The Golden Star

[Illidan Stormrage]

Continued from here.

Orion hadn't spent long in Carrefore. Nothing tried to keep him there.

There was an energy to the place that reminded him of old times. As he walked through the town, eyes gawking at him, perhaps due to the bloodied arrow wound in his shoulder, he remembered those old, desolate streets of planet Vegeta. He spotted rigid parades of men armoured in sheer, molded white, laser rifles cuddled into their arms like a newborn infant, and remembered the changeling guards that wandered around his planet, harbouring malicious thoughts, looking for an excuse to 'lawfully' put a round between his and his kins' eyes. There were far fewer guards here than in his past, but the atmosphere was the same.

The message was clear; you are free, but you are being watched.

Orion stumbled into the bar, seemingly the only place of any interest in the dust blown shithole. A few unsavoury folk gave him a narrow eyed inspection as he entered, his shadow miring the thick shaft of light that splashed into the saloon floor. He could tell he wouldn't get many answers here, if only by the virtue of these peoples' apparent temperaments. Orion shot back cold, prickly stares and walked up to the bar.

The man that served him rinsed a dirty glass with an even dirtier cloth, his hand unendingly polishing the same three centimetres as his eyes fixated on the saiyan.

"Barkeep," Orion rasped, throat hoarse from his battle. "What do you know of Omni?"

The barkeeper shrugged nonchalantly and scratched at his hook nose. "I only talk to payin' customers."

Orion humphed. A drink wouldn't go astray. "Beer."

The barkeeper disappeared below and returned with a lukewarm bottle. He left Orion to pop the lid. "Two omnilium."

Omnilium. Orion remembered what Omni had said about the substance. As far as he was concerned, the barkeeper could have it all.

A few moments later, Orion handed a marble sized orb flashing with rainbow hues. "This enough?"

The barkeeper took it away. "What do you want to know?"

Orion took a swig of the beer. Warm, bland, flavourless, but it had a hell of a kick. "Omni. I want directions."

"Omni?" the barkeeper said, resuming his pointless glass polishing exercise. "You wanna see Omni? You stupid or something?"

Orion felt a stab of heat in his chest. Fight it back. "I paid you your damn money and I'm drinking this warm piss. Now tell me how I find Omni."

"You don't find Omni, moron," the barkeeper responded, spitting on the ground. "And I don't much like having my establishment insulted." He pointed emphatically at the door. "Get out!"

Orion blinked, and his chest went cold. An image flashed over the barkeeper as he gestured. Red tinged, the gnarled and angry expression of Heral, his white hair matted with blood. For a split second, he heard the mumbled rumblings of bombs, and the ground shook beneath him.

"Get out!"

"H-Heral?" Orion whispered, and fell onto his backside from the tremors. His beer smashed onto the ground, and Heral vanished. The echoes of war melted away, as did the pale red colour that moments ago covered everything. Only the barkeeper gazed back at him over the bar. Someone behind him laughed, a wheezing and choking sound.

"I told you to get out!"

Orion left Carrefore, following the signs that led him back onto the traveller's path. He looked at his clawed hands as he walked, unable to comprehend what happened to him. Why did he see Heral? Did he just have a flashback? A hallucination? Surely not. It couldn't be ... No. He was a saiyan. The heat and dehydration had claimed his sanity for a second there. That's all.

The sun had not abated one iota during his stay in Carrefore. The grasslands thinned out and gave way to glistening hills of sand. Heat rolled off the dunes in wavy, distorting plumes. Not a single cloud dared interfere with the sun's zealous mission of scorching the earth and those on it. The winds, allied with the sun, sent a warm, joyless breeze across his sizzling skin, probing his wound. He wished he had the presence of mind to have at least washed off the dried blood while in the bar. Orion licked his chapped lips with a dried tongue and yearned for that rocket fuel the barkeeper called a beer, now spilt over the ground.

But there was nothing for him in Carrefore. All that mattered was Omni. If he couldn't find the information he craved there, he would find it somewhere else. Someone had to know something about that mischievous, mocking bastard.

After what seemed like an age, shimmering, dancing apparitions of buildings appeared on the horizon. As he grew closer, he realised he was approaching another town. His hopes lifted. If nothing else, it was a chance to rest, refuel and clean up his wound.

Orion instantly felt more comfortable in this town that held no sign at its entrance to announce its name. The lack of white clad soldiers governing the streets was keenly acute to the saiyan. The town was bigger than Carrefore, perhaps a little more civilised, but they were by no means leagues apart. Orion wondered why the presence of the law didn't reach out this far. What did Carrefore have that this town didn't?

