If One Believed

Chapter 8: Honor Code

Raditz gawked at his mother, dumbfounded. Last he'd seen her she'd been mortally wounded, and now she was miraculously healed. He'd been certain she was a goner, and now she was perfectly fine! Raditz grinned stupidly. "You're okay!" he exclaimed.

Catsia's eyebrow raised as her curiosity peaked. "Apparently. What happened?"

"I have no idea," Raditz replied earnestly.

"Where are we?"

Raditz laughed nervously. "I have no idea," he repeated.

Catsia exhaled as she stood up on her feet. "Aren't you the helpful one," she replied sarcastically. She ran her hand along her outer thigh and ended up with a palm full of mud. She grimaced. "I'm soaked…"

Raditz lightened up a bit – glad that he finally knew the answer to something. "That's because the natives had you lying in there." he explained, pointing to the small pond smack-dab in the center of the cavern. Raditz proudly puffed out his chest. "But don't worry; I scared them away as soon as I got here, and now they're cowering in that corner over there."

Catsia turned her attention away from her smug son and toward the little furry inhabitants. All of them were huddled up collectively in fear. She frowned slightly, her forehead creasing as puzzling thoughts filled her head. Without warning, she suddenly appeared in front of the creatures, and in response, one of them let out a high pitched squeal of terror. The others echoed with softer squeals and reticent nervous chittering.

Catsia raised her hands up with deliberate slowness and backed a foot away from the creatures. "I only wish to ask you a question," she said as soft as she could manage.

"Mom, what the heck are you doing?" Raditz asked.

"Shut up, Raditz," Catsia commanded. The sudden harshness of her voice jolted the natives. Catsia cursed under breath. She took another step back and asked, "Did you heal me?"

The tiny fuzzy aliens stared up at her with large, glistening black eyes. A solitary antenna atop their heads began to twitch.

"Can you understand me?" she asked.

The little creatures made clicking noises to each other as if they were having some form of conversation. One little fuzz-ball bravely came forward and skittered toward the small pool of water. It dipped a tiny golden flask slightly larger than Catsia's thumb into the water, and subsequently brought it to Catsia. It bowed slightly while offering up the gift in its shaky paws.

"Eh… thanks?" she said uncertainly, taking the flask. She noticed that the liquid inside was transparent and glowing red.

The creature's paw hovered above the flask momentarily, and then motioned to the hole in Catsia's shoulder strap. Catsia's frown deepened.

Why? she thought. Why did these things save me, a Saiyan? What could possibly be in it for them?!

"Have you any idea who you're dealing with?" she asked.

The little creature bowed again. Something about the action aggravated her. It didn't make sense! Saiyans were notorious nearly throughout the entire galaxy for their viciousness. They had a reputation of slaughter and devastation following their heels wherever they went. Were these creatures ignorant or mad or something altogether different? She had her suspicions of what they truly were. It was something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was on the tip of her tongue. The thought was there, and at the same time it wasn't. Saiyans had no awareness of altruism.

What could possibly possess them to do this?

The cavernous room suddenly lit up with a wave of violet light, and the tiny creature scrambled backward, tripping, and falling to the rocky floor. It cowered on the ground, hiding its face in its paws, and peaking through at the scary monster standing behind Catsia. Catsia turned to seek out the disturbance. She spied Raditz with his right arm extended; a ball of crackling lavender ki was hovering atop the palm of his hand.

Catsia cocked her head at her son. "What… are you doing?" she muttered, not quite following his actions.

The energy quivered in Raditz's hand. He glowered at the little aliens. "Getting rid of these stupid gerbils, Mother," he simply replied.

A memory surfaced in her mind. It was not long after her son's first mission.

Three year old Raditz looked up at his mother with innocent eyes. "Anything that isn't Saiyan or a benefit to the Saiyan race is inherently worthless," he recited.

At first Catisia's eyes widened in astonishment, they then narrowed as she speculated his words. "Who told you that?"

"The lady in my head."

"What lady?"

Raditz smiled cheerfully. "She's my friend. She talks to me when I'm lonely."

Catsia's eyesight flickered from the frightened, queer little aliens to her son, and a thought suddenly occurred to her – a revelation really.

Catsia and Bardock stood before an opened space pod in the east docking bay of Planet Vegeta. Inside of the pod were two fidgeting Saiyan toddlers, sandwiched together and very crabby. A third adult jogged up to the mates.

"Hey guys!" he hollered out. He ducked down to be on the same level as the children. "Hey kiddos!" he exclaimed with a smile. "You didn't think you could escape without saying bye to your favorite uncle, did you?"

Raditz immediately burst into tears. "I-dohn-wanna-go!" he whined.

Toma's good-natured smile dropped instantly into a speechless gaped mouth. "Um…" He looked to Catsia for some help and she shrugged her shoulders.

Bardock rolled his eyes. "You have to," he replied tersely.

"I-dohn-wanna-i-dohn-wanna-i-dohn-wanna!" Raditz shrieked in a high-pitched tone.

Bardock and Toma flinched and reflexively covered their sensitive ears.

