Chapter 17: Kaiba Land part 2: Fasha Muto

"What exactly is going on?" Mokuba asked.

"Well, Yugi is about to meet his long-lost mother," Solomon answered, after which a pink energy sphere appeared in the sky. That shot two blasts which impacted the ground side by side, separated only by a metre. A second volley hit just in front of that, after a third, and it continued. Through all of this, Yugi could sense that unfamiliar power level again, and in addition to that, behind all of the blasts, he could see the silhouette of a figure.

After a while, the energy orb dissipated, leaving the light to shine on to the figure, revealing a woman almost as tall as Joey in Saiyan Battle Armor, wearing a green scouter on one ear, and some sort of long rectangular earring on the other. Her Battle Armor was a mostly black/dark-blue color with a dark yellow section and shoulder strap, with knee guards on her knees, and a pink vest underneath. Her left leg also sported a yellowish material just under the knee guard there, and there was something brown around her waist which Yugi could only assume was a tail.

She just continued walking towards an awestruck Yugi, leaning in towards him once she was close enough and whispering in his ear. "How do I get rid of that annoying spirit inside you?"

"You mean the Spirit of the Pharaoh in my pu- necklace?" Yugi asked, a bit worried at the venom in Fasha's voice directed at the Pharaoh.

"Pharaoh, shmaraoh! How do I get rid of it? I want to reunite with you and only you!"

"Well, I guess, maybe removing the necklace?"

Fasha then lifted the Millennium Puzzle off Yugi's neck and threw it to Solomon, ordering him to hold onto it. Solomon only just managed to catch it, panicking and apparently sweating as well. She then took Yugi's hand and, saying that they would be back soon, took off into the sky, with her son following just behind. She led him to a nearby mountain, landing on the summit.

"Why did you lead me away, Mom?" Yugi asked.

"Call me Fasha," his mother responded. "I wanted to meet with you, the rest of them can wait, and that includes the ghost!"

"Did… did I offend you just now?"

"No Yugi, I just hate the ghost. Anyway, I think that's for later. I expect you have many questions, so, as much as I probably will regret saying these words, ask away."

"Well, for starters, why don't I remember you from my childhood? It was as if you didn't exist at all!"

"I actually was there at the start of your life; I just left as soon as you lost the need for me. At the time I felt I had to, because I was on the run."

"From what?"

Fasha then proceeded to reveal to Yugi how she got to Earth. The time before, over twenty years ago, she, along with four other people, was part of the empire of Frieza. Her team, led by one Bardock, used force to purge planets of life. Her people, the Saiyans, took quickly to that type of work as it involved a lot of fighting, at which they are naturally adept. Her warband was not an elite team, but a band of low-level soldiers. After one job, things went downhill fast: they had taken the planet Kanassa, but Bardock was injured, and so they took him to heal.

In the meantime, Fasha and the other three members of her team were sent to purge another planet. That job took very little time to complete, but after that, they were ambushed by an elite team led by one of Frieza's right hand men Dodoria. She fought well, but fell to the brutes, barely alive, and she knew that if she were to continue to fight, she would die, so instead she did what no Saiyan would even think of doing: feigned death. After a while in which those elites were killed by Bardock, who arrived after the battle, Dodoria appeared and seemingly destroyed him. However, he survived, as did she, both of whom took space pods back to planet Vegeta.

Instead of following Bardock, Fasha made a beeline for King Vegeta's palace, intending to inform him of Frieza's treachery, but he wasn't there. Her next move was to take a Scouter, download as much about the Saiyans as possible and leave for somewhere where she couldn't be found. After all, she knew from what Dodoria said that Frieza was going to destroy the planet, and she was but one badly wounded Saiyan woman against a whole empire, so she would need to go underground, recover, train hard and destroy Frieza at the next available opportunity. By the time she got all the information she wanted on her Scouter, a large ball of energy had been launched at the planet. It impacted, boring into the crust and destroying the world, Fasha just barely escaping the explosion.

She was spotted during the escape, and Dodoria along with Zarbon, another right hand man, were sent to destroy her. She risked her pod's structural integrity to escape, and that was when she crashed on Earth. Her ship was reduced to little more than scrap metal, and she herself wasn't fairing so well, blacking out after managing to crawl from the wreckage.

