Chapter 15: Perception

A/N: I hope some of you are still enjoying it. Seems to be a fair bit of Boly/Chi-Chi bias when it comes to my writing. Please be patient, it'll all be worthwhile... somewhere.

Driving her leg in a long sweeping kick she knocked one man off the car they were driving in and sent them into the air. The heavy panicked scream falling silent as they slammed into the ground. It was quite satisfying, there wasn't anything quite like it.

A pistol was whipped around and fired aimlessly as she slid back from her perch, on the back of dirty sports utility vehicle. Swinging on the side using the former spare tire rack on the rear as they continued to fire at her.

The glass shattering out the back as they struggled to catch sight of her. Fishtailing in an attempt to shake her off as she was rocked and banged against the edge. Her legs almost skimming the moving pavement as she held on.

"Just shoot her already!"

"I can't! The damn bitch won't stay still!" Two more were in the back seat, both of them trying to grab at their weapons loaded up in the back but with the heavy car swerving around trying to shake their attacker off there was little chance that they could reach them.

A hand smashed through the side window as the female attacker used the heavy bar attached to the rear of the vehicle to keep herself attached with one of her feet hooked into it. Grabbing one of the men inside.

Panicked screams erupted as he was pulled through the broken glass and tossed outside, his body impacting on the concrete as he bounced and rolled a heavy spurt of red blood covering the ground.

Another barrage of bullets hit the rear of the door and hit the pin holding their attacker on by sheer luck. It snapped and the image of her disappeared. Only the heavy banging of metal and concrete filled the air as they saw a roughly scratched up and bloody woman now laying in the street.

Hitting the ground with her fists causing the concrete to crack. Her eyes strained and body just as shaking, rage was trembling from her very core as she watched the car begin to speed further and further away.

Not… That Easy! Her rough and bleeding fingers gripped the bent and mangled steel frame in her fingers as she rose upwards. Holding the bent triangle above her head she focused and remembered another weapon she had used before.

One chance, don't screw this up!

Bracing her legs she arched her back with both hands on either side of the metal blade and with every ounce of emotion pouring from her body threw it forwards. A deep guttural yell as she staggered forwards as the spinning triangle launched from her hands like a massive boomerang.

Almost collapsing from the effort she landed on her knees coughing as she looked up and watched it spin towards her target.

Like in slow motion her brown eyes fixed on the rotations. Though the car was speeding away over seventy miles and hour it wasn't faster than the near vertical style helicopter blade coming for it. The forty pounds of steel hit the back bumper and imbedded itself into the back of the car.

Nearly buckling the rear suspension as the car jolted to one side causing the driver to lose control. Smacking into a center median, fishtailing as the metal weapon dug into the ground and snagged hard on a metal strip in the ground. The car flipped backwards, hanging in the air for a moment before slamming down into the ground with a resounding thud. The top of the cab nearly caving in but bowed just enough to spare those inside from the effects of the crash.

Struggling to get to her feet again, she staggered forwards. Holding her stomach as she could feel the broken ribs already but she wasn't going to quit. I've come to far! Endured too much! Her limbs were on fire as she made her way forwards in a half limp, half jog.

She had to see him dead, it wouldn't be over until he was dead. There would be peace when he was dead! Those thoughts kept her moving forwards, through the pain as blood ran down from her thigh and onto her knee. Her mangled clothes exposing the harsh scratches from her fall.

Black hair blocked her view but she ignored it almost refusing to blink as she came closer to her goal, step by step. With each heavy labored breath the attacker neared her destination but as she reached within a hundred yards she watched as two of the doors were pushed open. The driver's side door creaked and fell off. The passenger side door remained attached as two figures pulled themselves from the wreckage.

A balding middle aged man with obviously torn and battered body armor, his hands were littered with cuts and his face was bloody. An MP-5 submachine gun clattering on the ground like a cane as he tried to get up.

The other, a younger man, jet black hair that fell around the back of his neck. A rich brown leather bomber jacket just as beat up as he was as blood fell from lacerations by his face. The visible broken nose and heavy wheezing escaping from his mouth as the he crawled through the broken glass.

Swiveling one of their heads to the side the bald man noticed the limping figure approaching them. Fear swelled up in his throat, as he watched that she devil still coming after them. "Fucking bitch, why won't you just give up!" He spat out blood from his lips as he staggered to one side. His shoulder pushing into the concrete median as he struggled to use it is an anchor to get up. As only one of his legs were capable of pushing him up. Yet she came closer as he looked up.

