Training in secret under Pepper was hellish for Lynn, especially at first.
Though, the whole 'Move this mountain right here, and shape it like a human head' thing kind-of reminded the Saiyan about her trial back on Namek, all those years ago.
Only this time, the goal wasn't to teach her a lesson about the fact that some things are impossible to do alone, and one needs to ask for help when they're over their head or something.
Nope. This particular training was specifically designed to push Lynn past her limits.
And not just physically.
"Great. Now, go to South City and buy me a drink like a good little servant."
"What?" Lynn had gaped at Pepper's sheer audacity. The next moment, she was being shoved.
"I said go. Unless you're not even good enough to do that."
"I'm not flying hundreds of kilometers just to buy you a drink, Pep." Lynn had crossed her arms stubbornly.
In response, Pepper simply smiled… before grabbing the older girl by the tail and using a fluid spin to fling her far out to sea like a toy. "Don't come back without juice! From that little store, you know the one!" The younger Saiyan had shouted at Lynn's flying figure.
Lynn burned with rage, about a half-hour later when she came back with Pepper's juice, having no other option.
After drinking it, Pepper crushed the can and threw it at Lynn as if she was throwing trash into a can.
It went on like that for weeks. Pepper systematically debased, demeaned, and dehumanized Lynn to show her superiority.
Naturally, no real Saiyan would take that. Lynn wasn't an exception there. She fought back every single time.
But then Pepper would simply force the other girl into submission with overwhelming physical power.
Weeks of it. Constant psychological attacks, directed straight at Lynn's weak spots. Her physical ability, her caring nature. Even jabs about her gardening.
And Lynn couldn't do a single thing about it.
Deep down, the older Saiyan didn't blame Pepper. It was the younger girl's way of attacking Lynn's weakness, trying to eradicate it.
And Lynn did make progress. Her power level steadily rose from low hundred thousands to over half a million. Tarble noticed… but it just wasn't enough. It didn't change anything. She went from, based entirely on numbers, being around eight times weaker than Pepper, to being just under half as strong as the younger girl.
With every single secret session, Lynn's rage grew, and she directed it all into that primal part of herself that screamed to the void for power.
Then, one day, Pepper took the camel's back and cremated it.
She'd been using Lynn's body as a footrest while the older girl tried to do pushups under the weight, when she delivered the remark. "You can't do it, Lynn. Tarble would call this insanity. You're… not like us."
"What?" Lynn had stopped cold at that. She'd expected Pepper to do a lot. She'd expected Pepper to insult her. She'd expected the younger girl to torment, demean her. To do everything she could to piss the older girl off in the most fundamental way possible.
For the younger Saiyan, that was an art form. One that she excelled at.
But giving up on her?
Scenes slammed into the older girl with startling clarity. Innocent things. Little things. Pepper and Tarble, alone on various dates. She saw them laughing, playing around, Pepper giggling, Tarble smiling.
She saw Pepper, years ago, when they'd just started living on Earth, trying on outfit after outfit for hours on end, asking the older Saiyan which one she thought Tarble would think was cuter, subtly tossing aside the ones that Lynn lied about liking.
She saw the time Pepper had finally decided to screw all of Tarble's reservations and kissed him on the lips for the first time.
It had happened on a date in East City, just a year or two ago, but when the scene flashed into Lynn's mind, she subconsciously superimposed Pepper into her own first real kiss with Tarble, under that one perfect tree in the middle of her garden, just the two of them.
Just Tarble and Pepper. While Lynn grew old alone in her garden, watching from afar.
The long talks, late at night. The picnics on that stupid little beach with the rickety pier that Tarble had made. The dozens of times, while Tarble was building the stupid thing, when he accidentally slipped on a loose board or something and fell into the water with a loud splash, only to fly back out of the water a second later, smiling and waving to Lynn like he thought it was kind of funny that he'd gotten himself soaked.
The dozens of times when Pepper had, feeling bad for something-or-other, grabbed Lynn by the wrist and dragged her into Tarble's apartment to cuddle for the night. The arguments about stupid little things. Showering time, the time Lynn had point blank told Pepper that she was a nightmare in the kitchen, so the younger girl decided that they needed to go camping for a week, just the three of them frying bananas on a beach bonfire, Pepper trying to prove that she could, in that particular setting at least, roast edible food (only to get impatient and shove it into the hottest part of the flame until it melted right off of the stick).
All of that just… shattered.
Lynn barely even noticed her aura flaring. She didn't see Pepper backing away from her, a smile playing at the younger girl's lips as her power level rose rapidly. If looking at a scouter, one would've seen Lynn's power level rising from 600,000 to 700,000… to 900,000, past a million…
Then it just stopped there.
The air was thick with power, but Pepper was frowning. It was just a flare. A totally normal, temporary concentration of energy. Beyond anything Lynn had managed before… but ultimately not abnormal.
"Stop trying to be me, Lynn! YOU CAN'T USE THE IKARI! GIVE IT UP!" Pepper shouted into the wind.
Normally, Lynn wouldn't be able to hear that through the roar of her own aura… but she did.
And it made something change. Deep inside her, right behind her core, something opened. And a burst of energy exploded out of her.
Meanwhile, Pepper smiled.