- Location
- Germany
...isn't the war formally over? Would this Action be a treaty-violation by Leader of the New Lanterns Hal Jordan?
Body = Ion
but maybe Jordan is the driver's seat?
not yet, as far we know...
Gone Native: Earth Saga (DBZ/DC Comics)
- Thread starter Ideas-Guy
- Start date
...isn't the war formally over? Would this Action be a treaty-violation by Leader of the New Lanterns Hal Jordan?
Body = Ion
but maybe Jordan is the driver's seat?
not yet, as far we know...
Maybe, but your forgetting something important, Tarble is a saiyan and it's technically a saiyan empire. Maybe if hal ordered his lanterns to attack it would be. But honestly Hal's though process of this guys is a giant asshole so I want to punch him gels pretty well with the general saiyan attitude of this guys is pretty powerful I want to punch them. On top of that Tarble just so happens to agree with both sides of the arguement.
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New Coat of Paint
- Location
- USA
There was no way that Ada'la could get mad at me for this fight. I didn't start it. Well, I suppose that wasn't true -- I did show up at his completely ineffective prison unannounced, but he was the one that threw the first punch and blatantly ignored the people I was traveling with. If he hadn't, then maybe there wouldn't have been a need to fight at all. About my arrival. I knew Hal well enough by this point to know that we'd fight about something or another.
There was just too much bad blood between us and it was time to spill it on the carpet.
My head snapped back, my nose flattened by the unexpected punch as I was sent blasting through the ship we had arrived on. Even as I flew back, I was prepared for the fight that Hal started. Strength surged in my veins, my hair shifted before becoming golden, matching the aura that seeped from me like a flickering flame. Hal was upon me, his expression completely devoid of any emotion, something that struck me as completely unlike him, before he raised a hand.
He threw a titanic fist at me, the bottom of it scraping the ground, carving deep furrows, while I caught the fist with a hand, feeling the jarring impact as he was pushing me away. My eyes narrowed when the fist began to sprout smaller fists that surged around me, encasing me. Even as I backed off, determined not to get hit, I felt one strike me in the cheek, and instantly the familiar taste of blood could be found on my tongue.
That was different. Either bonding with Ion had made Hal so powerful that being a Super Saiyan meant nothing to him, or something else was at play here.
Hal continued his onslaught, his main body traveling up the fist until he stood before me, the excess of the mountain-sized punch funneling back into his body. "I didn't come here for a fight," I told him, searching Hal's face. Two ki spears formed in my hands, making it clear that I was willing to.
"Then you should have not come here at all, Tarble," Hal spoke, his voice reverberating with power. I would have found it more impressive if I hadn't dealt with gods already. My eyes narrowed at his face, not seeing any trace of human emotion on it.
"You aren't Hal Jordan at all, are you? I'm dealing with Ion in his shape," I voiced and I got a sliver of the reaction that I expected from Hal. His eyes narrowed a fraction, a frown tugging at his lips. "That's disappointing. I expected better from him."
"I am Hal Jordan," the willpower entity spoke, sounding defensive. As if he were trying to convince himself of that. He didn't seem to do a good job of it and a worse job of convincing me. I hadn't seen Hal since the battle for the Vega System, when he bonded with Ion and sent Freiza packing. I'd say with his tail tucked between his legs, but Hal had cut it off. The formation of the New Lanterns was something he would do, but I was wondering how much Hal was left in there.
I couldn't imagine bonding with the concept of willpower would do wonders for his mental state. Though, I suppose it could explain his actions. Or, rather, his lack of action in regards to Earth. Earth was Hal Jordan's home. Not Ion's.
"I don't believe you," I told Ion, throwing a ki spear at him, and Ion chose to accept the blow, the ki spear striking his chest. I was shocked to see it break against his torso like a metal pipe would shatter upon mine. Hal surged forward, not exactly flying, but his body moving forward through the air as if he was willing the distance between us to shrink. That was interesting, but not a thought I had time to pursue as one of Ion's arms shifted into a dozen different things -- buzz saws, swords, hammers, and even brass knuckles -- before he sent them flying at me.
I weaved between them, aware that Ion didn't have a true body and he could emerge from his weapons. "So, this is why you chose to ignore Earth? I don't think I did anything to Ion to deserve the cold shoulder," I remarked, curious if there was anything left of the Green Lantern I had known, however briefly.
"I. Am. Hal Jordan," Ion uttered, his face twisting into an exaggerated scowl. As if he knew what it was, but didn't know the limitations of human facial features. Forming two more ki spears as we sailed through the air, rising up into the atmosphere and then through it with little difficulty. I used the spears to block a buzz blade and saw that it didn't instantly cut through the dense ki, even if it did quickly saw through it. Condensing the spear into a ki blast, I lobbed it at him and Hal accepted the blow, letting the ki wash over him.
"I told you, I don't believe you. You have his shape, you have his voice, but it's obvious to me that you have nothing else of him in you, and I hardly knew him," I told Ion and with each word, his attempts to apprehend me became more erratic. The buzz saws became nets that I was forced to weave around, and the swords and axes became guns. Human guns. "Though, I suppose you do have his lack of imagination."
Ion scowled at me, following me as I led us away from the planet. I was starting to wonder if I needed to use god ki to beat him. Super Saiyan was just water off of his back. It was actually a little unnerving. "I hate you so much, Tarble," Ion spoke, making my eyes widen a fraction and, despite myself, I smirked.
"There you are. I guess there's a little of you left in there after all," I amended my statements. I wasn't entirely certain how I should handle the situation from here. Going for a straight-out fight was a possibility, but it wasn't a good one. Not if I wanted to use the New Lanterns. In a way, it could be considered a blessing that Hal was being subsumed by Ion. After all, Hal hated me. The bad blood between us was going to be a huge obstacle to deal with and, if I didn't have to deal with it, then it would be nice not to.
That thought didn't sit right with me, however. I didn't even particularly like Hal. Throughout the war, he was either an annoyance or a useful tool, because while his heart was in the right place, his head wasn't. Without him, I would still possess the Indigo Lanterns and I wouldn't need the New Lanterns at all. His pathological hatred of me was annoying during the war, and I'm sure it would cause me no shortage of headaches in the future.
But it still didn't sit right with me. I didn't like Hal but I did acknowledge him. He was so stubborn that the Willpower Entity took note of his bullheaded nature. Beyond that -- Hal was the man that Kilowog, a Green Lantern I did respect, sacrificed his life to save alongside everyone else in that ambush. It would be a very poor ending if Hal survived all of that, only to lose himself to Ion.
Throwing my hands out wide, I formed two Destructo Disks with a mocking smile on my face, "Remember these?" I asked him before I launched them at him. Ion growled in response, a distinctly Hal sounding growl before his body lost its human shape as he lunged for me. His body grew taller than mountains, becoming a net that he threw out wide and within that net that was lined with either chainsaws or buzzsaws. I reacted instantly, darting towards one of the gaps in the net, knowing it was a trap.
As I did, I let the Super Saiyan transformation fade while I pulled up on the god ki within me. Breathing in deeply, I pinched the distance between myself and the gap, hundreds of saw-like instruments lunging and missing as I managed to slip out of the net before the trap could close. With new eyes, I looked upon Ion and saw his consciousness within the mountain-sized net that was rapidly reforming into something else.
I couldn't quite sense Ion. His presence was simply too… big to be quantified into something like a power level. However, looking at him was worse with divine eyes. It was like seeing sounds, but the sound was a deafening chorus of one note -- Willpower. It was no shock at all that Hal had been subsumed into that orchestra of noise. It deafened everything else out -- including the flashes of anger that Hal felt when I mocked him. To put it simply, if I did want to bring Hal to the forefront of Ion, I had to find ways to make him louder than the hum of willpower.
The god ki faded from view, lasting but a short moment as I faded back into being a Super Saiyan. "I suppose I should be honored," I remarked, flying up and considering my options. We were getting further and further away from the prison world for the Guardians. "Out of all the things that are left of you Hal, the last remaining shred of your personality is how much you didn't like me," I continued, ki funneling to my hands and becoming a condensed ball. We were far enough away that I had options that I wouldn't be willing to use on a planet.
"You are my enemy, Tarble," Ion uttered, echoing Hal's settlement.
"Because I killed people close to you during the war? It was war. Get over it," I callously responded, throwing my hands forward and bombarding Ion with hundreds of small ki blasts. Intermingled with the ki blasts were Gravity Balls. Ion surged forward, either oblivious to the smaller ki balls that hovered around him as he closed the distance or uncaring of them. Clenching my hands, I activated them all at once.
A thousand times the galactic standard of gravity. An intensity that I couldn't withstand, even if I could produce it. Ion's body was pulled and twisted in a hundred different directions as the competing gravity wells. His arms were pulled, stretching like taffy, before curling into themselves, his legs folding like pretzels, and his torso twisted like a screw. The Ion entity allowed himself to be pulled in every direction to grab hold of the Gravity Balls.
"Not enough," Ion uttered, grabbing hold of the Gravity Balls before crushing them in his palms like they were made of glass. My eyes narrowed at the remark, knowing that it was true. My glimpse with divine eyes allowed me to glean a little of Ion's nature. While he was powerful in his own right, what made him dangerous was the fact he could will things to happen. In theory, he couldn't have crushed my Gravity Balls as if they were tangible no matter how strong he was, but Ion was the physical manifestation of willpower.
If he wanted to grab hold of something and crush it in his palm, then it would be crushed within his palm, all physics aside. Likewise, I imagine the same could be applied to a person. It was a low level type of reality manipulation, not entirely dissimilar to how my engravings worked -- they allowed me to touch something that was intangible. Only with Ion, it was far broader in scope.
"I believe that's my line, Hal," I spoke, clasping my hands together as I channeled ki to them, flying back at high speeds. "I imagine it must have bothered you to be one step behind me every step of the way during the war. From the ambush to the Vega System, you were never quite smart enough to stop me from doing anything." I told him, trying to get a rise out of Hal so he would grow louder against the hum of willpower.
I sent a spark of god ki into my Spiral Buster, the core of the attack becoming a brilliant red while the rest remained a dark blue. Ion surged forward, and I used another spark to pinch the distance between us, appearing right before him before thrusting my hands out and sending the Spiral Buster drilling into his chest. This time, I noticed, Ion didn't just ignore the attack.
Ion threw his head back and howled in pain as I launched him away, unleashing an attack that would punch right through Earth as if it were nothing. Ion was flung away, and I imagined experiencing pain was a rarity for him. With Hal's absorption, I wasn't certain if Ion had Hal's memories or just snippets of his personality. It didn't seem to matter because it was clear that god ki was able to hurt him.
All the while, I didn't let up with the verbal assault. "I should take the chance to thank you, Hal. If it wasn't for you, I don't think the Frieza Force would have won the war." I told him, feeling the exhaustion begin to build in my gut. Using sparks of god ki was a compromise, but it was a dangerous one. "Without your timely rebellion, I would have been left dealing with not just the Green Lanterns, but the Red, Indigo, and Blue as well. If you hadn't rebelled against the Guardians, why, I imagine I would have lost." I told him, not certain if it was true or not, but that didn't stop me from saying it.
"The reason I never hated you, Hal, is because you were always my greatest ally during the War of Light. So, I thank you for all of the aid you gave me during those long years," I continued, digging the point home. And when I heard Ion howl, his shout reverberating through the void of space, I knew that was Hal. There was no mistaking him.
"Tarble!" Hal screamed, lunging upwards hundreds of miles away before he was suddenly before me, his fist slamming into my face hard enough that I felt every tooth in my head rattle. I used the momentum to spin sharply, lashing out with a foot, but Hal knew how I fought and his left arm became a kite shield that protected his head while his other arm became a boxing glove that slammed into my gut, folding me around the fist. "I know what you're doing Tarble. You're trying to piss me off. Well, sucks to fucking suck, because it worked."
I smirked, Hal's body shining brightly with ethereal green energy, and I felt that Hal was currently louder than Ion's hum of willpower. Hal scowled at me, his expression a mask of hate, "You conquered Earth!" He shouted and I righted myself, power flowing through my veins.
"You're more than a little late about that. And I didn't attack Earth. Earth attacked me," I corrected.
"Fuck you," Hal responded eloquently. "You know that's a half ass answer and a bullshit justification. You conquered my home planet. You shouldn't have come here, Tarble. I could handle you when you were half a galaxy away, but now that you're right here?"
"You weren't answering my calls," I responded, ki flowing to my hands. The sparks of god ki were few. The one I used to hurt him had been a single second of my natural god ki. As was the moment that I pinched the distance. Meaning, in practice, I had seven sparks left before I had to start cannibalizing my natural ki reserves. Before now, there had never been any doubt in my mind that I could defeat Hal Jordan when it came to a fight. Even after he merged with Ion and defeated Frieza, I had still been confident.
But, now, it seemed that the scales were far more even than I originally assumed.
"Gee, I wonder why," Hal retorted, his tone scathingly sarcastic. His body began to shift, weapons and tools shimmering under his translucent skin as if he wasn't sure which one he wanted to use on me.
"I didn't come here to fight you, Hal. I need to speak with the Guardians about what they did to my species. As well as the Dragonballs," I told him outright and I watched as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"You are the very last person that should get their hands on the Dragonballs," he stated in no uncertain terms.
My eyes narrowed in return, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. I was one of many that the Lord's of Chaos leaked the information to,and whatever you may think of me, I'm hardly the worst being on the long list of very motivated entities that are about to start looking for them."
That was news to him, it seemed. Hal's hands clenched into fists, warring with himself as much as he was with Ion. Given that Ion was the embodiment of Willpower and stubbornness, the fact he could put up a fight at all was very indicative of his character. By that, I meant Hal was a stubborn idiot that wouldn't change his mind so easily.
"I get what you're saying. I do," Hal said, surprising me. "Bonding with Ion messed with my head pretty good, but not in the way you seem to be thinking. Ion's as old as the universe itself. Earth is… so damn small when you put it up against the entire universe, and that's my concern now. The entire universe." I had no idea how true that was. The New Lanterns had seemed to be focusing on the Trade Organization, but my empire's reach didn't expand beyond our galaxy, which was only one of trillions.
It was possible that for every move I saw of the New Lanterns, there were hundreds that I didn't see. "Meaning that you're willing to be the bigger person?" I questioned, not believing it for a moment.
"Fuck no," Hal answered without a hint of shame. "It means, after I kick your ass for everything that happened in the war, I might be willing to listen to at least some of what you have to say."
Well then. It was time to spill some bad blood.
...
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There was just too much bad blood between us and it was time to spill it on the carpet.
My head snapped back, my nose flattened by the unexpected punch as I was sent blasting through the ship we had arrived on. Even as I flew back, I was prepared for the fight that Hal started. Strength surged in my veins, my hair shifted before becoming golden, matching the aura that seeped from me like a flickering flame. Hal was upon me, his expression completely devoid of any emotion, something that struck me as completely unlike him, before he raised a hand.
He threw a titanic fist at me, the bottom of it scraping the ground, carving deep furrows, while I caught the fist with a hand, feeling the jarring impact as he was pushing me away. My eyes narrowed when the fist began to sprout smaller fists that surged around me, encasing me. Even as I backed off, determined not to get hit, I felt one strike me in the cheek, and instantly the familiar taste of blood could be found on my tongue.
