He was panting, he could feel an immense burn in his lungs. Fighting on Kabocha had turned fierce, Lord Rime's forces had taken the planet. Somehow paying off the Frieza force hadn't become enough. The constant war with Ikonda meant that over time the Kabochan military had dwindled after the last ten years of war. Many men and women had died and most cities these days were entirely destroyed. The only military left had pulled back to protect the capital, which meant all the villages and tribes outside of Pukinpa were vulnerable.

"This is the one?", A voice rang through his mind.

The last thing he had remembered was having a hole torn in his chest. He had bled out, his form battered and broken by his own beam. It had hammered him into a building. He had sent his army away and ordered Duria to get Absolut off world. By all accounts he had done alright in terms of damage control.

Fridga had melted a hole in his chest though. He looked down at his chest, only it wasn't his chest. He was wearing armor that looked familiar. It was an older model of Saiyan battle armor with  squared shoulder pads. Bangles were around his wrists instead of armored gauntlets. His skin was darker, more tan than it had been previously and strapped over a shoulder was what looked like an older version of an Ikondan energy displacer rifle. Before he could examine further, a ball of energy whizzed by his head, reflexes kicked in and the Kabochan dove to one side, the orb exploding, the force shockwave sending him flying into a nearby cliff wall. The impact hurt, but it didn't do any permanent damage. Before he could fall to the ground Cam caught himself on one hands and pushed off towards the direction the blast had come from.

With dirt and smoke obscuring him, the Frieza force soldiers hadn't expected him to still be alive. They assumed that a caravan of nomads wouldn't put up much fight. His right hand snapped forward while his left reached down to the handle of his rifle, firing from the hip and swinging the gun in an arc, the result would be a bright blue beam of energy would spit forth from the gun, the long lazer thread acting like a blade and slicing through two of the soldiers that had stumbled upon them. The third Cam had simple destroyed with an energy burst. Landing on the ground he tucked and rolled, managing to stick the landing and coming to a halt on his feet.

"DAD!" An adolescent voice shouted.

"Ah, he's a dreamer, I see. Mortals really need to lighten up. Are you sure you want this one?" That disembodied voice was new, as was whatever he was experiencing, at least he thought it was new. It did seem familiar though.

His head turned to look in the direction of the voice that had shouted and that's when it hit the Emperor. Standing about thirty feet away, was himself or rather, a younger version of himself.  He was about thirteen at the time. By his tribe's standards most treated him like a man. He had his own curiass of battle armor, a trophy taken off his first kill: A Frieza force Litt soldier. Cam had shown a lot of promise with his energy attacks and in a display of ferocity, he had punched a Frieza force soldier in the skull so hard that it not only shattered his helmet but caused severe trauma, the bird man's brain damaged so severely that he was dead in seconds from the blow.

He had made his tribe proud that day, instead of pride accompanying the memory, only horror accompanied him as Cam realized who's body he was in and where he was. He had been thrust into the body of his father, not ten minutes before he was killed in front of his family and Carambolis' tribe was either culled by the Frieza force. The lucky survivors taken as slaves or conscripts. He knew how it ended but that didn't make seeing it any less painful, especially watching it from this perspective.

The younger Carambolis pointed up at a nearby ridge. A throng of men with scouters could be seen, watching what had occurred. "Get ready Cam, we have to fight together," a deeper, raucous voice stated, it had come from him but he hadn't thought to say it. It seemed that he couldn't fully dictate his actions in whatever he was experiencing, merely meant to be a passenger to this horror that had occurred in his life, meant to relive this entirely hopeless moment where he had been striped of all choice and almost all humanity. "Tell everyone to find some cover and if they have a blaster to grab it and get to cover."

Cam had remembered their tribe had always been moving across the sands of Kabocha. He could remember the nights of war, the endless shellings from Ikondan war ships, even last night he had heard the rumbling of artillery in the night. The Frieza force had come to stake a claim on their world, much of it had already been conquered, the nomads who lived in the desert though preferred to answer to nobody, so when the Frieza force had come looking for resources and to evaluate their newly conquered territory they had been met with resistance.

