Rage and Sorrow [K414]

| Ise | 26,000PL (44,500 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

Orenji hesitated as Ise asked the question she was least eager to answer, where exactly her Father was. She debated the merits of lying, telling her young boss that Hibernal had said he would be arriving shortly after them, perhaps to arrange something relating to their reasons for being her… but the issue was it just felt a bit… wrong.

Orenji was no fool, she could tell from the manner in which Lord Hibernal had issued the command that it was one intent on keeping Ise safe and that was likely not because Hibernal had doubts about Ise’s power, the fiery young Saiyan was obscenely strong by Orenji’s understanding.

Stronger even than Hibernal had been not long ago.

And Lord Hibernal was not exactly at his peak of strength, while Azoth by all accounts grew stronger every time he made his presence public. Orenji could connect the dots, ‘Hibernal the Terrible’ was unlikely to survive and he did not want Ise to go down with him.

Lying to Ise would give the girl false hope and only make the later realization WORSE.

Thankfully for Orenji the matter was taken entirely out of her hands as what had previously been a mostly private discussion between Orenji and Ise was joined by someone she had not even realized was there at all, and he stated exactly what the situation was in no uncertain terms.

Ise whipped around to the voice recognizing it instantly and with just a bit of focus she was able to get a very rough visual of him, Kayfor. Usually she was quite eager to hear the Android but right now everything he had to say was exactly what Ise did NOT want to hear from anyone.

Ise’s breathing quickened as Kayfor laid everything out, where her Father was, WHY she was not there, and the likely outcome. Ise’s hands tightened into fists at the word ‘death’ she had been doing everything in her power to avoid even thinking of the possibility and so it hurt all the more to have it pushed at her so blatantly.

“No... NO!” she REFUSED to accept this “Kayfor we need to leave NOW we might still be able to make it in time.” If memory serves they still had some of that emergency fuel, the stuff that could get a ship from planet to planet in no time. She was trying very hard to keep her composure even as tears began to form and her voice cracked “Together I’m SURE we can beat Azoth, even if it's just the three of us. I was going to do it myself but with you it will work even better!” Ise had no REAL idea of if she could have actually beaten Azoth, even less she had any idea of just how effective Kayfor would be due to a distinct lack of readable energy. She had always assumed him quite strong.

Ise was entirely ignoring the fact that Kayfor had all but mate it clear that no such thing would be happening by the claim he was in command of the ship. Orenji meanwhile simply nodded and took a step back, she frankly did not even need to check. Even if K414 was bluffing this was.. Probably better.

---

WC: 543
TWC: 1,295

| Ise | 32,000PL (44,500 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

Ise had already been prepared for Kayfor to agree with her and begin making preparations for them to depart however the brief time she had to wait felt absolutely agonizing to her as it felt like every moment she was waiting for him to agree was a moment wasted that her Father might need them for. It would already likely be quite a narrow margin for them to arrive in time but Ise just sort of HAD to hope that it would be good enough. Perhaps her Father had not yet even arrived quite yet though based off the relative distances she was fairly certain he likely WAS there.

Her ship was almost certainly going to need some serious repairs because Orenji would need to push it to its absolute limits in order to arrive in time but it would all be well worth it when….

Ise’s thought process was cut off as Kayfor finally spoke up and the words he spoke… they made no sense, he started talking about how they could not beat Azoth which was certainly not how she would expect his agreement with her assertion that they rush to her Fathers side would go. But it was soon followed by agreement that together they likely could which gave her hope!

Hope that was quickly snuffed out as he mentioned that Azoths allies would kill them, she had not actually thought of Azoth having allies, she supposed Paladion would be present which MIGHT be an issue but surely Paladion was nowhere near as strong as herself or Kayfor and how many more allies could he have?

Frankly she did not care, she would give the idiots a chance to stand down and if they did not they WOULD fall like Azoth!

But Kayfor quickly made it clear he never had any intention of agreeing with her idea and once again Ise grew anxious, she had no clue what to do now, she likely NEEDED Kayfor for this but if he was refusing…

She was trying to determine how she could MAKE Kayfor agree with her but nothing came to mind, she had only gotten him to admit her victory in their ‘game’ of her getting him to do something by specifically invoking her Father and apparently he had orders from him to NOT go.

It was absolutely MADDENING.

Ise barely realized she was more openly crying as she pushed herself to figure out SOMETHING to do to fix this while Kayfor spoke on, he told her of how her Father loved her and wanted her to live, but that Azoth was too powerful now. “I cant just let him die” Ise’s voice was trembling “He saved me Kayfor, I can’t just do NOTHING!” the words hurt to say, the IDEA that she could do nothing was something she absolutely refused to accept.

---

WC: 475
TWC: 1,770

| Ise | 222,500PL  | Ikari Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

The Android K414 was evidently VERY perceptive as he looked at Orenji earning a somewhat nervous look from the woman. She was not overly keen on the deception involved in all of this but she was fairly certain K414 had hit the nail very squarely on the head. She had been given fairly broad orders to do all that she could to delay Ise as much as would be feasible from discovering that she had been sent to the “wrong” planet.