Those brown eyes were seeing nothing but red, he didn't know where this devil had come from but she hadn't stopped chasing them for a week. If she wasn't bleeding red blood he'd swear she was one of those damn alien sonsabitches that nearly destroyed the world.

Nearly fifty yards away he trained up the side of his weapon. He didn't have the strength to shoulder it. Bracing it against his hip he squeezed off some rounds in the vain hope that she might stop.

The rounds snapped all around, one passing by her hair as it snapped backwards. Another stuck the woman's leg. A graze but she winced as blood escaped from the wound as she forced herself forwards.

Struggling to reload his weapon as he dug around with his numb arm attempting to grasp the top of his magazine from his body armor. The panic setting in as his empty mag clattered to the ground along with the thuds of feet against the ground as a new presence came closer and closer.

His teeth clenched together as he rocked back the slide and chambered a new round his fingers finding the grip and clenched the trigger as a spray of fresh automatic fire-

Ripped into his stomach as the she devil had reached him. She had twisted the gun into him at the last possible second. Blood spurted free as the weapon's trigger locked in and thirty rounds ripped into his unprotected groin and waist.

A gurgle escaped his lips as blood spat from his mouth, covering his attacker with a thin red line of red blood as he began to slump downwards. Before the racking tremors took over the man's eyes rolled back into his head dying in a pool of his own blood.

One body fell into the ground but the pursuer did not stop, pushing past she watched the man in the brown leather jacket fall over one of the concrete walls. Refusing to get slaughtered he kept going as the sand and dirt surrounding him offered little protection or concealment.

His head turning to see the woman falling into the ground from the median. Watching the heavy breathes come up as she began to rise upwards. She can't be fucking human!

"Get back you fucking bitch!" He cried drawing a revolver from his jacket and fired a round at her. But it went wide and struck the median several feet to her side.

If it was meant to intimidate her, it failed as her body began to move forwards yet again. His thumb cocked back the hammer again as he lined up another shot.

The flash zipped by her hitting the ground a foot to her right. The concussion from the car, the blood blocking his vision, the once easy shot for him was hindered by pain, fear, and panic. The third missed, the fourth snapped a small locket of hair from her loose arm length hair. The fifth grazed her arm but nothing as she was almost upon him.

Eyes were screaming a form of pure anger as he clicked the final round but as it aimed almost pointblank the hammer clicked and… nothing.

A dud.

Brown eyes watched as the woman's small hands reached out and grabbed him by the jacket lifting him up off the ground. "You. Will. Pay!" She screamed before slamming him down into the ground. His entire back burned in pain as he slammed down into the ground.

Holding his jacket she drove one knee into his stomach. The other one into just to the side, "Tell me to stop! Beg for me to stop you fucking piece of shit!" Her voice breaking as she pulled back her fist ready to deliver a massive blow.

So long, she had been waiting for so long! Now she would finally-

"... Is that… you my little Ox bride?" His voice shifting to shocked surprise. The face behind those black locks. Those trembling brown eyes, how could he forget them. "Did you come… back just for me Chi-Chi?" That soft suave tone making Chi-Chi shake.

The same one that had haunted her dreams, that terrified her and brought her the greatest of pain she had felt physically made her fist begin to lose its iron grip.

...

Flashes of a long night, a scared twelve year old girl all alone and surrounded by death was 'captured' by a group of roving bandits. She was to be his bride for a single night and of course taking her into the backseat of a car he did the unspeakable to this little girl.

Too scared to move as a knife was pushed into her throat while this same man with his white teeth, short cut black hair and jacket ripped her clothes off and defiled her.

And he kept her for several weeks. Sometimes raping her other times coercing the broken girl into the act willingly.

His little Ox Bride, His Chi-Chi.

It had taken all her courage one night to flee breaking into the forest well before anyone had seen her flee.

These nightmares never left her, waking up screaming that she might be trapped in his clutches once again. But she wasn't… she hadn't been.

An old man had found her crying miserably in the woods. Despite her fears and biting and scratching at him he just held her and said it was alright. His white beard and orange clothes, a smile on his face became her new pseudo father.

