Chapter 2. Freedom
Goten threw Trunks a terrified look and hissed: "We have to get out of here."
But Trunks, though growing rather wary himself now, was way too curious to leave. He ignored the frantic shake of the head Goten gave him, rose and stepped out from behind the wall.
The female Saiyajin motioned him over with a small gloved hand, impatience clear on her disfigured, menacing face. Trunks obeyed cautiously, a very reluctant Goten following after him.
"Raise your ki to warn your dad." Trunks whispered furtively over his shoulder.
Goten gave a nearly invisible nod to this.
"Tell me where we are." the female Saiyajin demanded in her hoarse voice.
Trunks froze in front of her, making sure to stay just out of her reach. Even if she was the shortest of the three, reaching no higher than the broad chest of the male Saiyajin that looked like Goku and merely reaching the muscled abdomen of the one with the mohawk, the men standing behind her two towering masses of muscle, she was unmistakably the most powerful of the lot and clearly also the one in charge.
"This is Earth, ma'am." Trunks answered bravely, yet he lost his courage at the piercing yellowish eyes that held him and quickly turned his gaze to the floor tiles.
At that moment Goku popped up out of nowhere. There was rice and grease on his face and he was still enthusiastically chewing on something. The three Saiyajins startled and slipped into a fighting stance within the blink of an eye, snarling their disbelieve at the man that had come into being out of thin air.
"Hiya boys. I felt your ki flare. Everything okay here?" Goku asked in his usual mirthful manner. He put a hand to Goten's head and smiled widely. Then his eyes met the three dumbstruck Saiyajins. He waved at them. "Hi there!"
"Blind me Turles, he looks exactly like you." the male Saiyajin with the mohawk said.
Goku's look-a-like sized Goku up, then gave a half grin and said in a booming voice: "You're Kakarot."
"I'm Goku." Goku said kindly. "It's my Earth-name."
There sounded a nearly inaudible thud of boots touching the tiled floor behind them and everybody looked over to find Vegeta standing there with his arms folded and the usual unaffected, cold expression on his face. He was dressed almost exactly like the three Saiyajins.
"Explain to me what gives you the nerve to disturb me during my training, boy." Vegeta demanded as he walked over.
"They're Saiyajins." Trunks said plainly, pointing to the three warriors across from him.
Vegeta scrutinized the strangers, his face unmoved. "So they are."
The female Saiyajin was looking at Vegeta very hard in return and she took a step towards him with a rough: "You." She sounded almost accusing.
Trunks looked up at his dad, wondering if he might know this woman, but if this was so his expression gave no indication of it. Vegeta just stood there, apparantly waiting for something.
"The suns blind my bleeding eyes. It is you." the female Saiyajin swore. She took a steadying breath, seemingly battling a snicker, then threw her head back and let out a loud bark of rough, almost deranged laughter. "We deserve a fucking medal for this, men! After all these years we have completed our mission. We found our lost Prince, safe and sound and a man grown, no less!"
The two male Saiyajins looked at Vegeta dumbfounded. Then, as if remembering themselves, put a fist to their chest in some sort of formal greeting and bowed their heads with a respectful: "My Prince."
And as though their actions made her aware of herself again as well, the female Saiyajin followed their example and saluted Vegeta promptly. "Prince. Or I should say, King? With your father's passing..."
Vegeta rejected her outright."If you know of my father's passing, then you must also know what has happened to our people and our planet. To what end should I have declared myself King? I remain your Prince."
The female Saiyajin gave a firm nod. "Well met then, my Prince."
Vegeta ignored this, though Trunks expected it must please him. He couldn't even count the many times he had heard his father complain about the lack of respect he was shown by what he called 'those bleeding Earthlings'.
The female Saiyajin held out her arm brusquely and Vegeta considered it a moment before taking her forearm in his hand. She did the same to his and they shook curtly.
"That mark you bear." Vegeta said as he cut her loose again. "You were one of my father's concubines."
"I was." she confirmed, her gloved finger coming up to touch the flame-shaped burn mark beneath her left eye. "Before I got reinstated in the Royal Fleet, anyroad."
Vegeta gave her whole appearance a fleeting look. "What is your name?"
"Akane, Wing Ardian of the Marauder S-4." Akane made a gesture to the two men at her back. "This is my Leading Airman Ringo and Turles, Airman First Class."
Vegeta threw Goku a mocking glare. "Look Kakarot, another brother from space."
"Really?" Goku asked with a look on the male with the mohawk.
"Not him, you idiot." Vegeta snapped.
"Oh!" Goku now looked to the other male Saiyajin that was almost an exact copy of him, except that his skin was darker and he had a very fierce expression on his face.
"I'm your second brother Turles." Turles told him with a broad grin. "That was a right neat technique you used just now, Kakarot."
"I really do prefer Goku." Goku replied benevolently as ever.
"Whatever, Goku." Turles said dismissively. "Where did you pick that up?"
"Hold the chinwag, Turles." Akane snapped, her eyes still intent on Vegeta in front of her. She put her hands on her hips. "Where is Cold?"
"Dead." Vegeta simply said.
Trunks stepped up to his dad's side saying very smugly: "I killed him."
