SAIYAN EFFECT
A/N Hi everyone, here is this month's winner of the side story poll! Thanks to everyone who voted. The next poll will be up in a week so let me know what your preferred update will be!
If you want to vote on the next side story poll, or if you want to read ten chapters ahead on PFTG, check out Bored Peasant's Written Works on pat-re-on.
Extra special thanks to Amorac07, Antonio Villarrubia, Arrimar26, Ben wanless, Blaine Hughes, carl hoffman, Chris, D19x0, David C, Endervslender, Ezoz, FallenMetalGod, Freeman, internetadik, Jakub Hes, Jason Bourne, Jason Moreno, Jebusno2, Jermaine Key, liquidpotato, Lord BlackDragon, MathTheOriginal, My Name is Klondike, Nathan Block, Orangerazor120, Paul Fischer, Proxy, R J, r4p16, Randall Cook, Robert Tipton, selfishgecko, Sith_Paladin, sonic, Steven Southerland, SupremeRuler17, Terror, The Senn Master, Thezombiegamer707, UtopiaKnight39 and Voidwolf 1994 for their support!
Side note, you are all awesome! On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 25 – Clarification and Control
(Vegeta POV)
"So that's what happened?" Vegeta said thoughtfully, cupping his chin as he looked out the window thoughtfully. "And Goku has a captive that he is going to interrogate?"
"That's right," Vegeta Jr confirmed, looking like a puppy trying to earn a reward. It was only natural. After all, Vegeta was the younger boy's king. Not only that, he was his great grandfather. That had to stand for something. "After killing everyone else, I would have thought that he was just going to let her die too, but I guess that Goku will always be Goku."
"Watch your tone," Vegeta growled at him. "Goku did something today that is out of character with his nature, even if it was the right decision. Even I wouldn't have thought he could have done it. But he has done more for the sake of our people and the universe than you could ever dream of, boy. He deserves your respect."
Vegeta Jr sat up straight, clearly startled by the telling off. The warning was warranted, in Vegeta's mind. His rival, and his friend, had a list of accomplishments that only Vegeta could boast to match. They might have had some differences, but they had been through more together than any other saiyan, except maybe Gohan, though the son of his rival had obviously had a short hiatus from the warrior lifestyle when Pan was growing up.
"Sorry," Junior said, bowing slightly. "But yes, he has a captive and is going to try learning how to do that transformation cancelling trick. It won't work against god ki like we have in our higher forms, but it has been proven to stop normal transformations."
Vegeta hummed to himself as he considered that. "That would have been so useful against Frieza," he almost complained to himself. "I wonder if it would have been effective against him in his gold form."
He thought about it, thinking how easy it would have been if they had access to that technique a century earlier. All that nonsense they'd had to deal with on Namek, or after the Tournament of Power and with what Frieza had tried to do in taking on Beerus. While he was happy for the strength that he had gained from those fights, he would have liked to have a technique like that in his back pocket so they didn't need to rely on near miracles to win the day.
Actually no. he was Vegeta, King of all saiyans. He didn't need a safety net.
His terminal on his desk beeped, drawing his attention. He stepped around his desk and tapped at a button. "What?"
The sound of his secretary came from the speaker. "Your Majesty, you have a call from the salarian councillor. Do you want to accept it?"
He frowned thoughtfully. The salarians had caused no small headache for them recently, but the councillor, Valern, had been smart enough to know when not to succumb to stupidity. After all, while the head dalatrass might have been indoctrinated, none of the others had been.
Still, the lizardman had seen things that had been saiyan secrets, and his medical people had even given him a senzu bean. There wasn't any chance that he was going to forget about that.
"Fine," he grunted, waving Vegeta Jr out of the room. Once the younger saiyan had left, he tapped another button. "This is King Vegeta," he greeted the lizardman. "What do you want now, Valern?"
"Greetings, King Vegeta," the salarian said. "I was wondering if you were interested in a business deal."
Well, if there was one thing that Vegeta appreciated about the lizards, it was that they knew not to drag things out. "What kind of deal?"
"The senzu beans," Valern replied. "I was hoping that you would be open to making a deal to provide them to the other governments. After all, having received one myself, I am well aware of the need for its' ability."
Of course. Vegeta stared flatly at the comm. Of course the lizard wanted one of the most precious things that the saiyans had control over. Still, there were ways to get around that.
