Wrathful Reunion

Nero cut through the sky at high speeds from the Northern Scar, heading towards his home shortly after ensuring the restoration of the Outer Plait— he didn’t really have the results of such a feat in mind anymore, his focus was elsewhere entirely. Within the span of a few seconds he had reached Maima Fields and thus was quite close to his home. He would have gone straight there in fact had he not sensed Zhalla’s energy; unchecked and jagged, not unlike their first fight. Nero halted immediately in mid air, listening for where she might be. “What have you gotten yourself into this time...” Nero muttered to himself.

He had a decision to make. He could take the time to calm Zhalla down and be sure she didn’t do anything she regretted in the near future as a result of her currently clouded judgement or he could go straight over to Pankaa. Ultimately he quickly concluded that thinking about it was a waste of time and that he could, as well as should help both of them— Zhalla just happened to be nearer to his current position.

With that, Nero flew down into the small forest, very easily finding Zhalla going nuts smashing and shredding trees, attempting to strangle boulders, yelling obscenities at clouds and screaming at blades of grass. Nero exhaled sharply as he stepped onto the ground, extending his telekinesis throughout the area, moving everything she had thus far damaged out of the way and just outside of the little woodlands. He additionally made sure that local creatures were uninjured but by this point they had all skedaddled, all but one little Namek bird that was cowering in a small bush, it had a splinter in one of its wings and a sprained ankle! Nero signalled for Nocti to take the bird to a local village and the Nimbus easily did so.

To Zhalla, Nero spoke bluntly, but not in an unkind manner since he knew she had issues with handling the Wrathful state. “Hey. That’s enough.” Nero calmly approached Zhalla without a hint of fear. “This little forest didn’t do anything, Zhalla.” Nero tried to appeal to her rational side while also extending forth his purifying energies to help her refocus herself— he had definitely gotten quite the hang of this stuff by now!

Nero continued his approach, undeterred. He noted Zhalla’s uncontrolled state was showing body language that conveyed she very easily understood his presence— clearly their energy sensing training was a top of the charts hit! In some way Nero couldn’t help but feel proud of her. Matching her growl with a more measured authoritative snarl— again he did his best to not make it seem like an unkind gesture, in a sense he was ‘speaking the same language’ as her. Either way, he wanted to show that he wasn’t going to mess around, and for two reasons. One, he respected her enough to not belittle her or her strength, and secondly because he just wasn’t in the mood to mess around in general right now; especially given his current motivations.

Even after Zhalla’s eyes sparked to life, emitting crackling energy, Nero soldiered on, his own eyes similarly emitting a ‘ding’ of controlled flowing energy. Moments later, Zhalla sprung into an attack, leaping off of a tree and lunging towards Nero! He responded by fluidly lifting a hand upward, creating a pressure that would match and overcome the force of Zhalla’s Ki, a gust of wind pressure surged outward from the impact, and Nero kept his eyes locked on Zhalla’s.

Immediately afterwards, Nero attempted to grab her fist and yank her back down to ground level as he raised his other hand towards her head. “I said, thats enough.” With that, his eyes ‘dinged’ once again as he put forward more of his purifying energy in order to calm Zhalla further.

Nero’s attempt to assist Zhalla’s control looked to be a solid success! She disengaged any attempts at aggression as she dropped to the ground. Nero immediately squatted down to her level as she began to shrink back to normal and regain full awareness of herself. He didn’t even flinch or move away when she let out a pained wail. He stayed with her even as she curled into herself and simply sat there.

Letting her vent, Nero remained exactly where he was, close to her if she needed him to be. He wanted her to be completely aware of herself and in control before he did much else. His expression was somewhat serious, though he still showed concern. What was she talking about? She didn’t mean to cause a ruckus? “Of course you didn’t mean to do anything, you don’t have a proper handle on that transformation yet.” Nero spoke softly, finally sitting right next to Zhalla, attempting to bring an arm around her to comfort her, still unsure why she was blaming herself for something she didn’t understand about herself.

However, she did seem to be looking for something, maybe someone? She confirmed as much when she spoke a second time. Ah, so she transformed in Dion’s midst, definitely something that would bring her shock— Dion was her brother and she treated him as such even if he was her brother by adoption and association with her brother by blood; Carro.

Nero raised his head slightly, being much more proficient than Zhalla at energy sensing. “I can sense him. He lives.” Nero raised a brow, he realized roughly where Dion was too, because he could sense Pankaa just as easily. “Furthermore, he’s in good hands. My own brother is with him.” Even if Pankaa wasn’t entirely himself either, he wasn’t entirely not. Nero severely doubted that Pankaa would let Dion get away with being injured, Pankaa and Nero were alike in that way as brothers after all.