He taught her how to become strong, giving her the inner power to become greater than she had ever imagined.

"That's it Chi-Chi. I know you can do it." The man she dubbed Grandpa. But went by the name Gohan to everyone else. This old man who owed her nothing had become her savior. He gave her everything for years as she grew up.

But despite the life she could have out here in the peaceful woods under his tutelage and guidance. Teaching her the way of martial arts, something she had only just started to do with her mother and father. Developing her fight skills for hours, punching kicking until she could break a young sapling with one strike.

Where she would spend hours swimming upstream a fast moving river until her lungs burned. Then come home to their small shack in the woods and cook dinner for the two of them. With her limited supplies and Gohan's knowledge she became quite the little cook.

They shared good times and he did everything to help her overcome her trauma. Telling her that it wasn't her fault, that her parents wouldn't blame her and neither did he.

"There are just evil people out there Chi-Chi, they are the worst of us all but they were not the ones who caused them to become what they were. The purging of this world stopped years ago and this quiet peace has become grounds for the filth to run rampant and sow panic. But do not look to vengeance because vengeance consumes it, it envelopes our beings changing what we are and leads us to places that we can not escape from."

But that never satisfied her.

"Evil is evil, perpetuating more evil will never restore what was taken. It is why I do not want you to go, your father and mother would never want to see you consumed by these feelings of anger. Because anger will satisfy you in the short term. Anger eventually burns out faster than this."

He had pointed to his heart, because that is where all of one's strength truly came from. Anger was not a substance or material. Emotions, they were simple emotions. They did not always linger on forever.

"Fear does not always stay, unease, happiness, sadness, all of them will be a part of you but they will not define you child. Don't let the man who hurt you take everything from you. You can still be happy, you can still…"

Chi-Chi had tuned him out back then. There was nothing that Gohan could say to her that would change her mind. Revenge was the only thing that mattered, inside she had convinced herself of only one truth. That once she killed her personal demon she could finally be free of him, knowing that he would never touch her or anyone!

That was all that truly mattered to her. Then her nightmares would stop, then she could be free.

It was why one day she left Gohan's home and spent a year looking for one man. Searching through the ruins that existed after the alien attack that had suddenly and almost magically stopped. They had packed up and left in a flash and no one knew why.

But her diligence had paid off, she had caught sight of him in one of the small shanty towns that wasn't too far from where she had lost her parents. Apparently these were his hunting grounds for girls such as her that were still in abundance.

Once she had him however, she went after him. Which all led to this moment. Years of training, mental preparation and now she how had him… but

But…

….

Chi-Chi had believed that she was ready for this, that she could overcome her past fears and move forwards. She'd done so much already, she'd beaten so many people, killed so many more just to get where she was right now.

But she hesitated, Why?

"Did my little Ox bride come back just for this?" Her nightmare spoke to her. "You've become so beautiful my little ox. If I had known this was you I wouldn't have done this." His one hand moved and touched her side and she completely froze.

It was the monster that had taken so much from her and his iron grip on her mind was still there.

"I forgive you, don't worry I'm not mad at you."

Move! Hit him! Do something! Her mind was screaming in a rage but her body just would not go, it could not break free. Those nights as a scared little girl were helpless against him, her vulnerable body taken advantage of again and again. Becoming nothing more than a quivering mass that bent to anyone's whims, the fear of so much pain and death had come far too fast and overloaded her young mind.

The sheer panic gripped her once dogged determination as she stared into his eyes felt him touching her. She felt the tears burning in her eyes, as she just couldn't do it!

Killing and hurting so many people only to watch her falter at the last hurdle.

"Shh shh, don't cry my little Ox, I'll make sure that you are taken care of. You don't have to be afraid I promise."

Then Chi-Chi felt it, an burning pain as she looked down and saw a small knife stuck into her stomach. The blood leaked around the wound as his fingers clutched the blade.

How she remembered the blood, how many nights she had been left bleeding because of this cruel man. He had stabbed her like he had done many times before.

Crack! Bone and bone collided together the man's head bouncing off the dirt and sand. Chi-Chi's fist had crashed into his face, the cracking of his skull stunned both. She had struck out without even thinking, the blade in her stomach all but a burning irritation as she began throwing down blow after blow. Each one more wild but more powerful as she braced with her other arm grabbing his collar and pulling him up so she could hit him again and again and Again! AND AGAIN!

