Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim DBZ... forever. And ever.
Summary: A mage is banished from Planet Vegeta after his involvement in a conspiracy to kill the prince. But since that day nothing has been the same, everything is headed in a downward spiral and the youngest royal is the only one who sees it happening.
The Curse
Chapter 1
Execution
The look on everyone's faces had the feel of an execution, the younger boys heads were lowered in fright and the men's faces were as solemn as they ought to be. They yanked the man in, his hair was matted to his forehead and separated into frizzed tufts on his head. Blood streamed down his face, but his eyes were ablaze, as if they had a blue fire running through them. Finally, he stared up as the king. Vegeta didn't look any less somber than the rest of the men in the room, however, he didn't look somber enough to any of them. He stared blatantly at his brother, his eyes seeming almost dead. "What's the charge?" His voice echoed in the silent room and cut into the people like a knife.
One of the guards who held the bleeding man restrained began to speak, "H-" The interruption became before he could wholly finish the first syllable.
"I disobeyed an order from Frieza, my Lord." He nearly spat at his older brother. "I decided I was tired of seeing the lower class of our race being used as slaves in a particular part of town and showed the pathetic henchmen a thing or two about how to fight. But I understand, disobeying his Lordship is inexcusable. Execute me, please." Sarcasm and hatred rang out in the more emotional ups of his plea. The acidic fervor was especially capitalized every time he referred to Frieza.
Vegeta sat in cold silence for a moment. The saiyans in the room seemed to be daring him to sentence his own brother to death for saving some of their own kind. They knew the king had to do it or there would be dire consequences. Even so, "how could he sentence his own brother to death," they wondered. Vegeta's dead eyes searched the room for a moment and came up empty. His eyes finally returned to his younger brother, who seemed to lack any trace of fear or pain despite his haggard appearance.
"It seems you are already aware of the punishment for such a crime… the punishment for disobeying Frieza is death, you are hereby sentenced to execution." A smirk crawled across his brother's face. There was trace of pain in all that resentment, though. Pain resided from the utter realization that his older brother, whom he once revered, was nothing but a mindless enforcer of Frieza's will.
The guards began to drag him off and there was now a murmur that replaced the silence of the room. A single, strangled cry of hysteria pierced the murmur and left everyone's eyes searching for the cause of the noise. It was a young woman, with short, black hair and brown eyes. The king found her easily in the crowd, his wife. She turned and ran out of the room before many of the others found her though, and left the hole in his chest even larger than before.
The dungeon was cold but not nearly so uncomfortable as the guards had made it out to be. The execution itself was not the thing troubling Farinata. The fact that his brother had actually sentenced him was not even truly bothering him. Yes, it bothered him in the way that his brother no longer gave one thought to the well being of the saiyan race. The king was neglecting other, more pressing matters though. A gruff voice informed Farinata that he had a visitor and he looked up half expecting to see his brother standing before him. And he half got what he was expecting. If he remembered correctly, the boy had just recently turned six. He was till relatively small for a saiyan boy, but Farinata knew very well that he was quite the protégé, as far as saiyans went. His eyes were piercingly blue, like Farinata's. The only real resemblance he had to his father would have been his hair, which looked identical. "What are you doing here?"
For a moment, the boy didn't say anything. He looked down at his feet and then back up at his uncle, "I wanted to ask you something." He had a very soft voice. His eyes were not unlike Farinata's, but there was an innocent vulnerability to them that resides usually primarily in the eyes of children.
"Why did you and my dad stop talking in the first place?" The boy's eyes finally came up to meet his uncle's and for a long time in stunned Farinata to be asked such a blatant question by such a little boy.
"We didn't, we just started moving in different circles, kid." Suddenly, he was overcome with sympathy for his young nephew. He looked like there were a thousand emotions going through his head, and he was too young to fully understand any of them. "Don't worry about it, any of this… it's not…it doesn't have anything to do with you." His mind flitted to one particular thing and he dismissed the thought, bringing his brother's son into it would help nothing.
"Well, didn't you use to get along? Why did you start fighting?" He was genuinely curious, Farinata wouldn't expect anything less of his own flesh and blood. He had his own suspicions about why everything had spiraled out of control, but he just smiled and shook his head.
"People grow apart sometimes, Vegeta, there's not always a reason…" Vegeta's eyes shifted downwards once again and he sighed. His little face seemed so full of emotion, Farinata wished he could comfort him but behind the bars that would have been pretty awkward for the both of them.
