Rek, the many times he'd told Cale their story as the boy grew, had always had a look of pain in his eyes when he taught Cale of their parents' sacrifice. He looked over at his brother's slumbering form, a mix of emotions rolling through his mind. Rek was the only other Saiyan Cale had known in memory, and he'd been forced to leave everything he had behind to save Cale. Even without the aid of the Yardratians, Cale had no doubt that his brother would have found a way to raise him alone.

Each brother was all the family the other had, even above the adopted families they had on Yardrat. The kindness with which they'd been taken in is something Cale knew he would never forget, but Rek shared his blood, his history. They shared a pain their Yardratian peers could not hope to fathom. A pain that stretched innumerable years, that left the brothers in a state of physical being that was unnatural, constantly reminding them of a choice they'd never had the option to make.

Solara had run in, desperation in his eyes. "Barei, grab the boys," he ordered his wife quickly.

Cale and Rek's mother, playing with Cale on the floor, had sat up upon hearing the strain in Solara's voice. "What is it?" she asked, years of their partnership telling her without a doubt that something was very wrong simply from Solara's intonation.

"I'll explain on the way," Solara said, immediately heading to he and Barei's bedroom.

Barei nodded, picking Cale up, the boy screaming at being taken from his toys so suddenly, and ran into Rek's room to wake him. He'd been sleeping after some training earlier that day. "Rek, wake up son," Barei pleaded, patting him on the shoulder.

Rek's immediate response, a trained response for a warrior, was to snap his eyes open. He was fully awake within the time it took him to open his eyes. "What is it, mother?"

She shook her head, confusion at Solara's words mixing with her faith in her husband. "I don't know yet, but your father wants us ready now. Help Cale and be in the living room. I have to go get ready myself." Barei trotted out of the room, leaving Rek to help Cale into a simple gi to travel in and to don his own armor. He picked his brother up, letting him play with his scouter, and walked into the living room briskly to await his parents. Rek could hear muffled gasps, his mother's shocked voice and his father's quite rumble although he could make out no words. A few moments passed, an ominous chill creeping up Rek's spine as he held his brother, and finally Solara and Barei emerged from their room.

Both of them in armor.

"Father, what's happening?" Rek asked as soon as he saw his parents dressed for battle. "You gave up the warrior's life long ago, why are you wearing the armor again?"

"On the way," Solara repeated, stuffing a photo into his armor and running out the door. Rek and Barei glanced at each other, Rek shifting Cale in his arms, and the two blasted out after Solara.

The sounds of their boots echoed through the eerily empty halls as the family ran. "It's Frieza," Solara said through breaths. He was a bit more out of shape than he'd like to admit. "He's betrayed the Saiyans, and he's waiting in orbit to destroy the planet with us all on it." Solara had opted to simply state the facts.

"How did you find out?" Rek asked, skeptical. He'd met Frieza once before during his acceptance into the PTO. The creature wasn't kind, but he didn't seem to have any problems with Saiyans.

"Bardock's squad was killed, and Dodoria attempted to murder Bardock himself," Solara explained. "But Bardock survived and made it back here to try and warn us all." He left out the bit about Bardock's recently developing precognition, unsure whether it was true himself, but that didn't change that he'd seen the evidence of Frieza's betrayal firsthand.

"Why are we the only ones running?" Barei asked, confused. "Where is the evacuation?"

Solara glanced back at his wife, taking in her face; beautiful, even through fear of an unknown fate, and still burning with Saiyan pride after years of being a tender mother. "No one believed him. Only a handful would even if we COULD announce it somehow, but the moment Frieza picked up on the planetary transmission he would crush us into cosmic dust all the faster. Bardock is on his way to do what he can, give us a chance to escape." Solara looked towards the largest sun as it passed by in glimpses through windows.

