Unhealed Wounds

Taori watched with furrowed brows as Vocado awoke in a bit of a sorry state, gasping for breath and staggering forward, until he landed down on the floor. Taori gave his former brother at arms a moment to catch his breath and wipe himself dry, then responded to his question. "Technically you should probably still be in there for at least a few more weeks," he said, "But I have a feeling you'd rather be out here than in there. Especially with the shit that's been going down." 

"And, no, we didn't lose. But I wouldn't say we won, either - lots of Saiyans died in that attack. Tuffles, too, but their men aren't their best bet at winning, their technology is. For us, every Saiyan we lose is another possibility in the war eliminated." Vocado probably knew all that already, but Taori wanted to get his mind up to speed as fast as possible. And, if Vocado had been knocked out in that battle, then that confirmed to Taori there was something else he had no knowledge of.

And that something was the main reason Taori was here. "You've missed a lot of other stuff, too," he continued. He then paused, briefly, and took a look at the currently sorry state of Vocado. Maybe it wouldn't be a great idea to dump everything all on Vocado all at once, here. He didn't want to make the guy collapse and have to ask a nurse to help him back into the healing tank.

"Let's get you out of here first, though," Taori suggested. "You could probably use a shower. And a new set of clothes. Probably a good meal, too." Of course, if Vocado really wanted to know what was going on right away, Taori would relent. But getting him cleaned up first might have been a priority if his legs were still too shaky to handle the serious stuff.

Well, if Vocado said he was fine, then Taori wasn't one to argue. The bright side of the younger fighter's injuries were that he had probably gotten quite the substantial power boost from them - Saiyans did grow in strength every time they were defeated in battle. As Vocado got ready, he asked about the state of things, and commented about how if there had been no further attacks, that must have been a good thing. Taori wasn't so sure about that, though. From what he knew of the attack... Well, it was certainly no ordinary one, considering the circumstances.

"No, no more attacks since then," he replied. "But that attack was... Well, it was far from normal." Did Vocado know Yangcong? Taori wasn't actually sure. The old man had stuck to the shadows during his time in the military, from what Taori knew, so it was doubtful someone on the front lines like Vocado would've known him. Hell, Taori had only even heard of the guy after the fighting had stopped. "I don't know if you know the man, but Yangcong, a former special operations soldier for the Kingdom, was the one who led the attack. He turned traitor and aided the Tuffles."

Taori wished he knew more about why Yangcong would have done such a thing, but he supposed he might never get an answer to that question. "He died in the battle, so that's at least over and done with. They won't have any more men on the inside who can aid them, as far as I know, so they shouldn't be trying such a brazen assault like that again." He sure hoped, anyway. If they did... Well, Taori supposed they'd just have to beat the short little bastards back again. They had the strength to do it, but that didn't mean there'd be no casualties. Even Vocado might not have made it if the sniper that had shot him had aimed slightly more carefully.

As for Vocado's last question... That one was a little less cut and dry to answer. "Not a... Wimp, exactly," Taori slowly responded, discomfort clear on his face. "She's strong. Stronger than you and me combined and then some. But she's uh..." How should he put this? "...Not a Saiyan. She's some sort of Demon. She says she's a Saiyan, but one look at her proves otherwise. And she's an odd one, too. Magical, manipulative, maniacal. I don't think she's the worst person possible to sit on the throne, but..." He tilted his head and crossed his arms. "She's an outsider. It doesn't sit well with me, and I doubt it would with you, either."

The way Vocado laid things out made sense to Taori. Taori was far from a military strategist, though it seemed fairly obvious what was going on once Vocado laid it out for him. And from the footage he'd seen of the battle, it was looking like Vocado was correct, too - Yangcong had spearheaded the attack himself, the damn fool. What the hell he had been hoping to accomplish was entirely beyond Taori, but he was just glad the old bastard died failing to do whatever that was. He'd lie buried beneath tons of concrete and rock until even his bones rotted away, now.

"You're right, I think," Taori replied, offering a small wave to the receptionist of the medical facility as they walked past. It was good to be out in the fresh air, Taori noted as he breathed in the smog of Sadala. Well, maybe not good, but Taori didn't much like cramped spaces like medical facilities. He hated the idea of ever waking up in a tube like the one he'd just broken Vocado out of. "I didn't exactly know the man well, but he seemed... Off enough that what you're saying isn't really out of the picture." Taori sighed. "Just hate to think of how this might affect Garrick's legacy. The old coot trusted Yangcong, and here he goes, shitting all over his legacy and everything he tried to build."

Ah, wait... Vocado probably didn't know all that much about Garrick, did he? Well, if he was in the military - which he was - then it was doubtful he'd never heard of the man. As far as Saiyan celebrities went, Garrick was the closest thing to one of them. More popular than even the king, Taori mused. ...Wait. Would that have given the king reason to...? Taori shook his head. There was no evidence of foul play, as far as he was concerned - Garrick's death had been a military miscalculation, nothing more.

And, speaking of miscalculations, Taori was a bit taken aback by how... Unappalled Vocado was at hearing of Rosemary's rise to royalty. "You're not... Upset?" he asked, slowly. "Frankly, I thought you'd feel a bit stronger about a stranger on the throne than just expressing some idle curiosity. And, uh, I had just spoken with her earlier, so it may be for the best that I don't go barging straight back into her throne room." Taori didn't really feel like meeting the queen any more often than he absolutely had to.

