Metal

Chapter 87: Under a Lifetime of Rain


Chaos rumbled out from the lab as the giant robot, shaped like a thin-limbed diving suit for a thirty-foot tall man with terrifyingly large prongs for hands, staggered forward. Whole chunks of walling came loose as the head- and the brain contained within the green fluid-filled case- crashed into the chamber. Arms kept spinning and pointing forward. 'You're!...' A heavily filtered and metal voice shouted. 'You're me!'

In utter shock Chi-Chi and Chiaotzu tracked the robot's accusing arm. Someone they remembered as Nam, a contestant from a World Tournament years back, face lined with wrinkles and graying black-gray stubble from the passage of time, raised his arms and threw out a few warm-up punches. 'And you're me,' he said back.

'How-' the robot stammered, '-Who- Kochin!' It spun back to the lab. 'KOOOOOOOOOOCHIIIINNNNNNN!'

A plate of metal swung on a rusty hinge and fell from the lab's ceiling. Coincidentally, a frazzled looking Kochin dodged it as he ran out. 'Dr. Wheelo!' His gaze pinged between not-Nam and the robot. 'You're both, uh- well, if I'm being honest…' he started stroking his chin. 'This was a possibility… a low one at that, but-'

'He's an imposter!' Wheelo accused his apparent doppelganger. 'How could you do this, Kochin?!'

'False.' Nam finished testing his punches and set his hands on his hips. 'I am Wheelo, as I have a body. You are a brain in a metal suit.' His vision tightened as he tilted his head up. 'You are not me.'

'Gentlemen, gentlemen, please!' Kochin cried as he ran between them. 'You're both Wheelo!'

'YOU!' Wheelo spun-stomped and snatched Kochin off the ground with one of its metal prongs. 'YOU CAUSED THIS!'

'Well, we're two parts of the same team, so I would say that I- oof!' The bald gray man squirmed and panted for air as Wheelo began to constrict his pronged grip on him. 'I understand that you're angry,' Kochin wheezed, 'but science is experimentation, and-'

Wheelo's grip on him tightened, bulging his eyes. 'WHEELO!' Kochin croaked, face turning red-blue. 'WHEELO, MY LUNGS, MY LUNGS!-''

The rest of his plea was cut short- one more squeeze, and Kochin went silent. Wheelo dropped him and his body fell into a sinkhole of rubble.

'What's… what's going on?' Chiaotzu stammered out.

'I have no clue!' Chi-Chi roared. 'Other than I'm pretty sure that guy there is not the same person we fought at the World Tournament!'

'What do you mean?'

Despite having a metal body, Wheelo seemed to pant for a moment as he examined the appendage that had killed Kochin. '...Now,' he said, shaking the room as he faced them all. 'I can fix this… yes, I can… but it starts with killing…' His braincase inched towards Nam. '...you.'

'Oh?' A metal headband wrapped on top of Nam's white turban began to glow: a dull red gem at its center burst into wondrous light 'And you think your frail metal body will be up to the task?'

'Huh? How'd- no!' Wheelo staggered back. 'No, no, no! You have access to our captives, don't you?! Then-' He spun towards Chi-Chi and Chiaotzu. 'You have to help me! He's too powerful now! He'll kill us all!'

Chi-Chi noted the faint red glow around Nam. 'Wait…' Her face tightened. Suno and Retu- their villages were captured and brought here, weren't they? That's what Retu said. They were kidnapped. So… Her eyes moved again to Wheelo.

Which means… Anger drummed on her muscles, wormed into her fingers, and pressed her nails into her palms. That red lightning surrounding Suno, and him!... That was from people!...

'Too powerful?' The words fluttered away from Nam as he bent to the ground. A rising tide of red lightning sprung into the air, cocooning him with snaking, unimaginable energy. The air cracked and when he spoke next he was screaming as he charged forward. 'My body likes the sound of that!'

0o0o0

There was a red door and blood. Or was the blood there already?

The sense of cold. The drain.

Who's blood? Mine? Who's?

He couldn't remember… feet falling, falling. Why couldn't he remember?...

Where was Daiz? Amond? Rasin? Cacao? Lakasei? They had a mission. They had to… oh… what they needed…

It all came back to that tree. That damn seed. It never showed where it should have. When they first found it they had nearly tossed it away. It looked like nothing. Some exotic fruit. But hiding on a dead planet… no other food… they were so, so hungry… they ate… they felt.

The seed… where was the seed? He needed it. His mouth tasted like metal. No seed. Nothing living. Just nothing. There was… nothing.

The only living thing… in a tale of death. Him and that seed.

And… falling… falling.

...

0o0o0

'Guys!... This is really not cool!'

Try as he might Mark couldn't relax his clenched neck. This place was a maze. Running off after Bez and Recoome without a map and no guidance had been a terrible idea. Who the hell knew where they went! He didn't! All he had was an aching, too anxious neck! He should have stayed with the dang ship… but he was too afraid. But if he had known he'd still end up alone after leaving it- well, he should have stayed with the dang ship.

'Hey!' He shouted, cupping his mouth. 'Guys!' He knew the odds weren't in his favor that someone who wouldn't want to kill him would hear, but he had to try-

'You… You'll...'

'Aaaaaggggh!' Mark nearly died of fright as a hand reached from the right side of his vision and swiped at him. With adrenaline surging through him he bounced on his ankle to his left and swept a leg into the air, aiming and finding a solid body. 'Get away, or I'll- Eeeeeee!'

Mark scrambled away again as a blood-matted Saiyan who looked to be more dead than alive stumbled through his blow. His attack had done nothing! And this scary looking dude was still shambling towards him like-

'A- a zombie!' Mark screamed, waving his hands to ward off any evil. 'You- you should be dead!'

'...dead?' Blood and chips of armor peeled away from the Saiyan with every step, leaving a trail of fading life dusting the metal grate behind him. '...dead.' His forward foot wobbled, nearly failed, but he managed to steady himself and pull his other one out in front of him. 'Let me… tell you a secret…'

Somehow Turles managed to lift his head off of his chest- his teeth were smeared with dirt and lines of blood like that of a river carving through a canyon ran down his face. 'We'll both… die... ' The Saiyan wobbled with a bend of his ankles. He started dropping. '...someday...'

The hallway fell into silence as the impact of the fall faded and Mark held his breath. 'How'd... ' Probingly he tapped Turles with his foot. 'He… he collapsed… but he didn't feel my kick at all!' He groaned. 'Not fair! But, uh-' A little relief washed over his face as he crouched down. 'Guess he isn't a zombie, after all. Ha, haha, ha… ah… that's, uh… that's a lot of blood.'

Where Turles had fallen blood was clinging to the grate in thick red globules. 'He's… he's definitely dying,' Mark said to himself, staring. 'Yep. Gonna die. He's gonna die of blood loss or something on this metal floor by himself on this creepy station.' He opened and closed his mouth. Soon enough his face bent into something thoughtful. 'Huh.'

Is this guy a Saiyan? He'd never seen one before.

He could leave this guy to die here, right? If he was a Saiyan. Mark knew he had gone to bat for sparing one against what the others said- but if he was alone and this guy woke...

His eyes lingered on the bloody grate. Then again, he was probably no threat to him as he is now.

...Right?

Mark sighed while bending back and crossing his arms. 'Man! This is tough! And, uh… he's still… bleeding… uh…'

He… he couldn't let someone die here, right? It didn't seem right. It was his responsibility- he alone had run into this guy. Even if he was...

Mark swallowed. A Saiyan… Everyone else, they've met Saiyans before and they hated them. Mark felt they were being extreme… but what if they were justified? What if this guy really did deserve to die here, alone?

Breath brushed against Mark's legs. Startled, he saw Turles's fingers feebly curling into the grate. His grip slid and shook as it slid on blood. Feebly, again and again, until the hand collapsed. So much blood...

He… he couldn't leave someone here to die! Mark forced his frantic heartbeat to slow. Even if they were dangerous! Even if they were a Saiyan! His conscience wouldn't allow it- not to mention he would never be able to look at Videl again! He was supposed to be a hero, both inside and out of the ring… And, in this situation, a hero...

'Oh man!...' With some care Mark stretched and succeeded in hauling Turles's body onto his back. He glanced between both ends of the hallway. 'Let's just…' He started his slow limp down the way he had come. 'Let's retrace our way back to the ship, bandage you so you don't bleed out… and leave you here… yeah, I could do that…' His voice echoed. 'Yeah...'

0o0o0

The metal flooring beneath his feet shuddered as Vegeta launched himself across the hollowed-out common room. As expected Salza and his goons had spread out. The red one hooked to his right while their commander and the green one dashed the other way. Without yet having much of a measure of their power, he would need to act decisively to counteract their numerical advantage. An edge like that could decide a fight at the margin.

'Hah!' Vegeta spun and blasted out a small yellow ki blast. It was nowhere near strong enough to do any serious damage to either them or the station, but it succeeded in further separating the group. The thin orange one dashed back towards Vegeta while Salza kept going along the room's rim. Perhaps he didn't notice how much of an adjustment he made because Vegeta appeared behind the orange, locked fist raised above his head.

But a sharp buzz rushed through the air and Vegeta dove to the ground- as did his target. Above their heads Salza passed like a lance, body angled and outstretched hand bright with a scathingly sharp edge of red ki. So that was something to worry about- he could not be hit by that.

'Got you!' Vegeta's attention was ripped back forward as Neiz flipped and spin-kicked him in the chest. Vegeta's dark blue aura flew backward before slamming to a stop against the far wall. The Saiyan caught his breath and placed a hand to his breastplate. He felt cracks shift beneath his gloved fingers.

'You two are tricky.' Vegeta muscled his body from the wall. 'But no amount of coordination will make up for your lack of power.'

'Poor Vegeta,' Salza mocked. 'You've already lost sight of one of us.'

'Huh?' No sooner had the words been spoken did the third fighter, the big green one, burst through the wall behind Vegeta and wrapped his arms around his chest. Metal panels spun across the room as Vegeta chafed under the larger man's might and was forced to his knees. His hands pounded furiously on his legs, but his arms were pinned by absolutely gigantic muscles.

'Weren't checking your rear, huh?' Dore, his captor, mocked.

'Tsk, tsk.' Salza's boots, alongside Neiz's, came right up to Vegeta's legs as their owner waved around his ki blade. The air itself hissed like it was being cut. 'Silly me. Here I was expecting a fight befitting a warrior. Instead, I got a Saiyan.' Salza breathed in his mockery. 'Alas.'