"It was because of Frieza, wasn't it? That big stupid jerk…" Farinata couldn't help but smile, at least Frieza hadn't gotten to all of the saiyans just yet. It wasn't exactly the most profound statement anyone had ever made, but it meant the boy understood what was going on around him. Farinata knew he had a good head on his shoulders, he wished he could have taken him more seriously and known him as an adult. That was one of the few regrets Farinata had about dying.
Vegeta grinded his teeth together for a moment and seemed to wrestle with something in his mind and then glared back up at his uncle, "Why won't anyone talk to me? Dad won't tell me anything, nobody will."
Farinata leaned his head back up against the wall and bit his lip to keep anything that shouldn't spill out, "There's nothing to tell, Vegeta."
The boy stared off into the distance for a long time and the light shone on a watery substance that had built up on the brim of his eyes. Farinata felt strangely emotional and suddenly attached to the life he was about to lose. This was the one thing he did not feel he had finished, he did not want to leave Faye's son behind. He didn't want to leave his brother's son behind, but he knew he had to. He had made his choices. "Okay, well, I'll miss you." Vegeta's voice sounded oddly strangled, his bottom lip began to quiver, and he lost control of the tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry Daddy did this to you…"
Farinata felt as if his heart, which had been frozen for so long, was being melted, he finally reached one hand through the bar and grabbed the prince's shoulder. He turned the boy to face him fully. "Don't apologize for anything your father is doing or does… you are not your father and you never will be."
The boy gave a meek little nod and stared at his uncle for a long moment, "I'm scared." His voice was barely audible above the very little noise in the bottom floor of the dungeon.
"Vegeta, you are the smartest saiyan I have ever met, not to mention the strongest. Don't be scared, and… I'll miss you too. But I'll see you again one day." He smiled comfortingly at the boy, even though the tug on his heart was getting progressively worse.
The prince blinked back a few more tears and looked over to the guard who was apparently motioning that time was up, he looked back at his uncle for the last time and waved. He turned to go, but before he did, Farinata grabbed him one last time and whispered one name that rang in the boy's ears, "Rasputin."
That night, he dreamt what would be his last dream, and he dreamt of things gone by, the root of it all…
"I need you to tell me what exactly happened, you are not being very helpful, son." The little boy looked incredibly nervous about telling his account of the events that had led up to this trial. His father was being fairly patient, but Vegeta was fidgety.
"I think he tried to kill me… we were sparring. And I won… and, he had a knife, but it was ok because I knocked it away and then I got mad at him. And he said he…he said…he…uh…" Farinata knelt beside his nephew and gave him an encouraging smile.
"No one is going to be angry with you for anything you say, even if it is one big lie." Vegeta got the face of a true little boy, as his timidity turned into whining.
"I'm not LYING. It's just hard to be a …tattle-tail." Farinata chuckled a bit under his breath and his older brother simply put his hand to his forehead. King Vegeta now also knelt beside his little boy, and Vegeta looked at him with the expression of a boy who is afraid he might not get what he wants. "I'm not lying." The voice had a whine factor that had formerly been missing. Farinata laughed once again, and the boy glared at him.
"He was kidding, and you are not being a tattle-tail, son. The boy tried to kill you."
Vegeta crossed his arms in frustration and then said "His daddy told him to hurt me… and that he was going to hurt everybody else… and he was sad that he lost to a almost three year old, except he said not even… but I am almost." He looked at his father imploringly.
"Yes, you are…" The smile on his father's face was extremely loving and Farinata placed his hand on his nephew's shoulder and stood up. "Rasputin, again…"
"Nitar, the son, must be executed… he is of age…" King Vegeta nodded in agreement with his brother, but then a thoughtful expression transformed his features.
Farinata was shaking his head in dismay over the fact that a father would be so cruel as to put his own son's life in danger, but then who could expect such tenacity out of a boy so young. He supposed they could have made it look like a sparring accident, had Nitar won. He shivered at the thought of that. "Is Nitar that much older than Vegeta?"
Vegeta sulked and answered, "He's seven."
His father did not conceal his surprise well, and despite Farinata already knowing this fact, it shocked him to think once again that a three-year-old had beaten a seven-year-old. It was true that saiyans matured fast, but Vegeta did not seem to be maturing any faster than the rest of the children, he just seemed unnaturally better than them. Far better than his father or Farinata had been at that age. The fact remained, it was no ordinary feat for a boy as young as Vegeta to even hold a candle to someone as old as Nitar. "Thank you, son. Why don't you go see your mother, she is extremely worried about you." Vegeta's son nodded and made his way towards the exit.
