An Amity Revived
Chapter Fifteen

Totepo could have been mistaken as a statue: tall, proud, still, yet solemn. There wasn't anything else he could do except stand about ten feet away from the four spacepods, waiting almost unwearyingly for Panboukin to return. It should be any minute now; after all, he was keeping track of time and it was well over an hour since Totepo had returned with the wounded Celipa. That was the reason why his wait wasn't with total patience. Well one of two, anyway. The other reason struck the sub-leader and him hard with bewilderment. Probably Toma the hardest.

Toma and Celipa had not yet departed for Vegetasei. Toma had tried to, but he seemed to be quite stunned when he tried to make the female's spacepod lift off. Totepo knew he had set the coordinates right; he even checked for himself. The computer was not malfunctioning. Both of the men tried it with the other three pods and sure enough, and all four of them indicated that their home planet could not be located. A glitch in all four computers was impossible.

Totepo knew that the worst that could have happened. He wasn't sure if Toma knew, but he didn't want to point it out to him that Vegetasei was gone.

Therefore, Celipa had a very slim chance of surviving because of the fact that there was nowhere to go. Both Toma and Totepo knew it was a miracle that she has lasted as long as she did so far.

Neither of them had a clue of where they could go or what they could do to make sure she would stay alive until they reached a planet with medical supplies. The best they could do at the moment was watch over her and give her support, which was what Toma was doing right now. He figured it was his responsibility, he admitted to the taller Saiya-jin, since Totepo already helped her and the crew more than he needed to. Now it was his turn. Totepo heard exactly what he didn't say but didn't dare tell him that. Perhaps Toma finally grasped the truth.

What was a mystery before was now a theory. With Toma's permission, Totepo had left back to the place where he had found Celipa. The place where only one building was standing --the last building remaining untouched. Totepo had stood back, in case the Meatsei-jin kept a surprise attack in the building that was turned on by motion. He had thrown a couple rocks and singeing rays, but nothing happened.

Just when he was about to approach the building to inspect further, something quite peculiar happened. The building broke into five large pieces separating a good distance while a large gust of wind was released. He had to shield himself with a large boulder, therefore he missed a lot that could've happened. When he was sure the winds had stopped --no more flying objects around, no more whistling or howling-- he glanced around the setting. Oddly enough, there was no difference from before. The building was put back together perfectly and the surrounding debris was kept almost the same.

Just because of that oddity, Totepo swore to himself that he would never attempt to study a dead race's structure, even if it is for answers. He returned to the landing site with fifteen minutes to spare.

Back to the present time, he was quite satisfied when he saw the large figure of Panboukin flying closer to the spacepods. Satisfied wasn't even half of what he felt, either. He was relieved. Now the four of them could discuss the sticky situation they were in and hopefully find a way out. Because Totepo, like Toma, hadn't a clue of where they could head, but hopefully Panboukin would have a good idea. Totepo was very much optimistic that he did, but certainly not at all doubtful. After all, Totepo did hear somewhere that two heads was better than one.

"No luck?" Panboukin questioned once he landed in front of Totepo. His face was close to flooded with concern and an obvious attempt to hide his emotions. Maybe the tall Saiya-jin hadn't been hallucinating in the past; Celipa probably did have something with both Toma and Panboukin. The overweight Saiya-jin never in his entire life had that look on his face.

"Actually, I did find her," Totepo answered solemnly, not mentioning a thing about what he was thinking. "But we have three problems to deal with, all of them concerning her, one of them concerning all of us and all Saiya-jin."

Panboukin looked reassured when he heard the first sentence, his shoulders dropping and a large breath of air escaping his mouth. Once he heard the next sentence, however, his brows burrowed deep into his skin, obviously having no desire to deal with anymore obstacles. He shook his head irritably, waving his hand for his companion to continue. "Go ahead. Shoot."

Totepo just stared at him apathetically, not making a move of hesitation or thought. "It might be easier if you saw the first problem first."

If it wasn't for her chest pumping up and down, Toma would have thought of her as deceased. In fact, he would have claimed her dead and just leave her be at once in the state she was. He would even go as far as putting her very far back into his mind. That was something he would like to do right now, really. It was too hard for him to look at her much less even touch her. Luckily, he was able to keep a straight face instead of making it change along with his thoughts that flew past.

Toma was as far away as he could allow himself from Celipa, but also as close as the spacepod permitted him to get to her. She was sleeping in her velvet chair inside the tiny ship, the top of her head slumped down to the padded wall. Because of her slanted position and because of the size of her pod, there was only room for one person. So he was sitting outside up against the exterior, peering inside with great apprehension.

Toma's left arm was the only part of his body that was actually inside the spherical craft. He wanted to touch her to make sure this wasn't a very bad dream. But he couldn't bring himself out to actually complete that task. It wasn't the blood that had him worried; after all, his armor and skin was already splattered with some of her dark red liquid. The sub-leader was more afraid that his fingers would land on a gash on her body and infect the wound more than it already had been by the dirt of the planet. He did not want to be the cause for a death quicker than it was supposed to be.

His fingers finally curled around a golden ornament hanging from her ear and was able to lift a corner of his mouth up as he stared at it. She wasn't at all materialistic, but he knew that she treasured these earrings so much that she never took them off. Personally, Toma couldn't see why. This piece of jewelry was not rare at all; all the females on Vegetasei wore it. And all it really was was a scrap of metal!

Perhaps it was something else about women that he would never understand. Even after many years of being close friends with one, he still couldn't comprehend why members of the female sex did what they did.

