The Price of Love

Gira let out a breathless chuckle as she heard Maxsuz roar and curse over her attack that struck him right in the eye. She had managed to wound him, but that didn't mean that the battle was even close to over. Taking a deep breath, Gira slipped into a shaky Turtle Stance. With the pain and adrenaline coursing through her veins, it was next to impossible for her to stand still. As the great dragon crashed down onto the cliff near her, Gira's stance faltered slightly from the shifting of the stone. Gira grinned up at her old friend.

"Sorry about that, but I had to at least give you a little something for all of those strikes from earlier." It seemed that the destruction of his eye wasn't going to stick, however. Once Maxsuz removed his paw from the injured part of his face, the mark Gira had left was revealed to be completely healed.

"Regeneration, huh? Of course." Gira silently cursed her luck. However, the change appeared to be mostly cosmetic. The dent she had left to his energy was still there, proof of her successful counterattack. At Max's taunting and flaunting of his massive size, Gira simply frowned.

"What are you calling me a monkey for, dude? I mean, I don't even have a tail." Gira wagged her hips back and forth tauntingly to show off this fact, shooting a confident smirk in the dragon's direction. 

"But if you really want me to "go ape," then you've gotta earn it" Gira's bravado was strong, but that Kamehameha took literally everything she had. She wasn't sure how much she had left in the tank, if anything at all. Then Maxsuz continued his assault, opening his giant, gaping maw before unleashing an unrelenting volley of dark, burning projectiles made of the same shadowy fire that he had been utilizing throughout their bout. Gira kicked off the ground, flipping backwards over and over as the fiery dark stakes embedded themselves in the ground, barely missing the young warrior as she continued her trajectory backwards. Reaching the edge of the cliff, she moved to transition into a series of flying evasive maneuvers, but she was just slightly off her beat.

The Saiyan felt an intense, searing pain as one of these stakes embedded themselves in her leg, gritting her teeth in order to keep herself from crying out in agony. She hung in midair off of the cliff, quickly reaching down and grasping onto the burning shard of energy that was searing the inside of her leg. At this point, the pain at having to grab the thing was nothing to her. With a pained grunt, Gira pulled the stake out of her leg, looking over at Maxsuz before crushing it in her hand. 

"That all you've got?" She grinned confidently in the dragon's direction. Despite her confidence, however, Gira was certain that she wouldn't be able to put any weight on that leg for now. The searing pain still remained despite the removal of the intruding object from the appendage. Her only choice was to keep flying.

"You getting tired? 'Cuz that last series of attacks hurt way more than that. Me, on the other hand?" Gira stanced up once again.

"I'm just getting started!" Gira rocketed towards Maxsuz, rearing back with her good leg in what appeared to be an attempt to aim a kick at the dragon's throat. However, she allowed her momentum to carry through as she swung around to Max's head instead, aiming a downward kick directly at the center of his cranium!

Gira screamed out in a mix of agony and rage as her foot collided with the dragon's head, sending him to the ground as Gira used his head to perform a quick backflip before landing on the ground. She winced once she put weight on her foot. The young hero was immediately aware that this desperate strike had broken several bones in her foot. Max's words in response to her taunt caused Gira to frown again.

"Don't be an idiot! I didn't backstab anyone! I'm not gonna kill anyone. Especially not people who are just defending themselves. What, you gonna blame me for what happened on Arcose, too? I heard about how that went. The whole plan was half-baked at best. Best case scenario for you, a bunch of people die, some of them being your enemies, and then everyone in the entire galaxy hates us and hunts us down forever. My plan was to seek forgiveness from these people and maybe even make them into friends. I wanted to save all of your lives. Even if it made all of you hate me." Gira clenched her fists, her stone cold resolve wavering.

"What reason did you have to kill those people on Arcose? I really wanna know. You didn't have to do that. That's what led to this whole mess to begin with. Don't blame me for your awful choices. Everything that happened was your fault, not mine!" Visibly shaking with rage, Gira took a deep breath in a vain attempt to calm herself down. She didn't remember Max being like this... but maybe that was just because he was her friend. She didn't see who he was because she didn't want to. 

Maxsuz wasn't willing to listen to Gira. That much was clear to her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get him to reckon with his own mistakes and see why she abandoned the plan. The young Saiyan understood that it was easy to blame her. She was supposed to fight the invaders on Namek, but she failed to do so. While she initially attempted to fight Ticoga directly, Zuqetta had blocked her attack and took her some place where they could talk. If Gira did what she was told, taking out Zuqetta would have been easy in her base form. Then she could have returned to the fight and victory would have probably been all but assured. Even if she couldn't take down Ticoga on her own despite her slight power advantage, if she had help from just one of her two allies, then she would have won easily. But what would have been the point? The invasion of Arcose would have still failed. Nothing she did on Namek would have changed that.

