"Tarble!" Pepper sat up abruptly, immediately slamming her head into something hard. "Owww! What the-" She trailed off mid-thought. The pain in her head wasn't as important as the thing on her mind. "TARBLE!"
She didn't bother taking a single moment to assess her surroundings. Following her instincts, Pepper raced across the room, fast as a blur, and threw the door open.
"Tater! MOVE!" Pepper found herself standing face-to-face with her friend. She tried to muscle past him, but he held firm.
"Pepper, he didn't want us following him. It's too dangerous." Tater tried to reason with her.
"We're Saiyans! How can you be so weak?! Get out of my way!" She shouted back.
"You think I don't want to help him! I can sense it too, Pepper, but-" Pepper didn't bother letting Tater finish trying to reason with her. With a swift motion, she fired an energy blast at the large nine-year-old Saiyan, point blank. To his credit, it didn't knock Tater out. He was too strong for that, but it did throw him backward, into the metal wall opposite the door that he was blocking. By the time he'd gotten over his disorientation, the younger girl had vanished, following the trace of Tarble's quickly fading energy signature.
…
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" When Pepper finally got within eyesight of Tarble, her mind exploded with rage at what she saw. His right arm and torso were covered in his own blood, and his face, which was currently being slammed into everything from an errant tree to Dodoria's knee, was purple with bruising and dried blood. He looked like he was drifting in and out of consciousness with every moment, every relentless blow.
Pepper shot toward the giant pink blob with single-minded rage driving her.
But just as her fist reached his big, stupid, pink face…
"Oh, is this your girlfriend? One more Saiyan to torture!" Dodoria grabbed her raised fist and slammed his knee into her gut, eliciting a gasp from her. Luckily for Pepper, he wasn't trying to kill her, so his knee didn't go straight through her body like his foot had with one of Ricot's squadron earlier, but it still instantly brought her to the brink of unconsciousness.
I groaned, barely managing to open my eyes as I heard another scream… was it from me?
No. It was too high. Pushing my focus beyond the pain coursing through my own body, I managed to focus my gaze… and was horrified.
Somehow, Dodoria was torturing Pepper, too.
The whole reason that I'd gone to fight Dodoria was to save her.
Damn stubborn…
I couldn't let my teammate die.
And even worse, Dodoria now knew that there were multiple Saiyans on this planet. My team had slipped through the cracks once, but it wasn't going to happen again.
My team… Everything that I was working toward during this new life of mine… it was all about to slip right down the drain!
An indescribable feeling of rage, directed toward the entire timeline that I found myself in, welled up from deep inside my soul.
Toward my bastard father, who never gave me a fair shot, simply because I wasn't born as strong as my older brother.
Toward Frieza, who would destroy my home one day.
Toward myself, for not wanting to save Planet Vegeta, or my brother. And not being strong enough to save my team, either. For not being as strong-willed as a 'real Saiyan.'
Toward Pepper, for going against my orders, despite the fact that I barely stood a chance against Dodoria, even in my Oozaru form.
But, even with all of my rage, I didn't go Super Saiyan. Obviously. I wasn't nearly strong enough to qualify for that. Instead, I used the rush of power to kick Dodoria in the face, as hard as I possibly could. It wasn't enough to harm him much, but the loosening of his grip allowed Pepper and I to escape his grasp, landing on the ground in front of the chasm, holding each other up to keep from stumbling. We were both completely out of gas, barely able to stand.
"Damned Saiyans. Still, you're not escaping. I'M DONE PLAYING AROUND! MONSTER CATAPULT SHOT!"
Thump.
And then, we both dropped to the ground.