Saiyan Sovereignty
Part 3
Beast in the belly
WARNING
Graphic violence

"We have been diligently studying the movement of the city guard, and have sent in our best man to learn how the prison guards operate and their shift workings. We are getting closer to being able to proceed with the mission, but we still have so much information to gather" Bardock explained in a muted tone, as if reading from a script.

This mission had taken a lot from Bardock, everything from him that the war with the empire had failed to take. His energy had almost been spent. Day in, day out, for months they studied the city, they trained and they strategised. Watching the Cold empire slowly devour and destroy the once bustling, progressive city was just as damaging for the Men, as it was for Bardock to watch. He had stopped sleeping many nights ago, his thinking became slow and instinctual, his nightmares returned, ones that had long been buried since the end of the invading war. He was holding on by a thread, but he had a mission to complete and Men to protect. He had lost just about everything he had ever loved, he couldn't lose this too.

"That is great news Father" Raditz started through the receivers crackling.

"Tell us Bardock, what are your chances, realistically" Bardock heard his old Friend Kolard asked with a heavy heart.

"To be honest, I'm not even sure we have a chance" Bardock sighed.

"Bardock, have you got the weapons capsule with you?" Bulma's voice suddenly came over the receiver.

Bardock's eyes widened. How, how could he have forgotten? After all the initial planning, the training, the traveling and the endless surveying of the city. He had forgotten the capsule Bulma had given him the day she left. Although, when she had reached out to give the older Saiyan the small cold bit of metal, she had hesitated, as if she knew this decision could go one of two ways. Was she unsure that Bardock would make the right decision? What was that? Bardock physically shook the thought from his mind. This news changed everything, but did he even have it still? It had been months since he had laid eyes on the capsule.

"I am not sure I do, I… I haven't seen it in awhile" Bardock sighed.

"Find that capsule Bardock, it will help you, I know it will!" He heard Bulma plead, her voice more sure now than in his memory.

But honestly, his mind had been made up by the look on her face as her outstretched hand stopped and slightly retracted. She had hesitated, she did not trust him. Could he trust her?

The thoughts began, they flooded his mind's eye and began to invade his whole body, twitching his muscles into an electrical charged movement. His body was readying to fight, to kill and his mind was going blank. Like a bear before they charged on their prey, his eyes were black with nothingness and his instincts had taken hold.

"Bardock, we have been hearing reports that the Empire are using Black Magic, and that the Prince has ben using it to torture and get…." Bardock heard a voice getting softer and softer, until they were mumbled and muted as if underwater.

A strange flash fell over Bardock's vision, as Kolard's voice began to finally fade and completely distorted into something else. Like the sun appearing from behind a hill, the flash grew bright and he shut his eyes from the pain. His hearing buzzed and the world started to move around, into shapes and different memories of Bardock's past, they felt surreal and real all in one. A big rush of panic started to set in, and just as his past feelings and sights started to consume him, it all began to fade. Then suddenly the world flowed back to normal, with a loud abrupt pop.
It was over as quickly as it had come on, and Kolard was still talking. Bardock couldn't help but groan at the sound of his voice, he had missed what his Saiyan comrade had said, but he did not have the energy or the interest in hearing it again. A strange, uncontrollable anger had engulfed him now. The sound Kolard was making, it made him furious, so badly that he felt nauseous.

"Yes, right. I better be off, the night shift will be starting soon and I have plans to put in place." Bardock said with a tone of frustration, he then switched off the receiver quickly.

His mood had gone from stale, to anxiously irked, to down right maddening. Bardock wondered if he had finally gone mad. His feelings were overwhelming, like they were taking control and all he could do was take his hand off the reins. The only thing he felt he could do in this moment was stand up and allow the new feelings to surround him and envelop his senses, he had to give in, he had no choice, he didn't want them to go away any more. A fog had captured his brain, but he found he was now on autopilot. The angry, maddening feelings started to disperse as the dissociation became ever present. He was a walking machine, something had been snapped inside, he was being moved by his instincts. With a big, wild sigh, Bardock was no longer there.

A tall, narrow building, made of thick solid wood and surrounded by others just like it, with muddy roads from the surrounding hills all joining at the front of it, was illuminated with a warm glowing light, and the sounds of obnoxious men shouting to each other and fighting.
Outside of the city gates, in the hub of the slums, the native Saiyans could indulge in a night of booze and women, for the right price. They came here, the Swinging Saiyan, for what little comfort it offered, and left the place more black and grim than when they found it. Each and every night.

