Pare, adviser to King Vegeta, has survived Frieza's destruction of his home world. Along with his young wife Kiera, he escapes the annihilation of his race and settles on the remote planet of Iquela.
But as years turn to decades, Pare never forgets Frieza's betrayal, and as dreams of a group of Saiyans living on a distant world plague his nights, Pare must choose between abandoning his young son to the wilds of Iquela, or loosing every chance of reuniting with others of his race.
As Pare struggles with this dilemma, he is unaware that his decision will ultimately change the fates of two universes…
"Survivor."
(Pare's Tale)
– A "Chaotic Future" Side Story –
PART ONE:
EXODUS
Bardock staggered in.
All conversation ceased as every eye in the room locked on the third-class Saiyan warrior, who stood trembling and broken before them. Every breath seemed to be a labor for Bardock, whose armor was shattered beyond recognition, with blood seeping from a dozen wounds, dripping steadily on the floor below him. When he spoke, his voice was soft and filled with a sense of desperation; it carried across the silent chamber, reaching the ears of the royal adviser who sat alone, gazing intently into the untouched drink before him, seemingly lost in some inner turmoil of his own.
"Listen, everybody it… its Frieza!" Bardock uttered, leaning against the doorframe to support his badly beaten body. "He's coming for us…"
At this, the adviser looked up, his dark eyes widening with shock. Of all assembled within the palace's recreational chamber, he alone knew of his King's all or nothing mission, which had been carried out in secret earlier that night. For too long the Saiyan race had bowed down before Frieza, carrying out his every order. That is, until the changeling tyrant had overstepped his bounds, abducting Prince Vegeta and holding him captive deep within the bowels of his ship, which was even now orbiting the Saiyan's home world. The King, with a handful of his strongest and most trusted men, had launched a secretive mission in hopes of sneaking aboard Frieza's ship and dispatching the ruthless overlord, and to recover the young Prince.
If Bardock is correct, the adviser thought as several of the room's more intoxicated patrons flung cold jokes and heartless insults at the injured Bardock, then perhaps this is a retaliatory strike against us for the King's attempted coup… He stood slowly to his feet, making his way cautiously toward the back exit.
"Us?" asked one particularly drunk Saiyan. "You mean you, right?"
"No, us," Bardock repeated, gasping for breath. "You, me, everyone here… It's true; he's scared of us, he wants us all dead… My whole crew is dead thanks to that freak!" Some of the Saiyan's former strength must have then returned to him, for he stood up straighter, taking a deep breath as he attempted to block out the tremendous pain that must have been tearing through him.
Laughter and disbelief met this statement, as those other Saiyans in the bar assumed that Bardock was simply overreacting. Several of the gathered warriors openly insulted the battered third-class before them, teasing him and pushing him far beyond his breaking point.
"Fools, you're all dead!" he cried out savagely, silencing the entire room once again. When he continued, his voice was once again soft and full of exhaustion and pain. "He's on his way…" Someone in the crowd called out to him, but he didn't respond. Instead, using the wall for support, Bardock slipped slowly from the room, shaking his head in dismay. "Fine, believe what you want to believe, but I'm gonna try and stop him!" Summoning from somewhere within his broken body a new reserve of strength, Bardock dashed away, determined to do everything in his power to save his people.
The adviser, the only Saiyan in the chamber who took Bardock's words to heart, silently slipped out through the back entrance, his mind filled with one thought and one thought only as he ran through the corridors toward his own chambers:
We have to get away from here… Kiera and I must escape planet Vegeta!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The door exploded inward.
A young woman, the room's only occupant, leapt up from her seat by the window, assuming a defensive stance that immediately relaxed when her dark eyes settled on the black-cloaked man who nearly jumped into the middle of the chamber. At the sight of her husband so obviously afraid, the slender woman, little more than a girl really, ran a pale hand through her unruly, thick black hair.
