"It is widely discussed when and how the
Fall of the Tarisian Empire started.
Generally speaking, the revelation of the
Tarisian-Sayan-Breeding-Program to
High Warrior Kavri is believed to be the
first decisive step towards that end.
This revelation and the consecutive
uproar in the remaining Sayan
population began to crumble the
foundations of Tarisian power."
 - Dr. Gen Zukata
"Modern History of the Galaxy"

Revelations

Morning dawned on the Capital World of King Tars's Empire. Kavri awoke, finding, as usual, that Ssiti was already awake and preparing breakfast for him. He closed his eyes again, once more going over the thoughts which had followed him into his dreams. His upcoming mission and the bad feeling he had in the pit of his stomach about it. Something big would happen on this mission, something that would fundamentally chnge the balance of things, but Kavri was not sure in what direction and what it would be. However, he knew he had to take Ssiti along with him. In all his life, there had only ever been one person who had been truly important to him and that had been her and it would never be different. Seperated from others of his kind, avoided by the other citizens and soldiers of the Empire, he was usually alone and he even liked that loneliness to a degree, but he was glad that he had his mate to ease the loneliness from time to time.

Now, he would take her along on a mission. For all he knew, it would be something routine. They would go to that planet, find that Sayan girl and the King would take pleasure in killing her personally, at least that was what Kavri suspected. After all, the King was the one who had initiated this whole search. Taris was a fearsome warrior, Kavri knew that, had seen his battle prowess and the awesome powers at the King's disposal and he suspected that no one had yet seen the full potential of that being. So he doubted that a lonely Sayan girl could pose any real threat to the King and he was puzzled at the zeal with which the King had commanded that search. He had also been surprised at the brutality with which he had slaughtered the parents of the child. Of course, they had been in violation of his rules, but then again, they had been in hiding. When the King had found them and learned that they had had a child, he had been furious. It all made very little sense to Kavri and maybe that was why he had this strange feeling.

With a deep sigh he slipped from the bed and got up, wrapping his tail firmly around his waist as he proceeded to the apartments eating area.

Ssiti had already loaded the table with his favourite breakfast dishes and was eating her own, comperatively small breakfast when he came in. She smiled up to him softly, though he could detect a slight edge of fear in her eyes. No doubt, she had contemplated what they were about to do as well. It was direct treason to the King and treason was punishable by death, so it was no wonder she was afraid but Kavri admired the way she handled it without flinching. With a gentle smile, he came to her side, leaned down and kissed her lovingly.

"Ohayou..." he said quietly as he sat down and began to wolf down the food.

"Ohayou..." she replied, smiling now as though finding something very funny.

Kavri blinked, noticing the look and gazed to her questioningly.

"You look amused." He stated as he gulped down some juice.

"Hai." she chuckled gently. "I was just remebered of our first meeting. Our first date. You ordered half of the restaurants menu and ordered seconds of everything, too."

Kavri grinned sheepishly and blushed a bit at the memory.

"Jaaa...." He muttered and grinned some more, continuing to eat.

"I was amazed at the quantities of food you consumed." Ssiti mused and smiled softly, fondly. "Of course, that was not the only thing that had amazed me."

Kavri blinked and raised a brow, gazing at Ssiti again.

She smiled gently and traced a hand over Kavri's cheek.

"It was ..." she said, a short look of pain flashing through her eyes when she saw Kavri's features darkneing.

"Don't misunderstand me. I saw you, saw the proud warrior you are. All that strength, all that power and yet you were chained. It was quite visible, after all, we all know what a Pain Collar looks like."

She sighed gently and again, that smile came to her lips.

"And still, you looked stronger and more fierce than any of those 1st Circle Warriors at the parade where I first saw you. It was something in your eyes I think. That...untamed spirit. Even though you are shackled now, I knew then that it will not always be so."

Kavri had listened to Ssiti's words quietly, contemplating them. It was at these times that he really appreciated her being here. Words like these made his life much easier and strangely enough, he never doubted one of her words. She had the uncanny ability to predict things, to show the general path on which they treaded and so far she had always been right.

