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She was sent here to expunge this planet.
This nameless planet - it did have a name, but Krul couldn't be bothered to remember it, it's just one of many that she subjugated in the past - now lays desolate before her.
She would like to take credit for bringing it to ruin - it would be an affixation of her pride to say so - but she can't here. It was in fact the villainous older sibling of Shinoa, Mahiru, who tore apart the illusion of peace on the planet with her own hands. Krul smirks seeing the shell of the foolish farmer that tried to subjugate Mahiru with his gun. She could not understand why it is in human nature to underestimate what is right in front of you.
But right now she is not smirking.
Long before the invasion began, Krul made sure to segregate her Seraphs away from harm. Just a few moments ago, she was tipped off. Her sense of danger alerted her that something was amiss.
The rumbling sound was the first sign. There's only one person she knows with such ground-shattering ki.
Ferid.
Tension flowed through Krul as she doubled over from push in gravity, watching the horizons change. She knew
The girl's claws dig into the ground as she feels the planet’s gravitational pull. He's got them first, Ferid Bathory’s got them first, the horrid thought dances around in her mind.
The thought of him near those children make her sick.
In this moment, she doesn't care about gathering all the Dragon Balls together and gaining eternal strength and power. In this moment, she wants those kids to be safe more than anything else she wants in this world.
Their names are… Mika, right? That's all she knows. She's never learned anyone else's. This would be a flaw on her part, had she not spared the children and shown them the same mercy that had allowed them to thrive in the first place. Krul is hit with the feeling that she's a selfish person, and it's not a good feeling.
The thought of the children dying before she got to properly know all their names makes her ache.
Krul hears another scraping sound, enough to strike fear in those spontaneous red eyes.
Throwing all caution aside, she rushes faster to where the screams are coming from, not caring that her battle armor is half-broken. Or that she's missing a single, pale boot.
*
Ferid is slain on the ground, by Krul's hand. He is far from the only one. He fell by Krul's hand. The others did not.
Now only one survivor remains. The other ran away before Krul had a chance to see him.
And now, instead of being grateful she saved him, he begs for death.
Like a dog, he's on all fours. Shivering, sweating a great deal as of it's the melting summer, tears in his eyes.
“Please, let me join them.”
“No.”
It was hard enough for Krul to destroy Ferid, even though he threw the fight halfway. Mika must have seen that and gotten the idea that Krul is stronger than she looks. Or that she hands out death like candy.
She is not letting another one go today.
“Please, I want it. It will be my final wish. Let me have death, so I can be at peace.”
Krul's mouth curves, and her eyes are cold.
“You have such insolent demands, Mikaela. It's almost like you've forgotten that I'm the royal and you're not.”
“Regardless,” she continues, flipping her hair. “I will entertain your requests, if they seem beneficial to me. I don't mind honouring the requests of my subjects, old and new. You will be a fine addition to my ranks. I will not entertain your request to kill you. You deserve a place alongside me, pet.”
She called him her pet. That's a sign that his life is forfeit to hers.
“...Mikaela?” he says, quizzically. “That is my name, but… I go by Mika. Everyone calls me that.”
Everyone called him that, he meant.
Krul folded her arms and glared. “You have a honourable Saiyan name, mortal. Use it.”
The fact that she had used mortal as an insult was quite cutting, in her own eyes. Well, Mika wouldn't have to worry about being called it for very long, considering what Krul planned to do with him…
“Saiyan name…” began Mika uneasily. “Are you saying that I am to be one of the Saiyans?”
“That's right,” said Krul.
Confusion flushed on the pet’s face. Then, horror. No, it was pure appallment. There was a ferocious panic in his eyes.
“No! I'll never join you! The Saiyans are a monstrous, destructive race!”
“And what are you, boy? A human?”
“I'm a Saiyan too, but… I'm part human! I'm different!”
“Did you know that Saiyan-human hybrids are stronger than the average Saiyan?”
The boy looked thrown off.
“It's true. You might be the first of our race to turn into the legendary Super Saiyan.”
The use of our race should not have entered Krul's lexicon, for Mika looked even more terrified.
“It doesn't matter, because I'll… I'll perish! I won't join your scourge! I'd rather die than that!”
“Such a high craving for death,” mused Krul. “Tell me boy, do you really want it that much?”
“Yes!”
“Well, I won't give it to you. Don't you know that the desire to commit suicide goes against our natural instincts? It's not in our code to-”
“You're wrong.”
Krul halted.
Mika wasn't looking defiant. Rather, he was calm.
“In Ferid's library. I-I read books. Including many about the Saiyans.”
Krul knew what was coming next.
“Is it true that… that when Planet Vegeta fell, many Saiyans committed suicide because it was a better option than to face Frieza’s wrath?”
Krul didn't honour his claim with a response. Yet.
“If those Saiyans were allowed the sanctity of death…. if they were allowed to die with their pride… Why can't I?
Appealing to her sense of nationalism to convince her to give him what he wanted? Clever.
“Those Saiyans who committed suicide when Planet Vegeta fell…” began Krul. “...they were weak! Lemmings! A net negative! The Saiyan race is truly better off without them!” announced the Princess.
Her words sounded as if they were definite. Yet, was she speaking to convince Mika, or herself? There was a fear, not a typical cowardice and anxiety, in her voice as she spoke of her former fallen comrades.
“But… but… I'm weak. I'm among the weaklings you hate so much,” trembled Mika. “It would do you good to cull off me, just like Frieza culled off them.”
He said that expecting Krul to relent. Instead, the spiky-haired alien looked at him as if he was telling a really funny joke. Then, she burst out laughing.
“Weak? Weak? Boy,” she said. “You are stronger and holier than you could ever imagine.”
“What do you mean? I…”
“There is a lot you don't know. For example, the Hyakuya Sect. Oh, my. Are you ready to learn that they're not any ordinary orphanage, and before your birth, they've been hunting you and people like you for their experiments? Do you know that for centuries, they've been waging a cold war with the Hiiragis? Do you know that their link with the monsters goes far beyond what you can actually imagine?
Had Krul just referred to her own kind as monsters? Wasn't she supposed to be prideful of her race?
The boy looked at Krul in horror, waiting for her facial expression to move. It didn't.
What were those strings of words she just uttered?
Human experiments. Hiiragis. War. What?
Krul's eyes glistened, and the tongue behind her pearly gates.
“But that doesn't matter now.”
Mika's eyes widened.
“You will drink my blood… and earn my power!”
With that, she kissed him.