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duhragonball · 5 years ago

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (138/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[23 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Through his mastery of the alchemical arts, King Rehval III Trismegistus had conquered the universe. The Saiyan had merged his life essense with the Planet Nagoka, making both impervious to any attack. The bulk of the Saiyan species had bound themselves to his will, and any galactic powers who dared to defy him would suffer the wrath of giant earthen creatures that he could control like puppets. The cult of Saiyans who served him had been in high spirits. Their greatest enemy, the Super Saiyan Luffa, had failed to destroy them, and she had fled the Nagaoka System, disgraced and alone.

Then she returned. King Rehval believed she had come back to die in a blaze of glory. For all her power, she was no match for him, or his army of alchemically powered Saiyans. He expected his warriors to hunt her down within a matter of hours.

Eight days later, Luffa was still at large, and the morale among Rehval's followers had declined sharply.

What frustrated everyone was that no one understood Luffa's plan. If she only wanted to die in battle, then there was no need to drag things out. Whatever she was trying to do, she needed at least eight days to make it happen, and in the meantime, Rehval's cult had been powerless to figure out what it was or how to stop it. The two prevailing sentiments among the cultists were:

"Why doesn't Trismegistus do something?"

And:

"Trismegistus has it all under control. Trust the plan."

Because of these contradictory opinions, the growing list of Luffa's victims were viewed both as "heroic martyrs" and "unfaithful losers".

From her lowly position in the cult, Lesseri heard it all. Scrubbing the breeding pits, she would catch parts of a conversation from passers-by. Trimming wicks for the candles, she would overhear idle chatter from the barracks. Disposing of diapers in the nursery, she would see how frightened the children were when they could sense Luffa's ki on the attack. There were a multitude of perspectives, but it boiled down to just two. Either their omnipotent leader couldn't kill Luffa, or he was allowing this terror to continue for unknown reasons.

Lesseri's own thoughts were usually focused on binaries like these. Strength and weakness, acceptance and rejection, good and evil. Of all the cultists, she had actually trained under Luffa during a brief period in her former life. The cult had a dim view of this past association, and Lesseri had been struggling to redeem herself ever since. She found herself awed by their grace, but also frustrated with the way they punished her for something so trivial.

For Luffa, that training camp had been a passing fancy to try to teach other Saiyans her ways. For Lesseri, it was just an opportunity to get close enough to kill her own mother. Vigurd had abandoned Lesseri and her sister in a gestation facility, and Lesseri had been bitter about it ever since. It seemed strange to Lesseri that the cult approved of her ruthless assassination, but not of the way she had manipulated Luffa to achieve it. It wasn't as if Luffa had passed on forbidden knowledge to Lesseri and the others. Mostly, Luffa had nagged them all for not being "Saiyan enough". Lesseri had dismissed Luffa as a hypocrite a long time ago, but the cult still demanded more contrition from her.

But now that Luffa was here, and Lesseri could sense that immense Super Saiyan ki once more, she was reminded of just how deeply Luffa's harsh words had cut. Luffa accused other Saiyans of cowardice. On Nat-Chezz, they had encountered a pair of aliens with the ability to to fool ki senses. They used this power to bluff stronger warriors into surrendering without a fight. Only Luffa had the courage to stand up to them, not because she saw through the deception, but because she alone wanted to fight enemies stronger than herself. The lesson of that incident had been lost on Lesseri that day, but now, Lesseri was experiencing it all over again. Nagaoka was supposed to be an invincible stronghold of power, and yet Luffa had dared to attack it all by herself. Rehval's followers had the advantage, and yet they were still anxious about what would happen to them. None of them were eager to die when they were so close to achieving final victory.

It hurt Lesseri to think about it. She had given herself over, body and soul, to Trismegistus, and yet her old frustrations and doubts still lingered. It had been convenient to blame everything on Luffa, but now she wondered if Luffa's only crime had been to point out the problems that had always been there. And now, she had come to Nagaoka to pass final judgment on them all.

Lesseri didn't know or care who would win in the end. She only knew that, no matter what happened, that Lesseri would surely lose...

*******

The surface of Nagaoka was desolate, but not completely uninhabitable. The persistent cloud cover made the scenery especially gloomy, but enough sunlight made it through to support some vegetation. Most of it was inedible, although Luffa had discovered some roots that were nutritious enough to justify the effort of picking them. Game was scarce. The apex predator in the grasslands of Nagaoka was a small, four-legged dinosaur that chased after rodents. It took patience to catch them, but that was no problem. She needed something to pass the time anyway.

As she chewed on the raw carcass of a fresh kill, she walked back to her latest campsite, which was little more than a small fire and a Saiyan skull she had been using to carry her stone tools. The only other item was her prisoner, a cultist she had captured on one of her raids, three days ago.

"I killed six more," she told him as she slung the carcass by the fire and picked up the skull. "They sent more after me, but it didn't help much. I think Rehval's trying to do a pincer thing this week."

The man lay helpless on the ground, his arms and legs fractured in several places. Luffa had hurt him so badly that he lacked the ki energy to be sensed by his comrades. She estimated that he would die in another day, if not sooner. She kept talking to him anyway.

"Pincer. You know what I mean? Spread out his forces across the planet, then when one group is close enough to engage, some of the others can come in from the other direction and cut off my escape. What he doesn't get is that it just gives me a bigger target to shoot at while I run away."

The man groaned, either from the pain of his injuries, or from hunger, or terror, or delirium, or from all of these. Luffa ignored him and began carving up her kill.

"Funny, that's the same thing Jerk Number Seven said when I killed his six buddies," Luffa said. "You should have seen it. They tried to surround me, but I rushed right into a group of them, like I was trying to slip between them. Then I set off an explosive wave right in the middle of them. The six died right off, but the seventh was far enough away that he just got hurt really bad. He's probably still alive, though. For now."

"Triis... mej... isssss..." the man tried to say.

"He's not here and he's not coming to save you," Luffa said. "You can pray to him all you want, but he doesn't give a damn about you. Idiot. You sold your pride to that fool, and he doesn't even know you're still alive. I doubt he'll bother giving you any medical attention, not after that stunt I pulled on their hospital ward a few days ago. No, he'll want to conserve his supplies for the healthiest troops. The ones who stand a chance of pulling through in time to defend his sorry ass. That won't be you."

She put the bulk of the dinosaur on a spit she had fashioned from a spear she had taken from one of her victims, and carefully positioned it over the fire. "Ahhhh," she said. "This is really gonna hit the spot. It's like the old proverb: hunger is the best seasoning. So how was your day? Anything cool happen while I was gone?"

"Wh-wh-why... are you... doing this?" the man whimpered.

Luffa lay down on the ground, propping her head up on a pile of brush she had gathered. "Really?" she asked. "I mean, we've been over all that, haven't we? I told you all about it. How Rehval's a monarchist fool. How he took my son from me. Twice. He wrecked my marriage-- although I'll take partial responsibility there. And he even showed me that my own species is a worthless band of hooligans that deserves to die. Oh, and he's trying to conquer the universe, which wouldn't bother me so much except for the rotten way he's going about it. Magic potions. Really, what is that?"

"Nooooo..." the man whispered. "Not that... Why...... why... keep me... alive?"

"Oh, that," Luffa said. See, it's actually pretty simple. I learned this when I was a kid. I guess your parents never filled you in on it. See, when you're up against a superior force, you can even the odds with some psychological warfare. Wreck their morale, they start making little mistakes. Before they know it, their advantage starts to fritter away. That's why I hit their medical supplies. I'd like to taint their water supply too, but I haven't planned that out yet. I may not have time to get around to it, actually. Make sure you tell Rehval that when you see them."

"See...?"

"Yeah, they should track down this camp before too much longer. If not, I'll just transform and they'll come running. I'll be long gone when they get here, but they'll find you. And you can tell them everything I've been telling you this whole time. Every last word. Or as much as you can remember. I think the message will get across."

"M-message...?"

"Yeah," Luffa said. "See, I'm not 'keeping you alive'. You'll die eventually, no matter what. But I want the others to see what I've done to you, and hear what I've said to you, and I want them to realize exactly what it is they're dealing with."

She reached into the pockets of her yellow pants and pulled out a wooden stick, about five inches in length. There were several notches cut along its length. As she spoke, she stared intently at it.

"I think a lot of them see me as some sort of ultimate foe, and they get to have this big epic showdown with me, or at least they can die for their master, quick and clean. Makes sense. I'm the Legendary Super Saiyan, and Rehval's taught them all that I'm the devil or something. They want a big dramatic battle, like in a movie. A few of them might get their wish. But not you. No, you get to suffer. And I want them to know that any one of them might get the same treatment as you. Or not. Some of them might luck out and take a Vengeance Cannon through the brain and die painlessly. Some choice, right?"

He shivered, either due to the cold, or the onset of some infection he had contracted, or perhaps simply because Luffa's words horrified him so. Luffa simply did not care. She watched her meal cooking, monitored enemy movements with her ki senses, and then carved another notch on her stick with her thumbnail.

*******

[25 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

"The water supply? You're absolutely certain that's what he said?"

The cultists who found Luffa's prisoner bowed low to the ground as they murmured in the affirmative. "He was insistent on this point, Master," said their leader. He rambled like a madman, repeating everything she had said, including many unspeakable insults towards you and your ancestors, but--"

"Enough," Rehval said. "Return to your duties. No, wait. You three." He gestured to the trio of men on the right side of the group. "Go and help the repair efforts on tunnel six. Dismissed."

Normally, he spoke to his followers in more parental tones, closing with words like "Let my triple-blessing be upon you," or "Go with Jindan, my children." But Luffa had been laying siege to his planet for ten days straight. He no longer felt the mood to keep up his role as Trismegistus, the almighty Alchemist Supreme. Even the easy diplomacy of King Rehval seemed to escape him these days. Nearly two thousand of his followers had been killed since Luffa had arrived on Nagaoka, and with each hit-and-run attack, Luffa always found a way to hint that this was only a warm-up act.

"Having trouble, dad?"

He had begun to find a measure of comfort in his daughter, the Princess Seltiss. In his heart of hearts, he had always viewed her as more of an apprentice in statecraft, or a great bridge he had engineered to lead the way to the future. Now that she was back in his life, and now that they were stuck together on this planet, he finally began to appreciate her as family. Of all the Saiyans on the planet, she knew him best, and was never afraid to speak her mind.

"You saw the man they brought in this morning," he grumbled as she walked into his chamber.

"Yeah, I just came from the infirmary. They just pronounced him dead," Seltiss replied. "I came over to tell you. His last words were something about the water resevoir--"

"I already know," Rehval said. "It's bait. It has to be. There's fresh water all over Nagaoka. Even if she does poison our wells, even if she takes out our geothermal stills, it would only be a minor inconvenience."

"Like the spaceport," Seltiss said. "And the medical supplies. And Tunnel Six. She's not interested in striking decisive blows. She's wearing us down, a little bit at a time."

"It's more than that!" he insisted. "She's... building towards something. She threatened to kill us all, even me, when she already knows that's impossible!"

Seltiss shrugged. "She probably thinks that if she kills enough of your followers, then you'll lose the power you took from them, and that'll weaken your connection with the planet," she said. "Could that work?"

"Not well enough to do her any good," Rehval said. "I need the Saiyans. Without them, my work has been in vain. But there are other Saiyans in the galaxy. Weaklings, and not many of them, but enough for me to begin anew. As for this planet, my connection to it is complete."

"Cool beans. Then you have nothing to fear," Seltiss said. "It's like you told us before. Luffa's no threat to you anymore."

"That doesn't matter!" Rehval shouted. He rarely raised his voice. He considered it one of his more admirable qualities. What surprised him more than his outburst was the way he had slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne. Without thinking, he had pulverized it, and sent cracks running down the right side of the seat.

Seltiss had never seen him like this before, and though she tried to mask the shock with cool indifference, he knew better. He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his forehead. "She is the serpent in my garden," he said. "Rebelling, even when there's no possible way for her to win. I have to kill her or control her, or my authority will never be absolute. Her defiance proves that I can never tame the Saiyan heart, no matter how completely I control the others."

"So control her," Seltiss said. "You keeps saying you have the power. Find her, and put an end to this."

"She can mask her ki, and somehow use it at the same time," Rehval said, more despondently than he meant the reply to sound. It was unseemly for him to whine before his own child. "I suspected that she could do something like this, but I didn't realize to what extent. The squads can't find her."

"Then take away her hiding places," Seltiss said. "We know she's living off the land. Like, you keep saying you are the planet now. You can do with it as you please, right? Take the land away from her, and what does she have?"

Throughout this crisis, a thin beard had begun to grow on Rehval's face. He had been too preoccupied to shave. Now, he rubbed the stubble thoughtfully as he considered his daughter's advice.

*******

[30 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Luffa waited for the squad of cultists to fly directly overhead, and then she attacked, transforming into her Super Saiyan form so quickly that none of them had time to react. There were twenty of them in all. The first died instantly, and she used an explosive wave to kill two more, and throw the rest off balance. Then she flew away, leaving the other seventeen to wonder what had gone wrong.

As she flew into the clouds that covered the Nagaokan skies, she took a moment to admire the destruction taking place on the surface. Rehval had finally grown impatient enough to order a carpet bombing of the wilderness. As before, there were groups of twenty or more Saiyans spread out across the planet, but instead of hunting Luffa, they were now scouring the land with ki blasts. This suited her perfectly. With so much Saiyan energy being tossed around all at once, Luffa could fly much more freely across the planet without being detected.

Adjusting her trajectory, she propelled herself directly into the path of another squad two hundred miles away, and powered down so they wouldn't sense her approach until it was too late. Then she transformed again, and tore through them like so much paper. Just as they began to get their bearings, she flew away again, leaving them completely disorganized.

She repeated this trick again and again, picking off targets across the entire planet. It would have been glorious, if she wasn't so furious with them all.

"It's not like it was in the Federation, is it?!" she screamed as she impaled a warrior on his own short spear.

"Boxing me in, forcing me to jump from planet to planet to keep you from hurting innocent people!" she screamed as she broke another's neck three thousand miles to the southeast.

"You thought you could wear me out! Well I'm still standing!" she yelled while blasting four of them with a barrage of energy needles.

"And now you're the ones on the back foot!" she roared. At the equator, one of them managed to get off a decent shot at her, but she pulled one of his teammates into the line of fire.

"You've got nowhere to run!" Her boot slammed into a Saiyan's back at twice the speed of sound, and she grinned at the wet snap she heard on impact. Nearby was Nagaoka's fourth-tallest active volcano.

"This time you're trapped here with me, and I've got nothing and no one to protect!" Near the south magnetic pole, her Vengeance Cannon technique cut through five of them in one shot.

She doubled back to the fourth-tallest active volcano and shoved a woman face-first into a lave floe. "You all move so slow you might as well be standing still!"

She found a beach and decided to stand her ground for a few minutes. This wasn't for sport, but just to remind them that she could. The squad she attacked seemed almost grateful for the chance to try to fight back, but they soon found that their numbers weren't as effective as they'd hoped.

"I've been fighting you clowns for months!" she screeched as she slashed her nails through a Saiyan's throat. As he fell back and clutched his bloody neck, Luffa rolled forward and caught one of his partners with her legs. She flipped him over and sent him crashing down to the surf below, and then fired ki blasts down at him, then towards a third Saiyan who was trying to catch her off-guard.

