Chapter Seven: Falling Again

"I pray, looking to the sky
I can feel this rain
right now it's falling on me
fly, I just want to fly
life is all mine
some days I cry alone,
but I know I'm not the only one
I'm here and another day is gone
I don't want to die...
Please be there when I'll arrive

Don't cry... please"

Falling Again – Lacuna Coil

DBZ

Wrapping her arms tighter about her shivering frame, Seripa ducked her head against the frigid chill of the fierce winds that buffeted her relentlessly. Her mind was still reeling from reliving the last twelve years of her life, so she just kind of stumbled around the apparently empty planet she had awoken on.

Before she came here she had been on Planet Meat again with her team. Again she had to watch each of them die before her eyes while she was spared; spared by a fortunate stroke of luck, while her friends all died. Despite herself, she sighed, a shiver running up and down her spine.

The wind began to let up, she noticed, so she lifted her head to look around. She had been walking down a road she had happened upon. On either side of the road were what appeared to have been trees of some sort; but for as far as she had walked, she had not seen one that wasn't burned to a crisp. Where ever she had wound up, it was obviously a dead planet.

Looking ahead she noticed that the road started to incline into a hill. As her eyes followed the road to the crest of the hill she noticed a shimmer across the sky. It seemed to be a reflection of something from just over the hill.

All of a sudden the fierce winds vanished; leaving her standing in the middle of a road hunkered down amidst nothing but silence. Standing straight, she started up the hill and towards the source of that light. Whatever it was, it just had to be the key to whatever was happening to her. She had just relived the best and worst moments of her life up until the annihilation of her race. Now she was on an unfamiliar planet, no longer trapped in the hell of her memories. But wait. Looking around as she walked on, she noticed that the planet did look vaguely familiar. Especially the sky, but she just couldn't place why it was familiar.

She sighed and closed her eyes as she reached the top of the hill, and started down the other side. As the ground sloped down away from her, she opened her eyes again as she stumbled a bit.

Seripa immediately paused.

At the bottom of the hill, the road led to a small pool of the clearest water she had ever seen in her life. Not to mention the pool was giving off the light that was still reflected across the dark sky. The small body of water was rimmed by a line of trees surrounding it in a semi-circle; the treetops combined together in a canopy that would have hid the water completely from view had the leaves and most of the branches not been blasted off. It was obvious now that the planet had suffered a violent attack. But from who, she was still unsure.

She let her violet hues linger on the pool for a moment. She glanced around briefly just to verify she was alone, then continued down the slope to the water's edge. She crouched down beside it, her eyes trying to pierce into the depths. The water was clear, but with so little light she could not see more than a few feet below the surface; even with the shimmering light it was emitting.

Seripa sat fully on the stone of the road and sighed as she stared across the water. As far as she could tell it was just a normal pool of water. Sure it was glowing, but nothing else about it seemed mysterious. There were obviously no answers lying in wait for her, here.

Suddenly there was a violent splash as the figure of a man burst from beneath the surface, his arms clawing wildly at the air in panic. He dropped back into the water, submerging completely before reappearing gasping for air and fighting to untangle a mess of knotted black hair that had gotten wrapped all around his face.

She stared in silent shock as the man waded aimlessly in her direction. He apparently hadn't noticed her thanks to still fighting with his hair.

As Seripa stood up, the man finally freed the tangles and brushed his hair back the best he could; it was a lot to work with, as most of it hung down to his shoulders. He looked up when she moved and she gasped when she saw the scarred face looking up at her in confusion.

"Who are you?" he queried gruffly, pausing several meters from the shore.

She blinked and shook her head slowly, "What do you mean?"

"Kinda obvious what I mean: who the hell are you?" he said with a sharper tone, but there was also a hint of caution she noticed.

She looked down slowly, then lifted her eyes to meet his, which surprised the man.

"You should know me, Bardock."

"'Bardock'?" he echoed. Then, "That's my name?"

Seripa frowned in concern, "You don't know your own name?"

The man shrugged and glanced around, "No, I don't. Not sure where I am, either. Or how I got here. All I know is that I woke up in a bubble at the bottom of this pool. It popped and then I was at the surface." He frowned and looked upon her again. "There's a word on my mind, too. It's the only thing that I remember, but I don't get it. Do you know what 'Kanassa' means?"