That was different. Either bonding with Ion had made Hal so powerful that being a Super Saiyan meant nothing to him, or something else was at play here.
Hal continued his onslaught, his main body traveling up the fist until he stood before me, the excess of the mountain-sized punch funneling back into his body. "I didn't come here for a fight," I told him, searching Hal's face. Two ki spears formed in my hands, making it clear that I was willing to.
"Then you should have not come here at all, Tarble," Hal spoke, his voice reverberating with power. I would have found it more impressive if I hadn't dealt with gods already. My eyes narrowed at his face, not seeing any trace of human emotion on it.
"You aren't Hal Jordan at all, are you? I'm dealing with Ion in his shape," I voiced and I got a sliver of the reaction that I expected from Hal. His eyes narrowed a fraction, a frown tugging at his lips. "That's disappointing. I expected better from him."
"I am Hal Jordan," the willpower entity spoke, sounding defensive. As if he were trying to convince himself of that. He didn't seem to do a good job of it and a worse job of convincing me. I hadn't seen Hal since the battle for the Vega System, when he bonded with Ion and sent Freiza packing. I'd say with his tail tucked between his legs, but Hal had cut it off. The formation of the New Lanterns was something he would do, but I was wondering how much Hal was left in there.
I couldn't imagine bonding with the concept of willpower would do wonders for his mental state. Though, I suppose it could explain his actions. Or, rather, his lack of action in regards to Earth. Earth was Hal Jordan's home. Not Ion's.
"I don't believe you," I told Ion, throwing a ki spear at him, and Ion chose to accept the blow, the ki spear striking his chest. I was shocked to see it break against his torso like a metal pipe would shatter upon mine. Hal surged forward, not exactly flying, but his body moving forward through the air as if he was willing the distance between us to shrink. That was interesting, but not a thought I had time to pursue as one of Ion's arms shifted into a dozen different things -- buzz saws, swords, hammers, and even brass knuckles -- before he sent them flying at me.
I weaved between them, aware that Ion didn't have a true body and he could emerge from his weapons. "So, this is why you chose to ignore Earth? I don't think I did anything to Ion to deserve the cold shoulder," I remarked, curious if there was anything left of the Green Lantern I had known, however briefly.
"I. Am. Hal Jordan," Ion uttered, his face twisting into an exaggerated scowl. As if he knew what it was, but didn't know the limitations of human facial features. Forming two more ki spears as we sailed through the air, rising up into the atmosphere and then through it with little difficulty. I used the spears to block a buzz blade and saw that it didn't instantly cut through the dense ki, even if it did quickly saw through it. Condensing the spear into a ki blast, I lobbed it at him and Hal accepted the blow, letting the ki wash over him.
"I told you, I don't believe you. You have his shape, you have his voice, but it's obvious to me that you have nothing else of him in you, and I hardly knew him," I told Ion and with each word, his attempts to apprehend me became more erratic. The buzz saws became nets that I was forced to weave around, and the swords and axes became guns. Human guns. "Though, I suppose you do have his lack of imagination."
Ion scowled at me, following me as I led us away from the planet. I was starting to wonder if I needed to use god ki to beat him. Super Saiyan was just water off of his back. It was actually a little unnerving. "I hate you so much, Tarble," Ion spoke, making my eyes widen a fraction and, despite myself, I smirked.
"There you are. I guess there's a little of you left in there after all," I amended my statements. I wasn't entirely certain how I should handle the situation from here. Going for a straight-out fight was a possibility, but it wasn't a good one. Not if I wanted to use the New Lanterns. In a way, it could be considered a blessing that Hal was being subsumed by Ion. After all, Hal hated me. The bad blood between us was going to be a huge obstacle to deal with and, if I didn't have to deal with it, then it would be nice not to.
That thought didn't sit right with me, however. I didn't even particularly like Hal. Throughout the war, he was either an annoyance or a useful tool, because while his heart was in the right place, his head wasn't. Without him, I would still possess the Indigo Lanterns and I wouldn't need the New Lanterns at all. His pathological hatred of me was annoying during the war, and I'm sure it would cause me no shortage of headaches in the future.
But it still didn't sit right with me. I didn't like Hal but I did acknowledge him. He was so stubborn that the Willpower Entity took note of his bullheaded nature. Beyond that -- Hal was the man that Kilowog, a Green Lantern I did respect, sacrificed his life to save alongside everyone else in that ambush. It would be a very poor ending if Hal survived all of that, only to lose himself to Ion.
Throwing my hands out wide, I formed two Destructo Disks with a mocking smile on my face, "Remember these?" I asked him before I launched them at him. Ion growled in response, a distinctly Hal sounding growl before his body lost its human shape as he lunged for me. His body grew taller than mountains, becoming a net that he threw out wide and within that net that was lined with either chainsaws or buzzsaws. I reacted instantly, darting towards one of the gaps in the net, knowing it was a trap.
As I did, I let the Super Saiyan transformation fade while I pulled up on the god ki within me. Breathing in deeply, I pinched the distance between myself and the gap, hundreds of saw-like instruments lunging and missing as I managed to slip out of the net before the trap could close. With new eyes, I looked upon Ion and saw his consciousness within the mountain-sized net that was rapidly reforming into something else.
I couldn't quite sense Ion. His presence was simply too… big to be quantified into something like a power level. However, looking at him was worse with divine eyes. It was like seeing sounds, but the sound was a deafening chorus of one note -- Willpower. It was no shock at all that Hal had been subsumed into that orchestra of noise. It deafened everything else out -- including the flashes of anger that Hal felt when I mocked him. To put it simply, if I did want to bring Hal to the forefront of Ion, I had to find ways to make him louder than the hum of willpower.
The god ki faded from view, lasting but a short moment as I faded back into being a Super Saiyan. "I suppose I should be honored," I remarked, flying up and considering my options. We were getting further and further away from the prison world for the Guardians. "Out of all the things that are left of you Hal, the last remaining shred of your personality is how much you didn't like me," I continued, ki funneling to my hands and becoming a condensed ball. We were far enough away that I had options that I wouldn't be willing to use on a planet.
"You are my enemy, Tarble," Ion uttered, echoing Hal's settlement.
"Because I killed people close to you during the war? It was war. Get over it," I callously responded, throwing my hands forward and bombarding Ion with hundreds of small ki blasts. Intermingled with the ki blasts were Gravity Balls. Ion surged forward, either oblivious to the smaller ki balls that hovered around him as he closed the distance or uncaring of them. Clenching my hands, I activated them all at once.
A thousand times the galactic standard of gravity. An intensity that I couldn't withstand, even if I could produce it. Ion's body was pulled and twisted in a hundred different directions as the competing gravity wells. His arms were pulled, stretching like taffy, before curling into themselves, his legs folding like pretzels, and his torso twisted like a screw. The Ion entity allowed himself to be pulled in every direction to grab hold of the Gravity Balls.
"Not enough," Ion uttered, grabbing hold of the Gravity Balls before crushing them in his palms like they were made of glass. My eyes narrowed at the remark, knowing that it was true. My glimpse with divine eyes allowed me to glean a little of Ion's nature. While he was powerful in his own right, what made him dangerous was the fact he could will things to happen. In theory, he couldn't have crushed my Gravity Balls as if they were tangible no matter how strong he was, but Ion was the physical manifestation of willpower.
If he wanted to grab hold of something and crush it in his palm, then it would be crushed within his palm, all physics aside. Likewise, I imagine the same could be applied to a person. It was a low level type of reality manipulation, not entirely dissimilar to how my engravings worked -- they allowed me to touch something that was intangible. Only with Ion, it was far broader in scope.
"I believe that's my line, Hal," I spoke, clasping my hands together as I channeled ki to them, flying back at high speeds. "I imagine it must have bothered you to be one step behind me every step of the way during the war. From the ambush to the Vega System, you were never quite smart enough to stop me from doing anything." I told him, trying to get a rise out of Hal so he would grow louder against the hum of willpower.
I sent a spark of god ki into my Spiral Buster, the core of the attack becoming a brilliant red while the rest remained a dark blue. Ion surged forward, and I used another spark to pinch the distance between us, appearing right before him before thrusting my hands out and sending the Spiral Buster drilling into his chest. This time, I noticed, Ion didn't just ignore the attack.
Ion threw his head back and howled in pain as I launched him away, unleashing an attack that would punch right through Earth as if it were nothing. Ion was flung away, and I imagined experiencing pain was a rarity for him. With Hal's absorption, I wasn't certain if Ion had Hal's memories or just snippets of his personality. It didn't seem to matter because it was clear that god ki was able to hurt him.
All the while, I didn't let up with the verbal assault. "I should take the chance to thank you, Hal. If it wasn't for you, I don't think the Frieza Force would have won the war." I told him, feeling the exhaustion begin to build in my gut. Using sparks of god ki was a compromise, but it was a dangerous one. "Without your timely rebellion, I would have been left dealing with not just the Green Lanterns, but the Red, Indigo, and Blue as well. If you hadn't rebelled against the Guardians, why, I imagine I would have lost." I told him, not certain if it was true or not, but that didn't stop me from saying it.
"The reason I never hated you, Hal, is because you were always my greatest ally during the War of Light. So, I thank you for all of the aid you gave me during those long years," I continued, digging the point home. And when I heard Ion howl, his shout reverberating through the void of space, I knew that was Hal. There was no mistaking him.
"Tarble!" Hal screamed, lunging upwards hundreds of miles away before he was suddenly before me, his fist slamming into my face hard enough that I felt every tooth in my head rattle. I used the momentum to spin sharply, lashing out with a foot, but Hal knew how I fought and his left arm became a kite shield that protected his head while his other arm became a boxing glove that slammed into my gut, folding me around the fist. "I know what you're doing Tarble. You're trying to piss me off. Well, sucks to fucking suck, because it worked."
I smirked, Hal's body shining brightly with ethereal green energy, and I felt that Hal was currently louder than Ion's hum of willpower. Hal scowled at me, his expression a mask of hate, "You conquered Earth!" He shouted and I righted myself, power flowing through my veins.
"You're more than a little late about that. And I didn't attack Earth. Earth attacked me," I corrected.
"Fuck you," Hal responded eloquently. "You know that's a half ass answer and a bullshit justification. You conquered my home planet. You shouldn't have come here, Tarble. I could handle you when you were half a galaxy away, but now that you're right here?"
"You weren't answering my calls," I responded, ki flowing to my hands. The sparks of god ki were few. The one I used to hurt him had been a single second of my natural god ki. As was the moment that I pinched the distance. Meaning, in practice, I had seven sparks left before I had to start cannibalizing my natural ki reserves. Before now, there had never been any doubt in my mind that I could defeat Hal Jordan when it came to a fight. Even after he merged with Ion and defeated Frieza, I had still been confident.
But, now, it seemed that the scales were far more even than I originally assumed.
"Gee, I wonder why," Hal retorted, his tone scathingly sarcastic. His body began to shift, weapons and tools shimmering under his translucent skin as if he wasn't sure which one he wanted to use on me.
"I didn't come here to fight you, Hal. I need to speak with the Guardians about what they did to my species. As well as the Dragonballs," I told him outright and I watched as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"You are the very last person that should get their hands on the Dragonballs," he stated in no uncertain terms.
My eyes narrowed in return, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. I was one of many that the Lord's of Chaos leaked the information to,and whatever you may think of me, I'm hardly the worst being on the long list of very motivated entities that are about to start looking for them."
That was news to him, it seemed. Hal's hands clenched into fists, warring with himself as much as he was with Ion. Given that Ion was the embodiment of Willpower and stubbornness, the fact he could put up a fight at all was very indicative of his character. By that, I meant Hal was a stubborn idiot that wouldn't change his mind so easily.
"I get what you're saying. I do," Hal said, surprising me. "Bonding with Ion messed with my head pretty good, but not in the way you seem to be thinking. Ion's as old as the universe itself. Earth is… so damn small when you put it up against the entire universe, and that's my concern now. The entire universe." I had no idea how true that was. The New Lanterns had seemed to be focusing on the Trade Organization, but my empire's reach didn't expand beyond our galaxy, which was only one of trillions.
It was possible that for every move I saw of the New Lanterns, there were hundreds that I didn't see. "Meaning that you're willing to be the bigger person?" I questioned, not believing it for a moment.
"Fuck no," Hal answered without a hint of shame. "It means, after I kick your ass for everything that happened in the war, I might be willing to listen to at least some of what you have to say."
Well then. It was time to spill some bad blood.
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon and Subscribe Star, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!
- Location
- Germany
Hal starts sounding like a Saiyan.
Will anybody point that out to him?
- Location
- Elsewhere
That last bit reminded me of this. Like, if Tarble doesn't drop a "we're not so different" line somewhere in the next chapter, he'll be dropping the ball as a villain protagonist.
Coming Together
- Location
- USA
Hal and I moved at the same time, determined to beat the other into submission. I nursed a spark of god ki in my chest, using it to chip away at Hal's body as he used his fists to pulverize my ribs. I felt them shift underneath his knuckles, the strike making the bones creak because Hal wanted them to, just as his face rippled when I planted a fist into his cheek, translucent willpower shifting like water while flakes split off like shards of glass. Our eyes met despite the punches landed and I knew exactly where Hal was going to punch next.
I caught it against my forearm, feeling my radius crack and in exchange, I planted a knee into his diaphragm. I wasn't sure if Hal still needed to breathe, but he folded a bit around the blow before punching me in the gut and knocking the wind right out of me. My eyes narrowed into slits, my ki being drained away into god ki that strengthened my body as I raised my fists up to slam into the back of Hal's neck and sent him flying away. Hal spun, accepting the trajectory as we started to fly dangerously away from the planet and towards a black hole.
His body started to shift, as if he wanted to change his shape and use one of his simple weapons on me but he chose not to. "I'm going to kick the fucking shit out of you the old fashioned way," he decided, settling in a boxing stances as I pinched the distance between us, thousands of miles closed in an instant.
"No techniques then?" I grunted, dipping my head out of the way before planting a fist against his ribs. Hal countered with a right hook and a scowl on his face.
"No techniques," he agreed, his right hook landing and snapping my head to the side as blood filled my mouth. Hal's body was just weird. I could predict his next move, just like I had with Ares, but because he was bonded with Ion, it… kinda didn't matter. He wanted to punch me in the face, so his fist connected, reality-bending the rules just a little bit for him to ensure it happened unless I landed a clean block. It was annoying but also fascinating to experience.
As my head jerked to the side, I delivered a sharp elbow to his temple before following the attack up with two lightning-quick jabs that Hal accepted on the chin in exchange for punching me in the liver. We traded a quick dozen blows, both of us drifting towards the black hole that was still millions of miles away, but I felt its gravity start to get stronger. Hal's technique was formulaic. I could tell hand-to-hand combat wasn't where he thrived, but he was decent enough at it. I would have won handily if it wasn't for Ion.
But Ion very much was a factor in play. "You piss me off so damn much- why are you smirking like that?'" Hal snapped at me, doing his utmost to wipe the small smirk right off of my face with a left hook that I blocked before contouring with an elbow to the chin. He needed to get better at protecting his head. Then his eyes narrowed, "You absolute prick -- you better not be having fun right now," he growled at me, punching me in the ribs, then the back of my forearm when I blocked a blow.