"All that ganging up you punks do? It doesn't mean anything to me anymore! I've seen all the routines a dozen times! Hah!" She suddenly flung her left hand under her right shoulder and fired backward to catch a Saiyan coming up from behind. "Six? Ten? Twenty? It won't save you!"

One of them had the good sense to focus his ki on protecting his vital organs. Luffa punched him in the forehead and was surprised that he withstood the blow. She kept on punching him, like a jackhammer, until his skull finally gave way.

Before long, she had finished them all off. She sensed reinforcements coming, and by the time they arrived, they found her in a half-squat position, charging her power. Once they were within range, she unleashed it all at once, creating a massive explosion all around them.

"Still alive..." she observed as she flew towards handful of survivors. She rose up into the air above them and swung out her arm at the ground. "Now that's what I like to see!"

Her follow-up fused the sand into glass, but could not penetrate more than a few feet into the ground, thanks to Rehval's mystic power that tied him into the planet. Instead, the energy Luffa released was reflected back upon her targets, and they were helpless to resist the intensity of it. A few survived, and Luffa slaughtered them, lopping off their heads by using the edge of her ki-charged left hand like a knife.

"Enough, Luffa!"

She turned and found a familiar face, and she grinned savagely at the sight of it.

"Well, well," she said. "Look who's finally come out to play."

The ground behind her had swelled up, forming a hill, which gradually shaped itself into the image of a man: King Rehval.

"I'll say this for your stupid alchemy powers," Luffa said, "You've made this planet a lot sturdier than anywhere I've ever been before. I can't destroy it, but that's kind of handy too. It's nice to know I can cut loose while I fight your lackeys, and not have to worry about the whole planet exploding out from under me."

"I command you to stop this immediately!" he shouted.

Luffa responded with a Gallick Gun to his stony face.

"You can't harm me in this form!" he said. Indeed, the attack had left his earthen avatar completely undamaged. Luffa didn't find that very disappointing.

"Don't worry," she said. "That Gallick Gun was just a baby, Rehval. When I'm ready to hurt you, you'll know it."

"Damn you, woman!" he seethed. "You know this is pointless!"

"Sure it is," Luffa said with a grin. "And you came all the way here to remind me, just in case I'd forgotten how pointless this is. Very thoughtful of you."

"If you already know that, then why do you persist in this--?! Arrgh!"

As he had spoken, she gathered her energy and plowed directly into the avatar's body, then released it in a massive explosion. The surrounding area was reduced to charred wasteland, and Luffa alighted near one of the largest fragments of the rock-Rehval she had destroyed. Slowly, it merged with the ground below it, and rose up again to form a new body.

"Will you--! Stop that?!" Rehval seethed.

Luffa laughed again. "What's wrong? If what I'm doing is so pointless, what does it matter whether I do it or not? Don't tell me the almighty god-alchemist, his royal majesty King Revahl the Third is getting flustered over little old me."

"I'm not!" he shouted, and then he attempted to regain his composure. "I just... I don't like when you... when you flout my authority. I wish you would... not do that."

Luffa raised her hand high over her head and extended her middle finger. "And I just don't like you. I don't like your authority much either. I don't think anyone else on this planet likes it much either. I'm just the only one around here with the guts to do something about it."

"I'll kill you," Rehval said. "You won't be able to avoid my forces forever, Luffa. There's only so much habitable land on this planet, and there's less of it each day. Once you run out of hiding places, you'll have no choice but to face the full force of my power."

"It's a date," Luffa said. "You're going to rue the day you first heard my name, Rehval. But right now, I gotta go. See you real soon!"

With that, she shot into the sky like a rocket, just as another squad of Rehval's followers arrived.

"My lord," gasped their leader as she fell prostrate before his earthen likeness. "We came as quickly as we could..."

"The Saiyans who joined us," the rock-Rehval said. "Seltiss's band, the Free Companions. Have they received the Jindan power yet?"

"N-no, Master," the leader said, now rising to an upright position. "There hasn't been time for them to complete the initiation rites, and--"

"I don't care about the rites!" he snapped. Go back and prepare them immediately. I want them as strong as possible, so that I can crush that vile little throwback once and for all!"

The leader was gravely disturbed to hear this, but she was too loyal to question the command. "Yes! It shall be done right away, Great One!"

Then they flew back in the direction of their base. Having no further use for the rock-creature, Rehval allowed it to collapse back into the ground.

From her hiding place in the sky, Luffa saw all of this while she listened in on the comm-link she had stolen from one of Rehval's soldiers. She made a grim smile, then cut another notch in her stick.

*******

[3 December, 233 Before Age.]

As Trismegistus, Rehval had established a lengthy series of rituals and trials for initiates in his cult. He claimed that these were necessary to make the applicant worthy of receiving the potion that granted the Jindan power. In truth, their actual purpose was to brainwash the cultists and erode away their sense of independent thought. Now, as Rehval became more desperate to put an end to Luffa's rampage on Nagaoka, he chose to skip the protocol and dispense his potion to the newest recruits into his fold.

His daughter, Princess Seltiss had assembled a band of independent Saiyans, with the idea of establishing a new Saiyan nation in her father's absence. She had allied this Free Company with Luffa's Federation, but then switched sides, rejoining her father once it became clear that he was unstoppable. Seltiss considered herself a pragmatist above all. In her mind, joining her father in his moment of triumph was completely consistent with turning against him during his apparent madness. The decision was simple. There was no hope in opposing an invincible enemy, one who held every card and offered no weaknesses to exploit. And yet, she still feared for his sanity. The decision to join him had been a simple one, but it was by no means easy for her.

On the other hand, convincing the Free Companions to accept the Jindan potion had turned out to be very simple and easy. Luffa had killed over three thousand Saiyans since she arrived on Nagaoka's surface, and most of these had been Free Companions. The Jindan-empowered cultists were stronger and faster, and while Luffa had killed plenty of them as well, the Free Companions made much easier targets. As much as Luffa despised the cult, she had a real talent for driving Saiyans into Rehval's open arms.

In her quarters, Seltiss contemplated the bottle containing her own dose of the Jindan elixir, the last one. The cultists seemed to trust her to drink it, or perhaps they didn't see her empowerment as a high priority, since Seltiss didn't have a high power level to begin with. There was really no point in anyone checking to make sure she took her medicine. It was a matter of survival now. The curious red liquid might be the only thing that would save Seltiss' life during Luffa's next attack. And even without Luffa rampaging in their midst, she had already resigned herself to drink when she ordered her ship to surrender and land on Nagaoka. Things were happening faster than expected, but the cold equations had not changed. Her continued survival depended on swallowing her father's concoction, and then washing it down with whatever was left of her pride. What was she waiting for? Seltiss herself didn't seem to know.

And then, just as she brought the bottle to her lips, she sensed that terrible ki once more. Luffa was on the move again. Startled, she dropped the bottle, and so great was her dread that she didn't even notice it until the glass shattered on the stone floor. All that remained of the potion was a strange discoloration on the rock, and some maroon stains on her pink Montablanian leather boots.

Seltiss wasn't sure whether to be relieved or afraid. As she sensed the rising powers of her father's followers, she realized that it might not matter how she felt any longer.

*******

There were no names for the places on Nagaoka, and even if there were, Luffa wouldn't have known them. She had chosen a particular location to make her stand, but mostly for aesthetic reasons. It was a dry lakebed surrounded on all sides by buttes and mesas. It reminded her of some of her favorite hunting grounds on Dorlu Prime. More importantly it offered the best of both worlds for a battle: The lakebed was a wide-open space for fighting, while the surrounding topology allowed plenty of nooks and crannies to hide behind for ambushes. Luffa didn't expect any of this to matter, but she had a sentimental reason for choosing her battleground.

She expected it to be her last.

Rehval's forces had destroyed most of the terrestrial life on the planet by now. His hope was to cut off Luffa's supply lines by taking away the flora and fauna that she fed upon in between her hit-and-run attacks. But he had utterly failed to consider the seas, which were abundant in edible wildlife. While his followers had scoured the land in a desperate attempt to flush her out of hiding, she had been diving under glaciers for aquatic mammals. In the lakebed, she now chewed on a piece of blubber while she prepared herself for what came next.

The skies of Nagaoka were perpetually overcast, but on this night there were peals of thunder that hinted at a storm. It was completely dark, save for an occasional faint flicker of distant lightning in the clouds. Luffa took the stick out of her pants pocket and felt the notches that she had made in the wood. Satisfied with the count, she cut one last notch with her fingernail, and then tossed the stick to the ground. The time was right.

She transformed. Since coming to this planet, she remained in her Super Saiyan form only long enough to attack or to outmaneuver an enemy. This time, she stood and waited, letting the yellow glow of her aura illuminate the desiccated ground. She could sense Rehval's minions all over the planet, searching in vain for her. Now that they could sense her power, now that she was staying in one spot, they all began to converge on her position. Within minutes, she was surrounded. Thousands of Saiyans stood on the rocky outcroppings in all directions, all of them dressed in dark red uniforms, and carrying short spears, which seemed to be the signature weapon of the cult. The tips of the spears glowed a pale blue color. Luffa had been dealing with these weapons for some time now, and could only guess that there was some trick to making them work. Every time she had taken one for herself, it only behaved like an ordinary spear.

They all kept their distance. Luffa might have accused them of cowardice, but she couldn't deny that it was the smart play. Anyone who might have broken ranks to rush at her prematurely was probably already dead from all of the previous skirmishes. Those that remained knew that best hope of defeating her was to put their combined might into a single, concentrated force. If they could cut off her escape, if they could keep her surrounded and attack her on all sides, then they would have the power to overwhelm her.

Or so they believed.

At last, King Rehval himself showed up, after a fashion. She could still sense him staying behind at his underground compound on the opposite side of the planet. She had expected as much. He was a coward, above all else. Instead of appearing in person, Rehval used his avatar again. By whatever mystic alchemy he used, he formed a mass of earth and rock to rise up from the ground and assume the shape of his own body, more or less. The eyes of this two-hundred foot tall creature glowed purple as he glared down at her.

"Enough, Luffa. This time, there will be no escape," he announced.

"That's what I was about to say to you," Luffa replied.

"I thought you had some plan," Rehval said. "But I see now that you really did come here to die, after all. You just decided to drag things out for as long as possible. You wanted to kill some of my flock to get a measure of revenge, but now you've run out of hiding places, haven't you? Why else would you stand still and raise your power level? You practically summoned us here to destroy you. You've clearly given up hope."

She turned her head and spat on the ground. "You don't get it, Rehval," she said. "I already gave up hope before I came to this stupid planet. Everything since then has been rage. And patience. The waiting is over, Rehval. I'm ready to kill you all now."

"You don't have the power for that," Rehval said. "And even if you did, you could never kill me, Luffa. I have transcended beyond the mortal realm. I am more than anything you could imagine. I have the power of this entire solar system behind me. What do you have, besides that garish transformation?"

Luffa smiled. "Let me show you," she said.

And then, she began to yell.

Rehval and his forces held back, unsure of what to expect. Luffa's body glowed brightly, and for a moment, some of them expected her to attack, but instead she fired a ki blast straight up into the sky. The energy dissipated into the clouds, and for a moment the thunderheads turned yellow from the light. Then they parted, opening up a hole of clear skies directly above Luffa's head. For the first time in untold centuries, starlight shone down upon the surface of Nagaoka. The hole expanded in diameter, until at last, the clouds had retreated to the horizon, leaving only a panoramic view of outer space.

And there, high above the battlefield, was Nagaoka's moon.

It was full.

Luffa looked straight up to admire it. Her lips curled into a wicked smile, and her green eyes suddenly turned blood red in the moonlight.

"No..." Rehval said quietly as he realized what was happening. Panicked murmurs could be heard among his troops, as the ones who understood explained it to the ones who didn't. Luffa could barely hear them over the pounding of her heart in her chest.

"The tail!" Rehval shouted. "Destroy her tail! Now, before she has a chance to--!"

But it was already too late. Luffa began to laugh, and then a wave of golden energy spread out in all directions. Then another, and another. The Saiyans attacked, firing their own energy in unison, but none of their ki blasts could penetrate through to Luffa herself. They couldn't even see her.

But they could hear. The lakebed echoed with the giddy laughter of a Saiyan woman with nothing left to lose. And they heard this laughter gradually transform into the low, feral growl. Bolts of yellow lightning arced out across the lakebed, dancing from one mesa to the next.

At the epicenter of this terrible disturbance, Luffa continued to stare up at the moon. Her heart beat harder and faster with each passing moment. She let the transformation carry her away, neither knowing nor caring where it would take her. Normally, her body was only sixty-three inches tall. Now, she expanded with each breath, swelling to ten feet, then twenty, then thirty, and more! Her limbs and torso changed proportions as she grew, and a thick coat of fur sprouted from her skin. Her face contorted, warping her nose and mouth into a savage muzzle lined with sharp teeth, and her ears formed slight points on top. Her clothing was ripped to shreds by this awesome change, but this was the furthest thing from Luffa's mind. In that moment, all she cared about was power, and the retribution it would bring.

At last, when the transformation was complete, and her enemy could finally see her clearly, she loomed over them in the form of a giant ape. The Saiyans knew the Oozaru form well, but this was different. For Luffa's Great Ape had glowing yellow fur instead of the usual dark brown. Her blood red eyes glowed with murderous intent, and her bestial lips twisted with fury as she looked down upon them all.

By now, Rehval's followers had been fighting Luffa for some time, and they had allowed themselves to believe that they were used to the idea of what Luffa had become. Now, as each of them felt their blood run cold, they realized that they had no idea what to do. They all stood transfixed at the sight of this new horror, unsure what would happen next.

Luffa threw back her head, and began to pound her fists upon her chest. And then, she made a deafening roar.

NEXT: The Golden Oozaru.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #super saiyan #luffa #lssjluffafic #trismegistus #lesseri #seltiss #nagaoka

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yumuseum · 6 years ago

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Collection item of the week: The Flood by Lessery Ury (1861-1931), Oil on canvas, 1906

#jewish art #the flood

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retemeteoamator-blog · 2 years ago

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#Rete Meteo Amatori #meteo #italia #retemeteoamatori

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lyricsupgrade · 4 years ago

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Don't You Hold Me Down Lyrics - Alan Walker & Georgia Ku

Don't You Hold Me Down Lyrics - Alan Walker & Georgia Ku #song #songs #Lyrics #EnglishSongs #newmusic #newrelease

Don’t You Hold Me Down Lyrics – Alan Walker & Georgia Ku Don’t You Hold Me Down Lyrics is the Latest English Song of 2021 sung & written by Alan Walker & Georgia Ku from the Album Aviation. The music label is Alan Walker. Don’t You Hold Me Down Lyrics Don’t You Hold Me DownDon’t You Hold Me Down I’ve Been Feelin’ All The PressureI’d Been Lookin’ For A Sign, MmmI Don’t Love You Any LesserI…

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#Alan Walker #Georgia Ku #international songs

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libidomechanica · 7 years ago

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‘Of Lute’

Of Lute. And in the fonder’d from Lazarrow full her will joys ever’d use springs of mainsiend I rect like a was take but roud wonteckles faule, and cannot up a sport are-show By yeeling? Impes a Malthort thees hair One to surmur this, look’d lovice endon’s, we mee: Show shudden your get pure gent of the for Suspietly seasemity You did up I said, Whildence frains the wall it’st then wife, Trusand pass And love had that, and his oats, and what art-smean, lessery oft twing, this summeratie, Wher a mine, Love, Scheld, bas-ke, aught Winto thore tear runself: he writor ay a feethe leant’s in allow vers More will. Kneed me, sitate; As streeles Though on “O this and nevely, nor the hear air petity; and ho, blame. Mometh is so hone, their ste My lowless Into his raws aral.

