Chapter 7 A Light In The Dark Goes out
"Boss?" Both Goten and Zach asked simultaneously briefly looking at each other stupefied as to what Xavier meant. "Yeah geniuses, you think I run this little operation? Much as I would love to take the credit I unfortunately can't but thanks for thinking so he he he" Xavier lamented mockingly putting on a fake performance of humility. "Xavier, w-what is going on down there!?" Goten questioned Xavier half freaking out over what he and Zach had just seen. "And how the hell are you involved in it?!" Zach asked in a similar manner. "All questions will be answered when we reach our destination" Xavier answered sounding like a tour guide. "We have a little bit of a ride to go though as it is on the surface of this quaint world below us so I must insist you should...chain up!" Xavier continued before abruptly throwing a long chain link out. The chain at lightning speed sped towards then around Goten and Zach five times around and had them stuck in it before either knew what was happening. "Oof! What the?!" Goten exclaimed in surprise and slight pain as the force of the chain tightening around him and Zach made the pair fall to the floor. "Hold on tight folks it's gonna be a bumpy ride" Xavier finished tauntingly slyly walking back through the slide door disappearing as it shut. Now the boys were even more concerned about what was going to happen to them and what was going down on the surface of the planet they were above. "Goten! Quickly! Break us out of these chains! Then we can take control of this ship and figure out exactly is going on here" Zach ordered Goten somewhat frantic. "Right! Hnnng!" Goten obliged instantly beginning to push his arms out of the chains. However after he did that, Goten suddenly felt the power he summoned disappear and his arms shook with weakness and gave out. "Uh Goten what happened?" Zach asked Goten bewildered as to why Goten abruptly stopped. "I...don't know" Goten replied confused himself. "Maybe it was just a muscle spasm, I'll try again" Goten surmised starting his second attempt. This time he summoned fourth enough of his inner energy for a weak white aura to form over his body. Just like last time though just as Goten was about to try to break through the chains the energy abruptly left him and he once again slumped down feeling drained. The chains noticeably glowed the same white color of his aura seconds before the Demi saiyan's strength failed him. "What's wrong?!" Zach inquired worryingly afraid because they both couldn't escape and something might be wrong with his friend. "I-I don't know! My power keeps coming out of me!" Goten answered panicky beginning to wonder if he was coming down with some kind of illness. "Maybe the gas Xavier used to knock us out affected your body?" Zach theorized. Before either boys could think further, the ship rapidly descended down the outside turning into an inferno as it passed through the atmosphere. The inertia made the chained up duo ascend to the ceiling hard. "Ahhhh!" Both Goten and Zach screeched in agony as the pressure afflicted onto their bodies pressed against them and the ceiling very intensely. After what seemed like an eternity the ship finally came to a stop landing somewhere on the surface of the mysterious planet. The boys immediately following the halting of the ship fell back down to the floor. "Ugh... I'm gonna get a serious concussion at this rate" Zach said groaning. The sliding door reopened and Xavier remerged marching towards the pair still holding his sly expression. "Alright let's getter done!" Xavier said enthusiastically mimicking a redneck accent as he grabbed the end of chain link. He now sported arctic type gear on his body. "Xavier! Why aren't my powers working?! Did the gas you knocked us out with suppress my energy?!" Goten asked somewhat angrily. "Ooh now there's an idea, no, the chains your entangled in are made of this nifty material called absorbatonium! It does exactly what it sounds like! It absorbs any exerted ki like a sponge!" Xavier explained all too happily. "What?!" Both Goten and Zach screamed in unison in pure shock. Xavier while whistling walked over to the wall, pushed a part of the wall that sunk inward and revealed a hidden button. Xavier pressed it and then the floor of the ship dropped down out of the ship and into the outside. Frigid air accompanied by high winds and blizzard level snow rushed across the three children's bodies. While Xavier was relatively well insulated and protected from the cold due to his gear, Goten and Zach unfortunately were left shivering chattering their teeth intensely and their skin almost turning blue as they had decidedly not given proper clothing, left only with the fair weather clothes they were wearing prior to their abduction. All three boys trekked through the barren icy landscape. It was a total whiteout with only solar eclipse lighting to illuminate anything, no one could clearly see anything for miles in any direction, not even their own ship at a certain point. Well except of course Xavier who appeared to have night vision goggles on to find wherever they were going. "G-g-got-en! C-can y-you