"What do you have in mind?" he asked.
"I presume you would not be willing to sell them outright for other governments to grow their own?" Valern more stated than asked.
"It wouldn't work," Vegeta rejected him. "To grow senzu beans you need to be able to use ki, which none of your races would be able to get the benefits from. You might as well grow any other bean, because that's what you would get."
Not exactly true. Oh, he wasn't wrong in saying that none of the other races couldn't get the magical benefits of senzu beans. But a person didn't necessarily need to have ki, but they would need to be able to use magic. He didn't think biotics would be a sufficient replacement, but no need to let the salarians think they could get one of his people's, or the human's, most valuable resources.
"Pity," Valern said. "Then, would it be possible for other governments to contact you and make a deal for the beans and purchase them ready to use?"
Vegeta was about to deny him outright, but stopped himself as he looked out the window. Only a short time ago, he had looked out and wanted to see a sprawling expanse of saiyan buildings, artworks and technology. To see his kingdom thrive. To show the might of the saiyan people in building a new planet from the ground up into a mighty witness of their power and abilities. He wasn't blind to the concept of economics. Bulma had been a force of knowledge in such things and had taught him well.
However, getting resources for that wasn't cheap. They were still relying on handouts from the Alliance, though that was stopping now that they had been using money taken from the batarians and whatever slavery ring they came across. Sure, they could make a wish to just have the money, or the buildings already put in place. However, no one got strong living on handouts. No one was able to feel that sense of accomplishment to its fullest if they had everyone else do their work. It wouldn't be his accomplishments, or his people's. it was one of the main reasons that they didn't' just use the dragon balls to make all of their lives completely simple and completely at ease.
A true saiyan warrior didn't seek such wasteful comforts as handouts. They took them with the strength of their hands and their will.
Now that Trunks had installed himself as the administrator of Omega, they would also start getting money from sales of the Citadel's most valuable resource: eezo.
Still, Vegeta didn't like the idea of having to rely on just one single thing to build his people again. Having a secondary income would be a great idea. He could use this.
"It might be possible," Vegeta finally replied. "But it won't be cheap. Even our own stock is quite limited. We certainly don't have enough for all of the sick people around the galaxy. It also won't regrow lost limbs, or cure diseases. It will, however, regrow missing teeth."
"Most interesting," Valern mused own the line. "Seeing as teeth are also bones, I wonder how that distinction is made. No matter. As for cost, I did imagine that there would be a significant expense in procuring the beans for our people. I know for a fact though, that the Asari Republics, Turian Hierarchy and my own people would be able to pay most handsomely for the beans. How would you like to proceed?"
Vegeta considered. "We will sell a small number of beans to each government individually," he replied. "They can contact us, tell us how many they need and we will provide them as required according to our own allowances. We will not simply allow your peoples to just experiment on our beans. I shall provide a means to contact our medical people and your races can contact them and request senzu beans. They will then transmit to the location required and one of my people will arrive and provide the bean to the person in need. Naturally, we will keep track of how many have been used and contact you when your limit is being approached so you can organise more."
"I can understand the need to be able to keep your secrets, as much as possible," Valern replied. "Still, that does sound rather long-winded. Are you sure you wouldn't rather just sell the beans as they are and we can distribute them as necessary?"
"No," Vegeta said with a shake of his head that the salarian wouldn't see. "Keeping our secrets is one thing, but I know enough about other governments to know that the only people who would be able to get a senzu bean would be the elite of your societies. This will stop the hoarding of our beans by the greedy who would rather let everyone else suffer."
A long pause came down the speaker as the lizardman was probably breaking that down.
"I understand," Valern eventually replied. "I will contact the ambassadors of the various governments and inform them of this and have them contact Ambassador Gohan."
"You do that," Vegeta said, almost ready to end this conversation.
"One last thing, Your Highness," Valern said as Vegeta was about to reach out to disconnect the call. "I have had a request from several scavenging groups asking if they would be able to access the Harsa System. They wish to go through the wreckage of the planet Khar'shan and see if there is anything salvageable worth saving. As the system is under your control, I thought it best to ask you."
Vegeta blinked at that, before he smirked. Apparently, another big secret was going to be revealed today.
"No," he replied to the salarian. "There is no need to go through the wreckage of the planet, because there is none."
