Loinis: the thriving capital city of Planet Vegeta.  Once it was the largest metropolis in the star system.  Its grandeur was unrivaled throughout the galaxy.  Its inhabitants were the smartest of people, its technology the greatest, its art the most spectacular.  The Tsufuru-jins lost the war, and the Saiya-jins practically demolished the city and everything it stood for. 

    Its former glory was restored when the Changelings conquered the Saiya-jins; it was their new beacon of power, filled with the best of the galaxy and the pride of an imperial capital.  Towers punctured the sky, the wide streets bustled with life, and air buzzed with energy.

    In the heart of the city was a dome two thousand feet tall, stretching four times as far underground, and nearly five miles in diameter at the surface.  Marvelous towers and balconies, statues and inscriptions decorated the pinnacle of architecture.  The skin of the structure was a silver-titanium alloy so strong it could support the planet, yet so beautiful that even the savage Saiya-jins wrote poems about it.

    It was the Imperial Palace.  It was Lord Koola’s home.  It was the headquarters of the universe’s most powerful army.

    Two guards escorted the handcuffed Holo down the cold hallway.  He looked at his feet and watched his boots move across the concrete; there wasn’t anything else to look at.

    The trio came to a gray door after close to an hour of walking down dark corridors.

    “General Zarbon, Holo is here,” one of the officers said.

    A red light blinked above the door.  Light filled the hallway from the room behind the door as the entrance opened, causing Holo to squint after such a time in the dark.

    Holo slowly entered the room.  The door nosily shut behind him, isolating him from all escape.

    A desk sat before him, and behind that General Zarbon, fully clad in his imperial armor.

    “You have some explaining to do.”

    “Scyche crashed right into the Tsufuru-jin.  I don’t know anything else!” Holo screamed.  “I didn’t do anything wrong!”  He fell to his knees in tears.  “Please don’t hurt me!”

    “Boy, I need some answers now!” Zarbon hissed from across the desk.  He slammed his fist on the surface, jolting Holo.  “Scyche is very important to Lord Koola, and so help me…”

    “But I don’t know!” Holo whispered.

    “Sorry,” Zarbon said after a brief silence.  “This is very important.  I know you must be scared being before me in Imperial Interrogation…”

    “Scared?  I am freaking petrified, dang it!  My first mission gets my friend killed, his father knocked to the edge of death, and Tsufuru-jins, and…”

    “Was there an explosion?” Zarbon cooly asked.

    “I don’t know!  Maybe there was!  There was a weird noise!  Like a Galaxy Cruiser trying to take-off from the surface!”

    “Calm down!” Zarbon boomed.

    Holo fell to his back in fearful shock, and winced as Zarbon’s voice echoed in the room.

    Zarbon stood from his desk and walked over to Holo.  The green-haired man looked the Saiya-jin over before squatting down next to him.

    “Boy, I am losing my patience with you.  Scyche is in a very serious condition.  If you do not remember what happened, we will not be able to save him.  In such a case, Koola will rip you apart!”

    “Oh my god…”

    “This is the last time.  Either you tell me what happened, or I force it out of you…”

    “Oh my god…”

    “Your life is expendable; Scyche’s is not.”

    Holo was quiet.  He slowly curled up in a fetal position and shook.

    Zarbon began pacing around the bright room.  Each footstep sent a chill down Holo’s spine.

    “I hate you kids, you know that?  You have these big egos…all macho…then you run off and do something stupid…of course you are too dumb to know better…and then when you face the consequences you are suddenly infants…”

    Koola was sprawled on his bed staring at the ceiling.  Being an emperor was hard enough without incidents like this threatening everything.

    Cold gently sat down on the edge of Koola’s bed so as not to break it with his immense mass.

    “Yes?” Koola inquired.

    “The tests are all finished on Syche,” Cold answered.  “They say it is worse than they originally thought; he might be out of action for good.  They want to talk to you.”

    “Yes, fine, great…have we found someone to kill yet, father?”

    “I don’t know.  I assume Zarbon is on it.”

    “Dang.  This is pointless.  Okay, Holo, it’s time for a little debriefing.  No more questions.”

    “Huh?” Holo asked.

    Zarbon again squatted next to the Saiya-jin.

    “Evidence shows that a Tsufuru-jin killed Tweg with an energy weapon.  This same weapon hit Scyche’s energy shield and overloaded.  Is that what you remember?”

