Dreams or Nightmares

A tireless pursuit led Casca to the rolling hills of Namek’s Northern Scar, littered with pockets of steam and currently active geysers. Choosing to trek lightly, the young Saiyan navigated slowly to the hidden Dragon Ball as her radar began to beep more frequently. Out of nowhere, the ball was launched into the sky and landed at her feet.


As the Saiyan reached to pick it up, she blinked. When her eyes opened again, she had the feeling she wasn’t on Namek anymore. Standing at the precipice of a mountain, built from the bodies of fallen soldiers, Casca cried out in true terror, somehow feeling responsible for the bloody massacre. Wiping the crimson liquid from her face, the young woman happened to stare across the empty void that extended infinitely in every direction around her.

Being distracted by what looked like a distant flame, the young Saiyan became hypnotized the longer she stared into its almost sentient movement. Bewildered and confused, she felt a strange attraction to the anomaly. Stumbling over the bodies, the full appearance of the flame came into context as Casca’s curiosity increased with every heavy step.

The fire’s warmth somehow enchanted Casca, only waking from its trance when she heard the cries. Stopping short of the flames, the voices became distinct, each begging for her to help.

Reacting out of horror, Casca recoiled as she saw what appeared to be her deceased family in the flames, alive. Without a second thought, the woman dashed to join them headfirst into the inferno to emerge alone, in an Arcosian prison.

Not believing what had just happened, the young Saiyan cowered to the ground and hugged her knees with a frantic urgency. The sight of her family burning alive drove her to scream with such insanity one would believe it was her skin falling from the bone.

A shift of the floorboards immediately corrected Casca’s temperament as she felt threatened at a time she was most vulnerable. Against her will, the Saiyan’s body crawled towards the dark corner where the sound originated as she sobbed for the torture to end. Through the darkness, Casca soon began to see moving shadows as more defined shapes came to light.

As her eyes adjusted, Casca stared into the corner, still and silent. She leaned closer, picking up what she thought could be labored breathing? — wait!

Reeling back in dread, Casca saw what she thought was herself!

A demonic figure emerged from the shadows sharing the general appearance of the Saiyan, but a body ridden with disfigurement and disease. The entity launched itself at the real Casca, wrapping its clawed hands around her throat as they wrestled for supremacy. Thrown to the floor, Casca passed through the floor and surfaced in the vast emptiness of space.

Instantly, the calamities that coincide with the harsh environment of outer space took Casca’s body hostage. Panicking while clutching at her throat, the Saiyan’s air willingly left her lungs. Seeing a shimmer of violet light emancipate across her body caused her to stiffly turn and to notice she was in the orbit of Planet Vegeta.

As if anything so far made sense, Casca somehow screamed, “Impossible,” as she watched a massive, planet-destroying blast rocketing into Vegeta’s lower atmosphere. The Saiyan gave chase in an attempt to stop the attack she somehow knew she was responsible for.

Flying at speeds new to her experience and with a kind of youthful optimism, Casca again reached. Extending her arm, the Saiyan tried to grab ahold of anything to prevent the destruction of another world. The young woman shielded her face as she made her transit through the heat of the blast, feeling its power with her outstretched hand.

And then it happened!

Casca fell out of her bed and onto her muddy clothes from earlier, waking from a deep sleep. The woman crawled exhaustedly across the room to the window. Without needing to look, Casca picked up the two-star Dragon Ball in the dark and looked at it in the moonlight. Rubbing it for reasons, the young woman asked the mysterious orb, “What are you?”