Dragon Ball SS: Chapter 15

Chapter 15

 

Raditz paused for breath and glanced around uneasily. He never knew precisely where the ogres would approach from, and they were far more experienced and able to navigate Hell than he was. He wasn't even able to keep track of time anymore; days passed like years, years passed like days, and he never knew if he stopped for a minute or twenty minutes. He knew that his refusal to revert to soul form was the reason for his current suffering, but despite the bitterness he felt inside, he could not bring himself to give up. He kept telling himself that he hadn't been in Hell that long, and that Vegeta and Nappa would certainly have the so-called dragon balls soon and would wish him back to life, just as his brother's friends planned to do for Kakarotto.

 

A small voice inside his head kept telling him that it wasn't true; the dragon balls were a fairy tale at best. Even if they were real, they couldn't have the power to bring someone back to life. He was going to run into Kakarotto any day, in fact – Hell was the end of the road for traitors, after all.

 

The conflicting thoughts were pushed aside when he heard a whip whistle through the air. He felt a sharp slash across his tail and backside, and he yelped and leaped forward. He spun around to face his attacker and scowled as he recognized one of the ogre leaders he'd escaped from earlier.

 

“So, tired of running, whelp?” the ogre snarled. “Why don't you make it easy on yourself and just follow the rules?”

 

“I'll never take orders from you,” Raditz returned. “I am a Saiyan warrior – don't think that some whips and a few battles will take me down.”

 

The two of them were suddenly interrupted by the approach of another ogre. The new arrival glanced scornfully at Raditz before turning to his companion.

 

“I don't care what your hobby is,” the new ogre said, “but I recommend you take it to one of the remote regions for a while. Enma Daio has apparently decided to send one of West Kaio's warriors down here to put things back in order...and punish any ogres caught straying outside their job description.”

 

The ogre brandishing the whip scowled. “Terrific,” he muttered. “Exactly what I needed to brighten my day. Who the fuck tipped off the Kaios this time?”

 

“We don't know yet,” the other said. “I have a couple of guys looking into it. In the meantime, try to get the word around – we'll stage an incident or two for this warrior of West Kaio's to put down so he thinks he's cleaned up the problem.”

 

“I'll take this one over to Needle Mountain for the time being,” the first ogre said. “There aren't many who venture there; I've got a lead on someone else who wants a turn with him anyway, so I'll just hand him off if things get too hot.”

 

Raditz scowled. It was bad enough that the ogres were talking about him as though he weren't even there, but to add insult to injury, they were talking about him as if he were some cheap toy or unfashionable pet. He balled his hands into fists and moved into a defensive stance.

 

“You're not taking me anywhere,” he growled. “I am not some cheap toy for your amusement.”

 

The ogres glanced at him and chuckled. “Is that so?” the first one asked. “Perhaps you need a reminder of exactly what you are to us?”

 

Raditz ground his teeth and didn't respond.

 

The first ogre sneered at him. “Well then, let's see how tough you're acting after this!” He pulled back his arm and swung his fist forward with a powerful arc.

 

Raditz raised his arms in front of his face and braced for a heavy blast; instead, he found himself enveloped in a thick, dusty cloud. He tried to peer through the dust to the ogres standing outside it but was unable to see anything. He coughed against the intrusion of the dust in his throat as he struggled to breathe.

 

After a moment, the dust began to settle, but rather than finding the clear air and relief he'd been hoping for, Raditz found himself still struggling to breathe through airways that didn't want to work. He coughed again; this time, the cough reverberated through his chest and sent sharp pains into his sides. He became alarmed as the coughing didn't cease; instead, the pervasive feel of the dust in his throat caused it to become more rapid and more violent. Between fits of coughing he gasped for breath, only to find too little air to ease his lungs.

 

Raditz fell to the ground, wheezing and choking between coughs. His vision began to waver, and he feared he was going to pass out at any moment. He glanced up at the sound of footsteps approaching him and saw the two ogres standing above him, leering at his struggle.

