If they are borrowed without permission, I will not be held responsible for the planets or the homes or anything else that they may damage or kill ; ).
A/N: This is the sequel to "Tayla of Astoria" (about time, eh?) which takes place two years later on the planet Grain...
PART ONE: PLANET GRAIN--SAIYANS AND ASTORIANS MEET AGAIN
PROLOGUE: Shadows Of The Past
Two years later, on the way to planet Grain…
Two silver space pods with curved doors and single round windows were speeding throughout the Rosetta Galaxy, nearest neighbor to the Milky Way Galaxy, two silver comets carrying two strong, muscular men with tails like those of monkeys. However, it would be a deadly mistake to call either one of these men "monkeys" because doing so would be signing one's own death warrant.
In the first pod was a giant, muscle-bound male with a furry brown mustache and a bald head by choice. He was over seven-feet-tall, and he was considered handsome by most of the women who saw him. Of course half of those same women didn't think so after this merciless "monkey" had begun to destroy their people, but then this was not the half of women who were among his comrades or whores or concubines that he frequently came across.
The huge man, known to be of the near-extinct Saiyan race, had just lost his mate a year ago when she was mysteriously murdered. He still thought of her, even when he was taking another woman, and several times, he had actually called his paramours by her name. He had kept a bracelet made out of a braid of her turquoise hair tied around his large wrist.
"Eclipse…" he murmured, as he toyed with the bracelet of his deceased mate's hair. "It wasn't right when you died…we haven't been together long enough…never even had a chance to sire a child off of you…but then Frieza would have never let us!"
The giant's fists balled up in anger, as he punched the padded side of his space pod. He gnashed his teeth, as he felt that awful, gnawing ache encompass his titanic body. Sweat poured down his forehead, as several veins popped out of his thick skin on that area. He punched the wall of his pod again, and then he leaned back, downtrodden and anguished.
His lovely mate, Eclipse, had worked for Captain Ginyu, as well as Frieza. Eclipse had been the captain of the Ginyu Girls, the group of cheerleader/groupies who followed the Ginyu Force around, supported them, and served as voluntary courtesans for them and the other Elite males.
Eclipse had been a lovely woman, five-feet, six-inches tall, with long turquoise hair, peachy skin tinged with blue, a perfect figure, and blue diamond nails. She had been descended from two races, the Calmagian race and the Gemstarian race, with whom she had been more affiliated with. She had been very popular among the Ginyu Force members and the other Elite males; in fact, Nappa had been in a few nasty fights with Eclipse's other admirers once the tall, bulky Saiyan had taken her for his mate.
In fact, after Nappa had made Eclipse "his woman and his woman only", he had made many enemies among Eclipse's former suitors. Not that Nappa had really cared, for he associated with few people outside of his fellow Saiyans, Raditz, Vegeta and Vegeta's sister, Journa. It was just that a few Elite males had been stupid enough to try to kill him off for making Eclipse exclusively his; none of those rivals were alive anymore.
His fellow Saiyans hadn't entirely approved of his relationship with the Ginyu Girl squad leader because of Eclipse's past promiscuity, but to their surprise, Eclipse had actually stayed faithful to Nappa. Unfortunately, Nappa and Eclipse had not been destined to be happy for long.
He remembered the last time that he had seen her alive, and that was when they had mated. He had been in Eclipse's ornately decorated room, with his thick, muscular arms around her trim waist, and had he felt the swell of her stomach, a stomach that had always been flat. He had felt that swollen stomach a week before, but the bulge of tummy had grown quickly.
It was then that Eclipse confessed that she was pregnant with his child, and under less dangerous circumstances, Nappa would have been pleased to know that his lineage would continue, that he would have a son or a daughter to raise to become a fine warrior. But under Frieza, a pregnancy could be disastrous.
For Nappa and the other Saiyans had been put on a no-procreation order, which meant that they were forbidden to produce any offspring. If any offspring resulted from any one of them, the offspring was likely to be aborted, or killed upon birth. Then any guilty parties under the no-procreation orders would have been sterilized. Frieza had threatened to do that to the Saiyans several times before, but he had never carried out his cruel threat. Frieza had made it plain and clear that he did not want any more Saiyans alive than necessary; he had even gone as far to say that he would prefer the accursed race to die with Vegeta and his bunch. It was known that Frieza had once or twice thought about having Journa executed, so that the chances of a pureblooded baby Saiyan would die with her.
