A/N: I basically wrote this chapter in a couple of days because I just finished all my midterms and got a burst of energy after finally having some free time for a little while. I really intended this chapter to be shorter than it is, but I turned out wanting more things to be wrapped up here and the rest in following chapters. I hope you enjoy and I also hope to get the next one out sooner rather than later!

When I Ascended, the sky responded, clouds already present churning with the shift in polarity. Bits of debris swirled under the new gravitational pull and a thunderbolt struck the ground some feet away, electricity snapping along my body.

"Lightning!" Daikon cackled. "Of course."

I let my own strength roil through me, unconfined from how I'd been wielding it earlier. Within my energy abruptly being set free I focused on the tightness in my shoulders, in my jaw, taking the feeling of my own anger and compressing it into someplace in my chest. Honing it into a razing edge, a weapon to carry out what I wanted to do – what I needed to do.

I set my eyes on my opponent again, cleared my thoughts, and set a neutral stance.

"What are you waiting for?" he barked.

"I'm giving you a chance," I replied.

"Tch. Another opportunity for me to surrender? You really are pathetic."

"No. Not for surrender. I'm giving you a chance to cut me down."

His impertinence faded back into focus, reacting to my sudden deadly calm.

"I'm not trying to trick you. I mean it. This is the last chance you're going to have in your life to hit me. I stand by what I said: a sword is only as good as its wielder. So show me what you're made of, deserter," I said, arms open at my sides. "Come try and kill me like you wanted – behead me, cut me in half, put that sword through my heart. And if I'm still standing when you're done, I'm going to show you what I'm made of."

For once, he didn't have some arrogant comeback. I could almost see the gears turning in his head. Maybe he didn't have a plan beyond actually thinking he could take me one-on-one. Not that it really mattered, now.

He reached over his shoulder and pulled the scabbard off his back, tossing it aside. I used my periphery to mark the place it landed, but when he did nothing else, I took a single step forward.

He moved. Faster than I'd thought he was capable of, but still painfully slow by the perception of my currently enhanced senses. The sword slashed down through the air, wind tinging off the metal and I watched it crest towards me.

I could have avoided it. Instead I stayed in place with my arms relaxed and moved nothing but my eyes to follow the incoming attack.

The sword bit into my neck and all the way in a diagonal strike from the top left of my torso and down across my ribs –

And stopped.

It hadn't gone in more than a centimetre through my flesh, not even enough to sever my collarbone. Pinching heat lanced across the contact and blood was already flowing from my throat, maroon beads blooming in my shirt down the stinging line. But I felt nothing more except the weight my opponent still pressed into the swing, trying in vain to force through someone he was not physically strong enough to cut, no matter how sharp the sword.

He looked genuinely surprised, at least.

"Congratulations," I said. "You've managed to lower my expectations of you."

Then I drove my boot into his chest and he was smashing through the ancient building at the far end of our battlefield, faster than he could blink.

I flash-stepped to where he was just starting to recover from the attack, impressively still holding the sword as he got up.

Without warning he launched at me again, slashing the blade. I swept one leg behind me and the attack went harmlessly through the air, leaving my opponent overextended for a second long enough for me to flex forward and drive my elbow into his ribs. Then I thrust my other hand forward to grab his hair and, shifting my balance, used the leg I'd swept aside to swing into his stomach knee-first. He curled over in pain and I used where I was still holding him to whip him away onto the ground.

He clumsily rolled back to his feet, partially using the sword for balance.

"Is... that all you got?" he said, obviously still half dazed.

I raised my hands in front of me and began firing a volley of energy blasts.

He leapt into the air to avoid them and my aim followed. A few he was able to dodge or cut through, but when one glanced off his shoulder and then another it was clear he was losing stamina, fast.

My final ki blast was larger than the others and consumed the entire space between us. When, predictably, he had to try and cut his way through it, I followed in behind the attack and as it split, I got a good look at his shocked expression right before I punched it.

He went sailing into the ground, gouging a wide crater, and I went after him.

I touched ground on the edge of the rubble, feeling it shift beneath my heels. My opponent was still getting up, still able to, but this time he'd dropped the sword. It was off to my left, outside the radius of the crater.

I leisurely strolled over to it as Daikon managed to reach a kneeling position. His attention was entirely centred on trying to stand while I reached the fallen blade, my gaze running over it.

