As We Die And Breathe

The powerful light on the front of his invention cut through the dense smog of Destron. Yatapi soldiered on, getting ever closer to the area he calculated the source of the earlier commotion would be. On the way he found even more petrified corpses and totalled machines of war. Trudging on further through the dilapidated hellhole, there were parts of the ground that looked like sludge, globules of ground no longer as solid as they once were, effectively becoming quicksand. Even the land itself was cursed with suffering. It was no deterrent to Yatapi though, he could simply fly instead for now.

It was hard to admit, but he had grown shockingly used to seeing sad sights like this... Yet it only served to motivate him further and one day rid all creation of this damnable Destron gas.

Eventually, Yatapi had arrived near the scene of the earlier bout. It had not been long, all signs of combat having happened here was not yet washed away by the Destron. Good, Yatapi thought. It didn’t take very long to find the poor souls. With the light of his invention, Yatapi could spot their figures slowly moving quite easily, so he chose to land nearby. The pair of them were still struggling it looked like, perhaps even still trying to fight, for whatever foolhardy reason it is they wanted to use.

Yatapi slightly dimmed the light on his invention and reconfigured it into an area light rather than a high powered flood light. In doing so, he could now see the two clearly; Lottus, and another Saiyan that Yatapi had not met before. “Is this really the place that so called proud warriors should have themselves die in? Forgotten and left to dust? Honestly.” Yatapi grumbled, engaging the main function of his invention— the siphoning, filtering and subsequent elimination of Destron. It was not a big enough contraption to make a permanent dent, but it should be enough to clear the immediate area for a decent amount of time.

At first, it looked as though things were working out decently well, but Yatapi wasn’t going to just expect complete success, he was only using a prototype version of the Destron counter he had been workshopping with others.

Both of these Saiyans had two massively polarizing reactions. First, there was Lottus, who just began to violently twitch and convulse before he started trying to beat his own head clean open on the ground! Okay, not optimal! Yatapi recoiled backwards a little in shock before letting out a string of vulgarities and expletives in the native Tuffle language. Immediately, Yatapi deactivated the injector disk on Lottus, instead releasing a pain relieving medicine that was in the backup compartment on it. “Lottus! Focus! Get your shit together!”

Second, there was the stranger, and now that Yatapi could get a better look at them, he was certain he had heard something about someone with their description. Either way, his reaction wasn’t even remotely as wild, almost mild actually. They tore out the injector disk that Yatapi had used on them and tossed it before the pain relieving medicine could activate. What a waste! Yatapi grabbed it from mid air, the tech could get repurposed. Since this other Saiyan was cognizant, aware enough to speak, Yatapi just bluntly answered their question. “A Destron counter agent prototype. Evidently it needs more work.”

Yatapi gave Lottus a sort of bored look, some people just had this thing for stating the obvious didn’t they? “Clearly, I am not so stupid as to not have noticed, you know.” In any case, Yatapi supposed he should at the very least answer Lottus’ follow-up question. “As I mentioned briefly to him—” Yatapi gestured to Vocado. “A Destron counter agent prototype. I reiterate that, evidently, it needs more work.” Lottus’ exposure to Destron must be far far more extensive than first believed, or at the very least deep rooted, both were problematic outcomes. “You’ll survive. That much I can say with certainty.”

Of course, given that these two knuckleheads were fighting not too long ago in such a treacherous location for whatever reason they chose, their interactions weren’t going to be cordial for very long.

Vocado spoke a name; Rapini, and Lottus reacted with such unhinged, unfiltered emotion. Yatapi blinked, both in surprise and confusion. Had he heard that name before? It was possible, but it would have been years and years ago by now. Given Lottus’ reaction to Vocado invoking her name, Yatapi knew it was wise to keep quiet on that.

Lottus quickly devolved further into a broken mess, overcome with emotion. He even cried. That was a thing Yatapi deduced was uncommon, maybe even impossible under normal circumstances for Lottus despite only knowing him for a short while.

Still, this was an awful thing to witness. Yatapi hated this. Maybe Lottus may have become violent and battle hungry of his own accord, but to end up like this? It was wrong. To make matters worse, it was all because of a lack of communication, a lack of understanding, the fault of those too old to care now, or those now long gone. Their mistakes culminated into things like this.

Yatapi stepped forward, and stood tall, speaking to both Saiyans. “This is what war does to people. You see it in each other, you know you do. Only a fool would not admit it.” He gestured to the landscape around them. “This is what war does to places, to planets, much the same thing.” Yatapi hated this especially, but an example was an example, he had to take what he could get right now. “There are no winners in war, only survivors, and they aren’t often the lucky ones.”