Chapter 4: Fire and Ice
A/N: Hey guys! Just wanted to say hi and say I'm hoping to update this story weekly going forward, give or take… I dunno, a week max. Over the coming weeks, I also might be making some edits to the first couple chapters. Something tells me that there's a lot of work that can be done there. Other than that, keep up the reviews and thoughts! Nothing has motivated me more to write than a few short lines of encouragement in the reviews. With that, on to the chapter!
Taking on two more members to the party didn't prove to be as burdensome as Bulma had thought. She had made sure well before setting off to supply herself with copious amounts of food and supplies, prepared for the possibility of a very long quest. Two more mouths meant she had to sacrifice, according to her calculations, five years of provisions in food, and money to buy food. Still, that left them with about five years.
Then again, she mused, that's not totally accurate. Worst comes to worse I could always return to West City, stock up again... She scowled. No. I made a pledge to myself and my parents I would do this on my own, difficulties be damned. Bulma remembered fondly the day she left. For all the distance she felt between herself and her parents, no doubt influenced by all the time she spent alone or with a caretaker in her childhood, on that parting day her parents left no doubt as to what they felt about her. Her wet shirt was a testament to that.
I wonder what they'd think about my current predicament... sitting in a fold-out chair, facing a burning fire, Bulma scanned the faces of her three companions surrounding the fire. She noted Krillin's distant look, speaking of the far-off place his mind currently resided. A strange person, him. He showed some serious potential for... I guess hitting other people? In that last fight. I get the feeling, though, his own lack of self-confidence holds him back from seeing that.
Bulma moved her eyes to the figure to the right of Krillin and across from Bulma in the circle, Puar. I know I shouldn't be thinking this, but a part of me wants to dig around in that cat's brain and figure out how exactly she shapeshifts. Is it a mental change on the body? Does the actual physical composition of the body change? Hmm... I wonder if my dad would feel the same invasive curiosity...
Finally, she glanced over at the figure to her left, Yamcha. To find his eyes staring right back at her. Casually, he quickly flitted his eyes across to the left, now looking at some dark object in the background. Don't wanna know what my parents would say about that... Can't deny he's kind of cute, though.
This would probably be the last night she'd be able to observe her companions so easily. The dragonball radar blip they were heading towards was taking them higher and higher in elevation, temperature dropping as a result. At this rate they were probably a few days away, max; in the distance, she could see distant snow-capped mountains. Lucky for me - and not for them - I prepped for winter conditions. It was probably too cold for them to be huddling around the fire out in the open even tonight - Krillin made a move to draw himself closer to the flames, rubbing his hands as he did.
All-in-all, they were a strange crew, characterized by long bouts of silence and even longer ones of brooding. Bulma noted that in particular, Krillin and Yamcha had let some former animosity creep into their relationship after Yamcha made an emphatic pledge towards the team. They would both move to opposite ends of camp once they had settled down for the day, and stubbornly pursue individual training. Bulma had a sneaking suspicion that neither was happy with the ending of their last fight and wanted to settle the score somehow. Bulma couldn't help but scoff. Typical. Men and their fragile egos.
All Bulma could hope for was that they settled their problems soon, preferably before they got to the next dragonball. For my sake, and for theirs.
0o0o0
It had been two days since her squad had left the ruined village behind and headed west, expecting either to find more destruction or either the monster itself. What they got instead were days of uneventful walking, having to leave the car behind to look for tracks on foot. They found no signs that anyone had come through this area recently. Through those two days, she had carried the child in her arms, now clothed in the scraps of clothing she could scrounge from her soldiers, who remained unconscious throughout the trek. He still ate food and drank water when given to him, but so far she hadn't seen a single sign of awareness from the kid. She hoped she wasn't carrying him far from his village so he could die far from any place he had known in life.
A finger tapped her shoulder. "Lieutenant Rayne?"
Facing forward and thus her face invisible to the soldier behind her, she twisted her mouth in quiet indignation. The worst thing to come of this has been the eroding professionalism of these idiots. Not moving to turn her head, she asked, "What is it?"