"And you're not?" I accused him of the exact same thing, feeling a familiar excited hum in my veins. Hal was annoying, but as far as opponents go, he was probably the most interesting of them. That included Ares. Plus, there was something charming about a straight slugging match in the depths of space with the backdrop of a black hole that could swallow a billion Earth suns.
"No," Hal gritted out. "I'm not."
"Your aura says that you are," I pointed out, seeing the lie.
"What did I say about techniques?" Hal questioned, punching me in the face once, then again, only I ducked under the third to deliver a devastating blow to his ribs that splintered shards of willpower off of him. Hal frowned at me as he flew away, quickly righting himself and the translucent green willpower flowed into the cracks that I made from. "Fine. I'm having a little fun finally beating your face in. You don't get to be happy. This isn't a spar. We aren't going to become the best of friends after I kick the shit out of you. This is payback for Kilowog and everyone else you murdered during the war."
The smile did slip when I was reminded of how personal this was for Hal. "We were soldiers and it was war, Hal," I reminded him.
"You worked for a genocidal megalomaniac. The Green Lanterns you killed… they wanted to help people. To end the war without any more unnecessary bloodshed. That's who you killed," Hal spat at me, his hands curling into fists. "Everything that happened after that? That's all on me. The good and the bad."
More ki funneled into the spark of god ki, sustaining it. "I'm not the only one that worked for genocidal megalomaniacs. I did what I did because I thought it was the best way to end the war."
"Oh, I know that," Hal snarled at me, his body shining with ethereal willpower. "You were brainwashed by the source of all compassion and it still couldn't stop you from being a murderous fuck. And to top it all off, after everything that you did -- the countless deaths, the planets ravaged, and the entire species driven into extinction at your hands -- you chose then to betray Frieza."
My eyes narrowed, finding my own anger growing as he aired out his grievances. "I was Frieza's slave. One that had his personal attention. My race had always been destined for death at his hands and I did what I could to save them. Stop making it sound so simple when you know it was anything but," I snapped at him, closing the distance.
Hal slammed a fist into mine, making space shimmer between us as we resumed trading blows, anger bleeding into our strikes. It was different with Hal, I thought. When Robin, the Justice League and everyone else judged me for my actions, it was easy to shrug off their complaints. I could and did find them annoying, especially when my own reaction to their condemnation hasn't helped things. Hal, however, had fought in the war. Just as I was, he was transformed into something unrecognizable over the course of the War of Light.
His condemnation carried more weight. And I found myself wanting to defend my actions where with Earth, I brushed off their opinions because they didn't know war. Earth's greatest wars would have been small battles in the War of Light. Even if they were all added together. The scope of the war was beyond their comprehension because they had no frame of reference. Hal did have that reference.
"Don't give me that," Hal snarled, his head snapping to the side as I planted a well deserved punch. "You can dress it up however you like-!" He continued, countering with a fist to my stomach before a left hook was blocked. "You had choices. You chose to become a monster. All the food intentions in the world won't bring back everyone that you murdered."
I headbutted Hal, "I should have run away then? Abandon the war and my people? Would you in my shoes?" I asked him, punching him in the face a half dozen times in a fraction of a second before I spun sharply to kick Hal in the side of the head. He blocked with his forearm, flying away, and I wasn't far behind him.
"You had a chance to join the right side, didn't you?" Hal snarled at me, grabbing me by the necklace and pulling the green ring up to my gaze. My fist hesitated to flatten his nose, "You could have joined the Green Lanterns. You could have escaped Rench with the 501st, and gathered up your race to escape Frieza. Do you think any one of your species would have complained if it meant that they got to fight?"
The remark struck a chord with me, but there was a rebuttal quick on my tongue. "Easy for you to say," I said, planting a foot in Hal's gut before clutching my hands together to bring them down in a large fist against the side of his head. "The Frieza Force is filled with monsters that only cared about profit margins. If I didn't step up and flinched away by what needed to be done, the war would have been a hundred times worse. And it would still be going on for hundreds of years all because Frieza wanted to sell merchandise."
Hal and I traded frustrated blows, and I could tell that the point struck a chord with him. He knew I was right about that. Either bonding with Ion gave him perspective, or he learned it from the Guardians. My ribs ached, blood dropped from my nose before freezing to my skin, and the skin on my knuckles tore. The coldness of space didn't really sting, though. Not like it had.
"Would you have done anything different?" Hal asked me, punching me in the face hard enough that I felt every tooth rattle. I countered with an uppercut to his jaw, snapping his head up. The flow of ki to the spark of god ki was taxing and I could feel my ki slowly being drained dry.
I scowled, "Do you really even need to ask?" I asked him, blocking a fist before punching him in the ribs and following it up with an elbow just as he threw a knee at my diaphragm.
Lamenting the past was pointless. You couldn't change it. At least… so I thought.
"I do," Hal said, headbutting me hard enough that blood trickled down my forehead. "You want to use the Dragonballs. Do you even know what they are?" We traded more blows, each one striking with thunderous force while we slowly drifted closer and closer to the black hole. I could feel time starting to warp ever so slightly, making seconds be one hours outside of the gravity well. It was a shockingly simple thing to straighten out the time with but a thought. Almost as if they were a curled bit of string that just needed to be pinched and pulled.
"What are you going to use them for? Bring back your team? Your brother and father? Go back in time to unfuck everything that you made a mess of?" Hal's blows picked up in their intensity as if he were trying to beat sense into my head and I wasn't making it easy for him. "How can you tell me that you did the right thing when you're looking for the ultimate Mcguffin that'll let you undo the consequences for every decision you ever made?" He snarled the words at me and my lips thinned into a small line.
My knuckles ached as I punched Hal in the face once more, flakes of green willpower cracking off of him, but he remained whole. "I… don't know what I'm going to use the Dragonballs for," I admitted to Hal, catching him by surprise that I punished him by planting a right hook to his jaw.
It was the truth. Raven wanted to undo her greatest mistake -- the destruction of Azarath. For myself, I didn't know what I wanted. Did I want to bring back my family? My team?
I did but as the ache of their loss wore off, I saw how terrible of a decision that would be. Vegeta wouldn't bend. Either he would force me to kill him, or he would continue his warmonger ways and be no better than Frieza. Bringing back my team? I wanted to, but I was… afraid of the idea. I murdered them in a fist of rage because they hadn't trusted me enough and I willfully turned a blind eye to the tension between my team and family.
Should I wish to go back in time? Stop it all? So much of everything I did was a result of being unable to resist Frieza. I wasn't strong enough to kill him. I was completely reliant on his favor to support the war effort to preserve the lives of my soldiers. If I went back now, I could kill him. Frieza, Cooler, and Cold. The war would never happen.
Which made Hal's words ring with an undeniable truth. If I was looking to undo what I had done -- the consequences of my actions -- then could I truly claim that I did the right thing? That I did the smart thing? That things were as they should be?
Hal snapped me out of my thoughts with a strong punch to the gut that folded me around his fist. I expected another blow to come, but Hal drifted back a few feet, frowning at me. "You don't know?" For some reason, that really threw him through a loop.
I frowned at him, feeling the aches and bruises that were forming from the battle. "I never allowed myself to doubt during the war. I always knew how cruel it was, but I told myself it was necessary. It was all necessary to end the war, and when there was peace, I could make the sacrifices worth it by building something better. The war is over, there is peace, and I wonder how many of the decisions I made were truly necessary." I inclined my head to Hal. "I don't know if I'd change the past, Hal. But I do understand that a lot of people died in a war that was caused by one person's greed."
Hal's face twisted like he could barely recognize me and he couldn't be more disappointed. "What?" Hal questioned, a hand going to his face as he waved me off with the other, not believing a word that I just said. Or, rather, he had a lot of trouble processing it. "You're being serious right now, aren't you?"
My face twisted, feeling indignant. "I am," I answered shortly, narrowing my eyes at Hal in a silent glare.
Hal didn't look at me for a long moment, his lips pressed together in a thin line. "Superman told me that you were trying to… I dunno. Become a peaceful and calmer person or whatever. I thought it was pure bullshit, though. You fooled the Guardians. I figured if you could fool them then you could fool anyone," Hal remarked, dragging a hand down his face. "You aren't who I wanted to beat the shit out of."
I cocked an eyebrow at the proclamation, especially when we had been doing exactly that to each other for the past ten minutes. "How so?"
"You really have no idea what you sound like, do you?" Hal questioned me, making me frown at him, wondering where he was going with this. "Ever since you were a kid, you spoke with… certainty. No matter how horrible or fucked up, you would say you'd do it and you'd treat it like it was the only true option. Did it all the time. Pissed me off something fierce because it sounded like you were talking down to everyone else that didn't come to the same conclusion that you did."
"The word you're looking for is patronizing," I told him, mostly because I knew it would annoy him.
Hal gave me the finger. "That's who I wanted to fight. The Supreme Commander Prince Tarble. Someone who could orchestrate the deaths of trillions and call it the objectively correct decision."
I recoiled ever so slightly, my lips thinning as I heard what he was saying. "I… could still do it," I told him, admitting to it as if it were a grave sin.
"Yeah, I don't know about that. You've gotten soft, Tarble," Hal decided, cocking his head to the side. "You can lie to yourself all you want, but you'll have a lot tougher time lying to me, Tarble. You're an annoying little bastard, but I know you. The you right now… if you had a chance to turn back the clock… you'd kill Frieza, even if it meant you'd die trying. Because anything would be better than reenacting the butchery of the war."
I really didn't know how to feel about that, but I felt uncomfortable for the most part. "How are you so certain of that?"
"Bonded with the physical manifestation of all willpower. Comes with some perks. Such as seeing resolve in other people," Hal answered, his tone flippant. "That, and the old you never would have admitted that you didn't know shit about shit. Because that's what you thought people needed, and it's what you needed."
I scowled as I looked away, crossing my arms over my chest. He was… annoyingly right about that. I learned very early on that when people looked to you for guidance, you had to be decisive. In everything. From the commander of a team, to two thousand, to fifteen hundred, then to armies that numbered trillions -- I always had to be in complete control. Even as everything spiraled wildly out of control. Admitting that I didn't know would have been a defeat and during the war, I could never be defeated or the image of me that my soldiers believed in would suffer.
"Are we still fighting it out or not?" I growled the question out, not at all pleased with the psychoanalyzing that Hal was doing. Especially when it came from Hal of all people. You'd think he'd direct that ability inward before he turned it in my direction.
Hal seemed to genuinely think about it for a moment before he shook his head, "Nah, I think I'm good," he decided, sounding… at peace, for lack of a better word. "If you were the same ass you've always been, I'd be tossing you into the black hole and be done with you, but you aren't him. Not quite." Hal said, drifting forward.
I thought he was going to offer a handshake. And I think he fully intended to as well, and it was because of that I never saw the sucker punch coming until it impacted my cheek, snapping my head to the side. "That," Hal decided, sounding more at peace now. As if a large burden had been lifted from his shoulders. I ran my tongue over my teeth to make sure that they were still there, finding myself envious of his apparent peace despite the sucker punch. "Was for Kilowog."
I narrowed my eyes into a glare, spitting out a mouth full of blood and debated if I wanted to escalate right back. Then I thought on Kilowog's final moments -- the last stand of the Green Lanterns who chose Hal to escape. Their rings running out of charge or overwhelmed by the Yellow Lanterns I once had under me. Kilowog was fearless even as I killed him.
I settled on a small nod, accepting the punch. That, I decided, was fair enough.
"Good. Let's get you to the Guardians then. They've been waiting for you to show up."
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon and Subscribe Star, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!
I caught it against my forearm, feeling my radius crack and in exchange, I planted a knee into his diaphragm. I wasn't sure if Hal still needed to breathe, but he folded a bit around the blow before punching me in the gut and knocking the wind right out of me. My eyes narrowed into slits, my ki being drained away into god ki that strengthened my body as I raised my fists up to slam into the back of Hal's neck and sent him flying away. Hal spun, accepting the trajectory as we started to fly dangerously away from the planet and towards a black hole.
His body started to shift, as if he wanted to change his shape and use one of his simple weapons on me but he chose not to. "I'm going to kick the fucking shit out of you the old fashioned way," he decided, settling in a boxing stances as I pinched the distance between us, thousands of miles closed in an instant.
"No techniques then?" I grunted, dipping my head out of the way before planting a fist against his ribs. Hal countered with a right hook and a scowl on his face.
"No techniques," he agreed, his right hook landing and snapping my head to the side as blood filled my mouth. Hal's body was just weird. I could predict his next move, just like I had with Ares, but because he was bonded with Ion, it… kinda didn't matter. He wanted to punch me in the face, so his fist connected, reality-bending the rules just a little bit for him to ensure it happened unless I landed a clean block. It was annoying but also fascinating to experience.
As my head jerked to the side, I delivered a sharp elbow to his temple before following the attack up with two lightning-quick jabs that Hal accepted on the chin in exchange for punching me in the liver. We traded a quick dozen blows, both of us drifting towards the black hole that was still millions of miles away, but I felt its gravity start to get stronger. Hal's technique was formulaic. I could tell hand-to-hand combat wasn't where he thrived, but he was decent enough at it. I would have won handily if it wasn't for Ion.
But Ion very much was a factor in play. "You piss me off so damn much- why are you smirking like that?'" Hal snapped at me, doing his utmost to wipe the small smirk right off of my face with a left hook that I blocked before contouring with an elbow to the chin. He needed to get better at protecting his head. Then his eyes narrowed, "You absolute prick -- you better not be having fun right now," he growled at me, punching me in the ribs, then the back of my forearm when I blocked a blow.
"And you're not?" I accused him of the exact same thing, feeling a familiar excited hum in my veins. Hal was annoying, but as far as opponents go, he was probably the most interesting of them. That included Ares. Plus, there was something charming about a straight slugging match in the depths of space with the backdrop of a black hole that could swallow a billion Earth suns.
"No," Hal gritted out. "I'm not."
"Your aura says that you are," I pointed out, seeing the lie.
"What did I say about techniques?" Hal questioned, punching me in the face once, then again, only I ducked under the third to deliver a devastating blow to his ribs that splintered shards of willpower off of him. Hal frowned at me as he flew away, quickly righting himself and the translucent green willpower flowed into the cracks that I made from. "Fine. I'm having a little fun finally beating your face in. You don't get to be happy. This isn't a spar. We aren't going to become the best of friends after I kick the shit out of you. This is payback for Kilowog and everyone else you murdered during the war."
The smile did slip when I was reminded of how personal this was for Hal. "We were soldiers and it was war, Hal," I reminded him.
"You worked for a genocidal megalomaniac. The Green Lanterns you killed… they wanted to help people. To end the war without any more unnecessary bloodshed. That's who you killed," Hal spat at me, his hands curling into fists. "Everything that happened after that? That's all on me. The good and the bad."
More ki funneled into the spark of god ki, sustaining it. "I'm not the only one that worked for genocidal megalomaniacs. I did what I did because I thought it was the best way to end the war."
"Oh, I know that," Hal snarled at me, his body shining with ethereal willpower. "You were brainwashed by the source of all compassion and it still couldn't stop you from being a murderous fuck. And to top it all off, after everything that you did -- the countless deaths, the planets ravaged, and the entire species driven into extinction at your hands -- you chose then to betray Frieza."
