[Before I continue the story of the Reigo brothers, I have to apologize to everyone who's been following along so far. I've recently gone through a rather rough patch culminating in a move to a new city, but it's been a long time coming and now that my life is finally in order again, I've been able to get back to work on A Lost Heritage. I hope that you will all continue to stick with me on this, and spread the word about the story because here in the next chapter it will begin to overlap with The Exiled Prince, another story on the site written by my partner princebejitasama, that while it focuses more on Vegeta primarily, also goes over Cale's adventures on Earth.
I can't go too far into it, but if you want to read ahead from my story, take a look at The Exiled Prince to see how Cale begins growing later. I will be rewriting some of his chapters more from Cale's perspective, and eventually our two separate stories become very much the same and he and I will be partnering on a single fic. I know we could really use all of the support you guys can give, but for now here's the next chapter of A Lost Heritage.]
The Reigo brothers had finally been told the truth that had been hidden from them for over a decade. When Cale recovered from his state of near death, both Rek and Cale were brought to the village elders to have the full truth professed to them, that the reason they had been training so hard was to grow powerful enough to achieve Super Saiyan as Goku had before them. But while the brothers listened, it was clear that Cale didn't quite understand.
After listening to the small history lesson, a chapter of Goku's battle against Frieza and subsequent arrival they had been kept from, Cale could help but clench his fist, gritting his teeth. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?" he asked, shaking his head. "If we had known what you were training us for, we could have worked that much harder to reach it!"
Rek, who was the only one of the two brothers who could remember life beyond the border of Yardrat's atmosphere, was silent as Cale almost raged. In the week and a half it took for Cale to fully recover, he had attempted to reach Super Saiyan again multiple times, but had only done so by remembering the feelings of rage and despair that had incited his first transformation. "Cale, I don't think that training would have been enough," he said, pulling his brother back down into a kneeled position besides him.
Kal'teek nodded where she sat among the elders, standing up from the stool she was seated at upon the raised platform. "Your brother is wise for all his inexperience," the brothers' adoptive mother responded. "Goku, during his time here, quickly found that rage and sorrow were what fueled his transformations. In time he learned how to achieve the form without such drastic extremes of emotion, but even when he was as strong as he had been on Namek, his closest friend had to die for his powers to unlock."
The village's leader stood, Kal'teek quickly taking her seat, and cleared his throat before addressing the brothers. "Had we told you both from the beginning what potential your Saiyan blood held, you would have trained in the hopes of reaching Super Saiyan, using the existence of the ability as a crutch should you fail. It was only through ignorance that you two would have achieved the power necessary to appreciate your Saiyan abilities instead of relying on the chance that your ascensions could happen at any time."
Cale's eyes widened when he realized that they were right, and he fell into a brood besides Rek, staring down at the ground between his knees. It was Rek who spoke up this time, although he was much more calm than Cale had been. "But what of my brother?" he asked, glancing over at Cale. He could see his brother's pride was wounded far deeper than his body had been. Even on the cusp of passing his rite, Cale had once again been proven weak compared to his brother. He hadn't been raised like one, but there was no denying that Cale was a Saiyan. "I didn't expect this to happen, but now Cale knows the truth."
Kal'teek stepped forwards, sighing, and hopped down from the platform to trot over to where the brothers were. She didn't have to reach to place her hands on Cale and Rek's shoulders, the two already at half height, and let out another, softer sigh when she had them in her hands. "I was worried about this," she admitted, looking Rek in the eyes. "We had hoped…" she began, casting a wary glance towards Cale and wincing slightly when she noticed that his eyes were already distant. She knew as well as Rek did that he likely wouldn't come out of his state for some time. "… that the two of you might achieve it simultaneously. You boys have always been so competitive, and so closely linked. But that creature's awakening was not foreseen. Cale, you know of the abilities that lie dormant in your blood now, and that will make reaching your potential only that much more difficult." Her beaked lips curved upwards in a smile and she clapped both her hands on Cale's shoulders, grinning. "But if anything, you should be proud of yourself. Powerful enough to wake an ancient beast from its slumber, and brave enough to fight for your village against it."