"Your boy is incredibly talented, it's becoming increasingly obvious that he is far from normal." The king smirked and nodded his head. Farinata smiled at the apparent pride the king took in his son, and he didn't blame him. The prince was positively phenomenal.
King Vegeta's smirk eventually faded and he looked at his brother in confidence, "It worries his mother sometimes just how good he is. There's good and there's beyond the normal limits of good, I'm not worried, though… we are the royal line, it's only expected for him to be great…but, Farinata…"
He turned to look his brother full in the face, "I don't like executing a seven year old, just because he is over six years old…it doesn't seem fair… and it's apparent we have to do something about Rasputin."
Farinata shook his head in disgust at the sound of the name, "You don't have enough reason to warrant and execution unfortunately, because I cannot see Nitar testifying against his own father, but… I think an exile would be in order." He took a deep breath and put his hand on his brother's shoulder, "I know it's not easy, but if you don't enforce the law… people will start taking advantage, it's the breaks when it comes to being a ruler. You can't fool around."
The king took a seat along edge of the part of the room that revealed a lifted flower bed. It was the royal room, it contained a flowing stream all the way around that went out to flow through the rest of the palace. The room itself was , but a clear blue that almost matched the water and you could see yourself in the reflection of the tiles. The throne sat in the middle of the room, with a red carpet leading up to it. Guards were at any entrance to the room, which there were four of, and the ceiling was pure silver. Farinata thought it was a bit large, considering what little was in it, but it suited royalty most definitely. His father was the one who had come up with the design. While he was still around, it wasn't getting changed, and his older brother was the king and he seemed to like it. "I'm glad I have you around to keep pushing me towards that goal, or I'd be screwed."
"Yes you would." The tone was joking, but something in Vegeta's face seemed to agree wholeheartedly with it, and it made Farinata feel suddenly important. His brother had a way of showing people he cared about them. His eyes always seemed to be full of life, even though they were brown, and not as piercing as Farinata's. The brothers' appearances could not have been much different for them being brothers. Vegeta was tall, Farinata was very average height, Farinata had ice blue eyes, Vegeta had brown, Farinata was lean, Vegeta was all muscle, Farinata was far tanner than his brother, and Vegeta's hair stood straight up on end, while Farinata's was just one controllable brown mess that lay on top of his head. Then, there was Vegeta's goatee, which Farinata thought looked incomprehensibly stupid.
Farinata found it funny that the king's son seemed to have inherited more of his own features than his father's. He would have to rub that in his face when Vegeta's power came full circle and he was officially the strongest fighter…ever. "I suppose we should get this over with, though… do you mind issuing the court order for two days from now, at one?"
The younger brother nodded his head and walked towards the opposite exit the prince had gone through. He knew he would be glad to have Rasputin out of the kingdom, he did have a slight worry that without his execution, he could still cause damage. He was, after all, the most powerful mage on Planet Vegeta.
There was a lot of murmur in the room today as Nitar stood before the king and his brother. Nitar seemed to know he was going to be killed because his knees were shaking. Farinata caught a glimpse of the young prince, who looked as sad as he had when his father first told him Nitar had to be executed. Farinata supposed the prince was blaming himself for the death. That was very typical of the child, but atypical of a saiyan. Farinata knew his own brother was compassionate, but the child made even King Vegeta seem an angry tyrant at times. "Nitar, you are aware that you are past the age of understanding."
Nitar nodded his head but did not look up at the king as he spoke. "Yes, my lord."
"And you are also aware that the penalty for taking the life or attempting to take the life of another while not engaged in a battle… is death." Farinata searched the room for Rasputin and was surprised to see that the man was absent for the time being. He had to push back the time for Rasputin's hearing, he figured it was because he had to say goodbye to his son, but apparently that was not the case since he was not present.
Nitar simply nodded his head a second time, "Yes, m-my lord."
The king hesitated for a moment as the look on the poor boy's face seem to fully set in, Farinata placed his hand on his brother's shoulder and he felt the inhalation of breath. "Was there an operator who told you to attempt this murder, you must tell the truth, and if in the case, there is, that man may be held responsible for the attempted murder and you may avoid execution." The younger brother could hear the hope in the older's voice. He felt a surge of sympathy as he knew there was no chance Nitar would blame his own father, even though it seemed Rasputin had no remorse in killing his own child.
"No, my Lord… nobody other than me was involved."
He felt the sadness coming off of his brother in waves. It took the king a moment before he spoke again. "Very well, then, I sentence you… to death." He raised his hand and around the tips of his fingers there was a surge of energy.