Nappa had told Eclipse to keep quiet about her pregnancy until he could figure out what to do to save their child, but the damage had already been done for Eclipse had confided in several close friends among her Ginyu Girls before she had told her mate. Three days later, Eclipse's body had been found in her private bathroom, with her once-lovely body floating in the tub. She had two large, burnt holes in her body, created by ki blasts, one through her chest, and one through her swollen abdomen.
DNA tests later confirmed that the child was indeed Nappa's, and Frieza had ordered Dodoria to put a ki-restraining collar on Nappa's neck to reduce his ki significantly. Then Dodoria had taken great delight in whipping and beating him, with the help of two close friends who were also in Top Elite. Journa and Raditz had been outraged at the brutal punishment of their comrade for doing what came naturally, and they had wanted to take revenge, but Vegeta had forbade it, knowing that allowing them to do so would only result in their deaths. He had been angered as well at the cruel mistreatment of his bodyguard; Nappa had been stupid to impregnate his mate, but Nappa had not deserved what happened to him. Nappa had been morose and grief-stricken for weeks after, not eating for days. He had nearly died from the grief of losing his bonded mate, but he had slowly recovered.
To deal with his pain, which he never showed in front of anyone, Nappa would either take on more purging missions or take a different woman almost every night. He was colder and nastier than ever with everyone except for his Saiyan comrades, and anyone with an even slightly weaker ki level would stay out of his way.
"Nappa? Nappa, are you awake?"
Nappa pressed a button onto his scouter, pushing all thoughts of his deceased mate out of his mind for now. "Yes, my prince, I am here."
"Good," Vegeta's voice said through the scouter. "We are almost near planet Grain, and I want us to be fully awake to clear it of its citizens, except for one. You do remember that we are to take Crown Prince Barley as our captive for Frieza's forces, don't you, Nappa?"
Frieza had recently ordered the king and queen of planet Grain to surrender their strong son, Prince Barley, over to him to induct into his army. He had sent Vegeta and Nappa to Grain to retrieve the boy alive and bring him back to Frieza's mother ship. The king and queen of Grain knew that Frieza was sending the two Saiyans after their royal heir, but what they didn't know was that Frieza had also ordered Vegeta and Nappa to destroy all life on Grain, except for Prince Barley. The Zimian race, a race of huge slimy blue monsters who were vegetarians, had offered Frieza a high purchase price for planet Grain; they wanted to use the entire planet, known for its fertile soil, to grow their own crops and raise their own livestock.
"Yes, I do, Prince. I just hope that he doesn't turn out to be another Princess Tayla Chloe."
"You and me both. That brat gave us enough grief to last for a hundred purging missions! I'll never forget my last two humiliating defeats at her hands. An Astorian, of all people to defeat us! I can't believe to this day that a scrawny little girl was able to bring me down! But I will avenge myself, Nappa, and that I will. I am stronger than she is now, I have to be."
"You are, Prince," Nappa said through his scouter channel to Vegeta. "Your power has almost doubled since the last time you two crossed paths. She couldn't have even caught up with you since the last time we tried to capture her for Frieza's forces. What has it been-two years now since we last saw her? She'd be how old now-sixteen?"
"Fifteen, Nappa. And from what my father told me before Frieza took my sister and I away from him, most girls at that age concentrate on finding a husband. In a few years, she'll probably produce a few brats and spend less time on her training while I will continue further on mine. In about five years, she probably won't prove to be that worthy of a challenge, but I will see that she will acknowledge me as stronger, more superior."
"She will, Prince, she surely will."
Nineteen-year-old Prince Vegeta in his space pod was now the one who was gnashing his teeth, with his fangs grinding against his bottom teeth, as he remembered Tayla Chloe, a tiny Astorian girl whom he had thought would be easy to capture and take to Frieza.
Vegeta had been only eleven years old when Frieza had sent him, Nappa, and Raditz to planet Astoria to clear it and capture little Tayla Chloe, a child that Frieza had heard was already strong and intelligent for her age. Frieza had wanted the child to induct into his forces like he had done to Vegeta and Vegeta's sister, Journa. Tayla Chloe, who had been seven-years-old at the time, was an elite-class princess from the Astorian race, a race as powerful as the near-extinct Saiyan race had once been. Tayla was from the Clan of Chloe, the royal clan, and the ruling clan of Astoria.