Cale slapped Kal'teeks hands away, getting up quickly. Now that she could look upwards into his face, past the shaggy bangs that had hidden his features a moment before, she saw the pain and anger in his eyes, already on the brink of frustrated tears. "Powerful enough for what? To have to be saved by Rek AGAIN?" he demanded, turning and walking away. He pushed open the flap to the central village building, disappearing into the light beyond it as his power spiked, the young Saiyan taking to the skies quickly.
The Yardratian woman reached after him and started making her way towards the door before being stopped by Rek, his hand on her arm. "Don't," he cautioned, shaking his head. "He just needs time. You know Cale's always been insecure about his abilities. If he could remember Vegeta, he would know how much farther than any Saiyan on our world he's come, but I'm all he knows. Let him be."
The lead elder cleared his throat again, gesturing for Kal'teek to return to her post. "Perhaps the elder brother knows his younger counterpart more keenly than you," he agreed, watching as the elderly Yardratian woman took her seat again. "You may have known the boy for as long as he can remember, but he is still a Saiyan and we cannot understand his struggle."
Rek nodded, shifting into a slightly more comfortable position. "Cale will come around," he said after the elder finished speaking, looking up at the group of them. "He'll get in some sword training to blow off some steam and probably injure a few sparring mates, but that's all." Rek's tone became much more serious, the experienced warrior taking over where the caring older brother had been a moment before, his eyes s teeling over with all of the determination of a soldier ready for battle. "But if you have trained Goku to harness his abilities, I want you to do the same for me. Teach me to be a Super Saiyan. I understand this power, but I have to control it."
The elders all looked to one another, even Kal'teek unsure if Rek was ready to begin the same training Goku had undergone so soon. But when all eyes fell on the lead elder, the wizened Yardratian standing and remaining silent as he appraised Rek for a moment, the two of them locking eyes, he finally gave an affirmative nod and a grunt. "Very well, Rek Reigo. You have proven yourself many times over to be reliable and trustworthy, contrary to your less than benign upbringing. Your training starts immediately."
And so it was that Rek began to move forwards, learning to better understand his body's new abilities, while Cale committed himself to training harder, hoping to reach the same level that Rek had. As Rek's abilities as a Super Saiyan grew, Cale's abilities as a fighter in general grew as well. His already acute mastery of advanced Instant Transmission Techniques became more pinpoint accurate, and his skills with a sword continued to be honed. But every time Cale felt Rek ascend somewhere far away on the planet, he was reminded that for all the strength he was gaining, the younger Reigo brother was still far behind his elder. For six months the two brothers trained, both in their own ways, until at last Rek learned to master his Super Saiyan form while Cale continued working to achieve his to no avail, something that Rek began training Cale for personally.
The sonic booms from fist against fist could be heard for miles, the air distorting around pressure waves thick enough to blast the grass from rocks far below and clear the fog for hundreds of yards in every direction as the two Saiyans clashed once again. Almost as soon as the fog had been pushed out, the condense, roiling miasma crashed back together and was separated again in another location, another boom erupting as two bright lights burned into existence at the epicenter of the explosions of strength, one crimson and another silver.
"You've gotten a lot stronger in only half a year, brother," Rek grinned, his hand holding Cale's elbow away from his face, the muscles in Cale's arm and Rek's hand contracting and twitching as Rek fought to keep Cale from overpowering him.
Cale grit his teeth, doing everything he could to try and inch his elbow closer to Rek's face, even if he couldn't fully connect. But he was wasting energy at this point and decided to pull his foot back, instead bringing his knee up towards Rek's diaphragm from below in a rising strike. Rek's eyes widened for a moment before he dropped his higher guard, both hands flashing down to catch Cale's knee. But that left his face completely unguarded from the left hook that Cale threw across Rek's cheek, the older brother's flesh indenting around Cale's knuckles as he was knocked off balance up in the air. For a moment the scene appeared to be frozen before Cale's follow through finished, Rek rocketing off through the fog and leaving a hole in the mist as he went, crimson aura fading down into the depths of the canyon below.
