My sincerest apologies. I have no good reason why this is so late in coming, to make it up. I will update times within the next 10 days. okay?

Chapter 4 New Developments

Its amazing how much things can change-and with a little perspective, you realize that nothings really changed at all. Life is funny like that, that the more it changes, the more it stays the same. I've often wondered what it was about life made reality seem that way.

When I was a young man, I refused to accept that reality. I dissmissed it as mere drivel, ground my teeth and glared at any one senile enough to suggest such stupidity could be really true. I didn't want to hear all my pain, all my suffering, my bitterness and hatred and rage, regret and sorrow reduced to such a simple mix of words. "Life is a cycle, no matter how much it changes, it always remains the same."

As I think back on my childhood, look back over my life, I realize I haven't changed much since I was four. Since I was before 4 really. Yes, I've matured in many ways, but my nature, my character hasn't changed much. Even if it was painful and hard for me to act on my own natural character and impulse, they've been guided by the same base principles almost longer than I could remember.

When I was born, my life was molded into a sort of routine. Tarble, for whatever reason, disrupted and then destroyed that routine. When I was four, I got a new routine and I have to admit that I was able to really blossom under the strict new schedule, even if it took a little getting used to.

I awoke before dawn and met Nappa in the training yard, where we sparred until the sun was up. If I'd been good, I was allowed to eat breakfast, if not, I had to drill kata's until my attitude improved. I was always allowed a late lunch, just how late depended on me. It was Nappas way of teaching me responsibility and self-control. I'd been allowed to do as I pleased up until that point and had demonstrated that I needed help controlling my temper and getting over the Usurper, Tarble.

After a few weeks, I began to complain that our spars weren't fair.

"Beating someone isn't teaching them." I told Nappa, as I was finishing my lunch.

"How am I supposed to learn if you wont teach me, like normal teaching?" I asked him, shoving two ring-fruits in my mouth whole.

Nappa smiled at that. "Alright kid, alright, I thought you'd never ask."

That day after lunch, he said he'd teach me how to block a kick from a much larger opponent. This would be useful, I assumed, as he had very powerful kick and to date, I had been unable to counter or dodge his kicks. I was beginning to think I would have a permenant bruise on my back, just the shape of his leg.

He told me to assume a stance. I did.

"Lower" he said. I squatted lower.

"feet straight?" I nodded.

"Straighten your feet." he told me.

I was, for the first time in my life, covered in bruises and my lips had been swollen fat for days. I resisted the urge to argue or roll my eyes and just adjusted my stance.

He showed me the hand movements and had me practice them a few times.

"Thattaboy." Nappa said as he performed his kick in slow motion and I moved my hands in the proper form to stop it.

"Now, drill that...oh, 500 times."

"What? 500!" I yelled. This was absurb, the most I ever drilled any kata was about 50 times. All I had ever had to do before was show I had learned the movements and later use it in a spar, no one had ever made me do something 500 times.

"Are you crazy? I'm not doing this 500 times!"

"Oh? and just why not?" NAppa demanded.

I snorted. "Weren't you paying any attention, Capt. Lughead?" I hadn't even noticed that I'd called him lughead to his face. "I already know it!" I screamed at him. "I just showed you that I know it!"

"Oh really?" Nappa asked, and, being the stupid little chit I was, I barked "yes!" in a defiant manner.

Nappa spun in a blur and before I knew it, I'd been kicked again. I got my block up too late and was embedded about 4 feet into the ground.

Nappa was standing on the edge of the hole when I finally got myself out. "Why dont you run that drilll 2,000 times, then meet me over there for another spar.

I spit out a rock and glared at Nappa, but he was already walking away.

Everyday for a month, I drilled that stupid block, that basic kata, in my stance I'd perform the same basic movement over and over again, 2,000 times each day. Afterward I'd spar with Nappa and each time he kicked me effortlessly. My block was useless against him.

I started drilling it 5,000 times a day and doing it 1,000 times in my room before I allowed myself to sleep each night.

About 6 weeks passed all told before I successfully blocked on of Nappas kicks, I grinned in satisfaction when I realized that the only part hurting was a little part of my arms, because I'd blocked the kick. I didn't have time to be too happy, because just then he hit me.

