Dive into the Heart (AT - SPLIT)

Seeing Nero looking her up and down the crazed Saiyan thought of it as him sizing her up! Zhalla knew that wasn't true but-- Zhalla was kinda having it rough right now. This coupled with him daring to close his eyes like he had their first fight brought upon her a newfound wave of rage and fury, more so when he beckoned for her to come at him. It was just like their first match where at first she felt he was mocking her, being so cocky as to close his eyes as he didn't need sight to best her in combat. With the foresight she had now she simply now knew this was because of his enhanced hearing but her crazed transformed state didn't care or know on any of that, all she saw right now was her opponent with his eyes closed egging her on to attack him.

And so she did. The axe soared straight for the hybrid but even with his eyes closed he'd manage to snag the thrown axe by the handle, the weight behind her attack yet again disappearing. Just like that. Zhalla didn't like that, she didn't like that at all. The saiyan's eye would twitch as she glared daggers at Nero, watching him toss her weapon back across to her so that it landed at her feet. He was talking again, this time she heard it, which was strange since she couldn't understand the last time when he was expressing his want to help her, but she did understand him telling her to pick her weapon back up. Something that only seemed to piss her off more.

Zhalla would clutch at her head and growl and groan as she tried to keep her golden eyes fixated on her opponent-- It was getting hard though with the mark on her forehead burning and her anger building up to an overboiling degree.

Soon he was making his way towards her but she could hardly keep up with the speed of his movements! Nero was hardly more then a flicker it would seem but he was certainly approaching. Suddenly he had jumped and she would move her arms to try and block the aerial kick-- Her block was sloppy at best though and she hadn't accounted for the staff either. A big mistake on her part considering she knew it was usually his main choice of weapon, how could she have forgotten something like that? Either way the large Saiyan would stumble and lose her balance enough to come crashing down to the grass below after the hit had bonked her on the head- Nero would be able to establish the mental contact he wanted through physical touch but for how long would it last? How stable was the connection truly? And would it work out? For now all Nero would be able to see there was nothing but a blank empty space, there was no sound, no colour no nothing aside from himself and what seemed like an endless room of nothing.

Not long after being sent to the floor Zhalla would claw her fingers through the dirt as she moved to push herself back up onto her knees. She had to get back up, she always got back up. She had to win this time, she couldn't lose again. Not again. She just had to keep pushing herself, she could overcome this. Nero's landed hits had left her feeling unsteady though. Pathetic, one smack to the head from his flimsy little staff and she was sent crashing down unable to stand again properly?
Get. Back. Up.

Zhalla would squeeze her own eyes shut as she clutched at her head and made an awful noise of pain and anguish as with her other arm she tried to push herself back up onto her feet-- She would manage this but she was visibly unsteady and still making the kind of noise that was hard to listen to. Her pained noises still held her same fury from before, even more so than before in fact just now with the added pain on top. The noises weren't just because she'd been whacked either, something else was at play... That true potential mentioned earlier, her true form of this transformation.

Stumbling a bit through the grass she had reached out for the axe that had been tossed back to her to have it return back to her hand but she'd only end up dropping the both of them as she eventually was overwhelmed by this boiling feeling of pain that had overcome her. As her golden eyes faded instead into a deep pink-red which proceeded to cloud over the entirety of her eyes Zhalla would let out a cry-- One that actually sounded like her trying to put together words rather then the usual growls and grumbles she'd done before now. Nero's sharp ears would no doubt catch the attempt to ask for help even in amongst all the other awful noises she was making. Maybe even catching a faint echo of it from within the nothing as well.

Usually when someone made a grab of any kind towards Zhalla's axes-- Power, physical or otherwise they'd be met with little success, physically because Zhalla herself would usually beat them for even trying, but power wise it had been near impossible to achieve given the careful nature she had about them when in her proper state of mind. As a Bounty Hunter of her degree she made sure her weapons weren't something that could be used against her and would always remain her greatest ally only, meaning they were usually engulfed in her ki enough to not react when someone else tried pulling them towards themselves in response to their own ki or telekinetic powers even. This time though it would work. The two twin axes would burn instead in the same bright blue hue Nero had put out in her mind before soaring through the air only to stop at Nero's sides-- Or wherever he wanted them to, implying Zhalla trusted him enough to have put in measures so that his ki signature bypassed her little safety measure even on her most beloved weapons.