Instead of saying something, Kavri leaned over to her and kissed her on the cheek softly.

"Arigatou." He whispered and winked, then continued eating.

An hour later, Kavri had packed his belongings, said his farewells to Ssiti and was walking towards the Launch Control center. The previous evening he had asked for the Chief Operator to meet him here half an hour before the actual launch of the King's ship and surely, the bulky Chief Operator stood, waiting for him with a surly face.

"So, what is it?" he asked, without any greetings or formalities, but then again, that was his way. Actually, compared to how he treated the other people around him, he was positively respectful towards Kavri.

"I need you to prepare a pod for tomorrow and allow Ssiti to launch."

The Chief Operator's eyes bulged and he shook his head fiercely.

"You must be out of your mind! All launches are controlled and logged. They would notice immediately..."

Kavri narrowed his eyes and cut his words off.

"They are controlled by you. You can falsify launch records, I know that and I want you to do me this one favor. Ssiti must come with me on this."

The Chief stared at Kavri quietly, chewing on some gum and then stared off into the distance.

"I can't...hold them off forever. They will be onto her in a matter of days." he said cautiously, apparently hoping he could persuade Kavri to not ask that particular favor.

The Sayan merely nodded at that and smiled.

"But we both know that the Sayan pods are still the fastest ships in space. They will never be able to catch up with her and she will arrive at the destination approximately at the same time as I do if she uses a not so direct route which will keep her from the sensors of the King's ship."

The Chief sighed, his shoulders sagging.

"You'll not think it over? You're putting her life on the line here, not to mention yours and mine!"

Kavri shook his head slightly and inclined his head. The Chief sighed again and then nodded.

"All right, I'll prepare yer damned pod, but mind you, if they find out, I'll erase my traces and it'll be as though you set everything up!"

Kavri chuckled and nodded.

"I expected no less of you."

He turned towards the launch bays.

"Farewell." he said quietly and walked off. The Chief stared after the Sayan warrior quietly for a long time. For a strange reason, he could not decide if the last word had been directed at him or at the world in general.

2 Months later

Kavri sighed deeply as he stared at the computer in front of which he sat. For two months they had been traveling now. Space travel was boring at best. A daily routine had settled in after the second day. He would get up, eat, train, eat, train and then do some research in the computer. He had set his eyes on finding out more about this Sayan girl they were after, but so far, his search had been less than fruititious. Far from finding any clues, he had been frustrated with finding ANY information on Sayajin's at all. He had never bothered to check the Empire's Network, but now that he did, he found that all information regarding Sayajin's was censored, apart from the government released deadly and dangerous stereotype articles.

So his evenings were usually very frustrating. He was about to quit his search for the day, but then quite suddenly, an icon popped up on the screen. Incoming E-Mail, only that it was not adressed to his private account. Strangely enough, it was a mail to the 1st Circle and the King himself.

He raised a brow. Of course, the 1st Circle knew about almost everything the King was doing. At any sign of weakness, they would remove the King from his position and as long as he shared his power with them enough, they were quiet and were loyal, so all in all, the King ruled, but the 1st Circle was also a kind of governing factor.

He was puzzled why he would receive such a mail as well, particularily because, when he checked the mails header, his adress was not listed there. Then it dawned on him that he was traveling on the King's own ship for the first time and normally, that was reserved for the 1st Circle. Probably one could access E-Mail from any part of the ship and no one had bothered to change that for his cabin.

With a slight smirk on his lips, he opened the mail and began to read, feeling, for a brief moment, very happy with this little failure on the King's part.

His smile vanished quickly as he began to read the report.

From: Tarisian Research Lab Alpha

To: King Taris, First Circle

Subject: Progress Report, Breeding Program T-S

Attached to this file, you will find footage and data concerning out current status in the breeding program. SO far, we have been able to increase the energy level of newborns by 200, by using selective genemanipulation in the females as well as some biomechanical changes to their physique. 76 of the subjects have survived the treatment and are ready to breed again.