My eyes narrowed, finding my own anger growing as he aired out his grievances. "I was Frieza's slave. One that had his personal attention. My race had always been destined for death at his hands and I did what I could to save them. Stop making it sound so simple when you know it was anything but," I snapped at him, closing the distance.
Hal slammed a fist into mine, making space shimmer between us as we resumed trading blows, anger bleeding into our strikes. It was different with Hal, I thought. When Robin, the Justice League and everyone else judged me for my actions, it was easy to shrug off their complaints. I could and did find them annoying, especially when my own reaction to their condemnation hasn't helped things. Hal, however, had fought in the war. Just as I was, he was transformed into something unrecognizable over the course of the War of Light.
His condemnation carried more weight. And I found myself wanting to defend my actions where with Earth, I brushed off their opinions because they didn't know war. Earth's greatest wars would have been small battles in the War of Light. Even if they were all added together. The scope of the war was beyond their comprehension because they had no frame of reference. Hal did have that reference.
"Don't give me that," Hal snarled, his head snapping to the side as I planted a well deserved punch. "You can dress it up however you like-!" He continued, countering with a fist to my stomach before a left hook was blocked. "You had choices. You chose to become a monster. All the food intentions in the world won't bring back everyone that you murdered."
I headbutted Hal, "I should have run away then? Abandon the war and my people? Would you in my shoes?" I asked him, punching him in the face a half dozen times in a fraction of a second before I spun sharply to kick Hal in the side of the head. He blocked with his forearm, flying away, and I wasn't far behind him.
"You had a chance to join the right side, didn't you?" Hal snarled at me, grabbing me by the necklace and pulling the green ring up to my gaze. My fist hesitated to flatten his nose, "You could have joined the Green Lanterns. You could have escaped Rench with the 501st, and gathered up your race to escape Frieza. Do you think any one of your species would have complained if it meant that they got to fight?"
The remark struck a chord with me, but there was a rebuttal quick on my tongue. "Easy for you to say," I said, planting a foot in Hal's gut before clutching my hands together to bring them down in a large fist against the side of his head. "The Frieza Force is filled with monsters that only cared about profit margins. If I didn't step up and flinched away by what needed to be done, the war would have been a hundred times worse. And it would still be going on for hundreds of years all because Frieza wanted to sell merchandise."
Hal and I traded frustrated blows, and I could tell that the point struck a chord with him. He knew I was right about that. Either bonding with Ion gave him perspective, or he learned it from the Guardians. My ribs ached, blood dropped from my nose before freezing to my skin, and the skin on my knuckles tore. The coldness of space didn't really sting, though. Not like it had.
"Would you have done anything different?" Hal asked me, punching me in the face hard enough that I felt every tooth rattle. I countered with an uppercut to his jaw, snapping his head up. The flow of ki to the spark of god ki was taxing and I could feel my ki slowly being drained dry.
I scowled, "Do you really even need to ask?" I asked him, blocking a fist before punching him in the ribs and following it up with an elbow just as he threw a knee at my diaphragm.
Lamenting the past was pointless. You couldn't change it. At least… so I thought.
"I do," Hal said, headbutting me hard enough that blood trickled down my forehead. "You want to use the Dragonballs. Do you even know what they are?" We traded more blows, each one striking with thunderous force while we slowly drifted closer and closer to the black hole. I could feel time starting to warp ever so slightly, making seconds be one hours outside of the gravity well. It was a shockingly simple thing to straighten out the time with but a thought. Almost as if they were a curled bit of string that just needed to be pinched and pulled.
"What are you going to use them for? Bring back your team? Your brother and father? Go back in time to unfuck everything that you made a mess of?" Hal's blows picked up in their intensity as if he were trying to beat sense into my head and I wasn't making it easy for him. "How can you tell me that you did the right thing when you're looking for the ultimate Mcguffin that'll let you undo the consequences for every decision you ever made?" He snarled the words at me and my lips thinned into a small line.
My knuckles ached as I punched Hal in the face once more, flakes of green willpower cracking off of him, but he remained whole. "I… don't know what I'm going to use the Dragonballs for," I admitted to Hal, catching him by surprise that I punished him by planting a right hook to his jaw.
It was the truth. Raven wanted to undo her greatest mistake -- the destruction of Azarath. For myself, I didn't know what I wanted. Did I want to bring back my family? My team?
I did but as the ache of their loss wore off, I saw how terrible of a decision that would be. Vegeta wouldn't bend. Either he would force me to kill him, or he would continue his warmonger ways and be no better than Frieza. Bringing back my team? I wanted to, but I was… afraid of the idea. I murdered them in a fist of rage because they hadn't trusted me enough and I willfully turned a blind eye to the tension between my team and family.
Should I wish to go back in time? Stop it all? So much of everything I did was a result of being unable to resist Frieza. I wasn't strong enough to kill him. I was completely reliant on his favor to support the war effort to preserve the lives of my soldiers. If I went back now, I could kill him. Frieza, Cooler, and Cold. The war would never happen.
Which made Hal's words ring with an undeniable truth. If I was looking to undo what I had done -- the consequences of my actions -- then could I truly claim that I did the right thing? That I did the smart thing? That things were as they should be?
Hal snapped me out of my thoughts with a strong punch to the gut that folded me around his fist. I expected another blow to come, but Hal drifted back a few feet, frowning at me. "You don't know?" For some reason, that really threw him through a loop.
I frowned at him, feeling the aches and bruises that were forming from the battle. "I never allowed myself to doubt during the war. I always knew how cruel it was, but I told myself it was necessary. It was all necessary to end the war, and when there was peace, I could make the sacrifices worth it by building something better. The war is over, there is peace, and I wonder how many of the decisions I made were truly necessary." I inclined my head to Hal. "I don't know if I'd change the past, Hal. But I do understand that a lot of people died in a war that was caused by one person's greed."
Hal's face twisted like he could barely recognize me and he couldn't be more disappointed. "What?" Hal questioned, a hand going to his face as he waved me off with the other, not believing a word that I just said. Or, rather, he had a lot of trouble processing it. "You're being serious right now, aren't you?"
My face twisted, feeling indignant. "I am," I answered shortly, narrowing my eyes at Hal in a silent glare.
Hal didn't look at me for a long moment, his lips pressed together in a thin line. "Superman told me that you were trying to… I dunno. Become a peaceful and calmer person or whatever. I thought it was pure bullshit, though. You fooled the Guardians. I figured if you could fool them then you could fool anyone," Hal remarked, dragging a hand down his face. "You aren't who I wanted to beat the shit out of."
I cocked an eyebrow at the proclamation, especially when we had been doing exactly that to each other for the past ten minutes. "How so?"
"You really have no idea what you sound like, do you?" Hal questioned me, making me frown at him, wondering where he was going with this. "Ever since you were a kid, you spoke with… certainty. No matter how horrible or fucked up, you would say you'd do it and you'd treat it like it was the only true option. Did it all the time. Pissed me off something fierce because it sounded like you were talking down to everyone else that didn't come to the same conclusion that you did."
"The word you're looking for is patronizing," I told him, mostly because I knew it would annoy him.
Hal gave me the finger. "That's who I wanted to fight. The Supreme Commander Prince Tarble. Someone who could orchestrate the deaths of trillions and call it the objectively correct decision."
I recoiled ever so slightly, my lips thinning as I heard what he was saying. "I… could still do it," I told him, admitting to it as if it were a grave sin.
"Yeah, I don't know about that. You've gotten soft, Tarble," Hal decided, cocking his head to the side. "You can lie to yourself all you want, but you'll have a lot tougher time lying to me, Tarble. You're an annoying little bastard, but I know you. The you right now… if you had a chance to turn back the clock… you'd kill Frieza, even if it meant you'd die trying. Because anything would be better than reenacting the butchery of the war."
I really didn't know how to feel about that, but I felt uncomfortable for the most part. "How are you so certain of that?"
"Bonded with the physical manifestation of all willpower. Comes with some perks. Such as seeing resolve in other people," Hal answered, his tone flippant. "That, and the old you never would have admitted that you didn't know shit about shit. Because that's what you thought people needed, and it's what you needed."
I scowled as I looked away, crossing my arms over my chest. He was… annoyingly right about that. I learned very early on that when people looked to you for guidance, you had to be decisive. In everything. From the commander of a team, to two thousand, to fifteen hundred, then to armies that numbered trillions -- I always had to be in complete control. Even as everything spiraled wildly out of control. Admitting that I didn't know would have been a defeat and during the war, I could never be defeated or the image of me that my soldiers believed in would suffer.
"Are we still fighting it out or not?" I growled the question out, not at all pleased with the psychoanalyzing that Hal was doing. Especially when it came from Hal of all people. You'd think he'd direct that ability inward before he turned it in my direction.
Hal seemed to genuinely think about it for a moment before he shook his head, "Nah, I think I'm good," he decided, sounding… at peace, for lack of a better word. "If you were the same ass you've always been, I'd be tossing you into the black hole and be done with you, but you aren't him. Not quite." Hal said, drifting forward.
I thought he was going to offer a handshake. And I think he fully intended to as well, and it was because of that I never saw the sucker punch coming until it impacted my cheek, snapping my head to the side. "That," Hal decided, sounding more at peace now. As if a large burden had been lifted from his shoulders. I ran my tongue over my teeth to make sure that they were still there, finding myself envious of his apparent peace despite the sucker punch. "Was for Kilowog."
I narrowed my eyes into a glare, spitting out a mouth full of blood and debated if I wanted to escalate right back. Then I thought on Kilowog's final moments -- the last stand of the Green Lanterns who chose Hal to escape. Their rings running out of charge or overwhelmed by the Yellow Lanterns I once had under me. Kilowog was fearless even as I killed him.
I settled on a small nod, accepting the punch. That, I decided, was fair enough.
"Good. Let's get you to the Guardians then. They've been waiting for you to show up."
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon and Subscribe Star, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!
- Location
- Minnesota
That was downright cathartic.
- Location
- Germany
Stratagemini
Totally a Fire Ferret.
- Location
- Central Park
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Is Hal a Saiyan now?
backgroundnoise
Getting Too Old For This...
- Location
- The Shadowlands
Seems that an unfortunate side effect of being bonded to the very embodiment of willpower is that Hal can't really lie to himself about this, not even if he wants to. Previously he saw Tarble as a genocidal monster that was fully both willing and able to justify his actions with the most extreme kind of arrogance, and hold in contempt anyone who tried to tell him that things could be any different. Now he's seeing him, and realizing that was probably just another coping mechanism for a very broken child struggling to rediscover his humanity again. It's funny how realizing that the people you hate are actually, you know, people, can really take the wind out of your sails, isn't it?
Mother of Saiyans
- Location
- USA
"Got it all out of your system?" Kara questioned, crossing her arms over her chest as I touched down on the planet, the last vestiges of god ki leaving my body and causing my hair to shift into its usual black color. A second later a pool of swirling red appeared next to me, revealing Hal as he floated out of it. He looked at me and made a face.
"Tsk."
I smirked in response. We hadn't called it a race, but between our methods of teleportation, mine was by far the superior one. The floating pool of red was a bit of flair that cost unnecessary time. Better to just punch the fabric of space to instantly arrive at your destination. Kara looked between us and rolled her eyes so hard they probably would have fallen out if she wasn't a Kryptonian. Her gaze landed on Raven, who simply raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was being included.
"I am overjoyed that your differences were settled in glorious combat!" Kori spoke up, patting me on the shoulders hard enough that one of fractured ribs gave out and broke before she flew over and started patting Hal on the shoulders as well. Hal wore a constipated expression, clearly unhappy before shooting a dirty look in my direction.
"Wouldn't say things are settled, but I'm taking a wait and see approach if Tarble needs another ass kicking," Hal decided, earning a glare as I crossed my arms.
"Another? I can't recall the first-" I started before Raven placed a hand on my shoulder, giving me the flattest look I could imagine. I could feel her mild annoyance in her gaze and I swallowed a sigh. "Fine. The Guardians?" I asked before Hal created another portal of swirling red.
"We-" Hal started, cut off by Kori flying right through the pool. He looked at it for a moment before glancing at me, "We've been keeping things quiet and I expect you to keep your mouths shut, alright? The Guardians are imprisoned because they're seeing this as a grand experiment to see how things function without their guiding hand. That being said, you can't stay number one for as long as there has been a universe without making some enemies." It was good that Hal seemed to understand his own limitations.
I nodded as an answer, Raven removing her hand from my shoulder. Kara and Robin both quickly nodded as well, agreeing to say nothing about what they saw or heard. Perhaps it was because Hal wasn't visibly showing any damage, but I saw Robin eyeing him nervously. Did he think I lost? Because I was going to have to set the record straight if he did. If I had to fight Hal seriously, I'd kill him and eat Ion. If only to see what eating an Emotional Entity did to me.
Hal seemed satisfied with that before he beaconed for us to enter the portal. Kara, Robin, and Raven went first with me bringing up the rear. I glanced at Hal to see him smirk in my direction as I stopped into the portal.
I had no idea how long we were going to stay here for, but it was already too long.
The other side revealed a rather full room. The room itself was clearly a chokepoint -- a large bulkhead door marked one wall, one that was flanked by fortifications and outlines for turrets on the floor and walls. I couldn't say how powerful they were, but not even Hal was stupid enough to use normal gun turrets to 'guard' the Guardians. As far as I could tell, they were more of a deterrent.
Those filling the room were a number of familiar faces. My gaze was drawn to a blazing red figure with needle teeth and the symbol of the Red Lanterns. Atrocitus. My eyes narrowed at him and he remained uncowed -- I hadn't forgotten the betrayal that happened at the Vega System. The Red Lanterns had been on our side until I made a temporary alliance to deal with Larfleeze. The moment that I did, Atrocitus ordered the Red Lanterns to attack the Trade Organization in an ill timed betrayal. Now, here he was, acting as the warden for the last few Guardians that were left.
Next to Atrocitus was Indigo, leader of the Indigo Lanterns. Another group of Lanterns that should, in theory, be on my side. I took the Indigo Power Battery during the war, but I hadn't been able to secure it after my empire split off from the Trade Organization. Word was that the Indigo Lanterns had then stolen it from them in turn. Indigo narrowed her eyes at me -- she didn't like me much on account that her attempts to brainwash me into being more compassionate hadn't worked.
Next to her was Saint Walker -- he, I was a little surprised to see. I had nearly killed him during the battle at the Vega System. However, based on the slight smile and a small nod, he didn't seem to hold any harsh feelings about it. Nor did he show any signs of the injury I gave him months prior.
The last of the Lanterns was Carrol Ferris. The only other human amongst the Lanterns. I didn't know much about her. Only that the Pink Lanterns had interfered at the very end of the war at the very last battle. That, and they had saved my life -- I had been at deaths door after my battle with Froot and Larfleeze with a giant hole in my chest. When I woke up, I had a pink ring on my trophy necklace. Because of that, I had no idea where I stood with them.
"Tarble," Clark greeted, dressed as Superman and offering a nod at me while Kara broke off, flying over. "Hal. Looks like neither of you died, so I take it things went as well as they could have?" He asked, causing Hal and I to glance at each other.
