Ruby didn't exactly like the old cabin, but the food was defiantly worth the cramped space and dust surplus. Ruby thought that Weiss would not have allowed them to stay here for a second...Yang wouldn't mind; it would remind her of home...ruby continued eating her noodles, trying not to think about her lost team. That angry balding man had given her food when she had walked in bleary eyed and groggy, asking where breakfast was. She had not let it slip, but she had almost forgotten that she wasn't home.

Her memory of the silent few moments as he got her the food were quite hazy, but she did remember the look on his face as he had given her the cup, before storming out of the door. As he handed her the cup, his eyes looked different. They were sad, sunken in and very very tired looking. It was the oldest that he had ever looked. Ruby was no councillor, but she was old enough to recognise despair when she saw it. She had not worked up the courage to ask him what was wrong before he'd vanished…not that someone like him would have confided in her or anything.

All she really knew about Vegeta was that he drove Blake crazy. Ever since she had begun her training, all she did when they were alone together was whine and complain about her new teacher's attitude and bad temper. It had only been a few days, but the more time she spent with him, the more similar they became in Ruby's eyes. She was just wondering when her own training would begin, Goku had promised additional training on top of the fusion dance, but she had not been told to lift a finger. Goku staggered through the door just as Ruby's thoughts had turned to him.

To be perfectly honest, he looked like hell. His clothes looked more ragged than ever, covered in mud and were missing entirely around his ankles. His arms and face were badly bruised, and there was blood leaking out of the side of his mouth. Despite the apparent severity of his condition, he only looked somewhat discomposed at Ruby's frightened gasp. He shakily raised a hand to comfort her, to assure her without words that he was okay, but the fact that Ruby was splitting into three copies of herself made his bleeding lips curl into a smile.

"I didn't know…you knew the...after…image techiq…"

There was a rushing noise, a loud bang that seemed to reverberate throughout all of Goku's being, and a fresh wave of pain that he had no energy left to react with. The last thing he heard before blacking out was a high pitched squeak and the sound of a chair being pushed across the hard wood floor.

"I advise placing too much stock in you escape; though if you like, I can bring you closer to home!"

"Krillin, look out!"

"Hope you aren't afraid of heights."

"No frieza! Don't do it!"

"GOKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!"

Goku, Mr Goku?

Goku's eyes opened slowly this time; he did not feel fully awake yet. Shadows and shapes from his dream were still lingering upon the insides of his eye lids. But as the sunlight from the open window began to dilate his pupils, the shade of Goku's dream faded into memory. In their place, they left the image of two young smooth faces. Ruby was leaning over him, getting a good look at his freshly awoken eyes. Blake was standing behind her; looking sweaty and tired, but still worried. It took his a moment to realise where he was.

He was lying on the old sofa in his house, the blankets bunched up on one side, a hot towel on his forehead. He reached a hand out and pulled it off.

"What's this for?" Goku addressed Ruby, who smiled proudly.

"A hot towel! To bring down the swelling."

"Uh… Isn't the towel supposed to be cold?" Ruby shook her head.

"Nope, dad said that whenever my sister came home and fell down, I should drag her onto the sofa and put a hot towel on her forehead." Goku tilted his ponding head slightly, his brow furrowed.

"You were treating a hangover, not a blow to the head moron!" Blake snapped at Ruby, her bad temper flaring up again, Ruby sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Well…that is something that should have been brought to my attention-" Ruby stood up and spun around to face Blake with that same remarkable speed, to flamboyantly reveal and gesture towards a large white pile on the table. "- A WHOLE BUNCH OF HOT TOWELS AGO!"

Goku chuckled to himself before standing up, the girls made a move to keep him from over exerting himself, but his speed caught them off guard. His wounds were as bulbous and nasty looking as ever, but he seemed to have no trouble moving around the cabin. Goku looked down at his hands, still bruised and flecked with blood, and flexed them. They moved with ease and haste, with no hint of hesitation or resistance. If anything they felt stronger. His brow furrowed even further as understanding dawned on him.

"…So…that was your plan, was it?" He caressed his left fist with his right hand, massaging the bruised tissue that had been crushed by Vegeta, but now felt stronger than ever. "Well played, I guess…persistent…"

Goku looked up to see a bewildered Ruby and Blake looking for him to each other. Blake had been wiping her forehead with a rag, but it now lay on the floor as she began to walk towards Goku, her eyebrows very close together.

"I think we need to know why you two are so resilient at your age. You look like you've just been mauled by an Ursa and there doesn't seem to be any serious damage. Explain-now."