Farinata actually had to look away himself, he hated seeing people killed, especially someone as young as Nitar. His glance shifted to the king's son, his mother was kneeling and holding a trembling boy against her chest, he was quite obviously crying. Farinata shook his head and made a note to talk to Faye and the boy later.
The air seemed different in the court after Nitar's execution. Everyone was actually eager for the banishment of Rasputin, no normal saiyan was happy with the thought of a boy of only seven being executed. They all knew the king had a duty to uphold the law, but that didn't make it easy to endure. There was a happiness now, Farinata knew everyone hated Rasputin, or the higher end of the population did anyway, and they would all be glad to see him go. An execution would be getting more of a happy reception, but that was not something that could be done, and waiting until an execution was in order could do more harm than good.
The guards held Rasputin, a few more security precautions were taken when dealing with a mage as powerful as Rasputin. His cuffs were magic proof and allowed no circulation of power through them, he also wore shackles which was not a normal custom. Rasputin looked livid as he stared up at the king. His eyes were as bloodshot as ever, they had always had an evil look in them, veins visible throughout them. His eyes themselves were a mixture of their former brown and the grayish black inflicted by the dark magic he concocted. His hair was stood up on his head and falling over at the top, all going in one forward direction and the far ends of his head uncovered by any hair at all, leaving a visible sign for black magic.
As soon as the room was silenced, Rasputin spoke, and it chilled the air. "You executed a seven year old, I hope you're proud of yourself, KING." He smirked and everyone seemed to take a step back, as his voice sounded like a snake would if one could talk.
"I upheld the law, Rasputin. I believe you are the one who truly killed your son, anyway." Rasputin smiled unpleasantly and looked around the room eerily. Farinata followed his gaze, and it was then he realized the rest of the king's family was not present this time. He found himself unnaturally happy for this.
Rasputin's evil smile turned into a full on grin after a moment of scanning the room, "Very well, my Lord, what is my punishment?"
The king skipped the formalities this time, everyone in the room knew what the charges were and everyone knew what the charges should have been, "Exile, Rasputin."
Rasputin looked positively taken aback and Farinata smirked at this. He was just thrilled to see the smug look disappear from that ugly face. "You cannot EXILE me."
"I can, and I will." Vegeta's curt response was a lot nicer than the one Farinata would liked to have given him.
Rasputin grinded his teeth together, "I…"
"Your banishment starts NOW."
"I'll make you pay, Vegeta… you and your entire family WILL PAY FOR THIS."
The rest of the dream flashed without audio, it bursts of images. The fight Farinata and the king had eventually had that caused the distance and them to grow. Faye's accident that prevented her from ever walking again. Then, Frieza. The weeks following the execution involved Frieza's take over of the entire planet. Farinata shivered in his sleep.
"So you heard about the new kid?" Calis seemed particularly overzealous on this day. The prince was not at all pleased to see him so perky on a day when he felt like running and hiding under a nearby rock.
Vegeta smiled fakely at his friend, and despite Calis and him both knew it was fake, Calis pretending to not be deterred by it. "If I say yes, will you not tell me about him?"
"No, because it's a girl."
"Damn."
Calis grinned from ear to ear and quickly looked around to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. A precaution the prince found particularly unnecessary considering he was talking about a new kid that everyone would know about before the day was over anyway, "Apparently, she's pretty strong… and she's… from Sector 7. You know the school that had that kid die last semester. Apparently her mother died and her father takes care of her so she's kind of… boyish."
Vegeta was trying to pretend to be interested, he hated being so completely rude to everyone around him, but he honestly did not care. "Oh no, not… boyish." The sarcasm dripped like acid from his voice. Calis rolled his eyes.
"I'm just wondering if she's any good looking."
"Me too, Calis, that's exactly what I was wondering." Calis finally sighed and punched his friend playfully in the shoulder. This prompted a real smile from the prince, though his smiles seemed to get rarer and rarer with each passing day. He hated that he seemed so unhappy all the time, but for one, he was unhappy all the time, and if he pretending to be happy, if he had any ability as far as faking emotions went, people would think he was delusional with all the horrors that had been occurring in and around his family lately.
Calis noticed the thoughtful look on the prince's face and found himself wondering once again what he was thinking about. It always seemed the Vegeta was raveled in consistent mystery, "Right, because you have totally always been into girls, right?"
Vegeta's friend had as much a right to be into girls as anyone, he had short, messy light brown hair and gray eyes. He was about Vegeta's height. Calis seemed to think girls were more attracted to Vegeta usually, but the prince couldn't see why. He didn't see much difference at all in their appearances, it seemed to him that it ought to be fairly balanced. Calis had a lot more muscle than Vegeta, who was leaner, Vegeta thought girls were more interested in big muscles. Then again, he wasn't too up to date on what girls were interested in. "Right."