Appearantly having mastered a "kick-block" meant that I was ready to have my guts spit up and he took to hitting me in the gut repeatedly. I got it through my head pretty easily that the block that worked for a kick, that was coming down had nothing to do with a punch that was coming straight at you. Then he taught me to block that and I didn't need to be persuaded to drill the move on my own several thousand times ,a day.

Thats the way it was in the beginning as Nappa's student. He beat me up regularly, and slowly taught me how to negate one blow or another. He worked me really hard and in the beginning I hated him, he was arrogant, he thought he knew everything and after having been his student for almost ten months, I was secretly beginning to fear that he did know everything.

We sparred for several hours every day. I was stubborn, strong, and despite everything, I really was a quick study so I was able to go for hours against him, but I was never in a position where I was winning. Its not as thought people just passed me through school to pass me, or said I was a prodigy, I truly was, but I realized that up until then I had never been challenged. Not truly challenged.

Nappa wasn't impressed with my being the Crowned prince, my father was delighted that he worked me so hard and apperantly his pay was directly related to how much I improved and matured in his service. As the days passed, he expanded my lessons until I was practicing full sets of katas 2000 times, not just select moves. My training was going longer and longer each week, yet mother wanted me to maintain my study-pace so I worked with a tutor during lunch and in the evenings after I bathed and before I took a bath.

I started waking up on my own and going without being reminded or nagged to the training yard. When Nappa arrived, he'd find me, performing a series of the katas he'd taught me, flowing with grace and speed from one set to the next, "789...790...791..."

He'd stand back and let me finish, then we'd spar and after he won-he always won in those early days-I'd drill katas 2000 more times. After about 6months, I was finally in a routine that allowed me to have lunch everyday and I even had some free time.

I hadn't had a day off yet, so having 1/2 days was a grand novelty. I was sore all afternoon, but I was satisfied. I looked in the mirror one day, and was impressed with how much I'd grown. I'd put on about 2 inches, but I was thin. It occurred to me that I hadn't seen my mother in almost 2 months, and even better, I hadn't even thought about Tarble.

However I was still a little boy and thought I was independant of her, I still liked to lay eyes on my mother every now and then and one afternoon I went to find her, she was in her garden, admiring the afternoon. She was doing a kata drill and Tarble was playing on the far side of the yard, I went to stand beside her and began doing the drill along with her.

"Hi, mama." I announced myself. She smiled at me. "Vegeta-oh my, you've gotten so big!" she finished her rep and then stood still to take in my appearance.

"My goodness, where has my son been these last several days?" I told her about my training with Nappa.

"I'm getting alot stronger." I told her, and I was. My power level had skyrocketed since I began working with him, in part because what doesn't kill a Saiyan makes him stronger and Nappa was really stern.

"I'm developing into a real warrior, I think." my mother smiled. "Of course you are." she agreed and she petted me and I purred softly, my tail twitching with my pleasure, as she stroked my cheek and spikes.

"Great galaxies, you look like your father." she observed and I beamed at that. Just then, Tarble came over. He'd grown alot in about 7 months. He was still a runt, but he'd learned to walk recently and was getting better at it. His hair was shorter than mine, like fathers, but like me he had mothers hair color. A rich shade of...black.

I know, to humans it might seem all the same thing, but Saiyans can percieve the different hues in dark color. His tail was still soft and fuzzy. He'd shed a lot when he had his toddler growth phase, I knew because I'd done it already, but his fur would grow in darker and thicker and when he was done he'd have slight rings in his tail. Like our mother. I had a ringed tail, but was too young to appreciate the appeal this held for the opposite sex.

I noted with interest that I still prefered him not to exist but I didn't feel as...agressive toward him. I didn't even feel like crushing his skull or stomping on his tail. I was actually proud of myself.

"Mama, wanna know how you can tell I'm growing up?" I said excitedly after I realized this.

She asked me how I could tell. "I'm not tempted to stomp on Tarble anymore." I informed her. She looked a little pale at that, but she said she was pleased I felt that way.

"Yeah, me too." I said and I meant it.

A little before I turned five, we discovered another reason I was exceptional. I had my regular physical. I'd needed more medical care in the months I'd known Nappa than me and half a dozen of any of my brothers had ever needed in our entire lifetimes combined when they did some blood work. I didn't know what all the hooplah was about, but I remember them whispering about me and deciding that my father and mother needed to be told ASAP.