Akane sneered down on him. "Oh, I doubt that very much."
Vegeta swept Trunks aside deftly with his muscled thigh, so successfully removing his son from the female Saiyajin's infernal glare. He didn't seem to mind the boasting though, because he said just as smug: "He did. And he put an end to Frieza as well."
Akane was still sneering at them. "That is quite a claim. How, in the name of Sweet Mother Victory, did a mere boy manage to slay the two strongest warriors in the whole cunting universe?"
"It was future me. I travelled time." Trunks said proudly from behind his father's leg. "Killed the both of them in one clean sweep."
Akane assessed him and his father both with her fierce glare, evidently weighing their words long and hard.
"But that means we're free." Ringo said in sudden realisation. He grabbed Akane's arm and repeated in a loud, excited voice: "Captain, we're free!"
"And we found the Prince." Turles chimed in with his booming voice. "And my little brother."
Akane shook her subordinate off with a very vicious snarl, obviously not as readily accepting of the story they were told and indeed, she eyed them all with such suspicion and hostility in her disfigured face that no one seemed willing to break the tense silence that followed. No one but Vegeta, that was.
"So what's your plan, Captain?" Vegeta asked, thoroughly unimpressed with her and not bothering to hide it.
"Plan?" Akane echoed put out. Then she added as if stating something that was very obvious: "You were the plan, Prince. The King sent us out a long time ago to find you. We are at your service now."
Trunks couldn't really comprehend the something that passed over his father's ever unaffected face then. It was gone in a second and when Vegeta answered, it was very expressly: "I don't require your service."
The Captain looked to be grossly offended by that. She wasn't given the chance to speak because Goku cheered: "You guys should stay here on Earth. I would like to get to know you better, Turles. You are my brother after all." He turned to Vegeta. "They could stay at the CC. You and Bulma have loads of space there. I would take them in, but our house is way too small for three more people."
Vegeta glared at him. "You honestly think the woman would agree to putting up three Saiyajins at the house, idiot?"
"Well, they can't live outside. I bet Bulma wouldn't mind. She took you in, didn't she?" Goku pointed out.
"Ah come on, father." Trunks whined. "Can they stay?"
"Yeah come on, Vegeta." Goku said in the same manner. "It will be fun having these guys here. We could all spar together and it's always good to have more warriors around."
"I am not asking the woman, Kakarot." Vegeta spat. "She is making my life miserable enough as it is. I would never hear the end of it."
"I'll ask her." Goku offered hopefully.
Vegeta snorted and took to the air without another word.
Trunks took this to mean yes and the lavender-haired demi blasted off after his father with a very cheery: "Yay!"
.
.
.
"What?" Bulma shrieked.
All the Saiyajins flinched at the high pitch in her voice irritating their sensitive eardrums.
Two year old Bra was in Bulma's arms staring at the strangers with big and dauntless blue eyes. Her thumb was in her mouth and she was making happy noises. When she caught sight of Vegeta she started cooing and reached out her pudgy arms to him.
Bulma slipped Bra to her other hip where the little girl could no longer see her father. "No way! I am not having any more Saiyajins in the house. One is bad enough. I have a two year old daughter running around!"
"What did I tell you, idiot?" Vegeta said, rubbing his ear disgruntled.
Several of the other Saiyajins mimicked this gesture.
"They have no place else to go, Bulma." Goku implored. "They'll keep out of trouble, won't you guys?" he asked turning to the Saiyajins.
The two male Saiyajins nodded as one man, but their Captain, who still looked very affronted for some reason, did not.
"No! I will not…"
"Calm down, woman." Vegeta cut across Bulma. "They're not moving in. It's just for a while until their Captain decides on where to go next."
Akane looked agitated and ready to break in at that point, but she held her tongue at the swift look Vegeta shot her.
"He's my brother, Bulma." Goku attempted, almost begging now.
Bulma gave in with an exaggerated sigh. "Okay, put them up in the back compound." She waved a finger in both Vegeta and Goku's faces, saying: "They're your responsibility. Keep them away from me, my children and my house."
And with that she paced out of the front hall where they all stood, motioning Trunks to follow her with a sharp gesture. The demi did so with hanging shoulders.
"Monkeys." Bulma could be heard muttering as she disappeared into the next room.
Vegeta motioned them all to follow him and made his way back outside and to the assigned compound. He showed them in with a simple: "Keep out of trouble until I get back." and left them to themselves without another word.
"Great!" Goku cheered happily. "Well, we have to get home for dinner now Goten." He looked to his brother. "Care to join us, Turles? I would like you to meet my wife."
"Sure, if the Captain agrees." Turles said with a hesitant glance at the still aggravated looking Akane.
She gave the merest inkling of a nod in reply.
"Here." Goku placed a hand on his brother's arm, the other one coming to rest on Goten's head and before Turles had a chance to salute, the three of them vanished into thin air.
"That is a cool ability." Ringo reaffirmed, awed.
"Indeed." Akane spat.
Ringo turned to face his Captain with a frown, his hand coming up to brush across his tall mohawk thoughfully. "Did that loud Earth woman just call us monkeys?"
Akane bared her teeth in a very vicious snarl. "That's what I heard, Ringo."