What's more, instead of gaining friends and finding the love of her life, she would have made an enemy of two separate planets. Perhaps three depending on how angry Nero would have been at her. She and her friends in the Hoken would have been hunted down to the end of their days. That was no way to live. In spite of everything, Gira believed still that she made the right decision. At the very least, Zuqetta and Ticoga weren't going to actively hunt down the survivors from the Hoken thanks to her appeals. From her point of view, things turned out better than she initially expected. It was just a shame that Maxsuz didn't see it that way. Perhaps he never would. 

"And you're telling me that Marimba was nothing but cordial with Ticoga? That's not what I heard. When I hear two separate stories, that can only mean either you or Ticoga are lying to me... and Ticoga has been completely open and honest so far. Despite how the meeting turned out, I still believe that Marimba is an honorable Namekian and really cared for the planet. You, though... you only care about yourself. We were only ever a means to an end for you. Just like Yangcong was. Maybe if we met sooner, I could have helped you. I'm really sorry that didn't happen. As things stand right now, though..." Gira winced as she forced herself to put weight on her bad legs, ready to continue the fight.

"...You need to pay for what you did. You need to spend the rest of your life making it up to the people whose lives you destroyed at the casino... and here today. You never will, but you at least need to try." Gira's aura flared around her once again, her emerald eyes shining with determination. She walked towards the dragon on unsteady feet, stumbling slightly as the shockwave from his paw colliding with the ground washed over her. 

"Even if I die here today, I want you to remember what I said. I want you to really think about the people whose lives will never be the same. Everyone you killed had a family. People who cared about them. I'm fighting for those people. It isn't even about my own survival anymore. I want you to think about this, too; Zuqetta had no intention to kill anyone that day. Again, thanks to me arguing on the behalf of all of you guys. I love Zuqetta. Yeah. Honestly, I feel more for her than I have for anyone I have ever met. She's a good, kind queen, who agreed to be merciful despite her own pain and anger. I used to think what happened to you was a sufficient excuse for your ways... but not anymore. Zuqetta proved to me that the past doesn't mean anything. You have the ability to choose who you are, and you chose to be this. A monster. But that doesn't mean it has to be that way. You can also choose to go back and try again. To make a better life for yourself." Despite her pleas, Gira knew that they would fall on deaf ears. For some reason, though, she simply had to keep trying. Even if Maxsuz killed her here, maybe what she said would resonate with him... someday. 

As Maxsuz screamed at her one final time, Gira raised her fists in a shaky defensive posture, protecting her face from the high winds and the power that sparked off of Maxsuz. Her own aura began to flicker. She was running out of power fast. If she was going to end this, she had to do it quickly. Even though the people of Sadala were not in danger right now, she couldn't be sure that Maxsuz wouldn't just go back and finish the city once he was done with her. Gira saw only one recourse; hitting him with everything she had. Even if it wasn't enough to put a stop to him, she would at least hopefully injure him enough to curb his appetite for destruction. Emphasis on the "hopefully" part. 

"Let's put an end to this whole thing, Max! No matter what happens, let's give it everything we've got! We'll make it one for the history books!" Gira narrowed her eyes at the dragon, slowly lowering her arms and digging as deep as she could, scraping the proverbial barrel for every last bit of energy she could muster. Her flickering aura swelled once again, nearly matching the dragon's own for one final gambit. Maxsuz wasn't like Lottus. Gira doubted he would let her charge up an attack just to prove to her that he could tank it. That being the case, she would just have to make do with what she could gather in these few moments. No matter how this ended, Gira was going to make sure that the two of them had no regrets. Cupping her hands at her sides, Gira prepared to charge her most powerful Kamehameha yet!

Gira continued to simply glare across the battlefield in silence at Maxsuz as he taunted her, saying that her technique was worthless and would not be enough to save her. Even if that was true, she wasn't about to just lie down and die. So long as she still had strength left in her body, she would fight. Digging deep inside, she dug into her deepest reserves of strength. She aimed her palms at the great dragon in her Kamehameha stance before cupping them at her side.

"Ka... me..." Sweat poured down the young hero's face as she began to gather all the energy she was able to muster into a single point between her palms. Her breathing had become more labored as she struggled to maintain the power she needed to perform her technique. Still, she managed to do it. If for no other reason than to make one last push in the hopes that she could stop him from ruining her beloved's city once he was done with her.

At this point, there would only be one of two possible outcomes; either she would die from their exchange, or they both would. Gira could feel her life slipping away with every bit of energy she was pouring into the attack. Having already burned through her normal reservoir of power, she was now digging into the energy she needed to stay alive.

