Chapter 2:
Lost Friends
Turles was standing in front of his sister's door, while having perplexing thoughts of stupidity. I'm stupid, stupid, stupid, was all that he kept thinking. Also some thoughts of banging his head against the door instead of knocking were in his mind. What have I got myself into? Not only is the King's plan dangerous, but I'm actually looking forward to it. I must be crazy. No just stupid.
The two guards posted at Kakarot's door were just as perplexed; here was the strongest woman in Saiyan history's brother looking as if he wanted to do mischief and they couldn't do anything about it. Those were the orders from Lady Kakarot. It was strange how only in a few minutes after she herself knew, the whole castle knew of her advanced state of level. No longer was she Kakarot, but now royalty.
Just the thought made Turles want to bang his head. He had been standing outside her door for a little over 20 minutes. The guards tried to be respectful, but after a few mutterings about "stupid women" and "stupid blood," and the hand to forehead hitting they were having a hard time not laughing. And then the Lady's brother would keep walking back to the stairs, turn back around heading for the door muttering all the while, and then turn to the stairs again. He would do this over and over thus causing the guards to snicker slightly. Not that the agitated Saiyan would notice.
Finally one had the courage to ask, "sir can we help you?" Turles turned on the young man so fast both guards backed up. All the talk among the palace, no, the planet was the Volani strength in the arena. These two have been stationed here since the beginning of the tourney and were now faced with a twin who may be able to extinguish their lives; perhaps with a flick of his fingers.
But he chose not to, instead he calmly said, "no I just dread lying to my sister," he sighed and went to open the door. The two, now relief sighing, guards nodded as in understanding. Though neither have sisters as strong as Lady Kakarot, but sisters were sometimes a trail to any Saiyan man.
Turles walked into the suite of rooms Kakarot occupied. She wasn't in the sitting room or the bedroom; that left the bathroom. He walked over to the door and asked, "Kakarot, are you alright?" Her reply was muffled but he could make out, "I'm fine, just going to take a shower. Wait for me in the kitchen." he started to walk away and she mentally yelled out, "make some food for me, would ya?!"
He answered, "Always thinking with your stomach." He was relived she was hungry and talking to him mentally. Neglecting to share with me must have been hard for her. I hope she will finally open up and tell me what has been going on. He walked into the tiny kitchen and began to make some noodles.
Soon Kakarot was standing in front of him, then the noodles were all gone, then she started talking.
She told him about the last year while she was with grandpa, it had been wonderful for her, but Turles remembered it being awful. It had been the first time the twins had been physically apart for a long length of time. He didn't admit it but it had been boring without her around; she livened up his life.
Kakarot also said it was much more intense and lonely than any other of their stays with Gohan. She had been up before the sun was and asleep just before the moon was high in the sky. Gohan had her working so hard she had no time to think about the upcoming tourney.
Then she told him everything she had hidden from him for the past three weeks; that only days before the tourney Gohan had given her the idea by telling her it was time to prepare. "I had no idea what he was talking about, 'Prepare for what' I asked myself, 'prepare to let some stranger have his way with me, when I could be stronger than him.' That's what started it all: the cutting of my hair, the playing dress up as a male, the wining, everything."
Turles could tell she was hesitating but he held himself back knowing that she would tell him. But what she said next was not what he had expected. She had slept with the prince. The bastard, was his first thought and then is that treason?
Though he wanted to hurt something, namely the prince's face, he listened to it all with no interruption or comment until she stopped. She hadn't even been done with the surprises. He was sure some of his faces may have betrayed how he felt about these new developments. "So grandpa gave you the idea, you slept with the heir to the throne, you have to move away to the Dial Mountains, and you are now a titled heiress?"
"Yes, but you make it all sound so bad."
"No just ridiculous" he said almost laughing seeing her blush. "To think that this is you talking, I would never have thought of you as a risk taker." He was shaking his head but chuckling softly. "And here I thought I had it bad." He hadn't realized he had spoken out loud until she responded,
"What's bad for you?" He looked at her and for the first time in a long time lied to her face, "oh being your brother." And she promptly slapped his arm playfully. At least she's smiling again.
"So, what's the plan?" he still was concerned for her. A lot has happened to her in such a short time. Now may not be the best time to tell her about the King's plan for me.
"I have to be at my new home in two weeks time and then back here to choose my new guard. I still don't see a need for them but the King insisted." At least I can be there for her a little while longer.
"Great I'll be going with you." He was smiling his big goofy grin even though he was shocked the words were out of his mouth. Then walking to the door he stated, "the sooner we leave the faster I can see you safely set."