Ise let out a frustrated groan as Kayfor indicated that she had no feasible way of getting to Arcose in time AND with the strength to do anything if she did, her options were at present to wait out Kayfor’s orders which were specifically too long for her to EVER have a chance of arriving in time.

Or fighting Kayfor and potentially exhausting herself, she frankly had no clue how strong he was and while she was picking up some general signs that he might be… damaged? The fact he was mostly machine meant that any physical damage he had was potentially less of a hindrance than it would be to anyone else.

She was desperately trying to figure out SOME way to make this all work, figure out the words that would get Kayfor on her side. If only she had Zerori here, maybe they could use that portal magic to arrive just in time, and on top of that Zerori had grown quite strong, the three of them could perhaps handle Azoth AND whatever allies he might have.

But Zerori was likely still on Plant.

Kayfor kept talking and Ise grew more frustrated and angry with each moment, she hated the claim that there would have been nothing she could do, she COULD fight alongside him and ensure his victory, perhaps if she had focused more and gotten stronger she could even have handled Azoth alone and she was about to say as much until Kayfor said something that managed to catch her attention and very briefly gave her pause. “His… his plan?” Ise latched onto that thought as quickly as possible. Kayfor believed this was all somehow an intentional plan of her Fathers? She was unsure HOW it could be some grand plan but maybe…

Maybe he had set something up to appear as if he was confronting Azoth?

Kayfor brought up all the issues with what her Father was currently doing, that he could have simply waited, perhaps that WAS part of the plan? Maybe he had somehow created a fake of himself that Azoth would defeat? “M..maybe? Father is usually more direct… but... “ It seemed like a good idea, trick Azoth into thinking he had won, let him pretend to be Emperor while they grew strong.

Ise still HATED all of this and if it was true she would be making her Father VERY aware of that fact. It was at this moment that her Visor pulsed slightly a slight glow around its rim as it chimed for Ise to let her know there was an incoming call, followed swiftly by a calm mechanical voice telling her it was a message from her Father.

“It's him! Kayfor maybe you were right!” THe only reason she could foresee her Father calling was to confirm for her that he was safe, sure it technically made no sense that Kayfor would be given such a long amount of time to keep her here on Earth if that was the case but Ise rationalized it away as him being thorough or perhaps he had believed it might take longer to pull off whatever he was doing.

Ise quickly pressed the button on her scouter to receive the message.

Ise’s excited shift to joy lasted a few moments into the message as she listened to her Father speak and she awaited the revelation of whatever grand plot this was however a small part of her realized that his voice did not quite sound right, at first she reasoned it away as a result of him still not being well and it being a likely quite long distance call.

But then he hit her with it, that he was dying. Not from his illness either though he had not said as much, no it became VERY clear to Ise that the strain in his voice that her acute and well trained sense of hearing could pick up no matter how much he was likely working to hide it was one born of injury.

Ise froze after he said it, still listening and trying to process it all as her world shattered.

Her breathing quickened as the moments ticked by and her power slowly rose, all the anger and sorrow she had briefly escaped with the idea that he might not have actually gone to fight Azoth flooding back and magnified by the new information, the confirmation that she was ALREADY too late.

Her eyes flashed gold and Ise managed to cling to two things her Father had said more than the others first that he loved her and knew she would do great things, and second his comment on there being no escaping the consequences of your decisions.

The first provided just a bit of comfort to her even if hearing it caused her only MORE pain her sadness latched onto it and held tight.

The second though was something her rage grabbed onto and refocused it in a manner likely entirely unintended by Hibernal. She would make SURE Azoth learned those words, perhaps not right now but some day soon Azoth would see the consequences of his decision.

One of Ise’s shaky hands reached up and pulled the Visor off and chucked it away, the message had ended but it still rang through her mind and it FELT like the best way to put a stop to it. It did not.

“He’s gone”

---

WC: 985
TWC: 2,755

| Ise | 222,500 | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

Orenji was so VERY not prepared for what was happening, she had to an extent sort of expected that whatever was going on with Hibernal on Arcose was not likely to go well but she had never quite anticipated hearing about his death, even in his weakened state the man seemed far too imposing and powerful to just…. Die

The woman was utterly floored by the realization and it only took a few moments for her to realize that if SHE was hit hard by this that Ise would be devastated, she had a bit of experience with what the girl was going through after all as her own parents had passed a few years ago, but at least for her it had been something at least somewhat expected.

Orenji initially made a move to try and comfort the girl only for Ise’s power to rise VERY rapidly causing Orenji to take a step back and look to K414 on what they should do, thankfully the cyborg seemed less caught off guard or at least more capable of keeping himself composed as he maintained a degree of control over the situation and did his best to try and comfort Ise.