Vegeta remembered that day when he, Nappa, and Raditz had first arrived at the Temple of Chloe after landing on the moon called Chloe, the official home of the Clan of Chloe family. He and his comrades had landed on the temple grounds just outside of the inner temple, where they had met their first Astorian woman and taken her hostage, a Priestess woman.
And this red-haired, graceful, soft-spoken Priestess had turned out to have a little black-haired, brown-eyed sister who was loudmouthed and bold. This little girl, who had looked like she could be blown away by a breeze, had ran outside for some unknown reason and encountered the three mighty Saiyans were holding her sister captive.
Vegeta closed his eyes, focusing on that fateful day…
A little dark-haired, dark-eyed girl who was not much fatter than a toothpick had dashed out into the courtyard of an inner court. She literally bumped into Nappa, as Nappa was holding up the red-haired, frightened Priestess into the air by her slender, white throat. The little girl fell back, but she did not cower. She shot Nappa a fatal glare, as Nappa turned his eyes towards the child.
"Watch it, brat!" Nappa ordered her.
"You let my sister go!" the little girl shouted at him. "Or you'll taste my blade!"
Nappa, Raditz, and Vegeta laughed at the little girl's command. Then Vegeta strode towards her and grinned evilly
"You leave here right now, you no-good monkeys!"
The three Saiyans laughed at her.
The little girl raised her sword and screamed, "Let my sister go! Now!"
Vegeta laughed at her and mocked her.
"You better go home to your mother. This battle isn't for babies!"
The little girl hissed, "Thanks to you, monkeys, I don't have a mother! You Saiyans killed my parents when I was just a baby! I know what you all did! Seven years ago, when I was on the ship, Korin, your people killed many of my people, including my parents and my grandfather!"
"Boo-hoo-hoo!" Nappa hooted, still holding Marya by her throat. "What do you want us to do, brat? Give you back your family?"
"That would be nice," she replied sarcastically.
"Go home, brat!" Vegeta ordered her. "Before I blast you into the next dimension!"
"Oh, I'm so afraid!" The little girl kept her sarcastic tone of voice. "And I'm not leaving without my sister!" she added. "I'll leave when you release her!"
At first, Vegeta did not recognize this outspoken brat who dared to challenge him and his friends, but then later, the child's brother had been stupid enough to reveal who the sharp-tongued child really was…
The child's brother roared with laughter. "She takes after her big brother!" he said proudly. He added, with more laughter, "That's our little Tay-"
"Bajal, no!" the priestess had screamed, but it was too late.
"---la Chloe!"
Raditz and Nappa heard that right away. "Is she the Tayla Chloe, Shalila Chloe's granddaughter?" Raditz asked.
"Of course she is! She's Shalila Chloe all over again, you savage monkeys!" Tayla's brother shouted proudly.
After that, Vegeta finally understood how the miniature girl had been able to give him and his comrades so much grief. For a few minutes beforehand, the Saiyans had the upper hand over Tayla, but then…
"Nice try, brat," Vegeta told Tayla, "but we aren't going anywhere until every living thing on this planet is destroyed. Starting with you and your sister. I think we will just destroy you two first, since we can't get any information out of the two of you. But before you die, I'll give you something to remember me by." With that said, Vegeta grabbed Tayla's long waist-length, silky black hair and pulled her face to his. He then kissed her hard on the lips. Nappa and Raditz howled with laughter. Marya was horrified.
Tayla responded to her first kiss by kicking Vegeta hard in his crotch. Vegeta cried out in pain, and Tayla's assault forced him to release her. The tiny princess grabbed Vegeta's wrist and electrocuted him. Her electric blast nearly threw Vegeta off of the mountain, but Vegeta grabbed a wall just in time. He leaped on the wall with very little damage done to his short, buff body. He was furious now, and he would show no more mercy to anyone!
Vegeta prepared himself to do a Final Flash on the little girl, but Tayla jumped at him from the stone ground before he had the chance. She grabbed him by his ankles and knocked him off the wall outside the Temple, and the two started wrestling and pummeling each other. Vegeta grabbed Tayla's hair, but Tayla kicked him repeatedly, forcing Vegeta to let go of her hair. The two finally jumped off the ground, flew into the air and used some of their best martial arts skills on each other. Vegeta flew higher into the air and launched a Final Flash on the child, but Tayla reflected that back onto him with her first ever Mirror Shield attack used in a real battle, blasting Vegeta off the mountain and into a nearby ocean.