Nudging the toe of my boot under the hilt, I lifted it and then gave it a kick so the sword skidded across the ground towards him.

He turned towards it as it came to land near him. He glared at me, snatched it into his hand and used it to get himself standing.

When he caught his breath a little, he ran at me and came in with a sloppy, overhand chop. I caught his wrist easily. He used his other hand to try punching and I used my own free hand to catch that too.

I then began constricting my vice-like hold around his fist until I felt something beneath start to give.

He didn't make a sound, but when the bones in his hand started snapping, his legs gave out and he sank with a pained exhale, still partially held up by me.

"You said I wasn't a prince. But here you are, grovelling on your knees," I said.

I supposed the pain became too much and he released the sword, the flat of the blade bouncing off his shoulder before clanging to the dirt. I let go of him and once again tossed him back several feet, kicking the weapon in his direction for the second time afterwards.

"Pick it up," I instructed.

Something like laughter made it out of him. "How... honourable of you," he choked.

"I'm surprised you even know what that concept is," I replied, walking over.

"Oh, yes... I know enough about honour to realize I have none. But I... also know that deep down... you aren't exactly noble, either, no matter what you think."

"Everything I've done so far has been for other people. I'm trying to save the Saiyan race from the death hanging over us. I'm trying to save my father. I don't expect you to understand that and I don't care what you call me for it."

"L... Liar," he said. "If you were really doing this for something you cared about... your own honour doesn't matter. I'd gladly watch the universe burn if it could save one person that meant everything to me... Even if they thought I was a monster for it. You... are here because if you weren't... that facade of honour you cling to would disappear."

I took a few more steps until I was within reach of him and picked up my sword. The weight of the hilt felt so familiar, yet surreal at that moment.

Daikon got partway up to defend himself before I stabbed him through the leg.

Blood spurted from the entry and the exit of the blade through his thigh. He cried out in pain this time, the sword probably having gone through his femur. More blood, striking red, leapt from the wound as I yanked the weapon back out and he was down for good this time.

I dropped down and jabbed my knee into his chest, pinning him in place. He lay there tame, exhausted as I raised the sword with the end pointed towards the place between his eyes.

I drove the blade down, the full weight of my upper body behind.

Half the entire blade had been shoved into the ground from my strength. The rest remained exposed to the air, partially blood-smeared, stuck in the empty space right next to Daikon's head. The edge barely nicked his ear, a small red blot the only part of him injured from the strike.

I couldn't do it.

I stared at him, blinking, as if it would clear the vision that had played in my mind an instant before I would've struck. That grotesque picture of his splitting skull. The knowledge that I had been about to inflict that reality on another person. And –

And for what?

Gods. Gods. What the hell had I almost done?

I felt the Ascended State slip away and soft threads of purple hair returned to their place in my peripheral vision.

'I'm trying to save the Saiyan race from the death hanging over us.'

The only death hanging over this man right now was me. Me. He was part of the people I was supposed to be protecting. What did he deserve such a horrible death for? Stealing and calling me names? I was the only one he'd threatened, and it had clearly been to goad me into battle. He'd killed PTO soldiers, but... for all I knew he'd done it in self-defence.

What would Mom think of me if she saw me now? For fuck's sake, I had a five-year-old sister waiting at home who looked at me like I was king of the world –

Daikon was staring right back at me. After a moment where I could see realization sinking into him, he let out whatever breath he'd been holding, eyes wide.

"Why did you miss?" he said. Then anger came across his features again.

"Come on, you son of a bitch! Do it!" he snapped. "Kill me! I stole from you! Tried to humiliate you! I called you down at every fucking opportunity I got! I'm selfish, angry and vindictive and I hate every last one of you! Don't I deserve to die?"

"You... want to die?" I asked dumbly.

"Yes! I want to die! I want you to rip me to shreds! There's no other way for this to end!"

I didn't know what to say. Didn't know what to feel, beyond confusion.

"I don't understand," I voiced aloud. "You've been doing all this... just so you could get me to kill you? But why would you want that?"

"Fuck! Why do you care? Shut up and kill me! Come on!"

I just sat there. After a moment he shoved at my chest with what strength he had remaining, but stupefied as I was it was enough to push me aside and onto the ground, hands slipping from the sword hilt. Free, he rolled onto all fours with great effort, unable to rise further.

