Questions and Answers: Where are you? (Carro)

    Carro wasn't expecting his return to his human form to be a cure-all to his troubles.
    ...But he also didn't expect to feel worse as everything returned to normal.

    The mighty President of Earth laid his head on his desk, blankly staring at his laptop screen as he clicked and typed away at some more blueprints and documents regarding his newer projects. Sometimes his vision shifted in and out of focus. It had only been a few days since his revival, but dark bags had already reappeared under his eyes. Sleep was hard to come by- and it wasn't something he wanted to do when he had better things to be doing for the sake of his planet. He'd endured worse, what was a few more hours of being awake to the same man who'd spat in the face of death itself?

    All was quiet in King's Castle. It had been quiet for days. What ached more than the heaviness of his eyelids and the labored breaths trickling out of his throat was this new ever-present feeling of loneliness. He'd had a few workdays at Crop Co already, and many of his employees had noted his 'recovery' jovially, but... Aside from that, the only visitor he'd had intentionally stop by since was Tianum. Korla was whisked over to his home unintentionally, LEO had celebrated with him briefly before running off to search for Chime and Oboe- a venture she still hadn't returned from after a few days, and nobody else had paid him a visit. Not Dion, not Van, not Garon or Zriracha, or even Sulfur. But that was exactly what he wanted, right? He told them he was doing alright before. Worrying about him was a waste of time, and by extent checking up on him was too.

    ...It still hurt, though. But that was something he'd come to terms with as an inevitability- part of the job description as President. He didn't mind, he kept telling himself. This was for the best.

    That didn't stop him from hopefully perking his head up at the sound of a knock at the door down the hall. Snapped awake, Carro fumbled out his office chair- nearly tripping over due to his lack of balance from shifting from man to machine- and made his way to the doors to King's Castle. He didn't even care or think of the fact that whoever this was did not have a scheduled appointment with him this time.

    Greeting Typha at the door was the tiny saiyan himself, with skin a few shades paler than normal, the usual bags under his eyes, and a coffee-stained t-shirt loosely hung over his torso. The sleep-deprived President strained to push the door open all the way for a few moments, leaning on the ornate door for support after as he turned to look at his visitor. "O-oh! Uh-- hey, Typha." For a moment, the little leader seemed to be taken off guard, taking a startled step back as he recalled the Konatsian's final message before Namek was destroyed, before reminding himself that there had been a wish... whatever it was. "Uh... Long time no see! Come in," It felt awkward, talking to another formerly deceased person now that he'd faced death himself. Still, that wouldn't stop his usual warm and polite disposition from shining through, especially when he was grateful to have anyone visiting for whatever reason now.

    Pushing the door shut with another tired grumble, should Typha follow Carro inside, he'd wipe his hands with another tired sigh. "Whew... So, uh, what brings you here? Something tells me it might not just be to catch up..." He spoke, quickly sitting down on a nearby bench beside the entry doors- standing for too long made him dizzy. As much as he wished for a normal conversation, such was a rare luxury for a President...

    "And the grass is green and the sky is blue, Captain Obvious." Carro waved off Typha's statements with a sigh. He was already too familiar with the fact that there always would be people seeking nothing but ruin and that a second violent death was the inevitable conclusion to his run as President. The saiyan hybrid instinctively averted his gaze in discomfort, his hand clutching the scar over his heart beneath his coffee-stained shirt.

    Thankfully he was snapped out of his paranoia and dread for what the future held by Typha's words again. "Right. That..." He sorrowfully spoke at the mention of Namek's destruction. He was not looking forward to the second round of Dragon Ball hunting a few months from now. A pang of guilt caused his grip over his beating heart to tighten at the mention of "not being there at Namek." Gods, he wish he knew. He could have done something- maybe if he'd been a bit braver and done some snooping while he was still in recovery and hiding he could have found out Cress's plot early and stopped it, or maybe he could have found out before it was too late that Oboe was even on Earth, or--

    Carro shook his head, tearing himself away from the traumas for now. "Well, it's been a few months since, there's... a lot to go over. Not much of it is good, as you'd probably expect..." Where did he even start? "At the time of Namek's uh... you know, most of us on Earth were still in the worst of the hunt for the Dragon Balls. I was still recovering in hiding in wake of my, er... death." He shuddered slightly at the mention of his own passing. "While the fight on N-Namek was ongoing, I was fighting to prevent Earth from being destroyed too. Another one of Vocado's lackeys, a ghost named Kalabas, tried to destroy Earth during a bloody battle that was the culmination of the hunt for the Dragon Balls and more. I'm not sure how it even started still, but it was all on the literal day LEO and I were physically able to fight again." He threw one of his lanky arms up for emphasis. The timing of everything was what hurt most. "That was the day I... killed both him and Vocado." Two monsters, slain. Carro always told himself he should be happy, proud that he'd freed Earth from the apocalyptic threats they posed. But he felt nothing but disgust as he'd looked at the blood on his hands that day.