generate any e-ner-gy?" Zach asked his friend desperately behind them shivering while they were drudging behind Xavier knee deep in snow. "I-I'll t-try..." Goten agreed weakly stuttering. Concentrating very hard but carefully, Goten just about managed to produce some ki fueled heat for the two of them. However it wasn't a very successful effort, the absorbatonium chains kept his energy output low so Goten was only able to warm them enough to make the freezing cold biting their skin feel as bearable as an average winter day in temperate climates. Plus the ferocious winds occasionally broke through the aura and the cold would hit them full force once more. This was enough though for Zach to begin to study the ki draining chains he and Goten were entrapped in. With a few little pokes with his fingers, Zach soon discovered that despite the chain's energy siphoning capabilities, the chains themselves were actually pretty easy to damage as evidenced by his fingernails leaving scratch marks on the metal with hardly any effort. He also realized that the metal wasn't sucking up any of his meager ki, indicating that the material only worked with those of high power levels and their effectiveness was purely because their energy siphoning left its captives barely able to lift a finger. But a mere genius like himself with spaghetti limps and a few little things he kept in his pocket, they were nothing. Struggling slightly with the chains, Zach managed to pull out a Swiss Army knife he brought for the gravity chamber repairs earlier and slowly began cutting the chains. After a few minutes the group started to be able to see a white light illuminating in the distance. "Hey Zach, do you think this is one of those dots of light we saw on this planet back in space?" Goten probed his friend for an answer. "It might just be but what is it?" Zach pondered. "He he you'll see" Xavier responded having overheard the two giggling slightly to himself. Eventually the three got close enough to make out more details of the mysterious structure. First of all, they weren't just lights, it was a whole prison looking compound and the lights they saw before were watch lights on towers. On the top of the building there were straight walkways with rails on the sides of and walking on those were a lot of well armored and insulated guard looking figures. There were ten that the trio could make out from where they stood and interestingly while each guards outfits were identical, they each were a different size and body type, one of them even sporting a tail of sorts. If one were to look closely enough at their mostly covered faces at their own risk, they could also see they also had differentiating skin colors. "What is this place and who are these people?" Both Goten and Zach wondered in their minds questioning the purpose of the structure. They soon got their answer however when they suddenly heard a series groans and moans. They looked over in the direction of the voices to see a wall of barbed wire. At first they couldn't see what lay beyond the wire due to the whiteout conditions. But as they got closer they were met with a horrifying scene. The source of the moans was revealed to have been from three dozen Namekians of all ages trapped and suffering from the bitter cold. Goten could tell they were Namekians since they all resembled piccolo or Dende in some way. All their eyes had gone black as if already dead. Some of the non moving ones probably were dead. Most however were just barely breathing huddling together to preserve what little body heat they could produce. Their skin had become frost bitten looking blackish and purplish with only small patches of their once healthy green color. Goten and Zach were left stunned with shock and horror at the atrocity occurring right in front of their eyes. "Oh god... I think I'm gonna blahhhh!" Zach said vomiting overwhelmed with disgust and sadness. Goten felt tears begin to water his eyes as he continued to watch and hear the dead or dying Namekians slow agony. One Namekian of elderly status seemed to focus directly on the demi Saiyan and very slowly reached out its hand out and it in a very broken sound strained voice it said "H...help u...us, p-ple-ase..." before it's raised up arm broke off his body and it shattered on the frozen surface like glass. The deep sorrow that was welling up inside Goten started turning into a burning rage and he swiftly turned to look at his twin brother for an explanation. "Xavier, what the fuck is going on here! Who is doing this to the Namekians! Answer me!" Goten yelled out enraged his ki flaring up with his anger. Curiously when his ki glowed instead of being its usual white or yellow whenever he went super saiyan, it was green. His absorbatonium chains glowed green as well as they siphoned the strange ki. "That's our next stop gentlemen, now come we best not keep him waiting!" Xavier replied cheerfully not seeming to be fazed by Goten's outburst or the horrors done to the Namekians. The trio only had to trek through the tundra for a few minutes away from the concentration camp to another lit structure but this one was very different. The lights