The city was in ruins when she arrived, a mound full of steaming ice, fire, and smoke so thick that made it almost impossible to see further than three feet ahead of her. The source of destruction, she discovered, was the castle, which had somehow completely collapsed to the ground, killing thousands of soldiers in the process. There were bodies littered all over the city, some cold and frozen, others charred to a complete crisp, half buried under the fall of new snow. Pi walked through it all with a strange detachment, not feeling any sadness at all. It was almost as if she were in a dream, walking through her destroyed city and it’s deceased inhabitants. She was searching for Sukuashi, her sword ready and waiting. So far, her killing spree was coming along quite nicely, and she wanted to add her father to the collection. The few soldiers that she found still alive didn’t know anything about where he was or what had happened, but for some reason, her heart (or perhaps her instinct) led her to him.

Pi found not Sukuashi, but his body, in the space between where the castle used to stand and the flight deck. He was obliterated beyond recognition, not even his once handsome face was recognizable. The body was twisted into a pretzel like position, lying half-covered in the deep snow. It wasn’t him, however, that Pi found disturbing. It was the area around him, the battlefield that was odd. The snow had been almost all blasted away, ice was peeking through deep craters that had been created. Huge, jagged chunks of ice had been shoved up out of the snow, sharp and glinting blue in the light. There was a great deal of blood; deep red liquid seeping into the pristine snow. It was oddly quiet here, as if all sound had been muted for the moment.

She twirled her sword in her hands, then walked closer to Sukuashi’s body. She wished briefly for her scouter, because she expected that there must have been a major power disturbance here. She narrowed her eyes, trying to think of what could have happened. No one that she knew was powerful enough to cause this much destruction and damage, no one but her. And she knew that she hadn’t been the one to kill her father. It had been someone else, obviously.

Koronu? The thought was dismissed as quickly as it had come. Koronu was nothing but a typical weak Saiya-jin female. She wasn’t animal enough to create this much destruction. Her mother had never been that ruthless, and Pi had a particular distaste for people who didn’t show enough interest in death. Potuto was ruled out completely. There was no possible way he could have committed a crime like this. Her brother was too kind-hearted and soft (though she hated to admit that). It must have been one of the Earthlings then, one of the humans. Or one of the Saiya-jins, she thought, thinking of the mysterious Kakarroto, and the Saiya-jin no Ouji, Vejiita.

Vejiita remained a tremendous burden on her dark soul. For reasons unknown, she found herself hating him with such a passion that it took her breath away. Maybe it was what he had unknowingly stolen away from her; a lifetime of glory and battle as a true Saiya-jin, living on the true Saiya-jin planet: Vejiita. Or maybe it was his pride, his arrogance, his total, absolute strength. Most of all though, she hated the fact that he had managed to insult her, even when he had been merely a prisoner. Out of everyone, he posed the largest threat to her. He was the Prince; the ruler of a planet long since gone. His people were here though, an entire race of them. If he wanted to take over, to rule Sukuashi, then he truly could. Pi didn’t know whether he actually intended to do that or not, but nevertheless, he had to be stopped, right away.

She stared down at her father’s face, dead and cold in the snow. A trickle of blood was running out of the corner of his mouth. She thought he looked pathetic. Kakarroto had been his enemy, his one desire to kill, but deep inside, Pi knew that the Saiya-jin no Ouji was hers. She wouldn’t chase after Vejiita senselessly, obsessively, like her father had with Kakarroto. She would be smart and calculating, kill him in the most painful, torturous way. There were many ways of dying. There was the death you experienced when you realized you weren’t as strong as you thought yourself to be; the death you felt when a loved one perished….

Pi took one step back away from the body, admiring the landscape again. A piece of ice, about the size of a small spaceship, was to her immediate left, about to fall into one of the craters in the snow. She lightly kicked it with the toe of her boot, and it went sliding down the side of the crater, crashing to the snow with a resounding boom. A light layer of snow flew up and covered the area, layering her body with a white film of snow and ice.

Not enough. Not enough. Not enough.

It just wasn’t enough. Sukuashi was dead, and the world was seemingly in her bloodstained hands. The planet was hers, the power was in her veins, and all would bow down to a real ruler now. But it wasn’t enough. There wasn’t enough blood, not enough revenge.

She was craving more death, like most people craved food or affection. There were still others out there, she knew. And she wouldn’t stop until she had gotten her revenge. No one said anything to offend her and got away with it. She didn’t care if they were royalty or not.

She stared at the sword in her hands, thought about the millions that had lost their lives by this cool steel. It had been in more battles than she could have even imagined. The hands of a thousand soldiers had touched this worn, shining handle. It had traveled through a handful of galaxies, visited hundreds of planets. It had spilled enough blood to flood the entire snowy fields. And yet, even after all of that…

It still wasn’t enough.

Through the thick white of the blizzard, Koronu critically scanned the snowy fields in search of her son. Her extra scanner, attached and turned on, was picking up absolutely nothing. There was a sinking feeling her chest, but she ignored, shrugging it off like the snowflakes off of her shoulders. In harsh weather conditions such as this, scanners were apt to fail and give inaccurate readings. It was a shame that their scientists couldn’t engineer proper equipment, seeing as though they had lived here for nearly a century, adapting to the climate. She didn’t doubt that Potuto was in the vicinity, she could feel that somehow deep in her soul. The scanner might have been telling her that there was no sign of life out here, but she knew better.