They didn't tell me exactly what it was, so naturally I took it upon myself to find out. I snuck down to the medbay one evening in the middle of the night. Campaign season was ending and several teams were returning from long term missions. The med bay was full and on double staffed almost everynight. Also, many of the gestational tanks, where babies of lower class Saiyans were grown, were being born.

We'd developed a technique that allowed us to harvest eggs from mature females and then mix them with sperm cells of other Saiyans, allowing one woman to have up to 6 children a year without having to carry any pregnancies to term. After a woman, a young woman had donated a total of 18 viable eggs, she was free to go and make babies the traditional way with whatever Saiyan she fancied. Thankfully, most females had fulfilled this duty by the time she was 17. There was a program in place that paide them bonuses for every extra viable egg that they gave to the program.

There was another solution to, if a woman conceived the old fashined way, she could have the viable fetus transferred to a tank to finish the job. This option was becoming increasingly popular among woman, because it meant they could get laid, and still go on missions and get paid. and continued to be laid if they wanted to without worrying about their babies.

I didnt have any idea what all that meant, but Toma had told me and so I knew anyway. But anyway, I snuck into the medbay office and pulled my file and saw that they'd identified an anomoly in my bloodstream. I didn't understand exactly what an "Alpha trait type-X" was, but apparently I possessed it and it was extremely rare.

I was dissappointed but satisfied now that I knew what the docs would be telling my parents and I went back to bed. Over the next few weeks, I did research, trying to learn about the alpha trait type X. Alpha trait was something boys developed during puberty, it was something that dictated who would be an alphamale and who wouldn't. Most people were never told if they possessed the trait, but if they tended to have a band of companions who they dominated, you could assume they had an alpha trait. It also meant that they would have 2 sons first, then a girl and depending on what type of alpha trait, they had, you could reasonably predict what sex their children would be if you took into account their mothers geneaology.

I couldn't find alot of information about type-X exactly, but I talked about it with my brothers. Two of whom had developed Alpha trait during puberty. I just asked about it, claimed I was learnign about it for my class. They didn't have much to say that a book couldnt tell me, but it did explain, in part, why I'd reacted so strongly to Tarble. It makes you possessive and defensive, it also makes you empathetic to your fellow Saiyans ki, and more persuasive towards them. It was all chemical and had to do with phermones. Alot of males killed each other due to Alpha-Trait, because one couldn't be persuaded to be subservient to another, yet neither could except NOT dominating the other. A few years after puberty the effects of the trait became more dormany as you learned to cope with it, but it made you more perceptive and some even claimed it let you know the feelings of numerous Saiyans all at once.

I asked about the different types. Pargus didn't know much, only that some types were extinct, such as T, G and X. The others were basically just categories that dictated what their children would look like, and certain traits would always dominate in their children because of it. Only the fertilization and birth-techs needed to know all that crap though.

I didn't know what the hooplah was and my parents never announced to me or anyone else, as far as I know, that I possessed Alpha Trait type X. I saw some months later when I went in to the med bay again, that a certain page was missing from my file. I noted it, but of course I couldn't ask where the page I'd sneakily read-the report that said I possessed an impossible anomaly-had gone off to, now could I?

It didn't matter much anyway, because soon after I first learned I possessed a supposedly extinct blood trait, something happened that would change the course of my life forever.

Frieza returned to the North Galaxy. After many years of absence as he dominated and terrirized the distant star systems he'd returned. The news had everyone on edge and I picked up on the tension, perceptive as always. But no one would speak in the open about what this meant. I didnt like that, I had never known my people to show fear about anything.

I asked everyone I could, Nappa, mother, my teachers, the tech staff and my siblings. Those who knew something weren't talking and those who knew nothing could'nt be believed if they did talk. Finally I put in a request to see my father. I intended to get to the bottom of this business. Or at least I had intended to put in the request, I was looking for Zorn, my fathers assistant and secretary but when I saw him, he told me father wanted to see me, he led me deep into the palace and into a room I had never seen before. It was disguised as a part of the corridor wall.

My father was waiting for me inside.

He thanked Zorn for bringning me and then dismissed me.

It was really akward, I had expected-hoped, really-that father would notice how big I'd gotten that he would be able to tell just by looking at me that I was a better fighter than I had been the day he introduced me to Nappa. Instead, he didn't even seem to see me. He stared down at his hands and clenched and unclenched his fists.

"Vegeta, my son. come here. We must talk." There was an uneasiness about him that I had never seen before.