Her eyes widened and Seripa looked around at the visible landscape. That was it! That's why the planet had looked familiar: she was on Kanassa! She closed her eyes and chuckled under her breath. It should have been obvious.

She opened her eyes and mouth to respond, but suddenly found herself underwater. A stream of bubbles escaped her mouth as she suddenly began to sink like a rock into an endless darkness below her. She lashed out, straining to reach a surface that she couldn't see…

DBZ

"Ow! Gods-damn it, Seripa! You're too strong for this! Broco help me hold her!" Amotto shouted as she struggled to hold the violently-thrashing woman. She was still within the chamber. Broco had just emptied the tank and opened the hatch when she suddenly began to freak out. Amotto had jumped in to try and restrain her, but it did little good.

Broco jumped in beside the green-haired woman, and grabbed hold of Seripa's shoulders. He didn't get a good hold, and her flailing fist nailed him in his nose and sent him sprawling.

"Seripa! Wake up!" Amotto struggled to hold onto her friend's other arm, but it was proving useless. "Gods-damn it!" she suddenly reached up and slapped the woman hard enough to make her head slam into the back of the chamber. She immediately went still.

She blinked and straightened up, pulling Seripa out of the chamber as she did so; her eyes were open and she was looking around franticly.

"You're okay, Seripa."

"W-w-what h-happened?" she asked through chattering teeth as the two women sank to the floor in front of the chamber.

Amotto wrapped her arms around her, trying to share some of her warmth. Seripa's body was ice-cold!

"Turles woke up and fucked up your recovery chamber. Broco just fixed it. How are you feeling?"

"C-c-cold." Was her simple answer. She rested her head against Amotto's chest, the memory of the amnesiac Bardock still vivid in her mind. As well as the feeling of suffocation that had come over her suddenly. She realized now that it was the chamber emptying, and the air supply being cut off that had triggered that aspect of her dream.

But what about Bardock? Had that been a dream? What about everything else? Most she would have called memories from her own mind, but others she had no recollection of.

And of course she didn't have time to sit around and analyze her dreams; she had to get dressed and get ready to fight Turles.

Again.

She sighed and slowly drew away from Amotto. "Okay, I need armor."

"Here."

Seripa blinked and turned to see a gylderian female standing behind her holding a pile of folded armor out to her.

"Thanks. Who are you?" she asked as she stood up and started to pull her under armor on.

"Sushinae. I'm the medical officer that was on duty when Turles paid you a visit," she grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck, "I guess I should have listened to Falmer and Zether when they told me to train."

"It never hurts to be prepared," said Seripa with a slight smile.

"With those two, yes it does. You don't know how gung-ho my brothers are about power," the young woman said with an amused tone.

Seripa laughed as she pulled her new battlejacket (she sure did seem to be going through quite a few of these things recently) on over her head. "You should've met my captain. He absolutely demanded that we strive for greater power."

"Bardock. Yes, I did a report on him back on University. He was trained by Lady Aurah's mate, Tettuce, and was of a more remarkable breed than most other saiyans."

Sushinae smiled at the surprised look on the other woman's face, "Surprised?"

"You can say that. Why did you do a report on him?" she asked in bewilderment.

"Ugh, I don't mean to intrude, but Turles is number one priority, right?" asked Broco wearily as he climbed to his feet. The hit had knocked him out apparently, but he was standing now. Shakily, but he seemed to be okay.

Seripa grimaced as she looked at him, "I did that to you, didn't I?"

He gave her a slight smile, "It's okay. I've been through worse," he said, with a gesture towards his scarred-up eye.

"Right." she looked from him to Amoto, then to Sushinae. "Well, a rag-tag bunch if I've ever seen it, but we should be alright."

"Wait. 'We?' " asked Sushinae with wide eyes. "You want me to fight, too?"

Amoto stepped over and placed her hand on her shoulder, "It's okay. We'll watch out for you," she smiled and glanced towards Seripa. "And having Seripa to lead us will make all the difference, anyway."

"Ha, yeah, you can put your faith in me." Seripa said with a roll of her eyes. She didn't like being the leader, but once again she found herself in that position.

"Just try not to destroy this ship," Broco chuckled.

