Going Native: Taste of War (Patreon)

“What are you doing in there?” Fasha announced her presence, her voice slightly muffled. My eyes cracked open, looking through the window of the healing tank to see her giving me an arched look. 

A yawn escaped me before I could answer, “sleeping.” I stated shortly, the healing fluid helping my dry eyes but they still felt heavy. 

“...In a healing pod?” Fasha continued, making me fall silent. I quickly learned that I couldn’t sleep in a bed anymore. It was too dry, a blanket too constraining and just too...weird. I tossed and turned all night, trying to fall asleep only to fail. The same for the second night as well. By the third, I was desperate to sleep, so I climbed into a healing pod and filled it up. I was out like a light.

“...is that weird?” I asked, not looking at her. I didn’t know how to explain it. Sleeping in a bed felt wrong while sleeping in a healing tank felt natural. It probably had something to do with spending three years in the gestation tank and the past two and a half months in a healing tank after nearly dying. 

“Uhh,” Fasha started, leaning away from the window. Her tone told me that, yeah, it was weird. It would be a lie to say I didn’t care, but it would be less weird to not sleep in a healing pod. “No, it’s not,” she lied. “But you need to get out, we’re almost there.”

“Okay,” I nodded, Fasha stepping out as I got out of the healing pod. Getting dressed with my clothes and armor, I dried myself off. The mission, after weeks of travel, was finally about to begin. I had weeks to wrap my head around it, but I don’t think I even started, I realized when I stepped out of the medical bay. 

I walked down a hallway, stopping in front of a window and gazing through it. 

“What are you brooding about this time,” Fasha announced her presence, placing a hand on top of my head, following my gaze out a window that revealed the final frontier. 

An alien planet filled up most of my vision. It was dark brown with patches of white and litter brown bits. Its clouds were a dark black, swirling across the planet. Surrounding it was a bunch of moons, some bigger than others, but it was easy to see why this was the chosen battleground to get first blood. 

Planet Rockoroad. Native to the Nepotins, a race of small, weak, fish-based species. Unfit for even slave labor, but there was a mention that they apparently tasted good. Their tech level was deemed primitive, though it would be the modern era for Earth. The planet itself was nothing special, boasting no exotic minerals or abilities other than its strategic location. 

“Nothing,” I lied, not looking up as I stared at the slowly approaching planet. Bardock gave the order for the thrusters to go dark, relying on previous momentum, as we approached from the dark side of one of their moons. 

“Nervous?” Fasha questioned, not believing me for a second. In recent weeks, she was the closest member of Bardock’s squad that I built something of a rapport with. By that, I meant she was the only one that didn’t mind when I followed her like an awkward duckling when Bardock told me to get out of my room. 

“No,” I lied again. After spending a week following her around, it got easier to talk to her. I second-guessed my words less and the feeling of sticking my entire foot into my mouth was less frequent. 

“Hm,” Fasha hummed, sounding doubtful. There was a beat of silence as we both stared at the planet that we would soon lay to waste. I...had a hard time picturing it. By now, I understood the plan, but when I tried to imagine it happening in my head, I drew a blank. I couldn’t imagine myself destroying cities, massacring millions…

“Well, you’re braver than I was before my first mission,” Fasha admitted without any care, earning my attention. Craning my head back, I gave her a puzzled look and got a shrug from her. “I became a warrior when I was ten and I nearly ended up joining the working-class. I thought if I screwed up then they’d make me one anyway. Of course, that made me screw up. I’d be some mechanic or food processor if it weren’t for Gine.”

“Who’s that?” I asked, knowing better than to ask how she screwed up. If it was bad enough that she would have been demoted a class, then it meant someone died. 

“Gine? She used to be a member of the team, but she left it. She was too soft-hearted to be a warrior. She’s a meat processor now and Bardock’s woman.” She explained a silent dare in her voice for me to make a comment about her...friend. It wasn’t just Bardock that was weird, his entire squad was. They may fight and bicker but they were friends. 

It went against everything that I learned what saiyans are, and what they should be. I think I liked that, though. 