The younger of the two wasn't going to dive down there, his instincts knew as well as his wit that it would be walking right into his opponent's hand. He drifted up higher, escaping the rolling green hue of the eternal fog surrounding Yardrat's wastes and kept his gaze downwards, black eyes raking the mist waiting for any sign of movement or energy while Rek waited below, hoping that he could outlast Cale's patience and force his brother to dive down. But it seemed that Cale's power wasn't all that had grown, his intelligence as a fighter had as well. After a few tense minutes of waiting, Rek finally accepted that Cale had won that particular battle and powered up, shooting upwards.
Cale picked up on the coming energy as soon as it spiked, turning in the direction Rek was flying up from and raising his arms above his head, generating a wide ball of ki in the air above him. It quickly expanded as he poured more energy into it, the silver orb reaching a width of more than ten yards before he lurched forwards, swinging his arms down over his head as he doubled over, sending the massive sphere of ki downwards towards Rek's location. The fog dissipated around the orb, vaporizing under the heat of Cale's compressed ki, as it barreled down on Rek's head.
But where there had been a faint crimson glow from Rek's coming aura, the edges of Cale's hastily crafted ball of ki began to shine through a bright gold, Rek's aura jumping considerably. Cale's eyes widened as a small golden pinprick appeared in the center of his attack, Rek charging through the orb, his fist lined with ki as his blazing aura appeared to be so condense that it protected his body from harm, although it was much more likely that Cale's attack simply couldn't harm a Super Saiyan. The younger Reigo backed away into the air, realizing that he was about to experience a world of pain, but couldn't do anything to get away from Rek as the Super Saiyan transmitted into the air in front of him just as Cale turned around, shaking his head, golden spikes waving upwards in his aura. "Good effort," he said, launching a mild uppercut into Cale's stomach. But what was mild for Rek, was shattering for Cale. The young Saiyan bent over in pain, the breath leaking out of his lungs, and tasted blood in his mouth just before he was up-ended and dragged downwards through the air by his ankle.
"Reeeeeeek!" Cale shouted, clawing backwards at the air as he was taken downwards quickly, firing off a few stray ki blasts, none of which connected. "Goddammit, Rek, that's not fair!" He struggled to contact his fingers to his forehead, focusing his ki mentally as he readied to attempt an instant transmission out of the dive, but almost felt a vein in his skull pop when he sensed Rek's interference, looking down to see that his brother had fingers against his forehead as well.
"Can't let you forget which one of us is still the strongest now can I, little brother?" Rek asked, grinning maliciously. "I know how good you are with that, but it won't help this time!" In a matter of seconds the ground came rushing up to meet the brothers and Rek flipped over in the air, sending Cale down at a breakneck speed. There was a thunderous crash as Cale's body smashed against the hardened floor of the wastes. The ground split and splintered into the air as the younger Reigo brother carved a niche out of it, sailing backwards through the ground until his momentum was finally slowed. Rek landed, dusting his hands off, and dropped out of Super Saiyan, placing his hands on his hips and blowing a breath upwards to fix a stray lock of hair that had fallen in the wrong place, smiling at the cracks in the ground where Cale's body lay. He knew well enough that his brother would survive the impact.
But what he didn't expect was almost immediate retaliation. By the time he picked up on Cale's energy next to him, Rek didn't have time to react as Cale used Instant Transmission to close the gap, his forehead and arms dripping blood from cuts and scrapes. He fought past the pain to keep going, taking advantage of Rek's momentarily dropped guard, and spun around as soon as he had transmitted in, his heel driving into Rek's gut and lifting the older Saiyan off of the ground. Cale set his stance and reversed, sending a string of quick kicks up Rek's side and lifting him just that much farther into the air before flipping over backwards and bringing both of his legs up from underneath to catch Rek before he had fallen, sending the older brother up into the air with a vicious double kick. As soon as Cale's feet touched the ground again he cast his eyes upwards only long enough to track Rek's velocity before launching up himself, closing in with a punch as his knuckles began to shine silver, lined with enough ki to amplify his strength considerably, but found his strike going through air as Rek's afterimage faded the moment he swung.