Zhalla herself had hit the breaking point though and she'd claw and tear away at her clothing as ginger fur started to cover her body-- Nero's earlier attempts at keeping the clothing intact for her transformations hadn't really accounted for she herself ripping it off in the process like it was some kind of chain to break out of. Good thing he'd asked for her to bring that extra set earlier on in the day though since this set was practically nothing more then shreds after she was done with it, her person now fully covered in fur and bulking to incredible heights, she'd always been quite large even for a Saiyan so her Oozaru height was all the more massive even in comparison to most Oozaru heights and covered in a thick curly ginger fur that matched her usual wild hair in her usual form.

With her canine teeth growing out to more then double their usual size and sharpness Zhalla's change from Wrathful to Oozaru was finally complete and she'd let out an almighty roar to signify this, her eyes burning that pinky red colour they'd now turned into. From within the blank expanse that was currently her mind everything for Nero would begin to shake and tremble, like a mind-earthquake was starting to occur but despite the shudders he'd still be able to keep up the connection, turning the blank slate into more of a blank but now blue slate-- It wasn't all just for a change of colour though as the more the blue hue expanded the more he'd be able to pick up on of her or what was currently left of her within her own head.

At first there was the faint echo for help which he responded to, after some moments of silence though the next few sounds he'd be able to pick up on were... Tears? Soft tears hitting a bare floor. It was a sound as soft as a pin being dropped but if anyone could catch it, it was Nero and the closer her got to those sounds, the more he'd be able to pick up on the soft but painful cries that brought those tears on in the first place. They still sounded quite far away though but even with the distance it was clear to hear the hurt behind the whimpers.

Nero's roar back at her earnt a quick headturn from the giant Oozaru who was quick to glare down at him for having made the noise in response to hers. Even in her Oozaru from she still somewhat held that look Zhalla gave off when offended and that was present here when hearing his roar and stayed upon her face as she watched him soar up into the sky to meet her gaze given her new height. A low growl would rumble at the back of the Oozaru's throat watching Nero twirl his new weapon around behind him.

Before she could think much on the fact that he'd turned her weapons into something totally new by merging both their weapons together, Nero had launched an attack at her-- One she'd seen before but still wasn't prepared to counter in this new overly large form she wasn't used to being in. The Swift Masenko would hit its mark, hitting her snout with such a force she would raise her large arms to cover it in response and shriek in pain and anger at having been hit, using her spare arm to try and swipe Nero out of the air and away from her. A burning ball of ki starting to build up in the mouth of the beast as she slowly started trying to bounce back from the pain of the attack. Tremendous amounts of ki started to build up from within the giant ape but she didn't launch anything back at the other saiyan just yet... Instead keeping up her swiping at him with her hands and tail to try and knock him out of the air.

The more Nero wandered on inside her head the more things started to slowly grow clearer, when the Masenko physically hit her Oozaru form he'd be able to hear a desperate cry of pain much louder then the crying from before ring out in the nothingness, which around him was steadily becoming less and less nothing and more like a scene he'd seen once before. Grass started to form beneath his feet and on the ground up ahead of him as well, eventually gaining colour the further he pressed on as well. Soon enough he'd be able to feel... Rain? From up above him and trees started to spring up all around him too, another shout would ring out-- This time a much more desperate and hopelessly frustrated one, just as a clap of thunder accompanied by a flash of lightning rang out around Nero within Zhalla's mindscape. It certainly wasn't a whole lot of nothing now. He was in a full fledged forest in the middle of a thunderstorm, surely he recognized where he had seen this all once before...