Her tears broke into a howling warcry as she slammed her fists down turning his once handsome features inwards, breaking the skin down to almost her bare knuckled bones. Hitting him dulled the pain until she had inverted his face.

Blood covered her hand as she drove her once wild fist into a mess of brain and blood. Her eyes seeing through her own haze as the truth that the devil that had taken so much from her was dead.

And she had killed him, so brutally and with nothing but the fire's of hatred that had kept her going all this time. Chi-Chi's body collapsed, there was nothing else in her tank to keep her going, everything she had done up to this point in her life had been to exact her revenge against the devil who now lay dead. She remained on her side the knife still sticking out from her stomach as she just laid on her side.

The minor aches and pains amplifying her misery, but she did not feel anything else. Just the quiet as she stared at the mangled corpse next to her.

All of the anger and rage she had built up now had no purpose, there wasn't anything left for her to feel except the cool breeze as her body was ready to finally rest. She could face her parents now, they wouldn't be ashamed of her. They would see her do what had to be done, and right the wrong of her disobedience.

Had she never gone back this never would've happened. Chi-Chi should've just listened and did what they had asked and not of run back after them.

Just a stupid girl.

But it could finally be over right? She would slip quietly into the afterlife and know that they would be waiting there for her.

Slipping out of consciousness Chi-Chi couldn't remember what really happened next. Only the sound of a heavy revving motorcycle. The smell of diesel filled her nose stirring her mind but not her body. She didn't care what happened to her anymore. Her body was numb as was her heart.

"Well, well, looks like Mister I'm too good for my own britches fancy pants who can't handle a little launch is finally dead!" A woman laughed as the sounds of spurred cowboy boots clacked on the ground. "Such a damn shame you got killed, I'd have loved to put little uzi up your ass and fire it myself but finding your face turned into mashed potatoes won't hurt me none. But let's see if you got my little souvenir from last time we met."

Heavy footsteps came closer along with an amused laugh as someone stepped over her and looked down at the mangled body. The ruffling of his clothes as someone searched for something came and went as the woman snorted.

"The hell did that bastard…" She stopped talking clearly finding what she was looking for. "You used my blade on another woman? Oh that's just fucking low Miguel, I thought you promised you were going to shove that blade inside of me. Now I'm god damn hurt."

"Hnnng." Escaped Chi-Chi's mouth as the blade was pulled out from her stomach.

"Oi! You alive?" The voice said noticing the soft whimper. It knelt down beside her, "Come on you hard nosed bitch answer me." The crass voice shouted as she slapped Chi-Chi's face.

"Ahhh haaa" She breathed out her eyes struggling to even open but she couldn't. There was no energy inside of her, no way for her to call out beyond breathing.

"Heh, I got yah now. Rest easy good ol' Launch will get you out of here." Chi-Chi felt herself being hoisted up and then… nothing.

…

Kakarot stared at Chi-Chi as she recounted her tale taking a moment to finally stop speaking. The smell of painful tears quickly filled his nose, her body shrinking and curling upwards, finding that same terrified girl once again to be alive and well inside of her.

Those past actions making more sense to the saiyan than they had before, all of it telling him a piece of her story. But he wasn't entirely sure he entirely believed her. Standing up from where he was once sitting he came over to Chi-Chi's side. Her brown eyes watching him as he brought his hand down to her stomach. She didn't try and fight him she didn't even care right now.

Smoothing up her spandex covering the saiyan's black eyes roamed over her form and put a hand over her stomach. As he moved his hand he felt it, the injury wasn't visible even to his eyes but with his hand he felt them. The softness of her skin held an ever so slight bump, a minor blemish that gave him the truth of her story.

"Didn't expect it did you?"

Lifting his head towards her own Kakarot saw the way she looked at him. "No, I wasn't." Kakarot admitted pushing down her clothes he brought his other hand to her face. In his mind she had always been so strong, so hard nosed and firey that nothing could dissuade her from doing anything. As his thumb softly stroked under her eye. "You are remarkable." There was nod of approval and it showed on his face.

"I'm only that way because of all the training I used to get simple revenge." Chi-Chi looked away from her, "I forgot everything that my grandpa tried to teach me… I still wasn't strong enough to overcome him when I should have." Her eyes closed, the fresh memories of her nightmare that she had long kept hidden and buried were being exposed. "I hate what I did now… I shouldn't have gone after him."