The arms around Vegeta's chest and arms squeezed further, gagging Vegeta. 'Now,' Salza stepped in with his blade aimed at his neck. 'This will only be a nick, and when you wake-'

It had all gone according to plan. The moment Salza's arm slid forward Vegeta's dark blue aura burst into the air. The red ki blade faltered and sliced away a few stray strands of hair from Vegeta's head as the Saiyan lurched forward to the ground- pulling his captor by his arms along with him. Dore, eyes widening at the rapidly approaching blade, released him and pushed away.

Arms free, just before he hit the ground, Vegeta pressed his hands to the floor and spun, whipping his legs clockwise. Salza and Neiz both had their legs knocked out from under them and fell sideways to the ground. But behind him Dore was prepared and was crouching, hands ready to seize Vegeta again. Which left him exposed as Vegeta manipulated his aura and flipped onto his back and slammed the toe of his boot against Dore's chin. Something crunched as the large warrior staggered back, head bobbing.

'You ape!' Dore seethed, staggering back forward as soon as he regained control of his neck. 'When I-'

Before he could even react, Vegeta roared, wrapping himself in his aura and rising from the ground. 'Not a chance!' The Saiyan slammed a hand overfilling with ki directly into Dore's upper-right chest, pushing his hand against armor and flesh. He strained, then felt a few inches give way, and knowing that was all that was needed, yanked his arm back. Blood flung from his white gloves.

The red one stood there for a second, face locked in some unsaid word, hands clawing at the small depression in his chest. But it was deep enough. His breathing grew pained and he fell back onto the ground writhing, muscles twisting and shaking.

'What... ' Salza's eyes were wild as he pulled himself to his feet. 'What did you do?'

Vegeta admired the handiwork- the expiring mess that was once a mighty man- and swung his pleased expression towards the Armored Squadron's commander. 'His heart's had a little too much electricity, as it were.'

'You bastard!' Neiz shouted from Salza's left. Suddenly the green warrior was charging, both hands glowing with yellow ki. 'You'll pay!'

A fleeting grin appeared on Vegeta's face before his outline blurred away. Neiz's eyes tracked to the right before he lobbed both blasts one-after-another toward that end of the room. As he predicted the Saiyan appeared directly in the path of the attacks, but to both his and Salza's surprise, he spun and kicked more force onto the two blasts, accelerating their path towards the room's edge.

'Are you crazy?' Salza cried.

'Some!' Vegeta's shout drowned away as the blasts pierced the outer wall and rocketed into space. Air fled from the room, ramping the pressure towards Vegeta's side. Both Salza and Neiz's feet started to skid across the ground, even as they attempted to tether themselves in place with their pink auras.

The Saiyan's face cracked a grin. Which meant they had little to no control over their positioning. With a huge pull on his energy, Vegeta rocketed against the room's vacating pressure and charged at them. A frantic-looking Salza threw out his right arm, alighting his ki blade, and held it across his chest to deter Vegeta.

Got it! The Saiyan's eyes tracked the swing of the blade as he continued rushing forward. No doubt this would hurt- but he needed to even the odds.

'Hyaaagh!' Salza's arm rose above him and swung down just as Vegeta came into his range. He made no move to dodge or run, but instead halted and planted his feet, crouched slightly, and shot up both his straightened arms like pillars.

Szzt. Flesh split. The pain was worse than he would have thought. Salza's ki blade cut deep into his right shoulder, slicing muscle and shooting stray strips of blood into the air only for it to rush out into space. But the power he felt as his hands tightened around the alien's wrist nearly eclipsed it.

'You… you really are insane!' Salza growled as he tried to sink his blade further into Vegeta's flesh. All around still the air was fleeing the room, trying to drag them along with it. To Salza's right Neiz eyed the bloody gash blotting across Vegeta's armor. He realized the position he commanded.

'Keep him pinned!' he screamed, raising his hands. 'I'll blast him to death!'

'You'll blast apart my hand, idiot!' Salza screamed back. 'Help me push it into him!'

Their might was nearly even- the blade remained inches deep in Vegeta's flesh, no matter how hard Salza pushed. Sliding further with the air's pull from the room, Neiz gripped Salza's forward arm.

There.

In one clean motion Vegeta called on his full physical strength and diagonally yanked Salza's ki blade out from his shoulder. More of his flesh and tendons were ribboned, spurting blood, spraying it, but from Salza's wrist his hands controlled the wild swing of the blade as it arced in a circle to his left. He had time to speak a single word before it bit.

'Farewell!'

It struck through flesh like water filling a crack. Orange blood sprung from the green one's neck, misting Vegeta and Salza with the taste of iron and copper. In a matter of seconds Neiz's crumpled, slid under them, and flew to the other side of the room. Air hissed.

After that maneuver Vegeta had his back to Salza, ki blade arm pinned under his right arm with inches between his back and Salza's front. He felt his own blood slowly spread through his jumpsuit.

'You…' Salza muttered behind him.

Despite their tense grapple, muscles straining, auras churning, Vegeta cherished the furious breath hitting his neck. Two down. The sound of air sprinting away began to taper off. Behind them an emergency wall was meshing together over the hole in the station's hull. Vegeta closed his eyes as a fresh wave of pain and exhaustion washed over him. Just… one more…

0o0o0

Kakarot nudged a fried chunk of wall with his foot before punting it out of their way. His father, leaning on his left shoulder, glanced around with a similar distaste. 'The hell happened here?'

The corridor had ended abruptly with one of those makeshift prefab patchwork hull pluggers: panels and plating and mesh all pressed together to form an air-seal. Ugly as hell- or almost as ugly, as Bardock remembered vividly how unpleasant that place was.

'Yeah.' Launch crossed her arms and half-heartedly kicked away some debris just as Kakarot had. 'I… dunno.'

'So walking's not in the cards.' Bardock motioned for Kakarot to help him, and gingerly, he sat down on a big block of dislodged metal. 'You're sure your ship is on the other side of the station?'

'Of course I'm sure!' Launch snarled, whipping her head to her right. 'You think I'd forget!?'

With very little emphasis Bardock shrugged. 'It's happened to me before. Just wanted to check.'

Kakarot finished bending from his hip, examining the makeshift wall. 'Well, we'll just have to hop to where we need to go, right Dad?'

'Hop?' Launch's eyes narrowed. 'What the hell is a "hop"?'

'It's not a term. My son's just saying we fly through space.'

'Fly?' The word was pierced with incredulity. 'What, is that a joke?'

'Nope.' Kakarot turned around and pressed his back to the wall. 'It's something you can do with training- and talent.'

'You looked at me.'

'Huh?'

Launch stomped up to Kakarot and grabbed him by the neck hem of his armor. 'You looked at me while you said it takes talent. You saying something?'

'Huh?' Kakarot glanced at his father: Bardock was sitting back, flaunting a grin at him. 'No, I was just, uhh, looking at you. That's it.'

'He's dumb, remember?' Bardock chimed in from behind her. 'Can we get back to getting off this rickety station?'

She made a point to fully exhale before releasing him and stepping back. 'Fine.' She swung back to Bardock. 'How do I do this 'hop', then?'

'Do?' Confusion rested in Bardock's eyes before realization and humor struck them. 'Oh! Oh, wow! Yeah- no. You won't be learning how to do it anytime soon.'

'Why not?' Launch growled.

Bardock folded his hands in his laps. 'Because we don't have the time. So you really only got one option.'

0o0o0

'I hate this.'

The scenery of space- unabridged, unobscured, void and vast in all its heart-racing splendor- was awesome, of course. But she could do without the musk.

'You think I like this any better?' She could feel Kakarot's body shift under her arms when he spoke. He felt… oddly muscular. Ugh. This sucks. 'We're both suffering for my father's comfort.'

A little farther ahead of their awkward, unpleasant, back-to-front hugging, with Kakarot gently pushing them and his aura through space, Bardock floated unencumbered, leading them towards a rounder, wider section- the cargo bay, if she recognized it right. At the very least, if it wasn't, they'd be on the other side of the station and past the broken corridor.

'As much as it pains me to say this,' Launch muttered as she traced stray light from this system's distant sun catch on shadowed metal, 'I think I marginally prefer clinging to you over your dad.' Her grip incrementally, uncomfortably, tightened around Kakarot's chest. 'I'd be too tempted to kill him and his smug ass mid-flight.'

'Killing him would amount to killing yourself out here,' Kakarot pointed out.

'If I had decided to do it, it would have been worth it.'

He had very few memories of this Launch person; he also realized that the memories he did have had her with more yellow hair then he recalled. But he felt like he should have better remembered someone as unhinged as this.

'You know, I'm surprised you're not worried about him running.' Whoops. He spoke without thinking again. 'He could fly away now and I could keep you trapped out here.'

Strangely, her grip on him loosened. 'He's not gonna run. If he was, he would have done it earlier.'

'What, when he was fighting you?'

'Before that. If he didn't leave then, he isn't leaving you now.'

It was odd to hear someone else- someone who had barely seen them interact together- put to words the feeling that filled Kakarot's chest when his father stepped up to defend him. It was also odd to consider he felt pride mixed with some kind of… agitation.

'I don't need protection,' he said, off-the-cuff to no one in particular, but considering where they were and how close they were, it seemed addressed.

Launch stifled a laugh- a laugh Kakarot still felt against his back. 'Yeah, sure.'

'I'm serious. I would be fine without him fighting my battles.'

'What are you, a teenager?' Launch taunted. 'Be grateful your dad isn't a weak coward. Instead, he's just weak.'

'Cut it out.'

'Seriously- weak, weak, weak.'

'I mean it.' Irritation bubbled in his head and the dark blue aura surrounding them started to shift. 'If you say one more word-'

A hissing cut through their air pocket, silencing him. Launch used Kakarot as a prop as she maneuvered around him, head stretching, eyes searching, until her muscles froze. 'Hey! You're letting out our air, you asshole!'

'Huh?' Kakarot noticed the small hole to his right. 'Oh. Right. Lost my focus there-'

Suddenly Launch shifted and pulled Kakarot into a space-floating half-nelson. 'You're trying to kill me, eh?' The sound of air rushing out from Kakarot's flailing pocket only barely overpowered his desperate gags for breath. 'Well too bad! You're going to die first before- gack- so little... ' her voice grew to a hoarse whine. 'air…'

0o0o0

Some time later they were all moving through space once more- as a stack of three people pressed against each other, each in a bad mood, each reeking from the sweaty exertion of the past few minutes.

