Old Laws

Kaana stared up at the blackened sky as she sat on a cliff which overlooked a large waterfall and a small basin which went deep, and was totally closed off by foot. The gentle breeze brought the faint watery scent to her nose. She\'d found it quite by fluke, and it reminded her of home. The blackened sky, which had cracked open rather suddenly, only made her think of night time.



"I\'m not going anywhere..." Kaana had replied to the small bald man. "I have been looking for Vegeta for years, and if it means I die at his feet, even if he never remembers who I am, I found him, and I have fulfilled my heart\'s goal, as broken as it is."



"But, why have you spent such a long time looking for a man like HIM? He\'s a nasty man, and doesn\'t care about anyone else." Krillin had asked.



"He isn\'t the man he used to be, and I don\'t know why. I bet it had a lot to do with the man that kidnapped him; the one that blew up our planet, and now claims to be the strongest in the universe. If I ever meet the man, I\'ll destroy him."



Krillin raised a brow. "He\'s stronger than anyone in the universe, how do you expect to beat him?"



"The same way I survived the detonation of a planet I was still on." She had turned from him at that moment, and strode away to think. That had led her here, now, to this waterfall outlook, sitting on the burnt, scar tissue remnants of her tail, arms curled around her knees, which she had hugged to her chest.



".....help....me." came a raspy, pained voice. Kaana knotted her brow for a moment; she hadn\'t heard or seen anyone in the last few hours. Kaana stood, and glanced about. After a moment of looking, she spotted what looked like a green man battered and immobile, a handful of feet away. She tilted her head and stepped over; he must have been a native.



"What can I do? I have no healing powers..." she replied regretfully, biting the inside of her lip. She didn\'t really like saying no to anyone in true need, but it couldn\'t be helped.



"...help....me." was all the green man could say.



"I can\'t heal you, I can\'t help, unless you know exactly where I can get something to help."



"...Please..."



Kaana frowned again. She did have a small vial of that strange water she\'d recieved from a nearby planet in her search, but that was an emergency thing. He needed it more than she did at the moment, but it would mean giving up her chance at healing if she got in to a fight over her head.



"All I have is this - I don\'t know how much it will help, but I can try..." she told the young-looking native, and pulled out the tiny metal vial which held barely a mouthful of water. She cracked the top, and without hesitation, poured the liquid into the man\'s mouth, and waited, as if she were expecting something grandiose. When nothing visibly happened, she frowned, and threw the empty container away. "I\'m sorry - I traded quite a bit to get that on another planet - I guess I was ripped off."



"N-no..." the green man replied, a little life back in his eyes. "It gave me enough to survive a while longer. My people survive on water, it helped quite a bit. I might even be able to recover, now. Thank you...Who are you? There are many people here that haven\'t been invited."



"If you mean am I with Frieza, then sorry to disappoint. I\'m Kaana, and I followed Vegeta here. I\'ve been looking for him for years. I\'m his - it doesn\'t matter who I am much more than what I\'ve already told you. But I\'m not a threat, I can assure you of that. If I were, I wouldn\'t\'ve helped you."



"Nail...I\'m Nail. I\'m sure I\'ll see you again, Kaana. I will not forget the deed you made and the sacrifice you gave to me. I know this means you can\'t heal yourself, now."



"If I die here, at least I will have done something good for someone. I can\'t do much more for you, but I wish you well...As for me, I need to find Vegeta, and remind him of a few things..." she frowned, then glanced upwards to the sky. It had gone bright once again, somewhere between their conversation. A few flashes of Ki on the horizon caught her attention, and off she went - just in time for a second green man to land beside the first. \'Oh good,\' she thought, glancing back. \'He\'s going to be safe.\'



As she flew along towards the fight that was bubbling on the horizon, a green figure appeared next to her and matched her speed.



"Thank you for saving Nail back there, Kaana. He will be fine, now. But if I were you, I\'d stay behind and away from the fight - Vegeta isn\'t dead, and neither should you be. Leave the fight to me. As for you, I would recommend leaving that thought behind - I don\'t know what Vegeta you knew, but he\'s not worth anyone\'s time in this era." With that, the strange green man blasted off ahead of her, leaving her to cross her arms. Unfortunately, he was right - there was no sense in her dying if Vegeta was still alive - but why did the last two people she\'d spoken to had said the same basic thing to her about him? Had he changed just as vastly as she did?



Frowning again, Kaana landed down on a nearby piece of land. She wanted to at least look, but she clearly had to do it sneakily, and make sure no one saw her. The green man seemed to think that they would be the one to beat Frieza, and both he and the bald man advised her to stay away - but she had to at least look. She would only interfere if her Prince fell - and only then. He was likely the best of the lot of them, and she owed it to him to save the rest of his friends.



Kaana shook her head; her thoughts delaying her by a length of time. She had a tendency to get lost within her mind, and stay there for a while. She shrugged, and started off casually in the direction of the fight. As she slowly approached, as sudden blast of Ki caught her attention. What alarmed her moreso, though, was the sudden drop and flickering out of someone else\'s Ki - Vegeta\'s.



"No..." she whispered, queuing up her Ki suddenly. It couldn\'t be him - it COULDN\'T! Not after all this time of looking for him, not-



She stopped suddenly, as the vision struck her eyes. Her prince, her husband, her KING, lay dead, shot through the heart and bleeding out at the feet of his friends. His face mounted with tears, as he spoke to the orange man, and with a final breath, Vegeta was gone.



"No..." she murmured, not believing what she was seeing, as tears clouded her vision. "No, this isn\'t happening..."



"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" her voice rang out, shouting across the horizon as her Ki raised exponentially. The ground shook beneath her as all eyes fell upon her. "Ryuuroku, UNLEASH!" she commanded. The black orbs that hung lifelessly upon her neck suddenly floated up and alit into a bright yellow color, and frighteningly familiar orange stars, one through seven, the outer two remaining star-less. Suddenly, the necklace exploded with blinding light, and as it cleared, the Z fighters could make out what looked like a small, foot-long Shenrong. Goku blinked; he MUST be seeing things. It began flying circles around the strange woman, getting faster and faster until it was impossible to see, even with his own highly trained eyes. Then, as it vanished back into the necklace, which fell dead again on her neck, she began, finally, to scream a ki-charging scream; it sounded painful, as if someone were peeling her skin off, but at the same time, boiling with rage.



"I WILL KILL YOUUUUUUUUU!" she screamed. Gohan\'s mouth fell open as her head flopped backwards, as if her heart were trying to pull up out of her chest. She was screaming in pain like he\'d never heard, and stress marks were forming along her arms from the sudden bulking of her muscles. Her spine curled back, and she was twisting almost beyond what a body should be able to sustain.



Piccolo stared at her with shock; this was the strange woman\'s true power? This merging of a dragon with her, this odd sudden leap of sheer energy, from a meek young woman who saved Nail\'s life? How would this even allow her to move, never mind let her fight? Suddenly, the glowing stopped, and the painful screams died off. The ground ceased to shake, and finally, the bright light died off.



Frieza raised a brow at the female up on the cliff before them. This one had pitch black hair and pitch black eyes, with pitch black saiyan armor, and a perfect complexion. He tilted his head curiously, smirking faintly. While her power level had indeed multiplied by hundreds of times over, she was nowhere near HIS power. What a temper though, and such a useless expense on such an ignorant saiyan prince. Maybe he would make an example of her...