Catsia stomped her foot on the ground and it let off a loud, metallic boom. "Stop it!" she commanded.

Raditz promptly quit his whining and sniffled, rubbing away his watery boogers with the back of his arm.

His sister crossed her arms and pouted petulantly. "You're such a baby!"

Raditz scowled and shoved his sister. "Am not!"

She shoved him back. "Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

His sister grabbed Raditz's forearm and socked him with his own fist. She giggled. "Stop hitting yourself!"

"Enough!" Catsia shouted. "Mya stop hitting your brother! Raditz stop blubbering like a coward. You are going on your first mission together, and that's final! If either of you do one more thing to piss me off I'm going to skin both your tails and make myself a pair of socks with 'em!"

The children wrapped their tails in the protective clutches of their arms and stared wide-eyed at their angry mother. "Sorry, Momma!" they cried in unison.

Catsia sighed. "Never mind. It's time to go. Behave yourselves."

"Have each other's backs," Bardock added.

Mya nodded her head. Raditz choked on a sob. Those were the last words exchanged by parent and child before the hatch closed shut, effectively separated them between a thick translucent layer of red quartz glass.

The Saiyans weren't a people of much sentimentality, but Catsia would never forget the look on the faces of her children – the sheer terror – and thinking to herself what kind of mother sends out her babies into the foul struggle of reality before they can fly?

After they had departed, Catsia was the first to break the silence that followed. "So this is what the pact has brought us to…" she muttered.

"What do you mean, sis?" Toma asked.

"Sending out toddlers to battle," she replied bitterly.

Bardock crossed his arms. "Don't underestimate a desperate Saiyan – whatever the age."

"Bardock, don't be a fool!" she argued. "Raditz isn't even potty-trained!"

Bardock shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "As if that matters – I doubt there are toilets on the backwater planet they've been sent to."

Toma chuckled and prodded Catsia in the side with his elbow. "He's got a point ya' know. Besides, be glad they're the age they are. I heard Celetta had to send out her newborn the other day."

Catsia raised her eyebrows in near-disbelief. "And that doesn't bother you in the slightest?"

"We're not called a warrior race for nothin', Catsia. Of course it doesn't bother me. If the kid's worth his salts he'll survive," Toma explained matter-of-factually.

Catsia narrowed her eyes. "No we're not warriors anymore. We're slaves to the Planet Trade."

Toma laughed. "Always the paranoid one. Freeza's done none nothing but good for us. He's given us technology – interstellar travel – the likes of which we haven't had in ages. And what does he ask of us in return? He wants us to fight for him? We love fighting! It's a win-win situation. Why can't you see that?"

Bardock nodded his head in agreement. "It's like the King said. If we wanted out we could leave at any time. We have strength the likes of which makes the universe itself tremble. Just one word from our King and down goes the ice Lord. He's not playing us, we're playing him."

"Maybe I am just being paranoid," Catsia admitted with a sigh. "King Vegeta has never led us astray before. It's just… sometimes I get the feeling that Freeza's like some master puppeteer, feeding our King with bullshit propaganda – making him believe… oh never mind."

Bardock's expression suddenly became very severe. He glanced about the perimeter and let out a lengthy sigh when he realized they weren't being watched. "Don't let anyone hear you talking like that! You'll be tried for treason!" he hissed.

Toma patted his sister on the back and grinned – trying to lighten up the mood. "Cheer up, Cat! Look on the bright side – our work is hardly any work at all because we're doing what we love, and Freeza's only making us stronger whether he intends it or not. Heck, he got us out of our caves."

"Whatever you say, Brother," she replied with a shrug. "Though I liked my cave," she added with a low, indistinct grumble.

Catsia's eyes flickered from the pathetic frightened alien to her son and back again. The look of terror in Raditz's eyes the day she sent him to the wolves burned in her memory like hot coals. The realization that the only difference between Raditz and the cowering little creature was that her son just happened to have more power ate away at her conscience.

"Stand down," she suddenly commanded.

Raditz shot his mother a puzzled look. "Why?"

"These aliens saved my life. I'm in debt to them – a life for a life. You may not slay them," she explained calmly.

"But Mom!"

"No but Moms! You heard me, you little heathen! Have some respect! You're in debt to these creatures too!" Catsia reprimanded. The stern look on her face wavered after a moment and she grinned. "After all, they saved me didn't they?"

"The code only applies to fellow Saiyans!" Raditz recited in case-point.

"Fat lot of good the code ever did for us," Catsia retorted. "I say they live."

"They could sell us out to Freeza!" Raditz argued.

Catsia laughed derisively. "What are they gonna do, chirp it out to him? I doubt their language is even in the database."

"They're alien," Raditz continued undaunted. He couldn't believe what his mom was saying.

"If it bothers you so much, then you're more than welcome to fight me for your cause, Raditz, but I'm not going to show you any mercy if you do," she replied icily.

Raditz gaped at her. "But I'm Saiyan! I – I'm your son! Where's your pride, Mother? Where's your honor?!"