"Damn it," he hissed. "Damn it, damn it!" He slammed a fist into the ground. "Damn all of this! Damn you! Why couldn't you have just done what any other Saiyan would've and gone through with it? Why couldn't you have never shown up in the first place?"

He seemed to only get angrier when I proffered no answers, glaring at me.

"Stop it. Stop it! You, you coward, this is all your fault. Ravi never would have given a shit about any of this if it weren't for you. But of course the goddamn half-breed Prince of Saiyans had to be the one to find us!" he damn near sobbed.

Still unable to get up, he curled in on himself more instead. "Stop looking at me like you know! If there's anyone who's worth giving mercy, it's Ravi. Please. Please just tell her to leave you alone and find somewhere away from all this."

"I... I still don't..." I tried.

"She wouldn't listen and I couldn't make her do anything. I didn't think I could defeat you. I – if I could kill you by chance we'd both be free. But I couldn't leave things to chance – if you killed me, she'd never help you. Even if she by some miracle wanted revenge you wouldn't hurt her. If you'd wanted that you'd have done it already. So I had to take things into my own hands."

"You... did all this... just for that?" I gawked in disbelief.

He glared at me, silent.

"You're insane," I said.

"Things are just going to get worse as soon as Frieza knows about you. Everyone around you will get caught in the blast range. If your father is still alive it's only so Frieza can draw you out! I meant what I said – I don't think you can kill him. He'll destroy us all and that means Ravi too. I owe her my life... my freedom... everything. She gave me my name, she gave me a purpose and even if I'm weak, I swore to repay her for those things!" he said. "I... I was a slave. I was an object that could walk and talk and give people what they wanted. My pod – when I was barely young enough to remember I was a third-class sent into space from Planet Vegeta. Ravi told me that something must have went wrong because I was sent to a planet in Cooler's territory. Away from where Saiyan babies were meant to go."

He managed to get to a half-sitting position. "I wasn't strong enough to be a threat to anyone on that planet. Or strong enough to escape. I spent my life as a gladiator – as a servant for other people to do what they willed with. A trophy to brand and parade around." His tattoos were stark against his skin that was quickly losing colour. "And then Ravi showed up. She'd come there by accident, but she helped us free ourselves – all of us slaves. After it was over, she asked me if I wanted to leave with her and go across the stars. And I – I was so afraid but for the first time I was free."

He propped himself up on the sword where it remained stuck.

"She's never wanted anything from me but company," he went on. "But she can't feel fear – to the point that she has no regard for her own safety. So I won't let you drag her into the mess you've created. The man who raised her already gave his life to protect you and she shouldn't have to sacrifice anything else for you! So you'd better kill me, or I'll... I'll..."

Then he fell from the last thing holding him upright and collapsed onto the ground, where several long seconds went by and he didn't move.

This man had never had any tricks up his sleeve. He'd had some kind of, who knew, gods-damned mental breakdown because he was unstable and, and he was bleeding – he was going to bleed to death.

I scrambled up and over to him and turned him over. His tan skin was ashen and though he still breathed, short and shallow, his leg was a heavily bleeding mess.

I pulled off my shirt, already ruined from being cut through earlier anyway, and began tying it as best I could around the wound, watching it quickly soak through.

"You... can't be serious," he said.

"You can't still be talking," I tried to riposte, though I could hear a slight shake fighting to emerge from my own voice.

"Can't even... let a man bleed to death after... botching his own fucking murder."

"If I'm too cowardly to kill you, then I'm definitely too cowardly to watch you die," I replied.

"You... really are... an asshole," he said. "Trying to save me..."

"Not surprised your only friend's a deaf woman when even dying your mouth still won't take a holiday." With that I lifted him carefully to carry him over my shoulder, and levitated into the air.

Before taking off into the sky, I used my free hand to pull my sword free and then soared off, honing in on Goten's energy. I went as fast as I dared towards it while trying not to jostle my cargo.

He was nearby. So was Korravi. In fact, they were in right about the same place, energies alight.

After several moments soaring over rooftops I spotted them below. They were facing each other, but their attentions were on me as they noticed my arrival. Had they been fighting each other and I'd been too caught up to notice?

"Goten," I said as I landed. I noticed he wore my empty scabbard on his back. "We need to get back to your dad right now. I need a senzu bean."