A black cloaked figure moved quickly and with predetermination actions. Amongst the intoxicated, rambunctious crowd, he went unnoticed. Using this to his avantaged he slipped inside the tavern and upstairs to the higher levels, that housed the brothel, it's clients and the girls on offer.
Bardock felt a pulsing flux through his muscles, driving him up the stairs. The feeling of endless numbness and the overwhelming darkness he felt entrenched inside of him had not faded an inch, it had actually grown over the past few days. It was a maddening feeling he had never gotten to taste before, even during the invasion.
His Men had found a contact in the brothel, she had been a distant relative of one of Bardock's soldiers. She had been compelled to help them, her pride been offered up in consequence of denying them. For a Saiyan, this was everything, even, as it seemed, for a prostitute.

Bardock meet an unremarkable door, which was amongst a bunch of other unremarkable doors in the upper quarters of the brothel. Bardock reached out with his arm and knocked, four small quick raps. The door swung silently open within seconds. He stepped into the room, and immediately saw the back of the body sitting and tied to a chair facing the window. She had done what they had asked of her, now it was his turn to move this plan forward.

He quickly removed his cloak, moving toward the unconscious guard.

"Good work girl, you have done your ancestors well" Bardock said with barely a sliver of emotion.

"You...you won't hurt him too badly will you?" She whispered to Bardock as he stood over the motionless body.

The feelings welled up again as the haze that had consumed him these past days was rushed and removed from his mind. The unforgiving rage boiled up like lava inside of him.
Bardock looked over his shoulder at the lass, and gave a low growl from the pit of his belly.

"Remove yourself from here wench" It was all he needed to say to her, and with a quick turn she scurried from the room.

Bardock looked back around at the unconscious Empire guard, he felt the energy inside him rise as he slowly took out a knife with his right hand from his belt, it was also accompanied by an axe and a butchers mallet. He also ran his fingers from his left hand over a small glass bottle. It was a potion that Bulma had given him in the weapons capsule. One that would make any man speak the truth. Bulma called is science, but Bardock also had his doubts about the strange blue haired woman. She had not trusted him with her precious capsule, because she had something to hide, Bardock had figured. He was the one who could not trust her, and her science.

"Black magic" He whispered to himself as the thick, seemingly never ending, blackness overtook him.

The petite Saiyan woman returned to the room, as she had not been given word by Bardock that his mission was completed. It had been hours and she was starting to worry. Worry that they would be caught, and that he had hurt the Empire guard.
She slowly opened the door to her room in the brothel. It slightly creaked as the light from the main hall flooded the dark room. A horrible stench began to fill her nostrils and she gagged in response.

"Bardock…" She whispered as she entered the room and closed the door silently behind her.

She noticed, from the moonlight coming in through the open window that Bardock was no longer in the room. It seems he had left through the window. Odd, she thought to herself. She made her way over to the now limp body of the Empire Guard that she had drugged and tied to the chair.
The smell in the room was damp, full of metallic blood and other bodily fluids. Her heart started to pound as thoughts raced through her mind, what had she done?

Walking around the chair she began to see what Bardock was truly capable of, and the moon was illuminating a white and red scene of bloodshed and utter brutality. The Guard was dead, she did not have to check him to know this, he was slumped over with one arm missing, cut and pulled from it's socket, tendons, bone and muscles exposed. His other hand had the fingers smashed into the chair, and what looked like self defense wounds from a slashing attack. She grabbed her mouth to stop herself from screaming and giving away her treasonous actions.
His face was completely peeled off, but his eyes and mouth were still stuck in the horror that he had witnessed. His tongue was missing, as was his lower jaw. To stop him from making and noise she deduced. He looked as if an animal had mauled him to death.
His bones in both his legs were shattered, bashed and protruding. His left foot was completely smashed into mince meat. His belly had been sliced and his organs removed and spilt over his lap. The pain this guard would have felt, would have been unimaginable. The scene had been burnt into her brain, she had never seen anything like it. No animal attack, no war wounds, no public execution, nothing was this savage.
It was no animal who did this, it was a monster.