"What do you know about the Cold Empire?" he asked me after a few minutes.

"That its headed by Kold. He's a warlord." That was safe to say, right? I mean, everyone knew that. "He, uh...he knew Great, Great Grandfather, King Vegeta. We did business with him for a while, for almost two generations, he bought the services of our warriors and we won a lot of battles for him. People say he conquered half the Eastern Galaxy in just 60 year, but really, we did, we just did it in his name."

That was what I'd learned from books a long time ago. Everyone knew that part.

"When business turned, we broke from Kold and his goons.. He's been working on the South Galaxy for about 3 generations now, right?" I understood that we hadn't heard from the Kolds since my grandfather was a child.

"Thats right my son, but now, the Kold empire is back. Or rather, a prince from the Kold empire is back. He is called Frieza."

I will never forget that instant. A chill ran down my spine, I dont know why and-in an instant-my blood was ice. Then I was normal again and I wanted to forget the intense fear I'd felt in my belly. I remarked that it was a stupid name.

Father shook his head.

"Vegeta, you mustn't speak against Freiza!" he reprimanded me, "ever." He swallowed hard.

"There have been disturbing reports coming in from our bases...I have to go and check in to them, but I have a bad feeling about this. King Kold, thats their monarch, is looking for a worthy heir. He has two eligible sons, Frieza has come to the North Galaxy looking to win his fathers favors and be named his successor."

i was confused about that. So what? What did it mean for we Saiyans? I asked him.

I didn't realize it then, but my father was worried that I might become the first boy-king in over 4 centuries to rule the Saiyans and clearly I wasn't ready yet. Plus, even if I'd been ready to lead my people, I was no match for Frieza.

"It could be nothing, Vegeta. Lets hope that it is nothing, okay? Then you can laugh at me for being a silly old man and I'll be indebted to you for disturbing your day, huh?" he smiled at me but it didn't reach his eyes. I'd never seen such sadness in anyones eyes before. I realized then how much my father loved me. I could actually see it in his eyes and it made me love him back.

"I wont laugh at you father." I told him, and breathed deep. I liked my fathers smell, he placed his hands on my shoulders looked me in the eyes. I wanted to be brave for him, so I thought of all the things I'd ever done that made me feel brave and looked into my fathers eyes. I refused to show fear to him and after a moment, he smiled at me. This time it reached his eyes.

"I couldn't have asked for a better son and heir." he said. I blushed at that. I couldn't look him in the eyes.

"Listen, I worry that the Kold presences could bode ill for the Saiyan people, our colonies, our allies and maybe even the whole North Galaxy. I could be wrong, but for the Kolds, this is a time of high tension. Frieza will seek our services once more, like his father before him. I dont know that we can refuse him," Father sighed and dropped his hands to his side.

"Vegeta, be careful, do you hear me? I want you to be careful. Tread softly and keep your eyes and ears open. Keep your wits sharp and...just be careful."

I was terrified again. I wanted to run screaming from this secret room, from this secret meeting and go somewhere safe. I wasn't sure where was safer than the deepest, secretest room of my own home, where my fathers guards and subjects and finest and most loyal warriors lived and served us. But for the first time in my life I didn't feel at home in my own home. I didn't fell safe in my stronghold and the feeling was such an unsettling one.

The next morning my father announced that he, and several other rulers from our Galaxy had been extended an invitation to meet with Lord Frieza, of the Kold Empire for an assembly. No one knew exactly what that meant, but I realized later that this was a disturbing pattern I'd once observed in my history books.

Some new guy moves in, unnerves everybody and then calls for everyone of power to visit him on his own terms? It was considered cliche in stories but I had noticed it was factually relevant in history. Father was gone for 5 weeks, everyone was tense the whole time. I grew more nervous by the day, I tried to be careful, but of what? Of whom?

I was a lot stronger now and my skill had improved so that at 6 years old I could have an honest sparring match with Nappa. He couldn't go all out on me, but he didn't go easy either and I improved rapidly, but I couldn't relax. I stopped sleeping by the 2nd week of my fathers absence. The 3rd week I began to watch the transmission logs obsessively. I had always liked to watch the stars and observe ships near and far with our powerful telescopes from atop one of the many watch towers in the capitol. Now, I lay in bed every evening for about an hr, taking what rest I could then I snuck out my window and flew to a watch tower on the edge of the city and searched the heavens for any sign of the SSJ9000+.

