Endgame
Chapter 39: Know Thy Enemy
For the better part of the day Raditz has been content to watch Kakarot go about his daily routine. He had initially reacted to his brother's actions with mild interest- in his entire time as a soldier, Raditz had never seen how a civilian had lived. He was accustomed to stealing, threatening, or killing for food. Kakarot gathered or caught food from the land around him. Raditz would commandeer his victims' houses to sleep in when needed. Kakarot, in his own way, had built his home. Raditz took what he wanted, when he wanted. Kakarot took nothing more than he needed. In every circumstance where Raditz's initial impulse would have been to use violence, Kakarot had used less forceful measures.
The association he had formed with his brother disgusted him. Civilian. What has he become?
At a certain point, his confusion became too great to not express it. 'I don't understand…' Raditz said to Kakarot when he had returned from his hunt. 'Why are you out here?'
Kakarot threw the deer carcass off his shoulder and against a spit. 'Because… I am. I can't really tell you anything more than that.' He plunged a hand into the deer, yanking away a chunk of meat and placing it on the spit. The fire sparked into life soon after.
Raditz hesitated for a moment, then asked, 'Do you remember why you were sent to this planet? Do you remember anything at all?'
Checking that the fire was at a good heat, Kakarot leaned back and sat on the ground. 'No. I just felt a constant urge to destroy, kill. So I killed a lot. And that's how I acted for a few years. Going from place to place, decimating villages, looking for a challenge.'
'And?'
'I found a challenge I couldn't beat.' Kakarot's eyes locked with Raditz's. 'Turns out, I'm not the strongest person on this planet. Not by far. And most of the stronger people would kill me if they were given the chance. So I've been here for a few years now.'
Raditz's face hardened with an air of consideration- he turned and twisted his gaze to the ground. 'So… you're hiding? Were you waiting for something? Were you waiting for me?'
Kakarot's eyes briefly flicked to the side. 'No,' he said, returning his gaze to Raditz. 'I've just been… here. By myself.' His eyes jumped away again. 'No-one else.'
The older brother thought on this for a moment, taking the opportunity to sit next to the fire as well. 'I don't understand.' Raditz said. 'You are a Saiyan, you should-'
'I don't know what your upbringing was like,' Kakarot said, looking through Raditz, 'but I imagine it was very different from my own. You don't understand who I am, what I've been through. I've had my bones broken, my skin splintered,' he stated, rising. Once standing, Kakarot removed his shirt, revealing the startling amount of scars crisscrossing his body. 'Every bit of my body has felt pain- insufferable pain. I have killed both the defenseless and the defended, wiped towns off the map, and for what?' He gestured to his body. 'For these living reminders of my struggle? For the cave I call a home? For the planet I've purged of all my enemies?' He said bitterly. 'This valley and the few possessions I own is all I have to show for over twenty years of struggle.' Kakarot let a look of disgust flout across his face before sitting again. 'Fighting had gotten me nowhere. That is why I am here- because I'm too cowardly to do anything else. If you can't accept or understand that, then you should leave.'
Kakarot's last statement echoed into the woods around them, fluttering across the valley like a gentle wind. Frankly, Raditz was floored by his brother's words. Even that brief disclosure of self-doubt and vulnerability was more than he had ever heard expressed by all the other Saiyans he had known in his life combined. He may look like father, but the similarity ends there… what has this planet done to you, Kakarot?
Abruptly, Kakarot stood again and put back on his shirt. 'This food is yours,' Kakarot huffed, pointing to the deer carcass laid near them. 'I'll get my own.' Flustered, he dove back into the forest.
Raditz was left to his thoughts.
0o0o0
For a stretch of his not-quite-conscious-unconsciousness, all Krillin could experience was an incessant sensation of movement across his face. It was maddening- it was the most rote, unidimensional sensation he had ever felt in his life. After what felt like forever, the haze around him lifted- he felt his eyelids creep open.
Bulma stood over him, staring down intently. 'Yajirobe,' she said, chewing on her lip in concern, you can stop,'
Yajirobe grunted out-of-sight. The weird, continual sensation Krillin had felt ceased. He tried moving his mouth for a few seconds- it felt very numb. 'Bulma?' He eventually managed.
'Crap…' She looked at something behind Krillin's head. 'How much did they give you?'
'Hmeauh?' he mangled back.