Jack had been one such member of the resistance. Not a leader to it by an means but a seasoned, reliable soldier in his tribe who had killed handfuls of men at a time and fought in all the skirmishes to defend his people from other tribes as well as Ikondans. When the Frieza force showed up, Jack had been one of the first fighters to come out of his hut and battle. Also one of the first to train his kids in how to fight. Even in this memory child Carambolis held a heavy blaster in one of his hands, the Frieza force equivalent to a hand cannon. He too had shown promise in combat, his father was only just now comfortably using energy bursts in combat but Cam had picked up the use of energy as a child and mastered it by his young teens. It had come in handy in the last conflict. Together, father and son, along with three other warriors of their tribe, had killed a platoon of soldiers threatening to kill them if they didn't surrender any valuables they held. They had fled of course, their tribe had been on the move for a week looking for a safe haven. Just when They thought they had found it, this had to happen.

Jack and Cam's tribe consisted of only about thirty Kabochans in total. They had all been survivors from one of the metropolis cities that had been destroyed in an Ikondan fleet attack. They had been lucky enough to get to a shelter as a family. Cam's younger sister Starr and his mother Paya were among them now, most had been simple workers or tradesmen, a few were police if they could still be called that given that the land was well and truly lawless now. They had fled to a cave Jack had known about since he was a child. It was a sacred place a long time ago, part of a network of underwater springs. This was one of the few places on the planet that fresh water could be found. The surrounding dunes and hills should have provided better cover but scouter technology had foiled their ability to hide. The Frieza force was closing in now and they would have to make a stand. So they had sent those who couldn't fight to hide within the cave while those who could had set up their holdout and prepare it for attack.

Their was Jack and Carambolis, but the three other warriors were Gordo, Laka, and Kaba. Gordo was a short but rotund man, initially Jack thought he might slow them down but he had kept up with the day to day travels and proven a decent fighter and capable with energy. Laka and Kaba were paternal twins, two sisters who had been police before their city had been nuked. They had joined to protect what survivors they could find, each carrying a police issued rifle and wearing the tactical gear, though after several months of use it was roughshod.

"You should've just paid up!" A voice demanded, all of the defenders eyes darted towards an approaching group of soldiers. Two platoons this time and stronger than the last from what Jack could tell, just over thirty of them. From the cluster a xeno stepped forward, he had bright red skin and two small horns protruding from his head, the group as a whole was full of xenos from all over, each equally as bloodthirsty as the last. They had killed a squad of soldiers and for that they were likely to be killed, Jack knew it but that didn't mean he wasn't going to go out fighting. "Gordo, once they get in range law down some supressive fire! Laka, Kaba. In my bag--the satchel by your bags. There's some grenades in there. Once they get within a hundred feet start chucking."

Cam's soul watched on through his father's eyes, though he could remember everything from his perspective. His father's tactics had been sound, they just hadn't been good enough. Had they gotten a little more time to prepare or a few more hands with guns or energy blast things might have turned out differently.

"Cam, cover me! I'm gonna draw them out!"

Jack dashed forward into the hundred feet or so of space in the ridge between himself and the Frieza force soldiers. Gordo splayed both his hands forwards and began firing energy bolts as soldiers moved to meet Jack. He rushed forward then back. By then chaos was ensuing. Gordo's bolts tore through some men like paper, exploding on contact while Cam fired again and again from his hand cannon his father had given him. He watched one man he shot fall, then another before he had to duck low behind the rocky outcropping he had situated himself behind. People were screaming, blaster and energy fire was everywhere. Laka lobbed a grenade forward, her sister throwing in sync. By the time smoke and debris started to clear, at least ten of them stood dead. Jack was still standing. He had killed a handful of them with his small arms fire and energy blasts. Seeing half his forces fall, the Red-skinned xeno growled, "You'll pay for that one. Alright, all in lets kill these bastards! Haaaa!"