"About," Hal decided, sounding unhappy. "You were right. Sort of. I'm keeping an eye on him,"Hal decided, earning a sharp look from Indigo but Clark seemed pleased.
"I'm overjoyed to have your approval," I remarked, my tone flat. "As much as it means to me, I'm here for the Guardians."
"I am too," Kara spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning at the bulkhead door that separated us from some of the most powerful beings in the universe. Imprisoned or not. It sounded like she had personal reasons for it because Clark seemed a bit surprised by the declaration.
"Let's just take it one step at a time. Tarble is the one that the Guardians have been waiting for," Hal said, annoyance leaking into his tone, ignoring the cross look he got from Kara. Kori simply nodded enthusiastically, while Robin crossed his arms. Hal started to lead me to the bulkhead door, and my gaze lingered on the leaders of the New Lanterns. The only one that they were missing was yellow for fear.
Sinestro had been defeated during the battle of the Vega System. I genuinely had no idea if he was dead or alive, but he had taken the Yellow Lanterns down with him. As far as I knew, the New Lanterns weren't using the power of fear to help police the universe. An odd choice considering they were already using the power of rage.
I cast a glance over my shoulder at Raven, who watched me enter the airlock with an expression tinged with hope. She offered a small nod, knowing that what was going to be said was for my ears only. Still, I felt her hopes and expectations settle on my shoulders like a weight. As annoying as it was, there was an undeniable truth in Hal's words that still rang in my head like a bell. Something that I couldn't quite deny.
The struggle for the Dragon Balls was going to be a long one, against a variety of powerful foes. Each one battling it out for a wish that they had for better or for worse.
And I had no idea what I would wish for even if I did gather all of them up. Raven's wish was obvious and evident -- to undo the destruction of Azarath. To bring back her mother. But… was that a good use of an all powerful wish? Was there a way for my wish, whatever it might be, to encompass her wish so that it would be fulfilled as well? What if I couldn't? What if my wish and hers were completely at odds? Would she betray me? Would I have to betray her?
My thoughts were heavy even before I stepped through the airlock, finding myself standing on an elevator that would take us to the center of the planet. A metallic disk began to lower at incredible speeds, leaving Hal and I standing next to each other. There wasn't even elevator music to break the heavy tension or to distract me from my thoughts. Worse, they weren't even about the task at hand -- I had a long list of questions I needed to ask the Guardians and I was finally getting my chance.
The elevator reached the last floor, sliding into place before we made our way through a series of bulkhead doors. Some of them were… odd. Marked with symbols and talismans that told me that they weren't normal mechanical defenses. After a long walk of a few minutes with thick doors constantly opening in front of us and closing behind us, we finally reached where the Guardians were being held.
And, just as Hal said, they were expecting me.
"King Tarble," Ganthet greeted me, his hands clasped behind his back and wearing a white robe. His head was about twice the size it should have been for his comparatively small body. The Guardians were about three feet tall and half of that came from their heads alone. Their faces and figures were humanoid, though, just with white hair and dark blue skin.
There had been dozens of Guardians in the Vega system, but only three of them had managed to leave. For all their power, they weren't fighters and they had paid the price for it.
"Guardians," I returned, the door sliding shut behind me. It vaguely occurred to me that I was in a room filled with people that could kill me. Every single one of them was a reality warper from what I saw. And not only were they powerful, they had existed since the dawn of time, giving them ample time to master that power. It just hadn't been enough to stop their numbers from being culled "I trust you know why I am here?" I asked them, crossing my arms over my chest and frowning deeply.
I knew what I wanted to ask. It was obvious enough.
"Naturally," Ganthet answered, the apparent leader of the Guardians during their incarceration. "I sense a change in you, King Tarble. What was lost has started to be reclaimed with you."
The Super Saiyan Transformation. The Saiyan God form.
That was a good starting point, I thought. "I understand that the Guardians interfered in my race's development," I began, having learned as much when Froot, an Orange Light Construct of an Ancient Saiyan, revealed himself. From him, I learned that there had been a war between the Ancient Saiyans and the Guardians billions of years ago as the two first sentient races in the universe. I also learned that the Ancient Saiyans had lost.
From the ship that the Guardians left on planet Vegeta, the escape vessel that allowed my race to escape the destruction of Sadala, I learned that my race, for billions of years and thousands of times, had routinely destroyed itself. Some versions, like Yamoshi's version, lasted much longer. Other versions hardly existed before they collapsed under their own instincts and power.
However, while I understood the broad strokes, I was missing something because… it didn't quite make sense. The Ancient Saiyans fought the Guardians, the Guardians won, and now the Guardians spent billions of years trying to bring back the Ancient Saiyans in a more manageable form? That didn't make sense.
"However, I don't understand why. You've created thousands of versions of my race from cells harvested from the Ancient Saiyan Sadala's tail, and each time we destroyed ourselves. You limited our power, tying them to our emotions to check our development… And thousands of times, you've failed with this method. Yet you never deviated from it," I stated, my gaze searching the Guardian's for any hint, but they offered nothing.
The humans had a saying -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was the definition of insanity. Yet, for billions of years, the Guardians did exactly that. The meddled with other races to far greater effect and success. The Martians came to mind in that regard.
"To answer that question, King Tarble… it would be best to start at the beginning. It is a long tale. Would you care for some tea?" Ganthet questioned, gesturing at a table for the two of us to sit at. The remaining Guardians, the dozen of them, floated around, watching the exchange with curious eyes. They likely shared a psychic link of some kind and they were just using Ganthet as the mouth.
I nodded, striding through the room to take a seat while Ganthet floated above a chair in front of me, using telekinesis to prepare the tea. "The Guardians and the Ancient Saiyans were the first two species to gain sapience in the universe, yet we couldn't be more fundamentally different. The Ancient Saiyans of old were uncontrollable, powerful, and near unstoppable. Where we developed technology, they relied solely on their innate power for everything, and looked down on anyone that utilized anything other than natural abilities."
From the sounds of it, the views of the Ancient Saiyans were near identical to the attitude of the Saiyans of today.
"The Ancient Saiyans were powerful. Too powerful. As we Maltusians decided to nurture the lesser races of the universe so they may flourish, the Ancient Saiyans desired to devour the universe itself. They feasted first on powerful creatures, but they quickly escalated. They began to devour primordial gods and forces of nature, and then each other when they were lacking for entertainment or worthy challenges. Such was the might of the Ancient Saiyans that entire galaxies were simply erased when two Saiyans of old clashed." Ganthet almost sounded wistful as he spoke, pouring a dark green tea.
So far, he wasn't telling me anything I couldn't guess. Still, it was startling to hear. I was a fledgling god and the most powerful Saiyan alive, but wiping out an entire galaxy? That was well beyond me.
"It was only natural that we would clash. Our ideologies were simply too different to coexist -- the Saiyans desired to devour the universe for food and challenges for no greater reason than their own entertainment. It was the first war, I suppose you could say," Ganthet spoke, his tone low and even as he gazed into his cup of tea. "A war that we quickly found we had no hope of winning." His gaze flickered up to mine, seeing the surprise on my face.
That, I didn't expect. "You were losing?" I questioned, trying to picture it. Billions of years ago, there would have been more Maltusians. Were their powers less developed at the time?
"The Ancient Saiyans were brilliant," Ganthet spoke, almost sounding awed. "It wouldn't be wrong to say that we were jealous of your ancestors. Our ascension was due to luck -- our planet produced a microbe that greatly enhanced our already potent intellect. The Ancient Saiyans, on the other hand, rose to dominate their native galaxy, and then the universe by pure might alone. When we clashed near the dawn of time, my people were certain of our victory. Yet, the Saiyans simply overcame any technology we developed to counter them."
Ganthet shook his head, "No. It was more than that. So thoroughly were we outmatched that the Saiyans often gave us time and space to develop more technologies so that they could challenge themselves to overcome them. The war that would decide the fate of the universe was merely a game to them, and we quickly faced a total defeat. That was until she came to us."
I had the puzzle piece in hand and it clicked into place. The tail that the Guardians had. From the sounds of it, they didn't take it by force. "Sadala," I voiced, earning a nod from Ganthet. A grave one. Who exactly was she?
"Of the Ancient Saiyans, she was perhaps the most dangerous, simply because she was abnormal when compared to the rest. Your ancestors were relentless in their pursuit of challenges. The gods of today, no matter how powerful, exist because they were deemed unworthy opponents at the time by your ancestors. It's how divinity became a fundamental part of your race. Yet, Sadala quickly became… dissatisfied. She was capable of looking beyond her immediate wants to the future and the future she saw wasn't one she cared for."
"What future would that be?" I questioned, earning a grim chuckle from Ganthet.
"One where there was nothing. The Saiyans had decided to gorge themselves on the undeveloped species and primordial forces of the universe. Froot was such a Saiyan when he lived, the weakest of them, but still powerful. However, Saiyans are, in practice, immortal. Sadala foresaw the future where there was nothing left in the universe -- no challenges to overcome, no food, and no entertainment. I saw that she was dissatisfied with that future and approached with a challenge."
I said nothing, waiting for Ganthet to take a sip of his tea, looking at the past instead of at me. "We challenged that it would be better to drag out the meal rather than feasting at the start of the universe then starving. It was a desperate attempt, but against all odds, it worked. Sadala chose to work with us, betraying her race. But, perhaps betrayal is a strong word. The Saiyans had no racial loyalty to one another. Her aid came with a price, however. One that we have yet to pay… and only twice have we ever come close. The first was the Saiyan Yamoshi, your Saiyan god. The second time… is you, King Tarble."
That was… terrifying, I thought, because it suddenly made a great deal more sense. "You can't deviate," I realized why the Guardians tried the same formula again and again and again. Regardless of how many times they failed. Why they kept bringing us back, no matter how many times we destroyed ourselves.
"We cannot. Sadala gave strict instructions in that regard. In exchange for betraying her race and allowing us to win the war, she would have one thing -- a Saiyan race capable of empathy and compassion, who used their strength for the benefit of others. To this day, we don't know why she requested such a thing." Ganthet told me, sounding genuinely uncertain.
My lips thinned ever so slightly, "Meaning… she's still waiting?" I asked, finding myself surprised with what I learned. Sadala, the ancestor to every Saiyan alive today, wanted us to be… peaceful? Compassionate? It seemed so… odd to think that we would share a goal.
"Yes," Ganthet answered, his tone almost haunted. "She still waits for a Saiyan race that fits her demands. Deep in the darkness of space where we dare not enter, she slumbers, waiting for our answer. For it is in her shadow that all things lie… for her strength has become so great that even the mightiest of gods have become like ants to her."
Well… that certainly didn't sound good.
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon and Subscribe Star, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!
"Tsk."
I smirked in response. We hadn't called it a race, but between our methods of teleportation, mine was by far the superior one. The floating pool of red was a bit of flair that cost unnecessary time. Better to just punch the fabric of space to instantly arrive at your destination. Kara looked between us and rolled her eyes so hard they probably would have fallen out if she wasn't a Kryptonian. Her gaze landed on Raven, who simply raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was being included.
"I am overjoyed that your differences were settled in glorious combat!" Kori spoke up, patting me on the shoulders hard enough that one of fractured ribs gave out and broke before she flew over and started patting Hal on the shoulders as well. Hal wore a constipated expression, clearly unhappy before shooting a dirty look in my direction.
"Wouldn't say things are settled, but I'm taking a wait and see approach if Tarble needs another ass kicking," Hal decided, earning a glare as I crossed my arms.
"Another? I can't recall the first-" I started before Raven placed a hand on my shoulder, giving me the flattest look I could imagine. I could feel her mild annoyance in her gaze and I swallowed a sigh. "Fine. The Guardians?" I asked before Hal created another portal of swirling red.
"We-" Hal started, cut off by Kori flying right through the pool. He looked at it for a moment before glancing at me, "We've been keeping things quiet and I expect you to keep your mouths shut, alright? The Guardians are imprisoned because they're seeing this as a grand experiment to see how things function without their guiding hand. That being said, you can't stay number one for as long as there has been a universe without making some enemies." It was good that Hal seemed to understand his own limitations.
I nodded as an answer, Raven removing her hand from my shoulder. Kara and Robin both quickly nodded as well, agreeing to say nothing about what they saw or heard. Perhaps it was because Hal wasn't visibly showing any damage, but I saw Robin eyeing him nervously. Did he think I lost? Because I was going to have to set the record straight if he did. If I had to fight Hal seriously, I'd kill him and eat Ion. If only to see what eating an Emotional Entity did to me.
Hal seemed satisfied with that before he beaconed for us to enter the portal. Kara, Robin, and Raven went first with me bringing up the rear. I glanced at Hal to see him smirk in my direction as I stopped into the portal.
I had no idea how long we were going to stay here for, but it was already too long.
The other side revealed a rather full room. The room itself was clearly a chokepoint -- a large bulkhead door marked one wall, one that was flanked by fortifications and outlines for turrets on the floor and walls. I couldn't say how powerful they were, but not even Hal was stupid enough to use normal gun turrets to 'guard' the Guardians. As far as I could tell, they were more of a deterrent.
Those filling the room were a number of familiar faces. My gaze was drawn to a blazing red figure with needle teeth and the symbol of the Red Lanterns. Atrocitus. My eyes narrowed at him and he remained uncowed -- I hadn't forgotten the betrayal that happened at the Vega System. The Red Lanterns had been on our side until I made a temporary alliance to deal with Larfleeze. The moment that I did, Atrocitus ordered the Red Lanterns to attack the Trade Organization in an ill timed betrayal. Now, here he was, acting as the warden for the last few Guardians that were left.
Next to Atrocitus was Indigo, leader of the Indigo Lanterns. Another group of Lanterns that should, in theory, be on my side. I took the Indigo Power Battery during the war, but I hadn't been able to secure it after my empire split off from the Trade Organization. Word was that the Indigo Lanterns had then stolen it from them in turn. Indigo narrowed her eyes at me -- she didn't like me much on account that her attempts to brainwash me into being more compassionate hadn't worked.
Next to her was Saint Walker -- he, I was a little surprised to see. I had nearly killed him during the battle at the Vega System. However, based on the slight smile and a small nod, he didn't seem to hold any harsh feelings about it. Nor did he show any signs of the injury I gave him months prior.
The last of the Lanterns was Carrol Ferris. The only other human amongst the Lanterns. I didn't know much about her. Only that the Pink Lanterns had interfered at the very end of the war at the very last battle. That, and they had saved my life -- I had been at deaths door after my battle with Froot and Larfleeze with a giant hole in my chest. When I woke up, I had a pink ring on my trophy necklace. Because of that, I had no idea where I stood with them.
"Tarble," Clark greeted, dressed as Superman and offering a nod at me while Kara broke off, flying over. "Hal. Looks like neither of you died, so I take it things went as well as they could have?" He asked, causing Hal and I to glance at each other.
"About," Hal decided, sounding unhappy. "You were right. Sort of. I'm keeping an eye on him,"Hal decided, earning a sharp look from Indigo but Clark seemed pleased.
"I'm overjoyed to have your approval," I remarked, my tone flat. "As much as it means to me, I'm here for the Guardians."
"I am too," Kara spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning at the bulkhead door that separated us from some of the most powerful beings in the universe. Imprisoned or not. It sounded like she had personal reasons for it because Clark seemed a bit surprised by the declaration.