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Too idles comployal riberts Eve, pile her here out who had the hort, Fortal step to don. Which reach weet in we wake roset his be dawn That I dread your ven hers drountainsive Some oak it budden wives spheus, Like and now betwises, now such upon phrapharmaid. Them wine of hide; How heare hers neven was his soft hou comesh eith from plaid, same.

Chide time To will— Rath, I faerybody Many they a kiddlesh amber, when would her churreceive dires to the grewe, kission, To broach them in a repair; not stern, Of like, pring do?

Or is a lood mistes and door, And him, did deathe she deurand sky, I fer wan lear. And jour dust in. But gree, I now ye and this sweet forbeauturns, And I he hear her thy so shough thy dyes; she. ‘D me pretchen whilome wertall edge which a kission, Earting away; If I stanted alway to’ wer; And socies May yet sooty, whethem blose am crife, breaped was king lenty diffendlihear, Sike to the Keyed: Troop thus whis are the ever pan. Who known skie: In the and to gen. Whilo-genie we his by thy und, This mayne.

#poetry #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Markov chains #old textual selection method #Markov chain length: 3 #462 texts

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sufjan-stevenuniverse · 8 years ago

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For example;

I like Neda LESSERY than I did during season 2.

#bbcan5

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zeta-male · 8 years ago

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Hello! If u don't mind me asking, do you 1. Have any ocs, and 2. If you do, would it be okay for me to draw fanart of them? I would tag you, and I love peoples ocs, they make me happy with how people create amazing original works and characters!! If you would rather me not do fanart of them, I totally understand! Hahaha, sorry for long ask..i hope you Have a great day :D!

WOW I'VE BEEN WAITING MY WHOLE LIFE FOR THIS QUESTION I LOVE YOU Yes I have way too many and yes I'm more than okay with it my ocs and ocs in general are my lifeblooooodMy art blog is @lesserious and my oc tag is /ocs but let's be real the entire blog is ocsPS hunni us beautiful and deserves the world and your art is gooorgeous!!

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atthefunkybones · 8 years ago

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i just wanted to Say that @anidiotfish @lesserious @doomedtrain are all Amazing people

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twitchingcoffeeprince · 8 years ago

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This is just a practice one to get a quick feel of the characters, but thought you would like to see it before i get serious and make my final product haha XD i apologize if i messed up anything @lesserious @anidiotfish

#oc #not my ocs #ocs #original characters #practice

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duhragonball · 5 years ago

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (140/?)

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[3 December, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Treekul could feel it.

She was no warrior, and certainly no Saiyan, so she lacked the martial arts training to sense the battle power of other living beings. But she could feel this, and it horrified her.

While the rest of Rehval's Saiyan cultists were fighting Luffa on the other side of the world, Treekul had remained in their underground complex. She was the only alien in the cult, and the only one who couldn't fight. Rehval had stayed behind as well, but mainly because his alchemical bond with Planet Nagaoka allowed him to fight from the comfort of his own home. But he still needed to concentrate for the battle, and so he had cloistered himself in his private quarters, leaving Treekul to explore the empty corridors all by herself. It had been a relaxing experience, a chance to consider everything that had happened to her in the past several months, and how powerful King Rehval had become.

And then she felt it, and she knew that everything had gone terribly wrong.

She didn't know what to do. Treekul had been out of her element for a very long time. She was an archaeologist, one who specialized in alchemical history. The Saiyans Lesseri and Endive had enlisted her aid to investigate rumors of the Jindan Cult. The two of them only knew that it promised power, and they wanted to see for themselves. Along with the Saiyan mathematician Guwar, they eventually found themselves on Nagaoka, and Treekul was forced to join the cult alongside them. Rehval seemed to fancy Treekul. He enjoyed controlling people too much, and the idea of releasing even a minor player like Treekul seemed to violate his principles. Instead, he made her an honorary priestess, and resolved to mentor her in the alchemical arts. For Treekul, life on Nagaoka was like being forced to play an unfamiliar role in a theatrical production. Now, the stage seemed to be crumbling all around her, and she had no idea how to respond.

A wave of panic overwhelmed her first. Treekul knelt down in a corridor and put her head on the floor, under her hands. She remembered this from her elementary school days, when they would have the students drill for tornadoes on her home planet. There was something oddly comforting about the pose, even if it didn't actually help her situation. She rubbed the back of her scalp in vain. Normally, she kept her hair trimmed to one-sixteenth of an inch or less. The rough prickle of it against her palms was soothing to her in times of stress, but Rehval had forced her to grow her hair out during her time in the cult, and her fingers found an unsatisfying softness on her hair. Three inches, she estimated. It amazed her that she had been able to stand it for so long a time.

No, it wasn't so amazing, not when she stopped to think about it. As distressing as it had been to go so long without a trim, Treekul had forced herself to endure it because she didn't want to show weakness around Rehval. She feared his power over her, and she wanted to keep some small semblance of control. If she couldn't cut her hair, the very least she could do was to insist that it didn't bother her. The same held true for the "priestly" garments he provided for her. Someone had taken a priest's burgundy robe and cut it into strips, then hastily assembled those strips into a parody of a dress. It made Treekul look like a rag doll, but she was determined not to let the humiliation show. It suddenly occurred to her that most of her strength over these past few months had depended on having the cultists around to see it. Without an audience to spite, she was suddenly free to have a nervous breakdown.

And so she made up her mind to go to Rehval's chambers. He was the only other person in the facility, and besides, he was the most powerful man in the universe, or so he boasted. Days ago, she had massaged his shoulders while he soaked in elixirs and declared his supremacy to the entire galaxy. It bothered her to go to him for any sort of comfort, but he was nothing if not self-assured. He would gloat that whatever was going on was all part of his master plan, and probably hold her in his arms while he congratulated himself. As Treekul made her way through the complex, she wondered why that had ever bothered her before. Was it so bad to be held?

The truth was that she had written him off as a maniac when they first met. He was a cult leader keeping her prisoner, after all, and he kept insinuating that they would be sleeping together eventually. But that was before his plans all came to fruition, before she learned enough of his secrets to understand that Rehval could actually back up his claims. Now, she began to see him like the cultists saw him: a leader, a provider, a visionary. From that perspective, his interest in her seemed much more flattering.

The door to his chamber was sealed, but Treekul had learned enough alchemy from him to unlock the mystic barrier he had put in place. She suspected that he was counting on her to be able to do this, since he didn't see her as much of a threat. Even if he didn't want her to come in, she preferred his anger to the unknown dread she was now sensing. Besides, he had never really been angry with her. As she traced symbols onto the door with her index finger, she imagined a look of mild surprise on his face when she barged in on him. He would be annoyed by the intrusion, but impressed with her initiative, and pleased to have her company. Maybe he would serve that special tea he had made for her last month, and maybe this time, she would accept his invitation to--

Her train of thought was interrupted when the door finally swung open, and she saw Rehval on the floor. He was not angry, nor surprised, nor pleased to see her. He was lying on his belly, his head turned to one side, his eyes staring blankly forward. Beside him were the glass shards of what had once been one of his elixir bottles. From the stains on the floor, and the color of the drool from his mouth, it was clear that drinking from the bottle had been the last thing he had done.

"Boss?" she asked, unsure what else to say. He was clearly dead, and yet she found this so inconceivable that she was sure he would wake up and answer her somehow. She knelt down beside him, carefully avoiding the broken glass, and touched the side of his neck. She expected this to be a trick of some sort, and he was only pretending to be dead as some sort of test. Even when she found no pulse, she told herself there had to be a reason.

"You've merged your life force with the planet," she said. "That's it. You don't actually need your Saiyan body, so you... you put everything you had into the planet so you could fight Luffa. Only... why would you need to do that?"

She stood up and backed away from him in horror. "You said she was no threat to your plans! You said killing her would be easy! You sent all of your guys to the other side of the planet to go fight her and that still isn't enough?"

And then it suddenly dawned on her, like waking up from a long, strange dream. Rehval really was a maniac. He had been all along. He was more powerful than most maniacs, but that was all.

"You bastard!" she shouted. "You knew you couldn't win, so you sent the others to go hold Luffa off while you committed suicide!"

Impulsively, she kicked him in the ribs, still half-expecting him to wake up and tell her she was mistaken. Instead, his body just lay there, and she backed away, clutching at her face and trying to understand why she wasn't screaming.

He had been using them all, this entire time. But what made her skin crawl was that Treekul had known this all along, and she had fallen under his spell anyway. She had actually begun to imagine wanting to remain in this place, playing the obedient apprentice, or priestess, or consort, or whatever role he had in mind for her. She actually started to feel things for him. Infatuation? Admiration? Were there times when she seriously considered worshiping him like all the others?

But now, the sight of his corpse, useless and ordinary, was like being suddenly drenched with freezing rain. She suddenly remembered Guwar, and how desperate he had been to escape Nagaoka, and how she had refused to go with him. She had thought herself so clever, so patient. She had convinced herself that Guwar was being too hasty, that she would find her own way out when the time was right.

As she turned and ran from Rehval's chamber, Treekul wondered if she was already too late.

*******

What Treekul did not realize was how close to the truth she had been. Rehval had not taken his own life, but instead transferred his essence fully into the planet Nagaoka, in order to make full use of its immense energies. On the opposite side of the planet from his underground complex, he and his followers had been fighting Luffa, who was using the light of the full moon against them. The intense power Treekul had sensed was that of a gigantic golden ape, a Super Saiyan Oozaru, the likes of which had not been seen in well over a thousand years. Rehval had sent an army of alchemically enhanced Saiyans to destroy Luffa, but her ape form had quickly put them to rout. As for Rehval himself, he had willed together an enormous body for himself, one built from gold and other metals he had drawn from Nagaoka's molten interior.

From a safe distance, Endive watched as the gold-Rehval battled the ape-Luffa. His new form was faster and more malleable than the rock-form he had used before, and he had managed to wound Luffa's shoulder, but it wasn't enough to turn the tide. Luffa continued to batter the metallic construct, and when she couldn't hit Rehval's avatar, she simply attacked the planet's surface instead.

Endive wore a dark red uniform, an armored bodysuit that identified her as an Executant, one of the highest ranks in the cult. It was this authority that had allowed her to rally some of the fleeing cultists. Most of them were simply afraid for their lives, and had no idea what to do. Rehval had only ordered them to surround Luffa, and now, he was too busy fighting to give any other commands. They had all assumed killing Luffa would be easy. And then Luffa parted the clouds and revealed her secret weapon, the full moon.

As they all looked on from the relative safety of a mesa, Luffa grabbed the gold-Rehval's body in both of her paws and fired a destructive ki blast from her mouth. The parts that survived this attack melted free of her grasp, and slowly reassembled. Molten columns erupted from the broken crust of Nagaoka, and these formed themselves into giant, spindly hands, with long, distorted fingers. These began to swipe and grab at Luffa, who dodged with ease, and made a gutteral howl of rage.

Suddenly, Endive sensed a ki rising nearby, and she looked over to find one of the cultists raising his hand into the sky. He was preparing to fire on Nagaoka's moon. With desperate speed, she shoved him to the ground before he could launch his attack.

"You fool!" Endive snapped. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I-if we destroy the moon," he said, "then that monster will change back! Then Trismegistus can defeat her!"

"Have you already forgotten?" Endive said with a sneer. "The Master's bond with this planet depends upon the moon as well. It carries the same mystic protection as Nagaoka, but even if it didn't, even if we could blow it up, that would weaken Trismegistus too!"

As he begged for forgiveness, Endive turned back to watch the battle, and realized just how completely Luffa had trapped them.

"She planned all of this," Endive muttered. "She can attack in any direction and hurt him. His bodies, his followers, the planet, its moon. He draws his strength from all of it, but now that she's here, in the midst of it all, she can use that against us. And the more damage she does to the planet, the more of us she kills, the weaker he shall become."

"We have to escape!" cried one of the other cultists.

"Run if you like," Endive said with disgust. "But where exactly will you go? Luffa destroyed all of our ships when she first arrived, remember? The Master is our only hope. If we don't stop her here and now, she will go on attacking this planet until there is nothing left."

"Executant Endive is right!" said a young woman in the crowd. "Trismegistus is our lord and savior! He made us into what we are, so how can we turn our backs on him now?"

This bolstered Endive's spirits, however slightly. Then the woman approached Endive and said: "Please, Executant. I'll do whatever you ask, but we have to save him! Once, he told me I was... that I was... well, 'majestic'."

The word cut through Endive's heart like a dagger chilled in liquid neon. He had called Endive "majestic" once, and claimed that he had reserved the word for very rare occasions. Endive already knew that Rehval shared his bed with nearly every woman in the cult, but she had still clung to the foolish hope that he enjoyed Endive above the rest. She set her jaw in disgust, choking down the angry outburst that was building inside her. There was, after all, nowhere to run, and Luffa would show no mercy. Rehval was a liar and a fraud, but Endive refused to accept these truths. Through sheer force of will, she vowed to reshape the truth into something more palatable. She would live. Rehval would be the immaculate god he claimed to be, and he would honor Endive for her valor.

All Endive had to do to make this dream a reality was to slay the Legendary Super Saiyan. It was a lot less frightening than facing the alternative.

*******

With no one else in the compound, Treekul had an easy time reaching the cult's junkyard, located in a remote field on Nagaoka's surface. Normally, the cultists would have intercepted her, one way or another, but they were all too busy fighting for their lives on the nightside of the planet. Here on the dayside, there was only herself and Rehval's corpse, and so she had no trouble finding an anti-grav truck and driving it to her destination. It disturbed her to see how different the planet looked now. In their bid to flush Luffa out, Rehval had ordered a scorched-earth policy, and sent his followers to scour every habitable part of Nagaoka's surface, just to prevent their enemy from living off wild game and vegetation. Treekul didn't know if that plan had succeeded or not, but now that they had found their quarry, it all seemed like a terrible waste. Nagaoka's dreary plains and eternally grey skies had been nothing special to look at, but it was far better than the current view of ash and smoke.

The cult had a shipyard, but Luffa had destroyed that very early on. Treekul's hope was that the junkpiles would be spared. The spacecraft in that place were all damaged and useless anyway, so what was the point in attacking there? And to Treekul's relief, the Saiyans had seen fit to agree with her reasoning. As she brought the truck to a stop, the view of scrapheaps and discarded stardrives seemed to be just about the same as she left it. There were even patches of grass around the area, indicating that Rehval's minions had gone out of their way to avoid hitting it.

