A Time for Change (Carro)

    Carro would never catch a break- that was a fact of life at this point. Even at Crop Co, with his identity revealed, he couldn't escape those shaken stares. The horror of his coworkers was completely understandable- the mere concept of a complete transmutation from man to machine after bloody murder was something right out of a horror movie. He'd usually present himself in his fused form- that way he at least looked somewhat human. But with LEO currently undergoing some repairs after their fight on the Gemini, Carro was left on his own for awhile. The former saiyan was dressed in a blue and white hoodie that was a few sizes too big for him, its sleeves covering his three-fingered claws and hood covering his smooth orb of a floating head. His screen had dimmed in an attempt to better hide his face in the shade of the hood while a baggy pair of pants and boots uncomfortably unfitting of his pointed, steel feet had been stuffed on his legs. People couldn't look at him like that if they couldn't see who he was, right? Some of their interns were taking short breaks for the summer, Carro was helping outside wiring up some new cable systems and generators- he was fiddling with a fuse box on a wall beside the entrance.

    Tianum worried a lot for her friend. Even after death, Carro refused to even think of rest. The blue Doragon leaned beside the doors, greeting those that came in while surveying the courtyard for trouble. Security was a demanding job, especially with recent events taken into account. Today was a slow day, though, something she was sure both Carro and herself could appreciate.

    ...At least, it was a slow day until an "emergency land appraiser" spoke to Tianum, snapping the redheaded lizard-lady to attention. "I--- I beg your pardon?" She tilted her head in complete bewilderment. She took the slip of paper from Zriracha, brow only furrowing further in confusion. This was the most obvious attempt at manipulation she'd ever seen. The thinly-veiled threat did little to ease her concerns. "Consequences???" She folded her arms, trying her damdest to process whatever... this was about. She knew one thing for certain, though, after quickly glancing to the side to see a tiny figure hidden in a hoodie trembling slightly with his back still turned, pulling on his hood to further hide his face. "...I'm sorry, miss, but the President isn't taking appointments- let alone an illegitimate one- at this time due to the current crises on the planet taking priority. I'd suggest coming back another day if you want to legally schedule a meeting." Tianum handed the slip of paper back. The disguised President's shoulders relaxed a little in relief, knowing his friend had his back. He'd overheard the human's threat, though, which prevented him from fully relaxing. Why did her voice sound familiar, too...?

    In the blink of an eye, the scene unfolding behind Carro went from one to a hundred. The tiny android's head whipped around at the sound of fire crackling. Tianum grew concerned at the mention of yet another crisis, but the flames being brandished inches from her took priority first. Icy flakes gathered around her palms in preparatory defense. "I don't like the thought of someone so quick to use selfish violence being around my friend after the hell he's been through." She snarled back with bared fangs. "If you want to harm him, you'll have to get through all of us. Leave." Even if she wasn't as grand of a fighter as the rest of the company, Tianum refused to let her friend take another beating, whether it be emotional or physical. A voice, however, tore her from her stance.

        "S-stop!!" 
        ...Unfortunately, Carro shared that train of thought. 

    The mere thought of another one of his friends being hurt drove the hooded android to shove himself between Zriachra and Tianum, arms outspread in defense, despite his much smaller height and power when compared to the Doragon. Though the voice that called out to the two was clearly identifiable as Carro Hofferson, his mechanized form, even cloaked, would likely come off as nothing but uncanny. From the shadows beneath his hoodie's cloak, nothing but a pair of white, dotted, inhumanly glowing eyes stared up at the disguised demon. No tufts of unkempt hair drooping from his face, no rise and fall from his chest in spite of the fear in his gaze, no hitch of breath in his shout, not even the littlest flicker of ki to say "I am still alive." Even when he was on television or in his public outings, he neither looked nor felt anything like this thanks to his Soulbound state when fused with LEO. There was a reason why he rarely left himself looking like this in the public eye- the freak of a President was missing something very, very important.

    There was something frighteningly familiar about this woman- it didn't take the alerts and popups in his vision warning him of danger to know that. He was dead certain he'd heard that voice before, seen that firey ki, and it was not a pleasant sense of deja vu. He quickly noted the clear conflict in the woman's eyes, sparking a bit of instinctive worry for her in his cold metal heart, but he quickly quieted that in favor of the safety of the Doragon behind him.

    "L-look, it's me you want, right? Leave her and whoever else you want to threaten alone, a-and then you can get your appointment! O-okay?" He took a step forward, a metallic clank following his footstep. Tianum's expression had gone from frustrated to worried sick in a flash. "Carro, you saw what she just did. You promised me you would take it easy today!" She pleaded, though the shell of a saiyan shook off his friend's plea. "Don't worry! I'll take it easy after this one thing, promise! I'll be fiiiine, I've had worse." He responded with an oddly casual shrug and dismissive wave, silencing whatever Tianum had opened her mouth to say. Carro had said that before after his last "one thing."

