Forming a Bond

Chapter 14

The landscape reminded Broly of the depictions he had seen of Planet Vegeta. There were red skies, bloody looking oceans, and the ground itself seemed to be made out of red clay. Strangely enough the vegetation was a variant of green. The harsh contrast almost made his senses seemed confused, though he knew they weren't.

Paragus stood beside his son as the child took in the view. His smirk was as crooked as his white cloak. There was the barest of hint of pride in his face because, despite the stillness of the moment he knew what Broly intended to do. He was going to avenge the wounds inflicted onto his mother like any good saiyan would do. And that despite his lack of desire to learn proper form, Broly had somehow managed to surpass them all in sure raw power. Power that he was apparently able to utilize when he was angry. It made a father proud to see that his son embodied all that was perfect traits of their species.

"Where are they father?" Broly asked as he tried to see where the inhabitants were.

"I don't know. They are probably utilizing some stealth methods. It is probably how they were able to wound Annya multiple times," Paragus said as his smirk deepened.

Broly clenched and unclenched his fist and that idea. They had hurt his mother. Or at least that's what father had said, and the man had no reason to lie to him right? Right. So they were the ones to hurt her. And now they were hiding. Like cowards.

Broly rose up into the air. The red toga he had on fluttered about him as his tail wrapped around the white waist band of his pants securely.

If they didn't want to come out and face him then they could all die like cowards too.

There was a moment where the young warrior seemed to pause in indecisiveness. The view from up in the air was like art. Or at least the little he had been exposed to. Did he really want to destroy it?

"What are you doing Broly?" Paragus rumbled as he watched his son pause. "What are you waiting for?"

Broly looked down to see his father rising up to meet him. "I want to hurt them. Not the-"

His face stung from where Paragus back handed him. It was a fleeting pain but enough to shock the twelve year old.

"Do you think if your mother took the time to worry about the planet that she would be alive? No. A true warrior does not hesitate. They act. And they do not so mercy or they and everyone they know are killed."

Broly was silently as he rubbed his cheek. His father's words were harsh but he had heard them all before. It was like a repeated mantra: kill or be killed.

"So what are you waiting for?"

"We could settle this planet..." mother always liked to tell him about the red skies of Vegeta. And how the orange and gold would bleed into the crimson for sunset and sunrise.

Paragus didn't slap him. Instead he did something worse. He turned his back on his son and started to ignore him as he flew off. Broly reached out one of his arms as he called out for his sire to wait. But he knew more than most that the man had no patience for sentimentality. And his message, even unspoken as it was, was clear - if Broly didn't do what he set out to do then he wasn't worth his time. He didn't handle disappointments...

Would mother?

Annya looked at her son as he kept his gaze lowered. He was ashamed of his actions, or inactions as it were. She wanted to tell him it was alright. That she understood his hesitation. Because she did. But she couldn't. Paragus, bastard that he was, was right about what had happened. Inaction or indecisiveness get people killed. It was a law of the universe as far as she understood it. Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. They didn't have the luxury to decide not to act once they engaged in a hostile situation when there were more powerful people out there. Like Frieza.

"Zekvo lina'lebro-osh, zekvo-nas," Annya said quietly.

Come back with your tail, or don't come back at all.

It was a saying they had. The tail represented the pride and honor of the saiyan race. It symbolized their strength of character. So if a warrior wanted to be seen as successful, they had to come back with it in both a literal and metaphorical sense. And by his mother telling him this after the battle...well lack thereof, it meant that he had shamed himself. That he was weak in her eyes. Physically, mentally, and spiritually. And being weak was not something saiyans tolerated. They didn't even give the time to day if the offspring was too weak to take it.

Broly's shoulders sank even more. Annya wanted to pat him on the head, tell him that it was alright. That he was young. And that he had time to correct his mistake. But she couldn't. He needed to learn this lesson if he hoped to redeem himself. Plus Leta was watching and the princess had no idea about the bonding experiment she had started.

She might take it as another sign of weakness and order Broly's termination. Not that Annya would do it, but it would be ordered. And if she ordered it and Annya didn't follow through with it, that would destabilize what little of the ruling system they had in place. If they ever wanted to get their people back, assuming there were people to get back, they would need the political hierarchy as in tact as possible. So she couldn't give Leta a reason to order her to do something she would refuse to do.

Broly, however, didn't know or understand anything about this. All he saw was that he had made his mother disappointed in him. That he had failed her. And that she saw him as weak. Which meant that she didn't want to be around him anymore. And that hurt.

Tears stung his eyes as he held them back. He would fix this. He would make it right. He would make his mother like him again.