"Turles, you can't stay," she sounded sad when she said it. "The King gave me specific instructions that no family members could be chosen to be my guards."
"I know, but he never said I couldn't visit for months, even years at a time." His cheeky grin was still in full force and his meaning sank in and she laughed. Good a little laughter never hurt anyone, and she needs it more than anyone right now.
"You never did tell me what you and the royals talked about." She was now smirking at him.
Darn, and here I was hoping she would forget. "It's not important. I'll tell you on the way to your place."
"Okay, but I won't forget and you had best not lie to me."
He smiled and decides a joke would help her laugh. He began with, "so a mother went out for the day leaving the father to watch over their three year old little girl." He checked to make sure she was paying attention and continued. "The little girl had just gotten a tiny tea set for a get well present and wanted to show daddy how she could make tea. Every time she brought him a cup of tea, which was just water, he would praise her for being able to make the yummiest tea he had ever drunk. She would beam a happy smile at him and proceed to make him another cup of tea. When the mother came home the father made her wait in the living room to see their daughter serve him tea. He proclaimed it was the cutest thing she had done since her accident. So the mother waited and sure enough the little girl came in carefully carrying a little cup of water to her father. The mother watched with a laugh on her lips as he drank the water up. Then she said, you do realize that the only place she can reach to get water from is the toilet." He concluded dramatic like he always did for the punch line. Turles mainly did this so Kakarot would get it and sure enough she did. She laughed and it made him happy to hear the sound.
He left soon after and was out the door in a flash. He had forgotten he wanted to buy her a congratulation present from the market before he left. Turles was just out of the palace heading towards the market place when he was hit from behind; by a flying object the size of kid. "Hey," he pouted, "what'd ya do that for?" All the while he was looking for the culprit.
"Sorry mister, we were playing and a stray landed on your head." Turles looked down at the dirty little urchin standing to his left. Stray what; ball, rock, or kid?
"No harm done," he said as he rubbed the back of his head and smiled (classic Goku stance). And as quickly as he had been hit the kid ran off. As Turles watched the kid joins some other urchins. Suddenly a man converged on them and he seemed to scare them.
Turles approached them saying, "hey what are you doing…" but he never got to finish because the man had picked up the kid who had hit Turles head and was slightly shaking him…her…whatever the little dirty thing was; Turles couldn't tell. "Stop that," he demanded.
Then the man looked at him and Turles froze. The man's name stuck in his throat and Turles basically wheezed it out, "Yamcha?"
"Hey Turles." Anger had become shock, shock to amazement and followed by joy.
"Dude, where have you been?"
"Later, right now I need to settle something with this kid." Yamcha looked back at the urchin.
"What they do to you?" Turles pointed at Yamcha.
"Not me, you." Yamcha nodded in Turles direction.
"Me? The little …" he had no idea what it was so he continued with, "thing accidently hit me; no big deal."
"No not that, this." With saying that Yamcha turned the kid over, the head was pointing towards the ground, and began to shake him/her. He only stopped after a few items fell to the ground. Still holding the kid with one hand Yamcha reached down and picked up a pouch.
"Hey that looks a lot like my…" Turles reached for his money bag on his waist and found it gone. "Hey you little thief," he was walking towards Yamcha and the urchin while speaking. Then what seemed like 20 or more other dirty urchins surrounded the threesome.
"What…?" was only out when the group disappeared along with the one Yamcha had been holding.
Turles was watching Yamcha smile and shake his head as he said, "at least I still have this." He held up Turles pouch with a flourish and both men started to chuckle.
Turles walked over to his long-time, long missing friend and threw his arm around his shoulder and asked, "so what's up?" Turles got no answer. He also noticed his friend seemed to flinch and tense up when he was in the friendly stance. "Really, what has been going on with you?"
"Let's talk at my place," and saying that Yamcha was out of the embrace and walking away. It was to his retreating back that Turles noticed why his friend was acting strange. He made no comment but slowly followed his friend deeper into the city slums.
When they finally stopped in front of one of the better looking buildings, Yamcha opened a door and walked in. Turles followed, still not talking but thoughts running rampant: Why him, when, why didn't he tell me, what has he been through, and more along the same line.
When his friend sat Turles sat and when Yamcha began to talk Turles just listened; he seemed to be doing a lot of that today. Yamcha's whole demeanor changed once he started to talk. The once straight shoulders slumped and his cheerful face lost the smile. "You remember that last mission I was so excited to go on? The one that would help boost my rank?"