Bulma ducked for something to her right. 'You may not like this,' she said with a note of worry, 'but I need to have a conversation with you. And, well, your injuries aren't that bad…'
'Hemealh?' He had the faintest sensation of something touching the right side of his body. Then an excruciating pain bloomed out from his right arm, running across his entire body. In seconds, every part of his him was screaming in agony.
Underneath Yajirobe and Bulma's uncomfortable gazes, Krillin took a full minute to collect his breath to speak. 'I…' he sputtered, 'this is, quite possibly, the worst pain-'
'Yeah, I know,' Bulma said grumpily, 'and the second worst time was when you fought Piccolo and the third worst time was when you fought Piccolo's dad, and the fourth worst-'
'What do you want?' Krillin exhaled before hyperventilating through a few gasps of shock. 'The last thing I remember was… being hit really hard by that guy at the party.'
'Can you focus on what I'm saying?'
Krillin moved his eyes up and down in a nodding motion.
'Alright,' Bulma said, calming herself down. 'Here's the situation. Piccolo is here and wants to ally with us against our party crasher. Yes or no?'
'Huh?'
'Do we ally with him?'
'This is a lot to jump on me at once, Bulma,' Krillin groaned as another flash of pain hit him. 'Are you telling me Piccolo wants to help us?'
'That is what I'm saying, yes.'
Krillin was silent for a span of time; his eyes drifted up to the ceiling. 'Have you talked to anyone else?' He asked.
Bulma shook her head. 'You're the first to wake up- err, the first we consciously tried to wake. Everyone else is still asleep.'
'So everyone is okay?' Krillin asked weakly. 'I- I just remembered-'
'Yes,' Bulma assured him, 'everyone is fine.'
Krillin went quiet again. 'What's the point in even considering Piccolo's offer?' He asked after another stretch of time. 'If everyone else is in as bad as shape as me, then none of us are fighting anytime soon…'
'Actually,' Yajirobe but in, 'I've got good news and bad news about that. Good news is that I've gotten some senzu beans from Korin. Bad news is that I've only got… four…' Yajirobe pouted.
'And we have six people bedridden right now,' Bulma finished for him. 'So, at some point, we'll have to figure out who to give those out to…'
Krillin momentarily clenched his teeth from the pain. 'Me, Tien, Yamcha, Launch,' he said quickly before groaning again. 'We're the strongest of the four. Give the beans to us.'
'You sure-'
'Yes!' Krillin exclaimed. 'Or at least give me one or drug me back to sleep!'
Bulma exchanged a look with Yajirobe; he untied the bag's opening, pulled out a single bean, and popped it into Krillin's mouth. With some effort, Krillin chewed and swallowed it.
The next instant, he jumped out of bed and snatched the bag of senzu beans from Yajirobe. 'Ridiculous. And one more thing,' he said as he pulled his glare from Yajirobe to Bulma. 'How long have I been out?'
'No more than half a day,' Bulma answered.
'Alright… I need to think…' Scratching his head, Krillin walked away.
'Told ya you shouldn't have held off on using the senzus,' Yajirobe whispered to Bulma.
'Oh, shut up.'
0o0o0
Walking through his home, the Ox-King ran his hands across the ancient wooden and stone walls. As the story goes, the castle atop of Fire Mountain was built and lived in by a powerful clan of giants long ago. With an iron fist, they ruled over the small village at the base of the mountain and the lands around it, forcing the people underneath their thumbs to toil the land for them. It was only after that the villagers rose up, led by a hero whose name was lost to time, did they rebel against their giant overlords and storm the castle. It is said that the entire clan of giants was slaughtered in one night. For this reason, the Ox-King had never told his daughter Chi-Chi this story.
Why am I thinking about this right now?... He fretted as he continued his trek through the castle. Perhaps it was the huge size of the rooms and halls- he imagined that only a group of people as big as him would have built a castle with such ridiculously huge proportions. He always did find it funny that the village at the base of the mountain had crowned him "King" simply because he appeared to be a giant moving back into his home. In reality, he wasn't even from around here and was looking for a place to hide-out. Funny how things can work out.
Ahh, but that was a long time ago now. He entered into a smaller, straight corridor with a number of doors on its left side. As he walked down the hallway's length, he had to bend his head down to avoid bumping into the ceiling.
Several feet down the hall, he came to an unremarkable door and opened it. Half-expecting to see Chi-Chi inside Gohan's room he was a bit surprised when he saw no-one was inside. It's been a few hours… she should have checked up on Gohan in that time.
He moved towards the crib in the far corner- the crib was empty. Gohan was gone.