She woke up in a hospital, where she was continually being pierced by needles and other medical equipment. Upon feeling the pain, she immediately turned hostile, and it took one of the doctors almost getting killed to explain to her that they were trying to help her, as she had suffered large wounds and multiple bruises among other injuries. For over a week she endured their 'help', not thinking it much help at all, and during the entire time, the only one brave enough to approach her was the doctor she almost killed: Jameson Muto, Yugi's father. He had also saved the Scouter she brought with her, making the deal that as long as she were to stay there and recover, she would get it back. Once she was discharged, he offered to let her stay at his home, the Kame Game shop. Initially, she refused, still shaken over the betrayal of Frieza and thinking nobody could be trusted as a result, so she left for four years, living in the wilds, fighting whatever she could.

At the end of the four year period, out of loneliness, she returned to Domino City looking for Dr. Muto. Night had fallen when she reached the shop, but he wasn't there, so she used her Scouter, which had recorded his energy signature, and found him in an alleyway surrounded by five men armed with either tire-irons or baseball bats. At the time she arrived, they were muttering something about them not having to pay for healthcare. It was clear that she needed to step in, and she quickly did away with each of the thugs and looted their carcasses, claiming 'spoils of war'.

Dr. Muto thought her methods were a little extreme (as did Yugi when he heard this), but was still thankful for the help. After that, Fasha moved in with him and his father Solomon, the latter of whom she found she could easily bend to her will. Five years later, when Yugi was two, she feared that Frieza would come looking for them, and so left to train to destroy them, eventually selecting one village as her training ground. More recently, she decided to keep an eye on her son due to his participation in something called 'Battle City', revealing that she was the unfamiliar power level Yugi sensed during his time at Kame House, the Cell Games and the Leviathan battle.

Yugi was left uncomfortable with some of the things she mentioned, like the fact that she slaughtered billions of people in the name of Frieza before the betrayal, and although he liked the part where she saved his father, it was still unnerving due to the whole "spoils of war" excuse for looting. Eventually, he managed to bring himself to ask Fasha what made her decide to reveal herself to him.

She struggled to answer at first, but revealed that she knew all along that Frieza came to the planet, and she knew of his subsequent downfall, but she didn't feel like going back, preferring instead to train and defend the village she had taken refuge in, as for some reason, she found that quite fulfilling. Over time, she came to hear of her son's exploits and resolved to watch him, which she did for quite a while, but things went sour after the Duel at Death Valley with Rafael: once she heard her son's soul was gone and confirmed it with her Scouter, she felt rage boiling inside her: rage at this man who had taken his soul, rage at the people who called themselves his friends yet didn't bother to do anything, but most of all, rage at herself for taking too fucking long to see her own son.

That was when she felt a new power awaken inside her, in the form of her hair and tail flaring up and turning gold. At the time her rage had blinded her, and she could think of nothing more than to try and punish the person who took the soul of Yugi, only remembering he left after she fired at the valley. She kept a watchful eye on Yugi's friends after the incident and in the days to come, decided that no matter what, she had to try and meet him when he got his soul back, after all, there was always the possibility that she wouldn't get another chance.

"So I went to Capsule Corp., had those devices created, compiled the package together, had Solomon deliver it and here we are," Fasha finished.

"Wait a sec, what does Capsule Corp. have to do with this?" Yugi asked, confused.

"I'm surprised. I saw you in Saiyan Battle Armor before today. Did you not wonder where Bulma got the blueprints for making that armor?"

"Does that mean…?"

"Yes, this armor that you are wearing now was created by the Capsule Corporation based on the schematics I provided, as was your blue scouter. On that note, do you like the armor?"

"It is quite comfortable; I just didn't feel like wearing the gloves. I don't think they're my style."

"Understandable, I think. Besides, they are pretty much there just to complete the armor. Come to think of it, I think it's time I take the gloves off as well."

Fasha removed the white gloves and then, without warning, grabbed Yugi and pulled him into an embrace, him giving off a surprised "Wha-?". As she held him to herself, memories started flooding into her: feelings of how good it felt to hold the infant Yugi in her arms, and not just because of how her blood would live on. Holding Yugi now, she wondered how she could have let the fear of Frieza override the joy she felt holding her son. She wondered how she could have forgotten what it was like to hold him during her training, and shame was gnawing at her for thinking that she wouldn't be needed by him.

There was one other thing that she had no intention of mentioning to Yugi that she was ashamed of: at his birth, she thought that because he's part human, he wouldn't have the fighting spirit on which the Saiyans prided themselves, a hunch later confirmed by his non-aggressive nature in his early childhood. How was this child going to grow up to be a great warrior like his mother before him? If there was no wish to train, why should she bother living with him, much less training him at all? Looking back now, Fasha realized that this was completely the wrong way to look at him: for one thing her previous life of interplanetary conquest was over due to Frieza's betrayal, so why should she have to put someone through that again. For another thing, Yugi had grown into someone he was happy with being, and she had a hunch that even if he was made into another conqueror of worlds, he wouldn't enjoy it and would probably either go AWOL before his first assignment, or he wouldn't forgive himself and who knows what would happen then.

