Sins of the Unfinished War - [Conquest]

"Ward..." Out of everything Amara could justifiably be in that moment: angry, sad, scared, she was simply disappointed. While late to the party, she had caught the tail end of his little healing stunt. All the potential blood was about to be laid bare on the Shinjin's hands; in the name of upkeeping a fake balance over a weapon that wasn't even here. Cheri left. Fleeing far and away from the battlefield. It was practical. The Tuffles were poised to lose an entire city, and whoever remained in it today, why risk their chancellor?

It was quite the spectacle. Hatchi shimmered gold as unfettered power radiated from the Saiyan who started it all. Windows shattered, beams crumbled, and bodies of fallen soldiers disintegrated or were tossed aside from the aura's force alone. Had Amara been an intelligent person, she'd have run long ago, but nobody ever accused her of ever making GOOD decisions. Amara's energy spiked, a barrier throwing itself in the way of Lottus' attacks toward Nasu. They wouldn't hold for longer than a half-second against Lottus' might, but it would provide Nasu with the time he needed to defend himself.

With a decadent flourish, the Queen would descend, an arc of lightning aimed towards the monster's chest. "So," She said lightly, landing close to Nasu. "Is this what the Legendary Super Saiyan is like? ...Hum. Expected more. He's like, what, two Mints in a trenchcoat? Three would be stretching it." Lottus was still injured. Gaping wounds and exhaustion that Ward's magic couldn't cleanse - and his power wasn't absolute. Overwhelming and by far the highest an individual ever had? Of course. Undefeatable? Never. "I hope you're ready, Nasu. This is going to be the toughest fight of our lives."

"Mm, well. This is about more than Hatchi at this point. Lottus isn't the type to be satisfied with pointlessly nuking a city only once." Amara scowled at the golden warrior from beneath her mask.

"Your 'task' is already done. You're just too stupid, too stubborn to think otherwise. That addled brain of yours conjured up a boogeyman that scared you. And you couldn't even be bothered to wait an extra week for us to officially confirm what we already knew - that there WAS no mass weaponization of Destron still taking place."

The woman tsked, summoning her sidearm with a fresh cell pre-loaded. "All this effort, and you aren't even accomplishing what you set out to do. And after the galaxy learns of this, the people who ARE distributing Destron will go into hiding."

The pistol fired another weak shot at the Saiyan's chest. Ward's delusional actions had made this battle possibly doomed. Lottus was still injured but trying to knock him down these last few pegs with that much overwhelming power? "Ah. Look who came late." Brumal, the one that had deigned to give her a formal warning of Lottus' impending attack before buggering off to parts unknown. Had he finally joined the fight out of concern? Not for them, obviously, but for what a loose Super Saiyan could mean for Empire stability.

A threatening ball of unstable Ki was shot her way, Amara vanishing from sight and appearing a good twenty meters away at Lottus' side. Nasu would have to fend for himself this time around. "He's using you, you know," Amara said casually.

"Ward, I mean. Is that what you want to be, his little 'instrument of balance'? It's like watching a kid fuck around with matches only to burn the house down." Not that her words were liable to reach him in his frenzied state, but perhaps she had a slim chance. Siccing a Super Saiyan on Ward's pretentious, murderous face would be a wake-up call to his stupid balance philosophy. Play with fire and you get burned.

"Let's hope there's a Shredder Corps left after this," Cato murmured under her breath. Fear was a powerful motivator, but it didn't seem to be working as well as it should have been. She spared a glance for Jagaimo. "Be careful out there. We won't be able to protect ourselves, in all likelihood--let alone each-other. You're already knocking on the door to the Afterlife."

Cato couldn’t quite tell what she was more afraid of now. Failing in her mission to protect Lottus and her friends, or being killed by Lottus himself. She hadn’t known him for long, but in that time it had become abundantly clear that he couldn’t control the great extents of his power. In all likelihood, that would only become even more true now that he had unearthed an ancient power. It was the very same power that Vocado had prompted her to research, and that she had dismissed as little more than a fairy tale told around campfires by grizzled old soldiers.

