Beam!" Ichigo yelled from Blizzard's left. Her brilliant pink-red beam washed over Blizzard slamming into his injured shoulder and forcing him back. The Kamehameha washed past Blizzard, but even so it freed Roshi to launch to Masenkoes, which did slam into Blizzard and knocked him back slightly.
"Pathetic! It takes two of you and you still are not as powerful!" Blizzard mocked as he dove at Roshi again.
Roshi knocked the first punch away, but was caught by surprise as Blizzard's tail snaked around and wrapped around Roshi's neck.
"Struggle monkey. I want to see you struggle before your head pops off like a cork and your blood gushes like freed wine!"
Roshi dug his hands into Blizzard's tail and was slowly starting to work his way free.
Meanwhile Blizzard's hands were free, so he started to grind his knuckles very slowly into Roshi's pecks.
BEEP beep BEEP beep!
"What's this Monkey?" Blizzard asked as he ripped the watch off of Roshi's wrist. "Oh, the watch says your time is up. I think the watch is smarter than you are!"
"Iyyyeee!!!" Ichigo screamed as she shot down and drove two drill beams directly through Blizzard's tail.
In his surprise, Blizzard let up on Roshi's head. Gasping for air, Roshi pulled himself free and kicked Blizzard in the face again, this time managing to catch the Changelings right eye.
Blizzard howled in pain and clutched his eye for a moment.
"Roshi, you have to go."
"No. This isn't over and I'm not leaving until it is."
"But your watch! You're out of time! I don't want you to die again. Not for me. Please! Leave!"
Roshi spun and looked deep into her eyes. The expression was grim and hard. "I made a promise. I'm not leaving till it's done. Besides I gave myself some leeway. We have some time before the point of no escape." Roshi turned back to Blizzard. "That and the fact that that's the second watch I've lost to a Changeling and it pisses me off."
"I will not be so easy to kill Saiyan!" Blizzard screamed moments before launching another attack at Roshi.
Roshi spun away to block the black Masenko-like attack before he closed in to physical combat.
Ichigo blinked as tears came to her eyes. In her mind's eye she remembered... "Roshi, remember your promise. You can't die down there. You're coming back. Mariah's waiting." Kit yelled as Roshi walked through the docking port to get into Snow's ship.
Roshi turned around. "I know Kit. I know. I remember the promise."
The tears that didn't evaporate in her aura froze long before they hit the ground as Ichigo blinked her eyes clear. Recollections of conversations with Kit and Slip, as well as those she had had with Roshi swam before her vision.
Inside her heart of hearts a flame was snuffed, hope died, and a vision for the future shattered and vanished into bitter ash.
'He loves that human girl. Even if we all make it to Earth his future does not include me.'
Ichigo watched as Blizzard caught and slashed into Roshi's left arm. Roshi's gi was shredded and cuts coated his body. Blood seeped and froze coating his gi in a red-pink ice. No matter how much her mind wanted to reject the truth it could not. Roshi was losing.
Ichigo wiped her eyes and then looked down at her the tears that were now evaporating off of her fingers. 'I used to be so proud of my ability not to cry.'
More tears sprang to her eyes as Roshi screamed in pain as Blizzard's tail lashed out and slashed him across the stomach.
'I used to be so proud. I was so very proud. Proud of how little I needed people. Proud of how no one could touch my heart. I was such a fool.' Ichigo thought as she looked in at herself and remembered. "Roshi you taught me how to trust." A gust of wind and snow blocked her view of the fight. "You taught me what it means to open up and live. You showed me joy. Joy that I have not known since my mother's death."
"If I do nothing we will both die." Ichigo whispered to herself as she looked over the windswept snow coated ground above, which they now fought. Slowly a plan formed in her mind. She shivered in the wind as she realized what it would mean.
"Roshi, I'm so sorry." Ichigo whispered as her breath caught in her thought. 'I was such a fool. You saved me. You did more then save me. You gave me something worth living for. You showed me how to believe in heroes. You showed me how to be proud of who I am, not what I am.' Ichigo blinked and began to focus her mind. "And in doing those things, you gave me something that is truly worth dying for.'
Yellow energy began to build and pulse around her as she focused everything she had into herself and her reservoirs of ki. 'I do not want to die.' She thought as she looked back at the fight. 'But to do nothing would be something worse than death. You saved me Roshi. You saved me and you saved my people, so now I can save you. The Universe needs you Roshi. Your life alone makes it better. Your life alone is worth this, for I love you. I love you because you make everything better, with your dorky smile and your happy confidence. You bring out the best in everyone.'