Cale's only had time to give a preliminary wince, knowing what was to come, before he felt the full force of Rek delivering an axehandle blow from above, Cale once again careening towards the ground. Rek dove down after him, chastising himself for letting his guard down so easily, but couldn't help but note how far Cale had come in only six months; his younger brother's power was now nearly comparable to where his own had been just before ascending. But that didn't change very much when Rek's own power had been growing as well, and he was about to unleash the full force of that power, his own fist shining crimson, as Cale brought himself to a stop mere feet from the ground and turned to face the coming fury of Rek, before a voice rang out in their minds.
"BOYS, COME TO DINNER ALREADY!"
Kal'teek's untimely command tripped both brothers up, and Rek lost his focus as Cale drifted slightly, causing both punches to miss and the two brothers to collide into one another face first twenty feet above the ground. What had been a monumental fight only moments before quickly became a schoolyard scrap as the brothers half attempted to disentangle themselves, and half continued trying to beat at each other even as they fell through the air. It took the shock of impact for the two to fully separate, Cale and Rek bouncing away, and for a moment they glared at each other before first Rek cracked a smile, and then Cale, both brothers unable to keep from laughing at the sorry state both of them had been reduced to by the fight.
"I was worried you were going to KILL ME!" Cale guffawed, holding his stomach and keeling over onto his side.
"Me kill you?! How did you even get back up after that throw?!" Rek demanded, reaching over and punching Cale in the shoulder. The younger brother glared at Rek for a moment, feeling that the punch was a bit harder than it had to been, and when Rek locked eyes with him the two of them launched at each other again before Kal'teek's voice once again rang out.
"NOW, or no food!"
That was more than enough incentive for the two Saiyans to get moving, although they once again found themselves a jumble of arms and legs. Cale managed to put his fingers to his forehead somehow and teleported the both of them via Instant Transmission into their hut, both Cale and Rek dropping onto the ground in front of Kal'teek, who was transporting a rather sizeable pot of stew, and continued half brawling as they got free of one another.
"Hey, you're on my le-"
"Shut up, my arm's going nu-"
"Like I care! Get your elbow out of my ch-"
"OW! We said no low blows!"
"I'll show you a low blo-"
The Reigo brothers found their impromptu brawl halted by an outside force, Kal'teek holding her hands upwards and lifting both of them into the air telekinetically, sending them both away from each other into opposite walls of the hut, letting them fall and picking her pot back up to finish the trip to the table. The boys stood, dusting themselves off, and made their way over quickly, taking their seats across from each other but not before both getting in one last hit just before Kal'teek turned to face them and took her own seat.
"Apologies, Kal'teek," Rek said quickly, bowing and grabbing a spoonful of soup to ladle into his bowl. "Cale here doesn't know when to quit a fight."
Cale snatched the spoon as soon as Rek put it back, putting in twice as much soup as Rek had grabbed, the eldest Reigo knowing a challenge when he saw one. "Yeah, well at least /I/ can fight fair!" the raven haired youth shot back, starting to wolf down his stew.
"There's nothing fair about how you fight, flitting around with Instant Transmission like that!" Rek argued, his words punctuated with gulps of stew in place of breaths of air as he began keeping up with Cale's eating, Kal'teek merely sitting between the two of them and eating calmly. "I'm surprised he didn't bring Edge to our spar!"
"Don't you bring my sword into this!" Cale said, pointing his spoon threateningly. "I don't need that thing to fight you!"
"Ha! You'd need that thing to fight your way out of a paper ba-"
"You haven't told him, have you Rek?" Kal'teek's interjection caused both brothers to stop in their tracks, both eating and trash talking.
Cale's eyes flitted between Kal'teek and Rek, noticing that his older brother had suddenly gone from playful to solemn. "… told me what?" he asked, worry growing in his voice.
Rek placed his spoon back into his bowl, eyes staring down at the stew left in the bottom, and tried to find the right words for a long moment as Cale's apprehension grew almost palpable. "I'm leaving, Cale."