An elite fire team, sent to finish what previous troops couldn't. Cam opened fire, slaying two more men to cover his father before he was kicked in the jaw. The fastest of this lot rushing the child. Laka and Kaba rushed the Frieza force soldier only to be blown up with a single hand blast. Two more soldiers closed in on Gordo, speeding up at high speed as one jammed his elbow into the heavier set Kabochan's gut, the other landed a kick into his back, breaking the Kabochan's spine.

"No!" Jack shouted. It was just him now. Several bolts of ki were loosed towards him but Jack had proven too quick for that, the bolts slamming into each other to explode into a massive smoke screen. Through the smoke energy rays would cut the air. Jack was hidden for the moment, "We have the kid! Come out or he i'll kill him, right now!"

Those words hit harder than a gut punch. They had his son. If he kept fighting they would kill his boy.

"Alright!" He shouted. "Alright...! I surrender, just don't hurt these people! They have nothing to do with the attack on your men. That was all me and us." Jack proclaimed, trying to take the burden off his people. He didn't know it but those words saved his son's life, as well as the lives of the others he had been trying to protecting. Unfortunately, they had sealed his fate at the same time. The Elite officer moving over to stare Jack down, "So you're the cause of all of this, hrm? Two platoons worth of men dying, all because of one rebellious man," the officer grinned malevolently then, "I like your spirit!" He said before he punched Jack in the gut. Wind forced from his lungs, Jack doubled over in the sand. "Pathetic. I need better soldiers clearly," the officer then channeled a burst of ki point blank. The blast killed Jack in an instant.

"DAD! NO! YOU CAN'T DIE! WE NEED YOU!" young Cam shouted, though he was quickly struck again ,"Shut up. You and all these people are property of the Frieza force now." The soldiers breaking into laughter as some dashed into the cave where the rest were hiding. It didn't take long before he could hear screams echoing out from within.

This had been a nightmare for Cam, one of a handful of recurring ones that he had experienced when he slept, even in death he couldn't get the respite of rest. King Yemma had signed the document that had condemned Cam's soul to hell. In this case, hell had been simply hopelessness. He was a passenger to all the moment he had experienced hopelessness, reliving these memories from different perspectives and from different people. Sometimes instead of Frieza force soldiers, his adult self would be standing in their place and Cam would be the one to kill his own father.

Abuse. Torture. Force killing. The endless cycle of violence that had become his life in the land of the living didn't end here, only now he was the victim and remained as such. Powerless to do anything but watch in sheer horror what he considered to be each and every one of his failures. How long he had been stuck watching these memories was hard to gauge. Days, weeks, months? He had no frame of reference, time and reality seemed to slip away as he was stuck between fractures and fragments of horrible memories and regret being superimposed on his consciousness and soul.

"Alright. Lets wake him up."

Cam awakened. Sitting upright, he glanced around, his surroundings colorful and foreign. There was no vegetation growing anywhere that he could see, only barren mountains and landscapes. Above a bright, white sun shone down on him, the light glistening off the rocky surfaces everywhere caused a sort of snow-blindness effect, "Well, you weren't too hard to find after all. I'm glad I got here as quick as I did. I bet there's a few faces down here who wouldn't be so friendly if they saw you," The voice was somewhat effeminate but still male, each word being said in a pensive but demure tone. The owner of said voice stepping in front of the Kabochan. Cam stood, covering his eyes with one hand, "Who are you? Where am I?"

Getting a better look at the man now, he looked like some kind of Xeno. He was tall, skinny, had bright blue skin and stark white hair styled to stand almost directly upwards. He was clutching a white staff with an orb on it and wore burgundy robes with strange symbols around the collar. "Well that's simple. I'm Whis and you're in hell, but as it happens it's your lucky day."

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