DBZ: The Fallen Empire (Chapter 2: A Dream of Empire)

Status
Not open for further replies.
"I'm listening." Xenest then said, crossing his arms.

=======

"You're mistaken on one thing, however. There will ALWAYS be someone around to save my family and friends. I could possibly have some kind of back-up plan for situations like this. But as you said, brute force isn't going to help me out in here, so I'll have to settle for other conventional methods. So since you're obviously here to talk to me, then talk. As for your other question, I would find a way to get back what I've lost one way or the other. Which brings me to something which has been bothering me for some time: How come you are still alive? Didn't Future Xenest deliver a massive beatdown onto you which led to your defeat some time ago? I'd love to know." Brachi said, deciding on a more different approach.
 
"Divinity? Yeah, about that..." Oriko dropped his armor off and opened his jacket, revealing the light in his chest glowing brightly. "That's what you're sensing, the God Fragment. Without it, I'd be a normal human. Well, I guess I'd also be dead, considering it replaced my heart. Anyway, abput your question -- I'm helping the Z-Fighters so they can help me. After all, Lucifer is still a threat to everyone here due to his cunning. While he probably couldn't touch your empire in any way..." Oriko scratched his head, trying to think about what to say. "He can still be dangerous."
 
Unreachable...? 


Mioi looked at the man, surprised he knew so much about her.

"It is true I do not feel what the true Jedi would. I am more of a lost survivor with nothing to lose anymore. I am living without true purpose. On my own accord, I hope I can at least ensure my people I would not die in such a way. To have remained alive until this point has to mean something. To at least try and secure a brighter future than these atrocities."

"... I suppose I have a few left. Why did this all begin in the first place? Not just you building up power, but... the debacle between Lord Vegetto and Revan, the sacking of Coruscant, the conflict involving the others. If Lord Whis created you, you have to have more insight than anyone else on this. A war of this magnitude had to begin somewhere. I've yet to really know."
 
"All the time in the world, eh?" Kire said with a small laugh. He didn't seem at all bothered by this, then again, when is he ever bothered by anything? His tone was as calm as usual, almost as if he genuinely wanted to have a conversation with the man. "You're pretty cool to talk to, I wish I had a fat herb to smoke with you, honestly. As for your question, I can finally think without much worries. It's heavenly, really. I couldn't have asked for anything more. This, truly, is the best thing to have ever happened to me."

Kire let out a sigh of relief before slowly gazing his eyes to the direction of the voice behind him. He didn't seem at all alarmed. 

"If my mind is separated from my body, or at least out of reach, I don't have the physical strains that mortals do." Kire leaned his head up to gaze at the stars above him, his voice cracking slightly at how happy he was. "I have finally reached... heh." 

=================

"Your father..?" Jaz turned to the voice as it spoke. She seemed amazed at his words, almost as if they were alien to her. She locked gaze with the man before slowly drifting her eyes to the floor. "Your father was a bright man if he said the same as my father."

His words seem to drill into her fragile mind rather easily, like most words that sounded similar to her father's She remained silend for a few moments before finally speaking up to answer the man's question.

"If they have shown you the way..." Jaz said shyly, almost bashfully. "You must be a very wise man. You said these stars are my only friends so that means..." Jaz's voice seemed to quake, the sadness in her eyes apparent. "That means my father and the others are...dead."

Jaz's tears ran down her cheeks but she shook her head frantically, trying to shake off the sadness. The truth hit her hard but she couldn't cry over it. She sniffled before lifting her head to the man. The determination was carved into her eyes. It was obvious that what came out of her mouth was sincere. 

"I-I can't cry now... what good would that do? I think the stars can... show me the way but," Her voice was almost a whisper. "I rather follow your way. I can't hear them like you can so I must not understand it like you do. P-Please, help me see what you see... I just want to get stronger to avenge my friends and my father. I'm tired of losing people... I'm tired of being alone and confused."
 
Panich:

The Dread Saiyan stood silent through Panich's retort, his smirk still strong. His attention turned back up towards the wreckage above, crossing his arms behind his back.

"Good, that's the spirit. Your wisdom is true: the symbols of hope are thousands of years outdated."

His head turned back down.

"But they are not unreachable. You see the fleeting memories of a distant existence, gone before you in your quest for ascension."