"I won-Wait. How did you two get on this ship?" Seripa frowned between the two of them as she remembered that they had been taken aboard their ship prior to takeoff. "And why hasn't Tettuce done anything about this?"
"Ah, well…"Amoto scratched the back of her neck, "Our ship broke down, so Tettuce went aboard to fix it. While the ships were docked together, Broco and I came aboard to visit you. It wasn't long after that that Turles hijacked this ship."

"Yeah," agreed Broco. "Amoto and I saw Turles as he left the medical bay, and we hid before he could spot us. We wanted to try and stop him, but after his last attack we both knew that would have been senseless. So we came in here to try and repair your chamber."

"You say 'we', but you did all that, Broco," said Amoto.

He shrugged, "And you handled Seripa when she freaked out."

"I don't think that counts as repairing the rejuvenation chamber." She arched a brow and glanced at Seripa.

She grinned and folded her arms across her chest. "Well, either way, I think we have more important things to do than bicker about who fixed the chamber."

"Right. So what's the plan?"

"Hm." She didn't answer immediately. Instead her eyes shifted to stare at the ceiling over their heads. "I wish I had a scouter," she said finally.

"Why?" asked Sushinae with a puzzled look on her face.

"Because, then I would know exactly where Turles was."

"Oh. Well…" Sushinae turned and looked up with a frown, "Hm…He's over there," she pointed towards a section of the ceiling at the farthest end of the room, directly over where a pile of destroyed medical equipment was laying.

Seripa looked at her in surprise, "How do you know that?"

"Oh, I can read power levels."

The three saiyans all exchanged glances before looking at the gylderian woman again.

She blinked in surprise at the confused expressions they were giving her, "What?"

"Tettuce said he could read them, too," said Seripa. "How is that?"

"Oh, heh. Well, my brother, Zether, learned how to do it while on the gylderian Writ of Passage. When he returned he insisted that everyone in the gylderian military learn the skill."

"I'm still lost."

Sushinae giggled sheepishly, "Well, it's hard to explain. I can…well, sense a person's ki level, I suppose. Like, for instance, I can tell you that you are easily the strongest person in this room. Then you, and you," she said as she pointed at Amoto and Broco, respectively.

Amoto blinked in shock and glanced at the scar-faced man, "Since when am I stronger than you?"

He flashed her a grin and shrugged his bulky shoulders, "Since you took a hellacious beating from Turles, I guess."

Seripa quirked an eyebrow and shrugged herself, "I will have to learn how to do that, I guess. But for now, is there anyone standing near him?"

Sushinae glanced in the direction she'd indicated previously and frowned, "Lady Aurah is near to him, but I'm not sure how close. I think they're by the thrones. Why do you ask?" she finished as she turned to look back at Seripa.

Seripa didn't answer. She looked up at the ceiling and clenched her fists. Immediately a light violet aura burst to life around her body and she launched herself towards the ceiling, with the others all crying out in surprise. She ignored them, though. In order for her plan to work she had to catch Turles off guard. And he had already proven once that he was much more clever than he let on.

She threw her arms out ahead of her, and her powerful fists punched through the steel of the ceiling and she flew up into the bridge, much to the surprise of the many occupants.

Wheeling around she was delighted to see the horrified look of shock on Turles' face. Without hesitation she angled around and charged at him, throwing her hand forward at him to fire off a weak ki blast.

He caught it and canceled it out, glaring at her as she charged him.

"Are you crazy?"

"Maybe!" she yelled as she slammed both fists into his unguarded chest. She had hoped to throw him back, but he steeled himself at the last second and instantly stopped her movement.

He grabbed her wrists and met her violet eyes with his narrowed black ones.

"This is my ship, now, bitch. And obviously I'm still much stronger than you, so this was pointless."

Seripa's aura vanished and she dropped her feet to the floor, but she didn't try to free her wrists.

"What, you're not going to respond? Did you think you could actually take me?"

She smirked, which pissed him off. "Considering the number that Tettuce did on you, I know that I can take you."

"Feh, yeah right. I stopped you and your blast without a lick of effort."

"That's 'cause I wasn't trying. But let's change that." Her aura suddenly flared to life again, catching him off guard. But he still held firmly to her wrists. She lunged forward, slamming her forehead into his unguarded face. She grinned with satisfaction when she both heard and felt his nose break.