It took him only a moment for him to realize what had happened; it was as simple as accepting a nagging fear he had pushed to the back of his mind as true. He didn't feel betrayed- he was just afraid. Chi-Chi, please be careful...
0o0o0
Krillin dreaded the last room he had to enter, but he had checked in with every person he had remembered being at the party so far- there was no getting out of this. Bracing himself, he pushed through the doorway.
Rayne was sitting up in her hospital bed, peering out of the window to her right that overlooked the Capsule Corp. gardens. When he entered, she swung her head to him, a weak smile crossing her face. 'Krillin.'
'Hi,' he said warmly, as he came to her side and sat down on the foot of her bed. 'How's the old flesh prison holding up?'
She frowned at him and rolled her eyes. 'You know I hate that joke. But... my body could be worse. A few broken ribs, a fracture in the right forearm, but judging from what Bulma told me earlier, I got away better than everyone else. I- wait.' Rayne looked up and down Krillin again. 'Shouldn't you be bedridden like me?'
Krillin flashed her a sly smile. 'Senzu beans; they do wonders, huh?
'Ah. Any for me?'
'Err… we're out.'
'Oh.' She sunk a bit deeper into her bed. 'I see.'
'We only had four,' Krillin explained, 'and we had to give them to the strongest among us. Because- well-'
'I know,' Rayne glared at him, 'you, Tien, Yamcha, and Launch need to track down that guy who attacked us. I can sense ki too, you know.'
'You're not mad?'
'Krillin,' Rayne spoke directly, 'you know me better than anyone else. If you were about to jump into a darkened pit lined with spikes because you thought it was necessary, I would be right at your side falling to the bottom.' She briefly glanced out to the garden, then back at him. 'But those three are the strongest. And, more importantly, they'll keep you alive. As long as they do that, they'll be doing my job for me.'
'Hmm,' Krillin vocalized with a smile.
Despite his facial expression, Rayne sensed there was something Krillin wasn't saying. 'Are you okay?' she asked, bunching her eyebrows in concern.
Krillin's smile faded, replaced with an expressionless, emotionless visage of worry. 'I'm… scared,' Krillin admitted. 'Rayne, he was… incredibly powerful. I can't put it into words. I honestly don't know if we can beat him…'
'Hey, I sensed him too, remember?' Rayne comforted him. 'He didn't feel that tough.'
Krillin shot her a look. Rayne decided to switch tactics. 'I bet that was his full strength,' she hypothesized, 'considering that he was barely hiding his power beforehand. Did you notice that? He was continually bleeding ki into the air around him.'
'Yeah… actually…' Krillin screwed his face in thought. 'That makes sense. He never really tried to hide his power, even before powering up. It was just… there.'
'Use that to your advantage,' Rayne advised, '...somehow. I'm not really sure on the "how". At least you know what you're getting into though, right?'
Krillin nodded and smiled. 'Right. I'll figure it out.' They met each other's' gaze- they locked hands a few seconds later.
'Be safe,' she said, forcing her voice to be steady.
'As best I can.'
'That's not reassuring.'
'I promise to try.'
'Try again.'
'I'll save the world.'
'Better.'
0o0o0
'So, that's that?' Launch asked as Krillin emerged from Rayne's room; the former monk's face was a bit downcast. 'Filled her in on the details?'
'More or less,' Krillin replied, looking between Tien, Yamcha, and Launch. Every one of them was stretching, testing the newly regained strength and mobility. 'So… we need to talk about Piccolo now.'
'I don't trust him,' Tien said bluntly while crossing his arms. 'His father tried to kill us. He would have killed us if he had the energy to at the 23rd World Tournament. Can we actually trust someone like that?'
'...Yes, actually,' Yamcha spoke up. 'He may have been our enemy at the tournament, but I don't think he actually hates us… or, at least, he doesn't actively despise us. There's a big difference between that and whatever weird opinion Kakarot had of us… way back then.'
'Kakarot never struck me as consciously evil though,' Launch commented. 'What he did seemed more like "first intuition" type of stuff. Piccolo, on the other hand, said some pretty nasty stuff back at the tournament. Outwardly, he certainly resembles his father.'
'I think Piccolo can respect us as fighters,' Yamcha said, more forcefully than before. 'That's certainly a start for an alliance.'
'How'd you figure that?' Launch asked.
'He… complimented my fighting skills as a human at the 23rd World Tournament.'