I must remind you that our breeding stock is getting smaller with every experiment. I strongly urge you to allow us another sampling of male seeds to birth a new generation of test subjects. With artificial growth enhancers, we can have them ready to birth new tests in less than a month.

Your faithful servant,

Dr. Hukan Itaso

At first, he was puzzled as to what this was all about. But then he opened the attachments. They were first, files of test subjects, with all kinds of medical data and reports on them and every subject was a Sayan girl, the ages ranging from 12 to 25. All had reports of ongoing or finished pregnancy attached. All were reported to have been genetically modified, enhanced, biotechnically engineered and to make the gruesome words come to life, there were pictures attached, pictures of the girls, attached to monstrous machines, tubes sticking in all parts of their bodies, some of them with mutated skin, some of them with replaced eyes, some even with limbs missing. Kavri's mouth went dry and he had to force himself to continue reading. He had had no idea. Nobody knew of this. The entire empire had been told that most female Sayajins had been killed in the blast that took the Sayan homeworld. But here it was, proof that some had survived on which the scientists had created what they called breeding stock.

An unbelievable rage began to burn inside him, a fiery fire as his mind comprehended and showed him clearly what the King had done. How he had raped and tortured dozens and dozens of Sayan girls in order to create better warriors.

It made sense, in a twisted, cruel sort of way. The Sayan's were known for their fighting prowess and their ability to channel chi, so apparently the King had wanted to use that to his advantage, possibly create an offspring forhimself, even more powerful than he was.

Part of him, a large part, wanted to storm out and attack the King right away, but he couldn't. He knew he had no chance. His logical side, trained and cultivated over so many years prevailed and instead of running out and attacking, he grit his teeth and continued reading. His mission had changed. He was no longer looking for a Sayan girl in order to kill her, no, he was looking for her to gain allies. Quietly, he looked at each and every file, memorizing each and every name, vowing that one day, every single name would be avenged, if not by him, then by another Sayan.

Planet Earth

They were all exhausted, all of course, except for Vegetto, who was now training by himself, out of their sight. During the past 4 months, they had been driven to their limits, every day had been full of grueling combat, harsh training. After every day, their muscles ached terribly and yet, every morning, Vegetto would wake them up and continue their training. Jari suspected he was the one who slept least of all of them. Because every day after their training, he went off into the depths of this surreal world to train by himself. They never heard him returning, but in the morning, he would wake them all up and continue their training and he would never appear to be drained or tired.

Still, Jari was proud of herself somewhat. She was now able to maintain the state of Super Sayajin quite easily and even though she was still no match for Vegetto and wouldn't be for quite a long while, she suspected, she was now able to spar with Gohan and the others well enough, even though she would still be beaten regularily. They all assured her that her progress was fascinating and they bolstered her self-confidence in ways she had noth thought possible. With them, she felt safe and secure and thus, the training was even fun mostly.

At times however, she would still sit awake during the nights and stare into the darkness, knowing that her persuer would come sooner or later and a part of her was still certain, that even Vegetto would not be able to defeat him. After all, even the Super Warrior himself had said that they all needed training and that they all needed to find others to fight with them.

This was such a night. She was awake and even though she felt tired, she couldn't fall asleep. Around them, her new friends were sleeping peacefully, a sleep for which Jari envied them at times. Even her most peaceful sleep was still disturbed by nightmares of her parents death, of her flight, of her constant travels.

Quietly, she slipped from her bed and left the dormitory, hoping that a little bit of extra exercise would make her tired enough to finally fall asleep.

When she left the house, the gate to the real world and stepped into the training area, she found that she was not the only one unable to sleep. The human girl, Videl, was also awake, and obviously also training. Jari watched for a while, remaining quiet so as not to disturb the girl in her practice. She had to admit that she admired the fighting spirit of the human. Even with all the power around her, with all the incredible strength, even when she knew she was hopelessly out of her league, she would not give up the training and she did make progress, progress which was amazing for a human, if Jari was any judge for that. Her strength level had increased significantly during the four month training here even though she was still far below the others.

