The World; Shaken

"You know Magenta, I thought that after two years, you would have forgotten all about us. That would explain a lot though, do you even remember who I am?"

Silver greeted Magenta back, amused by the fact that latter had greeted her with a warm smile.

"I am not obliged to kindness, no one is kid; it is the gift we're all privileged enough to be able to bestow."

"So, I am privileged to have received it?"

"No, I am privileged to have it in me to bestow it."

"Wow… that almost doesn't sound like bragging, you really believe it don't you?"

"I have to."

Magenta sat back down and looked at the camp he had been living in for over two years now. He hadn't talked to a single person since he had given Paragus confirmation for the task.

"You've done good on this mission kid, I'm sure that you'll do fare well in the future."

"Fare-well? What's that about? Aren't you going to be leading this team?"

"I'm not a warrior; at least not anymore. I didn't have much choice in joining this division, but I think I'm done with this life."

Magenta's look somewhat hardened as he said this, he then looked Silver directly in the eyes.

"I am not a Saiyan; I can't keep fighting until everything I love dies or I do."

Silver blinked and took a sigh as she heard it… everything she was and continue to be, was detrimental to everything she ever wanted out of life… why was she so different?

"Good for you, Captain."

"That's not my designation."

"Fuck designations, a title means nothing without respect, I'll respect Broly the second he stops being Broly."

"You know… the biggest mistake you will ever make is assuming you can be anyone but yourself."

"What?"

"I'll tell you one thing that I hope sticks in that thick head of yours." Magenta grinned as he could see that Silver was visibly irked by the insult, before continuing.

"I can't change who I am or who I used to be. I used to love fighting, and I didn't care about killing my opponents no matter who they were. I was a fighter, a warrior and a killer."

"I gave everything I could to serve the Freeza Forces as best as I could, because I thought I was doing what was best for my people. A satisfied evil lizard is leagues better than an enraged one. Hehe."

Magenta chuckled slightly towards the end, while Silver blinked in confusion: She had never seen Freeza nor considered his role in her life. They were already ruled by a king, so what's an Emperor or two on top of that?

"I've thought about this for a long time… and I may have made peace with it. I killed a few Saiyan children at Faro, I was ordered to do so." Magenta looked at Silver at this point, as if searching for any feelings of horror or disgust to surface, any feelings that mirrored his own.

"I've heard a thing or two about that, I'm more curious as to why than anything? If you think I care… I don't. I've killed too many now, and I respect the fact enough to not judge you about it."

Oddly enough, Silver had prepared that little speech for Cress, anticipating that he may have had it as difficult as she did in slaughtering the Kanassans. She was surprised, but just as pleased when she saw the bitter smile on Magenta's face.

For once she had been able to express herself perfectly to someone besides Cress, and that's worth a little bit of elation no matter how messed up she felt it may have been.

"So, you have… this doesn't mean much but, sorry about that."

Silver slightly nodded as Magenta continued to tell his tale to the tailed toddler with an oddly tame temperament.

"There's a reason Faro wasn't renamed. That's because it isn't worth anything, a fact that its leaders recognised and even managed to work out a peace treaty with the Freeza Forces. They would serve and they would get to live. It particularly delighted your King, Vegeta, as its proximity to your planet would allow you to have direct subordinates at your disposal."

Silver nodded in agreement, knowing the Saiyans, she knew that officially having direct subordinates would do a lot to convince them to remain the domesticated pets under Freeza. Vegeta was many things, none very good, but he at the very least wanted to avoid being a King without a people.

"I was the technician for that mission actually, back then I looked down on the job, but I had the skill for it and the privileges were decent enough for me to try it out once in a while."

"As soon as I was informed about the peace deal, I notified the children on the planet through their scouters and went about preparing the ship for the journey back. A simple task, but on the older model ship, it took me a couple hours. It's funny, I remember losing my shit and yelling about launching a complain… fuck me."

"They were all low-level kids that had a special chance to prove their worth… kind of like you." Silver showed a bitter smile as Magenta gestured air quotes while saying 'worth'.

"I guess the need for glory must have gotten to their heads, because by the time I brought the ship down… all I saw where sleeping children… surrounded by blood, the blood the children had spilled as the beasts they were only a few hours earlier."