Nero gave a blank and neutral stare. Being angry is a thing that can trigger the Wrathful state, to him that much was obvious; and in Nero’s eyes, for as rough as Zhalla’s edges were to those that did not know her, he thought she wasn’t really an angry person by nature. It was simply when and why she got angry that was a concern to him.

More to the point, what the hell did Dion of all people do to piss Zhalla off so much? As far as Nero knew him he figured the guy would habitually avoid making people mad and was probably way too nice for his own good.

Making note to get further information later, Nero stayed at Zhalla’s side, trying his best to get a look at any injuries she may have sustained— be it from Dion or her own post-battle tantrum. He had a decent amount of medical supplies kit on hand that he would normally use on himself, but since he was so close to home, he figured he needn’t bother. “Alright, I’m gonna patch you up. This is a promise and a threat. So work with me here.” Without hesitation, regardless of any protest on Zhalla’s part, Nero brought out pieces of the medical kit. She thought Dion somehow hated her now, and Nero sighed before speaking again. “Hate you? Doubt it. For all I know he picked a fight because he cares a whole hell of a lot.”

As for who to help, or who was deserving of his help? Nero gave Zhalla a noticeably sterner glare than normal and he spoke in a somewhat frustrated yet calm tone. “You should know by now that I do as I please, and I shall choose to help you both. You happen to be who I ran into first, and even if I had ran into you second, I would have helped you anyway all the same.” Besides, Nero had only recently purified and rejuvenated the Outer Plait, the more time he had to regain his energy would benefit Pankaa in the end anyway.

Nero’s eyes narrowed when Zhalla further insisted that he didn’t need to help her out. “I know I don’t have to. But, I don’t care. How many times do I have to say it? I do what I want.” Well, he was making good on his threat-promise deal, that was for damn sure. He understood that she was upset, and he wasn’t going to deny her how she felt or even question it, he was focused on making sure he could help with her physical condition. Nero chose to start with Zhalla’s hands, he took a good look then held out one of his own hands using telekinesis to get all of the splinters in her hands out as gently as possible. For some weird reason, he would contain them in a ball of energy off to his side. Otherwise, Nero would continue tending to Zhalla’s wounds as the two spoke.

Given Zhalla’s reaction to his statements, Nero had to guess he was right in some way about what happened. Either way, he waited for Zhalla to give her side of things of her own accord, he wasn’t going to pry the information out of her— especially right now when she was in such a poor state. Still, Zhalla’s toughness would shine through as she went into some of what happened.

Nero raised a brow. If he was being blunt, he thought being rid of the tree was paramount, but he chose not to say that. What confused Nero further is the fact that he was pretty sure Dion knew what Zhalla’s job was. “Hrrrm.” Nero grumbled. Zhalla went into dangerous situations all the time, she was an adult and could handle herself reasonably well— though she could stand to accept help more readily in Nero’s opinion.

In a similar regard, Nero thought Dion could do without meddling as much. “It was a sudden emergency situation wherein we had little prep time, so I think he should get his head out of his ass about it in that regard. But, if he insists on being warned of dangers in the future, which is fair to a point, I’ll teach you telepathy. Simple. In any case, he shouldn’t have treated you like you were a child, that was entirely his fault, and clearly he pushed buttons that shouldn’t be pushed.” Nero cared greatly for the both of them, but sometimes they were just really really dumb. “As for you, though... Yes, you are an adult, so act like one. Remember, I offered to help you control the Wrathful state and by extension the power of Oozaru, that offer is still on the table. I think this incident should serve as a wake-up call. You need to own your power before it owns you again because you know what might happen if you don’t. This time truly consider my offer, Zhalla. Not just for yourself, but for those you care about.” Nero was quite blunt about what he had said, but he thought Zhalla needed to hear it.

Nero noticed Zhalla’s eyes flash gold for a second, prepared to once again use his magic to soothe her— though that was not needed, she sorted it herself. Nothing to sneeze at, but not something that needed praise exactly. “Ah, fair enough, well I don’t feel as though I have to.” Nero simply responded, it was as he said, simply doing whatever it is that he wanted to do.

Zhalla was curious about the splinters too, and questioned why Nero didn’t just toss them. “It’ll be important for later. They will have a purpose, don’t you worry.” Nero smiled, clearly he was up to something nefariously wholesome!