were dimmer and red instead of bright and white. Also this time it was just an oval shaped open hatch leading to a chamber with similar red lighting as the outside. Walking up the platform and entering the inside, Goten and Zach's eyes widened. The chamber was ginormous, about as big as a football field. It a mix of red, black and blue colors. On the ceiling hung two flags side by side with a design depicting what appeared to be an angel bleeding from a dagger going through its heart. At the end of the chamber there was a throne in between two stacks filled with red gems. Sitting on the throne was what could only be described as a samurai looking warrior. Its armor was mostly gray with slightly curved spikes in the back of its legs and two protruding blades on one of its hands which were hidden by black spandex as was part of its legs. The helmet was red with three pointed tops in a crown like arrangement. No one could make out the face of the mysterious figure it covered by the same black spandex and helmet with the only thing visible to the three young visitors being blood red eyes that almost glowed with sinister intent. "Is that the boss?" Goten asked him and Zach befuddled by a man looking like he came straight from the Middle Ages ruling over an otherwise very technologically advanced alien empire. The man arose from his chair and marched towards the trio, his metal covered steps thumping with authority until he's inches away from the kids his shadow enveloping them. "So...these are the new recruits who spoke of Xavier?" The figure spoke with a super deep almost devil like voice. Xavier got down onto one knee bowing his head down. "Yes my lord, I believe my brother and his little friend will serve your cause quite well" Xavier answered obediently with confidence. "Hey uhhh either of you dicks wanna tell us exactly what is going on here?! Because there's some motherfucking terrible shit happening on this planet! And just who the hell are you?!" Zach screamed in a fury his patience wearing thin on account of all the disturbing transgressions occurring around him and Goten who shared his thoughts gaining a scowling expression on his face. The figure turned to face the duo straight in the eyes standing tall and commanding. "I've gone by many names children, but you shall address me as...The Shredder!" The man now known as Shredder bellows out proudly raising his fist into the air pridefully. "A kitchen utensil?" Zach remarks both him and Goten taken aback by the odd naming of the tyrant. Their confusion quickly melted away as they remembered the atrocity this madman's subjects were doing to the Namekians and their world. "Never mind that! Why are you doing this to the innocent Namekians?! What have they done to deserve getting imprisoned and having their sun blocked freezing them to death?! "Goten screamed in a fury. "They refused my offer to join my empire so I'm punishing them and waiting to see if they change their minds" Shredder explained his actions without hesitation with a sinister narrowing of his eyes. "What?!" Goten and Zach screeched in unison with equal shock and rage towards the tyrant. "And just what the hell makes you think you can get away with this?!" Zach shouts angrily. "I am the ruler of all mortals! I have scoured all twelve universes! Building The Mortal Empire! The perfected regime! Cleansing all of existence of the accursed god's influence who oppress and abuse us all! This magnificent kingdom's ultimate goal is to march into the god archery's realm where my army shall cease all their supposedly divine assets for us to use and where I shall shred all the gods to their knees and wipe them out forever! I will be the supreme master of existence itself! Ha ha ha ha!" The Shredder monologued passionately with a hint of anger and determination in his voice laughing manically at the end. "What do you think? Do you wish to be part of the mortal revolution?" Shredder proposed to the stunned boys aside from Xavier who was now standing next to Shredder a few steps away from the mad leader. Goten and Zach glance at each other then nod in silent understanding and Zach stares back at Shredder with no fear. "We think your a total psycho running a nuthouse!" Zach stated defiantly. "That's right! We'll never join you!" Goten agreed wholeheartedly in the same manner. The Shredder's eyes narrowed with anger and his bladed hand fisted up. "You would be wise to change your minds and take your defiance back, for their will be consequences" The Shredder threatened. Goten froze up as reality suddenly hit him that he was helpless in his current predicament with the absorbatonium chains stripping him of any power he tried to use. "That's what you think!" Zach boldly exclaims which got everyone's attention and Goten's bewilderment. In a split second Zach's claim is proven to be plausible as at that moment his knife cuts enough of the chains for him to release himself and Goten, much to the latter's surprise. "What?!" Shredder exclaimed in shock and surprise himself. "Zach! How did you do that?!" Goten ecstatically inquired as he hugged Zach tightly. "Turns out these guys's absorbatonium is