But now, she knew the terrible truth. The chroniclers had said that the Super Saiyans of old were planet killers. Unbound power, unmatched in all the universe. Worse still, they were known to unreasonably violent. Monsters, the likes of which the Oozaru couldn’t measure up to. Lottus might have been her friend, but he was among the last Saiyans she would have wished to uncover such an apocalyptic power. But now, as she raced through the air, departing the ruined auditorium that had served as her battleground—she was forced to come face to face with him.

There it was. Golden energy which seemed to bathe the entire city, terrible power that she couldn’t help but waver from… and to top it all off, he was laughing—the kind of maddened laugh that chilled the spine.

She came to a dead halt in mid-air, not far from where the battle was taking place. Her eyes darted from fighter to fighter. She should have felt relief that most of them were still upright, but none came. Nasu and Amara would kill Lottus if they had a chance, she was sure—but without them, there was no hope of defending the rest of Plant from him if he couldn’t be calmed down. The strange deity figure also loomed in the skies above, and she now knew that he was an enemy. Or at least, he had become her enemy as circumstances—and her priorities—had shifted.

Brumal had appeared as well, which might have been a welcome sight only short minutes ago. But ultimately, it only added more complicated questions to the crisis. An Arcosian triumvir, dead at the hands of a Saiyan, might well spark war even if Lottus could be subdued. But those concerns could wait until they knew there’d even be another sunrise over Plant. Right now, it didn’t look so certain—and she couldn’t even bring herself to offer a greeting to the triumvir.

She tried to will herself to overcome the fear that had lodged itself in the bottom of her stomach, and that had a quiver running through her body that she couldn’t quite explain. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Jagaimo had already made it back, and Vocado would be following in her wake any moment now. Somewhere in the distance, she knew that others were still locked in their own pitched battles. Korado hadn’t returned yet, and the number of Vocado’s soldiers seemed to have thinned. If it came to a fight, they were outgunned—even if they had the numbers.

She remained there, frozen in place for a moment longer. She knew there was next to no way out of this. Even if they managed to save Plant from Lottus, there would be no way to save Lottus from the executioner’s axe. But if she was to live with herself when all this was over, she had to try. Even if all that was left for her after Hatchi was the waiting line to Hell.

The fear never left her, but she pushed it out of mind. The pit of her stomach felt hollow, but she steadied herself with false courage.

She drew her blade once more and gripped the hilt tightly. Her knuckles turned white with the grip, but it was the only way she could keep her hand from shaking. She would act confident, and maybe then the confidence would come. She knew that the smart thing to do was to attack Lottus directly, and give them the best shot of winning the fight. She could tell just from listening to him that he was losing himself, and soon there would be little left of her friend until the fire inside of him burned itself out. He had promised her it ended with Hatchi—but now she doubted whether he would even remember their mission, or his promises, beneath the mind-addling effects of this new, ferocious power.

There was only one option available to her. She had to get through to Lottus. Then, she had to act.

“Lottus!” she shouted abruptly. A moment later, she cried even louder, determined to force him to pay attention to her. “LOTTUS! Listen to me!”

“You’re about to lose control! Try to remember everything we spoke about, all those weeks ago—about how our powers work, and how to cut through the fog. Maybe it’s different for you now, and maybe it’s worse… but if you don’t stop here, you’re going to burn a murderous path through everything on Plant, because none of us have the power to stop you. You're the one who can stop this. You promised me this would end at Hatchi, and if you don't stop now--well, you know what'll happen.”

She took in a deep breath. She expected to be ignored, even drowned out beneath the sound of her friend’s maddened laughter. But as ki began to flow through her body, wisps of energy beginning to swell around the sharpened steel of her blade, she gave him a weak smile. It faded almost as quickly as it appeared.

“If you value my word at all, then I’m asking you to leave the battlefield, as quickly as possible. Get away from Hatchi, away from these people—away from Plant if you must. Just do it, and don’t come back until you’ve gotten this power under control. Otherwise, well—” She let out a bitter laugh. “I figured it’d be Nasu or the Queen that killed me today. Not you. But we both know that if you stick around to fight, that you’ll be burying me tomorrow. If there's anything left of me to bury.”

“If that’s a price you’re willing to pay for your revenge, then I suppose I’ll be seeing you in a moment.”