"I see," the salarian sighed after a short pause. "I had not realised that you had managed to vaporise the entire planet. I will have the various parties informed. Thank you for your time, King Vegeta…"
"You misunderstand," Vegeta said, wishing he could see the salarian's face. "I said there was no wreckage of the planet. Not that there wasn't a planet there. Khar'shan has been restored and is under the control of my people."
A long silence came down the comm. It went so long and was so complete that Vegeta looked to make sure that the salarian councillor was still on the call.
"When you say that the planet was restored," Valern began slowly. "What do you mean by that?"
The smirk on his face grew. "I mean that if your people went there, they would find that the planet is back after I destroyed it and it now serves as one of the largest colonies of the Saiyan Kingdom. We have more than a million of our new citizens there at the moment."
Another long pause came down the speaker, but not as long as the previous one. "How-how did you…?
"The abilities of my fellow saiyan gods and myself are vast," Vegeta said cryptically. No need to give any hint about the dragon balls.
This time there was a shorter pause. "Would it be possible to send someone to the Harsa System to verify this?" Valern asked slowly.
Now Vegeta was holding in a chuckle. "Sure," he said, as nonchalantly as possible. "As long as they are not trying to use hidden means to attack us again, though whoever you send won't be allowed to land on the planet properly. We are still rehabilitating many of the former slaves. Come yourselves if you want."
"I… shall inform my fellow councillors," Valern said, sounding distracted now. "Thank you for your time, King Vegeta. I will inform Ambassador Gohan when we have a team ready to head to Khar'shan to verify the restoration of the planet."
Vegeta grunted an acknowledgement and disconnected the call. Finally, he allowed himself the luxury of laughing at the salarian's reactions. These weaker races would continue to amuse him as they learned about the power of his people, real or imagined.
And Trunks claimed he didn't have a sense of humour!
He looked back out the window and thought about the upcoming deals for senzu beans that would be negotiated. He would need to talk to people and get a number for how much the beans would be worth. They never needed to do that for themselves, as using senzu beans was considered a useful tool, not a luxury or restricted item. But selling large quantities of older senzu beans and being able to get massive amount of money for it?
Vegeta could almost see the future buildings on the Mindoir skyline already.
…
(Gohan POV)
He hadn't really thought about how Wrex was going to get the clans on Tuchanka in line, but he had vaguely imagined a significant amount of violence. The amount of adherence to tradition, politics, and dealing with shamans was certainly not the first thing to come to mind.
Oh, there were plenty of duels that were offered against the majority of clan leaders. Wrex was approached many times by different clans, each of them desperate to be the one 'in charge' after Wrex had already managed to bring in a dozen smaller ones and one major ally. All of them demanded to face Wrex's krantt in honourable combat, supervised by a shaman. All of them faced only Wrex.
All of them lost.
He fought six three-on-one battles and won six three-on-one battles. None of the other krogan were even close. Wrex played with them as he physically dominated the battlefields. He didn't even bother trying ki attacks; the big krogan only increased his physical ability.
Still, having his ki unlocked, then fighting and training alongside Gohan for several months had increased the krogan's power to a level that the krogan race hadn't seen before. He was able to move faster, hit harder and take a hit better than any of the krogan that he had fought against.
It made it easier for when Wrex chose to not kill everyone that he faced, unlike what would normally happen in the duels. He beat his opponents so thoroughly that they acknowledged his strength without dying. It made it far easier for the other smaller clans that Wrex had reached out to, to decide to join him.
Now, Wrex was fighting against the leader of Clan Hailot, Hailot Hesk and his krantt in another three-on-one battle. It was the second time that he had taken on the leader of the distinguished clan. He had beaten Hailot in a single duel. Now, by fighting against the leader's whole krantt, Wrex was showing that he had the strength to rule over Tuchanka to the major clans. The leaders of Clan Ravanor, who were already part of Wrex's little coalition, were watching in amusement as Wrex systematically demolished the enemies in front of him with nothing but his fists.
"It looks like our decision to join with Urdnot Wrex early was a wise one," Ravanor Lokat, the current clan leader remarked as Wrex punched one of the krantt members, shattering the other krogan's armour and sending him flying back thirty meters. "It will be well for us when we seek to gain favours and allowances from him."