The Dread Saiyan's body began to fade to dust, particles slowly blowing out towards the left. His voice rung out next to her, having completely rematerialized outside of her senses and sight on her opposite side.

"It is your vision that has dwindled your hope to dust. The realm of possibilities for power are limitless, with the right ingenuity."

He gestured to her body.

"Your physical form...a weakness you have tolerated and improved since the beginning. When you can do so much more, become so much more, if you merely turn your gaze away from distant stars and focused on creating your own."


Bage:

The Dread Saiyan shook his head once.

"There is no need for you to abandon them. My teachings will grant you the ability to transcend beyond this reality; to morph the existence you see before you in ways never been thought before. What you do with that power, how you act upon it, is your own choice."

He crossed his arms behind his back.

"Besides, have you not already abandoned them in your blind ambition to save the world? Your ignorance of powers beyond what you can predict has placed you in a frozen tomb, trapped in a permanent sleep. My teachings would free you, making it the exact opposite of the fear you now hold in your stomach."

Solaris:

The Dread Saiyan chuckled in response.

"I speak in more than simply mastering the restraints that have been used to bind you in the past."

He turned his gaze back upwards.

"Mastering the chains that bind you may give you control, but in the end, you are still a slave. Dark magic, energy absorption, mind control, parasitic viruses, carbonite prisons; all of these share a common control method..."

The Dread Saiyan turned to fully face towards Solaris, pointing at his chest.

"They restrict your physical form. If you truly wish to be free of control, you must transcend beyond your physical body."

Kira:

The Dread Saiyan scoffed in response.

"You have surely adopted the arrogance of the Jedi."

His smirk rose slightly, raising an eyebrow.

"But surely you see the contradiction of your ways. Your order champions the path of wisdom, of rational understanding of the situation before making conclusions."

He then gestured toward her body.

"Yet here you are, with the full knowledge that I am not Vitiate but treating me as if I truly am him. The evidence to the contrary is clear: I haven't controlled your body, and I haven't forced you to follow my will. Meaning, you chose to follow the fear and hatred in your heart that say I am here only to manipulate you for my gain. "

The Dread Saiyan dropped both arms.

"You choose to listen to your fear and hatred, to use your emotions rather than your mind. Such is the way of the Sith, is it not?"

Xenest:

The Dread Saiyan crossed his arms behind his back.

"The truth is that you and your comrades have come to face a threat much deeper than I can possibly explain in words to you. The ambition you saw from my own son, his potential destruction of all things that have wronged him being only a minor step towards an even greater threat that looms."

He gestured to his chest.

"After absorbing my creator, I gained the power to transcend beyond the physical barriers of this existence. I have become what many have sought for and failed: true, everlasting immortality. An incorporeal existence that allows me to expand in any measure I choose without the possibility of permanent demise."

The Dread Saiyan then nodded to Xenest.

"While you remain trapped in a permanent sleep, your body locked away in a carbonite prison. To escape from it, you must follow in my steps. You must transcend reality itself, and become more than you could ever imagine."

Brachi:

The Dread Saiyan chuckled again, beginning to pace towards his right.

"You remained locked in a frozen prison, your mind trapped in its subconscious, and yet you still believe you have a plan to protect your family? My fleet decimated your combined fleets within minutes, easily defended your strongest attacks, and somehow, you think there is a power that can stop it from wiping out everything you care about? It would not matter if you were there yourself; you were already humiliated into submission from those ships alone."

He stopped, turning to face back towards Brachi.

"Your entire existence hinges on my will now. Yet your pride has blinded you into believing you can somehow escape my influence."

The Dread Saiyan kept his smirk, not waiting for a pause.

"It is why I chose to keep this body as a physical form, as it is the face of a man you hate more than anything has ever crossed you. You wonder and ask me questions that have no value, that hold no purpose other than a desperate bid to attack my pride."

His arms folded back behind his back.

"The limitation is clear: your pride has cost millions of Martian, Republic, and Imperial lives. Your family's safety is now in direct jeopardy with my son's decree of death across the Core Worlds because you chose to fight a threat you knew nothing about, and your friendships are strained by petty squabbles where you had multiple chances to end them, yet chose not to for the sake of honor and pride."

The Dread Saiyan's eyes narrowed slightly, pointing forward at Brachi.

