(A/N) This is unbeta'd so there'll be mistakes; feel free to point them out and hope you enjoy.
I can clearly remember the sky. It wasn't quite pink or quite red, turning almost purple at the zenith, so different from the sky you're used to, always green.
My first memory involves looking at it from the crater my body made upon impact with the ground, breathing barely as my mother's shape covered my field of vision, a mocking smirk on her face, daring me to stand up and keep training.
I must have been about three or four at the time. I stood up shakily, limbs too heavy from exhaustion, but trying to keep my head up defiantly.
"That's my girl," my mother said. "You will raise higher than your father or I ever did, even if I have to pound you into the ground every day and beat you to a pulp every night."
And with that she charged at me again, hair wild behind her. I remember I parried a punch going straight to the top of my head and a knee going to my face, but then I remember just pain, so I probably didn't parry the next strike.
I had been born with a rather high power level for a child, not quite elite but definitely not lower class, so my parents took great pride in me. We trained every day they were on planet, up until I was knocked unconscious and had to be taken to the regen tanks.
My parents were both warriors, both in different teams, and somewhat powerful for lower class Saiyans, but nothing to write home about. Now I'll try to remember them, but it's been so long now, my memory might fail me.
My mother's name was Yenagebe. She had dark brown hair and shiny but hard black eyes. Her greatest pride (besides me, I hope) was a job done quickly and effectively. Nothing flashy, like so many of our race seemed to prefer, just appear, kill and go back home. People used to say I looked just like her, down to the stance and the eyes, except for my black hair.
My father, Zakabal, had black hair and eyes that always seemed a bit detached, like he was evaluating your every move no matter what. He loved a challenge the most, usually coming home and telling the battle he had enjoyed the most during his latest mission.
They taught me most of the things that later came useful to me, and that later I've taught you.
o.o
The very first time I hunted was beside my mother. We were out in the far fields beyond the outcrop, crouching on top of a pitiful tree, more like an overgrown bush, looking down a small lagoon.
"I'm bored," I said.
My mother smacked me upside the head. "Shut up and learn," she answered. "To hunt good prey you gotta be patient, and complaining about being bored will scare them away."
"Can't we just fly and shoot something down?"
"Of course we can, but how will you learn to ambush if you just do that?"
"I'll just blast things away."
"If they overpower you?"
I grunted, so my mother just smirked and looked back at the lagoon.
Finally, a family of cyotons appeared (so you know, it was like a gray rat with a furry tail, but usually went as tall as an adult's waist, and a grown cyoton made a decent dinner for one), and my mother rose her hand, fingers taking aim.
"Now look, I got the two big ones, you aim for the two small ones. Don't build up your energy until you're ready to fire, because this bastards can sense it or something."
I nodded and aimed, tensing up. But before my mother gave the signal, my energy flared and the critters looked up and started to run. Without thinking, my mother fired quickly and got the two adults, but my blast wasn't fast enough and it just grazed off one of the young.
"What're you waiting for? Run after it! And don't you think about flying, girl!" my mother yelled at me. So I did it, quickly outrunning the injured one, but I didn't stop because I wanted the healthy one. I caught up with it, broke its spine and darted off to finished the injured one. I didn't take more than two minutes, but when I came back to carry off the first one it was gone. I looked up to see a tinido flying away with it in its beak (a tinido was a big bird with reddish feathers, taller than an adult).
"Let it go," my mother said from behind me. "It's a good lesson for you. If you don't hurry your kills get stolen, as it was and will be."
"It's not fair!"
"No, but you were sloppy. Anyways, we have enough for dinner and maybe lunch tomorrow." We headed back home. "By dinner tomorrow I'll leave, but your father should be home by then. Hunting will fall on you."
"Why?"
"So you can practice."
o.o
When I was six years old my power had risen enough, so it was time for me to start the official training. I moved to the barracks with other kids about my age, where we were trained by some special instructor designated by the King himself. The instructor, Bisuna, was a strong man who was missing an arm, an elite class that couldn't serve his King in battle anymore, so he was rewarded for his service with the training of future warriors. He took to the task with a certain resentment, but it had more to do with him losing an arm than with us kids.
He was ruthless and restless during training, but he never struck to hurt our bodies, just our pride. We were sent to adult teams when we could beat him, or were close enough that he felt satisfied.
One day, King Vegeta came by to check on our progress, and he brought the Prince, also called Vegeta, with him. Both of them looked pretty much the same, now that I think about it, black hair going straight upward like a flame and an enormous widow's peak, but the King had a a goatee. Maybe someday this description will help you.
We were training when we heard a snort from near the door. Bisuna turned around to tell whoever it was to hide their tails¹, but the snarl in his face fell and he dropped to his knees. He exchanged some words with the King, while the sparring groups started to notice something was amiss and stopped hitting each other.