Once she was satisfied that I wasn’t going to make a stupid remark, Fasha continued. “What I’m trying to get at is that you’ll be fine. Stick with Tora, ignore Shugesh, and don’t hesitate to look at the moon. Do that, and you’ll be fine.” She said, patting me on the head a few times. 

Before I had a chance to respond, a voice spoke through my scouter. “Everyone, get to the docking bay. We’re heading down,” Bardock ordered. I could practically hear the savage grin in his voice. I definitely saw one on Flasha’s face as she turned around, marching through the halls. I followed after her after a moment of hesitation. 

The docking bay was on the other side of the ship for us, so we were the last ones to arrive. It was a wide-open room filled with space pods called attack balls, a dull gray ball with a dark red window to look out of. The rest of the team, minus Leek, stood in front of open pods. Upon seeing us, Bardock gave a nod. 

“Leek, keep your course and stay on the dark side of the moon,” Bardock ordered, getting a confirmation from the pilot through our scouters. “We’re splitting up to attack these military bases,” Bardock began, pointing to a map with two red dots. “Tora, Shugesh, Tarble, you’ll take the upper right while Borgos, Fasha and I will take the other.”

His gaze swept over us, a serious expression on his face that made me stand up straighter when his gaze lingered on me. “We hit them fast, we hit them hard and we leave nothing left of them. If you can avoid it, don’t go oozaru until you reach a city. And stick togeather! I don’t need any of you dying a stupid death for glory this early on in the war, got it?”

“”“Got it.”””

“Uh, got it.” I echoed a half-second later than everyone else. 

“Good. Let’s get this done,” Bardock said, getting a cheer while everyone else got into their attack balls. I picked one next to Tora, the seal cracking open to reveal a padded interior, some medical equipment attached to a single chair. I felt a pang of pity for Tora and Borgos. It would be a tight fit for both of them. 

Taking a seat, the attack ball closed as a screen flashed while the destination was set. With that, my attack ball shifted when it got into position a moment before it shot out of the docking bay towards planet Rockoroad. The dark side of the moon filled my window, rapidly growing closer as a heavyweight seemed to settle in my gut. 

That heavy weight felt like it dropped to my feet when planet Rockoroad peeked from behind one of its moons as we raced towards it. I was about to participate in genocide. Not sure why, but that only really sunk in now that I was less than a minute away from the planet I was ordered to purge. What did-

No. Don’t think about it. I wasn’t human anymore. I was a saiyan warrior…and this is what it meant to be a saiyan warrior. 

At least, that is what I told myself when my stomach started doing flips as I neared the planet. Heat began to wash over my window, blocking my view as flames licked at the side of the attack ball. I expected the ball to shake, or something, but other than the flames, it was hard to tell that I was going through reentry-

I lurched forward at my sudden crash landing, only managing to stop myself from flying out of the chair by gripping it with white knuckles. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the seal cracked open again, hitting me with a blast of ice-cold air, revealing a pitch-black sky so dark that there weren’t any stars, the only color being white clouds and…

Quickly closing my eyes, I looked away from the moons in the sky. Only one of the three was a full moon, but staring at a crescent moon for long enough could trigger the transformation. Instead, I crawled out of the attack pod, floating out of a crater to see I was in the middle of a building, my pod having crashed through the ceiling. 

I...was on an alien planet, I thought to myself as my feet touched down on the edge of the crater. The walls were a light green color, marked with dark brown patterns -- it was a hangar of some kind if the ships in the shape bars with a skinnier middle section were anything to go by. Everything was so...light? I gave an experimental hop, only to leap into the air high enough I could have cleared my spaceship. My admiring was broken short when explosions erupted on the outside of the hanger, shaking the ground beneath me while rubble fell from the ceiling. 

They were already getting started. I should probably get out of here before they toss a ki blast to destroy the building and me with it. Floating up, I started to sail out of the whole, only pause when I heard the sound of chattering teeth. Looking down, I saw a...gnome? 

It was short, though with its head shaped like a cone added another foot to it, with light pink skin. It raised a weapon, an energy blaster, at me but it trembled so badly that I doubt it would hit me if it did pull the trigger. I stared into its chocolate brown eyes, seeing the fear in them even if it was an alien. 