    "...Uhm. Anyways. President Carro Salk Hofferson, CEO of Crop Corporated, at your service- it's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am! What brings you to our establishment today?" He extended a hand forwards for a handshake, though it was still completely covered by his sleeve. Even if this lady was giving his fight or flight response a workout, he had to be polite! First impressions were always important! Tianum kept an arm protectively planted on her friend's shoulder, never taking her cautious glare off the demon. "--Er, uh, on second thought, w-we can discuss in detail things in my office for confidentiality's sake, if that's alright with you? I-it's a bit messy since I haven't had much time to clean as of late, b-but it's not that bad I promise!" Carro found his gaze drifting. A few civillians were already giving him that rattled look. He didn't blame them with the scary scene that nearly unfolded...

    Carro was fully anticipating a horrified reaction, but it didn't make it any less gut-wrenching to see. He pulled his hood further down in mortified shame, head lowered in a vain attempt to try and further hide his face. Otherwise he held his ground firmly, standing still and brave in spite of the familiar disgust. Being looked at like that- like he was something wrong, something that wasn't a person anymore, it scared him. "S-sorry." He muttered, awkwardly apologizing while lowering his hand after an ignored attempt at a handshake. He'd gotten used to this kind of reaction by now, or so he kept telling himself. If there was one advantage to his robotic body, it was that its inhumanity made it much easier to mask his emotions. He'd be in tears if he was still human.

    But instead, he shook his head and forced himself to look back to Zriracha, looking her up and down when she questioned his memory. "I, uh... s-sorry, but you don't ring a bell. I-I've been really busy and preoccupied with stuff, honest, so I'm sure its just my mind slippin' up again. You do s-seem familiar though!" Again shifting the blame onto himself with a casual shrug. First things first, though, was getting to the safe privacy of his office... Or at least, as safe as it could be with a person that just threatened one of his oldest friends in it. 

    Quickly heading down the hall with Tianum in tow, Carro took a moment to shift through his internal systems. He wasn't fond of the alienating sensation of using the apps programmed into his head, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Just before Tianum could follow Carro inside his office, she paused with the ping of a notification on her Scouter- a message from the President. She furrowed her brow in worry, but gave her friend a nod when he glanced back at her in a silent plea.

    "Yeah, I've, uh, gotta... finish up some work of my own real quick, I know." She quickly came up with an excuse, but knelt down to Carro's level to put her clawed hands on his shoulders. "Seriously, are you sure about this? I really don't like the thought of..." Carro shook his head, prying his friend's hands off with a forced smile. "I told 'ya, I'll be fine! I'll let you know if I need anything!" Though his voice was chipper, Tianum's concern didn't fade for a second. She sighed in defeat, giving Carro one last nod before heading down another hall. Go tell LEO about this, he'd told her through text. She'll know what to do. Probably.

    Carro rolled his eyes. "Ah, don't worry about her, she just worries too much." said the robot that worried too much. He propped himself up in his chair, still careful to keep his hood low and hands in his pockets so that nothing but his glowing eyes were clearly discernable. But it seemed he wasn't the only one disguising himself, for in a flash of magic, the "human" quickly changed to reveal her true colors. "....Oh. Oh no." Carro knew why both she and the swelling panic in his chest was so familiar now. "U-uh. Y-you... y-y-you aren't still planning on t-taking Earth, a-a-are you..? O-or anything equally... bad??" This was familiar. Too familiar. His mind raced back to the cold memories of his meeting with a different demon that looked to conquer his home...

    Thankfully, at least for now, Zriracha's concerns seemed to lay not on Earth but... him? "That's a bit of a personal question, don'tcha think?" Carro rolled his dotted eyes, shifting his focus to force out his casual demeanor again. "I'd rather not bore you with my personal ramblings, we'd be here all day. Really, I'm over it now. Besides, you clearly have something very important to you want to talk about! Let's not get off topic!" He leaned from his chair with his covered hands on his hips. The tried and true concern-deflection strategy had yet to fail him.

    Carro's smile wavered- he slinked back into his seat with the demon's visible shudder, mumbling another apology under his nonexistant breath. His gaze drifted away, but rushed back to Zriracha at the screeching sound of the table being shoved aside. The president instantly tensed legs raising closer to his chest- even with his continuous attempts at masking his emotions, he couldn't never fully bottle the fear that had been plaguing him for months. The dread in his eyes turned to confusion when the demon knelt down, though.