'I swear,' Launch began, 'if you mention this to anyone-'

'Save our air and shut-up,' Bardock cut her off.

0o0o0

Smoke thinned as they emerged into the last gasps of the day. On the western horizon fading red bands hung over the ocean. Death before a set sun. Gero never cared much for metaphor or coincidence but this seemed to suit the moment.

'19, do you see them?'

'...' The hulking android shifted his arms and laid them across his left side.

'Yes.' Gero mewled, mirroring what his companion was doing so that their hands pressed together to form a wide spread of their palms, 'my thought as well…'

Above the calm seas near West City, a pink light began to shine. Smoke nor fire nor dust could obscure its penetrating otherworldly effect on the sky to the west. Lit like a beacon to guide the dead passing to the afterlife. Like a lighthouse pushing their souls across the limitless ocean. It was as large and powerful a blast, held back by four cold hands, as ever seen by human eyes on Earth. It grew to eclipse every meteor, asteroid, or comet ever to impact the Earth. For Gero it would not matter that Yamcha and Bulma were hard to pinpoint amidst the dying light and against the deep blue water. This attack was more than enough to render to them what they were owed.

When the strain almost seemed to sear the synthetic skin from their palms, Gero's cold voice cooled the air around them. '19? Are you ready?'

'...'

'Good.' In-sync both androids hefted their arms back. The rippling, massive orb of pink ki held itself in the air. 'Very good!''

With all their force and power their hands rushed forward and slammed into the ball- and the world shuddered. Energy wide and deep as the sea shot out in a wave, crashing and coursing through the air towards the horizon. In every direction it snapped, charged, and stomped, blotting the skies, lighting flame atop the ocean, consuming everything in its wake. From this single attack the entire ocean was pushed away from the burning ruins of West City. In a single second everything of what they could see turned to pink hellfire.

For a time the far-off red bands watched before they, too, were pushed from this life.

0o0o0

As before there had been no warning- just a shift in the wind and a pulse in the water. But as he turned and took in the mind-bogglingly huge wave of pink energy rushed after him, he realized no amount of foresight could have saved him from this. The attack was too wide, too large, and too quick. It was a wall racing towards him, sprinting, romping, eviscerating as it went. The only way he could have avoided this if he had dodged before it had been fired. Now?

Now? Without an accompanying answer the word echoed unendingly in Yamcha's mind. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't run. He couldn't see anything past the pink oblivion closing on him. Just death, for him, and...

The slightest whimper reached his ears. In his arms Bulma stirred, and though she didn't seem awake, somehow she seemed to sense what end was coming; she clambered up and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her head in the crook of his shoulder.

He was so, so afraid.

Through a haze his hands, now freed, rose. Yamcha noted every tiny scar and line carved into his skin. He had died before, and even though it hadn't been pleasant, it had been quick. It wasn't like this- running for his life for as long as he could, desperately hoping for some escape despite what reality seemed to guarantee. A final fate for himself- and her. Bulma…

Pink light reared in the edges of his vision. Suddenly Yamcha's hands began to shake. No… His fingers curled into his palms. I can't give up now. I can't. I won't!

His energy pulsed around him, lighting him blue among the coming storm of sea. After all this… He started tilting one side towards the maelstrom. One last try! He didn't have the right to quit. Not when he was fighting for two. For Bulma… and Chi-Chi, too.

Somehow she had slipped his mind- due to the circumstances. He hadn't fulfilled his promise to her: wherever she was, she was fighting without him at her side. That was on him. He should have been strong enough to get him and Bulma out of here. For her. Bulma murmured into his neck. He should have...

Yamcha calmed his mind with a press of his hand to his chest. He felt his breath pass under his skin as flickers of heat reached him. He wouldn't let Bulma die, and he wouldn't let Chi-Chi be alone again.

One last ring of calm in between his head. She doesn't deserve that. One last gentle breath. Not… again... And then he screamed.

'MAX KAIOKEN!'

His entire body felt like it caught fire as red exploded from him, spinning away gale-strength winds like discs. As the pink landscape still steadily moved towards him, Yamcha began to focus his energy towards his arms. Muscles started to shudder as more energy he had ever felt rushed to the tips and fingers and sparked from his skin. Wrestling his entire will he labored to wrap his arms around Bulma and bring his hands together behind her. There, in the space between scarred flesh and weathered fingers, red burst and bloomed, straining against his skin and showering light into the fading twilight.

And yet he was still nothing more than a blip in the sky against the waves of pink rushing towards him. The chances of him surviving even when Bulma was protectively pressed under his arms and he was using every last ounce of energy were slim. But he would try. And that was that. Sometimes that was all there was to surviving.

'KAMEHAMEHA!'

0o0o0

A terrible clanging- like the sound of a hundred pots being smashed together at once- rushed across the chamber as Nam's leading kick pierced the giant robot's chest, shimmering red leg slicing through metal like butter. Red lightning snickered in the air.

'Get!... Get out of me!' Wheelo roared as he swung a metal prong across his chest, but long before he had started moving the much nimbler fighter and lit his aura and pushed himself free into the air and circled around. From behind his elbow swung through and brnggeed against the robot's back-plating. The lumbering machine staggered forward in a spray of chipped paint and loose bolts.

'Chi-Chi?' Chiaotzu said in a hushed whisper as they watched from a distance. 'You think we should-'

'Wait,' Chi-Chi cautioned him. 'Wait just a little longer…'

The ground shook as Nam flipped into the air with a flourish. Two spun kicks landed against his doppelganger's arms, first one knocking loose a prong from his hand, and the second- well, Chi-Chi saw the second kick knock off the other arm entirely.

'Gaaaugggh!' Wheelo cried as a thin line of oil followed the severed limb to the ground. Despite being a 30-foot-tall robot he looked very human as he cradled where his metal limb had been attached to his body. 'You!-' There was no doubt: alongside the anger there was fear now. 'My body is a feat of science! How could you do this!'

Wheelo cocked a hand back- dull red energy filled his hand, matching the chilling red glow that had filtered into his eyes. 'Your body is an abomination.' He started charging forward. 'And it must be purged!'

'Now!'

Rubble and dust were thrown into the air as a loping red beam blasted across the ground and burst into a spray of flame against the chamber's far wall. With a slight adjustment to his turban Nam straightened. His sneer surveyed the attack path he had been forced to abandon before turning to his unwanted interlopers. 'Now you decide to fight?'

Half-smiling in the air, Chi-Chi lowered her right arm. 'Wanted to be sure which one of you was the biggest threat.' She narrowed her eyes. 'That's you, for sure.'

Red lightning flitted around the red gem in his metal headband, illuminating his grin. 'I'm flattered.'

'You shouldn't.'

'Oh? And why ever not?'

Shadow suddenly draped across him and his vision- he turned and saw a large dome composed of scrap metal, held together by seemingly nothing, hovering in place behind him.

'Because!' Chi-Chi slammed her palms together at her right hip and yanked them forward. Red churned, brightened. 'We'll have to fight a whole lot dirtier!'

As her last word was uttered a wide red beam, haloed by the same burning aura as the last one, shot out from her clenched hands and swept across Nam. Above her Chiaotzu tightened his psychic grip on the dome and steadied it as the blast broke against the metal. Flames burrowed against it before breaking apart and bouncing back towards their intended target. A loping inferno seared that side of the room, burning wide and large enough to outshine the sanitized white lights of the base and fill the room with the smell- and presence- of smoke. Curls of gray sprinted towards the ceiling. And at the edge of the carnage Chi-Chi floated in the air, colored armor rattling, hair blowing, arms burgeoning as fire leaped from her palms as naturally as rain fell from the sky.

For as long as she could. Her body tensed after a time of uninterrupted blasting. 'Enough!' she shouted, as her attack ceased. At the same time Chiaotzu let the makeshift dome fall apart into the many pieces of scrap he had built it out of. Seared black and forge-hot metal crashed to the ground alongside flickering flame and ash.

She caught her breath. 'That… that was a lot,' Chi-Chi muttered as she moved to strip herself of a few strapped armor places. Sweat clung her hair to her face. 'I have to think that, after all that-'

'That was your best?' A strong voice boomed out of the messy cloud of smoke and dust. After a moment of tense watching a trail of red lightning lit in the haze and ferried Nam-Wheelo forward into the light. His loose clothes were nipped with the slightest singes, but otherwise, he looked totally unchanged. 'After all that talk?... Hah. Hah, hah. Hah!' Nam-Wheel held his gut as he laughed, savoring his ill-gained lungs. 'Dr. Gero was wrong! So, so very wrong!'

Chi-Chi's body twitched. That name again. 'What does this have to do with Dr. Gero!?' She shouted.

'You're nothing but a bunch of weaklings!' An arm swept across Nam's body- a red tendril erupted from his aura and carved through the nearby ground, cutting lines through the room's boundaries. 'Pathetic, really! When confronted with a real power you're helpless!'

'Chi-Chi!' Chiaotzu's harried voice cut through the room to her. 'Watch out! He's!-'

'Auuughhhhhhhaaaaa!' Nam's entire body shimmered as red lightning materialized in the air and poured into him from above, striking him like a lightning rod. 'Power!... So much power! All mine! All mine!'

Wind ripped across the room. Chiaotzu was pushed higher into the air. 'Stop him!'

It clicked for her and her stupor- with a burst of red she dove forward, right fist leading her red aura's billowing charge through the air. Nam's face loomed before her, flickering with red lightning, as she swung her fist forward, aiming-

The air thrummed as she felt her knuckles crash to a stop. White widened her eyes as her limb began to shake. No matter how much of her aura she pushed forward, Nam's hand held her in place, fingers just pressing into her skin.

'Oh?' He said.

'Oh.'

The world spun as Nam's head smashed into hers, clacking their skulls together like two boulders crashing into each other. Her vision blurred but with a thrum of her aura she realized they had dropped to the ground and planted her back foot before hooking her fist forward.

'Too slow.' The words brushed past her ears as red lightning burst out of his outline and a blow landed against her back. Chi-Chi gagged as Nam delivered three more successive chops, each one jamming into her spine. The ground was jagged and cut through her armor into her ribs when she fell.

'And now,' Nam said, raising his arms, red lightning jumping off of them, 'you're too weak to live!'

His doubled fist was halfway to the ground when it froze.