Some kids recognized the royal family and started dropping to their knees, but some were too shocked to react. I must admit I was shocked too, being my first time seeing our King, who was so strong he could defeat the Tsuffle pest once and for all. It was a mistake, of course, because when Bisuna saw us standing, he frothed at the mouth.
"The King is here, worms! On your knees!" he roared and threw blasts toward us. The idiots that didn't dodge were in a world of hurt, and the ones that did met his stare. It promised another completely different world of hurt. We dropped and lowered our heads; no point in keeping angering him further.
"Well," said the King, "their authority problem aside, at least some of them dodged. See to the ones that didn't." He made a pause and swept his gaze over us. "What can you show me?"
"Moi and Korune are the best here." He pointed to a red haired boy, Moi, and a brown haired girl, Korune. "They are almost ready; I would say two months and they can move to a team."
"Is that so?" The Prince asked.
"Yes, my Prince."
"Father, can I fight them?"
The King nodded and Bisuna called Moi and Korune over. "Korune, you first"
"Both," the Prince ordered. The trainer watched him in shock, but the King just nodded again.
We moved to the sides of the field, and the three kids went to the center. The Prince flew over, with a confident smirk and his arms crossed, while my training mates slowly walked over, unsure of fighting the boy, terrified of hurting the Prince and getting every bone broken in punishment.
From the gallery where he was standing, the King seemed to notice their doubts. "Don't hold back," he said. "If he's defeated it's his own fault. You won't be punished."
The kids bowed to him and moved to a fighting stance in front of the Prince. He just kept on smirking.
Korune jumped first and Moi followed just a moment behind. They threw punches, one to the Prince's face and another to his stomach, but he just dodged the first and parried the second, grabbing Moi's wrist and pulling forward. As Moi fell, he turned around and tried to throw his knee up, but the Prince grabbed his face and knee, smacking his head on the ground and leaving a crater. Korune tried to use his distraction with a kick to his side, but he parried again and punched her in the chest, winding her. Moi was up again and tackled the Prince with his shoulder, but it just brushed against Vegeta's hip, barely throwing him off balance. The Prince smirked wider, trying to handchop the once-again-charging Moi in the neck, when Korune appeared out of nowhere and kicked him in the small of his back, giving Moi time to punch him in the jaw. The Prince flew away and impacted on the side of the barrack, leaving a hole on the wall. The kids smiled and nodded to each other, but a rumbling from the building erased their smiles.
Prince Vegeta charged through the wall, opening another hole, and flew toward Moi at unmatched speed. He punched him in the nose and sent him flying left, and completed his momentum by spinning and round kicking Korune in the jaw. She went sailing over our heads. Then, the Prince just stood in the middle of the field, growling and seething, eyes darting from Moi's position to Korune's.
"Vegeta," the King warned, and the Prince relaxed and walked over to him.
Bisuna motioned for two of us to go check on them. I flew over to the place Moi had landed, and found him embedded in a rock spike. I pulled him out and lowered him to the ground. He moaned, but no other sound escaped him.
"Out cold," I shouted to Bisuna.
"Same here," the one that had checked on Korune screamed.
"Bring them over," Bisuna answered. I shouldered the boy, flew over and dropped him in front of our trainer, and Bochaku, the one that brought Korune over, did the same. He took a look at them, prodded a bit here and there. "Take them to the regen tanks."
We nodded and complied.
Bochaku and I flew at a leisurely pace, talking all the way.
"You saw that?" I said.
"Yeah. It was insane, I mean, just how strong is the Prince?"
"Exactly. And that amazing movement in the end, blam! Two down in a single move."
"Did you get to see it?"
"I'm not sure. It was just too fast; I saw something blurry, and they went flying."
"You gotta work on your speed if you saw that as blurry. It was a punch and a round kick."
I scowled. "Agh, never mind what I do, I can't catch up to you all."
He chuckled. "While it's true you're pathetic, you're just, what? Six, seven? Most of us are ten, twelve, and Moi and Korune are fourteen. They're ready to move to an adult team, and the rest of us are already conquering some low level planets. You still have time to catch up."
"Thanks."
We handed our still unconscious partners to the doctors and went back quickly. I was itching to improve my speed.
o.o
For the next year, life went on more or less exactly the same. I trained harder, just going against the people that could beat me to a pulp, until I could keep up with them.
One night we were having dinner, making a mess of the cafeteria and brawling over food as usual, when Bisuna entered the room. Everything went quiet: half-chewed food wasn't swallowed, the dogpile on top of a rare leg remained still and silent but for the guys on the bottom, struggling for air under the weight, and even those two boys that always punched each other over the poeppa salad stood with their fists inches away from each other's faces.
"And people wonder why Lord Freeza's army see us as a bunch of barbarians," he chuckled. "Relax, I just need Kaninji and Ankebazzu. Come meet me when you're done." He turned around and left the room.