The shame had grown quite large, how could she have allowed herself to think that he was worthless for not having a fighting spirit. That was the thinking of Frieza for Vegeta's sake, and he stabbed her and her entire race in the back!

"Um… Fasha… are you okay?" came Yugi's voice seemingly out of nowhere.

"I'm fine Yugi," she responded, her voice actually sounding shaky.

"Are you sure? You're crying."

"Really?" she sounded surprised, as if the tears rolling down her cheeks hadn't registered amidst all the mental chaos. "I guess it's just the past catching up to me."

"How so, if you don't mind me asking?" Yugi's voice was filled with concern.

"I regret some things that I have done. Let's just leave it at that."

"Okay, do you want me to tell you about how my life has been so far."

"Rather not now, hearing long stories just puts me to sleep."

Some time passed, with Fasha still holding Yugi close to her, before anyone continued speaking. "So, back at the Kaiba Land gate..." Yugi began, "… I noticed Grandpa acting weird."

"How so?"

"He seemed scared. I know he's old but he definitely isn't so clumsy as to almost drop the Millennium Puzzle when you threw it to him."

"Millennium what-now?"

"Uh… the necklace. I also noticed him panicking a bit."

"About what?"

"I don't know, but I think I heard a bit of panic in his voice when he was on the phone as well. I haven't seen him like that before."

"Hahaha, don't worry Yugi, that's just the effect I have on the old fool. Since I moved in with your father, I guess I knew that Solomon was the easiest to bend to my will. All I had to do was make sure he knew exactly who he was dealing with, and I could get him to treat me like a queen. Many a time I had him deliver my food to me on a silver platter."

"Um… okay…"

"Nervous? Don't worry, I already hold a position of authority over you as your mother but that's as far as it goes, and I'm sure due to your training that you can actually put up a good fight unlike your frail grandfather."

"Do you think we can go back now? I think everyone might be starting to worry."

"If you insist Yugi."

Yugi didn't want to interrupt the moment like that, but he felt his friends might worry if he was gone too long and besides, he had a tournament to get to. He and Fasha took off from their location in the mountain and flew back to Kaiba Land.

They landed near the main gate, where Joey, Tea, Tristan, Solomon, Duke and Mokuba waited. Solomon gave Yugi back his Puzzle, whereupon Fasha said that now the Pharaoh could come out.

"Before that, can I just ask Mokuba something?" Yugi asked.

"What is it Yugi?" Mokuba wondered.

"How have the Duels gone?"

"Well, you'll be happy to know that Gohan won his Duel, but the only ones left are Paul McGregor versus Shane Jordan, Rebecca Hawkins versus Vivian Wong, and Fortune Salim versus Zigfried Lloyd, and the first two are about to start, so let's go!"

Just then, a nearby screen lit up, announcing Rebecca and her opponent. Tea expressed her wish for Rebecca to defeat her on the spot while Solomon immediately seemed to fall in love with her and got overexcited by the Dueling, injuring his back as a result. Mokuba called for a doctor while Yugi's grandfather told him not to worry and just enjoy the tournament.

"Now, you wanted to see the Pharaoh?" Yugi asked his mother.

"There is one question I want to ask him, I guess," Fasha responded.

With that, Yugi transformed into the Pharaoh, whereupon he was immediately asked "How did it feel?" by Fasha.

"How did what feel?" he replied, confused.

"How did it feel to be trapped in a Saiyan body?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Think back to the train. I could tell at the time you were reveling in the traits that were inherent to Saiyans."

"Like what? I know I was having trouble controlling my anger due to the stunt that Weevil pulled, but-"

"Stop denying it. You were enjoying the battle, mercilessly beating your opponent into the ground… just like a Saiyan."

"Impossible… it was because I hadn't conquered the darkness within me, and I lost Yugi."

"Excuses, excuses. Fine, have it your way, I've grown bored with arguing. Can I see my son again?"

Upon hearing this request, the Pharaoh retreated, leaving Yugi, who, not willing to miss the match with Rebecca, went with everyone to find it before it started.

End note: Okay, that was harder than I thought. I'm not too sure mother-son reunions and Saiyans mix, but I tried, and I hope you enjoyed. Also, I'm not too sure if Fasha was a bit OOC or not.