But it wasn't just one forest either, or not exactly one place it would seem. It almost seemed like two places all at once, one half being an Earth forest and the other somewhere here on Namek itself. Somewhere he would also probably remember having been not to long ago before as well. Where ever it was he found himself now either way it was now bucketing with rain and the pained sounds and soft cries from before were now muffled by the added noise, but still plainly there and much less far away now. Zhalla was probably around here somewhere. But where? Nero didn't have much further to go it sounded like at least, he was getting close! Even with all the other sounds going on a faint sound of what seemed to be metal being tugged against metal chains could be heard as well... Metal chains? Out here in this mental visage of a mixture of forests? What could those even be for?

The Oozaru's build up of power was slowly starting to show through to the telepathic connection Nero had built up too though however, as burning green cracks started to form on different parts of the forest around him, busting open nearby rocks and tree trunks, the Great Ape's eyes brimming with furious energy...

Annoyingly the tiny in comparison Nero would simply duck and weave the angry swipes of the giant ginger Oozaru, he was much too fast to get caught by something so simple and sluggish in comparison to his sharp movements. The creation of many instances of himself made the great ape roar back angrily in frustration, it didn't matter which one was the real him or not she would simply swipe down the lot of them! She'd continue using her tail and hands to try and bat Nero and his duplicated versions of himself out of the air and away from herself for a few moments more before growing tired of missing, growing more and more angry and eager to hit something.

Well, he could dodge her swipes and tail flicks all he wanted, but could he'd have a harder time dodging what came next as Zhalla finally had enough power built up now to pull off what she was wanting to try now. Usually this attack looked much different when she was in her much smaller forms and she usually utilized her trusty axes when pulling it off but now she was much too big and hairy for any of that and her axes much too small for her to even pick up and use properly-- Not to mention Nero now had them so she couldn't try and use them even if she was able to utilize them! It was no matter though she didn't need them to pull it off, this form had its own way of going about the move she wanted to pull off after all. She knew this because she had already done it once before... Not on Nero, but on another loved one long ago.

Baring her teeth before opening her mouth to reveal a large built up beam of ki that was practically spilling out the sides of her snout in the form of green ki flames, her eyes burning a bright red from the amount of energy built up. The Oozaru before Nero would aim and fire off the explosive beam towards him-- Him and his duplicates, she didn't seem to care where the drawn out beam would hit she still attempted to hit as many instances of him as she could and destroy some of the landscape around them in the process if necessary. It was very much a careless, brash and very destructive move on her part but that was to be expected given the Oozaru state she was in right now. Nero had also asked her to bring it on, so he got what he wanted! With the wild burst of ki fired off the Oozaru would bellow out a roar loud enough to shake the world around them, proud of the damage she'd just sent billowing her lovers way.

Inside the mind Nero carried on undeterred by the cracks starting to form in the visage around him. They continued to grow and everything around him would shudder once more given the Oozaru had just fired off a large attack but still he pressed on. His efforts would soon prove fruitful as eventually he would come across Zhalla-- Though she wasn't quite reachable yet as there seemed to be some kind of invisible barrier that'd separate the two, was it because of that Majin's attempt to mind control her earlier? Or a self inflicted barrier Zhalla had somehow managed to try and protect others from herself? Who knew but whatever it was would keep Nero a short distance away with no way to reach out to her, but he would be able to see her.

And she looked awful...

She looked like she'd been out in the rain of this forest the entire time, her curly ginger hair dripping wet and plastered to parts of her face, with metal chains around her wrists that seemingly were tied to nothing else but the ground around her and yet despite this seemingly easy thing to pull them from, no amount of tugging and straining to pull herself free ever seemed get her even the slightest bit closer to pulling herself free of them. Her eyes were drowning in both tears and the rain around them and she kept them shut almost the entire time as she kept trying to yank her wrists free but to no avail, her boots sliding and slipping around in the ground around her that had now turned to mud from her efforts to pick herself back up against the pull of the chains. Even with her hair mostly plastered all over her face it would still be fairly easy to see the blood now running down from her nose as well-- Probably from the hit from beforehand to her Oozaru body on the outside.