Magenta took a breath before continuing, not bothering to look at Silver, who herself was quietly listening without making an expression out of place.

"I didn't think much. I reported the situation, I think I got yelled at, and then I got an order: "DIRECTLY FROM THE KING!" Those words I remember. So, I received the order, exercised the order, and then I reported back…. Weird, I don't remember blinking once throughout the whole thing, I don't know why but my eyes never got dry."

Magenta looked up to see the fuzzy outline of Silver, tears had formed in his eyes without him realising. Silver kept looking down, as if to say: "Haven't I killed for the same reason? Oh right… I killed them, not because of what they did, but simply because of my ability and fleeting obligation to do so."

The purple man wiped the tears from his eyes.

"I know this sounds unnecessary, but if it means anything to you, could you humour me for a second?" Asked Magenta, as Silver looked up at him and nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry for what I did. I know none of it is worth a damn in the end, but every part of me wants to know… can you forgive me?"

Silver smiled at this, a genuine smile this time, and started to speak.

"You got it Captain; of co-AAARGH!"

*BOOM!*

As the words were leaving her mouth, a blast from nearby quickly blew the two of them back a few metres.

Silver quickly stood back up; the blast wasn't directed at her.

She glanced at Magenta, who was struggling to get up… he was missing an arm.

"Shit!"

She exclaimed before looking in the direction of the blast, her scouter had been blown up, and it was far too dark to make out exactly what it was that had attacked.

"NO!"

Before she could say another word though, she heard a voice filled with enough Ki to fill her with a sense of soul-crushing dread. She slowly slipped to her knees as she covered her ears.

"YOU'VE ACTED AGAINST ME ONE TIME TOO MANY SCUMS! BROLY IS HERE NOW! HERE TO DELIVER JUDGEMENT!"

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"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE SAIYAN NAMED CRESS?"

Bardock screamed as he shot a Ki blast at the massive ape standing before him. That thing could not be a Saiyan, transforming without the full moon wasn't yet possible, and he hadn't revealed his research on artificial moons to anyone yet. Not to mention the fact that no Saiyan of such strength could reasonably exist, lest they be ruled by it.

The ape merely stared him down, not the slightest bit affected by the attack. The ape had shown a short burst of rage before quickly calming down and simply stood there, not moving even at the provocation of Bardock.

"What the hell is going on?"

Bardock muttered to himself before slowly attempting to get a closer look at the monstrosity in front of him.

*WHACK!*

Before he could realise it, Bardock slammed into the ground by the beast's tail.

*BOOM!*

A punch quickly approached Bardock, but moments before it could connect, it stopped in place. The shockwaves from the punch shook the surrounding area all the same.

*Whisssssh*

Smoke escaped from the ears of the ape, as some blood left its nose. More smoke came out of its nose as the blood stopped.

The Great Ape was now Cress; for if it hadn't been… it would've been obliterated.

The ape shrunk in length, slowly showing Cress once more… his eyes calm and still… his tail as black as the night.

He slowly looked over at the broken body of Bardock; the well-respected and ardent warrior now cut a sorry figure, broken and bleeding. Another Saiyan may have put him out of his misery to save him some embarrassment, but Cress was not that at the moment.

A ripple across his eyes, he suddenly took a deep breath, not noticing that his tail had now returned to its brown tint.

"Father!"

Cress didn't bother wasting time deliberating, as he quickly rushed to his father and picked him up.

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"SENSEI! I need your help!"

Cress ran in with Bardock in his arms, not knowing where else to go.

"I know… I can't say I didn't know this was going to happen, but if its any consolation, I'm going to be turning it into the best possible outcome now."

Before Cress could process what Poke had just said, an old Kanassan walked towards him from the darkest part of the cave. He looked like any other Kanassan, except he looked far too old to be able to move. The palest shade of Green covered his skin, which was more covering his bones than anything else.

Cress almost missed that however, as the oddest this about this Kanassan was the black toga he was wearing.

A type of clothing he had seen nowhere else, the dark black toga had a regal aura that made the Kanassan look like the lord of some great land forever unheard of.

