Before The Blood Runs Dry (Kabe)

BEFORE THE BLOOD RUNS DRY

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Kabe gasped, losing air as Vocado once again jabbed him in the chest. This time the results were not so painful. Ruptured insides slid back together, and Kabe could feel this awful itch crawling through his body out from where Vocado had stabbed the healing agent into him. Then he took in a breath, and he laughed a little at Vocado's comment about how cowardly Hoshikui was. It certainly didn't feel cowardly when it was ripping it's teeth into every neuron in his brain. But sometimes shit is different to how it feels.

He nodded at his other words, and slowly stood up, rubbing at his shoulder. He moved and grabbed his jacket, pulling it on. He hated how often this fucking thing threw this jacket - his favorite jacket, to the wayside because it was the teensiest bit restrictive. He looked over to Vocado and shook his head.

"I can't breathe in space. But I can definitely get us a ship." he said, and he walked closer to the opening into space, feeling the sun leaking through what little barrier remained, burning at his itching skin. He thought for a moment, about what kind of ship he could pull from his gullet to get them out of here. He had too many small vessels tucked away to count... but he remembered one time he fought an Anokoku patroller, who had a ship that could move through high energy spaces for him to eat. He snapped his fingers, aching as he coughed it up instead of his usual snazzy flash of light.

"Ignore the spit on the outside, let's get out of here."

BEFORE THE BLOOD RUNS DRY

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As they moved into the ship Kabe laughed, glad to hear his little cough up wasn't the most bizarre thing his spacefaring soldier uncle had run across in his travels. The sheltered soldier had been finally getting a taste of the strange and unusual things that existed out across the galaxies. He knew he didn't have the keys. "Yeah, I'll just-" he started, about to get the vehicle started using his criminal skillset when he watched Vocado take his place under the dashboard. He went to offer help, but watched as with practiced hands, Vocado split the wires and triggered the ignition in a matter of seconds.

He nodded, feeling the heat burning through his skin and starting to cook at his insides like some kind of wok pot stew, and launched the ship straight into a burst of hyperdrive speed. They were in the middle of nowhere, black expanse in all their views, but at least they were out of the heat. He mopped his own brow, and sat down.

"Since when could you hotwire a spaceship?" Kabe asked, incredulous. He was impressed, though and that much was obvious despite his teasing tone. "Doesn't exactly seem like standard military training, Warmaster."

BEFORE THE BLOOD RUNS DRY

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He laughed really hard at the reminiscing Vocado was doing. He knew very little about his mother given she'd died when he was really young, but he knew she was tough as fucking nails, and he definitely knew that a saint she was not. Even still, hearing about how she used to go off on joyrides, and taught her little brothers to hotwire and steal ships... left him with a big smile. He felt connected to her in that moment. Thought about every time he'd ever hotwired one of these things, and how in another life that might have come from her, instead of survival.

But Kabe's smile faded from his face as cold air dulled the burning itch in his skin, wiped away by Vocado's reminder of his 'stomach bug problem'.

"Yeah, I... know." he grumbled, and he sat up. He did need to face this, and he'd so desperately wanted Vocado to be there for him all this time he'd been struggling. Now that he was here, things were complicated. And they'd just thrown hands and left Kabe filled with a whirl of conflicting feelings... but he trusted Vocado. He knew he did.

So he shook his head at Vocado's question, instead of misdirecting to something else he'd rather talk about. "No. Not a single time, and it's not exactly like I go around practicing. The... first time, I think I only got to that level of power because I finally let that thing out. Now, with how that form completely rips the reigns from me, I have no way of keeping it locked down at all." There was a look of genuine fear in Kabe's eyes, and he looked off for a moment to the stars. "I'm scared that one of these days I'm going to lose it and hurt someone that really matters. I already did that to Dion, and attacked Bee. Tried to eat you, I'm just lucky you're tougher than I am. What if I lose my shit and wake up to my husband dead in my jaws?"

BEFORE THE BLOOD RUNS DRY

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"Yeah. He was amused." Kabe said, and he remembered the way Lottus had revelled in their fight, and the carnage they wrought. He remembered the taste of flesh, both raw and seared. He remembered a hand on his chin, a look in his eyes... and then he brought his focus back to Vocado as a medical machine popped up from nothing.

He stared at the flourescent light. He had no control in Super Saiyan. It felt like some sort of bullshit for his uncle to tell him he just needed to learn to exert his will. As if he hadn't tried. As if he hadn't clawed like an animal back there every time other than Lottus.

But Vocado was right, wasn't he? He needed this. To prove he could handle this, like Zhalla thought he could. To prove he could control himself, like he had before the lid broke off. To prove this vortex of emotions couldn't rip the roof off him and toss over his things unless he let it. He could stand. He could try.

"Okay. Okay. I got it." he raked a hand through his hair as he spoke, looking exasperated. "So... is the plan to just keep letting this thing go at you until I somehow figure out a way from under it? Or is there a trick? Please, tell me there's some trick to this shit." Kabe really hoped Vocado had some sort of real plan for managing this.