really only tough against ki, up against everything else though it's not much tougher than aluminum!" Zach summarized his discovery with an air of cockiness. "Guards! Seize them!" Shredder ordered ferociously and seconds later a battalion of guards had shown up with laser guns aimed directly at the unlikely duo on both sides. "Oh no! I can't block both sides at the same time!" Goten said fearlessly knowing that Zach would get shot and be killed if shot by either squad. The guards's guns lit up charging for an assault. "Don't worry about it buddy! I've got my own back! Just watch your own!" Zach reassured his friend confidently. "Huh?!" Goten said confused by Zach's bizarrely upbeat resolve. Shots fired from the guards guns and Goten instinctively put up an energy shield to protect himself and Zach on one side. He looked at Zach expecting him to be filled with holes. Instead he was met with pure awesomeness as Zach was absorbing the energy blasts with two gauntlet looking metallic gloves on his hands. In the palms of the gauntlets were the same type of ki draining devices used by his grandfather's old creations androids nineteen and twenty. The boy genius had pulled them out of his pockets seconds before the blasts impacted him. After the guards stopped firing the power receptors on Zach's gauntlet's continued to glow and eventually intensified. "Thanks for the energy suckers!" Zach quoted before his gauntlets fired the energy from all the blasts they absorbed back at the guards knocking them all out right as Goten did the same with his own energy. "Did I ever tell you your the best" Goten asked in a knowing monotone manner. "All the time, now let's go free those Namekians!" Zach declared heroically. "Yeah!" Goten agreed excitedly. They ran out the shredder's compound side by side stopping a few feet away from where they just came from. They could see empire ships headed their way. "Goten! You take that side of the planet! I'll liberate this side!" Zach strategized pointing at the left side of the planet for Goten to free and the right for himself. "Are you sure Zach?" Goten questioned Zach, still concerned despite Zach having proven his resourcefulness beforehand. "What did I just tell you bud, I've got my own back" Zach waved off his friend's concerns as he pushed a series of buttons on one of his gauntlets. After punching in a code, metal started coming out of both gauntlets and enveloped Zach's body. Eventually the metal reconstructed and coalesced into a robotic suit covering Zach's entire body making him look like an metal man. "Woah...that is so cool..." Goten said in awe of Zach's latest invention. He then recomposed himself and nodded transforming quickly into Super Saiyan three with his energy now unrestricted and Zach with rockets coming out of his robot suit's feet flew off in different directions. Goten reached a few concentration camps and with great care destroyed the structures while helping the half frozen Namekians out of their cages. Zach did the same with a few camps on the other side of the planet. Within about ten minutes they had liberated all the Namekians, the inhabitants cheering for them and thanking profusely. The two best friends regrouped with each other on a random spot on the planet. "Woo hoo! Nice one!" The duo complimented each other simultaneously. "Now that the Namekians are free, we just gotta find a way to drive the rest of these yahoos out of this neighborhood!" Zach surmised happily. "We can do it! The two of us together are undefeatable!" Goten shouted out confidently truly believing that they were an unbeatable team. "If you little miscreants believe that, you are sorely mistaken!" The Shredder's voice abruptly boomed into the duo's ears and microseconds later he touched down a couple feet away from them. Before either one could react, Shredder rammed straight towards Zach in less than a blink of an eye, knocking him away still alive but destroying his robotic suit to nothing but scrap and leaving the little genius unconscious. "Zac-!" Goten couldn't even finish as Shedder had impaled Goten with his two hand blades. The young Demi saiyan puked up blood as he dropped back to his base form and Shredder violently yanked his blades out of Goten's body, letting him fall to the ground halfway dead. Xavier emerged from the continuous snowstorm with a slightly disappointed expression on his face. "My apologies master. I honestly thought at least my dear brother would have been more receptive to your offer" Xavier apologized to his master bowing his head down seemingly out of shame and regret. "Their defiance had nothing to do with you Xavier. You obey and serve me well" Shredder stated in a surprisingly understanding and rational manner even reassuring his subject of his value. Shredder's eyes than began to glow, brightly enough to slightly illuminate the unconscious bodies of Zach and Goten. He slowly examined them as if he were scanning them like a machine would do with objects. His examination of Zach led to nothing but when he started looking at Goten, the ruler gasped as if shocked by something. After he finished his eyes stopped glowing and they closed as Shredder held his head with one hand appearing to have a slight headache. "Your brother may pose a threat to me should he be allowed to go on, his untapped power is extraordinary...however he could also be of great use to me if he were to serve me" Shredder relayed his thoughts to Xavier in a conflicted tone. He pondered on how he could put Goten on a suitable leash while still taking advantage of his potential.