Rek, silently listening thus far, opened his mouth to speak as they followed Solara's lead in jumping out of a window, their auras overlapping as they shot through the skies towards the space port. "And we aren't helping him? He may be coarse, but Bardock has always been like family to you, and to us by extension. Take Cale, mother. I'm going to help Bardo-"

"Absolutely not!" Solara thundered, his power spike making Rek's scouter flash and Cale laugh as the small device let out a sudden series of beeps. The young man shut his mouth immediately, he'd never seen his father let his power get out of control. "You would waste the chance he has given us to live? I can understand you wanting to help, Rek. You do me proud. But Bardock's son is already off world, already shooting away from Frieza. He has nothing to lose. He is giving us the chance he doesn't have, to live together as a family."

"We're going on a trip, Daddy?" Cale asked, looking forward towards his father.

Solara kept his eyes forward, a growing pain behind the black pupils. "Yes, Cale. And we won't be coming back."

"Don't worry sweetie," Barei cooed while flying closer to take Cale from Rek. "It's time to leave this planet is all. Bigger things are waiting!" She smiled at the boy, too young to understand the gravity of the situation.

Rek flew the few short feet to his father so they could speak in hushed tones. "Father, why would Frieza do this to us?"

"You should understand better than most Saiyans, son," Solara said with a slight hint of satisfaction. "He fears us, what we're capable of. He fears the Super Saiyan."

"The..." Rek's eyes opened wide at the mention of such an old legend. "It's true that we're getting stronger with every mission," he said, thinking. "But we're nowhere near his elites! He has nothing to fear from us, we are loyal to him."

Solara's smile betrayed his Saiyan pride as it surfaced. "Come now, are you telling me the very blood in your veins would allow you to submit to a tyrant?" he asked his son. "Look at yourself, Rek. The son of two low class Saiyans, and yet you are fighting on par with elites! You and Bardock are perfect examples of why Frieza is doing this: Saiyans grow stronger whether we are throwing hits or receiving them, and eventually we would rebel."

His father's proclamation shocked Rek, but on some level he agreed. Many times he'd felt that he was subservient only because he was less powerful. When he'd trained he had always felt that he wasn't growing more powerful for Frieza to use, but for his own people.

"I can see it on your face," Solara said with a chuckle. "I am sorry to have bestowed you with more logic than a Saiyan should have to carry, my son. It is our people's way to rush headlong into battle, but it is our family's way to think before we fly. You are conflicted now as you always have been, but it's only on the surface now."

Simultaneously, before Rek could continue the conversation, Solara and Rek's scouters beeped. The two looked to the left, seeing three of Frieza's soldiers closing in. Solara nodded to Barei, who got the message.

Don't stop for anything.

She powered up and shot forward as Rek and Solara angled towards the soldiers.

"Going somewhere, Saiyans?" the one in center, a shorter purple lizard asked, his beak clicking.

"Out for a family fly, such a nice day!" Solara responded with a smile.

The soldier looked him and his son up and down. "In armor? I highly doubt it, and neither of you look like you're fresh off of a completed mission, given how you filthy apes enjoy basking in your own smell after you come back, so you shouldn't be in armor."

Rek's fist clenched at the insult, but Solara's subtle gesture held him in place. "Gotta make sure the old armor still fits, after all! And my son here was training earlier, fell asleep without changing. You know how young ones can b—"

"Can it, Saiyan," the soldier on the right, a large aqua colored beast said, his lips the width of his bald head. "My stomach always growls around lies. You aren't going anywhere, and after we've dealt with you we'll catch up to your female cohort."

Both Rek and Solara's eyes immediately set, glaring at the soldiers. Negotiations had failed, this was not going to be a stealthy getaway anymore. Both of the Saiyans vanished, appearing to the sides of the outer two soldiers. In unison they twisted in the air and sent their legs crashing into the backs of the aliens, cracking their spines. The two fell, their faces eternally frozen in pain. As the third soldier twitched his beaky visage left and right, Solara appeared and grabbed the creature's hardened mouth.

"You won't be going anywhere near my family," he said, his voice almost as chilling as the murderous glint in his eyes as the Saiyan's fingers cracked the alien's beak like nothing more than a twig. Before the creature could even make a sound, Rek axe handled its head practically into its body and it, too, fell towards the ground far below.

The Saiyans looked towards each other briefly before powering up and jetting towards Barei and Cale.