"I love you Roshi. I'm sorry it had to end this way. I'm sorry I never got to tell you I loved you. I'm sorry that I never apologized or even truly thanked you for everything you did." Ichigo sobbed before she wiped her tears away and started to concentrate. 'I'm sorry that this is the only way. But I cannot let you die here.'
Ichigo focused her mind on her task and closed her eyes. The last tears were pushed out and burned away before they even reached halfway down her cheeks as her ki suddenly turned a blueish purple and seemed to collapse into her.
"I love you."
* * *
Roshi gasped as Blizzard tore into his left arm. 'Not this way. I cannot be beaten now. I made a promise and I intend to keep it.' Roshi scolded himself as he thought of the promise he had made to Goku and himself. 'If only I had a little more power. If only I had a little more time.'
"You're only delaying the inevitable monkey. Even if you beat me now you will die in the flames of the sun."
"Not going to die." He smiled as Ichigo began to focus her energy. 'Not with you continuing to forget you have two opponents.' He smirked to himself.
"If you are so sure of that, block this Blizzard! Ka-Me-Ha-Me-HA!!!!"
Roshi almost laughed as Blizzard met his challenge with his Carrion Beam. The red-black beam pushed his Kamehameha back, but did not overwhelm it.
'Common Ichigo!' Roshi thought as he shifted some of his senses over to her.
Something wasn't right. 'What the heck is she...' Roshi's Kamehameha almost died. "ICHIGO NO! Don't do it! That will kill you!!" He screamed just as Ichigo threw everything she had into her renamed Stopper Beam. She now called it a Disruptor. Mostly because of how it had disrupted her nearly as much as those it hit.
The Disruptor was an acrid purple color as it slowly plowed through the air in a way that looked as if it were being pulled rather than pushed towards its target.
It slammed into Blizzard and an inky purple sphere formed. The Carrion beam died almost instantly, as Roshi felt Blizzard seemingly instantaneously revert back to his first form.
Roshi's Kamehameha washed over Blizzard forcing him back.
"AAAAAiiiieeee...ee...e!" Blizzard screamed as he slowly then rapidly disintegrated.
Roshi cut the Kamehameha off when he was certain all that remained of Blizzard was ash.
"Ichigo!" He screamed as he spun to fly towards her.
Ichigo hung in the air with purple energy crackling around her. Her chopped hair flickered black once and then stayed black as she began to tumble toward the ground.
Roshi dove to try to catch her, but she hit the ground and bounced once before he got to her. He scooped her up into his arms and looked into her face. Her eyes were rolled back and dilated.
"Oh Kami no! Ichigo! Wake up! Please wake up!" He said as he slapped her cheeks and then felt her neck for a pulse.
"No pulse! Oh come on you can't die now. Not this way!" He screamed at her as he put her down in the snow and slammed his right fist into her sternum. "Damn it! DAMN IT! You can't die on me now Ichigo!"
'CPR!!! There's still a chance!' His mind screamed at him while his body seemed sluggish and stupid.
Time slowed as Roshi fumbled to act. Though he knew how to perform CPR he had never done it, and did not know how hard to push when he did the chest compressions, or how hard to breathe for that part. He knew he had to do something and do it fast or Ichigo really would die, but he was almost frozen in fear as to how to do any of it. He did not want to hurt her worse.
Finally, he carefully did the chest compressions and then bent down to give her mouth-to-mouth. Here he paused again. Roshi had never kissed anyone on the lips. 'She's going to kill me when she wakes up… Oh what the hell am I thinking if I don't she's never going to wake up!'
Putting his qualms aside, He quickly put that out of his mind and pinched her nose shut while trying to breath in for her. Her lips were cold... cold and dead.
"Damn it Ichigo why? Why did you have to do this? Of all the things you could have done why that attack? Why now?" He screamed at her as he tried the chest compressions again.
'Still no pulse! This wind and snow, she's starting to get cold.' Roshi was starting to panic.
"Not this way! Not now!!" He screamed again before he charged his hands with electricity and tried to shock her heart into beating.
It didn't work.
"No... Not this way. Damn it all! How can you die now? Why, after everything else? Why now?"
Roshi scooped her into his lap and lowered his head so that his forehead rested on hers. Then as the storm blew on and the clouds slowly picked up a red tinge as the reds, oranges, and yellows of Saiya's last sunset grew near, Roshi wept openly.
* * *
Sorry for the long delay.
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