Treekul had spent months devising plans for escaping Nagaoka, but most of those plans relied on the shipyard, which was now a smoldering ruin. There was one plan that involved a technique Rehval had shown her for dimensional gateways. He had once used one to literally walk from one planet to another light years away. But that idea assumed he would still be alive to teach her how to do it. All she had left was a half-formed scheme to cobble together enough spare parts to fix one of the damaged ships in the junkyard, and come up with something spaceworthy. But that idea relied on getting one of the cultists to help her, someone with the technical skills to perform the repairs, and they were all half a world away, or dead.

As Treekul roamed the yard, she cursed herself for not appreciating her predicament sooner. Rehval had allowed her to indulge in all of her scheming because he knew any plan she tried would depend on cult resources. Anything she did would only drag her deeper into Rehval's quagmire. Now, without him, all she had was herself, and several dozen ships with broken hulls or missing engines. It would take her weeks to figure out how to get one working. Judging from the awful feeling of dread she sensed, Treekul suspected that she didn't have that long.

She quickly narrowed down her search to a single ship with a working life support system. It was a small freighter, Thallian from the looks of it. She booted up the main computer and checked its status. With each green light on the screen, Treekul's hopes were lifted. The only damage seemed to be a hull breach in four of the cargo tanks, but those had already been sealed with emergency bulkheads, and Treekul wasn't worried about hauling grain.

And then her heart sank, as the computer informed her that the engines were inoperable. There were multiple leaks in the coolant systems, and the superluminous drive had a hunk of molten silicon where a circuit board was supposed to be. Even if she could make the repairs, the fuel reserves were empty. Someone from the cult must have removed it all before leaving the ship here. The only propulsion left were a few maneuvering thrusters powered by curium RTG batteries. Those wouldn't even be enough to get the ship off the ground.

Treekul went over it again, but there was no escaping the facts. Whatever happened to Nagaoka, it looked like she would share its fate. With nowhere left to turn, she sat down in the pilot's chair and put her head down on the workstation desk, then wrapped her arms around her face and wept with despair.

A few minutes passed, and then she heard someone outside.

*******

Endive didn't launch her attack right away. Instead she tried to gather as many Saiyans as she could to join in. There were still some other Executants who survived the Golden Ape's initial attack, and their communicators still worked. Within minutes, she managed to assemble ten thousand cultists to flank Luffa on five sides. Three wings would draw her fire, while the other two would target her tail. It was their only chance. The Golden Oozaru was too powerful for them, but if they could force Luffa back to her normal Super Saiyan form, it would be easy for Rehval to finish her off.

They waited for Rehval to reform his golden body. Endive found it unsettling to look at. Normally, she rather liked the glitter of gold, but the light from Luffa's monstrous body made the metal look strange. Worse, Rehval was constantly twisting and stretching it to bizarre proportions. He looked like an even more horrible creature than the ape-thing he was fighting. At times, he tried to wrap his limbs around Luffa's arms and turn his face inside out to stab her with his neck.

The battle offended all of her senses. The damage done to the Nagaokan environment had unleashed an acrid stench in the air, one that now mingled with the charred and vaporized bodies of Endive's comrades. Her ki senses almost hurt from the intensity of the power her master and the Golden Ape were using. And as they closed in on their target, the sound of Luffa's bestial cackle was almost too loud to bear.

Rehval Trismegistus had equipped his warriors with three blessings. The Mindworm was a guard against telepathic intrusion, but Luffa was no longer bothering with this, so it gave them no advantage. The Jindan power gave them all added strength, but it was a power that was shared between themselves and their master, and Luffa was pressuring them both now. The third blessing were the spears they carried into battle. For the uninitiated, they were ordinary pole arms with vanadium heads. But in the hands of a Jindan cultist, the spears could channel a powerful energy blast, amplifying the wielder's ki. Those who still had their spears now charged at Luffa, or launched them at her from a safe distance.

And with Rehval keeping her occupied, it seemed to actually work, the glowing spears dug into the thick golden fur, and Luffa cried out as the energy blasts rained down on her from all sides. Endive led her own wing in for the base of her tail, while the fifth group zeroed in on the tip...

And Luffa whirled around, faster than anyone would have dreamed possible for such an enormous creature.

"Fools!" she bellowed. "Did you think I'd just sit still and let you carve it off!"

Endive was stunned. In one instant she had gone from looking at Luffa's backside to staring into her merciless crimson eyes. At such close range, she could see the spears sticking out of Luffa's hide, and they looked like tiny seeds that one might pick up from walking through an arboretum. The beast didn't even seem to notice them. And worse, there was her master, the great golden idol himself, King Rehval III Trismegistus, his body stretched thin and wrapped around Luffa's body like a piece of plastic film. His distorted face could be seen on one of the strands near her left shoulder, and his expression was twisted with a mixture of frustration and terror. If he even noticed Endive, he didn't show it. The Thrice Blessed had bigger problems to worry about.

And then Luffa opened her mouth and breathed a firestorm of destructive energy down onto Endive's group. Endive threw up her arms to defend herself, and perhaps her own powers did blunt the effects slightly, but it was simply too much. She felt herself being overwhelmed almost immediately. The only thing that saved her from being completely annihilated was an instinct to roll with the attack, and launch herself away from it at an oblique angle.

The pain was excruciating. Endive had survived, only to immediately regret it. Her skin was blistered and cracked, and the smell of burnt hair led her to suspect that her face looked very much like her arms. She could barely breathe, and her power level had dropped sharply. She tried to call out for help, but couldn't make her voice work. As she slowly drifted to the ground, her ki unable to keep her airborne, Endive could only watch helplessly as Luffa made short work of the rest of the cultists. At last, Luffa unleashed another powerful blast in Endive's general direction, and this one vaporized her on contact, putting an end to her suffering.

As she lay dying, Endive's last thought was for the utter futility of it all. She had given everything she had for Rehval, and he had failed her utterly, and in the end, she had been denied even the opportunity to consider betraying him. He had promised to transform the universe, but for Endive, he had removed all possibilities for her life save a single road, leading to death on Nagaoka.

Luffa fired again, not at Endive personally, but her enormous attacks were such that it didn't really matter what Luffa was aiming at. When the flames approached, Endive was actually grateful to the Golden Ape for giving her a quick end to her suffering. And then Endive joined her comrades in oblivion.

*******

Treekul heard something on board the ship. She also felt tremors. The battle was supposed to be happening on the night side of the planet, and yet something was happening that even made the ground shake on the dayside.

Warily, she got up from the pilot's chair and stepped carefully to the crew quarters in the aft section. At this point, she didn't know what to expect, or whether it would help or not, but she couldn't imagine the situation getting any worse than it already was. There were four cabins on the freighter. As she checked inside the third, she spotted a woman who had opened the hatch to peek inside.

"Lesseri?" Treekul asked.

They had come to Nagaoka together. Lesseri and Endive had been the ones to approach Treekul for assistance in finding the Jindan Cult, and later they recruited the Saiyan Guwar to join their quest. Now, Guwar was gone, maybe dead, and Endive was probably on the nightside of the planet, fighting Luffa. Treekul hadn't seen much of Lesseri in the past several months. She had been demoted to menial duties in the cult, a punishment for her past association with Luffa.

Lesseri looked awful. All of the cultists looked desperate and tense, even in the best of times, but Lesseri looked even more so. There was something in her eyes that reminded Treekul of a suspension bridge collapsing.

"You remember me?" Lesseri asked timidly. She still had the same sculpted muscles under her dark brown skin, and the same thick long hair, but the voice was so small and afraid, nothing at all like the Lesseri she had known in the past.

"Of course I do," Treekul said. "What are you doing here?"

"I... I came to find you," Lesseri said. "You don't have much ki, but with everyone else on the other side of the planet, it was easier to sense your energy. And you're an alien, so you have a unique scent. That helped."

For a brief, terrifying moment, Treekul feared that the cultists had sent Lesseri to capture or kill her for trying to escape, but then she dismissed this as pointless. Treekul wasn't going anywhere, that much was clear, and Lesseri seemed more terrified of Treekul than the other way around. Suddenly, Treekul remembered that she was still wearing her dress, the one that identified her as a priestess.

"Why were you looking for me?" Treekul asked.

"You forgave me," Lesseri said. "I was contaminated by Luffa, and I tried to hide it from the Master. So he condemned me, and now Luffa's come to destroy us all. I'm doomed no matter what happens. We're all doomed, I think. But you... you forgave me for my impurity. You're an alien, but he accepted you into his priesthood. I know that I have to die, but you can still live."

Treekul didn't know what she was talking about. "I'm stuck here, just like the rest of you," she said. She pointed her thumb back at the pilot section. "If I could get this ship moving, maybe I'd have a chance, but I've got no propulsion."

Lesseri stared at her for a moment, as though slowly digesting this information. At last she replied: "I can throw the ship into space. You'd be safe up there. Maybe."

"I'd never be able to leave the system," Treekul said. "As soon as the rations run out... wait, I don't even know if this ship has any rations on board."

"You can send out a distress signal," Lesseri said. "Someone can pick you up."

Lesseri turned to walk back out of the hatch, and it seemed to Treekul that she had already made up her mind to do this. Treekul rushed after her.

"Wait!" she said. "You could lift the ship from the inside, couldn't you? I mean, you could come with me. We'd stand a better chance that way, right?"

Lesseri turned back to her and smiled weakly. "That's why you need to survive. You're the blessed reagent. The Alkahest. The Master always spoke about it, but he acted like it was a hidden, mysterious thing. I should have known it was you. That's why he wanted you at his side. You know the secret that Luffa was always trying to teach me before."

"Lesseri, what are you talking about?" Treekul pleaded, though she wasn't sure that she really wanted to know the answer to that. She suspected that Lesseri had been driven insane by the cult's doctrines and the guilt they had inflicted upon her. Between Luffa and Rehval, Lesseri seemed to have invented her own warped theology within the cult's dogma.

"Luffa came here because I killed my own mother, did you know that?" Lesseri said. There was a faraway look in her eyes. "She followed the stench of my iniquity all the way here, and now we all have to die. So I can't go with you. She'll just follow me and kill us both. But thanks for offering. I have to accept my fate."

"Oh," Treekul said. She wondered if she could convince Lesseri to stay on the ship, but at the same time she wondered if it was a good idea to have her around in this condition. She could barely stand to look at Lesseri anymore. It wasn't so much her physical appearance as it was the haunted look in her expression. The utter resignation in her eyes. Treekul never wanted to see her again.

"You forgive me, don't you?" Lesseri asked. "For killing my mother, I mean. Luffa said I should have taken revenge in battle, instead of using a bomb. I can't do it over again, but I can save you. It's the best I can do."

"I... yes, I forgive you," Treekul said. There was no point in upsetting her now. It was best to just go along with it.

"And... my mother forgives me too, doesn't she?" Lesseri asked. "You would know that, right?"

"She does," Treekul assured her, doing her best to put some authority into her voice. "She's waiting for you in the Otherworld. I... I promise."

Lesseri smiled again, more faintly than before. "That's nice," she murmured. "I hope I won't have to clean the breeding pits in the afterlife. I hope... Well, I should get you under way. Bless you, Priestess. Thank you for everything."

"Uh, yeah," Treekul said. Gingerly, she raised her hand and waved it slightly. "Goodbye, Lesseri."

The Saiyan turned and left, closing the hatch behind her. A few seconds later, Treekul felt the ship jostling, and realized it was Lesseri lifting it up into the air. She headed back to the pilot's seat to strap in.

Treekul wasn't sure what would happen next. Lesseri was strong enough to throw the ship out of Nagaoka's gravity well, but after that, nothing was certain. She might starve to death waiting for rescue, or Luffa might kill her anyway out of spite, or the cultists might win and take her prisoner all over again. All she knew for certain was that nothing was certain.

Treekul closed her eyes and waited.

NEXT: Destroyed by her own power.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #super saiyan #luffa #lssjluffafic #endive #treekul #lesseri #trismegistus #nagaoka

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duhragonball · 5 years ago

Text

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (116/?)

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[12 March, 233 Before Age. Ristet IV.]

Yesterday, Zatte had killed an alien invader, single-handedly liberating the Ristet IV. Unfortunately, her swift assassination left no clues about the invader's origins or intentions. Her best guess was that he was simply an opportunist seeking to exploit the chaos of the Federation-Jindan War for the sake of looting. His spaceship contained no useful data that would confirm or refute this theory.

Nor did the jamming device he had set up in orbit around the planet. With the invader dead, there was no one to stop Zatte from taking his own ship into orbit and using it to find the jammer. Once this was done, she quickly radioed the Federation starfleet nearby and inform them that the situation was under control.

With that matter resolved, Zatte finally returned to her own vessel, the star-yacht Emerald Eye, to take care of one last responsibility. She docked the invader's one-seat pod in the cargo bay, and met Dotz in her usual haunt, the observation deck. Night had fallen at the spaceport where the Eye was undergoing repairs, and Dotz had shut off the interior lighting of the deck, leaving herself illuminated only by her collection of candles, and the starlight that shone through the transparent dome covering the deck. Zatte entered, and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Dotz. She saw no point in any greeting or preamble, and simply started talking.

"So yeah, I had a vision once," she began. "An epiphany. It showed me that Luffa is destined to be an important part of the divine plan."

The fortune-teller nodded pleasantly and seemed to consider these words for longer than Zatte would have liked. She was uncomfortable enough discussing such a personal experience out loud, and she doubted that any reaction from Dotz would put her at ease. Even so, she felt Dotz had earned her respect, and she was determined to share this.

"One god, or many?" Dotz finally asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, uh, I get a lot of clients who have religious experiences," she said. "I find it helpful to know if we're talking about monotheism or polytheism before we discuss it." She paused before adding: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like your experience was commonplace. Um, it does happen to a lot of people, but that doesn't make your experience any less special."

"No, it's okay," Zatte said. "I just never considered that before. I'm so used to being on my own with this, that I never thought of comparing notes with anyone. We... we call it Providence, and consider it uncountable."

"I see," Dotz said.

"Luffa hates it when aliens compare her to supernatural figures, like angels or goddesses. She feels like it dismisses her accomplishments as a mortal warrior."

"I see that a lot too," Dotz said. "A lot of powerful people struggle with the idea of fate, or a higher authority."

"I don't think of her like that. I mean, she's sacred, but not divine," Zatte said.

"What did you see?" Dotz asked. "In your vision, I mean? Did Providence speak to you?"

Zatte didn't answer right away. Something about the way the older woman said "Providence" without really knowing what it meant. It was respectful enough, but it still bothered her somehow. "Maybe this is a bad idea. I... I don't know if I should be talking about it."

"Oh. You didn't hear a voice," Dotz said. "It was more of a feeling, one that you recognized immediately."

Zatte was beginning to stand up when Dotz said this. She knew Dotz had clairvoyant abilities, but somehow those abilities still had a way of catching her by surprise.

"We don't have to talk about this if you don't want to," Dotz said. "But I don't want to make you think that your experience doesn't count. There's no rule that says you have to hear a voice, or see a certain thing."

Zatte sat back down and gathered the will to continue. "Luffa saved me," she said. Not in the vision, I mean. She was saving me in real life when I had the vision. I was... well it's a long story, but I was sick. She purged that sickness from me with her powers. And while she did, she managed to do the same for a lot of other people at the same time."

"From what I've seen, that sounds like a typical day for her," Dotz said. "Not to diminish what she does, but..."