'Huh!' Nam wiggled fruitlessly. It was as something was holding him in place- wait! He craned his head. 'You! Gero had a file on you!'

Visible sweat rolled down Chiaotzu's pale white face. 'Yes… me… and now…' his outstretched fingers clenched, '... I leave the rest to her!'

Rubble shifted around Nam. 'WHAT!?' He cried, as he swung his head back to the ground. Chi-Chi had rolled over, and despite the blood welling in the center of her forehead, she sprung and spun to her feet, smashing her fist against the bottom of his jaw. Nam's body lurched up and then back as Chi-Chi rammed her other fist into his gut- but her other hand quickly wrapped around his clothing, rooting him in place.

'Now…' Chi-Chi's body was trembling as a surge of red swarmed around them, boxing them in. At the same time her fist opened. Nam felt heat radiate from it. 'Nam, if you're in there, I'm sorry to do this to you, but the moment calls for it!' Energy whipped into a frenzy around her. 'This ghoul needs to go!'

Nam's entire body tensed as he realized that he had nowhere to go- and the headband dove into his flesh, tearing apart his turban and spraying blood. 'Aaaagh!' He cradled his head as red lightning sprung up and down his body. 'AUUGHHH!'

From above, Chiaotzu saw nothing within the cone: outside, however, Chi-Chi's aura sharpened and cut through the air and nearby rubble, scoring marks and dents in the ruined room above. Its top burst upward, wavering like a kite in the wind, and without warning burst apart and sprinkled down in thin red scraps.

Revealing Chi-Chi's auraless body at the feet of a hunching, moaning, panting, aching Nam. His ruined clothes hung to him in straps like old webs in a cellar. Across his entire body his muscles were seized by twitches and pained shifts, and as he turned to him- jaw clacking, bones gaunt, blood forming a crown just below his headband- the red jewel glimmered.

Red lightning sprung out of it then, tracing across Nam's skin. 'She made me use… some energy, after all…' Nam said in a daze as he licked his scabbed lips. Another surge of lightning and seemed to shake him out of his haze, though injury slowed his step forward. 'She…' Nam held out his hands. 'She damaged my body…'

It was a needed moment for Chiaotzu to catch his breath. And he saw what he needed to do, luckily, before a half-complete robot hand swatted him out of the air.

'I'll kill you!' Wheelo screeched in a metallic voice as he plowed through rubble to reach the one who had severed his arm. 'I swear, I'll kill you!'

0o0o0

'You still feel like a slave?'

The air had returned- their collective silence as they held their poses, arms tangled together, neither able to separate lest one of them be sliced to death by the ki blade thrumming from Salza's right hand gave way to muted, harrowed words. 'After all this time?' Incredulity rose in Salza's voice. 'With the power you yield? The skill?'

Vegeta knew first-hand how many fools had died because they had spoken too much during combat. When they were still around one or two Saiyan grunts typically died from that on an average mission. He would choose his words carefully and keep his focus on the limb pinned by his failing right arm. 'What are you saying?

'You have proven yourself a warrior fit to serve Lord Cooler. I will not kill you.'

Vegeta snorted. 'That's rich.'

'How?'

'I can feel the hate in your breath.' With a stifled grunt Vegeta shifted, just barely adjusting his right shoulder. A fresh surge of blood ran down his back under his clothes and armor. 'No matter what your mouth says or your mind thinks your body wants to kill me.'

The fingers on Salza's immobilized hand flexed, dispersing the blade momentarily. 'Rage is undeniable but can be controlled.' The officer paused, weighing his thoughts among the raging, choking anger in his chest as best he could. 'I have served with Neiz and Dore for nearly ten years. And now both their corpses have been ejected into space, never to be found again. I am disturbed… but I steady myself with thoughts of my master.'

'As a true slave should.'

'I can see the blood running underneath your armor, Vegeta.' The Saiyan's right shoulder started twitching as Salza's voice crept closer. 'You're growing weaker- weak enough to die. But it does not have to be that way. Accede to Cooler and you shall live.'

'I would rather die than serve another again.'

'Hyperbole-'

'Now this ends.'

And then a slice.

0o0o0

Reality seemed to shrink and twist like folds of fabric pulled taut and folded. Korin very much doubted that what he was seeing was real as layers of the air seemed to bend. Like something passing by in the open air just beyond the tower's edge. Something… displacing…

His staff remained grasped between his hands for a long time. 'Yajirobe?' he asked tentatively.

Fabric shifted as Yajirobe poked his head out of a hole in a now-empty rice bag. 'Huh?'

'Do you have the power pole on you?'

'Yuh-huh.'

'Good.' He turned to him with a squeak of his staff. 'We're heading back to the Lookout, now.'

Yajirobe frowned as he freed his neck of the bag. 'Huh?'

0o0o0

The measure of his world fell. Layers upon layers of reality burned away with the onslaught of energy. Revolting, churning pink rushed past him, against him, into him as he struggled to breathe. Somehow, in the thick of his end, the air around him had grown smoky, tight, and cold.

So, so cold. There was a chill spreading through his body as energy left it, blue and white ramming headlong into the stalled wall of death before him. Pink thrumming, inching forward despite his best efforts. Despite all his efforts. His Kaioken raged around him, clawing for every ounce of life his body had- and still, he was losing. The wall came closer with every blink. The cold's noose tightened.

It was such a simple thing, to embrace death. When you knew it was coming. When you knew there wasn't anything else you could do. Yamcha had thought of every fighter he had ever known and racked his brain for what they might have done. Krillin, Tien. Chi-Chi, Launch, Roshi… but he could not imagine any of them surviving this, with the preparation he had, and…

Temperature was relative. Cold choked him because there was still some warmth pressing into him- she huddled against him, skin sweating, heart pounding, hands digging. Bulma was alive, and scared in her unconscious state, and clinging to whatever she could grab. Something safe. Something secure.

Swaths of his vision had given way to bleariness and blinding light- now that had passed into immutable and dead black. It was scary, because he knew that storm was still out there. His body shutting down didn't change reality; it simply inured him to it. He would not have to feel his flesh ripping apart. At the end he would be grateful that he had turned himself into a dying husk.

He felt his breath swirl in his chest. In… the end… but that wouldn't really be the end, wouldn't it? He'd go onto the next life with Bulma. Be judged as before. Maybe he'd be lucky like Krillin and get the chance to train in the afterlife. He remembered his stories. Running down that neverending path. He'd run it. And then he'd just have to wait. Wait for Chi-Chi, and-

What felt like a brick slammed against Yamcha, throwing him back. But he could feel. He could feel the wind brushing against his back.

Swollen eyes were forced open. Bulma still held to him. His right arm was raised- and ruined. The limb was marred, charred, blackened. His fingers were the wrong color. Too much black with dull white. But blue energy still glowed from his hands, spilling into the wind as he sailed backward through the air. In the distance- the pink was dissipating. The world was returning. The night was almost here. It was hard to see.

Yamcha's right arm fell limp. Some sense of his told him Bulma was swinging precariously from his torso. Seconds passed before Yamcha realized he was doing the same. Amid the last light of twilight the roar of the sea called to him, huge and welcoming to his fatigue. He was falling, he thought.

With his last ounce of energy he turned his head and spotted land- or something unlike the darker blue surrounding it. It would have to do. Large enough for a house. Maybe houses.

Few… houses… on an island... Yamcha began dropping faster through the air, body slumping from his core. Bulma teetered in his grip but he made sure to press his fingers into her even as he felt consciousness leaving him. Just… Soft, cold loam pressed against him and the warm body huddled underneath his right arm. One nap… Master Roshi…

0o0o0

Blanketing the world in hellfire came at a price. For far too long the air and sea raged at each other, energy clawing and thrusting into each other, obscuring their efforts. Even they were harmed. The skin on Dr. Gero's palms flaked and fell away with every stray wind. 19's hands were no different.

They would need to recharge back at the lab soon lest they run out of energy entirely. But today would have been worth it even if they could not pinpoint Yamcha and Bulma's corpses- if they even existed anymore.

Gero turned away from the pinkish, crackling, hellish wake consuming the air and seas into the distance. '19, can you tell if their bodies had slipped under the ocean?'

'...'

He had forgotten again. What bad luck for him to install all the elaborate ki sensing equipment in the mute android! 'Nothing?' He hoped.

'...'

'Can you point towards any islands where they may have died?'

Gero waited for his towering creation to motion. 'No? Nothing at all?'

As if aware of its shortcomings- which it couldn't be, as Gero well knew- Android 19 hung its head. Poorly cut black fringe fell past its eyes.

'Well… alright.' Gero could not be perfect. Neither could his plans. In his view more good than bad had been achieved today. Capsule Corp. had been reduced to ash. Yamcha and Bulma were likely dead, if not soon-to-be. And most importantly without Bulma or her tech the other threats were isolated now…

Which reminds me… I'll have to check-in on Wheelo and see how he's fared when we return to the lab. Without being commanded Android 19 fell behind Gero as they flew east, passing high enough over West City that they would avoid the swirling smoke and ash. But, before that, one last stop...

0o0o0

'Ukh… Come… On!...'

Retu groaned as he pushed Suno off of him- as gently as possible. He laid her on her back and checked to make sure the wounds crisscrossing her body weren't serious. 'No… you're not gonna die soon…' He groaned again as he sat up and turned. 'Key word being soon…'

Even though the initial shock had passed- and after he had wiped the tears away from his face in a concerted effort to calm himself- his eyes struggled to make sense of what he was seeing. His uncle was squaring off against a giant metal robot. And there was this red lightning that kept flitting around him, almost like a visible smell. He knew this couldn't have been his uncle- it couldn't be. It didn't make any sense. He was a captive here.

Captive. Retu shifted as he got a better look around the slab of rubble propped in front of him. The headband over his turban was something Retu had never seen him wear. And, in fact… it looked a lot like what Suno-'

A jolt of adrenaline shot through Retu as he remembered how he'd gone unconscious in the first place. He scrambled away from Suno, half-expecting to get electrocuted again, but started breathing again once he saw the headband around her head- the same headband or thereabouts that Nam was now wearing- was gone. In its place cuts and dried blood trailed down her face.

No… right. He felt a little silly. Suno had spoken to him normally before she had passed out. Whatever was going on with her seemed to have ended. Though he couldn't say the same for his uncle.

Gritting his teeth Retu crawled farther up the rock, angling to get a better look of the battlefield. 'He's… what's going on with him?'