Gohan gave a single slow nod as he watched the battle, keeping his senses sharp as he did. Not that anyone here could hurt him, but he wasn't going to risk his little investment being taken out by other parties. After all, while many of the salarians had accepted that their actions against the saiyans were wrong, there were plenty who thought that taken the same actions against the krogan was fair play. It didn't matter that the krogan was had ended centuries earlier, the stain on krogan reputation was there.
The downsides of having several long-lived races in the same community. Or not having someone like his dad there to forgive them afterwards.
"Can't argue with that," another krogan leader of one of the smaller clans grunted in reply. "If we could fight like that in the Krogan War, we would have been able to conquer the whole galaxy in a couple years, instead of losing in four decades."
"Maybe," Gohan cut into the conversation. "Or maybe you would have drawn the attention of warlords like Frieza, who would have wiped out every single person on the planet and then sold what was left to the highest bidder. Or they would have just destroyed the entire thing from space like he did to mine." He looked over and gave a sinister grin at the big alien, who tensed despite the height difference. "Or, if neither of those things happened, you would have encountered me when we came across the Citadel. How do you think the krogan would have gone in any of those situations?"
The aliens shared a furtive glance with each other and grunted softly before turning back to the fight, where Wrex had just finished up with the Hailot's krantt. None of his opponents would be walking out of there without help. Not for a while anyway. All of Wrex's opponents had been beaten down by Wrex's bare fists and hadn't managed to put more than a glancing blow on the scarred krogan.
Gohan watched as Wrex spoke to the fallen Hailot clan leader, not being able to hear the words that they shared, before the Urdnot nodded and reached down, physically picking up the other clan leader and sitting him down on some of the rubble. It looked as if it had been as easy as lifting a small child; something, Gohan noticed, that was not lost on the other krogan that were watching from the audience.
Another minute of talking ended once Wrex and the Hailot leader shook hands in a warrior's clasp. Wrex finally ended that and trudged his way back up to the spectator area.
"Hailot's in too," he announced once he joined Gohan and the other allied clan leaders. "He is going to give up some resources to sweeten the pot for when we approach the female clans."
A satisfied rumbling came from the other krogan, which Gohan could understand. From what Wrex had told him, the female krogan basically controlled all the breeding rights and opportunities among the krogan people. With the genophage in place, their position in krogan society was nearly sacred. Every clan, no matter whatever else they claimed, continuously sought the favour of the female clans in an attempt to get even a chance to have children to bolster their own clan numbers. If a clan offended them or did something they disagreed with, it risked the chances of the female clans refusing to have mating contracts with that whole clan.
Entire clans had either gone extinct, or self-destructed after being denied access to the female clans. It was a fate that all krogan feared. Better to just kill the offending krogan than to lose the breeding rights of the whole clan.
"That gives you two major clans in your alliance," Gohan said. "Along with a bunch of smaller ones. How do you expect the other clans to respond?"
The krogan all looked at each other, before Wrex grunted. "That's a fair bit of power among the clans," he said thoughtfully. "Not the most powerful alliance in recent history, but stronger than most if only because of how many smaller clans are in. It'll make the other major clans at least hear what we have to say. But it will also invite challengers. Whenever someone starts to gather strength for an alliance, someone else will inevitably want to take it over. Or the salarians will want to put us down."
Heavy footsteps cut into their conversation and Gohan looked over to see another krogan wearing Clan Urdnot colours approaching, a squad of armoured krogans behind him. Wrex growled beside him.
"That's Wreav," Wrex growled softly. "My brother. I expected him to make a challenge for leader of the clan. I guess now that there is another major clan and I just fought against them on my own, he thinks it's the best time to make a challenge. The other clans here won't interfere with the challenge, but if he wins, they won't stick around unless he finds a way to convince them to stay with Urdnot."
"What are the odds that he does?" Gohan murmured back.
A soft snort came from the big alien. "If he wins, fair."
Sure enough, the approaching krogan marched right up to Wrex and headbutted him with a loud smack. Wrex, his power level increased after months of ki training with Gohan, didn't even flinch at the heavy blow to the head. Wreav, on the other hand, reacted like he had tried headbutting a moving aircar. He stumbled back, looking groggy for a moment, as though the headbutt had made him dizzy. It took a few seconds of shaking his head to bring him back to full coherence.
