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She hadn’t expected this
As Caulifla clutches her head in pain, she tries to sort through the last few moments. There was a fight. She and her partner Kale had been fighting…. Someone. “Ugh! Think!” she screamed internally, frustrated at how everything seems indistinct. Suddenly it comes back to her. “Goku” she remembers “We were fighting Son Goku, from universe 7” “and we were winning!” “My reflexes and Kale’s brute force, he couldn’t handle us both!” “Then...” The last few details finally returned “Son used some weird transformation, his hair turned red, he got taller and scrawnier, and I couldn’t sense his energy anymore” she grimaced “then the tables turned, he was faster, stronger. I got hit by an energy blast, must have gotten a concussion” Caulifla opened her eyes.
Everything was blurry, but she could make out a tall, broad figure dressed in red, Standing over her protectively. “Kale!”, her heart did a little leap “she must have caught me and carried me back down”. Her partner took a step forward and looked up at someone out of view “You think you’ve won?!” Kale screamed out, clenching her fists. Caulifla was glad to see that her protegee still had some fire, she’d come a long way from the nervous girl who shrunk away from all those around her. Caulifla tried to make it to her feet. “AGH!” she hadn’t expected the pain to be so intense, she must have broken her leg. Kale turned around sharply at the sound. “Sis!” she cried out in alarm. Caulifla hated to worry her. “I can… still fight!” she choked out before collapsing back down to her knees. “How pathetic” she muttered, cursing her weakness. She looks up past Kale to the cliff face ahead, Son Goku perched on top.
“You two fought well” he said. “I look forward to seeing you again when this tournament is over” as he spoke he positioned his hands behind his back, gathering his Ki for one final Kame-Hame-Ha to knock them off the arena.
“Bastard” Caulifla thought to herself “He knows we can’t meet again, only one universe is allowed to survive”. She reflected bitterly on how foolish it was to challenge the seasoned martial artist “We thought we were his equals, but he’s wielding the power of a god now, we’re not even on his level”. Champa’s words before the tournament came back to her. “Unless?!”. She turned back to her partner. “Kale? Do you remember what I said about when we’re together?” she asked. Kale answered with a sad smile “you said that when we’re together, that we’re the strongest in all the universes”. Caulifla gives Kale a pained smirk in response “it’s time we proved it, hand me one of those funny earrings the boss gave us”. Comprehension dawns on Kale’s face, she reaches under her armbands and pulls out a pair of green earrings. A yell sounds out from atop the cliff face; “Haaaaa!!!” Son Goku yells, thrusting his hands forward, a beam of blue energy surging toward them. Kale steps in front of Caulifla, taking the brunt of the impact, but the ground crumbles beneath them, sending the chunk of the stage they were standing on slowly over the edge.
“ARE YOU READY?!” Caulifla yells as she fumbles with the left earring. “YES!” Kale exclaims as she successfully fastens the right earring. No sooner does Caulifla secure her earring than she finds herself pulled forcibly toward Kale. Before they collide, a bright light shines from between them and she feels as if her whole body, her whole sense of self, is dissolving, being taken apart and molded together into something more.
So much more.
Once again she finds herself opening her eyes, trying to piece together the last few moments… no, that wasn’t right, that happened to someone else. So why does it seem familiar. She looks down at herself “Who, am I?” “and why do I feel so... good?”. She doesn’t know how to describe it, but a deep feeling of contentment seems to be washing over her, like how she feels when Cauli smiles at her… no, that was someone else too. She looks around, she appears to be on a cliff somewhere, “how did I get up here?”. A figure below catches her eye, a man with red hair is looking up at her with a mix of surprise, fear, and… excitement? She remembers him, Son Goku, even though this is the first time they’ve met. She wonders why he is looking at her like that. Suddenly a name enters her thoughts “Kefla”. Yes, that’s right. She smiles, feeling power flowing up from someplace deep inside her, her name is Kefla
And she is the strongest in all the universes.