Turles nodded.
"The one I never returned from?"
Another nod.
"We all thought it would be easy, with perhaps some challenges. To purge four worlds in two months was to be a great feat and a good trade for the rank advancements we would all get; if we came home alive. I was especially excited because Puar's father had finally agreed on the day we could mate. I would be able to have the family I always longed for…with her. I left days after we were mated and then my happy ending became a nightmare." He wiped his face with his shaking hands and continued with a sigh, "we weren't even half done with the first planet, which was a breeze so far, when THEY showed up."
He lifted his eyes to Turles and the lost, almost dead, look shocked Turles. Never was his friend this way. He was almost in league with Kakarot for carefree spirit and happiness. What was going on?
"Have you ever seen them Turles? The ice creatures; all white, slimy and cold?" He actually shivered on remembering. "The ice-jiins killed everyone. People were not even giving a chance to surrender, to be allies instead of slaves. At least we gave the planet that option, but the cold just waved hands and cities were destroyed. Nothing was left. Our team decided that it was not acceptable since we had been sent to this world and under orders at ally anyone who wished it."
He got up and walked over to the makeshift shelves of cardboard and old bricks. He grabbed a bottle of something, poured himself a glass, and as if remembering Turles was offered some. Turles declined, he still had two glasses of moon wine in his system. After a swallow and a shiver Yamcha sat and again continued.
"I was the only one in our team to survive and just barely at that. I was found by a recon team from a neighboring planet. I spent five months under guard in their hospital and then another five as a prisoner. I was being trialed for the murders of the people of the destroyed planet. It was only after a few survivors can forward to testify I was a defender not a slayer. And I think the fact that I was nearly dead myself when found was a big help."
"I almost wanted them to find me guilty. I wouldn't have come home in disgrace. I wouldn't have come at all." Yamcha was staring off and then suddenly his eyes were on Turles. "You saw my back?" he asked.
Turles nodded.
"Huh, the doctors said it could have been re-grown but for the extensive scar tissue." He laid his head back on the chair and sighed heavily. Turles knew that kind of sigh; one you used to try to stop tears. It took awhile for Yamcha to control himself and continue, "I stayed there for a few more months earning some income and a way home. I never let them know I was alive. I asked that word be sent that I had either fallen in battle or was unable to locate."
"But Puar?" Turles finally said.
"I am not fit to be a proper mate; a disgraced, fallen, tailless freak! I thought it would be better if she went on with her life and try to find someone else."
"Puar never re-mated." Turles said quietly.
"What?!"
"Have you even been by to see if she's okay?"
"Once, when I first came back, but I never let her see me. She looked to be in good spirits."
"Then you don't know."
"Know what?" Yamcha had not really wanted to ask. By asking he was only leading himself to more pain by not being able to experience anything with her.
"After word came, which by the way I thought was a load of crock; her father wanted her to re-mate. She refused. Puar wanted her child to carry its father's name."
"What?!" Yamcha was out of his chair and gripping Turles shoulders like his life depended on their support.
"About six months out of your departure she got the news of your fall in battle. A month later she had a boy."
"I have a son." The look of wonder was good to see on the man's face after the despair he had shown earlier. "She was pregnant when I left."
"You didn't see him when you saw her? He had to have been a little over a year old when you saw her."
"No, I had eyes for her and only her. The thought of a child never entered my mind. I wanted to see her and make sure she was okay. What has she had to do to survive?"
"Well I see her once and a while." Yamcha scowled when he heard this. Knowing what his friend was thinking Turles threw up his hands, defending himself said, "no, not like that. You're my closest friend next to Kakarot. I wanted to visit to see how she was doing. Support to a friend's mate."
"Sorry Turles," he looked ashamed, "but knowing who your father is and looking so much like him I just jumped to conclusions."
"Understandable. I haven't found that one girl I would kill for or love for the rest of my days. I would question me too if I saw me around a pretty, presumably widowed woman. But she was your mate and he's your son. I was a friend when she needed me and an uncle to Jules."
"Jules. Is that his name?"
"Yeah she said after your father and her mother."
Yamcha chuckled, "Jewel and Julius."
"Yeah," was Turles answer to that.
"Why didn't she ever re-mate?"
"She believes you are still alive. Her father went along with it to keep her happy. She put her foot down hard when he tried to broach the subject over the years. I think he's finally acknowledged that he has a grandson to follow him and a happy daughter, so he doesn't ask anymore, though he may try again." Turles sat forward in his chair and looking straight at the other said, "He's a little over five now, Yamcha; an age when a young Saiyan boy needs his FATHER, not an uncle or a grandfather. He needs you."