Suddenly, she stirred quietly, tilting her head further from his hand. Toma sighed in relief --he was glad to see that her chances of surviving will be higher now-- and pulled his hand away. He quietly watched as she fell limp again, but this time her closed eyes narrowed and her breathing pattern was quicker than normal. Celipa was awake now. She was just very unaware of her surroundings, that Toma was certain of. He couldn't blame her; it was like that for everyone who was out of it for a while --even if it only was for an hour.

Celipa furrowed her brows, which was accompanied by a soft moan. Her head shook as a prologue to her awakening; at least to those who didn't know she was conscious already, if any had been around. Her eyes blinked open, and her irises moved around to inspect her environment. Toma only watched. He wasn't even sure if she would be happy to see him considering the argument that they had the night before.

He realized that he needed to speak to her once he saw her try to sit up. Just by moving her hip joints, her entire body tensed, her facial features scrunching together in apparent pain. "You really shouldn't move," he warned her quietly, trying to sound as calm and reasonable as he could get.

Celipa let go of the tension upon hearing his voice, and slumped against the back of her chair. She exhaled, but didn't seem at all happy. "Toma," she whispered coarsely. He winced at the sound of her voice. It was too weak, and it expressed her pain all too well. Luckily, she was still able to croak out her question: "Are we still on Meatsei?"

"Yes," he answered with more regret than he intended to have, "we're still on Meatsei."

"Why?"

It was a question that he could not answer. She wanted to know why they were not on Vegetasei, not specifically why they were still on this hellhole of a planet. Toma knew why, of course. He was the one who tried to get to their home planet, but the computer's radar detected nothing. He did not understand, though, and he wasn't exactly sure how to break the news to her. If it was too confusing for him, then how will it be to her? Unless she was correct about her faith in Bardock...

"The pod refused to lift off when I set the coordinates for home," he informed her, turning his gaze to the window of the spacepod. "Totepo confirmed that I set it right. And we even checked it on the other pods. Nothing. There's nothing there. I guess you were right."

"Right? About what?" Celipa asked with much puzzlement. Toma wasn't even sure if what she spoke was actually two individual sentences. But he continued on, needing to say what he felt she had to hear.

"Bardock," he answered brusquely, eyes still locked on the door. "I know what you were probably thinking. I had too much confidence in him. I know overconfidence in yourself can be fatal but I never imagined that overconfidence in a companion was-"

"It's not," she snapped, truncating his sentence. Toma stared back at her with an inquisitive expression worn. Celipa was sitting up again now, leaning closer towards him. Her forearm was put against her thighs, lightly though as to not inflict more pain on herself. Her voice was still abrasive, but at least she wasn't pausing every five syllables. "What I was thinking during that argument was nothing of the sort. I was angry at you for being narrow-minded. I never lost trust in Bardock nor will I ever. Toma, I've always known you to look at facts before coming to conclusions. That was something you didn't do earlier."

A fleeting pause. "I never did tell you why we were killed, did I?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just listen. I think it might help you realize why I wanted Bardock to get off this planet so bad..."

He could tolerate hunger. He could tolerate outrageously riotous weather. But Panboukin could not handle being hit with three --no, he had better make that four pieces of bad news in five minutes! They were so dreadful that he couldn't decide which one was the worst of them all.

Celipa was mortally injured. Freeza, now damned a traitor, demanded that all the Saiya-jin to be killed. Vegetasei was not detectable on the computers. There was a building with sophisticated technology that released wind on some sort of a time schedule. Finally, the high risk of being killed again by heading towards the Planet Trade Headquarters. All right, so it was five problems, possibly more. Nonetheless, he understood everything Toma and Totepo told him, and he knew that everything connected with each other.

If Freeza wanted to kill all the Saiya-jin, then he must've gotten rid of all off-planet and destroyed the ones on Vegetasei. Meaning that he demolished Vegetasei, and that's why the computers could not detect it. Only Freeza, Zarbon, and Dodoria probably knew about it, so if they were to go to one of the headquarters where they were staying it could mean their second deaths. If the rest of the entire Planet Trade knew, then it would be no use. The Saiya-jin were destined to die once again.

Celipa was in a desperate need of medical help, despite the fact that she claimed she didn't feel like she was dying. The only place they could go with reliable medical equipment was the headquarters. So they had to go to the planet to at least try to allow her to live. They owed her that much.

Panboukin also knew how the woman was put into the condition she was currently in. Totepo told them about his episode with the place where he had found her. So it was only logical that the strange reactions of this building caused her injuries. At least that was something easily solved.

"We have no choice," Panboukin pointed out to his two companions. The three males were standing out of the crater in a triangle, conversing some of the past events and what they needed to do now. "We have to go there. We need to take that risk."

"Well, we are supposed to be a bunch of risk-takers, right?" Toma agreed with Panboukin with a dry smirk. "The only thing we really have to fear is Celipa dying on us before we even reach the planet."

"Which she won't," Panboukin slid in. Toma and Totepo nodded their agreement. The whole idea of going back to the headquarters was Celipa's idea, after all. She wouldn't suggest it if she knew she would die before they made it.

After a few moments of silence, Toma finally spoke up again with his voice of authority. He was still, after all, the sub-leader. "Very well. We'll go to HQ. I hope that the idea of killing the Saiya-jins was kept a secret. Otherwise, what's the use of even bothering saving Celipa's life?"

And with that, the decision was unanimous. What's more, all four of them at that instant --even with Celipa sleeping in her pod-- had regained a very important value that they had to hold true to themselves for as long as they lived... the second time around.

End of "An Amity Revived"
[Introduction]