Catsia scoffed. "You'd best forget everything you've ever learned about Saiyan pride and honor. Our people were nothing but wretched pawns in Freeza's intergalactic game of chess!"

Raditz stood there in shock and awe for a moment, his mouth hanging agape. After a little while, he shook his head as if to shake off his turbulent thoughts. "So then… what am I supposed to do?"

"Lower your arm," Catsia instructed.


Planet Hoptalis:

Bardock paced in a circle around his pod. All the while he tapped at his scouter impatiently. He grunted frustratedly when he didn't get what he wanted, namely an answer from Catsia. This was the third failed attempt at contacting her.

The healing facility on the planet had no record of his mate ever having been admitted. There was the possibility that she'd used an alias – in fact – she or more accurately, Raditz, would have been an idiot not to. However, if she had used an alias and received medical care, surely she would have been healed and discharged by now. She would have contacted Bardock. There had been no such contact.

Bardock glanced at one of the planet's suns peaking out over the horizon. Bardock squinted. He could scarcely detect two shadows in the center of it nearly engulfed by its blinding light. Just as I thought.

A beep from his scouter distracted him from his musings for a moment. It was notifying him of an incoming call. He grinned.

"Hey Cat, took you long enough. I see you're not dead in a ditch somewhere," he said bluntly.

"You couldn't even dream of getting rid of me that easily," she retorted. "Where are you?"

"Planet Hoptalis. I think the real question is 'where are you?'"

"Not sure, I'll have to get back to you on that," she replied earnestly.

"Look, I don't have much time to talk. I didn't have a chance to remove the tracking from the pod I stole, and now it looks like I've got some of Freeza's goons on my tail," Bardock explained, all the while eyeballing the approaching soldiers. "Slight change of plans, just take Raditz with you and go to Earth. I'll catch up with you later."

The voice coming through the tiny speaker in the earpiece was suddenly very angry. "You have got to be kidding me! I am not playing babysitter while you run around and have all the fun! I refu – "

*click*

Bardock ended the conversation with the simple press of a button. "Annoying woman… never stops griping," he grumbled. He cleared his throat. "Now, where was I?"

As if on cue, his two visitors landed directly in front of him, only a matter of yards away.

"Oh right," Bardock said dryly. "That."

Bardock surveyed his opponents for a moment. One was a red humanoid creature – likely of Brench-seijin heritage – with long and shaggy white hair. The other was a towering, muscular alien with scaly blue skin and crimson eyes. They were both in the typical standard issue armor, and they both had a green scouter attached to their left ear.

The red one addressed him, but his words were a garbled jumble of nonsense. Bardock frowned, his eyebrows pinching together in unease. This feeling was all too familiar. Bardock suddenly felt his consciousness slipping away at the hands of yet another vision. I must fight it! He shut his eyes tightly and clenched his forehead in his hands. To say that suppressing the vision was painful would be an understatement. Bardock growled in protest. No! No you won't! Not again! Not this time!

Bardock struggled to lift one eyelid, and could see that his struggle was not in vain. He was still in his proper plane of reality.

The red alien had his head cocked with a puzzled expression on his face. He glanced to his companion. "Hey Burter… What's going on?"

The blue alien seemed just as dumbfounded. He shrugged his shoulders. "No clue."

Bardock's vision began to blur as the need to witness the vision clawed adamantly at his brain. He clenched his teeth and let out a furious hissing growl as the pain in his skull throbbed tenfold.

No good… can't concentrate!

With that final thought, Bardock gave in and the vision flooded his mind:

His surroundings are familiar. It's apparent that he is on the same planet as previously visited in one of his most recent visions: the planet of many greens and browns. His son is standing in front of him again. He looks the same as before.

"Kakarrot!" Bardock shouts. "Just what the hell is going on?!"

Kakarrot doesn't reply this time. It's like his other visions again. It is as if Bardock is completely invisible – nonexistent to the people and things around him.

Bardock clenches his fists and lets out a frustrated scream. "Damn-it!" he shouts, "always the worst possible timing! I need this vision to end already! How can it be of any more importance if I'm dead because of it!? Is that what you wanted, Kanassan? Did you want me to die in a vision?! I thought you wanted me to witness my demise! What the hell is this then?! I'll tell you! It's bullshit! That's what it is!"

Bardock is snapped out of his tirade at the appearance of two familiar faces. He stares at them with his mouth agape.

"It – it's you two!" he exclaims in utter shock. "B – but it can't be!"

If they're here in the future… then what does that mean for me?


A/N: Next chapter we arrive on Earth! :) Mya = anagram for Yam (pronounce Me - uh) - another root vegetable, aren't I clever? ;)

As always thanks to those who gave me feedback!

Tellemicus Sundance: I totally just screwed Bardock with another ill-timed vision! Aren't I cruel? Something will be done about that eventually, I promise.

Guest: I'm not much for power-levels, but I'll try my best. I can't promise how long I'll keep this up though.

Power Levels:

Bardock: 11,000 - keep in mind he's still injured so at current condition it is not so high

Catsia: 3,000 after zenkai

Raditz: 55

Burter: ?

Jeice: ?