Tien pinched his nose. 'You cannot be serious…'
'I don't think it's important whether or not we trust Piccolo. I think it's more important to decide whether we can trust his offer.' Krillin interjected, trying to get everyone's attention. 'Are there any reasons to trust his offer?'
'I doubt it,' Tien said dryly. 'Could be that he wants us to take the brunt of the fighting so he can finish both that guy and us in one go.'
'Let's consider the worst case scenario,' Yamcha argued, 'Let's say that Piccolo doesn't trust us at all, and that he's planning to betray us after the fight. Can we deal with that?'
'Hard to say. It depends how banged up we are after the fight,' Krillin said.
'Hey,' Launch chimed in, 'maybe we should probably consider whether we need to defeat our uninvited guest at all. Could be the case that we're starting a fight we don't need to.' Everyone gave her a look. 'What?' she defended herself. 'Just because he attacked us doesn't mean he's going to be a major threat or anything.'
'Launch,' Tien said slowly, 'would you really be okay letting someone like that roam around unchallenged? With as much power as he has?'
She frowned. 'I was… just throwing it out there,' she said, sighing. 'I certainly don't like the idea of facing off against him now knowing about his ridiculous strength.'
'I don't think any of us likes it,' Krillin said for the rest of them, reading the uneasy expressions on his friends' faces, 'but… we have to. If we don't, who will?'
No-one could deny Krillin's statement. No-one particularly liked it, though.
'I don't like to talk chances,' Yamcha said, 'but, probabilistically, what do you think the chances are that we can beat that guy with just the four of us, without Piccolo?'
'...not high,' Tien admitted.
'So it sounds like we really don't have any other options,' Launch said bitterly. 'We have to take Piccolo's offer whether we want to or not.'
'Should we try to gather the dragonballs?' Yamcha asked, brightening up at his own suggestion. 'Yeah, actually, we can wish for the guy to disappear or not even exist in the first place! Problem solved!'
Krillin thought on this. 'No,' he said after a few seconds, 'I don't think that's possible. The dragonballs are linked to Kami.'
'Wait a second,' Launch groaned, 'what does that have to do with anything? And I thought the dragonballs were linked to Piccolo.'
'They are. Piccolo and Kami were once one person,' Krillin explained.
'Confusing, but that still doesn't explain why them being linked to Kami is a bad thing.'
'The dragonballs have limitations placed on them- they can do nothing Kami cannot do. That includes matters of strength.'
'What,' Yamcha scoffed, 'are you saying the guy who clocked us is stronger than literal God?'
Krillin's look said it all. Yamcha went as white as a sheet. 'Oh,' he said.'Well, surely there are other things we can use the dragonballs for,' Yamcha stressed. 'They might not be strong enough to affect Raditz, but maybe we can use them to boost our own strength?'
'Maybe. I'm skeptical.'
'Why?'
'Because I don't think we have the time to gather the dragonballs or do anything else time-consuming,' Krillin professed. 'I have a feeling in my gut that we're going to have to move sooner rather than later. Otherwise, I would say that we should train with Kami at the Lookout- but, as it is, I don't think we have the time.'
'So,' Launch enumerated for everyone's convenience, 'if we have to move soon, we can't use the dragonballs and we can't train at the Lookout. Then the question becomes… do we trust Piccolo to fight with us as long as we have a common enemy?'
'If the enemy is stronger? Then yeah, I do,' Yamcha voiced his thoughts. 'He wants to be ruler of the world, or some garbage like that, right? Well, he can't be that while that other, stronger guy is around.'
'I trust him to that extent,' Krillin said. 'I think he's reasonably pragmatic.'
'Tien?' Launch turned towards the Crane fighter. 'What about you?'
Tien held his gaze down at the ground. 'I don't like any part of it,' he expressed, 'but I don't see any other way to win the coming fight without him.' He looked at everyone else. 'I'm in.'
'Alright, I'm in too, then,' Launch said. 'Let's roll the dice with Piccolo.'
0o0o0
Storms. So many storms. Like a ship streaking through a storm of asteroids, Kakarot felt an immeasurable sense of claustrophobia. Light and shapes bounced off his environment at weird angles, creating an illusion of what ought to be real. Familiar faces twisted and warped, detached and reattached to heads, and ultimately swirled and merged into one overwhelming globule. Tangled beyond salvaging, this mass approached him from above, shrinking and expanding at weird, horrifying angles-
Kakarot found himself in a shack. The walls oozed and dripped with rot- the air stunk of someone long dead. Taking one tentative step forward, he swung his head to-and-fro looking- looking for something-
A specter coalesced into a single entity before him, black and colored and like a flower bed hidden by night. Dull eyes regarded him with a tiredness Kakarot had seen once, maybe a hundred times before-
Sound pounded against the walls of the shack, driving the rotten room deeper in. The specter made a sad face at Kakarot, mouthed something, before being crushed and dispersed into the air.