She had sent him to get the Earthlings to safety, and she knew without a doubt that he had followed through for her. Potuto had never let her down, and she knew he never would. He could have turned out like Pi, could have been that black and heartless, but he didn’t. Potuto was the most unusual Saiya-jin she had ever met, besides Kakarroto of course, the son she had nearly forgotten about. Oddly enough, the two seemed to share so many similarities, even though they both grew up so differently. Even though Potuto’s father was at times impossibly cruel and unfeeling, he had managed to become something so different and compassionate. How, she didn’t know. The only way to explain it was that it must have been something deep within her own soul that changed her sons. Although she had no idea where it came from, there must have been kindness somewhere in her heart, something that she passed along to both of them unknowingly. She knew she needed to find that within herself if she ever wanted to be happy. It was there somewhere, she just had to have the courage to search for it. If she was going to start a new life on Earth, she wanted to change.

She would have help from Kakarroto, she knew that already. There was something so charismatic about his smile and the way he cared so much. Although Pi was the fighter, although she was probably the strongest Saiya-jin that the planet of Sukuashi had ever seen, she meant nothing to Koronu. She felt no pride whatsoever in her daughter. But the kindness that both of her sons showed….she couldn’t possibly be more proud of that. Potuto had shown her more strength and more determination than Pi, or anyone else for that matter ever had. And even though she was the adult, he always seemed to be the one teaching her.

She finally found the opening to the tunnel, a small black hole amidst the whiteness of the blizzard. She flew closer to it, not even feeling the cold against her cheeks. A lifeform was there, she saw on the scanner as the numbers flitted past. The power-level registered at zero. She squinted her eyes against the snow whipping around her and examined the area carefully. At first there was nothing, then she noticed a barely visible piece of white fabric beneath the snow. It was right near the entrance, a small uprising of snow in the shape of a body. She checked her scanner, and it showed the power level as zero again, which would mean….

Koronu paused, her heart stilling in her chest. Ignoring the furious wind around her, she dipped down and dropped to the snow-covered ground, a foot away from the body. Her well-trained emotions began fighting like hell and her eyes reflected a vague sense of the horror that was feeling. She didn’t even have to look, didn’t even have to brush the snow away, but she did. She didn’t have to feel the pain, didn’t have to feel her veins turn to ice, but she did.

Potuto’s pleasant, almost peaceful face was tinged blue by the cold, and his eyes were blank and unseeing, but his soul was still there somewhere, buried underneath the oppressive white. It had been a wound to the chest, by a sword, and most likely, by Pi. Anger swept through her, then sadness like nothing she had ever felt before, gripping her heart like a vise and squeezing. Koronu shook violently and held onto the unresponsive body of her son, clutching the familiar, worn material of the lab coat in her pale hands. There had been a time when she wouldn’t have even cared, would have tossed him aside like he was nothing, like he hadn’t meant the world to her. The former Koronu would have spat at him, would have cursed him for being weak and giving in and dying. She would have left him there in the snow, not caring if he iced over, cracked and blew into the wind like bits of snow. However, many things had changed since she met the Earth woman, and her heart was one of them.

She placed a hand on his cool face, and closed her eyes in sorrow. She made a vow to never forget him, even though she had found her other son, her original family. She made a vow to live on in his memory, to show his kindness, his compassion, through her every action. And then she thanked him, for every single act of mercy and every single time he had helped her or spoken to her, or simply been there for her.

When she rose again to find the ship and the rest of the Earthlings, there was ice against her cheeks, a tangible, visible reminder of the very first time she had ever cried.

Bulma took another step through the deep snow and sighed in exhaustion. It seemed as though they had been walking for hours. They had left the city and traveled out into the snowy fields, walking to the ship. Though it would have been much easier to fly, Vejiita insisted that they walk. It had seemed like a good idea at first. The snow was falling rather gently, though it looked as though it might start storming any minute. It was actually quite pretty walking through the soft, glinting snow. But after so much walking, Bulma thought it was no longer as beautiful as before. Vejiita was ahead of her, clearing somewhat of a trail for her, but it wasn’t doing all that much to help. She was still struggling through all of her steps, and she was afraid that she might not make it back to the ship.

“Vejiita,” She panted. “You have to slow down.”

He paused, looking back at her casually. “I thought you were in a hurry to get back to the ship. If you can’t keep up, I could always knock you out drag you behind me, woman.”

“Funny.”

Though he made no note of it, his footsteps slowed to an easier pace, and Bulma’s heart swelled with love for him. He was so harsh on the outside, yet he loved her deep in his heart. And Kami knew she loved him. They were perfect together, a love that was deeper and more real than she had ever imagined. The perfect mix of fire and passion, the perfect combination of beauty and strength. Their relationship had not been easy, but then again, nothing ever was. She couldn’t help but be thankful for her strong, Saiya-jin prince, and for the moments when he had shown her how he felt, in small subtle ways.

Through all of his fighting and harshness, he had given her two children that she loved more than anything. She prided herself on being an excellent mother, on teaching her children what they needed to get through life, loving them both more than life itself. She adored Bra and everything about the sweet little girl that looked and acted so much like her. She knew that Bra would grow up to be exactly like her, beautiful and independent, intelligent and strong. For some reason though, she couldn’t seem to picture a future Bra, couldn’t seem to picture her years from now as a grown woman. Trunks either. In her mind, they forever existed as what they were when they were younger and where they were now. It stopped there, in a sudden, screeching halt.

It stopped that way with herself too. Did she see herself growing old with Vejiita? Becoming a little old lady with a walker and a funny hat? She closed her eyes and thought hard, still digging through the snow banks with her boots. She could see glimpses of her family’s future, hints of grandchildren and laughter, fights and smiles. They were the tiniest of glimpses, like still flashes running through her mind in half-second intervals. There was something wrong though, a glitch with these future flashes. Her stomach began to knot up and her throat grew tighter, her heart growing uneasy. She didn’t see herself at all.

Chapter 69
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