Goku stared imploringly at his own feet for a moment or two before answering. He took a great steadying breath of dusty air and looked Blake directly in her inquisitive gaze. He had been foolish to think that they would never cotton on to why he and Vegeta were still capable. No sense in lying anymore.

"Alright, I'll explain. Goku, Blake and Ruby all moved to the table and sat down. Blake was still looking curious. "Me and Vegeta…we aren't human's to tell ya the truth. We're actually the only remaining members of an alien race called the Saiyans."

Blake looked taken aback at the sudden influx of information, and Ruby opened her mouth as if to ask a question, but Goku raised his hand as a plea for silence before going on. He went on to explain his Saiyan biology and how he got stronger from surviving severe injury, how he and Vegeta had met, and the long standing rivalry between them.

"So is that why he calls you carrot cake?" Ruby blurted out, before anyone could silence her. Goku chuckled.

"Yeah, he calls me by my Saiyan name; it's his way of paying respect to our people."

"What happened to your people?" The old Saiyan's willingness to share so quickly had wrong footed Blake somewhat. In any case, she wanted to get as much information out of him as she could while he was feeling chatty. Ruby was on the edge of her seat, her expression misty and full of wonder, she was clearly impressed that she was talking to an actual alien. Her eyes were doing that thing again; they seemed to come alive amongst the gloom of the cabin.

"My people and my planet were destroyed, by a man called Frieza." He was about to continue, but Blake had gasped, and Ruby's eyes returned to normal as she jumped up from the table.

"That's the name! That's the thing you were saying in your sleep! Right before your hair changed!"

Goku' head snapped to Ruby, his black eyes wide and his loose energised shoulders suddenly stone stiff.

"What are you talking about?" He shot at Ruby, whom very quickly wiped the smile from her face.

"When you said that name, for a moment your hair changed, it moved on its own and changed colour…it was really hot, like it was on fire." Blake nodded along with ruby as Goku's gaze shot between them. He looked extremely harassed, almost self conscious. "Your eyes changed too, they were green for a second, but then you saw us and they changed back."

Goku's eyes fell, he couldn't believe that it had happened…except he had felt it, in the depths of his unconscious state; he had felt his body react to his recollection, the hot feeling in his back and the fiery blank thoughts. He had felt the power that had served him so many times at his disposal once again, after countless years of lying dormant. Vegeta's plan had worked; Goku had become a super Saiyan again.

"What was that about?" Ruby asked, leaning forward on the table. Goku did not meet her eye as she responded. "It's nothing, don't worry."

"So, if you are a race of warrior's, why did you stop training?" Blake asked tentatively. Goku seemed to think deeply about this before explaining.

"Saiyans are a warrior race, and this means that we live longer than humans...much longer. My wife, Chi Chi was human...and...She died."

"How did she die?"

"She got old...just stopped living." Goku hung his head for a moment before continuing. "But not before making me swear to her, swear that I would never fight again."

Blake got up from the table and began to pace around the room, her fatigue from tearing up vegetables quite forgotten.

"But that just seems unfair, why make you stop if you loved it so much? Surely you'd want to make the one you love happy." Goku opened his mouth to answer but closed it again almost immediately. An eerie feeling had crept up over his back and was resting in his stomach. What was that smell? Goku got up quickly and dashed over to the door. He flung it open, and his vision was engulfed by pure red fury.

Fire.

The flames had turned the forest land around the house into a blazing sea, at the border of which stood the vandals. He had no idea how they had spread so quickly. The masked men with weapons and flags were marching in lock step up towards where Goku was standing. There was a big one at the front, with square shoulders and a large mace. Besides him was a smaller man that Goku recognised from the description he'd been given. Black attire, red hair and a samurai sword. Adam Taurus had arrived.

His weapon was sheathed, but the sword was in his hand and ready for use. Their eyes met, and Adam smiled cruelly at Goku's angry and frightened expression. He maintained his smug demeanor as he gripped the hilt of his sword and drew it, slicing a wheel barrow of turnips clean in two. He flamboyantly raised the sword above his head and allowed the fire light to dance along its blade, making it appear to shift with the heat, like a rope in the wind, like a fiery snake.

Hi guys, Johnathan here.

Apologise for the lateness and shortness of this chapter, I have been somewhat unwell, so writing has not been a priority. But I digress; I have seen that a lot of you want to get a handle on some context for the state of affairs in this story. This is just some pre-warning because the next chapter is going to be a flash back. Sorry for the halt just as the climax was getting close, but I'd like for you all to know why the Saiyans are where they are.

Thanks for reading x