I...should kill it, shouldn’t I? I couldn’t use energy blasts yet since learning how on a ship in space seemed like a bad idea. So, I would have to kill it with my bare hands. It...shouldn’t be any different than killing a saibaman. Unless...a quick use of my scouter showed me it had a power level of 10. 

It flinched so badly at the hand movement that it fired a shot on accident if the utter terror on its face was anything to go by. The shot went wide, the impact drowned out by the battle raging outside.

I should kill it. I shouldn’t be hesitating like this. I was a saiyan warrior. I...I…

I looked away and finished flying out of the hanger. Tora hovered above the military base, ki blast after ki blast firing from his hands and leaving devastation in his wake. Buildings were reduced to rubble, dozens of aliens lay dead, while explosions wracked the military base. Shugesh did the same, laying waste to anything that got in his way. It was a complete one-sided slaughter. 

My gaze found a dying alien, laying in a pool of light yellow blood. It struggled to get back to its feet, to throw itself back into the fight, denying its body’s screams to stay down with sheer will to fight back...only to die in a stray explosion from Tora. I doubt he realized that he killed the alien. 

It was happening everywhere. Aliens that didn’t quite die during the initial blast that struggled to cling to life, only to die moments later. My scouter, still in scanner mode, picked up hundreds of power levels that belonged to the aliens rapidly dwindling with every passing second. 

This wasn’t war. This was a massacre. 

Swallowing a lump in my throat, I turned my attention to a building that dominated the military base. It was a citadel, set as several platforms capped with three large domes. Lights flashed on it, alarms wailing as the military bases went on full alert as its defenses were prepared. 

“Tarble, we’re heading to the main base. Stick close,” Tora ordered, shooting off towards the base without waiting. Shugesh quickly followed after them. I went to do the same, only to pause to look down to see the alien-looking up at me with pure terror. It trembled like a leaf, its weapon forgotten, as it simply stared up at me. 

Looking away, I shot off after Tora and Shugesh, trying not to pay any attention to the carnage that surrounded me. They did this in minutes, less than five. A fortified military base was wrecked, its soldiers dead. All that was left was the citadel and if the explosions that already covered it from the two saiyans pre-firing at it, it wouldn’t offer much more resistance. 

“We need to level this place, but first let's see if we can get any intel on troop positions. Shugesh, Tarble, you two head in. I’ll finish mopping up out here.” Tora ordered, deftly dodging between beams of lights as he rained death upon his enemies. “I’m sure they have a command room or something.”

“Sure. Don’t have too much fun...and don’t blow up the building when we’re still in it,” Shugesh returned, diving into a hole that Tora had made with a ki blast. I followed in after him, trying to not focus on the bodies laying beneath the rubble. They were trying to fight back so hard, they were giving it their all, but it meant nothing. Tora and Shugesh were just too strong.  

We flew through the hallways, Shugesh leading the way. The aliens tried to put up some resistance, they sealed off the hallways and put up walls of soldiers to stop us, but they were dealt with complete ease by Shugesh. A yellow ki blast cleared our way, destroying everything and everyone in our path. All they managed to do was throw lives away, not even managing to be an inconvenience. 

“How are we going to find the command center?” I asked, talking through our scouters. The stench of smoke and blood was so strong that I could taste it. 

“Eh, I usually just find the guy with the strongest power level and use it as a guide. Strong guys are always on the command deck, center or whatever. Bet they didn’t teach you that in the pod.” Shugesh answered, giving me a cocky grin as he looked back while he butchered another group of defenders. 

I swallowed thickly, doing another general scan. Higher power levels took priority, directing me to a power level that nearly hit a hundred directly above us. “Should we make a path straight there then?” Anything other than flying through the halls, senselessly slaughtering aliens. “Tora said we should do this fast, right?”

Shugesh tsked to himself, seemingly displeased. “We’re making good time. I usually clear the place out so we don’t have to deal with professional soldiers later...but this is a hit n’ run…yeah, I guess we might as well.” He muttered, the scouter picking up his grumbling as he came to a sudden stop. Raising his hand upwards, he fired off a ki blast that carved a tunnel through the building that lead directly to the strongest power level nearby. 