'HAAAH!' Kakarot shot up off the ground, one hand reaching forward into the darkness of the cave beyond.
He realized where he was; he felt the rough fabric of his bedroll beneath him. Kakarot remembered that he had taken an afternoon nap. Carefully, he drew his hand back, inspecting it. He then quickly stood and stomped outside.
Standing inches away from the platform's edge, Raditz watched the valley beyond with his arms crossed and his back to him. He didn't turn to address Kakarot. 'Our conversation earlier has made me consider a number of things. You are not a Saiyan,' Raditz said flatly. 'Your time on this planet has irreversibly changed you; if our homeworld still existed, if the Saiyans still existed- you could never become one of our own.'
Kakarot felt a blunt anxiety grip him- so it was true, wasn't it? I… never could…
'However,' Raditz said, turning to Kakarot. 'Our homeworld is gone. The Saiyans, for all intents and purposes, are gone. As your brother, I do not care about your personality, traits, or tendencies.' He stepped closer to Kakarot. 'Except for one detail.' A heavy finger jabbed into Kakarot's chest. 'You are weak. Your body is weak, and your mind is weak.'
'I…' Kakarot tried to respond, 'I… don't understand.'
'Look around!' Raditz swept one arm across the river valley around them. 'A Saiyan cares nothing for peace, nature, or order, and yet you have surrounded yourself with it! Your mission required you to purge this planet of all sentient life but in twenty years you have done nothing! The people of this planet openly flout their existence! I flew over their cities and their homes- they live as if they have the strength to defend themselves! But they're weak! They're all so weak!' Raditz shouted. 'You have let them continue on in this way, you have let them go on unpunished for their ignorance.'
'I-'
'And the worst thing of all,' Raditz said, darkening his tone, 'was that I had to find you, as if you were hiding like a qoolian,' his nostrils flared after saying the last word. 'Two separate times I approached a power level reading I thought might be you before discovering that you were the fourth or fifth strongest being on this planet. How does that make you feel? To be the weakest by far?' Raditz taunted him.
Kakarot had no response. He purposely avoided Raditz's gaze.
'We are going to leave this planet,' Raditz said, casting another dismissive gaze at the valley beyond. 'You are going to rid yourself of all your possessions- it is clear to me now that this planet is a sickening influence on you, driving away every natural instinct you should have. The instinct to fight, to kill.' Raditz slammed a fist into the palm of his other hand. 'To be Saiyan is to struggle. This planet has let you be complacent for too long.'
'What if I don't want to go?'
Raditz's eyebrows twitched. For his part. Kakarot did his best to maintain his composure. 'I think you misunderstand,' Raditz said slowly. 'I'm not requesting- I'm demanding. You have no say in the matter.'
Both of them eyed each other for a moment.
When Kakarot inevitably made a move to run off, Raditz moved imperceptibly fast and conked his brother on the head, knocking him out cold. Kakarot's body limply collapsed to the stone ground.
It was only after a few moments of introspective quiet did Raditz glumly shake his head.
0o0o0
'Krillin,' Yamcha spoke from the back of the group, 'you don't have to do this. Anyone of us can speak to him instead of you…'
'I know… but…' Krillin looked back at Tien, Launch, and Yamcha, who were arranged in a crescent behind him. 'I think he'll listen to me more than anyone else.'
'Why?' Tien asked.
'I don't know… I just have a feeling in my gut.'
'Well I have a feeling in my gut that this is a terrible idea,' Launch deadpanned. 'But, regardless…' she patted Krillin on the back. 'If you want it this way, it's all you.'
'I do. Alright…' He turned away from his friends and set off.
Piccolo was cross-legged in a more intimate part of the garden, closely hemmed in by flowering, towering shrubbery to his left and right. When Krillin entered his pseudo-private sanctuary, his opens flicked open. 'You,' Piccolo spoke, his voice triggering a hundred memories for Krillin.
'...Yes, me…' Krillin said somewhat awkwardly. Not wanting to hold a strange height advantage over the demon, Krillin sat opposite of Piccolo. 'I hear you've made an offer to us.'