"No… you did what was right Chi-Chi, you righted the wrong. Do not feel pity for him, only someone truly weak would abuse a child for their own desires. We saiyans do not delight in torture, in scaring those we fight against. Remember how you felt when you killed him, and hold onto that feeling of rage and euphoria. It is how we saiyans feel everytime we fight, that rush of conquering those weaker than you to standing on the same feet as those who are just as strong." There was nothing greater to a saiyan, Kakarot had felt similar rushes to what Chi-Chi had just told him.

"You don't understand!" Chi-Chi shouted into the fabric of her chair. Swinging her head back and forth as she couldn't accept that answer. "I shouldn't have killed anyone. I became just as evil as him. I let myself turn into the thing I hated the most."

"That is not what I see." Kakarot told her his other hand moving to her neck as he now sat on the same chair as her. Turning her face to look at him he watched the crystal rivers that slowly trickled down from her face. There is so much pain. For such a race I can't imagine that she endured and hid it so well.

"I know what I am!" She shouted as Kakarot lifted her up, suspended by his arms she was being forced to look at Kakarot. Her eyes were burning, as the pure alcohol undid her well crafted demeanor. Hiding her pain and disgrace was impossible when the mind was weakened and inhibitions lowered. "Just a dumb girl who wound up being raped because she was just too stupid to do what her parents told her to do. I was supposed to be a princess, I was raised so much better than everyone else and look at what it brought me!"

Kakarot held her face in his hands, seeing this side of Chi-Chi was making him angry. Not at her but at her damn planet, who could ruin such glorious potential, such a beautiful woman and talented being did not deserve the past that she was given. As saiyans all other saiyans had value, even if it was minor, they were one people and had earned their place in this universe.

Never would another saiyan do such a thing, the idea was insane to their own people. But clearly Chi-Chi's race of humans are still quite backwards. The way they apparently idolized beauty and commodities from what he viewed in the human city around Capsule Corp. The Scientist Bulma Briefs was seen as some sort of Pedestal of Achievement.

While blue hair had brains she had none of the allure a true woman. A saiyan woman, one with heart, fire, and a physical nature to take on a saiyan in a fight even if she would lose. It wouldn't deter her, she'd still fight.

Seeing with how she always tried to challenge him, his father, and mother. Never taking a backseat and people about her opinion. Right or wrong, she had her reasons and while rarely would he agree he could still respect her.

"You are not that Chi-Chi." Kakarot's words not echoing any lie or wavering in how he told her how he felt.

She looked into his face and she clutched his shoulders. "Then what am I if you are just so damn smart huh? What do you really know about me? I've just been nothing more than eye candy and a cook to you." Chi-Chi's face was red from anger as she was almost spitting into his face.

"A strong woman, one whom I once believed cherished life for some mistaken fool reason but now I see that it was because of some mistaken guilt for what you did to a man who had harmed you. You are not just eye candy to me, you are radiant when you are alone. I've seen the way you are when you tend to the garden or have a moment to yourself when you don't notice that I am around." Kakarot's hands moved to hold her back softly. His breathing was heavier, his entire body warmer as he held her very close to him, her pulse, her shifting scent. It was mixing with the honey flowing through his blood.

She laughed, "Hah! You think that's why i'm upset because I killed him. It wasn't killing them that upset me, I don't wish I had killed him now looking back, I could've crippled him or made him lame but that's not what I was talking about. I hate how I was dumb but that only led to what I became."

"There is more?" Kakarot asked as Chi-Chi smugly snorted and nodded.

"I was saved by a woman named Launch, healed by her twin and given a new lease on life where I didn't care about anything."

Kakarot relaxed as Chi-Chi grabbed the glass of golden honey and took another sip, if she was going to delve deeper she wanted to be a little bit more drunk so that she might forget.

"What does that matter?" What would her being saved have changed other than her being where she was right now.

"It matters because for those years until you saiyans and other aliens appeared again to find value in our little world I became that monster that I wanted to destroy with all of my heart. The only thing I had wanted was to inflict pain and misery upon him and that's what I taught my own world with Launch at my side... " She gave him a weird grin, "You could say I was quite saiyan… just like you."

(To be continued Part 2)

R&R

Kerghan