We flew up, and Sheugesh wasn’t wrong. We found ourselves in a place that fit what I would expect a command center to look like. A large room layered with a command deck, the lower floors lined with chairs for the commander to boss around with a bunch of blinking computers. It was filled with aliens, all of them screaming as they ducked for cover. 

All except one. It was next to impossible to tell, but it seemed older than the rest. There weren't any wrinkles or grayed hairs, but it held itself with an air of experience. It looked at Shugesh, then to me, before it clenched its jaw. 

“You can have this one. I’ll go data mining for something interesting.” Shugesh informed, slaughtering the other twenty aliens with a casual ki blast. The room filled with dust, the tracking feature on my scouter telling me that Shugesh moved towards the main computer. Leaving me with the last alien in the room. 

My mouth went dry, the scouter telling me its location in the heavy dust. What...what did I do? I...I...I should kill it. There wasn’t a choice this time. I should murder this alien for being strong and standing against me. This is what it meant to be a saiyan warrior. 

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I shot forward, leading the way with a fist. The dust was so heavy that I didn’t see the alien until I was right on him. It threw itself to the side as it raised a blaster at me. A dark red laser raced by my head, easily dodged. I clenched my fist -- it...it wasn’t any different than killing saibamen. No, it was easier because I was so much stronger than it. All I had to do was punch a hole in its chest and it would be dead. 

Another laser fired off at me, forcing me to retreat higher into the air. My insides felt like they were being tied into knots, my heart hammering in my chest. Was...was...was there really no other way? I didn’t...If I said that it was a worthy warrior, having earned my respect, then...then it could survive. Since this was just a hit and run, we wouldn’t be taking any slaves, so it could survive. 

I would have to make the fight look good, though. So, no more hesitating. 

Taking a bracing breath, I shot forward with my clenched fist. Another laser shot at me, but it missed by a mile, the alien unable to find me in the smoke. It only did when I was right upon it, my fist sailing towards its face faster than it could see. I couldn’t hit it with all my strength, so I-

I only realized the problem with my plan after my fist made contact. I never fought anyone weaker than me before. In my time outside of the tank, I was forced to use every last ounce of my strength every day against foes I couldn’t hope to beat. 

I couldn’t control my strength. 

My fist ripped through the aliens head, reducing it to shattered bone, brain matter and blood splashing on the ground as the alien dropped to the floor. The blood on my hand felt impossibly cold, my jaw dropped as I was left staring stupidly at the corpse. I didn’t mean…! I tried to…! I…!

I...I was a saiyan warrior, I told myself, swallowing bile as I clenched my jaw shut. My blood-stained hands trembled at my sides, trying to force myself to stay calm. I was a saiyan warrior. I was a fighter. A killer. My destiny was to fight strong opponents, purge planets and sell them for profit for Lord Frieza. This…

“I’m a saiyan warrior,” I repeated aloud to myself, the words helping. This is what I was meant to be. Now, if only those words didn’t sound incredibly hollow to my own ears, I’d be set.

“Done already? Eh, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. These things are pretty weak,” Shugesh commented through the scouters. Using the tracker as a guide, I shoved my darkening thoughts to the side with no small amount of trouble. Paying attention to a map of the planet highlighting troop movements, high priority targets and, more importantly, information on the scarabs on the planet. 

Three in total, all scout class. No location, only that they were on the planet. Since we didn’t pick them up on our general scans, they must be powered down to avoid detection. 

“We’re done here Tora, on our way out now,” Shugesh informed, stepping away from the main conceal before destroying it with a ki blast. “I’m sending some coordinates your way. There’s a depo with hardware designed to shoot off our tails when we go oozaru not too far from here. Oh, and they should have something that fits what Bardock wanted.” He said before making another exit that we flew out of. 

Tora was just as busy as we were. There was nothing left of the military base, what little that stood was on fire, thick black smoke rising, or in the process of collapsing. There was no resistance left, every alien in the base dead. My stomach clenched, my scouter searching for a power level…

4000, 3800. The only ones were Tora’s and Shugesh. That alien that I spared died anyway.