 

“So, who's the tough guy now?” his tormentor asked. “What do you think of our Needle Powder? It's specially prepared just for annoyances like you.”

 

Raditz shook his head as he struggled against the effects of the powder. “G-go...go to...” he gasped.

 

“Go to Hell?” The two ogres laughed, and his tormentor hauled him up by the front of his armor to look him in the eye. “Just where do you think you are, Boy?”

 

Raditz spat in the ogre's face and curled his lip in disdain. The ogre suddenly became deadly serious.

 

“That one will cost you, Boy,” he said. He grasped Raditz by the throat with his free hand and added pressure to the already-constricted airway.

 

Thoughts and images tumbled through Raditz's mind as he struggled against the ogre in a panic. He could feel himself blacking out; his vision faded in and out with each passing moment, and he couldn't keep focused on what was happening to him. Suddenly, an image from his childhood surfaced in his mind – the large, beautiful moon of Planet Vegeta, not quite full, rising over the hills behind his home village. The sudden nostalgia made him choke with fear – he wondered if this was what it was like to finally meet one's end. He'd had no such visions when he and Kakarotto had died on the battlefield.

 

In his mind, he stretched out his hands toward the shining moon. Its slowly-changing face gave all children - all Saiyans, for that matter - something to look forward to. The time of the full moon was a time of great joy for a Saiyan, one that was sacred and cherished...at least, it was, until he had arrived on their planet.

 

The memories jogged Raditz's willpower back to the surface. It couldn't end like this for him; he was a Saiyan warrior. He had to continue on, had to continue existing...if for no other reason than to ensure that the Saiyans' suffering had not been for naught.

 

He turned his outstretched hands upward to cup the image of the moon in his palms, and he tilted his face up to feel the ethereal white rays ghost over his skin. “Goddess,” he pleaded internally, “don't let it end like this for me. I need to survive...please, give me the chance.”

 

Raditz opened his eyes suddenly and found himself lying on the ground in a completely different area of Hell. The hard, baked ground was warm on his skin where his face and limbs made contact with the ground. He could hear voices speaking behind him; one of them was the ogre who had been pursuing him.

 

“It's worse than that,” an unfamiliar voice said. “It's not just any warrior – he's brought Paikuhan down here. Someone must have pushed their luck a little too far with Enma Daio's patience, and all of us are going to pay for it if we're not careful.”

 

“Terrific,” Raditz's attacker said. “I'm leaving the whelp with you, then. I certainly am not able to stand up to Paikuhan, and I'm not looking forward to being blasted into oblivion.”

 

“That's fine by me,” the other replied. “I can use cannon fodder for an offensive I'm planning. I have a couple of my subordinates running block as a distraction for Paikuhan and Enma Daio in the meantime. It's going to require a little jaunt up to Earth, and I don't need Enma Daio finding out about it.”

 

“Earth? What are you bothering with there? It's such a miserable little planet...”

 

“One of the rebels who fled to Earth was from my sector,” the unknown ogre said. “He's still refusing to come back, even to this day; I've come up with a little plan to force his hand.”

 

“Well, whatever,” the first ogre said. “By the sound of it, I don't want to know any more than that – it's just going to complicate my life if things go bad.” He walked over to Raditz and hauled the Saiyan up by the back of his armor. “It looks like the whelp is waking up anyway, so he's all yours now.”

 

Raditz found himself suddenly face-to-face with a heavily-muscled, grizzled ogre. One of the ogre's eyes was shut and crossed with a deep scar; the other looked him over disdainfully before turning back to the ogre holding him. “At least he's bigger than most of the others I have,” the scarred ogre commented. “I can put him up front as a tank.” He gestured with his thumb, and the other ogre dropped Raditz to the ground.

 

“Welcome aboard my crew,” the grizzled ogre said to Raditz. “On your feet; we're going to take a march up to Earth.”