    "...Unfortunently, that was the same day I even learned Oboe was on Earth- let alone helping in the Dragon Ball hunt- in the first place. Just as I learned and started to get worried... I saw your message." The bonechilling realization, the panic, and finally the grim truth and weight of the dead on his shoulders he'd felt all came rushing back. "I-- I was packing up on LEO and getting ready to head there, h-honest! I'm s-sorry! B-But it was too late-- maybe if I'd just left the fight on Frappe to t-the others, o-or if I'd somehow c-could have talked to Oboe before or..." The president cut his critical spiel of his own actions and the what-ifs off with a sigh. There was little use thinking on what he could have done now, he told himself. But he couldn't stop himself from wondering...

    And that wasn't even touching on all the other tragedies that unfolded in front of him then. Nashua's death, Belle's pain, Yogu's sacrifice, the rage and hate in Vocado's eyes that bore right into him and him alone as the fallen king breathed his last breath... Somehow, that day was tied with the suffering brought by his own death. It was very clear by the strain in his exhausted voice that none of this was easy to relive. "...And that's just the first day." 

    Carro remained silent, though his expression eased slightly with Typha's sympathy in response to his mention of slaughtering Kalabas and Vocado. "Y-yeah, it..." He trailed off, unable to find the words for it as he gazed off, as if he were staring at some horrific ghost behind Typha that was about to murder them. He composed himself with another deep inhale, thankfully. 

    Typha saw Oboe's absence as a bullet dodged. Carro shuddered at the thought of how bad the onslaught must have been if the Guru would not have made a difference. "Maybe, but... I haven't seen Oboe in months. L-LEO and I been searching for him and Chime for a few months now, and nothing..." Had they too been murdered? Were they in hiding? He'd heard that Oboe wasn't faring well, wherever he was, but he was unsure if that was more in regards to his physical or emotional state. Ever since the wish, LEO had been off searching for Chime especially in a worried frenzy for days in a row. "If you ever by chance find him, I can't imagine he's taken any of this well. If anyone could console him about it, someone who was there could probably do it better than me." He forced a weak laugh. He could try to console the Guru all he wanted if they ever crossed paths again, but his reassurances would be empty.

    There was nothing either Typha or Carro could do to change the past, which left the worries for the future. The most pressing of which for Typha was Ramen. Carro grimaced at the name. To him, Ramen was just as much of a traitorous danger as Vocado or Cress. "Ugh, yeah..." He sighed in exasperation. "For better or worse, I have confirmed that nothing Vocado or Cress or any of them did was under Kayen's orders." While didn't always agree with how Kayen managed things, Carro could appreciate her honesty- even if it was brutally blunt sometimes. While the Pirate Queen never claimed to be a saint,there were a lot of worse people that could be wearing the crown. "My best guess is that Cress just... hired the Stargoons. They're mercenaries, after all. There was a lack of communication regarding Cress and Vocado's traitorism and the risks they posed for awhile from what I have heard and seen. Not that it excuses Ramen or what happened to Namek in any way whatsoever, Gods no, but you get the idea." Without word from her superior that Cress was an enemy, Ramen likely just went along with her fellow Stargoons' plot. "Why she even joined the Stargoons, though, that beats me."

    Then there was the mention of the human's power level, which caused Carro to raise a brow. "LEO clocks in at a bit over five million herself. I haven't heard of anyone else t-that had that kind of power..." A new surge of worry festered in him. Ramen could give LEO an even fight... "Though I have heard or seen nothing of Ramen since Namek, too. If we're lucky, that means she's screwed off somewhere where she can't hurt anyone or called it quits, but I'm not going to get my hopes up that high." It was only a matter of time before the next brush with the apocalypse, whatever it may be.