The day passed in what seemed like a complete blur for Vegeta, so much, that when the realization hit him at the end of the day that they were being assigned their squadrons for going out on real missions he honestly got excited. "I completely forgot!"
Calis grinned, "I know, I hope I get in yours, because yours is obviously going to do the best because you'll be in there." Vegeta rolled his eyes, knowing most people thought this to be true; but once again, he was a little lost on why it was so. The things he thought of and did seemed so common sense to him.
Everyone sat in silence while the named were called and the assignments were made, Vegeta was beginning to feel that they had unenrolled him in the academy for this one day and he was never going to get an assignment. "Vegeta Ouji." Vegeta's head immediately perked up as he jumped down and bounded towards the instructor. "Calis Onasi." Calis was far more excited than he should have been.
Vegeta elbowed him in the ribs, "Cut it out, or people are going to think you're gay."
Calis nodded in understanding, looking imploringly at the instructor for the final name of their three man group. "Krystal Hiyo." Vegeta's friend made a groan loud enough for the people back in Sector 7 to actually hear. Vegeta nailed him across the head, his eyes searching for the girl, hoping she hadn't heard, but she was already glaring at him.
Krystal walked towards them; she was a smaller girl. Her jet black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she had long bangs that covered up one of her eyes. Her eyes were a sparkling green color. Vegeta opened his mouth to speak, but from the look on her face nothing he said was going to be taken with a grain of salt. "I don't want to be with either of you anymore than you want to be with me." Her eyes were full of anger and she glared from one to the other.
Calis looked at Vegeta for an idea of what to do, but the prince was just as stuck as he was. He skimmed through his vocabulary for anything that could lighten the situation, and he couldn't find a single thing, so, "Fine… then just don't get in our way and maybe we'll have a good team after all," he insulted her.
Vegeta shifted by her silently, not happy about being so rude, but figuring it was the best way to deal with the situation at hand. Krystal's face went from angry to shocked, her green eyes widened and her eyebrows raised, then she narrowed her eyes once more and looked at Calis, then turned. "Oh, this is going to suck." Calis shook his head and hung his head and he followed them.
"Heh, I feel sorry for anyone who gets settled being the prince's sensei, what can you teach him? I mean honestly." He adjusted the headset on his head and flipped a few switches, pressed a few keys and scanned the words and numbers that screened across. He shifted his mouthpiece just slightly so he could accurately hear the results of the latest fights, and what the new group of saiyans was going to have to offer. He had already heard about the prince. Everyone had.
His partner smirked and watched the data scroll across the screen. "No kiddin'…ya know, it's just a matter of time 'fore Frieza really starts to look at the kid. He ain't normal." His blue scaled friend shook his head in what seemed like a mixture of fear and wonder.
"I don't know how it's slid past for this long." The green alien leaned back in his chair and experienced the same emotions going across his friend's face. "Guess it's 'cuz Frieza thinks he's got the king so under control why even worry about his son? What he doesn't know is that he's… he ain't no normal saiyan, that's for sure."
The blue one nodded solemnly. His mind wrapped around the thought that the prince might possibly have the power to destroy their leader if his potential was truly unleashed. "All these petty monkeys, they're too stupid to let the kid know he's got a gift."
"I think he knows."
"He might know he's somethin' special, but he don't know how special. Have you seen his readings in comparison with the rest of the kids?" He chuckled in remembrance of the initial reaction to his power level after the tests. They hadn't been released to the saiyans without editing, but the prince's had not even been put on the scale. It was so astronomically impossible that there would be a child with so much power.
"Kuh, have you seen it in comparison with the adults, he could probably take his father. If we took the nullifiers off the saiyans scouters, they'd all run away from him screamin'.
The response to this was an immediate shake of the head, "Nah, I think they'd be thrilled to know they had a chance of getting rid of Frieza."
"Yeah, yeah… so who's his squad members?"
The opposite alien took his finger and scrolled down to the prince's name on the list and pressed it. Two other names came up beside it now. "Looks like… Krystal Hiyo and… the Onasi kid."
His partner threw back his head and barked a smug laugh. "A girl, they put their protégé with a girl? Oh, they really are just a bunch of monkeys." This prompted the other alien to check the girl's profile with a smirk on his face as well. A picture of the girl came up and a long list of stats and a track record. "Oh, but she is cute."