Across the chamber whole swaths of the ground cracked and rose up as Wheelo's feet crashed down. 'Damn you!' He screamed. 'Damn you, damn you!-' His still-working arm flared, pink energy building in its palm. 'Die, die, die!'

The blast ricocheted off his body and blasted at Nam- but with a simple wave of his hand red lightning flitted in front of him and split apart the attack. Sloughs of pink rushed past him and pummeled into the far wall. Then he zipped from sight.

'Not enough!' Wheelo roared as he appeared behind the robot's head, hooking his leg against the glass. Cracks spiderwebbed in the surrounding metal. 'It was never enough, this body!' As the metal giant continued staggering forward, Wheelo continued to ram every kick, knee, and chop into the robot's head. 'Trapped in that glass jar for years! Even when given these unfeeling arms and legs!' His aura built in the air above as he raised his interlocked hands. 'THEY WERE NEVER ENOUGH!'

A deafening boom rang across the chamber as Wheelo's doubled fist smashed down onto the casing surrounding the brain. What should have broken the glass encompassing the giant brain instead dispersed downward: the legs underneath the construct burst apart at the joints from the blow's force, gears slicing and spinning through the air, as the robot's heavily cracked head and torso collapsed to the ground. The glass jar housing Wheelo's brain filled with bubbles.

'No- no- no-' The brain's vocalization kept hitching on some error in the hardware or software. The machine itself only had one half-broken arm, shaking as it rose to protect its head, until that was severed at the shoulder with a slicing ki attack.

'Now.' In a cloud of red lightning Nam descended onto the machine's shoulders and placed a hand to the glass. 'I'm sorry to do this to myself.' Fissures spiraled out from where he pressed. 'But either you adapt, or you die. That is the way of things.'

'The-wa-way of th-things… K-Kochin… I'm...'

'Hyah!' A disc of yellow energy curved across the room: with a flicker of irritation Nam burst into the air, staring at the attack as it sailed past his feet and detonated yards away. A massive cloud of smoke filled the room, and out of it, turban mere ribbons soaked with blood, arms crossed, Nam flailed out.

The hiss of another incoming attack spun him. 'Nice try!' His roar was followed by a thrust of his right arm, and out of that hand a red arc of lightning shot out and blasted apart the second yellow disc. Energy pulsed into the air, and behind the clearing dispersal, Chiaotzu held himself in the air, aimed arms steady, breath lagging.

Nam's eyes zeroed in on Chiaotzu. 'I had almost forgotten you and your fellow intruders' presence here.' His head slid across his right shoulder, gaze scanning the ground. 'And, where exactly…'

'That's not your concern,' Chiaotzu parried back, drawing back his gaze. 'For now, you should be worried about me.' Around him his aura started flickering more. He knew his chances in a one-on-one fight were terrible. Chi-Chi hadn't been able to compete with his strength. And compared to her… he couldn't go down that route and expect to win. He'd have to be smart. Careful. He'd have one shot.

The white lights above them struggled for a moment, and in that instance the headband strapped over Nam's turban glinted. Right. Chiaotzu stared at it and the red gem at its center. That headpiece… it looks a lot like what Suno had on before. And Suno had stopped fighting once he had torn it apart with his telekinesis. Maybe, if he got close enough...

But Chiaotzu only managed to glide a few inches further when he felt and saw it. Red lighting erupted from seemingly every pore on Nam's body, lighting the air around him like orange flame swallowing blue. The entire chamber started to shake as loose paneling and wire was thrown from the ceiling above them, whisking through the air towards the chaotic rumbling below.

Too much energy- far too much energy. Chiaotzu struggled to keep himself afloat amidst the waves of energy washing over him.

'DON'T YOU SEE!?' Nam roared into the air for all the world to hear. 'I CAN PERMIT MYSELF AN ERROR HERE AND THERE, BECAUSE THIS!?' His energy reared into the air, twitching and shooting like an unfurling dragon. 'THIS BODY!?' Muscles bulged against his skin. 'WITH ALL THOSE FOOLS DRAINING AWAY IN THEIR CELLS, THE ENERGY AVAILABLE TO ME IS INCALCULABLE! AND IF I EVER NEEDED MORE-' His wild, mile-wide grin angled towards Chiaotzu, '-IF I NEED MORE, I CAN START WITH YOU AND YOUR UNWANTED FRIENDS! RAAAAAGH!'

The red lighting coiled itself and suddenly shot forward. Chiaotzu gasped- and then let out a long hiss as his lungs failed to work. Something of him felt missing. Arms lifting before him, Chiaotzu tracked them back to his torso. And there he saw half of Nam's arm- the other half plunging inside him.

A cold wind, real or otherwise, fell on his back, spreading shivers up his spine. He felt wet and sticky blood in two places.

'And there.' A soft tac told Chiaotzu they were on the ground again. Nam's face was half-obscured by his position relative to the chamber's lighting- his eyes and lower mouth were cast in harsh light compared to the shadows draped across the rest of his face. 'That is done.' His face slid into a grimace as he lifted his free arm and clutched the front of his clothing. 'My body… it is weak after today. I am in no mood for a drawn-out fight. So I am grateful you did not dodge. Now I may collect your unconscious friends at my leisure.'

'...hah.' Chiaotzu's face, dragged progressively towards a weak frown by a jabbing, impossible to bear pain, nonetheless stalled that dark expression as he muttered. His fingers stretched from his hands and trembled in the air. 'Hah, hah…'

Nam noted the last of his opponent's red-white aura drain away. 'What? Your last words?'

'Got…' Chiaotzu's smile faded alongside his remaining strength as his body started slumping forward. Halfway there- his right hand curled into a fist. '...you…'

His head bounced against the arm skewering him just as the metal headband digging into Nam's forehead snapped in two. Air rushed out from the last of Chiaotzu's aura as the red gem went flying.

'NO!' Nam made a desperate grabbing motion as he sprung forward, throwing Chiaotzu off his arm. 'No, no, no!' From the bottom of his body a strange paralysis gripped him, even as he lurched forward with his arms towards the tumbling gem. 'Please! No! My body!' His legs weakened, wobbled, and fell out from under him; his voice was hoarse as half-fell onto the ground, never once ceasing his urgent forward movement. 'No…' Rubble anchored to his fingers as he began dragging his body over broken rock and metal. 'The link!' he cried. 'The gem is the key! It contains the link- the energy needed to keep my mind!- Anyone, please!' His chest started convulsing as his arms stilled. Eyes bulged and bloomed with the haze of blood. 'My body!...' He said weakly as his head started to seize. 'My… body…'

'My… bod-dy…' The words passed out of his mouth on a breath, and his lips failed to press together. For a moment his head balanced on his chin until a muscle in his neck gave out and it fell over.

His fingers twitched twice, then ceased. Inches away from his fingertips the red gem balanced on a circular chunk of concrete, struggling to glow, until the red at its center dulled and died entirely.

And there was silence. In this massive chamber, ruined beyond any use or recognition, bleeding into adjacent ruined rooms and even the arctic night peaking through cracks in the wall, no sound or noise disrupted the stillness that had fallen over the room. Shocked eyes wandered- to the drained cracked glass and the desiccated brain inside, to the red discoloration spreading across a paralyzed body, to...

For a long time Retu didn't dare do anything. But after a while, a choking sob caught in his breath as he waited unendingly for something- anything- to rise or speak from the carnage laid across the chamber in front of him. A broken machine, two bodies... Chiaotzu or his uncle… either one, could...

He waited. But the echo that washed over the ruins came and faded.

0o0o0

The floor was oddly silent as they stepped forward. 'This, uh… this is your ship?' Bardock asked skeptically.

From behind Launch nearly shoved him- again- but decided to be better and drew her hands away from his back. 'It is,' she said. 'What, you got a problem with it?'

Bardock carefully turned his head to look at her. 'No,' he said demurely. 'Not at all.' He prodded Kakarot in the ribs. 'Right, son?'

'Right,' Kakarot groaned as she shifted, adjusting his father's arm across his shoulders. Carrying most of his father's weight would have been easier if he could lift him in his arms. But, of course, his father was too stubborn for that, and wanted to project some strength to the person who just whooped his ass. So Kakarot went on suffering.

'Keep going,' Launch directed them. 'First door on the right at the end of the hall.'

'Right…' With a lurch forward Kakarot got him and his father moving again. He had to agree with his Dad- this ship wasn't anything like their old one. It was clean, for starters, but also sleek- the hallway shone like polished marble as they advanced down it, eyeing the doors to their left and right.

'Eyes forward,' Launch barked from behind them. 'And watch where you're walking. My fellow crewmembers-'

A thump came from further down the hall. In an instant Launch brushed past them and stood guard in front of them. 'Hello?' she asked, aura humming around her.'

There was another bump before a mop of rounded black hair stuck out from around a corner. 'L-Launch? Are those?...'

She visibly relaxed. 'It's alright, Mark. These are…' Her hand swung to present Bardock and Kakarot, '... our Saiyan prisoners.'

'Three Saiyans?...' Somewhat dazed, Mark revealed himself. 'Three?... Oh…'

'Three?'

'Three?' Mark repeated dumbly, glancing back at her. 'Oh… oh. Yes. Right.' He forced his gaze back on Bardock and Kakarot. 'Two. Right there…'

'What's your problem?'

'Mark?' Another voice called from around the corner. After a second Bez strolled into sight. 'What's- oh.' He stared at Bardock and Kakarot. 'You… you got them,' he muttered. 'You actually got them, Launch.'

She gave him a crooked smile as she stacked her arms and puffed out her chest. 'Was there ever any doubt?'

'Some,' Bez reminded her.

'A reflection of your own insecurity,' Launch snarked. 'What's the situation?'

'Recoome and I were about to go looking for you.' Pinching his face, he jabbed a thumb towards Mark. 'Was gonna have him prep the ship for launch- though that's an issue all of its own.'

One of Launch's eyebrows lifted. 'How so?'

Bez held up a hand, eyeing Bardock and Kakarot. 'Hold on. Let's get these two settled first.' He cleared his throat before shouting. 'Yo, Recoome!'

'Yo!' Out of a side-door Recoome surged out, nursing a still-bleeding nose with a clump of tissues. 'What's- ohoho!' Disregarding his injury, the red-haired alien stomped forward and hooked an arm each around Bardock and Kakarot. 'Two Saiyans! What a catch!'