Bah. It matters little. Some rest and a drink. That is my mission.

The saiyan warrior found the closest bar and wandered in. It was smaller and less decorative than Carrefore's, but didn't have concerns about clientele. A few people spun tales at the tables, suds lifted to their lips between turns. A small crowd gathered around an apparently exciting game of darts. As Orion reached the bar, hands splayed on the counter, a few more individuals leaked in, taking off khaki cloaks and shaking the sand from the grooves. This town was looking more lively than Carrefore already.

"What'll ya have?" the proprietor asked, chewing absently and scratching at his thick, wiry beard. His eyes fell upon the dark, dried blood that festooned Orion's arm but said nothing, ostensibly unperturbed by it.

"Beer," Orion said in a voice like sandpaper.

The barman obliged after Orion provided the omnilium. He upended the bottle and drained the drink in seconds, fast enough for the beer to ignore his taste buds on the way down. Slamming the empty container back on the counter, he motioned for another. As the proprietor fetched the next, Orion spied the restrooms against the far wall. "Hold it for me. I'll be right back."

Orion started for the men's room. A man dressed in baggy, colourless clothes waited outside the woman's room, and gave him a head nod upon eye contact. Orion returned the gesture.

The women's toilet door swung open. A woman stepped out, and Orion's blood iced in his veins.

That short, brown bob that curled beneath her ears. Those stunning, wide blue eyes. That delicate, crafted nose. Lips slivers of pale pink above a rounded chin.

His breath stilled in his lungs. Everything was suddenly filtered through pale red.

She was in his arms. Looked at him with bright, glistening eyes. A mixture of fear, the fear of the unknown, and love. No matter the situation, always love.

Her lips, stained with blood, moved in tiny motions, but no sound came out. She blinked, and tears rolled down the sides of her face

Orion's hand pressed feverishly down on the wound above her swollen belly. He looked at his pale pink hands, fingers a deep and foreboding red. Her delicate but sure hand reached his and her fingers intertwined with his. He barely heard her words over the screaming, explosions and his own thundering pulse.

"We'll be together ... soon ... again ..."

Her eyes still stared lovingly into his, but the light in them went out.

"... I said, do you have a problem, buddy?"

Orion blinked. He was back in the bar. His chest felt pulverised, as if his ribs had broken and speared their sharp ends into him. He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, and inhaled deeply again. "Yes."

"Then stop looking at my woman like that!" he returned and took his partner's hand, dragging her to the door and outside.

Orion stood, numb. He glanced over his shoulder, as if hoping to see the woman with the stunning eyes, but she and her boyfriend were gone. He ordered his mind into the moment and walked into the bathroom.

He reached the sink, grimy from months of neglect, plunked the stopper into the drain, and turned the rusted tap. Pale brown water poured forth, pooling in the chipped porcelain. Orion dunked his hands in and splashed water over his face. He scooped water out of the sink in a cupped hand and applied it to his wound, rubbing and loosening the blood on his shoulder.

What the hell was happening to him? Why was he seeing visions of things past? He grit his teeth as his fingers accidentally struck the damaged flesh and he shouted; not in pain, but frustration. He didn't understand one bit. It had been hot outside, but surely the sun hadn't baked his brain that fast. This had never happened to him before. At least, not on this level. Not this intense, and certainly not during waking hours.

Orion splashed the cool water onto his face and rubbed at his eye. Calm down. Just ... calm down.

It didn't help. He couldn't just calm down. Orion rarely got this agitated, and when he did, it was for good reason. No number of self strengthening platitudes would settle him.

He took his hands from his face. They were trembling.

But he didn't want to face what he knew to be true.

Orion looked into the mirror, covered in smudges and dried spittle. Enough clear space remained for him to see his face. He stared bitterly at the saiyan that stared back.

Look at me. Old, purposeless, alone ... and with a fucking computer in my brain!

Orion grimaced, breathing fast and shallow. His vision settled upon his eyepatch. A tightness gripped his throat, making it impossible to swallow, and squeezed all the way down into his stomach. His fingers leapt to his eyepatch. With a single, furious motion, he ripped it off, pulling at the hair that caught beneath the band.

A perfect red circle stared back at him.

Orion's face went blank as the mirror went pale red, drowning out his reflection. "No. No!"