He continued to scroll, her background information was nothing out of the ordinary. Mother had died in childbirth, not at all atypical for the saiyan race, sometimes the women just weren't strong enough to handle the newborn's raw powers. It was both a blessing and a curse for the race, on one hand, the saiyan race's male to female ratio was incredibly one sided. On the other hand, the only saiyan girls who were alive were usually very strong, or single. However, the younger unmarried girls were usually not so strong. Her father was a second-class warrior, the only reason she was in a school as good as the prince was due to the fact that her mother had formerly been a noble. The father didn't seem overly impressive, though. Just a typical middle class warrior, not too weak, not too strong. Pretty much what they expected in saiyans. He stopped cold in his scrolling when he saw this one's power level, though. "Whoa, I think we may have spoken too soon about this one."
His partner strained his neck to look at the blue alien's individual screen, her power level was not at all a laughing matter. Granted, it was within normal kid range, but it was at the very top of the list. "My God, I guess they know a little more than we give them credit for."
The other scrolled down a little further for some history and recent information. "She's from Sector 7, that kind of explains it. Apparently, she was present when the boy was killed down there, but she wasn't directly involved. I think her and the boy were not on good terms, though."
"Who knows, probably was involved then."
"Vegeta, didn't you get your assignments today?" The prince stopped walking, his brown boots making a slight squeak again the floor as he did. His eyebrow twitched, it was always very awkward when his father chose to ask him about his school life. It was always awkward when his father chose to ask him about anything.
"Uh, yeah."
"Ah…" Vegeta was a little perturbed, even he would have known where to go from there. He gritted his teeth at his father's inability to coerce with anyone anymore. "…it seems early, what age are they doing it now… six, seven?"
"Eight, Dad, I'm eight." Sweet.
"…right. So who--…?"
Vegeta began counting the tiles on the white marble floor, as he often did when him and his father had their attempt at conversations. He managed to interrupt before his father asked him the wrong question or something. "Some girl and Calis."
The king watched his son stand before him and refuse to look at him. Somewhere inside of him, it hurt. He wanted to reach out to his son, now, but he didn't know how to. He didn't know how to reach out to anyone anymore. "The Onasi boy, he's your friend, right?" The prince nodded. "That's good."
Vegeta looked to the side and took a breath, "I'm gonna go to the training room now." He had reverted to the type of speech where he mumbled so badly people could hardly understand him. It was quiet and ridiculously fast. His father had gotten used to it though, because usually that was the only voice his child used with him anymore.
"Alright, don't overdo it."
Vegeta nodded and spun on his heels, with his head down, he headed in the direction of the training room. It would be good to get there and let off some steam. Today had started out bad and ended even worse, of all people who had to get saddled with some mean new girl, why did it have to be him? "You're home early, you didn't train with Calis today?"
The prince snapped his head up to look at his mother, she was in her wheel chair, with her hair still cropped short. "I did, actually… am I early?" He looked around for a way to tell the time and was dismayed to find that there was nothing available. He reached for his scouter.
His mother replied before he could get his hand to it, though, "Yeah… almost thirty minutes." Vegeta continued reaching for his scouter anyway and clicked it once and read the time from it. She was right, he was early. That was odd; he had fought with Calis after school today. They always sparred and he always won.
"I don't know, Mom. Calis did seem a little off his game today." Her eyes suddenly welled with worry about something and he couldn't help but wonder what that might be. He had noticed that she was always worrying when he talked about his training exercises and sparring matches lately. If she thought he was falling behind, she was wrong. He was better than most everyone in his class by a long shot. "I won, guess I won faster than usual. We got assignments for missions today too, you know." She smiled and seemed genuinely interested, although some interest seemed faked to cover up the worry that was getting increasingly obvious.
"And?"
He smiled after a moment, "Calis is on mine, but so is some new girl. She was kind of a jerk too. I guess maybe she felt out of place because she's new and Calis groaned really loudly when he realized she was our other squad member. It was really embarrassing."
Faye laughed for a moment before moving her chair over to him. "She's a woman, that's all it is." Vegeta rolled his eyes and stared longingly towards the training rom. His conversations with his mom were different than the ones with his dad, he didn't want to get out of the conversations, he just wanted to get in to training. "How is it that you can like fighting so much, you just got out of school, isn't sparring your last period? And then you spar with Calis?"
"Mom, Calis doesn't count, he sucks. And sparring class is usually not much of a challenge either, actually, it never is. During training, I can adjust it to my level of skill… for the most part, I wish you guys would get a higher level of gravity in there, or some different programs, and besides, aren't saiyans supposed to love fighting?"