"Let's just take it one step at a time. Tarble is the one that the Guardians have been waiting for," Hal said, annoyance leaking into his tone, ignoring the cross look he got from Kara. Kori simply nodded enthusiastically, while Robin crossed his arms. Hal started to lead me to the bulkhead door, and my gaze lingered on the leaders of the New Lanterns. The only one that they were missing was yellow for fear.
Sinestro had been defeated during the battle of the Vega System. I genuinely had no idea if he was dead or alive, but he had taken the Yellow Lanterns down with him. As far as I knew, the New Lanterns weren't using the power of fear to help police the universe. An odd choice considering they were already using the power of rage.
I cast a glance over my shoulder at Raven, who watched me enter the airlock with an expression tinged with hope. She offered a small nod, knowing that what was going to be said was for my ears only. Still, I felt her hopes and expectations settle on my shoulders like a weight. As annoying as it was, there was an undeniable truth in Hal's words that still rang in my head like a bell. Something that I couldn't quite deny.
The struggle for the Dragon Balls was going to be a long one, against a variety of powerful foes. Each one battling it out for a wish that they had for better or for worse.
And I had no idea what I would wish for even if I did gather all of them up. Raven's wish was obvious and evident -- to undo the destruction of Azarath. To bring back her mother. But… was that a good use of an all powerful wish? Was there a way for my wish, whatever it might be, to encompass her wish so that it would be fulfilled as well? What if I couldn't? What if my wish and hers were completely at odds? Would she betray me? Would I have to betray her?
My thoughts were heavy even before I stepped through the airlock, finding myself standing on an elevator that would take us to the center of the planet. A metallic disk began to lower at incredible speeds, leaving Hal and I standing next to each other. There wasn't even elevator music to break the heavy tension or to distract me from my thoughts. Worse, they weren't even about the task at hand -- I had a long list of questions I needed to ask the Guardians and I was finally getting my chance.
The elevator reached the last floor, sliding into place before we made our way through a series of bulkhead doors. Some of them were… odd. Marked with symbols and talismans that told me that they weren't normal mechanical defenses. After a long walk of a few minutes with thick doors constantly opening in front of us and closing behind us, we finally reached where the Guardians were being held.
And, just as Hal said, they were expecting me.
"King Tarble," Ganthet greeted me, his hands clasped behind his back and wearing a white robe. His head was about twice the size it should have been for his comparatively small body. The Guardians were about three feet tall and half of that came from their heads alone. Their faces and figures were humanoid, though, just with white hair and dark blue skin.
There had been dozens of Guardians in the Vega system, but only three of them had managed to leave. For all their power, they weren't fighters and they had paid the price for it.
"Guardians," I returned, the door sliding shut behind me. It vaguely occurred to me that I was in a room filled with people that could kill me. Every single one of them was a reality warper from what I saw. And not only were they powerful, they had existed since the dawn of time, giving them ample time to master that power. It just hadn't been enough to stop their numbers from being culled "I trust you know why I am here?" I asked them, crossing my arms over my chest and frowning deeply.
I knew what I wanted to ask. It was obvious enough.
"Naturally," Ganthet answered, the apparent leader of the Guardians during their incarceration. "I sense a change in you, King Tarble. What was lost has started to be reclaimed with you."
The Super Saiyan Transformation. The Saiyan God form.
That was a good starting point, I thought. "I understand that the Guardians interfered in my race's development," I began, having learned as much when Froot, an Orange Light Construct of an Ancient Saiyan, revealed himself. From him, I learned that there had been a war between the Ancient Saiyans and the Guardians billions of years ago as the two first sentient races in the universe. I also learned that the Ancient Saiyans had lost.
From the ship that the Guardians left on planet Vegeta, the escape vessel that allowed my race to escape the destruction of Sadala, I learned that my race, for billions of years and thousands of times, had routinely destroyed itself. Some versions, like Yamoshi's version, lasted much longer. Other versions hardly existed before they collapsed under their own instincts and power.
However, while I understood the broad strokes, I was missing something because… it didn't quite make sense. The Ancient Saiyans fought the Guardians, the Guardians won, and now the Guardians spent billions of years trying to bring back the Ancient Saiyans in a more manageable form? That didn't make sense.
"However, I don't understand why. You've created thousands of versions of my race from cells harvested from the Ancient Saiyan Sadala's tail, and each time we destroyed ourselves. You limited our power, tying them to our emotions to check our development… And thousands of times, you've failed with this method. Yet you never deviated from it," I stated, my gaze searching the Guardian's for any hint, but they offered nothing.
The humans had a saying -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was the definition of insanity. Yet, for billions of years, the Guardians did exactly that. The meddled with other races to far greater effect and success. The Martians came to mind in that regard.
"To answer that question, King Tarble… it would be best to start at the beginning. It is a long tale. Would you care for some tea?" Ganthet questioned, gesturing at a table for the two of us to sit at. The remaining Guardians, the dozen of them, floated around, watching the exchange with curious eyes. They likely shared a psychic link of some kind and they were just using Ganthet as the mouth.
I nodded, striding through the room to take a seat while Ganthet floated above a chair in front of me, using telekinesis to prepare the tea. "The Guardians and the Ancient Saiyans were the first two species to gain sapience in the universe, yet we couldn't be more fundamentally different. The Ancient Saiyans of old were uncontrollable, powerful, and near unstoppable. Where we developed technology, they relied solely on their innate power for everything, and looked down on anyone that utilized anything other than natural abilities."
From the sounds of it, the views of the Ancient Saiyans were near identical to the attitude of the Saiyans of today.
"The Ancient Saiyans were powerful. Too powerful. As we Maltusians decided to nurture the lesser races of the universe so they may flourish, the Ancient Saiyans desired to devour the universe itself. They feasted first on powerful creatures, but they quickly escalated. They began to devour primordial gods and forces of nature, and then each other when they were lacking for entertainment or worthy challenges. Such was the might of the Ancient Saiyans that entire galaxies were simply erased when two Saiyans of old clashed." Ganthet almost sounded wistful as he spoke, pouring a dark green tea.
So far, he wasn't telling me anything I couldn't guess. Still, it was startling to hear. I was a fledgling god and the most powerful Saiyan alive, but wiping out an entire galaxy? That was well beyond me.
"It was only natural that we would clash. Our ideologies were simply too different to coexist -- the Saiyans desired to devour the universe for food and challenges for no greater reason than their own entertainment. It was the first war, I suppose you could say," Ganthet spoke, his tone low and even as he gazed into his cup of tea. "A war that we quickly found we had no hope of winning." His gaze flickered up to mine, seeing the surprise on my face.
That, I didn't expect. "You were losing?" I questioned, trying to picture it. Billions of years ago, there would have been more Maltusians. Were their powers less developed at the time?
"The Ancient Saiyans were brilliant," Ganthet spoke, almost sounding awed. "It wouldn't be wrong to say that we were jealous of your ancestors. Our ascension was due to luck -- our planet produced a microbe that greatly enhanced our already potent intellect. The Ancient Saiyans, on the other hand, rose to dominate their native galaxy, and then the universe by pure might alone. When we clashed near the dawn of time, my people were certain of our victory. Yet, the Saiyans simply overcame any technology we developed to counter them."
Ganthet shook his head, "No. It was more than that. So thoroughly were we outmatched that the Saiyans often gave us time and space to develop more technologies so that they could challenge themselves to overcome them. The war that would decide the fate of the universe was merely a game to them, and we quickly faced a total defeat. That was until she came to us."
I had the puzzle piece in hand and it clicked into place. The tail that the Guardians had. From the sounds of it, they didn't take it by force. "Sadala," I voiced, earning a nod from Ganthet. A grave one. Who exactly was she?
"Of the Ancient Saiyans, she was perhaps the most dangerous, simply because she was abnormal when compared to the rest. Your ancestors were relentless in their pursuit of challenges. The gods of today, no matter how powerful, exist because they were deemed unworthy opponents at the time by your ancestors. It's how divinity became a fundamental part of your race. Yet, Sadala quickly became… dissatisfied. She was capable of looking beyond her immediate wants to the future and the future she saw wasn't one she cared for."
"What future would that be?" I questioned, earning a grim chuckle from Ganthet.
"One where there was nothing. The Saiyans had decided to gorge themselves on the undeveloped species and primordial forces of the universe. Froot was such a Saiyan when he lived, the weakest of them, but still powerful. However, Saiyans are, in practice, immortal. Sadala foresaw the future where there was nothing left in the universe -- no challenges to overcome, no food, and no entertainment. I saw that she was dissatisfied with that future and approached with a challenge."
I said nothing, waiting for Ganthet to take a sip of his tea, looking at the past instead of at me. "We challenged that it would be better to drag out the meal rather than feasting at the start of the universe then starving. It was a desperate attempt, but against all odds, it worked. Sadala chose to work with us, betraying her race. But, perhaps betrayal is a strong word. The Saiyans had no racial loyalty to one another. Her aid came with a price, however. One that we have yet to pay… and only twice have we ever come close. The first was the Saiyan Yamoshi, your Saiyan god. The second time… is you, King Tarble."
That was… terrifying, I thought, because it suddenly made a great deal more sense. "You can't deviate," I realized why the Guardians tried the same formula again and again and again. Regardless of how many times they failed. Why they kept bringing us back, no matter how many times we destroyed ourselves.
"We cannot. Sadala gave strict instructions in that regard. In exchange for betraying her race and allowing us to win the war, she would have one thing -- a Saiyan race capable of empathy and compassion, who used their strength for the benefit of others. To this day, we don't know why she requested such a thing." Ganthet told me, sounding genuinely uncertain.
My lips thinned ever so slightly, "Meaning… she's still waiting?" I asked, finding myself surprised with what I learned. Sadala, the ancestor to every Saiyan alive today, wanted us to be… peaceful? Compassionate? It seemed so… odd to think that we would share a goal.
"Yes," Ganthet answered, his tone almost haunted. "She still waits for a Saiyan race that fits her demands. Deep in the darkness of space where we dare not enter, she slumbers, waiting for our answer. For it is in her shadow that all things lie… for her strength has become so great that even the mightiest of gods have become like ants to her."
Well… that certainly didn't sound good.
...
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- Location
- Germany
maybe it is?
Nobody can tell what Salada, a female Ancient Saiyan would actually desire out of this deal.
Better keep up your training, just in case.
Euclaid Galieane
Addicted to Words
- Location
- Inside a Book
Because, despite her wants, she is still the most Saiyan of Saiyans.
She probably deduced that someone fighting for more than their next meal would be strong.
That the Saiyan Race would always have a fight lined up for them because they wouldn't devour everything.
That the Saiyans would always be able to look forward and see something worth keeping the universe alive.
This is her seeding the best fight she'll ever have, while ensuring that the person who comes next will be less like her.
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You'd think they summon The Great Dragon to eat it. And see the gathering of the balls be a great game to fight over.
Euclaid Galieane
Addicted to Words
- Location
- Inside a Book
Maybe they had a legend or prophecy, or knew what the balls did. "I wish for a strong and tasty opponent."
Or some magic and not-magic stuff happened so that they weren't able to do anything to them.
Mistakes of the Past
- Location
- USA
That was a little jarring to hear. Everything was the opposite of what I thought it was. Given that the current Saiyan race was what we were, I figured that the Guardians had defeated us rather soundly. From what I got from Froot and the Guardians, that had been the case, but I just didn't have the full story. I thought that Sadala had been captured by the Guardians and they were experimenting on her, trying to create a Saiyan race that fit their ideals.
Instead, Sadala was out there, somewhere, and she had the Guardians scared. She had them scared when they were at the height of their power, and I imagine she scared them a great deal more now that they had been reduced so thoroughly. Still, I had questions.
"Why?" I asked, frowning deeply as I looked down into my tea. "Why does she want a compassionate Saiyan race?" Enough so that she gave the Guardians her tail to harvest cells from. The very idea of it made my skin crawl. I'd rather part with an arm than my tail. What could she gain from trying to turn the Saiyan race into something so radically different than what we are by nature? To the point that we were so limited that we hardly recognized our predecessors?
"We don't know," Ganthet answered, sounding exactly as happy as I was to hear that. "It was simply one of the stipulations she gave in exchange for her aid in distracting her people enough that we could defeat them. It was a stipulation that we were eager to agree to at the time -- a race with all the power of the Saiyans, that safeguarded lesser species and helped nurture them? It was exactly what we desired."
"But it didn't work out," Hal remarked, crossing his arms as he looked down at the table, looking at me in particular.
Ganthet nodded, "No, it did not. As you said -- for billions of years and thousands of attempts, we could never manage to curb your… destructive tendencies. We curtailed your natural abilities -- I believe you call them the Super Saiyan transformations, and the Saiyan God form, limiting them until certain milestones were reached in an individual's emotional development."
I nodded slowly, "The Super Saiyan transformation was locked behind loss." I voiced, a sharp edge in my voice.
"Indeed. The philosophy was simple, really. To feel loss, one must be capable of empathy. Once that loss is felt, the Saiyan in question would be less likely to freely destroy others. However, your power is fundamentally linked to your desires to destroy and kill." Ganthet explained, a frown in his voice. "The two cannot be separated, as unfortunate as it is. So, we set biological markers in the brain that would forcefully remind the Saiyan of what that loss felt like every time they became a Super Saiyan." Hal made a small noise at that while I grimaced.
"And the Saiyan God form?" I asked, making Ganthet seem a little confused.
"I would expect that to be obvious if you've obtained it," he remarked, but I shook my head.
"I ate some of Ares, the Earth God of War, to obtain god ki. If there is a natural way to unlock it for our race, then I haven't discovered it," I told the Guardians and, while it could just be my imagination, I thought that the three of them looked incredibly annoyed for a moment. Hal dragged a hand down his face, telling me that he hadn't been clued in on that yet. It was part of the reason why I was here -- I was going to have to deal with the Hellenistic gods at some point.
Learning how to tap into my god ki naturally would be a great help. Otherwise, I'd have to eat other gods and that would be an issue in itself.
"I… see," Ganthet remarked, taking a long sip of his tea to hide his annoyance. Just not very well. "In that case, the intended key for the god transformation is cooperation. Five pure-hearted Saiyans willingly sharing their power with another will allow the recipient to access 'god ki', as you call it. It's a temporary measure, however. At least until the individual goes through the ritual enough times that their god ki will awaken naturally -- both receiving the power and bequeathing it to another."
I could see it now. Willingly giving up power was something that was fundamentally against our culture. If someone was stronger than you, you challenged them yourself, got beat down, then tried again if you managed to survive. Willingly giving up a fight, along with power… I could very easily see why Yamoshi was the only Saiyan god. I'm actually surprised that he managed to find five Saiyans that were willing to give up their power.
I could also see the stages. Our god forms were locked behind advanced steps, so to speak. It would only work when there were a number of pure-hearted Saiyans that were capable of empathy and were willing to share their strength.
"All of this was meant to influence your culture. Saiyans, as I'm sure you're well aware, follow strength. By making the kindest, most empathetic, of your species the strongest, the rest should follow. In theory," Ganthet added, sounding like he understood that wasn't the case. Now that he mentioned it…
"Is that what Broly is?" I asked him, thinking about my friend. Broly was insanely powerful, and he got stronger at a ludicrously fast pace.