My friend jogged over right away. "What happened?"

"I stabbed him in the leg. He's bleeding a lot."

"You're bleeding too," Goten remarked.

"It's nothing. Your dad did bring the senzu beans off the ship, right? They're not capsuled in there with it?"

"No, but -" Goten stopped when Korravi's shadow fell over us.

I met her fathomless gaze and she said, "Give him to me."

I gently handed her Daikon. She took him like he was made of glass, looking at his face.

Goten was rummaging around for something next to me until I heard him make a noise.

"I have a senzu bean," he said. "I just brought the one. Bardock said -" He cut himself off there and I looked at the ground. My sword was at my side, shining metal stained. Goten held out the bean.

"What is that?" Korravi asked.

"Senzu bean," I said. "Feed it to Daikon. It'll heal him."

The woman took the object from Goten, knelt down to prop Daikon against her more upright and then did as instructed.

For a long second, he didn't do anything. Then Korravi stood back up, taking him with her to set him on his feet. And he stayed there, hands resting on her arms, strength clearly flowing back into legs. He tottered for a moment uncertainly before looking up at her.

"How are you?" she said.

"H -" he sputtered. "How am I?"

"Yeah."

He gawked down at his leg, flexed his hands, and stared back at her.

"I'm sorry," he said. Then he reached out, put his hands around what was left of her ruined armour and pulled himself to her, resting his forehead on her chest.

She lifted her arms like she was unsure whether to pull him off, but ultimately returned one to her side and placed the other loosely on his back, glancing off into the distance in what might have been embarrassment.

The silence held for awhile until Goten cleared his throat.

"So," he said. "Uh. What now?"

I didn't say anything. I scanned his pensive expression and he blinked as if a lightbulb had gone off in his head.

"Oh. Right here." He took the sheath from off his back and held it out to me.

"Thanks," I said, wiping my sword clinically on my pant leg before I took the scabbard back and re-sheathed it. The metal fastenings were cold on my bare skin as I returned the weapon to its rightful resting place, pausing with my thumb under the strap so it didn't touch the bloody streak on my chest. I lightly wiped at the now sealed cut with my other hand, suddenly feeling conscious of the fact that I had no shirt on.

"Let's go," I said to Goten before turning away.

"Where?" he answered. He began to follow hesitantly, looking back and forth between me and the Saiyans still behind us. "What about them? Trunks?"

"After I deal with that dead Saiyan's body, we're going to get Gohan, Bardock, and your dad so we can leave this planet," I said tiredly. "Those two can do whatever they like."

We didn't have to go far or wait long. After I'd vaporized the old man's body (there was certainly no proper place to bury it and I couldn't just leave it there), the others had finished whatever they were doing and come to us within the abandoned area of the city, battering me with a flurry of questions I answers as succinctly as possible. As it turned out, they had acquired some valuable information that would influence our next move – something about a Namekian or two being reported on PTO territory elsewhere in the galaxy. But that conversation was set on hold momentarily when we realized the deserters had indeed followed us.

They'd been trailing some ways behind, but all of us went quiet when they landed. I turned to face them and they stopped within speaking distance, but no closer.

"What do you want?" I said bluntly, turning to face them. I'd given a rough recount to the others about what happened since Korravi and I had jumped out of the ship, so even though they didn't know the details, Bardock, Gohan, and Goku kept their peace for the time being.

"I'm here to fulfill the agreement we made," Korravi said, "if I'm allowed to take Daikon with us."

Right. I'd agreed for us to help each other find the people we were looking for, if we were still allies after everything. Well, I'd gotten my sword back, though Daikon remained as a contention between us. Not that I would have expected her to want to leave him behind. And there was something about her grandfather I wasn't clear on.

"Why would he want to come with us and why would I trust him to?" I said.

"I won't give you some half-assed apology, even if I thought it would make a difference," Daikon spoke up. He looked at me, then dropped his gaze. "I didn't expect to see the end of the day. But the fact remains that I'm still here, and you saved my life. I would be damned happy to use this second chance and for Ravi and me to take our ship and leave. But there's nowhere else in the universe for me if I don't follow her. So if she goes with you, I go too. And I'll help you kill Frieza or whatever the hell else because it's better than not being able to watch Ravi's back at all."