The sounds of her struggling in pain and desperate cries of frustration to break free would soon die down though as Nero approached, as she instead slumped down and watched the blood, tears and rain just drip down from her hair and face down into the grass and mud below. She seemed tremendously tired and worn down, a hopeless lonely feeling washing over the mindscape around them. It almost seemed like she was ready to give up fighting.

In both instances of Nero's aura igniting as he blazed on forwards looking to be engulfed he would get a response from Zhalla-- In her mind she would finally look up from the ground below and would squint as she tried to have her eyes adjust and see through the sudden light in front of her trying to work out what it was-- Her Oozaru self would also squint her eyes, but more so to shield herself from the sudden bright light rather then to try and look through it, giving an annoyed grumble sort of noise in response to the harsh light.

Nero was only engulfed in both instances for but a few moments before blasting through Oozaru Zhalla's attack, fizzling the mighty beam to nothing more then scattered flickers that couldn't really harm anybody or anything around them anymore, as the Oozaru roared in rage as a response to this thwarting of her most proud ability she didn't seem ready and definitely didn't account for what came next-- A simple kiss to the forehead? The giant monkey seemed to freeze mid-raging and look confused at the gesture. What kind of attack was that? The great ape would stumble a little before sitting down upon the Namek grass still looking confused. Well at least she wasn't still trying to break things and hit him, right? For the moment at least.

Her true self though would wince at the light as Nero thrust his staff into the barrier between them, flooding her mind full of memories the two shared together. Zhalla looked both full of hope again as well as panicked and frightened at seeing Nero here likely due to fearing for his safety at being here. His flood of memories shared between the two did help to soothe her though and eventually she would let down her guard so her side of the barrier would fade away into nothingness. Letting Nero strike through the other blocker in his path which after a few well placed hits from his staff would start to crack before eventually shattering completely as well, leaving nothing in his way now to stop him from embracing her and planting yet another kiss on her forehead.

Zhalla would lean into Nero after he embraced her, trying to place her head against his shoulder after he planted his kiss on her forehead-- She couldn't embrace him back given she still had her chains but she seemed relieved to be in his embrace, the lonely feeling that was weighing so heavily before slowly was starting to lift itself away. For a few moments the Saiyan would just let herself cry into Nero's shoulder, wishing she could hold him there so she could keep her face hidden. She felt ashamed and like she'd let him down in regards to their training. The one thing she feared would happen if they gave that training a try happened. It was just like when she fought Dion, nearly killing her own brother. Nero hadn't been hurt sure... But he certainly could have been and it'd of been all her fault.

"_{I'm sorry}" She'd eventually manage to choke out an exhausted whisper before drawing herself away from his comforting hug. The lonely feeling had subsided but another, even stronger feeling was boiling and bubbling and starting to reach a breaking point. She could feel it building up in her gut and in her heart, it was one much heavier then anything she'd felt before and she knew she was seconds away from having it explode just like how she had felt with her fury when she transformed into this mess for the very first time...

"You shouldn't be here it's not safe"

Nero was so quick to forgive her and reiterate holding true to his promise and while that was all well and good and it was up to him to forgive her she still held so much guilt... That lonely feeling from before was gone now but in its place was now a heavy wave of sadness and feeling responsible for horrible things, it all washed down on her like an angry wave at the beach cliffsides during an aggressive storm. Which for once made her feel something stronger than her anger and fury even while in her transformed state, for once another feeling overpowered even that, she'd felt close to it before but now the reality of all that she'd done whenever she'd transformed now and in the past was crashing down on her hard. All the hurt she'd caused others especially her loved ones no less while in either her Wrathful or Oozaru state, it had all caught up now that she had access to all those memories of what happened and what she'd done while transformed. What she'd done that resulted in the death of her old Earth caretaker, Zinde. How she'd hurt her own older brother so badly he was practically an inch from death itself and now here. With Nero.

