/wheezes it took me a long time to update this don't... hate me...

Tamama writhed pathetically under his restraints, but the beast seemed to be pausing just a moment longer, confused, torn over the appearance of a second possibility of prey. The conflict in its' small brain brought enough of a distraction to give him one final push. And Tamama seized the moment with great ferocity, pulling his back from against the tree and sloppily leaning forward over the steel jowls, feeling the plethora of gashes in his side tear open raw and bloody from their reunion with open air.

"PLEASE, SERGEANT!" He shrieked, and his voice seemed to race up an octave with the most human of needs to be understood. He'd give anything, anything, just to feel like he was being heard. But Sergeant Keroro watched the cerberus, watched it turn both of its' free heads towards him and coil its' body, preparing for a strike it would not make, and his god damned eyes never left its' teeth, or the blood that sheathed its' muzzle- Tamama's blood, his blood, slicking it for combat again. But his Sergeant didn't see blood or teeth or a monster, he saw death and agony and a fight he could not win... so he would not fight.

He was so afraid. So pathetically afraid. The intimidation sleeping in every last inch of muscle that belonged to the dog suffocated him until he slowly turned his back on his problem, his fight, his fear, and began to run, the fear swallowing him whole entirely. Tamama's heart thundered and his body shook with a whole other violence, and suddenly his canines flashed and he threw back his head, unleashing the most ghastly cry, but he couldn't stop, couldn't stop the pain or the fervor- or most of all, the anger.

"KERORO, YOU COWARD!"

Keroro didn't even look back as he ran.

There was no sound, none.

There was no light.

It was all gone-

Nothing.

Everyone had failed.

He was left all alone to fight.

He was so sick of depending on everyone else.

"I AM STRONGER THAN THIS, I CAN SAVE MYSELF!"

White hot fury lashed him like a whip ripping down his sides. Glowing, burning aura began to flood into his body like a resource tapped into through some deep, glorious hidden reservoir. It thickened and poured into the space just within his throat, forming a feasible power of light he could command. It grew further and branched, straining at invisible seams that held the energy tightly wrapped into a ball for his control.

Then exhaustion hit Tamama like a brick wall, and the energy he had taken to form the ray was his own and it was his last reserve he could offer- he could barely breathe, and the surface tension of his power doubled until the edges bulged like they were going to rend. And he had only a few hundredths of a second before the seams strained under massive pressure so intense the aura struck and burst and tore to pieces, and the light that was just seconds before one passive ball of formation now became a searing ray of light shooting all down the neck of the cerberus.

He had less than an entire breadth to inhale, before it ignited at once.

KRA-KOOOOOWW

The light exploded into a thousand beams of gloriously furious phosphorescence so intense Tamama's vision bucked and seared completely blank. Then the energy imploded upon itself, ripping apart everything that it came into contact with, searing it with a touch of 1,370 degrees fahrenheit. The shockwave of light and heat and energy all slammed the cerberus so hard it was thrown back a few feet and Tamama fell loose from it's clenches, thudding dully to the earth below as his awesome light continued to incinerate the beast and brush indiscriminately. He leaned back against the tree, soaked with his own blood, and breathed hard, his exhaustion overtaking him.

Then, quite spontaneously, his vision popped again and he was hit with a very vivid image of the light rolling through the beast of hell like it wasn't even there, and his first blows had opened gaping holes in the middle head's neck, and now the armor it had built itself up on was torching the very skin it was supposed to protect. The dog threw back its' heads and cried a keen for itself, its' howl so disfigured Tamama raised hands he could no longer feel to his ears to block out the noise. He thought he must've found his head because the sound was slightly muffled and his vision jerked hard, and he could see in full again, could see the dog, wounded, howling, its' skin burnt black and heavy till crimson burns and bruises bloomed like daisies underneath its' sinewy cover.

Then it collapsed, an ugly heap, and Tamama felt the ground shake with the added burden. His sight evened out at this point, but he could not bring himself to hold open his eyes any longer and leaned his head to the rough bark behind him, feeling his own blood warm his back as his consciousness slipped out of his breath. He felt air suck noisily against his chest and he gurgled soft and wet as he lost feeling. The howling sound from the cerberus continued to echo through the air, ringing on and on and on, until nothing he could do would block it out anymore.

He thought, in that moment, that that sound was the worst he ever heard. However, the second worse came mere seconds later, when the pound of light feet over hard ground alerted him to the return of Momoka or Giroro- which was still alive, he didn't know. But the wail that pierced him next was one he had not accounted for.

"T-TAMAMA! GOD, NO- TAMAMA, NO, FUCK, DAMNIT-! PLEASE, PLEASE BE OKAY!"

That was Giroro.

"Tamama... you said it'd be okay, please, no... I didn't want you to get hurt...!"

That was Momoka. Tamama felt very sad, but he closed his eyes.

Then Tamama thought his hearing was starting to fail him, because he heard Giroro shouting really desperately again after that, but couldn't make out the words. It sounded like he'd found Dororo's body next. There was some more shouting from Momoka- did she want someone else to come? Maybe... and something that sounded like beeping, and Tamama felt someone propping his body up, and something being put around his sides. He opened his eyes a very small amount, and watched through the tiny sliver of sight as Giroro leaned over him and wrapped- was it a bandage?- tightly around him. After awhile he realized Giroro was whispering something to him without really noticing if he was even awake.

"You're gonna be okay, soldier... you're gonna be okay, you're really gonna be fine... I'm not gonna let you go like the others, you're gonna be okay. Hey, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I'm sorry, I messed up, I know, but you're gonna be okay. It's going to be different this time..."

Tamama thought that Giroro must be very sad, too. He closed his eyes again. This time he let his consciousness go completely into the darkness.

Truth be told,

Tamama was very tired.