'Please,' Kakarot griped, trying to angle his head away, 'you're getting nose blood on me.'

'Keep 'em close,' Bez directed. 'I want you to take those two to the room with the juice-goop machine and lock them inside. We never go in there, anyway.'

'Got it, boss!' Recoome slapped the two Saiyans on their shoulders. 'Turn around- this way! That's it!'

'...Wait.' Mark's head perked up. 'Did you say…' his eyes followed Recoome lead Bardock and Kakarot down the hall back towards the entrance of the ship. 'J-juice? Wait!' He cried, running after them. 'Recoome- now hold on, before you go in there!...'

Launch frowned as the four of them linked up and moved out of her sight. 'Why's Mark so on-edge?' She asked, glancing at Bez.

He shrugged. 'Dunno. Found him this way when Recoome and I got back to the ship.'

'He wasn't with you?'

'We lost him when you ran off.'

'Ran off,' Launch mocked him. 'As if I wasn't going on a mission.'

'You should have told us where you were going.'

Launch was ready to continue dismissing Bez's prattling when she caught his expression on the edge of her vision. He was frowning like a statue.

'I'm serious,' he added in a muted voice. 'It was wrong for you to do what you did earlier. What if you had gotten hurt out there? What would we have done? We didn't know where you were.'

Launch's hair swung across her jawline as she turned her head away from him. 'Perhaps you're right.' She puffed out her cheeks. 'I'm sorry.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah.' She turned back to him- and to his surprise, she was extending her hand. 'I haven't been the ally I should have been on this trip. I was too selfish and cocky to actually work with you three. And…' She chewed her lip. 'I'm not trying to score points here, but a part of me wanted to kill those two for what they did earlier. But I brought them back here instead. All four of us contributed to this mission's success, so all four of us should decide what to do with these Saiyans.'

'That's how you feel?' Bez said, eyeing her hand.

'Wouldn't bother lying.'

'Hmm.' Bez shook. 'I agree with what you said. On that topic of us pitching in, though, I bet you'd enjoy hearing what Recoome and I were getting up to while you were away.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah. But not now.' Bez gestured down the end of the hallway leading to the cockpit. 'We've got to solve that issue first.'

Launch blinked. 'What do you mean by that?'

0o0o0

Through the dark and the pits of hell Nappa would wade through to reach his Prince. And this decrepit space station was no hell. By reminding himself of the scouter shading his left eye he had calmed himself after being fooled- by Recoome, no less. But as his anger subsided frustration replaced it. He remembered seeing Recoome earlier from a different angle- he was in that group of four trying to get through the airlock. There was him, the blue-blonde hair woman, the one with the afro, the purple one…

Panting against a wall Nappa realized something. The Ginyu Squad wasn't here if Recoome arrived with that other group. And Recoome himself wasn't actually wearing PTO armor- more like a modified jumpsuit with a dividing band around his waist. No PTO soldier would ever be allowed to perform an op not in uniform. Which… Which meant...

Nappa's fingers dug into the wall, twisting steel and wire. No… Recoome isn't with the PTO anymore, isn't he? So… the Ginyu Squad doesn't exist anymore? Or at least he's not a part of them…

That purple alien… The grainy image of the back of that figure's head loomed in Nappa's memory. I've seen that before. Years ago… Bez. That was his name. He was with those-

It was like a jolt of electricity shot through his body. Nappa lifted from the wall. I need to find Vegeta. He quickly checked his scouter, searching for the nearest cluster of power levels, hoping that would hold his Prince. But this guess, if true- it explained so much. Why there happened to be a random fourth group here after them, Bardock and his son, and the PTO. It'd be the only other people in the galaxy who cared about what would happen at this station. He didn't totally understand how thew knew, or how they were here, or even why- but his gut instinct told him it was true. Damn them.

Damn those Earthlings.

With his discovery Nappa rushed as fast as he could. Eventually he reached a lit section of the station again and burst into a run. His scouter wasn't taking accurate readings lest it explode- instead, it kept pinging the nearby area for a grouping of energy.

And that grouping shrank as he approached.

His arms were weak, his legs aching, his chest twitching- but nothing would keep him from his Prince. Through hell as long as he lived. That was the deal. That was the promise he had made to the late King, even if he hadn't known the mission they'd set off on decades ago would last the rest of their lives. In that moment in the grand hall he had kneeled and laid his arm across his chest and swore to bring the Prince back safe and sound. Soon after there was nothing to bring the Prince back to. But the second part of that promise had not yet been broken.

Thoughts of devotion- or the pain snaking through his body- weakened his thoughts. His pace slowed as the corridor he traveled down widened into a large, circular room. Nappa's feet labored against the grate as he came to the doorway and leaned against it. Peering in. Witnessing the tumult of red.

In the center of the room on his knees Vegeta bled. Hot blood fell like a cape from his neck, sliding past his gloved fingers, despite all the pressure the Prince held to the wound. His eyes bulged, his teeth snarled… face paling. Every ounce of Vegeta's being was being thrust into staunching the flow of blood from his body. And as the conductor of this struggle for life Salza held up the Saiyan by his hair and had his ki blade aimed back towards the Saiyan's hands, inches from finishing what it started.

'I nicked an artery.'

Nappa was drawn into the room by shock. Salza's cold words, perhaps? Or the surrealness of what he saw.

'He can't move his arms,' Salza explained. His hair was glued to his forehead and left cheek with sweat. 'If he does, his blood pressure drops, he passes out, and he dies.'

Just watching twisted a knife into Nappa's gut. What had he let happen? He should have been here. 'I… why are you telling me this?' He managed eventually.

'A good question.' Salza tightened his fingers around Vegeta's hair. 'He is going to die unless I stabilize him- sear the wound shut with another variation of my ki blade. So I will tell you what you must do- you must surrender.'

The word immediately provoked a visceral reaction in Nappa- but nothing of that feeling survived the sight of the Prince dying. His eyes were sliding shut. His legs and arms were weakening. His blood was staining the pants section of his jumpsuit.

His mind was broken. He didn't know how else to explain it. But saying the words no true Saiyan had ever said before a well-placed chop to the neck knocked him out cold had been the easiest thing he had ever done.

0o0o0

Launch's body stretched over the ship's controls as he looked out the viewport. 'You know,' she said dryly, 'from your tone in the hall I had judged this situation to be a lot more chill.'

Despite the vast darkness of space, the black-painted ship stood out as a dread-inducing oval in their vision, hovering in place and lit at its edges by blue propulsion engines. Odd how vision worked. From here it didn't look that big- even if their flight computer told them it was at least a thousand times bigger than their own ship.

At the controls Bez settled into his seat and even went so far to kick up his feet on the paneling to room's side. 'I am chill.'

'I know that,' Launch barked at him. 'I'm asking why you're chill.'

Her glare stayed on him as he pressed his mouth in a thin, unhurried line. His right hand roamed to the right and flicked up a glass switch cover. Underneath there was a dark-red button. 'Bulma gave me a few tips for this ship before we left,' he started explaining. 'But what she stressed most of all was this button,' he pointed, 'right here, can only be pressed once.'

'What does it do?'

Bez's finger rested on the metal of the console next to the button. 'She never told me.'

Launch stared at him. 'But?...'

'We have to press it, right?'

'Because of the battleship?' Launch looked back out through the viewport. 'You don't think we can get past that just by flying normally?'

'Without getting blasted apart?' Bez sighed. 'I don't know the odds- and I don't think I would like them if I did.'

The ambiance of the cockpit beeped and brred, Stray starlight filtered through the thick glass of the viewport, moving across them like clouds shading a sunny day. And all the while the black oval loomed in the distance, holding in place amidst all the void like a black hole.

'Why again are you so chill?'

Bez rolled his head, weighing her question. 'I guess because I know there's nothing I can do here. Whether I succeed or fail is irrelevant. It'll all come down to Bulma Briefs' brilliance.'

Launch's mouth tugged downward. 'Have you been able to contact her since getting back to the ship? Get guidance on what this thing does?'

'Not at all.'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'Do I press it?'

'Hell no!' Bez was rocked from his seat as Launch crawled over the console and slapped the button down. 'Ride or die!'

0o0o0

They were dragged by the cuffs of their cracked armor. Nappa awoke to that sensation and never moved his gaze from his feet. To his right- he knew that was Vegeta, but never looked at him. He couldn't bear to see what he imagined would be there. He was thinking a bit more clearly now- Vegeta must have rejected an earlier offer to give up, even when bleeding through his neck. Salza would have killed them if neither one of them had willingly agreed to surrender. So he most likely had gone against Vegeta's dying wishes and forced life on him instead.

He had never done so much wrong by doing the right thing.

'There.' A new, resonant voice echoed. 'Put them there.'

Their dragging ceased and Nappa caught the slightest twitch of Vegeta's legs in the corner of his vision. So he was awake, too.

'Raise your gazes, please, and look upon who speaks to you.'

The room was decidedly not the space station- it was far too polished, renovated, and bright to be that ruin. The walls were furnished with fabric and pretty paneling, lighting a path towards the end of the room. There was a throne, modest, minor, appeared to be recently moved, and in that throne-'

Nappa's breath caught in his lungs. It had been a very long time since he'd seen that face.

'Well.' Cooler appraised them from his seat with his head balancing in his left, upturned hand. 'Two Saiyans- just not the ones I was hoping to catch.'

Salza's boots clicked from Nappa's left as he saluted. 'Unfortunately, my Lord.'

'Indeed.' After a second spent humming the Arcosian rose from his throne. He looked similar to his brother in terms of the natural armor adorning him, even if the coloring was all wrong. But Frieza was never as tall as that. Frieza did not lord over others like Cooler did.

He stopped in front of Vegeta. Now Nappa could see his Prince- face torn with fury, body angled towards the ground. Cooler noticed this as well. Arm extended, pointer finger leading, he placed his fingertip on Vegeta's forehead and pressed, slanting his face towards him. The slightest amount of heat fed into the Saiyan's skin.

'You are going to tell me what I want to know. If you can't or won't, I will kill you, just so you know,' he added, inflectionless,' quickly, before your puny little brain even knows what's happening to your puny little body. My brother was partial to drawing things out. I am not.'

'... Was…' Still weakened from blood loss, right shoulder still an open wound, Vegeta breathed heavily as his head trembled against Cooler's pressure. 'I understand. Your brother- he's no longer the Emperor of the galaxy, is he? That's you.'