"Pare, what's going on?" she asked, her voice strong and confident as she addressed the man who had just recently become her husband. The marriage, an arranged affair meant to increase her family's prominence in the eyes of the royal court, had been set up by her father, and there was little love between the new husband and wife. It wasn't that Pare—who was the highest ranked and most trusted of all King Vegeta's advisers, despite his young age—was a bad man, on the contrary, he was kind and gentle to her, and a powerful warrior in his own right. The two were simply too different.
Pare ignored his young wife's question, instead pulling a small traveling bag from underneath their shared bed and tossing it quickly into her arms. When he finally turned to look at her, the black-haired girl noticed the look of barely-concealed dread that seemed to haunt her husband's coal-black eyes. After a moment Pare looked away, small droplets of sweat scattering into the air from his short, vertically-spiked dark hair.
"Fill that with as much as you can, quickly," he ordered tersely. "We have to leave, and I'm afraid I've already wasted too much time…" Nearly leaping over the bed, Pare went to the room's large window, throwing it open and leaning out, his eyes scanning the sky for some sign that only he could decipher. "Now, Kiera!" he said, louder and more vehemently than he had intended. "There's little time!"
"Time for what?" Kiera asked as she began shoving anything and everything that she could get her hands on into the bag. "Pare, you aren't making any sense!"
"Frieza."
That one word, uttered quietly yet laced with terror, froze Kiera in place. The half-full bag fell from limp fingers as she mouthed the name, no sound escaping her voice. Pare, sensing her distress, walked over and took hold of the young woman's wrist, snapping her out of her apparent daze.
"We're leaving, right now." Without another word, Pare and Kiera exited their chamber through the broken doorway, dashing down the corridor toward the palace's private space port, where they would hopefully find a usable space pod.
Where they would hopefully find salvation…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pare and Kiera entered the hangar.
The couple had barely taken ten steps when a group of six men, all Frieza's private soldiers, moved forward to block their way. Each of the six men was attired in uniforms similar to those worn by the Saiyans, though they also opted for conical white helmets and forearm-mounted energy blasters. Pare looked sidelong at Kiera, who gave the briefest of nods in response to his unspoken question.
"And just where are the two of you going?" one of the soldiers asked, absently stroking the blaster on his right arm. "I doubt that you just happen to be out on a stroll." His eyes flicked toward the small bag of belongings that Kiera had taken from her and Pare's chamber. "What's in the bag?" he asked, clearly suspicious.
"Please, just let us through," Pare softly requested, locking eyes with the soldier who had spoken, and who was most likely the squadron's leader. "We have to get off this planet, and you should do the same, if you know what's good for you…"
"If we know what's good for us?" another of the men repeated, chuckling to himself. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"Shut up," the leader ordered, flashing a stern glare back at his men. "Listen buddy," he said, returning his attention to Pare, "we've been given very specific orders not to let anyone off the planet's surface. It seems a group of terrorists led an attack against Lord Frieza and his most trusted men. These terrorists, they say, were Saiyans."
"I know nothing of this," Pare lied, sweat trickling down the back of his neck. "What… What happened to these 'terrorists,' then?" Asking this question was difficult, for the royal adviser found his mouth suddenly very dry.
"Killed, the lot of them," the squadron leader replied with a smirk. "Honestly, what did a bunch of dirty Saiyans think they were gonna accomplish against Lord Frieza?" At this, Kiera seemed on the verge of tearing the man's throat out with her bare hands, but a slight gesture from Pare stopped her.
Dead… All dead, Pare thought with despair. Our King has been killed by Frieza. I… I can't believe it! He clenched his eyes shut in a vain attempt to stop the sudden pounding of his head, for he simply couldn't wrap his mind around the possibility that King Vegeta had been murdered, along with all of his strongest men. Kiera reached out and gently laid her hand on Pare's arm as his eyes snapped open once more.