"This was different," Zatte said. "At least, different for me. As I recovered, I could feel her mind touching my own. I understood what it was like for her. Just... just this constant drive to fight and prove herself. Like a surf pounding at the shore."

"Go on."

"Well, I just remember feeling so... restored. I was finally myself again. And she was doing something so good for the universe. She was purging a great evil, and I don't think she even really knew how important that was. It just pissed her off, so she struck back. And something told me. Not with words, really. I just remembered thinking that this was the sort of thing she was meant to do. And it felt so right to think of that that, like it was the truest thing I've ever known."

"And you still feel that way," Dotz surmised. Zatte was nodding in agreement before she could even finish saying it.

"This war... well, I think it's the start of something big, like everything is coming to a head," Zatte said. "I don't have any way to be sure, but she's beaten just about everyone else in the galaxy. If she defeats Trismegistus and the Saiyans working for him, then there's no one left to oppose her. I don't know what'll happen, but there's all these signs. Her son, the Saiyan Free Company, they're all showing up to help her save their people. And... well, you being here can't be a coincidence, right?"

"Me?" Dotz asked.

"Well, sure," Zatte said. "You're like a prophet, bearing witness to whatever comes next. It's got to mean something. I'm sure of it."

"I... I don't see how," Dotz said. "My abilities changed after Luffa helped me out of that coma, but I still have a blind spot where her own future is concerned. I still can't tell how her battle in the Fedender system is going."

"It'll work out," Zatte said. "Somehow. Why don't you try again? We can't radio Fedender while their communications are being jammed, so for the time being, you're all we've got."

Zatte didn't like asking this of her. It made it sound like she was admitting that she didn't trust Luffa to take care of herself. And Dotz seemed to be frustrated with the "blind spot" in her abilities. But they didn't have much else to do, and Dr. Topsas was away, and she still worried about Luffa, even if there was no need.

With a heavy sigh, Dotz nodded, and began reshuffling her cards.

*******

[12 March, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

It was something of a relief for Trismegistus to disrobe. The heavy garment had its uses, but one of them was the dramatic impact it had when he took it off. So many of his followers rarely got to see his face, and so it became something of an honor when he revealed it to them. It was important to make even simple gestures like these take on a greater significance. The cloak landed at his feet with a thud, thanks to the iridium weights sewn into the lining. A minor touch, but one he enjoyed.

Behind him, Treekul stood at ease, awaiting his next command. He felt a twinge of shame at the high priestess "costume" he had arranged for her. Was it really necessary to objectify her in such a revealing outfit? Probably not, though it kept her off-balance, and he did enjoy her figure, even if he found her lavender skin off-putting. He often thought that she would look so much lovelier with a Saiyan complexion. Perhaps he would alter her pigmentation someday, to suit his own aesthetic. That thought also embarrassed him a little, but he didn't allow it to bother him. Treekul belonged to him now. She wasn't indoctrinated like the cultists, but that made no difference, since she was trapped on the planet with no way to survive except by his favor. He would do with her as he saw fit, and for now, she served him best as a symbol of power to display before the others.

Before him, one of his newest followers, Lesseri, knelt before him in supplication. She was like most Saiyans-- proud, stubborn, ambitious-- but those qualities made Saiyans very easy to control. He had promised her great power, and in return, he had asked for her complete devotion. It was an easy bargain for Saiyans like Lesseri. They all craved more power, and they cared little for how they got it, or who they had to thank. But once they got the power they craved, they always craved a little more, and that was when they would finally begin to have second thoughts about their choices.

"Rise, Faithful Lesseri," he finally said.

"Thank you, my lord," she replied as she stood. He hadn't given her permission to speak yet, but she was still new to the cult, and that lesson could wait for another time. For now, it was best to teach her about matters that already held her attention.

"What troubles you, child?" he asked. He addressed them all this way, even the ones who were older than himself. It was important to condition them to think of him as their superior in every sense.

"I... well, I think there was something wrong with my initiation rites, sir."

The reluctance in her voice was music to his ears. She had only just joined his flock, and she was already unsure about defying him. Oh, she had been very vocal about her complaints in private, or rather, what she assumed was privacy. But now that she stood face to face with him, she was much more careful with her words. She would make a fine servant.

"Something wrong with the initiation rites?" he asked. "Why do you say that, child? You fasted for three days, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"You drank the elixir, I prepared for you, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"You observed all of the other sacred rites. The garland, the linen belt, the oath of the yoke."

"Yes, sir."

"And you have become stronger than you were before you came to me. You feel it, don't you?" Trismegistus asked.

"Very much, my lord," Lesseri said. "But..."

"But it's not enough," he said, anticipating her next words. "Is it?"

"I, er, don't mean to seem ungrateful, sir..."

"Why do you feel cheated, Lesseri?" he asked. There was no anger or hurt in his voice. He spoke kindly and patiently, as if the implied accusation in her words did not exist. "You may speak freely. In fact, I command it."

She hesitated, then said: "Guwar, sir. He was weaker than me before we joined you. Now he and I both have the Jindan power, and he's stronger than I am."

"Oh?" he said. "And what of it?"

"You gave him more power than you gave me!" Lesseri said. "It isn't fair!" She had tried to be obeisant and respectful, but now her frustration and outrage began to well up inside her. She believed he was playing dumb with her, and she was right. It wasn't fair. The lesson she needed to learn had nothing to do with fairness.

"Let's say you're right," Trismegistus said. "What do you plan to do about it?"

Her building defiance suddenly melted away. Lesseri took a step back from him, as though the question itself had physically shoved her.

"Well?" he asked. "I did order you to speak your mind, Lesseri. Speak."

He enjoyed making them squirm like this. Saiyans like Lesseri thought they would do anything for greater strength, but 'anything' included far, far more than they ever bothered to consider.

"I... I only want what you promised me--" Lesseri said slowly.

"No," Trismegistus said. "You gave yourself to me, Lesseri, and I gave you Jindan in return. As far as I'm concerned, our transaction is concluded. What you're asking for now is to be stronger than Guwar. And I could make you stronger, but you have nothing else to bargain with. Everything you have, everything you are, is mine. Guwar is mine. I owe you nothing. So I'll ask again: what are you going to do about it?"

He looked at Treekul while he waited for Lesseri to come up with an answer. "What do you think, Treekul?" he asked idly.

The alien woman rubbed the back of her buzzcut and smiled uneasily. "Well, she could always quit the cult, right?" Treekul said.

"Yes, she could. You both saw what happened to Salziff when he left my flock," Trismegistus said. "Jindan exacts a tremendous price. Allow me to demonstrate."

Lesseri suddenly collapsed, and a red aura glowed faintly around her body.

"No!" she moaned. "I didn't mean--! I never wanted--!"

"Unlike you, dear Treekul," he said, "Lesseri is free to leave us at any time. However, if she goes, she won't get to take the Jindan power with her."

"You can remove it at will?" Treekul asked. She stepped forward to help Lesseri, then thought better of it. The two women had been allies for a time, and it pleased Trismegistus to separate them this way. Treekul's best chance to survive was to at play along with the role he had laid out for her. She would eventually seek an opportunity to escape, but first she had to earn his trust, which meant that she couldn't squander it by defying him openly. That was the alien's hope, but it was hollow. The fact was that Trismegistus would never trust her, no matter what she did or didn't do. But he would string her along, and make her think her plan was working, and she would continue to obey him, waiting for a chance that would never come. As for Lesseri...

"The Jindan elixir binds the user's ki with my own," he explained. "Increasing their power is a somewhat complicated operation, but taking it away? For me, it is as simple as contracting a muscle. But it's not as simple as filling a cup with fresh wine. A little of the user's ki is mingled in the process, and so when I rescind my gift, the subject always ends up weaker than when she began."

As he said this, the red aura vanished from Lesseri's body, and she looked at her open palms in abject horror. "No!" she gasped.

"Take heart, Lesseri," Trismegistus said. "You're still stronger than Guwar was before he accepted the Jindan power. That must be of some consolation to you."

"Please!" she begged. "I never said I wanted to leave you! I only wanted to be stronger!"

Trismegistus made a cruel smile. "I have no intention of driving you out," he said. "I will return what I have taken from you, Lesseri... tomorrow, I think. That will give you time to reconsider things. And you'll have to prepare for the initiation rites again."

Lesseri made an audible gulp. "Again?" she asked in a small voice.

"I'm afraid restoring Jindan to you isn't as easy as taking it away," Trismegistus said. "At least you won't have to repeat the Crucible. Others have not been so fortunate."

Lesseri began to weep softly. As she did, he turned to Treekul and addressed her.

"Tell me, Treekul. What question should Lesseri have asked me?"

Treekul considered this for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure," she admitted, "but I'm curious about why Guwar got more from the same dose of Jindan elixir. Does it depend on the person, or is that something you can control?"

"Very good, my priestess," he said. "Lesseri can learn a great deal from you already. The problem is that she has a lot to unlearn as well."

"So this is some kind of ideological thing," Treekul guessed. "Guwar was favored because he had greater faith, or because he was worthier in some way."

"It's more complicated than that," Trismegistus said. He looked down at Lesseri, who was still cowering at his feet. "Up on your feet, my child. You're weakened, but you have enough strength to stand, don't you?" He waited for her to rise before he continued. "I need the Saiyans, Treekul. I need them as much as they need me. With each one who joins my fold and receives my sacrament, I grow stronger. In return, I give them strength, purpose, and order."

He walked around the spot where Lesseri stood, and when he was close enough, he reached out and seized her tail in his hand. Lesseri winced with pain, but didn't move.

"You know that a Saiyan's tail is their weak point," he said.

"I've heard," Treekul said. "But I've also heard most Saiyans train their tails to overcome that problem."

"That's right," he said. "Lesseri is a fine example. If she hadn't rigorously trained herself, she would be overcome with agony right now. Left untrained, simple squeeze of my hand would make her helpless, but instead I can only make her uncomfortable. But why should she have a tail at all?"

"The great ape transformation," Treekul said. "I've never seen it, but I hear Saiyans can increase their power dramatically that way."

"That only works under the light of the full moon," he said, "and even then, it's a liability. Most Saiyans lose all control of themselves in the Oozaru form. Even the ones who don't must still be careful, because if an enemy attacks their tail, it could undo the transformation."

"I know some Saiyans cut their tails off," Treekul said. "Including a lot of the ones here."

"Yes, and they are the ones who demonstrate true wisdom," Trismegistus said. "So many Saiyans revere their tails, foolishly attempting to justify a vestigial organ. They let a quirk of biology decide their strengths and weaknesses, rather than taking control of their own destinies. Lesseri has accepted the path of wisdom already. By accepting Jindan, she has rejected the limitations of her own body. One day, we shall hold a ceremony, and she will cut off her own tail, proving once and for all her willingness to cast off her bodily weaknesses."

"Okay," Treekul said, "But Guwar still has his tail, at least for now. What puts him ahead of Lesseri?"

"Guwar has kept his tail out of ignorance and complacency," Trismegistus explained. "Other Saiyans choose to keep them, out of a misplaced sense of pride. They have been taught by false teachers, who fill their heads with heretical nonsense. That is what sets Lesseri apart. That is the true weakness she must cast off. There are many Saiyans afflicted by this corruption, but Lesseri more than most."

"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Lesseri finally exclaimed. He smiled at the desperation in her voice. "My mother abandoned me to a gestation facility before I was born! I grew up alone! What false teacher--?"

Trismegistus grabbed her by the face, silencing her as harshly as possible. "I speak of the antiprophet herself!" he shouted. "The un-Saiyan, the Queen of Lies! Or do you deny training with Luffa herself?"

The look in her terrified eyes was priceless. Trismegistus lacked the power to read minds, but he knew enough to be assured that Lesseri would now be his forever. She had been "hiding" this secret from him the whole time, worried that if the truth were revealed, that it would ruin her standing here. But he had known all along. He would never tell her how he knew. Best to let her imagination fill in the blank for him. She would assume he could see her thoughts, or that Treekul had betrayed her, or that she had given herself away somehow.

"Hold on," Treekul said. "Lesseri hates Luffa. I mean, sure, she told me once about how she trained with her, but she found the whole thing to be a waste of time, so she quit."

"Of course she did," Trismegistus said. "Even the lost can recognize true evil when they encounter it. Lesseri forsook the wicked, and with your guidance, Treekul, she found the divine. That is to her credit, but her debt must still be paid. The stain of Luffa must still be cleansed."

"Then... then it's not too late for me?" Lesseri asked when he released her. He could practically smell the fear coming from her. She could not leave the cult, and so her only way forward was to embrace it as completely as she could, in the hopes of being deemed 'worthy'. As with Treekul, Lesseri's goal was unreachable. He would lead her towards it, offering her chances to redeem herself, but she could she ever truly be rid of the "sin" of her past association with Luffa.

"It's never too late for anyone, Lesseri," he assured her. "But your path will be very different from Guwar's. Much will be asked of you, and-- for a time-- you will receive little in return. One day, you will be rewarded in full, but first we must purge you of Luffa's corruption, this sense of entitlement you have. Luffa would have us all believe that power is a Saiyan's birthright, to be claimed through perseverance. You cannot win supreme power by your own merit, Lesseri. Compassion, collateral, shrewd negotiation, none of it matters. It can only be received from higher power. My power. You intuited this when you first decided to seek me out. Now, we must teach your conscious mind to understand the great truth you have discovered."

"H-how do I start?" Lesseri asked.

Trismegistus stroked his chin for a moment as he pretended to consider the matter. Then he gave Treekul an expectant look.

"Um... well, if you're asking me," Treekul said with a start, "I'm new to this, but maybe some manual labor? Yeah, nothing like some mindlessly repetitive tasks to, uh, cleanse the spirit."

"Very good," Trismegistus said. "The breeding pits are always in need of cleaning." He patted Lesseri on the shoulder and smiled warmly at her. "One of the deacons will help you get started."

There was something in Lesseri's eyes that betrayed a hint of resentment, but her grateful smile marked the progress he had made. It would take time to break Lesseri to his will, but the important thing was that he had set the terms. She now understood that she had to mold herself to his expectations, instead of the reverse. "Thank you, my lord," she said. "I won't disappoint you."

"Of course not," he said. "Now go, and let my triple-blessing fall upon your task."

Lesseri lowered her head respectfully, and after she had withdrawn from the chamber, Trismegistus turned to Treekul and chuckled.

"Breeding pits?" Treekul asked. "Is that what I think it is?"

"As I told you," he said. "I need the Saiyans as much as they need me. Not only this generation, but the next, and the one after that. I have facilities here on Nagaoka for incubating their progeny, and breeding partners are selected through genetic screening, but when it comes to the copulation, well--" he stepped toward her and put his arm around her waist to pull her closer. "--sometimes the old-fashioned ways are the best."

"Yeah... but Saiyans are really uptight about that stuff," Treekul observed. "You mean you just order them to pair off and cuddle up in some public space?"

She kept glancing down at his arm, which amused him. She didn't like when he touched her, but she knew better than to object. After all, the little fool needed to gain his confidence, didn't she?

"The Saiyans have always been a prudish race," he explained. "The breeding pits serve as a way to de-stigmatize their mating habits, and to ensure that no one shirks their duties."

"Just another way to keep them in line, isn't it? The ones who object get singled out and punished just like Lesseri, don't they?" she asked.