He didn't touch the machine, just stared. He wasn't sure he wanted to heal. Pain was grounding.

BEFORE THE BLOOD RUNS DRY

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Kabe took off his jacket, folding it neatly and setting it beside the medical machine as he listened to Vocado speak. Exposure. Had he not had enough exposure to this form already? He already had done such terrible things in it. Whatever, he shook his head and took Vocado's hand, easing down into the mixture, feeling the viscous liquid pool into and around his jeans before soaking into the denim with an awful feeling.

Too hard. Too fast. Methodically approach this. That was Vocado's plan, even if Kabe laughed at him explaining that really his plan was to keep beating the absolute fuck out of him. Kabe wasn't good at this sort of thing: discipline. Regimentation. Repeating the same thing over and over until he mastered it. It's why he fought on instinct. It's why he had no formal training, because he had never committed his mind like that.

But he needed to, now.

He nodded at Vocado and let himself sink into the liquid fully, closing his eyes. He'd figure this out. He'd let Vocado hurt him over and over again. He deserved to get this through pain... but he would get this. For Bee. And Kumero. And little Daucus.

A little over an hour later, Kabe opened his eyes. He couldn't make anything clear out through the fluid, and sure it would help his insides heal better, he inhaled and swallowed it all, wiping his lips off when he was done with all the same satisfaction he had when he chugged a shoey.

"Where we at pops?" Kabe asked, climbing out of the machine. He shook himself off, his spiked hair reeking like a wet dog's, and he reached for his jacket, his back too exposed.

BEFORE THE BLOOD RUNS DRY

---

Kabe shot Vocado the bitchiest look he could as his prized jacket was snatched from his hands. Mostly because he didn't want his back exposed, but also because... well, just fuck him, right? That's his jacket. Kabe grumbled as his uncle gestured to the saiyan armor on the side. It was red and gray with those who dorky shoulder pads a lot of saiyan armor had, which he hated. But he needed Vocado's help, and if this got him that then he'd humor him.

"Fine, fine, but," he said, picking up the armor and snapping those gaudy shoulder pads straight off of them. "I'm keeping my pride while I wear it. You won't catch me dead in that sort of thing unless it's a special occasion."

He pulled the armor on, and it fit snug. He had to admit he loved the rubbery feeling of battle armor, how the plastoid make of it made it form fitting and pliable enough to grow and stretch over someone but still extremely resistant to damage. It was remarkable engineering, and he also know that it had a distinct flavor he was quiet fond of. He snacked on the edge of one of the pauldrons he'd snapped as he looked out at the planet.

"Daidon, huh?"

He scanned the horizon as he stepped out off the ramp. For some fringe world in the blurry borderlands of space, it wasn't very exciting. Mostly barren, though he could feel there were living things crawling around across it's surface. Bugs and critters mostly, predators for those... and definitely some kind of sapient in the faraway distant. It felt small, the way a coming back to a small town did. A good place to train, as long as they kept Hoshikui on a leash.

"I've already had a hard day." he shrugged, cricking his neck and rolling his shoulder as he readied himself to transform again. "Make sure the other guy has the worst fucking day of it's life."

In a flash of gold light he transformed, and it was in control again, and they lunged violently straight at Vocado.

BEFORE THE BLOOD RUNS DRY

---

The desperate ferocity with which Hoshikui went after Vocado was unseen in any other. Each time a blow missed, it seemed to grow hungrier. Each time it moved to sink their teeth into him and met steel or plastoid or air, it grew angrier. Each time his words and violence helped Kabe to reject it's actions, there was a growing agony that was obvious.

They fought for hours and hours. Each attempt leaving Kabe beaten, covered in blood from a broken nose or smoking from fresh ki burns across his skin, and leaving Hoshikui to stew in the back of his mind while he restored his body and went back for more. At this point Kabe himself was getting a little demoralized. Was his body so weak that he really couldn't land any more than a few offhanded strikes against his uncle?

But there was something emboldening about knowing how he could keep coming back. Keep throwing himself into something despite how desperately the teeth sunk into his mind begged him to leave, to not keep letting them be tossed around. Golden again, and lashing out viciously at Vocado once more, Kabe heard his words through the filtered haze he was left in when it was in control like this.

Vocado's fist caught their jaw as it gnashed teeth towards him, shutting their mouth and sending them flying.

And in the dizziness that followed, Kabe focused. He fought back as hard as he could. He felt it; the iris. The shutter through which all this golden energy that Hoshikui had latched itself to flowed, stained with it's influence. He could close it, narrow it. As Hoshikui moved unrestrained, lunging attack after attack at Vocado, Kabe worked.

And for a few moments, he got it shut. His eyes were blue, the red faded, and he stopped in the air. "I don't know how long I can hold this for..." he groaned, and it was clear that now he was in control, it was fighting again. This was going to take a lot longer. His eyes were fading back to red, the shutter widening again.

"Why won't you die!" the demoralized creature screeched as it launched for another bite, despite how completely unsuccessful it had been. If it just killed this creature, the vessel would be controlled again. If it could just sink it's teeth into this pitiful thing and kill it!