"In your quest to save the multiverse, you've caused more destruction and death than all of the evil threats you've faced combined. It is time you accept humility, and learn to ascend beyond the restrictions you have shackled yourself with. Or there will be nothing left for you to save."

Oriko:

The Dread Saiyan kept a small smirk, nodding his head once.

"Yes, I am aware of his presence. His motivation and influence can be a possible problem, but it is beneath our concern at the moment."

He gestured towards Oriko's body.

"What matters now is your willingness to achieve your goals. You find yourself trapped in a permanent sleep, locked away in your subconscious. How do you plan to break free?"

Mioi:

The Dread Saiyan crossed his arms behind his back, turning his gaze towards the wreckage once more.

"It all began with the first ritual on the world of Nathema. Before attending to Beerus the Destroyer, Whis traveled to the world after learning of the ritual to strip life itself from an entire world. He amassed a following, promising the world salvation and prosperity in honoring him as a deity, before unleashing the deadly power and consuming everything in its path. Identical to what you saw on Ziost."

He turned his head back down, facing towards Mioi.

"The true level of power he gained was not from the energy he pooled from millions of people, but the wisdom and differing ideologies that were now combining together in Whis' mind. He could not contain it, nor could his own mind handle the intellect of a million minds coming together in a single physical brain."

The man held up both of his hands, a small glowing ball of energy forming in his palms.

"He did what any being wishing to stay alive and escape the burden would do: he expelled the level of consciousness and wisdom he could not contain, keeping what he could. With his mind clear once more, he saw the true value in the power behind the massive entity of hundreds and thousands of minds all creating a being capable of embodying an entire society itself. So he separated the large level of wisdom he could not control in his own mind into two halves, used his new found understanding on life and energy to create the physical manifestations that would house the bodies..."

The ball split into two halves, a black teardrop shaped portion of the sphere connected against a white one matching in design.

"Valkorian and Vitiate. Two entities, granted with the wisdom and skills of an entire planet's society while wielding the power of a god."

Kire:

The Dread Saiyan nodded his head once.

"You're not completely detached from your physical form, merely your own mind has locked you away in your subconscious because of the permanent sleep of the carbonite tomb..."

He raised an eyebrow.

"But in your newfound freedom, are you truly comfortable with it? After all, I never guaranteed your daughter's safety..."

The Dread Saiyan chuckled to himself, crossing his arms behind his back.

"It's amusing, listening to her thoughts. On a father who has abandoned her...yet again."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Tell me, do you believe she felt more pain from the first or second time you abandoned her?"

Jaz:

The Dread Saiyan chuckled darkly in response, nodding his head once.

"You must learn to see the stars for what they truly are, first and foremost."

His eyes turned up, expecting hers to follow.

"In the actual realm of reality you see them before you, they are glimmers of fading light. Distant entities that have died thousands of years before you first saw them, your sight picking up the light they emitted before their destruction."

The Dread Saiyan turned back towards Jaz.

"It simply took thousands of years for that light to reach your eyes, and to your sight, you see a bright and beautiful star. When in reality, there is nothing there but decay."

He gestured to the wreckage above.

"Such is the same for your entire network of allies. Your father...Mute...Junior...and now the rest of the Z-Fighters. All of them promised you light and warmth...but in the end...the only thing you have left here-"

The man pointed to her chest, towards the middle of her heart.

"Is decay."

The Dread Saiyan kept a small smirk, dropping his arms.

"What you must learn to do now, instead of relying on false visions and failed stars, is to create your own. To build your own stars..."

He paused for a moment, before continuing.

"And the first star you must learn to build, is the one that allows you to transcend the physical restrictions of this existence. It is the only way you can escape from a prison where you are trapped in your subconscious mind."
 
"Leave behind my body, become stronger then any Solarian or Saiyan." Solaris said considering. "But how? And what awaits me beyond the mortal coil? Will my power be capped?"

---

"Yeah, I'm having anger issues and acting more like a Sith then I want to, but that's only because of how horrible you all are. Angral, Viviate, Vegetto, you. Except Scourge. You all are monsters." Kira defended.
 
"So, you're asking me to become a god myself?" Xenest asked, crossing his arms, "what will become of me, my wife, my children and my friends... everyone I hold dear, if I would transcend? I need them as much as they need me... we've been through so many things together, I..."