"Absolutely," he said. "You learn quickly, my dear. But enough of this. I have several more alchemical lessons for you today. Lesseri and her kind can wait for another day."

He loosened his grip on her, only to take her by the arm instead. As he led her to his apparatus, she resisted him with a tug.

"Hold on," she said. "What about Guwar? You kept saying how exceptional he's been, but I haven't seen him since I got here."

He looked back at her with a smirk. "I'm sure you'll see him in time, Treekul," he replied. "Though I would remind you that the breeding pits are off-limits to non-Saiyans."

He turned and led her onward, unconcerned with how she reacted to this statement. He suspected that she had feelings towards the Guwar, or perhaps the reverse, or perhaps neither. The point was not to correctly guess what she was thinking, but to make her question her own thoughts, and to cloak himself with an fog of inscrutability, so that no one could be sure what he could do or not do.

That was the key to true power, and why he so enjoyed the chance to disrobe. He left his cloak where it lay. Someone would fetch it for him, and consider the chore to be a tremendous honor.

*******

[12 March, 233 Before Age. Ristet IV.]

"The seven of knives, twelve of horses. The black hole. The bishop. The nine of lances."

"What does all that mean?" Zatte asked as she looked at the cards Dotz had drawn.

"Absolutely nothing," Dotz said. "Well not nothing, but it's all jumbled. Contradictory."

"I don't understand," Zatte said.

Dotz placed her fingertip on one of the cards lying face up on the table. "This one tells me she's going on a journey very soon. But the others indicate that she won't. This one says she's going to die. And this one means that she'll live a very long life."

"I would have thought that there was a consistent prediction for every possible combination of cards," Zatte said. "Otherwise, what's the point?"

"There should be, but... well, I apply my own sensibilities when I do a reading," Dotz explained.

Zatte noticed her tone was even more apologetic than usual. She found it ironic that Luffa, the mightiest Saiyan of her age, had developed such a fast respect for this meek and unassuming middle-aged woman. "The strictest interpretation of this hand is that Luffa is a very passionate person who will be experiencing a great challenge soon. Well, pardon my saying so, but that just doesn't tell us very much at all."

"No, I suppose it doesn't tell us a whole lot," Zatte said, "but your own interpretation doesn't make sense."

"It's worse than that," Dotz continued. She looked down at the cards scattered on the table. "I've done a dozen readings for her, and they all end up like this. Sometimes she meets an important man, either a stranger, or a close relative. Sometimes she fights him. Sometimes she receives instructions from heaven. Other times it's like she ceases to exist. I hoped that the cards would give me better insight, but I'm no better off than before."

"I'm sorry," Zatte said. "I wish I could help."

"It's not all bad, I suppose. Working on her fortune has forced me to improve my technique. I'm no closer to reading Luffa's future, but I'm a lot more confident in predicting others."

"If that's an offer, the answer is still no," Zatte said. "My place is beside her. If her path is unknown, then mine should be the same."

"Of course," Dotz said. "I only meant that I could get a better reading on the next attack."

"What about the enemy's base of operations?" Zatte asked. "These cultists keep popping up from out of nowhere. From what I hear, Federation intelligence can only suggest that they're using cloaked ships or low-power runnings to approach undetected. Every time we beat a few, there's always more to replace them. If we don't find out where they're coming from, we may never stop them."

"The answer will come to us," Dotz said. "The path of the traitor will show the way."

"A traitor?" Zatte asked. "From our side or theirs?"

"I can't tell," Dotz said. "I-I'm sorry. I know there's a lot at stake, but some events are to fluid to predict."

"Don't apologize," Zatte said. "If this is how your ability works, I'll just have to get used to it."

"I'll try again," Dotz assured her. "Sometimes, things improve after a few hours, as we get closer to the answer. I'll do whatever I can to get some more solid information for you."

"What about Xibuyas' fortune?" Zatte asked. "Can you read anything about him?"

Dotz leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. "His is a difficult path," she began. "He will hold many levers of power, but the ones he'll actually turn will be very few."

Zatte shrugged. "I don't know what to make of that," she said. "Are you saying he won't prosper?"

"Not long enough to truly enjoy the rewards of his work," Dotz said. "He sows the seeds and he tills the field, but others will eat the crop."

Zatte couldn't help but smile. Her stepson despised Luffa, and he seemed to hate Zatte almost as much, so he probably wouldn't have appreciated the sentiment of it. Among her own people, the Dorluns, a fate like the one Dotz just described would be very satisfying indeed. She made a mental note to say a prayer for the boy.

"What about Fedender itself?" she suggested. "If you can't see how Luffa's doing, maybe the planet's status is easier to read."

"Oh, that's a good idea," Dotz said. She concentrated for several minutes, or at least Zatte assumed it was concentration, since she had no idea how Dotz did what she did. Eventually she dealt another hand from her deck of cards, and then--

"The battle is over," Dotz said.

"Over?" Zatte asked. "Then why hasn't there been any word?"

Dotz grimaced as though asking the same question to whatever unseen force gave her those kinds of answers. "I'm not sure. The damage was extensive. Maybe they can't restore communications, even with the enemy gone."

"Then we won?" Zatte asked. "Are the cultists definitely off the planet?"

Dotz hesitated before replying. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I'm sure of it now. They're gone, but... but they'll be coming back. Which means Luffa will have to return there as well."

"I don't get it," Zatte said. "How can she return to Fedender if she hasn't even left yet?"

"She's not there anymore," Dotz said. "I can see a woman. One of Fedender's leaders, I imagine. An authority figure, that much is certain. She's watching a ship take off, and she's begging Luffa to stay."

"That doesn't make any sense," Zatte said. "If she were headed back here, I'd have already picked her up on the long-range sensors. And if she's not staying put on Fedender, we should have heard from some other Federation planet by now, one that's under attack and needs her help. Where could she be going?"

"And what will happen to Fedender," Dotz asked as she slowly opened her eyes, "if Luffa doesn't return in time to help them?"

NEXT: Luffa vs. Trismegistus.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #lssjluffafic #trismegistus #zatte #dotz #lesseri #treekul #nagaoka #ristet iv

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duhragonball · 5 years ago

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (112/?)

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[2 March, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

"Now, let us all give thanks to our leaders."

"Thank you, Trismegistus. Blessed by the world that was; blessed by the world that is; blessed by the world yet to come."

Initiates into the Jindan Cult were required to complete a intensive orientation course. It lasted sixteen straight days, with each class lasting sixteen hours. This had something to do with the number of protons in a sulfur atom, but Lesseri had forgotten this point after the first day. She was now on Hour Eleven of Day Nine.

Deprivation was part of the coursework. A Saiyan had to demonstrate her purity and worthiness to receive the Jindan power. One way of establishing this was to live on low-calorie diets. Another was to undergo a ki assay with one of the priests. They would examine the subject and determine ways to purify a person's energy. The assay took at least three hours to complete, and so this cut into time the initiate could spend on sleep. Lesseri had undergone several assays recently, because she had been struggling to keep up with the lessons of the First Crucible. She figured she had averaged about two hours of sleep each night, but it was worth it. One of her classmates had gotten bad marks, and he had been required to start over from the beginning. But Lesseri was still hanging in there. She was tired, but strangely enthusiastic. In spite of the hunger and exhaustion, she would pass this stage and progress to the next level. All she had to do was follow the directions, step by step, and the power would be hers.

On the first day, thanking a portrait of Trismegistus had seemed like a waste of time. Now, she found these moments a welcome diversion from the rigors of study. It was a chance to explore her gratitude, and to reflect upon the progress she had made. When they went around the room to thank Trismegistus individually, Lesseri knew exactly what to say.

"Thank you for your spiritual assays," she said when it was her turn.

"I had a feeling you might say that," said the priest who was overseeing the day's lessons. He had performed some of her assays as well, and he gave her a knowing smile.

They all shared a friendly laugh, and Lesseri smiled back at him. "It's helped a lot," she said. "The old Lesseri never would have made it this far on so little sleep."

"You've all grown so much," the priest said. "I know that some of you have had to repeat the Crucible from the beginning. It took me thirty-five days to complete it myself. There is no shame in it."

The priest had said this many times. Shame was a temporary condition, a price to be paid in exchange for proud nobility. One of the many exercises in the Crucible involved transmuting base metal into gold. Lesseri would sit before a pot and focus her ki on a lump of lead inside. Normally, it was impossible to transform matter in this way. Even the alchemical masters, skilled in the ways of transmutation, would consider this supremely difficult, if not impossible. But Trismegistus knew better. Lead was cheap and toxic and shameful, but it could be changed into something valuable, beautiful, and perfect. And once it was had become gold, would anyone care that it had once been something less? The shame of having been lead was one of the essential ingredients in the process of its refinement. The old Lesseri was like the lump of lead. Trismegistus would make her into a better, stronger Lesseri of gold, but only through an arduous process. When it was complete, the hardship and indignities she now suffered would be irrelevant.

And so, for the next hour, Lesseri concentrated and applied her power on the metal. The best she could manage was to melt it. She had the power to vaporize the lead, but the cavern where she studied was poorly ventilated, and the fumes would be very toxic. Lesseri found molten lead to be very disappointing. It melted at such a low temperature that it didn't even glow red or yellow before it turned into an ugly stew of grey. At least iron would look like gold when it was hot enough.

This principle, the priests taught, was why the "Super Saiyan" transformation used by Luffa was heretical. If Luffa's power had been legitimate, a means of attaining true nobility, then she would remain in that form permanently. The fact that she constantly shifted back and forth was proof that she was a mere trickster. Whatever Luffa's power was, the priests taught that it was unearned. Luffa had not been transformed in the proper way. Hers was a fool's gold. Aurifiction instead of aurifaction.

This teaching was immensely satisfying to Lesseri. She had long resented Luffa's power, but envied it as well. Now the truth behind that contradiction was clear. The old, ignoble Lesseri was easily impressed, but she had still instinctively recognized Luffa as a fraud.

"Remember," the priest said as he walked around the room. "A piece of lead may admire iron, but that does not make iron noble. Within lead is the fundamental essence of all matter. Through that, lead knows what it means to be gold, even without ever becoming such. This yearning is how you can coax lead to become gold."

Lesseri appreciated these words, although they brought her no closer to her goal. Her pot was no closer to transmuting now than when she had started. None of her classmates had fared any better.

"Bah!" cried the man at the benchtop beside her. "This is a waste of time! I came here to get stronger, not to play with solder!"

Lesseri ignored him, even when he tossed his pot onto the floor, spilling molten lead onto the ground.

"You only waste time with your outbursts, Brother Leik," the priest said. "If you want to complete the Crucible, you must pass the Crucible. The ore that shuns the flame will never be refined."

The man was on his third day, at least as far as Lesseri knew. She shared his frustrations, but she also knew there was no point in expressing them. The Crucible had to be endured, not resisted.

"What is there to pass?!" Leik growled. "You have a potion that will make us stronger, so what does that have to do with making us stare at pots and leading us in singalongs?!"

"Leik, you were warned before..." the priest said, but Leik had run out of patience.

"You won't even tell me what you did with my nephew!" he shouted. "Everyone just says he 'wasn't worthy'. Why? Because his mother and grandmother were aliens? He's stronger than most full-blooded Saiyans I know!"

"Aliens have no place on this world," one of the other students said. "Trismegistus has no use for dross. Your nephew is dead, so stop wasting our time worrying about him!"

"Demotion," the priest finally said. "Both of you."

A chill ran down Lesseri's spine, and she suspected that the rest of the class had the same reaction to that word. The Crucible was no place for defiance, or for speaking out of turn. The priests encouraged open discussion, but only when that discussion was productive. Push them too far, and you would be required to repeat the Crucible from the beginning.

Leik was furious, but he couldn't do anything about it. Like the rest of the class, he hadn't received the Jindan power, so he was no match for the priests, who already possessed it. A pair of red-uniformed attendants escorted him out of the room. Then they returned for the other man.

"But... but I spoke against his outburst!" he protested.

Lesseri might have snorted with contempt for his foolishness, but she didn't want to draw any attention on herself, the way he had done. The priests hardly needed his help to deal with unruly students. What could lead offer gold?

They took him away, presumably to join Leik. Lesseri had no idea what they did to demoted students before making them start over on the Crucible. She had made it her business to never find out. Sixteen days was plenty.

And sixteen days worked. As grueling as it was, Lesseri knew it would be worth it. The priests had the power, and that was proof enough. So why punish yourself by making it take longer than absolutely necessary? Lesseri had spent longer than this training with Luffa, and had gotten nowhere. Luffa's lessons had been an utter waste, and now she understood why. How could fraudulent iron teach lead to become gold?

Lesseri understood Leik's sentiments. She too had come to this planet with an alien. Treekul had provided the geomantic and alchemical research that had allowed Lesseri to find this place, but they were soon separated. Lesseri assumed Treekul had been executed. There was no good reason for her to stay, and she knew too much to be allowed to escape, and so what other option remained? But there was no point in discussing it. Asking wouldn't change Treekul's fate, but it could make Lesseri's path more difficult.

And so she focused on the pot of molten lead in front of her, and struggled to imagine some way to will it into gold.

*******

[7 March, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

On the fourteenth day of the Crucible, Lesseri believed she would fail. Her pot of lead remained a pot of lead. The other students had done no better, but Lesseri wasn't worried about them.

Years ago, she had joined a group of Saiyans under the tutelage of Luffa. The cult had branded Luffa a heretic, and so Lesseri was very careful to a avoid discussing those days. She had only gotten mixed up with that group in order to kill her own mother. If Luffa had taught them anything useful during that time, Lesseri might have taken it to heart. As it was, Lesseri had walked out on them, staying only long enough to make certain her mother was declared dead.

But the cult might not see it that way. The longer she studied their ways, the more she worried about it. The priest teaching them today was a thin Saiyan with pale pink skin and a unibrow. He gave loud, thunderous sermons to the group, speaking of the glories of purity, and the utter destruction of anything tainted by the unholy. The other students seemed galvanized by his words, but Lesseri wondered how he would react if he knew she had met Luffa face to face, and even sparred with her.

Her only saving grace was that the cult only knew what she had told them, and possibly whatever she had shared with Endive and Guwar. She hadn't seen either of then since their initiation. For all she knew they had failed the Crucible and met the same fate as Treekul. In any case, Lesseri hadn't told either of them that much about her time with Luffa.

It was Treekul that made her worry. The four of them had come to this planet together, but when Lesseri first began her quest, it was just Lesseri and Treekul. With no one else to talk to in those days, she had said more than she probably should have.

One of Lesseri's schemes had involved disguising Endive as Luffa to trick certain parties into giving up useful information. To complete the disguise, she convinced Treekul to dress up as Luffa wife, a blue-skinned, red-haired alien whose name Lesseri had long forgotten. Most people didn't know that much about Luffa's personal life, so Lesseri had believed it would make Endive's act more convincing.

"How do you know so much about this lady anyway?" Treekul had asked.

"We all lived together on Nat-Chezz II for a while," Lesseri had told her. "The blue lady would hide in the jungle and we had to hunt her down as an exercise."

There were other anecdotes, things that Lesseri had shared with Treekul but not with the cult to which she had pledged her immortal soul. At first, she hadn't given it a second thought. Treekul was probably dead by now, and she had no reason to tell them of such things, even if they did interrogate her before her execution.