Piccolo scoffed, twisting his head to the side. 'Is that what that human woman said? She misrepresents me. It was not an offer, nor a request- it was a demand.'
'Oh?' Krillin said, feeling a droplet of sweat roll down his neck. 'How so?'
'I need allies to defeat our common enemy. If I could do so on my own, I wouldn't bother asking you fools for help.'
In a weird way, Krillin characterized that as an implicit recognition of their worth in his eyes. A smile briefly rose on his face before he realized what he was doing and suppressed it. 'We find your terms acceptable,' Krillin announced to the demon. 'We'll fight with you.'
Piccolo's antennae flicked up in surprise. 'Really?' His gaze shifted towards Launch, Tien, and Yamcha. 'Fine. Call them over, then.'
Sometime later, everyone was seated in a similar position to Krillin facing Piccolo. 'Listen closely,' the demon barked. 'The man who attacked you is named Raditz. He's a Saiyan- so of the same race as the other tailed man.'
'You mean Kakarot?' Yamcha spoke up.
'If that is his name, then fine,' Piccolo growled at Yamcha, causing the human to shrink back. 'I suspect that Raditz and by extension Kakarot are originally not of this planet. As far as I know, Kakarot has been here for years, but Raditz has only surfaced in the past day or so. He must have landed recently.'
'How do you know all this?' Launch questioned, taking great pains to keep her gaze towards Piccolo neutral. 'You should be more in the dark about what's going on than us.'
Piccolo snorted. 'Do you think Raditz came to you first? He was seeking out the strongest lifeforms on this planet, thinking that he would find his brother.' A wicked, self-satisfied smile crossed Piccolo's face. 'I saw first-hand how displeased he was when he found me instead.'
Krillin's gaze flickered to his friends- they all look similarly concerned. I guess we should have assumed as much; Piccolo's been training to surpass us these past two years...
'Furthermore,' Piccolo resumed, 'I have access to first-hand knowledge likely already forgotten by your transient human society. I can verify that, many centuries ago, no such person resembling Kakarot or Raditz and of a similar strength existed on the planet. Otherwise, my father would have encountered them. They are decidedly recent inhabitants of this planet.'
'Makes sense,' Tien muttered to himself.
Launch threw a questioning look at Piccolo. 'Why do you assume Kakarot and Raditz are working together? The last time any of us saw Kakarot was almost five years ago, and we haven't heard or seen anything to suggest he's done anything nefarious or evil since then. He may be dead, for all we know.'
'Kakarot still lives,' Piccolo said cryptically, his nose wrinkling at some unseen thought, 'and if he didn't, there would be no reason for why any of you still live.' He glared at them dismissively. 'I suspect Raditz demanded information about his brother before departing, correct?'
'That, and more, yeah…' Yamcha answered, rubbing his shoulder.
'If he wasn't looking for information, he would have killed all of you without a thought,' Piccolo said cooly. 'He made that abundantly clear to me when I encountered him.'
'Good to know…' Krillin said uncomfortably.
'You four and your friends pretend to defend this world when you know so little?' Piccolo berated them. 'This planet is in danger because of your willful ignorance.'
'What do you mean?' Launch asked, hiding a scowl.
'I fully expect that, in the next few days, Raditz and Kakarot will start to methodically destroy this planet.'
A chill went down everyone's spines. 'What?' Launch stammered.
'Kakarot was never a person; he was a weapon, aimed at the wholesale devastation of this planet. His task was to wipe this planet of all life.
'But… how do you know? How do you know for sure?' Krillin asked.
'I saw what Kakarot comes from myself…'
0o0o0
'Where did that coward go!' Piccolo screamed into the woods, scanning for any sign of a black mane or a brown tail. 'He couldn't have gotten far without using any of his energy!' He spun, half-expecting to catch the tailed man sneaking around. His charred cape rippled in the wind, damaged from Kakarot's earlier attack. 'So where is he!?'
The forest mocked him with its uniformity; trees and leaves melded together into one great visage, seeking to hide whatever was beyond the very cusp of Piccolo's vision. Similarly, he found no such luck with his ears- he heard nothing save for the small chirps of birds, caws of animals, and- something metal-
Piccolo swung his attention to a direction to his left. A small opening led further into the forest, silhouetted by a narrow and winding path. Curious, Piccolo set off down it.