    And as quickly as the fear briefly was subsided, it resurfaced again, but now with disgust rearing its ugly head at the mere mention of Kraktus and Mumbo's names causing a subtle flinch in his floating head. The attempted comfort only made him feel more uneased- though now for entirely different reasons. Those two monsters, "charmed" by Earth? Again, his mind brought him to the past, facing off against the other Demon above a burning city, with both the colossal squid and that malicious majin backing him in a quest to destroy all he held dear. He didn't even notice how tightly he was grabbing his stomach- for a split second, it looked like he was looking straight through Zriracha and at some invisible, horrifying beast behind her. But again, the brief crack in his armor was swiftly patched as he shook his head with a meek smile. "I-I appreciate the sentiment! But let's, uh... agree to disagree." Not even those he trusted the most were let into the dark depths of his head that Zriracha was trying to peer into.

    Again, with the mention of the Oozaru this time, Carro found himself feeling sick again- and he didn't even have a stomach to feel sick with. Questioning the origin of his transformation and the willingness of it only intensified the immense discomfort roiling in his gut. The woman really seemed genuine in her concern and assertion that she was no longer a threat, but that was far, far from the only thing stirring the pot of fear in the machine. Carro remained silent for, opening his pixellated mouth- thoug again, no words came out for a few more moments. He shook his head again after mulling over how on earth to respond. "A-again, while I appreciate the concern, but it's not something I'm comfortable talking about around people I don't know well. I agreed to hear you out about what you wanted to ask of me, not any of this." Carro was a lot more firm with his voice this time. For both better and worse, Carro was exceptionally good at standing his ground, whether it be defying the odds against a terrible threat or silencing himself about things like this. He folded his arms behind his back and kicked his legs up on the table pushed to his side. "So what brings you to our fine establishment today?"

    "Thhhhank you." Carro gave a breathless sigh of relief as Zriracha seemed to agree to drop the topic of his personal life. He tugged on his hood to lower it down a bit further- he couldn't hide his face much more than it already was, but the flimsy fabric functioned as a sort-of emotional barrier for him- the less he had to show this face around those that weren't his close friends, the better. Still, with the topic of his mechanization dropped in favor of the demon's reasons for an urgent meeting with Carro, the former saiyan seemed to drop the festering discomfort and fear—
at least on the outside.

    As the demon began to speak, the android listened in intent focus- he was as good of a listener and empath as ever despite his condition. This time, though, he'd mentally braced himself for the scarring familiarity of the demon's words. To "bring demons and mortals together and be obstructed" was indeed something he'd heard before. But at least Zriarcha didn't aim to accomplish that by trying to murder him, take over and ruin the planet, then genocide his entire people, unlike the plan of that other demon he'd stopped. His expression and posture were unchanging despite the nagging flashbacks this time. "Ah yes, the oldest eeeviiiilll plan in the book." He joked back, putting clear playful sarcasm on the "evil" bit like he was referring to some saturday morning cartoon scheme- Zriracha didn't seem that bad... At least, not anymore.

    However, his playful attitude to lighten the mood was quickly pushed aside in favor of attentive listening when the air turned both somber and worrisome with Zriracha's explanation of her situation. She found it increasingly difficult to suppress her innate demonic urges, and her newfound loved ones may be at risk because of it. "Well, f-firstly, I am happy to hear you've found some good people to spend your time with!" He chirped, but quickly returned his focus to careful thought. The implication that the demon could still indeed become an enemy again unsettled him, but she was trying to avoid that. That was something he could respect and appreciate when so many others embraced much, much worse traits. He felt an odd spark of hope warming his chest. Maybe this time, this was something he could help with.

    "I, uh, I can't say I have any personal experience with myself going crazy or something, u-unless you count my Oozaru form before I... y-you know..." He gave a wide gesture to his covered body. "...But uh, have you told your loved ones about all this yet? I'm sure they'd be willing to help, too. As for how to m-maybe help, y'know, solving the problem... Hmmm..." Carro tapped his foot in deliberation, dropping every other train of thought in favor of trying to help the demon. How was it best to go about quelling or sating the woman's desire to "wreak havoc" without actually wreaking havoc and hurting people? "Uh, I-I only know a vague bit about you and this whole thing currently, s-so I'll need some more information if you're a-alright with sharing. have you tried any healthier outlets already, like maybe some sparring or tournaments if if's just like, a "must fight" thing already? Or is it, uh... worse than that? How've you been feeling lately?" Carro was worried he was being insensitive, twiddling his thumbs anxiously. He was still only in the vague, beginning phases of trying to work out some ideas- but helping someone else would always take precedence over his own lesser problems. 

    Carro listened intently, his cord-tail swaying in thought behind him. The Polarus character Zriracha described sounded like a swell guy, but what he did both rattled the demon and sent another pang of deja vu through Carro's mind. "Ah." He clicked idly, still somehow managing to keep a fairly straight face. "...I see." He raised his hand, though it was still hidden inside his sleeve, to rub his chin. "C-correct me if I interpreted this wrong, but it sounds like he took it full-force to... 'prove his strength' or something?" While it was noble for the Arcosian, it was clearly terrifying to Zriracha. Carro's face sank with sympathy. The fear of losing all that one loved was not unfamiliar to him.