But later even after the grief that Tayla had given him, Vegeta had managed to capture the girl by seizing her wrists (seizing an Astorian's wrists reduced his or her ki to almost nothing) and binding the wrists with wire. He and his men had kept her captive-for one night.
And even during that night as his captive, she still gave him grief…
"Help!" she screamed. "Somebody help me! Help!"
Vegeta dashed over to the terrified girl and shook her. "Shut up, brat, or I'll give you something to really scream about!"
"You let me go, you savage monkeys! When my Nama and Dirkan find out that you brutes kidnapped me, they'll make you pay! My Nama and Dirkan won't show mercy to anyone who hurts me!" Tayla cried, ignoring Vegeta and the earlier shaking.
"Shut up, wench!" Vegeta snapped.
"No, I won't shut up!" Tayla shouted. "No monkey can make me shut up! Do you cretins know who my Nama is? She's Superior Gran Shalila, the strongest fighter in the Rosetta Galaxy! And Dirkan is as strong as she is! They'll both roast you and toast you for what you monkeys did to us! They're stronger than you, and they're even stronger than Frieza. One day Frieza's going to get roasted and toasted just like you will be when Nama and Dirkan find out! You three are going to get it! And I'll laugh when it happens!"
And she had kept him awake almost all night long…
"I've got to pee."
"You can hold it until morning," Vegeta told her. "Now go to sleep!"
"I'm about to pee right now!" Tayla protested. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you, but I have to pee!"
And then she still had the nerve to backtalk him…
"I wonder how our mothers would feel if we were to go fighting together."
"What?" Tayla asked, puzzled.
"Simple, brat. You could join us and fight on our side. We could use a strong brat like you on our side, even if you are just a pathetic Astorian. You could be just as good a warrior as us---well never as good as me, of course, for I am the strongest of all---but you'd be useful to us. You don't even have to work for Frieza; you could just be my slave instead of his."
"Why would I want to be your slave?" Tayla asked indignantly. "I don't want to be anyone's slave, especially a Saiyan's! And why would I want to kill innocent people and blow up planets? I don't want to hurt people or kill them, and I don't see why you do! My Nama says it's not right to kill innocent people and conquer their planets! My Nama helps other planets and allies with them, so that we all won't be killed! She tries to save lives, not destroy them, and I want to be just like her! I don't want to work for the Saiyans or Frieza!"
Vegeta didn't know whether to be angry at Tayla's quick refusal of his "offer", or amused by her display of spirit. He finally just laughed at her. "You won't have much of a choice, brat! If you give in to us without causing us trouble, things will go easier for you."
"Why would I want to be one of Frieza's flunkies, like you Saiyans are?" Tayla asked him angrily, finally losing her composure completely.
Eventually, Tayla escaped from them as soon as her family had arrived to rescue her (she had loosened the wires around her wrists to free herself), and she and her family fought against Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz. Later, Vegeta and Nappa had gone Oozaru, thanks to Vegeta's Power Ball, and Vegeta had threatened to kill another of Tayla's sisters in order to make Tayla come out of hiding.
When Tayla did, the final battle on Chloe between her and Vegeta began, especially after Tayla's grandmother, the famous Astorian warrior and ruler, Shalila Chloe, had cut off his tail. Vegeta had held Tayla's wrists in his hands, as he was shrinking, and Shalila Chloe had challenged him before Tayla intervened again…
Vegeta finally finished his shrinking, but when he was back down to normal size, he was still holding both of Tayla's tiny wrists in his one hand. Tayla kicked at Vegeta and struggled in vain, but Vegeta only tightened his grip.
"You will release my granddaughter at once!" Shalila ordered Vegeta, her bloody sword raised in a threat.
She advanced further towards Vegeta, but Vegeta raised his hand at Tayla's chest in a Big Bang position. "Come any closer, woman, and I will blast her into the next dimension!"
Tayla paled slightly, but Shalila was unfazed. "You wouldn't dare!" she told him fiercely. "Didn't your lord and master, Frieza, insist that the girl be brought to him alive?"
Vegeta snorted. "Frieza can find himself another little wench to fight for him. The brat's life means nothing to me. And come to think of it, neither does yours!" He aimed his Big Bang attack towards Shalila instead. Shalila swiftly leapt out of the way, for she could not use Mirror Shield to deflect the attack because the attack would harm Tayla as well as Vegeta.