"I believe you are a little extraordinary."
"You're just worrying too much." He headed towards the training room.
'You just don't know how extraordinary you are.'
Farinata ran up to Vegeta breathing fairly hard. "How was the childbirth? Is everything alright? Is Faye…?"
The king held up his hand and smiled at him, "She's fine, and so is the baby." Farinata breathed a deep sigh of relief. He looked up halfheartedly, and then down sheepishly. "It's alright you missed it, it was not your fault." Farinata shrugged his shoulders slightly, and rocked back on his heels.
There was something odd about Vegeta's smile, though. It was not the warm typical smile Farinata usually received from his brother. There was a kind of tension running through it, as if he wanted to show Farinata something but couldn't say anything about it. Farinata raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Is there something…"
"Come with me." His older brother hooked Farinata's wrist and dragged him into a small room. The baby wasn't crying, not completely out of the ordinary. Farinata assumed this was the baby's room anyway. Vegeta brought his brother over a small bed where the little child was laying. It had big blue eyes, that looked similar to Farinata's. It was then that Farinata stopped cold. He felt something. There was something pressing down on him, now and he looked around the room for the cause. His brother put his hands on his shoulders and directed his eyes back towards the baby. The power, the feeling was resonating from the child. "Look, he's not blind."
The comment seemed to not have any real sense to it. Then the baby looked Farinata directly in the eyes. It was then he saw it. There was a dim glow in the kid's right eye. It was a symbol. A glowing symbol, it formed an arrow, with two tiny slashes in each side and a dot directly in the center. "Is that a symbol for something, do you know? His presence is… compelling. I feel like I can feet him… in the air. His power is almost tangible." The king nodded his head, looking at Farinata somewhat warily.
"What does it mean, brother? Is he… is he normal?"
Farinata shook his head immediately in response to Vegeta's last question. He reached down to touch the child, to see if he could figure something out that way. The baby reached up and wrapped its small hand around his finger. Farinata smiled slightly, "I don't know…. But, no… he is far from normal. It's name?"
"Vegeta." Farinata smirked and his brother and shook his head.
"So conceited."
Vegeta just shrugged his shoulders and continued to stare at his child. His worry for it was very profound. "I just hope… it doesn't hurt him." Farinata shook his head immediately again, if this was going to hurt anybody it was certainly not going to be this kid.
"Have you told Faye?"
The king looked down for a moment and then shook his head, "I don't want her to worry. You know how she is… she'd freak out." Farinata smiled and nodded. Vegeta had actually made the correct choice involving Faye, this was probably a first.
Suddenly, the child's eyebrows furrowed and it begin the breathing a baby does before it begins to cry, but as the noises progressed the symbol started glowing. Vegeta stared down at it, trembling. Farinata held him back and watched. The child let out a loud, but single cry and the symbol reached its peak and dimmed into nothing. Farinata had a distinct feeling that it was still there, though. He felt as he looked closer that part of him could still make it out. It was not going away. "There, the visible problem is gone." He smiled at Vegeta.
Vegeta looked his child up and down for a moment, "I don't think it's gone… I can…" Farinata touched his brother's shoulder gently.
"It isn't gone. But at least no one knows it's there but us." Vegeta nodded warily.
Vegeta's feet hit the ground solidly. He glanced up just in time to leap out of the way of an incoming blast. He avoided it with relatively ease, but each time his feet hit the ground the entire training center shook. He started to take heavier breaths and he grinned, jumping up to avoid another.
Suddenly, his head felt like it was burning again. He was used to this, it had been happening all too frequently lately as he fought harder and harder. Frankly, it was what he strived for. It was painful, but it meant he was actually exerting effort and that only happened when he was training alone. His vision began to blur as he deflected another of the blasts.
After another few moments of successful dodges, counters and deflections, a hard blast slammed into his back and he hit the ground hard. He sucked in a painful breath, but leaped up before the opposite blast could hit him. He backflipped and pointed three fingers at the creator of the blasts. He gritted his teeth as the air around his hand shimmered and suddenly light appeared. It intensified and then launched itself into the machine and left it a smoking pile of rubble. Vegeta took a knee, then glanced up as the floor under the ruined machine opened and another, different machine appeared. He caught his breath and then stood to face whatever came next. What appeared was a shadow version of himself. He gawked for a moment, then smirked and clenched his fists. "I guess Mom took me up on the new equipment idea."