"That is unfortunate news indeed," Pare said quietly, preparing to move past the group of soldiers. "I understand that you are only fulfilling your duty by obeying Frieza's orders, but my wife and I are under no such restrictions." He lifted his eyes, once again locking gazes with the lead soldier. "We obey only our King, and he has issued no such orders. Now," Pare continued, his voice taking on a hint of malice, "step aside."
Chaos suddenly erupted as the soldiers' leader leapt back, aiming his blaster directly at Pare. Before a shot could be fired, however, the royal adviser seemed to vanish, only to appear moments later behind the head soldier. With a swift roundhouse kick, Pare leveled his weaker opponent, driving him into the opposite wall. The air was filled by this point with energy, as the remaining five enemies all took aim and began firing on Pare, who easily dodged each and every blast effortlessly. He dashed forward, taking three of the soldiers with him as he leapt into the air, dodging and lashing out with every chance he got. First one fell to the floor of the hangar, followed shortly after by the others, who were drilled into the ground by a single burst of shimmering blue-white energy.
Pare dropped, hitting the ground and spinning immediately, assuming a defensive stance in preparation for the blows that were sure to come from the remaining two soldiers. For a moment he was stunned, for no attacks of any sort came, and silence filled the massive chamber. As the rush of battle slowly ebbed, Pare looked over his shoulder to see one of Frieza's henchmen pinned to the ground, his neck being crushed mercilessly by Kiera's right foot. The final enemy, or rather what was left of him, could be seen just behind the Saiyan woman, acrid black smoke wafting up from his charred remains.
"Thank you," Pare muttered, unable to find anything else to say.
"Thank me when we're out of this, husband," Kiera replied tersely, walking briskly past the dark-haired man as she sought out a suitable space pod. "I don't believe this," she said, her voice sounding hushed with shock. "Those bastards launched all of the pods, probably on Frieza's orders… All but one, anyway." She turned around, looking to her husband with pleading eyes. "What'll we do now?"
"We'll do what we must," Pare responded, his hatred for Frieza suddenly threatening to burn throughout his entire body. "We'll do what we must…"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pod burst through the atmosphere of planet Vegeta.
Pare shifted slightly, doing his best to provide as much comfort as possible for his young wife, which was proving to be much more difficult than he could have ever imagined. The fact of the matter was, Saiyan space pods were not meant to carry two full-grown adults; as if that weren't bad enough, the addition of the small, half-filled bag of belongings made the tight space even worse.
I pray that we aren't stuck together in here for too long, Pare thought wearily, sweat beading profusely on his brow. She can barely stand the sight of me as it is, after a few days crammed together in here I think she'll be ready to kill me!
"Stop sweating so much," Kiera said, her voice bitter. "You're stinking the whole damn pod up."
"Forgive me," Pare replied sarcastically, shifting his body just enough to push Kiera a little harder against the pod's side. "I'm not accustomed to having a whale like you sitting on top of me, that's all." The moment he said it, Pare regretted his words.
"Oh, a whale am I?"
"I didn't—"
Kiera turned her head around to face her husband, her dark eyes flashing with anger, her delicate brow furrowed. In the back of his mind, Pare couldn't help but laugh at the fact that her brow was perspiring even worse than his own! His amusement at this discovery was soon soured, for when Kiera spoke, she nearly spat with vehemence.
"If I'm such a bother, dear husband, then why did you go through all the trouble of rushing away from the terrible 'danger' that is about to befall our world?" Her question was a fair one, for Pare had said nothing of King Vegeta's failed mission, or of Bardock's cryptic warning. "I may be your wife, as much as I hate to admit such a thing, but I do not have to let you treat me like… like nothing but luggage!" The temperature within the pod was steadily rising, most likely due to the aura of hot rage that had begun to emanate from Kiera.