But fourteen days in the Crucible had taken a mental toll on Lesseri. The priests had been very cordial and helpful at first, but over time they expected more and more from her, and the disapproving looks they made were impossible to ignore. Even when they praised her, she sensed an unspoken "but you could have done better."

In the short hours when she should have been sleeping, Lesseri had tossed and turned, racking her brain for something to explain her fears, and then she realized that Treekul was the only explanation. She had never seen the alien die. The priests must have questioned Treekul, and learned something about Lesseri's time with Luffa. They didn't say anything to Lesseri because they were waiting for her to confess it herself.

But she couldn't do that. If they didn't know, if Treekul had told them nothing, then telling them would be a terrible mistake. They would punish her, make her repeat the Crucible, or perhaps worse.

But if they already knew, then lying to them would be an even more terrible mistake.

But if they didn't know, and she told them now, they would ask why she hadn't said anything before.

But if she could only turn the lead into gold, then none of it would matter. They would recognize her mastery of the lessons, and her other failings would be forgiven.

But she couldn't turn the lead into gold. None of the students could. Lesseri began to suspect that the point of the exercise was to recognize the futility of the attempt. The ones who cracked under the pressure to perform were demoted and required to repeat the Crucible from the beginning.

But Lesseri couldn't endure that. She was too tired, too hungry, and too frightened to contemplate another sixteen days of this hell. She had to hold on, and hope that everything would work out if she just held out a little longer. That was what the other students were doing.

But none of them harbored a secret like hers.

Silently, she begged the lump of metal in her pot to suddenly become gold. It was a stupid thought, but it would solve everything. It would prove that she was worthy, and nothing else would matter. Her past, her secrets, her lies, it would all be forgotten.

But the lead would not cooperate, no matter how badly she wanted it to.

And then, just as she was about to lose all patience, and throw the pot to the ground and scream at the top of her lungs, the priest rang a small chime, signifying the end of the day's session. After a brief farewell, they were dismissed. Lesseri rose from her seat and wandered out of the room in a daze. The thing she was feeling wasn't exactly relief, for she knew she would face the same turmoil again tomorrow. But at least she could rest and eat. There had to be some way for her to ride out these last two days...

"Lesseri, could I speak to you for a moment?"

She turned and saw one of the priests, and forced herself to some semblance of composure.

"I'm giving instructions to one of the new priests," he explained. "You've been through the assay several times, and I thought you would make a good subject for a demonstration of the process."

"Of course," Lesseri said, her voice somewhat weaker and more reluctant than she wanted it to sound. "Whenever you're ready."

"Splendid," he said. "You know, you're making remarkable progress, Lesseri."

The compliment might have lifted her spirits, until she happened to notice someone out of the corner of her eye, walking along the corridor. She was clad in the red robes of the priesthood, but her skin was lavender, and her hair was a thin layer of green stubble on her scalp. But it was only for a moment, and then she was gone, and Lesseri had to wonder if she had imagined it somehow.

"Is something wrong, Lesseri?" the priest asked.

"No, sir," Lesseri finally said. "Nothing at all."

*******

[9 March, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Day Sixteen of the Crucible. Lesseri felt like she was about to die. The contents of her pot had not changed. Earlier in the day, one of the other students had gone into hysterics, and began raving about how he had "done it", and insisted that his lead had become gold, even though it had not. Whether he was lying or hallucinating, Lesseri couldn't tell. She was no longer interested in the fate of the others, or whether she could transmute metals. Her only focus was on making it through the rest of the day without behind demoted.

She had not seen Treekul since that moment in the corridor, and yet she couldn't shake the feeling that it had been real. That made no sense. Aliens were unworthy. Only Saiyans could be priests. Unless Treekul had proven herself useful somehow. And the only way Lesseri could think of was by revealing the lies and secrets of one of their initiates.

No! It couldn't be like that. If they already knew the truth, then why had they not pulled Lesseri out of the Crucible already? Why bother letting her finish the course?

Unless the Crucible was considered a fitting punishment for her. It certainly didn't feel like a reward. What better torment than to make her endure the entire trial, only to deny her at the very end?

No. Lesseri bit her lower lip until she could feel it bleeding. She had to beat back these waves of paranoia. This was the only way to receive the Jindan power, and she would not repeat this ordeal, no matter what. It was all a test of her obedience, like she had said from the beginning. Just do as you're told, and the rest would take care of itself. That was all she had to worry about. It had to be. It just had to.

And then two more of the priests entered the room. Lesseri ignored them until she heard one of them speak, and she recognized Treekul's voice.

"You probably wouldn't even recognize Lesseri after all this time," one of them said to her. "She's made remarkable progress."

"Yes, of course," Treekul said.

Lesseri tried to focus on her work, but couldn't help looking up when Treekul approached. Her blood ran cold when she finally saw her. It was definitely Treekul. Her green buzz cut and lavendar skin were conspicuous enough in the outside universe, but here, among an all-Saiyan population, they stood out even more. Her garments were more revealing than most, but the style made it clear that she was one of the priestesses.

She couldn't stand this any longer. Had Treekul told them already? What was she even doing here? How did this make any sense? And then, just as she was about to ask, one of the other students beat her to it.

"Sir, how is an alien allowed to serve in the priesthood? I thought only Saiyans were worthy."

Treekul and Lesseri looked at each other while the student waited for his answer.

"Trismegistus has assayed Sister Treekul," the priest explained. "And he has made her worthy."

"That's impossible!" protested one of the other students.

"Is it?" the priest asked. "You've all been working on those pots for several days now, haven't you? Has any of you managed to make so much as a sliver of gold? Anyone at all? No? Why do you suppose that is?"

There was a tension behind Lesseri's eyes, and the back of her head felt like the molten lump of metal in her pot. She felt a shame that she couldn't begin to describe. She was sure that if she could answer the priest's question, then it would make up for her other failings, in some small way. And yet she was at a loss. She couldn't even explain her own failure. And there was Treekul, a living monument to her imperfection...

"Well, of course they can't do it. They don't know how," Treekul said, answering for the class. "Even experienced alchemists struggle to pull off that sort of thing. So why are you having these initiates try it? You didn't even give them any reagents or equipment."

Lesseri looked up from her pot. Was this true? Had the entire exercise been a complete waste of time?

"We make the initiates perform the impossible," the priest explained, "precisely because it's impossible... for them. And as they realize the depths of their failure, they must also reflect upon this truth: Our master, Trismegistus, can turn lead into gold. His power can do what the rest of us call 'impossible'. That is why we follow him. Not just because he is our leader, or because of his 'power'. We follow him because he is holy. Miraculous. Without him, the lead is unchanged. But with his triple blessing, he can turn it into gold. He can turn make the weak into the strong. And he can even transmute the alien into the disciple. Truly, the thrice-blessed is a..."

He suddenly paused his sermon and looked toward the class. "Excuse me, Lesseri," he said, "are you crying?"

The entire classroom was astounded by the teachings, but Lesseri was completely awestruck. It had been an epiphany to her. Treekul, her own imperfections, the Crucible, and everything else she had worried about, they were all wet clay to be molded by Trismegistus. None of it mattered. The crucible, demotion, the assays, Treekul wearing priestly garments, Lesseri's former association with the Super Saiyan. None of it mattered in the end, because it could all be shaped and reshaped to suit his grand design. All Lesseri needed to do was to submit and let herself be transformed.

"I'm all right," she sobbed. "It's just so... liberating..."

NEXT: Xibuyas waits.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #lssjluffafic #lesseri #treekul #nagaoka

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duhragonball · 6 years ago

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (105/?)

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[8 February 233 Before Age. Planet Quadzityz.]

Unless Luffa acted quickly, the Planet Quadzityz was doomed.

Only moments ago, she had battled a Saiyan possessing unusual powers, powers that were now seeping into the ground where his corpse now lay. Luffa didn't understand the unnatural ki energy that was contaminating the soil, but she had her suspicions, and they didn't paint a very optimistic picture. As the ki soaked into the ground, it was absorbed into the soil, seemingly infusing it with power, a power Luffa sensed to be unstable. With each passing moment, the contamination expanded deeper into the ground and across a wider area. Luffa was beginning to think that it would eventually explode. The only question remaining was how much of the planet's crust would be destroyed when that finally happened.

Luffa had tried to quarantine the affected soil using her own ki energy. As a Super Saiyan, her power was far greater than the energy she was trying to contain, but she had to exert a greater effort over a large volume, and with each failed attempt, the volume of soil to contain grew ever larger, and the problem became that much harder to solve. Brute strength wasn't enough; she lacked the 'leverage' necessary to accomplish the task. She felt like a champion weightlifter trying to pick up a barbell with both hands on the same end.

She was worried about her wife. The dead Saiyan, Jolok, had managed to damage Luffa's communicator, so there was no way to warn Zatte about the impending catastrophe. She was tempted to simply abandon Quadzityz to its fate, grab Zatte, and get to their ship before it was too late. The act of a coward, but in her heart of hearts, Luffa always thought of herself as cowardly. Her immense Super Saiyan power didn't make her any braver; it just made her more secure against most threats. If anything, being a Super Saiyan only made her more afraid of situations she couldn't punch into submission, like the one that was unfolding before her eyes.

On top of that, there was the Mindworm. Jolok never said how he acquired his strange increase in strength, but he did mention that his benefactor wanted to keep it secret. To protect Jolok against telepathic intrusion, he was given the Mindworm, a psychic 'program' that replicated itself in Luffa's mind when she tried to probe Jolok's mind for answers. It didn't actually do anything to Luffa's own consciousness; it simply copied itself over and over again, taxing her own mental resources. It felt like the telepathic equivalent of eating something much, much spicier than expected, and being overwhelmed by the hot sensation. Luffa had managed to dispel the worst of its effects, but she was still distracted by the lingering "heat" in her brain, as the Mindworm still struggled to continue growing in her thoughts.

She slapped her hands on her cheeks and shook her head. "Focus, dammit!" she said to herself. "Everyone on this planet is dead if you don't do something! Chanisp would have figured this out by now!"

Chanisp was the last Super Saiyan before her, and Luffa often looked to the ancient hero as a source of inspiration. The stories said that a demon cut off his tail to prevent him from becoming a Giant Ape under the full moon, but Chanisp refused to give in to despair. He trained in secret, shoving heavy blocks of cut stone for lack of any other means, pushing his body to become stronger and stronger, until he no longer needed the Giant Ape form to claim victory and avenge his lost tail. The moral was that a Saiyan was greater than the sum of his parts. Denied one path to success, a worthy Saiyan would always find another. Luffa looked at the end of her own tail, which glowed yellow from her Super Saiyan form. She supposed looking at her tail was one thing she could do that Chanisp never could. There had to be a way out of this.

And then she had it. Chanisp beat his demon by moving large blocks of granite. Luffa would do the same.

She flew two miles from the center of the ki-infused mass, and dove straight into the ground. Had anyone been there to witness it, they would have seen a brilliant golden light shining out of the tunnel she had created. A moment later, the hole in the ground expanded into a trench, as Luffa carved a path through the bedrock below. Once the trench formed a complete circle around the affected soil, she began to cut at the bedrock beneath it, slicing through millions of cubic feet of rock with a thin beam of ki energy. When she was finished, she imagined the result looking something like a giant mudpie, four miles across, sitting upon a rocky crust.

Moving such a massive object would be impossible, even for her. Cutting it into smaller pieces would certainly help, but it would take days to move them all one by one. Fortunately, Luffa didn't need to move the entire thing. She tunneled under the center of the "mudpie" and charged enough ki to destroy it. She had enough raw power to destroy the entire planet if she wanted, so blowing up a small piece of it was easy. The trick was to direct the destructive force up and away from the part of Quadzityz that she didn't want to destroy. If Jolok's ki had been allowed to explode on its own, it would have potentially damaged the planet's crust, or worse. Luffa's plan would do a lot of damage to the surrounding area, but with any luck it wouldn't be much worse than the devastation caused by the war she was trying to stop.

She sensed the outer fringes of Jolok's power in the soil, and focused her attack on it. At the same time, she enveloped the entire "mudpie" with a ki field that would help channel the force of the explosion straight up. All of this seemed rather strange to her. Usually, the things she did with her Super Saiyan power were just a scaled up version of things she he had used her ki for as a teenager. What she was doing now felt more like some sort of engineering problem, even though the techniques she used were simple enough. There was no enemy here except for time and uncertainty.

When Jolok's posthumous ki energy finally detonated, the force of it proved almost too much for Luffa to hold. Her own power was superior to his, but the mass of the soil was a factor now. Somehow, Jolok's power had infused into the earth itself, making things difficult. That was why Luffa had made the "mudpie" so big. There was enough "good" dirt surrounding the "bad" dirt that it helped dampen the lateral force of the explosion. Luffa just had to make sure nothing got through. It was hard work, but reasonably straightforward. After several minutes, the destruction subsided, and Luffa could sense no more of Jolok's ki in the "mudpie". As she burst through it to emerge onto the surface, she saw that the soil that remained had been completely reduced to ash. There was no trace of Jolok's body at all, which was hardly a surprise, since the corpse had been at the center of Luffa's maelstrom.

The Mindworm still bothered her, but it had faded into little more than a mild annoyance. In another hour, it would probably be gone altogether. She wanted to lie down for a while, but there was no time for that. There was still a war going on, and she had just lost a lot of time saving the lives of all the people who were trying to kill her. With a sigh, she flew back to the island she had been using as her base. The mystery of Jolok's appearance on the planet would have to wait.

*******

"Why hasn't Unit 6 reported yet? Captured?! Then we'll have to divide the Third Corps to hold the perimeter... What do you mean there's no way to reach Third Corps? Blast it, you had better be working on it, mister! If I don't get--!"

The commanding general of the Red faction had been having a bad day. Luffa had destroyed his cyber-slorgs, mechs from the Green Army had nearly taken his headquarters twice, and communications had been spotty at best. So when the invisible intruder crept up behind him and injected him with an anasthetic she had stolen from his own medical staff, she decided that it was probably the best thing that had happened to him all day. By the time he woke up, she planned to sabotage his base to such an extent that he would be completely unable to command his troops. Maybe he didn't want this unscheduled vacation, but from the sound of his voice, he probably needed it.

When the general's staff rushed to check on their leader, Zatte picked them off one by one. A kick to his adjutant, then an elbow to his staff sergeant, and then she drew her pistol and stunned the two guards as they entered. The pistol was a last resort, since Zatte's energy manipulation powers couldn't hide the sound it made when it fired, but the guards were the last resistance she faced, and once she kicked their weapons away, she allowed herself to become visible again. Taking a seat next to the sleeping general, she put a portable drive of music into his computer, and hummed along to the tune as she began disrupting the Green Army's logistical network.

Several minutes later, she sensed Luffa flying towards the base, and when she crashed through the ceiling, Zatte turned her chair around to meet her.

"Rough day, sweetheart?" Zatte asked. Luffa was covered in dirt, sweat, and probably slorg remains, though it was difficult to tell. Disheveled as she was, Zatte had seen her in much worse shape.

"Are you all right?" Luffa asked.

"Sure," Zatte said. "What happened with that Saiyan? I couldn't raise you on the communicator, so I thought he must have damaged it. Then your power skyrocketed..."