He immediately released her wrists and staggered back cursing loudly at her as he clutched his face with both hands. He glared at her from behind his cupped hands as blood seeped through his fingers.

"Ha, look, I made the brat bleed," she taunted as she spread her feet and took a stance. "Come on, Turles. Let's play." She laughed aloud.

He snarled at her as he lowered his arms. His nose was crooked now, and blood was steadily streaming from both nostrils.

"I hope you know that I plan to kill you, Seripa."

She shrugged, her gaze never wavering from him. She was doing her best to put up a confident front, but she knew that he still had more power than she did. Still, that didn't change the fact that she had no fear towards him.

"You can try to kill me, but you're going to fail, Turles."

"Oh yeah?" he sneered. "And why is that?"

"Because."

"….Because?" he echoed.

"Yep. Because." She flashed him a fierce grin. "You can't hurt me."

"Oh, I beg to differ." He said in a low, dangerous, voice. His words were a bit garbled because of the damage to his nose, but for the most part he could still speak clearly.

"Well, I don't!"

He snapped his head to the side just in time to see an outstretched fist flying towards his face. He jumped back and Amoto flew by, cursing that she had missed. But Turles didn't have time to gloat about that as he had to dodge a kick aimed for his nose. His gaze followed Broco and Amoto as they each went to stand by Seripa.

The other two fell into stances on either side of Seripa and he growled low in his throat at them.

"You fools!" he spat at them. "I could kill you in one go if I wanted."

"Then prove it," Seripa responded, her smile now gone and her tone cold. "I know how you fight now, and so do they. The three of us combined can take you."

Turles stared across the bridge at them in silence. He lifted one hand and wiped some of the blood from his nose on the back of his glove, then spit out a mouthful of blood onto the floor. He lowered his arm to his side and smirked.

"You are hopeless, Seripa. You just don't get it, do you? My power reading is well over 20,000 at this point. Yours…well, yours is laughable by comparison."

"Actually, Seripa's power level is well over 8000 at this point," said Sushinae from where she stood by Lady Aurah.

"And mine is 10,000 even," said Lady Aurah. She grabbed a fold of her robe and threw it off to reveal her silver and gold battle jacket over her solid silver bodysuit.

Turles stared in open-mouthed shock as Aurah moved to stand beside Amoto.

"Lady Aurah," began Burgah from the pilot seat, but a motion of her hand silenced him.

Seripa glanced briefly from Turles to Aurah, and she smirked again. Her gaze traveled back to him and she allowed herself to grin. "Not liking the odds, are you, Turles?"

He narrowed his eyes in response and looked back to her coldly, "It doesn't make any difference. I will still kill you all. Starting right now!"

And with that he brought up both arms and without hesitating fired off a massive blue blast straight for them all. He really intended to kill them with one shot!

Seripa's eyes widened as the blast flew at them. Aurah was the most powerful of their group, but she was the most experienced when it came to battle. That much was evident as she lunged forward, crossing her arms together in front of her. At the same time she poured as much of her ki as she could into her forearms and legs, bracing for the impact of the blast. Any other day it would have been suicide to attempt such a feat, but it was either that or let the foolish boy blow them and half the ship away.

The beam slammed into her ki-charged arms, and she grimaced as the force of it threatened to overtake her. But she wasn't about to let that happen. Initially the blast sent her sliding backwards across the bridge, so she poured more ki into her legs and she felt the steel beneath her feet begin to buckle and ripple as she struggled to stop the movement of the blast. Closing her eyes tight and steeling herself, she poured what ki she had left into her forearms just as she felt the heel of her left foot strike against the far wall…

Opening her eyes she was briefly surprised, then elated, to find that she had succeeded in stopping the blast. Looking up past it she saw that Turles was in shock. He had obviously expected her to be blown to bits, but not today. She forced a grin and slowly began to step forward, pushing the blast back towards Turles with her crossed forearms. They were bare and bleeding from the intensity of the beam, but for now her ki was keeping the true devastation at bay.

"Come on, Seripa!" Her eyes flickered to either side of her and she could see that the occupants of the bridge had formed a semi-circle on either side of the power struggle. She grimaced and glanced back to Turles to see him focusing on his end of the blast. She was still walking forward, albeit slowly, when a ripple of power shot the length of the blast and slammed into her forearms.