Ganthet shook his head, "Broly is a genetic abnormality, but an interesting one. S-Cells are produced when a Saiyan secretes hormones that are associated with kind deeds and empathy. While I would need to take a look at him to be certain, Broly is a case of his brain producing a surplus of these hormones, and that in turn causes an overproduction of S-Cells. A fascinating abnormality to be certain, but not an intended one."
I sat back, taking a brief moment to process all of that. It was interesting to hear how my species had been given a clear path to walk down. The steps outlined for our intended development. The development of empathy, cooperation, self-sacrifice, and so on. Especially when I compared them to the reality of the situation -- my species was filled with self-serving, combative, and individualistic Saiyans that would rather die than cooperate, sacrifice, or empathize with another being.
My thoughts drifted back to what Yamoshi said. That I was taking the same path that he had and it ended in failure. Now I sat across from the few remaining Guardians of the Universe, and he was telling me that he had failed not once, but thousands of times over the course of billions of years. It would be a lie to say that wasn't disheartening. Was my species really so determined to destroy not only everything around us, but ourselves as well?
I came here for answers and I couldn't say I liked the ones I was getting. How was I supposed to turn the Saiyan race into a functioning species when people far greater than I had tried for much longer, and found no success. And I imagine those renditions of the Saiyan race hadn't grown up fighting a genocidal war. Disheartening was the only way to describe it.
"I'll need the data on the previous failed attempts to… reform my species," I decided, finally taking a sip of my tea. It was bitter. Ganthet nodded, having expected as much. If I knew every way that it had failed then I could eliminate options. I would speak to Yamoshi about his own attempt in greater detail. Hearing it from him would have more value since he seemed to be the guiding hand behind the only other 'success.' "However, I didn't come here just to learn about the Ancient Saiyans. A Lord of Chaos has begun a race to gather the Dragonballs."
Of which, I knew where one was and I had seen two -- the odd moons that had hovered around Larfleeze's home asteroid. The Dragonballs that Froot had managed to gather before he failed his challenge to earn the right to eat the Avarice Entity. Given that the Trade Organization had retreated from the Vega System, it stood to reason that they were in the New Lantern's possession. I could only hope that Hal had hidden them better than he hid the Guardians.
Ganthet looked mildly concerned for a moment, his gaze going to Hal, who offered nothing. "If you are asking for the Dragonballs in Hal's possession, them I'm afraid that is beyond my capacity to offer." He stated, as if a prisoner was all that he was. I expected as much. So long as I had one, in theory, they were useless. However, that was according to my human memories, and in those memories, the Dragonballs could fit in someone's palm. I needed to be sure that was the case.
"What is their capacity? Who made them? Do you know where the rest are located?" I asked, making Ganthet smile ever so slightly at my prudent questions.
"The Namekians created the Dragonballs. While the Ancient Saiyans ascended through pure might, and my race through scientific development, the Namekians were the third species to gain sapience and they did so through magic. They lived a simple existence, to my knowledge. Precious few of their people could utilize magic, and they did so by creating magical items. The Dragonballs were some of them -- individually, they are worthless. However, if you gather them up and recite a poem, then in theory any wish can be granted regardless of how unfeasible it might be."
That lined up, at least. "You talk about them like they're gone," I remarked. That, and like the Dragonballs had never been tested.
"Because they are. The Dragonballs are the only legacy of the Namekians in this age. We only discovered them through the use of the Dragonballs, and when we arrived at their home planet to investigate the source of the magical anomaly, we found only traces of their existence. As far as we know, the Namekians created the Dragonballs and used them. They were then scattered across the universe and rendered inert. However, to this day we don't know what they wished for. Only that after the wish happened, the Namekians vanished from existence."
My eyes narrowed, "Then how do you know what they're capable of?" I asked and Ganthet had an answer ready.
"Because they left a note. Their final farewell. It simply stated that they created the Dragonballs and once all seven were gathered, whoever gathered them could ask the almighty Shenron for a wish. We ran our own tests and quickly gathered that the magical energies that the Dragonballs stored were capable of wide scale reality manipulation. With a guiding hand, in theory, even the primordial forces of the universe would be helpless against the wish." Ganthet explained.
That was… odd. The Namekians creating the Dragonballs, that I already knew, but the fact that they left the universe was… odd. What prompted them to do it? Did they do so out of fear? Or were the Dragonballs a tool crafted for a singular purpose and after they used it, they left the Dragonballs behind? I had no idea. Worse, I'm not sure I would ever be able to learn given the trail was billions of years old.
"Beyond that one time, they've never been used?" I questioned and Ganthet shook his head.
"They've never all been gathered up since then. Froot came the closest by gathering two. As for the remaining five, we never found them. We had ideas where some were, but we never managed to collect them. I suspect that several of them are no longer in this plane of existence," Ganthet answered.
Like the Dragonball on Azarath.
"This poem. Is it necessary to use them?" I asked, processing the information. It was less than I wanted. I had hoped that the Guardians kept a close eye on them and could point me in the right direction. Perhaps they did, and Ganthet was simply lying to me. If he was, I couldn't tell.
Ganthet nodded, "It is and it must be spoken in the Namekian language."
"Which, I imagine, only you know at this point," I remarked, earning a ghost of a smile.
"Likely so, but I would not diminish the determination of those that seek the Dragonballs. If they can overcome the tribulations of finding them across the universe, then they can find a way to learn the poem and the language," Ganthet pointed out. That was true. I wasn't exactly sure how I would go about discovering the ancient poem and language, but with my resources, I would be able to find a way eventually.
"Where was the home planet of the Namekians?" I asked, putting a plan of action together. I was getting less from the Guardians than I hoped I would. The impression that I got from them during the Vega System was that they were more on my side than not. Possibly being imprisoned had changed that, or perhaps I had simply been mistaken. Regardless, I was getting pieces I needed to start the hunt for the Dragonballs.
Ganthet nodded his head at me, as if I had asked the right question. "It's within this galaxy, but the exact location escapes me." He said, and I didn't believe that for a moment.
My eyes narrowed ever so slightly. The Namekians were native to this galaxy? As were the Guardians? What were the odds that two of the three first species to gain sapience were native to a single galaxy when there were trillions of galaxies in the universe? Perhaps the Guardians were simply mistaken. There was plenty of proof that they weren't correct all the time, but it seemed to be an odd assertion to make -- first came the Guardians, then came the Saiyans, and then came the Namekians.
I inclined my head to him, wondering how I was going to find the planet, but said nothing. It was within my means to discover. Not all planets were created at the same time. With enough time and processing power, I could develop an estimation on the earliest planets in the galaxy that could have supported life and work off of it. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was a solution.
"At the moment," I decided, "My first concern is preventing the Dragonballs from being used by whoever else the Lord of Chaos would have told. I currently have one in my possession," I admitted and that seemed to surprise Hal. I slid my gaze to him, "And you have two. If they really are useless unless gathered, that will be enough."
"And in the future? When you want to make a wish?" Hal questioned, making my lips thin at the very pointed question. What would happen then?
"We can deal with that in the future," I answered, knowing I was putting it off. "Right now, we need to be more concerned with preventing the Dragonballs that we have from being stolen."
Hal inclined his head to me, "Or," he remarked idly, "we could destroy one of them. That would solve the problem, wouldn't it?" He pointed out and I felt my heart still in my chest. I was surprised by my own instant rejection of the idea, even if it was the prudent move. He had a point. Destroying even one of the Dragonballs would render the rest useless and sidestep the entire danger of someone using the wish for ill.
Did I really want the wish that badly? Enough so that I was willing to risk everything for it?
Ganthet spoke up, saving me from having to respond. "I'm afraid that's impossible. We tried once before to destroy the Dragonballs. The results were… disastrous," Ganthet stated, a grimace in his tone. So they couldn't be destroyed. That was… good.
I looked into my tea before I took a long gulp of it, sorting my thoughts. The conversation hadn't quite gone how I thought it would. Learning Sadala was still in play was an issue in itself, and I had the start on a lead on how to find the rest of the Dragonballs. "I think I've heard enough," I decided, setting the tea down. "I do need the data you have on my race. Thank you for the tea," I added, standing up.
I didn't get the straight answer that I wanted, but things were never going to be that easy. Ganthet nodded at me, seemingly expecting my reaction. "I cannot say when visiting hours are, but you are welcome to come back here at any time, King Tarble," he said, making an annoyed expression cross over Hal's face.
Offering a curt nod in response, I turned away with Hal in tow and felt the gazes of the Guardians on my back. They had expectations for me. I could feel it. Yamoshi had come close to what they wanted, but it had collapsed because one Saiyan lost their mind. Which made me curious about the previous generation of Saiyans on Planet Sadala.
The planet had been destroyed by a Super Saiyan combining the transformation with the Oozaru transformation-
"The last Super Saiyan," I spoke up, coming to a stop at the door as something struck me. Something that I never considered as a hand went up to the bone at my necklace that belonged to the last Super Saiyan on Planet Sadala. Their skeleton was found in the bottom of a crater. I thought nothing of it at the time… "Who killed him?"
Ganthet didn't respond. None of the Guardians did, so I followed the question up with another. Something that had been itching at the back of my mind ever since the start. A question that was born from a possibility that I hadn't quite been able to put into words. I had Sadala's tail and the ship used to monitor the Saiyan race. I knew that there were thousands of renditions of my species, each one having destroyed themselves. However…
I knew better than most the motivation for stacking modifiers -- every time I did it, it was because I was facing a foe that I couldn't beat without being stronger. So, who had the last Super Saiyan been fighting? Who had pushed them into trying to stack the Super Saiyan and Oozaru transformations? Sadala? In theory, it fit but at the same time, Ganthet said that she was sleeping. Yamoshi? A possibility, but it also didn't fit. Yamoshi was a god. Even if he was fighting a powerful Saiyan, I had no doubts in my mind that Yamoshi couldn't effortlessly win, so Sadala wouldn't have been destroyed.
"I believe," Ganthet finally spoke up, "that is a question you will soon discover the answer to yourself." He said, and I really did hate it when answers left me with more questions than when I started. He knew who the last Super Saiyan had fought, but he wasn't saying. And I certainly didn't care for how he seemed to be warning me. As if telling me I should be preparing myself.
I didn't respond and simply made my way through the series of bulkhead doors with Hal beside me. The silence was heavy and Hal seemed to be thinking about what he heard as much as I was. My mind was churning over all of it, thinking on what my next move should be. If normal methods of guiding my race into a fate other than oblivion wouldn't work, should I go with more extreme methods?
I thought on my own experiences with the Indigo Light that forced me to be more compassionate. Would that work? Water it down so the Saiyans exposed would learn what compassion and empathy felt like? Or should I tamper with my people's genes? I didn't know. I wasn't sure that there really was a right answer, and that was by far the worst part. The Dragonballs were also a concern. I needed to start developing something like the Dragonball Radar, but it would need to be infinitely more powerful to find the Dragonballs scattered across the universe.
When we finally reached the top of the elevator, allowing us back into the room, I hardly noticed Kara brushing past me for her own interrogation of the Guardians. I could feel everyone's gazes on me, all curious on what I had heard, but none approached me. Even if I could feel Raven really wanting to. She wanted to know what I had learned about the Dragonballs. She wanted them desperately, but she was trying to keep that want in check. I think the reason why she didn't approach was that she knew that she wouldn't be able to.
"King Tarble," I heard, and out of everyone, I didn't think it would be Saint Walker that would approach me first. I glanced over at him, a frown tugging at my lips as I considered everything I had learned, and the frown deepened when I saw that there was a blue ring pinched between his fingers. A Blue Lantern Power Ring. One that was being offered. "I believe this belongs to you," Saint Walker decided, his tone kind as he presented a blue ring of hope.
"What?" I asked, caught flat footed by the offer, narrowing my eyes at the ring, then at Saint Walker.
"This ring was activated by you some months ago, but, ah, Hal was… rather against the idea," Saint Walker began, giving a rueful smile. "Your proclamation and the formation of your empire. It inspired a lot of hope in a great many people. A hope for a better future," he continued, his smile becoming more kind in nature as he looked at me. He really didn't hold any hard feelings about me nearly killing him, did he?
I hesitantly reached out, accepting the blue ring, looking at it with faint curiosity. "Hope isn't something that fuels me," I remarked, knowing that even if I put the ring on, I wouldn't be able to use it.
"Then let it be a reminder," Saint Walker decided. "While you may not need hope, you inspire it in others. If you ever feel like you've lost your way, then think on why you inspired that hope and let that be your guiding light-" Saint Walker started, and right when I began to properly think on it, going to thank him for the ring and his words, I felt a rumbling underneath my feet.
A split second later, Ganthet slammed into the ceiling, having ripped through a planets worth of debris, and Kara was right behind him, a snarl on her face with her lips peeled back as she cocked back another punch.
The reaction was immediate by everyone else, but I watched on in dull amusement.
At the very least, I thought, I wasn't the only one that got into a fight on this trip.
...
The next chapter is currently available on my Patreon and Subscribe Star, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!
Instead, Sadala was out there, somewhere, and she had the Guardians scared. She had them scared when they were at the height of their power, and I imagine she scared them a great deal more now that they had been reduced so thoroughly. Still, I had questions.
"Why?" I asked, frowning deeply as I looked down into my tea. "Why does she want a compassionate Saiyan race?" Enough so that she gave the Guardians her tail to harvest cells from. The very idea of it made my skin crawl. I'd rather part with an arm than my tail. What could she gain from trying to turn the Saiyan race into something so radically different than what we are by nature? To the point that we were so limited that we hardly recognized our predecessors?
"We don't know," Ganthet answered, sounding exactly as happy as I was to hear that. "It was simply one of the stipulations she gave in exchange for her aid in distracting her people enough that we could defeat them. It was a stipulation that we were eager to agree to at the time -- a race with all the power of the Saiyans, that safeguarded lesser species and helped nurture them? It was exactly what we desired."
"But it didn't work out," Hal remarked, crossing his arms as he looked down at the table, looking at me in particular.
Ganthet nodded, "No, it did not. As you said -- for billions of years and thousands of attempts, we could never manage to curb your… destructive tendencies. We curtailed your natural abilities -- I believe you call them the Super Saiyan transformations, and the Saiyan God form, limiting them until certain milestones were reached in an individual's emotional development."
I nodded slowly, "The Super Saiyan transformation was locked behind loss." I voiced, a sharp edge in my voice.
"Indeed. The philosophy was simple, really. To feel loss, one must be capable of empathy. Once that loss is felt, the Saiyan in question would be less likely to freely destroy others. However, your power is fundamentally linked to your desires to destroy and kill." Ganthet explained, a frown in his voice. "The two cannot be separated, as unfortunate as it is. So, we set biological markers in the brain that would forcefully remind the Saiyan of what that loss felt like every time they became a Super Saiyan." Hal made a small noise at that while I grimaced.
"And the Saiyan God form?" I asked, making Ganthet seem a little confused.
"I would expect that to be obvious if you've obtained it," he remarked, but I shook my head.
"I ate some of Ares, the Earth God of War, to obtain god ki. If there is a natural way to unlock it for our race, then I haven't discovered it," I told the Guardians and, while it could just be my imagination, I thought that the three of them looked incredibly annoyed for a moment. Hal dragged a hand down his face, telling me that he hadn't been clued in on that yet. It was part of the reason why I was here -- I was going to have to deal with the Hellenistic gods at some point.