When Videl was pausing in her exercises, Jari cleared her throat, which made the girl jump in surprise and whirl around.

"Oh...." She muttered and smiled sheepishly.

"Uhm, did I wake you up?"

Jari shook her head and came a bit closer.

"No, I couldn't sleep. You are giving yourself extra practise? Don't you think you are wearing yourself out?" Jari asked softly.

Videl sighed and shook her head.

"I'm no use when it comes to their battles, you know. I know that and it hurts. It hurts that I can't protect those I love, those who have protected me so often. If I want to be any help this time, I would probably need to train even more, but I'm already doing almost too much."

Jari nodded slowly and smiled faintly, indicating the training area.

"Want to spar with me?" she asked, inclining her head.

Videl eyed her strangely for a moment, but then nodded.

"All right, but no holding back." she said, sounding almost a bit stubborn.

Jari smiled and nodded, then walked into the circle of the added gravity in which Videl had trained. She raised a brow partly in surprise, because the gravity here was at least 200 times standard, which was amazing for a human.

She turned to face Videl to express this surprise, but the girl was already coming at her and Jari had to react quickly to dodge the attacks. The human girl gave her no time to relax as she continued to attack and kept Jari at bay for a moment with the sheer ferocity of her assault. It took Jari a moment to recover and get into her rhythm and she was again surprised to realize that the human girl was very agile and fast, although her strikes lacked in real power as she noticed when she blocked a few.

The battle continued like this for a moment until Jari began a counter attack and now pushed Videl on the defense. True to her word, the Sayan girl did not hold back, though she refrained from activating the Super-Sayajin, but even her normal power was enough to drive the human girl back quickly. A few moments later, she scored the first stroke, which sent Videl flying backwards but she flipped, recovered quickly and attacked again.

They continued their sparring for a while, with Jari scoring more and more hits and Videl growing slower gradually until she was completely on the defensive. When Jari managed to score another series of hits, she was about to raise her voice to call it a night. She was not really much more tired, but her mind had strayed enough to probably allow her to go to sleep.

However, she stopped from saying anything. Videl was on her knees, panting for breath, but Jari felt something coming from her. The girl was sobbing, she was bleeding from several wounds.

"I...will not give up..." she muttered beneath her breath and rose to her feet. Around her, an eerie green aura shimmered into existance, sparkling and somewhat irregular. When she looked up, her eyes were no longer the usual blue, but a fierce, glowing crimson and her short cut hair was flaring and shifting back and forth from the normal black and a mesmerizing green. Something was happening and Jari felt that it was not just the appearance. The powerlevel of the girl rose from the, strong for humans, to almost as strong as Sayan's in no time.

With a yell of rage, the girl stormed towards Jari who was struck motionless. The transformation was complete, Videl's hair now a dark shade of green, her eyes two crimson orbs and an aura of green energy flaring around her. Jari barely had time to realize she was being attacked before the first hit connected with her jaw and sent her reeling backwards. A series of more hits followed until Videl put one of her hands to Jari's chest and an energy blast scorched the Sayan girl, sending her sprawling backwards.

Jari was hurt, really hurt and she was angry, charging up to Super Sayajin, but before she could retaliate with an energy attack of her own, she felt her hand being grabbed and held in an iron grip. She looked around, finding Vegetto to be the one who was holding her. Instead of saying something, he pointed to in the direction of Videl and when Jari turned to look, she saw the human girl lying motionless on the ground, now looking quite normal again. Jari blinked once, then reverted to normal and lowered her arm, staring at Videl quietly.

"What...what was that?" she whispered.

Vegetto walked towards the unconscious human and picked her up gently, Jari following her.

"She has found that which makes her special." he said cryptically. "I think it's time to step up her training, don't you agree?"

He smiled and winked to Jari, who was staring back at him wide-eyed.

As she followed him inside, recovering from the shock, she wondered to herself, how many more surprises this seemingly so simple planet Earth had in store for her, or for her pursuer.