As soon as the door closed, activity resumed: food was swallowed again, the dogpile grew in size and the poeppa salad was stolen by a third party. Kaninji and I hurried with our food and ran to meet the trainer.
"Any idea what it's about?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Moon's not risen²."
We kept walking in silence, nodding to Bisuna once we found him.
"You two brats are ready. Next week you'll be leaving for two planets." We were probably gaping, so Bisuna clarified. "You two are going on solo missions for a couple planets that need to be conquered for Lord Freeza. Kaninji will be leaving in three days' time and Ankebazzu in six. Those planets are in the spiky end of the universe³, and their people's power level are about ten to twenty, so it shouldn't be difficult for you to wipe them. You don't need to hurry either. Kaninji's planet has no moon and big population, so you'll have four years to clean it, even though I expect you to clean it in much less time." Bisuna was glaring at him. Of course that no brat of his would take so long in such a simple mission, his eyes said. "Ankebazzu's planet has a full moon every year, so you get two years to do the job." Now he was glaring at me with the same threat in his eyes. "Are we all clear?" We nodded. "Ok, then, you'll be given more information before you leave. Now get out of my sight."
We left the room and I looked at Kaninji. "You're grinning like an idiot," I said.
"So are you."
Still grinning, we sprinted toward the barracks and shared the news with the rest of the guys. There was a lot of back-patting, congratulations-giving and shoulder-punching for us, and the older guys, that had already been off planet before, took us outside and blasted us for good luck until the suns rose.
o.o
The day before Kaninji left he invited some of us for an all-against-one with him. He had decided he needed some practice in case he were ambushed. It was a really smart thing to do, all things considering.
We had been going at him for about two hours, throwing everything we got and barely making a dent on him, when Bochaku finally landed a punch over Kaninji's defenses and sent him skidding on the ground. Kaninji got back on his feet just on time to evade a kick a girl named Suitato tried to land on his head, but he moved right on the path on another girl's, named Kimupon, blast. He was sent flying, but this time I was already waiting, and I hammer-hand struck him down. Before he impacted, Bochaku kicked him and Kaninji skidded again, but this time he was stopped by a rock, and we all heard a sickening crack.
We walked closer and found Kaninji lying down, cursing under his breath but not moving.
"Hey, you," Kimupon said, "you alright?"
"You damn morons!" he screamed.
"The hell's wrong with you?" Kimupon shouted.
"Blast me! And my life! How could I be so stupid?!"
"The hell's wrong with you? Answer, dammit!"
"My leg's broken! And my arm! And maybe some ribs! I am the only idiot in the universe that tries to train with four people before going on a mission!"
"Just calm down, ass," I said. "A couple hours in a regen tank and you'll be good as new."
"Aright, smartass, I'll be good as new before I hafta leave for my mission? In ten hours?"
"No," Bochaku answered. "But it's your own damn fault for pretending to be the Legendary and going against four. Now up with you."
Kaninji howled when Bochaku shouldered him, and lost consciousness.
"Looks like he did have some broken ribs," Suitato noted. We flew to the doctors and threw him in a tank. As the glass bubble closed above him, we looked at each other.
"Who's gonna tell Bisuna?" Kimupon asked. Her only answer was an awkward silence.
Suitato sighed after a while. "All of us."
We made our way to his place and knocked on the door.
"Enter," was the muffled response.
As we filed in, his head shot up and he looked at us. He seemed resigned.
"What did you break now?" Bisuna said.
"Kaninji," Kimupon answered.
"What?!"
"He wanted to train against several enemies before he left so he didn't get ambushed on that planet and asked us four to help him, so we helped him but hit him too hard and he broke an arm a leg and cracked several ribs," I said in two breaths. There, it was out and now we had nowhere to run and hide because Bisuna would just find us and make us hurt. Actually, he might make us Hurt.
He punched a wall and it crumbled down, letting the suns shine into his quarters.
"So you are telling me," his tone was clipped, "that moron just went and fought against four people, most of them stronger than him, less than a day before his mission? And you are also telling me none of you was smart enough to tell him how bad an idea that was?" Nobody moved, and he took a deep breath. "Leave now."
Ten minutes later we had run to the other side of the city and were sitting atop a meatery.
"Hey guys, as an estimation, just how screwed do you think we are?" Suitato asked.
"We're Screwed. That's with a capital letter," Bochaku answered sincerely. Knowing how much of a freak he was, he might probably have been looking forward to it.
"Can you two shut up so I can enjoy my last sunset before I die?" I snapped.
"Drama queen."
I threw a blast at him but my heart wasn't in it, so I sat back to enjoy the suns setting.
"The hell with the blast?" Kimupon said. "You weren't even trying there. And you're less chatty than usual, so spit it out."
"Spit what out?"
"What's wrong with you."
