Chapter 12
Progress.

Having kicked off the quilt in his sleep, Garagus reached to get a heat from Rhuba, only to collide with the floor.
"ahow…" He moaned, feeling the bump on his head.
Letting out a yawn, he was perplexed to see not the grass and soil of his own world, but the panels of a space fairing vessel.
His palms pushed off the floor, but he felt heavier than usual.

Cressin was dead. Murdered by Freeza.
His parents, his brother, everyone. They're all gone.
He never thought memories of the days when trying to evade capture by the Tuffles would be considered good dreams.
At least, Rhuba was with him… somewhere at least.

"Wuba?" Tutting and cursing his concussion, he attempted that again. "Rhuba?"
Garagus threw on any old shirt he could find as he made his way to the flight deck.

For the last few days, they'd been turning up the gravity bit by bit until Rhuba was able to move freely without the use of her physical body.
And there she was, hovering on all fours as she attempted to balance herself like he had the day before.

Garagus stood by, leaning proudly at the door watching her.
There was a time when the only majority of Alpha Saiyans, and perhaps a couple of Dwellers knew how to fly.
Now, All Saiyans can fly. There isn't a single one in the galaxy that can't.
Great success.

Rhuba focused hard, curling her knees up to her chest as she rolled backwards. For an instant, she saw Garagus standing there.
His unexpected appearance scared her out of concentration, but she could at least land safely on her feet.
Her plan was to roll back onto her front and remain stable off the ground, but she was glad to receive the round of applause.

"Amazing Rhuba. Hard to think this time last week, you were adamant that you couldn't fly." Arms out, Garagus welcomed her embrace. More so that she did it without walking a single step.
The warmth he'd been missing was exactly what he needed after the sobering dream he had.
"I saw Cressin." His hand shook as he held the back of her head. "We were home, and she was alive."

Rhuba shook her head as she held him tighter.
"Forget that shit. Thinking about it will just cripple us, I know." She let go and turned his head to face her. "Be my strength, and I'll be yours. WE," She tightly clutched his hand. "We, are the Saiyans."

"we are…" Squeezing her hand, stroking her black hair. Garagus lifted her into a kiss.
Their tails wrapped around and twined together as they stood like that.

"let me try…" Rhuba reached around him, hugging him as she snuggled her head under his chin.
Garagus felt unease when his body started to lift, but holding her, he was so proud that she was able to support both their weight as they slowly drifted up from the ground.

"Good?" she asked, smiling wide as she raised her head to look at him. "Am I, G-Ga-!"

"Ouch!"

"I'm so sorry! I thought, I, I was trying to be sweet…" Rhuba slumped as Garagus stared at the ceiling. The bump on his head grew three sizes that day.

"It was sweet…" He groaned. "Let's just not do that under a doorframe next time."

"Okay~" Rhuba stiffened her body like a board as she drifted over him. "Come on, let's eat!"

Garagus twisted his neck just to watch her glide down the hall.
Her balance wasn't perfect, but she was avoiding colliding with any surface as she worked her way to the kitchen.

In there, Rhuba tasked herself with making two breakfast portions without touching the floor or the counter.

Garagus watched from the table. Watching how her legs would kick or jerk slightly to maintain a sense of balance, while her tail helplessly flapped and waggled behind her.

"What'cha staring at, big guy?" Rhuba asked, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Your concentration." He chuckled.

"Yeah?" Rhuba tried to ignore him and focus on food preparation. But knowing he was staring at her, she couldn't help how her body started leaning in mid-air.
It was all to ensure an easier time preparing breakfast, naturally.

Once breakfast was roasting in the oven, Rhuba backed away from the counter and for the first time since she left the hall, finally, let her weight lean on something.

"How was that?"

"Magnificent." Garagus wrapped his arms around her. "and your flying was good too."

"aw, thanks~"

After breakfast, Garagus checked the settings Rhuba had changed in his sleep.
Since the gravity was increased only a little, he didn't even notice.
But the fact remained.

"Rhuba, the gravity is now 0.75 of our home planet."

"Only a little more and I can fly for real." She cheered proudly.