Ise made no effort to stop Kayfor from putting her visor back on, part of her had wanted to lash out at him when he had touched her but she managed to stop herself while remaining completely silent as he spoke and pulled chairs over for them, she silently took her seat on it pulling her legs up onto it as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

Orenji looked to K414 and then the seat he had brought trying to determine how safe of an idea it was for her to stay around, she was a bit concerned that Ise might lash out at them for the parts they had played in keeping her from Hibernal’s side during what she likely considered his time of need. K414 could certainly hold his own at least to an extent even if he was not looking his best.

But her? The young Saiyan could easily tear through her without even pausing if she wanted, but she was still a kid who needed help and while Orenji certainly was no saint she could not bring herself to just leave Ise right now, and so she took her seat and hoped that the young Saiyans volatile emotion’s did not get the better of her.

Ise was not entirely sure she could agree with Kayfor, she was trying hard to make her not feel at fault for this and a part of her understood that there was nothing she could have done once they had landed, but she had always prided herself on being clever. She should have realized the trick, should have gotten the ship turned around before they arrived.

She realized as she ran herself through it all again that if she could actually SEE she might have figured this all out, she had spent a portion of the trip in the control center, would have been able to see they were on course for Earth if she could actually see the maps they were using.

Kayfor however asked a question that managed to distract her.

What do you want to do now?

She was briefly confused before the answer came to her with sharp clarity “I want to kill Azoth” for a few moments all of her sorrow was very suddenly focused into rage, any lingering fondness she had for Azoth was gone and Ise found the first person she could truly HATE.

---

WC: 601
TWC: 3,356

| Ise | 222,500 PL | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

Ise was a bubbling storm of pain and fury as she awaited a response fro Kayfor, she had no real way of being sure exactly how he would respond to what she had said. If the only reason he was keeping her here was because he had been ordered then perhaps he would be willing to take the fight to Azoth, the problem however was in if he genuinely believed that they could not pose a proper threat to the man who would be Emperor.

It was initially a pleasant surprise when Kayfor regarded her declaration as ‘the only logical conclusion’ it gave Ise hope that they could begin immediately planning the inevitable attack on Azoth.

However where Ise saw an attack on Azoth as needing to be sooner rather than later, Kayfor clearly felt the long game was the one to play. Ise listened in confused silence as Kayfor spoke of his plan, and more importantly its timetable.

He was working on YEARS of planning, a slow weakening of ‘Azoths’ forces until the man could be more easily taken down. This earned a clear look of distaste on Ise especially as Kayfor asserted that she would likely need as much time to actually physically challenge him.

“No.” Ise growled out the word before reigning herself back in, she had no wish to let out her anger on Kayfor, it even made sense that he would want to take a long approach to things, heck it was likely this WAS a short term response to him considering he was more machine now than organic.

“He may be strong but I wont need that long to beat him, in fact if we act SOONER we could try to catch him off guard, get him before hes properly secured control of anything. The longer we take the more he puts his mark on the Empire.” Ise hated the very thought of it.

“If we can get him alone, or even just close to it we can wiin. You, me, I can get Vocado, Pitt and his squad. They are strong enough to hold off his allies. Azoth might have an Arcosian’s power but hes not unbeatable, he wont likely be much stronger than Mint and I’ve beaten him before!”

WC: 377
TWC: 3,733  

| Ise | 222,500 PL | Ikari Form |

| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

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Ise scowled with VERY clear annoyance at the assertion that Azoth ‘was’ the Empire, if they acted quickly they COULD prevent him from having any real effect on the Empire but frustratingly Kayfor seemed completely ardent on his position that they NOT act quickly. Ise opted not to bother fighting further on the likelihood of Azoth effecting the Empire or exactly how different he may or may not be, it was not a battle she was overly interested in having right now.



Ise let out a huff of frustration as Kayfor pushed on, he apparently held little care for the idea of Mint being an ally, why exactly Ise was uncertain but it mattered little, he DID raise a reasonably argument that simply poaching the Crusher Crops was not ideal, perhaps that was reason enough for her to push forward with encouraging one of the duo to seek the throne? She was quite certain that other than Vennel they were among the strongest available Saiyans and considering how Saiyan society operated it was not unlikely they could bully their way into the top spot.



Working with EARTH was… interesting, she knew relatively little about the planet other than the fact it was apparently a fairly peaceful world and the Earthlings possessed a low ‘natural’ power but possessed a reasonable amount of innate combat potential. It was ALSO a fairly sizable trade hub so perhaps Kayfor was right with that, the only question would really be a matter of HOW to get its leader on her side.



Ise let out another frustrated growl as Kayfor made an effort to convince her that there was no real ‘gain’ to killing Azoth now rather than later, he simply seemed unable to understand that a large part of her frankly did not CARE about the gains to be had or even lost



“I don’t care about the honor in it, I just want him gone… I dont care what I have to do, he's ruined everything...” Ise hissed out the words as she rubbed her eyes



WC: 342
TWC: 4,075