“Something wrong Tarble?” Tora asked, flying towards us. He didn’t sound concerned, alert was closer to the mark. 

Not trusting my voice, I shook my head. Tora frowned, not believing me, but before he could say anything, Shugesh patted me on the back hard enough I floated forward. 

“He’s probably just disappointed that he didn’t get to do much. The one fight he did get was a one-shot,” Shugesh decided with a laugh. Tora nodded, apparently thinking that made sense. It should be what’s wrong with me. 

“Well, that might change soon enough. Shugesh, you take the military depot and destroy those weapons. Me and Tarble will start hitting their cities,” Tora informed, his words like a fist to the gut. I tried to control my expression, but I knew I failed. It only went unnoticed because they were too busy laughing to themselves, eager for the slaughter to come. 

Civilians. I was about to start murdering civilians. 

“Tarble, let's go.” Tora got my attention, Shugesh already flying off. I looked up at him, my horror must have shown now because his eyes narrowed dangerously. I half expected him to blast me out of the sky for being unsaiyan like, for being weak. Instead, he patted me on the shoulder with an oversized hand. 

“It’s just like killing saibamen. They’re just aliens,” he encouraged, echoing my thoughts from earlier. It was so much easier said than done. I was still painfully aware of the blood still covering my fist, cooling it while the rest of my body felt uncomfortably hot. I swallowed thickly, giving him a shaky nod.

“Bardock’s team is already done with their base and are hitting a city. There’s one not far away from here. Follow me,” Tora ordered, flying off. Taking a bracing breath, I followed after him. Running away wouldn’t do me any good. Not when we were expecting a Reach counterattack and I doubt they would accept the excuse of I deserted mid-mission. Not that I would in the first place. 

I was a saiyan warrior and saiyan warriors didn’t run. From anything.

My body felt numb as we raced towards a city, within minutes I saw the skyline of it. Tall buildings that stretched upwards, beams of spotlights waved around, likely searching for us. The buildings didn’t look like earths. The color was off, the windows were larger but less frequent, the shape was wrong too. It almost looked like a normal skyline, but just different enough to tell me that this wasn’t earth or planet Vegeta. 

“I’ll take the right half, you can have the left,” Tora stated, getting my attention. My insides squeezed, a lump forming in my throat. Before my very eyes, I saw what would become of the city. Ruined buildings, smoke, ash and millions of corpses. 

“B-but,” I started, hating how I stuttered. “Should...I transform with you? We go berserk in Orzoru form, right?” I asked, trying to find a way out of this...massacre. “Won’t I just attack you?”

If Tora noticed my pleading tone, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he answered, “since it’s your first time, you’ll just attack everything that moves, but I won’t. My instincts will stop me from killing you if you do end up attacking me, so don’t worry about that. You might get your butt kicked though.” 

I clenched my jaw, turning my attention to the city. The moons hanging above seemed to weigh down on me. Two of them were half-moons while the last was a full. All it would take was a few seconds to transform, I would go mad and destroy everything-

Wait, I thought to myself, thinking furiously. Tora would be going oozaru, and since only the mid-class and above could control themselves in oozaru form...Tora wouldn’t remember anything while in that form. The same with Bardock and the others, they were already rampaging as oozarus. 

All I had to do was wait for him to go oozaru, then I could leave the destroying of the city to him. He wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Shugesh could be a problem, but so long as I didn’t see him then it would be fine. Plus, I doubt he would waste time looking for me when he could be rampaging and murdering aliens. 

“Right,” I confirmed, far more confidently. Tora took notice, glancing at me over his shoulder, before giving a mental shrug and a nod. 

“Good luck. Try not to die.” Tora said, splitting off to the right. I watched him go, once he got a far enough distance away, he looked up at the moons. The transformation started instantly. His body grew rapidly in every direction. His hair got longer, fur sprouting on his skin that thickened until it covered him. His armor stretched along with him, going from human size to the size of a truck, then to the size of a large building. 