Swallowing her own misery, she tore her eyes away from Lottus at last. She knew full well that it might be the last glimpse of her friend before he slipped even deeper into this ancient rage. But she had to act, and as she lifted herself higher and higher into the air, the steel of her blade began to radiate with power, until it hummed audibly and gave off a deep red glow. The steel had been attuned to conduct her energy, but she doubted it would be enough right now. She just couldn’t let those doubts stay her hand.

With little warning, she let out a sudden burst of speed and changed directions—leaving Lottus to contemplate her words. Silently praying he listened, she instead charged straight towards the Kai that had appeared earlier. If Lottus were to listen, she needed to eliminate the wildcard. He was the odd one out, and if he had turned to help Lottus as Vocado had suggested—then he was the second biggest obstacle to returning Lottus to normal… after Lottus himself.

"Vocado, on me! We have to move now!" she bellowed, but she didn't have time to check if he'd followed her. "Hit him with everything you've got!"

She moved quickly, a blur of red energy to most onlookers. As she drew in close, she clutched the hilt of her blade with both hands and threw her weight forward. She swung her blade in a mighty, cleaving arc. The steel itself might miss the Kai, but as it cut through the air, the energy that was stored within its steel began to discharge. An arching blade of red energy emerged from the tip of the blade, leaving the steel to sing a murderous song as it vibrated so heavily from the attack that it slipped from Cato’s hands and plummeted down to Hatchi.

Her breath caught in her throat. She wasn't sure she had the resolve to even hope that her ploy would work.

---

Excitement and fear rippled through her body in equal measures as the young fighter moved through the ruins of what once had been a thriving part of Hatchi’s Science district, most of the taller buildings now reduced to piles of rubble, barely a recognisable location left standing after the initial attack had begun. Ahead she could feel the powers clashing eyes lifting, searching the ruins ahead to watch a huge figure clash with a golden glow sheathed warrior. The power exuded off them both was the first thing that became obvious, the larger of the two she recognised as Nasu, was everything she thought a Saiyan should aspire to…which meant the other terror inducing figure was Lottus…or what Lottus had become. He shone with a strange light and power flowed from him like a waterfall crashing down all around them. He was both beautiful and awe inspiring, the young woman stopping in her tracks just to admire whatever it was that he had become.

When Nasu roared before he leapt to attack once more, she felt something pull at her heart, calling to her very spirit. The fear was still there, but it was as if it no longer mattered…the sound of his voice in the air like a call to arms for her soul. Inside the creature that had whimpered and whined before at being caged away, now bellowed for its freedom, once more flooding her mind with its own anger and excitement and while it wasn’t enough to push her from her Wrathful state, it was enough for the violent thoughts to over take any sound planning.

Cato and Vocado appeared to have changed tact and were racing towards the Kai, Cato with that sword of hers and the other with a blast of Ki that looked like it was going to envelope whoever this strange figure was. Amara had unleashed her own attack which powered towards Lottus and Nasu himself seemed to be fending off a blade of some kind from the golden Saiyan that had formed in his previously empty hand. Everything was happening so fast that the giant ship and the power floating overhead observing them was all but lost, the features of Brumal unreadable from this far away to the young woman.

Jagaimo shuddered as her own aura flared to life around her, ignoring the screams of protest from her own body. Muscles moved slowly as her one good hand raised in front of her, power blossoming in the palm. She’d never tried to do this with only one hand but she was nothing if not determined right now as the power balled in her open palm, growing into an orb bigger than her head, her teeth gritted when her hand snatched hold of the sphere of energy and the muscles in her legs bunched, cracking the stone pavement below her with the strength of her push off. Feet pounded the flagstones below them as the young warrior rushed headlong towards that glowing power, closing the distance rapidly before leaping into the air and arching overhead towards where Lottus and Nasu fought. The young Saiyan screamed wordlessly in a rage as she descended, lost in the moment, intended to drive her attack right into the heart of the shining yellow hair warrior.

Her eyes closed at the moment of impact, tendons popping and muscles tearing under the strain, body sagging to its knees as the blast detonated regardless of who or what she hit, blasting outwards in a sphere of force, crumbling whatever rubble still defied the odds by standing and crashing into anyone left in the area…