Dende never said anything about keeping Katera alive. Vejiita rather
liked that thought. He repeated it a number of times in his head to reaffirm
it.
Dende never said anything about keeping Katera alive.
Pah! And good riddance too. Things were looking up. Sure, he'd still have to put up with Sarro, but she wasn't trying to kill him when she was... reasonably... sane. The only problem was how to make her sane again.
The only problem.
It's pretty sad when the writer's not sure of what's happening in her own story. But considering I live with this all the time I can be pretty candid about the fact that I have no idea who ran to save Katera first, Gohan or Piccolo.
Suffice enough to say that they left at pretty much the same time. Both boy and Namekuseijin took to the air and headed for Katera and Sarro.
Not surprisingly, a battle ensued.
Still on the ground, Gokuu twisted himself around and eyed Vejiita through glassy black eyes. " V-Vejiita! " he called.
Vejiita eyed him back, crossed arms, scowl and all, " What the hell do you want? "
" Neh, did you say Dende? Old Dende? "
" Yeah, I think he was a lunatic. Said I'm s'possed to find a peaceful resolution to this mess. "
Gokuu chuckled at Vejiita's recount of things. " No, not a lunatic. He was probably from the future. But we do need Sarro to come to her senses. She's the only one that can save the future! "
" How's that? " Vejiita had to admit he was intrigued at Gokuu's sudden display of knowledge.
" Because I can't, " answered Gokuu perfectly seriously.
Oh, so now he was Third-rate?! Next thing you know they would be telling
him that Katera had gotten stronger. Ooh, this was
unbearable. Vejiita was clenching and unclenching his fists in anger
and indignation. How DARE they all! How dare they be more powerful than
him!
Vejiita burst into the air and headed for the aerial battle. He blasted past Piccolo, Katera, and Gohan right up to Sarro and with all his strength slapped her across the face.
Caught by surprise, Sarro released her hold on Katera and fell to the ground.
What remained for several moments after this was an... er... interesting
tableau where everyone was frozen in shock by Vejiita's
actions. Gokuu lay on the ground, watching with open mouth and wide
eyes. Sarro lay where she'd landed, her hand on her cheek and her eyes
on Vejiita. Potaeo stood stock still, surprise painted across his face.
Gohan hung in the air, staring alternately at Vejiita and Sarro. Piccolo
could only glare at Sarro. Katera finally realized she was clutching shakily
at the large folds of fabric that hung over Piccolo's chest as part of
his cape and pushed away with her nose wrinkled in disgust at herself.
After that everything seemed to pick up, from the fact that Sarro pulled herself together and attacked Vejiita, thus throwing them into battle, to the fact that Potaeo found things suddenly very amusing.
Katera turned her attention on him, or rather, snapped it in that direction
once he had started laughing. Disregarding Gohan's
protests she dropped to the ground and faced Potaeo with a fearsome
expression on her face.
" Hn, " Piccolo commented, " Foolish girl. " Which for him is the equivalent to an expression of concern.
Katera stared at Potaeo with that wonderful reckless grin that she can't get through a chapter without and spoke up, " I haven't pulled my trump card, you know? "
[How does Katera know what a 'trump card' is? Hell, I'm not even entirely shure where that phrase comes from. Chalk it up to comic stupidity and let's move on...]
Potaeo raised a semi-intrigued eyebrow and took the bait, " Oh, really? "
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Now, as I hit this part of Dragonball ZL, I realize that I've made the same mistake I made in version one: I left out a scene. So, true to form, I'll just stick it in here as a flashback. Actually, thinking about it, this scene would have been rather pointless anywhere else, and broken the continuity and all, and you know, this isn't so much a story anymore as it's me rambling, is it? Well, it definately makes it unique!
It was late at night, and the moon was new, leaving no light to cast shadows through the Son homestead. All was quiet, and the darkness warm. It was certainly one of the more comfortable places she'd stayed in.
Katera hated it.
No, that wasn't true. She rather liked it, and hated it for that. The more she stayed here the more content she became, and the more she fought that contentment. She was a Saiyajin! She was tough! She didn't have any need for family or acceptance, (little did Katera realize that in a way she had been fighting for acceptance all her life) all she needed was battle. That was the meaning of her existence.
Frustrated, she sat up and glared into the darkness. Her breathing was irregular, but Katera was too emotionally detatched to realize that they were sobs. She felt as though she were falling, perhaps she was dehydrated.
Katera reached up and pushed her long bangs from her face, sniffing and exhaling with a strange noise. She furrowed her brow, something about that noise sounded familiar. Disregarding it, she wiped at her nose with the back of her hand and edged out of bed.
Grasping her sword with both hands, for she never went anywhere without it, Katera quietly moved past Gohan, using her scouter to guide her to the door and from there out of the house.
Once out in the cool night air, Katera wiped at her face again, not bothering to notice that her hand came away wet. Instead she sniffed and headed for the river, always sure to keep herself alert for any enemies that might use this to their advantage. She could only hope.
Unfortunately, she reached the river with no problems and knelt at the bank to take a drink. As she was drinking, her scouter suddenly blipped and she stood quickly, drawing her sword awkwardly, as she still hadn't quite gotten the hang of drawing it without the tip snagging on the edge of the sheath.
Turning, she prepared herself for battle and found--
" Piccolo? " The little Saiyajin made an unsatisfied noise and replaced her blade in it's sheath. She turned her back on him to hide her disappointment and put all her effort into sneering, " Here to spy on me? "
" Just wondering what you're doing leaving home so late, " Piccolo grumbled in his low voice.