He sailed through the air, falling with grace until he slammed into a building. With his new weight, Tora crashed through it, barely slowing down before he hit the ground. It was impossible to hear anything over the sound of the building collapsing on itself, right up until Tora let out a mighty roar that seemed to shake the planet. 

He stood over a hundred feet tall, dwarfing some buildings. Light built up in his massive ape-like maw, much like the dragon had back on planet Vegeta, before a massive beam erupted from it. It sliced through buildings like they weren’t even there, a series of explosions lighting up the night sky. 

The scouter picked up hundreds of power levels that I couldn’t see underneath a cloud of dust. Fleeing for their lives, but it wouldn’t do them any good. I saw 50s, 60s, even an 80. They all compared to the power level that rampaged through the city. In his oozaru form, Tora had a power level of 40,000. The only ones that stood a chance against him was the other saiyans intent on destroying the planet. 

For the Neopians...all hope was lost. 

Swallowing thickly, I turned away from the sight and flew away until I reached the other side of the city. Even then, I could hear Tora’s beastly roars of rage as he butchered everything in his path. Thousands were already dead, possibly hundreds of thousands. Maybe even a million.

Spotting a tall building, I touched down at it, firmly keeping my back to Tora’s rampage, relying on my scanner to pick up any stray attack in my direction. As soon as my feet touched down, I noticed I was shaking like a leaf, just as badly as the alien in the hangar was before. My stomach lurched, I tried to keep the vomit down, but it erupted out of my mouth with enough force I was driven to a knee. 

Hacking and spitting, tears stung at my eyes. I refused to let them fall, wiping vomit from my lips. Even as a sob threatened to rip out of my throat, I kept it at bay with sheer force of will. I wouldn’t cry. I couldn’t cry for feeling bad when we came here to commit genocide. I knew this would happen. I knew every step of the way that this was exactly going to happen. I knew what we came here to do. I couldn’t hide behind the excuse of ignorance. 

It was just so different seeing it in person. Watching them die like that...so pointlessly...it made memories surface of my own death. A freak accident. A truck crossing three lanes, coming at me like I owed it money. 

More vomit spewed from my mouth at the memory. Disgusted with it and myself. I knew what we came here to do. I was just too much of a coward to follow through. 

My stewing self-loathing and regret was interrupted by the sound of a door sliding open. Instantly, I was in a position to attack, only to freeze in my tracks when I saw what came through the door. It was another alien, this one much smaller than the other ones I saw so far. Young. A child. Like me. 

It looked at me with wide eyes, the fine-haired curls underneath its cone a cherry red while its skin was a swirl of red and white. For a moment, it just stared at me, as shocked as I was. What was it doing here? Why wasn’t it running away? 

Slowly, I followed its gaze to my bloodstained fist. It’s lime green eyes hardened, it’s expression shifting from shock to resolve. It squared its shoulders, drawing itself to its full height as something began to shift behind it. 

With dawning horror, I saw tendrils protrude from its back as liquid metal rushed forward to encase the alien. Most of its body was covered in black armor, only the top half of its chest being a dark blue. Along its sides and over its shoulders were arm like protrusions, cementing the image that a scarab was gripping it from behind. The very last thing to be encased was its head, it’s steely gaze unwavering as the liquid metal crawled over its face, morphing into a black mask with blue markings around its yellow-tinted eyes. 

A Reach scarab. Scouting class. My scouter read it, making my stomach drop to my feet. 

4,000. It was as strong as Tora in his base state. 

It raised a fist, the suit shifting around until the biggest laser gun I had ever seen. A light blue illuminated the night sky, growing brighter a moment before a laser the size of my head shot towards me. I already started moving the moment the weapon took shape by throwing myself to the side. I could see the bright blue glow behind me, another attack forming. 

I hastily threw myself off the building, just in time for another beam to miss me by a foot. It slammed into a building across the street, carving a neat hole into it. 

I couldn’t take it in a fight. That would be like trying to take Tora- Tora! It was all too easy to find the giant rampaging ape, if only by the sounds of destruction. I shot towards the source, dodging another blast that cut through the street below, carving a line that edges glowed a cherry red. I pushed my speed to its limits, willing myself to go faster and faster and faster until the wind force was going to push my eyes to the back of my head. 