Learning how to tap into my god ki naturally would be a great help. Otherwise, I'd have to eat other gods and that would be an issue in itself.
"I… see," Ganthet remarked, taking a long sip of his tea to hide his annoyance. Just not very well. "In that case, the intended key for the god transformation is cooperation. Five pure-hearted Saiyans willingly sharing their power with another will allow the recipient to access 'god ki', as you call it. It's a temporary measure, however. At least until the individual goes through the ritual enough times that their god ki will awaken naturally -- both receiving the power and bequeathing it to another."
I could see it now. Willingly giving up power was something that was fundamentally against our culture. If someone was stronger than you, you challenged them yourself, got beat down, then tried again if you managed to survive. Willingly giving up a fight, along with power… I could very easily see why Yamoshi was the only Saiyan god. I'm actually surprised that he managed to find five Saiyans that were willing to give up their power.
I could also see the stages. Our god forms were locked behind advanced steps, so to speak. It would only work when there were a number of pure-hearted Saiyans that were capable of empathy and were willing to share their strength.
"All of this was meant to influence your culture. Saiyans, as I'm sure you're well aware, follow strength. By making the kindest, most empathetic, of your species the strongest, the rest should follow. In theory," Ganthet added, sounding like he understood that wasn't the case. Now that he mentioned it…
"Is that what Broly is?" I asked him, thinking about my friend. Broly was insanely powerful, and he got stronger at a ludicrously fast pace.
Ganthet shook his head, "Broly is a genetic abnormality, but an interesting one. S-Cells are produced when a Saiyan secretes hormones that are associated with kind deeds and empathy. While I would need to take a look at him to be certain, Broly is a case of his brain producing a surplus of these hormones, and that in turn causes an overproduction of S-Cells. A fascinating abnormality to be certain, but not an intended one."
I sat back, taking a brief moment to process all of that. It was interesting to hear how my species had been given a clear path to walk down. The steps outlined for our intended development. The development of empathy, cooperation, self-sacrifice, and so on. Especially when I compared them to the reality of the situation -- my species was filled with self-serving, combative, and individualistic Saiyans that would rather die than cooperate, sacrifice, or empathize with another being.
My thoughts drifted back to what Yamoshi said. That I was taking the same path that he had and it ended in failure. Now I sat across from the few remaining Guardians of the Universe, and he was telling me that he had failed not once, but thousands of times over the course of billions of years. It would be a lie to say that wasn't disheartening. Was my species really so determined to destroy not only everything around us, but ourselves as well?
I came here for answers and I couldn't say I liked the ones I was getting. How was I supposed to turn the Saiyan race into a functioning species when people far greater than I had tried for much longer, and found no success. And I imagine those renditions of the Saiyan race hadn't grown up fighting a genocidal war. Disheartening was the only way to describe it.
"I'll need the data on the previous failed attempts to… reform my species," I decided, finally taking a sip of my tea. It was bitter. Ganthet nodded, having expected as much. If I knew every way that it had failed then I could eliminate options. I would speak to Yamoshi about his own attempt in greater detail. Hearing it from him would have more value since he seemed to be the guiding hand behind the only other 'success.' "However, I didn't come here just to learn about the Ancient Saiyans. A Lord of Chaos has begun a race to gather the Dragonballs."
Of which, I knew where one was and I had seen two -- the odd moons that had hovered around Larfleeze's home asteroid. The Dragonballs that Froot had managed to gather before he failed his challenge to earn the right to eat the Avarice Entity. Given that the Trade Organization had retreated from the Vega System, it stood to reason that they were in the New Lantern's possession. I could only hope that Hal had hidden them better than he hid the Guardians.
Ganthet looked mildly concerned for a moment, his gaze going to Hal, who offered nothing. "If you are asking for the Dragonballs in Hal's possession, them I'm afraid that is beyond my capacity to offer." He stated, as if a prisoner was all that he was. I expected as much. So long as I had one, in theory, they were useless. However, that was according to my human memories, and in those memories, the Dragonballs could fit in someone's palm. I needed to be sure that was the case.
"What is their capacity? Who made them? Do you know where the rest are located?" I asked, making Ganthet smile ever so slightly at my prudent questions.
"The Namekians created the Dragonballs. While the Ancient Saiyans ascended through pure might, and my race through scientific development, the Namekians were the third species to gain sapience and they did so through magic. They lived a simple existence, to my knowledge. Precious few of their people could utilize magic, and they did so by creating magical items. The Dragonballs were some of them -- individually, they are worthless. However, if you gather them up and recite a poem, then in theory any wish can be granted regardless of how unfeasible it might be."
That lined up, at least. "You talk about them like they're gone," I remarked. That, and like the Dragonballs had never been tested.
"Because they are. The Dragonballs are the only legacy of the Namekians in this age. We only discovered them through the use of the Dragonballs, and when we arrived at their home planet to investigate the source of the magical anomaly, we found only traces of their existence. As far as we know, the Namekians created the Dragonballs and used them. They were then scattered across the universe and rendered inert. However, to this day we don't know what they wished for. Only that after the wish happened, the Namekians vanished from existence."
My eyes narrowed, "Then how do you know what they're capable of?" I asked and Ganthet had an answer ready.
"Because they left a note. Their final farewell. It simply stated that they created the Dragonballs and once all seven were gathered, whoever gathered them could ask the almighty Shenron for a wish. We ran our own tests and quickly gathered that the magical energies that the Dragonballs stored were capable of wide scale reality manipulation. With a guiding hand, in theory, even the primordial forces of the universe would be helpless against the wish." Ganthet explained.
That was… odd. The Namekians creating the Dragonballs, that I already knew, but the fact that they left the universe was… odd. What prompted them to do it? Did they do so out of fear? Or were the Dragonballs a tool crafted for a singular purpose and after they used it, they left the Dragonballs behind? I had no idea. Worse, I'm not sure I would ever be able to learn given the trail was billions of years old.
"Beyond that one time, they've never been used?" I questioned and Ganthet shook his head.
"They've never all been gathered up since then. Froot came the closest by gathering two. As for the remaining five, we never found them. We had ideas where some were, but we never managed to collect them. I suspect that several of them are no longer in this plane of existence," Ganthet answered.
Like the Dragonball on Azarath.
"This poem. Is it necessary to use them?" I asked, processing the information. It was less than I wanted. I had hoped that the Guardians kept a close eye on them and could point me in the right direction. Perhaps they did, and Ganthet was simply lying to me. If he was, I couldn't tell.
Ganthet nodded, "It is and it must be spoken in the Namekian language."
"Which, I imagine, only you know at this point," I remarked, earning a ghost of a smile.
"Likely so, but I would not diminish the determination of those that seek the Dragonballs. If they can overcome the tribulations of finding them across the universe, then they can find a way to learn the poem and the language," Ganthet pointed out. That was true. I wasn't exactly sure how I would go about discovering the ancient poem and language, but with my resources, I would be able to find a way eventually.
"Where was the home planet of the Namekians?" I asked, putting a plan of action together. I was getting less from the Guardians than I hoped I would. The impression that I got from them during the Vega System was that they were more on my side than not. Possibly being imprisoned had changed that, or perhaps I had simply been mistaken. Regardless, I was getting pieces I needed to start the hunt for the Dragonballs.
Ganthet nodded his head at me, as if I had asked the right question. "It's within this galaxy, but the exact location escapes me." He said, and I didn't believe that for a moment.
My eyes narrowed ever so slightly. The Namekians were native to this galaxy? As were the Guardians? What were the odds that two of the three first species to gain sapience were native to a single galaxy when there were trillions of galaxies in the universe? Perhaps the Guardians were simply mistaken. There was plenty of proof that they weren't correct all the time, but it seemed to be an odd assertion to make -- first came the Guardians, then came the Saiyans, and then came the Namekians.
I inclined my head to him, wondering how I was going to find the planet, but said nothing. It was within my means to discover. Not all planets were created at the same time. With enough time and processing power, I could develop an estimation on the earliest planets in the galaxy that could have supported life and work off of it. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was a solution.
"At the moment," I decided, "My first concern is preventing the Dragonballs from being used by whoever else the Lord of Chaos would have told. I currently have one in my possession," I admitted and that seemed to surprise Hal. I slid my gaze to him, "And you have two. If they really are useless unless gathered, that will be enough."
"And in the future? When you want to make a wish?" Hal questioned, making my lips thin at the very pointed question. What would happen then?
"We can deal with that in the future," I answered, knowing I was putting it off. "Right now, we need to be more concerned with preventing the Dragonballs that we have from being stolen."
Hal inclined his head to me, "Or," he remarked idly, "we could destroy one of them. That would solve the problem, wouldn't it?" He pointed out and I felt my heart still in my chest. I was surprised by my own instant rejection of the idea, even if it was the prudent move. He had a point. Destroying even one of the Dragonballs would render the rest useless and sidestep the entire danger of someone using the wish for ill.
Did I really want the wish that badly? Enough so that I was willing to risk everything for it?
Ganthet spoke up, saving me from having to respond. "I'm afraid that's impossible. We tried once before to destroy the Dragonballs. The results were… disastrous," Ganthet stated, a grimace in his tone. So they couldn't be destroyed. That was… good.
I looked into my tea before I took a long gulp of it, sorting my thoughts. The conversation hadn't quite gone how I thought it would. Learning Sadala was still in play was an issue in itself, and I had the start on a lead on how to find the rest of the Dragonballs. "I think I've heard enough," I decided, setting the tea down. "I do need the data you have on my race. Thank you for the tea," I added, standing up.
I didn't get the straight answer that I wanted, but things were never going to be that easy. Ganthet nodded at me, seemingly expecting my reaction. "I cannot say when visiting hours are, but you are welcome to come back here at any time, King Tarble," he said, making an annoyed expression cross over Hal's face.
Offering a curt nod in response, I turned away with Hal in tow and felt the gazes of the Guardians on my back. They had expectations for me. I could feel it. Yamoshi had come close to what they wanted, but it had collapsed because one Saiyan lost their mind. Which made me curious about the previous generation of Saiyans on Planet Sadala.
The planet had been destroyed by a Super Saiyan combining the transformation with the Oozaru transformation-
"The last Super Saiyan," I spoke up, coming to a stop at the door as something struck me. Something that I never considered as a hand went up to the bone at my necklace that belonged to the last Super Saiyan on Planet Sadala. Their skeleton was found in the bottom of a crater. I thought nothing of it at the time… "Who killed him?"
Ganthet didn't respond. None of the Guardians did, so I followed the question up with another. Something that had been itching at the back of my mind ever since the start. A question that was born from a possibility that I hadn't quite been able to put into words. I had Sadala's tail and the ship used to monitor the Saiyan race. I knew that there were thousands of renditions of my species, each one having destroyed themselves. However…
I knew better than most the motivation for stacking modifiers -- every time I did it, it was because I was facing a foe that I couldn't beat without being stronger. So, who had the last Super Saiyan been fighting? Who had pushed them into trying to stack the Super Saiyan and Oozaru transformations? Sadala? In theory, it fit but at the same time, Ganthet said that she was sleeping. Yamoshi? A possibility, but it also didn't fit. Yamoshi was a god. Even if he was fighting a powerful Saiyan, I had no doubts in my mind that Yamoshi couldn't effortlessly win, so Sadala wouldn't have been destroyed.
"I believe," Ganthet finally spoke up, "that is a question you will soon discover the answer to yourself." He said, and I really did hate it when answers left me with more questions than when I started. He knew who the last Super Saiyan had fought, but he wasn't saying. And I certainly didn't care for how he seemed to be warning me. As if telling me I should be preparing myself.
I didn't respond and simply made my way through the series of bulkhead doors with Hal beside me. The silence was heavy and Hal seemed to be thinking about what he heard as much as I was. My mind was churning over all of it, thinking on what my next move should be. If normal methods of guiding my race into a fate other than oblivion wouldn't work, should I go with more extreme methods?
I thought on my own experiences with the Indigo Light that forced me to be more compassionate. Would that work? Water it down so the Saiyans exposed would learn what compassion and empathy felt like? Or should I tamper with my people's genes? I didn't know. I wasn't sure that there really was a right answer, and that was by far the worst part. The Dragonballs were also a concern. I needed to start developing something like the Dragonball Radar, but it would need to be infinitely more powerful to find the Dragonballs scattered across the universe.
When we finally reached the top of the elevator, allowing us back into the room, I hardly noticed Kara brushing past me for her own interrogation of the Guardians. I could feel everyone's gazes on me, all curious on what I had heard, but none approached me. Even if I could feel Raven really wanting to. She wanted to know what I had learned about the Dragonballs. She wanted them desperately, but she was trying to keep that want in check. I think the reason why she didn't approach was that she knew that she wouldn't be able to.
"King Tarble," I heard, and out of everyone, I didn't think it would be Saint Walker that would approach me first. I glanced over at him, a frown tugging at my lips as I considered everything I had learned, and the frown deepened when I saw that there was a blue ring pinched between his fingers. A Blue Lantern Power Ring. One that was being offered. "I believe this belongs to you," Saint Walker decided, his tone kind as he presented a blue ring of hope.
"What?" I asked, caught flat footed by the offer, narrowing my eyes at the ring, then at Saint Walker.
"This ring was activated by you some months ago, but, ah, Hal was… rather against the idea," Saint Walker began, giving a rueful smile. "Your proclamation and the formation of your empire. It inspired a lot of hope in a great many people. A hope for a better future," he continued, his smile becoming more kind in nature as he looked at me. He really didn't hold any hard feelings about me nearly killing him, did he?
I hesitantly reached out, accepting the blue ring, looking at it with faint curiosity. "Hope isn't something that fuels me," I remarked, knowing that even if I put the ring on, I wouldn't be able to use it.
"Then let it be a reminder," Saint Walker decided. "While you may not need hope, you inspire it in others. If you ever feel like you've lost your way, then think on why you inspired that hope and let that be your guiding light-" Saint Walker started, and right when I began to properly think on it, going to thank him for the ring and his words, I felt a rumbling underneath my feet.
A split second later, Ganthet slammed into the ceiling, having ripped through a planets worth of debris, and Kara was right behind him, a snarl on her face with her lips peeled back as she cocked back another punch.
The reaction was immediate by everyone else, but I watched on in dull amusement.
At the very least, I thought, I wasn't the only one that got into a fight on this trip.
...
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TimEd
Meteor maker
My guess is that the Last Super Saiyan got ganged up on by all the other saiyans. The betrayal would fit the breakthrough to being a saiyan, and the desperation mixed with the emotional pain would likely have made going Ozaru a more tempting prospect.
Tarble's mom has been eyeing him a whole lot after all.
Tarble's mom has been eyeing him a whole lot after all.
- Location
- Minnesota
Good on you, Kara. Also, really interesting lore. It makes sense to me that the ancient Nameks, knowing something about magic, might look into the future and see what kind of fate they have, and decide to nope out of it. In canon, the Nameks were almost wiped out by a natural disaster, and then fell prey to one alien invader after another looking to take advantage of them. Using your all-powerful magic artifacts to send yourself somewhere you'd be safe makes a lot of sense.