"If you don't mind me asking, is there any reason we're still out here, walking east towards more villages? As far as we can tell, no one had passed through this area in the past few days. This forest looks as undisturbed as any you'd find in the world. At a certain point do we just, you know, give up?
Fearing she lacked the ability to disguise the emotion in her voice, Rayne simply said nothing and quickened her pace.
It always, ALWAYS came back to how I appear to these people. Why is a fourteen-year-old girl leading a squad of twenty-somethings soldiers? Why doesn't she use a gun? Why why why? There's a good damn reason. I'm a survivor. My superiors know that if all hell breaks loose, I would still find a way to manage it and get back to them in one piece. I know that I can do a lot more damage with my hands and feet than with a cumbersome gun. They should know that day in, day out, I act like I belong here, more than them, and make them work for my respect. I don't give a damn about what they think and what they believe. All I need from them is their ability to follow orders, and to trust that I'm not looking to get everyone killed, including myself. They should know better, they should -
Another finger tapped on her shoulder, interrupting her needed mental catharsis. On the edge of an outright explosion, she snapped her head back, looking to see who dared to challenge her this time. To her surprise, all four were stopped, staring at her. It was only then did she notice the slight stirring in her arms.
The kid proved to be a voracious eater when awake but still as silent as ever. Rayne tried to get an answer to any one of her questions every time she held up an item of food, but the kid's sad eyes quickly killed her resolve and she relented to let the kid eat as much as he wanted. I shouldn't be too tough with the kid. He might not even know what happened to his village…
After what felt like hours, the kid finally seemed to reach his limit, weakly pushing away an empty package of rations and burping loudly. Rayne crouched there, staring at him, waiting for any sort of word or gesture, but there was nothing. The kid blankly stared back. Is this kid mute? Would be my luck… She paused to consider whether they should take him back to the village, perhaps getting him to communicate in the process, but she shook her head. No, if anything that'd only traumatize the kid more. Besides, we can't spare the time to backtrack and drop him off.
"Well," she began, not expecting a response from the kid but informing him nonetheless, "you're with a group of soldiers going west. We're tracking down a monster that's been ravaging the countryside. We found you unconscious, alone, so we took you and took care of you the past two days."
Surprisingly, the kid didn't respond except for a slight grin.
This is one creepy kid.
"What does that grin mean?"
Startled, the kid immediately withdrew the smile, resuming his earlier look of absent-mindedness.
Did the kid not know he was smiling? Okay, this is freaking me out. The next village we find we drop him off and forget he exists.
Throughout this one-sided exchange Rayne's second Pako was standing nearby, watching the two with wary eyes. Rayne stood and walked over to him, while doing so conveying the smallest of gestures to him. The meaning was clear enough. Rayne started off again into the forest, her troops falling in behind her. For a few seconds the kid hesitated, watching them move away, then got up and followed the trail set by the group.
0o0o0
Driving had taken the better part of the day. In the space of a few hours they had arrived at mountain roads, significantly slowing down their earlier pace through the surrounding lowlands. A low mist hung over the mountain, making visibility a nightmare for Bulma, impeding her driving skills even more. Her companions were annoyingly silent, making the experience excruciating and lonely. It was under these conditions when she suddenly noticed something on the radar.
"Woah!" Bulma abruptly hit the brake, lurching everyone forward slightly out of their seats. "Look at the radar, see where the blip is?"
Everyone in the jeep huddled around the radar; according to it, the dragonball was directly on top of them.
"So we ran it over then? I don't remember any bumps in the road", Krillin asked half-serious, half-sarcastic.
"No, if anything it'd be above us. See how the blip is very slightly 3-d? The radar can give a very slight graphical indication if the dragonball is above and below us. Right now it's indicating it's above us. And above us is…" she turned her head skywards. "...Oh."
Above and to the side of the jeep was a gigantic rock wall, strewn with pocks and cracks, towering easily over any bit of the mountains near them they'd seen in the past day. It was practically vertical; combined with the ice trapped at spots, there was no way anyone was going to climb up this way anytime soon.
Which was the exact thought that went through her head as she saw both Krillin and Yamcha run up to the wall and jump up on it, free-climbing.