After some time he found himself in a clearing with a rough-made wooden structure in the center. Stepping closer, Piccolo's attention fixed on something in the center of the structure. It was an odd thing, round as a perfect sphere and slightly submerged into the ground. A broken but still attached tree branch intermittently banged against its side.
He approached the sphere and stepped closer for a moment. When he laid a hand upon the green, foliage covered surface, he felt the cold warmth of metal just beneath the surface. With both hands, he started to probe the object, until coming to a small lip near the bottom. He tugged- the plant life wrapped around the sphere ripped apart.
In one long, start-and-stop creaking motion, the front third of the sphere swung upwards, fast at first, then slow. Using one ki-lit hand, Piccolo ducked underneath the opening surface and thrust his head and hand inside.
A degraded yet still-intact seat dominated the inside, flanked by broken and shattered screens and displays. The entire set-up was remarkably complex- Piccolo had never seen such an object before.
However, something intact in the center of the ceiling caught Piccolo's eye. A single, circular button was mashed inwards, seemingly broken yet still back-lit by some sort of light. Piccolo raised one hand to the button and tried to press it in an effort to unjam it.
Nothing. He pressed harder this time, using ki to increase his force. Still, the button didn't budge.
Grimacing, Piccolo laid on his back and stuck his other arm into the object. Pushing ki into both his hands, he raised them upwards once more and pressed down on the button with all its force. He strained for a few moments before a creaking, scraping sensation ran down his arms and the button began to incrementally move. One beleaguered second later, and the button fully depressed.
Immediately, a weak projection filled the interior, backtracked by an at first unrecognizable language. The more Piccolo listened, however, the more a few words here and became intelligible to him. Kill, destroy… And in the center of the projection, an image of a planet being eviscerated of all life transformed before Piccolo's very eyes, turning into a barren husk.
0o0o0
'From his ship, I learned all that I needed to know,' Piccolo concluded. 'He was sent here with the one mission to purge this planet. His entire life up until this point has been one long failure in that regard.'
Piccolo's human audience was dumbfounded; they had always known Kakarot to be a dangerous, unhinged individual, but to think that he was given the mission to destroy everything on the planet gave them a new perspective. Krillin especially felt regret over letting the Saiyan slip through his grasp so many times before. But how could I have known the nefarious motive behind every time he fought us?
Piccolo uncharacteristically leaned back for a moment, as if he was stretching in a seated position. 'I have shared what I know so as to improve our chances of victory in the imminent future.' He struggled with speaking for a moment. 'Is there.. anything you want to share?' He asked, feeling wildly ridiculous.
'...If Raditz has a tail, then we should assume that he can do the same thing Kakarot can-' Launch nervously speculated, '-turn into a giant, raging ape with a frightening level of power when the full moon is out, that sort of thing.'
'Hmm?' Piccolo's eyes narrowed. 'Is that so? Of course… it would make sense. When Kakarot fought my father in West City, a full moon was out that night.'
'Right, yeah…'
As they were recounting the details of that night, a single horrid memory shot into Krillin's mind. Last night… last night was!... 'There's going to be a full moon tonight!' Krillin burst out. 'Raditz will be able to transform!'
His words jolted every one of them out of their collective conversation. Piccolo glared at Krillin for a moment. then stood. 'Then we can't waste any more time. We need to find them now, before night falls.'
'You know where they are?' Yamcha asked.
'I'm been tracking Raditz's location.'
'He's moving?'
'Yes. It was difficult to track such a fast-moving entity, in spite of his overflowing strength,' Piccolo informed them. 'But, over the past few hours, he's steadily approached a major city on the eastern side of the planet.'
'Then… they're probably moving on East City,' Tien inferred.
Piccolo swung his gaze over them. 'I am ready to depart. We should go as soon as possible.'
'Right…' Krillin briefly made eye contact with his companions. 'Just give us a few minutes to prepare.'
The demon gave them all a look, but in the end he grunted. 'Fine. Remember that every minute counts.' He turned and moved away from them.
0o0o0
Bulma barely had the time to say goodbye to Krillin, Launch, Tien, and Yamcha before they left. Hell, she had struggled to gather everyone who could still stand outside to wave them off in a timely fashion. She found Yajirobe stuffing his face in an unidentifiable pie before pulling him outside by his ear. The only other person around, Retu, curiously wouldn't leave Suno's bedside. He succinctly and esoterically mentioned to Bulma that he had already said what he had wanted to say to Krillin. Working with the limited mental resources that she had, Bulma wasn't going to try and guess what that meant.