"Woman, I swear—"
Further conversation was cut off as an ear-shattering detonation went off behind them, and a violent shockwave tore through space around them. Their small pod was tossed about like a leaf in a hurricane, battering the two Saiyans and instantly ending any argument between them. A brilliant flash of dazzling orange and red light shone about them, illuminating the void of space and nearly blinding Pare and Kiera, who were forced to shield their eyes. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, the light died down, and the roaring tumult that had so savagely rocked their small craft lessened more and more, until they were once again drifting silently through the darkness around them.
"Pare," Kiera asked, her eyes wide with unconcealed fear, "what… what was that?" For several moments no answer was forthcoming, prompting the young woman to turn her head to see make sure her husband was actually conscious. She gasped, for upon Pare's face Kiera glimpsed something that she'd never before seen from any Saiyan man.
Quietly, his cheeks glistening with newly-shed tears, Pare spoke a single word:
"Vegeta…"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The impact rocked the surrounding countryside.
For miles around, every living creature scattered, doing their best to put as much distance between themselves and the massive, newly-created crater as possible. Dust and smoke rose into the sky as echoes of the Saiyan space pod's ungraceful landing reverberated off the distant mountains, breaking the relative silence of the serene landscape around them. Minutes passed, and eventually silence returned.
The spacecraft's single hatch opened and, on shaky legs, Pare exited and surveyed their surroundings. The crater caused by the pod's landing rose up on all sides, obstructing most of his view, but around the edges he could just make out the motionless forms of fallen trees. Gesturing to Kiera to remain within the pod, Pare moved slowly forward until he was able to peer out over the edge of the landing site.
For miles around all that the Saiyan adviser could see was green. A massive, seemingly endless forest stretched on around him, with only the distant range of mountains to break up the monotonous view. He turned, shading his eyes with an upraised hand as he stared into the brilliant pink and orange glow of this world's setting sun, and was unsurprised to find the view to the rear much the same: an endless see of green, swaying slightly in the light dusk breeze.
"So, what kind of backwater planet have you dragged me to, anyway?" Kiera asked, having ignored her husband's order to remain inside the space pod. "Do you really think it matters where we hide, Pare? I mean, Frieza will find us; and when he does, he'll kill us just like the others." The young woman crossed her arms over her chest, leveling a spiteful glare at her husband.
"This is Iquela," Pare replied, ignoring the scorn in his wife's eyes. "And it is entirely outside of Frieza's sphere of influence. Trust me, woman, we'll be safe enough here…"
"Why bother anyway?" Kiera shook her head and walked brazenly past Pare to stand beneath the tall, swaying trees that lined the crater's edge. "Maybe you didn't notice, husband, but the Saiyan race is all but extinct. We may as well let that maniac destroy us…"
Pare clenched his fists and tried to ignore the disdain that accompanied Kiera's voice when she'd said "husband." Why does she hate me so? he wondered, as he had many times before. Realizing that dwelling on such things was futile, Pare made his way to the top of the crater, coming to a stop beside his young wife.
"But the Saiyan race isn't dead," Pare said softly, placing a hand upon Kiera's tense shoulder. "We have survived, Kiera…"
At this, the dark-haired woman turned her head, meeting Pare's gaze evenly. There, within her eyes, the former adviser to King Vegeta saw a conflict of emotions, the most prevalent of which were contempt, a little fear, and most of all surrender. With a barely audible sigh, Kiera closed her dark eyes and turned away, hugging her shoulders as a sudden chill overcame her.
"It's up to us, Kiera," Pare continued, gazing solemnly across the expansive forest view. "It's up to us to continue the Saiyan race… And to avenge our people."
To be continued…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming soon:
Years turn to decades as Pare struggles to survive on the harsh world of Iquela. When a mysterious warrior comes to him in a dream and tells him of more Saiyans living on Earth, and the danger about to befall them, will Pare undertake the long and dangerous journey to give them what aid he can? Or will the Saiyan race finally be annihilated?
"Survivor."
(Pare's Tale)
PART TWO:
DREAM