The hologram flew towards the prince and as he prepared to block its blow disappeared and reappeared, slamming a foot made of something far harder than flesh and bone into the back of his neck. Vegeta flew across the room and then skidded along the floor for a few moments. "Not bad." The thing flung itself at him again, but not being a complete idiot he jumped over it and did a roundhouse kick to knock it back a few feet. He landed in time to see it form an orb of energy in its hand and throw it in his general direction. He sidestepped, immediately very glad he had as the wall behind him became engulfed in an explosion of energy that could have incinerated his own body. "Ok, so it wasn't Mom."
He grinded his teeth together and then launched himself at the creature, it stepped away and attempted to elbow him, but he turned, caught the elbow and threw the shadow towards the wall it had just tried to destroy. It stopped short of the wall and charged at him another time. He ducked under it this time, but it leapt into the air and came down towards him, looking to jam a foot into his back. He leapt away and shot a few rapid-fire energy blasts at it, and had those all deflected back at him. Vegeta decided to just dodge and moved with incredibly speed to the front of the thing, slightly crouched, and slammed his fist into what seemed to be its abdomen. It seemed momentarily stunned and then grabbed him by the skin of his throat and held suspended him in the air. Vegeta kicked upwards and it was forced to let go due to what would have been a collision with its face.
Vegeta's mind was burning intensely now, so badly that he almost could not see. The vision in his right eye was positively horrid. He wasn't an expert on anatomy but he couldn't help but wonder why it was just his right eye. The hologram jumped to the side and landed a swift kick in to the prince's arm. Vegeta grunted and grabbed the arm, unfortunately, only having a moment to note the pain there before the pressure moved into his ribcage. He opened his eyes and noticed the creature with its knee in his stomach. He thought he opened his mouth to say something, but quickly realized it was to release the buildup of blood in his mouth. The red liquid poured onto the floor and he found himself struggling for breath.
He was furious with himself. He didn't know how long it had been since he had been losing a fight. The burning just kept getting worse. Was it his anger? He could not figure out what it was. He refused to blame the burning for his inability to fight on par with his shadow self. Vegeta gripped his head, an explosion seemed to erupt inside of him. His eyes opened wide as he stared at the hologram. He felt his own power surging through the air around him. The burning stopped and he could see out of his right eye, again. He couldn't just see. He could see. He could see everything. He realized he needed to release his power, or it was going to destroy him. The prince stared at the hologram, knowing he had to have a focus point or it would kill everyone in the vicinity. Then he let go. He heard himself scream, and not a scream he had heard from anyone else, or himself. The light was blinding for a moment and the hologram was completely engulfed.
After the power had released, Vegeta felt himself trembling. He could still feel the power, his power, surging through his veins. He realized the burning had been the inability to release it for eight years. His eyes were wide and he felt like something was still weird about his right eye but he had no idea what. He couldn't stop the tremor throughout his body. His body was attempting to return to normal, but Vegeta had come to the realization that he was not normal and it was scaring the hell out of him. The training room had been destroyed, easily, as well as some of the surrounding facility. He heard footsteps approach, and he turned his head, shaking terribly to face the footsteps. It was his father. He looked sorry, scared, worried and sad all at the same time. "What… am I?"
His father didn't say anything for a long time. Vegeta thought about sprinting over there and throttling him for the silence. Just when his patience was at its end, his father began shaking his head. "I'm sorry, son. I don't know."
Vegeta's eyes widened warily. His voice cracked after a moment, "You don't know?" He hit his knees in disbelief. His own father didn't know what he was. His eyes lit up again after a moment of disturbing thoughts, "Does… does Mom?" The king shook his head at his son and the child lowered his head once again in shame. "I don't understand, you're my parents… how can you…"
His father took three long steps toward his son and then was at his side, he knelt down next to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Vegeta looked at his father, terrified. Tears started to well in his blue eyes and their brilliance became even more pronounced. "It's ok. Why are you so upset? It's just power…" The king tried to understand his son's problem.
The prince shook his head fervently. He started to sob uncontrollably. He cursed himself mentally for breaking down like this in front of his father, but he hated this. His mission in life had always been to deny that he was any different from anyone else, and this was painful unavoidable truth. He collapsed completely to the floor, his shoulders shaking as tears wet his cheeks and fell to the floor. "What is wrong with me?" He took a ragged breath, "What am I?"
The king's eyes widened in a little bit of understanding. He lifted his son's head from the floor and allowed the boy to bury his wet face in his father's armor. "Nothing is wrong with you. Why do you think something is wrong with you? You have a gift. You are a saiyan and you are my son." The prince trembled uneasily and then looked up at his father.