    “You said no more questions…”

    “God, you irritate me.  It is a simple yes or no question!  Answer it!”

    “Yes…”

    “Finally!  Now we are getting somewhere!  Can you tell me why the freaking Heck you monkeys were at those ruins?  Why did that Tsufuru-jin fire on Tweg?  Is it true that you disobeyed the orders of Beermius?  You know, I do have the audio recording from your scouter.  You want to tell me why this happened?”

    “Oh my god…”

    “Kid, I have news for you: if you don’t answer my questions, you will be convicted of Refusal to Cooperate, Instigation of Catastrophe, Disobedience of Orders, Imperial Conspiracy, and about three dozen other things, all of which carry execution as the mandatory punishment, not to mention the horrible things Koola will do to you for your part in the situation.  Your life will certainly become unpleasant.”

    “Oh my god…”

    “Beermius will be executed because he was in charge of you idiots when this occurred!”

    “Oh my god…”

    “God only knows what will happen to Scyche.  You really cost him big.”

    “Oh my god…is Scyche okay?  How could I forget?”

    “Scyche?  Okay?  We can go see him and you can ask the doctors about him, or you can keep whimpering.”

    “Oh my god…” Holo whispered as he stood up.

    “Stupid kid,” Zarbon grumbled.

    “It seems to me like you know what happened.  Why do you keep questioning me?” Holo shakily asked.

    “Ask the doctors,” Zarbon hissed as he shoved Holo out the door.  “Just doing what they tell me.”

    It was a typical Imperial Medical Facility: wall-to-wall gizmos, a half-dozen beeping machines, chairs along the wall, a bed in the middle, and lots of white.

    “Beermius!” Holo exclaimed as he entered the room.  “Oh my god!  Are you okay?”

    Beermius looked up from his seat in the corner.  He raised his right hand and flicked Holo off.  He made eye contact with Zarbon and then buried his face in his hands.

    “What the…?” Holo muttered.

    “Any change?” Zarbon asked the reptilian Dr. Lajoka.

    “It got a little worse.  That is why we put him in the straight-jacket.”

    “What?” Holo squealed, noticing Scyche lying perfectly still on the bed, and hooked up to thousands of wires, tubes, and cables.

    “That little skirmish…the explosion…nothing is without consequences,” Dr. Lajoka said.  “I did get the tests completed before he acted up.  This isn’t promising.”

    “He is going to die!”

    Holo bolted for the door.

    Zarbon immediately restrained Holo in a rib-cracking bear hug.

    “He is not dying, young one,” the doctor calmly said.  “Though his brain is slightly…I don’t know.  I think he is okay, but I am getting…how should I put this…”

    The door shot across the room.  It slammed into the wall near Beermius, but the large Saiya-jin paid it no notice.  Koola stepped in with smoke rising from his hand.  His mountain of a father was behind him.

    “I want to know what his condition is and how soon he can return!” Koola growled. 

    “Greetings, Emperor Koola,” Zarbon kindly stated, taking a little bow.

    “Your majesty,” Holo stuttered.  He stood shaking.

    “Zarbon, is this the little Saiya-jin under investigation?” Koola asked.

    “Yes, sire.”

    “Do I get to kill him,” Koola asked, licking his lips and bearing razor-sharp teeth.

    “Legally sire, in time most likely.  But if you want to, I am sure that you could wipe him out right now.”

    Holo took a few steps away from Koola.

    “According to scouter audio recordings, Holo and Tweg disobeyed the orders of Beermius and Syche, and ran off to kill a Tsufuru-jin,” Zarbon said.  “Scyche tried to stop them but was not listened to.  Beermius did nothing.  Apparently Tweg and Holo came to Tsufuru-jin ruins site X-3P-9, and Scyche gave chase.  A Tsufuru-jin attacked the trio with an energy weapon while Scyche was attempting to return the boys to camp, and Tweg was killed.  Scyche attacked, but his energy shield and the weapon’s blast reacted in some way, causing the weapon to blow up and kill the Tsufuru-jin and Scyche to undergo tremendous psychological damage.”

    “That is basically what you said last time,” Koola growled.  “Didn’t this boy tell you anything?” he asked, pointing at Holo.

    “This one is being very uncooperative,” Zarbon snarled.  “He is a stupid kid.  As I said a moment ago, his death would be perfectly alright.”

    Koola glared at Holo for a moment.  “Did Beermius tell you anything?”

