A Saiyan Alive

crashcrashcrash25: *gives out large cookie* Thanks for your review! I wonder where it's going too; I'm just letting the plot take me where it will, though this scene's loosely based on a roleplay I did once.
--Falcon

Chapther Three: A Hawk in Captivity

~~ Calling on her mental list of challengers, Raddi chose a fellow soldier from her purge unit. A shadow version of purple-skinned Allyn stepped into the open, and both fighters squared off for a spar. ~~

Raddi was rudely awakened from her meditative trance by an entirely too happy ball of light bouncing through her cage. Eyes snapping open, she growled and swatted it away, and then turned to look for the source. A young, innocent, somewhat feline girl was smiling brightly from a neighboring cage. Raddi's eyes narrowed and she assessed the girl's power level: a pathetic 42. The Saiyan snorted and turned away, intending to return to shadow sparring.

"Hey, are you new here? I haven't seen you before," a cheerful voice bubbled, speaking very rapidly. "My name's Nina, by the way. I'm from off Planet, a place called Kitrell, and you? You don't look like a Tarach-jin—"

Raddi, twisting to glare at the talkative Kitrell-jin, interrupted her litany. "Freiza."

That one word was enough to stop the girl in her tracks. "W-what?"

Raddi smirked to herself. 'That shut her up.' Before she could resume meditation, however, a new voice made itself known. This one appeared to belong to a simply-dressed, brown-haired girl on Nina's other side who could have almost passed for a Saiyan, though she lacked the tail.

"Nina. That's the Ice-jin tyrant who destroyed my home planet. And if I'm not mistaken," here the girl tuned to Raddi and switched to Saiyago, "You are Saiyan. Are you not?" Raddi paused, surprised to hear her native language spoken by another after so long. She chose to reply in the same tongue.

"What's it to you?"

"I thought there were no females left," the curious girl explained. Seeing that Raddi was disinclined to answer her question, she continued. "My name is Hawk, originally from a planet called Curos, though I've lived on Planet Earth for most of my life. I call upon wildmagic much like you call upon ki, though wildmagic is much less destructive. I can heal, speak with, and shape-shift into most mammalian creatures. I know of two Saiyans living on Earth." Hawk lapsed into silence, having realized that she was rambling. Nina had fallen asleep.

Raddi also was silent, but for a different reason. 'I'm not the last one? There are other Saiyans, alive… I wonder where this "Earth" is. Ugh… now isn't the time to be thinking of that yet. Escape first, interplanetary directions later. Of course, when I purge this planet, I'll be taking that Earth-jin with me. Wait… she said she can heal?' Raddi's gaze flicked involuntarily to her injured tail, wrapped protectively about her waist. 'Hn. She may prove more useful than I first thought, even with a power of barely 400.

"Call me Raddi."

"Huh?" Hawk looked sharply at her new 'friend.'

"I said, call me Raddi." Raddi was a bit annoyed at the other girl, but she pushed it back. If she were to become a potential ally, she needed to remain alive.

"I heard you," replied Hawk. 'I just wasn't expecting her to give up your name so easily. Huh, I guess girls are less uptight.' "Do you want help with your injuries? You seem to have gone down fighting without proper treatment."

Raddi frowned slightly at the first part of that sentence, but nodded her assent. Hawk closed her eyes, slipping into what Raddi recognized as a meditative trance. She (Raddi) flinched imperceptibly with surprise when copper-colored fire came to bear on her wounds, soothing with its touch as her body mended. It took nearly half an hour, but when the fire receded and Hawk opened her eyes, Raddi uncoiled and re-coiled her tail, nodding her thanks. All three breaks were mended, and Raddi's strength returned—about a fourth of it. The rest was still locked away by the ki-dampers, but they could be dealt with later. For now, the day was drawing to a close, so both caged girls curled up in sleep.

A/N: Raddi's sweetened demeanor halfway through the chapter isn't permanent, she's just in shock over discovering more Saiyans.