“Yeah, no, I get it.” Dealing with something as malicious as that tree pretty much took priority over nearly everything else. “Ideally, nobody would have to face such dangers, he should be happy anyone was able to at all.” Nero scoffed. “Honestly, if anyone was being a baby, it definitely wasn’t you.” Nero didn’t think Dion was jealous of anyone’s strength or how they used it, especially those close to him, but this situation put that into question for Nero. “Complaining about your problems is different from doing something about them, I would have thought he knew that, guess not.” Nero shrugged lazily.

“I never said you should have to do that, so drop the attitude.” Nero responded bluntly, without raising his voice over Zhalla snapping at him. “It would be your choice, done at your discretion. Warning others of unforeseen dangers has its advantages— simple as that, no more, no less.” He spoke in a manner that came from experience. “I’ve given my fair share of warnings to others where it is needed, I would have warned you if you hadn’t chosen to help of your own accord.” It was up to Zhalla if she wanted to learn telepathy, Nero simply made the offer. “Besides, it’d be more fun if you could send me telepathy kisses at random for no reason.” Nothing said he couldn’t sweeten the deal though, even if it was by lightly teasing Zhalla. Hell, she probably needed a little bit of goofy tomfoolery at the moment to lighten her mood. It wasn’t like Nero was the type to regret what he said.

Regarding Nero’s other offer of training, related to the Oozaru and Wrathful states, Zhalla had... A very different reaction from the last time he gave it. “Hm?” Nero raised a brow, kind of curious. “Not all training would involve being transformed, there are things you can do about it as you are too.” He said, trying to reassure her, at least in some small way.

Nero briefly paused patching Zhalla up and gently put a hand on her shoulder. “If talking me through it is too difficult right now, you are not out of options. You could show me—” With his free hand he gestured to his head. Telepathy could do the trick! “—and I think it is important that you do. You’re right, I don’t understand. But, I want to understand. I can’t help you if I don’t.”

“Nnnnope.” Nero winked. Yeah, if it wasn’t clear before that he was up to something nefariously wholesome, it should be now. “Something else. Feel free to take another guess though.”

Nero raised a brow, he had a few choice words for how bad of a job Dion seemed to have done— again, of course, he saw fault in the actions of both Dion and Zhalla, it wasn’t often that a nervous worrywart and stubborn lone wolf agreed on how to handle danger, if they ever agreed at all. “Oh sure, he tried— in the worst possible way.” Nero shrugged.

“Yeah, so it’d shut him up for a bit. The way you use it would be on you, not me, and definitely not him.” After all, Nero did just say he used his own abilities as he saw fit to do so. As such, he would offer the same respect to Zhalla, his only part in this was offering to teach the skill. “Sure, you haven’t needed to so far. Things can change. It would still be your choice to ask for help— but you should know that there is nothing wrong with that. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength.”

As for telepathy, Nero wiggled his eyebrow slightly. When Zhalla tried to shield her face with her hair, Nero chose to telepathically wiggle his eyebrows at her. “Oh, I dunno, can I?” He said, doing exactly that— he tried to telepathically send Zhalla a little kiss on her mind-nose. What’s next, holding hands in public?!

Nero made no attempt to deny Zhalla’s assessment of training to control her transformations. She was right, a good portion of it would need to be done that way, but not all of it. “Of course, the point is to work up to it, not drop into the deep end.” Either way, the first step before every other first step was to understand her aversion to the idea. Zhalla wasn’t against showing him through her mind and memory, so that was at least something. Nero brought a hand forward and gently placed his index finger and middle finger over Zhalla’s forehead and his thumb on her forehead. This would generally make the connection to her mind easier even if Nero had mastered vast distances by now. He didn’t want to miss any important details.

The scene Zhalla’s mind showed was somewhere on Earth, the Southern Tropics about a good decade or so ago if he had to guess. A dense forest at early evening or the dead of night— it was also raining, but the forest was more than enough cover for anyone that would have been here. Nero progressed towards a clearing, very easily spotting a younger Zhalla, shrimpy in comparison to her current self almost— perhaps it was before one of her major growth spurts? The other person present was another Saiyan, one with deep red hair kept up by a bandanna. It certainly wasn’t someone he had personally met before, but he was certain he would have seen them once or twice. Someone like this was pretty hard to miss... Or was he told about someone that looked similar? He wasn’t sure at the moment.

Nero kept his attention on the scene before him, noting that this was someone Zhalla held in high regard, showing a lot of respect for them. Zhalla being incredibly eager to be taught something with no hint of restraint was something Nero had seen every now and then, but this was different. Very different. It was weird, like the precursor to something bad, an omen. Nero had an immensely bad feeling about this, having a few guesses as to what might happen next, hoping none of them were true.

Unfortunately, even if none of those guesses were true, there was likely nothing good that could have come of this anyway.