Bulma's jaw almost separated from her skull while dropping. As she was sucking up wind to go ballistic on the two of them for doing something so dumb and dangerous, a paw patted her on the shoulder.
"Bulma, tell me", Puar asked, "what has been the greatest annoyance for you and me over these past few days?
She narrowed her eyes at the two climbing figures. "Those two and their animosity, for sure."
"Right. So what do you think they're doing right now as they haphazardly climb up a mountain."
"Settling their differences, if I had to guess. Competing earnestly to settle who won the fight the other day."
Puar paused for a second. "They're very stupid. Look further up the rock side."
Bulma squinted to the rock near the top, which was hard to see through the heavy mist blanketing the area. What she could make out was a perilous-looking ledge that to Bulma appeared to be... moving. "The stone!... the stone is gonna!..."
Puar didn't respond to Bulma's quiet, worried mumbling. Yamcha, she thought, you should know better…
Flashes of anger and respect were pulsing through Yamcha's mind. Every couple feet the bandit looked down the rock face to confirm Krillin was still right behind him. Every time without fail, he was, which pushed Yamcha even more to speed up his pace. Bits of rock and ice sprung from the rock face in the wake of moving hands and feet, yet Yamcha would rather die than give up. This was, above all else, a perfect chance for him to express his anger at Krillin. Anger that the monk had shut himself out to the rest of the team emotionally and intellectually, content to sit and ruminate in anger. From the small bits and pieces he'd learned about Kakarot, the person who'd killed Master Roshi - and guessing that the lack of information betrayed an ever-present fear - Yamcha knew that without everyone pooling together their skills, they stood no chance on taking this kid head on.
That was the whole idea, wasn't it? That I would join and undertake this great quest and we'd actually help each other. We would share our martial arts skill and techniques, to right a great wrong in the world? If I wanted to be useless to the greater good…. Krillin, you could have just spared me the trouble and left me in the desert to throw my life away in a slightly more satisfying way. And then there's her -
Yamcha abruptly stopped climbing.
No time to think about that right now. Right hand reached for a jutting rock and his right leg followed suit. One thing in front of me. Expressing my anger. Beating Krillin. Humbling him and his selfishness, changing his ways.
Then again, why do I get so angry when I see him gaining?
Krillin's mind was a frenzied storm as he wisely followed the proven path set by Yamcha above him. There was a simple reason he chose not to pursue another route up the rock side to get out in front of the former bandit; Krillin had no confidence in his ability to carve out a safe path up. To be honest, he was terrified. He had never done something as stupid as this, not to mention in the process egging on someone else to do the dangerous thing with him. Krillin had to ignore his mind's incessant prodding to look down and see how high he was.
He truly, desperately, wanted to stop, but the indignation Krillin saw on Yamcha's face every time he looked down at Krillin was proving to be more satisfying than anything else he'd experienced on this trip. And so, inch by inch, from one grip to the next, Krillin dutifully chased Yamcha up the mountain.
It took a few minutes for the two to approach the top of the rock face; by this point burning competitiveness had burned down to its last coals, exertion taking its toll, significantly slowing them. Near the top, the rock also became more treacherous, ice now forming whole parts of the wall and making even a simple mistake potentially deadly. The mist still clung to the air, making visibility beyond a couple of feet dubious at best. Yet, one outline slowly appeared before Yamcha's eyes.
A ledge. Even if the dragonball isn't there I can rest and try to recover my strength for any more climbing. Yamcha dipped into his last reserves of strength, speeding up ever so slightly, maneuvering his body to grip onto a small, jutting slab of rock. Hand firmly clasped, Yamcha began applying his weight to the rock while pushing up with his legs.
When the ledge shuttered, then totally came free from the wall along with Yamcha's skittering hand. He instinctively and instantly viciously clenched his left hand, grasping air. His hand had been pulled away from the hold it was on and was mere inches from it. Oh. Control and balance melting away, Yamcha fell backward, feet meekly slipping from their step-stones and separating the bandit fully from the rock face. His vision, before he closed his eyes, rapidly filled with gray, condensed mist.