--------

"Then enlighten me," Brachi then said, "ascend beyond my restrictions? Is my wish of a simple 'I'm sorry' considered a petty squabble? What do you want me to do if I truly want to ascend as you want me to?"
 
"So Whis created you and left you to your own devices once he did what was needed? Then... what about Vitiate? Nobody expected you to come into this; all of their sights were on Vitiate and Revan, who saved us in spite of blatant opposition..." Mioi wanted to know more than what she saw with her own eye. She was attentive, and only spoke when the Dread Saiyan finished.

After she spoke, her upper lid lowered. Am I simply destined to be alone? Nobody is here except for me and him. I do not want this.
 
"I figured as much when you said my daughter's safety wasn't your problem." Kire rubbed off. "So frankly, I knew she would suffer the same fate as me anyways. As for my new freedom... yeah, I'm pretty comfy, I wish you could've taken me here sooner! Haha! The only thing missing is a fat dime and some munchies!"


Kire closed his eyes for a moment and listened to the rest of what the man had to say. It was obvious that he didn't seem the slightest alarmed and he actually enjoyed his current state, despite not being able to do much in it. When the man began to speak about his daughter, it only amused him. He chuckled once more before opening his eyes. He seemed too at peace with himself and whatever terror he was suppose to be witnessing, didn't apply very well. 

"Abandon Jaz? When was this?" He laughed loudly. "The war? When I died? Now? Puh-LEZE. Jaz talks a lot of shit but she knows I would never abandon her. You claim to know about my lil' cupcake yet you started in the worst possible place, her thick head. Still..." Kire paused before his tone turning into his usual over-protective fatherly way. "Get out of my daughter's head! She's not old enough having a grown man poking at her! I swear if I find out she's even been kissed by another guy... That guy will have a lot of explaining to do! No man touches my lil' girl..." Kire pouted.

"Besides, if you wanna find out more about Jaz, you can't start with her, you'll just be going in circles." Kire cleared his throat. "She's like a little puppy, blindly following anyone who even sounds like me. One thing I that would break my heart is if she looked at someone else like her..." His tone dropped to a sadden state and his hands balled into a fist before he finished his sentence. It was obvious that he truly cared for his daughter to be her only father. "No, I wouldn't even know how to handle a situation like that... She's my lil' girl... She's my Jaz.."

===================

"So they all...left me behind for their own selfish desires." Jaz let out a sigh before shaking the tears off her face. She seemed to understand where the man was coming from. She listened intently to the man, looking up at the stars then at her chest when he pointed at it. She bit her lip before finally realizing how right the man was.

"Y-You're right! Now that I think about it, Father has always used me for his dumb experiments and he never let me know the truth behind what he's doing. Junior has made no attempt to even find me after he promised to, Veggie almost killed me, everyone else hates me..." Her tone dropped, the truth hitting her hard. "I guess... making my own star, my own path, like you said, is the only way I won't get hurt ever again."

Jaz's gaze turned sharp and she stared directly at the man, almost as if she truly looked up to him. She hesitated for a moment but bowed her head respectfully to the man. His words making her view the truth in both her own path and everyone she encountered. Her voice was low but sincere, almost as if she had truly given herself up to what this man said to her. Tears rolled down her cheek and to the floor but it was because the truth is often devastating to her. 

"I want to make my own star, as you said, but I want to do it following your vision." Her voice rose slightly. "If I were to make my own path, I want it to be the one of truth, one of knowledge, one of peace!" She lifted her head and spoke even louder. She seemed very sure of herself and had a fiery determination behind those eyes of hers. "Help me understand the correct way of peace! I am tired of following my father's sick view on peace! Because of him... so many people have died! I'm tired of waitin' for Junior! He's most likely dead at this point and I had my hopes up for nothing! Screw Vegetto's dumb ideas, screw the others!" She hesitated at first, but dropped down on one knee, similar to the last time he saw her. She paused for a moment before talking at a normal tone. What came out of her was something that not even she thought she would ever say.

"Teach me... how to destroy them from my head." Her words were true. "And destroy them from reality."
 
"I... I don't know." Oriko looked up at the ships. "I'm guessing you're about to push forward some 'Deal I just HAVE to accept' because it's so good?" He turned back to the Dread Saiyan, his brows raised. "Well then, I'm waiting for your suggestion."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom