Let the Future Live

A lot of this wasn’t making all too much sense, but Cheri wasn’t unsure if that was because Yangcong was lying, trying to befuddle and confuse her with muddied truths, or if the situation itself was confusing and didn’t fall into conventional assumptions. Generally, after all, the saiyans of the ‘Saiyan Kingdom’ were the saiyans that were born into it and were therefore always a part of it, and the saiyans that had been born on other worlds were culturally disconnected and generally wouldn’t ever interact with, yet alone join, the Saiyan Kingdom. But, the way Yangcong spoke gave Cheri pause. Perhaps this was a fluke of fate, a rarity, a special case. Either way, it seemed Yangcong didn’t know much about that case, either, so there wouldn’t be much point in asking. They were both dealing with incomplete data sets.

Uh oh. Yangcong’s power was quickly rising to ridiculous levels: as Yangcong said, this was a power that could take on Super Saiyans! It was so far above Cheri’s own power, as her scouter could verify with absolute accuracy, but she also knew that she couldn’t give up quite yet. She’d come here with a purpose, after all, and that purpose wasn’t to defeat Yangcong: she came to end the dimensional breach and prevent a wider disaster. 437,000! 1,024,109!! 2,400,000!!!

She looked at the famous golden dagger with something approaching trepidation. But she had a plan.


Yangcong’s attention was now on Cheri, meaning his attention had since fallen from the vast missile flying through the sky. From here, it was simply a matter of timing.

Cheri tried to use a short-range teleport to teleport the whole of the Ape-Buster Suit through to the other side of the portal waiting for her, but then the famous golden dagger exploded, surprising Cheri greatly! The explosion was so great in area, in fact, that the teleportation outright failed. When the smoke cleared, the Ape-Buster Suit seemed to be irreparably damaged, looking like a mass of melted plastic! In the middle of the suit, the blue gem storing Cheri was slowly fracturing, and was now red-hot, before it exploded into a thousand shards! The unconscious Cheri fell from it, hitting the ground, while the rest of the Suit dissolved back to its own personal quasi-dimension.

… But that wasn’t the only thing that happened. The missile kept to its original programming, as the massive projectile smashed down onto Yangcong’s dimension-breaching machine! It exploded in a horizon-shattering ka-BOOM, destroying it and ending the connection between worlds and protecting Hatchi from a potential dimensional disaster!

Elsewhere, meanwhile, Cheri’s combat uniform of programmable matter had automatically turned into a cushion to soften her fall, and it was now beeping lightly and slowly. Cheri was not of this world, and, in time, the Otherworld itself would push her out of it, even with the portal having closed. For now, though: she was here, and she was unconscious.

Cheri wasn’t out for long, maybe an hour. The power of the famous golden dagger was astounding, and well beyond what she could take even untarnished and at full power, but Cheri had the advantage of her programmable matter helping to provide medical aid to her body, even if their ‘aid’ was slow.

Her eyes opened. Her first thought was: good, this isn’t Hell, it doesn’t look nearly as bad as that other place. Her second thought was: no, this is Hell. She could tell because she could see Yangcong right over there, resting on a tree.

”I—”

She stifled a cough. It stung.

”I see you’ve changed your mind about killing me. Or perhaps not, and I’ve found my way down here, too?” That was a joke; she knew with certainty that she was still alive. The dead don’t feel their bruises so freshly.

Despite the situation, she seemed almost unfazed, confident. It was almost as if she knew she had a secure way out of here, which she could use whenever she needed to… but she didn’t use it, not now. Further interaction with Yangcong might still present merit, after all.

”Or are you simply that deprived of company?”

It seemed Yangcong still had some mercy in him yet. Yes, he spoke of his mercy in terms of how killing Cheri would not help his position and wouldn't be of any benefit to him, but, surely, keeping her alive couldn’t have been of much benefit to him, either? Then again, he did somewhat muddy the waters. Her limit was average? Pah! She was the strongest living tuffle! Most oozaru had a Power Level in the thousands or low tens of thousands, anyway.

”You forget, Yangcong. I’m a politician and a leader, not a warrior. Not by choice, anyway.” Now, sure, she did have certain projects in the works that could put her at least at level with Super Saiyans, but she had no reason at all to tell a rogue element like Yangcong any of that, especially if it might get him interested and wanting to bother her further, even if only from the confines of Hell.

Apparently Garrick was missing, but Cheri didn’t put much thought into that. She’d gotten used to not thinking about him, she could continue not thinking about him with ease. ”Now that the immediate threat of the Vegetans has resolved, our attention has turned—” cough, cough, ow, ”— o-outwards. To alien threats. What the tuffles were doing before the War, in short.”

Yangcong certainly had a point. When push came to shove, when Lottus changed his mind and let the rage take over yet again or some other galactic threat was making itself known by threatening Hatchi, Cheri would need to be there— and she would need to be there as a warrior. Alongside Super Saiyans who would fight alongside her, certainly, a likely possibility which Yangcong shortsightedly seemed to discount, but at the very least she’d need to be there as well.

Why did…? Why did he say it like that? she wondered, her eyes narrowed with suspicion and a touch of confusion.

”I will.” She certainly didn’t trust Yangcong, not after what she’d learnt he’d done, which was why she was still looking at Yangcong with undisguised suspicion, as if anticipating an immediate change of pace and an attack at any time. She would accept the handshake, hesitantly, prepared to teleport away at a moment’s notice if she thought he was going to try anything. Thankfully, it seems he hadn't. She'd later check for nanobot listening devices, just in case.

”Until then, and under better, more hopeful circumstances.” Perhaps there was some hope for Yangcong yet but, Cheri recognised, that would require him to walk down a very different path.

Before Cheri could finish wondering how Yangcong, as one of the spirits of the dead, had a working, physical scouter, he was addressing her directly again.

”It’s certainly a dangerous galaxy out there.” Not really ‘out there’, given that this was Hell and all, but, as an expression, it served its purpose well. ”But we’ll manage.”

She watched as Yangcong stepped through the portal, and watched as the portal closed behind him. Just to be safe, she waited a couple more seconds. She looked over the meadows of Hell, and looked at the tree Yangcong rested upon. She looked at the infernal skies, and she saw the clouds above. It was calm, for a moment. Then, finally… she brought just a little bit of her ki into the teleportation circuits and disappeared.

---

When Cheri reappeared, it was not in Hell: she was in the Thaumatological Centre for Dimensional Studies, appearing in the exact space where, hours before, the portal breach had been stuck in space.

”Madam Chancellor, you’re—”

”I know.” Cheri stood up straight. ”Disaster has been averted, and I have returned. Be on your way.”

Without even one more word, Cheri left the building to return to her personal chambers halfway across the city. She needed to speak with her daughter.