I napped fitfully in the towers but the celestial alarm always woke me in enough time to make it back home without being missed. I thought I was rather discreet, and chalked Nappas annoyance up to the tension that had permeated everyone with Frieza back in town and my father gone.

I realized later that I wasn't as clever as I thought.

"There are watch towers here you know." Nappa told me the next morning as we drilled kata's. I didn't respond.

"Look, we all worry about your father, he's a great leader and a good man. But I cant have you running off in the dark of night. If you go missing too, there will be pandemoniom."

I froze in place, tried to swallow the sudden lump in my throat. "...too?" I croaked and Nappa went pale as a ghost.

"Too?" I repeated, I looked at him and I could see the truth of the matter in his eyes. Father was missing. His ship had been silent for several days and there was no one to confirm if he'd arrived or not to his destination. They knew he'd been missing and no one had told me...No one was talking about the fact.

Tears welled up in my eyes for the first time in nearly a year.

"Pr-prince Vegeta?"

I shook with the tension in my body, Nappa tried to touch me but I shrugged him off. I dropped the kata I was doing. My mind, I felt as though the smooth plane that was my mind had just been shattered. Ugly, unknown darkness threatened to pour in as the crack contined to spread over the fragile glass covering that protected my rational, innocent mind from the harsh realities of life.

I turned around and began to walk out the training ground.

Nappa called me.

Once,

twice,

three times.

I ignored him. I barely even heared him. The moment I was in the corridor, I began to run, faster and faster. I burst out of the hall, into a wash room. I crashed through a few soldiers who'd been goofing around but I kept going. Didnt' even give them time to register the fact they should've been bowing. I wasn't even sure where I was going, I couldn't get a single coherent thought to pass through my mind.

I put me head down and ran faster. I would've been faster to just fly, to my destination. Without having made a scene, but I wasn't thinking. Instead I took one winding stair case and then raced down several winding corridors, ignoring the beauty of the magenta sky visible through the long windows that were part of my fathers private corridors. When my siblings saw me coming, they just stepped aside and let me pass.

A few minutes later, I burst into my mothers chambers, tears in my ears. She was with Tarble and two young servant girls.

"Vegeta?" she said,

"Get out!" I screamed at the servants who were frozen in surprise. The older one, perhaps 14 or so, took a step towards me, "young prince, are you-"

"Get. The. Hell. Out." I bit out. "NOW!" They ran, frightened and I slammed the door behind them. I stood breathing heavily for several seconds, then mother called my name.

I ran to her, threw myself in her lap and for the first time since infancy, I cried in my mothers arms. She held me and whispered in my ears that I was a brave boy, it was okay to cry if I wanted to but I mustn't despair. She was so proud of me, she told me. OVer and over and over again.

Thats what I loved about my mother. She always just knew. She didn't ask stupid questions or try and make me talk about problems. She always knew what was wrong and she didn't make false promises or offer false hope. She didn't ask me "Are you ok?" when it was obvious I wasn't. She didn't pretend about power she didn't have. she didn't say "It will be okay" because she didnt know that it would be.

Nobody did, but anyone else would've said that it would be "alright" and that "things would work out" or some crap like that. She held me and let me cry for as long as I needed to, she wiped my face and I hiccupped, rather than mention I was crying she said I looked exhausted and sympathized with me about how hard it was too sleep as of late. She let me drink her tea and I fell asleep in her bed for the first time that I could remember.

I slept a dreamless sleep that night and woke sometime in the night to find that mother was there, sleeping soundly beside me. Stroking my spine in her sleep. The rythym was hypnotic, the feeling was so...soothing! I didn't even know I was purring in content, I was so mellow, that it didn't even bother me that Tarbles head was resting on me. I lay still and breathed deeply, enjoying the smell of love, affection and serenity that was my mother.

When I feel back to sleep, I dreamed of my mothers worried face and my fathers tense voice and my peoples worry and I dreamt that I made them all feel better. That all Saiyans everywhere could, just for one night, know the peace and serenity that I felt right now. That the one night could last forever.

Story word count: 4890. Anyway, so this is the 4th chapter, I've been brooding a lot about this entire saga, and even though I've run into a huge writing block with this story, I still have several chapters ready to go. I'd been meaning to rewrite this story in its entirety, but have decided that I like this form of the story.

-Gizzy