Katera spun around, turning on him indignantly, " That place, " she spat out the word like it was venom, " is no home of mine! "
" Oh? " was all Piccolo said in response.
Silence joined the darkness around them.
Katera stared upwards, at the spot of black upon black that was the moon. She closed her eyes, a pained expression overtaking her face. " I hate it here, Piccolo, " she said softly. " I hate myself for liking it, so I hate it. " Piccolo said nothing, so she continued, " I keep thinking that I could be doing so much more. That I should have done something to keep this-- " she opened her eyes and glared at her hands a minute before her face crumpled,
" --this from happening. " Immediately the devastation was gone and the anger had controlled it. " This shouldn't have happened. Not to me. At the very least she could have left me dead. "
Piccolo waited patiently for her to continue. It was all he could do really, all he could think to do. No one other than Gohan had ever confided in him. That, and with Gohan it had been more of a rambling on about everything.
And all the time!
Suddenly Katera went off on a tangent, " I can't use Kori no Shi in this body, I wonder what my other attack would do... "
" Mm? " Piccolo eyed her curiously, " Ice Blade? You've used that. "
" No, " her voice was suddenly very quiet, " the attack I used to destroy Jiiyar's world. Even as an adult I couldn't quite handle it. In this body it would probably kill me... "
What? Was the girl contemplating suicide?
" ... and take the whole of Chikyuu along with me. Unless I controlled it. " Her face darkened in concentration, and the silence stretched again. " I've used it twice before. Once controlled, once not.
" Hm, " she turned and set off on foot towards the Son homestead, " something to think about... "
" Katera. "
She stopped at the sounding of her name. Piccolo looked at her with a concerned expression. " You're welcome here, you realize that? Son has accepted you into his family. As a child you have the chance to begin your life anew. " His voice quieted, " Don't make the same mistakes I did. "
" It's that chance that feeds the hatred, Piccolo, I don't want to let go, " Katera stated and continued on her way.
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Power.
Sometime in the future the players in this story would realize that is what this is all about. That's all anything is ever about, or will ever be.
Just power, not honor, or love, or hatred, or revenge. Power. Everyone wants to be powerful, more powerful than the other. More powerful than themselves. As is the case in Katera's life. She strived to be more powerful than herself.
She wanted complete control, and perhaps to a certain extent acheived
it. Outwardly no one knew her. It is only in rare, though
since coming to Chikyuu and experiencing death first hand more frequently,
moments when what she really felt came out. Like the above.
But that moment was the farthest thing from her mind. In truth, by the time she had raised her ki to a level where her aura could have easily housed her at her adult height, it had been fished out of Piccolo's memory and was rapidly replaying for his mind's eye. Katera continued building, the reckless smile still on her lips. Eventually her scouter shut down, hitting the threshold from her own sentu ryoku. (It was a wonder Vejiita and Sarro hadn't beat her to it) Frigid blue light cast everything into a white washed look, and Katera continued to build. At the very peak, the Saiyan girl tossed her sword aside, to where it landed right before an astonished Gokuu. Katera cupped her hands before her and closed her eyes.
Piccolo's mind clicked.
" Katera! " he shouted, his voice thick. If she went through with it, Gohan would be devastated! " If you use that it'll kill you! "
She took a moment to glare at him. " Don't you think I know that? " she snapped and then looked back to Potaeo. " Sayonara. " The world seemed to pause, even Sarro and Vejiita took a break to watch as the words came from the little warrior's lips, " Absolute-- " the word was shaky, it was too much power, " -- ZERO!! "
Katera's voice cracked on the last word, but it still worked, all the power around her contributed to the blast, and a concentrated column of ice blue energy larger than Katera herself shot out towards Potaeo.
" TOUSAN!! " Sarro screamed.
" KATERA!! " Gohan cried symultaniously.
The blast hit Potaeo full force, and the whole of the area surrounding he and Katera was blotted out in a flash of light visible from space. It continued for seemingly forever, and eventually the Earth was torn from beneath the light and it was engulfed in dust and debris. Gale-force winds tossed everyone around for a moment before all was calm again.
For about a nanosecond.
Gohan was the first to react. He burst into tears. " Neechan! " he wailed and flew down to where Katera was laying still on her side.
The dust had yet to clear around where Potaeo had been, and Sarro was growing more and more frantic. " Tousan! " she yelled, " TOUSAN!! " She shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut and tossing more of her hair out of the braid. Tears escaped her eyes and plummetted to the ground in small insignifigant splashes.
Vejiita watched her with a disgusted look on his face. So, that was it. Even he could tell that whoever that poor bastard was that Katera had killed had used Sarro's father's image against her.
Gohan landed and ran to Katera's side. " Neechan! " he cried, " Katerachan! "
Katera barely opened her eyes to look at him and whispered, " Ya-ta, " before closing them again.
[Ya-ta is something like, 'I did it' I define it as a happy noise.]
Gohan's tears splashed upon her face. " Katera... "
Gokuu laid back and closed his eyes, struggling as another stab of pain
threw him out of contact with the world around him. " K-k-kussooo... "
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[Wak! Is Katera dead for good? Now that Vejiita's realized the reason why Sarro's gone insane, (yay Vejiita!) will he be able to bring her around? Is Potaeo/Kuraft really gone? Was that ever really Sarro's father? Well, that question for sure is answered in the next chapter, Family Problems for Sarro. The Dark Power Kuraft's True Form.]
[Written by Inseiko, 2000]
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