"But it's not okay, I could've hurt you like I did Dion and--" But Nero was having none of that! He made it abundantly clear that no matter the danger he'd be here for her. He called her a whole bunch of things some certainly deserved and others that earnt a raised messy eyebrow, but over all the things he said and called her he said that funny little three worded one as well. Zhalla's face would flush slightly with colour at hearing it be said directly to her like she always had, before this time raising both eyebrows at Nero showing he'd brought her axes along with him. She didn't need to ask how he did it, she already knew.

Soon he'd start putting them to use too by bring them down upon the chains that were keeping her down, keeping her trapped here within her own traumatic memories. It was quite the sight to see Nero using her trusty weapons for the first time but what was even more touching was what Nero had to say as he tried his best to help break her free. Zhalla would look to Nero's eyes as he tried explaining to her to let her sadness be what it is but to not let it define her either, that she only felt the way she did because she cared and that that was beautiful too. The saiyan would give a small hiccup kind of a noise, it was crazy hearing anything about her be called that when she was kneeling here in a mess of mud, blood and rain but she wasn't laughing about it. Actually she'd started trying to hold back tears like she always did when she needed to cry about something by the point Nero had gotten to pointing out how he didn't just love her at her best but also at her worst as well. A lot of what he'd said was striking a chord, there was nothing she could do to change the past now, what happened with Zinde and Dion had happened, it was done and dusted and no amount of guilt changed that. What she could change though was the fact that it held her down, she knew the other three would give her their forgiveness but she needed to also give that forgiveness to herself as well.

She was terrible at holding back those tears and had broken down more as soon as Nero's hand reached her face in order to stroke her cheek, by now he had plenty of fresh tears to wipe away. It wasn't a wholly sad kind of cry though and Nero would be able to tell that. He'd dropped the axes now but a deep gut feeling told her they were no longer needed to break the chains, Nero had made the start on breaking them now she only needed to take the final step to destroy them for good. She needed to get back up, she could break the chains. She would break them--

-- Her eyes would shine a brilliant blue as they caught sight of a somewhat familiar blue stone. It was the one Nero had gotten during their date at the Outer Plait. She'd wondered what it was for at the time, what made it so special? Well, now she knew. She was the one he wanted to be with, the stone and that look in his eyes-- The Oozaru's eyes would widen suddenly before rapidly she'd start shrinking down in size, the Great Ape features fading as she returned to her usual- Albeit still quite large- Height. That big ol snout would return into her usual nose and facial features and the fur would cease to cover her from head to toe, until eventually the regular Zhalla was left on the ground on her knees with Nero's hand still on her cheek.

Zhalla would stare at the blue stone for a few moments before looking to Nero as he asked that question. In an instant Zhalla would feel that growing feeling from before erupt into a surge of ki and power and the chains on her mindscape self would quickly snap and fizzle away into nothingness at her newfound strength as the ginger Saiyan moved forwards in a move that'd snap the two both back to being just their physical selves now that they were both fully whole again. A quick grab of the front of Nero's blue coat later though and she'd pulled that sucker in for a quick kiss before following it up with a tight embrace, newfound tears with a whole new meaning to them steaming down her face all the while.

As she held Nero the Saiyan's usual ginger curls would erupt into a golden light that practically exploded outwards until her hair looked like a miniature sun that glowed around her face, her tail wrapped around the duo similarly gaining the same golden blonde glow as her hair both with soft orangey-yellow patterned fades. Her eyes would turn from the usual pink and green instead into a dazzling blue much similar to that of the stone Nero was presenting her with in order to propose-- Though Nero would only get to see that change once she opened her tear-filled eyes again after pulling back from the hug enough to finally give her answer to his question-- "Yes, Nero Howlmarrow-- Wait what happened to your hair?-- Why're you glowing? What's this on your face?" She seemingly hadn't noticed her own appearance changes yet and would would stop trying to wipe away any of her tears now to instead use her hands to grab Nero's face and feel along his chin and jawline to inspect the new facial hair he seemingly had grown so suddenly. Boy she had so many questions.