Wrex stared at his brother with an unimpressed expression. "Is that it?" he asked, his tone flat.
A growl from Wreav let Gohan know that, no, that wasn't it.
"I've come to challenge you for leadership of the clan," Wreav announced loudly.
Gohan looked at the krogan that had followed Wreav on the way up here. A few of them were looking less confident after that failed display a moment ago. He could see two of them at the back quietly step away from the main group and distance themselves from Wreav. He smirked to himself. Clearly those to, at least, were a little smarter than the rest and could see which way that the wind would blow.
Wrex looked at his brother for a long moment, before he snorted and took two steps forward and threw a headbutt of his own at the challenger. The noise of the hit was like someone had smashed an aircar into a building and Wreav flew ten feet back into his followers, knocking them over like they were bowling pins.
"Challenge accepted," Wrex grunted and waved over the Shaman.
It took nearly five minutes to just wake Wreav up after they had found out that the headbutt had left him unconscious. It took another twenty before he was in a state to be able to move down to the arena for the challenge. By that time, the only people left standing with him were the two krogan that were in his krantt.
It took less than one minute for Wrex to look down at his brother, lying in the sands of Tuchanka to accept the surrender of Wreav, and with it, securing the loyalty of the entire Urdnot clan, the alliance of another three smaller clans who had been at their meeting place in negotiations, and Gohan's admonishment for taking too long.
He couldn't let his apprentice rest too easy, after all.
…
(Goku POV)
The henchwoman that they had brought, the last remnant of Sleet's personal forces, sat in the dungeon cell that had been designed for ki users. Goku watched as she sat, looking miserable. It reminded him of that green-skinned girl that Beerus had taking a liking to all those years ago, Cheelai. The one that had been friends with Broly. Except this one was purple-skinned with long blue hair. The mannerisms were the same when they were upset though.
That memory took him back for a moment. The super saiyan had been one hell of a strong fighter, and once you got past his anger, he was a friend. Goku had been willing to have the other pure-blood saiyan join the ranks of saiyan gods. He was outvoted though. Most notably by Broly himself. The big guy had no desire to continue living for eternity. After the hell he'd suffered at the hands of his crazy father, Broly just wanted a peaceful life with a few strong fights, before he couldn't fight anymore. He had died more than a century ago.
Goku shook the memories from his head and looked over as Caulifla walked into the room with him, her normal cocky smile on her face.
"You haven't talked to her yet?" she asked, smiling at him. "Well, you always seem to take a backseat when it comes to women."
Goku chuckled sheepishly. He couldn't deny that. Chi Chi had been the one to take the charge in their relationship and Caulifla was definitely the one that had taken the lead in their growing relationship. Goku knew fighting, but women… not his area of strength. He just wanted a strong feisty woman and Chi Chi and Caulifla both fit that description.
"Maybe," he said. "But I thought you might want to be here, just in case." He smirked at her a little. "You know, in case you wanted to grow your harem."
Caulifla blinked, before barking out a laugh. "Oh, Goku," she said, still chuckling. "I never thought you'd have it in you. While I was only joking before, I might be willing to consider it after you give me a child first."
Goku couldn't help blushing at the smirk on her face. "Uh, ok?" he said uncertainly. Honestly, he wasn't sure if she was joking at this point. She liked to mess with him and brag a lot. He wasn't sure if she wasn't considering a servant of some kind. He coughed. "Let's just go and talk to her."
Caulifla's smirk grew but she nodded, letting the joking drop. Thankfully, his blush dropped by the time that they made it to the prison cell they were holding Sleet's minion. It was a specially built cell that was designed to hold ki users; a necessity for saiyans and any other ki race in the universe.
Goku could feel the young woman's energy as they approached. He didn't bother reading her mind just yet. He didn't usually do anything like that until the person they were talking to started refusing to talk and had crucial information, or if there were problems with the languages. It felt too much like an invasion of privacy.
He might be changing to accept that killing quickly might be better in some situations, but he wasn't going to change so much that he stopped respecting some personal boundaries.
Seeing as her energy showed she was being very passive, they didn't bother worrying about her attacking them, so they opened the door.
The woman was lying down, wearing borrowed clothes and staring at the roof, her eyes vacant and red-rimmed and there were dried up tear streaks on her cheeks. It would almost be easy to believe that she was dead, if not for the feeling of her energy and the tiny rise and fall of her chest to show she was breathing.