It was a risk but I had to take it. Either Tora would kill me on accident, the scarab would shift its priorities or Tora would kill the scarab. Two out of three worked out in my favor. Those were probably the best odds I’ve had since I stepped out of the gestation tank. 

I heard a screech behind me born from frustration and rage, making me look back just in time to see the weapon shift from one giant barrel to over a dozen. My eyes widened a split second before I dove to the side, slamming into a building and through a wall. Dozens of blue balls ripped through the building behind me, the scarab giving chase through the hole that I made. 

Jerking out of the way as another barrage raced towards me, I slammed my way through the floor, finding myself in a bedroom- This was an apartment building. There were people here. Gritting my teeth, I quickly threw myself through another wall back into the street, hoping that I bought myself some time. 

I flew in a crazed pattern, dodging, ducking, dipping and diving out of the way as the scarab persistently gave chase. Somehow, despite all odds, I saw Tora before I got hit. He had laid waste to half the city at this point, entire blocks reduced to rubble. Emotion, or more vomit, threatened to well in my chest but I pushed it to the side. Even as I heard a horrified scream from the scarab behind me that couldn’t be drowned out by destruction Tora was causing. 

Ignoring it, I raced towards Tora, the large ape taking notice of me. An oversized hand started to reach for me, his primal urges to destroy silencing any reason that he had since I wasn’t in my own oozaru form. However, the scarab ended up saving me when he shot a focused blast at Tora. It was then that I realized that the weapon wasn’t another laser, but a plasma beam. 

Tora roared in rage rather than pain as plasma burnt a patch of his fur, his glowing red eyes locking onto the scarab, who screamed in defiance in response. It shot another blast of plasma, a larger blast that washed over its chest like water. The stench of burnt hair somehow managed to overpower the stench of death in the air. 

Tora returned the attack with a blast of his own, a bright light carving the city in two as blocks were wiped away entirely. I drifted back, seeing that the scarab's full attention was on Tora. My plan worked. Shockingly. As interesting as watching the fight would be, there was a serious chance of me being killed by astray blast or swipe, so I continued my retreat. 

I drifted away from Tora, watching his back get further away. Now all I had to do was find a place to hide out at until...it...was done. Hopefully, this time I wouldn’t land on a building with one of the three scarabs on the planet. Flying further away, my gaze was inevitably drawn towards the destruction below. 

Bodies laid in the street, fires raged...I took in a slow breath, uncaring of the heavy taste of death on my tongue before I let it out even slower. The sight was seared into my mind, and I knew I would be seeing this night for the rest of my life. The smart thing would be to look away, to not torment myself and gain more nightmare fuel. Instead, I forced myself to look at it all. 

It was for that reason that I noticed a handful of neopians. The uniforms that they wore marked them as military, driving a large saucer with a round cap on top. My eyes narrowed, wondering if I should just look away, to pretend that they weren’t there. I might have done just that if the cap didn’t split open, revealing a stunted looking gun barrel stretched into place with a few segmented locks. 

I followed where it was aiming, unsure if I should bother interfering. Tora had a power level of 40,000. Plasma beams were barely noticed, so what good would it do? Tora would be fine. If anything, if he was aware, he’d be pissed for me getting involved. I should just keep going. 

But...what if I was wrong? Then Tora gets seriously hurt. Or dies. What did that mean for me? Normally, I would say nothing but Bardock was weird. There was no telling how he would react. 

Coming to a stop, my eyes narrowed at the gun, flickering to the battle raging some distance away. The scarab peppered Tora with plasma, darting around between swiped and attacks by inches. A frown tugged at my lips for a split second before my eyes went so wide that they could have fallen out of my head. They weren’t aiming for Tora’s back. They were aiming for his tail while the scarab distracted it. 

The gun hummed with life, adjusting its aim. I shot forward but I knew as soon as I started moving that I wasn’t going to make it. I was too far away. Tora’s tail was going to be cut off. He might be able to win the fight anyway, but if Reach reinforcements showed up then victory became a lot less certain. 