There was a curious twitch from Cooler's outstretched hand. 'And what value do you find in repeating common knowledge?'

'Your brother, Frieza... does he still live?'

'He does, yes,' Cooler answered, sneering at him. 'More common knowledge. You Saiyans are incredibly dense.'

'Then… I have a request.' Vegeta licked his bruised lips. 'My crimes are… unforgivable…' he said, struggling to speak as his face made a disgusted expression, '...but, I hope, not unredeemable.' He lifted his head- not daring to look at Cooler head-on, but trying to show some of his face to the Emperor. 'Frieza is a threat to your rule for as long as you live.' An earnestness bled into his voice. 'Let me face him. Let me kill him and end his stain on the galaxy- or die trying.'

'You?' Cooler gave him a displeased look, much like someone inspecting a bruised piece of fruit. 'A Saiyan thinks he can defeat my brother? That is an insult to my entire family.'

'I know… nothing of value to you,' Vegeta reasoned, woozy. 'We chased Bardock and Kakarot- I'm sure you know their names- because they are Saiyans. There's nothing... we could tell you beyond that.'

Cooler's gaze flitted over to Salza. He disliked what he saw. 'You're useless to me, then? Is that what you're saying?' His ire swung back as his finger jabbed into Vegeta's skull. 'Are you trying to get me to condemn you to death?'

'I simply wish… to die a Saiyan's death. Let me face Frieza… let me try to kill him…'

'I deny your request.'

Vegeta's heart hurt so much. 'But...'

'I still have loose ends to tie- your loose ends. My troops were not able to accomplish our goal because you were killing them,' Cooler said, pushing Vegeta's head back. The Saiyan started to struggle to keep himself balanced on his knees. 'Of course, this would be an altogether different matter if our targets were dead. In that case, I would let you go on your little suicide mission to the edge of the galaxy, as I know my brother would give you a death worse than any one I could grant.'

Just as Vegeta was about to topple, Cooler drew back his finger. Though anger had bled into his voice the composure to his face had never left. 'But that path is now closed to you. Bardock and Kakarot still live on a ship that escaped from us, defying any attempt of ours to track it. So: you have a choice. Either you produce knowledge useful to me or I kill you where you kneel, for your crime of incompetence must be addressed immediately.'

Cooler's words echoed in the hall, sinking into the old metal bones of the ship. Vegeta listened to that ceaseless sound, face creasing, mind aching. He couldn't- not again.

'My subordinate had told me you wish never again to serve another,' Cooler continued, eyes flashing. 'Am I to understand that you will choose death at my hands, then? I should warn you that they aren't gentle.'

Too much of Vegeta's life was flashing before his eyes- because this was the end. He could never let himself become a slave again. If he did there would be nothing left of him. Nothing Saiyan. He would rot from his self-loathing until he was nothing more than another fat officer wasting away in the shadow of someone greater. He would have a squad and a prime apartment in the capital. He would grow lazy and forsake everything he had ever believed in. It was a different choice to continue living as a pawn pressed under a thumb when that was all he knew. But it was another thing entirely to subject himself to that life once more after being free.

He could never do it. He had to die a Saiyan if he could not live as one. The blood of his neck would spill again. On this ship, here, the Saiyans… they came to an-

'They had help.'

The entire room seemed to drown in silence as Nappa struggled to keep his gaze on the ground- away from the visible reaction he saw of Vegeta in his periphery.

'Who,' Cooler's voice trickled over to him. 'exactly?'

'Bardock and Kakarot,' Nappa explained, mind weak… but clear in this one matter. 'There were aliens here from a planet called Earth, Lord Cooler.'

The Emperor of the known galaxy exchanged a familiar look with Salza: with a nod his second turned and spoke to someone through his scouter. 'Is that where Bardock and Kakarot are heading right now?'

'I would guess that.'

A second of silence. 'Hmph.' Cooler stepped away from a frozen Vegeta. 'I assume you're bargaining for your life, then? What do you have to offer?'

Nappa focused his exhausted mind. Reasoning was not his strong suit. But… yes, there… 'We have information about Earth- about their fighters, their techniques, and their homes. All things that will make it easy to… handle them… and retrieve the two Saiyans from there.'

A look shot from Cooler to Salza. 'I see.' The Arcosian strode over to Nappa, and unlike Vegeta, cupped the Saiyan's chin and forced him to look him in the eye. 'Then I will have to make use of that, or at least keep you alive long enough to determine whether you're actually telling the truth.' Cooler dropped his hand and turned. 'Salza- throw them into adjacent cells. And keep an eye on that one,' he said, pointing to Vegeta. 'Judging by the look in his eyes I have a feeling he's likely to find the closest spike and throw himself on it at the first opportunity.'

'As you wish, my Lord.' With a crisp press of his scouter Salza returned and pulled Vegeta to his feet. A defeated look in the Saiyan's eyes kept roaming the ground, formless, aimless- until it landed on Nappa and lips rolled back to reveal snarling teeth.

'I will kill you, Nappa,' Vegeta swore with all his breath and being, rolled into a single sentence of pure hatred. Even when turned by Salza he stared over his shoulder, seeing nothing else but the other Saiyan. 'Your betrayal, across this lifetime and all the ones after- it will be remembered alongside the sad story of just another people helplessly dismantled by the PTO.' Vegeta's gaze dropped. 'Just another name.'

And then he was pushed away, body tensing, coiling, wrapping with hatred, forced into the dark and unknown. Maybe it was fitting that another Saiyan denied him a good death and given instead a wretched life. Father would have approved.

0o0o0

The world was growing dark as the sun retreated to the far horizon. When that pull ended and night finally came, no moon would shine through the thick clouds congealing above him. It would rain and rain and rain, drowning the forest below him, overflowing rivers and streams and bursting them across the land. A storm to match the day. A chaos to match the harvest.

As he crested through the sky Rush fingered the capsule in his right hand. It had been torture to wait as long as he did- months- but his moment was finally coming. What his being rested on completing. There would be no peace to the infernal screeching in his head until it was done. But now that both Yamcha and Chi-Chi were out of the way- he knew where he was. He could sense Gohan. Not too far now. He hadn't fled far from Fire Mountain.

With his other hand Rush grabbed a fistful of his gi and twisted. Still, heart… still…

His flight swept him over a ridge and down the beginnings of a valley. Lightning burst in the heavy clouds above- and two silhouettes appeared in his way, waiting in the air. Waiting for him.

He knew who they were.

'Who are you?'

Krillin and Rayne appraised the man before them. Tan skin, wide chest, short-cut, vertical hair just as Gohan had described him. He was oddly familiar. Almost like a bulkier and more sun-loving Yamcha.

'We're friends of Yamcha and Chi-Chi,' Krillin eventually answered once the wind rushing from the storm clap above passed. 'And you… your name is Rush, right?'

Curious blue eyes swung between them. 'I haven't met you before.'

'No- you haven't,' Rayne said. 'But we've heard about you. We've heard a lot about you.'

Rush didn't speak nor moved: he simply eyed them as his right hand rolled something against his hip.

'We'd like a word.'

Another flash of lightning above them. Faced and hard lines briefly lit by the light. The clouds were near bursting. 'That so?' Rush asked.

'Some odd things.' Krillin traded a glance with Rayne before spreading out further on the ground. 'Some interesting things. Like, for example, how you were in that desert with Yamcha, Chi-Chi, and us two during that fight a year ago.'

Mouth shut. Eyes forward. Hand smoothing something against his side.

Rayne tracked his right arm. 'You're an android, right? Created by Dr. Gero…' Rayne traded a subdued glance with Krillin. 'That was news to us. Major news. The Red Ribbon Army caused us a lot of harm, same as you…'

'Sure.'

'We're sorry for that,' Krillin clarified. 'But, uh… we're just confused.' He steeled himself with one more look to Rayne. 'Because we've also heard something… more. We've heard you have a capsule.'

Amid a gust of wind Rush pressed a finger to the center of forehead; the other, seizing and locking against his hip. The child was always too curious for his own good. That had been a mistake. A serious mistake.

'And the last thing he told us really threw us for a loop.' Krillin's voice floated calmly over to him. 'He said you had a capsule- a Capsule Corp. branded Capsule. Not super odd, except for the fact that it has-'

'My name-' Rayne interrupted in a stern voice. 'It has my name written on it.'

When had he found it? I never left my room- I never left my room for a reason. He couldn't have found it himself… unless he suspected me from the beginning and searched through my items while I was away with Yamcha and Chi-Chi, stalling.

'So.' Krillin's voice was curt. 'All we want to do is clear up this misunderstanding. Show us the capsule, and we'll figure out what exactly is going on.'

He should have destroyed it. Should have. But there was no going back now. This future was cast.

'Fine.' As Rush closed his eyes the clouds above shimmered. The first drops of rain began cutting through the growing gloom. 'We'll land- and we'll talk.' A sharp breath. 'I have something to show you.'

0o0o0

Piccolo's hands gripped the simple wood headboard. Something to anchor him to this place and time. The shadows around him seemed to have an end- he was in the pendulum room, with Kami, and with a ghost.

Leera's form was transparent and bright-gray, just manifesting as something discreet within the darkness here. And yet his hand was able to smooth over the sheet swaddling Kami.

'I think he wants to talk to you.'

He was amazed he did not have questions, as was he amazed that he had no questions for him.

'There will be a time for us to talk,' Leera said. His hands drew away from Kami. 'Now is not that time.' He glanced past Piccolo, towards the room's end. His outline began to shimmer as he strode away from the bed. 'Until then…'

His parting words bounced around in Piccolo's mind- the Namekian's head spun, eyes straining, but Leera was gone.

'...Please, Piccolo... ' Kami's weak voice drew Piccolo's attention back forward. The Guardian looked pained, though comforted by the pillows and bedding wrapped around him in bed. The skin of his face seemed to fold against his skull. 'Speak your mind.'

'...I don't know what to say.' Piccolo's mouth was dry. 'I don't even know where to begin.'

'Start small,' Kami urged, closing his eyes. 'Simple questions.'

'Well, in that case… it was Katas, wasn't it? It was our progenitor.'

Kami managed a thin smile. 'Who caused that dark night here atop the Lookout? Who summoned the Dragonballs and thrust his fingers into me and used my power for his own ends? Yes- it was him.'

Piccolo's nails dug into the wood, slicing grooves. 'So I thought. When did it start?'