    “Same thing the audio recordings did, sir.”

    “Oh, Zarbon!  Did you figure out what type of energy weapon the Tsufuru-jin used?” Dr. Lajoka asked.  “I do think that we need to do this quickly before his condition becomes permanent.”

    “Do what?  What condition?” Holo frantically asked.

    “Well, boy, I do think I can reverse Scyche’s condition by bombarding him with energy that has an opposite amplitude as that which was used against him.  Unfortunately, I don’t seem to know what kind of energy that was.”  Dr. Lajoka walked over to Scyche and looked him over.

    “Oh god…” Holo shuddered.  “Oh god…”

    “We don’t know who is to legally blame, we don’t know what we need to know to help Scyche, and all because this stupid boy won’t talk,” King Cold snarled.

    In a flash Koola struck; he angrily lifted Holo over his head by his neck.  “Boy, you are the only person other than Scyche who can tell us what kind of energy that bloody Tsufuru-jin had!  Scyche seems rather comatose at the moment, so I think that leaves you.  Now either you remember or I rip your organs out one by one.”

    Holo was shaking and crying.  Koola growled and threw the Saiya-jin against the ground.

    “Emperor Koola, I doubt that is going to convince him; he seems rather petrified,” Dr. Lajoka commented.  “Now, I have been able to further evaluate Scyhe’s condition.  He…I don’t know how to put this…he has more than one set of brainwaves…literally multiple personalities living in his brain.”

    All eyebrows rose.

    “The Imperial Medical database mentions a similar case,” the doctor said.  “A Changeling developed multiple sets of brainwaves, each running at the same time.  After being captured for murder, a psychologist determined him to have multiple personalities.”

    “Schizophrenia?” Zarbon asked.

    “Not quite,” the doctor replied.  “It was determined that each personality functioned completely independent of the rest.  The exception was the original personality, which was plagued by the presence of the others.  The guy knew what was going on but the people in his head didn’t.”

    “And how is that not Schizophrenia?” Koola asked.

    “Well, it could have been.  But the fact that the brainwaves turned out to be from a different species makes things different; the personalities immigrated into the man’s brain.  Exo-Schizophrenia can only occur inter-species, so the medical community dubbed the Changeling’s condition Schizophrenic External Implantation Distinct Trans-Species Neurosis:  Psychosis.”

    “You have to be biting my tail,” Holo said.

    “I am not, but I gladly will,” the doctor replied, bearing his fangs.

    “Dr. Lajoka…” Koola growled.  “Now tell me…can he be helped?”

    “Possibly.  As I said, bombarding him with energy that has an amplitude opposite that of the Tsufuru-jin’s weapon should cancel out the other personalities, but we don’t know what kind of energy it was to begin with.  Also, a certain portion of his memory must be rebuilt in order to bridge the pathways to the epicenter of the problem. Unfortunately, all we have are some audio tapes, which means we are still lacking the crucial information to feed Scyche for the other senses.  In addition, the foreign brainwaves are irritating damaged cells, which is affecting the areas of his brain that control his muscles.  Until his spasms are controlled, nothing can be done but observations.”

    “I understand,” Koola said.  “Now, Zarbon, this little punk is the cause of all of our problems it seems.”

    “Sire, killing him will make it impossible to help Scyche,” Zarbon said.

    “Well, that sucks,” Koola said.

    “Yeah, I know,” Zarbon replied.  “I am glad I realized that before I killed him.”

    “Are you saying you were going to take my aggression out for me?  I don’t think that will work,” Koola joked.  He knelt down and wrapped his hands around Holo’s throat.  “You comply, got it?  Scyche is of much importance to me.”

    “Where did your father go?” Zarbon asked Koola.

    “Ah, drats!  I told him to stay out of my room!”  Koola dashed out of the room.

    “Come, Holo,” Zarbon said, helping the quivering youth to his feet.

    “Wait one second.  His other brainwaves are from another species?” Holo inquired.

    “Yes,” Dr. Lajoka said.  “Tsufuru-jin to be precise.”

    Zarbon’s curse carried throughout the complex.

    “Where are you?” Scyche screamed.

    He sat-up in his bead and easily tore the straight jacket to threads.  He stared at the nurse working on his life-support systems.

    “Calm down Mr. Scyche!”

    “Where are the blasted Tsufuru-jins?”

    “Oh, crap,” the doctor mumbled.  “Security!”