Vegeta launched another Big Bang attack, which Shalila again dodged. Shalila cursed under her breath, for as long as Vegeta had Tayla as his hostage, she could not use ki blasts on him.
Vegeta fired several varieties of ki attacks, with Shalila barely avoiding every one. Finally the boy prince decided to play hardball instead. He began to gather some more ki for his trademark attack-the Final Flash!
Tayla struggled harder than ever and tried to kick Vegeta, but Vegeta held her at arms' length, and so her feet could not reach him. Shalila was beginning to wear down fast; she had had very little ki left to begin with. She was moving more slowly than ever, and Vegeta was about to take full advantage.
Vegeta decided to use another, smaller ki blast to cripple Shalila, as he prepared for Final Flash. It hit Shalila in her hip, causing her to tumble and fall.
"NAMA!"
Tayla's fury and fear increased by tenfold. She raised her small foot up, and it made contact, kicking Vegeta squarely in the face. Vegeta cried in pain, and he was forced to release Tayla. Tayla fled from his grip quickly, and she flew at his abdomen to kick him again. But Vegeta punched her in her face, causing Tayla to fall to the ground. Blue blood spurted out of her teensy button nose.
Shalila was unable to get up now. She continued to try, but her efforts were useless.
"FINAL FLASH!" The giant ki blast soared towards Astoria's great leader.
"NO!" Tayla cried. She had to hurry!
She flew faster...
...and faster...
...and faster...
...Until she was right of front of her fallen grandmother.
Tayla raised her arms quickly and crossed them into an X.
"MIRROR SHIELD!"
The Final Flash came...
...it hit Tayla's arms...
...Tayla struggled against the Final Flash, which was the strongest Final Flash ever thrown at her...
...Vegeta laughed...
...but his laughter stopped...
...For the ki blast was deflected right back at him, backfiring!
"NO!" It would be Vegeta's last cry.
"FLASH!"
"BOOM!"
And then came his humiliating defeat again five years later, his second defeat by her hands on planet Calmag, where Tayla and her family had gone to form an alliance with the Calmagian people….
"What's the matter?" Vegeta called after her. "Decided to finally run away?"
Tayla ignored him for the time being, as she rose higher into the air. Vegeta pursued her, just as Tayla was gathering her ki together for a Blitzer attack…Vegeta was near her, preparing to launch another Final Flash attack. She crossed her wrists again in an X position and held her hands open-faced towards Vegeta in clamshell positions. She took a deep breath and drew her hands and wrists back and cried out:
"BLITZER!"
And at the same time, Vegeta launched his attack, shouting:
"FINAL FLASH!"
Tayla's Blitzer attack and Vegeta's Final Flash attack collided into each other; it happened the same as before, with the huge explosion of white-blue light that blinded the casters and the others for several minutes. Finally the smoke and the light cleared, and while Vegeta was rubbing his eyes, Tayla flew away from him again, as she gathered her ki and life force once more.
Vegeta was charging up for another Final Flash attack while Tayla stopped and put her hands together in a praying position. She gathered even more energy, as she pulled her hands back against her chest while they were still in praying position with her elbows sticking outward. Once again, she ripped her hands away from each other until her palms were exposed. She held her hands at a ninety-degree angle that was similar to the position that Vegeta used in his Big Bang attack, threw them back again in that same position, and then she shot two silvery-blue bursts of radiance out of her palms. The sharp whistling sound in the air whirred, as the bolts of bright, blinding light zipped towards Vegeta. One bolt of ki shot towards his upper chest, but the other bolt flew past him.
Vegeta screamed, as the first bolt of ki (which was much more painful and damaging than Tayla's previous attacks because of her life force backing it) slammed into his body and sent volts of electricity much more shocking and stinging than any of the times that Tayla had electrocuted him...
...Hehated to admit it, but the scrawny Princess of Chloe had once again defeated him. He would have to face her again another time; even he knew when to admit defeat-for the time being anyway. He'd have his revenge on her yet…
And he vowed to keep that promise to himself…and he ALWAYS kept his promises.
He and Tayla Chloe would one day meet and battle each other again, and he would show her who was truly the strongest of all.
"Watch out, Tayla Chloe!" Vegeta laughed, sounding more insane than he actually was. "Your time with me will be coming soon."
Vegeta was right about that, but it would be much sooner than even he expected.