"Before you say anything, just don't. I get it, I've come to understand the appeal. Don't judge me."

"Huh?"

"Never mind, I just need you to do two things right now. First, place your father in front of me and look away. Second… just trust me, okay? Don't look back until the time is right, and yes, you'll know when the time is right."

Cress quickly put Bardock down and turned around, but not before chancing one last look at the oddly dressed Kanassan who had guided him over the years.

As he looked away, he suddenly felt emotions erupting from his heart over the tumultuous situation he had found himself in. He had sought control, and although he had achieved it over his own body, his situation had been ridiculous.

He glanced at the almost faded scar on his arm and chuckled under his breath.

"It's been more than two years since I got to make a decision for myself, and I decided not to see the one person who can make me feel better. Good fucking job me, my own worst fucking enemy, typical pathetic piece of shit!"

"You can't see it that way."

"Aren't you supposed to be fixing my father? How the hell did he get here anyway?"

"You'll find that out yourself soon enough, needless to say, this was the best-case scenario."

"All orchestrated by you I suppose?"

"On the contrary, it happened because of you."

"Right, fuck off! I haven't had any agency over my life since you kidnapped me!"

"I'm hurt Cress, I thought we were past that."

"I'm frustrated! SHUT THE FUCK UP! I don't want any of your bullshit right now!"

Cress cried out, in a lot of ways; he was just a child. Sure, he had memories of being Reginald, he was Reginald, but Reginald was Cress more than anything else… and Cress was the child faced with a frustrating situation that was out of his hands.

"Okay, no bullshit, I'll say this clearly: you have all the control in the world. All of it, you just keep telling yourself you don't, and of course it feels like you don't. You keep looking at all the things that have happened but not at what hasn't!"

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"Every step you take is no more important than the ones you don't. Accepting yourself, accepting Silver, and accepting me and your circumstances for the past two years are things that led to this moment. You did this, and you did it by yourself!"

Oddly enough, Poke's voice had grown more shrivelled as he continued to speak, but it was even more powerful now.

It sounded like the voice of one who had completed their journey in life, it was the voice of someone who had reached a state of completeness and satisfactorily done all that they could in life.

Even Cress recognised that; if he had such a voice when he died, he likely wouldn't have been here, and he would be all the better for it.

"That's power! That's control! Perhaps you doubt yourself, but this is precisely the reason why I wanted you to do this. Thank you, Cress, I genuinely have to thank you."

Confused, Cress continued to look forward blankly before asking.

"What?"

"This is my greatest moment your majesty. Don't question me for a second, I need to say this." The usually composed Kanassan was now employing a tone which could only be described as a joyful cry, the power in his voice increasing as the strength in it faded.

"You've always felt lost, but now you don't have to be. You don't have to fear love; you love your father for reasons you don't understand. You love your mother without reservation, and you love Silver. You opened your heart and you even let me in a little. Thank you!"

"Never forget the power you have within you, never forget what you can do and how much you can do with it. Most importantly, never break. There are so many great things you are capable of, just don't forget to care your majesty."

All traces of strength were gone from the voice now, but a power resounded through Cress' bones with every word it spoke.

"Things will get difficult, and you may feel lost once more. You are never lost, and you never will be, DO NOT FORGET IT! Do not forget the trust you have placed in me, that's important too."

Cress' expression hardened in realisation, he had trusted Poke now more than he had ever felt inclined to with anyone before. Tears quickly formed in his eyes as he realised that his teacher was about to exit his life.

"Do what you believe is right… don't forget to live your majesty, and don't forget… the… joy."

The voice trailed off as it faded away into nothing. A great degree of wind formed and blew around the cave.

Cress could feel Ki now in the cave, and he sensed Bardock's Ki right behind him, completely full and healthy as can be.

"Fuck… I kinda liked River Song." Cress chuckled a little at his own joke in between sobs.

He took in a big breath.

He then looked up without bothering to wipe away his tears.

"Hey girl, it's been a while. Why don't you sit down and tell me what happened, and before you ask, yes, I will rip apart the fucker who gave you that scar."

He smiled while saying as Silver now stood in front of him; dazed and confused.

END OF CHAPTER 9