"Don't start. You don't think I know that. It doesn't change my decision to not let my fall from grace touch them. He's better thinking I lived and died for honor, bravery, and all things Saiyan rather than living like this." To stress his point he waved his arms at his little space in the corner of the city slums.
"So now that I know you live what am I suppose to tell her?"
"Lie and tell her I AM dead."
"I won't hurt her like that."
"I know, but what am I supposed to do?"
"Try actually talking to her, she may not care about the tail business."
"It's not her I'm worried about, but her father. He was against us from the start. The only reason we were ever mated was the fact that when I came back from the mission I would be of a higher rank. How do you think he will react when I show up with no tail because I failed to protect my own back? He won't stand by while I try to reclaim what he thinks is still his to protect. He will want her to go to someone of higher rank."
Turles wasn't really listening cause he was actually thinking (yeah a tough job for him). "I wonder…" he whispered. Yamcha heard it though and asked, "wonder what?"
"What if there is a way to prove you are worthy of Puar, a way to gain back your honor?"
"I would jump at the chance, but how? I would have to end up saving Elite, a Royal Elite, from certain doom." There it was again the despair. Turles was tire of hearing it.
"In little over a month there will be a chance for any Saiyan to be selected as the new guard to the Duchess of Dial. I think you should go and try."
"How do you know this? I have yet to hear any news of this magnitude, and I live in the fastest news traveling capital on Vegeta-sai."
"That's because it was decide only an hour before I meet you. There is a new lady to the Royal Elite's and the King has ordered her to choose 200 men to be her guard."
"Who is this lady that SHE gets to choose?"
"Oh yeah," Turles was rubbing the back of his head and grinning weirdly (classic Goku stance), "I forgot not everyone has heard that news, too!"
Yamcha had his mouth open and was staring at his friend with amazement. Then he burst out laughing. Turles always had a way to affect people, making them laugh in spite of other feelings they had. "So who is she," he asked after the laughter faded.
"My sister," Turles couldn't hide the pride that came into his voice when he mentioned her.
Of course the look of disbelief Yamcha gave him was only natural. "Kakarot? The little annoying girl who was always following us around? That Kakarot? How is that even possible?" he was chuckling as he spoke.
"Didn't you watch the tourney?" Turles asked in disbelief.
"Ah… no, I was busy with… um… work." Turles looked at him closely and though not really believing him let it slide.
"Well she entered as the bastard son of Bardock, Goku Son."
"Goku WAS Kakarot?"
"So you did get some of the tourney?"
"Well yes, who didn't hear about the young Saiyan working his way through all those pompous Elites? It was all the talk how a third class nobody was cutting up the others like a knife in butter. I just wasn't there to see the final round." He sighed, "but what I wouldn't have given to see a female win the tourney."
"The first ever," Turles supplied. "She won and claimed her freedom by the own King's decree." When Yamcha only looked at Turles in a dazed way Turles told him the short version of the last two weeks events: the blood tests, the request, the promise, the reveal, the advancement, and the royal treatment.
And all Yamcha said was, "whoa."
"Yeah, so now she gets to choose her guards, men or women. And knowing her she'll want people she can trust. She knows you, even if not for a few years. She will need someone like you; familiar."
"You think so?" the sheer hope in his voice was nice to hear after an hour of his depressed telling of his past few years.
"Oh yeah. Go and just tell the truth. I bet she'll give you a good position."
"Thanks Turles," it was heartfelt gratitude, not the beholding kind.
"No problem. It's the least I can do for a friend and mentor." Turles looked at the other man, who though 15 years older still looked the same as when he left (minus a tail). As a young recruit Turles had gotten into a scuffle with a few older bullies; Yamcha had helped end it. Ever since, the younger has looked up to and had an occasional spar with the older Saiyan.
Yamcha was the man Turles first talked to about the opposite sex, first he used a new ki move on, the first he went talking to about problems, and the first he called close friend. He was another older brother, but more like a father. In a time when his father was away more often than at home that was what a maturing male needed. It hurt that they had had only a year to form that relationship, that's why for the past five years of his disappearance Turles was more than happy to be an uncle to his friend's son.
The two friends sat and talked until the sun went down and the moon was at its highest. Turles was reluctant to leave, almost fearing Yamcha would disappear again. He finally left with his friend in better spirits and with a solid promise to seek out the guard assignment.