Too much. Too much flashed through the mirror as he gazed wide eyed, mouth slack, unable to tear away. Explosions toppling buildings, sending out airborne shards of glass. Fires devastating the forest, and crawling hungrily over the grass. Screams of the defenseless drowned out beneath the crackling of ki and the horrid, thunderous crumbling of concrete and steel. Black, oozing sludge walked on two feet, falling upon a fleeing civilian, and completely consuming her body in a matter of seconds.

He climbed back to his feet, forcing his ki to the surface, but it struck again. A searing, grating static suffocated his mind, and he fell to hands and knees, unable to think beyond breathing. It stopped again, but gods knew how long he was down for. He jumped back to his feet, but the enormity of the situation finally collapsed upon him. The rumbling that claimed the earth resonated from the stampede of soldiers that charged towards him.

He turned, and saw the buildings ablaze, the corpses strewn across the fields, the once untainted lake clouded with blood, and knew his fate. It would be here. He would not run. A blinding purpose and rage suffused him. He would go down fighting.

A ball of energy pulsed to life in his hands, shimmering with an otherworldly light, and he hurled it into the sky as high as he could. Clenching his fist, the ball expanded threefold, and he stared at it with his lone eye, knowing these were his last moments as a saiyan ...

"Nooooo!"

Orion roared until his throat became raw and strained. The pale red still bled into the mirror. Cocking a fist, he slammed his knuckles into the glass. It fractured in twenty different angles, and the shards fell noisily into the sink, still running with water.

He was a saiyan! Saiyans were warriors, fighters to the death! They didn't suffer from flashbacks, or become entangled in paltry emotion!

Then why did he feel like he was seconds away from cracking? From falling and sobbing like some stupid wretched weakling?

A flood of rage spilled through Orion's mind and washed away any concept of restraint. He dropped to his knees, arched his back, and bellowed at the ceiling at the top of his lungs.

He had to fight. He had to kill. He didn't care what. His heritage demanded it.

Orion exploded out of the men's room. The bartender looked at him with a frown, Orion's beer beaded with condensation on the counter.

"What was all that fuckin' noise in there?" he said, scratching his beard.

Without a word, eye almost hidden by his slanted brow, Orion rose an open palm at the bartender and fired.

The explosion doused the room in smoke and flame. The majority of the customers stormed out the door the minute they saw Orion shifting his hand to face them. Only three were still inside, scrambling for the exit, when Orion fired again.

Orion ground his teeth together, feeling no satisfaction nor release at the dead bodies, the smoking tables, the splintered glass. It wasn't enough. Shooting fish in a barrel wasn't the same thing as fishing for a shark.

Bursting out of the bar, Orion's head snapped back and forth, looking for a new, appropriate outlet for his blood lust. People on the street stared at him, wide eyed. Hands vanished beneath vests or pockets, cradling something unseen, in case they were needed. They were nothing. Paper tigers, ants ... whatever they were, they didn't inspire fear, nor provide a challenge.

On the horizon, a plume of sand and dust rose high into the sky. Orion rushed to the edge of town. An entire cavalcade of vehicles charged across the vast desert, of all makes, models and description. They were heading straight for this little town with no name. Bandits.

Orion laughed cruelly, sadistically. A ball of ki birthed in his open palm, glowing with an otherworldly light. He tossed it into the clear blue sky, and he waited until it travelled high enough.

He threw an open hand towards the ball of ki and clenched his fingers. "Burst open and mix!"

The ball suddenly expanded threefold. Everyone in town gazed at the new star shining in the sky, but none with the fervour of Orion.

Instantly he could feel the change beginning. He hurriedly unchained his robe and threw it to the ground, lest it shred. He arched his head as his tail writhed from side to side. Muscles twitched as they were fed new power, solidifying and growing. Orion hunched over as fur sprouted along his forearms and neck, sparse at first, then bursting out in full, thick bristles. He continued to grow, his body casting shadows over the buildings of the town. His nose stretched gradually into a snout, fangs sliding menacingly out from his lips. His single organic eye turned blood red, the same hue as the circular robotic sensor in place of his left. His black chest armour, mustard pants and navy boots had miraculously stretched with his transformation.

In mere moments, a six foot saiyan was gone, and in his place stood a fifty foot tall ape, bellowing in a guttural cry that made the windows shudder. The mighty Oozaru was unleashed upon the Omniverse.

Orion reined in his instincts long enough to redirect his attention at the approaching bandits, and then sunk deep into the depths of the animalistic fury of his bestial form.

No more thinking, no more memories ... only battle ...