He kept his eyes down and waited patiently. He'd given up fighting me, both literally and figuratively. I'd never go so far as to say there was some kind of inherent alpha pissing contest between Saiyan individuals, but there was often some kind of unspoken recognition of where people stood with one another, separate from their third or upper class caste. Up until now it had been a contest of wills between us, but if he was finally willing to make peace...

"As much as I try to keep him from getting his head punched in, I won't tell him what to do. But I won't leave him behind either. I'll accept whatever answer you give us," Korravi said.

Did I really want Daikon to come with us? No. If possible, I'd rather have never seen him again. I had saved his life, but he'd neglected to mention that I'd only needed to after almost ending it.

But I hadn't ended it. Didn't want to think about that right now, anyway. I felt exhausted, down to my bones. I wanted to lay down and sleep and wake up somewhere that these things didn't matter for awhile. Like home.

"I could read their minds," Goku's voice interjected into the silence. I looked at him.

"If they agreed to so that they could prove they mean what they say, I could read their minds. Teamwork ain't gonna work unless we all trust each other," he said.

I pursed my lips. "Would the rest of you even agree to have them come with us in the first place?"

"You were the one wronged, and you're the Prince of Saiyans. It's up to you," Bardock said. (Coming from a man who claimed to see the future, I wasn't sure it was up to me.)

I gave Goten a look. He just shrugged at me, not meeting my eyes. Gohan stayed pretty quiet.

Taking my silence as a response, Goku strode up to Korravi and fiddled with something on his waistband.

"Is that okay with you guys? If I read your minds I promise I'm not gonna go rifling through your personal memories or anything." He withdrew a senzu bean and offered it to Korravi.

"I don't think I need that," she said. I recalled that I'd given her some of my energy. "But if you can really read minds, then go ahead."

"That wound might scar if you leave it," Goku said, and she relented and ate it. The burnt area below her broken armour regenerated, though a good deal of dried blood still remained covering her abs.

"Tch. If you're gonna read my mind, get it over with," Daikon huffed.

Goku walked up to him and put his hand on the other man's head. He stayed that way for a good while until he eventually retracted, nodding to himself silently before moving on.

He did the same to Korravi, but the pause seemed to go on longer than usual.

"Heh," Goku chuckled, opening his eyes. Then he pulled back and scratched his head in his Goku way. "Sorry guys, but she must have a special brain because I've got no clue what her thoughts mean. She's just got a bunch of shapes instead of that little voice everybody has. She can't even hear me talking right now! Boy, and I thought regular girls were – oh. Eh heh. Whoops! You just can't hear at all! Man, that's neat! I've never met somebody like you before! So do you have, like, super vision? Or super-super strength? If you do that would be really cool and that means you gotta spar with me sometime!"

"Uh..." Korravi looked like she'd lost track of Goku's words partway through his excited burst of curiosity, her palms up in front of her in a helpless gesture.

"Dad, seriously," Goten remarked.

"So have you decided, then?" Bardock cut in. Goku quit his bubbly tirade and shrugged.

"They seem fine to me. But it's up to Trunks, I guess," he said.

I considered the situation. Their ship was broken and they had nowhere to go, really. And they were Saiyans.

I walked over to stand in front of the deserters and looked between the two of them. Daikon had taken a half-step back when I approached, so I turned to Korravi first and stuck my hand out.

Predictably, she just stared at it.

"It's called a handshake," I said. "It's something people do on my mother's planet when they say hello – or when they agree on something. From now on I want us to agree to work together honestly. Just take my hand and I'll show you."

She seemed to mull it over for a second, and then grasped my extended right hand with her left one – the wrong one.

"Um... Your other hand," I suggested. However, instead of switching she merely set her other one on top, callused palms engulfing mine. It might've been funny at that point had I not started to feel embarrassed also.

"Like that?" she said.

"Close enough, Korravi," I muttered, face warm.

She pulled back and put her hands on her hips. "You don't have to use my full name. Just Ravi is fine."

"Ah. Okay then. Ravi it is," I replied. Then I turned to Daikon and extended my hand to him.

Neither of us said anything, but I could see him thinking about whether to accept it. After a moment, he slowly raised a hand in return – but made it into a fist, held out in front of him.

In response, I curled my own hand and touched my knuckles to his.

"Terracotta," he said abruptly. I froze.

"That's the planet where the old man thought the save haven was. Terracotta," Daikon repeated.