Day One: Evening

[Bardock]

Bardock gestured with a wave of his arm. “Ladies first.”

Needing no second bidding, Violet grabbed her duffel and headed off, calling behind her shoulder, “No peeking.”

The saiya-jin rolled his eyes. “Nothing I haven’t seen before,” he muttered.

As soon as she was gone from sight, he let himself collapse completely on his rear end, knocking his head against the tree that supported his back. Things were going smoothly, if he didn’t say so himself. Bardock buried his face in his hands. He should have died back there for that idiotic screw-up. The fact that she had saved him was not surprising, but somewhat disturbing. There he was, bearing his axe, ready to end her life, and knowing this, the human had still willingly pulled him from what very well may have been his tomb. One that he had dug and buried himself in, through no act of will, but plain and simple error. The saiyan still couldn’t understand why she was so adamant on throwing her own chances away. This was Dante’s Abyss, after all—every man for himself. The lines between life and game were blurred, and he could not get her to see the separation. Everything here should have been meaningless, and yet, they were quickly becoming the opposite.

Throughout the last several hours, Violet had demonstrated a marked resilience, one that he had not even fathomed she had. No matter what was thrown her way, she bounced back sooner or later. It was that quality that was forcing him see her in a different light.

Bardock had much to think about.

When she was finished, she traipsed back into their resting spot, the hours of daylight dwindling into twilight. The sun was finally setting on the events of the first day. Bardock nodded to her, grabbed his own stuff, and headed down to the creek, calling back for good measure, “Give me my space.”

Snickering, Violet replied humorously, “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

Once out of eyesight, Bardock knelt along the banks of the stream and splashed the cool water in his face. There was no time for a full-on swim, and he doubted there was a good enough depth anyway. Instead, he sufficed with a quick rinse, soaking his shirt and bandana and wringing them out as well. The chill of night was rapidly approaching, but he had brought something along to combat the evening freeze. For the moment, the cold numbed his aching muscles. His legs had tired from the dead sprint, and every inch of him was throbbing from being buried under the rubble. The fighter stayed as long as he dared, getting done only what needed to be done and then returned. He swiftly and silently made a temporary fire pit, and resumed his post against the tree.

The air was thick with unspoken uncertainty, a shaky truce from an unlikely end all that held them together.

Bardock couldn’t finish what he’d started now. It was no longer the time, nor place, nor circumstance. His dark eyes fell upon her hands and shoulder. The wound she had painfully endured had reopened, and her once soft hands were rubbed raw from the stone she’d so despairingly torn away. He still hadn’t been able to make her understand. The brawler certainly hadn’t done it by his own terms of combat, and so he was going to have to try another way. There could be no distractions, and any lingering doubts would be just that. Those doubts had to be settled.

“Hey,” he said suddenly, getting her attention. “I wanna say something.”

He cleared his throat, and stared deeply into the small spires of flame that bent and swayed before him. “I’m not sorry for what I did. If I had the chance to do it all over again, I’d do it exactly the same. I did exactly what I was supposed to do. I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone.”

“Look, if this is your idea of…” she quickly interjected.

“No, just shut up and listen,” Bardock insisted, raising his stony glare to her face. He swallowed, his mind racing trying to put all of his thoughts into coherent sentences. “I don’t need you because I’ve never needed anyone. I succeed by my own strength…and I fail by my own strength. That’s what I know. It’s the same with everybody, they just don’t see it. And…and you shouldn’t have pulled me out. You should have just let me die.”

Violet’s mouth opened to say something, her eyes once more becoming expressive, but she closed it, and waited for him to finish.

“I was ready to die. I would have accepted the consequences of my mistake. If I can’t be strong, then I deserve it. And I’ll kill anyone else who can’t take me down. That’s what this whole fuckin’ game is about. It’s killing. And that’s what I do best. More than anything I just wanna find the next guy and tear him up, and the next guy after that, and the one after that. There’s no better feeling. But it’s…it’s just a game. It starts and it ends, and you leave everything here. If we weren’t here, I wouldn’t…I…I wouldn’t,” he continued, fumbling over the words. “So just…just fight. Until you can’t anymore. Even if it’s me. And when it’s over, it’s over.”

His lips moved soundlessly a few more times, but there was nothing left. Bardock just clenched his jaw and let things be.