Garagus reached out to her.
"Rhuba, the planet below has a gravity of .60 of planet Vegeta. You're now able to fly down there."

She looked out over the iceball the Dishians call home.
"I can fly?" She gulped, imagining the open spaces and heights she'll be able to reach. "So what does that mean for my training?"

"It means," Garagus patted the seat next to him. "I'm going to push you even harder than before."

Planning the path for their landing zone. It was a little rough, as Garagus needed to instruct her how to take the planet's spin into account.

"Are we on fire?"

"It's just friction, don't panic." Biting his lip, Garagus adjusted to meet the rotational speed. "See that minus? That means it's the speed but in reverse."

"oh… sorry."

"That's okay. We didn't die that time. How's the heat shields?"

Rhuba jumped back to her usual seat at the comms.
"eh…" The screen was flashing red. "They're really angry with me. If we can avoid being set on fire again, that would probably be for the best."

"Noted!" Giving a thumbs up, Garagus could see the steam cloud where their neighbours live.

Usually, with all the snow and ice, finding a landing zone is hard with the naked eye.
However, it seemed the children who live in the village had started drawing the outline of where the ship used to be with stones.

"That was nice of them." Garagus could see them running off at the site of their approach.
To see a ship in flight and feel the need to run and hide, it was like reliving the past from the other side.
Only neither Rhuba nor himself planned on hurting any of them.
"landing in three, two, one…"

The ice crunching was heard deep in their bones as the ship touched down.
"I feel heavier, Garagus…" Rhuba looked to him, hoping it was just her imagination. If she's too heavy, flying might still be impossible right now.
But he simply turned off the artificial gravity generator, and at once she felt her body lighten.
"oh, good."

The Dishian children hid behind their fortress of snow and ice. They knew word would spread quick of the visitor's return, but they wanted to see them up close first.
When the door to their moving house opened, they were treated to the sight of the woman they knew as Sorpper flinging herself into the sky and landing waist deep in a pile of snow.

"Should we help?" One girl asked, but her friends had already abandoned their hiding place to get a better look. As they approached the set of legs and butt sticking out, they wondered what to do.

Under the snow, Rhuba had her arms crossed as she quietly contemplated what went wrong during her take-off.
When hovering on the ship, she'd proved to be adequate. Perhaps proper flight requires more practice.

Feeling a pair of hands grab her waist, she giggled waiting for Garagus to pull her out.
'have his hands always been that small?' she wondered, right before an alarming second pair grabbed her thigh, followed by a third. "Nope!"

The children were blown back in an avalanche of snow and ice as Rhuba blasted her way out.
"Who's there!?" She demanded, furious eyes checking for hostiles.

When the little pale bald heads of the Dishian children emerged from the snow, Rhuba fell to her knees to help dig them out.

"I turn my back for a second," Garagus descended behind her. To Rhuba's annoyance, his feet hovered inches off the snow with perfect control.

"is anyone hurt?"

The glossy-eyed girls had their gazes fixed on the flying alien.
They'd seen him fly at a distance, but never this close.

"Run!" One of them screamed, leading a stampede away towards the village.

"Hmm… no witnesses…"

Rhuba turned to Garagus. His hand was outstretched with an energy blast aimed at the children.

"You think my pride is that weak?" Dusting the ice from her clothes, Rhuba took his hand.

"Not making a fool of yourself was one of the reasons you refused lessons." Garagus felt her hand squeeze around his as he kept an eye on the Dishians to make sure they returned him safely. But as Rhuba's pull listed more upward, his attention was drawn to her wobbling off the ground.
"you'll need both hands to stabilise yourself," At his word, Rhuba began using her entire body, taking the mid-air form of a young animal walking for the first time.

"This was easier on the ship!" Rhuba caught herself from drifting too far from where she wanted to be, but maintaining a strong hover was difficult.

"But you're off the ground. That's something." Garagus flew higher, hoping she'd follow. "join me, won't you?"
He chuckled at her annoyed face. But right away saw her first mistake when her gaze fell below.
"You already know where the ground is. Focus on where you Want to go." Offering his hand, a good ten feet above, he backed away as she slowly ascended from the icy surface.