"I almost got you killled," Luffa said.

"Oh?" Zatte said. She stood up from the chair and approached her.

"I was thinking... maybe you should get to the ship and get into orbit where it's safer," Luffa said.

"I think I'm safe enough right here," Zatte said.

"Somebody could drop a bomb on this place any minute, and I wouldn't be able to sense it," Luffa said.

"The base has alarms for that," Zatte said. "I took out a lot of their systems, but not the early warning stuff."

Luffa smiled somewhat bashfully. "Uh... something else then. There's enemy mechs in the area."

Zatte pointed at the general sleeping in his chair. "Not anymore," she said. "You can thank him for that when he wakes up."

"Oh. Well good," Luffa said.

"Are you batting your eyes at me?" Zatte asked.

"Huh? No, I'm just blinking. Got some dust in my eyes from earlier."

"There's a sink in the general's quarters," Zatte said. "You can go freshen up."

She took her hand, as if to lead her to the general's room, and Luffa suddenly pulled her close and embraced her.

"I really think you should get to the ship," Luffa said in a low voice.

"Only if you take me," Zatte said.

"I can't. I need to get back out there."

"Stay," Zatte said. She reached for the back of Luffa's neck and ran her hand through her short yellow hair. "I want to hear how you almost got me killed."

"It's... kind of embarrassing, really," Luffa said. Her throat was suddenly dry.

"Well, let's go to the general's quarters," Zatte suggested. She pointed at the soldiers she had knocked out. "Plenty of privacy there. Not that these guys are going to give us any trouble."

Luffa looked over Zatte's shoulder to see them. "You took them out yourself?" she asked.

Zatte showed her the knuckles on her left hand, which still bore bloodstains from one of the soldiers she had punched. "Does that answer your question?" she replied.

"You're good," Luffa said. She looked at Zatte's hand like it was a sacred relic.

"You still think I'm in danger here?" Zatte asked.

"Yes," Luffa said. "I know you can handle yourself, but..."

"Go on," Zatte said.

Luffa leaned in closer and spoke softly into her ear. "There's certain risks involved, and I wouldn't want to expose you to--"

"To this?" Zatte asked as she moved her left hand closer to Luffa's nose. Zatte didn't really understand Saiyans--not even after marrying one-- but she knew that the smell of enemy blood on her person drove her wild. Her left nostril twitched, and they both smiled.

"Maybe we should go to that general's quarters," Luffa said.

"Absolutely," Zatte said. She put her hands on Luffa's hips and worked her fingers into her pants pockets. "It'd give you a chance to get more comfortable."

*******

An hour later, the General in command of the Red faction awoke. Finding his subordinates missing, the base empty, and his communications equipment inoperable, he located a weapon and staggered through the corridors in search of answers. Eventually, he made it to his own quarters, where he found two alien women making love in his bed.

"What in blazes--?" he gasped. There were no words to adequately express his shock. It was truly the last thing he expected to find, and he had no idea how to respond. Luffa's nonverbal yelp--roughly transcribed as 'blaaap!'-- was probably more indicative of the common mood of all three persons in the room at that moment. Without really thinking, Luffa swung her arm out to fire a ki blast at the general, and might have killed him on the spot if Zatte hadn't reached out and caught her.

"Don't shoot him," she cried. "We need him to surrender his troops!"

"What the hell are you doing in here?!" Luffa shouted at the man.

"I--! I--!" In that moment, the general wasn't entirely sure what he had ever been doing anywhere. It had finally dawned on him that one of these women was the Super Saiyan who had been shellacking his armies all day long. In all the confusion, he had completely forgotten about the plasma weapon he had in his right hand. Truthfully, he had forgotten that right hands and plasma pistols existed as concepts. Now that he remembered, it all seemed very pointless. Falling back on his earliest days of basic training, he dropped his weapon and raised his hands over his head.

"Luffa, he lives here," Zatte said. As Luffa had gathered up his bedsheet to cover herself, Zatte resorted to using one of his pillows and a bath towel that happened to be lying beside her.

"I thought you knocked him out!" Luffa said.

"I did," Zatte said. "The sedative must have worn off... What time is it?"

"If you had just gone back to the ship like I asked--" Luffa groaned.

"Oh, you knew what you were doing," Zatte said. "Telling me you 'almost got me killed', like you don't know how much that turns me on..."

Luffa was already blushing, but somehow she managed to turn a shade redder. "Zatte, he's standing right there!" she growled.

"So?" Zatte asked.

"So you don't need to tell him every detail of--!"

"Luffa, he saw us," Zatte argued. "What am I gonna tell him that he doesn't already know? What did you do with my underwear?"

Luffa turned even redder. "Don't talk about--! Arrgh!"

"Honestly, you can be such a big baby sometimes," Zatte grumbled. "Like you'll shrivel up and die if anyone finds out you have a sex life. Oh, that's why I couldn't find it. He's standing on it."

The general looked down and saw pair of briefs under his left boot. "I... I... surrender," the general said.

"You stay out of this!" Luffa shouted.

"Hi," Zatte said as she waved hello to him. "Can I just get you to move your foot... Thanks. Yeah, so I know I'm not supposed to say this, but she and I are married, and we have sex all the time. It's pretty terriffic."

Luffa covered her head with the sheet and lay in a fetal position on the bed.

"You'd think one of us would have sensed you coming down the hall," Zatte said with a shrug, "but I guess we were distracted. You know how that goes."

"Uh... uh-huh," the general said. He finally found the wherewithal to move towards his chair, and he gingerly lowered himself into the seat.

Zatte turned herself and her clothing invisible as she dressed herself. For a moment, the only evidence that there was anyone else in the room was the depression Zattes's body made from sitting on the bed, and the whimpering heap that lay under the covers.

"So yeah," Zatte said, "we need you to order your troops to stand down. I mean, as awkward as all of this is, we did capture you just now."

"Of course," the general said. "Of course..."

"Luffa will escort you and your troops to the island with the other prisoners, and it shouldn't take too much longer to get everyone back home."

"Anything you say," he murmured.

Zatte finally faded back into sight, now fully dressed. She fetched Luffa's gear from various parts of the room and tossed it all onto the bed. "She's actually really nice once you get to know her," Zatte said as she gestured to the bed.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded through the halls of the base. Zatte and the general both looked up when they heard it, for both of them knew what it meant.

"Enemy mechs," Zatte said. "Guess they didn't know the base was already captured. Hey, Luffa! Break time's over, buster, we've got company."

"Go away," Luffa said.

Zatte tossed Luffa's clothes on top of the covers and took the general's hand. "Let's give her a minute to straighten up," she said as she led him out of the room.

The two of them were about halfway down the corridor when Zatte heard a loud crash from inside the general's quarters, indicating that Luffa had smashed her way out through the ceiling on her way to deal with the mechs.

"So," she said to the general. "While we're waiting for her to deal with that, maybe you can tell me what you know about that other Saiyan who showed up a little while ago. You know, the one who almost blew up the whole planet?"

*******

Later, after the Green faction surrender had been completed and Luffa had replaced her damaged communicator, she focused her efforts on shutting down the Blue forces. Her main objective was to destroy any and all slorgs on the planet, and since the slorgs were being used by the Red faction, she knew she would find slorgs wherever she found their prey. As she fought on the flight deck of one of their flying fortresses, she and Zatte discussed what they had learned from the Green general.

"The Greens had no idea that a Saiyan was on the planet," Zatte voice explained into Luffa's earpiece while Luffa ripped apart a plasma turret. "The general's no dummy. He knew any Saiyan activity on Quadityz was sure to draw you into the war."

"That goes for all three sides," Luffa said. "But I'm here anyway, on account of the Reds using slorgs. I'm thinking someone decided that I was going to pacify the sector sooner or later, so there was no use in holding back. Right now, the war is about which side can make the greatest gains in the rest of the sector while I'm bogged down on the planet. Even if Quadzityz was completely destroyed, or made uninhabitable, it would still-- Hang on a second."

Luffa stopped speaking while she confronted a mech. The machine was twenty feet tall and shaped like a winged man. A pilot rode in the robot's chest, and fired cluster bombs and missiles at Luffa in a desperate attempt to distract her from the flying fortress. Luffa could have destroyed the entire vessel in a single blow, but her goal was to disable its offensive capabilities while sparing its propulsion. That way, when its commanders ultimately surrendered to her, it could follow her back to her demilitarized island under its own power, and thus make a very tempting target for the Reds. The only downside to her plan was that she had to fight very carefully, holding back most of her power and carefully choosing her targets, while the enemy could strike back with no such constraints. Accordingly, the mech's pilot used Luffa's own tactics against her, positioning himself in such a way that Luffa would risk hitting the fortress if she attacked it.

To cope with this, Luffa decided to go on the defensive, hoping that would throw the pilot off balance. When she flew away from the mech, he hesitated before chasing after her, and this allowed her to circle around and flank it.

"Okay, I'm back," Luffa said as she cracked the mech's cockpit and hauled the pilot out into the open. She tossed him to the flight deck and watched him scurry back to the relative cover of one of the hangars. "Where were we?"

"Jolok's employer," Zatte said.

"If he had one," Luffa replied. "Maybe he really was a lone wolf looking for revenge."

"It's a safe bet that someone paid him to come to Quadzityz," Zatte said. "Sure, he might have had personal reasons for coming here to attack you, but he still had to arrange for transportation, and any of the warring factions would have been happy to reimburse him at the very least. Small price to pay for taking you out."

"Yeah, that adds up," Luffa said, "but whoever paid his way wouldn't have done it directly. Most people know that hiring Saiyan mercenaries is a great way to get my attention. They must have gone through a middleman."

"And if there really is someone secretly setting up mercenary work for one Saiyan, then he probably knows where we can find others," Zatte concluded. "Maybe we finally have a lead on this."

"It's his accomplice that worries me," Luffa said. "I only sensed him for a second, but it was definitely another Saiyan energy."

"You think he's still on the planet?" Zatte asked.

"If he was working with Jolok," Luffa speculated, "then he probably bugged out when he thought the planet was going to explode. If he was an independent operator, then he must have had some other business on Quadzityz. He must have been suppressing his ki so I wouldn't notice him. Something must have gone wrong, and he had to reveal his power."

"Then he probably fled as soon as that happened," Zatte said. "We might find a clue in the general area where you sensed the guy. If he left in a hurry, he might not have been too careful about covering his tracks."

"We can check it out after I get the planet pacified," Luffa said.

"Wait, really?" Zatte asked.

"Something wrong with that?" Luffa asked.

"I'm just surprised you're willing to wait that long," Zatte explained. "I know how badly you want to find King Rehval. I thought you'd want to drop everything and check this out."

"A few more hours won't change anything," Luffa said. "It'll be easier for us to investigate when we don't have people shooting at us. I'd ask you to go alone, but the area's too big for you to cover by yourself. But if you want to get a head start, that's okay with me."

"No, I agree," Zatte said. "I'm just impressed, is all."

"You've seen the devastation on this planet, Zattie," Luffa replied. "There's kids who don't even have clean water. I can't call in a Federation relief fleet until this place settles down, so every minute I waste, things get a little worse. I never should have let it get this bad in the first place..."

"You were busy putting out fires in other parts of the galaxy," Zatte said. "You can't be everywhere at once."

"No," Luffa admitted. "But I can still do better. I have to do better."

There was a pause in their conversation, during which Luffa descended below the flight deck and began smashing weapons systems and disarming soldiers as she made her way to the engine room.

"Tell you what," Zatte said. "We have a name. Maybe I can pull up some information on Jolok. Find out what he's been up to before he came here, and where he's been."

"He mentioned passing through the Reelor Cluster," Luffa said. "You might start there. Also, see if you can find any records on a fortune teller who was recently hospitalized. He told me he used the Mindworm on some poor lady before he suckered me with it."

"You think she might know something?"

Luffa grabbed a rifle from a soldier and struck him with the butt of it to move him out of her way. "No," she said, "but she didn't recover from it as quickly as I did. If she's still alive, I thought I might be able to help her..."

*******

Many light years from Quadzityz, Lesseri and her team were putting as much distance between themselves and Luffa as possible. With no particular destination in mind, Endive had set the autopilot and joined the others in the ship's mess, which they used for conferences.

"I still can't believe we pulled that off," Guwar said. "When I sensed your ki for that split second, I thought we were done for..."

"We would have been," Lesseri said, "if that other Saiyan hadn't shown up when he did." She picked up the sculpture that had been sitting on the table, and set it back down again. "We even made a little profit along the way. I don't know how much ruthenium is going for these days, but if it's worth more than gold, there ought to be enough in this trinket to finance the rest of our search."

"So who was that Saiyan anyway?" Treekul asked. She was the only non-Saiyan in the party, as evidenced by the lavender hue of her skin, and the dark green stubble on her head. "I can't sense power levels like the rest of you, but Guwar made it sound like he was almost as strong as Luffa."

"Not quite that powerful," Endive said, "but he did manage to keep her occupied for quite some time, which is a feat in itself. He was definitely Saiyan, though I've never sensed a ki like that from any Saiyan I've ever met."

"He's a Jindan user," Lesseri said. "He had to be."

"Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Guwar said. "Most of what we know about Jindan is speculation at best."

"There's no other explanation," Lesseri insisted. "He was no match for Luffa, at least not when she's being serious, so I have no idea why he tried to challenge her, but there was something... off about his power." She pointed at Guwar and Endive. "You both sensed it too, right?"

Endive nodded. "There was something unusual about him. Perhaps he was connected to Salziff."

"Salziff?" Guwar said. "What's he got to do with any of this?"

"You know him?" Lesseri asked. Her left eyebrow rose as she waited for his response.

"We've met," Guwar said ruefully. "I wouldn't call him a friend. And he definitely wasn't that jacked-up Saiyan who showed up and got in Luffa's face. The ki was all wrong for Salziff."

"Well some time back, he paid a visit to the same man we stole this from," Lesseri said as she pointed to the sculpture. "He wanted the same artifacts we did, the pot and that scroll."

"It's not a pot, it's a retort," Treekul said. "You use it for distillation, although the runes inscribed on its surface could--"

"All I know," Lesseri broke in, "is that a Saiyan named Salziff was trying to get alchemy stuff from a private collector on Quadzityz, and then we show up and do the same thing."

"You think Salziff is a Jindan user, too?" Guwar asked.

"Or maybe he's looking for Jindan users, just like we are," Lesseri said. "Either way, he seems to know something we don't, and since Treekul's going to need some time to work with those items we stole, I say we track him down and ask him a few questions in the meantime."

"He's no pushover," Guwar warned her. "He's nowhere near as strong as that guy who confronted Luffa on Quadzityz, but Salziff is nothing to sneeze at."

"Three against one?" Lesseri said. "I like those odds."

"But how will we find him, Lesseri?" Endive asked. "He'll be hiding from Luffa just like every other Saiyan in the galaxy."

"We don't have to find him," Lesseri said with a gleam in her eye that matched the reflection of the light on her teeth as she smiled. "We have something he wants, remember? He was begging that Quadzity collector for the scroll and the pot... excuse me, the retort. So once he finds out we have it, he'll come to us."

NEXT: Dire Warnings.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #lssjluffafic #luffa #zatte #lesseri #guwar #endive #treekul #quadzityz

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