It was so powerful that she was briefly lifted from her feet, but the second they met with the steel she dug in with everything she had, feeling her muscles and bones threatening to give out. But she absolutely refused to let this little brat beat her. Not again.

Her back met the wall, and the steel caved in around her, giving in under the combined force of her ki pushing backwards, and the blast compounding on that. But that was it. She remained pressed into the indention, her forearms still somehow keeping the blast at bay. Gritting her teeth, she slowly took a step. Then another and another, slowly pushing the ki blast back towards its owner again.

"What?" Turles' roar of disbelief and anger echoed around the bridge as he watched her, once more, begin to push the blast back towards him. "How?" It didn't make sense to him. She should have been incinerated the second she tried to catch the blast. His power was so much greater than hers! With a roar of rage he called up more of his ki to pour into the blast, but a twinge in his gut briefly caused him to drop to a knee. He stared at the floor with wide eyes, still pouring as much energy as he could into the blast.

That was it, it had to be. Tettuce really had injured him greater than he had thought. His power reading was so high that Seripa and the others all should be dead right now, but no. Here he was, on a knee at that, struggling to blow her away and all she was doing was pushing the blast back towards him. This couldn't be. He had eaten the fruit from the Tree of Might! He had the power to kill her! But that damned Tettuce had hindered him. Oh well, he would deal with him later. Right now he had to focus on Seripa.

Lifting his gaze from the floor, he leveled it on her. She was now less than fifteen feet away from him and still moving forward. That wouldn't do, he decided. He stood back up and once again tried to call up and pour the necessary ki into the blast. This time there was a bit more success, he noticed, as the blast bulged with power…

From out of nowhere a thin golden beam lanced towards him. Startled by the distraction, he had to release his hold on his blast to dodge it. It dissipated as it blew by him, and he cursed, realizing he'd been fooled by a distraction. Quickly he glanced towards Seripa, and her fist slammed into his face.

He landed on his back and immediately flipped up to his feet, but Seripa didn't let up. She charged in headlong, her fists and feet a flurry of punches and kicks. Turles dodged the majority of them, but she did manage to get in a few weak kicks to his side. They did little more than irritate him, she noticed.

"Enough!" he cried, and a shockwave erupted from his body, blowing her backwards. She flipped around to land on her feet in front of Amoto and the others.

She allowed herself a smile as she watched Turles glare at them, his chest heaving with each breath he took. He had expended most of his energy trying to vaporize her, so now he was considerably less dangerous than before.

"What's the matter, brat?" she crowed. "Can't handle someone far weaker than yourself?"

He grit his teeth and clenched both fists, "If it wasn't for Tettuce I would have killed you already!" His rage was more than apparent at this point.

The sudden sound of clapping drew their attention from one another and to the bridge's main viewscreen. Silence fell across the bridge as everyone's blood ran cold at the image they were beholding.

Staring back at them from the viewscreen, and clapping quietly, with a bemused smirk on his face, was Frieza. Behind him stood his two lackeys, Dodoria and Zarbon.

"My my, what a show. I have not enjoyed watching monkeys bicker since before Plant Vegeta met its untimely destruction."

No one responded. Seripa glanced around to Aurah to see her glaring daggers at the lizard. She looked from her and to Turles to see that he had gone pale, and had sank to the floor. Her gaze left him and returned to the viewscreen just as Frieza spoke again.

"No one has anything to say? My, how disrespectful. Zarbon, what should be done about this, hm?"

Zarbon smiled softly and chuckled low under his breath, "Perhaps we should give them a reason to be silent, Lord Frieza. For instance, perhaps we should…blow up their ship."

"The hell you will!" Seripa couldn't help but cry out. She took a few steps toward the viewscreen, her eyes set and unwavering. She ignored the whispers from around her and the looks being sent her way. She had sworn to resist Frieza to her last breath. So it was either she stood there in silence, or she said something. To be fair she would have preferred to have remained silent and not drawn his attention to her, but it would have happened sooner or later anyway.

If she expected Frieza to be angry by her outburst, she would have been wrong. Instead he seemed amused. "Oh? And just what do you expect to be able to do to prevent it?"

"Well, for one, I plan to rip his head off," she motioned toward Dodoria, "and I plan to kill you."