"Still alive there?" Caulifla taunted as she entered the room. Goku almost shook his head ruefully at the display. As Caulifla had been the one to win their fight, she was rubbing it in the woman's face a bit. "We came to ask a few questions." She nudged the woman's bed with her foot.
The purple-skinned woman blinked a few times and looked down slowly at the saiyan woman, as if only just realising that she was there. "Oh," she muttered, looking back at the roof. "It's you."
Goku stepped into the room. "Yep!" he said cheerfully. "I just want to ask you a few questions."
"I don't want to talk," the woman said flatly.
"Yeah, I figured that was the case," Goku agreed. "But I still need you to give me some information. So how's this: you tell me what I want to know, and I'll leave you alone!"
The young woman glared up at him. "You killed my master!" she spat bitterly. "I'm not telling you anything!"
Goku sighed. "Tell me, then," he said slowly. "How many people did your 'master kill? How many worlds did he conquer, then destroy the inhabitants of? How many mothers did he leave childless? How many children did he leave motherless and fatherless? How many more lives did he maim, mutilate or threaten with the intent to carry it out? How many people cried out in fear or sought mercy, only for him to laugh as he killed them? Is there a number? Or were there so many that you just ignored them all?"
Ki filled the room as he started letting his power out, overwhelming the suppression system that was keeping the prisoner held. The woman gasped, trying to retreat into her bed to get away from him, unsuccessfully.
"Or were you one of those people that got happy because of the killings?" Goku asked, his voice hard as he stared at the woman. "Did you laugh as their lives were ruined and their bodies erased? Did it excite you to kill infants in their beds? Did you get some sort of weird pleasure out of it?"
"N-no!" the purple-skinned woman gasped, struggling to speak against the pressure of Goku's anger this close up. "I never… did… that… to children!"
Goku glared at her, but a quick touch of her mind told him that she was being truthful. The pressure of his ki faded away and the woman gasped for breath like she had been drowning.
"So just their parents?" Caulifla said sarcastically. "Aren't you just a saint then?"
The prisoner didn't reply and for a moment the only sound heard was the panting of the purple-skinned woman, trying to rein in her fear.
"What's your name?" Goku asked.
She looked back up at him, nervous now. "Myne," she said softly. "My name in Myne."
Goku gave a soft nod. "What was that technique you used on us?" he asked. "The one that cancelled out our transformations?"
Myne hesitated for a moment. "I call it Negation," she replied. "I came up with it a long time ago and used it against an enemy that tried to kill me. Lord Sleet saw and he…" her breath hitched, "he came and took care of me."
That didn't sound right to Goku. While he would admit that he didn't know Sleet, he did know Frieza and that jerk wouldn't help anyone without benefitting himself. The only reason that Frieza had even fought in the Tournament of Power was that their Universe was at threat of being destroyed. Kinda hard to rule over anything if you were destroyed with it.
Clearly Caulifla was of the same mind. "How old were you when this happened?" she cut in.
Myne shrugged. "I was about ten," she said. "Why does that matter?"
Goku shared a look with Caulifla. "You mean to say that Sleet just happened to be there when your home was being attacked?" Caulifla asked, leadingly.
The purple-skinned woman sighed. "I'm not an idiot," she muttered. "I know that Master Sleet was one of the people involved in conquering my planet. But it just didn't seem to matter."
That didn't sound right either. Goku shared another look with Caulifla. Unless there was something mentally wrong with a person, they didn't just grow attached to their family or world's killer. And Goku had enough experience with people who could affect minds that he had a suspicion as to why. Vegeta joining Babidi had only been the start of that.
"I'm going to just check something out," Goku said, looking at Myne. "Could you do me a favour and try remember the attack on your world and what happened after?"
She blinked in confusion but gave a slow nod. Goku took a breath and reached out with his mind, touching hers. He could see her memories being played through her mind, but there was something weird about them. It was like watching them when they were swimming through syrup. Everything seemed muted and there was a general feeling like everything was running slower and was off balance, like gravity was tilted about thirty degrees from normal.
He pulled out of her mind and hummed thoughtfully. "Well, that's not good."
"What did you find?" Caulifla asked curiously. Myne also looked up at him, her own expression cautiously concerned.