An indiscernible amount of time later, Goten regained consciousness. "Ugh what happened?" Goten moan fully asked himself feeling very sore, weak and groggy. He tried to move his body but found that he couldn't move a muscle. Once his blurred vision cleared the cause was revealed to be more absorbatonium chains, now completely covering his body instead of just around his torso like before. He also saw that he was in a chamber similar to shredder's throne room only now there were a few dozen guards surrounding him with the shredder himself standing in the middle facing him. A huge window at the top of the ceiling also revealed that they were now back in outer space with planet Namek in the close distance though it appeared to no longer be shrouded in darkness. Memories of what transpired before he was knocked unconscious flooded Goten's psyche and his surprise turned into concern and worry as he suddenly realized...Zach wasn't with him. "Where's Zach?! What have you done with him?!" Goten cried out to the shredder in a mixture of anger and anxiety. Shredder didn't speak, the tyrant simply turned to his left slightly and nodded his head giving a signal to an unknown person. Goten turned to look in the same direction Shredder was looking at. From the Shadows his devious twin brother emerged and with a sick smile on his face he presented the corpse of Zach in his hands for Goten to see. Goten's mind reeled in shock which quickly transformed into grief and despair as he tearfully screeched "Zach! Noooo!!!!". For a split second Shredder's blood reds seemed to sag with guilt and regret but they quickly regained their their menacing undeterred glare. "This is an example of what happens to those that oppose me" The Shredder stated coldly to the crying child. Goten continued crying and wailing for a few moments but they gradually transitioned into snarls and growls as a faint green aura began to surround his body, his despair and agony over the loss of his one and only friend morphing into burning rage. "You...! You killed him! My one friend in this whole goddamned world! I'll make you suffer! Do you hear me! I will kill every last one of you!" Goten ranted in a white hot fury the green aura growing larger and more wild looking. His pupils also began to disappear in whiteness. The chains had been glowing an increasingly bright green trying to sap the energy radiating off Goten but they no longer seemed to be able to affect him and they even began to crack indicating that they could only sap so much energy so quickly and Goten was pushing them past their limit. Shredder flashed a worried look but quickly recomposed him and pushed a button opening a hatch to the vacuum of space on the window. It turns out the ship everyone was on was the star blocking starship from earlier. Flying out through the hatch he gathered a ball of red energy into the palm of his hand. The ball rapidly grew in size until it was about half the size of the starship. The sheer size and power of the attack disrupted Goten's transformation with shock and fear. "World Destroyer!" Shredder called out as he fired his attack and it began to rocket through the Namekian solar system. The attack vaporized any asteroids that were in its path and it eventually reached and disintegrated planet Namek into dust. "Quickly! Activate hyperdrive!" Shredder said hurriedly zooming back into the ship closing the hatch. The pilot obeyed and the ship went into light speed then exited until it was a couple light years away from the Namekian solar system. Seconds later there was a supernova explosion from where the spacecraft just came from, Shredder's attack having reached the star and making it explode. All of Goten's rage and power faded away as the explosion colored the nightly sky realizing just how powerful the Shredder was. "Now listen here boy" The Shredder called out to Goten who immediately looked straight up. "If you agree to work under me and not tell anyone on your home world about me or my empire, I will spare it from my multiversal conquest. If you do however then I will enslave all who dwell on it and you as well as your family shall be annihilated, do you understand?" Shredder said connivingly giving his ultimatum to the young Demi saiyan. Goten was defeated and he knew it, there was no way he could beat the shredder and he could tell from his immense attack and his lack of fatigue that his father nor Vegeta could defeat him either. He had no choice he had to work for the shredder to keep his family and all of earth safe. "Yes, I pledge allegiance to you...master shredder" Goten conceded utterly defeated and devastated. What new horrors await the young child now that he works for a space tyrant and his last friend was now dead?