'When?' Kami sounded confused. 'From birth, perhaps. There is much I still don't know even though Katas inadvertently shared much knowledge with me while immolating my body for his own gain.' He breathed, high and rattling. 'But, if I had to guess, the seed was there from birth, just as it had been in your father. Dividing into two did nothing to weaken his grip on us.' Kami's body rustled under the covers. 'If anything, doing so likely strengthened it.'

'I see.' Piccolo forced his hands away from the wood before he snapped the headboard in two. Tension remained even as he spoke to Kami. The same tension he had been feeling for months. What was it? He was finally here, speaking to Kami.

'You said… before,' Kami said slowly, 'that you guessed it was Katas.' He coughed weakly. 'Excuse the pace of an old and weak Namekian… but how do you know of him?'

Piccolo considered what, if anything, he should say. But this Kami was nothing like the one he had known. This one was far too weak to ever harm him again. What fear should he have? Why hold anything back?

'There was a time I came to the Lookout after returning to Namek,' Piccolo said. 'Do you remember?'

'Oh, yes,' Kami chuckled. 'It was a foul day for me.'

'It was… there… on Namek… that I learned of Katas. The Namekians' Elder passed onto me knowledge of the Elder before him- the one called Guru.'

Kami wetted his dry lips. 'Guru…'

'Do you know him?'

'...No,' Kami answered eventually, 'I do not think I do…. though the name is familiar. No doubt's Katas's touch lingers on me.'

'Katas knew him well,' Piccolo elaborated. 'He, Guru, and another Namekian named Slug were old and ancient Namekians hundreds of years ago. They conquered the galaxy together but turned on each other. Slug was trapped on a planet by the power of Guru's Dragonballs, and then Guru himself betrayed Katas in battle.' Piccolo's eyes flitted to the floor. 'That is when Guru spared the being you split from and sent him away from Namek. He worried that you would carry the old world into his new one.'

Movement: Piccolo's eyes lifted and he saw Kami, in an extraordinary show of will, lean off the bed, eyes wide open, staring at him. 'That is how I came here, to this planet, all those centuries ago?'

'It is.'

It was a feeling he never thought he'd see from Kami's eyes- relief. Old and faded pupils bursting with an appreciation Piccolo had never known himself. Kami's eyes watered- he shook his head in disbelief, and after expending his energy, came back down to his pillow. 'That… that is the answer I've always wanted to know. My entire life… I have wondered why I have struggled.' Kami's cheeriness started to clash with how his hands wrung into the sheets. 'I tried so hard to be good… I cast aside what I thought was the evil in me and tried to absolve myself of any imperfection… because perfection taunted me. I… I always wanted to know why my life had to be this way. This struggle. This pain.'

Kami whimpered- the agony that came had clearly overpowered the relief he'd experienced seconds prior. 'But… now I know.' He looked through his pain to Piccolo. 'Tell me… is Namek peaceful?'

Piccolo couldn't believe it. He was pitying him. 'It was a planet of farmers who couldn't fight.'

'Oooh…' Kami made a remorseful expression. 'So I was rejected from a peaceful world. Considering this… it is truly remarkable that I rose to be a guardian of another.' His eyes closed again. '...Piccolo, if this is to be the end… I thank you for giving an old Namekian closure at the dawn.' A serene peace settled on Kami. 'Thank you.'

Tension flared once more through Piccolo. 'What end?'

Kami breathed easily. 'I can answer one last question before it is time.'

'Time for what?' Piccolo said quickly.

'I will answer it if you do not ask it.'

'Answer my question!'

And there- it wouldn't be complete without that insufferable knowing smile of his. Piccolo suddenly felt the urge to throttle Kami. But he spoke before he could clench his hands.

'I was secluded in my black barrier for a very simple reason,' Kami said, voice growing tired. 'I was afraid of Katas's touch. I feared that if I felt it again it would be the death of me, considering how close he brought me the first time.'

'...You nearly died, then?' Piccolo asked tentatively.

'I did. I had no power over myself in that moment. Katas used me for monstrous ends- he revived himself and walks the galaxy once more.'

'So I thought.'

'But… the barrier broke because we both wished it,' Kami said, voice urging. 'Because you reached out to me. And I know that, if you stay at my side, Katas will never harm me again… or you, for that matter.'

Piccolo's mouth was very nearly sealed shut.

'But I must also acknowledge that it is better to drop the barrier now, willingly, than be forced to later.' Kami coughed. 'And that is that.'

'Later. When is later?'

'A poor choice of words.' Kami's voice drifted. 'But I cannot answer any more of your questions,' Kami said regretfully. 'The day has grown too late. You are needed now.'

'Needed?' Piccolo's hands fashioned themselves into claws. 'Needed for what?'

The old Namekian did as ancients did and rolled over in his bed, face loosening, sheets curling, falling into sleep. But his voice spoke into his mind one last time. 'I am sorry for what I have caused. But even I could never have foreseen and prevented the devotion shown to you. You owe much… to your friends...'

The whisper brushed against Piccolo's neck and died in the shadows beyond. Kami fell asleep.

0o0o0

'Haaauuuh!'

Piccolo's lungs burned as air was pulled into them. Panting, he staggered backward, landing on his back and propping himself off the ground by his hands. Sweat ran down his antennae and dripped onto the worn carved floor.

Carved. Piccolo's fingers traced the grooves. He was back in the Pendulum Room- in reality. He thought he had come out of his mind earlier… but that had been a trick. Now…

Piccolo tested his energy; he flared his aura, examined and pumped his arms. He felt real. And the wind he felt from the room's opening-

The Namekian's attention snapped to the door. It was ajar. He had closed it. His hands curled into claws as he rose- leaving behind a peacefully sleeping Kami in his bed.

Cape crawling along the floor behind him, Piccolo strode out of the complex, hands steadying himself as he rounded corners and stepped out into the day's fading light. Brittle, broken stonework was littered across the Lookout. Energy scarred immaculate white. Yellow and pink and deepest blue. A battle. And...

At the other end, two figures. One standing, one kneeling: his face anguished, body trembling, fingers twitching on tile. Tien's left arm was bloody and torn open by bone, falling across the tiles like a dying, broken branch, and clung to his body by the few remaining strands of muscles, ligament, and skin bridging the gap below his shoulder.

And yet still his fingers pressed into the tiles.

Alongside the wind the other figure, a wrinkled, darkened, massive Namekian raises his head, brandishing his impressive jaw to the last rays of sunlight.

Not Katas. But not too far from it.

Slug turned to him, fangs sticking out from his mouth, hood drawn back, arms held to the sky like a prophet. He spoke after filling his chest with clean, crisp air.

'And so the whelp of Katas finally greets me.' His black-as-night pupils landed on Piccolo. 'Hello, boy.'


A/N: Huuuuuge chapter. The longest one I've ever written, in fact! But it was fun to write. Glad to finally finish this arc! We're going to be kicking along on every piston from this point on until the end of Volume III. Wahoo!

Also, in case it wasn't obvious, the arrangement of the last few chapters isn't totally chronological, and as a result I tried to give some guidance as to when things are happening in relation to other concurrent events via the position of the sun across a long, unending day.

Admittedly, I pushed a little content in this chapter to the next one. This one was just getting too long. I hope you'll excuse some minor cliffhangers to be resolved next time! Next chapter marks the beginning of Blood. See you there.

Lastly, since we're at the end of the arc, I'm going to give both (rough) power levels and power tiers for all the fighters we've seen in action so far. Those two sections are going to be put here relatively soon after publishing. I didn't want anything else to delay me from getting this chapter to you all.

Tiers & Integrated Power Levels:

Space

A (7 to 5 million range): Vegeta, Salza, Dore, Launch, Neiz

B (5 to 3 million range): Nappa

C (3 to 1 million range): Bardock, Turles, Bez, Kakarot

D (1 million range): Recoome, Mark

Earth

A (7 to 5 million range): Nam (Wheelo)

B (5 to 3 million range): Yamcha, Chi-Chi, Suno, Ebi, Robotic Wheelo

C (3 to 1 million range): Retu, Chiaotzu, Miso, Kishi

D (1 million range): Kochin (waaaaay at the bottom)

Gero, Android 19: ?

Reviews:

KagariAsuha: Thanks for the review! Bardock and Kakarot's return to Earth, among many other things, is coming soon.

Cityracer: Thanks as always for the review, friend. I'm glad you enjoyed the Chi-Chi / Suno fight. I originally had the idea that Suno would speak through it, but then I felt the guttural, almost inhuman manner of her fighting would be really emphasized by her speaking as much while mind-controlled. I also have to give credit there to the original fight in the movie between Piccolo and Goku.

Yeah… the tragedy wasn't quite there yet in that fight. It came later x(

Recoome might be training soon! If matters on Earth are any indication the gang is going to need all the help they can get.

I honestly haven't thought about whether Recoome would be a good fit. I also think they'd have to seriously think whether to teach it to him first.

I hope that thrashing Bardock gets from Launch illuminates the stack-up of power levels among the Saiyans to the humans. Nappa and Bardock were able to have a fairly even fight. Neither of them would have stood a chance against Launch. And the fight between Launch and Vegeta, at least initially, was also very even…

Oh, of course! Launch is not a perfect person. None of the main cast is. She can get fixated on certain things to the detriment of anything else relevant.

I'm glad you liked that line! I was a fan of it, too. Yamcha has at times struggled in this fic but he has never given up.

Anonymous: Nam is (or, was…) a tough cookie.

Yep, Launch is prone to wacky swings in thought. Also, I so, so love that line too. Felt pretty clever when it popped into my head!

I'm glad you've gone from hating to loving Kakarot! Perhaps I can swing that back in the opposite direction xd…

Oh yes, his sacrifice was very break even considering his actions directly prior to it killed Krillin, lol. So just getting back to neutral after prolonging the fight.

Their chances of escaping would be bad if anyone caught up to them. Considering that both Vegeta and Launch were walking down the same corridor towards them, and Vegeta only stopped because he heard Launch coming up behind him… their odds were not that good. Also remember Cooler's battleship is parked right outside the system.

Thank you for the review!

yasho360: It's going to be a little awkward keeping Bardock and Kakarot (and someone else!?) safely on the ship… you'll see what the solution is to keeping them restrained in the next chapter. Thanks for the review!

Now, for those who read the reviews- I'm happy to say this fic has officially hit 100,000 total lifetime views. That is insane. So once again, thank you all for reading. It's been a joy to earn those first 100,000 and I'm sure the second 100k will be just as sweet.