Rhuba was already showing some intuition with her flying. However, she was struggling to find a stable stance between keeping herself warm and fighting against the wind.

"When I carried you, I held you like this," Garagus mimed how he'd cradle her long distances. "It keeps us warm and aerodynamic." Pulling one elbow into his sides and the opposite fist outreached above his head, he demonstrated how he likes to fly when solo. "This is good for speed, and keeps one hand in a defensive position."

"Are we going to have a battle up here?"

"Not this soon. But I hope someday." Taking aim at her, Garagus fired a blast that she, instead of blocking, dropped from the air to evade it. To his amazement, she didn't hit the ground, instead only fell fifteen feet before righting herself.

"I wasn't ready!" Rhuba complained as she gained height with him. "That didn't count!"

"Of course it did! You didn't get hit and you're back for more. What didn't work?"

Rhuba considered it. He was correct, but it was not how she wanted it to go.
"Let's go again, I'll deflect this one."

"I'm not my father. I'm not going to make you dive before you can swim." Garagus turned his attention to the village. "Enjoy yourself."

Rhuba watched him flip his legs backwards as he rolled towards the ground before shooting off on the fifth roll and making his way towards the hot springs.

As an icy wind blew Rhuba's hair from her face, she took a moment to really think about it.
'I'm flying, I'm actually flying right now…'

On this ship, in space, she may have been subconsciously chopping her newfound ability to the lack of gravity.
And at the start with Garagus, she was so focused on not making mistakes, that she never had a chance to realise that it was real.
"I can fly…!" Tensing a fist, Rhuba took aim at the cloud stack ahead and pushed off, dropping a good ten feet but then gradually building up speed to sustain velocity.

As she came over the springs, the heat threw off her balance just a little as she went a little higher. And flying through the cloud was both scary and exciting.

"Wooooo~Hoooo~!"

Garagus smiled to himself as he and the other pool goers heard a cheer from high above.
The sound of her having fun made him want to go join her, but he felt it was important to let her do this on her own for a while.
After all, he and his brother would fly off on their own for weeks before returning. Usually because they'd have a fight, separate, and get lost for a while before finding their way home.

"Yagon, you're back."

Garagus ignored the words at first, then remembered his alias.
His eyes shot open to see Kaburd, the elder staring down at him.

"Just needed to teach Sorpper how to fly."

"You can teach that?" Kaburd's small eyes widened. "in such little time, too."

Garagus let out a sigh as he turned to face the edge while keeping his shoulders under the water.
"She's a stubborn one. The power was always there."

"Ah, I know this pain." He nodded. "My granddaughter Cuppa, she aspires to take my place one day. Every day she trains with weapons. She does not understand that to be the Elder, it takes more…" Pointing to his chest, Kaburd sat with Garagus in the water.

"Some of my grandchildren left an, alter for your return." He chuckled.

"We saw. It helped us land."

"They'll be pleased." Kaburd listened and laughed as Garagus mentioned how the children ran away. "I apologise if they offended. They're not used to seeing so many fingers on a hand."

"Eh?" Garagus saw Kaburd's four fingers. "oh, yes. I remember now."

"Woooo~!" Screamed a fast-moving voice from up ahead, beckoning many to look up, take cover or a combination of the two.

"It's Alright!" Kaburd assured his people. "My people, my children and grandchildren are growing too complacent in our time of peace. Cuppa is the only one who trains daily, while everyone else waits until the danger has arrived before taking notice."
Sensing his eyes, Kaburd turned to face Garagus.
"is something wrong?"

"My people…"

Kaburd listened to Garagus describe how he and Rhuba grew up in wartime. The feathered birds that pluck Kaburd's people from the ground seemed trivial compared to the ones his guests had to fight off.

Garagus was careful, though. Part of him wanted the memory of his people to continue outside of two living souls, but he knew better than to mention the Saiyans, the Tuffles or his planet.

"Your people were conquerors," Kaburd stated.

"From the day that war started right up until a few weeks ago, yes. Right up until we were whipped out…" Garagus held up a stone. "Look around, your village, this mountain, the frozen canyons, this whole world…" Throwing the rock into the air, Gargaus reduced it to atoms with one small but focused energy blast. "That's what happened to my people."