"And as for her power, when I went to see her, she clocked in at around 50,000. That's more than triple my battle power, and almost double yours." Taori sighed. "I didn't realize just how far behind I'd fallen compared to everyone else..." He then paused to let out a small, unenthusiastic laugh. "Guess that's what married life does to you."

"True enough," Taori replied as Vocado declared most Saiyans' legacies weren't so easily tarnished. Maybe he was just reading too hard into things. It's not like he laid down any blame on Garrick's part for Yangcong's own psychotic behavior, so he just had to trust nobody else would. Hell, most people probably wouldn't even have known the two of them worked together, with how hard Yangcong had worked to keep himself quietly undercover. 

As Vocado explained what he'd been planning, Taori frowned a little. A battle royale where the one who came out on top would be hailed as the new King or Queen of Vegeta? It was a bit... Different from how Kings and Queens usually rose to the throne, but he supposed it'd have worked. The previous King left no heirs to claim the throne by birthright, so that option was out, and given that he was dead, it wasn't like any Saiyan could try and challenge him for the throne in single combat. 

A battle royale could get rather messy, though. Taori didn't know if he liked the idea of a whole horde of Oozaru scrambling to be the last one standing. It could have thinned out their numbers at a time where potent warriors were what the Saiyan military needed most of all. "Maybe if there were some, uh, restrictions," Taori proposed, "I don't know if I'd want Oozaru to be allowed in that kind of arena. Too unpredictable and bloodthirsty. And us Saiyans already tend to be both of those things." 

He knew Vocado was most likely smart enough to see where he was coming from - though he also knew Vocado, like any Saiyan warrior, loved a good fight above all else, so if Vocado really wanted to try and push this battle royale thing, Taori knew there was little he could say to change his mind. What Vocado said next, though, somewhat startled Taori. "Leave... Vegeta?" he asked, as if it had never occurred to him someone could even think of doing that.

"...I can't do that," he replied shortly after a brief, stunned pause. "Alpinia is here. My home is here, too. Not to mention that I don't really trust this planet to be alright without me, as vain as that sounds." He felt confident Vocado knew how he felt - as far as he knew, the other Saiyan had spent his entire life on Vegeta as well. "There's enough strength to go around on this planet that I think we can catch up just fine on our own here, don't you agree?" He turned to Vocado with a bit of a glint in his eye as he finished speaking, as if the thought of the two of them surpassing their rivals already excited him.

"Mmm, I feel if someone was desperate enough, they'd try anything to get their hands on the crown," Taori replied to Vocado as he insisted it was blasphemous to use the power of the Oozaru in such a setting. "Or, you could just go Super Saiyan," he added with a chuckle. The Super Saiyan was really more a legend than anything else at this point, but Taori had always found it funny to suggest it as a solution to their problems. Losing the war to the Tuffles? Just go Super Saiyan. If only it were that easy.

When Vocado brought up Alpinia, Taori was about to reply that she probably wouldn't want to stick her nose into any training, but before he could, Vocado seemed to trail off into his own thoughts. Taori paused and glanced over at him, a little confused as to what the problem was, but then all was swiftly made clear as the other Saiyan asked about Pitt - his brother. "Ah," Taori quietly muttered as he realized that was another harsh truth Vocado was going to have to take. A lot harsher than the truth of who their current ruler was, that was for certain.

Taori vividly remembered the pit he'd felt drop in his stomach when his eyes had scanned Pitt's name on the list of the fallen Saiyans. He almost couldn't believe it: he'd survived all those ridiculous suicide missions behind enemy lines, only to die in a surprise attack in their very own capital city, orchestrated by that lunatic? As much as Taori didn't want to be the one who broke the news to Vocado, at least this way he could word it in a way that would possibly sting a little less.

Vocado would have liked to hear his brother died a valiant death, wouldn't he? Well, Taori didn't know the true details about how Pitt fell, but he could probably embellish things enough to make Vocado feel proud of Pitt's last moments. "Your brother... He died by Yangcong's own hands," Taori stated, "He charged in to protect our people, ahead of any other Saiyan, and paid the ultimate price for it. I'm sorry."

Taori knew Vocado was probably going to take Pitt's loss hard, but, well, he didn't expect it would crush him quite so much. The other Saiyan couldn't even remain standing after hearing the news, Vocado quickly slumping against a nearby wall and falling to the ground. Taori moved to help him stand back up, but stopped himself as Vocado's misery quickly began to form into rage. Vocado had had a fire lit under him, now - one that Taori felt confident would help burn the Tuffles down. He'd had his own flame lit recently as well, though for somewhat less... Drastic reasons.

As Vocado got back up to his feet, Taori offered his shoulder for support, although it didn't seem as if Vocado would be needing it for the moment. He than asked Taori about Yangcong. Taori paused for a moment to recall what had been written in the reports, before he replied, "Buried by about a hundred feet of concrete. He was blasted so viciously, the ground around him caved in to the force of the explosion, then toppled right down on top of him. His crushed corpse is somewhere down beneath the sewers."

He didn't know exactly why Vocado wished to know the whereabouts of Yangcong's corpse, though he had a few guesses. It was quite doubtful Vocado would manage to find his buried body underneath Sadala; he'd have to tear up the entire city trying to look for it, and even then, it was hard to say if a body had even been left behind after the force of the attack that had hit him.

"There are plenty more Tuffles where he came from, though," Taori reminded Vocado. "And that's where we should be putting our attention. I'm starting to train again, Vocado. But I - well, I'll need a training partner if I want to see any real results." He hoped Vocado could see where he was going with this. "And, seeing as how we've lost Pitt... I think the two of us training together to avenge him is the best way we can honor his memory."