Gira began to pant heavily as she scraped up more and more power, concentrating it between her palms, where she was building up her strongest attack. She could feel herself growing weaker by the second. She had to throw this attack soon, or she would die before even getting the chance. Gira shook her head, banishing those thoughts from her mind. She had to stay alive. She had to. Just long enough to throw out this attack. Long enough to protect Sadala from the rampage of Maxsuz. Growling with grit and determination, Gira roared out; "HA... MEEEE!!" 

Despite her determination to stay alive and protect Sadala, however, her energy signature didn't lie. As her attack grew in power, the energy of Gira herself began to fade. Pulling the sphere of energy in her grip backwards, she prepared to push it forward once again and put an end to this battle... one way or another. Whether she won the coming struggle or not, she wouldn't be around to see it. Even now, she was havign a hard time keeping conscious. The only reason she hadn't given up yet was because of the thought that Zuqetta was counting on her. Gira didn't want her to return to the planet, only to find the city completely destroyed and its people scattered to the winds.

As her Kamehameha's energy reached its apex, Gira prepared to meet her fate.

It was time. With one final declaration of his intent, Max fired his Irradiar directly at Gira. The young Saiyan could tell just from feeling the intense energy heading her way; it contained more than enough power to destroy the planet if it was allowed to hit the ground completely unchallenged. This didn't change what she already planned on doing, but it added to the sense of urgency. Gira drew back the energy that she had managed to gather, ready to unleash all of its power to clash with Max's attack. With one final battle cry, she unleashed all of her power in one single attack.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Throwing her hands forward, Gira's Kamehameha burst forth from her palms, rocketing through the air to meet with the dragon's attack. The two techniques clashed in the air between them, unleashing a shockwave that flattened every single tree, rock, and standing structure within several miles. Where the two attacks met, the mountain itself was completely atomized. The area of devastation continued to grow as the two techniques struggled for dominance until eventually, the entire peak of the mountain was completely destroyed from the display of power. The young Saiyan struggled to maintain her position in this struggle, but she was quickly losing ground.

Gira growled and roared with effort as she tried to push back against the technique, but it was all in vain. Even if she was at full strength, this technique was too much for her to bear. As she began to be overtaken by the energy, she dug her heels into the ground. Even though she tried her hardest, the force of the energy pushed her backward across the stone until her back was literally against the wall. As her Kamehameha began waning in power, she was pushed through the stone cliff behind her. The next second, Max's Irradiar overtook her, Gira's own attack dissipating in a burst of blue energy. Gira let out an agonized scream as she was burned by the sheer power of the technique. Eventually, the screams stopped as the attack detonated, completely obliterating the entire area and the heat from their clashed techniques melting all of the snow on what remained of the mountain. 

Gira was left in a pile of rubble, unable to move. Her injuries were severe, and she was quite certain that what she was feeling now was her life fading away from her. The young Saiyan's vision began to blur and her body grew completely numb. She had no more energy left to put into this battle. For the first time, she had been well and truly outplayed. 

Gira was barely conscious once Maxsuz arrived on the scene, though she did take notice when he returned to his normal state. She couldn't fight anymore. She couldn't even run, not that she would want to. As Maxsuz approached her, she fought with all of her remaining strength to crane her neck forward to look at him, but to no avail. She couldn't even move her head. As her former friend lifted Gira up by her collar and screamed at her, she looked at him with one open eye, the other one shut to keep out the blood flowing from her forehead.

Soon, however, she would feel the impact of his fist against her face. The young Saiyan couldn't find it in her to even resist. Every single blow caused her ears to ring, distorting the desperate, angered cries of Maxsuz. One blow shattered her front teeth, another fracturing her eye socket, yet another breaking her nose. Once Maxsuz was finished, Gira was a broken, bloodied mess on the ground. She looked up at him, her vision blurred and tinged red from the blood in her eyes. Despite the absolutely brutal beatdown he had just delivered to her, Gira noticed that sadness tainted the rant he had been on as he was doing it. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She knew how it must have felt. He thought that she betrayed him, but nothing could be further from the truth. All she ever wanted to do was save him and the rest of her friends. Yangcong put it best when he said that her heart was different from theirs. She couldn't continue to sanction their methods, nor could she participate in them any longer.

A single bloody tear rolled down her cheek as she reached out with a shaky hand, gingerly touching Maxsuz's cheek. That was all she had the strength to do; in this moment, when Gira thought her life was at an end, she wanted her old friend to know that she forgave him for this. Her body finally gave out, her arm falling limp at her side. Her mind, however, was still active... and she was afraid. In her delirious, fear-fueled state, she reached out to Zuqetta unknowingly with her mind. The Saiyan queen would hear the following message as though it were coming through static, but the voice would be recognizable.

'Z...Zuq... h-help... me... i'm... scared...'

And then it was over. Gira had finally lost consciousness.