Kaburd sensed no hostility in his guest. But the fear lingered.
"Could the same thing happen to us?"

Garagus dipped his eyes.
"Yes." Garagus looked up to the sky. "When I was a boy, everything that ever mattered to me existed within two miles of where I stood. The war forced me to become aware of the larger world, but also made it feel smaller. And the world was made smaller again when the sky people arrived. I came to realise that everything we'd been fighting for was so insignificant. Everything out there is so much bigger than right here. But since the day my tiny insignificant world was destroyed like a mere pebble, everything else became empty… The only thing I have left is…-"

"Oh, shiiii-!" A big splash engulfed most people by the poolside. "AHH, That's hot!" Rhuba gasped as she emerged, body bright red.

"her…" Garagus finished, wiping his soaked hair from his face.

Kaburd shook his face clear.
"I feel for you. I truly do. And I owe you my life for saving my grandchild." He said coldly. "but I don't want the same to happen here."

"Nor do I."

Kaburd rose from the water and climbed from the spring as Rhuba attempted to take off from swimming.
Meanwhile, Garagus wondered if he should not have said anything. His moment of reflection may well have cost them their welcome.
The planet is big enough to find another place to land, it didn't feel right.
Should Feeza's forces come, it doesn't matter which side of the planet he takes aim at.

"What am I doing wrong?" Rhuba asked, her body rising and dipping with every attempt.

Waking from his thoughts, Gargaus advised her to strengthen her body until out.
"There's too much drag if you assume flying position underwater."

"Okay!" Rhuba sunk to chin level, but on her next attempt, she was up and out. Before divebombing back down, she opened up and stabilised herself for a gentle drift towards where Garagus was sitting.

"You're getting so good at flying." With a small congratulations, Garagus mused at how good she'd be had she started away back when he offered to teach her when she was a girl. "the takeaway, always listen to your man."

"you're right…" Rhuba began orbiting him. It was crazy to her how in control she was for most of her time up there, but this close to the ground and simply drifting was so hard.
The most difficult part she found was rotating her body to face her direction of drift, but she eventually gave in to just gyrating her hips and body around to change direction without turning. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said you're doing amazing."

"Hmph, I know that~" Her knees felt weak when she let herself land on solid ground, it was as though she'd been falling for a long time. Her palms were shaking as she let herself get over what she'd experienced. "I can't believe you let me go this long without telling me I could fly."

"Come here you little-!"

"Missed!" Rhuba shot off before he could take a swing at her, but splash landed in the water again.

Garagus swam over and dunked her head under.
"Get smart with me?" He demanded after bringing her up for a breath and then throwing her back down.

Rhuba reached around the back of him and pulled his tail loose from his shorts.
Gritting his teeth, Garagus endured, but it was becoming harder to stay afloat and keep a hold of her.

"Are you okay?" Asked one of the Disihans watching from the edge.

"Yes…" Garagus coughed. "Just having a disagreement."
Clinging to her tightly, Garagus shot out from the pool and rose up five hundred feet before letting her go.

"Garagus!" Rhuba yelled as she tried desperately to right herself in freefall.
Meanwhile, he too was falling upside down and spinning slowly with his arms out, relaxed as you like.

"Don't think about it, just let it happen,"

Clenching all over, Rhuba spread out her arms and legs. On its own, her body was starting to slow down with air resistance.

Garagus offered his hand once more, and like before, he was just out of reach.
Reaching out to him, Rhuba inched closer and closer, until her fall was arcing.
Looking to the ground though, or more so the hut roofs below, Garagus snatched her hand and dragged her further along in the arc before they crashed.

"That was unfortunate, if I brought you higher, you'd have made it on your own, I know it." Letting her go again, he soared over the frozen canyons.

Rhuba watched him from behind. This was a view she'd never had before.
He's flying so fast, but not away from her, nor towards.
But leading her. She can keep up. They're flying together.
And he wanted this for so long, now to make up for lost time.

When Garagus found her on his left, head in line with his shoulder with a smile stretched below her determined eyes, he knew it was time to up the game.
"just spread your wings, and fly away~"