Their farewells were short and noiseless, no doubt influenced by the disdainful look Piccolo cast in their direction in addition to knowing what they were marching towards. A fight that they're not sure they can win. Their silence says it all… Bulma made sure to hug every one of them, even Tien, and lingered for a long time with Yamcha. She was still somewhat mad at him for how he had acted at the party, but… she didn't want to have any regrets. At one point, Yajirobe tried to hand off his samurai blade to any who would take it, but a series of unreceptive faces eventually dissuaded him. Gloomily, he strapped the sword-and-scabbard back to his waist.
A short time later, Piccolo ascended into the air alongside Tien. Yamcha, Krillin, and Launch, who more unsure of how fast they could fly, opted to ride together on Nimbus. They looked extremely silly clasped around each other in an effort to fit onto the small cloud. Together with Tien, they all gave one final wave towards Bulma and Yajirobe before setting their sights east and zooming off into the sky. Piccolo followed them a moment later.
Yajirobe stood outside for some time, his gaze distant with one hand clamped to the hilt of his blade. Eventually, he went back inside. Not too long after he had left, an overpowering wave of relief and exhaustion overwhelmed Bulma. She let her body collapse into the cheap, plastic fold-out chair she had left out from earlier on the Capsule Corp. lawn, dozing off in record time.
The most vivid dreams assailed her mind. She saw herself growing up in Capsule Corp. tailing her father around like an enthusiastic child, but she was older, wiser, taller than she should have been. Then, she found herself at Papaya island, watching unseen, shadowy figures battling across a World Tournament ring. She felt her innocent enjoyment soon vanish as the ring wisped away before her eyes. Finally, she found herself looking over the ruins of West City, explosions rocketing in the distance, and far, far above her was a massive, menacing creature-
Bulma opened her eyes, sensing someone tapping on her shoulder from behind. She nearly bolted out of her seat in surprise when she saw who it was.
Cradling a baby in her arms, Chi-Chi gave Bulma an easygoing smile. 'Hey, Bulma. Sorry for coming late to the party!'
0o0o0
'...where… where am I?' Groggily, Kakarot pushed himself off the ground. Immediately, his hands felt something unfamiliar; where his hands should have felt rough fabric was replaced with wet, loamy dirt. His sight drew his attention to his immediate environment; a huge plain of grass surrounded him on both sides. He was… far away from his home, that he was sure of.
'I thought on things a bit more,' Raditz's voice pierced the calm from behind him. Frantically, Kakarot stood and faced his brother; he looked considerably less angry than Kakarot remembered him being. Wait… Kakarot struggled to think, when was the last time I saw him?
'I realized that forcing you to leave this planet armed with the mentality you have now would be useless,' Raditz continued, cutting through Kakarot's thoughts. 'You wouldn't survive in the larger galaxy as you are currently. Besides,' Raditz said, shrugging, 'we need to spend some time on this planet anyway to force the natives to make a new ship for us. We can't both leave in a single-person spacecraft.'
Kakarot's head started to spin- his mind couldn't keep up with everything Raditz was implying. 'We're… staying?'
'For now,' Raditz said, giving Kakarot a slight smile. 'And while we're here, there are a few things we need to do…'
As Raditz talked, his eyes moved to something far-off in the distance behind Kakarot. Just at that moment, an obnoxious honkkk rang in the distance.
Kakarot turned. Before them was a massive city, replete with roads, skyscrapers, trucks, cars, and most importantly, people.
'Today and tonight, brother,' Raditz practically cooed into Kakarot's ear, 'you are going to learn what it means to be a Saiyan.'
A/N: Endgame is endgaming. Beware of endgame.
Reviews:
TC9078: You're reading Chi-Chi like a fiddle. Hopefully, however, her inclinations throw in a few curveballs before the end of this...
Luke: Yeah, I imagine Raditz learning Kakarot has a kid is going to be a sticky point ;)
Anonymous: These are definitely the questions to keep in mind going forward. Vegeta and Nappa should be a big question mark hanging over everything right now...
Legendary-AI: You're on the right track, but all I can say is read-and-find-out. It's safe to say a number of characters are hiding information from each other...
The Last Z Fighter: Yamcha becoming the "old hand" among the Z Fighters in a future timeline reminds me of the fanfic Piccolo's Choice by Saucemonkey. If you're interested in seeing that depiction, I would highly recommend that story.
LWexe: I imagine it's going to be very strange.