A split second later, Yamcha felt a violent tug, almost as if he was a puppet and his string had just been yanked on. He opened his eyes and stared upwards, to find a hand clasped iron-tight to his wrist. Beyond it was a monk's shaved head, eyes closed and teeth clenched, almost unintelligible sounds grinding out the words 'GRAB NOW'. Yamcha very quickly used his dangling left arm and reached for the rock face, his hand and feet finding purchase in the rock. As soon as he did so, Krillin released his grip, Yamcha thrusting his right hand to a small crevice to his right. He was safe.
Yamcha thought to say something, anything, to the person who had just saved his life, but looking up he noticed Krillin had resumed climbing once more. It was then when he understood. Message received, Yamcha poured his concentration into climbing, following Krillin as best and safely as he could.
In this state, he noted passing by the spot where he had fallen. He noticed avoiding the section of the wall where the ledge had fallen out. And it was in this state he finally gripped a tangible ledge, pulling himself up with a friendly hand grasped to his own, until finally standing in an endearingly small cave.
In a bird's nest five feet into it, there lied the dragonball, enveloped by bird eggs Yamcha couldn't quite recognize. Krillin strode over to it and delicately removed the dragonball from the nest, revealing its five colored stars to the light for the first time. It was in this moment the bandit finally found the courage to speak.
"Krillin, I-"
"No need."
"But I-"
"Like I said, no need." He turned, revealing to Yamcha a happy smile, one born not of self-satisfaction but altruism. "In that moment where I saw you reach for that ledge, the one that from the ground I was dreading to pass by, I realized something. Both of us, by not being forthcoming and committed to what we're doing, we're endangering not only ourselves but everyone around us. If I had had the right priorities at the base of this cliff, I would have immediately told you about the ledge to make sure you didn't try to climb it. Instead, I got satisfaction from your frustration as I followed you up.."
Krillin paused. "I want to press the reset button. I think that both of us can agree we can do better. This cliff face is a monument to not only our own individual strengths but also to our potential if we work together." Unceremoniously, Krillin held out the dragonball to Yamcha. The bandit's eyes glinted - Krillin had a sneaking suspicion he saw tears - and he gratefully accepted the orb from Krillin.
"Let's start again. If not for us then for the team and our quest." He smiled. "Krillin, I do have one question though."
"Yes?"
"Will sentimentality get us down from here?"
0o0o0
Yamcha's question had brought genuine laughter and terror to the two, until they noticed that, remarkably there was a rope and some stakes in the far corner of the cave. Old, frayed at points, and discolored, nonetheless the rope was in usable condition and after securing to a jutting section of rock in the corner of the cave, it was a matter of minutes before the two returned to the ground where Bulma, Puar, and the car remained. They owed their lives to some forgetful climber - or at least the best guess as to who could have left rope - who had decided to climb this rock side of the twenty other ones nearby. To say they felt blessed was an understatement.
After some revelry and furious beratement from Bulma, the four finally settled down to a meal to celebrate their achievement of finding their third dragonball. It was during this impromptu event when Krillin decided to broach some thoughts he'd had since the fight. "Yamcha, can I ask you something?"
Face full of celebratory food, he could only manage a muffled "Huh?" in response to the former monk's question
"Back in our fight in the desert, you did something I've only seen a few times before. You… glowed. You flared your aura and thus your ki, which is what your aura is made out of. As far as I know, I've only seen ki used by the masters of my temple and it is incredibly hard to master. If you don't mind me asking, how did you learn it?"
The former bandit swallowed his food, pausing to think for a second. "I'll be honest, I never really learned it. I assume that you noticed that it was only with that one move I was able to use ki in our fight. I didn't even really have a name for that… stuff... before you told me just now. I can't give you any other answers except I seemed to know the Wolf Fang Fist, and the way to use ki with it, for as long as I could remember. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is ki? You said it was aura? What's that?"