    "Well, while it does sound like he's both strong physically, and here," Carro tapped where his own heart used to be. "Gods, I can only imagine how frightening it was to think you might'a killed him. I-I'd uh, tell him if you haven't already how you felt about the whole thing so he might be less, er, 'reckless' later." With the vague puzzle pieces he had about the demon's situation, Carro still felt a bit lost as how to completely help her. It made him feel anxious- he had to help in every little way he could, and it felt to him like he wasn't doing the best he could. He twiddled his covered thumbs in a nervous tic. "H-he can't exactly help you or change anything about himself until you tell him what's wrong, right? I-in regards to both the whole, uh, taking that attack thing and your current struggles with that other stuff."

    However, one word in Zriracha's speech caught Carro off-guard. "Conquest...?" He muttered, tensing again. It was probably just conquest of sparring and not actual taking of peoples homes and such, right?? She said she wasn't interested in Earth-- was she interested in other places? No, no, he was surely overthinking things...

    However, the brief discomfort riled by the demon's prior choice of words was nothing compared to the sinking feeling in his gut when she spoke of the one thing that scarred Carro the most- reviving the dead. "Don't." Carro responded in an eerie monotone, not a second after she'd finished speaking. "Trust me. Do. not." Carro spoke urgently with a slight tremble even his willpower couldn't hide, it like there was some vile spirit haunting him. If anyone knew how bad of an idea it was to play with life and death themselves, it was the cold metal corpse Zriracha was talking to right now.

    "...Anyways!" Carro shook his head, quickly trying to dismiss his prior eerie air with another meek smile and shrug of his shoulders. "Beeessides, what's something as stupidly impossible as that have to do with whatever conquest you talked about, anyways?" He waved a hand dismissively and casually. With how 'normal' he was acting now, an outsider may have not believed the prior chilling air that gripped Carro moments ago. He was fine. He could help.

    "Destroyed, huh?" Carro would have sighed in frustration if he could still breathe at Zriracha's mention of "a greedy demon that attacked Earth." Carro withheld a shudder and clenched his concealed claws. "I wouldn't call Kraktus an honest person." Carro left his comments at that. Both he and Kraktus were there that day, and they both knew that wasn't what happened.

    Carro was both concerned for the demon and surprised at how unsurprised he was by Zriracha's mention of "killing someone" if she couldn't control her instincts. In hindsight, even that would just be a speck compared to everything he'd gone through before- a walk in the park, even if push came to shove. But right after explaining that she could delve into her demonic instincts, she claimed that she wouldn't fall to the same. Somehow that was hardly a concern to Carro after he heard what she said next. Kayen's name and her promise made his eyes go wide. "...You what."

    Kayen. Carro had tried so hard to give the Queen the benefit of the doubt- she was hardly the worst person in the world, but not a good one either. Her promises and words betrayed her actions to Carro, and though he still sought for peace, she frightened him in a way few others could. She made him angry, too. But he wasn't supposed to get angry- he was Carro Hofferson, the steadfast President of Earth that couldn't hold a grudge. Still, that didn't mean he wouldn't let Zriracha fall into the same deathtrap he did if he had anything to say about it, even if it meant letting vague bits of his trauma slip.

    "I don't know why you're even indebted to her, but I'd cut that deal off as soon as you can, for the sake of yourself and your family. She..." He paused. Carro couldn't find a word for what he was feeling. It wasn't quite fear or anger, instead some all-eclipsing echo of past agony. He kept a straight face. "...Is part of the reason why I'm... this." A mechanical hand- if you could even call it that- lined with three green, alien fingers made of metal, slipped out of Carro's sleeve as he gestured at the rest of his body. "She promised my people the same 'protection,' but only stood idly as her own damn people brought nothing but death to me, this planet, and billions of other innocents who had no right being roped into any of this!" The pixellated mouth on his face bared into a grimace as he slumped back into his chair, rubbing his hooded head with his exposed claw. "Let me put it to you this way, trusting her is an even worse idea than reviving the dead." Both of which were things Carro had too much experience in.

    Following the repeated trend of one bad thing after another, Carro clenched his claw as Zriracha explained what she wanted from him- a ship. But her claim didn't sit right at all with Carro. How was he supposed to trust someone who was admitting to being prone to a murder streak with free travel of the cosmos? He couldn't have a spaceship with his name on it being used to bring death on his conscious? "So... I'm supposed to let you be on your way to let you do the exact same thing to some other planet of unfortunate innocents if you explode?" He snipped back, still slumped in his chair as frustration bubbled in his head, though it was less directed towards Zriracha and more to his own inability to think of a solution on the spot. One thing he knew for sure was that one innocent planet suffering destruction due to his negligence was already  more than enough.