"Nothing."
"Bull."
I growled at her.
"It's because you're leaving the planet, right? Everybody gets nervous their first time; after all, it could be your last mission. Probably not, but there's a chance."
I growled again. "Are you saying I'm scared?"
"What's wrong with your ears? I said nervous. Everybody gets nervous before their first off planet mission, except Bochaku because his brain doesn't work."
Bochaku's reply was a punch to the back, and when Kimupon counterattacked, it devolved into a wrestling match.
Suitato and I looked at each other and flew away.
Later that night, before I went to bed, my scouter beeped. I checked it and it said Bisuna wanted to see me. I put my armor on and ran to his quarters.
He was sitting behind his desk, glaring at some papers as if he could burn them with his eyes and some will. I idly noted he had covered the holes on the wall think some wooden planks.
"You're leaving instead of Kaninji," he told me, still glaring at the papers. Then he piled them and put them aside. "And your idiotic friends will fill the paperwork, but that can wait till tomorrow. Go get ready, you're leaving when the suns rise."
I nodded and left.
The next day, when my pod took off, I was awestruck by the sight I had from the little window in the front: a vast expanse of black, as far as my eyes could see, which both our suns could do nothing to light; little stars in the background, highlighting the nothingness, and even the faint glint of a huge spaceship approaching our planet. I fiddled a bit with the controls, trying to get one of the cameras to show me Planet Vegeta as I was moving away from it, but it was a hopeless task, so I just sat back.
No need to get worked up, I thought, I'll get plenty of chances to see it in the future.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
o.o
When I came out of space stasis, I learned that Planet Vegeta had been destroyed by meteors, but at least our Price had survived.
I remembered my mother was in the planet, but my father was leaving for a mission now longer after me. When I finished my mission, I decided to go looking for him, but meanwhile I hunted and purged the planet with every technique my mother had taught me in her honor.
The planet had a purple sky, and its inhabitants were slimy, slug-like people. Their power level was laughable, but they had some kind of acid on their slime. In three years, I had finished them all, but they gave me plenty of scars.
I called in to report when my mission was finished and to ask where to travel now that Planet Vegeta was destroyed, but I was told I had to remain in the planet.
When Freeza's men came to the planet, instead of picking me up they tried to kill me. I was outnumbered and outpowered, so I ran and hid. I feel no shame in telling you this because that is how I survived.
Then I started to hunt them. I waited for hours and hours in bushes, trees, between rocks and crack in the earth, and I took the four of them down.
At first I thought this was a test, Lord Freeza was testing me to see if my power level and fighting ability had dropped all those years, but it didn't seem like it was, so I stole a pod and traveled to the planet I supposed my father was. That planet was already purged and sold, but asking around it hadn't been done by a Saiyan squad. They also told me there was a rumor that there never was a meteor strike, that Freeza had blown up Planet Vegeta himself.
I stole another spaceship and ran to the other end of the galaxy. I landed on your father's planet. It was far away enough, and your father's people, while they're not warriors, are strong and good hunters. Your father was a good man. His name was Phybide, and he faster than most, and skilled with a spear as if it were part of his arm. His skin had blue stripes much like yours, and his purple eyes always shone. We wrestled, and I always won, and we raced, and he always won, and he was one of the few who could fly. That planet was a good place to live on, until Freeza's men found me.
I killed them, again, and I moved to another planet. By that time I was already pregnant with you.
Then you were born, and I taught you everything I knew. You are strong and fast, and a good fighter. My scouter broke long ago, and I never understood how your father's people could sense energy, but even without those things I can sense you're more powerful than I was at your age.
But now it's happened again. Freeza's men have landed on this planet, and I don't understand why they keep chasing me. Maybe Freeza is terrified of Saiyans, and he has killed every last one of us. But for what I know, Prince Vegeta is still alive, so maybe he's killing all the women left because he doesn't want us to keep existing.
I'll still try to reach the Prince. If there are as few of us as I think, it's my duty to try to prevent the extinction of our race. I'll be leaving soon, and after, this pod will take you automatically to your father's planet, where you should be safe. If I succeed, I'll come to find you myself. If I don't, Freeza will never know of your existence so he'll never chase you.
I hope we see each other again. Just remember to train, and to never fear anything.
o.o
A spaceship tried to leave the planet but was chased and shot by a bigger one, and exploded not longer after escaping the atmosphere. The men in the bigger ship patted each other's backs and left for the capital of the Empire.
A day later, a pod left the little planet, unseen and undisturbed.
Notes from the translator:
¹Hide one's tails is a Saiyan expression that means 'piss off or you'll be in a world of hurt'.
²'Moon has not risen' means you have no clue of what is happening.
³Planet Vegeta's capital was surrounded by outcrops and rock formation in the distance, so 'the spiky end' is a general term for 'really far away' that originates from that.