Krillin furrowed his brows. "It's… kind of hard to explain. Hmm… He raised his head and stretched both his palms out in front of Yamcha. "Think of it as a fusion between two things. On one hand" he said flexing his left hand, "we have life energy. This is the stuff that lets us live, that we produce and use, and die from a lack of. There is life energy in every living being, allowing them to live the lives that they do. On the other hand, " now focusing on his right hand, "we have will. If you had all the life energy of the world contained in a single body, it couldn't be utilized in any way unless the will is there to express it. Think of it as a nozzle for a hose, where depending on how strong it is, it can bend life energy as strong as weak as it likes, in as many shapes and forms.
"I'm sorry", Puar cut in, "I don't quite get it. Though it may be because I'm not a fighter."
Yamcha laughed. "I'm as lost as you are, Puar, don't worry. Explain it another way, Krillin."
Krillin scratched his bald, shaved head. "Uh… let me think..."
He snapped his fingers. "Let's say you own a house."
"We own a house…" Yamcha muttered under his breath.
Ignoring Yamcha's quiet comment, Krillin pressed on. "Let's also say that you two don't like the look of the house, so you decide to paint it a different color. You find that the previous owner left a lot of paint in the color you wanted to use, so you drag out those gallons from the garage and open them up. However, you realize that to paint, you're going to need some tools to do it; you can't just dip your hand into the bucket and smear it on the wall. You get lucky again and you find that the previous owner also left some painting gear, like brushes and tarps. Now, fully armed with supplies, you both can finally start painting your house to the color you wanted. Understand, however, that only having one of those two things needed to paint would have been useless; without a brush, you couldn't put paint on the walls, and without paint, the brushes would have nothing be used with. It is only through the presence of both, and both being expressed at the same time, do we see any sort of change come about."
"I think I understand what you're saying," Yamcha responded, "although I'm still unclear what exactly 'life energy' and 'will' is.
"To be honest, I'm not one hundred percent certain myself. I don't think I got far enough in my education at the temple to learn that…" Krillin hung his head, failing in his knowledge for the first time in the conversation.
"Hey, cheer up bud!" Yamcha patted a hand on Krillin's shoulder. "We know at the very least that my Wolf Fang Fist uses ki! We just need to study it and unravel its secrets so we can both start using what powers it at will."
Bulma snorted. "Yea, if you two actually train and work together, who knows? Maybe you'll grow strong enough to fly and blow up the planet."
Yamcha's face left no doubt as to how playfully hurt he felt by the remark. Then, in a handful of seconds, the campfire was surrounded by relaxed, cheerful laughter, all four entertaining the possibility of Bulma's comment. Flying around and destroying worlds? They'd make horrible superheroes.
0o0o0
Lieutenant Rayne was unsurprised when the boy vanished one night, taking some supplies and the clothes on his back as she and her squad slept. She couldn't blame him. Wherever they were headed, it was obvious that she and her soldiers either chased death or confirmed it. Either way, there wasn't much happiness or normality to be found in their duty.
Which made it even more surprising when, on the outskirts of a small village they had assumed the next attack would be, they found the boy standing in their path. In the time since she had seen him last, he'd found a backpack and another set of clothes. In his eyes, she saw nothing of the detachment and distance she saw before. Instead, it was much more… disconcerting.
She signaled to her men to stop, ten paces away from the kid, still standing in the middle of the path to the village.
Abruptly, the kid started talking. "I'll be honest. I used you. I used all of you."
Rayne wasn't expecting those words from the kid. Perturbed, she replied, "Oh? Used us? How so?"
"I'm surprised that, for soldiers so focused on the task of finding out what was destroying villages, you didn't think twice of the presence of a child, of all people, surviving so much death..."
Rayne paled. She heard her soldiers reflexively draw their weapons. Oh no, no no no no no… "I… but… you were unconscious for days… I carried you from that ruined place-", she stopped short, feeling terror creeping into her voice.
"I wasn't really unconscious. More like just resting with my eyes closed, still aware of the comings and goings around me. I observed all of you." A sick grin crawled onto the boy's face. "And you're all weaker than I could imagine."
Rayne took an involuntary step back. I need to run, I need to-
It was at the moment, and sadly not for the first time in Rayne's life, that all hell broke loose.