Goku shook his head. "Your mind has been messed with pretty badly," he said bluntly, but softly. "It was like every memory you have about your family and planet is all gooped up, but your memories of Sleet in that time are really shiny. If I had to guess, I would say that whoever it was made you not really think about your family, and really think good thoughts about Sleet."
The horrified look on both of their faces was understandable, though on Myne's it was noticeably less intense. Like someone had told her she was supposed to be disgusted but hadn't really worked out how. If someone had messed with his mind, he would probably be the same, so he didn't really mind.
"Can you fix it?" Caulifla asked.
Goku winced. "I would rather not try," he admitted. "I could ask King Kai to take a look though, see if there is some way to fix it. He knows more about that sort of thing than me." He put two fingers to his head and began concentrating. "Here, grab on."
Caulifla immediately threw her arms around his spare arm, squeezing it between her breasts, a big grin on her face. Myne looked at them uncertainly but, at Goku's nod and smile, she reached out and grabbed hold of his shirt.
A moment later they were on King Kai's planet. Myne stumbled for a moment, not used to the extra gravity, but caught herself, with Goku's hand steadying her. They walked forward towards King Kai's little abode.
Caulifla didn't let go of his arm the entire time. If anything, she gripped it harder as she looked around with a big smile. Myne just followed along, looking lost and uncertain.
"Goku!" King Kai's cheery voice greeted them as the pudgy kai approached them. "It's good to see you. And you brought some guests this time, I see." He stood in a comfortable position with his arms behind his back.
"Hey King Kai," Goku waved with his free hand. "How you been? I need your help."
"Of course you do," the kai said flatly. "You know, it would be nice to hear from you some time when you don't need something."
Goku chuckled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry," he said. He did feel a little bad. After all, King Kai had done so much for him over the last couple centuries. "I'll try and be a better friend."
"Good," the kai replied firmly. "Now, what did you need?"
Goku pointed at the purple-skinned woman. "I think someone messed with her mind. Could you see if you can fix it?"
"Hmmm. I suppose I can take a look," King Kai mused. "And if you're right, I will wait until we are done before I request payment."
Goku agreed, already trying to think of a joke to pay the kai with.
King Kai looked at Myne, his sunglasses flashing. "Step up, girly," the small deity instructed her. "Let me see what I am working with."
Myne looked at Goku, her discomfort clear, but stepped up to the kai. King Kai's antennae twitched as he peered over his sunglasses at the young woman. From an outsider's point of view, it looked like nothing was happening, but Goku knew that the kai was looking in her mind.
"You're right," King Kai said, breaking the silence. "Looks like someone tampered with her memory and messed with her perception. They wanted to make her loyal to someone and make some important things seem less important. I can fix it in a jiffy. Here." He pointed a finger at Myne and his antennae started to glow for a moment.
Less than ten seconds later, the glow died and Myne twitched.
"Wh-what?" she stammered. "I-I… no… Noooo!"
She burst into tears immediately and collapsed to her knees. Goku wasn't exactly sure, but he thought it was because she probably remembered things properly. Also, if she had done some pretty bad things on Sleet's behalf, she was probably feeling really upset.
A jerk on his arm made him look at Caulifla. The saiyan woman tilted her head towards the crying purple-skinned woman. Goku blinked uncertainly, not really sure what she was getting at.
Clearly, his confusion was easily understood. Caulifla rolled her eyes and let go of his arm. Then she pushed him softly towards the crying Myne.
Oh, that's what she meant. Well, he didn't have the best experience with crying women, but living with Chi Chi had taught him some things. He reached down and put a hand on Myne's shoulder to comfort her. Myne twitched at the contact, before jumping up and throwing her arms around Goku's neck.
For a moment he thought that she was attacking him again, only to realise that she was still crying, her hot tears falling freely on his neck. He sent a helpless look to Caulifla, who merely smirked at his distress.
So, there on King Kai's planet, Goku simply held on to the poor woman, crying her heart out as her understanding of the universe collapsed around her.
…
A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you please
There are a few people in DBZ canon that get put under mind control in some fashion. I have never imagined someone being coerced to 'love and obey' the person responsible for the massacre of their planet and family coming out of said mind control and being overly happy about it. I think a breakdown is about the right response. Anyway, until next time!