Unless… I thrust my hand out, feeling like an idiot with no idea what I was doing. A ki blast didn’t magically fire out of my palms response as I continued to get closer, time seemingly slowed with every inch I neared. I had no instructions on how to use ki blasts, no guidance. Only a feeling in my gut and a desperate hope. 

The well of power rose when I summoned on it like I did when I flew, this time, however, I willed it to my hand. A ki blast would fire out of my palm like I saw the others do. It would hit the gun, it would explode, and everything would be fine. In a fraction of a second, that scenario played out a thousand times in my head until my success became certainty. 

A malformed blue ball of ki formed in my hand before shooting off towards the gun, its trajectory shaky, but I was so close that aim didn’t matter. Exactly how I imagined it in my head, the ki blast punched a hole through the gun, destroying it. What I didn’t expect was for the energy built up in the gun to explode outward with enough force I was sent flying away. Heat washed over my face, singeing my eyebrows before I managed to catch myself in midair. 

When the heat passed, I cracked open an eye to see that nothing was left of the gun...or...the crew manning it. Swallowing thickly, I started to fly away, my part done. I spared one last glance at the battle raging some distance away, confident that Tora had it from here. 

I looked just in time to see a blast of plasma racing towards me. The scarab looked at me, its piercing yellow eyes seemed to seeth hatred as it took a shot at me. I realized a moment before the plasma hit me that I wasn’t going to get out of the way in time. Acting on instinct, I summoned another ki blast, launching it at the plasma. A short-lived battle raged between the two attacks that tried to overcome one another. 

Then the plasma blast broke through my ki attack, continuing to race towards me. It slammed into my chest, washing over me like water, as everything became pain. Worse than the broken bones, worse than the acid. My chest burned with complete agony so overwhelming my concentration broke and I began to plummet to the ground. I crashed with a bounce, barely feeling the impact as I gasped in pain, unable to even scream. 

My eyes looked down over their own will, finding blackened and charred armor still glowing from the heat. My shoulder pads protected my shoulders from the worst of the splashed plasma, though some landed on my arm below. It was a welcomed sight. I expected to see a hole in my chest. 

Clenching my jaw, I forced myself to hit upwards, the pain easily the worst thing I experienced so far, each movement had me swallowing a scream. Even still, I looked up to see that the scarab wasn’t done with me. It raced forward, screeching its rage and hate, the gun on its arm shifting until it became a blade. Ah. I ruined its plan. It was the distraction for the gun. If it was this mad, then there probably wasn’t another one of those guns. 

Good. That’s good. At least I managed to accomplish something before dying a pathetic death. 

It only took a second for the scarab to reach me, I tried to keep my face schooled when it touched down in front of me, its blade raised high. It was the same size as me, but from this angle, it seemed impossibly big. Moonlight shone off its pristine blade as it rose, ready to end my life with a simple thrust. 

“I’m...a saiyan warrior,” I said. I thought I would be more afraid now there was no doubt I would die. Maybe it was just because of the pain, but I felt shockingly calm. Every day for months I was beaten within an inch of my life to grow stronger. To have the right to call myself a saiyan warrior. To call myself my father’s son. 

And every single time before, no matter how battered and broken I was, I got back up and threw myself back at my opponent. Only this time…

I barely felt it when the blade plunged down, sinking into my chest, directly through my heart. Everything else hurt too much, so I only felt a dull pressure in my chest. I looked at it, my blood staining the blade. The sadistic prick went as far as to twist it. Though...maybe that was fair. We did come to this plane to murder millions of its people, so yeah, maybe this was fair. 

But...I was a saiyan warrior. A fighter. I never gave up and I never gave in. I...I...I was already a killer. 

I could taste blood in my mouth as I gripped the blade, a sense of calmness falling over me. I couldn’t die here. I wouldn’t. Not after everything. This was a second lease on life, no matter how brutal and painful it was so far. I died once already. I wouldn’t do so again. Especially like this. Even if it meant...

Because I...I…

I looked up at the sky above, the moons hanging over me and everything went red.