Dodoria snarled at her, but Frieza merely laughed. "I like this Saiyan female. She has more courage than either of you do," he said offhandedly to his lackeys.

Dodoria growled again, "Like hell you'll rip my head off, bitch. I haven't met a Saiyan, yet, that could stand against me."

"Well, times change you fat, pink, tub of shit." She said with a slight smile. "My name is Seripa, and I want you to commit that to memory."

The pink monster glared at her, then frowned in confusion, "Seripa…?" His eyes widened and he glanced at Frieza quickly.

Seripa followed his gaze to see that Frieza was no longer smiling, and was instead casting Dodoria a glare.

"Wasn't Seripa one of those Saiyans you were supposed to kill on Planet Meat? What's that make…two monkeys that have survived your attacks? And both from the same group, how interesting." He smiled slightly and returned his gaze to her. "Bardock…he was your captain, was he not?"

"He was," she said proudly, standing up straighter.

Frieza chuckled, "I can see that you idolize him." He gestured to her armor.

Frowning slightly, she glanced down and blinked in surprise. She hadn't noticed it before, but the armor she had been given greatly resembled her former mate's. It was the same color, the same design and everything. The only difference was that hers was obviously made for females. Smiling, she looked back up and that smile turned into a smirk.

"Damn straight. I am proud to have been a member of his team."

Again, the lizard chuckled. "You are an interesting little female. It is too bad that you won't survive this encounter. I would very much like to make you a member of my own, personal, group. I think you would an excellent addition to my collection."
Seripa raised one hand and flashed her middle finger at him. She held it up long enough for the message to sink in before she dropped her hand to her side.

"That's what I think of you and that idea."

Frieza laughed out loud at that. "That is exactly why I would like for you to join my collection! I would so very much enjoy breaking that spirit of yours," he grinned at her, narrowing his eyes slowly. "But as much fun as this conversation has been…it is time for you all to die. Zarbon, order the gunners to fire at will."

"Yes, Lord Frieza." Zarbon turned with a whisk of his cape, and strode away.

"Dodoria…go to the gravity room. As punishment I want you to train under…30…times Standard gravity."

"30 times Standard? But sire, that is-"

"Dodoria…" Frieza's tone was low, and he only said the one word, but it was enough to shut the pink beast up.

He nodded meekly, "Yes, Lord Frieza," then turned and shuffled away.

Frieza smiled at them. "I suppose this is goodbye."

Seripa clenched her fists. "What? You don't have the balls to come and face us in person?"

He was silent as he continued to smile at them…at her. "Is that what you want?"

"Yeah, why not? If I am to die today, I'd rather die fighting you!" she emphasized her desire by pointing at him.

Frieza's smile split into a grin, "So be it. Zarbon! Belay that order!" And with that, the screen went black.

"Oh…shit," murmured Seripa as she realized exactly what she had just done. She glanced around at the others. Then she spotted Burgah leaning heavily on the back of his pilot's chair.

"I've got an idea!" she glanced questioningly at Aurah, who nodded, then she turned back to Burgah. "Make the jump into hyper-space! Now!"

Startled, Burgah glanced at her incredulously. "But we just barely came out. If we make another jump so soon, the engine could rip apart."

"You call that an idea?" exclaimed another member of Aurah's crew.

"Burgah, do it," Aurah ordered firmly, frowning reproachfully at the young male gylderian who had spoken. She glanced at Seripa, "I sure hope you know what you're doing."

"I never know what I'm doing, to be honest. I'm just flying by the seat of my pants." She grinned and shrugged. "It's Bardock's style and it always worked for him. I'm hoping it'll work for me, too."

"Making the jump to hyper-space in 3…2…"

THUD!

Everyone looked up as an indention appeared in the ceiling.

"Give me a view of the exterior, now!" Aurah said quickly.

The screen flashed and there was Frieza standing on the hull of the ship, tapping his foot impatiently. He was staring directly at the camera, a look on his face that practically said 'well, you coming?' Behind him, they could clearly see his ship leisurely following.

"Hyper-space jump initiated!" cried Burgah. The whole ship suddenly bucked, and Frieza was thrown off as it shot away…an instant later there was a shock that went through the whole ship, and then everything was chaos…